Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Obama and Newsweek

Mark Hemingway has written an excellent article on NRO Online. Hemingway notes:

"Obama didn’t vote on an amendment sponsored by Lieberman and Arizona Republican Jon Kyl last fall that would have classified the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization for training and funding Hezbollah and otherwise contributing to the killing of Israelis...that didn’t stop him from pillorying Hillary for voting for it, and thereby contributing to the Bush administration’s “saber-rattling” with Iran...Anti-Israel sentiments are all around Obama (Zbigniew Brzezinski, Anthony Lake, Susan Rice, Robert Malley, Joseph Cirincione …). Nevermind that his pastor of 20 years has an affection for Louis “Judaism-is-a-gutter-religion” Farrakhan…"

but

"two big Obama supporters blame Clinton — without citing any evidence other than hearsay — for disinformation among Jewish voters. And that meets Newsweek’s publication standards?"

Let's face it: Newsweek is to news as Star Trek is to news, and Obama is to McCain as Newsweek is to news.

America Winning the War in Iraq

Hugh Hewitt blogs a NY Post article by Arthur Herman (hat tip Larwyn) that states:

>"AMERICA has won, or is about to win, the Iraq war.

"The latest proof came last month, as the Iraqi army - just a few months ago the target of scorn and abuse from Democratic politicians and journalists - forcefully reoccupied three cities that had served as key insurgency bases (Basra, Sadr City and Mosul).

"Sunnis and Shias alike applauded as their nation's army compelled insurgent militias to lay down their arms. The country's leading opposition newspaper, Azzaman, led the applause for the move into Mosul - a sign that national reconciliation in Iraq is under way and probably irreversible..."

Hewitt points out that Obama has been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support despite his eagerness to prove Herman wrong and to prove that America has lost. Obama does not express a pro-America game plan, but rather views defeat in Iraq as a way to prove America is a "nice" country so that terrorists will understand how nice the US is and stop being terrorists. Obama's and the left's position is foolish. General Petraeus has demonstrated that a fourth generation warfare strategy will work. The war will wind down soon without the left's and Obama's anti-American posturing.

Bernanke Discovers the Dollar

The valiant New York Sun has printed my letter in its June 10th edition and online here:

'Bernanke Discovers the Dollar'

Thank you for your editorial about the Fed's role in creating inflation ["Bernanke Discovers the Dollar," June 5, 2008].

In the late 19th century the Mugwumps, the educated New Yorkers and Bostonians who opposed the spoils system and big government, were concerned about currency depreciation and inflation that Civil War greenbacks had caused.

In particular, the Mugwumps were concerned that inflation led to the re-distribution of wealth from wage earners and those on fixed incomes to financial speculators like Jay Gould.

Ever since President Nixon jettisoned the international gold standard in 1971, Americans' average real hourly wage has declined. There has been no previous 38-year decline in the real hourly wage.

Modern economists, lacking the Mugwumps' courage, have averted their gaze from link between income inequality and monetary expansion.

But the link is obvious, and it is becoming more severe. In 1884 the Mugwumps bolted the Republican Party to vote for a Democrat, Grover Cleveland, a gold standard proponent.

Let us hope that John McCain offers greater integrity than did Cleveland's 1884 opponent, James Blaine.

MITCHELL LANGBERT
Associate Professor of Business and Economics
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Hinchey Gas Cap Misguided

The Middleton Times Herald Record printed my June 8, 2008 letter in their Sunday edition and online here

Hinchey gas 'cap' misguided

Rep. Hinchey's recent call for a price control or "cap" on gasoline prices is misguided.

Those who remember the 1970s gasoline lines know that rationing causes shortages. With a "cap," those who need gasoline the most would be unable to get it, while the politically connected would have ample supplies. The "cap" would harm the environment because those who have political access to the gasoline would squander it because of low prices.

New York state's gerrymandering seems to have affected Hinchey's sanity.

Mitchell Langbert

West Shokan