Maurice Hinchey on the Road to Serfdom

Fox News's Special Report with Brit Hume played a clip of my Congressman, Maurice Hinchey, advocating nationalization of the American oil companies. I have been concerned about inflation for the past year or two, and Hinchey's remarks suggest one reason. The instability and wealth transfer due to inflation lead to increased demand for authoritarian solutions. Increasing government control of oil companies will increase the authority of politicians but it will not reduce gasoline prices or increase exploration. In 1911 the Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil, the most efficient oil company of its day. The reason was to enhance competition. (The decision was misguided.) Now, Congressman Hinchey wishes to eliminate competition and establish a government-controlled oil monopoly.

Part of Congressman Hinchey's willingness to vent uninformed views without inhibition is that he has run unopposed for the past several Congressional elections. Hopefully, that will not be the case this year. A high school teacher from Binghamton, NY, George Phillips, is going to run against Mr. Hinchey. Mr. Phillips is disadvantaged for several reasons. First, New York's 22nd Congressional district is absurdly gerrymandered. (Mr. Hinchey corruptly designs his election district while he claims that he can run oil companies honestly and effectively.) Due to the gerrymandering, New York's 22nd Congressional district includes Poughkeepsie, the only point it is east of the Hudson, the southern and eastern Catskills, and then a thin strip that stretches west through Binghamton and Ithaca. This has the effect of including Poughkeepsie, New Paltz, Kingston, Binghamton and Ithaca, all Democratic, in one district. A second disadvantage is that Mr. Phillips is a newcomer to politics and is organizing a campaign from scratch.

Mr. Phillips can use all of the help and advice that he can get. Any support would be welcome. A defeat of Congressman Hinchey would remove a festering, reactionary sore from Congress.

Is The Stock Market Discounting an Obama Victory?

The Fed Funds rate is now 2%, down from 5.25% a year ago. The Fed has cut interest rates as gasoline and food prices have been rising quickly. The stock market is usually stimulated by monetary expansion, but it has been slow to react this time. The reason might be psychological, that is, news media reports about recession may have spooked investors. But the stock market declines are continuing past the points where the mainstream media rumor mill ought to have an effect. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 131 points today.

One possible reason is the strength that Barack Obama is showing in the polls and the widespread media bias supporting him. This reminds me of the 1976 race when Jimmy Carter, relatively unknown, received a considerable degree of media propaganda in support of his candidacy, which spurred his victory. According to Real Clear Politics Obama currently leads McCain in the major polls by about 4-5%. These differences may not be statistically significant in any one poll, but the fact that all polls are showing similar findings suggests significance. At the same time, public opinion is volatile at this stage of a campaign so a difference at this point may not be meaningful even if statistically significant.

Barack Obama has repeatedly stated that he favors tax increases with respect to capital gains, inheritance and income. Capital gains tax increases would depress the stock market because they reduce the real returns to investors. It is not illogical to consider that the stock market may be depressed at this point in part in reaction to the increasing probability of an Obama victory.

Publius on Attorney Martin Carasso

"Sue" O'Malley's attorney Martin Carasso has apparently gotten into a snit with "Publius" and other advocates of free speech at the Free Speech at CUNY website. I have something in common with Attorney Carasso. My first name is Mitchell and Attorney Carasso attended the William Mitchell College of Law. Also, in 1984 an attorney punched me in the eye while I was driving and wearing glasses (he was a passenger in my car) and I had to get seven stitches. Ultimately, I settled for $3,000. Thus, I know something about low-cost legal advice. Therefore, I must comment.

Allegedly, Attorney Carasso wrote an article entitled "Joseph Martin Carasso on low-cost legal advice for independents" and now claims that he "never advertised for low cost legal services.” This is disturbing. Very disturbing. Attorney Carasso should come clean and tell Publius the fee he is receiving for representing Professor O'Malley in suing the awe-inspiring, exalted Professor Karkhanis.

Will Obama Butcher Health Care As the Democrats Have Butchered Education?

Larwyn just forwarded a Hugh Hewitt Town Hall post that quotes Barack Obama's expression of delight in "creative" education at a charter school in Colorado:

"When you start working with teachers, tapping into their creativity, then you start designing curriculums that tap into the childrens' creativity. I was at a wonderful charter school in Colorado, ah, that had designed the entire school year --each year was designed around a theme-- and this is a majority Hispanic school, but the theme that year, they called it "Passages." And it was all about the African American experience.And so they incorporated music, you know, ah tracing sort of the history of African music through blues through jazz to modern times, along with history, along with literature, and these kids last year, ah, the year before they started this charter school, about 50% of the kids had dropped out, and now a 100% of them are graduating, a 100% of them are going to college because they were engaged in a curriculum that was interesting to them and seemed relevant to them, ah, and they incorporated art and music to make school interesting."

Barack Obama's delight in failed "creative" or "progressive education" approaches is not surprising, because his associate, William Ayers, advocates them. In her landmark book Left Back: A History of Battles over School Reform Diane Ravitch outlines how the quack educationist establishment has rendered America an increasingly illiterate nation through its advocacy of the "progressive" approaches in which Mr. Obama takes delight. The Democratic Party, the chief ally of the educationist establishment, has butchered the education of American children.

Do the Democrats aim to similarly butcher the health care of American patients? Throughout the debate about the need for health reform, none of the advocates has questioned the ability of state-influenced health care to eliminate the need for rationing, and none has explained how the quality of care will be affected by reform. Michael Moore, in his film Sicko, uses Cuba as an example of the kind of care that Americans can expect from a public system. Cuba spends $250 per year per citizen on health care. In comparison, America currently spends better than $3,000 per year per citizen on health care.

Does Mr. Obama aim to butcher patients on a governmentally-dominated operating table much as the Democrats have butchered American childrens' education?