Just briefly...

Here are two links worth perusing.

The first is an excellent take on what President Obama appears to be doing with US foreign policy, deliberately creating political vaccums for the enemies of the US to fill:

Obama's continuing obsession with America's supposed misdeeds - deplorable but necessary actions in time of war - is consistent with his determination to erode America's influence in the most troubled parts of the world. By removing America as a referee, he will provoke more violence than the United States ever did. We are entering a very, very dangerous period as a result.

The second is a rousing condemnation of Waxman-Markey as the new Smoot-Hawley by Republican Representative Tom McClintock:

Today, California's unemployment rate is more than two points above the national rate, and at its highest point since 1941.

What is it that happened in January 2007? AB 32 took effect and began shutting down entire segments of California's economy. Let me give you one example from my district.

The city of Truckee, Calif., was about to sign a long-term power contract to get its electricity from a new, EPA-approved coal-fired electricity plant in Utah. AB 32 and companion legislation caused them to abandon that contract. The replacement power they acquired literally doubled their electricity costs.

So when economists warn that we can expect electricity prices to double under the cap and trade bill, I can tell you from bitter experience that in my district, that's not a future prediction, that is a historical fact.

...

If this measure becomes law, two things are certain. First, our planet will continue to warm and cool as it has been doing for billions of years. Second, Congress will have delivered a staggering blow to our nation's economy at precisely that moment when that economy was the most vulnerable.

His points are logical, inevitable and correct: Waxman-Markey will make life in the United States more expensive - and hence is a regressive tax, affecting those with lower incomes proportionately more - and it will not, even in the best-case scenarios, make any appreciable difference.

The Democratic-led Congress is increasingly beholden to special interests, but not the boogey-man special interests of the past (big oil, car companies, banks), but rather to the watermelon ideologies (green outside, red inside) that drive the environmental movement today. What is worse is the fact - and it is a fact - that no one in the House actuall read the legislation before voting on it.



If that is not the definition of a rubber-stamp congress, I don't know what is.

We are heading towards increasingly difficult times: not only is the economy in serious trouble, caused by government interference in capital markets (remember, folks: no subprimes, no sub-prime crisis!), and the government, rather than working on solving the problems, is busy making things worse.

Much, much worse. You can already expect energy prices to increase with oil already over $70/bbl (again); if Waxman-Markey passes the Senate and is signed into law by President Obama, then expect energy prices to double. My bet? That they will be up even more.