hasten the end of the traditional media?
Yes.
President Barack Obama's unfavorable rating are increasing while his favorable ratings are remaining steady, if not actually declining slightly. While this polling trend is normal for new presidents once they are in office, it is remarkable for the current president because he was to be a transformational president that would break with all previous norms for the previous presidents. His popularity was to never decline.
Some of his supporters among the press were claiming that he was the smartest person to have ever been elected to the office while others predicted that he would create such a groundswell of adulation among the peoples of the world that he would become the leader of the world by sheer force of his personality.
High expectations were being sold to the American voters who were looking for ... something ... but were unable to exactly define that something - just different.
Now that he is in office, the miracles have not occurred and hope of their ever happening is now gone. The electorate is now getting an uneasy feeling that perhaps they had been deceived - again. Once loyal supporters who had written the most glowing articles about "The One" are now revising their opinions of him - in writing.
The fanatical supporters are still loyal. And they will remain loyal. They will step up their attacks of anyone who dares to criticize "The One" in an attempt to drown out the heretics and apostates. But eventually, one by one, they will begin to tone down their defense of him until they will become mute. Some will come to the conclusion that they Democratic party failed them by placing Obama at the top of the ticket. Some will have their epiphany and turn on the party and will find solace in the words of Ronald Reagan, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me."
The voters will be very upset, believing that they had been betrayed by the public watchdogs: the media.
Members of the media will be upset, believing that they had been deceived by the Obama campaign, the Democratic Party, and by the Republicans. Disappointment by the realization of their own gullibility, they will attempt to redeem themselves by claiming they had doubts about him for some time. They will even give examples of incidents they found disturbing but had not reported previously.
The public, when confronted with all of the bitter recollections of a now disillusioned press, will have even less faith in the press' so called objectivity. Independents, who are the last hope of the newspapers for subscribers, will join the Republicans in believing that the press is hopelessly biased, will be more skeptical of political and economic coverage to the point where they will stop subscribing to their local newspapers.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Our Part Time President
After President Obama was elected, the press inundated the public with observations of such milestones as "...the first African-American President...", "... the first African American President in the White House...", "...the first State of the Union Address given by an African-American President...", et cetera.
In all of their enthusiasm to compete with other members of the press for the most significant "...first African-American President to _____" observation, no member of the press took note of the Most Significant First by an American president - the FIRST PART-TIME PRESIDENT!
This title of being the First Part Time President is not dependent upon President Obama's performance after the inauguration, but is granted solely upon his work history prior to his election to the highest office in the land.
The following is from wikipedia:
"Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until November 2008, when he resigned following his election to the presidency.
Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a community organizer in Chicago prior to earning his law degree, and practiced as a civil rights attorney in Chicago before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama was elected to the United States Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. During his tenure as Senator, he served on several committees, including the Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, Veterans' Affairs, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Impressive?
Student, community organizer (who soon realized that he would be ineffective without more political power), law student, civil rights attorney (several accounts of his time at the law firm indicate that his billable hours were far lower than that of his colleagues; that he was spending a large portion of his time working on his book; that he felt like a spy in the enemy camp), adjunct lecturer on Constitutional Law (not on tenure track), State Senator (which does not require as much time as a dedicated United States Senator), United States Senator (from which he used to run for POTUS starting from his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention during which time he was only a lowly State Senator and had yet to be elected to the United States Senator).
His whole adult life he drifted from job to job until he was elected POTUS. His history has been to get a job, start on getting the next job, then move on.
He now has a full-time job - the first job requiring executive and leadership abilities. This job
is guaranteed for a full four years with an option for a renewal for another four. Unless he gets elected to be President of Earth, he cannot use this job to pave the way for an even better job. Maybe one that pays better, but not one that has any greater prestige than POTUS.
For the good of our country, I hope that he takes his first real full-time job seriously and does a great job. I pray that he does not develop the belief that being POTUS is not worth the aggravation and decide that he deserves better treatment because he is Barack Obama.
A few weeks ago, President Obama was talking to some newspaper publishers when he made the comment that he was pretty good at being President. I wonder if he has changed his opinion of himself or if he has changed his opinion of everyone else.
In all of their enthusiasm to compete with other members of the press for the most significant "...first African-American President to _____" observation, no member of the press took note of the Most Significant First by an American president - the FIRST PART-TIME PRESIDENT!
This title of being the First Part Time President is not dependent upon President Obama's performance after the inauguration, but is granted solely upon his work history prior to his election to the highest office in the land.
The following is from wikipedia:
"Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until November 2008, when he resigned following his election to the presidency.
Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a community organizer in Chicago prior to earning his law degree, and practiced as a civil rights attorney in Chicago before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama was elected to the United States Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. During his tenure as Senator, he served on several committees, including the Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, Veterans' Affairs, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Impressive?
Student, community organizer (who soon realized that he would be ineffective without more political power), law student, civil rights attorney (several accounts of his time at the law firm indicate that his billable hours were far lower than that of his colleagues; that he was spending a large portion of his time working on his book; that he felt like a spy in the enemy camp), adjunct lecturer on Constitutional Law (not on tenure track), State Senator (which does not require as much time as a dedicated United States Senator), United States Senator (from which he used to run for POTUS starting from his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention during which time he was only a lowly State Senator and had yet to be elected to the United States Senator).
His whole adult life he drifted from job to job until he was elected POTUS. His history has been to get a job, start on getting the next job, then move on.
He now has a full-time job - the first job requiring executive and leadership abilities. This job
is guaranteed for a full four years with an option for a renewal for another four. Unless he gets elected to be President of Earth, he cannot use this job to pave the way for an even better job. Maybe one that pays better, but not one that has any greater prestige than POTUS.
For the good of our country, I hope that he takes his first real full-time job seriously and does a great job. I pray that he does not develop the belief that being POTUS is not worth the aggravation and decide that he deserves better treatment because he is Barack Obama.
A few weeks ago, President Obama was talking to some newspaper publishers when he made the comment that he was pretty good at being President. I wonder if he has changed his opinion of himself or if he has changed his opinion of everyone else.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
What History can teach us. High taxes are bad.
I used to watch the Biography Channel a lot. It was there that I noticed a trends among the wealthy elites in the post World War II years. They didn't like paying taxes but they could do something about it.
At the end of the Second World War, the United States found itself as the sole remaining industrial giant of the non-communist world. Europe and Japan had been bombed so heavily that industrial capacity, along with the human resources necessary for production, had been set back a half century or more. England was tottering on the brink of a fiscal abyss from the money spent on the war and re-asserting itself amongst its colonies.
The top marginal tax rate in the U.S. was 90 %. Imagine that - 90 cents over every dollar earned over a certain threshold was taken from the private sector. People who were self-employed wee able tp take compensation in forms that were less heavily taxed, such as stocks and real estate to allow for the much lower capital gains tax rates. Investments were made in the exploration and production of petroleum because of the generous tax benefits - remember the oil depletion allowance?
Large companies, particularly those in the government regulated industries, were glad to exchange the right to price their own products and services for government control as long as government sent those prices high enough to allow a certain percentage of profit. This allowed the utility companies to sell the bonds necessary to finance their tremendous infrastructure improvements.
Since the tax code was structured to reward the private sector during the building of an industrial economy, not all people who were high wage earners were able to equally benefit by exploiting the tax code. These people were looking at paying 90% of the last dollar they earned in each reporting year. Some of these people would cross the 90% threshold in the second quarter. At which point, they were taking home 10% of their pay for more than half a year.
Case in point, Ernie Kovacs. A great, and sometimes brilliant, comedian, comic actor and producer, Ernie ran into problems with the IRS. Seems that Ernie wouldn't, or couldn't, see why he should pay 90% taxes on every dollar he made in December and didn't want to take the advice of working for six months and vacationing for six months to reduce his income tax burden. When he died behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvair, he owed the IRS a lot of money. His widow, Edie Adams, was a proud woman who worked for years to pay off his debt while refusing help offered to her by Frank Sinatra and Jack Lemmon to host a benefit event to raise the money.
Case in point, actor Sterling Hayden had to leave the country because of his tax problems. Living and working in Europe, he lost a lot of opportunities for work in the U.S. because the few times he did work in America, his salary would be seized by the IRS.
Case in point, singer/actor/dancer Gene Kelly left the United States for Europe for "business reasons". I guess his taxes got too high. Since he moved back to the U.S. after two years, it might be presumed that it was also for "business reasons" - such as being unable to find enough work in Europe and having to move back to be close to the factory.
In 1960, John Kennedy was elected President. His father, Joe Kennedy, had made a fortune on Wall Street in the 1920s. He was fortunate to have sold all of his holdings prior to the crash and was able to live off of his investments. President Kennedy realized that the American economy need investments and that lowering the tax rates would spur an economic boom - he was right.
Once the tax rates were lowered, the Americans who had moved overseas for "business reasons" moved back home. Other countries would continue to maintain their confiscatory tax rates and as a result, lost many of their high earners who had the ability to work anywhere in the world. How many performers and musicians left England and moved to America after the lowering of the U.S. marginal tax rates? Quite a few.
What does this history teach us about the present and the future? People who support higher taxes do not like to pay higher taxes. If they wave the ability to make money in a country with a lower tax rate, then they move. Do not be surprised to see the most Bush-hating and Obama-loving celebrities begin moving out of the country for "business reasons" in an attempt to lower their taxes. Do not be surprised to hear these same celebrities give interviews to the foreign press in which they decry the wickedness of the conservatives for wanting to keep more of their own money - interviews made just before these same celebrities have meeting to shelter their income and lower their taxes.
I am fortunate in that I live in a state that does not have a state or local income tax. A sunbelt state, we get a lot of people who are fleeing the high taxes of the rust belt states. We are glad they choose to live here. However, I wish they would remember why they left their last home and move before they start advocating we change our government to be more like the financially oppressive governments from which they fled.
At the end of the Second World War, the United States found itself as the sole remaining industrial giant of the non-communist world. Europe and Japan had been bombed so heavily that industrial capacity, along with the human resources necessary for production, had been set back a half century or more. England was tottering on the brink of a fiscal abyss from the money spent on the war and re-asserting itself amongst its colonies.
The top marginal tax rate in the U.S. was 90 %. Imagine that - 90 cents over every dollar earned over a certain threshold was taken from the private sector. People who were self-employed wee able tp take compensation in forms that were less heavily taxed, such as stocks and real estate to allow for the much lower capital gains tax rates. Investments were made in the exploration and production of petroleum because of the generous tax benefits - remember the oil depletion allowance?
Large companies, particularly those in the government regulated industries, were glad to exchange the right to price their own products and services for government control as long as government sent those prices high enough to allow a certain percentage of profit. This allowed the utility companies to sell the bonds necessary to finance their tremendous infrastructure improvements.
Since the tax code was structured to reward the private sector during the building of an industrial economy, not all people who were high wage earners were able to equally benefit by exploiting the tax code. These people were looking at paying 90% of the last dollar they earned in each reporting year. Some of these people would cross the 90% threshold in the second quarter. At which point, they were taking home 10% of their pay for more than half a year.
Case in point, Ernie Kovacs. A great, and sometimes brilliant, comedian, comic actor and producer, Ernie ran into problems with the IRS. Seems that Ernie wouldn't, or couldn't, see why he should pay 90% taxes on every dollar he made in December and didn't want to take the advice of working for six months and vacationing for six months to reduce his income tax burden. When he died behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvair, he owed the IRS a lot of money. His widow, Edie Adams, was a proud woman who worked for years to pay off his debt while refusing help offered to her by Frank Sinatra and Jack Lemmon to host a benefit event to raise the money.
Case in point, actor Sterling Hayden had to leave the country because of his tax problems. Living and working in Europe, he lost a lot of opportunities for work in the U.S. because the few times he did work in America, his salary would be seized by the IRS.
Case in point, singer/actor/dancer Gene Kelly left the United States for Europe for "business reasons". I guess his taxes got too high. Since he moved back to the U.S. after two years, it might be presumed that it was also for "business reasons" - such as being unable to find enough work in Europe and having to move back to be close to the factory.
In 1960, John Kennedy was elected President. His father, Joe Kennedy, had made a fortune on Wall Street in the 1920s. He was fortunate to have sold all of his holdings prior to the crash and was able to live off of his investments. President Kennedy realized that the American economy need investments and that lowering the tax rates would spur an economic boom - he was right.
Once the tax rates were lowered, the Americans who had moved overseas for "business reasons" moved back home. Other countries would continue to maintain their confiscatory tax rates and as a result, lost many of their high earners who had the ability to work anywhere in the world. How many performers and musicians left England and moved to America after the lowering of the U.S. marginal tax rates? Quite a few.
What does this history teach us about the present and the future? People who support higher taxes do not like to pay higher taxes. If they wave the ability to make money in a country with a lower tax rate, then they move. Do not be surprised to see the most Bush-hating and Obama-loving celebrities begin moving out of the country for "business reasons" in an attempt to lower their taxes. Do not be surprised to hear these same celebrities give interviews to the foreign press in which they decry the wickedness of the conservatives for wanting to keep more of their own money - interviews made just before these same celebrities have meeting to shelter their income and lower their taxes.
I am fortunate in that I live in a state that does not have a state or local income tax. A sunbelt state, we get a lot of people who are fleeing the high taxes of the rust belt states. We are glad they choose to live here. However, I wish they would remember why they left their last home and move before they start advocating we change our government to be more like the financially oppressive governments from which they fled.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
I had a dream.
A dream of the near future. A time in which the present administration has instituted laws, rules and regulations that have devastated the economy and the financial security of too many people.
In the dream, people who had supported Obama publicly were now regretting their candidate and were turning against him - also publicly. Other people who had supported Obama, and were still loyal to him, were now banding together as they were becoming outcasts among their friends and neighbors.
In the dream, journalists who had once idolized Obama and made it their job to defend him were becoming silent while his critics were becoming more vocal and strident. A few had written of their disappointment in the President for actually following most of his comments made while he was speaking and not campaigning.
In the dream, the President and his supporters were denouncing anyone who criticized their leader. The President and his supporters were seizing control of government programs to serve their own interests and not the people.
In the dream, the administration was being compared to movements in the past that had used similar tactics and had brought short term gain and long term, and horrific, loss for the people.
It was only a dream, wasn't it?
In the dream, people who had supported Obama publicly were now regretting their candidate and were turning against him - also publicly. Other people who had supported Obama, and were still loyal to him, were now banding together as they were becoming outcasts among their friends and neighbors.
In the dream, journalists who had once idolized Obama and made it their job to defend him were becoming silent while his critics were becoming more vocal and strident. A few had written of their disappointment in the President for actually following most of his comments made while he was speaking and not campaigning.
In the dream, the President and his supporters were denouncing anyone who criticized their leader. The President and his supporters were seizing control of government programs to serve their own interests and not the people.
In the dream, the administration was being compared to movements in the past that had used similar tactics and had brought short term gain and long term, and horrific, loss for the people.
It was only a dream, wasn't it?
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