Obama's New New Deal Rolls Out The Barrel . . . Moving Downhill Fast!

President Obama's tax and spend assault on capitalism continues to have a devastating toll on the stock markets. Today, stocks resumed their slide. Drudge Report calls it "The Hemorrhaging". When we last checked, the Dow was down over 200 points -- easily erasing the gains from yesterday.

In their zeal to "stimulate" the economy, the Democrats ignore the first cardinal rule of tending to a sick patient -- do no harm. The Chinese government leadership seems to get it, having announced there will be no new "stimulus" package in their country.

It's a scary day when the Communist government in Red China is more conservative than Democrats running things in Washington, D.C.

Update: Here is the reality of the "change" brought about by Obama's economic policies, as reported by Yahoo! Finance:

The Dow is now down 24% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 has fallen slightly less since the start of the year. The Nasdaq is down almost 17% for the year.

Meanwhile, the S&P 400 Mid-cap Index and Russell 2000 Small-cap Index are showing year-to-date losses of 23% and 29%, respectively.
Please note: The postings of "G. Morris", written by John K. Bush and which end in 2016, stated his views as of the dates of posting and should not be understood as current assertions of his views. The postings, which have not been altered since they came to an end, remain on this blog to preserve the historical record. In 2017, Mr. Bush took a position that precludes further public political comments or endorsements. He will no longer be contributing to this blog.

Lunsford's Race Baiting

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has dropped a reference to Secretary of State Elaine Chao and her Chinese ancestry from its website republication of a memo from Bruce Lunsford's campaign. The Lunsford campaign memo dated October 27, 2008 complains of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's alleged ties to China. McConnell is married to Chao, who emigrated to America from China with her family at age eight.

The memo attacks McConnell for, in essence, selling out America to China, supposedly because he has a conflict of interest. A screen capture of the original shows that as of 2:00 Monday afternoon, the original Lunsford memo posted on the DSCC website contained a sentence that read,

1. McConnell is married to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, a prominent Chinese-American, and said that her connections were instrumental in raising money from Chinese-Americans.

That sentence is no longer on the website. The sanitized memo, as currently posted on the DSCC web site, reads:

McConnell has a Major Conflict of Interest When it Comes to China.

1. McConnell received contributions from donors with ties to Chinese intelligence agencies.

2. McConnell’s father-in-law was a schoolmate and close friend of the former head of the Communist Party in China, with whom McConnell worked to expand trade with China.

3. McConnell’s family owns a Chinese shipping company and profits from trade with China.

Note that there is no longer any reference to Chao. As originally posted on the DSCC web site, the memo contained four points under the "conflict of interest heading." The DSCC dropped point number one (regarding Chao, "the prominent Chinese-American") and renumbered the points two through four as two through three.

The Democrats rise up in outrage whenever anyone uses Sen. Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein. We are told that the country has "turned a page" and that we must not demonize Obama for having an "exotic-sounding name" and "not looking like" the Dead White Guys on our currency. We are reassured that just because Obama has a Muslim name, that is no basis to question his patriotism or portray him as Muslim or a Muslim sympathisizer.

It is equally despicable to campaign against McConnell for being married to a woman of Chinese ancestry, and to accuse him of casting votes because Communist China bought for or otherwise influenced his vote. In fact, the reference to Chao is even worse, because it calls to mind the statutes that criminalized intermarriage between races.

So the DSCC was correct to edit the reference to Chao from the memo; it's good to know that even the DSCC has its limits. The Lunsford campaign, on the other hand, is so desperate to win and so bereft of ideas that it has appealed to racisim as a basis for voting against McConnell.

Navy Scores For The Gipper

Ronald Reagan would have been proud of the U.S. Navy yesterday. According to Reuters, "[t]he Pentagon said . . . it had 'a high degree of confidence' that a Navy missile hit the toxic fuel tank of a disabled U.S. spy satellite, which posed a potential threat if it struck land on reentry."

What a relief that the Navy hit its target apparently on the first try and during an only ten-second window available to do it:

An SM-3 missile fired from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Hawaii hit the errant satellite on Wednesday at 10:26 p.m. EST (0326 GMT Thursday), 153 nautical miles (283 km) above the Earth.
. . . .
The missile hit the 5,000-pound (2,270 kg), bus-sized satellite as it traveled through space at more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,400 kph), the Pentagon said.

That "Star Wars" research continues to pay dividends for the United States. Just ask the Chinese, who botched their own shoot-down of a satellite last year -- and whose complaints about American anti-missile defense accuracy are telling:

A Chinese state newspaper on Thursday -- Wednesday in the United States -- accused Washington of hypocrisy for criticizing other countries' space ambitions while rejecting a treaty proposed by China and Russia to ban weapons in space and firing a missile at the spy satellite.

China said it was monitoring Washington's destruction of the satellite.

"The Chinese side is continuing to closely follow the U.S. action which may influence the security of outer space and may harm other countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference.

Well done, Midshipmen!

Update: A newly posted report at Space.com provides further insight as to the strategic implications of the Navy's success:

The U.S. Navy's successful missile hit and apparent destruction of a defunct spy satellite represents a major step forward in the space arms race in the eyes of some analysts. Others are not so sure.
One expert said last night's hit was not an example of a real missile-defense system, targeting an unusually low satellite that was essentially a sitting duck with a missile that is not the nation's top-of-the line for such tasks.
Some say tensions with Russia and China will increase following the U.S. anti-satellite demonstration, as both nations had stated their opposition to the attempt. Others argue the United States took necessary measures to ensure geopolitical stability and extend its military dominance.
"This is obviously being hailed as a victory both politically, because the [U.S.] administration can claim there was no loss of life, and technically because it worked," said Theresa Hitchens, Center for Defense Information director. "It helped the [U.S.] Navy demonstrate the capabilities of its missile defense system."

Please note: The postings of "G. Morris", written by John K. Bush and which end in 2016, stated his views as of the dates of posting and should not be understood as current assertions of his views. The postings, which have not been altered since they came to an end, remain on this blog to preserve the historical record. In 2017, Mr. Bush took a position that precludes further public political comments or endorsements. He will no longer be contributing to this blog.