No More Czars. No Mas!

Ugh.

A former Justice Department official has been picked to be the Southwest border czar — a new position created by the Obama administration to handle illegal immigration and border issues, according to an administration official.

The new Homeland Security post will be responsible for issues related to drug-cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and the hundreds of thousands of people there who try to enter the U.S. illegally.

If there ever was a term that needed be taken out back, have its legs broken, and dropped into the Hudson River, it was 'Czar'. It was cool for 45 minutes in the 1980's, but it is about one of the most un-American terms imaginable. And when was the last time you remember an American "czar" accomplishing jack?

Wherein I Agree With Fidel Castro (But For Different Reasons)

Fidel:

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Tuesday praised the Obama administration for lifting U.S. restrictions on family travel to Cuba, but said more changes were needed in U.S. policy toward the island.

"The measure of easing the restrictions on trips is positive although minimal. Many others are needed," Castro wrote in a column published on a Cuban government website.

The surest way to end the Castro & Castro regime is to throw the doors open to Cuba and flood the island with capitalism. I'd go so far as to say that we are 20-25 years overdue on this change. The Cuban American community, particularly the older generation, still has some heft in American politics, so any changes along this line will come incrementally.

Happy Tea Partying

I feel deficient for not being able to attend tomorrow's tea party in Madison, especially considering the fact that I do not work all that far away. But that's kind of the point...I have to work. Take pictures for me, everyone.

The Cult Lives On

Sigh. I saw several examples this weekend of Obamessiah syndrome. I was hoping that more people had come to their senses, but it seems that many still think that he can walk on the water he turns into wine.

Volcano on Galpagos Islands Erupts, Threatens Exotic Species

Nature at its finest.

Ecuador officials say a volcano is erupting in the Galapagos Islands and could harm unique wildlife.

The Galapagos National Park says La Cumbre volcano began spewing lava, gas and smoke on uninhabited Fernandina Island on Saturday after four years of inactivity.

Word is the the UN will convene to condemn the environment for the environmental damage it is doing to the environment.

Blogger, Commentor Engaged. So Fracking What?

I've only been casually following da blogs in recent week, but I did notice the kerfuffle over UW law prof & blogger Ann Althouse's pending nuptials with a man she met through her comment section. I'm not understanding what the big deal is here. Who gives a rat's patoot? People meet the ones they love in any number of places, and the comment section of a blog seems much more sane than one of the most common places, the tavern.

A New Career?

I was in Borders the other night and I saw a book on the Chicago Cubs. I began to think about how boys and their fathers are about sports. Most times, the boy will cheer along with his father for the same teams, but some boys will intentionally choose the rivals to their dad's favorite team, if only to spice things up. My boy's grandfather is like that, as are more than one of his great-uncles to be.

So I started to mull over ways to encourage my boy to cheer on my favorite teams, besides the obvious immersion technique of swamping him with Packers, Brewers, Badgers, and Bucks. I think I hit on something that would work. I'm going to write a series of children's books. The first book in the series is going to be called "Why the Chicago Cubs...Eat Children." I plan to follow that up with "Why the Chicago Bears...Hate Your Mommy" (Or maybe "The Monsters of the Midway Under Your Bed") and "The Lost Kids and The Purple People Eaters."

I know, the titles sound horrible, and they will give kids bad dreams. But remember, nightmares fade, but the indignity of being a Cubs, Bears, or Vikings fan lives on forever.

Geithner Plays the Fool, Again

I declare shenanigans against the Obama administration:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner denied on Sunday the Obama administration was crafting bailout initiatives to allow companies to evade limits on executive pay and other restrictions imposed by Congress.

"No, that's not true," Geithner said when asked about a report in Saturday's Washington Post that the White House was trying to allow some exceptions.

They tread a fine line. They want power and control over over the financial and other industries, but they also know that those individuals will fund their re-election effort in three years. Look for the loopholes to abound. Geithner doesn't realize it yet, but he'll be the fall guy when the public figures out that these executives have work-arounds that allow them to still make their money. And Obama will get his donations in '11-'12. In a way, I feel sorry for the dumb bastard.

I say let's be honest and transparent about this. Don't limit their pay. If they fail and make huge money, then they will be open to the judgement of their stockholders. All this administration is doing right now is making executive compensation more difficult to track.

Earning the Digits

If she didn't give this guy her phone number after this, a crime occurred.

It doesn't look like he tried to capitalize on the opportunity, though.

Update
I showed the lovely Mrs. Jib this video. She had two thoughts. #1: Digits would have been called for if he gave her the ball. #2: In the interest of Darwinism, he should have let the ball hit her for being oblivious to a Major League game while sunbathing beyond the left-center field wall.

Dumb Headlines

Today's edition of Dumb Headlines features Time via Yahoo:

Unemployment Rise Shows Recession Far from Over

Perhaps the recession is far from over, but the unemployment rise isn't what shows it. Unemployment is a lagging economic indicator. It shows what employers were facing, not what they are facing. Yes, last month's increase in unemployment could mean less consumer spending for this month. Employers tend to cut jobs beyond the point at which an economy starts to turn around, though, so deciphering where we are right now from it is a foggy art at best.

Bonus Classic TV Intro

I'm not sure how many out there remember this one, but I used to watch Grizzly Adams re-runs on weekend mornings all the time. Fortunately, I had enough common sense to realize that bears aren't any man's best friend.

The Weekend's Classic TV Intro

I've been AWOL, but I haven't forgotten my new feature. Enjoy one that always makes me feel better, the intro to Cheers.

A Thought on this Economy

We are in a deep recession, no doubt about it. And it has been a long time since we've experienced something like this. It used to be that recessions were deep, painful, and relatively frequent. Because they were frequent, people knew what to expect, and they didn't panic. But now we've gone 25 plus years since our last deep recession, and even those amongst who were productive members of the economy at that time have been partially numbed to the pain.

So here we are, terrified that we are looking at the abyss, standing on the ledge of a new Great Depression. I won't lie-we could very well be in that position. Something is nagging at me, though. Yes, leveraged (homes, cars, luxury goods) spending is way off. Yes, business spending is down as companies batten down the hatches. Yes, consumer spending is taking a beating because of unemployment and over-indebtedness. Yet I still see a lot of people, as nervous and as stressed as they are about the economy, spending money like they always have. For instance, I know of 7 people who have (or will be) taken expensive trips outside of this country in the period between December and this coming May. None of them are filthy rich-they are in the lower to upper middle class range.

A contraction in this economy is necessary. We got ourselves into an over-leveraged, over-priced situation across the board, and that has to be corrected. And if we just get out of the way, we'd find that the pain, while bad, doesn't hurt as much as we'd feared. Yet for the last 6 months, our government has acted out of that fear, and just as we start to claw our way out of this, we may very well get slapped in the face by worse problems that we've allowed our government to create.

RIP, General Motors

I've cringed listening to some defend Rick Wagoner today. I think that his leadership at GM was marked by desperate attempts to pull demand forward with unsustainable incentive schemes and desperate attempts to push losses back through accounting tricks. There is plenty of blame to go around for GM's current state, and he owns his fair share.

Just the same, today's the day GM died. It is now the government's car company, President Obama's car company. Technically, it is still alive, but the day the federal government shunted aside share owners to depose the head of the company and possibly the board of directors will be remembered as the day the company went brain dead. I don't think Wagoner deserved to remain as the head of that company, but that decision wasn't rightfully mine and it wasn't the government's. But this government feels that there are no limits on its power. Unless the American people come to their senses and pull back the reigns on this government, it is only going to get much, much worse.

If I Were Black...

...it would really piss me off to hear so many white liberals complimenting Barack Obama for being articulate, as though that skill was a foreign concept.

But since I'm not, I'll just say that it would be a better compliment, regardless of race, to be called competent rather than articulate.

The Weekend's Classic TV Intro

Everything is too depressing right now. Your 401K is crashing, you're worrying about your job, there is no hope on the horizon. In times like these, it is best to gravitate to warm memories of old. As such, I'm beginning "Classic TV Intro" here at Jiblog. Hopefully everyone will be able to bask in the warmth of a memory from their younger, happier days. Today's classic intro comes from my young 'un years, when I was blissfully unaware of "stagflation". I present the intro to CHiPs:

Why Not Just a Best Buy Gift Card, Barack?

This should be a national embarrassment:

As he headed back home from Washington, Gordon Brown must have rummaged through his party bag with disappointment.

Because all he got was a set of DVDs. Barack Obama, the leader of the world's richest country, gave the Prime Minister a box set of 25 classic American films - a gift about as exciting as a pair of socks.

[...]

The Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet.

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.

Meh. It's the thought that counts, right? I hear President Sarkozy in France is jacked for his first visit from President Obama because our state gift is expected to be sixteen slices of Kraft singles. (If you notice my sarcasm, it is because I'm laying it on pretty thick.)

D-list stars in Hollywood get better bling bags than the leader of the nation with which we've had the tightest relationship for years. Maybe I'm just too dumb to undestand dear leader's method of repairing those foreign relationships destroyed by Bush et al.

But maybe I'm too hard on the President. Perhaps after all of our recent spending, 25 DVD's is all we could afford to give.

A Stunning 45 Days

Stunning may not even do the first days of the Obama administration justice. Numbing might be an even more appropriate term. Certainly not in my lifetime has there been such a naked grab by the left for both socialism and power through dollars in this country. In the thirties, people feared that Roosevelt was tempted by the idea of dictatorship. Obama, via Rahm Emmanuel's policy of never letting a good crisis go to waste, has made a balls-out grab at total control. While we get poorer as private industry becomes more and more terrified, he and his party spend more and more money that doesn't exist. These are indeed frightening times, and Obama still has 55 days until the first 100 have passed. His campaign got the change part right, but they completely struck out on hope.

An Unpopular Thought

The Libertarian party is a great place for a person to land when they want to explore the intellectual concepts of theories without ever having to confront the punch in the face reality tends to give to theory. But then again, it is nice to take the high ground that comes with never having to defend policies in practice.

I think libertarians are a necessary part of the Republican party and a complimentary, inter-meshed partner to conservatism. But the condescension that comes from some Libertarians who never have to face the full frontal assault of the political system in this country is quite tiring at times. I'd love to see pure Libertarians try to govern while eschewing pragmatism if it wouldn't ultimately end up being such a mess.

(To understand this post is to understand the difference between Big-L and little-l libertarianism.)

Breaking! NY Times: Obama Going Gray!

On the one hand, I'm sympathetic to arguments that we are all worse off without the reporting done by newspapers. Then I see what passes as a story at the Gray Lady: For Young President, Flecks of Gray. If I need to point out the absurdity of a story about a man in his 40's in a stressful job going gray, please just go back to the hard hitting journalism in the paper of record.

If the Times was writing stories about whose fingerprints were on the various stimulous/bailout/bankrupt ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren plans, then I'd mourn the death of papers more. Unfortunately, stories like this just go to show that the papers are doing it to themselves. They've long since abdicated their self-appointed role as the watchdogs of democracy.