President Obama makes brilliant move

Did you hear the announcement yesterday that President Obama asked Congress for the power to reorganize--and shrink--the federal government, especially as it applies to the Commerce Department? He's "...prodding Congress to give him greater power to merge agencies and promising he would start by collapsing six major economic departments into one." He wants to combine the Trade and Commerce Departments, at minimum. It really is downright brilliant. It hits the Republicans, the Right Wing, the Tea Party and "Conservatives" and even the Libertarians right where they live--or right where they want to live. That's what people don't realize about Democrats and the Left, too. They don't get that actually liberals also want smaller, more effective government. It's just that they (we) do want a safety net, so to speak, for the poorest of us but there's no reason we can't or shouldn't have smaller but more effective government. As I said, it's a brilliant move and it undercuts the very things the Republican candidates for his job say he--President Obama--won't do or isn't capable of. Fantastic. Now, if the Republicans in Congress don't give it to him, they'll look like idiots or hypocrites--or both--and he can use it against them. If they give it to him, he gets credit for shrinking and organizing government better. It's a total win situation for him. Link: http://times247.com/articles/power-grab-obama-wants-authority-to-merge-agencies-at-will

On the "new" GOP "Pledge to America"

From The New York Times, today: The best way to understand the pledge is as a bid to co-opt the Tea Party by a Republican leadership that wants to sound insurrectionist but is the same old Washington elite. These are the folks who slashed taxes on the rich, turned a surplus into a crushing deficit, and helped unleash the financial crisis that has thrown millions of Americans out of their jobs and their homes. Not only are the players the same, the policies are the same. Just more tax cuts for the rich and more deficit spending. We find it hard to believe that even the most disaffected voters will be taken in. But again, these are strange and worrying times. Let's face it, there are two--and only two--things the Republicans can or should promise to the country that they would do, if returned to office in Washington. Those are cut spending---and truly, honestly and seriously do so--and shrink government. (Some of the cutting and shrinking for whoever is in power, too, will have to be at the Pentagon and across the entire military, something they are highly unlikely to do). Nothing else matters and nothing else means anything. If they only keep doing what they have been, that is, cutting taxes for the wealthy and reducing regulation on businesses, they are possibly likely to be overrun by the Tea Party. I don't think they're capable of either of these jobs, to date, but who knows? Maybe those old dogs could learn some new tricks. And keep their promises. Link to original story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/opinion/26sun1.html?th&emc=th