TheBlackberryAlarmclock.com

Thingish Things

Campaign Ad, RFK ’68

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 27•11

http://youtu.be/0YoHJIpM_oA

Here is a 1968 presidential campaign ad from Robert F. Kennedy targeting Nebraska voters.  Mr. Kennedy would be assassinated in a Los Angeles ballroom in June of that year. The ad reminds me of the powerful influence of a father on his sons. One of them, RFK, Jr., the founder of the environmental group Riverkeeper, talks about the themes outlined in this ad today. 

Take a look on the faces on the children at the end, after Kennedy speaks about the possibility of them having to live “underground.”  His campaign probably should have tweaked that prediction out. It’s a bit of a freak out. 

Obama’s Most Orwellian Overreach Coming to a Community Near You

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 27•11

It has gotten little national attention, but the greatest example of Obama Administration overreach may be occurring in New York City’s leafy northern suburb, Westchester County, where I live and do some work.

The scope of what the Obama Administration is doing in Westchester to achieve its warped and misguided utopian vision of racial balance in American communities is nothing short of Orwellian. And Westchester is not where this social engineering stops. It is where it starts.

By its own admission, The Obama Administration — HUD and the Justice Department specifically — is using Westchester County as a test case to see if it can sue localities they deem too “white” nationwide into scrapping long-held zoning laws to forcibly integrate neighborhoods, on the taxpayer’s dime, regardless of cost, practicality, or justification.  HUD and Justice want to determine exactly how white, black, Hispanic, and Asian communities across the U.S. should be.  

Facts are irrelevant. Westchester County, according to the 2010 Census, is one of the most diverse counties in America. It is the fourth most-diverse county in New York State – as diverse as Manhattan. If it were a state, Westchester would be the 7th most diverse in Hispanic representation and the 14th most diverse in African-American representation in the U.S., according to a powerful op-ed defending the County and its residents published by Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino in today’s Journal News. (Full disclosure: Astorino is a client, but I write as a private citizen on this blog.)

The Obama Administration says it wants to drill deeper than the County level, though.  It wants to see towns and villages forced to build and pay for minority-marketed housing in certain ZIP Codes, communities, and individual neighborhoods.  If that means suing localities to nullify zoning laws, so be it. The value of the pre-existing housing is irrelevant – rather it is entirely relevant —  HUD wants publicly-built housing exactly there, in those affluent communities. And along with this housing must come public transportation, whether it is currently there or not. 

If you don’t believe me, read in detail this May 13th letter from HUD to the Office of the Westchester County Executive. It is chilling in its demands.

To suggest that Westchester communities are racist is preposterous, especially in this day and age.  Expensive yes; racist no. Anyone would sell a home to anyone at or near market price.  There are people of every ethnic and religious background throughout the county.  My community, for example, is 35% Hispanic, according to the latest Census numbers, and I challenge anyone to find a better place to live and raise a family in America. Diversity is one of the reasons we moved there in the first place.

The Obama Administration got its hooks into Westchester after a left-wing “social justice” organization called “The Anti Discrimination Center” (ADC) accused the county of not considering race in administering federal HUD money.  The group sued along with the Justice Department, and Westchester’s former County Executive, Andy Spano, and the County Legislature settled with the Feds to avoid a big public fight at re-election time. Here is that settlement.

Westchester County, under Astorino, has been diligently working to comply with the settlement signed under the former County Executive. But HUD moves the ball farther at every turn, demanding things well beyond the scope of the original settlement.  Locations chosen are not good enough; two bedroom apartments are insufficient. Anything near a train station is apparently stigmatizing. The County needs to prepare lawsuits against its villages and towns. Housing cannot be marketed to minorities already living and working in the county.  Only some of it can go to seniors.  

And get this – to me this to me is the craziest part – the tiny ADC got a finders fee greater than $7 million for bringing the case to the Feds.  Seven million dollars.  Those beady-eyed radicals must be scouring the country for other such lucrative opportunities.  Whether you live in Westchester County, New York; Fairfield County, Connecticut, or Cuyahoga County, Ohio, watch your back. Because Big Brother is coming for you next.

 

2012 Landslide Potential

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 27•11

A must read piece in National Journal today by Josh Kraushaar on the state-by-state Presidential race.  These pages touched on the exact same point a couple of weeks back. Bottom line:  There is the potential — potential — for President Obama to lose in a landslide next year. 

Here is Kraushaar on it today: 

“The race for president isn’t a national contest. It’s a state-by-state battle to cobble an electoral vote majority. So while the national polls are useful in gauging the president’s popularity, the more instructive numbers are those from the battlegrounds.

“Those polls are even more ominous for the president: In every reputable battleground state poll conducted over the past month, Obama’s support is weak. In most of them, he trails Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.  For all the talk of a closely fought 2012 election, if Obama can’t turn around his fortunes in states such as Michigan and New Hampshire, next year’s presidential election could end up being a GOP landslide.”

Doltish Debt Depictions

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 26•11

A New Debt Depiction in $100 Bills

Ronald Reagan famously described in 1980 how the national debt, if stacked in dollar bills, would extend almost to the moon.  I remember watching him say it on television and thinking “my God.” It made quite an impression, not just on me, but on the country. People spoke about that visual for the rest of the 1980 campaign.

Bill Clinton later ripped off Reagan and offered his own depiction of the national debt — one not nearly as good.  He did it in $1,000 bills extending 267 miles into space.  I can’t even picture a $1,000 bill, much less 267 miles of space.

Now, graphic design artist Oto Godfrey is out with his own visual analysis of U.S. debt as reported in Huffington Post.  Godfrey employs $100 bills, football fields, and the Statue of Liberty.  Say what? I don’t know about you, but that leaves no impression on me at all.

Maybe we should get back to Reagan’s dollar-bill method. If his almost $1 trillion deficit reached the moon (around 250,000 miles away at its farthest orbit), our current $14 trillion-plus deficit would extend approximately 3.5 million miles, or 14 trips to the moon (Or 140 times around the globe.) 

Football fields?  The Statue of Liberty? C’mon.

Happy Customers, Happy Meals

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 26•11

McDonalds announced today that it will significantly alter the contents of its Happy Meals nationwide to increase their nutritional value and lower fat and calorie content. Happy Meals will now include fruit and the option of vegetables. Low-fat milk and juice also will become options to high-calorie soda. The number of french fries in each meal will be reduced. 

This is great news for the American consumer and for those battling obesity in this country. But, as McDonalds was keen to point out in its announcement today, the decision was driven by consumer demand — not by government dictate.

These pages have for months criticized governments in New York and California for imposing “toy” bans on fast-food restaurants, arguing that government has no right to dictate reasonable business practices. Nor does it have the right to arbitrarily establish what is and isn’t a permissible meal. (Toys are allowed in breakfast cereal, but not with a hamburger?)Armed with that authority, government would have no limit in eventually choosing what we all are allowed to eat.

Statist types cling to the belief that government must be the chief mover in all things progressive. But it has always been the market that reflects human wants and societal shifts. McDonalds happily has demonstrated that again today.

Bring in Sgt. Rickles

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 26•11

Less than two weeks ago these pages noted that just 40% of bettors on the Dublin  “In Trade Exchange” believed that a U.S. Debt Ceiling deal would be struck by midnight on July 31st. That number is down to 22% today. Where’s Don Rickles when you need him (video below.) 

 

 

http://youtu.be/pykD8UkUABQ?t=14s

 

British Resolve — in Color

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 26•11

from Mail Online (Time Life/Getty)

Life Magazine is releasing new colorized images of London during “The Blitz” to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Nazi air attacks. (Thanks to Ray F. for the heads up.)  My favorite of the lot is the photo above. A high-altitude balloon to ensnare low-flying German warplanes is being prepared for ascent as a Londoner digs deeply into the latest Orwell or Dahl.  How very British.  More photos available here

P.S. My brother Gerry reminds me of a classic short story by Roald Dahl, “Beware of the Dog.” If you haven’t read it and have a few minutes, it’s a WWII must.  It is available here

 

Walker’s Beneficent Revenge

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 26•11

Distasteful Protest Sign in Madison

Remember all those teachers protesting inside and outside Wisconsin’s state capital in February and March?  The ones who painted Governor Scott Walker as a knuckle-dragging, teacher-hating neanderthal?

Well, it seems Walker’s Article 10 budget plan is now in effect, and it is saving teachers their jobs — just as he said it would. By making small concessions like a $10 co-pay for doctor visits and a contribution toward pension benefits, hundreds of teachers whose heads were on the chopping block now get to keep their jobs. Eureka!

The situation in Wisconsin shows just how disjointed teacher’s unions have become from actual teachers. The unions will budge at nothing, even if that means members losing their jobs to fill budget gaps.  The same applies to other public service union leaders.  They sacrifice their members to maintain contract status quo. 

Walker endured more than any other governor in American, perhaps, in sticking by his guns.  I bet a lot of teachers in the Badger State today are glad he did. 

 

The Ever-Relevant Ed Koch

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 25•11

Bob Turner (l.) and Former Mayor Ed Koch. Photo Credit: LCM247.com

I first met Ed Koch in 1988. Or rather, that’s when he first met me – with his shoulder.  I had been sent to City Hall Park to listen in on a Koch news conference and the two of us ended up on separate but converging paths at the northwest corner of the park. When we surprised each other at the point of intersection, Mayor Koch did what any sturdy 6’2” man would do when confronting a lesser 5’ 9’1/2”-er.  He knocked me on my arse.

I was a little surprised.  He had done it on purpose.  But had he not,  I may just as well have knocked him onto his. We each had been walking purposefully and one of us was going over from the force of the collision.  Mayor Koch just ensured that it would be me.  No harm no foul.  It was pure instinct. Seeing a notebook  clutched in my hand – it looked a little like a reporter’s notebook – his security guards picked me up and dusted me off, and we all went on our way.  But I made a short mental note: Koch is tougher than I thought.

Today, 23-years later, I got to spend some time again with Mayor Koch, this time at a news conference in Queens.  He was crossing party lines to endorse Republican Bob Turner for Congress in a race on which I am advising.  Even at age 87, Koch’s fearlessness shines through.  He remains an imposing force, intellectually and physically.  I would hesitate still before carelessly crossing his path again.  

What is most remarkable about Koch today, though, is his increasing relevance in New York politics at this late stage in his life.  One can see it in how New Yorkers and reporters act toward him.  There is a reverence shown Koch reserved for men of power, a form distinctly different than that proffered for reasons of nostalgia. Koch clearly commands the former.

I would not have anticipated Koch’s political resurgence. I had seen him at a variety of political and social events since 1989 when his mayoralty ended, and he generally struck me as an ex-Mayor.  That is not a bad thing; it is the natural state for those leaving the executive position at City Hall. But when New York State began melting down in the wake of Governor Spitzer’s resignation — 20 years after the Mayor Koch left public office — he stepped forward again and began demanding accountability and ethics reform throughout the state in a sustained way.  He has not stepped back from his reform campaign since.

The Koch I saw today has not mellowed a bit.  He is as tough, honest, and as acerbic as ever.  He is 100% Ed Koch, and should he desire it, I bet he could be elected to office again.  Who would dare stop him?  Certainly not me. 

Iron Will

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 25•11

When George Will is good, he is exceptionally good.  In his nationally-syndicated column Monday, Will tackles President Obama’s characteristic arrogance and the separation of powers that Mr. Obama, a Constitutional scholar, serially ignores.

Here is Will on President Obama’s abundant love of self:

“Inordinate self-regard is an occupational hazard of politics and part of the job description of the rhetorical presidency, this incessant tutor. Still, upon what meat doth this our current Caesar feed that he has grown so great that he presumes to command leaders of a coequal branch of government? He once boasted (June 3, 2008) that he could influence the oceans’ rise; he must be disabused of comparable delusions about controlling Congress.

And here is Will’s perspective on the degree to which spending has risen under Mr. Obama and on the subsequent protests from the President’s political party against “extremist” Republican cut proposals:

Obama’s wee mendacity…illustrates the large stakes of the debt debate, which is a proxy for an epochal argument about the nature of American governance. Obama’s money gusher has driven federal spending from under 20 percent of GDP to almost 25 percent. Democrats consider this the new normal — until it becomes the base from which they launch their next surge of statism.”

What Will drives home best, perhaps, without having to put it in ink, is the President’s growing unlikability factor. Likability was the one thing the President had going for himself, and with every passing day one struggles to remember why it was we felt that about this guy.