Nightly Ramble: The “Because I Can” Edition

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble.

 This is the ‘Because I can’ edition.  Well, mostly, because, well, you know.  And also, because that seems Obama’s attitude about spending our money. And our kids’ money. And our grandkids. And our great grandkids.

• The Pic: I chose this graphic because it struke me that Rambler… American Motors… was the one automaker that fell during a  previous liberal Democrat’s administration.  Consider the implications.
• Yes, really:  Oh, comon, Billy… that’s an easy one. The Constitution calls out a design involving limits on governmental power. So what we’re talking about, here, is the principle that government needs to at minimum be limited, with it’s powers both enumerated and limited in nature;  The princiiples on which the traditional American philosophy is based… the one that teaches that government must be limited in power if Individual Liberty is to be safeguarded.  The reason you only find the word ‘freedom’ used once is also a simple one; The document doesn’t seek to grant freedoms to the people… It’s authors recognized they hadn’t the power to grant freedoms. The Constitution seeks, rather, to limit the power of government, in order to protect those freedoms, and thereby the lion’s share of it is taken up with that single purpose… limiting government.   I would particularly draw your attention to the ninth and tenth amendments.  Now, as I suggested yesterday, you may disagree with the principles it lays out, saying that government needs to be eliminated outright, but that’s a seperate matter altogether from the question of principles being expressed in the Constitution. .    I say to you again: The Constitution as such, and for that matter, the principles it expresses, don’t have a damn thing to do with any of what we’re seeing in DC these days. What we’re seeing there is pure pragmatism, totally divorced from the constitutional design and  it’s principles of limited government.
• Stored rail cars: As a railfan, I can confirm this  Wall Street Journal story:
  

  …Tens of thousands of boxcars are sitting idle all over the country, parked indefinitely by railroads whose freight volumes have plummeted along with the economy.
  —
  Railroads, which have seen shipping volumes drop by double-digit percentages in recent months, face a particularly vexing problem. The nation’s five largest railroads have put more than 30% of their boxcars — 206,000 in all — into storage, according to the Association of American Railroads. Placed end-to-end, the cars would stretch from New York to Salt Lake City

  Traffic is in fact down, and has been for a while. The problems described seem a little overblown, though. One droppoff in traffic we’ve noted around here; There’s not nearly as much in the way of Ethonol Unit trains as we’d seen a year back. Fuel prices going down, of course. The auto rack units are getting shorter, too.

• Must be all that fact checking they’re doing… elsewhere: Another nail in the coffin of the New York Times.  In the words of he who doesn’t need the links, Faster, please. With superglue, yet.
• That ends the argument:  Jen Rubin At Pajamas Media nails it:
  

  …President Obama’s speech Tuesday night should put to rest the argument as to who he really is. He revealed plans so sweeping and so expensive that, if they came to pass, we would permanently refashion the role of the federal government in the lives of every American.During the campaign certain Republicans and libertarians tried to convince us Obama was a moderate, a sort of Bill Clinton “third way” reformer — and certainly no radical as conservatives claimed. Conservatives remained skeptical. Then during the transition, the debate as to Obama’s political philosophy continued. He sprinkled his cabinet with sober figures and experienced economic gurus. So perhaps he was moderate in outlook and restrained in ambition.

  Next came the stimulus plan. Yes, he delegated the entire enterprise to Nancy Pelosi and the liberal draftsmen in Congress. But perhaps this was an error in judgment, a departure from what he “really” wanted in order to achieve a stimulus plan.

  Well, the mystery has been solved. Obama is an unalloyed and extreme liberal. He does not intend merely to slay the recession. He intends to remake the country’s education, health care, and energy policies, with a hugely expanded and enormously powerful federal government directing vast swatches of American life and industry.

  I’ll tell ya, lady…I’ve never had a doubt in my mind for one minute about which way this thing was going. And this thing is, It’s going even beyond THOSE wild dreams, because however bad Obama is, congressional Democrats are even worse.  And he can’t control their spending habits. Or, won’t. It’s why I’d always held that bad as he was, McCain was a better choice for the country than Obama.

  The plain truth is that Barack Obama has spent, near on $33BUSD/Day since taking office. His proposals involve trillions… yes, that’s with a T… Trillions more. He knows it’s not having the effect of stopping the recession. In fact, the evidnece is already starting to come in that it’s making things worse. Yet he still wants MORE. The bovine excrement he’s spreading about cutting the deficit in half, now that he’s busted the bank, and the world economy with it, isn’t helping either. Now, admittedly, he could prove me wrong, by using the veto pen on anything with earmarks on it. But you and I both know that won’t happen.

  Word on the wires this monring is that the budget Obama’s putting forward will amount to… are you ready, here?… $4,000,000,000,000,000.00 That’s 4 trillion dollars. Or, if you like, around $12,000USD for ever living soul in the country.  And you know as well as I do that budget will get far far bigger when the Democrats in Congress get ahold of it, and adds their pet projects to it. Oh.. and don’t forget the Obama cabinet members adding theirs, too. Ah, yes, we’re in the best of hands, we are.

• Welcome to the campaign season: Apparently after the SOTU speech, Americans have decided that it’s not to early to start thinking about replacing Obama in 2012.
• Democrat notices we’re still at war: So, Panetta’s busy saying there’s still a war on terror? Hey… Don’t tell US, Leon… tell your boss. He’s still trying to let our enemy out of out of jail.
• Gee.. less must really be more: Hey, Mayor Bloomberg; Explain this to me; How does cutting down on the number of available streets to drive on reduce congestion? Before you do this, you’d better ask the folks in DC what happened after the roads around the White House were closed. Clue: It doesn’t reduce congestion, it just puts it elsewhere. Moron.
• Word from the bookstore: It appears not everyone is in hard times. Sales of Atlas Shrugged are through the roof, says Reynolds. Wonderful if true… and a touch late.
• Dinosaur Press trying to ignore Sheets? Ya know, it’s funny how the Byrd comments about Obama’s power grab that I mentioned here yesterday,  have fallen off the Dinosaur radar.  Can’t imagine why that would be happening. Postulate such a comment coming from a Republican with as much time in as Byrd, and such comments being directed at Bush. Do you suppose it’d be anything less than wall to wall mode for a week with the thing? As it is, it didn’t even last the full cycle. Hmmm. Perhaps the broadcasters are worried about their operating tickets being pulled, huh?