Klaus Rohrich

Pandering to morons

It seems that Chuck (the rat) Schumer is at it again attempting to gain popularity among America’s less than salient citizens. This time the Senator from New York, who makes Wyle E. Coyote seem like an amateur plotter, wants to investigate Big Oil Companies because he’s sure they’re ripping off hard-working American consumers at the gas pump.

Going for broke

Standard and Poor’s threat to downgrade U.S. government debt isn’t so much a warning about what might happen as it is a confirmation of what has already happened. After all, the bond rating agencies haven’t exactly been oracles of insight when it comes to financial disasters, else the meltdown of 2008 would have been avoided.

Fighting to maintain the status quo

The current round of skirmishes between Democrats and Republicans at pretty well all levels of government is a clear illustration of who is in favor of change and who wants to maintain the status quo. Democrat legislators from places as diverse as Wisconsin, Indiana, New York and Ohio are eagerly defending public sector unions and advocating higher taxes, rather than cut government spending.

The dollar’s death spiral

The US dollar is the world’s reserve currency, meaning that most meaningful financial transactions are conducted in US dollars. If French or German companies want to purchase oil from Saudi Arabia, they can’t do so using Euros. They have to take those Euros and convert them to US dollars in order to pay the Saudis for their oil. This system worked really well for decades because the US dollar was a solid currency backed by a government whose monetary policies ensured the dollar’s strong economic performance on the world stage.

Egypt’s own Obama

As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for...” The change that Egyptians are seeking is a lot like the change Americans sought back in 2008, when the majority of voters wanted to put a resolute end to the administration of George W. Bush. It’s how a little-known and untested Senator from Illinois managed to charm his way into the White House through vague promises of “hope and change.” In their zealous ousting of the long-ruling and much-reviled strongman, Hosni Mubarak, the people of Egypt stand to make the same mistake that Americans made in 2008, except in this case, the mistake could well be fatal to any hopes or dreams of attaining the Arab world’s first spontaneous democracy.

Beware of cheap imitations

With all the changes currently taking place in the White House, MSM pundits have become rapturous over what they perceive to be President Obama’s latest masterstroke. As they see it, his nearly complete cleansing of original advisors for a collection of more “centrist” advisers is the reflection of a gentler, kinder Barack Obama who is totally committed to working in a bipartisan fashion.

Engineering poverty

A lot of North American politicians appear to have a tin ear when it comes to the effects their policies impose on their constituents. The current global warming fetish is a case in point, with politicians of all stripes and jurisdictions feverishly attempting to out-green each other. In the process the people those politicians are supposed to serve will ultimately pay more for less, as ill-considered solutions result in steep energy price increases.

TSA: a profile in cowardice

Following a failed attempt by Richard Reid, the so-called “shoe bomber,” to set off explosives hidden in his shoe aboard an aircraft, the US Government instituted a new rule that forced all aircraft passengers to remove their shoes for inspection prior to boarding. In the wake of the botched attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an aircraft with explosives hidden in his skivvies, the US Government created a new regulation that forced all passengers to either get a full-body scan or an intimate pat-down by airport security workers. I’m sure we all know what will happen once some terrorist attempts to blow up an aircraft with explosives concealed in his rectum.

Look to Canada to see why Obamacare must be repealed

If you want to know what life under Obamacare will be like in the very near future, then I recommend a visit to Canada. Due to government rationing, healthcare in Canada has all but imploded since the institution of a universal single-payer system back in 1984. Since 1984 (an fitting date, if ever the was one) Canada has been one of only three countries in the world where private healthcare is illegal. The other two are North Korea and Cuba, in case you’re wondering.

Some lessons to learn

Sitting bleary-eyed in the wee hours of election night witnessing the monumental turn about in American politics, one is given to wonder if America and particularly the country’s elected representatives are drawing the proper conclusions from this massive political shift. John Boehner’s victory speech made the point that the Republicans’ reversal of fortunes wasn’t so much about agreeing with that party’s policies, as it was a repudiation of President Obama and his party. There is even a question about whether it was the policies or the arrogance and deeply rooted sense of entitlement that undid the Democrats.

A new wind blowing

Bob Dylan famously (and off key) sang, “the answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, the answer is blowin’ in the wind.” It’s no longer blowin’ in the wind; it IS the wind and the wind has ushered in a new era in, as the Toronto Sun’s Sue-Anne Levy likes to call, Toronto’s Socialist Silly Hall. Those sleepy hog town burgers have finally opened their eyes and realized that there was life beyond social democracy and those who paid the piper were entitled to call the tune. While it wasn’t a clean Sweep through City Hall, eliminating the socialist elite altogether, it was a good start and a promise of a brighter future for taxpayers who had realized that David Miller’s brand of governance was for the benefit of his own leftist ideological allies like public sector unions and not for the benefit of the people who footed the bill for Miller’s largesse.

Liberals eat one of their own

I’ve never been a great fan of Juan Williams. One, because he comes across as really oily. The other is his willingness to bend himself into tautological pretzels in support of liberal points of view. His steadfast defense of Barack Obama’s motivation if not his policies always left one feeling lied to or violated.

Republicans undergoing a tectonic shift

The Republican Party is probably facing its most serious challenge in decades. At the heart of this challenge is a deep division between those who want to get along with what they describe as the educated class and those urging the party to return to the nation’s roots and reaffirm the founding principles of the Constitution. The former call themselves “moderate Republicans,” while the latter group is made up of Tea Party types.

Turning here into there

Anyone who dares to initiate a discussion about immigration to establish some sort of standards expected of immigrants is at risk of being labeled “racist” by liberal elites. Even if the discussion has nothing to do with race. Liberals, whose guilt complex has grown to psychotic proportions, insist that the imposition of standards on immigrants is an undesirable imposition on their rights motivated by racist sentiments.

Stimulating poverty

It isn’t surprising to learn that the number of people living below the poverty level saw a massive increase in the US over the past two years. Given that successive administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have continually promulgated policies that have had the opposite of their intended effect for the past quarter century, it is surprising that the poverty figures aren’t higher! What’s more these policies keep getting more radical with each successive administration and their shortcomings are evident to everyone but the policy makers.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf predicts violence

I know that everyone was shocked and surprised that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told Soledad O’Brien on CNN yesterday that if the “Cordoba Initiative” mosque adjacent to Ground Zero were to be relocated, then violence would surely follow throughout the Muslim world. Who’d have thought it? Violence committed by Muslims?

A fatal error

Denis Healey, the late British Member of Parliament famously once said, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.” It appears that President Barack Obama may not be familiar with that quote as his most recent action with regard to Gen. Stanley McChrystal will surely come back to bite him in the derriere.

Obama’s MacArthur moment

It’s not surprising that those in charge of the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan are critical of the Obama administration’s ability to run a war. The revelations about McChrystal and his staff made in an article in Rolling Stone Magazine aren’t earth shattering. That Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff are critical of the president and his advisors is likely the worst kept secret in the US today. A much more important question is what happens now?

Another crisis not wasted

Following the Rahm Emanuel playbook, President Barack Obama is losing no time in taking full advantage of the Gulf oil spill crisis to further his far left agenda. When he was addressing the nation from the oval office last week, his tone and demeanor were combative, as his speech was filled with words and phrases that alluded to warfare.

Why Felipe Calderon hates Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law

When Arizona’s tough new anti-immigration legislation was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer the Mexican government took grave exception. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the law and affront to human rights and accused Arizona of opening “the door to unacceptable racial discrimination.” The Mexican congress wasn’t far behind, using words such as “fascist,” “racist,” as well as “a perverse...law that generates hate.”