From Investors Business Daily:

Stumbling from one gaffe to another and showing little appreciation for our Constitution, Attorney General Eric Holder has become a major embarrassment. Time to admit he’s in over his head and let him go.

We were never big fans of the AG, but like many others, we had hoped our misgivings were wrong and that he’d be successful as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Sorry to say, he hasn’t been.

Events in recent days and weeks show that Holder has little if any understanding of our nation’s most precious asset, the Constitution, and seems oblivious to the actual requirements of his job.

Holder does not understand – or refuses to see – the nature of the Islamo-fascist threat. He refuses to enforce the law against people who intimidate voters as the polls. He slams State laws he hasn’t even read. The man is either a complete fool, or just a blinded, leftist ideologue – in other case, he isn’t fit to be Attorney General.

During the Clinton Administration we were struck with Janet Reno – she, too, was unfit to be Attorney General, but then again we never really tried to force the issue. We can’t afford another such incompetent person at the head of national law enforcement. We must insist that Holder be replaced – and if Obama won’t do it now, then we might be able to exercise increased pressure in January.

Our nation and the enforcement of our laws are too important to be left to a man as out of touch as Holder. Hopefully, Obama will soon realize that Holder is becoming a political liability and will fire him. But we can’t count on that – Obama might, for all we know, think that Holder is doing a splendid job. This is why we Republicans must press President on this matter, lest Obama go on thinking that all is well.

Of course, we all knew that – and I wish that Merkel had actually said that it wastes time and money, but you can’t always get what you want. But what she said was still pretty devastating to the whole Euro bail out concept:

A trillion-dollar package to shore up ailing eurozone economies merely buys time until the deficits of certain members of the 16-member zone are cleaned up, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday.

Speaking at a conference of the Confederation of German Trade Unions, Merkel said that recent speculation against the euro “is only possible because of huge differences in the economic strengths and debt levels of member states.”

With the rescue package, “we have done nothing more than to buy time until we have brought order to these competitive differences and to the budget deficits of individual euro countries,” she said.

Brought order to the competitive differences? And just how, pray tell, does the good Chancellor propose to do that? Of course she’s talking nonsense – and I begin to suspect she knows she’s talking nonsense. More and more, I get the feeling of an eventual end to the Euro with the prospect of an end to the European Union.

There is no way to harmonize an economy like Germany and that like Greece. Other than the fact that they are both in Europe, they have pretty much nothing in common. Its good to keep in mind that Greece isn’t even two centuries out of Turkish rule – Turkish rule which kept Greece very backward. And since independence, Greece hasn’t exactly recaptured the glories of the ancient past – they’ve sort of wallowed along doing nothing of particular note. And now they’ve spent themselves in to oblivion, and the German taxpayers are supposed to bail them out?

I really don’t think that is going to happen.

The news:

CALIFORNIA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has compared his state’s financial crisis to that of Greece and called for scrapping the state welfare system to close a $19.1 billion budget gap.

He said the US state, with an economy that ranks as the eighth largest in the world, faced the same budget deficit crisis as eurozone countries such as Greece, Spain and Ireland.

And it really is as bad as all that – and while this is a strong move by the governor, he still bears his share of blame for “papering over the cracks” in the budget for the past three years. Everyone in CA government seemed to just be hoping that the economy would turn around and thus the various scams they pulled to “balance” the budget these past few years would be ok. Turns out, it wasn’t ok – the economy hasn’t gotten better and now its crunch time.

Outside of Obama getting the Fed to magically create another trillion dollars out of thin air and then handing it to the States, there is no way around massive budget cuts. Democrats would prefer the magic money, but as November approaches it becomes ever less likely that any sort of State bail out will be forthcoming.

Even with such stark realities facing them, it is doubtful that California’s Democrats – who control the CA legislature – will agree to any such cuts. Maybe a little trim around the edges, but cutting welfare is just not something they’ll go for. And, no, its not because they care about poor people – its because if you eliminate welfare you also eliminate the bureaucrats who run it…and that means eliminating people who pay union dues, which are then used as campaign cash for Democrats.

So, California has no easy way out, and only a slight chance that even the hard way out will be chosen – which means that we might eventually see California default on its bonds. We’ll have to see how it comes out.

Brought out in an interesting Rasmussen poll on attitudes about the United State and the United Nations:

Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. voters say the United States is a more positive force for good in the world today than the United Nations, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirteen percent (13%) disagree and say the international organization is a more positive force for good. Sixteen percent (16%) more are undecided.

But there’s a sharp difference of opinion between Mainstream voters and the Political Class. While 79% of Mainstream voters view America as a more positive force for good in the world today than the UN, just 45% of the Political Class agree.

Only 45% of the ruling class believe the United States is a better force for good than the United Nations! That is just astounding. It shows the disconnect between the people and the powerful – and additionally demonstrates just how incredibly ignorant our power elite really is. They pride themselves on their Ivy League degrees and social pedigrees but the truth is that they don’t know anything – they just have attitudes in tune with what they are instructed is the proper view.

The people are angry at a governing class which is out of touch. Which doesn’t honor core, American values. Which acts against the best interests of the American people. Come November, this rising anger and disgust with the political system could result in the largest amount of political change in one election since the 1930’s.

UPDATE: What Arizona should do in response to the boycott.

Interesting:

The Obama Administration has “screwed up the messaging” about its support for Israel over the last 14 months, and it will take “more than one month to make up for 14 months,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday to a group of rabbis called together for a meeting in the White House…

…One source said the meeting was a sign that the Administration was concerned they may “be losing the Jews.”

In the end, this will have to be seen to be believed – like African-Americans, Jewish Americans seem to be willing to put up with a lot from the Democrats. But the Jewish State is imperiled – and may soon face an existential threat in the form of an Iranian atomic bomb. Given this, it is natural that doubts have arisen given Obama’s absurd coddling of the mullahs in Tehran.

The bottom line is that no one can possibly come up with a reason for backing Obama unless Obama is writing a check out of the Treasury. Except for such direct beneficiaries, no one is getting anything worthwhile out of the Obama Administration. It is easy to see that Jewish support might slip – it should and its long overdue.

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From Powerline:

Is the United States Greece? The short answer is: not yet, but it will be if the Democrats remain in control in Washington for two more election cycles.

In the Telegraph, Edmund Conway summarizes a lengthy report by the International Monetary Fund on sovereign debt that came out today:

[T]he really interesting stuff is the detail, and what leaps out again and again is how much of a hill the US has to climb. Exhibit a is the fact that under the Obama administration’s current fiscal plans, the national debt in the US (on a gross basis) will climb to above 100pc of GDP by 2015 – a far steeper increase than almost any other country.

And that, my friends, cannot be sustained. I know our liberals can’t grasp this – this is because they’ve been told that government spending is the cure for the economy. We spent bags of money, the economy is getting better per bankster and bureaucrat statistics and soon spending will drop as people need less help and revenues will rise as the economy improves. While the GDP numbers continue to rise, there is no way to even possibly argue them out of this – but, the fact remains that government spending never cures a faltering economy.

And, so, here we are – spending money like mad and rapidly running up against the absolute limit of just how much we can owe before lenders start demanding extortionate interest rates. If we actually reach that point the resultant crash will be unimaginable – not just here, but all around the world. You really cannot put a limit to the baleful effects – up to an including a desperate Chinese government setting off WW III in order to distract the Chinese from their plight.

We still have a window of opportunity to fix this – preferably no later than 2013, but absolutely no later than 2015 we must balance our budget. And I’m not talking phony balanced as we had it in 2000 – really balanced where the absolute number of dollars leaving the federal government by any means is less than the absolute number of dollars coming in. We do this, we avoid the crash – or, to be more accurate, the really horrific crash. We’ll still have one – and a pretty bad one, at that. Think in terms of 20% unemployment, for a while.

But here’s the key – we’re in a race. The race involves this: which ever major, industrialized nation figures out that a balanced budget cures the problem, wins. And wins huge. Think about it – the problem people have is with concerns about the viability of sovereign debt…if there is a nation out there where people can be certain there won’t be a default, that is where the money will go…and not just in terms of bond purchases, but in terms of all types of investment (but why should we care about bond purchases if our budget is balanced – simple, as our bond rating becomes impervious while everyone else’s collapses, it will become almost a matter of people offering to pay us to sell them bonds…we can refinance our existing debt at a very low interest rate).

To be sure, a crash course in balancing the budget will cause a crash – the resultant withdrawal of government funding will cause lots of business activity to dry up for lack of funds. But such a crash would be temporary in nature and beneficial in long term effect – with the government not spending the money, it will become available for people to start up or expand existing, private enterprises which is a much more efficient and profitable use of capital. This will swiftly feed upon itself and restore the economy within a couple years time.

Its either do this, or face the very worst situation imaginable – absolute bankruptcy coupled with threats of war and revolution. It is our choice.

Sorry I couldn’t get anything worthwhile up for the AM – try to have something better for you later.

Have at it.

This story in the New York Times is just so typical of the MSM coverage of the economy these days:

…The economy is strengthening. But millions of jobs lost in the recession could be gone for good.

And unlike in past recessions, jobs in the beleaguered manufacturing sector aren’t the only ones likely lost forever. What sets the Great Recession apart is the variety of jobs that may not return.

That helps explain why economists think it will take at least five years for the economy to regain the 8.2 million jobs wiped out by the recession — longer than in any other recovery since World War II.

It means that even as the economy strengthens, more Americans could face years out of work…

They speak as though the economy were some how separate from the people who live in it. Of course, to them – the elite – this is just fine. To them the economy is the means whereby they get to enjoy vast wealth with minimal personal effort. The editor of the New York Times just wants it to be possible for his lifestyle to continue – if that is happening, then the economy is fine.

But that is not the truth. The economy is the thing we, the people, live in. It is how we make our living, provide for our children and plan for our future. The economy is functioning only so long as everyone who is willing to work can do so. Right now, it is clearly a non-functional economy – and reports like this indicate that it will continue to be so. The jobs are not coming back.

Why should this be? Well, if you read the linked story you’ll find that there are a lot of explanations offered. At the back of all of them is this “global economy” thing – because there are people in China willing to make shirts, Americans will not be able to do so. That, boiled down, is the story we’re being told – the ultimate explanation for why a “recovery” will still leave millions of people unemployed.

The real reason that the economy won’t recover is because it isn’t supposed to. Not, at least, at the cost of discomfort to the ruling elite. You see, an economy for the people is all well and good, but it can also be quite a bother.

Factories are rather gritty things, and you certainly don’t want them within sight of your estate. Oil wells and coal mines are nothing but a bother. Farms take up land which could best be used for country get-aways for rich people. Cutting down trees can spoil the view at the ski lodge. It would also be terribly inconvenient to have to employ citizens or legal aliens as housekeepers, gardeners and such – they would want to be paid properly and where is the upside in that?

Meanwhile, having a fake-money economy based on usury allows the well connected to pile up vast sums of money without having to work – and being well connected means that if things fall apart in the financial world, the government can hit up the taxpayers for bail outs. If we returned to real money then one would have to get back in to knowing how to invest – researching wants and needs and seeking out persons and enterprises who seem likely to successfully provide such over time, thus paying dividends. Who wants dividends when you can just have your stock price run up 5% in a week and then sell the stock?

We can have a recovery – a real recovery of the real economy. All it takes is massive, revolutionary change in the way we do business. We can, to put it in a nutshell, make a shirt in the United States and sell it at a competitive price with any shirt made in China and then shipped thousands of miles to the United States. Whatever reasons we can’t are based upon our tax and regulatory environment – change the tax and regulatory environment and whatever advantage China has in cheap labor will be wiped out and the jobs will flow back in to America.

Nothing else will be of any use, or even matter. Unless we start getting farms, factories and mines running in the United States, all else we do is a waste of time. If regular folks are not able to support themselves, then there’s no point to whatever it is you’re doing. We can do this – our first step is in voting the Democrats out in November – and we must do this.