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Robert Reich has Nothing Against White Male Construction Workers
Townhall's Liberal Plantation ^ | January 24, 2009

Posted on 01/24/2009 8:52:02 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Robert Reich, former Clinton administration Labor Secretary, who, as indicated in the Wikipedia post bearing his name "has dedicated his career to making worthless people more worthless", has done the country a tremendous favor. He has given us a most eye-opening glimpse into the true meaning of "economic stimulus" in Obamessiah speak. In so doing, he has hopefully provided the noose with which the current administration will be hanged in 2010 and 2012.

I am speaking, of course, of his recent "testimony" - presumably in his capacity as Obama economic advisor - before some banana-republic congressional conference chaired by congressman Charlie("let's reinstitute the draft so we can get more white kids killed")Rangel. This spectacle first came to my attention via Rush, and also was a hot topic on Tom Sullivan's show yesterday. Now, it can be found on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxuUj6vFa4

The lowlights are as follows. In opining on the objectives of the forthcoming "stimulus" legislation, Mr. (not, to my knowledge "Doctor", as suggested by the illiterate Rangel) Reich said that the money should be allocated with the greatest speed possible (good!), for "high social return" (?). Amplifying on this point, he infamously proclaimed that "the money should not go to highly-skilled professionals, or to white male construction workers." Instead, (presumably the preponderance of) stimulus money should be allocated to "the long-term unemployed... people who are not necessarily white construction workers or high-skilled professionals." For those still struggling to discern the direction in which the Obamalama wishes to take the country - whether his nods in the direction of moderation are mere head-fakes - the Reich Manifesto ought to provide a clue.

If I sound like I take offense at the notion of hundreds of billions of debt-financed federal expenditures being allocated on the basis of criteria other than the twin, and mutually-reinforcing, goals of economic recovery and taxpayer value, then I have succeeded in communicated my displeasure. And, with apologies to Seinfeld, I wish to make it crystal clear that I am not offended as a (mostly) white male; I am offended as an American and a taxpayer! Though offensive on many levels, the Reich Manifesto is offensive mostly because it reveals, with utmost and brazen clarity, that this claque of super-annuated student council candidates, that the below-the-median crowd has put into power, cares not a whit about economic recovery or getting the unemployment rate back to pre-recession levels. If they did, they would take the greatest pains to ensure that deficit-financed stimulus be allocated in ways that maximize (taxpayer) return. Like it or not, that goal would require putting the money in the hands of people who have the skills to create value. And, like it or not, in many cases, this would mean "white male construction workers".

For those of us who fancy themselves New Deal historians, the Reich video is no surprise. As is becoming increasingly clear via recent scholarship, the New Deal was an abject failure as an economic enterprise. It was, however, a masterful exercise in big-government propaganda. I'm reminded again of the famous encounter FDR had with his Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, in the latter's office. Morgenthau had a sign on his desk, intended to guide his subordinates, which read "does it contribute to the recovery?" When he saw this, FDR sniffed "this isn't about recovery; this is politics" - at a cost in human misery measurable on the cataclysmic scale. And so it is with the new administration. A President with no executive experience, who's goals in life appear to have been to (a) spend other people's money, and (b)"remake America", has been handed the opportunity of a lifetime. As his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, put it: "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste".

The public expects Washington to spend money, and Washington will be happy to oblige. The public thinks it's buying infrastructure, but it's only half right. It's going to buy the infrastructure of a political machine, whether it wants to or not, and at a very dear price. Further, as Congressman Rangel candidly explained in the video, the administration needn't worry about what the middle class might think of this mad (social) scientist experimentation - they'll be way too preoccupied with taking care of themselves to raise a fuss. Where does this leave us? A massive exercise in social engineering, doomed to fail as a massive subsidy to bad behavior, bad culture, bad thinking, and bad ideas, resulting finally in, as Holman Jenkins described it in the title of his recent WSJ piece, "A Lost Decade". Ten years from now, they'll still be saying it's Bush's fault, but I'm telling you now: by then, it won't be.


TOPICS: Issues; Parties; U.S. Congress; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: agenda; bailout; bho2009; bho44; bhostimulus; economy; obama; recession; reich; robertreich; whitemales
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It's the Chicago way!
1 posted on 01/24/2009 8:52:03 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He has given us a most eye-opening glimpse into the true meaning of "economic stimulus" in Obamessiah speak. In so doing, he has hopefully provided the noose with which the current administration will be hanged in 2010 and 2012...If "we want to redistribute the wealth" right out of Obama's mouth didn't smarten the populace up enough to send him back to Chicago in November, I doubt that Reich's outrageous gaffe will have much effect at all on them in '10 and '12.....
2 posted on 01/24/2009 9:02:01 PM PST by Intolerant in NJ
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

yeah, right.

roger hedgecock played this clip a dozen times.


3 posted on 01/24/2009 9:02:24 PM PST by ken21
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is but a small ripple in the coming tidal wave of anti-white racism that is expected by the obamamamiacs. We ain’t seen nothin yet!


4 posted on 01/24/2009 9:06:24 PM PST by JDoutrider (Heading to Galt's Gulch... It is time.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

BOHICA.


5 posted on 01/24/2009 9:09:02 PM PST by RC one
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“claque of super-annuated student council candidates”
That about says it all.


6 posted on 01/24/2009 9:11:24 PM PST by gigster
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama and Reich (appropriate name) to whitey, esp. the bible and gun clinging crowd: Just STFU, STFD, pay the bill, and don’t raise a fuss when you get marched off to the camps...


7 posted on 01/24/2009 9:12:49 PM PST by piytar (Atlas is Shrugging. I am Atlas.)
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To: piytar

This short scene from near the end of my almost finished 3rd novel captures one vision of life in a politically correct Marxist hell.

//////////////

A quick phone call would be all right, thought Doug. Tennessee to Maryland wasn’t so far, and it was after six PM. It was a stroke of luck that he had found the cell phone in a kitchen junk drawer, and that it was actually getting a signal. Finally, he was catching a break, and managing to turn lemons into lemonade.

They had arrived at the new safehouse in the late afternoon. It was in an isolated hollow surrounded by thick woods. Doug was happy just to squirm out of the cramped hiding place under the salvage truck. The secret compartment’s bottom and sides were ice cold metal, and had left him shivering with hypothermia. The new place wasn’t much more than a cabin, but it had a cast-iron stove and plenty of firewood, so they had all been able to get warm, wash up, and enjoy a meal. After being locked with Phil into the frigid metal box under the truck for several hours, unable even to turn over, the cozy cabin was paradise. He’d eaten four steaming hot baked potatoes, slathered with fresh farm butter, and couldn’t remember ever eating anything tastier or more filling in his life.

Their driver and host “Dewey” was a mysterious sort of person. Doug only knew his name from what was written on the doors of his junk truck. In age he fit somewhere between Boone and Carson, but like both of those men, he seemed a lot tougher than his years would indicate. Doug guessed that Dewey Lieberman was not his real name, but he’d had few opportunities to talk with the man. Dewey’s conversations with Boone and Carson stopped short or shifted to some innocuous topic when he was around. Dewey left the cabin in his big truck, and returned after dark with an ordinary compact car. Again, he conferred quietly with Boone and Carson, but always out of Doug’s earshot. I’ve been traveling and operating with Boone for months, he thought, and two days after Carson shows up, I’m cut out of his conversations. Then Boone announced, not discussed, but announced that they had somewhere to go tonight. They, but not him. Not Doug Dolan. No, good old faithful Doug would remain behind to…what? Guard the isolated cabin? “Hold down the fort?” Boone and Carson left with Dewey after nightfall.

So who could blame him for his curiosity, after they had ditched out on him and left him behind? His natural inquisitiveness about the new safehouse had led him to discover the forgotten cell phone. It was inside of an old-fashioned metal pill container, buried beneath pliers, screwdrivers and scissors. He was actually shocked when he pushed the power button and it lit up, and he stared at its glowing screen in wonder for a long time. It was the first working cell phone that he had touched since before the earthquakes, one very long year ago. It was a prepaid phone, showing 137 minutes remaining.

A few minutes on the phone were all he needed, and nobody would ever know. Who counted a few airtime minutes, on an old cell phone left in a drawer? Nobody, Doug was sure. Not even these days. Boone had left him behind at the cabin safehouse, and that had been a blow to his pride. Was it because they didn’t trust him, or because they just didn’t need him? Well, Doug rationalized, at least the unexpected privacy will give me a chance to make the one phone call that I’ve been anxious to make for so many months. He punched in the long-memorized Baltimore number, and miraculously, after clicks, buzzing and dead air pauses, he heard the phone ringing at the other end. After six or seven rings, the phone was picked up. The call had gone through, and his heart soared in anticipation!

“Mom! Mom, it’s me!”

But instead of his mother’s voice, Doug heard music, and a man finally answered, but Doug couldn’t understand what he was saying. A man? What was a strange man doing at his mother’s house, answering the phone?

“Hello, who’s this?” asked Doug. “Where is Mrs. Dolan?”

The phone was dropped with a bang. Long seconds later, somebody else picked it up, a female voice. “Holá, hallo! Who ees?”

“This is Doug—Doug Dolan! Listen, where’s my mother? Where is Mrs. Dolan?”

“Meesees Do-lane? You ees Meesees Do-lane?”

“No! I’m Doug Dolan, Mrs. Dolan’s son! Please, is Mrs. Dolan there?”

“Meesees Do-lane? Un minuto, please. I getting Meesees Do-lane, okay?”

Doug waited, perplexed and more than a bit worried. Who were the people who had answered the phone at his mother’s house? He could make out the music now; it was some kind of fast Latin salsa or Mexican ranchera music.

After a minute, he finally heard his mother’s voice. “Hello, who is this?” she asked.

“Mom, it’s me, Doug!”

“Douglas? Douglas—you’re alive! Oh my goodness, oh thank God, you’re alive! They told me that you were missing and presumed dead in Tennessee, after the earthquakes! But you’re alive! Oh, thank God, thank God! Douglas, can you come home? When can you come home? Oh, I need you here Douglas, I need you! Where are you? When can you come home?”

“I don’t know Mom; things are a little crazy right now. Just as soon as I can, I will. I promise. Mom, who answered the phone? I heard a man, and then a woman came on the line. Who are they?”

“Oh Doug, I have so much to tell you! So much has happened since you left!”

“Mom, who are those people who just answered the phone?”

“Doug, that’s the Sanchorios family; they’re originally from El Salvador.”

“El Salvador? What are they doing in our house?”

“They live here now Douglas, they live here!”

“What?!”

“The government split our house up into apartments, after I couldn’t pay the vacant room tax. Then they had the Sanchorios family move in upstairs. They were living in Nashville, but their apartment building was wrecked in the earthquakes. They were earthquake refugees.”

“Mom, what do you mean, ‘the vacant room tax’?”

“What? Oh, it’s new since last year. A new law. The property tax appraiser said that I had too many bedrooms for just one person to be living here. Too many square feet, there’s a formula. Since I couldn’t pay the vacant room tax, I had to take in boarders, boarders that the state assigned to live here. That’s what they do now.”

Doug tried to make sense of it. Vacant room tax? Boarders? From El Salvador? “Do they pay you rent?”

“No, not to me. That’s why I have boarders. It’s instead of paying the vacant room tax. They waived the tax, since I’ve taken in refugees. The state assigned them to live here. They get to live here for free. Their son joined that new army, the North American Legion, so they have priority on housing. Oh Doug, it’s just unbearable!”

“Where are they living? How many are there?” Doug was stunned, coming to grips with the unexpected news about their home being subdivided.

“They live upstairs. I can’t keep track of how many there are; they come and go at all hours. There’s usually at least seven or eight of them, not counting babies. I think they’re subletting the rooms upstairs, but I can’t tell who’s who. It seems like they change practically every week, except for the Sanchorios family. We all share the kitchen, but I’m too afraid to go in there when they’re around. I sleep in the sitting room next to the living room, that’s my ‘apartment’ now. The sitting room and the living room, and the downstairs bathroom, that’s where I live. I cook on a hot plate, when the electricity is working. Oh, Douglas, when are you coming home?”

“I can’t now Mom, but I will as soon as I can, I promise.”

“Douglas, they won’t even let me use the upstairs bathroom, so I have to wash in the sink in the first floor bathroom. Oh, and the kitchen is ruined, just ruined! I don’t even know what the second floor looks like; they won’t let me come upstairs, but water is dripping through the ceiling and the plaster is falling down. They drink beer and yell and play their music so loud all night that I can’t sleep. They park their cars on the lawn, and the grass all died. The men even pee outside! When I say anything, they just laugh in my face and call me ‘la brooha blanca,’ I think that means the white witch. They laugh at me and say, ‘su casa es mi casa.’ They curse at me and throw things at me, in my own house!” Mrs. Dolan began to sob and weep.

“Mom, you should go to the police, this isn’t right!”

“But I did go to the authorities Douglas, I did! I had a lawyer file complaints. But Doug, the world is upside-down now! They got a free court-appointed lawyer, and they sued me for ‘harassment and ethnic discrimination!’ The state was going to charge me with hate crimes, and I almost lost the house completely! Then I had to apologize to them, in court! I was never so humiliated in my entire life! The judge said I was lucky that I had boarders, since I couldn’t pay the vacant room tax. Lucky, he said I was! I even had to go to a ‘cultural sensitivity’ class, to get rehabilitated! Rehabilitated! Oh Doug, what am I going to do? What am I going to do?” His mother began sobbing again.

“I don’t know Mom, I don’t know. But I’ll come home as soon as I can. I’ve got some problems with the Army, so it might not be for a while, but I’ll try at least to visit in a couple of weeks. Hang in there Mom! I’ll help you the best that I can, as soon as I can get there.”

Doug heard a man’s loud voice in the background, and then his mother said quietly, “I’ve got to hang up. Mr. Sanchorios needs to use the phone now, so I have to go. Goodbye Douglas. I love you, and I’m so happy to know that you’re alive! Goodbye Douglas…”


8 posted on 01/24/2009 9:19:42 PM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Race War!


9 posted on 01/24/2009 9:20:50 PM PST by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: piytar

> (Atlas is Shrugging. I am Atlas.)

Atlas isn’t shrugging, mate. Atlas has been Shagged.


10 posted on 01/24/2009 9:22:48 PM PST by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Here’s a political science theory: Perfessor Reich must of recently walked past a construction site on Berkeley’s chic and expensive 4th Street, and a white construction worker shouted a friendly greeting to him “Hey, shorty!”


11 posted on 01/24/2009 9:25:40 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Travis McGee

All too believable in the near future. Heck, try the near past — ask the people of Houston post Katrina...


12 posted on 01/24/2009 9:36:02 PM PST by piytar (Atlas is Shrugging. I am Atlas.)
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To: JDoutrider

Little man, little brain.


13 posted on 01/24/2009 9:39:08 PM PST by pankot
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To: pankot
What do Roger Clinton and MRS. ROBERT REICH have in common?...

They both "BLOW A LITTLE 'DOPE'"every once in a while!!
14 posted on 01/24/2009 9:54:23 PM PST by az.b1bbomberfxr
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To: piytar

Not too near, I hope.


15 posted on 01/24/2009 10:04:08 PM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Travis McGee

From Reichhhhhhhh, I want an Apology ... An EYE to NAVEL APOLOGY!


16 posted on 01/24/2009 10:27:24 PM PST by gwilhelm56 (Mullah Hussein ... which part of "CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW" ...did you NOT UNDERSTAND??)
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To: gwilhelm56

C’mon Robert Reich, stand up for the crowd. Oh, sorry, what’s that? You’re already standing?


17 posted on 01/24/2009 10:34:04 PM PST by Raster Man
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m bettin’ the Reich spent the majority of his high school weekends trying to escape the gym locker he was locked in with his atomic balm soaked tighty whities pulled back up over his head.


18 posted on 01/24/2009 11:08:16 PM PST by Obamageddon (Birth certificate and college transcripts will be required for Federal employment, Mr. Soetero)
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To: Raster Man

“Oh, sorry, what’s that? You’re already standing?”

This is where I get to point out that when Reich was Secretary of Labor, his Secret Service codename was “fireplug.”

I kid you not.


19 posted on 01/24/2009 11:14:22 PM PST by PLMerite ("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Giving high-paying jobs to unqualified people who chose not to get an education and job skills...hmmm, this should work about as well as giving mortgages to the unqualified.


20 posted on 01/24/2009 11:31:01 PM PST by informavoracious
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