NYP: A FLOOD OF POSTURING - Obama overlooks the $6.6 trillion spent on the War on Poverty

New York Post ^ | September 13, 2005 | George F. Will

[OESY]

It took exactly one month — until the president's prime-time news conference of Oct. 11, 2001 — to refute the notion that 9/11 "changed everything." When a reporter said "you haven't called for any sacrifices from the American people," he replied, "Well, you know, I think the American people are sacrificing now. I think they're waiting in airport lines longer than they've ever had before." And that was before the sacrificing became really hellacious with the requirement that passengers remove their shoes at security checkpoints.

The idea that Katrina would change the only thing that matters — thinking — perished even more quickly, at about the time Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a suitable symbol of congressional narcissism, dramatized the severity of the tragedy by taking a television interviewer on a helicopter flight over . . . her destroyed beach house....

Unfortunately, it included the requisite lament about the president's inadequate "empathy" and an amazing criticism of the government's "historic indifference" and its "passive indifference" that "is as bad as active malice." The senator [Obama], 44, is just 30 months older than the "war on poverty" that President Johnson declared in January 1964. Since then the indifference that is as bad as active malice has been expressed in more than $6.6 trillion of antipoverty spending, strictly defined.

The senator is called a "new kind of Democrat," which often means one with new ways of ignoring evidence discordant with old liberal orthodoxies about using cash — much of it spent through liberalism's "caring professions" — to cope with cultural collapse. He might, however, care to note three not-at-all recondite rules for avoiding poverty: Graduate from high school, don't have a baby until you are married, don't marry while you are a teenager. Among people who obey those rules, poverty is minimal....

[OESY]

Democrats have launched their battle to keep the black vote, the only way they could retain power in urban centers exhausted by their corrupt practices and ineffective programs. So, what's new?

[satchmodog9]

Limbaugh has been pounding this notion for years. Other solutions must be found because throwing money at people does not work. Good education and the idea that education is the way out of poverty would help. Something must be tried to break the cycle. It is amazing how people seem to settle in life because that is all they know. I have know people like this and it seems they are resigned to it. Others try and fail, but at least they tried.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The same families (all of them white) have been on welfare for five generations in my home town. Cousins are now marrying cousins so there's no end to it.

[patriciaruth]

Bill Crosby is getting nothing but grief because he says parents are failing to see that their kids learn.

Too many of them have made their kids believe that studying is a white thing, not something an African-American does. At least, that was the conclusion of an African-American who was hired to find out why middle and upper class black kids in a good school district were scoring poorly.

[weegee]

What IS our exit policy in the War on Poverty? Would have been simpler just to give everyone (as Oprah says) a brand new car AND a brand new home. "Get in line".

But that would have been a one shot deal and then independence. Keeping the poor dependent allowed them to play for votes off of racial and class envy. "I'll get you a little bit more next session if only you re-elect me."

Robbing the "rich" to pay the poor has not diminished the fortunes of the Kennedys or other well heeled Democrats. They don't even seem to have paid the price of the inheritance tax.

Never trust a liberal.

[philsfan24]

"What IS our exit policy in the War on Poverty?"

its a quagmire.

[ctlpdad]

Tagline material :What IS our exit policy in the War on Poverty?

[lizma]

Too many of them have made their kids believe that studying is a white thing

I watched this happen to a friend of mine and a young black boy he and his wife had in their custody. It broke their heart.

What amazes me is how liberals have such low expectations for these people and how some blacks have actually made this part of their culture. Our county hired an "expert" to find out why blacks did worse in Math. His conclusion was to lower the bar. Very sad.

[OESY]

Must see video:



There is a shot where Blanco is being set up several days ago for a TV interview, and her press secretary is helping her adjust her mic. They’re having a personal conversation, but the cameraman catches it! In it, she kinda jokes to her press secretary something like “yeah, well I guess I really need to ask for troops,” and a couple more things she says. A bit later in the segment she gets into a semi-argument with CNN reporter Miles O’Brien, and he’s pointedly asking her exactly WHEN she asked the President for troops. She gets frustrated and says she didn’t even know what day it was, she was confused, but Miles presses her. -- Hat tip: Reader LadyCop

DOWNLOAD and view video on thepoliticalteen.net

NOTE: "Some... limitations were built into the Constitution's limits on federal powers. President Bush could not nationalize the Louisiana National Guard without the consent of Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, which was not immediately forthcoming. The Northern Command of the U.S. Army, set up specifically for homeland defense three years ago, also was prevented from acting immediately because the Posse Comitatus Act (circa 1878) bars the army from conducting police activities on U.S. soil without a waiver. The best army in the world was ready, with equipment and men in place, but was left waiting for orders." -- George Melloan, WSJ, 9/13/05, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112657951035438991,00.html?mod=opinion%5Fmain%5Ffeatured%5Fstories%5Fhs

[GOPJ]

Weegee, can you put me back on your media ping list? Thanks.

[GOPJ]

Other solutions must be found because throwing money at people does not work.

Throwing money at people works if what you want is dependent, reliable voters.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from September 2005!