“U.S. companies, consumers and communities may grow so addicted to government financial help that cutting them off could trigger another recession soon after the current one ends.
Between the U.S. Federal Reserve’s trillions of dollars in lending programs, the $787 billion stimulus package and $700 billion — and counting — in bank bailout funds, no one can accuse officials of soft-pedaling their crisis response.
But there is increasing concern that when the flow of public money subsides — beginning next year when much of that stimulus package is spent — the economy still won’t be strong enough to stand on its own.”

mmmmmmmmmmmm………..if Reuters are saying this it could be the first crack in the Styrofoam temple. The story was that all that was needed was a few trillion here, another trillion there and hey presto by the middle of 2010 the glory days would be back, folk would be borrowing to buy houses, cars, holidays and hamburgers and everyone would be back in work and earning so much they wouldn’t notice the tax increases needed to bail out the bailouts – but if nobody’s spending then hopenchange will be looking a little careworn….but then the Chicago Gang can always blame it on W….except, as the WSJ points out

“As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic. Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for an overall decline of 25% in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama’s policies have become part of the economy’s problem.
Americans have welcomed the Obama era in the same spirit of hope the President campaigned on. But after five weeks in office, it’s become clear that Mr. Obama’s policies are slowing, if not stopping, what would otherwise be the normal process of economic recovery. From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence — and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth.”

Now Pelosi/Reid and the MSM are still gambolling on the sunlit uplands of Obamaland, promising everyone that it’s all Julie Andrews now that W has slunk back to his ranch but the stock market is where people have to put their money where their mouth is and in that real world it’s looking a little more Edward G Robinson – which is why Governor Palin’s housewifely approach seems increasingly sensible…

“Sarah took a wise and reasoned approach to the stimulus bill, taking only money for infrastructure projects and eschewing funds that came with strings attached — those being mandates that the state would be left to fund. She did not use this bill as an opportunity to grandstand, nor did she capitulate and try to milk everything out of the bill and then some.
Sarah’s Budget Director delineated how non-state entities were to apply for funds through competitive grant processes. Since these funds do not go the state, they do not result in future unfunded mandates.”
(Hat tip http://sarahs-accomplishments.blogspot.com/)

Now the big question – if you were making your will and you needed to appoint someone to manage a trust fund for your kids, who would you choose – Sarah Palin or Barney Frank…….now, take some time to consider

The one thing that Gov Palin has not been short of since the election has been advice from Republicans and the media – stand for governor again in 2010, go for the Senate, go for POTUS 2012, wait until 2016, write a book, go into the media, give up politics and concentrate on her family – the options are endless.As an outside observer, however, it strikes me that she is intelligent enough and shrewd enough to make up her own mind. I think that maybe she has already decided on a course – I believe she is going de Gaulle.

General de Gaulle entered France alongside the Allies at the head of his Free French army after years of exile in London. Initially greeted as a returning hero by the French he served as the President of the Provisional Government but within two years he had resigned, disillusioned by the re-emergence of the old inter party squabbles that had characterised the pre-war regime.For the next few years he led his own political party but, tiring of the political rat race in 1953 he withdrew from public life and retired in self imposed internal exile to his home in the village of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises to write his war memoirs, and many pundits wrote him off as a man whose time had passed.

His followers, however, retained their cohesion because they saw de Gaulle as a man of destiny who one day would be called forth from his exile by the people of France to rescue them at a time of great danger – which is exactly what happened in 1958 when France was torn apart by the Algerian crisis. The General returned to office but this time on his own terms and remained in power for the next decade.

Since the Alfalfa Dinner Gov Palin appears to have chosen Alaska as her own Colombey-les- Deux-Eglises, far enough away from the mainstream of US politics, concerning herself with her responsibilities as Governor and keeping a distance between herself and the spotlight, just as de Gaulle did in the 1950s. She has stayed away from CPAC, she did not attend the NGA, causing some irritation amongst some elements who would prefer her to act as some Joan of Arc type figure scorching across the lower 48 thrusting and slashing at the President and Congress. Staying out of the spotlight is not an option for some of these folk who often see politics as showbiz where your PR people will tell you that you have to be forever working on your next film or album to remain in the public eye.But the Governor does not need any of that – like de Gaulle she is so deeply impressed upon the public’s imagination that she needs no PR, she is simply there.

De Gaulle was relatively unknown to the French people in 1940 but millions of them heard his broadcast from London at the moment of their deepest despair and in those few minutes he became the inspiration and hope for so many. Governor Palin walked onto the stage at the Republican Convention, electrified millions and stole their hearts forever with her grace, her honesty and her love of life sealing there and then a contract and covenant of support through fire and flood whatever may happen. Camille Paglia called her an immensely talented politician whose time had not yet come. But perhaps, one day, just as in 1958 with de Gaulle, a message will go across Canada to the north saying her time has come – and then the banners must unfurl…..

“We of course are going to be prudent,we’re going to live within our means. We don’t want any Alaskans to assume that government is the answer to all of the challenges and issues and problems that any individual faces.”

Who said this? It was, of course, Alaska’s governor Sarah Palin earlier this month when she put forward her proposals for the state’s 2009 budget.

“As Alaska’s coffers are filled mostly by oil revenues, the recent drop in prices has caused revenues to slow” reports David Karki. “In response, Governor Sarah Palin’s $4.9 billion budget calls for a 7 percent cut in overall state spending, mostly in capital projects. Combined with a modest 2 percent increase in the operating budget for state agencies, the budget outline would result in a $388 million surplus in 2010 if projections hold.”

Sounds like a sensible, conservative move – and it seems to have the support of outgoing Anchorage mayor Mark Begich who in a few days time will be sitting amongst fellow Democrats when he becomes Senator Begich. Of course you probably won’t hear anything about it at ConservativeHome or Iain Dale and certainly not from self proclaimed US political expert James Forsyth at Coffee House. Forsyth’s focus on US politics rarely reaches beyond Washington or NewYork and his take on Palin tends to be referenced by Tina Fey and Andrew Sullivan so the idea of her actually framing a multi billion dollar budget is a little outside his payscale.

The same about refusing a $25,000 pay rise – “Imagine that – keeping spending to less than available revenues and refusing a pay raise. Politicians across the nation are scratching their heads, asking themselves: ‘You mean you can really do that?’ “ Well, as a certain President –Elect might say “Yes we can”……..but Forsyth and Co. won’t be interested as it doesn’t quite fit into their image of Palin as a shopaholic airhead who never reads anything more complex than a spupermarket receipt……

Hat Tip – North Star Writers Group

When the conservative UK Spectator began it’s Americano blog about the 2008 election I really thought it would travel well beyond the Toby Harnden type re-hash (see Daily Telegraph) of the latest from WaPo/NWT/AP. After all, why in this day and age should the DT bother paying loadsadollars to such hacks for regurgitating this stuff when we in the UK can read the US media online in real time? Maybe, at last, we would get some in depth, sophisticated reporting that really came from between and behind the lines – what a hope! Almost all UK commentators (even the so called Conservatives) can’t be bothered to operate outside the zone when it comes to Palin and as for Alaska – call for Borat…

It is clear that Americano’s James Forsyth is not only a Harnden clone who can’t really be bothered to operate outside the zone but he has also made no attempt to try disentangling the details of politics in Alaska…par for the course, I suppose – nevertheless, so disappointing. Still, here is a primer to get you started, James…

I suspect that their sympathies lie with the pet conservatives who are allowed to grace the columns of the NYT – David Brooks, anyone? – who view Palin with disdain because they perceive her as some trailer trash rube from the boondocks who was shoved on to the ticket at the last minute to shore up the hillbilly vote, so dim she thinks she can see Russia from her front room and had to answer “which one” when asked about the Bush doctrine (Ruth Lea on the BBC’s QT a day or so back)….

Well, they underestimate her at their peril. She has rough edges, still has stuff to learn and, of course, would be so out of place at any Beltway dinner table but she is savvy, catches on very quickly and, above all, she is a conservative who connects with ordinary, everyday Wal-Mart people – just watch how they respond to her at her rallies – and as Mayor and Governor her achievements outrank any failures.

It seems unlikely that McCain will win and he will join Gore and Kerry in the pantheon of losers – but Palin will not sink out of view. As the Obama supporting feminist icon Camille Paglia wrote “This is a tremendously talented politician whose moment has not yet come. That she holds views completely opposed to mine is irrelevant.”

She might well use the next four/eight years to become the focus of a new manifestation of Republican Populism, possibly mixing conservative social values with an anti big business platform, maybe an updated version of the Contract with America but much more than Newt 2…much more even than the Gipper……think Bull Moose…think Teddy Roosevelt….

BTW, re Ruth Lea – the Governor’s “nearness of Russia to Alaska” remarks, so often parodied, were attached to other comments about Russia that somehow ended up on the ABC cutting floor (I wonder why?)…and I would love to have heard which one of the five interpretations of the Bush doctrine did Lea have in mind…..

How on earth did those bankers get embroiled in the subprime market – it’s a dirty word now, of course, but a few years ago some people had a different perspective. Watch this and then ask yourself why the big media in the USA and here have not tracked right back on this issue…………

Fascinating story circulating in the US blogosphere here about a possible link between Obamas guru David Axelrod and an anti Palin vid on youtube – what is more, since the story emerged everything has been pulled….mmmmmmmmm…interesting to see if the big media picks up on it….

The trouble with sites like ConservativeHome is that the vast majority of posters are party political trainspotters obsessed with the minutiae of our niche fetish and/or the Westminster Village Commentariat. Now normally that is fine and, like the Collectors of Car Tax Discs, we can pursue our little hobby with all the fury and intensity of your regular anorak. However, when something as out of the box as the David Davis resignation comes along we struggle to fit it into our Weltanschauung because it it transcends the parameters of party political discourse – it’s the sort of thing one would discuss in a seminar as part of a Political Science degree…hence the bewilderment of hacks like Robinson and Crick – if they can’t understand it then it must be either a “stunt” or part of some sort of conspiracy.
Fortunately this issue is now beyond the village and the anoraks and and is in the hands of those ordinary, everyday folk who are not political hobbyists. These are the people who we often claim to represent and love but who do sometimes display an annoying tendency to make up their own minds and ignore our sage and well informed advice…..

“Military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled them for years and sending key militants scurrying to Iran. At the same time, Iraqi and U.S. forces have pushed forward with a long-promised offensive in Mosul, the last urban refuge of al Qaeda”

So says The Washington Post in a recent article headed “The Iraqi Upturn”. Now the WaPo is the Bible of the Beltway, the parish magazine of the East Coast chattering classes, the Court Circular of the Democrat elite so when it starts to say this it must cause consternation at the BBC, The Guardian and The Independent where the concept of the Iraq “quagmire” has been deeply embedded as a self evident truth.

But, more worryingly, it must also be causing concern at The Daily Telegraph which, over the last few weeks, has been peddling a rather curious line about events in Basra and Sadr City, portraying the current offensives in a rather negative light – and it raises again the issue of the DT Editor Will Lewis and his relationship with Gordon Brown. The sudden spate of articles from Mary Riddell have been very defensive of Brown and it just makes you wonder if “Private Eye” is on to something when it describes a degree of “cosiness” between Lewis and the Brown coterie…..perhaps someone should tell those Barclay boys……

Channel 4 is risking fresh controversy over a film that portrays Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker, in a sympathetic light says The Daily Telegraph.

“Hunger” premieres at the Cannes Film Festival today and is directed by Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winning artist.

It recounts the 1981 IRA hunger strike inside Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison which Sands led for 66 days until his death.

Jan Younghusband, the Channel 4 commissioning boss, said: “I feel it is the right moment to be revisiting and reconsidering the ideals of these young men who put themselves and others through a great deal for their belief that they could make their world better.”

Laudable indeed – but why does it always seem that Jan and her media buddies use a sat nav that only seems to take them in the direction of those who support the maiming and murder of innocent civilians as well as British soldiers and police officers by bomb and bullet? Or is that what she means by saying these young men put “others through a great deal”

Perhaps Jan would next commission a film about the IRA bombing of Belfast’s Abercorn Bar restaurant on a Saturday afternoon in March 1972 which killed two young Catholic girls and maimed many others including a young bride to be who lost both her legs yet months later walked up the aisle on her artificial legs, so determined was she to put her life together – but then perhaps she might see the bomber (who was never identified) – as another young man who put himself through a great deal for his “belief that they could make their world better.”

The Jan Younghusbands of this world are straight out of the world of Tom Wolfe, they are the Radical Chic, the beautiful (and wealthy) people of the media elite, our new ruling class who despise the ordinary plodders of the suburban world and prefer, as one commentator said, “to identify themselves with what they imagine to be the raw, vital lifestyle of the lower orders.”

What next from Jan, then…………… Reinhard Heydrich – Violinist?

‘NatWest Three’ face jail for Enron fraud says The Daily Telegraph reporting the probable result of a plea bargaining effort by their lawyers which might see them jailed for thirty seven months instead of a possible thirty five years after they agreed to admit to one count of fraud instead of four.
The DT then explains out that the three men were extradited to the USA “amid much public protest”……what the paper fails to point out was that the “public protest” was mainly cheerled by the DT itself. Over a period of several months we were drip fed a skilful PR campaign of sob stories and family photo ops portraying the three as innocent victims of an American witch hunt.
This didn’t cut much ice with many of us who realised that a lot of UK suits (some of them well known to the media on this side of the Atlantic) who sailed a little close to the financial edge were terrified that, instead of the ponderous investigation and genteel slap on the wrist usually given to “respectable”fraudsters by British courts, they would face an American judicial regime which acts swiftly and hands out draconian prison sentences and massive fines……………