Colombia free trade

A Colombian, Miguel Ricourte-Lombana, writes from Bogota in today's LAT "Letters" that many of his countrymen don't understand "why the U.S. government insists on dismissing our achievements and believes that restricting free trade could possibly lead to improving Colombia's performance." It isn't the U.S. government. It's only Nancy Pelosi and the people who pull her strings.

Gays unhinged

Prop. 8 supporters seem to have won the day yesterday before the California Supreme Court. Opponents' reaction: unhinged vitriol, the same as when voters passed Prop.8 last fall. Logic escapes them. Precedent escapes them. Gays want what they want. To hell with everybody else.

Shut down GM

General Motors is insolvent. That's clear from their financial statements, just published, which reveal that GM's liabilities exceed its assets by $86 billion. It's time to face facts. GM needs either to enter Chapter 11 or be liquidated. Giving GM more government billions before it enters bankruptcy would be like putting a match to those billions.

Creating a nation of slackers

According to the LAT, Los Angeles expects to receive $100 million of federal stimulus money and will put it to work offering welfare recipients entry-level temporary work. If you're out of work and would like one of these jobs, you'd better apply for welfare first.

Let them eat cake

Obama said yesterday in the Oval Office that the stock market engages in "fits and starts" and he suggested that he can't be concerned about such short range events because he's focused on the long range instead. But this bear market has seen a plunge of roughly 50 percent in value. The situation is critical because average people are seeing what little wealth they have evaporate. Rather than concern himself with Social Security or Medicare, the president would be well advised to show some concern for the markets. He ought at least to avoid making matters worse by, for example, appearing on television daily announcing a new idiotic plan or bad-mouthing a bank or CEO, or threatening a "stress test." He ought also not send out his tax-cheating Treasury secretary to do something similar. Markets react unfavorably to such things and it costs citizens money they can't afford to lose.

LAT gets sensible

The LAT and this old fool finally agree on something: that the Columbia free trade agreement should be approved. It's stalled in Congress by Pelosi and company. If Obama has any influence he should use it to get this thing done.

Obamanomics

The Dow was down nearly 300 today, more evidence that investors are worried about Obamanomics. Obama's "cures" for banks, the economy, health care, education, energy, the auto industry, etc. are scary because we don't know enough about what Obama plans but also because what we do know relies on people we don't trust -- like Pelosi, Reid, Franks, Dodd and an army of bureaucrats. These people have never been helpful. Why should we expect them to be helpful now?