OBAMA IS AN INCOMPETENT SOCIALIST. Dick Morris writing in The Hill:

Conservatives are so enraged at Obama’s socialism and radicalism that they are increasingly surprised to learn that he is incompetent as well. The sight of his blithering and blustering while the most massive oil spill in history moves closer to America’s beaches not only reminds one of Bush’s terrible performance during Katrina, but calls to mind Jimmy Carter’s incompetence in the face of the hostage crisis.

Don Surber responds (#11): "Do we really want a competent socialist in the Oval Office?"

MEGAN MCARDLE THINKS that there are no good answers on public pensions (i.e., Social Security). Her "no good answers" options include:

- eliminating the payroll tax ceiling;
- means testing benefits; and
- raising the retirement age.

With all due respect, I disagree. There is a good option, called getting the public (government) out of pensions. As one who is just 4 months shy of full retirement age, I've looked carefully at my soon-to-come social security benefits versus what my payroll taxes would have brought had they been invested in the stock market (privatized).

The difference is startling.

In one sense, though, McArdle is right - there are no good answers on public pensions. The good answer is with privatization.

LIFE'S LESSONS: What I learned at war. Not surprisingly, most are equally applicable at home.

WASHINGTON POST LIBERAL mugged by reality. There may be hope for Richard Cohen yet.

PRESIDENT OBAMA SKIPPED MEMORIAL DAY wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington Cemetary but Vice President Joe Biden filled in admirably.

Obama should borrow Biden's teleprompter.

TWO AMERICAS: government bureaucrats and the rest of us.




Via PowerLine.

THOMAS SOWELL: "No nation ever protested its way from poverty to prosperity or got there through rhetoric or bureaucracies."

MARK STEYN: "Back in 2008, when I was fulminating against multiculturalism on a more or less weekly basis, a reader wrote to advise me to lighten up, on the grounds that 'we’re rich enough to afford to be stupid'. Two years later, we’re a lot less rich."

And just as stupid.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE to start expressing your right to free speech, Democrats in Congress are gearing up for a vote on a new piece of legislation to blatantly undermine the First Amendment for bloggers.

THE MESSIAH IN ACTION INACTION: “The first messiah in history that needs on the job training.”

Scroll up to read Surber's post on the catastrophe known as the Obama administration.

MR. SOROS, WHERE ARE YOU? I'm sure you'd like to make a small contribution to pay off the public debt.

PAY, PAY SOME MORE, for the union label.

And be sure to thank President Obama.

AND SPEAKING OF PRIVACY: Secret spaceplane spotted by amateur skywatchers.

PEGGY NOONAN ON PRIVACY IN A CONNECTED WORLD: "Remember Jeremiah Johnson? The guy who went off by himself in the mountains and lived on his own? I'd like to do that. But they'd find me on Google Earth."

THE NANNY STATE IS ALIVE AND WELL at my office. This came through the office email.

Learn to stay out of trouble so that you don't have to learn how to get out of trouble! LIVE SAFE AMERICA, a local safety awareness training organization, will be here to train you on nonviolent methods of staying safe in an emergency crime situation. Safety products will be available for purchase.

I prefer violent methods.

OBAMA 2008: I RAN A BIG CAMPAIGN, so I can handle a Gulf emergency.

No, he can't.