Do As I Say, Not As I Do

The country needs more of this from him?

President Obama has decided Congress has to work, while he gets to go on vacation.  The two news stories juxtaposed are striking in that they show a president contemptuous in his outlook and with lots of imperial in his nature.

First via Bloomberg this week;

President Barack Obama said members of Congress “shouldn’t go home for the holidays” until they extend a payroll tax cut that is needed to maintain and strengthen U.S. economic growth.

Next via the Daily Mail;

While most Americans are lucky to get a few weeks of holiday every year, it seems the country’s leader gets a little more freedom in the matter.

President Barack Obama has announced his Christmas vacation to Hawaii – for a staggering 17-day trip. Obama, who visited the island just two weeks ago for an economic summit, will head to Honolulu on Saturday December 17 until Monday January 2.

Rhetorical question:  How does he get away with this stuff? 

Cain Train Derailment

Every conservative political blogger has already blogged about this announcement today.  Not me, not because I don't care - I had internet connection issues today.  In any case, if you missed it, here's the scoop;

Herman Cain, the insurgent populist whose candidacy has been ensnared by allegations of sexual impropriety, said Saturday that he is leaving the race for the Republican presidential nomination, saying that the allegations have cast a "cloud of doubt over me and this campaign."

"As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign," he said at an event in Atlanta. "I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt . . . on me, on my family, not because we are not fighters, not because I am not a fighter."

Given that he announced his announcement, it's not a surprise that the 9-9-9 to Washington D.C. had derailed today. But he probably could have continued if the polls hadn't turned towards Gingrich already.  Cain deserves credit for his 9-9-9 idea and getting the conversation moving in a conservative direction.  He may have been more ready to run the country's finances than to run a campaign though.  Now, it will be interesting to see whom he might endorse.

Saturday Learning Series - Mass Affluence Comes to the West

The Yale course on capitalism continues,

Professor Rae discusses the rise of mass affluence, the joint stock corporation, and advertising/consumer culture in America. Gregory Clark's theory of the causes of the Industrial Revolution, including England's "downward social mobility" in the medieval and early modern periods, are explored. According to this theory, the upper classes produced children in greater numbers than in other countries, and there were fewer jobs of high social status. This led to upper class children working in "lower class" jobs, infusing lower economic strata with upper class outlooks toward work. Clark also touches on a genetic, Darwinian explanation for England's Industrial Revolution. Professor Rae also discusses other causal explanations for the Industrial revolution, including exogenous and endogenous growth theories, institutions, and Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction. The wealth-generating power of the joint stock corporation is also presented.

Russia heading into 'free' elections.

If there's one item in the news before the coming Russian election that proves the country is no longer en route to a democracy, despite elections, this might be it.

Via BBC News;

The leader of Russia's only independent election monitor was detained for several hours, in a move she described as government pressure on the group ahead of Sunday's parliamentary vote.

Golos leader Lilya Shibanova was held at Moscow's main airport after refusing to hand over her laptop "for checking".

On Friday, the group was fined for allegedly violating election law.

Russian MPs have questioned why Golos, a foreign-funded organisation, is allowed to monitor Russian elections.

Golos (meaning "voice" or "vote" in English) is a widely respected election watchdog funded by the EU and US. It provides training for observers and runs a website compiling complaints of voting violations.

By Friday, it had recorded over 5,000 complaints related to Sunday's election, many involving the politically dominant United Russia, which is chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

This raises questions about how George Bush was able to look into Putin's eyes and get a sense of his soul. He must have been wearing rose colored glasses.

Right Now, Higher Unemployment Might Be Better

This morning I was listening to P.O.T.U.S. on XM satellite radio and a guest, economist Mark Lieberman from Economics Analytics Research, put succinctly and in easy to understand terms what the lower unemployment rate of 8.6% announced today, is actually not good right now.  

It has nothing to do with what might benefit the GOP in 2012, and everything to do with the unemployment trending.

Blogging lull forestalled - maybe.

I've been away on business this week and unable to blog as a result.  Today I had a bit of free time to write and came online to blog, and apparently I was getting blogger errors trying to open the posting window.  I'm back and will blog later today if this error doesn't keep resurfacing.

There's lots to comment on that I've missed this week, in particular, why America needs to see a higher unemployment rate right now than 8.6%...