Whereever we look - the Gulf, the economy, Afghanistan - Big Government arrogance and incompetence are on display

It's not just millions of gallons of black gold spilling into the Gulf of Mexico that are being lost. Also disappearing into watery despair are the last shreds of credibility for progressive Big Government.

It's Day 65 of the Deepwater Horizon spill and the only hope of stopping the flow of thick, gooey crude remains the relief well being drilled by the private sector.

None of the ass-kicking political speeches by President Obama, bureaucratic edicts by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar or EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, or hypocritical posturing for the cameras in Congress has plugged the hole to stop the flow of suffocating oil headed to the beaches.

We see this week a remarkable confluence of events signaling the eventual end of Big Government: The bureaucrats and politicians can spend trillions but they can't plug the Gulf oil spill, agree on a budget in Congress or end the Great Recession's foreclosures and unemployment.

We've been here before. In the 1950s and '60s, Detroit's Big Three automakers utterly dominated the market. Americans bought only Chevys, Fords and Plymouths because our cars and trucks were "the standard of the world."

Detroit auto execs just laughed when Volkswagen Beetles trickled over here from Germany. Then, as Toyota and Honda began attracting serious attention from early adopting consumers, the Big Three confidently vowed to push the new invaders back to Japan.

It didn't happen. Instead, Detroit steadily lost the ability to produce quality products. By the 1970s, late-night comedians joked that every new Chrysler came with its very own union worker to reattach the chrome pieces as they fell off.

Imports couldn't be rolled back because General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were hamstrung by executive hubris and the endless demands of the United Auto Workers union for higher pay, more generous benefits and permanent job security. Give us the welfare state in microcosm or we will shut down the assembly lines, the union bosses shouted.

The execs caved, so American cars cost on average $2,000 more to build than those from Japan, and the union refused to give up the insanely complicated work rules that robbed management of needed flexibility to respond to a changing marketplace.

Predictably, when consumers compared Detroit's costlier offerings with cheaper, better-made Japanese products, they logically chose the latter. GM went from 60 percent market share to less than half that in the 1980s. Ford barely evaded bankruptcy and Chrysler survived only because Washington bailed it out.

Now it's Big Government that needs a bailout because its progressive politicians and bureaucrats can't stop doing what they've always done -- spending more, taxing more, regulating more, grabbing more power for themselves and their special interest buddies.

Just as most Americans stopped trusting Detroit to build the world's best cars, we no longer believe the grand promises that more massive, wasteful government will bring prosperity and good health for our families, security in our old age and a better life for our kids. We see the Gulf.

Mackinac Center questions Detroit downsizing plan

The geographical downsizing plan has the virtue of acknowledging, for maybe the first time within the confines of City Hall, the severity of economic and social conditions in Detroit. But it still places an as-yet unjustified faith in the ability of the city government to plan in detail the city's economic future. The People Mover was supposed to reinvigorate downtown. The construction of a GM plant in Poletown (which saw the city evict residents and raze a low-income neighborhood) was supposed to create new auto jobs. Neither has worked as intended. It remains to be seen if the city can plan decline any better than it can plan growth.

Speaking very broadly, what the city needs above all else is jobs and investment. The real source for both is to be found among entrepreneurs and investors whose efforts are more likely to be stymied than aided by detailed government planning. In the short-term the city may or may not benefit by writing off its worst sections and downsizing geographically. But if Detroit is to recover, the downsizing that will need to be done long-term is a withdrawal of city government from the issuance of detailed plans and regulations. By downsizing the ambitions of city bureaucrats, the city will give small businesses the flexibility they need to function, earn profits and create jobs for Detroiters, which is the key to the city's eventual recovery.

Mark Steyn: Lesson of terrorist attack over Detroit: government failed again, individuals save the day

On September 11th 2001, the government's (1970s) security procedures all failed, and the only good news of the day came from self-reliant citizens (on Flight 93) using their own wits and a willingness to act.

On December 25th 2009, the government's (post-9/11) security procedures all failed, and the only good news came once again from alert individuals:

"Suddenly, we hear a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off," said Jasper Schuringa, a film director who was traveling to the US to visit friends.

Imam shot by FBI in Detroit seeks Islamic state

A battle in the war against radical Islam in Detroit was briefly waged on October 28 when the FBI engaged in a deadly shootout with an extremist imam refusing to be arrested. The imam was a leader in “Ummah,” meaning “the brotherhood,” a group said to consist of mostly African-Americans, many of whom converted in prison. This group isn’t the only one trying to create an Islamic state within the borders of the U.S., and this shoot-out should be expected, unfortunately, to be a sign of more violent conflict coming down the line in this country with Islamic militant groups.

The gunfire began when the FBI tried to arrest Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, whose original name was Christopher Thomas, for his involvement in a crime ring along with followers of his. Abdullah violently resisted, and managed to shoot and kill one of the FBI’s dogs before falling to gunfire. The spiritual leader of Ummah is Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, a former Black Panther who is in jail for killing two police officers in Georgia that tried to arrest him. To Abdullah, he was just following in his leader’s footsteps and carrying out the “offensive jihad” against the U.S. government he had long preached about.

Detroiters line up for stimulus money

Thousands line up in Detroit, a monument to liberal politics, for a slice of $15 million in federal stimulus money. To see a televised report, click on the headline of this blog post.

Detroit, where hope and reform go to die

From Corner at NRO

"To be a Kilpatrick or a Conyers was once political gold in Detroit. “The Detroit Kennedys,” some called them. Reference their legacy on your application and you were all but guaranteed admittance to public office. But the young scions have brought shame to the family crest. Suddenly, the Kilpatrick and Conyers names are radioactive — and, in a remarkable twist of fate, the political careers of the family elders are now in peril.

In 2002, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick rode the coattails of his mother, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, and his politically connected father, Bernard, to become, at age 31, Detroit’s youngest mayor. Self sure and media savvy, Kwame’s tumultuous two terms attracted plenty of charges of political corruption. But c’mon, Jake, it’s Chinatown.

Only when Kilpatrick was caught in text messages negotiating a multimillion-dollar, city-financed payoff to cover up a sex scandal did the wheels come off. Kwame became a national embarrassment, a pariah at the 2008 Democratic Convention, and very nearly deep-sixed his mother’s re-election last fall (she won with 39 percent, only because two challengers split the rest of the vote). Now, with 2010 looming, a mere 27 percent of voters in her Detroit district want her re-elected."

Detroit celebrates a poor symbol, Joe Louis's fist

"On the plaza in front of the Detroit municipal building is a huge bronze replica of Joe Louis’ fist and arm, as if to say: “Here is a city ruled by brawn.” Brawn counts for very little in the modern world. The earnest redevelopers who hoped to renew Detroit by razing its history instead destroyed the raw materials out of which urban renaissance has come to so so many other American downtowns. A couple of days after I returned from Detroit, I telephoned a friend who had lived and worked in the city for many years. My friend, it’s relevant to mention, is the son of an Irish cop, ardently Catholic and defiantly conservative. Why did Chicago recover and Detroit fail, I asked. What doomed the city? He thought for a moment. “Not enough gays.”

Detroit confirms the lessons taught by Jane Jacobs and Russell Kirk. Preservation is as vital to urban health as renovation. Indeed, they are inseparable. The preservation of the old incubates the new.

It’s a lesson with application not only to Detroit’s past, but its future. The great factory complexes along the Detroit River have shuttered. America no longer manufactures here. Some will want to rip the factories down. Leave them be – leave them for now as monuments and memorials of the achievements of the past; leave them for the future, when somebody will want them. Want them for what? Who can say? Who in 1950 could ever have imagined London’s Docklands converted into condominums? Who would have guessed that New York’s emptied toolshops would provide some of the city’s most coveted office space? The 22nd century will put the artifacts of the 20th to equally unsurmisable uses, if only we permit it. Cities can molder for a century or more, and then reawaken to a new era that rediscovers something of value in the detritus of an earlier time. Brooklyn did. So did Miami Beach. Ditto Boston and Charleston – and even more spectacularly, Dublin and Prague. The promise of renaissance may yet come true, even for the ghost city of Detroit."

Obama's policies will make U.S. more like Detroit

"Detroit may be the most advanced case of “government disease” in the United States today, but signs of suffering are widespread. Compared to glistening, modern airports in cities like Shanghai and Bangkok, Los Angeles International seems like a Third World airport. The whole state of California is suffering from a Detroit-like exodus of thousands fleeing the economic devastation wrought by Big Government.

We should keep these self-inflicted tragedies in mind in considering whether to assent to the massive expansion of government that President Obama and his congressional allies are seeking. We don’t want the whole country to share the fate of Detroit."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35248

Yea, Detroit's a tough town alright

DETROIT (AP) Police in Detroit have ruffled some feathers after they cracked down on an organized pillow fight at a downtown park.

The Detroit News reports that police at Campus Martius Park prevented the feathery fight Saturday by disarming pillow-toting participants. The bout was part of a worldwide event organized on social networking Web sites.

Michael Davis of Hamtramck says police confiscated the 32-year-old man's pillows but returned their cases. He says he was told that he needed a permit.

Scott Harris of Ferndale told the News that it's "not illegal to own a pillow."

Detroit police spokesman James Tate says cleanup was the issue.

http://cbs3.com/watercooler/pillow.fight.park.2.976528.html