Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Obama

Welcome, O - to city you want to ruin
By MICHAEL GOODWIN

Welcome to New York, Mr. President. Now go home and leave us alone. Please.
When he brings his war against Wall Street here tomorrow, Barack Obama isn't coming to praise Gotham. He's coming to bury us.
We're not dead yet, but no thanks to him and his policies. His assaults on New York ought to be counted in the NYPD crime stats. They're doing more damage than a year's worth of stickups, and still the hits keep coming.
Under his initial plan, cops and the feds already would be locking down the Foley Square courthouse area to give the precious Khalid Sheik Mohammed his constitutional rights. Nary a New Yorker wants the 9/11 trial here, but Attorney General Eric Holder insists the city "is not off the table."
Think about that. Would you buy an apartment or open a business anywhere near the courthouse if you thought the area would be turned into an armed camp, possibly for years?
Or this. How dare Obama and Holder continue to even consider bringing the horror show here after Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it would make New York more of a target for Islamic radicals?
Oops. The White House doesn't say "Islamic" radicals anymore. Or "jihad." Or "war on terror." See, 19 humans carried out the man-caused disaster on 9/11.
Speaking of man-caused disasters, the health-care monstrosity certainly qualifies. New Yorkers will pay an additional $6.5 billion a year in federal tax hikes once the law is fully implemented, Mayor Bloomberg's office says, depriving the city of money that could be spent on housing, entertainment and hiring other New Yorkers.
Instead, the cash will go to Washington to subsidize the federal bureaucracy and other cities and states.
It's worth repeating that Obama couldn't have pulled off the heist without inside help. Only one of the 13 members of the House who allegedly represent the city voted against the health measure.
All 13 are Democrats, as are the state's two senators, but only Mike McMahon of Staten Island voted no. For his courage, he got berated by the White House and threats from labor groups that, politically, he's a dead man.
Now it's Wall Street's turn in the cross hairs. With Dems moving their sweeping package of financial restrictions to the Senate floor, it takes a fool to believe the timing of the Securities and Exchange Commission's charge of fraud against Goldman Sachs was a coincidence.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added to the suspicions with his initial reaction. "I'm pleased that the Obama administration is using all of the tools in its arsenal to bring accountability to Wall Street," he said of the charges.
On Monday, when Obama announced he was coming to Cooper Union, Reid again railed against Wall Street, getting so carried away, he went after "excess greed." I guess that's worse than ordinary greed.
But greed comes in many guises. A president who rakes in millions of dollars in contributions from New York banks, then goes after them like they are witches in Salem, has no respect for decency or capitalism.
Then again, those Masters of the Universe deserve what they get. Executives from Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and UBS didn't just back the president who now aims to turn them into political piñatas for the midterm elections.
Their contributions bought the rope he's using for their hanging. Maybe they're not so smart after all.

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