THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.

Your Editor can smell the broiled salmon that his lovely wife is fixing for the spare daughter’s birthday party, and has been a bit too busy to write much this weekend, which means that it’s time to check out what friends are writing. From Karen, the Lonely Conservative:

Paul Krugman: It’s Terribly Unfair to Judge Obama a Failure on the Economy

Paul Krugman’s arms must be getting tired from carrying all of that water for President Obama. He really went out on a limb this morning when he said it’s “terribly unfair” to judge Obama as a failure on the economy. You know, because of those pesky Republicans in Congress.

And the fact of the matter is, this president has not managed to get very much of what he wanted done. He — it’s terribly unfair that he’s being judged on the failure of the economy to respond to policies that had been largely dictated by a hostile Congress.

Is he freaking kidding? He had the most friendly Congress in his first two years than any president since the Great Depression! They passed Porkulus, Cash for Clunkers, Obamacare and Dodd Frank. Are we supposed to forget about all of that? If anything, the Republicans in Congress have kept him from making the economy even worse. What a tool.

NewsBusters has much more.

As Karen noted, President Obama got his legislative agenda passed through the eleventy-first Congress; the Democrats were amazingly compliant — though some of them used the necessity for intra-party unanimity to get individual state benefits, like the infamous Cornhusker Kickback — and the Republicans were able to slow things down slightly, but, in the end didn’t have the power to stop the President’s agenda. What actually did put a halt to the President’s agenda was the expressed will of the voters, in the 2010 elections, in which the Republicans were given the power to stop things, but it may have been too little, too late, as the stimulus plan, Dudd-Frank and ObumbleCare had all been passed. But your Editor does wonder if the esteemed Dr Krugman would have been so charitable toward the President’s responsibility for the “failure of the economy” if the President was a Republican.

As it turns out, it wasn’t just Dr Krugman from The New York Times out telling us that the economy really isn’t President Obama’s fault.  From William Teach of The Pirate’s Cove:

NY Times: Obama’s Pretty Much Blameless For Horrible Economic News

By William Teach | June 3, 2012 – 8:31 am
You truly have to admire the NY Times and writers Jamie Calmes and Nicholas Kulish, who work themselves into Gordian Knots as they attempt to tell us that “Obama’s hands tied on weak economy”. That was the original web title, changed to Weak Economy Points to Obama’s Constraints

The bleak jobs report on Friday predictably had heads snapping toward the White House, looking to President Obama to do something. Yet his proposed remedies only underscore how much the president, just five months before he faces voters, is at the mercy of actors in Europe, China and Congress whose political interests often conflict with his own. (snip)

Developments overseas have not helped either. American officials have complained as Beijing began letting its currency devalue again, making its exports cheaper and those from the United States to China more costly. And administration officials, and Mr. Obama himself, have lobbied leaders in Europe for more forceful action to promote growth or at least contain the threat of financial contagion there.

Now, let’s be fair as we look at Reality Land: there are things happening on the international stage that are somewhat out of Obama’s control. The original economic downturn was an international one, and things really haven’t gotten any better around the world (which kinda highlights the notion that Leftist economic policies are worthless). Buuuuuuuut, if that’s the case, that a president can be at the mercy of other actors, then this notion destroys the talking points that this is all the fault of Bush and the Republicans, ie, past administration. There were quite a few things happening that were out of Bush’s control. Furthermore, if Obama is essentially helpless, then any good news cannot be laid at his doorstep.

More at the link. Of course, for our friends on the left, any good news on the economy will be credited to President Obama, just as the President is doing his level best to blame everything negative on his predecessor.

Back in February of 2009, just a month into his new job, President Obama said himself that he “will be held accountable,” and that if he “doesn’t have this done in three years, then it’s going to be a one-term proposition.” Well, he doesn’t have it done in 3¼ years, not even close, and, in the President’s own words, “one nice thing about the situation (he finds) himself in, is that (he will) be held accountable.”

In some ways, as Mr Teach noted, the President doesn’t really have much, or any, control over the things for which he gets either the credit or the blame. But politicians love to claim the credit when things are going good, and love to blame their opponents, if their opponents are the incumbents, when things are going poorly, and Mr Obama has certainly engaged in plenty of that. Your Editor has posted many, many times the video of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) saying that President Bush was “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic” for running up $4 trillion in debt, in eight years, “all by his lonesome.” By the President’s own stated criteria, what does that make a President who ran up $5 trillion in debt in three years?

Phineas noted all of the stories about how the sky is falling global warming is destroying the Arctic:

According to the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming, one of the signs of the coming eco-apocalypse is the disappearance of sea ice from the North Pole. Lots has been written on this, all meant to scare people into “doing something NOW!!!” about a problem that does not exist — dangerous man-caused climate change. Lots has been written about the vanishing ice. For example:

• Time Magazine: “Farewell to the Arctic — As We Know It”
• Mail & Guardian: “Vanishing Arctic Ice Shows No Sign of Returning”
• CNN: “Arctic Ice to Vanish in Summer, Report Says”

There are hundreds more like these going back years.

All of which makes the following item from the Miami Herald quite amusing:

The heaviest polar ice in more than a decade could postpone the start of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean until the beginning of August, a delay of up to two weeks, Shell Alaska officials said.

Unveiling a newly refurbished ice-class rig that is poised to begin drilling two exploratory wells this summer in the Beaufort Sea, Shell executives said Friday that the unusually robust sea ice would further narrow what already is a tight window for operations. The company’s $4-billion program is designed to measure the extent of what could be the United States’ most important new inventory of oil and gas.

(…)

“We’re seeing multiyear ice that they’ve not seen in such large quantities in over a decade, and it could impact our ability to start the well,” Slaiby said. Of particular concern, he said, is the region of the Chukchi Sea around the company’s Berger Prospect – potentially the crown jewel of the company’s offshore oil inventory – which in normal years would be accessible by mid-July. This year, it may be unreachable until late July or early August.

More at the link. But poor Phineas forgot the obvious, settled science: retreating polar ice is evidence of global warming, and advancing polar ice is evidence of global warming. Obviously, we must, must! sign on to treaties which Hold The United States Accountable and impose United Nations control — and taxation — over American citizens to keep us from behaving so badly.

Finally, ALa has a story about her husband (referred to as The Man in her article) working construction on a non-union job in the City of Brotherly Love:

The Nasty Front Lines of Pay to Play

I have to imagine that even pro-union folks from some cute little Midwest town would be absolutely floored at the abject thuggery that goes down here in Philadelphia. When you meet wildly anti-union people (like me), it’s not because we don’t understand the history of the need to organize or the fact that some companies do take advantage of workers. It’s because we have faith that free market and healthy competition has corrected that need. And it’s because we have been direct recipients of the brand of justice unions here see fit to dish out. Screaming in your face is the best of it and handing out pictures of your children or your wife photoshopped in some bizarre sex act, property damage and bodily harm the worst of it.

The Man is now on a job so contentious it’s made national news. He is escorted in daily by Blackwater security.

You can see signage and video feeds of the actual and documented thuggery here: PhillyBully.com

Do you remember the fire that just took the lives of two firefighters from my brother’s station? Well, that fire took place in an abandoned building that was neglected by the owners and the city that became a den of iniquity and a major health risk for the community…and ultimately two public servants.

This building The Man is at (pictured) is similar. Dubbed “the Graffiti building” by local residents it is a rat infested, homeless flop house, eye sore that has the potential to be a health/fire hazard to the surrounding residents. They are THRILLED that this building is being revitalized. Turned into posh apartments by two ballsy guys from Virginia that refuse to play by the Pay to Play rules here in the city of brotherly love. Kudos to them for standing strong.

We’ve heard that the unions, all of them, are “more riled up than they have been in 25 years.” They can’t believe these guys aren’t caving.

Yesterday, escorted by 2 Blackwater guys and a detective, as The Man drove in to the fenced parking area through a throng of 40+ union members (the masons and the carps that particular day) the guys were screaming various things like, “we know who you are” and mumbled threats…but the two that always floor me…? “We’re fighting for your living wage!” The guys at The Man’s company get paid on the exact scale the union guys do, except they don’t have to pay union dues. Duh. And, “You’re taking food out of my kids’ mouths!” Ummm, you dolt, what about my kids?! Are they supposed to starve? If it’s between my kids and your kids…in what bizarro realm am I concerned about yours?

I wish I could have some Blackwater guys so I could go pick the brains (?!) of these lemmings…

The salmon has been et, and the birthday cake was so rich I couldn’t eat more than two bites.