Bob Herbert: Economic Knowledge? What Economic Knowledge?

Bob Herbert says, "If it looks like a recession and feels like a recession ..."

To which anyone outside the cozy idealogical confines of the New York Times might be forced to take him by his shoulders and gently shake the man from his dreamy trance-like state. Herbert, is positively Cayce-esque in his ability to pull back the curtains of financial uncertainty, all while sitting in his office.

Nothing will reduce a thinking man to uncontrollable laughter faster than a journalist spouting economics. Thus, Herbert's "Recession? What Recesssion?" is a masterpiece of the genre.

“We have an economy that is based on increased debt,” said Mr. Hinchey. “The national debt is now slightly above $9 trillion, and ordinary working people are finding that they have to borrow more and more to maintain their standard of living."

“The average now is that people are spending close to 10 percent more than they earn every month. Obviously, that can’t be sustained.”

And the grand finale.

The chickens of our denial are coming home to roost with a vengeance. Meanwhile, the elites are scouring the landscape for signs of a recession.

Using such well-known economic terms as "gross domestic product" and "Consumer Price Index", Herbert continues his financial doomsday show, and one imagines the entire New York Times newsroom waving their lighters in the air at the finish.

"Look everybody! Bobby's gonna do his economics thing! Gather round!"

Herbert is as accurate a seer on the economy as he is on the war in Iraq and most other issues. When "Bush?" is the question, Bob's favorite answering mood is despair.

Who knows? Herbert's bound to get one right some day. This one could be it. If he is right, the New York Times will most likely have a party.

Then, maybe Bob Herbert can do his "Economic Wizard" routine again.

by Mondoreb




Back to Front Page.

Rights Trampled!Black Americans Insulted!Constitutions Upheld!I WAS A TEEN-AGE DISENFRANCHISEE!

NY Times Rebuttal
by Mondoreb

"The Ugly Side of the G.O.P. by Bob Herbert"
From the NY Times

Bob Herbert sounds off in this morning's NY Times, about what he'd do to those nasty Republican zombies, if only someone would just ask him.

I applaud the thousands of people, many of them poor, who traveled from around the country to protest in Jena, La., last week. But what I’d really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington.

Rock on, Bob.
He continues.

Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is.

What heinous crime has Bob riled up? Are Republicans trying to block the confirmation of a black Supreme Court justice? Are they shunting blacks to the back of the Party special interest bus to make way for Hispanics? Are they ignoring millions of hard-working black folks and instead listening to craven race-baiters?
No. Those would all be Democrat actions. Then just what has this good man so upset?

The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans. Last week, the residents of Washington, D.C., with its majority black population, came remarkably close to realizing a goal they have sought for decades — a voting member of Congress to represent them.

So, it's the very act of upholding the Constitution that has Bob Herbert in a froth. If black voters in D.C. so ache to vote, a move a few miles away to Maryland would solve their problem. They would then be eligible to vote for a Congressman. They most likely could vote several times, if recent Baltimore elections are any guide.

The rest of the screed is like a descent into the fevered imagination of a DemTeen on a seven cup caffeine buzz. Now he gets to what's really bugging him.

In 1991, the first President Bush poked a finger in the eye of black America by selecting the egregious Clarence Thomas for the seat on the Supreme Court that had been held by the revered Thurgood Marshall. The fact that there is a rigid quota on the court, permitting one black and one black only to serve at a time, is itself racist.

What Bob doesn't mention here is that there is a strict quota in place: the one that black liberals employ. Their magic quota number is: zero. As it pertains to: "How many independent black thinkers will you tolerate on the Court?" Bob has his own strict quota action going on. Of course, I doubt if Bob thinks of himself as a racist. I say let's give him something he doesn't extend to those with whom he disagrees. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

Republicans improperly threw black voters off the rolls in Florida in the contested presidential election of 2000, and sent Florida state troopers into the homes of black voters to intimidate them in 2004.

Now, Bob Herbert seems like a nice enough guy; the New York Times saw fit to give him the use of perfectly good Op-Ed Page space. Must be a reason.

Bob Herbert is no slouch at outrage; like most good Times contributors he knows how to tow the Democrat party line. He just has to sound professionally outraged: hopping mad at the imagined slights of Black America. And these have to be true. They just have to. Bet that he even read some of those stories in that very same New York Times.

But Bob Herbert is old enough to know: like tales of zombies, alligators in the sewers and disenfranchised Black America, you can't always believe what you read in the papers.

Back to Front Page.
More news at Memeorandum.