Newspeak, CAT, and the Porkulus

From my world:

President Barack Obama's stimulus plan may be good for Caterpillar Inc., but the company's chief executive says the equipment maker will probably have to lay off more staff before it starts thinking about rehiring any of the more than 22,000 employees it already plans to cut.

Even if a stimulus plan passes, it likely will not have an effect on the economy until late this year or early 2010, CEO Jim Owens said after a town hall meeting with the president and Caterpillar (nyse: CAT) workers at a company tractor plant here on Thursday."The reality is we'll probably have to have more layoffs before we can start hiring again," Owens said without elaborating on timing or specific numbers.

Owens seemed to back away from Obama's assertion that the Caterpillar CEO had promised him he would rehire some of the laid-off workers if Congress approves a sweeping stimulus bill. The company has struggled with lower demand amid the global economic downturn.

The severity and swiftness of the recession, Owens said, makes adding jobs back quickly unrealistic."We literally (went from) a three-year order backlog coming into November to now having order cancellations to the point where we cannot run at capacity," he said.

When asked to explain the difference between Obama's and Owens' statements, Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan said, "perhaps there's some nuance."

Nuance?? Sounds to me like The Chosen One (may peace be upon him) has been reading Orwell's 1984 and is learning the fine art of "newspeak" or "I know you think you heard what I meant to say, but what I said is not what you heard."

The attempt by Jake Tapper (God Bless this man's patience) to get clarification from "Bagdhad" Bob Gibbs on the conflicting statements from CAT's CEO and the Chosen One (may peace be upon him), was akin to watching a comedy skit by Abbot and Costello: "Who's on first." "What?" "What's on second."

Now comes the report that an Illinois congressman was instructed to seek out positive consituent feedback on the "Bill to End Democracy and Implement Socialism in Our Lifetime."

How'd that work out?

NOT TOO GOOD!!!!!!!!

Seems the congressman got over 1400 repsonses urging him to vote NO on the "Bill to End Democracy and Implement Socialism in Our Lifetime."

What If McCain Picks A Woman?

My Brother Marine, Ron Winter, author of "Masters of the Art: A Fighting Marines View of Viet Nam" and a door-gunner on a CH-46 in Nam asks this question. He has more after the jump.

Well, what if McCain does select a woman as his running mate? Personally, I think it would be the death knell for the Democratic campaign, based of course on the assumption that his selection is a good one and can stand up to campaign scrutiny.

I’ve heard the same point made by quite a few of my veteran friends - male veterans - and if you can convince that crowd, I think the American voter is more than ready for a woman in one of the top executive posts.

There are at least two Republican women, and one business Chief Executive Officer whose names have been mentioned as possible VP selections, but the MainStream Media, well, actually, all the media, have given them short shrift.

They are Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and former eBay Ceo Meg Whitman.

All are pragmatic, accomplished leaders who have set firsts with their elections and careers. They have shown they have a tremendous grasp of the issues, aren’t afraid to step up when the going gets tough, and all could step into the president’s role should anything happen to McCain.

On a purely political level they also would certainly draw large numbers of democratic women voters to the GOP in response to Barack Obama’s disrespectful treatment of Hillary Clinton. Then there’s the stage-managed sham called the Democratic Convention that was engineered to cloak the closeness of the Democratic race between Obama and Clinton.

But there is another issue that should be addressed regarding the Republican Party and its relationship to the voters. An esteemed colleague spoke with me about this issue just this morning and I have learned to heed her advice.

The fact is, she said, the GOP looks old, stodgy, stuck in its ways. Even though Obama has close relationships with a convicted felon, and an anarchist with a history of bombing the US Capitol, the mainstream media has made sure that most Americans don’t know this unless they are Internet savvy.

Thus Obama comes across as young, fresh and energetic, even though he is simply another political hack, produced by the Chicago Democratic political machine 0perated by the Daley family for decades. It helps the GOP somewhat that he selected Joe Biden as his running mate, another Democratic politician who hid out in college and law school during the Vietnam War, but now acts like a bad ass.

Biden’s just another career Washington insider with a lot to answer for regarding his relationships with lobbyists, not to mention taking credit for other people’s work.