Obama called for socialism in America tonight.

Obama's speech tonight is essentially a call for a four-year central economic plan to replace the free market economy. Here's a key paragraph:

The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.

The fact is clear. Obama doesn't just blame free markets for the current economic crisis; he blames free markets for a systemic failure of American civilization. We have to put a stop to this.

The lights are going out in America.

First, there is the Democratic Party's second unconstitutional power grab within a month's time:

When the D.C. voting-rights bill comes up for a cloture vote in the Senate this Tuesday, senators will face one overriding question: Will they uphold their oaths to support and defend the Constitution? If they give the District of Columbia a voting representative in Congress, they will break those oaths.

Article I specifies that “Representatives . . . shall be apportioned among the several States,” and this is confirmed in Section 2 of the 14th Amendment. One of the qualifications to be a congressman is to “be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”

Congress itself has recognized that the only way the District of Columbia could get representation was through a constitutional amendment — Congress passed one in 1977 (the amendment failed to gain the approval of 38 states, and thus didn’t take effect).

Then there is the economy. Investor's Business Daily has a nice summary of the chaos being generated in Washington:

Last Oct. 13, in trying to explain why the market had sold off 30% in six weeks, we acknowledged that the freeze-up of the financial system was a big concern. But we cited three other factors as well:

• The imminent election of "the most anti-capitalist politician ever nominated by a major party."


• The possibility of "a filibuster-proof Congress led by politicians who are almost as liberal."


• A "media establishment dedicated to the implementation of a liberal agenda, and the smothering of dissent wherever it arises."

No wonder, we said then, that panic had set in.

Today, as the market continues to sell off and we plumb 12-year lows, we wish we had a different explanation. But it still looks, as we said four months ago, "like the U.S., which built the mightiest, most prosperous economy the world has ever known, is about to turn its back on the free-enterprise system that made it all possible."

Don Luskin has the perfect simile for the times we live in.

The perfect metaphor for the early days of the Obama administration.

It's sleek, sophisticated, and stuck on stupid:

Navy officials say an attempt to pull free a 9,600-ton warship that ran aground off the coast of Honolulu has been unsuccessful.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet says Navy tugboats and salvage ship USS Salvor tried to tow the USS Port Royal early Saturday but the guided missile cruiser remained stuck.

The Navy says it plans to try again after extracting fuel and water from the $1 billion vessel.

Obama is really wimping out.

• First, President Obama's hand-picked point man for nationalizing health care, former Senator Tom Daschle, is revealed to have been a humiliatingly bad nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Daschle has already withdrawn his nomination, and Obama himself has personally admitted that this was a screw-up.



• Obama has also caved to the EU's demand that the "Buy American" provisions be scrapped from the ongoing stimulus bill. Now Obama is in a double-bind: we supposedly need a stimulus bill to save the economy from slipping into a depression, but it's also hard to see how throwing money at foreign corporations will do much to stimulate the American economy.



• Then, despite practically begging the Iranian government to be our friend, Obama is humiliated yet again when Iran decides to launch a satellite into orbit with an Iran rocket. Obama's response is utterly unconvincing:

  The United States will use "all elements of our national power" to deal with Iran, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday after Tehran said it had launched a satellite into orbit.

  Yeah, right!



• North Korea is also planning a long-range ballistic missile test. Gee, you'd think that this kind of thing would stop now that mean ol' bully George W. Bush was no longer in power...



• Oh, and now that the nuclear arrivista powers are flexing their muscles, Obama wants to sign a treaty with Russia to slash their mutual nuclear arsenals by 80%.



• Even India, in a sign of its friendship for the United States, is publically warning Obama not to do anything stupid:

  India has warned US President Barack Obama that he risks “barking up the wrong tree” if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
  
  MK Narayanan, India’s national security advisor, said that the new US administration was in danger of dredging up out of date Clinton administration-era strategies in a bid to bring about improved ties between the two nuclear armed neighbours.