55 Comments

1. NJclosetconservative:

Mr Kimball,

More evidence for your assertion that satire is no longer possible? I’m not sure if reading “Animal Farm” would help to disabuse Mr. Reich of his despicable notions or strengthen them.

Jan 24, 2009 - 10:40 am 2. Roy M:

What if he had said “black” instead of “white”? Well (as always when this disingenuous question is asked) it would have made no sense whatsoever.

What he meant by “white male construction workers” is those that are in the socio-economic-industrial position that is traditionally associated with white male construction workers. We all have the picture of the “white male construction worker” stereotype and we know what he means.

There isn’t a traditional “black male construction worker” stereotype. Black male construction workers are “white male construction workers” who are black.

Jan 24, 2009 - 11:39 am 3. David Thomson:

“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,” Obama lectured Republican lawmakers…”

Rush Limbaugh is far more intellectually advanced than Barack Obama. He could wipe the floor with the newly elected president with one hand tied behind his back. Obama is merely a poorly read and pseudo-educated Harvard University graduate. Limbaugh has done more reading and studying of the issues accidentally than Obama has done intentionally. This would not be close to being a fair fight.

Jan 24, 2009 - 12:31 pm 4. tcuebvs:

Robert Reich’s degree of influence on Barack’s policies is unclear so far. One thing that is clear is that all the public works being proposed now will be paid for at the highest possible cost because of the Davis-Bacon Law. Basically, the whole mess is a sop to the unions, as will be card-check, of course.

Jan 24, 2009 - 2:20 pm 5. Kryle:

There’s something about Mr. Reich that makes me uneasy, even queasy.

It’s very similar to how I feel when I light upon the writings of Dr. Richard Sennett, a famed sociologist. It all sounds grand and important, but the more you focus on what is really being said, the more you realize that in fact nothing much has been said at all, despite the Pantokratic delivery.

What you get is a cascade of words that have somehow come together to form insipid platitudes, homilies and statements of the obvious, all delivered and presented with the zeal of the fanatic. There’s a Ptomkin, cast to it all: what you see, or in this case, what you hear, isn’t really there at all.

Someone once described something or someone to the effect that it/he was so superficial it wasn’t even shallow. I know what he meant.

A lot has to do with the questionable grammar, the peculiar syntax and the seeming lack of maturity in Reich’s delivery. It sounds like a sophomore presenting a class paper…..and I mean a high school sophomore.

It’s hard to believe that Reich actually went to Harvard, was a Rhodes Scholar and currently teaches at Berkeley. My goodness, I know things have been dumbed down in the last several decades, but really……..

A bit of research on my part yielded the following gems of rhetorical wisdom. A lot could be said about each of them but I’ll let them speak for themselves. Here they are: (caveat lector)

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/06/int04030.html

Robert B. Reich: “Well, thank goodness, the country has come a long way from the early 1960s when young people could be expelled from college for private sexual behavior.”

Robert B. Reich: “Yet at the same time, presidents could force young men to serve in an immoral and unjust war. We have come a long way. But there’s a danger that we might take for granted how far we’ve come.”

Robert B. Reich: “First, the separation of church and state. We do not want to live in a theocracy. We should maintain that barrier and government has no business telling someone what they ought to believe or how they should conduct their private lives.”
———————–

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/26/useconomy.usa

“Wall Street must agree to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify the terms of primary mortgages, so homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes. Why should they lose their homes when Wall Streeters receive taxpayer money that helps them keep their fancy ones?”

Whew!

Jan 24, 2009 - 2:55 pm 6. steveaz:

What Reich is saying is out and out racist, and if Reich’s intent makes it into a final bill, and if Obama signs it, it should be countered in the courts as “discriminatory hiring.”

I am convinced that the Reparations crowd is looking for a back door through which to deliver the goods. The $800 billion boondoggle masquerading as a stimulus package is the back door they’ve been looking for.

For a “post-racialist” administration, Obama’s is only three days old and already it is the most overtly racist since the civil war.

I think that, since the Supreme court came close to sunsetting affirmative action back in ‘07, the congressional black caucus and its inner city patrons know that the stores of white-guilt they depend on for succor are about to dry up.

Reparations for African Americans? It is now or never!

Jan 24, 2009 - 4:55 pm 7. steveaz:

Check this out:

1. Colin Powell, acting Sec. of State under GWB walks out of the same UN Conference on Racism in which reparations are being foisted on the American public by the UN’s usual anti-American ghouls.

2. This same Colin Powell then leaves the Bush administration and joins a hedge fund that specializes in creative funding mechanisms for “Green” technology.

3. In 2009, President Obama signs a multi-billion dollar funding bill which awards generous amounts of taxpayer money to Colin Powell’s hedge fund under the rubicon of subsidizing “Green” technology.

4. In the same bill, the same President awards hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to construction contractors under the condition that they hire African Americans – call it reparations in drag,

It is as if Colin Powell’s aquiescence to a scheme that he would not support publicly while a head of state has been purchased with the taxpayers’ cold hard cash!

Plausible deniability: there is a huge story here, if only the NYT or CNN dared to delve into it.

Jan 24, 2009 - 7:07 pm 8. sirpatrick:

How about if we exclude white , bearded midgets?

Jan 24, 2009 - 7:40 pm 9. Tatterdemalian:

Wasn’t there another head of state who decided to devote his entire government to taking jobs, land, and even personal posessions out of the hands of skilled professionals (and, of course, white males) and putting them into the hands of those who were more deserving (which somehow always turned out to be his incompetant, bungling cronies)?

I think his name was Robert Mugabe…

Better dose up on your cholera vaccines.

Jan 24, 2009 - 7:43 pm 10. Paul:

Did the midget say anything about Jewish law firms? Just asking, you know, ’cause I’m sure there are black law firms that need the work, and such..

Jan 24, 2009 - 7:50 pm 11. Dave T:

“[T]he long-term unemployed” are that way for a reason. If “the long-term unemployed” susvived without employment for the whole of the lastconstruction boom, it says a lot about their work ethic.

This will be fun to watch especially since construction is withering.

Dave

Jan 24, 2009 - 7:59 pm 12. Tood:

I hereby assign Robert Reich a nickname of “Third”.

i.e. Robert “Third” Reich.

Jan 24, 2009 - 8:17 pm 13. Chris:

Nothing to see here. Just prepping the battlefield, so to speak. Reich was probably mistreated at some point by some white construction workers. Time to exact a bit of revenge for him.

Jan 24, 2009 - 8:59 pm 14. Peter:

I’m not real sure I want my kids driving my grandchildren over bridges that have been built without white male construction workers.
Although I must confess we haven’t seen many white, or black construction workers lately. It’s mostly hispanic. This is kind of a shame to a man old enough to remember the struggle to integrate the then white only building trades, you know, one of the Democrat power bases, during the late ’60s and early ’70s.
The Democrats just can’t help themselves they have to disriminate against someone.

Jan 24, 2009 - 9:10 pm 15. Patrick Carroll:

From now on, I resolve to go, every day, to Reich’s blog and ask a simple question:

“Why do you hate white men?”

Jan 24, 2009 - 9:12 pm 16. UnmooredLefty:

I’d be interested to know if Reich is in favor of those untrained in economics should get 20% of the professorships offered in the next four years.

Jan 24, 2009 - 9:15 pm 17. Mason:

The man is scum.

Jan 24, 2009 - 10:51 pm 18. Some Guy:

“There’s something about Mr. Reich that makes me uneasy, even queasy.”

Gee, could it be his blatant racist, pinko, “shut up and obey me, you insolent peasant!” attitude that he does such a poor job of concealing?

Reich is the kind of person whose dearest wish to wield power over others, but he doesn’t have the guts to run for office and get his ass kicked after people listen to him and figure him out. He’s the consummate political-appointee bureaucrat. The weasel behind the throne.

Jan 24, 2009 - 11:17 pm 19. Megaera:

That soft popping sound in the background must be the rupturing aneurisms of thousands of union members who supported Obi-One Obama unquestioningly at the behest of their union bosses. One of the better visual responses to Reich’s appalling idiocy was a dramatic shot of a highway bridge over a huge canyon, asking Reich if he’d rather drive to work every day over such a bridge engineered and built by skilled labor (read “white male construction workers”) or chronically unemployed, or female/minority/unskilled labor. I’m female; I know what my answer would be.

Jan 24, 2009 - 11:31 pm 20. Anthony:

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the face of progressive politics. Democrats want people to walk on egg shells when speaking of a female or minority, but a white guy? — The hell with him! Progressive equality is defined by a distribution of wealth and power based on statistics and quotas, not qualifications and productivity. Robert Reich’s wife probably makes him sit while he urinates.

Jan 25, 2009 - 12:39 am 21. Denny, Alaska:

Or we could run *this* little experiment: what if Mr. Reich had said “I am concerned that these jobs not go to black male construction workers with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia”? What then? Oh, the horror!

Jan 25, 2009 - 1:20 am 22. Hyphenated American:

I’ve responded to Reich’s idiotic idea on my blog and on his website. Please see it here:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/2009/01/robert-reich-clintons-appointees-is.html

In reality, Reich is an idiot, which was proven in a much older blog post by me here:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
Poor old Reich does not understand the law of supply and demand…

Jan 25, 2009 - 1:54 am 23. Cris:

Take a look at how setasides work in Chicago: http://www.adversity.net/contracting/Chicago/default.htm
Just another way to siphon taxpayer money into the pockets of Obama’s cronies and the Mob.
The real flaw in Reich’s thinking is the conflation of two goals. Is this a civil rights program or an economic program? Trying to be both, it will be neither.

Jan 25, 2009 - 4:12 am 24. Proteus:

I didn’t see any tender regard for “our” money when Bush was pouring it down desert sands to fight a needless war.

Jan 25, 2009 - 5:42 am 25. drjohn:

How is enlarging the welfare state going to produce any jobs?

Reich is a moron, another wild-eyed socialist idealogue who hasn’t the first idea of how business works and whose only true aspirations are to social engineering.

Jan 25, 2009 - 6:16 am 26. Koblog:

One thing is sure: there are too many white male lawyers, recycled white bureaucrats and short white economic advisers in Obama’s administration.

Jan 25, 2009 - 6:19 am 27. Instapundit » Blog Archive » STILL MORE on Robert Reich’s racial views. “Mr. Reich’s comments–and the culture of coercive po…:

[...] MORE on Robert Reich’s racial views. “Mr. Reich’s comments–and the culture of coercive political correctness out of which they [...]

Jan 25, 2009 - 6:58 am 28. misanthropicus:

Sorry Roger, but Christina Romer’s “stimulus nut just for burly men” trumps Reich’s “white male construction workers.” (Christina Romer is the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers).

Anyway, these two assertions, together with the now forgotten & forgiven “bitter while men clinging to their rifles an Bibles” sharpen the contours of this administration’s fauna which appears to be of strong enlightened type – big news.

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:04 am 29. Broadsword:

If it is wrong to treat people unjustly based on skin color, why is it not also wrong to treat them well, and charitably, based only on skin color? “As ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it to me.”
“IHS”

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:05 am 30. susan:

“I didn’t see any tender regard for “our” money when Bush was pouring it down desert sands to fight a needless war.”

you can always spot a leftist idiot. When he has got no substance to add he changes subject.

what a poor lot of retarded you all are, no wonder you elected one of your peers

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:07 am 31. Linguist:

Under the circumstances and coming from someone named Reich, why is there any surprise?

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:23 am 32. richard:

To show that he believes what he says, Reich should give up his job so that a black person can replace him.

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:29 am 33. dexter:

Some Guy

I seem to remember that he tried to run for Governor in Mass. a few years back.
In a rere display of decent judgement the voters rejected him in dem. primary.

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:30 am 34. Rick:

I am concerned that all of our valuable Secretary Labor job is occupied by a white male professor.

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:55 am 35. threedonia.com » Blog Archive » Whitey Needs Stimulation Too!:

[...] Roger Kimball has more with appropriate Animal Farm references. [...]

Jan 25, 2009 - 9:49 am 36. Self-hating Boomer:

Aside from the obvious, there’s something else really ignorant about the idea of giving 20% of the jobs to the “long-term unemployed”. In fact there are two things. One, twenty percent of the population aren’t long-term unemployed, so you can never fill the quota. The other is that the long-term unemployed are, for the most part, the hard-core unemployable, for reasons having to do with mental illness, or just plain attitude.

Unless they can be forcibly conscripted (which I wouldn’t put past this administration), there’s no chance that they’ll apply, or if the do, they’ll last at most a few days.

There’s another subtle racist dig in that statement; he’s implying that minorities (Blacks in particular) are long-term unemployed, which implies that they have issues with holding down a job. And if he really thinks it’s because of a conspiracy of white racists who are running everything, then he’s a loon on top of being an idiot.

Unfortunately, such are more and more Harvard professors. Buckley was right about being ruled by random names out of the phone book.

Jan 25, 2009 - 10:45 am 37. John:

Reich is essentially whining about the thing not being a trillion dollar welfare program with free houses being handed out to everyone with a credit score less than 600.

Jan 25, 2009 - 10:54 am 38. Mary Grabar:

It’s time to revolt. I heard about this on Michael Savage and Mark Levin. Thanks, Roger, for putting this in print and in literary and historical context. Reich is one of those Quislings who sits on academic hiring committees. But what’s been going on in academia is coming to a job near you!

Jan 25, 2009 - 11:13 am 39. Sara123:

Reich also said that race based hiring for infrastructure building should be based on qualifications because such hiring standards would limit the ability of unqualified minorities to get the government jobs.

It is the liberals’ banking loan industry program: make quota equal loans to unqualifed people which resulted in the droping of loan standards and the bankig crash. Now we are progressing to having unqualified minorities build our bridges in the name of race preferences! That’s gonna work this time! Their racism blinds them and hurts us.

Jan 25, 2009 - 11:34 am 40. Artemus:

Reich has a great idea: government jobs for everyone, especially minorities and illegal immigrants. But why stop there? Why not have the American taxpayer subsidize jobs for everyone on Earth, everywhere? After all, everyone in Latin America is really just an undocumented worker who happens to reside outside U.S. territory for now.

Jan 25, 2009 - 12:17 pm 41. venividivici:

Seems to me that if Reich and other stimulus advocates really believed there would be follow-on effects to the jobs they create, they would prefer competence over victimology, secure in the knowledge that those white male construction workers would now have money to spend at restaurants, car washes, movie theaters, etc., where those unskilled laborers can make a living and not endanger the rest of us.

Democrats always want to put people in a position higher than their merit would dictate. Obama being the prime example of this, of course.

Jan 25, 2009 - 2:07 pm 42. NJclosetconservative:

I’ll continue to believe Reich is a hobbit until I see that a) his feet are not hair covered and b) they have not been shaved. But now I might need further proof because he has all but announced his candidacy for Shire Idiot.

Jan 25, 2009 - 2:40 pm 43. msp:

This guy is a racist and a fool.

Wouldn’t it be a CHANGE if these idiots were as concerned with those of us that work hard and pay taxes as they are for those that don’t? I seem to recall that this country fought a war for our freedoms.

Jan 25, 2009 - 5:31 pm 44. Democrats Think You Are Stupid : The Sundries Shack:

[...] genius and part-time garden gnome Robert Reich wants to make sure that the stimulus money doesn’t get spent on “high skilled people who are already [...]

Jan 25, 2009 - 9:38 pm 45. Elaine Bracco:

“…that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people who are already professional or to white male construction workers.”

Good idea. And, let’s make sure that Obama’s top appointments don’t all go to Ivy League types and liberal Jewish intellectuals. Reserve 20% for the Bubbas and Lyles of the world. Or, Obama can create new departments consummate to their talents. How about the Department of Banjo playing or Southern BBQ?

Jan 25, 2009 - 10:10 pm 46. Chester White:

Those sonsabitches certainly won’t mind taking gigantic gobs of tax money from White Males.

Everybody go John Galt for a while.

Jan 26, 2009 - 6:46 am 47. Delia:

The era has finally arrived where it’s “alright to hate white”.

The newly fashionable racism has begun.

Jan 26, 2009 - 9:45 am 48. Dotar Sojat:

Proteus – that’s easy. We didn’t think it was needless. This spending binge may be a lot of things, but an economic stimulus it ain’t.

Jan 26, 2009 - 10:12 am 49. deguello:

Reich showed that it is crucial that no important jobs go to Ivy League-trained, liberal,malevolent dwarves.

Jan 26, 2009 - 11:36 am 50. Proteus:

Dotar:

Quite so. Roger does not object to Government spending “our” money when he approves of the purpose for which it’s spent. Which means that he should drop the pose of principled opposition to Government spending “our” money.

Proteus

Jan 26, 2009 - 1:29 pm 51. Roderick Reilly:

My presonal observation in the greater Washington, DC area is that “white, male constructions workers” are a distinct minority, as are black male construction workers.

The dominant ethnicity at DC Metro Area construction sites are Hispanic male construction workers. I’m willing to bet that this isn’t a peculiarity to Washington, either. New Orleans after Katrina, for instance.

Oh, and should I dare to mention that almost all of those non-white, non-black construction workers are here illegally (for those of us with a quaint desire to stick to that notion)?

Jan 26, 2009 - 4:54 pm 52. LindaP:

Let our government officials know what it is like to be ‘Joe the Plumber’. Let them know you are watching them and checking up on them. Keep their email addesses handy and let them know how you feel – everyday.

About This Website http://www.govtrack.us/users/

GovTrack.us is an independent tool to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology. You’ll find here the status of U.S. federal legislation [example], voting records in the Senate and House of Representatives [example], and information on Members of Congress [example], as well as congressional committees and the Congressional Record.

The site is a research tool, but also a (totally free) tracking service. Pick up Trackers throughout the site to make a personalized feed or get email updates. You can also embed a few widgets on your own webpage to keep your visitors up to date about legislation. We also have a unique visitor Q&A: ask a question about a bill and see if other visitors will provide an answer [example].

Jan 27, 2009 - 12:08 am 53. Jumbo Jet:

Giving stimulus jobs to ‘unqualified’ minorities is as dangerous as giving loans to ‘unqualified’ borrowers. Gee, is that the reason the housing industry and banking industry are in such horrible condition? Who would have thought? Surely not the progressive Democrats that think ALL should share in the hard working ants bread.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:07 pm 54. seamus o sean:

reich is not self hating. He is jewish.

Feb 4, 2009 - 8:18 am 55. Will:

Barak Hussein Obama is a charismatic master of deception and deflection.

Feb 7, 2009 - 5:55 pm

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