When B. Hussein Obama was first elected to the Presidency, I and my co-writers here at Hard Astarboard really did determine to give the man a chance without any pre-inaugural condemnation such as that received by George W. Bush from the fraction of a second he was elected until… actually, they’re still blaming Dubya for everything from an act of nature to the decades old shooting of J.R. (remember that?). More extreme tinfoil hatters even, to this day, sccuse him of complicity in the destruction of the Twin Towers.

But back on track — we tried, seriously tried, to cut the far left product of the Chicago Machine some slack. Neither Wolf, Chuck nor myself wanted to display disunity of American citizens in the face of the rest of the world, like that which the Democrats have displayed through three wars, their opportunistic, not-very-patriotic patrons on the Hill currying their favor by turning these wars into political circuses, resulting in prolonged conflict, boosts to enemy morale and the deaths of U.S. service personnel as a bi-product of it all.

The problem was, Mr. Obama declared, in his every word from the time he was elected, that the Constitution was irrelevant as it conflicted with his own agendas for America, which have been much, much nearer to the propogation of marxism than to the concepts upon which this great country was founded.

The programs this president has pushed from the start have been so anti-American as most of our countrymen understand that to mean that the three of us saw no option but to abandon our “wait-and see” attitude in a so-called New York minute.

The “community organizer” provides a veritable smorgasbord of targets for anyone with even a drop of patriotic blood, so…

Unlike Bubba Clinton, whom we learned had a multitude of uses for interns, the Obama Administration has few to none.

The Obama administration’s top law enforcement officer at the Labor Department, M. Patricia Smith, is targeting companies that give young people unpaid internships. She claims that internships are rife with abusive practices and that serious violations of labor law are widespread. Arguing that interns should get paid at least minimum wage, Ms. Smith and the White House risk destroying a valuable steppingstone that gives many young Americans training they need to get jobs they want in the future.

Unpaid internships are valuable for many reasons. Most simply, they help people test whether they are a good fit for a particular industry. If interns like the type of work at particular companies, internships can help them get the training and contacts they need to make their career aspirations a reality. The short time that interns spend at jobs - often just two to three months - makes it difficult for firms to both train these young people and get much work out of them. From manufacturing to nonprofits to media companies such as The Washington Times, hands-on opportunities open through internships are almost endless.

Change, indeed.

Basic economics teaches that if the price is raised, demand falls. If companies have to pay wages, they will take on fewer interns. If these youngsters were actually benefiting companies more than it costs to train them, companies would pay them. Profit-seeking companies compete against each other for employees. If untrained students were such valuable workers, firms would gladly offer money to beat out the competitor next door to get them.

Some statements by the administration suggest that their actions are not simply motivated by the welfare of the kids who get internships. The O Force worries that unpaid internships might disadvantage less-affluent students, who might not be able to afford to spend their summers at unpaid jobs. But the administration’s solution risks eliminating many internships at for-profit companies so that no one gets them.

The Obama administration, which is full of rhetoric about improving education, actually views education extremely narrowly. In the real world, people gain a lot of practical knowledge on the job. Eliminating training opportunities will only mean worse careers and lower future earnings for those President Obama’s team is claiming to protect.

Ah, sweet Utopia. These lefties are clueless about the marketplace, no matter how many times reality smacks them in the face.

“It hasn’t worked the last ninety nine times, so it should work the hundredth.”

Then again, when Obama sees the results of this one, he can always issue one of those Constitutionally unauthorized royal edicts executive orders, one to the effect that every private concern has to use X amount of interns, like it or not, and compensate them with wages and benefits, including comprehensive health insurance.

While we’re on the subject of Obama, Wesley Pruden writes:

What this country needs, in addition to the elusive nickel cigar, is a president with less presence and more absence. Not just from Barack Obama, but from whoever follows him as well. Celebrities, even presidents, can be too much among us. They, like us, suffer for it.

The jet airplane, the ubiquitous television camera and now the Internet have conspired to illustrate as nothing ever has that familiarity breeds contempt, that it’s absence that makes the heart grow fonder. Women once knew that by female instinct, until they aspired to be men, minus the body odor and whiskers. (Some of them are working on that.) The studio moguls in Hollywood understood that, too, when Hollywood was still Hollywood, populated by movie stars. Now Hollywood, like Washington, is populated only by actors, who compete to see who can look and smell most in need of a bath. Jane Russell, one of the last of the authentic movie stars, once told me how she couldn’t slip out of her house for a quick trip to the supermarket for a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread without her make-up, manicure, heels and hair perfectly in place. It was in her contract. (Meryl Streep, our only surviving movie queen, projects the old star power precisely because she remembers the formula.)

You might think that a president, being the most powerful man in the world, able to start wars on a whim, wouldn’t be so eager to get noticed. Indeed, presidents once carefully rationed their availability, even for photo-ops. FDR, Harry Truman or Dwight Eisenhower would never be available for a photo-op with Miss Drumsticks of the Ozarks, even for a cause so grand as commemorating poultry plentitude. Barack Obama has not yet descended to the chicken house, but that may be in the works. He never misses an opportunity to take his noisy community activism on the road.

Heh, heh…

Read on…