The thrifty Scottish on the Obama pork pie

The British may be feeling depressed, defeated, powerless, and at the mercy of a political class that can't contain its eagerness to re-brand their country as Britannistan. But now and again, flashes of the Brits' old gift for language and invective pop up in the newspapers -- although it probably helps if the target is the folly of Americans.

A piece by Gerald Warner in Scotland on Sunday is an instant classic. There's no point paraphrasing it because the original couldn't be bettered. Here are a few quotes, but for your full measure of satisfaction, read the whole thing:

Barack Obama's "stimulus" plan will be long remembered as the occasion when political euphemism triggered economic disaster. There is no terminology available to express adequately the appalling irresponsibility of this naked political banditry. To have squandered a fraction of the near-$1 trillion cost of Obama's pork barrel in days of prosperity would have been more than reprehensible; to do so at a time of financial crisis is unforgivable. Obama likes to pose as the heir of Abraham Lincoln: as this shameless bribery demonstrates, he is heir only to the Chicago Democrat political machine that spawned him.

Even the temporary boost that such ploys as spending $5.5bn on the "greening" of federal buildings may give the construction industry have been blunted, at least in the Senate bill, by omitting the E-Verify mandate that was in the House bill. This would allow an estimated 300,000 illegal aliens to parasite on construction jobs; they are even awarded tax breaks in another part of the package.

To call this spendthrifts' wish list a "stimulus" is an insult to America's intelligence. Instead, it is a hotch-potch of politically correct liberal obsessions: $75m to promote "smoking cessation" (that will stimulate retailers); a $246m tax break for Hollywood trash merchants; and even an extra $300m medical appropriation to treat Casanovas who, in the coy euphemism, have been kissing girls with runny noses.

The most blatantly sinister item is the allocation of $4.2bn to "neighbourhood stabilisation", the programme that will enrich the far-left organisation ACORN which played so controversial a role in voter registration during the recent presidential election. In tandem with that goes $1bn to forward Obama's ambition to control the 2010 census, rich in electoral opportunity for the promoters of the one-party state.

For do not forget that Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary who displays a boyish unfamiliarity with tax returns, is standing by to throw a further $2.25 trillion at banks. If you add up the US government's commitments, the sums are: Federal Reserve, $5.5 trillion; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, $1.5 trillion; Treasury, $947bn; Federal Housing Administration , $300bn – total $8.34 trillion. There is, however, one key component missing: the costs of nationalising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which adds $5 trillion, producing the grand total of $13.3 trillion.

No wonder Barack Obama, bereft of his auto-cue, was uncharacteristically hesitant at his press conference last week. The messiah has to borrow $3.5 trillion over the next two years. This could prove a burden that even the legendarily resourceful and productive citizens of the United States cannot shoulder.

If only our leftist-captured, tamed, leashed mainstream media could tell it like this. But then they wouldn't be the mainstream media we know.