Political Pornography

In our nation, where everything to the right of extreme is labeled ‘extreme’, everything I have written on these pages is considered ‘extreme’. Simply stating a point of fact – that we are going broke – is now ‘extreme’. Stating that we are now providing air cover for AQ in Libya is ‘extreme’ as is criticizing our active support of terrorist Palestinian groups.

As such, any middle ground with regard to any issue has effectively given way. ‘It’s my way or the highway’ appears to be the rallying cry of the hard Left. They will not be satisfied until every one of their demands has been met. No wonder that they have found allies among Islamists whose uncompromising methods closely mirror their own.

I have tried to go beyond surface talking points which, taken individually, are often misleading. I have tried to project the extreme positions which we are asked to accept into what is likely to come after. Not many yet realize fully what a wholesale shift in values would actually entail; how it would affect the lives of individuals; that a fundamental emphasis away from honest work to protection would degrade our nation to the lowest common denominator.

A coalition of (albeit fickle) malcontents seems to have assumed a majority. Whether the numbers are real or not, the perception of this phantom majority nevertheless holds sway as exhibited by our leadership which appears not inclined to change course. If, as polls now indicate, a true majority has indeed had a belly full and changed its positions, it has had no impact on governance in general. The present administration has displayed no willingness to address a growing chorus of concerns. To some, this has brought the Obama administration to the brink of (il)legitimacy.

Yet, there appears to be no one to turn to. We see ourselves as locked into four-year cycles. With the flagrant politicization of virtually every official and non-official institution - primarily media and justice - our hands are tied.

I note that inside virtually every publicly accessible establishment in our New York Metropolitan area that boasts of having TV screens – hospitals, airports, bars, restaurants and the like – these are invariably tuned to CNN or MSNBC. I have yet to see one of these tuned to the FOX channel. There seems to be a common understanding that FOX is somehow biased and ‘extreme’ – even dirty or uncivilized – and offensive to the public at large, almost like pornography. Michael Savage’s intro to his radio program contains the phrase ‘psychological nudity’. He’s doing it tongue-in-cheek, no doubt. But the libs use it as a springboard.

Also of note is that station breaks for what is commonly referred to as right-wing radio are richly peppered with sex-aid advertising. (Such ads, by the way, are inserted by the networks and not by the host of these programs.) It all works to create the overall impression that right-wing talk is not exactly wholesome.

While the ratings would suggest overwhelming interest, if not outright support for politically conservative programming, the stigma attached is clearly working to delegitimize its impact.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Why Bother?

It’s getting down to the wire. There are indications that nothing you hear from now on can be trusted; that things will be said solely for the purpose of manipulating the vote. It sometimes works. Exit results in the East have been known to suppress voter turnout in the West. Exit polls are not official. These can be, and often are, wrong.

Similarly, talk of a Republican landslide can work either way. It can keep both Republicans and Democrats from going to the polls. Talk of races tightening can have the opposite effect. Like it or not, turnout is key.

In short, do not believe anything you might hear. Go to the polls knowing nothing. Simply vote your conscience - but do vote.

There are some things we do know. We know that this is an important election for both parties. We know that our economy is not doing so well, no matter who may be at fault. We also do not see signs of things getting better. We’ve lost much of our 401 nest egg. Inflation is set to take the rest. And jobs are getting ever harder to find.

Internationally too - for those who follow world affairs - we’re in dismal straits. Our friends are distancing themselves and our enemies have taken to laughing out loud. We can accept Obama’s excuses and pretend he hasn’t been in office for two years, or we can make up our minds to do our share to change direction.

We also know that the media won’t tell us the truth. Make no mistake, the president is on the ballot. “D” = Obama; “R” = against. I myself have questioned just how much Republicans are willing or able to do after the election. None of that matters now. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we must first get to the bridge.

One last point: Expect close results to be fought over. We don’t have a friend in the White House, nor at Justice. A close result means we lose.

It is my belief that there will be beaucoup surprises. When it’s over, the word ‘unexpected’ will likely be heard everywhere. The Tea Parties will know better. They know the 'force' is with them. The morning after, we’ll likely have the unmitigated pleasure of taking our foot off the gas, pulling into a 7/11 to purchase a NYT - just for a long and healing laugh.

On second thought - why bother? We already know what they're going to say.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Hanging Chads

On the other hand, gridlock is the only real remedy left to us. It’s the price we, the bourgeoisie, must pay after we have allowed our government to go rouge. “…the bourgeois treasures nothing more highly…than a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty… The bourgeois is by nature a creature of weak impulses, anxious, fearful…and easy to rule. Therefore, he has substituted majority for power, law for force, and the polling booth for responsibility.”

Unfortunately, as I see it, such half measures will not be enough to remove the leftists from power. They have studied us as we are only now beginning to study them. They know our weaknesses better than we know them ourselves. They know exactly what moves we will make; how we will react to provocation and such. They’ve got it all planned out: a bomb here, shortages there, a racial incident…

Leftists will write the operatic score and the media will play it over and over again. We will be tempted to puncture our own eardrums just to make it stop.

Unless we can convince them that we too are a power to be reckoned with; that we can think outside the box; innovate; surprise; ambush; strike …and then melt back into ominous shadows, they’ll walk all over us. Look at New York’s primary election fiasco; look at Philadelphia, Chicago… Look what they’re doing with the votes of those serving overseas! With today’s Justice Department being what it is, who is there to complain to. And, as I’ve said before, what does Congress matter anyway when the president holds the veto pen in one hand and executive privilege in the other?
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Italics loosely translated from Hermann Hesse’s “Steppenwolf” to fit.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Midterms: Pyrrhic Victory For Republicans

All this about the "Impossible Kick" by Brazilian Roberto Carlos in a 1997 match of Brazil vs France applies if you have two teams out on the field. In America you have only one team playing. Whatever split can be discerned is only between good players and bad players. There is no goalie guarding the opposition’s net. Even the bad players can make a goal (if the others will let them).

We still pretend we have a two-party system with checks and balances. We pretend we have something akin to a democracy - much as the Left pretends there is still ‘global warming’. The Left’s pretense succeeds precisely because there is no credible opposition.

Republicans winning overwhelmingly in the November congressional elections will not change this one-sided game. The Left will continue to win where it counts. Obama is the Left. He has already succeeded in reducing the legislative branches to ashes. Nothing either one can propose that differs from the official line can amount to more than spit in the wind.

These past two years, congress has broken all the rules of acceptable behavior. It is no longer viable as an institution. Obama has succeeded in essentially carving the guts out of it.

This leaves only Obama and the courts. Therein lies the last remaining friction. But even there Obama is rapidly gaining the edge. Must I remind that the Justice Department also is no longer independent? They don’t even try to hide it anymore.

The media, education, science - they’ve all aligned themselves with the hard Left. The Left is the only team playing. All the rest is BS.

Yesterday evening on returning from dinner in central Chennai, we passed a street along which every single shop sold furniture. Each one was brightly lit. The stop-and-go traffic gave me time to peer inside. The proprietors and their clerks seemed bored and were glued to the windows, idly staring at the steady stream of mechanized humanity streaming past their premises. From what I could see all of them were Muslim.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Beginning Of A Tyranny

"What does Obama make of manned space?" Obviously not much. Frank Gaffney has it right. The ultimate aim is to transfer of knowledge, wealth, power (especially) to the (Muslim) world, thereby diminishing the U.S. position overall by an administration hell-bent on pay-back.

I think it may be time to go into the archives of ‘The John Batchelor Show’, download and print a hard copy. In this way we might just be able to explain to our children and grandchildren what has happened to our country after the government decides to scrub the web clean. This thought was sparked by the Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute the (New) Black Panthers on charges of voter and poll worker intimidation in Philadelphia, a clear violation of current law. Obama’s refusal to comment on the matter shows where his own sympathies lie.

This has not been the only indication of this administration’s unwillingness to abide by tradition. From the outset, Obama and his Democrat-controlled congress have sought to enact a virtual blizzard of incomprehensible (and unenforceable) laws and then proceeded to go about enforcing same selectively. This is not justice; this is the beginning of a tyranny.

The American people have thus far gritted their teeth and born every Democrat overreach. To the administration’s considerable consternation, they will likely continue to do so, waiting patiently for their chance to clean house in November. We may never get that far.

The pattern that is emerging is clear. The administration is bent on achieving total control over every aspect of American life from soup to nuts. The only ingredient that still eludes it is an outbreak of violence which would then provide the excuse to clamp down hard on media, the internet, gun rights and the freedom of assembly. There might even be cause to cancel (or postpone) elections.

No doubt, the administration is banking on the final shoe to drop. They are prodding and poking the electorate into taking a defensive stance which would then be interpreted as aggression (hence justifying a crackdown). In light of the fact that Democrats do not seem at all concerned about getting re-elected, it can be assumed that they feel they still have an ace up their sleeves. This ace could be violence. Since it hasn’t happened so far (and there have already been several reported attempts at incitement), it is fair to assume that the administration is growing desperate. I would not put it beyond them to engineer some kind of incident out of whole cloth before the November midterms. Keep an eye on Glenn Beck’s August rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC which is expected to draw huge crowds Even the Black Panthers have promised to attend. Note that permits for the event have not yet been issued by the Parks Department. May cooler heads prevail.

When King Samir Shabazz screams about killing white babies on a public street and our black president does not denounce him immediately; when incidents of blatant voter fraud are no longer prosecuted by the Justice Department; when a clear and present Islamic threat must never be mentioned by name in polite company; when defending one’s (Arizona) territory becomes the object of a Justice Department inquiry and suit, it means we have crossed the fine line into chaos. In chaos everything becomes possible; nothing is improbable, and we are all at severe risk.

Should we survive this presidency, it might do to be able to show what it was that has brought us to this low point in our history. The past year and a half has produced plenty of omens, few of which were taken seriously. Now that it’s happening, it behooves every one of us to prepare ourselves for the worst. Let’s begin by preserving the record for future generations to ponder.