Hu Jintao Is Awesome

In Japan, when people screw up, they resign – sometimes permanently - from everything. At the very least, they say, “I’m sorry” and ask what they can do to make amends. This would not work in the U.S., primarily because we have taken the concept of ‘failure’ off the table. We no longer know what ‘failure’ is. Nor do we know ‘success’.

We use these terms loosely as carrots and sticks, depending on whether or not we like any given person. ‘Liking’ or not becomes the ultimate criteria that dictates how we respond. If we like somebody and they do something bad, we either ignore it or shift the blame to someone whom we do not like. Similarly, if we hate a person, and this person then does something good, the credit for it gets shifted to someone we consider ‘good’ (even if he had nothing to do with it). In short, individual action – no matter what the result – will never be judged other than in light of one’s standing within the assumed hierarchy of liking or not liking.

That’s how we got to the point where anything a Democrat does is always good and anything a Republican does is always bad. The concept has now been expanded to include race, gender and religious affiliation. We have been told over and over again just who the bad guys are. Performance has very little to do with it, though we still use performance metrics as a club to enforce politically assigned assumptions.

We have since learned that a nation does not run itself; that competent leadership is essential. In fact, we have learned that things can always get worse. Bush wasn’t so great – or so we were told. ‘Anybody but Bush’ would do just fine. Many of us are still trying mightily to prove this theory right. After all, we’ve done exactly what we were told we should do. We’ve elected (good) Democrats to run the most important offices in the land. Things haven’t exactly worked out. We might even say that things have gotten worse. Now we are struggling with the notion that this is how things should actually be.

Katrina was easy. It was Bush’s fault all the way. Bush hated black people and wanted to give them their comeuppance. Now, with the tornados in the South, we can’t exactly blame Obama. He’s doing the best he can; besides, he has come out against ‘global warming’ which would presumably assure that nothing like this ever happens again. It’s only Republicans who continue to stand in the way of his ‘green power’ initiatives that’s keeping this president from solving our weather problem for good.

It’s pretty much the same thing with everything else. Life has become entirely too complicated for representative government to work. The leaders of China have a much easier time of it.

They can build dams, roads and cities at the snap of a finger. They can build high-speed rail and carrier battle groups. They can move populations. They can stifle opposition. No wonder President Obama thinks Hu Jintao is perfectly awesome.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Bring Lawyers, Thugs, and Money

We are bombarded daily with bad news. Alarms are ringing practically everywhere. More and more people are chiming in. What do most Americans do? They shoot the messenger and return to their bocce games in the park. Meanwhile the soothing strains of CNN saturate all public spaces. “Don’t upset yourself. Here, take another pill.”

A woman (or man) in a burka is seen running across the park. She suddenly detonates. “Will you have a look at that?” A cup of fair market coffee now costs $8. “Sure we can afford it - now that we no longer drive, it’s the Ecuadorian Shoe Repair on the corner that’s become the bastard: Imagine, changing $65 to re-sole my $150 shoes!

“It’s now been the third time I’ve had to have it done – now that I no longer drive – and each time the price goes up by 20 bucks. He only accepts cash. I doubt he even pays taxes. But even he’s hit hard times, I think. The last time I was in there, besides selling shoe polish and laces, he also sold cigarettes, at $3 less than the 7/11. He says he has all brands. He keeps them in the back, where he has his workshop.

“I might have gone out and bought a new pair, but none of the new shoes fit anymore – not in my price range anyway. So, I’m stuck.”

Stuck indeed! We bought Obama and now have to wait at least another four years for a chance to put him back on the shelf. Not that a Republican would have been much better. Republicans have for far too long settled for the consolation prize. They haven’t really done much by way of opposition.

We should have figured it out when we found Congressman William J. Jefferson co-opting military resources in the aftermath of Katrina to bring him to his house in New Orleans, so he could check on money he kept in his freezer. It took a natural disaster to bring Jefferson’s crime to light. Just imagine all the disasters it would take to flush out all the other Washington criminals. There wouldn’t be a tree left standing on this sad continent.

Why would anybody in their rational mind spend millions – now billions – to get themselves elected to any public office? Think about it! And why does the cost just keep going up and up? It’s got to be for a chance at the public trough.

Now look at Wisconsin. They’re not as slick as those in DC, but the nature of the game is the same. Never say die. Once you’re in, you’re in.

They hold an election and elect a governor. They give him a mandate. As soon as he tries to do anything, the opposition leaves the state and hides. The governor hangs tough. Good for him. He is a man with old-fashioned principles. Maybe he doesn’t quite understand how things are done. But we’re not yet finished. Bring in lawyers, thugs and money from outside. Then go the judicial route. They hoped to overturn the will of the people by voting in a liberal judge. But they screw this up as well - but only barely. Now they orchestrate recall elections for every legislator who might have voted the ‘wrong’ way. Eventually attrition prevails and they’ll get their way. And even the brightest among us dissolve into laughter or fold like cheap cameras, hoping to make it home in time for one more night of undisturbed sleep.

Such is the face of representative governance in America today.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Organized Water

Zuidplaspolder marks the lowest point (-7 m) in The Netherlands (Holland) which is famous for its dykes. In fact, much of the landmass of this country lies below sea level. Were there no dykes, even Amsterdam could not have been built.

Similarly, about 50% of New Orleans lies below sea level. Levees have been built to protect the city. As we have so painfully learned during Katrina: when the levies are breached, the city floods.

Much money is required to maintain dykes and levees. When this money is diverted to corruption and other uses and the levees are allowed to deteriorate, it puts protected areas at severe risk.

Hosni Mubarak represented a political dyke in the Middle East. He stood between the radical Islamization of the country and what we see today - a semi-modern society exhibiting western friendly values. There is some question as to just how successful Mubarak actually was. Just last week I happened to see a picture (it might have been in the WSJ) showing an Egyptian beach some 20 years ago with an insert showing that same beach today. The first showed a typical middle class family picnicking on a beach blanket dressed in western swimwear; the second showed that same beach haunted by the dark shadows of women in burkahs.

Water is 'organized' as to always pool in the lowest places. The Muslim Brotherhood, is said to be the most 'organized' faction in Egypt. Many predict that with Mubarak gone - the dam is broken, and - the Brotherhood will come to dominate the country, turning it into a harsh, restrictive, anti-western, anti-Israel theocracy.

We have seen this before in the Middle East: Iran.

The people, so enthusiastic and hopeful in anticipation of a loosening of shackles, will have little to say about how the worm ultimately turns. They are not (nuts and bolts) 'organized'. They will fall victim to the demands of 'organized' water that always seeks the lowest point in which to pool. Tyranny is always the lowest point.

It’s the same here in America. The Left is organized beyond belief while the Tea Parties are not. The Tea Parties are merely united by a vague sense of tradition and fear. They are being swept away as we speak by 'organized' political water. Like the Facebook warriors of Egypt, they do not stand a chance.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Winner Takes Nothing

Like it or not, whatever strides the U.S. has made since WWII has had a tremendous impact on the rest of the world. In every way, America has defined the standard of modernity. Every success, every setback, receives huge coverage in the foreign press. Often our political travails influence the policies set by governments around the globe.

It is normal for us - even regarded as inconsequential - when our political parties bad-mouth each other. Republican administrations are regularly attacked by Democrats who have been known to say anything they think they can get away with. We pretty much expect as much: Bush accused of favoring the rich; Bush labeled as war-monger; Bush blamed for Katrina; Bush blamed for the World Trade Center bombing. We take it all in stride, even if The New York Times, standard bearer for the Democrat Party, presents it as truth and then retracts it on page 47 a month later. Then there is ‘global warming’, a clever send-up to label America as excessively wasteful, even to the detriment of the planet. There’s the perennial issue of the poor, the homeless, the hungry (never mentioned during Democrat administrations) and, now, the overtly greedy that are said to deny the rest of the planet its daily bread.

Every bit of such claptrap originates from within our own borders. We can identify it as an effort to score points against the opposing party. Much of it is eventually discredited as pure rhetoric. But once its out there in print or on the net, others pick it up and build their case against America.

A prevalent notion abroad, for instance, is that America is a racist country. In fact, any opposition to Obama’s policies, for whatever reason, is liberally portrayed as racist sentiment against a black president. The fact that we elected a black president in the first place is conveniently forgotten.

You hear it everywhere - in India, in South America, in Africa - that America is a racist nation. They get it from reading the likes of Paul Krugman and Frank Rich, whose opinion columns are read widely throughout the world. It is only those who have actually traveled and lived here who know that race is not an issue for ordinary Americans; that England and Russia are far worse when it comes to that.

We’ve been accused often enough to understand it’s just a political ploy. We no longer take it seriously and tend to ignore it completely. It’s simply our own political operatives attempting to score points, points that are then picked up overseas to serve more sinister purposes.

It might have been good if we had nipped our tendency for engaging in some of our more extreme rhetoric in the bud sooner. Democrats, now turned Fabian socialists, in particular have succeeded in turning the domestic propaganda wars into a worldwide crusade. What started as domestic political rhetoric has grown hotter and is now threatening to topple the very foundations of our way of life. They have recruited allies among the ranks of our enemies; and, now, we are finding our nation in peril.

To a large extent, what we are experiencing today has been self-inflicted. The poison wells up from within our own institutions which have been infiltrated (by ourselves) and corrupted. Our present troubles are a consequence of our two-party system being at war rather than cooperating. It’s a repeat of Sherman’s (march to the sea) scorched earth policy. Winner takes nothing.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Slouching Towards Serfdom

The lasting legacy, I fear, from this, loosely referred to as the Obama administration, will not be from oil gushing into the Gulf; from value evaporating from our paper currency; from American influence eroding abroad – all of which can be reversed and made to look whole again. Instead, it is the abrasion of (our) trust in elected officials.

There was a hint of it already back in the Bush administration when some people insisted that 9/11 as well as the aftermath of Katrina were part and parcel due to Bush’s evil designs: the first to provide Bush-Cheney with an excuse to invade Iraq; the second, because both men hated blacks.

The concept of the possibility of a rogue government was now out there. Clinton supporters (or even Clinton himself) enhanced its legitimacy in the political realm when they lamented that 9/11 happened during Bush’s tenure. If it had happened when Bill was in office, he could have been a great president.

“Disaster” as political tool to advance policy objectives and to strike crippling blows at the opposition was already well rehearsed by the time Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Some even claim that the pre-election fiscal meltdown was instrumental to Obama’s installation. Rahm Emanuel emblazoned the concept into the national dialogue by dropping all pretence with his “Never let a crisis go to waste” comment.

Here we are now, wondering why the oil continues to spill; why there are an ever growing number of victims? The suspicion is that, even if it wasn’t sabotage, why is it taking so long (to plug the hole)? Clearly, the outlines of a solution are beginning to emerge: The policy objective of choking off America’s energy supply seems to be gathering steam; the prospect of a large pool of money for the federal government to waste on unprofitable ventures looms large, as does the demonization of Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Nuclear, paving the way for yet another government takedown and thrusting another huge number of people onto the welfare rolls.

All this talk about Obama feeling dispirited and actively thinking of voluntarily forgoing a second term is just that: talk. Barack Hussein Obama is doing just fine (at our expense, I might add). In short order, we can expect the private sector to be just that: private Obama. We’ll all, in one way or another, be working for him. We will live or die as he decides. He will elevate those who support him, while those of us who do not will find the yoke becoming ever tighter; the load ever heavier.

We are seeing the birth of a Chavez-style total socialist takeover. Even with the systems he himself has installed failing on all fronts, I don’t see Chavez in political trouble. Castro has managed to hold on for decades. Don’t think it’s because the people are particularly enamored of them. Ditto, Kim Jong-Il; Ahmadinejad; Mugabe; etc.

We are well along on a similar path, even with a Congress of elected, essentially rubberstamp officials standing in whispered opposition. And yet, the country on the whole is continuing to say, “It can’t happen here” – like a diabetic progressing through the stages of his irreversible disease. It has happened!

'Disasters' have become political bots to keep us in line and make us depended on the good graces of whoever has the audacity to declare himself king. Don’t tell me bots don’t work. They work just fine. Bots are but tools, the extensions of human hands. Unless we begin thinking critically, we openly embrace the prospect of serfdom.

Random Thoughts

Good (bad) things come in threes. First there was the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion and subsequent collapse; then came the (failed) Times Square bombing. Question: Can we expect one or two more such incidents?
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Mayor Bloomberg: “We have no idea who did this or why”. Are we checking Times Square surveillance cameras for people wearing tee-shirts with tea party slogans?
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'Overseas Contingency Operation’?
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Good idea: Terrorist trials in civilian courts in Manhattan.
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Mayor Bloomberg: “The bomb squad was called... they did the job they're expected to do. The kind of job they're trained for.” Is the White House sufficiently trained and ready to do what the U.S. Constitution mandates it to do?
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Plan A was making friends with terrorists (sorry, I meant to say “man-caused disaster mongers”) and their enablers. What is Plan B?
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“Man caused disaster” - If not “man caused”, what is it? Accidental? Act of God? (Sorry!) What is the meaning of “man caused” accident? The accidental president. Just asking.
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Is the fact that nothing serious has happened thus far since Obama has been in office - excepting of course the Deepwater Horizon overseas contingency - testimony to Obama's overall competence? Or has he been (accidentally) lucky? We all know that Bush failed us as president, having neglected to prevent not only the most serious man made contingency operation on the U.S. homeland since Pearl Harbor but also meteorologically generated conspiracies specifically directed at the hapless inhabitants of the Gulf coast.
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Has anybody bothered to look up the meaning of the word "contingency"? Does it apply here?

Obama's Katrina

Rahm Emanuel's famous phrase comes to mind. "Never let a crisis go to waste." This administration has certainly benefited hugely from crises. To my mind, they may even have had a hand in some. Now comes a crisis not of its own making; a thankless crisis; a bone-crushing crisis; an unavoidable crisis; a damning crisis - one in which the one who saves will forever be responsible for the saved. All the more reason to cut America down to size - to the likes of the Dominican Republic, for example, which, being right next door, has responded sensibly by putting additional guards along its border.

Though the media is already comparing this to Katrina - praising the president for his timely television appearances and, at the same time, never failing to invoke Bush's Katrina failure - it will not be able to ignore this failure much longer. Even without taking time out of the evening news cast to broadcast the names of soldiers fallen in service of their country (as was done for Bush), the NewsHour will be unable to ignore the steady stream of bad news and rumor emanating from Dante’s deepest rings of hell. After the media has been forced out, imagination will become the news. …and one can only imagine.

No doubt some enterprising blog will risk limb and reason to chronicle this soon to be epic failure, not necessarily to advance a better way forward, but to expose a man who uses his pulpit to make claims that no mortal can reasonably defend; to show up such a man as a charlatan and fraud, so that he will never be taken seriously again. (Good riddance, Mr. Gore. And tell your friend, Danny Glover, to keep talking.)

Look at Your Perps

>…government officials would require bribery and permanent control of the dispute, perhaps over years, and that there never would be resolution or transparency of the decision.<

Candace Rondeaux has just unwittingly described the strategy that particularly Democrats have embraced in our own country. By no means original, it’s been used by every tin-horn dictator that’s ever been given the opportunity to lift himself and his cronies up by driving his own people deeper into the ground. The Dems always whine about how bad everything is. It’s bad alright but, comparatively speaking, it’s far worse in the areas that they themselves control. Katrina hit New Orleans hard, but the storm hit neighboring Mississippi hard as well. We seldom hear about what happened in Mississippi while we constantly hear about New Orleans. New Orleans was Democrat, top to bottom. It consisted of a disproportionate number of welfare clients and affirmative action officials. Mississippi was Republican.

Put yourself in the position of any one of your elected representatives (in Washington). By all accounts, they live rather insular lives. They do not pal around with people like you and me. Instead, they see themselves as highly influential policy wonks, imbued with considerable gifts. A wink and a nod can move millions (of dollars) here and there; for this or that. They are coddled, glad-handed, sweet-talked by powerful interests who seek their favors. They are wined and dined - in some cases, bribed. They know on which side their bread is buttered. Then, there’s the matter of keeping their jobs. They know to hoe the party line because even in their rarified circles there’s a hierarchy based on power. If they have any hope of being allowed to feed at the troth that finances their next campaign, they know they must goosestep to the staccato beat that may not necessarily be in sync with that of the people who elected them.

They look around and note that the natives are restless. There’s all this talk of protests and tea parties. Nevertheless, they’re not all that much concerned – not yet, anyway. Bush and his Republicans were also deeply unpopular. Besides, voters always bitch and moan, even when there’s nothing to bitch and moan about. It’s an integral part of exercising American civic pride. In the end, it really doesn’t make much difference. Only the money in the campaign coffers counts.

What our transplants to Washington do not seem to understand is that with Obama’s election everything changed. The veil has slipped off. Voters have experienced an epiphany. The hypocrisy and corruption in the capital has been exposed. All the happy talk from our so-called leaders sounds hollow no matter how often the (now generally acknowledged to be state- run) major media repeats it.

The lid has come off government; science; Wall Street, academe; foreign policy; terrorism; poverty; health care; media – every major institution has been shown to be completely and utterly corrupt. ‘How so?’ you ask - and there are still far too many who ask. They don’t yet see the bones exposed and moving inside the maggot infested carcass of our Republic through the sloppy steps of its own ritual death dance. “How so?” ask those still living in pre-Obama time. “How so?” ask fellow travelers awaiting the 12th imam in the form of the sacred Communist State. “How so?” ask the one-worlders, the warmers, the Kumbaya singers, the Kool-Aid drinkers, the truthers, the junkies, the (New Orleans) dykers, the America haters; those forever ready to pull the cord, willing to take everything down with them; and a long list of others: intellectuals, entertainers, talk show hosts, the heads of unions, communists, anarchists, Marxists, jihadis (I could go on…) If I have omitted your particular perversion, please excuse the oversight.

How so? Indeed. I think Candace Rondeaux has just answered your question. Take any problem that’s ever been described as intractable – anywhere in the world. Now look at those who would have to go away and retire if the problem should ever get solved. There, look at your perps.