Dilma's Dilemma

Another teachable moment. Another glimpse into the mind of our president, Barack Hussein Obama. How he is handling Libya could have been foreseen long ago. Other commanders-in-chief have done as much at the mere drop of a hat. It’s not what happens there that should be of concern to us. Of far greater concern should be what we ourselves have become.

We have become a nation of lawless and corrupt governance. Our Constitution specifies that Congress must be consulted, and be made to approve any deployment of American troops overseas. Barack Hussein Obama is the first president to bypass this convention. Instead, he claims to derive his power from what he refers to as the ‘international community’ (UN). As such, he has further shredded the Constitution of the United States. At the same time, he is continuing to marginalize the role of Congress. So much for representative governance.

Again, all this could have been foreseen. Months back, I wrote that the deliberate chaos in the 111th Congress would serve to discredit the institution irreparably. Here we have it in black and white. What does this say about the sanctity of our vote? In a short two years we have devolved from a constitutional republic to a tyranny.

Our media does not appear to grasp the enormity of what has happened to us. Small wonder. The success or failure of any quasi-democratic setup depends on an educated public. Our schools have become mere cookie cutters. The level of understanding among recent graduates is astoundingly below par. It cuts across the board from math through English. “When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.”

I understand that polls are often skewed to elicit certain answers; to show specific results, most likely ones that grab headlines and spur magazine sales; and, don’t forget, of course, to promote the urgency for more money for favored institutions (such as teachers unions) and in NEWSWEEK’s case, Democrats. In this particular survey, published this week, I suspect, the numbers are probably even worse. The teaching of civics and history has perhaps suffered most in recent years. It’s natural that these would be edged out by an ever greater emphasis on ideologically based solutions. Let’s face it, Marxism is now in vogue.

As our president travels splendidly throughout Brazil, burnishing his Marxist credentials, his unconstitutional behavior with regard to Libya goes almost unnoticed. Obviously, most Brazilians have not yet gotten the message that he is one of them as evidenced by the feisty street demonstrations against him. But Dilma knows why he’s come. She’ll let him grovel and beg for her validation. Still, she must weigh her ultimate approach to him against her own need for a demon. The U.S. has always served admirably in this regard.

Even if the new Brazilian president should withhold her favors, the trip should still be regarded as a success. When things go wrong in Libya, Obama can always say, “It wasn’t me. It’s all Hillary’s fault. I wasn’t even there.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Obama, The Destroyer

Let’s stipulate that a general collapse of the United States would plunge the entire world into unfathomable chaos; that no nation would be spared from the resulting fallout.

I have since read various assessments of Barack Hussein Obama’s recent high-profile globetrotting and it’s pretty much unanimous: It was an unmitigated disaster for the U. S. Obama failed to deliver in all he set out to accomplish, leaving the general impression that Obama is far from being a prime-time player on the world stage.

The only bright spot was India where he was warmly received and his rhetoric was much applauded and appreciated. But even in India, on reflection, it is now acknowledged that his words were empty. Still, the major media in the U.S. have seized on Obama’s India visit and proclaimed it as a huge success, even going so far as Newsweek depicting the president as a god, specifically Shiva, juggling the demands of his office competently and with an abundance of good cheer within a halo of fire. (It is likely that Newsweek failed to grasp the irony of choosing Shiva as representing the American president for, within the holy Hindu trinity, Shiva is known as The Destroyer.)

We’ve already witnessed the world tearing at its seams since Obama’s election - nations jockeying for position in the absence of traditional restraints. We’ve watched the divides within our own nation becoming more and more pronounced. We’ve watched our economy going down the drain and no one stepping forward to stop the hemorrhaging.

We’re not the only ones watching. China is watching as well. They see us as rogue and unpredictable – not North Korea, which is totally under its control.

China may be sending us a message. By repeatedly exposing Obama’s reticence to act globally, his child-like impetuousness at home (playing fast and loose with the economy), they are trying to tell us that we better get our act together before it all falls apart.

Content, content, content...

The way I see it, this whole argument Amazon and Apple are having is moot. The iPad will flop (as Spindle has done). I heard a popular radio host here recently advise to hold up on buying the iPad because of its various deficiencies. For one thing, it was said, you cannot perform two or more tasks at the same time on iPad; another, it doesn’t have a camera.

All the jokes about the name itself, point to a bigger problem with the device. The trend is toward combining all things in one reasonably portable device. People do not want to have to go to different devices for different functions. Neither do I believe (and many, including JB, will disagree with me on this) that an electronic alternative to a book constitutes a lasting alternative. The recent shift to the internet for information at the expense of books, newspapers and magazines is not a function of the written word (on paper) having become obsolete. The reason for the shift is content and content alone.

The public is not stupid. Yes, price is a factor. Yet, it is well known that content trumps delivery; that simply putting ideology and spin out there in any form no longer cuts it, especially when it goes against the grain of common sense. That is why Newsweek got only 35 paid subscribers when they made their internet offering. That is why The New York Times and others are drowning in a sea of red ink. That is why neither the iPad nor the internet will save them.