Stinks To High Heaven

‘Purposeful’? Please! The (UK) Telegraph reports that Barack Obama is set to release up to 2000 photographs of prisoner abuse by U.S. military personnel. This comes at a time when he decides not to release pictures of the dead Osama bin Laden. While it is likely that both issues are still in flux – as the WH has been known to waver – the fact that this is even being discussed at this time is nothing short of a slap at America.

There is your reason for why former President Bush will not be seen with Obama (at Ground Zero or anywhere. I would even go so far as to suggest that everyone stay away from today’s wreath laying.) I have often said that the primary aim of this post-American administration is to sow chaos. We have chaos in our financial markets; we have chaos in our energy sector; we have chaos in our government… Everywhere you look there is chaos and no attempt is being made to steer away from what appears to be total collapse.

This incident involving the release of photographs shows as clearly as anything I have seen what Obama is up to overall. It can no longer be regarded as isolated happenstance; a mistake; second thoughts; inexperience – what have you. The pattern is unmistakable.

There is now an attempt to pull Pakistan into it. It is said, they couldn’t possibly NOT have been involved. Pakistan could actually be cleaner than we think. Maybe Pakistan knew that bin Laden was already dead. They were simply paid not to interfere with Obama’s Hollywood photo shoot. I’ve seen the pictures purported to be of the dead bin Laden. I see a dead man. I don’t necessarily see bin Laden. For all I know, it could all be a hoax. The argument against it, of course, is that too many people had to have been involved. Somebody would be bound to talk.

It’s not that there haven’t been hoaxes before. Do I have to list them? ‘Global warming’, for one. Many also suspect the financial meltdown just before the 2008 election. What about the current American presidency itself? You would have to agree that the way in which Obama was elected was highly unusual. (No background checks; no checks at all.) And you’ve got to ask yourself: Would America really have elected a Marxist, had they known? Come to think of it, the last thing I saw on television that was real was the World Trade Towers coming down. Since then, it’s all been pap, and us trying so hard to believe that we haven’t been played for fools.

BTW, I continue to be astounded by Larry Kudlow’s continued optimism. I see nothing on the horizon that would justify this. I agree that if a proper election were held in 2012, our skies would brighten. At this point the leg of a stool would be an improvement over the current WH occupant. And yet, every day we are told that Obama could and will win reelection. I, for one, am wondering if we’ll even make it that far.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

A Little Bit Pregnant

JB raises a salient point when he poses the question regarding OBL being shot in cold blood; that is to say, he was ‘unarmed’. Even the WH spin-Meisters appeared to have trouble explaining it as evidenced by the fact that they felt compelled to change their story regarding this. It must be assumed that the second version is true.

This administration has had trouble with (what now appears to be) this particular policy before. It reminds me of the would-be Detroit bomber who was read Miranda rights before he even had time to spill the beans. And again, with a strike that presumably was designed to take out Kaddafi (but failed to achieve its objective). It may just be a way for the administration to circumvent its own rules and directives; and also a way to keep from having to add to the inconvenient GITMO population. It may also be due to an understanding that there are now no longer any interrogation methods at our disposal that are both legal and effective.

It’s not a question of us knowing what bin Laden would have said. By unwritten contract with our government we agree to not know some of the seamier deals that go on between governments and international outlaws. We assume that there are competent people whose job it is to know and how to handle such things while keeping our own best interests at heart.

I remember Bush saying (shortly after the 9/11 attacks) that appropriate measures will be taken; that we will be aware of some of these and not of others; that even our successes might never be known. In trying to find the exact quote (which I didn’t), I ran across Bush’s speech before a joint session of Congress (with Tony Blair in attendance). I was moved by this speech. I had forgotten it, though I must have seen it because I remember the line, ‘you’re either with us or…”

How our world has changed since then! Bush was subsequently attacked and vilified incessantly for cheap partisan political advantage. He was mocked, taunted. He was denied his victory. That would go the Barack Hussein Obama in much diluted form.

I urge you to watch this particular speech again and tell me honestly how Bush’s own words paint him as a buffoon. He was never a buffoon. He was painted that by ourselves (for whatever prurient reasons). This speech says volumes about the Bush presidency – the last American presidency.

Everything Bush spoke that night was true, logical and understandable. His plan of attack was measured and sound. Little did he know that the nation would be derailed by our own; that the enemies of America had already infiltrated and organized into a powerful force at the highest levels of our key institutions.

Instead of coming together, we came apart, installing our first post-American president to our highest office; a man, whose words ring hollow to most Americans. They serve only to divide us even further. Trust has been broken between us and our government. Even, what now should be regarded as a great victory is tainted with uncertainty and suspicion.

Take some time to hear President Bush’s post 9/11 speeches again and note how far we have fallen – now, to the very brink of bankruptcy. Take a look at the pictures of the collapsed Trade towers. It’s a fair metaphor of where we find ourselves today. Bin Laden never had to lift another finger. We ourselves bravely went out and finished his work in his stead.

The fact that many people are yet unwilling to recognize what has happened to us makes us into little girls who come home and announce, “Guess what? I’m a little bit pregnant.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dropping the Ball

By all accounts, it was a festive time in New York’s Times Square last night. People from all over the world were standing shoulder to shoulder to celebrate the coming of the new year. Nothing bad happened. The police was quite up to the task. The weather was as warm as it’s ever been at this time of year.

Despite other New Year’s celebrations in major cities around the globe, this one is the big one. If time were to suddenly stop just before midnight - even after Paris, Delhi, and Christ Church had already slipped over - we would see ourselves as stuck in the old year forever.

In fact, New York represents the world in a nutshell - an amalgam of people of every persuasion existing side by side like odd sticks of furniture in a comfortable room. When something gets upset in this room, all people come together and grieve. That’s why the ruins of the World Trade towers have been among the most visited sites in this city - more popular than Angkor Watt.

By all accounts, yesterday’s Times Square New Year’s celebration was a huge success. By global standards New York’s New Years Eve countdown is a relatively modest affair. There are no huge fireworks displays; no god-like rulers making pronouncements. Instead, second or third-rate actors are given a stage to shine. This is the people’s party. They often come from far away just for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of having been a part of it. It’s bigger than Stonehenge.

Last night, the people attending were happy to have made it through yet another year - even with the obvious shift of political power and money to the nation’s (unindicted) capital well underway; even with the slight irony of all the world’s eyes watching America drop the ball.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Don't Tell Anybody

Just the other day, I heard one of our local morning radio hosts expressing surprise at the speed with which the new “Freedom Tower” is going up. “It’s almost half-way there,” he said.

I haven’t been there myself recently. I can only guess that he’s right. The fact that it’s taken us almost 10 years to get crackin’, however, is a disgrace. On the battlefield, the role of flag bearer is always most important and, hence, dangerous. The man remains a target to the end. If he should fall, another will pick up the flag and continue the advance. The soldiers take their cues from the position of the flag.

We’ve allowed our flag to lay fallow for far too long. We’ve been wrangling about it either to advance personal egos or to keep personal egos from advancing. In a way, the threat of seeing a mosque completed in the proximity of the Trade Center site on the 10th anniversary of its collapse, seems to have spurred us to action.

Make no mistake, the World Trade towers were our flag. They were our monument to the success of capitalism. It was our Mecca. Its destruction should have roiled us to immediate anger and to taking revenge. One just doesn’t leave one’s flag lying on the ground this long to be trampled.

I’m glad that it’s finally underway. Cynics say that we’re just building another target. They advise that we bulldoze the whole thing, plant a few trees in memory and be done with it. Our enemies say, “Let us plant our own flag while you declare defeat.” It’s almost gotten to the point where many of us no longer care either way.

We botched our revenge in large part because we left our flag to be trampled. Our anger flagged because our own government convinced us to take our enemies’ advice: “We’re trying to kill you. It’s true. But don’t tell anybody.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Going For the Jugular

It’s been going on for years: the demonization of Big Oil by the Left – like Ahmadinejad promising Israel’s demise. Remember, ‘global warming’? The torching of SUV dealerships? Strictures against drilling. Instability in the Middle East. The list goes on and on. We now have a leftist president. Why would he now suddenly abandon one of the Left’s key tenets: the war on oil and all it represents: prosperity; capitalism; America itself?

Building the World Trade Center complex so high as to tower over the economic capital of the free world was largely symbolic. The attacks on it were symbolic as well, designed to rip the pride out of America’s heart. We have never recovered. It’s turned us into sniveling victims; forced us into taking a defensive stance. The red-green alliance has been hammering us ever since. Ten years later, symbolism is passé. Now they’ve graduated to going for the jugular: OIL.

Imagine a new neighbor has moved in next-door. One morning you go to work and you decide to use your wife’s car instead of your own. Later, your wife takes your car to go shopping. It blows up when she cranks the ignition.

You are grieving. In an apparent gesture of good will, your neighbor’s wife brings over a casserole. Your hands are no longer steady. You drop the dish, spilling its contents on the kitchen floor. The dog comes over and eats it. He goes into convulsions and dies – poisoned.

One night, your house catches fire and burns to the ground. You manage to save yourself by jumping out a window just in the nick of time.

At what point do you begin to suspect your neighbor of something?

Nobody's Talking

I’m not seeing a plan. All I’m seeing is BP blamed a lot – and Big Oil. How convenient! It’s the same as it was back just before Obama was elected, when we had our big brush with economic Armageddon. At that time the big banks were said to be at fault. And this still is the case. What I’m saying is, we never seem to get at the root of a problem. We never go back quite far enough to examine its cause.

Yet, something caused Bush to panic and start insisting on TARP. And something caused Deepwater Horizon to blow up. It was a huge structure (32,588 tons; 112 meters long; 78 meters wide; 97 meters high). We say it was an ‘accident’. But look at it this way: When the World Trade Towers collapsed, nobody could claim it was due to a mere 'accident' in the kitchen of its ‘Windows On the World’ restaurant. It took something much bigger to bring those buildings down.

The following is only a partial list of recent semi-successful news blackouts we have come to know of.

1. Operation Orchard
2. Specific documentation detailing the spark (and origin) that got TARP rolling.
3. Bhutto assassination
4. South Korean ship sinking

And now we can add the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon to our list. Somebody knows the answers to all of this. (I suspect that JB knows.) But nobody’s talking. Why? It's quite obvious. If we knew only half of what’s going on, we’d be out on the streets with our pitchforks. Perhaps Obama’s only crime is his sloppiness in keeping things covered up. Also, the blame game seems to still be going well. …and we’re still only up to the second letter of the alphabet after all.