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/

There Is No Middle Ground

‘Common ground’, ‘working together for the good of the American people’, ‘getting the job done’ - all wonderful sentiments, designed to say nothing and, at the same time, placate the masses.

There remain huge differences in the underlying understanding of just what ‘the job’ actually entails. Oh, we can talk about getting unemployment down to 8%, especially if it involves fudging the numbers. We can cut the federal budget the same way. We can improve our education results by giving every graduate a test showing three objects and asking which two are alike. We can offer the people healthcare, houses, and rice (cakes on the fourth of July). We can even fly the flag at sporting events and ‘cut and paste’ the words of the National Anthem onto a teleprompter. We can open our borders and invite everybody who wants to come in. We can export our industries, our secrets and our livelihoods to the hungry abroad. We can take a hands-off approach to brutality and genocide. We can do all these things, but there is one thing we can never do: regain trust in our government.

The way things are today, you’re either for something or against it. It all depends on what you ultimately wish to accomplish. It’s like we’re surrounded by trees in the forest and we can’t find our way out. Each tree demands our undivided attention - each one, a life and death decision - sapping our strength and resolve. Every step involves us in banal argument. What we lack is the long view.

The long view is out there. It’s being consummated right now as we speak - while we argue about this and that.

Egypt is a perfect example. Listening to today’s developments, you’d get the idea that it’s complete and utter chaos over there and that our government doesn’t have the slightest clue about what to make of it. I don’t happen to buy that. I think they know exactly what they’re doing and that it’s playing out exactly the way it was envisioned. No surprises there.

I had to laugh when I heard that Mubarak wants to go to Germany after he steps down. He was our dictator, after all! You mean to say we don’t have a place for him right here in the good ol’ USA? Or maybe, he doesn’t really want to come here, knowing what we did to him.

I still remember how we kept saying that Bush single-handedly made us into the most hated nation on earth. From what I can see, this hasn’t much changed under Obama. In fact, we’ve managed to lose quite a few friends along the way. We certainly haven’t made any new ones. We’re about to lose Israel, and the Suez Canal to boot. What’s that supposed to get us? In case nobody has noticed, the Latin American dominos are falling one by one. What does anyone want to bet we won’t have a communist government on our border with Mexico after their next election?

John Batchelor cites ratings, civility and a depth of understanding the issues; when he should be shouting from the rooftops. Ditto, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy. Either you want to kick over the sand castle or you don’t. There is no middle ground.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Trust

Trust is what breaks down when one has compartmentalized; when one can no longer see the continuum in all, and between things. POTUS does not engender trust. Nor does he trust. POTUS is young, black and highly positioned. Perhaps he does not think he deserves to be where he is. Perhaps he feels he has been put there by others. Perhaps he is not even American.

It’s not about POTUS as much we would like to make it so. It’s about us. It’s about having neglected our duty to stay vigilant. We didn’t pay attention when li’l Johnny came home from school with bananas and hockey sticks. We didn’t correct him when he started out mouthing off about ‘global warming‘. Instead, we let it pass and said, “He’ll learn when he’s older.” No, Obama is not ‘other‘; he is li’l Johnny who never learned to add properly, now become president. Who would have thunk it?

This crisis we’re in is entirely homegrown. We’ve let the weeds overtake the garden. Now that we’re looking for fruit, there’s nothing there. Obama is the product of what we ourselves have done (or neglected to do). Think about it? What foreign power, even in a jealous fit of rage, would ever think of cutting off its mother‘s teat?

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.

Queen For A Day

In theory, we elect politicians to remove impediments that would keep us from living safe, happy and productive lives. In practice, however, politicians have found it is not in their best interests to solve problems – so much better to exploit these for all they’re worth and give them plenty of lip service; to then, on the strength of empty promises, be able to propel would-be kings to victory in the ever ubiquitous next election cycle. It is a clear conflict of interest that is inherent in the system that has now hit the wall, pitting the political class in direct opposition of the expectations of the electorate.

It has also become evident that the electorate has not been holding their elected representatives’ feet to the fire. At the same time, serious concerns have accrued to the point where there is no longer any margin to add additional grievances to the list of already well-established concerns. Especially, ever changing financial realities along with immigration and terrorism are routinely crowded out and left languishing. It is often said that anything done at this point will only make matters worse. Trust in our leadership has seriously eroded.

Elections are the mechanism designed to fix this. Unfortunately, the people from which we are asked to choose invariably come from within the political class which itself is hamstrung by the need to preserve itself.

In America there has been a huge awakening. This is not to say that we now fully understand exactly what and how much is at stake. Unlike the British parliamentary system in which a multitude of parties participate, we only have two. We’ve tried putting Republicans in charge; we’ve tried Democrats. Neither party has particularly impressed us. What now?

We have to get over the notion that the men and women we have been electing to represent us actually do. We have to face up to the fact that they have come primarily only to promote themselves. The most cynical among us understand this. What we don’t yet seem to grasp is that there’s a difference; that elections have consequences. We have to re-learn our civic lessons; we have to re-read our history books. We can do it. When we see a dog, we can easily agree it’s a dog. Yet, when we see a socialist, we’re somehow incapable of saying, “He’s a socialist.” Instead…

In the 50’s there was a TV show entitled, “Queen for a Day”. It followed a simple game format in which the winner was wined and dined and given pretty clothes to wear for 24 hours. That’s basically what we have been doing when electing our officials. We do it on the basis of their being capable of shining in the glare of the media hype. In our time, a man like Lincoln would be a complete washout. We look to poise, sex appeal, skin color and the like. We have become too lazy to examine complex issues.

Suddenly, we find that they have robbed us of our nest egg. Our security hangs by a thread. How could this have happened? Ironically, we may still not have learned our lesson as we seek out Adonis-like faces to match our Gucci accessories.

Plan B

As we struggle with the technical aspects of capping the oil spewing from the collapsed rig in the Gulf of Mexico, we can be quite certain there are those working equally hard to exploit this disaster in order to advance their own political agendas. "You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste…”

After the collapse of the science that propped up the ‘global warming’hoax, this crisis in the Gulf represents Plan B for those who would at any cost seek to throttle down America’s economic engines and thrust her back into the stone age. How convenient for them, this high profile (clearly man-made) ecological mishap – almost God-sent; a black swan. Eyjafjallajokull, we never knew ya!

Where will the White House make its stand? We think we already know, especially if and when it were discovered that it was no less a personage than George W. Bush who donned scuba gear and personally set the explosives. As for now, it’s still BP’s fault (bad enough) and, by extension, Big Oil’s (even worse) – and, of course, America’s in general (horror of all horrors), for its insatiable energy appetites. Almost effortlessly, we’ve automatically tilted back in favor of our flat earth, no-growth argument.
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We dutifully sit and debate the fine points of every issue. The points pulverize into the dust of a zillion minutiae as we continue to analyze endlessly. And before we can throw up our hands in frustration, a new crisis appears out of no where, complete with streamers bearing insult and hostility (which we do our best to counter).

The members of Congress sign their good names to bills they haven’t yet read. When they are asked to explain any given point, we find they are as confused as we are. All they know is that they’re fighting for their lives – as we are.

Mr. Smith’s stint in Washington is no longer fun or productive. Something alien seems to have taken hold of the city. Something’s been added, or something taken away. Something is missing. The newspapers seem to be in on it, but they won’t discuss it: the elephant in the room. There’s plenty of detail to fill their pages – screaming drama from all sides.

It’s classic Cloward-Piven: overwhelm the system; orchestrate crisis; gridlock. No way to get a handle on it. And even if we could, we would be appalled at what we’d find.

It’s time to stop playing. Every move we make (in good faith) sucks us deeper into the sinkhole. That’s how it was designed. The house always wins.

What’s missing is trust. Face it! We don’t trust our government. Anything it might intend has now become tainted with suspicion. It could fix health care; Wall Street; immigration; energy; education – whatever your pet peeve might be – and we wouldn’t trust it as far as we could throw the heads on Mt. Rushmore. We’ve gotten to the point where things can’t be fixed anymore. Everything needs to be replaced. We need to start from scratch.

Politically, we feel cornered - shut out. At the same time we sense danger in the pit of our stomachs. We’re even prepared to forego summer and sprint straight to November, only to discover, perhaps, that our faith in elections will be the last domino to fall.

What then? Move to Australia? Cuba? This dilemma is by no means new. It has been faced by countless peoples before us. Their dream destination was always America. And they came in droves, bringing all they could carry on their backs and in their hearts. America allowed them to make a fresh start. Eventually they would become Americans and prosper beyond their wildest dreams. But that was then…

It’s different now. America has become just like every other hell hole in the world. No need to bother packing.

Bloodying the Sheep

Now that climate change has been certifiably demonstrated to have been a fraud, what else has been fraud? When we were said to have been on the brink of economic collapse? Y2K? Global swine and bird flu pandemic? Poverty? Racism? Terrorism? WMD? Health care crisis? No child left behind? Toyota? The Obama presidency?

Every one of these issues has been politicized. Each one has been orchestrated, promoted and exploited primarily by the Left: Democrats; Marxists; globalists. Each issue has been used as a vehicle to accelerate wealth re-distribution from the private to the public (non-productive) sector; promote panic, chaos; drive wedges; create political power bases based on threat and fear.

The American people will have to begin taking a closer look at every one of these issues (as well as emerging ones) and ask questions. Ordinarily, a free and impartial press would function as the instrument of such scrutiny. But the press itself has become an issue – a platform for the high rollers who have brought us… (well?) fraud.

In all this it’s trust that’s lacking. We can no longer believe what we are told. The propaganda we’re hearing clashes with what we see. We are told the government is broke. The IRS is charged with cracking down on tax cheats, closing loopholes; promoting fairness all around. Meanwhile half of those now in power have distinguished themselves by having broken tax laws. None have been prosecuted; none have gone to jail – as we would have.

There are two classes of privilege in this country: those in power of whom it is said they can do no wrong; and, we, who must negotiate as best we can under a maze of gibberish law and restriction that renders us permanently guilty no matter what we do or how we do it. Whereas they live in their insular Washington hell, we are the livestock out in the stall. Whenever the overbearing stress of ennui strikes them, they come out to the barn and bloody the sheep.

Not much in our news about Argentina these days. But it might do to check it out. It might well be a snapshot of where we’re headed. Cleo’s lessons of history ignored, condemns us to making the same mistakes over and over again.

Our Path of Inattention

We believe what we want to believe. We see what supports our beliefs. We hear what we want to hear. That's how we construct our world. Sometimes the deus ex machina literary device, forgetfulness, is called upon to intercede - when it becomes impossible to ignore or bend the ‘facts’ our way - to round off rough edges of mendacity (as it were), as in photo shop.

It is likely that Kennedy remembers it as he wrote it. It is unfair of Roger Mudd to challenge him now; now that Ted can no longer defend himself. The clip reminds me of what they did to Bush reading 'My Pet Goat'.

Sure there's more media available for the people to access today. But we have already surpassed the saturation point. Not everyone has the time or desire to peruse every news web. And who among us is qualified to make a decision as to which one is telling the truth?

Again, it comes down to what we want to hear; what we want to see. You can never expect a good progressive to listen to Limbaugh (unless there’s an underlying psychological problem). By the same token, you can never expect a good conservative to listen to Olbermann. You can never expect a good Christian to listen to rap, or a rapper to listen to Bach. You can't even get people of different ideologies to talk to each other anymore unless they've got something other than politics to discuss – something that they can agree on or mutually benefit from. Sometimes politics poisons everything and causes brother to rise up against brother. That’s why our mothers told us never to talk about politics or religion in good company.

What it comes down to is trust. We listen to those we trust. It is significant when nearly two million people converge in Washington to protest Obama’s policies. It is even more significant when most of the media goes out of their way to marginalize it. It means that someone is being disingenuous. Someone is lying. Someone is hiding something under a bushel. Someone is no longer worthy of our trust.

It’s gone beyond words; beyond the ‘facts’. Call it morphic resonance, call it anything – a gut feeling. Ted Kennedy was one of the architects of what we have today. He was a deeply flawed man. As such he could be ‘used’ to help accomplish what the Left has accomplished in America. We only saw what we wanted to see – the flag; the dynasty; the glitter of privilege. We ignored all the rest of the clues from Chappaquiddick on to Ted throwing his support to Obama.

Now, we can no longer ignore what has happened. Most of us are still inclined to shoot the messenger. But as our nation continues to flounder - as Bush slips from memory - more and more will be forced to connect the dark and sinister dots. To some these will represent a flock of black swans. To others these will mark our path of inattention; our almost pathological clinging to the dubious solution of appeasement when confronted by a challenge; our taste for having sand covering our sense organs.

It has been said often that people get the government they deserve. Perhaps it’s right and proper for us to suffer for our sins. The tragedy is that our children will suffer as well. Our unborn have not yet had the opportunity to make mistakes. Yet they too will suffer. For the first time in our history we will have handed our kids a nation in ruins. No doubt about it, this is historic.