You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
~~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005

Wise words from a man who didn't have to witness the wheels that are now in motion.

1st Amendment Is Under Siege

So it's contrivance wrapped in a good deal of artifice. It's entire premise is a matter of concealing unattractive attributes while emphasizing the positives.
There are judges but it's an unlikely arena to expect a fight over first amendment rights. But then again, it is called the "Miss USA Pageant"

Fact: Perez iz a gay, opinionated weasel who has made a career of ridiculing celebrities.
Fact: The question by this particular judge was loaded and agenda laden
Fact that matters: on the day of the Miss USA pageant the U.S. Constitution is still the foundation of our great and good country where this contest was held and that document holds far greater legal authority then any pageant or judge.

Fact: Carrie Prejean, while wearing very little clothing, posed for a photographer
Fact: Carrie Prejean has breast implants
Fact: Carrie is Miss California and as such a pageant participant in the national contest
Fact that matters: Carrie Prejean is an American citizen who has certain inalienable rights under our great and good country's Constitution, no less so because she's a pageant contestant with breast implants and a modeling career and no less so on that day when she said, ""I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman ... that's how I was raised."

Gay Perez is a professional blogger (don't get me started on how that vocation is about seven steps below the basement where the professional video gamer lives). Blogger Perez's fame is purely based on belittling celebrities. He decided to use his largely insignificant, temporary and arbitrary authority as a pageant judge to bully a contestant and grind his axe against society at large. He knew his question was provocative only because his position is widely unpopular. If not then why ask it? Why not try to stump the beauty with something along the lines of a geography question or perhaps by asking "what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" But this proto-celeb was right in the sites of this big bad celebrity slayer. There was no way he wasn't going to take his shot at such an easy target, particularly when it could also serve the purpose of advancing his career and his homosexual agenda.

And like most bullies he had every expectation that he'd make his victim squirm and possibly eat a mouthful of dirt before saying, "Uncle," as in, "My uncle Larry married my other uncle Fred."

Instead his question was met with surprising and unexpected courage.

It would have been in the spirit and history of such a competition and in keeping with the expectations created by so many trite and forgettable responses along with so many bumbling and only slightly more memorable gaffs for Carrie to either fumble through or gloss over her own reply. Instead, with only slight hesitation, making the moment that much more dramatic and true, she faced the cameras and said what she believed. And after all, why not? She is an American. She has a right to free speech without persecution. Or does she?

In essence, in his own vernacular, Perez got bzitch slapped. Of course he was going to let out a high pitched yelp and then slap back.

So what followed was not surprising at all but what also had the effect of making this a more significant story about one group of Americans defending the all important right to free speech against the attacks by a vocal minority, a number of vocal minorities who want to subvert our system of laws that allows them to be vocal in the first place. The bully got propped up and dusted off by the bully's pack of toady thugs, a.k.a. the media. The little gal who delivered the stunning blow was attacked by the mob of cowards, a.k.a. the media.

I heard some amateur variety talk show types claiming there was no violation of free speech. I guess unless a hand is clapped over someone's mouth or they are thrown in some frigid prison completely cut off from society then it couldn't possibly be an infringement on this American right of personal freedom. And that's precisely how political correctness is allowed to operate and ultimately become so effective. It's not overt, at least not until it's too late. Certain types of speech are shamed publicly and frequently until it enters the collective subconscious. Then people would not dare speak in a certain way about this protected group or that sacred cow. Then because no one is saying the words, the words and eventually even the thoughts go away and free speech has a little corner cut away and therefore dies a little. So even though the idea of gay marriage is widely unpopular, speaking out openly about it means you will have to defend your position, or in Carrie's case, defend your character and all of your past actions and words. As the PC Nazi's would have it, better to avoid the insidious attacks by remaining mute or just going along rather than speaking your mind.

This is what Jonah Goldberg calls "Liberal Fascism" in his book of the same name. This is the PC nonsense that undermines our 1st Amendment. This is precisely what is wrong with "political correctness." There is nothing correct about it because if you give credence to it then you give those with an agenda and a public platform authority over our use of language. You cede control of your free speech to someone with a much less honorable and much narrower vision than our founding fathers possessed when they framed our Constitution with this all important cornerstone.

But in the end, there was a winner - Donald Trump's ego.
Oh, and Americans who can look to Carrie as an example of staying true to yourself even when it's unpopular and may otherwise hurt you in some way.

But perhaps there is an epilogue that will be written too, one where Carrie ends up the real winner. Obviously I already think she is for having the courage of her convictions, for not making a compromise, for acting in a fashion that won't require her to make a rationalization or feel a regret over this episode later on in her life. But I also have to say as an openly straight guy there is currently only one other pageant contestant that I can name. She was scandalized too but is now the most well known of all such contestants, with a continuing career in acting and music. Well, maybe Carrie isn't the next Vanessa Williams but neither has to end up beholden to a group of opinionated pageant judges for their greater successes in our free country.

98 . . . . 99 . . . 100 . . .

(but don’t stop counting now)

It’s time to celebrate the first 100 days. Only Thirteen Hundred and Sixty One more to go.

But before I get into his list of accomplishments I feel it’s important to put this all in some sort of context. So first a word on polling. If you’ve ever polled over the telephone then you have some idea how these work. Many are commissioned by newspapers and television news. The poll is structured in accordance with their preferences. Your responses to the questions have to conform with a very rigid and finite range of possible answers (i.e. Completely Satisifed, Somewhat Satisfied, Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied). In this age of drive-by journalism we rarely see the raw polling data. Instead we get question 8 and 32 and 49 and some obtuse analysis by some quasi-academic blowhard of what those three questions mean about the public subconscious. But I digress, much like a national poll might do.

So some polls were a bit more straightforward in their questions and in the way they were administered, almost as if they were a national election without a heavy dose of ACORN involvement. Someone directed me to the MSNBC online poll. Suffice it to say MSNBC has a very clear far-left liberal bias and attracts the following: Microsoft employees, people incapable of changing their home page from the default setting that comes on their Microsoft computers, Matt Lauer, Keith Olberman junkies and Rachel Maddow’s staff who are looking for a news “scoop” for her next broadcast. I went to the poll, the object of which was to give Obama and his administration a letter grade for his First 100 days in office. I fully suspected the responses to lean towards favorable. I was not entirely shocked to find the responses polarized. I was heartened to see that even this hippie fly-strip of a web page could attract what seems to be a pretty representative response.

As one fellow stock boy and future mediocratite once said to me, “C’s make degrees”. But not even the biggest, lamest, dodgeball banning, everyone-gets-a-trophy, No Child Left Behind, Cultural Relativist loser could make the case that a “D” grade is something to which one would aspire.

So if you add together the percentage of people giving a D or F grade that would be 54% against him, which is the percentage that voted for him in the actual general election (the whole nation and not just Manhattan and San Francisco). What a difference 100 days makes. If this were a national election and not just a poll that would mean he would lose the popular vote . . . and that, my friends, is why he’s trying to give amnesty to Illegals and give them free health care benefits too.

Later that same person who pointed me to the poll said, “I was watching MSNBC about noon just to see if they said anything about the poll. They did not mention this poll directly but as I figured, they were reporting a 60% approval rating for BO. Add up the A, B, C, and D. Typical for MSNBC.”

I realized then that I might be wrong in my own calculations. So I checked and lo and behold, MSNBC, a network that is dead-last in the news ratings, is aspiring to rise up and be at a “D” level.

But back to the point of who is really being graded here, well, you be the judge

Obama’s Hopeless Change

Score Card

1. Use of Executive Order to repeal the “Mexico City” policy originally passed by Reagan and reinstated by Bush (43) after Clinton repealed it. Now U.S. tax payer’s dollars may be used to fund abortion activities outside the U.S. In day 2 of his new administration during the worst economic crisis in three decades it was more important for him to ensure we could spend tax dollars the U.S. did not even have in order to export his pro-abortion agenda.
2. Going back on campaign promises to not allow lobbyist to work on his cabinet. Change that did not actually occur.
3. Eric Holder, the Marc Rich Pardon-gate co-conspirator turned Attorney General.
4. Tim Geithner – Tax Cheat to run Treasury Dept. / IRS
5. Tom Daschle – nominee for HHS – Lobbyist Tax Cheat. When pressure mounts he steps down from contention. Obama supports on Monday, but Wednesday admits publicly, “I screwed up.” By the way, nice language, President Jack-Hole. Kids will want to be President when they grow up so they can curse on national broadcast television. This also marks another occasion, not the first nor last time the wheels of the Obama bus roll over someone that becomes politically inconvenient for him.
6. In a January speech B.H. Obama says, "Now is not the time" for companies "to make profits." Is Free Trade / Capitalism Under Fire? You be the judge.
7. 2.3.09 – just 15 days in office (including inauguration day) he “was tired of being in the White House” and needed to “break out” of his executive schedule. The Senate and Congress were busy debating the largest spending bill ever and hours and days later the president would be scolding those impeding his special interest, pork laden monstrosity as obstructionists who were not taking action fast enough. Who's working too hard and needs a break? After this, Middle Class America.
   
8. Response to a crisis when ice causes power outage in Kentucky – no response – “I myself have been without power since last Tuesday (10 days) and I am not complaining because I do live in a rural area. There are great guys working to help everyone and I know of electric companies from all over the country have come in to help. That being said they complained that Bush didn't get to New Orleans with Katrina for a couple of days, but I don't think Mr. Obama has even made a flyover and seen the destruction.” This happens while . . .
9. President flies AF-1 to western part of Virginia for a junket with the Democrats in Congress.
10. Spendulus Bill gets signed into law without being in the "light of day" even 48 hours, nor long enough for the signators to have read it, let alone the 5 days promised by Obama. My children who are not yet of working age are saddled with tens or possibly even hundreds of thousands of dollars in burdensome national debt. The CBO calculates the debt is unsustainable. Republican Congressman Paul Ryan calculates that if the U.S. even plans to payoff this debt it will require a 68% tax rate on most of the working class and over 95% for the entrepreneur class who start most small businesses and create the largest percentage of new jobs.
11. Speech in Indiana to whine to the American public about his Spendulus bill - "Not a single pet project," he told the news conference. "Not a single earmark." And "My bottom line is, are we creating 4 million jobs?" – 1^st is only technically true. They are worse than earmarks because they aren’t spelled out that specifically meaning these are more dollars, just like the TARP funds that have no accountability for how they are actually spent. 2^nd point – we’ll see.
12. Passage of Trillion $ “stimulus” – DOW Jones = 7,800 from 9625 on Nov. 4th
13. Obama appointee Attny General – Eric Holder calls American’s “Cowards” in a statement about racism. Obama has no comment.
14. 9000 earmarks in the new Federal Budget from the No Ear Marks President
15. Overturning Stem Cell research ban (see #1 in reference to unborn babies). Scientist are making greater strides using the uncontroversial adult stem cell. The need for this Executive action is deemed unnecessary but happens anyway.
16. GM & Chrysler asking for additional bail outs after receiving Billions at the end of 2008
17. DOW is at 6,600
18. Geithner lies. Obama administration continues to support him. After 50 days in office there is still no plan by Obama’s appointee to fix the loan crisis that was the catalyst for the market collapse.
19. Obama tables the idea of making veterans with war wounds use their private health benefits to pay for medical treatment in order to save half a billion dollars – after spending Trillions. He tables it after facing immediate opposition.This is his first shot (a warning shot, also called testing the enemies defenses) at the U.S. military and he hasn’t been in office for 60 days. First Shot . . . there will be more.
    
20. Obama in campaign mode after winning the election – is covered picking his college brackets and goes on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.

TERM – TAKING the OBAMA or PLEADING the OBAMA like Pleading the 5^th Amendment but in this case Not Doing Anything as well as Not Saying Anything when in a position of responsibility and power.

20. Congress passes an amendment to TARP which will levee a 90% tax on executive bonuses in response to AIG paying bonuses with TARP funds. The President, a former lawyer, legal professor and editor of the Harvard Law Review fails to object or in any of his public statements to identify this as a Bill of Attainder which is Unconstitutional. This is not interpretively unconstitutional like Roe v. Wade. It would not require a Supreme Court hearing. It only requires about a sixth grade reading level and a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Don’t believe me. Don’t strain yourself by bothering to read the whole document either. He certainly never has. Skip to Article I, Section 9.
21. White House calls for GM President Rick Wagoner to resign – a move that can only be reconciled with a Socialist intent in this administration. GM is still GM but the G now stands for “Government” instead of “General”
22. N. Korea launches ICBM – Obama Pleads the Obama and “calls for action” from members of the U.N. Hey numb-nutz, you are the Commander in Chief. It’s your job to TAKE ACTION.
23. America is openly ridiculed by despotic South and Central American dictators right to President Obama's face. He smiles and gives thanks that they don’t blame him personally for America’s indiscretions because he was only three years old at the time America was committing our "offenses" against these known torturers, thieves and scoundrels running these countries.
    
24. See the lack of response to the Somali Pirates who hold a U.S. commercial ship captain hostage (next post below). Another incident involving Taking the Obama.
25. In the days preceding the lawful and peaceful Tea Parties the Dept. of Homeland Security headed up by new Obama appointee with the frighteningly familiar first name Janet (as in Reno) Napolitano issues a broad and vague warning about the danger of military vets and conservatives often with a single political issue focus. (Second shot at the military?) There is nothing factual to substantiate the assertions in this memo and many believe it was designed to be an intimidation tactic aimed at Tea Party participants. And before you say, “you’ve gone too far” read the latest headlines (just beyond the 1st 100 days on how the White House employed its own "thugs" to make threats and intimidate hedge funds to abandon their legal contractual rights and agree to a restructuring of Chrysler that heavily favors the pro-Obama UAW. Obama's socialism trumps your adherence to Magna Carta and the Constitution, America.
    
26. AF-1 is commissioned to “buzz” lower Manhattan. The low level maneuver which for many New Jersey residents and New Yorkers was frighteningly reminiscent of 9/11 was unannounced even to the Mayor of the City. The secret mission sent many into a panic and Democrat Mayor Bloomberg responded with vocal criticism of the President. No one in the administration can say who ordered the $300,000 flight. Apparently, no one is responsible for the AF-1 flight plans.
    
27. DOW at 8000. A 35% decline YoY. Still awaiting clarity in Geithner's plan.
    

and it continues . . .

First Failures As Commander In Chief.

I've heard a lot of mixed up rhetoric from those who are simply reaching to paint the Somali Pirates - Maersk Alabama episode as an Obama failure. And in the end it all sounds like the verdict is being delivered before the jury convened.

I did notice several inarguable facts about this, am able to relate this to what I know and draw some conclusions of my own.

First, the Navy's SEAL Team performed flawlessly under the circumstances. Any one with military experience knows the pain of Hurry-Up and Wait. Add to that the pressure of a life and death situation, now add to that the frustration that your own government is creating obstacles and distractions from your mission. The outcome speaks for itself. U.S. prisoner freed unharmed, three dead terrorists and one more taken into U.S. custody.

So why does BHO get a failing grade on his 1st unavoidable test as Commander in Chief?
Well, he failed to do what the job title suggests.
He failed to Command, to Lead, to be clear and unequivocal in a situation with only one possible course of action.

For a guy who's been on camera so much that there is reasonable criticism he is overexposed, now he has his first legitimate purely military situation that requires him to get up in front of the cameras and make a statement and he . . .

. . . let's his Press Secretary give a vague, non-committal response to the media that seems to want to downplay the situation.
Some would suggest they (Axlerod, Emmanual) were trying to get polling on this situation while Hillary was looking for the appropriate embassy to beg for release with an American apology. Maybe and if so, reprehensible but not surprising.

What veteran and active duty military alike well know that the dual role of President of the U.S. means there comes a time to take off the hat of the diplomat and put on the uniform of a Patriot. BHO failed miserably preferring to keep negotiations going with "Tribal Elders" which is all he could find because Somalia doesn't have an actual effectual national government for which to engage in a diplomatic dialogue. For those talking about a tactical aspect of not making our intentions known to the sea-born terrorists before the SEALs were ready to spring their trap, doubtful the four Somali Gilligans were keeping up with the world news of the day, they threw the 1st Sat Phone into the ocean, paranoid that the U.S. Navy was using it to listen in on their conversations. Keep in mind that they were tethered to the fantail of a U.S. Destroyer. Most of us aren't deeply acquainted with Naval warfare tactics and yet we were all puzzled by the naivete of that move by these "pirates." The end-game was all too obvious at that point.

Just like there was only one course of action for our military with only one possible outcome for the terrorists there was only one course of action a Commander in Chief could have taken. Get up in front of everyone and make it clear we weren't going to start negotiating with terrorists or those who harbor them and letting these terrorists know if they didn't stand down their day of reckoning was imminent. Swift, decisive, this commander is not. Now there was always the possibility that Captain Phillips could have been injured or even killed by the terrorist or in a cross fire. And this is where it becomes distinctly Obama-like.

Our perennial fence sitter and consistent ballot caster of the meaningless vote of "present", America's Dilettante in Chief chose to wait and see the outcome before making a declarative statement about a future course of action. Am I the only one that gets the feeling if Captain Phillips had been injured or killed that the declaration would have been entirely different, "Rahm, hand me the yellow envelope. That's the statement I will give. The one condemning the military for not continuing negotiations over the Sat-Phones and taking action in a preemptive and risky Bush-like manner. Make sure that's the one loaded in the teleprompter."

A military commander stands up in front of his troops even when the odds are not good, when death is probable and puts his reputation, his career and his full intent on the line. And his troops, respecting that certitude follow him anyway because of his leadership. He doesn't hedge. He doesn't wait to take action. He doesn't negotiate with an enemy who has made their deadly intentions very clear. He doesn't stay out of site in a bunker, sticking his head out after the last shots are fired in hopes of declaring victory.

Now reconcile the actions of this new CiC (Civilian in Chief), wet behind those giant ears but who has a military force that is unparalleled in the modern world and battle tested in the war on terror versus 4 teenage thugs with rusty AK-47's in an open boat. Is his choice to hide-and-go-wait really anything other than an EPIC FAIL ?

All Part Of The Plan

So other than the most popular conservative of the moment, yes, Rush Limbaugh, I don't think any of the rest have figured out what is becoming all too obvious to me. Perhaps it's because the rest are too distracted with the buzz of punditry in their ears to observe and make a logical deduction.

Failure is the desired goal.

I came to this conclusion weeks ago, roughly midway into the new administration's term, at about day 20. Oh, and if the first 100 days is the honeymoon then I want to know if an annulment from this president is an option.

When I say failure is desired I am not speaking about Rush wishing for failure in the same way I was calling for failure in my last blog post. No. I am talking about the Obama administration planning, scheming and executing their plan designed to result in multiple systemic failures in various elements of the free markets and our Constitutional Democracy.

There is no way any political scientist, astrophysicist or any sane person, for that matter can connect the dots between what is being said in speeches and press conferences and what is being executed in cabinet appointments and legislative agendas. The words don't match up with the actions. So I don't even bother with the words anymore and look purely to the actions.

The DOW has been on a power dive since the Obamakins took office. They passed an enourmous spending bill with very little actual stimulus and the stock market free falls even further. They follow this up by talking about nationalizing banks; more downward spiral. The ink hasn't dried on the trillion dollar catastrophe and a budget bill for half a trillion more is in the works. And then the national healthcare agenda is being pushed before we even know if anyone will be left as a permanent member of the working class. Cap and Trade and Card Check legislation is coming, guaranteed to further hinder free enterprise from growing inside America. If you stop to ask "why?" you get this answer.

It's all part of the plan. The worse it gets the more the Spendocrats can push an agenda of entitlement programs. The more of us that are unemployed, the more of us will become federal dependents of this entitlement culture. And the more of us that are sucking the gov't teet the less likely we will be to vote out our "benefectors"; the less willing to vote in an opposition party that will dismantle all of those programs. Bill and Hillary tried it by nationalizing health care and other social programs and spending measures but then they lost control of Congress and then Newt Gingrich shut them down with his sober and measured Contract with America.

When Rahm Emmanuel said, "Never let a crisis go to waste" people missed the real intent. This country was NOT in crisis last November. By comparison to the entire first year of our last president I don't feel you can even make a comparison. President Bush inherited a few things and picked up a few more along the way. 2001 was the year the Dot Com bubble burst. The economy was headed towards a mild recession in the first days of his office. Then there was Enron, Global Crossings and MCI Worldcom. These ethical scandals eroded investor confidence and resulted in the loss of many jobs and the complete evaporation of a certain degree of personal wealth. Oh, yeah, and let's not forget, and I mean that, LET'S NOT FORGET 9/11 !!!

Rahm spotted all the makings of a true crisis. The ingredients were there. They hadn't been properly mixed together and the heat hadn't been applied yet. But as one indicator that this was not the full born crisis Obama and his minions claim it to be, unemployment was not and still is not in the double digit range, further still from where it was ultimately during the Great Depression. So thus starts the gloom and doom rhetoric from the Obama-Speech factory. The word "Crisis" was sited as appearing no less than 14 times in a recent speech . . . as if he was offering an invitation for one to occur; imagined boogeymen if not actual enough. Start the panic so that George Soros can sell American stocks and currency short.

This is the plan. And even if you don't believe in the truly nefarious nature of a George Soros or believe that extreme liberals are dismantling our democratic and free market systems that have endured for over 200 years, you can at least see the benefit gained by Obama for substantially lowering expectations in the next 18 months. If any recovery happens, the same short attention span that allowed this calamity to occur in the first place will surely befall voters again who won't harken back to a pre-Obama America. No, they will just be happy to see some things anything go up a point and a half after the indices dropped 15-25-38 points or more.

Oh, and to all of you Republican senators, congressman, chairmen of the RNC and any true conservative in front of a microphone or just in front of a liberal posing that loaded question, "Do you want the current administration to fail?" -- here is the simple stock answer you need to give. Don't get jumbled up in political speech wrapped in faux diplomacy and graciousness toward the rival party. Look the camera, the liberal, the inquisitor straight in the eye and say,

"I do not want ANY ONE's BAD Policies or Programs to succeed!"

And if you feel required to embellish upon that response you can add,
"Be it offered by a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Agent of the KGB, Muslim Radical Decapitators, Populist or Alien, Legal, Illegal or Extraterrestrial -- Bad is Bad and I don't want ANY BAD Policy to SUCCEED! Obama and his administration are extremely inexperienced. That inexperience translates to a high likelihood of not knowing what to do, of making mistakes, and they are making mistakes. It is our right and our responsibility as American citizens to point this out."

Now more than ever we don't have a lot of room for political experiments. Bad is Bad and it needs to FAIL before even getting off the launch pad.

Finally, the flap about Rush Limbaugh is important because it all too plainly exposed the true patriots versus the career politicians. Those denouncing Rush, McCain being at the front of that firing line as he pandered to Stephanopoulos on Sunday, are doing so, in my humble opinion, because his good ideas trump their titles of power. They can't acknowledge that he is the voice of true conservatives without relinquishing their authority over the "message." The thing about the message, a.k.a. the conservative agenda is that it's ALL GOOD regardless of who possesses it. The message is what's most important and if it means someone else isn't getting the screen time necessary to advance their reelection campaign, so be it. Better luck next time Senator. Maybe you can at least get some mileage from jumping on the right bandwagon or maybe you will stop being Mr. Politico long enough to be a true patriot and a servant of the people. If America pulls out of this nose dive there will be plenty of credit to go around and I will be looking most closely at the the actions and not the words of those Senators, Governors, Talk Show Hosts or Friendly Neighborhood Milkmen who want to run for President in 2012. A part of me sees a lot of work to be done just to protect America's Democracy before we can think about that election.

Presidential Failure = America's Success

I am already tired of hearing the faux gracious, PC-induced non-starter about how we conservatives hope Mr. Barrack Hussein Obama is a successful president. I for one will make it public that I do not wish him success because a) I only have to go back not one full presidential term to find a counterpoint to that argument -- all the liberals who were imposing obstacles, ill-will and outright hatred towards any policy, initiative or doctrine of the Bush administration even as far as it meant bringing about their wanton desire for failure in the Iraq war, which would serve the benefit of NO ONE except terrorists and rogue states and b) it wouldn't be the first time a presidency failed and our country and Democracy at large prevailed. Jimmy Carter is still tinkering with Middle East Peace and he's starting to resemble the Stephen Root character in Office Space, the guy who is obsessed with his red Swingline stapler all the while no longer employed by Initech, yet still showing up for work each day.

Here are some things I particularly hope Mr. Obama fails to do as president:

1. Expanding the legality of baby killing into the 3rd, 4th and possibly 5th trimester of life. I believe Casey Anthony is hoping the NARAL agenda is put at the front of the line for executive rubber stamping before her trial comes to term so instead of an insanity defense she can claim she was having a late term abortion when she killed Caylee.
   
2. Putting an end to our 1st Amendment right to Free Speech a la the Fairness Doctrine - at this post the president has already made his feelings public that you are not in his political favor if you listen to Rush Limbaugh. A slippery slope indeed, mein freunds. Who else am I not allowed to read, hear or watch, Mr. President? What's that?! Reruns of The Smurfs is on the Obama approved list at the Library of Congress? That's cool because I can't locate a transcript of a speech our new president made 15 weeks ago about lobbyists in his administration. The card catalog says, "Permanently checked out to Incinerator"
   
3. Circumvent our nearly perfect political system of checks and balances with judicial appointments, unchallenged and ill-conceived Executive Orders and the same style of corrupt ChicaGomorrah "machine politics" that should have been investigated, condemned and dismantled sixty years ago which, in so doing, might have effectively aborted his political career as well.
   
4. Undermining our nation's intelligence and military organizations that have kept U.S. citizens within our borders safe from another terrorist attack these past 7 years. His Gitmo policy is a foreshadowing of what to expect.
5. Giving tax rebates to non-tax payers.
   

I need the economy to succeed as much as any of us do but not at my own personal expense. If it can't succeed without resulting in our nation compounding the error of already enormous international debt in the face of a trade deficit and /or an astronomical tax burden on me, my children, their unborn progeny and the rest of the endangered species known as the middle class; if it can't "succeed" without bringing about an end to free markets then it hasn't succeeded.

And let's be clear that a check in the mail from the U.S. Treasury Department, particularly to a person who doesn't PAY taxes in the first place is NOT a "tax cut". And the reason this is a bad idea is the same reason it's a bad idea to give indigent panhandlers money at the freeway off ramp. Aside from stopping traffic, it won't change their situation and they are likely to spend it on something frivolous. To really stimulate an economic recovery we need to put gas in the tank of that enormous engine, the U.S. Economy. We need businesses, small to large, sole proprietorships to the largest corporations to have the fuel they need to work and grow. The Federal government can deliver that in the form of real tax cuts, an action requiring far less legislation to create, far less oversight to ensure proper handling and an almost immediate and direct impact in the places it is most needed.

Funding for a Museum of Organized Crime in Las Vegas is not going to help any of us except if you work for a company that makes life size wax figures of Al Capone and Meyer Lansky. And before you have anyone tell you this isn't part of the current stimulus package keep in mind that the arbiter of that monstrous boondoggle, BHO said this, "In a package of this magnitude, will there end up being certain projects that potentially don't meet that criteria of helping on health care, energy, or education? Certainly."

If this last point resonates with you then

- Go here to look up your U.S. Congressman's web page where you can easily send an email telling him or her you don't support this stimulus package in it's current form:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

- Go here to look up both of your U.S. Senators to do the same:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Writing the President would be a waste of time. His most recent displays of arrogance and petulance tells me he's not listening to the American public.

On the Eve of A-boma-nauguration

In a swirl of world and national events such as an ongoing battle in Gaza, a not so surprising end to the Caylee Anthony missing person's case and yet even more job cuts at major corporations including Microsoft, I have noticed one defining and unnerving characteristic of the first weeks of 2009. You guessed it: the giddy, cloying excitement around empty-shirt / emptier head B.H. Obama entering office and taking up residence in the White House.

I know some people on a personal level who are oscillating (almost at a frequency that would shatter glass) between their Bush hatred and their Obama joy. It's as if the mixed emotion they are feeling is, on one hand, the regret over losing the thing that has defined them for the past 5-6-8 years, knowing inevitably that it will but not wanting it to go away forever and, on the other hand, the impatience over wanting to run downstairs on Tuesday morning and find that present under the secularist’s holiday tree, namely a big eared Baby New Year. Some of the hatred has been transferred to another villain of conservative politics, Sarah Palin. I believe that has more to do with people who have an addiction needing a substitute addiction just as the entryways to an AA or NA meeting or often marked by a throng of chain smokers. The logic behind feeling the need to vilify the Governor of Alaska is unprecedented, even in the annals of Inuit history but logic doesn't seem to be the trait that will define 2009.

So this gives me pause. Would I feel what the liberal masses are now feeling had the 2008 election turned out differently?

Now I only have the past as any accurate indication of how I might feel right now. (As of last Tuesday I just logged a whole extra year of "past" behind me so I have plenty of personal experience from which to draw my conclusions.)

I start by reflecting back to the 2000 election. You remember, that following morning that was much like watching Jennifer Anniston, Mark Wahlberg and the tranny groupie in Rock Star. We all woke up and didn't quite know how to feel, in this case because they were still counting votes in Florida. There was hardly any time for an emotional build-up to the inauguration in January '01. Between the vote counting limbo and the moving trucks hauling away White House furniture to Arkansas amidst Clinton pardons for Hugh Rodham's and Roger Clinton's coke snorting buddies, no one really had time to speculate about the Bush cabinet positions let alone the breed of dog, four legged or otherwise that our new president-elect would select to pee on the rugs Bill Clinton had previously stained with his debauchery.

So I have to fast forward four years to 2004. What did I feel that morning when John Kerry's face did the impossible and actually grew longer? What was the feeling I experienced? It was mild relief. Not because I was disappointed in Bush. He had yet to tarnish his presidential legacy as a conservative. No. I felt relief because the election was over without the protracted drama of the previous presidential election that many of us half-expected. More so though because there wasn't going to be some dramatic and wholesale change to the Executive Branch while a good friend of mine was still serving his first tour in Iraq and while the economy was tracking and trending upward. Most of all though, I knew that the man that would be occupying the White House for another four years was just a man, fallible. That he filled a role in a system of government that was not designed to change the world overnight. More importantly this governmental body was not there to be the end-all, be-all of my daily existence. Quite the contrary. Maybe the federal government would even shrink a little now, at least from our collective consciousness now that the two headed monster of partisan politics wasn't terrorizing our TV screens anymore. It didn't shrink though and that's another factor in my mild­ and even fleeting feeling of relief. I knew that government, at least in the period of my entire adult life has never fully lived up to any promise it or any of the individuals serving it have ever made, at least not completely or all at once. That's not a bad thing. That's just the compromise that is built into our American Democracy. That's all part of the great experiment. There's a certain perfectness in it's inherent imperfections.

You see, I believe that the success of Democracy is that the system prevails regardless of the power of personalities in all the various posts. In spite of any heroic figure or lack thereof it trudges on to serve us. That’s by design. That design is further confirmed as the framers' original intent in our first President’s action in which he rejected the suggestion that he be made king without a term limit.

I look around now and it's not just the agenda-driven extremist liberals who are barely able to contain their preemptive celebrations for a man who quite frankly has done nothing to serve any of our needs in his past and hasn’t done so yet in his latest temporary job. School children to octogenarian weathermen alike are all caught up in the excitement while trying not to pee themselves. Everything is tinged with a glow of it. The annual award shows for the self-congratulatory performers can't ignore it for a moment. Every joke and every acceptance speech has to make mention of what has happened in this election. The talking heads of TV news both local and national are almost beyond giddy. Their smiles crease their faces wider than that of Heath Ledger's Joker. Hollywood is already casting the bio-pic and the title role is predictably looking to be played by Will Smith. (All the while I am still waiting for Oliver Stone’s cinematic masterpiece about the Clintons. I guess that will have to wait for them to truly exit the White House once and for all.)

Violent criminals, unemployed vagrants and illegal aliens are professing to the media how proud they are now to be living in America. Bedtime fairy tales have been published into children’s books in time to hit the bookshelves. QVC is selling all manner of commemorative. The website eVite has canned theme pages for those of you who have been so overcome with raw emotion that you haven’t had the time to put together your Inauguration Parties yet. Classes are canceled on college campuses. Children are being brainwash . . . er, asked to participate in school events their teachers and principals have designed to make this fun and memorable. Yeah! That’s the reason they are doing it. Of course.

I am all for celebrating our Democratic system of government. I am a bit of a traditionalist though, saving my revelry for American Independence Day, Veterans & Memorial Days. I guess I am also traditional, preferring to wait for time to pass before declaring something a historical event. And then I think that when a Republican president is elected nothing of this scale ever happens. I guess that’s because Republicans still have to show up for work the next morning. But to provide further context about how this inaugural sets a high water mark in the flood waters washing over our nation, even when our first “black” president, Bill Clinton was elected there wasn’t this much hoopla. I imagine he and Hillary are stewing about that now as well.

Our nation’s capital is being closed down in order to turn the streets into a Saint Vitus’ Dance floor at a time when no one can say with any certainty whether or not our economy has bottomed out yet. But by all means, let’s party!

Yesterday I heard something and it wasn't the context as much as the style or the phrasing that hit me like a bolt. The thing itself wasn't important but it made a number of other pieces lock into place like a series of gears.

I recall having many conversations over the years with friends and colleagues. We discussed being astonished by certain historical events. How did certain people rise to power and subsequently exercise such tyrannical rule over their own people? Why didn't these people of this country or that country rise up and stop the tyrants? "Perhaps," one of us always playing the devils advocate, "it was happening so slowly and subtly that when the right people noticed it was too late." Perhaps." And maybe when that right moment occurred when the tyrant would turn his head, revealing the horned silhouette but then it was too late or maybe nobody was even paying attention. And the false assurance and feeling of superiority that came from the unspoken, "it could never happen here in this country." But that argument is just so much sophomoric twattle.


People are always paying attention when these events occur. The tyrants don't amass their power while sitting in a cave. And although there's a guy with an AK-47, a satellite phone, various degrees of facial hair and a turban who'd like to disagree; it's tough to argue his case in the face of so much history to the contrary. These tyrants also don't do it by some slight of hand or while putting the masses into some Svengali trance. If that were the case David Copperfield and Cris Angel would control the WORLD and not just the lives of vacuous super-models.

When I think about these tragic chapters in world history I hear crowds cheering back towards the men standing at a podium. I hear speeches. The tyrrants are all long on speeches before taking any action. And although Castro led a guerilla-style revolutionary movement in the spirit and practice of Mao out of jungles and foothills, the most notorious of tyrants the civilized world has ever seen spent his politically formative years as a community organizer of sorts. He worked within the political system of his country. Then he wrote an autobiography that also encapsulated the formation of his political thought process. He then gave speeches, locally in bars and private gatherings but soon to ever increasing crowds in large public forums, exploiting his country’s economic hardships to “connect” with his people in emotionally charged pleas for change. The excitement built and he moved quickly upward through the levels of his own government before his one party wrested total control of that country’s executive and legislative powers. And then this individual systematically dismantled his country's government in a series of actions that would reverberate throughout the world and echo down the halls of history. That man was Adolph Hitler . . . at which point Paul Harvey would say, ". . . and that's the rest of the story."

Is Obama Hitler? The comparison is oft made (Google it and see) but that's not my point. Is it naive and foolish to have a historical blind spot and extol such high virtue on one man in our system of representative government? Would it be a little like characterizing a mere elected official as some sort of a Superman, or as the German's say, Übermensch?

If this remains American Democracy-business-as-usual I will know for sure because little of true consequence will occur in the coming months and years. Many of you celebrants now resemble a Tween on a double espresso, fast-talking with your Tweeny friends about the differences between Twilight the book and Twilight the movie. I will know for sure that our democratic system is still in effect when your seemingly girlish, adrenaline induced jitteriness begins to fade, the voices (including Matthews' and Olberman's) come down a full octave and you start showing signs of disappointment even before Barrack-a-topia in 3:D leaves the D.C. Inaugural Multiplex and lands in the discount bin of your local, nearly bankrupt video store.

Then we can all get back to worshiping the one true God and not false idols. Or in the case of you devout atheists {oxymoron alert} ,you can turn your worship on to a true secular visionary like Steve Jobs. Hey, even I can get behind that kind of hero worship. The guy actually built something so many people in the world find useful and even necessary to their daily lives, all the while creating jobs and real wealth.