By Julian Krasta
“He is known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism. He is the chief architect of a 2-state plan, which historians will document was the commencement of Middle East violence, culminating in a second Holocaust with Israel as its victim.
“He earned his Ph.D. from ‘wherever,’ wrote doctoral theses, penned an autobiography, and worked on Wall Street. He came into contact and became friends with known fanatics, crooks, and America haters.
“He was elected a senator in Illinois where he put his propaganda to full use, combating the local conservative party with the help of William (Weather Underground) Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Tony Rezko, and Rev. Jeremiah ‘Them Jews’ Wright.
“By 2005 he had risen in his party ranks to become one of its most prominent members.
“In that position he perfected an understanding of the “Big Lie” technique of propaganda, which is based on the principle that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough times, will be believed by the masses.”
* * * * *
The previous paragraphs fairly describe Barack Hussein Obama. But I’m admitting immediately, in order to make my point in this commentary, that I borrowed those passages almost verbatim from Wikipedia. They in fact point up a monstrous figure of history. I only changed the names, the locations, the tense, a few words here and there, and the date.
That monster was Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister…and Obama is a carbon copy.
Obama’s propaganda technique is explained best by Victor Davis Hanson in a recent piece entitled “Just Make Stuff Up.” In it, Hanson sets out comprehensively that Obama is prevailing over a system that appears in total order, but because of his nonstop fabrications that system can really only be disorganized and chaotic (e.g., the numerous Cabinet appointees who were vetted then booted on the basis of “mistakes.”)
Disorganization and chaos was Obama’s goal from the start. I watched him channel his hatred and anger into powerful speeches that pumped up his listeners but alienated Republicans, moderates, and clear-thinking Democrats. His uncompromising vocal tone successfully attracted drifters and malcontents who were easily programmed into believing that the time was never better for a revolution.
But there remains that one colossal catastrophe: those same itinerants and k’vetshers signed the contract without reading it. They had no idea what they agreed to revolt against, because their chosen one never once spelled out his true plans or aspirations. He only repeated—ad infinitum, ad nauseum—“hope” and “change” (in the manner in which Hitler incessantly shouted, “Deutschland!”).
Obama cleverly spoke in vague terms and left it to his snarling sycophants to fill in the miles-wide blanks, and they filled them with what they imagined he said or promised them. They see now that they had cast their lots for a bait n’ switch brute who had no intention of effecting the changes they expected (whatever those imaginary changes might’ve been).
When I first witnessed those orgasmic displays of affection for Obama, they appeared eerily similar to the way Germans thrust out their right hands in salute to the lunatic Bavarian paperhanger and his propaganda minister. Those images brought to mind this quote by Euripides: “When love is in excess, it brings a man no honor, nor worthiness.” It is especially significant since the excess love Obama appropriated has gone unrequited, and has been only used to step on heads and purloin the top executive position.
In my previous commentary I wrote that the people in Tehran would judge for themselves as to whether Obama’s proposal of friendship is popcorn propaganda. The millions protesting the (phony) election is the answer, which I believe is their way of saying they want nothing more to do with egocentric and immoral dictators (whether he be an Iranian or an American).
If the Iranian people had faith that Obama and Ahmadinejad could “get it on” they would have accepted the results of the election. But their outright anger against the incumbent’s manufactured victory speaks volumes: If they’ve had it up to there with Mahmoud and the threat of annihilation it would be unthinkable that they would want to cozy up with the guy who hijacked the U.S. presidency, whose only real accomplishment to date is he bagged a house fly.
The protests undoubtedly have thrown a monkey wrench into Obama’s nefarious plans to secure Iran as a nuclear hot zone and remain an ongoing threat to Israel. The Iranian people’s reaction proves, to me at least, that they think his rapier wit is not that rapier after all, particularly since Obama has mimicked Jimmy Carter by stating it would do not good for the U.S. to meddle with the issue. That statement alone brazenly contradicts his monosyllabic twitters of “hope … change … yes … we … can.” And never forget that it was Carter’s psychopathic mind-set that plowed the road for the Taliban to overthrow the Shah, which catapulted the virulent and bloodthirsty Islamic terrorism stampeding rampant today.
There will always be voracious dictators with whom we must contend, whether they wear uniforms of the military, desert robes, or pin-stripe suits. They are responsible for unspeakable destruction and unconscionable carnage. But not one of them has outlasted the peoples’ endurance, nor will any ever undermine the sacrifices human beings are willing to make for the precious gifts of liberty, democracy, and peace.
So let us acknowledge the courage of those Iranians who are saying NO to the “Big Lie,” and honor those who are being beaten and killed for demanding justice, freedom, and the truth. My heart and prayers go out to them and to their families, and to the millions of others in Iran and everywhere who are “holding the line” against the monsters.
Julian Krasta may be contacted at semperfieternal@aol.com.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Barack "Banzai!" Obama
By Julian Krasta
He would’ve made one heck of a Kamikaze pilot. Just like those disillusioned and desperate souls who, beginning in October 1944, slammed their Model 52c Zeroes into U.S. and Ally naval vessels to cause as much death and destruction as possible, Obama is similarly caught up with the same target fixation. “Target fixation” is when a pilot becomes so fixed on his mark that he flies straight into it.
That underground nation known as his administration, including the MSM pit vipers, claim that the spiky focus and steely stare in Obama’s eyes is radiance and derring-do. Wrong. What emanates from those icy orbs is pathological pride and suicidal condescension.
The target now in his sites is Iran with whom he wants to “open a dialogue.” What he fails to accept is that they are not enchanted with his porous speeches, which are, at all times, top-heavy with artless sincerity. I’m pretty sure that the more he tries to sway Iranians to his bizarre thought processes, the more he is making a meal out of his own tongue.
Just for argument’s sake, let us, for a moment, pretend we’re looking at him from Iran’s point of view:
We see an interloper with no decision-making experience who lied, finagled, and bribed his way into the White House. He is self-possessed and closeted. His sophistication is synthetic. He belittles and badmouths America. He is leeching control of corporations (with union bosses catching the meaty scraps in their buckets). He has all but shredded the U.S. Constitution. He is taxing the American People down to their marrow, and is spending those tax dollars like a drunken yuppie. This gatecrasher is now inviting Muslims to join him in a daisy chain of comradeship.
Should Iranians trust Obama’s overture of friendship after witnessing the wholesale damage he is inflicting on his own country? I doubt it. The proof is that, with Obama in the cockpit at the controls, America’s favorable rating in Iran is five percentage points lower than when President George W. Bush held office.
I would add this speculation: Iran’s dwindling opinion of the U.S. also could be based on the fact that, while Obama is piloting America at full throttle to the left and eventually into a Marxist drop zone, Europe is pulling herself up by her bootstraps and is moving decidedly to the right as a result of overdosing on liberalism. Remember how Europeans were swooning and shouting praises and scrambling to touch Obama during the presidential campaign? They are now running, leaping, in the other direction, because they have accepted that liberal voters aren’t capable of picking a winner in a one-horse race.
Examples like these are not products of my imagination. They are a matter of public record, easily accessible on the Internet. If I can dig up this information, so can anyone in Tehran—and they can, and do, judge for themselves.
While I’m on the subject of digging, here briefly is another liberal lollapalooza: The Obama media have been crowing that Sonia Sotomayor would be “the first ever” Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. Wrong again. He was Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, who served from 1932 to 1938. Justice Cardozo was a Sephardic Jew (Spanish ancestry). His father was New York Supreme Court Justice Albert Cardozo (who also was vice president and trustee of the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel, in New York City).
See what you can learn by seeking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? The MSM should, once and for all—or even once—, report hard facts instead of always dunking their donuts in the wrong trough. They should state it as it actually is, like Marilyn Monroe was dazzling, or Nancy Pelosi is overdue for her rabies vaccination. It’s easier than they think.
But I digress.
Obama is spearheading a pervasive conspiracy to fly his “Bogey” into and wipe out the foundation upon which this country was conceived and created. And filling his tanks with volatile support are the Democrats in Congress (who proved that the only thing they’re good at is double-parking their limousines) and the media rag pickers (who wink at lowlifes like Cindy Sheehan but snub the TEA parties).
The result of this troika’s conniving conceit is Americans are living in an atmosphere of crisis. Tensions are simmering throughout the nation. So, unless and until Congressional Republicans gain back control in 2010, no part of this country will go untainted by the present regime, which is turning out to be worse than any foreign invasion piercing our borders or our air space.
Obama is comfortable in his prickly flight suit, because it is a patchwork of his lack of love for, or devotion to, the U.S.A. Unfortunately for him, he actually believes he will replace our rights and liberties with a garroting social order. What he has woefully underestimated is the eventual counter-impact by the People on that order.
We, therefore, must take a stand and ensure that the balance of power swings back to us. It is up to the People to disenfranchise that motley few by voting in replacements who will help reestablish conservative values. Once balance is reinstated we can work on rebuilding what Obama has been trying to smash to dust. It’ll be a slow recovery, but it’s better than no recovery.
Begin today. Support the right men and women who are determined to fight for our rights, who will recharge our Constitutional protections, and who will say “NO” to higher taxes and the dismantling of our military strength.
Finally, send the message to those presently in power that, despite his efforts to blow this country sky high, Obama’s obsessive target fixation will, in the end, result with him slamming into and making an ash of himself.
Julian Krasta may be contacted at semperfieternal@aol.com.
He would’ve made one heck of a Kamikaze pilot. Just like those disillusioned and desperate souls who, beginning in October 1944, slammed their Model 52c Zeroes into U.S. and Ally naval vessels to cause as much death and destruction as possible, Obama is similarly caught up with the same target fixation. “Target fixation” is when a pilot becomes so fixed on his mark that he flies straight into it.
That underground nation known as his administration, including the MSM pit vipers, claim that the spiky focus and steely stare in Obama’s eyes is radiance and derring-do. Wrong. What emanates from those icy orbs is pathological pride and suicidal condescension.
The target now in his sites is Iran with whom he wants to “open a dialogue.” What he fails to accept is that they are not enchanted with his porous speeches, which are, at all times, top-heavy with artless sincerity. I’m pretty sure that the more he tries to sway Iranians to his bizarre thought processes, the more he is making a meal out of his own tongue.
Just for argument’s sake, let us, for a moment, pretend we’re looking at him from Iran’s point of view:
We see an interloper with no decision-making experience who lied, finagled, and bribed his way into the White House. He is self-possessed and closeted. His sophistication is synthetic. He belittles and badmouths America. He is leeching control of corporations (with union bosses catching the meaty scraps in their buckets). He has all but shredded the U.S. Constitution. He is taxing the American People down to their marrow, and is spending those tax dollars like a drunken yuppie. This gatecrasher is now inviting Muslims to join him in a daisy chain of comradeship.
Should Iranians trust Obama’s overture of friendship after witnessing the wholesale damage he is inflicting on his own country? I doubt it. The proof is that, with Obama in the cockpit at the controls, America’s favorable rating in Iran is five percentage points lower than when President George W. Bush held office.
I would add this speculation: Iran’s dwindling opinion of the U.S. also could be based on the fact that, while Obama is piloting America at full throttle to the left and eventually into a Marxist drop zone, Europe is pulling herself up by her bootstraps and is moving decidedly to the right as a result of overdosing on liberalism. Remember how Europeans were swooning and shouting praises and scrambling to touch Obama during the presidential campaign? They are now running, leaping, in the other direction, because they have accepted that liberal voters aren’t capable of picking a winner in a one-horse race.
Examples like these are not products of my imagination. They are a matter of public record, easily accessible on the Internet. If I can dig up this information, so can anyone in Tehran—and they can, and do, judge for themselves.
While I’m on the subject of digging, here briefly is another liberal lollapalooza: The Obama media have been crowing that Sonia Sotomayor would be “the first ever” Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. Wrong again. He was Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, who served from 1932 to 1938. Justice Cardozo was a Sephardic Jew (Spanish ancestry). His father was New York Supreme Court Justice Albert Cardozo (who also was vice president and trustee of the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel, in New York City).
See what you can learn by seeking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? The MSM should, once and for all—or even once—, report hard facts instead of always dunking their donuts in the wrong trough. They should state it as it actually is, like Marilyn Monroe was dazzling, or Nancy Pelosi is overdue for her rabies vaccination. It’s easier than they think.
But I digress.
Obama is spearheading a pervasive conspiracy to fly his “Bogey” into and wipe out the foundation upon which this country was conceived and created. And filling his tanks with volatile support are the Democrats in Congress (who proved that the only thing they’re good at is double-parking their limousines) and the media rag pickers (who wink at lowlifes like Cindy Sheehan but snub the TEA parties).
The result of this troika’s conniving conceit is Americans are living in an atmosphere of crisis. Tensions are simmering throughout the nation. So, unless and until Congressional Republicans gain back control in 2010, no part of this country will go untainted by the present regime, which is turning out to be worse than any foreign invasion piercing our borders or our air space.
Obama is comfortable in his prickly flight suit, because it is a patchwork of his lack of love for, or devotion to, the U.S.A. Unfortunately for him, he actually believes he will replace our rights and liberties with a garroting social order. What he has woefully underestimated is the eventual counter-impact by the People on that order.
We, therefore, must take a stand and ensure that the balance of power swings back to us. It is up to the People to disenfranchise that motley few by voting in replacements who will help reestablish conservative values. Once balance is reinstated we can work on rebuilding what Obama has been trying to smash to dust. It’ll be a slow recovery, but it’s better than no recovery.
Begin today. Support the right men and women who are determined to fight for our rights, who will recharge our Constitutional protections, and who will say “NO” to higher taxes and the dismantling of our military strength.
Finally, send the message to those presently in power that, despite his efforts to blow this country sky high, Obama’s obsessive target fixation will, in the end, result with him slamming into and making an ash of himself.
Julian Krasta may be contacted at semperfieternal@aol.com.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Obama's Cult of Personality
By Julian Krasta
Cult of personality is “…when a country’s leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships. A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders.”
In early 2008, the worldwide liberal media went on a blowout selling-binge hawking Barack Hussein Obama as a “heroic public image.”
The fragments of what remain of that media (more confined here in the states rather than planet-wide, anymore) are still attempting to plug that image (“The 55-minute speech was remarkable and historic not so much for the delivery or even the words, but for the context, the orator, the moment”), which was posted immediately after Obama’s 6,000-words speech in Cairo.
The article, written by Mike Allen at Politico.com, also describes a moment when Obama drew hushed gasps from the audience for a comment they perceived as audacious. But, all in all, it is portly with praise, despite discrepancies and to-be-expected contradictions, such as when he said, “The U.S. should not impose its values on the world…”—yet he is demanding that Israel concede on preposterous points. Isn’t that an imposition? And then in his Cairo speech: “America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire.”
Dizzy yet? But wait, there’s more. According to Obama: We were…we are…we shouldn’t be…you’re okay, but we’re not…we’re crude…we’re not crude…we’re bad, bad, bad…we’re not that bad…the U.S. is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”
Which is it? What are we? I suppose it depends upon which lavish magical mystery tour Obama happens to be on.
The article by Allen is a classic representation of how Josef Stalin, for example, charily chiseled himself a heroic public image using pernicious propaganda to fabricate that hallucination. And the gulags and unmarked graves are crammed with those who dared to disagree.
Americans numbering in the millions swallowed whole the propagandists’ genetically produced persona of Obama, because those millions couldn’t tell the difference between a bagel and a brick.
Today they are suffering from a severe case of “What have I done?” acid reflux, the result of which is their arrogance has shriveled dramatically. They are realizing—too little, too late—that they were meshugeh ahf toit (that’s Yiddish for crazy as a loon) for betting the ranch, SUV, family jewels and college tuition on the MSM’s falsities, and that it is they, the loons, who perforce maneuvered us dangerously close to the deathtrap called totalitarianism.
And now for the bad news:
In his speech, Obama said, “The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent is as – it is as if he has killed all mankind.”
Sounds harmless, but…
Muslims who inure to the Koran—that it contains the final, unalterable and immutable words of Allah—would know he only paraphrased the actual passage, which is: “To murder a single human being is as evil as to murder all mankind, unless he be causing trouble (mischief) in the land.”
Islamic scholars know the meaning of “causing trouble in the land,” which is to “not live in accordance with the tenets of Islam.” Therefore, the passage Obama chose translates to “the murder of any non-Muslim is not evil.” (Thank you, C.H.)
The arresting difference between Islam and other religions is that all references in the Koran regarding human kindness (love, charity, mercy) count only when it is Muslim to Muslim. The religion unequivocally calls for the death of all infidels, and the enslavement of Christians and Jews.
The purpose of his Cairo speech was (supposedly) predicated on generating a new beginning between America and Muslims—and to build a heroic public image of himself.
Did he goof when he delivered an incomplete and misleading extract from the Koran? Or was he communicating a coded message to our enemies that it’s OK if all non-Muslims are eradicated?
Upon microscopic examination of all he has said and done in these past four months, particularly his choice of words for his Cairo speech, it is not inconceivable that Barack Hussein Obama could be generating the beginning of the end of the United States of America.
Cult of personality is “…when a country’s leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships. A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders.”
In early 2008, the worldwide liberal media went on a blowout selling-binge hawking Barack Hussein Obama as a “heroic public image.”
The fragments of what remain of that media (more confined here in the states rather than planet-wide, anymore) are still attempting to plug that image (“The 55-minute speech was remarkable and historic not so much for the delivery or even the words, but for the context, the orator, the moment”), which was posted immediately after Obama’s 6,000-words speech in Cairo.
The article, written by Mike Allen at Politico.com, also describes a moment when Obama drew hushed gasps from the audience for a comment they perceived as audacious. But, all in all, it is portly with praise, despite discrepancies and to-be-expected contradictions, such as when he said, “The U.S. should not impose its values on the world…”—yet he is demanding that Israel concede on preposterous points. Isn’t that an imposition? And then in his Cairo speech: “America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire.”
Dizzy yet? But wait, there’s more. According to Obama: We were…we are…we shouldn’t be…you’re okay, but we’re not…we’re crude…we’re not crude…we’re bad, bad, bad…we’re not that bad…the U.S. is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”
Which is it? What are we? I suppose it depends upon which lavish magical mystery tour Obama happens to be on.
The article by Allen is a classic representation of how Josef Stalin, for example, charily chiseled himself a heroic public image using pernicious propaganda to fabricate that hallucination. And the gulags and unmarked graves are crammed with those who dared to disagree.
Americans numbering in the millions swallowed whole the propagandists’ genetically produced persona of Obama, because those millions couldn’t tell the difference between a bagel and a brick.
Today they are suffering from a severe case of “What have I done?” acid reflux, the result of which is their arrogance has shriveled dramatically. They are realizing—too little, too late—that they were meshugeh ahf toit (that’s Yiddish for crazy as a loon) for betting the ranch, SUV, family jewels and college tuition on the MSM’s falsities, and that it is they, the loons, who perforce maneuvered us dangerously close to the deathtrap called totalitarianism.
And now for the bad news:
In his speech, Obama said, “The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent is as – it is as if he has killed all mankind.”
Sounds harmless, but…
Muslims who inure to the Koran—that it contains the final, unalterable and immutable words of Allah—would know he only paraphrased the actual passage, which is: “To murder a single human being is as evil as to murder all mankind, unless he be causing trouble (mischief) in the land.”
Islamic scholars know the meaning of “causing trouble in the land,” which is to “not live in accordance with the tenets of Islam.” Therefore, the passage Obama chose translates to “the murder of any non-Muslim is not evil.” (Thank you, C.H.)
The arresting difference between Islam and other religions is that all references in the Koran regarding human kindness (love, charity, mercy) count only when it is Muslim to Muslim. The religion unequivocally calls for the death of all infidels, and the enslavement of Christians and Jews.
The purpose of his Cairo speech was (supposedly) predicated on generating a new beginning between America and Muslims—and to build a heroic public image of himself.
Did he goof when he delivered an incomplete and misleading extract from the Koran? Or was he communicating a coded message to our enemies that it’s OK if all non-Muslims are eradicated?
Upon microscopic examination of all he has said and done in these past four months, particularly his choice of words for his Cairo speech, it is not inconceivable that Barack Hussein Obama could be generating the beginning of the end of the United States of America.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Obama's Crusade to Crash Liberty
By Julian Krasta
Barack Hussein Obama has seized the wheel of power in the United States. With it he is course-plotting our nation, and our nation’s friends, to ruin.
The second paragraph of Section 2 of the Constitution begins: “He shall have power, by and with Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; …”
It’s no secret that Obama is indifferent to the types of treaties to which this sacred document refers. With no resistance whatsoever from within Congressional chambers, he is driven (or is he duty-bound?) by a brainsick compulsion to scrap our alliances with England and Israel.
Rather than sharpening our defenses against terrorist invasion, Obama is erecting a tightly packed wall between America and our most faithful allies. The first layer of brick was when he insulted Britain’s Prime Minister by making him wait for a meeting at the White House, which was then cut short.
The next tiers shot up when, visiting England, he and his wife ditched centuries’ old protocol when they met with Queen Elizabeth. And rather than present elegant gifts to Mr. Brown and Her Majesty, they handed over what amounts to Christmas stocking stuffers for 8-year olds.
The mortar is his attempt to broker a 2-state solution that, without doubt, would set Israel up for bloodier cockfights with the Palestinians. Obama’s proposal is a faithful blueprint of what Jimmy Carter did—or, rather, did not do—with Iran: he shelled peanuts while Khomeini and the Taliban toppled the Shah and took control.
Carter wanted Iran to fall into the hands of those who wish to exact out-and-out destruction upon Israel. And at the same time that Obama was making naïve comments to the press about how Palestinians and Israelis should be “…living side by side in peace and security,” Hamas was renewing rocket attacks against Israel.
Is Obama settling old scores? If so, what might those be? Why is he forging a plan that would be beneficial to no one but the sworn enemies of Christians and Jews?
Insofar as England is concerned, could it be that Obama wants to rake in his pound of flesh against the English who, along with the French and the Dutch, kidnapped, transported and sold Africans into slavery all across the known world over 500 years ago? Please note that nowhere in the previous sentence do I mention America. The “American slave trade” involved English, French, and Dutch landowners.
Obama is now obsessed with closing Guantanamo. His backstop is “rule of law” as to how to handle the incarceration of these very dangerous criminals. He, of course, continues to crucify President Bush over this and every other matter under the moon, stars and sun. But George Bush did not change the rules of war, it was al Qaida. Unlike World War II enemies in uniform, who were more easily identifiable, today’s enemy has no allegiance to a particular country. They are faithful only to a heinous ideology that sanctions and demands the murder of Americans, Jews, and anyone else who does not share their “faith.”
Congress overwhelmingly rejected Obama’s request for $80 millions to close Guantanamo, primarily because each representative was being inundated with communications from their respective constituents demanding that none of those criminals be re-placed into a state facility. The fact that Obama is even toying with the idea—using “rule of law”—to disperse the enemies of America throughout America is cause for grave concern. Dispersal would invite wider terrorist attacks.
This is an extraordinary case, which Obama should handle very carefully, because our country’s security is at stake. Closing this maximum-security detention center to satisfy his lust for even more power only tells me that he cares even less about the citizens to which he answers. Also, if he is ever successful by using “rule of law” to close GITMO and disperse those murderers into our states’ systems, then Socrates was right when he said: “There is a point beyond which even justice becomes unjust.”
It is my opinion that Obama’s bigger-than-life vision of himself has blurred his ability to think reasonably and fairly. He is the wrong man, in the wrong place, and definitely at the wrong time. America needs a clear thinking, rational, tough-as-nails leader with hands-on executive experience—a hunter-gatherer-protector—not a duke or earl coveting only the cushiness of the king’s chair.
Running hand in hand with Obama’s egregious point of view of Middle East policy is what appears to be his determination to impoverish the American People. On its face, that plan involves creating a single proletariat class that would only subsist on regulated or limited wages, doled out by this Administration under the heading “benevolence.”
Among such acts of benevolence is Obama’s new energy policy, which is structured to increase utility rates. As noted in the Washington Times: “A study of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that the cap-and-trade tax will cost every American family more than $3,100 per year.” With such an increase, and others like it, impoverishment is no flight of fantasy.
Another is the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler and takeover by Obama. As I understand it, Obama’s plan is to convert those manufacturers’ preferred stock to common stock, which would give Obama’s government voting rights over those companies.
The big one that pushed us up onto the rocks was the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac catastrophe that caused a worldwide financial heart attack. My gut told me then, and it continues telling me, that it was all engineered by the Left in order to stick the blame for everything on President Bush, and ensure a landslide victory for Obama. (Hitler accomplished the same when he ordered the Reichstag (the German Legislature) torched. The Chancellor’s henchman, Hermann Göring, deflected blame onto the communists. It was Hitler’s first step in carving his way towards a gruesome dictatorship.)
There’s only one glaring problem the political Left here did not anticipate would result from their hedonism. They spent no time researching just how deep their insidious blade would penetrate, because what they’ve done is strike straight into America’s heart, and the heart of America is The People. And Obama continues to stick it to us every time he reads from his teleprompter.
Absolutism is not provided in the Constitution to the chief executive. Yet, in less than four months, Barack Hussein Obama, the poster boy for “Implementation Without Rules” and “The Far Left’s Rules of Misconduct,” has been permitted to take an axe to the roots of our tree of liberty.
Unless he and the others in his administration as well as their dutiful constituents make a comprehensive return to common sense and democracy, and soon, all that will remain of America after Obama is finished will be a lifeless stump.
Barack Hussein Obama has seized the wheel of power in the United States. With it he is course-plotting our nation, and our nation’s friends, to ruin.
The second paragraph of Section 2 of the Constitution begins: “He shall have power, by and with Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; …”
It’s no secret that Obama is indifferent to the types of treaties to which this sacred document refers. With no resistance whatsoever from within Congressional chambers, he is driven (or is he duty-bound?) by a brainsick compulsion to scrap our alliances with England and Israel.
Rather than sharpening our defenses against terrorist invasion, Obama is erecting a tightly packed wall between America and our most faithful allies. The first layer of brick was when he insulted Britain’s Prime Minister by making him wait for a meeting at the White House, which was then cut short.
The next tiers shot up when, visiting England, he and his wife ditched centuries’ old protocol when they met with Queen Elizabeth. And rather than present elegant gifts to Mr. Brown and Her Majesty, they handed over what amounts to Christmas stocking stuffers for 8-year olds.
The mortar is his attempt to broker a 2-state solution that, without doubt, would set Israel up for bloodier cockfights with the Palestinians. Obama’s proposal is a faithful blueprint of what Jimmy Carter did—or, rather, did not do—with Iran: he shelled peanuts while Khomeini and the Taliban toppled the Shah and took control.
Carter wanted Iran to fall into the hands of those who wish to exact out-and-out destruction upon Israel. And at the same time that Obama was making naïve comments to the press about how Palestinians and Israelis should be “…living side by side in peace and security,” Hamas was renewing rocket attacks against Israel.
Is Obama settling old scores? If so, what might those be? Why is he forging a plan that would be beneficial to no one but the sworn enemies of Christians and Jews?
Insofar as England is concerned, could it be that Obama wants to rake in his pound of flesh against the English who, along with the French and the Dutch, kidnapped, transported and sold Africans into slavery all across the known world over 500 years ago? Please note that nowhere in the previous sentence do I mention America. The “American slave trade” involved English, French, and Dutch landowners.
Obama is now obsessed with closing Guantanamo. His backstop is “rule of law” as to how to handle the incarceration of these very dangerous criminals. He, of course, continues to crucify President Bush over this and every other matter under the moon, stars and sun. But George Bush did not change the rules of war, it was al Qaida. Unlike World War II enemies in uniform, who were more easily identifiable, today’s enemy has no allegiance to a particular country. They are faithful only to a heinous ideology that sanctions and demands the murder of Americans, Jews, and anyone else who does not share their “faith.”
Congress overwhelmingly rejected Obama’s request for $80 millions to close Guantanamo, primarily because each representative was being inundated with communications from their respective constituents demanding that none of those criminals be re-placed into a state facility. The fact that Obama is even toying with the idea—using “rule of law”—to disperse the enemies of America throughout America is cause for grave concern. Dispersal would invite wider terrorist attacks.
This is an extraordinary case, which Obama should handle very carefully, because our country’s security is at stake. Closing this maximum-security detention center to satisfy his lust for even more power only tells me that he cares even less about the citizens to which he answers. Also, if he is ever successful by using “rule of law” to close GITMO and disperse those murderers into our states’ systems, then Socrates was right when he said: “There is a point beyond which even justice becomes unjust.”
It is my opinion that Obama’s bigger-than-life vision of himself has blurred his ability to think reasonably and fairly. He is the wrong man, in the wrong place, and definitely at the wrong time. America needs a clear thinking, rational, tough-as-nails leader with hands-on executive experience—a hunter-gatherer-protector—not a duke or earl coveting only the cushiness of the king’s chair.
Running hand in hand with Obama’s egregious point of view of Middle East policy is what appears to be his determination to impoverish the American People. On its face, that plan involves creating a single proletariat class that would only subsist on regulated or limited wages, doled out by this Administration under the heading “benevolence.”
Among such acts of benevolence is Obama’s new energy policy, which is structured to increase utility rates. As noted in the Washington Times: “A study of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that the cap-and-trade tax will cost every American family more than $3,100 per year.” With such an increase, and others like it, impoverishment is no flight of fantasy.
Another is the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler and takeover by Obama. As I understand it, Obama’s plan is to convert those manufacturers’ preferred stock to common stock, which would give Obama’s government voting rights over those companies.
The big one that pushed us up onto the rocks was the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac catastrophe that caused a worldwide financial heart attack. My gut told me then, and it continues telling me, that it was all engineered by the Left in order to stick the blame for everything on President Bush, and ensure a landslide victory for Obama. (Hitler accomplished the same when he ordered the Reichstag (the German Legislature) torched. The Chancellor’s henchman, Hermann Göring, deflected blame onto the communists. It was Hitler’s first step in carving his way towards a gruesome dictatorship.)
There’s only one glaring problem the political Left here did not anticipate would result from their hedonism. They spent no time researching just how deep their insidious blade would penetrate, because what they’ve done is strike straight into America’s heart, and the heart of America is The People. And Obama continues to stick it to us every time he reads from his teleprompter.
Absolutism is not provided in the Constitution to the chief executive. Yet, in less than four months, Barack Hussein Obama, the poster boy for “Implementation Without Rules” and “The Far Left’s Rules of Misconduct,” has been permitted to take an axe to the roots of our tree of liberty.
Unless he and the others in his administration as well as their dutiful constituents make a comprehensive return to common sense and democracy, and soon, all that will remain of America after Obama is finished will be a lifeless stump.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Hope, "Nope," and a Dope
By Julian Krasta
While waiting the other day for my tire to be fixed at Mike & Mike’s World of Tires (where the mechanics are Ernesto, Miguelito, and Mohammed), I flashed on some of the recent political news stories. One was in Newsweek—just another of their “ha-ha” articles in which they compared the characters (as politicians) in the films Star Trek and Star Wars.
I drove home, this time careful to swerve around the pothole on Sunset Boulevard that had caused me to be $55 poorer, and extracted my copy (or what was left of it) out from underneath my dog’s bedding. Ziggy Rottweiler loves tearing the guts out of liberal magazines and newspapers, and then burying them, never to be seen again. I’ve tried in vain to offer him the Washington Times and Townhall Magazine to mangle and inter but he only gives those a snout bump and huffs away. Dogs rule.
Anyway, here’s a précis of the Newsweek article:
Obama’s “Shining City of Hope on the Hill” Administration—that edifice of supreme power—is described thus: “seriousness of purpose,” “helping hand,” “cool, collected,” and “villainous aggressor.” Wait. That last one is for Rush Limbaugh.
Former President Bush’s Administration—them shaggy cave dwellers—, on the other hand, are “callow,” “manipulative,” “pitiless,” and “obsequious.”
Newsweek compares President Bush to arch villain Darth Vader (no surprise there, though Dubya misses by the distance from here to Pluto of ever sounding—“May the force be with ya”—as commanding as James Earl Jones) while Barack Hussein Obama—so pretty, so eloquent, so much better than conservatives deserve—is a hip problem fixer.
The hipster, clinging grimly to visions only he sees, has “fixed” a lot of things. An example is when some U.S. banks wanted to repay their TARP loans, and with interest, Obama shut them out from doing so. Doesn’t that come under the heading “Creeping Government Overreach”?
Or would the modern day Simon Legree actually be stating [cue creepy organ music]: “Nope. I now own you, your lock boxes, your stock, and your barrels of money … [sneer] heh, heh, heh”?
He is promising more fixes, such as to hold back California’s allotted stimulus monies if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not restore wage cuts to union workers (in an effort to balance the budget). Obama remains true blue to Labor in spite of the fact he knows full well that the Golden State is balancing on one toe, on top of a one inch-wide rail, less than a centimeter above bankruptcy quicksand.
This country’s most popular state is shriveling on the vine, but those unions must be saved first! It reminded me of the arc scene in Ridley Scott’s “Alien” when Science Officer Ash explained Special Order 937 to the remaining crewmembers about their chances of survival: “All other priorities are rescinded.”
Another fixer-upper on Obama’s list is the planned trip to Egypt where he will address the Muslim world. When this news broke my phone started ringing off the hook. They were mostly Lefties and liberals … I mean, “Progressives,” and all dear friends, who (finally) are starting to squawk about his compulsion to globetrot and draw passionate praise rather than stay home and work on deflating our ballooning domestic problems.
One guy even said, “How much validation does he need? He was elected, for crying out loud.” And that’s from a liberal who had mounted a 3’ x 5’ poster of Obama on his livingroom wall and swore he’d never take it down. It’s now gone. And, no, I didn’t ask.
While I’m on the subject of Obama’s wanderlust, in case no one has noticed, every time he is cleared for take-off (which does seem like every other day) the cost to taxpayers is enormous. Those jumbos burn tons of fuel; and there is the entourage to end all entourages, which includes an army of security and escort aircraft. They don’t work for free, and they all need to be fed and barracked. Or maybe they are laboring “off the cuff”: to be in the same rarified air with Barry might be payment and nutrition enough.
Speaking of Air Force “The One,” Obama can chalk up another resignation as a result of the presidential bird buzzing lower Manhattan for a photo op, which caused extreme panic. This is why the kiddies in this Administration should be marched to the White House woodshed from time to time, to remind them that they are representatives of the United States of America, not straw-chewin’ delinquents in a Sam Clemens novel.
It’s a given that, if this had occurred on President Bush’s watch, all hell would’ve broken loose from the Left for days, possibly weeks. But because the mainstream media are Obama’s fawning footmen, there was only a glimmer of this incident reported at prime time.
Then there was that emerald moment when Obama said “nope” to participating in National Prayer Day. That was a bare-face confirmation of his hard-about-the-mouth attitude regarding Israel, a stanch ally, and Christianity (Judeo-Christian laws and principles, after all, are the backbone of America).
Attendees of the prayer meeting typically are “selected Christian and Jewish leaders.” The dots connect themselves here, and Obama seems determined to sever those connections. And with what will he re-attach them, a fundamental re-ordering of our country based on socialist theory?
When grilled by the press why his boss would be a no show, Robert Gibbs answered with his usual vagueness, “He’ll pray as he does every day.” Reading the Holy Bible, or kneeling on his prayer rug facing Mecca? I believe the American People deserve a clear answer as to his true faith if, in fact, he follows one.
Finally, the “Dope” in my piece is Sen. Arlen Specter. He made front-page headlines recently when he jumped the fire line from the Republican Party over to the Democrats’ side of the Hill. We all know what happened there, so I needn’t present a vapid re-hash. So I’ll end this with a personal message to the new (disgraced and demoted) Congressional Democrat:
Senator, stupidity has the same shelf life as a Twinkie. So you’ll fit in perfectly with the other fruitcakes to the left of the aisle, in the section marked “Just Desserts.”
While waiting the other day for my tire to be fixed at Mike & Mike’s World of Tires (where the mechanics are Ernesto, Miguelito, and Mohammed), I flashed on some of the recent political news stories. One was in Newsweek—just another of their “ha-ha” articles in which they compared the characters (as politicians) in the films Star Trek and Star Wars.
I drove home, this time careful to swerve around the pothole on Sunset Boulevard that had caused me to be $55 poorer, and extracted my copy (or what was left of it) out from underneath my dog’s bedding. Ziggy Rottweiler loves tearing the guts out of liberal magazines and newspapers, and then burying them, never to be seen again. I’ve tried in vain to offer him the Washington Times and Townhall Magazine to mangle and inter but he only gives those a snout bump and huffs away. Dogs rule.
Anyway, here’s a précis of the Newsweek article:
Obama’s “Shining City of Hope on the Hill” Administration—that edifice of supreme power—is described thus: “seriousness of purpose,” “helping hand,” “cool, collected,” and “villainous aggressor.” Wait. That last one is for Rush Limbaugh.
Former President Bush’s Administration—them shaggy cave dwellers—, on the other hand, are “callow,” “manipulative,” “pitiless,” and “obsequious.”
Newsweek compares President Bush to arch villain Darth Vader (no surprise there, though Dubya misses by the distance from here to Pluto of ever sounding—“May the force be with ya”—as commanding as James Earl Jones) while Barack Hussein Obama—so pretty, so eloquent, so much better than conservatives deserve—is a hip problem fixer.
The hipster, clinging grimly to visions only he sees, has “fixed” a lot of things. An example is when some U.S. banks wanted to repay their TARP loans, and with interest, Obama shut them out from doing so. Doesn’t that come under the heading “Creeping Government Overreach”?
Or would the modern day Simon Legree actually be stating [cue creepy organ music]: “Nope. I now own you, your lock boxes, your stock, and your barrels of money … [sneer] heh, heh, heh”?
He is promising more fixes, such as to hold back California’s allotted stimulus monies if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not restore wage cuts to union workers (in an effort to balance the budget). Obama remains true blue to Labor in spite of the fact he knows full well that the Golden State is balancing on one toe, on top of a one inch-wide rail, less than a centimeter above bankruptcy quicksand.
This country’s most popular state is shriveling on the vine, but those unions must be saved first! It reminded me of the arc scene in Ridley Scott’s “Alien” when Science Officer Ash explained Special Order 937 to the remaining crewmembers about their chances of survival: “All other priorities are rescinded.”
Another fixer-upper on Obama’s list is the planned trip to Egypt where he will address the Muslim world. When this news broke my phone started ringing off the hook. They were mostly Lefties and liberals … I mean, “Progressives,” and all dear friends, who (finally) are starting to squawk about his compulsion to globetrot and draw passionate praise rather than stay home and work on deflating our ballooning domestic problems.
One guy even said, “How much validation does he need? He was elected, for crying out loud.” And that’s from a liberal who had mounted a 3’ x 5’ poster of Obama on his livingroom wall and swore he’d never take it down. It’s now gone. And, no, I didn’t ask.
While I’m on the subject of Obama’s wanderlust, in case no one has noticed, every time he is cleared for take-off (which does seem like every other day) the cost to taxpayers is enormous. Those jumbos burn tons of fuel; and there is the entourage to end all entourages, which includes an army of security and escort aircraft. They don’t work for free, and they all need to be fed and barracked. Or maybe they are laboring “off the cuff”: to be in the same rarified air with Barry might be payment and nutrition enough.
Speaking of Air Force “The One,” Obama can chalk up another resignation as a result of the presidential bird buzzing lower Manhattan for a photo op, which caused extreme panic. This is why the kiddies in this Administration should be marched to the White House woodshed from time to time, to remind them that they are representatives of the United States of America, not straw-chewin’ delinquents in a Sam Clemens novel.
It’s a given that, if this had occurred on President Bush’s watch, all hell would’ve broken loose from the Left for days, possibly weeks. But because the mainstream media are Obama’s fawning footmen, there was only a glimmer of this incident reported at prime time.
Then there was that emerald moment when Obama said “nope” to participating in National Prayer Day. That was a bare-face confirmation of his hard-about-the-mouth attitude regarding Israel, a stanch ally, and Christianity (Judeo-Christian laws and principles, after all, are the backbone of America).
Attendees of the prayer meeting typically are “selected Christian and Jewish leaders.” The dots connect themselves here, and Obama seems determined to sever those connections. And with what will he re-attach them, a fundamental re-ordering of our country based on socialist theory?
When grilled by the press why his boss would be a no show, Robert Gibbs answered with his usual vagueness, “He’ll pray as he does every day.” Reading the Holy Bible, or kneeling on his prayer rug facing Mecca? I believe the American People deserve a clear answer as to his true faith if, in fact, he follows one.
Finally, the “Dope” in my piece is Sen. Arlen Specter. He made front-page headlines recently when he jumped the fire line from the Republican Party over to the Democrats’ side of the Hill. We all know what happened there, so I needn’t present a vapid re-hash. So I’ll end this with a personal message to the new (disgraced and demoted) Congressional Democrat:
Senator, stupidity has the same shelf life as a Twinkie. So you’ll fit in perfectly with the other fruitcakes to the left of the aisle, in the section marked “Just Desserts.”
Sunday, April 26, 2009
TEA and Toast
By Julian Krasta
There is a statue in Concord, Massachusetts, named The Minute Man. It was created by Daniel Chester French and was erected in 1875 in honor of the men who gave their lives at onset of the American Revolutionary War. At the base of the statue is inscribed the first stanza of the Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which includes this line:
"And fired the shot heard around the world."
This sentence (since shortened to, and is more familiar as, The shot heard around the world) has been used to describe life-changing events, e.g., the battle of Lexington and Concord, which set the American Revolution in motion; the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which plunged Europe, and later America, into “the war to end all wars”; the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King—to name a few.
With pride and appreciation we now can include a remarkable event: the rescue operation executed by the sharpshooters onboard the U.S. Navy Destroyer Bainbridge that took down the Somali pirates, freeing Capt. Richard Phillips unharmed.
Three days later, on April 15th, more shots rang out. Those, however, were not fired from a Barrett .50-cal. They were the voices of over one million Americans who had come together at TEA—Taxed Enough, Already—Parties in cities across the country.
Politicians were welcome but not encouraged to attend. The gatherings comprised American citizens, and were not meant as platforms for the theatrics of public officials, which is why they were a success.
TEA parties began as reactions to Obama’s record spending, soon to be followed by a multi-trillion dollar national sales tax and socialized medicine, all of which is, and will be, hitting us like a swarm of F‑5 Texas twisters.
There were placards that displayed passionate messages, aimed mostly at the White House. Those messages, created under our right of free speech, were as harsh as it got. No smoke bombs or attack dogs were needed to disperse unruly crowds. States’ National Guards were not in siege mode; and no rocks, bottles, or verbal missives were hurled at police.
Each assembly was nonviolent and under control, which might explain why the mainstream media were noticeably absent; no heads were bashed and no effigies were burned, ergo, nothing the MSM considered imperative to report. Okay, there was one arrest (out of the one million): an over-exuberant partygoer blocked traffic as she cheerily waved her homemade sign. Was she dragged off in chains? No. The lady was peaceably, and without incident, escorted away by the local gendarmes.
The gatherings are proof of Newton’s Third Law: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Case in point: You bombed Pearl Harbor without provocation? You’re toast. Or: You attacked our country without provocation on 9/11 and killed 3,000-plus innocent civilians up and down our eastern seaboard? Toast again.
Liberals and our liberal left-wing president (all of whom are more concerned with defending such offenders) would probably view my illustrations as over-the-top. But you get the point.
TEA parties serve to openly and peacefully object to Barack Obama and his flawed actions. Rather than go down that list, I’m linking one article in this paragraph, dated April 23, 2009, which is a report at WSJ.com about Obama’s intention to allow the indictment of Bush officials. The piece is entitled “Presidential Poison” – appropriate, I think, in the circumstances.
The gatherings “evolved” (the MSM’s favorite word) into protests against Obama’s dressing down of our country while recently in Europe. Most appalling, from my point of view, was during the same excursion when Obama greeted King Abdullah. Instead of offering a manly handshake or a respectful tilt of his head, he bowed and kissed the hand of that potentate. No other U.S. president, including President George W. Bush, has ever made such a transparent gesture of submission.
TEA partygoers protested Obama’s lack of control over his appointees, particularly Janet Napolitano. In the DHS Intelligence Assessment, titled “Rightwing Extremism,” she suggested that military vets should be viewed as a danger to America: She cited Timothy McVeigh to draw on in order to make such an irresponsible statement. In Napolitano’s own words, which I’m borrowing from an April 23 article at the New York Post, “I was the United States attorney for Arizona in the ‘90s when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrow [sic] building in Oklahoma City and unfortunately he was a vet – that’s where he got his training.”
But Janet failed to cite other examples, such as John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo, the Beltway snipers, who were black and Muslim. Or did she forget? Or was she ordered to refer to heinous crimes committed only by white men?
Her lack of correctness has prompted a call by conservative organizations to demand Napolitano resign from her post at the Department of Homeland Security. In other words: You accuse our veterans of being right-wing extremists because of their military training? You’re toast.
Comes now Nancy Pelosi. On April 23, the Speaker of the House went before the press and funfeh’d (Yiddish for stumbled and mumbled) yet another myth: she denied having any knowledge that our Central Intelligence Agency used the method called “waterboarding” on captured terrorists to extract from them vital information advantageous to national security.
I guess Nancy dozed off during the 2002 briefing in which GOP operatives explained the “enhanced interrogation techniques in graphic detail.” And this comes on the heels of her uproarious statements about the Catholic Church and abortion.
On July 4th, Newton’s Third Law will again come into play when the bell rings for Round Three of the TEA Parties. I expect they will be even bigger, more unified, and just as in-control.
Capitol Hill fears these gatherings. They’re using words like “racist” and “national security threat” against the gatherers—like the schoolyard bully who cowers and cries foul when his object of ridicule has had enough and slugs back.
“We, the People”—the participants at TEA Parties—are the target of the bullies on Capitol Hill, and we have had enough. We have reached the end of our tether over the dismal and reckless performance on the part of members of the House and Senate.
We are equally at our wits’ end over this Administration playing robber baron with the American way of life, our livelihoods, our industries, our freedoms, and our children’s future. And we reject its efforts to infuse socialism in our country and thereby cause its implosion.
To those few who are trying to steer this country off a cliff, I have four brand new words for you:
LiberTEA … EqualiTEA … FraterniTEA … ProsperiTEA
I’m confident that majority control will swing back to the Republican Party after next year’s congressional elections. Thereafter, we will rebuild our lives and re-fortify our nation. And we can then offer a “toast” to the return of our inalienable rights, and pick up where we left off in our pursuit of happiness.
There is a statue in Concord, Massachusetts, named The Minute Man. It was created by Daniel Chester French and was erected in 1875 in honor of the men who gave their lives at onset of the American Revolutionary War. At the base of the statue is inscribed the first stanza of the Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which includes this line:
"And fired the shot heard around the world."
This sentence (since shortened to, and is more familiar as, The shot heard around the world) has been used to describe life-changing events, e.g., the battle of Lexington and Concord, which set the American Revolution in motion; the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which plunged Europe, and later America, into “the war to end all wars”; the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King—to name a few.
With pride and appreciation we now can include a remarkable event: the rescue operation executed by the sharpshooters onboard the U.S. Navy Destroyer Bainbridge that took down the Somali pirates, freeing Capt. Richard Phillips unharmed.
Three days later, on April 15th, more shots rang out. Those, however, were not fired from a Barrett .50-cal. They were the voices of over one million Americans who had come together at TEA—Taxed Enough, Already—Parties in cities across the country.
Politicians were welcome but not encouraged to attend. The gatherings comprised American citizens, and were not meant as platforms for the theatrics of public officials, which is why they were a success.
TEA parties began as reactions to Obama’s record spending, soon to be followed by a multi-trillion dollar national sales tax and socialized medicine, all of which is, and will be, hitting us like a swarm of F‑5 Texas twisters.
There were placards that displayed passionate messages, aimed mostly at the White House. Those messages, created under our right of free speech, were as harsh as it got. No smoke bombs or attack dogs were needed to disperse unruly crowds. States’ National Guards were not in siege mode; and no rocks, bottles, or verbal missives were hurled at police.
Each assembly was nonviolent and under control, which might explain why the mainstream media were noticeably absent; no heads were bashed and no effigies were burned, ergo, nothing the MSM considered imperative to report. Okay, there was one arrest (out of the one million): an over-exuberant partygoer blocked traffic as she cheerily waved her homemade sign. Was she dragged off in chains? No. The lady was peaceably, and without incident, escorted away by the local gendarmes.
The gatherings are proof of Newton’s Third Law: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Case in point: You bombed Pearl Harbor without provocation? You’re toast. Or: You attacked our country without provocation on 9/11 and killed 3,000-plus innocent civilians up and down our eastern seaboard? Toast again.
Liberals and our liberal left-wing president (all of whom are more concerned with defending such offenders) would probably view my illustrations as over-the-top. But you get the point.
TEA parties serve to openly and peacefully object to Barack Obama and his flawed actions. Rather than go down that list, I’m linking one article in this paragraph, dated April 23, 2009, which is a report at WSJ.com about Obama’s intention to allow the indictment of Bush officials. The piece is entitled “Presidential Poison” – appropriate, I think, in the circumstances.
The gatherings “evolved” (the MSM’s favorite word) into protests against Obama’s dressing down of our country while recently in Europe. Most appalling, from my point of view, was during the same excursion when Obama greeted King Abdullah. Instead of offering a manly handshake or a respectful tilt of his head, he bowed and kissed the hand of that potentate. No other U.S. president, including President George W. Bush, has ever made such a transparent gesture of submission.
TEA partygoers protested Obama’s lack of control over his appointees, particularly Janet Napolitano. In the DHS Intelligence Assessment, titled “Rightwing Extremism,” she suggested that military vets should be viewed as a danger to America: She cited Timothy McVeigh to draw on in order to make such an irresponsible statement. In Napolitano’s own words, which I’m borrowing from an April 23 article at the New York Post, “I was the United States attorney for Arizona in the ‘90s when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrow [sic] building in Oklahoma City and unfortunately he was a vet – that’s where he got his training.”
But Janet failed to cite other examples, such as John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo, the Beltway snipers, who were black and Muslim. Or did she forget? Or was she ordered to refer to heinous crimes committed only by white men?
Her lack of correctness has prompted a call by conservative organizations to demand Napolitano resign from her post at the Department of Homeland Security. In other words: You accuse our veterans of being right-wing extremists because of their military training? You’re toast.
Comes now Nancy Pelosi. On April 23, the Speaker of the House went before the press and funfeh’d (Yiddish for stumbled and mumbled) yet another myth: she denied having any knowledge that our Central Intelligence Agency used the method called “waterboarding” on captured terrorists to extract from them vital information advantageous to national security.
I guess Nancy dozed off during the 2002 briefing in which GOP operatives explained the “enhanced interrogation techniques in graphic detail.” And this comes on the heels of her uproarious statements about the Catholic Church and abortion.
On July 4th, Newton’s Third Law will again come into play when the bell rings for Round Three of the TEA Parties. I expect they will be even bigger, more unified, and just as in-control.
Capitol Hill fears these gatherings. They’re using words like “racist” and “national security threat” against the gatherers—like the schoolyard bully who cowers and cries foul when his object of ridicule has had enough and slugs back.
“We, the People”—the participants at TEA Parties—are the target of the bullies on Capitol Hill, and we have had enough. We have reached the end of our tether over the dismal and reckless performance on the part of members of the House and Senate.
We are equally at our wits’ end over this Administration playing robber baron with the American way of life, our livelihoods, our industries, our freedoms, and our children’s future. And we reject its efforts to infuse socialism in our country and thereby cause its implosion.
To those few who are trying to steer this country off a cliff, I have four brand new words for you:
LiberTEA … EqualiTEA … FraterniTEA … ProsperiTEA
I’m confident that majority control will swing back to the Republican Party after next year’s congressional elections. Thereafter, we will rebuild our lives and re-fortify our nation. And we can then offer a “toast” to the return of our inalienable rights, and pick up where we left off in our pursuit of happiness.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
by MITT ROMNEY
New York Times Op-Ed Contributor
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html?_r=1
If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.
I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run20American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers.
First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.
That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.
Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.
The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, “Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.”
You don’t have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.
The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.
Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies — especially fuel-saving designs — that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.
Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don’t want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don’t fire the best dealers, and don’t crush them with new financial or performance demands they can’t meet.
It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.
But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.
The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.
In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was a candidate for this year’s Republican presidential nomination.
New York Times Op-Ed Contributor
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html?_r=1
If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.
I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run20American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers.
First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.
That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.
Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.
The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, “Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.”
You don’t have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.
The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.
Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies — especially fuel-saving designs — that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.
Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don’t want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don’t fire the best dealers, and don’t crush them with new financial or performance demands they can’t meet.
It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.
But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.
The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.
In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was a candidate for this year’s Republican presidential nomination.
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