Thursday, August 19, 2010
Political Satire from 1934 Chicago Tribune
Is it just me or does this commentary strike a truthful chord today? It didn't work then either...
Monday, August 9, 2010
I couldn't have said it better myself....
The following essay by Robert Weissberg, Professor of Political Science - Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana, offers a description of what many Americans -- probably a majority -- are feeling about our government, but haven't been able to articulate.
A Stranger in Our Midst
By Robert Weissberg, Professor of Political Science - Emeritus at the University of Illinois , Urbana
As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. I reject nearly the entire Obama agenda, but the term "being opposed" lacks an emotional punch. Nor do terms like "worried" or "anxious" apply. I was more worried about America 's future during the Johnson or Carter years, so it's not that dictionary, either. Nor, for that matter, is this about backroom odious deal-making and pork, which are endemic in American politics.
After auditioning countless political terms, I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition. It is as if the United States has been occupied by a foreign power, and this transcends policy objections. It is not about Obama's birthplace. It is not about race, either; millions of white Americans have had black mayors and black governors, and this unease about out-of-synch values never surfaced.
The term I settled on is "alien rule" -- based on outsider values, regardless of policy benefits -- that generates agitation. This is what bloody anti-colonial strife was all about. No doubt, millions of Indians and Africans probably grasped that expelling the British guaranteed economic ruin and even worse governance, but at least the mess would be their mess. Just travel to Afghanistan and witness American military commanders' efforts to enlist tribal elders with promises of roads, clean water, dental clinics, and all else that America can freely provide. Many of these elders probably privately prefer abject poverty to foreign occupation since it would be their poverty, run by their people, according to their sensibilities.
This disquiet was a slow realization. Awareness began with Obama's odd pre-presidency associations, decades of being oblivious to Rev. Wright's anti-American ranting, his enduring friendship with the terrorist guy-in-the-neighborhood Bill Ayers, and the Saul Alinsky-flavored anti-capitalist community activism. Further add a hazy personal background -- an Indonesian childhood, shifting official names, and a paperless-trail climb through elite educational institutions.
None of this disqualified Obama from the presidency; rather, this background just doesn't fit with the conventional political résumé. It is just the "outsider" quality that alarms. For all the yammering about George W. Bush's privileged background, his made-in-the-USA persona was absolutely indisputable. John McCain might be embarrassed about his Naval Academy class rank and iffy combat performance, but there was never any doubt of his authenticity. Countless conservatives despised Bill Clinton, but nobody ever, ever doubted his good-old-boy American bonafides.
The suspicion that Obama is an outsider, a figure who really doesn't "get" America , grew clearer from his initial appointments. What "native" would appoint Kevin Jennings, a militant gay activist, to oversee school safety? Or permit a Marxist rabble-rouser (Van Jones) to be a "green jobs czar"? How about an Attorney General who began by accusing Americans of cowardice when it comes to discussing race? And who can forget Obama's weird defense of his pal Louis Henry Gates from "racist" Cambridge , Massachusetts cops? If the American Revolution had never occurred and the Queen had appointed Obama Royal Governor (after his distinguished service in Kenya ), a trusted locally attuned aide would have first whispered in his ear, "Mr. Governor General, here in America , we do not automatically assume that the police were at fault," and the day would have been saved.
And then there's the "we are sorry, we'll never be arrogant again" rhetoric seemingly designed for a future President of the World election campaign. What made Obama's Cairo utterances so distressing was how they grated on American cultural sensibilities. And he just doesn't notice, perhaps akin to never hearing Rev. Wright anti-American diatribes. An American president does not pander to third-world audiences by lying about the Muslim contribution to America. Imagine Ronald Reagan, or any past American president, trying to win friends by apologizing. This appeal contravenes our national character and far exceeds a momentary embarrassment about garbled syntax or poor delivery. Then there's Obama's bizarre, totally unnecessary deep bowing to foreign potentates. Americans look foreign leaders squarely in the eye and firmly shake hands; we don't bow.
But far worse is Obama's tone-deafness about American government. How can any ordinary American, even a traditional liberal, believe that jamming through unpopular, debt-expanding legislation that consumes one-sixth of our GDP, sometimes with sly side-payments and with a thin majority, will eventually be judged legitimate? This is third-world, maximum-leader-style politics. That the legislation was barely understood even by its defenders and vehemently championed by a representative of that typical American city, San Francisco, only exacerbates the strangeness. And now President Obama sides with illegal aliens over the State of Arizona , which seeks to enforce the federal immigration law to protect American citizens from marauding drug gangs and other miscreants streaming in across the Mexican border.
Reciprocal public disengagement from President Obama is strongly suggested by recent poll data on public trust in government. According to a recent Pew report, only 22% of those asked trust the government always or most of the time, among the lowest figures in half a century. And while pro-government support has been slipping for decades, the Obama presidency has sharply exacerbated this drop. To be sure, many factors (in particular the economic downturn) contribute to this decline, but remember that Obama was recently elected by an often wildly enthusiastic popular majority. The collapse of trust undoubtedly transcends policy quibbles or a sluggish economy -- it is far more consistent with a deeper alienation.
Perhaps the clearest evidence for this "foreigner in our midst" mentality is the name given our resistance -- tea parties, an image that instantly invokes the American struggle against George III, a clueless foreign ruler from central casting. This history-laden label was hardly predetermined, but it instantly stuck (as did the election of Sen. Scott Brown as "the shot heard around the world" and tea partiers dressing up in colonial-era costumes). Perhaps subconsciously, Obama does remind Americans of when the U.S. was really occupied by a foreign power. A Declaration of Independence passage may still resonate: "HE [George III] has erected a Multitude of new Offices [Czars], and sent hither Swarms of Officers [recently hired IRS agents] to harass our People, and eat out the Substance."
A Stranger in Our Midst
By Robert Weissberg, Professor of Political Science - Emeritus at the University of Illinois , Urbana
As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. I reject nearly the entire Obama agenda, but the term "being opposed" lacks an emotional punch. Nor do terms like "worried" or "anxious" apply. I was more worried about America 's future during the Johnson or Carter years, so it's not that dictionary, either. Nor, for that matter, is this about backroom odious deal-making and pork, which are endemic in American politics.
After auditioning countless political terms, I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition. It is as if the United States has been occupied by a foreign power, and this transcends policy objections. It is not about Obama's birthplace. It is not about race, either; millions of white Americans have had black mayors and black governors, and this unease about out-of-synch values never surfaced.
The term I settled on is "alien rule" -- based on outsider values, regardless of policy benefits -- that generates agitation. This is what bloody anti-colonial strife was all about. No doubt, millions of Indians and Africans probably grasped that expelling the British guaranteed economic ruin and even worse governance, but at least the mess would be their mess. Just travel to Afghanistan and witness American military commanders' efforts to enlist tribal elders with promises of roads, clean water, dental clinics, and all else that America can freely provide. Many of these elders probably privately prefer abject poverty to foreign occupation since it would be their poverty, run by their people, according to their sensibilities.
This disquiet was a slow realization. Awareness began with Obama's odd pre-presidency associations, decades of being oblivious to Rev. Wright's anti-American ranting, his enduring friendship with the terrorist guy-in-the-neighborhood Bill Ayers, and the Saul Alinsky-flavored anti-capitalist community activism. Further add a hazy personal background -- an Indonesian childhood, shifting official names, and a paperless-trail climb through elite educational institutions.
None of this disqualified Obama from the presidency; rather, this background just doesn't fit with the conventional political résumé. It is just the "outsider" quality that alarms. For all the yammering about George W. Bush's privileged background, his made-in-the-USA persona was absolutely indisputable. John McCain might be embarrassed about his Naval Academy class rank and iffy combat performance, but there was never any doubt of his authenticity. Countless conservatives despised Bill Clinton, but nobody ever, ever doubted his good-old-boy American bonafides.
The suspicion that Obama is an outsider, a figure who really doesn't "get" America , grew clearer from his initial appointments. What "native" would appoint Kevin Jennings, a militant gay activist, to oversee school safety? Or permit a Marxist rabble-rouser (Van Jones) to be a "green jobs czar"? How about an Attorney General who began by accusing Americans of cowardice when it comes to discussing race? And who can forget Obama's weird defense of his pal Louis Henry Gates from "racist" Cambridge , Massachusetts cops? If the American Revolution had never occurred and the Queen had appointed Obama Royal Governor (after his distinguished service in Kenya ), a trusted locally attuned aide would have first whispered in his ear, "Mr. Governor General, here in America , we do not automatically assume that the police were at fault," and the day would have been saved.
And then there's the "we are sorry, we'll never be arrogant again" rhetoric seemingly designed for a future President of the World election campaign. What made Obama's Cairo utterances so distressing was how they grated on American cultural sensibilities. And he just doesn't notice, perhaps akin to never hearing Rev. Wright anti-American diatribes. An American president does not pander to third-world audiences by lying about the Muslim contribution to America. Imagine Ronald Reagan, or any past American president, trying to win friends by apologizing. This appeal contravenes our national character and far exceeds a momentary embarrassment about garbled syntax or poor delivery. Then there's Obama's bizarre, totally unnecessary deep bowing to foreign potentates. Americans look foreign leaders squarely in the eye and firmly shake hands; we don't bow.
But far worse is Obama's tone-deafness about American government. How can any ordinary American, even a traditional liberal, believe that jamming through unpopular, debt-expanding legislation that consumes one-sixth of our GDP, sometimes with sly side-payments and with a thin majority, will eventually be judged legitimate? This is third-world, maximum-leader-style politics. That the legislation was barely understood even by its defenders and vehemently championed by a representative of that typical American city, San Francisco, only exacerbates the strangeness. And now President Obama sides with illegal aliens over the State of Arizona , which seeks to enforce the federal immigration law to protect American citizens from marauding drug gangs and other miscreants streaming in across the Mexican border.
Reciprocal public disengagement from President Obama is strongly suggested by recent poll data on public trust in government. According to a recent Pew report, only 22% of those asked trust the government always or most of the time, among the lowest figures in half a century. And while pro-government support has been slipping for decades, the Obama presidency has sharply exacerbated this drop. To be sure, many factors (in particular the economic downturn) contribute to this decline, but remember that Obama was recently elected by an often wildly enthusiastic popular majority. The collapse of trust undoubtedly transcends policy quibbles or a sluggish economy -- it is far more consistent with a deeper alienation.
Perhaps the clearest evidence for this "foreigner in our midst" mentality is the name given our resistance -- tea parties, an image that instantly invokes the American struggle against George III, a clueless foreign ruler from central casting. This history-laden label was hardly predetermined, but it instantly stuck (as did the election of Sen. Scott Brown as "the shot heard around the world" and tea partiers dressing up in colonial-era costumes). Perhaps subconsciously, Obama does remind Americans of when the U.S. was really occupied by a foreign power. A Declaration of Independence passage may still resonate: "HE [George III] has erected a Multitude of new Offices [Czars], and sent hither Swarms of Officers [recently hired IRS agents] to harass our People, and eat out the Substance."
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Comrades, are you paying attention?
It's been a long time since I posted here, and alot has happened to me in the past year. Last year at this time, I was employed and earning a good salary. I drove a Corvette and a Harley, paid my bills on time and had a little extra for charity and emergencies. Oh what a difference a year makes.
I'm still on my blood pressure meds, thanks in large part to the Obama administration and the 111th Congress. How did so many Americans get bamboozled into electing this crop of tone deaf nitwits? So far, the company that I worked for had to release me because the economy is still depressed (although the elites will spin it otherwise) and Obama is an anti-business socialist. Thanks Barry. I had to sell the vehicles that I loved so much because I couldn't afford them without a job. Obama might say I needed to take a hit for the team. Thanks Barry. I'm not able to meet all of my obligations on time, so my credit score is taking a hit. Who needs credit, right? Thanks Barry.
But, despite the active efforts of this administration to undermine my way of life, as well as 300 million others, we will endure by reducing expenses, watching our budgets and making the personal sacrifices all sensible people make when managing through a financial crisis. Our elected "leaders" haven't quite come to grips with the average Joe's budgeting approach, though. They seem to think that if they just pass a law, the money to pay for it will magically materialize. To them the taxpayer wallet is open and the party is just getting started. A Stimulus bill that didn't work, Nationalized Health Care that most American didn't want, Finance Reform that doesn't address the probelms, Cap-n-Trade that doesn't make sense and won't work; and I shudder to think about their solution to Immigration Reform. Thanks Barry. The current Administration and Congress shouldn't be allowed to govern a homeowners association, much less the most powerful economy in the world.
The only employement sector that has grown are government jobs. When was the last time the Federal Government created wealth...answer-NEVER. I don't hold that against them because it's not their charter. The formula for economic growth has been tested and proven in our history repeatedly. Reduce taxes on everyone. Get the free market primed to invest the trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines and watch the country get back to work. That's how a free market system works...which is why the economy is so messed up today. It's not looking like a free market anymore. Too many bailouts of people and companies that don't deserve it, rewarding them for violating basic business principles and bankrupting the shareholders. Thanks Barry. If a company has been mismanaged, let someone else take it over through the BK courts.
To my comrades that are old enough to remember when the United States of America was the envy of the world and promoted the principles of prosperity, honor, personal responsibility and world leadership - it is incumbent upon us to hold tight to those values and teach our children about their great heritage. Don't let the progressive socialists obtain their goal "re-making" America with their misleading hope & change illusions. Think for yourselves. Stand up for your beliefs. If you let them, the left wing minority crack pots will have transformed our great country into something that would never resemble the vision of our founding fathers.
Praise God that I have finally found some peaceful seclusion in my faith. Our rights were given to us by God and cannot be taken away from us by Barry and his thugs. This is an important election year and we cannot make the same mistake that was blindly made in 2008.
Comrades, are you paying attention?
I'm still on my blood pressure meds, thanks in large part to the Obama administration and the 111th Congress. How did so many Americans get bamboozled into electing this crop of tone deaf nitwits? So far, the company that I worked for had to release me because the economy is still depressed (although the elites will spin it otherwise) and Obama is an anti-business socialist. Thanks Barry. I had to sell the vehicles that I loved so much because I couldn't afford them without a job. Obama might say I needed to take a hit for the team. Thanks Barry. I'm not able to meet all of my obligations on time, so my credit score is taking a hit. Who needs credit, right? Thanks Barry.
But, despite the active efforts of this administration to undermine my way of life, as well as 300 million others, we will endure by reducing expenses, watching our budgets and making the personal sacrifices all sensible people make when managing through a financial crisis. Our elected "leaders" haven't quite come to grips with the average Joe's budgeting approach, though. They seem to think that if they just pass a law, the money to pay for it will magically materialize. To them the taxpayer wallet is open and the party is just getting started. A Stimulus bill that didn't work, Nationalized Health Care that most American didn't want, Finance Reform that doesn't address the probelms, Cap-n-Trade that doesn't make sense and won't work; and I shudder to think about their solution to Immigration Reform. Thanks Barry. The current Administration and Congress shouldn't be allowed to govern a homeowners association, much less the most powerful economy in the world.
The only employement sector that has grown are government jobs. When was the last time the Federal Government created wealth...answer-NEVER. I don't hold that against them because it's not their charter. The formula for economic growth has been tested and proven in our history repeatedly. Reduce taxes on everyone. Get the free market primed to invest the trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines and watch the country get back to work. That's how a free market system works...which is why the economy is so messed up today. It's not looking like a free market anymore. Too many bailouts of people and companies that don't deserve it, rewarding them for violating basic business principles and bankrupting the shareholders. Thanks Barry. If a company has been mismanaged, let someone else take it over through the BK courts.
To my comrades that are old enough to remember when the United States of America was the envy of the world and promoted the principles of prosperity, honor, personal responsibility and world leadership - it is incumbent upon us to hold tight to those values and teach our children about their great heritage. Don't let the progressive socialists obtain their goal "re-making" America with their misleading hope & change illusions. Think for yourselves. Stand up for your beliefs. If you let them, the left wing minority crack pots will have transformed our great country into something that would never resemble the vision of our founding fathers.
Praise God that I have finally found some peaceful seclusion in my faith. Our rights were given to us by God and cannot be taken away from us by Barry and his thugs. This is an important election year and we cannot make the same mistake that was blindly made in 2008.
Comrades, are you paying attention?
Monday, August 24, 2009
The PC Police raid Beck
It seems that the ever controversial Glen Beck has stirred up the liberals...again. This time some far left shakedown organization called ColorofChange.org has taken offense to a comment that Beck made about Obama being racist. I know this assertion seems bold, but there is plenty in Obama's history that would suggest there is some truth to the accusation. Nevertheless, this "watchdog" group has raised a stink with the sponsers of the Glen Beck Show and has gotten them to recoil in politically correct disgust.
Nevermind that Beck's show commands a significant audience that is not the slightest bit offended at his sensational and informative style. Disregard the fact that during the past year Beck has exposed many lurid "good 'ol boy" networked appointments to the Obama WH that are not being questioned by the mainstream media. It should be evident that Obama's prescription for social justice is on an express track to entitle those that have been kept down by the man.
I guess the tolerance for expressing an opinion can manifest into sponser boycotts, it's the American way. But the boycott blade swings both ways...so for all of us that recognize there is a dark side (no pun intended) to the annoited one, I am boycotting these fine companies and products until they come to their senses and quit kowtowing to the liberal left:
Campbells Soup
Clorox
CVS
Ditech
FreeCreditReport.com (which is a sham anyway)
Farmers Insurance
Johnson & Johnson
Lowes
NutriSystem (food tastes like crap anyway)
Sprint
Verizon
UPS
Wal-Mart
Think about it honestly without the PC influence. Is Beck wrong? And even if he is, I don't think he's THAT wrong.
Nevermind that Beck's show commands a significant audience that is not the slightest bit offended at his sensational and informative style. Disregard the fact that during the past year Beck has exposed many lurid "good 'ol boy" networked appointments to the Obama WH that are not being questioned by the mainstream media. It should be evident that Obama's prescription for social justice is on an express track to entitle those that have been kept down by the man.
I guess the tolerance for expressing an opinion can manifest into sponser boycotts, it's the American way. But the boycott blade swings both ways...so for all of us that recognize there is a dark side (no pun intended) to the annoited one, I am boycotting these fine companies and products until they come to their senses and quit kowtowing to the liberal left:
Campbells Soup
Clorox
CVS
Ditech
FreeCreditReport.com (which is a sham anyway)
Farmers Insurance
Johnson & Johnson
Lowes
NutriSystem (food tastes like crap anyway)
Sprint
Verizon
UPS
Wal-Mart
Think about it honestly without the PC influence. Is Beck wrong? And even if he is, I don't think he's THAT wrong.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Summer Vacation
It's summer vacation for our legislature. I know that sounds silly...I mean, what have they accomplished to earn vacation? Have they responsibly addressed our energy policy issue? No, they gave us "Crap & Tax" foisted on us by the Al Gore loonies. Have they come up with a responsible "Health Care Reform"? No, the right, left and middle can't seem to agree on how much socialism they are going to foist upon us regardless of how loudly we scream we don't want it. Have they even taken up critical issues such as immigration, tax code reform, social security or national security? No, maybe next year. I mean, why work on things that they are actually responsible for?
So what have they done this year under the Obama vision? Well, they have successfully inserted their brand of justice into the finance, insurance and automotive industries. I don't recall the part of the constitution where the government is authorized or encouraged to nationalize private industry. They have driven the country deeper into debt, the deepest in the history of this great country, and they've done it by ignoring common sense principles of supply & demand. How much of our debt do we really want our pseudo-enemies to own? Right now it's approaching the trillion dollar mark. I never thought I would ever in my life use the word "trillion" in a sentence. Thank you Mr. President for this opportunity.
Fellow Americans...PATRIOTS...now is the time to raise our voices in unison and shout down the "change we can believe in " crowd in order to save our precious republic. This country does not need or want a socialist makeover! Don't submit yourselves to the PC crap that extends courteous silence to the vitriolic poison that is being forced into the current political dialog. The United States of America is the greatest nation on earth because of our traditional values, capitalistic economy and limited government as decreed by the Constitution.
Let's hope that our elected representatives hear this message from their constituants when the go home for "vacation". Don't let the radical liberals ruin this great country for our children and grandchildern.
God Bless America.
So what have they done this year under the Obama vision? Well, they have successfully inserted their brand of justice into the finance, insurance and automotive industries. I don't recall the part of the constitution where the government is authorized or encouraged to nationalize private industry. They have driven the country deeper into debt, the deepest in the history of this great country, and they've done it by ignoring common sense principles of supply & demand. How much of our debt do we really want our pseudo-enemies to own? Right now it's approaching the trillion dollar mark. I never thought I would ever in my life use the word "trillion" in a sentence. Thank you Mr. President for this opportunity.
Fellow Americans...PATRIOTS...now is the time to raise our voices in unison and shout down the "change we can believe in " crowd in order to save our precious republic. This country does not need or want a socialist makeover! Don't submit yourselves to the PC crap that extends courteous silence to the vitriolic poison that is being forced into the current political dialog. The United States of America is the greatest nation on earth because of our traditional values, capitalistic economy and limited government as decreed by the Constitution.
Let's hope that our elected representatives hear this message from their constituants when the go home for "vacation". Don't let the radical liberals ruin this great country for our children and grandchildern.
God Bless America.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
I was watching Glen Beck tonight and, as usual, he was very passionate about how Obama, henceforth known as the AntiChrist, (my designation, not Becks) is methodically and surreptitiously transforming our great country into the next Soviet Union. The evidence was presented in the AntiChrists' own words and was unsettling at best. How can people continue to admire and support someone who hates this country so much? Are my comrades and countrymen so enamoured by his diabolical rhetoric that they've voluntarily subjected their common sense to the whimsical rantings of this bigot posing as a President? I fear for the future.
It's one thing to be an unqualified President who's office was bought with funds that were neither audited or transparent, shuffled into office by an ignorant voting block that yearned for "change" but not concerned with the nature of the beast. It's quite another thing to back up this poser with a body of liberal politicians that now have the headcount to do irreversible damage to the style of capitalism that made this country the greatest in the world. To the tax & spend liberals in D.C. ...STAY OUT OF MY WALLET! The 111th congress is the largest collection of buffoons that I've seen in my life. What would it take to impose term limits on Congress? There are some living artifacts in Congress that continue to corrupt the American way of life because they have been there too long. Oh, I forgot about the ignorant voting block. I fear for the future.
The U.S. is the last remaining superpower, and we have always demonstrated honesty, morality and compassion; along with the capability and will to defend ourselves. Now, look at the top 3 leaders of the free world...Obama, Biden and Pelosi. How embarassing. We have been weakend by the Dem's economically, politically, socially and intellctually. The prominence of the U.S. in this world has been marginalized by the anti-Americans that were voted into office by the confused Americans. Clear your heads comrades or the soup line awaits!
It's one thing to be an unqualified President who's office was bought with funds that were neither audited or transparent, shuffled into office by an ignorant voting block that yearned for "change" but not concerned with the nature of the beast. It's quite another thing to back up this poser with a body of liberal politicians that now have the headcount to do irreversible damage to the style of capitalism that made this country the greatest in the world. To the tax & spend liberals in D.C. ...STAY OUT OF MY WALLET! The 111th congress is the largest collection of buffoons that I've seen in my life. What would it take to impose term limits on Congress? There are some living artifacts in Congress that continue to corrupt the American way of life because they have been there too long. Oh, I forgot about the ignorant voting block. I fear for the future.
The U.S. is the last remaining superpower, and we have always demonstrated honesty, morality and compassion; along with the capability and will to defend ourselves. Now, look at the top 3 leaders of the free world...Obama, Biden and Pelosi. How embarassing. We have been weakend by the Dem's economically, politically, socially and intellctually. The prominence of the U.S. in this world has been marginalized by the anti-Americans that were voted into office by the confused Americans. Clear your heads comrades or the soup line awaits!
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