On the Death of the Constitution

Yesterday President Obama finally allowed himself to be interviewed by Fox news' Brett Baier. I am currently reading Boomsday by Christopher Buckley. Buckley's book is about a young blogger who takes on the coming Social Security crisis by suggesting that seniors "Transition" at a certain age and that they be rewarded by the government with tax breaks and last vacations. The absurdity of the suggestion is intended to jump-start a national conversation on Social Security reform. When a senator gets a hold of the idea and sponsors a bill, he starts cutting deals to get support for his bill and things really start to spin out of control.

This story is hilarious for its absurdity, but it is scary because Obama's interview on Fox could have been in this book for its absurdity. The bad news is that yesterday was real life that is going to effect all of our real lives. We must stop this congress from voting on anything because they do not care what is in whatever they vote on as it will all be "deemed" to be about health care. I am not making this up as much as I wish that I were. There is a link on the Drudge Report.

Watch it three times. You won't get it all the first time. On the second time, you will catch the sleight of hand and the ought right lies. The third time you will have time to look at Brett Baier. He looks incredulous toward the end as the President make one crazy statement and assertion after another. Watch for the "earthquake in Hawaii" as an example of states that needed the money in the Louisiana payoff. Louisiana need the payoff because they are, five years later, still suffering from Katrina. The big problem with that little deal is that they will not get the money for four more years. NINE YEARS and they still need help???? If this is the case, they don't need more than money; they need a new population that knows how to run a state and take care of themselves.

I have sent emails, but today I am going to spend my time helping to melt the phone lines in Washington. I have a fear that this is going to happen anyway. The way it will pass will have nothing to do with the process set forth in the Constitution. The bottom line from the President yesterday was that whatever they vote on, they will be voting on health care. Does this mean that next week, after we think we have defeated this and the President is off to another foreign country tour on our dime, the congress will have a vote on something, and we will wake up in the the morning to find out they have passed health care, and the President has signed it electronically from the Southern Hemisphere. They would put it into law by executive order if they could.

Watch for more. Get on the phone. If you live on the right end of the country, get in your car and go to Washington and button hole a congressman.

On Politics and Tipping Points

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
UN gun ban
Fishing ban
Health care
Cap and Trade (Tax)
Education reform
Eric Massa
Jobs bills
Stimulus
April 15 approach
Spring
Script Frenzy month
Facebook
Internet to read
Books to read

...a job.

I am beginning to conclude that the Obama administration is working to make sure that the American voting public melts down under the weight of too much information and too many issues. Then they will go back to their couches and remotes, and let him do all the wonderful socialist things he has dream of accomplishing to "fix" America.

That is how this week felt. I am reading Malcolm Gladstone's Tipping Point. It is a fascinating explanation of how epidemics of all kinds happen. On the reverse, why some don't. What Obama would like to see is the "epidemic" of citizen involvement in the democratic process halted. Overloading the public with issues they will want to fight against is a really good way to shut it all down.

Let me explain. In his chapter on the "Power of Context (Part Two)" Gladstone explains the "concept in cognitive psychology called channel capacity, which refers to the amount of space in our brains for certain information (175)." It is the reason for the seven digit phone number--it is the biggest number we can still remember. Eight digits? Forget it, most of us do not stand a chance. Additionally, there is a limit to our ability to keep things categorized before we fall back to a default position. We do not have the capacity for keeping more than six or seven categories straight before we just begin to put things in to two big categories, hot or cold, sweet or not sweet, high or low, important or not important. We lose the ability at a certain point to keep a long list of subtle distinctions.

I recognized this phenomenon instantly when I read this part of the book. Last winter, after the Inauguration, I shut down. It was winter in Illinois,(reason enough to shut down), I had company, the issues were flying fast and furious, so much needed attention that I did not even know where to start. I shut down. I did not write, I did not read as much news; I watched movies, read mysteries, and had endless tea parties with my granddaughter. The other Tea Parties fired up in April, and I knew about them, but life was still in the way. I joined a 9/12 group in the summer, but then I moved. It was a whole year before I got back to writing on my blog. A whole year before the one issue of health care crystallized over all the other debris of life to focus my thoughts enough to write a coherent blog post.

Any of this sound familiar? I have many friends who shun politics for a host of reasons, but I suspect this overload of channel capacity is what gets most American most often when it come to politics. I am a political science major and history teacher. I live and breathe this stuff. But my friends? Ordinary, working Americans? Not so much.

It is changing though, especially among my friends back in Illinois. There is a group of them at church that are becoming regular firebrands. Campaigning, donating, joining--things they had never done before.

So are we at a "tipping point" of citizen involvement in our democracy? Yes, we well could be. Can it still be derailed? Of course. Just throw too much at us at once and we might, quite predictably, shut down. Can we let this happen? NOT THIS TIME.

I hope Obama has not read this book, but I think more thinking Americans need to. It is an excellent look at how we as people act and react to the world around us.

I will give a small clue to how big things happen. They happen because of the smallest and most innocent little shifts, nuances, looks, and words. Small things matter. Individual actions matter. You matter.

On Books

I finally finished George Friedman's The Next 100 Years.It was not so hard to read as the time it took me implies. I read several other books during this time, too. What was difficult the the science fiction flavor his projections had. It felt a little Star Trekky after about 2050. I could not, however, to the end of it get past the feeling that the advances in space, robotics, and energy that will allow the United States to remain the greatest nation on earth are all being jeopardized by the current administration. Our economy is still in the tank, people are still loosing their jobs and homes, and Obama still wants to take over our health care system and bankrupt the county. He is still undermining national security, tying the hands of the military at war in Afghanistan, and trying to let gays serve openly in the military. He still plans to halt the space program, and today I read that that is going to cost 23,000 more jobs. At least.

And where is our future headed if our security and economy are devastated to the point that it will take a generation or more to recover, if we ever can?

Friedman's starting point for his future scenario is that politicians and rulers are essentially limited in what they can do with their power. He compares it to a chess board where theoretically there are an infinite number of moves, but realistically there are only so many that will allow a player to win the game. And all rulers and politicians play to win. Until now.

It would seem that Obama is willing to loose the game in order to make certain moves that support his ideology. His thinking must be that if he succeeds with health care legislation, even if he and his party loose the next elections, he will have accomplished great things that future congresses and presidents will not be able to reverse. The problem is he may be right, and in doing so, he will insure the destruction of this great nation. But what conservatives see as destruction, Marxists view as victory. He is no Bill Clinton whose objective was purely political, just stay in office so back track if necessary. No, he is an ideologue who has won public office to change America, and he means it in the most literal way. It is not about him, although without a doubt he is taking every advantage of all the trappings and pleasures of the office. For Obama, it is about the cause which means he is not playing by the same game plan Americans are use to their president's playing by. He is not a politician in the traditional American sense of the word. He is an ideologue in the scariest sense of the word.
Health care is going to pass, by hook or crook, or both, and the future of this country is going to look nothing like the greatness that Friedman imagines in his book.

Also reading P.D. James'sTalking About Detective
Fiction. Have to lighten up a little.

On Faith

Let me just say it. God is good. I thought about a separate blog for my thoughts and musings on faith and God and Christianity in general, but I am not going that. My reasoning is simple. My life and politics are not separate from my faith so neither need my blogs be separate. In fact, my life and politics are quiet decidedly colored by my faith.

Today I am visiting Crossroads Church in Nampa, Idaho. This is my sister's family's church and I really like it. They have choosen to be a church that preaches, teaches, and lives a radical Christianity.

I also started reading Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan. It starts out with the very idea by which I want to live my life. That is a radical Christianity. One that convinces people that God is real in my life, that my life is different in a way that cannot be explain by anything else.

John Wesley was on to this very idea back in the 18th century when he wrote about Christian Perfection. To Wesley, Christian Perfection was achieved when life is lived in pure love, that love spoken of in Deuteronomy and in Matthew, the one that loves the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strenth, and our neighbors as ourselves, that life out of which all things are motivated and animated by the love of God in our hearts.

Crazy Love is going in that same direction--life lived in love with a holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal, fair and just God. Just think about that. To love and be loved by a God that big. If we unpack just how big our God is we cannot help but live a radical Christan life, and that is where I want to be.

On Politics

It is late, for me anyway, because I go to work way too early, but I am listening to Hugh Hewitt on a station from Hawaii. I do love the internet. He happens to mention that there was a revolution going on in Iran, but CNN was running wall to wall Clinton stents. It occurred to me that I had not seen very much on Iran all day. There where only a few articles on Drudge early today, then nothing new.
Now, I know there is a big time difference thing, however, I cannot believe that we are ignoring the good people of Iran who are willing to risk prison and death to free their country from the evil regime that rules them.
For our part, the President of the United States of America, the great enemy of Iran, let his spokesman announce that the administration did not believe that Iran had really produced the enriched uranium as they have claimed today.
Thirty years after the Revolution that produced this dangerous regime, it is unconscionable that the United States would ignore what is going on in that country.
Maybe there will be more news tomorrow. Maybe our president will start to lead.
On Books.
George Friedman's The Next 100 Years is really wild by the time he gets to the year 2040. "Star Wars" meets geopolitics in the future. Japan is attacking the United States in another Pearl Harbor, but in space against the United State's very own Battle Stars. The purely hilarious part is how they destroy the Battle Stars.
Friedman makes the point that prior to WWII, the Japanese negotiated right up until the attack, and then attacked from aircraft carriers using torpedoes in a harbor thought to be too shallow for them to be effective. And they did it on a Sunday when sailors were on shore leave or sleeping, taking us by complete surprise at every level.
Similarly, Friedman purposes circumstances in 2040 that involve a sneak attack in a manner no one thought was possible at a time when the government was on vacation and the military was focused elsewhere. It is ingenious, except that now we know, so no one should be surprised. I think that is his point in writing the book--to give a heads up to what the future could look like.
Since his predictions are based on predictable geopolitical actions by historically predictable governments, it is probably a fairly credible estimation of future events.
The most compelling example to me is this attack by the Japanese on the United States. It is not just history repeating itself, it is a timeless scenario because the Japanese in his scenario hurl car size moon rocks through space to knock out our Battle Stars. Just take a look at film of street violence in the Middle East today, and see rocks being hurled at well armed and armored riot police. People without guns or bombs or missiles still throw rocks; it will be no different in 2040, according to Mr. Friedman. I think he is onto something here.

On the Weather

A couple of days ago, I asked rhetorically how "these people" got to be in charge. Today my question is "How's that 'global warming' working out for you all in the four feet of snow back east?" Amazing. Wonder if they will complain about all the carbon emissions produced to dig them out and keep them warm. (Except they did save some where the power was out.)
My other question is not rhetorical. I am completely serious. How do we get rid of these people and how fast can we do it?
November can't get here soon enough.
On politics.
I read a good article by Michael Medved this morning at www.townhall.com "Obama's Undeniable Intelligence Makes Him More Dangerous - and More Vulnerable" in which he cautioned conservatives not to underestimate or dismiss the intelligence of president Obama. He argued that the man is clearly very intelligent, and I happen to agree. I also agree that that makes him dangerous.
I have been pondering Obama's recent statements that he is open to Republican idea on fixing health care, and here is why I see his intelligence as dangerous. He can use words to mean things that if taken at innocent face value seem to say one thing, but when run through the Obama-speak decoder, mean something else entirely.
Just one example, then listen carefully to what he is saying next time he talks (you won't have to wait more than ten minutes or so,) and try to decode for yourself what he really means.
When he says that he wants to see all the best ideas of the Republicans and when he says he is willing to listen to anyone who has good solutions, what he really means is that he will listen, yes, of course. The problem is his definition of the best idea or a good solution will be entirely different from the Republicans because the starting premise of each party is completely opposite. The Republican ideas and solutions are based on the premise of individuality, free markets, and liberty. The presidents ideology is based on government, government, and government which adds up to community, government, and tyranny.
Therefore, the Republican free market solutions will never be good solutions to the Marxist president who believes that free markets are the problem in the first place.
The best idea to cover the uninsured by letting people buy into Medicare early or by expanding the already existing Medicaid program to cover more people will never be a best idea because those solutions would not expand the role of government or include illegal aliens or untie insurance from employment, all of which are presidential goals, but not Republican goals.
Bipartisianship is not one side giving in completely to the other sides position, as the president suggested the Republicans wanted to have happen. But it is not what the president wants either which is for the Republicans to give up the principles they believe in in favor of the presidents principles just because his side won the election.
We are Republicans and conservatives because we have rejected the notion that community trumps the individual, that governments work better than free markets, and the tyranny is better than liberty.
Now that you have a clue about how to decode the language of bipartisanship and working together for the American people, try it on your own and see if you too can catch a glimpse of the real President Obama. It will, no doubt, leave you asking "how do we get rid of these people and how fast can we do it?...if you weren't already asking.

On Economics

Wow, has the stock market taken a pounding today. The fallout from all the Obama talking and not producing is becoming starkly clear. Between the Dow falling back below 10,000 and the 800,000 plus extra jobs lost, things are bleak indeed.
To quote Mark Levin, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY COUNTRY!!!!"
And on another note, I joined Facebook today. People do spend too much time there. And I tried to use the much touted Portland Oregon public transportation system today. What a joke. No place to park. The system seems to break down at the point where you need to leave your car. Nice try, guys. Long live the automobile! If I don't drive to the point where I catch the train, I have to spend an hour on the bus. So it becomes a two hour trip to the airport which is really only twenty or twenty-five minutes away. Makes no sense.

On Books

I am reading The Next 100 Years by George Friedman. In the "Russia 2020" he points out the importance of Poland as a buffer between Western Europe and Russia on the Northern European Plain. He purposes that the United States will come to the aid of Poland if Russia flexes her muscles in the direction of Poland and the Baltic states. I was struck by how wrong he might turn out to be if Obama remains in office past 2012 or if the threat is made before he leaves office in 2012. Obama has already canceled missile defense system for Eastern Europe that was promised by the Bush administration. It was to be sited in Poland and the Czech Republic particularly. Friedman predicts a geopolitical scenario for the next 100 years in which the United States remains a world power. I posit that if Obama remains in the White House and the Democrats maintain control of Congress, the United States is going to completely collapse under the weight of overwhelming debt and underwhelming support for our allies around the world.

Happier Days

Finally, some hope that the Obama train can be slowed, if not derailed. Obamacare may be dead. If it is not dead, it is at the least pared down. Now don't get me wrong. I have no illusions that the House may still try a vote on the already passed Senate version. The bottom line is that they absolutely cannot be trusted. Today, in the wake of the Republican victory in Massachusetts, they are talking like they will not try to bring it to a vote anywhere, that it needs to be reworked, pared down, etc. The president has even said in an interview that they should not try to ram anything through in light of this loss of their super majority in the Senate. DO NO TRUST THEM. We must stay vigilant. They have proven with their backroom maneuvering and dealing and general lying that they will do what ever it takes to get their agenda passed. That, I do not believe, has been changed by this election. All that can truly be said is that the dynamics are now different. So watch out for a change in their tactics, not their agenda.
But having said all that, I am optimistic for the first time since last January 20th.

Listening to Levin now. His sound bites of the president and Dems are priceless. How did these people end up in charge?

Oops.

I just read a scary scenario for the passage of Obamacare. The idea is out there to have the House simply pass the unaltered Senate version. In spite of the objections, it will be hard for them to go into the mid-term elections having failed to pass a health care bill of any kind. It may not in the end matter what the bill looks like, just that it is passed.
We have objections and protests and promises by the House leadership not to consider or bring to a vote the current Senate version, but they have proven repeatedly they cannot be trusted.
They met on a Sunday to discuss this option. The arm twisting has begun because they are afraid they will lose in Massachusetts on Tuesday.
Keep watching.

Back again, again.

So much for blogging with a vengeance again. That lasted about a week, but now my Internet is restored and the Christmas crazy season is over so maybe I can get back at it.
I am looking forward the the Massachusetts vote on Tuesday. This is going to be an important and telling vote on Obamacare. I am, of course, hoping for a Republican win that will force the Democrats into serious underhandedness to pass the health care program no one who understands it wants. Passing the bill in the Senate using a proceedural manuever intended to prevent budget impasses will further enrage an already livid public. No Democrat facing reelection in November should be reelected. They simply do not deserve it for the harm they are inflicting on this country and on future generations of Americans.
A central ideal of the founding fathers was "no taxation without representation," but this congress and president are inflicting taxation on future generation in which they have no say. It is wrong, and it must be stopped. The Massachuesetts senatitorial election of Teddy Kennedy's seat is the next chance we have to stop it. If that fails, then in November we will have to elect a new congress that will begin the work of undoing the damage of this health care bill now being concocted.

The fact that Obama has felt the need to go to Massachusetts this weekend says they are feeling desperate, as well they should be. Let's hope he is as sucessful as he was in New Jersey and Virginia last year.