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Sol Sanders -- Follow the Money No. 58 Horror vacui
Here is anther great column from Sol Sanders on the state of disarray within the Obama White House. He paints a picture of Obama as Chicagop-based Louis XIV. A version of this column is scheduled to be published in The Washington
Times, Monday, March 21, 2011. If you follow his analysis on the degree of cluelessness inside the WH, then look at the housing sector's meltdown, raises questions about Obama's viability in 2012. -- Chris
Follow the Money No. 58: Horror vacui
Sol Sanders <solsanders@cox.net>
Pres. Barak Hussein Obama has given new meaning to that epithet “imperial presidency”. It’s was slung at Pres. Richard Nixon not only for his extravagant “palace guard” – some in kitschy uniforms – but his more serious unconstitutional overreach.
But if imperial in his style, Mr. Obama reigns; he does not rule.
Whether domestic or foreign policy, Mr. Obama abdicates to Congressional or bureaucratic control then spins the often resulting muddle as something for which he is not responsible. It results, for example, in outgoing Sec. of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen pontificating far above their pay grade, to be contradicted almost instantaneously by events or Mr. Obama himself. The President’s hands-on applies only to maintaining his leftwing political base, whether Wisconsin unionists or Washington lobbies, reinforcing his South Side Chicago-Hyde Park 1960s leftwing agenda and his search for reelection campaign dollars.
Given the presidency’s dual role as chief of state as well as chief executor, celebration of a multitude of ceremonies is necessary and fitting – all the more in times of peril when the nation’s spirit needs uplift. But Mr. Obama’s sports addiction, his gliterrati extravaganzas, his causal acknowledgement of our closest allies’ tragedies, and his wife’s Marie-Antoinette progressions are increasingly bizarre. Importing a Chicago Daley mob family member, supposedly as a pragmatic chief of staff, so far has not injected restraint much less austerity.
This standard operating procedure is reinforced by Mr. Obama’s denigration of historic American accomplishments, often on foreign soil. Symptomatically, in the one international arena where he has sought leadership, relations with the Muslim world, there’s almost total disaster. Having made what he, if not most scholars, considered two seminal speeches offering renewed friendship with Islam, American interests are now in jeopardy in both locales. Turkey, site of his first lecture, once a stalwart NATO ally, defies the West’s policies on the Iranian nuclear weapons issue, the greatest threat now facing the alliance. His Cairo speech, seemingly falling on deaf ears, was followed by his bemused Administration fostering regime change but adding little to its still awaited outcome.
Of course Pres. Obama did not create these long simmering crises. But he contributes to them through his Administration’s lack of faith in American power, hard and soft. Favoring multilateralism to American leadership, his UN representative, Amb. Susan Rice, preaches that gospel but neglects reform of the organization’s abysmal corruption and inadequacy for which taxpayers pick up too much of the tab. Only when Muammar Qadaffi began slaughtering his own people did Washington join to redress the charade of Libya’s prominence on the UN Human Rights Council.
In this world of rampant behaviorism and relativism, Aristotle may not dominate as he once did. And his concept that nature abhors a vacuum [horror vacui in Latin] may be questioned with such new mysteries as black holes in outer space. But we are getting its proof in what happens geopolitically when the world’s paramount power chooses not to lead. Or worse still, when Mr. Obama trumpets policy without following through. Minor players with fewer resources, physical and intellectual, take the field exacerbating regional conflicts in an increasingly intertwined world.
Nowhere has that been more apparent than Washington’s approach to the Egyptian regime’s collapse, the Bahrain religious conflict and now the Libyan civil war with their attendant growing threat to world energy supplies.
Like a sick dog to its vomit, Washington returns again and again to the Israel-Palestine issue as the magic bullet to cure Mideast troubles. It’s the one international issue where the President enthusiastically commits his prestige. But having chosen Israeli settlements in areas won in the 1967 war as fundamental – it was subsidiary until he came along – Mr. Obama jeopardizes Israel’s basic security further postponing any agreement. The absurdity of his position is self evident: in a “two-state solution”, he ignores Israel’s almost 2-million Arabs but infers a Palestinian state must be “judenrein”.
Elsewhere lack of U.S. leadership – even withholding rhetorical support for Iran’s opposition -- has helped extend Tehran leadership’s religious fanatic and kleptocratic tentacles across the Fertile Crescent. The Persian Mullahs have managed to play all sides in “the Arab spring”. Not only does Tehran use Shia Syrian and Lebanese co-sectarians, but it sponsors Sunni Palestinian terrorism including Hamas, offspring of Egypt’s Moslem Brotherhood. [The latest unspeakably barbaric murder of an Israeli family eclipsed by the Japanese catastrophe was apparently Tehran-sponsored.] Iran may well profit from whatever comes of Mr. Obama’s belated moves to oust Qadaffi.
The arguments against American intervention in Libya were strong. Though Washington’s choice was to disremember his murder of Americans, in a Berlin discothèque in 1986 and PanAmerican 103 at Lockerbie in 1988, it is not forgotten in a region where mayhem and revenge are ever present. Ultimately, Mr. Obama could no more ignore Tripoli [ah! the ghosts of Thomas Jefferson and his Marines!] than rising oil prices spurred by Obama Administration counterproductive domestic energy policies could fail to cripple American recovery.
Thus Pres. Obama and the U.S. have been sucked into an undelineated vacuum, in part of his own making.
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Yes, we have a puppet black Amerikan president in the history books to go along with all the puppet white Amerikan presidents of the past. Black, white, jew, catholic or muslim, as long as the system remains the same with the Federal Reserve Corporation in control nothing will change. Got Ron Paul?? On his desk is a sign.....Don't steal, the government hates competition.
I remember the moment Obama's election became official, and the pronouncement was that America "had just elected its first black president." I was appalled that the winner's epidural melanin content was deemed the most significant fact about him. TPTB has no interest in a president's color, so if it serves as a convenient screen allowing the election of an economic idiot, all the better. I wonder, in my worst moments, if he even understands the difference between Keynesian and Austrian schools. I really fear he believes that Keynesian bullshit "is" economics. Has he ever, anywhere, in any speech, used the terms "Keynesian" and "Austrian" even if just to dispute the latter?
He's not a Keynesian, he was born in Hawaii LOL.
Watch him explain why the profit to earnings ratio makes stocks a good buy. What a maroon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8TIpYr1mc0
you get these little peeks at what seems proof of the peter principle, but then he makes losing to the republicans look more convincing than the washington generals and you wonder.
...I was appalled that the winner's epidural melanin content was deemed the most significant fact about him....
Great line. Agreed. As is so often the truth, by the time a black got elected the rest of us had long passed the point of personal recognition simply because of skin color. The media hyped it as the second coming while most Americans had already moved on. I think the same thing about female/ minority pref in hiring...founded on sound beliefs that are now long passe.
Just remember: Obama has kept all of his promises and if you don't vote for him in 2012, you are a racist and a terrorist.
Ps- I've noticed an incredible uptick of Obama trolls on all forums, and forum polls, touting how he is so awesome. Why doesn't Boobus Americanus see that you can indeed hire people to troll around and create this mass perception of Unicorns shitting Presidential Skittles?
and i'm guessing you're a ... what ... white male maybe? just a guess.
So you're saying you don't want to fight battles from the 1970s over and over?
/sarc
Ron Paul is an ineffective POS. Do you have a Plan B?
Ron Paul is a good man. I've given money to his campaign, but he will never be an effective president until peasants roam Wall St. with decapitated heads on their pitchforks. It isn't going to happen. I don't see why more people can't see past Obama's words and see what his actions tell about him. The man is not a commie or a socialist. His actions say he is a bigger fascist than his predecessor. What has he done that has hurt Corporate America over small business? I think he may truly hate America the way his pastor does and he's enjoying presiding over our decline, but he's not a communist. I fear the governmental and financial system that did a reasonable job for America the last couple hundred years is now a dead-man-walking and just hasn't realized it's time to lie down and die. What comes after?? Spend some time and think about it. The system has too much inertia behind it to just totally fall apart, something will replace it. What decent things can you think of to be a part of the system that rises from the ashes?
I don't understand how he isn't effective. He has opened up a lot of people's eyes about the problems in this country, including big bipartisan government, federal reserve fiascos, crony industrial complexes leeching off the federal government, the ineffective wars going back from korean war to the present. He has come along way from that first republican primary debate to now.
I would place him as a true father of the tea party, but he would never, out of humility, accept that homage. He has started his own PAC. He has inspired a lot of citizens to go into politics and run for office whether local, state, or federal. His own son came out of no where to win the KY senate seat and is a vocal and ardent supporter of the Constitution and free market principles.
Also he can cross party lines to get things done like passing an audit of the federal reserve. Mind you he has been trying to bring the populaces' attention on the fed for over 3 decades but he got no where.
A majority people are now against both Iraq and Afghanistan wars because he is unrelenting in pushing for Constitutional principles. No war since WWII has Congress formally declared war, they have all been the unilateral actions of the de facto dicatator (President) or been declared by the UN security council.
/rant
I'm sure the American people are pissed at this point, especially with the Libyan charade, about the UN committing the US military to war. And what really grinds me is that the US goes on all these military campaigns with the sacrafice of blood and finances while China and Russia contribute nothing to these causes that the UN resolutions impose.
/rant
So I think for a single Congressman to do all the above is not only effective but inspirational.
Maybe one day when you grow up to be a man you may find that you are not even a tiny turd on the ass of the great Ron Paul. And since you are a little turd you will most likely not be of use when plan B goes into effect.
RODENT FOR PRESIDENT.
asshole
Hard core asshole, bitch.
How are the alternatives working out for you?
You must have gone to retard school on scholarship.
Ron Paul has changed what?
I'll wait.
He's about worn out and won't light any fireworks. Y'all need to get over looking for a savior, and make a Plan B.
Any suggestions you well-armed, German, poofy-tailed rat?
the rodent doesn't really know.
sometimes history thrusts greatness upon men. may have tried with obama but he apparently shrugged (like atlas). the reviews on churchill in the mid thirties were hardly glowing.
paul is the only person, democrat or republican (and it seems particularly telling as a republican) who has gotten significant support for a presidential nomination and has any record at all of opposing the crony capitalist police state.
he may not get it and, if elected, may fall as far short as obama, but it would seem one would have to try. but i'll entertain a plan b that doesn't involve mass murder, eh freicorps?
I've got nothing at this point. Even if all the aware quit buying anything they do not need for survival, the vast herds roaming the plains would still be buying Ipods on credit.
I was kind of hoping y'all would have a plan.
All I've got is Move South, and Take Your Gold and Weapons.
Our Dictator-in-Chief just went to war against a nation who did not attack us and without ANY kind of vote by Congress. The Republic died yesterday, and y'all are talking tactics. We just bent a knee to UN elite rule.
And I'm much too pretty to be German, dammit.
Maybe Jimmy Carter can loan him a sweater ..
Obama isn't worthy of wearing Carter's socks, much less his sweater.
While I may disagree with Carter only purely political lines, at least he was a man of integrity, who took his role as president seriously, and genuinely wished to do the best he could for America.
Obama on the other hand is a vacuous clown, just like the last vacuous clown to occupy the White House.
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Having met Jimmy Carter, I appreciate your observations re: the man's integrity. He was the only American president who ever told the nation the truth regarding finite oil supplies; but of course, we really don't want the truth, we want "Reaganomics," EZ credit, SUVs and 24 hour a day delusions of grandeur - "We're Number One!"
The truth of Carter's 'sweater speech' is now kicking us in the ass. Our Nobel Peacemaker vacations in Rio while we spearhead the invasion yet another oil producing nation to 'protect civilians.' (Or spread democracy. Or help the children. Or whatever the flak focus groups of obese trailer dwellers determine appropriate for covering the real agenda.)
Carter's malaise speech was a political lesson not forgotten by any after him. The truth is not what the lumpen proletariat want to hear, no matter how much they clamor for it.
President Jimmy Carter - "Crisis of Confidence ..
preach it rocky!!
I'm about out of enthusiasm. So much for my beloved "financial" website... Nuclear holocaust ad nauseum, Libyan bombings, Obama sucks articles, etc.
Looked at the front page just now and there are 3 financial articles nestled amongst the other OFF TOPIC stuff. And those are merely tangentially financial.
Sorry. I guess it's just me.
Come on Rock! Tyler's gotta report this stuff, in the last reality this news woulda moved markets. H O L D F A S T
I can get that shit all over the net. I want a truly focused venue. ZH is becoming MSM.
Yeah, I know. If I don't like it I can move on. Don't tempt me.
Yeah Rocky, world events and politics have NO EFFECT on the financial news. Never. Ever, because that financial stuff just exists in the vacuum. Silly us.
BTW, the door is over there.
I see your point, and it is well taken. It's just that I don't need for people to come to conclusions for me, nor try to direct my attention to extraneous events that they deem important in order to make decisions on how I spend/invest my money. The news about the events I can get just damn near anywhere. There is not a huge leap forward at ZH on these issues. After all, most of the articles are sourced elsewhere. It's the link to the economy/finances that I come here for.
hang in there rocky.
it may be the price we have to pay (me a bit more gladly than you) for living in interesting times.
but, especially given the crucial role played by government (treserve) in the first post-modern deflationary depression which may well coincide with the evolution/revolution of the dollar reserve currency international monetary system, it seems a finger or five on the political pulse is justifiable.
At least Carter served in the Navy and was educated in a discipline that would actually come in handy right about now: Nuclear Engineering.
He's worse than Nero because the proles really did choose him.
It is the end.
Don't be absurd. Obama was chosen FOR the proles, not BY the proles. All the proles did was rubber-stamp him.
They didn't vote for Obama. They voted against Bush. After 8 years of Bush Jr. a stuffed dummy could have won against the Republicans.
Agreed. One has to also acknowledge the brilliance or stupidity of the Illuminati by choosing a candidate that could play the race card 24/7, chew Wrigley's gum and at the same time sell the "change has come to America" anthem. Even Rev Jesse Jackson shed tears during the inauguration, although for different reasons as the Japanese Mission Chief in Zimbabwe:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1627135.php/Japanese-ambassador-cries-as-Zimbabwe-donation-ceremony-cancelled
"Even Rev Jesse Jackson shed tears during the inauguration..."
Having first gotten past his weird fixation on Barry's oysters.
"WASHINGTON - In a vulgar tirade caught on tape by Fox News, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said he wanted to "cut his [Barack Obama's] nuts out"
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/item_2IKMVtS3vzxRvoAAxZ0ZGL
Exactly.
Couldn't agree more...
let's be fair, Obumma is an inexperienced Chicago Commie who was ushered into power by a vast cabal of vested interests. In good socialist style he out-spent McCain $3 to $1 plus had the entire Marxist media on his side building up to a crescendo of BS and yet still only managed to beat McCain by a 2% cats whisker.
In fairness progressive leftie McCain lost an inplausable lead when he went from the winning "Drill Baby Drill" to "we must bail out the banks". That fateful week McCain rushed back to Washington he lost his lead and never got it back.
Obama is totally inexperienced and his Presidency reflects that. It's rudderless except for the usual suicide socialist mission of "Spend Baby Spend". The bloke is an incompetent pinheaded clown. The "emperor has no clothes" but our rational brains won't allow us to believe this puppet President has nothing between the ears. The truth isn't trying to kid us whereas our own rationality does. The US President, like them all, is an idiot
Obama is a digraceful, dicredited, master planner puppet. He wore a sheep suit during the campaign (stroked, pampered, and coddled by the corporate elite media). Once in office we've learned he's a wolf of the worst kind.
Many were duped by his lying words into supporting him. Indeed, he was a Trojan horse... installed as President to serve the criminal capitalist-bankster elite at the expense of all patriotic Americans who once were pround of what this country stood for and could accomplish.
He's not stupid like many refer to him. He's doing precisely what his handlers ask him to do... continue the planned and well engineered economic collapse... as an ongoing asset grab... taking as much from our depleted treasury as is possible and funneling it to his masters.
I can't even stad to look at the creep let alone ever consider voting for the evil devil. And I'm a progrssive patriot.
Bring back Barry Goldwaste or Ike! Those men were patriots!
Obama is an idiot. Puppet, sure, but an idiot above anything else.
he beat hillary clinton and she's not stupid nor was she underfunded or lacking support at the outset of the race for the nomination. moral idiot maybe. i think one is mean to jeffrey dahmer when one calls obeyme a monster. there is more awareness there than the easy out of idiot would allow.
right on fox
Being a Chicagoan, it is obvious he is just bringinging Chicago style government to DC. I thought I saw an RCP poll recently where his approval rating is about 50%? God help us, but we get what we deserve I guess.
Yes, cultures ultimately get the Ruling Class they DESERVE... whether it's America, Russia, or some African hellhole. American culture and values have declined streadily for 60 years... to the point where we now DESERVE a duplicitous, adolescent pinhead like Obama.
Speaking of the Chicago connection, Qadaffi is/used to be a not-so-secret admirer of Obama . Guess the Colonel got double-crossed too.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/qadaffis_chicago_connection.html
Sounds about right. Obama is the logical conclusion of a series of Presidents since Bush#1 whose pre-Presidential accomplishments have amounted to less and less. We have reached the end of the line: an "equal-opportunity" President who, after almost 50 years, had accomplished essentially nothing on his own beyond getting a law degree.
Don't be so hard, on the Big O, Snooki likes him.