ODS

From Moonbattery, via Maggie’s Farm, are famous quotations reconstructed in the style of the current President:

"Mr. Gorbachev, that wall is none of our business." — Ronald Reagan

"December seventh, nineteen forty-one. A date upon which we must ask ourselves, what could we have done to avoid this?" — FDR

"Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you!" — JFK

"If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. Pretty sure that's gonna happen on my watch." — G. W. Bush

NRR has reduced service to US political destinations due to the revealed nature of the current President. Words as he uses them do not have meaning in the sense necessary for a reasoned analysis. Whatever Barry says, as I see it, has no meaning. His orations may have feeling, and intent, and he does communicate something. Just not facts.

The current President cracked some jokes at last week’s White House Correspondents Dinner. The evening’s entertainment was comedienne Wanda Sykes, who targeted Barry with some zingers:

"The first black president. That's unless you screw up. Then it's going to be 'What's up with the half-white guy?'"

The bits I watched made it feel like a lame, tame version of a celebrity roast. Media types and comedians talk about finding it hard to poke fun at Barry. He’s so popular, and so smooth, they’re afraid to make him the butt of jokes.

I have reasons to mock Cinco de Mayo. Personal reasons. Nothing against Mexico, or whoever needs to be offended by me not worshipping Mexicans today.

But since President Klink showed his intellect and cultural sensitivity once again, I was inspired to become more informed than the President of the United States. That my info comes from Wikipedia will not deter me. Wikipedia is at least as accurate as anything coming out of the White House.

We’re all idiots. Me, Barry, and pretty much all y’all:

Big Media doesn’t always lie. Despite the transformation from “reporting” to “journalism”, fabricating people and events is still frowned upon. More insidious that outright lies—which can be crushed by genuine reporting and investigation—are lazy half-truths.

Media faces seem to look only as far and as long as needed to satisfy their preconceptions. Hurricane Katrina was a Federal Government (Bush) failure. As long as you focus on the 50,000 safe-but-whining people at the Superdome while quickly skipping past the 7,000 people rescued from imminent death by the Coast Guard.

The current President has changed his tune. He is not longer Tokyo Rose, threatening us with an economic catastrophe. Now, although it may get worse, Obama is confident that the US economy will recover. It’s almost like he took a trip on the Negative Railroad and noticed 140 million Americans still hard at work.

From what I’ve seen, Big Media has followed Barry’s lead. They’re now more apt to look past the still-rising unemployment rate and the 663,000 jobs lost in March. The figures are in scale with January and February, but apparently now it isn’t the end of the world.

It’s 1943, and this man from Chicago isn’t interested in “dialog” with European leaders. I imagine he doesn’t care much for high-minded lawyer types, either.

From the amazing collection at Shorpy.com. They’re not all railroad photos—take a look.

The blogging opposition to the Newest World Order has found an apt description of the tactics used by the powerful: misdirection.

In the US, hatred for AIG employees dominated headlines for a couple weeks while trillion dollar takeovers and trillion-dollar deficits were treated as asides. The current President issues an endless parade of strawmen, “I reject the notion that blah blah blah.” That which he rejects is not embraced by anyone. It’s empty rhetoric. Vocal smoke to obscure the true implications of his policies.

The current President and much of the Democrat leadership appear to have an affinity for Europe. For example, they insist European healthcare be a model and justification for their meddling in US medical markets. Generally, President Klink’s rhetoric about “what we owe to each other” is founded on the same principles as Europe’s various versions of social democracy.

Unfortunately, facts tarnish the Democrats’ hopey-changey dreams. Their new New Deal socialism is too progressive by European Union standards. Former Obama cabinet nominee Judd Gregg remarked this week:

Several hundred thousand of us who wonder why Barack Obama will not reveal his original long-form birth certificate are dismissed as wacko “nirthers”. I have posted on several lawsuits challenging Obama’s citizenship and qualifications ot hold the office of President. The suits were all filed in civil courts, where procedural disputes are settled. All have been disimissed before the process required any evaluation of facts or evidence.

Now a challenger is trying a new avenue:

China has suggested the development of a new world currency. I consider this the first ring on the gong of doom, as it would make everything sold in dollar terms worth significantly less in global markets.

The current President was asked about the issue during his prime-time press conference last Tuesday (snipped for relevance):

I first heard it from a landscape architect in a meeting about land use planning in the 55418. We were discussing the projected need for parking in commercial districts. The conclusion was that auto technology would evolve so that personal autos would always be a significant and vital means of transport, no matter the price of oil. As sort of an off-hand comment about electric cars, the architect said something like, “And I hear the cars will even sell power back to the electric company.”

The Keystone Kongress has sneaked another one past President Klink. Two days after Barry made headlines by reversing the previous administration’s restriction on embryonic stem cell funding, he unwittingly reversed himself:

Last night CBS aired an interview with the current President. I thought Barry looked he thought he actually understood the issues he was asked about. At least one of us is convinced President Klink can distinguish his ass from a hole in the ground.

And the interviewer seemed troubled, almost reluctant, to ask questions about difficult issues. That reluctance may have been out of sympathy for his President. Or, it may have been pity, as Barry continued to demonstrate he is overmatched by his job. This exchange is an example:

I’ve never had a President. The common construction, “He’s my President,” or, “He’s our President,” doesn’t fit my perspective. The relation between citizens and government leaders is not ownership. Presidents, as the Constitution was drafted, are chief executives. They fill a role in a bureaucracy. They’re not idols.

A President is just “the President”, not much different from the local Fire Chief or the CEO down at the widget factory. That a voter has some infinitesimal influence in determining who becomes President does not create ownership. Not to me, anyway.

The language of possession reinforces the passions. Campaigners exploit this. Once people begin to perceive ownership, the candidate becomes intertwined with their identity. The portion of reason or logic guiding choice and response diminishes.

Emulating bin Laden, this week the current President released a video message to the Iranian people. It offered a customized version of the vacuous rhetoric Barry campaigned on:

In his video appeal, Obama said: "This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect."

Obama’s oratorical incompetence is making headlines. He’s a stammering loon without his teleprompter. His St. Patrick’s Day debacle is good for a chuckle.

But I want to poke Barry with a different needle. After his self-congratulatory miscue, President Klink warned the assembled Irish-for-a-Day crowd:

about the free-flowing bar and warned his guests not to wear lampshades on their heads in front of the cameras.

The hurtful stereotype of the drunken Irishman is evidently still acceptable. Cultural sensitivity only matters if the victim group has been formally established in academia and sanctioned by government.

Usually, only the youthful first-timers actually believe a candidate’s campaign rhetoric. Last time it seems great swaths of the population, even graying old righties, were willing to suspend disbelief in trade for hope. Here’s the first half of the campaign speech Barry should have used if he meant to honor the faith so many placed in him:

”As we approach Election Day, the American people should not waste the crisis we find ourselves in.

Last Friday, the New York Times asked President Klink if he was a socialist. On Sunday, the Times ran a follow-up:

On a flight from Ohio to Washington on Friday, Mr. Obama was asked whether his domestic policies suggested that he was a socialist, as some conservatives have implied.

Libertarians may be getting a version of the smaller government they desire. Barry has failed to fill 94 percent of the top spots in his administration: