What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been .... Grateful Dead

Actually, not long, but definitely strange. Down the rabbit hole strange.

Obama's speech at the National Archives in May 2009:

"Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies. . . . By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it. That's why I argued that it should be closed throughout my campaign, and that is why I ordered it closed within one year."

Well, well, well. I guess Obama's math methodology, as seen by his belief that cutting 4.6 billion from the 2011 budget constitutes a measurable reduction in federal spending, empowers him to recompute the length of "one year". I understand his enchantment with executive power is typical of the office, underscored by his "ordering it closed" in Cesarean fashion. And though I actually agree that Gitmo should not be closed, I do not understand why we hear only feeble bleating from the left on this shameful about face. Could it be that there are different standards for different leaders? Or could it just possibly be that the steady increase of "lone wolf" attacks by the shouters of "Allah Akbar" has frightened the likes of Couric and Krugman and Matthews who are secretly relieved that many lone wolves will continue to languish in Gitmo?

We all wind up disappointed in politicians. As a matter of fact, other than Ron Paul, who is regarded by people who know more than me as a very marginal politician, when members of the House and the Senate move from the minority to the majority party, e.g. Boehner, they start doing and saying things that surprise the people who elected them. This has been true for a long time. The difference now is that is harder to deny a former position/comment/campaign promise with the various tools available on the Internet, YouTube and twitter to track their every move. Every pissed off Josephina Blow, myself for instance,can watch Boehner on Cavuto complain about Obama and his profligate spending. Now, as majority leader, we hear him mew that making cuts needs to be done carefully, with caution, since so many depend on federal spending, NPR included, and we (they) don't want to damage the tender recovery. But, Dear John, that is not the charter you were given by the angry electorate who pushed the Democrats out. You. Were. Hired. To. Cut. Spending. I am sorry that your job is so difficult but not as sorry as I am that lifting the debt ceiling only worsens the terrible problem created by this cowardly Congress. Here is some math not yet learned by Congress; regardless of tax rates imposed by Congress, the American economy yields no more than 18.6% of GDP in tax receipts. Therefore, spending in excess of 18.6% of GDP must be borrowed. We are approaching 26% of GDP in federal spending; a measurable gap of 7.4%. Every bit of it borrowed. So.

So back to my original subject; the war on terror and Obama's morph into a hawk as revolutions hop from one middle eastern dictatorship to the next - is Gitmo the rallying cry of our enemies? Can Obama, two years into his own dictatorship, clarify to any one's satisfaction who America's enemies are? As he mutters threats at Qaddafi about a no-fly zone the goodwill he was to have generated with his metro sexual style among the Europeans seems in short supply as they decline to enforce the no fly zone themselves. Very disappointing. By my bitter computations things can and do go from bad to worse. Bad - unemployment of 9.8%. Worse - escalating inflation. Bad - an unknown outcome in Libya and Egypt. Worse - the US military interrupting the Libyan revolution, spilling more American blood and creating a new "rallying cry" for our enemies. Bad - Obama for two more years. Worse - Obama for six more years.