So, this is a picture of the kind of thing we hear about on a regular basis:



It is usually prefaced or followed by some comment to the extent that it is bad news for the president.

Folks, I am no Obama fan - not a hater, but not a fan.  I think he was born in Hawaii and do not think he is a socialist who is destroying our country or constitution or taking away our freedoms (I suppose to some that makes me a fan).  But to be honest, I distrust and dislike all politicians - some more than others (see my Romney post).  Given the right choice (ain't happening this time), I would consider another option.

I will tell you for free that I think the country is going in the wrong direction, is well off the right track.  Thing is, that has nothing to do with the President for me and everything to do with the massive crazy all around.  Let's see...the zealots who have decided to roll-back the times to when there were no women's rights, civil rights, abortion rights, union rights, no middle class, the rise in prominence of people with radical ideas and whose only way of selling them is to create enemies among their fellow citizens.  Those like the Texas Republicans I posted about recently who think that ignorance is the cure.  Those who think that it is proof that a President is going to steal your guns because he has not stolen your guns (and I am a gun owner and carrier).  Those who sat on their hands (where were their fingers?) for 8 years, smiling inanely and cheering for phone taps, detention of citizens, more war and tax cuts while the economy went up in flames and our brave troops bore the brunt of the war (everyone else went shopping). A congress that prioritizes its social issues over economic recovery and political agenda and power over patriotism and progress.  They banter, pander and we suffer.

Hell yes, wrong track - hard to see how it gets better - The Dark Time - due to the plague of crazy.

"John Roberts has evolved -- it didn't take him that long -- and the accolades from the left have already started. With the Obamacare and Arizona decisions, Roberts' activism is now firmly evident."

- Mark Levin

Let's see...

Activist Judge?

OR

Activist judge?

HINT:  You're only allowed to legislate from the bench if we agree with you!

I need a job where I can be as curmudgeonly, disdainful, and contrary as I want and your just stuck with me for life!  And a government employee at that!

Buyer beware

For a moment - forget that this is a presidental candidate - forget who his incumbent competition is.

NOW - QUICKLY - TRUST YOUR GUT

Would you buy a used car from this person?

This guy has slightly less personality and believability than the animatronics at Disney's Hall of the Presidents.  I know he's trying to sell me something I don't want, trying to sell me one suit by telling me I can get another at half-price, plus two ties and two silk shirts!  "She's gonna like the way you look, I guarantee it!"  Man, the suit ain't gonna fix it.

And, damn, I wish I had invested in the American Flag lapel pin market in the late 90s. The damned things are ubiquitous. They get trotted out like some powerful talisman that, when you wear it, can protect you from all the stupid things you say and do.  Please people...any fool can stick a lapel pin on.

"Don't you dare learn to think for yourself!"

Ah, the celebration of ignorance continues.  It is one thing, however, for adults to assert their right to be stupid if they wish.  Although every ignorant American harms the rest of us by, in any of several ways, inflicting the consequences of their stupidity on the rest of us, in the end we have to admit that if an adult wants to know nothing, then they will do so.  And while it is scary to ponder the number of them who take pride in their ignorance, it is even more frightening when they want to insist that their children should also be raised to be stupid.  Yes, enter the Texas Republican Party - working hard to both out-pace the stupidity of the Republican my own home State of Florida.  On with the race to the bottom.  Yes, if the Texas Republicans have their way, the stupid parents will be the main source of information for their children.  Does anyone really believe that parents know best?  Have you looked around lately?  This whole idea stems from the idea that somehow children are the "property" of their parents and just like a parent might decide to let the weeds grow six feet high (or even worse do one of those take the grass out and put stone down - painted green of course) they should also decide to pass on their desire to know nothing.  And if that is not enough for you, the Texas Republicans follow that up by saying schools should not teach students to think critically - after all that might lead to things like realizing your parents and their idea are stupid, that they might come to question the question the indoctrination they received as parents and that, God forbid, that might undercut their parents' authority to force them to continue the tradition of ignorance.  It is not an accident that this mirrors the larger issues in our society - the notion of a parental society.  Funny how those who decry what they call a "nanny State" also what to act to ensure that future generations remain subject to the intellectual and emotional limits of their forebears.

If we want to understand what is going wrong with America (but, damn, that takes critical thinking skills) we might look to ideas that promulgate the notion that parents are justified in making their children little versions of themselves - you know, the same people that got us here.

“When a Republican President does it, that means it is not illegal”

Can we dispense with the disingenuous outrage?  I am suspect of executive privilege; while it may have its place, I didn’t like it when Bush used it (many times) and don’t like it when Obama uses it for the first time.  But for 8 years of the Bush administration we heard theories, most vociferously espoused by Dick Cheney, about the supreme executive, which lead to the assertion of privilege (remember that we could not know what energy executives met with Cheney to establish US energy policy), executive orders and signing statements.  Some feared, even then, this eerie echo of Nixon’s assertion that “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal”.  It is unfortunate that Obama, who espoused a different executive, an open and honest presidency, has now asserted this privilege, even for his first time.  But more disheartening and distasteful is the hypocrisy, the fake outrage of Republican lawmakers who once cheered Bush’s exercise of executive power only to now view it as dictatorial.  Behavior they once supported is now the end of American freedom.  We hear incessantly about “shredding the Constitution” from those who wanted Bush to listen in on Americans’ private phone conversations and detain citizens without due process.  Just as with many other Republican policies and strategies, when Obama endorses or uses them, they become cause for alarm and pseudo-outrage and panic, the end of our society as we know it.  Rush Limbaugh once played a song about the seemingly magic powers of Obama.  Although it was widely panned, it now seems we can see those powers on display; in what can only be considered a miracle, by the mere sound of his voice Obama has awakened large numbers of Republicans who spent the first 8 years of this century in a coma.  To borrow and update Nixon’s quote; “When a Republican President does it, that means it is not illegal”.