I frequently disagree with politicians, knowing full well that my version of government would be a disaster, fraught with tyranny and bullying. I don't handle bullshit very well. This of course would lead to ruin, as qualified people abandon me to the wolves and my limited understanding of the oblique rules of politics, arcane policies, and bureaucratic agencies running my country.
But President Obama has been too, "hands off" in terms of dealing with partisanship. You can call Washington on it all day long. You can admonish both parties for spinning their wheels and twisting in the wind. It's as popular, and true as anything could be.
However, each speech involves the same statement or theme, "it's not a Democratic problem, or a Republican problem. It's an American problem." True, but fewer Americans are Democrats than Republicans. Even more people are Independents and have to pick "between the lesser of two evils." They/we never get mentioned. No one tries to tell Independent voters to get their partisan act together. Or to quit squabbling. Of course, we don't have one of those problems as we aren't a party.
It's obvious that we are a huge voting bloc, and one that demands to be heard; our options are limited, though, and everyone forgets about us.
Scooting past that point.
What I want (besides Presidential recognition, and possibly dictatorial power) is for the President to lean into the camera during an address and say, "Dear Congress, quit dicking around. Get off your fat asses or I will start reading names of dirty, stinking idiots." A calm reserved president is great in terms of crisis, by a dynamic President motivates people. That's what last night's speech was missing, and what this presidency is missing. Hope. Change. Great values, and promises, and goals.
But no one ever took out the trash when they were a kid because once a month their parents calmly and rationally asked them to do it weekly.
President Obama; crack your knuckles, drop a few f-bombs on live TV, grit your teeth. Scare these Left Wing and Right Wing bozos into getting something accomplished. Be aggressive. Get mean.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Our Intelligence
http://www.cnas.org/node/3924
A wonderfully honest, if cynical and scornful, report on the United States' intelligence failings.
Between this and Gen. McChrystal's public domain requests for more troops in Afghanistan it makes me wonder about the status of the Pentagon and the Capital if our military leaders feel that they need to publicly state their case in order to be heard or cause reform. Should we be frightened (further) that so many of our dollars go to the umpteen intelligence services, and the results are ...useless?
When the Cold War ended and the "Spy War" document's were released it was obvious then that we may have beaten the USSR in the end, they kicked our asses in the espionage game. With a smaller budget. We spend millions on inventions, on bribes, on secret facilities and untraceable vehicles, and banana republics... and yet, a the CIA was infiltrated by a double agent. Our double agent's never seem to blow up anyone's base... we just hear about how a 1 million dollar drone fired a quarter million dollar missile into a cave or brick hut to kill 2 militants.
The media does a good enough job destroying our civilian morale and faith in this war without having our bureaucrats undermining our generals, or having our monstrous intelligence community fail at supporting and educating the people who really matter about the things that really matter.
A wonderfully honest, if cynical and scornful, report on the United States' intelligence failings.
Between this and Gen. McChrystal's public domain requests for more troops in Afghanistan it makes me wonder about the status of the Pentagon and the Capital if our military leaders feel that they need to publicly state their case in order to be heard or cause reform. Should we be frightened (further) that so many of our dollars go to the umpteen intelligence services, and the results are ...useless?
When the Cold War ended and the "Spy War" document's were released it was obvious then that we may have beaten the USSR in the end, they kicked our asses in the espionage game. With a smaller budget. We spend millions on inventions, on bribes, on secret facilities and untraceable vehicles, and banana republics... and yet, a the CIA was infiltrated by a double agent. Our double agent's never seem to blow up anyone's base... we just hear about how a 1 million dollar drone fired a quarter million dollar missile into a cave or brick hut to kill 2 militants.
The media does a good enough job destroying our civilian morale and faith in this war without having our bureaucrats undermining our generals, or having our monstrous intelligence community fail at supporting and educating the people who really matter about the things that really matter.
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