As America commemorates the 15th anniversary of the September 11th 2001 attacks by Islamic terrorists, the sting of the memory may have grown faint in some circles. Whether it is due to the passage of time or the widespread reluctance to show the terrible videos about planes hitting the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville PA, killing nearly 3,000 souls that day. So the producers of a commercial showing the collapse of twin towers of mattresses might not have struck them as being offensive humor.
However, Bush White House Director of Advance Brian Montgomery had a slightly sardonic memory of that dark day preparing for an impromptu stop at Barksdale AFB on September 11, 2001, as it seemed like Dr. Strangelove surrealism.
The Secret Service was very protective of the President and were chary about returning to the White House to avoid the possibility of a decapitation strike. This sensibility was reinforced especially after hearing chatter that "Angel" (code name for Air Force One) was "next". So the Presidential entourage was diverted to Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana.
It so happened that on that very day, the 8th Air Force based at Barksdale AFB was in the midst of their annual big exercise Global Guardian, including having loaded bombers at the ready. So Barksdale AFB was already proceeding in a THREATCON Delta mode. So when Advance Director Montgomery disembarked from Air Force One, he could see the B-52 Stratsfortress bombers lined up wing-to-wing it seemed surreal.
Adding to the surreal scene was being met by a military man who looked like ready to roll General Buck Turgidson telling him that the squadron of B-52s were loaded with nukes, no wonder Montgomery thought of Dr. Strangelove.
Better to work with a guy looking like General Buck Turgidson than guy acting like General Ripper. However, to all reports, once the second plane hit the World Trade Center everyone in the military was on war footing.
And despite less than ideal communications on Air Force One, President George W. Bush was able to reach out to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fletcher recalled: "Putin was fantastic that day. He was a very different Vladimir Putin in 2001.America could have had no better ally on September 11th than Russia and Putin. Putin accepted the President Bush's reassurances that America was under attack and hostilities were not directed towards Russia.
President Bush exiting Air Force One on September 11,2001 with "Doomsday Plane" in the background
So despite "Angel" landing next to a fully loaded nuclear squadron of B-52's and being met on the tarmac by a guy who was a doppelganger for General Buck Turgidson, there was little chance on 9/11 that life would imitate art in Dr. Strangelove's (1964) climactic ending.
That Maui Wowie from 1982 must have been pretty chronic to inspire such pearls of wisdom to seek the to commit Congress-critters with whom Penn disagrees into insane asylums. And to suggest that the Executive Branch has such authority makes Mr. Hand's one-on-one history tutoring moot. Of course, Fast Times on Richmond High was a 1982 movie, and Sean Penn was play acting a stoner surfer there who had delusions of grandeur. This recent appearance on Piers Morgan was meant to be taken seriously and Sean Penn was playing himself. Penn was promoting his activism for Haiti. But in the same breath of supporting his altruistic cause, he chooses to insult the electorate and the Tea Party while slandering Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
[T]he way peoples perception of political positions are, is a direct reaction to their lack of, of their education which is a huge problemthat we're dealing with in the country.
and between of an uneducated people and the solipsism of people like Ted Cruz and their party.
It's a poisonous thing and these things with what we talked about with, you know, this is why this period of time, this is one of the things that's so fascinating to me in Haiti.
Penn's political pronouncements with Piers Morgan do not sound very coherent. But he was not on a script and TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) was otherwise occupied. But I hate to break it to the activist/actor but if you are trying to raise funds for Haiti, you are insulting many of the people who AEI's Arthur Brooks argues are the most charitably inclined as individuals. But maybe after Penn's J/P HRO group received $8.75 million from the World Bank for Haitian relief, maybe he does not need more friends. After Penn's "Crazy" diatribe on Piers Morgan Live, people can figure out who got wasted. Res ipsa loquitur-- the fact speaks for itself.
President Obama and his family walked across Lafayette Square to attend Easter Sunday service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. The presider was the Reverend Luis Leon, who also gave the closing benediction at President Obama’s second inauguration.
Mr. Obama & Rev. Luis Leon at DC's's St. John's Episcopal Church
Unlike at the ceremony on the Mall, where Leon’s stated goal was to bring people together, Leon chose to preach politically partisan on the holiest day of the Christian calendar. Leon preached from the pulpit:
The captains of the religious right are always calling us back, back back. For blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet and for immigrants to be on their side of the border...What you and I understand is that when Jesus says you can’t hang onto me, he says you know it’s not about the past, it’s not about the before, it’s not about the way things were but about the way things can be in the now.
Really? Please cite some contemporary examples of captains of the religious right calling blacks to be at the back of the bus. Leon did not do so during his Easter sermon. As Luis Leon was not able to flee Cuba until 1961 when he was 12 years old, maybe he had already been indoctrinated in the Church of the Poisoned Mind. But it was Republicans who were intrinsic to passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which the illustrious intellectual Senator J. William Fulbright (D-AR) filibustered for 57 days along with former KKK grand kleagle Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Vice President Albert Gore Jr.’s father Senator Albert Gore, Sr. (D-TN) also opposed. In fact, Republican President Eisenhower proposed a substantial Civil Rights Bill in 1957, but the reality was that the voting rights bill it was opposed by then Senate Majority Leader (and future President) Lyndon Baines Johnson (D-TX) and then Senator (and future President) John F. Kennedy (D-MA). After the longest filibuster in Senate history of 24 hours and 18 minutes by then Democrat (future Republican) Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC), the bill which passed was so watered down to effectively kill it. In comparison, Senator Rand Paul's (R-KY) recent blockbuster filibuster only lasted just over 13 hours. Oh, but the clerical bully pulpit alluded to the “religious right”. OK, since Rev. Leon is playing the prophet, then it should be easy to name the wrong-doers. C.L. Bryant made a documentary Runaway Slave (2012) in which he urges blacks to run away from manipulation by governmental, clerical and media sources that shackle them as victims on the political plantation. The Right Reverend Leon’s unspecific indictment of the “enemy” during the Feast of the Resurrection would probably be considered as leading people astray and perhaps even prostituting an entire people for the sake of power by the Runaway Slave documentarians. It would be nice if the story was simply a photo op of a lovely First Family dressed in their Easter best clothes. Or a cynic could chuckle that Mr. Obama walked the one block to church instead of taking a 20 car motorcade six blocks to the Jefferson Hotel for a dinner party with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ) et ali. as he did a few weeks ago. But President Obama has a tumultuous history with his professed Christian faith. Obama attended Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago, but pretended that he never heard (or perhaps paid attention to) the provocative and divisive black liberation theology spouted by the now emeritus pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright. During the 2008 transition, Mr. Obama made a big deal about church shopping in the District of Calamity. Even though the President took the holy Eucharist at St. John’s Episcopal, he has not made any choice for a local church after four and a half years. Then again, unauthorized Obama biographer Edward Klein quoted Reverend Wright in "The Amateur" (2012) that church was not their [the Obamas'] thing" but that the Trinity United pastor acknowledged that church was an integral part of politics because Mr. Obama "needed that base.". So Mr. Obama chose Reverend Leon for both the Easter Service as well as the Inauguration. That is telling. Leon was the backup benediction giver after Mr. Obama's initial choice of Reverend Louie Giglio was forced to withdraw after it came to light that in the mid-1990s Giglio advocated ex-gay therapy and cautioned against acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. Reverend Leon represents President Obama's new public orientation, as Obama came out in favor of same sex marriages only last May. Leon's uniting rhetoric in the inaugural benediction suggested that: "With the blessing of your blessing we will see that we are created in
your image, whether brown, black or white, male or female, first
generation or immigrant American, or daughter of the American
Revolution, gay or straight, rich or poor." With blessings like that, no wonder the second inauguration public ceremonies were panned as being the most divisive in our nation's history. But to be fair to Leon, the Episcopal Church has been blessing same-sex civil unions since 2006 and now Washington National Cathedral will be performing same-sex marriages, which are legal in the District of Columbia. Therefore Episcopalians no longer connect scriptural prohibitions against sodomy and same sex relations as sinful. This might explain why many bible believing Anglo-Catholic churches are swimming the Tiber and joining the Catholic Church's Anglican Ordinariate, like St. Luke's in Bladensburg, MD or aligning with traditional Anglican bishops in Africa, like The Falls Church Anglican in Virginia.
So when President Obama is not on vacation or flying to Florida to have Sunday golf matches with Tiger Woods and he chooses to hear a controversial, confrontational Easter Sunday sermon, it is significant. The Easter message can be understood with its parallel to the Jewish Passover. The children of Israel were freed from their slavery in Egypt by Yahweh’s power and they were put on the path to the Promised Land. Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross conquered the ultimate wages of spiritual slavery to sin–death. It might be worth considering if Rev. Leon’s sermon was truly uplifting or perpetuating continued political bonds dressed up in Easter finery or spurious scriptural sanction. The answer may be found in Runaway Slave. Alas, the message might not be a revelation as much as a lamentation.
During President Barack Obama’s annual speech before the United Nations General Assembly gave a perplexing perspective on religious liberty.
Mr. Obama famously noted that “The future does not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”. Clearly, that line is in response to the violent demonstrations at American embassies on 9/11/12 which killed Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American diplomats. President Obama has persiverated on blaming this violence from the Arab Street stemmed from the existence of a snippet of an internet video “The Innocence of Muslims”, despite clear evidence that the attack was pre-planned (rarely do spontaneous rioters carry rocket propelled grenades) as well as acknowledgment by the Libyan government.
The second curiosity is that President Obama could not bring himself to say “Muhammad”. Sunni Muslims prohibit any depictions of the prophet Mumhammad, but judging from his particular phrasing, the P.C. police may prohibit even uttering his name. This does not jibe with Western sensibilities, as was parodied by Monty Python in the Life of Brian (1979).
Although President Obama went on to equivocate tolerance to include condemning Holocaust deniers or those who torch churches. This even-handedness is admirable in the abstract but is mind numbingly naive in the real world. It is unlikely that the Arab Street will hear any more of Obama’s oration other than the first clause about not slandering the prophet of Islam. It is worth noting that slander under Shariah does not just mean saying derogatory things, but can mean any opposing, including proselyting or doing Christian missionary work.
While the President later acknowledged that the American Constitution allows for freedom of speech, this God-Given First Amendment right was not honored in the instance of “The Innocence of Muslims” video. After the violence erupted in the Middle East and the Maghreb, this film-maker was taken into questioning by the Los Angeles police, supposedly for coincidental parole violations. How constitutionally convenient! Moreover, General Martin Dempsey contacted video promoter Pastor Terry Jones to voice his concerns about the film. So much for respecting the First Amendment on either free speech or the free exercise of religion.
There are concerns in conservative circles about the Obama Administration’s support for United Nations Resolution 1618 as it is seen as an international blasphemy code which would trump American constitutional free speech rights.
Most people think that the Presidential Election this cycle is a referendum on President Obama’s performance on the economy. But thoughtful voters should look forward and appreciate the consequences of four more years of Obama’s influence in world affairs.
Recently, I saw a snarky posting from an avowed secular humanism which mocked a Sunday School poster simplistically urging the children to turn to the Bible and listen to divine teachings. Of course such atheists are too cool for Sabbath School and condescendingly surmise that everyone should think for themselves.
Later, I came across this idealized pedagogic dialogue showing the “subtleness” of the Socratic method in forming young skulls full of mush.
The problem with the latter exchange is that in a classroom a student rarely becomes a master without suffering a failing grade first.
The fictitious student’s retort reminded me of a wonderful scene in the film adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel “Contact” (1997). Dr “Ellie” Arroway (Jodie Foster) was set to intellectually eviscerate Christian Philosopher Palmer Joss (Matthew McConnoghey) for proposing that science has been incapable of delivering meaning to the world.
But instead of Occum’s Razor carrying the day, the SETI scientist was stumped at proving her love for her father.
Some things, including matters of consequence like love or God, can not be proven by science. Other issues, like worthy “human life”, do not have scientifically probative answers and rely upon ethics and mores.
The HHS final rule on qualified health plans imposes a Contraception Mandate that poses a poison pill for faithful Catholic and other institutions that believe that life begins at conception. Mark Rienzi, the Becket Fund For Religious Liberty attorney who represents Ave Maria University, Belmont Abbey College, Colorado Christian University and ETWN , is confident that the outcome in federal courts will come out the right way and protect religious liberty in America. However, if Rienzi’s optimism is misplaced, he believes that Catholics could end up engaging in civil disobedience against an unjust law.
The civil disobedience with religious liberty protestors will not be like the sit-ins of the civil rights movement. Instead, Rienzi anticipates institutions not paying for the contraception, sterilizations and abortifacients. This would lead to crippling fines which eventually would put the charitable and educational missions out of existence.
In a perverse way, such a shuttering of Catholic identity might be the aim of the Obama Administration. The Obama Administration budgetary proposal for FY2013 sought to limit the deductability of charitable contributions for those making over $250,000 a year, exactly the demographic which makes substantial gifts to non-profit causes. As for Catholic hospitals, they make up 15% of all bed-space in America and they are often the only provider in rural regions. If conscientious Christians cede the field due to the Contraception Mandate (or being fined out of existence), the federal government will dominate the health-care playing field and be a major step towards a single-payer system. It is not fine to force charitable institutions from living their faith by penalizing them for not acquiescing. It may be time to recall the Man of All Seasons, St. Thomas More who was a martyr for not submitting to an unjust law proffered from English King Henry VIII, the secular power that be.
As this year April 1st marks both April Fools Day and Palm Sunday for most Western Christian churches, it is worth trying to appreciate how humor aligns itself with scriptural hermeneutics. Some straight laced religious types wonder about Laughter and the Lord. But on a deeper level, the Passion of the Christ left many to wonder about heaven’s perceived foolishness.
Edward Rowland Sill, an American Poet in the mid Nineteenth Century, penned “The Fool's Prayer”
The royal feast was done; the King Sought some new sport to banish care, And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool, Kneel now and make for us a prayer!
The jester doffed his cap and bells, And stood the mocking court before; They could not see the bitter smile Behind the painted grin he wore.
He bowed his head and bent his knee Upon the monarch's silken stool; His pleading voice arose: "O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!
"No pity, Lord, could change the heart From red with wrong to white as wool; The rod must heal the sin: but, Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!
" 'Tis not by guilt the onward sweep Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay; 'Tis by our follies that so long We hold the earth from heaven away.
"These clumsy feet, still in the mire, Go crushing blossoms without end; These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust Among the heart-strings of a friend.
"The ill-timed truth we might have kept - Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung? The word we had not sense to say - Who knows how grandly it had rung?
"Our faults no tenderness should ask, The chastening stripes must clense them all; But for our blunders - oh in shame Before the eyes of heaven we fall.
"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes; Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will; but Thou, O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!"
The room was hushed; in silence rose The King, and sought his gardens cool, And walked apart, and murmured low, "Be merciful to me, a fool!"
Several things are striking about this Victorian aged verse. The mocking royal court commanding a comedic solemnization misses the true message about prayer. The fool has a bitter smile that is hidden by his painted grin. This reveals to the reader that he bows before the terrestrial potentate with dutiful reluctance. The fools prayer alludes to his foibles and failures. While asking for mercy the fool gently shows truth to power revealing how this world lauds the knave (which can mean deceiver) and punishes the fool who does the Lord’s work.
These arresting dichotomies are reminiscent of what was termed “jarring ambiguities” in the Johnine Passion account. Jesus knew that deciding to visit Jerusalem during the Passover could lead to His death, yet He did so anyways as he was obedient to His Father’s plan. Jesus’ triumphant entry into the Holy City was greeted by throngs of adulating fans, yet Jesus cried as He realized that they could not embrace the true Kingdom of God as they were still slaves to sin. The people still expected the Messiah to be King who would overthrow the Earthly Oppressor and they would have trouble embracing the Prince of Peace who road to the seat of power on an ass. When the earthly end game began, the Christ chose to be meek and allow Himself to be crucified amongst common criminals. These ironic details in our salvific history of Passiontide could certainly seem foolish to the eyes of man. But as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”.
Long time Harvard Divinity Professor Harvey Cox was inspired by this concept of the foolishness of God. When he wrote “Feast of Fools” (1969) he included a chapter entitled “Christ the Harlequin” which proposed a Theology of the Jester. Cox theorized that Christ the Harlequin shows the divine willingness to reveal the true self to the world through humbleness and ways that may seem foolish to the world. Steven Schwartz and John Michael Tebelak thoroughly embraced this joyful revelation of the divine in Godspell (Play 1971, Film 1973).
But the reach of the Theology of the Jester did not stop on Broadway or in Hollywood. Fr. John Naus, S.J. who has graced the Marquette University campus for nearly fifty years, also was inspired by Cox’ spiritual insight. For years, Fr. Naus would periodically conduct a Harlequin Mass and celebrate the Liturgy in the guise of Tumbleweed the Clown. While this was not a High Mass held in the basement of Schroeder Hall , it was definitely no mockery of the mass. Fr. Naus is a Doctor of Philosophy who shared the Jesuit charism of “Finding God in all things”. The Clown Mass was a way of reaching college students to demonstrate how Jesus could identify with our weakness and was willing to “look foolish” to the world and shed His own Precious Blood for the New Covenant and give us eternal life. Naus' good humor helped him recover from a serious stroke in 2004 to remain active as Marquette University's Alumni Memorial Union's Chaplain at age of 88.
Indubitably, some Christians would find expressions of Christ the Harlequin as improper or perhaps even sacrilegious. In Fr. Naus' Philosophy of Humor course, comedy was understood as what taking was readily identifiable but having it presented in an incongruous way. So often humor can stem from sadness or pain but be transformed through a change of vision (metanoia) into something that can overcome the original hurt and uplift many.
In a similar way, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta's vocation to the Missionaries of Charity saw things in a different way. Mother Teresa sought to see Jesus in the distressing disguise of the miserable and the poor. By serving the least of her brothers, she served her Savior. While the suffering servant was no laughing matter to Mother Teresa, the seeming disparity between the worldly reality and the spiritual reality involved seeing things differently and appreciating that weakness and travesty may not be as it seems as part of the divine plan.
While most celebrations of the Triduum will be rightly somber, understanding the jarring ambiguities in the Passion remind us of how Our Father’s Plan took in what Zealots would consider ignominious end in Jesus’ crucifixion into a divine victory which releases God’s family from the shackles of sin. If it’s God’s will, stay foolish!
NASCAR race car driver Blake Koch wanted to promote a campaign to educate fans on the importance of participating in U.S. elections. Koch teamed up with the “Rise Up and Register” campaign, but it seems that ESPN did rejected the ad supposedly due to the religious and partisan overtones.
See the cancelled ad for yourself:
Their mission statement notes “ Rise Up and Register firmly believes that increased electoral participation will yield tremendous benefit to our great nation at a time when our problems seem to mount daily.”
It is curious that ABC/Disney was so concerned about controversial overtones of the ad, as there were neither allusions to religion or Republicans. The worst one could say about it is that it depicted an American flag. Perhaps it would have been permitted if it showed the Obama Stars and Stripes.
Some believe that ESPN expunged the advertisement because of Blake Koch’s strongly expressed personal religious views. Koch opined: “I didn’t think that my faith in Christ would have an impact on whether or not a sponsor could air a commercial or not.” Maybe uber partisan progressives in programming thought that he might be related to the Koch Brothers.
The Lamestream Media has never had a problem pimping the “Rock the Vote” campaign, which was more than registering young people but RtV had the stated mission:
We use music, popular culture, new technologies and grassroots organizing to motivate and mobilize young people in our country to participate in every election, with the goal of seizing the power of the youth vote to create political and social change.
Viacom (the owner of MTV and CBS) has maintained a close relationship with Rock the Vote in its 22 year history, even though critics surmise that the RtV efforts are more than useless. It is surprising that ABC/Disney would not want to burnish their civic image by encouraging American citizens to exercise their franchise, which many have died to defend.
One wonders what was the real rationale for not allowing Rise Up and Register’s advertisement of Koch’s car 41 campaign to be aired. Are networks purporting to be prissy about allowing advertisements of controversial commercials? Well, cigarette advertising is back on NASCAR on a limited basis. And alcohol ads are allowed, albeit that Coors is an official NASCAR sponsor. So does ESPN’s rejection of Rise Up and Register reflect the self-censorship for the values of Mad Men? Could it be that the Mouse House spiked “Rise Up and Register” campaign ads as a back handed in kind contribution to the Oval Office incumbent, who would not benefit from motivated “bitter clingers to their God and their guns” which reflect NASCAR fans?
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.” (attributed to) Ben Franklin
While attributions to Franklin may not quite be on the money since the term lunch did not enter into common parlance until the 1820s, the meat of this food for thought is still quite fulfilling. It aptly captures the tyranny of the majority and class warfare epitomized by the ineptocracy currently in power. To borrow a phrase from the unmasked Occupy Movement "This is what democracy looks like".
The coda of this faux Franklin phrase alludes to the Second Amendment, which protects Americans from tyranny. It is important to recognize why the Second and the Fourth Amendments were included in the Bill of Rights. The British tried to enforce burdensome laws on their British American colonies without any input by the citizenry. When Americans balked at things like the Stamp Act and the Tea Act (1773), the powers that be doubled down on their policies by sending in massive force and forcing the colonists to quarter the Red Coats. Taxation without Representation is more than a slogan that DC Statehood activists have ironically re-appropriated. The right to keep and bear arms was not about helping hunting but as natural rights which are backstops against anarchy and organized tyranny to protect property rights.
The Chrysler Corporation has engaged in a new marketing campaign which catches the eye. During their TV ads, there is a chyron on the upper right hand part of the screen which shows a logo with their new tag line “Driving America”. This catchy slogan reinforces the nation’s third largest automotive manufacturer while diminishing the fact that the Obama auto bailout facilitated Fiat’s controlling interest in the Chrysler Corporation.
What is really remarkable, however, is the insignia for the “Driving America” campaign. It looks like a kissing cousin of the Obama 2008 Campaign logo. Was this just coincidence or was it coerced? This is the problem with crony capitalism. When money starts streaming from to government to corporations, there is the uncomfortable question about political payback. Moreover, it gives the government leverage on corporations to offer products that are political pet projects that are turkeys in the marketplace.
During the Super Bowl, Fiat Chrysler spent $14 million in television advertising. That was normal for the automaker. But what was truly unusual was the Clint Eastwood “Half Time in America” ad. This was a long two minute ad. Considering that ads during the game cost $3.5 million per 30 second ad, this was a costly ad buy, albeit at lesser half time rates. The ad touted Chrysler’s rebound with America’s improving economy.
The "Half Time in America" ad was strange for several reasons. Why would a corporation would only allot a few seconds of this long ad buy to prominently placing its trademark or its products? These bits of branding were at the end which could easily be excised if the video was repurposed. To that end, there was controversy when the Chrysler ad was briefly pulled from the Internet the day after the game by a copywrite claim by NFL Properties. When is it that the NFL protects their sponsors ads? Moreover, the USA Today convened panel of SuperBowl ad viewers were told not to rate ads during half time because they did not count, but we were encouraged to give our ratings for “Half Time in America”. This raises suspicions that it might have been polling for the Presidential campaign and that this long PSA might be repurposed to play in stadiums in the fall.
Another American automaker that enjoyed the Obama Administration’s largess in the Auto Bailouts of 2009 was General Motors. The Obama Administration not only saved GM from the clutches of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Obama’s auto czar also cancelled long standing dealership contracts without due process of law, which had hints of political motivation. But President Obama even fired the old President of G.M., which was no where in the TARP legislative vehicle. Famous automotive executive Bob Lutz was also forced out of GM as he voiced concerns that the industry was becoming over-regulated which would force him to design vehicles to please government regulators. Moreover, Lutz dared to voice skepticism about global warming.
In return for the stash of cash and the ability to restructure, it seems like GM pushed their electric car, the Chevy Volt, in an aspirational sales strategy rather than respecting market forces.
The fact that G.M. had an electric vehicle was no surprise. General Motors had long been participants in the public-private Partnership for New Generation Vehicles cooperative, which sought to bring diesel-electric vehicles that received 80 MPG to the market by 2003. Additionally, it also produced the General Motors EV-1 to comply with California’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate. So from 1996-1999, G.M. leased around two thousand EV-1s mostly in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson. But after several years G.M. concluded that electric cars were unprofitable, so they exited the market by cancelling the leases and crushed all of the vehicles. Green dreamers wondered “Who Killed the Electric Car?”.
Green dreams are the hallmark of the Obama Administration’s energy policy. General Motors had showed off a Chevrolet Volt concept car at the International Automotive Show of 2007. G.M. produced a production model in September 2008 which differed significantly from the concept car in aerodynamic design and twinning it with another production car to keep costs “down” The electric Chevy Volt costs $40,000 and can run for 40 miles just on electricity, whereas the Chevy Cruze costs $20,000 and gets mileage of about 40 mpg.
After the hope for change coming from Washington, G.M. committed to large scale production of the Chevy Volt. Those in charge of GM believed that they would sell 10,000 vehicles in Year One and 45,000 vehicles in Year Two. Well, those sales forecasts might be what former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan would call irrational exuberance. G.M. only sold 7,500 units the first year. These sales may have been assisted a commitment by General Electric (another beneficiary of government largess) to purchase up to 12,000 Volts for fleet vehicles. But now G.M. is scaling back production of the Chevy Volt to reflect real not imaginary demand, as only 3% of car sales are hybrids despite the hefty $7,500 government rebate. G.M. stopped building Volts for five weeks in early March because it had a surplus of 6,300 cars in stock. Inquiring minds want to know if G.M. now stands for Government Motors.
Maybe there is a concise political science description when governments tell corporations how to conduct their business. Any suggestions?
It is amazing that in just over 37 months of the Obama Administration, unemployment rates have been officially above 8% during that entire time period (and significantly higher if one includes discouraged workers that dropped out of the workforce). Congress passed a $837 Billion Stimulus (a.k.a. "Porkulous") package to abate the rising unemployment rate to no avail, while raising the National Debt by over $4 Trillion in just three years. Moreover, since President Obama was elected, gasoline prices have more than doubled nationally. But the Obama energy policy has generally prohibited drilling on federal lands or off-shore and rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline from Canadian petroleum sources . Instead, the Obama Administration continues to bolster green energy initiatives, which results in wasteful subsidies for mature but inefficient alternative energy producers, or making bets on new technologies that supplement crony capitalism, a la Solyndra.
Despite these damning facts, Obama continues to poll support in the low 40s%, which roughly corresponds to the number of registered Democrats. Some cynical political observers liken Obama's undying support to being akin to an Obama Cult of Personality. There was the meme in 2008 of treating Barack Obama as the Chosen One or a political messiah.
Right wing partisans have long recognized Barack Obama's 2008 campaign of Hope and Change as cult of personality propaganda. Viral videos capitalized on the funky hard rock fusion sounds of Living Color to score their point.
Glenn Beck went further, by composing an Obama Anthem to the tune of the Soviet National Anthem (Song of Stalin).
But the American people spoke in November 2008 and sent the candidate whose claims to fame were being a community organizer and a United States Senator for two years to the Oval Office.
Even after three years of Obama in power, Obama seeks to blame shift to his predecessor while banking on a perpetual campaign of class warfare to gain re-election. These themes can be seen in director David Guggenheim's adoring campaign video "The Road We've Traveled" (narrated by Tom Hanks).
While promoting his upcoming campaign agiprop film, Guggenheim was asked by CNN's Pierce Morgan on whether his film reveled any negatives about Obama. Guggenheim's response was that there were too many positives to put into a 17 minute film. This laughable response was followed by Guggenheim's admission that the director was in awe of Obama.
This star eyed response seems proto-typical of the block of Obama's invincibly ignorant who love the ideas espoused in the candidate of Hope and Change, but never consider the facts. People may choose to believe in what they want, but that blind faith is aided by the Lamestream Media, which never seriously vetted Barack Obama and which serve as the White House stenographers instead of being a Press Corps.
There are several things which voters need to do to survive the onslaught of Obama-Zombies. Firstly, do not give up hope, as it is not Zombieland-USA. The Lamestream Media is wont to report polling in ways that are favorable to their interests. Many of the polls cited probably have skewed questions or over-sample Democrats (or under-sample Independents)
Secondly, do not allow the opposition to succeed in Saul Alinsky tactics of framing the argument by smearing your opponent. For instance, the HHS Contraception mandate is now being spun by Obama sycophants as being a war on womens' health with Georgetown Law School student/political agitator Sandra Fluke as its martyr. The argument against the Obamacare HHS Qualified Health Plan Mandate should continue to be presented as an unprecedented and unconstitutional attack on the First Amendment's right of religious liberty.
Thirdly, Republicans must not allow themselves to be sidetracked by ad hominen, wedge issue attacks like outlawing contraception. This is really a false flag attack by the media which deserves some response, but by lingering on the issue drives candidates off point and colors the candidate. For instance, former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) is being tarred by the Contraception questions which give casual spectators of political theater the impression that he is just a social issues candidate, when he really has a strong blue collar Conservative economic platform that gets shunted to the side. Not everyone can be as convincingly combative as Newt Gingrich during debates, but Gingrich's slap-down of Meet the Press host's David Gregory's extraneous lead question can generate earned media and inspire others to straighten up and fly right.
Lastly, keep hammering home the shortcomings of the Obama Administration. The curtailment of basic liberties to accommodate Obamacare, the real pocket-book effects of encroaching environmental policies, the diplomatic fecklessness of Obama's State Department may not convince the invincibly ignorant to your camp, but they may not be motivated to go to the polls on election day. But by contrasting the Obama Administration's dubious record with a concise, concrete and positive platform, Independents can be inspired to walk over broken glass to exercise their franchise. While Republicans are engaged in an intense Presidential Primary fight, there can be a sense of disunity. But disgruntled conservative partisans ought to remember Benjamin Franklin's entreaty: "We must all hang together or else we will all hang separately" in November as we contemplate FOUR MORE YEARS OF THIS?
Several developing stories are capturing the real picture about the use of traffic cameras by state and local governments.
In the Big Easy, some of the biggest scofflaws of paying traffic camera fines are New Orleans city employees driving taxpayer-financed vehicles. Based upon a freedom of information request, New Orleans city workers racked up over $547,000 in fines as of September, 2011. Moreover, five of the top twenty traffic camera violators were city vehicles. Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D-New Orleans) claims that he wants to quit letting the good times roll so the policy will be changed so that city workers will be responsible for tickets that they accrue unless they are responding to an emergency. If the ticket is delinquent by more than 90 days, the city employee may be subject to disciplinary measures and any unpaid fines supposedly will be subtracted from the offending department’s budget.
Before this policy goes into effect, however, New Orleans is wiping the slate clean and the prior fines will be forgiven since there was not clarity about waivers and it would be difficult to collect the fines. OK, public servants need to be warned that the law applies to them and their tickets will not automatically be fixed or effectively ignored. Perhaps obeying the law needed to be clarified with public sector unions. But at least New Orleans new policy will require an emergency for a waiver.
In the Free State, Maryland Delegate Frank Conaway (D-MD 40th, Baltimore city) has introduced two bills that would exempt all “emergency vehicles” (State Bill 848) and all law enforcement vehicles (State Bill 857) from traffic enforcement camera fines. The problem with these bills is that it makes no distinction as to whether or not these public responders are actually answering an emergency call. Such legislation puts us further down the road to creating a special class for public employees who are above the law, whether or not they are responding to emergencies.
It seems that Maryland elected officials are tired of hearing constituents crabbing about speed camera tickets. Despite public assurance to the contrary by sponsors of SB486/HB944, the legislation which was approved by the Maryland Senate allows private contractors to make determinations of traffic camera violations. Specifically, buried in the Fiscal Policy Notes section states:
The bill authorizes a person trained in speed monitoring system enforcement who is either employed by or under contract with a law enforcement agency to sign a citation or swear to or affirm that a speed monitoring system violation occurred. Thus, in addition to shifting these duties from duly authorized police officers to other trained employees of the law enforcement agency, agencies are authorized to utilize private contractors for this service.
So Maryland is poised to allow individuals other than sworn Law Enforcement Officers to both maintain traffic cameras as well as to make determinations of infractions. This blurs the distinction between the law and corporations which can deprive citizens of liberty. Moreover, testimony before a public forum in Baltimore on traffic cameras reveals that 50% of the revenue would go to the traffic camera contractor. And this is before the private sector contractors become the official adjudicators for traffic cameras.
Currently, corporations stand to make a sizeable profit from maintaining traffic cameras under the guise of government enforcement. Now Maryland legislators want to subrogate their sovereign rights to a for-profit corporation to supposedly improve public safety? Such a progressive policy sharing police power by a nanny state which co-opts the private sector to control its citizenry stinks of liberal fascism, corporate socialism with a happy face.
These Big Brother tactics of traffic cameras were initially sold to the public as instruments of public safety and efficiency. Studies have shown that there may only be a negligible improvement in public safety with the use of red light cameras, with some questions about ancillary rear end crashes and questions about the profit motive.
The Maryland Legislature has effectively dropped the pretense that traffic cameras are meant for public safety purposes. In testifying for her House Bill 372, Delegate Carolyn Howard (D-MD 24th Prince George’s County) asserted: "A government official made a statement that speed cameras were going to be moved so they could generate more revenue. That was not the purpose of the bill when it was passed." The Maryland House Environmental Matters Committee voted to give the bill an “Unfavorable” rating, which basically killed the bill thereby blessing the practice of relocating speed cameras for profit.
In an era where the public till is empty, governments will look means other than direct taxation to augment their coffers. These automated traffic controls seem like they are greed cameras that are revenue enhancement tools that the public sector can liberally exempt itself, crony corporations can handsomely profit and which only modestly improve public safety. By vesting sovereignty to corporations for traffic cameras comes only comes at the cost of sacrificing our liberty and constitutional right to confront law enforcement at the time of alleged infractions to companies that will profit without strong public scrutiny. Such a deal!
Voters better learn how to focus on how our elected officials are blurring the lines between public and private as well as the proper public rationale for traffic cameras lest we be governed by the likes of Omni Consumer Products à la Robocop (1987).
Andrew Breitbart, the internet entrepreneur and conservative activist, died of natural causes at the age of 43.
Breitbart graduated from Tulane University in 1991 with what he termed “no sense of [his] future whatsoever.” After trying some stints with film production and cable television, Breitbart became acquainted with the nascent Drudge Report in 1995, when it was still an email newsletter. Breitbart thought Matt Drudge’s news aggregation site was “...by far the coolest thing on the internet” so he sought to be “Matt Drudge’s bitch” by selecting and posting newslinks to the site. Breitbart also assisted Arriana Huffington when she sported moderate Republic guise to set up the Huffington Post. Later, Breitbart set up his own internet media empire, including: Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, BigJournalism.com, BigPeace.com. As conservative media commentator Monica Crowley put it: "Andrew was doing the job that the Main Streem Media won't do."
Although Breitbart worked in journalism, he had no illusion about the ersatz objectivity of reporters. In his autobiography Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World (2011), Breitbart saw himself as a volunteer in the New Media army who served in the front lines fighting against the Democrat-Media Complex in the war to gain control of the American narrative.
Breitbart evolved from maintaining news aggregation sites to doing investigative journalism when Breitbart broke the ACORN abuse. Investigative activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles visited various ACORN offices with a hidden camera posing as a pimp and an under-aged prostitute who wanted ACORN’s assistance. ACORN routinely turned a blind eye to the purported illegal activities. Breitbart used this investigative journalism to launch his website BigGovernment. But Breitbart also counseled O’Keefe to release the damning videos in dribs and drabs to sustain the story and effectuate change, rather than a media feeding frenzy that is quickly dismissed as “yesterday’s news”. The Big Government expose on ACORN influenced Congress to federally defund the community fundraising organization, although it has reconstituted itself under other auspices.
Although the ACORN incident showed how Breitbart knew to sustain a news story by strategic publishing, Breitbart also knew how to seize the day. This was especially true with Weiner-Gate. Breitbart was in the forefront of publishing the explicit materials of himself that former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY 9th) shared on social media. But when Weiner finally decided to personally address the situation, Weiner tried to manipulate the press cycle to put his best foot foreword. Weiner was supposed to give a presser at 4 p.m. but he waited over an hour to start the event as he thought that he could control the narrative so that time pressed TV newscasts would either give him unfiltered live coverage or force a spoon fed summation without analysis or contradiction. Breitbart was on the seen of the Weiner press conference. As the delay continued, Breitbart walked right up to the podium to defend himself over his journalism. Weiner had successfully stonewalled the scandal until then, but he lost control of the narrative and soon after had to resign.
Breitbart knew the importance of putting a picture to a story. The ACORN undercover videos had a greater resonance than a text news story. The same is true with the scantily closed Twitter photos of Anthony Weiner in his Congressional office. In 2004, before the advent of YouTube, Breitbart was able to get his hands on video of Teresa Heinz Kerry screaming at a reporter. Breitbart posted in on the Drudge Report and it got more than a million hits in a day. When Agriculture office Shirley Sherrod gave an incendiary speech before the NAACP, BigGovernment posted video which showed Sherrod given what was tantamount to racial discrimination to a white farmer, which led her to be fired from her job. During the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Breitbart gave a barnburner of a speech in which he alluded to having damning videos of Barack Obama in his youth, but withheld them for the right time.
After news of Breitbart’s death broke, conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg observed on FoxNews that: “[Breitbart] was the modern conservative iteration of a 1960s radical... When I say he was the most fearless guy I ever knew, it really is true. I mean, he truly loved the fight.”
Breitbart (center) at CPAC 2012 / photo: Brian Matt
Liberally oriented social media erupted in hate at the news of Breitbart’s death. This is somewhat ironic, considering how far Breitbart stuck his neck out for conservatives to embrace right minded homosexuals. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, having enemies shows that you stood up for something. And as Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI 11th) reminisced: "There was no stopping Andrew Breitbart from fighting the good fight with every fiber of his soul."
Liberals may lament Breitbart’s brash and pugnacious style. But Breitbart deserves kudos for being an information entrepreneur. He recognized that the Internet could intensify the news cycle and could circumvent the Democrat-Media Complex. Instead of settling to be a successful news aggregator, Breitbart delved into investigative journalism to do stories that the Lamestream Media would shun because it did not fit into their progressive rose colored glasses. Breitbart knew how to leverage a news cycle. Although some questioned showing snippets of provocative video, Breitbart was also renowned for including extended video clips so motivated viewers could decide for themselves. Moreover, Breitbart instinctively appreciated the importance of linking images to stories to put information over the top of public indifference.
May Andrew Breitbart rest in peace with some consolation to his young family. And may Breitbart’s legacy and example loom large for the New Media on the battlefield for control of the American narrative.
Adding to the surreal scene was being met by a military man who looked like ready to roll General Buck Turgidson telling him that the squadron of B-52s were loaded with nukes, no wonder Montgomery thought of Dr. Strangelove.
Better to work with a guy looking like General Buck Turgidson than guy acting like General Ripper. However, to all reports, once the second plane hit the World Trade Center everyone in the military was on war footing. 
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