Archive for the ‘Government’ Category

It begins.

We are witnessing the beginning of a global insurrection aimed at the downfall of Western civilization as we know it.  This is the end result of strange bedfellows having inadvertently, and in some cases deliberately, combined forces to achieve a common end: global domination.

It will be harder to reign in those forces now that we have been averse to self-correcting and accepting personal responsibility for our individual and collective contributions in allowing the world to lose it moral compass.

We have been gluttonous and greedy. We have feigned ignorance and allowed, in some cases condoned, oppression and suffering. The list of errors and omissions is not limited to the Western world. Eastern and Middle Eastern nations have suppressed and oppressed their own people. They condemned and tortured their own, often in the name of God, while diverting attention to the excesses of the West and blaming it for their own refusal to move into modernity.

Because of our unwillingness to be proactive, we find ourselves playing defense. So the question of the hour is, “How do we respond?” This is my answer.

1. Immediately bring all American troops home. They are overextended and depleted from multiple tours of duty.

2. Congress and the President to immediately cease, and suspend indefinitely, all financial aid to any country that protests against or attacks American interests. They do not deserve out help.

3. Alert the world that we will use our resources only to defend our borders and to support the defense of the State of Israel. They are a true ally and share in our humanity and love of freedom.

4. Above all stay focused upon peace and pray.

Judaism begins its 10-day holy period on September 16^th which ends with the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, on September 26^th. On that date, Ahmadinejad sought, and has been granted, the podium at the United Nations. Islamists love anniversaries and holidays. Do not overlook what is in the works. The time for burying heads in the sand is long gone. Awaken to the reality, take responsibility for the outcome, and create a new one before it is too late.

Anyone with a teenager knows that given the opportunity, limits will be pushed. It’s what teenagers do as they attempt to define themselves in contradiction to the generation that precedes them.  And while too much restriction or stifling by parents can harm a teen’s exploration into identity, too little can, and usually does, result in extremist and destructive behavior.

Enter President Obama’s approach to Islamic terrorism.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that he knew that unrestrained Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmadinejad (to name just a few) are dangers to their own countries and the world at large. I wanted to believe he was doing everything he knew to protect Americans and American interests abroad.

However, with each passing failed opportunity…from his silent dismissal of the young Iranian protestors… to his misread of now disastrous and misnamed Arab Spring…. to his recent and insulting refusal to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu…my want has been replaced by a certainty that he is either incompetent or an enemy of this Nation.

Again, I prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt and conclude he is incompetent. What I will have a much more difficult time doing is giving anyone the benefit of the doubt who votes to re-elect this incompetent and out-of-touch politician.

In 2008, we knew little about Barack Obama. We knew little because he had done little.  But we looked past his lack of accomplishment, and his race, to trust his words and invest our future in his potential.  In hindsight, his words were vacuous and his potential nonexistent.

We can forgive ourselves our naiveté and our poor investment so long as we don’t make the same mistake again.

If enough of us are unconscious enough to go to the polls on November 6^th and give this man four more years to finish wreaking havoc on the Nation and the world at large, we will  have no one to blame but ourselves and nowhere to call a safe haven from the radicals and terrorists he calls friend.

In deciding whether or not to re-elect President Obama I think we should be asking an important question.  While I don’t expect my President to be prescient, I do expect him (or her) to have sound judgment and be able to at least sense the direction of the “winds of change”…especially where “change” was touted as an area of expertise.

So, the question is “Has President Obama been able to accurately sense critical change and lead accordingly?”

I will refrain from going into all of the policy issues (Obamacare, the economy, taxes, education etc.) and instead seek a more generalized analysis based upon our security and liberty in an increasingly danger-ridden world.

President Obama took to the airwaves to publicly support the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in Egypt. He lauded the “Arab Spring” and hailed it as a beacon of emerging democratic ideals in the Middle East.  Never mind the undertow of warnings coming from both inside and outside Egypt that the extremist Muslim Brotherhood would likely be the benefactor of the revolution and an Islamic state governed by Sharia Law the outcome.  President Obama’s dismissal of such concerns was because he apparently had more faith in the altruism of the Muslim Brotherhood than did most foreign policy experts or simply freedom-seeking Egyptians, for that matter.

Today is 9/11. The date speaks for itself in the hearts of decent people the world over. But Islamic terrorists love patterns and anniversaries.  So today, in the resultant Egypt presided over by a Muslim Brotherhood President, Mohamed Morsi, the U.S. Embassy is being stormed and the American flag torn from its rightful place.

Last week, opponents of the Morsi government were crucified in public.

It is my unwavering conviction that a President who so grossly erred in interpreting, and then wrongly supporting, a critical event in global politics and human history (as did Neville Chamberlain) is the wrong man for the job of President and Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America.

I find his continued support of radical Islam and his blindness to the threats and real danger of the Muslim Brotherhood to be not only willful disregard and gross incompetence, but also, on this date of 9/11, a dishonor to all those who died on September 11, 2001.

 

This will probably be the shortest blog I have ever written…or maybe ever will.  I am watching former President Clinton address the DNC. He is engaging, charismatic, articulate and entertaining.  His plea to the American people is that if we give Barack Obama four more years those who have not yet felt the recovery will do so. And he asked if you don’t believe it…then believe him… because he believes it…deeply.

Believe him? He lied under oath and was disbarred.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I watched Michelle Obama’s speech to the DNC tonight. There can be no doubt that she loves her husband and is proud of him. There is also no doubt that she thinks he is a wonderful father and from all appearances he is.  She choose wisely 23 years ago.

Now, come November 6^th, we have to choose wisely as well.

When I practiced law and taught a seminar for women on the divorce process from beginning to end, I always told them that they needed to retain a lawyer only after they had educated themselves on what the issues in their particular divorce were, understood how the law applied in their case, and then interviewed three lawyers that had been recommended for their skills in the particular issues that mattered. My joke line was, “If you aren’t educated, you’ll pick a lawyer based on looks or personality. That’s a good way to pick a date. You aren’t looking for a date. You’re looking for an experienced guide to take you through uncharted waters.”

Four years ago we, the nation, chose on looks and personality. The problem, it turns out, is that we were looking for a President and Commander-in Chief for the most powerful nation on the planet undergoing unprecedented economic and foreign policy challenges and what we got was a great husband and father.

Great for Michelle, Melia and Sasha. Sucks for us. In fact, just this week the President admitted that he did less than he could in his first term because of the time and attention he gave his family. What? Did he not contemplate the demands of the job, his priorities and how he’d balance them before he accepted it?

Now, as with all things in life, the “test” comes ‘round again. We get to choose again.  Those of us who are conscious and willing to accept personal responsibility for our choices, cannot possibly make the same mistake twice. We cannot afford to…figuratively and literally.

I think that the appropriate and sensible thing to do is to allow this extraordinary husband and father, Barack Obama, to do what he apparently does best. Let’s send he and his family home to Chicago so he can husband and father.

Then, after doing our due diligence, conclude that with a failing economy dragging us over a financial (and perhaps societal) cliff, we need a leader who understands how to cut the fat, cut the spending, and revitalize a failing economy.

I don’ know about you, but my educated choice is Mitt Romney.

This morning, talk radio host Glenn Beck was analyzing the speech given last evening at the RNC by Ann Romney. Beck said there’s something electric about ANN Romney and it’s because she’s genuine.

He’s partly correct.

For those of us who have been viewing the world through what some would refer to as a “spiritual” perspective, it’s much deeper and more profound than Beck’s conclusion. It’s also more exciting and hope-filled.

The Divine Feminine aspect of Creation has been suppressed and oppressed for at least 5000 years. With few exceptions, there has been a deliberate and repeated attempt to write the role, and power, of women out of the history of humankind. Oftentimes, when obliteration wasn’t quite possible, denigration was the substitute as in the trafficking of women as sex slaves or the burning of them as witches.

Women’s wisdom (and therefore our unique contribution) was recognized early in Western culture by the Greeks. They were called “philosophers,” a term which has survived millennia, without our ever stopping to realize the name means “lovers of Sophia”…the Goddess of Wisdom.

The return of the Divine Feminine to her rightful place alongside the Divine  Masculine has been a long time coming. Her absence has been the source of an imbalance that has perpetuated thousands of years of aggression, greed and war.  We have waited patiently, hopefully and longingly for her reemergence and recognition.

Ann Romney took the stage at the RNC and stood firmly in her Self.  She was convincing without being overbearing, powerful without being forceful, authentic without being contrived and wise without being didactic. She exemplified what true power looks and feels like. It is power born of experience and strength, tempered by compassion.

Some say they wish she were the candidate. I say let us be aware and grateful that her husband, an example of the drive, aggression and achievement oriented energy of the Divine Masculine has standing by his side this long-awaited and actualized representative of the Divine Feminine.

Together these two balanced energies may actually represent the necessary hope and welcome change we were promised and which has so far eluded us.

 

Note: You have to watch her give the speech (not read or listen) to understand the power of the energy.  Click here to watch the raw video.

There’s a lot of hate speech flying around these days considered to be standard rhetoric for an upcoming Presidential election. The Democrats (via their SuperPACS and minions) have called Mitt Romney a felon, a murderer and a racist while Republicans (via their SuperPACS and minions) have called Obama a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military and hates the U.S.

It seems differences of opinion or policy are no longer sufficient grounds for debate. Now, its personal. Not only is it personal, but the opponent isn’t just in disagreement he (or she) is wrong, bad and often just plain evil. While personal, political attacks aren’t new (you can read some pretty mean-spirited exchanges between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) it appears that we’ve reached a new low. Now it doesn’t even matter if they’re true.

So what lessons may there be out there for us regarding hate speech? I’d say the Bible is a good enough place to start.

There are two mitzvot in the Torah that specifically address improper speech: “Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people” (Lev. 19:16), and “ye shall not wrong one another” (Lev. 25:17, which according to tradition refers to wronging a person with speech). In fact, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in Judaism, of the 43 sins specified in the communal confessional prayer, 11 are sins committed through speech.

How we use words must be pretty important since God apparently wanted to be heard on the topic. And, yet, we continue to be reckless and unconscious when we speak.

A war of words is a war none-the-less. As long as we choose to communicate in this manner (or remain silent while others do) we continue to support the foundation for wars of a greater magnitude. After all, a war of words is simply the first step taken (the microcosm) towards the final destination (the macrocosm): war that actually kills.

In case you think this is an overblown and exaggerated conclusion, or too great a leap from a war of words between individuals to wars between cultures or nations, allow me one final spiritual reference.

In the Torah, the gravest of speech-related sins is tale-bearing or lashon ha-ra (literally, “the evil tongue”), which involves discrediting a person or saying negative things about a person, even if those negative things are true. In fact, true statements are even more damaging than false ones, because you can’t defend yourself by disproving the negative statement if it’s true! Some sources indicate that lashon ha-ra is equal in seriousness to murder, idol worship, and incest/adultery (the only three sins that you may not violate even to save a life.

Let’s evaluate this campaign season, and the candidates in particular, by their lack of evil speech.  Let’s give them the message that the last one standing with the electorate will not be the one who perpetuates the hate, but rather the one who promotes the highest good.

Several decades ago I had the opportunity meet, and briefly work in conjunction with then Delaware Senator Joe Biden. It had to do with a change to the U.S. Code that was being sought in order to grant Honorary U.S. Citizenship to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat and humanitarian known for his successful efforts to rescue somewhere between tens of thousands and one hundred thousand Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary  during the Holocaust.

I had returned to law school after a decade in the private sector. One of my Professors had been approached by the law firm of Davis Polk to become involved in the lobbying effort needed to add the necessary Code change to pending legislation. Because I had previously co-founded a PAC (Political Action Committee) and had spent time meeting with and advocating before members of Congress, my Professor enlisted me in the project.

Which is how I came to meet Senator Biden.

Prior to that personal experience, I only knew of the Senator as a dedicated father who, after the loss of his wife and daughter in an auto accident, remained in the Senate only upon deciding to daily commute to Washington from his home in Wilmington, Delaware via AMTRAK in order to be there and raise his two surviving sons, also seriously injured in the tragic accident.

I found the Senator to be a decent man, polite, personable and genuinely interested in the issue before him. He readily put his energies behind supporting our goal which was ultimately a success. So it saddens me to see a once respected public servant make a fool out of himself, and the office of the Vice President, by “staying too long at the fair.”

It has been evident for some time now that Vice President Biden has become, like Madonna, someone who was once appropriately positioned in their career choice but, unable to face the realities and natural limitations of the aging process, is unable to timely “exit stage left.” What remains in such situations are self-imposed caricatures of once talented individuals.

In Madonna’s case it shows up as a scantily clad, religion-bashing middle-aged woman trying to look like a teenager. Yet more tragically, in the Vice President’s case, it shows up as his telling a partially African American audience in North Carolina this week that Mitt Romney wants to “put y’all back in chains” and condescendingly saying those words in a speech pattern that mimics how many African Americans often speak. Followed by a pathetic and again, condescending, imitation of the ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter standing nearby.

I would prefer to remember Senator Biden as he was at his best and be done with this travesty of a political figure he has become. That option appears not to be a viable, or likely, as long as this Administration does what it did in reaction to the Vice President’s most recent inexcusable gaffes by “doubling down” in support of such mockery. The President’s refusal to face the reality that the Vice President is no longer fit to serve is yet one more indication that President Obama is out of touch, indifferent to what is best for the Nation, and determined to win at any cost.

Sadly, in this instance, the cost is the ever-increasing humiliation of Joe Biden and the degradation of the Office of the Vice President.

Note: Since publication of this post at 1PM Eastern, a story has broken that Vice President Biden has now gotten the century wrong in a speech given earlier today.

When I was practicing law, nothing frustrated or angered me more than a dishonest or unethical lawyer. After all, aren’t honest inquiry and outcome the method and goal of the Socratic Method?  So imagine the dismay when a President Clinton (a lawyer) lies under oath or plays the semantic game of “it depends on your definition of what ‘is’ is.”

Or…when the highest lawyer in the Nation, Attorney General Eric Holder, needs to be sued in order to comply with the law and cease hiding behind his boss via Executive Privilege.

Truly if this Administration had any shame, or even regard for the Constitution, they would have stopped the political maneuvering months ago (or not begun it at all) and produced, under subpoena, the documents demanded relative to Fast and Furious. But “therein lies the rub” as Shakespeare says. They have neither shame, regard for the Constitution, nor interet in the welfare of the American people.

This Administration is busy either paying off the Unions and its big contributors or demonizing the opposition. For them, it’s not about substance or truth; it’s about obfuscating the facts in order to retain power.

Attorney General Eric Holder is the same man who prematurely dismissed the Civil Rights law suit against members of the Black Panther Party who intimidated voters at the polls in Philadelphia. It seems his propensity for doing what is political rather than what is legal knows no bounds.  Which is why I am encouraged that Congress has seen to file suit against him.

Regardless of the pace of that litigation (for who doesn’t know the snail’s pace at which our Justice System moves) the remedy for an incompetent and/or corrupt Attorney General is more immediate.

Fire his boss on November 6^th.

 

While awaiting Mitt Romney’s live announcement of his Vice Presidential running mate, I watched a 6-minute You Tube video clip of Congressman Paul Ryan taking apart Obamacare, fact by fact, false projection by false projection…and doing so face-to-face with President Obama. Then I watched Congressman Ryan’s acceptance speech. Overall, one word comes to mind.

Fearless.

Whether it was Ryan in the video telling Obama that the overall cost projections in Obamacare were “smoke and mirrors” or Ryan stating that he and Romney will not be about “blaming others but taking personal responsibility” or “that our rights come from Nature and God, not government” I am struck by this 42 year-old’s willingness to speak Truth and, more importantly, Truth to power. It is long overdue.

What we as a nation need, more than anything, is a reality check combined with leadership that exemplifies that “the buck [really] does stop here.” It is time for each of us to roll up our sleeves and get back to the work of creating, not destroying; uniting, not dividing, and believing, not doubting.

Paul Ryan said it best when he said America is “more than a place…it’s an idea. The only country ever founded on an idea.” The idea he spoke of is a compound idea composed of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and mutual reliance.

A bacteria infected our Nation about 100 years ago and reached a critical stage of development during the current Administration. It is predicated upon deceptions that contradict the very idea of this Nation. These deceptions are that individuals are subject to government, that irresponsibility has no consequences and that we cannot trust one another to look out for the best interest of one another.

It’s taken awhile, but as with all infections, American intelligence and ingenuity has discovered a cure.  Mitt Romney, by his choice of Paul Ryan, has made a bold statement we cannot afford to overlook. The choice of Paul Ryan is the throwing down of a gauntlet to Barack Obama and others who continue to spread the disease by not believing in the uniqueness and exceptionalism of the American Spirit.

My only regret is that we have to wait until November 6^th to line up and begin the recovery. Until then, I look forward to the healing words of Truth that Paul Ryan seems more than capable of delivering.