Learn From Government's Resumé

Our illustrious federal government had the brilliant idea of stimulating the economy and saving the planet, all in one neat package called "Cash for Clunkers". For those unfamiliar with the program, it was designed to create jobs for the auto industry by offering up to $4,500 dollars for anyone trading in a gas guzzler for a new, more efficient car.

With a $1 billion kitty, the program was supposed to run until the end of November or until the money was used up. It lasted four days and is now suspended. It created no jobs, since the cars sold were from existing inventory, and the environmental impact is offset by the fact that all of the trade-ins are required to have their engines destroyed and the cars disposed of, ostensibly in landfills, somewhere.

What this offers, however, is a truly "teachable moment". It demonstrates the federal government's inability to run and manage a $1 billion program. Considering this when they are trying to ram through a $1 trillion health care initiative - without reading it - in the shortest amount of time possible should cause alarm in even the most ardent supporter of Barack Obama.

In other words...do you really want the same federal government who couldn't accurately forecast the results of "Cash for Clunkers" making decisions about the future health of you and your loved ones?

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'Bama's Beer Bash

While Dan Rather laments the state of journalism and begs the president to form a White House Commission to aid the ailing practice, Obama is planning to sit down to a couple of cold ones with the players in the Cambridge Fiasco. As fate would have it, the same press afflicted with the disease of mediocrity is agog over the event, touting it as an historic moment and opining ad nauseam over the significance it will have in race relations.

The irony lies in the fact that the case really has nothing to do with race unless one considers the reluctance of Harvard Professor Gates to surrender his membership to victim hood. He is, after all, a Harvard Professor while many people of other races are not. Somehow the message of oppression loses its luster when delivered from such a lofty perch. Add to that notion the fact that Crowley had no idea what color the potential perpetrators were before arriving and the outrage of Gates becomes pure grandstanding.

Also, there is a third leading actor in this play who will not twist the top off of a Bud Light with the boys tonight. The 911 caller who initiated the entire scenario - Lucia Whalen - has been left off the party list. Notably, she is not wildly screeching about misogyny.

In the meantime, while kids are still fighting overseas and unemployment continues to rise and other, more pressing issues swirl around us, Dan Rather's colleagues engage in their slobbering love affair with all things Obama, breathlessly awaiting the second act in the Gates-Crowley drama like so many adolescent Jonas Brothers fans. They are sure to not be disappointed.

I have no doubt that this little bash this evening will be the most meticulously staged photo-op since a grim-faced, lip-biting President Clinton paused to form a cross out of stones - conveniently placed in his path by staffers - on Normandy Beach on the anniversary of D-Day.

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More Mixed Signals On Honduras

As anyone can see, the Americas encompass a very large portion of Earth's land mass, yet only the United States is referred to as simply "America". That may be because the word itself has come to be synonymous with the principles of liberty and the rule of law even though we are not alone in the adherence to such grounding basics.

Looking at the map, Honduras is located along that thin strip of land connecting North and South America, sandwiched between Guatemala to the north and Nicaragua to the south, and as the forces of socialism - egged on by people like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez - continue to ooze toward her borders, Honduras has remained true to her constitution in spite of the pressure exerted from outside influences, which include the United States.

Late last month, on June 28th, the Honduran Supreme Court ruled with the countries Congress and ultimately decided that the unlawful attempts of its president to circumvent the constitution were sufficient grounds for the military to forcefully oust Manuel Zelaya, the aforementioned president. While it would be understandable for our own government to applaud the actions of Honduran patriots, they have not only not applauded, they have booed and condemned the actions, demanding that Zelaya be returned to power in solidarity with surrounding, avowed socialist leaders, notably Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.

While our own leaders here in "America" insist that the socialist Zelaya be returned to power immediately, our allegedly objective media echo the sentiments of the "world" media and refer to the bloodless ouster of Manuel Zelaya as a "military coup", perpetuating the notion that Honduras engaged in a third-world political maneuver, a depiction that is dead wrong.

And now, perhaps realizing that such a thing may be possible in virtually any one of the Americas, our State Department here in the U.S. is seeking to marginalize the legitimacy of interim President Roberto Micheletti by the revocation of diplomatic visas of his foreign diplomats. From the AP:

US revokes visas of 4 Honduran officials
The U.S. government said Tuesday it has revoked the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials, stepping up pressure on coup-installed leaders who insist they can resist international demands to restore the ousted president.
The U.S. State Department did not name the four, but a Honduran official said they included the Supreme Court magistrate who ordered the arrest of ousted President Manuel Zelda and the president of Honduras' Congress.

I try to imagine Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan reacting in similar fashion, and I simply cannot. While this current president seems more than willing to sit down to pheasant under glass with the likes of Achmedinejad in a futile attempt to smooth over whatever dispute, I have seen absolutely zero evidence of any similar diplomatic endeavor towards the patriotic actions of the Honduran political structure.

If I am alone in my puzzlement at this, I must reassess my sanity, for I simply cannot understand how a member of the Organization of American States could stand in solidarity with self-avowed socialists without being likewise cast.

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