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Obama and Lincoln
w. text below the video
Pop quiz: What is most serious security peril facing the Unites States today?
Is it a) Al Qaeda B) Nuclear proliferation in Iran or C) the Afghan Government’s inability to halt the spread of the Taliban?
If you said none of the above, congratulations for paying extra attention to the news last week. Not that you could be blamed for missing this major shift in national security priorities during Stimulus week 2009! It was a week in which Obama took every opportunity to compare himself to Lincoln- endowing himself with the bi partisan magic wand the better to bridge the gap of a house divided.
The last time a piece of legislation was passed so quickly, with so few lawmakers actually reading it before signing it, it was called the Patriot Act. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that this Stimulus package will be remembered as Obama’s Patriot act- this administrations policy embodied as legislation and shoved down the throats of Congress before they could even read it.
Consider that climate in which reporters trying to get details of the stimulus package had to turn to lobbyists- the first people to receive the 1 thousand page plus document and the only ones to read it. But the stimulus package has more in common with the Patriot Act than the executive branch of government muscling the legislative branch.
And that brings me to the answer to our little pop quiz.
Last week, Barack Obama’s new director of Intelligence Dennis Blair, told congress that the number one security peril facing the United States was global economic turmoil. Blair laid out the reasoning that the risk of social and geo political instability that could arise from the world economic crisis has now outpaced terrorism as the number one threat. There was even a warning of blowback against the U.S.: since the economic crisis now spreading like the black plague through the global economy began in American markets, Blair postulated in his prepared testimony, that there would be “increased questioning of U.S. stewardship of the global economy,”And, as congress & political pundits went through the charade of what Obama paternally and proudly called an honest and rigorous debate over the merits of the stimulus package, Blair warned “The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests,”. Sub textual translation: get on board with the stimulus package or you are not patriotic.
Sound like a familiar playbook?
How else could the economic crisis rise to the level of number one security risk? Last week I brought to your attention the admittedly outrageous theory of Rus..., who foresees civil war in the United States arising from the economic crisis. And I have said often that people in the U.S. will take to the streets when they can no longer take to the mall.
If the economic stimulus package fails to stop the bleeding, more and more U.S. citizens will begin to ask how the coffers were emptied in an environment where it was the lobbyists, and not our elected officials, who had their hands on the stimulus package first. Add up enough angry, unemployed and idle hands asking such questions & Blair knows this could become a security risk that could mirror the situation in Argentina several years ago, where citizens frustrated with their politicians and bankers took to the streets in truly post partisan fashion and said “THROW THEM ALL OUT”
And while Obama is clearly inviting comparisons to Lincoln, one parallel he certainly will wish to avoid is civil war breaking out on his watch.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dennis Trainor, Jr is a regular video contributor to The Uptake and the host at Operation Itch. He was a writer & media consultant for Dennis Kucinich's 2008 presidential campaign & a 2007 “Best of YouTube” nominee for his work as writer/ performer on “The Hermit with Davis Fleetwood.” He is currently at work on two books, “My Progressive Dilemma” (chronicling President Obama’s 1st year in office) and a novel adapted from his play, “I Coulda Been a Kennedy.”
Pop quiz: What is most serious security peril facing the Unites States today?
Is it a) Al Qaeda B) Nuclear proliferation in Iran or C) the Afghan Government’s inability to halt the spread of the Taliban?
If you said none of the above, congratulations for paying extra attention to the news last week. Not that you could be blamed for missing this major shift in national security priorities during Stimulus week 2009! It was a week in which Obama took every opportunity to compare himself to Lincoln- endowing himself with the bi partisan magic wand the better to bridge the gap of a house divided.
The last time a piece of legislation was passed so quickly, with so few lawmakers actually reading it before signing it, it was called the Patriot Act. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that this Stimulus package will be remembered as Obama’s Patriot act- this administrations policy embodied as legislation and shoved down the throats of Congress before they could even read it.
Consider that climate in which reporters trying to get details of the stimulus package had to turn to lobbyists- the first people to receive the 1 thousand page plus document and the only ones to read it. But the stimulus package has more in common with the Patriot Act than the executive branch of government muscling the legislative branch.
And that brings me to the answer to our little pop quiz.
Last week, Barack Obama’s new director of Intelligence Dennis Blair, told congress that the number one security peril facing the United States was global economic turmoil. Blair laid out the reasoning that the risk of social and geo political instability that could arise from the world economic crisis has now outpaced terrorism as the number one threat. There was even a warning of blowback against the U.S.: since the economic crisis now spreading like the black plague through the global economy began in American markets, Blair postulated in his prepared testimony, that there would be “increased questioning of U.S. stewardship of the global economy,”And, as congress & political pundits went through the charade of what Obama paternally and proudly called an honest and rigorous debate over the merits of the stimulus package, Blair warned “The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests,”. Sub textual translation: get on board with the stimulus package or you are not patriotic.
Sound like a familiar playbook?
How else could the economic crisis rise to the level of number one security risk? Last week I brought to your attention the admittedly outrageous theory of Rus..., who foresees civil war in the United States arising from the economic crisis. And I have said often that people in the U.S. will take to the streets when they can no longer take to the mall.
If the economic stimulus package fails to stop the bleeding, more and more U.S. citizens will begin to ask how the coffers were emptied in an environment where it was the lobbyists, and not our elected officials, who had their hands on the stimulus package first. Add up enough angry, unemployed and idle hands asking such questions & Blair knows this could become a security risk that could mirror the situation in Argentina several years ago, where citizens frustrated with their politicians and bankers took to the streets in truly post partisan fashion and said “THROW THEM ALL OUT”
And while Obama is clearly inviting comparisons to Lincoln, one parallel he certainly will wish to avoid is civil war breaking out on his watch.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dennis Trainor, Jr is a regular video contributor to The Uptake and the host at Operation Itch. He was a writer & media consultant for Dennis Kucinich's 2008 presidential campaign & a 2007 “Best of YouTube” nominee for his work as writer/ performer on “The Hermit with Davis Fleetwood.” He is currently at work on two books, “My Progressive Dilemma” (chronicling President Obama’s 1st year in office) and a novel adapted from his play, “I Coulda Been a Kennedy.”
Comment
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Comment by Dutchter on February 20, 2009 at 2:43pm -
This situation is truly revolting.
Then shall we revolt?
As in the well marketed and dubiously sourced words of Todd '9/11 soundbyte' Bimmer, "Let's Roll!"
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Comment by Chris Collier on February 20, 2009 at 11:42am -
Thoughtful. My impression could be painted as 'patriot act jr.' but I see it more in line with 'what to do?'
"Do something else?"
"No! Do what we've been doing!"
That isn't a dialogue and presents no options, or opportunity for balance, and continues the us vs. them posturing that provided soil for the last 8 years.
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Comment by BuelahMan on February 20, 2009 at 8:17am - Nice job... cross-posted at my place.
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