CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN

3/29/09

--The Obama administration’s plan for Iraq consists of removing U.S. troops by 2011…maybe; i.e., if the Awakening Councils (a.k.a. “Sons of Iraq”) continue to take our bribes in exchange for keeping violence down to an acceptable level, if a workable, stable government is in place (which presupposes an agreement for distributing oil revenues can be achieved), if our exit would not result in the slaughter of the stooges we have installed to head the “government” at the time of our exit, etc., etc.

--Mr. Obama plans to send an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan, further sinking us into the quagmire that is that unwinnable war, a war that we lost years ago when George Bush couldn’t keep his focus, in a country that has contributed so mightily to the dissolution of both the British and the Soviet empires. This Afghanistan “strategy,” along with staying the course in Iraq, is all part of a policy of using a vague, ill-defined “war on terror” to justify massive U.S. expenditures in blood and treasure on the other side of the world in order to realize some nebulous goals the achievement of which can neither be realized nor substantiated.

--The great agent of change has appointed Nancy-Ann DeParle as his health care czar. Ms. DeParle has served on the boards of Medco Health Solutions, Inc., Cerner Corp., Boston Scientific, and DaVita, Inc., all major players in the health care business, effectively selling the influence she had garnered as President Clinton’s director of Medicare and Medicaid. Her appointment is being cheered by the industry. No conflicts of interest here, no sir.

--President Obama’s plans to spend 2% more on defense in FY 2010 than President Bush had planned to spend, not counting the wars for which our dashing young president has suddenly developed such an enthusiasm. This despite the fact that we spend more on defense than the entire rest of the world combined at a time when, in spite of the military-industrial complex’s desperate efforts to find a new bogeyman in Russia and/or China, we face no military threat other than those, like Iraq, that we made military threats by our offensive actions.

--The bailouts of the financial industry, started under Honest Hank Paulson, Obsequious Ben Bernanke, and Gormless George Bush, continue under Changeling Barack Obama and his henchman, Preppy Timmy Geithner, only with larger price tags and more Rube Goldbergian structures designed to hide the cost from the taxpayers.

--Vice-President Joe “Hedgie” Biden (See my 2/24/09 post.) declared in Chile yesterday that the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, an embargo that has contributed mightily to the Castro Brothers’ remaining in power since 1959, will continue under the agent of change we elected in 2008.

Aren’t you glad there is such a clear choice between the two major parties in this country?