The Voice of Reason: Hoodwinked by Hope and Change

We've all heard or read the story of President Barack Obama's life espoused by the mainstream news media, the Democratic Party and the President himself. 

It goes something like this. He grew up in impoverished Indonesia and later in Hawaii.  As a low-income student in Hawaii, he began abusing drugs and alcohol, before turning his life around.  Someway, somehow, he made it through high school and later on to college, eventually earning his way to Ivy League schools.  Later, as a professor, he was considered to be a "rock star" by his students, who were drawn to his magnetic personality.  He became an attorney and a community organizer, struggling to make it financially, much like the people he was trying to help.  As a legislator in Illinois and later as a U.S. Senator, he fought for those less fortunate, especially African-Americans.  He rose to national prominence to become America's first black President.

This is a very touching and inspiring story, isn't it?  It almost brings tears to one's eyes.  The only problem with this biography is that it's mostly fiction.

A 10-part article in the Washington Examiner exposes President Obama's biography for what it is --a fantasy.  Interviewing people who have known the President throughout his life, the Examiner did what others in the mainstream news media didn't do when he ran in 2008 and haven't done in the past four years. They actually checked to see if what they were told is the truth, a lie or something in between.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama#.UFsoFI0iZnM

Where should I start to bring a dose of reality to the awe-inspiring, but fictional story of Barack Obama?

First off, our President did not spend the majority of his childhood and teen years living in poverty.  When he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, he lived much of the time in a very affluent section reserved for diplomats and economic elites. When he moved back to Hawaii, he lived with his grandmother, who was a bank vice president.  In both Indonesia and Hawaii, he attended elite private schools reserved for the upper class. While he may have lived in poverty for a short period during his childhood, the vast majority of his childhood was spent living much more affluently than we've been led to believe.

The truth about our President is that he started out as a popular guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.  He was one of the school's most popular lecturers his first two years, but his ratings began to decline to the point that in 1999 only 23 percent of students recommended his class.  In that same year, he was the third lowest rated lecturer.  Colleagues interviewed for the article in the Examiner said that he was disengaged. He never wrote scholarly papers and was rarely at the school.  In short, it appears he did the absolute minimum required for the job.

In this revealing article, numerous other facts about President Obama run contradictory to the story we've all been told.  A supposed champion of black people, he never lived in a community with a predominantly African-American population. Instead, he chose to live in one of the most affluent areas of Chicago, mostly inhabited by rich white people. He may have helped poor people in the ghetto through his job as a community organizer, but he certainly didn't live among them as we have been led to believe.  As an attorney, Obama may have taken on a couple of cases that championed people living in poverty, but he also defended slumlords who overcharged poor people for run-down apartments.

The truth is quite a different narrative, isn't it? But there's a lot more to this story.

President Obama's service to the people of Illinois, first as an Illinois legislator and later as a U.S. Senator can be described as barely "present."  He never championed significant legislation and never worked collaboratively with other lawmakers to write legislation of note.  He voted numerous times as "present," apparently not willing to take a stand that might offend, or maybe, once again, he was doing the absolute minimum for the job.

So how did Obama become our President?  An accurate bio will show that the only things he's done well that could possibly explain his ascension to President are that he's delivered two great speeches and he's used government funds to help his friends make millions.  Seriously.

He gave a stirring speech in Chicago in 1997 as a newly-elected state senator that allowed him to get noticed by that city's and Illinois' political elite, which then propelled him to become a U.S. Senator.  In 2004, he delivered another inspiring speech at the Democratic National Convention that elevated him to the national stage.  He parlayed that national recognition into a successful run for the White House in 2008.

While in Chicago, Obama surrounded himself with people who became millionaires through Chicago's $1.6 billion neighborhood demolition program known as the Plan for Transformation. At least 25,000 low-income apartments in Chicago were destroyed under the guise of urban renewal, which forced thousands of black families -- many of whom lived in Obama's state Senate district -- to move out of Chicago. Many saw the Plan for Transformation as a scam or con game, with those in charge acting like they were doing charitable work, but using public money to demolish and redevelop property or to get rid of all the tenants. The goal wasn't to help poor people; the goal was to use public money to make millions if not billions for Obama's closest allies, who directed the efforts.

As one can see now, the President's "investments" in companies like Solyndra, which coincidentally was headed by a staunch supporter, was simply a continuation of his practice of lining friends' pockets with money from public coffers.  The only difference is that the federal government has significantly more money to invest in schemes that make money for the President's allies.

It's evident after examining the President's more accurate biography provided by the Examiner that much of what we've learned about him from the news media, the Democratic Party and President Obama himself is a gross exaggeration at best, an outright lie at worst.  It's also evident that our President is largely a creation of the mainstream news media, who refuse to let Americans learn the truth about this man.

What I find ironic and quite sad is that Obama, who became our President largely on the basis of his public speaking prowess, began his political ascension in what is affectionately called the Windy City. 

How apropos.

The Voice of Reason: Could These Be the Last Days of America?

The statistics are sobering.

More than 23 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have simply given up looking for work. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased by more than 14 million since President Barack Obama first took office, and the number on social security disability has increased 10 percent in that same time period.

Since President Obama was inaugurated, the amount of money the federal government gives to households has increased by a third, to the point that nearly one-half of all households in the country now receive a check of some kind from the government.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/16-statistics-which-show-that-the-number-of-americans-dependent-on-the-government-is-at-an-all-time-high

Our debt is now over $16 trillion, increasing by more than 50% since our current President took the reins.

 

And yet, the latest polls show President Obama with a slight lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney.  Given the economic condition of our country, which has been made precipitously worse by our current President, how can this be? 

 

I believe that this nearly 200-year-old quote from French historian Alexis de Tocqueville can perhaps provide the best explanation:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

What Tocqueville predicted nearly two full centuries ago appears to have a good chance of coming true.  With a near-majority of Americans receiving assistance from the government, will they vote for the candidate promising the most benefits, President Obama, or will they vote for Romney, a candidate who promises to control spending in order to save America from financial insolvency? 

If what Tocqueville predicts comes true, our nation will collapse financially and then become a dictatorship.

Interestingly, President Obama has not proposed any plan whatsoever to rein in entitlement programs or to slow the growth of our debt that threatens to implode this country financially.  He hasn't proposed anything in four years as President, and he certainly didn't propose any plan in his convention speech. 

Without a change of direction, our country is racing towards a financial collapse. And yet, nearly one-half of Americans indicate that they will vote for President Obama on November 6?

With all of the campaigning during the past several months, few noticed that our President issued an executive order that directs border control agents to ignore immigration laws passed by Congress and signed by a former President.  More noticed when he passed health care legislation to take over one-sixth of our economy, but very few paid attention when Health and Human Services directed Catholic institutions to provide free birth control, stomping on the religious rights of Americans.  Even fewer paid attention when the New York Times reported that President Obama has a "kill list" that includes American citizens as primary targets without any judicial or Congressional review.  President Obama alone decides who lives and who dies.  Are these the actions of a President in a democracy or a dictator?

Tocqueville predicted that a dictatorship follows the financial collapse. Based on our current President's actions, we're already halfway there.

As I wrote in an earlier blog, this election will be the second most important one in our nation's history.  The most important election was the first, when our country elected a leader, George Washington, who established the model for sharing power among the three branches of government, instead of grabbing the near-unlimited power that could have been his.

I fervently believe that this election will determine if America continues being a democracy or if it  transforms into a socialist nation or worse, a dictatorship; if America will regain financial stability or drown in its debt; and if America will continue to be the land of opportunity or a country where the government determines how successful one will become.

In short, this election will determine if these will be the last days of the shining beacon of freedom. Will we become the nation they once called America, or the nation that continues to beckon those yearning to be free?

It will be up to us on November 6.