PHONE +PEN < WALKING SHOES.

PHONE + PEN < WALKING SHOES.  The recent SOTU speech delivered by our president was one of the most pathetic oral exercises I have ever witnessed.  Listening to The One read his speech (praise the teleprompter!), one would think he just showed up on the scene.  Instead, he is making the very same promises that he’s made for the last 5 years.  The problems he complains about are the problems he has either created or exacerbated.  The solutions he offers are the very things that worsened our problems.  With O, it is all about the show.  Some in the media have labeled him No Drama Obama; I would call him All Drama Obama.  Drama and shallow partisanship is all he brings to the table.  He misrepresents reality with false or outright fake ACA stats, he goes on and on about a War on Women, he praises the courage and sacrifice of our military while working with his fellow Democrats to cut their pensions, he rails against a Do Nothing Congress while promising to go it alone with executive actions, and he promises to fix the economy with a new investment acronym and a raise in the minimum wage. 

After 5 years on the job, he has not one accomplishment to stand on; think about that.   Universally acclaimed by all to be his signature accomplishment, the ACA had to wait until 40 minutes into the speech to get a mention and then it was clearly presented as a work in progress.  This is what we get when we elect an incompetent as President.

A real statesman, a real executive, a real leader, and a true President would put his pen and phone in the desk drawer.  He would stroll over to Capitol Hill where his party controls the Senate.  He would roll up his sleeves and begin the arduous, frustrating, and extremely difficult task of building bridges of compromise with our elected representatives so that our government could once again gain some semblance of relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency.  Obama has pretty much wasted the opportunities that existed with his significant and historical victory, but he still yet has a chance to do some good before he wades into the private sector.  Against all expectations and experience, here is hoping he is willing to work hard to accomplish something of value in his remaining time as President and leave some type of substantial legacy for his terms in office.

NSA SURVEILLANCE = CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

NSA Surveillance = Capital Punishment.  The solution to many dilemmas in this life ends up being a balance between two opposing positions.  For me, the issues of NSA Surveillance boundaries and the use of Capital Punishment fall into this category; I see them as roughly moral equivalents.

In a perfect world, answers to difficult and emotionally-charged questions would be much easier to obtain.  A universe of absolutes, where there is a bright line between right and wrong, where the gray areas are few and small, where certitude is a tried and true commodity…that would be a much easier place in which to govern.  Unfortunately, that does not describe our nation.  The line between right and wrong has become blurred to the point of indistinction,  gray areas have pretty much obscured those rare areas of black and white, and certitude in anything (and I do mean anything) is likely a mistake of monumental proportion.  It typically implies a nearness to death, the prattle of a politician, or the bloviating of a fool.

There is no question in my mind that there are crimes so heinous that they warrant the death penalty; the forfeit of one’s very life for the abuse they have knowingly perpetrated on another.  The problem lies in the system that doles out that retribution.  Too many cases, no matter their statistical significance, of innocent individuals being incarcerated and subsequently released due to later-discovered evidence, are occurring.  One has to wonder how many people have been put to death for crimes they never committed. Like it or  not, we live in a society where the quality of legal defense is in direct proportion to the resources one has to purchase said legal defense.  Equal justice is a goal; not a reality.  Until our courts can demonstrate a level of trust and competence that inspires sufficient respect to make rulings on the life or death of an individual, a lifetime of incarceration should be our most severe penalty under the law.

Similarly, it is foolish not to recognize that America and all she stands for is in a life and death struggle with forces from foreign lands (and sometimes within our borders) that want to see our way of life and governance diminished and/or destroyed.  When federal agencies are detailed the task of protecting us from that threat, they need all the possible resources and support available to do their job; the very future of our nation hinges on their success.  However, when you grant absolute power to anyone, any department, or any agency, that power will inevitably corrupt and will inevitably be abused by those without ethics or morals.  When I balance the threat of terrorism against my personal liberty and understand that the custodian of my sacrifice is someone like the Obama administration, I will take the chance on terrorism every time.  Any person paying attention to how poorly our past Administrations (both Republican and Democrat) have performed in selecting leaders to run their information-gathering efforts must take pause. 

We do not live in perfect world.  Until we do, when we are asked to make sacrifices as precious as life or personal liberties, we have every right to consider who will administer that sacrifice.   To date, our courts and governments have proven woefully inadequate in that regard.

Lessons From Apollo 13



Lessons From Apollo 13.  In April of 1970, NASA launched what would be the third landing on the moon by mankind.  What followed that launch was a triumph of technology, ingenuity, and NASA’s dogged insistence to never give up.  It resulted in one of the best movies ever made, one of the most common one-liners around (Houston, we have a problem!), and a rare instance where a great movie is exceeded only by the real story behind it.  For a generation that has come to light after 1970, your time would be well spent to watch the PBS documentaries on the flight and the movie itself, one of director Ron Howard’s best works.  But for all of its entertainment and inspirational value, I think the single best lesson it delivers is more apt today than ever before.

As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that only a miracle will save the stranded astronauts from certain death.  That miracle will depend on not one, but many separate individuals spanning the gamut of NASA’s flight control organization.  A failure on the part of any one particular person, at any stage of the rescue, could very well have resulted in the loss of the flight team and the death knell for NASA.  From the lone engineer who rigged a makeshift air filter to insure breathable air for the astronauts to the team that calculated the re-entry angle back into earth’s atmosphere, every single NASA employee proved to be up for the challenge and fulfilled their part of the rescue plan.  It was a true example of a team’s success reflecting the competence and efforts of its individual members.  Each link in the chain was tested and each link had to hold up in order to succeed.  What a tribute to the people who ran NASA at that time and place.

To a large degree, this example reflects the failing of our Executive Branch of government over the last couple of decades.  It is certainly proper and expected that a person who puts them self forward for the office of the Presidency earns the right to, if successful, select those of like mind and philosophy to serve them in their new position.  However, before that selection is made, there is the fundamental and necessary question of competence that must be considered.  This fundamental element of Executive Branch hiring has gone missing.

I believe two factors have led us to the point where the incompetence of administration appointees has resulted in an inefficient, unproductive, and dysfunctional government.  First, the ideology of the appointee has superseded all other considerations; most times to the point of being the only consideration.   This has led us to the “ends justify the means” attitudes that we see from many current department and agency heads.  They see no need to be bothered with the trivial details of exactly how government will be delivered; that is for the minions to worry with.  In their views, they are there to deliver a new and glorious vision that will obviously inspire their subordinates to magically find the formula to fit ideas into action.  For them, the mere fact that they have acquired their standing should be sufficient to re-fashion reality into the dream.  What is the biggest indicator that this is an ever-growing problem?   It is the fact that the brightest, most intelligent and competent people in government are leaving government.  It is one thing to be forced into implementing policy that is foolish at worst and capricious at best; it is entirely another thing to have to heartily endorse that policy as though it were the Holy Grail.

The second influence I see pushing this occurrence is the thought that the government, the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, is so big and powerful, so inevitable, so infallible, so superfluous, and so damn entitled, that it doesn't have to be concerned about everyday life.  Its mission is to set the goals, to eye the targets, to fire the blunderbuss of programs into American society that will bring us closer to that ideal world that they dream of.  In short, no one in the Executive Branch of our government is concerned about accountability.  When you take away a person’s obligation to be held responsible for their actions, well….that can be pretty liberating, can’t it?

The three branches of our government can continue to muddle along, even occasionally happening upon a great idea or a marvelous program.  But until simple and elementary competence is restored to the ranks of civil servants and Administration appointees;  until resumes, experience, and accomplishments are precursors to selection; then the best we can hope for as citizens is the fact that even a broken clock is correct twice a day.