The European Council voted today in a closed-door meeting to appoint the low-profile Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, to the newly-created position of Permanent President of the European Council, passing over the heavyweight candidacy of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that was heavily campaigned for by the current British PM, Gordon Brown.

Touted as the first “President of Europe” (that’s a bit of a misnomer), the newly-created position (along with a newly created EU-wide Foreign Minister) was designed to provide a higher profile for the EU on the international stage.

The EU's governance system is highly complicated to an outsider (or even to an insider - most Europeans are extremely apathetic about EU politics). Here's a chart that I nerdily made to show how political power in the EU works

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Once again, Mr. Obama is being faulted for bowing to a foreign leader.  Here is the video of our president briefly genuflecting to Emperor Akihito of Japan.

Barack Obama bows to Japan’s Emperor Akihito

All the president is doing is showing his respect for another culture’s traditions.  I happen to believe that many traditions are antiquated nonsense, such as saying “god bless you” after someone sneezes, but a diplomatic rendezvous with one of the world’s most powerful leaders is not the best platform to assert your views on outdated conventions.

Critics of Obama’s graceful curtsy can call it a sign of weakness all they want; it only shows how cripplingly insecure they really are.  I doubt the president’s momentary bending at waist will trigger a massive overthrow of the United States government.

“He bowed to the emperor? That’s the sign we’ve been waiting for! Bust out the nukes boys.”

Respectfully bowing is the very least of our worries.  If another country wanted to destroy our nation, I’m sure we’ve given them plenty of other, more relevant reasons, such as the two wars we are currently fighting, or the career of Nicolas Cage.  And let’s not forget the hand-holding stroll through a park former President Bush took with Saudi King Abdullah.  At least Obama didn’t treat the emperor like a nursing home resident.

So I think our country is going to be just fine.  No Pearl Harbor 2 (Pearl Harder), and no more Pokemon designed to secretly poison our youth against us.  After all, this country did nuke the hell out of two Japanese cities not that long ago – the least we can do is be a little nice.

The following is directly from a Facebook post Sarah Palin put up November 13 regarding the Obama Administration’s use of the American Justice System:

“Horrible decision, absolutely horrible. It is devastating for so many of us to hear that the Obama Administration decided that the 9/11 terrorist mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be given a criminal trial in New York. This is an atrocious decision.

Mohammed and his terrorist co-conspirators are responsible for the deaths of more than 3,000 Americans. Thousands of American families have suffered through the loss of loved ones because of the disgusting attacks launched against the United States, and now this trial venue adds insult to injury, in addition to compromising our efforts in the War on Terror. Heaven forbid our allies see this decision as a reason to become less likely to support our efforts in the future.

Criminal defense attorneys will now enter into delaying tactics and other methods in the hope of securing some kind of win for their “clients.” The trial will afford Mohammed the opportunity to grandstand and make use of his time in front of the world media to rally his disgusting terrorist cohorts. It will also be an insult to the victims of 9/11, as Mohammed will no doubt use the opportunity to spew his hateful rhetoric in the same neighborhood in which he ruthlessly cut down the lives of so many Americans.

It is crucially important that Americans be made aware that the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks may walk away from this trial without receiving just punishment because of a “hung jury” or from any variety of court room technicalities. If we are stuck with this terrible Obama Administration decision, I, like most Americans, hope that Mohammed and his co-conspirators are convicted. Hang ‘em high.”

Sarah Palin’s call to kill individuals without a fair trial, no matter the circumstances, is one with a tragic history in our country – violence without due process of law has given way to lynchings and mob mentality. This trial is a phenomenal step forward for the United States as a nation and as a people with a raised consciousness beyond retributive based justice – even if the outcome of this trial is the death penalty for these individuals, we as a people will have the powerful assertion that comes from following our own laws both fairly and equally in every circumstance.

Apparently, in a manner befitting a democratic society, the “Teabagger” groups have decided to burn effigies of Virginia Representative Tom Pereillo and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Because nothing says democracy and freedom like burning effigies suggesting to murder democratically elected public officials. In a small session he had with some of the Teabaggers, Rep. Pereillo attempted to calm their fears, and hear out their opinions.  But of course, you can’t have a conversation about health care reform, particularly with a group of over 50 right wingers, without hearing the  “When I was younger, and didn’t have insurance, I paid out of pocket for it.  Now I have to cover myself, and someone else?” argument akin to the “walking uphill both ways in snow to get to school barefoot” stories. We will never advance as a society, as long as a huge portion of Americans live with the idea “I had to suffer through…blah blah blah…without insurance…now someone else won’t have to suffer? NOT ON MY WATCH!”

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As noted recently in the Washington Monthly, House Republican leader John Boehner has released as a statement bashing Attorney General Eric Holder’s attempt at prosecuting 9/11 mastermind Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed in NYC.  Stating that

“The Obama Administration’s irresponsible decision to prosecute the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in New York City puts the interests of liberal special interest groups before the safety and security of the American people. The possibility that Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators could be found ‘not guilty’ due to some legal technicality just blocks from Ground Zero should give every American pause.

Boehner points out the flaw in American justice, as clearly there’s a chance that he could be found not guilty, and probably because of liberals. Maybe the ACLU? I’m not sure how after apprehending Mohammed and keeping him as our prisoner for years, now that we are officially prosecuting him, in the manner that western “civilized” society should, that this could be viewed as irresponsible. Perhaps he just watched an old video of Rudy Guliani’s performance after September 11th, and remembered,  utter the words 9/11 – liberal – special interests – and watch your ratings soar!

But, I will give credit, because as Boehner points out

“This decision is further evidence that the White House is reverting to a dangerous pre-9/11 mentality – treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue and hoping for the best. We need a real strategy for fighting and winning the war on America’s terrorist enemies that includes an effective, credible, and consistent plan for all terrorist detainees.”

I mean, after we’ve gone to their country, bombed the hell out of it, and captured the leader, of course now some liberal latte sippers would want to prosecute him in court. And that sets a dangerous precedent. Liberals want to treat captured prisoners like humans who should be officially sentenced, when we need a real strategy, like tort-AHEM!AHEM! enhanced interrogation, and disappearances, and secret prisons. Maybe we could call them gulags? And when the world looks back upon our country, the greatness they will see for us so wonderfully defeating terrorism in the enlightened manner of Captain Boehner and the Right WingNut Brigade.

In my previous post, I linked to an interview of Buyer from CBS, but I missed THIS link to an amazing video of him singing in session about smoking lettuce.  There’s also a cameo by Joe Biden. No further words could do this video justice.

Steve Buyer was interviewed recently by CBS regarding a “charity” for college students here in Indiana that was running out of his office.  I’ve never seen someone not accused of a crime sweat and stammer as much as he does in the video. Unless it’s the liberal heat of the lights, and the camera angles, our honorable representative from the fourth district spent several minutes scrambling for answers to every question before leaving in a rush, for a meeting apparently (and conveniently).  He couldn’t even seem to remember who made the original 25k donation, though he did basically scream out the name of those who did (PhRMA) a couple times, to something that is considered HIS charity. Though he did spend a large amount of time explaining how much he worried about a charity being legal. That makes you look good. A charity that alleges to be dedicated to helping Indiana college students with scholarships, yet that has handed out less than 10,000 dollars. In the meantime, the donations come from major drug companies and groups with pending legislation before his committees. Ah, fate, how you do love to have the wheels of coincidence roll through our lives.

While I’m certainly no expert in economics, I still found these figures to be quite interesting:

In the thirty years before 1980, median family income (adjusted for inflation) increased by 50.45%. Since 1980, around the time of the start of significant deregulation of modern finance, median family income has increased by only a third of that figure, at only 14.99%, while the consumer price index (the average price paid for goods in the United States) increased by 61.85% during that same period.

While I’m not a huge fan of the Clinton Administration’s economic policies, it is interesting to note that from the time Clinton took office to the time he left median family income increased by 13.26%. Since Clinton left office, median family income has decreased by 3.1% while the CPI continued to rise 20.27%.  In the one-year period from 2007 to 2008, median family income decreased further at a rate 3.56% (the biggest negative change to occur in only one year since at least 1947).

Furthermore, the annual average percentage growth in real GDP per capita was higher in the thirty years prior to 1980 than in the thirty years after, at 1.61% prior to 1980 and 1.53% in the years after. During the Clinton years the average rate of per capita real GDP growth was 2.36% Under Bush? Almost half that, at 1.29%.

Maybe these figure mean absolutely nothing, but I don’t think so. The advent of modern finance and Reaganomics has been bad for American families, at least when it comes to their pocket books. People ought to take a moment to think before commencing their incessant chanting of “free markets!” and  “Reagan!”

Source: US Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Just when one would imagine that the comedy pinata, Glenn Beck, had been busted, John Stewart makes a few insightful connections.

11/3 Project

Writing my column about President Barack Obama’s first year I was looking for some articles about his stop in Bloomington before the Indiana presidential primary. I stumbled across this YouTube video:

I remember attending that rally. Everyone in Assembly Hall was pretty excited. The person sitting next to me was so excited that, while chanting “yes, we can” over and again, he felt the need to keep touching me. 

The speech was pretty pretty typical for Obama. He claimed that “this election is different” and talked of our generation making its mark. 

That election was important, but in one key aspect it was just like any other. Candidates offered over-the-top rhetoric and played on political myths over substantive policy discussions.

Americans largely indulged them. I am not sure why we always forget how different governing this country is from campaigning to do so. A lot of people certainly put faith in Obama’s ability to be transformative simply because he said he would be.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think our generation is uniquely guilty of getting overhyped about these sorts of things. And I also think Obama has had a good start as President. 

But it is important to acknowledge now, a year after the election, that too much of Obama’s campaign was empty fluff.