Conservative Refocus

During a commencement  speech on May 9, 2010, President Obama loudly declared to a group of Hampton Virginia Students, while disgorging on the Media, the following quote:

Information becomes  a distraction, a diversion that puts pressure on our Country and on our Democracy.

Veiled utterances such as these coming from the "Leader of the Free world" no longer shocks us the way it once did in the early days of the Administration; however, our response would be "Indeed Mr. President."  Perhaps your meaning might become clearer to all if we were to  interchange the word "Country"  with the word "Me" and then replace  "Democracy"  in favor of the word "Administration."  In this way we might have a much better understanding of what the President is trying to communicate.   So lets try that:

Information becomes a distraction, a diversion that puts pressure on "Me" and on our "Administration."

Aha!  Now that makes much more sense--unless the President is suggesting that a group of informationally "connected" college students should make a concerted effort to understand little and absorb even less  about what is actually going on--which ostensibly makes  little sense coming from a "Juris Doctorate" in speaking to a group of college graduates, for Heaven's sake.  But we do understand the President's dispensing such auspicious advice  based upon what we have seen to date.

The Tangential Root Canal Presidency

In fact and in our observations, the President seemingly tries to absorb as little tangential information as possible, which might explain a number of things.

We can actually apply this "golden nugget of truth" to virtually any Administration endeavor one would care to name.  From Obama's  "magnificent shepherding of the Economy" (unemployment now up to 9.9%) or his "extreme mindfulness on how to save money in healthcare" (costs now projected to exceed $1.2 Trillion), to even reducing the amount we Americans have available to spend by massively increasing the US budget deficit (increased by 400% over last April to $ 82.69 Billion).  Bravo, Bravo Mr. President--we simply cannot wait for the next act--a feeling which could be likened to a patient dreading a root canal--but wanting the thing done and over with.

The President then went on to suggest that "less is more" when it comes to assimiliating news content, while leaving out his obvious sentiments on controlling Government outlays, which would most obviously be "more is less"--all the while-- the following movie and broadway hit song  keeps coursing around in our heads as it regards a certain European country which we soon may be emulating:

Greece is the word-- is the word that you heard --its got groove its got meaning--Greece is the time, is the place is the motion, now Greece is the way we are feeling.

Greece Is the Word from Conservative Refocus on Vimeo.

The above speaks to the economy but interestingly, by now pairing and applying the song to the Obama Administration, as a whole, the song takes on a fascinating "double" meaning:

I solve my problems and I see the light, we gotta plug and think , we gotta feed it right, There ain't no danger we can go to far, we start believing now that we can be who we are.

[Greece] is the word.

We take the pressure and we throw away conventionality belongs to yesterday, there is a chance that we can make it so far we start believing now that we can be who we are.

[Greece] is the word.

Archeology Digest:  Ancient Teleprompter and Blackberry Found?

The President went on to suggest that the students "take a skeptical eye  towards news from blogs, cable news and radio as well as modern gadgets such as iPods and Playstations," essentially limiting their information intake to nothing?  Nevermind the President's avowed and now famous attachment to "certain electronic instruments" that he claimed "not to understand", in fact, what the President is suggesting tends to fall right into place with actions over the course of his Presidency.

Let us not forget the attempts of last year to silence Fox News by disallowing their attendance in covering the Administration.  Further, when we look at the President's record thus far, we can see that the President, while having utilized the press to maximum advantage during his campaign, now finds them to be a bit pesky (remarkably) in their purview of his Administration.

Now, to many "obtuse" citizens that we Conservatives often and yet irritatingly run into in our daily lives, this might be of little if any import.  However, to those who understand the lessons of history, the President's harmless words speak to a mindset that is somewhat unsettling to say the least.  To illustrate, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was drafted in 1776,  states the following as it regards the Press:

XII- That the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of Liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments.

Presidential Exercise Schedule: Villfying Verbal Sojourns Twice Per Day

In addition, a number of other State Declarations, as well as the US  Bill of Rights, all contain language which strongly asserts the importance of the Media as it regards Governance.  In fact, referencing government leaders and their anxiety over the press, Napoleon Bonaparte probably defined it best when he stated, "I fear the newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets."

This then  may give some a bit more insight into Obama's frequent verbal sojourns in villifying those "who do" or "who even might" cast damaging criticism his way as he struggles, but often prevails, at paving the way into a "dream society" such as that of Greece.

While ironically, as the world watches on with fascinated dread in much the same way as a crowd might view a spectacular train wreck, we can begin to see where European Socialism is headed.  As a wounded, yet still strong America, continually fights its way through a long stem of financial upheaval and burdgeoning Socialiastic tendencies, the rest of much of Europe's economical players--the European Union chiefly-- now find themselves in an alarming if not worse state of financial peril as several countries--including France--consider pulling out of the Union.

Greece is the World

The country of Greece, which was the first crack to appear in the Eurozone's wall, has now found itself foundering in a sea of debt due to the downturn in the world econom,y along with its revenue draining Socialist Government.  In fact, the debt was brought on mainly due to Greece's system, which seems to inspire much of it's Citizens--who for the most part appear to work for the Government and giant Unions--to strike violently when they feel that the State is not paying them enough or is charging too much in taxation.

The avowed Socialist Government of Greece is dominated by a Party known as the "Panhellinic Socialist Movement," which in its earlier iterations, was known as the Social Democratic Party.  Its chief rival, the New Democracy Party, is a center-right  Greek political party made up mostly of moderates whom might bear a strong resemblance to the left-of-center Democrats of the US.  The  remaining parties, which total better than 20 separate political groups, run the gamut, but most seem to fall squarely in the Marxist corner.

Those of Communist bent--being expert at lazily draining an economy of funds--explains the normal Greek retirement age of a mere 53 years, despite having a gross domestic product that barely rivals any one of a number of larger cities all over the world at $400 Billion.  Such is the wasteful sloth of Greek Government, and being of large concern as to the pending IMF loan, prompted Eurozone Officials to request an official count regarding the total number of employees who work for the Greek government.  Greek officials responded that they were not sure and would have to get back to them, union prescribed break time no doubt.

The Liberal Pipe Dream: A Nightmare Core with Fruity Outer Shell

As with any purely Socialist State, the realm of higher eduction belongs solely to the Greek government, which supposedly does not allow for other private Institutions to offer higher education.  Consequently, there is a vast waiting line of students who are turned down every year.  As a result, despite having a population of only 12 million people, Greece resultantly ranks fourth in the world at the number of students who must seek education abroad.  Further, both the Greek military conscription, which mandatorily drafts every male at age of 18,  and Greek media, which is operated by a government "Ministry of Information," point to typical authoritarian schemes at command and control of virtually every detail of life.

The Greek medical system, also being a single payer system, is reportedly dominated and controlled by party affiliation rather than merit, which will then dictate a decidely poor overall system of medicine.  In fact, despite having a "total care" system, the number of Greek Citizens with healthcare coverage is roughly equivalent to the number of US Citizens at 83%, which is beyond shocking when one notes that the US has a population over 2500 per cent or 25 times Greece's population at around 310 million--sans illegals.

Isn't it fascinating that a system that is designed as a "Liberal's Dream" is also the focal point of extreme civic violence, unrest and poverty?  The deprevations that the country has seen thus far are due in large part to the cutbacks or "austerity measures" that the Greek government has instated on both its government workers and Unions in order to inspire a bail-out by Eurozone Leadership--which now seems to have worked--at least for a short time.

When Schmucks Pass in the Night

Germany's main paper, Bild, has even labeled the German people as "schmucks" for naively taking part in the bailout of Greece--to which we can only point out that at least they are supporting a member of their Economic Union.  Many in America are still puzzling over the fact that the US schmuckishly granted Greece a sum that could approach $65 Billion in support of a quasi-Communist government which has long been slated to fail--only to have Greece threaten lawsuits against the US due to the financial meltdown... alas.

This naturally will lead one to wonder how a country gets to the point where Greece is?  One need look no further than the US when we view the extreme deficits we have been incurring.  In fact, a typical government, by using various crises and setbacks as leverage to gain control within a particular sector, can eventually dominate a free market society by small incremental measure.

This, once again, can be seen in the US as the takeover of car manufacturers, expunction of many car dealers,  healthcare and certain banks, as well as the eventual decimation of private health insurance as we know it.  In addition, appointing various governmental radicals into positions of sensitive authority will also help ease various controls into an Authoritarian stance.  This "incrementalism" can also be seen in the recent Presidential nomination of Elena Kagan to Supreme Court Justice.

Kagan's Views "Startling and Dangerous" (Mirror Industry Stocks Rise)

While Kagan has held academian positions of leadership throughout her long and illustrious career, she has never judged a single case.  Though this is not necessarily a drawback as a nomineee for the Supreme Court is not even required to have a law degree, it does point to a symptom which has become typical of the Obama administration--that being--little "practical experience."  Further, Kagan's views and beliefs do not seem to hold with the values as set forth in the US Constitution which she will be forced into swearing to uphold if her nomination goes through.

Regarding Kagan's stance on Free Speech, Justice Roberts denounced Kagan's request to categorize a  sector of allowed speech-freedom to be, in essence disallowed.  Roberts stated that Kagan's views on Freedom of Speech were "startling and dangerous." Roberts further noted that Kagan's stance on disllowable Free Speech amounted to certain parts of  speech being "not worth it."  Further, much has been made of Kagan's college thesis in which Kagan touts how people speak of the old days and of  "capitalism's glories than of Socialisms greatness".

Beware the Creeper

Here a youthful Kagan appeared to be arguing for a future of Socialism for whatever reasons.  We should only point out that Kagan has full right to hold any such political views as she desires, and yet the Supreme Court appointment process will also have a full right to deny her ascension to the post.  Kagan has also been called out due to her stance on wrongfully denying access to military recruiters on her College Campus in her support of "Gay issues".

Further, it is important to  note that our current Governmental Representation has not seemed to reflect the views of the American people nor their desires at this point in American history.

Ultimately, when we view the legislative overall efforts of  our combined  Governance over the last 15 months, only a blazing idiot would fail to consider the possibility that the Government of Greece and other Eurozone government "models," along with a "closer relationship," might appear to be the possible  inspiration for which the "Obama Democrats" have, in large part, appeared to be aiming for as the November elections promise to be one of the most important contests in this nation's history.

In fact, America's Constitutional Liberties, as they currently stand in peril, would prove difficult to inculcate into any system of Global Governance --even while both  systems appear to be eroding right before our very eyes --due simply to an extreme deficit of Conservative principles.

Barry Secrest

*Special thanks to Barry's son, Josh, for his hard work creating the Greece Is the Word video.