Today’s entry comes from a friend of the Hayride, Mike Youngblood…

With apologies to Buffalo Springfield, there is something happening here, and it is slowly becoming very clear. An objective analysis of the events and political posturing in our country over the past two years will clearly demonstrate what that “something” is. None of this information is new, but heretofore I have never seen it woven into one clarifying body of work.

About two years ago, a State Assemblyman from Chicago who had recently been elected to the United States Senate was seeking his party’s nomination for candidacy in the election of a new President of the United States. His resume included impressive academic credentials, not the least of which is an undergraduate degree from Columbia University, a degree in law from Harvard, followed by the private practice of law representing the liberal and controversial group “ACORN,” and a stint teaching Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago. He began his political career by becoming a “community organizer” with the aid of, and in the home of, radical extremist Bill Ayers, who is best known for attempts to bomb the Pentagon. Having adopted Christianity into his life, he spent 20 years worshiping in the Chicago church of the black theology extremist Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

This candidate had a record in the Illinois State Assembly of supporting extremely liberal positions, such as late-term abortions and the willful neglect of babies who survived such abortion attempts. He also had a record of voting “present,” neither for nor against, on many roll call votes, rather than taking a public position.

That candidate, of course, was Senator Barack Obama.

The country was in great turmoil during this period in her history. The current lame duck president, George W. Bush, was winding down what had become a very unpopular presidency. Though he began his tenure with great aplomb as a result of his leadership following terrorist attacks on U. S. soil on September 11, 2001, the “War on Terror” that followed caused great controversy and great expense, sub-prime mortgages (pushed during previous administrations, and by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and ACORN) were collapsing along with the housing value “bubble” they had created, and the country was struggling with the possibility of economic crisis.

In the midst of all this turmoil, Mr. Obama ran a primary campaign on a platform of extreme radicalism, and sometimes defended, sometimes denied his relationships with Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. His principal competitor for the nomination, Hillary Clinton, presented herself as a more centrist or moderate candidate.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party was suffering as much turmoil as was the nation. The party seemed to have lost its way, unable to identify itself as the party of fiscal conservatism in light of the free-spending Bush administration, and afraid to identify itself as the party of social conservatism for fear of losing the support of moderate independents whose support it so desperately needed. While it wanted to identify itself as the party that would defend the nation and her interests abroad, this, too, was a tenuous position, as it would in turn associate the party with a sitting President whose popularity was rapidly deteriorating and becoming a liability..

Of course we all know what happened. Barack Obama received the Democratic nomination, and John McCain, the great compromiser known for “reaching across the aisle,” received the Republican nomination. Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate, fearful of his primary opponent Hillary Clinton because she came with too much baggage – her husband. McCain added new wrinkles to the sheets with the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. It is not yet clear whether Mrs. Palin was an asset, for though she is very charismatic and offered vast appeal to the conservative extremes of the Republican Party, her experience was successfully brought to question regarding her readiness to accept the Presidency should anything happen to the elderly McCain.

With lightning fast political dexterity, Obama quickly shifted to a more moderate platform, often incorporating elements of Mrs. Clinton’s primary platform in favor of his more liberal primary platform so as not to frighten away moderate independent voters. When past associations became a burden rather than an asset to his ambitions, he distanced himself from them and suggested that he had no knowledge of their extremism.

Then the economy collapsed. Presidential elections are about ideology when the economy is strong, but when it’s in the tank, those elections are about fixing the economy, everything else be damned for a while. Obama and his promises of “hope and change” overwhelmed the perception that McCain/Palin only offered four more years of Bush.

That was probably more history and background than you wanted, so if you’ve been skimming up to this point, that’s fine. But now you need to slow down and start paying attention and thinking. Try to hang with me, for I suspect I will leave several loose threads hanging before I can tie them all up in a conclusion.

Obama is in the White House now, and the “something” that’s happening in this country is not the change he promised. Oh, it’s change all right, but there is nothing centrist or moderate about it.

The Economy

Shortly after taking office, Obama secured economic stimulus funding in order to selectively invest in “shovel ready” infrastructure construction projects, put blue collar labor back to work, and stabilize the economy. In reality, much of that funding was “pork” for parts of the country that had supported him, and for the districts of Congressional leadership whose support he would need to achieve his other goals.

(Interestingly, that stimulus package included funding for Caribbean islands where Del Monte grows much of its produce. Did you know that Nancy Pelosi’s husband is a major stockholder in Del Monte, and that Democrats in Congress have prevented California produce farmers from watering their own (competing) farms because of an endangered minnow?)

Note that unemployment has continued to rise, and while economic growth was reported, finally, in the last quarter, it was a result of government spending, i.e. “cash for clunkers,” rather than growth in the private sector. Also note that the greatest bulk of the stimulus money has not been spent, but rather sits in Treasury Department coffers until Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, decides when and where to spend it. What might really be up with that?

The Environment

The Obama administration has adopted a philosophy that the earth’s temperature is increasing due to man’s influence, and that the only way to rectify this is to reduce carbon emissions, generally in the form of carbon dioxide. This tact will be the death knell of the hydrocarbon industry (you know – gasoline and diesel fuel, natural gas and coal for power generation, your plastic water bottles, the lightweight materials that improve the fuel efficiency of your car, the synthetic materials that insulate your home and made it less expensive to build, tires for your eco-friendly bicycle…). Rather, we need to build solar and wind farms to generate electricity (not technically feasible, but who cares?)

(Did you know that Nancy Pelosi is a major stockholder in T. Boone Pickens’ wind energy company?)

What about nuclear power? Too dangerous, though nobody outside of Chernobyl has been harmed by it, and we’ll never know the truth about what happened there. On a personal note, I was in Harrisburg during Three Mile Island, and I don’t glow nor did I become sterile or impotent.

Current scientific evidence would suggest that the earth is not heating up, but rather that Al Gore heats up at the mention of bringing science into the argument, because it threatens the millions of dollars he has made off promoting global warming. Besides, carbon emissions are not a national issue, they are a global issue, so if they are a factor, the only way to reduce them is to do so on a global level. Do you think China and India are gong to play along, or do you think they’ll just encourage our carbon producing industries to relocate, and take their high paying jobs along with them?

The pending legislation, known as “Cap and Trade,” would place a tax on those industries emitting more than an established level of carbon, and would supplement those that emit less. And as I mentioned, this is a global issue, and there is a UN treaty pending that would impose the same thing on a global level. Being the good world citizens that we are, we would be more than happy to pay a fine to third world countries because of our carbon emissions, right? What might really be up with that?

Healthcare Reform

Where to start? We’ve all heard so much about the need for healthcare reform since before the election that many of us are weary of it. Yet the debate continues, and currently pending legislation, which the majority of Americans have clearly stated does not represent the reforms they want, will be voted on soon. Some of those reforms are reputedly unconstitutional, and we have a President who is a former Constitutional Law professor!

But my interest here is not in debating the merits of this healthcare legislation. You’ll recall the Presidential mandate last spring that such legislation had to be passed before Congress dismissed itself for the summer, because the Administration and the Congressional leadership knew that the American people didn’t want it in this form, and they feared more moderate Senators and Representatives going home and getting an ear full. They got that ear full, and many of them, facing mid-term elections next November, are torn between loyalty to their party and their President, and to their constituents who will determine their ultimate fate. Meanwhile, ACORN, known for helping to stack the deck in favor of Democrats, has had its legs cut off.

Why the urgency, and why this intense desire to pass legislation that the nation clearly does not want? What might really be up with that?

Foreign Relations and the War on Terror

Sorry, I forgot. We can’t call it that any longer, but the politically correct term escapes me at the moment.

Last March, the Obama Administration adopted recommendations from the Bush Administration in order to win the war in Afghanistan. Obama clearly stated that this was a war that must be won, and he selected one of the world’s foremost experts in counter-insurgency to serve as his commander in the theater. Now that commander has defined the resources he needs for success, and the Commander in Chief can’t (won’t?) make a decision. He has time to go off on extravagant date nights with his wife, to play golf, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, to solicit the Olympic Games for his political cronies in Chicago, and to fly around the globe apologizing for this nation having been a strong world leader both militarily and economically, making it clear that he intends to change that. He has time for a “photo op” at Dover AFB to salute the caskets of returning soldiers despite 17 of the 18 families represented saying they didn’t want him there, press in tow, at a time when more Americans are dieing in Afghanistan than at any time yet in this war.

The enemy becomes more emboldened as he waits, unable or unwilling to make a decision. Now he’s saying he won’t announce a decision until mid-November. What might really be up with that?

The Media

Throughout the campaign, and since, we saw the “mainstream media” fawning all over Obama, essentially worshiping him in some cases. They refused to ask difficult or embarrassing questions, because they got “all tingly” when he spoke – assuming his teleprompter was working properly. The exceptions to that rule have been Fox News and conservative internet blogs.

Now we hear that Fox News is not a credible news source, and others are threatened with reprisal if they follow Fox’s lead on stories as they eventually did with ACORN. There is new legislation proposed that would give the Administrative branch of government the authority to regulate the internet, and some fear that regulation will include its content. What might really be up with that?

The West Wing

What’s up with all these “czar’s?” Advisors to the President that include a manufacturing czar who knows nothing about manufacturing, and who believes the tenets of Mao, as does the communication czar, a green jobs czar who was dismissed at one minute after midnight on a Sunday morning to avoid media scrutiny, but who preached Marxism, and said that this country was among the conspirators on 9/11. Others who promote forced sterilization of women, or who promote homosexuality education of kindergartners. What might really be up with that?

Energy Policy

It has been over a year since Congress, under intense pressure from the electorate, approved the development of the outer continental shelf for domestic oil and natural gas production. This administration has taken no action, while we continue to send an atrocious amount of money to nations that hate us in order to buy their oil, and while a disgusting number of Americans are out of work who could be working to develop those energy sources and the independence they could provide. What might really be up with that?

“There’s Something Happening Here”

Barack Obama has surrounded himself with radical extremists who want to fundamentally change this country. His political appointees are cut from the same cloth as he, and they represent his true ideologies. The majority of the Senate and the House share those views as well. Theirs is not an altruistic move to better the economy, the environment, or your healthcare, but rather a move to reduce this country from its role as world leader to just another country, castrated of its freedoms, with a populous totally dependent on its government.

The economic stimulus package was never intended to restore our economic strength, but rather was a vehicle by which the Federal Government now controls automobile manufacturing, banking, and the financial sector of the economy, and it wants to control the healthcare industry as well.

The mid-term elections are over a year away, and the American electorate has a historically short memory. Many will forget unwanted healthcare reform being forced on us against our wishes when, lo and behold, stimulus money suddenly gets released and the Democratic Party is credited with finally salvaging the economy in time for that election cycle.

Healthcare reform is not about improving the lot of the American people or reducing the costs of healthcare. It is about transferring power from individuals to the government on which they want us to depend.

Climate change legislation is not about preventing the destruction of the environment, but rather is about transferring the wealth of this nation to others, leveling the playing field across the globe while weakening this country in comparison. The energy policies presently being practiced are consistent with that.

Why can’t Obama make a decision about staffing the war in Afghanistan before the middle of November? Because there are three elections this week that the Democrats will likely lose. If he announces increased troop deployment, his radical base will be up in arms against him while the conservative base elects new representation and further diminishes his perceived power. His healthcare and environmental legislation will be further jeopardized.

Why is the conservative media told to “shut up?” Because they are telling people these truths, in bits and pieces, and the Obama administration does not want an informed electorate to stifle his ambitions to destroy this country and the principles on which it was founded.

Why would anyone want to do this? Certainly someone who had benefited from the freedoms and opportunities this country offers would not want to destroy it.

There’s something happening here, all right, and it isn’t what it appears on the surface to be. To look at these actions independently is alarming enough, but when they are examined in the aggregate, it becomes crystal clear that this is all part of a plan to radically reshape, reformulate, and severely weaken this country for the empowerment of the chosen few.