Pants on Fire

One of the most memorable highlights of childhood memoirs is the sayings. The linguistic gems often bespeak a larger truth that as children we do not fully understand until we are slammed by adulthood.

Perhaps the most visual of them is “liar liar pants on fire.” How easy it would be to distinguish the truth as a gullible youngster if the fibber’s pants were smoking. It is not like our judgment improves with age, however. It’s tough apparently at any age to distinguish the frauds from the morally just. Look and listen. Many of us are still naïve.

Has there ever been a politician in Congress or the Executive branch that has spoken the truth to us in the last forty years? The answer is likely, no.

For a great nation that once bordered on the empirical, our rotting cultural innards are illustrated in the form of political corruption. If the masses are wayward can we expect any less from Washington? It is reminiscent of kingdoms past just before they collapsed under their own weight of immorality. Political operatives being exposed for stowing bribe money in their freezers, nailing impressionable young interns in the Oval Office, and playing footsie under the bathroom stall indicate a representative class out of control. They have taken their cue from the "anything goes" current of a society gone amok. Without straitening out our moral compass, we too may be doomed.

It also points out that the Washington D.C. maternal government teat bestows an “out of touch” nature upon its political residents. Dip into the money well and earmark your millions for the folks at home. Never mind that the tickle you feel on the inner thigh comes from the hand in your pocket as they extract money for their special interests. It is no more for the good of all. It is no longer that the nation comes first.

What’s most laughable is that both the Republican and Democrat parties will utter anything that we want to hear as long as they obtain and maintain their illusion of power. The question becomes who do we want representing us, and what standards do we want portrayed? Today unfortunately, the out of control representation is an accurate reflection of us. Unless we change and rededicate ourselves as a nation to our longstanding principals, what the founding fathers died for will be only a memory.

Both parties who tout moral or intellectual superiority over the masses are neither. Making promises is much like an ongoing joke inside of the beltway. What would you hear as a fly on the wall in a strategy meeting for a Congressman running an election campaign? “Promise them anything, it won’t matter in the long run”, is the likely tenor. What’s more they’d be correct.

Those elected instantaneously become stained and drunk with delusions of grandeur. Those in the masses that can interpret political doublespeak know what is being said is “let ‘em eat cake!” Those we send to Washington should take heed. The person who coined that phrase lost her head in the long run. There is a growing sense of unrest in America today. The masses are seeking their moral compass. Once they find it they will start searching for for their own guillotine.

Until American’s become more discriminating and stand up as leaders ourselves nothing will change. We are the ones who must let Congress know we won’t strand for the nonsense anymore. More than political descent, the people must demand accountability. They must take back their government from the shills that have sullied it. The wisp of a scent on the horizon we smell is revolution against the political elite. The torch the public is carrying is destined to set the privilege class' pants on fire!

Political Penguins

Has anyone heard any hootin' and hollerin' regarding the sharp decline in violence around Baghdad since the U.S. military surge implementation has been fully deployed? You are not likely too either. First of all there are still deaths on a regular basis, less now but still enough for those who always have a dark cloud over their head to point toward. Homicide is not so much different as a concept than what you will find in any big American city. Good news however, doesn’t serve the media agenda.

The main reason you won’t hear about the 53 percent drop in the civilian Iraqi death rate being shouted from the rooftops or posted in huge headlines is the desire held by many media outlets to influence events rather than to report them. American’s should be hearing loudly about this progress. In retrospect the media has done such a bad job of telling the truth with balance that for the second war in a lifetime, it has aided in placing the outcome in jeopardy. As if that were not enough, these video accomplices willingly have aided the liberals that control of congress.

On the other hand, the electronic and print communications mediums are double edged visual swords. Having already stuck their neck out by saying the troop surge was a failure, liberal Democrats, wavering moderates, a few conservatives, and much of the public at large has reinforced a biased image. This passive majority has created a bandwagon to the detriment of American troops in harms way. Among the big casualties is common sense. Should the Iraqi conflict turn extremely positive for the U.S., liberals and the media are on video and in print regarding their concrete positions. That tape and those articles condemning the U.S. for not “pulling out” could roll for eternity to create a backlash of political damage.

American military deaths were the lowest last month in more than a year. The decline in the rate is a four month trend coinciding with a surge in troop levels. The left wing should be concerned. Aside from the attacks on General Petraeus by political operatives on the Democrat side of the isle, the left has a vested interest in failure in Iraq. That wing of Congress however in its strategy has adopted a take no prisoner’s scorched earth policy. As long as they can attempt to damage conservative Republicans it matters not how much they distort the facts in order to assure their ascendancy back to power of the White House. They expect to control all branches of the government after 2008. The next few months will tell the tale if the Democrats have overextended their defeatist dovish nature, and left themselves open to the charge of weak on defense. That issue might turn the 2008 general election. A terrorist attack in this country before then would surely sink them because they only carry the olive branch and not the big stick required to defend a nation.

Unfortunately for both Democrats and Republicans both the President and penguins are more popular than congressmen of both parties together or singularly. All of the political hot air has disgusted Americans for nearly a generation and the wind of change is blowing. Both parties have demonstrated that their views are more important than the desires of the populace. That is not a good environment, if one studies the empires on the ash heap of history. If that wind of change blows hard enough from the planets coldest regions perhaps we could skate in some of the flightless birds instead of congressmen and senators. Penguins are always seemingly well dressed and they can’t do us more harm than the prevailing political charlatans. Best of all they are likely not to enact any laws. They are sort of like Libertarians. A moratorium on new laws is something we could put a hold on for the next generation without much consequence.

Both political parties should be on notice. The disagreement on the war is to be expected however, the rhetoric that displays a true lack of support for war and troops in the field is something for which American’s could rise up and squash. Until then those currently trusted with power in Washington should take note of the crescendo building toward a new citizenry battle cry; “The penguins are coming, the penguins are coming”. We can only imagine because such relief is as improbable as a penguin party landslide.