BTW, Karl Benz is credited with inventing the automobile as Henry Ford created affordable automobile mass production. Not to riducule Obama but he should have learned this @ Columbia?!?!!!

Maybe he got his facts from Biden!?

While I support any American President for successful leadership…..

A biblical story has come to mind….

Feet of Clay

Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

– Daniel 2: 31-33 (KJV)
Reminiscent at turns of the dream-interpreting Joseph and of the visionary prophet Ezekiel, Daniel is a learned Jewish exile at the court of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. As we join the story, Nebuchadnezzar has been having strange and troubling dreams, which stymie his court astrologers and sorcerers — not least because he refuses to tell them what actually goes on in the land of Nod. The enraged king orders that all his so-called wise men be torn into pieces.

But Daniel, taking pity on them and fearing for his own skin, resolves to crack Nebuchadnezzar’s riddle. On cue, God sends Daniel a vision by night, which he relays to the king. Declaring that the dreams are images of “what shall come to pass” (2: 29), Daniel describes what Nebuchadnezzar saw: a towering figure with a golden head, a silver torso, a brass midsection, iron legs, and “feet part of iron and part of clay.” Somehow, a stone cut from a mountain by no visible hand is hurled at the grotesque figure, which is shattered, and its fragments scattered by the wind. Thereupon the stone grew into a new mountain, so great that it “filled [covered] the whole earth” (verse 35).

Daniel then offers the stunned monarch his interpretation: by God’s will, Nebuchadnezzar has become a “king of kings” over a vast territory, and Babylon is represented in the dream-figure’s golden head. Each of the other metal sections, in descending order, represents a succeeding and weaker kingdom — after Babylon, scholars surmise, the Median, Persian, and Macedonian empires. The fourth kingdom, represented as iron legs, will break the whole world into pieces and subdue it — not too far from what Alexander the Great actually did.

But this last kingdom will eventually be divided, as the figure’s feet are into iron and clay, partly strong and partly weak, constitutionally unstable. (The Macedonian empire did come apart at the seams, and Daniel may be thinking in particular of its Egyptian and Syrian components.) It is in the era of this divided kingdom, Daniel predicts, that God shall “set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed,” though it will itself shatter all other kingdoms (verse 44). This is the great stone in the dream, which grows into a worldwide mountain, and which represents an impending utopia.

Daniel’s virtuoso exposition earns him a high government position, and it earned the phrase “feet of clay” an enduring place in English. Of course, our catchphrase distorts Daniel’s text, where the colossus has feet “part of iron and part of clay,” though it does preserve the basic meaning, namely “apparently strong in substance but weak in foundation.” The phrase is most often applied to a seemingly admirable person with a crippling character flaw or moral weakness. “Feet of clay” in this metaphorical sense was first used by Lord Byron in his “Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte” (1814), and it was picked up by a string of notable literary figures. Call the Oxford English Dictionary if you ever find a reference to “feet of iron.”

Index | Next: The Writing on the Wall & Weighed in the Balance

——————————————————————————–

Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!

“It’s possible you’re just completely underestimating the power of the entrenched media to control public perception and public opinion on this, as well as everything else. “

Yes, it is possible. I knew they had tremendous power to control the opinion of “Plebs”, but I was idealistic enough to think, that it can influence, but not control high ranking elected officials, judges and other highly educated civil servants, the “Patricians”.

I agree with everything you said, but I still can not understand fully the passivity.

Say, I am a completely cynical Republican congressman, I don’t give rat’s ass about the Constitution. All I care is my reelection. How is it going to help me to get reelected if the opposition party wins (and chances are that in 4 years they will be even more entrenched)?

Also, why was an almost complete silence on BHO’s citizenship issue by Rush, Hennedy and most of the others conservative radio hosts. Rush alone with his 20,000,000 listeners could have made sure that the eligibility objection is raised on 1/8/2009.

One answer is that BHO was born in Hawaii and Rush and the rest knew it from secret sources. I have difficulty with that answer given the tooth and nail protecting effort by BHO and what I call circumstantial evidence from Kenya. BHO would have released it, as not disclosing hurts him. Not much but, why fight something that you don’t have to. Not even mentioning the legal cost.

The other answer is that this issue was pushed by “fringe” groups or individuals, and Rush and the others did not want appear to be associated with them. I have difficulty with that answer as well. This would be big news, bigger than Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein became folk-heroes. How could a true journalist resist this story?

I have a different explanation of why it is predictable that Obama breaks his promises. Or rather, I can offer a different explanation based on the work of Martha Stout and her book, “The Sociopath Next Door.”

It is this: Obama breaks his promises because he has no conscience. He only makes promises because that is the easy, cheap and comfortable way of duping people into giving up something of value (their money, their freedom, their power, whatever) that he covets.

Once the promise has achieved its purpose for him, he is genuinely angry that anyone feels betrayed when he does not keep his side of the bargain. He never had any intent to keep the promise in the first place. In fact, you are a jerk for feeling betrayed! He had to make the promise to get what he wanted!

And when charm and false promises don’t work, then Plan B is comprised of whatever combination of threats, intimidation, ridicule and gaslighting are required to obtain capitulation. This is the definition of a sociopath.

I repeat: Obama only makes promises to get what he wants without ANY intent to keep them. If keeping a promise gets him something he wants, then yes, it will be honored, but only for that reason.

I explain this in more detail at my blog, but I don’t think it is polite to link since I am a new kid on the block, as a newly conservative lesbian Republican and former lifetime liberal Democrat.

Once you really understand that Obama has no conscience and that his only goal is to get power so he can make people jump–sociopaths have only a few genuine emotions and are not capable of feeling connection or empathy with anyone–then you are in a true position of power to foil his fell intentions.

To that end, we have to keep exposing Obama’s flip-flops (aka lies) and failures and must ridicule him as if our lives, the future of our country and the future of the world depend on it. It also will help to commence immediately lampooning his successes, such as committing the U.S. to spending five times the cost of the war in Iraq on his twenty-eighth day in office.

Sociopaths do not fall to reason, but they have no defenses against ridicule. Who knew the joke is even mightier over the sword than the pen? (Eric Hoffer, that’s who, author of “The True Believer,” which I will be explaining on my blog later today.)

Certainly he could not have the director of the census report to him rather than the commerce secretary.
That’s what I’ve been telling you.

This is what the WH has actually said,

“The president recognizes the importance of ensuring that the Census Bureau conducts a complete and accurate count through a process that is free from politicization, and he looks forward to working with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and Secretary-designate [Judd] Gregg to achieve that goal,” the statement said.

“As they have in the past, White House senior management will work closely with the census director given the number of decisions that will need to reach the president’s desk,” the statement added.

The rest is Fox news saying an unnamed WH source said he wanted the census director to report to him in addition to the commerce secretary. This unnamed source that only spoke to fox news did not detail how that reporting would take place or what information Obama wanted. You have accepted as gospel fox’s claim of an unnamed source and ignored statements from the WH. Add to that that absolutely nothing was actually done and this is revealed to be nothing but a tempest in a teapot.

His intent was crystal clear.

Wasn’t it you who snarked about claiming to know others motivations?

His words and actions are those of one who believes this to be emergency legislation.
In your opinion. An opinion not supported by any public declarations he’s made

The name of the bill is “The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.” Emergency is right there in the title of the bill. You apparently do not believe it is an emergency. That, however, does not mean that others don’t disagree. Obama has repeatedly referred to emergency measures and has talked about it being an emergency to a degree that has prompted many here to call it fear mongering. Attempting to claim that Obama has not indicated that he thinks this is emergency legislation requires deliberate ignorance.

Ignorance abounds, so don’t feel alone. Do a little research. You can shore up a lot of permanent majority with almost $800B of taxpayers’ money.

I will bet you any amount of money that there will not be a permanent Democratic majority. Alternately we can bet commenting privileges or some other act of contrition. Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is.

You said in comment #100,…
Yes, as I’ve already instructed you: in response to your irrelevant thesis, which I immediately identified as such and then dismissed, and you conveniently edited out.

I included the entire relevant quote. If you feel something relevant was edited out point me to it. You specifically stated that there should be a different procedure and I asked you to specify what you feel it should be. Why dodge?
Later in that same comment (#100) you said,

In the process, perhaps you can provide some insight into why the mad rush to vote on a bill that could have been examined over the weekend and voted on Monday, if BHO had no intention of getting around to signing it until Tuesday.

That would have given less than 1 of the promised 5 days. You are a bit inconsistent in your demands. You demand that he give the promised 5 days because you do not believe this to be emergency legislation and simultaneously you wonder why he does not delay the vote cutting out the 4 day waiting period provided. It seems you are near impossible to please.

Be as certain as you like. BHO lied. It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last time.

That is true of every man and woman ever to have lived and is doubly true of politicians. I have acknowledged that he broke his campaign promise for a 5 day online review for earlier non-emergency and stated my disappointment with that. I really don’t know what you can reasonably be fishing for. He is a politician and so he will break some campaign promises just like every other politician. I will no doubt be disappointed again, though I will continue to hope that his record on keeping his campaign promises will be better than most. So far he is 8, 1, and 1. As far as politicians go that is pretty good.

It is not reasonable to hold him to a different standard than that which we hold other men, politicians, and presidents.
Oh give it a rest. BHO should have thought of that before he set up what were apparently unachievable ethics standards for himself.

He set up ethics standards considerably more strict than those of previous presidents and has fallen short on one count thus far and you are set to pillory him. Is there any real reason for this other than your dislike for the man? Did you have this reaction when Bush failed to keep campaign promises or do you reserve this level of outrage for those on the opposite side of the aisle?

The Capitol Hill publication Congressional Quarterly yesterday reported that the White House, responding to minority groups’ concerns about Gregg’s commitment to funding the census, has decided to have the director of the Census Bureau report directly to the White House.

[emph. added]

Please provide the link to BHO’s statement that actually contradicts this initial report. All I see is that as soon as Republicans complained, and there was a possibility that it would get media attention, BHO backpedaled. In fact, it’s most likely that he was oblivious to the controlling statutes until the Republicans brought them to his attention.

His intent was crystal clear.

And denial is not a river in Egypt.

- A lot of assumptions are being made here.
Once again, the assumptions are not the issue. The President’s response to minority whining and inconsistent statements to the press are the issue.

- His words and actions are those of one who believes this to be emergency legislation.
In your opinion. An opinion not supported by any public declarations he’s made, which he hasn’t made because he could never support them rationally, as I’ve demonstrated.

You’re saying that BHO’s “belief” is all that’s required to designate a bill “emergency” legislation, even if the facts don’t support it. How pathetically naïve.

- … I did not realize that this bill would shore up a permanent Democratic majority.
Ignorance abounds, so don’t feel alone. Do a little research. You can shore up a lot of permanent majority with almost $800B of taxpayers’ money. Roughly $7500 of my money, personally. Yours too, if you pay any taxes.

- You said in comment #100,…
Yes, as I’ve already instructed you: in response to your irrelevant thesis, which I immediately identified as such and then dismissed, and you conveniently edited out.

- In fact I am relatively certain at this point …
Be as certain as you like. BHO lied. It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last time. Better get used to it.

- It is not reasonable to hold him to a different standard than that which we hold other men, politicians, and presidents.
Oh give it a rest. BHO should have thought of that before he set up what were apparently unachievable ethics standards for himself.

$500 billion should read <$800 billion

Thought I did that. Do you suggest we do what the hysterical Democrats have been doing since November of 2000? Harass BHO every day with media lies and political obstructionism? How will that improve anything? And which media would you use, exactly? And how are you going to obstruct with gutless weasels like Snowe, Specter and Collins in office?

- Slightly less than half of the country did not vote for BHO. How is it that no one cares?
I think you’re maybe missing the point, Voco. The ‘natural born citizen’ question has been settled. “The debate is over.” Unless someone comes up with a truly novel way to convince the Supreme Court to settle the matter to everyone’s satisfaction, that avenue is no longer an option.

Also I think you’re being a little unrealistic if you think even a majority of that minority believe BHO isn’t qualified. Most Americans, irrespective of who they voted for, are completely ignorant of these matters. Ask around. Not on the web, but people you know. It’s blindly taken for granted that BHO is qualified because everyone thinks “someone” is responsible for checking these things. When you have an electorate that oblivious, you can get anyone elected President. We just proved that.

It’s possible you’re just completely underestimating the power of the entrenched media to control public perception and public opinion on this, as well as everything else. Where do you think the majority of people get ALL of their opinions these days? How do you think BHO got elected in the first place? Do you think for one minute that this citizenship question would ever even be recognized by that media, or that it would be reported on honestly if they did? Not a chance in hell. Without that, just how are you going to apply any sort of pressure to resolve the question? Answer: you aren’t.

- BHO can do so much damage in four years that the country will never recover.
Well, McCain and the GOP should have thought of that before they decided to throw the election, shouldn’t they. They could have fought the bailout. They didn’t. They could have made a legal issue out of BHO’s fraudulent campaign donation scam. They didn’t, even though the evidence of fraud is overwhelming. They could have defended Sarah Palin against the most vicious media attacks any national candidate has ever experienced and constantly reminded people of BHO’s bald-faced lie about taking public campaign financing. They didn’t. They could have made clear to the electorate exactly how GSEs and CRA trashed the economy. They didn’t. They could have demanded access to all of BHO’s college records. They didn’t. They could have pointed out that BHO’s one and only job in an executive capacity was a dismal failure. They didn’t. They apparently expected us to do all that for them. This is why I get a chuckle out of people here who try to criticize conservatives by whining about “the last eight years of the GOP“. The two have almost nothing in common.

I share your frustration, Voco. Plenty of disgusting things have happened in history. We’re already seeing that this last election will turn out to be one of them.