Breakdown of Civilization in Chicago

Rahm Emmanuel has a serious issue on his hands as Chicago mayor.

Thugs have taken to the streets en masse. They are ransacking stores, attacking individuals to steal almost insignificant items, and generally frightening the city.

Rahm Emmanuel may have been an advisor to one of the weakest presidents in modern history, but he inherits a tradition of city leadership like no other. He is promising swift and severe justice. But will he community organize, a la Obama? Or will he bash and smash like Richard Daley? I have a feeling that he will unleash the police. Woe be unto these foolish city kids who think they are the baddest and the meanest. Unless sensitivity classes have taken the ornery out of them, cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. know how to handle this kind of problem.

Swift and severe justice. For the sake of Chicago, we hope Emanuel is up to the task.

In a larger sense, this is troubling. Mob violence for the sake of violence is definitely a sign of societal breakdown. Criminal gangs usually try to not harm "civilians" because it leads to increased police scrutiny. These guys seem to want to take the police on.

And you know who will lose that confrontation. Chicago ain't Seattle.

Increasingly Alone and Isolated

Obama's presidency is imploding. Anyone can see that. His personality seems to be doing so as well.

As I have mentioned before, Obama's administration began a steep decline in terms of professionalism and message when Rahm Emmanuel left the White House. Emmanuel seemed to be the glue holding it all together. He was abrasive and irritated Republicans to no end, but Emmanuel was a capable helmsman for the ship of state.

Obama has foundered since, shifting course abruptly from the center to the left, back to the center, back to the left with no real rhyme or reason. He shifts from presidential to campaign mode constantly. Emmanuel also seemed to be the guy telling the president "don't say that." The president has grown much more hateful and angry over the past year, lashing out at conservative figures and trying to write Republicans out of every process. Obama also seems confused about Republican gains made last fall, seeing them as an aberration instead of a protest against his policies and ideas. His speech on the debt made left wingers fall in love all over again, but did not strike a presidential chord. Obama now just blames the Republican Party for all of his problems since he cannot single out George W. Bush anymore (probably since some polls suggest that voters would rather have W back in the White House.)

The presidency has worn down Obama. He was not prepared from the beginning and lost his most capable guide. Obama now seems lost, bitter, angry, and surrounded mostly by sycophants. Republicans fear that he can turn on the campaign mojo at the drop of a hat, but incumbents cannot run on hope and change. Outside of Rolling Stone, few people think that he has much of a positive record to run on either. He has succeeded in liberating the black conservative and reorienting the GOP for the 21st century. It remains to be seen if Obama can even campaign effectively in the coming months.

Abandoning a Sinking Ship

In the last days of the Bush White House, you had a sense of things unraveling. The tight ship sprang leaks, efficiency seemed to evaporate, staff jumped ship in large numbers, and the Bush presidency coasted into history.

You get the same sense of unraveling with Obama, but it is only a year and a half into a contentious and remarkably unsuccessful administration.

Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel is apparently preparing to leave after the midterm elections. His approach reeked of political thuggishness, but he remained the most pragmatic of a leftist lot. Emmanuel reportedly clashed repeatedly with idealists such as David Axelrod, demanding that initiatives be pared down to meet the reality that America did not want to buy what the Democrats were selling. Then Emmanuel got the blame when Obama ideas torpedoed his popularity and made him look more like a Columbia professor than an engaged president.

Rumors point towards a possible run for mayor of Chicago or governor of Illinois, but the stench will stick with him for some time. Obama has turned out worse than Carter even by the standards of the Left. Clinging to the idea that he appointed a Nobel Prize winner to the Department of Energy is pretty typical of Obama in desperation mode.

It will be interesting to see who all leaves the White House after November, especially if, as expected, the Democrats take a major hit. He joins White House Budget Chief Peter Orzag, expected to leave his office this fall.

Media Mythologizing

If I had a dollar for every time I saw the word "myth" in the media recently, I'd be rich for awhile, but then an Obama redistribution czar would say I had too much and take it away.

For once, the left found itself on the short end of the language battle. Well schooled in postmodernist principles of the slippery nature of words, they scared the dickens out of people when Bush proposed modest changes in Social Security. No one accused liberals of mythologizing when they made seniors think that Bush wanted to put all of their Social Security into the stock market. As usual, conservatives lost the language war by trying to keep the tone and rhetoric at what they believed was a civil level.

A new generation, guided by Newt Gingrich and led in part by Sarah Palin, attacked leftists on their own turf. Conservatives and libertarians were still more accurate in their rhetoric than leftists in the past. Obama and his ghoulish chief of staff discussed independent panels and allocating resources to people with social usefulness. Palin called them what they are, "death panels." If you withold health care to an elderly person with dementia, as Emmanuel wants, you kill them. Leaving the decision to an independent panel of experts, as Obama advocates, put them in charge of saying who will live and who shall die. What is mythological about that?

Leftists struggle to regain the initiative by calling conservative and libertarian concerns "myths." Opponents gained the initiative on this debate because, unlike congressmen and media types, they actually read the bill and imparted their sense of horror to the world. Democrats opposing Social Security reform did not quote at length from the bills as conservatives and libertarians have. The word "myth" still lacks the punch of "death panel" and I would assume that baby boomers will continue to fight for their immediate future and the health care they have paid for all of their working lives.

We ought to still seek a tone of reasonableness and civility whenever possible. However in some cases the stakes are too high to not inflame and mobilize. Those opposing the transformation of America into something alien have not lied, nor have they exaggerated the truth out of all proportion. However they have succeeded in getting your attention. Hopefully that will be enough.

Who Says There's Death Panels In Obama Care? Obama!

Hat tip, Erick Erickson of RedState.com

In their own words:

One of Obama’s health-care advisors, the brother of Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel wrote in January 2009 that health care should be rationed in a way that “promot[es] and reward[s] social usefulness.” He said age could play a factor in determining who can and cannot access health-care resources and “[S]ervices provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens [in the body politic] are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”

Obama himself said, "Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model, is a very difficult question. … And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance.” The example Obama used should not distract us from the fact that he wants a death panel to decide who gets care and who does not after individuals paid into the Medicare fund over their working lifetimes.

They won't cut alcoholics and drug addicts from SSI, but they want grandma to die sooner so they can save money.

Call it what you want, it's a death panel. Add this to the Obama Administration placing "Hurry Up and Die" booklets into Veterans' Administration hospitals and you have a serious threat against the sanctity of elderly care in this country.

After all, they paid into it. Now Obama wants to deny them the care they need when it is most necessary.

As for Sarah Palin, who has adopted this as her crusade, her decision to leave the governorship of Alaska looks better and better. We need a visible and national leader to take the left wing grandma and baby killers head on.

Something Is Rotten In the State of Denmark, Or At Least the District of Columbia

The latest news coming out of Washington is shocking to say the least.

New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg withdrew his name from consideration for the post of Commerce Secretary over some deeply disturbing revelations about Barack Obama's conception of executive power. The United States Census Bureau will, under Obama's plan, be removed from the Department of Commerce and placed under the control of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel. Of course Gregg was selected to give bipartisan cover for this plan which would raise more than a few eyebrows. Thankfully he stuck to his principles instead of accepting the honor of being a Cabinet Secretary, still an honor even if left nothing to do.

Excuse me? Yes, the White House Chief of Staff will run the census, not the Department of Commerce. To what purpose has Obama systematically cut out his major Cabinet selections when it comes to major jobs? Hillary Clinton has been shut out of any major world affairs issues. All of these thorny issues get special presidential envoys. Clinton has no chance to play the same statesmanlike role that Condoleeza Rice enjoyed.

Why, again, would the White House Chief of Staff need to run the Census? I am quite positive that congressional Democrats will find this as shocking and disturbing as the GOP. They thought they elected a visionary, what they got was a bumbling version of Old Man Daley, the Chicago political boss from the 20th century.

Obama has gone from charismatic male Oprah, to bumbling, to highly disturbing in the matter of a few weeks. It's time to demand that the Democratic Party reign this guy in. Better to nip this power hunger in the bud before it gets out of hand.