Obama's Ice Cream

Why do relatives not understand that I hate forwarded email messages? Normally, my response is to immediately trash them. At most, I quickly scan and then trash them. For some reason, the offending relatives invariably are conservatives passing around their Republican and/or Christian propaganda. If forwarding proves to be the primary message activity of the relative, I create a junk mail rule that automatically filters them so that I no longer see the messages when they arrive. This one slipped in today and I scanned it. I couldn't resist responding.

"From a teacher in the Nashville  area.

"(Who worries about 'the cow' when it's all about  the 'Ice Cream?')

"The most  eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade  this year.

"The  presidential  election was heating up and some of the children showed an  interest.

"I decided we would have an  election for a class president.

"We  would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the  class would vote.

"To simplify the  process, candidates were nominated by other class  members.

"We discussed  what kinds  of characteristics these students should  have.

"We got many  nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for  the top spot.

"The class had done a  great job in their selections.

"Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an  advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen  Olivia's mother.

"The day arrived when  they were to make their speeches Jamie went  first.

"He had specific ideas about how  to make our class a better place.  He ended by promising to do  his very  best.

"Everyone  applauded.  He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her  speech was concise.

"She said, "If you  will vote for me, I will give you ice cream."  She sat  down.

"The class went wild.   "Yes! Yes!  We want ice cream." She surely could say more.  She did not have to.

"A discussion  followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream?  She wasn't sure.

"Would her parents buy it or would  the class pay for it?  She didn't  know.

"The class really didn't care. All  they were thinking about was ice  cream.

"Jamie was  forgotten.

"Olivia won by a  landslide.

"Every time Barack Obama  opened his mouth he offered ice cream and fifty-two percent of the  people reacted like nine year olds.  They want ice  cream.

"The other forty-eight percent of  us know we're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the  mess."

It's a cute story, but where was that concern during the past eight years when the previous administration rang up nearly $4-trillion dollars on wars in Iraq and  Afghanistan, and ran the national debt up to an all-time high of nearly $11-trillion? Check out these stories:

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/09/27/clinton.surplus/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846_pf.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/29/couricandco/entry4486228.shtml

By contrast, the economic bailout package being decried by congressional Republicans as too expensive is less than 20 percent as much - and it is to be spent on Americans in America, not on foreign countries that don't want us there anyhow. Granted, I don't agree with economic bailout that throws taxpayer dollars at bad businesses and arrogant corporate fatcats, but they are less than 3 degrees off of bad government and arrogant fatcat politicians who retire to a "working weekend" at a luxurious Williamsburg, VA, resort. At least the plan currently under debate has more accountability built in than the TARP bill of the Bush administration, rebuilds critical infrastructure and limits executive salaries of bailed-out corporations. Far better to have given the $700-billion of TARP money and $900-billion of economic bailout directly to Americans. That would be a check for $5,236 to each and every American, compared to $300 to each qualifying American last June when auto manufacturers and other businesses fell all over themselves trying to entice recipients to spend their $300 with them. More than $5,000 in the hands of each American would truly stimulate the economy, instead of allowing corporations to absorb huge sums of money without any discernible benefit.

Not that anybody has asked, but I believe the Obama plan to shift forces from Iraq to Afghanistan is just a misguided as the initial attacks by the Bush administration. The Soviet Union failed with twice as many men. What neither Bush or Obama has ever understood is that the appropriate response to a bunch of Islamic thugs attacking the World Trade Center would have been a quick-strike police enforcement of international law against the perpetrators - wherever they might be - not all-out wars against nations that did nothing to provoke us. A blindingly-fast and decisive roundup of  Al-Qaeda as the criminals they are in September of 2001 would have been true "Shock and Awe." The lesson we should have learned from Korea and Vietnam - and now Iraq and Afghanistan - is that wars waged against idealism are sure to be lost. It is impossible to "Win Hearts and Minds" with war.