As The Cookie Crumbles (WWH, 9/17/11): "Dear Mister President..."

Good morning, all Hippies and Freaks, at home and abroad and afloat...PEACE!

At the risk of appearing to unnecessarily flog an expired equine, this is a letter I'd send to the Obombster, if I thought it would matter:

Honored sir:

I take the liberty to speak to you, not as an equal, not as a postulant, not as a constituent but as an "elder." You're the same age as my little brother. Call it "Fraternal/avuncular council." I was born not far from where you lived in the near south-side of Chicago. Think of me as a "grey-beard from the hood," with some friendly advice.

I notice you are spending a big effort to drum up public interest in your so-called "jobs" program. The response has been lackluster, and perhaps you're wondering why? Lemme explain, if I may...

First, you must know, a LOT of people invested a LOT of HOPE in your promises of change--all that "Yes, We Can" folderoll. I wasn't among 'em. The last time I was disappointed in a public figure was when the tooth-fairy only left me a dime for a molar.

But for those who did, their sense of loss is still palpable. It has come to seem, I think, that every time they invested talent, money and energy in what they thought was your agenda, it's seemed to them that you sold 'em short.

For the obvious example, their kids are still dying in unnecessary, immoral, and unjust wars, many having succumbed to a "poverty draft." Yeah, they're volunteers. But you said you'd bring them home. Summer, 2011? Remember? They do.

Our/their health care still reeks of the effluent of corpoRat influence and favor. You once proposed what sounded to many, if not most, of them like a single payer plan. Then you announced you'd settle for much less, and got even less than that. It no longer seems we await "When" the promised features will ensue, but "IF", they can proceed in the teeth of concerted GOP efforts to thwart even that little progress.

And it sure seems that we're investing more in rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan than in our own infrastructure. Of course, you have full discretionary authority over DoD funds. Should we declare war on ourselves and lose?

You said we’d be working on green energy projects, but "we" aren’t. It's all still the old unholy trinity: Nukes, coal, and oil. You fired the only Green guy who could have given your efforts any cred. Are you waiting for the definitive proof?

You've apparently already agreed to sign a bill to put an oil pipeline across our country border to border. Over 100 MILLION gallons of crude and distillate petroleum has spilled from domestic pipelines since 1999. It doesn't take much of that stuff in the water or on the ground to really screw stuff up for MILES around. They had an experience like that along the Yellowstone River recently, and one in Michigan, too.

Some folks even recall--with some impatience, really--that you indicated we’d get some of our freedoms back with you in the WhioteHouse. Imagine their surprise when you not only didn't even throw in a "pro forma" hesitation before renewing the Patriot Act, TWICE...but then even strengthened it the last time, too. Coulda knocked them civil liberties folks down with a feather, when you backed away from Habeas corpus.

You did say people who committed war crimes should be brought to justice, but then effectively trivialized their offenses. And then you seem to have discovered ways even to surpass the Busheviks in blood-thirsty enterprise. How many innocents have the drones killed in the AfPak? Have we lost count? Under Bush, they DIDN'T count dead Iraqis--didn't wanna "body count mentality, or something--so if you're counting--even if we lost coutn--its progress I guess.

If I'm any judge, your supporters were willing to fight for what they THOUGHT they heard you saying. Hell, at one time you might have even turned my head. But when crunch time came, you ALWAYS “compromised.” I say “compromised” but that's being kind. They were give-aways, plain and simple.

And it appears you're still "compromising" our "entitlements": Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and the rest of the safety net. Nobody knows what's on the table or off it.

So why should someone invest energy in your already patently inadequate, and probably doomed jobs program, when we all can predict what yet another “compromise” will inevitably ensue? What will you fight for? A good deal for the Bosses, and bollocks for the rest of us.

Still, you're right in thinking most of those who supported you last time probably couldn’t vote for Perry, Romney, Paul, or any of the GOPuke Clown-Car Candidates.

But, come next November, they might just fire a "compromise" of their own back at ya, and either stay home or "waste" a ballot. Again, don't worry about them. There PLENTY of unemployed, underemployed, disabled, uninsured wannabe “Republicans” who are simply not bright enough to vote in their own best interest who’d cancel out that vote anyway.

I don't wanna beat a dead horse, but if the shoe fits, Dobbin, you mighta throwed it yourself.

PS: Waddaya call horses in adjoining stalls?
Neighhhhhh-bors...
Have a great Saturday, hippies...