Bush & Company

Is capitulation by the president, expected and feared by many, only an appearance? Will he and Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, hopefully with the cooperation of Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, reach an acceptable agreement or will Reid and Obama be obliged to lead Republicans on then try to trump them? If need be, the president could sign a simple statement, to raise the debt ceiling, divorced from all other considerations, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (entitlements being the real issue) left intact, eliminating the artificial interdependence of issues comprising the current crisis. Brought about solely by the intransigeance of a handful of shameless politicians, short-sighted and self-serving, some subservient to the rest, they seek to make the blameless pay, House speaker Boehner deliberately stalling with a plan they all knew wouldn't pass in the Senate.

The president continues to insist on a bi-partisan solution, although it's clear there'll never be a truly satifactory compromise from the Tea Party-controlled House.

The Republican mission, dating back to the 1930s, to shrink the government and abolish all Democratic programs, as well as to unseat President Obama, is heading dangerously toward fruition.

One can only hope that Mr. Obama, if all else fails, is waiting until the last minute, thus averting Congressional obstruction, to exercise his executive right to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment, despite possible future litigation, and raise the debt ceiling independently, ending the conflict with all its variables and needless complexities.

The president could be outdone,
By those Republicans undone,
Unless he's had a master plan,
Perhaps since this to-do began.

Just out to keep his speakership,
Boehner's stand is nothing new,
While still firm on bi-partisanship,
Obama's apt to lose his due---

A bill, diluted by the few.
Those mindless rightists won't unbend;
Yet our Barack could make it end
By wielding his rightful power,

Though doing it at the eleventh hour.

There are those who hold that the disheveled, check-shirted shaving cream attacker, a spectator at Parliament's interrogation of Rupert Mudoch on July 19 in London, was a fraud, the assault designed as a distraction from the embarassment to the Murdoch contingent and a ploy to gain public sympathy. The thrower's accusation of "greedy," "greedy billionaire" or "naughty billionaire," quoted by varied accounts, however, makes the attack seem authentic. Would Murdoch's people deliberately call attention to the "inconvenient truth?"

Murdoch's wife Wendi, his son James and his bodyguard, all tried to help, though it was Wendi who, swiftly jumping to her feet, intercepted the attack, but after the mogul's face and jacket were flecked with foam. Early reports had called the offending substance pie, but later, shaving cream, carried into the proceedings on a paper plate.

The disruption, preceded by many such events in the past, originally as a slapstick gimmick, evolving into a form of protest against celebrities, royalty and in the case of President George W. Bush, with a pair of shoes, was caused by a standup comic/activist by the name of Jonathan May-Bowles or Jonnie Marbles. He has probably defeated his purpose by turning the disgraced tycoon into a victim and his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, into a heroine; though the incident, soon to fade into history, will be replaced by the seriousness of his offenses.

Blame for the cell-phone hacking and bribery scandal, toppling the 168-year-old tabloid News of the World and perhaps the entire Murdoch global media empire, he attributes to the people he trusted and the people they trusted "and it's for them to pay."

Ramifications of the scandal are multifold. In America, where his tainted affiliations with the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Fox News and others, are also high profile, he may pay more dearly than in Britain, where politicians are dependent on newspapers for their election, where no paid political advertising exists and where tabloids are extremely influential. It follows that Parliament may be guarded in their dealing with the magnate; regrettable, as a criminal conviction there would facilitate an end to the era of Murdoch media monopoly.

There must be many participants on all levels of the Murdoch operations and scams which might be just the tip of the iceberg. At the very least, one weak link among them could, out of conscience or faint heart, fill in more of the sordid details.

Was the tousled bloke who threw
Pie-shaped shaving cream at Rupe
Genuinely in a stew?
Was his fury really true?

Was the thrower there to dupe,
That episode of shaving cream
Rather, a distractive scheme?
Was the pie another lie

Or an honest manifestation
Of the outrage of a nation?

The president understands the current Republican mindset. He's well aware of the envy, spite and resentment held against him by his adversaries and of their puerile determination never to cooperate with him even when he agrees with them.

He knows House speaker Boehner is cornered by the relentless, bullying Tea Party leaders.

He knows about timing. He can foresee reactions and act or not act accordingly. He knows how to patiently build suspense, be maligned and then vindicated, gaining more abundant and zealous support, already evident in the polls. The polls also tell us that 80% of Americans want the "Big Three"---Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid---off the negotiating table. Mr. Obama, please take our Big Three off the table. Please.

Should all his indulgences and maneuvers fail, he can invoke section four of the Fourteenth Amendment and solve everything. He can't be more despised in some quarters than he already is. It may be the only way for a just solution.

I hope the president has made
A firm decision not to trade
One weighty crisis for another,
To yield too fairly to the other.

There is one way to have it all
So Humpty Dumpty doesn't fall.
I have to hope it's in his plan
To trump that fatuous, heartless clan.

Sarah might have deluded herself into thinking she could do it all.

Maybe she's just stringing us along and maybe she wants Michelle to run and win so she can be known as queenmaker as well as unofficial Ms. America.

Many people seem to think
Those two girls are on the brink
Of some sort of gross display,
Wrestling in the mud and such,

But I think Michelle's too much
Of a lady, it's a stretch
She'd be part of some set-to;
Sarah's something else again;

But that kind of row takes two.
How she must wish that it were
Way back in two thousand ten!
Just what was she going to do---

Be a star and president, too?
So it may seem it's no way
For that ingrate to repay
All that Sarah did for her!

Is the president testing the Right? Has he a trick or two up his presidential sleeve? He’s backed into a corner now, but can he push his opposition across the room with a few leading questions? Do you really want to put the majority at risk? Do you begrudge our vets, children, the elderly and disabled what they can’t provide for themselves? Do you really want to see your country go down the drain? Is it party and personal aggrandizement before patriotism?

Congress has entitlements for life. The affluent don’t need them.

Time is running out. How about the Fourteenth Amendment?

Entitlements are on the block;
It’s critical --- we’re on the clock;
Americans have had enough ---
So tired of this standoff stuff

And want to see the chief get tough
Or maybe he can call their bluff;
While being tough is not his style,
He sometimes is and with a smile

And if they’re reasonably asked,
Those S.O.B.s could be unmasked

Our leader has an impish streak;
It's very clear he likes to tweak
The opposition in their hope
He'll fail, while giving them more rope.

Barack according to The Right
Can hardly ever do things right;
It's just his way to wait and wait
Until it seems to be too late

And then come through with what to do
Though end results are not in sight.
Meawhile, our man stays very cool
And they're left looking like a fool.

What has to be conceded is
The last laugh usually is his.

Former governor and ambassador Jon Huntsman announced to a small turnout on June 21, 2011, his presidential candidacy and like conservative icon Ronald Reagan, in front of the Statue of Liberty at Liberty State Park, New Jersey.

Sarah hates to be outdone,
Not by Newt and not by Mitt,
Nor by Trump, but then he quit.

I thought I saw her back in June
In a little boat, I guess,
Waving wildly to the crowd,

She was sure she'd get some press,
Right behind new hopeful Jon
Announcing his upcoming run.

When all the brouhaha is done,
Curiously, she may have won,
Even if she didn't run

Or she may have gained much less
Than that Minnesota belle,
Erstwhile protegee Michelle.