HAIL TO THE KING

As a young boy of 13, I had the opportunity to work and travel with a circus for a year. I was part of a magic act, and learned some of the craft of being an illusionist. In that experience, I was taught the cardinal rule of magic . . . “Watch the hand that’s not moving.”

In the past few months since the election of our president, I’ve seen a lot of activity. There was the hubbub about Rush Limbaugh, complaints regarding Obama’s Special Olympics comment, and the crisis about whether the president buys a Portuguese Water Dog or a mixed-breed labradoodle from the local DC shelter.

The way I look at it, that’s the hand that’s moving.

What concerns me is what we’re not being shown, except on Fox News or talk radio. The general public is being flooded with smiling family portraits in magazines such as Time or Newsweek, without being told about such actions as Obama’s urging congress to use reconciliation to pass his legislation without any input from the Republicans.

Why is this so? I suspect for the same reason the illusionist always flutters about with one hand, waiving handkerchiefs and producing fire, so as to divert attention from what’s really taking place in the other hand, which isn’t magic at all.

While we were being told that Mr. Limbaugh is the evil leader of the Republican hoards – something that actually would do well for the party – the president was formulating a plan to take over private commerce. Few people noticed that Tim Geitner, the Secretary of the Treasury, was asking for the same powers over private financial and insurance institutions that the Federal Reserve has over banks.

Within the Federal Reserve System, there is a Board of Governors, who server for a single 14 year term, thus lending continuity to their deliberations. Both Republican and Democrat presidents have had the responsibility to select the members of this board, the Senate at that time confirms them, and the appointments are to be a, "fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests and geographical divisions of the country."

The “Fed” is responsible to set our national monetary policy, and controls the interest rates by which banks may lend to one another. They also have the authority to step in and take control of a failing financial institution, under dire necessity, to preserve our monetary system.

What the president, through Sec. Geitner is asking, is that similar power be invested in the Department of the Treasury. In other words, President Obama would have the ability to direct his cabinet secretary to reach out and absorb financial institutions at will, using any calamity, such as the present market crash, as justification.

The Fed has 12 board members with a reasonably non-partisan temperament.

The Obama administration is decidedly socialistic, and there would be only one individual making the determination, the president.

This situation is more than likely doomed to fail, as it is incredibly overt in its attempt to capture such a huge element of political and financial power. So why the concern if it’s not likely to occur? It betrays a much deeper issue and flaws in the direction our ship of state seems to be steaming.

In the past few months, we have seen a weakening in immigration, the repeal of many of our welfare reforms, the threatened removal of the “conscience clause” from our national health care regulation, the submission of a nearly four trillion dollar budget, bailout money to foreign banks, and a blatant move to bar the opposing minority party from having any say in the situation whatsoever.

“Voila,” such is the, “hand that is not moving!”

For example, it seems that while we were hotly debating the deprivation and/or benefits of tossing money into the black pit of bailouts, nobody seemed to take notice that a good portion of that money was going into the campaign funds of various legislators. No wonder they were so quick to jump on the president’s push to plug the fiscal dyke with government dollars.

And even as that story breaks, note that the Republicans who accepted contributions are named individually, while the Democrats are only alluded to as a group. Thus the press continues to keep the moving hand in plain sight, while doing their best to conceal the truth.

That truth is that government is decidedly growing, corruption remains the banner of the day, and those at its highest peaks are hell-bent on ensuring this power remains reserved to themselves. As individual Americans become more and more dependent on government, they become less and less able to cope with their own individual needs. Unemployment is rising, welfare is blooming, and the bailouts have set the hook that is turning us into a nation of the needy in place of the once great world leader in innovation and economic growth.

The new mantra is one of finding a common level of outcome, and not one of encouraging our people to expand and grow individually. While the latter creates prosperity and security for those willing to strive for it, the former looks toward congress and the president to do it for them. No government has been able to produce a utopist’s paradise, and even our European brethren are finding that socialism just doesn’t work.

But somehow, we’re smarter than they are. We are just sure that the “change we can believe in”, is going to make all of our worries go away. And just because it hasn’t worked anywhere else on the globe, doesn’t mean we can’t make it work here in the U.S. Sadly, this nation of rugged individualists is giving up our freedoms, and we’re becoming the land of “Mother Samantha” in place of “Uncle Sam”!

And it’s not just a federal problem either. If you want to see what American socialism looks like, visit California. The state has made education nearly free, the environment nice and clean again, and all of their citizens need not worry about evil discrimination or public want.

They also are mired in a $42 Billion deficit, have surrendered nearly all control over illegal immigration, lead the nation in gang violence, and are now debating on whether their citizens will be allowed to drive black colored vehicles.

Just this last week they mandated that all car care providers are required to check tire pressures with every vehicle’s visit. Will they now start fining or jailing mechanics who don’t comply? Don’t their people know how to use a tire gauge? And why has something so miniscule been codified? The single most glaring answer is control! In California, at least, self-determination has become a sin against the state, and thus the collective has spoken regarding your civic behavior.

It’s more than an outrage; it’s a maniacal act of public tyranny! But as they say, “So goes California, so goes the nation!” It’s just a microcosm for the social and political structure the Obama administration desires for all of us.

From a federal level, Richard Nixon was excoriated for his price controls and other attempts to control the economy and strengthen the office of the president above that of Congress. Yet where are the cries of foul regarding President Obama’s move to empower the unions through “card check”, and his latest attempt at socializing medicine by submitting a single-payer health bill to Congress disguised as a “fiscal savings measure”.

Does no one understand what is really taking place her? Are we really so dependent that as a nation we are unable to see the landslide of liberty falling away with every wave of Obama’s pen?

The tentacles of the banking bailout are only part of the assault. From socializing medicine to empowering the EPA to tax our very breath, the face of America is fading from the picture painted in the Federalist Papers. We are actively allowing a king to rise; the very position rejected by George Washington as he stepped into the first presidency.

And it’s all being done without anybody watching. The hand that’s not moving is choking the daylights out of our nation, and is setting up a third-world monarchy for Barack Obama. As our first black president, he just might also become our first American king. Remember, when Gorbachev rose to power, did anyone really expect the wall to come down? Yet before his term was up, communism was declared dead. Now it seems as if there’s a faction looking to resurrect something like it here in the United States.

All signs are pointing in that direction and God help the business community, or anyone else making more than $200,000 a year. In the Obama nation, everybody’s equal . . . or at least equally poor. That is, except for the ruling class, since they now have such great responsibility to take care of us all.