By: Linda Case Gibbons
It’s not always about what it’s about.
When it all started, it was about cows, but it really wasn’t about cows at all.It was about drones. A Predator drone that was used by local cops in Lakota, North Dakota to track and arrest a family of anti-government separatists after "stealing six cows” from their neighbor.
That was a year ago. Now we have recently learned that Predator B drones have been customized to identify civilians carrying guns and cell phones. And we are told by the attorney general that our government can kill Americans with drone strikes on American soil – hypothetically.
When the second story started, it was about children, but it really wasn’t about children at all. It was about FLOTUS’ love for the media and her love for herself in the media.
The amply-endowed First Lady for some reason has appointed herself as our obesity guru whose job it is to get your children healthy, just as the slender Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided you need him to limit trans fats and soda pop for you.
Enter: "The Nanny State,” where folks in a position of power declare themselves experts who only want the best for you. That’s the only reason they do what they do, friends! They care!
Unfortunately today there are more than enough of these "caring experts” in positions of power around who don’t know what they are doing.
Now I’m solidly with Teddy Roosevelt for seizing opportunities when they come your way. You might find things you thought you couldn’t do were things you really could do.
But, sadly, sometimes you discover that you’re not good at some of those things at all. And unfortunately, that seems to be true in a lot of the people in politics today, irrespective of party.
Take for instance the January Opinion Piece New York Times’ David Rothkopf wrote. In it he surmised that the president is a "lousy manager,” who is "more interested in delivering his message than in listening to others.”
That resonates.
And last week Saturday Night Live nailed the nation’s disgust with Obama’s Sequester fear-mongering with an Obama/Sequester parody.
"Most Americans don’t know what this sequester really means,” the Obama-look-alike said. "I can explain it in financial terms or human terms, but since I really have no idea how money works or budgets work, I’ll go with human terms instead.”
Now we have proof positive that Michelle Obama really has no idea on how children work. If she did, kids wouldn’t have been "dropping like flies” during the exercise phase of her February 28 "Let’s Move! Active Schools campaign in Chicago’s McCormick Place -- weak from hunger and a too-long day of waiting on lines.
The day of the event, the First Lady jogged and worked out with a cast of all-star athletes, oblivious to the fact that the school kids she had invited to the event hadn’t eaten all day.
Oh, that’s right. That was her directive: that all of the kids were not to bring any food or drink to the event.
One of the teachers in attendance with her class, Lisa Putnam, was so frustrated by the whole experience that she spoke out.
"My students continually came up to me to tell me that they were hungry…there was nothing we could do but wait. We were at the mercy of this poorly run event.”
After Ms. Putnam’s fifth graders put in a full, grown-up work day at the affair, it was clear that they and the some 6,000 children were just window dressing for the First Lady.
Instead of fun, it was a grueling day, structured so that the children and their needs were never considered.
Now if the First Lady or her staff had bothered to go online, they would have found a primer for teachers that contained tips for making school children comfortable during the school day (Responsiveclassroom.org).
It was useful advice, but was actually information that any parent or sensible person would have known to do instinctively. That’s what makes it surprising that no one on Mrs. Obama’s staff, nor the First Mother herself knew how to take care of these school children.
Fifth graders, the primer says, are little kids. They need between 1800 to 2400 calories per day and they need frequent snack breaks, why? Because they’re little kids.
"Fifth graders are growing. Some students may come to school hungry, not having had enough (or any) breakfast. Most students will need to eat a couple of times during the school day, in addition to their lunch period, to keep their energy high for learning. Growing and learning take a lot of energy and we need to make sure students stay fueled up.”
Simplistic? Advice any "expert” would already know? I guess not, because this is what the kiddies’ day turned out to be.
"Imagine they have to wait on a bus and stand in straight lines for three hours,” Ms. Putnam said. "Then imagine after one hour of ‘fun’ (i.e., exercises led by Mrs. Obama), they have to sit around and wait for three more hours for the bus to pick them up. Oh, did I mention that the children were not allowed to have a morsel of food the entire time?”
A lot of time was spent sitting on busses, waiting for busses, and waiting on line while "organizers” placed children around the stage behind the First Lady and guest athletes. And those featured athletes with "inspirational words” seemingly fell flat.
"It seemed like one giant Nike advertisement,” Lisa Putnam said.
For "take home prizes” the kids were given XL men’s T-shirts, and when Michelle Obama finally came out on stage, she didn’t face the children, said Putnam. "She was facing the media.”
But, hey, It’s not fair to focus on the president and his wife. After all, a lot of people are good at some things and not others.
Take Attorney General Eric Holder, for instance. When testifying this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and asked a direct question by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) about the constitutionality of drone strikes on Americans, the attorney general stuttered and stumbled. He waffled.
Later, however, when pressured by Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) 12-hour-52 minute filibuster, Holder was forced to respond in answer to the senator’s six-week long query.
"Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on U.S. soil? The answer to that is no.”
Rand Paul did himself and us proud.
It looked like he was talking about drones when standing on the Senate floor focusing on this erosion to American rights. He was.
It looked like he was blocking John Brennan’s nomination as head of the CIA. He was.
But the most important thing he was doing was protecting the rule of law and the 5th and 6th Amendments of the Bill of Rights, something the president and Eric Holder did not do.
"Enough is enough, Mr. President,” Sen. Paul said. "Come clean, come forward and say you will not kill Americans on American soil.
"The drone strike program is under the Department of Defense,” the senator told FOX News’ Greta van Susteren, "so when the CIA says they’re not going to kill you in America, they’re not saying the Defense Department won’t. So Eric Holder sent a response and his response says, ‘Haven’t killed anyone yet. I don’t intend to kill anyone, but I might.'”
"In Eric Holder’s response…they maintain they’re not going to do this, just trust them. It’s not really about them, though. It is about the law…I will not sit quietly and let him shred the Constitution.”
But just as Americans were energized for the first time in a long time by Rand Paul and his belief in principles for which he would fight, the opposite is true. When Americans see sheer political posturing, they know it, heaven knows they’ve seen it often enough.
Americans are used to seeing Attorney General Holder struggle with straightforward questions. And the same holds true for the president and everyone in his administration.
And we are also used to Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) lackluster performances as a senator. When Americans hear McCain attack Sen. Paul about his filibuster, stating that Sen. Paul "should have known better,” Americans recognize that McCain is not so good at his job and hasn’t been for quite a while.
And, finally, when Americans see a First Lady who claims she is concerned about children, yet abandons the precepts upon which her and the president’s favored "Head Start Program” rests -- feeding hungry kids -- we Americans see that she, like McCain, Holder and her husband, is not so good at this job.
The good news is we finally have someone in Congress actually doing his job and is not afraid to tell it like it is, despite the consequences. Haven’t seen that in a long time.
Sen. Paul didn’t need a lobby of supporters to do it, he didn’t have to campaign to raise money to do it, and most remarkably, he didn’t need a TelePrompter. He just needed to stand on his own two feet.
And he did.
Hold the line, America.