Naturally, when one makes progressive steps, there may be some who see it as a betrayal of their goals and interests. – Louis Farrakhan
Yet there comes a time in the life of a patriot when abdication would amount to a betrayal if not outright treachery. – Olusegun Obasanjo
There are three signs of a hypocrite: when he speaks he speaks lies, when he makes a promise he breaks it, and when he is trusted he betrays his trust. –Muhammad
One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal though … betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope. –Steven Deitz
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is know and carries his banner openly. But the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague. – Cicero
Though those that are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe. –William Shakespeare
Any appeasement of tyranny is treason to this republic and to the democratic ideal. –William Allen White
While I ate my lunch today, I sat and wondered “When does betrayal become treason?” I know, none of you have any idea why such thoughts might start screaming through my head. But in all seriousness, I think this question is closer to the tips of more American tongues than at any time since 1860. I thought it might be instructive to start with a defintion.
be⋅tray
1. to deliver or expose to an enemy by treachery or disloyalty: Benedict Arnold betrayed his country.
2. to be unfaithful in guarding, maintaining, or fulfilling: to betray a trust.
3. to disappoint the hopes or expectations of; be disloyal to: to betray one’s friends.
4. to reveal or disclose in violation of confidence: to betray a secret.
5. to reveal unconsciously (something one would preferably conceal): Her nervousness betrays her insecurity.
6. to show or exhibit; reveal; disclose: an unfeeling remark that betrays his lack of concern.
7. to deceive, misguide, or corrupt: a young lawyer betrayed by political ambitions into irreparable folly.
8. to seduce and desert. Origin:
1200–50; ME bitraien, equiv. to bi- be- + traien < OF trair < L trādere to betray. See traitorRelated forms:
be⋅tray⋅al, nounbe⋅tray⋅er, nounSynonyms:
4. bare, expose, tell, divulge. 6. display, manifest, expose, uncover.Antonyms:
4, 6. hide, conceal.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
I submit to you that this administration and Congress have engaged in acts of betrayal against the American people. The evidence, in no particular order or rank of importance:
1. President Obama’s “Apologize for America Tour”.
No one asked him to do it. No true patriot could countenance the election of a President who felt compelled to stand on the dais in foreign cities, ensconsed in nations with endless trains of human rights abuses and decades of abuses and tyrannies against their own people who would have the audacity to want something more than what their rulers deigned to let them have.
Not content to discuss the shortcomings of America’s past with people all too eager to justify their hostility toward us, he doubled down with the twin deceptions of flattery and lies.
And except for that whole “convert or die” and the “Kill all the jews” thing, they have been great models of tolerant behavior. Nobody can strap on a bomb and wade into a crowd in a marketplace, or hijack a jetliner and slam it into a skyscraper like these paragons of ‘religious tolerance and racial equity’. And they way they can behead westerners that fall into their captivity? Truly epic style.
Of course, he was speaking from a position of weakness. The nation was not prepared for a fight with savage pirates half-way around the world at that time, so he took the only prudent course of action that he could at that time. He stalled for time. It worked, and when we were ready, we acted like men, and bloodied the noses of those particular bullies, which prevented any further trouble with those ‘lions of islam’ for quite some time.
2. The quiet agreement to resettle Palestinians in America itself.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, January 27, 2009
[FR Doc. E9-2488
Filed 2-3-09; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4710-10-P
The bailout of AIG theoretically posed the potential for stopping the payment of these bonuses, yet at least one Senator stated that he was asked by the Administration to retain the bonuses in the bill, which means that they were there to read by other members of Congress before passing it, and before the President signed it. When the public got wind of it, The President and some members of Congress, as well as some state Attorneys General decided that public OUTRAGE! trumped rule of law and eager to not have to answer for their roles of incompetence in the matter, they felt free to vilify people who had negotiated for compensation in a lawful manner and threaten to take away what they were lawfully entitled to as a matter of contract law, in derogation of the Constitution.
And standing by and saying nothing when ACORN and the SEIU were bussing people to protest outside of the homes of some who were to receive bonus money? Shameful.
4. Appointing a Tax Cheat As Treasury Secretary, And Continually Nominating Persons For Government Positions Who Have Trouble Making Timely And Accurate Tax Payments.
Do we really want someone who had trouble paying his taxes to become the Treasury Secretary? Afterall, the IRS falls under the Treasury Department. Is this the right tone to set for the American Taxpayer? Especially in a tax-happy administration?
It only gets better, though. He didn’t simply “make an error” during those years, because the calculation was not only done for him, he had to acknowledge that he was going to use the money to pay the taxes when it was given to him.
And he wasn’t the only one. There were others nominated by the Administration that have similar difficulties. If this isn’t a “big deal” for them, why is it such a big deal if you don’t pay your taxes? Never mind. Put your notions of “Rules for thee, but not for me” back on the shelf and get back to work, peasant. We have a lot money promised to ACORN and midnight basketball.
Oh, yes. I always bend way over when shaking with both hands. I’m sure that’s it, Gibby.
7. The Obama Czar Explosion.
President Barack Obama’s decision to place czars above Cabinet-level agencies presents dangers beyond confusion over who’s in charge and an organizational chart that looks like pasta carbonara. There’s also the potential for a constitutional crisis.
For that matter, Congress has not authorized any of the czars that President Barack Obama has created.Over the past thirty years presidents have each had one or two czars for various issues, and once the number went as high as five. But now, by some counts President Obama has created sixteen czars, and there may be more on the way.
Each of these has enormous government power, and answers only to the president.
The quiet accumulation of power by executive appointment, done by an Administration that has made some compelling noises about restoring “transparency” to government. Once again, it is more instructive to note what the President has done, not what he has said on the subject.
8. Firing Government Watchdogs Who Blow The Whistle On Freinds of The President Who Have Their Sticky Fingers In The Government Till.
It wasn’t enough to fire someone who caught a “Friend of Obama” diverting public money to personal purposes. The Adminstration decided to break the law in doing so, and smear a public servant’s good name at the same time.
9. Buying GM and Chrysler with Taxpayer Money, Then Giving Them To The Unions.
But President Obama and his allies don’t want that to happen. So they interfered on behalf of unions (the junior creditors) and publicly upbraided the senior creditors who were asserting their contractual rights and threatening to head to bankruptcy court.
President Obama defended his decision to take a majority stake in GM, saying it was unavoidable and temporary. “We are acting as reluctant shareholders,” he said in a televised address.
The government-orchestrated shrinkage will cost taxpayers $30 billion, on top of $20 billion in U.S. funds already put into the company. In exchange, the U.S. will own 60% of the new GM. In all, the rescue of the car industry could cost taxpayers close to $100 billion.
As part of the “Bailout Fever” that gripped Babylon on the Potomac, there came the conclusion that Chrysler and GM were “too big to fail.” As a result, hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars were pumped into the ailing companies, by a government that imposed conditions that could not possibly be met. Then, like the neighborhood loanshark, it made demands that secured creditors accept less than what they were entitled to under law, forcing the bankruptcies of the companies, which were then rushed into waiting restructuring plans, which favored unsecured or junior lienholders, like the United Autoworkers Union, over secured creditors, many of which were pension plans, that later faced the insult of vilification by the very same scheming kleptocrats who orchestrated these purchases with taxpayer dollars, on top of the injuries inflicted on them in bankruptcy. And the best part? Despite our (I mean the taxpayers’) significant investments, most of the money given to the these companies is now gone, and will not be repaid. That isn’t really change we can believe in.
10. “Bailout Fever” in Babylon on the Potomac/The Great Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac Swindle.
Yes, it started under Bush, which is yet another reason I wasn’t pleased with him, either. And yet, for all Obama seems to want to blame the economy on him, one might wonder about the wisdom of continuing and expanding the practice. There are several reasons why the practice is onerous. The first of which is that the government has a role to play as a regulator, yet when it starts to decide which companies it is going to bailout and which companies it will “let fail”, it is not longer a regulator, it is also a paarticipant in the marketplace, and once it wears both hats, it loses objectivity and throws the whole balance off-kilter. Throw in a few left-leaning, Chicago politics style ‘czars’, and you have just placed capitalism itself in danger. For an intellectually honest government that is held accountable by the fourth estate, this could be a serious problem. Since we have neither, the apparent course of action was to double down, and justify such extra-governmental activity by proclaiming capitalism “broken” and in need of serious governmental intervention and reconstruction. Unfortunately for us, with such genius at work in D.C., this may well become a self-fullfilling prophecy, leaving only one remaining question for the Obama Administration: How do they convince people that the Great Depression of 2010-2016 was the fault of Bush?
Of course, its hard to distinguish between corruption, and business as usual in DC after the Democrats in Congress let Fannie and Freddie become millstones around the necks of taxpayers on their watch, eventually crashing the economy, and having the stones to blame Republicans for it, by saying that the poor regulation was their fault. Of course, the warnings were there, being made by Republicans, and repeatedly glossed over by Democrats, who cheerfully covered their eyes and said “Elephant in the room? What elephant in the room? Fannie and Freddie are fine, and no, they are not backed by the US government. Quit talking crazy you silly Republicans!”
11. Stealing From Future Generations To Fund A ‘Stimulus’ Bill That Has Done Little to Stimulate the Economy, But Spends Plenty Of Borrowed Money On Things The Government Has No Business Spending Money On.
Under the guise of “We have to pass this bill now or the economy is gonna die and take us all with it!!!” , Congress passed the biggest crap sandwich in the history of the counrty, spending more in ONE BILL than the sum total of all PRIOR ADMINISTRATIONS. This is a bill jam packed with so many things the government has no business spending our money on, let alone money that will be borrowed, and paid back by us, our children, and our grandchildren at damn near usurious rates. This is an act of generational theft that wouldonly be undertaken by madmen and people Hell-bent on destroying the country.
And that ‘stimulation’ for the economy that is supposed to be helping the now Carterian unemployment levels that continue to rise with every single month?
Make no mistake, this will be a disaster for this country. Much of this money is not yet borrowed. That borrowing is accomplished by the sales of US Treasuries. Other countries aren’t buying, and won’t until the interest rates are made more attractive. The more treasuries that are sold, the more succeeding buyers want a higher rate of return. What that does to interest rates here is make them climb…to layers we have not ever seen in this country.
12. Silence From The Oval Office When Young Iranians Turn On A Corrupt Government.
There are two maxims for any POTUS who will have to deal with any situation in the Middle East:
1. Tread carefully. You need to be conscious of what you say and do; and
2. No matter what you do or say, the mad mullahocracies will find a way to blame you for anything that happens that you don’t like.
What this means is that even if you eschew plain speaking and acting in America’s interests alone, if you are at least a pragmatist, you whould understand that when you’re damned no matter what you do or do not do, you should act like an American and be damned for the correct conduct, which does far more to enhance your credibility and standing among the free peoples of the world. The Administration seems to have missed this memo when it saw fit to stay silent on this matter, until even Fwance had strong words of condemnation for the clerical leaders of Iran regarding their brutal crackdown on the youth of Iran which was attempting to throw off the shackles of a corrupt and repressive government. This apparently had the effect of prodding the President into this tepid statement on the subject:
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said – “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
You “mourn” them, sir? I’m sure they find that thought very comforting as they are hunted down in the street. “Bear witness”? I’m afraid that the world has borne witness to your complete and utter lack of courage. If we had simply “borne witness” to Soviet oppression, then the world’s bloodiest political belief would still hold sway over half the globe, sir. You were presented with a chance to be Presidential, and you voted present. Congratulations for souring another generation of Iranians on America and Americans, and causing people everywhere who desire freedom to know that as long as you occupy the Oval Office, they can expect no support from us. What happened to the man who said this a few months earlier in Cairo:
Let me be clear, I think you suffer from an epic misunderstanding of this country and its role in the world. Make no mistake, as you continue with an agenda to subvert the every fabric of this nation, and pay lipservice to concepts of freedom and democracy as long as no cost or action is expected of you, I will consider you to be unworthy of categorization as American.
13. Active Advocation For Return To Power Of A Would-Be Tyrant Who Violated His Country’s Constitution.
The President has his very own example of EPIC FAILURE FOREIGN POLICY that can be summed up in just one word: Honduras.
Let that sink in for a moment. An American President is advocating for the return to power of a man who violated his country’s constitution in an attempt to prolong his tenure in office. That country’s military obeys an order of that nation’s highest court and removes said official and puts him into exile. The military did not take over. The military did not put two behind the offender’s ear and dump him in a ditch. They followed a lawful order of the civillian government and removed a would be despot from power. In Latin America. This is progress. What is the President’s response? “It’s a coup.”
The usual suspects were outraged. Castro, Chavez, the petty dictators who might be threatened by a people actually enforcing the rule of law to the detriment of a dictator. I’ll leave it to you, the jury, to identitfy the President’s real motives. Keep in mind, we had to “bear witness” to the atrocities in Iran, but this was a “coup” worthy of forcefull opposition.
To be sure. Afterall, the soul-crushing “dark present” in Cuba and Venezuela are far preferable. Never mind that Constitution thing. I’m sure it means nothing, because Zelaya won the election, you know. Therefore the Constitution doesn’t apply to him.
What you’ll learn is that the Honduran Constitution may be amended in any way except three. No amendment can ever change (1) the country’s borders, (2) the rules that limit a president to a single four-year term and (3) the requirement that presidential administrations must “succeed one another” in a “republican form of government.”
But don’t let those pesky facts, or even prior positions of “bearing witness” get in the way.
14. The House Passes ‘Cap and Trade” Legislation, Which Will Be The Largest Single Tax Increase On American Families Ever Passed.
Forget the fact that the CBO’s forecast tax numbers are well below those compiled by the Heritage Foundation. Put aside the fact that 300+ pages of amendments were submitted at 3 AM the morning before the vote. Put aside the fact that no one who voted for it could have possibly read it, since there was not even a copy availble on the floor to House members to peruse during debate or the vote. Any of these is sufficiently outrageous enough to warrant a pitchfork and torch party for the House. The worst part is that it is in support of the biggest scientific hoax since Piltdown Man: Man-Made Global Warming.
Make no mistake, if passed, this bill will cripple American energy and manufacturing, raise taxes in a way that one one will be able to ignore, and of course, contains goodies for the typical pet projects and supported of the left.
15. The Rush To Impose Government Run Healthcare.
Undeterred by the poor quality of care and the rationing of life-saving drugs and treatments in other nation’s government run healthcare, this administration has made it a priority to impose government run health care upon us all. Key provisions include yet more taxes to be placed on small businesses.
And of course, Congress is incapable of resisting the temptation to slide pork into the bill.
The plan as imagined contains some sinister implications, as well. From the mouth of the President himself:
Healthcare. At a ginnormous cost. Brought to you by the same people who brought you such paragons of efficiency and economic frugality, such as the Post Office, AMTRAK, and Medicare. They will not be happy until government’s yoke is firmly around our necks.
So at what point does such a series of ongoing offenses and injuries, committed with impunity by elected officials become Treason? Being the purist that I am, I start with that dusty old document that the President dislikes and would “fix” at the earliest opportunity, The Constitution, which defines treason thusly:
While I freely admit that none of the institutions or individuals indicted have picked up arms against the nation, I submit that the net effect of their actions is nevertheless a declaration of war. When government, though its various branches, commits a series of actions that have the effect of destroying the country through taxes that will drive businesses away, thus driving up unemployment, and general misery, the result is no different than setting off bombs in the offices, factories, and storefronts of the country. When these actions would denigrate and destroy our finances and economy, leaving other nations to capitalize on the misfortune wrought on us by our own government, buttressed by overt statements of geopolitical moral equivalence, and remarks that denigrate this nation and its history, made in foreign capitols, to countries that would love to see an America descendant, how is it not giving aid and comfort to our enemies? When they actively pass spending bills that cannot be paid for except by borrowing, to fund initiatives and groups that they are not constitutionally permitted to give taxpayer money to, with bills that they could not have even read, how can such contempt for the Constitution, and the American People not be levying war against the country?
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I leave it to you to consider the question put to you. When does betrayal become treason? When does an irresponsible and non-responsive government cross the line from possessing a venomous contempt of its people to an outright intent to enslave them to ideals that are foreign to reason and history?
I think it boils down to world view. The conservative and progressive world view have grown so far apart that what one see as evil the other celebrates. I believe that Obama believes that what he is doing is right. He will lead us into a utopia.
Unfortunately his version of utopia is like star trek where everyone works for free and the government provides everything for you. That sounds good until one thinks about it. From something as mundane as I want a red car, but with government motors you only get green (heh) ones.
I need a truck to pull my boat, but the government says I can only have a smart car. By the way fish are endangered you can no longer fish so we will just take your boat.
Give me freedom! Freedom to live freedom to die freedom st succeed, freedom to fail.
Great post BiW. I will bookmark it for future head-buttings with my Obama-voting parental unit.
[…] just as my outlook grows even more dim I’m reminded of the fact, At least there’s some smart people left in the world…go read. […]
Let’s see:
1) “Blame America first, and the rest of the world will love you.” Sadly, the world doesn’t love you so much as see you for the weakling despot you are, Obama.
2) Elevate Palestinian so-called “refugees” to garner brownie points (no pun intended) in the Muslim world, both by getting rid of the Palestinians in the ME, and by making them martyrs.
3) Mao now is pissed off in his ring of hell because he did not think to patent his famous “luring snakes from their lair” technique.
4) Taxes are only for the producers, ergo, these appointees get a pass, since all they produce is CO2.
5) Alinsky is laughing with satanic glee to see his “rules” so applied.
6) Respect a Muslim king, but not a British queen…after all, he can give Obama what he wants, elevation in the eyes of his Muslim brothers.
7) If he can’t destroy the Constitution , he will render its powers impotent. And what better way than to appoint people who can only answer to him? Congress is now irrelevant, now on to SCOTUS…
8) What does it matter how he fired his IG?? HE WON!!!11ONE!!! /(sarc off) He doesn’t think rules apply to him now.
9) Contracts are for suckers, apparently. Besides, he had to repay all the monies the unions gave to his campaign somehow.
10) I still don’t understand how you can spend your way out of debt….
11) But it’s Ok when a lib spends money, because it goes to “the people”, if by “the people” you mean worthless gov’t programs…
12) Well, he can’t very well offend the Muslim leaders, now can he??? And encouraging the iranian in their quest for some measure of freedom would seriously hurt his street cred with the muslims, ya know.
13) The incident with Honduras is scaring the hell out of him. To have an example of the RULE OF LAW so close to home, when he is busy dismantling our own rule of law subvertively must be making him sweat bricks. He can pretend this was a coup all he wants, but we know better. As for his alliance with the leftist thugs in SA….what else do you expect?
14) This is all part of the GREAT PLAN: foreclosures start to ascend in numbers, and the government just steps in from the kindness of its black soul to “save” the homes….which they would now own down to the last doorknob.
15) Well, if they can’t force eugenics one way, they will find another…
Thanks for the great post. I have sent it to many friends and many more liberals….
Uh, that smiley in shades is supposed to be a #8 😀
Well done, epic post, BiW.
nicely done neighbor, I will for sure pass this one along to lots of people.
You sir are a god!! Had my better half read it, and she was shaking her head in a positive direction while reading the whole thing.
The inmates not only are running the asylum, they have changed it’s name to “Community Center”, so the head inmate will feel more at home.
Excellent! I am passing this along to some friends who need to read this. Thank you.
I was thinking of writing a post on July 20th – the 6 month anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration. It was going to go something like:
6 months ago:
o the US government had never owned stock in private corporations
o the US government had never mandated compensation packages for employees of private corporations
o the US government had never handed over a private corporation to a union
o etc.,
The wording sucks – it should be more punchy – but you the point. Anyway, I think you’d be better suited to do it. You’ve got most of the bullet points here already. If you make it brief and pointed, I’d bet it’d get some attention.
Yeah, that brevity thing? As you can see, I’m not so good with that, but I’ll make a run at it if you work up a chart to go with it…maybe corresponding with government expenditures, or the increasing interest offered on treasuries as the Obamunist march proceeds?
I’ll ponder it.