Obama Adminstration Hypocrisy - Part 1

This post is the first in a theme that we will probably visit any number of times in the future, namely the hypocrisy that is common in the Obama administration. This is not to say that Obama is the only hypocritical politician. If I covered that topic extensively, hypocritical politicians, this blog would never cover anything else, i.e. "hypocritical politician" is probably redundant. And it is not to say that hypocrisy was not a hallmark of the Bush administration. However, Obama is currently the top politician in the country and Bush is no longer around so the current administration is on the clock, so to speak.

The reason for this approach was an article I read in The Week magazine that was in their April 9, 2010 issue. It reviewed how Obama had made a surprise trip to Afghanistan to visit the troops and to meet with the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai. During Obama's six hour visit with Karzai, the article reported that "Obama chided Karzai for failing to fight rampant corruption, government ineptitude, and drug trafficking." Talk about hypocritical, think about America today in light of these three areas that Obama criticized Karzai on:

1) Rampant Corruption:

• Charles Rangel and his numerous problems with breaking House of Representative rules on reporting assets and improperly using funds.
• Over 11,000 earmarks in the current Obama administration budget, the majority of which were blatant paybacks to organizations that contributed to various politicians' re-election campaigns. The infractions are far too numerous to list out in this post, see previous posts in this blog for the details.
• Illinois ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich who allegedly tried to sell Obama's vacant Illinois Senate seat to the highest bidder.
• The various ex-governors of Illinois who have served or are currently serving prison time for corruption.
• The many New Jersey government officials and politicians that were indicted last year in a major corruption probe.
• The many Republican politicians that were caught up in the corruption activities of Jack Abramoff.
• Ex-Congressman Traficant and other Congressional politicians that actually did jail time for infractions while in office.
• If you consider lying and adultery to be two forms of corruption, then let's not forget Senator John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, James MacGreevey, Bill Clinton, and a host of others.

2) Government Ineptitude

• Public schools that are generally a failure in the educating of America's youth.
• A failed War on Drugs.
• Skyrocketing government deficits and spending levels.
• Skyrocketing trade imbalances.
• Very high unemployment levels.
• Weak and ineffective oversight of the financial industry (e.g. Madoff and other pyramid schemes, subprime mortgage crisis).
• Weak and ineffective oversight of consumer products (e.g. lead-based painted toys from China, cars that do not brake)
• FEMA - ask the residents of New Orleans.
• Leaky borders and ineffective immigration control.
• No national energy program and strategy.
• Crumbling infrastructure.
• Obscenely high tax levels from all levels of government.
• Insanely complicated tax system.

3) Drug Trafficking

• In previous posts we have talked about the fact that the Mexican border with the U.S. is becoming the new wild west with drug gangs battling for control of the drug traffic coming into America, resulting in annual drug-related murders in the thousands. These murders recently included two U.S. citizens that worked at the U.S. consulate in Juarez, Mexico.
• In previous posts we have talked about the fact that a lot of the Mexican marijuana gangs have physically moved their marijuana production into the United States proper, using illicit marijuana farms deep in the forests of our national park lands, booby trapping their fields with explosives, and polluting the local environment with herbicides and pesticides.
• Beyond the Mexican drug angle, there continues to be a losing strategy in place in this country when it comes to drugs.

Thus, I can see why Karzai may have chafed a little under Obama's berating. America has all of the problems that the President tried to lay at the feet of Karzai. This is just another definition of hypocrisy. In response, Karzai recently suggested that he might just chuck the whole Afghan President gig and sign on with the Taliban. Now, that would certainly throw a wrench into the whole Obama Afghan strategy.

There is no doubt that Obama was correct in describing the problems in Afghanistan. However, until you can clean up your own house, you cannot criticize others without sounding condescending, pompous, and shrill. Unfortunately, fifteen months into this administration and shrill, condescension, and hypocrisy are about the only constants emanating out from it. Maybe the President, like those Presidents that came before him should worry a little less about how other governments go about their business and focus on making progress on the American issues listed above. Only then do you have a right, if even then, to publicly criticize others.

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