Addressing TSA Waste….at the Ritz

The operative descriptor of the Obama Administration and how it interacts with the American people from Presidential aloofness and perceived ambivalence to TSA airport intrusive gropery is tone deafness. The newest example of our ruling elite’s tone deafness is the venue for the upcoming meeting of the “Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board’s Recovery Independent Advisory Panel.”

The Panel has quite a mandate.

“…make recommendations … prevent fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act funds.”

The Recovery funds referenced are stimulus fund monies. This group appears to have an important and beneficial purpose. After all, who could argue with uncovering fraud, waste or abuse in any government program?

The next meeting of the Panel will be held at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. If you are in the area, you might want to consider attending as a portion of the meeting will be open to the public.

It is a good thing that our government holds meetings that the public can attend and voice their opinions to “the man.” This is certainly one of the benefits of our democracy; we can “speak truth to power.”

Wait a minute. A panel meeting to root out abuse of government funds to be held at… The Ritz-Carlton? In Phoenix?

After all the official disapproval and anger (and legal action) directed at the state of Arizona for its efforts to secure its borders and implement immigration controls (all things that the federal government has failed to do though it is mandated to do them all), why choose an Arizona venue for an official federal event of this, or any, nature? Does this mean that all is forgiven? Don’t count on it.

By reputation The Ritz-Carlton is known as one of the highest quality and priciest hotels in the country. The fact that one of the action items for the upcoming Recovery fraud investigator meeting is to get input on “actions the Board can take to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse” should not cause excessive dismay and consternation. The model for this kind of indulgence, short-sightedness, and over-spending is set at the very highest levels. So, let’s not be too upset with the Panel members as they enjoy their meeting at The Ritz in Phoenix; they’re just following the model of excess set by the White House.

In his recent sojourn in India the President and his “party” stayed at the finest hotel in Mumbai. It should be noted that the President and his cortege booked the entire hotel. This is the very same hotel attacked by Islamic jihadists in 2008 as they tore a bloody path of horrific murder through that city killing hundreds of innocents including the Rabbi and his wife at the Mumbai Chabad Center.

Somehow the message of his hotel stay at the site of an horrific jihad attack was lost on the President as only several days later the President soft-pedaled the concept of jihad and stated that Islam was about “peace and justice and fairness and tolerance.”

There is no record at this time of Mr. Obama responding to a recent call by an Iraqi Bishop instructing all Christians to flee Iraq for their lives. Nor is there any comment from Mr. Obama on the ongoing brutal violence directed at Christians in that new Islamic country by adherents of the “peaceful and tolerant” ideology mentioned by the President during his recent travels.

As the cathedral was being readied for its first service since the attack, a senior Iraqi cleric in London, Archbishop Athanasios Dawood, called on Iraqi Christians on November 7th to flee the country because it was so dangerous.

“If we stay, they will kill us,” he told the BBC after addressing a congregation of Iraqi Orthodox Christians at a service in London.

“Which is better, to flee or to stay? To be killed or to be alive? But when I say ‘leave’, my heart is injured inside.” (Source: BBC)

When the Archbishop says “they will kill us,” he is referring to the adherents of the religion/ideology the President describes as being about “peace and justice and fairness and tolerance.” The doctrine of Islam is clear on this point; it is full of tolerance for adherents, but nobody else.

Yesterday an article appeared in Yahoo News on the subject of Christians in Iraq being terrorized by those who follow the ideology of “peace and justice and tolerance.” The title of the article is “Iraq’s Christians terrorized by wave of bombs.” It is understood by scholars of Islamic doctrine (both Muslim and Non-Muslim/Kafir) that the purpose of jihad is to terrorize the unbelievers so that Islam can expand and unbelief be eradicated. The very existence of unbelievers is considered an affront both to the prophet and to Allah – jihad is the method by which Islam expands and the affront of unbelief is removed.

As of this writing, there are 57,465 comments on the Yahoo News article. This is extraordinary, and an unprecedented number in my many years of internet use.

There is a serious disconnect happening in our country – a dangerous disconnect between the leaders and the citizenry. While the President praises Islam at home and abroad the American people see something entirely different.

Those who listen to Islamic leaders (MEMRI posts many inflammatory and hate-filled calls to jihad and war from Islamic religious and political leaders and similar rhetoric found in popular Arab/Islamic media), read the doctrine of Islam (Koran, Sira, and Hadith) and follow the words of the jihadists themselves, see that what the President and apologists for Islam say of Islam is not supported in fact (or in Islamic doctrine). Both in the barbaric Mumbai jihad attack of 2008 and recently in an interdicted terror attack in New York, the attackers clearly stated that they were killing people or planning to kill people (non-Muslims) because they were followers of Islam doing jihad because this was their obligation as Muslims.

The traitor/killer Hassan said the same thing prior to and during his mass murder spree at Fort Hood (he shouted, “Allahu Akbar” again and again as he fired his weapon at defenseless fellow American soldiers). We had ample warnings from Hassan himself about what he would likely do; nobody listened.

There must be a reason why there are 57,000+ comments on the Yahoo News article about the terrorizing of Christians in the Islamic state of Iraq.

Constitution of Iraq: Article 2:

First: Islam is the official religion of the State and it is a fundamental source of legislation:

A. No law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established.

The glowing and excusatory statements of our leadership relative to Islam, its character and its purposes are no longer believed by a growing number of the American people.

There is no denying that ours is a country with a strong Christian heritage. Our Christian communities here are extensive and they are finally becoming alarmed at the brutality of our “allies” to their fellow Christians. This dismay and anger in the American Christian community is long overdue.

On November 22nd a dedicated group of public servants will do their duty in Phoenix. They will serve the people of the United States in their capacity as investigators and advisors. They will certainly do their duty in finding ways to root out fraud and abuse of funds distributed in the recent so-called “Stimulus package”. They will do this selfless service at a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona called The Ritz-Carlton.

The term “ritzy” is derived from the name of the hotel at which the investigatory Panel will meet. This should not cause alarm, though.

A recent analysis by Charles Krauthammer suggested that the GOP successes in the mid-term elections was indicative of the correct functioning of our American democratic system – that it signaled “a return to the norm.”

It is reasonable that the ideological and political pendulum is swinging back to the middle after being forced hard to the left by the current resident of the White House and his followers. The signals in the culture reflect the results of the mid-term elections, but in a much more serious way than are suggested by the erudite Mr. Krauthammer.

The defeat of the Democrats in the House is a reflection of a growing rejection of the American Left in the culture due to the fact that the daily life experience of the electorate is so utterly at odds with the rhetoric and behavior of the leadership class currently in power. The massive response to the Yahoo News article on the terrorizing of Christians in Iraq is indicative of this shift.

The opulence and excess (and general disconnect) of the highest officials in the Obama administration in the midst of the most devestating American economic crisis since the Great Depression has not gone entirely unnoticed at home or abroad.

Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America.

The “brilliance” of the current President, prior to recent days, had often been remarked upon. This idea is held now by few though apparently most markedly by the President himself.

The pool report at the time said that “We are told Bloomberg and Obama talked in the clubhouse for about 15 mins about the economy. They then went to the driving range.”

…

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch says “Bloomberg [Mayor of New York City] said it was a pleasant day. In conversation he put a few ideas … He said it was like verbal ping pong.”

Bloomberg, according to Murdoch, “came back and said ‘I never met in my life such an arrogant man’.” (Source: ABCNews)

There are unpleasant examples in history in which national leadership is disconnected, disinterested, arrogant, and aloof. These things, in conjunction with cultural changes, economic crisis, joblessness, war, falling confidence, and rising doubt have caused catastrophic changes. The clearest example is the French Revolution.

There is likely a perfectly legitimate explanation for the use of a fancy and expensive hotel for federal investigatory business. It is ironic that the purpose of the meeting is to root out abuse of funds. Perhaps the irony will suddenly dawn upon the participants. It may be a short meeting, so get there early before cake is served.