Stop me if you've heard this joke!

One more for the con.

     Okay so a guy walks into a bar drunk off his ass and stumbles up to the Tender.  "Gimmee a drink!"  The Tender is leery of giving an obviously roaring drunk guy a drink, but pours him a beer anyways.
     "That'll be $2.50, Pal."  The Tender watches as the Drunk comically searches through ever pocket in his suit even though it is patently obvious the man has no money.  After five minutes, he picks up the beer.
     "No wait, I ain't got no money but if you promise to give me the drink, I'll show you the greatest magic trick ever!  He takes the drink from the Tender and puts it back on the bar and then covers it with his hat.  "I can drink that beer without ever picking that hat up."
     Now the Tender (who's name happens to be Thomas, in case you were wondering.) has heard this old joke a million times in the past.  He knows the Drunk will pretend to drink the beer then when the Tender pulls the hat away to check, he'll pick up the beer and drink it without ever touching the hat.
     The Drunk obviously sees what the Tender is thinking and shakes his head, almost falling over.  "Nah, Nah it ain't like that old saw.  Tell you what, to prove this is on the up and up you can keep your hand on the hat and watch it as close as you want to make sure I actually drink the beer."
     It is a slow night and the Tender is bored, so he agrees to the bet.  He carefully places his hand over the hat so he can actually feel the glass and leans in as close as he can to peer at it.  While he is concentrating so hard, he doesn't see the Drunk gleefully grab four or five bottles of booze off the bar and run out the door.  The Tender is left with a flat beer and a dirty hat.

I don't get it.

     Now I am sure you are all wondering what prompted the rather silly joke above?  Well, it's all about Misdirection, Expectations and Lies.  Washington over the past few weeks has been even more of a hotbed of M.E.L. than normal which is really saying something.  Besides some choice soundbites (Reboobican Senator suggesting that Sexual Hormones were a driving force behind the Sexual Assaults occurring in the Military and Dear Gods the Military types trying to do the Side Step Dance to explain why more hasn't been done to stop them making the Military sound like the Vatican.) there has been such a Shift Storm of He did this, they did that going on that people should be using poop umbrellas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHkT3RJJBCA

     (As an aside, just in case anyone was wondering what the Side Step Dance was and where it came from, here is the live production of it and it is still funny as hell.)

     So now it is been revealed that the NSA and other government forces have been secretly snapping up the phone records of millions of people and the Internet records of a huge number of foreign individuals.  This of course has been done under the extremely powerful Patriot Act along with a couple of other lesser known artifices.  Matter of fact these actions were so secret that the only reason we know about them is because someone somewhere leaked the information out.

     And of course the big uproar is over how the POTUS who ran (twice) on a platform of openness could do such a thing.  How a man who swore that he would stop the spying and scamming began under Bush could not only continue his actions, but actually increase the activity.  (Huh wait that sounds familiar.  Didn't we have this same blog over Drone Strikes?)  In short, people are asking, "How could the POTUS be such a...such a..such a POLITICIAN!"

     As anyone who reads my works know, I am not an Obama Basher.  I am very happily an equal opportunity insulter.  Give me ammo and I will happily run with it.  (Not while loaded of course, that could hurt.)  However, I find the shock and outrage that so many people seem to have more than a little amusing.  Rule #1:  How can you tell if a Politician is lying?  Answer:  His or Her lips are moving.  

     This idea that people seem to have that someone whose regime is granted incredible powers such as the Patriot Act will never actually use those powers is naive to say the least and down right stupid to say the most.  W started the Drone Strike Program and the Patriot Act and quite gleefully used them.  (Anyone who doesn't want to admit that Bush pulled any number of shady things under the PA can buy this bridge I got in Brooklyn.)  Obama promised to end the Drone Strike Program and do away with wire tappings, search and seizure etc allowed under the PA.  Course when he did this, his lips were moving. (Refer back to Rule #1)  So surprise surprise, a few years down the line, we learn he has increased the number of Drone Strikes and a little further down the line we discover he is riding the PA Pony at even higher speeds than Bush.

I voted Neighhhhhhhhhhh!

     I wonder if people on either side really believe that come the next POTUS election, that whoever (Whomever?  I always get those mixed up) gets into office will do away with the Drone Strikes, Abolish the Patriot Act and Save all the fairies by making it against the law to say "There's no such thing as Fairies?  Rule #2:  No Politician will ever vote to give themselves less power.  If they claim they will, refer back again to Rule #1. 
     Politics, at least in the more modern sense, is not an honest game.  I mean think about it.  People pay millions of dollars to get a job that pays a couple hundred grand.  Sure the bennies are great, but if you can afford to spend millions, I am pretty sure you can afford your own health insurance and retirement.  Why shell out so much money for a position that you might only hold for 4 years?  Simple, because that position gives you insane power and influence.  People happily give you money and presents and even future jobs that could earn you millions a year just on the chance they can get favors from you.  You have at your fingertips access to incredible power.  No one in their right mind (I use that term loosely when speaking of Washington, DC btw) will ever vote to diminish their powers and no one who has access to that power will ever be tempted to just not use it.
     So to make a long story short (Too late!), yes it seems that Obama might possibly, could be just a teensy weensy bit using all those nasty nasty evil mean hobbit...(No wait that's Lord of the Rings)...nasty powers that good old W brought into being.  Anyone who knows the very nature of Politicians should not be the least bit surprised by this.  Although as a final word, I do find the Outrage and Uproar being generated by certain other Politicians amusing since they voted for the PA in the first place.  Methinks that some people on both sides doth protest to much.

End of Rant