The Romans had stimulus programs too. Infrastructure projects to build and maintain temples, baths and other public venues became compulsory labor for a decimated middle class. In return for their labor and sacrifice of pay to fill the Emperor’s treasury they were put on the dole.

As more and more people were dependent on the government to survive they saw that their allotment of pork, oil and bread went from once per month to once per day. Rome had to keep their citizen-slaves fed and satisfied to get maximum effort out of them.

Untold wealth was spent on the dole as well as spectacle. Massive coliseums and arenas were constructed to maintain this façade of happiness. The happier the citizen-slaves are the better the chances of a long life for the Emperor.

OK, enough of the history lesson. We all know what happened. The Romans over-extended themselves. They simply could not afford to maintain their kingdom because they mismanaged their treasury. Abuse of power and paranoia did them in.

We see that today in the United States. A Congress drunk on power playing a dangerous game of balancing their need to hold onto power with a realization that those who they do not pacify will take power away from them. Trade unions are pacified as are the ignorant and crooked souls who are easily bought with a handout and empty words. At this point in time, that is sufficient to keep the existing Congress in power.

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Caesar’s minions scurry throughout the White House, planning more consolidation of power through the abuse of tax dollars and the destruction of those who oppose Him. Useful idiots who control the mainstream media allow this to continue unchecked because of His charisma and their own lust for power.

One important distinction between the Roman Empire and the United States is that Rome gained most of her wealth and influence by crushing other nations and enslaving the people her armies conquered. The United States has simply borrowed and borrowed and borrowed from other nations.

When Rome couldn’t pay her army, the Goths sacked the place. When the United States is unable to pay off her ever-increasing debt, the Chinese will simply foreclose.

Republicans did not need to remind voters of that in 2008. President Obama’s Democrat opponents draped that stone around his neck for nearly a year to no avail. The American public did not care. The media told them it was not an issue. Obama was not only a superior human, he very well may be the messiah. Unfortunately, what we got now is someone who is barely suited to be mayor of a medium sized city.

Mayor Obama’s early missteps on the stimulus package are well-known. The Left is continuing a spending spree they started when they took over all of Congress in 2006. The Right is assuming a role they seem to be most comfortable in – a whining minority who talks a good game but eventually plays along. And the media is pleased to see that the lack of any partisanship in Washington means increases in viewers, listeners and those few who still pick up a newspaper.

My number one concern with Mayor Obama is in the actions of other countries holding views not jaded by American partisan politics. They see what is happening in America not as a traditional transition of power but as an opportunity to exploit a new American leader who is unable to step away from campaigning to lead.

This past weekend, Joe Biden, the Assistant Mayor for International Affairs told the Munich security conference that we would negotiate with Iran and that we were going to shelve the missile shield program which was going to add to the defense of allies in central and eastern Europe.

And in typical Russian fashion, Russia followed up by announcing the immediate deployment of nuclear-capable weapons to the border of NATO member nations. Biden needs a visit from the ghost of Ronald Reagan in the worst way.

What happened in Georgia last year will pale in comparison compared to what is going to happen to the Ukrainians in the next couple of years when Russia realizes that both Obama and NATO do not have the stomach for thwarting Russian military aggression.

The Europeans, who are gleeful with Obama’s crusade to bring European style Socialism to America, are going to miss the “war monger” Bush; who they detested. At the end of the day Putin and Medvedev do not really care who they irritate in Europe. They only care about the American President. Fortunately for them, the American President is better suited to being the Mayor of Gary, Indiana then in being the leader of the free world.

There are a number of excuses being given as to why this change was made. The dominant one that the mainstream media is running with is that Tom Brokaw and others at the mother ship have grown incredulous at MSNBC’s blatant favoritism for Barack Obama – first during the primaries against Hillary Clinton and now against McCain/Palin. As much as Brokaw and others may agree with them, they saw the entire news division of NBC being torn down by this rampant partisanship.

There are two reports out there on what led to this change. First, at the GOP convention, Sarah Palin’s comments on the media led to delegates chanting, “NBC, NBC,” when she spoke of media attacks. 40,000,000 people heard that; not good for your reputation. NBC is also helping Olbermann save face by allowing him to claim that he wanted his role at the network more clearly defined. This, obviously, is horse**.

Olbermann is a trained monkey. If Bill O’Reilly was liberal and had garnered high ratings on MSNBC, Olbermann and Sean Hannity would be best friends on Fox. He is a whore with no moral compass who will sell out to the highest bidder. NBC actually did the best thing for Olbermann’s fragile ego.

Once the dust settles on this, people may take the time to think about why, at this time, NBC decided to take this course of action. I have two theories – each of which includes part speculation and part what I believe is really what is going on. Sarah Palin and General Electric are the driving forces behind this decision.

The phenomenon that is Sarah Palin continues to tear through the country. McCain, who had been lucky to get a few hundred people at his town hall meetings, has crowds in the thousands when Sarah is also on the agenda. Every time a left wing asshole Photoshop’s her or promotes an unsubstantiated rumor about her, her numbers go up and so do donations to the McCain campaign.

NBC does not give a rat’s ass about contributions to McCain/Palin. What they do care about is being in the good graces with whoever occupies the White House for the next eight years. They see Palin going to ABC first and know there is no way she will do the Today show or Meet the Press in the current climate. They see Oprah’s minions leaving her in droves because Oprah has shown herself to be more partisan than pro-women.

For NBC it has come down to them being viewed as a fringe media outlet and their top talent being furious with two inmates being allowed to run the asylum. Tim Russert would never had allowed it to get this far.

The second driving force is the true mother ship, General Electric. CEO Jeffrey Immelt admits General Electric is doing business with Iran even after stating back in 2005 that they had stopped doing business with those terrorists. Immelt went into this election cycle understanding that an Obama win would mean, business as usual. Obama has stated that he would sit down with Iranian leaders unconditionally. Certainly if GE could continue to do business with Iran under Bush, an Obama administration would mean no problems at all.

However, a McCain/Palin administration would mean the end of this arrangement and even worse, would put all of GE’s dealings with Iran under the microscope. This would not sit well with shareholders and worse, the viewers of NBC/MSNBC who already view the network as leftist.

Immelt is smart – he can see that it is looking more and more like John McCain is going to be the next President of the United States. He can’t abandon Obama completely but yanking Olberman and Matthews makes it look as if he finally recognizes the concerns both in and out of the media and is addressing those issues.

Unfortunately for Immelt, until Olberman is gone from the network, NBC/MSNBC will be stuck with the reputation of being in the tank for Obama – a view shared by left and right alike.

Had John McCain not chosen Sarah Palin, this would be a non-issue. The differences between Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge or even Joe Lieberman vs. Joe Biden are slight in the undecided voter’s mindset. Undecided voters would mostly tune out two white guys going at it in the VP debate as they have for years. The best example was Dan Quayle vs. Lloyd Bentsen. Quayle was wrongfully viewed as a dullard and Bentsen was seen as on the wrong side of senility. Voters tuned them out and focused more on Michael Dukakis’ reaction to what he would do if his wife was raped.

This year is different. Palin’s convention speech drew more viewers than Obama. Palin’s appearance at the October 2nd vice-presidential debate, in St. Louis will draw more viewers than all but possibly the first McCain-Obama match up. It could very easily be the most watched debate of the last 25 years. This is the problem for Obama. McCain picks up votes every time Sarah Palin is on TV. Biden is not such an asset of Obama.

2008 has shown that the dynamics of the election cycle have changed. It seems like forever that we have been told, “At the end of the day, people vote for the top of the ticket.” This should come down to McCain vs. Obama. Again, this year is different. Obama’s staggering number of black voters was not garnered by his policies being that supportive of black issues. That number was largely attained because he is black.

The media would like us to believe such a phenomenon will not occur with Sarah Palin. Women are not going to move to her side in the 90% range because she is a woman. The media would be correct. Where they miss the point is that McCain does not need 90% of the female vote – he needs a little north of 50% (Bush got 48% of the female vote in 2004).

Plain’s appeal as a woman and hockey mom, to other women will give the ticket anywhere from 55-60% of the female vote. Couple that with the number of blue collar men that are drawn to McCain’s camp now and the voice given to the religious right, who many had feared would stay at home this year, and McCain is looking at a 53% majority in November.

How does Obama turn it around? He has to put someone on the ticket that can split the vote he has lost since Palin. While the obvious choice is Hillary; that will never happen. Obama would rather try again at a later date then have to deal with the Clintons. His ego will not allow what would be seen as a co-presidency with Hillary.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is his answer to his Palin dilemma. His campaign knows it and it is being discussed in Democrat circles. They know they made a crucial mistake with Biden. They know that the next two months will see every Palin criticism responded to with an attack on Biden – his ethical issues, his plagiarism, his corrupt family issues and the fact that he has been in Washington for over 30 years and has done nothing but run for President or reelection in what has to be the cushiest Senate seat in the country – Senior Senator from that rest top on I-95, Delaware.

Sebelius would bring the ticket many opportunities. She comes from a well-known and respected Ohio family and while the right would disagree, she could go toe-to-toe with Palin on issues important to women, independents and those remaining Hillary supporters that have not moved to Obama’s camp. Obama is going to lose Ohio without her or someone like her. If Obama loses Ohio, he loses the election.

Think of past elections and how the public discovers after-the-fact how elections were pretty much decided shortly after the convention. An argument can be made that the debates don’t matter that much. Short a complete breakdown (read: Dukakis) the post-convention numbers will hold.

Also, think of how many elections we have seen where polling numbers in August and September had no reflection on the final results. Obama is down – don’t be fooled by the tracking polls of those organizations that skew their polls by including a percentage of Democrat voters to make sure the numbers stay within the range they want. The election is an 18-month production for the media and with two months to go, they are not ready to write off either candidate.

Bottom-line – Obama/Biden is doomed. Obama/Sebelius has a decent shot to win. But only if Barack puts his pride aside, admits his mistake and replaces Biden. Sarah Palin is going to embarrass Biden in the debates. If Obama fails to rectify this mistake, this election will go down as the most mismanaged in history.

A man who two months ago was being compared to everyone from MLK to JFK to Jesus Christ will be compared more to Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale. He and his people will blame white America and Joe Biden but in all actuality, they will have only themselves to blame.

I have been enlightened and thank you, Barack Obama. Your candidacy has inspired me to delve into the world of what a community organizer really is. Another shout out goes to the Daily Kos diarists who point out that Jesus was a community organizer. If Barack Obama and Jesus Christ were both community organizers it has to be an honorable profession. No longer will I have such a narrow view on how important community organizers are. Especially in a shithole like inner-city Chicago.

So what did Organizer Obama do during his time in Chicago trying to make life just a bit better for his fellow man?

REDUCED CRIME – Obama should be proud of the work he did in helping to reduce crime. Chicago has only had double the number of murders as there were American military deaths in Iraq this summer. Without Obama laying the ground work just a few years ago there could have easily been four times the homicides as there were soldiers killed in Iraq. Most of this violence was drug-related and committed by inner city men who turned to a life of drugs and crime to have some sense of escape from their community. Maybe at one time they saw Obama and thought that they too could make something of themselves if only they could have had a private education in Hawaii and Harvard.

PROMOTED RESPECT FOR WOMEN – I’m sure it is a problem with Google but I just know that part of organizing and promoting community for Obama included treating everyone with respect and in particular our mothers, sisters and daughters. I am almost certain that he stood up to those in the rap community that promote the good life as being attainable by following the music and other cultural references that promote women as objects and punching bags – a mix of criminal acts towards women and overt sexism that turns daughters and mothers into ho’s. Just ask his good friend and rap star, Ludacris. I just wish Google would return some references.

WEEDED OUT CORRUPTION – Chicago is well known for its corrupt politics. Change agent Obama came to town a wide-eyed young man bent on changing the system. Early on, his friend and bagman. Tony Rezko showed him that not all politics in Chicago are corrupt and that organizers like Obama were needed to help the city grow out of the endless cycle of poverty and violence. Rezko was so impressed with Obama’s organizing skills that he worked out a deal to buy a lot next to the house that Obama bought for $600,000 and then sold it to Obama for just over $100,000. Obama’s good fortune must have been passed on to his friend and fellow sexist, Jerimiah Wright who managed to take a meager inner city church and exploit parishioners despair into a million dollar home for himself and several thousands of dollars in donations to Obama.

I just ran that list by a friend and was told that I still don’t get it. I was told that a community organizer does things like help people in the community fight the electric company when they run up their bill and have service turned off for non-payment. Or they pay people off when it is time to releect whatever Democrat is running for office at the moment. In Chicago that meant taking orders from Boss Daley.

But surely my friend is wrong. How could someone who only did that for a couple years, run for state office and not vote yay or nay over 130 times begin a campaign for President immediately after being elected to the U.S. Senate? Surely, no one is that arrogant.

I’m just scratching the surface here but it is clear now that a community organizer, particularly one in Chicago where there seems to be plenty of money to go around to the right people, is a tough profession and one that deserves close scrutiny. If nothing else, it shows that Obama’s ability to multitask between misogyny and involving himself in sweetheart deals is pretty impressive.