How Come the Sequester Never Stops a Presidential Boondoggle?

Congress authorizes spending. Why does the president seem to have unlimited access to the taxpayers' pockets? A hundred thousand a year for the family dog handler? Why should the taxpayers pay ANYTHING for the first family's pet? Something is certainly rotten in the state of Denmark on the Potomac!

White House cancels Obama's African safari after plans are revealed to include a military SNIPER team 'to take out lions and cheetahs if they threaten first couple'

Obama family 'costs taxpayers $1.4BILLION per year' (that's 20 times more expensive than British Royal Family)

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book

Wrong Strategy at the Town Halls -- In Other Words, They Want You to Get Angry!

The Town Hall Meetings show a population angry about what the government is trying to ram down taxpayers' throats. But the strategy of angry shouting is a loser. I always advise people: "When you get mad, smile and lower your voice."

The Alinskyites love people to get angry. It's part of the "freeze" 'em strategy. ("They're an angry lynch mob who need to be controlled by reasonable government bureaucrats like us.") Wes Pruden talked about that in his editorial, Recycling the Contempt, a few days ago. "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

The conservative American taxpayer is the target and liberals have us in their sights. Getting angry and allowing the situation to escalate to violence serves their purposes. Alinskyites use the Delphi technique to manipulate a perceived "consensus" for their agenda when none really exists. Read about the Delphi Technique in this article by Lynn Stuter. I'll give a brief overview of the contents with a few suggestions of my own mixed in. (Thanks to Catherine of Siena at Threshing Grain for the reminder.)

1) There's a preset outcome; the "dialogue" is just for show. The meeting is geared to give participants a sense of ownership of the result and the feeling that they were heard, but the organizers manipulate it from start to finish to get what they want. It is essential to the method that the facilitator be liked. (This obviously isn't working with the town hall meetings since many people distrust and dislike their members of Congress. However, Barack Obama, the figurehead, is still relatively popular; people want to like him.)

2) The meeting facilitator is trained to identify factions in the group and use a divide and conquer strategy. Tension and conflict are desired and used to introduce the "reasonable" compromise. The Delphi managers target members in the group who disagree, make them angry or appear ridiculous, etc. Once the group is polarized the Delphi managers become the consensus builders recommending their ideas as the compromise position.

3) Often the group is divided for discussion with Delphi members "reporting" what each group says, but conveniently leaving out or diluting opinions that differ with their goal.

"This technique is a very unethical method of achieving consensus on a controversial topic in group settings. It requires well­trained professionals who deliberately escalate tension among group members, pitting one faction against the other, so as to make one viewpoint appear ridiculous so the other becomes 'sensible' whether such is warranted or not."

So how do you fight the Delphi Technique? You can disrupt it in a number of ways.

1) Never get mad! Smile, be charming. Don't play into their tactic of increasing tension. Bring a group who recognizes the Delphi and disperse them through the room. Meet ahead of time to plan your strategy. For example, develop questions you want answered with the goal of forcing the facilitator to respond.

2) Stay focused. Have your questions written down and be persistent in sweetly asking for an answer. Often they will rephrase or distort questions to make them negative or hostile. Correct them sweetly. Often they will try to avoid answering the question altogether by going off on a long tangent. Listen politely. When they finish say, "You didn't answer my question" and repeat it. Allies can also say, "You didn't answer her question." Be polite and persistent.

3) If you have an organized group, never congregate in the room. Delphi managers are trained to spot organized dissent and will "freeze" you out. Rather, go to them and listen to what they are saying as they "work" the room and attempt to disrupt their activities by polite questioning. Talk to other participants making observations about how the facilitator is "unresponsive" and won't address concerns. Ask whether people feel manipulated in the process. Don't accuse; put it in the form of a question.

Lynn Stuter closes her article with this question:

So why have the meetings at all if the outcome is already established? Because it is imperative to the continued well­being of the agenda that the people be facilitated into ownership of the preset outcome. If people believe the idea is theirs, they support it: If the people believe the idea is being foisted on them, they will resist. Likewise, it is imperative to the continued well­being of the agenda that the people perceive that their input counts. This scenario is being used very effectively to move meetings to a preset conclusion, effectively changing our form of government from a representative form of government in which individuals are elected to represent the people. to a 'participatory democracy' in which citizens, selected at large, are facilitated into ownership of preset outcomes, perceiving that their input resulted therein, when the reality is that the outcome was already established by people not apparent to the citizen participants.

The Delphi Technique is being used, not only at town hall meetings, but in the larger "meeting" in the press. Pelosi, Reid, the liberal talking heads, etc. are all "freezing" and "polarizing" the opposition. Note that the concerns of Americans are dismissed as misrepresentations of the plan. The very real concerns are treated as ridiculous and "fishy" and questions are never answered.

Consider just two examples - abortion and protecting the conscience rights of medical personnel. The organizers will NOT ensure that taxpayers won't be forced to fund abortion. In fact, Planned Parenthood and NARAL demand it since it's in many private insurance plans now. There is no doubt that abortion will be mandated by government insurance. By the same token, health care professionals will be forced to participate in killing children. Obama has made it clear that abortion is a centerpiece of his administration. He will not be deterred.

The American people need to fight and fight smart. "Be as wise as serpents, and as gentle as doves," says the Lord. It's a winning strategy even if we end up on the cross.

Of Elites and Wage Slaves

What do you think about Barack Obama preaching to the American people about tightening their belts and sacrificing while he and Michelle fly to New York for dinner and a show and take the family to Paris for a weekend sightseeing trip? I've lived in the Washington, D.C. area my entire married life and I can testify to the abundance of professional theatre right here in town. The Kennedy Center, the Folger, the Arena Stage, the Warner, the Shakespeare Theatre, and a whole panoply of semi-professional theatre is available. For heaven's sake, the president has his own box at the Kennedy Center! As for the Paris jaunt, what can one say? Sacrifice is for other people, not the leftist elite. The people can't afford Paris? let them visit London. But Barack is an egalitarian monarch. He didn't wear a tie on the outing to New York.

The journalistic pool, of course, accompanied the first couple on the little NY trip. Here's one report. It gives you an idea of the magnitude of such productions. How many helicopters, planes, limos, Secret Service agents, military support personnel, and police officers from the NYPD, etc. were involved in the outing? How much did it cost the taxpayers who are already in hock for trillions in increasing debt since Obama took over? And what did the Paris trip cost? Who knows? Will we get an itemized bill?

Part of the anger of people over the Obamas' extravagance isn't so much the trip; presidents have always traveled on the taxpayer's dollar. It's the sanctimonious hypocrisy. When GM CEOs came to Washington in their private (already paid for) jets, they were excoriated for their extravagance because of the financial crisis. Obama and other liberals, however, think nothing of using the taxpayers' money to fund their own extravagance despite a severe recession and mounting unemployment. Greed is greed is greed except when you're a liberal and see it as your divine right. (Or should that be divine left?)

I wonder what all the out-of-work GM workers think about the Obamas' trips. Maybe the first family should visit Detroit. Not nearly as much to see as in Paris, of course. And somehow I doubt the streets would be lined with cheering folks. But maybe I'm wrong. The capacity for people to deceive themselves is limitless. (Look at the Notre Dame commencement - those folks are Catholic?) Many probably still believe the Messiah of Washington will save them. They can send their mortgages to the White House or their foreclosure notices.

Unemployment here in the U.S. is reportedly 9.4%, higher than it's been in 25 years. One article I cited below says the "real" rate is 15.8% because of all the discouraged, no-longer-looking folks - and that's from an ultra liberal group that's still blaming the Republicans as they claim "the worst is behind us." What a pipe dream! As if spending three trillion more dollars you don't have can get you out of already massive debt. The solution for them is the money tree. Out of dollars? Get the presses rolling and "stimulate" the economy. Reminds me of my kids when they were little - "Just write a check, Mom." They didn't get the concept of needing money in the bank before you can write a check.

Liberals don't seem to get it either. But neither did the neo-conservatives in the Bush White House who worked for bigger, more intrusive government. Unless the Republicans return to their conservative roots, the U.S. of the Founding Fathers is finished. The American dream is already nearly dead - except for politicians who are becoming more and more the elite nobility instead of the servants of the people and, obviously, the ultra wealthy. Unless the middle class rises up in protest there soon won't be one. We'll see only the politicians, financiers, and entertainment elites at the top, and the wage slaves at the bottom.

For Christians there's always a note of hope, however. Today's Gospel passage tells the story of the poor widow who drops her two small coins in the Temple treasury while the rich contribute large sums. Jesus honors her for giving from her poverty, from all she had to live on, while the rich gave from their surplus. What does it mean in a spiritual sense to give from our poverty? I'm meditating on that question today. If things keep going the way they are, many of us will know first hand what real poverty is, not just poverty of spirit.

And a few articles for those interested:

Obamas' trip to Paris raises some eyebrows

Real Unemployment at 15.8%: Highest Level Since ADA Began Tracking

‘Great Recession’ Will Redefine Full Employment as Jobs Vanish

GOP takes aim at Barack and Michelle Obama's NYC trip