Jeff Ellis: It's Impossible To Start A Fire If You Have No Desire To Burn

Pack up, kids! We're moving to Nebraska!

Today, Senate Democrats finally got the 60 votes they needed in order to prevent any potential filibusters that could have potentially held up a vote on "health care reform."

Barack Obama responded by issuing a statement in which he talked about "change."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid celebrated this apparent victory by grinning like a ventriloquist's dummy.

The right-wing responded by calling Obama a communist while the left-wing continued to cry over Afghanistan.

The American people, meanwhile, were allowed to continue to wonder just what exactly is in the actual legislation.

As everyone knows, it's been a long, hard struggle for Reid to round up these 60 votes.  This, despite the fact that Reid's party started out with 60 members of the U.S. Senate.

In the end, the process was complicated by a handful of Democrats and two independents who voiced doubts about the bill.

Fortunately, these doubters were subsequently brought over by 1) the complete elimination of just about anything resembling actual health care reform from the bill and 2) generous offers of federal funds to the states represented by the doubting senators.

As such, Nebraska will now be rewarded for electing skeptical Democrat Ben Nelson while California will continue to suffer for electing a true believer like Barbara Boxer.

For all the talk of "change," it's interesting to note that this legislation will essentially pass the senate as a result of the old-fashioned art of selling out.

For those of us who have opposed Obamacare from the beginning, it now appears that there is only one solution left for us.

We're all going to move to Nebraska.

Oral Roberts, R.I.P.

Retired televangelist Oral Roberts died on December 15th.  He was 91 years old.

When I was a child, I knew Oral Roberts as simply the old guy who came on after the cartoons.  Later, in 1987, Roberts contributed to one of the defining moments of my cynical adolescence when he announced that if he didn't raise 8 million dollars by a set date, God would kill him (or "call him home.")

Roberts ended up raising 9.1 million dollars but, in the end, his statement did far more harm than good to the American evangelical community.  His claim that God was blackmailing him managed to discredit every other televangelist in the country, regardless of whether they practiced Roberts' style of ministry or not.  Certainly, it added fuel to a fire that would, later that year, turn into an inferno as both Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Bakker saw their ministries collapse.

It's not for me to say whether or not Roberts sincerely believed he would be killed for failing to raise enough money to please God.  All I can say for sure is that the death threat doesn't sound like something that the God I was raised to worship would have anything to do with. 

Roberts was semi-retired when he died.  To be honest, I was initially surprised to discover that he hadn't died years earlier.  Oddly enough, his death was not greeted with any jokes about being called home.  Then again, Americans always have been a forgetful group of people.

Oral Roberts, R.I.P.

The Person Of The Year

Time Magazine has announced their "Person Of The Year."

A lot of us thought (and were dreading that possibility) that Time would slavishly give the title to Barack Obama.

Well, amazingly enough, Time did not jump at another excuse to put Barack Obama on the cover.

But seriously -- Ben Bernacke?

Perhaps the only thing positive thing that Bernacke has brought to this year is evidence that occasionally, Republican senators can find common ground with Bernie Sanders.  Sen. Sanders, the only self-acknowledged socialist in the U.S. Senate, has recently joined with conservative Republicans Jim Bunning and Jim DeMint in opposing Bernacke's nomination to another four years in charge of the Fed.

Honestly, the person of the year was Michael Jackson.  His death and the subsequent circus that has surrounded it has come to represent the current state of the world.  If 2009 played like a heavy-handed satire, nothing was more heavy-handed than the death of Michael Jackson.

Dodging the Bullet on Health Care Reform

Fortunately, it appears that we will all be killed by an Iranian nuclear attack long before the Obama health care reforms ever take effect.

It's funny how things work out.

God Laughed

President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today.

Meanwhile, thousands of American soldiers prepare to go to Afghanistan.

Somewhere, God is laughing.

Second Coming

With President Obama more interested in giving speeches than governing, an out-of-control Democratic Party forcing it's will on the American people, and a splintered Republican Party that cannot seem to do anything right, there's been a spurt of talk about the need for a populist "third party."

As attractive as all that sounds, I still find it hard to believe that all of America's troubles can be solved by a second coming of the Reform Party.

Promises Kept

Finally, liberals and conservatives can agree on something.

They're all pissed off at Barack Obama.

President Obama did promise to bring a new spirit of bipartisanship to the American political system.

Take A Shot

I'm watching Barack Obama's speech.  I know I said I wouldn't but it's raining so I'm stuck inside.

Nothing that Obama is saying is unexpected.  What is unexpected is just how flat a speaker he's becoming as of late.  Of course, Obama's always been at his strongest when he's an outsider, fighting the establishment.  Now, he is the establishment and the smugness is coming out.

As usual, Obama is giving his speech in front of an audience that can't ask questions.  In this case, he's speaking to cadets.

He's letting us know how hard it was for him to make this decision.

There's something really satisfying about seeing Obama trip over his words.

Obama's strategy in Afghanistan sounds a lot like Bush's strategy in Iraq.  Except, of course, Obama will be doing it with an international force. 

Obama also just said that we'd begin withdrawing in July of 2011 which will work nicely for his reelection.

Then again, Obama also said Gitmo would be closed by 2010.

Barack Obama is looking straight into the camera as he delivers his "message" to the people of Afghanistan and I realize now why he usually insists on robotic head movement while speaking.

His ears really are just gigantic.

"Those days are over," Obama just said.  If you're playing the Obama Drinking Game, take a shot.

Now, he has narrowed his eyes and is scolding those who disagree with him.  Take a shot.

Obama was doing fairly well until he reached the scolding part.  For such an "inspiring" figure of hope, Obama is surprisingly bitter.

"As President," Obama says, "I refuse..." Take a shot.

Obama: "I don't have the luxury..."  Take a shot as Obama plays the "poor-me" card.

Did you remember to take a shot earlier when Obama talked about the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression?

Now, he's blaming Bush.  Take a shot.

"As we end the war in Iraq and transition to Afghan Responsibility..."  Afghan Responsibility?  Is that what we're calling it?

Obama's bragging on himself.  Take a shot.

Hillary Clinton looks unimpressed.  Take a shot.

Obama: "That is who we are."  Take a shot.

Obama just mentioned America's moral authority.  Take a shot.

Obama is tipping his chin upward and trying to look serious.  Take a shot.

Keep taking shots until it's finally over.

Obama Makes Up His Mind

President Barack Obama will be taking over the television airwaves tonight so that he can announce how many more U.S. troops he's going to send over to Afghanistan.  Obama has spent the last few months openly pondering this decision while the soldiers already deployed have waited and, in many cases, died.

The national media, though no longer as in love with Obama as they were back in January, have consistently framed this as "the young president's" first difficult decision.  I suppose that's one way to put it.  Another way to put would be that Obama decided to wait until his precious health care reform got through the House before committing himself to something that could be potentially very unpopular with his liberal base.

For such political consideration, American soldiers are held in limbo.

Regardless of whether Obama makes the right or wrong decision on this issue, the fact remains that it's still a decision that should have been made months ago.

Many people are wondering just what Barack Obama will say in tonight's speech.  It's actually pretty easy to guess as Obama has pretty much said the exact same thing in every speech he's given since taking office.  He'll probably talk about how he "inherited" this problem (just as the American people are going to inherit the cost of his health care plan).  He'll probably brag about the number of people that offered him advice that he didn't actually need.  I imagine he'll probably find time to brag about how his approach will work where all others have failed.  He will also probably find time to threaten anyone who disagrees with him (though I doubt he'll talk about "calling them out" like he did with the opponents of Obamacare).

And, in the end, the main gist of the speech will be about how difficult it was for him to make the decision and how difficult it will be for him to have to deal with people having the nerve to disagree.

As 2009 comes to an end, there's been a lot of talk about what we've learned from Obama's 1st year in office.  The main thing I've learned is that, trendsetter or not, Barack Obama is one of the most predictable politicians in recent history.  Little that he says is truly insightful or meaningful because, by virtue of being a trendsetter, he does not need to be insightful or meaningful.  Meaning, instead, is invested by those listening who, for whatever reason, need Barack Obama to either be an angel or a demon but never just another ordinary politician.

The truth of the matter is that Barack Obama is just another politician and his speech tonight will be just another political speech justifying another political decision.

Watch it if you want.

I'm going to go see a movie.

I am back.

I am still alive.

The only explanation I can give for my silence is ennui.

The experience of living in the ObamaNation has left me so bored that even commenting, at times, seems pointless.

For all the talk of how America is changing and how the world is changing, it's hard to escape the fact that nothing has truly changed. 

Words remains as pointless as ever.

And, on that happy note, I am back.

I may be a year older.  I may, as of this writing, be out of practice.  It may take me a while to get my voice back.  My style may be a bit stilted for a week until I learn how, once again, to be an honest man.

And, in all probability, I've lost whatever regular readers I may have once had.

But I am alive and I am back.