Hope? Change?

Last July, on another blog that I used to write but have ignored for quite some time, I wrote a scathing diatribe against Barack Obama, who I called a bastard for ignoring his promise to withhold support of the horrific abuses of the FISA law in which the Bush administration engaged. I got over it and I voted for him. But he ignored yet another promise and is behaving as if he is preparing to abandon his principles across the board.

His latest broken promise was the one in which he promised not to sign any law, except in emergencies, before giving the public five days to comment. Well, he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (which I heartily endorse, by the way) with virtually no notice at all. He seems to think that he need not worry about giving the public time to comment if he feels his "base" will support the law. That's stupid, bad politics, and a broken promise.

Another Obama characteristic with which I have enormous problems is his irrational love affair with unions and his abandonment of good sense when addressing policies when those policies involve unions. Again, I'm in favor of unions in general, especially when the employers with whom they bargain on behalf of workers have behaved badly and cannot be trusted. But Obama is abandoning all sense of reason by engaging in a love-fest with unions that is economically dangerous and utterly anti-business. The so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which would strip employees of the right to secret ballots in deciding whether to have a union represent them, is one such dangerous move. Why, I wonder, do unions need to strip employees of their right to decide, in private, whether to be represented by unions? Could it be that they need to protect their intimidation tactics from the light of day? Why, when unions come out ahead in more than 60 percent of employee votes, do they need more help by requiring employers to recognize unions if only 51% of employees sign a "check card" in support of a union? Historically, many employees who originally supported a union in their workplace changed their minds when they voted in secret...that is a very telling fact.

Something else that bothers me today about Obama is the fact that he's utterly ignoring the public outcry for transparency in the "deals" that are being worked out with respect to his proposed bailout. This is the man who espoused integrity and openness as characteristics of a good leader and said he had those characteristics and would live by them in his administration.

When either party is in a lopsided power position, it cannot be trusted, nor can its leaders. I've spoken before of a revolution in this country to remove the career criminals and "favor-mongers" from the seats of power. I think that call was more appropriate than even I might have thought at the time. I so hoped for "change."

Well, I guess we got it. But it's not what I had in mind. I had hoped we wouldn't simply be trading in Republican corruption for Democratic corruption. Hope. Hah!