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The American media has been making hay out of the financial problems faced by Europe, stressing – no doubt, at the behest of their corporate masters – that the crisis in Europe is responsible for the ongoing problems with the US economy.

As always, the American media is afflicted by serious short-term memory loss, a fact quickly pointed out in no uncertain terms today by the president of the European Commission, Jose Barroso…

…when asked by an American journalist at the G20 summit in Mexico, “Why should North Americans risk their assets to help Europe?”

Barroso:

Frankly, we are not coming here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to handle the economy.

By the way this crisis was not originated in Europe […] Seeing as you mention North America, this crisis originated in North America and much of our financial sector was contaminated by, how can I put it, unorthodox practices, from some sectors of your financial market.”

Go, go, Jose! It’s about time someone over there told the truth to those over here, instead of grovelling and kissing Lady Liberty’s feet at every opportunity, as practiced by every British prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, while transformed into an art-form by the UK’s latest apology for a political leader, the oh-so-simpering, David Cameron.

Europe’s financial crisis was sparked by corrupt US politicians who slyly deregulated the financial sector, allowing crooked bankers free reign to make themselves ever wealthier, by illegally gambling away the savings of US and European citizens.

At last, someone in authority has had the guts to stand up and tell it as it is.

^{[1] “Greek election, debt crisis and G20 Summit: as it happened, June 17 – 18, 2012” Daily Telegraph, June 19th 2012}

For 12-year-old Yasmin, 10-year-old Elizabeth, and 8-year-old Vicente Herrara, US President Barack Obama’s latest attempt to secure the Latino vote will make no difference whatever.^[1]

Along with approximately two thousand other children – all US citizens – the president’s latest ‘executive order’, allowing illegal immigrants between the age of 16 and 30 to remain in the United States, provided they’ve been here at least five years, does not apply to them. Not only are they too young to be affected by the order, but they’ve already been deported to Mexico.

Sparrow Chat recently highlighted the plight of children like Yasmin, Elizabeth, and Vicente, following a somewhat unsympathetic report by the CBS Evening News.^[2]

This latest executive order is Obama’s 129th of his presidency. We haven’t heard very much about the others, but a perfunctory glance at the list clarifies why. The vast majority don’t appear worthy of the paper they were written on.^[3]

This one is different. There’s an election in the offing. ‘Executive Order number one hundred and twenty-nine’ is nothing more or less than a piece of blatant electioneering. The incumbent needs the Latino vote if he has any hope of holding onto the White House. This little piece of bribery may well secure those votes.

It’s a pity he’s not prepared to allow the return of two thousand US kids exiled to Mexico. Of course, that would mean allowing their parents to return also, and that could lose him votes from states bordering on Mexico. So, no chance. Yasmin, Elizabeth, and Vicente remain stuck in a strange land where they don’t belong, with a language they don’t understand, trying to get an education in schools where the only language they do understand is not spoken.

President Barack Obama could have signed an executive order giving the parents of US citizens the right to live in the United States. Is that asking too much? He could have signed an executive order closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, as he promised to do. Was that asking too much? He could have signed an executive order mandating a public option for healthcare, as he promised to provide. Was that asking too much?

In fact, he could have signed executive orders for lots of things the Republican leadership have blocked in the House, but he didn’t. Instead, he cow-towed to McConnell and Boehner, gave in to their demands and got nothing back in return.

Instead of honoring his promises to the people who voted him into office, he turned himself into a George W Bush on steroids, even to the extent of taking a personal decision as to who would live and who would die in the next drone strike.

It would seem his greatest asset is his ability to sing and dance. He would have made a great entertainer. It’s not too late. A second career, perhaps, if the present one drifts down the tubes after November?

No doubt, Yasmin, Elizabeth, Vicente, and one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven other young, exiled, US citizens would be happy to sit in the audience and applaud an ex-president who can tell a joke and sing a song – in the unlikely event there is ever a future US president with sufficient compassion to place their happiness and welfare above a selfish desire to secure a few more votes.

^{[1] “Obama ends young migrant deportations” BBC, June 15th 2012}

^{[2] “America – Something Is Sadly Lacking’ Sparrow Chat, May 8th 2012}

^{[3] “Current List of President Obama’s Executive Orders” 1461days.blogspot.com}

I’m tired of reading the same old drivel from left-leaning websites. Take “Common Dreams’, for instance, or ‘FAIR’. Every week a synopsis of their latest articles appears in my email inbox. I open them up, and what do I find?

The exact same stuff I got last week, and the week before, and the week before that…

Oh, sure, the titles change, and even the writers, but the content never varies. Anti-right wing rhetoric reigns, okay!

Why do they bother? Do they think they’re actually informing us? Their only readers are people the right-wing media define as ‘leftists’. ‘Common Dreams’ and ‘FAIR’ are preaching to the already converted.

Do they truly believe the rampant right of the Tea Party faithful are slavering at the mouth every week in eager anticipation of the latest offerings from CD or FAIR?

Similar stuff is churned out by the left-wing media channels every night. Does anyone manage to sit through a whole evening of MSNBC, without turning to drink?

But, I hear you cry, what about the stuff peddled by Fox News and others of its right-wing ilk? Isn’t that just as bad?

Of course it is. Only someone three nuts short of a spanner would argue it wasn’t. Just as many Americans tune in diligently to the words of O’Reilly, Cavuto, or Wallace, as are mesmerized by Lawrence, Maddow, or Schultz.

The problem is that supporters never have any interest in what the ‘other’ side is saying. They’re faithful only to their own team. The consequence, at least where political issues are concerned, is that neither side gets any useful education, only more and more indoctrination.

The competitiveness bred into Americans, and fostered throughout their school years, has been cleverly manipulated to develop a ‘team syndrome’ that firmly establishes two distinct political camps.

Like a ball game, supporters of each side occupy separate areas of the ground and taunt each other, cheering on their own side while booing the opposition.

The end result is ignorance of the true political scene and, in particular, how the country is run. Nowhere is this ‘team syndrome’ more obvious than on the issue of healthcare. Supporters of the political right, even those in the most dire need, are prepared to give up any chance of affordable healthcare rather than be unfaithful to the political party they’ve always supported.

Alexander Pope told us ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’, but his poem failed to point out that no learning at all is way more foolhardy.

Until Americans stop slouching on their sofas all evening absorbing the doctrines of Fox or MSNBC, and began to properly educate themselves on just what their elected leaders are doing to their country, the only winners will be the media bosses, wealthy politicians, and those well-rewarded for spending their time ‘educating’ us as to how awful the other ‘team’ is.