Pundits speak sonorously and portentously of the upsurge in recruiting al Qaeda and its Somali affiliate al Shabaab will experience as a result of the bloodshed and mayhem caused b y the attack on the upscale Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya. They predict that disaffected youth will flock to the al Shabaab colors, eager to partake in the fun. I dunno. I spoke to a disaffected young man shortly after the attack, and he said he was joining his brothers, that the cries of the victims sent a tingle up his leg. I pointed out he was not Somali, and asked what common cause he had with al-Shabaab. He said

I went to public schools where teachers
Told of evils here at home
Where my browser’s bugs had features
Even with my Google Chrome
Every movie is the same old
Every tv show the same
iPhone5 right off became gold
Apple thinks my life’s a game
College was a big disaster
All my profs were reds or queer
Telling me I’m my own master
But making their intentions clear
My life was worthless they confided
Full of froth and empty views
Every thought I had one sided
Colored by the evening news
That is why I’m now Somali
Blood and mayhem! What a show!
Be there in a flash, by golly
But my mom won’t let me go

It is being reported that the FBI is looking into allegations that American citizens of Somali ancestry are involved in the attack on the Nairobi mall. Eric Holder has turned the FBI into a criminal organization, a political tool of the anti-American anti-Israel Obama administration. It is clear to most observers that Mr Holder will shortly announce that the Mossad was behind the whole thing, and that the president is urging the UN to blah blah blah.

The FBI will soon report
And Obama will then deport
The miscreants involved in murder wide
He’ll give them all the old heave-ho
And send them where they want to go
With whispered smiles to say he’s on their side
The Mossad though will get some grief
How dare they rush to the relief
Of upscale people shopping out the day
While poor downtrodden Kenyan folks
Live out their days just sipping cokes
And dreaming how to drive the whites away
And by the way, Obama smiles
Did not the Kenyans travel miles
To murder poor al Qaeda chaps at work
With al Shabab I stand, he scowls
Despite the critics and the howls
For friends like these I’m bound no task to shirk

White House flacks are making the rounds of the talk shows exclaiming with great excitement that Obama has pulled off the most ingenious, most glorious political victory of a hundred generations by getting Putin to take possession of the Syrian WMDs. Obama is now free to pivot in a new political direction, the threat of force having played its part in Putin’s and Assad’s surrender. The flacks chortle with glee, but the sad fact is it was Obama who surrendered, and is now Putin’s sock puppet, though the lapdog media will no doubt scream a famous Obama victory. But we know better, don’t we.

Golfer Barry loves the pivot
Though each swing brings forth a divot
And with luck we’ll all outlive it
With the clubhouse far away
Partner Putin’s on the green now
Down in three his game is keen now
Putin’s muscles can be seen now
And it’s time for us to pray

The United Nations is designated the cop on the beat, its job to see to it that Syria destroys all its chemical weapons by mid-2014. The UN, however, has no authorization to use force to compel Syria to comply. And even if the UN did have authorization to use force, would they or could they? Of course not and of course not. The agreement is a sham, a paper cover for Obama, who has, with malice aforethought, placed the foreign policy of the United States in the hands of the Russian puppeteer and the United Nations.

The UN is a mighty force
Whose every word is feared of course
One could not find a stronger horse
To place fate in its hands
Obama flits on angel wings
While Putin pulls the puppet strings
And smiles and plans of dire things
To show where Barry stands
Our Barry though proclaims that he
Has won a stunning victory
A shining light for all to see
And firm in his demands
Of course we know it’s all a fake
A look from Putin makes him quake
His policies are all opaque
And built on shifting sands

The disaster that is Obamacare moves relentlessly forward. The promises were never true, and those that were true were never meant to be kept. Obamacare was always just a step toward the ultimate goal of the government running every facet of our lives with a single payer system, ready as a replacement for Obamacare when it fails, as it was designed to do. Just ask Senator Harry Reid, who cheerfully admits the whole thing was a scam, a foot in the door. Certain portions of the American public looked in the pet store window and loved the adorable puppies, and they bought it, never asking how much was that doggie in the window. Some sixty or so years ago a singer named Patty Page sang it for us, How Much Is That Doggie In the Window. We are about to find out that it is a very expensive doggie indeed, not just in money but in lost liberty.

That singing rage
Miss Patty Page
Sang Doggie In The Window
Some sixty years
Of laughs and tears
Yes that’s how long it’s been though
That dog’s now old
In from the cold
Decrepit, slow and mangy
His bark is weak
Can hardly speak
Though full of hope and changey
The broken pane
Lets in the rain
The room is wet and musty
He cannot eat
Nor stand on feet
His dinner bowl is rusty
It isn’t fair
Obamacare
Is only for two leggers
But not to fuss
Soon all of us
Will be reduced to beggars
Yes we’ve been had
It makes me sad
To think that we elected
A mangy cur
And call him sir
No wonder I’m dejected
Obama stands
And wrings his hands
While looking out that window
The broken pane
Incessant rain
Dog knows when it is fin though

Slowly but surely Barack Obama is being recognized by the idolatrous press as the mean spirited, incompetent mountebank he is and always was. One sees stories from time to time, in places like the New York Times and other Democrat party mouthpieces, a tentative questioning of their slavering love affair with such as Barack Obama. The genesis of the idolatry was the fact that he was black, of course, but somehow in the light of the evidence that the man Obama is supremely unqualified to be President of the United States, it is dawning on such as even the New York Times that being black is just not enough.

And so goodbye to what seemed truth
To all the dreams and hope of change
To all the coolness of his youth
To think of it is passing strange
How proud so many cheered the while
He strode the world with sceptered rod
So different from the cowboy’s style
So cool and mannered, nature’s god
Who knew that fate had such in store
To see the fall of dreams so vast
To see the clothing stripped and more
To see the dream that went so fast
And so goodbye to all that was
To all the dreams and hope of change
To where we think now, why the buzz
For such as he, it’s passing strange

I spoke to a senior administration official just this morning and she said the president has shown great wisdom in asking Congress to postpone the vote on Syria and has brilliantly forced Putin to back down. Nonetheless, she said, the president has the right to strike anyone anywhere at any time as the whim moves him. Whatever Congress decides is irrelevant, she insisted, though the president would welcome a yes vote if a vote is ever taken. But with Barack Obama it’s all about viscosity. And now that Obama has surrendered to Putin and called off the strike, the oleaginous White House claims of victory are oiler than ever.

It’s all about viscosity
And White House generosity
Congressional pomposity
And matters such as these
The situation slippery
He won’t act all George Gippery
Nor frivolously frippery
He’ll do as he may please
He acts in full legality
For that is his mentality
So really the reality
Postponement is a tease
Congress will not vote in this
And Putin missed the boat in this
He’s got him by the throat in this
He’ll bring him to his knees
Yes he’ll make Putin sing a song
As Putin begs to get along
And all will see Barack is strong
The day that hell will freeze

President Obama seems determined to go to war with Syria, if only because he made a threat and feels he will lose face if he backs down. He has reluctantly asked for a vote in Congress, but insists he has the authority to attack anyone anywhere without the consent of Congress, so if the Congress votes no he says he will attack anyway. Of course, he does not have the Constitutional authority to go to war without the consent of Congress unless there is an imminent threat of danger to the United States, but Constitutional authority is not something that disturbs Obama’s dreams of unalloyed presidential authority. He is at heart a Marxist authoritarian, and the checks and balances of the US Constitution do not deter him from the attainment of his Marxist goals. The other night, deep in darkened silence, I spoke to another Philly guy, Benjamin Franklin, who sorrowfully proclaimed that the Republic for which he was prepared to give his life, his fortune and his sacred honor, was dead.

The Constitution lives no more
Just reading it is such a bore
Once only Congress declared war
Now POTUS calls the tune
The Navy sails at his command
Where even Preble’s noble band
Is his to say advance or stand
As distant cries the loon
As if to mourn the scornful way
The Founders’ words are now today
Demeaned and Congress held at bay
None hear the tearful loon
For power is its own reward
By acclimation and accord
The powerful are full adored
And POTUS names the tune

Hegemon: a dominant power with preponderant influence or authority over others. For the first six and a half decades after the end of World War 2 the United States was a hegemon, bestride the world economically, politically and militarily. Then came Obama, with his vision of a weak and defeated United States, unable to further befoul the world with its uncouth wealth, power and culture. And he has succeeded brilliantly in his goal. Today the United States is both weak and irrelevant in the affairs of the world that once trembled at our sidelong glance. No more. Oh it was tough being the hegemon. We were not universally loved, but the bad guys shook with fear when the President of the United States spoke. The bad guys still shake when Obama speaks, but now they shake with laughter.

It’s tough to be the hegemon
He’s always getting spit upon
By those he keeps from harm and disarray
He’s hated by the very ones
Who scorn the good guys with the guns
But then demand he stop it right away
Stop what you ask and well you might
Well stop what’s wrong and make it right
And if you don’t we’ll stomp our feet and cry
They’ll cry it’s urgent so don’t wait
But they of course won’t pay the freight
And so alone the hegemon must try
It’s been like this for many years
The US drying the world’s tears
And standing guard o’er every scurvy hole
But recently he’s given up
And rattles now a big tin cup
The strong horse now is just a weakkneed foal

President Obama, having ordered President Assad of Syria not to cross the Obama imposed red line by gassing his own civilians, is now faced with the prospect of backing up his threat. His allies have abandoned him and he is now alone, without authorization from the US Congress as required by the Constitution, and without allies or UN sanction for cover. Any order he gives to the US military to attack a sovereign country that has done nothing to the United States, an order to carry out what is a personal threat, is entirely illegal. But Obama has shown repeatedly that the Constitution means nothing to him if it interferes with his agenda and personal wishes. He is above the Constitution, and is not bound by the laws that constrained lesser presidents. I spoke to a teenage State Department spokeswoman about the effect the rejection of military action by the British Parliament might have on President Obama’s course of action, and she said

It’s like totally bizarre
That we should have come this far
That the very ones we’ve rescued many times
Would not simply like, um, cave
In a word they should behave
And like join to punish Assad for his crimes
And the Congress makes me mad
And I’m totally so sad
That they seem to think the law must be upheld
Something written long ago
By some white guys we don’t know
It’s like what I said today to Tuesday Weld
She agreed that we must act
And act now despite the fact
There’s no proof that Assad did release the gas
As dear Barack likes to say
When I say someone will pay
Then I must use force if just to save my ass
Yes our president is wise
And it’s much to his surprise
That some people think the law applies to him
Everybody that I know
Says the whole world will eat crow
When he gives the word and lights begin to dim