Erase Kenya, Replace With America

Sen. Barack Obama urged Kenyans to take control of their country's destiny by opposing corruption and ethnic divisions in government during a speech Monday in Nairobi.

Kenya and other African nations will never thrive if their citizens cannot count on government to deliver services fairly, regardless of their tribal background or ability to pay bribes, the Illinois Democrat told about 600 people at the state-run University of Nairobi.

"In the end, if the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists -- to protect them and to promote their common welfare -- all else is lost," he said.

We the people of the United States of America need to take heed of Obama's speech. Except he's not directing it at us. American exceptionalism dictates that we cannot possibly have these kinds of problems. Graft? Corruption? Inability to deliver basic services? Lack of homeland security? That's for the Third World, right?

Greed? Check:

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period.

As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as “the golden era of profitability.”

Bribery? Check:

A State Department official accepted free flights to Las Vegas with exotic dancers, expensive meals, hotel rooms in New York and other bribes to speed up the visa process for a jewelry company, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Michael John O'Keefe, the deputy nonimmigrant visa chief at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, was indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges Friday. Sunil Agrawal, the chief executive of New York-based STS Jewels, was also charged.

Inability to provide for citizens? Check:

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who lost his job because of Hurricane Katrina, said Tuesday his biggest regret a year later is that he wasn't candid enough about the lack of a coherent federal response plan.

"There was no plan. ... Three years ago, we should have done catastrophic planning," Brown said, charging that the Bush administration and his department head, Michael Chertoff, "would not give me the money to do that kind of planning."

As levees broke down at Katrina's strike against New Orleans and people were forced from their homes, Brown said he sought futilely to get the 82nd Airborne Division into the city quickly.

Appearing on NBC's Today show, he was asked about positive statements he had made at the time about how Washington would come through for the storm victims, rather than leveling with the country about how bad the situation actually was.

"Those were White House talking points," Brown replied. "And to this day, I think that was my biggest mistake."

Brown said that at many intervals during the week the storm hit, he found himself asking, "Where in the hell is the help?"

"I have to confess ... you want to protect the president when you're a political appointee," he said, "so you're torn between telling the absolute truth and relying on those talking points. To this day, that is my biggest regret. "

Money influencing our security? Check:

This week, just as Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata put on hold an eight-bill package of flood-protection legislation, one of his political committees received a $500,000 donation from the California Building Industry Association (CBIA), one of the package's biggest opponents.

The donation is the single largest that a Perata committee has received since he became Senate leader in 2004 [...]

"This is about good policy, not politics, and that's what we need to focus on," (Assemblywoman Lois Wolk) said. "We have less flood protection than they had in New Orleans. Sacramento is really not protected and the thousands of people who live here are at risk."

There are probably about 4,000 examples of this, I just picked the few I could find quickly. Put your own in the comments.

Sen. Obama is noble for speaking out against the ruling elite of a foreign country that invited him there; I wish he would be as forthright with the American people. We are experiencing every last one of these difficulties, which necessarily arise when government becomes detached from the people it serves. The brave ones trying to take the country back, and those who wish it could be so, would benefit so much from hearing this kind of tough talk directed at our country.

But no, I guess we're just fine. Except for the culture of corruption that's taken over Washington. Except for the creeping influence of Big Money, which writes legislation, lobbies for its passage, and amends it if it's not to their liking. Except for the tragic neglect in the Gulf Coast. Except for the Republican theory of government, which asserts proudly that citizens are on their own, good night and good luck.

We need this speech. We need it right here. All of us could learn a lot from it.