I Deplore This Climate Of Fear

With important elections just six weeks away the Feds have arrested an alleged terrorist planning bomb attacks in New York City, arrested a Jordanian man attempting to bomb a Dallas skyscraper, and announced that Iran has a secret facility for making nuclear fuel.  [Let's not overlook a bomber in Chicago and a terrorist cell in North Carolina.]

Obviously this is just Rovian gamesmanship intended to create a climate of fear, turn the public's attention to national security issues, and distract us from the real issues of health care reform and the economy.  Karl Rove is using the same tired playbook he used to keep Bush in power, and who knew Rove's powers were so great?  I feel a poll question coming on!

YES, BUT:  I would have become a lefty blogger years ago, but I could never pass the intelligence test. I kept writing "Bush sicks" or "Bush ducks".  And was Cheney Satan and Rove the Anti-Christ, or vice versa?  No, I'm stuck here... 

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

How convenient, poll numbers down, angry citizens, running out of apologies, so what do you do? You find some poor shuttle bus driver who talks big, find his Pop and his iman and bingo - instant "worse since 9/11" bomb plot. And what is with this WMD business? WMD is nuclear, chemical or biological. Not peroxide based ordinance. The media is even in on the act.

God forbid we are watching the clowns while the real threats are still out there watching, planning, waiting......

[hit and run]

With important elections just six weeks away

TM Questions the Timing!

I feel a poll question coming on!

TM's Timing the Question!

[KT]

Don't forget Illinois. That makes three in one week!

http://tinyurl.com/y9cp4fu

[Ranger]

And what is with this WMD business? WMD is nuclear, chemical or biological. Not peroxide based ordinance.

Posted by: Jack is Back! | September 25, 2009 at 07:22 AM

Actually, it depends on which specific law or agency's definition you are using. In the law they are using here, WMD simply means any weapon that has the potential to cause mass casualties.

[bishop]

So, they found yet another nuclear facility,
near Qum, and we're supposed to trust them on anything.

[Jane]

I think it is nice that the Presidebt has now realized that Iran has nukes, and confident that the UN will convince Iran to dismantle them.

It's simple really.

[clarice]

The Administration just granted a firm in which Gore has a stake $529 million to build a car in Finland which it is estimated will cost $89k each.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125383160812639013.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories>Far Al Scarfs Up More of your Money

That should get your blood pressure up!

[Ranger]

On the WMD thing... Kind of ironic that the left tried to convince people that Bush tricked everyone because he said Iraq was developing WMDs, which "everybody thought" was a reference to nukes (see for example http://rense.com/general49/whatiu.htm>here andhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/27/115440/73>here). The fact that Clinton, and the UN both used the term WMD to refer to nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons was unimportant to them. Some on the left claimed that they only reason they though the war might have been a good idea was because Bush tricked them into thinking Saddam was developing a nuke.

Now, the Obama administration uses the term WMD for a conventional bomb, and no one on the left bats an eye.

[Appalled]

Personally, I think of all of this is designed to divert us from the revelation that Ayers did some ghostwriting on Obama's book.

Seriously, I am curious about how that issue gets covered. Maybe the Breitbart/Beck axis of evil will promote it. It seems odd to get some confirmation of the most peculiar of the theories floating around out there last year.

If this thing gets serious coverage -- it goes a long way towards a "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" moment that could seriously damage this Presidency. Obama has a reputation for eloquence and intelligence that stms in part from being an author of a well reviewed book. He also is the opposite, in demeanor, of a Chavez loving radical.

If Ayers is Obama's ghost writer -- and that can be proved. It's serious. It gives independents the mental excuse they need to dismiss Obama, and vote against him.

If I were Bretbart, I'd be talking to this author. He has a mediocre book with poor reviews in which he, unaccountably, buried the lede. Both the author -- who wants to sell books and make some money -- and his publisher have some interest in seeing this thing go viral.

[Ann]

LOL, Jim Geraghty Tweet:

jimgeraghty Re: revelation of Iran's secret nuclear facility -- boy, they're never getting invited to a 4th of July embassy party at this rate.

[Janet]

Clarice - thanks for the heads up on the State Dept. "gift" to Qaddafi's kids. LUN. Sickening. The State Dept. public affairs phone # is (202) 647-6575. I couldn't get through to an operator, and the recorded message line was full, so I called my Senators. One more really sickening thing.

[Janet]

20 million for a Kennedy institute
500 million loan to a car company
400,000 gift to Qaddafi's kids foundations

Why is our federal government involved in any of this? How dare they take our money away from us, and spend it on these things.

If John Kerry wants a Kennedy institute, let him build it. He's a gazillionaire.

[Sport feet for the precious conceit of the Western elite.]

clarice, that Fisker and Tesla thing is really disgusting, and is an easy story to tell which has so many of the elements of the insanity and corruption that is pushing some green stuff, now.

It may well have lasting symbolism when the whole carbon scam crashes.
===========================

[Swamp of Swindle. You heard it first here.]

Janet, it is two $500 million dollar loans to electric car companies rife with investors who've contributed heavily to the Democrats' Swamp of Swindle.
========================

[clarice]

Today's front page of the Washington Post reveals the Reps are out collecting the Dems on campaign money--in part because the Dems' rich contributors are fed up with the anti-business statements and conduct of the Dems. (Dumbbells --they always boiled the frog water just slowly enough til now.)

[Make mine Darjeeling. Move.on along, Oolong.]

And of course, c, the WaPo has to completely ignore the moolah falling like gentle rain into the coffers of the Republicans from Tea Party evaporations.
===============================

[DebbieDean]

How can any SMART American trust anything President Obama does or say?
He's been pandering to Iran and now announces he's known about this facility for years.
Anyone getting nervous about his allegance?

[Pofarmer]

Anyone getting nervous about his allegance?

Whadda ya mean, "getting"?

[Neo]

... and now the Iranians. It’s all sort of like the SNL skit where Mohamed ElBaradei claims that he will write them a “stern letter” if the don’t comply.

[JM Hanes]

Appalled:

It's not just Obama's reputation for eloquence and intelligence that's at stake here. Even the fact that he was equivocating about Ayers is unlikely to startle most folks.

The problem is that he ran for office on his biography, and it was his voice, both literally and figuratively, that got him elected. The liberties he took with people and places in Dreams were certainly lauded by his early reviewers as testament to a skillful hand in a deeply personal, poetic narrative. All those internal, putatively revealing conversations with himself took on pivotal political freight when they were billed as a powerful expression, not just of what it meant to be Barack Obama, but what it meant to be American.

Save for the nagging, apparently ineradicable record of his birth, barricaded in Hawaii, the rest of Obama's life has been scrupulously erased or buried. Dreams of My Father is writ on an otherwise blank slate. If the quintessential Obama is someone else's invention, what's left of the Obama people thought they elected? If the voice is William Ayers, we have a fraud and cover-up of potentially Manchurian Candidate dimensions -- one that could throw a painful new light even on the realm of where U.S. relationships with Latin America are going, whether, for example, it's Ayers' admiration for Chavez as an educator, or his admiration for Chavez style distributive justice that comes into play.

Very, very few, of course, will surrender the fictional Obama, and the most influential media gatekeepers, not just the White House, and not just Democrats, will certainly decide we can't afford the damage to the office, if not the man, that pursuing this unwelcome revelation could do. It will be non-news, or old news, or the tired divisions of the past, or just the latest in a cornucopia of rightwinger obsessions (generated by the racist conviction, of course, that such a powerful memoir couldn't possibly have been written by a black man). I can hear Obama now, responding to any question which makes it through the filter, with an eye roll and a sigh, "Come on guys, don't we have better things to do?"

[Captain Hate]

JMH is right that a lot of people have an investment of personal and professional credibility that they've put in the Bank of the Image of Oblammo and they're counting on an FDIC to protect a good portion of it. Plus it will really suck for the people that know me to have to admit that I was right although, believe it or not, I'm a very gracious winner to people I like.

[Neo]

WMD has always been NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) ... even then many on the Left have said the B&C don't count, at least as far as Iraq.

[Appalled]

JMH:

Whether it goes as far as you suggest depends on a lot of things, including whether Obama can get out of the healthcare and Afghanistan tight spots. I see this as having the potential of being Obama's Katrina -- which, whether you think this was fair or not -- got American's to think that what they perceived as their President's strength really did not exist at all.

I admit that I am confounded that the writer of the original book did not realize what he had -- this is a story that gets at the heart of the Obama mythos. (And I am still confonfounded that the "issue" I had mentally written off as the most absurd is the one that turns out to be true.)

[Porchlight]

And I am still confonfounded that the "issue" I had mentally written off as the most absurd is the one that turns out to be true.

It's interesting that you found this to be the most absurd, Appalled. I actually found it to be the most plausible, based on Cashill's analyses (perhaps you haven't read them?) and on two other things: 1) the "writer's block" and the 6-month trip to Bali that magically resulted in a perfect, complete book, in combination with 2) the lack of ANY other high-quality writing by Obama with which we can compare it. Dreams is w/o a doubt a well-written book (Audacity of Hope is totally pedestrian in comparison), yet it appeared from nowhere and is backed up by nothing.

If you accept the following:

Obama and Ayers are friends
Obama is totally stuck and can't finish his book
Ayers is a talented and experienced writer

the rest falls into place.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Manson follower Susan Adkins has died in prison of her brain tumor just about a month after asking to be allowed to go home to die.

[Barry]

"Manson follower Susan Adkins has died in prison..."

Good, hope manson follows soon.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Heh!

[Janet]

Where is the Cashill story? I can't believe this isn't all over the internet today.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Janet:

• Andersen Book Blows Ayers' Cover on 'Dreams'

And the background story from months ago.

[Stephanie]

Goldstein has some interesting info up on the Cashill/Ayer's story.

LUN

[Janet]

Sara - Thanks. Yeah, I read that and I watched some amazing Breitbart B-cast video last night late. I just thought it would be picked up by more places because of that Am. Thinker piece.

[centralcal]

I heard the news about the death of Susan Atkins on my way to work this morning.

It brought back memories of her in gym class my senior year (she was only there a few months). A lost waif sort of girl who had lost her mom to cancer and lived with her dad. Pitied by one the girls in my group who went out of her way to befriend her, she was often included in those brief girl gab sessions at the lockers between classes.

I occasionally cut the other girl's hair during gym class (the "bubble" was all the rage) and Susan wanted her hair cut. I made up an excuse and begged off, her hair was long and thick and I wasn't sure I had the skill to do it. There was a collective gasp the next day in gym when Susan came in. She had cut her own hair, quite horribly with short, uneven layers all over. She was very pleased with her efforts. At the other's urging, I spent several minutes doing what I could to try and even out some of the layers.

A couple of years later, I would watch in horror like everyone else as the Tate murder and the Manson family aired on my television screen.

[clarice]

My goodness,cc! What a story.

[MayBee]

fascinating, ccal!

[Porchlight]

Wow, central! I have to say, that story makes me pity her, although I suppose I shouldn't.

[Pofarmer]

(And I am still confonfounded that the "issue" I had mentally written off as the most absurd is the one that turns out to be true.)

Now the question becomes-What else are you wrong about?

[bgates]

What else are you wrong about?

Let's start with his use of the phrase "the one", and I don't mean the lack of capitalization.

[centralcal]

As a 17 year old girl, she was quite pitiful, with an odd aura about her. I am not a psychologist, but I think she was "ripe" for whatever Charlie and the gang offered her. A sense of belonging.

One last note - although she was not from this area when she moved to my small rural hamlet in the mid 60's, she would end up later spending the rest of her life in a woman's prison - exactly half-way between the rural hamlet where I met her and the city of Fresno where I live now.

[Ignatz]

Hey ccal,
Slightly OT but how do you like Fresno?
I owned a property I logged for a couple of years in the mountains east of Porterville, a little south of you. I was at about 6000 feet looking into Sequoia Natl Park so it was pretty pleasant.
But Fresno/Visalia was so darn hot and smoggy all summer when I passed through I wondered how anyone could take it.
Do you get used to it or did I just hit it at bad times?

[Ignatz]

That should be "I logged a property I owned".

[Jane]

Well the presidebt just held a press conference which was very hard to follow. He ended with MSNBC where he told them that Iran was not a football game and he wasn't looking for victory - in answer to why the announcement today when he has had the info seen before he was sworn in.

I understand why people paint whatever picture is convenient with his words because he never says a damn thing.

[clarice]

Sarkozy mocks O (not only Carla thinks O's a risible moron):
http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/25/sarkozy-mocks-obama-at-un-security-council-hello-big-media/>Sarkozy notes O's unicornlandia vision of the world

[centralcal]

Ignatz - Anywhere in the San Joaquin Valley is hot, hot, hot in the summer and often foggy, foggy, foggy during the winter. However, the fog has been much less and more infrequent in recent years.

I lived for 35 years in a small Italian/Portugese/Basque community and always hated Fresmo. Shopped mostly to the North - San Francisco area or Modesto area.

I moved to Fresno at the urging of my youngest daughter who also moved here. I have to say I love it and have never once regretted the move. No mosquitoes. No flies. Wonderful evening breezes (except when temps get over 100 degrees in July/Aug).

I know of Porterville a bit. I really am not that familiar with south of Fresno, though.

[centralcal]

Clarice: Good for Sarkozy!

[Captain Hate]

Sarkozy with a major beatdown on Stumblebum McDufus. STFU Barry and let the real men handle things.

[Ignatz]

Thanks for the info cc. Figured it was probably nicer than my Friday afternoon jaunts home in July and August indicated.

I will say that the area from Fresno south through the foothills into Kern county has some of the best, and largely unknown, driving roads in the world.

[rse]

clarice-

no wonder the British media is seeing a spike in traffic from the US. They can report reality because they're not implicated in all the stories that had to be covered up for BO to be elected.

The British people have always been frustrated that Americans don't appreciate how their actions and inactions impact the rest of the world. I spent the summer of 1980 in England as a student and laborers would come up to us on trains and in pubs and ask if we understood how important the Carter/ Reagan race was to them. They knew and understood more than most American adults.

[Pagar]

No where is the Climate of Fear more clearly demonstrated:

"Baucus claims it's too difficult to put health care bill online"

The Democrats fear Americans reading what is really in the healthcare bill more than they fear looking stupid.

12 Democrat Senators just told the world they are too stupid to find someone to put the healthcare bill on line.

"A proposal by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., that would have required the Senate Finance Committee to post the final language of the $900 billion health care reform bill, as well as a Congressional Budget Office cost analysis, on the committee’s website for 72 hours prior to a vote was rejected 12-11."

LUN

The Democrats want to destroy a major part of the US economy in one bill, but they are unwilling to let the American public read it ahead of time.
This is insanity.

[DrJ]

Hell, send me the file and I will put it online. It is trivial.

[Pofarmer]

STFU Barry and let the real men handle things.

It's pretty sad that the real men are now the French.

Isn't this the second beatdown by Sarkozy?

[JM Hanes]

I think they don't want to put the bill online because they decided to vote on the "conceptual" language version, a travesty they don't want to expose, and which the CBO can't possibly score with anything remotely resembling confidence.

[Pofarmer]

Hell, send me the file and I will put it online. It is trivial.

The hard part is dodging the torches and pitchforks if they post it, which, BTW, was one of Barack Hussein's campaign pledges.

[Gregory Koster]

If you accept the following:

Obama and Ayers are friends
Obama is totally stuck and can't finish his book
Ayers is a talented and experienced writer

the rest falls into place.

Nope. I can't see Ayers doing all that for love of dear old Barry. Once the dough started to roll in, he'd want something in return. I don't think Annenberg is enough. Ayers would want something personally. Be interesting to look at Ayers tax returns and see if his royalties jumped in 2005 when DREAMS finally started making real dough.

CentralCal, you are right about Fresno. Lived there 1999-2006 and thoroughly liked it from October-May. But the summers finally drove me out. You have my sympathy as the CA real estate earthquake has its epicenter in Fresno, and the green maniacs are determined to kill agriculture in the area by shutting off the water. Given that the GOP in CA is hopeless, it's horrifying that you may be reduced to bawling Bring Back Jerry Brown. Good God.

[Gregory Koster]

Off, off damned italics!