The Dash To Dumb (Ongoing...)

The morning is young but I'll bet this will be the silliest thing I read today, or maybe this year [and let's pull it back out of the memory hole rather than letting it slink away in shame].  The military effecting a civilized, bloodless coup because they don't like the current leadership?  The United States military?  They have spent over two hundred years not doing that, and they have far too much pride and honor to start now.

I'll worry about more plausible disasters, like the Yankees flying to the wrong city and forfeiting a playoff game.

AND ECHOING FROM A MOUNTAIN ON THE LEFT:  Via Matt Drudge, Gore Vidal sees the US drifting towards a military dictatorship, but the timing is not specified:

Today religious mania has infected the political bloodstream and America has become corrosively isolationist, he says. “Ask an American what they know about Sweden and they’d say ‘They live well but they’re all alcoholics’. In fact a Scandinavian system could have benefited us many times over.” Instead, America has “no intellectual class” and is “rotting away at a funereal pace. We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the corruption of the people and that happened under Bush.”

Comments

[bishop]

If he means the corrupt banking class put up this pitiful mountebank and his clueless
Sancho Panza, during the time of theprevious
Administration, well then yes he is right.

Now Vidal, had similar speculations in the early monthes of the Clinton Administration
so it's not new. The other prospect would possibly chill him more, who the next civilian leader would be, which he didn't consider.

[Janet]

"His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is."

According to the media, that is always the Democrat's problem...they are too smart. Republicans are buffoons, but the Dems. are TOO smart.

[Uncle BigBad]

OK, I'll bite. Just what in that link are we supposed to read?

[hit and run]

Ask Gore Vidal what Americans would say about Sweden and he would say they all would say that Sweden lives well but they're all alcoholics. In fact, an observance of actual Americans could have benefited him many times over. Instead he has no class, intellectually or otherwise, and is rotting away at a funereal pace. He would have been better off focusing on educating himself about the American people. His problem is being over-credentialed. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his views are.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Looks like Newsmax has pulled the article. The URL is an article by John Perry but it just takes you back to the home page.

http://www.newsmax.com/john_perry/obama_military_coup/2009/09/29/266012.html

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Gore Vidal can't die until Andrew Sullivan is sufficiently deranged to take his place.

[Porchlight]

I can't believe that noxious windbag Vidal is still with us. God bless WFB for his service to mankind nearly 41 years ago, live on ABC television.

[clarice]

Bingo, Chaco..Bingo.

[Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman]

Gore Vidal can't die until Andrew Sullivan is sufficiently deranged to take his place.

Gore the Doll? Who is Gore the Doll?

[Fresh Air]

I'm terribly confused. Isn't Gore Vidal dead?

[Captain Hate]

Boorish Gore's just upset because nobody ever read his horrible books except for Myra Breckinridge.

[bishop]

Sullivan's already there, so he can go know, just looked at his Wikipedia entry,
and lord what a nut.

[Rob Crawford]

Why does anyone care what Gore Vidal says?

Seriously -- what are his qualifications beyond hating we lesser people?

[Thomas Collins]

Vidal has it exactly the opposite of reality. If our military ever overthrew a US Administration, it would be to restore our republican form of government from those, whether from the right or left, in the process of instituting tyrannical rule. My interactions with military folk and my reading of the military blogs convince me that the men and women of our armed forces have a far better understanding of the benefits of our republican form of government than the Vidal Brigade.

[bishop]

Actually I read too fast, he does consider the prospect of a Republican victory, meanwhile the Corner's guest contribution doesn't cover itself with glory on the Polanski front

[Jim Ryan]

TC, yes, they do seem to be cut from General Washington's cloth. Washington kicked out our government but did not seize power. What an amazing man.

[rse]

I read the Perry article this morning about 6 and he made a big deal about how enlisted personnel make an oath to support the CinC but not officers.

The officers swear an oath defend the Constitution itself. The article then states that since officers regard BO as disregarding the Constitution in a number of his actions to date, they may ultimately feel compelled to intervene. The article implied that this is an active topic of discussion now in the military.

[Neo]

Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is.

It must be really lonely for Gore Vidal to be the smartest man in the world. I bet that if you think you're real smart, you feel lonely too.

I'm seeing a lot of this sentiment that "fill in the blank" is too dumb and "I'm" so GDFing smart going around.

Frankly, just as generals are forced to do battle with the army that they have, instead of that ideal military configuration that doesn't exist (or will never exist), politician, members of political parties, and citizens have to deal with the country (or whatever) that is in front of them.

I get a special pleasure knowing that those who run around labeling folks as "racists" must then live in a "racist" hell on earth of their own making as those "racists" just .. aren't .. going away.

[Or not.]

I actually think it'll come, but it'll be Gates and others quietly whispering in ears that Obama has got to go. No troops surrounding the palace, er, I mean the White House, just an excuse why Biden has to take over. And it won't be predominantly a military coup, it will be one by the Democrats. Or Sarkozy and France invading, heh.
============================

[bishop]

Now from his NewMax bio, he doesn't seem to be your typical right winger. A former aide to LeRoy Collins, the former local liberal
light after Claude Pepper, Johnson & even
Carter Administration. Yes it's overwrought
and fevered, which we have to consider because he has real influence like the FCC'
s diversity officer, with a Chavez fetish,
Oh wait it's not that way at all.

[Jim Ryan]

But I lie in bed awake nights, wondering, will be able to count on Honduran support? Will the Micheletti government there see that we will be protecting, not violating, our Constitution?

[Jane]

Doesn't Gore Vidal live in France?

[PeterUK]

"Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is."

You are misunderstanding Gore "No relation" Vidal. He is saying Americans are dim-witted and ignorant for electing Obama,that the latter should educate them so that is doesn't happen again.

[Tom Bowler]

I went looking for the article on Google and found a blog post about it at Dissenting Justice by Professor Darren Hutchinson. The professor called Perry a Rightwingnut, and offered a link to Perry's bio as if to prove it, where we find:

Perry also has had a distinguished career in public policy. He served President Lyndon B. Johnson as deputy under secretary of commerce and was a White House speech writer and race-relations trouble-shooter for President Johnson.

In the Jimmy Carter administration, he was executive assistant to the under secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was interim director of public information for the Federal Emergency Management Agency

.

On the left, anything distasteful gets the label "right wing" nowadays.

[Porchlight]

The idea of a coup may be outlandish, but it seems to me that the takeaway here is that there is a very grave discomfiture among the military command regarding Obama's leadership. That is not a concern to be taken lightly. However, given Obama's track record, I'm pretty sure he'll take it lightly anyway.

[Fresh Air]

Jane--

He used to live in Ravello, Italy with his boyfriend. As I said, I thought he was dead, so he could be buried anywhere by now. Come to think of it, I was confusing Vidal with Mailer. Ancient writers with no talent and something against Tom Wolfe.

[Jane]

So has anyone else noticed that the left's tactics have started to shift? Alinsky rules dictate that you isolate and destroy the person. The lefties seems to have decided that they have to now start screeching fear for their entire country. (Sound familiar?) Those "violent teabaggers", "a climate of fear reminding us of assassinations", "a pending military coup".

I'm not sure Saul would be proud.

OTOH we may have actually beaten them at their own game - Van Jones, Acorn and my guess is Valerie Jarrett is next.

[bishop]

All right, of course Allah has linked this thread here, but we've had many of the same
concerns that Mr. Perry has expressed. We've differed on the solution, to the problem. We hope that the Republican reversal next fall, will check the problem,
but what if our speculations about the stimulus's true purpose, and the application
of the 'diversity and localism' doctrines take hold.

Bette Midler, has proven you can actually descend deeper into stupidity than the View,
painting Glenn Back as some deranged Hutu
chieftain, on the Joy Behar show.

[Ranger]

The only real chance for a military intervention is if Obama managed to spark a constitutional crisis where the military were forced to chose between two compeeting cliams to constitutional authority. That might be possible if the Rs take back the house in 2010, but not very likely. It is totally out of character for Obama. My guess is that if the Rs take back the house, he will simply choose not to stand for re-election. That is much more his track recored, to seek a job, skate as long as possible, then quite when it starts requiring real work.

[Soylent Red]

I, for one, welcome out new military overlords. Since I will be one of them.

I'm trying to think of why the opinion of Gore Vidal means anything, and for the life of me I just can't come up with anything.

And this, of course, is the problem. A country can survive indefinitely without the likes of Gore Vidal, but won't last long without the likes of those he disparages.

[Ranger]

OTOH we may have actually beaten them at their own game - Van Jones, Acorn and my guess is Valerie Jarrett is next.

Posted by: Jane | September 30, 2009 at 11:26 AM

Yes, as I said before, Jarrett needs to be the next target. First, because Obama will spend any political capital requred to save her. Second, because it will personally hurt him. It will force him to focus on defense instead of pushing his priorities, and it will wear him down peronally. Oh, and it is the right thing to do, taking out the corrupt chicago core to his administration.

[Original MikeS]

People ignore these dire warnings at their own risk. The fact is that the oceans will boil away if we don't buy carbon credits from Al Gore, and there will be terrible plagues and famine if we don't pass a health care bill with a government option.

[MayBee]

Wasn't Gore Vidal a Tim McVeigh fanboy?

[fdcol63]

Bush and the VRWC "stole" 2 national elections in 2000 and 2004, and staged the attacks of 9/11 so that they could trample on the US Consitution, and then spent 8 years with the PATRIOT Act destroying our civil liberties and solidifying their steely grip on power.

And yet, as Bubba Clinton recently said, the "demographics" changed so much that Evil BushCo (TM) then allowed Obama and the Dems to sweep into power last Nov., negating all of those efforts?

But now Vidal's military coup will happen?

LOL - I think all these moonbats are now starting to suffer the after-effects of all their LSD use in the '60s.

[fdcol63]

Stop bold

[fdcol63]

normal?

[peter]

Gore Vidal lives in Ravello, and wrote a really excellent book on Venice, where his ancestors are from. His politics, however, are deranged, and come from some wacko Senator he was related to. The analogy with Andrew Sullivan that Chaco made came to my mind immediately. And, he along with Elton John are living proof that some people are just immune to the AIDS virus, so scientists should study

[PeterUK]

"I'm trying to think of why the opinion of Gore Vidal means anything, and for the life of me I just can't come up with anything."

Because his name is an anagram of "overlaid".

[Fresh Air]

Jane--

One of the great things about the Tea Party movement is it has no leader. The Mediacrat loons desperately want to target someone, but they've got no one. Look for them to try to tar Sarah Palin (unsuccessfully, natch) anyway.

[peter]

OT, does Iran have an archipelago of nuclear sites? LUN

[Neo]

Gore Vidal can't die until Andrew Sullivan is sufficiently deranged to take his place.

LOL ... rolling on the floor

[Rocco]

“Ask an American what they know about Sweden and they’d say ‘They live well but they’re all alcoholics’. In fact a Scandinavian system could have benefited us many times over.”

"Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China and dozens of smaller places around the world did indeed create just such leviathan governmental engines of "good," and the dreadful history of the 20th century is in large part a history of the terrible result s of these collectivist endeavors. Once respect for the individual is lost, then what do 100 million dead individuals matter-especially if their deaths are for the "collective good"?

Of course, a liberal would say that a sharing and caring government doesn't have to turn out this way. It could be something like Sweden. And there you have it-the downside: 100 million people killed; the upside: ABBA, Volvos and suicide."

P.J.O'Rourke

[Jane]

I, for one, welcome out new military overlords. Since I will be one of them.

Can we start the culture of corruption today? How much do you need to keep us in say, Valerie Jarrett status.

Ranger - you have it just right.

Fresh Air - I agree, and every time they bring it up is a perfect opportunity to reply: "sucker!".

(I really prefer bold to italics)

[PeterUK]

Demographically,Sweden is finished,or rather islamed.In the not too distant future Sweden will be Malmo and the Norsemen will be extinct.

[Neo]

I've been to Sweden .. if you like fish and high taxes, you will love it.

Beef is expensive, and they have killer swarms of mosquitoes in the northern half (above the Arctic circle). Stay away from the "sweet herring".

[Largebill]

The most consistent thing about clowns like Vidal, who think they are smarter than everyone else, is how much stupider they are than the proletariat they so disdain.

He has no redeeming qualities and I can only imagine he was seriously mistreated as a child to end up as twisted as he did.

[rse]

Rocco-

"Obama' s Wrecking Crew" from today's PowerLine has a great Walter Lippmann quote from 1937 along the same lines.

LUN

Also it mentions specific Wall Street CEOs said to be quite disillusioned with BO and that Summers and Volcker (and Geithner) are ignored as the policy makers rush to implement their radical agenda.

[Richard Aubrey]

It wouldn't be quite so ominous if, when anything hits the fan, the civilians in government weren't so awfully, painfully, hurts-to-watch incompetent and have to call on the military to bail them out.
If we have a really, really big problem and you live in a county run by a National Guard major with whatever troops showed up, with the cops unofficially taking orders and things going as well as might be expected, how well are you going to take the insistence that we need to elect a new class of corrupt morons to take over so we could be like the good old days?

[Melinda Romanoff]

OT-

daddy, you are rightly proud to worrk forthe company that you do.

Caution, kleenex needed for this story. LUN

[Neo]

I'm told that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers have both complained to senior Wall Street execs that they have almost no say in major policy decisions. Obama economic counselor Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman, is barely consulted at all on just about anything -- not even issues involving the banking system, of which he is among the world's leading authorities.

At most, the economic people and their staffs get asked to do cost analyses of Obama's initiatives for the White House political people -- who then ignore their advice.

Wow. Worse than I thought.

[PeterUK]

The Obamists couldn't get more totalitarian than this.

[Jack is Back!]

I never thought I would ever see a thread that included Sweden and a US Military coup together.

We have been to Sweden number of times - especially Malmo where my wife's college room mate is a physician (ob/gyn and emergency). She has related to us all the times she has had to treat immigrant muslim women with the husband in the room and how she fears at times for her life. Not good.

Regarding a possible military coup like "8 Days in May" I have to agree with TM. As an ex military officer and a member of a number of vet groups, it is anathema to even talk about such things inside or outside the military. I can't even imagine what event could trigger even the thinking phase.

Now, if Obama ordered the military to do something the chain of command thought was unconstitutional (i.e. round up all the right-wing bloggers who are from New Jersey and rendition them to Djibouti), the command structure could all resign or stand down on principle. But I doubt they would be able to find the forces and means necessary to overthrow our form of government. We still have a Congress and SCOTUS.

[ben]

It always comes down to this, doesn't it? Liberals are smarter and understand everything much better than ignorant conservatives. When it was pointed out that GWB might not actually be an ignorant cowboy since he went to Yale and Harvard that was considered "meaningless". Fighter pilot, meaningless. Business owner, meaningless. Two term Governor of the third most populous state, meaningless. But now Obama's undistinguished Harvard degree means he is "over educated" and his "problem" is that he doesn't know how to deal with ignoramuses.

[JM Hanes]

Chaco:

ROTFLMAO!

Tom Bowler:

Now that the Perry howler has been disappeared, TM could just redirect his link to your Perry bio. From Get-A-Job.com, Exercise #1: Turning your life as a gopher into a resumé.

[PeterUK]

" But now Obama's undistinguished Harvard degree means he is "over educated" and his "problem" is that he doesn't know how to deal with ignoramuses."

He has Joe Biden for that,Nancy to liase with Congress.

[Matthew]

Vidal's a maniac

[Rick Ballard]

" the command structure could all resign or stand down on principle"

The coup nonsense could be a response to the flutter about McChrystal. If the flutter from anonymous sources had any basis in reality then McChrstal should check his hole card. Threatening the Doofus in Chief is unlikely to achieve the desired result. Not with leftist trash like Kerry covering for him.

The problem with resignation is that a Wesley Clarke would step in. It isn't as if the perfumed princes of the Pentagon have disappeared as a species.

[bishop]

One does see that at the higher ranks, like Admiral Mullen, and General Casey, there seems to be a great deal of resistance to proactive measures, but the new class of staff officers, who cut their teeth in Iraq
and Afghanistan, are much more aggresive. That was the subtext of that long forgotten
novel, that Ricks, spun out seemingly so long ago.

[Ranger]

Now, if Obama ordered the military to do something the chain of command thought was unconstitutional (i.e. round up all the right-wing bloggers who are from New Jersey and rendition them to Djibouti), the command structure could all resign or stand down on principle. But I doubt they would be able to find the forces and means necessary to overthrow our form of government. We still have a Congress and SCOTUS.

Posted by: Jack is Back! | September 30, 2009 at 12:36 PM

There would be no reason for them to resign if the order were clearly illegal. The crisis would be if Obama fired them and apponinted new commanders that congress refused to confirm. Then you would have a chain of command that technically no longer had authority, but still in place and a force that would still follow their orders on one side, and a presidentially appointed chain of command whom the force ignored.

Of course issuing a significant illegal order would be grounds for impeachment.

[comatus]

The junta, it is to giggle. Leftists ought to dream of a military coup. Take a stroll through the history of territory dictated to by the US military, and you'll find the most benign center-left socialism in modern history: the occupation of New Orleans, territorial government in the West, the Philippines (where only the inept State Dept kept the Army from co-opting the rebels into citizenship), Marines in Haiti, Germany after WWII. And Douglas MacArthur was the greatest emperor Japan ever had. Domestic benign despots should have it so good.

Our "right-wing military" are the most honest--and effective--liberals we've got.

[JM Hanes]

The great weakness of the left is that they repeat their own propaganda so often, they actually end up believing it. The ever inventive Vidal, manages to roll nearly a decade of conspiracy theories into one big, ex-pat, anti-American ball:

Bush the wannabe imperial theocrat (and his cabal of you-know-who) blew up New York as a pretext for suspending elections and imposing his will on the world. Sarah Palin has taken up that fallen evangelical banner. The New York Times has ferreted out the aggressive fundamentalist proselytizing which infects the military, and Homeland Security has flagged deranged veteran killing machines, seduced by anti-government militias, as a national threat. Ditto for paranoid Tenthers swearing allegiance to the Second Amendment. Just yesterday, it seems, an army Birther assaulted the natural born President's constitutional authority to issue orders as his C-i-C. Violent, bitter-clinging, white supremacist (homophobic!) ignoramuses are capturing townhalls from coast to coast.

The fascist military end times are at hand, by God!

[bishop]

JM are you auditioning for the Post Op Ed too,

[Thomas Collins]

JMH, you forgot the voting machines controlled by companies that are part of the vast right wing conspiracy.

[sbw]

I even registered with the UK Times to comment:

I thought Gore Vidal died last year.

Then again, maybe he did.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

rse:

He is just wrong. Enlisted personnel agree to obey their officers and the President as long as the orders are lawful under the UCMJ, but they swear to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or DOMESTIC and have allegiance to same.

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

[Pagar]

" is barely consulted at all on just about anything"

My guess is that the above statement is true of any true expert in any area in which the Obama administration is involved. That ALL decisions in the Obama administration are being made by the political commissars.

That Fed ex story is really something great, thanks for the link.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

A statement from NewsMax:

Statement from Newsmax Regarding Blogger In a blog posting to Newsmax John Perry wrote about a coup scenario involving the U.S. military.

He clearly stated that he was not advocating such a scenario but simply describing one.

After several reader complaints, Newsmax wanted to insure that this article was not misinterpreted. It was removed after a short period after being posted.

Newsmax strongly believes in the principles of Constitutional government and would never advocate or insinuate any suggestion of an activity that would undermine our democracy or democratic institutions.

Mr. Perry served as a political appointee in the Carter administration in HUD and FEMA. He has no official relationship with Newsmax other than as an unpaid blogger.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

The Obamists couldn't get more totalitarian than this.

Man, don't give them ideas.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

AJ calls them idiots, but the word traitors comes to mind.

How Dumb Is This Administration?

People in the Obama administration notified news outlets that are spies inside the al Qaeda network were helping us target al Qaeda leaders with drones.. In what appears to be an effort to show progress on the war on terror, the Obama administration has just told al Qaeda what methods are working for us – which means al Qaeda now knows what to look for to stop our progress:

U.S. and international intelligence officials say that improved recruitment of spies inside the al-Qaeda network, along with increased use of targeted airstrikes and enhanced assistance from cooperative governments, has significantly reduced the terrorist organization’s effectiveness.

Emphasis mine. What in the world are these people thinking!? The targeted air strikes need the spies to find the damn TARGETS! All the government assistance in the world is worthless if we don’t get TARGETS!

But now these blabber mouths have tipped off al Qaeda to look for our spies in their midst. I can pretty much assure these bungling fools that a good many of their spies (and probably others) are now dead, thanks to this news alert.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

And Douglas MacArthur was the greatest emperor Japan ever had.

Technically, Doug MacArthur was seii taishogun, "Greate Barbarian-Subduing General", like the Tokugawas. The Emperor is primarily a religious position, more analogous to the Pope.

[Rocco]

rse...Professor Rahe hits the nail on the head!

That he admires what Chavez has done is evident from the fact that he has lent Chavez a hand in his attempt to export the Venezuelan revolution to the Honduras.

And who is Chavez's favorite useful fool? Bill Ayers of course.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Sigh.

Sara, this is why I (among others) keep muttering about "sources and methods".

Sadly, pols on both sides seem to figure that sources and methods are only important when there's no immediate political gain to be realized.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Killer of Jessica Lunsford has died in prison. Remember he buried her alive.

[clarice]

jmh, are you really auditioning for the WaPo? That was a barn burner.
Mr PUK:"He has Joe Biden for that,Nancy to liase with Congress."Yes, he has!

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Charlie: It never ends.

Stunner. Dems Vote Down ID Requirement for Immigrant Health Care ...Update: Reject Stronger Anti-Abortion Language Too

[bishop]

That was a tongue and cheek suggestion,it's much better than anything the Post would allow, just considering Applebaum's latest

[clarice]

Don't you suppose, Sara that those latest votes are to provide cover for the blue dogs to vote against this pig?

Let's see- Rockefeller and the rest of the left cannot vote for the bill because it has no public option and now the right can't vote for it because of the coverage of abortion and illegals.

[Strawman Cometh]

Puk's link also provides this worthy palate cleanser. lun

[JM Hanes]

Thomas Collins:

How about:

Sarah Palin has taken up that fallen evangelical banner, and the Diebold glitch of 2008 has been patched.

[Rocco]

I think teachers should be called Government Agents from now on...thanks PUK

[Lou Shumaker]

Gore, I believe, had left Italy and is slowly dying in California.

(Also, I had to stop the Bolds from taking over). Let's see if this works.

[peter]

Is Working Families Party (the New York State equivalent of ACORN) the new Tammany Hall?

[Looks like her, anyway.]

Rocco, that's Obama's mother in that photo.
=========================

[Gregory Koster]

RSE, the problem with quoting Lippmann is that in sixty years of writing, he went all over the place, often drifting right, but frequently veering back. The 1937 quote, from THE GOOD SOCIETY contradicts the position he took in his 1925 book (his best, I think) THE PHANTOM PUBLIC. In the days of Coolidge, Lippmann had no problem with giving power to experts. Twelve years later, having seen what Franklin Roosevelt had done, he changed his mind. Lippmann had a sharp intellect, but precious little sense of history. Sometimes this served him well, as in his late columns on Vietnam, 1965-67. Otherwise as here, not.

[Gregory Koster]

Hell, I forgot: TM is quite right: that Newsmax article is the worst bit of quackery this year. At least.

If this witling wanted to share his lurid fantasies he could at least have written something like SEVEN DAYS IN MAY a fine novel by Knebel and Bailey, and a better movie by Rod Serling. Take a look and see what you think.

Meanwhile, NewsMax goes into the garbage heap.

[rse]

Sara-

Since I did read that Newsmax article before it was pulled, I thought it would help if I recalled the most salient (before caffeine) and troubling points.

I vividly recall the distinction and found his points missing a reality check apart from the law.

With a Pres with naivete and admiration for despots already advocating a civilian security force "as strong as our current military", the article was neither helpful to the Republic nor accurate.

Rocco-

Rahe is always excellent. You do have to marvel at the genuine look of excitement and admiration on BO's face when he met Chavez last spring. It was like Ayers had told each of them so many good things about the other.

GK-

Thanks for the background on Lippmann. I'm glad he moved beyond his idealism of the 20s though. Consistency is no virtue when the facts change materially.

Plus I'm a big fan of The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes.

Gee. I go do afternoon carpool and suddenly everyone wanted to talk.

[Frau Regenmantel]

OTOH we may have actually beaten them at their own game - Van Jones, Acorn and my guess is Valerie Jarrett is next.

IMHO Valerie *drives* The Once Bus. BHO and MO are sitting up front but not in control.

(Hi, Manuel. We're in Redmond, WA on way to Lake Quinault. Kayaking in the cold rain is such fun.)

[Frau Regenmantel]

sheesh----Manual 0f course.

[clarice]

Stay dryish, frau.

[PeterUK]

Obama - Valerie,Mind Meld.
Looks like she is is the one with her hand up the glove puppet.

[Gregory Koster]

RSE: OK another Lippmann tidbit that's relevant: Much of what Shaes wrote in FORGOTTEN MAN was written by WL in 1934-35 in his columns, which you can read in INTERPRETATIONS: 1933-35.

Shlaes's book is not nearly so original as people think. It's a welcome corrective, revision if you will, to the bunk glorifying Franklin Roosevelt. At the same time, FDR will remain the great Prez of the twentieth century, not far below Washington. Nor does Shlaes address the point that the New Deal was a valuable preparation for the war socialism this country underwent in 1941-45. That can be overstated, but it's real. The business hating Prez of 1935-38 suspended his grudge, reined in his more virulent subordinates (Harold Ickes for example) and brought business on board. Result: the Arsenal of Democracy which was needed to win the war.

[Pagar]

"my guess is Valerie Jarrett is next."

I haven't seen it yet, but someone said she was the subject for the Glenn Beck show today.

[PeterUK]

OK you fashionistas - Of you go!

[Pagar]

"Democrats vote down ID requirements for illegals"

In the comments of the LUN, someone points out that the Democrats were requiring Photo ID to get into some of their townhalls and ask a question.

I really can't understand how, in a time when photo ID is required for almost every thing, a major political party can claim that their voters are incapable of obtaining a photo ID. I believe conservatives could stop this foolishness if they just put their mind to it.

[Doug K]

I enlisted in March of 1969. The oath I swore, multiple times was to defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, domestic and foreign. I swore not oath to any President.

It was specifically explained, multiple times, that the oath was to the Constitution, not the President or anyone else.

I doubt very much that this has changed.

I would like to see a discussion about what that oath means, who the foreign and domestic enemies of the Constitution are. If there are no domestic enemies that could possibly be defined, then the oath seems at least halfway meaningless.

[JM Hanes]

PUK:

You won't be surprised to hear that the salary list of White House employees includes a Director of Student Writing and Materials. You might not notice the amusing title/URL of the PDF page though: "assets/documents/July1Report-Draft12." I would love to have been a fly on the wall when they hammered out those assets in Drafts 1-11, wouldn't you?

The list deserves mining. It includes a posse of new media gurus and some Senior Advisors for "Social Innovation and Civic Participation," before you even get to the Office of Public Engagement, AKA the Jarrett/Tchen empire. Of the 18 officially listed staffers working under them (which includes the notorious Buffy Wicks at leadership Rung #5) a full 15 of them are veteran campaigners from Obama for America. That would be OFA -- get it? It gives even the idea of Organizing for America being separated in name only (insert Wicks' wink & nod) whole new meaning.

Round things out with a bevy of Political Directors and Communication directors, etc., etc. At the top of the "Senior Advisor" heap, you'll find political strategist David Axelrod and Pete Rouse, Tom Daschle's former Chief of Staff. Did you know that Daschle himself has a ground floor office in the West Wing? He's not included in the WH salary list though -- could he be working pro bone to avoid an embarrassing waiver? Or is his paycheck just coming out of a different federal pocket? The one and only guy making more than Obama intimates is David Marcozzi, "Director, Public Health Policy" whose expertise is apparently "disaster medicine and public health preparedness." He actually makes more than the President's National Security Advisor, who sits one tier down, joined by Larry Summers and Obama's VIP BFF.

For a little insider recreation, check out the WaPo's interactive West Wing (click on the WW graphic). Axelrod HQ is practically an alcove in the President's private sitting room. In fact, to get into the sitting room you have to go through Axelrod or the Oval office. He and Rouse took over the offices formerly occupied by Deputy Chiefs of Staff, who were booted to windowless interior cubbies. In contrast, Karl Rove's old digs are up a flight of stairs where Jarrett now holds sway. Patrick "Acorn Operative" Gaspard (via Breitbart) holds Rove's old title now.

I had to laugh when I ran across a guy being paid $36K for "Gift Analysis." One assumes the incoming are his purview. The fact that Obama's "Vetter" and "Senior Vetter" are among the lowest paid White House employees pretty much speaks for itself. Maybe those are just part time positions. I could go on.....

I have no idea how the Bush West Wing might look in comparison, but it would be interesting to know. In this particular instance, I gather they might have been less transparent than the current Administration.

[rse]

GK-

Thanks for the further comments.

One big point for me from the book that has relevance today is when the government introduces uncertainty to the rules business thought it could rely on, business ceases to expand and capital goes on strike.

For example after the behavior with GM and Chrysler, DIP financing will never recover or be priced the same.

[Captain Hate]

I believe conservatives could stop this foolishness if they just put their mind to it.

Has anybody seen a milk carton with Michael Steele's picture on it?

[Neo]

Michael Steele calls Thomas Friedman, a "nut job" for his latest column.

[PeterUK]

JMH.
It would be an interesting exercise to se how many of Team Obama belong to other organisations.