Feeling Stronger Every Day

The NY Times and the WaPo get sneak peeks at the new Woodward book probing Obama's plan for Afghanistan.

Here is an eye-catcher from the WaPo:

Woodward's book portrays Obama and the White House as barraged by warnings about the threat of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and confronted with the difficulty in preventing them. During an interview with Woodward in July, the president said, "We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger."

We are stronger?  Huh?  Surely he isn't talking about the overall US outlook, since we are stuck in a ditch with the Republicans sucking down Slurpees.  Does he mean that our military, after the grim effort in Iraq and the multiple rotations through Iraq and under-resourced Afghanistan, is stronger than ever?  Could he mean that our international alliances our stronger than ever, even as NATO flees Afghanistan?  Is Obama admitting that the Bush years weren't so disastrous, or is he claiming to have undone the imagined damage so swiftly?  Well, maybe closing Guantanamo turned everything around.

Ann Althouse picks up on this from the Times:

IN THE COMMENTS: Palladian writes:

"I can’t lose the whole Democratic Party."

He doesn't mind losing the war or the country, however.

ADDED: My response to that quote — "I can’t lose the whole Democratic Party" — is: The President is saying — can it be true? — that there isn't even a small fragment of the party that would support fighting the war with a serious commitment to victory. How damning!

The goal is victory!  Oh,what am I saying?  Back to the WaPo:

According to Woodward's meeting-by-meeting, memo-by-memo account of the 2009 Afghan strategy review, the president avoided talk of victory as he described his objectives.

"This needs to be a plan about how we're going to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan," Obama is quoted as telling White House aides as he laid out his reasons for adding 30,000 troops in a short-term escalation. "Everything we're doing has to be focused on how we're going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint. It's in our national security interest. There cannot be any wiggle room."

How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for wiggle room?

SCARIEST MOMENT:  The floor is open for suggestions, but IMHO this is either the scariest scene or the funniest.  Maybe we will see it when "Scary Movie - The White House" is made:

Frustrated with his military commanders for consistently offering only options that required significantly more troops, Obama finally crafted his own strategy, dictating a classified six-page "terms sheet" that sought to limit U.S. involvement, Woodward reports in "Obama's Wars," to be released on Monday.

Well, Obama got a lot of the asbestos out of Altgeld Gardens, so I guess he is ready to make his own Afghan strategy.  I assume we are talking about the "Surge and retreat", which Obama announced and then retreated from.

Comments

[Captain Hate]

maybe closing Guantanamo turned everything around.

I trust this is sarcasm.

I'd like to know in what sense 9/11 made us stronger; although if Jugears McFly believes that it would explain why only dumb luck has prevented other terrorist attacks.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Miss me yet?

[laura]

Every minute of every hour of every day, Jane

[jeff]

just before the election ... everyone gets to see inside the White House sausage factory ... Oh that'll help the Dems ....

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Hey Laura, tell my BFF I'm having this Tea party cause she told me I had to stay and fight. She is the inspiration.

[narciso]

So lets see he gave a shout out during Ft. Hood, he went on vacation, right before the Christmas plot, and he was yucking it up before Times Square became a scene from 'The
Siege' what a relief

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

No problem Narciso - cause we can absorb any terror attack.

I wonder if he would say that if it was aimed at the White House

[Neo]

It's a good thing that Bush managed to get us into that ditch, else we would have gone off the cliff.

[Neo]

America seems to be able to absorb 4 years of Obama, but the question remains .. could America absorb 8 years of Obama ??
I don't intend to find out. We have had to absorb a DOJ that thinks civil rights are for non-crackers. We have had to absorb a "stimulus" that didn't stimulate (especially after they took out Nancy's condoms). We have had to absorb and EPA that is hell bent on shutting down all domestic energy production.

[MathMom]

"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger."

What Barky doesn't understand is that we absorbed 9/11, because we had a competent executive, and he had competent people under him.

When you are competent, you can make the impossible seem possible, the possible seem doable, the doable seem easy.

Dear Lord, please deliver us from this buffoon. We repent for letting the miracle that is America nearly slip through our fingers, but Lord, we are holding on tight to what is left, and pulling hard to regain our grip. Please send us another lion-hearted leader like George Bush, and a serious bunch of people like Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and Dick Cheney. And this time, Lord, we promise to remain vigilant, and mindful of how easy it is to become complacent. Please give us another chance. Amen.

[Fred Beloit]

In a phone call last night a friend told me he had another friend, a military chaplin, over who had just returned from Afghanistan. The chaplin talked about the disastrous Rules of Engagement. Examples: (1) Our troops may not fire at any enemy if that enemy is within 15 meters of a house. (2) Our troops may not fire on an ememy who is pointing a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) at them. They must wait until the enemy fires first. IMO this, if true, damns Gates, Obama, Patraeus, and all the rest of the war leaders. No wonder the previous Afghan commander wanted out.

[Extraneus]

I used to fly Midway Airlines before 9/11. Great little airline, but they were struggling and weren't able to absorb the losses they suffered in the 9/11 aftermath, and went under. After that, they weren't stronger, just dead. A lot of other people weren't stronger after 9/11 either.

Obama is an idiot.

[rse]

The GZ mosque imam Rauf has been caught in 2006 off mic post interviews bragging about his stealth jihad and his constant relationship with Albright.

Talks about how to use the hard jihad of 9/11 to pursue his stealth jihad in the confusion.

LUN is the story and the 13 minute tape.

At the end of the story Dorwish talks about how the media works in the Mideast. It really sounds like how the MSM is trying to operate here.

No wonder they want net neutrality.

[Joan]

The man didn't want to be president of our country, the man just wanted to be president --and then be admired by the world.

I can't stand him.

[Danube of Thought]

Joan has it spot-on.

This is an extremely dangerous presidency in many, many respects.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Has anyone else noticed that as more and more info comes out about this president, it's all old news to most of us, since that is what we assumed was going on.

Maybe this is the most transparent administration ever. And it is just as bad as we thought. (Probably worse)

[NK]

"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger."

I try to be even tempered about this muppet, I try to stay confident that the Republic will endure this clown (barely), but IF TRUE those words must be the allegation of an Article of Impeachment. This SOB will write-off thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of INNOCENT Americans to be true to his anti-military ideology? He's an American Stalin or Mao, he is a monstrous statist fascist, with no empathy for the citizens he swore an oath to protect. Impeach him. He's right about one thing; the country was stronger AFTER 9/11 (not BECAUSE of 9/11). The country was stronger because we citizens (well 80% of us anyway) woke up to the evil of Islamofascism, and we had a CINC who made the correct (and hard decisions) to protect us from a bio/chem/nuke 9/11 when al-Qeada had it cued up. I never appreciated GWB, Rumsfeld, Rice et al enough until I read that monstrous quote this morning. Impeach him.

[Danube of Thought]

Magnificent new ad. Make it viral.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

I posted it at You Too Dot. Hardly viral but whatever.

[Janet]

Joan has it spot-on.

Amen. Great link too rse. Madeline Albright needs to be questioned about her friendship with the GZ mosque imam. The "unpack & give up Israel" line is chilling.

[Janet]

Just a little update on the care pkgs for Soylent front...
On the 17th he asked us to stop all pkgs while he is on a 60 day rotation. We are ready to continue whenever we get the green light from him. Here is a photo album of what has gone over so far. Remember to keep him in your prayers.

[Threadkiller]

TM asks: "We are stronger? Huh?"

I will wait untill McCain answers that question with "the fundamentals of our economy leaders are strong."

That will make it all better.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 15 at Raz today.

[narciso]

As usual we had his number long ago, during that debate, where he talked bout the first
responders, over striking back, that letter
to the Chicago paper where he craved under standing over actually involving ourself in Afghanistan, there's no surprise, only in that he would so clearly state it.

[Ranger]

"I can’t lose the whole Democratic Party."

Sounds like the same reasoning he used to explain that even if he knew the surge would work, he would have voted against it, because it was more important to defeat President Bush politically than to win the war.

[Captain Hate]

Yeah narc, I think Woodward's pretty good at getting people to let their guard down and say things they ordinarily would keep unsaid. Didn't Bush generally come off better in his books than the MFM would otherwise have it?

[Rick Ballard]

When the Kendonesian commie bastard says "I can’t lose the whole Democratic Party.", he is classifying the entire party as the Dean/Soros/Copperhead wing. There was more to the party than parasites until Obama pushed them out. The stench of marxist "historical inevitability" permeates this entire administration and it originates in the Oval Office. Soros/Dean/Copperheads are the only people able to live with the stench.

This buffoon, whose ignorance is matched only by his stupidity, is going to be given a lesson regarding American resilience on November 2nd. He's too damned dumb to learn anything from it so the Republicans had damned well better stick to "Just Say No" until this pathetic marxist clown is out of Washington.

[Danube of Thought]

Great topic: the five most annoying Republicans. I can't quarrel with this list, although I'll have to give it some thought.

[Pofarmer]

Was stuck in the emergency room last night with nothing to read but newsweak or vogue. In one newsweak there eas an iPhone ap for dimocrats that showed Obama with the world as a basketball and the poor widdle republicans at knee level not even able to play ball. I wonder what they will say after November?

[Rob Crawford]

This SOB will write-off thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of INNOCENT Americans to be true to his anti-military ideology?

It has nothing to do with anti-military. It's anti-American, anti-free-market, anti-liberty.

The left plays the "we can tolerate this level of violence" card so long as they do not see themselves as the targets of terrorism. The moment they consider themselves to be at risk, their talking points shift to "POLITICAL VIOLENCE WILL DESTROY OUR FREE SOCIETY!!!" and begin demanding a crack down.

Remember their reaction to bombings at abortion clinics -- they reacted the precise way they accuse anti-jihadis of reacting. They would not distinguish between someone kneeling and silently saying the rosary and someone planting a bomb, so they enacted laws that some how suspend the 1st Amendment within a certain distance of a clinic. They demanded every religious leader who spoke out against abortion denounce violence and treated even the smallest sliver of ambiguity as tantamount to a call for more bombings. Can you imagine if someone opposed to unlimited access to abortion had refused to bluntly call Eric Rudolph a terrorist? But they not only let Rauf get away with the same thing, they steal our money to pay him to travel the world.

Look at how they treat the Minutemen. They assumed they'd be a shoot-first vigilante group, to the point that even after years of peaceful Minuteman activity, one of their oh-so-enlightened Congressmen meets a Minuteman with the question "how many people have you killed".

[anduril]

Good stuff from Justin Raimondo, the "flamboyant gay" (h/t Clarice):

The Pollard Principle
Why Jonathan Pollard is a national hero in Israel

On July 13 of this year, the municipal government of Jerusalem honored one of Israel’s most popular national heroes, a man who had suffered and sacrificed his all for the Jewish state, and is recognized by practically everyone as not only a hero but a modern exemplar of Zionist virtue. As evening fell, lights illuminating the walls of the Old City were dimmed “as a gesture of solidarity with convicted spy Jonathan Pollard,” reported Ha’aretz. “As part of Tuesday’s event, a special message calling upon US President Barack Obama to release Pollard will be projected onto the darkened city walls.” July 13 marked the 9,000th day of his incarceration.

Yes, in Israel they’re counting the days until this traitor is released, and their message – hand the traitor over – is now being projected by Israeli negotiators, who are pressing the US for Pollard’s release in exchange for yet another temporary halt to their aggressive “settlement” building campaign. The settlements have become a big sticking point obstructing the peace process, with unelected Palestinian “President” Mahmoud Abbas threatening to walk if the Israelis don’t lay off.

This illustrates what I call the Pollard principle: whenever there’s a showdown between the US and Israel, a difficult negotiation involving some concession the hard-headed Israelis refuse to budge on, the Israeli side always raises the Pollard issue. It was raised during the Wye negotiations, and Bill Clinton toyed with the idea until then CIA chief George Tenet and a whole raft of intelligence and military officials threatened to resign in protest.

The enormity of Pollard’s crime is largely forgotten, today, but several former US government officials have testified to it, including Caspar Weinberger, who wrote in a 46-page memorandum detailing the damage done by Pollard’s treason:

“It is difficult for me, even in the so-called ‘year of the spy,’ to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by the defendant in the view of the breadth, the critical importance to the U.S., and the high sensitivity of the information he sold to Israel.”

Seymour Hersh got the goods on Pollard in a 1999 New Yorker piece in which he reports two schools of thought within the intelligence community on the Pollard case: those who believe “the Israelis repackaged much of Pollard’s material and provided it to the Soviet Union in exchange for continued Soviet permission for Jews to emigrate to Israel,” and those who “go further,” and point out that a great deal of Pollard’s thievery – directed, as it was, by his Israeli handlers – involved information valuable only to the Soviets.

This suggests active Israeli-Soviet collusion, a case made by CIA director William J. Casey, who, reports Hersh, “stunned one of his station chiefs by suddenly complaining about the Israelis breaking the ‘ground rules.’ The issue arose when Casey urged increased monitoring of the Israelis during an otherwise routine visit, I was told by the station chief, who is now retired. ‘He asked if I knew anything about the Pollard case,’ the station chief recalled, and he said that Casey had added, ‘For your information, the Israelis used Pollard to obtain our attack plan against the U.S.S.R. all of it. The coordinates, the firing locations, the sequences. And for guess who? The Soviets.’ Casey had then explained that the Israelis had traded the Pollard data for Soviet emigres. ‘How’s that for cheating?’ he had asked.”

Cheating – and chutzpah: that just about sums up the Israeli perspective in a phrase, with the latter now coming to the fore as Laura Rozen reports:

“Israeli officials are mulling a possible deal under which Israel would extend a partial West Bank settlement freeze due to expire later this month in exchange for the U.S. releasing Jonathan Pollard, serving a life sentence for spying for Israel, Israel Army Radio News reported, via the English-language Israeli Press Review:

“’Officials in Jerusalem are examining an initiative in which the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria will be extended in exchange for the release of the Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard, from prison in the U.S. The proponents of the initiative assess that this would enable many of the right wing ministers to swallow the bitter pill, as they put it, of extending the freeze.”

“A political source said that this possibility also arose in a discussion held by the Prime Minister’s Bureau, but said that it was one of many ideas. A private source, who has ties with Palestinian and American officials, says that a few days ago an associate of the prime minister asked him to check secretly and unofficially with administration officials whether such an initiative was feasible. The source conveyed the request, but it is not known how, if at all, the Americans responded to the idea. In addition, various sources say that in public opinion polls held recently by the Prime Minister’s Bureau, the respondents were asked whether they would support an extension to the freeze in exchange for Pollard’s release.’”

In a later update, Rozen reported a US official saying: “"Israeli officials have inquired about Jonathan Pollard before and have again.” Yes, and they’ll continue to inquire about Pollard until he’s released, because for them he is a real national hero, a living martyr to the extremist idea that Zionism means putting Israel first, over and above the interests and security of one’s own country. That’s why they lionize him, and continually demand his release: it reinforces the idea of dual loyalty as a political and even a religious duty – a nutty concept overwhelmingly rejected by the vast majority of American Jews, and ironically embraced by anti-Semites.

Read more here.

[Clarice]

I hope it wan't serious PO and that all is well this morning/

[Pofarmer]

"Sounds like the same reasoning he used to explain that even if he knew the surge would work, he would have voted against it, because it was more important to defeat President Bush politically than to win the war."

Chicago politics. He thinks that he can do the expedient thing, and the right thing will still happen. He hasn't considered that in the position of poutus he can kill off the John galt's whether they want to go or not.

[MayBee]

I wonder if Woodward's book lists the searing questions Obama asked.

[Pofarmer]

Thanks clarice. Dad fell and buried a rib. Plenty painful, but mendable.

[Pofarmer]

Bruised a rib. The word selection on this iPad ticks me off. For instance, it doesn't want to let me spell dimocrat!

[Extraneus]

I thought they were withering.

[Pofarmer]

Would somebody ban anduril already? I mean, really, enough is enough.

[anduril]

I love these "conservatives" who desperately fear a free market of ideas.

[narciso]

There are plenty of people who belong on that list, Steele, Murkowski, Crist, (even when he was one) right off the top of my head. But it's considered sophisticated to attack the Palin family, even though more likely then
not, they are more independents

[Captain Hate]

DoT, that's a pretty annoying list. Bristol Palin really needs to go away and learn how to act like an adult (I disagree greatly with Tammy Bruce who is supportive of her dumbass look-at-me stunts) before she takes her mother down with her. Brooks/Frum: tomato/tomahto; both of them are negligible idiots worthy of being completely ignored. Do we have to pretend Powell is a Repub? Miss Lindsey: absolutely. MegaMac: See Bristol.

My list:
1. Miss Lindsey
2. Olympia Snowe
3. My Friends (although kudos to the ol' backstabber for his statements on yesterday's military funding bill)
4. Leena Murlouseski
5. Cheato Crist

Hope all is well Po

There are so many more....

[DebinNC]

Janet, your care packages are the best I've ever seen. As a service to those like me who are far less creative, next time you take pics please try to position as many items as possible in such a way that the items' "names" are as clear as possible. I think having a specific list of items to shop for, rather than generic categories like "toiletries" or "snacks", would encourage more folks to do what you're doing. You've certainly inspired me.

[Jim Ryan]

Cap'n, Narciso, it's Miklosky.

[narciso]

Actually I think it's Mztlpldlk

[Rob Crawford]

Blunt time:

The "progressive" self-proclaimed elite hate us, law-abiding Americans. When we're the victims of crime, they blame us. When we're out of work because a criminal "undocumented immigrant" undercut our job, they tell us it's because we're lazy. When our votes are overwhelmed by corruption, they're overjoyed.

When madmen cross the oceans to slaughter us, they lecture us that it's a "learning opportunity" for us. The man Obama considers so wise and so important in his life that he's used his words as the basis of multiple speeches and at least one of his books celebrated that slaughter.

When the madmen behind the madmen celebrate our slaughter and demand to put up a veritable Arc de Triomphe, they tell us we must be "tolerant".

When our most revered symbols are burnt and desecrated, we're told that's just the price of living in a free society. But returning the favor is met with shrieks and howls of anger -- and endless lectures about "dignity" and not offending.

The "progressives" long for the power of life and death over every one of us. Is it any accident that the NYT has a century-long history of covering up the crimes of dictators and now, just about on a monthly schedule, publishes an editorial calling for the institution of a totalitarian dictatorship in the US? Is it any accident that the "progressive" first instinct when their schemes fail is to lash the whip harder? Never, ever, ever will they consider that the answer is more liberty, just more restrictions, more confiscation of labor, more corruption, more control.

[Pofarmer]

If y'all haven'f been keeping up with Karl denninger, then you should read this post, LUN, and then go to the homepage and read his takedown of yesterday's fed report.

[anduril]

More re Pollard from Jeff Stein: White House, CIA ignore reported Pollard gambit. Apparently Netanyahu must be a regular JOMer (channelled by Clarice?), and that's where he gets his estimate of America's national IQ:

The Obama administration is publicly ignoring a reported offer from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a settlements freeze in exchange for the release of Jonathan Pollard, the convicted Israeli spy.

Pressure to release Pollard, serving a life sentence since 1987 for providing thousands of secret documents to Israel, arises regularly, spurred by Pollard’s wife Esther and right-wing parties in Jerusalem.

But an even more powerful backlash from national security officials in Washington has repeatedly derailed the idea. Pollard also sold secrets to South Africa and advertised his services to Pakistan, they point out, while Israel used some of the documents he gave them as barter for favors from Moscow.

During Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations at the Wye Plantation in 2001, CIA Director George Tenet famously threatened to resign when the Clinton White House entertained the idea of Pollard's release.

It hasn’t been seriously considered since.

Today the idea provoked silence from the White House, where officials said they would have no comment. At the CIA, senior officials said the idea hadn’t even come up for discussion.

“It’s not a new development,” said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues. “They deploy all the time.”

An Israeli Embassy spokesman in Washington had no immediate comment.

The latest Pollard feeler first arose Monday on the Israeli Army radio station.

“Army radio said that Netanyahu had asked an unnamed intermediary to sound out the Obama administration on the proposal, but it is not known what response was received,” The Guardian of London reported. “Other Israeli media reported that the prime minister dispatched the intermediary to approach the Americans ‘discreetly, and unofficially.’”

Settler groups responded angrily to the suggestion of a three-month freeze for Pollard, according to reports.

[Pofarmer]

"
I love these "conservatives" who desperately fear a free market of ideas.

Posted by: anduril | September 22, 2010 at 09:59 AM"

Start your own blog and have at it, big boy. The lengthy anti semitic cut and pastes are just over the top, even for w Paulbot.

[MayBee]

Oh Ex, you are right. They were withering questions.

[anduril]

Start your own blog

Uh-huh, and this is your blog?

[Clarice]

I try to keep some distance from Janet even though I love her. There's the fear of being dragged into her do good circle. Anyway, those pkgs are really something..I have over the past few years put some together myself but these are extraordinary. I esp. think the LED book light and styptic swabs are strokes of genius.

[Rob Crawford]

I love these "conservatives" who desperately fear a free market of ideas.

I love these "conservatives" who think other people's blogs are theirs to crap all over.

[Pofarmer]

Uhm, no, I'm just one of the commenters here that you are annoying the crap out of with your lengthy, completely off topic, cut and pasted, drivel. It would be somewhat tolerable if it were at least your own words.

[JM Hanes]

"but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever...."

.... till Obamacare kicks in. OTOH, his argument has a certain merit. We could sustain an ivory tower implosion, and rise smartly from the ashes. Half of DC could disappear tomorrow, and we'd be all the stronger for it.

[Clarice]

In NY Paladino is already just 6 pts behind Cuomo and i understand his hardest hitting ads aren't even out yet.

In Penn, there's esp nice news for those of us who grew to despise Specter.

Republican Pat Toomey has inched closer to majority support, leading Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak 50 percent to 43 percent in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters released today.Fifty-six of Pennsylvania voters who say they are likely to go to the polls Nov. 2 disapprove of the job President Obama is doing, compared with 40 percent who approve, the poll finds.By a 52 to 43 percent margin, voters say they would rather have a Republican representing Pennsylvania in the Senate.

[JM Hanes]

The five most annoying Republicans? I guess the worst of 'em just don't qualify for a Republican list anymore:

The once was a leech called Murkowski
Defeated, she wouldn't bow out, she
Claimed Stevens' ghost
Really loved her the most.
Side of bacon or toast? Burnt bridge, please.

[JM Hanes]

Shoot, I clariced the *there*

[narciso]

The "Daily Cage Liner" I mean News, is on a relentless attack against him, so that's all I need to know, although Lazio is on the Conservative Party ballot, so he'll try to be a spoiler

[Porchlight]

I don't think comparing Bristol to MeggieMac is quite fair, Captain. Bristol didn't trash her mother's running mate to the MSM and deliberately provide ammunition to the ticket's opponents both before and after the election.

They're both cute as buttons though. ;)

[Clarice]

Funny, jmh, I kept reading it exactly as you meant it--only on the 3d try after twice reading your follow up, did I notice that the "there" was "the". I am a very creative reader.

[JM Hanes]

LOL, Clarice, hoist on my own petard! That's what I've been telling you for lo these many years. :-)

[Clarice]

Some folks were just not meant by our creator to be proofreaders.

Speedreaders, okay.
Proofreaders--no.

[DebinNC]

The Democrats that Obama's terrified of losing are these One Nation folks and their fellow travelers who'll be marching in DC Oct. 2. Kos is begging his minions to spread the word because "the media in DC is crickets". Funny how the media doesn't care a whit about Obama's base on parade Oct. 2, but can't wait for the "Restore Sanity/Fear" fests scheduled right before the election and designed to rehabilitate the Dem brand damaged by the earlier march, which I pray CSPAN at least will cover.

[Neo]

-- The CIA created, controls and pays for a clandestine 3,000-man paramilitary army of local Afghans, known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams. Woodward describes these teams as elite, well-trained units that conduct highly sensitive covert operations into Pakistan as part of a stepped-up campaign against al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban havens there.

-- Obama has kept in place or expanded 14 intelligence orders, known as findings, issued by his predecessor, George W. Bush. The orders provide the legal basis for the CIA's worldwide covert operations.

[rse]

Do you ever read a story that synthesizes some of what you knew, augments it, and pulls it together so you want to yell "that's it?"

Today's "Obama and the Global Elite" is that piece. It also explaind that D'Souza was on to something but not in the way thought.

LUN

Don't miss the comment on how Nigerians see the British and US differently and how it's a shame BO doesn't get that.

[Old Lurker]

Like Iggy, I have a truly nutty sibling. Watching that train wreck last night with Sylvia made me wonder if she is my sister. Lord forgive me if that is fact. (Technically, please forgive Mom & Dad...)

[Rick Ballard]

Isn't Bloomberg nominally Republican? He'd make my top five any day.

[anduril]

Do you ever read a story that synthesizes some of what you knew, augments it, and pulls it together so you want to yell "that's it?"

Frequently, and when I do I sometimes offer excerpts to others.

[NK]

Rick-- Bloomie is a life long libdem. he took the Repub line to be elected Mayor and was elected immediately after 9/11 so by historical accident national security became his first priority. remember, once Bloomie made his billion how did he expand his business? JOURNALISM!

[RichatUF]

Pofarmer-

Hope he starts feeling better.

I took a look at the Denninger link and his hair is on fire on the Santelli question. His write up on the fed statement-not sure. If the operating theory is deflation because of wage deflation and declining capacity utilization then the Fed needs to create inflation to hit its target rate. Taylor's Rule would call for a negative ff rate. Regarding the dollar, the Chinese are buying yen* to squezze Japanese exporters and a relief rally (and a continuing delusion) is pushing up the Euro. Not to say that it is all good, but the Fed is limited in what it can do with the dollar. If the US wanted a King Dollar policy, the Treasury would implement it.

*A side note: the Japanese have a national debt approching 185% of GPD and have run budget deficits 20%-50% for more than decade and have had significant political weakness for nearly as long. Why in the world would their currency be up some 40% against the dollar in the last 5 years and at a level last seen right before their twin bubbles popped.

[narciso]

Despite ten plots since 9/11, he has shown no signs of understanding the issues, having a Hamas sympathizer on the human rights panel, is just the most obvious symptom of it

[MarkO]

"We can absorb a terrorist attack."

This is what passes for national defense under a silly, vain man. He seems to lack the imagination to contemplate the kinds of attacks that loom. Moreover, he seems to believe that there is no point in taking the fight to the religion of peace. We'll just defend ourselves. Containment in Iran and at home.

[MayBee]

I don't mean to suggest that LaRaza instructs people to post on blogs that mention the DREAM act, but most of the supportive comments at Tapper's place yesterday read like they'd been run through Babblefish a few times.

[Hawkins]

What if it's even worse?

What if this stupid meme about "being stronger" is the set up for defense/HSA cuts in order to address the budget deficits.

Also for a pullout of troops from Afghanistan. See, we're stronger now, not the Islamophobes we were back when we invaded Iraq for oil and Afghanistan on a wild goose chase for a non-threat like Bin Laden.

See we're more tolerant now, and more safe, so we don't need these things.

That's how Democrats tend to "curb spending" in our life and times.

[Jack is Back!]

DoT,

Just sent that vid to all my distribution list. Expect it on USNA-at-Large unless you already have:)

You have to live in Florida to hear Crist complaining about the Republican audit that caught him and his family's hands in the proverbial cookie jar. He sounds like a whiner. Those interview comments of his will sink him even further. But then Florida saves a seat doesn't create one. That is why states like Colorado, Delaware, California, Washington, etc. are in a way more important. I know, you don't want to lose one but you make up zero ground if you don't win those that are currently dems.

[Ignatz]

Here, at RCP, is an interesting article on the Panic of 1920 and how Harding reacted correctly to it, as opposed to the geniuses of both parties of our day.
*********************
--Frequently, and when I do I sometimes offer excerpts to others.--

So why not just give a brief description and a link then?
Because that wouldn't piss people off or draw sufficient attention to you?

[rse]

Rick & anyone else interested in the economics of higher ed and whether the bubble will burst, Andrew Gillen has written this fine piece on the difference between the costs of instruction per student and what is being charged.

What a boondoggle being an administrator is for those individuals.

LUN

[hit and run]

MayBee's comment,run through babelfish a few times:

I do not mean to suggest LaRaza gives instructions of people to the adjustment to blogs that they mention the IDEAL act, but most of to the commentaries of the aid in Tapper the place of read yesterday since some times had worked with Babblefish.

[MayBee]

Ha ha ha ha ha!

[boris]

So why not just give a brief description and a link then?

There seems to be some level of compulsion involved. Even if people don't read the copy/paste they have at least "been exposed" to it. The anduriod likely knows the subject matter is not interesting enough to warrant a link-click and the argument far too pretzel contrived for a short exceprt.

[Janet]

Thanks for the care pkg feedback...I just copy what my church sends over except on a smaller scale. I'll try to capture brand names better. Mainly wanted to let everyone know we're on hold for awhile. It really is a privilege to get to support Soylent! You JOMers are just the best group of people. I think it was Jane who said,...the nicest people I've never met! True dat!!

[narciso]

He is remarkably tone deaf isn't he JiB, and yet the NRSC, put Cornyn on that list as well,
picked him, doubled down, yadda, yadda

[Rob Crawford]

Anyone notice that the day after Kaus announces he's joining Newsweak, he tries to start a fight between Beck and Breitbart?

[Porchlight]

Kaus is joining Newsweek? Damn, that sucks. That's one guy I thought had some freaking integrity.

[RichatUF]

rse-

Good find with the AT article.
In that post-colonial theory cannot trace its roots to an autochthonous European or Euro-American origin, those who continue to "cling" to Rules for Radicals dismiss its propositions.

The problem that I have with this is that post-colonial theory was written and promoted by tenured, far-left academics in the West as a response to the failed Class of 68 uprising in the West, and not indigenous political thought of the ME, Asia, or Africa. Its basis is Marxism or Heidegger. And if "The World Was Going Our Way" is to be believed, it was generously supported by the Soviet Empire. Obama himself was attracted to the SANE/Freeze movement in college (if his book is to be believed), another boutique left movement supported by the Soviets.

[Extraneus]

Insty posted your observation in an update, Rob.

[Porchlight]

post-colonial theory was written and promoted by tenured, far-left academics in the West as a response to the failed Class of 68 uprising in the West, and not indigenous political thought of the ME, Asia, or Africa.

Rich, are you saying that post-colonial theory is itself colonial in nature? And supported by the imperialist communist Soviets?

Who would have guessed?

[Janet]

a fight between Beck and Breitbart?

Yes Rob!! I think 2 strong components of the Tea Party are the libertarians & the politically active Christians. Both groups are great & strong because they are used to being bashed by the MFM. They don't care what the media says. That said, the Tea Party needs to keep its focus on small govt, less spending, more freedom,...
Libertarians can hold rallies on legalizing pot...and the Christians can hold rallies on stopping abortion....but the 2 groups need to come together for the Tea Parties & demand smaller, less intrusive govt.

*At the 9-12 rally there was a speaker (I think a former gov. of NM) that spoke about legalizing pot...I yelled out "No! That is a terrible idea!". That guy should have a pre-rally for his agenda...& the same for other agendas.

[Pagar]

rse, that is a pretty amazing link you put up @11:22AM
where the 1st line reads:
"Teaching One Student Costs Only $1,456 A Year?"

Thanks

[Rob Crawford]

I like Insty.

I honestly don't think the timing's a coincidence. Remember, Kaus is a still a Democrat -- and his "run" for office was a stunt. He was campaigning for a federal office on the basis that the state was too beholden to the unions. If he really has a beef with the union hold on the state, he should run for a state office, where he might make a difference.

[MarkJ]

Re: Woodward's book. If it weren't for the fact that I know Bob Woodward is focused, first and foremost, on what's best for Bob Woodward, I'd think Woodward was a paid political operative of the Republican Party.

But we know that can't be true....can it?

[RichatUF]

Maybe Woodward fired up his oujia board and channeled Casey? Maybe he got O'Donnell to chant some incantations?

[maryrose]

2 Ideas to take away from the Woodward book:
Obama thinks we can absorb another terrorist attack
Obama set a deadline in Afghanistan in order not to "Lose the entire Democratic Party."
One idea is naive and stupid the other is strictly political and shows his main priority is not the welfare of the American people.

[RichatUF]

Porchlight-

Pretty much. Ikenga is describing Transnational Progressivism. D'Souza did seem to hit a soft spot though.

I need more coffee and more time to sketch out my thinking and this isn't the place to do it.

[Rob Crawford]

Obama thinks we can absorb another terrorist attack

More accurate statement: it doesn't concern Obama whether more Americans die at the hands of terrorists.

[Extraneus]

...and anyway, the government will come out stronger.

[Porchlight]

Would love to read anything you do sketch out, Rich.

[Ranger]

More accurate statement: it doesn't concern Obama whether more Americans die at the hands of terrorists.

Posted by: Rob Crawford | September 22, 2010 at 12:19 PM

That was clear during the campaign, when he said that the prosecution of the 93 twin towers bombing was an example of success against terrorism, and a modle that should be followed in the future. The fact that the prosocution took place after the perps had actually set off the bomb, and that using the law enforcement model let the key plotters get away, and plot the 9/11 attacks seemed to be totally lost on Obama.

That is why I said at the time, and will repeat every change I get: 9/11 is what success in the war on terror looks like to Obama.

[Rick Ballard]

Geraghty provides the best news of the day. Obama doesn't know how to drive a stick but he's successfully driving the Muddle - away from voting Dem.

[hit and run]

Obama's policies have made us less safe:

WASHINGTON – Three top Obama administration officials in the fight against terror said Wednesday that the al-Qaida threat to the United States has grown more complex in the past year and underscores the challenges of pinpointing and blocking terrorist plots.

Not only that but under Obama the US is now 41% softer and 27% more absorbent.

From Brawny to Bounty.