Saturday Morning Open Thread

Chris Hitchens and Leon Wieseltier wonder why the empty suit draped in the White House is so unwilling to bestir himself on Libya.

Hitch suggests the President is secretly Swiss, and is simply waiting to gauge the strenght of the prevailing winds:

The Obama administration also behaves as if the weight of the United States in world affairs is approximately the same as that of Switzerland. We await developments. We urge caution, even restraint. We hope for the formation of an international consensus. And, just as there is something despicable about the way in which Swiss bankers change horses, so there is something contemptible about the way in which Washington has been affecting—and perhaps helping to bring about—American impotence.

Mr. Wieseltier puts it more politiely than I would in suggesting that Obama simply hates American power almost as much as the sterotypical third-worlder:

Why is Obama so disinclined to use the power at his disposal? His diffidence about humanitarian emergencies is one of the most mystifying features of his presidency, and one of its salient characteristics. These crises—in Tehran two years ago, in Cairo last month, in Tripoli now—produce in him a lame sort of lawyerliness. He lists the relevant rights and principles and then turns to procedural questions, like those consultations. The official alibi for Obama’s patience with Qaddafi’s atrocity is his concern for the Americans who are still stranded within Qaddafi’s reach; I was amused to learn from a friend that the spin out of the White House includes the suggestion that Obama’s restraint is actually the wisdom of the hostage negotiator. But Obama’s statement about Libya suggests another explanation for his slow pace. This was its climax: “So let me be clear. The change that is taking place across the region is being driven by the people of the region. This change doesn’t represent the work of the United States or any foreign power. It represents the aspirations of people who are seeking a better life.”

They are fighting authoritarianism, but he is fighting imperialism. Who in their right mind believes that this change does represent the work of the United States or any foreign power? To be sure, there are conspiracy theorists in the region who are not in their right mind, and will hold such an anti-American view; but this anti-Americanism is not an empirical matter. They will hate us whatever we do. I do not see a Middle East rising up in anger at the prospect of American intervention. I see an American president with a paralyzing fear that it will.

Of course, this is the same President who has tripled our troop commitment to Afghanistan.

AllahPundit has a deeper and darker theory - whatever the US does now may set a precedent for our response to an uprising in Saudi Arabia.  Interesting...

Comments

[clarice]

I'd be more receptive to a conspiratorial explanation were it not for the fact that the white House website misspelled Libya and couldn't even organize a rescue of our own people there. I'm still banking on the too dumb and incompetent for his diploma theory.

[clarice]

Allah's Saudi explanation fails to account for the fact that Obama bestirred himself to attack Mubarak earning a Saudi rebuke.

Still checking the box saying "stupid not part of a plan".

[hit and run]

Mr. Wieseltier:
Why is Obama so disinclined to use the power at his disposal? His diffidence about humanitarian emergencies is one of the most mystifying features of his presidency, and one of its salient characteristics.

Yes,but Obama spoke loudly and forcefully,with great moral clarity and purpose to the point of suggesting military intervention about the humanitary emergency of Darfur . . . as a candidate in 2007 and 2008 when doing so could score points against Bush.

Gone is Hope and Change.

Replaced with The Fierce Moral Urgency of Now (That I'm in Charge,I'm Paralyzed)

[narciso]

I think the Lisa Simpson theory; re Mr. Burns,
fits best, with modification, even when he (pretends) to do good, he's still (evil) stupid.

[Extraneus]

Wouldn't an evil stumblebum theory fit the facts best?

[sam]

Obama cannot get anything straight is because he is an incompetent buffoon, a two-bit thug.

Add in his Muslim inclinations, and he has no idea of right vs. wrong, no idea about principles or interests.

[saveliberty]

Clarice, thank you for your comments today!

(And every day. I appreciate the ready wit.)

[narciso]

So as with Russell Tice, Sibel Edmonds, that Lebanese born FBI agent, truth is no obstacle
to the narrative, in the LUN

[BobS]

From the "But I thought they hated us file"

Egypt's constitution will be looking like ours."

[Sandy Daze]

26 Feb 11
Baghdad

Over at BC you get the sense that the smart folks there think we've got two to four months before all hell breaks lose.

wretchard has, imo, a significant assessment:

My guess is that the President’s engagement queue is now fully saturated. It’s lagged now, because he has to respond to about a dozen fully blown crises in a time-sliced manner, while the actors in each crisis simply focus on their own slice in near real-time.

1. Wisconsin and the midwest Red states;
2. Afghanistan;
3. Egypt;
4. Libya;
5. Iran;
6. Bahrain;
7. Yemen;
8. North Korea;
9. the Federal shutdown of government;
10. Pakistan

all on the boil and developing fast.

And looming right on the horizon
1. Saudi Arabia;
2. Energy prices;
3. Bankruptcy of California, Illinois, etc
4. Collapse of the Euro;
5. the bond markets;
6. court challenges to Obamacare;
7. DOMA

He’s responding in penny-packets to challenges like Pakistan in ways guaranteed to make them bigger. Because what he knows, and perhaps all he knows, is “kick the can down the road”, there is no closure to anything anywhere.

So the engagement queue is likely to grow ever longer, which means the lag will grow to the point where problems proceed essentially unengaged. At this rate, the administration will have the equivalent of a nervous breakdown inside of a two months.

. . .

. . . He is now in a situation where it is not about talking points, not about looking good behind a podium. It is about actually be able to do something. And so far, it seems like he doesn’t have a clue.

Take good care,
Sandy

[hit and run]

Sorry I missed your big day on Monday BobS...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Hope you had a great one.

[Janet]

Obama cannot get anything straight is because he is an incompetent buffoon, a two-bit thug.

I agree with this. IMO he is just the spokesman for a whole group of far left people. Each one is doing what they always dreamed of doing. Obama gives them free rein. He's not in control of anything...not even his own far left kooks.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Happy Birthday, BobS!

[narciso]

Habby birthday, BobS.

[Pagar]

Happy birthday, BobS!

[narciso]

Btw, here's an account of the Steyn talk in Stoughton, in the LUN

[DebinNC]

I like Steyn's distillation of the big union racket:

"Big Unions fund Big Government. The union slices off two per cent of the workers’ pay and sluices it to the Democratic Party, which uses it to grow government, which also grows unions, which thereby grows the number of two-per-cent contributions, which thereby grows the Democratic Party, which thereby grows government… Repeat until bankruptcy. Or bailout."

Best wishes, BobS

[Jane]

Happy b-day Bob S ~ and many more...

[centralcal]

Happy Birthday, BobS.

Great Steyn quote, DebinNC!!

[Porchlight]

BobS, happy birthday! Thank you for your contributions especially regarding education.

[Captain Hate]

Happy birthday, BobS.

Leon and Marty are neck and neck for the dubious achievement award for otherwise intelligent people that have been totally clueless about the Indonesian Imbecile. I'm tired of giving them credit for brain power when they can't admit the obvious in front of their eyes. The burden is now on them to prove that they're anything other than clueless dumbasses who can turn an engaging phrase or two.

[DebinNC]

TM didn't quote my favorite part of Wieseltier's piece re Obama's impotent "musts":

"This violence must stop.” So President Obama declared the other day about the depravity in Tripoli. This “must” is a strange mixture of stridency and passivity. It is the deontic locution familiar from the editorial pages of newspapers, where people who have no power to change the course of events demand that events change their course. This “must” denotes an order, or a permission, or an obligation, or a wish, or a will. It does not denote a plan. It includes no implication, no expectation, of action. It is the rhetoric of futility...

Three Obama "musts" in his Libya statement: "This violence must end"... "They [human rights] must be respected in every country...and "It [Libya] must be held accountable for its failure to meet these responsibilities..."

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Leon and Marty are ...

Marty?

[Captain Hate]

Marty Peretz, long-time, now former, editor and owner of the New Republic, which is the site for Leon's column.

[JF]

Obama's use of power is redistribution of wealth through foreign aid cash generally to friends and family.He doesn't like the military because there is no money for his redistribution there.Americans are finding out what most already lnow.If there is an emergency US diplomats are useless.You go back home and make sure they dont make more.

[narciso]

Peretz, I'm a nobody in the big scheme of things, and I noticed Obama's anti American
propensities two years ago, from Ayer to WRight to Khalidi to Bell, less obviously with Frank Marshall Davis, where was Leon in all this. Oh I remember, he was impressed by
that vacuous speech on race in 2008, ignored
his statements in Audacity and the other book.

[PD]

Tammy Baldwin's latest email newsletter:

Subject: Solidarity!

I have never been so proud to be from Wisconsin than I have been this week. When Governor Walker tried to wipe out six decades of progress in six weeks in office, Wisconsinites drew a line in the sand and said, “NOT HERE!”

Tens of thousands of Wisconsin students, teachers, nurses, electricians, police officers, firefighters, parents, and their children have flooded the Capitol in Madison to protest a budget repair bill that would have dire consequences for them and their families. It has been an honor to stand with them in solidarity.

In addition to visiting the Capitol each day and rallying with courageous Wisconsinites, I have taken to the airwaves and to social media to speak out against this harmful legislation. You can find photos and videos from my activities this week on a special Solidarity! page on my website.

You also can catch up on all this week’s activity, and follow this weekend’s rallies, by visiting my Facebook page or following @reptammybaldwin on Twitter.

People in Wisconsin are sending the powerful message that in a democracy we decide what’s possible. I stand with them.

You can almost feel her quiver with excitement, to be part of something that recaptures the past glory of the student protests in the 60s and 70s, chanting against "the man."

I'm surprised she didn't spell the subject as "Solidarnosk!"

Thanks for standing against the taxpayers, Tammy.

[Danube of Thought]

If you are not depressed enough by what you see, consider that 47% of likely voters in America at least "somewhat approve" of this dolt's performance in office (Raz). This suggests to me that, through it all, we remain a largely somnolent nation. What in the hell will it take to cause people to ponder what has happened on this guy's watch? The disgraces, the failures, the imbecilities?

I shudder to think.

[clarice]

Happy belated birthday BoBS. (Is Hit falling down on the job or what?)

Thanks, saveliberty.

[DebinNC]

A bit more from Wieseltier's point that Obama's impotent "must"...

It is the rhetoric of futility: this infection must stop, this blizzard must stop, this madness must stop. But this infection, this blizzard, this madness, like this violence, will not stop, because its logic is to grow. It will stop only if it is stopped. Must the murder of his own people by this madman stop, Mr. President? Then stop it.

Wieseltier then goes full Sarah Palin and asks why Obama hasn't instituted a no-fly zone over the Libya killing fields.

[Jim Ryan]

Deb, also "We do not want to see any violence. We deplore it." is a clunker coming from a Sec State speaking of a dictator killing his people. It is totally effete. One deplores the violence done by a surgeon during radical surgery. One condemns the thug and says he must stop using violence. To get these two proprieties confused suggests a moral deficit, confusion, weakness or fear.

[Captain Hate]

I like how the lefty bloggers are applauding the decision of whatever Madison greasy spoon asked Scott Walker to leave because other customers were booing him. Leaving aside the question of the appropriateness of letting disruptive people stay while asking somebody who is minding his own business to leave, what would these cheerleaders say if BOzo was the target of boorish behavior in an eatery?

[Rocco]

A Hex on Joey Plugs...wazzybooya

Happy Birthday BobS

[narciso]

I wonder about that, Danube, I figure it just takes time for reality to set in, maybe $4.00
gas, I hope that's not what's needed.

[Kennedywastherelonger]

Jordan,.Morrocco.,Indonesiaetc all quiet.They were part of the plan and went half way,maybe they'll do what their told now.Just a warning do what the aid/cia tells you or else..

[anduril]

I'm pretty much off Ann Coulter these days, but I have to admit I liked this from a Hannity appearance:

I love Sarah Palin...the only reason I inadvertently voted for McCain was because Sarah Palin was on the ticket. But she's so huge right now, she has so much power...I think it would be a step down for her to run for president....It's like saying, should Rush Limbaugh run for president...No! I think Sarah Palin should keep doing what she's doing....I think she's saying [she'd consider running] because Newt Gingrich told her she'd get higher speaking fees.

BTW, I have a problem with the notion that the US should be running the world. We've screwed up our own house--let's get that in order first. Our resources are limited and our debts are too large to grow our way out. Let's work on those problems.

[Jim Ryan]

47%....This suggests to me that, through it all, we remain a largely somnolent nation.

It also suggests that Ryan, the last hope this country has before going belly up, has only a 53% chance of the success if all the stars in the universe align perfectly during his attempt.

[clarice]

I had a bit of fun this morning:
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/02/26/lets-move-away-from-the-office-of-first-lady-as-a-power-center/>Let's Move

[narciso]

Didn't they lose the vote, what is it, I'm missing here,

[Danube of Thought]

Here is another item from the outfit known as Politifact Wisconsin (trashing Rachel Maddow anew), in which they make a passing reference to a Politifact Oregon. I assume there is some connection between these two entities and the one affiliated with the leftist St. Petersburg Times, but I don't yet know what it is.

I'll see if I can find out.

And have a great day, BobS.

[Jim Ryan]

Deb, did you see that also Jennifer Rubin on Palin/Libya/Israel?

[clarice]

Urgh

Once again LUN

[DebinNC]

Here's clarice's Tatler link.

[Rocco]

By Don Feder a former Boston Herald writer. I always wondered what happened to him. It's good to see he's still in the arena.

What's The Difference Between A Wisconsin Public Employee And A Somali Pirate?

H/T Free Republic

[MaryD]

Clarice, I read your pajamas post and the whole article in the Crimson. Made my day! I hadn't realized that it was Roslyn Carter who established the "Office of the First Lady". The next Republican President's wife should abolish it.

[Jim Ryan]

Narciso, Ryan intends to eliminate the debt for our kids and grandkids. He said that yesterday. He's going to need an overwhelming majority who support his extremely painful restructuring of this country's finances, slashing of entitlements, and drastic reduction of government. 47% pro-Obama says he doesn't have the support it will take.

[DebinNC]

Interesting, Jim. Thanks.

[clarice]

MaryD, Me, too. And except for someone to advise on protocol, help with scheduling and answering correspondence (coordinating that because most is done by volunteers) there shouldn't be much personal staff. Certainly not putting wardrobe consultants like koop on the payroll.

[Rick Ballard]

Why is a conspiracy theory necessary to explain the behavior of an ignorant man of very limited intelligence and no discernible principles facing problems with undetermined outcomes? The Indecider has no executive experience and isn't capable of OJT. I'd hate to be behind him at a STOP sign.

As I've mentioned, there is a reason why his advisers have bailed. Anyone who spends more than five minutes with BOzo has to recognize his limitations and understand the utter futility of trying to elevate the understanding of a fence post to the point where comprehension is achieved.

It doesn't help matters that his advisers are credentialed morons from academia with far more experience in conducting seminars (followed by exciting break out groups) than in setting and pursuing policy goals.

Romer's unemployment chart should be the epitaph for this administration with 'Missed it by that much.' printed in bold at the bottom.

[Jim Ryan]

Because Rubin has pooh-poohed Palin in the past. So it was nice to see.

[hit and run]

(Is Hit falling down on the job or what?)

I've fallen and I can't refuse to get up.

[DebinNC]

The Indecider has no executive experience and isn't capable of OJT.

Ooo, I love "The Indecider". Obama is like the fleebaggers...there but not there. The Grand Fleegle is pretty apt, but The Indecider is perfect.

[clarice]

Slacker, hit.
Exactly, Rick. You put it far more eloquently than I have. He's d.u.m.b.

[narciso]

So what of this 2 billion dollar a week cut CR that Boehner is proposing, does that excite anyone.

[BobS]

OMG guys. Thank you!

[Danube of Thought]

My hero speaks of Islam once again.

[hit and run]

In 2008 we were told that Obama was post-partisan and post-racial. It was a lie,of course. He's proved post-post-partisan and post-post-racial.

His history as a senator both state and US evidenced a man who fearlessly voted present when the going got tough.

He's no longer even doing that much in a number of cases these days.

Forget present. Obama's now post-sent.

[Porchlight]

Why is a conspiracy theory necessary to explain the behavior of an ignorant man of very limited intelligence and no discernible principles facing problems with undetermined outcomes?

It is possible to explain his behavior without conspiracy theories. But given what we know about his background I don't think we can attribute it to incompetence alone. His intent toward the country he putatively leads is clearly malign. Nothing else explains both his past and present associations with the anti-American international Left *and* his pattern of always siding with America's enemies (foreign and domestic) over her allies.

[narciso]

He's the Henry Wallace Presidency we were spared in '44, due to some back room deals, except Wallace had some executive experiences
despite his nutty views

[Dicktators Suck]

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya.

Compare the cost to US for the elimination of Saddam (both lives and treasure), and the cost of posting Wikileaks. to build nations from within. Maybe we can disgorge some of the Bush/Cheney fortunes to recoup costs.

Freeze and disgorge dicktator assets. It's the people's will.

[Teabaggers Unite for the top 1 percent]

BTW; Thank you Wikileaks.

[BobS]

An idle thought: As we made much (and rightfully so it turns out) of Obama's inexperience, shouldn't we be advancing candidates who have been governors? Or even a mayor like Guliani. That woud leave a pretty good field of candidates - Romney, Palin, Huck, Johnson, Barbour, Daniels. I'd sure favor any of them right now in the drivers seat on the violent reshuffle in the Middle East and North Africa than a feckless Obama.

Medvedev has been publically rougher on Gaddaffi than Obama. Rice (what a disaster she's been) is off chasing after acaedemic feel good stuff in S.Africa right now)

How ironic that a new President will REALLY have to get back our standing in the world. And it will not be rhetorical like the left advanced for Obama. It will be real.

[clarice]

narciso, here's the news on the continuing resolution--it's a stab at a lot of low hanging fruit:

The House Appropriations Committee released a draft Continuing
Resolution that includes $4 billion in spending cuts and funds the
government until March 18. The Rules Committee indicates that the bill
will be on the floor on Tuesday.

Below is a summary of the cut in the short term CR:
This CR terminates funding for eight programs. These terminations
include:

* Election Assistance Grants = -$75 million. This termination was
requested in the President's budget request. The states have yet to
spend large amounts of funding provided by this program, and both the
House and Senate proposed eliminating the program last year.

* Broadband Direct Loan Subsidy (U.S. Department of Agriculture) = -$29
million. No funds were requested for this program in the President's
budget request. This program is duplicative of several other federal
programs, and the Agriculture Inspector General has uncovered abuses and
inconsistencies in the program as well as a lack of focus on the rural
communities it is intended to serve.

* Smithsonian Institution Legacy Fund = -$30 million. No funds were
requested for this program in the President's budget request. The Legacy
Fund was intended as a one-time only appropriation for revitalization of
the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building. Sufficient private
contributions were raised and the Legacy Fund monies were released in
December, 2010.

* Striving Readers program (U.S. Department of Education) = -$250
million. This termination was requested in the President's budget
request. This program has a large amount of unused funds, and is
essentially duplicative of the Title 1 program that provides $14 billion
annually in reading assistance to at-risk students.

* LEAP program (U.S Department of Education) = -$64 million. This
termination was requested in the President's budget request. This
program has accomplished its original objective of "stimulating" all
states to establish need-based student grant programs, and federal aid
is no longer required.

* Even Start (U.S. Department of Education) = -$66 million. This
termination was requested in the President's budget request. Three
national evaluations have found that participants in this program make
no greater literacy gains than non-participants. The Office of
Management and Budget has identified this program as "ineffective."

* Smaller Learning Communities (U.S. Department of Education) = -$88
million. This termination was requested in the President's budget
request. Both governmental and non-governmental research has shown no
evidence that creating smaller learning communities within high schools
makes a difference in academic achievement.

* Highways - Additional General Fund spending (Federal Highways
Administration) = -$650 million. No funds were requested for this use in
the President's budget request. This one-time, non-recurring funding
addition was provided in fiscal year 2010 and distributed to all States
through the existing, authorized highway formula. Removing these funds
will have no impact on the authorized, mandatory side of the highway
program and its limitation of obligations.

TOTAL Terminations Savings = $1.24 billion

Earmark Terminations:

The CR eliminates funding that was made available in fiscal year 2010
that would have gone to earmarked programs and projects. These earmark
cuts include:

Energy and Water

-$56 million - Army Corps of Engineers, Investigations
-$341 million - Army Corps of Engineers, Construction
-$80 million - Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi River
-$39 million - Army Corps of Engineers, Operations and Maintenance
-$38 million - Bureau of Reclamation, Water and Related Resources
-$292 million - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
-$13 million - Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
-$3 million - Nuclear Energy Research and Development activities
-$37 million - Fossil Energy Research
-$77 million - Office of Science - science research
-$4 million - Defense Environmental Cleanup
-$3 million - Other Defense Activities
-$13 million - National Nuclear Security Administration - Office of the
Administrator
-$0.3 million - Nuclear Nonproliferation - equipment upgrades

Homeland Security

-$1 million - DHS Undersecretary for Management - logistics training
-$1 million - Customs and Border Patrol Salaries and Expenses - solar
powered batteries program
-$43 million - Customs and Border Patrol Construction - facility
construction projects
-$1 million - Transportation Security Administration - National "Safe
Skies" Alliance
-$4 million - Coast Guard Operations and Expenses - Operations System
Center
-$17 million - Coast Guard Acquisition, Construction, and Improvements -
shore construction projects
-$4 million - Coast Guard - alteration of bridges
-$20 million - National Programs and Protection Directorate -
cyber-security and infrastructure projects
-$5 million - Office of Health Affairs - bio-preparedness
-$103 million - FEMA State and Local Programs - university and emergency
operations center grants
-$25 million - FEMA Pre-disaster Mitigation Grants
-$41 million - Science and Technology - research projects

Labor, HHS, Education

-$49 million - Training and Employment Services
-$1 million - Mine Safety and Health Administration
-$40 million - Labor Department, Salaries and Expenses
-$397 million - Health Resources and Services
-$21 million - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-$15 million - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

-$3 million - CMS, program management
-$21 million - Children and Families Services program
-$1 million - Child Care Development Block Grant
-$6 million - Administration on Aging
-$2 million - HHS Office of the Secretary, departmental management
-$5 million - School Improvement Programs
-$229 million - Department of Education - Innovation and Improvement
-$32 million - Safe Schools and Citizenship Education
-$22 million - Special Education
-$5 million Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research
-$129 million - Higher Education
-$16 million - Institute of Museum and Library Services

Legislative Branch

-$0.2 million - Library of Congress Salaries and Expenses -
digitalization program

Transportation, Housing and Urban Development

-$22 million - HUD Neighborhood Initiatives
-$173 million - HUD Economic Development Initiative
-$293 million - Surface Transportation priorities
-$25 million - Rail Line Relocation

TOTAL Earmark Savings = $2.7 billion

TOTAL CR Spending Cuts = $4.01 billion

[Rob Crawford]

Porch, Obama's success in academia has more to do with affirmative action and smoke-blowing than his qualifications.

His primary skill is reading a TelePrompTer; he simply hasn't had the time to do much else.

Not that I think he loves th US, except in the way an abusive spouse loves what the victim "could be if they really tried".

[Pagar]

"I like how the lefty bloggers are applauding the decision of whatever Madison greasy spoon asked Scott Walker to leave because other customers were booing him"

According to the LUN the story is 100 % pure BS like every leftist Anti American post.

"We confirm with Governor Walker’s staff that the Governor has never been to that restaurant, this was an attempted “punking” by employees of The Merchant Restaurant, but look who got punked… In the words of Joe Wilson, You Lie!"

Never ever believe a leftist!

[Rick Ballard]

Porchlight,

I'll grant that he's the apotheosis of Gramscian rot and the ultimate product of the Fabian/Gramscian 'open' conspiracy to degrade institutions but that conspiracy's intent was to create a philosopher king - not a moronic clown. He's definitely a commie Skinner pigeon and he will definitely continue to peck the RED button but the feed bin is empty. That's why he keeps getting thinner.

[Army of Angry Skinflints]

I know you don't like Bush thrown in your faces, but it tickles me how your rants about
the Prez being ignorant and stupid seems a lot like your garden-variety projection.

He may be too left for your taste but it is
rank temerity to suggest he lacks intelligence. But then, how would you recognize intelligence when you see it. after all, you didn't see GWB's idiocy.

[Captain Hate]

this was an attempted “punking” by employees of The Merchant Restaurant

How pathetic; the entire left is nothing more than a bad comedy channel.

[centralcal]

Pagar, your link didn't work for me :(

[Porchlight]

Porch, Obama's success in academia has more to do with affirmative action and smoke-blowing than his qualifications.

I don't doubt it. But it is possible to be malign and incompetent at the same time. He may not be willing or able to do much, but he has appointed those who he believes will be more efficient at implementing his agenda. Just look at the list of czars.

I think it was RichatUF who said here a few years back that if Gramsci were brought back from the dead, he would weep at his success. Is the Obama administration helping or hindering the Long March? It's pretty obviously the former.

[BobS]

The left never gives up their tendency to mark their opponents as unintelligent. It's not unlike calling someone stupid at the end of an argument when they realize they cannot debate on merits or facts.

[DebinNC]

link to Pagar's "You Lie!" story

[Danube of Thought]

Didn't work for me either, Pagar.

[clarice]

Legal Insurrection has the story, cc.

[barry]

look, I'm far too busy planning the Oscar party for tomorrow night. Gladys Knight is flying in, and it's the shizzle. That and the pool on the winners takes up a lot of time, man.

All a them crazy Arabians are just out of control, so who knows who to deal with, really? And I mean, like they'll really listen to us?

And the State Department is far too busy writing white papers on Argentino-Falklandian civil rights violations in support of Cristina while the Fed is studying their private pension grab.

You people all just hate me because I'm an educated black man,

[narciso]

Sometimes one feels like Kevin McCarthy's character in "Body Snatchers" looking for the pods. That idiotic speech by Gates, maybe someone should have gently tapped him on the shoulder and told him, 'Mr. Secretary, this is a Military Academy, we kill people and break things' I know that's very gauche, but necessary. Food prices going up, one of the details not mentioned in the 'fireman's report' ICG in Egypt, fuel prices going due to the moratorium, unemployment that would have them going after Reagan with a pitchfork. Yet the press is still looking at the crease in his pants. More evidence, that the Egyptian revolution, is going a little Robespierre, with the firing on the Coptic Church, the
SNAFUBAR in Libya,

[Porchlight]

He's definitely a commie Skinner pigeon and he will definitely continue to peck the RED button but the feed bin is empty. That's why he keeps getting thinner.

Heh.

BTW I was typing my last comment before I had a chance to refresh and read yours. I think you're correct about the moronic clown. Unfortunately he's had rather a lot of success at effing everything up so far.

[Ignatz]

--...I'm an educated black man--

Well, you're half right, Barry.

[centralcal]

Thanks all, I corrected the mistake in Pagar's link and found the BadgerBlogger post.

Too funny! Liberals are such fools. Great restaurant PR to turn off half of your potential and possibly current customers!

[Ignatz]

--BTW; Thank you Wikileaks.--

Our schizophrenic son is less delusional than any sap who could write that.

[Captain Hate]

The 11:44 post gets it right; plus he's still the Rupert Pupkin president with a career ceiling of being a tv talk show host. No wonder dimwitted David Letterman doesn't find him funny; they're the same person.

[narciso]

Furthermore, the same people who berated Nancy Reagan for just encouraging the obvious
'just say no to Drugs' are the same 'Emperor's new clothes' people, who cheer the First Lady's coordinated alimentary agitprop
campaign.

[Captain Hate]

Rice (what a disaster she's been) is off chasing after acaedemic feel good stuff in S.Africa right now

She seemed to have so much promise and made about as little of it as possible. Was it immersion in the State Dept hive or something unique to her?

[Porchlight]

I don't think Rice was ever right for State. She's an academic at heart.

[matt]

some great signs from Libyan protests around the world.LUN

[BobS]

C Hate: She actually battled with Clinton over power during the transition. It's clear the Foggy Bottom and Rice are not on the same page.

[narciso]

Condi, maybe, Susan, the whole who fumbled the Sudanese offer of Bin Laden, 'surely you can't be serious'

[bgates]

I was amused to learn from a friend that the spin out of the White House includes the suggestion that Obama’s restraint is actually the wisdom of the hostage negotiator.

A wisdom born of experience, since they got rolled by the last people they called hostage takers (Congressional Republicans). This new wisdom must explain why they've been so much more restrained in their rhetoric when talking about Khadafi's thugs indiscriminately firing large caliber weapons into crowds of unarmed civilians than they were talking about Republicans who didn't want to let the government take more money away from Americans.

[clarice]

Bravo, bgates!

[caro]

I hadn't realized that it was Roslyn Carter who established the "Office of the First Lady". The next Republican President's wife husband should abolish it.

[MarkO]

I'm in Las Vegas and, of course, I can't disclose anything that has happened here, but I can say that it is expected to snow here. I warn you so that you can be ready to reap all of the fruits of all events you expected to happen only when "Hell freezes over."

Obama is concerned about only one thing: his view of how history will see him. That is always his first thought. Why else the useless platitudes and the aggregation of nations "all speaking as one?" This strategy permits him to hide among the many if things go badly but to claim leadership if things go well (which they won't). It is the functional equivalent of voting present.

He really has no idea what to do.

He's a liar and he's just not that smart.

[glasater]

Heh Caro!

This video is dated and if accurate--I think it is--horribly sad:

Mass Burial Site - Tripoli, Libya FEB 22 2011

[clarice]

Good catch, caro.

[clarice]

They're burying them on the beach--in the sand. Don't you suppose that's a bad place to bury people and I see no bodies.The sea will wash the bodies away very quickly.

[clarice]

Hum, "You'll never walk alone" as you read this:
Obama’s Promised March
With Union Workers Fails
to Materialize
Fox News, by Eve Zibel
When candidate Obama was campaigning in South Carolina in 2007, he said he was proud to wear the “union label” and that if workers were denied rights to organize or collectively bargain when he was elected, “I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I'll will walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America.”But as the protests over collective bargaining rights drag out in Wisconsin, President Obama has yet to join the demonstrators outside the Capitol building in Madison, and it appears his administration is trying not to get involved.

[Melinda Romanoff]

glasater-

There were some grumblings of hospital visits ending there, but I couldn't find any confirmation outside of the one source.

Should've posted it, now that I think of it.

[Rob Crawford]

it is
rank temerity to suggest he lacks intelligence.

That word doesn't mean what it thinks you mean, 'cleo.

Bush learned to fly a jet. The Won can't ride a bicycle without a helmet.

[caro]

glasater, chilling.

Clarice, burial on the beach is shocking as you point out.

Yesterday I spent an hour looking at Tripoli and surrounding area on Google Earth. Mostly I was trying to get a sense of what the harbor was like, but it is very interesting.

[hit and run]

"You'll never walk alone"

An oldie...

Footprints

One night I dreamed I was walking
along the beach with Obama.
Many scenes from my life
flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed
footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were
two sets of footprints,
other times there were
one set of footprints.

This bothered me because
I noticed that during the most
challenging periods of my life,
when I was speaking truth to power,
trying to break down walls,
and was being held down by the man,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to Obama,
"You promised me Obama,
that if I followed you,
you would strengthen me with hope
and lift me up with change.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been
one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
have you not been there for me?"

Then Obama replied,
"The times when you have seen
only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I thought getting involved
might have compromised
my aspirations for higher office."

[clarice]

caro, my point is while I do not deny there is a massacre going on there, I think this burial video may be fraudulent.we know this sort of thing is common in Arab lands..a little made up drama.