Standing Second Only To The Guy Who Shot Bin Laden...

Sgt. Moore makes asking a girl out on a date look easy, and becomes an instant legend in the Corps.

I want to see the imitators, including the military hotties asking out Justin Timberlake et al.

Comments

[Jane]

Now that's a story!!!!Go Scott!

[bolitha]

I am delighted.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 17 at Raz roday.

[Sue]

Did anyone catch Billy Ray Cyrus' Surprise Homecoming last night? I think it was on TLC. Comes on again next Monday night. He hosts a show where troops surprise their spouses, mothers, family, etc., coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Must see TV.

[centralcal]

"Fresh ...?"

"...Healthy?"

[Sue]

C-cal,

I just saw that at twitter. I will be canceling my BHG subscription with a letter explaining why.

[Sue]

A Washington Post reporter said the first lady ordered a cheeseburger, french fries, chocolate shake and Diet Coke at Shake Shack

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are.

[Sue]

My bold didn't work. I was referring to the Diet Coke she ordered.

[Clarice]

What would you drink to wash down the burger, fries and chocolate shake, Sue? Water?

[centralcal]

What is with that cover pose?

Diet coke . . . snort! Probably for her chauffeur.

[Sue]

Hell no, I wouldn't drink water. I'd drink the real thing. Why drink a diet coke when you're wolfing down a cheeseburger and fries to begin with?

[Sue]

I actually think she looks rather pretty in that picture, ignoring her pose. It is one of her better dresses, minus the painted on cleavage.

[Melinda Romanoff]

What's holding up that fruit in the background? A pizza box?

[Ranger]

Silly me, I thought the chocolate shake was the drink for a meal like that.

[Sue]

Michelle's skin gets lighter and lighter with every picture I see of her. Is it done with photoshop or is there some way to lighten your skin?

[Rob Crawford]

I actually think she looks rather pretty in that picture, ignoring her pose. It is one of her better dresses, minus the painted on cleavage.

Amazing what a skilled Photoshop user can do.

[anduril]

Paul Ryan has a pretty well presented Op-Ed piece today: Social teaching and the federal budget: a Catholic politician's views: Insight into the role faith and social doctrine should play in creating policies. And it's not very long--well worth a read. Here are a few highlights that I thought were fairly pithy:

Asked about rising government debt, Pope Benedict XVI has said: “[W]e are living at the expense of future generations … in untruth. We live on the basis of appearances, and the huge debts are meanwhile treated as something that we are simply entitled to.” It is immoral for governments to make promises they cannot fulfill.

... Preferences for the poor, solidarity, subsidiarity, the common good and human dignity are disregarded when governments default and bankrupt economies stop producing. ...

In his encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” Pope Benedict warned that solidarity without subsidiarity “gives way to paternalist social assistance that is demeaning to those in need.” ...

What B16 is talking about here--solidarity without subsidiarity--is the appeal that Socialists of all stripes make: the appeal to social solidarity without any restraint on government. This is what B16 characterizes as "living...in untruth."

By contrast, the Principle of Subsidiarity that Ryan refers to is the absolute basis of Catholic Social Teaching:

"Subsidiarity ... the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level."

Subsidiarity is basically an optimistic principle that embraces human nature, rather than seeking a top down dictatorial society.

The dignity of the human person, said Blessed Pope John Paul II, is compromised when bureaucratic ways of thinking — which he dubbed the “welfare state” or “social assistance state” — dominate our lives with heartless regulations and impersonal rationing. This is why our budget repeals the new health care law with its taxpayer funding of abortions, government control over the health care sector and panel of bureaucrats empowered to ration Medicare.

Catholic social thought’s paramount interest is the moral character of society, which takes primacy over dollars and cents. What kind of people do Americans want to be? We must not become a people of diminished hopes. We must not be a defeated people who worship the state as our greatest benefactor. We are called to be exceptional — comforting our neighbors in need while striving for a brighter future in this fallen world and for the perfect society that awaits us only in the City of God.

All this may sound like common sense, but when raised to the level of basic principle it becomes a measure available to all by which to judge policy proposals. As it is, it's widely ignored, including by many Catholics--when was the last time you heard a public figure of any stripe ask: how does this proposal square with the principle of solidarity? That's why it's so important to have public figures like Rep. Ryan and Gov. Christie openly espouse this principle as basic to their governing philosophy.

Sadly, for Michele Bachmann and many JOMers, this is simply the voice of the Antichrist.

[Soylent Red]

Stud.

OT...Karzai's brother got assassinated. Ahmed Wali Karzai was the most corrupt POS in Afghanistan. He was no friend of the Taliban movement (more like a competitor for drug revenue and graft), but he had Taliban working for him building his criminal empire when they weren't killing Americans. This ought to send a message to Brother Hamid about what his future will look like when we leave.

Watch for Karzai at you nearest central Asian airport. All that extra carry on luggage will be full of American dollars bound for Dubai. Afghanistan? Never heard of it.

So much for any gains from the micro-surge.

[Clarice]

That was my view, Soylent.

[matt]

I think the Karzai's have nice fat accounts in Dubai already, Soylent. Ahmed Wali was the biggest fixer in the country. Now that Hamid has lost him, I expect him to go completely around the bend.

When you have Eikenberry calling the president bat shit crazy and he's surrounded himself with pro- Iranian proto-extremists, things don't look too good. And now the Pakis are ready to pull the plug. All is well.

Despite this, the surge has been working. The tollybons need high profile actions to show they're still relevant. How this all plays out only God knows.

Ryan sounds like a much wiser man than he is given credit for.

[Sue]

Hot Air has a story linking to Byron York and the story of Obama's dying mother and her stinking, lousy medical insurance carrier that denied her coverage. Oh...wait...it wasn't her medical insurance but disability insurance that denied her coverage? Obama helped her fight Cigna for the disability coverage. He didn't confuse the story. He LIED. Shocked, I am...Not!

[Clarice]

Sue, he doesn't understand insurance--remember his car story?

[Sue]

Get your heads around that. Obama lied about his mother in order to sell the story of why we all need healthcare. So we can die in peace without worrying about insurance companies. Or something. He lied about his dying mother. That just simply amazes me.

[Chubby]

Anduril

that was interesting.

But where do you get the idea that thinking like Ryans's is viewed by JOM'ers as AntiChrist?

I think some JOM'ers might think it naieve and misguided to believe that liberty has a beneficent source divine, but that is not the same as positively believing in AntiChrist.

[Sue]

Here is Byron York's article.

[Porchlight]

Once upon a time I believed Obama was too dumb to understand car insurance, but no longer. Sue is right - he is a liar.

[matt]

no, chubby, he's using the old Baptist/evangelical divide with Catholics as his theorem.

[Jack is Back!]

1,700 calories always lighten my skin.

You can lighten, darken, put in pimples, head scars, gray hair and 6 pack abs using photo-shop. My preferred method for lightening skin color is bleach.

[Porchlight]

Wait, those two things are not mutually exclusive. So I take it back - he is dumb AND a liar.

[narciso]

He threw his grandmother 'under the bus' to excuse his 20 year association with Reverend
Wright, after the election, he used his debating over whether she should 'get a hip
replacement' as an argument for his 'death
panels'.

[Sue]

narciso,

Yes, but he didn't really use his grandmother's death bed for a political benefit. He used his mother's death bed. And lied about it.

[Soylent Red]

Gotta tell ya matt...that place is 1920s Chicago. Rival gangsters vying for control of a diminishing set of illicit revenues.

AWK was a perpetual burr under the saddle of my consciousness when I was in Kandahar, but he could be counted on to get things done if you met his price. And he kept a sort of order. But he and his brother were ALWAYS going to cut and run when their turn at power was over. Never a question. And you're right, they and theirs have been squirreling away wives and money in UAE for awhile now.

So AWK's assassination is a bad thing, from the standpoint of maintaining governance (green), but a good thing in reducing the level of corruption (white), and a bad thing from the standpoint of emboldening a weakened Quetta Taliban in the south (red). So it's a net loss for us.

One thing it does do is open the door for Afghan Border Police MG Raziq to step in and start cracking heads. Afghan solution to an Afghan problem. So maybe, ultimately, it becomes a net win for us.

I'm still not optimistic. I wish there was some way to get the Afghan children out of the country and let these animals duke it out among themselves.

[Chubby]

oh. okay.

thanks for clarifying Matt.

[pagar]

"He lied about his dying mother. That just simply amazes me."

Why? Is there anything he hasn't lied or withheld information about what he had done or not done.?

[anduril]

But where do you get the idea that thinking like Ryans's is viewed by JOM'ers as AntiChrist?

Chubby, I'm glad you liked it. I'm well aware that "thinking like Ryan's" exposition of Catholic Social Teaching is very congenial to many, maybe most, JOMers--that's why I did that comment. However, what I actually said re the Antichrist was slightly different than your paraphrase:

Sadly, for Michele Bachmann and many JOMers, this is simply the voice of the Antichrist.

To understand what I'm talking about you'd have to go back a week or two, when I noted that Bachmann belongs to a Lutheran denomination that includes, as part of its statement of basic beliefs, the proposition that the Pope is the Antichrist. It follows--or can be argued--that for those who think like Bachmann and belong to sects such as she does, the statements of the Pope are the "voice of the Antichrist." In spite of his sound reasoning.

The importance of Catholic Social Teaching--as enunciated by Ryan and Christie--is that it offers a coherent package of social thinking, a coherent perspective that can be applied to the entire range of social phenomena, from immigration to economics to education to whatever. Many people will find this congenial, but in the heat of controversy will fail to see it as part of an ongoing tension between social solidarity and subsidiarity, between the individual and the community. Socialists embrace one aspect of this tension, libertarians the other. The Church (officially; what specific bishops say may not reflect the official teaching) embraces both.

BTW, my apologies. I screwed up on the link. It should be: Social teaching and the federal budget: a Catholic politician's views Insight into the role faith and social doctrine should play in creating policies.

Additionally, I goofed up by failing to include the first and third paragraphs, which present important preliminary principles:

Catholic social doctrine is indispensable for officeholders, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to understand it. The wrong way is to treat it like a party platform or a utopian plan to solve all of society’s problems. Social teaching is not the monopoly of one political party, nor is it a moral command that confuses the preferential option for the poor with a preferential option for bigger government.

...

Policymakers apply timeless principles to policies that are necessarily limited by changing circumstances. The judgments of equally well-intentioned citizens may differ. Usually, there isn’t just one morally valid policy. Instead, there are better and worse ones calling for respectful dialogue and thoughtful judgment. The moral principles are dogmatic; the political responses are prudential.

The Church recognizes that while man may be able to gain insight into the basic principles of reality--including social life--application of those principles is limited by the difficulty of grasping all the factual variables (contrast that to the Socialist goal of central planning). Thus, the Catholic Social Teaching remains humble about man's capabilities and firmly anti-utopian.

[Jack is Back!]

"when was the last time you heard a public figure of any stripe ask: how does this proposal square with the principle of solidarity? "

Does Chawliie Wrangel asking WWJD about raising the debt ceiling qualify?

[Danube of Thought]

Speaking of OT, check out my new hero, Buzz Aldrin.

[anduril]

Chubby, I should add that I've personally encountered many Protestants who have asserted that I'm not a Christian, that no Catholics are Christians.

Anecdote. I was at an uncle's wake Sunday, a strictly Catholic affair. A couple of "missionary baptists" came in and began distributing their propaganda pamphlets to the Catholic mourners and "witnessing" to anyone who would listen. A cousin's husband--who actually is of ethnic Jewish descent on his father's side--confronted them and escorted them out.

[anduril]

Nope.

[MarkO]

Yes indeed. Obama's just not that smart and he's a liar.

[Danube of Thought]

Raz:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 38% would choose the Democrat instead.

[Threadkiller]

He was telling the truth when he said he is a British subject.

[MarkO]

Catholics aren't Christians. Mormons aren't Christians. Protestants are unchurched. Just where is this going?

My horse is well-rested.

[MarkO]

Buzz. A quick right hand to the face. Down goes stupid. Down goes stupid.

[Jack is Back!]

DoT,

Priceless. Buzz did a cameo appearance in the new Transformers movie. He still has the right stuff!

[Walter]

Andiril, you and Sara should get together and compare horror stories. Somewhere else.

Seriously, if they're wrong, why care what they think; if they're right, why complain?

[Porchlight]

Buzz was born Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr. I just love nicknames like that.

[anduril]

Seriously, if they're wrong, why care what they think; if they're right, why complain?

Communists? Nazis? Socialists? Liberals? Bachmanns? Obamas?

I suppose you thought you were saying something clever, but it was actually very dumb. If you're interested in getting just a bit smarter, go read Paul Ryan's piece.

[PD]

Dunham protested the decision and, Scott writes, "informed CIGNA that she was turning over the case to 'my son and attorney, Barack Obama.' " CIGNA did not budge.

Which means that Obama must have been familiar with the details, so he cannot now claim not to have been that involved.

[anduril]

Seriously, if they're wrong, why care what they think; if they're right, why complain?

The GOP is the only viable alternative to outright Socialism in the US that I'm aware of. When I see it being virtually taken over--at the level of candidates for the presidential nomination--by some of the knuckleheads who are running, I care.

[MarkO]

Moreover, CIGNA appears to have trembled and wilted at the mere mention of Barack, the Harvard genius, on the case. Oh, what I would give to have him on the other side of every case.

[narciso]

Happy Birthday, Ann, I've been praying for you.

Is the film really that good, JiB, within it's limitations of course

[MayBee]

Which means that Obama must have been familiar with the details, so he cannot now claim not to have been that involved.

Perzactly, PD.

[Clarice]

Let there be light:

The lighting manufacturers who supporting the light bulb ban are now running away from it per IBD:
he lighting industry largely backed a 2007 move to phase out incandescent light bulbs. But amid a consumer and political backlash, that support seems far more tepid now. The House planned to vote Tuesday on a bill by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, to repeal parts of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. Those sections didn't ban incandescents explicitly, but set efficiency standards that they can't meet. The 100-watt bulb phases out Jan. 1.

and at Volokh, Anderson argues that Tipton who now back repeal should be stripped of his seniority for having cosponsored this in the first place.

( Jane Harman was Tipton's co sponsor and she's so rich she could light her house with thousand dollar bills and it wouldn't matter.)

[Chubby]

Anduril, I read Ryan's article in full and very much appreciate your link to it. When he uses terms like "Catholic social doctrien" it seems to me he is using "Catholic" in the sense of (1) and (2) below, while not excluding (3a), and also including (3b)-(3d).

What else can explain that no one lied more about Ryan's plan more than Nancy Pelosi?

cath·o·lic (kth-lk, kthlk)
adj.
1. Of broad or liberal scope; comprehensive: "The 100-odd pages of formulas and constants are surely the most catholic to be found" (Scientific American).
2. Including or concerning all humankind; universal: "what was of catholic rather than national interest" (J.A. Froude).
3. Catholic
a. Of or involving the Roman Catholic Church.
b. Of or relating to the universal Christian church.
c. Of or relating to the ancient undivided Christian church.
d. Of or relating to those churches that have claimed to be representatives of the ancient undivided church.

I'm very sorry the dignity and holiness of the funeral you attended was interrupted and marred in such a dreadful and hateful manner.

[Janet]

Happy Birthday, Ann, I've been praying for you.

That's right, narciso!! July 12th is Ann's B-day! Happy Birthday, Ann!

[narciso]

Well, Barton, was ultimately right about theDeepwater incident, two decades in the 'oil bidness,' would do that for you.

[Jack is Back!]

narciso,

Incredible special effects that overcome all the pithy acting (by the humans), comic book script and silly plotting. In a way, you walk out of the theater wishing Optimus Prime and Bumblebee were in charge of DC instead of Wimpster and JoeDog.

[Janet]

Headline at Drudge -
"Geithner Demands Deal In 48 Hours"
Demands? Geithner demands? Geithner who didn't pay his taxes, demands?

[centralcal]

I saw that, too, Janet and had about the same reaction.

Who the hell is that little cheating twerp to demand anything!

[centralcal]

Not sure if Ann is able to read small print on a monitor yet, but here goes:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCARLETT KIM ANN!

[Soylent Red]

In a way, you walk out of the theater wishing Optimus Prime and Bumblebee were in charge of DC instead of Wimpster and JoeDog.

Biggus Dickus and Trainwreck.

Deceptocrats.

[DebinNC]

I'm surprised at all the WH demanding going on. I wonder if Obama hopes the Reps will eventually not appear as ordered and/or refuse to turn in the homework assignments (detailed plans with figures) he's ordered them to present to him the next day. I wish Boehner et al would tell him to stuff it, even through they'll inevitably be blamed for "walking away from the table".

[Porchlight]

Happy Birthday, dear Scarlett Ann! We miss you dearly. Hoping you are hanging in there!

[Thomas Collins]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCARLETT ANN!

If Real Ann is lurking, please pass along a gigantic simultaneous hug for Scarlett Ann from the denizens of JOMLAND!

[Sue]

Happy birthday to our very own fashionista...Ann...have a wonderful day, sweet lady.

[PD]

"Job openings flat in May, a sign of slow hiring

USA Today - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of US job postings didn't increase in May, a sign that hiring is unlikely to pick up this summer."

Funny, I don't see that word "unexpected."

Wait, I just needed to read further:

"The slowdown has confounded economists, who expected the economy to improve after overcoming several temporary factors."

[RichatUF]

Happy Birthday Scarlett Ann. My prayers for your recovery.

[Captain Hate]

I'm not sure why some of you are acting surprised that Odummy is an obvious liar. His entire career has been based on lies from at least his 2004 convention speech. I'm not sure if he's smart enough to realize that the MFM won't call him on them (which was abundantly apparent during Slick's time as President) or if it just comes naturally to him.

[Captain Hate]

And happy birthday Ann.

[bgates]

Which means that Obama must have been familiar with the details

I think it's an awfully big leap from saying Obama's mother would likely die of cancer unless he read a bunch of boring insurance documents to concluding he read them.

[bgates]

In a way, you walk out of the theater wishing Optimus Prime and Bumblebee were in charge

I've never seen the movie, and I'd take Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, or the men who voiced them, or any two of the South Korean animators from the 80s cartoon version, or even Michael Bay and Megan Fox above what we have now.

But not Shia LeBeouf. That kid bothers me.

[Clarice]

Happy Birthday, Ann.
bgates you stole the words out of my mouth and rearranged them into a better post.

[MayBee]

Happy birthday to Ann! It seems perhaps Michelle Obama on the Better Homes and Gardens cover for Ann's birthday month is a very special gift indeed.

[anduril]

Chubby, I think Ryan was actually using the term very specifically. IOW, as in 3a. Which is not to say that he means to exclude all persons of good will, but the context of his Op-Ed piece was the very churlish reception he got from some "Catholic" academics at Catholic U. in WDC. Those were "Catholics" who haven't bothered to study the Church's teaching on social issues, in the series of encyclicals spanning the period from the late 19th century to the present. It was that context that led OSV to give Ryan a pulpit, to make his views known to a wider Catholic audience. The fact that his comments were initially published in a Catholic newspaper is the other reason that I think his use of the word was quite specific. Again, not to say that he wouldn't want an even wider audience for his remarks, since they reflect a philosophy of government that is based on reason and is not confessional in nature, i.e., non-Catholics can and do accept the same principles, although perhaps not in as organized and holistic a form. That's also why he posted his remarks on his own web site, to which I linked.

As for Pelosi, people like her are exactly the ones I had in mind when I offered the caveat re "official" teaching versus what some bishops say (or don't say). Sadly, in this age of extremely fast mass communication, the Church has fallen behind in getting its message out on these issues. Even sadder, a fair number of bishops have taken the path of least resistance and regularly fail to fulfill their primary duty, which is that of teaching.

Thanks for your other remarks as well. I strongly suspect that some of these yahoos specifically target Catholic events through newspaper death notices. While these occurrences aren't highly publicized, they happen on a regular basis.

[RichatUF]

rse-

Have you dug up anything from Fonte. Either his transnational progressivism or Gramsci and Touqueville in america. A lot of what you are describing fits well within his framework. Hope the writing is going well.

PD-

Say it ain't so. Wonder who all got the reflexivity memo though...could only imagine the media response during the Bush Administration to such a crappy jobs report then a press conference saying we "have to eat our peas".

[Jane]

He LIED. Shocked, I am...Not!

So did she, for not reporting her pre-existing condition. She wasn't even paying the premium. She's just a liar.

Like mother like son.

[PD]

I think it's an awfully big leap from saying Obama's mother would likely die of cancer unless he read a bunch of boring insurance documents to concluding he read them.

Sure, I agree. But Obama still cannot claim to be unfamiliar with the case, unless he wants to admit that he couldn't be bothered to lift a finger to help his dying mother.

[Porchlight]

Reporting of pre-existing conditions is for parents of Republican candidates, Jane, as is being married to only one person at a time.

[Jane]

LOL Porch.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANN!

WE LOVE YOU!

[MarkO]

Obama could read the insurance documents, but it is unlikely he would know what they meant. And, I say that seriously.

[DebinNC]

Happy birthday, sweet Ann.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

Gotta be several reflexivity memos a day now trying to prop up Zero's poll numbers, Zero's campaign, this wreck the economy, at least until they can judiciously fire up QE(n-1) to get another couple months of relief

[narciso]

Practically, everything about him is a lie,

[Porchlight]

OT, here's a tidbit from a commenter at HotAir that I thought you guys might enjoy. Does anyone else suspect that maybe "fervently non-political" and "patriotic" in Hollywood actually equates to "leans right but wants to keep quiet about it"?

I got a huge kick out of watching PBS’ Capitol fourth program this year. Did anyone else see it?

Steve Martin is fervently non-political, but he is patriotic and plays banjo in a bluegrass band. While introducing his band on the lawn of the Capitol with a huge crowd and a national TV audience, he referred to the misinformation America has learned about Paul Revere. When a titter went through the crowd, he quickly specified that the misinformation was not recent, but dated back to the time of Longfellow. The laughter stopped. The last verse of the song he had written detailed how Revere had warned the British that the entire countryside was alert and armed and ready to fight.

[Janet]

While these occurrences aren't highly publicized, they happen on a regular basis.

I have NEVER heard of "missionary baptists" purposefully visiting a wake to hand out "propaganda pamphlets".

Where was the wake held?...a church, a home, a public place?
How do you know they were Baptists?

[DrJ]

Steve Martin is fervently non-political, but he is patriotic and plays banjo in a bluegrass band.

Right. I saw Steve Martin with said bluegrass band in concert. The music was enjoyable, but Steve Martin came off as a smug liberal who looks down his nose at the neanderthal Republicans.

Maybe it was a stage act -- it was in Davis, CA after all -- but I found it very off-putting.

[Sue]

I'm not shocked Obama lied. I'm shocked he used a lie about his mother's deathbed for political gain.

[maryrose]

Obama in his dysfunctioal childhood was taught to lie at an early age.He is now a master of deception.
The portrait of his mother in the new book is not an overall flattering one. I'm glad she wasn't my mother.She seems to be somewhat of a flighty grifter always looking for a handout. Her casual relationships with men set a bad example for her son. She's doesn't strike me as a particularly warm personality either.

[Captain Hate]

I'm shocked he used a lie about his mother's deathbed for political gain.

Why? He hated his mother, at the very least for abandoning him and probably blames her for his deadbeat polygamist father bolting on him. He is a broken and incomplete person and doesn't think like normal people do.

[maryrose]

Happy Birthday to sweet Scarlett Ann! We miss you! Hurry back .

[maryrose]

CH:
You are totally correct in your opinion of Obama's personality and beliefs.

[Porchlight]

Ah well, DrJ. I had hope. I still think it's interesting, though.

[narciso]

Btw, the President is filing a lawsuit against
the Syrian govt, for the ginned up protest against the Embassy, yesterday, I'm not making it up! (h/t Gateway Pundit)

[Janet]

Steve Martin - Atheists don't have no songs

It is pretty funny. I probably got it from JOM or a JOMer on FB, but I can't remember.

[narciso]

It was actually from Israel MatZav;

“We strongly condemn the Syrian government’s refusal to protect our embassy, and demand compensation for damages. We call on the Syrian government to fulfill its obligations to its own citizens as well,” the statement said.

“We are calling in the Syrian charge [d'affaires] to complain,” said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We feel they failed [in their responsibility to protect US diplomats]. We are going to condemn their slow response.”

[Melinda Romanoff]

narciso-

How French of him.

[Jane]

have any of you heard of a move called "Agenda" supposedly the real story of Barack Obama? A neighboring tea party is playing it tonite and say it is amazing. I can't find any info about it at all on line and am wondering if it is anything new.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Jane-

Are you sure it's not "The Obama Deception"?

(Fair warning: It's almost 2 hrs.)

[narciso]

From a PW thread, the 'wisdom' of David Brooks:

Not many Americans have this expansive view on the power of tax policy. According to the Gallup Organization, only 20 percent of Americans believe the budget deal should consist of spending cuts only. Even among Republicans, a plurality believes there should be a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts.

Yet the G.O.P. is now oriented around this 20 percent. It is willing to alienate 80 percent of voters and commit political suicide because of its faith in the power of tax policy.