A Crack In The Facade

With the Muslim world in flames Nick Kristof uses his space at the Times to assure us that Mitt Romney is a foreign policy fumbler. However, we do note this crack in the facade:

Presidential candidates always have microphones in their faces, and it’s not surprising that periodically they say inane things. President Obama himself blew it a few days ago by mistakenly asserting that we didn’t consider Egypt an ally. But Obama then had the good sense to have the White House clarify that “not an ally” in that context meant “an ally.”

Obvi. Juan Cole and Michael Tomasky are still waving the pom-poms for Obama as a bold diplomatic genius. Uh huh - Obama delivers an utterly implausible threat the US will never carry out without consulting with the National Security Council, State,the Pentagon, or any or our allies. If Bush did that, he'd be a reckless unilateral cowboy; when Obama does it, he's a genius. Got it.

Comments

[jimmyk]

I'm disappointed that Lewis is just another lovestruck Obama groupie. I thought he was smarter than that. I've enjoyed his books, and he doesn't come across as a moonbat.

[Janet]

I hear ya OldTimer -
"“Although I am many weeks overdue in saying it: Eid Mubarak,” Clinton said. “No matter how belated we are honoring Eid and the end of Ramadan, this is a cherished tradition here at the State Department.”"
bold mine
2 days after the Embassies are overrun & our people killed.

We should've put a rifle in her hands & told her to go raise OUR FLAG over OUR EMBASSY again.

[OldTimer]

Heh, terrific idea Janet. Especially since she's so adept at dodging incoming sniper fire from her Tuzla encounter. :)

[RichatUF]

jimmyk-

I think it would be a bad busness model to go out and trash the guy right before his book comes out. And I thought that Fareed was caught up in a plagerism scandal? Did it get swept under the rug? What a strange week.

[RichatUF]

LOL OldTimer. Photoshop a picture of her with a kevlar and flak jacket. I recall that Bill made the boast (I think it was to AIPAC) he'd be in the trenches with Israel, manning a post, if things got hot. I'm feeling safer already.

[daddy]

In from the dogwalk with the headsets on, swapping between Sunday Night Football and the CBS weekend News.

I see a link is out to Powerline's story "IS THE DAM OF OBAMA/CLINTON LIES BEGINNING TO CRACK?"

It may be, but from listening to CBS Weekend News, they are definitely not part of that crack. Complete and constant pushing of the meme that all this Mid East Bruhaha is completely due to the Video. And that Romney is reckless and exacerbating the situation with his statements. And in contrast Obama is the cool and calm adult, maturely dealing with the awful situation caused by that dreadful Christian fundamentalist.

The MSM is all in, and they will not divert from that Video meme unless or until another useful re-election meme pops up.

CT, your comment above occurred to me on the walk. Don't know if I should be more scared if (Option 1) they actually believed their sound bite about the Video being responsible, or if I should be more scared that (Option 2) virtually all our Govt spokespersons and our MSM are colluding in pushing that lie so hard. Both are awful conclusions, but I have to think that they are pushing it under Option Number 2.

If they were pushing it under Option number 1 that would mean that they are acting honestly and that is something I just cannot imagine amongst this bunch.

[Narciso]

One of the remarks in that Vanity fair piece, Lewis compares the GOP to the Russians as to their opposition to Libya, well just because.

[Janet]

Here is the Ann Barnhardt video from April 2011 where she speaks about the first amendment.
It is 9 minutes & 36 seconds long. I would pay to get this on TV. Prime time for all of America to see & hear.

[Narciso]

I feel like the Geico lizard, this week more than most,

[jimmyk]

Rich, he doesn't have to trash him, but he could fall short of saying he walks on water and not be all goo-goo-eyed.

[daddy]

Narciso,

I loved that part in Bernard Lewis's Bio, where he had just been married to a very outspoken ballsy lady who had an unswerving tendency to speak what was on her mind. It's the part where, shortly after Bernard had married her, she was introduced in England at some faculty affair, to some of his Egyptian students and scholars.

The point came up where she said something to the Scholars like, "Why do you come to England to learn about Egyptian History from my husband?

They replied that the plan was that they came to England so that they could become trained Teachers of this stuff, so that they could tgo back to Egypt as qualified teachers to teach Egyptians this stuff in Egyptian Universities, so that they wouldn't have to come to England

So she says "So you've been coming over here getting credentialed for 30 years now so that you don't have to come over here to do it any more, yet here you are 30 years on, still coming over here to do it. (In essence "How is your plan working? Don't sound to hot to me.")

Deer in headlights reaction. No response forthcoming.

Lewis slipped that anecdote in primly and edgewise, but if I had a chance to pound a couple brews with him, I would love to get a longer rundown of that incident. I love those incidents, where a straightforward, un-nuanced person asks a straightforward, common sense question outside the niceties, and "rocks the Kasbah of PC chitchat."

That tickled me:)

[Narciso]

He does have that Oxbridge dignified mien, that you don't expect the jaunty tone, that he exhibits in the memoir. He also puts so many of these self proclaimed experts like those of the Said school to shame.

[JM Hanes]

"According to my sources, the report will look at how Australia can best exploit future economic opportunities in the region focusing on China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and India. Conspicuously absent from the primary analysis will be America.

This should raise alarm bells in Washington and the region. It signals that America’s staunchest ally in Asia may be losing faith in the revival of the U.S. economy. If so, steadfast support for the alliance will not be far behind."

DrJ:

On an ominously related note: China's South Pacific Diplomacy, if you can call it "diplomacy," and Russia’s “Checkbook Diplomacy” in the South Pacific, ditto.

[bgates]

Qandil also called on the US "to take the necessary measures to ensure insulting billions of people – one and a half billion people – and their beliefs does not happen"

I can think of a way to reduce the number of people we might risk insulting by several hundred million.

[bgates]

A quote from Lewis' article, excerpted by Jason Kottke (another smart guy who gets his head completely up his own ass when it comes to politics):

At play, the president wears red-white-and-blue Under Armor high-tops, but at work it's strictly blue or gray suits. "I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make," he tells Lewis. "You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can't be going through the day distracted by trivia."

Hundreds of words of explanation for Obama's NCAA college basketball tournament bracket picks are available for 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

[RichatUF]

daddy-

I'm going with option one. It doesn't preclude them from acting dishonestly (or dishonorably).

I'm also thinking that maybe I'm missing something and that the election is a lot closer than I think it is and that this was a bad week for Romney. I don't believe that to be true, but the jarring disconnect between the US media reporting and other reporting (and my own instincts) has my head spinning.

[glasater]

Thanks, bgates, for pointing me in the correct direction for the Lewis articles.

[daddy]

Rich,

The owner of the local Pub I just came from after a snort, walked up to me and said he thought the election was over. I know him to be an Obama fan. I replied that I sure didn't think so, especially at this stage of the game with the Mid East on fire, and in 50 days anything can happen.

He said why should he be held responsible for what some nutty Christian movie maker did about Muhammed? He said he didn't have anything to do with that. I told him I had just spent 3 days in India where they arrested 12 Muslim Terrorists planning a hit, and then I had been in Dubai watching Al jazira whipping up the Mid East crowd by playing 24/7 the video of the Fraudulent vote at the DNC Convention of inserting Jerusalem back into the Dem Platform, and from my vantage point the constant harping on that was way more incendiary than some movie nobody ever heard of.

So he replied that no woman was ever going to vote for Romney because Joseph Smith had 41 wives.

It was speaking to a brick wall; The Movie Maker is to blame, and if that doesn't work blame the Mormons.

[bgates]

Rich, some more comforting anecdotes from my neck of the swamp:

Walking across the local college campus the other day - a campus which had been privileged to host a speech by Captain Fantastic himself last month - I was approached by a young man with a clipboard who wanted to know if I was registered to vote, and if so, had I made up my mind. Turned out he was on campus on behalf of the Orange County Republican Party, and his bit of polling had us well ahead (in a neighborhood we should always win, but didn't in 2008).

Saturday night I was out with some friends and one somewhat apolitical guy who had been in the habit for a couple of years of saying nice things about Obama just as small talk mentioned that he had recently changed his registration to (R).

And in the middle of the week at my little garage gym, in an admittedly hyper-Republican demographic (a small business owner, an older physician, a guy who was a Marine in the Gulf this time last year, and me), I was part of the only political conversation I can remember ever hearing in the place in three years - and everybody was fired up.

[JM Hanes]

Here's a taste of Andrew Ferguson reviewing Michael Lewis:

Lewis has succumbed inevitably to the Obama Delusion, the vision, once so widely shared, of the blinding splendor of this fellow who has proved to be so ordinary. As a Delusionist he happens upon Obama doing unexceptional things that become, by virtue of Obama doing them, wildly impressive. Lewis discovers, for example, that President Obama is required to make many decisions in his job.
[.....]
But what wows the author is the incredible complexity of the process by which those decisions are made.
[.....]
In making his decisions, Lewis explains, the president attends meetings. Beforehand, he is given a list of the people who will be there. Many people speak at these meetings. The president listens to their arguments. He considers the actions they recommend. And when he’s not ­satisfied with the actions they’re recommending, he asks them to come up with other ideas, sometimes on short notice. In the end, he adopts the arguments he’s persuaded by and chooses the actions he agrees with.
It’s incredible. Perhaps he is The One.

Very amusing.

[Melinda Romanoff]

DrJ-

The Australian-China mash up is just putting pen-to-paper regarding their relations over the last decade or so. The diplospeak is going to run smack into economic reality as miners are already slashing excess capacity financing, as their orders have collapsed.

Something to watch, just the same.

[peter]

Any day there's an American Thinker piece by Jack Cashill is a good day. LUN.

[Captain Hate]

The local Fox station, while dimwittedly buying into the lies that the film clip is the cause of the embassy attacks, is conducting a poll among viewers regarding whether it should be censored. Fortunately most of the answers are saying "Hell no" while a few dhimmis are willing to sacrifice their rights to attempt to placate the savages.

Btw, I agree with Matt's post about reacting to the jihadi garbage by targeting imams or mullahs of the cult that are inciting that garbage. If the cult of nutjobbery insists on having no centralized structure to rein in bad actors, it's time to impose some order from the outside.

[rse]

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/09/wild-west/

That post should make Jane happy.

Indian Fighter indeed.

[Porchlight]

I am confused as to who is talking about Michael Lewis and who is talking about Bernard Lewis! I do know that Bernard Lewis has not written any glowing books about Obama, so that's good. :)

Chaco, thanks for your response upthread to my earlier comment.

[jimmyk]

Porch, I was talking about Michael Lewis in my 12:14 and 12:46am.

[sbw]

Daddy's Pub dude: "So he replied that no woman was ever going to vote for Romney because Joseph Smith had 41 wives."

Possible ripost: Oh. So you believe more men should have the opportunity to have multiple wives if an Islamic jihad were to succeed.

[Captain Hate]

Brown seems like, what I know of him, to be a far left, unpleasant snake in the grass.

Is Mandel a poor campaigner, candidate or is it something else?

Like it or not, incumbency has its own built in advantages and it's not easy to run against a sitting Senator no matter how misguided he might be. Brown isn't dumb in that he's got a lock on the union vote and acts accordingly. Plus he's smart enough to not appear with the JEF.

Mandel's people still keep running an ad which makes him come off as being young and naive when speaking in front of a bunch of people who are nodding along with everything he says. Maybe they're much smarter than I am regarding how good that is, but I cringe every time I see it because I don't think he comes off well in it.

[centralcal]

Short read this morning from Jay Cost - short but pithy:

Morning Jay: How the Media Misrepresents the Race

[Thomas Collins]

I think last week is a good example of how MSM keeps the race close. Posit a low info voter. That voter won't have read Romney's statement on the importance of defending the First Amendment. The low info voter's info on the week consists of the following: (i) attacks on the US in the Middle East stem from a film insulting Mohammed, and (ii) Romney was playing politics while Obama was responding to the attacks. If that low info voter is not already planning to vote for Romney, nothing that happened last week is likely to put him or her in the Romney camp. However, last week could have changed that voter from undecided to leans Obama. It is posssible that a small portion of MSM outlets will be reporting more on news from the Middle East that puts Obama in a bad light (incompetent policies of Obama are responsible for the mess). But overall, the MSM reporting on the Middle East is unlikely to swing many low info voters to Romney. The best case, it seems to me, is that Romney won't lose any voters over last week's events.

On a brighter note for Romney, that low info voter, even if he or she has a job, no longer has hope for positive change from Obama. That's why I think the debates will be crucial, along with each side's get out the vote operation.

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

For some reason I am terribly distraught these days. Domestic stuff is enough to kill me, but with the added foreign policy piece it feels like the end is near.

I hate hate hate the media.

[marlene]

Good Morning! I feel like a low information voter,having been away three days! Just caught up this morning.We celebrated my Mom's 80th birthday on Saturday.The only news we heard was on the radio while driving to NH and very little TV. Every news update on the radio was "offensive youtube video." On the drive home,listening to the news (Fox included) was so frustrating. After catching up on these threads,reading Clarice and Mark Steyn and Instapundit,I'm up to date! Oh,another observation...despite $4.00 gas, people are traveling,taking advantage of the beautiful late summer weather.

[Thomas Collins]

When I get distraught, Jane, I remember the remark attributed to Otto von Bismarck that God has a special providence for fools, drunks and the United States of America. Not to mention Bluto's remark about it not being over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

[Thomas Collins]

Happy Birthday to your Mom, marlene!

[Janet]

Where will ME people go that don't want to follow Islam anymore? Are they not allowed to hear criticism of Islam? Are we gonna punish everyone that says Islam is a load of hooey?

THis quickmeme picture is really something.

[sbw]

Just a few days ago someone posted a list of 30 years of radical islamic attacks - Khobar towers, Cole, etc.

Can someone with better Google-foo than I find the list?

[Jim Ryan]

I've always wanted to be somebody! Today I made it into Zombie's top picks for that caption contest with "DE FACTO SHARIA." I had begun to think that I was always going to be nobody.

Someone put this one:

I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. -Obama, June 2009

[Thomas Collins]

The LUNed, list, sbw, is not the one you mentioned, but it does illustrate the frequency of involvement of adherents of the Religion of Peace in terrorist attacks against the US.

[Janet]

Well done, Jim!!

[Thomas Collins]

Here is another list of attacks by adherents of the Religion That Must Not Be Mocked.

[marlene]

Thanks,TC. Jane and TC, I saw a Scott Brown ad while watching a bit of TV in NH. (Boston station) The one where he's driving in his pick-up.How's he doing?

[pagar]

Allen West gives us his thoughts on Amb. Rice.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/09/allen-west-on-un-ambassador-rice-asinine-naive-inept-incompetent-and-borderline-ignorant-video/

Looks like he got it right.

[Thomas Collins]

It's still close, marlene. Warren apparently received a bounce from the Dem convention (see LUN), but hopefully that bounce will fade.

[Patriot4Freedom]

Who hasn't marveled at Obama's handling of the Middle East from the very start, and his assuredness that HE would lead the people of the Middle East to peace through his greatness . . . ?

Personally, I think this picture pretty much sums it up . . .

Can't help but admire that much arrogance in just one person!

[sbw]

Thnx, TC.

[Clarice]

Good, Jim!

From Insty--a really good article:http://washingtonexaminer.com/morning-examiner-obamas-alternative-middle-east-reality/article/2508201#.UFcb_VRpxvk

Obama's failing in foreign policy for the same reason he's failing domestically--Arrogance.

[Janet]

Every guest on the talking heads "news" shows should stop the interviewer in his/her tracks if they bring up the video.
So What?? Are you saying Islam is protected?
Let the meme pushers explain themselves.
What other views are forbidden?

[Janet]

Today is Constitution Day!
from Wiki - "Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is observed on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.[2]"

a tweet -
"Mollie Z. Hemingway ‏@MZHemingway

Happy Constitution Day everyone! We had a good run, didn't we."

[rse]

Janet-your appropriate use of the word memes reminds me of something I read last night from schemers who wish to use systems thinking in education to make social systems as predictable as natural systems. Hayek's scientism hits again from people who actually know little and live at our expense.

Anyway the point made was memes are to culture what genes are to physical systems.

Which would certainly explain the constant reiteration of the absurdity about the video.

It's the desired meme.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 15 at Raz today.

Trails Romney by 2.

[Janet]

via Iowahawk a video from July 2012 - High Ranking DOJ Official Refuses to Affirm 1st Amendment Rights

"...questioned Assistant Attorney General, Thomas Perez, over the Administration's commitment to 1st Amendment rights. Franks' questions were prompted by a Daily Caller article from late last year in which Perez was quoted as warmly embracing the proposals of Islamist advocates in a meeting at George Washington University, among them a request for "a legal declaration that U.S. citizens' criticism of Islam constitutes racial discrimination."

[Jim Eagle]

Pagar's 8:45 vid of Col. West calling Susan Rice out as fully credentialed nincompoop is a must see. And he did all that without a teleprompter.

[OldTimer]

Most telling about the video meme is the obvious disregard and disrespect throughout this schizophrenic administration for the intellect and discernment of the American people.

They think we're stupid and sluggish and deserve to be lied to. After all, they are the brilliant state planners who are tasked to spoon-feed us only the information we are able to process.

How dare se see through their manipulations!

[Captain Hate]

Exactly, OldTimer. They seem to think that the influence of Ayers and his retarded spawn have retroactively destroyed the reasoning ability of people who weren't subjected to their assault on literacy. I think Orwell would be disgusted by their lack of willingness to even disguise what they're doing.

[Captain Hate]

errrr "has" destroyed...

[pagar]

A list of the 19,612 terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic terrorists since the Original 9/11 attack can be found at

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

Meanwhile there are Americans who believe America caused all of them. Amazing!

[Threadkiller]

On honor of "Constitution Day," I present:

Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 22 November 1, 1784 - November 6, 1785 Elbridge Gerry to Timothy Pickering

Dear Sir, New York 15th Octr 1785 I am favoured with yours of the 11th, & have no Objection to your receiving the principal of my Debt, being £397.0.11/2,(1) provided I am secure for Costs in determining the Question of Interest---;but should not this Stipulation be made previously to your receiving the Money, & be inserted in the Receipt for it? I am in Want of the following Books from Messr Jackson & Dunn, & wish to know whether I must send the others to Phila., or deliver them to any Friend of those Gentlemen here. The Books wanted are Vattel's Law of Nations.(2) Burlamaqui's principles of natural & political Law 8 vo.(3) Burlamaqui's Law of Nations(4) if the Reputation of it, is equal to his other works. Government of the Germanic Body, 8 vo. Grotius on War & peace 8 vo.(5) if it is a Translation of his Whole Work de Jure Belli & Pacis. St Evremond in French is not what I want.(6)

(2) Two London editions of Emmerich de Vattel's The Law of Nations were in circulation at this time: a 1759--;60 edition in 2 vols., and a 1760 edition in one.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:4:./temp/~ammem_SsYo::@@@mdb=mharendt,rbpebib,bdsbib,coolbib,fsaall,mfdipbib,haybib,mtj,mff,wpa,scsmbib,mal,mjm,mcc,wpapos,lhbprbib,relpet,afc911bib,llstbib,hlaw,mnwp,rbcmillerbib,nfor

[Threadkiller]

On=In

[Threadkiller]

And:

The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Volume 2 Franklin to Dumas

I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising State make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly, that copy which I kept (after depositing one in our own public library here, and sending the other to the College of Massachusetts Bay, as you directed) has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:12:./temp/~ammem_8G97::@@@mdb=mharendt,rbpebib,bdsbib,coolbib,fsaall,mfdipbib,haybib,mtj,mff,wpa,scsmbib,mal,mjm,mcc,wpapos,lhbprbib,relpet,afc911bib,llstbib,hlaw,mnwp,rbcmillerbib,nfor

Good day.

[Ignatz]

TK is incorrigible in a good way. :)

[matt]

Michael Lewis is decidedly and stylishly liberal. He has voiced his opinions in his interviews, and his slip is showing in his analysis of the Wall Street breakdown in his last book. He has his occasional insights, but has become a pop sensation and now a sycophant for Dear Leader. Notice how Woodward's book is sinking fast among the elite while Lewis is rising.

Bernard Lewis is something altogether different. The Egyptians studied under him because they were not allowed to study the truth in Egypt, either under the king or Nasser. And of course, Lewis is probably the most brilliant student of the Ummah in history.

That the Left shunted his advice aside is another one of those idiotic policies that have undermined our understanding and response to events in that part of the world.

Anyone notice that Shell got @ 1 week to try and drill in the Arctic? The EPA and their allies have done their best to stymie energy independence in North America. Thus the globe relies upon a bunch of unstable regimes for its lifeblood.

[Porchlight]

Porch, I was talking about Michael Lewis in my 12:14 and 12:46am.

Thanks, jimmyk. It's my fault - I was in pre-coffee state.

Michael Lewis is a toady and Ferguson skewered him nicely. Too bad the Lewis piece will likely achieve its desired effect. Most VF readers are probably already Obama voters, which is about the only comfort I can take from it.

[rse]

matt-One of the NAS reports that came out last week showed the extensive powers the EPA is to have in a second term to essentially redesign the American economy around the precautionary principle.

Plus there was an Advanced Climate Modelling report laying out how Climate Science would need to target the strongest science students and cultivate their interest in their field.

What a waste of innovation potential that would be but of course that is the point.

Corrupt Axemaker Minds that make it to university by offering better terms than what is available elsewhere.

We still have the student loan problem that it takes 20 years of paying in private sector vs 10 if you go to work for govt or nonprofits like foundations. And it is limited to a % over a living amount. It won't be long until people learn to plan to stiff the taxpayer and do not care how much they borrow. They just have to avoid private sector and govt will pay well to keep the capable from being available for genuine innovation that might result in Creative Destruction and upset existing donors.

[Danube of Thought]

There's lots of those brick walls out there daddy. That's the problem.

[Janet]

Here is my Representative - Moran Seeks Pilot Program to Collect Data About Chubby Children

Banning Styrofoam cups & collect data on chubby children...
BUSYBODY!!!
How bout we collect data on his alcohol consumption & his crony kickbacks? I think he's in money straights again after his 3rd divorce & since Murtha died.

[NK]

The Religion of Peace? below is a Wiki list of military/violent conflicts worldwide. Euphamisms aside, note the location and combatants. Excepting Columbian and Mexican Narco-wars, the Northern Irish issue (now peaceful) and Norks threatening South Korea, virtually every other conflict involves muslims on at least one side. The simple truth, Muslims are engaged in almost every violent worldwide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts Of course, thanks to Bam's leadership we may have a new Sino-Japanese Hot War in the China Sea.

[Porchlight]

Islam's bloody borders, as Mark Steyn puts it, NK.

[DebinNC]

Obama has two campaign events in OH today at what seem to be two public parks in Cincinatti and Columbus. Very odd, since the only news he's reported to be making is his filing suit against China for something or other. Will the public parks be closed? Will the cities be compensated? Will unionized city employees be in the crowd on this Monday work day? Has he run out of fawning area students willing to be props?

[DrJ]

collect data on chubby children

I'd bet that a lot of the increasing cost of K-12 education is all of the data they have to collect, required by the government of course. That requires additional administrative staff.

Anyone know if this is so?

[James D.]

Janet, he's my Rep as well. In a just and sane world, he'd be hounded out of office, prosecuted for any of a wide variety of crimes, and spend the next 10,000 years in federal Supermax prison, although even that would be far too good for him.

[rse]

Janet-the accreditation standards commit the schools to collecting data on physical, social, and emotional wellbeing. No interest in academics.

The idea being pushed is also that once capitalism is eliminated and resources are more equalized a major source of stress will be eliminated. That stress is behind so many chronic diseases.

There is no zone of privacy from govt intrusion except abortion.

[rse]

Dr J-it's being collected by something called the Data Quality Campaign and yes it will be extensive and intrusive and longitudinal. I suspect it is a big part of what the tech and media companies are lusting over.

[Janet]

James D. We should get together once. The Arlington County Tea Party meets the 3rd Thursday of every month...so this Thursday! 6:30pm at the Ri Ra Irish Pub in Clarendon. They meet upstairs & usually have speakers & drink beer & inform on latest upcoming events. Give a holler....theshagamsatgmaildotcom. I'll meet ya there.

[Captain Hate]

Has he run out of fawning area students willing to be props?

That might be the case at Ohio State where the efforts to have his flunkies interrupt classroom time to shill for the JEF got deservedly smacked down. That they even attempted such a blatantly unethical ploy doesn't speak well for his polling there. He had his campaign kickoff there and even the MFM fluffing the camera angles couldn't disguise how empty the place was.

[Captain Hate]

The OWS vermin are back in NYC to mark the anniversary of their idiocy. A celebration of failure doesn't sound very fulfilling to me but their analytical ability hasn't been positively displayed in the last 12 months.

[DebinNC]

According to USA Today, OH's economy is doing comparatively well and BOzo's (undeservedly) being given the credit, not Kasich et al. Very depressing, since the truth is staring OH voters in the face.

[Rob Crawford]

If the Democrats are doing so well, why is Obama in Ohio to reinforce Sherrod Brown's anti-China campaign theme?

[Janet]

Now that the picture of the US government hauling in someone that dared to blaspheme Islam has been spread around the Middle East...how much "hope" do ya figure the sane Middle Easterners have?
Even in America we are not allowed to question Islam.

[narciso]

It's not surprising that Libys's Magariaf, a long time Quaddafi opponent, not known to have Islamist ties has been speaking truth to power, while Susan Rice, does the best impression of a minder, since Al Sahhaf (Bagdad Bob)

[hrtshpdbox]

Anyone gonna mention the dispiriting Politico report about the chaos within the Romney campaign, and the much better convention speech that was squashed? McCain redux, and I'm not a happy camper.

[James D.]

Janet, I wish I could make it, but Thursday's no good - it's my birthday, and also I'm going to the opera.

[Captain Hate]

Wait, the JEF is campaigning for Sherrod Brown? Whose idea was that? Maybe ValJar should contact Brown's first wife for insight on who to go to for restraining orders against him.

[Clarice]

Why don't we all email Perez and demand he close the broadway show "The Book of Mormon" which Hillary likes so much as the obvious blasphemy it is?

[narciso]

Well some accounts say he is a moderate Islamist, apparently one of the supposed targets of the UTA bombing in '89, about as good as can be expected in this atmosphere.

[DebinNC]

Since Obama is berating China today, remember his Nov. 2009 Asia Tour in which he bowed to everybody in sight and touted his "As America's first Pacific President" bona fides. This video captures Obama the Coward in all his leading from behind glory.

[narciso]

So, in a strategic sense, this was as much an attack against who they thought was Magarif and Jibril's sponsor, against the Bel Hadj/Sallahi Salafists.

[Rob Crawford]

Anyone gonna mention the dispiriting Politico report about the chaos within the Romney campaign, and the much better convention speech that was squashed?

Can't you recognize agitprop?

[Janet]

Janet, I wish I could make it, but Thursday's no good - it's my birthday, and also I'm going to the opera.

That's fine. I don't always go. Give a holler if you are out-n-about sometime & we can get a cup of coffee.

[NK]

The words 'Politico Report' end the need for any further analysis.

[Ignatz]

--Here is my Representative - Moran Seeks Pilot Program to Collect Data About Chubby Children--

Too bad they didn't have that program when Moran was in school; somebody might have separated his fat head from his body and sent it into the NIH for study.

[Ignatz]

Not trying to pile on hrtshp, but I find Politico stories disheartening in precisely the same way I found Ivestia and Pravda ones disheartening as the USSR crumbled, which is to say not only not disheartening but a contraindicator.

[Jim Eagle]

Lost in all of this is Romney and Ryan.

What have they been doing to advance the truth? Or is Romney a little skittish after the media harangue he endured from his prescient presser?

After the Susan Rice spectacle on the news shows on Sunday there should be bountiful low hanging fruit for RR to pick.

[Captain Hate]

Iggy, are you confusing Moran with Jim Webb; or is Janet stuck being represented by two cretins with Great Pumpkin sized domes.

[Janet]

That video is something, Deb @ 11:17.

"The longer it takes you to say nothing. the brighter our political class thinks you are." ~ JM Hanes

[narciso]

Williamson has been pretty good in the follow up, but you're right Lehman, or
Cofer Black, should be more upfront in this effort, not too mention the candidates them selves

[Clarice]

Moran is even worse than Webb, CH/

[Porchlight]

Or is Romney a little skittish after the media harangue he endured from his prescient presser?

I would guess this to be the case. He is probably second guessing himself. He needs surrogates to go on offense if he isn't going to do it himself.

[Rick Ballard]

Even as agitprop - how does it stack up against BOzo's instigation of booing God and Jerusalem at Abortionfest 2012?

I'm not seeing evidence of a deviation from strategy by Governor Romney. If he is satisfied with the course of the campaign, then I don't see any advantage to hand wringing over what we, from our position in the shadows, perceive as errors or misjudgements. If he were stumbling around like a Pinhead Troikist, I would have a very different take. He's not and the fact he is not is sufficient evidence for me the Goldilocks Optimum strategy is garnering the anticipated results.

If I were to guess what the aftermath headlines would be on November 8th, I would go for "GOP GOTV Efforts Account for Romney's Impressive Margin of Victory". It's that or "Pollsters Miss Incredible Last Minute Surge for Romney".

[Porchlight]

9:10 am The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily
Oval Office
Closed Press

Looks like he got the memo that people would like him to show up for his briefings.

Funny that they had to put Closed Press on it, though.

[Clarice]

No matter the media fairytales,Obama is shooting himself in the foot. Why should Romney get in the way of that?

Aayan Hirsi Ali has a fabulous article in which she argues that now that the ME countries are free of repressive rulers, they will have to and will start judging their govts on their ability to govern and these riots are the jihadis last stand.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/16/ayaan-hirsi-ali-on-the-islamists-final-stand.html