The Power Of Positive Weakness

With the Syria imbroglio Obama demonstrated that he has no plan, no resolve, no domestic support, no international support and is desperate for something he can spin as a win. Of course people want to negotiate with him now.

Comments

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

I am so embarrassed to be represented by such a dumb leader.

[narciso]

What does it say, of those who think this deal was good,

re; Laura Rozen (yes I know she's journolist, but it's a cross section of the hive mind;)

Have not heard US officials sound this happy in a while

[4JIB2]

Jane,

Don't forget the dumb followers. Read the comments to that NY Times article.

DOOM!

[narciso]

Well what could possibly go wrong;

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/09/mun_security_council_approves_syria_resolution.html

[Old Lurker test]

Daddy asked a really provocative question on the other thread about what knowledge he might contribute should he find himself, Twain-like, 1500 years back in time.

I have been playing mind games with that question for some time, starting first by reading about how much accumulated knowledge had been lost to the vandals who burned the Library at Alexandria, and then more recently by the wife of my partner when she laid down the rules for admission to the canyon they own on the backside of the Yellowstone Mountains outside of Cody, Wyoming.

They joked that when the war comes when that FSA (Free Stuff Army) storms the cities including my citadels in Potomac and Nantucket, the safest place in the country will be their place if one can get there. But then she stated that as much as she loves us, we will each have to earn entry by bringing some skill to the party. She has granted admission to my daughters for their science and medical skills, and to my wife for her gardening abilities. As a Marine, SIL gets in easy if he brings his guns and ammunition. She even like my dog and thinks the mutt would be a good hunter.

But she does not see much use for a mostly worn out finance guy! She admits that I am handy around the house and pretty creative with my hands and building things, but she worries I might be useless without a Home Depot nearby.

That made me wonder how one really does make glass, steel, bronze, electricity or even where hamburgers and steaks come from...

Fascinating rabbit hole for one's mind, in an Atlas Shrugged kind of way. Would Dagny have any use for me?

[narciso]

It is striking that the New Republic was a little bit stupid even back then:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114852/1946-review-george-orwells-animal-farm?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=margin&utm_campaign=mostpopular

then again, Time didn't have all that much use for Whittaker Chamber, after 'Ghosts on the Roof;

[MarkO]

Obama’s pointless, traceless super-spending is now (as they used to say after 9/11) “the new normal.” Nancy Pelosi assured the nation last weekend that everything that can be cut has been cut and there are no more cuts to be made. And the disturbing thing is that, as a matter of practical politics, she may well be right.

George Orwell, after attending a meeting of impoverished but passive miners, remarked sadly that “there is no turbulence left in England.” The Democrats, and much of the Republican establishment, have made a bet that there is no turbulence left in America, and the citizenry will stand mute before Obamacare’s wrecking ball. Unless they’re willing to accept a worse life for their children and grandchildren, middle-class Americans need to prove them wrong.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/359778/worse-new-normal-mark-steyn

[Tunnel Dweller]

You can be sure it is in Iran's best interest to have the Democrat party in power in the US and they also know the character of our liberals. They have seen the Code Pink antiwar signs and the anti-Israel protests; they have taken note of Americans defecating on our flag while crowds looked on, laughing. These are the same people who, in 1930s Great Britain cried "warmonger!" at warnings of danger over the growing Nazi war machine; the ones who thought Britain's preparing for the coming war with Hitler was aggression itself.

Democrat voters sleep the sleep of the blissfully ignorant, content to enjoy the thought that they are "nice people".

[BB Key]

JOM Alert !
Valerie Plame was on NPR this morning pushing her new novel

[pagar101]

Please help if you can, we need the win.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/09/tea_party_we_need_more_heroes_now.html

[DebinNC]

I bet more and more people are "going Galt" in incremental ways, especially re developing manual skills and other competencies they can barter.

[Threadkiller]

Now that we are down to Sumer-ville and early barter for our new Mesopotamian lifestyle, I have one question.

Would anybody trade their disdain of the Natural Born topic in exchange for Obama having never been Commander in Chief?

[Threadkiller]

...or McCain for that matter?

[henry]

Would anybody trade their disdain of the Natural Born topic in exchange for Obama having never been Commander in Chief?

The second clause renders the first clause moot. That is a win at 11 on the dial.

[bgates]

Would anybody trade their disdain of the Natural Born topic in exchange for Obama having never been Commander in Chief?

I'll exchange my dislike of the word "hella" for a Philly Cheesesteak. No onions, please.

[rse]

narciso-TNR was created by stupid money. Think of Dorothy and Willard and then the son Michael becoming a Soviet spy.

[Threadkiller]

I will put that down as a 'yes'.

[narciso]

Judy Bachrach, who I think wrote that cloying profile for Vanity Fair, has a devastating review of Le Plame's admitted exercise into fiction, as opposed to the other times.

[narciso]

So it's like the Puffington Host or Politico then;

[bgates]

Could someone explain to the Republicans in Congress that the some words have positive connotations and others don't? I see quotes from these idiots describing a version of the Continuing Resolution which funds the abomination of Obamacare as "clean". It reminds me of the time they proudly stated their intention to use "the nuclear option" to end filibustering of Bush nominees.

The Republican Party: In favor of the nuclear option; opposed to cleanliness.

[Clarice]

I STILL can't find a thee for Sunday ..ARGH!!

[narciso]

Like Van DerLeun has said 'they thirst for death'

[narciso]

The midnight ride of Ted Cruz, or Cruz goes to Washington, contrast with anything Obama
or Pelosi blathered on about.

[matt]

There is an art to scavenging and making do that has been lost in America. I will bet most people don't know how darn a pair of socks anymore. That's where Boy Scout skills count. First aid, even a little field surgery if necessary. Knowing how and what to grow.

I would think that distilling would be a useful skill.

[Clarice]

Iran's offer will surely be it will not develop a nuclear bomb (trust them) if the US makes Israel give u its nuclear weapons. To Obama, of course, this is a terrific deal. Words fail. Meanwhie his pet Jewish lapdogs, J St, which is funded in large part by pro Iranians and spends virtually all of its lobbying money on this effort, meets in D.C. Curses.

[Clarice]

at 11"27 it's *theme*

[sbwaters]

Seymour Hersh? A journalist? Please. He believes in the narrative. His narrative.

Like Howard Zinn, Hersh believes in burying the facts that counter his narrative.

And any decent article, well reported, would have put in evidence that fact.

Oh. The Guardian.

Nevermind.

[narciso]

Even the Saudis got sick of them, it seems;

http://freebeacon.com/j-street-has-history-of-lobbying-for-pro-iran-initiative/

[matt]

how about the complete fusterckuck in the ME, clarice? Secretary Feckless and his idiot boss have overturned 60 years of U.S. policy in a few short weeks.

The repercussions with the Gulf Arabs are going to be huge. They are watching us sell them out.

[CR]

I was thinking appeasement would make a good topic this week - with McCain & Iran as examples.

On another subject, I've been wishing for a while that there was a "Boy/Girl Scouts for grown ups that could teach useful skills for those of us that missed the chance the first time around.

[narciso]

One could do 'one of these things are not like the other' like the AQ solidarity statement with McCain hiring O'Bagy, it's a whole assortment from Whizzo chocolates,

[DebinNC]

Clarice, perhaps how their devotion to BOzo has worked out for 20-somethings ... as Taranto's "The Young and the Clueless" (LUN)

That generation may not understand the implications of the "new normal" for them and their unpreparedness to handle it, but their worried parents certainly do.

[Threadkiller]

Clarice, I think something could be made out of unic-bomber Dan Pfeiffer's comment and how it is downplayed:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/did-white-house-adviser-dan-pfeiffer-really-compare-republicans-to-terrorists/

The Enema Within.

[narciso]

ridicule rather then rage, TK, of course one could fisk a Fallows column,

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/your-false-equivalence-guide-to-the-days-ahead/280062/

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Clarice,

How about highlighting the whole - if it's good enough for us, it's good enough for you too congress, part of Obamacare.

[MaryM]

Clarice: I would definitely appreciate someone like you collecting and dissecting the procedural misapprehensions of what exactly Cruz' goal was. The whole vote-to-proceed vs. vote-for-cloture vs. vote-for-the-CR was completely (and hilariously) mis-reported throughout twitter and on actual television and newspaper reports.

I think it's important to clearly grasp the procedure because, with all the steps being conflated or misrepresented, the meaning of yea vs nay gets turned upside down.

Thank you in advance for considering my topic! ;)

[4JIB2]

For you Football (Soccer) fans out there - two huge upsets today in the BPL.

Man Utd went down 1-2 to West Brom Albion and Man City loses to Aston Villa 3-2. Chelsea and Tottenham square at 1-1.

This is like Jacksonville beating New England by 3 touchdowns and/or Oakland beating Denver in Denver by 3 TD's.

[DebinNC]

From MarkO's 10:24 Mark Steyn piece:

Nancy Pelosi assured the nation last weekend that everything that can be cut has been cut and there are no more cuts to be made. And the disturbing thing is that, as a matter of practical politics, she may well be right. Many people still take my correspondent’s view: If you have old money well managed, you can afford to be stupid — or afford the government’s stupidity on your behalf. If you’re a social-activist celebrity getting $20 million per movie, you can afford the government’s stupidity. If you’re a tenured professor or a unionized bureaucrat whose benefits were chiseled in stone two generations ago, you can afford it. If you’ve got a wind farm and you’re living large on government “green energy” investments, you can afford it. If you’ve got the contract for signing up Obamaphone recipients, you can afford it.

Lots of fodder there. Did retired senators Kent Conrad, Max Baucus, and Evan Bayh suffer or benefit from foisting ObamaCare on the rest of us?

[Old Lurker test]

Clarice too soon for this Sunday but I was thinking, following a discussion with a 20-Something, what five books I would tell her to read to begin to get a grasp on Conservatism and its roots. And why it is good.

[DebinNC]

More Mark Steyn:

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, we have been less rich, and our stupidity ought in theory to be less affordable. Instead, it’s been supersized. To take only the most obvious example, President Obama has added six-and-a-half trillion bucks to the national debt, and has nothing to show for it. As Churchill would say, had his bust not been bounced from the Oval Office, never in the field of human spending has so much been owed by so many for so little.

Excellent topic imo is what has the almost $7,000,000,000 in new debt BOzo and the Dems rammed through bought us?

[Threadkiller]

A curious thing:

The autospell built into my device has "Pfeiffer" but not "McClintock".

[DebinNC]

Oh Lord, it's 7 trillion with a "t". Every piece about the debt should come with a chart showing what the Dems have wrought since 2007.

[Old Lurker test]

"Excellent topic imo is what has the almost $7,000,000,000 in new debt BOzo and the Dems rammed through bought us?"

Deb, widen your focus. A week or so I heard Rush make the comment that we and our allies borrowed $16 Trillion in debt since 2008 and bought something like 1% of growth combined...

[Account Deleted]

The Cruz Fuse to the O-Bomb

Focus on the disparity between the government liar's presentation and Avik Roy's analysis.

American Thinker might consider collecting tales of shock and woe re the O-Bomb detonation on October 1st.

[James D.]

We'll see if i can do this on my phone.

I just met the wonderful Janet at the Clarendon Day street fair. Here she is, with her faithful (and well trained) hound, doing a bit of free advertising for my books

[Clarice]

Thanks, using TM's formulatiom I'm making a stab at the Iranian game.

[narciso]

Larry and Curley, were unavailable for comment;

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/359802/us-and-turkey-create-fund-stem-extremism-daniel-pipes

[4JIB2]

Another high ranking Flag Officer is suspended. No. 2 with Strategic Nuclear Force.

The cover is "gambling" but I am sure it is more like political speech or insubordination.

[DebinNC]

From Rick's Forbes link:

Worst off is North Carolina, which will see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men

We left just in time, but Forbes doesn't say why NC is "worst off"? Raleigh is a healthcare mecca, and BOzo/MO campaigned there at least twice a month through his first term. No longer for some reason (sarc).

[Gmax]

I put this one in the well deserved column:

The Washington Times is reporting that the Florida Commission on Ethics has launched an investigation of controversial State prosecutor Angela Corey over her firing of IT director Ben Kruidbos in the aftermath of the prosecutorial debacle that was the George Zimmerman trial: Zimmerman prosecutor Angela Corey now under state investigation

[MaryM]

-- Raleigh is a healthcare mecca--

If I understood cathyf's comments correctly, this is probably the reason WHY NC rates will be so much higher than other states. Namely, more availability of costly medical technology, treatment regimens, and drugs.

[MaryM]

Anyone know if there's a "server down" dead pool on the Federal Exchange website on Tuesday?

You just know it's going to happen.

[DebinNC]

Since 2004 the state department is required to submit a yearly report on terrorism. Here's the newly relased one: LUN

Even though Iran is and has been for years the biggest state sponsor of terrorism, you'd have to read to the bottom of the page to see anything about Iran. Last year's report included their #1 status. It would be noteworthy if that's not in this year's report or is buried within it, even though it's still true.

[narciso]

Well it's a small country, Deb, not worthy of note;

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/359809/boehner-embraces-one-year-delay-jonathan-strong

[narciso]

It will operate as smoothly as Skynet, what could go wrong?

[Account Deleted]

I believe insurers found it impossible to set up garbage provider pools in North Carolina, Nebraska and Arkansas. It takes a decent plantation with heavy Medicaid dependence nearby to set up a functional garbage provider network.

[MaryM]

via Legal Insurrection: "So, to sum up, CBS conducted a poll showing that support for the Tea Party was rising rapidly, yet buried the finding, running instead a headline about a Gallup poll showing a supposed drop."

But they aren't biased. Because they also get complaints from leftists or something.

(BTW, the Gallup poll question was do you Support/Oppose/Neither?, while the NYT/CBS poll was are you a supporter or not?)

[Frau Türkischer Marsch]

narciso at 12"23 - I guess midnight basketball doesn't resonate in the ME.

[Old Lurker test]

Deb, since it is the rate of increase in NC that is so high, (vs my states of MD & MA), I suspect that we blue states have had so many conditions forced on our insurers already that getting to the Obama bar is easy for us and not so easy for a free state like NC?

[boatbuilder]

What a guy that Obama is. Rising above it all to make a phone call to Rouhani to "defuse" the nuclear "issue." Not defuse the nukes, mind you. Just like he "defused" the Syrian chemical weapons red line issue.
You would think a guy with that kind of political courage (NYT definition) might, just might, have said something harsh to the bastards when they were crushing the movement for democracy several years ago. Remember that? I suppose if he had Rouhani wouldn't be taking his call now, though, because it would have created "tension," or something. Good thing those sensible Iranians have a "moderate" guy who Obama can talk to. Does the NYT ever wonder how or whether anyone even close to a "moderate" by any rational definition could come to hold any power in the Iranian regime?

[Gmax]

Legal Insurrection concludes:

You have been fed a false media narrative of collapsing Tea Party support. Not just false, but completely the opposite of what is happening on the ground.

It might be a bit premature, but I think I can see the 2014 midterms from my desktop

[DebinNC]

Makes sense, OL. TY

[narciso]

Deja vu, all over again, boatbuilder;

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/andropov.htm

[Clarice]

Thanks, Rick and the rest of you for your kind suggestions. Between my mind block and computer issues, it's been a stretch today and I really appreciate your efforts to help.

[daddy]

Good Morning.

Uh Oh.

Insty has up this list of the 40 Things Every Self-Respecting Man Over 30 Should Own.

I lack 23 of them.

Even worse, I don't want to own 'em.

[DebinNC]

Clarice, CNN has more on "the phone call": LUN

Sounds like a desperate Obama finally got Rouhani to answer the phone as he was in his car leaving town. The only situation more humiliating for BOzo would be if Rouhani spoke to him from a bathroom stall at the airport. The exchanged tweets sound like Rouhani accepted the call only after WH assurances that doing so would positively, in Iran's view, affect the U.S. response to Syria.

[DebinNC]

Every "self-respecting" man needs a Mickey Mouse watch and proper stemware?

[daddy]

Just saw Clarice's above wondering about a Pieces topic.

I think it is interesting how we are supposed to all immediately believe the Science of Global Warming because some experts say with 90-95% certainty we are destroying the planet (ie--UN climate panel endorses ceiling on global emissions,

but on the other hand when tons of experts come out and tell us their studies say 19% of health care pros say Americans 'will die earlier' due to Obamacare, we are supposed to completely dismiss their studies as nonsense.

Chaco had up a decent column on something related to this yesterday: Why Are Science and Politics So Hard?

Catch-up begins now!

[MaryM]

For my best male buddy, I counted he has 19 of the 40 things. I have 26. ??????

[(A) nuther Bub]

Should have been "What every self-respecting gay guy over 30 should own."

[maryrose]

Your idea for your article sounds great clarice. It is time to debunk the false narrative of Iran's moderate leader and nation. Obama is a clueless foolI am so proud of the Repubs in the House for following Claroce's advice on the CR bill.
Obama actually said to them "Knock it off and pass a budget." What is he 12 and on a schoolyard playground. What an asshat.

[MaryM]

TeeTotallers start off at -4.

[DebinNC]

Popular Mechanics skills list: LUN

[pagar101]

From the 10:24 link.

"The CBO’s most recent calculations estimate that in 2023, a decade after the implementation of Obamacare, there will still be over 30 million people uninsured

Obamacare is nothing but fraud,IMO. I don't think it is possible to calculate the damage the Democrats have done to the USA with Obamacare.

[(A) nuther Bub]

I don't think it is possible to calculate the damage the Democrats have done to the USA with Obamacare.

Yes, if one has our point of view. From theirs, they've had a triumph of inestimable significance. If they also get immigration "reform" on top of this then all their dreams will have come true. They will own our very bodies and there will be sufficient LIVs to keep them in power forever.

I'm so glad I'm old.

[Old Lurker test]

Maybe we can score Daddy's list of 40 plus Deb's list of 100. A number of the Pop Mech items go a along way to erase some of the metro-sexuality of Daddy's list.

[maryrose]

daddy: You are always so entertaining.
Yes I still have the lyrics to "DaDoRunRun in my head as well,along with other mindless trivia. I find at times I remember old things and times better than current ones.
A[nutherBub: I am struggling to comprehend any win by the dems.
Stimulus-failure
Housing market tepid growth, little improvement
Immigration dead in the House for the near future
Bammycare: terrible roll-out,huge disappointment Congress ans Senate changer in 2014.
Climate Full of lies and falsehoods
EPA on coal -Ditto from climate change.'
Foreign relations; A systematic reversal enemis are now talking forcibly for a fake meme and allies are shunned and dissed
Overall preezy grade -F.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Comment @ AoS yesterday by "CS Lewis": "McCain is Satan's younger dumber brother. True fact."

The Holes are getting slattered at home by East Carolina.

narc, remember Henry Wallace was a New Republic Top Man after his commie leanings were even excessive to Saint FDR.

[maryrose]

pagar: You are so right! It is a complete and utter fraud. From the first utterance that"If You Like Your Healthcare You Can Keep It" up until it will reduce costs by 2500 dollars per family. Lies and more lies! The reason the dems are scared and panicky and look like deer in the headlights is because this big fat fraud has finally been exposed. The proof is in the fact that they{the dems} want no part of it and neither do their"brain-trust" sarc] aides.

[Beasts of England]

@Ig - Did you see the new Hardee's / Carl's, Jr. ad starring Katherine Webb? Holy cow!

p.s. Roll Tide!

[narciso]

The West imbroglio reminded me of a novel by a former?? intelligence officer, who writes under the name of David Stone, his main character lives in Venice, the plot of which centered around a decrypted Venona cable, that mentioned Wallace

[rich@gmu]

AB-

Bringing the DOOM!

OL-

***That made me wonder how one really does make glass, steel, bronze, electricity or even where hamburgers and steaks come from...***

an old article linked here by JIB a while a ago and, surprisingly, featured in both my micro and macro classes: I Pencil.

[rich@gmu]

missed out on meeting Janet and James D. left work this morning at 2AM and have to go back in about an hour and a half.

have homework to do to.

crap I'm tired. hope there is a big piece of cheese at the end of this maze.

[Old Lurker test]

That is a great one Rich. And after reading it, one should watch the YouTube of Milton Friedman speaking of the same invention.

[rich@gmu]

AB-

didn't mean to trivialize your concerns. sorry if it came across that was.

OL-

wish I were doing better in the econ classes (test on Friday). It is a great article. My textbook is similar.

[rich@gmu]

that way...

[Danube on iPad]

The house is sending it back with a one-year delay in Obamacare. So: would Obama prefer to shut down the government, or give these fools time to get this nightmare ready.

[DrJ]

The house also is eliminating the device tax.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Doesn't delaying it a year take the donks off the hook for the midterms or does it put it right in the crosshairs?

[jimmyk]

the metro-sexuality of Daddy's list.

I liked daddy's list, as it was aimed guys who are bachelors and still living like they are 22, working at Starbucks, eating takeout, waiting around for a woman to rescue them.

[Old Lurker test]

"... waiting around for a woman to rescue them."

Which is why, 37 years married, I scored 40/40 on that list.

:-)

[rich@gmu]

jimmyk-

lol...

[jimmyk]

Seem like October 1, 2014 would be in the crosshairs, but maybe not enough time before the election for the disaster to really be obvious. The plus is that there will be less time before 2017 for the cancer to spread to the point of being inoperable.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Rocket surgery football: WVU with a fair catch on the 2.

[narciso]

You ask for Miracles Theo, they didn't even zero out the exemptions,

[jimmyk]

Which is why, 37 years married, I scored 40/40 on that list.

I'm married only 14 years, thus only 34/40. That's partly due to living in Manhattan where it doesn't pay to own a car (though I once did), so no jumper cables either.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Unbelievable on the exemptions. Boehner and the House were in a perfect position to leverage that garbage to great advantage and they may have squandered every damn bit of it. Idiots!

[maryrose]

CH: It puts it right in the crosshairs,which is why I like it. The 2012 election was about lies, fraud and false personality and slander.
2014 will be about part-time jobs, no jobs, no insurance, no new housing and the new crappy normal. The dems are toast.
Anuther Bub:
I am very concerned about your prescription deprival situation.
recently an expensive drug still generic was refused a person I know because supposedly it was unavailable for that month. Another drug {much less expensive was substituted with some anxiety on the part of the patient. The next month it returned again. My feeling about it, because we had to fight to get it originally was they just don't want to pay for it. Medicaid is picking up the cost.
Fight these blowhards as hard as you can Get printed out doctor reports that insist you must have this medicine and no other. You paid into Medicare. They owe you these drugs or subsidies to pay for them.You have to advocate and sometimes even yell at these people. They will try to take the cheap way out.

[maryrose]

CH:
I think they are saving the exemptions for the debt ceiling fight. Won't negotiate NObama thinks he is going to skate to victory on that one ala the sequester. I am waiting for him to come out and say seniors won't be getting their checks like he did last time. He's a dumb schmuck with no cred and no cards to play. The desoperate dems on C-Span are screaming doom and gloom while prezzy schrooms!

[Danube on iPad]

Boehner's problem is that he's got to get a majority, and this may have been the only way he could do it. I'd have much preferred no delay, but with an end to the special-interest and congressional exemptions.

Interesting choice for Obama. My guess is that if a shutdown occurs, most will see it as his fault. But I dunno.