I Love The Smell Of Burning Straw In The Morning

The text of Obama's Big Speech; the White House should have included a "Hazardous - Contains Flammable Strawmen" alert.

CUE MY EVIL CHORTLING: From the Times coverage:

In the future, when the United States is not directly threatened, “the threshold for military action must be higher,” Mr. Obama said. He presented the choice in binary terms, suggesting that his critics want to use force to solve many of the world’s troubles.

In some ways, that was a straw-man argument, since even his fiercest opponents do not advocate American ground forces to counter Russian intervention in Ukraine or to stop the civil war in Syria. But some critics say Mr. Obama seems to have grown more allergic to American power since his own intervention in Libya yielded a messy outcome.

And from the Times editors:

President Obama and his aides heralded his commencement speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday as a big moment, when he would lay out his foreign policy vision for the remainder of his term and refute his critics. The address did not match the hype, was largely uninspiring, lacked strategic sweep and is unlikely to quiet his detractors, on the right or the left.

However, they offer an upbeat conclusion:

This was far from Mr. Obama’s big moment. But since he has no office left to run for, what matters ultimately is his record in the next two and a half years.

In other words, talk is cheap, especially coming from Obama.

 

Comments

[Jane]

Alice, 700 lawyers is 4.5 at each location. I think that is way too many. First of all I bet the lawyers had outside counsel for all litigation. (You don't want a contract lawyer defending a malpractice claim unless you plan to pay thru the nose.)

I've never been an in-house lawyer so someone who has knows better, but I do a lot of litigation and I've never had an inhouse lawyer defend anything.

[Barbara]

Putin blinked ...

That's about as idiotic as Chamberlain's returning from Germany trumpeting, "Peace In Our Time."

daddy @1:46am

Excellent comparison.

What world does Thomas Friedman live in? Certainly not the "real world". He seems to have forgotten Chechnya and what Putin did there in 2003 after Russia lost a war in that country in 1996. Mr. Putin doesn't forget and never loses sight of his target(s). I believe they call that "playing the long game."

[Miss Marple]

It continually amazes me that the Left misreads Putin. He doesn't care if they like him or not. If they do something he wants, he considers that his due as leader of Mother Russia, and will have not one ounce of gratitude.

I wouldn't be surprised if he has gotten all sorts of juicy information from Snowden and is holding it over the heads of Obama and Jarrett.

And whining to him, telling him he is not one of their chummy group, pathetic sanctions, all are like a couple of gnats to him. He will just swat them and go on his way.

The people in charge of our foreign policy are completely embarrassing and a disgrace to our nation. They lack dignity and care not whit about our country.

[pagar]

Want more VA employees working with veterans

Here's a bunch already on the VA payroll.
Could be put to work helping veterans by noon Central time today.
One simple sentence issued as an Executive Order reading as follows;
Government Employees will work on the job they were hired to work.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/as-veterans-languish-federal-employees-do-union-work-2014-05-25

"n the VA hospital that treated Coates in Columbia, South Carolina, a nurse was paid $78,181 for working full time for the American Federation of Government Employees.
In the nearby VA hospital in Charleston, a physician assistant was paid $106,369 for working for the AFGE, and two other employees worked full time for the National Association of Government Employees rather than helping veterans. "

[AliceH]

-- I bet the lawyers had outside counsel for all litigation. (You don't want a contract lawyer defending a malpractice claim unless you plan to pay thru the nose.)--

And yet, my sister did both successfully. While different offices no doubt did things differently, hers did not outsource any legal work at all.

I accept you find the number too high. I still don't. I do agree wholeheartedly that requested documents should have been provided already. What I don't know is what is preventing that - I can easily see lawyers strenuously and vigorously advising the VA, their client, to turn over the docs, while the client simply refuses.

[rich@gmu]

maryrose-

>>>I also think to redact info is illegal.<<<

there are any number of reasons, outside national security, that information can be redacted from a requested document (can't find the redaction code list but I had it handy at one point-messy desk). with the VA, hipaa and the privacy act would also come into play. I agree with your main point that most of the redactions would be frivolous. If anyone is caught shredding documents it would be a slam dunk for an obstruction of justice charge.

[jimmyk]

If you look at the example from my 10:23am post, it seems clear that the redaction was just face-saving, on top of the fact that it took them months to provide documents that were required to be provided within 20 days.

[maryrose]

Miller from the hearing says he will be on their shoulder every day demanding those documents.