The Uncertain Trumpeters

Johnny Waffles rallies our allies to, well, something or other:

Kerry: ISIS not a 'war'

Kerry said the administration's plan to combat ISIS includes "many different things that one doesn't think of normally in context of war" during an interview with CNN.

"What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation," Kerry said. "It's going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it's a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts."

In a separate interview with CBS News, Kerry also rejected the word "war" to describe the U.S. effort and encouraged the public not to "get into war fever" over the conflict.

"We're engaged in a major counterterrorism operation, and it's going to be a long-term counterterrorism operation. I think war is the wrong terminology and analogy but the fact is that we are engaged in a very significant global effort to curb terrorist activity," Kerry told the network.

"I don't think people need to get into war fever on this. I think they have to view it as a heightened level of counterterrorist activity ... but it's not dissimilar similar to what we've been doing the last few years with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and in Yemen and elsewhere," he added.

"Not dissimilar" to ther drone wars in Yemen and Somalia - even the Times choked on that; from Peter Baker:

In his speech, Mr. Obama tried to equate the emerging strategy to the way he has pursued terrorist cells in Yemen and Somalia. Aides said that by working with local forces on the ground and targeting leaders from the air, the United States had been able to damage extremist groups without occupying territory or engaging in costly nation building, although some former officials like Mr. Pavel noted that terrorist groups remained in both countries.

But what Mr. Obama has in mind for Iraq and Syria goes beyond that approach. By some counts, the United States under Mr. Obama has conducted a dozen or so lethal strikes in Somalia in recent years and about 100 in Yemen. Even at the height of the drone war in Pakistan, Americans conducted fewer than 120 strikes in a single year, 2010, and were down to seven so far this year, according to the Long War Journal.

By contrast, the air campaign against ISIS that Mr. Obama ordered in Iraq has involved 154 strikes in the course of a month — far fewer than necessary in the view of some hawks, but far more than the occasional attacks on satellite terror groups in Africa and Arabia. And that was before Mr. Obama officially expanded the mission to destroying ISIS and effectively erased the border with Syria to send warplanes there as well.

Whatever. Next, maybe Kerry will rally allies for our non-war by promising that any action will be "unbelievably small". Yeah, that'll show our commitment!

The Times noted that our Arab allies seem a bit tentative. No kidding - Obama and Kerry were wrong about the surge in '07, wrong about the Iraqi troop withdrawals in '11, wrong to walk away from post-Qadaffi Libya in '11, wrong not to arm the moderate Syrian rebels in '11, wrong to draw a faux red line in 2013, and now no one will get behind him? The headless chickens have come home to roost.

WELL, YES: "How do you ask a man to be the first man to die for a mistake?" - Kerry, any day now.

Comments

[Sue]

I was 17 when I graduated. My mother was 16. She was in a rural school that had 1st and 2nd grade in one year. When she went to school in town, her actual 2nd year if school, they put her in the 3rd grade.

[narciso]

It was the Colonel but small quibble, yesterday we heard from the cadre who planned, funded and recruited the 9/11 hijackers, why was that allowed,

[miss Marple]

Well, I was going to listen to the radio, but it is 3 hours of high school football and coach interviews from all over the state. Zzzzzzzz.

So, here I am on the iPad.

About 2 weeks ago Krauthammer came real close to saying Obama is nuts. I think it was on Bret 's show.

[Danube on iPad]

"Nobody in the MFM asked about the book bio though. No laughing or questions about that."

Maybe because they had watched the WH presser on April 27, 2011 and realized how silly the whole birth certificate story was.

[daddy]

Having seen Hanuman and read the thread, I am off to beat the dogs.

FYI, Just came upon a column in Vanity fair about some girl who related her experiences on her first day as a naked sushi tabletop in some Jap restaurant in Manhattan. Sounded a tad nuts, and said it felt awkward until the diners got drunk:

The sake accomplished what I couldn’t. As the men got drunker, their timidity vanished.

She made $150.

I'll keep that in mind, as I have been wondering if I need to find a second job once I retire.

Kayroooo, whack., whack,..whack...

Arooooo!

[narciso]

he spasibo's Vizzini, just fine:

http://www.interpretermag.com/is-colonel-strelkov-making-a-comeback-or-has-he-been-tamed/

[lyle]

I, too, graduated at 17 and moved out out three days later. I had seven appointments to three service academies. Three of those seven were to Annapolis. I broke my right wrist for the third time in Mar'77 to end my dream of going into the Naval Academy. Ended up getting a guitar performance degree from Boise State.

[Captain Hate]

Maybe because they had watched the WH presser on April 27, 2011 and realized how silly the whole birth certificate story was.

Maybe it was but some degree of scorn should be given to the subject of it, who has acted very untransparent and unpresidential in this halfassed sophomoric prank. And the self aggrandizing members of the press are complicit for not holding that clown to any reasonable standards.

[Beasts of England]

That's quite the academic swing, lyle!

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Maybe because they had watched the WH presser on April 27, 2011 and realized how silly the whole birth certificate story was.

It wasn't a birth certificate story. It was a story about a liar - Barack Obama.

The MFM question should have been...
Why, for 16 years, did you market yourself as having been born in Kenya?

[Soylent Red]

If you had an Air Campaign you want to have it come out of Turkish Air Bases and in fact Turkey is a part of NATO. Turkey has said "No". No to our Air Bases, and that was our probably the most important element in this whole thing.

Sez Krauthammer. Turkey has been an inconsistent ally, if not frenemy for a long time. I don't know why we bother with them. Further, I don't know why we are so intent on intervening when Sunni crazies are fighting with Iranian Qods Force, but...

Why not, instead of Turkey or Qatar or KSA or Jordan, construct one or more suitable airbases in Iraqi Kurdistan? The Kurds are the only Iraqis worth a damn, they would welcome us and protect us, and we could once and for all tell Turkey to get bent. I would go so far as to close down the Turkish bases and take the budgets for those bases and construct new ones in Erbil and Suleimaniya, both of which have relatively new and well built international airports already in place. It would take less to bring them up to speed than it did Kandahar.

While we're at it, we need to put a heavy brigade in Kurdistan as well, and start whittling away at the ISIS mobility and armor. Small arms the Iraqis can deal with themselves, but the heavy stuff needs to be dispatched for them. The size and ability of the remainder of their armor corps just isn't there, and there are some potentially serious equipment overmatches if ISIS has captured any of the T-72M2A's in the new Iraqi army fleet. That seems likely since many of them were based in Taji, which was nearly overrun in June, and there was a lot of equipment abandoned.

5th and 10th Groups on regular rotations as advisors and trainers to the peshmerga. A little bit of support and logistics.

When we're done we could leave behind all the tanks and lots of the A-10s we supposedly no longer need, and...presto chango...independent Republic of Kurdistan bristling with weapons to keep out the baddies and dudes who know how to use them, who happen to have a functioning democracy already, a robust economy, and love Americans.

However all that would be too much like war. And has violence ever solved anything?

There will be no spankings.

[Centralcal on iPad]

Okay - have to do this since it is a newly discovered JOM trait - I graduated at 17 also.

[Danube on iPad]

"Why, for 16 years, did you market yourself as having been born in Kenya?"

We all know what he would have said, truthful or not: "I had no idea they were marketing my book that way."

The presser of April 27 2011 was, indeed, a birth certificate story. It demonstrated that he was born in Hawaii.

[Beasts of England]

We're all above average!

[cathyf]

I graduated from hs at 18, but I did graduate from college at 21. And my brother and husband both graduated from hs at 17...

[narciso]

well that is seemingly too logical Soylent, also would they have cashiered 500 of the top midlevel officers, if they had this in mind,

[Sue]

I don't know Beasts. I graduated at 17 because I have an August birthday. If I had been born 1 week later I would have graduated at 18.

[boatbuilder]

...Which is why not a single member of the press ever asked the question. Because they never ask questions when they know what the person asked will answer, and they always accept that answer without follow up. From candidates for the Presidency of The United States.
Bias? What bias?

[Sue]

I won't be surprised to find out Obama was enrolled as a foreign student in college. As soon as he leaves office the floodgates will open up. Being born in Hawaii, where he was actually born, wasn't exotic enough for our little dreamer.

[Gus]

I graduated from my junior year at 17

[Danube on iPad]

"Bias? What bias?"

The bias is endemic, and widely recognized.

But why didn't Bret Baier ever ask him that question? Ed Henry? Bill O'Reilly? Jonathan Karl?

Answer: because they considered it trivial.

[Soylent Red]

I graduated from my junior year at 17

I don't remember what happened when I was 17...

[boatbuilder]

Janet's point is absolutely correct and the reason the Fox guys didn't ask the question is the same reason you are so prickly about it--fear of ridicule. Obama either marketed himself falsely or the birthers have a point. I believe the former is correct but in a presidential campaign, where DUI arrests at age 21 and dogs on the roof are major issues, somebody should have asked--or at least pointed out the phoniness.

Good night.

[Threadkiller]

But why didn't Bret Baier ever ask him that question? Ed Henry? Bill O'Reilly? Jonathan Karl?

And kill the golden goose of journalism? Obama makes for good ratings.

Less likely is a scenario where the Department of Justice goes after journalists who are unfriendly to the regime.

That would never happen.

[Appalled (Feeling Populist Tonight)]

All these people braggin' about graduatin when they was 17. Tht ain't nothin. I graduated when I was six!!

The kindergarden wouldn't have me no more.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Hate to be so ordinary in this crowd, but I graduated at 17 too.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Of course I was slow. My mother graduated at 19. From college.

Great comment from Soylent. And agree with Janet that the question should have been asked, routinely.

[narciso]

yes, that's crazy talk, ask james rosen or risen, that never happens;

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/09/new_leader_of_ahrar_al_sham_pr.php

who says we don't provide opportunities for leadership.

[narciso]

well my spidey senses were properly tingling:

http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/09/12/walk-cruz-rebukes-anti-israel-audience-iran-linked-defend-christians-conference-video/

this explains much of Am Con's trapper keeper brigade criticism

[Bori]

Why, for 16 years, did you market yourself as having been born in Kenya?

For the same reason he said that "if you like your plan you can keep" and countless other things.

He's a liar and will say whatever it is that will be beneficial to him. That is his MO, it just took a little longer for most to realize it.

[Bori]

daddy,

Op Ed from NYT’s Krugman – “The Warming Cult”

This essay is a satirical spoof, but it mirrors Krugman’s original essay titled “The Inflation Cult” published on September 11th, 2014 very well.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/12/op-ed-from-nyts-krugman-the-warming-cult/

[narciso]

well that does capture 'the absurdity by being absurd' when does Carlos Slim's stop being a high brow Onion, no decent Russian oligarch will ever pick it up that way,

[Danube on iPad]

It amazes me - well, not so much - that with Ukraine, China, ISIS, Hamas, etc., people here still want to re-litigate the question of Obama's birthplace and the legitimacy of his birth certificate.

Why do they do this? Is there some Holy Grail out there that will prove that he not only was not born in Hawaii, but instead was born somewhere else? What does anyone imagine such a Holy Grail might be? And if it were found, what would happen?

The Fox people and I are fearful of ridicule. Really? Tell me that's not your fastball, boatbuilder. Leo G. Donofrio, Peter Berg, Threadkiller, Orly Taitz and the Birther Report loons don't fear ridicule, but Fox News (and I) do? Really?

Nytol.

[Ignatz]

Being a Decemberist I din't grajooate til I was 18 an a haff.

[Danube on iPad]

Why didn't anyone fro Fox ever ask Obama what his Ouija Board had told him about his father? His grandfathers?

It was fear of ridicule.

Cowards!

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

I graduated from HS when I was 18, but my senior year of HS I went to college, so I graduated a sophomore in college from HS. Make sense?

Credits counted both for HS and for college my "senior" year. Plus I was still eligible for all my HS extracurricular stuff like cheerleading and gymnastics.

[Eric in Boise]

Breathlessly awaiting DuDa's graduation story.

Eighth grade, I'm thinking.

[Ignatz]

Eighth?
That would put him, IIRC, two up on Jethro Bodine, which seems wildly implausible.

Can WeeDavey cipher with his shoes on like Jethro?

[Threadkiller]

He's a liar and will say whatever it is that will be beneficial to him. 

So you agree that lying about his eligibility for President is likely because it greatly benefited him?

[daddy]

Bori,

Your 11:49 link doesn't work for me and I can't find it at Watts Up. Perhaps it has been pulled.

If you can find a better link please repost to it. Thanks.

That would put him, IIRC, two up on Jethro Bodine, which seems wildly implausible.

Iggy,

Speaking of wildly implausible and Jethro Bodine, tonight on Perry Mason, (The case of the Deadly Toy), Nancy Kulp was on in a very early roll and looking, believe it or don't, fairly good.

You will find this implausible because you know her better as Ms Jane Hathaway, who was Mr Drysdales Secretary and deeply in love with Jethro Bodine.

Implausible? You be the judge:)

According to WiKI: Kulp was once described as television's most homely girl or, as one reviewer put it, possessing the "face of a shriveled balloon, the figure of a string of spaghetti, and the voice of a bullfrog in mating season."

And she was a LTJG (Lieutenant Junior Grade) in the US Naval Reserve during World War II. Go Miss Hathaway!

[anonamom]

daddy,
How goes the orientation? I am oh-so-curious if your daughter is presented with the fact that in over 60% of these "sexual assaults" on campus, alcohol is involved on the part of the "victim."
How can you leave her on a college campus?? Oh, maybe you've read enough to know that those "assaults" included unwanted touching and kissing--so a pat on the fanny has been morphed into a rape by the likes of Kristin Gillibrand for PR purposes

My youngest son had to go to mandatory safe sex talks presented in conjunction with the theater department when he was a freshman six years ago. I don't believe abstinence was one of the scenarios, in contrast to older brother's ND orientation, where it was made very clear they'd be expelled from school if the broke that rule in the student handbook.

By younger son's eighth week at school, he'd commented that he thought the girls got drunk so they could have sex, then ascribe it to being drunk!
Its only been recently that a number of us mommas have heard from our 20-something sons that they could write one of the "I was a victim of sexual assault on my college campus" essays for the student newspaper too.

My solution--drop the drinking age to 19. These kids need to be able to drink without getting drunk, which is what happens when they feel like they have access problems.
Very, very rare to have anybody drunk in the dorms when I was in was in college and the legal age was 18.
(I pick 19 to try to keep keggers from being as popular a weekend event as they were when I was in high school--but 18 is OK by me too.

[Jane on Ipad]

You guys got nuttin'

I graduated from law school at 35!!!

Beat that!

[Danube on iPad]

"So you agree that lying about his eligibility for President is likely because it greatly benefited him?"

If that question made any sense, then it must follow that he is likely to have lied about being president of the Harvard Law Review because it greatly benefited him.

Why would numerous Hawaii bureaucrats lie about his eligibility?

[anonamom]

Danube, are you still awake at 2:37 PDT or getting up very early for???
I think the solar flare/aurora bourealis thing is over.

Or have I missed your travel itinerary??

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

I got my MBA at 42.

[Extraneus]

It amazes me - well, not so much - that with Ukraine, China, ISIS, Hamas, etc., people here still want to re-litigate the question of Obama's birthplace and the legitimacy of his birth certificate.

Only one person in the conversation was questioning that. Janet's point was that he lied about his birth in order to appear exotic and sell books. Why wasn't that worthy of a question?

The answer is: fear of ridicule, just as boatbuilder said. People were cowed into backing off because of the ridicule directed toward the birthers.

The bio isn't a birther issue. If you believe he was born in Hawaii, the bio was a lie. Did he also lie to get financial aid or admission to Columbia and Harvard?

That's not a birther question, but it wasn't about asked because the birthers were effectively ridiculed. It should have been, because it was a very early indication of Obama's character.

[James D.]

From last night...

Why does Howie Hurtz believe the Media are somehow different, more noble specimens of humanity than anyone else? Why are they and only they always able to put country first over personal gain?

I think it's human nature for everyone to feel that way from time to time.

But most of us (at least, most decent human beings) realize it's not true; and we certainly don't present ourselves to the world as though we are more noble than everyone else, and we don't seek out jobs on that basis.

[Rick B]

Narciso,

Thanks for the link to the Hezbollah linked Christians booing Cruz. The question of whether Copts attended was answered (they didn't - the stench from the Clinton/Iranian connection was too strong) and Chagoury's involvement clarifies the level of depraved indifference exhibited. I can't see why anyone would celebrate the birth of a Christian CAIR and if Cruz managed to cripple it early he deserves a round of applause.

[Miss Marple]

Good morning!

https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/first-formula-e-electric-car-race-seeks-answer-to-the-question--why-182337173.html

The one-seat electric racers built by Renault and Spark Racing Technology for the series are only the beginning of Formula E's thirst for innovation. Start with FanBoost, a social media campaign that asks people to vote for their favorite drivers; the top three vote-getters win a 5-second power boost of 90 hp — taking their cars from 180 hp to 270 hp — that can be deployed anywhere in the race. (As of this writing, the fan voting site was offline.)

Because the cars' battery packs are so large at 200 kWh, and recharging times would take ages, racers will have one pit stop to jump from one car into a freshly charged duplicate, requiring a new kind of pit strategy.Series organizers have also discussed using live data from races to allow fans online in racing simulators and video games to compete virtually with drivers on the track, although such a setup won't be available for Beijing.

[Miss Marple]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/09/12/pelosi_civilization_as_we_know_it_would_be_in_jeopardy_if_republicans_win_the_senate.html

NANCY PELOSI: It would be very important for the Democrats to retain control of the Senate. Civilization as we know it today would be in jeopardy if Republicans win the Senate.

[AliceH]

h/t www.coyoteblog.com

[AliceH]

drat. I tried sizing the darn image - never get that right.

[Extraneus]

Doesn't work here, Alice. The people who do it are able to store the resized image elsewhere and link it.

[Extraneus]

Democrats supported OTC birth control until it was inconvenient

[Jeff Dobbs]

Did I just copy the url for that image to open it in a new tab . . . emptying my clipboard of the long response I wrote about the DoT-birther-Kenya bio-yada-yada thing?

Why yes, yes I did.

::shakes fist at Ted Cruz::

Yeah, it's his fault. It just is.

[Old Lurker]

"emptying my clipboard of the long response I wrote about the DoT-birther-Kenya bio-yada-yada thing..."

There IS a god.

[JiB]

AliceH,

I use Photobucket were you can edit and resize your photos. It's a little cumbersome in that you have to move the photo from a website or google search to your desktop then upload to Photobucket.

[AliceH]

Thanks, Extraneus and JiB.

Sorry, Hit.

You're welcome, Old Lurker.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Well, if OL wants it, I can recreate it.

[Marlene]

Good Morning! Very chilly here this morning. MM mentioned racing and AliceH mentioned fossil fuels,so this is sort of on topic. Yesterday hubby went to an event promoting a young man from northern Maine who will be racing in the Nationwide series in Kentucky. The race car promotes Maine tourism,with iconic images of a lighthouse,lobster and blueberries. Several Maine companies have sponsored the car. Hubby was very impressed with the young man,his family owns a trucking company and have been clients of hubby's for years. Earlier in the day, they did a promotional stop in Portland,which Gov. Lepage attended. Lepage took the young man aside and talked to him for quite along time. Lepage approved $15,000. from a discretionary fund help sponsor the car and the tourism theme. Hubby was very impressed with the young man and talked at length with his parents. They are proud of their son,but know it will take millions of dollars to become established in MASCAR. If Austin doesn't become a NACAR,driver,he's going into politics. He told his parents he and Lepage talked politics. Anyway,the Lepage haters are incensed that he spent the money on a fossil fuel spewing race car.

[Marlene]

*NASCAR* more coffee!

[Threadkiller]

Why would numerous Hawaii bureaucrats lie about his eligibility?

Maybe it greatly benefited them.

Do you believe numerous bureaucrats are currently lying about other issues to protect the President and his administration?

(IRS Targeting, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, Illegal Alien Surge, Knowledge of ISIS, IG Blockade, Spying on Senate computers, etc)

[Ignatz]

I think everyone knows how to right click to see the whole images, Alice.

If I can't find one that fits I just post the whole thing. Downloading to photobucket or a similar site and resizing is a PITA.

[Marlene]

Geez,I've got to preview. I stopped using preview because I was losing comments.
I've never said much about DoT and TK and the ongoing discussion,because I'm a nice person. :) But,at this point,what difference does it make??!!??!!!

[peter]

catching up on the thread. what an awesome bunch you JOMers are - love it; body sushi, calling BS on Dreams, the fantasist in the WH, age of graduation from HS (17 in my case) home discipline (Dad took off the belt (the strap!) but never used it) (same with Mom and her Wooden Spoon) but the threat had a detente effect, believe me, Daddy with the Ancient Greek preference for small breasts ( probably secondary to 12 year old boys) and Jane Hathaway (didn't she run for Congress against Zelda from Dobie Gillis?)

Anyway, I love you guys. busy weekend lots to do

[Threadkiller]

Here is another question that may not make any sense:

Did Obama lie about his age during his first campaign in order to get some sort of benefit for himself?

[Threadkiller]

But,at this point,what difference does it make??!!??!!!

It would be nice to keep the a-hole from getting an aircraft carrier named after him.

[GMax]

To add to the enlightment started by Narciso in the bloody middle of the night( which I would never have read if not for Mr Ballard's noting it and its significance, so hat tip to both of you ), we have the Weekly Standard with a bit more this AM written by Lee Smith. Here is a pithy paragraph that ties in Chagoury, Aoun, Assad and Iran.

Chagoury, who according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables has supported Michel Aoun, Hezbollah’s key Christian ally in Lebanon. A 2007 cable also explains that Chagoury is close to Suleiman Franjieh Jr., another pillar of Lebanon’s pro-Damascus, pro-Hezbollah March 8 political coalition and a man who calls Assad his friend and brother. Former prime minister of Lebanon Fouad Siniora suggested to then U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman “that the U.S. deliver to Chagoury a stern message about the possibility of financial sanctions and travel bans against those who undermine Lebanon’s legitimate institutions.”

OH yeah, they also met with Susan Rice this week. That is one rancid stew. Perhaps this new "Christian" version of CAIR will be stillborn due to the efforts of Senator Cruz. We can only hope.

[Steve]

Obamacare Update: 250,000 Virginians To Lose Health Insurance Coverage

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/09/obamacare-update-250000-virginians-to.html

[GMax]

I like Steph, attended the local community college as a senior in high school earning credits for both my high school degree and college credits. I turned 18 smack dab in the middle of my senior year and started out with a bunch of college credits before I ever got to MSU.

[Jeff Dobbs]

TK:
It would be nice to keep the a-hole from getting an aircraft carrier named after him.

Oh, you mean Obama. The first time I read it, I thought you meant DoT.

I like the way I read it. It's funnier that way.

[JIB (on iPhone at Fredeick's soccer game)]

Iggy,

I use a Mac and Safari. There is no right click that I know of . Do you?

[Strawman Cometh]

yes the apples use crippled, one button mice. I believe you press the apple?-key while clicking to simulate the right click.

[Strawman Cometh]

The newer ones do a right click if you use your middle finger.

[Miss Marple]

Having both an iPad and a non-Apple desk top, I find the desk top easier to use.

I do NOT understand why when I refresh a page on the iPad it GOES TO THE TOP, making me have to scroll all the way down on long threads.

It's a convenience for me when I am at an auctio or traveling, but I prefer the old desk top for most of my work.

[Ignatz]

Bit into a worm in a Macintosh one time JiB, put me off them for good.

Still planning on a plains game and Cape Buff safari one of these days though.

[Jane]

Capn'

I bow to your brilliant agism.

[Centralcal on iPad]

I read it the same as you did, Hit (naming of aircraft carrier) and had the same laugh.

MM : on iPad just tap the date/time stamp of last comment you have read and you will always pick up there when you refresh, unless the comments have begun a new page.

[Extraneus]

TIME:

Obama’s Breathtaking Expansion of a President’s Power To Make War

President Obama hoped to repeal the Bush-era authorization declaring war on al Qaeda—instead he's expanded it without bound

Future historians will ask why George W. Bush sought and received express congressional authorization for his wars (against al Qaeda and Iraq) and his successor did not.

[Ignatz]

--Oh, you mean Obama. The first time I read it, I thought you meant DoT.--

Me too. Had to read it several times to see who he meant. I think we're now reading it correctly. :)

[James D.]

Late to the party, but I'm another one who was 17 at my high school graduation.

[Ignatz]

Does anyone think that Barry would have sought a new AUMF if he had succeeded in repealing the old one?

[Miss Marple]

Cantralcal,

THANK YOU! That is very helpful!

[Cecil Turner]

One thing that struck me (and I haven't seen much discussion about) is the convenient cowardice of our air campaign-only approach to ISIL. As with the focus on drone warfare, the absence of ground combat troops essentially ensures we will have no opportunity to take inconvenient prisoners.

As the recent Abu Khattalah case exemplifies, the Administration is persisting with the law enforcement model of counterterrorism . . . with indifferent results. And now that they (with the help of fellow travelers like McCain) have emasculated the military commission system, there's little or no chance of doing it correctly:

Indeed, the overall international legal regime for dealing with unlawful combatants remains essentially unchanged. Such individuals are not entitled to the rights and benefits associated with "prisoner-of-war" status under the Geneva Conventions, they can be processed through a military justice system instead of being tried by civilian courts, and, if found to be unlawful combatants, they can be punished (including the death penalty) for nothing more than the "acts which render[ed] their belligerency unlawful."

It's worth noting that mere membership in a group that conducts war crimes (which absolutely includes torture or killing of prisoners) is an offense punishable by death . . . and that's exactly what the military commission law ought to read.

Instead, they persist with illogic like this (from the LA Times):

But the case for civilian trials is a strong one. They provide more due process than military commissions. To the extent that the war on terror is a battle for hearts and minds, they show the world that the United States is willing to accord even its enemies the full panoply of rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Yes, it tells the world something: we're not serious. And if the choice is between offending us, or a bunch of savages who might just win (and chop the heads off everyone who even smacks of collaboration with the enemy), who you gonna dis?

[Captain Hate]

I bow to your brilliant agism.

Eh, grad school was pretty easy imo although it probably helped that I wasn't quite as immature as I was as an undergrad, when I was really really irresponsible by any reasonable criteria. To be honest, I was disappointed in the quality of most of the other students at CRUW although I did cherry pick some of the better ones with whom I'm still friends. One guy I'm sorry I lost touch with was from Buffalo and going for an MBA and JD at the same time. Massive student debt, anybody? I'm sure he's done fine. One thing that really really bugged me was the poor grammatical skills of my peers; when there was a group paper I always demanded the ability to rewrite it make us appear literate.

Although I was a terrible student as an undergrad, I was impressed with how much of what I was exposed to at Maryland and somehow retained prepared me for grad school.

[Janet]

I love picking apart the lies of Obama's "official" life narrative.

I don't think that any ONE story would have hurt him...but if each of the lies was amplified, Obama's marketed image of cool & smart would have sure been tarnished.

*for 16yrs. he marketed himself as having been born in Kenya to sell his book
*said his parents were inspired to get together by Selma marches(1965)...while he was born in 1961.
*credited Kennedy for his father getting to come to Hawaii for college. Kennedy's program was after his father came.
*Ayers was just some guy in his neighborhood
*went to Bali for a month (or a week) without Michelle (or with Michelle) & typed out Dreams From My Father on a laptop on a beach. (all versions provided by the NYT)
*his family was poor...but he went to the most elite school in Hawaii
*Michelle & him were poor...but he flew to Bali for a month (or week) & stayed...where exactly? Who knows.

We all know this stuff because we can spend hours on the computer digging...but most LIVs have no idea what a phony, lying, empty suit was sold to them by the media.

I also like picking apart the lies because it not only tarnishes Obama, but it shows what a crappy job the old media did in vetting him.

None of the few things I listed are a conspiracy theory. They can all be verified by pro-Obama authors & videos & pictures.

[Miss Marple]

Cecil,

With no significant troop presence on the ground, what are we going to do if they bring down a plane and capture a pilot?

I do not like this strategy at all.

[Captain Hate]

how silly the whole birth certificate story was.

As silly as saying "unexpected" about bad economic news for over five years?

Btw is this trash software acting weird for anybody else? Speaking of trash software, Windows had one of their updates last night and might be the cause of it.

[Jane]

What do you guys think of this:

While Obama Snoozes, Russia Is Preparing For Nuclear War With The United States

[Jane]

Capn'

I did half an MBA before I went to law school. Prior to that my last math class was in the 9th grade and it was a remedial class called algebra/geometry for people too stupid to understand either.

So second year in of MBA night school I enrolled in a mandatory calculus class. The professor barely spoke english, and spoke it very fast. In the first class I thought I was on a different planet because I couldn't understand a word he said. At one point, rudely I'm sure, I laughed.

He turned and said: "This should be common knowledge". I dropped out that night.

[Beasts of England]

Couple of good games on today. Georgia v. South Carolina should be interesting. I'd like to see if Texas can do anything against UCLA, although I kinda doubt it. I'd like to see Tennessee move the ball some against Oklahoma - interested to see what each of those teams have this year.

Roll Tide!!

[Centralcal on iPad]

It is acting up for me too, Captain and I am on iPad, so don't think it is a Windows issue.

[Soylent Red]

Yes, it tells the world something: we're not serious. And if the choice is between offending us, or a bunch of savages who might just win (and chop the heads off everyone who even smacks of collaboration with the enemy), who you gonna dis?

It depends on what you mean Cecil.

Are we serious about defeating ISIS? Remember, they were a "JV" team until a couple of high visibility head choppings forced Barry to take notice.

Are we serious about regional security? We precipitously withdrew troops from Iraq because Barry and his DoS couldn't be bothered to take the time to negotiate a workable SOFA, or worse, wouldn't be bothered because it got in the way of a withdrawal during the election run up. We abandoned the Awakening Council Sunnis to placate an Iranian backed Maliki. Elsewhere, we foolishly failed to manage populist uprisings in Egypt and Syria to our advantage. When confronted in the media with the outcomes of those failures, we publicly backtracked or issued red lines we had no intention of paying attention to, thereby exacerbating the problems.

The underlying thread in all of this is that the Admin hasn't been "serious" about foreign policy from the beginning. What they are serious about is that they are perceived as being serious. At least just enough to spin plausible sounding campaign speeches about what they have accomplished, so that the media can serve it up to the LIVs in the next election cycle.

Everything is political bullshit with these people.

[Ignatz]

-- As with the focus on drone warfare, the absence of ground combat troops essentially ensures we will have no opportunity to take inconvenient prisoners.--

It also essentially ensures we will not win.
Assuming they can claim they were just uneducated dunces before, after Libya even these piss-ants know we are fighting an unwinnable war.

The left pitches fits over wars in which at least the CiC believes the stacks of bodies deserve an honest attempt to win and achieve some goal.
They're silent when one of their own cynically starts bombing people left and right because he looks bad if he doesn't. And they're silent while the only people dying are thousands upon thousands of brown people on the other side of the world who prior to croaking were just brimming with multicultural and ethnic differences they love to celebrate here in their safe little enclaves.
But let one lily-white, clodkickin' Amurikun lad from Podunk die and they're Amurika First, bring those boys home, no furriner is worth dyin for isolationists.
They couch it in their Georgetown and Cambridge progressivese, but the fact is they're more provincial and knee jerk than the Archie Bunkers of the world ever thought of being.

[Captain Hate]

Jane, where did you go where calc was a requirement? I've never taken it and feel kind of bad about it; maybe I'll take a class in my 60s. Everybody whose opinion I trust tells me that its a neat course if taught well, which is a pretty large caveat that your example proved. My oldest daughter, Doctor Hatette, had a very good teacher in high school; one of the two teachers in her entire high school experience that weren't worthless loads, which is why the younger child went to private school.

[Old Lurker]

MM iPad tip:

If you are at the bottom of a thread and tap the refresh circle thingy at the top, as you say it takes you back to the top of the refreshed thread.

Instead, tap on the bolder date time stamp of the last comment and it will refresh from that point down....

[BeenThereDoneThat]

A former Muslim comes up with this explanation for Barrack's reluctant ISIS eradication strategy:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/09/why_is_obama_kicking_the_isis_can_down_the_road.html

[Soylent Red]

The left pitches fits over wars in which at least the CiC believes the stacks of bodies deserve an honest attempt to win and achieve some goal.

Not exactly. The Left pitches fits over wars that are being waged by Republicans.

We haven't heard peep outta the Left since Barry took office on pre-withdrawal Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, or any of the other places where we are killing people. Code Pink has miraculously disappeared and Cindy Sheehan has returned to whatever toadstool she emerged from under.

It's about politics and power. There is nary a thought about body counts unless it can be used as a political lever.

[henry]

CH, I found that going back to school after working for a decade made a big difference in how I approached classes. I thought the group things at CRUW were pointless. Fortunately, the doctoral program was more about setting up group things than getting stuck in them.

Yes, TP is mucked up this morning.

[Old Lurker]

Sorry CC...did not see your 10:09....