Friday, July 18, 2014

Obama, crises, and the three-am phone calls

Victor Davis Hanson; War Was Interested in Obama
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... "One of Obama’s talking points in the 2012 campaign included a boast that he had “ended” the war in Iraq by bringing home every U.S. soldier that had been left to ensure the relative quiet and stability after the successful Petraeus surge. In the world of Obama, a war can be declared ended because he said so, given that no Americans were any longer directly involved. (Remind the ghosts of the recently beheaded in now al Qaeda-held Mosul that the war ended there in 2011.)
 
"Iraq is in flames, as is “lead from behind” Libya, as is “red line” Syria, and as are those places where an al Qaeda “on the run” has migrated. Had Obama been commander in chief in 1940, he would have assured us that the wars in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and France were “over” — as they were in a sense for those who lost them, but as they were not for those next in line."  http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/war-was-interested-in-obama/?singlepage=true


Our Callow Commander-in-Chief;  "Why is insouciance Obama’s first response to international crises?"   "It is at times like these, when he is pushed kicking and screaming into the crucible, that Obama’s callowness shows. For his supporters, that jejune, jocular air has been a plus for almost six years. For the rest of us, it has served as a liability and an irritation. Yesterday, it became a wholesale embarrassment."
...Instead, the president spent a grand total of 38 seconds on the downing of the plane, describing what he knew to have been an atrocity as a “tragedy” that “might” have happened, and then going back to slamming Republicans for refusing to agree with him on infrastructure spending, to joking with his adoring fans, and to suggesting that America needed to stop indulging in what the more traditional among us like to refer to as “politics.” It would, as David Freddoso observed, have been as if George W. Bush had continued to read “Why Daddy Is a Republican” after he had learned of the attacks on the Twin Towers."

... "For the next two years, this is to be our fate. Indifference, drift, diversion, and fatigue. Hello Cleveland! Hello Brooklyn! Goodbye, yellow brick road."

Obama's bizarre and frightening response to the shoot down of MH17



"Some of the reaction to the president's bizarre remarks came from reporters on the scene:"
  • Traveling in Denver, this reporter heard gasps from guests watching a hotel lobby television as Obama spoke.
  • One remarked: 'A tragedy is when you lose control and fly into a mountainside. This is mass-murder. What a disappointment.'
  • 'His distance from reality is just bizarre,' said another.
  • Daniel Hannan, the British member of Europe's parliament who has rankled liberals in a series of American speaking tours, tweeted his own disgust.
  • 'Listening to Obama's statement [on] the airline tragedy, my mind went back to Reagan 31 years ago,' he wrote.
  • 'How America's leaders have shrunk.'
  • Obama finished his speech by saying 'Let’s build some bridges. Let’s build some roads. God bless America.'
  • Matt Viser, a Boston Globe reporter on the scene, tweeted a devastating reaction.
  • 'Obama, in sum: A plane crashed. It may be tragic. We're trying to see if US citizens were on board. Hey, great to be in Delaware!' he wrote.
  • The president's next stop after Wilmington was New York City, where he headlines a Democratic Party fundraiser Thursday evening. Tickets for the cozy event go for as much as $32,400...
... "The White House will attribute excessive caution to the president's shocking remarks. But reporters were getting background from administration officials that the plane was shot down with a missile for several hours prior to the president's remarks. And, of course, the fact that he then went merrily on his way to a fundraiser while what amounts to an act of war was committed against US citizens is just one more indication how out of touch this president is." ...

Obama picks non-pilot to head Air Force in Pacific for diversity drive

socio-political commentary

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds execute a maneuver while visitors watch from Falcon Stadium after the graduation ceremonies of the Class of 2009. This was the 51st graduating class, and consisted of 1,046 newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenants (US Air Force photo by Dennis Rogers)

 
"The White House has picked the first female general to head the Air Force in the Pacific, which will make her the first non-pilot to command air power in such a large theater of operation.
 
    "The Pentagon announced this week that Air Force Lt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson has been nominated for promotion to four-star general and as commander of Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force component of U.S. Pacific Command. It is a major combatant command whose air, ground and naval forces have broad responsibility for security in the Asia-Pacific region. Her nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation.
 
 "Officials said pilots historically have commanded Air Force war-fighting components for the Pacific and for U.S. Air Forces Europe; Air Forces Central, which covers the Middle East and Afghanistan; and the 1st Air Force, which is part of Northern Command and protects U.S. skies."...
 Emphasis added, TW

Your 2014 Iowahawk Earth Week Cruise-In Grand Champion Carbonator

Iowahawk   "All the entries are in, and once again it's been a bang up year for the Earth Week Cruise-In with 70 entries from around the world. Thanks again to all participants for your grassroots climate activism and dedication to horsepower. But only one can stand alone as the Grand Champion Carbonator. The envelope, please!

"And the winner is (drum roll)... "


 
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy!
 
"A hearty congratulations to Gina, whose winnings include a deserving place alongside Barack Obama, Solyndra, James Cameron and Mother Earth herself in our pantheon of previous champions, along with 1 trillion official Iowahawk carbon credits to apply against her future environmental destruction.

" 'What gives, Dave? I didn't bolt a twin turbo and nitrous onto my two-stroke margarita maker to lose your stupid contest to some damn government hippie," you might well be grumbling. OK, Mister Sore Loser, lemme ask you this: did your Earth Week celebration include private jet travel with an entourage of flunkies to New York, Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta and Memphis, all for no apparent reason?

"Gina's did.

"So don't hate the player, hater, hate the game. If you're going to compete in the Carbon Big Leagues, best bring your "A" game and the power to tax your jet fuel bills out of the chumps.

"Until next year... Excelsior!" 

TOP SECRET "STAGING" BASE FOR THE PREPARATION OF THE WW2 INVASION OF JAPAN

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Warbird Information Exchange   "Its existence kept secret throughout the war, the US naval base at Ulithi was for a time the world’s largest naval facility.

...
...
"In March 1945, 15 battleships, 29 carriers, 23 cruisers, 106 destroyers, and a train of oilers and supply ships sailed from "a Pacific base." What was this base? The mightiest force of naval Power ever assembled must have required a tremendous supporting establishment. Ulithi, the biggest and most active naval base in the world was indeed tremendous but it was unknown. Few civilians had heard of it at all. By the time security released the name, the remarkable base of Ulithi was a ghost. The war had moved on to the Japanese homeland, and the press was not printing ancient history about Ulithi.

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"Ulithi is 360 miles southwest of Guam, 850 miles east of the Philippines, 1300 miles South of Tokyo. It is a typical volcanic atoll with coral, white sand, and palm trees. The reef runs roughly twenty miles north and south by ten miles across enclosing a vast anchorage with an average depth of 80 to 100 feet - the only suitable anchorage within 800 miles. Three dozen little islands rise slightly above the sea, the largest only half a square mile in area.

"The U.S. Navy arrived in September 1944 and found resident about 400 natives, and three Japanese soldiers. The natives on the four largest islands were moved to smaller Fassarai, and every inch of these four was quickly put to use. Asor had room for a headquarters: port director, radio station, evaporator (rain is the only freshwater supply), tents, small boat pier, cemetery. Sorlen was set up as a shop for maintaining and repairing the 105 LCVPs and 45 LCMs that became beasts of all work in the absence of small boats. Mogmog was assigned to recreation. The big island, Falalop, was just wide enough for a 3500-foot airstrip for handling the R4Ds (Douglas DC-3s) and R5C Commandos, which would presently fly in from Guam 1269 passengers, 4565 sacks of mail and 262,251 pounds of air freight a week. This took care of a few services - but where were they going to put the naval base?"
 Full article...   Hat tip to  Harley Standlee; Placerville, CA

Stock Footage - World War II: Ulithi, Anchorage