Obama and the strategic oil reserves

Obama about-face: Tap U.S. oil reserves   Then-Senator Obama called tapping the petroleum reserve "a short-term response to a long-term problem."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/michaelramirez/2011/06/24/89078

Obama was against tapping the Strategic Oil Reserve before he was for it. (FAIL from 2008!) "I do not believe that we should use the strategic oil reserves at this point. I have said and, in fact, supported a congressional resolution that said that we should suspend putting more oil into the strategic oil reserve, but the strategic oil reserve, I think, has to be reserved for a genuine emergency. You have a situation, let’s say, where there was a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia that was destroyed as a consequence of terrorist acts, and you suddenly had huge amounts of oil taken out of the world market, we wouldn’t just be seeing $4-a-gallon oil. We could see a situation where entire sectors of the country had no oil to function at all. And that’s what the strategic oil reserve has to be for."

"Today, we discovered what Barack Obama considers a genuine emergency — a drop in the polls: "...

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/lisabenson

Obama’s Bow to the Muslim World, Round II

Bruce S. Thornton  "It’s time we stopped reacting to a world we have created from our own wish-fulfilling assumptions and delusions, and start heeding the wisdom of scripture: By their fruits ye shall know them. We have rescued Muslims from murderous thugs in Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan; we have transferred billions and billions to Muslim nations, including the terrorist PLO; we have spent our blood and treasure to create for Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan the freedom and self-determination Obama’s speech proclaims we support and Muslims desire; we have done all this, yet outside Indonesia and Lebanon, not even 1 in 5 Muslims like us. "

Medal of Honor recipients; Obama unplugged

From Blackfive: President Obama's Terrible Mistake; "How does the Commander-in-Chief mix these heroes up? He put that medal around Giunta's neck and he stood with Monti's parents as they grieved. These fallen heroes leave such a great legacy, and we should know all their names. The ironic part of the speech, and this comes after the announcement of the politically pressured drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, was Obama's closing remark, "Know that your Commander-in-Chief has your back."
"It shouldn't take a teleprompter for the C-in-C to get it right."

From American Thinker:  A Clueless, Callous Commander-in-Chief  "If you are going to be the Commander-in-Chief, Barry, then as this old sergeant would have instructed one of his troops after such a disgraceful performance, "Soldier up fool and get your sh*t straight. You are talking about recipients of the highest award for valor their nation can bestow upon their warriors. You have flippantly dishonored the award itself and all those to whom it has ever been awarded. You are an embarrassment to the world, your country and most importantly to the troops you supposedly command.""

From Weasel Zippers: Obama Apologizes to Family of Fallen Medal of Honor Recipient He Mistakenly Claimed Was Still Alive… "Guess how many of the big three networks shows covered Obama confusing one living American war hero with a fallen one he posthumously awarded the MOH to in 2009? If you answered zero (and I’m sure you did), step up and claim your prize."

Honoring SSG Sal Giunta, First Living Medal of Honor Recipient Since the Vietnam War

More links on Sgt. Guinta here.  What a shame to see men like this being honored by those who loathe the military and the government they serve.

Jared Monti

Sergeant First Class Jared Monti: Medal of Honor ; Posthumous:  "In 2006, Sergeant First Class Jared Monti died fighting in Afghanistan. The Massachusetts native was inundated with gunfire, but that didn't stop him from coming to the aid of his fellow wounded comrades."

"Years later, Sergeant Monti is receiving the highest military honor: The Congressional Medal of Honor. "

Photo: Stars and Stripes : "Even though bullets came pouring in like hail, Staff Sgt. Jared Monti made a break for it. The enemy was strong — maybe 50, to the 16 Americans. But Pvt. Brian Bradbury was Monti’s guy. He was isolated and bleeding badly on this grim mountain ridge in northeastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan province.  Monti didn’t get far."

Statement on the economy

http://terrellaftermath.com/

John Huntsman, meet Karl Rove (updated)

American Thinker  "In today's Wall Street Journal, Bush 43 advisor Karl Rove lists four reasons why President Obama is unlikely to be reelected. Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman seems focused on Rove's third reason, while foolishly ignoring Rove's equally important fourth reason."

comicallyincorrect.com

Karl Rove: Why Obama Is Likely to Lose in 2012 "Finally, Mr. Obama has made a strategic blunder. While he needs to raise money and organize, he decided to be a candidate this year rather than president. He has thus unnecessarily abandoned one of incumbency's great strengths, which is the opportunity to govern and distance himself from partisan politics until next spring. Instead, Team Obama has attacked potential GOP opponents and slandered Republican proposals with abandon. This is not what the public is looking for from the former apostle of hope and change."

Reelecting Obama

Victor Davis Hanson  "We are beginning to see the contours of the upcoming 2012 reelection campaign of Barack Obama. Whether always officially sanctioned or not, Obama’s campaign will focus on three general themes: a) the 2008 meltdown of the economy on Bush’s watch; b) conservative heartlessness in gutting cherished entitlement programs; and c) racial bias behind any criticism of Barack Obama."

Terror in the Beltway update: Would-be Pentagon bomber reportedly linked to military target shootings; Update: New arrests in Seattle…Shhhh, don’t say “Muslim;” Update: Pentagon bomb suspect’s “Allahu Akbar!” tapes

Michelle Malkin 

Forensic evidence found during the investigation links Melaku to five shootings at military targets last year, sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity told www.insidenova.com.

"Update 6/23 New arrests…breaking in Seattle…AP and Fox reporting this afternoon that two have been taken into custody in plot on Seattle military installations…
"More as details come in."

Whither Afghanistan? Defense and foreign affairs in the hands of Democrats

Obama’s Afghanistan Withdrawal  "Nation-building at home might be the President’s ideal job, but he has a responsibility abroad. As Curtis notes, the President’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Afghanistan will “further discourage Pakistan from cracking down on the Taliban leadership that finds sanctuary on its soil” and “reinforce Islamabad’s calculation that the U.S. is losing resolve in the fight in Afghanistan and thus encourage Pakistani military leaders to continue to hedge on support to the Taliban to protect their own national security interests.”"

Abandon all this?

From STRATFOR: Obama's Afghanistan Plan and the Realities of Withdrawal  "One of these will be the impact on not just situational awareness on the ground but intelligence collection and particularly exploitable relationships with local political factions. As the withdrawal becomes more and more undeniable and ISAF pulls back from key areas, the human relationships that underlie intelligence sharing will be affected and reduced. This is particularly the case in places where the Taliban are strongest, as villagers there return to a strategy of hedging their bets out of necessity and focus on the more enduring power structure, which in many areas will clearly be the Taliban."
This article reprinted with permission from STRATFOR

Afghanistan, Obama, and Revolution  "President Obama found a way to slip in, during the second half of his speech, comments pertaining “clean energy,” Libya, and support of Revolutionaries. The latter half of his speech contributed to many full e-mail inboxes."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/bobgorrell

Obama Flinches   "A front-page New York Times article reported how the Taliban had been reduced to tiny bands and how it had failed so far to regain its footing despite desperately trying to fight back. The boys in the Quetta Shura must be delighted at the opening President Obama is handing them." National Review

MICHAEL RAMIREZ,NRO

Alinsky Does Afghanistan   "Obama's radical inspiration would have loved his speech on the war."

Alinksi Does Afghanistan, Part II  "What I said 18 months ago remains true today: Obama’s plan “would be preposterous if it were actually a national-security strategy. But it’s not. It’s a political strategy.” It doesn’t need to be coherent or effective. It needs to get Obama through 2012."

Michael Yon: Afghanistan is making undeniable progress, but it could all unravel "The bottom line is that there are unmistakable signs of progress in Afghanistan, and Gen. David Petraeus is about to make a very important recommendation.
"His judgment should be trusted".

Jon Huntsman

Jon Huntsman’s first step toward oblivion  "I wish Huntsman luck in this noble pursuit, but the high road almost always leads to political oblivion. For Huntsman to maintain his course all the way to the Republican presidential nomination would turn politics on its head. More likely, he will join other decent men — Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch — whose presidential campaigns were quickly forgotten."  Dana Milbank

Huntsman 2012: Against Name-Calling, Anger—And For Them  "It seems to have taken Huntsman mere moments to understand that a strategy of chastising the Republican base was unwise. So in an interview with Sean Hannity, recorded right after his speech and aired last night, Huntsman praised the “anger and outrage” of the Tea Party as the proper functioning of American democracy and the pressure on lawmakers its creating as “a good outcome.”"

Levin on Jon Huntsman

How did we get here? A little reminder

Nealz Nuze  "A listener pointed me to this paper published by Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from California.  It’s about the housing crisis and it is the best explanation that you will ever read on the subject.  Don’t be scared by the footnotes.  Don’t be scared by the length.  Read it because you need to know what got us into this crisis, so that we are not doomed to repeat the mistakes that got us here."....
"The moral of Issa’s story is that government, not Wall Street or evil banks, but government policies are what lead us to our current financial crisis, and half-assed government solutions from Barack Obama aren’t going to lead us out of it."

The article:
UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING AND POLITICAL
KICKBACKS ROCKED THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

A big slobbering thank you to the unions

Neal Boortz  "Unions did to Detroit what that tornado did to Tuscaloosa and what Hugo did to Homestead, Florida.  Homestead was rebuilt, and Tuscaloosa will be.  This because they know that there is little likelihood that these storms will return with this ferocity – and they will be rebuilt stronger. Businesses – particularly the auto industry – will not be so anxious to rebuild Detroit because these businesses know that the unions are still lurking in the shadows in Michigan ready to strike – ready to throw sand into the gears of any engine of economic recovery. "

The President's Speech

Reaction to the president’s speech  "In contrast was the bold statement of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), which read in part:

“This is a part of the world where leaders always hedge their bets. Even the slightest impression that the United States is looking to get out is devastating. It is one of the reasons why Pakistan continues to undermine our efforts to target Al Qaeda. It also discourages tribal leaders in Afghanistan from cooperating with us to defeat the Taliban, and it encourages the Taliban to keep on fighting.

“Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It is about the bigger fight against Al Qaeda and radical Islamic terrorism.

Video; Governor Tim Pawlenty on The Bill O'Reilly Show to discuss Afghanistan

Jonathan S. Tobin:  End of Surge Has to Encourage Taliban  "The withdrawal of the surge forces against the advice of our military commanders, may wind up breathing new life into the Taliban cause after the setbacks it has suffered they have suffered in the last two years. If, as a result of this decision the Taliban regains the ground it lost since the surge then we will look back at this speech as a victory for America’s enemies, not a political coup for Obama."

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly  

Full Text of President Obama's Afghanistan Speech

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/ericallie

Here are some pre-speech comments from Blackfive (an exceptional milblog):

Obama to give Re-Election speech on A-Stan tonight  "Obama has dim-wittingly reinforced every weakness that al Qaeda and the rest have properly stated about us; we don't have the will or intestinal fortitude as a nation to fight them as they do to fight us. They don't have to beat us to win; they simply have to outlast us... They have now done so for the second time in Afghanistan."

30,000 troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan
"But to the point – “listening to the generals” is apparently only something Republican Commanders in Chief should do. Obama has decided, for entirely unmilitary reasons, it is time to pull the plug on any hope of holding our gains in Afghanistan. Note, I didn’t say get out of A’stan. 30,000 troops isn’t even close to a full withdrawal (100,000 there now). However, it is a margin of difference between consolidating and keeping what we’ve driven the Taliban out of and being too thinly spread to do that. In fact, that was the whole purpose of the surge (just as in Iraq) – take and hold."