Obama and his foreign policy

From Foreign Affairs: How Obama Lost Canada  "But instead of acting on economic logic, the Obama administration caved to environmental activists in November 2011, postponing until 2013 the decision on whether to allow the pipeline.

"Obama’s choice marked a triumph of campaign posturing over pragmatism and diplomacy, and it brought U.S.-Canadian relations to their lowest point in decades. It was hardly the first time that the administration has fumbled issues with Ottawa. Although relations have been civil, they have rarely been productive. Whether on trade, the environment, or Canada’s shared contribution in places such as Afghanistan, time and again the United States has jilted its northern neighbor. "

toonpool

Russian bomber intrusion near Pacific coast is second in two weeks...  "The U.S. defense official called the latest Bear H incident near the U.S. West Coast “Putin’s Fourth of July Bear greeting to Obama.”

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a former Alaska commander for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said the latest Bear H intrusion appears to be Russian military testing.  

“It’s becoming very obvious that Putin is testing Obama and his national security team,” 

....McInerney said the Bear H flights are an effort by the Russians to challenge U.S. resolve, something he noted is “somewhat surprising as Obama is about to make a unilateral reduction of our nuclear forces as well as major reductions in our air defense forces.”

“Actions by Russia in Syria and Iran demonstrate that Cold War strategy may be resurrected,” he said.

“These are not good indications of future U.S. Russian relations.”...Via Drudge.
The attached cartoon must come with the following caveat: it implies that Clinton is the foreign policy expert. But bear in mind she is still a liberal Democrat and the tool of the American left, which feels this nation is to roll over and never assert itself to the enemy because we deserve anything that comes to us.

DOT Construction Signs Hacked To Read 'Impeach Obama'

Channel 2 News, Anchorage   "Signs that normally display closure and detour information, like the one on Minnesota Drive near 100th Avenue, were changed to read “Impeach Obama.” That particular sign wasn’t fixed until sometime between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday.

"It happened because DOT says it doesn't lock the boxes on the signs that hold the message control pad.

"Construction managers say sign-hacking has never happened before, so they never thought to lock the boxes.

"DOT says that changed this morning, and now all of them will be locked."
Well, not exactly hacked in the geek sense; more like someone opened the panel and made a software change. As you drive America's highways, expect to see these with locks on them from now on.

The stupidity juggernaut; No “gendered pronouns” please

Hot Air  "First of all, Mr. … Ms. … um … “Van” doesn’t want to be referred to with a “gendered pronoun.” Not for nothing, but as wonderful as the English language is, we’re still working with a finite number of words here. Once you remove “he” and “she” from the mix, we’re pretty much left with “it.” And I’m fairly sure somebody is going to be offended by that. You’re sort of throwing a wet blanket on your future news coverage potential, pal."
....  I only just found out this week that “oriental” is considered an offensive term. Of course, I was never entirely clear on what Oriental meant, other than a vague reference to people or things on the other side of the Pacific ocean. But apparently you’re not supposed to say that now either. I tell you, I simply can’t keep up. (By the way, are people from India “Asians?” Isn’t India in Asia?) Of course, I was recently informed that you’re not supposed to call people of the Muslim faith “Muslims” any more either, but that guy was selling pretzels on the sidewalk near my home and seemed somewhat confused, so I’m not sure how much of an authority he is. One can never be too careful, though.
"But be that as it may, we’ll have to soldier on. Clearly we need an alternative to “he” and “she” for the modern era. Does it already exist? Any suggestions?"

Mark Steyn, in his column entitled,  It’s a Barnum and Bailey World . . .   "Alas, this long overdue shattering of the BGLTQ ceiling was marred by the Harvard Crimson’s grossly insensitive coverage:

An earlier version of this article used the pronoun “she” to refer to Vanidy “Van” Bailey, the newly appointed director of bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender, and queer student life. In fact, Bailey prefers not to be referred to by any gendered pronoun.

"I’ll bet Elizabeth Warren is kicking herself for not thinking of that one.

So America is now the first nation in history in which people take on six figures of debt for the privilege of entrusting their education to persons with no pronouns. That seems likely to work."

I wonder what Monty Python would do with all this. The video below may ball park it.

 

Remember those riotous "Newhart" scenes depicting town meetings with all the show's zany characters in one room? Dick Loudon would exclaim, "I've never seen so much stupidity in one place!"  At this moment I cannot think of a better thing to say.  TD

Romney… Stand Up, Or Stand Down!

Skip MacLure  "Though many of us disliked his tactics… and they were short, brutal and to the point, we salved ourselves with the thought… “just wait for the campaign this summer and fall, Romney will chew up Obama and spit him out, we’ve got a tiger in our tank”."
....
Romney has lost his nerve… or someone high up in his campaign has. Running from the fight is serving none of us well. No incumbent president since Jimma’ Boy Cata has been as vulnerable as Barack Obama. What’s infuriating me and many other patriots, at least according to the comments we get, and we get a bunch… Romney wants us to trust him to bring this country out of the darkness that is this ‘depression’. He wants us to fight for him.
When is he going to fight for us?

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/07/05/100786

Presidential seal returns to Obama campaign events after change of heart

Mark Knoller; CBS News

"For the first time at one of President Obama's re-election campaign events, his lectern displayed the presidential seal.

"It had been the policy of the Obama White House that the presidential seal would not be displayed at purely political and campaign events.

"The policy ended today at Mr. Obama's campaign speech on the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where the presidential seal adorned his lectern."

How pretentious!

That reminds me of this little jewel from back when Obama was just the President-Elect
He was like a juvenile with a new toy that he couldn't wait to play with.
"However, the use of an official government seal in concert with an official sounding, yet fictitious ”Office” and the .gov domain name, it’s clear that the intent of this site is to convince the visitors to this site that it is somehow an official government site, of the people, by the people and for the people, which it is not."

Obama's "Sharia Czar" Mohamed Magid Gives Award To Jew Hater Dawud Walid

JAWA Report   "Mohamed Magid is the Obama administration’s go-to guy for Muslim outreach and advise(sp) on international affairs and counterterrorism. He is a regular visitor to the White House (even when the administration wants to conceal it), attends important administration speeches on the US Middle East policy at the State Department, he counsels the Department of Justice to criminalize defamation of Islam, he entertains the deputy national security adviser at his DC-area mosque, and he serves on the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism Working Group. He also advises the FBI and many other federal agencies."

....."He has also been profiled by Time Magazine and the Huffington Post has even dubbed him “America’s Imam“. His ubiquitous presence across the Obama administration undoubtedly makes him the most influential and sought after Muslim authority in the country."
....But handing a “diversity award” to an unashamed Jew-hater doesn’t make Dawud Walid a diversity hero. It does, however, say something about Obama’s shariah czar Mohamed Magid.

Suddenly the summer heat doesn't seem so bad...

Hat tip to Rick Chaney; Sandlake, Oregon

The Truth About the Health Care Bills

Michael Connelly, from August 2009:  " Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected." Accompanied by intelligent, informed comments to the article.
Corroborated by Snopes 
Excerpts from the article for you to consider (all emphases in the original):

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants  (Remember this little incident?  TD)  , free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business, and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats, and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled by the government.However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated.  If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government.   The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people, and the businesses they own.The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with!   I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.This legislation also provides for access, by the appointees of the Obama administration, of all of your personal healthcare direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital.  

Michael Connelly's bio; Hat tip to Walt Stier of California

What did the Supreme Court rule on Obamacare? Duhh .. Duhh

Neal Boortz  "How are we expected to save this Republic when we let uninformed ignoranuses and moochers into voting booths?"

.... "Now, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps. So the number of people reliant on the government continues to swell and then an election rolls around. A Democrat like Barack Obama or some other hack stands up there and says, “If you elect the Republicans, they will take away your food stamp cards!” And so the moochers go out and vote for the guy who will continue to provide the American version of the prepaid gift card."

But I Love That Place: The 7 Most Overrated Fast Food Restaurants

PJ Media Lifestyle

"French fries sizzling in hot oil. Fresh (at least at some point) hamburger searing on the flat top grill. Squeaky-voiced teen messing up our order and saying he’ll have to ask his manager. This is the fast food experience Americans are all familiar with. When we walk into a fast food restaurant we all have a certain set of expectations about the food and service based on our previous experiences. That’s why we continue to go back — no matter where in the country we are, we expect the same McDonald’s or Taco Bell meal.

"However, it seems to be increasingly evident that fast food restaurants are trying new gimmicks marketing techniques to change both our expectations and perceptions of what they’re serving and how they’re serving it.  If my business was being endlessly attacked by nanny-staters that want to dictate what I can and can’t serve my customers, I’d probably try almost anything to keep them coming in the door. But when you try to create the perception of better food and better value instead of actually giving it to your customers, you become a prime candidate for today’s list."

Editor’s Note: Be sure and check out more of Brent’s food blogging at his site Random Dude Eats Random Food.

Companion Article: Burger Battle: In-N-Out Vs Five Guys
"An East Coast upstart challenges a West Coast classic and a Texan's taste buds act as judge, jury, and executioner. See Bridget Johnson's rebuttal here."

Those in the upper Midwest and in the DFW area may learn to love Culvers.  Not only do I find their burgers to be works of art (though not presented as nicely as In-N-Out's), I also love their chili supreme. The restaurants are attractive and I've always found the service to be gracious and friendly.

What Romney Needs to Say About RomneyCare

J. Robert Smith   "Romney doesn't need to devote much, if any, time to parsing RomneyCare.  The former Massachusetts governor needs to spend loads of time flailing President Obama for his ObamaCare fiasco.
"The lines of attack are many and rich for Romney, and he should exploit every last one of them.  After all, Romney has the wind at his back on ObamaCare.  About 55% of the electorate consistently oppose the president's takeover of health care. 
"Romney's not exactly being asked to make a courageous, uphill fight to persuade voters that ObamaCare's a big loser.  Most voters are, in fact, eager for Romney to take the gloves off and relentlessly pound away at Mr. Obama and his statist health care scheme." ....

Mr. Smith's article links to this article titled, "Romney's Tom Dewey Moment":  Obamacare tax confusion a warning sign: the peril of playing it safe.

...."Now the Message is Carrying Mitt.  

"No one but Obama underlings in Chicago give the proverbial rat's rear end what Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts with Romneycare. As demonstrated in a blink by all those thousands who gave millions to the Romney campaign -- unasked."

A Vast New Taxing Power

Wall Street Journal; "The Chief Justice's ObamaCare ruling is far from the check on Congress of right-left myth."

"The commentary on John Roberts's solo walk into the Affordable Care Act wilderness is converging on a common theme: The Chief Justice is a genius. All of a sudden he is a chessmaster, a statesman, a Burkean minimalist, a battle-loser but war-winner, a Daniel Webster for our times.

"Now that we've had more time to take in Chief Justice Roberts's reasoning, we have a better summary: politician. In fact, his 5-4 ruling validating the constitutional arguments against purchase mandates and 5-4 ruling endorsing them as taxes is far more dangerous, and far more political, even than it first appeared last week." More...