Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Requiem for Diversity of Thought; The deathliness of permissible politics under the Obama regime.

American Spectator
"The past four years have proven that Barack Obama does not understand what “diversity” means, and while that might be an occupational hazard for anyone as emotionally invested in community organizing as this president continues to be, it’s also the kind of willful ignorance that explains why no course correction can be expected from his operatives, either."
....When the Institute for Energy Research did the math, dividing federal expenditures in this area since 2009 by the number of permanent jobs created, it came up with the shocking cost of $11.45 million per green job. Any president willing to embrace prudent diversity in energy policy might wonder about that number, or look favorably on the Keystone XL Pipeline and the shale boom, but Barack Obama has done none of those things.

Hezb'Allah Leader Nasrallah: "Destroying Israel is in the interest of the entire Muslim world"

Atlas Shrugs
Hey, I've seen this salute somewhere before.
 
"Islamic Jew hatred, it's in the quran. Their Jew hatred is a collective pathology. "Peace" talks means annihilation."
 
Quoting from Jews News:
"In his speech, Nasrallah thanked “Iran and Syria for all they are doing for Palestine and Jerusalem, and for all they have given to resistance movements (fighting Israel) in Lebanon and Palestine”.
"Nasrallah called for the end of Israel, saying its elimination “is in the interest not only of the Palestinians but the entire Arab and Muslim world,” according to AFP."

I would refer you to this article: "Jay Carney, Master of Deflection"

Legal Insurrection   "It was a refreshing sight to see Monday evening when this video on Erin Burnett’s Out Front program on CNN caught my attention.
What better way to depict the series of seemingly never ending deflections on important questions from White House press secretary Jay Carney than through this mashup of his “I would refer you to” answers.
"It’s preceded by a mashup of deflections from other Obama administration personalities, which is summed up by Burnett with the astute observation that, “one of the only things this administration seems to ever openly discuss…is food.” "


The Triumph of Self-Deception   ...."At what point does incompetence and headlong withdrawal become indistinguishable from surrender? When does Jay Carney raise his head from the script and start looking at the things falling down around him?"....

Daniel Henninger: Obama's Creeping Authoritarianism

 WSJ: "If we learned anything about Barack Obama in his first term it is that when he starts repeating the same idea over and over, what's on his mind is something else.

"The first term's over-and-over subject was "the wealthiest 1%." Past some point, people wondered why he kept beating these half-dead horses. After the election, we knew. It was to propagandize the targeted voting base that would provide his 4% popular-vote margin of victory—very young voters and minorities. They believed. He won."....
 
...."The political left, historically inclined by ideological belief to public policy that is imposed rather than legislated, will support Mr. Obama's expansion of authority. The rest of us should not."....

Monday, August 5, 2013

Arm the Enemy? Run from the Enemy? Why Not Both?

NRO   "It’s tough to imagine a more humiliating week for the world’s sole superpower. Fears of “another Benghazi” are prompting not massive reinforcement to defend our citizens and our diplomatic soil but closure and retreat in 19 American embassies in the Middle East and Africa. In the meantime, our withdrawal from Afghanistan — according to publicly advertised timelines, with the equally publicly advertised possibility of total abandonment — proceeds right on schedule. Let’s not forget the scorecard in Iraq, where a once-supine al-Qaeda slowly but surely reconstitutes after our diplomatic failure to retain even a toehold in that country after the hard-won military success of the surge."

 CBS: Terrorists Already Have Orders, Could Be In Place For Attacks
 Via Drudge

High-level national security meeting at White House while Obama plays golf

American Thinker  "Attending that White House meeting was a who's who of intelligence and national security officials, including:

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough
National Security Advisor Susan Rice
Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco
Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President Jeff Prescott
Secretary of State John Kerry
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan
Director of the National Security Agency Keith Alexander
Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Matthew Olsen
Acting Assistant Attorney General John Carlin"
"But no Barack Obama. This must be a rope-a-dope strategy as Obama's suicidally casual approach to the threat knocks AQAP off balance, scaring them off by dazzling them with his uncaring attitude.
"It was Obama's birthday on Sunday. Does it matter that he spent 6 hours on Saturday playing golf rather than deal with the terrorist threat?"

Whatever happened to all those promises Obama made during the State of the Union?

American Thinker   "All that applause. All that adoration. The president's state of the union address was considered brilliant by much of the press.
So what happened to all the promises?
"The president's laundry list of goals for his second term have either been defeated or not even brought out for a vote by either House. The sole exception is immigration reform and most of that "comprehensive" measure is going nowhere in the House."
 Rick Moran
 

NBC, Stop those Hillary documentaries or we will dump your debates next election cycle

Big Government  "On Monday, RNC Chair Reince Priebus sent stinging letters to NBC and CNN over their recently announced decisions to produce films celebrating the life of Hillary Clinton. The RNC sees the odd programing move as an in-kind contribution to Clinton's presumed campaign for President in 2016. As a result, the party will formally bar Republicans from partnering with the networks on any primary or Presidential debates in 2016."
Rush Limbaugh is less than impressed  ...."Why should the Republicans actively, willingly, happily participate in debates moderated by people who want to make sure people at the end of the debate do not like them and will not vote for them?  "Well, Rush, yes, that's true. The Republicans, but they have to go there because that's the nature of the game. That's the media; you can't change it.  These Republicans, they gotta go in there and they gotta show that they can deal with that!"....

Little recognition for the 69th anniversary of D Day at Normandy


Normandy Commemoration Disgrace  ...."Unfortunately, and sadly, Commander Koutz [right] was one among precious few Americans there to officially receive the thanks of the French people and all others in attendance. The commander was told that due to budget cuts, no U.S. military units were sent to Normandy this year. No fly-overs were authorized for the Normandy
American Cemetery where 9,387 Americans who gave their lives to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany are laid to rest, nor for Pointe du Hoc, where U.S. Army Rangers climbed rope ladders through a hail of deadly enemy gunfire in order to break Hitler’s grip on continental Europe and begin the long, bloody march to victory in World War II."....
Hat tip to Val Brose; Santa Maria, CA

Commander honored in Normandy  "Koutz was one of few American representatives of the military community in Normandy to receive gratitude of the French people for the liberation of their country after four years of Nazi occupation in 1944. The 69th anniversary of that liberation occurred this week.
The commander vowed to communicate with the White House, the Pentagon and members of Congress to see why U.S. military representation was so scant at the 69th anniversary of the invasion. More than a dozen D-Day veterans were on hand for ceremonies in Normandy."

Besides being petulantly juvenile, how do we size up this president?

Carl Cannon: The name of Obama's game is blame; "Make no mistake, when Obama criticizes "Washington," he doesn't mean himself, and he doesn't mean his fellow Democrats."
Leaving aside the curious claim that widespread IRS abuses and administration untruths about the tragedy in Benghazi are illegitimate areas of inquiry, blaming "Washington" is not just a reflexive response by a politician with declining job approval ratings. It's part of an orchestrated attempt by the president and his image makers to evade accountability for the results of his governance.

This nation elected a man it did not know or care about other than his being a celebrity. Our electorate left its child in the hands of a total stranger and rushed back in the house to watch TV. 
 
Terror Threat Got You Teed Off? Obama Leaves al-Qaeda Worries to the Staff  "Obama hits the golf course while leaving a major meeting on the major threat to Susan Rice."....
 
The Front Man  "Barack Obama did not invent managerial liberalism, nor has he contributed any new ideas to it. He is, in fact, a strangely incurious man. Unlike Ronald Reagan, to whom he likes to be compared, President Obama shows no signs of having expended any effort on big thinkers or big ideas. President Reagan’s guiding lights were theorists such as F. A. Hayek and Thomas Paine; Obama’s most important influences have been tacticians such as Abner Mikva, bush-league propagandists like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and his beloved community organizers."  Kevin D. Williamson  

Entitled Fast Food Strikers Demand to Be Paid More Than They're Worth

Neal Boortz    "Our Republic has survived a great deal. We’ve managed to get through a war with states determined to secede from the union (misnamed the “Civil War”). We survived two World Wars and a Cold War. None of those events have threatened this country nearly so much as the combined affect of millions of abysmally ignorant Americans, products of 100 years of a hideous government education and are now walking around with voter registration cards. More Americans can name Kim Kardashian’s new tricycle motor than can name our vice-president."....

Boortz again: Wait! I'm not quite through.
...."Why?  Because the Huffington Post published an opinion piece yesterday that was so void of intellectual discipline that one might have thought it was written by a gerbil scampering across a keyboard.  The reality, though, is worse.  The piece was actually written by an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas .. you know, one of those brilliant young know-it-alls who are ready to run the world just two years after moving out of their mommy’s house."   Full article here.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Quote of the Day – Congressman Keith Ellison Edition

Potluck 
“The bottom line is we’re not broke, there’s plenty of money, it’s just the government doesn’t have it, The government has a right, the government and the people of the United States have a right to run the programs of the United States. Health, welfare, housing – all these things.”
"Oh and it gets scarier than this, listen to what he wants to spend new tax dollars on:
“fund international sustainable prosperity programs such as health care investments, AIDS treatment, research and prevention programs, climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts by developing countries, and international assistance.”
"He wants to tax every single trade on the stock and commodity markets, and he doesn’t even want to spend it in this country."....

Hat tip to Kim Jossfolk at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook