Saturday, September 6, 2014

Two Obamas: the one adoring crowds smile and clap for and the one our enemies.... well, smile and clap for.

From the UK: Without American leadership, freedom is in peril   ... "Contrary to Leftist caricature, America is a very reluctant colonialist. It does not like to superintend the situations its military leaves behind. And this president is particularly averse to accepting global responsibilities. So we find ourselves in a world so many people said they wanted: without American leadership or Western moral boundaries. What are the odds on the survival of freedom and the protection of innocent civilians? "

 
Power Line; On the third try, Obama still flubs it on ISIS    "You can’t defeat an army or a would-be state by taking out its leaders. Why does Obama profess otherwise? Because he’s unwilling to commit to the forms of action everyone understands are required to defeat a well-trained, well-financed army that possesses all manner of sophisticated weapons, usually in large quantities."
 
Investors.com; Obama's IS Strategy, Decoded   "So IS is, in fact, no big deal after all.
"Sure, this isn't as pithy as "pay any price, bear any burden," or "tear down this wall."
But to say Obama hasn't thought his plan through to handle IS is a disservice to someone who historian Michael Beschloss has declared to be "probably the smartest guy ever to become president.' "   It depends on what the meaning of ISIS is.

Blackfive; Obama unveils ISIS Strategy sponsored by Letter D



Columnist: ISIS Is Bush's Fault, But GOP Trying to 'Yoke Obama With' It   "On August 31, The New York Times ran a op-ed in which columnist Charles M. Blow contended that Republicans are trying to use the 9/11 attacks to make Americans fear ISIS and "yoke Obama with the ill effects of a war started by [George W. Bush]."

"One immediate problem with this theory is that ISIS--now IS--is not an ill effect of the Iraqi War but of the power vacuum created by President Obama's precipitous withdrawal of all U.S. Troops in 2011." ...

Don't Worry Joe Biden, We'll Remember You!

donkeyhotey
Ken Blackwell  ..."As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Biden learned that you had to look beyond moral turpitude to judicial philosophy. That was the starting gun for the bull- and bear-beating contests that Senate judicial confirmations have become. If you’re disgusted by such ugly sessions, called “grilling” by the media, you can thank Joe Biden. No, we won’t forget his unique contribution to trashing American public life.

"Of course, Joe Biden himself has never been subjected to a grilling.
When he ran for President the first time, in 1987, he was discovered in that pre-Google era to have plagiarized word-for-word the powerful stump speech of Britain’s Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock. (See the video below) No one who had done such a thing would ever get through the front door of the Judiciary Committee, so let’s not forget about Joe Biden.

"One other thing we should all remember. Joe Biden sat in the Senate from 1973 to 2009. In those thirty-six years, not one of his fellow Democrats ever suggested making him their Majority Leader. They didn’t forget Joe Biden, either!"



 Only a liberal could fail to be shamed out of office after this.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Mythologies and Pathologies of the California Drought

Victor Davis Hanson

... "Take the Bay Area, Ground Zero of water environmentalism. From Mill Valley to San Jose is where most of the green activists are based who have demanded, even as the snowfalls and rains ceased, that reservoir storage waters be diverted to the sea to encourage the resurgence of the delta smelt and river salmon. The Bay Area’s various earlier lobbying groups long ago helped to cancel the final phases of the California State Water Project and the Central Valley Project, and now talk about reducing world carbon emissions rather than building more storage capacity to solve California’s water crisis.

"How odd that is — given that the San Francisco greater community has almost no aquifer to supply its millions. Environmentalists count instead solely on vast water transfers from the far distant Hetch Hetchy reservoir to supply the nearly three million water users of the Bay Area with their daily showers and lawn irrigations. " ...
...
..."the California coastal strip is an environmentally unwise place to locate millions of Californians; its swarms exist largely by water transfers from either Northern California or the Sierra Nevada mountains. And yet far too many of its inhabitants have a bad habit of pontificating about water usage for others."

We’re All Safer Now That The Government Has Rolled Out Recommendations For Making S’mores

Downtrend
gtuhtms2
 
" ... The US Forrest(sp) Service has addressed one of the most pressing safety issues facing our country: the proper way to make s’mores.
 
"As an arm of the US Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service has an annual budget of $5.5 billion and is charged with protecting our forests and grasslands. As such, they’ve come up with fool-proof way of keeping our outdoor spaces safe by setting new guidelines for roasting marshmallows and making s’mores.
 
"First, the basics:
Use a roasting stick of at least 30 inches in length. The degree a marshmallow is roasted runs the gamut, from the barely cooked, light caramel-colored outer layer to the flaming marshmallow that contains a gooey interior wrapped by a crispy, blackened shell.
"Then we get some help with making s’mores. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Michelle Obama had a hand in this part:" ...

Fox News, Enemy of State; The Obama administration’s curious cable jihad.


... "Mr. O’Reilly became an enemy of State when he conducted an interview with Fox News reporter James Rosen, who had some mildly unflattering things to say about Ms. Harf’s superior, Jen Psaki, the witless off-brand Pippi Longstocking who is the current media face of the American diplomatic project. The Obama administration is, to be charitable, currently unsure of how to go about dealing with the Islamic State, and Ms. Psaki was something less than convincing in trying to explain what exactly the administration has been up to between that group’s beheadings. Ms. Harf proclaimed (here I’ll translate from the Twitterese): “Jen Psaki explains foreign policy with intelligence and class. Too bad we can’t say the same about Bill O’Reilly.' ” ... 
 
 
 
Benghazi Bombshell: Security Team Told to 'Stand Down' By CIA Officer    "It's a must-see Fox News Reporting special, tonight at 10p ET as Bret Baier reveals the inside accounts of the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attack from the men who were there to protect the CIA annex. We're already getting a preview of some of the new information coming to light, including that the men believe they could have gotten to the U.S. consulate in time to save Ambassador Chris Stevens and Sean Smith."

Krauthammer; Ukraine abandoned

Photo: Yesterday Obama told us he has no Islamic State strategy, and he will soon blame this crisis on someone else. 
According to former Speaker Newt Gingrich, "The Islamic State openly says 'If you don't convert we'll kill you.' They mean it." Gingrich also says we must "mercilessly crush them," and it is good advice.

Charles Krauthammer

U.S. President Barack Obama is seated with Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko as they meet with
other  countries regarding Ukraine at the NATO summit at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales,
Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. At rear center is U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry


... "We’ll see whether Obama comes up with an ISIS strategy. But he already has one for Ukraine: Write it off. Hence the more shocking statement in that Aug. 28 briefing: Obama declaring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — columns of tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and a thousand troops brazenly crossing the border — to be nothing new, just “a continuation of what’s been taking place for months now.”
 
"And just to reaffirm his indifference and inaction, Obama mindlessly repeated his refrain that the Ukraine problem has no military solution. Yes, but does he not understand that diplomatic solutions are largely dictated by the military balance on the ground?

"Vladimir Putin’s invasion may be nothing new to Obama. For Ukraine, it changed everything. Russia was on the verge of defeat. Now Ukraine is. That’s why Ukraine is welcoming a cease-fire that amounts to capitulation."  Emphasis mine, TD

Political Cartoons by Nate Beeler

This Is Why Women Live Longer Than Men

United States Forms “Core Coalition” to Fight Islamic State Militants; Romney's op-ed hits hard

Please do not call it "The League of Nations" 

Foreign Policy   "The United States said on Friday that it was forming a "core coalition" to counter Islamic State militants in Iraq, though ruled out deploying combat troops. Ministers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland, and Denmark met on the sides of the NATO summit in Wales to discuss strategies for dealing with the Islamic State. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said those states comprised the core group, which will form the larger and extended coalition. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the countries should develop solid plans by the U.N. General Assembly this month in New York. Meanwhile, British military officials said a limited military operation may be imminent and Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday offered to supply arms to Kurdish forces. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has authorized military cooperation with the United States, as well as Iraqi and Kurdish forces, in the fight against Islamic State militants."...
Political Cartoons by Dana Summers
 Romney's stinging op-ed  "Mitt Romney, for all his weaknesses, has come out with a muscular column in the Washington Post on “The Need for a Mighty U.S. Military." He portrays a chaotic world that ignores, with good reason given who helms us, America. Barack Obama famously ridiculed Mitt Romney in the 2012 debate when Romney answered that Russia-under Vladimir-was our greatest foe. That was the Russia that Barack Obama whispered “sweet nothings” to when he promised Putin’s flunky, Dmitry Medvedev, that Obama would be (even) more flexible in a second term. American weakness has followed. Our position when confronting adversaries and enemies has been supine."  

Lasky sums the Obama approach with these words:
And our Department of Defense might as well become, in his adolescent view, his “Department of Common Humanity” - just another example of a string of his banal statements that pass for profundity among his adoring fans. Trite clichés do not make policy-nor will they defend us from evil.  ...
  Ed Lasky

Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez
2012: Obama's snarky treatment of Romney in the debate over US military readiness.

Mitt Romney: The need for a mighty U.S. military



... "The president asserts that we must move to “a new order that’s based on a different set of principles, that’s based on a sense of common humanity.” The old order, he is saying, where America’s disproportionate strength holds tyrants in check and preserves the sovereignty of nations, is to be replaced." ...

Mexican President Peña Nieto Declares United States 'the Other Mexico'

Breitbart

 

"Forget so-called "Mexifornia." How about the United States of Mexico? Video

"On Monday, Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto called on other states to "evolve" like California so the United States can be more like his home country. 
 
"Appearing with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Governor Jerry Brown in Los Angeles, Peña Nieto called for amnesty legislation and more open borders while blasting governors who have taken a tough stance on illegal immigration.
 
" 'This is the other Mexico," Peña Nieto reportedly "said of the United States, which is property to an estimated 11 million Mexican immigrants," according to the Los Angeles Times."  
 

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Senate Democrats Push Radical Amendment Prohibiting Pro-Life Free Speech In Elections…

Weasel Zippers    "Planned Parenthood doesn’t pump tens of millions of dollars into Dem campaigns for nothing."
pro-life
 
A leading pro-life group is sounding the alarm about a measure Senate Democrats are pushing that would place stringent limits on pro-life free speech when it comes to campaigns and elections.
The National Right to Life Committee today warned members of the U.S. Senate that it will “scorecard” the upcoming Senate roll call on a proposed constitutional amendment. The pro-life organization informs LifeNews that the amendment would allow Congress and each state legislature to restrict or prohibit virtually any type of communications to the public that might “influence elections.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated that he will seek Senate action on the measure on September 8. Fifty Democratic senators have so far expressed support for the measure.
The letter, signed by National Right to Life President Carol Tobias, Executive Director David N. O’Steen, and Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, referred to the proposal as “a radical assault on the Bill of Rights.”
It underscores how the amendment could allow states to prohibit pro-life groups from issuing scorecards letting pro-life voters know how their elected officials in Congress voted on key pro-life issues.
Keep reading…

Chart: How Much Fast-Food Prices Would Rise If Employers Paid $15 an Hour

Why does the left not care that they turn everything they touch to, well... crap?

The Daily Signal   "As thousands of fast-food workers participate in strikes today pushing for their wages to be raised to $15 an hour, it’s important to remember the consequences that such a steep raise could have.

"According to a new report released today by James Sherk, a labor policy expert at The Heritage Foundation, such an increase could result in fewer hours of work overall at fast-food restaurants and higher prices for all.


 
Higher Fast-Food Wages: Higher Fast-Food Prices    "Union activists want to raise the minimum wage in the fast-food industry to $15 an hour. However, fast-food restaurants operate on very small profit margins; they could only afford such wages by raising prices—significantly. Higher prices would, in turn, drive customers away, forcing even larger price increases to cover costs. Ultimately, the average fast-food restaurant would have to raise prices by nearly two-fifths. This would cause sales to drop by more than one-third, and profits to fall by more than three-quarters. Absent the widespread adoption of labor-saving technology, the union-led “Fight for 15” would make fast food much more expensive for Americans."
James Sherk Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics

Did Bush derangement syndrome doom Obama?


Silvio Canto, Jr.  ... "But why is all of this happening?  How did the US go from a position of strength to one of weakness?  How did this happen in such a short time?

"My theory is that this is all about President Bush, or reversing Bush's policies.   

"The mission of the Obama administration was to "de-Bush" the world.   They were convinced that it was "the Bush/Cheney way" that created all of the problems.  President Obama felt that he could turn everything around by changing Bush's policies .

"In fact, they threw out the baby with the bath water.   They are now facing bigger problems than they could have imagined when Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama had that foreign policy during the campaign.  

"The US public does not want a hawkish president but it does not want a weak president either.  President Obama is now a casualty of "Bush derangement syndrome".
 
Victor Davis Hanson: The New World Disorder    ... "Barack Obama apparently believes that such a retrenchment was both inevitable and to be welcomed. He thought that most U.S. interventions abroad had been either wrong or futile or both; he questioned the world’s status quo and certainly felt, for example, that the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East was not nearly as much of a problem as Islamophobia in the West. He came into office believing that Iran, Hamas, and Russia had all been unduly demonized, especially by George W. Bush, and could be reached out to by a sensitive president whose heritage and attitudes might not appear so polarizing." ...
...
"Can the old, pre-Obama postwar order be rebuilt? Of course, but it will require budgetary discipline, a visionary president, experienced national-security advisers, skillful diplomats, and a public that is informed and cares. In other words — not for another two years and five months."
 
You say America cannot be the world's policeman? Who, then will protect us from world criminals?