Foreign Policy: Russia exposes Obama's empty security promises to Estonia

 

Thomas Lifson    "Joining the now-notorious “red line” empty threat issued against Assad of Syria is a much more dangerous example of Barack Obama’s fatuous bluster, his assurance of NATO backing of the Baltic States last Wednesday in Tallinn, Estonia:

"The defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London," Obama said. "Article Five is crystal clear. An attack on one is an attack on all.
"So if, in such a moment, you ever ask again, who will come to help, you'll know the answer: the NATO alliance, including the armed forces of the United States of America, right here, present, now."

"Two days after President Obama issued this red line threat, Russia called his bluff.  Liis Kangsepp and Juhana Rossi report in the Wall Street Journal:"

The apparent abduction and detention of an Estonian security officer raised tensions between Estonia and Russia just two days after PresidentBarack Obama came to the country and vowed to defend it as a NATO member ...... Read more...

Our Unrealist President; Why Obama’s foreign policy has been quite far from what you’d expect of a realist.

...But restraint is not what fundamentally characterizes realism. Rather, because realists see the international arena as innately competitive and often dangerous, they believe that strength is critical to a successful foreign policy. A domestic realist welcomes not only police restraint but also the appropriate vigorous application of police power; similarly, a foreign-policy realist knows that restraint alone is an invitation to chaos and peril. By this standard, Obama is neither an authentic realist nor a successful foreign-policy president.

 Hayes: Don't Bet on a Muscular Obama Foreign Policy   "The WEEKLY STANDARD 
podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on why you shouldn't bet on President Obama using any muscle on his foreign policy."   (Audio)   More here.

Obama Goes on Meet the Press, Reality Fails to Intrude

Power Line   "President Obama appeared on Meet the Press this morning with new host Chuck Todd. The conversation focused primarily on ISIS, Iraq and Syria. Much could be said about Obama’s comments, but what struck me most was how disassociated from reality Obama appears to be–both when he defends his own record, and when he talks about foreign policy.

"Obama repeated the spin, first floated by White House spokesman Josh Earnest, that when he talked dismissively of “jayvee” terrorist groups he wasn’t referring to ISIS:

CHUCK TODD: Long way, long way from when you described them as a JV team.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I–
CHUCK TODD: Was that bad intelligence or your misjudgment?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Keep– keep– keep in mind I wasn’t specifically referring to ISIL.

"But he was, as Paul showed here. The only example of a “jayvee” terrorist group Obama gave was the one that took Fallujah. Who took Fallujah? ISIS. Obama knows this; he is simply lying to save his own skin." ...

..."And now Obama tells us that his brand-new “plan” for Syria is to do exactly what his critics have been urging since mid-2013. Only one problem: at this late date, there doesn’t appear to be much of a moderate opposition left to equip and support."

The 9/11 Museum

9/11 Museum Shows SEAL’s Shirt From Bin Laden Raid  "The shirt a Navy SEAL wore in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and a special coin given to a CIA officer who played a key role in finding him are being displayed at the Sept. 11 museum, adding potent symbols of the terrorist attacks’ aftermath days before their anniversary. The items are going on view Sunday at the ground zero museum, where leaders see them as an important and moving addition to a collection that often uses personal artifacts to explore the events and impact of 9/11."...  From Yeshiva World

9/11: Events of the Day

 

"The attacks on September 11, 2001 were one of the most watched and documented tragedies in history. The  9/11 Memorial Museum collection contains personal items and artifacts, accompanied by accounts of the day and stories of heroism, courage, survival and loss. Here are some of the stories that will be shared with visitors and preserved in the collection to honor the lives of the nearly 3,000 victims of the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 terrorist attacks."

9/11 Interactive Timelines

  "Follow an interactive timeline of the nine-month recovery effort at the World Trade Center site. The timeline contains images, audio and video, as well as first-person accounts that are part of the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s permanent collection.

"Please note: The timeline contains some graphic images and sensitive content due to the nature of the events related to the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath." Graphic and terrible

 

Recovery Stories  "Immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash site in Somerset County, Pa., rescue and recovery efforts began. Here are some stories from that day and the weeks and months to follow."

9 Military Technologies That Will Change Warfare

Kiplinger;  Google Glass-like Eyegear for Soldiers

 

"Troops one day will receive vital, real-time cues about their location, surrounding terrain, danger zones and much more with “augmented reality” holographic glasses. Called ULTRA-Vis, the transparent eye screen covers one eye and provides visual pop-ups keyed to a wearer’s exact location, plus directional signs and alerts to enemy locations. Yes, it’s like Google Glass, but featuring a mini war room map with sensors and live data. Applied Research Associates in Arlington, Virginia, and Britain’s BAE Systems are developing the eyewear with DARPA. As the technology is refined, future applications could easily be found for police, firefighters and even commercial pilots."   Full article...

 

Emphasis in the original

How wolves change rivers.



The fascinating story of how wolves changed Yellowstone's geography    "You must watch this fascinating four-minute video on the effects of the re-introduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Not only they affected the entire live of the park—increasing the number of species in it!—but actually changed the geography of the park itself, affecting the rivers in a way that positively affected everything."

  

Hat tip to Jack Hamner; Santa Maria, CA

Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem   "On a quiet spring morning, a resounding “Slap!” reverberates through the air above a remote stream leading to Lake Yellowstone. Over much of the past century, it has been a rarely heard noise in the soundscape that is Yellowstone National Park, but today is growing more common-the sound of a beaver slapping its tail on the water as a warning to other beavers.

 

"Ten years ago, when the grey wolf was reintroduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, there was only one beaver colony in the park, said Doug Smith, a wildlife biologist in charge of the Yellowstone Wolf Project.

"Today, the park is home to nine beaver colonies, with the promise of more to come, as the reintroduction of wolves continues to astonish biologists with a ripple of direct and indirect consequences throughout the ecosystem.

"A flourishing beaver population is just one of those consequences, said Smith." ...Read more...

Alan Caruba: An Economist's Bad Climate Advice (Updated)

Warning Signs

 

"If I need my car repaired, I do not take it to a dentist. If I am seeking advice about the climate I check out what climatologists and meteorologists are saying, at least those who have not sold their souls to the global warming/climate change hoax.

"On September 3 The Wall Street Journal published a commentary by Edward P. Lazear titled “The Climate Change Agenda Needs to Adapt to Reality: Limiting carbon emissions won’t work. Better to begin adjusting to a warming world.”

 "Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!  It’s cooling, not warming." ...  Full article...

More inconvenient truths

http://americanenergyalliance.org/2014/09/05/more-inconvenient-truths/

 UPDATE: Perfect: College Will Teach A Climate Change Fiction Class   "At the University of Oregon, a climate change fiction class will be offered this winter.

"No, we don’t mean that it’s a class that teaches that climate change is fiction. We mean that it’s a class that teaches about movies and novels that feature climate change as a central theme."

Coming up: a hard look at the Fast Food workers pay raises

Prediction: Here’s How the Price of Your Favorite Fast Food Would Change With a $15 Minimum Wage

The Daily Signal    "Thousands of fast-food workers across 150 cities nationwide gathered today to call for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

"However, a report released today by James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at The Heritage Foundation, found that fast-food restaurants would have to boost their prices 38 percent to make up for the increased labor costs.

"Higher Fast-Food Wages: Higher Fast-Food Prices"

"Such an increase, Sherk said, would drive away about one-third of these restaurants’ customers.
If fast food’s biggest restaurants decide to raise their wages to $15 an hour, here’s how some of your favorite meals would fare."

 

Debbie B***********-Schultz Foams at the Mouth

DWS: Scott Walker's Record is Equivalent to Physically Abusing Women   ... " Kleefisch said she was "shocked" that Wasserman Schultz used domestic violence language to discuss political disagreements. "I think the remarks were absolutely hideous and the motive behind them was despicable," Kleefisch said. Kleefisch called on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke to "denounce these outrageous statements" made by the DNC leader."

Independent Sentinel  "Debbie Blabbermouth-Schultz compared Governor Scott Walker to a violent woman abuser on Wednesday.

"Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) decided the way to rally women against Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), who is running for reelection, was to use outrageous hyperbole making him into a Neanderthal.

“ 'Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand,” the dipsy Dem said in Milwaukee. “I know that is stark. I know that is direct. I know that is reality.”

"It’s also not true.

"The Journal-Sentinel quoted her as also saying that “what Republican tea party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back.”

"When I heard it I personally had visions in my head of the French underworld’s Apache dance where the man mock slaps, punches, drags the woman around by the hair."

 

"Press secretary for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, Stephanie Wilson, hinted that Schultz might have gone too far.

“ 'That’s not the type of language that Mary Burke would use, or has used, to point out the clear differences in this contest,” Wilson said.

"Wilson added, “There is plenty that she and Governor Walker disagree on — but those disagreements can and should be pointed out respectfully.' ”  Full article...

Fits the Democrat pattern.  And Exhibit B

By the way, you know the man dancing in the video is Ray Bolger, who played the scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz", didn't you?

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? "

 Via Lucianne/

 

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.

Mythologies and Pathologies of the California Drought

Victor Davis Hanson

http://comicallyincorrect.com/2014/02/18/thirsty-in-california/

... "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."