Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Reading list on the President's speech tonight

Blackfive: Major Garrett (CBS) asks "Why watch Obama talk about ISIL?"  "Major Garrett of CBS asked "Why would anyone watch?" Obama talk about his ISIL strategy tonight when he will not be announcing any specifics or an actual plan to win. Painful but legit question, I have some painful and funny truth in response."



Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:  Obama's Prime Time Challenge  "President Obama will address the nation in a prime-time speech at 9 p.m. ET on the threat posed by the Islamic State.
"Morning Line: "The president's challenge tonight -- the day before the 13th anniversary of 9/11 -- is to sell military action to a war-weary country skeptical of military intervention and of his ability to lead. By the way, don't expect it to be a long speech, which may indicate an address meant to make the moral case but short on detail."
"First Read: "It's also worth pointing out that Obama's speech tonight is unusual for a president outlining a strategy for military action. Why unusual? Because the country is already there; in some ways, it's the public trying to rally the Commander-in-Chief."  (Emphasis mine, TD)

From JustOneMinute:   Prepping For Obama's Call To Arms    "Tonight Obama will attempt to rally a troubled nation behind his uncertain leadership. I offer this passage as a suggestion to his strategic thinking:" ...
Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell
World Mag: Globe Trot: Will the president order anti-ISIS airstrikes in Syria?  "Beyond political considerations, lives and homelands are at stake across the Middle East. Ryan Crocker, former U.S ambassador to Iraq and Syria warns
“There is no time left to argue, dither, and wonder what should be done about those who are butchering Americans—and anyone else they care to—across a growing portion of the Middle East.
The enemy has no such doubts. They are not going away. They are getting stronger. The war, ladies and gentlemen, is truly on. We’re just not a meaningful part of it yet.”
Democrats in Congress poised to approve $5 billion in new funding  How will it be spent?

; Obama’s belief that he can “manage” the Islamic State may collide with reality.
 
"President Obama says he intends to shrink the al-Qaeda-spawned Islamic State into a “manageable problem.” Perhaps we’ll learn more about how when he speaks to the nation on Wednesday evening. Still, the question presses: Is he the manager for the job?

"In answering that question, past performance is more a guarantee of future results than is any statement of newfound purpose from a president whose innate dishonesty has turned his signature phrase “Let me be clear” into notorious self-parody." ...

Thomas Sowell: Obama’s Shameful ISIS Strategy ;  "The president’s only concern is getting the crisis off the front pages."
... Generations of Americans yet unborn may curse us all for leaving them hostage to a nuclear terrorist Iran. But generations yet unborn do not vote, so they carry no weight with Barack Obama.
... "Everything in Barack Obama’s history suggests that he is going to leave the job half done, so long as that gets the issue off the front pages and off the TV newscasts."


  
 

How to Shrink Your Church and Your Political Party

The American Culture

Catholic church in New York
 
... So how do you shrink your church? Throw your principles out the door (in this case principles would be historic, orthodox doctrine), and adopt cultural values that are at war with those principles. This, of course, is supposedly the way to attract more people, especially those paragons of wisdom and virtue, millennials. Because no doubt if something is appealing to someone in their 20s, or even 30s, it must be right! But alas, it doesn’t quite work out this way: 
 [A] number of Christian denominations have already taken significant steps towards liberalizing their stances on homosexuality and marriage, and the evidence so far seems to indicate that affirming homosexuality is hardly a cure for membership woes. On the contrary, every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization of sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership.
Full Article.

How To Shrink Your Church In One Easy Step                                                           

 "Every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization on sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership." 

 
 Photo at right from Energetic Procession
 

Former prosecutor says Wisconsin investigation 0f Gov. Walker fuled by “hyper-partisan” DA and union activist wife

Hot Air   ... "This is only the latest skirmish in the Left’s apparent campaign to criminalize political disagreement — ranging from a proposed Constitutional amendment restricting political speech, to an endless ‘Bridgegate’-to-nowhere investigation in New Jersey, to the utterly preposterous indictments against Texas Gov. Rick Perry.  If these tactics prove successful, what’s to stop agenda-driven prosecutors in heavily partisan jurisdictions from routinely cooking up criminal inquiries and charges for the sole purpose of hanging a dark cloud over a rival politician during an election season?  By the time the target has time to clear his or her name, the political damage has been done." ...

... " Genuine public corruption is a scourge that must be rooted out, but abusing the legal system to harass and silence ideological opponents is disgraceful.  I’ll leave you with one of Walker’s latest ads touting Wisconsin’s job growth..."
 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

The Virtue of Subtlety: A U.S. Strategy Against the Islamic State

STRATFOR    "U.S. President Barack Obama said recently that he had no strategy as yet toward the Islamic State but that he would present a plan on Wednesday. It is important for a president to know when he has no strategy. It is not necessarily wise to announce it, as friends will be frightened and enemies delighted. A president must know what it is he does not know, and he should remain calm in pursuit of it, but there is no obligation to be honest about it.

"This is particularly true because, in a certain sense, Obama has a strategy, though it is not necessarily one he likes. Strategy is something that emerges from reality, while tactics might be chosen. Given the situation, the United States has an unavoidable strategy. There are options and uncertainties for employing it. Let us consider some of the things that Obama does know."   Read More..

By George Friedman

A photograph that will haunt you

Know the enemy we must fight.

Republican Security Council

The DOJ plans to issue a warrant for this man's arrest and a lawyer
will be appointed for him.

"This photo shows an Islamic State (IS) militant with a terrified 7 year old girl in Syria. IS refers to her as a kafir, which has no human value to them. They can be exploited for skills, sex, slavery, or anything else. "

17-year-old says she is one of about 40 Yazidi women and girls, some as young as 12, still being held captive and sexually abused on a daily basis by Isil fighters

Would you feel safe?…

Al Sharpton and Eric Holder, we need your help!

Gang of Black Teens Beats White Memphis Grocery Store Employee into Unconsciousness    ... "Video taken by customers on the scene attest to the viciousness of the attack. It shows screaming, joking, laughing black members of the mob attacking and kicking a white Kroger employee lying immobile on the ground.

"Memphis Police Department Director Toney Armstrong released a statement on Sunday morning, making no mention of a possible hate crime." ...
 


'They got a white dude!"
 
Black School Girl Beat Up for Acting 'Too Much Like a White Person'  ... "This kind of racial hatred has to be learned from somewhere or someone. Movies like Django Unchained only help to promote racial hatred. Rappers shout out words of hate not much different than those of Sharpton, Robertson and other radicals. Obama and Holder lead by example, but the bottom line is that I believe much of it is learned at home from an early age."

It's 3 am and Commander-in-Chief Obama's phone is ringing


A President Whose Assurances Have Come Back to Haunt Him    "When President Obama addresses the nation on Wednesday to explain his plan to defeat Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, it is a fair bet he will not call them the “JV team.”
 
"Nor does he seem likely to describe Iraq as “sovereign, stable and self-reliant” with a “representative government.” And presumably he will not assert after more than a decade of conflict that “the tide of war is receding.”... Video.

Show Them No Mercy, for You Shall Receive None   "At the climax of the first battle for Middle Earth, between the World of Men and the evil Sauron’s army, clear direction is laid out for dithering American leadership when confronting murderous savages in a hard, dark world.  Aragorn, de facto leader of the Men, surveys the 10,000 Orcs roaring outside for war, champing at the bit with yellow fangs, eager to slaughter the world of Men.

"Aragorn shouts his final command to his fighters as both battle cry and warning: Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none. 
 

 
... "That is why Obama’s head-scratching over how to proceed with ISIS is mystifying.  These are the bad guys.  There are no shades of gray, nor colorable issues to mull over in late-night gab sessions with Valerie Jarrett.  This one is easy." ...
...
"ISIS is well-funded, deeply committed, and deadly serious.  They may not be here yet, but they will come.  Analysis has its place when lines are blurry.  Here, there is only the bright red line of civilization on one side, and knuckle-dragging, pitiless barbarians on the other.

"Use every tool we have and wipe them out.  Without mercy."

" The media did its job this time. It told Obama loud and clear that his response wasn’t good enough. It was a welcome break from the way it has shielded the president from reality in one disaster after another these last six years.
...
"Let Americans take note of the Red Line of the President of the United States: It is not drawn to delimit the Islamic State, it is drawn to restrain the U.S. military. It is not something to give heart to America’s friends around the world. Or to instill fear in its enemies."   Emphasis added, TD

Political Cartoons by Gary McCoy
From Lucianne:

Goldberg: Obama Will Do 'Just Enough to Make ISIS Headlines Go Away'

Ron Fournier: Is Obama Leading or Being Led?   "Consider this paradox: Americans overwhelmingly support President Obama's actions against the Islamic State so far—airstrikes and humanitarian assistance without ground troops—and yet they disapprove of Obama's handling of the ISIS crisis. Why the split mind?"   More on this: Poll: Public supports strikes in Iraq, Syria; Obama’s ratings hover near his all-time lows

About those "moderate" Syrian rebels we want to help... (Updated)


Expert who traveled with Syrian rebels: So-called ‘moderates’ are Muslim Brotherhood-style Islamists   ... “Undoubtedly outside of Syria, and in the Syrian opposition structures, there are civilian political activists and leaders who are opposed to al-Qaida and opposed to Islamism,” Spyer explained to TheDC in an email interview. “There are also civilian activists and structures within the country which are opposed to al-Qaida and Islamism. But when one looks at the armed rebel groups, one finds an obvious vast majority there who are adherents of Islamism of one kind or another — stretching from Muslim Brotherhood-type formations all the way across to groups openly aligned with al-Qaida central and with al-Zawahiri.”... 
...
"So even those forces nominally aligned with western supported bodies are themselves overwhelmingly Islamist in outlook (there may be a very small and marginal number of forces who are ostensibly secular, but these are of no military significance). It’s my contention that the real power in the rebellion lies not in the external structures, but among the commanders of the major fighting groups. These men are Islamists.' ”... Read more:


 
UPDATED: Syria’s ‘So-Called Moderate Rebels’ Sold Sotloff To ISIS   See update:
White House says beheaded U.S. journalist not 'sold' to Islamic State
"The United States has no information indicating beheaded American journalist Steven Sotloff was "sold" to Islamic State militants by moderate Syrian opposition rebels, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Tuesday.
"Sotloff family spokesman Barak Barfi told CNN on Monday night the family believed Islamic State paid up to $50,000 to rebels who told the militant group the 31-year-old journalist had entered Syria."

 

This President And His Party Trade America's Sovereignty And Possibly Lives For Votes

And it will always be the fault of others.

Political Cartoons by Lisa Benson

Jeffrey T. Brown   "If we should be attacked by terrorists who come across our unprotected, undefended southern border, and should Americans die in any such attack, we would do well to understand for what those lives were lost. They would have been spent for the ability of illegal aliens to cast illegal votes for politicians doing illegal things. While both parties are to some degree to blame for the porousness of our southern border, the party that has the singular ability to solve the problem via the levers of government, the Democrats, is ensuring that the problem becomes so pervasive and vast that it will be virtually unsolvable by generations of future elected representatives." ... 
...
Our president has surrendered our security, our sovereignty, and our peace, all for the fraudulent votes of people who will protect him and his kind for generations to come.
Read more..
.
Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

Obama on Immigration: Deja Vu on Didn't Do   ... "What Obama couldn't quite say is that if he further undermines immigration law, the Democrats will lose the Senate. And he couldn't exactly blame Republicans for his decision to not act as promised. Ergo, gobbledygook." ...

Monday, September 8, 2014

Mr. Obama Says Political Theater is Not Natural For Him

Political Theater Cartoon
 
From the UK:" 'Part of this job is also the theater of it... it doesn't come naturally to me':  Obama admits playing a round of golf right after address on ISIS beheading of journalist James Foley didn't look good"
The beheading of captured American journalist James Foley by a British ISIS terrorist known as "Jihadi John," in a still from propaganda video footage posted on Youtube.
"Obama, who was on vacation at the time of Foley's murder, was heavily criticized for heading to the golf course at Martha's Vineyard where he was vacationing on August 21.
He said he was 'heartbroken' over Foley's death and that it was hard for him to hold back tears while speaking with his family.

"Obama blamed the contrasting images partially on how the press follows him everywhere, even while he is 'supposed to be on vacation'. 

"He said there's always potential for bad news to occur, and sometimes it'll happen while the president is on holiday."    Read more:
Via Lucianne

Talk about optics, remember the video of Bill Clinton at the Ron Brown funeral going from laughing to crying in one second?
 
" ...he's admitting there is he doesn't really care, folks. It's more than empathy. It's more than lacking empathy. It's just he doesn’t care, which I don't think is any new revelation. But, at the same time, Obama says I'm supposed to get better at the "theater" of things, like Clinton. Remember the Ron Brown memorial?

"Clinton's walking into the Ron Brown memorial, and he's laughing and he's yukking it up. This is a memorial for a guy who died in a plane crash, one of his cabinet members, and he's walking into the memorial outside, and he's laughing and yukking it up with Tony Campolo, a religious figure from Pennsylvania -- and then he spots a camera!

"And within half a step, he started crying."
        

 
 

Can You Spot the Snipers?