A Bad Time For a Food Stamp President

Powerline   "Maybe Russia will be satisfied with annexing Crimea and will have no further imperial ambitions. Maybe China is just kidding about going to war with Japan. Maybe the Islamic terrorists have done their worst and will turn to peaceable pursuits.

 

"Then again, maybe not. The world continues to be a dangerous place, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reminds us. The timing of President Obama’s announced intention to drastically downsize the U.S. armed forces could hardly be worse. But that downsizing is just one manifestation of Obama’s overarching desire to retreat from the world, to make the United States weaker, and to concentrate on “transforming” America. As Michael Ramirez puts it, Obama wants to beat our swords into food stamps. Click to enlarge file size:

Mother-of-two tries for 3 MONTHS to enroll in health exchanges as shocking waits of over an hour continue to frustrate callers

Obamacare Gets Its Own Mardi Gras Float…

UK (Home of the archetypical government healthcare) Daily Mail  via Weasel Zippers

"For those trying to enroll through online health exchanges, help has long been advertised as just a phone call away.

 

"Yet the challenge in some states has been trying to get a call through at all, never mind the multiple transfers once contact has been made.

 

"Long wait times of an hour or more have been commonplace in some states, primarily those running their own health care exchanges.

"California, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada and Washington are among the states in which consumers and insurance agents have complained."

"The most recent statistics, from the first week of February, show the average wait time for those dialing in to a California call center at about 47 minutes.

 

"Sherrie Larsen, a 49-year-old truck driver in Tacoma, Wash., said the first time she called the exchange, she was told after waiting an hour and 27 minutes that the computer system was down, and she would have to call back."

 

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee greets more than 250 new employees at a call center in Fresno, Calif., on Monday, Feb. 10, 2014. The new employees began training to help uninsured Californians navigate the health care exchange

Obama signals Putin he isn't really serious about Ukraine

Rightly Guided

Thomas Lifson  "President Obama yesterday signaled Russia that he doesn’t intend to go to the mattresses over Ukraine.  First, he made a televised statement from the White House that kinda, sorta sounded a tough if you weren’t paying close attention, but which, upon analysis, was appallingly weak."

....

"No serious analysts in Moscow, Kiev, Beijing, Pyongyang, or any other capital thinks that the United States under Barack Obama is willing to go to war over a little thing like the invasion of a friendly country. It’s state of nature time.

"Fasten your seatbelts, it could get very, very ugly.

 

Thomas Lifson: ....A Democrat by birth, Thomas became more conservative in adulthood as reality taught him that dreams of perfecting human society always run smack into human nature.

In 2003 he founded American Thinker.

Want an example? Here: Obama Skips National Security Team Meeting on Russia, Ukraine

"A White House official emailed some reporters to say that President Obama's team met today to discuss the ongoing situation on Ukraine. It appears President Obama did not attend. 

" 'The President's national security team met today to receive an update on the situation in Ukraine and discuss potential policy options. We will provide further updates later this afternoon," reads the full statement."

Zeke Miller        ✔ @ZekeJMiller Follow    

Obama did not attend the meeting, but WH official says he has been briefed by Susan Rice and his national security team.

 

Ukrainian Crisis: Putin is Playing Chess While Obama is Playing Checkers

 

This was posted in a blog, but I can find no substantiation of this anywhere, including here. Until it is corroborated, treat this story as an urban legend:

"you can’t scare a hedgehog with a naked ass”

Russian official reacting to Obama ‘threatening’ to not attend the G8 meeting in Sochi later this year, because of Putin and the Ukraine

How they filmed "The Lone Ranger"

Youtube

Neat short movie about the production of The Lone Ranger.

"A train movie with a faux train set - FULL SIZE!

"Used for the making of the movie ‘The Lone Ranger’.  They built 5 miles of track in the desert, their own locomotives plus a lot of other expensive stuff.  They must've had a heck of a budget."

 

Your basic "business bad; working stiffs oppressed" story. Pretty much like what you see every evening at home.

Hat tip to Walt Stier: Santa Maria, CA

 

Oscars 2014: Going the extra mile with the makeup of 'The Lone Ranger'

Elementary School Tour Exposes Young Scholars to UC Berkeley Sex Week Antics

College Insurrection

"Hundreds of elementary and middle school students who recently toured UC Berkeley got an early lesson in sex education when they witnessed a guy in a giant penis costume walking around handing out condoms, as well as a variety of condom-inspired games, an undergrad at the university told The College Fix on Wednesday.

 

"…“There were kids walking by and looking and being confused,” UC Berkeley student Claire Chiara, who witnessed the situation, said in an interview with The College Fix. “It’s just really inappropriate.”

 

"The campus’ health services division hosted the National Condom Week events, which also included an “insertive condom fisting activity to show how stretchy these sexy condoms can be.”

....

 

“There are some super fun activities planned for this day including insertive condom hacky sack, Vulva and anus “pin the tail,” and an insertive condom fisting activity to show how stretchy these sexy condoms can be,” the agenda stated.

 

"On “Wear-One Wednesday,” the events focused on “traditional condoms commonly worn on a penis, toy or phallus.' ”

Is the United States under President Obama respected by America's adversaries? (UPDATED)

 Julie Pace; Obama to Russia: There will be 'costs' for Ukraine   ... "The secretary of state said the U.S. was watching to see if Russian activity in Crimea "might be crossing a line in any way." He added that the administration would be "very careful" in making judgments about that."...

Oh NO! Not the line!

 

 

NY Times: Putin Asks Russia’s Senate to Use Military Force in Ukraine

... "Mr. Putin’s request, largely a formality, signaled publicly for the first time the Kremlin’s readiness to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and it served as a blunt response to President Obama, who just hours earlier pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty."

Krauthammer’s Take: Obama Tells the World We Aren’t Going to Do Anything About Invasion of Ukraine

"Charles Krauthammer responded on Special Report [Friday] saying, “The Ukrainians, and I think everybody, is shocked by the weakness of Obama’s statement. I find it rather staggering.' ”

Palin in 2008 said...   Sarah Palin on Ukraine: 'I could see this one from Alaska'  "After all, the media mocked her mercilessly when she criticized President Obama during the 2008 campaign, saying: "After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next.' "

 

UPDATE: Obama's "flexibility" and the Ukraine crisis

... "What we do know is, a few months later, the Obama administration canceled a planned anti-missile system for deployment in Poland in the year 2022. This naturally pleased the Russians, since they felt the system was a deterrent to their missile capabilities.

 

"More significantly, however, the Europe-based system defended the U.S.in case of a missile attack by Iran. Furthermore, the cancelation also disengaged the European anti-missile defense systems from defending the U.S. This of course appeased both Russia and Iran, or any other regional adversary of the U.S." ...

 

Losing the Middle East to Iran (and Russia)   "The failure of the West to confront Iran has provided radical Islamic groups an opening. Sunnis who are fighting for their survival will naturally be drawn towards those who are willing to fight at their side. Those who cower on the sidelines are not going to be respected. If democracy is seen as the doctrine of cowards and losers, it will not embraced by anyone who wants (needs) to be successful. Bing West argued that the U.S. won the Iraq campaign by proving it was "the strongest tribe." That is no longer how America is perceived."

....

" If Washington has been afraid to confront Iran or even exploit an opportunity as ripe at the Syrian civil war, then it will be unlikely to challenge the ambitions of a resurgent Russia -- or so the Kremlin and others around the world (especially in Beijing) are being led to believe by Washington's passivity. "   Emphasis added, TD

 

Ted Cruz: "Stand Up To Putin's Power Grab... Stand With Ukraine"

 

Ukraine: Putin's Crimea aim is to make the West look weak  "This is tragic for Ukraine, for the near-abroad and for Nato not because it is taking us by surprise but because we have expected it for so long and seen it before and yet remain incapable of acting." 

Bush the Elder would have said, "This WILL NOT STAND!" But then, Bush the Elder is not the president.

 

Obama shares a chuckle with the people who said he was “a little too damn competent and we ain't used to that.”

 

Have you heard of the Candy Bomber?

Brokaw, the greatest generation and the candy bomber Video.

 

First, the story behind all this:

BERLIN "CANDY BOMBER"  "One of the many American pilots to fly the USAF C-54 Skymaster during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 ("Operation Vittles")  

was Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen of Provo, Utah. During the operation he became known as the "Candy Bomber" because he repeatedly dropped candy to German children from his aircraft on approach to the runways. " ...

 

 

Hat tip to JP Curnutt, former classmate from Garibaldi, Oregon.

 

Below: Lt. Halverson visits with West Berlin children at the end of the runway at Templehof Airport in 1948.

 

 

Some of the drawings West Berlin children sent to Lt. Halverson in thanks.

 

On Gail Halvorson and the Berlin Airlift   “ 'Operation Vittles,” as the airlift was unofficially named, began on June 26 when USAF C-47s carried 80 tons of food into Berlin, far less than the estimated 4,500 tons of food, coal, and other material needed daily to maintain a minimum level of existence. But this force was soon augmented by U.S. Navy and Royal Air Force cargo aircraft. On Oct. 15, 1948 to promote increased safety and cooperation between the separate U.S. and British airlift efforts, the Allies created a unified command, the Combined Airlift Task Force under Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner, USAF.

To underscore Allied determination to resist Soviet pressure, three SAC bomb groups were sent to Europe, placing Soviet targets well within B-29 range."

 

You didn't mess with America back then. 

Krauthammer on Putin’s Ukraine gambit

Charles Krauthammer   "Henry Kissinger once pointed out that since Peter the Great, Russia had been expanding at the rate of one Belgium per year. All undone, of course, by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century.”

 

"Putin’s mission is restoration. First, restore traditional Russian despotism by dismantling its nascent democracy. And then, having created iron-fisted “stability,” march."

....

"What Obama doesn’t seem to understand is that American inaction creates a vacuum. His evacuation from Iraq consigned that country to Iranian hegemony, just as Obama’s writing off Syria invited in Russia, Iran and Hezbollah to reverse the tide of battle.

 

"Putin fully occupies vacuums" ....

....

"Secretary of State John Kerry says Russian intervention would be a mistake. Alas, any such declaration from this administration carries the weight of a feather. But better that than nothing. Better still would be backing these words with a naval flotilla in the Black Sea."

Law Prof Who Voted For Obama: We’re At a Constitutional Tipping Point

American Glob   "I’ve written about Professor Jonathan Turley at College Insurrection.

"Turley is exactly the type of academic the left would have loved to trot out when George W. Bush was president. One little problem… Turley voted for Obama.

"Allahpundit adds this…

These Turley clips always get attention because it’s gratifying to see at least one scholar willing to challenge the Unicorn Prince on his “virtuous” power grabs, but the whole point of his testimony, really, is to challenge Congress and the courts, not Obama.

"Here’s the video.

 

"Remember when people at The New York Times, CNN and all three big networks were claiming that Bush was usurping the United States Constitution?

"The same people told us Obama was a Constitutional law professor.

"Where are their concerns now?"

'I was given every s*** job in the world by Obama': Biden makes astonishing revelations about his relationship with the President as it's claimed he was 'frozen out' by White House over gay gaffe

The former London Daily Mail

 

..."He went on to admit that Obama kept up his end of the bargain for the majority of their dealings, but the article reveals that there has been a definite frost between the two men that came after Biden announced his approval of gay marriage before the President.

"Two years later, the chill in their once buddy relationship is only now beginning to thaw." 

....

"The two men met and Biden apologized, asserting that it was an accident- just another in Biden’s long history of gaffes- but insiders apparently felt that it may have been a calculated move to signal his loyalty to the progressives who felt they were being ignored by Obama. 

 

"The apology was not enough and Obama’s staff reportedly turned hostile to the Vice President."

 

Where is Obama's anger at America's enemies who demonstrate their disrespect for him and, by extension, the United States?

 

Top 10 Joe Biden Gaffes   "Throughout his decades of public service, the former Senator and current Vice President has earned a reputation for often saying the wrong thing at the wrong time."

 

huffingtonpost.com

Obama: the Pen, Phone, and Failure

William L. Gensert    "Barack Obama is a failure as president, and with a little less than 3 years before he leaves office, people are starting to notice.

 

"On the economy, he has presided over the worst economic recovery from recession since WW II, and the lowest labor force participation rate in decades.  He spent a trillion dollars of ‘stimulus,’ rewarding political backers and cronies, while exploding the budget line. 

....

"Under Barack Obama, our friends and enemies alike view the president, and by extension the nation, as weak and vacillating (see Syria). 

 

"Everyone knows that the only people who fear Barack Obama are Americans.

The Chinese know they have only the next 3 years to make their move for hegemony in the South China Sea.  The clock is ticking.

 

"Clearly, the world will be a much more dangerous place in 2017 than it was in 2008.

 

 

Legal Scholars Said Arizona Law Was ‘Egregiously Misrepresented’ by Critics; SB1062 did NOT say that businesses could discriminate for religious reasons.

Paula Bolyard   "The letter noted that the federal government and eighteen states have Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs) that require the government to have a compelling interest before burdening a person’s religious exercise. The legal scholars assert that the standard makes sense. “We should not punish people for practicing their religions unless we have a very good reason.” Arizona has had a RFRA in place for nearly fifteen years with only a handful of cases and little controversy. SB 1062 merely sought to clear up two ambiguities in the existent law:

It would provide that people are covered when state or local government requires them to violate their religion in the conduct of their business, and it would provide that people are covered when sued by a private citizen invoking state or local law to demand that they violate their religion.

 

But nothing in the amendment would say who wins in either of these cases. The person invoking RFRA would still have to prove that he had a sincere religious belief and that state or local government was imposing a substantial burden on his exercise of that religious belief. And the government, or the person on the other side of the lawsuit, could still show that compliance with the law was necessary to serve a compelling government interest. [Emphasis original]

Full article here....

 

"Given the unadulterated spin characterizing this as an anti-gay hate bill, it would have taken a great deal of moral courage for Brewer to sign it. The truth was so obscured by the widespread propaganda that she would have paid an extraordinary political price. As has often happened in the debate over same-sex marriage, truth took a back seat to the meme. Unfortunately, Brewer’s constituents, who depended on her to defend their religious liberty, may now be the ones to pay the price."

 

From National Review Online: Celebrate, or Else

NRO appears now to be subscription only, so this was the most I could get.