Pundits write of a Feckless Presidency

Pity the next president for the mess that they will inherit from this administration.

Stephens: Anatomy of a Feckless Presidency Gone are the days when the American president was capable of articulating the American interest. 

... "Give the Russian president this much: He pursues Russia's national interests, baldly and expediently, as he sees them. The American president, by contrast, does nothing more than patronizingly lecture other countries about where their respective interests should lie.

"Yet at no point in his statement did Mr. Obama make an effort to define, much less explain, the U.S. interest in all this. Why should Americans be alarmed that Russia is carving territory from a country they know little, and care even less, about? It would be good to hear the president give an account of just what is at stake for the American people...."

 

IBD Editorials; Obama's World Without America Looks A Lot Like Ukraine  "The brazen seizure of Crimea by Putin's Russia has brought into bold relief how the world would look if America is unable or unwilling to project power and influence. Is this what our diplomatic president wanted?"

Elliott Abrams; How We Can Make Putin Pay, and Why We Must

"...  there is more than Putin to think about. Tyrants in places from Tehran to Beijing will also be wondering about the cost of violating international law and threatening the peace and stability of neighbors. What will China do in neighboring seas, or Iran do in its tiny neighbor Bahrain, if actions like Putin’s go without a response?"

....

"The combination of zero action on Syria despite our own declared “red line” and the weakening of the American military sent a dangerous message, and not just to Putin."

 

Kerry Blasts Putin’s ‘Brazen Act of Aggression’  

 

"Pressed on whether Putin would pay a price for his incursion into sovereign territory, Kerry said, “We’re busy right now coordinating with our counterparts in many parts of the world.” He emphasized that “we don’t want this to be a larger confrontation” and that the administration is “not looking for a U.S.-Russia, East-West redux.' ”

Standing up to aggressors appears to be above Obama's pay grade. 

 

WaPo: Obama’s Foreign Policy Is Based on ‘Fantasy’  ... "China has interests in Asia and off the coasts that it wants to advance, but the United States and our alliances stand in the way. China is paying close attention to Barack Obama’s actions on Ukraine, or lack thereof.

"For all the talk of a “new economy,” nations still need fuel, raw materials, access to ports, and the ability to impose their will on occasion. Obama either still doesn’t understand, or he does but doesn’t deem America’s interests as worth advancing."

 

Pirro Scolds Obama on Ukraine: 'Being Dictator in the United States Doesn't Make You King of the World'   

Some perspective: Obama Finds a Country to Threaten. Too Bad It’s Israel.

 

 

Obama's military

Gay and lesbian troops perform in drag on American military base  "Troops based at the Kadena Air Base in Japan know how to party. On Saturday, six gay and straight service members applied some of their finest makeup and lip synced to "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" in what is believed to be first drag queen and king show on an American military base. The show was thrown in support for the base's recently formed OutServe-SLDN chapter, a nonprofit advocacy group for the army's LGBT community." 

 

.... "Just a few years ago, performances like these would have been grounds for a possible discharge. The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell has made it possible for events like this to occur. --Jordan Valinsky"

 

There will be open season on any true career sergeants who believe in a warrior culture and think this is a travesty. How will this ever be undone?

What's this about "standing" preventing this president from acting in rebellion against the Constitution?

Volokh Conspiracy; How liberals learned to stop worrying and love standing doctrine    

"In an op-ed in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, I discuss the Obama Administration’s embrace of standing doctrine:

President Obama’s proclaimed strategy to “bypass Congress” — most conspicuously his broad rewriting of the Affordable Care Act — has given unusual prominence to a fairly arcane legal doctrine: standing. Standing is what is preventing a potential blizzard of litigation against the president’s unilateral decrees, and ironically, it’s a doctrine liberal jurists have long decried.

Republicans: Obama violating Constitution, but little can be done about it   "Washington Republicans on Sunday restated their argument that President Obama has violated the Constitution by using executive orders to alter the Affordable Care Act but acknowledged they likely have no recourse or ability to stop another incident." ...

 

There seems to be a consensus pictured here:

 

http://obamacartoon.blogspot.com/2011/10/executive-orders-or-how-to-screw.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anti-Left Street Posters Mocking Obama (and Oscars) Can’t Be Making Academy Awards Folks Happy

Note the O above is the Obama logo.

 

We the People

"Also why didn’t Sandra Bullock win for Gravity?  Not liberal enough? Perhaps.

"Bullock’s politics are as mysterious, if not more so, than her religion. Here, there are conflicting reports.

 

"Allegedly, Bullock self-identified herself as a conservative on her Facebook page at one point.

 

"Then again, she is reported to be a Democrat, but has said she has “as many Democratic ideas as she does Republican.”⁷

 

Academy Awards Anti-Leftist Street Art: 32 images

Pro and con of the Obama/ Democrat foreign policies

TD has done an internet search to find positive assessments of the Obama administration's foreign policy achievements. These are among the top five that Google came up with. Two others were White House links, so, well, you know...

From Madame Noire:  Top 8 Foreign Policy Achievements of the Obama Administration

CBS praises Obama's foreign policies Norah O'Donnell, just before the 2012 election.

You knew you the posts above would be placed next to these didn't you? Weigh the arguments of the above against these:

Why Russia No Longer Fears the West  The "West" meaning to me the democracies of Western Europe as led by the major democracy, the United States (referred to by Winston Churchill in World War 2 as the enormous power of the New World that would overcome the Nazi conquerors of Europe).
Sadly, today's Democrats will not overcome anything but academia, the media and Republicans.
This Politico columnist holds western business just as culpable as liberals.

... "When Russia sees Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal outbidding each other to be Russia’s best business partner inside the EU (in return for no mention of human rights), they see America’s control over Europe slowly dissolving…"

But Ben Judah at Sweetness and Light does not let left-leaning Politico's opinion above go unchallenged:

"This article is 1,575 words long. Obama’s name is not mentioned once. Which is simply ludicrous. The reason Russia no longer fears the West is be due to one person alone: Barack Hussein Obama.
 

"And that is because after decades of Russia nearly being frozen out of the Middle East, Obama invited the Russians back in to help with Syria. It is because Obama is gutting our military, while Russia and China are building up theirs. It is because Obama gave away our missile defenses in Europe and those at home. And he even gave the Russians our missile secrets for good measure." ...  Full article here. 

Video: Did Obama's foreign policy stumbles lead to Ukraine crisis?
  
"If Ukraine likes their sovereignty, they can keep it"    "Once again, America's chicken has come home to roost. Barack Obama's utterly spineless response to Russian military action in Ukraine has pretty much signaled to the world that the United States is officially no longer a meaningful player in foreign affairs and no advocate for freedom or democracy."

Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?

Raymond Ibrahim

 

"... Christians are the most likely targets of Islamic intolerance; because sharing the Gospel, or “witnessing,” is a dominant element of Christianity, Christians are most likely to fall afoul of Islam’s blasphemy and proselytism laws, as even the barest pro-Christian talk is by necessity a challenge to the legitimacy of Islam; because most Muslims who apostatize to other religions convert to Christianity, it is as Christians that they suffer persecution; and because boldness in face of certain death—martyrdom, dying for the faith—is as old as Christianity itself, Christians are especially prone to defy Islam’s anti-freedom laws, whether by openly proclaiming Christianity or by refusing to recant it, and so they die for it."

Obama threatens not Putin, not al Qaeda, not Syria, BUT Israel on eve of Netanyahu visit.

Legal Insurrection

"When Bibi Netanyahu lectured Obama on the Middle East in a White House press conference in 2011, Goldberg leapt to Obama’s defense with the following declaration:

Dear Mr. Netanyahu, Please Don’t Speak to My President That Way

"That niche is why Goldberg landed an interview with Obama on the eve of Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, detailed in Goldberg’s column today, Obama to Israel — Time Is Running Out.

 

"The interview is best described as preparing the public for what is to come: The Obama administration twisting Bibi’s arm off as to John Kerry’s “framework” under the threat of the U.S. stepping aside from defending Israel against the worldwide, decades-long lawfare and boycott movement.

 

"It’s the same threat John Kerry made several weeks ago, but now it’s coming from Obama’s own lips, as Goldberg noted (emphasis added):

On the subject of Middle East peace, Obama told me that the U.S.’s friendship with Israel is undying, but he also issued what I took to be a veiled threat: The U.S., though willing to defend an isolated Israel at the United Nations and in other international bodies, might soon be unable to do so effectively...Full article. 

Weekend Box Office: PC, Islamo-Friendly “Non-Stop,” Moronic “Adult World”

Debbie Schlussel   "Another disappointing weekend at the box office. I did not see “Son of God.” Here are the movies, new at theaters this weekend, which I did see."

 

"* “Non-Stop“: As I’ve told you in the past, actor Liam Neeson said he considered converting to Islam and claimed that the lion in “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe” movies is Mohammed (and not Jesus, which author C.S. Lewis specifically wrote the lion to represent).

..."And this movie is consistent with Neeson’s multi-orgasms for Islam. In other words, you know who the villain probably isn’t." (And that turned out to be the case)

....

 "But the identity of the hijacker(s) in this movie and their motive is so absurd–so outrageous!–that it makes the rest of the movie absurd. The first 1.5 hours of this movie is okay, until the identity and motive of the villain(s) is disclosed. And while a good mystery/thriller gives you some hint of who the villain is and his/her motive, this movie gives almost none."  (Spoiler coming)

 

Let's mentally scroll through the list of previously known Hollywood villains:

Developers?  Hedge-fund managers? Republicans? Talk show hosts? Christians?  White supremacists! Yes, that's who must be the bad guys! No...not that either. It's.....it's....wait for it....bitter ex-military guys, mad about the war in Iraq/ Afghanistan. The old Springsteenish "what were we fighting for?" meme.  TD

 

"As I said, it’s a great movie until these revelations drain all juice from the film. Until then, I’d have given it TWO REAGANS. But the “resolution” of the movie changes it entirely to . . .

"TWO MARXES PLUS TWO BIN LADENS

Exporting Hollywood: Liberal Policies Driving Film Industry from California

Big Hollywood   "The contrast between Jerry Brown’s dangerous high tax policies that are encouraging businesses to flee his state and the tax incentives offered by New York that allow liberals like Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio to stake their claim as job creators could not be more ironic, especially when the industry being forcibly exported out of California is Hollywood entertainment. But the scenario, and the lesson to be learned, even by left-wingers, is exactly how economic development should work. California’s liberals have simply not learned the lesson."

 

California Internet Sales Tax

 

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.
Read more at http://themoderatevoice.com/115088/california-internet-sales-tax-cartoon/#6IDuzH4d5ukzheIq.99

"It's Not a Betrayal of Islam"

Mark Steyn  Right: "the Israeli cabinet minister, invited to surrender more land to the Palestinians, asks his BBC interviewer, "Would you hand over half of Britain to someone who keeps on killing you?"

 

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