Sunday, October 25, 2009

WH: We're Happy To Exclude Fox, But Didn't Yesterday With Feinberg Interview

Talking Points Memo "But the White House isn't backing down from its feud with Fox. "This White House has demonstrated our willingness to exclude Fox News from newsmaking interviews, but yesterday we did not," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest." Related: More childish obsession with Fox from the White House.

The Axis of Idiots

J. D. Pendry (hat tip to Clark Best) "Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Semper Fi, J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired "

Obama's Minions Are Ingrates / The Bush administration did leave a plan for Afghanistan.

by Stephen F. Hayes "... Why then, as Obama again nears a decision on the way forward in Afghanistan, would Rahm Emanuel pick a fight with Republicans--the very people who gave the president his most ardent backing the last time he announced a new strategy? Could it be that Emanuel hopes to foreclose one of Obama's options--the one Emanuel opposes--before the president makes his decision?"

Saturday, October 24, 2009

America’s Obama Obsession

By Victor Davis Hanson "Yet Obama has given no credit for the good that Bush did, and therefore must remain mum about the other “Bush Did It”s, like quiet in Iraq; the homeland-security protocols, from renditions and tribunals to wiretaps and intercepts; AIDS relief for Africa; friendly governments in Britain, France, Germany, India, and Italy; and domestic safety since 9/11. If Bush is at least partly responsible for all these things as well, were they therefore bad?"

Mister Tough Guy

By Mark Steyn , NRO "The most recent whine — the anti-Fox campaign — is, apart from anything else, unbecoming to the office. President Obama is the chief of state of one of the oldest free societies in the world, but his official White House website runs teasers such as: "For even more Fox lies, check out the latest ‘Truth-O-Meter.’”"

Nato backs McChrystal in snub to Biden plan

Link "...Robert Gates, said he was at the summit "mainly in a listening mode" with his Nato counterparts. Significantly, he added: "Many allies spoke positively about General McChrystal's assessment.""

Fighting The Wrong War

Strategy Page , Mudville Gazette "American intelligence has compiled a list of nearly 500 Taliban and drug gang leaders. If all these guys were to suddenly disappear, the violence who swiftly change to internal battles within the gangs, as lower level men fought for control of dozens of leaderless Taliban and heroin producing gangs. While you can't destroy the gangs, you can greatly reduce their effectiveness."

Sarah Palin Strikes Back

Pajamas Media "However, most of the time she’s talked to the people via social media. ....This has had the benefit of letting the press know that she does not need them. Rather than go the Obama route and deny what is perceived as the one “enemy” to her aims, Sarah denies nearly everyone. And why not? The press trashed her with risible lies. Why give a dying breed ratings when she can reach the people herself?"

High price of Obamacare

Dick Morris "Will a young, healthy, childless individual or couple buy health insurance costing 7.5 percent of their income, as required by Obama’s health legislation? Not until they get sick. Then they can always buy the insurance, and the Obama bill requires the insurance companies to give it to them. And if the premiums come to more than 7.5 percent of their income because they are now sick, no problem. Obama will subsidize it."

Obama's military problem is getting worse

Keep America Safe "The crash has not yet happened and is avoidable, but it also foreseeable. Of concern, the latest reports out of the White House suggest that Obama's team is not yet fully aware of the dangers. If it happens, it will be a problem entirely of Obama's own making and it could have a lasting impact on the way his administration unfolds."

Give McChrystal a Fighting Chance

Weekly Standard "Next to the combat outpost is a brand-new district center built with foreign aid money. Inside we sit down to chat with the district governor, Mohammed Yasin Lodin, a natty man with frizzy black hair and a thin mustache, and the police chief, Colonel Amanullah, who is (unusually for an Afghan) clean shaven. Yasin is overflowing with praise for the improvements wrought by the Americans. The Americans later tell me that the governor, for his part, is doing a good job, spending far more time than he used to in the district (his family lives in Kabul) because it is now safe to do so. "

Now We Know Why He Passed on the Dalai Lama

by Victor Davis Hanson "Mao killed anywhere from 50 million to 70 million innocents in the initial cleansing of Nationalists, the scouring of the countryside, the failed Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, Tibet, and the internal Chinese gulag. Dunn's praise of a genocidal monster was no inadvertent slip: She was reading from a written text and went into great detail to give the full context of the remark."