I’d laugh at the self-parodying OWSers, but I do think they’re dangerous

Update: OWS plan 'global disruption' on May Day  "I'm sure the usual tactics of trying to provoke the police into a violent response will be used, and the media will report every demonstration as proof of the "power" of this movement - even though the numbers of protestors are likely to be as paltry as they were over the winter.
"In short, we've seen it all before. And we're likely to keep seeing it as long as the press gives outsized attention to these reprobates and miscreants who resent their betters and have nothing to do except complain about how miserable their lives are."

Rick Moran

Bookworm Room  "Zombie has a new post about Occupy’s latest stunt:  The movement’s geniuses, inspired by Earth Day,

[I]llegally took over an entire farm and transformed it into…a farm!

So proud are they of this revolutionary act that they showed off the farm to the media yesterday, so naturally I had to check it out.

"Go here to enjoy Zombie’s photo essay.  Before you laugh too hard at these silly people, though, remember that they have the power to destabilize things.  The fact that they’re stupid, ill-informed, and venal is infinitely less important than whether they are successful at manipulating an alternately compliant and credulous media into making them seem like the cool, hip thing to do."

"Hypocrisy, thy name is Occupy. When society draws boundaries, builds fences, and makes rules, Occupy gets to violate them at will. But once they’ve seized control, Occupy immediately starts making new rules and new boundaries that everyone else is supposed to honor. Perhaps that’s the new Occupy motto: “Rules for thee, but not for me.” "

"Before the Occupation, the Gill Tract was an agricultural research farm where twenty-somethings getting their PhDs would work the fields to grow crops, as they researched biology or how to raise better, healthier plants. But now, after this incredible revolution by Occupy, the Gill Tract has been utterly transformed into a farm where twenty-somethings work the fields to grow crops. The only difference is that before, the farm served a scientific function to improve society, and was managed by experts and hard-working students doing meaningful research; but now, it’s run by a bunch of smug amateurs and dropouts who plant store-bought seedlings in the middle of what once was a controlled research environment. Meet the new farm — same as the old farm, except worse."

"Visit Amy’s tent for an individual stress-relaxation “hypnosis” session which she guarantees will have a “happy” ending."

Hat tip to Zombie

Obama the Cool

DonkeyHotey

Mark Steyn: “Can Barack Obama Make Cool Affordable”?  "The exploding cigars are revealing not merely of Democratic hypocrisy but of a key difference in worldview between liberals and conservatives. Jeremy Funk and Governor Schweitzer reflexively believe that their dog-eating polygamy-scion is different from the other guy’s dog-transporting polygamy-scion. This is nothing to do with young Barack being six or ten years old and meekly eating whatever was put in front of him. He was 34 years old when he wrote the passage quoted above and ten years older when he recorded the audio edition. And, as both versions make plain, he thinks it’s kinda cool, and he knows that to the average upscale white liberal it has the electric frisson of the exotic other."


Then there is this article from earlier: It's Cool To Be In The Tank For Obama

Celebrity-in-Chief: http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/04/celebrity-in-chief/

Did Obama cross that fine line between cool and silly?  "One could argue that Obama's Fallon appearance was quite well done, which it was — for that sort of thing. The president played straight man and said or did nothing objectionable. He was, in a word, presidential, to the extent one can be under such circumstances. Even at the end when he said, "Oh yeah," it was ... cool.

"Yet the effect was nearly narcotic, so strange that cognitive dissonance doesn't quite describe it. One had the uneasy feeling that something wrong was happening. The lead grown-up isn't supposed to act that way."

Jonah Goldberg: Obama, Trump and “Cool”  "That said, Trump does have half a point here. I wish the ad had at least one or two really solid clips conveying how despearately Obama wants to seem cool, which is always the great coolness-killer. It would have helped set the tone of the ad much better. What would those clips be? I’m not sure, but then again I’m not making the ad. Michael Moore seems to find a way to find that kind of footage pretty easily, and I have no doubt it can be found in Obama’s case."


The Karl Rove video: One Cool Celebrity President appears in Republican ads

Obama the Gutsy Warrior

Adm. William McRaven

Blackfive: "GUTSIEST CALL EVER" DELEGATED TO MAN W/ ACTUAL GUTS  "There are even fairly reliable reports that Obama had the idea polled to see if he would bear blame for a mission failure or for chickening out and saying no go. But once the results said it was politically viable, the story was that bravely brave Sir Barry hollered "Follow Me" and led his minions to the Situation Room to watch the show.

"As it turns out, it was even lamer than that. A memo has come to light that shows responsibility was pushed down the chain to ADM McRaven.... And you can be sure that if it had gone south, McRaven would have been portrayed as a trigger-happy SEAL who led the Prez astray."

The author of this post then contrasts the above with the press statement Gen Eisenhower wrote on D-Day when things looked bleakest on Omaha Beach:

“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Harve area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

The Man Who Got bin Laden: The Most Deadly Would-be Journalist in the World "Vice Adm. William McRaven, himself a SEAL, was on the ground in Afghanistan as bin Laden met his end, linked electronically to CIA chief Leon Panetta at agency headquarters in Langley, Va. “I have to tell you that the real commander was Admiral McRaven,” Panetta told PBS Tuesday night. “He was on site, and he was actually in charge of the military operation that went in and got bin Laden.” "

sodahead

Gutsy call?  "Team Obama has already painted Romney as a heartless executive who didn’t hesitate to fire people and, er, execute poorly-performing companies as a Bain executive.  What exactly would keep Romney from taking a risk with a terrorist mastermind in his crosshairs?  The attack was an overreach, and an opening for critics to challenge Obama’s actual role in the mission — and when Time Magazine published the mission orders from Leon Panetta to Admiral William H. McRaven, commander of US Special Operations Command, Big Peace pounced:"


NY Times: Warrior in Chief  "Soon after Mr. Obama took office he reframed the fight against terrorism. Liberals wanted to cast anti-terrorism efforts in terms of global law enforcement — rather than war. The president didn’t choose this path and instead declared “war against Al Qaeda and its allies.” In switching rhetorical gears, Mr. Obama abandoned Mr. Bush’s vague and open-ended fight against terrorism in favor of a war with particular, violent jihadists."
For which I would say Mr. Obama deserves a hearty well-done!  Oh, by the way: "Asked his view, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said, “Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go.” "


Max Boot responds to the NY Times article above: Obama Hardly a Hawkish Warrior-in-Chief   "These are hardly the actions of a hawkish commander-in-chief. (At least in my view as a Romney defense adviser.) Yet the reality of Obama’s foreign and defense policy, which especially because the death of bin Laden has turned notably more dovish, has been obscured by the president’s attempt to focus most of the public’s attention on his drone strikes and commando raids on al-Qaeda."


Memo Reveals The 'Gutsy' Bin Laden Call That Wasn't  "Like so many others, the final decision to pull the trigger on the world's most-wanted man was delegated to an admiral who undoubtedly would have been thrown under the bus had the mission failed."
...."Luckily, operational control was in McRaven's hands, and the planning, execution and decision-making were virtually flawless. There was no repeat of the incident years before of Sandy Berger, last seen stuffing classified documents in his pants, telling a CIA and Northern Alliance team in Afghanistan, on that occasion literally a matter of feet away from bin Laden, that if they want to grab him, they'll have to do it on their own. So they didn't. This time, we had an admiral and former Navy SEAL making the decision."
...."Finally, it was the courageous and well-trained Navy SEALs who put their lives on the line and got a small measure of revenge for Sept. 11, 2001. It is President Obama who is falsely taking all the credit." (Emphasis added by TD)


White House Politicizes Situation Room  "The White House invited NBC News Anchor Brian Williams into the Situation Room Thursday as part of its campaign to tout Obama’s killing of Osama Bin Laden a year ago, according to Politico."

Here is how Obama uses our SEALs for his reelection:

Alan Caruba: The "What If" of John Edwards

Warning Signs  "It also says something about an America in which too many voters preferred a candidate like Edwards with good hair or Obama’s “cool” look.. Too many have either not learned or have forgotten the gravity of the choices we make when the high offices are at stake. The election is not a horse race or a beauty contest. It is often the life and death of our economy and of the men and women we send into battle.

donkeyhotey

"In 2008 the media and a majority portion of the voters elected Barack Obama and we have had to endure someone who is arguably the worst President this nation has ever had. We have to avoid that occuring again. The fate of the nation depends on it."


For Edwards and Aide, Another Lost Love Story  "Mr. Edwards’s own family relationships were front and center all week in the courtroom. Whenever details of the affair were mentioned, and they were at length, many in the courtroom would glance at his eldest daughter, Cate, 30, gauging, perhaps, how it must feel to hear about your father’s mistress getting caught in a luxury hotel room after your father had left."  NY Times.

Ann Coulter on Why America Hates Hollywood (Opinion)

Hollywood Reporter; The conservative pundit says that the industry demonizes just about everyone: Christians, priests, the rich, Southerners and more.

...."In other words, the exact opposite of a Law and Order plot. I like watching beautiful rich people with fabulous Manhattan apartments killing one another as much as anyone. Maybe more. But why do ALL the wealthy white people, Christians, Southerners or WASPS in these scripts have to be racist, misogynist snobs? Whatever happened to diversity? Hollywood learned to stop stereotyping black characters. Can't it learn to stop stereotyping the rest of America?

"Not to brag, but I've been to America. The natives do not need coaching in tolerance, certainly not from beautiful airheads who are paid like Enron executives to lecture us -- the child-molesting, greedy racists -- about learning to be decent human beings."

Here Ann likens Trayvon Martin Media Coverage to 'Lynch Mob' and, yes, the KKK

"Rush Limbaugh has accused the media of playing up the racial aspect of the case and said that they drummed up "fake outrage" in this case, as they did during the heat of his Sandra Fluke controversy."
regions-foreign-to-them/

Video from Pat Dollard

Charles Krauthammer: While Syria burns

Charles Krauthammer "If Obama wants to stay out of Syria, fine. Make the case that it’s none of our business. That it’s too hard. That we have no security/national interests there.

"In my view, the evidence argues against that, but at least a coherent case for hands-off could be made. That would be an honest, straightforward policy. Instead, the president, basking in the sanctity of the Holocaust Museum, proclaims his solemn allegiance to a doctrine of responsibility — even as he stands by and watches Syria burn.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/strategy-312659-debt-syria.html?pic=1

"If we are not prepared to intervene, even indirectly by arming and training Syrians who want to liberate themselves, be candid. And then be quiet. Don’t pretend the U.N. is doing anything. Don’t pretend the U.S. is doing anything. And don’t embarrass the nation with an Atrocities Prevention Board. The tragedies of Rwanda, Darfur and now Syria did not result from lack of information or lack of interagency coordination, but from lack of will."

The Racemongers: Sharpton Sows Seeds of Next L.A. Riot

PJ Media "Al Sharpton was in Los Angeles on Thursday, attending a church rally marking the two-month anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death.  Why Los Angeles should be chosen as the venue for such an event may at first seem a mystery, but whatever one may think of him, Sharpton can be counted among the true masters at manipulating the media.  And here in Los Angeles this week, much of the media has been consumed with observing the 20^thanniversary of what is often referred to as the Rodney King riots.  The not-so-subtle message Sharpton was here to convey is this: Listen to me, do as I say, or face the consequences."
...."By yoking himself to the memory of the Los Angeles riots, and to the coming trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, Sharpton is implicitly threatening violence even as he explicitly denounces it."   Shame, shame on you, MSNBC for not rejecting this man!

...."Just as the details of George Zimmerman’s deadly encounter with Trayvon Martin have escaped the limits first placed on them by the media, so too did the actual facts of Rodney King’s arrest fly in the face of what had been presented to the public, leading to genuinely reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors who acquitted the four LAPD officers twenty years ago."
.... "Unless some previously undisclosed evidence emerges against George Zimmerman, he will not be convicted of any crime, and in any event I’m confident he will never be convicted of murder.  When he is acquitted, or when a mistrial is declared with a hung jury, what will happen?  When that day comes, the prudent citizen will avoid the intersection of Florence and Normandie."

The Hatred of Derrick Bell’s Afrolantica Legacies "His New Age presentation of Critical Race Theory as a secular, political theology mirrors the black liberation theology Obama imbibed at Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United. Politics, religion, and “blackness” merge together to produce a cult. And cults do real damage to people’s lives. Bell’s ideas have circulated into and left scars. Here’s a question to ask the biracial members of Generations X and Y: growing up, did you experience more race-based harassment from whites for being half-black or from blacks for being half-white?"

Why does MSNBC compensate a race-baiter like Sharpton?  "He's a fraud, he's a race hustler. To walk the streets and incite prior to judgment--if he can be so sure about that neighborhood watch man [George Zimmerman], why didn't he say that about the man who stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum--an innocent person that was killed by a mob that yelled 'Let's kill the Jew'?"

The State-Run Media Would Like Everyone To Know Obama Is “Cool”…

Weasel Zippers  "It’s Cool To Be In The Tank For Obama — IBD"

Via Investors Business Daily  "In early February, Politico reported that the Obama campaign, hoping to rekindle enthusiasm among young voters, was "looking to revive the cool appeal." Then, suddenly, news stories started popping up about Obama's alleged coolness, in contrast to that drip Romney. A sampling:

• President Obama: The cool factor• ‘Cool’ Obama Returns GOP Fire on Gas Prices• Obama: The new King of Cool• Barack Obama is cool. Mitt Romney is not. What does it mean for 2012?• Campaigning for the ‘Cool’ Vote• The Obama-Romney ‘Cool Gap’Keep reading…

"Now, when the stakes are higher, the mainstream press seems willing, if not eager, to focus on the real task at hand — helping Obama get re-elected. Nowhere was that more evident than in the coverage of Obama's idiotic appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show."


Karl Rove’s political operation launches attack ad that mocks Barack Obama for being President ‘Cool’  Barack Obama has been painted in a new attack ad as nothing more than a Celebrity-in-chief.  See the video here 

Victor Davis Hanson: "Obama’s Undiplomacy" (and, I might add, his juvenile presidency)

Victor Davis Hanson   "Most of the criticism of the Obama administration’s foreign policy concerns the failure of “reset diplomacy,” the inability to deal with Iran or North Korea, or the sense that we are ignoring allies and appeasing enemies. 

"All true. But under the radar, there are several developments that are far more disturbing than we seem to realize."

....

"The problem is not just that Obama has no knowledge of geography, but that he has none either about history or diplomacy."

....

To the extent that he understands geopolitics, it is of the juvenile multicultural sort, in which hostile nuclear powers, traditional enemies, and troublesome neutrals are either not much worse than or morally equivalent to long-standing allies and friends.

http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/barack-obama-cartoons

Canada Free Press, 2009:  Do World Leaders Respect Obama?  "The spin from the liberal media in America is that the United States finally has great world leadership in President Obama. However, consistently over time, another picture is emerging from foreign press reports that are not controlled by the American spin machines, of Obama being seen in much less flattering way that does not protray(sic) him as the object of respect from other world leaders.

...." Is Obama building respect for American leadership or ridicule? Are other world leaders really seeing Obama as a true world leader or do they see him as a manipulatable(sic) clown that is always ready to be the first to compromise as he did with the recent lifting of some sanctions on Cuba when there are no guarantees of reciprocal action such as releasing political prisoners. I was always taught that respect is a two-way street."

Obama greets University of Colorado students

Speaking of our juvenile president; Obama dumbs down his speeches for addressing college students "The lack of complexity in President Obama’s recent speeches to college students suggests that they were stump speeches more suited for the presidential campaign than official government business, experts say.

"Obama addressed the coeds at the Universities of North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa at a sixth grade reading level, according to Flesch-Kincaid reading comprehension difficulty tests conducted by the Washington Free Beacon."  Hat tip to Neal Boortz

UPDATED: Some press can do professional journalism if they want to: George Zimmerman- Prelude to a shooting

Zimmerman

Reuters  "Zimmerman's maternal grandmother, Cristina, who had lived with the Zimmermans since 1978, worked as a babysitter for years during Zimmerman's childhood. For several years she cared for two African-American girls who ate their meals at the Zimmerman house and went back and forth to school each day with the Zimmerman children.

" "They were part of the household for years, until they were old enough to be on their own," Post said."

Zimmerman

....

"In several of the incidents, witnesses identified the suspects to police as young black men. Twin Lakes is about 50 percent white, with an African-American and Hispanic population of about 20 percent each, roughly similar to the surrounding city of Sanford, according to U.S. Census data.

"One morning in July 2011, a black teenager walked up to Zimmerman's front porch and stole a bicycle, neighbors told Reuters. A police report was taken, though the bicycle was not recovered.

"But it was the August incursion into the home of Olivia Bertalan that really troubled the neighborhood, particularly Zimmerman. Shellie was home most days, taking online courses towards certification as a registered nurse.

"On August 3, Bertalan was at home with her infant son while her husband, Michael, was at work. She watched from a downstairs window, she said, as two black men repeatedly rang her doorbell and then entered through a sliding door at the back of the house..." 

The George Zimmerman narrative just got even tougher to maintain

“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’m black, OK?” the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. “There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood,” she said. “That’s why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin.”

"Guess she’s a racist too.

...."Who else has to be hurt over this? How much more blood has to be shed? When are we going to stop listening to guys who pay the bills with race-baiting?

"What the hell is wrong with everybody?"

Attacker Tells Cops He Mugged and Robbed “White Boy” Because He Was Angry Over Trayvon Martin Case

"Hayes was charged with committing a hate crime Wednesday, as well as attempted robbery and aggravated battery. 

"The boy, who is also black, was charged with attempted robbery, the Tribune said.

"Hayes said he and his partner grabbed the man from behind and hit him several times, then grabbed a tree branch and said, “Empty your pockets, white boy,” FOX Chicago reported.

"The pair then threw the man to the ground and hit him in the head several more times before taking off."

Big Journalism reports the press has blood on it's hands  "My guess is that if Hayes is telling the truth about his sinister motives, he's been watching too much CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and ABC. After all, those are the media outlets guilty, in some cases, of outright racial fabrication in their zeal to aid Barack Obama's re-election campaign by falsely attributing racism to Mr. Zimmerman's motives."

"The bottom line is that if Hayes' professed motive for attacking another man is based on lies told over and over and over again by Obama's Media Palace Guards."

Thank you, Al Sharpton. Thank you, Jesse Jackson. Thank you national race-baiters.
UPDATE: Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, NAACP Aren’t Done Exploiting Trayvon Martin Death, Holding Rally In Los Angeles…

One Cool Celebrity President appears in Republican ads

Via Bully Pulpit  Celebrity Obama Crushed By Karl Rove Ad

Operation Hot Mic:

President Reagan lectures Obama on socialism

Don't you prefer your heard-earned dollars go to American industry rather than to this government?

Forbes: EPA Official Not Only Touted 'Crucifying' Oil Companies, He Tried It  "The former professor at Southern Methodist University was appointed by President Obama in November 2009."...."Texas Monthly called him one of the 25 most powerful Texans, while the Houston Chronicle said he’s “the most feared environmentalist in the state.” "
...." In recent months a federal judge slapped the EPA, decreeing that the agency was required to actually do some scientific investigation of wells before penalizing the companies that drilled them. Finally in March the EPA withdrew its emergency order and a federal court dismissed the EPA’s case."
...".He ought to resign as well. His comments in the video are proof that facts and science don’t matter to him, that he’s already made up his mind that the industry he has regulatory power over is evil. When you lose faith in the impartiality of regulators every action they take is tainted. He’s the boy who cried wolf."
(Emphasis happily added)


Rick Moran: EPA official compares enforcement to crucifixions  "Spurious enforcement action just to intimidate the industry? That's what this goon seems to be saying. More than proving the EPA's war on fossile fuels, the video shows the arrogance of power little men like this petty bureaucrat exhibit when given responsibility far above their abilities or temperament."

Heritage: Armendariz’s comments, Inhofe said, “give us a rare glimpse of the Obama administration’s true agenda.”  " “It’s one thing to create regulatory certainty and fine or punish a company for breaking the law,” noted Heritage’s Nick Loris in reaction to the video, “but it’s another to target a specific industry and create a regulatory stranglehold on America’s access to affordable and reliable energy.” "


Speaking of abuse of power: Bloomberg; High Court Skeptical of Obama’s Use of Power as Campaign Starts  " “What does sovereignty mean if it does not include the ability to defend your borders?” Justice Antonin Scalia said during the 80-minute session, which ran 20 minutes beyond its scheduled time."


Collins Report: Fresh out of excuses, Int. Sec. Salazar and the media try to invent some new gas price “truths”  "Feeding his dimwitted audience more of what they want to write and say,  Salazar then babbled on about green energy and “staying the course” as the best energy policy. No one  in the supine media questioned why “staying” a course that has given us European type high gas prices isn’t lunacy,  but Salazar knew the media would never be impolitic enough to point that out."