Krauthammer; Why we give foreign aid (Cartoon update)

A well-thought-out counterpoint to my own snarky remark in the next post down, where I was chafing at the tanks Egypt is getting from us as well as the money. Krauthammer makes a good point about the money, but I still have to ask: who would Egypt use tanks against?
Do the math yourself.

Charles Krauthammer  "Nonetheless, we should not cut off aid to Egypt. It’s not that we must blindly support unfriendly regimes. It is perfectly reasonable to cut off aid to governments that are intrinsically hostile and beyond our influence. Subsidizing enemies is merely stupid.
"But Egypt is not an enemy, certainly not yet. It may no longer be our strongest Arab ally, but it is still in play. The Brotherhood aims to establish an Islamist dictatorship. Yet it remains a considerable distance from having done so.
Precisely why we should remain engaged. And engagement means using our economic leverage. "

Reading list of late posts

NT Times; Amid Cuts, Does a President Dare Tee Off?
" “Canceling White House tours is childish and dishonest,” Mr. Gingrich said on Twitter, citing a recent golf vacation the president took to the Floridian Yacht and Golf Club resort with a handful of friends and his Secret Service entourage. “The golf weekend in Florida cost enough to keep the White House open for months.” "
....
JustOneMinute quotes Ari Fleischer (of Bush fame), who pointed out that the Pentagon’s leaders have warned that the budget cuts will have a serious impact on the readiness of the nation’s military. “What does it say about a sequester if a military golf course can stay open during it?” he said."

 

Fox News' Eric Bolling, Sean Hannity Offer $90,000 to Keep White House Open to Tourists 

 The Tour Nazi (WND)

Make room for new mavericks; Time for Old Soldier McCain to Fade Away  "Paul continued by saying he respects both McCain’s military service and his legislative record, but stressed that McCain’s experience does not mean he is always right: “I treat Senator McCain with respect. I don’t think I always get the same in return.”

"Americans on both sides of the aisle honor McCain for his service.  However, McCain must realize that it is time to pass the torch of leadership to a new generation of Conservative leaders demonstrably capable of filling his seemingly vacated role as maverick while leading Republicans to electoral victory."

Sarah Palin was right: Obama care or any type of socialized rationing plan results in death panels  In this chilling video, physician Manny Alverez discusses  the subtle way "death panels" will occur, "by changing standards of practice, putting them with age and general health of the patient with the end result in eating Soylent Green as a probable outcome."

 

 

School Confiscates Cupcakes Decorated with Toy Soldiers

 Above two photos from Facebook, but I cannot find the source.

 But this next one is from Weasel Zippers:

 

Allow me to be simplistic for a moment, will you? May I please ask:

Hat tip to  Barbara Haney

State Department’s anti-Semitic ‘Woman of Courage’ refuses to apologize to ‘Zionist lobby’; Updated

The tweets that cost Samira Ibrahim the award; 

The Big Pharaoh raises an interesting question:

The Big Pharaoh @TheBigPharaoh

State department decided not to award Samira Ibrahim after revealing anti-Jews tweets. Well, what did she say different than Morsi?

 

And Morsi still got his mega-bucks with tanks and jets to follow

Will anyone police this White House?

Jennifer Rubin  "The White House’s behavior throughout the sequester process has been baffling to some. Until Friday’s news conference mainstream media never showed much skepticism about the reams of scare stories being passed around. And if not for Bob Woodward, not a single news outlet would have reported the origin of the sequester. (Think about the level of negligence involved on that point alone.) Whether on account of bias or ineptitude, media haven’t been very good at extracting the truth until quite recently.

..."What flows from all of this? On the media side, any conscientious news outlet would do some soul searching and internal review. Why has it missed or ignored huge stories? How can it break free from group-think reporting? Why has it been so gullible? To what degree has White House intimidation affected its reporting? Do media need to offer retractions and apologies to their readers and viewers?."

Osama's son-in-law brought to US for trial. First reports

First Google search results support trying Osama son-in-law in US court.

CNN Says: Trying Osama's son-in-law in New York makes sense  "But these are the words of a blowhard, not a man of action -- something that is underlined in the indictment against Abu Ghaith that was unsealed on Thursday. It charges him with conspiring to help al Qaeda by making speeches and persuading others to join the group but makes no allegations whatsoever of involvement in any actual terror plots." Oh, well then...

Why Republicans want a military trial for Osama bin Laden's son in law
"But Republicans don't want foreign terrorists tried on US soil. They say the legal precedent has been set for "enemy combatants" to be tried at Guantanamo Bay. They are concerned that giving Abu Ghaith a civilian trial will result in lost intelligence."

Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law captured, turned over to U.S.

Reuters - Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who served as al-Qaeda's spokesman, has been arrested and detained in Jordan in an operation led by Jordanian authorities and the FBI, U.S. government sources said.

  A former spokesman for al-Qaeda and son-in-law of its founder, Osama bin Laden, has been captured overseas and is being brought to the United States, where he is expected to face trial in New York, U.S. officials announced Thursday.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was initially detained in Turkey but was taken into U.S. custody in Jordan while he was in the process of being deported to Kuwait, according to U.S. officials.

Media Waved Pom-Poms for Obama on Sequester, Now 'Sad' That Doom-and-Gloom Predictions Failed to Pan Out

Newsbusters  "The liberal media should have reported President Obama's Chicken Little sky-is-falling claims about the sequester, but "with clear skepticism" instead of mindlessly parroting them, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity on the March 7 edition of his eponymous program.  "They should have gone to the American people and in effect said, this man is lying," but instead, "they did the exact opposite. They waved the pom-poms for him," the Media Research Center (MRC) founder argued."

Even ABC News Can’t Ignore How Petty Obama’s Canceling of White House Tours Is

"Diane Sawyer and the other reporter don’t come right out and say that of course, but it certainly is implied that canceling White House tours is a childish move intended to make the sequester as visibly painful as possible while “saving” very little:" 

Ramirez nails it here...

OFA Confirms They Will Be Selling Access To President: Messina Says Obama To Meet With Top Donors As Early As Next Week…

 “The president will do what he did during the campaign, which is communicate to his grassroots supporters and ask for their help,” Messina said.

Paul vs. the RINOs

 147 Degrees West ; Filibustered Drones and Filleted Honor

 

"Did they not see that this was a set up to discredit them? To me, this is a special kind of stupid. There is no such thing as a free lunch; and there is never a free dinner. They should have known better. Now the Senate Republicans are so split they cannot even look at each other in an elevator.
" No one can blame the younger Senators for what they did, for it was a noble thing. Senators McCain and Lindsay, being two faced and engaging in secret negotiations with an evil, corrupt President? What was your noble thing in this matter?"

 

Lindsey Graham’s very bad day on Twitter  "The episode was already not looking great for Graham before he rebutted Paul on Thursday. Graham and McCain were dining at the White House with Obama while Paul was filibustering, a contrast picked up early and often by many online."
h/t to Danny Shouse on Facebook

Angry McCain ups ante, calls Paul, Cruz 'wacko birds'. He also said in 2008 that we had nothing to fear from an Obama presidency. Feinstein agrees  Republicans should heed her advice on how to win elections.

Obama’s GOP Dinner Companions Defend Sit-Down with President
Obama will cheer anything that divides the GOP.

John McCain, American ‘Hero’  "John S. McCain III, the disastrous Republican 2008 candidate who suspended his presidential campaign and refused to take the fight to Barack Obama when he had the chance to actually do something for his country, has beclowned himself yet again:"...
How sad, because McCain is many times the man that Biden or Obama are. I'd say combined.

 

Old guard GOP in lock-step with Obama regime  "But right on cue, and even before the filibuster story could gain any media traction, old guard GOP leaders Senator John McCain and Lindsay Graham stepped up to do Obama's bidding by trying to discredit Senator Paul's attempt to expose Obama's lawless regime."

Rand’s Stand Shakes Up the 2016 Landscape  "Even if Paul’s meteoric 13-hour rise doesn’t materialize into a presidential run next time out, it could shape the dynamics of the race with sharpened expectations of a candidate to have the kind of chutzpah and conviction that attract a similar swath of cheering filibuster followers."

Jumping the shark? Thoughts on some sequester cuts as handled by a petulant, juvenile president

First define our terms; what does "jump the shark" mean?

Hopen'Change

"Yes, even though the president claims that there is no longer enough money for the government to staff the TSA, keep Navy vessels at sea, inspect meat for school lunches, forecast death-dealing weather events, pay to sweep the BS off the floors of Congress, or keep dangerous foreign felons in jail, Secret Service staffers are already booking accommodations and tee times for Mr. Obama's wildly expensive annual trip to Martha's Vineyard."
US News; Obama's Vineyard Vacation Will Cost Taxpayers Millions

Our Petty, Country-Be-Damned President  "Sometimes, the smallest things can be the most revealing.
"On Tuesday, the nation — or at least the part that’s still paying attention — learned that President Barack Obama’s administration, in what can only be seen as an incredibly petty and virulently vindictive response to spending “cuts” imposed by sequestration... decided to cancel all tours of the White House...  This and others from Lucianne; always a good source.

Strassel: Jumping the Sequester  "The phrase "jumping the shark" describes that gimmicky moment when something once considered significant is exposed as ludicrous. This is the week the White House jumped the sequester."

We've learned that the White House employs three calligraphers, who cumulatively earn $277,000 a year. The Environmental Protection Agency gave $141,000 to fund a Chinese study on swine manure. Part of a $325,000 National Science Foundation outlay went to building a robotic squirrel.

Obama's LOL sequester cuts: White House tours, then 60,000 border security agents  "So, in true petulant Chicago style the first thing the Obama administration cut was White House tours."....
"Late this week as a clever PR warning of how awful sequester is, Obama administration officials ostentatiously sent out notices of possible April furloughs, not for the White House's extra chefs, groundskeepers, the guy who walks Bo the dog or other federal non-essentials. They sent them out to 60,000 border security personnel." Andrew Malcolm at IBD

Krauthammer: Obama's Golf With Tiger Travel Expenses Would Pay for a Year of White House Tours

 

Living Large in the Obama White House   "....The current annual cost of the White House — just in household expenses, not the policy operations for which it exists — is $1.4 billion:....the first family’s yearly health-care costs are $7 million; more than $6 million is spent on the White House grounds each year. Transporting the president cost $346 million last year. But as Michelle Obama might say, America is basically a downright mean sort of place, so the tours will just have to go."

 

Life in the Obama years

Obama signs expanded Violence Against Women Act

Fox News "The revitalized Violence Against Women Act also marked an important win for gay rights advocates and Native Americans, who will see new protections under the law, and for Obama, whose attempts to push for a renewal failed last year after they became entangled in gender politics and the presidential election."
....
 "Sensing a political advantage, Senate Democrats offered an expanded law that specifically protects gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender Americans and gives tribal authorities the power to prosecute non-Indians for abuse committed on tribal lands. Republicans saw the move to load a popular bill with controversial elements as a provocation and objected to the Native American provisions on constitutional grounds. Democrats rejected a Republican alternative, arguing it didn't go far enough."

More on the Paul Filibuster

Shout out to Sen. Ron Wyden   "I will concede that Wyden is no grand champion of conservative causes. However, this act merits at least as much respect, if not more, than Paul’s.
"Why?"

JAWA thinks the Paul filibuster serves Obama's purposes  "It's simple: President Obama needs the controversy in order to make those opposed to him seem like they are crazy.
"In effect, by not answering Rand Paul's rather simple question he is creating another birther controversy. He's attempting to make the opposition out to be extremists, and a little off kilter."
Lindsey Graham thinks so as well. More here.
"I like and respect John McCain and Lindsey Graham but they really are out-of-touch." More here.   Dog-bites-man: MSNBC praises Graham-McCain

anntelnaes

Here Are All the GOP Senators That Participated in Rand Paul’s 12+ Hour Filibuster… and the Ones Who Didn’t  h/t to Danny Shouse of Facebook
"The Republican senators who participated in the filibuster with Paul include, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Pat Toomey (R-Penn.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Barrasso (R-Wy.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.),
Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)."
"There are a total of 47 Republican members of the U.S. Senate, meaning 33 other GOP senators sat out the filibuster protesting the federal government’s controversial drone program. To find out who those senators are, comb through the full list here."

Charles Krauthammer: Rand Paul’s Filibuster A Stroke of Political Genius; Should become National Figure after this  "Here is video of Charles Krauthammer on the “Special Report” panel last night where he said Sen. Rand Paul’s “Drone” Filibuster, that ended up last nearly 13-hours, was “a stroke of political genius.” Krauthammer said he believes this will be remembered as the moment that “launched Rand Paul as a National figure.”
"I think Krauthammer is right. My guess is there are a lot of Senators this morning thinking, “Why didn’t I do that?”"  H/T to Danny Shouse on Facebook

Ted Cruz And Rand Paul Introduce Bill To Ban Drone Killings Of American Citizens On U.S. Soil…  That's fine until we are fighting Al Qaeda in our streets.

Sen. Paul declares victory after Holder offers assurance on drones
"For 13 hours yesterday, we asked him that question, so there is a result and a victory. Under duress and under public humiliation, the White House will respond and do the right thing."
The letter in its entirety:

 

Watch for Rand Paul posts later today

We await more commentary on this and will draw from it as the day progresses. Meanwhile these should be sufficient.

Mr. Paul Goes to Washington  "It delayed, if not aborted, a terrible nominee's confirmation. Brennan should not assume directorship of the CIA, and a little sand in the gears of his confirmation is welcome."

His filibuster raises very important issues about citizenship.  "There are a few things about this debate worth considering. One is that we are too much focused on the instrument of these killings rather than on the moral and political context of them."

Unreal: Lindsey Graham Uses Poster On Senate Floor To Attack Rand Paul…