Abu Wabu

On the morning of September 11, 2001 a business associate called me from his home in Wisconsin and asked me if I was watching the TV. I replied that I hadn't even gotten up yet, what with being on the west coast two time zones behind him.

"Well get up and turn it on" he said, "looks like we're at war. Not sure with whom just yet but I guess we'll find out soon enough." He told me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center and it seemed intentional from the latest reports. We talked for another few minutes before we said goodbye and I began wondering if I should keep my son home from school.

As I watched the first tower being consumed in an inferno live on CNN, another plane slammed into the second tower at 500 miles per hour.

3,650 days have passed since then. It has been an unimaginable ordeal for countless and mostly unheralded heroes from that day on, and the fight continues against the animals who struck that day.

And now I pray for Western civilization every day.

So sayeth right-wing nutjob liar SarahPAC spokesman Tim Crawford:

The thousands upon thousands of e-mails released today show a very engaged Governor Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state. The e-mails detail a Governor hard at work. Everyone should read them.

This is happening because the Washington political elite is terrified of what this woman would do as president, because she's already successfully done it at the state level, and that is to give government back to the people.

So go ahead and dig through those emails, folks. Can't wait to read them.

Via Power Line:
President Obama Makes War on American Intelligence Professionals

Holder's politically-motivated "investigation" has now been going on for over two years. The CIA employees who tried to defend their country, strictly following the advice they were given by Holder's own Department of Justice, are left wondering whether they will face criminal prosecution. This is an absolute outrage, and it is Barack Obama's fault. If he doesn't think that federal employees should go to jail for defending this country to the best of their abilities, consistent with the legal advice they were given by the Department of Justice, he should get a new Attorney General. Since he hasn't done so, we can only conclude that Obama is deliberately making war on America's intelligence community.

President Obama "Declares War on American Energy Workers"

All presidents deal with tough circumstances; it is the nature of the job. But we expect them to try, at least, to make things better for the United States and its citizens. When a president favors Brazilian workers over American workers, and puts American taxpayers' dollars behind that preference, what are we to conclude?

Via National Review Online:
President Obama's Stealth War On Israel

The continuing influence of Obama’s pro-Palestinian sentiments is the best way to make sense of the president’s recent tilt away from Israel. This is why supporters of Israel should fear Obama’s reelection. In 2013, with his political vulnerability a thing of the past, Obama’s pro-Palestinian sympathies would be released from hibernation, leaving Israel without support from its indispensable American defender.

President Obama's War On The Rule Of Law

Punishing enemies and rewarding friends — politics Chicago style — seems to be the unifying principle that helps explain the Obamacare waivers, the NLRB action against Boeing, and the IRS’s gift-tax assault on 501(c)(4) donors.

They look like examples of crony capitalism, bailout favoritism, and gangster government.

And they don’t look like the rule of law.

Via The Greely Gazette:
President Obama's Stealth War On The Second Amendment

On March 30, the 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Jim Brady, who sustained a debilitating head wound in the attack, and his wife, Sarah, came to Capitol Hill to push for a ban on the controversial “large magazines.” Brady, for whom the law requiring background checks on handgun purchasers is named, then met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said.

“I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu electrified Congress with this eloquent speech in which he makes the overwhelming case for Israel against the savages surrounding it. A crucial point:

"Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel's Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights. Now, I want you to stop for a second and think about that. Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one-half of 1 percent are truly free and they're all citizens of Israel. This startling fact reveals a basic truth: Israel is not what is wrong with about the Middle East; Israel is what is right about the Middle East."

Having watched it live on Fox, I agree with Scott Johnson's evaluation; this was a great, Churchillian speech. Rush liked it too:

Throughout this speech I kept shouting at the TV, "Run, Bibi, run!" He-he-he. We can find a birth certificate for you somewhere, Philadelphia, Hawaii, or what have you. He spoke without a prompter. He's got some notes. He leans on the podium. What we're hearing, what you see, here is somebody who's very at home behind the microphone. He's entirely comfortable. It's easy when you actually believe what you are saying. ...

There are a lot of things in this speech. It went on for about 45 minutes, and I really do not want to try to paraphrase or repeat it. You really have to hear this speech as given.

It's a lesson in commitment. It is a lesson in confidence. It is a lesson in statecraft and leadership. This was an epic, epic speech. It was a lesson for Republicans in dealing with President Obama, even though all Netanyahu did was praise President Obama today. That's all he did. There was nothing partisan in the speech whatsoever other than his obvious love and support for his nation of Israel. But it was filled with humor, it was filled with goose bump seriousness. It ran the emotional gamut, it ran the intellectual gamut. The timing was flawless. Just a fabulous speech. The lesson that is there for people is to say what you mean, to say it confidently, to be fearless, and don't feel the need to excuse what you think or make excuses for how you feel.

Context: Obama Lied, AIPAC Died

Oh dear, this is embarrassing.

First Netanyahu puts President Obama a series of primers, including that face to face history lesson on live TV around the world; then Obama embarrasses himself twice on the same day at Buckingham Palace, the second of which plays out here:




America: This is your President?

“[I]f they had to return fire to get out, they were authorized to do it.”

Wow. It's almost as if Obama gave SEAL Team 6 permission to do their jobs.

Via Ace, The Real USNA Commandant's Speech.

How Jack Layton Exploits Women

I love freedom of speech. More here:

E-Jack-U-Layton: NDP Leader Caught in Bawdy House Years Ago

Oh but don't worry: the NDP are the champions of Wymens' Rights!

Ohio Governor and good guy John Kasich brushes Opey back with this high hard one:


Just so we know who's got game.

Via SDA

Instapundit's roundup.

Via The Other McCain comes images of leftist stupidity at an Allen West town hall, courtesy of some harpy who once had a cup of coffee at Air Ameriduh, every Frankensniffer's fave spot on the old dial.

From the Horse's Ass In Chief.

True dat.

I understand Greta's presumption to offer Rep. West a "do-over", but she has to realize that Obama has taken the game way beyond that now, thanks to his latest act as a trash-talkin' campaign-walkin' class-dividin' Don.

Meanwhile, Allen West has Obama's number and he's running right at him:


HT Gateway Pundit!

Notice the contrast from the previous post. Conservatives can rest our case on this.



Via The Right Scoop

And he nails it, proving even evil conservatives (and really, what other kinds are there?) can be "straight-talking, amiable, bright, and level-headed."
HT Kate at small dead animals.

Once again Obama let slip his contempt for the average American who is just trying to get by under the weight of His endlessly disastrous mismanagement, telling a father of ten at a town hall that if he can't afford $4-a-gallon gasoline, well, jeez, maybe it's time to wise up and trade in that gas guzzler. You can hear the disdain in his answer:

“If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know,” Obama said laughingly. “You might want to think about a trade-in.”

In other words, if you don't have the money to buy the gasoline you need, then go buy a new car. Which, when you think about it, pretty much sums up His approach to the economy.

There is a subtext here as well that is worth noting, and that is the AP's initial reportage, which they subsequently completely scrubbed from their site in order to protect their Hero. Here is the screen cap from Instapundit:

Here's the vid, on the off chance you can stand listening to this walking disaster area for even one more second:

Can't wait to see the clip in a Republican campaign ad.

Jackass, meet jackhammer ubercitizen Ann Barnhardt:





Via The Right Scoop

Writing in NRO, the author of Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism writes that "knowing what [National Security advisor] Samantha Power wants reveals a great deal about Barack Obama." Toward that end, he reveals the true thinking behind a so-called "humanitarian intervention" mission that on the surface appears to be pure folly.

Knowing what Samantha Power wants reveals a great deal about Barack Obama’s own ideological commitments. It’s not just a question of whether he shares Power’s long-term internationalist goals, although it’s highly likely that he does. Power’s thinking also represents a bridge of sorts between Obama’s domestic- and foreign-policy aspirations. Beyond that, Power embodies a style of pragmatic radicalism that Obama shares. Both Obama and Power are skilled at placing their ultimate ideological goals just out of sight, behind a screen of practical problem-solving...

Obama may not have been completely frank about the broader ideological goals behind this intervention, and yet the president’s address to the nation, as far as it went, was largely accurate. Fundamentally, our Libyan operation is a humanitarian action, with no clear or inevitable military-strategic purpose beyond that. There is enormous risk here, and no endgame. We might take strategic advantage of our restricted humanitarian action. But we might not, and, in any case, we are under no obligation to do so. For all we know, many of those we’re defending with American aircraft and missiles could be our dedicated terrorist enemies. From the standpoint of traditional calculations of national interest, this war is something akin to madness. Yet without fully articulating it (and that reticence is intentional), Obama and Power are attempting to accustom us to a whole new way of thinking about war, and about America’s place in the world...

Samantha Power has a lot to teach us about Barack Obama. She herself draws analogies between the need to redistribute wealth via health-care coverage and the need to divide military and diplomatic power (and, implicitly, wealth) more evenly through the international system. Power regularly invokes arguments for international law derived from America’s Founders and the West’s great liberal thinkers, as if her goal were the founding of a government of the world. In truth, that is what Power is up to, even if she sees her project as a long-term collective effort necessarily extending beyond her own lifetime.

The novel doctrine of “responsibility to protect,” which Power means the Libyan action to enshrine in international law, could someday be used to justify military intervention to impose a “two-state solution” on Israel (apparently this is one of Power’s longstanding goals, although she now disavows it). The International Criminal Court, which Power has long defended, may someday enable the leftist Europeans who run it to place American soldiers and politicians on trial for supposed war crimes. The Obama administration’s troubling acquiescence in the development of sweeping international prohibitions on “aggression” may one day make virtually any use of force not pre-approved by the United Nations subject to international sanctions. These are the long-term goals of Power’s policies, although they are seldom confessed or discussed.

Read the rest here: Samantha Power's Power

Dick Cheney dying is funny to Mika. Boy, do Bernstein, Scarborough and the smiley sisters look increasingly uncomfortable as Mika burns down here. Delaayshus, dahlings:

Scott Johnson tells why "the South African jurist Richard Goldstone is a fool and a knave."

He lent his name to a lengthy report issued under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The report accused Israel of massive war crimes in the war Israel waged against Hamas in 2008-2009, commenced by Israel after Hamas and friends had fired more than 12,000 rockets at Israel (every one of which was criminal).

Johnson evokes the comments of John Podhoretz:

That Richard Goldstone did not know in 2009 that Hamas is a terrorist monstrosity which functions parasitically off civilian populaces while Israel is a beacon of war-fighting restraint in a manner practically unknown in the course of human history suggests even more plainly than the report itself that he is a dupe, a fool, a clown, and a worldwide embarrassment. Not to mention a special kind of reprehensible and appalling figure of inglorious, hideous shame to his own people through the delivery and promulgation of a false document that helped anti-Semites everywhere feel themselves justified.

He was then, and is now, an entirely despicable public figure--and so is his op-ed, by the way, which continues to act as though it is appropriate to draw parallel inferences about Hamas and the state of Israel. It would be right for world Jewry that his name be hereafter summoned as we summon Benedict Arnold's, or Tokyo Rose's.

Jonathan Tobin, Ron Radosh, Jeffrey Goldberg and Melanie Philips also figure, as does Peter Berkowitz. Read it all.

I have a question for Power Line's John Hinderaker: If the Obama administration "are taking exactly the actions that one would choose if one were trying to damage the economy," how can you conclude they are not "actually trying to hurt our economy"? It's akin to reading your post and concluding that you can't possibly be letting Obama off the hook since it looks like you are. Jeez.

The definitive idiot argument comes at 3:41: