From Powerline:
Iran isn’t going to ship its uranium – it wants France to ship enriched uranium to Iran, while Iran holds on to its current uranium stockpile, presumptively so that Iran can have both a civil and military nuclear program. Meanwhile, Iran’s government is telling its people that the United States has agreed to Iran’s continuing nuclear program.
This is the most monumentally obtuse government, ever. Next to Obama, Chamberlain looks like a brilliant negotiator.
Get a group of cops and soldiers who say they will obey their oath to defend the Constitution and the MSM and the left immediately see racists and Oklahoma City bombings:
…Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution.
More specifically, the group’s members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming “giant concentration camps,” a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years…
…”The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here,” Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal…
…That type of rhetoric has caught the attention of groups that track extremist activity in the United States.
In a July report titled “Return of the Militias,” the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center singled out Oath Keepers as “a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival.”…
“Patriot” is liberalspeak for “racist”, by the way. Rhodes denounces racism and does not advocate armed resistance. All his group is doing is urging police and soldiers (active and retired) to refuse to obey any unlawful order – especially any order to suppress the American people. Not to open fire, but to merely stand down and refuse to obey – and Rhodes is trying to get together a legal defense fund to help any officer or soldier who does decide that an order should not be obeyed.
Hardly the stuff of racist hate-crimes, but you can’t tell that to the left – anyone who for any reason opposes anything Obama does or might do is a racist, a hate-monger and a guy just an inch away from blowing up a federal building.
The plain fact of the matter is that all of us who have worn our nation’s uniform have taken the oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. While our enlistments had an end date, the oath doesn’t. When I said, “so help me God” on that oath, I promised God that I would do just that – defend the Constitution against all enemies for the rest of my natural life. If I fail to do so, I’m breaking an oath – I would be breaking my word to God. Not going to do that.
What will come of all this? Almost certainly nothing – unless the left tries to use the powers of the federal government to suppress the right in the name of fighting “hate”.
The White House is calling on other news organizations to isolate and alienate Fox News as it sends out top advisers to rail against the cable channel as a Republican Party mouthpiece…
…White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN on Sunday that President Obama does not want “the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox.”
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is “not a news organization.”
“Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way,” Axelrod counseled ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “We’re not going to treat them that way.” …
…The White House stopped providing guests to “Fox News Sunday” after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August.
Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was “something I’ve never seen a Sunday show do.”
Perhaps, Ms, Dunn, if you and the rest of the merry band of Obamaniacs wouldn’t lie at every opportunity, there would be less need to fact check you? Maybe if, say, you had told the truth about what you said vis a vis Mao we’d have a bit more trust in your words? I dunno – call me strange, if you like, but some how or another, people who tell the truth tend to be trusted…
Anyways…
This is the most clear and alarming bit of liberal fascism we’ve seen out of the Obama Administration – they are trying to get the rest of the MSM to turn on Fox. The implied threat: if you don’t, you’ll lose access, too. And we’ve seen the lengths to which outfits like CNN will go to maintain access – they shilled for Saddam’s regime in order to keep access in Baghdad…what will they do in DC to maintain it there? There is a hope – slight though it is – that the MSM will awaken in horror to what is happening. This is an attempt by Obama to put the MSM entirely and directly under his control – to make it a mere tool for his propaganda.
Any MSMer who has a shred of self-respect will reject this out of hand…we’ll see how many there are.
UPDATE: And some are showing a bit of courage – heck, when our Crazy Aunt in the Attic is coming down against Obama, you know they’ve screwed up.
Lorraine Hunt-Bono over at Nevada News and Views explains:
Politicians would better serve the public in areas of fiscal policy if they owned and operated a small business before they ran for political office. Budgeting, prioritizing, and fiscal discipline would then be familiar to them. As an example, I would like to share a story with you:
In 1988, former United States Senator, George McGovern, the Democratic presidential nominee against Richard Nixon in 1972, decided to fulfill a lifelong dream- he purchased the Stratford Inn, a quaint bed-and-breakfast in Connecticut. Two years later, the hotel went out of business. In a subsequent article in the Wall Street Journal, Senator McGovern humbly admitted the well-intentioned laws he aggressively supported in Congress were the same laws that put him out of business, into bankruptcy, and his employees out a job. “Regrettably,” he said, “I should have been a businessman first and a congressman second.”
As we strive to make this a better country for our children and grandchildren, let us get back to basics and appreciate what made “America the Beautiful” so wonderful- freedom and opportunity for all, rights with responsibilities, and limited government intervention in our personal lives and in our businesses. Let’s not change that.
Its hard to find Obama Administration people who have even spent significant time in the private sector, let alone any who have run a small business (are there any such?) – and those who worked in the private sector seem to have been heavily concentrated in big corporations…the very same corporations which have helped Big Government run the economy in to the ground. They simply don’t know – but, per Obama, they’re going to spread that wealth right around…whatever is left of it after Obama has paid off his cronies.
From NRO’s The Corner:
To be more precise, the iconic Obama HOPE poster/T-shirt was, as the AP charged, created by an artist who stole a copyrighted AP photo image. The case has gone on as long as it did because Shepard Fairey, the artist, lied about which photo he used for the picture, and destroyed the evidence. His pro-bono attorneys, who are members of Stanford Law School’s “Fair Use” project, dropped the case when it became clear that it was based on a fabric of lies. (Honest lawyer alert!)
Sorry be this obvious, and hit NRO readers over the head with such a big, fat, ripe metaphor, but there you are: Hope based on lies and theft — the Obama political brand in a nutshell.
And that is the truth – never in the course of human events has a government been based on quite so much mythology as Obama’s Administration. That, in fact, he’s pretty much a zero who lucked out is hidden under a blizzard fabrications and Hollywood hype – as I said a while back ago, Obama won because he was, in 2008, the “Unknown Democrat” who always polls better than the known GOPer. His handlers managed to keep the truth about Obama under wraps until he was safely elected – dodging a series of revelations which would have been career-ending, save for the fact that Obama had the most glowing, sycophantic press seen this side of a totalitarian dictatorship.
But the truth is coming out, now, and thus it is somehow very appropriate that the iconic poster is shown to be based on lies and theft…
Mark Steyn notes something we’ve seen here and everywhere – the assertion that, some how, Rush, Beck et al are just doing what they do for a paycheck and can’t really believe their own statements:
Our old friend David Frum has been doing his best for moderate conservatism with a broader appeal – the so-called “big tent”. If the tent seems bigger, that’s because he’s kicking so many people out of it. Each to his own. But his latest offering is unworthy of him – “Do Limbaugh And Beck Believe What They Say?”
Yes of course Limbaugh and Beck express the same views in private as in public. Consistent hypocrisy demands exorbitant levels of imagination, energy, and cynicism. Much less exhausting over time simply to bring your private views into alignment with what you are paid to say in public.
“What you are paid to say in public”? By whom? Rush and Glenn are both self-owned brands who license themselves to multiple clients in radio, TV, publishing, etc.
The assumption of bad faith is the first refuge of the lazy leftist: “Why, my position is so obviously the only rational one that yours can only be an act! You cannot possibly believe what you say about climate change/health care/Islamic terrorism! Clearly it can only be explained by the check from your puppetmaster!” Sad to see David Frum buying into this:
Suppose an agent arrived in the offices of Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity/O’Reilly etc. with an offer. “I can guarantee you a deal that will pay you twice as much – bring you twice as much fame – and extend your career twice as long – if you’d say the exact opposite of what you are saying now.” Which of them would sign?
My nominations: O’Reilly accepts for sure. Beck likewise almost certainly says yes…
Most of the big-time talkers have been entirely consistent in their political views since their first gig babbling away for 200 bucks a week on WZZZ-AM at two in the morning. By contrast, there would seem to be more discernible evolution in political outlook among, say, certain long-time writers for the conservative press who then find themselves offered a weekly column in The New York Times.
If Matt and I wanted to make a quick buck, all we’d have to do is – over a few month period – slowly shift our blogging to support for Obama and the left. All of a sudden we wouldn’t be hate-mongers shilling for Corporate America…we’d be wise, genuine conservatives whom the rest of the GOP should emulate. All we’d have to do to get this is lie – just pretend we’re coming ’round, and the left would start writing us checks out of one of Soros’ many accounts. But, we don’t – because we believe what we write. And Rush, etc believe what they say.
We don’t do this for money – we do it because we love it; we love America – we love defending America, and we love defending conservative ideals because they are the foundation stones of the America we love. Rush and Beck have found a way to do what they love and get paid a lot of money at the same time – I’d love to do that, too. But if I never make a dime at it, I’ll still keep plugging away, defending my views until the day I die. There isn’t enough money in the world to get me to alter my views for pay – because it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul.
So, liberals, no: we’re not kidding. This is what we really believe. We believe in God, faith, family, country – we’re fighting for what we believe in and this means that we believe you are wrong. That with your whole force of MSM, entertainment, government and leftist pressure groups, you still haven’t convinced us. We believe you are pinheads who couldn’t find the balls on bull if given three chances at it. So, no, don’t expect us to ever stop – we’re going to keep coming right at you, until we’ve vanquished you for good.
Earl Henry Sholley – his website.
Now, Sholley probably has one of the hardest tasks imaginable – getting rid of a corrupt, entrenched Democrat in a very Democratic district. He’ll need a lot of help. So, what are you waiting for? Help out.
Victor Davis Hanson goes down the list of modern “culture” and why he’s no longer interested – and concludes, in part:
…As I have dropped out of contemporary American culture and retreated inside some sort of 1950s time-warp, in a strange fashion of compensation for non-participation , I have tried to remain more engaged than ever in the country’s political and military crises, which are acute and growing. One’s distancing from the popular culture of movies, TV, newspapers, and establishment culture makes one perhaps wish to overcompensate in other directions, from the trivial to the important.
Lately more than ever I try to obey the speed limit, overpay my taxes, pay more estimates and withholding than I need, pay all the property taxes at once, pick up trash I see on the sidewalk, try to be overly polite to strangers in line, always stop on the freeway when I see an elderly person or single woman with a flat, leave 20% tips, let cars cut me off in the parking lot (not in my youth, not for a second), and patronize as many of Selma’s small businesses as I can (from the hardware store to insurance to cars). I don’t necessarily do that out of any sense of personal ethics, but rather because in these increasingly crass and lawless times, we all have to try something, even symbolically, to restore some common thread to the frayed veneer of American civilization, to balance the rips from a Letterman attack on Palin’s 14-year-old daughter or a Serena Williams’s threat to a line judge, or the President’s communication director’s praise of Mao, civilization’s most lethal mass murderer, or all of what I described above.
I don’t fathom the attraction of a Kanye West (I know that name after his outburst), a David Letterman, Van Jones, Michael Moore (all parasitic on the very culture they mock), or the New York Review of Books or People Magazine (they seem about the same in their world view). So goodbye to all that…
Yeah, I’m like that, too. It started for me, in a serious way, when I returned to Christianity. As I go through the grocery store check out and see the tabloid headlines about celebrity scandal, I often haven’t the foggiest notion of who’s on the front page. I do still watch my Chargers, but after the way the NFL has treated Rush, I’m a lot less enthused than I used to be – meanwhile, baseball and basketball are not on my agenda. As for popular music – I’ve gone way past retreating to the music of my youth: often its Mozart or Bach on the CD player, and thank God for their talents! Movies are usually horrible, in my view: either too much sex or too much violence or too much phony, liberal preaching.
Additionally, I do find myself not speeding, giving larger tips, being more willing to help and be patient…and as I read that from Hanson, I guess I got the same feeling he did when he was thinking it over: aren’t there more and more like this, all the time? Have any of you withdrawn from our nauseating culture and re-connected with civilization? To me, a lie has become a horror, the merest hint of marital infidelity a hideous crime, the smallest malfeasance cause for grave soul-searching, the least manifestation of impatience with others a monstrous cruelty. Why on earth would anyone do such things? I can’t watch people destroy themselves and giggle about it – I’m sure they giggled in Rome about how the gladiators died, or about the latest scandal out of the Imperial Palace…people sick in their souls, degraded by a depraved culture.
Life is too serious for anyone to pay attention to pop-culture. Life is also too fun to be bogged down in the voyeurism and scandal-mongering which is the grist for our pop-culture mill. So, yes, indeed – goodbye to all that.
Video of Karl Rove on Obama and his “Enemies List” and Chicago style politics.
Its a really bad Administration we’ve got here, boys and girls…all that is missing is the paranoia, and that is lurking just below the surface.
Interesting, to say the least:
White House military and defense advisers will meet again this and next week to discuss a proposed troop increase for Afghanistan, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Sunday…
…”We would love the luxury of this debate to be reduced down to just one question — additional troops, 40,000,” Emanuel told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “This is a much more complex decision.”
“The question, though… does not come [down to] how many troops you send, but do you have a credible Afghan partner for this process that can provide the security and the type of services that the Afghan people need?” the chief of staff added. (emphasis added)
The issue here being the very credible stories of voter fraud in the recent Afghan Presidential election. What Emanuel is saying – or, at least, what he’s running up the flag pole – is the concept that while Obama would like very much to provide the requested military reinforcements, since there is questions about the government’s legitimacy, we simply can’t do it though we’ll continue to work with Afghan leaders to bring about a peaceful resolution and let no one think this means we’re giving up on al Qaeda as the full power of American law enforcement will be mobilized to bring them to justice, if we can get an indictment… Its a soft scuttle – a pretense that our hands are tied and we’re doing as much as we can, and its too bad that the Taliban are back in Kabul. If this goes through, I’ll expect that the CIA will suddenly decide that bin Laden died in the Tora Bora in 2001, thus getting Obama off the hook for that, too.
This sort of cowardly dodge is being seconded – most notably by Sen. John “I was in Cambodia” Kerry. Make no mistake about it, the Powers That Be in the Democrat leadership are looking for a way out of Afghanistan which doesn’t too badly damage their national security credentials. They might not be able to finesse this and end up forced to send the troops, but the preferred option does seem to be to get out – and get out far enough in advance of the 2012 elections that, hopefully, the American people will not care about it when voting time arrives.
The truth of the matter is that the Afghan government is horribly flawed – but we’re not there for the Afghan government, but for the people of Afghanistan, and the people of the world. Certainly, we must help the Afghan government overcome corruption and build a credible military force, but our moral responsibility is to the safety and liberty of the Afghan people, not to whomever happens to be running the show in Kabul. If we fail in this – if we use the excuse of government corruption to justify abandonment of the Afghan people – then we will have placed a mark of shame on our nation second only to that we acquired when we abandoned South Vietnam.
