Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Truth in Pictures

Wow. Just wow. The New York Times finally publishes pictures of fetal remains from abortion, and describes where those images came from. About 35 yrs late, but I'll take it.

The images are graphic and horrible. After all these years of seeing images like this, it still makes me cry. So much we have lost. So many have suffered.

It is America's greatest shame.

Turning our back on Honduras makes no sense...

The Obama has completely backed former Honduran Pres. Zelaya's return to power, even though he was ousted in a perfectly legal way as stated in the Honduran constitution. Their Supreme court ousted him because he was illegally trying to change the constitution to extend his term in office, trying to become another Castro, dictator for life.

Not only has the White House backed Zelaya, It has revoked the U.S. travel visas of now President Micheletti, his government and private citizens. It’s frozen financial assistance to one of the poorest and friendliest U.S. allies in the region. And on top of all that, they are not supporting free elections set for November 29th, even though the elections will be monitored by international observers and overseen by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, whose impartiality and independence is respected and praised.

From NRO:

Senator Jim Demint writes in the Wall Street Journal about his factfinding visit to Honduras, where Zelaya — a thuggish would-be dictator who was trying to destroy the rule of law in his country — was ousted as president in a manner consistent with the Honduran constitution. The Obama administration — which couldn't roll over fast enough when Ahmadinejad had to steal the already-rigged Iranian "election" and the regime brutally jailed, tortured and killed dissenters — is playing hardball with Honduras (at least when it's not slapping Israel and the Dalai Lama around), demanding that the thug be restored to power. But, as Sen. Demint notes, "the only thorough examination of the facts to date—conducted by a senior analyst at the Law Library of Congress—confirms the legality and constitutionality of Mr. Zelaya's ouster.

So why is the administration bullying a poor, tiny, Western democracy?


Why indeed. It makes no sense. Zelaya wants to be re-instated before the November elections. Since he can't run again himself, why is this so important? We are talking about a month and a half, after all.


Isn't there a decent reporter how there that could get to the bottom of this?

Friday, October 09, 2009

Even the Left Is Bewildered

Even liberal sites are seeing this as ridiculous. From TalkLeft:

For reasons that are unfathomable, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:

President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. [. . .] [T]he Nobel Committee announced in Oslo that it has awarded the annual prize to the president “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The award cited in particular Mr. Obama’s effort to reduce the world’s nuclear arsenal.
Just because the Nobel Committee wants to make fools of themselves, Obama should not have to play along. He should turn it down.

Speaking for me only


Here are some tweets from LIBERALS:

RT @ezraklein Obama also awarded Nobel prize in chemistry. "He's just got great chemistry," says Nobel Committee.

RT @harrislacewell Because he cut a deal. "Ok guys give the Olympics to Rio, but I want the Nobel." #ReasonsBHOwonNPP

RT @harrislacewell @AdamSerwer I think my Pres is great but we r still in 2 wars & just bombed the freaking moon! Desmond Tutu he aint.

RT @dmataconis: Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest today for the actions that won her the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama is having waffles

RT @AdamSerwer RT @baratunde: "Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barack Obama Approved More Civilian-Killing Drones In Afghanistan Today"

RT @marclamonthill Ok, now I HAVE to to start my "overrated Black people" list. A NOBEL PRIZE? REALLY?

RT @marclamonthill Am I the only one who thinks that awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is ABSURD?!?!?!

Here I thought I would spend a depressing morning reading Obama gushing love and even the liberals think it's absurd. The tweets have been hilarious from both sides!

Update: Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but meet the people passed over for Obama:

Sima Samar, women's rights activist in Afghanistan: "With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women's Affairs."

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

"Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence."

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: "These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon."

"Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for 'inciting subversion of state power.'"

"Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States."

Pres. Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Even the White House was surprised.

Tevi Troy at NRO says it best:

I'm all for Americans winning international prizes, and especially the Nobel Peace Prize. I was also quite confident that Obama would win one as president, but I certainly didn't think he would win one so soon, with what Bloomberg calls "no concrete achievement to his credit." Similarly, Reuters describes Obama as "a president less than nine months into his first term, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success," adding that the award "came as a big surprise . . . "

One of the good things about the Nobel, especially in science and literature, but also the Peace Prize, is that they are about achievement, not promise. Even when the awards have been extremely problematic — recall Yasser Arafat — the recipients have done something, for good or for ill.


It is strange that they would give this prize out to someone for what they HOPE to do, instead of what they have actually achieved. In fact, as Allahpundit at HotAir points out, in international relations and war Obama hasn't changed much from the Bush policies:

Regarding that alleged “new climate in international politics,” which aspects of Obama’s foreign policy thus far are any different from Bush’s? He’s increased troop levels (slightly) in Afghanistan, he’s kept up the drone attacks on Al Qaeda and the Taliban, he’s broken his promise to close Gitmo by January, he’s approved “rendition lite” and indefinite detention without trial for some terrorist suspects, and he’s let himself be jerked around in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

All that being said, it is a good thing for America that our President has won this. I truly hope that he lives up to his efforts and forges peace. It is, in the end, what we all want.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Looking For The Racists!



This is hilarious. It shows the complete absurdity of the leftwing meme that tea party goers are racist. I just love Kevin Jackson of TheBlackSphere!

A Rookie Mistake

Ed at HotAir gives us a summary of this scathing WaPo story about how Obama was and is in over his head with the Afghan war and how to fight it:

For two years, Obama campaigned on changing the strategy in Afghanistan to a more effective counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy, claiming that the Bush administration had dropped the ball in the Af-Pak theater in large part by not committing the resources needed for an effective battle plan (an assessment shared by John McCain). On taking office, Obama quickly increased troop levels in Afghanistan and appointed COIN strategist Gen. Stanley McChrystal to lead the mission.

However, the Post reports that Obama and his team never understood the implications of his demand for the new strategy. McChrystal’s assessment of the needs for his COIN plan sent them into “sticker shock,” according to one Post source in the White House.


After two years of campaigning on this new strategy and eight months of ordering it as Commander in Chief, Barack Obama now has to make up his mind what he meant? It was the single most important issue on the war during the general campaign, thanks to the sharp improvement in Iraq that Obama predicted would never happen. He had hundreds of military officers and foreign-policy experts advising him on this issue — and none of them apparently ever taught the young candidate what COIN actually entailed.


I think we can rest assured that John McCain would not have made this mistake. We elect a rookie, a rookie is what we get.

And this may explain why our soldiers in Afghanistan are depressed and disillusioned.

You Gotta Love Michele Bachmann

Great interview about why strong conservative women drive the left crazy. Bachmann said it best when she said, "“It may bother them that conservative women are happy and don’t need government in order to be successful in life,” Bachmann said. “I have a great husband, great kids. I had a great career as a federal tax attorney and I don’t need government to be successful. And it seems like they have a stereotype for women and I do not fit in their stereotype.”




“You are a pretty interesting politician, congresswoman,” O’Reilly said. “You are second to Sarah Palin in far-left angst. You know, Sarah Palin leads the league, no doubt. But they’re after you now. We hear it all the time, you know Michele Bachmann, she is this and she is that. How did you get into that wheelhouse?”

Bachmann without naming the network, laid the blame on MSNBC.

“You know, it is an interesting phenomenon,” Bachmann said. “I think it happened with a competing cable network that took an interest in me and it has only grown. So now, it’s almost like I have personal stalkers, only they have TV shows.”

O’Reilly pressed on, asking if the negative attention bothered her (the Minnesota congresswoman told the Culture & Media Institute days before that it didn’t).

“Does it bother you that NBC News is using its cable arm to make your life difficult? Does that bother you?” O’Reilly asked.

“You know, not really,” Bachmann replied. “I grew up with three brothers and that is the best preparation for politics anyone could possibly have. I am just here doing my job, working on behalf of the people of Minnesota and it’s great to be able to get my message out. And if I get under people’s skin, so be it.

“OK, but why -- why are you getting under their skin?” O’Reilly asked. “I mean, you seem like a nice woman. We had you at the correspondents’ dinner as a guest at our table. You did not throw spaghetti on anyone. You did not use any bad language … to me you are a conservative Republican from an upper Midwestern state who speaks her mind articulately and does her job. Why are they coming after you? I do not get it.”

Bachmann believed that just being a successful conservative woman was enough.

“It may bother them that conservative women are happy and don’t need government in order to be successful in life,” Bachmann said. “I have a great husband, great kids. I had a great career as a federal tax attorney and I don’t need government to be successful. And it seems like they have a stereotype for women and I do not fit in their stereotype.”

However, O’Reilly had his own theory.

“You think it – and this is an off-the-wall question – it is just something that occurred to me,” O’Reilly said. “Both you and Sarah Palin are good-looking women. I mean, you are attractive, relatively young women, who other women can identify with. You are a mom, you are a wife. You had a private-sector job. I think that’s it. I think that the success of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann drives the far left crazy because you don’t fit – they don’t like what you believe in, but you can attract others to listen to you. I think that’s what’s going on.”

Bachmann said that does indeed make her a threat – especially when it comes to going head-to-head with Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

“Well, and if we pull away votes from them, especially in a block, a woman block, a middle American woman block, that makes them very upset about that,” Bachmann said. “And so consequently, I’m public enemy number one for Speaker Pelosi.”

via CMI



Sarah proven right...again

I didn't want to comment on the Letterman scandal because it has nothing to do with politics until I read that the National Organization of Women has criticized him for promoting a hostile work environment. Gee, I wonder where they were during the Lewinsky scandal?

This got me to thinking about how Palin managed to get a hugely popular late night show comedian to apologize to her TWICE for jokes he made about her daughters. Sometimes Karma is a b*tch. Now it seems clear that Sarah was right when she said you wouldn't want your daughter around Letterman.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Emotional Adoption

The recent murder and violence in Chicago got me to thinking about what could possibly be the solutions to inner city gangs and violence? How can we turn this around?

There is no doubt in my mind that liberal policies have led us to this vicious cycle of poverty and dependency, where men are pushed out of the picture as government becomes the "daddy." So solutions have to be far away from that.

The young men who were in involved in the killing of that honor student will have, and probably already have, children. They will go to prison, if not now, then later for some other crime. That is almost a given. Then, once again, their children will have no father. The cycle continues.

It has to end with those children. How?

Whatever happened to The Promise Keepers or The Million Man March? Where are those men who promised better things? Could someone call them with my idea?

This is my idea. Emotional adoption.

It's time for the good men in our society to step up to the plate and mentor and be father figures to these children. White, black, or hispanic. It doesn't matter. Your color doesn't matter. What matters is your commitment.

Leave the legal stuff out of it. Let this be taking a man at his word. Let these good men "emotionally" adopt a child with no father in his life. The man would promise to be there emotionally for that child until he is grown. That means spending time with him. Helping with school, taking him to ballgames, taking him to church, letting the child know that you care.

More than a "Big Brother" program, this would take a firm commitment for a lifetime.

The thing about this idea is that I know that the men involved would get more out of it than the child. A child gives us so much more than we give them. They fill our world with things we never imagined.

This would be a win/win. Emotional adoption. It wouldn't be easy. But it would be cheap. Jesse Jackson? Al Sharpton? Anyone? Take my idea and run with it. You guys want to change the world, right?

I can think of no better way.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Good Grief!


No matter what the issue, healthcare or othewise, it's still all about theatre. Obama makes sure everyone has their costumes.

CNN Fact Checks SNL

Can one even imagine CNN fact checking any of the skits SNL on President Bush or Sarah Palin?? Heaven forbid SNL finally make fun of President Obama. CNN couldn't help themselves. They actually fact checked the jokes.




crossposted at Newsbusters

Monday, October 05, 2009

The Decision on Afghanistan

The Obama administration isn't too happy with General McChrystal's recent remarks on Afghanistan. I suppose the General is tired of not being listened to.

In London the General said that he "flatly rejected proposals to switch to a strategy more reliant on drone missile strikes and special forces operations against al-Qaeda.

He told the Institute of International and Strategic Studies that the formula, which is favoured by Vice-President Joe Biden, would lead to "Chaos-istan".

When asked whether he would support it, he said: "The short answer is: No."

He went on to say: "Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support."


So Pres. Obama finds himself in a bad position that may get worse. I've said recently that we need to bring our boys home until we get a President who is interested only in winning. Now Obama is basically going to have to decide whether to listen to the General there on the ground or Joe Biden on strategy.

This decision will tell us whether Obama is a serious President or a naive one.

I think we know the answer to that one.

I would be very happy to be wrong though.

Sunday, October 04, 2009



via GOC

Oops!

We are all used to politicians elaborating a bit on stories (Joe Biden is the king of this), but who would have guessed that Michelle Obama would manage such an embarrassing display:

From Michelle Obama’s failed pitch to the International Olympic Committee:

“Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad’s lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis, and others for their brilliance and perfection.”

Um. Ew. Oof.

Mrs. Obama was 20 years old when Lewis first competed in the Olympics in 1984.

Good grief. How hard would that have been to check? It's simple math.

I don't know about you, but I miss Laura Bush.

It's Not Working Out For The Left Either

This week's Saturday Night live skit on Obama a is making the rounds, not because it's that funny (It's ok), but because they are FINALLY making fun of Obama and not in a backhanded way.

The skit basically makes fun of Obama in not accomplishing anything in his first year. But the interesting thing about the checklist is that it's all leftwing stuff. Let's face it, none of us in the center, center right, or far right expected anything out of Obama except for things that we would have to fight against (and we are). But what is illustrated in this skit is that the left is getting nothing that it expected, and this is with all the power on Obama's side.

As The Corner at NRO points out, even Frank Rich, the NYT lefty columnist has about had it with Obama for different reasons:

Obama’s promise to make Americans trust the government again was not just another campaign bullet point; it’s the foundation of his brand of governance and essential to his success in office. At the first anniversary of the TARP bailout of the banks, we can see how far he has to go. Americans’ continued suspicion that Washington is in cahoots with powerful interests in joints like Tosca is contributing to their confusion and skepticism about what’s happening out of view in the battle over health care reform.

The public is not wrong. The administration’s legislative deals with the pharmaceutical companies were made in back rooms. Business Week reported in early August that the UnitedHealth Group and its fellow insurance giants had already quietly rounded up moderate Democrats in the House to block any public health care option that would compete with them for business. UnitedHealth’s hired Beltway gunslingers include both Elmendorf Strategies and Daschle, a public supporter of the public option who nonetheless does some of his “wink, wink” counseling for UnitedHealth. The company’s in-house lobbyist is a former chief of staff to Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader. Gephardt consults there too.

The checklist given in the SNL skit is good news for us on the right (and for the country actually). I say to Pres. Obama, "keep doing jack squat" and maybe things won't go from bad to worse.

We can only "hope."