The last word on Obama from VDH

To those who bother to become informed on the subject, Obama will go down in history as the Great Prevaricator.  It goes without saying that all politicians, and therefore presidents, change their minds about some issues when they gain office (GHB -- "read my lips. no new taxes"), but Obama has proven that in the conduct of foreign affairs to be a serial liar of major proportions.  Recollecting the most recent presidential campaign, in the primaries Obama ran as the most anti war of all Democrat Party candidates and defeated Hillary Clinton in no small measure based on this position.  In the general election he ran against John McCain mostly by excoriating George Bush and the Republican Party on the same basis.  And, it worked.  He was elected President.  After winning the election, it did not take Obama long to reject virtually every position he took regarding Bush's WOT.  Victor Davis Hanson lists them all in this article which leads to the conclusion that Obama constructs an opinion and a position based solely on expediency.  When it comes to conducting foreign affairs on behalf of our country, Obama stands on no principles and that is why there chaos and confusion surrounding the constantly changing positions of the government.  In contrast, Ronald Reagan conducted our foreign affairs based on the one principle that Communism was evil and the United States was a force for good in the world.. Reagan and the USA won because he stuck to this principle.  Since Obama does not believe the US is a force for good in the world, and in fact probably believes the opposite, he is conflicted whenever there is a call to action, say as in Lybia, or Syria, or even in Iran during the open revolt there two years ago. He prefers deferring to the UN, and to "leading from behind" as one of his staffers described the US policy in these matters.  In the Obama world view the US is one of 150 or so members of the United Nations (where 50% of those countries are dictatorships, BTW), and we must perforce keep a low profile so as not to offend any fellow member states.  All that being said, it is clear that we are safer now that Obama has changed virtually every position he took on the conduct of the WOT when he was a candidate.  While those positions no doubt had much to do with his election, in the end we can be thankful that at least on the conduct of this war, the President of the United States is a hypocrite and a liar.


constructs a position and opinion based on expediency

Brilliant Obama analysis

Not sure who Richard Kantro is, however he has written a description of our President that strikes home.  We are dealing here with a set of unknowns that have produced a putative leader that no one understands.  Does he like his country?  Is he a practicing Christian or not? Is he a socialist or just an aggressive liberal? The list goes on. No one knows what we are dealing with in this guy because there is no background information about his family, no real understanding of the influence of his educational background, and so forth.  As they say, there's no there there.  Consequently anything can happen under his leadership.  Kinda scary.

ADDED:  This article by Robert Tracinski in RCP dated 2008, is prescient and deserves to be read and reread as we attempt to move through the Obama presidency without imploding completely.  Obama is a train wreck.

Gerrymandering --the bane of democracy

There is little doubt that the single biggest problem contributing to the dysfunctional US Congress is the practice of gerrymandering.  This particular anti democratic political shenanigan is practiced by members of both US political parties and is designed to accomplish exactly what it in fact does which is to assure incumbent members of Congress their respective seats.  The practice is the primary reason we have representatives like Maxine Waters and Sheila Lee, two of the more racists members of the Congressional Black Caucus CBC), itself a racist group within Congress committed to furthering the interests of blacks before the interests of the country.  Sheila Lee, BTW, is a graduate of Yale College.  Nice. Makes a grad proud. A recent analysis pointed out that in any normal House vote, typically 80% of the races are considered safe for the incumbent.  Such is the effect of gerrymandering.  Gerrymandering does more to divide the country along racial lines that any of the other unconstitutional and divisive programs like Affirmative Action and the now infamous Community Redevelopment Act.  The latter program in its various permutations over the years was largely responsible for the sub prime mortgage fiasco which led to the near collapse of the entire financial system in the US. There have been several books on this subject, notably ones by Thomas Sowell and Peter Schweitzer that clearly catalogue and explain how this political event, led by the Black Caucus and other liberal politicians, (Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Barak Obama, Cuomo and others) mostly in the Carter and Clinton administrations, brought all this about.  If enough people read these books and others and came to understand how it al happened we might just be able to make a few course corrections, eliminate all the racist, divisive government programs including gerrymandering, and return to a functioning democracy true to the principles of the founding fathers and the constitution.  Not in my lifetime.  Here is a proposal to reform the current gerrymandering system.

Michael Totten interview

Michael Totten has been a free-lance reporter operating in the Middle East for many years now.  He is acknowledged to be very well informed and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the ME, its history, religious strife, internecine warfare and Israeli/Arab conflict.  In addition Totten has no allegiance to any media organization and therefore has no overt political bias.  After a brief summary of his background, this 20 minute interview provides a clear picture of what has been going on in Lebannon, Syria, and Israel, and provides very valuable insights into the workings of Hebollah.  This is useful interview for anyone wanting to understand present day Middle Eastern affairs.

Want to return to Reaganomics?

Murray Rothbard, a libertarian economist of the von Mises school, might give those who worship at the Reagan throne, at least the economics throne cause to reconsider here.

Bin Laden is gone

Finally, after 9 years this murderous vermin has been erased from the face of the earth.  This is nothing but good news and a time to celebrate. This moment of celebration also provides an opportunity to demonstrate the fecklessness and truly juvenile outlook of one of the lions of the Democrat Party.  Here are two quotes from Nancy Pelosi from back a bit in time and from today:

Nancy Pelosi, press conference, September 7, 2006:

[E]ven if [Osama bin Laden] is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done ... is done. And even to capture him now I don't think makes us any safer.

Nancy Pelosi, earlier today:

The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. ... I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. ... [T]he death of Osama bin Laden is historic....

One has to wonder if Ms Pelosi wakes up every morning thinking about ways she can demonstrate her witless partisanship.  She is truly a stupid woman.

NYTimes bias

For anyone reading the NYTimes on a semi regular basis, or reading linked stories or news items, a series of articles and the book written by Samuel McGowan is old news.  Clearly this paper long ago became the Progressive voice and then lurched further left to become the voice of the Democrat Party and all its causes and minions.  It is not the place to go for the unvarnished truth by a long shot.  And yet for many it is the Bible of news, much to their loss.  The series by McGowan has been carried by Powerline from the beginning and links to all individual parts can be reached on this particular link in the end.

Paul Ryan's dilemma

An article in The Weekly Standard makes a number of very good points about the current discourse on the budget.  First, it highlights exactly how politicized the debate has become and how unserious and truth averse the Democrat Party and its thuggish union members are.  Second, it demonstrates how biased and perverse the so-called mainstream media has become.  Third, it suggests that in any debate the advantage rests with the better informed, rational side than with the uninformed, emotional, irrational side.  So far, at least, Paul Ryan, the architect of the Republican budget proposal is winning the debate on this issue.  His dilemma, however, is to overcome the misinformation and disinformation being perpetrated by the democrats, their unions and left media supporters.  It will be a difficult time ahead for the forces of rationality and real reform largely because this corrupt media supports the demagogues.  It  is they who have the biggest and loudest megaphone and who are able to create the misleading narratives as is seen so clearly in this Weekly Standard article.  Ryan has the facts and the command of the issues.  It remains to be seen if he can overcome the left's all out assault in the coming months.  If he does not succeed we are over the cliff which is probably exactly what the left and Obamunists want to see happen.  They can then build their more perfect socialist union.