[1] This is a pretty good parody of what would have happened to Sarah had she made the goofs BHO has made:
This helps explain Obama's surprise ranking (to some) at 7th of of the last 9 American Presidents in popularity at 100 days in office, me thinks. The earthquake looms, however. Because race is rarely far from my consciousness, this jab resonated with me:
RACE, ALL THE TIME
Eugene Robinson worried in the Washington Post about Palin’s emphasis on race. “Look, she gets 95 percent of the working-class white vote. She promises next month to talk to the ‘Christian world’ from Estonia, of all places. Hello? She goes to the Summit of the Americas and immediately puts race on the table — as if we are supposed to separate those with European heritage from those without. Then she tells al Arabiyya that she hopes to heal the rift with Europe ‘because of my own shared European heritage that seems to resonate in ways I hadn’t imagined throughout the EU.’ I guess we’re learning that those ‘gaffes’ last year on the campaign trail, like her ‘typical black person’ remark and Todd’s ‘I am finally proud of my country again’ nonsense were not gaffes at all.”
Booyah!
[2] This dude happens to get the ultimate story correct but still can’t see the forest for the trees:
There are a multitude in that crowd who don't even believe we should have a CIA, Obama -- in his heart-of-hearts is one of them -- and reckless numbers of people ignored this fact in the last election cycle. Frankly, I'm still amazed at the large number of white people who made so large a mistake at such a moment in our history. My bias makes me give African Americans a pass on this issue although I recognize other Americans may have had a strong a pull to make history by selecting BHO. It was a different type of intensity, however.
[3] Mark Steyn is again right on the money
Here's a long snippet:
Alarmed by her erratic public performance, the Speaker's fellow San Francisco Democrat Dianne Feinstein attempted to put an end to Nancy's self-torture session. "I don't want to make an apology for anybody," said Senator Feinstein, "but in 2002, it wasn't 2006, '07, '08 or '09. It was right after 9/11, and there were in fact discussions about a second wave of attacks."
Indeed. In effect, the senator is saying waterboarding was acceptable in 2002, but not by 2009. The waterboarding didn't change, but the country did. It was no longer America's war but Bush's war. And it was no longer a bipartisan interrogation technique that enjoyed the explicit approval of both parties' leaderships, but a grubby Bush-Cheney-Rummy war crime.
Dianne Feinstein has provided the least worst explanation for her colleague's behavior. The alternative – that Speaker Pelosi is a contemptible opportunist hack playing the cheapest but most destructive kind of politics with key elements of national security – is, of course, unthinkable. Senator Feinstein says airily that no reasonable person would hold dear Nancy to account for what she supported all those years ago. But it's OK to hold Cheney or some no-name Justice Department backroom boy to account?
Well, sure. It's the Miss USA standard of political integrity: Carrie Prejean and Barack Obama have the same publicly stated views on gay marriage. But the politically correct enforcers know that Barack doesn't mean it, so that's okay, whereas Carrie does, so that's a hate crime. In the torture debate, Pelosi is Obama and Dick Cheney is Carrie Prejean. Dick means it, because to him this is an issue of national security. Nancy doesn't, because to her it's about the shifting breezes of political viability.
But it does make you wonder whether a superpower with this kind of leadership class should really be going to war at all. Over at The New York Times, the elderly schoolgirl Maureen Dowd riffed off Cheney's defense of waterboarding and argued that, no matter when the next terrorist attack comes, the former vice-president would be the one primarily responsible. He is, she said, "a force multiplier for Muslims who hate America".
Really? Last week, while Speaker Pelosi was preoccupied with her what-did-I-know-and-when-did-I-know-that-I-knew-it routine,The Daily Telegraph in London reported what is believed to be the second mass poisoning of Afghan schoolgirls, this time at Ura Jalili High School for Girls in Charikar. Fifty students had to be hospitalized after a mysterious "poison gas" infected the classrooms. As you may recall, under the Taliban it was illegal for girls to attend school, and Afghan insurgents have made a sustained effort to make the price of female education too high. So, in an effort to identify the poison, blood samples have been taken to Bagram air base to be analyzed by the U.S. military, taking time off its hectic schedule of mass torture.
Does waterboarding so outrage the Muslim world that it drives millions of young men into the dark embrace of al-Qaida? No. But the media fetishization of U.S. "torture" is certainly "a force multiplier" for Muslims who don't so much "hate" as despise America, not least for its self-loathing.
I'm tired of this foolishness. I was tired of it when they first politicized the war for freedom and I'm damn sure tired of it now.
[4] Hang in there, people. Things are starting to percolate around the country and folks are waking from their slumber.
J.B.,
I see a backlash and Barack Obama would like to avoid it but he can't get Nancy Pelosi out of the Speaker position with blasting caps :) She is so entrenched. Do you know how low the murmurings got? I started reading it's all sexism noise. I kid you not if she loses her Speaker Position it's gonna be someone's fault but not hers' she will be a victim. In the end that is all the Left sees "Victims" not their victims but you know the evil Conservative's victims. I do believe the Democrat fuel they run their party on is "Envy" Class Envy. If you have something your neighbor doesn't that makes you bad. I remember when Envy was a Sin.
Posted by: Ree | May 16, 2009 at 01:21 PM
"Hang in there, people. Things are starting to percolate around the country and folks are waking from their slumber."
J.B. do you think that the Florida Senate election for Senator Mel Martinez's seat will be an indication of which way the Republican Party is headed?
If Marco Rubio wins the nomination it may indicate that the Republican Party is headed in the right direction. If Gov. Crist wins then it may indicate that Republican Party will continue on its present course of moderation and decline.
Posted by: Patrick from Jacksonville FL | May 17, 2009 at 08:31 AM
Ree, it is envy. But it's more that that, too. And it's a crying shame that they've allowed it to metastasize.
Patrick, I think the Republican Party is going to be fine. In Florida and across the country.
I'm not sure we're going to have a Marco Rubio -- Charlie Crist battle for the Senate seat. I like Marco and he's clearly a rising star. Charlie, however, may have tapped into the national mood of the moment and we shouldn't allow our emotions to force us to (so to speak) cut off our nose to spite our face.
I'm still hoping the Rubio and Crist camps can reach something of an accommodation. We'll have to wait and see if that occurs and what it will constitute.
Posted by: RattlerGator | May 20, 2009 at 04:04 AM