Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all my friends!

Piers Morgan is a thickly Stupid Man

Hee - haw... hee - haw!

Being from across the sea and not having any historical experience of having to deal with a government that doesn't allow you representation when it decides what to do with you, it is understandable one would have no appreciation for the idea of leaving power in the hands of the people. Nevertheless, we do have friends from across the sea, and we know it is possible for them to at least sense that our cultural past is relevant to us today. Not so for this stupid little twit of a man, who not only is ignorant of the political issue, but deems himself justified in insulting the guests he invites onto his show, ostensibly to have this very discussion:

Mr. Pratt was making the argument that what America needed was more guns, not fewer...

Unable to demonstrate the patience to allow his guest to make his point, Mr. Morgan erupted:

“You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?” Mr. Morgan said.

Jackass.

The Way of the Buffalo

The Hyacinth Girl has been writing some thoughtful pieces. Here's a touch of her latest:

“Man card” posturing and self-proclaimed beta male status may seem polar opposites, but they are two sides of the same coin. We (culturally speaking) have assimilated the often contradictory but ultimately damaging definition of masculinity proffered by the modern feminist movement, thereby relegating men to either second-class citizens (beta male) or senseless brutes ruled by their basest desires. I don’t think men as a whole fit into either category. I think they’re more interesting than that.

The "man card" is the humorous notion that there are certain activities that "qualify" one as a man, and if found lacking or in breach of conduct one's membership card in the club of manliness can be revoked. It's a young man's joshing and taunting exercise, and it underscores a certain shallowness to the perception of maleness. The combination of political correctness and the ever increasing efforts to marginalize masculine traits have been the tools used to diminish men in our society. This has been ostensibly done to elevate women, but the result is not quite what was intended: a twisted society that is detrimental to both the men and women living in it. April has written an excellent piece on it. Now stop wasting time. Get over there and read it!

Victor Davis Hanson Nails It

The left is in a tizzy over criticism of UN ambassador Susan Rice. "There is nothing wrong with what Rice did. She simply had wrong information. It happens." But of course that misses the point. She had good information, she just didn't share it with the American people. And with Barry the healer at the wheel, all of this plays out on racial lines. In fact, race is inserted into the question, with no small amount of help from the media, because it helps deflect criticism from the poor behavior of the Obama White House in general, and Susan Rice in particular. To that Victor Davis Hanson has written a prescient piece:

But in the era of Obama, almost everything can be connected to race. So it was not long before the Black Caucus, the Washington Post, and liberal columnists alleged that racism and sexism drove Rice’s neo-Confederate detractors. President Obama, in his now-accustomed Skip Gates/Trayvon Martin posturing mode, also did his best to inflame the tensions, as he dared critics to come after him instead, as if they were bullies out to pick on a vulnerable black woman — and as if the president himself had not hidden behind Rice, throwing her into the public arena in the first place and then refusing to offer any details of his own reaction to the attacks that might have fulfilled his taunt by redirecting scrutiny onto himself.

There is sexism and racism in l’affaire Rice — but sadly it is all originating from the Obama administration and its supporters.

Read the whole thing here.

'Chariots of Fire' at Movie Club

Now Showing:

Conrad Black on the Press

Conrad Black begins thus:

Rupert Murdoch and I have had our differences over many years, and especially during my recent legal travails, but I must join with him entirely in his recent tweeted complaint that most American media outlets that are controlled by Jews seem to be reflexively, or at least habitually, anti-Israel. For mentioning this notorious fact, Murdoch was lambasted by the usual suspects, led by the New York Times, upon whose franchise as the premier quality newspaper of the world’s greatest market Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is steadily encroaching. My sometime colleagues at the Daily Beast, whose grievances against Murdoch are profound and not unreasonable, even suggested that there was room here for a regulatory intervention. I understand the temptation to attack Murdoch, but this was seriously uncalled for.

It is an excellent piece on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the curiously consistent reaction of American jews in the press. Read the whole thing here.

Mark Steyn Holidays

Mark Steyn warms up the holiday season with a lively guest host appearance on the Rush Limbaugh show today!

If you missed that you still could enjoy Mark Steyn through his new release of a Christmas album. Mark is becoming the Bing Crosby of our days, and though the delivery might not be quite as smooth, his heart is in the right place. Check out all of Mark's holiday offerings here.

Liberty and Democracy

For a people to be free, they must be free of the tyranny of their neighbors. This was well understood by our founders, as pointed out in a recent piece by What the ...?! blog fav Walter Williams:

The founders of our nation held a deep abhorrence for democracy and majority rule. The word democracy appears in neither of our founding documents: our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison wrote, "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority."

Excellent piece, with a sobering close. Read the whole thing here.

Cats and Dogs

Rain coming down in Oregon is common place October through June, utterly unremarkable.

But since as of late it has been coming down in buckets, causing through and through webfoots to be looking about for umbrellas (gasp), I thought I would comment on it today, if only to bring a smile to the face of my good friend Darrell.

Thank God

   April Gavaza came back.

'The Fly' at Movie Club

Now showing:

Romney looks to the future. Obama... just looks.

The state of the world and America's place explained.

The third presidential debate ended with Romney looking presidential.  Romney was consistently painting a large view of what we as a nation should do.  President Obama, meanwhile, nitpicked, contradicted and looked angry. For all that, Romney did not seem in the least bit put off his game.

In the face of Obama's planned military cutbacks, planned at a trillion dollars, Romney raised the concern that we will not be able to maintain our military capabilities. To that the president stated outright the sequster will not happen. Mr. Romney was concerned, and laid out his case:

"Our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We’re now at 285. We're headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That's unacceptable to me.”

“I will not cut our military budget by a trillion dollars, which is a combination of the budget cuts the president has, as well as the sequestration cuts. That, in my view, is making our future less certain and less secure.”

Staring... staring... and more staring. 

Yes, indeed. Excellent, practical point... to which we get some silly Obama repartee for an answer:

“I think Gov. Romney maybe has not spent enough time looking at how our military works. We also have fewer horses and bayonets because nature of our military has changed. “There are these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines."

“The question is not a game of Battleship, where we’re counting ships, it’s what are our capabilities,”

Battleship?!  What is he talking about?  And yet the Obamiacs thought that was a great moment for the great one. But lets look at it, perhaps more critically than the typical Obamiac would.

Sequestering is the term for mandatory budget reductions, which comes out in cuts:

The Defense Department makes up a disproportionate share of the cuts – $500 billion, at least $55 billion of which would go into effect immediately. It’s not clear yet how the Pentagon would put them in place

Obama claimed a sequster will not happen, but his White House was on the phone immediately afterwards walking the statements back:

White House senior adviser and 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe softened the Obama administration's language on the sequester after President Obama insisted that it would not happen.

"No one wants it to happen," Plouffe told reporters

Yes, well, that is not the same as saying it will not happen, and certainly the difference is very real to the people in the military whose equipment, supply and personnel end up on the wrong side of the contraction.

If the Navy says it needs 313 ships to complete its mission, it doesn't matter that Obama is aware we have things called nuclear submarines. The world is a scary place, with a lot of bad people out there. We face problems in the Far East. We face problems in the Middle East. We cannot project power in these areas with drone strikes, for cripe's sakes.

If the Navy says it needs 300 ships, the president cannot idly sit by while it is reduced to 200 ships - not and expect us to maintain our ability to protect ourselves and influence the world in which we live. The reality is the military will be required to reduce its size and capabilities if we do not fund it. There is no way around that. Mr. Obama had no answer except to suggest we don't need ships and planes and the like.

Weakness invites aggression Mr. President. After all your carrying on about what you've learned on the job, if there was one thing you should have learned while acting commander in chief, it was that.

- The President Goes for Cool Casual

President Obama has an odd way of going about the business of the presidency. Answering the questions of the press would require his holding a press conference, and that isn't really what he's all about. No, hangin' with David Lettermen, giving a shout out to Jay Z, and slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon are more his thing. Thus the president thought the best way to answer the increasing public dismay over his bungling of the Libyan consulate was a chat with fellow cool cat Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

A statement by the president in the Rose Garden the day following the attack is now being stretched by the Obama campaign into a declaration by the president that our consulate suffered a terrorist attack, but the president gave no such statement. At the event he spoke of terrorism itself broadly, specifically declined to link the Benghazi attack to terrorism, declined to say whether or not the attack constituted an act of war and then left his White House and members of the State Department to spend the next two weeks trying to convince the people of America that the death of our ambassador was the result of an out of control mob that had been incensed by a little seen video critical of Islam. And it was the video that struck this White House as a terrible thing. The death of four Americans, not so much.

Following the Rose Garden briefing, the president, I am embarrassed to say, flew off to Las Vegas to start afresh on his fund raising tour. Vegas, Baby!

Two weeks later the president's fibbing came to national attention when CNNs Candy Crowley, who somehow conveniently had been provided a transcript of the president's Rose Garden statement of two weeks previously, managed to misinterpret the president's statement and the two weeks that followed to botch her best chance at notoriety on a national stage. That's kinda like a young singer forgetting the words to the national anthem during the opening ceremonies of the Superbowl. Not good.

Live feed footage watched by our State Department showed anyone that was interested that there was no protest and no mob outside the consulate. In fact, the ambassador had said goodnight to his Libyan guests at the very gate just an hour before the compound was hit by RPGs and mortar rounds. How could the president get it so far wrong... by accident?

Anyway, it was all far from the mind of the president on Comedy Central, as he warmed to his work with a self-deprecating reference to his first debate performance:

'I was well rested after the long nap I had in the first debate'

The president can tell a joke, I'll give him that. But sometimes humor isn't right coming from the mouth of the president.

"Is part of the investigation helping the communication between these divisions? Not just what happened in Benghazi, but what happened within. Because I would say, even you would admit, it was not the optimal response, at least to the American people, as far as all of us being on the same page."

'Here's what I’ll say. If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal.'

Funny guy.  Sadly, even the safe confines of the comedy channel can not prevent a public view of the president's callous disregard for the people that work and die for him.

Fallen US citizens included Ambassador Chris Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith and security men and former U.S. Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. The men were killed by terrorists on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

Well, the president assures us that no one is more interested in getting to the bottom of this than him.

Didn't come across that way on Comedy Central though.

Steyn Gets a Chuckle

We all love Mark Steyn around here, but his comments on the debate and subsequent scramble just nailed it:

A month ago, Clint Eastwood’s Obama empty-chair shtick was universally agreed by liberals to have been a disaster for Romney.

Now, it’s on the cover of The New Yorker.

Read his whole NR In The Corner post here.

'Since You Were Gone' at Movie Club

Now showing: Now showing:

- Go ROMNEY!

There is no scoring that can be kept in these debates, none, that is, that isn't tampered with by our betters in the media, so it will be hard to judge outcomes between the former governor of Massachusetts and the smooth talking serial liar.

Personally, I am sick of the press telling us how clever a Democrat is when he lies and gets away with it, as was their take on Bubba Clinton and all contenders with a "D" ever since.

We pretty much know what they are going to say.

What are you going to say?



I say Go ROMNEY!

Media Pronounce Barack Clear Winner of Tomorrow's Debate

What a minute - we haven't had the debate yet!

No matter.

In a recent article on media analysis of previous presidential debates, Rich Noyes demonstrates a familiar refrain:

He definitely won tonight. I think, again, he showed over the course of this debate, over the course of the two debates, he is answering the number one question Americans have about him. Does he have the experience it takes to serve effectively as President? Over the course now of three hours of debates, he is answering that question minute by minute.

Media types are reaching the end of the period where bogus polls can be used to shape opinion, as the credability of the pollsters are more on the line as we get nearer to the election. Yes, it is high time to move on to the next phase of "Creating the Outcome, 2012", and that, of course, is media analysis of the debates.

Barack Obama handled this all very, very well. He was cool under attack. He explained away every attack, responded well....

George Stephanopolis is on record saying "There is no bias in the media", so we've got that straight from the horses mouth. Strange then how he conistently claims the Democrat the winner. Don't doubt me on this one. The story's are already written. The only thing needed is to change a word here, highlight a phrase there, but the opinion on the debate is in the can: Barack a big winner!

Clean sweep for Barack Obama. He has won every debate. He won tonight by staying cool under pressure. He won tonight by parrying the attacks of John McCain. The only thing that John McCain could have really done tonight to change the tenor of this campaign was to get under Obama’s skin, to force him into an error. That did not happen tonight. Another win for Barack Obama.

That's nice Georgie, but you forget these are the 2012 debates. McCain was the last go round.

The Stephanopolis analysis is about as helpful as that Michigan State Math professor's lecture on calculus.

But we don't listen to the media.

We show up at the polls, and we VOTE OBAMA OUT.

Press on Parade

In the alternate reality TV show that the old media have made of this failed Democrat presidency, truth and the media narrative have long ago gone their separate ways. Recently a dose of reality was sprinkled on the heads of various left wing luminaries when the Media Research Center held their annual awards show.

Topping the list, and well deservedly I must say, was 'Worst Reporter in the History of Man' winner Katie Couric. And sheesh, did they ever bring the goods. You've got to check out the video clips they put together over at the source CNS article.

Yes, that is an impressive record.

Most of the award winners were selected by a twelve judge panel, that included Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin. Another interesting competition was for the Obamagasm Award. As yoou might have guessed, this had to go to Chris Matthews, and here is the pull quote used to support his selection:

The Obamagasm Award for drooling over Democrats went to MSNBC's Chris Matthews for saying of President Barack Obama on the July 17, 2012 edition of "Hardball:" "This guy's done everything right. He's raised his family right. He's fought his way all the way to the top of the Harvard Law Review, in a blind test becomes head of the Review, the top editor there. Everything he's done is clean as a whistle. He's never not only broken any law, he's never done anything wrong. He's the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American. And all they do is trash the guy."

Yep, we love Chris Matthews around here. Hard hitting, no nonsense journalist. Do they have a "Pissing in the Wind." catagory?

Wealth Redistribution Going Backward, not Forward

He's been quiet about it, but the president is a big believer in redistribution, with himself as the one to seize wealth and redistribute it "more equitably". Thank our lucky stars he is the man that can see where equity lies, and of course in his view it lies with his cronies at Solyndra and union thug supporters of the SEIU, with a few crumbs to the poor among us, and all done for just minor carrying charges. Yes, that is why he tells us "You didn't build that", and confides to Joe the Plumber "I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody." So he takes your money, whatever 'wealth' you might have, and spreads it around. Great.

Thomas Sowell has written a fine piece on the pitfalls of leftist ideas of confiscation and redistribution:

Those who talk glibly about redistribution often act as if people are just inert objects that can be placed here and there, like pieces on a chess board, to carry out some grand design. But if human beings have their own responses to government policies, then we cannot blithely assume that government policies will have the effect intended.

The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty. The communist nations were a classic example, but by no means the only example.

Excellent. Read the whole thing here.

Krauthammer on Obama's Cairo Doctrine Failure

Was it not hubis itself that made the man-who-would-be-king believe that by just him talking he could set the world to rights? He was as likely to affect the tides, or stop the rise of the oceans as he preferred the dream to be framed. Charles Krauthmmer apprises where we stand in all the hope and change:

It’s now three years since the Cairo speech. Look around. The Islamic world is convulsed with an explosion of anti-Americanism. From Tunisia to Lebanon, American schools, businesses and diplomatic facilities set ablaze. A U.S. ambassador and three others murdered in Benghazi. The black flag of Salafism, of which al-Qaeda is a prominent element, raised over our embassies in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Sudan.

The administration, staggered and confused, blames it all on a 14-minute trailer for a film no one has seen and may not even exist.

What else can it say? Admit that its doctrinal premises were supremely naive and its policies deeply corrosive to American influence?

Religious provocations are endless. (Ask Salman Rushdie.) Resentment about the five-century decline of the Islamic world is a constant. What’s new — the crucial variable — is the unmistakable sound of a superpower in retreat. Ever since Henry Kissinger flipped Egypt from the Soviet to the American camp in the early 1970s, the United States had dominated the region. No longer.

“It’s time,” declared Obama to wild applause of his convention, “to do some nation-building right here at home.” He’d already announced a strategic pivot from the Middle East to the Pacific. Made possible because “the tide of war is receding.”

Nonsense. From the massacres in Nigeria to the charnel house that is Syria, violence has, if anything, increased. What is receding is Obama’s America.

On the money. Read the whole thing here.

This guy...

At the UN:

It has been less than two years since a vendor in Tunsia set himself on fire to protest the oppresive corruption in his country, and sparked what became known as the Arab Spring. Since then the world has been captiviated by the transformation that has taken place. The United States has supported the forces of change. We were inspired by the Tunsian protests that toppled a dictator because we recognize our own beliefs in the aspiration of men and women who took to the streets. We insisted on change in Egypt, because our support for democracy ultimately put us on the side of the people.

No, Mr. President, I do not recognize my own beliefs in the people protesting in Libya or Egypt. Do you?

“I’ve seen Joe up close”

Taking a turn from her husband's curious knack for awkward phrasing, the wife of the Vice President had a little fun relating her impressions of "big Joe" in a manner that most probably would prefer not to hear.

“I’ve seen Joe up close.” she asserted, arms outstretched. It wasn't clear if she was speaking here of big Joe, or "little Joey".

Shrugging off decorum, and egged on by her grinning husband, the Second Lady described her husband's 'big, strong heart' in a manner that begged innuendo.

At first pleading innocence, she soon warmed to her task, adding a pregnant pause in her prepared remarks on how she had "heard the urgency in his voice when he comes ... and talks to people".

Awkward, yes. Crass, certainly... but it was mother's milk to the assembled Democrat nit wits. Of course just the previous day her husband had told an assembly of high school student-athletes how impressed he was with what cheerleaders could "do", so in jumping into the mud pit with such relish she seems to have sanctioned the awkward comments her husband had made to the teens.

Less than ideal.

How Does He Come Up With This Stuff?!!

Vice President Joe Biden stopped off at Newport High School in Newport, N.H., to talk to a group of assembled student-athletes who waited, in uniform, for the Vice President's comments:

He cradled a football under his arm as he spoke and began by asking which teams were represented — football, soccer, lacrosse and cross-country.

"Any others?" He asked.

‘Cheerleaders!’ a group of girls shouted.

“Guess what, the cheerleaders in college are the best athletes in college,” Biden said.
“You think I’m joking? They’re almost all gymnasts. The stuff they do on hard wood, it blows my mind.”

Hubba, hubba, Mr. V.P.

Obama Flag: Peddling the Plutocracy

As if lying to the American public over the recent embassy attacks wasn't enough, this creep in chief is now hocking "Obama Gear" to raise funds for his imperiled candidacy. Yep, 35 bucks will get you a flag with no stars, no stripes, just the Obama symbol and red streaks across a field of white.

And here's the tweet this guy used to announce it:

A poster to say there are no red states or blue states, only the United States: OFA.BO/gfHgXM

Looks more like the "O" is taking the place of all the states.  What is that, exactly?  Why does he have a symbol?  What kind of man would think his symbol should replace the symbol of the stars that always resided in a field of blue, each one symbolizing one of our individual states?

He wasn't thinking of this when he came up with the "O" flag, was he?

U.S. consulate, Benghazi, Libya

Damn.

Oh, yeah, and now that he has completed his evolving, the Obama store is replete with LGBT gear, proclaiming the wearer's undying (well, in view of Ambassador Stevens, let us say unwavering) unwavering support of El Supremo!

With a hat tip to Darrell.

No Time For Netanyahu

Plenty of time for Letterman.

Plenty of time for the Vegas fund raiser.

Plenty of time for Jay-Z.

But no time for his security briefings.

Forward

Kevin Crutchfield of ANR.

Layoffs have been slated for a major US coal producer, as reported Asbury Parks Press:

Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources said Tuesday it was cutting production by 16 million tons and eliminating 1,200 jobs companywide, laying off 400 workers immediately by closing mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

That's a lot of layoffs.

The mine shutdowns start Tuesday, while the rest of the layoffs will be completed by the end of the first quarter after Alpha fulfills current sales obligations.

Support positions will also be cut proportionally as Alpha reduces its operating regions from four to two.

Not good.

Crutchfield said the shutdowns and layoffs are a necessary part of ensuring Alpha survives in what has become a difficult U.S. market, where coal companies face a dual challenge: Power plants are shifting to cheap, abundant natural gas, while companies like his face "a regulatory environment that's aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal."

A regualtory environment that's aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal? Who would want to do that?!

Well, wait a minute. We rely on that coal production for coal powered electrical generation. That is the primary means of electrical generation for the eastern seaboard.

One question, Mr. Obama: How are we going to replace all that energy?

Jonas Clarifies Left Leaning Thought

In considering the Middle East, Time magazine pundit Fareed Zakaria claims it is high time we have a national discussion on the Middle East, before the US stumbles into another Middle East war, a war entered into without much consideration, fought on auto-pilot as Zakaria says. To this George Jonas responds:

It wasn't until last year that we did something in the Middle East that could be described as going to war on auto-pilot. This was in 2011 when, mesmerized by what we dubbed the "Arab Spring," we lent NATO's air force to an assortment of dubious, indeed downright unsavory, characters in Libya without as much as asking their addresses. This week some of them murdered the U.S. ambassador, along with three other Americans in Benghazi, as a way of saying thanks, I suppose, for helping them to get rid of their tyrant, Muammar Gadaffi.

However, Libya wasn't what Zakaria had in mind. Libya was Barack Obama's war, and what our pundit was critical about were the Bush-wars, Iraq One and Iraq Two, plus Afghanistan. This is interesting. Wise or unwise as the First (1991) or Second (2003) Gulf War against Saddam may have been, neither was fought on anything like automatic pilot. As for describing the younger Bush's 2001 decision to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan that sheltered al-Qaeda as "autopilot," amounts to a failure to comprehend the meaning of the phrase. Since it's unlikely that Zakaria-class pundits don't know the meaning of common expressions, or the history of recent events, if they write gibberish like "let's not get involved in another Middle East war on auto-pilot" they must have something else on their minds.

It seems to me the chorus of public policy bards, Zakaria and colleagues, supporters of the Obama presidency, think of non-proliferation itself as the First World's arrogant attempt to lock in the status quo.

It's a good argument. Read the whole thing here.

Again With The Baloney...

President Barack Obama, throwing out BS at the people of Ohio as fast as ever he can, said that in working with Republicans to reduce the deficit, he was willing to “show more love” to get the job done.

"If they want me to walk the dog or wash their car, I’m happy to do it."

That's great.

"You know, I genuinely believe that most Americans, Democrats or Republicans, they just want us to solve problems.”

No, most Republicans want you defeated, and in a very big way. They know it's the only way to even begin to solve the problems we face. Most Democrats, on the other hand, want you to win, and they don't care what problems are solved or not solved.

So get it straight, and cut the BS, or chores will be all you're good for.

“I’m ready and willing to work. But I refuse to ask middle-class families to pay over $2,000 more so that millionaires and billionaires can pay less.”

Yeah, okay, here's the baggy for when he goes poop. When you get done with that the bucket and mitt are in the garage, and the hose is around back.

For Cathy...

That cat does not look happy!

Just something fun.

Nails It

'Bummer 'bout the ambassador.'

I have been attempting to express my incredulity at this president and the situation we find ourselves in. Then there is this by Mark Steyn:

When it comes to a flailing, blundering superpower, I am generally wary of ascribing to malevolence what is more often sheer stupidity and incompetence. For example, we're told that, because the consulate in Benghazi was designated as an "interim facility," it did not warrant the level of security and protection that, say, an embassy in Scandinavia would have. This seems all too plausible – that security decisions are made not by individual human judgment but according to whichever rule-book sub-clause at the Federal Agency of Bureaucratic Facilities Regulation it happens to fall under. However, the very next day the embassy in Yemen, which is a permanent facility, was also overrun, as was the embassy in Tunisia the day after. Look, these are tough crowds, as the president might say at Caesar's Palace. But we spend more money on these joints than anybody else, and they're as easy to overrun as the Belgian Consulate.

As I say, I'm inclined to be generous, and put some of this down to the natural torpor and ineptitude of government. But Hillary Clinton and Gen. Martin Dempsey are guilty of something worse, in the Secretary of State's weirdly obsessive remarks about an obscure film supposedly disrespectful of Mohammed and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs' telephone call to a private citizen, asking him if he could please ease up on the old Islamophobia.

Forget the free-speech arguments. In this case, as Secretary Clinton and Gen. Dempsey well know, the film has even less to do with anything than did the Danish cartoons or the schoolteacher's teddy bear or any of the other innumerable grievances of Islam. The 400-strong assault force in Benghazi showed up with RPGs and mortars: that's not a spontaneous movie protest; that's an act of war, and better planned and executed than the dying superpower's response to it. Secretary Clinton and Gen. Dempsey are, to put it mildly, misleading the American people when they suggest otherwise.

Steyn nails the demented spinning of wheels that make up this administration and its response to world threats.  Read the whole thing.

White House Proud of Foreign Policy Record

'Time to fool 'em with a little double talk.'

As US embassies world wide are threatened and come under attack, the White House remains very pleased with itself:

“We’re very proud of the president’s record on foreign policy and are happy to make the case at the appropriate time.”

Well, you may be , Jay, and Barry certainly may be, but I am not.

"We also need to understand that this is a fairly volatile situation and it is in response not to United States policy, and not to, obviously, the administration, or the American people, but it is in response to a video... "

Really? Sure seemed like they were being very clear in their condemnation of the United States and, if I may say so, President Barack Obama.

The protests which began earlier this week have expanded rapidly across the Middle East on Friday. Protesters attacked the U.S. Embassies in Tunis and Sudan; Tunisian protesters smashed windows and lit fires inside the embassy compound, while gunfire could be heard. Images of a dark column of smoke over the Tunisian site have circulated on the Internet Friday.

Quoting the State Department’s website:

“Because an embassy represents a sovereign state, any attack on an embassy is considered an attack on the country it represents.”

That is why if a nation wants to have dialogue with other nations of the world, that nation must respect the other nation's embassy, and protect the embassy and its personnel. A nation that refuses to do that is not a friend, and it doesn't matter what the reason is for the attack.

According to the UK's The Independent:

American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.

The US administration is now facing a crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the "safe house" in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed "safe".

Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups.

That's not good.

'Hey, hey, hey ... I am El Supremo!'

According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and "lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted.

Nice going there, Mr. President.

"Now how about a sweet deal I can get you on some sweat shirts..."

Mitt Calls It Straight

With all the effort on the part of the media to generate a narrative, let us go straight to the source and see what Mr. Romney had to say. Here are his comments:

Americans woke up this morning with -- with tragic news and felt heavy hearts as they considered that individuals who have served in our diplomatic corps were brutally murdered across the world.

This attack on American individuals and embassies is outrageous, it’s disgusting, it -- it breaks the hearts of all of us who think of these people who have served during their lives the cause of freedom and justice and honor.

We -- we mourn their loss and join together in prayer that the spirit of the Almighty might comfort the families of those who have been so brutally slain.

Four diplomats lost their life, including the U.S. ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, in the attack on our embassy at Benghazi, Libya. And of course with these words I extend my condolences to the grieving loved ones who have left behind, as a result of these who have lost their lives in the service of our nation.

And I know that the people across America are grateful for their service. And we mourn their sacrifice.

America will not tolerate attacks against our citizens and against our embassies. We’ll defend also our constitutional rights of speech and assembly and religion.

We have confidence in our cause in America. We respect our Constitution. We stand for the principles our Constitution protects. We encourage other nations to understand and respect the principles of our Constitution, because we recognize that these principles are the ultimate source of freedom for individuals around the world.

I also believe the administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt, instead of condemning their actions. It’s never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values.

The White House distanced itself last night from the statement, saying it wasn’t cleared by Washington. That reflects the mixed signals they’re sending to the world.

The attacks in Libya and Egypt underscore that the world remains a dangerous place and that American leadership is still sorely needed. In the face of this violence, American cannot shrink from the responsibility to lead. American leadership is necessary to ensure that events in the region don’t spin out of control. We cannot hesitate to use our influence in the region to support those who share our values and our interests.

Over the last several years, we’ve stood witness to an Arab spring that presents an opportunity for a more peaceful and prosperous, but also poses the potential for peril if the forces of extremism and violence are allowed to control the course of events. We must strive to ensure that the Arab spring does not become an Arab winter.

Right on the money. Well said, Governor.

I've Got Plenty of ...

Well, that was really nuanced. We've seen El Supremo on the world wide apology tour, followed by efforts to flatter the Islamic world and denigrate Western Democracies, and we can see now where that got us. A general increase in tensions and hostility toward the US, decreased influence world wide and instability.

I suppose some will be quick to say this is all the fault of somebody else. It isn't. No, it was Barry Obama, the man that promised us a new age, a new tomorrow.

Well, tomorrow is here, and now we know what he was serving up with all that hope and change...

Once More to the Breach...

Ever ready to puncture the hot-air-filled arguments of the left, blog fav Mark Steyn managed a double by pointing out the flippancy of Democrat National Convention speaker Sandra Fluck, and the lack of seriousness on the part of the DNC in general:

It was weird to see her up there among the governors and senators – as weird as Bavarians thought it was when King Ludwig decided to make his principal adviser Lola Montez, the Irish-born "Spanish dancer" and legendary grande horizontale. I hasten to add I'm not saying Miss Fluke is King Barack's courtesan. For one thing, it's a striking feature of the Age of Perfected Liberalism that modern liberals talk about sex 24/7 while simultaneously giving off the persistent whiff that the whole thing's a bit of a chore. Hence, the need for government subsidy. And, in fairness to Miss Montez, she used sex to argue for liberalized government, whereas Miss Fluke uses liberalism to argue for sexualized government.

But those distinctions aside, like Miss Fluke, Miss Montez briefly wielded an influence entirely disproportionate to her talents. Like Miss Fluke, she was a passionate liberal activist who sought to diminish what she regarded as the malign influence of the Catholic Church. Taking up with Lola cost King Ludwig his throne in the revolutions of 1848. We'll see in a couple of months whether taking up with Sandra works out for King Barack. But what's strange is that so many people don't find it strange at all – that at a critical moment in the affairs of the republic the ruling party should assemble to listen to a complacent 31-year-old child of privilege peddling the lazy cobwebbed assumptions of myopic narcissism. Lola Montez was what botanists would call a "sport" – morphologically distinct from the rest of the societal shrub. The tragedy for America is that Sandra Fluke is all too typical.

It is not Miss Fluke herself that is so objectionable, though she certainly is worthy of criticism. No, the main point is the refusal of those on the left, and some of us on the right, to completely ignore the major issues that imperil our future. For a major political party to behave in this manner when we are facing the end of our way of life is utterly irresponsible.

Nicely done, Mr. Steyn.

'Three Coins in the Fountain' at Movie Club

Now playing:!

Empty Chair Day - Pink Slip Edition

"When somebody does not do the job, we gotta let 'em go.”



For a rare photograph of iconic communist Karl Marx standing next to our dear president, check 'View the rest' below!

To our president...

Did he not hear their national anthem playing?
When everyone in uniform saluted, do you think that registered at all?
Wasn't that a tip off to him that he was missing something?

Two Thumbs Up... Way Up

I loved Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention. And I loved the fact that Roger Ebert didn't love it. Hey Rog, what did you think? This was a movie you thought you could review? What, we can't laugh at the guy that told us, with a straight face, that he was going to lower the level of the oceans? Seriously?! Meanwhile Eastwood is out producing, what, eight movies in the past five years? Sorry, Rog, your opinion means nada on this one. Eastwood was great, and if you didn't get it, that may say a lot about you. It doesn't say anything about Clint, or his performance at the Republican National Convention.

Thin Skinned Lefties

'Tease me about my tingling leg and I feel all sad inside.'

Chris Matthews took his show on the road for the RNC Convention and made the mistake of doing a show at an outdoor stage near the Tampa Bay Times Forum. "Hey Chris, how's that tingle up your leg?" came the call from two gentlemen, amongst giggles and laughter from the audience during a break in the show.

"Then this short dude who works for MSNBC pushed them," said Toby David, who came to the defense of the two hecklers. Another witness, Kim Churchman, added, "One of them was smiling and didn't know it was coming, and the guy just shoved him."

If anyone deserves to be razed for making such a stupid-ass, fawning statement, it's the tingler Chris Matthews. That being the case, the runt producer is going to have to learn to take it. There are a lot of people who would like to ask Chris if his leg is still tingling, just for the fun of watching that little puke of a producer try to lay hands on 'em.

Said David: "He kept pushing them around, so I rolled over there. And the MSNBC guy says, 'You wanna get in trouble too?’ I said: ‘Who are you? A cop? If not, maybe I should make a call and we'll see who's in trouble.' The MSNBC guy was just talking tough."

What a joke, this guy.

The MSNBC employee identified himself to The Hollywood Reporter as a producer but would not supply his name.

There's courage for you.

An MSNBC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An officer said that MSNBC told convention security that the two men "charged" at the producer.

Sounds about right. Start the lying right off the bat, and lay it on thick. That's the MSNBC way. Chris Matthews himself couldn't have said better.

Stupid

The Bush family doesn't have the best of records as far as embracing conservatism goes. Both George H.W. and George W. ate the pixie dust and thought they could reach across the isle to work with Democrats, a practice which placed both presidencies in jeopardy. Thus with the nation in the hazard and this last chance before us to turn back from the abyss, might this not be a smart time for Jeb Bush to keep a low profile?

“The future of our party is to reach out consistently to have a tone that is open and hospitable to people who share values. The conservative cause would be the governing philosophy as far as the eye could see … and that’s doable if we just stop acting stupid.”

I've got to wonder, was Jeb 'The Beav' to George's 'Wally'?

Obama Speak

Just a few days ago we were speaking of the seemingly limitless duplicity of those who argue from the left. I suppose if your unofficial slogan is "by any means necessary" then it would all make some sort of sense. Though not moral, at least one could see it as purposeful. But if you really believe you have the better ideas, that what you stand for is something that people would choose if they understood it properly, then why go through all the double speak? Well, over at the Daily Gator I came across a perfect illustraion of what we, the American people, are up against. An Edward Daley put together these three videos. Mark Steyn and Newt Gingrich are superb at contrasting what Obama says with the reality that we have to live in. Let's watch:

Barkin up the Wrong Tree

Faster, Pussycat!  Kill! Kill!

The social sophisticates among us continue on in their laudable, open minded and compassionate ways, seeking a better tomorrow through acceptance and understanding... as exemplified by Ellen Barkin. In her commitment to broadmindedness, she called for Tropical Storm Isaac to crush the Republican National Convention and drown all the delegates. Twitting to her followers(?!), she tweeted:

"Come on, Isaac! Wash every pro-life, anti-education, anti-woman, xenophobic, gay-bashing, racist SOB right into the ocean!"

Then, to make certain sure her followers could understand her meaning, that she was speaking of the Republicans, and not the Democrats who one might very well confuse with such a description, she added

"#RNC."

Okay Ellen, step away from the ledge. Everything will seem much better once we get the medication adjusted.

Good Lord! It's like Sebelius and her anti-bullying campaign. How rich, how completely absurd. These people don't understand just how ridiculously entertaining they are, and I don't mean when she's off playing in some B film.

And all this is done in the face of the recent Family Research Council shooting, where  Floyd Corkins, the 24 year-old Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender volunteer, showed up at the Family Research Council offices armed with a 9mm, fifty rounds of ammunition and a fifteen pack of Chick-fil-A sandwiches. "I don't like your politics."  he said, and then proceeded to start shooting. Fortunately Leo Johnson was there, and wrestled the sandwich munching shooter to the floor, although not before getting shot himself.

This then follows their general discourse: speech should be free (unless it is something they disagree with). Violence is bad (unless it is perpetuated against people they disagree with).

Another Baby Boomer celebrity took to Twitter, tweeting he wanted to see U.S. Congressman Todd Akin suffer a same-sex rape. And here I thought they were against rape, and were insulted to even hear the term "legitimate", as though women never lie and there was no such thing as the Duke Lacrosse case. Oh, wait a minute, they are against rape, unless, that is, it is perpetuated against people they disagree with. 

If they don't like your politics, it's a whole 'nother thing, baby.

Romneys make a cute couple

  The lucky dog.

Canadians Choose Freedom

This occurred a while back, but it was a great moment and I had to celebrate it with all of you.

The federal government has just voted to repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. While the bill still has to pass a Senate vote, Canadians likely now have permission to speak more freely.

Section 13 was an effort by Canadian liberals to stop hateful speech, and no sooner had it been passed than liberals started looking to claim they had been offended. The predominant claimant in Section 13 cases was one Richard Warman, a lawyer and prior employee of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, who after leaving the CHRC made use of the law in filing claim after claim on behalf of various "injured parties", receiving the various awards the government issued. It was a seedy business to be sure. The entire nation had a damper placed on it, and a very talented blogger I used to follow named Sean Berry withdrew from public blogging, fearing he could easily be sued for expressing his opinion. Anyone of a number of people he might comment on could claim they were offended, and it would be up to him to prove that he had not breached the rule. Ultimately both Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant found themselves as defendents in Section 13 complaints. Steyn used to joke that he could not return to his native Canada without potentially being cited for a Section 13 thought crime. All this is behind us now:

Yesterday, critics of human rights commissions scored a huge victory. The repeal of Section 13 means that no one can be taken to a human rights commission for expressing what they feel, regardless of who they offend.

Give us joy! This was a great moment, a triumph of freedom over statism and oppression. Thank God!