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.

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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!