Freedom or freebies?

Mark Steyn on The Future and to whom it may or may not belong:

But one thing we can say for certain is that the future will not belong to broke losers. You’re the brokest guy in the room, you’re the president of Brokistan. You’ve got to pay back $16 trillion just to get back to having nothing, nada, zip. Who the hell are you to tell us who the future’s going to belong to?

The excitable lads around the globe torching American embassies with impunity seem to have figured this out, even if the striped-pants crowd at Turtle Bay are too polite to mention it. Obama is not the president of the Future. He is president right now, and one occasionally wishes the great visionary would take his eye off the far-distant horizon where educated women and fire-breathing imams frolic and gambol side by side around their Chevy Volts, to focus on the humdrum present where the rest of us have the misfortune to live.

In the America over which Barack Obama has the tedious chore of actually presiding, second-quarter GDP growth was revised down from 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent — or, in layman’s terms, from “barely detectable” to “comatose.”

Read the rest and pass it on. In November, American voters will have a say in the kind of future they want for themselves and their children and grandchildren. I've heard several people comment that the charming Obama-phone lady, who was likely paid to protest by SEIU, should actually have been paid by the Romney campaign, so damaging to Obama is her enthusiastic message of entitlement and dependency. But that observation comes from the point of view of those of us who are sickened by the marked increase in dependence on government under Obama. Sad to say, lots of Americans are on board with unlimited governmental "help" in the form of food stamps, disability checks, and free phones. We won't know until election day whether they make up a majority of voters but I fear we're terribly close to the tipping point.

Steyn, in a recent interview with Laura Ingraham, captured what's wrong with a freebie nation:

The huge wickedness . . . of what he was saying there, the 47% and the massive increase in dependency, the great evil of this is not just the waste of money but the waste of lives, because when you tell people there's nothing for you but food stamps and welfare checks and phony-baloney disability claims now and forever you're eating away at a man's soul. You're not a healthy human being living like that. Self-respect, sense of value comes from functioning as a free-born citizen and as a free-born human being.

Freedom or freebies. That's the choice.

One more comment from Steyn that's too good to let slip by:

MS: Well, what is fascinating to me is we are, we have the biggest story of our time in front of our noses. I mean, if you’re Chinese, it’s the biggest story in half a millennium. I mean, the Chinese basically think that a half a millennium of perverse Euro-American world domination is coming to an end, that America…and if you take a slightly shorter perspective, that basically the post-war era, post-Second World War era of America as the global order maker is coming to an end. And we have stories that are part of that, like the goat herders in Afghanistan taking out the squadron of aircraft, and the Benghazi consulate fiasco. We’ve got evidence…the Egyptian president treating American taxpayers with contempt in New York. We’ve got evidence of this on every front, plus the economic stuff. And to want to be…I couldn’t live with myself if I were one of these court eunuchs, and just obsessing on the trivia that these guys do. You’ve got the biggest story in front of your nose. You’re not Beyonce’. If Beyonce’ wants to sip champagne with the president, that’s one thing. You’re not Beyonce’.

Exactly right, and it's as pathetic as it is reprehensible. If Obama gets reelected, the liberal lapdogs who have rolled over and played dead for him to an absurd, almost incredible degree, will have been hugely instrumental in our national suicide.

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Obama phone!

Yes, we can hear her now. It's votes for phones in Obama Nation:

But does this lady really need a phone? Her voice must carry into the next county.

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Afghan goatherds destroy Harrier squadron

Have you heard about this? It happened in Afghanistan on September 14th:

First Air Marshal Obama Leads U.S. Military to its Worst Loss of Air Power Since Vietnam

The U.S. Suffered Its Worst Airpower Loss Since Vietnam Last Week and No One Really Noticed

Untold Loss: Media Blackout on Military Disaster on Obama's Watch

Why, again, are American soldiers and Marines still in Afghanistan?

John D. Gresham puts the losses in perspective:

Whatever the organizational outcome, the Sept. 14, 2012 attack on Camp Bastion is arguably the worst day in USMC aviation history since the Tet Offensive of 1968. The last time VMA-211 was combat ineffective was in December 1941, when the squadron was wiped out during the 13-day defense of Wake Island against the Japanese. Eight irreplaceable aircraft (the AV-8B has been out of production since 1999) have been destroyed or put out of action – approximately 7 percent of the total flying USMC Harrier fleet. Worse yet, the aircraft involved were the AV-B+ variant equipped with the APG-65 radar and AAQ-28 Litening II targeting pods – the most capable in the force. Given the current funding situation, it’s likely that the two damaged AV-8Bs will become spare parts “hangar queens” and never fly again. A Harrier squadron commander is dead, along with another Marine. Another nine personnel have been wounded, and the nearby Marines at Camp Freedom are now without effective fixed-wing air support. The USMC’s response to this disaster will be a telling report card on its leadership and organizational agility. 

There's little point in speculating on how President Obama's response to this disaster will be a telling report card on his leadership and organizational agility. Does anyone expect him to comment or respond in any way, beyond acknowledging, perhaps, those irritating bumps in the road? (Then again, if you want him to chime in on the NFL referee crisis or appear as self-proclaimed eye candy on the worst show on television, he's your guy!)

Image courtesy of reader Pseud O'Nym

Mark Steyn mentioned the Camp Bastion attack in a recent interview, noting that "a bunch of goatherds  destroyed a squadron's worth of aircraft" and "it didn't even make the papers." Which it didn't. Paired with the very successful attack on our ambassador and consulate in Benghazi (see "catastrophic intelligence loss" and "Benghazi consulate security didn’t meet minimum standards"), it's hard not to agree with Mark:

The “bumps in the road” (in the President’s exquisite formulation) are not just the corpses of real Americans but the charred husk of superpower credibility.

Read the rest.

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Many thanks to Pewsitter for the link.
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Michelle's hunger games

Michelle Obama's new lunch program is now in place, and since it not only costs more, but is so inadequate that kids are actually going hungry, we can call it, like every other Obama program from the stimulus and the green energy scams to the non-existent jobs programs and Obamacare, a Complete and Utter Success. Kids and parents may disagree but that's just because they don't know what's good for them. Michelle does. The name of the program was a sure predictor of its results:

Children and parents across the country are fed up with the restrictive new school meal regulations implemented by the Department of Agriculture under the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which has long been touted by first lady Michelle Obama. The standards — which cap meal calories at 650 for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, at 700 calories for middle school students and 850 for high school students — also dictate the number of breads, proteins, vegetables and fruits children are allowed per meal.

A spokeswoman for Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, who earlier this month introduced legislation to roll back the new standards, told The Daily Caller that King’s office has heard more complaints about the issue during the past few weeks than any other.

“This year, we’ll be hungry by 2:00,” one student, Zach Eck, told KAKETV in Kansas. “We would eat our pencils at school if they had nutritional value.”

Iowa mom Robin Wissink told TheDC that she now provides her autistic daughter Molly, a junior in high school, with a bag lunch because her school’s new menu is so unappealing.Students at St. Mark’s in Colwich, Kan. have also been “brown bagging” their meals.

And some student-athletes in Wisconsin are arguing that the calorie caps hit them especially hard, given their intense workouts and scrimmages.

“A lot of us are starting to get hungry even before the practice begins,” Mukwonago High senior Nick Blohm told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Our metabolisms are all sped up."

It's all in a day's work for Michelle Obama, self-appointed nutritionist to the world. Though her grasp of the science behind why we get fat is way behind the curve, she's not the least bit shy about forcing her government-issued, scientifically unsubstantiated views on our children, who, by the way, need calories, and fat, for their growing brains and bodies to function.

Anthony Sacramone captures the spirit behind Michelle's school-lunch hunger games:

Hummus? You’ve got to be kidding me. Black bean salad? What are they, in a hospital? That’s not even real American food, like pizza and frankfurters and tacos.

Once again, the miserable communists in the White House have taken a page out of the North Korean playbook and are determined to so weaken the constitutions of our yutes that revolt against the state will no longer be physically possible. Our young men and women must now crawl on their bellies just to get to class, a wisp of an alfalfa sprout dangling from their ammonia-reeking gobs. No doubt they find it impossible to pay attention in class, what with their kidneys shutting down and constantly tripping over catheters.

Ignorant, feeble, and starving: America’s future, ladies and gentlemen! Vulnerable to our enemies! Pliable to the powers that be!

I say we break into these cafeterias with chili cheeseburgers, malteds, and french fries and renew the spirit of America! 

Read the rest.

Suggestion for parents: Say no to Big Brother. Where it's still legal, pack your kids a lunch of high-energy, nutrient-dense foods. Mr. Sacramone, above, was kidding, but it's a fact that the government does not know what's best for your children.

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Many thanks to Creative Minority Report for the link.
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Those annoying bumps in the road

Donald Douglas at American Power marvels at the president's bloodless attempt to minimize the colossal mess he's made in the Middle East, including the murder of an American ambassador: Obama Dismisses His Administration's Historic Middle East Meltdown as Just 'Bumps in the Road':

Is this hubris? Or he's just completely aloof? 

I, too, have often wondered whether Barack Obama can hear himself. I think the answer is yes, but that's all he can hear:



From the perspective of many Americans who aren't Obama, his presidency has been more bumps than road.

You may recall he's used that blithe phrase before, featured here in a 2011 Romney ad:

 

But please take a little pity on Obama. When you're the Marquis St. Evremonde, careening through the streets of Paris, all those little bumps in the road can be exceedingly irritating, almost spoiling the ride. (Flashback to last August 2011.)

Many thanks to Doug Ross and Michelle Malkin for linking.

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Your Saturday Steyn

I haven't had the time lately to keep up with the political news, such as it is -- BREAKING: Mitt Romney releases tax returns! He's rich as Croesus and gives lots of money to his church! -- WHAT'S HE HIDING??? -- but I do try to stay fairly current with Mark Steyn's output, which is plentiful right now because of the release of After America in paperback. (Buy it.)

So, in case you missed it, here's the transcript of Thursday's hour-long talk with Mark. It's loaded with good stuff, but I particularly appreciated his analysis of how Barack Obama got to be the way he is:

MS: . . . he reminds me less of an anti-colonialist than in fact when you see him acting as president, he reminds me more of these occasional viceroys you find in dusty British colonies slumming it on the edge of the map, and giving the impression that they’re far too grand for the job. He is the first president who gives off the whiff that he’s just doing it until something more commensurate with his talents comes along. So I have a slightly different view from Dinesh D’Souza. But what I think is at the heart of it is that he is all too typical of a kind of complacent, pampered and cosseted elite of no achievement.
. . . I’m a believer in elites, and I’m a believer in achievement. But the idea that a guy has a million bucks worth of education at Occidental, Columbia, Harvard Law, and he becomes a community organizer, he becomes a Constitutional scholar who doesn’t actually teach anything, he has this charmed life, he’s just wafted upwards until a combination of circumstances gives him the ultimate waft in 2008, and becomes president. And he’s someone who, to use an old Rumsfeld line, doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He has this kind of invincible ignorance, so that when something happens, he goes off and he flies in to Cairo and gives his usual speech, and he thinks okay, that’s it, that’s the Muslim world taken care of, next. And then when it all explodes and blows up in his face, he’s not even interested enough to try and find out what’s going on here. And I think it’s that perfect pampered, cosseted, invincible ignorance. And if you’ve ever been on an American college campus, and just tried to plant a new thought in this sort of indestructible faculty lounge group think, you’ll be very familiar with the way Obama approaches these things.
HH: Now Mark Steyn, if he were to read After America, something I believe George W. Bush probably did, and if he didn’t when it first came out, he will do in the paperback now, but if the President were actually to read this, do you suspect there is a lot in here he would not know, and much that he would not understand?
MS: I think certainly.
HH: Yup. MS: I mean, obviously I like President Bush in part because he did read. When America Alone came out, he did read that book.
HH: I’m talking about President Obama, though, reading this and not understanding.
MS: I think yes, I think President Obama would simply not recognize the world as portrayed there. And I think that’s simply because he’s in a self-flattering environment. Even if he were the centrist he presented himself as in 2008, I say somewhere in the book, on you know, whatever it is, Page 139, that if you look at the actual neighborhood in Chicago in which he lives, where would his idea of the American center be? And I’m not saying just to get stuff out of the way, what is worrying to me is that, and I say this as a foreigner, is that when you emigrate to a country, you become very aware that you’re not, that rituals are not instinctive to you, so that if you go to Memorial Day on a small town common, you have to remember oh wait, do I put my hand on my heart at this point? And wait a minute, this is, what is this, this is the Pledge of Allegiance? It’s this form of words, isn’t it? It’s not instinctive to you. You always have to think about it. And what I find fascinating about Obama is that so many of the rituals of American life seem alien to him, not because he was born in the coastal hospital in Mombasa, but because of the world in which he’s been marinated in Chicago.

On video, Mark's appearance with an irate Larry Kudlow was fun to watch. And if you like Michael Coren, as I do, you'll enjoy his chat with Mark here.

And don't forget Mark's weekend column: Barack and Hillary at the Movies

Obama and Clinton's two-on-the-aisle act cost $70,000 of taxpayers' money. That may not sound much in the 16 trillion-dollar sinkhole of Washington, but it's a pretty big ad buy in Islamabad, and an improper use of public monies. If government functionaries want to do movie reviews, they should have a PBS fundraiser, offering a "Barack & Hill At The Movies" logo-ed burqa for pledges of over $100, and a complimentary clitoridectomy for pledges over $500. I fought a long battle for freedom of expression north of the border when the Canadian Islamic Congress attempted to criminalize my writing, and I'm proud to say I played a modest role in getting Parliament to strike down a shameful law and restore a semblance of free speech to a country tha should never have lost it. So I know a little about how the Western world is shuffling into a psychological bondage of its own making, and it's no small thing when the First Amendment gets swallowed up by the vacuum of American foreign policy.

I've added a link to this part, in case you missed that little story:

The Assistant Attorney General of the United States has said he does not rule out a law against blasphemy, so that's good news, isn't it? 

Read the rest and have a great weekend.

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The "fully vetted professionals" behind the Benghazi attack

If this headline surprises you, you haven't been paying attention:

Breaking: Suspected Killer of US Ambassador Was Leader of US-Backed Libyan Rebel Forces & Former Gitmo Detainee

FOX News:

Sufyan Ben Qumu is thought to have been involved and even may have led the attack, Fox News' intelligence sources said. Qumu, a Libyan, was released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2007 and transferred into Libyan custody on the condition he be kept in jail. He was released by the Qaddafi regime as part of its reconciliation effort with Islamists in 2008. His Guantanamo files also show he has ties to the financiers behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The declassified files also point to ties with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a known Al Qaeda affiliate. 

You may recall President Obama's assurances back in spring of 2011:

"Well, first of all, I think it's important to note that -- the people that we've met with have been fully vetted. So, we have -- a clear sense of who they are. And so far, they're saying the right things. And most of them are professionals, lawyers, doctors -- people who appear to be credible. That doesn't mean that all the people -- among all the people who opposed -- Qaddafi, there might not be elements that are unfriendly to the United States and our interests. ... And that's why I think it's important for us not to -- jump in with both feet."

What are the rebels' goals, beyond just removing Qaddafi from power?

"Well," Mr. Obama said, "so far, as I've said, they -- they've said the right thing. They'd like to see -- free and fair elections. They believe that -- human rights need to be respected inside of Libya. And so, if you look at the documents that they've forbear -- prepared and presented -- I think that -- they are on the right track. Ultimately Libya's -- governance is gonna be up to the Libyan people. And we can have some influence over that, but -- again, part of what my goal here has been is to protect the Libyan people, to give them the space and the time to work this stuff out, but not to take -- entire responsibility for -- ushering in - a -- entirely new government -- process. I think that that's something that the international community -- has to be a part of. And -- and we'll play a role in it. But -- it's not just -- something that -- that we do by ourselves."

As I wrote at the time, relax, they're professionals!

Turns out supporting and arming terrorists has a way of backfiring on your country. Who knew? Well, plenty of people, actually. But not Barack Obama. What Steyn wrote at the time:

Who are these rebels we’re simultaneously arming and bombing? Don’t worry, the CIA is “gathering intelligence” on them. They should have a clear of who our allies are round about the time Mohammed bin Jihad is firing his Kalashnikov and shouting “Death to the Great Satan!” from the balcony of the presidential palace. But America’s commander-in-chief thinks they’re pretty sound chaps. . . . Credible people with credentials — just like the president!

(Speaking of Obama's credibility, here's a whopper for you.)

Ross Kaminsky has much more on former Gitmo resident Sufyan bin Qumu here.

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Many thanks to Michelle Malkin for the Buzzworthy link.

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A song for all you racist Romney voters

So Randy Newman is still alive, huh? Let me say up front that I've never been a fan of his music. His unique form of vocalizing isn't a sound I'd pay money to hear (though I might consider paying him to be quiet, if that were an option). I'm still recovering from Short People which played nonstop on the radio in 1978 and opened all of our eyes to what bigots we really are. Very deep! (Nor have I gotten over the bumping of Jeff Beal's delightful Monk theme in favor of Newman's "It's a Jungle Out There," bleated by the artist himself.)

But anyway, he's apparently still kicking and caterwauling. And he's got something to say to all of you Americans who don't plan to vote for Barack Obama: You Are Racists. That is all.

That whirring sound you hear in the background is Irving Berlin, a man who was pretty thrilled with the America he adopted (in spite of all those white guys), spinning in his grave.



Lyrics here.

A few questions: So Obama does know how to "handle money" (beyond enthusiastically spending and borrowing it)? And Obama hasn't started his own war, or engaged pretty enthusiastically in certain aspects of the ones he inherited? And why doesn't Newman apply his own (and Country Joe McDonald's) question, "What are we fighting for?" to Afghanistan, where Americans (of all colors) are fighting and dying right now? How about a song about that? But that's Obama's war now, so only racists would criticize it.

I don't quite get the part in the middle about the little boy in Africa, but I guess the point is that we need presidents who . . . um, can run fast and climb trees? The song ends with: "He won't be the brightest, perhaps, but he'll be the whitest, and I'll vote for that."

Is that too subtle for you? If so, Newman explains here.

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Quin Hillyer must be a racist, too: Obama's Dangerous and Disastrous Presidency

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So this really happened in America over the weekend

"Filmmaker" hauled out of his home for "questioning," after midnight:

Glenn Reynolds:

By sending — literally — brownshirted enforcers to engage in — literally — a midnight knock at the door of a man for the non-crime of embarrassing the President of the United States and his administration, President Obama violated that oath. You can try to pretty this up (It’s just about possible probation violations! Sure.), or make excuses or draw distinctions, but that’s what’s happened. It is a betrayal of his duties as President, and a disgrace.

He won’t resign, of course. First, the President has the appreciation of free speech that one would expect from a Chicago Machine politician, which is to say, none. Second, he’s not getting any pressure. Indeed, the very press that went crazy over Ari Fleischer’s misrepresented remarks seems far less interested in the actions of an administration that I repeat, literally sent brown-shirted enforcers to launch a midnight knock on a filmmaker’s door.

But Obama’s behavior — and that of his enablers in the press — has laid down a marker for those who are paying attention. By these actions he is, I repeat, unfit to hold office. I hope and expect that the voters will agree in November.

Yes, unfit.

Scroll through Instapundit's recent posts for reader reactions.

Read this, too: Media endangers entire neighborhood to pursue thoughtcrime suspect

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Steyn

I've tried to cut back on the gushing about Mark Steyn around here. After a while you run out of superlatives, and anyway, it gets repetitious. In addition to that, I often hesitate to pull quotes from his writing because they're always richer in context, each sentence being part of a carefully crafted whole. Also, I'd really hate to spoil his punch lines. So I probably don't quote him as much as I used to.

But I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea. He's the best. There is no second. In these times when reality so often seems a crazy parody of itself, his talent for verbally tearing away the veil to expose the absurdity, and the truth, underneath, while making us laugh, is of incalculable value. Because truth and the right to speak it, despite what our current minders believe, are still important.

So here are a few fresh excerpts which are really too good to miss. But you can't read them unless you promise to read all of the pieces in full:
 
Disgrace in Benghazi:

So, on a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a U.S. ambassador through the streets. Then the president flies to Vegas for a fundraiser. No, no, a novelist would say; that’s too pat, too neat in its symbolic contrast. Make it Cleveland, or Des Moines.

The president is surrounded by delirious fanbois and fangurls screaming “We love you,” too drunk on his celebrity to understand this is the first photo-op in the aftermath of a national humiliation. No, no, a filmmaker would say; too crass, too blunt. Make them sober, middle-aged midwesterners, shocked at first, but then quiet and respectful.

The president is too lazy and cocksure to have learned any prepared remarks or mastered the appropriate tone, notwithstanding that a government that spends more money than any government in the history of the planet has ever spent can surely provide him with both a speechwriting team and a quiet corner on his private wide-bodied jet to consider what might be fitting for the occasion. So instead he sloughs off the words, bloodless and unfelt: “And obviously our hearts are broken . . . ” Yeah, it’s totally obvious.

Bingo!

The Sleeping Laughingstock:

As a Canadian, I’m interested to see that America has belatedly adopted the divided responsibilities of the Westminster system. Proceeding from the Pimp with the Limp show to Letterman to Beyoncé and back again, Barack Obama makes a perfectly adequate (if somewhat cheesy and downmarket) ceremonial queen.

Emphasis mine. Try to find a better description of President Barack Obama.

Lying in State:

This is a security fiasco and a strategic debacle for the foreign policy of the United States, not a liquor store hold-up. What is wrong even with the bland, compliant, desiccated, over-credentialed, pansified, groupthink poodles of the press corps that they don’t hoot and jeer at Victoria Nuland? I know why she’s doing it; I know why Hillary Clinton is desperately trying to suggest that some movie trailer on YouTube is the reason that a mob in Benghazi knows the location of the US Ambassador’s safe house. But why would anybody else even pretend to take this stuff seriously? Elderly Soviet propagandists must be wondering why they wasted their time jamming radio transmitters and smashing printing presses when they could just have sent everyone to Columbia Journalism School.

I've been sputtering incoherently for days about the liberal media's "handling" of this story. Mark Steyn does them justice in one paragraph.

His great book After America is now out in paperback. Being neck-deep in reception prep for my daughter's wedding, I probably won't be able to plug it properly. So just go buy it, please, and grab some extra copies for Christmas gifts. While you're at it, pick up a dozen or so copies of America Alone, which the events of last week have proven to be as relevant as ever.

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Political ad: Obama's priorities

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Yard sales for Obama?

Yes, little people across America, you can! In addition to your wedding, anniversary, birthday, and bah mitzvah gifts, Obama wants that small pile of cash you'll get after selling off your pathetic garage-cluttering assets. Empty space will be all the rage during Obama's second term:



Next up: an Obama campaign video telling us to dig (deeper, please) under the sofa cushions. And remember that old coat you haven't worn in years? Maybe you left a couple of dollars in the pocket. Do the right thing and send every last nickel to Obama (including the proceeds from the coat). Because he's doing such a great job or something. So what if our ambassadors are being murdered, al-Qaeda flags are flying over our embassies, our credit is being downgraded, and our personal wealth is evaporating?

My advice: Hang on to the few assets, however humble, you have left. Four more years of Obamanomics will bleed you dry. That heap of useless junk in your garage may be unsightly, but it's your children's inheritance.

Hat tip to Bluegress Pundit.

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Obama: Too brilliant for briefings

I linked to this in the previous post but I think it deserves more attention.

Barack Obama's invincible arrogance strikes again. Marc Thiessen:

When I asked National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor if the president had attended any meetings to discuss the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) since Sept. 5, he repeatedly refused to answer. He noted that Obama had attended a principals meeting of the National Security Council on Sept. 10 and reiterated that he reads the PDB. “As I’ve told you every time you ask, the President gets his PDB every day,” Vietor told me by e-mail, adding this swipe at Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush: “Unlike your former boss, he has it delivered to his residence in the morning and not briefed to him.” (This new line of defense was echoed this morning by my Post colleague, Dana Milbank, who writes that Bush was briefed every day by his intelligence advisers because he “decided he would prefer to read less.”)

Vietor’s reply is quite revealing. It is apparently a point of pride in the White House that Obama’s PDB is “not briefed to him.” In the eyes of this administration, it is a virtue that the president does not meet every day with senior intelligence officials. This president, you see, does not need briefers. He can forgo his daily intelligence meeting because he is, in Vietor’s words, “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”

Truly sophisticated consumers of intelligence don’t see it as a sign of weakness to “be briefed” by the experts. Most of us, if we subscribed to a daily report on, say, astrophysics, would probably need some help interpreting it. But when it comes to intelligence, Obama is apparently so brilliant he can absorb the most complicated topics by himself in his study. He does not need to sit down for up to an hour a day with top intelligence officials, or hold more than 100 “deep dives” in which he invites CIA analysts into the Oval Office and gives them direct access to the commander in chief to discuss their areas of expertise. Such meetings are crutches this president does not need. Written briefings, questions and comments are enough. Obama has more important things to do — such as attend Las Vegas fundraisers.

Read the whole thing.

Barack Obama's arrogance is no small personal flaw but rather a source of destruction and misery to the US and the world. His confident ignorance and lack of interest in the most important aspect of his job, protecting our national security, will inevitably have consequences. We're seeing this week how disastrous some of them can be.

Update: Anti-American protests rage across Middle East; Marines arrive in Yemen after embassy attack, protests spread

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Many thanks to Michelle Malkin for linking.

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More unfit than incompetent

Some call him incompetent, but does that descriptor apply when the subject isn't even trying? More often than not, President Obama doesn't bother to attend his daily national security briefings. He's so darn smart he's miraculously already briefed, and even more wonderful to behold, he never has a question. We're supposed to believe it's because he already knows all the answers. But indifference explains the empty chair presidency better. The Cliff Notes version gives President Obama all the intelligence his mega-brain needs (assuming he reads it, which is a leap of faith I'm not willing to make).

His chair at the table was empty even on the day after the murderous attacks on the consulate in Benghazi:

The president was scheduled to hold the intelligence meeting at 10:50 a.m. Wednesday, the day after the attacks, but it was canceled so that he could comfort grieving employees at the State Department — as well he should. But instead of rescheduling the intelligence briefing for later in the day, Obama apparently chose to skip it altogether and attend a Las Vegas fundraiser for his re-election campaign. One day after a terrorist attack.

(Video clips of that event here.)

The damage done, beyond the apparently preventable deaths of Amb. Stevens, Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, is significant. Sensitive documents are missing and other lives are threatened. Bryan Preston:

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 . . .

Awkward, that.

It would be kind of nice to have some answers to how and why this calamity was allowed to happen. But, since the president's not really into answering questions about national security crises or terrorist attacks on Americans, perhaps someone could prevail upon the Pimp with the Limp to bring that up next time Obama calls in to his hip radio show. Or maybe we could get Jay-Z to ask him on Tuesday why nothing was done to secure the embassies in Cairo and Libya, in spite of warnings. The administration kinda-sorta denies they had credible information well in advance of attacks in Benghazi. But the official account of what happened there, sketchy as it is, doesn't make sense. Please read John HInderaker's analysis of the nonsensical timeline we've been given. A bit:

The explanation of how Stevens died from smoke inhalation is curious at best:

Mr Stevens, it is believed, was left in the building by the rest of the staff after they failed to find him in dense smoke caused by a blaze which had engulfed the building.

So they fled the building without the Ambassador? And where were the terrorists at that point? They had attacked the building with RPGs, as I understand it, and the building evidently was on fire. Did the terrorists just evaporate and allow the other staff members to leave?

Supposedly, a group of friendly Libyans found Ambassador Stevens lying unconscious in the burned-out safe house and took him to a hospital. This apparently is when the photos we have seen were taken. The crowd doesn’t look particularly friendly to me. But where were the terrorists while that was going on?

Some hours later, apparently, a large group of Americans was rescued from the “safe house.” How can that be? The safe house was on fire. Did they arrive after an earlier group had departed from the safe house, and the friendly Libyans had removed Ambassador Stevens’s body?

Please, Mr. Jay-Z, America needs answers. You can fill the chair as well as anybody.

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Edited to add this must-read column from Michelle Malkin: The Hip-Hop President: All Swag, No Cattle:

Wazzup, President Obama? You’ve got room on your schedule to schmooze hip-hop radio DJs, debate Nicki Minaj’s rap lyrics, hobnob with big donor celebs Jay-Z and Beyonce, and hang with Hollywood gossip TV anchors.

We see your passion on the golf course, basketball court and beach. We see you late night on Letterman and Leno. We see your boundless energy on the campaign trail. We see your Twitter donation solicitations from dusk till dawn.

But when it comes time to play leader of the free world in times of international crisis, it’s “see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya.” He’s all swag, no cattle.

I know I’m not the only one who was flabbergasted by Obama’s bloodless Rose Garden appearance following the planned two-part 9/11/12 jihadi attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Read the rest. We should be as angry as our president is detached. As Michelle said the other day, "if your blood isn't boiling, you're not paying attention!"

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Many thanks to MichelleMalkin.com for the Buzzworthy link.
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Many thanks, also, to BadBlue for a big link.
Same to Larwyn!

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Thanks also to Michelle's Mirror. Perfect headline: Today’s Intelligence Briefing has been cancelled due to lack of interest and aptitude.

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Thanks also to Fausta for her link.
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Must-see video: Michelle Malkin on Hannity

"If your blood isn't boiling, you're not paying attention!"


 
If you know where I can find video of Obama last night in Las Vegas kindly pass it on to me.

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A kind reader sent the video along but I added it to the wrong post. Watch it here. 

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Obama's "tough day" [Video added]

He said it. Summing it up:

- Security at our embassies was apparently not strengthened on 9/11. (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

- There was no security at all for the ambassador and his staff in Benghazi, Libya. Except locked doors.

- President Obama, who bothers to attend only 43% of his national security briefings, hadn't attended any between Sept. 5 and Sept. 11.

- Obama got his 3 a.m. call but decided to sleep through it.

- He made a flat, bloodless statement after the killings of Amb. Stevens, Sean Smith, and the other two still-unidentified Americans.

- He uttered not a word about freedom of speech.

- He didn't answer a single question about the attacks. Not one.

- President Obama headed out to Vegas last night for a fundraiser.

- In Vegas, he compared his campaign volunteers to embassy staff killed in Libya:

“And obviously [our] hearts are broken for the families but I wanted to encourage those folks at the State Dept. that they were making a difference,” Obama told volunteer leaders in Las Vegas, according to the pool report. “The sacrifices that our troops and our diplomats make are obviously very different from the challenges that we face here domestically but like them, you guys are Americans who sense that we can do better than we’re doing….I’m just really proud of you.”

Obama, during his talk with the volunteers, described his visit to the State Department today. “I had a chance to go to the State Dept. to comfort some of the friends and co-workers of the the folks who had fallen and I reminded them that as hard as things are sometimes, as difficult as change is that if we’re resolute, if we don’t give up, if we don’t give in, if we don’t become cynical, if we continue to be realistic about how hard change is but also keep in our hearts that sense of idealism and sense of purpose then over time good things happen,” he said.

What kind of man would use an attack on Americans to sell himself to voters?

The refusal to answer questions on the attacks is almost as appalling as the president's negligence. Apparently he feels the American people don't need answers to questions like "Why was there no security?" or to the one shouted out by the last remotely independent reporter in Washington, "Was this an act of war?" But Obama's policy is not to respond to questions unless they come from groups on his must-pander-to list, and he prefers to discuss his campaign, "music" and sports. The Pimp with the Limp gets the president's ear, but not anyone with serious questions about foreign policy calamities or attacks on America.

Not that the liberal media (with the one exception above) cared to ask him anything serious. Though already well beyond redemption, our media lapdogs outdid themselves yesterday, covering themselves in shame as they played dead to the real, burning questions while working tirelessly to turn Obama's opponent into a fool or a knave for responding to events as Americans once expected presidents to respond. 

We're still in the habit of viewing the media as watchdogs who keep government accountable, but it's time to let go of that notion once and for all. RBPundit on Twitter:

Apparently, not a single reporter has asked why our embassies were unsecured on 9/11. Do they know what their job is? #tcot
— RB (@RBPundit) September 13, 2012

Like the president, they have another agenda. And in a way, Obama's pathetic media yes-men are even more deplorable than he is. At least he's acting out of self-interest. What's their excuse for the nauseating lock-step rush to cover and spin for him? He gives very little back. It's a sick, co-dependent relationship.

Meanwhile, rage boys in Yemen breached the embassy perimeter and reached the compound grounds. But hey, those Chicago Bears are looking pretty good!

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Update on Yemen via Jim Geraghty's Morning Jolt and The NY Daily News:

Chanting "death to America," hundreds of protesters angered by an anti-Islam film stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Yemen's capital and burned the American flag on Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks on American diplomatic missions in the Middle East.

The protesters breached the usually tight security around the embassy and reached the compound grounds but did not enter the main building housing the offices. Once inside the compound, they brought down the U.S. flag, burned it and replaced it with a black banner bearing Islam's declaration of faith -- "There is no God but Allah."

Before storming the grounds, demonstrators removed the embassy's sign on the outer wall, set tires ablaze and pelted the compound with rocks.

 
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Update: Thanks to reader/blogger Leelu for this video of Obama's speech:

Leelu sent another clip, here, which includes the end of Obama's speech. It's definitely not "somber" in tone.

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Arab spring: US ambassador to Libya and three others murdered [updated]

The Americans who were killed yesterday in Libya were Ambassador Christopher Stevens, age 52, Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and two other men, as yet unnamed. 

President Obama has made a statement. Does use of the words "I strongly condemn" automatically make a statement into a strong condemnation? You decide:

I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Right now, the American people have the families of those we lost in our thoughts and prayers. They exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe, and stand in stark contrast to those who callously took their lives.

I have directed my Administration to provide all necessary resources to support the security of our personnel in Libya, and to increase security at our diplomatic posts around the globe. While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.

On a personal note, Chris was a courageous and exemplary representative of the United States. Throughout the Libyan revolution, he selflessly served our country and the Libyan people at our mission in Benghazi. As Ambassador in Tripoli, he has supported Libya's transition to democracy. His legacy will endure wherever human beings reach for liberty and justice. I am profoundly grateful for his service to my Administration, and deeply saddened by this loss.

The brave Americans we lost represent the extraordinary service and sacrifices that our civilians make every day around the globe. As we stand united with their families, let us now redouble our own efforts to carry their work forward.

Note the qualifying remark in the second paragraph. Think of it as a verbal bow.  

But those are just words. Will there be any actions in response to this attack on America? Because an attack on American embassies (yes, plural) is an attack on America.

Now might be a good time for Mitt Romney to convey strength, not weakness.

While we wait to hear from Mark Steyn, read his latest Happy Warrior column, The Abhorrent Vacuum.

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Steyn: The Tweeting Giant

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It was September 11th; where was the security at the Libyan embassy?

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Terrible: Ambassador Stevens' body dragged through the streets

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Wow: CBS: Libyan security team fingered US ambassador to be killed

He said Stevens, 52, and other officials were moved to a second building, deemed safer, after the initial wave of protests at the consulate. According to al-Sharef, members of the Libyan security team seem to have indicated to the protesters the building to which the American officials had been relocated, and that building then came under attack.

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No, of course Obama didn't take questions following his bloodless remarks on the murders of Amb. Stevens and three others. Not his kind of venue, apparently. Jim Geraghty: Obama Takes Questions, But Only From the Right Questioners:

President Obama took no questions after today’s statement on the deadly attacks on our embassy and consulate.

However, he took six questions from a radio talk show host known as “The Pimp With the Limp” in an interview that aired yesterday, beginning with the hard-hitting topics such as the status of the Miami Dolphins and the Chicago Bears.

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One 9/11 hero

Or heroine, actually. My traditional 9/11 post:

Of the countless 9/11 heroes, I've adopted Sandy Bradshaw as my favorite. She was the flight attendant on United 93 who called her husband from the plane and told him that she and other flight attendants were boiling water to throw on the terrorists. I don't think they ever got to use it, but it's the thought, and the spirit, that counts.


Her smile was dazzling. Here's a short video tribute.

Last year's post here, all 9/11 posts here.

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You must read Allahpundit's account. 

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An inconvenient strike

I've been so busy lately with family matters (upcoming wedding, busy school schedule, etc.) that I haven't been able to keep up with the news. Not sure whether I'll have time to catch up today, but here's a fun rumor that caught my eye: the Obamas are buying a house in Hawaii. I don't know whether it's true but it's consistent with my prediction that Michelle and Barack will never, ever, live in Chicago again. Why would they? Obama doesn't need Chicago anymore, and it may be more of a liability to him at this point than an asset (see below). Besides,  it's way too cold and not nearly glamorous enough. They'll end up in Hawaii, with secondary residences in Los Angeles and New York.

Hat tip to Backyard Conservative. See Anne for all the news on the Chicago teachers strike. This Karen Lewis video is, well, a little disturbing (though she is right about Harvard). See Michelle Malkin for more on the thug-tastic Ms. Lewis.

This is good: Paul Ryan: We stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel against the Chicago teachers’ union

If you turned on the TV this morning or sometime today, you probably saw something about the Chicago teacher’s union strike. I’d like to make a couple of comments about that because it does matter. I’ve known Rahm Emanuel for years. He’s a former colleague of mine. Rahm and I have not agreed on every issue or on a lot of issues, but Mayor Emanuel is right today in saying that this teacher’s union strike is unnecessary and wrong. We know that Rahm is not going to support our campaign, but on this issue and this day we stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

We stand with the children and we stand with the families and the parents of Chicago because education reform, that’s a bipartisan issue. This does not have to divide the two parties. And so, we were going to ask, where does President Obama stand? Does he stand with his former Chief of Staff Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the children and the parents, or does he stand with the union? On issues like this, we need to speak out and be really clear. In a Romney-Ryan administration we will not be ambiguous, we will stand with education reform, we will champion bipartisan education reforms. This is a critical linchpin to the future of our country, to our economy, to make sure that our children go to the best possible school, and that education reforms revolve around the parents and the child, not the special interest group. This is something that’s critical for all of us.

Talk about a political third rail. Obama can't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole. We know he stands with the unions but the uglier it gets, the harder it is for him to support them publicly. Is it possible the toxic teachers will turn on him as they have on his minions and force him to take some kind of a stand? Stay tuned.

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Morning music: You're the Cream in my Coffee

Good morning. It's not my habit to start Monday off with a music video but since, thanks to Gary Taubes, I've been putting real cream in my morning tea, this song has been in my head. Here's a great rendition by Nat King Cole:



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War on Women: Biden gets cozy with biker chick

Good grief:

A heart beat away

Hurry, November.

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When people stop looking for work it's the opposite of hope

The August jobs report is bad. Noel Sheppard:

The Labor Department released its highly anticipated jobs report for August Friday, and the numbers were lousy.

Although the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent, that's because another 368,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force.

This brought the labor force participation rate down to 63.5 percent, the lowest it's been since June 1979.

Meanwhile, the number of people not in the labor force increased by 581,000 to a staggering 88.9 million.

Making matters worse, the number of people out of the workforce that want a job increase 403,000 to almost 7 million.

That's right - almost 7 million Americans are currently not in the workforce that want to work.

These are all terrible numbers for a president seeking reelection.

And a PS from Patrick Brennan:

The previous two months were also revised down: June’s jobs number from 64,000 to 45,000, and July’s from 163,000 to 141,000.

As usual.

Watch for Paul Ryan's comments coming up soon on CNBC. And keep an eye on @JimPethokoukis.

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Update: Here's Pethokoukis's analysis: The awful, awful August jobs report

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Ad to air tonight exposing Obama's anti-BAIPA votes

This ad is going to run tonight in the Charlotte area during Obama's big speech:



Not only did he vote against saving the lives of these infants, but he made some incredibly chilling remarks about them, as regular readers here are aware. Here's some of the audio:



And here are the transcripts:

"TEMPORARILY ALIVE"

SENATOR OBAMA: This bill was fairly extensively debated in the Judiciary Committee, and so I won’t belabor the issue. I do want to just make sure that everybody in the Senate knows what this bill is about, as I understand it. Senator O’Malley, the testimony during the committee indicated that one of the key concerns was — is that there was a method of abortion, an induced abortion, where the — the fetus or child, as — as some might describe it, is still temporarily alive outside the womb. And one of the concerns that came out in the testimony was the fact that they were not being properly cared for during that brief period of time that they were still living. Is that correct? Is that an accurate sort of description of one of the key concerns in the bill?

And more on p. 86 of the transcript:

Well, it turned out — that during the testimony a number of members who are typically in favor of a woman’s right to choose an abortion were actually sympathetic to some of the concerns that your — you raised and that were raised by witnesses in the testimony. And there was some suggestion that we might be able to craft something that might meet constitutional muster with respect to caring for fetuses or children who were delivered in this fashion. Unfortunately, this bill goes a little bit further, and so I just want to suggest, not that I think it’ll make too much difference with respect to how we vote, that this is probably not going to survive constitutional scrutiny. Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a — a child, a nine-month-old — child that was delivered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. I mean, it — it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute. For that purpose, I think it would probably be found unconstitutional. The second reason that it would probably be found unconstitutional is that this essentially says that a doctor is required to provide treatment to a previable child, or fetus, however way you want to describe it. Viability is the line that has been drawn by the Supreme Court to determine whether or not an abortion can or cannot take place. And if we’re placing a burden on the doctor that says you have to keep alive even a previable child as long as possible and give them as much medical attention as — as is necessary to try to keep that child alive, then we’re probably crossing the line in terms of unconstitutionality. Now, as I said before, this probably won’t make any difference. I recall the last time we had a debate about abortion, we passed a bill out of here. I suggested to Members of the Judiciary Committee that it was unconstitutional and it would be struck down by the Seventh Circuit. It was. I recognize this is a passionate issue, and so I — I won’t, as I said, belabor the point. I think it’s important to recognize though that this is an area where potentially we might have compromised and — and arrived at a bill that dealt with the narrow concerns about how a — a previable fetus or child was treated by a hospital. We decided not to do that. We’re going much further than that in this bill. As a consequence, I think that we will probably end up in court once again, as we often do, on this issue. And as a consequence, I’ll be voting Present.

"LIMP AND DEAD":

As I understand it, this puts the burden on the attending physician who has determined, since they were performing this procedure, that, in fact, this is a nonviable fetus; that if that fetus, or child - however way you want to describe it - is now outside the mother's womb and the doctor continues to think that it's nonviable but there's, let's say, movement or some indication that, in fact, they're not just coming out limp and dead, that, in fact, they would then have to call a second physician to monitor and check off and make sure that this is not a live child that could be saved. [p. 32 of transcript]

Some of Obama's language is straightforward. He actually uttered the blunt phrase, "to kill a child," and nothing could be clearer than his chilling "limp and dead." But mostly he goes for the euphemisms: "temporarily alive," "previable," and "nonviable fetus."

I only recently realized that Obama's younger daughter was only a year old when he made those comments and cast his vote against saving tiny abortion survivors.

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Tweet of the Day

Clinton speech was on as I was eating breakfast in Tbilisi this morning. Waitress asked, "The sex man will be your president again?"
— radleybalko (@radleybalko) September 6, 2012

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Video: Dems were for/against God before they were against/for Him

Proving, among other things, that there is no honor among thieves, that they have no principles, and that force is essential to liberalism, this hilarious episode from the Democratic National Convention is a must-see. It came after they realized they had oopsied when they, er, uh, forgot that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and when they removed the last solitary mention of God from their ungodly platform. So much fail:



Two-thirds, huh? The Party of Lies doesn't mind lying to its own, even on their own stage and in front of the world's cameras. Granted, God poses a problem for them. Hadley Arkes on that:

That was a flash revealing the true soul of this party. [. . .] The real heart of the issue is that most of the people in that hall, in the Democratic convention, really don’t accept the understanding of rights contained in the Declaration of Independence: The Declaration appealed first to “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” as the very ground of our natural rights. The drafters declared that “self-evident” truth that “all men are created equal,” and then immediately: that “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” George Bush was not embarrassed to insist that these are “God-given rights,” as opposed to rights that we had merely given to ourselves. For if we had given them to ourselves, we could as readily take them back or remove them.

And that's the general idea. Read the rest.

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Dems: Abortion is Love

This tweet from Greg Pollowitz captures the radical feminist, we-heart-abortion vibe of the Democratic Convention:

after yesterday's #dnc2012, I feel I'm missing out: anybody know where a guy can go and get an abortion?
— Greg Pollowitz(@GPollowitz) September 5, 2012

From the abortion party's platform:

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

That means unrestricted abortions paid for by the taxpayers. Woo hoo! Bring on the suction machines! They'll save us from Paul Ryan who, according to liberal pet Sandra Fluke, "co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms." Well, no, that's not actually true. Steve Ertelt clarifies:

Fluke is bastardizing a portion of the bill stopping taxpayer funding of abortions in Obamacare that reinstates conscience protections for pro-life medical workers who don’t want to be involved in abortions.

But conscience protections are so Bush-administration.

The convention has been a feminist freak show. Let's save ourselves a few thousand words with some images. Here's a pathetic but eloquent expression of liberalism tweeted by Mary Katharine Ham from the War on Women/Planned Parenthood rally in Charlotte the other day:

  War is hell.

By the way, if we're going to vulgarize the culture to the nth degree (does anyone else remember when the word "condom" wasn't uttered in polite company?) can we, for the sake of accuracy, call this by its rightful name, which is vulva, not vagina? You'd think the experts on all things wimmin would at least be acquainted with basic female anatomy. Please ladies, review your copies Our Bodies, Our Selves.

Another inspiring image from the rally:

If you still believe the pill is God's gift to women, please read Stacy McCain's 2010 piece. (It contains one of my favorite quotes ever: "Ain’t that a kick in the head, ladies? The Pill has not only increased your potential for STDs and infertility, but also increased the chances you’ll marry a loser.")

Jonah Goldberg zeros in on "the creepy eye of Ms. Sauron":

Next to the plaza where the Fox set is there’s a stage and riser with a huge Planned Parenthood banner hanging across the top. It features the slogan “Women are Watching” with the “o” in women done up to look like an eye, with properly attended to eyelashes. Bookending that Orwellian slogan: “Yes We Plan 2012 DNC”

Not feeling empowered yet? Try these enlightening words from Newark mayor Cory Booker:

“Then I heard something that is one of the reflections, an echo of some of the most insulting things we’ve been hearing for a long time,” Booker said, referring to watching the convention. “I heard people stand up and say, ‘I love women.’ I heard people stand up: ‘I’ve got a sister. I’ve got a mother.’”

“That’s like saying you’re not a bigot ’cause you have a black friend,” Booker retorted, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd. “That’s like saying I love Latinos, I go to Taco Bell every week. That is like saying that you are a person that is just and right because you know what, you like Jewish people.”

“But I’ll tell you what you say, you say it with your words,” he continued. “You say it with your lips. You preach it from on high. But when it comes to your actions, when it comes to your deeds, it comes to what you do every day, you are denigrating those very people you claim to love. And so I don’t understand how somebody can say they love women when they are denying women access to health care, when they are denying women strategies to protect their life, when they are implementing policies that undermine all the ground that we have gained,” he concluded, saying he was speaking not only about women’s progress, but also about the country’s progress.

“There’s some people in the Republican party that believe when they say all men are created equal, that they are leaving out women themselves,” Booker said later on in his remarks. “That’s not the nation we are.”

"The nation we are" terminates nearly 40% of the pregnancies that would have resulted in the births of beautiful black babies. Shame on you, Mayor Booker. Either you're wilfully blind to the catastrophe that is abortion, or you know better but have sold out to retain your status in the Party of Abortion. Either way, it's hard to respect you.

So, just making sure: did all you pro-life husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and boyfriends get Booker's message? You don't love the women in your lives if you don't love abortion, because Abortion is Love.

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Afterthought: Hey, you know who really loves and respects women? Bill Clinton, a.k.a. the sex man, that's who.

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Mike Rowe to Mitt Romney on the job skills gap

The great Mike Rowe has written an open letter to Mitt Romney:

Today, we can see the consequences of this disconnect in any number of areas, but none is more obvious than the growing skills gap. Even as unemployment remains sky high, a whole category of vital occupations has fallen out of favor, and companies struggle to find workers with the necessary skills. The causes seem clear. We have embraced a ridiculously narrow view of education. Any kind of training or study that does not come with a four-year degree is now deemed “alternative.” Many viable careers once aspired to are now seen as “vocational consolation prizes,” and many of the jobs this current administration has tried to “create” over the last four years are the same jobs that parents and teachers actively discourage kids from pursuing. (I always thought there something ill-fated about the promise of three million “shovel ready jobs” made to a society that no longer encourages people to pick up a shovel.)

Which brings me to my purpose in writing. On Labor Day of 2008, the fans of Dirty Jobs helped me launch this website. mikeroweWORKS.com began as a Trade Resource Center designed to connect kids with careers in the skilled trades. It has since evolved into a non-profit foundation – a kind of PR Campaign for hard work and skilled labor. Thanks to a number of strategic partnerships, I have been able to promote a dialogue around these issues with a bit more credibility than my previous resume allowed. I’ve spoken to Congress (twice) about the need to confront the underlying stigmas and stereotypes that surround these kinds of jobs. Alabama and Georgia have both used mikeroweWORKS to launch their own statewide technical recruitment campaigns, and I’m proud to be the spokesman for both initiatives. I also work closely with Caterpillar, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, and Master Lock, as well as The Boy Scouts of America and The Future Farmers of America. To date, the mikeroweWORKS Foundation has raised over a million dollars for trade scholarships. It’s modest by many standards, but I think we’re making a difference.

Read the whole thing and pass it on. Obama's obsolete idea that college should be the default option for every young person is not only way behind the curve but harmful to the kids and the economy.

(I suppose there's someone out there who doesn't like Mike Rowe but I find it hard to fathom. Did you know he can sing, too?)

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Valerie Jarrett: The woman behind the HHS mandate, and much more

This fascinating and a little bit creepy NYT piece by Jo Becker is worth reading in its entirety. A few excerpts:

President Obama was in a bind, and his chief of staff could not figure out how he had ended up there.

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church were up in arms last fall over a proposal to require employers to provide health insurance that covered birth control. But caving in to the church’s demands for a broad exemption in the name of religious liberty would pit the president against a crucial constituency, women’s groups, who saw the coverage as basic preventive care.

Worried about the political and legal implications, the chief of staff, William M. Daley, reached out to the proposal’s author, Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary. How, he wondered, had the White House been put in this situation with so little presidential input? “You are way out there on a limb on this,” he recalls telling her.

“It was then made clear to me that, no, there were senior White House officials who had been involved and supported this,” said Mr. Daley, who left his post early this year.

What he did not realize was that while he was trying to put out what he considered a fire, the person fanning the flames was sitting just one flight up from him: Valerie Jarrett, the Obamas’ first friend, the proposal’s chief patron and a tenacious White House operator who would ultimately outmaneuver not only Mr. Daley but also the vice president in her effort to include the broadest possible contraception coverage in the administration’s health care overhaul. [. . .]

Mr. Biden arranged for Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York to meet with the president and express the church’s view. With the support of some of the president’s political advisers, Ms. Jarrett pushed back in her own meeting with Mr. Obama, aides said. And she signaled Ms. Sebelius to “keep fighting — I’m with you on this,” said one former official with knowledge of the matter.

But by January, even friendly voices were accusing the president of throwing “his progressive Catholic allies under the bus.” Democratic members of Congress were fielding calls from constituents who felt, in the words of one, that this was a “big blunder.” In a senior advisers meeting, the president, exasperated, ordered his senior staff to “figure it out,” one participant said.

But if some expected significant backtracking, they were mistaken. In phone calls the next week, the president outlined his compromise: the burden for the coverage would shift from employers to insurers, but women who worked for religious organizations could still avail themselves of the benefit.

“When the president called me,” said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, “I could practically hear Valerie’s influence.” 

Radical and "ubiquitous":

Partly it is her ubiquity, the guiding hand in everything from who sits on the Supreme Court to who sits next to whom at state dinners, the White House staff memos peppered with “VJ thinks” or “VJ says.” When the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett showed up for a private lunch with the president last July, the table was set for three.

Ms. Jarrett often serves as a counterweight to the more centrist Clinton veterans in the administration, reminding them and her innately cautious boss that he came to Washington to do big things. Some of his boldest moves, on women’s issues, gay rights and immigration, have been in areas she cares about most. If Karl Rove was known as George W. Bush’s political brain, Ms. Jarrett is Mr. Obama’s spine. [. . .]

She is the only staff member who regularly follows the president home from the West Wing to the residence, a practice that has earned her the nickname “the Night Stalker.” By day, Mr. Obama is “Mr. President” to her, but in social settings, he is just “Barack.” When the Obamas take an out-of-town break, she often goes along.

She accompanies him on the campaign trail, too.

A couple of facts surprised me. 1) She and Condi Rice are pals:

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice occasionally uses Ms. Jarrett, with whom she has become friendly, as an informal back channel to pass along foreign policy views, officials said.

2) She has full-time Secret Service protection:

A case in point is her full-time Secret Service detail. The White House refuses to disclose the number of agents or their cost, citing security concerns. But the appearance so worried some aides that two were dispatched to urge her to give the detail up.

She listened politely, one said, but the agents stayed.

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