He Didn't Screw It Up

Lord knows we have been harsh on President Obama in these pages.  But when he has done something right, we acknowledge it.  Killing Osama Bin Ladin is a really big deal (insert your language here, Mr. Biden), and congratulations to Obama for being the one on watch when it happened.  Despite the numerous "I's" and "me's" in his hour-late address last night, he deserves credit for being the C-in-C when this one went down.  The opportunities to have screwed this up were numerous - consider:

• He could have done a Jimmy Carter and tried to "diversify" the operation by involving everyone - the Air Force, the Marines, the Army, the Coast Guard, the IRS.  Not only would this have compromised operational security, it would have most likely lead to the kind of catastrophe we witnessed at Desert One in Iran.
  
• Obama, we are told, chose not to turn Osama into aerosol particles with a B-2 strike.  Without a long-form proof of death, the Arab world and the Taliban in particular would have run amok with rumors that OBL wasn't in the compound that got vaporized.
  
• He could have insisted on Osama being taken alive so he could be turned over to the Eric Holder Justice Department and we could have had the entertainment of a trial on U.S. soil.  Frankly, I'm disturbed by reports coming out of the White House that they wanted him alive...be careful of what you wish for!  My guess is that even if those had been the orders, one of those Navy SEAL's, God bless them!, would have double-tapped OBL's brain anyway.
  
• He could have told the Pakistanis we were coming.  Anyone with half a brain knows the ISI (Pakistan's Intelligence outfit) and the Paki army are riddled with Islamists...OBL would have been tipped off long before we got there.  Needless to say, there have to be some very nervous folks in the Pakistani establishment right now - heaven knows what we will find in the seized computers and other goodies we brought out of the compound.

I am sure I am probably missing a number of other ways Obama could have botched this thing, but he didn't.  It was an uncharacteristically gutsy call and he should be commended for making it.  He shouldn't have made such a gaudy "me, me, me" speech last night and he owed some thanks to his predecessor, the much maligned W who can now finally declare "Mission Accomplished." 

The real heroes in this though are the folks that day in and day out get the job done: our military.  As a retired Navy man, I am particularly proud to know that our SEAL's were the leading edge of the sword for this operation.  It is of great comfort to know that the last person Osama saw was a young American sailor and the last thing that went through his head was a US made 9-MM round. As a former Intel guy, I am also proud of the painstaking human intelligence that went into bringing this one to ground.  Big kudos to the CIA for a lot of hard, thankless work.  A big shout out goes to the boys at Guantanamo too - that was where the first strand that eventually led to OBL originated. We don't know if it was during one of the "surf's up" water boarding sessions, but a start is a start.

[Sidebar: How about the ultimate water board Osama got this morning in the Arabian Sea?]

A few afterthoughts:

• For those on the left rejoicing that this ensures Osama's   Obama's (sorry, hard to avoid the typo) re-election - and those of you on the right despairing of the same, some advice from Jimmy Buffet: "breath in, breath out, move on."  We are a loooooong way away from the election with many rivers to cross.  Obama's re-election will hinge on whether unemployment gets below 9%.  As this event fades, people will remember it was the SEAL's and CIA that got OBL, not Obama.
  
• This could be our ticket out of Afghanistan.  The original mission was to decapitate the Taliban and get Obama (dangit!) Osama.  We could use the savings and build schools over here where we don't blow them up regularly!  This could be a moment to declare victory and get out of that hell-hole.  Let it return to the thuggery of the past without U.S. Marines and Army soldiers in the middle.
  
• Spec Ops guys rock the house, but we need to remember they are only one arrow in the quiver.  I am very much in favor of a leaner, more lethal military and the success of yesterday's raid is Exhibit A.  But those guys are only able to get there because of the larger network of assets available to them.  Let's not use this as an excuse to gut the military.
  
• The war on terror is not over.  Al Qaida is designed to be cancerous and pop up in unexpected places.  They work on their own timetables and have probably anticipated that the day would come where OBL would either die of natural causes and old age or be finked out by someone in the Pakistani government.  They probably didn't anticipate that we would figure it out on our own, so that's a nice message to send.  Nevertheless, this will not end until the Islamic world deals with the crazies that the Shiites and Wahabists have created.  To paraphrase Golda Meir, peace will come when the Moslems are more concerned about having their children grow up to be productive members of society and not proud of them for blowing themselves up.  This is a  big step in a very long walk, but it is only a step.

At the end of the day, this was a good one for the good guys.

China Takes Obama To Task

At least the folks at SNL realize what's going on - sad thing, notice how little the audience laughs. Truth hurts!

This Takes Chutzpah!

Obama is now worried about the debt??!! WTF? WTFF???

In an interview with FOX (Huh? Did he have some kind of out of body experience?) in China (They probably told him to do it...) our Master Economist says that too much debt is a bad thing:

PresidentBarack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

Now, we know what a "stern warning" let alone a "sternest" warning from Obama means...NOTHING! Ask the Iranians, they've been "sternly warned" about a gajillion times on their way to their Science Fair project to make Israel glow. Boy howdee, that sure has shown them! How about the North Koreans... So the "warning" part is obviously a joke. And yes, Mr. O, thanks to you and your squad there's about a 90% chance that we are headed to a double-dip, with the second dip looking a lot worse than the first.

Piece of advice, Mr. O, if you are serious about the debt, you would call up your pals Harry and Nancy and tell them to put health care "reform" and cap & trade legislation on ice NOW. Those two pieces of legislation alone - the very thought of the possibility of them being enacted - are adding such uncertainty to the future that small businesses and the credit markets are frozen in fear.

Spare us the rhetoric oh magical one, let's see actions that back it up.

Obama's impact on race relations

A year ago, as McCain's Presidential campaign withered in its own incompetence, a good number of good hearted, well meaning moderates of the caucasian persuasion, convinced themselves - no doubt with the help of a fawning press - that voting for Obama, a black man, would lead to some great catharsis on the matter of race relations in this country. You can see that in the numbers above. We had this enormous split in the tracking poll to the question: "Do you think relations between blacks and whites will always be a problem?" There was a sharp drop down from the mid-40% range to 30% who felt the problem was incurable, while a massive 67% said we were on our way to being healed.

Once year in and the numbers have reversed course and returned to 1964 levels. Like everything else, in this matter, Obama and his administration is a colossal failure. You don't have to be white or black to know this is wrong:

But Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder sees no problem and it is this type of "turn a blind eye" behavior that IS the problem. Martin Luther King exhorted us to judge on the basis of our character and not the color of our skin...this nation has taken tremendous strides, but it never seems to be enough. Race baiters like Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton have free reign, while any dissent against Obama's policies are immediately labeled "RACIST!"

Those same "independent" and "moderate" folks that voted for a cathartic Obama? That "hopey change" thing isn't working out so well. The bottle rocket is returning to earth.

Dismantling our Nation

Thomas Sowell has another brilliant column over at Townhall this morning, titled "Dismantling America." As sobering a read as it is, I feel better...I look at the landscape in Washington DC and keep wondering if it's just me that's on crazy pills. No, plenty of others are seeing the same thing and Sowell is always out in front:

Jeremiah Wright said it with words: "God damn America!" Bill Ayers said it with bombs that he planted. Community activist goons have said it with their contempt for the rights of other people.

Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans, to a captive audience of children.

Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House?

Nothing is more consistent with his lifelong patterns than putting such people in government-- people who reject American values, resent Americans in general and successful Americans in particular, as well as resenting America's influence in the world.

If you have been in a cave these past ten months, read this article, it is a great summary of where we have come to. It takes a while to turn an aircraft carrier around, but they turn quicker at full speed. We are heading at flank speed to the left - let's hope after this set of elections coming up next week that we at least get the rudder to amidships...after 2010, let us hope we can steer this ship of state back to the Constitution.

CNN goes after Obama?

Holy Cow! Anderson Cooper no less...gotta love the Ragin' Cajun's response: "11 people in the Nixon administration went to jail..." How many in Obama's should go to jail for tax evasion alone?

Look, these guys are thugs with a glass jaw. They can't stand a public that isn't fawning over this empty suit.

No love for O in Mother Russia

Wow - talk about being unpopular!

Good thing our stature overseas has been so wonderfully improved! So how is that "reset" button gig working for you now?

More hopey change we can believe in!

America the Socialist Dream

Our recently "reset" friends, the Russians, are pleased that the United States is moving towards socialism. Writing in that classic Russian style that omits an article now and then, Pravda observes:

If everyone had these values, the “dog-eat-dog” principal would be the major principal in the world history. But America failed to do it. There are plenty of “underdeveloped” people in the world who continue to cherish spiritual values. There are not that many chances left to force them into worshiping money since these “underdeveloped” people adopt western technology and become stronger. The appeal to adopt American values doesn’t work either. Why would we adopt the system if the system is in crisis?

The problem isn't that you have cut-ups like Pravda gloating over the perception of our demise. The problem is that you have our friends, and even some countries on the fence that see this kind of behavior coming out of this administration and they are afraid. They are afraid that the only power they will be able to turn to will be rogue countries like Russia. Our allies are losing faith with every additional day that Obama dithers on Afghanistan. We have seen this progression once before - during the Carter years when a good chunk of Africa was lost to fall under the shadow of the Russian bear.

The piece, through some twisted logic, ties in our decision to not deploy the missile shield over Eastern Europe to our supposed recognition that we need to be everyone's friend. No, we withdrew the shield because this President has a hard time recognizing our allies and a propensity to go four-paws-up in the face of what he perceives to be a bigger dog - you know, the Russians, the Saudi king, Hugo Chavez etc.

This is a sad and dangerous time.

Obama continues poll slide

Rasmussen's got the strong like versus strong dislike up to -12...so much for the Nobel bump. I've chatted with some Obama voters recently who really feel duped...in no particular order, these are some of their concerns:

1. They don't like his policy towards Israel - they feel he is compromising their security. (well, duh!)

2. They don't like the people he's surrounded himself with -quoth one: "a lot of those czars are thugs and creeps." (No, they are Maoist ideologues.)

3. They don't like the hard left stance on health care - they favor a lot of the policies that are being chatted about in the reform discussion, but feel that this is something that should go slower with bi-partisan support.

4. They are scared S*#%LESS about the deficit - "are we going to be the next Weimar?"

These are good hearted liberals, who meant well, including one who felt she was expunging her white guilt by voting for a "black man," but who are genuinely frightened about the direction BHO is trying to tow the country.

Obama Achmadinijad Duet

Hat tip Blogprof.

More Mao in the Obama Administration

We posted yesterday about Anne Dunn's nitwittery with regard to having Mao Tse Tung as one of her "favorite political philosophers," now Naked Emperor News surfaces this delight from Ron Bloom, Obama's "manufacturing czar:"

Geez, "political power comes from the point of a gun?" The "free market is a joke?" Where is Obama finding these people to surround himself with so we can judge him?

Double Digit Disapproval Again

Hadn't posted Rasmussen's poll in a couple of weeks - we check it daily and he's been riding in the -6 to -8 range. Odd, that after winning the Nobel Peace Price, the Heismann and the CMA Entertainer of the Year Award that he would be slipping again. What's that little word? "Trust?"

Chinese Textbooks vs. Obama Kids

The Economist is reporting that Chinese teachers are beginning to challenge some of the myths of Chinese history in an effort to improve the understanding of Chinese history. In a short piece titled: "The Fragility of Truth," we learn, for example that:

In Chinese schools, however, the dividing line between historical fiction and history can easily be confused. Children are often not taught to make a distinction. As a result, students lose the ability to look for and identify mistakes, says Leng Yubin, one of the teachers campaigning for a textbook purge. The press has quoted comparisons of these errors to the adulteration of milk with toxic melamine, which poisoned tens of thousands of infants last year.

Funny - they are trying to correct the errors in their educational system while we are doing this and wringing our hands about the poor quality of our educational system:

Obama Accepts the Nobel!

If Obama can receive the Nobel for what he hasn't done yet (and let's pray he doesn't do what they want him to do...) we can post his yet-to-be-delivered acceptance speech!

Hat tip: American Digest

Nobel? For What?

Drudge's headline this morning about sums it up: for what? But let me first say: "Congratulations, Mr. President - that's $1.4 million added to your coffers that I'm sure you will spend wisely."

OK, let me get my tongue out of my cheek now. Unlike some of my contemporaries on the right, I am not angered by this. I find it funny and refreshing on several layers. First, if you had any doubt that the Nobel committee was a bunch of far left, America and Israel hating morons, that reaches inane decisions, look no further than this most recent decision. This isn't a bad decision on their part, it's comical, but tremendously revealing. Personally, I thought the committee went off the rails when they awarded it to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in 1973. Anyone with a brain knew that Tho was lying through his teeth and that the North Vietnamese were preparing to invade. Then they awarded it to Al Gore for perpetrating the hoax of global warming...why not give it to someone who has done absolutely nothing.

Second, my guess is this was a sympathy vote after Obama and his team got skunked in Stockholm last week. Frankly, this ranks right up there with giving the 0-10 kids soccer team trophies at the end of the season because they "tried hard."

Third, this is one Obama can legitimately blame Bush for. This is an anti-Bush award - the Nobel committee is signaling to the world the way they want the United States to behave. We don't want a strong United States that stands up for its values...we want a nice beta wolf United States - one that comes in with its tail flat and rolls over showing you its throat and asks to have its belly rubbed.

Finally, the committee has shown the road map for getting a Nobel Peace Prize: publicly denounce the United States, publicly denounce Israel, talk lamely about ridding the world of nuclear weapons and shazam - you da' man!

Rumbler guess? This will prove to be one of the most shameful decisions ever made by the Nobel Committee, one that they will regret. Even Obama supporters know this is wrong, I think it will backfire on him and only add to the growing chorus of comedians that are finally starting to openly mock this empty suit. "Here's your trophy Barack, you played really hard and I know you wanted to score a goal but didnt'...let's prop up your self esteem!"

The 3AM Phone Call

Stratfor is reporting a chilling leak that has enormous ramifications for any hope of avoiding another dimension to war in the Middle East:

the purpose of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s highly publicized secret visit to Moscow on Sept. 7 was to provide the Russians with a list of Russian scientists and engineers working on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Think about this with me for a moment, because there are a lot of layers to this onion. First, Mossad is rarely wrong, so this list was probably very complete, down to the color of the sweater the "scientists and engineers" were wearing last Saturday - it's not a bluff. So, the Russians, not some rogue North Korean or Pakistani scientists are helping Iran with it's nuclear weapons program. To which, you can only ask "why?"

One big reason is that the Russians, like their Soviet brethren before, live by the philosophy that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend." They are putting down a marker that says Obama is not going to make any headway with the mullahs and the latter will continue to be a thorn in the side of the Americans. Secondly, they need the cash. Russia is dying demographically and economically. Their economy is totally dependent upon oil exports and that's not such a good bet right now...so, peddling nuclear weapon technology and other "tools and implements of destruction" is good business for them.

Second point of concern - the Iranians are probably a lot closer to getting the bomb than even the hapless IAEA knows. Building a nuclear "device" is not that hard once you have the fissible material. Weaponizing that device so that you can accurately deliver it is a whole 'nother problem. You gotta shrink the device, steer the rockets etc. etc. The Soviets, er, Russians, have a pretty lengthy track record of doing this.

The real "why" of it though is that the Russians don't mind seeing our ability to bring a carrier battle group up into the Persian Gulf sharply diminished with a nuclear power all along one side. Further, look at the business opportunity! If you think that the Saudis and Egyptians will sit idly by once Iran gets a nuke, think again. They may all go out and do the "death to Israel" dance, but those two wouldn't mind seeing a wing of Israeli F-16's alpha strike the mullahs nukular plants.

If the report of Bibi going to Moscow is true, it probably means that their planning is a lot further down the line for an attack. My guess is after the attack, they would identify the Russians as one of the reasons they had to move.

Now for the big question - the one that is on all our bracelets these days - "W.W.O.D?" What will Obama do? Stratfor's analysis is poignant:

It is not clear to us that the Russians or Iranians are getting the message yet. They have convinced themselves that Obama is unlikely to act because he is weak at home and already has too many issues to juggle. This is a case where a reputation for being conciliatory actually increases the chances for war. But the leaks this weekend have strikingly limited the options and timelines of the United States and Israel. They also have put the spotlight on Obama at a time when he already is struggling with health care and Afghanistan. History is rarely considerate of presidential plans, and in this case, the leaks have started to force Obama’s hand.

There really are only two options left - war or serious economic sanctions. Continued blathering at Achmadinijad and praying that your dynamic personality are going to save the day are not options. What will it be Mr. President? It's 3AM and the phone is ringing.

SNL on Obama the Loser

This guy doesn't do a very good Obama impression, but it is telling that SNL is willing to start poking fun at the Anointed One.

Obama the Loser

Way to go Barry O!

How many planes were required to fly Michelle and her entourage over?

How much money did it cost to fly the two Air Force One's over?

How does it feel to be the laughing stock of the world?

Mind you, I wasn't for Chicago landing this boondoggle anyway. The city is broke, corrupt and getting worse. Burdening the taxpayers of Chicago (it would end up being all of us too) with this lunacy was silly.

By the way, Obama, did you know there was a war on in Afghanistan? I know that function is only at the top of the list, but could you maybe pay a little attention there?

Nice juxtaposition on the screen shot with Sarah Palin's book launching...this guy is pathetic.

Obama the Phony

Another terrific piece from American Thinker yesterday documenting more evidence that the Anointed One has never - ever - really worked for a living. What he has done is puff up his resume to an astounding measure - to his claim of having worked at a "high powered consulting firm" - the evidence is in the "not so much" category:

First, it wasn't a consulting house; it was a small company that published newsletters on international business. Like most newsletter publishers, it was a bit of a sweatshop. I'm sure we all wished that we were high-priced consultants to multinational corporations. But we also enjoyed coming in at ten, wearing jeans to work, flirting with our co-workers, partying when we stayed late, and bonding over the low salaries and heavy workload.

Barack worked on one of the company's reference publications. Each month customers got a new set of pages on business conditions in a particular country, punched to fit into a three-ring binder. Barack's job was to get copy from the country correspondents and edit it so that it fit into a standard outline. There was probably some research involved as well, since correspondents usually don't send exactly what you ask for, and you can't always decipher their copy. But essentially the job was copyediting.

The list goes on, and you should read the article. It is astounding that this man was never vetted by the press. Now that he's in a "real job," he's struggling. It's a crime to get to the top of a company on an inflated resume - it's a sickening tragedy to have reached the office of the Presidency. Well, as Joe Biden so famously put it, "he's going to be tested!"

Guess he knew all along:

Chicagoans for Rio

Excellent web-site: Chicagoans for Rio! This rush to Copenhagen by Obama is more than passing strange. An adult would tell the city of Chicago, in the wake of the latest set of brutal beatings and murders to clean it's act up before applying for the Olympics. But there are a couple of larger issues here:

1. With the exception of L.A. - has hosting the Olympics ever been good in the long run for the host city? Maybe for Berlin in 1936 or Beijing in 2008...funny parallel - Chicago, 2016...for image sake. Even NPR acknowledges the damned things are clunkers.

2. Why the big push by Obama? Who is getting paid off? There's a lot of smoke surrounding top Obama aid, Valerie Jarrett and her connections to the land where the Olympic village would be built. She has divested her real estate holdings, but we all know how cozy Chicago politics and finances are - can you say "Tony Rezco?"

3. Really now - breathe deep - who honestly thinks that a town with Union labor can get something like this built in seven years? One glance at the WTC site in New York should give you pause.

Well, we will see how it works out...but there sure is a lot of odor surrounding this.