The Dangers of Dissent

Conservatives, be on notice. Any criticism of Obama, no matter how legitimate it may be, is going to be labeled racism.

I guess that's the big advantage for the left of electing a black president.

TEA Party? Racist. Opposition to socialism? Racist. Opposition to NaziCare? Racist. Opposition to Cap and Trade? Racist. Opposition to Cash for Clunkers, the Generational Theft Act, TARP, etc. Racist.

This tactic used to be effective. One case study is the 2006 Virginia Senate race, and the destruction of George Allen's re-election campaign. A presidential contender was destroyed by a leftopathic lie, despite the fact that the charge of racism was utter nonsense.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden's insult to Native-American people went unremarked and unnoticed in the MainStreamMedia.

The media has also ignored the real significance of the Obama Joker poster. It isn't racism. It's a sign of America's rude awakening. The poster showed that backlash against Obama's far left policies has begun. It is startling. Open mockery of Barack Obama, as disillusionment sets in with the man, his policies and the phony image of a race-healing, brilliant, scholarly middle-of-the-roader. Of course, the president's supporters have condemned the image, calling it mean-spirited and dangerous.

Mean spirited? Dangerous? Racist?

For eight years, we watched spiteful and malicious attacks on President George W. Bush. He was likened to Hitler. "Bushitler" was so commonly used, it became a cliche. Vanity Fair even published an image of Bush as ... The Joker.

No one said a peep. Not a word.

Instead, we were told that "dissident is the highest form of patriotism."

And indeed it can be. Unless you cross our Dear Leader, Barack Obama.

After eight years of Bush Bashing As A National Pastime and America Hating, the New York Time's opinion makers are warning about the "Dangers of Dissent." Bob Herbert warned about "right-wing hatemongers" and "gun-crazies." Frank Rich sounded the alarm about "far-right rage." Paul Krugman worried about the "rise of right-wing extremism." Charles M. Blow came out more or less openly for a police state: "Society needs to do a much better job of creating an environment where hateful beliefs are never ignored and suspicious behavior never goes unreported."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear who these people have in mind when she lied outright about anti-Obama protesters, claiming that they're "carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care."

The left employed swastikas for years against Bush. The right has never engaged in this. At leftist rallies for eight years, the hatred against Bush was pushed and promoted relentlessly. The rallies that were organized by the far left never hesitated to orchestrate the most vicious attacks on Bush. The Daily Kos and other left blogs went as far as to hope for, and in some places call for, Bush's assassination.

When one poster mocking Obama appears in Los Angeles - a poster that was not orchestrated, not part of any moveon.org strategy - and it's the shot heard around the world. It's racist. Is dangerous. It's hateful.

Under Bush, dissident was the highest form of patriotism. Now, dissident is dangerous. And apparently, it's un-American.

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Remember The War?

Remember under President George W. Bush when every car bombing and every single Iraq war death was front page news? Every week seemed to bring some new “grim milestone” having to do with the war that the media would hype endlessly? I had a love-hate relationship with that reporting. On one hand, every single US life lost in war is a tragedy and is worthy of attention and should never, ever be swept under the rug for the sake of politics. On the other hand, the media’s fascination with war casualties to the near exclusion of all other news about the war bordered on ghoulish.

Well now we’ve got a new President who, with the war in Iraq won (though nobody on the left will admit it), is focusing on the war in Afghanistan. He’s escalated the war in Afghanistan and, frankly, I support what he’s trying to do. He’s not cutting and running, he’s finishing what we started.

But what’s curious is, there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of attention being given to that war. And certainly the endless coverage and hand-wringing from the media about the war casualties is missing. The war in Afghanistan just saw its deadliest month ever, and yet I doubt 60 Minutes will be doing a special. I don’t think Katie Couric is going to be interviewing any families of lost soldiers. I doubt very much if Keith Olberman or Chris Matthews will mention it at all.

Which is a pretty disgusting double standard, no? When war was a convenient political topic for Democrats it was in the news endlessly, and all of the coverage was slanted toward the side of the issue that was most beneficial to Democrats. Troop deaths. Lack of progress. New attacks from the enemy. War protests. Those stories are still out there, but now that it’s a Democrat President prosecuting the war suddenly the stories don’t seem as important. And the perspective the stories are covered from is all different.

Funny how that works, no?

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Obama's Recession

I noticed that, according to the administration, the economy is still Bush's fault.

Everything in the world that happens that's bad is directly linked to Bush and everything that happens that's good is directly linked to Obama and his Cairo speech. Funny how that works.

I wonder when this will be Obama's recession. A few months back Dick Morris pointed out that the current downturn began about two and a half months before the November election and about four months before the Obama inauguration. His prediction was that at the six month mark (around July 20) Obama will have had the reigns fifty percent longer than Bush during the actual recession. He said that this is the point that the American voters will hold Obama accountable.

I'm not sure if that's true. Polls are certainly indicating he could be right. Of course, Obama has the media on his side, and they will continue to blame Bush for anything bad until the next time a Republican gets into the White House, even if that takes fifty years.

What I find interesting is the excuses.

When Obama took office, the economy was his top priority. Ahead of Iraq. Ahead of Gitmo. Ahead of the gay agenda. Ahead of finding a new church. It's really what he was elected to do.

How many times was there references to the worst economy since the depression?

How often did we hear about being on the edge of an economic collapse?

Now we hear about how they underestimated how bad the economy really was. O really? Whose job was it to make those estimates? Perhaps Administration officials were too busy refiguring their tax forms to focus on the job.

Still, the blame game continues, and now we are getting Cap Prosperity and Trade it for Poverty, ObamaCare and other big spending packages. We are also hearing rumblings about a Generational Theft Act part II.

I don't know about you, but I suspect when the polls show that the American voters are largely holding Obama responsible and not buying the baloney, maybe he'll get serious about fixing problems. Of course, with his world view and his lack of knowledge and experience, he probably genuinely things the Theft Act should have worked. In that case, we'll just get more of the same.

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It's A Good Time To be George W. Bush

Let's face it, this is shaping up as George W. Bush's best month in years. The last time the 43^rd president enjoyed this kind of vindication was when a bedraggled Saddam Hussein was pulled from a hole in the ground by American soldiers in 2003. All of Barack Obama's efforts to cast the Bush administration as an immoral stain on American history have not merely collapsed, but collapsed on the heads of Bush's most public and vocal critics.

Here's a non-stammering Nancy Pelosi talking about Bush last July: "God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States -- a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject."

Don't mind if I do. How about national security? It turns out that support for a criminal investigation of Bush policies yielded an important finding after all: Pelosi's own long-standing agreement with the Bush administration's toughest measures. On that point she's in sync with the rest of the country. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll found that Americans approve of the interrogation methods Bush okayed by a margin of 50% to 46%. In other words, she didn't have to go through the condemnation charade to begin with.

Then there's Iraq. That July interview with Pelosi is quite a goldmine. When faced with a 14% approval rating for Congress, she counters: "Everything I see says this is about ending the war. . . " Well, that's not happening anytime soon. Everything I see says "ending the war" was as phony as Nancy Pelosi's outrage. Hillary Clinton went to Baghdad three weeks ago to reassure the Maliki government that the Obama administration will not abandon Iraq. On top of that, Gen. Ray Odierno said the U.S. might "maintain a presence" in some Iraqi cities beyond the scheduled draw-down date if the Iraqis request it. Did Pelosi mean the other war, in Afghanistan? Obama has done an outstanding job of taking that challenge seriously, and for those keeping score, his pick of Gen. Stanley McChrystal (the man who hunted down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq) has met with the gushing approval of Dick Cheney.

And speaking of Dick Cheney: Not only has he proved to be an important and articulate defender of the Bush administration's national-security policy; his repeated interviews and statements have done Bush the service of drawing fire away from the former president. Bush not only looks wise these days; he looks modest and thoughtful as well. And Cheney's (denied) request to declassify more CIA interrogation memos explodes the myth of the "most secretive administration in American history."

Let us not forget the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility. For years adduced as a monument to the Bush administration's disdain for due process and human rights, Gitmo was slated to be shut down by Barack Obama as a first order of business. Today, the posture without a plan has come up against a bi-partisan roadblock. Thursday, the House denied the Obama administration a requested $80 million to close the facility. The Senate's version of the bill in question contains $50 million for the Pentagon to shutter the place, but the money can only be tapped 30 days after Robert Gates devises a plan to relocate detainees outside the U.S. -- so far France will take one. To top it all off, on Friday Obama announced the revival of Guantanamo military tribunals.

On Iran, the Obama administration is veering from its stance of bottomless "respect" and "perseverance." This week Obama set early October as a "target" to determine whether Iran is really deserving of all that extended goodwill. Additionally, the administration has drawn up benchmarks to gauge Tehran's cooperation in halting their march toward a nuclear weapon. As Robert Kagan put it, "[Obama's] policy toward Iran makes sense, so long as he is ready with a serious Plan B if the negotiating track with Tehran fails." The October non-surprise will be the revelation that Bush wasn't merely neglecting to smile at the mullahs and to ask nicely.

Finally, there's the strange and frankly unsettling image makeover of the Saudi royals. The Bush family's alleged intimacy with an extremist monarchy formed the very backbone of the anti-Bush industry. Yet, upon taking office Barack Obama commented on the bravery of King Abdullah and went on to virtually adopt the Saudi Peace Initiative as American policy. The administration is also seriously considering sending released Guantanamo detainees through the Saudi "jihad rehab" program. A week ago, "60 Minutes" aired a prime-time broadcast praising the same absurdity. The free pass Barack Obama gets on his all-encompassing embrace of Riyadh leaves the score of anti-Bush best sellers and documentaries looking a little less than credible.

President Obama, and the country at large, is finding out that George W. Bush's most controversial policies were not born of ideological delusion, American arrogance, or missionary zeal. They were imperfect but sound (with the exception of our ties to Riyadh) responses to complicated threats. But the validation of the last president runs a very distant second to the most compelling aspect of all this: the drama over CIA interrogations and Guantanamo will hopefully serve to set the administration on a more serious national security course. And it would be helpful if the American public finally dropped moral outrage as the preferred mode of political argumentation.

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Who Said This?

I'm curious if anyone knows who made the following statements?  (All made by the same person, by the way.)  The statements were made about Judge Janice Robert Brown, an African American woman nominated by George W. Bush for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

• Now, the test for a qualified judicial nominee is not simply whether they are intelligent. Some of us who attended law school or are in business know there are a lot of real smart people out there whom you would not put in charge of stuff. The test of whether a judge is qualified to be a judge is not their intelligence. It is their judgment.
• The test of a qualified judicial nominee is also not whether that person has their own political views. Every jurist surely does. The test is whether he or she can effectively subordinate their views in order to decide each case on the facts and the merits alone. That is what keeps our judiciary independent in America. That is what our Founders intended.
• Unfortunately, as has been stated repeatedly on this floor, in almost every legal decision that she has made and every political speech that she has given, Justice Brown has shown she is not simply a judge with very strong political views, she is a political activist who happens to be a judge.
• Judicial decisions ultimately have to be based on evidence and on fact. They have to be based on precedent and on law. When you bend and twist all of these to cramp them into a conclusion you have already made -- a conclusion that is based on your own personal ideology -- you do a disservice to the ideal of an independent judiciary and to the American people who count on an independent judiciary.
• Because of this tendency, and because of her record, it seems as if Justice Brown's mission is not blind justice but political activism.
• Supreme Court Justice Scalia is not somebody with whom I frequently agree. I do not like a lot of his judicial approaches, but at least the guy is consistent. Justice Scalia says that, generally speaking, the legislature has the power to make laws and the judiciary should only interpret the laws that are made or are explicitly in the Constitution. That is not Justice Brown's philosophy. It is simply intellectually dishonest and logically incoherent to suggest that somehow the Constitution recognizes an unlimited right to do what you want with your private property and yet does not recognize a right to privacy that would forbid the Government from intruding in your bedroom. Yet that seems to be the manner in which Justice Brown would interpret our most cherished document.
• Moreover, I am not somebody who subscribes to the view that because somebody is a member of a minority group they somehow have to subscribe to a particular ideology or a particular political party. I think it is wonderful that Asian Americans, Latinos, African Americans, and others are represented in all parties and across the political spectrum. When such representation exists, then those groups are less likely to be taken for granted by any political party.
• I do not think that because Justice Brown is an African-American woman she has to adhere to a particular political orthodoxy, something that has been suggested by the other side of the aisle. Just as it would be cynical and offensive that Justice Brown be vilified simply for being a Black conservative, it is equally offensive and cynical to suggest that somehow she should get a pass for her outlandish views simply because she is a Black woman.
• I believe if the American people could truly see what was going on here they would oppose this nomination, not because she is African American, not because she is a woman, but because they fundamentally disagree with a version of America she is trying to create from her position on the bench. It is social Darwinism, a view of America that says there is not a problem that cannot be solved by making sure that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It requires no sacrifice on the part of those of us who have won life's lottery and does not consider who our parents were or the education received or the right breaks that came at the right time.
• Today, at a time when American families are facing more risk and greater insecurity than they have in recent history, at a time when they have fewer resources and a weaker safety net to protect them against those insecurities, people of all backgrounds in America want a nation where we share life's risks and rewards with each other. And when they make laws that will spread this opportunity to all who are willing to work for it, they expect our judges to uphold those laws, not tear them down because of their political predilections. Republican, Democrat, or anyone in between. Those are the types of judges the American people deserve. Justice Brown is not one of those judges. I strongly urge my colleagues to vote against this nomination.

That's right.  These statements were made by (then Senator) Barack Obama.

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Obama Considers ... The Unthinkable (for the left)

The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The proposal being floated with members of Congress is another indication of President Barack Obama's struggles to establish his counter-terrorism policies, balancing security concerns against attempts to alter Bush-administration practices he has harshly criticized.

I expect there to be a large outcry over this issue, if this stands. Accusations of Obama being a "flip-flopper" from his opponents on the right, and cries of "caving-in" and returning to the "failed policies of the past" from the left.

I'm going to give Obama props on this one. It looks to me like he may be taking seriously the reality that the "terrorists" (if we can still call them that) that are being held are REALLY BAD GUYS and present a threat to our country. At the same time, we may not have enough legal evidence to hold up in a "regular jury trial" where all the rules of evidence come into play, unless they would simply confess to who they really are and what they've done.

There have been a number of times that, by his actions, Obama has said (in effect) that Bush was right on several issues related to Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and terrorism. Of course, the media has not played it that way, and never will.

Let's hope Obama gets it right on issues of national security. If he does not, then all of the decisions made on the economy, health care, infrastructure and other issues will be moot.

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World Apology Tour Summary

During the 2008 presidential race, then-President George W. Bush took heat for seeming to criticize Barack Obama as an appeaser during an address to Israel's parliament. 

It was considered poor form to take shots, direct or indirect, at a U.S. dignitary while overseas. 

But since taking office, Obama has made a habit of using overseas podiums to delicately jab at his predecessor by apologizing and expressing regret for American behavior in recent years. 

The following is a list, in reverse chronological order, of the Obama administration's overseas apologies and clarifications to date:

April 18: "We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations."

-- President Obama, at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad

April 16: "Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas. My administration is committed to renewing and sustaining a broader partnership between the United States and the hemisphere on behalf of our common prosperity and our common security."

-- President Obama, in an op-ed that appeared in U.S. and Latin American newspapers prior to the Summit of the Americas

April 6: "I know there have been difficulties these last few years. I know that the trust that binds us has been strained, and I know that strain is shared in many places where the Muslim faith is practiced. Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not at war with Islam."

-- President Obama, in Ankara, Turkey

April 3: "In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive. But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what's bad. On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise. ... They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated."

-- President Obama, in Strasbourg, France

April 2: "It is true, as my Italian friend has said, that the (economic) crisis began in the U.S. I take responsibility, even if I wasn't even president at the time."

-- President Obama, at the G20 in London, as reported by Germany's Der Spiegel

April 2: "I would like to think that with my election and the early decisions that we've made, that you're starting to see some restoration of America's standing in the world."

-- President Obama, at G20 summit in London

April 1: "If you look at the sources of this crisis, the United States certainly has some accounting to do with respect to a regulatory system that was inadequate."

-- President Obama, at a press conference ahead of the G20 in London

March 25: "I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility (for drug-fueled violence in Mexico). ... Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians."

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, en route to Mexico City

Jan. 26: "All too often the United States starts by dictating ... and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen. And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs. ... My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."

-- President Obama, in an interview with Al Arabiya

The Obama administration has also expressed plenty of regret stateside as it rolls back some of Bush's counter-terrorism policies. The president, for instance, acknowledged potential "mistakes" as he addressed CIA employees April 20 and discussed his ban of enhanced interrogation techniques. 

"Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we've made some mistakes. That's how we learn," Obama said. 

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Obama Tones Down Day of Prayer Observance

For the past eight years, the White House recognized the National Day of Prayer with a service in the East Room, but this year, President Obama decided against holding a public ceremony.

President Bush marked the National Day of Prayer with a service at the White House.

"Prayer is something that the president does everyday," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday, noting that Obama will sign a proclamation to recognize the day, as many administrations in the past have done.

Asked if Obama thought his predecessor's ceremonies were politicized, Gibbs said, "No, I'm not going to get into that again.

"I think the president understands, in his own life and in his family's life, the role that prayer plays."

The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance for people of all faiths.

Under the Bush administration, the White House hosted an interfaith service each year, inviting protestant, Catholic and Jewish leaders for an event at the East Room.

President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush also marked the day with a White House observance, while President Clinton observed the day in private prayer with a female White House Intern.  (Okay, i just made that last part up.)

President Harry Truman first established the day as a national event in 1952. Reagan signed a resolution in 1988 to observe the National Day of Prayer each year on the first Thursday in May, and each president since has recognized this day with a proclamation.

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Barack's Iraq

One of the complaints of the left leveled at George W. Bush during the height of the war in Iraq was that Bush went into Iraq with the idea that he could just throw a bunch of bombs into the country, send in the troops, overthrow Saddam and that would be the end of it.  The charge was that there was no real strategy going in and once there, no real strategy to get out.

While Obama has several potential Iraq's (Afghanistan being one of them), General Motors is shaping up to be a big problem. This has been brought to light with the big announcements made this week by GM. It is clear, at least to me, that General Motors is still making the same mistakes that has taken them down a 30 year path to get where they are today.

The administration's attitude seems to be that they can just throw money at GM without a plan, without accountability and without an "exit strategy", so to speak. And just as, month after month, the war in Iraq seemed to go on costing money with no end, keeping GM afloat has the same potential. 

If that were Obama's only challenge, we could probably live with it. It isn't, of course. As I said, there are several other problems that have the potential to become more "Iraqs" for Obama. We still have the situation in Iraq which seems to be deteriorating, the situation in Afghanistan, which is also worsening, nukes in Pakistan which the Taliban is getting closer to, North Korea getting ready to launch missiles, escalating violence spilling over from Mexico, pirates in Somalia ... and I haven't even mentioned the economy.

The reason that these have to potential to become big problems is that it seems the Administration has no real strategy for dealing with any of these problem.

Afghanistan may be the exception.  Obama seems to have committed to dealing with Afghanistan. We'll see whether he has the stomach to stick it out.

When it comes to the other issues, though, it appears Obama is burying his head in the sand.  Ignore it and maybe it will go away. 

For all the complaints leveled by the left about how Bush was dealing with world problems, at least he was dealing with them.

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