Obama’s Teleprompter Failure (update And Bump)

Evidently Barack Obama’s teleprompter is not programmable.

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) – […]Obama was asked to comment on the situation several times by reporters at a White House event on refinancing for homeowners. Obama, however, stuck closely to the script and replied that he wanted to remain focused on housing.

The captain of the Maersk Alabama. Captain Richard Phillips has been kidnapped by Somalia pirates, and the man who campaigned with words by the truck load has gone strangely silent.   It must be a pain being caught with the wrong teleprompter.

Addenudum:

Day Two and the Presidunce still can not find his teleprompter:

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama has declined for a second day to answer questions about the Somali piracy standoff.

Reporters asked the president about the situation at the end of a White House meeting Friday with his economic advisers. Obama did not answer.

Four Somali pirates are holding Capt. Richard Phillips. He was captured during a failed attempt by the pirates to seize a U.S.-flag cargo ship on Wednesday off the Horn of Africa.

Obama’s teleprompter must be stricted governed to handle no more than one problem at at time.    Sorry Captain Phillips, you will just to wait until the one can get teleprompter programed.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the Route 66 edition

• Why is it caled ‘Good Friday’? Ken Collins does a fair job with that question.
• God’s still here:  And why is it that the left and the press (There’s that echo again) are so busy trying to get us to think that God is dead? Seems every Easter, one major rag or another coughs this one up.  They’ve been doing it since the middle 60’s. Prostelitizing for atheism, is the simple answer, but I suspect, myself it’s simpler than that… It’s about killing what they cannot control.  I’ll point you at KJL’s fine article, today.
• Pirates on the Horn of Africa are flourishing because we’re letting them . In many ways, this situation is analogous to Jimmy Carter’s failures in Iran.  One does really have to wonder what would have occurred had the Crew of the Maresk Alabama not stood up on their hind legs and regained control. Likely, we’d have had a sternly worded request from the UN before the end of the month.   See, personally, I can’t figure what the complaint is. All they’re doing is a little redistribution of wealth, ala Obama. Right? BTW, Jonah mentions we owe our constitution as written in some small measure to Muslim Pirates.
• Military matters: I should add  to the Pirate story that it’s merely one more point to raise when talking about military preparedness, as we were at OTB yesterday. Military planning is not just about the actions you plan… it’s allowing for those actions on the part of others that you didn’t plan for… and Obama seems to me to be not allowing for such action as demanded by the pirate situation. And here’s thing thing… far from being a ‘distraction’ as it’s labeled by some,  It’s part and parcel of the ongoing war on terror Obama would like us to ignore, and pretend it’s over.  As I did yesterday, I will point out again today that these pirates are Muslim extremists. I half expect Obama to try and strike up a negotiation with the ‘moderate’ pirates. (Laughably, Exurban Leauge is working along the same lines.)
• Karl Rove has a firm grasp of the obvious: Biden is a bald faced liar.  The problem, of course, is that in some corners, Like, for example, Obama supporters, that’s considered a plus.
• Liar, Liar: So is Obama himself a liar for that matter. The White House is claiming what you’re about to see never happened. Yeah, I know we covered this yesterday. I don’t care. This is called hammering the subject home.
• Noting the obvious: And lest you think I’m the only one seeing the srteam of untruth flowing from this White House… Check Bruce McQuain, today.
•  Puttin’ on the Dog:  After watching what’s happened with the Kennel Joe Biden bought his German Sheppard from recently, one can only wonder who will deal with the dog the Obamas reportedly want.  Ah, yes… good government in action.
• No Degree for you: Three Cheers for Arizona State.  I suspect what’s happening here is someone at ASU is smelling the stench of failure around the man, and doesn’t want the school tied with it. Good for them. If only the people at Holy Cross were quite so smart. 

My new Pajamas Media  article is up over there.  Here’s a taste:

But imagine what would have happened  if one or more of the bankers in that meeting with Mr. Obama had had the courage to stand up and remind him of of the facts:

“No, Mr. President. The only thing between the Democrats and the pitchforks is us, the bankers, and that’s the way it always has been. You Democrats used us to buy votes with home loans, requiring us to lend money to people who could not pay it back. You left us holding the bag, Mr. President — you and the rest of the Democrats then in Congress. And you need our cooperation to save your political hide from the people with the pitchforks.”

Go and read… and lend your voice in the comments.

Obama intoned a few days ago, mere hours after the Gargoyle in North Korea launched his rocket in direct violation of at least one UN order:

“Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response.”

On it’s face, this call to unity is a farce and anyone who has been watching world affairs in general and the UN in particular, knows it. So, too, however, is the call to action, since such calls require that the speaker be an actual leader, and Obama clearly is not. 

Witness;

Very shortly after the UN Security council got together and was all too typically unable at that meeting to put together any kind of a response to NORK’s weapons testing at all, much less a strong one, what was Obama’s reponse?  He amazingly proposed the US disarm. I say it that way because there’s no way any of the rouge nations of the world are going to join Obama in disarmerment.  The chances of that disarming bringing the errant Koreans, the Iranians, or anyone else for that matter, to heel, is as close to zero as is measureable by the most sensitive instrument known to man.  And that estimate is made absent any of the other indications we have to hand, such as the lack of our Nato ‘allies’ who will take on prisoners from Guantanamo,  the number of nations willing to send combat troops into Afghanistan,  and so on.

All this leaves us with the rather bitter question for Americans… if this is a strong response, what would constitute a weak response from Obama?

Remember, please that all this took place AFTER Obama spent literally weeks on a ‘sackcloth and ashes’ tour of Europe and the Middle East in which he abjectly groveled and apologized for America’s existing, kissing backsides he manifestly should have been kicking instead.  Clearly, given one foreign policy setback after another following these gestures, the attempt had exactly the oppoiste of the desired effect.  Why? Simply put, The message that such as Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ , the Islamic pirates on the Horn of Africa, the current leadership in Russia, and the whole of the world can take away from this sorry display is that there is no leadership in America, anymore.  Leadership means leading. Obama, meanwhile, seems reliant on appeals to what he considers higher authority.

Then again, that’s why they, all of them, very publicly supported Obama as President, last November.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… The Bitsblog Nightly Ramble

This is the Free Beer Edition.

• Take a Bow: Apparently the lesson is still not learned, that it’s not the mistake, it’s the coverup. If nothing else, this confirms what we on the right have been saying for years now about Obama’s inherrent dishonesty. David extends these comments.
• Oh, let ’em all come…   Seems Obama will introduce legislation including “a path for illegal immigrants to become legal” this year. In short, he’s looking to push amnesty, again. the rumbling I’m hearing just now suggests that the votes aren’t there for it in Congress, though, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Right Wing News has an interesting interview up on this just now.
• Taxes and their effects:  So, after weeks of talk of rasing taxes on the producers of this country, particularly coming from Gracie Mansion and from Albany, there’s a housing slump on Manhattan.   I’ll bet the claim is there’s no connection, though.
• Those priates are Muslim Militants: Did you know?  Most don’t know. Funny how no news reporting on the matter, has touched on this point.  Since we have reduced our military ability to the degree we have it should be no  shock why theese groups are flourishing for the last decade or so.  What military presence we have in the area, is forced to sit back and watch as these magnificent bastards take their toll, all due to misguided international (leftist) politics. Cutting the military and restricting it’s actions is not a path to peace. Alas, that’s a lesson that never seems to get learned.
• How many levels of idiocy is this?   So, let me see, here. We’re in a global cooling cycle and have been for the last decade.  Despite this, there’s serious talk now, about polluting the asmosphere intentionally to combat ‘global warming’?   So, what, pray, was the purpose of the EPA regulations, then?  Wouldn’t we have been better off, so far as global warming, to simply continue with coal plants, and more efficient cars…without all the EPA mandated crap, and let things take their course?  We’d have burned less fuel, (Anti-polution equipment caueses us to burn more fuel) our economy would be more stable, and we’d not be trying to replace the pollution we removed at the cost of trillions of dollars.  Of course, all this assumes that these morons who can’t tell us what the weather is doing tommrow, who can’t tell we’re in a cooling cycle, not a warming cycle, and are stupid enough to aver that we can affect the long term environment in anything more than the slightest degree, can tell how much pollution we spent so many years and dollars trying to remove, that we’re actually going to have to replace to come to the desired outcome.  Always assuming of course that their definition of ‘desired outcome’ actually IS desired. By the way, I do have to say that the plan as we understands it, sounds amazingly similar to one proposed by famous business man, Monty Burns.  And this administration is taking this thing seriously. Just ponder that for a moment.
  

  Monty Burns

• Committing Suicide for the Environment: Speaking of the environment, I related a story recently as regards an enviro-zealot who approached us a few years ago. He advised us that the planet has too many people on it, and we need to take immediate steps to solve this crisis.  I advised him that committing suicide thus removing his negative environmental influence on the planet was a far more effective means to the end of solving the crisis, than was bitching at us about altering the American lifestyle.  Of course, he took offense. Yet he couldn’t deny that was the logical conclusion to draw.  And after all, the earth depends on what we do next…. and it’s a crisis, needing immediate action. He did stop babbling.  Ya know, you’ve got a hand it to the Unabomber. He had a heavily underlined copy of “earth in the balance” in his collection. Say what you will about him, I will likely agree. But at least, he understood the relationship between what the environmentalists preach, and the logical conclusion of it.  It’s funny. I don’t seem to recall to many environmentalists labeling him an “extremist”. Or, for that matter, a “terrorist”.  Yet, so he was.  One would think that these kind of events would get the enviro-wchack-jobs to reexamine the logical basis of their arguments, when the logical conclusions present themselves as such.  I tell you with no uncertainty whatsoever, that these extreme examples that I’ve cited, are the logical conclusion of that brand of non-thought. That we have people now controlling our government who subscribe to that logic, makes the way this thing will go quite predictable.
• Meanwhile, back in the sane world, people are starting to catch on. The cracks in the facade are showing. The Foundry, this monring:
  

  No one should be surprised that a terrible economy has produced an outcome environmentalists love. Studies by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Information Administration, and the National Association of Manufacturers, have all shown that even the lenient carbon capping standards of last year’s Lieberman-Warner global warming bill would cost the American economy trillions of dollars for each tenth of a degree of future temperature rise avoided. Our own Center for Data Analysis shows Lieberman-Warner would have cost the U.S. economy $4.8 trillion by 2030.

  The greatest trick the environmental left ever pulled was to convince the drive-by media that “cap-and-trade” was a “free market” solution to global warming. Hence the New York Times once reported with a straight face that Lieberman-Warner would create “one of the biggest markets in the world, estimated to be worth over $200 billion a year.” Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality cap and trade is nothing more than the largest tax increase in American history. And the left is finally beginning to admit it.

  Yeah, well, I’m not going to hold my breath that they’ll actually scrap their Gaia worship anytime soon.

• You silly little girl: Heh… The founder of Firedog Lake thinks that just because she’s sold her soul to the DNC, that she was supposed to get paid for it.  And yes, Jane, you are just a stenographer.  I doubt you have the courage to step out of that role. I find it interesting that so many that are on the Hamsher bandwagon on this stuff, were also the ones who were so busy gloating over the recent shift at the advertising wing of Pajamas Media As usual, let reality apply to the left and they scream like stuck pigs.   I’ll let the always excellent  Melissa Clouthier take it from here.
• Most Americans think Gun Control means improving your shooting skills:   By way of Reynolds, I note a Gallup poll. In light of that, it was interesting to Ms Perky interviewing Eric Holder, trying to get him to commit to an assult weapons ban.  Go ahead, tell me about how the press does stuff like this because it reflects the desires of the people. Remember, now;  With that kind of pluarity against such a ban, there’s a fair number of Democrats in the mix.
•  That dirty word is back: The street is going nucking futz on news that Wells Fargo turned a healthy … in fact, a record profit.   Of course, the WH is busy ramping up the victory sell-abrations… trying to sell us on the idea that this was a massive turn-around,  and is all due to the policies of the Obama admnistration. Don’t trust it for a moment. Remember, when these bailouts first came along, Wells was the one complaining they didn’t NEED a bailout, and Obama forced them to take it. Remember? Shouldn’t be a shock to anyone on any level of understand, then, that Wells would be in better than fair shape now.
• To those who have been asking, Donna’s operation went quite well, and other than being sore as heck, she’s just fine, thanks.

B.J. Clinton denied the plan meaning of the word sex.   Now the Obama  admminstration has denied the plain meaning of the word bow, Ben Smith, Politico:

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets.

“It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,” said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Memeorandum has a lot of blog reax, some quite hilarious.   None that I have found that actuallybelieve the explaination:

Achenblog, Political Machine, Neptunus Lex, No More Mister Nice Blog, Right Wing Nut House, Founding Bloggers, Scared Monkeys, aawsat.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Sister Toldjah, Power Line, Jules Crittenden, JustOneMinute, Brendan Nyhan, Gateway Pundit, IMAO, Hot Air, Babalú Blog, Atlas Shrugs, Avid Editor’s Insights, Macsmind, Riehl World View, Alan Colmes’ Liberaland, Jihad Watch, Weekly Standard, Pundit & Pundette, Commentary and Outside The Beltway

The best may come from Glenn Reynolds, via Powerline:

Who you going to believe, us or your lying eyes?

Groucho strikes me as more credible than Robert Gibbs.

Overheard someone just now asking why there’s never been any movie made about Whittaker Chambers.

It’s an interesting question, and the answers  would be very revealing of the state of play with socialism in this country even up to today.

Stink Progress can’t find the democrat whores.   Matt Corley, Stink Progress asks “Did Rick Warren compare Democrats to prostitutes?”    Well I don’t think so.   However Jane Hamsher, Fire Dog Lake, sure did:

There’s a big problem right now with the traditional liberal interest groups sitting on the sidelines around major issues because they don’t want to buck the White House for fear of getting cut out of the dialogue, or having their funding slashed. Someone picks up a phone, calls a big donor, and the next thing you know…the money is gone. It’s already happened. Because that’s the way Rahm plays.

Just in case you were worried, that’s not a problem for us.

A whore takes the money, and does what he is told.    Apt description of the Hamsher describes the leftosphere.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the Free Internet edition

• Suicide by Billing Rates: Let’s call this what it is; the Associated Press is busily committing suicide. The fact of the matter is they need all the good vibes they can get from both their members and their readers and listeners. What they’ve been doing the last several months is a sure fire way to move in exactly the opposite direction.
• Politics from the bench: So now a judge has gotten around to ordering an investigation of the prosecutors who prosecuted Alaska senator Ted Stevens.  It’s an interesting move.  I may be mistaken on this one but I seem to recall the judge in this case being a Clinton appointee. Oops. Yeah, there’s the reference to that appointment right in the linked article, in the New York Times. Well, now we know why the Times spent so much effort on coverage of the event.  Gee, no chance for political motivations in those calls for investigation, is there? After all, watching the democrats ignore the crimes of William Jefferson, Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, and however many denizens of Chicago democrat politics you’d care to name, and yet go all out on Ted Stevens, we all know that the Democrats are immune to politicizing criminal investigations, aren’t we?   I still say the reasons behind dropping the charges against Stevens was to get the whole thing out of the sunshine as quickly as possible to avoid embarrassment for a democratic ministration and a democrat Congress.  That said this Clinton appointee doesn’t appear to be interested in playing by those rules. one can only assume he has political motivations all his own.  That said, this investigation is going nowhere.
• Save yourself: A word, please, about Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8: Don’t. At least, not yet. particularly, those of you in business. The old axiom about never using version one of anything Microsoft releases, would seem to apply in this case.
• Charles Johnson: Kool-Air Sampler? I expect this kind of nonsense to show up from places like Media Matters.  To say the least, little disappointed in Little Green Footballs.  he has apparently decided without consulting with the rest of us that he used to be the arbiter of what is and is not a conspiracy theory, what is and is not conservative thought, what is right and wrong.  Funny thing; He never seemed particularly principled, before. Nor, frankly does he now.  Closer to the mark,  the Kool aid was just too tempting.   Trust me; When Glenn Beck says something, the man has is documentation in order No tinfoil hat wearer, he.   He’s proven that, time and again.  Stacy McCain, notes the same thread, and suggests correctly:
  

  A successful movement cannot be built by a process of subtraction, and this “urge to purge” inevitably weakens the movement. There will always be grassroots elements whose motivations and beliefs would be embarrassing to discuss on “Meet the Press.” Yet the Democratic Party never bothers to apologize for the support they receive from, inter alia, MALDEF or Code Pink, while there are always Republicans denouncing and repudiating some grassroots constituency of their party.

  To that excellent point I would add that if anyone has any solid proof that anything that Mr. Beck has offered on his program is a falsehood, offer it up in comments.  I’ll be interested to read it.  Leave out the words “Conspiracy Theory” and stick to the facts. Barring a reasonable answer there, I would suggest that what’s going on here is what Stacy suggests is “Letting your enemy define you”.

  If Republicans would stop acting so defensive and guilty, like they’ve got something to hide, the “ransom note” hooligans wouldn’t be able to roll them like they rolled George Allen in 2006. Nobody ever credibly asserted — or ever could credibly assert — that Allen hated Indian-Americans. And yet his campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, hit the panic button and next thing you know, Allen’s on an “apology tour,” begging forgiveness from people who’d never even heard of a “macaca” before.

  Correct. And frankly, there’s something that stinks about the way this has come together.  I am particularly annoyed at Charles Johnson, over this one.  I’ve never really paid tremendously close attention to what the man’s been writing over the years, though what I have observed in the past has been good.  But if this is an indication of the way he’s planning on going in future, he can forget about that crown and robe.  Still, one wonders what prompted the change in direction.

• The Right Way? Ummmm… no. Rod Dreher intones, yesterday:
  

  I am opposed, as you know, to gay marriage, but if states are going to have it, Vermont just got it the right way: democratically, through legislative action. Of course it didn’t start that way in Vermont, but that’s how it’s ended. A social experiment as radical as same-sex marriage should not be attempted without democratic consensus. Vermont has that now, and even though I think they’ve done the wrong thing, at least the elected representatives of the people have done this.

  Sorry, I happen to like Rod,  but this makes far too many assumptions for my taste. Perhaps most discordant with the facts, Rod makes the assumption that the legislature is reflecting the actual views of the electorate, and that thereby this wasn’t yet another attemnpt to impose the will of the minority on the majority… that this wasn’t using the power and force of government to change the social fabric.    I raised the question at Outside the Beltway yesterday, if this thing would have passed in a referendum.  Frankly, I doubt it would.  (For those who don’t know, I regularly hold court in the comments section there. )  As I said there, whatever you think of SSM, trumpeting this as some kind of victory for “small d” democracy seems a bit out of place. Big D Democrat seems a closer description of the happening. Even among democrats, and yes the polling numbers suggest even in the far left wacko state of Vermont, the same sex marriage is a nonstarter among the Democrat rank and file.  And yet, we see the state legislature taking this action.

• Vote Fraud? No. Couldn’t be. A side note to the idea of actually representing the people, comes in the form of word that Detroit actually has more registered voters than it has residents.  Gee I can’t imagine why democrats continually win in Detroit year over year.  Can you?
• He’s just a little racist: OK, let’s watch this.

Now… can you imagine the reaction to a white person saying this about blacks, even in jest?  I’ve got a message for you to Gary: You can kiss my skinny white backside.  The odd part about it is you won’t even have to bend over very far.I had a boss years ago that reminds me of him. Both were real maggots.  The kind of individuals you would love to burn down if somebody would give you 50¢ to justify it.   Both suffer in the extreme from what I will call “yappy little dog syndrome”.  In both cases they had to keep running their mouths to let everybody else know how big and important they are .  And of course it goes without saying that Coleman in his infinite wisdom is decided to play the race card here.  Unfortunately for Coleman, that particular crutch is taller than he is.

• I’ve told you ten billion times don’t exaggerate: I notice John Dickerson at Slate today Obama and his proclivity for exaggeration.
  

  Obama exaggerates to free himself from the demands of the news cycle, which he described in France: “In an age of instant gratification, it’s tempting to believe that every problem can and should be solved in the span of a week. When these problems aren’t solved, we conclude that our efforts to solve them must have been in vain.” When it comes to the economy, polls show that people are very patient. What Obama hopes to do though this exaggerated description is make all criticism seem like an irrational rush to judgment..

  Which is an interesting observation, given that 90% of his campaign was a rush to judgment about the Bush economic policies and the Bush policies in the Middle East, most of which in both cases Obama himself has adopted.

• Keep to the code: I note with increased alarm the sailors ... American sailors, mind you, taken hostage off the coast of Somalia. Reports are that the sailors were  freed.  That said, however, it’s interesting to me that these pirates decided to pick just now after being quiet for so long to take these people hostage.  Interesting, because it happens in such direct proximity to the response to the aggression from North Korea, which was to propose a cut in military spending, and the rather childish notion of eliminating nuclear weapons by Liberal fiat.    Here once again we see that predators attack perceived weakness.  The White House still hasn’t gotten the message that the message they are sending; is that of weakness.  I will defy my readers to tell me what policies that Obama has put into place that make us safer, and how they do that.  That question becomes particularly potent now that we’ve seen results from Obama policies… results which can be considered nothing but disastrous.

I’m at the hospital today. No, nothing major. Donna’s having a little elective surgery. So, if I don’t answer you right away you’ll understand why.

I have a couple posts working, though, and of course the Nightly Ramble will be up at the usual time.

I’ll keep you posted. from the Palm Treo..

American seized at sea, NBC:

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a cargo ship with 21 American crew members aboard, a diplomat and U.S. Navy officials said.The Kenya-based diplomat identified the vessel as the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Hint to the one, this is an act of war.   Do you want to send in our military, which you plan on gutting, or y0ur civilian service corps?    If you can’t handle the pressure, or are just too busy watching HBO, maybe you ought to step aside and let the Delaware Blue Hen handle  the crisis    Mere words, pretty rhetoric,  appeals to the UN and stern notes simply will not do.

Addendum:

Looks like shades of Todd Beamer.   Crew retakes ship,

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – The American crew of a hijacked U.S.-flagged cargo ship retook the vessel Wednesday from the Somali pirates who seized it far off the Horn of Africa, Pentagon officials said

Well done gentlemen.

Stick a thumb in it,  Stink Progress:

President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world has been a welcome development after eight years of President Bush’s “us vs. them” approach. “Let me say this as clearly as I can,” he told the Turkish parliament yesterday. “The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam.” He told Turkish students today, “You will find a partner and a supporter and a friend in the United States of America.” Middle Eastern leaders are embracing Obama’s outreach already.

Personally I heard Dubya refer to Islam as the “Religion of Peace” so many times, I could have gagged,   Here is one blog reax, Daniel Pipes:

Why is Bush So Adamant That Islam is a Religion of
Reader comment on article: The Snipers: Crazy or Jihadis?
Submitted by Joe Levi (United States), Oct 30, 2002 at 07:55

There is an evangelical TV station with affiliates throughout the United States whose news broadcasters consistently repeat that “not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims”. ..

Islamofascists have been waging war on the West since 1982, commencing with the first attack on the World Trade Center.    While Islamists have been trying to kill us and all too often succeeding, the United State has been rescuing Muslim bacon in Somalia, Kosvo, Kuwait and Iraq,   For that the Islamists get mad at us and the Presidunce apologizes.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere: The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

Springtime in Western NY

This is the snowstorm edition.
The picture to your right is one of our fair city as (not) seen by a skycam run by a local TV station. The ray dome was covered in snow this morning. So, try to picture the downtown skyline, in your mind.  Irony abounds, the cam is positioned on top of the local association for the blind. We had 50 degrees here a couple days back. The trees were budding, the early flowers were up.  A common question around work this monring was “So, how was your summer?”  Drivers around here, meanwhile, never seem to change. Give them a break from the snow and when it comes back, they forget how to flippin’ drive. OK, I’ve lived with it all my life, but it still annoys me.

• Did you hope things would change? Seems to have slipped the notice of the press, but apparently Obama’s been defending wiretapping.  
• Note to Bob Lonsberry: You’re either for us or against us. If you’re against us, don’t presume to claim to be one of us.  It’s that simple, Bob.  You yourself called it; You sucked bigtime the last few days. Longer, truth to tell… and I suggest the reason is you’re getting disconnected from the people. Not that I’d ever expect you to admit it. But your reaction to them is the tell take sign. Remember, Bob;  I was very vocal in defending your sorry ass when the race pimps were demanding your ouster. But, here it is; Get it right, or get lost. I hope it’s the former but if it’s not, we’re better off without you as a country and as individuals.
• You know it’s getting obvious when….  Harvard Students take on Barney Frank on the economy.
• Nukes and Obama: Ramesh discusses Obama and nukes this monring at The Washington Post.  Hardly a defiinative comment, and frankly, off the mark, particularly within the context of what I’ve come to expect from Ramesh.  I think far more of David’s comments this afternoon.  Look, let’s boil this down. Little tinpot dictator thumbs his nose at Obama. Obama responsed by proposing to eliminate our own missle defense. Ponder the message being sent the whole world… not just the Gargoyle.  I mean, what could possibly go wrong, here? It’s as Kruathammer observes:
  

  But what makes it worse is that Obama, in Prague, spoke about getting the whole world behind us. He spoke about the international community, which is, in and of itself, is a fiction. He spoke about the U.N. and these resolutions having force, which is also a fiction.

  He spoke about a world without nuclear weapons, which is beyond a fiction. It’s a childish fantasy.

  And what does he talk about? America signing the test ban treaty and working on START talks with the Russians. They are both useless.

  Our only defense, our only incremental increase in our defense against these weapons is missile defense. And what the Obama administration announced a day after the launching of this missile from North Korea? A drastic cut in missile defense, which is our only hope of having something which would be effective.
  The head of Strategic Command and head of our Pacific Command have said in Congress that our interceptors could work against an attack from North Korea, and we are cutting that program and making it entirely ineffective.

  So, he’s weakened our economy, and now weakens our defenses. No wonder the anti-american euro-weenies like the guy so much.

• Removing consumer choice from the market: There’s a reason nobody used it before government forced the issue, James… it sucked sewage at legendary rates.  But of course government knows better. Thats why they forced us to use MTBE, right?
• How not to revive a car company:  So, government says the Chevy Volt will remain in the lineup even though GM will lose money on the thing, because nobody’s going to buy it? Again, government knows better, right?
• Paying more than their fair share: Here’s a tax policy article you need to see.  Reynolds notes the same article and shortens it thus:
  

  CBO: Top 1% Earned 19% of Income, Paid 28% of All Taxes. And got 1% of the vote

  Tell me again, about the ‘fairness’ thing, Barry.

• Bacon: Hangover cure? Speaking of Reynolds, he’ll love this.
• Shake and… bleed… They’re up to around 200 deaths in that Italian Earthquake, but I suspect that’s not going to be the worst of it; The living still need care,and their lives rebuilt. Speaking from personal observation, it’s my take that on the whole, the Italians are resiliant people.  That would seem to be confirmed by this report… God bless her. However accurate that observation may or may not be, their resiliance will be seriously tested in this.
•  I’ll SUE….. but who? Look, let’s call this thing with AP what it realy is;  Uising government to eliminate competitors. They’re establishing territory. They shouldn’t be allowed to, but they will be.

It is well known and publicly accepted among conservative, that Barack Obama’s words are but mere lies.     On the one’s groveling tour of Europe, Obama yearned for and promised to strive for a world as free of nuclear weapons as Obama’s  brain is free of intellectual thought.   The man who promised a post partisan administration achieved in uniting, the Wall Street Journal, William Kristol, Anne Applebaum and more.

Frist  via Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Magazine, the Wall Street Journal:

“Rarely has a Presidential speech been so immediately and transparently divorced from reality as Mr. Obama’s in Prague. The President delivered a stirring call to banish nuclear weapons at the very moment that North Korea and Iran are bidding to trigger the greatest proliferation breakout in the nuclear age?

William Kristol,  Washington Post :

In Prague on Sunday, President Obama committed his administration to putting us on a “trajectory” toward “a world without nuclear weapons.”

Of course, we had a world without nuclear weapons not so long ago — say, in 1939.

Anne Applebaum, Slate

Forgive me for joining the chorus of cynics, but there is no evidence that U.S. nuclear arms reductions have ever inspired others to do the same. All the world’s more recent nuclear powers-Israel, India, Pakistan-acquired their weapons well after such talks began more than 40 years ago.

As for the North Koreans, they chose the very day of the Prague speech to launch (unsuccessfully) an experimental missile. In its wake, neither China nor Russia wanted to condemn the launch, since to do so might set a precedent uncomfortable for them. “Every state has the right to the peaceful use of outer space,” said a Russian U.N. envoy. His government does want arms-reduction talks, it is true, but only because the Russian nuclear arsenal is rapidly deteriorating. By agreeing to start them, we’ve unnecessarily handed over a bargaining chip.

 And last and most interesting, via Skanderbeg, Red State, Moscow Times:

Because Russia’s conventional forces are so weak, the Kremlin relies heavily on its nuclear arms for national security. The country’s nuclear arsenal is the only military component that gives it weight in dealing with the United States and China. This is precisely why Russia’s military strategists see Obama’s call for a decrease in nuclear weapons as another attempt to decrease Moscow’s influence. They fear that once Russia’s nuclear arsenal becomes equal to that of China, Britain and France, Moscow will end up on the sidelines of global affairs.

Note that the chief population group which would benefit from Barack Hussein Obama’s plan to disarm would be Muslims.   Of course, as Obama is a moron, empowering Muslims may not necesarily be Obama’s intent.

[Barack Obama] epitomizes arrogance, dismissiveness, derision, and duplicity toward the American taxpayers and his own party. The president was elected with the grand expectation that he would transform the way Washington does business, but his new scheme of circumventing Congress is nothing more than the old policies of the Chicago political machine

Kim Priestap, Pajamas Media.