Friday, September 28, 2012

The Problem We Face


“We have no government armed with powers capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion,” John Adams said. “Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Obama Knew

...within 24 hours that the Libyan attack was the work of an al-Qaeda affiliate. We also had the "return address" of one of the leaders. Nevertheless, for almost two weeks the Obama Administration has continued to push the fantasy that it was the spontaneous action of a crowd inflamed by this stupid movie that got our ambassador and his security people killed.  Even John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, can no longer handle the stench and has sent a formal letter to the Administration to explain what it knew and when about this terrible episode. What will it take for the American people to wake up?
www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/26/u-s-officials-knew-libya-attacks-were-work-of-al-qaeda-affiliates.html

We Don't Mess Around

When the U.S. snubs somebody, we don't mess around! Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is in New York for the opening of the UN. President Obama was much too busy to meet with him because he had to appear on The View and attend a lot of fund raisers. Now it turns out that Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the UN was similarly  "crushed" by her schedule and just couldn't make it to hear Netanyahu's address to the General Assembly. I mean it was only Iran going nuclear that he was talking about. What a kidder! Why waste our time?

If it's this bad now before the election, we can only imagine how U.S.-Israeli relations will look if Obama is reelected.

townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/09/28/us_embassador_susan_rice_skipped_netanyahu_speech

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Ganging Up

It's time to take a day off from politics and international relations and look at something really important - fishing. Let me introduce you to the Alabama rig. It's the hottest thing on the pro bass circuit right now and I had never seen it until last night. I wonder how many trailers you could rig on this setup - 15 or 20? You could troll it behind your boat like a towed array sonar. Amazing. I have to dig into Oregon's fishing regulations to see if it's permitted here but assuming that it is, it's worth a try!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Crisis Management

This is a great shot of President Obama in action handling the multiple crises affecting the United States. He was so busy that he could not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, or attend the UN luncheon for heads of state. How do we find such people?

Monday, September 24, 2012

Oregon's Rail Heritage on Display

The Oregon Rail Heritage Center opened this weekend and showcased the three steam locomotives making their home in Portland. SP 4449, SP&S 700, OR&N 197 stood proudly by as the many visitors walked through the new facility adjacent to OMSI. It is a nice new Oregon tourist destination and definitely worth a trip, especially in combination with an OMSI visit. 

www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/09/oregon_rail_center_is_now_arri.html

Goodbye to One Tax Cut

In addition to the Bush tax cuts, which expire at the end of this year, President Obama reduced the withholding tax paid by individuals on their Social Security by 2% to stimulate the economy. The President's 2013 budget does not propose continuing it and now Nancy Pelosi has weighed in that she too thinks that it's time to start taking the crumbs aways from the peons. If you were wondering what a second Obama term might look like, wonder no more.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/22/Pelosi--Dont-extend-payroll-tax-cut-next-year

Saturday, September 22, 2012

In the Meantime - Nothing but the Best

Our ambassador to Libya is brutally murdered, unemployment stays above 8% and even more people drop totally out of the workforce, the budget is hemorrhaging red ink and President Obama is... drinking $800 a bottle champagne from solid gold bottles with Jay-Z. What a guy! He feels our pain! Incidentally, I had to go to an English paper for this photo as the U.S. media totally blacked it out.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205541/280-000-champagne-tower-Obama-fundraiser-Jay-Z-Beyonce-Manhattan-night-club.html

Can't Touch That!


Friday, September 21, 2012

Post Mortem on Obama's Cairo Doctrine


The Islamic world is aflame against the U.S. At last count, 33 Islamic nations had violent protests against America. Charles Krauthammer does a retrospective of President Obama's "reset" of U.S. policy known as the "Cairo Doctrine":

"In the week following 9/11/12 something big happened: the collapse of the Cairo Doctrine, the centerpiece of President Obama’s foreign policy. It was to reset the very course of post-9/11 America, creating, after the (allegedly) brutal depredations of the Bush years, a profound rapprochement with the Islamic world.

On June 4, 2009, in Cairo, Obama promised “a new beginning” offering Muslims “mutual respect,” unsubtly implying previous disrespect. Curious, as over the previous 20 years, America had six times committed its military forces on behalf of oppressed Muslims, three times for reasons of pure humanitarianism (Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo), where no U.S. interests were at stake.

But no matter. Obama had come to remonstrate and restrain the hyperpower that, by his telling, had lost its way after 9/11, creating Guantanamo, practicing torture, imposing its will with arrogance and presumption
."

Krauthammer then gives us the result of this "enlightened" policy:

"Sovereign U.S. territory is breached and U.S. interests are burned. And what is the official response? One administration denunciation after another — of a movie trailer! A request to Google to “review” the trailer’s presence on YouTube. And sheriff’s deputies’ midnight “voluntary interview” with the suspected filmmaker. This in the land of the First Amendment.

What else can Obama do? At their convention, Democrats endlessly congratulated themselves on their one foreign-policy success: killing Osama bin Laden. A week later, the Salafist flag flies over four American embassies, even as the mob chants, “Obama, Obama, there are still a billion Osamas.”

A foreign policy in epic collapse. And, by the way, Vladimir Putin just expelled USAID from Russia. Another thank you from another recipient of another grand Obama 'reset.'
"

www.nationalreview.com/articles/327951/collapse-cairo-doctrine-charles-krauthammer

The international stage is brutal and dangerous. Foreign policy as practiced by the Democrats in power is naive in its assumptions and therefore supremely flawed in its perceptions of world politics and execution of American policies. Their approach is above all dangerous, as four Americans in Libya, including our ambassador, learned.  If we do not want this same thing to happen to more of us, then the Obama Administration has to go. Fortunately we are just over a month away from the opportunity to make the change that is so patently justified.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Arab Spring

The Mel Brooks' movie The Producers is about a couple of producers trying to produce a flop for tax purposes. To make sure it fails they title it "Springtime for Hitler" and make it a musical. It could be the background music for what we are now seeing in the Middle East.

Yesterday our embassies in both Cairo and Tripoli, Libya were sacked and burned and killed four including the American ambassador to Libya. My blog on November 27, 2011 questioned whether we were seeing an Arab Spring, as the media so breathlessly reported at the time, or the start of an Arab Winter with these societies beginning their trek back to the 5th century. I think we may now have the answer.

news.yahoo.com/u-ambassador-libya-three-staff-killed-rocket-attack-091505030.html

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

9/11 Forgotten?

Today's Statesman Journal carried a front page article that 70% of Americans says they have "moved on" from the events of September 11, 2001. That's very unfortunate because most assuredly the jihadists have not. They remain dedicated to the overthrow of the Great Satan and although they are in retreat now thanks to the excellent efforts of the U.S. military and our intelligence services, they are like a MRSA infection that roars back when the pressure is off. Our public has "moved on", we are about to cut our military budget by 11% - look for an encore performance in our future. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. 

www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20120911/NEWS/309110030/Some-don-t-plan-marking-9-11?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Monday, September 10, 2012

Executive Summary of Obamacare


                                         (Tip o' the hat to Lisa Wipf)

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Head Iranian Mullah Endorses Occupy Wall Street

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei endorsed the Occupy Wall Street movement. You are known by the company you keep.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/08/30/Ayatollah-Khamenei-Embraces-The-Occupy-Wall-Street-Movement

Presidential Visit to Storm-Ravaged Louisiana

It was good to see President ... er Presidential Candidate Romney making a personal visit to hurricane flooded Louisiana. He left the campaign trail to do so, as Louisiana's electoral votes are expected to go Republican.The current occupier of the White House was elsewhere in the country attending numerous fund raising rallies (7 to be precise) but he expects to wander by on Monday. Yessir, cold-hearted Republicans just don't care.