NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: The Economist: Putin dares, Obama dithers, Syria suffers.
If only someone had warned us.
Archive for 2015
October 1, 2015
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Obama administration scrambles as Russia attempts to seize initiative in Syria. Attempts to? The last time someone attempted to seize the initiative like this, they were marching through Paris a few weeks later.
OBAMA’S FAUX SOPHISTICATION: Heather Wilhelm, writing at Real Clear Politics, notes, “If you reside on the political right, you’ve probably experienced the subtle condescension that occasionally erupts from a “sophisticated” sort who realizes you’re not on their side of the aisle. The left, in the eyes of many, is the correct and educated political alliance to choose: They have ‘nuance,’ you see, and ‘worldliness,’ and ‘science.’” Or a wise man once wrote, eminence front – it’s just a put on:
No one can claim easy solutions to the Syrian debacle. But it’s helpful to remember one particular 2012 presidential debate, when Obama mocked Mitt Romney for calling Russia our nation’s number one geopolitical threat. “The 1980s are now calling,” he said dismissively, “to ask for their foreign policy back.”
Amazingly, here we are, with Russia poised to steamroll the Middle East, while our president spouts Fukuyama-inspired platitudes before the U.N. Mr. President, don’t look now, but the 1990s are calling. They want their copy of “The End of History and the Last Man” back. There are some corrections to be made.
Related: Ann Romney: People keep asking Mitt to jump into the race and “we are assessing.”
Romney slogan is ready-made: See, I told you so. (Though being a gentleman, I doubt Romney would use the Kingsley Amis extended cut version, sad to say.)
THE EARTH HAS BECOME SMALL, AND ON IT HOPS THE LAST MAN, WHO MAKES EVERYTHING SMALL.
(But if you’d like a larger version of the text of a well-deserved fisking, click here.)
GANGSTER GOVERNMENT: Investigation: Secret Service tried to discredit US lawmaker. “Scores of U.S. Secret Service employees improperly accessed the decade-old, unsuccessful job application of a congressman who was investigating scandals inside the agency, a new government report said Wednesday. An assistant director suggested leaking embarrassing information to retaliate against Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House oversight committee. The actions by the employees could represent criminal violations under the U.S. Privacy Act, said the report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, John Roth.”
Fire and prosecute them all. Then abolish the Secret Service, an organization that has proven itself to be corrupt, inept, and dishonest on numerous occasions over many years.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Clinton Foundation courted Putin-linked Russian donor.
Clinton Foundation officials courted a Russian billionaire to join a 2012 meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, seeking the advice of State Department staff about the invitation.
The well-connected charity wanted to invite Viktor Vekselberg, founder of major Russian conglomerate Renova Group, to attend the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York City that year. Amitabh Desai, the foundation’s director of foreign policy, asked a top aide to Hillary Clinton if the State Department would be troubled by the invitation, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Vekselberg, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been involved in multiple corruption investigations spawned from his far-reaching commercial activities in oil, aluminium and investments.
Renova Group has donated as much as $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation, donor records show.
She hangs with all the best oligarchs.
“WAR IS COMING. THERE’S NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT,” Tom Rose, former CEO of the Jerusalem Post, predicted at the Family Research Council’s 10th annual Values Voter Summit on Saturday. “Can I tell you a secret? Iran is not going nuclear — it won’t happen. Israel will not allow it to happen.”
“Ponder this,” Rose added. “Adolf Hitler, may his name be forever removed from our memory, never openly proclaimed his goal of exterminating the Jewish people — today’s enemy does.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: No, The Multistate Bar Exam Was Not ‘Harder’ Than Usual This Year.
HUMA, DON’T LOSE THAT NUMBER: Oh how the mighty have fallen:
In a don’t-push-the-red-button Cold War-esque maneuver, Hillary Clinton released this ad during the 2008 primary season, asking voters who they would want to lead the country during a world crisis. Sleeping children, a ringing telephone, the undertone of grave importance heard in the speaker’s voice, it’s all there — and frankly, kind of creepy.
—Time magazine’s description of Hillary’s infamous “3:00 AM” ad from February 2008.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday that Benghazi will be an major issue for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton because she failed to pick up the “3 a.m. phone call.”
The jab was a reference to Mrs. Clinton’s own 2008 campaign TV attack on then-Sen. Barack Obama, which questioned whether he would be ready to answer a emergency 3 a.m. phone call to the White House.
“I think Benghazi was the 3 a.m. phone call that she never picked up,” Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
—“Rand Paul: Hillary Clinton missed ‘3 a.m. phone call’ on Benghazi,” the Washington Times, April 12, 2015.
—“STITCHES: So, this is embarrassing: Hillary Clinton can’t turn on phone. No, really [screenshot],” Twitchy.com, yesterday.
KYLE SMITH: Wacko Dan Rather movie still insists forged Bush-National Guard documents were real:
Blanchett’s Mapes tells the committee that the documents had to be genuine because they contain military acronyms and jargon and show knowledge of Bush’s military service (which had been extensively covered in the media). It beggars belief, she claims, that anyone could go through so much trouble and then produce fake documents using Microsoft Word. She even insists she’s been persecuted for her political leanings (though she won’t admit to any): “You mean, am I now or have I ever been a liberal?” she asks the committee. At one point she declares, “Our story was about whether the president fulfilled his service. Nobody wants to talk about that. They want to talk about fonts and forgeries, and they hope to God the truth gets lost in the scrum!” Except Mapes couldn’t prove the president went AWOL without the documents.
I think the real-life Mapes admitting that even though she was holding herself out a news producer, she didn’t know who any of the players on the starboard side of the Blogosphere were in 2004, and then writing a column for Huffington Post in late October of 2008 on its alleged demise titled “The Monster is Dying” clears up where the legendarily “objective” producer’s political allegiances lie. (As for Dan, his headlining at least one $200 a person fundraiser for the far left Nation magazine in 2009 is a clue to his own worldview.)
But as Smith notes, the line in Redford’s film that will likely cause it to be remembered as a 21st century camp classic is when Blanchett’s Mapes barks:
“Our story was about whether the president fulfilled his service. Nobody wants to talk about that. They want to talk about fonts and forgeries, and they hope to God the truth gets lost in the scrum!” Except Mapes couldn’t prove the president went AWOL without the documents.
“Our story was about whether the president fulfilled his service. Nobody wants to talk about that.”
Fair enough — but then those same rules apply regarding investigations of the youthful activities of the candidates running against the president as well; it was rather nice of Robert Redford & company to finally exonerate the exploratory efforts of the Swift Vets in 2004 and the late Andrew Breitbart and his associates in 2012.
By the way, in 2013, Redford was defending William Ayers’ Weathermen bombing the Pentagon. (Redford’s film bombed in theaters right around the same time that the Tsarnaev brothers were bombing the Boston Marathon in a macabre bit of synchronicity worthy of the New York Times’ own defense of Ayers.) This year, Redford is defending Dan Rather lying to millions of viewers. What far left institution will the 79-year old Redford champion next in his dotage?
NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY: The myth of the college ‘rape culture.’
Meanwhile, Kurt Schlichter has his own form of ’80s nostalgia: “Hey Obama, the 80s called. They’re asking for a real president who knew how to deal with the Russians without becoming their bitch.” Hillary’s phone took the call, but she couldn’t figure out how to turn the ringer on.
THE PAST IS PROLOGUE: Ted Cruz was once a director at the Federal Trade Commission. He had a remarkable record of convincing Democrats to vote for conservative principles.
BUT THEY SAID THEY NEEDED EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS: Adult Stem Cells Effective Against MS.
A SILVER LINING: Court slams Team Obama on Westchester ‘racism’ charge.
ABOUT TIME SOMEONE ASKED: Tell me why.
IF ONLY THIS WEREN’T PARODY: Breakthrough Memory Implants Make it Possible to Forget Obama Was Ever President. Wonder if they offer a package deal for Hilary/Bernie/Trump!
OKAY, IS TEH GRAUNIAD JUST TROLLING US NOW? Apparently, ‘Sweat-Shaming’ Is a Thing Now. I really think these people suffer from bubble boy syndrome emotionally. In the absence of real trauma, they’ll get traumatized by anything.
WILL A BLACK CONSERVATIVE: Challenge Red Bill de Blasio?
DOG WHISTLE: Becoming Putin’s Poodle.
THEY CAN TAKE THEIR REVOLUTIONARY MORALITY, FOLD IT ALL IN CORNERS: And put it where the sun don’t shine. David ’n’ Ethel.
IN OTHER WORDS, TYPICAL LEFTIST: Sotomayor: ‘Do as I say, not as I do’.
OUR ONLY HOPE IS THEIR INCOMPETENCE: ISIS planning ‘nuclear tsunami’.