McCain playing poker on his iPhone
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics-live/the-senates-syria-hearing-live-updates/?id=ed01ca14-222b-4a23-b12c-c0b0d9d4fe0a
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Posted: 02 Sep 2013 06:24 PM PDT Fair weather friends who supported Bashar Assad when it was to their political advantage to demean the foreign policies of George Bush now support his destruction … Not that they give a damn about Bashar Assad, Syria, or the Syrian people – but because they know so little about foreign policy matters that they simply must follow the foreign policy of George Bush or look like the incompetent bloviating fools they are in real life. It now appears that Kerry, Hagel, Biden and others are illustrating the old Arab proverb, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”A political philosophy that assumes that because two parties have a common enemy, they can work with each other to advance their common goals.
Bottom line … You will notice that the progressive socialist democrats appear to have no core beliefs, only an abiding willingness to say or do anything that advanced their personal power, prestige and profits and their toxic socialist/communist agenda. No greater illustration that John Kerry’s abiding love for the cheese-eating surrender monkeys that openly welcomed the Nazis into their world – apparently believing that they could survive under any conditions. Whatever may be said about former President Bush, he was not the inept, indecisive, and incompetent fool portrayed in the progressive mainstream media. There were no doubts about his loyalty to his country and his outspoken abhorrence to evil. If anything, Bush was a lousy public speaker – but still did not need a TelePrompTer to speak to children – and a crappy communicator. But he was far from an empty suit like Obama. And, while he may have been a RINO (Republican In Name Only), a member of the Northeaster Liberal Elite Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party, there was never any suggestion that he was selling out his country in favor of foreign sovereign interests. You couldn’t trust the progressive democrat socialists then, and certainly you can’t trust them now. It remains to be seen if the American people will stand up for their rights and remove the corrupt progressive democrat socialists and overt racists from office in the 2014 congressional election cycle. My best friend Al thinks not, but I am still hopeful that a majority of patriotic Americans will rise to the occasion and remove ideologically and financially corrupt politicians from office. -- steve | ||
LOUISIANA'S FISKE THEATRE DECLINES TO SHOW "THE BUTLER" IN HONOR OF VIETNAM ERA VETERANS Posted: 02 Sep 2013 05:20 PM PDT It is most refreshing to see honorable people stand up for their beliefs in an era of political correctness and demagoguery …
Bottom line … Support your local theatres, especially those who support the community and refuse to knuckle under to political correctness.
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Syria: President Obama votes "Present" by engaging Congress Posted: 02 Sep 2013 04:32 PM PDT Just like in the bad old days in the Illinois Legislature, where Barack Hussein Obama was so afraid of taking a public stance on a political issue lest it damage his budding career as a politician, Obama once again votes “present” on a controversial issue. Syria, is extremely problematical to Obama. The “evidence” of the use of chemical weapons is dodgy as there is no clear and undisputable proof that they were used by either side. And, even more controversial is that the Obama would need to risk calls for his impeachment related to committing an act of war against a foreign sovereign nation without a direct attack on the United States or its assets, or even the claim that such an attack was imminent. As for enforcing international laws relating to the use of chemical weapons against a civilian population, the United States does not have the unilateral power to address or remediate international crimes that do not involve America or American citizens. Basically, the United States is not the policeman of the world. So, with dodgy evidence and a growing personal risk, the cowardly Obama did what he has always done in the past: punted. By handing off the matter to Congress, Obama has found a way to essentially vote “present” without assuming personal responsibility for his actions. If Congress authorized the use of military force in Syria, Obama is absolved of any responsibility for the outcome and any unintended consequences. If Congress does not authorize the use of military force in Syria, Obama points to Congress, most likely pointing at Congressional Republicans, and claims his hands were tied. Hiding behind the skirts of his advisors … Once again, the non-leader Obama is leading from behind – probably hiding behind the skirts of Valerie Jarrett, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice. Which should come as no surprise to those who just found out that President Obama preferred to play cards with Reggie Love rather than watch the bin Laden raid unfold. Somehow, Obama has become the perfect puppet of those who pull his strings, his only goal is to take credit for good accomplishments and blame any failure on someone else. But, what can you expect of a man who “accepted” a Nobel Peace Prize based on no accomplishments. A real man would have handed back the prize and claimed that awarding such a prize for non-achievement only cheapened the prize and disgraced the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Unfortunately, that is not how things work in progressive socialist democrat circles. -- steve | ||
CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRAT BRIEFING BOOK ON SYRIA Posted: 02 Sep 2013 04:56 AM PDT It appears the Vice President and Foreign Affairs Expert, Joe Biden, has prepared a briefing book for the progressive socialist democrats in Congress Bottom line … According to Vice President Biden, there is a difference between these two men … Bush was a Republican! |
President Obama's Saturday speech on Syria (where he decided not to decide) offers at least five fine examples of how not to employ military power.
Consulting with Congress is, of course, exactly the right step to take before committing both U.S. armed forces and the American people to ventures overseas. But, how the president got to this point is a lesson in lousy leadership.
Lesson #1: Surprise is Still a Principle of War. If the president's priority was really to punish Assad with shock and awe, he went about it all wrong. The regime has had plenty of time to get ready--disperse assets; marshal its allies; deploy human shields; and decide how it will respond or preempt US action.
Lesson #2. Red Lines Only Work When They Are Red. The whole idea of a red line is prevent bad behavior by declaring if the line is crossed there will be swift and decisive action.
If President Obama was really serious about holding Assad accountable he should have consulted Congress before he issued a red line--not after.
If President Obama was really serious about holding Assad accountable he should have consulted Congress before he issued a red line--not after.
In all likelihood he didn't because there was a good chance they would have said--no--and well they might.
Intervening in civil wars; getting conclusive evidence about what is going on the ground; and defining clear, achievable, realistic military objectives for punitive strikes is really hard--and the White House had no good answers for addressing any of these issues.
What happens to Obama's next red line, if Congress rejects this one?
Or will Congress have to rubber stamp a stupid red line to preserve the president's credibility? Wouldn't that just encourage Obama to make more reckless red lines in the future?
Did the White House think about any of these questions before it stated making declarations?
Lesson #3. A Shot Across the Bow Only Works if the Enemy Thinks You Are Serious About Sinking Their Ship. President Obama has already declared he won't intervene in the civil war, so any strikes will be little more than a nuisance to a regime that plans to fight to the bitter end.
Lesson #4. Victory Has a Thousand Fathers, Defeat is an Orphan.President George W. Bush had a Congressional authorization for a use of force in Iraq, a UN resolution, popular support for military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and support of a broad international coalition. That mattered little when the wars did not go well.
All the legitimacy in the world will mean nothing--if military action does not turn out well. The president doesn't have a solid game plane for Syria, a resolution from Congress is not a "get out of jail free card."
Lesson #5. Think Before You Act. In terms of salvaging the president's shattered credibility as a foreign policy leader, turning to Congress won't help.
A wise president would have built a coalition of support before the crisis--not waited for the crisis--then tried to build a coalition. And, failing that, then make it seem like military action is all up to Congress--and the president is just a bystander.
From Obama's perspective, turning to Congress now may seem like a brilliant move. If Congress votes no, he has shown he has empathy with the international community--and he is still a good guy. If Congress votes yes--and it all turns out badly--he will say we are all in this together.
But from the standpoint of acting like the world's leader this may be the nadir of American power.
The reality is that every decision on how to employ the armed forces has turned out badly for Obama.
He ran away from Iraq--the violence there is worse now than when he came into office.
He wants to go to "zero" in Afghanistan. The Taliban can't wait for that.
He led from behind in Libya and that failure became a front page story after the Benghazi debacle.
Moscow mocks him.
Beijing ignores him.
All these acts as president show Obama has not learned his lessons very well. The Saturday speech just makes his shortfalls as commander-in-chief even more glaringly apparent.
James Jay Carafano is vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at The Heritage Foundation.
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