Pajamas Media

222 Comments

1. Bridget:

Another great write-up. Yes, Obama is enigmatic – problem is, as you stated so well, his motives are in question, which leads one to wonder where he is going. Unfortunately, he now has to the power to take the USA with him for awhile. I sense that he errs on the side of “it’s all about me,” and doesn’t realize that in his current position it needs to be all about the USA–at least when he’s preening with his foreign counterparts.

I don’t listen to what he says, I watch what he does – his words are empty. His actions truly define what he believes in – more power to the government and especially the executive branch and a socialistic construct for the rest of us.

Apr 19, 2009 - 1:21 am 2. Delia:

Holy cow pie! You nailed it, Sir Hanson! I wanted to copy-paste a reply but, dayummmmmm…your whole post was so on target I can’t even pick one paragraph or even sentence because it’s ALL good.

No doubt about it, our Country is hurting and is in for a whole great deal of future hurtin’. My heart breaks for our Country being raped like a victim of date rape drugs and suddenly, fuzzily wakes up and says, “What happened to me?”.

Where do we go from here? I’m scared. Nix that. I’m TERRIFIED. WTF has gone wrong with our USA?

I’m up for a FIGHT. I DO NOT WANT THIS FOR MY CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN.

Why are so many people ‘numb’ regarding 0bama’s B.S. policies? What is driving them? Free lunch?

UGH!

Apr 19, 2009 - 1:34 am 3. william Blake:

Why does everyone tip toe around his intentions? They have been obvious for years!

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:22 am 4. steve:

Dr. Hanson,

As always a great piece. While it is too early to discern motive with any certainty, I would put my money on a combination of 80% B, 5% C, 15% E. It will be interesting (and informative) to see the reaction to the first rev. Wright style betrayal (serious embarassment) on the foreign relations scene.

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:47 am 5. Obama Reboots U.S. History:

I loved the idea of Obama having to sit through Abuelo Ortega’s 50-minute rant against U.S. “aggression” in Central America. Barrack must’ve thought he was back in college.

As VDH points out, Obama’s use of “old America did that” defense is very useful. Barrack’s refusal to take personal responsibility for U.S. history (at least in Central America) must have been frustrating for Ortega and Chavez. He brushed them off with petulant lines like, “I am very grateful that President Ortega didn’t blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.”

Every time the ogre-like Chavez stumbled up to give him a book or an awkward handshake, I’ll bet Obama felt some sympathy for Bush and Secretary Rice…

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:47 am 6. M. Bruce Davis:

You are consistently on precisely the right track, Dr. Hanson, but what concerns me most of all is the show of weakness by the leader of the Western World. I adhere to your thesis that the West has led the way with military strength and cultural force since the battle of Marathon, and to watch a small-time community organizer place 25 centuries of Western development at risk is just beyond anything I expected to see in my lifetime. I worry because he does seem to have the power, and the will, to simply cede the world to forces with far less regard for fundamental human rights. Try to imagine the world after ANY non-western nation steps in to fill the leadership void.

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:48 am 7. Carl:

There are essentially three options of direction possible to our nation at this time.

One is to continue on the same paths of socialistic self-destruction that we are on now.

Two would be a catastrophic event so horrible, so massive in size and so terrible that it actually changes the instinctive way the majority of those who elected and support Obama think.

Three is for Conservatives to bind together into a single, determined for the long haul group of political will that can force (one and two above) liberalism into a permanent subservient role.

Now all we have left to do is be realistic.

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:56 am 8. vivo:

“Why does Hugo Chavez hate us? Is it because Bush’s ‘dead or alive’ed him or ‘with us or against us”ed him?”

VDH twisting the facts: Chávez doesn’t hate the USA, he hates the stupid, inept president called Bush II and his administration (”The Devil”). He sent cheap oil to the East Coast to help low income people, remember? (through one Kennedy, I guess).

“I’ll let readers decide, but so far his rhetoric has been harsher to those on Wall Street, his opponents in Congress, those who make over $250,000, and those who criticize him than it has to those who clearly don’t like us abroad.”

And why they don’t like us? You may have to read “Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina” by Eduardo Galeano, a journalist from Uruguay.

The full book title in English is “The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.”

You have to admit that Obama did a great job on his trip to Latin America. New horizons were opened and established a sense of partnership and mutual respect.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:10 am 9. Morry Rotenberg:

Great post as always! The American People deserve the government that they elected. In this last election the facts didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that BHO had no executive or other experience, that he listened to an anti-American preacher for 20 years, that he associated himself with known domestic terrorists, that there were “57″ states in the union, or why none of BHO’s academic and other records were allowed to be made public. What mattered to the public and the MSM (who ignored all the facts as well) was that we had a minority candidate for the fist time that could actually be elected President. Let’s feel good about a candidate and ignore his policies.
Everything that BHO is now pursuing was part of his platform in the campaign. He told us what his plans for the country were in foreign and domestic issues. Now we have a disaster brewing and facts do matter.
We can only hope that by 2010 some reality will have seeped back into the body politic to put a brake on BHO and kick out the democrats from Congress. Who knows, by next year there may not be a MSM. They will all be financially bankrupt to match their moral bankruptcy.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:12 am 10. Anonymous:

Doc, it’s a combo of a, b, c, and e, although Obambi’s biggest influence in e was his family; Ayers, Alinsky and company just reinforced what he learned at home.

No enigma, william Blake is right; there has never been any mystery for anyone who was willing to do the research.

PS You’re wrong about the minefield. If anything, he’s sowing dragon’s teeth; you, of all people, should know that.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:14 am 11. WhyamInotsurprised?:

Not only are his intentions obvious, but for the lemmings, he is doing the two step of “watch what I do with this hand” while he maneuvers to his agenda with the other and not behind his back but in plain site. It truly is amazing because he is inundating everyone with the scope and pace of his implementations. Just as the Rahm said “it is a shame to let a good crisis go to waste.” They are striking while the iron is hot, on everything he ever indicated he wanted to do. It was all spelled out for anyone who would take a moment to look at the big picture.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:22 am 12. Evil Otto:

VDH twisting the facts: Chávez doesn’t hate the USA, he hates the stupid, inept president called Bush II and his administration (”The Devil”). He sent cheap oil to the East Coast to help low income people, remember? (through one Kennedy, I guess).

Really? He doesn’t hate the US?

“The United States empire is on its way down and it will be finished in the near future, inshallah,” (Arabic: God willing) -Hugo Chavez

The little troll, Chavez, hates the US because he needs someone to hate. His ultimate goal is to become Fidel Castro and rule unquestioned for the rest of his life, and in order to do that he needs an enemy. Like Castro, Chavez seeks to divert attention from his actions and from rapidly worsening conditions due to his incompetence, and thus blames the United States. And you’ve fallen for it, Vivo.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:45 am 13. eon:

Bravo, Doctor.

My take on The Self-Exalted One is a combination of (b), (d), and (e).

(b)- He does see himself as a Messianic figure; his rampant egotism and narcissism makes the typical metrosexual look like Jimmy Stewart. He expects worship, and in fact believes he deserves it- just for being him. If he were ever to be ignored, he would probably suffer an emotional shock he would never recover from. He’s the Tiny Tim of American presidents. (I’m talking about the “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” guy, not the character from Dickens, here.)

(d)- He believes that any problem can be dealt with by either (1) talking it to death or (2) studying it to death. He believes that if we talk long enough, the Islamists will stop hating Israel and us, and that if we “look at” nuclear power long enough, Holy Wind and Sun will save us from the evils of… nuclear power. This is a variant of the old “If you delay long enough, problems go away by themselves” meme’. Which violates Commoner’s Law; Nothing Ever Goes Away By Itself.

His overwhelming faith in the UN is an illustration of this. He sees the UN as the U.s. Congress writ large, and thinks that as long as “the right people” (i.e., people who think like him) are in the majority, it will always do the “right thing”, and do it better, nicer, and more respectfully of “other cultures” than us provincial, trigger-happy Yanks.

He fails to consider the fact that most of the “nations” in the General Assembly, and about half the members of the Security Council, are little more than thugocracies run by self-absorbed plutocrats, grasping autocrats, and/or barely-literate borderline psychotics with AK-47s and “Death To (Your Name Here)” T-shirts. (He equates the likes of Hugo Chavez’ and Danny Ortega with serious “statesmen”. No more need be said.)

(e)- He genuinely does see this country as inherently racist, violent, irrational, greedy, and unfeeling- as not having sufficient “respect for other cultures”, and for having an electorate that does not understand that their leaders (at least from his party) are just naturally smarter, kinder, more brilliant and insightful, and just plain all-around more wonderful than the “common herd”. His apparent failure to realize that the “tea parties” are an actual grass-roots movement (like Pelosi, he seems to dismiss them as GOP-inspired “astroturf”), tells me that like his mentors and role models (Ayers, Wright, Carter, and for all I know Tallyrand, Robespierre’, and Marat), he has no actual knowledge of, or even much interest in, the average citizen. In fact, the opinion of the “man in the street” is something he only considers insofar as he can convince himself that said individual agrees with him.

They say that “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” When The One falls, it will be through his own efforts, and his lack of actual ability- at anything except admiring himself. If anyone wants to know what to expect, look at how Jimmy Carter left office. I expect The One to do so in much the same way.

The only problem is, considering the present world situation, whether or not the damage The One manages to do to not only us, but our allies and indeed the rest of the world in the process, will be repairable. Either soon, or at all.

clear ether

eon

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:55 am 14. firefirefire:

#8 vivo: Somewhere, a bridge is missing its troll.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:16 am 15. howiem:

A good article, but with one major fallacy. VDH is discussing Obama as if he were a sane, rational person, instead of an arrogant megalomaniac who, having power does not care what anyone thinks of his words or actions. Pre-election he told America that he blamed America for everything that is wrong in the world. He told America that he was going to change it into a social welfare state, e.g., the greater good, distribution of wealth, social responsibility, unselfishness, etc. All concepts that simply mean…I will take away your freedom of choice…I will take away your freedom….I will get you to cooperate with my agenda and not your own, and if you cannot be persuaded, then I will force you.
Americans who were too busy working to make a living to pay attention were dumbed down by the media and the academics into a complete misunderstanding of the terms “the greater good”, “distribution of wealth”, “social responsibility”, “equality” and “unselfishness”. These terms, while sounding virtuous and altruistic, are in fact nothing more than a means of gaining control of people, as every totalitarian state has done in the past. Obama is no different than a Bernard Madoff, a con man who has convinced far too many gullible and greedy people that they can gain prosperity by sacrificing their prosperity, and it is the prosperity that is earned that always helps far more people than any “prosperity” handed out. His sloppy and distainful “diplomatic” moves thusfar show clearly that he does not care about other countries, he does not care about Americans. When journalists write that he should consider one thing or another, they are wasting their words, because he has the power, is consolidating it more every day, and does not give a damn about what any of us think.
Brief definitions:
Greater good: The good of those in control.
Wealth distribution: stealing earned money to give to those whom the state deems “entitled”.
Social responsibility: A completely meaningless term. No one can be responsible for everyone else.
Equality: A non-existent concept, except for equal treatment under the Rule of Law. No two humans are equal.
“Unselfishness”: Giving up your self interests to help other people by sacrificing the resources you need to help them to a controlling state.
Granted these are not book definitions, but they explain why falling for Obama’s claptrap is leading us to hell.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:22 am 16. chris in Toronto:

“Impeachment should be reserved for treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors where the president’s actions are great and dangerous offenses or attempts to subvert the Constitution and the most extensive injustice.” — George Mason, 1725 – 1792, American Patriot and Founding Father.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:44 am 17. progressoverpeace:

The answer is e. The Precedent hates America and hates Western civilization, in general. He is driven, first and foremost, by a desire to exact revenge on those he sees as having shamed and humiliated his “people” (third worlders, basically). That’s pretty much all it comes down to, and it started long before Wright and Ayers and Co. Much of it probably goes to his many years growing up in Indonesia (I doubt his views are very different from anyone who grew up in Indonesia) and the muslim influence on his early life.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:44 am 18. Meryl:

Can someone with barry’s level of narcissism exhibit the personal discipline necessary to function with a narrowly focused motive (or 1 or 2) over a long period of time? I don’t think so. He’s not emotionally as “in control” of himself as he would like his followers (or his opponents) to think he is.

I think his general motive is to destroy the US by use of Saul Alinsky-like methods, and in that pursuit all of the motives well defined by VDH are useful at various times.

His personal motives are a varied as the stink of a skunk at various lengths of time after the spraying: with the Queen, his motive was to look competent; with Saud, it was to look humble; on the stage in Chicago on election night, it was to look king-of-the-hill majestic and alone; with the prez of Mexico last week, it was to be the rescuer;…etc.

His general method never changes. His goal certainly never changes. His motives change from one minute the next, but always boil down to “It’s all about me. I hate the United States. Nothing’s fair. I’ve got power. I’m gonna make ‘em pay.”

Regardless, it’s good to have all the possible motives spelled out. No matter how you want to slice the pie, this analysis reveals a great deal about the boy prez.

The real problem needing analysis lies in what is highlighted in the last paragraph. What Delia said.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:45 am 19. Linguist:

Another good piece. I was talking to someone just last night who was appalled that I could criticize Obama for things that Bush “started”. I had to remind them that Obama was, in fact, supposed to be WORKING in the Senate for at least part of Bush’s term in office but instead spent his time on the campaign trail.

At best, the man is utterly clueless. Though perhaps that is really the worst thing about him. So wrapped up in the need to be “someone” due to his early family situation, he is a product of radicalist indoctrination who can do naught but force that ideology on the United States since it is all he knows. Subversive tactics are his learned and therefore most comfortable style and, even if he had the most noble of motives, all of this kissing up to those who wish to destroy America simply because of her success will only serve to lead us into real danger.

God help America.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:54 am 20. Bruce:

VIVO:
“Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina”, written in 1970, is a diatribe by someone with a cultural inferiority complex.

It scourges Europe and the U.S. for L.A.’s self-inflicted wounds, ignoring the historical horrors which the North Americans also suffered during their period of exploration and settlement, which they survived without creating the dictators, apalling poverty and venomous class distinctions found in L.A.

The book also ignores the 200 years of Spanish Inquisition visited upon L.A. which, thankfully, the N.A.’s escaped.

L.A. typically blames the U.S. for its own failings. Chavez plays to that theme to take over L.A. like Hitler scapegoated the Jews to gain power over Europe.

At another L.A. summit Juan Carlos, King of Spain, famously told Chavez what :=o’bama should have but didn’t: “Shut up and sit down!”

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:02 am 21. LeighB:

What is his motive? Like several other posters, my sense it is B. I look forward to the day when people begin analyzing Obama’s actions, and what that tells us about who he really is.

My Sunday morning quarterbacking is this. He has always over-identified with his father, who he was and who he might have been. Some of what drives him is to restore respect to the name he carries and to finish some of his father’s work. He does not seem to be at peace or fully accepting of the other part of his heritage, or he would not use such awkward descriptors as “typical” when talking about his maternal grandmother, who from all appearances loved him and was a constant in his life.

Obama believes in his own personal power and ability to make a strong impression. He’s about managing perception and has selected people around him who also believe this is the ticket to greatness. Perception is a funny thing, it can be manipulated for a while and over the longer-term, it is weighed against actions. While Obama has been reluctant to release some details about who he is, the evidence of his actions is coming into focus.

As to what he is or is not doing to Hillary, it is probably coincidental, he cannot share the stage with anyone, nor does he think he should. What she will do two years from now has always been of interest to me. [I adore her but I have to admit that GF has hitched her wagon to some sketchy dudes.]

Whatever mess Obama’s ginormous ego gets us into, I have faith we can get out of. This week he certainly has come across as a communist sympathizer. I also want Cuba to emerge from its nightmare and we’ll have to wait and see whether Obama’s overtures will be helpful.

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:07 am 22. Sébastien:

I believe that “talk” is the best explanation of Pres. Obama. “Talking” is his great tool. I observe that he can talk endlessly about anything, as if there are were no limits to “words”, as if you didn’t have to correlate words with facts, with outside knowledge and with your own actions. Add also : extreme, post-modern, self-confidence. Pres. Sarkozy had little difficulty in recognizing in Obama the type of person we have many of in France: a highly self-confident talker, convinced that words can beat the hell out of reality: a smiling, highly-pleased-of-himself, successful, wind-bag! If Pres. Obama is turning the USA into France (Europe), it is because, essentially, he is more French than the French!

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:19 am 23. Bilgeman:

VDH:

I suspect that the fellow who claims to have been born in Hawaii is fairly intelligent, but he’s basically a slickster.

He came up through a political environment that was all about whose patronage one had. If one had the right “rabbis”, one’s career went remarkably easy. If one didn’t, you were toast.

In this kind of milieu, a chap would learn two lessons about political enemies…you kiss their +sses until you are in a position to kick their +sses.

Unfortunately for us all, the people whose +sses Obama kicked had already been fatally weakened, so Obama never reaaly has had to play his game “against the varsity”.

And this certainly was the case in last year’s campaign.

Now he’s in the Big Leagues, and he’s never had to face a decent curveball pitcher or been caught in a squeeze play.

I’m very much afraid that he thinks his Chicago political instincts, such as they are, are going to work globally.

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:28 am 24. RPB:

Right on eon. Our bi-coastal president doesn’t really give a damn for Middle America.

But what is really frightening about the One is His belief in word magic – that the power of His words and vision can make the optative the declarative. And why shouldn’t He believe this? From community organizer to president by the power of his optative rhetoric. The [shoulds] and the [woulds] and the [oughts] and the [rights] and the [fairs] got the grants and the grants monied the vision. The money was always forthcoming and now the One has the Treasury.

RPB

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:34 am 25. RandyChandler:

“I do think he’s sowing, but a minefield rather than a crop, whose explosions will be as inevitable as they will be numerous.”

Precisely. He’s doing the same thing here in the homeland. And the explosions will be ruinous.

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:38 am 26. Anonymous:

“Five Centuries of The Pillage of a Continent,” namely South America. Pillage usually means a [foreign] army sweeping through an area and taking everything that is valuable, with no domestic defenders remaining to stop them. I have heard that this is an Anti-NorteAmerican book. But I don’t remember celebrating our five hundredth anniversary, and I don’t remember a U.S. army sweeping through South America ever. Central America, and Mexico yes, but not South America. We defended them with the Monroe Doctrine, and our corporations no doubt used sharp practices to exploit hidden natural resources they couldn’t develop unaided, but is that Pillage? Why can’t our president say that?

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:48 am 27. Old Airman 2000:

For eon at #13:

“They say that “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” When The One falls, it will be through his own efforts, and his lack of actual ability- at anything except admiring himself. If anyone wants to know what to expect, look at how Jimmy Carter left office. I expect The One to do so in much the same way.”

Yeah! But when the fall comes, how of us are going with him!

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:54 am 28. Rachel Peepers:

Time machine time.

It’s August 1, 1939. Obama is President, and visiting countries that don’t like our policies; Japan and Germany in particular.

The U.S is in a depression.

Is Obama building up our armies anticipating a big fight ahead? Or does the road sign up ahead tell him to talk it out?

How does Obama react to September 1, 1939?

Have a nice day, Rachel

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:57 am 29. Marge:

I am totally confused. The world hates us because of obama? is that why they threw a grenade at bush and shoes. Gee even back then obama was a stand out…tsk tsk tsk.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:03 am 30. ked5:

considering deep down, bho isn’t one of us, either by birth/citizenship or heart (he hates America, he hates whites, he hates the constitution), he is a muslim, and like many of those who hate America, he wants to destroy it and punish her for her strength.

although where does he think he’s going with his remade USSA? King of the world (only under sharia)?

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:39 am 31. HardHeadedWoman:

I vote for “e” combined with a dangerously pathological personality, not too bright and incredibly ignorant.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:47 am 32. ked5:

8 vivo

Your naivety is showing. (as well as desperation in your argument to fall on the liberal standby of “blame Bush”) There is indeed a deep and abiding jealousy – envy to hatred turned – that exists in South America for any and all things American. Some countires more than others.

You ought to spend some real time in south america WITH actual average citizens in those countries. NOT in the major cities with the “elites”, but in the country where people have to eke out livings.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:47 am 33. Jeff Weimer:

8. vivo:

Wow, vivo, that book just happens to be the very same tome given to Obama by Chavez! How topical! How trite.

Have YOU read the book? I suspect not, you are just using the mere title to prove a weak point.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:50 am 34. proreason:

He thinks he can rule the world.

This sort of megalomania isn’t unprecedented, but we haven’t seen in 80 years.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:56 am 35. Sebastian Shaw:

President Obama has an intense passionate hatred for the United States he is meant to represent & safeguard our Constitution; he wants to warp the Constitution as a means to an end to turn America into Europe 2. I don’t think he will be successful given he is incompetent, arrogant, ignorant & cannot lead.

Obama thinks if he gives eloquent teleprompter speeches all will be roses, but the roses also have thorns. And thorns can cut & make one bleed.

Giving into terrorists will only embolden them, but Obama thinks he’s God’s gift to the world.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:02 am 36. Al Fontaine:

To # 8 VIVO:

Wake up from your dream, look out the cave you are in, gazing at shadows.

Well, since you´be reading VDH, I think you are down a good road, so I´ll give you a helping hand: go read this, right now:

Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (Hardcover)
by Plinio Apuleyo; Llosa, Alvaro Vargas; Montaner, Carlos Alberto; Michael Mendoza (Author). Publisher: Madison Books Inc., Lanham, Maryland, U.S.A. (January 1, 2000)
ASIN: B001V4IAPG

A tip: “Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina” is The Perfect Latin American Idiot´s sacred text, got it!? If the USA had an actual American President, which is not currently the case, Hugo Chávez would´ve been reciprocated with a copy of “The Guide”, spot on.

From Al Fontaine, Curitiba, Brazil.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:10 am 37. mhr:

Obama is used to listening to preachers, religious or otherwise, denounce the US. As a one time liberal myself, I can attest to the fact that university educated types often end up denigrating their own country but only if that country is the US. Much of what I read in my younger days was of the left, what I “knew” of history was written by leftists- eg the phrase “robber barons” to describe those who built the US in the 19th centrury, was a phrase invented by a leftist historian in the l930’s- now it’s embedded in the culture of the country. For Obama to listen to a tyrant denounce the country of which he is president seems like the ultimate in tolerance. In point of fact I don’t believe that the man knows anything about the history of Latin-America and about the culture and politics of Spain to contest Chavez by referring to aspects of Latin-America that has impeded its development quite apart from anything the US did or didn’t do there- the hacienda system, for example that kept large tracts of land in the hands of an elite class. Obama is simply ignorant about so many things and has had so little real world experience that I’m afraid he is easy prey for the Castros, Chavezes, and mullahs of the world.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:26 am 38. Mike Blackadder:

Great post. Yes, every regime in the world is pursuing its own interests, and Obama’s administration is no different.

I definitely think A & B are Obama’s primary motivations, and if it came down to it, would sacrifice the others for the sake of keeping up this appearance of saving the world. Everything seems to fit together well for him right now. He is given freedom by the media and most Americans to redefine America’s interests at will and to trash past foreign policy abroad. This allows him to make everything about him, and puts him at the greatest advantage in gaining appeal abroad because he is allowed to make every concession.

I actually worry about what Obama will do when things change. I don’t think he has anything close to GWB’s threshold for criticism or sense of duty. I think he will become unstable and unpredictable when his personal popularity slips. What would Obama have done in Bush’s shoes, sitting on evidence of Saddam’s nuclear program in Iraq while everyone was calling him a liar? Would he allow his popularity to plummet for the sake of national security or would this evidence get leaked to rescue him?

And I think the prospect of him losing the 2012 election would be unbearable for his ego. I can not imagine him going down quietly.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:33 am 39. Will:

Friends, we all know you’re known by the company you keep.Barak Hussien Obama has always had socialist friends and mentors,as well as being brought up by the Muslim Religion. What kind of common sense tells us this is an American? A true Ameican believes in the values and morals that made this the greatest country in the world.Our very president is destroying everything we had,and making us a third world country.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:35 am 40. BC:

I wish I was fly in the corner when Obama was briefed on some the more top secret “highlights” of Bush’s 8 yrs of corruption and incompetence, as well as a Cliff Notes catch-up of the lesser known historical aspects of US involvement in Latin America and the Middle East. If we were treated 1/10th as shabbily as we have treated those countries in the past, we would be nuking cities into ashtrays.

While I may personally prefer a full moral accounting, from a practical viewpoint, Obama’s treatment of the CIA memos may be an example of the best middle course: owe up to the misdeeds, protect the people who were just following orders, say it won’t happen again, and then just move on. This will likely regain at least a good chunk of the respect that Bush cost this country during his years in office.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:49 am 41. James:

VIVO: You are, in actual fact, a moron. No one disputes that EVERY nation has committed evils. I won’t even take issue with the reality that some Americans have been less than kind to our Southern neighbors. But you buy into the phony “America Imperialist” arguments. We’re so bad to the Southern Americans? Who saved Central America from the communists? Does Chavez presently act to subvert the natural human rights of his fellow countrymen in the name of a political ideology that killed over 100,000,000 in the last hundred years? That’s over a hundred-million, Vivo. We have all committed wrongs, but America remains the light on the hill. Here’s my prediction: one-year from now, all of Obama’s “I’m sorrys” and “here, let me help you” garbage will not have done an ounce of good toward making Chavez or the Venezuelans “like” us. Chavez, an astute political operator, WILL take advantage of what he percieves as Obama’s weakness. Chavez will hate America and work toward universal communism no matter who occupies the White House.

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:19 am 42. NorthPolePundit:

I haven’t decided whether the current president of the United States is either the most naive or the most cynical and manipulative politician I have ever seen in my half-century of life. However, after this current trip abroad, my vote is tending toward the latter, rather than the former. This does not bode well for our republic.

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:22 am 43. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Victor Davis Hanson
RE: You Missed One

“My only confusion is over motive. Does Obama do this for….

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)” — VDH

(f) Something much, much worse…..

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:29 am 44. karen:

Check out John Griffing’s 4/19/09 article on American Thinker – Americas November Revolution.

Also The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer:

Agitator, organizer (pg 44)
Orator, spellbinder (pg 119)
Domineering father (pg 11)(Died when Hitler was 13 and mom died of cancer)
Never had regular employment (pg 15)
Surrounded by weird assortment of misfits (pg 39)
Hypnotic magnetism of personality (pg 109)
Needed an economic crisis (117)
Economic crisis (pg 137)
Democrats hammered away at the Republic until they brought it down (pg 186)
Preached peace to disarm and confound (pg 209)
World enchanted (pg 210)
Frenzied adulation (pg. 230)
Preached common interest before self (pg 232)
Universities became undemocratic, anti-semetic, standards fell (pgs 251-252)
No truly conservative party (186)
No one really knew Hitler (pg 185)

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:58 am 45. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Rachel Peepers, et al.
RE: Time Machine (Part 2)

“It’s August 1, 1939. Obama is President, and visiting countries that don’t like our policies; Japan and Germany in particular.

The U.S is in a depression.

Is Obama building up our armies anticipating a big fight ahead? Or does the road sign up ahead tell him to talk it out?

How does Obama react to September 1, 1939?” — Rachel Peepers

It’s April 18, 2009. Obama is President and visiting a conference with peoples who don’t like US very much.

Elsewhere in the world, Iran and North Korea are acquiring nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to US. Also, Russia and China are building up their military and naval capabilities in preparation for war.

How does Obama react to these obvious threats?

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Shall we play a game? -- Joshua, the computer, in Wargames]

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:59 am 46. WillDoMathForFood:

I’ll also opt for “None of the Above”.

I think liberals as a group believe that countries can be treated like individuals. Use honey, not vinegar, take ‘em aside for a nice private chat, share some heart-to-heart personal face time, smile and say you understand, and they’ll warm up to you and be your BFF. But I don’t think it works like that. International relations is a bit like Junior High School. Everybody’s got a clique, everybody who can get away with it is a bully and the rest are victims, and everyone is always on a stage playing to an audience. Image matters more than anything, and you can’t let yourself be viewed as weak or a sucker, or you’re dead meat. So I think, as usual, the liberals are starting from a false premise and extrapolating their paradigm into the real world where it makes absolutely no sense at all.

(And they use a similarly flawed inductive reasoning process with economics, too, where they can do really BIG damage.)

(Cross-posted from the “other” edition of “Obamatopia”.)

Apr 19, 2009 - 10:06 am 47. mshatto:

Without doubt then answer is (e) and there are plenty of people within the borders of the United States that feel as he does.

Is the divide in the United States irreparable?

If not, what will it take for the split to be repaired?

Apr 19, 2009 - 10:18 am 48. Carmen:

Great article!! You should also check out the article “Mostly Unmoved” at http://www.noleftturnz.com yes turnz with a Z. I read it yesterday and it is incredible. Keep up the good fight!

Apr 19, 2009 - 10:24 am 49. terlizzi999:

Another great essay from VDH…

The reality is that while the Obama administration has hallmarks of the Carter administration…to be brutally honest the current administration is dangerously worse. The blowback from this administration when we finally kick them out of office (prays) will be devestating.

Apr 19, 2009 - 10:43 am 50. Войска ПВО:

#5 Obama Reboots U.S. History:

“..having to sit through Abuelo Ortega’s 50-minute rant against U.S. “aggression” in Central America. Barrack must’ve thought he was back in college.”

..or in church.

Apr 19, 2009 - 10:44 am 51. Delia:

43. Chuck Pelto,

I’ll take a stab at ‘(f)’

F. Our white-American, marxist president intends on bringing America to her knees. No longer will we be the most powerful, successful country in the world…we will be another third world Country run by a mad-man and his sicko regime. ‘He’ wants blood in the streets, ‘he’ wants the ‘have’ and ‘have-nots’ to NEVER unite but FIGHT tooth and claw. ‘He’ will ignore the anger brewing and try to enforce technology that shuts down free speech on the internet, the radio, the television. Pravda run amok. ‘He’ will throw temper tantrums when ‘he’ is not loved and adored but the media will never report on what a psychotic dirtbag their ‘chosen’ ONE is.

Meh. I digressed a bit…

La-la-laaaaaaaaa.

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:00 am 52. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Delia
RE: You….

“F. Our white-American, marxist president intends on bringing America to her knees. No longer will we be the most powerful, successful country in the world…we will be another third world Country run by a mad-man and his sicko regime.” — Delia

….you’d make a good G2 in some military combat-arm formation.

VDH is ‘confused’. A number of others of US are not. The ‘indicators’ are piling up. Faster than I had expected. And others are beginning to notice the pace of ‘Change’ is faster than THEY expected too.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[When all the other possibilities have been disqualified, the one that remains MUST be the truth. -- Sherlock Holmes.]

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:12 am 53. tanstaafl:

Given Obama’s wide grins and handshakes with the Latin American crowd and bowing to the Saudi King, it looks like he’s most comfortable with despots & assorted US bashers.

They must remind him of all his buddies in Chicago.

Must be fun, travelling around the world, sitting still for ant-US rants. Obama (continuing to grow his own gigantic Carbon Footprint) has trips planned to China & Russia, where he can laud those guys and likely won’t be lecturing the ChiComs on their egregious polluting habits. (tell Henry Waxman about it)

(my main picks, (b) and (e) above)

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:25 am 54. frank:

Sometimes I’m watching TV and fall into hopeless despair that no one else see’s through this man. An then…all of you! All over it from every conceivable angle, nailed perfectly. Karen#44, you were too much today. Shirer’s work is a building block of my library. The parallels you mention are astonishing.
Frank

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:30 am 55. Delia:

52. Chuck Pelto,

“….you’d make a good G2 in some military combat-arm formation.”

Hey, I look pretty sizzling in combat boots and camo gear! he-he-he If only I could learn to speak Chinese [our new 'dollar' handlers]!

Loved your Sherlock quote!

Here is another quote [you've probably used this before but it's one of my favorites]:

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” -Sun-Tzu

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:39 am 56. Terry:

“I am very grateful that President Ortega didn’t blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.”

The zero seems to be oblivious to the fact that he represent the U.S.A., and not the other way around.

I also believe he thinks he can “baffle them (foreign states)with B.S.,” as he was able to do with the American electorate.

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:41 am 57. Khiri:

#9 Morry

Who knows, by next year there may not be a MSM. They will all be financially bankrupt to match their moral bankruptcy.

Oh, from your mouth to God’s ear. The masses are so unbelievably ill-informed that I hold the lamestream media (almost) entirely responsible for the mess we’re in. If people really knew what Zero was all about, he wouldn’t have made it into the Senate, let alone the WH. Same with Pelosi, Reid, etc.

#29 Marge
Who said the world hates us because of Obama? Actually, they’re laughing at us because of Obama. And licking their chops.

#38 Mike
I actually worry about what Obama will do when things change. I don’t think he has anything close to GWB’s threshold for criticism or sense of duty. I think he will become unstable and unpredictable when his personal popularity slips.

He will lash out at us, big time. He’s already tried to make it illegal to criticize him, and that was before the election!! And I thought Slick Willy had a big ego!

BHO is a liar.

- He says he supports the troops but wants them to get their own health insurance to take care of injuries sustained while defending their country.

-He wants bipartisanship while ignoring any alternatives presented by Republicans. Plus putting out a DHS report denouncing anyone who dares to disagree with him.

-He feigns outrage at and fuels the fire of the AIG bonuses after approving them in the bailout and giving Fannie and Freddie more bonuses than AIG gave out.

If America is so horrible, why are so many people around the world literally risking their lives to get here? Give BHO a few more years to do his magic and see how many fewer want to bother.

To all the Obamaniacs, why are his words and actions all too often diametric opposites of each other?

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:45 am 58. Khiri:

#51 Delia

You are truly beautiful! Luv ya!

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:51 am 59. Cristina:

#3 william Blake:

I, too, don’t believe Obama is that enigmatic. Complexity of human motivations is the core of superb drama (see Shakespeare.) In reality, people are much easier to understand, especially those who seek power and privilege, and about whom we have enough information. Thanks to the internet, and to Obama’s own pronunciations and actions, we do have enough info about Obama.
The nexus Chicago politics/Rezko/ACORN/Wright/Ayers is enough for me to “know” Obama. There’s no question he thinks America has been “bad,” wants it to lose its super-power status by weakening it internally and udermining it internationally while garnering more charismatic/messianic and administrative power for himself and his establishment.
The rest is trivial, oportunistic calculation, following from the above.

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:53 am 60. Middleman:

I don’t like the fact Obama has allowed himself to be seen ‘buddying’ up with the likes of Chavez and Ortega, but considering his positioning perhaps he feels that trying to disarm Chavez through a degree of charm will be more effective than giving Chavez the ability to continue using his Anti-American rhetoric as cover to ignore Venezuela’s mounting internal problems. Maybe it will work, maybe not, but at least Chavez will not have as easy of a time to capitalize off anti-Americanism as he did with Bush.

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:04 pm 61. Joe Bison:

The Obama mentality is pure liberal. There is
a predetermined list of good and bad. To explain
anomalies where good people seem to act bad
there has to be a causal factor , US imperialism,
racism, capitalism, Christians[not the lip service variety], poverty, sexism etc.

Remove these evils and the righteous people
will behave good and all will be right in the
world. That is the basis of lenient liberal
justice, it isn’t the criminals fault after
all.

This bodes ill for Israelis in the Obama
doctrine because in that world view they
are white racist oppressors who will not
fairly settle with non-white, non-Jewish
[stand in for Christians here] oppressed
people who had their land stolen. This
seems to be a widely held view among
Blacks worldwide.

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:04 pm 62. LeighB:

You know what day I’m waiting for? The day the music stops for this clown. I could be wrong but he does not strike me as a survivor. At some point even BHO will have to acknowledge he is not the center of the universe. We’ll be fine without him, what will he do for an encore?

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:13 pm 63. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Cristina
RE: Oh My Gosh!!!!!

“There’s no question he thinks America has been “bad,” wants it to lose its super-power status by weakening it internally and u[n]dermining it….” — Cristina

It’s The Underminer!!!!!!

Behold, the Underminer! I’m always beneath you, but nothing is beneath me! I hereby declare war on peace and happiness! Soon, all will tremble before me!

Where are the Incredibles, now that we REALLY need them???!?!?!

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[When everyone is poor nobody will be rich. Except for me and my 'friends'.-- Syndrome (paraphrased)]

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:14 pm 64. Chuck Pelto:

TO: All
RE: Oh Booyyyyysssss….

….and girls.

Get a load of THIS…..

http://professorbainbridge.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=3058

What was it Peepers was saying?

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[History repeats itself......especially under Obama.....]

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:26 pm 65. Delia:

62. LeighB:

“You know what day I’m waiting for? The day the music stops for this clown.”

The fat lady [pork spending bill] has already sung and the lefties have a bad case of cotton ear.

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:31 pm 66. Delia:

58. Khiri:

“#51 Delia

You are truly beautiful! Luv ya!”
~

Oh cut that out. *blushes* Thank you, sweetums but I’m not worthyyyyyy. -But, thank you just the same. You made my day!

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:35 pm 67. Sherab Zangpo:

#47 Mashatto

You write:

“Is the divide in the United States irreparable?

If not, what will it take for the split to be repaired?”

A) No
B) It will take to crush the cult of the blind faith in the nothing (a.k.a. “nihilism”)

The nihilists brewed the ideologies, the ideologies poisoned The People.

The Truth of the Infinite God Who Is Infinite Love can heal The People.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

PS I don’t see much respect for our President Obavez on this forum…

Apr 19, 2009 - 12:48 pm 68. Aleena:

I think that President Obama is the frontman for a group of people with a leftist mentality. Years ago, they saw something in President Obama that could be sold to the American people. He does read speeches well. However, when he speaks without a teleprompter, I do not see any indication of the brillance so many ascribe to him. I see a person who doesn’t have a firm grasp of history, ecomonics, or any of the important issues confronting us. I only see a person who parrots talking points he’s been drilled on.

Almost everything he’s doing will have longlasting and bitter results, but he sadly is clueless.

Apr 19, 2009 - 1:01 pm 69. Rudy:

I believe that BO wants to take America down to a more even status with the other nations so that the theory that he advocates, one universal government for all, can be installed. He knows that it can never come to pass as long as the US is strong and looked to for help or hatred. He sees the UN as the ultimate end for world government.

Apr 19, 2009 - 1:16 pm 70. Cristina:

Aleena:

Absolutely. I’ve had freshmen in my teaching life with more knowledge and insight than Obama. Left on his own, without a teleprompter, he’s mediocre at best. He’s acquired some skill in avoind the gaps in knowledge and lack of substance through intonation (markedly raised at the end of sentences, and thus inconclusive), pacing, pauses and delay, and strained ennunciation.

Apr 19, 2009 - 1:30 pm 71. Bill Sanford:

Excellent article. Mr. Hanson at his best.

Obama, and Democrats, WANT America to fail. America’s failure will prove the “wisdom” of liberal Democratic policies, ie, primarily “anything that Bush was not”.

The burden of debt and moral decadence that radical Democrats are imposing on this country may be more than we can recover from. I believe that America will slip into a “2nd World Status” leaving world leadership in the hands of the Chinese and emerging Brazilian, Iranian, and Indian countries.

Obama & Democrats will deserve all the credit for our collapse.

Apr 19, 2009 - 1:56 pm 72. one of my own:

You talk about hate like it’s the province of some distant and different other – the weird ritualistic philosophy of heathen fiends. Then again, you people hate your own president. That’s a signal that you need to reconcile something.

Apr 19, 2009 - 2:05 pm 73. Michael:

I find the nonsensical rantings of racist conservatives amusing and sad at the same time.
Obama is none of the evils you attempt in your sad little world to pant him as.
He is simply a man. A person who has worked hard to get to where he is. He is the american ideal of the self-made person. Salute that at the same time you attack his policies and positions.

Instead of wasting so much time trying to demonize him, why not try and actually state some beliefs and ideas. Argue on facts and policy. Instead of saying he’s a muslim (not true), instead of ignorant rants about him not being a US citizen or an American, why not try and simply disagree with him and come up with policy arguments.

It’s funny to see reality through your eyes, and also sad to see the BS you spew in your hatred. You lost the election, and your kind of hate is on the way out. Age and demographics are working against you. The non-Christian hatred and racism you espouse is the reason so many in the world look at you as the cancer you are.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
– Mohandas Gandhi

Apr 19, 2009 - 2:12 pm 74. bobbcat:

66. Delia: “Oh cut that out. *blushes* Thank you, sweetums but I’m not worthyyyyyy.” Oh, yeah you are; enjoy your postings immensely.

BTW, where do you go to post smilies on this site?

Apr 19, 2009 - 2:12 pm 75. John:

The gloriously nutty Victor Davis Hanson and his Greek chorus of experts on Obama’s intelligence level, enunciation, and psychology. For some reason which doesn’t accord with my experience of life, or anyone’s experience of life I would have thought they think it better to be disdained and disrespected for arrogance and boorishness than to be liked and admired for intelligence and modesty. They are obviously unfamiliar with the expression you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Hanson claims to be a historian and yet is unfamiliar with the uses of charm and grace in history. Running around launching pre-emptive wars and generally disdaining the international community which has been the pattern for the past eight years has left the US in it’s weakest position in geopolitical terms in my lifetime, but obviously Hanson thinks this has been a great success.

Aleena:
Cristina:
I can see you two are people of high intellectual attainment. Ever been to Harvard Law, ever been president of the lw Review, ever taught constitutional law at University of Chicago: After all “freshmen” are doing this all the time. Perhap since your so sure of your intellectual superiority to the president Cristina you’ll let us know where your teaching life took place.

Apr 19, 2009 - 2:17 pm 76. fabe:

I absolutely love how wacko you right-wingers have gotten! “Obama’s an anti-American socialist!” Given that you don’t know your own country at all well, perhaps if a few of you would travel abroad every once in a while you’d see how much better organized, safe and intelligent our European cousins are. The Francification of the US? Bring it on! Even right-wing French folks are more liberal than you lot. At last we have a president that isn’t a complete idiot as well as sympathetic to the working-class of this country. Someone pinch me!

You Republicans with sour grapes, may you continue to be rightly seen as the rump of the former slave owners.

Apr 19, 2009 - 2:46 pm 77. Paul M Hupf:

The President is in water over his head but he lacks the ability to do more than “dog paddle.” The leaders of Iran, Venezuela, Hezbollah and others are patting him on the back, smiling at him, and at the same time they regard him with contempt and are reaching into his pockets; and he is unaware of what they are doing. The tragedy of all this is that the American people will pay the price for his self esteem. And so will the people of Israel, unless they take matters into their own hands, in which event no one knows the consequences. Instead of promoting peace and harmony, as he thinks he is doing, the President is hastening the moment of crisis.

Apr 19, 2009 - 2:47 pm 78. JFM:

Bruce

First of all, Inquisition has been grossly overstated. In three centuries the Spanish inquisition killed twelve thousand people between heretics, fake conversos and witches in Spanish proper. That is roughly 40, fourty, persons a year. Most of the accused faced such horrible sentences like walking for X sundays around their twon while wearing the San Benito, ie a mantkle, who indentified them as sinners. One of them was Saint Teresa of Avila’s grand father.

In Protestant Europe fourty thousand people were put to death in fourty years (one thousand a year). You must add a number of catholics. Also until well past mid of XIXth century catholic priests were banned from several Protestant countries, eg Prussia and Sweden on pain of death.

What made the real difference between LA and the United States was not Inquisition by itself (BTW, I am not so sure there would be a& First Amendment if the Father Pilgrims had had to deal with Aztecs and their ancestors with Islam), but the difference in both initial colonizations.

LA was the creation of petty nobles who went to America with dreams of conquest and then staying in their haciendas sipping margaritas while their slaves did all the work. That was a new version of tghe feudal system.

The Mayflower pilgrims did not have at hand vast tribes of natives to enslave, so they had to work. They were npot warriors and nobles but peasants and traders wanting to escape the feudal order not recreate it.

There was a plce in Almerica where nobility was dominant (descendants of the Cavaliers) and where the feudal system was recreated just like in LA, with black slaves doing the work made by serfs in Medieval Europe. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the South quickly fell behind the North. I think if the South had succeded in seceeding it would have latin-americanized and now would be little different and not that much richer than Mexico. Fortunately for the South it lost the war.

Apr 19, 2009 - 2:50 pm 79. Anonymous:

I personally do not wonder at all whether the President knows why some nations hate us. However, I am a little unclear as to Mr. Hanson’s grasp of the issue.
Take Iran for example. The author discusses Khomenism as if it were some inexplicable phenomena that somehow snuffed out the idyllic democratic utopia that was Iran under the Shah. Khomeni didn’t invent “prescreened, preapproved candidates… confirmed by plebiscites”,and civil liberties were “nonexistent as we know them” long before the mullahs showed up. Among those thousands of executed Shah-supporters were some pretty unpleasant individuals who had been involved in a decades-long campaign of torture, brutality, oppression, and corruption, backed and funded by the CIA.
The list, sadly goes on; Nicaragua under Somoza, the Phillipines under Marcos, Cuba under Batista, Irag under Sadaam (pre-Kuwait, of course), all nations where we put our own strategic and economic interests above the well being, and in some cases the very lives, of the locals. I understand the concept of realpolitic, and a case can certainly be made for supporting tinhorn dictators and petty despots, but please, spare us the wide-eyed innocence and shock when the oppressed people start to look at us with hatred and distrust, and begin siding with our adversaries.
Finally, I have yet to see Obama “apologize” for anything, unless we are using conservaspeak, where any acknolwedgement of past errors, or any entertaining of the idea that the other guys just might have a legitimate grievance is looked upon as weakness, appeasement, or treason.

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:00 pm 80. Meryl:

70 Cristina…

Do you have other observations on his speaking style?

His goofy intonations and strained enunciations, particularly, have driven me crazy every since he won the raffle in 2004.

At first hearing, it just sounds artificial; then, a person begins to wonder what the hey is going on when his worshippers think he’s wonderful…when all the time I was thinking, “What’s wrong with this guy? Can’t he talk?” His style of speaking sounds ESL to me.

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:06 pm 81. Hyphenated American:

The first thing that American patriots should do is look into the possiblity of some states seceding from the Union. It could be Texas, Alaska, North Carolina. Under the slogan “dissent is patriotic” and “let my people go”, conservatives can save at least a few parts of this wonderful country.
As for Obama’s thinking – I believe the man is a thug, as he knows exactly what drives the foreign dictators. In order to save his left-wing plans, he needs a war, and the fastest way to a war is to show weakness.
Read more on my blog:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/2009/03/blessed-be-cheesemakers.html

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:09 pm 82. Cristina:

Dr Hanson:

I prefer an Occam’s razor kind of answer to why “they” hate “us”: Envy. I’ve lived it. I know all about it.

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:09 pm 83. Paul:

This is all very simple. Obama is practicing what liberals have been hectoring the country about since Ronald Reagan. Since he is a product of liberal academia, Reverend Wright, and liberal democratic politics, he genuinely believes that whet he is doing is going to bring about a new millenium where peace and prosperity will reign because he genuinely believes that everything that has happened in the world that is bad is the fault of the USA. That is a central pillar of liberalism. So what happens after he has all of his dialogue, signs his treaties, and disarms the US military? That’s easy: the country will have slipped from the strongest in the world to “just another Joe.” And in his view, that is a good thing because it is American strength that has caused all of the world’s problems. Well, we cannot say we weren’t warned; that’s what he campaigned on and the majority of voters thought that was where the country should go. Quite a shame, really American exceptionalism will become “America the ordinary.”

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:22 pm 84. valwayne:

Simply amazing! One week Obama is bowing to the Saudi King. A man who rules a Kingdom where women can be flogged for driving a car. The next week he’s all smiles and handshakes with the man who has personally destroyed democracy in Venezuela, its new dictator for life Hugo Chavez. And while that was going on Obama’s Dept of Homeland security assessed our new enemies for us. They are anybody who disagrees with Obama and our returning Veteran/Heroes. Federal and local law enforcement have all been advised that our returning Veteran Heroes are all potentially deranged domestic terrorists, which of course means they have to be watched. If you are the hiring manager for a large or small company what do you do when you see an application from one of our Veteran Heroes? Remember Obama’s government is officially on record now warning everyone of the danger they present?

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:26 pm 85. dudley:

This represents the worst kind of thinking, from the rightwing Hoover Institution, that left the scene with the last administration in discredit and disgrace. Victor Davis Hanson’s confusion is not over President Obama, it is vast;his ideological framework is broken beyond repair.

Apr 19, 2009 - 3:28 pm 86. J House:

Very well written piece…right on.

Will we all feel better about ourselves if we catch a terrorist that knows of an impending attack (like 9/11), refuses to talk, then we don’t waterboard him because we feel morally superior to our enemy?
Will the President then come out to the podium and say we did the right thing, despite the murder of thousands of innocent Americans in less than an hour and a half?

The President has the audacity to hope that that moment never comes

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:18 pm 87. Delia:

80. Meryl,

How dare you judge the ONE’s oratory skills? Do you not know a ‘cunning linguist’ when you hear him? His voice is like the beautiful Muslim call to prayer and his 57 states of Islam…wait America…wait his Muslim…no CHRISTIAN faith, yeah that’s the ticket… er wait…er…uh…uhm…uh…*Bows to Saudi Jewels and nods at the Queen*…uh erm…eh…er… Where’s my telly prompta?

You are now required to sit in the corner with the other people who have the adroit audacity to call a dope a DOPE. Dear Leader is not happy with leetle you [or leetle me].

Our white-American president is in dire need of a serious wake-up call, perhaps his ciggy-tourettes syndrome tax will bring him out of his flatulent brain fart fog.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:22 pm 88. tammy12:

Stop it there folks. Obama is a democratically elected President and we will have to deal with him no matter what. Ok, ok…let me rephrase that… by democratically elected I meant, with a ‘little’ help from his friends at the Media, the Superdelegates, Foreign fundraised money and Acorn, but nevertheless there he is.

Like most of you, I too, would have preferred a REAL American President instead of a Real ANTI-American one, but the bottom line is that we will need to expect Obama to cozy more with the Chavez, Casttos, Noriegas, Europeans in General, Muslims, etc and all those folks rather than with Americans; Obama is a leftist, he is a socialist and more a person on that side of the pond than within our borders. That’s that.

So sit, relax and enjoy the flight – it’s gonna be a bumpy one, but we have no choice now. The millions of Americans whome irrational hatred of Bush blinded them to see the dangers of US self-distruction under Obama was even worse than waterboarding and pictures of naked iraqis, made it possible for him to get elected. Now dont be fooled by the smiles (or rather smirks) from the Chavez and the rest of the bunch. What they are celebrating is not ‘having a nice US president’, but seeing the US finally bowing (both figuratively and literally!) to them. Hatred of Bush was just a channel to ventilate their own decades long envy, resentment and antiamericanism. Nothing can please them more than to see the ‘Great Empire of the North’ self-humilliated and Obama is doing a great job on that particular territory.

I am no fan of Bush and was more than willing to see the Democrats take over and be given a chance to govern…provided of course the Democrat was another real American. I may disagree with some dems policies, just like I disagree with some reps policies; but never did I doubted an American President (Dem or Rep) when it came to his Americanism, Patriotism and putting US interests above all. With Obama is no longer the case.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:28 pm 89. RE:

Every day brings us more evidence that Obama is bad for America – very bad.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:35 pm 90. The Historian:

THE FACT IS OBAMA IS A MAN OF THE FAR LEFT
He is the one with the loose lips during a time of war.

http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/obamas-loose-lips-sink-more-than-ships.html

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:36 pm 91. ajacksonian:

I’m betting on ‘All of the above, plus nebulous ideas he has floating around that seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned out horrifically wrong when tried’. Basically, repeating some other folks mistakes by not learning history.

The effect of the rate at which the President is doing things would normally overwhelm responses… but no one expects the FFT’s effects on perception and adjustment. That then speeds up the entire process as reactions now happen much, much faster. So if the last month or so is 1765 (or 1782) then you compress the years into months and… hmmmm… 8 months to 1773? Or 4 months to the Neo-Shaysites?

We do forget that America nearly had a second Revolutionary war pitting the urban elites against the small town and rural folks… and if we are on track to Neo-Shaysites, they will *not* have communication problems this time.

So here’s hoping to 1765! Not that the outcome of that was peaceful, mind you.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:39 pm 92. Panda7:

Unfortunately, Obama is all too predictable, and behaving exactly as expected, at least to anyone who was paying attention during the campaign. This man does not believe that America has been a force for good in the world. Rather he sees all of its flaws magnified, and minimizes all of its accomplishments. He has spent his life among those who see things through the same lenses of a distorted ideology, which he is too lazy and incurious to take off and see for himself. And why should he? Without a single tangible accomplishment to his name, he has been nursed and promoted as the well-spoken front man for the agenda of his promoters. His career has risen steadily from community organizer, who failed to help his community in any way to president of the most powerful nation on earth whose entire history and very existence embarasses him. This meteoric success seems perfectly natural to him, and like every narcissist who achieves power, he now believes his own propaganda completely. Experience can teach, but one who achieves power without it can no longer learn.

Dragons’ teeth are indeed being sown, but America is resilient and she will survive. If there is any silver lining this, it is that after these seeds are sprouted the ideology that has sowed them will be more soundly discredited and unable to wreak havoc for quite some time into the future. We can only work and wait for that day.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:45 pm 93. bbbb:

Dr. Hanson, Obama’s a narcissist. Can we have one day of news WITHOUT HIM? Actually, I think it’s very elemental-there are some men who simply lie, particularly to those close to them. Certainly men (and women) of ALL races do this, but I have observed in the black community a propensity of a man or a woman having children with multiple partners they aren’t married to (and I dare anyone honestly to refute this- most white people I know don’t know the term “baby-daddy”). So, what does this very “racist” statement have to do with Obama, who seems to be totally loyal to his wife and daughters? He has learned to lie and be charming and to seduce those who love him to get what he wants- adulation, power, and worse, propitiation. It’s really very scary to see Obamaphiles who can’t answer basic questions about him, including the honest liberal feminist Camille Paglia. Ignore truth and see only what you want to see- classic liberalism. SCARY.

Apr 19, 2009 - 4:48 pm 94. Shawn Dudley:

Quite frankly, current dissatisfaction within the conservative “base” is higher not only because of BHO’s media-driven election, but because of chronic mishandling by the GOP elites over two decades. Witness the absolutely savage mauling of Sarah Palin by the Drive-By Media and McCain’s acquiescence to same, which for many of us was the last straw. There hasn’t been better soil for a new party since 1992 and perhaps not since 1856!

BHO will continue to glide on on the MSM cushioning until inevitably some sort of foreign policy crunch will avoid the power of his teleprompter. I’d keep my eye on Iran: they very clearly mean what they say about wiping Israel off the map and would be more than willing to soak an Israeli retaliatory blow in return for the honor of exterminating the “Zionist Entity.” I’m quite sure BHO will make a great speech at the memorial service, but for many Americans of all parties, Israel is practically family, like the UK. Seeing them get wasted while at 3AM Obama agonizes over what to do would be too much to bear.

Nonetheless, if this guy loses in 2012, especially if Palin wins, I don’t see him, nor the Code Pink types that support him, leaving quietly.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:00 pm 95. Cristina:

#75 Meryl:
I don’t know what else to tell you than to urge you to listen to any of Reagan’s speeches.
One example:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1777069922535499977

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:01 pm 96. MiamaMan:

Al Fontaine, thanks for this post to Vivo,

[To # 8 VIVO:

Wake up from your dream, look out the cave you are in, gazing at shadows.

Well, since you´be reading VDH, I think you are down a good road, so I´ll give you a helping hand: go read this, right now:

Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (Hardcover)
by Plinio Apuleyo; Llosa, Alvaro Vargas; Montaner, Carlos Alberto; Michael Mendoza (Author). Publisher: Madison Books Inc., Lanham, Maryland, U.S.A. (January 1, 2000)
ASIN: B001V4IAPG

A tip: “Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina” is The Perfect Latin American Idiot´s sacred text, got it!? If the USA had an actual American President, which is not currently the case, Hugo Chávez would´ve been reciprocated with a copy of “The Guide”, spot on.

From Al Fontaine, Curitiba, Brazil.]

You are totally correct, I read the Latin American Idiot, and have always admired Carlos Alberto Montaner, I think Vivo is a frustrated Cuban.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:07 pm 97. loopdog:

the man is what we call a “POLE TURTLE”. He doesn’t know how he got up there, but knows someone else put him there….and he sure as heck doesn’t know how to get down.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:12 pm 98. Mike Field:

People forget what Barack Obama is. If his name was Barry Dunham, you would understand it better. He is the product of elite education, and has lived his life in isolation from what is reality to most Americans – even Americans with elite educations and high educational levels in general.

In the end, Obama is the product of one idiosyncratic community where he chose to live his entire adult life minus three years at Harvard law. In the end, he has to fall back on the views he learned in his neighborhood, particularly the idea that a kind coercive social democracy is what will solve the problems of American society.

Allegedly (and the alleger is Rush Limbaugh himself) he personally told Limbaugh that because he was elected, he has the right to promote his own vision. Never mind the fact that he comes out of a world that most Americans not only don’t, but cannot understand.

Therein lies his power to mesmerize. But in his leftism he really represents few people in America, may 20 percent tops. Mostly people in a few liberal cities and a few college towns. Not enough to make a mandate for the kind of change he would like to make if only he could.

Obama is at odds with what he has to do to be an effective president. His personality and even the willingness of most in his party to maintain solidarity at all costs can only carry him so far and for so long.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:20 pm 99. tammy12:

As a person very familiar with Latin America and having lived there many years I highly recommend both “Guide to the Perfect L.A. Idiot” and “The Return of the L.A. Idiot”. The latter was a sequel written after Chavez, Morales, and other L.A. leftoids took power.

I know for a fact that 99% of Latin American problems, including the rise of rightwing dictators, are all fully created and engendeared in Latin America. Their easily brainwashed masses by loud populists from left and rights are consequences of a long history of servilism of spaniard/portuguesse colonization combined with religious taboos and other colonial remnants.

Blaming US is just escapegoating. As French author Revel in his “AntiAmerican Obession” put it: Latin America was colonized more than 150 years before North America. They had the edge start. Yet, it was the north the one that developed in a rocketed way and so became the dominant political and economical force. Latin America, in similar but different way to Europe, also harvested the resentment and envy toward the US and in order to exempt itself from its own shortcomings and mediocricy, then it turns the blame to the United States. (aka Loser’s Lament)

I cant remember if it was Jean Revel or Vargas Llosa who said: “Latin America is the Region in the world which suffers the most severe case of pathologycal lacking of self-criticism”.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:31 pm 100. Cybergeezer:

This fart thinks he is truly the Messiah! What kind of “Cap and Trade” governs this gas bag?

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:41 pm 101. Mike S:

Let’s review a few facts. The last Republican President was despised by our ALLIES, not just by our enemies. As such, Bush was incapable of leading the Western coalition which has kept the world safe since WWII.

Obama is respected throughout Europe (our allies), and is capable of repairing the Western coalition. In addition, he has begun to assemble a successful strategy for dealing with Afghanistan, which remains the central front against Islamic Jihadists.

Dealing with Iran and North Korea was, is, and will be difficult for any American President. I don’t recall Bush making much headway. Let’s see how Obama does.

Giving the order to allow deadly force to rescue the kidnapped American captain shows Obama has spine.

VDH’s neocon rantings are very predictable and should be filed with all the other overwrought right-wing hand-wringing.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:47 pm 102. ottospengler:

Tiptoe, Indeed. Obama is a Radical Marxist. The available history of his life demonstrates that beyond doubt. The regimes of Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea– those are his ideal states, for those promise unlimited wealth and power to him and his followers. I laugh sadly at folks scared of the events unfolded so far. They are a mere beginning, as bare as the half-dozen men Hitler spoke to at his first political speech. Like Hitler, this man will not stop until he is the undisputed permanent dictator for life and his enemies have been sent to the camps or murdered in the streets. No country, no kingdom, no republic has or will ever be safe from threats to its existance.

Apr 19, 2009 - 5:48 pm 103. Marie Claude:

Sarkozy’s crude dismissal and appraisal of Obama (nothing is worse for a liberal administration than to have their idolized French brethren bite their extended limp hands

“bite” ? how can a yappy little dog dare such a thing ? Ruhig !!! LMAO

sumethin tells me that the Master of the Worlds intentionally show his preference for Chirac before, and that he had no real envy for a discret friends supper in Normandy, finding Sarko a bit too hyperactive.

So this is the “retour du baton” or the the boomrang back… between distinguished persons that had to fists fight to get the place where they finally sit, not of bourgeoise education. Beside Berlusconi was even more acerb (and racist), he attacked O on his tan.

I am afraid that are the new leaders we can afford nowadays, no more humanists (european sense) or “mandarins” that we used to get in the previous centuries.

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:05 pm 104. RabelRabel:

In assessing motive, you shouldn’t discount the possibility that President Obama has no deeply held political, economic, nationalistic, or religious convictions but is simply another egotistical slickster who seeks the easiest path to personal advancement. If so, then his current vision of that path on the international front leads to his degrading of President Bush and promoting of himself as the voice of a new America. The polls and the crowds and the majority of the press coverage indicate that his judgment is correct.

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:09 pm 105. Fernando:

Could not have been said better. As a citizen of Spain, soon to be US citizen, I think that this Hussein guy is nothing more than the American version of Mr Zapatero. Hussein is a disgrace for the US just as Zapatero is a disgrace for Spain.

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:27 pm 106. vivo:

32. ked5:

“You ought to spend some real time in south america WITH actual average citizens in those countries. NOT in the major cities with the “elites”, but in the country where people have to eke out livings.”

I’ve done that, I’ve been there. That’s why all who disagree with me are plain wrong.

41. James:
“We’re so bad to the Southern Americans? Who saved Central America from the communists?”

I guess you don’t know how that happened: murder, torture, bribery, propaganda, right-wing dictatorships,

“in the name of a political ideology that killed over 100,000,000 in the last hundred years?”

The majority of those deaths were a result of right-wing mayhem. Read the right books and statistics, talk to the relatives of the victims. Your ideology is blinding you.

95. MiamaMan:

“I think Vivo is a frustrated Cuban.”

Wrong, keep speculating.

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:28 pm 107. Anony-moose:

#93 Shawn Dudley suggests the time is right for a new party. The problem is, the process of starting a new party means giving power to the left and creating institutionalized change which will take generations to undo.

If Al Franken gets seated, that means two of 59 Democratic senators were put in the senate by conservatives who voted for third parties, the Reform Party in Minnesota and the Constitution Party in Oregon.

If the Democrats get a filibuster proof senate out of the deal, they may be able to enact the worst of what they want to do. In that case, look for a government which seeks to determine for you your what educational level you may aspire to, your occupation, perhaps even where you may live and what your lifespan may be. All of these things can be done without ever spelling the issue out, if you get my point.

There is another problem inherent in this debate which no one wants to talk about. Too many people talk about issues like every issue is an internal matter in the white, european segment of the American body politic, if settled within that segment, then settled. But not so!

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:46 pm 108. davelnaf:

It seems that Obama is one of those rare individuals who believes that whatever they experienced in life and whatever they learned about the larger world beyond their immediate neighborhoods and city is basically the same truth that can be applied everywhere and to everything. Believing in the unshakable correctness of this, he will smile and preen and handshake his way for a year, maybe less, and then the chickens will come home to roost. Americans will soon tune out and turn off Obama and one has to wonder if the democrats in Congress realize what that protends for them?

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:04 pm 109. Al Fontaine:

To # 95 MiamaMan:

So, thank God the copy Chávez gave Obama is in Spanish. Just think of it: What if Obama had gotten an English translation ? I´m serious here.

Given what Paul # 83 wrote above (thanks, Paul !), can you imagine how much (more) havoc Obama could wreak after having read the ‘Perfect Latin American Idiot´s sacred text’?

America under Obama: Quo vadis?

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:10 pm 110. Alana:

E and B, with a touch of D.

“I’ll let readers decide, but so far his rhetoric has been harsher to those on Wall Street, his opponents in Congress, those who make over $250,000, and those who criticize him than it has to those who clearly don’t like us abroad.”

That’s because he likes them better.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:29 pm 111. Hutom:

Someone ranted:
——–
He fails to consider the fact that most of the “nations” in the General Assembly, and about half the members of the Security Council, are little more than thugocracies run by self-absorbed plutocrats, grasping autocrats, and/or barely-literate borderline psychotics with AK-47s and “Death To (Your Name Here)” T-shirts.
——–
Seriously, replace AK47 with your favorite Gun-Toy and you are pretty much spot-on describing Bush’s Aemrica. Hah!

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:32 pm 112. Meryl:

94 Cristina…I know. And yet they thought Reagan was such a dunce. Oh well. It is what is.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:35 pm 113. fred:

Once I had done the background research on him back in late 2007 and very early 2008, I have not listened to any speech of his and I try to not listen to the inevitable audio quotes of his words. The man has always been deceitful; therefore, I watch his actions and pay almost no attention to his statements. Look, folks, when you have spent a decade of your life, as I have, in the company of the Marxists/socialists/”progressives” (albeit, quietly and academically) you get to know who these people are and what they believe in. Many, not all, are deceitful and willingly participate in mis and dis information. They have a long history of this.

Nevertheless, the policy signals of his words are like red meat to the nation’s enemies. He is utterly clueless about the nature of evil and the solid fact of malefactors in the world. It is a curious quality about these Leftists. Some are very bad people, and yet they have a weird inability to see the danger about in the world.

Let me part this discussion with one interesting factoid: It is said that Josef Stalin trusted only one man – Adolph Hitler. When Hitler double crossed him by Operation Barbarossa Stalin was devastated. Prior to the launch of the invasion, Stalin suppressed and would not believe the intelligence coming in about the Reich’s intentions.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:37 pm 114. fred:

If you have any doubts about the sinister nature of this man and his puppet master, George Soros (himself a man who openly proclaims he feels no guilt at all helping the Nazis in Budapest rape the wealth of the Jewish community there), take note of his appointment of an undersecretary to the SecDef in the Pentagon: Rosa Brooks.

By the end of these dark four years you will know that I was right to point out what bad people these are.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:41 pm 115. steveg:

Fernando…..Happy to have you as a new citizen. I wish we had more clear thinking Americans.

Apr 19, 2009 - 7:51 pm 116. Ron Baxter:

“Howiem” hit the nail on the head with everyting he said about BHO. He should be no surprise to anyone; he’s only doing everthing he campaigned on based on everyting he believes about this nasty country (there is a reason his wife had never been proud of the USA; nor had BHO, he just didn’t get caught saying it.. Only fools would not have known this before they pulled the lever for him.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:02 pm 117. Tinman:

One thing that concerns me is that even when Americans wake up to see Obama’s policies for what they are, we will not be able to vote him out of office. His party’s majority in so many states will be felt when redistricting time rolls around, and then in the next election we will see the result of the $BILLIONS he gave to ACORN in the stimulus bill. He will be “locked in” a la Chavez for another four years at least, and who knows what mischief can be made to transpire. Meanwhile the heavy hands of the G-men will be felt by the opposition. Janet Reno could look like a sweet old lady. I fear they are laying the groundwork now while we are distracted by his ongoing governance. I may be wrong, but vigilance is the watchword.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:07 pm 118. ked5:

#100 Obama is respected throughout Europe (our allies),

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ROFLOL!!!!!!! boy, you obviously don’t read EUORPEAN news reports, but rely upon the MSN in the US to tell you what the rest of the world thinks. He is offending our allies at an unbelieveable rate. Sarkozy has bluntly stated what an idiot bambi is – Heads of state just do not do that to another head of state – why do you suppose Sarkozy did? Europe is mocking him behind his back. LOL!!!!! oh, you are so funny.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:18 pm 119. Bilgeman:

My grodious blog-slave, who performs gross acts of online stupidity to amuse his betters, blurts out this gem at #72:

“You talk about hate like it’s the province of some distant and different other – the weird ritualistic philosophy of heathen fiends. Then again, you people hate your own president. That’s a signal that you need to reconcile something.”

Reasonable people would ask themselves if the mutant humanoid is babbling about PJM…or the
“(MY)dissent is patriotic” worthies at Code Pink, MoveOn, and Daily Kos under George Bush.

FWIW, I would unequivocally acknowledge Barak Obama as my President, if he would be so kind as to cough up the $12.00 fee and release his vault-copy birth certificate that is in Honolulu.

We have no doubt that there indeed IS such a document there, but itwould be quite proper and egalitarian of him to, like the rest of us have to, cough it up so that we can be satisfied that he is native-born, and therefore Constitutionally qualified to hold the office to whch he was elected.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:25 pm 120. Rand Cottrell:

A big old “Look what I did” Statement is coming to a CNN microphone near you soon. Back room deals and treasonous givings are about to enable Obama to say,”I talked them in to changing there despicable ways.”. All in a deal with our ENEMIES to get Americans to forgo our freedoms. WE ARE THE ONES GIVING UP FREEDOMS TO GET OUR ENEMIES TO CAPITULATE! Yet, it’ll will all be done right under our noses.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:29 pm 121. gcblues:

Vivo,
you are not smart. hugo hates the usa, he hated the usa before bush,he hates odumbo. he hated clinton. he hates everything gringo, left or right. just as the iranians hated the usa, or satanic empire, during carter’s bumbling.

reboot.
abuelo ortega? as a person living half time in nicaragua, i am not aware of that status. he was however convicted of boinking his hairy under armed wife’s underage daughter. they blamed they blamed kid and booted her.

NOW TO THE ESSAY.
sorry motive is stupid. it is without consequence and stands alone as proof the road to hell is paved with good lefty intentions.

forget motive. forget everything but dispassionate analysis of behavior. odumbo and his handlers for whatever reason are in the process of lessening the USA’s geo political power presence. period. reasons not relevant. all that is relevant is while our geo political power projection contracts, what fills the void. with the deconstruction of the USSR under gorby, freer republics emerged. will freer republics emerge in latin america, eastern europe, central asia, arabia se asia and the china sea as america contracts? yeah, when pigs fly. what will fill the void. alba, the unaligned nations, china, totalitarian misery.

this obvious answer to that explains why motive is not relevant and proof certain that odumbo is an ignoramus

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:43 pm 122. Mark in Texas:

Michael @ 73.

Assuming that you are not a hit and run troll, your post deserves a reply. First off, I didn’t notice any racist comments either in Dr.Hansen’s article or in the comments. Could you point them out to me or is any criticism of President Obama racist by virtue of his parentage? I also did not notice anybody stating explicitly or implicitly that President Obama is not human. Why do you feel that it is necessary to point out that he is just a man?

That he worked hard to become President is a given for anybody who achieves that office. I think that you could actually make an argument that Barak did not have to work as hard to be elected as other Presidents have due to a Mainstream Media that was actively trying to protect him from gaffes and to avoid asking him any difficult questions or even to give him a normal vetting. For example who paid for Barak Obama’s education? How did he travel to Pakistan at a time when US citizens were not permitted to travel there. I am not saying that there are sinister answers to these questions but rather pointing out that the questions were not asked and that reflects poorly on the media.

You would like some ideas? I think that the United States is a good country. It is probably, despite some less attractive incidents, the best, most honorable and moral powerful country in the history of the world. I think that the world is a better place because the United States is powerful and that if Barak Obama makes the United States less powerful everybody on earth, except for a few malignant individuals such as the leadership of North Korea and Iran, will be worse off. Even if you don’t much care for the United States, having one undisputed super power makes it less likely that we will have unfortunate episodes like World War I which occurred when there were several powerful entities contesting for preeminence.

The rest of your post is essentially just partisan “Nah, nah! You guys suck!” Well, right back at you in the spirit in which you wrote it.

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:44 pm 123. Marie Claude:

First of all, Inquisition has been grossly overstated. In three centuries the Spanish inquisition killed twelve thousand people between heretics, fake conversos and witches in Spanish proper. That is roughly 40, fourty, persons a year. Most of the accused faced such horrible sentences like walking for X sundays around their twon while wearing the San Benito, ie a mantkle, who indentified them as sinners. One of them was Saint Teresa of Avila’s grand father.

umm, if you consider that some say “from 400 to 12 milions”, though you sin from euphemism, 12 000 would only fit Torquemada time

The number of Jews killed in the Massacres of 1391 is usually estimated at fifty thousand and fast the same number for the rest, still jews, conversos… poltical eliminations.

This is for Spain, if you consider that Spain had some regards on Naples kingdom, Canaries islands… the numbers are even higher

not talking of the tortures before being burnt.

Those who were condamned to the “san Benito” parade were more numerous, but they lose their properties at the same time.

http://libro.uca.edu/torquemada/torquemada.htm

Jews archives are said the most serious and kept up to date

In Protestant Europe fourty thousand people were put to death in fourty years (one thousand a year). You must add a number of catholics. Also until well past mid of XIXth century catholic priests were banned from several Protestant countries, eg Prussia and Sweden on pain of death.

up to 2 millions for French wars 30 years war… from 6000 to 10000 only for St Barthelemy

I don’t think it was a coincidence that the South quickly fell behind the North. I think if the South had succeded in seceeding it would have latin-americanized and now would be little different and not that much richer than Mexico. Fortunately for the South it lost the war.

umm, I’m not arguing, but I know a few Southeners that have a different opinion

Apr 19, 2009 - 8:47 pm 124. Ron:

Ultimately most commies & tyrants want their fair share of booty ($$ in aid/new trade agreements) i.e. beyond the legitimacy afforded to them by O. In such an uncertain and volatile economic climate meeting and fulfilling new foreign aid/trade initiatives will be close to impossible. O is walking a very thin tightrope and has yet to realize like a very impotent UN assembly that No amount of phony forums to appease and legitimize tyrants achieves anything remotely positive.

It’s a matter of time before his celebrity gives way to antagonism, and his ever growing weaknesses are exposed and exploited. He is painting himself and American prestige along with him into a corner of hurt and ridicule. It may not appear as such to many early into his administration, but as the professor warns – just watch.

O has shown very little thus far to suggest he will ever grow a pair, he has huge difficulty challenging even his own members. Expect further instability .. every where.

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:04 pm 125. Alana:

“Will the President then come out to the podium and say we did the right thing, despite the murder of thousands of innocent Americans in less than an hour and a half?”

That is exactly what he will say. That is exactly what he is setting us up for.

That’s what Biden was talking about, when he said Obama would be tested, and we would not like his response, but we should go along with it anyway.

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:11 pm 126. Jason Keuter:

First of all, an excellent synopsis of the actions and intents of hostile powers. So what of Obama then? The question of his motives may be interesting. I agree with a poster who says those motives are obvious and people generally tap dance around and ignore them and those who don’t are conventiently labeled “partisan” or worse. But Obama is not the issue: the voters are. There are many issues to discuss regarding the voters, but I’ll limit myself to the most problematic: they are narcissistic and Obama is their narcissistic President. Obama is eloquent if one is impressed by shallow rhetoric. People that consider him “lofty” or “idealistic” are wrong: his speeches are filled with pedestrian cliches and are completely lacking in any ideas at all. Further, his supporters play the role of the protective parent; catigating and attacking those who demand from Obama that he do something besides shallow soliloquies. Obama is thus the perfect incarnation of the society of delusions of grandeur and importance totally divorced from reality. His path to the Presidency reads like a list of extra-curricular activities a mediocre college applicant puts together in order to go to an Ivy League school.

Obama is a lot like Chavez, who loves to talk as much as Obama. The difference between the two is that Obama’s talk is a process designed to show that he possesses laudable moral characteristics and is thus superior to those who do not: Obama is open-minded, he is compassionate, he is, in sum, a good person. The other delusion talk fosters is that Obama is intelligent. But Obama’s penchant for talk indicates the exact opposite. For openers, his “open” approach to powers that have so flagrantly demonstrated with blatant consistency the complete irrational hostility of their aims shows a total lack of both principle and judgement. He chides America for its arrogance yet he justifies his open approach with incredible condescension by speaking of these powers as puny and insignificant compared to the Soviet Union. He thus admits that it is okay to play with them.

So why is it Obama wishes to talk to weak powers? The answer is pretty obvious: it’s the same reason mediocre narcissists take classes from easy teachers – to hear endless praise about how great they are. Why does Obama keep the straw man of Bush around? Because Bush read Chavez’s essay and knew it was BS and didn’t give him an A. Obama says that’s unfair, and in giving Chavez a hearing, Obama expects from Chavez great praise for being so open-minded. In other words, Obama seeks praise and does so desperately. What he got from his fellow narcissists is an insult. He was bested by Ortega and Chavez, who don’t hesitate to say what they mean. Looks like the inflated A student was bested by the classroom bully who knows how to read. Obama’s weakness is reflective of a profound weakness in our culture.

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:13 pm 127. Scott:

Message to Obama: WE DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS!

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:40 pm 128. stuart Williamson:

I find it puzzling that the great scholar of history, who has helped me through several difficult political seasons, says that his “only confusion” is Obama’s motive. My greatest problem is in that this confusion apparently is shared by many conservative “pundits” who spend thousands of words and hours considering options a, b, c, and d when the answer is so clearly “e”.

It requires very little research to establish that he was a Red-diaper baby, steeped from infancy in the Communist faith of his parents, obsessed with his father’s dream of a Communist Kenya, and seeking out socialist professors and groups, both on and off campus.

With no Chicago roots, he was drawn there after college, probably by an attraction to Saul Alinsky’s grassroots strategy, as expressed in his Rule for Radicals. There he fell in with Bill Ayers, an Alinsky convert after realizing the futility of his Armed Revolution Wetherman approach, who to this day goes around in T shirts with a huge Red Star. Ayers recognized this cool charming, golden-tongued doctrinaire Socialist could serve as his surrogate – his own record would make it impossible for him ever to achieve high political status. So he boosted Obama up through the Chicago Democrat machine. In over 20 years Obama’s only experience has been as a Community Organizer in Black wards and a lecturer on Constitutional Law, with emphasis on how to subvert and revise it.

So he’s an “e man” – as Aleena says ” a frontman for a group of people of leftist mentality”. More accurately, he is a bred-in-the-bone, dedicated disciple of Saul Alinsky, a protege of Billy Ayers (as is Chavez in Venezuela), pledged to destroy capitalism and realize the dream from his father” of bringing a Soviet-style government to the United States. By any means possible, as fast as possible. Which accounts for a,b,c, and d.

When the history of this election is written, maybe even by DH, it will show that a cabal of radical Chicago Socialists, with a brilliant campaign based on Alinsky’s audacious Rules for Radicals, achieved a BLOODLESS COUP, and brazenly vaulted a doctrinaire, capitalistic-hating, doctrinaire Communism-loving nonentity motor-mouth into the White House.

Ahat’s to confuse? Why the resistance to accepting the truth? Why all the “I don’t understand where he’s coming from so I won’t condemn” trepidation on the part of the right-wing commentariat? The Tea Partiers have the right gut-feeling.

O bama lies. Taxes rise. Freedom dies.

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:45 pm 129. jshu43:

U.S. is being taken down in a bloodless coup. It really doesn’t matter what BHO’s intentions are.

Apr 19, 2009 - 9:51 pm 130. fred:

Zapatero is a harmless lapdog compared with Obonga.

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:04 pm 131. one of my own:

87. Delia . . . cunning linguist?

Your mind and memory have fallen through the cracks again.

Apr 19, 2009 - 11:21 pm 132. Neal J. King:

It’s funny how many folks seem to believe that “not talking” to countries we don’t like constitutes a foreign policy.

Obama is talking with people we haven’t been able to get anywhere with for a long time. Maybe it won’t work; but what conceivable harm can it cause? Do you think the paperback book given by Chavez to Obama constitutes a threat? How fragile do you folks think the US to be?

Fearful, fearful people!

Apr 20, 2009 - 1:53 am 133. JFM:

Mrs Marie Claude

Given how Vichy aided the Germans to exterminate Jews and both De Gaulle’s and Chirac’s aid to people who wanted to exterminate them ot to mention the coawardice and opportunism of present French politicians who have decided to throw the Jews under the bus in order to keep the banlieus hapopy.

Oh if you are so fond of Medieval history the Castilian king had to sent back the French crusaders due to their anti-Jewish pogroms. He did that before a crucial battle where he expected to be heavily outnumbered.

Apr 20, 2009 - 2:31 am 134. Amos:

Wow NJ King, two non-sequiturs in just your first sentence.

Let’s go over this one-by-one, so we’re clear on it.

1. The U.S. DID in fact talk to Iran during Bush II. As it did pretty much everyone but Cuba and Hamas/Palestinians. Let’s begin our conversations not with myth or MoveOn talking point, but with the actual history. That history includes talks between the U.S. and other foreign powers with whom we are not on the best of terms.
2. Even if we didn’t, silence has its own uses.
3. The content of the “talking” matters, too. I notice it’s somewhat absent from your analysis. What is it, exactly, that Obama wants to chat about? Given his inability to criticize foreign powers with near the zeal that he attacks his own country, it’s not unlikely that what he wants to talk about is how best we can come begging for their cooperation. In point of fact, his desire to personally go skipping about meeting with these people in place of Hillary tells you a few things.
4. Where do you want to “get”? At what cost?
5. The conceivable harm it causes is that we give away our position for nothing. The history of all those talks we’ve been having with North Korea – some of the people with whom “we haven’t been able to get anywhere… for a long time” – is the history of us giving things up and getting nothing in return. How much longer can you do that?
6. Who said anything about the paperback?
7. Silly, silly comment.

For the others, as far as Latin America goes, we all know it loves to blame the gringo. The truth is simpler: it’s its own worse enemy. It’s biggest problem is that it keeps bouncing between authoritarianism, socialism and gangsterism. How many inventions come out of Latin America? Who is to blame for the awful criminal slums of Brazil? America? Really? Do you really have to bend logic that hard? Is America really to blame for Cuba’s “isolation?” Other very wealthy countries can freely trade with Cuba. Why don’t they? They could easily make up the shortfall. In fact, if the U.S. ISN’T trading with Cuba, that simply means one less large competitor in the marketplace. Competition is reduced, a fact which alone should spur trade. China, for example, is actively involved with Panama (thank you, Jimmy). Why not their Socialist chums in Cuba?

It doesn’t take much to raise the standard of living of a poor country. Why isn’t there enough trade from around the world to make the lives of Cubans better? We have an embargo, not a blockade. Is it because of some psychic barrier the United States has erected, or is it because, frankly, you can’t trust Socialists to deal fairly with you and your wealth?

If you can’t trust Socialists with your wealth, then how likely are you to invest in a country run often or permanently by socialists? Will you trade with them? Sure. But only for raw goods, because you can haul those out. You’re not going to build plants very often, or create infrastructure, or help them with their educational systems because your investments can easily be seized by a Chavez or a Castro.

Apr 20, 2009 - 2:54 am 135. WhyamInotsurprised?:

Hey fabe, you limp handed liberal lover of all things French! You say, “The Francification of the US? Bring it on! Even right-wing French folks are more liberal than you lot. ” If that is the way you feel, why don’t you just go live in France and save us all a lot of grief. It would also be “good riddance!” to see the door hit you on the way out! You know, Michael Savage is right, “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.”

Apr 20, 2009 - 3:45 am 136. Marie Claude:

JFM, I know that you are a fair historian, but with a discriminative sense for the French (and Spain, ie Franco casualties) when it suits your sad agenda ! asserting that France was the evilest in WW2 is one aspect of your racist bias, just compare the facts with your praised alliee Poland’s (75 000 vs 3 millions) this is of the same vein as of your appreciation of the spanish inquisition, and or of Franco’s victims ; besides, Oscar and Mr Levavi are better witnesses than you

cf “Darkness of Anti-Semitism Descends on the West” (David Solway)

France was one of the countries controlled by the Germans at the early stages of war, but it had a high level of democratic tradition of Liberte, Fraternity and Egalite. In France about 75000 Jews perished out of a population of 350,000, about 70% survived. Many factors contributed to the relatively high survival rate, the most important factor was the attitude of the silent majority, who made it difficult of the Germans to identify and catch the Jews. Even the local police cooperated only reluctantly with the Germans, Jews were provided with false identification papers, given shelter and moral support. Jews also participated massively in the resistance and at the beginning stages about 33% of the resistance fighters were Jewish.

In Poland, 3 million of Jews were killed, and only 40-50,000 Jews survived in Poland, the majority (about 240,000) survived in exile in Russia or in German concentration camps. 3 millions of Jews could not have been killed in a short span of 18 months without the active help of the Polish population. The dehumanization of the Jews made them easy prey. There was a saying among the Poles under the occupation: ” The Germans will throw stones at Hitler dead, because he brought about the downfall of the German people, but the Poles will bring flowers to his grave as a token of gratitude of his freeing Poland from the Jews.

(Alexander Kimel)

Apr 20, 2009 - 4:18 am 137. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Tammy12
RE: [OT] I Disagree

Stop it there folks. Obama is a democratically elected President….. — Tammy12

Show US the birth certificate!

Regards,

Chuck(le)
P.S. Now that he has control of the printing presses and the CIA, he SHOULD be able to fabricate a fake one easily enough…..

Apr 20, 2009 - 4:27 am 138. Mark in Texas:

Chuck Pelto

Why don’t you just drop that silliness. Nobody I have yet seen disputes that Obama’s mother was an American citizen. That means that her son was born an American citizen as well and is legally eligible to hold the office of President of the United States. That is true whether he was born in Hawaii, Kenya, the Panama Canal Zone, North Korea or the Moon.

Barak Obama has plenty of real issues to criticize. When you continue to rant about this stupid crap, you diminish your own credibility and more importantly, you diminish the credibility of legitimate criticism of Obama by allowing it to be grouped in with obvious nonsense.

If I were David Axlerod, I would be paying mobeys to post messages just like yours in order to cause people who have not been paying that much attention until now to dismiss all of Obama’s critics.

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:18 am 139. Jane:

Is it A, B, C, D or E

I would really like to hear which one you think it is, Dr. Hanson. I try not to go into derangement and imagine he wants to be the Chavez of the USA – It is becoming harder and harder…

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:26 am 140. JFM:

Mrs Marie Claude

Poland is not my beloved Poland. I know far too well about the extreme antisemitism in Poland and in fact between most Slavic peoples with the possible exception of Serbs. Ukranians and Russians perpetrated many horrendous massacres without any German supervision and pogroms continued well after German withdrawal. Ditto for Poles: Polish resiatnce brouht zero help to the defenders of the Varsaw ghetto and in many cases Poles gladly “forgot” German atrocities againt them in order to help them againt Jews. Now, if France hadn’t betrayed Poland in 1939 it wouldn’t have been occupied in 1940 and you wouldn’t have had the extreme displeasure of being rescued a second time by America not to mention its keeping the Russians at bay and its feeding you until 1948.

About the high survival rate of Jews in France. Well, in part because France had a common border with Spain and in part because because the Italian occupation authorities forbade the (Vichy dependent) civilian authorities to implement Vichy’s antisemitic legislation in the Italian occupation zone. Of course this resulted in a number of Jews fleeing to the Italian zone. . Anyway Italy had a still higher survival rate without any need of “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite”.

Also, given that Algeria was technically not a colony but part of France then it is possible that your statistic includes Algerian Jews. Given that Algeria was out of reach after Torch teh survival rate between Algerian Jews was close to 100%

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:36 am 141. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Mark In Texas
RE: [OT] Silliness?

“Why don’t you just drop that silliness. Nobody I have yet seen disputes that Obama’s mother was an American citizen. That means that her son was born an American citizen as well and is legally eligible to hold the office of President of the United States.” — Mark In Texas

Rather. Maybe YOU should learn to read English and then read the Constitution. There’s something in there about a ‘natural born citizen’.

This should be followed by gaining an understanding of the fact that just because someone has a parent who is an American, doesn’t make them an American citizen. You have to be BORN in the US or a controlled territory, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, etc.

If you’re born in Kenya, you cannot be the President of the United States, that is unless your a worthless liar and you get a bunch of stupid people to vote for you.

Why do you think a number of states have enacted legislation REQUIRING their Secretaries of State to verify that a candidate for the office of President of the United States must prove they were born in this country?

Hope that helps….

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[For additional information, please re-read this comment.]

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:45 am 142. obvious:

Obama has not grown up yet.
It’s that simple. He’s still a boy.
He should have never even been a presidential nominee. Ever.

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:46 am 143. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Mark in Texas
RE: [OT] Additionally

“When you continue to rant about this stupid crap, you diminish your own credibility and more importantly….” — Mark in Texas

Since WHEN is the Constitution of the United States ’stupid crap’?

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Stupid, adj., Ignorant and proud of it.]

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:47 am 144. T Swanson:

B and E most nail it.

He does what he does as all liberals do what they do … he promotes his version of a utopian ideology and he trashes all in opposition to it. That includes every possible symbol of opposition.

He truly believes that with just the right amount of super-clever tweaking his super-smart world-view will take root and we’ll all be the better for it.

He believes that he and his expert friends will get this done if he can just rally enough to his side and he will do that by (a) spreading his wondrous wisdom and by (b) squelching all opposition.

He’s a dangerous nutjob, but then again, so are those that can’t see the emperor for who he is.

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:51 am 145. acj:

Cuba has proven to be a fairly successful nation, even with embargos from the US. Just because a nation isn’t like ours (and I know Holland has more liberties than the US) doesn’t mean that its is all-bad.
Neo cons want to convert the world on their terms, much like they wanted to convert savage Indians into Christianity. I see it as a farce, and this is a satire on the “Manifest Destiny.”
Just because a nation isn’t capitalistic on our terms doesn’t mean that it won’t be a team player.
Bush made enemies everywhere. Even I agreed with Hugo on hating Bush. I didn’t feel like a trader, I actually agreed with his insults about Bush. I hated Bush. He was an isolationist and was starting the military industrial complex-nuclar, oh, Nuclear, proliferation.
I am so glad that Obama is reaching out as a diplomat instead of an aristocrat.
Our America is being restored, and time will tell. Neo-cons, wait and take notice-time will tell.

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:52 am 146. Bilgeman:

#136 Mark in Texas:
” Nobody I have yet seen disputes that Obama’s mother was an American citizen. That means that her son was born an American citizen as well and is legally eligible to hold the office of President of the United States.”

Really? Have you looked VERY hard? Because there’s at least 3 of us right here.

And if the Alleged Hawaiian really IS a Hawaiian, then WHAT IS HIS PROBLEM?

Have you ever applied for a passport? A driver’s license, a Merchant Mariner’s Document, a TWIC card?
Do you have a job? To legally hold a job in the United States, you have to fill out an INS/ICE form identifying yourself as a citizen or legal resident.
Why is this goof so special?

As to your blanket statement about Obama being qualified because of his mother’s citizenship. you are incorrect.

You have either swallowed a deliberate falsehood, or you are operating on erroneous information that “everyone just KNOWS”.

T’ain’t necessarily so, and it’s happenned before, or has the 2000 Presidential election gone right down your Memory Hole?

Do you not recall all the dullards who were asleep in Civics class from junior high on up to senior year having to relearn that the President is elected by the Electoral College and NOT the popular vote…as “everyone just KNEW!”

I would strongly suggest opening your mind, questioning the certainties you seem to be “clinging” to, and going to the sites that are keeping this issue open, reading their arguments, and then researching the government references for your own self.

Otherwise, you will continue to spout off from a position of self-validated ignorance and thereby make a complete fool of yourself.

And PJM has my grody little blog-slave for THAT.
(You couldn’t compete with it, not that you;d want to).

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:54 am 147. acj:

I might add, that it is much better to know what is happening as friends than enemies. And if a friend crosses the line rather than an enemy, the rest of the world takes notice.

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:56 am 148. Chuck Pelto:

TO: acj
RE: But….

And if a friend crosses the line rather than an enemy, the rest of the world takes notice. — acj

…by the time ‘the world takes notice’, it might be too late for US.

Hope that helps….

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[I hate the prostitution of the name of friend to signify modish and worldly alliances. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:13 am 149. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Bilgeman
RE: [OT] Mark In Texas

I think Mark could be one of the ‘mobeys’ he brings up when he says….

I would be paying mobeys to post messages just like yours in order to cause people who have not been paying that much attention until now to dismiss all of Obama’s critics. — Mark In Texas

It could be that he’s just another incarnation of David S and DZunga, both of whom post in the same form and sign off in very similar manners. That is until I pointed that out. Now DZunga seems to have dropped off the face of PJM Earth. But, ‘thankfully’, we still have David S.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[You know you're getting close to the target because they start throwing more flak at you. -- US Air Force axiom]

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:20 am 150. Bilgeman:

#138 Mark in Texas:
“Barak Obama has plenty of real issues to criticize. When you continue to rant about this stupid crap, you diminish your own credibility and more importantly, you diminish the credibility of legitimate criticism of Obama by allowing it to be grouped in with obvious nonsense.”

Would you consider it “nonsense” if a native born American citizen had become a citizen of say..Indonesia, and then fraudulently run for President and been then elected?

Would fraudulently holding an office in the Federal government to which he was not Constitutionally qualified be “crap” to you?

Think very carefully before you answer, because the facts are NOT all known.

Someone is manifestly not doing all that could be done to disclose everything relevant to the citizens of America.

Non-disclosure of his vault-copy birth certificate…non disclosure of his Hah-vahd student records.

If he’s legit, NONE of this should be a problem…he’s admited to past illicit drug use, hasn’t he?

That was no big deal.

So what could he have to hide?

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:30 am 151. Marie Claude:

JFM you’re ridiculous, whatever BS is good for you

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:33 am 152. Bilgeman:

#149 Chuck Pelto:
“I think Mark could be one of the ‘mobeys’ he brings up when he says…”

Could be, could be he’s just been fed some bum scoop and it’s now a “dick-size issue” for him to actually go learn what he should already have known.

I ran into this same phenomena years ago when Cindy Sheehan was doing her “Campout in Crawford”, and all the dirt-merchants were putting W though holy hell for “not meeting with the mother of one of our (beloved) fallen soldiers!”.

I didn’t change many minds, (because where I was, there wasn’t all that many “minds” to change), but there were a few folks who did get really pissed off at being hood-winked by the Mor-Ons and the Code Pinkos when I link-loved them with the article from the Vacaville Times that reported that “W” had ALREADY met the dame, and that she had afterward said that the Prez was swell.

Fraud will out…and where is Cindy Sheehan now?

Last I heard, divorced from what remains of her family and a “non-person” to those cynical monsters who grabbed the handlebars sticking out of her head and steered her life straight into a wall at flank speed for their own political purposes.

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:41 am 153. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Bilgeman
RE: Obama’s REAL Issues and Mark in Texas

Barak Obama has plenty of real issues to criticize. — Mark in Texas

There are indeed, a lot of issues facing Obama. Many of which he can be criticized about.

However, the eligibility issue is the lynch-pin that could bring all of this to an end with a single, effective stroke.

It’s akin to the history of Al Capone. Nobody in the Capone mob saw the Income Tax Evasion case as an effective means of removing their ‘commander-in-thief’. But it worked and it worked VERY effectively.

The same situation exists with the eligibiilty case vis-a-vis Obama. Hence the over-reaching paranoia on the part of Obots about it. Anyone who brings it up is immediately identified and demonized as a nut-job-cum-wing-nut.

Personally, as stupid as Biden is, I’d rather have a REAL American in the White House than, as I see it, an illegal-alien. And that drives people like Mark in Texas absolutely ‘crazy’.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out......and Mark in Texas is probably going to hate it.]

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:43 am 154. Chuck Pelto:

P.S. As these calls for proof continue, I suspect we’ll see more vociferous action taken against those who speak such ‘heresy’.

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:44 am 155. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Bilgeman
RE: History Repeats Itself

I didn’t change many minds, (because where I was, there wasn’t all that many “minds” to change), but there were a few folks who did get really pissed off at being hood-winked by the Mor-Ons and the Code Pinkos when I link-loved them with the article from the Vacaville Times that reported that “W” had ALREADY met the dame, and that she had afterward said that the Prez was swell.

Fraud will out… — Bilgeman

I don’t expect to change many minds either. Least of all the likes of David S nor, unfortunately, Mark in Texas. All I can do is speak the truth.

However, I do hope to convince some of the lurkers and by-standers to look for the truth of the matter themselves.

RE: Where Are They Now and….

….and where is Cindy Sheehan now?

Last I heard, divorced from what remains of her family and a “non-person” to those cynical monsters who grabbed the handlebars sticking out of her head and steered her life straight into a wall at flank speed for their own political purposes. — Bilgemman

….where are they going to find themselves later.

Cindy, like all of the others that the ‘progressives’ use, has been thrown under the proverbial bus, her usefulness long outlived. The same is true for all the useful fools who ally themselves with ‘progressives’. They are a dog-eat-dog lot.

Once their usefulness is over, they are thrown away like so much un-recycleable refuse. Hitler did it with the homosexuals. And we see ‘progressives’ today, gay-baiting as well. It’s same sad story and people like Mark in Texas and vivo are too ignorant and proud of it to learn.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Liberals aren't. Progressives won't.]

Apr 20, 2009 - 8:08 am 156. Sebastian Shaw:

“Let’s review a few facts. The last Republican President was despised by our ALLIES, not just by our enemies. As such, Bush was incapable of leading the Western coalition which has kept the world safe since WWII.”

President Bush meant business & the other nations knew it; hence, he was despised. Why? America is always despised because it leads. This is resentment from other nations not being in a place of power.

President Obama threw America under the bus on his tour; therefore, he weakens America just by being a doormat to such other nations.

Being popular is not the key, but keeping American’s interest first is.

“Obama is respected throughout Europe (our allies), and is capable of repairing the Western coalition. In addition, he has begun to assemble a successful strategy for dealing with Afghanistan, which remains the central front against Islamic Jihadists.”

Have you read the UK papers? How do you define respect? Again, throwing America under the bus to make Obama look better does not make Obama stronger but weaker.

Obama is in over his head & the sharks are circling while he’s in a raft singing Kumbaya.

“Dealing with Iran and North Korea was, is, and will be difficult for any American President. I don’t recall Bush making much headway. Let’s see how Obama does.”

Obama is not dealing with Iran & North Korea; he is capitulating to them out of weakness. Direct talks lead to a dead end.

“Giving the order to allow deadly force to rescue the kidnapped American captain shows Obama has spine”

This would be true had it happened in a matter of hours, but it took 5 days.

“VDH’s neocon rantings are very predictable and should be filed with all the other overwrought right-wing hand-wringing.”

Your Socialist rantings are predictable as soap. Look in the mirror.

Apr 20, 2009 - 8:37 am 157. jeff:

Is this what the right wing has been reduced to? This is not Davis’ best work. It’s just one long screed of invective and innuendo. But no substance. If this type of work is what now fuels the right wing intelligencia, then Rush Limbaugh has become not only the spiritual but also the intellectual leader of the republican party. Laughable to see how far they have fallen.

Apr 20, 2009 - 8:55 am 158. Chuck Pelto:

TO: jeff
RE: And….

If this type of work is what now fuels the right wing intelligencia, then Rush Limbaugh has become not only the spiritual but also the intellectual leader of the republican party. — jeff

….what chapter of Mensa do YOU belong to?

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Am I getting 'smart' with you? How would you know?]

Apr 20, 2009 - 9:06 am 159. LeighB:

To: Chuck Pelto, First, I agree the birth certificate question is a valid one to keep raising. Why the secrecy?

I am interested in your opinion on something. Why the secrecy about his grades? How smart is he really? Are his transcripts under his stepfather’s name? I have to admit I was hoping last year that there would be a comparison of his and Hillary’s grades. (and yes, I realize grades are not everything)

Apr 20, 2009 - 9:14 am 160. Chuck Pelto:

TO: LeighB
RE: I’m….

I am interested in your opinion on something. Why the secrecy about his grades? How smart is he really? — LeighB

….not familiar with that issue. But if he’s keeping them a ’state secret’, I suspect he has what he considers to be ‘good’ reason.

At face value, I get the impression that his grades, and probably IQ, are considerably less than what Bush II can cite.

I used to think that Bill Clinton was amongst the five worst Presidents of the United States. It could well be that he’ll be supplanted by Obama….the way things are going.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[I've had to do with fifty murderers in my career, but the worst of them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow. -- Sherlock Holmes]

Apr 20, 2009 - 9:39 am 161. LeighB:

Thanks, Chuck. So many secrets with this guy…

Apr 20, 2009 - 10:00 am 162. Marie Claude:

the Castilian king had to sent back the French crusaders due to their anti-Jewish pogroms. He did that before a crucial battle where he expected to be heavily outnumbered.

Spain didn’t undertake crusades to ME, but Reconquista in the very country of Spain ; the only help that Spain got was from Anglo-Normans ; their kingdom was both of England and half of western France (Poitiers was the Plantagents Capital). Though their participation was minimal compared to the ME’s

the pogroms were mainly achieved by germanic and slavic crusaders on their way to Constantinople, ie central Europa

a very interesting audio :

http://www.canalacademie.com/27-novembre-1095.html

Apr 20, 2009 - 11:22 am 163. jerryofva:

Mike S:

Bush despised by our Allies? You spend to much time with the NYT and CNN and now believe your own propaganda. Certainly Chirac and Schroeder despised Bush but again they were on Saddam’s payroll. Schroeder was also on Putin’s payroll. Zapatero hates him but he, unlike General Franco, wants to exterminate Jews so who cares about his opinion. Sarkozy, Merkel, Burlusconi, Harper and even Gordon Brown had respect for Bush. The European press ripped you hero apart after the G-20 and of course the world know what kind of contempt Sarkozy heaped upon him.

One of the problems that arises when you spend your time getting informed from propaganda is that you end up believing your own lies.

Apr 20, 2009 - 11:27 am 164. Delia:

74. bobbcat,

Here’s a link for the smiley symbols you can use here and other websites that accommodate for them:
~

131. one of my own:

“Your mind and memory have fallen through the cracks again.”

Nahhhhh. I’m just trying to clear the air from your brain farts, darlin’!

Apr 20, 2009 - 11:34 am 165. Banned by HuffPo:

Spot-on! Obama continues his efforts to undermine the credibility of the United States while his sheep seek to silence any dissent.

This country is doomed.

Apr 20, 2009 - 11:34 am 166. Delia:

Well, it WOULD help if I provided the smiley link, now wouldn’t it? LOL!

Here it is:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies

Apr 20, 2009 - 11:49 am 167. Paddy:

Obama is sufficiently intelligent and informed to know that the crapolla he is feeding us regarding global warming, the economy, stimulus legislation, homeland security and defense policy to name a few, cannot be explained by lack of information or understanding. One is left with the inevitable conclusion that our president is a sociopathic liar. It is already past the time for change. I bet he will be impeached before the end of his term of office.

Apr 20, 2009 - 12:02 pm 168. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Paddy
RE: How Much

I bet he will be impeached before the end of his term of office. — Paddy

Cause I’ll bet he won’t be.

Why? Because as you said….

One is left with the inevitable conclusion that our president is a sociopathic liar. It is already past the time for change. — Paddy

And yet the ‘change’ keeps on coming. I see a new bill in Congress to further restrict the ownership of firearms. Despite the recent ruling by the Supremes that we are all entitled, under the Bill of Rights to own such.

So. WHY….after the fact do the Democrats attempt this?

For all the world, it looks to me to be the same ploy the Nazis effected in Germany in the late 1930s.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Revolution is brewing. -- TEA Party motto]

Apr 20, 2009 - 12:17 pm 169. Anony-moose:

Again we are back to to the issue of Obama’s citizenship. Really, there are two issues here which are not necessarily connected. If he was born in Kenya, then he might not be a citizen by birth under the law in effect at that time.

However, AND PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PLEASE, the law in effect in 1961 required a parent of a child born outside of the United States to have been five years a resident on United States territory after the age 14 years old for the child to be a natural born citizen. Probably, the Supreme Court today would rule this law unconstitutional as a 14th Amendment violation.

PAY MORE ATTENTION. The second, and perhaps more salient, issue is that of expatriation of citizenship. this could occur regardless of where an individual was born. If Barack Obama’s citizenship was expatriated as result of his living in a foreign country, being adopted by a father who was a citizen of another country, or obtaining as an adult and traveling under a foreign passport, then he might have had to repatriate his citizenship as an adult.

If his citizenship was expatriated, but not properly repatriated, then he might not be a U.S. citizen.

To me, this issue sounds like a lot of technicalities. I do not know how it would play out in the federal courts, or what the law really is. But the above represents the issue as it has been raised.

The issue of whether he was born on U.S. soil in Hawaii may not be the biggest part of it.

Apr 20, 2009 - 12:19 pm 170. donttreadonme:

Read the following using a fake outrageous Latin American accent:
“Dear Americains,
Thank you very very mucho for you elected Meester Obama. He ees so nice and cool. He brought all the Tequila and churros and he pay for the whole theeng! He can partee with us anytime he want to. Oh, tell him it OK now to take off “KICK ME” sign off hees backside…Chavez make funny and put it there. So zorry!”
Sincerely,
Latin American Socialist Thugs Everywhere

Apr 20, 2009 - 12:25 pm 171. Bilgeman:

#159 LeighB:
“Why the secrecy about his grades? How smart is he really? Are his transcripts under his stepfather’s name? I have to admit I was hoping last year that there would be a comparison of his and Hillary’s grades. (and yes, I realize grades are not everything)”

Let me step up to the plate on this one.

Matriculating college freshmen, (unless they are uncommonly and exceedingly self-absorbed), do not usually fill out college application forms or write term papers with an eye to what the facts about their life or the views they may hold will look like when they run for President. (This is why Bill Clinton was such a spectacular failure, the guy was thinking of himself as a federal level politician when he was an undergrad…how peculiar was THAT?).

Therefore, the Alleged Hawaiian’s application papers may list his citizenship as something other than American, and some of his papers might have been written from the mindset of a run-of-the-mill “angry Black man” snot-nosed goober.

They’d probably have gobbled that sh+t up in Cambridge back in the day, but it wouldn’t play at all with Obama’s “White Guilt” constituency, see?

Apr 20, 2009 - 12:39 pm 172. MisterH:

Once again, VDH comes through with a winner. Whenever the topic of the world’s perception of the U.S comes up – and invariably this usually centers around the “Bush made the world dislike us” meme – I feel like shouting out “So what?” The bare-knuckled truth is that even during those rare moments in history when the Euro-weenies think our President is a terrific guy and real suave bon-vivant, they will still do what they’ve always done: Fill the air with great clouds of high-minded vapor about reaching a new era of multilateral statesmanship and cooperation while giving us both the finger and the shaft the moment the cameras are off them. I don’t necesarily blame them for doing this. The elected leaders are merely doing what they think is in the best interests of their constituents and of course, themselves. This is how politicians around the world behave. I know it sounds horribly cynical but should our “allies” and our enemies around world like our leader too much I might be concerned about whether or not we’re being played for fools.

BTW, I nominate poster # 145 (ACJ) as clueless nimrod poster of the day. The opening sentence is a true howler: “Cuba has proven to be a fairly successful nation…”

Apr 20, 2009 - 1:14 pm 173. adagny:

Victor, why are you left wondering whether Obama truly grasps why certain countries hate us as you state in your opening paragraph? Do you really believe he thinks that in the pre-Bush era everyone got along?

As an amateur historian nowhere approaching your status I’m aware of no small amount of U.S. meddling in the affairs of Iran, and all over Latin America going back to the 1800’s. No small wonder why there might be a smidge of resentment in these lands. Unfortunately, GW fit the stereotype of the arrogant yanqui and a reminder to them of past U.S. wrongs. Again, no small wonder why Bush was’nt loved around the world.

Obama knows this history from the Howard Zinn point of view. He is out to prove that he is the opposite of the stereotype, the anti-Bush.

For me, there is nothing wrong with an American president admitting to past mistakes and desiring normalized relations.

It’s just that this president crosses the line, again and again, in that he seems to identify more with adversaries than with his own country and countrymen.

Apr 20, 2009 - 2:01 pm 174. Marie Claude:

Now, if France hadn’t betrayed Poland in 1939 it wouldn’t have been occupied in 1940 and you wouldn’t have had the extreme displeasure of being rescued a second time by America not to mention its keeping the Russians at bay and its feeding you until 1948.

umm “betrayed” ? and UK no ? might be that the mix panzer divisions tanks/planes are the cause

Elle ne pouvait que déclarer la guerre même si elle ne s’est pas portée au secours de son amie. La France n’était pas prête.

the commies were slowing down the production (ie you !)

Elle manquait de matériels, que les entreprises tardaient à fournir et de nombreux régiments ne disposaient pas de leur équipement réglementaire. Elle manquait de généraux capables de mener une bataille et d’élaborer une stratégie en phase avec leur temps! Ces chefs militaires n’avaient pas compris la force mécanique et reposaient leurs raisonnements sur les fantassins

Toujours le 10 juin, l’Italie que les alliés essayaient de ménager déclare la guerre à la France et à l’Angleterre.C’est un véritable coup de poignard. Mussolini voyant la débâcle française veut sa part du gâteau.La France doit maintenant combattre sur deux fronts et seule. Désespérément seule depuis que Churchill a refusé d’envoyer de nouveaux avions pour assurer la défense de l’Angleterre.Et l’aviation est le point le plus faible de l’armée française. Les villes sont bombardées sans que l’on puisse riposter car on manque de D.C.A. et d’avions de chasse.
Les ambitions de Mussolini ne sont cependant pas à la hauteur de son armée. En effet les français avec 3 fois moins de troupes repoussent les italiens en ne comptant que 38 morts dans leur rang!

About the high survival rate of Jews in France. Well, in part because France had a common border with Spain that too

and in part because because the Italian occupation authorities forbade the (Vichy dependent) civilian authorities to implement Vichy’s antisemitic legislation in the Italian occupation zone. Of course this resulted in a number of Jews fleeing to the Italian zone.

umm did you know Italy attacked France ? you’re mixing Napoleon’s times

Anyway Italy had a still higher survival rate without any need of “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite

Italy was part of the “evil axis” Berlin Rome anyone ? she only was invaded mid 1943, and freed in 1944, in one year there had been some italian trains towards extermination camps. You like to refer to movies, I ame surprised that “Life is beautiful” doesn’t inspire you not much light on the subject

Also, given that Algeria was technically not a colony but part of France then it is possible that your statistic includes Algerian Jews. Given that Algeria was out of reach after Torch teh survival rate between Algerian Jews was close to 100%

did you know that the 2nd half of france became occupied in 1943, thus north Africa was already under alliees control, no north african jew was sent to concentrationcamps, and “torch”, might find its cause in “catapult” a british betray

bizarre all your arguments are pee in water !

Apr 20, 2009 - 2:28 pm 175. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Anony-moose
RE: Interesting Points

If his citizenship was expatriated, but not properly repatriated, then he might not be a U.S. citizen. — Anony-moose

Can you back them up with citations? I’d appreciate it.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Lawyer, n., One skilled at circumventing the Law. -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary]

Apr 20, 2009 - 2:32 pm 176. Marie Claude:

JFM I forgo,t the Jew population counted in France in WW2 was about 350 000, how do you explain that she passed up to 800 000 afer the seventies . today about 600 000

Apr 20, 2009 - 3:26 pm 177. White Helmet:

Whining, endless misguided, whining.

Chuck Pelton is still fighting the battle of Obama’s birth certificate as if a court didn’t end that silly challenge last year. LeighB is still wondering about his grades as if that might undo the election. Are you peple for real?!

Apr 20, 2009 - 4:02 pm 178. Anony-moose:

Chuck Pelto wrote:

TO: Anony-moose
RE: Interesting Points

If his citizenship was expatriated, but not properly repatriated, then he might not be a U.S. citizen. — Anony-moose

Can you back them up with citations? I’d appreciate it.

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Mr. Pelto: What I was trying to do was define the issues being raised. As to whether or not they are valid, in the end that would be up to the Supreme Court to decide.

As I noted, I do not believe that the law (later superseded), which made the citizenship of a newborn with one alien parent essentially dependent on the age of the U.S. citizen parent, if that child was born outside of the United States, would be found constitutional under the 14th Amendment.

The questions related to Obama’s citizenship status are issues which would have to be defined by the federal courts largely based on the legal meaning of the term “expatriation”. I do not know exactly how one’s citizenship become “expatriated”.

What concerns me most is the question of who has standing to bring this issue into court. Apparently, simply the fact that one is under the jurisdiction of the laws of the United States is not enough to confer standing to bring a suit, according to the federal courts up to this point.

In that case, I would like to know who has standing to bring an action.

There is a lot of material on this subject on the internet, but the issue is highly muddled because the question of where Barack Obama was born and how that affects his citizenship status, and whether his citizenship was “expatriated” are both issues. Each of these issues have a separate existence.

He could have been born in Kenya and still be a citizen, or he could have been born in Hawaii, and have lost his citizenship, but failed to reinstate it. I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do think I understand the issue, and better than most people, apparently.

Apr 20, 2009 - 4:02 pm 179. Marie Claude:

Certainly Chirac and Schroeder despised Bush but again they were on Saddam’s payroll

durdur de s’laver l’cerveau quand les cellules sont nuked par so many lavages before
…
“Beyond the $1 billion skimmed from the program, Saddam managed to smuggle some $10 billion to neighboring countries, the report said. Security Council members overlooked the smuggling to compensate Jordan, Syria, Iran and Turkey for the loss of legitimate trade with Iraq.
…
U.N. incompetence and corruption enabled Saddam Hussein to siphon more than $1 billion from an oil-for-food program that was flawed from conception to conclusion, an independent commission said yesterday.
…
The leaked Iraqi list of about 270 recipients covers just one year — 1999 — and relates to just one facet of the overall fraud: That is “vouchers” that could be sold by the bearers to legitimate oil brokers and shippers, who then would have the right to purchase and market the Iraqi crude.
…
Mr. Galloway wrote in the London Guardian, accusing the anti-Saddam Iraqi National Congress led by Ahmed Chalabi and Republicans in U.S. Congress of pushing false stories.
…
In an interview with the Rocky Mountain News last month, he noted that the United States imported far more oil from Iraq than France during the sanction years and that the United States had the right to review every contract approved under the oil-for-food program”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/may/03/20040503-123158-1229r/

Well, the anti-war position was shared by the populations everywhere.
Though I don’t think Chirac or Alliot-Marie were following the movement, but rather a good understanding of how the Arab world fonctions, at least it’s rather true for Chirac, as a former Lieutnent in Algeria war and after as a “chargé de mission” in Alger, made him fear that Irak war would be a 2nd “algerian quagmare”, which it was happening until General Petraeus lead the anti-guerillas tactics (BTW copied from the French at the Alger battle. I suppose Chirac was also remembering how Algeria and France suffered from terrorist attacks during this aera, and still not over with the GIA attacks in Paris in the nineties.

OK Saddam was a monster, so are the Mullahs in Iran, and many others in Africa and Latin America, or China in some ways, though Saddam was perceived as less dangerous than the Mullahs and or Saudi Arabia, he wasn’t sponsoring jihadist attacks in our countries as a secular tyran, he contained the exigence of the different islamist factions in Irak.

What is done is done, and I still can’t see the improvement as far as islamism revendications and jihadist attacks every where in the world.

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/04/16/retrospective-iraq/#comments

Apr 20, 2009 - 4:37 pm 180. Cristina:

#75 John:

“Cristina:
I can see you two are people of high intellectual attainment. Ever been to Harvard Law, ever been president of the lw Review, ever taught constitutional law at University of Chicago: After all “freshmen” are doing this all the time. Perhap since your so sure of your intellectual superiority to the president Cristina you’ll let us know where your teaching life took place.”

1. Let’s see… “Perhap” is, obviously, just a typo, but the missing comma after it is not, and neither are the ones due after “After all” and before and after “Cristina.”

2. The “your” after “since” should have been “you’re,” the contraction of a pronoun, “you,” and a verb, “are.” Not at all the same as your second “your,” a possessive adjective,” which means you wholly own whatever’s yours, including your ingnorance, just like Obama owns his own, Harvard or no Harvard.

3. By logical implication, in your thinking those who didn’t go to Harvard Law can’t measure up to those who did. It’s kind of contrary to the radical egalitarian, Marxist thinking, isn’t it??? Why would people who think and write like you not have full access to an Ivy League education, the epitome of “capitalist,” “white privilege.”

You poor ignoramus, you’d have made good material for the many gulags and extermination camps throughout the commie world, just for praising “Harvard” in a casual conversation.

Pol Pot’s Cambodia would have been even worse…. The fact that you can read and write, however badly, would have sent you not to the extermination camps and plumb mines, but in shallow rice mud beds, on the spot, head separated neatly from the body and now for view as a rescued skull, if lucky, at a Cambodian memorial museum today.

Apr 20, 2009 - 6:03 pm 181. Delia:

180. Cristina,

Your post was frickin’ AWESOME! he-he-he

And da troof shall set yea freeeeeeeee, Libtards. Take that, trolls. Cristina just gave you a serious smack-down!

I have a stinkin’ suspicion that John’s back-seat of his car smells like sweat, pickles, dirty underwear and stale funyons.

Apr 20, 2009 - 7:04 pm 182. Mark in Texas:

Chuck Pelto and Bilgeman

No, I would not hate it if somebody came up with proof that Barak Obama were not a citizen. Do you know where such proof exists? I would like to see it. I would also like to win the lottery. I would like Jessica Simpson to dump Tony Romo and devote her life to making me happy. I would like that tax cut and free unicorn that Obama promised me. I’d like a pony to keep the unicorn company. I would also like a twelve inch penis and a perpetual motion machine.

The Constitution says “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

Your argument seems to rest on the precise meaning of the phrase “natural born Citizen”. Since there is some possible ambiguity in that meaning, it will have to be interpreted by the courts. I will bet you my car that the Supreme Court is not going to overturn the results of an election where both a majority of voters and a majority of the electoral college voted to make Barak Obama President. Even if you come up with indisputable proof that Obama was born in Kenya, the court will rule that having an American citizen for a mother is enough to be classed as “a natural born Citizen”.

Would I like it if the Constitution specifically said that the President had to be born in the United States? You bet. That would have meant that we might have had a candidate in the last election that I could have voted for without holding my nose. But the fact is that the constitution says what it says and just about every judge in this country will interpret it to allow the results of last November’s election to stand.

Our best hope is to let people know the story that the Mainstream Media refuses to tell so that we can pick up enough enough votes in 2010 to stop any more excesses and vote Obama out in 2012. This will be a difficult task and it will be even more difficult if Obama critics are dismissed as a bunch of kooks.

Apr 20, 2009 - 8:24 pm 183. Mike:

Obama does not seem able to put US interests before his own. He speaks glibly about issues that he holds dearly to his heart (his apologies), but his addiction to emotional argument prevents him from verbalizing or representing tangible interests of the US.

Apr 20, 2009 - 9:05 pm 184. Beohun:

Does he really believe that in the pre-Bush era we all got along (cf. his al Arabiya interview); then Bush’s strutting, unilateralism, and preemption, presto, caused anti-Americanism?

I know I’m not the only one, but man I’m getting tired of Obama’s singular insistence that all the current ills of the world can be laid at Pres. Bush’s feet. You really need to learn a new song Barry, you’re running the risk of becoming a one-hit wonder.

So I guess it wasn’t Iranian students and agitators that took the US Embassy staff hostage in Tehran, Iran on Nov 4, 1979 and held them until Jan 20, 1981? The just took them to this really bitchin’ kegger and lost track of the time.

And it wasn’t Islamic extremists that blew up the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon on Oct 23, 1983? Someone must have left something metal in the microwave.

So it must not have been an al Qaeda supported operative that attacked the USS Cole on Oct 20, 2000? Oh, of course, man made disaster, some sailor must have been smoking in the powder room.

And of course the grand-daddy of them all, Sept 11, 2001. We all know what happened that day, sir. And I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t caused in any significant way from the actions or perceptions of others of Pres. Bush.

Apr 21, 2009 - 12:23 am 185. vivo:

155. Chuck Pelto:

“It’s same sad story and people like Mark in Texas and vivo are too ignorant and proud of it to learn.”

Look who’s talking, Chuck Pelto “El Menso”.

Apr 21, 2009 - 3:09 am 186. Bilgeman:

#182 MarkinTexas:
“This will be a difficult task and it will be even more difficult if Obama critics are dismissed as a bunch of kooks.”

Say, pardner, did it ever ocur to you to wonder WHY it is that the Obats really have no argument against what we are reasonably asking for, and instead they call us “kooks” and concurrently try to “bulldog” the computer-generated State of Hawaii document that the Alleged Hawaiian posted on his site as a 1961-era birth certificate?

If you fall for that, it would be to to laugh,(if it weren’t such a gravely serious matter).
Maybe you also harbor doubts that MSWord had been invented and was in common use by state bureaucracies over 50 years ago, but because you’ve swallowed the 1st and really, the ONLY argument they have, that folks who question THEIR version of reality are “kooks”, you say nothing, and then you turn around and join the O-bot mob with your dismissive screed:

” I would also like to win the lottery. I would like Jessica Simpson to dump Tony Romo and devote her life to making me happy. I would like that tax cut and free unicorn that Obama promised me. I’d like a pony to keep the unicorn company. I would also like a twelve inch penis and a perpetual motion machine.”

Of course the MOST ridiculous thing you had to say was your opening sentence:

“No, I would not hate it if somebody came up with proof that Barak Obama were not a citizen. Do you know where such proof exists?”

Fella, this isn’t a criminal trial, it’s a job qualification inventory.

The burden of proof does NOT lie on the State, but rather on the office-seeker to establish his bona-fides, see?

You’ve apparently internalized the Obots’ “kook” premise, and now you’re having to twist yourself into all kinds of mental contortions to “close the loop”.

“Your argument seems to rest on the precise meaning of the phrase “natural born Citizen”.”

The “precise meaning” and how it’s interpreted of the language of legal codes and Constitutional amendments is what either sends you to be Spiked at the Man-Pound for a Homicide conviction or sent to the Bug-House for a spell of cartoons and coloring-books for beating the rap via Diminished Capacity, chum.

“Since there is some possible ambiguity in that meaning, it will have to be interpreted by the courts. ”

Be careful there, you’re inching closer to that “kookdom” that you so dread!

There isn’t much ambiguity at all in the laws as they were at the time of Obama’s birth, and there sn’t much either in the present laws against expatriation or dual-citizenship.

You WAS or you WASN’T…you IS or you AIN’T.

“I will bet you my car that the Supreme Court is not going to overturn the results of an election where both a majority of voters and a majority of the electoral college voted to make Barak Obama President.”

That is what we are all really afraid of, bucky.
That the Supreme Court will commit a mis-, non-, or malfeasance of it’s duty to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Guys in the Military and Naval services of the United States have been shot, hanged and imprisoned for breaking THEIR oaths, which are quite similar to the oaths these judges take.

If Barak Obama is not a citizen, then he is not qualified to hold the office, and it doesn’t matter if every single voter and every single elector chose him…he’s not the President.
No ambiguity, no “interpretation”.

Let me drop another seed into your mind:

What if his %10 majority had elected him “Fuehrer”?

What’s that you say?
There’s no such office in our Constitution?

Correct…you “kook”! There was no such office in Germany’s constitution either.
Hitler was elected as Chancellor, with Hindenburg as President. When Hindenburg croaked, Hitler was NOT in line of succession. Hitler started calling himself “Fuehrer”, and the office of president of Germany remained unoccupied throughout WWII.

My point here is that when you start wandering from the course track laid down by the Constitution,you have overthrown the rule of law, and then there’s no telling where you’re going to end up.

And that means that you can kiss your hopes of hooking up with Jessica Simpson and/or Tony Romo adios.

(FWIW, I LIKE Tony Romo…but then I’m a Redskins fan).

Oh…and be careful what you wish for.
A twelve inch penis comes with a set of problems all its’ own.
Jessica wanted to, but she said her health insurance wouldn’t cover any injuries I might inflict upon her with my “love torpedo”

But that’s another issue entirely…we all have our own crosses to bear.

Apr 21, 2009 - 4:20 am 187. JFM:

JFM I forgo,t the Jew population counted in France in WW2 was about 350 000, how do you explain that she passed up to 800 000 afer the seventies . today about 600 000

Most Jews from French North Africa migrating to France.

BTW, about about the oil for food scam. I notice that primary source is not the Washinton Times but Mr George Galloway and we both know who is he. Nice try. Given your skill at manipulation you should apply for a job at the Pravda.

Apr 21, 2009 - 6:48 am 188. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Mark in Texas
RE: The Proof

No, I would not hate it if somebody came up with proof that Barak Obama were not a citizen. Do you know where such proof exists? — Mark in Texas

Here’s some….

But a video posted on YouTube features Obama’s Kenyan grandmother Sarah claiming to have witnessed Obama’s birth in Kenya. — World Net Daily

If we could get her to testify in a US Court would be much more useful. But I doubt if Kenya will let her out of the country. The last American who went there to gather evidence was arrested and deported.

And then they told all of his family to ‘SHUT UP!’

And then we have THIS report…..

Equally troubling for Obama is the fact that he lived in Indonesia for several years attending school there. Only Indonesian citizens were allowed to attend the state schools. While the business about Indonesia is not as “spectacular” as the possibility of Obama being born in Kenya, the Indonesian affair is much easier to prove.

I’ve not successfully checked out the business about Indonesian law regarding children attending school to verify it. I’ve tried searching the web, but there is surprisingly little information.

Speaking of ’surprisingly little information’, I found an interesting indicator from Hawaii’s web-based Revised Statutes. It seems that when this story broke about the lack of a Birth Certificate, suddenly you could not access the Hawiian Revised Statutes on Birth Certificates. Or at least I couldn’t. All I would get were 404 errors.

I was looking because that document offered at the Democrat web-site was neither signed nor sealed nor had any names of hospitals or attending physicians. In other words, it was ‘bogus’.

RE: Natural Born Citizen

Your argument seems to rest on the precise meaning of the phrase “natural born Citizen”. — Mark in Texas

You learned to read the Constitution. Good on you.

Since there is some possible ambiguity in that meaning, it will have to be interpreted by the courts. — Mark in Texas

Actually….you’re wrong. Why? Because EVERYONE recognizes that Arnold Schwartzenager cannot be President of the United States. If your arg were accurate, Republicans would have tested the ‘ambiguity’ in the courts by trying to run HIM for president.

And your car is probably a heap anyway.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Show US the birth certificate!]

Apr 21, 2009 - 6:53 am 189. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Bilgeman and Mark in Texas
RE: Oo! Oo!

Say, pardner, did it ever ocur to you to wonder WHY it is that the Obats really have no argument against what we are reasonably asking for, and instead they call us “kooks”…. — Bilgeman

I know! I know!

It’s called….

The Lawyers Rule:

[1] If the Law is against you, argue the facts.
[2] If the facts are against you, argue the Law.
[3] If the Law and the facts are against you, call the other side names.

— The Official Rules: A Compendium of Truths and Laws for Living

The Law is against them. Even Mark in Texas now recognizes that, although he’s trying to hedge and equivocate about ‘ambiguity’.

The facts are against them, as they have no facts to back up their claim he is qualified, other than the words of certain probably lying politicians in Hawaii that can’t produce any evidence. Indeed, based on what I’ve seen to date, we’ve got more evidence supporting he is an illegal-alien than they have he is a citizen.

So the only think they can do is ‘call us names’.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Hatred is the cowards revenge for being intimidated....by facts and the Law]

Apr 21, 2009 - 6:58 am 190. Mouse line:

“In France about 75000 Jews perished out of a population of 350,000, about 70% survived. ”

Also, given that Algeria was technically not a colony but part of France then it is possible that your statistic includes Algerian Jews. Given that Algeria was out of reach after Torch teh survival rate between Algerian Jews was close to 100%

the Jew population counted in France in WW2 was about 350 000, how do you explain that she passed up to 800 000 afer the seventies . today about 600 000

Most Jews from French North Africa migrating to France

and :

In three centuries the Spanish inquisition killed twelve thousand people between heretics

but :

BTW, about about the oil for food scam. I notice that primary source is not the Washinton Times but Mr George Galloway and we both know who is he. Nice try.

Can we trust someone that is proven so wrong before ? LMAO

I bet that you learnt how reverse true lies for proofs with your former master Służba Bezpieczeństwa

Given your skill at manipulation you should apply for a job at the Pravda.

nein, practicing rationality through cartesian scepticism doesn’t conduct to gödelian practices !

but, you, without any doubt !

tell me, do you win some reconnaissance for “good services” ? umm is there any Datcha among the wealthiest Massachaussettiens ?

Apr 21, 2009 - 7:26 am 191. Bilgeman:

#189 Chuck Pelto:
“The facts are against them, as they have no facts to back up their claim he is qualified, other than the words of certain probably lying politicians in Hawaii that can’t produce any evidence.”

Well, I’d like to see what facts they claim to have.

The Hawaii bureaucrats probably never thought to actually go and look at his Vault-Copy until this all came up.

The fact that they haven’t said diddly about it since they provided the computerized abstract that attests that there really is SOMETHING there, but NOT exactly WHAT I tend to take with a great deal of suspicion, since any bureaucracy’s natural reaction to being potentially embarrassed is to keep mum and hope it all goes away.

If that doesn’t work, they toss out a scapegoat or two and then change the “store’s” name.

Seen THAT trick too, haven’t we?

So yeah…let’s see “Mr. Capone’s” actual 1040 form, shall we?

And then we can decide on the basis of what the facts are.

Stupidity and Laziness usually trumps the snot out of Malice…especially where government is involved.

Apr 21, 2009 - 7:36 am 192. D-wah:

Great piece as always Dr. Hansen. A. thru e. are all at work, with e. the driver IMO. But I think you’re giving him much too much credit for what he does and says, his so-called motives, whatever.

Obummer needs to be viewed as a composite, not a leader. He’s a slick speaker, but more than anything, a very willing follower–a “disciple of the cause”. The little boy in him is having a joy ride, hence the detached glee and total ignorance of individuals’ or our country’s true needs. The unwitting, even the media themselves, think he’s “cool” and attribute his aloofness to intelligence and sophistication. He’s nothing more than a trained actor, filling his mission to be the front man for a cause he gave himself over to years ago. What we see and hear is a composite contraption who moves and speaks at the behest of Axelrod’s high powered professional promo team who are themselves driven and channeled by very powerful agenda-shapers who’ve been setting the stage for this a long time. “His” motives, intentions and this and that are really virtually irrelevant. He gets way too much credit.

And that’s the genius of these progressives–they got their completely yielded little tool-man and just work him. He’s a given-over dyed in the wool disciple of the hate-America, anti-white, anti-God and family, pro-chaos anarchists he trained under all those years. Yes, very much the Manchurian Candidate if you will.

OK, now plug that in to what you see and hear everyday. 1. Can’t be trusted to speak without a teleprompter. 2. Can’t take live questions, or they’re pre-screened. 3. A teleprompter (or big screen) at press conferences!! 4. His giddiness and gleeful demeanor as the country flounders and is on the brink of a possible depression and possible outside attacks. (e.g.”are you punch drunk” and appearing on Leno during such a severe crisis, never mind at all?) 5. His cavalier dissing of allies, and total comfort with our enemies. 6. How often has he voted “present”, or just ignores major events, questions, criticisms..(i.e. recently responding about the Tea Parties–”I haven’t heard about them.”) 7. His eerily detached demeanor–this is the freakiest to me. It’s like he’s just following instructions and watching it all unfold, and he’s having a blast doing it! God help us. This is very sick stuff.

But Obama is not leading us, he’s a very shallow completely given-over kid with severe psychological issues and a God-awful ugly chip on his shoulder.

What’s fascinating is when you realize the complicit press who helped bring him to power, smogging out any true investigation into his cloaked past- duping willing Americans with those empty promises and running cover for him to this day- has no idea they’ve been duped as well! And so facism, statism, marxism, whatever you want to call it, is born.

“The only thing we ever learn from history is that we never learn from history.”–Arnold Toynbee

Apr 21, 2009 - 7:44 am 193. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Bilgeman
RE: Stupid & Lazy vs. the Eye of the ‘Commander’

Stupidity and Laziness usually trumps the snot out of Malice…especially where government is involved. — Bilgeman

You and I, compadre, have seen it in the military too. BUT when the eye of the ‘Commander’ comes around, people pay REAL close attention.

As I stated in an earlier item to Mark in Texas, once the President of the United States became interested in what his relations in Kenya were saying and doing, the Kenyan government clamped down on those people saying anything to anyone.

I’ll wager dollars against donuts that if any of them tried to come to the United States as requested by an officer of an American court, they’d be denied a passport and/or visa….probably on BOTH sides of the big pond….with THIS administration. Heck. I’ll bet they’d probably be dead shortly thereafter. There’s so much at stake.

So, I suspect that all copies of whatever documents there are in Hawaii on Obama are under VERY close lock and key at this time. You’d probably need Tom Cruise and his IMF team to get them out. Either that or a Republican governor and Secretary of State. And how likely are any of those options?

I’ll wager that if the Supremes DID subpoena the documents, there’d be a ‘regretable’ fire that destroyed the originals……as if there were any in the first place.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[When all else fails, destroy the evidence.]

Apr 21, 2009 - 8:06 am 194. Chuck Pelto:

P.S. Why am I suddenly reminded of the autopsy records on the unfortunate Clinton administration Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown? He allegedly died in an ‘[un]fortunate’ airplane crash.

His mortal remains were returned to the US for an official autopsy, but those records were ‘[un]fortunately’, lost……at least to the best of my recollection……

Apr 21, 2009 - 8:08 am 195. Bilgeman:

#193 Chuck Pelto:
“Heck. I’ll bet they’d probably be dead shortly thereafter. There’s so much at stake.”

Quite likely…a “wardrobe malfunction” of some kind.

BTW, lost in all the brouhaha about our pirate chums, did you notice where the Maersk Alabama and the Liberty Sun were heading?

Mombasa, Kenya.

And what were they reportedly carrying?

Food Aid.

I recall pushing PL,(Public Law),480 grain food aid into Pakistan in 1988, and the same cargoes into St, Pyotrsburg in 1994.

Can y’all say: “publicly-financed Payola”?

The Pakistani cargo went to help run the Mujahideen who were still gakking Soviets by the boxcar.

The Russian cargo went to prop up Boris Yeltsin’s government afterClinton and he became great bestest buddies in Seattle.

Wanna guess what the Kenyan cargoes are for?

Apr 21, 2009 - 8:50 am 196. Anony-moose:

Just a reminder everybody arguing about Barack Obama’s citizenship status. There are two issue here, not necessarily related.

One) The issue of where he was born, Hawaii or Kenya.

Two) The question of whether not his U.S. citizenship was, in any case, expatriated, but not legally repatriated.

The law in effect at the time of Obama’s birth was this: His mother had to be resident in the United States for five years after the age of 14 for her child born outside the United States to a foreign father to be considered a citizen by birth. My opinion is, this law would be found unconstitutional as a 14th Amendment violation.

However, the issues related to the expatriation of citizenship apply regardless of where he was born.

I do not know what the law is, but I think there is enough there to have the issue heard in court. Barack Obama may, in fact, have become an Indonesian citizen. Apparently, he traveled as a young adult on an Indonesian passport issued to him as a legal adult.

If he had become an Indonesian citizen, even if originally born as a U.S. citizen, he would have had to repatriate (restore) his U.S. citizenship in order to be eligible to hold any elective office in the United States, let alone be president.

Apr 21, 2009 - 9:58 am 197. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Bilgeman
RE: Yeah!

Wanna guess what the Kenyan cargoes are for? — Bilgeman

To help Obama’s poor relations living there…..one way or ‘another’.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[We're from the government. We're here to help you.]

Apr 21, 2009 - 10:11 am 198. Chuck Pelto:

P.S. So keep your mouth ’shut’, if you know what’s good for you…. — Kenyan government official

Apr 21, 2009 - 10:11 am 199. Paul -Indiana:

From #17. and the muslim influence on his early life.
======================
I think that should read ‘and the muslim influence’

Apr 21, 2009 - 10:52 am 200. AThinkingPerson:

I just hope Carter II’s teleprompter can convince the world to like us again. I’m sure that will be all it will take right? Well, some sweet talking, a few bow’s and a book tour for a 3rd world dictator or two. Then it will be smooth sailing….

Apr 21, 2009 - 11:09 am 201. COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN:

vivo
#185
Your response to Chuck Pelto ()#155) was one of the weakest, most pathetic ad hominem attacks it has ever
been my misfortune to read….
S.M.

Apr 21, 2009 - 12:38 pm 202. COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN:

To: Fred, Bilgeman, Chuck Pelto.
I just wanted to take a minute to thank you guys for your reasoned, intelligent commentaries. Would that more voices such as yours could be heard in the vast wilderness of our American political scene.
Thanks guys…!!
Semper Fi…
S.M.

Apr 21, 2009 - 12:43 pm 203. Chuck Pelto:

TO: COL SEBASTIAN MORAN
RE: [OT] It’s Pathetic

Your response to Chuck Pelto ()#155) was one of the weakest, most pathetic ad hominem attacks it has ever been my misfortune to read…. — COL SEBASTIAN MORAN

But it’s what I’ve come to expect from the ‘jealous’.

Maybe if he went into the Marines he could develop a REAL life….if they’d have him.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[You haven't lived until you've almost died.]

Apr 21, 2009 - 12:55 pm 204. Bilgeman:

#201 Colonel Moran:
“Your response to Chuck Pelto ()#155) was one of the weakest, most pathetic ad hominem attacks it has ever
been my misfortune to read….”

Colonel Pelto DOES have a tendency to dig in deep, like a tick at a hippie orgy.

(That’s one for you Viet Nam lads).

And once he’s dug in and all cozy and making a cup of tea, it pretty much takes an act of God to get him out of his position.

I’ve seen it over and over and over.

In a past life I swear I think he wore a spiked helmet and manned a Maxim gun for the Kaiser.

Apr 21, 2009 - 6:09 pm 205. Bilgeman:

#203 Colonel Pelto:
“Maybe if he went into the Marines he could develop a REAL life….if they’d have him.”

Hmmmm, it depends.

What’s his shoe size?
We would always have had a spot for a fellow with size 11s or larger in MY platoon.

Apr 21, 2009 - 6:12 pm 206. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Bilgeman
RE: [OT] Wrong War

In a past life I swear I think he wore a spiked helmet and manned a Maxim gun for the Kaiser. — Bilgeman

In the 70s, there was a poster in the 82d. Showed a paratrooper with an 82d patch wearing a muddy uniform and a weeks growth of beard holding a machine gun. It was taken during the Battle of the Bulge. The caption read….

I’m the 82d Airborne and this is as far as the bastards are going.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Surprise is something that you create in your opponent's mind.]

Apr 21, 2009 - 7:18 pm 207. vivo:

203. Chuck Pelto:

TO: COL SEBASTIAN MORAN
“Your response to Chuck Pelto ()#155) was one of the weakest, most pathetic ad hominem attacks it has ever been my misfortune to read…. — COL SEBASTIAN MORAN”

El Menso got ticked off with his revealing nickname and Coronel Moran has no idea what it means. You’re looking like clowns now.

205. Bilgeman:

#203 Colonel Pelto:
“Hmmmm, it depends.”

Too bad I can’t join because El Menso thinks I’m between 7 and 11 years old. I can’t have fun like this anywhere else.

Apr 22, 2009 - 3:48 am 208. Mark in Texas:

OK. One more time then I have to get on with the rest of my life.

Obama is a US citizen. His mother was a citizen and so is he. It does not matter where he was born. It does not matter if some other country also considers him a citizen. It does not even matter if his mother renounced his citizenship when he was a minor. If anybody is ever able to get this matter before the court system, the courts will confirm his citizenship.

The phrase “natural born citizen” is not precisely defined but if the matter ever gets to court, it will be ruled to include Barak Obama rather than overturn the results of an election.

Obama and his folks do not release information that would clear up the matter because a) there are some people who will never be convinced just like Andrew Sullivan continues to believe his nonsense about Trig Palin or the 9/11 Troofers with their weird belief set b) continuing this “controversy” makes all critics of Obama look bad. Most normal people spend about 15 minutes a week thinking about politics. What little they hear about the matter, especially if filtered through the MSM, will convince them that even if Obama is bad, his opponents are worse. You, and by association I, will be linked in their mind with 9/11 troofers, Grassy Knoll conspiricists, alien abductees and fake moon landing advocates. Legitimate criticism will be that much easier for the Obama folks to dismiss in the minds of the vast majority of voters who don’t pay that much attention.

Apr 22, 2009 - 5:56 am 209. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Mark in Texas
RE: And Once More Time, Back At Ya….

“Obama is a US citizen.” — Mark in Texas

Prove it. Show us his birth certificate.

Otherwise, you are either a fool or much, much worse. And I begin to suspect the latter.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]

Apr 22, 2009 - 6:24 am 210. Chuck Pelto:

TO: All
RE: Mark in Texas….

….is a classic example of what the KGB guy tannsfal links to says about his sort.

No amount of proof. No weight of evidence. No presentation of logic will ever dissuade these brainwashed cretins from their fast hold on the lies they have accepted.

The indication is that these people graduated from high school after 1980.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[I thank the vaunted American public education system for getting US here.]

Apr 22, 2009 - 6:32 am 211. Bilgeman:

#208 MarkinTexas:
“Obama is a US citizen.”

Then what’s his problem with producing the evidence just like the rest of us occasioanlly have to do?
You’re glossing. I’ve never asserted that Obama is NOT a US Citizen, but that he may not be a “natural born citizen”, and that he may be a dual-citizen…and either state would disqualify him from office.
You can’t really get away with glossing anymore, ever since Clinton. (Meaning of “Is” is, and all that bunk).

“His mother was a citizen and so is he. It does not matter where he was born.”

Yes it DOES matter…I’m not going to insult your intelligence by implying that your reading comprehension skills are challenged, so don’t insult mine by claiming what is patently untrue…you quoted the Constitutional eligibility yourself up above.

You end up weaselling…listen to yourself!

You’re absolutely unequivocal about Obama’s qualifications,of which you know as little as I do. But when it comes to what is, and has been, written in black and white in the Constitution for over two hundred years, you start growing long whiskers and babbling about “interpretations” and “precise definitions” and giving us your 100% certified accurate crystal-ball predictions about what some future Supreme Court will decide.
Too bad that your boy is fighting tooth and nail to keep it OUT of court, huh?

Dude, you’re sounding like a fool.

And at some level, I think you realize it, so you toss in the “Magic Bullets”, “9/11 troofers”, “Bogus moon-landings” and everything else as a smoke-screen.

“Obama and his folks do not release information that would clear up the matter because a) there are some people who will never be convinced just like Andrew Sullivan continues to believe his nonsense about Trig Palin or the 9/11 Troofers with their weird belief set b) continuing this “controversy” makes all critics of Obama look bad.”

You omitted:
“c)The vault copy birth certificate shows that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii at all, or that his mother wasn’t old enough for him to qualify as a natural born citizen under the laws in effect at the time.”

Always seek the most obvious answer FIRST. The people who work for and in government ain’t necessarily stupid, but they ain’t all THAT smart, either.

Apr 22, 2009 - 7:12 am 212. D-wah:

Well done Mr. B. Sad (shocking, but not for most) state of affairs remains that he got away with not having to produce anything. Had it been a Republican there’s no way on God’s green earth that would have passed muster. But hey, it seems most Americans have been sufficiently dumbed down to let it pass–and a litany of other missing information bits that would have sent the lap-dog media howling had it been anyone else. Won’t release his Harvard thesis? Outright incriminating but it you don’t see it you have to give him the “benefit of the doubt”. Buy, he’s used up his benefits 100 fold! “I hardly knew Bill Ayers–had no idea what Rev. Wrong was saying”–pass pass pass–end of story. And they STILL voted for him based on pure blather, image sculpting and empty rhetoric–unfrikking real! We get outrage over Palin’s wardrobe and hardly a bleep about Pelosi’s multi-million dollar airforce abuse. Tax cheats get jobs, earmarks get signed, on and on. Watch Feinstein walk on this latest FDIC scandal–they don’t even question her about it. It’s mind-numbing.
—all that to say “what un-produced birth certificate? I’m busy here– swallowing so much mind-killing truth reversing disconnects and misinformation it’s like drinking out of a firehose!” Tea Party on! It’s a start and like a good blog, you can shower off this Obamacrap!

Apr 22, 2009 - 8:23 am 213. Chuck Pelto:

TO: All
RE: Heh

Looks like we’ve wandered FAR AFIELD of the original topic. Not surprising as there is just SOOOO MUCH to talk about vis-a-vis Obama.

RE: Back ON-TOPIC

Sound crazy? No more crazy than the daily Chavez communiqués. Again, by good or bad diplomacy we can soothe or excite him–but otherwise his aims are antithetical to the notion of democratic, capitalist states, with close ties to the North American democracies. — Victor Davis Hanson

So…..

….WHY do the others hate US? Probably has a LOT to do with jealousy. After all, if they can’t drag themselves up, they can much more easily drag US down. And with ‘tools’ of our own making. Look at Ayers. Look at Wright. Look at Obama (and his first 100-days).

I’m reminded of that cartoon from Chris Muir’s Day-by-Day

Heck….

….look around HERE!

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out.....]

Apr 22, 2009 - 9:46 am 214. Anony-moose:

Mark in Texas – Possibly, Barack Obama’s citizenship was expatriated. If that was the case, then he would have to repatriate it to be eligible to hold any office. A legal procedure, but still one that has to be followed.

I agree that the law extant at the time of his birth which would make not a citizen if born in Kenya likely would be found unconstitutional. Later law covers this situation and make someones in that situation a birthright U.S. citizen.

Please note – even if a natural born citizen, a person’s citizenship can be expatriated by a variety of means. Most saliently, Barack Obama apparently received and traveled under an Indonesian passport as a young adult.

I have put up several posts in this forum starting with #169. Of great concern is the issue of who has standing to force an examination of this issue in the courts. Apparently, no one yet.

Mark in Texas WROTE:

OK. One more time then I have to get on with the rest of my life.

Obama is a US citizen. His mother was a citizen and so is he. It does not matter where he was born. It does not matter if some other country also considers him a citizen.

Apr 22, 2009 - 12:11 pm 215. D-wah:

Chuck–you’re spot on about it being jealousy. I worked in Kuwait many years ago and knew many from around the ME. While the Arabs publicly railed and screamed about US “oppression”, they were clamoring for visas and working to move their families here, begging to be our personal friends, own our products, live like us, act like us–they totally envied our personal, political and religious freedoms etc. etc. It’s those here who yield to these jealous tirades due to their guilt complex as well as desire to use those negative feelings to springboard themselves to power who are the bigger criminals. These statists are like the parents blaming themselves for teaching, training and disciplining their own children–completely nuts. But that’s what it’s come to. “Who are we Americans to tell anyone else anything?” Oh yeah? Then who the hell is this government who wants to dictate every move we make? Welcome to Nonsequitoria!

Apr 23, 2009 - 4:20 am 216. Chuck Pelto:

TO: D-wah
RE: The Statists

That’s true of every statist I’ve seen. Driven by jealousy of people more efficient, more effective, more wealthy, more beautiful, they’d rather drag the other ‘more-’ people down than try to figure out and work towards improving themselves.

Hence one of the Ten Commandments reads….

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbours — Item #10 of 10

But I never expect to find a statist is a Christian. I mean a REAL one.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[What Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions. -- Ted Koppel]

P.S. And about the Middle Eastern states. I do believe that there is not a democratically elected republic amongst them….except for that which we are working towards in Iraq. And that’s why the Saudis hate US. As well as the Iranians. And a few others…..

Apr 23, 2009 - 6:50 am 217. D-wah:

Chuck(le)–amen to that. See Obummer’s comment about his so-called Christian faith during the campaign? He said something to the effect he hopes he’s going to the right place when he see’s the man upstairs, or some lame limp thing. He’s a godless statist as you said, and that’s why they’re all so off track, moral-less, shifting standards, bummed out, jealous, and easily controlled by the enemy. It’s a war of the worlds playing out before us. Great time to know the Lord and right from wrong, good from evil–and our clarity, conviction, faith and love DRIVES THEM NUTS!! Tea Party On!! “If you don’t stand for the Truth you’ll fall for anything!”

Apr 24, 2009 - 8:25 am 218. Chuck Pelto:

TO: D-wah
RE: Yeah?

See Obummer’s comment about his so-called Christian faith during the campaign? — D-wah

I recall a comment made by Obama in an interview with one of those Sunday Morning ‘Talk’ shows.

Something about a freudian slip regarding his “Muslim faith”…..

You can read about it here….I hope…..

Here’s the ‘killer’ faux pas….

“Let’s not play games,” he [Obama] said. “What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you’re absolutely right that that has not come.” — Obama

[Note: Emphasis added.....]

I consider his bowing to the Sheik of Araby ANOTHER such ‘Freudian slip’ indicating his true ‘faith’.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[You can't make this shi'ite up.]

Apr 24, 2009 - 3:33 pm 219. Chuck Pelto:

P.S. This is what you get when Obama is not using his ‘fill-me-in-on-what-I-should-say’ teleprompter.

Since when do US deserve a ‘president’ that has to get his information from a source OUTSIDE of his own mind?

Are we REALLY ready to accept someone who is LITERALLY ‘out of their mind’ in such a position?

Apr 24, 2009 - 4:45 pm 220. D-wah:

Sorry men, working this weekend–wanna catch up. Rt on, Chuckles, don’t get me started. For him to have a “slip” that he’s a Muslim–just think about that–when the heck would you ever ACCIDENTALLY SAY WHICH RELIGION YOU ADHERE TO?????? -and Stephinfection covers for him!–and he gets a pass!! They WANT to believe the LIE! It’s like the 57 states, same trip!–the guy’s a total plant, as in weed. Hence Pelto, your teleprompter prez–how sick and calculated is that? Can the guy ever take questions? Is there any real honest up front spontaneous discourse with this creep? Never! People say he’s this convincing, mesmorizing compelling speaker–where? He’s a boring drone! He spews gibberish–it’s only mezmorizing if you’re predispositioned to believe it for ulterior unquestioning motives! God deliver us!
Enuf said, need to chill.

Apr 26, 2009 - 7:02 pm 221. KBB:

Why are we all standing around, putting up with this BS, complaining and wringing our hands while we watch Obama destroy our beloved America?? When all we have to do is come together, march on the Supreme Court millions strong, and demand Obama show his vault birth certificate, his passport(s) and his school applications. Presto! He’ll be yanked out of office and arrested, because he has no valid proof of POTUS eligibility! Problems solved (at least, those he’s causing).

Apr 28, 2009 - 12:20 am 222. captain garage:

Did you see when his teleprompter screwed up today? He started speaking “click click” and got mad,he really didn’t hide it well.
Chancy Gardner for President!!!

Apr 28, 2009 - 12:45 am

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