125 Comments

1. Posts about Barack Obama as of July 5, 2009 » The Daily Parr:

[...] about Barack Obama as of July 5, 2009 Obama in Moscow – pajamasmedia.com 07/05/2009 Tony Halpin of the Times Online puzzles over Barack Obama’s [...]

Jul 5, 2009 - 4:34 pm 2. Doug:

The Man Who Could Never Do Anything Right

(or as Whiskey will explain

The Man Who Always Does Everything Right
…to accomplish his evil ends)

—

Mr Putin is not known as a bad judge of character and he described Bush’s successor as

“no less a fool than W was for thinking he was viewing my soul through my eyes
…and a destructive Anti-American Putz to boot.”

Jul 5, 2009 - 4:37 pm 3. In the Industry:

In another thread, two explanations of Obama were oisted. One of him being a secret Muslim, the other of him seeing himself as alien from everything and so qualified and required to be everyone’s arbitrator and no one’s advocate. I think the latter is correct.

Even a secret Muslim would understand that you can drive a wedge between two politicians only when they have different bases of support. In Russia, these differences are negligible. Putin’s support comes from the old security apparatchiks and Medvedev’s support comes from . . . Putin.

Understanding this should be basic to a former community organizer. The old revolutionaries used to say that revolution comes from picking up power left lying on the ground. What power does Obama think Medvedev is picking up? Or did Obama think as a community organizer: “Who are these irrational beings who are doing irrational things?”

Jul 5, 2009 - 4:42 pm 4. Doug:

…or as a Community Organizer who thinks:
“How can I stir up Chaos to use to “Our” (my) Advantage?“

Jul 5, 2009 - 4:52 pm 5. Doug:

Community Organizer meets Professional “Organizer:”

35. Rurik said…

“I remember that in 2002, Vlad was quite happy to help facilitate America’s incursion into Afghanistan, permitting Bush to set up bases around Central Asia. At the time I suggested Russia could not lose –

1. They’d seem good friends and get credit if we triumphed;

2. American power would fall on their old Afghan Enemy, and would be payback for Soviet humiliation if the US won;

3. If the US lost, it would help redress the shame of their humiliation;

4. It would keep US power occupied, where it would not be a driect challenge to Russia.

In short, Putin was glad to help America punch the tarbaby.
Now he wants us to punch the tarbaby again.
And it will also help ease us out of Iraq before we consolidate our influence there.“

Jul 5, 2009 - 4:58 pm 6. Dan:

We are screwed, in every which way you look at it.

Our friends, our potential friends and strategic allies will be thrown under the bus like so many others.

And I fear for my Georgian friends, I really do. God knows what awaits them this August.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:00 pm 7. Walt:

What else can we say
What more can we do
O’s here for another three years
In Moscow today
Then Ghana, who knew?
He’s answered our very worst fears
He likes cutting deals
He thinks that his charm
Will dazzle the Putins he meets
The problem, one feels
He gives up the farm
To every dictator he greets
We know he has smarts
We’re told every day
His IQ is real and not feigned
But when he departs
How much did we pay
And what will the Kremlin have gained
A missile shield lost
An ally or two
What matter it’s all for the best
So what of the cost
What matters to you
Is that Obie passes the test
What test you may ask
The one Biden claims
Will come to inspire the One
To rise to the task
Or go down in flames
Let’s hope that it’s not One and done

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:07 pm 8. E. Nigma:

I think that we will get superficial accomodation from the Russians to perpetuate the myth of Obama the Infallible.
The networks and media will fall all over themselves to congratulate him (Obama) on the departure from “the Bush years”, unless Putin gets too egomaniacal (always a possibility) and says something truly demeaning to Obama. Of course, that could be ignored by the American media as an “Inconvenient Truth”.

The reality will be that our position in the world will be weakened by compromises with Putin/Medvedev.
Or to put it in another metaphor, as Stalin told Roosevelt,”I said Yalta, not Malta!” Which ended in the Iron Curtain falling over Eastern Europe for more than 40 years. So in the end, Obama will give a lot away (ABM defense in Eastern Europe, compromise on Iran to allow them more time to develop nukes, etc.) to guarantee we have a logistical supply line to a war that the Russians want the US to fight to prevent Afghanistan from spinning out of control and hurting them (Russia) more than us.
Not quite checkmate, but Obama is down a rook and will probably lose his queen soon.

Remembering back to 2001, Bush started out well with Putin, as Putin was in a much weaker position in 2001 vis-a-vis the US than now, relatively speaking. As the Russian position strengthened through the last 8 years, due to oil revenues and Putin’s consolidation of political power, his relationship with Bush deteriorated, as they has LESS common ground to agree.
And Medvedev is quite open and honest. They are Russian nationalists, and seek to advance their national interests. Imagine that. And how many years has it been after the “End of History” was declared?

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:10 pm 9. Mongoose:

I think that it’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations is outdated

That is disturbing rhetoric. Does Obama actually think that our relationships with Russia are on the same footing that they were in the Cold War?

Is he really that stupid? What a menace to us this man is.

And the Putin angle:

As anyone who has anything to do with Russia the last few years can tell you, Putin runs the show: Medvedev is just a front man for Putin, and he was put there for the sole purpose of end-running the term limits on the Presidency.

Sounds to me like Obama was just shooting off is mouth for domestic consumption. I doubt that this will cause much of a flap. State has to understand who is really running things over there. Putin will get everything he wants out of him and more. I wonder if Obama will tour Lenin’s tomb.

Watch him him do great damage to our strategic deterrent. And, of course, he has to do it on the July 4th Weekend. He has absolutely no respect for this country and he just throws it in our faces. I cannot understand why the nation puts up with this. Obama is clearly our enemy. He clearly has complete contempt for this nation. Trillions in debt, reduced military budget and posture, disregard for democracies, the support of tyrants, the socialization of whole sectors of the nation.

How would it have been worse if the Soviets had won?

Who sent him? Someone that wanted to destroy us as a superpower.

Seriously, it is like we have lost the Cold War. It is beyond belief!

The arrogance of these people.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:14 pm 10. Doug:

How will he supplicate himself (us) @ Lenin’s Tomb?

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:17 pm 11. Mongoose:

E. Nigma: oh it will be a disaster for us alright. I bet it will be a lot worse than you have predicted. This is just insane.

Obama is out to destroy us as a superpower. The damage he has done to this nation in less than a year is just amazing. Britain had to go through a couple of world wars to be reduced like this. We elect a president, and he just betrays us right before our eyes.

How I detest the Democrat Party. What traitors they are. What scoundrels.

How are they getting away with it?

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:21 pm 12. Doug:

Ingraham has a great sound byte of somebody asking Dumbo if he believes in American Exceptionalism.

In his fake intellectual slow talk, he squeezes out a “yes”

then after his fake intellectual eternal pause, he adds

“Just as the Brits (Nigerians, Haitians, Iranians) believe in British Exceptionalism”

Putz

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:22 pm 13. Rurik:

The Apprentice Sorcerer has wandered off to summon demons. He will find what he thinks he wants.

Perhaps, the same sods from DOS who “crafted” the “reset button”, forgot to inform Obama Durachok about Russian ethnic attitudes. Russians have not undergone fifty years of ethnic brainwashing and guilt-mongering. He is, in their words, a chyornozhopa, and that is not a compliment. (Literally a blackass) They might be polite to him in public, so long as it is convenient.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:23 pm 14. Mongoose:

Doug: Is that real? If so he does not understand what is meant my the term.

He cannot comprehend it. He is completely alien to this nation.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:24 pm 15. Doug:

Mongoose:
MUCH less than a year!
We ain’t seen nuthin yet!

God Help Us

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:24 pm 16. Mongoose:

Rurik: So true. Imagine what they think of the country that elected him.

We are in for so big trouble.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:26 pm 17. Rurik:

With sardonic amusement I await learning what official gifts he may have brought.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:31 pm 18. Thrasymachus:

Wretchard, I’m not sure I understand your last line there. You say Obama is looking for some phony cooperation from the Russians for domestic consumption; OK. “Peace” negotiators go for just this sort of thing. Do you mean to imply they will cooperate? If they believe themselves weak they will go along with it for a time. If they don’t they will reject the overture in a rather humiliating fashion.

“Peace” negotiators never consider the second possibility. Why don’t we just all maintain the polite fiction to neutralize the warmongers at home? Isn’t a perfectly reasonable and rational thing to do? People with graduate degrees from Harvard and Georgtown have been socialized out of understanding things even (or especially) a yardbird doing three to five for aggravated assault understands. In primate power politics if you can show dominance over someone you must, even if the unfortunate would be delighted to defer to you. Not for his sake, but for everybody else in the yard watching.

I predict the Russians will give him a pretty rude reception, because they don’t feel weak and they don’t regard Obama as strong.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:37 pm 19. Mongoose:

On the contrary, they will give him a wonderful reception, and pick him (and us) clean.

And do not forget, this guy has access to all our state secrets.

A nightmare.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:41 pm 20. E. Nigma:

It has to be remembered that to a great many people, Obama is “the change that we have been waiting for”; literally.

Political and philosophical perspective are everything. From one perspective, he is doing just about everything he promised and was expected to do. From the perspective of the Muddled Middle, there is dumb agreement but some growing doubts.

From the perspective of this “Houston based” blog, with disciples of rightwing “extremists” like Leo Linbeck and dangerous reactionary Asian philospher Richard Fernandez, it seems like the Obama Administration and its Congressional useful idiots, have crossed the Rubicon with respect to much that has been thought of as American values.
Obama in Russia on the Fourth of July? Has there ever been a time when the President of the United States was in a foreign capital on the Fourth of July? Is this carelessness or calculated insult?
Can he really be that naive about the Russian political structure or is this just eyewash for the mouthbreathers in the media and their supplicants?

Who else could get sold down the river? Lebanon? Ukraine? Georgia? South Korea? Taiwan? Iraq? Poland?
Don’t overestimate the economic power of Russia and their ability to project strength, but we can’t underestimate the ability of Obama to behave in ways that are destructive of America’s short and long term interests, because he already has, according to our our “limited perspective”.

I would advise no one to take council from your fears, but right now, there are plenty of Democrat congressmen that are plenty worried about keeping their seats in 2010, even from their “limited perspective”.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:47 pm 21. RWE:

Each “new” Soviet/Russian leader was hailed by the politicians in the west as being The Man that could fix things right up.

When Andropov kicked off, Teddy Kennedy said that it was a tragedy that such a fine, forward thinking leader had served his entire term with a person like Ronald Reagan as the POTUS. Of course, Andropov was a former leader of the KGB and as such had committed numerous crimes.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:52 pm 22. Mongoose:

E. Nigma: I really think that only the hard left of the democrats buys into all this crap. I think people are just shocked into disbelief.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:55 pm 23. whiskey:

How are Democrats getting away with it? Because women hate hate hate the military, traditional values, and all that implies. Patriotism, the military, and defense represent alternate power bases to the smart set. Look at Maureen Dowd’s dismissive column on Sarah Palin and her “country music soap opera family.” No one is more snobby, princess-driven, and mindlessly left NGO consumerist-status driven than single women devoid of hard choices about life.

Obama’s a secret Muslim out to destroy America. For religious reasons, and also because as a follower of Farrakhan and Wright, he hates “Whitey.”

This is why his deal in Moscow is to offer unilateral US nuclear disarmament followed by unilateral cuts in the US Navy and Air Force, by executive order, bypassing any Treaty ratification. He’s already made statements to this effect (bypassing the Senate, with 60 votes, because “he doesn’t have time.”) Even a hard leftist who was male-oriented would not want to get rid of nukes and be helpless wrt Russia, China, or even Pakistan and Iran. Obama wants this because he is in fact a Muslim. He hates this country, most of it’s inhabitants, and wants us defeated and humiliated.

In this desire, he’s got most of the Media, Entertainment, and Women on his side, as well as Blacks and Hispanics. None of whom see themselves as Americans but rather the oppressed, or the enlightened, or the superior.

This is not anything new. Women in Britain and the Third Republic admired Hitler and his forces, despised their own forces, and wanted basically a surrender to the Third Reich, on the grounds that they were unstoppable, fighting them was immoral, but mostly because the Third Reich was more dominant, an easy appeal to the worst part of women (the way jingoism is to men).

Consider Islam, Muslims, and the Stoning of Soraya M. Gays and women lead the pack in denouncing the fact-based film, because they admire dominance, and want in fact a dominant, abusive series of overlords. Who will at least free them from the awful boringness of ordinary men around them. Gay Foucalt, after all, idolized Khomeni, despite the latter’s stated intent to throw his kind off roofs to their death. Both had the same enemy: Joe Average in the West. Virginia Woolf was a woman who saw no distinction between Hitler and the Church of England and argued against war with Hitler. On the grounds that the real enemy was average men.

Most women are now like Virginia Woolf. Freed from a daily struggle for existence, hard choices about life and men, given the functional equivalent of the wealth that Woolf enjoyed, they have the same general attitudes. The difference between Woolf’s day and today is that the women (the vast majority of them) had little security outside marriage and choices in men, and so had to compromise on wants and needs.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:57 pm 24. Mongoose:

RWE: The difference is that they were all just figureheads. We know clearly know it works over there now. Political control is much tighter and in much fewer hands than it was from the time of Stalin’s death until just 8 or so years ago.

It is a rather different landscape now.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:58 pm 25. Reclass:

Whiskey.
I teach active military personnel (men and women) and their spouses every day. I am part of the hated academe. I am also armed. To say women hate–pardon me, you said “hate hate hate” the military–is beyond errant nonsense. I suggest you actually talk to some women. Or even listen to the many who voice their opinions on this very list.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:07 pm 26. Kinuachdrach:

Forget US domestic consumption — what about Russian domestic consumption?

The Russian people have seen Little Kim give Obama the finger. They have seen Iranian despots piss on his shoes. They have even seen a tinpot would-be dictator-without-a-country from Honduras get commitments of support from Obama. Medvedev & Putin need to show something really tangible to the Russian people — for domestic consumption.

Russia’s strategic interests are quite clear. Russia wants a demilitarized, tribute-paying EU; a chaotic Iran which reduces competition for Russian oil & gas sales to vassal Europe; and freedom to focus on the growing Chinese threat to resource-rich Siberia.

Obama’s interests are — well — Obama’s.

Here’s a possible Russian negotiation aim: US forces out of Europe, totally. War’s been over for 60 years. Russia is our friend. Time to go.

And if Obama turns out to be even more of a push-over than Medvedev & Putin expect, maybe even a US commitment to withdraw from NATO — that Cold War relic which has no place in a world in which the US is disarming & Russia is Obama’s friend.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:18 pm 27. Paul Milenkovic:

Reclass:

If I had spent the last 27 years in the company of active-duty men and women military officers, enlisted, and family members, I would agree 100 percent with you.

But I have spent that time in Madison, Wisconsin USA. From my life experience, Whiskey has a point.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:18 pm 28. buddy larsen:

IMHO: in order to support him (and keep him effectively dismantling USA power), they will give him some basis of success in his Moscow summit –gift him a claim of ‘victory’. In fact that may have come already, in the overflight ok. The ‘Putin’s foot’ comment is also part of that –Putin understands that following his treatment of GWB last summer, his American friend has to chastise him a tad. Why on earth would the Kremlin want to weaken this man, more valuable to them than a thousand divisions?

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:35 pm 29. ledger:

“President Obama has made his first mistake in Russia even before he arrives in Moscow.”

There is nothing to worry about.

Obama probably brought a suitcase full of toy “Reset buttons” written in his best Cyrillic.

What could possibly go wrong?

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:41 pm 30. wretchard:

How are Democrats getting away with it?

I think a large part of the reason is that the conservatives are demoralized. Demoralized by the catastrophe overtaking what they care about; demoralized by a failure in leadership which has only been underscored by Sarah P.’s recent resignation. Why are people so earnestly hoping she’ll take the lead? Because nobody else will.

The way out of this is two fold. The first is to stop becoming depressed about the wrecking of things. You have to turn depression into a kind of resolute, directed recklessness. The expression for it in Tagalog is bahala na. That translates to “do you want to live forever?” + “what are you waiting for” + “why the hell not?” Once a person takes a positive step: attending a tea party, writing his congressman, calling his congressman, even putting on a bumper sticker, he’ll not only feel less depressed, but surer of himself. The second problem is harder to solve. Where the Republican leaders? Well maybe there aren’t any. That means that people in the second and third tiers have to start stepping up to the plate. Remember the phrase: bahala na!.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:46 pm 31. Doug:

Course in Madison, the men also Hate Hate Hate the Military. (and in Marin, SF, Beserkley, ad-nauseum)

Not to Mention that Female Wild Animal Murderer, Sarah Palin.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:47 pm 32. Batman:

I strongly agree with E. Nigma @8 and Mongoose @11, and partially with Thrasymachus @18. If you know the leader of the opposition is weak, foolish, or easy to mislead, the best strategy is to prop him up and to flatter him. Obama will come home in “triumph.” Hail Caesar!!!

This is the same trick Arafat pulled off with Peres and to a lesser extent with Rabin. And didn’t Chamberlain return (temporarily, to be sure) in triumph with “peace in our time?”

A pseudo-deal with Russia will allow further cuts in the defense budget and further reductions of missile defense as well as other preparedness. At the same time we will be dependent on the good graces of the Russians to complete whatever part of the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan our leader still feels is necessary not to be accused of premature surrender.

I always remind those friends who are willing to listen that the idea of strength before peace is as old as the Bible. In Psalm 29:11 it says (NIV translation): The LORD gives strength to His people; the LORD blesses His people with peace.

On Hebrew it is “Oz” before “Shalom.” (The word Oz — pronounced with a long O — comes from the same root as the word Uzi, as in machine gun.)

It has ever been thus. Those who pursue peace before strength are doomed to have neither. Heaven help us. And thanks W for bahala na. God helps those who help themselves, after all.

PS Just saw comment @28 too. Agree 100%

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:50 pm 33. Doug:

Ledger,
Those are TAQIYYA Reset Buttons.
The Ruskies don’t know what they’re in for after The One is Done.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:50 pm 34. Mongoose:

Whiskey: At the risk of pulling down your ire on top of me, let me say that while I certainly think you are onto a truth, it is not the sole truth nor is it the overarching truth.

Women are not in control of these event, they are being used as a section in a voting block, and are merely part of that block. That section by no means includes a plurality of all women in the country.
Obama is acting on behalf of the entire left–and no doubt foreign actors too–not just “leftist women”. In fact he is mostly acting for himself and whoever his paymasters are.

I think that you mistake the vocal few for the mass of women.

There is not this ground swell of women wishing treason on us by crippling the military. The game is much deeper and the players much more sinister than that.

You get a little megalomaniac about this stuff, you need to temper it a bit.
you are starting to depart from the real world.

You credit women with more power than they actually have in this world. Most Corp. management have essentially token positions for women at the higher levels–the real power people are mostly all men, and the struggles are rough. The technology sectors are almost entirely male. The real Democrat Political machine is run by men at the top, and most certainly at the regional and large city level. Note, those are not the people that you see as delegates at the national convention. Those are the guys that you go see of you own a cement company. I have heard you say that NGO’s are run by women and gays, and that is not really so. They are run by trust fund brats, who generally actually own the NGO’s, and the great majority of them are straight men. They call the shots.

These NGO’s are run like little principalities and with all the pomp of a court.
Most of the “management” plays CYA with the tyrant that runs them. That is why they are so irritable and grouchy.

A great deal of this younger female voting block you describe just votes for whomever they have been conned into thinking it is “cool” to vote for, they are not possessed of the sort of deliberationa or calculations that you attribute to them. If it were “hip” to vote conservative, they would vote conservative. They are not that deep or not really that vicious.

There are not hordes of women running around “hating the military”. I challenge you to prove that across this country women overwhelmingly hate the military, or even hate men.

It is unreasonable claim to make that because some “women” in the media hate the military, that all women do, or even a majority of them do. The military is one of the most popular insititutions in the country. Every soldier touches upon dozens of women in his family and his community and they are very supportive. A great many of those soldiers are women themselves. The Amy Smarts only represent a portion of American females. I have spent long periods of my life in close connection to the Armed Services and their communities and I can tell you that they are supported by millions upon millions of fine and patriotic American women.

I have also worked in media, and I can tell you that women to not “call the shots” in that world. The general public never sees the real power players in the media world. It is a rough place, that inner circle of power, and women rarely get even close to it. One really discovers this when one tries to sell them something that costs real money. You are rarely talking to a woman. It is more an issue of culture, those left wing prejudices, and many in that circle do not even realize that they are pushing a socialist agenda, not really. It is pure elitist contempt for the middle classes that is driving them, not some anti-male agenda. It is not all about gender. Sure they are a target demographic, but so are young urban men, and the young urban men make more money, BTW, as a demographic, a lot more, and they spend more.

You have valid points, I will not say that you do not, and I am glad you are out there posting, but you need to put them in perspective.

So this does not really answer my question.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:51 pm 35. Doug:

Hope and Change meets bahala na!.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:53 pm 36. Doug:

One should not forget hope and change is backed up by the Chicago Machine and the Federal Govt,
So we better damn well mean it when we say bahala na!
The alternative is too sad and ugly to contemplate.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:56 pm 37. Doug:

“There are not hordes of women running around “hating the military”. I challenge you to prove that across this country women overwhelmingly hate the military, or even hate men.”
—
I bet there is a vast disparity between single women and married women with children.

Just as there is when they vote.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:59 pm 38. Batman:

Someone made brief mention of The Stoning of Soraya M. It was an amazing film, with brilliant acting. The stoning scene was so realistic that the images have haunted me since I saw it the first weekend it opened in limited release.

It amazes and infuriates me that the same feminists who are exercised by a Playboy Magazine in a fire station or brassiere ads in newspapers are silent or antagonistic to this issue. I have one left leaning feminist patient who did acknowledge that some good came of our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq because of the liberation of their women but still felt our intervention was improper. That’s about the best I’ve been able to get from any of the lefty feminists I know, be they colleagues, friends or patients.

As to women hating the military, this is so only when we don’t feel threatened. On 9-11 women were cheering on the sidewalks as firemen and police drove through the streets of Manhattan. Too bad it takes such events to get such responses. At the end of the day women (and men) want to feel protected. They just don’t want to reinforce traditional manliness when they don’t feel there is imminent danger. Trouble is, will we have sufficient protectors when the danger is upon us?

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:08 pm 39. ledger:

Doug:

“Ledger,
Those are TAQIYYA Reset Buttons.”

That’s good to know. But, how long will it last?

[Putin shaking hands with Obama in Kremlin]

Obama:

“Your squeezing and twisting my hand. It hurts!”

“Quit staring so hard at me with those steely blue eyes…”

“Yes, I’ll give you the nuclear codes and the location of the missles… Please, quit hurting me…

So, you really do have a shark tank!”

“I want my mommy!”

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:12 pm 40. Mongoose:

Doug: Well I tell you, that at fleet week in NYC I always go out of my way to pick up the tab of Sailors and Marines I spot in any restaurant or bar I may happen to be in, and they do not seem to lack for female company to me, and no, they are not prostitutes, they are attractive young girls. There may even be the odd Yalie in there, but I am sure that most of the girls are not from the Ivies.

I have actually asked these men about how they are recieved as it always troubles me, and they tell me that the vast majority of people treat them with respect.

Of course, they avoid the Upper West Side.

And this is NYC I am talking about.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:15 pm 41. NahnCee:

Wretchard, if you want to run for President under the Republican Party banner, we’ll change the Constitution for you.

My question regarding the Moscow visit is why isn’t Obama taking HIllary with him? Did she screw up so badly with her reset button that she can’t be trusted, is he afraid of what she might find out about his promises, why? It would tell us something about what he is planning, I think, if we could winkle that out.

As for Whiskey’s on-going angst about women, being a woman myself he has never ever said a single thing that spoke to me (other than Obama is a secret Muslim). I don’t know any women who “hate hate hate” the military, although I know lots of men who do. I think if you find women like that, you’re probably also looking at other dysfunctions that might be significant in a human being such as being unemployable, being over-educated and under-talented, being a professional victim, and having a hair-trigger temper that’s used to get your own way.

In other words, they’re whack jobs. I don’t know any whack jobs myself since I avoid that kind of person. But since Whiskey evidently *only* knows whack-job women, then I have to wonder about the status of his own sanity if that’s who he chooses to associate with and how he sees reality on a day-to-day basis.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:18 pm 42. wretchard:

David Satter, writing in the WSJ says that President Obama has fallen into a trap of ‘his own making’ such that he is virtually obliged to make pre-concessions. Satter says:

President Barack Obama arrives here today facing a dilemma of his own making. Having called for a “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations, the U.S. side is virtually obliged to make some new overtures. But Russia does not need to be engaged. It needs to be deterred.

The expectations that Mr. Obama has inspired are substantial. Both officials and ordinary citizens in Russia interpret the call for a reset as an admission of U.S. guilt for ignoring Russia’s interests. Sergei Rybakov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, said that mutual trust was “lacking over the last several years.” It was the task of the U.S. to show its good intentions with “concrete actions” because in Russia, the U.S. is “deeply distrusted.”

In other words, the Obama has hamstrung himself before his big event with Russia. Where Satter may wrong is in assuming that Obama has mistakenly dug himself into a hole. He may, out of the desire to expiate some guilt, or some misguided sense of fairness, imposed these constraints on his own side.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:22 pm 43. E. Nigma, bahala na!:

To be sure, Obama believes and is trotting out every left-wing shop worn political cliche’ that has been thought of since the end of World War II. Of course, it finds resonance with the childish egos of the college educated that never considered re-thinking what they learned in their alleged years of “higher education”. The childish egos of the glitterati of the entertainer class are particularly left-wing reactionary due to their mindless obediance to their less visible “betters” that tutor them. There was a very good book that was written some years ago called “Hollywood Party” that illuminates this history over the decades and the flabby “cabbage patch” socialism that allows them to criticize capitalism and then extol their multi-million dollar movie deals.

To re-capitulate what was so articulately said by our late, lost friend Fred, a lot of us have had “second thoughts” about a lot of things that seemed to be accepted political wisdom from our “youts”. I have spent years re-thinking every simple and not so simple premise that I accepted growing up.

We have to pick our fights where we can. I live in Ohio. There will be a race for governor next year (2010). John Kasich (Republican) is getting back into electoral politics and is running against the incumbent Democrat, Ted Strickland. This is a race that the Republicans have to win. I can make a difference here (small though it might be). This is where I have to stand, regardless of how some think about the National Republican party. Ditto the Senate race where George Voinovich is retiring and the seat is open.

Obama will do something that will probably turn out to be pretty repugnant with the Russians, at least to us normal folks. We can’t change the present.

But we can summon the future.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:25 pm 44. steeple:

It seems to me like our President has found the cure for being in over his head in the most difficult job in the world (which is even tougher when since he has never really had a job before this). He simply hops on the plane. Does it strike anyone else here that this guy doesn’t spend much time at the office?

One, he gets out of the White House where he might actually have to put a full day in. Two, he gets to bask in the adoration of those who he is blessing with his presence.

I know that some will say “he’s working even when he’s on the road.” Speaking from experience, I can only get so much done when I am on the road travelling. Most of the progress that I see in our business occurs when my colleagues and I are together to brainstorm and challenge each other’s ideas. Travel to visit with clients et al is useful, but it has to kept in balance.

I’ve seen guys like this in my business career, and it inevitably turns out that their travels ended up being essentially a ruse for not working. Unfortunately, it takes a while for the truth to catch up with them.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:32 pm 45. Mongoose:

Oh Wretchard, He does not care. He is off in his narcissism, and since he could care less about America, what does it matter to him if he has “fallen into a trap” or not.

He, like all the Dem leadership, is about surfaces and appearances, not depth, substance or reality.

If he can strut around the podium at Georgetown and appear the great, world changing master of diplomacy and realpolitik, it does not matter to him if he had to give away the whole farm. If it hurts the country, well that is just gravy.

Seriously Wretchard, you give Obama an great deal of credit for good will. It puzzles me.

His character is one of profound immorality, and, oddly, insanity too.

The conundrum of the modern Leftist: They can be immoral and insane at the same time.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:33 pm 46. Rurik:

41. NahnCee, Whiskey, Mongoose, and others,

I’ve met far too many of that sort of woman from 1970 onward. It seems to be pretty close to the norm at major universities – maybe not the small colleges. I do not encounter that sort of woman when participating in Patriot Guard missions. But they’re all tough broads, not at all interested in being “cool”. Nor do I find it among the families of the troops we are either burying or welcoming/sending off with honor. I have found a numbr of bitter anti-males among the career military females. Whack jobs to be sure, but still they exist. So I have to come down in partial agreement, and share some of Whiskey’s sense of bitterness – but the bitterness diminishes the further away I get from academia and media types. Among the young, of both sexes, I think the overriding factor is “cool”. And soldiers, students, cops, pocket-protector-geeks, and disco weenies all have their own ideas of what is cool. Attacking malevolent concepts of cool could be a useful project.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:39 pm 47. Doug:

Steeple,
Think it was LA Weekly, or LA Today that had an article about
LA’s “11 Percent Mayor”

– after they studied his schedule and travel records.
He spent a lot more time in other cities (working for LA, of course)
Than he did at the office.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:42 pm 48. Doug:

Time to Get Mad as Hell

It’s amazing, if you stop and think about it, that George H.W. Bush lost his bid for re-election because he was goofy enough to say, “Read my lips…no new taxes,” but Obama does his level best to bankrupt America and destroy the middle class, and yet continues to ride nearly as high in the popularity polls as Michael Jackson. Imagine if the man could moonwalk.

But, I guess a lot of us who find ourselves going down the financial drain don’t really mind so long as we can watch Prince Obama and his princess holding hands on their $250,000 date night in New York City.

It’s almost enough to make a person pity Bernard Madoff. That poor shmuck got a 150-year prison sentence, and he only screwed Americans out of about 65 billion dollars.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:42 pm 49. Mongoose:

Doug: Just my befuddlement too.

Makes you wonder about the polls. Makes you wonder about our sanity.

Have the boomers all gone in collective menopause all at once?

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:47 pm 50. Rurik:

Mongoose:

No, we haven’t gone into collective menopause, and most of us were not the schmucks who voted for him. I point the finger at a coalition of ethnic minorities, and the young. Blame Generation Ex, and Generation Why, and even more Generation Zero.

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:55 pm 51. Doug:

…and the children of the sixties that taught them so well, Rurik.

Jul 5, 2009 - 8:03 pm 52. Sally:

Hmmm…so Obama has looked into Medvedev’s eyes and sees a man he can trust. Too funny. Anyway, I wonder what he’ll apologize for while he’s over there. The USA Olympic ice hockey win over the Russians in 1980, perhaps?

Jul 5, 2009 - 8:03 pm 53. ledger:

On a serious note:

“…first is to stop becoming depressed about the wrecking of things. You have to turn depression into a kind of resolute, directed recklessness. The expression for it in Tagalog is bahala na. That translates to “do you want to live forever?” + “what are you waiting for” + “why the hell not?” –Wretchard

To the depression issue: From my perspective, the largest cause of depression is the fact that Obama and his gang own the MSM. From CNN to the NYT they own it.

I suggest tossing out the TV (the Boob Tube). It is saturated with Obama/MSM propaganda. Stop consuming their propaganda. It’s like piping raw sewage into your living room.

That goes for reading the NYT and other rags. Don’t give them one more dollar of advertising revenue. Smash their revenue base.

Interestingly, Wretchard touched upon an alternative source of entertainment in his ‘The Further Perils of Facebook.’ There are plenty of alternative news and entertainment out lets such as the internet.

See:
http://www.pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/06/28/the-further-perils-of-facebook/

Secondly, getting politically active and writing one’s congressman or organizing a tea party is a good start. But, I believe you should know who your enemy is – the MSM and the nexus of liberal lawyers who constantly intercourse with the Obama/MSM. Don’t underestimate their viciousness. In fact, it may take some equally vicious conservative lawyers to counter them – the Gen. Pattons’ of the legal industry.

I also recommend starving the government of tax revenue. Talk to a good tax professional and use any and all tax avoidance methods available. Don’t feed the monster (the Obama Administration).

Lastly, the real cure is dislodging Obama and his cronies from Office legally. Their must be some criminal act he has committed to get him impeached. People just have to dig hard enough.

That goes for all of his cronies (from Soros to Sulzberger). They have weaknesses that can be exploited. Turn up the heat in the kitchen until they have to exit.

There are plenty of leaders out there. They are not perfect. Don’t expect them to be. But, they are far better than Obama, Pelosi and gang.

I am sure there are many other things that can be done. Feel free to bring them to our attention.

Jul 5, 2009 - 8:04 pm 54. JFSanders:

Rurik, they don’t call themselves white russians for nothing.

Wretchard! Palin comes out swinging. Hints at larger stage for service and calls out MSM. Her lawyer put lib blogger on notice for defamation as well as any who republish. Seems like she isn’t quitting after all. Even though the whole east coast elite country club republican pantywaists wish she would.

Like you said, Aquino was just a housewife… until her husband was assassinated.

Jul 5, 2009 - 8:28 pm 55. Alexis:

wretchard:

If conservatives keep on getting depressed, the principal opposition to the Obama administration may come from Democratic ranks instead of the Republican Party. It may get to the point where any challenge Obama faces within the Democratic Party in 2012 may very well be more intense than any challenge from a Republican.

Let’s face it. If the image people see of conservatism is one of misogyny that blames the fall of western civilization upon the empowerment of women, promiscuity with using the word “treason”, and advocating Jacksonian apartheid, that image of conservatism is President Obama wants people to see. President Obama’s perception of people from the American interior may come straight out of Hee Haw. Still, the issue should not be about how disliked he is by many Americans, but rather about illustrating how President Obama is fundamentally out of touch with the realities of ordinary Americans.

Whatever else can be said about Mrs. Clinton, she showed that it is theoretically possible for a relatively right wing candidate to win the Democratic nomination through the primaries. Add to that a sufficient number of activists willing to crash the caucuses, and President Obama could be faced with the options of either accepting defeat at the hands of a conservative “Democratic” insurgency or bolting his own party the way Ariel Sharon did in Israel and forcing a three way race in 2012. Such possibilities ought to give the Republican establishment pause for thought.

Jul 5, 2009 - 8:30 pm 56. blert:

Clinton right wing ?

Not in my eyes.

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:05 pm 57. In the Industry:

44. You are reminding me of how at the height of the Arafat terror wave the Mossad did an analysis of Arafat’s movements and found he did not like to stay in the West Bank very much. This gave Sharon the idea of beseiging him and allowing him exit but no reentry. That was the beginning of the end for Arafat.

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:09 pm 58. Promethea:

I’ve been thinking about what we no names can do to change the direction of the culture. One thing is obvious–make sure the universities and other educational institutions are starved for taxpayer funds.

This may seem cruel and like shooting oneself in the foot, but I believe that the public school system is way overfunded, and it will take a major economic crisis to bring it back to earth. I went to school in the good old days when there were no frills and few non-teaching personnel. That’s the state of education I’d like to restore. It’s a lot cheaper.

Ditto the state university system. Many humanities departments could be completely cut, and no one would suffer.

In other words, starve the beast. Stop funding the elitists who produce nothing and who hate the United States. They can go to hell or find jobs selling insurance, or whatever.

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:10 pm 59. RCM:

Here’s where Mark Helprin, back in February, says that we are headed. If what he says is correct, and I fear deeply that it is, the worries on this board are only playing at the edges of the true disaster in the making:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122965053466920579.html

The pity is that the war could have been successful and this equilibrium sustained had we struck immediately, preserving the link with September 11th; had we disciplined our objective to forcing upon regimes that nurture terrorism the choice of routing it out with their ruthless secret services or suffering the destruction of the means to power for which they live; had we husbanded our forces in the highly developed military areas of northern Saudi Arabia after deposing Saddam Hussein, where as a fleet in being they would suffer no casualties and remain at the ready to reach Baghdad, Damascus, or Riyadh in three days; and had we taken strong and effective measures for our domestic protection while striving to stay within constitutional limits and eloquently explaining the necessity — as has always been the case in war — for sometimes exceeding them. Today’s progressives apologize to the world for America’s treatment of terrorists (not a single one of whom has been executed). Franklin Roosevelt, when faced with German saboteurs (who had caused not a single casualty), had them electrocuted and buried in numbered graves next to a sewage plant.

The counterpart to Republican incompetence has been a Democratic opposition warped by sentiment. The deaths of thousands of Americans in attacks upon our embassies, warships, military barracks, civil aviation, capital, and largest city were not a criminal matter but an act of war made possible by governments and legions of enablers in the Arab world. Nothing short of war — although not the war we have waged — could have been sufficient in response. The opposition is embarrassed by patriotism and American self-interest, but above all it is blind to the gravity of the matter. Though scattered terrorists allied with militarily insignificant states are not, as some conservatives assert, closely analogous to Nazi Germany, the accessibility of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons makes the destructive capacity of these antagonists unfortunately similar — a fact, especially in regard to Iran, that is persistently whistled away by the Left.

An existential threat of such magnitude cannot be averted by imagining that it is the work of one man and will disappear with his death; by mousefully pleasing the rest of the world; by hopefully excluding the tools of war; or by diplomacy without the potential of force, which is like a policeman without a gun, something that doesn’t work anymore even in Britain. The Right should have labored to exhaustion to forge a coalition, and the Left should have been willing to proceed without one. The Right should have been more respectful of constitutional protections, and the Left should have joined in making temporary and clearly defined exceptions. In short, the Right should have had the wit to fight, and the Left should have had the will to fight.

Both failed. The country is exhausted, divided, and improperly protected, and will remain so if the new president and administration are merely another face of the same sterile duality. To avoid the costs of a stalled financial system, the two parties — after an entire day of reflection — committed to the expenditure of what with its trailing ends will probably be $1.5 trillion in this fiscal year alone.

But the costs of not reacting to China’s military expansion, which could lead to its hegemony in the Pacific; or of ignoring a Russian resurgence, which could result in a new Cold War and Russian domination of Europe; or of suffering a nuclear detonation in New York, Washington, or any other major American city, would be so great as to be, apparently, unimaginable to us now. Which is why, perhaps, we have not even begun to think about marshaling the resources, concentration, deliberation, risk, sacrifice, and compromise necessary to avert them. This is the great decision to which the West is completely blind, and for neglect of which it will in the future grieve exceedingly.

—————————————-

Too pessimistic? Perhaps, but just worrying about where we are going has me thinking much more about combat than unemployment. But the good? I’ve lost 15 pounds in the last month just thinking about “getting ready.”

Well, there’s one positive thing!

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:15 pm 60. buddy larsen:

Promethea/58; well this is just a little thing, but these guys fought a um, promethean battle against the Franken Fix, and bloody but unbowed they are swearing to take down ACORN if only the public will start thinking about how many of their votes are being systematically nullified every election. So one small thing we could do right now is help get this short and devastating little clip out as widely as we can. That’s Nadler as Minister of Truth –”If I just had one single credible bit of evidence….”

Let’s send the URL to Nadler. “Here it is!”

Half a mind to include the Rebel Yell (the only known sound repro, –thanks instapundit -see second vid down, and “turnip da volume!”).

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:32 pm 61. Doug:

“a tilting of the scales of justice in favor of certain groups”
—
Never happen, Buddy.
They have far too much empathy for everyone to allow that to happen.
Everyone includes us, remember.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, so be good.

—

If Cap and Tax passes,
DAMAGES will immediately begin to add up, and with them a cause for taking that gem to court.

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:50 pm 62. Doug:

She’s the Right Wing of the Marxist Left, Blert.

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:55 pm 63. Mongoose:

Helpin has he head up is rump.
I would not take that article seriously.

I do not have the time to go into right now, but i will say this.

1) He has the transformation of the military all wrong: All they have done is to add an intermediate configuration between the light infantry and the heavy divisions. The pundit class can never seem to get this right, and in any case, it was Clinton that cut down the number of heavy divisions. There is no “hollowing out” of the army to “light forces”; it is just rubish and Helprin should know better. The doctrinal stuff about the “transformation” is all on line. In any event, this all was planned long before GWB came on the scene. I am so sick of hearing about it. Helprin is either lying here or not doing his job.

2) The Iraq war was not fought incompetently, that is just nonsense , it will go down in history as one of the most successful campaign, using, btw, those sort of heavy divisions that Helprin seems to think has disappeared. It has been so long since we hae been at war that we seem not to understand what an incompetent war leader looks like. Just nonsense. Bush was doing quite well for the brief period of about a year that the Democrats kept their traps shut. We have had 4 years of non stop left wing propganda here and Helprin would do well not to imbibe it.

3) Bush did not divide the nation. The Democrats did. It is the traitorous Democrats who would not stand beside us and polticized the war that is the problem. My Goodness, if this had happened 20 years ago, we would be occupying the ME. This is a preposterous thesis.

Helprin wants back on the Liberal cocktail curcuit if you ask me. that article is just a rehash of the liberal propaganda repackaged as “sober analysis”.

It is bad enough that we have to struggle against the MS. People like Helprin should get their facts straight and their heads on straight.

It is the Democrat party that has left us vulnerable, not GWB. What fatuous nonsense.

When the Democrats hollow out the military then we will be vulnerable, and if something happens, you can be assured that they will blame Bush.

The Problem with this country is the Left, not GWB.

Jul 5, 2009 - 10:16 pm 64. RCM:

63. Mongoose:

Mongoose, thank you very much for your comments, but please don’t dissuade me from losing more weight!

Thanks.

Jul 5, 2009 - 10:29 pm 65. Alexis:

blert:

Clinton right wing ?

Not in my eyes.

I don’t disagree with you at all. I am pointing out that if conservatives keep getting depressed, major opportunities can be missed. Right now, Obama is energizing the Right as few people can. The problem is venue. If the Republican establishment cannot find a standard bearer who can appeal to disaffected conservatives and moderates (and even liberals who feel betrayed by the Obama campaign), there are other venues. A third party could develop. Obama could face a challenger within his party in 2012!

Much will depend on two factors. How hungry will conservatives be to have a standard bearer who reflects their values? How hungry will conservatives be to boot Obama out of the Presidency? (If one must pick between the two, what shall it be?)

Jul 5, 2009 - 10:57 pm 66. buddy larsen:

good stuff, mongoose –stay on fire, pard –it’s inspiring -

Jul 5, 2009 - 11:25 pm 67. Alexis:

Promethea@58:

It’s been tried before. Ronald Reagan started it in 1967. Other Republican governors followed suit for the next thirty years.

It didn’t work. Punitive ideological budget cuts have had an effect of entrenching the Left in universities while discrediting campus conservatives and moderates. I know how counterproductive such a strategy can be because I went to college during one of those budget-cutting eras.

What works better is to selectively cut layers of administration on college campuses while finding ways to improve faculty selection processes and the work of curriculum committees. In other words, some universities need safeguards against ideologically-based hiring practices. (This is definitely the case for Colorado U.)

Also, the very organization and governance of universities should be reconsidered. Many universities act like corporations, with the effect that professors become company men and women beholden to company politics. Likewise, professors who work for state owned corporations would naturally be expected to support Statist solutions to problems. In contrast, faculty with an ownership stake in their college may act more like owners than like disgruntled workers. If governments were to give students vouchers to be used at faculty owned colleges, faculty members may act differently from public employees.

In contrast, the main effect of cutting state appropriations to colleges and universities is to raise tuition. If budget cuts have undermined the power of the Left on college campuses in the last forty-two years, I have not been aware of any such effect.

Jul 5, 2009 - 11:32 pm 68. Wadeusaf:

67. Alexis,

School Vouchers for use at colleges? It is working so well at the elementary level, where NEA is attempting to staunch the flow of money away from them. When government decides what is being taught school vouchers are not deemed a desired efficiency, and government is not at all, ever, about competition.

Biden’s college loan bill that is his pride and joy as far as legislative accomplishment goes, only served to increase the costs of a degree, at the expense of a quality education.

So in effect you are suggesting the United States infect our Post secondary institutions of learning with competition. Have you no respect for tenure?

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:30 am 69. Wadeusaf:

Mongoose,

Well said.

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:48 am 70. Gaffe Prices:

Recently, in a phone conversation with a friend, he made the point that, by providing material support for the mujahadeen in Afghanistan (stinger missiles), we eventually removed the one power [except of course the various Israeli wars against everybody in their area] who was fighting the crazy towel heads back then: ye ol’ Soviet Union.

Only to have them proclaiming victory against that evil empire (for purposes of their own consumption, bluster and wahhab/deobandi propaganda).

Add to that a comment I read or heard (in a documentary) by a military person, who pointed out that the casualty rate suffered by soviets in Afghanistan was at least half that of ours in Vietnam: the difference being, or must have been, that those stinger missiles were doing what they were designed to do, which is take out the helicopters, and with it the advantage held by the soviets prior to the stingers. And without that, and them, the balance shifted and doomed the initiative.

So in that context, it comes as not much surprise, that Russia is happy to “help” in our efforts to supply the Afghan theatre as it brings their obligations to a minimum for something that is far more ‘in their backyard’, (so to speak) than it is ours.

1) Track back to various democrat talking points such as calling Afghanistan “the forgotten war” to undermine the success of the surge, lest there be any rise in capital going to the opposition: a republican congress and executive office.

There was no evidence that Iraq was “Lost” as Harry Reid put it, proclaiming that even before the surge initiative was up and running.

2) Combine that with Ubhamas crude pledge, to get out of Iraq, in a desperate effort to make it consistent with his original opposition to The Iraq war in the first place. Making him seem like Mr. anti-war, “peace in our time”, “bring the troops home” candidate, for the sake of the feminized portion of the electorate he was courting.

Proof is that the platforms of either Dennis Kuchinick, and Ron Paul was to get out of any active war theatre (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) . Trust me, I am loathe and dread to cite either Ron Paul or Denis Cuchinic as examples of consistency, and apologies for the above citations without sources, because they lead only to the ‘what if-ing’ that goes with such things as in- “Why did we go to Lebenon the way we did?’ [unarmed guards stationed at the barracks, in a "peace-keeping"" role, and if we went there, "Why didn't we show up with guns blazing to kill bad guys and break up the buildings they plotted in", etc. (not to mention, "Why didn't we start doing that at once after the bombing?")]

It doesn’t matter, what’s past is past; if anything it shows our reluctance (and that of democracies) to go to war, and that half measures avail us nothing in the long run: a recurring symptom of a democratic republic’s structure.

As it is, neither the russia, the british, nor even Alexander the Great begrudge us our success (so far) in Afghanistan, the question is will this jerk Ubhamas stand back and let our armed forces slog on to victory in this theater, or does he indeed have another agenda, antithetical to the purpose and reason for sending American troops in [historically] to finish wars others have started?

I sincerely hope that I am engaging in a speculation unwarranted where our current commander in chief is concerned.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:32 am 71. Doug:

Iran frees British embassy worker, leaving 1 jailed

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:03 am 72. Rob:

If you want to be terrified, read the recent NY Times article detailing a college paper (recently found, conveniently after the election) by Obama regarding the nuclear freeze movement. Among other things, Obama writes of his admiration for the anti-Pershing campaign. It was later revealed that this campaign was a Soviet front.

We’ve elected a President who fell for Soviet front organizations.

Jul 6, 2009 - 5:05 am 73. Lifeofthemind:

Rob,
We’ve elected a President who fell for Soviet front organizations.

We’ve elected a President who was raised in Soviet front organizations.

Jul 6, 2009 - 5:36 am 74. Gaffe Prices:

re Alexis@ 65:
“if conservatives keep getting depressed, major opportunities can be missed. Right now, Obama is energizing the Right as few people can. The problem is venue. If the Republican establishment cannot find a standard bearer who can appeal to disaffected conservatives and moderates (and even liberals who feel betrayed by the Obama campaign), there are other venues. A third party could develop.”

We need not worry about a standard bearer for at least 2 and 1/2 years. The most important function we can undertake is to agitate the senate right now.

E-mailing senators is way easy: start with most of the dem ones. Here’s the list and web their addresses of the senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC,

I recommend starting politely with- “To: the right honorable senator from the State of ___, Toby Gassbag” (to appeal to their vanity),

Then say a short message, and say that- “Cap and Trade will NOT reduce Co2 one iota, as it will send carbon producers, and more importantly American JOBS overseas to China or India, [free from Crap and Traitor (or Kyoko Ono) regulations] “. All of which is true, and leaves the impression that you might be a dem constituent.

Thank them for their time and you hope they burn in hell, and then on to the next one.

After a while, the auto-fill will allow you to fill in the form using the first letter of each line, such as “B” for Buffalo, “G” for Gaffe, etc.

Some dems you don’t have to waste your time with- Chucky Schmucky Shumer/Clinton/Kennedy, but do send to all others, just to razzz them, pressure them, like Turban Durban, Qlympia Stowe, Susan Collins and so on.

But this idea that “If they cut off OUR nose, it’ll spite THEIR face” just doesn’t make sense, logically: It says that “if Cap and Trade passes, then he’s really gonna get it come 2010″.

Sorry, but if it isn’t happening in the next week and a half, then it doesn’t exist yet.

If Cap and Trade fails in the Senate then Obama will suffer the damage, the fallout: pundits will probably even forget that it was Peloski that instigated it. It’ll look like congress is checking/opposing Ubhamas power.

BTW to resolve the whiskey/Nahcee debate: it was not women, but the feminized, wymynist metro-sex-y’alls who affect elections, and that brings us back to the pernicious influence of the universities, not women per say, as was said, who love the military, and are patriotic, just somewomen and other yellow-bellied secularists who live down in E-ville, up the road from Belly Acres

Spend as much time e-mailing senate as you do commenting: don’t wait til the last minute to try and jam the phone lines: I e-mailed each dem senator 5 times about the porkulous bill, and even the press was reporting constituency backlash against it.

One may ‘a say that they voted for Porkulous any way, but I would counter that they have been feeling the pressure since way back then, and I don’t think they are so confident now to override the willow the people. Now is not the time for us to back off the presure.

Jul 6, 2009 - 5:42 am 75. Gaffe Prices:

Also, 1) Mongoose, ditto, brilliant!

2) above I mis-typo-ed the following- ‘presure’

I meant to type- ‘press sewer’

Jul 6, 2009 - 5:52 am 76. dan:

well said mongoose!

as for obama’s moskva pilgrimage, i think there’s an argument to be made both for propping him and for – as with khruschev/kennedy, vienna – “beating the hell” out of him, albeit politely.

obama’s strategic significance for our enemies is his obvious weakness couples with his incredible celebrity: he is the apotheosis of the “shopping mall regime.” it would seem useful to give him a victory consistent with the Left’s narrative, since the Left’s narrative is wholly composed of illusions, self-deceptions, and attacks on healthy conservative common sense. on the other hand, it would be *most* helpful to our enemies if the Krmelin give the Left what it professes to want, while doing it in a way which demonstrates the complete stupidity of such a goal and its result.

For example, Iran. First, they defeat the Republicans by hammering home “warmonger,” “imperialism,” “oil,” etc. Naturally, the candidate who promises “land, bread, and peace” will appear to be the “one we are waiting for,” and he will prevail. Then, we have a mass riot (in which we are sure to prevail) and demonstrate the liberality of the country – but then reassert authority in an obnoxious way.

The benefit to the regime is that now all of Obama’s rhetoric is complete nonsense, and his strategy is in dissaray since he *cannot be* GWB. Nevertheless everyone is obliged to go on pursuing it, since it’s just an ideological program someone stuck into their heads.

This may be a good strategy for “isolating” the American President and his policies, if it is possible to pull off. Of course maybe Obama will just roll over and withdraw from ABM agreements, promise to cut warheads below 1,500, reduce US forces in Europe to transit bases, and promise to engage in more deals like the extension of NATO which allow SVR assets to co-opt NATO. The Soviets are the masters of this stuff though, so I guess we’ll have to see what happens.

Jul 6, 2009 - 6:14 am 77. NahnCee:

“…while finding ways to improve faculty selection processes and the work of curriculum committees. ”

It seems to me that if someone had the time and resources, the recent Supreme Court Ricci / firefighter decision could be used to sue and pressure academia into NOT hiring on the basis of being a liberal / Democrat. Hiring at universities must currently take political persuasion into consideration or there would be greater diversity among faculty and academic administrators.

Jul 6, 2009 - 6:20 am 78. Mongoose:

Rob: close, we have elected a President how is a communist front.

(and rear-end too.)

Jul 6, 2009 - 6:29 am 79. Mongoose:

WHO is a…

Jul 6, 2009 - 6:33 am 80. The Old Guy:

#53, ledger, #58 Promethea:
re: what we can do

I cancelled my subscription to the local paper this year (by coincidence, they laid off 12% of the staff the next week), and this week am dropping Comcast (in favor of a DSL link). Haven’t watched TV in months, and don’t miss it. My incremental defunding of the media is not much, but it makes me feel better not to help them.

I stopped making annual contributions to my alma mater a couple of years ago in protest of their their spending priorities and non-merit based admissions. I wrote the University President to tell him why. Considering what they were spending money on, they obviously didn’t have any critical funding needs.

My political contributions go to individual candidates where I think they will make the most difference, not to the party, or Senate or House committees. I said never again after they supported Specter.

Most of my charitable contributions go to the Salvation Army. They are efficient and effective. And none of the money gets diverted to midnight backetball or “social justice” programs.

I do write my congress-critters, but doubt that does much good. I think they just tally the yeas vs. neas.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:08 am 81. Fen:

“How are they getting away with it?”

Simple. People would rather talk than take direct action.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:38 am 82. Fen:

“I think a large part of the reason is that the conservatives are demoralized.”

Demoralized? When was the last time the GOP or conservatives took a stand on anything? The standard has been to roll over. Or worse – we worked our tails off to give them control of Congress and they pissed it away. Couldn’t keep their hand out of the cash box. Couldn’t keep their pants zipped.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:42 am 83. Pseudo-Polymath » Blog Archive » Monday Highlights:

[...] lying to the American public? Say it ain’t [...]

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:25 am 84. joe buzz:

My lovely handy wife has agreed to stitch “bahala na!” onto my “dont tread on me” flag!

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:38 am 85. Vincent Vega:

Saw some “raw” footage of BO and Medvedev on Fox a couple of hours ago. BO was going on about all of the things that we had in common with the Russians and Medvedev just sort of drew his head back a bit and raised his eyebrows. I can’t define the look, but it was anything but agreement.

Medvedev might be a frontman but he’s got strong backing and will undress this amateur community organizer in chief.

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:46 am 86. buckets:

Anyone actually read Obama’s nuclear free essays? A bit heavy-handed, but he was making some sense. I think many of us are pre-conditioned now, with all the lies Obama is presently tossing out, to dismiss eveything associated with him out of hand.

I didn’t grow up worrying about the Bomb (too young), but I certainly can understand a young man’s desire to find a way out of the Cold War’s “no-win” options of nuclear war. Nuclear brinksmanship worked out for the West in the end, but at the time I’m sure it seemed like insanity to a great deal of Americans.

The problem with young Obama’s take on it all that is that the world he envisioned was not the real world. In the real world, no one worries about the U.S. launching a pre-emptive strike on Mexico. In the real world, people did worry about Moscow launching. The world Obama saw is not the world as it actually existed; the USSR was expansionist, utterly ruthless, aggressive, and wanted control over the world or large parts thereof. I sincerely wish I lived in young Obama’s world, where the U.S. unilaterally disarming would somehow accomplish anything at all, other than inviting aggression. The worst part about all this is that young man is now charged with our national security.

The real question is why the frak Obama is desperately trying to cut ABM defense systems. To me, this doesn’t line up with his desire for a nuke-free world. This fits more in the “Please don’t hurt me, here’s my lunch money, and I also promise to give up those self-defense lessons I’ve been taking so you won’t ever have to worry about not being able to hurt me.”

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:19 am 87. Alexis:

What is the difference between a commissar and a community organizer?

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:27 am 88. Mongoose:

Alexis: The Lubyanka.

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:00 am 89. joe buzz:

Word has it that team 44 is considering dealing Alaska back to the Russians so as not to be distracted and troubled by all of the dirty fossil fuels, outlaws and balanced budgets contained therein.

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:05 am 90. buddy larsen:

funny, Buzz, but that discussion is actually taking place in lots of places. the Russian imigre crowd at the universities especially note that Seward didn’t sign a deed, he signed a lease. So you may be kidding but they say that legally USA shouldn’t've made Alaska a state until the title was cleaned up. There was a strong 19th century Russian settler presence all way the down the coast to Russian Hill in Frisco, as a matter of fact. I think, if we gave it all back, Pelosi would go with it. NOT a BAD trade.

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:29 am 91. Charles:

Here’s an obama columbia U paper published in the NY Times as reviewed by the National Review today

The New York Times unearthed a 1983 article called, “Breaking the War Mentality,” that Columbia student Barack Obama wrote for a campus newspaper. The article shows that Obama dreaded American “militarism” and its “military-industrial interests,” while effusing enthusiasm for the dangerously delusional nuclear-freeze movement.

Moreover, while indicating a preference for the political wisdom of reggae singer Peter Tosh over Ronald Reagan or Scoop Jackson, Obama bewailed the “narrow focus” of anti-militarism activists, worrying that they were targeting the “symptoms” rather than the real “disease,” namely, America’s underlying economic and political injustice:

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:43 am 92. peterike:

Obama’s Columbia article shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. It’s exactly what you would expect, a bag of Leftie talking points and cliches. You didn’t even have to “write” that at Columbia at the time. You could just reach into the air and pluck the words as they passed by.

It was stupid and naive then, and it’s stupid and naive now. But what the Big O probably never understood is that all that anti-nuke palaver was right out of the KGB agit-prop playbook, the message sent right from Moscow to the hordes of useful idiots in an attempt to get the US to disarm. Moscow, as usual, violated every agreement it ever signed. Only the hopelessly naive believed in arms control.

The alternative, of course, is that Obama understood full well what it really meant, and he was still in favor of it. Which would be much, much worse.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:18 am 93. Marty:

When Obama came to Chicago in the early 1980s it was to be a community organizer working in an area that had just been hit by the closing of a major employer (Wisconsin Steel). His strategy was to organize the residents of a public housing project (Altgeld Gardens) and then have that organized community confront the owners of Wisconsin Steel with the necessityof them re-opening.

Given that Obama shows almost no sign of being able to introspect and learn, one might assume that his level of economic knowledge and strategic thought is still at that level.

I think that some on this thread are over-explaining Obama’s strategy and thinking. I respectfully suggest that except in a very narrow way, focusing mostly on what’s best for barackObama, he is really not very bright. Disciplined and crafty, yes, and therefore in some ways formidable; but not one to think big thoughts or deep understanding of complex issues.

He dislikes America as he learned from his family in his pink-diaper youth; he sees almost all criticism of America as justified and he can’t apologize enough. He has no understanding of history (beyond a Howard Zinn caracature) or geopolitics, hence no framework within which to understand America’s strengths and faults. In a different age he might have been a secular Jeremiah (not Wright), a good orator reminding us of our flaws. Future generations will have difficulty understanding how the electorate trusted him with real power.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:24 am 94. Triton'sPolarTiger:

@48 buckets:

“The real question is why the frak Obama is desperately trying to cut ABM defense systems. To me, this doesn’t line up with his desire for a nuke-free world. This fits more in the “Please don’t hurt me, here’s my lunch money, and I also promise to give up those self-defense lessons I’ve been taking so you won’t ever have to worry about not being able to hurt me.””

buckets, imho Lord Zero, like all leftists, believes the ultimate enemy of their intentions to make themselves into an elected (then hereditary) aristocracy is America and, by extension, her loyal citizens. Up until a year or so ago, millions upon millions of us were relatively affluent, i.e. our 401(k)’s were fat and getting fatter, we had a fat chunk of equity in our homes, we had private healthcare insurance that we were satisfied with, we had a CINC who supported our military, etc, etc…

People like that are NOT open to govt takeovers of car companies, socialized medicine, being forced to rely solely on social security for their retirement, etc… and will actively (and probably successfully) resist such government intrusions into their private affairs.

Fastforward to today – retirements are gutted, home equity gutted, healthcare on its way to being single payer, taxes about to go up (consuming what disposable income we have left)… resistance is hard when all your energy goes into subsistence…

Add to the above the gutting of our outer defenses, and we are more or less naked…

Imagine how impotent we’ll feel as Iran, NKorea, etc, demand and get all kinds of concessions from us… and we can do nothing.

I believe the goal is to force enough of us to give up what freedoms that remain for govt safety, security… FOOD… our health care (which will in the end be used to cull the herd) etc… that what we once were (that light on the hill) will be nothing more than a distant memory. We will then be nothing more than cattle, herded into whatever our elite decide is best for us.

My fear is that there are too many Eloi among us, and that they will in the end outnumber the Patrick Henrys among us.

Count me among the Patrick Henrys.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:27 am 95. Mongoose:

Triton, i think the goal is to destroy America.

If that was their goal, what would they do that is any different?

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:46 am 96. Vincent Vega:

@92 Triton’sPolarTiger

I wonder if those of us who consider ourselves to be of the same mindset as a Patrick Henry are who William Ayers had in mind, when referring to the 25 million who would have to be liquidated? Or was it eradicated?

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:54 am 97. Triton'sPolarTiger:

@93 Mongoose

I’m forced to agree with you – I have a hard time seeing what, if anything, that they’d do differently.

@94 Vincent Vega

Who else could Ayers have been referring to?

I’ve smelled a rat from the first moment I laid eyes on Lord Zero… didn’t even have to hear him speak, ’cause the body language said it all.

I didn’t think it was possible that he could push things to Ayers’ “eventuality”, though, until I heard him throw in with Chavez and Castro on Honduras… My G_d… so certain is he that his “program” will be successfully implemented, he’s gone Third World Dictator right before our eyes.

A man who doesn’t hesitate to undercut one of the few rule of law examples in Latin America, knowing that his actions can only lead to PEOPLE DYING, CANNOT be trusted to have our best interests at heart.

Leftists are a cancer upon institutions that would otherwise protect decent people… eventually turning those institutions into mechanisms to cull the herd.

Sorry to be so fatalistic after July 4th.

Triton

Jul 6, 2009 - 12:35 pm 98. WSL:

Sorry if I may sound overly fatalistic, but I received an e-mail today from a friend that cites an article by Michele Chang in the Jan. 28 issue of the National Law Journal. “A spokesman for General James Cartwright, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, states that the Obama Administration wants to have soldiers and officers pledge a loyalty oath directly to the office of the President, and no longer to the Constitution.” He claims it has been verified by Snopes. Anyone here know any more about this?

Jul 6, 2009 - 2:38 pm 99. Mongoose:

Wretchard, there are wires coming in that Obama has struck a deal with the Russians for a one third reduction in nuke forces .
You should start another thread on this, and somewhere aong the lines we should get authoritative figures for nuke force sizes of the US, and our potential enemies, including China.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:36 pm 100. Doug:

NEW YORK (AP) – Even President Barack Obama, a gleam in his eye as he talked at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner two weeks ago, seemed to recognize the special relationship he’s forged with TV networks in the opening months of his administration.

“A few nights ago I was up tossing and turning and trying to figure out exactly what to say,” he said. “Finally, when I couldn’t get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked Brian Williams what he thought.”

The reference to the NBC anchor and host of the prime-time “Inside the Obama White House” special this spring drew loud laughter.
—
Ha, ha.
Jokes on us.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:39 pm 101. buddy larsen:

wsl/96; ’search’ says, debunked. Thank goodness!

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:43 pm 102. Doug:

“I believe the goal is to force enough of us to give up what freedoms that remain for govt safety, security… FOOD… our health care (which will in the end be used to cull the herd) etc… that what we once were (that light on the hill) will be nothing more than a distant memory. We will then be nothing more than cattle, herded into whatever our elite decide is best for us.

A man who doesn’t hesitate to undercut one of the few rule of law examples in Latin America, knowing that his actions can only lead to PEOPLE DYING, CANNOT be trusted to have our best interests at heart.

Leftists are a cancer upon institutions that would otherwise protect decent people…”
—
Not Fatalism, Triton:
Just reporting the facts.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:45 pm 103. Doug:

If we are to conform with Oblahblah’s Vision of us being no more exceptional than any other country, Triton, then your scenario is a necessity.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:49 pm 104. Doug:

Rush has always said that equality for everyone means equal poverty for everyone.
Obamacare is the perfect example in every detail, and specifically in his stated intention for how the elderly will be “cared for.”

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:57 pm 105. WSL:

@99 buddy larsen: I have since confirmed the article reference was bogus–intended as satire. I agree with you. “Thank goodness.”

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:13 pm 106. bill-tb:

Colonel Obama forgets the first rule of dealing with Communists … They lie.

Wait on second hand so does he.

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:49 pm 107. buddy larsen:

mongoose/97; so you hath spake, so it is done.

The charts’ messages are not apparent at first glance. At second glance, once the meaning of ‘reserve’ is understood, they unfortunately are.

And you don’t even want to know about the imbalance in battlefield army-killer fleet-buster tac nukes.

And you don’t even want to know the imbalance in civil defense spending over the last decade, nor the quantitative and qualitative imbalance in civilian preparedness.

And you don’t even want to know the imbalances exposed in the Kremlin analyses of the two nations’ survivability and likely numbers of casualties.

Jul 7, 2009 - 12:12 am 108. Chief:

After over 40 years in the military, 15 of which were spent teaching military ethics at a DoD graduate school, the negative types I most remember are the black LTCs who were full of barely suppressed racial anger and the white female CPTs who were convinced that all important decisions were made at the urinals in the mens room. True, most folks were just trying to get alone, but there were impressive exceptions.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:27 am 109. Mongoose:

Thanks buddy, so i thought. Now add in China and what do you have? Treason.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:40 am 110. Steve J. Nelson:

What I want to know is: why do so many Belmont Club readers still think Russia is Communist? In a few respects Russia is less bureaucratic and statist than the present U.S. Not a popular thing to say at a conservative forum dominated by people raised on Soviet Russia as the enemy, but true.

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:25 am 111. dan:

steve – long explanation required, perhaps. let’s say the first premise must be that the burden is on the defense to prove that career Chekists – KGB officers – and former Politburo members who now populate Russian government (and business) (and post-Soviet Central Asian nations) can suddenly, in their 5th and 6th and 7th decades, be converted to something resembling Western liberalism. knowing a little about the KGB and USSR, i’d say it’s impossible. the other first principle is noted above: Communists lie. but without boring you or anyone else i’ll just stop there. part of the explanation though has to do with what Communism – better describes as Leninism, maybe – really is. the present state of russia as apprhended through the media is certainly not incompatible with actual Leninism and actual Soviet history though. at least, that’s my opinion.

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:30 am 112. buddy larsen:

Steve/109; it’s just shorthand to indicate an understanding of a truth –that the institution of the KGB –with a core of about 6,500 –ran the USSR and runs the RF.

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:55 am 113. buddy larsen:

mongoose/108; treason it is –tho in the past (tho not necessarily in the future), other factors of USA power (economy, Dollar, Constitution) have made (thru the institution of the military) a certain level of treason “affordable”.

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:04 am 114. LarryD:

Speaking of polls: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

“The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 33% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-six percent (36%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –3. Those figures reflect the highest level of strong disapproval measured to date and the lowest level recorded for the overall Approval Index”

http://www.gallup.com/poll/121403/Special-Report-Ideologically-Moving.aspx

“Despite the results of the 2008 presidential election, Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal, 39% to 18%, with 42% saying they have not changed. While independents and Democrats most often say their views haven’t changed, more members of all three major partisan groups indicate that their views have shifted to the right rather than to the left.”

Jul 7, 2009 - 12:10 pm 115. ronald hand:

Sorry! Obama’s attempt to divide is not between Medvedyev and Putin, but between russia and china. The tactic of president richar nixon was to divide china from the soviet union. Was he successful? Most commentators say yes. Please consider this: Obama works for one world bankers and their agenda… , which is to squeeze russia, and isolate china, and then by steps, take over each by stealth, wealth, and market health. The usa will fail in this attempt, I think.

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:13 pm 116. Mongoose:

Dan: not at all. Russia and the CIS region have a level of corruption that is beyond belief. It is just the USSR without all the ideological BS. It will be a simple matter to bring that BS back if need be.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:05 pm 117. Steve J. Nelson:

Well, at least Ronald gets some of it. Still, I think the whole idea that Russia is conspiring to keep Iranian gas away from Europe is kind of half-cocked. India and China are more interested in the same gas and will pay a premium for it. Ditto for the ‘Stans that Russia by virtue of its geographic position supposedly has an unfair monopolistic death grip on. The Manas episode showed it really was all about the cash for the Stan’ overlords. There is a position (cough cough, Jamestown Foundation) that the U.S. and EU pursue uneconomic pipeline projects thru anywhere but Russia, heedless of local corruption or respect for human rights, so long as we don’t have to deal with dreaded Muscovy (the anti-Russia lobby position in D.C.)

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:52 am 118. Neil Craig:

Medvedev is ““no less a Russian nationalist than I am”

And what exactly is unusual about that? The first duty of AN leader is to serve the interests of the nation he has been trusted to govern.

Can you imagine Barak Obama saying “I am less of an American patriot” than Bush or Clinton? Can you even imagine Bush saying it publicly of Obama (whatever he may privately think) even though they are not of the same party.

American governments serve American interests (or if they don’t you should do something about it) – it is wrong & ultimately futile to expect that foreign leaders also exist to serve American interests.

Jul 8, 2009 - 4:44 am 119. buddy larsen:

Steve/116; you should perhaps look into the last couple years of news headlines re “pipeline accidents” and “contract problems” in Russia causing midwinter interruptions of gas supplies to various central European purchasers. You will see that the snark in your closing sentence is wholly unjustified.

Jul 8, 2009 - 5:14 am 120. dan:

Steve J. Nelson: why would Iran want to keep Iranian gas away from the EU? Iran is a Russian strategic satellite; if anything they’d want EU *more* dependent on Iranian energy.

it goes something like this. first, you put former politburo member in charge in Kyrgystan. then, you cause 9/11. then, you have the US come in, and have to be dependent on these “post-Soviet” states. then, one day, say just before or after an election in the US, you have “Taliban” suddenly discover the obvious move of attacking the Pakistani supply line. then you “offer” Kyrgystan “$2 billion.” eventually you get the USA to pay triple the rent. then you offer USA supply routes through Russia. gee, i wonder whether those are stable?

meanwhile, thanks to NATO “eastward expansion,” you have the former Communist party members who were just recently your puppets tell everything you need to know about what NATO’s doing, all the while sabotaging relations among its members and complaining to the world that NATO is not even necessary anyway. Also, you get a manchurian candidate into the white house to disarm your enemy within the first year of his ridiculous administration.

speaking of whether russia is technically marxist-leninist, i heard on npr during last night’s commute that the world bank just yesterday released their (annual?) report on the relative openness of countries’ economies.

out of 121, Russia is ranked 114.

Jul 8, 2009 - 6:58 am 121. buddy larsen:

Steve, also,

Anyone who cares to know can find all he needs about the “Russian mafia” role in the September Bank Panic (not to mention the oil run-up just preceding).

Also, anyone who wants to know will know that there is no real demarcation between the ‘Russian mafia’ and certain operations within the Kremlin. One stark clue is in an examination of the cyber-warfare waged on Georgia and Latvia –it originated with a company based in St Petersburg (the so-called “St Petersburg” faction within the Kremlin is Putin’s crew) that has been described as ‘criminal, and protected’.

Do some research, man –use the tools at your disposal. No need to read crackpots, either –there’s a wealth of sovietology out there, work done by respected professionals.

there is inside the Kremlin an organization at least as brainy and creative as Google, about the same size, too, a few thousand geniuses, that is lifetime-dedicated to ending the world order as it is and resetting it with Russia in the position of the USA. They’re on a roll, too, as Dan and others have noted here.

These guys in the Kremlin –they get tapped early, and spend an honored and remunerated –and patriotic –career on just one or a few big projects –all without having to worry one whit about getting called before a congressional committee every time the white house or congress has an election.

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:21 am 122. mindy rodriguez:

I find it quite interesting that the only people on the earth who have the courage not to treat Obama like he above other humans are the Russians. They are so politically savvy…it must have been a shock to Obama to have to sit and listen to Putin praise George W. Bush re Bush’s hospitality.

Jul 8, 2009 - 11:43 am 123. veracious:

108/Mongoose,

adding China, what do you have? Treason

Unfortunately, me thinks we have death and destruction instead. Why? USA can no longer find enough of itself to lawfully remove a traitor and other methods would surely bring in the blue helments. With the astronomical debt the major players of the world see USA as an outlet store; eg., a large mass of consumers. This outlet _must_ continue operating for the time being in order to purchase a large share of other countries produce; esp. China and OPECs. These countries and our handlers (bankers) would never allow large scale unrest.
I’m certain of that…

Jul 8, 2009 - 5:24 pm 124. Andres:

Why use “Moscow-controlled territory” instead of “territory of Russia”?

I think I know the answer, but just wanted to ask the people who read this article do they feel the difference between the two terms and why the first one was used here?

Jul 9, 2009 - 1:32 am 125. buddy larsen:

Clearly, “territory of Russia” is the RF proper, while “Moscow-controlled territory” would be the territories where the inhabitants are just waiting around for their turn (in Moscow’s calculus) to be dragged back into the new, reformed, USSR.

If intimidation (via some pressure combo of military, economic, civil-disorder instigation, and petroleum-supply threat) is not ‘control’, then what is it?

Jul 9, 2009 - 2:21 am

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.