New Obama Poster Shows The Ugly Face Of Racism

From Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics:

Don't be misled. These new posters featuring Barack Obama's face imposed over the likeness of Tinky Winky may appear benign, but they're not.

Their intent is far deeper and insidious: to stir ugly racist thoughts in America's subconscious.

On the surface, the posters don't add anything new to the discussion. Obama has been called a “socialist” before. But, subliminally, the posters draw heavily on stereotypes of the worst kind.

Consider the following evidence:

- First, the obvious: Purple is only a tick or two away from black on the color spectrum, so it's clearly no coincidence that Obama's likeness was imposed over Tinky Winky and not Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Noo-Noo, or Po. Tinky Winky is an unspeakably devious subliminal reminder of the pigmentation of our President's skin.

- Tinky Winky - and the rest of his Teletubby ilk - are meant to draw upon latent and subconscious racism and xenophobia. They're odd looking, they speak in incoherent phrases, they eat strange food and live in a futuristic dome. Clearly, they're not from around here - and they may not even be from this planet. To superimpose Obama's likeness over such a character is a truly despicable tactic designed to remind white people of his foreign heritage and to reinforce the notion that he is "of the other."

Hey, at least they got the ears right. Read it all!

Obama's Final Solution To Free Speech..

Day by Day, of course!

Book Review: Ann Coulter's "Guilty"

Ann Coulter's latest is based on an interesting premise..that the Leftist establishment loves posing as victims and defending its self-chosen underdogs while in reality it is the primary victimizer of others. While the Left spends a great deal of time turning purple with indignation over the supposed insensitivity and inhumanity of conservatives, when it comes to the Left's own perceived political opponents they are far more likely to abandon any notion of restraint, ethics or simple decency to demonize them...no holds barred.

This is exactly what ex-Speaker of the House Tom DeLay was talking about (just before all the charges against him were tossed out of court) when he said that these days, the Left isn't satisfied with merely driving you out of politics - they want to destroy every facet of your life.

The first line of the book is one of those killer lines Coulter has a knack for coming up with - "Liberals always have to be the victims, particularly when they are oppressing others."

The examples Coulter uses to beef up her premise are all solid, witty, and well written.The treatment of Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin, the virtual take over of the media by the Left and the bias that results, the deliberate downplaying of scandals involving Democrats and the vast media inflation of anything crooked even alleged of a Republican, and of course, the shameful media whitewash of anything remotely questionable about Barack Obama...it's all there, and more.

And as always with Ann Coulter, meticulously sourced. You may not agree with her conclusions or with her way of putting things,but you'd have to be an idiot - or a Leftist with tunnel vision - to try and shake her facts.

Particularly interesting is an entire chapter on one of the primary victim classes in American life, single mothers. While some of what she has to say on the topic is overly simplistic ( "Having money doesn't make you middle-class. The secret to being middle-class in America is: keep your knees together before marriage and graduate high school.")a lot of it needs to be said.

To Coulter, the glorification of single motherhood and children born out of wedlock is part of the Left's war on the traditional American nuclear family.And her take on the damage done to society as a whole statistically by the concept of 'fashionable' single motherhood is spot on. For instance, as she reveals, when you factor out children born out of wedlock, the economic disparity between blacks and whites virtually disappears.

The book is a guilty pleasure to read, as mordantly funny and uncompromising as most of Ann Coulter's output. It would be an interesting experiment for someone on the Left side of the spectrum to read this with an open mind and actually examine the ideas Coulter presents.And I promise, if you do it, we'll never out you to your intolerant Leftist friends...it'll just be our little secret.

Definitely recommended.

Iran May Charge Three Americans Captured In Iran With Spying

Iran has moved the three American hikers it captured when they accidentally strayed over the border near Kurdistan to Tehran. They do not consider them tourists who made a simple mistake and are openly considering charging them with espionage:

“Surely we can say that they came as spies,” said Mohammad Karim Abedi, a hard-line lawmaker, speaking on Iran’s state-run Al-Alam TV. “The concerned authorities will decide whether they were spies or not. If it is proven that they were spies, the necessary legal procedures will be sought against them.”

“The U.S. forces are trying to leave some security elements behind, after leaving Iraq,” Abedi added. “It’s unacceptable to penetrate Iran’s borders this way. … We condemn this.”

One thing no one is mentioning in the media is that aside from being Americans, all three happen to be Jews. Don't be surprised if they end up 'confessing' to be spies for Israel as well as America. As a matter of fact, charging them with being spies for the Zionists rather than for the CIA might be a good tactic for the mullahs, given the widespread Jew hatred in Iranian society.


Ironically, all three are unreservedly `anti-Zionist', solidly pro-Palestinian and on the far Left to the point of almost being cartoonish.

Shane Bauer is a journalist from California with a degree in peace and conflict studies from Berkeley, and his credits include writing for Left-oriented pubs like the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, Mother Jones and New American Media. He was captured with his girlfriend, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, whose family originally came from Iran and who writes for Jewish Week.



The idea that these three are 'spies' is ludicrous on the face of it. None of them are fluent in Farsi ( although Bauer speaks Arabic and is reportedly an Arabophile), were carrying none of the sort of advanced photographic or communications gear you would expect spies to have. And the trio were conducting their trip on a shoestring, staying in budget accommodations.

What Iran is looking for here is a chance to further humiliate the Obama Administration, especially after Obama backtracked on Robert Gibbs' gaffe in referring to Ahmadinejad as 'the elected leader of Iran'.

And of course, remove the spotlight from those continually spinning centrifuges.

The last hostage the US redeemed from Iran was journalist Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to 8 years for reportedly practicing journalism without permission(!).
The price for her freedom was the release of five Iranian Qods Force operatives captured by the US while fighting against us in Iraq.

Rest assured, the Iranians are going to demand a much higher price for the release of these three 'Zionists', and they will milk this for all it's worth.

It appears Obama's 'unclenched fist' towards Iran isn't working so well.

Why Conservatives Should Avoid MSNBC - Or, How The Left 'Debates'

One thing I've never been able to figure out is why conservatives or anyone else who deviates from the neo-Marxist line bother with the dinosaur media.

As Sarah Palin found out, expecting them to interview anyone they disagree with fairly and objectively is about as likely as making a rope out of beach sand.
And that goes double with having them moderate any political debates.

Today's example is Larry 'creepy liar' O'Donnell, who was filling in for Lefty host Ed Schultz and had Peter Schiff on as a guest.

Schiff is the man who accurately predicted the current economic meltdown before it happened and has a lot of thoughts on the right way to go about extricating ourselves. In addition he's been openly considering a run for the senate against incumbent Senator Chris Dodd ( D-Countrywide) and likely has something to say about the current healthcare legislation and the financial implications, as well as Schiff's ideas about alternatives to the current bill.

All of these would be legitimate fodder for an interview.

Instead we're subjected to an 'interview' that basically consists of a diatribe by O'Donnell interspersed with him yelling over any of Schiff's attempts to answer.It's an amazing display, even for Mess NBC. In an actual news organization, O'Donnell would be fired forthwith.

The bad thing is that O'Donnell isn't unique..he's simply more obvious and less polished and insidious than say, Charlie Gibson or Brian Williams.

Schiff is apparently new to this sort of tactic, so hopefully this was a teachable moment for him. The only way to deal with braying loudmouth buffoons like O'Donnell is either to not deal with them at all by refusing to let them interview you or to simply laugh at them and pay them back in kind ala' Ann Coulter.Although even La Coulter probably wouldn't soil herself dealing with someone like O'Donnell.

Today's Must Reads....

Here are today's must read links. See something interesting out there? Send me anything you want me to review for this section at Rmill2k@msn.com

Caroline Glick:Israel And The 'Realists'

FOX News:White House 'Fishy' Enemies List May Be Illegal

Patterico: Angry Mob of Racist Extremists Beat Black Man At Town Hall Meeting

Peggy Noonan:Obama Is Terrifying Us...

David Harsanyi:Presenting New Rules For Radicals

Mark Steyn: Demographic Speak

Allah Pundit/Hot Air:LA Weekly wets itself over Obama/Joker poster: “The only thing missing is a noose”

Michelle Malkin How Quickly They Forget

Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters: Obama Joker Poster Stirs Outrage, Bush Joker Poster Not So Much

Karl Rove The Prsident Is Resorting To Tricks And Evasions

Michael Yon:Scenes From Afghanistan

The Augean Stables:Freedom of the press in Israel; The NGO inversion

Soccer Dad:Worth Every Penny Of 'Free'

London Times:Australia Foils Domestic Islamist Attack On Army Base

YNET Poll:Israeli Labor Party Down To Six Seats

Pam Geller:Teenage Honor Killing Victim Wed In Secret

lloyd Marcus: Race profiteers are the true enemies of black America

Seismic Shock:Iranian Christians and the apostasy law

Watcher's Council Results, 8/07/09

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.

The winning entry in the Council category this week was Soccer Dad with Worth every penny of “free.” ,an excellent rebuttal to a column by the New York Time's own Saudi peace ultimatum shill, Tom Friedman.

In seciond place, we had Wolf Howling with Informed Votes .

Also getting votes were Joshuapundit for President Obama Awards Medal of Freedom To Prominent ‘Anti-Zionists’ , The Razor with The “Hunt” for a Buyer The Glittering Eye for Don’t Renew “Cash for Clunkers” , The Colossus of Rhodey for Profiling vs. perception and Bookworm Room for Seeing inside someone’s soul — and finding a blogburst .

In the Non-Council category, I was pleased to see that the winner was one other than my nominee Political Math for his superb video, Obama Health Care Reform and Wait Times Visualization (In Lego!) .

In second place, we had a piece from The Optimistic Conservative with Tell me again

As always, congratulations not only to the winners but to the participants.

Democrat Goons Assault Healthcare Protesters

As you'll recall, I mentioned yesterday that the White House had mobilized its ACORN thugs and union muscle to 'police town hall meetings' mobilized via Obama's Organizing for America, “a project of the Democratic National Committee."


White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina held a meeting to rally the Obama troops in the Senate and let them know that the Obama Administration had called in its markers and was ready to go to the mattresses to stifle any embarrassing dissent to its neo-Marxist agenda :

Top White House aides gave Senate Democrats a recess battle plan on Thursday, arming the lawmakers with tips for avoiding disastrous town hall meetings while showing them polling on popular aspects of the reform effort…

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,” Messina said, according to an official who attended the meeting…

“They are just helping us understand the fringe that is trying to mess up our meetings,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Messina meant what he said. The goons have been unleashed Chicago style:

Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started.

Of course, if the SEIU and ACORN drop the ball and can't stop protesters from entering the hall, there's always the option of shoving them outside the hall bodily and forcing the doors closed so only the 'right people' remain inside:



That's exactly what happened in the above example in Tampa Bay, Florida, where the SEIU was mobilized for a town hall meeting called at the last minute by Democrat Kathy Castor.Even with a massive turn out by the SEIU and Castor's political supporters, there were still too many health care choice protesters in the room - so the SEIU simply pushed anyone who wasn't 'with them' out of the hall and then forced the doors shut to keep them out.

This, like the White House setting up an official 'enemies list' by using an official website to allow the Chosen One's supporters to report anyone critical of Obama's agenda is something we simply haven't seen in American politics before.

This is huge.

Hugh Hewitt's Ten Questions To Ask Your Congressman On ObamaCare

As congressmen filter back to their districts to meet with their constituents, best selling author, columnist and talk show host extraordinaire Hugh Hewitt provides you with questions to ask them...and the correct answers,as opposed to the bolshoi you're likely to get from them:

1. Do you guarantee that I get to keep the plan I have and the doctor I have? ("I know you have heard the president say this repeatedly, but expert after expert has confirmed this is simply not true. Employers pick health plans, not employees, and if the new law puts forward a cheap 'government option/public plan,' employers will dump employees into it and pocket the savings as smart business people will do when given such a choice.")

2. Will the law require Members of Congress and federal employees to be enrolled in the "government option/public plan," and if not, why not? ("No, it won't. Of course not. Because the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) is a gold-plated, great plan that Congress will never give up for the cost-driven, tin-plated "government option/public plan.")

3. Will seniors be guaranteed joint replacements, stents, and the chemotherapy they need, or will they be forced to accept less-costly and less-effective alternatives? ("Of course they aren't going to get the best, most expensive treatments. Medicare is already nearly broke and the only way we can pay for it and the massive expansion of it to the uninsured is to ration care and take away the expensive treatment options.")

4. If seniors will be allowed the expensive but most effective treatments, how will costs be controlled? ("Like I said, the days of hip and knee replacements are gone when this plan passes. Get a cane.")

5. Will seniors have to wait longer for their treatments than they do now? ("Much longer. Doctors aren't going to want to see any 'government option' patients, and especially not time-consuming geezers.")

Pure gold..read it all.

Of course, Hugh's premise assumes that you're even going to get to talk to your congressman up close and personal. The latest trend, especially among Democrats? virtual town hall meetings, where it's invitation only and they can vet the questions and attendees beforehand:

Members of Congress are increasingly turning to virtual townhall meetings--conducted by telephone--in an effort to reach more constituents while avoiding the potential that informational meetings might be disrupted by angry and persistent questioners or protesters.

One advantage to these telephone townhalls, whether any particular member of Congress actually has this intention, is that the Member of Congress can control the audience and the questioning.

As lawmakers head home for the August recess to meet with constituents, the contentious health care issue awaits them, and many are opting to conduct their townhall meetings over a telephone line rather than in an actual hall where their constituents can see them, speak directly to them, ask repeated followup questions--and shout unsolicited commentary from the back of the room.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) is using a tele-town hall meeting in her only scheduled interaction with constituents, and various other lawmakers from both parties have held the live mass teleconferences lately, focusing largely on health care.

Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), whose district encompasses nearly one-third of the large western state, held a tele-town hall meeting with reporters and constituents July 24, saying it provides him with immediate feedback while in Washington.

“These ‘virtual’ town hall meetings have been a very useful way to get immediate feedback from my constituents when my work as a Congressman keeps me from being home in Idaho,” Minnick said in a statement announcing the event.

(hat tip, Ace)

Of course, if an actual meeting has to be held, our neo-Marxist Dear Leader and his pals have another tactic - using ACORN goons and the Unions to 'police townhall meetings' mobilized via Obama's Organizing for America, “a project of the Democratic National Committee."

And Nancy Pelosi had the nerve to refer to American citizens critical of Obama care and exercising their First Amendment Rights as 'carrying swastikas'!

I think we know whom the real fascists are.

Sotomayor Confirmed, 68-31

Oh well, we knew that was coming.

Nine Republicans voted for her; Alexander, Bond, Collins, Graham, Gregg, Lugar, Martinez, Snowe and Voinivich.

All 31 no's were from Republicans.Not a single Democrat was willing to stand up and vote against such an obviously unqualified Supreme Court Justice.

This actually doesn't change the Court much, since she's replacing Souter. But I have a feeling that if Obama has thr opportunity to fill any more vacancies, we're likely to get someone even further left - Harold Koh, perhaps.

Elections have consequences..

Victor Davis Hanson On Obama's Bullying Of Israel

For those of you who don't know, Victor Davis Hanson is classicist and historian at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, as well as a best selling author and one of America's profound thinkers who gets referenced frequently in these pages. FrontPage Magazine just did an astounding interview with him on Obama and Israel:

FP: Victor Davis Hanson, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

I’d like to talk to you today about the Obama administration’s Middle East policy.

A recent piece in the Washington Post noted that the only country in the world with which the U.S. has worse relations since Obama took office is Israel.

An American administration is soft on butchers that rule Iran and desperately seeks dialogue with them, yet it is giving our friend and ally, and the only democracy in the Middle East, a hard time.

What gives here?

Hanson: Two thoughts cross my mind:

(1) In general, for a variety of complicated reasons, Obama sees those who dislike the United States—an Ahmadinejad, Assad, Castro, Chavez, Ortega, etc.—as somehow more authentic and representative of their own "people." In turn, reaching out to the 'real' leadership of the disadvantaged and oppressed requires special post-colonial, post-imperial skills of a postracial, post-American leader such as himself.

In a sort of messianic role, he thinks he's our bridge to the revolutionary leadership of formerly Third World peoples. But the Iranian democrats in the street, the Honduran Supreme Court, a Uribe, a Maliki government, or the Israelis, all these pro-American friends for some strange reason like the United States, and, most likely, like us for what Obama would call reactionary reasons; so there is nothing sexy about them for Obama really.

(2) Israel--democratic, capitalist, Western, pro-American--is emblematic of all the things that Obama in the past has been skeptical about, since Israel appreciates our values, history, and what we stand for. Again, this is passé for Obama--as if one in a Columbia University seminar on post-imperialism were to raise his hand and declare, "Isn't it great that Israel is a beacon of democracy and Western values in the region?"

Imagine the reaction of the professor and students to that poor fellow, and, presto, there is what bothers Obama about Israel. In domestic policy terms, Israel is like the present health care system, Wall Street, the 5% who need their taxes raised, "they" who raised the bar, the insurance companies, etc., the Palestinians more like the victimized, poor American middle and under classes.

FP: It would be fair to say that there is a strain of anti-Semitism in the Obama administration, yes? A black pastor recently reflected on the problem of anti-Semitism in the black community and noted that it has definitely influenced Obama. Your thoughts?

Hanson: I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that any 20-year devotee of Rev. Wright would have been bombarded with thousands of anti-Semitic tropes and asides, all reinforced by current 'inner-city' hip-hop propaganda and blame-gaming.

I think it was Prof. Henry Louis Gates himself who once warned of the new anti-Semitism of the black inner-city. So Obama as a Chicago organizer and contributor to Trinity Church would have been surrounded by anti-Semitic types.

And we know the writ: at home Jews are supposed blood-suckers whose stores profited off the ghetto, whether the old Pawnbroker type or the new record exec that takes the lion share of profits from black rapping geniuses, to abroad where Israel--small, Western, without oil, without terrorists, without third-world romance--simply either is nothing to be afraid of, or represents the collective rich, overachieving and exploiting Jew.

Rev. Wright said even worse about Jews, and many of Obama's former associates reflect such stereotyped views as well. I suppose in one sense of being objective and disinterested, it speaks well of American Jewish voters that the majority of them voted their generic liberal principles that trumped concern for Israel, since Obama clearly will prove to be far more anti-Israeli than Jimmy Carter.

FP: Obama is being hard on Israel and yet doesn’t appear to be cracking down on Palestinians for their terrorism against Israel, let alone their refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist. Your take on this?

Hanson: Our historically challenged President seems to think not only did the Muslim world invent the printing press and supposedly showed tolerance during the Inquisition in Cordoba, but that there were no Israeli-Arab wars before the 1967 "occupation" of the West Bank.

In his mindset, Jewish exploitation explains West Bank and Gazan poverty and failure, not any intrinsic pernicious ideologies, much less aggressive acts by the people who live there.

So go back to 1967 borders, with proper affirmative action remedies for past exploitation like the right of return, and there is no longer grievance, just perpetual peace and shared thanks for the messianic conciliator. In Chicago terms, Israel is the exploitive landlord, Palestinians the oppressed tenants--and Obama the superior, all-knowing organizer-mediator who will give pep talks to the Palestinians on "responsibility" and "self-help" while drawing material concessions from the too wealthy Israeli building owner.

FP: What do you make of Netanyahu's disposition toward Palestinian statehood, settlements etc? How does this factor into what Obama is trying to do?

Hanson: Netanyahu has outlined a world in which there is a Palestinian state side-by-side a Jewish state, a gradual evolution to a two-state solution in which, just as one million Arabs own land and are often citizens of Israel (many of them immigrants to, rather than original residents of, Israel), so too Jews could likewise purchase land and live in safety in the West Bank or other areas beyond 1967 Israel under future Palestinian governments with all the protections that Arabs receive in Israel.

But that would be impossible to Obama since it leaves out grievance, past exploitation, mitigating circumstances, corrective and affirmative action, and all the other asymmetrical mechanisms that are to be extended to the oppressed "other." Israel as the powerful and rich must offer concessions, Palestine as the weak, poor and oppressed should receive them--that is called in the U.S. these days equality of result, spread the wealth, targeted positive invention, etc.

So, again, Netanyahu is talking logic and reason to those for whom such things are now relative constructs and competing narratives predicated on power, not absolute truths.

Read the rest here...a must.


hat tip Carl

Obama: "Transparency Will Be The Touchstone Of My Administration"

The cool part is that this comes from Talking Points Memo, a supposedly independent 'blog' that's a full on charter member of Obama'a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.Let's see if they pull this down off YouTube.

I can't help wondering if Obama has actually thought about all this material that's out there if he plans on running for a second term. The commercials practically write themselves.

The Prevaricator-In-Chief apparently has his own SuperSecret definition of 'transparency'.....pushing through 1000 page, trillion dollar plus stimulus bills without allowing Congress time to read or debate them, locking the opposition party out of the room to pass bills using the parliamentary 'reconciliation' process, creating 38 czars who answer to nobody, running America's banks and auto companies out of the White House and doing his very best to quietly stifle dissent with an official 'enemies' list run out of the White House itself.

Will we ever get transparency when it comes to telling the American people which private groups contributed to the Obama campaign, and how many of those donations were via pseudonyms or from overseas? Or why so many lobbyists and questionable Chi-Town cronies are in Obama's cabinet?

We already know we won't get it on higher taxes for the middle class or the real cost of ObamaCare. Or even on Obama's past.

Transparency. It's for the little people.

(hat tip and a commendation to Joshua's Army member Zeb for sending this my way - I'd almost forgotten Obama said this)

Watcher's Council results for 8/1/09

The Council has spoken! My apologies..being a little behind schedule, I've been remiss in posting this, but her eit is. A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.

The winning entry in the Council category this week was The Razor with Waging Lawfare: A Call To Arms

In second place was my entry at Joshuapundit, Bigotry In Basic Black

Also getting votes were Right Truth for Advice to Sergeant Jim Crowley , Bookworm Room for Make me Well, Soccer Dad with It’s the speeches stupid, The Provocateur for The Definitive Dossier on the House Health Care Bill (Pages 1-500) Part
and The Collosus of Rhodey for Common sense on the Gates arrest .

In the Non-Council category, I was pleased to see that th ewinmner was my nominee, Micheal Yon's An Artery Of Opium, A Vein Of Taliban.

In second place, we had a piece from Heretical Ideas, Is Barack Obama An American Citizen?

As always, congratulations not only to the winners but to the participants.

Obama's Theme Song....

I think you all know the words and the music, don't you? ( hat tip Laer)

Obama Approval at 50% - And Dropping

And that's using polls that over sample Democrats by as much as 15%:

President Barack Obama’s approval rating is falling amid concerns about the U.S. economy and his push to revamp the U.S. health-care system, a Quinnipiac University poll shows.

Exactly half of the registered voters surveyed from July 27 to Aug. 3 by Quinnipiac said they approve of the job Obama is doing, compared with 42 percent who disapprove. That’s down from 57 percent approval and 33 percent disapproval in a poll taken in late June, according to results released today.
Americans are upset about rising unemployment and worried that health-care plans making their way through Congress will add to the U.S. budget deficit, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Hamden, Connecticut-based polling institute. The combination has helped drive down the president’s ratings.

A “willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt is, among some voters, evaporating,” Brown told reporters in Washington yesterday.

The poll found that voters disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy by 49 percent to 45 percent. On his effort to overhaul of the health-care system, 52 percent disapprove of his handling of the issue while 39 percent approve.

It gets better. According to CNN of all places, more Americans consider Obama's presidency a failure after six months than felt that way about George W. Bush:

A rather surprising finding from the newly released CNN poll. Question three on the national survey of 1,136 adults (which includes an oversample of African-Americans) asks, "Do you consider the first six months of the Obama administration to be a success or a failure?"

Thirty-seven percent (37%) said they believe the Obama administration is a "failure," while 51% consider it a "success" and 11% say it's still "too soon to tell."

An identical question was asked of the Bush administration in an August 2001 CNN/Gallup/USA Today survey. At the time, 56% said the Bush administration was a "success" while only 32% considered it a "failure." (Link)

Rasmussen, which polls likely voters rather than registered voters and is thus more accurate has the Chosen One at 49%.

People are starting to awaken to exactly what they bought last November. Can you say buyer's remorse?

Couldn't happen to a more deserving president.

But you can't say I didn't give him a chance

Devaluing American Citizenship

There have been two instances of American citizens being detained against their will recently...and both provide an interesting lesson for us on how small pieces of the puzzle fit into a larger picture.

On August 1 in Iran, three hikers who were visiting Iraq as tourists apparently strayed or were forcibly taken across the border between Iran and Kurdistan in an area where the border isn't very clearly marked.

They're being interrogated and have been described on Iranian state-run TV as 'spies.'

At the same time, two reporters working in North Korea were released after ex-president Bill Clinton made a special trip over there to negotiate their freedom.They'd been imprisoned since March 17th.This is being hailed as a 'diplomatic victory', and in a sense it is. But in a very real sense these incidents underline how much the inherent protection of a US passport has deteriorated.

From the earliest days of our Republic, the protection of American citizens abroad was sacrosanct. This is a carryover from our direct predecessors, the Romans, who made Roman citizenship something to be desired and sought after because of the inherent rights and protections it entailed.

In it's earliest history, America actually fought two wars over this principle, the War of 1812 with Britain and our War with the Barbary pirates.

In 1849, the US Navy sent a whole squadron to Smyrna and gained the release of an American citizen who had been seized and imprisoned by local officials.In fact, all through the 19th century, the US Navy and Marines were dispatched to protect the lives and property of US citizens or to take retaliation for violence and theft suffered by them in places like Panama, Nicaragua, Columbia, Fiji, China, Columbia, Mexico and Korea, among others.

In more recent times, US forces performed the same sort of missions in Grenada, Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, Albania, and even in Italy. In 1985 US Navy pilots intercepted an Egyptian airliner and forced it down in Sicily because it was carrying the Arab hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro who had shot wheelchair bound American citizen Leon Klinghoffer during the hijacking and tossed him overboard on the direct orders of Yasir Arafat.

Since the beginning of the Clinton Administration, that kind of hands on response to US citizens being threatened, mistreated, robbed, imprisoned or murdered abroad has become rare to the point of non-existence. As a matter of fact, the last real instance happened on President Obama's watch oddly enough. After his initial restraint on pirate hijackings off the coast of Somalia merely intensified the hijackings, Obama finally allowed our navy to rescue an American hostage and take out 3 of his pirate captors - although there remains some question about the president's actual part in this.

It might also be noted that however it went down, the forceful response appears to have worked.You don't hear much about American ships being hijacked off Somalia these days.

Ahh, I can already read your mind...'Rob, how can you compare a bunch of raggedy ass pirates with North Korea and Iran?'

Simple. They share the same mentality.As a matter of fact, a forceful response works even better because the Mullahs and the Norks have more to lose.

You can attempt to negotiate and buy people like this off, and the US has certainly done it in the past. We attempted to buy off the Barbary Pirates originally. And recently we saw American journalist Roxana Saberi released from Iran after being convicted of a trumped up spying charge..after which five Iranian Qods force operatives captured fighting against our troops in Iraq were released in exchange. It remains to be seen what the North Korans got for releasing their hostages, but I guarantee you they didn't do it for free.

The problem doing deals with people like that is two fold. Aside from increasing their contempt for you, understandings like this never work in the long run and it simply encourages not only more of the same but an escalation.

These things follow a common pattern. What starts out as trivial insults gradually morphs into disrespect, than into hostage taking and blackmail, and finally into actual hostility and military assaults.

People like the Norks and the mullahs don't understand 'diplomacy' and nuance.They understand strength and real world consequences...just like the pirates.

Even countries not prepared to let things degenerate into open hostilities get influenced by this aura of disrespect and normally maintain an attitude of contempt toward a country that seems not to be able to protect its citizens. Anyone who's traveled in Mexico lately can tell you that, and I can testify personally that it didn't used to be that way at all.

Iran's a good lesson. Keep in mind that the Islamic Republic started out their 'relationship' with America by getting away with doing something no other country in history had pulled off - the forcible taking of our embassy and imprisoning of our diplomats.That was a clear and unmistakable act of war.

Anyone who doesn't recognize that their success at doing this with impunity has influenced their subsequent behavior,(and the behavior of others) I honestly think hasn't been paying attention.

Another point - while it still works in many situations, it isn't necessary to risk blue water ships for gunboat diplomacy in our modern era.It was Soviet leader Kosygin who said in 1979 that if the Iranians had taken a Soviet embassy, their people would have been released in 48 hours or Tehran would have been reduced to a blackened crater.

I think the mullahs would have understood that the Soviets were serious if they had been on the receiving end of a choice like that from the Soviets - or from us, for that matter. Instead, we got Jimmy Carter.

North Korea is a slightly different case. The reason North Korea is being allowed to behave in the manner it does is simply because of their relationship with China, not any military strength they possess. But that knife cuts both ways. China owns a lot of our debt, but we also own a lot of China's money and the key to the continued growth of their economy. There's a mutual dependence here, and thus mutual levers to make things happen. I doubt China's going to go to war over the likes of North Korea, and a forceful response would likely go a long way to discourage the Norks from future transgressions. Instead, we continue to essentially reward them for their thuggish behavior.

A point could be made that anyone stupid enough to go to North Korea is simply looking for trouble, but once again it all comes down to that little green passport and what it symbolizes. And that symbolism speaks volumes - disrespect and mistreat a country's nationals, disrespect and mistreat a country. We seem to have lost sight of that principle.

Our government's disinclination to protect its citizens abroad, our open borders and a tendency in some elite circles in America to defer to multiculturalism and 'the international community' seems to be part of a general failure on the part of our government to be willing to assert our national sovereignty.

That's something that's going to have increasingly serious consequences down the line unless it changes.

Atlas Shrug's Pam Geller At NewsMax!!

My blogpal the one and only Pam Geller is moving into the big time with her first column over at NewsMax, "Obama Birth Certificate issue Causing needless Distractions."

Give it up, click over to her column a time or two and show her some love...she deserves it.

Mirage: Obama's Middle East Strategy

When Barack Hussein Obama started out as president seven months ago, it all looked so simple to him.

Obama felt he had a handle on the entire Middle East situation. Having managed to finesse a good majority of American Jews to vote for him, he figured he had the leverage he needed to ingratiate himself and America with the Muslim world by pressuring Israel to make far reaching concessions in line with the Saudi peace plan, pulling us out of Iraq as soon as possible and presenting that famous 'open hand' to the mullahs in Iran.

He expected everything to fall neatly into place, especially after his al Arabiya interview, his apologetic speech in Turkey and his Lap Dance of the Seven Veils in Cairo.

As anyone with even a little knowledge of the Middle East could have predicted, the Chosen One got blind sided by the players, largely because of his own arrogance.

The first mistake Obama made was to assume that the Israelis were basically just like the Leftist American Jews in his immediate circle, and that even if they weren't, they were susceptible to being pressured to knuckle under. Accordingly, he had the Pentagon change the rules on military aid to restrict how the IDF could use it, made blatantly anti-Israel appointments to his cabinet and his advisers, and explicitly violated the Road Map by endorsing the Saudi 'peace' ultimatum and reneging on the Bush Administration's agreement with Israeli PM Ariel Sharon on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria(AKA the West Bank) that were supposed to remain part of Israel in any settlement. He then decided to turn up the heat by insisting that Jews were not entitled to build anything in the so-called settlements, including Jerusalem.

All this had several effects he hadn't counted on. Obama, a self-described 'student of history' apparently didn't realize that the vast majority of Israelis had taken a lesson from Lebanon, Oslo and Gaza that appeasing the Arabs and giving up strategic concessions involved a dangerous price in blood to pay. He also apparently forgot that most Israelis remember what it was like when the Arabs controlled East Jerusalem as a Jew-free zone, and that attempting to turn the clock back to a division of the city was a red line that even many of the most dovish Israelis were unwilling to embrace. Essentially, Obama united the Israeli electorate behind the current center-right government in a way he never intended.Only 6% of Israelis polled approve of Obama's policies and regard him as 'pro-Israel', putting him only slightly ahead of disgraced and indicted Israeli ex-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in popularity.

Obama's toadying to the Arabs and his blatant disregard for the previous agreements between Israel and the US had another consequence.The Israeli government across the board now regards Obama with distrust and feels that his word or any guarantees he makes are essentially worthless. And the lesson wasn't just noted by the Israelis. People have long memories in this part of the world, and reputations persist.

There were similar missteps when it came to the Arab world. In Cairo, Obama made the usual pro forma remarks about US ties to Israel, but he accepted the Arab positions in almost every other respect, including the fallacious Arab narrative that the Jews got foisted on the Middle East only because of the Holocaust and that the Palestinian nakba was the equivalent of what the Jews endured.

After all that, the Arabs expected Obama to deliver. Based on what he was saying, surely the US should take the side of the Arabs in this conflict, cut off all aid and ties to Israel and even intervene on the Arab's behalf to correct this injustice, shouldn't they?

Having little experience with democracy and how Congress works in our society, the Arabs can be forgiven for not understanding that while Obama could (and did) take certain hostile steps towards Israel, a lot of the US Congress wouldn't go along with a total rupture of ties; they have constituents to answer to. The Arabs didn't understand that Obama wasn't free to unilaterally destroy the US-Israel relationship overnight, however much he might want to ideologically.

Again, this has had effects the Chosen One didn't count on.

Believing that Obama was on their side, the Arabs, instead of becoming more amenable to negotiations with Israel have become even more intransigent. The Palestinians, enjoying largess from the American taxpayers and a sympathetic US government they haven't ever seen before have become content to put off negotiations of any kind with Israel indefinitely until they get everything they want. Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas is more than happy to wait until the Obama Administration forces the Jews to bend to his will - and why not ? While he waits, the Americans under General Keith Dayton spend additional millions to equip and train an army for him.

As for the other Arab states, they could barely contain their astonishment when their ally Obama asked them for reciprocal concessions towards Israel. Obama, after all, had endorsed the Saudi peace plan. Didn't he realize that to the Arabs, the Saudi plan was a take it or leave it offer with no concessions or negotiations allowed? Didn't he understand that unless the Israelis knuckled under and pulled back to the 1948 lines, displaced half million of their own people, agreed to redivide Jerusalem and allowed what was left of Israel to be flooded with Palestinian 'refugees', no 'normal relations' were possible? Did he actually expect the Arabs to violate their notion of honor by reneging on that pledge or any part of it?

Needless to say, the Arabs told Obama to pound sand. It's all or nothing, Sadik.

Perhaps Obama's most serious blunder involves Iran.

Being appallingly ignorant of the basic nature of the Iranian regime,Obama made sure that the mullahs understood that he was willing to do almost anything to negotiate.Obama's predecessor George W. Bush had also pursued negotiations with Iran almost as avidly, but because of whom he was,the Mullahs were never entirely sure that he wouldn't suddenly decide that it was time to pull the plug on a nuclear Iran, or let the Israelis do it. But President Obama made it quite clear they had nothing like that to worry about.

As a consequence, they stepped up their nuclear development and became increasingly hard line, to the point where Iran is likely only six months to a year away from having nuclear weapons.

Obama had always figured on his 'open hand' strategy combined with his outreach to the Muslim world to be a real winner with Iran,to the point where he seems not to have made any real contingency plans if things didn't work out. I think he was genuinely shocked when the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad essentially reacted to his open hand with a clenched fist.

The recent strong arming of the Iranian dissidents by the regime also obviously came as a surprise to the president. After all, it wasn't so long ago that he and other prominent Democrats were talking about what a vibrant democracy Iran is!

Obama also didn't take into consideration how the Sunni Arab autocracies he was so fond of were going to react to his non-policy on Iran.Instead of seeing Obama as an ally, the Arabs saw him as ineffectual and untrustworthy. Obama's accelerated pullout from Iraq, leaving an Iran -friendly Shiite Islamic republic with a US trained army in place also became a source of discord, especially with the Saudis, who have their own Shiite underclass to deal with in the oil bearing eastern part of their country.

At this point, Obama may have gotten close enough to reality to start to see that the oasis he thought he was moving towards is just another sand dune.It remains to be seen what he plans to do about it.

Obama tried to pick up the pieces on Iran by sending SecDef Robert Gates to Israel to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and reassure him that the US was committed to a non-nuclear Iran. Israel's response at this could be expected.Having seen how trustworthy this president is, they're continuing to prepare to deal with Iran themselves.

If nothing happens with Iran, Gates told the Israelis that the US was planning to muster international support for tougher sanctions at the end of September, especially on refined petroleum products like gasoline that Iran imports.

This is improbable for several reasons.The 'international support' part of it is problematical. Russia, China and likely elements of the EU will not honor them, and will likely veto any UN action. We've already seen how this worked with Oil For Food and the sanctions on Saddam's Iraq.

Second, assuming the US decides to implement this on its own, that's going to mean sending our navy to blockade Iran's ports. Aside from the fact that this is an act of war, is Obama likely to allow our navy to stop and search Russian, french or German ships on their way to Iran? Especially if they haven't signed on to the embargo? That just doesn't sound like the Obama I've come to know.

It's far more likely that Obama will dither and do absolutely nothing, thus forcing the Israelis to deal with Iran's nukes themselves. When that happens, Obama will use it as an excuse to insist on Israel surrendering its nuclear defenses and knuckling under to the demands of the Arabs, which would amount to national suicide for Israel. If they refuse,Obama will have an excuse leading the charge on crippling UN sanctions aimed against Israel and breaking US ties with those warlike,pesky Zionists.

At this point, having stepped on his own equipment a number of times, the president is retreating to what he knows best...empty rhetoric. He apparently has a new speech upcoming in which he's going to outline a brand spankin' new Middle East peace plan.

I can't wait.

Simple Video - How 'Universal Care' Really Works

Another superb job from Political Math. He compares health care costs and the length of time to see a doctor in Georgia with that of Massachusetts, which has 'universal coverage' and many of the provisions of ObamaCare already in place....using Leggos!

Not to be missed.

Today's Must Reads..

Here are today's must read links. See something interesting out there? Send me anything you want me to review for this section at Rmill2k@msn.com

detroit News:Soaking The Middle Class

Wall Street Journal:Tax Hikes - Teeing Up The Middle Class

Charles Krauthammer:Health Care Not A waterloo, Just A Tactical Retreat

Drudge:OBAMA 2003 (UNCUT): 'SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE PLAN, THAT IS WHAT I WANT'...

Hot Air:White House: ObamaCare opponents lying by...using Obama’s own words!

Thomas Sowell :Utopia versus Freedom

Allah Pundit/Hot Air:LA Weekly wets itself over Obama/Joker poster: “The only thing missing is a noose”

Michelle Malkin How Quickly They Forget

Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters: Obama Joker Poster Stirs Outrage, Bush Joker Poster Not So Much

Ralph Peters Vietnam-Istan

Washington Times:Taliban Killing Civilians At Record rates

Brussells Journal:Paris Burning Again - French Media Blacks Out Coverage

Soccer Dad:The Fatah Conference, 2009

London Times:Australia Foils Domestic Islamist Attack On Army Base

YNET Poll:Israeli Labor Party Down To Six Seats

Clifford May:Obama Treats Allies Worse Than Enemies

George Friedman/Stratfor: Russian Economy and Russian Power

Michael Yon:An Artery of Opium, a Vein of Taliban.

Class Act Versus Self-Involved

As my pal Ms. Bookworm points out, some pictures really are worth a thousand swords:

On July 31, right after Beergate, the White House posted official photos of the event. {...}

You see what I see: the cop who was flung into unwanted prominence because an esteemed professor and the American president accused him of stupidity and racism, carefully helps that same professor, who has a mild physical impairment, down the stairs. The president strides on, utterly oblivious to his friend’s needs.

Nor was Ms. Bookworm the only one who caught this.Thomas Lifeson over at American Thinker saw the same thing here:

Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?

In my own dealings with the wealthy and powerful, I have always found that the way to quickly capture the moral essence of a person is to watch how they treat those who are less powerful. Do they understand that the others are also human beings with feelings? Especially when they think nobody is looking.

Very true, in my experience.And most women will tell you that a man who smiles sweetly at his date and than barks orders at the waiter like he was a prison warden talking to a lifer makes less than a stellar impression. The same thing's true in reverse with a woman who is honeyed charm with the man she's with and than acts like a picuyune, nasty, complaining you-know-what with the 'little people' she's not trying to impress.

Ms. Bookworm goes on to discuss what each of the three parties involved emerged from out of beergate...read the rest here

Get ready For Your Tax Hike...

Because Obama's neo-Marxist agenda needs to be paid for, bubba...and you middle class slobs are just the ones to do it:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers both sidestepped questions on Obama's intentions about taxes. Geithner said the White House was not ready to rule out a tax hike to lower the federal deficit; Summers said Obama's proposed health care overhaul needs funding from somewhere.

"There is a lot that can happen over time," Summers said, adding that the administration believes "it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what."

During his presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly vowed "you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime." But the simple reality remains that his ambitious overhaul of how Americans receive health care -- promised without increasing the federal deficit -- must be paid for.

"If we want an economy that's going to grow in the future, people have to understand we have to bring those deficits down. And it's going to be difficult, hard for us to do. And the path to that is through health care reform," Geithner said. "We're not at the point yet where we're going to make a judgment about what it's going to take."

(hat tip, Ace)

Oh, just for the record, Instapundit dug up this vid of the Prevaricator-In-Chief on the stump telling you that '95% of Americans will not see their taxes raised.' Remember that one?



I pity the Obamabots..they didn't even get kissed first.Ah well..I guess you can always just keep blaming it all on Bush and see how far that takes you.

Two Democrat Congressmen Get Reamed At Home On ObamaCare

This is must see stuff...two Democrat Congressmen getting the raw end of their constituent's anger.



Notice how the crowd reacts to Arlen Spector when he talks about the need to get ObamaCare done quickly...money quote ; "You guys in Congress are getting the best care available on our dime. For the rest of us, its off to a hospice to die."



And in this one, we have Tim Bishop from Setauket New York stepping on his own equipment. I particularly like when he was extolling how well the VA works and a veteran in the crowd asked him "Are you a veteran? Have you ever been to VA as a veteran?" Brutal..and let's hope the rest of the clowns in the current Congress are getting the same reactions and that people remember when November 2010 comes around.

GOP Amendment To Require Congress, Obama To Enroll In ObamaCare Voted Down

Congressman Roy Blunt, Republican from the 7th District In Missouri did his bit to reveal the fiction behind Obamacare by proposing an amendment to require all federal elected officials, including the president, vice-president, and the Congress, to join the government health care plan.

It was voted down...how 'bout that?

“If the majority is really so confident that their plan will provide the very best health care for the people we represent, we ought to demonstrate that confidence by enrolling ourselves,” Blunt said. “I’m surprised, given that other committees in both the House and Senate have considered similar efforts in the last several weeks.”

“I, for one, don’t believe that a government-run health care plan will be the best for the people we represent,” Blunt continued, “But clearly the majority has discovered how potent this issue is. After all, if we are going to force this government takeover on the American people, let’s put our money where our mouths are and enroll ourselves.”

Well done, Congressman. Anyone want to bet that most of the votes against came from Democrat 'progressives'?

Sign Of The Times...As Seen On An L.A. Freeway On Ramp

Except just like with the the Joker in Batman,it's more scary than funny.

(hat tip, Pam at Atlas and Tammy Bruce)