The World Awaits Leadership From Our Man-Boy

Isn't it at least curious that just a month ago, merely days since clinching his victory, Obama found no problem in issuing at least a couple of comments concerning the murder and mayhem that lasted for days during a terrorist attack in Mumbai, yet now, when the US press has practically demanded that President Bush just do us all a favor and drop dead so that O may finally steer this ship out of the dangerous waters in which we find ourselves, our pleas to The Annointed One to offer some guidance on what we can expect from the US regarding what could easily be a precursor to nuclear holocaust...

is just noise to him right now:

Yep. He's too busy "kickin' it" to be bothered right now. There are already reports coming out that the pressure of the job is starting to have adverse affects on him, and the real pressure hasn't even started yet.

The foreign press is ready to pull the veneer off of Barry's facade (read London's Daily Mail on this curiosity) . I wonder how long it will be before the US press does the same.

Al Jazeera Portrayal Of Obama During ME Crisis

Obama Reacts To Missile Attack From Hamas

When the cease-fire ended last week, Hamas wasted no time at all: they sent upwards of 70 missiles into Israel. Israel has replied to this unprovoked attack for the past 3 days, and all Obama has had to say is that he is deferring comment since he's not President yet:

"Obama’s views on the Israeli action remain opaque. Even as the attack continued into its third day Monday, with a Palestinian death toll topping 300 and Israel threatening a ground invasion, Obama had yet to say a word about the crisis, on the grounds that President Bush (who has also been silent) must take the lead." (source)

Great. This is what we can expect from this man-boy for the next few years, apparently. Duck and weave your way through the first term, trying to please all sides as you keep everyone unable to read you.

Meanwhile the rest of the world watches Barry speak out of both sides of his mouth. We leave the era (the last 8 years) of "Say What You Mean, And Mean What You Say" leadership. Say what you will about President Bush, but he didn't try to force some "peace settlement" on Israel or any other Arab nation, as both Clinton and Carter did, both times resulting in the assasination of those nations' rulers.

We shouldn't fool ourselves to think that we can solve the "Middle East Question". We should think first about who's been a better partner to us and represents Western values in the Middle East.

Great Video: Asteroid Impact With Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig In The Sky" As Score

Caroline Kennedy of Massachussets Seeks The NY Senate Seat Vacated By Arkansan Hillary Clinton

Winter In Florida

We've needed more rain for the past three years, but the colors are still turning out ok.

It's hard to believe the amount of new growth, budding flora, and vibrant tapestry that Florida has year-round. According to the texts of some of the earliest Europeans here in the 16th century, the first thing you notice when coming off the ocean after weeks of nothingness are the rich flowers and vegetation as you sail your caravel or nau up one of these rivers. The Spanish were the first European power to lay claim to this peninsula, and the name Florida ("flower") stuck from a time before the first colony in North America had even been established.

The one above is a Hibiscus. To see these blossoms in December-March still leaves me slightly disoriented, having been raised in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, along the 37th parallel. There is snow and freezing temperatures where my mind's eye is tuned, but these are the only images I survey at this time of year. I took these all today:

BLAGOGATE: When The Cover-Up Is Worse Than The Crime

This video does a good job of illustrating the problem, here. The criminals who sell out the public trust are guilty, of course, but what about the complicity of those who tried to pay to play?

Democrat Politics 2.0 : The Obama Upgrade

Let’s admit: the comparisons are real. Bill Clinton brought in a cloud of scandals when he and Hill schlepped their way into our lives, just like Barry and Michelle are about to accomplish.

With Bill Clinton, the White House was home to a pair of Arkansas lawyers who had their hands in as many shady (corrupt) schemes you can get away with, seeing them snowball from the ‘92 primary to the ‘94 subpoena of Rose Law Firm records, which held clues if they hadn’t already been thoroughly sanitized.

After dodging repeated subpoenas for 2 years [could you or I get away with ignoring a court-ordered subpoena for 2 years?], in 1996, Hill made history as the only First Lady ever called to testify before a Grand Jury inquiry.

Despite dodging would-be scandals in the two-year primary season, we see in Barry the emergence of “candidate-with-a-past”, starting with what seems innocent, almost quaint concerns: Is he a secret Muslim?, Did he get sworn in to the Senate with his hand on the Quran?, What’s up with that name? etc, then graduating to deeper, more character-defining choices he made along the way: If you can sell out to Bill Ayers, is there anything you won’t sell out? How can you say you never knew of your spiritual mentor’s core message if you sat in his audience for 20 years, named one of your life-lesson autobiographies after one of his speeches, and walked past the lobby kiosks in his church that were peddling the very dvd videos of the reverend’s hate-filled message?

Soon after the primary season was over, Hill and Bill set forth on erecting their legacy. Some of it not so good (”Don’t ask, don’t tell”, Waco, the 1993 WTC bombing), but there, nonetheless, for the press to ignore. (How often do we hear of the innocent people that Janet Reno and Bill Clinton killed in that Justice Dept/Army tank engagement? It seems lost to history.) Their spree ended up graduating from billing fraud, bimbo eruptions, and travelgate to darker, more sinister levels: Vince Foster, James McDougal, Ron Brown, Mary Mahoney, to name just a few. (see a list here)

It looks like our election-season scandalizing caps off with a “pay-to-play” embroglio which, at this writing, seems to be a whirlpool of Chicago Politics which hasn’t YET caught our man-boy Barry in it’s undertow. I say yet because federal prosecutor Fitzgerald acted just in time to contain the contanimation to only the Illinois governor’s office. Patrick may know that the Obama office had contacted the Blagojevich office in order to “play”, but both parties, that is Emanuel and Patrick, are keeping quiet. Throw the governor overboard in a string of Resko-type associations that we will have to brace ourselves for during the next four or eight years.

Flaws and overspending aside, George W Bush, his father, and Reagan never brought in this kind of darkness to the White House. For the past US generation, we have been treated to deeply flawed, corrupt, and murderous Democrats. Obama is simply continuing the pattern.

BLAGOGATE: What Did Obama Know And When Did He Know It?

The story is simple, yet it could have legs that stretch into the Obama presidency for years. Illinois Democrat governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested yesterday, along with his top aide, in what federal prosecutors are calling a "pay-to-play" racket, where Blagojevich would sell the vacated US Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Wiretapping reveals Blagojevich to say that the Illinois Senate seat is a "a bleeping valuable thing. You just don't give it away. ... I've got this thing, and it's bleeping golden."

Thanks to Patriot Act-like maneuvers, the eavesdropping from US Justice Department officers yielded further highlights of how Democrats, at least in Illinois, eat each other:

Rod Blagojevich said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to "suck it up" for two years and do nothing and give this "motherf***er [the President-elect] his senator. F*** him. For nothing? F*** him." Rod Blagojevich states that he will put "[Senate Candidate 4]" in the Senate "before I just give F***ing [Senate Candidate 1] a F***ing Senate seat and I don't get anything." (Senate Candidate 4 is a Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois). Rod Blagojevich stated that he needs to find a way to take the "financial stress" off of his family and that his wife is as qualified or more qualified than another specifically named individual to sit on corporate boards. According to Rod Blagojevich, "the immediate challenge [is] how do we take some of the financial pressure off of our family." Later in the phone call, Rod Blagojevich stated that absent getting something back, Rod Blagojevich will not pick Senate Candidate 1. (source)

It appears that Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald acted quickly enough to keep this new president elect from any deeper involvement with the entreprenuer extroidinaire Blagojevich, but the second shoe hasn't dropped yet. Names in the Obama camp who may have been engaged in "lower-level" negotiations haven't been divulged. Yet.

Hill Finds A New Man To Serve

From a year ago: Dec 13, 2007. This was the beginning of Hillary's "taking off the gloves" bit with Obama:



Of course, that smug cackle of hers we hear in this clip not even one year old has suddenly dropped off the ether, never to be fired in Barry's direction again. This Hillary 2.0 update has deep respect for the NEW Man From Hope, Barack Obama.

And why shouldn't she? Maybe, just maybe, Hill sees a better man in Barack than the one she married 30 years ago. From her woman's perspective, she can look at the two men who cost her the presidency, and with studied observation know just what she lost out on when she hitched her wagon to Bill Clinton: authenticity.

Bill is a back-slapping good ol' boy in disguise. What he hides is his band camp/Rhodes Scholar/draft-dodging side, which he whips out with ease according to whatever setting he's in. Folksy Arkansas drawl one second, lawyerly the next. Willing to get involved in shady land deals with ease one moment, then sell the participants down the river the next.



The only problem is that Barack is no fountain of authentic ANYthing, but he is more real than Bill Clinton. And he beat HER in a popularity contest! What does that say about her likeability? (or lack, thereof)

Her attempted catapult to the Presidency occupied her best years, from age 40-60. Now that she has accepted Barry's offer of Secretary of State, she will, in effect, be castrated from seducing the candidacy for at least 4 years, and probably 8. She will be over 70, and the country will be moody and anxious for a change from the many years of Democratic rule.

It is a sad realization for ol' Hill, now that she has to turn around at the end of her life, and accept that all of her time and efforts have been spent for the desires of empty men.

Her time to be president has now passed.

Now, she must spend her days listening to yet ANOTHER man boldly tell his staff what directions to take, what issues need watching,...and be secretly furious that it isn't HER telling the staff what directions to take, what issues to watch, etc. She must now smile and do Barry's biding, lest she is portrayed by an already-jaundiced news industry as "not a team player", "power-driven", or "seeking revenge".

Obama is the angry black man in one setting, and the lawyerly, thoughtful deliberator the next. Raised by an atheist into adulthood, then proclaim newfound desire for Reverand Wright's version of Christianity when you need to establish some street credentials as a young adult before you run for office from that district.



Is this the position Hillary envisioned when she dreamed at night, before the 3am call would come in?