Afterbirther

by Smitty

This is not a post, directly, about events that may or may not have occurred in Hawaii some decades past. Keep in mind that you have the POTUS sworn in by the Chief Justice, and a unanimous resolution in the House supporting him. That makes three branches of the federal government telling you that's just the way it is.

The left-handed amusement I'm feeling is that, for all a sizable chunk of people are exercised about this point, no one is raising the same level of concern about the Social Security Act that they are about health care and the birther stuff.

While it's 74 years long in the tooth next month, its blatant 10th Amendment violation stands as the hugest, longest lasting political WTF in contemporary US history. This is the best example I can think of conforming to the ancient observation:

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.--Matt 23:24

(For you non Bible-geeks: they would pour wine through a mesh into the cup, just in case it carried any divers.)

Down at the Corner of Hate Crime and Blasphemy

by Smitty (No Quarter)

Greg Morton reprises his Obama Man outing by getting on the Niel Diamond steamroller and flattening the good POTUS.

I think I'll schedule a meeting with myself next week to feel bad about this. 10 minutes should suffice. Until then, bwahahahahaha.

No Sheeples Here scores!

by Smitty

Do check out this link. The photoshop goddess at NSH scores again with the POTUS in a keffiyah, juxtaposed with the Sphinx.
It's "I'm the man, the ass" meets Ozymandias. It's "I won" meets

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Things beyond my ken

by Smitty

  How does the imagining left, especially the feminists, force western manhood to wear a hairshirt, while maintaining relative silence over what goes on in Muslim countries? Is it a "simple" case of displacement?
  Larry Johnson is unforgiving on the point: Yo Bitches, Wear that Hijab.
  Larry is less than fair. For that kind of a blog-drubbing, he owes the POTUS an alternative text on the topic. Getting the issue raised at all is something of a win. I liked the allusion to the list of countries that have elected female leaders. Nice oblique slap at the rest who've either had the same clowns in power for decades, or don't even bother with them thar newfangled "ee-leck-shun" thingies. I doubt there is much cure for such cultures, other than a couple hundred years.
  As a thought experiment, would we gain anything if we could give the feminists to these "retro" dudes for some "western male appreciation training"?

Don't worry, Fausta

by Smitty

After reviewing the POTUS's Egypt speech, Fausta was concerned about one missing point that I'd like to clear up:

Details on closing Gitmo “by early next year.” Surely Pres. Obama realizes that it’s not enough to say “I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.” Where will those terrorists be sent? What will be the international reaction?

Gitmo will close on 01Jan10. Simultaneously, hope and change will birth a new facility, omtiG. This will underscore BHO's intent to do the opposite of his predecessor in foreign policy.

Dr. Sanity: How do you feel about the POTUS?

by Smitty

It's simply not clear, amidst all the spin and ambiguity:

  Understand that I listen to people for a living. I hear various degrees of honesty, sincerity, and real emotional pain being expressed on a regular basis. I also hear some of the most self-serving, dishonest and completely irresponsible utterings that it is possible to imagine. Yet, in my professional career, I have to freely admit that I have heard nothing like the deceitful and self-aggrandizing utterings of Barack Obama, which seem to get more and more pathological with every speech he gives. His most recent scam, in the National Archives in front of a fake copy of the U.S. Constitution just about takes the cake. This is not irony, so much as it is the grandiosity of tyranny.
  Bill Clinton--who I actually liked for the most part; even his amusing narcissism, which seems so childishly innocent in retrospect--was completely harmless compared to the sociopathic statist that is our current POTUS.

Track-A-'Crat Missed the Obvious

by Smitty


What other conclusion can there be to 22 cover appearances in two years?

Thankfully, the hate crime isn't racist

by Smitty (great bit hat tip: Fausta)


The questioning of the Holy Narrative, is, of course, a reprehensible hate crime.
Since the singer is black, it is only racist if you are of European extraction and smile at any of the lines. So take this one as a serious, contemplative meditation, folks. At least it's safe for work, unlike The S & M Man.

'They said they were Democrats first'

by Smitty (hat tip: TOTUS blog)

ABC contributor George Will suggested former Sen. John Edwards was irresponsible to campaign for the Democratic Party nomination.
"Think about what a tragedy it would have been if he had won?" Will said.

Tragedy? Greek? The Book of Job? The current economy?

Several of [Edward's staffers] had gotten together and devised a "doomsday" strategy of sorts.
Basically, if it looked like Edwards was going to win the Democratic Party nomination, they were going to sabotage his campaign, several former Edwards' staffers have told me.
They said they were Democrats first, and if it looked like Edwards was going to become the nominee, they were going to bring down the campaign.

Look, if we're going to continue slouching The Road to Serfdom, then what difference does it make which stuffed shirt gets the credit/blame? Oh, right: non-worshippers of the POTUS are racist. OK, modulo the nebulous DNA difference, again: what's the difference?

'Democrats first' is as good as 'Republicans first'. How about 'Constitution first', ye losers?

No, Obama is not Spock

by Smitty

Jeff Greenwald at Salon says Obama is Spock: It's quite logical.
He's been FDR...Abraham Lincoln...and now Spock. I suppose the point is to advertise the new Trek flick. However, one is left to question why the POTUS can't just be Barak Obama. Writer of best-sellers, fundraiser extraordinaire, campaign wizard, [pejoratives go here]. Do we really have to endure Obama Clock more attempts do define the guy in terms of someone else?
Looking at the IMDB top 250, we may see:

• Obama is Don Vito Corleone "I'd like to make you a bailout offer you can't refuse."
• Obama is Jules Winnfield (his wallet is the one that says [NSFW]Bad Mike Foxtrot)
• Obama is Rick Blaine "Here's making vaguely obscene gestures at you, kid."
• Obama is Han Solo (replete with pastry-head Michelle)
• Obama is Indiana Jones (crack that whip!)
• Obama is President Merkin Muffley "General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons."
• Obama is Charles Foster Kane "Arugula..."
• Obama is Arthur, King of the Britons (Joe Biden with the coconuts)

...and so forth. Basically any non-military (anti)hero. Discuss your suggestions.

This Calls For A Clapton Moment

by Smitty (via Digg)

Gary Langer writes:

Barack Obama approaches the 100-day mark with rising economic hopes, the best job approval rating at this point in 20 years, the broadest personal popularity since Ronald Reagan and half of Americans now saying the country's headed in the right direction.

To which one can only reply musically:
How much more non-sobriety must we endure? Obama Clock

Tea Party History Lesson

by Smitty

Michelle Malkin has a short history lesson on the Tea Party movement. Right at 90 days old. Long way to go.

One blog guessed Stephen Green's lede.

by Smitty

That was Political Castaway:

Here's the story, as it is being reported. Bo was sold to a D.C. resident late last year or early this year. Another dog out of the same litter was sold to Ted Kennedy. Bo was returned to the breeder in March and was sent directly to the Kennedy's dog trainer in Northern Virginia. From there, he is to become the newest White House resident.
Reading between the lines, is it difficult to imagine a typical D.C. power play here? The Kennedys, because they are the Kennedys, saw an opportunity to do a favor for the White House. They arranged for the unnamed third party to "return" his dog to the breeder (itself an unusual occurence short of health concerns for the puppy) so that the Kennedys could become the heroes in locating just the perfect dog for the Obamas.

Given that Vodkapundit's (subscriber only, what are you waiting for?) PJTV segment is called "Hair of the Dog", you had to expect a Bo appearance, and it was worth the wait.
But if the Kennedys masterminded the dog placement, could it have been an allusion to that famous non-quotation of Harry Truman: "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog"?

Pax Americana Fugit?

by Smitty

Philo of over at The View from Alexandria posts a review of the POTUS world tour and summarizes:

it became clear that, as Caroline Glick says in a brilliant article, Obama was announcing that America will no longer act as the world’s policeman. Pax Americana is over.

By all means, pay attention to the lips. But do not ignore the wallet. At the moment, the US still allocates the lion's share of the global defense budget. Past performance is no guarantee of future outlays, however. Badly as some might wish to resurrect the Monroe Doctrine, the rest of the world may not permit it. You can't have tsunami relief without a navy, for example. And how do you fund the chronic boredom while you await the acute crisis?
Philo'a analysis gets more critical:

There are several lessons to take away from all this, I think. First, it’s become clear that the left really is fundamentally hostile to human freedom. Leftists talk as if they are the defenders of civil liberties, human rights around the globe, etc. Yet in every global conflict they take the side of those who quash civil liberties and violate human rights. I can only conclude that the talk is either insincere or based on the foolish fantasy that if the United States were friendly to bullies they would stop being bullies and become like us.

Come on, Philo: the Renaissance and Enlightenment were but fads. We now have the velvet handcuffs of Socialism to give us happiness in slavery. Lighten up and dig the cookbook, man.

Second, the Obama administration is at best naive, operating on the basis of such a fantasy. But it may something much worse than that. Glenn Reynolds famously said about some opponents of the war in Iraq: “they’re not anti-war; they’re just on the other side.” Think about the peace movement of the 1920s and 1930s. Some of those people were naive, thinking that if Britain and the United States disarmed and made enough concessions to Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler, there would be peace. But some were Soviet or Nazi sympathizers. Some were Soviet agents. Is Obama naive enough to think that if America disarms and appeases aggressors they will stop being aggressors? Or does he want the aggressors to win? Is he, in short, on the other side?

If he is Gödel's incompleteness theorem applied to the US Constitution, then we have to calmly admit that we got here over decades. Then we have to rip our eyes away from the inferior distractions like the League of Ordinary Milquetoasts and muster at the Tea Party for some principled, Constitutional opposition. Toughen up for the 2010 elections. This administration is only the Thing That Should Not Let It Be if we do nothing.(Stacy will flog me for that, no doubt)

Too Easy

by Smitty (hat tip: Kathryn Lopez)

One is tempted to build a jape out of "in that head", and "finally, something". But that's just too easy. Utterly common. Beneath the Olympian standards of this blog, in fact. Your thanks may be offered below.

Update:
Hot Air has less snark and a couple of clips.

You Know You're Sucking Pond Water When...

by Smitty

...even you biggest drool buckets are getting sick of your dreck. The Anchoress had an excellent roundup of the POTUS campaignappearance on Leno. However, we should pause for the schadenfruede:

The guy just doesn't know what to say. He can't connect. Emotions are here, he's over there. He can't get the words to match the situation.
This began, I'd argue, from the first moment. He punted on the inaugural. Everybody ran around like crazy trying to praise it because if Barack Obama couldn't give a speech then what?
But now, at week 11, we're face-to-face with the reality, the man can't talk worth a damn.

Let us now enjoy a slightly dusty interjection from special guest commenter Solomon:

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
-- Proverbs 17:28

It may be time to slip a "No BOT, no slot" rider into some future legislation, making it illegal to book the POTUS in the future without something there telling him what to say. Chances of slipping that into a bill are good with the 111th Congress.

Update:
VA Virutcon reports a "Bring it on" from the Special Olympics bowling league. That from Kolan McConiughey, who, it must be said, could thrash me, as well.

Blame Limbaugh First

"This is all a White House distraction tactic, and it's being executed by friendly media taking directions. The left online, naturally, jumped on board faster than a Democrat on a filmmaker. It's simple to understand, really. They don't want you to think about Obama's broken campaign promises and inept first month. So they need a distraction."
-- Caleb at Red State