What the hell is this?

From today's Drudge Report, here's the new Missile Defense Agency logo--that's United States missile defense agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, just to clear up any confusion. The website Big Government discusses the new logo: "Can this possibly be true? New Obama missile defense logo includes a crescent." Another discussion is found at Loganswarning.

This new logo may be nothing more than a childish prank to make the Right's collective head explode, much like Obama "scratching his nose" with his middle finger during a debate or bowing to the Saudi king; alternately, it may be an indication of something more sinister. I simply don't know. What I think it that it's probably a good idea to keep an eye on this kind of stuff.

Here's the group that created the new logo: tmpgovernment.

Obama Logo

Islamic crescent

Why is it I feel like ObamaTeam is being run by a bunch of 14-year-olds, constantly doing shit like this and then snickering up their sleeves?

Hilariously Predictable:
White House Privately Plotting 2012 Campaign

From Politico, Obama's top advisors have begun laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign. Poltico says it will likely be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina.

In related news, this just out from Rasmussen:

This week Rasmussen's Daily Presidential Tracking poll hit rock bottom for Obama's year in office, at -19, for three days in a row. Today it's climbed back up to -16.

Frankly, I'm fine with Obama going into permanent campaign mode. Campaigning, not governing, is what he's good at. I think his priorities are exactly where they should be. He wasted the good will of the people that he came into office with who believed his Big Lie of hope and change, wasted a year trying to pass a crappapalooza government takeover of health insurance bill that the majority of the voters don't want. Why not waste the next two years campaigning?

My vote for a campaign slogan: "More of the same."

My vote for a campaign theme song--this golden oldie from Carly Simon. Go, Champ.

"That's Obama. . . Barack Obama"

Rep. Eric Cantor (R, Virginia): Obama's Latest Health Care Bill Is a Non-Starter

Cantor was talking to Good Morning America.

Cantor: "I'm hoping that the president will answer the question, why does he want to continue to push a bill that the American people have rejected? And will he join us, in a bipartisan way, to try and accomplish the things that most Americans can support, which is focusing on bringing down healthcare costs."

Why, oh why do the Republicans insist on attending Obama's circus freak show on Thursday?



h/t GatewayPundit

Valerie Jarrett and "The burden of being bright"

This is such a typical nose-in-the-air Leftist pose--"we're so much smarter--just get out of the way and let us fix it for you." As Allahpundit writes on HotAir today: these morons who make up ObamaTeam believe that the problem with ObamaCare isn't due to the fact that the majority of the voting population really, really hates this bill; rather, Leftists, including Obama, believe it's because of the failure of The Won to properly explain the bill "the first 8,000 times he talked about it on camera."

Jarrett: "I think probably 'hope and change' were so catchy because it was really very simple, and it was something that everyone understood the definition of."

Really, Valerie? You want to know what I think? The whole concept of "hope and change" was so deliberately vague, it allowed everyone to define it however they wanted. How convenient for ObamaCampaign2008.

Jarrett: That's why "death panels" were so catchy. Everybody didn't necessarily know what it meant but they knew it was really bad.

This woman is a Harvard grad? Huh. I guess they don't teach public speaking at Harvard. They don't seem to teach critical thinking, either. They also don't seem to teach subject/verb agreement. Is that for everyone, or is it just for their affirmative action students? She's not exactly doing Harvard proud here--just sayin'.

Jarrett: So I think part of what our challenge is is to find a very simple way of communicating, and it's hard to even understand what people are talking about. When I first got there, they kept talking about "cloture" and "reconciliation"--people don't know what's that talking about. They know what a preexisting condition is when they've been dropped from their insurance company. . .

Somehow I'm not surprised that the big words "cloture" and "reconciliation" were hard for you, Valerie. Try a dic-tion-ary.

Jarrett: Even if they are in favor of, let's say, a different health care insurance reform, fine. But what's happening is it's an anti-government, I mean, that's the Tea Party. They really are, um, are, uh, trying to rebel against government at all, and I think that that's, again, it's an extreme. . . . And it's always a lot easier to scare people and to get them angry when they're already scared and they're already uncertain, and I think that's what the Tea Party is trying to capture. . . ."

Let me submit, Valerie, that you wouldn't know what the THE TEA PARTY as you call it is trying to capture if it bit you on your big behind. I don't know if her way of speaking indicates she's a fuzzy thinker or if she's just talking down to her audience. However, since she is speaking at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, I can only surmise it's the former. This is the individual who is probably closest of anyone to Barack Obama--she has his ear on a daily basis. If she's this clueless, then it's no wonder The Won is having a hard time figuring out where he's going wrong.

Jarrett: There's nobody more self-critical than President Obama. Part of the burden of being so bright is that he sees his error immediately. . . .

Hahahahahahaha. Oh Valerie, woman, you should do stand-up comedy.




Update: From the commenters at HotAir.

Not lying would go a long way.

Maybe those of us in the Tea Party should try talking to ObamaTeam in ebonics.

And we should be lectured to by a slum lord. . . why?

When I think of Valerie, any number of "simple terms" comes to mind.

Yeah, Obama is so bright he can't get a major bill passed, sans spending $800 billion of other people's money.

Valerie Jarrett is only repeating the new mantra of the left: If their agenda fails, it's because the people are too dumb to understand how wonderful it would be for all of us.

Valerie Jarrett: Queen of the Chicago Slums

Bill Bennett on Glenn Beck's CPAC
remarks about the Republican Party

I love Bill Bennett. He makes so much sense, all the time, as far as I'm concerned. He posted an article today at "the corner," a blog for NRO (National Review Online). He's pretty much not too happy that Glenn Beck is bashing the Republicans as some kind of "Democrat-lite" group. I saw Beck's speech at CPAC--twice. He is a hugely talented guy, so comfortable talking in front of an audience. He also reads a lot and has educated himself--and that's laudable. However, as Bennett says in the article, he doesn't seem to be very good at listening to people around him. Hey Beck--take a breath. Maybe even take a month or so off.

The entire article, "Saturday Night Beck," is worth the read. Here are some quotes from it.

Glenn is among the best talkers in the business of broadcast. I am not sure he’s a very good listener.

Does Glenn truly believe there is no difference between a Tom Coburn, for example, and a Harry Reid or a Charles Schumer or a Barbara Boxer? Between a Paul Ryan or Michele Bachmann and a Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank?

A year ago, we were told the Republican party and the conservative movement were moribund. Today they are ascendant, and it is the left and the Democratic party that are on defense — even while they are in control. That’s quite an amazing achievement. But anyone who knows the history of this country and its political movements should not be surprised. America has a long tradition of antibodies that kick in. From Carter we got Reagan. And from Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama we took back a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, with midterm elections on the horizon that Republicans and conservatives are actually excited about, not afraid of.

The first task of a serious political analyst is to see things as they are. There is a difference between morning and night. There is a difference between drunk and sober. And there is a difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. To ignore these differences, or propagate the myth that they don’t exist, is not only discouraging, it is dangerous.

Excellent article. Beck's thesis of late, the drum he keeps incessantly banging, especially on his television show, is this one:  a pox on all your houses. Frankly, I don't think that's terribly helpful. Yes, the Republicans and Bush made mistakes. However, to lump all Washington politicians together into the same wrong-headed group seems like lazy thinking. Beck, I love ya, but you need to sharpen up.

Newt Gingrich: "My position was Reagan's position: trust, but verify."

Here's Newt Gingrich speaking at CPAC.

"Let's test the president's willingness to be bipartisan," said Gingrich. I'm sure Obama would give himself a solid B+. I would give him a fat F.



Why test Obama on bipartisanship yet again? I don't understand why Gingrich is willing to give Obama another chance at proving his plans to make a sick joke out of bipartisanship. How many chances should Obama get?

I honestly don't think Gingrich has much to say to conservatives anymore.

Update. So while Obama is planning his circus sideshow with the Republicans about the health crap bill, Harry Reid says he'll ram Obamacare down the country's collective throat in 60 days with 51 votes.

Reported at The Hill in the Blog Briefing Room: "Reid: Dems will use 50-vote tactic to finish healthcare in 60 days." Reid said in an interview, "I've had many conversations this week with the president, his chief of staff, and Speaker Pelosi. And we're trying to move forward on this."

So excuse me, but WHY would Republicans agree to meet with Obama next week on the health crapapalooza bill? Anyone?

Update #2: Here's The Hill's "Blog Briefing Room" with a discussion of the healthcrap bill and reconciliation: "Healthcare reform and reconciliation a bad mix, ex-parliamentarian says."

Here's a quote from Robert Dove, former chief Senate parliamentarian. Dove is now a professor George Washington University. "This process is not designed to do a lot of policy making and it would be very difficult to achieve a number of things that people want to achieve" in the healthcare reform legislation, Dove said. "This could be a very long, exhausting process."

Obama's Flippity-flip-flop

Why don't we hear this anymore--any reporting about the flip-flops of our currently in-charge administration. Oh, why ask why, since the answer is so obvious: In-the-tank journalistic malpractice.

However, Byron York in an opinion piece at washingtonexaminer.com is willing to look at Obama's latest flip about the effectiveness of Congress.

Here's what The Won said in a campaign fundraising speech in Denver on Thursday:

"Look, something you got to understand -- for those who don't believe in government, those who don't believe that we have obligations to each other, it's a lot easier task. If you can gum up the works, if you make things broken, if the Senate doesn't get anything done, well, that's consistent with their philosophy. It's a whole lot easier to say no to everything. It's a whole lot easier to blame somebody else. That politics that feeds on peoples' insecurities, especially during tough political times -- that's the easiest kind of politics. There's a long, storied history of that kind of politics."

Oh, this is hilarious on so many levels. How many votes "NO" did Obama make during his 147 days' career  as the Junior Senator for Illinois? But now that he's president, evidently voting "No" as part of the loyal opposition is "gumming up the works" and "making things broken." Not to mention his swipe at the Congress "blaming somebody else"--has he actually not heard himself, about 10,000 times in the past year, blaming Bush for everything that's gone wrong in his own administration? Has he somehow forgotten that for the entire first year of his term, the Democrats had the majority in both the House and the Senate? You'd never know that from his statement.

As Byron York points out in his opinion piece, Obama's words in Denver are a striking flip-flop from his earlier statements praising Congress' ability to get things done. At a campaign speech fundraiser in California last October, Obama said this: "If we stopped today, this legislative session would have been one of the most productive in a generation."

Really? So which is it, Champ? York's opinion about the 180-degree flip-flop in Obama's complaint about the Congress not being able to get anything done is that Obama is talking about one thing: the inability of Congress to pass the health crap bill.

The fact is, when you hear the president and Democrats in Congress complain about not being able to get anything done, or about Washington being broken, they're talking about one thing: their inability to pass a national health care reform bill. Congress can do, and is doing, lots of things -- just not sprawling, omnibus "comprehensive" bills that are unpopular with the American people. (The same can be said for cap-and-trade legislation, now dead in the Senate.) If you put aside enormous bills that would re-order the American economy in ways the public does not want, Congress can do things just fine.

"Health Care Is Obama's Iraq"

Charlie Cook, editor, Cook Political Report. This comes from NationalJournal.com, "Insider Interviews."

Interviewer: If Obama has a communications problem as you suggest, then what should he do to reach out to the American people? Should he try to appear more populist?

[Good Lord, what an in-the-bag question--should he try to appear? Why doesn't Obama just try being who he is and then let the people vote him up or down--but I digress.]

Cook: I sort of reject the notion that there is a communications problem with President Obama. I think it's just fundamental, total miscalculations from the very, very beginning. Of proportions comparable to President George W. Bush's decision to go into Iraq. . . . when unemployment numbers started proving to be much, much tougher and it started becoming more clear that the stimulus package hadn't worked properly, they just kept plowing ahead on health care. And this isn't a communications problem. This is a reality problem. And I think they just made some grave miscalculations and as it became more clear that they had screwed up, they just kept doubling down their bet. And so I think, no, this is one of the biggest miscalculations that we've seen in modern political history.

Andrew Breitbart Destroys the Lamestream Media

“The tea party movement and the rebellion that you’ve seen in Massachusetts and across the country, is not because Barack Obama stinks as bad as he does. It’s because you oversold him and you undersold the last president. In the era of new media there’s checks and balances for the type of propaganda you serve up and if you think you can unring this bell… you’re wrong.”



h/t to Gateway Pundit

Update: Breitbart called out the media in his speech at CPAC on Saturday: "Mainstream media, the gig is up," Breitbart said. "You're not on our team. You're not on the American team. You're on the progressive team. We tried to play nice, and nice is over."

I've also heard Breitbart say that his next plan of attack will be liberal professors. Here's a quote from CBS News' "Political Hotsheet," so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the quote, although it sounds like what I heard him say:

Breitbart said that conservatives have plans to use the same tactics against university professors. "Yes, we do have video cameras on professors, and we're going to use them against you," he said. "This multicultural crap you instill in our kids the second they get into college . . . so you can get votes every election cycle, that's ending right now."

Go Breitbart!

"Knock It Off!"

Today at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), Dick Cheney made a surprise appearance.

"2010 is going to be a phenomenal year for the conservative cause. And I think Barack Obama is a one-term president." You go, Dick!

Cheney continued, "It's a remarkable time to be an American [when is the last time you heard that from anyone on ObamaTeam?] and a remarkable time to be a conservative." I love this guy because he absolutely makes the leftists heads explode--even more than George W. Bush. And I think Liz Cheney is definitely going places.

What might have been--what they intended--
but then the American people woke up

Yet who could have guessed that a guy with no executive experience and a completely undistinguished 147 days as a U.S. Senator wouldn't have made a great president? If only we'd had a clue.



Frankly, I think this video is brilliant, although I don't know who put it together. It would make a great ad for the 2010 and 2012 campaigns.

I'm thinking The Won is looking pretty poorly these days. Just sayin'.

Update. In related news, this CNN poll just out (CNN? Wow): 52% of Americans*  said Obama "doesn't deserve" a second term.

*This comes from a CNN Opinion Research Poll, conducted Feb. 12-15, 2010. It was an interview of 1,023 "adult Americans," including 954 registered voters. The poll was conducted by telephone, so maybe Pookie couldn't get off the couch to answer the phone. I'm only guessing.

Bye-bye, Brennan (You Dangerous Lunatic)

John Brennan (let's get his full title in here), Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. It's time for this idiot to go. Although if ObamaTeam insists on keeping the guy around, then I guess we will be treated to more of his weakminded, jawdropping public comments about terrorism. And if Obama refuses to distance himself from this assclown, then at some point (like now, as far as I'm concerned), the statements coming out of Brennan's mouth belong as much to Obama as they do to Brennan.

On Saturday, Brennan told an audience at the Islamic Center at New York University that 20% recidivism rate for former Gitmo detainees is not that bad, comparing it to the 50% rate of U.S. prisoners. So evidently Brennan compares a terrorist who wants to blow himself up in an airplane over U.S. soil with someone who holds up a 7-11. Are we clear, Brennan? Crystal.

ObamaTeam had to put a muzzle on Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano for her impolitic public statements about the Underwear Bomber. They need to do more than just put a leash on Brennan. He should be fired. Although would that change anything but the public posture of ObamaTeam about criminalizing terrorism? Almost assuredly not. So maybe this guy ought to stay and keep speaking publicly.



Update. I was curious why John Brennan was speaking at ICNYU (the Islamic Center at New York University). According to the ICNYU website, "the White House" was invited to speak at "A Dialogue on Our Nation's Security" held at NYU. The video is posted on YouTube: "John Brennan Speaks on National Security at NYU."

Brennan thanks Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America: "You have been a voice for the tolerance and diversity that defines Islam." Really? Tolerance that defines Islam. Wow. That came at about 00:45 on the video. I didn't go farther than that. Coming from the Deputy National Security Advisor, that's almost criminal stupidity.

Health Care: They're Not Backing Down, Not By a Long Shot

If you think Barack Obama is backing off of the idea of jamming his health care crapopalooza down the American people's throats in 2010, then think again.

I have a spy who receives emails from BarackObama.com, sent by a guy named Mitch Stewart. This group calls themselves "Organizing for America."

From 6 Feb 2010: We're incredibly close. But too many in Washington are now saying that we should delay or give up on reform entirely. So we need to make it crystal clear that Americans understand the stakes for our economy and our lives, and that we want action. The email suggests that people get involved: write a letter to their local paper; post "this note" on Facebook [heh--believe me, Mitch, nobody I know on facebook gives a flying flip about politics]. Mitch tells his email buddies that they're in the fight of their lives to "pass real reform. . . . As President Obama reminded us all in his State of the Onion address, we're fighting for our families and our country--and we don't quit."

From 9 Feb 2010: Congress is weighing options and hearing plenty of special interest voices telling them to give up. They need to understand that their constituents want them to keep fighting.

Yes, Organizing, let's look at that. Rasmussen, who polls real voters, says that 61% of the American public wants Congress to start all over again on this craptastic health care bill. Fifty-eight percent of likely voters oppose the plan that's before Congress. You did get one thing right--you're in the fight of your lives to see this thing through.

Mitch at Organizing says that today, Feb 9, they are relaunching their health care action center "to give people all the tools they need to fight for reform"--link provided.

These leftists are like Whac-a-Mole--they just never go away. The 9 Feb email from Mitch and friends continues: "Many of our senators and representatives are working overtime to gather support for a final bill and pass reform, and they should know we're standing with them. And the rest need to understand their constituents [all 29% of them] still demand action."

From 11 Feb 2010: "As we head into an election year, the new strategy for killing reform is claiming that members of Congress who vote for it will suffer at the polls." Well, let's review, Mitch--say it with me: New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts. But if you want to believe that leftists who want to shove this crap bill through Congress are going to do well at the polls in 2010 and 2012, well, then, buddy--please, please keep suffering under that delusion.

Mitch continues to inform us: "The question is, come November, will the voters know the facts? OFA supporters have asked for a way to show every member of Congress that if they fight for reform now, we'll back them up this election season. . . . We're shooting for 1,000,000 hours pledged to spread the word to fellow voters. And if we get there, we'll publish the total hours pledged in USA Today so there will be no doubt that health reform is both good policy and good politics."

Meaning. . . they'll take out an ad in the paper? Or they'll get their leftist lapdogs in the lamestream press to publish their story? Will they publish anything if they don't make their million hours? Probably not. Something tells me, Mitch, it ain't gonna happen--you're just not gonna be able to "get Pookie off the couch" this time.

"President Obama has made it crystal clear [yeah, crystal] that he has no intention of walking away from health reform. . . . We've certainly faced setbacks in this fight ["setbacks" like the American people, who DON'T WANT this crap bill]. But as President Obama told OFA supporters last week, that only means we need to work that much harder."

Image from MoveOn.org (oops, that's OrganizingForAmerica.com)

Do we still live in America?

Jim Treacher (that's his blogger name; real name, Sean Medlock), a blogger for the Daily Caller, was run down in Washington, D.C. as he was crossing the street last week by an SUV driven by a State Department Security Agent named Mike McGuinn. Treacher was served IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM with a $20 jaywalking citation, even though Treacher reports that he was walking with the light and within the crosswalk. Mike McGuinn, the driver who ran down Treacher, was not cited nor did he provide Treacher with his information.

Treacher says the jaywalking citation was "fact deficient." The Daily Caller reports that the ticket said Medlock was struck at an intersection four blocks from where the accident actually took place. It claims that Medlock was walking diagnonally across the intersection at the time. "In one of his strikingly short conversations with The Daily Caller, agent Mike McGuinn acknowledged that Medlock was not jaywalking at all, but was walking 'outside the crosswalk when the incident occurred.'"

Here are some statements from the State Department regarding the accident. This was posted on The Political Class:

Calls to the State Department were met with evasion and indifference. One DSS spokesman requested that questions be submitted in writing. This is from Sarah Rosett, a DSS spokeswoman: "A jogger collided with one of the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service's offical vehicles"--sort of like Treacher had somehow attacked the SUV. Treacher, by the way, does not jog.

Interviewed by the Daily Caller, the driver of the SUV, Mike McGuinn had this to say: "I'm a federal agent, and I'm not allowed to talk to the media." He cited "liability" and declined to identify the agency he worked for. "You can refer to the [D.C.] police department report."

Treacher had this to say: "The police never told me who hit me. Guess they were too busy keeping the streets safe from my 'jaywalking.'" Treacher says he was crossing with the light and had "plenty fo time left," according to the countdown clock. That's when he says a black SUV made an illegal left turn and hit him head-on.

The Daily Caller website, which Treacher works for, said that calls to the State Department were met with "evasion and indifference." DC says spokesman for the department ignored a series of questions about whether the driver, Mike McGuinn, was on or off duty, who he might have been escorting or protecting, whether McGuinn identified himself to police at the scene of the accident, and whether McGuinn had anything to do with the jaywalking citation.

Treacher, blogging on 8 Feb, said that they took all the broken bone pieces and stuck them together with bone paste. They also attached a piece of metal "someplace . . . . So that's the outside of my knee. My right leg is pretty banged up too, but not nearly as bad as the left. . . . Oh, I have blood clots in my lung, did I mention that? Pulmonary embolisms, they're called. . . . They can't do anything about the clots that are already there. Those will just be absorbed eventually. But to prevent further clots they've put me on something called Lovenox. This is an anticoagulant that I have to inject myself with. It goes in the fat at the very bottom of the stomach, so that's no problem for me. . . . Then, once I'm out of the hospital, I'll have to visit the lab at least once a week to make sure my blood isn't too thick or too thin. This will continue for 3-6 months."

He also won't be able to put his full weight on his knee for 3-6 months. So his knee gets strapped to a continuous motion machine every day; in addition, of course, he'll be going to physical therapy, which after a few days is going to feel like a full-time job.

Update. Feb 9, after surgery. It really sounds as if the guy's knee was destroyed. After surgery he now has crutches, a walker, and a wheelchair: "I'm awesome with the walker, pretty good with the crutches, and I haven't tried the wheelchair yet. I'll probably need that to get around outside, especially in all this snow."

Treacher ended his blogging on The DC Trawler for the day by saying, "This is not over. You can count on it."

A shout-out to all our friends in the frozen northeast

Image credit: Gateway Pundit

It's about style--"the truck" and other musings

I saw this over on one of my favorite sites, Gateway Pundit. You gotta love Scott Brown. GP says Brown drove his GMC truck (the one with 200,000+ miles on it) to work this week and parked it across from Capital Hill. All I ask of Scott Brown is that he please remember how he got to the Senate.

It's a truck, Barry, although we don't really expect you to get the concept.

Oh, and P.S. Hey Barry, what's with the "no tie" look?

I guess "no tie" is the latest thing. To me he looks like a guy who spent the night in jail, particularly lately, since he pretty constantly looks exhausted. But what would I know about style, since I'm from Missouri and I don't get out much.

Some are calling it the "Ahmadinejad look." Barack Hussein Obama--maybe it's not your smartest move to copy the sartorial style of the leader of the axis of evil. Just sayin'.

Maybe Barry thinks he's Dean Martin.

Or maybe he's just feeling nostalgic for a time when life was easier.

Update on "no tie": I got to looking around on some websites when I saw the comparison photos of Barack Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2006, someone asked George Ajjan, international political strategist and commentator, why Ahmadinejad regularly wears a suit, but never with a tie, even in a formal environment, like when he's speaking at the U.N.

Here is Ajjan's analysis:

This issue goes back to the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Revolution. Before the revolution, all public figures in Iran and all officials wore ties, both domestically and when on visits abroad. Shortly after the revolution however, the tie itself began being associated with "Western imperialism", especially after Ayatollah Khomeini branded a large group of intellectuals (who were less religiously zealous than he would have liked) as "tie-wearing cronies of the West" and essentially branded anyone wearing a tie as being Western influenced. As such, no Iranian official since that time wears a tie, whether in Iran or when on official trips abroad. . . . it would be unthinkable for Ahmadinejad, who claims to be one of the "true disciples of Khomeini" to sport a neck-tie under any circumstances.

Well, that's creepy. Obama really ought to wear a tie.

The Left whines: It's unpatriotic to "politicize" terrorists

Last Sunday a very testy John Brennan, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (wow--that title is a mouthful) went on the Sunday shows and scolded politicians apparently for criticizing the Obama administration's handling of terrorists, particularly for being critical of the administration for treating the Underwear Bomber as if he'd robbed a 7-11.

In his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Brennan asserted that he briefed congressional Republicans regarding Abdulmuttalab's apprehension on Christmas Day: "They knew that 'in FBI custody' means that there's a process that you follow as far as Mirandizing and presenting him in front of a magistrate. None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point." Brennan went on to assert that he was "tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as a political football."

Well, all of those "individuals" beg to differ with Brennan's account, including Representative Pete Hoekstra (R. Michigan), ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, who took the gloves off in replying to Brennan's remarks:

"In the last week, the Obama administration has made the calculation that, 'We're doing so poorly on national security, let's blame the Republicans, and let's say that any criticism of our policies is dangerous to national security and is purely political." Hoekstra went on to say, about Brennan: "He's accusing me of distorting, of misleading the facts. So let's talk about what the facts are. Did Janet Napolitano say we were going to get rid of the term 'terrorism' and use 'man-made disasters' or not? Did the president commit to closing Gitmo within one year or didn't he? Did he commit to moving the trial of KSM from Cuba to New York City or didn't he? Did the national security team refuse to identify Ft. Hood as a terrorist attack or not? Did you Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber or didn't you? Did you hold a press conference to tell the world that he was cooperating or didn't you? Those are all policy decisions. If I've got the facts wrong, where are those facts wrong?

"They say, 'Don't criticize us because we're right and you're aiding the enemy,'" says Hoekstra. "That's totally inaccurate. We're arguing for policies that we think will keep Americans safe, and we are arguing against policies that we think jeopardize our national security."

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio) had his own take on Brennan's criticism of Republicans: "Asking hard questions about the White House's lack of an overarching plan to confront and defeat the terrorist threat is a core responsibility of elected leaders in Congress. This sort of cheap, irresponsible political smear doesn't help keep the American people safe."

According to a recent Rasmussen poll, only 36% of voters say that the United States is safer today than it was before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, "marking the lowest level of confidence since Rasmussen polling first asked the question in 2002." Evidently you can count on about one-third of the American people to say just about anything.

And finally, here's a little trip down memory lane. Thank you, Hillary.

More Fourth Grade Hilarity--This Time from ObamaTeam

Am I just "misremembering," or didn't Obama just a few days ago lecture the Republicans about a lack of civility? I guess it means nothing to Robot Gibbs that he's the mouthpiece for Obama's administration. Stay classy, Gibbs. The Obama Administration: Leading from the rear.

Do these dumb-shits on the Left not get it that the more they mock Sarah Palin, the more they elevate her? Honestly, I think Palin punked the Left, knowing that writing notes to herself on her hand would be irresistable fodder for those who hate her. It makes the leftists look small and petty.

Gibbs is now in the unenviable position of following Andrea Mitchell and Keith Olbermann, who have both mocked Palin using the same "joke." What a freaking dolt this man is. Gibbs is absolutely the worst press secretary evah--incompetent and obnoxious--and I'm so glad he gets to keep his job.

A little something from hillbuzz. . .

h/t: HillBuzz.org

Andrew Breitbart Calls Out the Lamestream Media

This was just part of Breitbart's speech at the National Tea Party Convention last Saturday in Nashville. Here's a little something for those East Coast elitist bubble-heads to chew on. Breitbart is hilarious, but he's also very, very serious.

Snowlapse

I really feel for these people; to lose large, mature trees to a bad snowstorm is heartbreaking. But the snow is beautiful, just the same.

"The Four Horsepersons of the Obama White House"

Image credit: FT.com

There's a fascinating article at Financial Times (FT.com) by Edward Luce about why the Obama administration is failing (you may have to sign in to see the aritcle--ft.com. "America: A fearsome foursome"). Then there's another article at The Washington Note by Steve Clemons about the FT article: "Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama Presidency." Both articles are worth a full read.

According to Luce's article, dozens of close Obama allies and friends in Washington were willing to speak for the article, but only off the record, evidently fearing retribution from Obama's "fearsome foursome." What they're saying is that Obama gets his advice from this tight circle of four--Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Senior Advisors David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, and Communications Chief Robert Gibbs. Obama rarely so much as holds a meeting without one of them present.

The effect this is having is multiple. For one thing, using such a core (corpse--haha) management approach keeps Obama in perpetual campaign mode. As Luce points out, successful presidents eventually separate political advice from policy advice; in the Obama administration, this isn't happening.

The other effect such absolute reliance on this tight team is having is to push Obama's cabinet out of the picture. Luce paints an unhappy picture of disgruntled cabinet principals who are treated like minions. Rahm Emanuel is the guy who now famously described one Democratic group as "f***ing retards" after one suggested they mobilize resources on healthcare reform. Another offical says they are treated like children: "Our advice is never sought. We are only told: 'This is the message, please get it out.'"

"I am not sure the president realises how much he is humiliating some of the big figures he spent so much trouble recruiting into his cabinet," says the head of a presidential advisory board who visits the Oval Office frequently. "If you want people to trust you, you must first place trust in them." Clearly the Executive-in-Chief understands little about the basics of leadership, a fact which should surprise no one, since Obama's resume previous to becoming POTUS is largely devoid of executive experience. There has never been another president in modern times more inexperienced than Obama, which makes him more dependent on his advisors than someone with experience. Therefore it's Catch-22 for ObamaTeam: because he doesn't have experience, he needs the best advisors he can get; yet because he doesn't have experience, he relies on the wrong advice.

Clemens, an Obama supporter ("I hope he succeeds") says that Luce's article needs to be taken seriously, because the Obama administration is failing, and people need to consider why. Writes Clemens: "If current trends continue, this once mesmorizing Camelot-ish operation will be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that--to distort and inversely paraphrase Churchill--never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much."

Update. From a commenter at The Washington Note: "So many smart people are trying to 'get through' to Obama, yet he continues to disappoint. What's the deal with HIM?"

Wow, these people really don't get it--but then, I wouldn't expect that Washington insiders would see the world any other way. HE'S THE SMARTEST GUY EVER! WE'RE THE SMARTEST PEOPLE EVER! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Duh. Try getting out of your little Washington bubble on occasion. It's like they're in the Land of Oz.

"Her being a journalist deprives a truckstop of a cleaning lady"

I'm not going to show the video that this ridiculous performance of Andrea Mitchell's comes from. The still photo of Mitchell mocking Palin is enough. Palin wrote four words on her hand for a Q and A, so naturally she's being trashed by the lamestream media as being too dumb to live. Never mind that Obama uses a teleprompter to run a 10-person meeting--or to speak to sixth graders.

Mitchell's performance is what we could look forward to if Palin were to run for the presidency in 2012--relentless ridicule that would make their 8 years of trashing Bush look like a love-in. Sad. You're a real class act, Mitchell. Plastic surgery has been the scourge of journalism (and politics--a la Nancy Pelosi), allowing harpie hag witches like this one to hang around long after their use-by date. One of the commenters at HotAir: "Her being a journalist deprives a truckstop of a cleaning lady." Heh.

Why doesn't journalism police itself? This is the sort of thing we thought was falling-off-your-chair funny in the fourth grade. If you're dying to see the video, you can see it here at Big Journalism.

You betcha--writing a word on your hand is much, much more ridiculous that setting up a teleprompter in a sixth-grade classroom.

Here's Andrea needing a little "help" right before a broadcast. Seriously, if I knew who to credit with this image, I'd do it. Hilarious. I don't know whose plastics job is creepier--Michael Jackson, Nancy Pelosi, or Andrea Mitchell. I think it's a 3-way tie, although Andrea's Joker smile gives her contest bonus points.

Sarah Palin Speaking on Saturday Night
at the National Tea Party Convention

I missed her speech. However, here's what the Weekly Standard Blog had to say. Go here for the entire article from the WSBlog.

Sarah Palin's speech to the Tea Party convention in Nashville showcased all of the former Alaska governor's strengths. She was confident, funny, down-to-earth, at times emotional--and she took a scalpel to the Obama administration and congressional Democrats. Ignore the critics who will say Palin spent too much time looking at her notes; her off-the-cuff approach and decision not to use a TelePrompTer was clearly calculated to highlight President Obama's reliance on scripted events and canned speeches.

Gateway Pundit had this to say about Palin. I couldn't agree more. I like Palin a lot, but I think she's too devisive a figure to be president. GP has a great idea: Sarah Palin urged tea party protesters to help reshape and rebuild the Republican Party. She would make a great GOP chairperson if she wanted the role. Follow the GP link for more of Palin's speech.

The entire speech (video) is at here at FireAndreaMitchell.com. She spoke for a reasonable 45 minutes, not 70 minutes like Gasbag-in-Chief. And no teleprompter. Heh.

Andrew Breitbart Eats the Lamestream Media for Lunch at the National Tea Party Convention

I really like Andrew Breitbart--Big Journalism, etc. I saw him at Quincy, Illinois for a Tea Party event last summer. He said he had a lot of invitations to speak that day from all over the country, but he chose the gathering in small-town Illinois so that he could see what "real people" look like. Evidently he blogs from his basement somewhere in California. He's a great speaker and comes across as a bedrock-genuine guy.

Saturday morning he was speaking at the National Tea Party Convention in Tennessee where he jumped into the media with both feet. Gateway Pundit says there were "dozens" of reporters in the back of the room. He was speaking directly to them. Red meat for the crowd!

Breitbart to media: "It's not your business model that sucks; it's you that suck."

h/t to Gateway Pundit for the video.

Our Smartest President Evah Can't Pronounce "Corpsman"

Not once, but twice, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama mispronounced the word "corpsman" as corpse-man." And no, he wasn't stumbling around trying to speak without his teleprompter--he was reading the speech, as usual. We get this from our Commander-in-Chief, saluted by Marine Corps guards all day long, flying around in a Marine One helicopter--flown by the Marine Corps--the Marine Corps Band plays for him every day--and he can't pronounce CORPSMAN.

Yet we can be sure the Obama lapdog media will bury this one, just like they buried Bush saying "nu-cu-lar"--oh, that's right, no they didn't. How many times for EIGHT FREAKING YEARS did we have to listen to the leftist nutroots ridicule stooooooopid President Bush.

No wonder his Columbia and Harvard transcripts are some kind of State secret.



More seriously, I think Obama has such disdain and disrespect for the American military that he just plain doesn't care enough to pronounce the word correctly. Alternately, this may be a verbal "middle finger" to conservatives and to the military. I just don't know; I simply can't read the guy. I can only hang in there until January, 2012, when in the words of Gerald Ford on taking the oath of office after President Nixon left Washington, D.C.--"our long national nightmare" will be over. A third possibility is that our man-child president is "exhausted"--he certainly looks to be in the clip. If that's the case, then man up, Nancy boy, you wanted the job.

Update. I stand corrected. Obama said corpse-man not twice, but three times, according to my friends at HotAir.

As one of the commenter-wags said: "English as a second language is hard." Heh.

Or this one, which made me fall off my chair laughing: "Chin up, Barry."

Update #2. This is from Big Journalism, in an article written by Michael Walsh, who reminds us that Barry's "corpse-man" pronunciation comes from the same guy who encouraged Americans to learn a foreign language, even though he apparently knows none himself.

The Head White House Retard Speaks (no, the other one)

What a surprise. Rahm Emanuel has said something stupid and offensive.

The dust-up was reported by the WSJ: The friction was laid bare in August when Mr. Emanuel showed up at a weekly strategy session featuring liberal groups and White House aides. Some attendees said they were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Mr. Obama's health-care overhaul. "F—ing retarded," Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items.

This is Sarah Palin's response to Emanuel's crude remark, as reported in Politics Daily: "Just as we'd be appalled if any public figure of Rahm's stature ever used the 'N-word' or other such inappropriate language, Rahm's slur on all God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities -- and the people who love them -- is unacceptable, and it's heartbreaking," Palin wrote. Emanuel is attempting to apologize to a group invited to the White House today, which begs the question, why accept an apology from a dirt bag who simply said exactly what he meant to say?

Palin added that by not publicly denouncing the remark, President Obama was sending the message that he considers it acceptable. "Rahm is known for his caustic, crude references about those with whom he disagrees, but his recent tirade against participants in a strategy session was such a strong slap in many American faces that our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm's recent sick and offensive tactic."

There's another side to this issue, I suppose, although I don't really want to be on the side of defending Rahm Emanuel. Some would say that this is just further tiresome political correctness. I guess that I lean in that direction, although Emanuel is a complete jerk, so I have no sympathy for him. However, I imagine that before and after the "apology" meeting today, Emanuel will be snickering up his sleeve.

Update from HotAir: Special Olympics to Rahm Emanuel: Apology not accepted

Allahpundit at HotAir says this is a White House version of that South Park episode when the boys started calling obnoxious Harley riders “fags.” I don't agree with Allahpundit all that much, but I think I agree with him in this case. Whatever, it's fun to watch Rahm squirm regardless of why.

"This president is a real slow learner."

Wow. Zing. Who is this mayor of Las Vegas? His name is Oscar Goodman, and he has taken Barack Obama to task. Go Oscar! Watch to the end. It's short, and it's that good.



Transcript.

Obama: “When times are tough . . . you don’t go blowing a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

Mayor Oscar Goodman: “He has a real psychological hang-up about the entertainment capital of the world. An apology won’t be acceptable this time. I don’t know where his vendetta comes from, but we’re not going to let him make his bones by lambasting Las Vegas. . . . He didn’t learn his lesson the first time, but when he hurt our economy by his ill-conceived rhetoric, we didn’t think it would happen again. But now that it has, I want to assure you that when he comes, I’ll do everything I can to give him the boot back to Washington and to visit his failures back there. And I gotta tell you this, everybody says I shouldn’t say it, but I gotta tell you like it is. This president is a real. slow. learner.

So let me see if I can get this right. Obama is going to tell us how we shouldn't spend OUR money on our own vacations when we need to save for college. But it's not a problem for BO and family to spend OUR money on HIS vacations? Or for Nancy Pelosi to spend OUR MONEY on her booze and dinners on Air Force jaunts for friends and family? Do I have this right?

My friends at HotAir say the person who will pay most for this is Harry Reid: "He can’t win re-election without a huge turnout in Sin City and a big spread. If Obama becomes unpopular in Las Vegas, Reid’s re-election will become an impossibility rather than the improbability it is at the moment."

This is how Obama clarified his stupid remarks in a letter to Reid: “I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun,” Obama said, according to the letter released by Reid’s office. “There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country’s great destinations.”

Man, you are seriously joking. Here's Reid's reply to Obama [and by the way, Reid, you AND NEVADA, who voted you and Obama into office, deserve anything Obama can dish out]: “The President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn’t be spending their money,” Reid said. “I would much rather tourists and business travelers spend their money in Las Vegas than spend it overseas.”

Exit question: I'm only guessing, but aren't there a whole lot of SEIU members who work for the hotels in Vegas? Just wondering.

Exit question #2: How do you like Obama NOW, Nevada?

HotAir commentor: "This is some hot blue-on-blue action."

Nancy Pelosi: "We'll Parachute In"


Pelosi is an obscene idiot hypocrite liar and one of the most corrupt people ever elected to Congress.

She would like to push health crap down people's throats even if it were to destroy the careers of everyone (else) in the House and Senate.

Here's what she said the other day when asked if health care would happen: "We go through the gate, the gate is closed, we'll go over the fence, the fence is too high, we'll pole vault in [what an image!], if that doesn't work, we'll parachute in, but we're going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their ownn personal health and economic security and for the important role it will play in reducing the deficit."

Jane Jamison at the American Thinker thinks, conversely, that Nancy has seen her last hurrah. Jamison's article catalogs Pelosi's abuses of the American taxpayer: Pelosi has spent at least $3.2 million on trips, hotels, food, high-priced liquor, and military jet rides in the past two years. Jamison goes on to report on documents obtained by Judicial Watch that add up the obscene costs to the taxpayer of Pelosi's travel expenses, including food and alcohol. She is on the list of the 15 richest members of Congress (we don't know how rich because she doesn't have to say), yet she charges Jane and Joe Citizen for her family's Grey Goose martinis when they travel on "Air Force Three."

Here's a photo of Prince Paul, Pelosi's son. It's not bad enough that she requisitions military jets at her own beck and call, but she also uses the taxpayer-paid-for military jets to shuttle her children and grandchildren across the country. Documents obtained by Judicial Watch show that Pelosi has abused the perks of her office in this way for her family on literally dozens of occasions. Nancy Pelosi: Congressional Welfare Entitlement Queen.

"Do as I say, not as I do." That's the  moral disconnect of Pelosi's liberal hypocrisy, writes Jamison. She and her husband own a $25 million Napa Valley vineyard; she hires only nonunion workers to pick her grapes and sells only to nonunion wineries. UFW workers need not apply at the Pelosi family vineyards.

It's hard to imagine that Pelosi's popularity in her own district will go up after her expense reports have been released, considering her home state's unemployment rate is 12.5% and the California budget is $21 billion in the red.

Jamison writes that rumors abound that Queen Nan will be replaced by Steny Hoyer (D., Maryland) as Speaker of the House next year--and that's if she's reelected and if the Democrats hold their majority.