Ellie Light… Obama’s Armstrong Williams?

Remember Armstrong Williams?  He was the columnist and radio host allegedly paid by the Bush administration’s Education Department to write columns in support of No Child Left Behind legislation.  Other columnists were also found to be getting paid to support Bush admin policies.

Is Ellie Light Barack Obama’s Armstrong Williams?  Light has gotten letters to the editor published in papers across the country recently that slavishly spout Obama propaganda.  Is she getting paid to do this by the Obama administration?  At the very least, this episode shows the laziness of reporters and editors across America who are so willing to print pro-Obama talking points they don’t even care to verify who’s writing them.

Statesmanlike Counterterrorism

Imagine if a band of Islamic radicals armed with AK-47s stormed prominent hotels and Union Station in NYC and killed over 150 people.  Imagine that we find out afterward the group was supported by Hezbollah or some other terrorist group backed by Iran.  And imagine also that all of this happened after Iran had obtained the bomb, which seems to be where things are headed.

How do you think the U.S. would respond?  Even under Obama, going to court might not be enough of a response.  But would we attack Iran, risking nuclear confrontation or a nuclear attack on Israel?

A Washington Post story on SecDef Gates’ visit to India raises that question.

“Gates…praised India for showing ‘statesmanlike’ behavior by not retaliating against Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai hotel attacks. … Gates said India had responded to the Mumbai attacks ‘with a great deal of restraint’ even though the suspects had come from Pakistan, and that ‘the two sides have managed to keep the tensions between them to a manageable level.'”

Hmm.  Statesmanlike.  Is that how we would characterize a similar response in this country if it had happened here?  A more apt characterization of India’s response would be “in-the-interests-of-the-United-States-(and-the-greater-region)-like.”  Pakistan has the bomb.  So does India.  We certainly don’t want any war breaking out between these old foes.  This is instructive regarding the Iran situation.  Having nukes insulates you, acts as a deterrent.  If Iran has them, they will feel emboldened to more directly engage in terrorist activities and other trouble-making.  Unfortunately, the U.S. and the rest of the world has done little to stop Iran’s nuclearization.  One day we may face the same situation India was in after Mumbai ’08.

Reid def retreating

Wow.  This from Politico:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that there is no firm commitment for Democrats to rush a health care bill through Congress this year.

“First of all, we’re not going to rush into anything,” he said. “We’re going to wait until the new senator arrives until we do anything more on health care.”

This year?!?! Remember when they wanted to jam this through before the August recess?  And then it was pushed back to by the end of 2009?  And then it slipped to “bill-on-the-president’s-desk-by-State-of-the-Union”?  Now a “somber” Reid isn’t sure it will happen by the end of 2010?  I don’t see a direct quote from Reid in the story, so it could be Politico’s loose editorializing.

Still, this is huge.  The possible unfortunate downside is that ultimately a better, but still horrible, health care overhaul gets passed with some Republican support.

Obama Retreat?

Obama says the Senate shouldn’t take any more health care votes until Brown is seated.  He seems to be acknowledging that the American people don’t want this garbage in its current form…but I’m skeptical of his motives.

Ultimately Obama may be trying to appear bipartisan and conciliatory so that the bills are modified to the point that maybe a Collins or Snowe (or Brown?) can be picked off to support them.  Remember, Snowe voted to advance the bill out of committee, while voting against it in the full Senate.  Not sure how much modifying would need to be done to get her or another Repub to cross over, but whatever the final product is it would likely still be bad.

Obama seems to be re-positioning in order to salvage his prized initiative, even if it means giving up more than he (and Congressional leftists) would have had to give up before Brown’s win.  Not sure that any of this will work out in the end, but one thing’s for certain: the bills in their current form are dead.

UPDATE: If Obama is re-positioning, it isn’t by much.  This WP story on the same Obama/ABC interview seems to emphasize that it’s still full-steam ahead.  He still wants something to get jammed through, probably with some minor changes that he and other Dems can tout as big-time compromise and bipartisanship.

“We can cut and run, which I think will be devastating to the country,” O advisor David Plouffe said. “Or we can get this done, and instead of having a caricature of a health-care plan we can get it done and go out there and explain it.”  (Yes, he said “cut and run.”  And isn’t it interesting it needs to be explained afterward?  How about explaining it before it’s passed?)

They still are in denial that the Bay State Backlash was driven primarily by the health care issue.  It’s not that we want your health care “reform” but only in a slightly different configuration, morons.  We want the whole think obliterated and a do-over with narrow, targeted measures that actually focus on the main problem: rising costs.  A few modifications to the current plans won’t sufficiently stifle the anger that led to last night’s election result.

The Greatest Threat

Political correctness, and more broadly, liberalism, are the greatest threats to the U.S. and Western Civilization.  Nowhere is this more clear than in the Ft. Hood shooting and the news that the Army report aimed at preventing such occurrences in the future makes no mention of Nidal Hasan’s motives or of the role radical Islam played.

“The report demonstrates that we are unwilling to identify and confront the real enemy of political Islam,” a former colleague of Hasan told Time.

Incredible.  Nine years after 9/11, months after the Ft. Hood massacre and weeks after the Christmas Day bombing attempt in Detroit, we continue to willingly cover our eyes to the situation and deny that our enemy is really our enemy–and all in the name of political correctness.  Oh no, we don’t want to offend the Muslims.  The hardened jihadists plotting to destroy this country must be belly laughing with satisfaction when they read how we continue to disarm ourselves to assuage our guilt and avoid being insensitive.

And of course, we have a president who encourages this soft approach.  Yes, let’s gloss over reality and avoid calling a spade a spade.  Maybe then they’ll love us.  Unfortunately, though, our previous president had a tendency toward the politically correct as well, making sure everyone understood that Islam is a “religion of peace” and that we weren’t at war with it.  Well, our Islamic enemies certainly think they’re at war with us.  Perhaps it’s time we joined the game.  You can’t win what you refuse to believe you’re playing.  Remember, empires fall from within.

Will Obama Wake Up?

Interesting piece by Jay Cost over at RealClearPolitics about what Obama does now after getting b—- slapped by the Bay State last night.

Does he continue to do the same thing, hoping against hope that somehow, someway doing the same-old same-old will yield a different result? Or does he recognize that he has made mistakes, try to learn from them, and ultimately make adaptations?

Early White House response indicates a “stay the course” tack.  Funny, wasn’t Bush lambasted by libs for a similar posture?  Not the same issue at stake, I know, but still.

Cost says that at this point, there’s no way to know what Obama will do since he has such a puny political history.  His advice?

Let’s hope that this untested, young, inexperienced fellow the country elevated to the highest office in the land has the good sense to recognize the message the Bay State sent last night, to understand that messages of similar intensity will be sent in November, and to direct his staff to make necessary changes.

I actually hope none of this happens because Obama would likely be toast in 2012 if he continues on his current path.  Part of me thinks that this administration, from The One on down, is so deeply entrenched in a left-wing view of the world and this country, they really still believe that the electorate is leftist and wants his big-government statism.  They are so firmly encased in the idea that the country is still mad at Bush and that it’s their job to be the anti-Bush at every turn, they will fail to notice that the country is shifting to anti-Obama.  If they want to survive, it’s time for the hardliners in the White House to turn off the M(es)SNBC echo chamber and take a peek at the real world.  But, again, if Scott Brown’s victory won’t breach their cocoon, nothing will.

Pelosi Wind-Up Doll

Nancy Pelosi is like an outdated wind-up doll who, regardless of real-world circumstances, continues to robotically recite whatever pablum she’s been programmed to spout whenever you pull her chain.

“Whatever happens in Massachusetts, we will pass quality, affordable health care for all Americans and it will be soon,” Pelosibot said before Scott Brown won.  “Massachusetts has health care and so the rest of the country would like to have that too,” Pelosibot said after Scott Brown won.

Everyone else has woken up, including many Dems.  But Pelosi keeps going.  Funny, her political voice seems much smaller and almost comical now.

No More O(h)!

Among many other things, Scott Brown’s stunning Senate victory in Massachusetts underscores The One’s fading glory.  Obama has made very public pushes for three Democrats in the past several months and lost all of them (Va. and NJ govs and now Mass. Senate).

Only a year ago, we were being told that conservatism was dead, that the country had moved permanently to the left and that the GOP was becoming an increasingly marginalized minority party with support only among white Southerners.  It certainly didn’t take long for this administration and the corrupt congressional leadership to blow whatever mandate they really had (which was much, much less than what they thought they had).

Part of the Dems’ education from losing Teddy’s seat ought to include distancing themselves from an increasingly unpopular president and his deeply unpopular agenda.  November is a long way away, but from where things stand today, I wouldn’t want Mr. O campaigning for me this fall if I were a Dem congressman.

At the same time, a word of caution to the Republican party.  Many people, particularly the tea party crowd, still don’t feel comfortable with you.  Being out of power in Congress for only 3 years and out of the White House for only 1 apparently hasn’t been long enough to convince people that you are truly shifting back to the conservative principles that a majority of Americans want and expect from you.  Right now, you are riding an anti-Obama, anti-Pelosi, anti-big-government-madcap-spending wave.  Don’t get cocky or comfortable, thinking that that alone will carry you for long.  If health deform (sic) dies, Dems will be less unpopular this fall than if they ram it through.  So while killing it would truly be a victory for the nation, don’t think that the anger will continue burning till November.

The Brown Miracle

Miracle.  That’s the best word to describe the underdog win that Scott Brown pulled off tonight in Massachusetts.  As I write, he is giving his victory speech.

In December, as the thugs in the Senate rammed the healthcare deform bill through, it looked as though all was lost.  Now, there is hope that it will be stopped.  It isn’t assured, as Pelosi will no doubt work overtime to ram something through.  But if she can’t hold her caucus together, it’s going to be tough for the current bills to get passed.  If these horrible, dangerous proposals are truly killed because of Brown, that will erase any doubt that his election–for the seat held for decades by government healthcare takeover champion Ted Kennedy–was truly a miracle.

“Kill the bill”… it’s no longer a faded rallying cry from the heady days of Tea Parties.  Now it just might happen.

America…carrying the load, again

Ran across this post at Homeland Security Watch regarding why America should help Haiti recover from the quake from a security perspective.  The punchline?  Because Bush ignored Katrina victims and because all Bush did was ruin our image abroad and because other countries just hate us for our consumption and competition, we need to help Haiti as a PR stunt.

Choice quotes:

America cannot afford to ignore the plight of people so like those who suffered from the poor response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  As the nation seeks to rebuild its image abroad, it is becoming clear that the moral authority of the United States and its people rests not upon our ability to project power but on our willingness to extend protection. Put another way: This is a question of compassion, not competition.

…

Distinctions between homeland security and national security, hard power and soft power blur and fade to insignificance in the face of such a catastrophe. At a time when we have become better known and even resented for our preoccupation with competition and our relentless consumption, this is a time for America and Americans to display the sort of uncommon and uncompromising compassion our unparalleled liberties afford us.

First of all, the response to Katrina was not as poor as conventional wisdom would dictate.  The idea that the response to Katrina was an utter failure was largely a political tool used to bludgeon Bush, because, you know, everything wrong in the world is his fault.

Second, the ability to extend protection is not detached from the ability to project power.  Large parts of the world are relatively peaceful and much of global commerce works because of the U.S.’ power to keep thugs and tyrants from wreaking havoc.  Other countries benefit but leftists just whine about American aircraft carriers and bases being in places where they think they shouldn’t be.

Third, only in the leftist mind is America only a competitive nation with little regard for compassion.  Remember the ’04 tsunami?  It wasn’t China or France who ponied up the bulk of relief funds (displays best in IE).  And Saudi Arabia and Iran aren’t footing the lion’s share of the Haiti relief bill, either.  Most Americans are compassionate people and giving people who take it as a given that you extend help when other people are suffering, even if you don’t get anything tangible in return.  But to leftists, America won’t help unless we get a decent ROI.  Nonsense.  I’d like to see how the books of the world’s top charitable organizations would look without American giving.

Fourth, American competitiveness leads to the prosperity that allows the United States to be a giving nation that can help others.  The author gives a nod to our liberties affording us compassion.  Yeah, like the liberty to compete in a market system and create wealth to the point that a certain percentage of it can be given away without a second thought?

As usual, the United States is stepping up to help out more than any other single nation in a situation where we will get little to nothing in return.  And as usual, liberals have to figure out a way to bash the very American values and privileges that give us  the ability to do so.