This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • Obama Administration doesn’t like fact-checking

    According to the Fox News Channel, the White House is purposely avoiding the network’s Sunday news show because it’s “opinion journalism masquerading as news”. Not at all like the networks that get tingles in their collective leg when the President’s name is mentioned. Apparently, they don’t like to be fact-checked;

    The White House stopped providing guests to ‘Fox News Sunday’ after Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was “something I’ve never seen a Sunday show do.”

    Maybe that’s why Fox has a growing audience these days – because the other news shows don’t bother to investigate beyond the talking points issued by the White House.

    Can you imagine the furor if the Bush White House had treated the President’s critics this way? This is more of the tactics they’ve borrowed from Hugo Chavez – it’s certainly not American. If I worked at one of those other networks, I’d be questioning the ethics of my own employers at this point – but then, I don’t, and they won’t.

  • John Kerry: Too early for surge

    john-kerry-crawl

    Fox News Channel writes that John Kerry, (who, by the way served in Vietnam, in case you hadn’t heard) has drawn on his vast experience as a combat commander and decided that the generals and planners on the ground in Afghanistan are wrong and it’s too soon to send more troops as those generals and planners have requested;

    In taped remarks to air Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kerry said it would be misguided to have a troop buildup to achieve a mission of “good governance” when the election is not yet finished.

    Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was in Kabul on Saturday.

    The Hill and CNN quote Kerry a bit differently;

    It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country

    John Kerry, while serving as a lieutenant in Vietnam, reportedly fired a 40-mike-mike grenade into a bag of rice which, in turn, propelled a few kernels into the fleeing young lieutenant’s buttocks which resulted in the award of one of his three Silver Stars Purple Hearts.

    And that’s the guy telling us how to deploy our forces these days.

    When would be a better time, Kerry? After next Fall’s election, maybe so your base doesn’t fall apart on you and the Republicans use your inability to make decisions in a timely manner against y’all?

    Who wants to be the last to die for John Kerry’s latest lies?

  • VoteVets: ya know who’s the Messiah – Obama, that’s who

    That “nonpartisan” veterans Political Action Committee, VoteVets, weighed in on the remarkable news that the services made their recruiting and retention goals last year (NYT link) – sort of like they’ve made most of their goals over the last eight years. When the services were retaining and recruiting during the Bush years, we listened to dicksmith and others explain it away with excuses like they’d lowered their standards, that they were recruiting racists and boobs. Now, of course, it’s thanks to the magnificence that is Obama.

    I think it also must be considered that the American people have more confidence in their new Commander-in-Chief. Some of the success can also be attributed to the increased benefit provided by the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill. While neither of these, nor the economy, alone led to the recruiting success, they are all absolutely important factors.

    Yeah, he had to add the other stuff, just so he could pretend that he didn’t just crawl out from under Obama’s desk.

    Since dicksmith frequents TAH, maybe he can answer me a question; What has Obama done to inspire such confidence? Is it his diddling over giving the generals what they’ve requested? Attempting to cut our health benefits and increasing our portion of the bill? Is it the excellent way the GI Bill has been administered? Please, just show me one thing in which he’s inspired such confidence.

    Yeah, I’m biased, but I’ve never claimed to be “nonpartisan”.

  • Shinseki still incompetent

    The Stars and Stripes reports this morning that weeks after the Department of Veterans Affairs authorized “emergency payments” for their education benefits, more than 30,000 of the 82,000 veterans who’ve applied are still without checks (that’s about 36% of applicants), some probably won’t get their checks until 2010. So much for “emergency” payments.

    But fear not – DVA’s boss says it’s “unacceptable” Whew! Don’t you feel better? I know that veterans and their families will be able to live on that “unacceptable”. It puts food on the table, it makes it easier to study, it even makes rent payments. What we need here is for Brandon Friedman to have another conference call so he can get dicksmith’s opinion and then leap into action like last time.

    “[VA Secretary Eric Shinseki] has made it clear to everyone that any delay in payments is unacceptable,” [Keith Wilson, director of the VA’s education services] said. “I know what it’s like to stand in line for food stamps after defending this country. I take this very personally, and we’re going to fix it.”

    Yeah, drag out your own victim card to deflect criticism. The fact remains that this bill passed 12 months before the first check was to be cut – DVA had time to fix this. It’s not like a hurricane struck or anything.

    Worse? DVA’s computer system for this process won’t be running for more than a year;

    A new automated computer system is expected to simplify that process, but the system won’t be fully operational until December 2010, Wilson said. That drew criticism from lawmakers, who worry that students enrolling in classes next spring and fall could face similar delays.

    But don’t worry, I’m sure these problems won’t surface when the government takes over all of our health care.

  • Beret saleman Shinseki in over his head

    It’s a good thing Eric Shinseki isn’t working for a Republican administration or he’d be tarred and feathered and tethered to a railroad tie in front of his Vermont Avenue office at this writing. Lucky for him, Congress and the media carry water for Democrats;

    “A plan was written, very quickly put together, uh, very short timelines,” declared VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to the US House Veterans Affairs Committee yesterday as to why the VA had screwed up the payments for veterans attempting to pursue higher education. “I’m looking at the certificates of eligibility uh being processed on 1 May and enrollments 6 July, checks having to flow through August. A very compressed time frame. And in order to do that, we essentially began as I arrived in January, uh, putting together the plan — reviewing the plan that was there and trying to validate it. I’ll be frank, when I arrived, uh, there were a number of people telling me this was simply not executable.”

    So, instead of warning people, or negotiating temporary agreements with schools, or…well, anything, Shinseki let the dates chug up on him and then pass. Shinseki made empty promises to veterans that he had no intention to keep. From Stars and Stripes;

    A number of “complications” caused the payment delays, Shinseki explained. One factor was VA officials underestimated the number of claim processors they needed by the Aug. 3 start date. Early estimates were based on processing time under the Montgomery GI Bill program, he said.

    But processing Mongomery GI Bill payments involves two to three steps and takes an average of 15 minutes versus nine steps and more than an hour to process a Post-9/11 GI Bill application, Shinseki explained. Unlike Montgomery GI Bill benefits, Post-9/11 payments vary by school location and other unique factors.

    Yeah, unique factors like having a blivet head for a DVA Secretary. The Congress members really wore his ass out for being an incompetent boob;

    Both Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., committee chairman, and [Steve Buyer, R-Ind.] praised Shinseki for integrity and candor in promptly revealing and addressing problems that have surfaced at VA since he took charge last February.

    “We think you’re doing a great job,” said Filner. “I know you were called a soldier’s soldier when you were in the Army. And now I’m calling you a veteran’s veteran.”

    CNN blames veterans for applying for the benefits they earned;

    The department became a victim of the success of its new education program for veterans who have served since September 2001. The claims became so backlogged that the VA was forced to issue more than $70 million in emergency funds to veterans who were still waiting for money for supplies and living needs, weeks into the school year.

    The truth is; Shinseki and his staff could have done almost anything to curtail these problems, but instead they just smiled and waved at TV cameras until veterans got fed up with the pleasantries and broken promises.

    The good news is that Congress finalized a bill to provide the DVA with funding for medical programs a year in advance. I’m betting that Shinseki will screw that up, too.

  • Who needs bullets during a war

    An article at the Washington Times reports that Congress stripped out $2.6 billion from the Defense budget to fund 778 pet projects (read that: earmarks). Money that should have gone to buying ammunition, fuel and training instead found it’s way into more critical areas;

    $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

    While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, “in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year,” said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats.

    So while the Obama Administration diddles on whether to supply our toops engaged with an enemy in a far away land, the Congress is busy wrestling their money away from them to buy patronage here at home for their political aspirations next year.

    The Kennedy museum thingie – that was from John “who wants to be the last to die for a lie” Kerry.

    “Sen. Kennedy served on the Armed Services Committee for 27 years, where he fought to deliver top-of-the-line body armor and armored Humvees to protect our troops and save lives. Educating Americans about these battles is a core mission for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, which showcases one senator’s ability to make a difference,” Mr. Smith wrote in an e-mail. “This funding will help the Edward M. Kennedy Institute become one the nation’s pre-eminent civic educational institutions, and Sen. Kerry is proud to have worked with Chairman Inouye to make it possible.”

    Oh, and let’s make the military buy stuff thay don’t need;

    In addition to the $2.6 billion in earmarks, the bill includes $2.5 billion for 10 Boeing C-17 cargo planes that the military says it does not need, and $1.7 billion for an extra DDG-51 destroyer not requested in the Pentagon’s budget proposal.

    What’s it costing the military to pay for politicians’ patronage?

    “Air Force and Navy combat pilots training to deploy are getting about half of the flying hours they got at the end of the Vietnam War,” he wrote in his analysis. “Army tank crews get less in tank training today than they did during the low-readiness Clinton years.”

    Yeah, Republicans did the same thing while they ran Congress – and they lost public and political support because of it. I haven’t given a penny to Republicans since 2004. Will Democrats do the same to their politicians? Fat chance.

  • Zombie takes on media matters

    Our buddy Zombie has come under fire from the leftist Media Matters for exposing the ties to a NAMBLA activist of Ken Jennings, “Safe Schools Czar” for the Obama administration. Zombie’s steely-eyed gaze down the liberal media’s barrels can be found in “Memo to Media Matters: Kevin Jennings knew of Harry Hay’s NAMBLA connections“.

  • Clinton: some in US/Russia stuck in Cold War

    After Secretary of State Clinton folded like a Kmart lawn chair to the Russians yesterday on the issue of sanctions against Iran, she went to talk to Russian students, according to the Washington Times, and resurrected the old “stuck in the Cold War” myth the Left loves so much;

    “We have people in our government, and you have people in your government, who are still living in the past,” she told a hall packed with hundreds of students at Moscow State University. “They do not believe the United States and Russia can cooperate to this extent. They do not trust each other, and we have to prove them wrong.”

    She sounds real brave, doesn’t she? Clinton apologizes that Americans still don’t trust Russia because of the Cold War. But if you want to really point fingers at someone who has no real reason to mistrust the other side, yet loves the fear that mentioning the Cold War gets, it ain’t the US, doll. This from Breitbart/AP by way of Drudge;

    A top Russian security official says Moscow reserves the right to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes to safeguard the country against aggression on both a large and a local scale, according to a newspaper interview published Wednesday.

    Presidential Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev also singled out the U.S. and NATO, saying Moscow’s Cold War foes still pose potential threats to Russia despite what he called a global trend toward local conflicts.

    Yeah, if we were really a threat to the Russians, we probably would have made our move 20 years ago when there was such confusion after the SOviet Union collapsed – certainly not now that they’ve recovered somewhat. Yet, Hillary blames the conservatives in the US. Shock, huh?

    “I chose partnership and I chose to put aside being a child of the Cold War. I chose to move beyond the rhetoric and the propaganda that came from my government and yours,” Mrs. Clinton said.

    The rest of us did, too, Clinton, until the Russians interceded in Georgia last year. We put the Cold War behind us, until the Russians decided to make an issue of defensive weapons in Poland. Why should they be worried about defensive weapons? Why are they now rehabilitating their first strike policy?

    Clinton has fallen into the same trap as her boss- trying to blame the US for everyone else’s mistakes. Jimmy Carter foreign policy.