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

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • Hillary falls on Benghazi sword

    Nik sends us a link to CNN which reports that Clinton fell on her sword in an interview with CNN in regards to the blame for the lack of security at the Benghazi consulate on September 11th;

    “I take responsibility” for what happened on September 11, Clinton said in an interview with CNN’s Elise Labott soon after arriving in Lima, Peru for a visit. The interview, one of a series given to U.S. television networks Monday night, were the first she has given about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

    Clinton insisted President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions, Clinton said.

    “I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha,” she added, noting that it is close to the election.

    Of course, we knew that. I’m pretty sure that the president and vice president don’t pour sweat out over staffing considerations at every single consulate in the world. But the president does appoint the people who do make those decisions. It appears to me that a lot of people in the Obama Administration take a fall for their decisions. I seem to recall some presidents who took the blame as well as the credit for their administration has done right or wrong.

    Of course, this president’s first staffing consideration was Joe Biden as if that shouldn’t have been a warning for the rest of us of the type of people he considered worthy of doing the people’s business. I could go on from Bite-Me, but I won’t.

    Clinton also sought to downplay the criticism that administration officials continued to say the attack was a spontaneous product of a protest over an anti-Muslim film, a theory that has since been discarded.

    In the wake of an attack, there is always “confusion,” Clinton said. But the information has since changed, Clinton said in the interview.

    Yeah, well, most of us could read news reports and look at the calender and be able to tell that it wasn’t a spontaneous protest. Don’t they have TVs and calenders at the State Department?

  • Oh, yeah, that nuclear Iran thing

    Fox News reports the European Union nations have decided that they need to pile on more sanctions in regards to Iran and their nuclear program that seems to have not been influenced greatly by previous sanctions. A European satellite provide has cut off several Iranian stations from their programming list as a result of earlier sanctions, followed by complaints from Iranian state broadcasters.

    Foreign ministers from the 27 EU member countries, meeting in Luxembourg, said Iran was “acting in flagrant violation of its international obligations” and was still refusing to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency to address international concerns.

    Well, they won’t get much help from the US if we take Joe Biden’s line in the sand last week during the debate as a policy statement from the Obama Administration. The Wall Street Journal in an article sent to us by Veritas Omnia Vincit wrote this weekend that Joe Biden isn’t all that worried about Iran’s uranium enrichment program, but rather their missile program;

    “When my friend [Paul Ryan] talks about fissile material, they have to take this highly enriched uranium, get it from 20% up. Then they have to be able to have something to put it in. There is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point.”

    “Let’s all calm down a little bit here,” Mr. Biden said a few minutes later.

    In other words, Iran may have made progress toward enriching enough uranium to sufficient strength to build a bomb in the past four years, but that’s immaterial. Based on the Vice President’s intelligence, Iran isn’t close to getting the trigger mechanism, missiles and all the other things needed to deploy a weapon. So don’t worry.

    I’d remind Bite-Me that Iran always has a delivery system that can reach Israel – the other nuclear state in the region and Iran’s main enemy. But I guess that’s all regional. A nuclear exchange between those two wouldn’t have any effect on us, would it? The last time terrorists attacked us they used commercial jets. I guess they don’t have any commercial jets in Iran, do they, Joe?

    So don’t worry, EU, the Obama/Biden Administration will have your back, well, once Iran crosses the newest line in the sand.

  • Washington Post; How Obama lost Syria

    Jackson Diehl writes in the Washington Post today on how Obama screwed the pooch on Syria. I’m sure hell have nightmares about the fact that he kind of said Bush was right in regards to Syria;

    Obama’s Syria policy began in 2009 with the misguided idea of reaching out to the dictator. Within a month of his inauguration, Obama reversed the Bush administration’s approach of isolating Assad. He later reopened the U.S. Embassy and dispatched senior envoys, such as George Mitchell.

    The problem with this policy was not just the distasteful courting of a rogue regime but the willful disregard of the lessons absorbed by George W. Bush, who also tried reaching out to Assad, only to learn the hard way that he was an irredeemable thug. Yet Obama insisted on reversing Bush’s policy of distancing the United States from strongmen like Assad and Hosni Mubarak — a monumental miscalculation.

    When the uprising against Assad began in March of last year, the administration’s first reaction was to predict that he could be induced to coopt it. “Many .?.?. believe he’s a reformer,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That illusion caused the administration to stand by for months while Assad’s security forces gunned down what were then peaceful pro-democracy marchers; not until August 2011 did Obama say that Assad should “step aside.”

    OK, that’s a good place to start. I wish Diehl had qualified who exactly he thought was also responsible for this besides the Obama Administration instead of leaving that hanging out there. But, yeah, the Obama Administration went out of it’s way to reverse most of the Bush foreign policies just, well, because it was a Bush policy. Never mind that those policies had been forged by trial and error. As it turns out, most of the Bush policies have been validated by the Obama Administration either by continuing them or by royally screwing it up. Syria happens to be one of many.

    As countless observers correctly predicted, the subsequent U.N. mission of Kofi Annan was doomed from the beginning. When the White House could no longer deny that reality, it turned to an equally fantastical gambit: Vladi­mir Putin, it argued, could be persuaded to abandon his support of Assad and force him to step down. The nadir of this diplomacy may have been reached on June 30, when Clinton cheerfully predicted that the Kremlin had “decided to get on one horse, and it’s the horse that would back a transition plan” removing Assad.

    Yeah, because Putin always cheerfully makes things easier for us – said no one ever. But Obama has never been alone in this. Remember in 2007 when Nancy Pelosi that foreign policy genius went to Syria to undo the Bush Administration attempts to isolate Bashar Assad. They were all eager to sabotage our efforts in the region just because it was a Republican’s policies not because they had better ideas.

    And today we read in the New York Times that most of the weapons that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are sending the rebels in Syria are ending up in the hands of the more radical (read that jihadists) elements of the rebel movements.

    That conclusion, of which President Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments of the Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 25,000 lives, casts into doubt whether the White House’s strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States.

    Actions (or inactions) have consequences. And, oh, Syria’s war is spilling over to two of our allies’ countries – Jordan and Turkey. Say “Thank you, Nancy”. How long before we have troops facing those weapons that the Saudis shipped to the region?

  • My Basketball Diaries from the Nineteenth Hole

    Just before the raid on the Benghazi consulate we were informed by the conservative media that our president had not been attending his daily intelligence briefings for some time. The reason offered up by the White House spinmeisters was that this president is just so much more intellectually advanced than all his predecessors that he could duplicate in his wondrous mind with a solitary reading, all the give and take that might arise in a daily briefing with the world’s foremost intelligence masters or their hand-picked representatives.

    Boil that down to common vernacular and what they were telling us was that Obama possesses such a superior intellect that he doesn’t need these briefings by some of America’s brightest people. No, this guy, whom the we people have been told is a genius, without a single college transcript to substantiate that claim, can just absorb it all by some osmotic process while he’s playing golf or basketball or appearing on adoring television venues. What that means, America, is that our chief executive, our commander-in-chief, is just too damned smart to be bothered with going through the motions, procedures and protocols, established over long decades for that exalted position, of determining what is working and what is not.

    Distilled to its essence: Barry’s above all that political process crap.

    With the anniversary of our horrific and worst terrorist attack recently passed, where was our president? Well, according to public knowledge, for part of that time he was on The View, languishing in the adoration of all those liberal twits as eye candy. For another portion of it he was wallowing in Letterman’s truly icky man-love. Where he most decidedly wasn’t, was in the White House briefing room with the intelligence leaders of this nation, who might, who just might, with the reams of hyper-secrets they are privy to, have informed him of a potentially lethal threat in Libya.

    Hillary Clinton was ever so right when she tried to warn the nation that Barry Obama, boy-wonder of a Chicago community organizer, wasn’t even close to being ready to handle that 3:00 am international crisis call. Hell, this guy is incapable of handling a 3:00 PM crisis call, probably because he’s out on the golf course somewhere or practicing lay-ups in the gym. But that’s OK, America, cause the dude is just so incredibly smart that he can deal with whatever comes up.

    Like the Benghazi massacre? Well, aren’t we all just bowled over with how efficiently and effectively this super-smart Chicago dude has dealt with this crisis? What? You think maybe he’s not just dropped the ball but is trying to convince the public he wasn’t even a player? No, you fools, that was Hillary’s game. Our boy Bo didn’t have anything in play there. How could he be at fault when the schedule will show he was triple-checking his lie on the seventh hole just as all that diplomatic crap was falling apart? OK, well hell, if it wasn’t Hillary, it just had to be Petraeus, then, who screwed things up so badly. Yeah, this loser general who only made four stars fighting multiple wars simply must have failed to inform our national community organizer, don’t you think?

    This whole Libyan mess couldn’t possibly have been the fault of the first post-racial president, an inexperienced and unqualified fool, too lazy and too arrogant to take his daily intelligence briefings, now could it? Nah, he’d rather do layups and easy puts.
    Obama’s inevitable memoirs should be entitled, “My Basketball Diaries from the Nineteenth Hole.”

  • White House looks at “boots on the ground” in North Mali

    During the Vice Presidential debate the other night, Joe Bite-Me made the comment in regards to Iran and Syria “The last thing we need now is another war.” But it looks like this administration is looking closely at joining France in operations in Mali, according to the Associated Press;

    “This is not only a humanitarian crisis; it is a powder keg that the international community cannot afford to ignore,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said recently.

    The Obama administration, France and neighboring African countries are all weighing what will be the most effective policies to halt the rapid success of Islamic extremists in Mali. The 15-nation West African regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, has discussed sending 3,000 troops to help oust the Islamist militants from the north.

    According to Radio France International, al Qaeda terrorists have captured six French hostages who they threaten to kill if France intervenes in Mali. The UN Security Council is demanding a plan for military intervention in Mali from African nations in the next 45 days according to Reuters. So why all of this rush to war, UN guys?

    While I fully support any strategy that results in filled graves of terrorists, especially of the Al Qaeda variety. But it seems to me that this administration can’t get away from Al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan fast enough, where we already have a presence of troops more than willing and capable. I’m pretty certain that another half-assed show of force in some African shit hole isn’t going to bolster our image on the world stage.

    I’m pretty certain that doing away with the mullahs in Iran and trying to get a grip on the weapons of mass destruction in Syria should be a priority. But this looks more like an opportunity to make the UN look effective than it is about killing terrorists and putting an end to Al Qaeda. But since there isn’t a Republican in the White House, at least we’ll look like we’re doing something compassionate and useful for a change.

  • Weapons missing in Benghazi

    McClatchy is reporting that when the British in Benghazi closed their office doors after their diplomats were attacked with RPGs, they left their weapons and vehicles with the American contingent there. of course all that shit is gone now;

    The June 11 attack on British Ambassador Sir Dominic Asquith as he drove through Benghazi is among a list of 230 security incidents, 48 in Benghazi alone, that U.S. officials compiled to show how dangerous Libya had become. Two of Asquith’s security guards were wounded in the attack. In contrast to the Americans, who remained in Benghazi, the British determined that the city was too dangerous and closed their offices.

    Before withdrawing, however, British officials reached an agreement with the U.S. consulate to leave their weapons and vehicles at the poorly guarded U.S. compound.

    “We are working with the U.S. to establish what, if anything, has happened to this equipment,” British news agencies quoted an unnamed Foreign Office spokesman as saying.

    So the Brits had the foresight to un-ass Benghazi. Good for them. As far as the weapons and stuff, look, we arm Mexican drug lords here, so we have no problem arming al Qaeda terrorists with your stuff in Libya.

  • Biden’s Bully Pulpit

    Reading through the blogosphere yesterday, it seemed to me that the conventional post-debate wisdom was that Joe Biden’s boorish behavior during the VP debate was intentional, at least in part, as a means of firing up the demoralized Democrat base. That the left would even admit that it is demoralized is telling when we are this close to the election, but it is the contention that Biden’s performance was aimed at re-energizing the base, much of which in the last election was made up by the 18-24 demographic, that seems rather lame to this observer.

    What do the proponents of this theory see in Biden’s browbeating that has youthful appeal other than its in-your-face-America defiance? Here we have a pompous pol with phony old guy written all over him to youthful viewers, what with his hair plugs and improbably perfect dental implants, not just imperiously talking over his serious, well-informed, youthful opponent, but condescendingly and disrespectfully wagging his bony index finger in the face of the female moderator who seemed cowed by his aggression. Somehow I have a problem seeing Old Joe’s bullying behavior as being appealing to very many young folks whose youthful status too often renders them victims to similar condescension from arrogant professors, demanding bosses and even older family members who still view them as callow children.

    Not all of the 2008 youth vote for Obama came from hard left, Occupy types; many serious young people sincerely seeking to make this a better world joined the Hope & Change campaign. How many of those, this time around, have had the blinders removed by the reality that their faith in a supposedly transformative Obama was squandered on just another glib politician? How many of those young people do you think were impressed by Biden’s buffoonery? Sure, the Occupy fools who believe urinating on a police car is a meaningful political statement would no doubt be impressed with Joe’s bluster and bullying, but how many of them do you think were actually doing anything as responsible as watching a televised political debate? As opposed to the serious students and the gainfully employed in the youth cohort?

    True, Biden’s atrocious display may have fired up a few of the faithful on the far left, especially some of the administration’s apologists in the media, like Daily Kos who sent me an email claiming Uncle Joe had brought us back from the Obama debate debacle. But I’ll wager that even many loyal, older Democrats had to experience some queasiness watching the man they want to re-elect to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, demonstrate such immaturity and poor character in front of a nationwide audience. Worse, what were the independents and the Reagan Democrats out in flyover land likely to take away from such a display of deficient judgment?

    It is highly likely that those who are praising Biden’s performance are going to be jerked back to reality when the polls reveal America’s response to his jerkish behavior. And if Biden’s boorishness was in fact intentional, as some liberals have proclaimed, the situation becomes even worse. The man was given the bully pulpit and he proceeded to use it as any bully would, a not-so-smart move in a nation where bullying is one of the serious social pathologies of our time.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Joe Biden the Democrats’ head troll

    About 250 of you spent 90 minutes with us last night as we posted our reaction to the Vice Presidential debate last night. That’s why many of you couldn’t get in. I never thought that many people would want to play with us. I’ll know better next time.

    But, I predicted in the first five minutes of the debate that Bite-Me lost on style alone. Mr Hanson says he lost on content as well. But I’ve spent the morning going through the reviews of the debate and I’m really surprised at the number of people who thought Biden did a commendable job.

    But this is from a culture who thinks that trolling opinion blogs is an acceptable and successful way to change people’s minds on issues. I’m sure some of our trolls were applauding loudly at Bite-Me’s performance last night while he used their tactics to swing (and miss) at his ideological opponent.

    Of course, if Ryan had taken up some of Bite-Me’s less than civilized strategies, today they’d be calling “foul”.

    I hardly blame Biden, though. It was his parents’ fault for telling him he was smart and for not teaching him to sit and be quiet when others are speaking. It is his fault that he had nothing of substance to point to as successful in the first four years of his administration.

    The Afghanistan War was the Obama Administration’s war to lose and they did. In fact, they’ve done everything they could possible do to lose, and it’s worked so well, in that regard. And it’s all Biden – it was his idea to rely on robot ninja zombies instead of troops on the ground. Since Joe Biden has been absolutely wrong on every single foreign policy issue since he went to Congress, I don’t know why anyone is surprised that it’s worked out like that.

    Bite-Me has never known what he’s talking about. That why he had to plagiarize his work in college and make public pronouncements about how smart he is – again it’s that trollish behavior that his supporters like so much. So the Democrat Party is the party of trolls, and Joe Bite-Me lives under the best bridge in their world.