Wonder As You Wander

Exposure
The Obama administration’s shifting accounts of the fatal attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, have left President Obama suddenly exposed on national security and foreign policy, a field where he had enjoyed a seemingly unassailable advantage over Mitt Romney in the presidential race. (NYT, 9/28/2012)

Yes, seemingly unassailable. Not counting the betrayal of the Poles over missile defense, the continual snubs of Israel, the promises of further concessions to the Russians if re-elected, the amateurish handling of our "allies" in Egypt and on and on. But he got bin Laden! He won't let us forget that. 

Logical
'People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: They're right. The system is rigged," declared Elizabeth Warren in prime time at the Democratic convention—and she should know. By her own logic, she was one of the riggers. (WSJ, 9/28/2012)

How embarrassing for Dems who chose (and doubled down) on making Warren their poster girl for "fairness." 

At least some Republicans had the decency to cringe and back away from Akin after his intemperate remarks. Dems just ignore the never-ending disclosures about Warren and attempt to portray Everyman Brown as a corporate tool. Good test for the people of Massachusetts this race.

RedStateVT Works To Make Government More Efficient

Watching President Obama's recent address to the United Nations it occurred to RedStateVT that the endless attempts to explain American culture to the Muslim world were probably not the most productive use of his time. How many times does Obama have to explain about free speech after all, particularly when he could be guest hosting on Conan or even attending national security briefings?  It is with this in mind that RedStateVT has developed the following all-purpose statement.  We are glad to do our part to increase government productivity. You're welcome.

Blanket Statement to Muslims Who Are Outraged About Something

The United States government notes that Muslims throughout the world are outraged by the recent (fill in the blank). Please understand that the United States government had nothing to do with that. In fact, we respect all religions, including Judaism. We also have a tradition of free speech in America that permits nutjobs to say pretty much whatever they want. In America, when a nutjob says something particularly outrageous we generally ignore them. (We do not cut out their tongues.) While we feel your pain resulting from the incredible humiliation that you must be feeling over (fill in the blank) we do recommend that you just ignore it.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to have a free and open dialog with you.

(Note: It is not necessary for you to burn any more American flags. We already have plenty of footage on that.)

Answering The Bell

Who Runs Barter Town?
...the Democratic groups are raising heavily from the party’s traditional, pre-Obama sources of campaign cash: trial lawyers, unions and Hollywood. (NYT, 9/26/2012)

The Democrat party base. 

Mud
Her (Hillary Clinton's) remarks added to the administration’s evolving and at times muddled explanation of what happened on the evening of Sept. 11 and into the next morning. (NYT, 9/26/2012)

Having exhausted the main story - that Mitt Romney should not have criticized the Obama administration - the Times turns to other aspects of the 9/11/12 terror attack in Libya. Like the sheer ineptitude of Obama and his team. Not to worry though, the public has by now tuned out. Chalk up another victory for the Liberal media.

All These Things

Negatives
A lawsuit against Burlington that sought the immediate repayment of mismanaged telecom funds was dismissed Tuesday in Chittenden Superior Court.


Plaintiffs Fred Osier and Eugene Shaver, both city residents, had alleged fraud, deceit and breach of duty on the part of the city and then-Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold, and had sought the return to taxpayers of $17 million borrowed from general city accounts by Burlington Telecom between 2007 and 2010.

Judge Geoffrey Crawford, while acknowledging the wrongdoing -- the loans violated state regulatory constraints -- granted the city’s request to dismiss the case.

In his written order, Crawford stated that the plaintiff’s call for immediate reimbursement would subvert ongoing oversight of BT by the Vermont Public Service Board.

“Taking $17 million out of BT would repay the taxpayers, but it would undoubtedly also eviscerate BT, resulting in negative consequences for the City (such as a lowered credit rating) and its taxpayers,” Crawford wrote. (Burlington Free Press, 9/25/2012)

It is always a pleasure to revisit the fun and games in Burlington, Vermont where accountability does not exist as long as you are Liberal enough. When we last checked in, the city had defaulted on its obligations to Burlington Telecom's lender. The lender then wanted its collateral returned which is what lenders say when you haven't paid your note. Burlington took the position that it was not obliged to return the collateral, perhaps citing some new legal principle that says that you don't ALWAYS have to pay what you owe.  Meanwhile, Bob Kiss,the city's Progressive mayor under whom all these shenanigans occurred, ended his term and was replaced by a Democrat.  Only Kiss is not really gone.  He was spotted two days ago on the street waving a sign which seemed to indicate that he was running for the state senate.  Apparently not content with screwing up Burlington, he wants to apply these same principles on a state-wide basis.

Meanwhile - if we read the article above correctly - Burlington got a favorable court ruling from a friendly judge. The judge seems to be saying that, yes, Burlington committed crimes, but gosh darn it, if we punish the city things will only get worse! (Yes, if we send that drug dealer to prison how is he ever going to straighten out his life?) 

There truly are alternate universes.


Off Track
The New York Times, in collaboration with Quinnipiac University and CBS News, is tracking the presidential race with recurring polls in six states. In Ohio — which no Republican has won the presidency without — Mr. Obama is leading Mr. Romney 53 percent to 43 percent in the poll. In Florida, the president leads Mr. Romney 53 to 44 percent in the poll.

The surveys, which had margins of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for each candidate, also included a Pennsylvania poll, where Mr. Obama is leading Mr. Romney by 12 percentage points. (NYT, 9/26/2012)

Wow, sure sounds bad for Romney.  Wonder what Dick Morris's polling says: 

Obama leads in Ohio (47-46)...Obama leads in Florida (48-46)...Obama is only getting 51% of the vote in Pennsylvania... (Dickmorris.com, 9/25/2012)

Worser
On issues related to the military and foreign policy, Obama’s worse than Bush, “in the sense that he’s more aggressive, more illegal worldwide,” Nader told POLITICO, going so far as to call Obama a “war criminal.” (POLITICO.com, 9/25/2012)

If you ever get really depressed, it is comforting to know that you can always turn to someone like Ralph Nader to lift your spirits. 

In all seriousness, there actually is something honorable about Nader's non-partisan lunacy.

Sticks And Stones

Unfluential
To some, the stark difference between the outcomes in Cairo and Bahrain illustrates something else, too: his impatience with old-fashioned back-room diplomacy, and his corresponding failure to build close personal relationships with foreign leaders that can, especially in the Middle East, help the White House to influence decisions made abroad. 
....
The tensions between Mr. Obama and the Gulf states, both American and Arab diplomats say, derive from an Obama character trait: he has not built many personal relationships with foreign leaders. “He’s not good with personal relationships; that’s not what interests him,” said one United States diplomat. “But in the Middle East, those relationships are essential. The lack of them deprives D.C. of the ability to influence leadership decisions.”(NYT, 9/24/2012)

Stunning condemnation (if anyone would bother to talk about it) from a paper enormously sympathetic to Obama. We have heard this about Obama as it relates to domestic issues as well - he fails to build relationships with politicians on either side to get things accomplished. Obama's tragic flaw is narcissism, believing that he can control people and events through the sheer force of his personality. He has his toadies in the Democrat party for sure, but he has demonstrated zero ability to influence anyone either on the fence or on the other side.

Lost And Found
Obama, to some extent, has regained his own mojo. (The Fix, Washington Post, 9/24/2012)

We got days and days of endless reporting by the Washington Post and the entire 'Journalists for Obama' team about Mitt Romney's 'gaffes.' Meanwhile Obama ducks Netanyahu and dismisses the Iranian nuclear threat, admits that his campaign distorts the truth, goes fundraising in the wake of the death of Americans in Libya which may or may not have been a terrorist attack, calls these deaths 'bumps in the road' and guess what?  HE'S GOT HIS MOJO BACK! We know this because the Liberal media has told us.

Deep Cover

War Weary
The attempt by Mr. Obama and his senior aides to fashion an extraordinary power-sharing arrangement between Mr. Maliki and Mr. Allawi never materialized. Neither did an agreement that would have kept a small American force in Iraq to train the Iraqi military and patrol the country’s skies. A plan to use American civilians to train the Iraqi police has been severely cut back. The result is an Iraq that is less stable domestically and less reliable internationally than the United States had envisioned.

The story of these efforts has received little attention in a nation weary of the conflict in Iraq, and administration officials have rarely talked about them. (NYT, 9/22/2012)

The New York Times catalogs Obama's failures in Iraq.....and then admits that no one knows about them because the Liberal media did not report them!

Cheapskates
Biden and his wife, Jill, gave 1.5 percent of their income away in 2011, with charitable donations totaling $5,540 out of $379,035. The Bidens have been notably tight with their money when it comes to charitable giving. In 2008, it was revealed that from 1998 to 2006, the couple never gave more than $400. (POLITICO/Free Beacon, 9/22/2012)

Biden and Liberals want to redistribute YOUR money. Not their own.

Intrigue
But even as warming temperatures are upending traditional Greenlandic life, they are also offering up intriguing new opportunities for this state of 57,000 — perhaps nowhere more so than here in Narsaq.

Vast new deposits of minerals and gems are being discovered as Greenland’s massive ice cap recedes, forming the basis of a potentially lucrative mining industry. (NYT, 9/23/2012)

Yet another reason we support global warming.

Concessions
In a set of dueling interviews aired Sunday night, President Obama conceded his "biggest disappointment" is that he hasn't significantly changed the tone in Washington since taking office -- and acknowledged sometimes his campaign ads go "overboard" and contain "mistakes."
...
At the same time, Obama told CBS that his ads are not always 100 percent accurate. "Do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign, are there mistakes that are made, areas where there is no doubt that somebody could dispute how we are presenting things? You know, that happens in politics," Obama said, arguing that the "vigorous debate" helps better define each candidate's vision. The exchange was not aired on television but was posted online
...
"Change has happened and positive change for the American people," Obama said, adding: "I'm the first one to confess that the spirit that I brought to Washington, that I wanted to see instituted, where we weren't constantly in a political slugfest but were focused more on problem solving that, you know, I haven't fully accomplished that." Obama said he hasn't "even come close in some cases." (Foxnews.com, 9/24/2012)

So Obama admits that his political ads are dishonest and that he hasn't even come close to doing what he said he was going to do. And he is running for re-election why?

Lawless
Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren may have practiced law in Massachusetts for years without a license to do so, according to a newly surfaced report. (dailycaller.com, 9/24/2012)

Warren should be polling in single digits. Only in the Liberal wasteland that is Massachusetts - where the Kennedys have pillaged for decades - could she be competitive. 

Just In Case

Think about it. A United States ambassador is murdered. And President Obama heads out to Las Vegas for a fundraiser.  It is an appalling dereliction of duty and decorum by a president who does not even bother to show up for national security briefings. Liberals... this is your guy. 

Obama must be defeated.


Pointed
A Quinnipiac University poll in August showed President Obama leading by only 7 percentage points in a state he won by 22 points in 2008. A poll by the University of Connecticut and The Hartford Courant released this week showed his lead at 21 points. (NYT, 9/21/2012)

Why polls should be completely ignored.

Know This

RedStateVT passes 8000 pageviews. Thanks to our loyal and patriotic readers!

Armed And Dangerous
Islamists rise across North Africa from Mali to Egypt. Iran repeatedly defies U.S. demands on nuclear enrichment, then, as a measure of its contempt for what America thinks, openly admits that its Revolutionary Guards are deployed in Syria. Russia, after arming Assad, warns America to stay out, while the secretary of state delivers vapid lectures about Assad “meeting” his international “obligations.” The Gulf states beg America to act on Iran; Obama strains mightily to restrain . . . Israel. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 9/20/2012)

Why did Democrats jump so quickly and so furiously on Mitt Romney's comments about the attack on Libya? It's because they know the following: Obama's failure to turn the economy around is the stone that might sink his re-election chances. The only reason it hasn't yet is because the non-Fox/non-RedStateVT media refuses to report the full extent of the failure. Further, the supine media has deflected attention away from the economy with the fatuous argument that rich guy Romney is going to make it worse for the middle class. Which brings us finally to the utter and complete failure of Obama's foreign policy. We have seen this script before. Call it Carteresque. Extend olive branches to enemies of America and they respond in a completely predictable manner. Sensing a weakened animal, they attack. And so for Obama, the foreign policy story has to be Romney and not his own failures.

Origins
"He (Romney) is a Mormon-though he doesn't like talking about it. And if I were a Mormon, I wouldn't like talking about it either... One of the quackeries that sprang up during the Great Revival, Mormonism was founded on April 6, 1830. The vulgarity and venality - the tar and feathers - of its origins are typical of the era." (Martin Amis, Newsweek, 9/17/2012)

As RedStateVT predicted, Liberals would eventually get around to sliming Mitt Romney's religion. A religion characterized by an emphasis on family values, missionary work and charitable deeds. All anathema to Liberals for whom atheism is preferred. Forced to pick a religion they admire, Liberals will mention Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright and radical Islam, both of course characterized by fervent anti-Americanism.

Here's another prediction: Newsweek will not exist in five years.

Assault...The Senses
The White House is now calling the assault on the American diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, a “terrorist attack.”
....
Mr. Carney maintained on Thursday that Obama administration officials still were not calling the attack preplanned. (NYT, 9/20/2012)

The Obama administration is sure screwing up the messaging aren't they? Muslim fanatics attack American interests on 9/11 and it is not "preplanned?"

Pointed
When Ms. Warren sought to make a point about Mr. Brown’s failure to support women’s issues, she noted that he voted against Elena Kagan, a former dean of the Harvard Law School, when President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court.

“I’m sorry I didn’t vote for your boss,” Mr. Brown shot back. “I know that you and Justice Kagan are very close.” (NYT, 9/20/2012)

Granted we watched only the highlights of the Brown vs. Warren Massachusetts debate, but it sure looked to us as if Brown dissected Warren. He went right after Warren's faux Native American claims. Warren's response was along the lines of....well, my parents told me and I had no reason to doubt them. Fine, let's assume that is true. it then begs the question of why Warren, a highly educated Harvard Law School professor, never had the intellectual curiosity to look into the matter further, particularly before she started passing herself off as a 'minority.' She should lose the election for this alone.

Rearranging The Deck Chairs

Non
Desperate to re-elect Obama, the non-Fox/non-RedStateVT media has pulled out all the stops this time around, utilizing vicious character smears, dishonest polls and biased 'fact-checks.' All the while they ignore Obama's abject failures on everything from jobs, gas prices, green energy and, most recently, foreign policy. Now they have decided that Mitt Romney's comment that 47% of the population in this country is on the government dole effectively ends the race. Really? This Liberal line (lie) will now be endlessly repeated in the echo chamber that reverberates from David Letterman to Chris Matthews to Paul Krugman and on and on. Skip the debates and crown Obama. Well, it ain't over til it's over. Given Liberal claims that Romney has lost the election (with six weeks to go), it is now entirely appropriate for Republicans to 'spike the ball' if Romney wins. 

Neither Nor
The report said neither Mr. Holder nor other senior Justice Department officials knew at the time about the gun-walking tactics in Operation Fast and Furious. (NYT, 9/20/2012)

The New York Times FINALLY writes an article on the botched gun-running operation Fast and Furious which they have ignored for months....but primarily to make the point that AG Holder is innocent. This is what passes for fair and balanced (Liberal) journalism. We like Rush Limbaugh's characterization: "they are Democrats with by-lines."

Nearly
Nearly 6 million Americans -- most of them in the middle class -- will face a tax penalty for not carrying medical coverage once President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law is fully in place, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday. (Foxnews.com 9/19/2012)

In a story that you will not read anywhere else.

Tied Up
Intelligence sources tell Fox News they are convinced the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was directly tied to Al Qaeda -- with a former Guantanamo detainee involved. (Foxnews.com, 9/19/2012)

In an honest world, this story alone would derail the Obama re-election effort. First, Obama is 'leading from behind in Libya.' Then they kill our ambassador. But it's because of a video. Oh wait, maybe it Al Qaeda. Yes, it's a terror attack. It's a former Gitmo prisoner?

Watching The Watchers

VIPs
Eliot (Client No. 9) Spitzer said on his television show (yes, he has a show!) that the Occupy Wall Street movement is "a great American success story." 

We did NOT make this up!  

In the grand tradition of Bill Clinton, Spitzer is a Democrat politician who became embroiled in a sex scandal. Getting embroiled in a sex scandal - by the way - does not mean the end of your career if you are a Democrat. (Think of it more as a rite of passage leading to bigger and better things.) Some may remember that Bill Clinton was likewise embroiled in a sex scandal while president and he is now the 'senior statesman' of the Democrat party. Other disgraced Democrats who got their own television show include Rev. Al Sharpton who also serves as an advisor to President Obama. 

We are NOT making this up!

Shock And Awe
Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, said in a statement Monday evening that it was “shocking” that Mr. Romney would “go behind closed doors” to describe nearly half of the country in such terms. (NYT, 9/18/2012)

No doubt not shocking to Messina, however, was Obama's "behind closed doors" comment that Americans "cling to guns and religion."

Clearly
President Obama came to office promising that he would start a new conversation with the Muslim world, one that lectured less and listened more. After nearly four years of listening, we can now hear more clearly where the U.S. stands in the estimation of that world: equally despised but considerably less feared. Just imagine what four more years of instinctive deference will do. (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 9/17/2012)

Curious that the Liberal media never challenges Obama on the failure of his Middle East policy (broadly defined as "trying to get the Muslims to like us"). During the previous administration, every time that a bomb went off in Baghdad or a serviceman was killed the Liberal media initiated an endless litany of second-guessing about Bush's "flawed strategy."

Finish What We Started

How You Know The Media Is Corrupt
They reported endlessly on George Bush's golfing, but have ignored the fact that Obama has golfed more.

They reported each 'milestone' death of American servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan while ignoring the same under Obama. 

They implicitly criticized the amount of vacation days taken by George Bush and family, while ignoring the fact that Obama and Michelle have taken more.

They used each and every attack or bombing in the Middle East to question Bush's foreign policy, while using a similar event during Obama's term to question.....Mitt Romney.

They believe that Bush was to blame for 9/11 notwithstanding that he attended daily intelligence briefings, while ignoring that Obama apparently attends such briefings sporadically...if it does not interfere with his fundraisers.

They reported endlessly on the price of gas during Bush's presidency, while all but ignoring the doubling of gas prices under Obama.

They vilified AG Alberto Gonzalez, while giving AG Eric Holder a free pass.

They ridiculed Bush for verbal gaffes while ignoring those of Obama.


Stop Loss
Last month, the Obama administration increased the estimated loss on the $85 billion auto industry bailout, which also included aid to crosstown rival Chrysler Group LLC and auto parts suppliers, by $3 billion to more than $25 billion. (WSJ, 9/17/2012)

Something to remember the next time that Obama brags about saving the auto industry (which he did with your tax dollars, by the way.)

Cause Celebre
In celebration of the Occupy Wall Street movement’s first birthday the Massachusetts Republican Party on Monday delivered a cake to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s campaign event in Dorchester, Mass. (dailycaller.com, 9/17/2012)

Exactly the kind of humor that is missing in politics today!

It's Never Been More Important To Get Involved

The administration boasts that Iran is becoming increasingly isolated. Really? Just two weeks ago, 120 nations showed up in Tehran for a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement — against U.S. entreaties not to attend. Even the U.N. secretary-general attended — after the administration implored him not to. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 9/13/2012)

We just watched Dick Gregory try to bully Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into disavowing Mitt Romney's comment that Obama has 'thrown Israel under the bus.' Netanyahu - friend of Romney and no friend of Obama - is too smart to play along. But the real point of Gregory's question is to shift the focus back to Romney and away from Obama's failed policy which Krauthammer reminds us about above. Masquerading as journalists, the Obama re-election team in the Liberal media continue their desperate attempts to bury the story that Obama is a rube on foreign policy.

Alas, there is some hope.....

But with an election less than two months away, the administration faced growing questions about its policy in the Middle East, just a week after a buoyant party convention in which Democrats touted the president's national security agenda. (WSJ, 9/14/2012)

These questions come at an inopportune time domestically as Mr. Obama enters the fall campaign with a small lead in polls. His policies escaped serious scrutiny in the initial days after the attack that killed four Americans in Libya last week, in part because of the furor over a statement by Mitt Romney accusing the president of sympathizing with the attackers. White House officials said they recognized that if not for Mr. Romney’s statement, they would have been the ones on the defensive. (NYT, 9/15/2012)

RedStateVT Explains

President Barack Obama’s deputies are walking back his ground-breaking acknowledgment that Egypt is no longer an “ally,” only one day after he declared that Mitt Romney tends to “shoot first and aim later.” (dailycaller.com, 9/13/2012)

The incredible speed and synchronization with which the Liberal media pounced on Mitt Romney (who is not yet the President) for his remarks on the Middle East can only mean one thing. Like the Obama administration, they realize that the latest uprising among the perpetually outraged Muslims (hat tip to Michelle Malkin for the moniker) could be the end of Obama's chances. Obama has a weak hand when it comes to the economy. At best he can say that things will be worse under Romney, but most undecideds are likely to give Romney a try before giving Obama another four years to get it right. Hence, the media/Obama re-election team have tried to paint Romney (a businessman with international experience) as some kind of a foreign policy rube. It's a stretch, but they have tried. 

And then along come the Muslims killing our diplomats, burning the American flag and whining about some video they have never seen. All on Obama's watch.

The American people will remember Obama's endless pleas that we are not at war with Islam, his "reset" buttons, and his snubs of Israel. They will remember Jimmy Carter, the last weak-kneed Democrat president who presided over a disastrous U.S. foreign policy. 

This explains the all-out coordinated attacks on Romney and the virtual silence when it comes to holding Obama accountable.

Fired Up, Ready To Go

Bulls On Parade
The Democratic convention often seemed a parade of people who wanted X, wanted someone else to pay for it, and were remarkably self-righteous about it. To state the obvious: There is nobody but us to pay for our health insurance, either through our taxes or our premiums. Ms. Fluke's contraception can only end up costing more when channeled through an insurance bureaucracy than if she bought it herself at a competitive price at the local Rite Aid. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., WSJ, 9/11/2012)

Simply (and brilliantly) stated. 

Shadow Games
The focus of this week's Democratic convention was President Obama. Lost in the adulation was the diminished state to which he has brought his broader party. Today's Democrats are a shadow of 2008—struggling for re-election, isolated to a handful of states, lacking reform ideas, bereft of a future political bench. It has been a stunning slide....It took Mr. Obama two years to destroy this potential, with an agenda that forced his party to field vote after debilitating vote—stimulus, ObamaCare, spending, climate change. The public backlash, combined with the president's mismanagement of the economy, has reversed Democrats' electoral gains and left a party smaller than at any time since the mid-1990s. (Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 9/6/2012)

Conservatives are generally a dour bunch, even in an election season where Romney is likely to win (yes, we said it.) It is important to remember - as Strassel reminds us - of the devastation that Obama has caused to his own party.

Ho Hum
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law when she campaigned this winter for President Obama, federal investigators announced Wednesday.

Sebelius broke the law by making “extemporaneous partisan remarks” during a speech in February at a Human Rights Campaign Event in Charlotte, N.C., according to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). She made the comments in the city that would later host the Democratic National Convention. (Foxnews.com, 9/12/2012)

More hi-jinx from those crazy folks at THE MOST ETHICAL ADMINISTRATION EVER.

Spin Game
Among the top 10 fund-raisers on the list for 2012, for example, are Steve Spinner, a former Department of Energy official who pushed the White House to approve a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, the failed solar power company. (NYT, 9/12/2012)

So glad that we read through to the twelfth paragraph of this thirteen paragraph article to see this mention. It occurred to RedStateVT that this is what passes for objectivity in the world of the Liberal media: We have too reported on the connection between Obama campaign donations and Solyndra! The truth is that if you changed "Obama" to "Bush" this event would be endless front page news.

Seven Seven Seven

RedStateVT Proposes New Middle East Foreign Policy

Given that you in the Muslim world are congenitally incapable of acting in a civilized manner, the United States will undertake the following actions:

1) We are going to drill for oil EVERYWHERE. In a relatively short period of time, it will no longer be necessary for us to buy oil from you. Choke on it.

2) If you harm our citizens, ANYWHERE in the world, we are going to exact revenge. The Old Testament kind. Read up on it if you are not familiar.

3) No more "resets" or "apologies." Your civilization is dysfunctional. Fix it or pay the price.

Addendum for Iran:

Final warning. If you say the words "destruction of Israel" or "exterminate the Jews" one more time, our planes will take to the skies. The planes with the bunker-busting bombs. Your call. 

Infamy
...the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it.

The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible. (Kurt Eichenwald, NYT, 9/10/2012)

On the 11th anniversary of 9/11, Eichenwald and the Times serve up this despicable piece of nonsense blaming George Bush for the attacks. Honest journalism is dead.

Teachers Love Students
In the view of some here, the toxic relationship between Mr. Emanuel and Ms. Lewis helped push the city’s teacher contract talks to the point of a crisis, forcing 350,000 students out of their classrooms in the nation’s third-largest school system not long after the new academic year began and showing no sign of quick resolution. In stubbornness, defiance and moxie, Ms. Lewis and Mr. Emanuel are, some here say, equals in what now looks like a toe-to-toe fight. (NYT, 9/11/2012)

Nothing to do but sit back, watch this one and enjoy.

Position Determines Perspective

Battle Lines
The battle underlines just how much teachers’ unions, which have provided sizable donations and many grass-roots volunteers to countless Democratic campaigns, have been thrown back on their heels in recent years.

If the famously feisty Mr. Emanuel wins this confrontation, he could set the table for a major setback for teachers’ unions nationwide and a potential rethinking of teachers’ enthusiasm for Democrats in this year’s elections. (NYT, 9/10/2012)

Honest admission from the Times on how much the teachers' unions have been in bed with the Democrat party.

Talks resumed Monday, but there were no signs of a breakthrough. Late in the day, union officials said they "intend to fight for dignity and respect and for the contract we deserve." The previous contract expired in June.....Teachers received total wage increases of 19% to 46% during their 2007-2012 contract, depending on such factors as length of service, according to a fact finder's report issued in July. The cost of living increased about 10% over the same period. (WSJ, 9/11/2012)

One of our favorite lines coming from union officials during ANY strike is how they are fighting for DIGNITY AND RESPECT! At 70k per year, they just do not have that DIGNITY AND RESPECT. The good news? The honest folks are catching on to the scam and the backlash against teachers' union will be severe. They earned it.

Just in case you need reminding:

The average Chicago teacher works 1,039 instructional hours per year—roughly half the time logged by the average 40-hour-a-week working Joe. (WSJ, 9/10/2012)

Spotty
One promotional spot for the show looks like the kind of campaign video that tries to frame Mitt Romney as an average Joe. (NYT, 9/10/2012)

During the Bush presidency, one of the favorite tricks of the New York Times was to insert references to Bush policies (particularly the War on Terror) into any article. Hence, we got pieces along the following lines: "The new restaurant at 42nd Street serves a stunning menu of ethnic dishes, notwithstanding the Bush administration's apparent hostility toward many of these countries..."

They revive this practice for this election year cycle. The quote above references Katie Couric's new inane talk show!!!!!!

Fabulouso
What a fabulously confident and ingenuous-seeming political narcissist Ms. Fluke is. She really does think—and her party apparently thinks—that in a spending crisis with trillions in debt and many in need, in a nation in existential doubt as to its standing and purpose, in a time when parents struggle to buy the good sneakers for the kids so they're not embarrassed at school . . . that in that nation the great issue of the day, and the appropriate focus of our concern, is making other people pay for her birth-control pills. That's not a stand, it's a non sequitur. She is not, as Rush Limbaugh oafishly, bullyingly said, a slut. She is a ninny, a narcissist and a fool. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 9/7/2012)

RedStateVT is catching up on the Democrat convention and was just pleased as punch that they chose to roll out three of our favorites: Fluke, Elizabeth Warren and Slick Willie Clinton.

Noonan does a great job above in calling out the Dems for showcasing recreational sex expert Fluke. 

And what were Dems thinking in giving a starring role to Warren who has been exposed as a plagiarist and a liar?

As for Slick Willie, well we recently had occasion to reread portions or the Starr Commission report. It doesn't get any better with age....in fact, it gets worse. Clinton's callous use of a young and vulnerable employee for his sexual gratification was downright disgusting. And today, he is the senior statesman of the Democrat party. Have you people no conscience?

Shining Through

RedStateVT Ruminates
Romney-Ryan face a daunting task. If they only had to run against Obama the job would be relatively easy. Obama's is a failed presidency. But as has been pointed out, Romney-Ryan have to run also against a very large and organized Liberal media that is heavily invested in Obama's success. And so the media uses a variety of strategies to tilt the race. They hide Obama's failures (how much money HAS been wasted on failed green energy projects?) They manage Obama's policy reversals (he didn't flip-flop, he "evolved.") And they join him in blaming Republicans for his failures.

It occurs to us to mention two other things during the election season. The first is polling. James Carville said a couple of days ago that Obama was up 'one to three points.' And we have no doubt that in some polls this is true. However, as we have found out, polls can be manipulated. Poll only Democrats and Obama probably is up one to three points. Nonetheless, the Liberal media will always tout the latest poll results that show...whatever they want them to show. Alas, the majority of polls are now simply tools of the Obama campaign. 

A second election season phenomenon is the "fact-check." Every Romney-Ryan utterance is run through an independent, objective, bullet-proof fact-checker which inevitably declares the statement untrue. It's ridiculous, of course. The fact-check is no more reliable than the polls which have stacked the deck for Obama.

The Liberal media loves to say that Romney-Ryan are not doing better because the president remains popular with the American people. It's nonsense. They are and he isn't.

Stark States
Few other issues present a starker difference between the Republican and Democratic tickets. President Obama, through the health care law that was a centerpiece of his domestic agenda, seeks a vast expansion of Medicaid, which currently covers more than 60 million Americans — compared with 50 million in Medicare — and costs the states and the federal government more than $400 billion a year....

The sharply different visions of the two campaigns come as many states, squeezed by soaring Medicaid costs and plunging revenues, are complaining bitterly about the fact that the program is swallowing an ever-larger chunk of their budgets. States have generally not been allowed to cut Medicaid eligibility since the passage of the health care law in 2010, but many have slashed optional benefits and payments to doctors and hospitals instead. Even states that support the planned Medicaid expansion, like California and Massachusetts, have made such cuts, saying that budget crises have given them no choice. (NYT, 8/31/2012)

Why did the Tea Party emerge? Why are Americans outraged about runaway government spending? Why are Republicans trying to do something about government spending? Why is Paul Ryan on the ticket? Why is Obama in danger of defeat?