Do Over

Phased Out
Waged by a president with faded public standing, the new phase will not involve many American troops on the ground, but seems certain to require a far more intense American bombing blitz than in Somalia or Yemen. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

President Obama's entire foreign policy when it comes to using American might to fight the bad guys is first, do nothing if possible; and second, if that does not work, bomb them. The reason is because he, like all Democrats, cannot get past the Viet Nam War. And so, in their view, the U.S. can NEVER fight another war in which we have "boots on the ground." Soldiers might die and how would that look? Of course, the freedoms that we enjoy today are ONLY because brave men sacrificed their lives to defend our country. In the bizarre world of Democrat national security, boots in the air is OK, boots on the ground, not. The logic is mind-bending, but typical. 


Rally Cap
While other commanders in chief enjoyed a surge in public support when they took the nation to war, the nation is not exactly rallying behind Mr. Obama this time around. A fresh battery of polls this week indicated that most Americans do want him to go after ISIS yet disapprove of his leadership. In other words, they support the policy but not the president.

Peter D. Feaver, a former national security aide to Mr. Bush and President Bill Clinton, said the public unease was due, in part, to Mr. Obama’s own shifting descriptions of the threat and his acknowledgment two weeks ago that he had no strategy yet. “Until tonight, the Obama administration has done a textbook job of following the script on how to undermine public confidence,” he said. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

It was fascinating to flip channels last night after the President's speech on ISIS. On Fox, the panel discussed how Obama's actions represented a reversal of many of his previous pronouncements and policies. On MSNBC, the panel debated whether Obama needed to get Congressional approval and whether Republicans would obstruct him. The Fox panel included a retired four star general. The MSNBC panel included foreign policy guru Al Sharpton decked out in his trademark track suit. Just kidding! (Sharpton is not really a foreign policy expert. He just plays one on TV.)

MSNBC turned to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for reaction and analysis. A highly agitated Sanders talked about how the middle class in America is disappearing. Then he talked about the Viet Nam War. He said "Bush-Cheney" three times in sixty seconds. He opined that everything Obama had done so far in Iraq and the Middle East was correct and how what Obama was now proposing was also correct. He and MSNBC's Chris Matthews talked about how they agreed with each other.

Lean Sideways.


Hands Down
The demonstration took place about five miles from the street in Ferguson where Mr. Brown, who was black and unarmed, was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9. Some witnesses have said that Mr. Brown, 18, had put his hands up in surrender. Officer Wilson, who has not been charged, has been placed on leave, and his location is unknown. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

Full disclosure (which you will not get from the Times): 

"Others said that Mr. Brown - after robbing a convenience store, assaulting a clerk and refusing police instructions to walk on the sidewalk instead of the middle of the road - punched Officer Wilson in the face."


What The Kids Are Doing
California is poised to become the first state to require all colleges that receive state funds to strengthen their policies on sexual assault by mandating that students give active consent to one another before all sexual activity, either by saying “yes” to a spoken query or by signaling assent in a nonverbal way. (New York Times, 9/10/2014)

For years and years and years all we heard from Liberals was that conservatives were inserting themselves and their morality (no pun intended) into people's bedrooms. 

My how times have changed!



From RedStateVT
On this day we again remember and honor all those citizens who lost their lives due to Islamic terrorism, our soldiers who have also died and those who are now serving.

Press 2 For English

Irrefutable Proof of Liberal Bias at the New York Times
The long-simmering case has centered on Mr. Perry’s veto power as governor. His critics asserted that he used that power as leverage to try to get an elected official — Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney in Travis County — to step down after her arrest on a drunken-driving charge last year. Ms. Lehmberg is Austin’s top prosecutor and oversees a powerful public corruption unit that investigates state, local and federal officials; its work led to the 2005 indictment of a former Republican congressman, Tom DeLay, on charges of violating campaign finance laws. (New York Times, 8/16/2014)

In a story on the indictment of Texas governor Rick Perry, the New York Times reminds us that Republican Tom DeLay was also indicted. Here is what the New York Times "forgets" to mention:

The Travis County District Attorney’s office has a long history of politically-motivated prosecutions, including the 2005 indictment of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for alleged campaign finance violations. DeLay’s convictions were completely overturned and he was acquitted after an appeal to the Third District Texas Court of Appeals in 2013—too late to save his political career. (Breitbart.com, 8/15/2014)

An honest, unbiased news organization would have mentioned this fact - inconvenient to those who want to eliminate Rick Perry as a potential challenger for Hillary Clinton. Alas, the New York Times is not an honest news organization.


Deficient
“At least since World War II, presidents have been unwilling to discuss deficiencies in capability because they’re expected to do everything, and they like that sense of omnipotence,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former Obama State Department official now at the Brookings Institution. “Obama has been trying to change that in the last year because he senses that the requirements of omnipotence have gotten so far out of whack with what he can actually accomplish that he needs to change the expectations.” (New York Times, 8/16/2014)

With Obama and his apologists it is all about what he CANNOT do. We never heard Ronald Reagan speak thusly. He recognized, as Obama does not, that appearances matter. Even George Bush understood this. Derided by U.S. Liberals as a "cowboy," the bad actors in the world were just frightened of Bush enough to be wary. None of the world's bad actors - in North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, the Middle East - are afraid of Obama. They know, because he has told them, that he will run from the fight. 


Unexplained
Some Democrats said Mr. Obama’s challenge has not necessarily been his approach to these crises, but his ability to explain and sell it.

“What he’s come up with in Iraq and in Ukraine are sensible strategies,” said former Representative Jane Harman of California, now president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “He now needs to link them with a narrative that explains to the American people why we have to re-engage in foreign policy matters, and I hope he does that.” (New York Times, 8/16/2014)

The greatest orator the world has ever seen and heard cannot explain his foreign policy? Did Democrats oversell this guy or what?


Here We Go Again
With the release of tape today by the Ferguson Police Department of a man who appears to be Michael Brown allegedly physically assaulting a much smaller clerk while stealing Swisher Sweet cigars, the media’s narrative has collapsed. The media – and top-level politicians across the political spectrum – portrayed Michael Brown in saintlike fashion. That narrative no longer holds. (Ben Shapiro, Breitbart.com, 8/15/2014)

We are sorry for the death or Michael Brown as we were sorry for the death of Trayvon Martin.

Unfortunately, in both cases the rush to judgment that the deceased were blameless allows Liberals to berate Florida gun laws and police procedures. Only when pictures of George Zimmerman's battered head are made public does his story that Trayvon Martin was on top of him smashing his head into the concrete sidewalk gain credibility. And now we have video of Michael Brown robbing a convenience store while manhandling a clerk. Is it possible that the 6'4" 300lb Brown caused a cop to fear for his life. Just maybe.