Human Interest

Workout
President Barack Obama is opening the door to the possibility of a resumption of White House tours, if it can be worked out. Obama says in an interview broadcast with ABC News Wednesday that the decision to cancel the tours in the wake of budget cuts was made by the Secret Service, citing the need to furlough some employees. Revealing he's trying to ease the no-tour policy, Obama says he's talked to the Secret Service about restoring some visits. (NYT, 3/13/2013)

Told ya!

(And note again how things are never Obama's fault.)


Sharp Objects
The head of the Transportation Security Administration plans to testify to Congress on Thursday, defending his decision to allow small knives on airplanes, amid worries that the move will endanger the public. (WSJ, 3/12/2013)

The agency that refuses to profile potential terrorists (hint: young single males from Middle Eastern countries who profess jihad) now gives the OK to knives. Which begs the question: who are the people that have been clamoring to bring knives on planes?


Symptoms
One fact, stunning to White House officials, is the degree to which many Republicans remain unaware of the substance of the administration’s offers on entitlement reform. This is symptomatic of a messaging failure on the part of the White House but also of the poisonous environment in which both sides live. (Ruth Marcus, Washington Post, 3/12/2013)

Count us among the unaware. Obama has offered entitlement reforms? Maybe they do have a messaging problem. Perhaps Obama should hold more press conferences.


Interpretation
But Ms. Sandberg (Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg) interprets the facts she describes in a different way. Though she presents her ideas as new, she thinks of herself as a feminist, and like all feminists, she blames "society" for sending "cultural messages" loaded with "gender stereotypes" that discourage women from becoming leaders in their fields. (WSJ, 3/12/2013)

In the past thirty years, RedStateVT has worked for several women (one of whom was the company CEO). We have had doctors, lawyers, and accountants who were women. But apparently women still can't catch a break in a male chauvinist world, or so says a female COO. Maybe Sandberg is joking...

Grounds for Prosecution

The Punisher
In its bid to make the sequester as painful as possible, the White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling all visitor tours of the White House "during the popular Spring touring season." This fits President Obama's political strategy to punish the eighth graders visiting from Illinois instead of, say, the employees of the Agriculture Department who will attend a California conference sipping "exceptional local wines" and sampling "tasty dishes" prepared by "special guest chefs." (WSJ, 3/5/2013)

Does Team Obama really believe that voters are going to blame Republicans for his sequester? We think his advisers are a pretty savvy bunch, but also think that they may get this one wrong. Repubs should continue the steady drip of disclosures about government waste. We are guessing that within a couple of weeks the White House tours will quietly resume.


We Heart Cheney
Cheney still hearts waterboarding. “Are you going to trade the lives of a number of people because you want to preserve your honor?” he asked, his voice dripping with contempt.

“I don’t lie awake at night thinking, gee, what are they going to say about me?” he sums up.

They’re going to say you were a misguided powermonger who, in a paranoid spasm, led this nation into an unthinkable calamity. Sleep on that. (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 3/5/2013)

Maureen Dowd is a New York Times op-ed writer that we first began ignoring years ago. Occasionally we will check back in and we always regret it. Her specialty, actually obsession, is writing about the Bush family. La Familia Bush treated her with kindness which she repaid with unending scorn. 

Here she goes after Dick Cheney who she posits as the puppet-master of W. And then she wants to have the waterboarding discussion again. What was it....two or three people at most that were waterboarded? Information learned that saved American lives?

Perhaps Dowd likes her VPs more like Biden, lovable goofballs. Anyway, talking about Cheney at least distracts Dowd from asking whether Obama lied to the country about the sequester....


Virtual Reality
Virtually no savings come from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the entitlement programs whose growth is driving projections of unsustainable debt as the population ages and medical costs increase. And revenues are insufficient to support the size of government. 

As a consequence, the legacy-minded president is forcing himself to do something he has largely avoided or left to senior advisers — personally reaching out to rank-and-file members of Congress.
...
Dissatisfaction with Mr. Obama’s attentions to Capitol Hill, however, has been longstanding and bipartisan. Democrats complain that the president has done little to use the trappings of office to woo opponents or reward friends. Republicans say they rarely hear even from the White House aides tasked to reach out to Congress.

One senior Democratic Congressional aide said the president seemed to view relations with lawmakers “as a chore, not an opportunity.” (NYT, 3/5/2013)

Something is happening over at the New York Times. The censors are letting their guards down and we are seeing more objective reporting slipping through. With a healthy dose of skepticism we have said that the Times is free to do so now having accomplished their main objective (along with the rest of the Legitimate Media), that of getting Obama re-elected. So here we have the following:

• Entitlement reform
• The size of government
• A president obsessed with his legacy
• A president who has never personally engaged Congress

All of which, by the way, were first term issues as well.


Hooded
The police in Oberlin, Ohio, have been unable to confirm a report of a person wearing a white robe and hood that caused Oberlin College to cancel classes on Monday and plunged the campus in to a day of soul-searching. (NYT, 3/5/2013)

....city police told a local reporter that eyewitnesses saw no one in KKK garb — but instead saw a pedestrian wearing a blanket. Yes, the dreaded Assault Blanket of Phantom Bias. Moreover, after arresting two students involved in the spate of hate messages left around campus, police say “it is unclear if they were motivated by racial hatred or — as has been suggested — were attempting a commentary on free speech.” (MichelleMalkin.com, 3/6/2013)

Yesterday we referenced Ann Coulter in analyzing the Great Oberlin College Racism Scandal. For years Coulter has debunked these types of events as hoaxes. It turns out that another of our favorite conservatives, Michelle Malkin, is an Oberlin alum and has added useful firsthand information to the story...uh, hoax.


Bogie
Congressman Gohmert (R-TX) introduced an amendment to the Continuing Resolution preventing Obama from using federal funds to transport himself to/from a golf course until White House resumes giving tours to the public. (Breitbart.com, 3/5/2013)

This is just plain brilliant.


Lost In The Barrio
"Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion," says Penn in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela." (Hollywoodreporter.com, 3/5/2013)

What is the thought process if you are a Hollywood socialist like Sean Penn, we wonder. Chavez is insulting to George Bush. OK, that fits with your world view. You hate Bush too, so you and Chavez are in synch. But, it turns out, Chavez is equally insulting to Obama. And he is still your hero? 

Liberals hate to have their patriotism questioned....so we question Penn's patriotism.