Monday, November 14, 2011

Unmanned Presidency

President Obama's recent decision to delay making a decision about whether or not to allow construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Louisiana is, I think, a good indication of what we can expect to see from the President between now and election day. The delay has been hailed by environmental groups, while also being put forth as evidence by some political analysts that the administration is fearful of losing support even from such hardcore elements of the Democratic party base as environmental activists.

This shows a political efficiency I can't say I've noticed before in this White House -- in other words, if your record in office is so bad that it can only bring disaster to run on it, why bother adding to it?  Just freeze as much as possible in place and then get on with the lying, distortion and vicious attacks against the opposition that is your only possible road to victory.  That the murky set of charges of sexual misconduct against Herman Cain are all somehow coming to smell of Chicago (as discussed by liberal hate object and sometime twit Ann Coulter) may be evidence that the White House's campaign attack machine is well in place and conducting preliminary operations.

The White House has announced that the President's coming trip to Asia is intended to assure Asian countries (aside from China) that the United States will remain an economic and military power broker in Asia, and a counterweight to China's growing prominence.  Sailing east like a Commodore Perry without cannons, Obama somehow thinks he can convince Asian leaders that an America with a weak, overregulated, indebted economy is going to protect them from the ambitions of their ruthless neighbor with the exploding economy.  Similarly, Obama has announced his intention of imposing more sanctions against Iran for their continuing attempts at developing nuclear weapons, a ringing endorsement from the President of an approach that has been an utter failure, at a time when an attack by Israel against Iran looks more and more inevitable, and sooner than later.  Is there any point to all this beyond letting Obama prance about as though he is some sort of foreign policy powerhouse, when it is clear whatever influence he may have had has by now evaporated?

With the distractions of the Occupy movement and the Herman Cain situation, we haven't heard much about the "American Jobs Act" or much of anything else that Obama is up to, save for his Olympian descent to save us all from the 15 cent Christmas tree tax.  I think what we'll be seeing from now until election day is a White House occasionally submitting unpassable bills to Congress as a way of providing ammunition for running against "uncompromising" Republicans, and treading water as much as possible in foreign policy, all the while escalating the campaign of catapulting political manure bags at whatever presidential hopefuls seem to them to be deserving, strategic targets.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Toto, I Have A Feeling We're Not In Woodstock Anymore

I'm not much inclined towards making statements like "it made my blood boil," but watching this video of Occupy DC thugs raising hell this weekend outside the Washington, D.C. Convention Center just about had me there.

The mob logic on display in the video is stunning--from the pig shouting "Ho! Ho! Ho!" at a mother defending her children and the crowd knocking a 78-year old woman to the ground, to the outrage of demonstrators on the street that someone in a car surrounded by marauding freaks might resort to running someone over to get to safety, the absolute lack of common decency shown by any of these "demonstrators" was sickening to me.

I don't know if the President is going to take any time out of whatever the hell it is he does after 4 o'clock in the afternoon to give a look at what his class warfare campaign is producing, and I don't really care.  As far as I'm concerned, every day that we hear no condemnation whatsoever from the White House of the crime, intolerance and deliberate violence that has been happening in the "Occupy" movement is more proof to me that this unrest is exactly what Obama wants.