Time for Thorns

His Oneness must be very annoyed by this news.    How rude of the Bushes to make a private visit without publicity — it might remind someone that they and others in that administration made many unadvertised trips to visit wounded warriors and their families.

Obama is at  Camp David this weekend…..

Sunday Treasury Sec.  Geithner began the walk-back on the no-new-taxes-on-middle-class campaign promise.    Of course,  this ignores the fact that the promise was broken shortly after Obama ascended to the throne with a big increase in tobacco taxes,   which primarily hit the poor and middle class,  more of whom  smoke.

Democrats are still blaming Pres.  Bush for the economy as well as everything else the public dislikes,  but as Byr0n York details,  the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll is bad news for Democrats versus Republicans across the board.

Philip Klein looks at polls on Obama personally,  and reminds us  ” it’s hard to point fingers when you’re running the show.”

As for taxes,  the middle class has begun to figure out that the light at the end of the tunnel is another train coming.

If anyone still thought Barack Obama was a warm and generous man, today’s announcement should end that.    He noted the handover of Iraqi cities by American troops to the Iraqi forces,   and made perfunctory remarks about the troops,  but never mentioned 3 things:   victory,  democracy,  and George W. Bush.

Does that conjure up a confident man,  secure in his position and judgment?   Or do you catch a certain odor of  pettiness, of stinginess, even of the mean-spirited attitude he and his cronies routinely find conservatives guilty of?    The more time passes,  the less I am impressed with the man and his ability.    He is a very clever politician,  and quite intelligent,  but it is a shallow intellect,  unable or unwilling to grasp the big picture which history lays out for those who would see it.

I think one of Obama’s problems is that he isn’t American — no,  I don’t mean where he was born,  though that’s certainly an interesting question,  but rather how he was raised.   The experiences of small-town and rural America are utterly foreign to him,  and will remain so.   He has spent his entire life among elites,  academics and power brokers.   His American experience is severely limited in terms of reality,  steeped as it is in the likes of  Frank Marshall Davis and Bill Ayers and a host of other trendy radicals,  not to mention the corrupt and unprincipled politicians who have long run Chicago.

The  “American values” he tirelessly claims to hold dear are unrecognizable to at least half of the population.   For a better perspective of this important day for Iraq,  and for the USA,  read Pete Hegseth,  and follow his links.

Remember when Pres.  Bill Clinton visited the troops in Bosnia,  and his security team demanded that all the soldiers in the hall be disarmed?   You probably don’t,  because mainstream media never mentioned it, but plenty of soldiers who were there did.    Remember when Pres.  George W. Bush flew into Baghdad in the middle of a shooting war and his security team had the troops disarmed?  Well, the media was far too busy reporting,  falsely, that the president was carrying a plastic turkey,  but they surely wouldn’t have failed to accuse W of fearing the troops if he had instructed that they be disarmed.    They didn’t mention it because no weapons were surrendered.    Nor did his team find it necessary to hand out cell phones so those assembled could take pictures with them,  as Obama did on his trip.

Arlington National Cemetery also wasn’t closed to the public when W visited.     See how much things have changed under the rule of His Oneness by reading Mark Alexander’s piece.    Consider a free subscription to the Patriot Post,  here,  for its valuable insight and observations.    I support it,  even though my paltry contributions aren’t tax-deductible,  because it does important work for the cause of our liberty.   And I’m lazy — their good stuff is delivered right to my email box automatically!

I’m watching Obama at the  Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National,  and  his hand is placed beneath his chest,  about at the bottom  of the rib cage,  instead of  over the breast.    Does he not know where the heart is,  or is the placement an unconscious reflex?    I have the sound muted  on that tv as I’m watching French Open tennis live,  which forces me to notice body language.

Now  he’s giving his speech.   I laugh when he claims to be “humble” to be the Commander-in-Chief,  and scoff when he claims he’ll do everything in his power to keep America safe.    He has already taken waterboarding off the table,  along with the other enhanced interrogation methods,  though he reserved the right to use the latter.    And as always,  the occasion is somehow about him.

Obama is just telephoning this one  in —  there is no sense of commitment, no spark of passion,  anywhere in his remarks.    It is a dull,  pro-forma,   love-the-troops-as-Michelle-and- I- do concoction  which could have been delivered with more emotion by the teleprompter if it had a synthezised voice.

Do military personnel buy the Obamas’ supposed affection?   Not for an instant.    We already know that the Obama team handed out cellphones so the soldiers at his last little exercise could be seen holding them up to take pictures.    They  clearly thought no one would notice that all the phones were identical.

I’ve never served in the military,  but every generation of my family has,  going back to the Revoluntionary War,  so I’m entitled to comment on what military personnel think.    I also count among my family and friends a number of elite military forces members.

This Memorial Day,  remember what it is for,  and thank any military personnel you encounter,  whether active or retired,  today and throughout the year.

Read this tribute for your inspiration, and this  account.

UPDATE:  I didn’t mention this,  because Obama can’t give a speech without blaming Pres.  Bush for something,  but John Hinderaker of Powerline lets loose on this point.

First,  Obama wasn’t going to meet with Rolling Thunder at all,  then perhaps an aide would condescend to spend a minute with them, since His Oneness is such a fan of the military.

Then Obama just happened to stop by while the group was meeting Friday with administration officials about veterans’ issues .    This way he gets credit for “meeting” with them,  while avoiding the awkwardness of having them on his official schedule.

It’s far removed from the past 8 years of a smiling Pres.  Bush welcoming Rolling Thunder and their noisy Harleys in the driveway of the White House.     I doubt they will be asking Obama to join Bush as an honorary member.     I’m quite sure no current administration officials  will  make a regular practice of riding with Rolling Thunder,  as a number of Bush’s people did,  and I suspect top military brass will no longer join them either.

For someone so fond of the military,  Obama doesn’t seem to trust them much.    For what it’s worth,  the only recent Naval Academy graduate I know doesn’t remember being instructed to leave  “potential weapons”  at home for his graduation exercises.

I found a column by  JB Williams which gives a neat history of the damage Congress has done to the country through the vehicle of  Government-Sponsored Enterprises.     GSEs are a clever means to accomplish things which can’t be managed legislatively,  and allow Congress to avoid responsibility for the disasters they perpetrate.

It should be no surprise that Democrats have always been extremely fond of GSEs, which serve handsomely to increase the reach and power of the federal government.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are but two of the GSEs which haven’t turned out well.  And of course, one must not point out that Pres.  George W. Bush sounded the warning on both entitites many years ago.

Since when does an American President bow to ANYBODY?

Can’t you just imagine the headlines if Pres. George Bush had done such a thing?    All I’ve seen thus far is complaints that His Oneness didn’t really bow, which the photos make obvious is  not true.    Why would His Oneness show more deference to the House of Said than to the Queen of England, who by the way, is MUCH shorter than the Saudi king.

Thomas Lifson agrees.

And see this bitterly amusing cartoon on Obama’s new diplomacy.

UPDATE:  And the White House is simply lying about it.  Press Secretary Robert Gibbs apparently has been ordered to dismiss it when lying is insufficient.

Who was Obama talking to in the video?  He says he was talking to the Iranian people, just as Pres. Bush did in his video to them at about the same time in his presidency.

Bush mentioned “freedom” and “democracy” and the rights of people.  The first 2 words never passed Obama’s lips, and the only “right” he mentioned was his desire for Iran to  take its “rightful place” in the world.

Mr. President,  tyranny has NO rightful place in the world.

All His Oneness has done is signal to the mullahs that he is weak, because in that world, you offer to negotiate only when you are beaten.  And the proof of that can be seen in the Iranian response, which was to tell Obama to apologize for his country’s past sins and end any relationship with Israel.

Dick Cheney was quite correct last week when he said in an interview that Obama’s policies were making us less safe.  How much so we shall, unfortunately,  find out in only one way.

UPDATE:  The Obama response to Iran’s contempt?  Have Hillary! invite them to a meeting with Afghanistan.

The national debt hit a record $11 trillion yesterday.

Sen. Kent Conrad said the numbers could force Congress to make “adjustments” to Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget plan.    Ya think?    Did he share that with His Oneness?    VP Biden certainly didn’t get the message.

The Obama Administration is now claiming that it only found out about the AIG bonuses this month, despite the fact that some information about them was published last year.

Though the WaPo is reporting His Oneness knew about the bonuses the day before they were paid.

Sen. Chris Dodd is claiming the amendment he put in the stimulus bill regarding payment of bonuses was altered to include a date during the reconciliation process.

Well, AIG  between 2000 to 2008, gave $101,332 in political contributions to candidate Obama,  $85,749 to Sen. Chuck Schumer, but $226,478 to Dodd.

And since the stimulus monstrosity killed the Mexican trucking program, Mexico is retaliating, while His Oneness tries to find wiggle room in the  “imperfect bill”  he so happily signed.

And  Pres. Bush declines to criticize his successor, showing the class the latter sadly lacks.