No Blogging Today

Or maybe even tomorrow. It's Thanksgiving. Get a life. Go now, git!

Minnesota Conservatives Wishes You A Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy this short clip of Ronald Reagan. And enjoy this holiday however you like to celebrate it. MC is thankful for liberty and the men and women in uniform who safeguard it for us. MC is also thankful for the Gang of Five and others over the last 18 months we have met. You are terrific and you know who you are!

Hat tip: Jimmy Choo

Liberals Starting To Jump Ship Obama?

Probably not in any numbers and at the end of the day MC knows liberals go down with the ship because there is nowhere else for them to go. Still, Roger Cohen, in an article titled "Obama In His Labyrinth" (cutesy headline taking off from Garcia Marquez's "The General In His Labyrinth") says a remarkable number of things that will strike MC readers as obvious but not to most liberals. Hence the remarkableness of the piece, plus it is printed in the New York "What Global Climate Email Data Fraud Scam?" Times.

Says Cohen: "As an Obama admirer, I’m worried. He feels over-managed, over-scripted to me, to the point where he’s not showing the guts that prevailed at various difficult moments in the campaign. The ideas are good, but the warmth, cajoling and craft that make ideas more than that are lacking."

Says MC: We're glad Cohen's worried; we border daily on controlled panic or despair. He is everything Cohen's second sentence says and then some. The ideas are manifestly not good (to a liberal perhaps) and Obama is the opposite of warm and possess no craft. In. Over. His. Head.

Click on the title of the post to read the whining of a liberal (the same fool, it should be noted, who earlier in the year wrote that Jews in Iran don't have it so bad; fortunately, even other liberals couldn't take nonsense and he was widely mocked).

Der Spiegel: Obama Gets Nowhere On World Stage

MC didn't expect Der Spiegel to have a clear-eyed assessment of Obama's manifest failure on the world stage but here it is. Click on the title of this post to read it. What MC found interesting is that nothing in Obama's background or experience should have lead any moderately intelligent observer to think he could achieve a sliver of what his overreaching rhetoric claimed. We also thought the following to be eye-brow raising:

"The White House did not even stand up for itself when it came to the question of human rights in China. The president, who had said only a few days earlier that freedom of expression is a universal right, was coerced into attending a joint press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, at which questions were forbidden. Former US President George W. Bush had always managed to avoid such press conferences."

Bush compared favorably to Obama by Der Spiegel? Passing strange but not, we think, the last of its kind.

The EU Elects Non-Entities As Leaders

The European Union has elected Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium (above left) as first president of the European Council and Baroness Ashton of Upholland (from the United Kingdom) (above right) as its first foreign minister. The commentariat in Europe, at least in "Old Europe" as Donald Rumsfeld would say (and won't his memoirs be delicious?) is uniformly disheartened. Non-entities is the word being use by them, not MC, though it seems hard to argue with the term. Herman (you know how informal we Americans are) is known best for his haikus. Wow! We knew Belgium was boring but ripping off another culture's poem form? The Baroness, fittingly enough, has no foreign policy experience. And Europe wonders why the Islamists see it as low hanging fruit?

Click on the title of this post to read Charles Bremner's take in the TimesOnline.

How Could We Improve On This?

Harper Collins: Print Run Now 2.5 Million

MC would like to swear. It will in private but not on this blog. Eat it, you Palin haters. Just eat it.

Click on the title of this post to make sure, unlike Algore, we're not lying.

RIP: Jeanne Claude 1935-2009

Jeanne Claude was wife and artistic partner of Christo. Together they became famous for artworks involving wrapped items. Nonsense you say? Then you haven't been paying attention to what passes for modern art, e.g., Jeff Koons. MC is a fan: take objects and make them new. That's one operating definition of art we can live with.

Worthy of special applause is the couple's refusal to take corporate or other sponsors of their art, installations or exhibitions. They funded themselves because they did not want to be compromised. How very refreshing. Jeanne Claude once said: "Our art has absolutely no purpose, except to be a work of art. We do not give messages."

Click on the title of this post to read her obituary in The Telegraph (UK).

Images from bottom to top: Surrounded Islands, The Gates, Running Fence and Wrapped Reichstag (MC's personal favorite)

Your Friday Day Brightener

Has MC told you what we think of "call me" Senator Barbara Boxer? No, we haven't because we have a strict policy against swearing on this blog. Enjoy the clip.

Hat tip: Drudge Report

"A Special Form Of Disrespect"

So says the British Spectator:

'The Afghan issue has made clear the astonishing disregard with which Mr Obama treats Britain . As he decides how many more troops to send to Afghanistan – a decision which will fundamentally affect the scope of the mission – Britain is reduced to taking a guess. The White House does not even pretend to portray this as a joint decision. It is a diplomatic cold-shouldering that stands in contrast not just to the Blair-Bush era, but to the togetherness of the soldiers on the ground.'

MC likes, if that's the right word, the play in the title of the piece: the UK was always said to have had a special relationship with the US. Not under the Vapid One, however. Looking around at home and abroad, 2009 under Obama has uniformly been a disaster.

Click on the title of this post to read The Spectator article.

Hat tip: Weekly Standard via The Corner

Andrew Sullivan's Ongoing Public Implosion

MC reads Andrew Sullivan so that you don't have to. You're welcome. If you don't know who he is, do the Google on the internets and bone up. He once really was something (a young Brit who was Catholic, a Tory, editor of The New Republic and openly gay when it wasn't fashionable) but over time became something of a nut. Honestly, people still can't quite believe it. Pity about that.

What has people talking now, however, is that his blog, The Daily Dish, hosted at The Atlantic Monthly, has gone quiet. Why? He's reading Going Rogue. So what? Well, Andrew disgraced himself last year by banging on, to use a Brit term, about Palin's fifth pregnancy, ie, Trig, born with Down Syndrome. First he was convinced it was Bristol's and Sarah was covering up. When Bristol's pregnancy became known (hey Levi Johnston! your 15 minutes are up!) he pleaded honest inquiry. Right.

His writing became so focused on all things Palin, including the most rancid internet rumors, that The Dish went silent for the first time. In other words, the adults at The Atlantic Monthly gave him a time out and sent him to his room for a few days. Now The Daily Dish has shushed itself for the second time and the blogosphere is having a field day. Truth be told, so are we.

Click on the title of this post to read Ace of Spade's hilarious take on the latest installment of poor Andrew's decline. Graphics in this post were first seen there. The link in that piece to Iowa Hawk is not to be missed if you know anything about Sullivan. Ouch.

Hat tip: Scott Johnson of Powerline

The New Republic: Obama Has No Magic Overseas

And not much left domestically, MC might add. We were struck by the always readable if sometimes predictable Leon Wieseltier's "Washington Diarist" back page ruminations in the most recent issue of The New Republic.

His point of departure is the shameful absence of Obama from the world's celebration in Berlin on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. His observations, more broadly, acutely highlight the emptiness of so much of this administration's approach to the world and foreign policy issues. Click on the title of this post to read Wieseltier's whole article. MC found the following excerpt deadly:

"Liberals no longer remember that anti-communism was once a glory of liberalism. The president is so busy breaking new ground in foreign policy that he may not see that the ground of his foreign policy is broken. His renunciation of idealism has brought none of the rewards of realism. Conflicts that were supposed to be transformed by his magic are immune to his magic. He has no magic. There is no magic. His trip to China, where the subject of human rights was “raised,” has shown this again. When he gets back, perhaps he will meet with the Dalai Lama, but not for the purpose of “strategic reassurance.” That blessing is reserved for Hu Jintao. It makes sense that the man who refused to meet with the Dalai Lama did not make it to Berlin."

Attorney General Eric Holder Is A Fool

Yes, MC knows, calling someone a fool is hardly elevated discourse, incisive analysis or shrewd observation. It's akin to "Shut up," he explained. Still, MC goes with fool and so will you when you read about the Attorney General's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. If you thought Obama was in over his head, let's just say he has company with the man who thought it perfectly fine for Bill Clinton to pardon Marc Rich. Were but that the worst of it.

No, this, apparently, is the man who decided Khalid Sheik Mohammed (that word again) should stand trial in a federal, civilian court. Manifestly this is a Presidential decision but the hopey changey crowd in DC attempted to make it seem a normal decision within the ambit of the AG's office. It is anything but. Is there nothing Obama won't fob off on others or outsource in some way? No wonder he's taking so long on troops to Afghanistan: he can't really say someone else needs to make the decision. Where's a decider when you need one?

At any rate, click on the title of this post to read Allah Pundit's take on the AG's appearance and his incompetent, pathetic and, yes, foolish responses to Senator Lindsey Graham's serious and thoughtful questioning. This is the man leading our justice system? Is it 2012 yet?

When Real Life Becomes The Onion

Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner

Canadian Muslim: Ft. Hood Was Jihad

Have you noticed that increasingly in the "age of Obama" Americans have to turn to other English language news outlets to read the truth about our own country? MC has and is none too pleased about it although grateful the internet hasn't been taken over by the thugs in DC.

A friend of this blog brought to our attention a brave, honest column about the Ft. Hood murders and its fundamental motivation. Salim Mansur is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Kindly click on the title of this post to read his excellent article that was recently run in the Edmonton Sun newspaper. You'll be both glad you did and left wondering why we don't read anything like this in the drive by media.

Hat tip: She knows who she is.

Conservative Women Strike Fear Into Liberal America

We noticed, heh. Click on the title of this post to read the article in The Guardian (UK).

Hat tip: Drudge Report

But These Leaders Don't Hate Their Own Country

President Obama vs. The Rest of the World Greeting The Emperor of Japan (Photos)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert


King of Morocco


Dick Cheney


Prime Minister Slovenia


President South Korea


President Kazakhstan


Prime Minister India


Vladimir Putin


President Obama...

NEW VIDEO of the Obama bow here: at hotairpundit

Does The Man-child Know Nothing?

MC doesn't know what's worse: Barry at home or abroad. Is it 2012 yet?

For Hugh, Sebastian & Max

Click on the image to enlarge.

"I Want To Be A Part Of It, New York!"

What on earth is wrong with our government? Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (that word again) and four other cretins are to be tried in New York City and in a civil proceeding. Is it the opposite of Sally Fields? "You hate us; you really, really hate us!"

MC can't help but notice that this development was announced while the Vapid One is out of the country. What purpose is served by having these men return to the scene of their horrific crime? Most New Yorkers are democrats so why the affront? Of course, the rest of the country is entitled to feel affronted as well but the sting has to be acute in Manhattan and the other boroughs.

"Obama, speaking to reporters in Japan on the first day of an eight-day overseas trip, declined to comment extensively on the decisions, saying Attorney General Eric Holder would hold a news conference later in the day." Unreal; the President doesn't really even take responsibility for this decision and lets others further down the food chain explain. This is leadership?

Click on the title of this post to read the Washington Post's coverage.

Our Thousand Words On The Subject

Click to enlarge the Ramirez cartoon.

We Liked This

And we like reason.tv as well.

Why The Neglect Of Communist Crimes Matter

Watch the video and then click on the title of this post to read the article by the same name. You'll be glad you did both.

20 Years Ago: Die Mauer Ist Gefallen!

MC realizes that the photo above is from when the Berlin Wall wasn't really a proper wall. And certainly there are hundreds of images to choose from this day twenty years ago when the DDR mistakenly opened its borders. We like this photo best, however, because it is iconic. MC likes icons.

We are disappointed, though, that President Obama refused to join other leaders (hmm, maybe there's part of the answer?) in Berlin to celebrate the fall of this hideous wall. Why is he so slow to celebrate freedom over tyranny? His silence about the Iranians being slaughtered, his disgraceful refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama in order to appease the Chicoms, his pulling the plug on missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic, his comments that he doesn't want to "win" in Afghanistan and his shameful bowing to the grotesque "king" of Saudi Arabia surely set some sort of pattern that MC really doesn't wish to see in any American president.

Unfortunately, they are all of a piece. And freedom loving people around the world are worse for it. Still, MC takes comfort that when it was needed, the world had genuine leaders. We know who they were. Happy Anniversary!

Click on the title of this post to read The Independent's coverage of events two decades ago; events that astonished the world. MC remembers where it was when we heard the news; do you?

What Do You Mean Confusing?

Click on the image above to enlarge and be utterly baffled. Is this really happening?

Change: Unemployment Reaches 10.2%

Count on Team Obama to say that this is something they inherited and that they are doing their best. Which, of course, is completely untrue.

What Bolshevik instincts drive these liberals to insist on destroying healthcare in this country while all that people really want is an economy on a sound footing? MC can only hope that the grim numbers released make it more difficult for Speaker Pelosi to pass "that bill" tomorrow.

Janet Beihoffer Resigns As Chair Of CD 2

MC was distressed to learn that the capable, competent and courageous Janet Beihoffer has resigned her position as Chair of CD 2 effective 10/31/09. Click on the images above to read her resignation letter. More on what is behind this step backward for CD 2 and the RPM shortly.

Discretion hat-tip: Co-defendant

Rush Limbaugh Fox News Sunday (Part 3 of 3): Palin, GOP

Enjoy.

Rush Limbaugh Fox News Sunday (Part 2 of 3): Healthcare, NFL, Drug Rehab

Enjoy

Rush Limbaugh Fox News Sunday (Part 1 of 3): Obama, Economy, Afghanistan

Enjoy