Happy Codpiece Day

Others have noted the irony of Bin Laden's killing on the eighth anniversary of dubya's carrier-deck strut and Mission Accomplished bravado.
(All Hat, No Cattle) Golly, whoda thunk that gathering intelligence- and paying attention to it- responding with a focused plan, and carefully targeting your objective might have a more positive outcome than initiating unplanned hostilities against a poorly armed, fractious nation whose leader threatened your daddy and your masculinity?

Here's the thing: I don't want to underplay the importance of killing Bin Laden. I honestly don't know how important he is/was at this point; if reports are accurate, he has been thoroughly out of the loop. I think kudos and more are in order for those involved in this operation: well done! I wish it was as easy for me to assure you of proper health care and the benefits you deserve when you return to civilian life. Lord knows our country and citizens owe you at least that much, but we both know you're going to have to fight tooth and nail to even get attention, let alone the support you're due.

But what really disturbed me last night as I realized what had happened was the mood of celebration. I was watching Twelve Monkeys- an appropriately surreal, grim and depressing film, when I started hearing fireworks, cheering, and chants of "USA! USA!" I didn't pay much attention. Danged Greek kids will use anything as an excuse to make noise and get drunk... one gets inured to it after a while. Then I took a break and checked the web. Oh my. Celebrations in New York and DC. Obama interrupting Celebrity Apprentice Dance Survivors (or some such) for an officious statement. Boo-yah. A guy is dead. Go USA!

Really, people? Yeah, he was an awful person, a prick, a monster, even. Yeah, he planned an event that killed 3000 American Citizens within our national boundaries (I think it's that latter detail that gets everyone's panties in a knot- we sure as shit don't give a fuck when American citizens are killed overseas by ambushes and IED's.) But I had been under the impression that our country was built based on the principle of the basic dignity and assured rights of each and every human being. It's one thing to see a few self-selected yahoos celebrating the execution of a criminal in Texas (after, I might point out, the application of due process of law, however flawed that might be); it's another to see a huge portion of my country celebrating what amounts to a military execution as if it was a game-winning three point play in the closing seconds of a playoff game.

Listen, assholes: this is not a game. These are not the closing seconds- we have been warned that GWOT will likely go on for decades. Bin Laden was a human being, not a basketball. Celebrating the death a human being, however awful he was, cheapens ALL human life, including your own.

I'm reminded of Tommy Sand's song, There Were Roses:

Isaac was my friend! he cried, he begged them with his tears
But centuries of hatred have ears that do not hear
An eye for an eye, it was all that filled their minds
And another eye for another eye till everyone is blind

And the tears of the people ran together.

Again, let me be clear: I am in no way saying Bin Laden's death is a bad thing. I would have preferred his live capture and trial, but as best as I can tell, actually following our own law is distasteful and unworkable for our current legislative and executive branches. It's much more pragmatic to throw suspects into a box in Guantanamo, with assurances we'll sort them all out with military tribunals in some nebulous future. Given that fact, and the potential for his martyrdom or becoming an even more powerful symbol, I really don't feel that execution by Special Ops force is a bad alternative.

No, what disgusts me is the idea that we can treat the end of a human life- any human life- as a source of cheap entertainment, nationalism, and a reason to celebrate.

Sometimes I Wish My Mind Would Shut Up

Source photo from a story at OregonLive.

Ask. Tell.

(Image from Revel & Riot, which also has some good background info on DADT) Between the vote for cloture and the actual vote, I got a little confused about what exactly the status of DADT was this morning. However, the actual vote was scheduled at 3 PM Eastern time, or noon here, and it passed. Obama is expected to sign it next week, and according to WaPo,

The legislation says the president and his top military advisers must certify that lifting the ban won't hurt troops' fighting ability. After that, there's a 60-day waiting period for the military.

So it doesn't go into effect immediately, though I hope the armed services put a moratorium on DADT discharges in the meantime.

It's one step forward, an important step. But in the words of a retweet, "Now give those brave gay soldiers someone to come home to: Legalize marriage equality."

Well, Golly Gee, Here's A Surprise

Who, me? Racist?

"The Tea Party movement has extensive links to white supremacist groups." The Guardian's article has a nice summary of the report and the predictable response, but I think the author and editor really deserve a shout-out for actually linking to the report on line- I appreciate that, folks. (For those who want to click through, the page was slow to load for me, but it did finally come up. Picture from the linked report.)

All The President's Emails

I really enjoy this feature from The Guardian...

To: Hillary Clinton Subject: Re: Plan C

Sorry about Plan B, but I think it's impolitic for the President of the United States to phone a raving mad, pig-ignorant Florida preacher to ask him not to burn 200 Qur'ans, especially if the guy then goes ahead and does it anyway. So, Plan C: if you think you can arrange for a Blackhawk to fly over and dump water all over the bonfire, fine. Do we need legal justification, or can it just be a fun federal prank? B.

To: VPOTUS Subject: Re: Plan C

Hey Joe, in answer to your question about whether it's disrespectful to get 200 copies of the Qur'an wet, I can only say I HAVE NO FRIGGING IDEA BECAUSE I'M NOT A MUSLIM. Why are you even asking me? Anyway, last I heard – fingers crossed – the whole thing had been called off. I hope Hillary remembered to cancel that helicopter. Barack

Look Ma, No "F's"

The Obaminator finally seems to get the idea that a 10+ percent unemployment rate is very bad news for the dems, so guess what he's gonna do about it. If the words "too little, too late" come to mind, you're not alone.

Barack Obama is launching a campaign to persuade American voters that the ailing US economy is safe in his hands, unveiling a $50bn (£32bn) infrastructure package tonight as the countdown begins to November's midterm elections in which the Democrats are expected to receive a drubbing.

And of course, Weepy the Troll (R- Armpit) is compelled to chime in:

“As the American people, facing near double-digit unemployment, mark Labor Day by asking, where are the jobs, the White House has chosen to double-down on more of the same failed ‘stimulus’ spending,” Boehner said in a prepared statement.

Ignoring Boehner's principled opposition, by which I mean if anyone other than a good, jayzus-feering rubblekin proposes anything, he opposes it on principle, let's look at what the American Society of Civil Engineers had to say about the state of US infrastructure last year:So if we were to expand Obama's proposal by a factor of 10, and spend that amount for the next four and a half years, we would meet what ASCE thinks we need. With all due respect to Obama (very little, at this point), I'll reitierate: too little, too late. And with all due respect to Boehner (none whatsoever), shut yer whiney little yap until you have some sort of useful counterproposal.

Miscellaneous Amusements

Some stuff that has amused me and entertained me in recent days has been piling up, and I finally have time to throw it together into some sort of online slumgullion.What Would Jack Do?
Sofa Pizza, and from the same post:

WASHINGTON – In what might be the most serious challenge to Barack Obama’s legitimacy as President, a new poll shows that one out of five Americans are not convinced that Mr. Obama exists.

(The Borowitz Report)
I love optical illusions. This is another where if you can hold your eye fixed on a particular point, nothing seems to be wrong. But if you allow your gaze to wander naturally, the apparent motion is downright freaky. FuckYeahAlbuquerque
Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr. Now look, we don't want kids to realize this. The fact that they don't is the only reason the human race still exists.
Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr, posted with the note, "Michael Ian Black Goes After a Racist Obama-Hater During his Set." I have mixed feelings; speaking truth to power is dangerous, but worthwhile. Speaking truth to "fucking idiots" may not be as consistently dangerous, but I'm afraid it's pretty pointless most of the time. Idiots, by their nature, cannot comprehend that they're idiots.
Pop culture ore deposits and where to find them. Blackadder
I may or may not have anything more to say about this travesty later. I've been waiting to see how it unfolds. So far, pretty much what I expected. (Clay Bennett, from The Chattanooga Times Free Press)
The Daily What... I find it seriously troubling that I can find young women slightly older than a third of my age so appealing.
EpicPonyz... will this become a regular Thursday post? I have regular posts for Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. There's no particular reason to have one for the other three days, but no reason not to. And I've loved Norse mythology since about second grade. We'll see.

Surprise, Surprise

The NYT is reporting this afternoon that a Judge has blocked the Obama administration's 6-month moratorium on further drilling below 500 feet depth in the GOM (that strikes me as an extremely fitting initialism for the Gulf right now).

In a 22-page ruling, Judge Martin L. C. Feldman of Federal District Court issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of a May 28 order halting all floating offshore drilling projects in more than 500 feet of water and preventing the government from issuing new permits for such projects.

Citing the economic harm to businesses and workers in the gulf caused by the moratorium, Judge Feldman — a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan — wrote that the Obama administration had failed to justify the need for the sweeping suspension, which he characterized as “generic, indeed punitive.”

To which the administration responded,

Mr. Gibbs said the president “strongly believes that continuing to drill at those depths without knowing what’s happened” in the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 workers and left a well gushing out of control, “makes no sense” and puts people’s lives at risk.

I think that's about right: we don't know exactly what happened, and in fact we may never be able to determine the precise circumstances and chain of events that led to the blowout. But we can probably get a better understanding than we have now, and it's already clear that a lack of oversight on the part of MMS was a contributing factor. We cannot hope for a set of regulations that can guarantee accident-free oil drilling. However, it seems to me that there are a few that wouldn't be too economically restrictive, but would lead to a safer drilling environment. The purpose of the moratorium is not to be "punitive," but to allow our leaders to carefully examine the situation and figure out how to proceed from here.

The status quo has been tested and found lacking. Apparently, Feldman has a hard time seeing that. I wonder what could be impairing his vision? Hmmm... that's a toughie. Think Progress offers a suggestion:

Like many judges presiding in the Gulf region, Feldman owns lots of energy stocks, including Transocean, Halliburton, and two of BP’s largest U.S. private shareholders — BlackRock (7.1%) and JP Morgan Chase (28.3%). Here’s a list of Feldman’s income in 2008 (amounts listed unless under $1,000):

BlackRock ($12000- $36000)
Ocean Energy ($1000 – $2500)
NGP Capital Resources ($1000 – $2500)
Quicksilver Resources ($5000 – $15000)
Hercules Offshore ($6000 – $17500)
Provident Energy
Peabody Energy
PenGrowth Energy
RPC Inc
Atlas Energy Resources
Parker Drilling
TXCO Resources
EV Energy Partners
Rowan Companies
BPZ Resources
El Paso Corp
KBR Inc
Chesapeake Energy
ATP Oil & Gas

Shorter version: Federal Judge blocks Obama moratorium; cites danger of economic impact to his bank account.

Bill Biden

(TDW) I'm sure you've heard the news of Joe Biden's verbal gaffe at the signing ceremony earlier today, and if you haven't, you will. Some sources are apparently trying to make a big deal out of this- I read earlier that Faux News ran the audio "repeatedly." Whatever. I happen to agree with Biden on this, and it doesn't really trouble me that he used some injudicious language to say so. The more I read about the final result, the better I feel. I still worry about the potential for corporate abuse of the US taxpayer, but it was clear from the beginning that for-profit insurance companies were not the target of this bill- that is, that they would remain viable players and a part of whatever resolution we reached. And they are, so I have no reason to act surprised or outraged. I'm just a little trepidacious, is all.

But that doesn't change the fact that this is indeed a big fucking deal.

Two

I call Bullshit.

But there is no doubt that in the course of this debate, Mr. Obama has lost something — and lost it for good. Gone is the promise on which he rode to victory less than a year and a half ago — the promise of a “postpartisan” Washington in which rationality and calm discourse replaced partisan bickering.

In today's NYT, David Sanger argues that somehow, since "Never in modern memory has a major piece of legislation passed without a single Republican vote," this is a loss or failure on Obama's part. This despite the fact that Republicans were offered every opportunity to contribute to and shape the bill. They were determined not to; they had explicitly said at the beginning of Obama's term that would stop at nothing to obstruct or at least delay anything on his agenda. And, frankly and objectively, they have done a marvelous job of just that.

The problem isn't that Obama failed to achieve his "postpartisan" goal; his problem is that he thought Republicans shared that goal. They didn't and don't. The problem isn't that Obama isn't rational (I sometimes wish he was more emotional and passionate); the problem is he assumed rationality appealed to conservatives. It may have at some point in the past, but with a few exceptions (e.g. John Dean), I can't remember a time since 1992 when I have associated "rationality" with "conservatism." It takes two to tango. It takes two to make a marriage. And it takes two to sit down at the table and negotiate in good-faith bipartisanship.

This generation of Republicans won't even acknowledge that there is a table, let alone sit down at it. And negotiate with Dems? They'd rather blow Osama.

Even conservative pundit David Frum, in a widely-circulated column yesterday, recognizes this:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994.

(...)

This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none.

and:

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

(...)

When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.

I for one welcome sensible conservatism. I welcome informed, rational viewpoints that differ from mine. But claiming that because Obama and Pelosi managed to shoehorn the HCR bill through, despite Republicans screaming "NO!", therefore fail, is just asinine.

Secret Service?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this violates the law, not to say standards of decency. I also think it's a reasonable position that the US has never recovered from the trauma of its presidential assassinations, particularly the two mentioned above. And Solly Forell, pseudonym or not, is likely to be facing some very uncomfortable questions in the foreseeable future. (Hat tip: Balloon Juice and Library Grape)

I'm Glad Someone Recognizes This

From the conclusion of Obama's weekly address, via Krugman's blog:

What’s being tested here is not just our ability to solve this one problem, but our ability to solve any problem. Right now, Americans are understandably despairing about whether partisanship and the undue influence of special interests in Washington will make it impossible for us to deal with the big challenges that face our country. They want to see us focus not on scoring points, but on solving problems; not on the next election but on the next generation. That is what we can do, and that is what we must do when we come together for this bipartisan health care meeting next week. Thank you, and have a great weekend.

Krugman appears to be viewing this fairly optimistically. Me? Not so much. Still, as I said in the title, I'm relieved that Obama seems to recognize how frustrated we are. I guess it's not really a surprise; he hit many of the same notes in the State of the Union Address a month ago.

Big Hole

Via Talking Points Memo, a chart of job loss rates from December 2007 to January 2010. I think the emphasis on "Bush vs. Obama" is largely irrelevant. What really strikes me is the enormity of the hole that needs to be filled. And the lack of seriousness with which both sides seem to be approaching the issue.

Petition for Presidential Recognition of Darwin Day

It seems a bit late to me to start a drive to issue a Presidential Proclamation on Darwin Day, which will be next Friday, February 12. Nevertheless, I support the idea. Below is the text from the site, and you can click over to read the proposed statement, and sign the petition.

As an American who values scientific inquiry and integrity, I urge you to issue a presidential proclamation recognizing Darwin Day on February 12. Darwin Day is celebrated every year on the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday in 1809, and is a day in which people gather together to commemorate his life and work. Charles Darwin was the first to propose the groundbreaking scientific theory of evolution by natural selection—a theory that has done more to unify and bring understanding to the life sciences than any other—and Darwin Day is a celebration of this discovery and of scientific progress.

I believe that issuing this proclamation will send a powerful message that scientific discovery and integrity in our society are top priorities—priorities that are needed now more than ever as extremists with narrow ideological agendas are attempting to undermine science in our schools.

Please stand with me and countless others who value science and discovery by issuing the following or a similar proclamation on Darwin Day.

So I Did Watch It

My immediate reaction to the State of the Union Address was pretty positive... not overwhelmingly so, but positive.

Two points that stood out as weaknesses to me: first, I wish Obama had really punched home the necessity for health care reform as a component of economic revival. Businesses large and small that offer a health package are being crushed by rising costs, and more and more businesses are being forced to drop coverage entirely to stay competitive. By failing to make that connection, he missed a major opportunity to explain to the American people why such reform is critical, not years in the future, but now.

Second, the wild shifts in tone made for good theater, but sent a confusing overall message. Is he really going to get more forceful with both sides? Is he really going to shame the dems into growing a pair? Is he really going to be calling out the blatant (and explicit) conservative obstructionism and lies? This is at the heart of my concerns with Obama: he's a smart and competent guy, as much so as anyone. But I've yet to see a willingness to brawl in public. He came pretty close in a couple of passages last night, referring to Republican obstructionism and to the recent Supreme's decision, but these issues need to be in the media regularly, not just once a year. The Republicans are masters of this sort of messaging, and the democrats are incompetent. I think Obama is perfectly capable of this sort of game, but he'd rather not play it. At his point, in my opinion, I think he'd best admit he has no choice but to dive in, name names and specifics, and fight for the things he wants in public fora, not with sternly worded messages behind closed doors.

But it wasn't really until this morning, discussing SOTU with other coffee drinkers, that it dawned on me what it was in the speech that had so resonated with me. I'm frustrated and angry with what I see happening (or not) in this country, and what I unknowingly wanted to see was evidence that Obama was too. And I did. So my visceral reaction was positive.

Still, relating to my second quibble, what matters here is the followup. We all know the guy can deliver a speech and keep us spellbound. (I was a little fidgety by the end; don't SOTU's normally go 40-45 minutes? On the other hand, I don't know what could or should have been cut.) Yes, my reaction was positive, and from what I've read, so was that of most people. A number of commentators have said that this speech recaptured many of us who've been becoming disaffected with him. In a sense that's true for me. However, if we don't start to see some real engagement from the White House in whipping Congress into line- or at least appeals to the court of public opinion if the jackals won't start actually doing their jobs- he won't hold us.

Also too, while not the disaster that Jindal's response was last year, I was transfixed by the way that the GOP's response looked like an amateurish, badly scripted comedy sketch. I was half expecting it to end with "Live from New York... it's SATURDAY NIGHT!"

One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary of Obama's inauguration. I've seen this pointed out in a (surprisingly) few places, but of course the big news is the Massachusetts special election, and the Republican's now overwhelming 41-59 majority.

As an aside, we started a year ago with a 41-58 Republican majority. Specter switched sides (heh-heh) sometime last spring. and Franken was finally granted his Senate seat sometime in late June/early July. We saw essentially no legislative progress during the first six months and less during the second. The Republicans have made it clear that they will fight tooth and nail against anything, anything, other than tax cuts for the wealthy, taxpayer support for their corporate contributors, and cutting off "entitlements." And they've been quite successful in furthering their agenda for the past 30 years.

The Democrats, on the other hand, are bound and determined to try to compromise with "no." It's like a Monty Python sketch: The Shopkeeper and the Barterer.

Shopkeeper (Michael Palin) is standing in an art gallery, behind a counter near a cash register. Barterer (Terry Jones) enters, smiles at S, and walks over to a large painting. S returns the smile, and approaches B and the painting.

B: This is a fine painting you have here. What are you asking?

S: It's a steal at 200 Pounds, sir.

B: I'll take it off your hands for free.

S: Oh, you are quite the connoisseur, sir, but I couldn't possibly let it go for less than a hundred pounds.

B: Hmm... on closer investigation, I think it might be worth as much as... nothing.

S: You do drive a hard bargain sir, but my family and I do need to eat. 50?

B: 25?

S: (Delighted) 25 it is, sir! Shall I wrap it for you, or would you like to arrange delivery?

B: On second thought, 25 sounds just a bit high. Hmmm... I would be happy to remove this from the premises at no cost at all, effective immediately.

S: (Downcast, looks up from the floor hopefully) 10 pounds?

B: No, I think that's still a bit high. Zero.

S: Five?

B: Nada

S: Two-fifty?

B: Zilch

S: OK, this is my final offer: one.

B: (pauses, and wrinkles his brow in consideration) Look, it would help if you'd make some effort to meet me halfway. So here are our current positions; nothing and nothing. Let's find the middle ground.

S: (ponders, then looks up with a conspiratorial smile) ...Okay, then. Nothing it is. Would you like that wrapped, or would you like to arrange delivery?

B: Oh, neither, I think. (B proceeds to smash the frame and rip the painting to shreds, leaving the debris on the floor. B then starts toward the shop door)

S: Do have a pleasant afternoon, Sir! Always a pleasure doing business with you!

(Just before B reaches the door, it opens, and wearing a Bobby uniform...)

Obama: (leans into the shop) Did I hear a disturbance? Is there a problem here?

B & S (together) Of course not, officer!

S: (Smiling widely) Just concluding a transaction with my best customer!

Obama: (Nodding sternly) Good then! Carry on.

(Obama and B exit shop door, S returns to counter and register, still beaming)

This is what I've seen in US politics over the last year- even the last six months, in which the Democrats have supposedly had an unstoppable supermajority. Do you understand why I don't assign a whole lot of importance to the MA results? It will make No. Difference. Whatsoever. Further, all the pundits moaning or delighting over "What this means" no more know what they're talking about than do fortune tellers and their tea leaves and knuckle bones.

The reason I started this post was to point out two pieces I've read today that I think do a good job of summing up my attitude toward this, Obama's first anniversary in office. First is Krugman:

Maybe House Democrats can pull this out, even with a gaping hole in White House leadership. Barney Frank seems to have thought better of his initial defeatism. But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.

And the other is at The Dean's Office:

I don't pretend to speak for all liberals, but here's how I see the breakdown on some of the major issues confronting the country and why it becomes clear that many, many of us have become completely disillusioned with the democratic party.

HEALTH CARE
OPTIMUM POSITION: Single payer health insurance provided to all legal citizens financed through higher taxes on the wealthy, drug importation allowed.
COMPROMISE POSITION: Government provided national public option coupled with insurance company regulation that would broaden coverage and drive down prices to those in private insurance plans.
LOW-BAR: Medicare expansion coupled with new insurance company regulation.

He then goes through Iraq, Banking/Finance, Gay Rights and Economy with the same three positions... and guess what? Obama clears the low bar on all of them! Yay, change we can believe in.

So in short, I congratulate Obama for completing his first year in office, and I look forward to his first successful year in office.

Lockwood is not in as pissy a mood as he was this morning. I had fun with the captions in the previous post and the (wholly unanticipated) sketch above; the idea came to me as I was writing "compromise with no." When the world hands you a merdburger avec fromage, laugh at the absurdity of a merdburger avec fromage, and the elegant manner in which it was presented.

Barack Has a New Family Member

Right here in Corvallis!

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have a new nephew. He is Austin, son of the first lady's older brother, Craig Robinson, and his wife, Kelly.

(...)

Craig Robinson is the head coach of the Oregon State men's basketball team, the Beavers.

Let's Review

Bush's Record for his first year:

January 2001:

In his memoir, "Against All Enemies", Clarke wrote that when he first briefed Rice on Al-Qaeda, in a January 2001 meeting, "her facial expression gave me the impression she had never heard the term before." He also stated that Rice made a decision that the position of National Coordinator for Counterterrorism should be downgraded. By demoting the office, the Administration sent a signal through the national security bureaucracy about the salience they assigned to terrorism. No longer would Clarke's memos go to the President; instead they had to pass though a chain of command of National Security Advisor Rice and her deputy Stephen Hadley, who bounced every one of them back.

If you haven't, you should read Against All Enemies. Clarke has, with some justification in my opinion, been criticized as being self-aggrandizing in this book, but that's beside the point. He paints a portrait of an administration obsessed with Iraq and the previous administration. If Clinton felt Al-Qaeda was a threat, then obviously it wasn't.

06 August 2001: George Bush is on vacation in Texas, and is given a briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." Bush is reported to have heard the briefer out, then responded, "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

03-04 September: George Bush ends his vacation and returns to Washington.

11 September 2001: 'Nuff said? Maybe not... here's Mary Matalin on CNN Sunday. Yes, three days ago:

"I was there [in the Bush White House]. We inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation's history. And President Bush dealt with it."

And here's Dana Perino a month ago:

Dana Perino's status as an almost member of Team Obama isn't keeping her from bashing the White House. Last night she told Fox News' Sean Hannity that she thought the President was playing politics by refusing to describe the massacre at Fort Hood as a terrorist attack. Perino then decided to get extra Fox News-y by mangling some facts when she said, "We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term."

Yeah. Right. Never Forget. Also too, by the way,

The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began.

18 September 2001: 80's Thrash Metal rears its ugly head.

The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. (A 2004 study however, has shown that the total number of harmed people should be raised to 68)

12 November 2001: AA Flight 587 crashes in Queens, New York. After being told over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over by NTSB representatives that there was no evidence of terrorist involvement, but that an investigation was underway, all the little newshounds dutifully report that this was probably another terrorist attack.

Lockwood quits watching TV news.

And the final outcome:

Nonetheless, terrorism was officially ruled out as the cause by the National Transportation Safety Board, which instead attributed the disaster to the first officer's overuse of rudder controls.

22 December 2001: Richard Reid (AKA Abdul Raheem and Tariq Raja) is overpowered by flight attendants and other passengers after attempting to detonate PETN explosives hidden in his shoes. He was screened on French soil and was traveling from Charles De Gaulle International Airport (Paris) to Miami International Airport.

Obama's record for his first year:

05 November, 2009: An Islamic Army psychiatrist kills 13 and wounds 30 others, at Fort Hood Texas. Hopefully, it will become clearer during the trial as to the degree of fanatic involvement in this act. It has been reported that

Hasan attended the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, in 2001, at the same time as Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, two of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks. A law enforcement official said that the FBI will probably look into whether Hasan associated with the hijackers. A review of Hasan's computer and his multiple e-mail accounts has revealed visits to websites espousing radical Islamist ideas, a senior law enforcement official said.

However,

Hasan is an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, who had on a number of occasions expressed radical beliefs, and had communicated by e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, but FBI terrorism task forces had determined him not to be a threat prior to the shooting.

As far as I'm concerned, the jury hasn't even been in yet, so it can't be out. This may be a terrorist action, or it may be the action of a single deranged man pushed over the edge. I don't know, but I'm willing to be convinced either way as the trial unfolds.

(In an attempt to be fair, I've looked over a number of articles to try to determine whether Obama received any briefings prior to Christmas regarding heightened terrorism concerns. I presume that major travel holidays are routinely treated as periods of heightened concern and that Obama is routinely filled in regarding those concerns and related procedures. But I find no clear indication that he was given any warning or indication of a particular risk.)

25 December 2009: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is overpowered by flight attendants and other passengers after attempting to detonate PETN explosives hidden in his underpants. He was screened on Dutch soil and was traveling from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

Clearly, the problem is that those danged dems just want to coddle the terrorists and ignore the danger. I mean, it's obvious to anybody who watches Fox News.

"They just don't get it," Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, wrote in a fundraising letter for his gubernatorial campaign. "These are the same weak-kneed liberals who have recently tried to bring Guantanamo Bay terrorists right here to Michigan!"

Just like Bill Clinton, who personally trained all 'leventy-seven 9/11 terrists to fly jets, and the complete opposite of dubya, who kept us safe and free for every single day of his eight-year reign.

War On Terror: The Bush-Obama Strategery

I haven't completely given up on Obama, but I've given up on his being able to herd that flock of cats who call themselves democrats... demo cats? I haven't said anything about the Afghanistan "surge," mostly because 1: I have no idea what it is we're trying to accomplish; 2: which means I have no idea how to accomplish it; 3: I have felt all along that Afghanistan was where we could accomplish something of value, where we could say to the Muslim world, "see, we don't hate you, we hate the extremists." Except for the last eight years what we've demonstrated is, if not that we hate Muslims, that we simply don't give a damn; and 4: I honestly don't see a good way forward. No matter what we do, we're screwed. Lean back and enjoy the show, folks! (Picture from Blue Oregon, video via Jesus' General)

More ObamaCare

New And Improved! Sociocommunislamifascist Obama tells you what to wear! So here's what I have to wear tomorrow: sunglasses, jumper, sweater, jeans and sneakers.Then Wednesday through Friday, I must wear a summer jacket, shirt, tee, jeans and sneakers. Saturday will be a re-run of tomorrow without the sunglasses (it is western Oregon, after all).

All Hail Obama! Freeing me from the onerous task of figuring out what to wear, so I can spend more time reading LOLCats!

Oh waitaminit... I just realized it's the Weather Channel, not Whitehouse.gov. Whatev's. All Hail our corporate overlords! Freeing me from the onerous task of figuring out what to wear, so I can spend more time reading LOLCats!

Followup: We can also get fashion instructions from Bender and Dr. House. All hail our robotic doctor caregivers! and cetera...

Followup 2: And Angelina! Oh HAIL yeah! Also, too, in the category of "things you can't unsee," NSFW, in a cartoonish sort of sense. And BTW, it's not the weather Channel; that's where they get their data, and I guess that's why they're using TWC logo.