01 | March | 2011

Have we all had a chance to check out the new website, Left-Wing Institute Of Civil Discourse? It’s still a work in progress as I have lots of work to do to spice the site up. We kinda hit a snag getting the WP stat counter installed, so I have no idea how many people have seen the site. Annoying!

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Remember how we were promised that Obama would use “smart power”? How’s that working out for us?

At The Weekly Standard we find Sec. Clinton under fire by House Republicans for the United States’ “tepid response” to the crisis in Libya.

Congressman Steve Chabot (R, Ohio) reminded Clinton that Muammar Qaddafi has “a history of responding to the threat of force, Chabot essentially asked why the U.S. didn’t use this approach to dealing with Libya.”

Clinton’s response was itself tepid – and confused. We have a different history with Libya than some other countries, Clinton said. But then she went on the defensive, saying:

we feel that we did this in a prudent and effective manner. And we did it in a way that did not raise the alarm bells around the region and the world that we were about to invade for oil. If you follow, as we follow, all of the websites that are looking at what’s happening in the Middle East, you see a constant drumbeat that the United States is going to invade Libya to take over the oil – and we can’t let that happen. Well, we are not going to do that. And we are going to side with the Libyan people and their aspirations, but the last thing in the world we wanted was to start off with military assets when we very effectively got our people out.

Ace notes in his excellent post: People are having a hard time figuring out what the “Obama Doctrine” actually might be.

It seems that the Obama Doctrine is basically strictly non-interventionist, informed by 60s/70s romanticization of “peasant warriors” leading “people’s revolts;” in this context, any entry by the First World Oppressor America taints the authenticity and righteousness of the cause.

Of the three major revolutions which occurred slowly enough that the US could have intervened in some small way (I exclude Tunisia as having occurred too quickly), it can’t be helped but be noted that the Obama Administration actively supported the anti-American (and therefore “authentic”) Mullahs in Iran, eventually turned against the US ally Mubarak and begin making very foolish, very confident-sounding pronouncements that they had solid information he was about to be deposed, and is very hesitant to aid the rebels against another anti-American tyrant.

The lesson seems to be that if you like your tyranny, you can keep your tyranny, so long as your tyranny is anti-American. If you’re a friend to America — watch out. What incentives this “doctrine” is intended to create, I don’t know.

Obama’s feckless, spastic foreign policy has one good unintended benefit: The world now longs for America the Strong again. They have seen what the world looks like when Superman is dead (or at least brain-damaged and crippled), and will not be as quick in the future to snipe at American leadership.

A year ago, at SRLC in New Orleans, Sarah Palin characterized “Obama’s Doctrine” as Obama Doctrine Is “Coddling Enemies” While “Alienating Our Allies”, which is a pretty stark way to put it, but accurate.

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The Daily Caller has some welcome news: Interior Secretary Salazar cracks under pressure and begins issuing Gulf of Mexico drilling permits

Ken Salazar can no longer avoid issuing deep-water drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico. Though the secretary of the interior recently said he would not bow to political pressure on lifting the de facto drilling moratorium in the gulf, rumors that he would crack under that pressure were confirmed Monday evening when the first deep-water permit since the BP oil spill was issued.

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Oh, give me a break….

Weasel Zippers: Unreal: Charlie Rangel Says Abolishing Unions Collective Bargaining “Close to Slavery”…

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Michelle Malkin’s lead story, today on what radical “professional grievance-mongers the NEA has become: “Educate, collaborate, AGITATE!”: Alinsky’s teacher corps:

Remember: “You cannot possibly understand NEA without understanding Saul Alinsky.”

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I heard Rush mention this earlier on his show: Eric Holder: Focus on Black Panther Case Demeans “My People”…

Yep. He said that.

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Matthew Vadum at NewsReal Blog is seeing through Obama’s bull, which isn’t too difficult, actually:, when you already know virtually everything the man says is BS: Obama To States On Obamacare: You Can Do It My Way, Or You Can Do It My Way. Now Choose!

Heads I win, tails you lose. That’s the false choice America’s Community Organizer-in-Chief just offered the states. Let me explain. Many governors are unhappy about Obamacare, so President Obama told them, “If your state can create a plan that can cover as many people as affordably and comprehensively as the Affordable Care Act does, without increasing the deficit, you can implement that plan and we’ll work with you to do it.” Sounds like he’s being pragmatic and reasonable doesn’t it?

Well then the joke’s on you.

Keep reading.

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The Daily Caller notices a slew of bogus polls about the situation in WI, (who hasn’t): Poll-arizing Questions: Critics challenge Wis. polling by New York Times, CBS:

By framing the issue as a battle over collective bargaining rights, rather than balancing the budget, and including what “you’ve read and heard” about the issue opens the door for more bias, Stoll said. Stoll said the heavily biased news coverage coming out of Wisconsin may shift public opinion towards favoring the unions.

Meanwhile, Legal Insurrection has been examining the internals of the latest Daily Kos/PPP polling: Skewed Sample Data Used In PPP Wisconsin “Do Over” Poll.

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John at Powerline: Eric Lipton Responds, and the Verdict Is In:

If you missed it over the weekend, Eric Lipton responded to emails from us and our readers, and attempted to justify his article about the “Billionaire Brothers,” Charles and David Koch. My analysis of his response follows:

On February 21, Eric Lipton of the New York Times wrote an article titled Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute. Lipton’s perspective on the controversy swirling around Wisconsin’s state finances–it’s all about Charles and David Koch–was an odd one, but consistent with the theme the Left has been peddling. (For a good explanation of how weirdly skewed this emphasis on the Koch brothers is, see Mark Steyn’s piece from last night. Commenting on Lipton’s story, Mark writes: “I find the headline alone so perverse you wonder how, even at the Times, it could have wafted up through six layers of editors without someone saying, “Oh, come on…”)

Keep reading. This is how the left operates.

Meanwhile, the Koches are now fighting back:

Big Government: Why Koch Industries Is Speaking Out

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Cristina Odons, Daily Telegraph: Christianity isn’t dying, it’s being eradicated

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The sheer awesomeness that is Zombie: Outside Job: Using the Oscars to legitimize a political theory

I call it “the Berkeley expression.”

Whenever I visit Berkeley — in particular certain upscale areas populated by academics and wealthy intellectuals — practically everyone I see has this creepy look on his or her face. It’s hard to describe, but once you’ve seen it enough times it’s unmistakable: a special kind of conspiratorial smugness, a faint “knowing smile” coupled with a glance that conveys a sense of not just personal superiority, but of mutual superiority. In an instant, the Berkeley expression communicates to everyone in the vicinity, “Isn’t it great that you and I and all of us here are morally superior to the rest of the world?”

Once you leave the city limits, you rarely encounter the Berkeley expression anywhere else. Which is why I was momentarily startled when I watching the Academy Awards at a friend’s house and the Berkeley expression unexpectedly flashed across the screen. It was radiating from the face of someone named Charles Ferguson, who had just won the Oscar for Best Documentary. Because my friends are all liberals (at best — some are far to the left of “liberal”), I kept my mouth shut as usual, but I thought to myself, “Wow! That guy, wherever he’s from, has really mastered the Berkeley-style smugness.” And then he gave his now-famous acceptance speech, which began with the sentence, “I must start by pointing out that three years after a horrific financial crisis caused by fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail – and that’s wrong.”

His winning documentary was called Inside Job, which traces the history of the financial meltdown of 2008, and places the blame entirely on greedy Wall Street insiders who scammed the world out of trillions of dollars. Every year, the Academy voters feel compelled to make some kind of political statement with an Oscar, and this year they chose Inside Job as their statement. Predictable.

I had pretty much already forgotten about the Oscars when I opened my morning paper yesterday to discover an explanation for Charles Ferguson’s instantly identifiable facial expression — he really is from Berkeley!

Keep reading.

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Ed Driscoll:‘Great Talent is Often Found in Horrible People’

The Manolo quotes an earlier news article concerning John Galliano, the fashion designer fired today by Christian Dior after being caught on video saying, “I love Hitler” and contrasts that with a quite stylish-looking dress that Galliano designed, along with a caption: “How can this be?”

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, thanks!

Via Weasel Zippers

RedWhiteBlueNews posted at YouTube:

On Saturday, February 26, 2011, MoveOn.org organized pro-Union rallies all over the United States called “Saving the American Dream.” The Dallas rally was held at noon in front of The Beckley Courthouse, 410 S Beckley, Dallas, TX 75208. Hosted by Alvin Wyeth. While 322 participants were registered for the event at MoveOn.org, by 12:45 p.m. when we arrived, there were less than 100 people packed in the tiny front yard of the courthouse. While there, I was handed a pamphlet called “Time to show our power” with the heading of Socialistworker.org. After the rally, I approached the union emcee/’chant leader, to ask him why Socialist organizations are involved in union rallies. I boil his answer down to “Unions are the first step to Marxism,” but listen for yourself.

See his full explanation of the Socialist pamphlet here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lfYEm…

See the blog post with pictures of signs and the Socialist pamphlet here: http://redwhitebluenews.com/?p=16105

See the blog response to the chant “Show me what democracy looks like”: http://redwhitebluenews.com/?p=16315

Tired of hearing how great Socialism is? http://redwhitebluenews.com/?p=10353

Want to know what happens to useful idiots when it’s all said and done? http://redwhitebluenews.com/?p=9547

When these people say “Solidarity”, don’t think “Poland”. Those people were running away from Socialism. These people are running towards it.

Cross-Posted at Leftwing Institute For Civil Discourse