One of the more amazing stories we’ve read regarding the President’s current “thinking” can be found in an AP article called Obama admits health care overhaul may die on the Hill. Two items struck us:
1 – ‘”I think it’s very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let’s go ahead and make a decision,” Obama said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.’
Note how this contrasts with his previous combativeness: “Hit ‘em twice as hard.” You’re finding out Mr. President that the phrase “Don’t tread on me” has a real meaning. You and that evil Witch of the West, Pelosi can’t “hit” the American people as though we’re children to be put in our places. You work for us – not the other way around.
2 – “I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We’re going to be moving a jobs package forward over the next several weeks; that’s the thing that’s most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all across the country.”
If you had thought this way back in March of last year; had you called for a truly civil discussion – and not tried to ram the health care boondoggle that we all came to know and hate down our collective (not collectivist) throats, the tea party movement and the awakened sleeping giant at the town hall meetings might never have happened.
One of us had a sit-down with a local director for her U.S. Senator. As this director took notes based on what she was saying, she could see the director nodding his head in agreement. Things like: you can’t insult the intelligence of the people paying the bills. We’re not astroturf, Mr. President. We’re not Nazis, and for the Wicked Witch of the West to call us that, and for you to not tell her to knock it off – well that spoke volumes. Treat us with the respect you want to have visited upon you, Mr. President, and we can have a real discussion/debate. If you can’t manage that, we’re going to hit you twice as hard come November.
- Off-the-cliff.com
There is a scene depicting military ineptitude near the beginning of George Lucas’ film, The Empire Strikes Back. The Empire is about to do battle with the rebels on the ice planet Hoth. One of his minions tells Darth Vader that the element of surprise has been lost. In frustration and as a display of sheer stupidity, Darth Vader then uses the Dark Side of the Force to kill his current Admiral and then tells the guy standing next to him to fix everything, calling him by his new designation, “Admiral.”
In a development we hope is not a parallel to this, we find a story where field commanders in Afghanistan are being “disciplined” when there are failures on the battlefield. The story then reports, “In response to the recent reprimands, some military officials have argued that casualties are inevitable in war and that a culture of excessive investigations could make officers risk-averse.”
This sounds like politically motivated, cover your a– behavior to us.
We would not be shocked to find out that this is a response to some Obama minion trying to be Darth Vader. We would like to understand the military value of doing what seems to be analogous to a football game and disciplining the quarterback because the defense he went up against was better prepared than he or his team imagined.
Are the higher-ups now requiring some degree of clairvoyance on the part of their field commanders? Do the field commanders have all the resources they need such that an expectation that there will be no battlefield failures is reasonable (seems doubtful to us)? Is it more likely that Obama has made a number of inept people his “Admirals,” and that they are simply following an Ayn Randian pattern of jackals so effectively story-told in Empire Strikes Back?
Again – we don’t know. We can only hope that for once in his miserable little life, Obama is not screwing yet another thing up.
- Off-the-cliff.com
We read a story about the difficulties faced by the Marines and others in our armed forces as they wage the fight on our behalf in Afghanistan.
Wars have always been difficult. We would not expect this one to be a cake-walk by any means, and this entry should also be read as a salute to the folks protecting our families and We the People of these United States.
We also realize that it is for the generals and admirals to do most of the efforts to rally the troops – to remind them afresh about how proud the American civilians back home are of their herculean efforts – to clean out despotism from a society that does not want to have it cleaned out; to bring a modicum of civilization to a desolate corner of the world (not a copy of American civilization – but letting their civilization flourish free from carnage).
But we are very mindful of the fact that George W. Bush knew how to prosecute a war (even if he made mistakes – as he did before the surge in Iraq). He did something we have not seen the current President do: He went into the war theater to break bread with the troops. He made clear in numerous speeches that America had the backs of each and every American soldier, as every good American does.
We ask you, Mr. Obama. You have time to visit Copenhagen to pick up a stupidly given award. You have time to spend time trying to get environmentalism boondoggles going, also in Copenhagen. We realize you can’t have the finest meals that Europe can provide in Afghanistan. We realize you can’t hob nob with European aristocrats and world leaders in Afghanistan. But we think you can hob nob with some people who are far more important to your administration and to the American people: the American military personnel.
You might be coolly received at first, since you have seen fit to dis them for the most part. (Explain to us again how your decision about troop levels in Afghanistan is so very different from General McCrystals that it took months of agonizing to make it?) But we believe that if you made overtures to show that you really do have their backs (assuming of course, that this is accurate), they would come to see it and to appreciate it.
This would mean severing ties with your Leftist base. So the question seems to be this: who do you consider more important, Mr. President? The jerk-water leaders in Europe who will hold America’s coat while we do the fighting that they should be up to their butts in, right along side us? Or is it your Leftist base that would come down on you like a ton of bricks, calling you a traitor for doing the noble thing of supporting the American soldiers who give the Leftists the ability to come down on you like a ton of bricks?
Or will you break bread with our American soldiers, Mr. President. Have you no rallying words for them as they face a very tough, ruthless enemy who doesn’t have his hands tied behind his back because of some idiots back home saying that our guys have to play bridge while the enemy is playing tackle football?
Where are your loyalties, Mr. President? We at O-t-c would really like to know.
- Off-the-cliff.com
There is an imposter in the White House. We want to know what happened to President Obama. Has some vast right wing cabal grabbed him from his bed and replaced him with a look-alike?
In something that seems right out of a science fiction movie, President Obama is going forward on his pledge to fund – wait for it – new nuclear power plants!
Holy Batman, Batman!
Something we at O-t-c can applaud about President Obama?
We are big believers in government spending to improve infrastructure (true improvements – not make-work boondoggles). We also believe it is government’s role to go after very long range goals that cannot be handled effectively by corporations that need to show profits for their shareholders quarter after quarter. And we believe that government has a role in underwriting potentially hazardous enterprises, where private insurance would find the risk untenable, and would thus not insure a project.
As long as it it done correctly, as long as there is competitive bidding on pieces of the project by truly competent corporations, and as long as the oversight is managed per science and not political correctness, the funding of nuclear power plants can be an extremely welcome development.
It is not often we have looked forward to offerings by this President. We applaud this move.
- Off-the-cliff.com
P.S. – So far.
We watched a little bit of the meeting between the President and the Republican House members today. We suppose it could be a start of sorts, but there is much to be done BY PRESIDENT OBAMA before we would accept it as any kind of “meeting of the minds.”
Let’s start with a word fraught with danger: compromise.
In the minds of liberals, compromise almost always means that conservatives move closer to their points of view. The idea of liberals moving toward conservative positions is considered a non-starter, and dead on arrival. This is poppycock pure and simple. It is no compromise at all, and we urge Republicans to tell liberals flat out that there will be no meeting of the minds if this is their definition of compromise.
So, for example, the health care deformation efforts that Nancy “The Off-the-Rails LOCOmotive” Pelosi tried to strong-arm through the House last year involved no compromise that we saw. Indeed, all opponents were cast by her as astroturf and Nazis. If there is any one person who poisoned the well last year, it was the Witch of California (with all due apologies to other witches – if apologies are due). This dingbat of a woman should be nowhere near the legislative process, let alone running it.
Mr. President, if you would have CONSERVATIVES talking civilly with you; looking for ways to compromise on legislation that for whatever reason you consider important, we urge you start calling on your own supporters to tone down the rhetoric. It would go a long way if you said something like this in your next speech to the American public.
“As you know, I have wanted to change the tone in Washington. I inherited very intense partisanship from the last admini — wait – no, I’m not going to go there again. This is on my watch now. OK – let me start over. I want – right now – I want to change the tone in Washington. I can’t control anyone else, so I will begin with myself. I will no longer demonize the prior administration which I acknowledge had to deal with some very tough challenges – challenges that I didn’t realize were as difficult as they were until I took office. So let me begin by apologizing to George W. Bush and his administration. You were patriots, doing the best you could. And while I disagree with some of the things you did, I will no longer second guess you, just as I would not appreciate the next administration second guessing me.
“But let me go beyond this. I cannot control anyone but myself. But I can call on everyone who supports me to start right now – today – to tone it down. Stop calling Republicans and Conservatives astro-turf or Nazis. They are neither. They are sincere; we happen to believe they are wrong. It is our job to persuade them to our point of view if we can, and to be civil regardless. If we can lead by example, maybe the Republicans and conservatives will respond in kind. God knows that there are many conservatives out there who have said as much. Maybe we can begin setting a new tone by leading by example. So, Speaker Pelosi, Vice President Biden and Senator Reid, please do what you can to tone down your language and the language of those who work for you. We are no longer at war with FoxNews. We are no longer at war with Corporate America’s boardrooms. You are all Americans, same as me, and I will no longer demonize you. I call on those who support me now to do likewise. Think Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who practiced civility under intense provocations. Can we do less? I call on our side of the debate to live more nobly and by our examples, perhaps the Republicans and conservatives will see that we are sincere in our desire to change things for the better.”
Will you do this, Mr. President?
- Off-the-cliff.com