When Lying To Bush Implies Lying For Bush

CNN.com story

Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik was indicted on charges of making false statements to White House officials. . . .

Kerik did not serve in the Bush Administration. He was nominated to serve. Moreover, he's accused of lying to the administration, not for the administration. CNN's headline misses that "nuance," and in fact implies much worse.

Vast left-wing/media conspiracy? I doubt it. Sloppy fact checking combined with editorial bias against Bush/Republicans/conservatism?

You betcha.

Politicizing Gitmo Demeans 9-11's Casualties

On September 11, 2001, a long planned attack was carried out successfully by fewer than two dozen soldiers of the radical jihadist forces trained and controlled by Osama bin Laden. They died while committing murderous acts against more than 3,000 innocent people that tragic morning, terrifying our nation and much of the world. But the web of support that made that horrific day come to pass is comprised of still very much alive radical terrorists, or their silent sympathizers, in countries all over the world, in safe houses and remote outposts. So when we have 241 or so suspects detained, we must keep them detained. War is hell. We did not start this war. If several innocent men and women end up detained and interrogated inadvertently, while unfortunate, we must accept that they are casualties of a war begun and engendered by radical jihadists, not President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney or other senior officials.

(This is why Cheney, to the dismay and outrage of the left wing media, over the weekend on the CBS program Face The Nation said that the U.S. under Barack Hussein Obama is more vulnerable than at any time since 9-11).

How many innocent people were blown apart in an instant on 9-11? They, too, were casualties of war. The U.S. will ignore the War on Terror at its peril. Obama refuses to utter the phrase, but that is merely a tactic of his ongoing campaign to "remake" America. What matters is whether President Obama and his advisers -- away from the bright lights of public scrutiny -- actually recognize the threat to our way of life that has not gone away since 2001. The battle is waged beneath the radar. So if Obama wants to decry "torture" and Gitmo and all the rest to appease his liberal supporters, so be it. What matters is that the U.S. intelligence community and military remain vigilant, and that detainees remain under imprisonment, whether in Gitmo or elsewhere.

Read the complete post.

Air Force 1, New York 0

In the months and years after Hurricane Katrina, Americans weary of the media’s unrelenting disparagement of President Bush would greet any unsettling news development by forecasting the obvious. “Of course, they’ll blame Bush.”

It all began when the Bush White House was blamed for decades of negligence by Louisiana and New Orleans officials, negligence exposed by the aftermath of the deadly hurricane in 2005. And the chorus never stopped.

Gas prices up? Bush did it.

Drought in the southeastern U.S.? Bush strikes again.

Town square bombing in Baghdad. Blood on Bush’s hands, of course.

American Idol ratings slide. Has to be Bush!

Now, in these heady 100 days under Dear Leader Maobama, or as writer Michelle Malkin rails, the Obamessiah, the list of items to which Obama legitimately could be held to account is spreading faster than germs in Mexico.

Of course, the growing list is dismissed as extreme right wing racist hate speech.

Let’s see: The blown attempt to recite the Oath of Office on January 20. The white tie for the Inaugural balls, when only black tie was appropriate. The Special Olympics quip on The Tonight Show. Naming a tax-evading Treasury Secretary. The DVD gift set for the British Prime Minister. The “Obama’s Greatest Hits” iPod presented to the Queen of England. Bowing to the Saudi King. Backslapping with the openly racist President of Brazil. Appointing a Homeland Security chief who thought the 9/11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada.

I mean, ladies and gentlemen, these are just off the top of the head. No research team needed. It’s too easy. All little things, Obamatrons will argue. Just nit-picking by angry, rich, under-taxed white people.

But, I ask you, when do the little things add up to an enormous problem, a building threat to the dignity, perhaps even the security, of these United States?

We saw one example today in the blue skies above New York City. Read the news item to follow and think, for just a moment, what would have been said about George W. Bush had this incident happened, say, on April 27, 2008? Can you imagine the mass media outrage, the certainty that this, once and for all, proved the utter incompetence of the Bush White House?

“A jumbo jetliner that serves as Air Force One, escorted by a military jet, flew over Lower Manhattan Monday morning, frightening office workers and causing evacuations in what turned out to be a publicity operation approved by a unit of the U.S. Air Force.”

Seems the mid-air photo-op involving the “United States of America” 747 and a trailing military fighter jet was approved by one Louis Caldera, director of something called the White House military office.

This startling episode, heralded by one headline as evidence that “New York is Obama’s World, You’re Just Living in It”, is alarming on so many levels. (In a New York Daily News online poll, 89% said it was a big mistake).

I thought liberals were obsessed with this carbon footprint thing? How do you for one instant justify firing up Air Force One for a Manhattan fly-around to capture publicity photos? We’re assuming the jumbo was occupied by a cockpit crew only.

I thought B. Hussein Obama was all about transparency. Yet the Mayor of New York City didn’t know the big bird was coming to town. The White House tipped off the NYPD but ordered the force to keep the planned operation under wraps. After all, why would New Yorkers be rattled by a low-flying jumbo jet streaking across a tranquil morning skyline? Gee, why would a disabled person cringe upon hearing the Leader of the Free World using “Special Olympics” to describe his lack of bowling prowess?

Did it not occur to The Great One, or some of his Lesser Greats (or the Teleprompter), that the scene just might conjure images of 9/11? Does it not threaten to make the U.S. Air Force vulnerable to baseless criticism for seeking to engage in a photo shoot that felt more like a reenactment of a tragic day than a reaffirmation of the majesty of Air Force One in flight?

Or, if the conspiratorial mind is set loose, maybe that’s the whole point. Obama’s unrelenting quest to re-visit post-9/11 interrogation of savage murderers and “apologize” to the world for stopping inevitable future attacks, in a sickening sense, seems to go hand and hand with his indifference toward Americans, at work in office towers on a sunny Manhattan morning, who do not want history to repeat.

Forget about blame. Just think about this: a President of the U.S. who dishonors the sacrifice of citizens who died on 9/11, some 3,000 of them (by insisting we should have taken it easy on the perpetrators), and who now is, apparently, dismissive of the fears of those who lived through that awful day and went to work on Monday morning.

There are days when I am convinced the Obama White House is sinister. There are days when I believe it is destructive. And there are days, like today, when the logical conclusion is that they’re all stuck on stupid. It is one thing to be cast as stupid by a liberal media (W), quite another to demonstrate, with cameras rolling, said intelligence gaps every few days (O).

Russian Behavior is Adrift

In just over two months in office, President Obama has developed an incredibly bad habit - constant criticism of his predecessor. His almost daily cheap shots at President Bush are beneath the office that he holds. Once in office, President Reagan never did this to President Carter, despite having plenty of reason to. President Bush never did this, despite President Clinton fiddling for eight years while Rome burned (ie, Al Qaeda turning itself into an effective international terrorist organization with the means to attack the United States, while Bill Clinton ignored it).

Yesterday, however, this criticism turned from infantile behavior to factually incorrect. During his meeting with Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, President Obama said "What we've seen over the last several year is drift in the US - Russian relationship". The President said this as if the United States and Russia were equally at fault for this "drift".

The facts simply don't support this analysis. It was Russia that invaded a pro-Western democracy. At first, candidate Obama refused to condemn the Russian aggression against its democratic neighbor. It was candidate Obama who draw a moral equivalency between Russian behavior and Georgian behavior. Mr. Obama only became critical of the Russian actions after Sen. McCain made it known that he condemned the Russian invasion.

Next, it was Russia that spent the past two years threatening to cut off the natural gas supplies of its neighbors and our European allies. At a time of increasing energy uncertainty, it does not seem that such threats would have a calming affect on international relations.

Then, this past February, it was Russia that paid a two billion dollar bribe to the government of Kyrgyzstan in order for that government to deny our military the continued use of their airbase at Manas. The denial of the use of this base will significantly hamper our war effort in Afghanistan. This base was critical to our resupply of our troops in Afghanistan.

Of course, it is Russia that refuses to help us with our efforts to end the Iranian nuclear program. In fact,they have been doing just the opposite - helping Iran with its nuclear program. The Russians had been assisting the Iranians with the construction of a now completed, Russian designed, nuclear reactor.

Also, it is Russia that has increased its military activities. The Russians sent war ships to make nice with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The Russians threatened to deploy missiles within range of our NATO allies

For the President to think that he can change Russian behavior by sending his Secretary of State to visit with Russian officials and present them with a prop "reset button" is nothing short of naive. It is not the actions of the United States that have been adrift. It is, one again, the behavior of our old Cold War foe that has caused the strain in our relationship. As the current steward of our history, it would behove Mr. Obama to understand it. Oh well, at least he didn't tell us that he looked into the eyes of Mr. Medvedev and saw his soul.

It's W.'s Fault

How long before this news is blamed on the four things that cause all problems (in the press)?

1. George W. Bush
2. Global Warming
3. Corporate Greed
4. Israel
   

One Hour? One Day? One Week? One Month?

The Awakening Has Begun

Remember when Americans wishing to ignore the necessity of defending the United States would slither off to Canada and stay? President Barack Hussein Obama, the Great Emancipator of Gitmo and Great Antagonist of Counterterrorism, looked to be dodging another day of ridicule toward the UnStimulus Wealth Distribution Package when he flew north of the border Thursday to visit Ottawa.

But, alas, he came back. And, Friday, he assembled the nation's mayors to repeat his baseless assertions that the $787 billion spend-a-thon will result in jobs and economic growth. As he spoke in Washington, Wall Street traders continued to sell.

When will the smitten mainstream media notice that Wall Street, and by extension investors of all stripes (aka, American citizens), have awakened? When will the Kool-Aid buzz wear off?

In this post-Watergate America, the left wing media will continue to fixate on the Presidency because it either wants to destroy the President (Nixon, Reagan, Bush) or deify him (Clinton, Obama). But the fact is our nation was not created to revolve around the Oval Office exclusively. The conduct of elected officials at all levels matters greatly (did someone say Gov. Blagojevich, or Sen. Roland Burris?), and, as citizens, we have the power -- stimulative power -- to control who those elected individuals are and what decisions they make.

(When we fail at this, politicians move up through the ranks unchallenged and untested and become ... B. Hussein Obama).

Responsible citizens need to turn our ears from the drumbeat of doom, which is the crack cocaine of the Obama generation, and focus on what we can do to effect actual change, reverse the tide of despair and restore the economic strength that the United States is fully capable of possessing again in the near future and for generations to come.

The tide of resistance is swelling. On the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade on Thursday, the baggy eyed traders, in their ill-fitting poly-cotton jackets, cheered as CNBC's floor correspondent Rick Santelli assailed the audacity of foreclosure bailouts for unqualified homeowners.

Bill Clinton, whose bloated 1990s "stimulus package" (Monica) got him into trouble repeatedly, became virtually irrelevant during his second term as President. Obama is just another politician who won the Oval Office lottery due to the perfect alignment of a tanking economy and the success of George W. Bush's efforts to quell the threat of terrorism (which, sadly and dangerously, leaves many doubting that the threat remains real).

Socialism is about wearing people down. The calculated risk Obama takes by declaring calamity at every turn -- and ignoring federal debt -- is that Americans eventually will get tired of being tired. Democracy and Capitalism is about rising up and lifting up. The power of America is not the Presidency. It is you and me.