Testing the limits

And, so far, not finding any

Slap me twice, shame on me.

Hilarious if it weren't so scary.

The O is so out of his league

But Obama's big plan was to talk to everyone. Will he ever admit that you can't talk and reason with lunatics?

Don't answer that. I know the answer.

Fuck 'em... errr... UNCLINCH! UNCLINCH NOW!

[re-posting]

Gosh, so instantly showing your cards to the other guy at the table ISN'T a good strategy in poker? Man, the things we're learning!

-Team Obama

In political circles, wouldn't this be considered a smack-down of epic proportions? Seems like it to me.

Welcome to the real world, Barack.

What a rank amateur. Obama is going to be played like a fiddle by his new friends. He'll be the guy that gets hazed before being accepted into the clique, only to find out in the end he won't be accepted anyway.

How our enemies must be laughing that we elected this cub when we needed a Lion.

Obama will know how to deal with this decisively; he'll immediately embark on one of his patented post-election campaign tours, but this time, in Russia.

Barry is now experiencing real world. This is not like sipping wine with other snotty, Hyde Park leftists. In that world their hubris makes everything look so easy , if they can just dispose of Conservative Knuckle , all will be well.

But, but , but ... Obama looks so much better than Putin with his shirt off ...

/f*ck the media and any person who voted for Obama ...

Barry, you're a bitch, and the world is going to treat you like one

The Soviets tested JFK, but he did come through.
I doubt 0bama will be as tough.

The MFMFM got this guy elected. The 5th estate is the 4th column. Free speech or treason?

[reposting from last thread with only minor modifications since the facts and logic fits]

This should surprise absolutely no one. Obama's been talking out of both sides of his mouth on pretty much every subject. He would say one thing to one audience, and quite a different thing to a different audience.

Remember the mess he made of talking about eliminating unproven missile defense systems, and later had to clarify himself by talking himself into a pretzel because they're no longer unproven, but functional and operational.

Of course, that's fitting since he continually engages in pretzel logic all over the place - whether it's the economy or foreign policy.

It's funny that the left would deride Bush because he almost choked on a pretzel. We're now seeing the world choke on Obama pretzel logic.

No, they do not like you. Yes, there are people on the planet who are immune to your charms. BTW, Vladimir Putin is NOT Nikita Kruschev and you are not JFK.

Word to the wise, Mr. President, do not start believing your own press.

re: #14 opnion

Barry is now experiencing real world. This is not like sipping wine with other snotty, Hyde Park leftists. In that world their hubris makes everything look so easy , if they can just dispose of Conservative Knuckle draggers , all will be well.

No haggling? That means that the Russians think they can just run over Obama adn all will be fine. Unfortunately for us, Obama will let himself be run over and believe all will be fine.

Definately Il Douche.

Another success in Obama's Clinched Fist Stimulus Program. Keep it up Barry. Woo-hoo!

re: #5 alkizz

The O is so out of his league

/ the duck at the cock-fight?

O is making big mistake messing up with Putin, he has no sense of humor

re: #11 Leonidas Hoplite

What a rank amateur. Obama is going to be played like a fiddle by his new friends. He'll be the guy that gets hazed before being accepted into the clique, only to find out in the end he won't be accepted anyway.

Couldn't have stated it better. And what's more is the damage this will cause with real allies we're now working to toss under the bus. Those will be difficult bridges to repair later. Why would thy trust us later if they can't trust us now?

Obama will respond by quick capitulation. Yeah that always works.

re: #8 Occasional Reader

[re-posting]

Gosh, so instantly showing your cards to the other guy at the table ISN'T a good strategy in poker? Man, the things we're learning!

-Team Obama

I wonder how the folks who voted for him will be feeling in a very short time to learn that maybe the position of President is NOT something a neophite can learn on the job.

"Please comrade, unclench that fist."

"Nyet."

re: #27 pat

Obama will respond by quick capitulation. Yeah that always works.

Obama's more French than the French.

re: #27 pat

Obama will respond by quick capitulation. Yeah that always works.

Vini, Vidi, Vichy

/I came, I saw, I capitulated

Barry would respond, but he is busy in a conga line entertaining his buddies

re: #18 lawhawk

As long as Chris Matthews keeps getting a tingle down his leg, no one is going to call BHO on things like this.

re: #25 buzzsawmonkey

Fourth Estate/Fifth column.

Thanks for the correction.

re: #24 Gella

O is making big mistake messing up with Putin, he has no sense of humor

But I bet he is laughing now...

Damn, I never get a hat tip, even though I wrote about this story in the last thread.

I have a dream!

Obama goes on television after all this and announces:

"My fellow Americans. I now realized I've been shafted. Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm here to announce that I've decided to send John Bolton back to the U.N. under the guidance of my new Secretary of State, George W. Bush."

..."Oh and yeah, I'd like you to meet my new Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney."

..."Hey Vladimir! Have a nice day, you dick."

re: #27 pat

Obama will respond by quick capitulation. Yeah that always works.

Our new battle cry: "Not in the Face!"

Barack Obama (aka "useful idiot").

What PB0 and his merrie men and women also don't seem to realise is that such a speech from the Russian President will be very carefully studied by all the USA partners in NATO.
Never mind Europe - its NATO which is important in this case.
Poland is a member of NATO ...

re: #35 brookly red

But I bet he is laughing now...

all that left for O is to surrender to Putin and become his boy

re: #37 subsailor68

I have a dream!

Obama goes on television after all this and announces:

"My fellow Americans. I now realized I've been shafted. Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm here to announce that I've decided to send John Bolton back to the U.N. under the guidance of my new Secretary of State, George W. Bush."

..."Oh and yeah, I'd like you to meet my new Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney."

..."Hey Vladimir! Have a nice day, you dick."

I want what you're smoking.

re: #36 So?

Damn, I never get a hat tip, even though I wrote about this story in the last thread.

Were you the only one to write about it? Others did to...

re: #19 calcajun

No, they do not like you. Yes, there are people on the planet who are immune to your charms. BTW, Vladimir Putin is NOT Nikita Kruschev and you are not JFK.

Word to the wise, Mr. President, do not start believing your own press.

I think that advice is a bit too late...

The rest of europe should be HIGHLY concerned. They're about to be left wide open to the whims of the Bear.

re: #19 calcajun

No, they do not like you. Yes, there are people on the planet who are immune to your charms. BTW, Vladimir Putin is NOT Nikita Kruschev and you are not JFK.

Word to the wise, Mr. President, do not start believing your own press.

Heh - whaddaya mean, 'start believing' - he's always believed his own press, and won't stop now.

re: #42 Walter L. Newton

I want what you're smoking.

Hi Walter! I'll share, but only if ya promise not to bogart it.

;-)

"Hey, could somebody please get me out of this locker?"

- obama

I am banging my shoe on my desk. Seems the right thing to do.

re: #37 subsailor68

I have a dream!

Obama goes on television after all this and announces:

"My fellow Americans. I now realized I've been shafted. Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm here to announce that I've decided to send John Bolton back to the U.N. under the guidance of my new Secretary of State, George W. Bush."

..."Oh and yeah, I'd like you to meet my new Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney."

..."Hey Vladimir! Have a nice day, you dick."

And then you wake up in the hard cot in the re-education camp in the Gulag, which 0bama outsourced to the Russians.

The Kennedy-Khrushchev Conference for Dummies

In Portland on May 18, Obama cited John F. Kennedy's 1961 summit with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna among the series of negotiations that led to America's triumph over the Soviet Union in the Cold War. The Vienna summit, however, disproves Obama's assertion...

"I never met a man like this," Kennedy subsequently commented to Time's Hugh Sidey. "[I] talked about how a nuclear exchange would kill 70 million people in ten minutes, and he just looked at me as if to say 'So what?'" In The Fifty-Year Wound, Cold War historian Derek Leebaert drily observes of Khrushchev in Vienna, "Having worked for Stalin had its uses."

Khrushchev berated, belittled, and bullied Kennedy on subjects ranging from Communist ideology to the balance of power between the Soviet and Western blocs, to Laos, to "wars of national liberation," to nuclear testing. He threw down the gauntlet on Berlin in particular, all but threatening war.

Kennedy said to Reston that Khrushchev had "just beat [the] hell out of me" and that he had presented Kennedy with a terrible problem: "If he thinks I'm inexperienced and have no
guts, until we remove those ideas we won't get anywhere with him. So we have to act."

Seeking the advice of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson and others, Kennedy pondered his options...he was seeking congressional approval for an additional $3.25 billion in defense spending, the doubling and tripling of draft calls, calling up reserves, raising the Army's total authorized strength, increasing active duty numbers in the Navy and Air Force, reconditioning planes and ships in mothballs...

In August, Khrushchev responded in his own fashion, erecting the Berlin wall and resuming above ground nuclear testing.

The following year brought the Cuban missile crisis, another sequel to Khrushchev's reading of Kennedy's weakness. Close as the Cuban missile crisis brought the two sides to war, however, it was perhaps not the most consequential effect of Khrushchev's reading of Kennedy's weakness. Persuaded that he needed further to demonstrate "fearlessness and backbone," in the words of William Manchester, Kennedy observed to Reston that the only place where the Communists were challenging the West in a shooting war was in Southeast Asia. Summarizing Kennedy's own evaluation of the aftermath of the Vienna conference in his 2003 biography of Kennedy, Robert Dallek writes that Kennedy "now needed to convince Khrushchev that he could not be pushed around, and the best place currently to make U.S. power credible seemed to be in Vietnam."

re: #46 yma o hyd

Heh - whaddaya mean, 'start believing' - he's always believed his own press, and won't stop now.

heh. "Don't Stop Believing" --the song Tony Soprano was listening to before he got whacked. (Yes--he died)

re: #37 subsailor68

I have a dream!

Obama goes on television after all this and announces:

"My fellow Americans. I now realized I've been shafted. Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm here to announce that I've decided to send John Bolton back to the U.N. under the guidance of my new Secretary of State, George W. Bush."

..."Oh and yeah, I'd like you to meet my new Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney."

..."Hey Vladimir! Have a nice day, you dick."

Wonderful dream, just wonderful!

Pity one's gotta wake up ...

It's all good. Whatever bad happens to America, Rahm Emanuel will consider it a crisis that consolidates their power further. All these foreign affair "faux pas" are intentional. These are part of the plan. It doesn't matter how many of us lose our savings or our jobs or our lives. The point is to get America from capitalism to socialism as fast as possible. And he's doing it. So he's a success so far.

re: #43 Leonidas Hoplite

Were you the only one to write about it? Others did to...

I didn't see anything. Everyone started discussing after I posted the story. No big deal. REALLY.

Semi-Repost from the DT today:

I swear Obama IS STUPID. He may be well educated (or at least he attended fine institutions of higher learning) but this ain't Chicago kid, you can't use cunning or street smarts with world leaders; y'all are gonna have to elevate your game considerably before you can play with the Big Boys in the World. They don't VOTE here, they don't give a shit if you give good speech and they don't particularly LIKE YOU.
MAN up you idiot before you get us all killed. Think of the children who'll die if you don't up your game or gracefully step down - hell even Biden looks good compared to you in foreign affairs.

re: #38 calcajun

Our new battle cry: "Not in the Face!"

re: #51 HelloDare

Great post.

Looks like the world is figuring out our president wears big boy pants. I want Bush back.

re: #50 Kosh's Shadow

And then you wake up in the hard cot in the re-education camp in the Gulag, which 0bama outsourced to the Russians.

Ouch! What's for breakfast comrade? Gruel? That's gruel and unusual punishment.

re: #38 calcajun

Our new battle cry: "Not in the Face!"

LOL! No, wait...very, very sad.

re: #33 calcajun

Jack Cafferty has a crush on Michelle Obama. So yes, you're right that the media will continue giving him a pass... to a point though. As the media stocks head into the tank, they might start asking more questions of Obama's economic prowess and start demanding accountability because it will be their own jobs on the line.

Interesting. Having set the wrecking ball to our economy, BHO hamhandedly tried to reach a secret deal with the Russians to scrap our missile defense system for the former Iron Curtain countries. Unlike BHO the Russians are savvy enough to know that their client, Iran, would never give up their thermonuclear device, and have publically told BHO to take a hike. At least somebody (Russian &/or Iran) has BHO's number. Is this a fair summary?

Obama, as predicted is getting schooled by Putin.

The strong smart President would announce the US is permanently posting AEGIS anti missile armed cruisers and destroyers in the Eastern Med to protect Europe right NOW and any attempt, by any naval force from any country to interfere with this positioning will be wiped from water in five minutes.

This is how to speak Russian, I don't think Obama knows how.

Putin needs to be taken down a peg, announcing no additional aid or funding for European banks and freezing oligarchs accounts in Europe would send a stronger message.

I think my computer is broken... the DOW is green, wtf?

Question for Mr. Biden...

Which test was this, #3?...#4? And when is the final exam?

I'm surprised that Medvedev could speak without breaking into giggles.

They must think Obama's a blithering idiot.

re: #45 Sharmuta

The rest of europe should be HIGHLY concerned. They're about to be left wide open to the whims of the Bear.

Europe has perhaps a tiny bit more experience in dealing with Russia than PB0, I'd say.

What is of far greater concern is how this is going to play with the members of NATO.
Will they now have to assume that the USA under PB0 is going to leave them exposed?

Pravda really "loves" O
[Link: english.pravda.ru...]

OT
Market was up today.
Obama sends Bernanke out to speak and the DOW and my 401K drops.
F*CK OBAMA.
Sorry had to say that - now I feel a little better.
I may find myself saying that at least once a day.

re: #45 Sharmuta

The rest of europe should be HIGHLY concerned. They're about to be left wide open to the whims of the Bear.

An acquaintance of mine who works in the defense industry told me last night that the entire mediterranean region is very nervous about what Obama might do. They're ramping up military spending now as a result.

Now that we have President Obama, the rest of the world is loving us to death. The Prez is so out of his league. I wish we could have seen this coming...oh yeh, we did.

re: #63 FloridaAnole

Interesting. Having set the wrecking ball to our economy, BHO hamhandedly tried to reach a secret deal with the Russians to scrap our missile defense system for the former Iron Curtain countries. Unlike BHO the Russians are savvy enough to know that their client, Iran, would never give up their thermonuclear device, and have publically told BHO to take a hike. At least somebody (Russian &/or Iran) has BHO's number. Is this a fair summary?

Yes.

The Russians know perfectly well that BHO's lost and in over his head.

Bush's remark about "seeing Putin's soul" is going to look positively...hard-headed.

re: #64 Ayatollah Ghilmeini

If were a European leader, I'd be pretty damn afraid of Obama's imactivity here.

Where are they going to be without the force of America's arms?

re: #19 calcajun

No, they do not like you. Yes, there are people on the planet who are immune to your charms. BTW, Vladimir Putin is NOT Nikita Kruschev and you are not JFK.

Word to the wise, Mr. President, do not start believing your own press.

Khrushchev ate JFK's lunch at the Moscow Conference. According to New Frontiersmen who were present at the meeting, JFK emerged from the encounter white and shaking. Putin and his front man will eat BHO's lunch, dinner and breakfast waffles.

re: #68 yma o hyd

What is of far greater concern is how this is going to play with the members of NATO.
Will they now have to assume that the USA under PB0 is going to leave them exposed?

That's what I'm talking about. And if I was a European, I would assume the answer is "yes".

re: #65 brookly red

I think my computer is broken... the DOW is green, wtf?

Pretty sad when you feel relieved the market is up like 11 points. Sheesh.

Rebuilding our image in the world!

/*retch*

Note to the Russians:
Defensive missles (ABMS) do not "Target" a country. ABMs target attacking missles launched by a country.

re: #64 Ayatollah Ghilmeini

Obama, as predicted is getting schooled by Putin.

The strong smart President would announce the US is permanently posting AEGIS anti missile armed cruisers and destroyers in the Eastern Med to protect Europe right NOW and any attempt, by any naval force from any country to interfere with this positioning will be wiped from water in five minutes.

This is how to speak Russian, I don't think Obama knows how.

Putin needs to be taken down a peg, announcing no additional aid or funding for European banks and freezing oligarchs accounts in Europe would send a stronger message.

Obama is showing himself to be completely overwhelmed by events. He's taking to the airwaves and hoping that repeated visits to Capitol Hill will instill confidence. They're having the opposite effect - showing that he's scared and being outpaced by events.

OODA loop and all that - and he's getting hammered daily, even though the media might be giving him a pass, the markets aren't.

Russia knows that they've got a complete neophyte on their hands and Putin's dreams of restoring Russian grandeur hangs in the balance and taking advantage of the situation is all too evident. Putin schooled Bush, but Bush knew how to push back. So far, Obama's being schooled and showing no signs of learning.

re: #68 yma o hyd

Europe has perhaps a tiny bit more experience in dealing with Russia than PB0, I'd say.

What is of far greater concern is how this is going to play with the members of NATO.
Will they now have to assume that the USA under PB0 is going to leave them exposed?

Well yes, but the up side is they might start paying for there own defense.

re: #65 brookly red

I think my computer is broken... the DOW is green, wtf?

It's going negative, as I type.

Bernanke came out and called for higher taxes and more...

re: #78 Fat Jolly Penguin

Rebuilding our image in the world!

/*retch*

To where it was when Jimmuh was president.

Oh swell, the market's up a whole 12 points right now.

Wait for it. An announcement by Obama that his economic policies have begun to turn the economy around.

And there go my 12 points.

His community organizer skills are really coming in handy.

re: #71 eschew_obfuscation

An acquaintance of mine who works in the defense industry told me last night that the entire mediterranean region is very nervous about what Obama might do. They're ramping up military spending now as a result.

And they should! America's being led by a man-child.

re: #63 FloridaAnole

Interesting. Having set the wrecking ball to our economy, BHO hamhandedly tried to reach a secret deal with the Russians to scrap our missile defense system for the former Iron Curtain countries. Unlike BHO the Russians are savvy enough to know that their client, Iran, would never give up their thermonuclear device, and have publically told BHO to take a hike. At least somebody (Russian &/or Iran) has BHO's number. Is this a fair summary?

Yes.
Unfortunately.

re: #71 eschew_obfuscation

An acquaintance of mine who works in the defense industry told me last night that the entire mediterranean region is very nervous about what Obama might do. They're ramping up military spending now as a result.

That's Verrry Interesting.
Thanks.

re: #41 Gella

all that left for O is to surrender to Putin and become his boyBITCH

better

re: #83 Ward Cleaver

To where it was when Jimmuh was president.

Ding.

re: #54 jemima

It's all good. Whatever bad happens to America, Rahm Emanuel will consider it a crisis that consolidates their power further. All these foreign affair "faux pas" are intentional. These are part of the plan. It doesn't matter how many of us lose our savings or our jobs or our lives. The point is to get America from capitalism to socialism as fast as possible. And he's doing it. So he's a success so far.

You have hit the nail on the head. Any worldwide event that seems to make America weaker, it just another piece of the puzzle what Obama needs to divide and conquer the capitalist system.

Study all the great dictators. They all use similar tactics to build their foundations.

People react best to change when they are poor. when you take away all the comfort, support, toys, fun, when daily tasks remind you of how bad off you are.

That's when a government can make changes that they would normally never try, never get away with, never even consider.

And we can't stop it. Why? Because, like any situation like this, a handful of citizens that see through it all is not a large enough group to overcome the people who just want change, want it fixed now and have no concern how it gets fixed.

This has been a very careful revolution, and most of us missed it.

re: #77 turn

Pretty sad when you feel relieved the market is up like 11 points. Sheesh.

my computers not broken?

re: #66 Kenneth

Question for Mr. Biden...

Which test was this, #3?...#4? And when is the final exam?

I think he underestimated that 30% chance of failure thing too.

Just proves that it doesn't matter how smart you supposedly are if you are deluded and led by your ideology.

re: #56 realwest

He's not stupid. He's naive and arrogant - an educated fool.

re: #12 Sharmuta

How our enemies must be laughing that we elected this cub when we needed a Lion.

Actually, not laughing, just smiling...

2 words come to mind:

Manchurian candiate.

re: #62 lawhawk

I disagree. I think the media are a bunch of frogs in a pot of water on low simmer. They won't know what's going on until it's too late.

re: #95 kafir lover

He's not stupid. He's naive and arrogant - an educated fool.

He's... audacious.

re: #94 HelloDare

Just proves that it doesn't matter how smart you supposedly are if you are deluded and led by your ideology.

The wrong execution of the wrong idea? - what could go wrong?

Obama is already viewed as a "bad faith" negotiator on the international stage.

Not good at all... not good.

This may be OT, but speaking of haggling - did anyone else see this and think we're being groomed for "acceptance here?
No tingle down my leg, but a chill down my spine

re: #67 Dianna

I'm surprised that Medvedev could speak without breaking into giggles.

They must think Obama's a blithering idiot.

Remember; perception is reality.

re: #62 lawhawk

He'll just give them a bailout. Then they'll pen hosannas to the Great Leader, and all will be as it was.

re: #75 FloridaAnole

Khrushchev ate JFK's lunch at the Moscow Conference. According to New Frontiersmen who were present at the meeting, JFK emerged from the encounter white and shaking. Putin and his front man will eat BHO's lunch, dinner and breakfast waffles.

Worst part is, Obambi may not (at least, in the short term) realize how badly he's being ripped.

re: #11 Leonidas Hoplite

What a rank amateur. Obama is going to be played like a fiddle by his new friends. He'll be the guy that gets hazed before being accepted into the clique, only to find out in the end he won't be accepted anyway.

I wish I could be so optimistic (!) ... remember Obama's taped promise to end funding of "unproven" missile defense systems, etc? Obama doesn't want to deploy missile defense, and Russia just gave him the perfect excuse to kill the program.

re: #19 calcajun

No, they do not like you. Yes, there are people on the planet who are immune to your charms. BTW, Vladimir Putin is NOT Nikita Khrushchev and you are not JFK.

Word to the wise, Mr. President, do not start believing your own press.

When they met in Vienna in 1961, Khrushchev made JFK his bitch. The meeting was a disaster for US foreign policy.

but but but according to Diane Sawyer on good morning America, Michelle is winning the Arms race

/

re: #89 saberry0530

better

you forgot to add word prison
///

re: #96 MarkX

Actually, not laughing, just smiling...

2 words come to mind:

Manchurian candiate.

Cripes. A facsimile from China might be better than the real thing.

I figured out why Obama is still smoking. After every time he screws America, he steps out for a cigarette.

re: #90 Fat Jolly Penguin

Ding.

All we need to do now is bring back disco, and gas lines.

re: #73 Dianna

Yes.

The Russians know perfectly well that BHO's lost and in over his head.

Bush's remark about "seeing Putin's soul" is going to look positively...hard-headed.

Right you are! And wasn't it Mcain who said that whenever he looked into Putin's eyes he saw KGB?

Maybe the "O" just needs to invite Medvedev over for some Wednesday night hamburgers and hotdogs?

re: #96 MarkX

Actually, not laughing, just smiling...

2 words come to mind:

Manchurian candiateCandidate.

There, fixed that for you. By the way, I ate your candi, while I was at it.
/Tasty!

re: #107 Shug

but but but according to Diane Sawyer on good morning America, Michelle is winning the Arms race

/

She keeps her arms toned by backhanding her man.

It's a sad day when I agree with Putin more than I agree with Obama.

re: #71 eschew_obfuscation

An acquaintance of mine who works in the defense industry told me last night that the entire mediterranean region is very nervous about what Obama might do. They're ramping up military spending now as a result.

Ha, there may be a bright side to O's presidency. Its causing the eurowienies to pony up for their own defense.

re: #114 NelsFree

There, fixed that for you. By the way, I ate your candi, while I was at it.
/Tasty!

And drank his milkshake?

re: #112 FloridaAnole

Right you are! And wasn't it Mcain who said that whenever he looked into Putin's eyes he saw KGB?

It was. One of McCain's better lines.

The Russian Bear smells fear and its hungry.

Europe is on its back with their legs spread wide asking Russia to "not be too rough" and America is on her knee's begging for help. Oh yeah, I'm gonna sleep well tonight!

Now, where is that bottle of Scotch...I need a drink.

RoP in action...
Attack on Sri Lankan Team in Lahore

Market is up 28 at 6791 and change. Get it? CHANGE! Bwahaha!

/I laugh in order to keep from crying.

re: #111 Ward Cleaver

All we need to do now is bring back disco, and gas lines.

I can live with the gas lines. Can't do disco again--never.

re: #111 Ward Cleaver

All we need to do now is bring back disco, and gas lines.

1. Hip hop's a poor imitation, IMHO.
2. Obama's doing his best to achieve that by disallowing drilling and the use of oil shale.

“Haggling,” however, was not “productive,” Medvedev said.

Quite right. If we had a real president, he'd deploy--and expand--missile defense, modernize our nukes and their delivery systems, and find the best minds in the country to harden our networks against cyber attack. If Putin Medvedev complains, he'd explain "I was elected to defend America. That's what I'll do. Have a nice day."

Haggling with the Medvedev/Putins of the world is like asking the alligator to eat you slowly.

Medvedev welcomed the “positive signals” coming from the Obama administration with which he hoped to reach “agreements.”

“Haggling,” however, was not “productive,” Medvedev said.

Great that you'll drop the shield idea but don't ask for any quid pro quo.

missile defence system which could target Russia

That's such a stupid statement. Unless Russia is flying toward Poland how are interceptors going to hit it?

re: #114 NelsFree

LOL, thanks
Maybe the Zero be a Manchurian candy-date?

Back to work. I just had to comment on a Russia thread.

Looks like Chris Buckley is having some second thoughts.

re: #115 calcajun

She keeps her arms toned by backhanding her man.

She keeps her arms toned by rolling the myth that is Barack Obama back up the hill.

re: #121 Killgore Trout

RoP in action...
Attack on Sri Lankan Team in Lahore

Liveleak Video

Right after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. I suspect coordination...

re: #94 HelloDare

Just proves that it doesn't matter how smart you supposedly are if you are deluded and led by your ideology.

I'd suggest it depends on the ideology. If the ideology is the sanctity of personal liberty, the independence of the state, and the first duty of elected officials to protect and defend said, then ideology will lead to better/smarter policies.

If you are a liberal and your ideology only cares about 'getting along', 'peace at any price', and 'following the delusion that you can create a "fair" world by confiscating the property of your prodcutive citizens' then yes, it doesn't matter how 'smart' you are and your ideology will lead to stupid, damaging, dangerous policies.

re: #110 HelloDare

I figured out why Obama is still smoking. After every time he screws America, he steps out for a cigarette.

So he's up to five packs a day?

At least he's getting his exercise by stepping outside.

re: #125 Jack Reacher

Haggling with the Medvedev/Putins of the world is like asking the alligator to eat you slowly.

Or last.

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

Yes indeed! Forget the analogy of sending in the Junior Varsity team to play the top team in the State... this cluck has been playing T-Ball...with the MSM carrying him from base to base because he cannot get by on his own two feet.

Has the great O ever earned anything in his own right?

re: #5 alkizz

The O is so out of his league

re: #120 Maximu§

The Russian Bear smells fear and its hungry.

Europe is on its back with their legs spread wide asking Russia to "not be too rough" and America is on her knee's begging for help. Oh yeah, I'm gonna sleep well tonight!

Now, where is that bottle of Scotch...I need a drink.

The Russian idea of foreplay is "Brace yourself--here it comes."

It's never too early for a good single-malt. Stock up now--we may have a trade war in a few months.

Here is is, the nightmare starting to come true.
All you need to see is the look on Putie's face.
We are so screwed...

re: #134 Ward Cleaver

So he's up to five packs a day?

At least he's getting his exercise by stepping outside.

Yeah, but the downside is, they have to keep replacing the windows.

;-)

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

Now that's insane. It's socks for pete's sake.

re: #92 brookly red

my computers not broken?

Your computer is fine, the financial instution is what's broken.

re: #74 looking closely

If were a European leader, I'd be pretty damn afraid of Obama's imactivity here.

Where are they going to be without the force of America's arms?

Devil's advocate time--they are going to have to drag themselves to where they should have been for at least the last 20 years, which is self-sufficiency in terms of their military defense.

We have provided for their security for long enough. It's time for them to grow up and make some decisions. They can have cradle to grave welfare for all of their citizens or they can have freedom.

I'm OK with letting them face the consequences of the decisions they make.

re: #141 Honorary Yooper

Now that's insane. It's socks for pete's sake.

I bit my tongue till it bled

re: #36 So?

Damn, I never get a hat tip, even though I wrote about this story in the last thread.

Dude, that story was on drudge since about 7 am EST...long time gone on that one, I think posted in spinoffs to the dead thread,
On my own little excuse for a blog at about 9 am...

re: #138 calcajun

The Russian idea of foreplay is "Brace yourself--here it comes."

It's never too early for a good single-malt. Stock up now--we may have a trade war in a few months.

If we have a trade war, that's all that's needed to push us over the edge int he Obamadepression. Last one got started with a major trade war.

re: #130 rawmuse

Looks like Chris Buckley is having some second thoughts.

Wow, just wow.

/the rats are leaving the sinking ship

re: #130 rawmuse

Too bad he didn't have some first thoughts.

re: #144 Shug

And people wonder why I'd rather drive than fly.

re: #130 rawmuse

Looks like Chris Buckley is having some second thoughts.

Will the prodigal son return?

I know Pres. Obama won't take this advice but it might be helpful if he reads the following: Henry Kissinger, "Diplomacy"; Richard Nixon, "Six Crises" and "Seize the Moment"; Robert Kennedy, "Thirteen Days"; and James Baker, "Politics of Diplomacy." All are written by those who have played a role in shaping U.S. foreign policy and were there when the proverbial --- hit the fan. Putin and other world leaders, in front of and behind the curtain, do not get a tingly feeling when the messiah enters the room, they are hard edged, hard nosed tough SOBs and have to be dealt with based on that understanding.

re: #141 Honorary Yooper

Now that's insane. It's socks for pete's sake.

If they're like our kids' socks, they probably though he'd unleashed a poison gas attack.

re: #128 Dianna

Back to work. I just had to comment on a Russia thread.

And I know why too. Hi Diana.

There is a bear in the woods...

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

TSA in Phoenix made me do the same, but with shoes.

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

A 9-month-old? Did you protest as discrimination against Adorable Americans?

The Zero is giving away everything else. No surprise he's giving away our authority on the world stage.

re: #150 Honorary Yooper

Will the prodigal son return?

Sorry, I'm not a forgiving father...

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

I feel so much more secure. Man, that's ridiculous.

re: #81 brookly red

Well yes, but the up side is they might start paying for there own defense.

With their economies in a far worse shape than that of the USA - fat chance!

With NuLab leaders here in the UK our defense budget has been cut back so much its affecting our performance in A'stan.

With Germany having an election in two month's time, there is no chance of any increase in defense budgets any time soon.

France ... will speak of la Gloire and do eff all ...

Gawd, its getting worse by the minute.

I want a president with skills.
re: #130 rawmuse

Looks like Chris Buckley is having some second thoughts.

If this is what the American people want, so be it, but they ought to have no illusions about the perils of this approach. Mr. Obama is proposing among everything else $1 trillion in new entitlements, and entitlement programs never go away, or in the oddly poetic bureaucratic jargon, “sunset.” He is proposing $1.4 trillion in new taxes, an appetite for which was largely was whetted by the shameful excesses of American CEO corporate culture. And finally, he has proposed $5 trillion in new debt, one-half the total accumulated national debt in all US history. All in one fell swoop.

...

This is nothing if not audacious hope. If he’s right, then looking back, March 2009 will be the dawn of the Age of Stimulation, or whatever elegant phrase Niall Ferguson comes up with. If he turns out to be wrong, then it will look very different, the entrance ramp to the Road to Serfdom, perhaps, and he will reap the whirlwind that follows, along with the rest of us.

Chris is still hanging on, though, Just barely.

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

that is wrong on so many levels

re: #154 jcm

There is a bear in the woods...

[Video]

Exactly what I thought of. My favorite Reagan ad.

As for Obama? He would try to feed it wild caught salmon, to appease it.

/hey, you're supposed to eat the fish! not me! arrrgghhh!

re: #133 Leonidas Hoplite

I'd suggest it depends on the ideology. If the ideology is the sanctity of personal liberty, the independence of the state, and the first duty of elected officials to protect and defend said, then ideology will lead to better/smarter policies.

If you are a liberal and your ideology only cares about 'getting along', 'peace at any price', and 'following the delusion that you can create a "fair" world by confiscating the property of your prodcutive citizens' then yes, it doesn't matter how 'smart' you are and your ideology will lead to stupid, damaging, dangerous policies.

And I think a lot depends on comparing the theory with reality. The scientific method, if you will.
If that were done, people would understand that capitalism works better than socialism and communism. But the leftists are so stuck on wishful thinking, they think if they really, really believe, and try harder, then a theory that has been a miserable failure every time it is implemented will finally succeed.

We are reaping the results of our poor science education.

re: #59 turn
Turn - it's just as I said in my #56 above - Obama's in the true Big Leagues now. He isn't "talking to" others who are subordinate to him in any way, shape or form.
Does the world need ANYTHING from the US? Yes, they need our economy. Do y'all think that the World is truly impressed by what Obama has achieved or proposes to achieve economically? Even if we're talking about Socialist States?
For crying out loud, some European Socialist States, like say, France, are already 50/50 workers and those living off the public teat - how are they gonna keep up that juggling act when the USA won't be around to pick up the cost of defending France? Or Great Britain or Germany? And Hell, Russia isn't even a first rate non-nuclear power these days but they sure as hell could take France and Germany. So this POTUS - who so wanted the World to "like us" again, is spending so much money - or proposing spending so much money here in the US, the US won't have enough money to bail out other nations, no matter how much they may need to be bailed out.
Less than 60 days into office and he's already a damned disaster.

re: #155 Creeping Eruption

TSA in Phoenix made me do the same, but with shoes.

Well, I went through the new full-body scan system at the airport in Kenosha Wisconsin. It took almost three hours.

Of course, Heidi Klum was right in front of me, so that may have been the problem.

(Okay, I made that up.)

re: #130 rawmuse

Looks like Chris Buckley is having some second thoughts.

So, he no longer likes the cut of the man's jib, eh. Well, Buck, old man, sounds like you're a day late and a dollar short. I tried to tell you that blended Scotch is better than no Scotch at all when you threw your support to that dusky mountebank. This is what comes when you decide to shake things up instead of staying the course.//

(forgive my poor attempt at channeling Iowahawk)

The Myth of the Authoritarian Model

Summary: A growing conventional wisdom holds that Vladimir Putin's attack on democracy has brought Russia stability and prosperity -- providing a new model of successful market authoritarianism. But the correlation between autocracy and economic growth is spurious. Autocracy's effects in Russia have in fact been negative. Whatever the gains under Putin, they would have been greater under a democratic regime.

Long but worth the read.

Now that the Russians know they can play with Sir O, we're in for lots of trouble.

re: #161 FrogMarch

Buckley was deluding himself during the campaign. He knows it, we know it, and every nominal conservative in Washington who did the same thing knows it.

If the Obama administration showed “common sense” in proposing a “common shield against all types of threats” and reconsidered its plans of a missile defence system which could target Russia bent over and grabbed its ankles, Moscow would be prepared to negotiate, Medvedev said.

fixed translated that

re: #127 MarkX

LOL, thanks
Maybe the Zero be a Manchurian candy-date?

Manchurian Candy-ass.

The stock market killing President is pontificating on the market.

re: #70 iceman1960

OT
Market was up today.
Obama sends Bernanke out to speak and the DOW and my 401K drops.
F*CK OBAMA.
Sorry had to say that - now I feel a little better.
I may find myself saying that at least once a day.

A new mantra.

re: #166 subsailor68

Well, I went through the new full-body scan system at the airport in Kenosha Wisconsin. It took almost three hours.

Of course, Heidi Klum was right in front of me, so that may have been the problem.

(Okay, I made that up.)

Starting to wonder there for a minute why you'd have a full-body scan at a general aviation airport.

re: #166 subsailor68

Well, I went through the new full-body scan system at the airport in Kenosha Wisconsin. It took almost three hours.

Of course, Heidi Klum was right in front of me, so that may have been the problem.

(Okay, I made that up.)

You were inside the body-scanner with Heidi Klum?!?!
Did you bribe the operator to take his/her time about it?

I've said it before, I'll say it again. This is what comes from letting people into institutions simply based on their skin-color not their ability (Affirmative Action). BHO wasn't qualified to be a local Alderman much less POTUS. Talk about chickens coming home to roost!

re: #166 subsailor68

Well, I went through the new full-body scan system at the airport in Kenosha Wisconsin. It took almost three hours.

Soon that will be called "free health care".

I want a president with skillz.

/ok I know -stupid.

re: #63 FloridaAnole
" At least somebody (Russian &/or Iran) has BHO's number. Is this a fair summary?" Yes but it doesn't go far enough - I think the World at large has taken measure of Obama already and found him wanting.

re: #173 opinionated

The stock market killing President is pontificating on the market.

He really loves to hear himself talk. The markets? Not so much.

I would find this rather amusing if it wasn't so scary . If Putin has a sense of humor he could just say the one's mother was a hamster and his father smelled like elderberries.

This so reminds me of Graham Chapman asking John Cleese (playing a French guard) if he had the holy grail.

re: #130 rawmuse

Looks like Chris Buckley is having some second thoughts.

"President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union speech. Governor Bobby Jindal gave his first and possibly last Republican response."

Heh.

re: #165 realwest

Turn - it's just as I said in my #56 above - Obama's in the true Big Leagues now. He isn't "talking to" others who are subordinate to him in any way, shape or form.
Does the world need ANYTHING from the US? Yes, they need our economy. Do y'all think that the World is truly impressed by what Obama has achieved or proposes to achieve economically? Even if we're talking about Socialist States?
For crying out loud, some European Socialist States, like say, France, are already 50/50 workers and those living off the public teat - how are they gonna keep up that juggling act when the USA won't be around to pick up the cost of defending France? Or Great Britain or Germany? And Hell, Russia isn't even a first rate non-nuclear power these days but they sure as hell could take France and Germany. So this POTUS - who so wanted the World to "like us" again, is spending so much money - or proposing spending so much money here in the US, the US won't have enough money to bail out other nations, no matter how much they may need to be bailed out.
Less than 60 days into office and he's already a damned disaster.

Obama is using community organizing skills in the areana of international politics.

When you fail in community organizing, people don't join the organization.
When you fail in international politics, you get a war, and lots of people die.

Obama is so far out of his depth. He waded across the kiddie pool and thinks he's an Olympic class swimmer.

re: #173 opinionated

The stock market killing President is pontificating on the market.

Oh shit, there goes the Dow.

re: #170 Lincolntf

Buckley was deluding himself during the campaign. He knows it, we know it, and every nominal conservative in Washington who did the same thing knows it.

It's going to be hard not saying "I told you so."

So I won't.

re: #178 brookly red

Brookly, did you see the squib on CNN about peacefully co-existing with cancer? That horrified me.

re: #175 Honorary Yooper

Starting to wonder there for a minute why you'd have a full-body scan at a general aviation airport.

LOL! Well, Kenosha sounded funnier than Chicago, ya know?

Dumb people elect a Chicago community organizer who has never accomplished anything real and by magic he is an expert on everything. Just amazing.

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

Yeah, that is wrong. Last week I had to watch my son in his Army class-A uniform get searched at LAX and I was threatened with arrest if I did'nt "shut-up"

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

Parents do use their kids as mules unfortunately. Jihadists especially.

re: #64 Ayatollah Ghilmeini
You are, as usual, quite right. Unfortunately for you (and the rest of us) Obama is simply not up to the task of taking Putin down. And it's not even close.

re: #173 opinionated

The stock market killing President is pontificating on the market.

Dow heading back toward negative territory.

If the Obama administration showed “common sense” in proposing a “common shield against all types of threats” and reconsidered its plans of a missile defense system which could target Russia, Moscow would be prepared to negotiate.

This is an impossible standard. There is no missile defense system that could effectively shield against Iran without the capability of targeting other nearby nations.

Obama should release a statement that this is ridiculous. Instead, he will likely suggest Medvedev consider a little unclenching action.

re: #170 Lincolntf

Buckley was deluding himself during the campaign. He knows it, we know it, and every nominal conservative in Washington who did the same thing knows it.

I don't know Chris Buckley but it seems to me he just wants to be associated with the "hip" crowd. Good luck with that. Hip on the road to Serfdom.

re: #136 Shug

Just back from a week in Florida.

TSA at Orlando airport made my 9 month old take off his socks to place them through the Xray machine.

That's insane. Well, I hope the rest of your stay here was enjoyable.

Truce, militant style:

Killings, kidnappings jeopardise Pakistan Swat truce

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A fragile ceasefire in Pakistan's insurgency-hit Swat valley was hanging by a thread Tuesday after two soldiers were killed in an ambush and suspected Islamists kidnapped two local officials.

Pakistani troops and Taliban fighters traded accusations about violating a two-week ceasefire in the northwest former ski resort -- ripped apart by a brutal insurgency waged by Islamist hardliners trying to enforce Islamic law.

The soldiers were escorting a water tanker in Swat valley's Matta district when a group of militants fired on them, a security official told AFP.

In the ensuing gunfight, which lasted about an hour, three soldiers were wounded, the official added on condition of anonymity.

"Two of the injured soldiers died later at a medical facility," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The militant attack is a clear violation of the peace agreement. The security forces are exercising restraint and complying with the accord," the military said in a statement.

Muslim Khan, spokesman for Swat militant leader Maulana Fazlullah, said the soldiers were attacked because they moved without giving prior information.

"We had an agreement that whenever the army wanted to move, they should inform us, so that we can alert our men not to feel threatened," Khan told AFP.

re: #182 badger1970

I would find this rather amusing if it wasn't so scary . If Putin has a sense of humor he could just say the one's mother was a hamster and his father smelled like elderberries.

This so reminds me of Graham Chapman asking John Cleese (playing a French guard) if he had the holy grail.

"Go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"

re: #176 pre-Boomer Marine brat

You were inside the body-scanner with Heidi Klum?!?!
Did you bribe the operator to take his/her time about it?

Tried, but they made me get out. Said the two of us looked like a shadow puppet rabbit on their monitor. Funny, we were trying for a swan.

re: #150 Honorary Yooper

Will the prodigal son return?

Why would anybody want him back? Enjoy your new friends, Chrissie. Unfortunately daddy was probably smart enough to protect all that money he left you from those new friends of yours though.

re: #187 Chicago Blonde

Brookly, did you see the squib on CNN about peacefully co-existing with cancer? That horrified me.

Yes, but I also consider watching CNN to be peacefully co-existing with cancer.

re: #68 yma o hyd
"Will they [NATO] now have to assume that the USA under PB0 is going to leave them exposed?"
Do you really think they have any other choice or reason to believe otherwise?

re: #180 realwest

" At least somebody (Russian &/or Iran) has BHO's number. Is this a fair summary?" Yes but it doesn't go far enough - I think the World at large has taken measure of Obama already and found him wanting.

The real world has always wanted a strong America. They know that somebody's gotta do it, and all things being equal we are the only ones up to the job. In fact we've shown remarkable restraint.

re: #182 badger1970

I would find this rather amusing if it wasn't so scary . If Putin has a sense of humor he could just say the one's mother was a hamster and his father smelled like elderberries.

This so reminds me of Graham Chapman asking John Cleese (playing a French guard) if he had the holy grail.

Nah. 0bama wouldn't even try to get in inside a giant wooden rabbit.
He'd just go away, after turning over all their coconuts to the guard.

re: #199 subsailor68

Tried, but they made me get out. Said the two of us looked like a shadow puppet rabbit on their monitor. Funny, we were trying for a swan.

LOL!

Scientist Solves Mystery of Belly-Button Lint
One of life's greatest mysteries has now been solved.

Georg Steinhauser, a young, affable Austrian chemist, spent three years gazing at his own navel — and those of friends and family as well — to discover how exactly we get belly-button lint.

"Abdominal hair is mainly responsible for the accumulation of navel lint," proclaims Steinhauser in the abstract to his paper, presented in the online version of the journal Medical Hypotheses. "Therefore, this is a typically male phenomenon. The abdominal hair collects fibers from cotton shirts and directs them into the navel where they are compacted to a felt-like matter."

That's in keeping with a medium-scale Australian study cited by London's Daily Telegraph, which found that the average bearer of navel lint was "a slightly overweight middle-aged male with a hairy abdomen."

Science!

re: #191 Rancher

Parents do use their kids as mules unfortunately. Jihadists especially.

Next time I go flying, I'm gonna' make sure the little one has a loaded diaper...

re: #195 FrogMarch

He's William F.'s son. He's written a few funny social/political novels, "Thank You For Smoking" among them. He's really not all that bad, but he caught the Obama flu.

re: #195 FrogMarch

I don't know Chris Buckley but it seems to me he just wants to be associated with the "hip" crowd. Good luck with that. Hip on the road to Serfdom.

He wants the President to succeed. Like Michael Steele. They both want Rush to shut up about wanting Obama to fail.

re: #157 JohnAdams

The Zero is giving away everything else. No surprise he's giving away our authority on the world stage.

BO is on TV as we speak and was asked about the missile shield and said the NYT article about a swap was inaccurate. He said it was a long letter, only part of which was about the missile shield. He claimed that he explained the need for the shield was to protect Europe and not threaten Russia and the need would be less urgent if Iran's program was stopped. Sounds like diplomatic speak for if you don't like the shield, take away the need for it.
There is some talk about relocating it to protect even the Russians, but we'll know more when Hillary meets with the Russians Friday.

CNN is probably getting on board with the National Health Care Creed...we (the common folks, not the elected) will be expected to coexist with cancer and disease till we die in lieu of treatment.

re: #187 Chicago Blonde

Brookly, did you see the squib on CNN about peacefully co-existing with cancer? That horrified me.

re: #79 NelsFree
Hey, could y'all "cc" a copy of that note to Obama?
Thankew kindly!

re: #201 brookly red

Yes, but I also consider watching CNN to be peacefully co-existing with cancer.

I'm no fan but it's insightful as to what we're being fed. I put a link to the article earlier. I think they're grooming us proles to accept it, i.e. not fight it a cure is deemed not worth attempting under the shiny new healthcare being pushed for.
*shudder*

I will be voting against Antonia Villaraigosa for mayor in the Los Angeles primary in a few hours. Unfortunately, I'm registered as an independent and not a Democrat so I only get one vote.

re: #206 Kenneth

Scientist Solves Mystery of Belly-Button Lint
One of life's greatest mysteries has now been solved.

Science!

My great uncle had a peculiar fetish. He collected belly button lint and toe jam, and kept it in mason jars... Just think we could have donated the collection to science!

"Russian Foreign Minister asks President Obama If Refrigerator is Running: White House Investigating"

re: #165 realwest

Thanks for pointing me back upthread, I jumped in right below you. Yes I agree completely. This country chose to ignore experience as a qualification for President and focused on, well I'm sad to say it, race instead. See look at us world, we elected a black (well 1/2 anyway) man president. We are not the bad, bad amerikka of the past. Can't we all just unclench our fists get along now? Man are they in for a rude awakening, sad part they won't and they will blame it all on Bush in their warped view of reality.

re: #211 gonecamping

CNN is probably getting on board with the National Health Care Creed...we (the common folks, not the elected) will be expected to coexist with cancer and disease till we die in lieu of treatment.

Yep. You get it, we'll be rubber-stamped as too old, too this, too that...

re: #210 avanti

There is some talk about relocating it to protect even the Russians, but we'll know more when Hillary meets with the Russians Friday.

The alternative idea is to locate part of it on Russian territory, which is so profoundly a stupid idea, Obama is sure to go for it.

re: #210 avanti

BO is on TV as we speak and was asked about the missile shield and said the NYT article about a swap was inaccurate. He said it was a long letter, only part of which was about the missile shield. He claimed that he explained the need for the shield was to protect Europe and not threaten Russia and the need would be less urgent if Iran's program was stopped. Sounds like diplomatic speak for if you don't like the shield, take away the need for it.
There is some talk about relocating it to protect even the Russians, but we'll know more when Hillary meets with the Russians Friday.

Do you believe the words coming out his mouth?

re: #197 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

When the Taliban make a peace treaty they are immediately out of career options.

re: #215 jcm

Eww.

re: #168 Sharmuta

The Myth of the Authoritarian Model

Long but worth the read.

Yeltsin was far from a perfect democrat: he used force to crush the Russian parliament in 1993, bulldozed into place a new constitution that increased presidential power, and barred some parties or individuals from competing in a handful of national and regional elections. He also initiated two wars in Chechnya. The system that Yeltsin handed over to Putin lacked many key attributes of a liberal democracy. Still, whatever its warts, the Russian regime under Yeltsin was unquestionably more democratic than the Russian regime today. Although the formal institutional contours of the Russian political system have not changed markedly under Putin, the actual democratic content has eroded considerably.

Putin's rollback of democracy started with independent media outlets. When he came to power, three television networks had the national reach to really count in Russian politics -- RTR, ORT, and NTV. Putin tamed all three.

The power hungry go after the media first.
thanks for the link.

OT

The Zero and His bud from the UK are talking about creating a GLOBAL NEW DEAL...(that means a socialist style world economy)...yikes..

re: #206 Kenneth

Scientist Solves Mystery of Belly-Button Lint
One of life's greatest mysteries has now been solved.

Science!

How much funding will this guy get in the stimulus?

re: #160 yma o hyd

With their economies in a far worse shape than that of the USA - fat chance!

With NuLab leaders here in the UK our defense budget has been cut back so much its affecting our performance in A'stan.

With Germany having an election in two month's time, there is no chance of any increase in defense budgets any time soon.

France ... will speak of la Gloire and do eff all ...

Gawd, its getting worse by the minute.

Well, then they can become Russian vassals. After the years of ingratitude that those bastards have heaped on the US, I really don't give a damn.

re: #208 Lincolntf

He's William F.'s son. He's written a few funny social/political novels, "Thank You For Smoking" among them. He's really not all that bad, but he caught the Obama flu.

I know he's WFB's son. I prefer his dad.

Obama running out of people to blame

As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic. Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for an overall decline of 25% in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem.

Americans have welcomed the Obama era in the same spirit of hope the President campaigned on. But after five weeks in office, it's become clear that Mr. Obama's policies are slowing, if not stopping, what would otherwise be the normal process of economic recovery. From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence -- and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth.

re: #225 Ward Cleaver

How much funding will this guy get in the stimulus?

If it's touted as "green" fuel, plenty...

re: #210 avanti

BO is on TV as we speak and was asked about the missile shield and said the NYT article about a swap was inaccurate. He said it was a long letter, only part of which was about the missile shield. He claimed that he explained the need for the shield was to protect Europe and not threaten Russia and the need would be less urgent if Iran's program was stopped. Sounds like diplomatic speak for if you don't like the shield, take away the need for it.
There is some talk about relocating it to protect even the Russians, but we'll know more when Hillary meets with the Russians Friday.

To protect the Russians from the Russians? Genius!

Whaddya wanna bet that O'bama stops the "US-planned missile defence system" anyway, as a "show of good faith"?

So, the United States is expected to bailout now the sinking ship over there in the EU...hey, that's smart thinking by the EU folks.

Then they will say we are too old to enjoy retirement, thus no SS and they scavange our ROTH IRAs.

re: #218 Chicago Blonde

Yep. You get it, we'll be rubber-stamped as too old, too this, too that...

re: #214 HelloDare

I will be voting against Antonia Villaraigosa for mayor in the Los Angeles primary in a few hours. Unfortunately, I'm registered as an independent and not a Democrat so I only get one vote.

How many votes does his girlfriend get?

OT

I drove down Sunset Blvd yesterday...and it was like driving through a pornographic novel. The Cigarette billboard ads we grew up with are now replaced with (almost) naked girls and young boys posing in positions that are not for young eyes.

Thanks Liberals! You really made America a great place to raise children...sick MFER's!

sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

re: #74 looking closely

If were a European leader, I'd be pretty damn afraid of Obama's imactivity here.

Where are they going to be without the force of America's arms?

And they're going to be even more unhappy at having to start spending their own coin-of-the-realm for their own defense in the midst of a global economic meltdown.

Hey, Europe! How's that Anything-but-Bush president working out for you?

re: #213 Chicago Blonde

I'm no fan but it's insightful as to what we're being fed. I put a link to the article earlier. I think they're grooming us proles to accept it, i.e. not fight it a cure is deemed not worth attempting under the shiny new healthcare being pushed for.
*shudder*

Yup, Socialism does not value individual life.

re: #209 Rancher

He wants the President to succeed. Like Michael Steele. They both want Rush to shut up about wanting Obama to fail.

Ok - I agree with that. Rush does need to shut up. Rush doesn't realize that every time he says it - the dems take in more donations..

re: #151 rexatosis

I know Pres. Obama won't take this advice but it might be helpful if he reads the following: Henry Kissinger, "Diplomacy"; Richard Nixon, "Six Crises" and "Seize the Moment"; Robert Kennedy, "Thirteen Days"; and James Baker, "Politics of Diplomacy." All are written by those who have played a role in shaping U.S. foreign policy and were there when the proverbial --- hit the fan. Putin and other world leaders, in front of and behind the curtain, do not get a tingly feeling when the messiah enters the room, they are hard edged, hard nosed tough SOBs and have to be dealt with based on that understanding.

You are so mean. A playful fist-bump and high-five will make them love us.

re: #226 funky chicken

Well, then they can become Russian vassals. After the years of ingratitude that those s have heaped on the US, I really don't give a damn.

Europe is already the new USSR. Might as well just get hitched.

avanti... an answer to your last questions on the overnight thread...

[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]

Putin just gave Obama an Intercontinental Ballistic Wedgie.

Why doesn't Obama just burn the US Constitution and forgo that old-fashioned concept called "sovereignty"?

Between the community organizer and the tax cheating Sec of Treasury, this market is lucky to not crash every day.

re: #216 Bloodnok

"Russian Foreign Minister asks President Obama If Refrigerator is Running: White House Investigating"

"Dim Light Bulb Found Inside White House Refrigerator:
... Press Asks Russian Foreign Minister How He Knew"

re: #233 gonecamping

Then they will say we are too old to enjoy retirement, thus no SS and they scavange our ROTH IRAs.

It will become a SOL ROTH IRA-- as in Solyent Green. The government pays for the old boomers to be "retired" and turned into animal feed.

Yep..We're doomed.

re: #228 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Obama running out of people to blame

Hi Kafir! I posted a link to this on the last thread - but a little too late. Thanks for posting it again! I thought it was a terrific little piece on what the Obama policies could mean for the economy.

re: #233 gonecamping

Then they will say we are too old to enjoy retirement, thus no SS and they scavange our ROTH IRAs.

When health care rationing starts the elderly will be put in the back of the line.

re: #177 redheadredstate

I've said it before, I'll say it again. This is what comes from letting people into institutions simply based on their skin-color not their ability (Affirmative Action). BHO wasn't qualified to be a local Alderman much less POTUS. Talk about chickens coming home to roost!

What does BHO have to do with affirmative action ? His father attended Harvard, that may have helped with a legacy point or two, but he did not get in via his skin color.

I think Obama's pay grade is down there around minimum wage.

re: #237 brookly red

Yup, Socialism does not value individual life.

And I slip in here when I can throughout the day, because I know you guys see it too. Keeps me sane.

re: #236 samsgran1948

"Europe" wants the U.S. to bail them out of their financial crisis. And The Zero sounds more than willing to assist them.

re: #210 avanti

There is some talk about relocating it to protect even the Russians, but we'll know more when Hillary meets with the Russians Friday.

Which proves he has an abysmal understanding of the Russian psyche.

re: #243 J.S.

Why doesn't Obama just burn the US Constitution and forgo that old-fashioned concept called "sovereignty"?

He can write the Declaration of Codependence.

re: #186 JohnAdams

It's going to be hard not saying "I told you so."

So I won't.

I'll say it. Although when he endorsed BHO, Buckley had just lost his father, and also his mother a few months before that, so maybe we ought to just excuse him on the grounds that he was deranged by grief. Provided, however, he doesn't sink back into the Brown Nosed Mole mode that his friends Parker and Brooks seem to be stuck in.

Maybe the market will go up when Geithner shuts up for the day.

re: #236 samsgran1948

And they're going to be even more unhappy at having to start spending their own coin-of-the-realm for their own defense in the midst of a global economic meltdown.

Hey, Europe! How's that Anything-but-Bush president working out for you?

Problem is, if they arm up they will get into each other and it will be WWIII.

The Myth of the Authoritarian Model

Meanwhile, Russia now ranks as the third-most-dangerous place in the world to be a journalist, behind only Iraq and Colombia. Reporters Without Borders has counted 21 journalists murdered in Russia since 2000, including Anna Politkovskaya, the country's most courageous investigative journalist, in October 2006.

And:

Perhaps most incredible, public assembly is no longer tolerated. In the spring of 2007, Other Russia, a coalition of civil-society groups and political parties led by the chess champion Garry Kasparov, tried to organize public meetings in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Both meetings were disrupted by thousands of police officers and special forces, and hundreds of demonstrators were arrested -- repression on a scale unseen in Russia in 20 years.

This is who 0bama wants to sell eastern europe to.

re: #248 Rancher

When health care rationing starts the elderly will be put in the back of the line.

Followed by those who aren't producing enough for a large tax haul.

re: #239 debutaunt

Too late to read them now, he should have read them before he started his presidential campaign.

re: #243 J.S.

Why doesn't Obama just burn the US Constitution and forgo that old-fashioned concept called "sovereignty"?

I think he already burned it and smoked it. Isn't it printed on hemp? Or were only the rough drafts?