No longer willing to be a codependent enabler to stupid leadership decisions espoused on my behalf, and despite the structure around the pretext that failing to support them makes me unpatriotic, I’m furious with our President on this Syrian fiasco.
This is not a zero sum game, and I do not accept the presentation as such.   I also hold a principle that history holds value.
A failure to support President Obama’s personal opinion is not equivalent to supporting Assad or Iran.   The missing context is the application of freedom principles and history.  It is not unpatriotic to support freedom – It WAS unpatriotic of President Obama to draw a “red line” in our national sand without seeking permission of forethought. (more…)

The vote from the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to put Obama’s Syrian resolution before the full Senate is essentially meaningless.    The subsequent vote amid the full Senate to support such a resolution is more politically valuable, but not terribly much.
The vote that counts, to authorize President Obama to use our military and attack Syria, will only come from the House of Representatives – The ‘People’s House’.

With that in mind a couple of recent tracking polls, ABC and Think Progress, are in alignment: (more…)

That’s exactly the same thing Chris Stevens said about the Libyan “rebels” before they dragged him out of his safe room, sodomized him, and then murdered him…
Watch and listen to Kerry in this video from today:

…. would have been nice if one of the congress critters could have asked him: “if what Secretary Kerry says is true, then why are you not there in Syria Mr. Ford”?
Better yet, ask him when was the last time he was there?
It appears he’s been out of Syria since October 2011 (2 years ago) – Heck the entire U.S. Diplomatic Corps left Syria 4 months later, Feb 2012.   No-one has been there for well over a year and a half.

So lets put some facts behind what John Kerry is saying here:

(more…)

All About Politics – All About Optics – All The Time

Every single move our President takes is determined by political winds…..
Wow.  Just wow.   The speech by President Obama this afternoon was just staggeringly unreal.   Bizzarro World Type pretzel contortions.    The speech was short, but in a surprising twist Obama announced he will seek congressional authority on attacking Syria even though he believes he has the authority to go ahead with strike. (this really is must watch stuff – even if you find yourself challenged to stick with it through the absurd nature of what you are bearing witness to)

Following the speech Charles Krauthammer accurately captured several optical realities.
(more…)

Britain Says NO –  Massive loss of support for President Obama’s plan.   The British Parliament votes, and tells their Prime Minister, David Cameron, not to involve British Military in Syria.

Mr Miliband [Labor Party Leader] said:  ‘There having been no motion  passed by this House tonight, can the Prime Minister confirm to the House that  he will not use the Royal prerogative to order the UK to be part of military  action, given the will of the House that has been expressed tonight, before  there has been another vote in this House of Commons? ” (more…)

I’m telling ya, this is de-ja-vu all over again…. As expected, the golfer-in-chief looks into his political 8-ball and says about Syria – pick the course of action that makes me look strong, makes me look good enough, not wanting to be mocked……   Nuf said.    He knows he’s turning this into a win for al-Qaeda, but he needs it to look like he’s magnanimous or something…. 
Remember in Libya, the Golfer even defied his own Office of Legal Council advice, and violated the central restrictions on his own executive power… 

Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, and Caroline D. Krass, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, had told the White House that they believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to “hostilities.” Under the War Powers Resolution, that would have required Mr. Obama to terminate or scale back the mission after May 20.  [2012 link]

President Obama ignored them, dispatched them for other advisors who would agree with his own pre-conceived Power/Rice/Clinton/Jarrett agenda.  So essentially, anything goes in his own mind – so long as the politics of it can be steered in his favor…
(Via LA Times)  The apparent poison gas attack that killed hundreds of Syrian civilians last week is testing President Obama’s views on military intervention, international law and the United Nations as no previous crisis has done. (more…)

FORT HOOD, Texas — The Fort Hood gunman, Nidal Hasan, was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing 13 people, most of them unarmed soldiers, in a 2009 shooting rampage.
The jury of 13 retired military officers, which convicted Hasan of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, deliberated for just over two hours on the sentence. They also dismissed Hasan from the Army and stripped him of his military pay.
Hasan will now be flown to the maximum security U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Hasan will be placed on death row while awaiting lengthy, automatic appeals.  (read more)

The current, 2013, political discussion about U.S. intervention in Syria is exactly the same conversation from February 2011 about Libya.   Same argument (R2P), same players (Obama, Power, Rice, Jarrett) and same ideology – The only difference is ignoring the anticipated outcome. 

When the Freedom Green Party in Iran stood up in 2009, President Obama said he preferred to “reach out” – The Islamists killed the Freedom Criers.
In Egypt, 2010, Obama played golf, then stood behind al-Qaeda affiliate Mohammed al Zawahiri and Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Morsi – The Islamists killed the Freedom Criers.
In Libya, 2011, Obama played golf, then stood behind “the rebels” led by Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who held the place card for al-Qaeda Benghazi Division –  The Islamists drove the Freedom Criers to Tripoli and now control Eastern Libya, Benghazi, Darna et al.
In Syria, 2011, Obama played golf, then played golf, then played more golf, and then finally played even more golf.
Leading to Syria, 2013.
When Saddam Hussein’s family fled Iraq, where did they go?   Syria.   When Hussein was playing hide-and-seek with the WMD used to kill the Kurds, where did the convoys go?  Syria.
When the Afghanistan fighting season ended in 2011 where did the Ayman al Zawahiri al-Qaeda go?   Egypt and Libya.   When Benghazi started to work on overthrowing Quackdaffy, where did the “rebels” come from?   Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan.
You see, this is, essentially, a mobile al-Qaeda force compromised of hardline Salafist Islamists, who flow to where the freedom conflict lies, and when they get there they mount their efforts. (more…)

Side Question:  How come the media has stopped using the word WMD now that President Obama is in office?   Oh well,…..

Some things are more reflective than others.   A famous person once said: those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, or something similar.   Well, this is one Obama Administration repetition worth highlighting.

On Wednesday of last week the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the recent chemical attacks being witnessed in Syria.   Those chemical and/or biological attacks have been a great source of international attention and concern.
However, our U.N. Ambassador, Samantha Power, was conspicuously absent from the Security Council meeting.   The Administration was questioned, and the White House mysteriously avoided answering where she was.   Why was the United States not present during the meeting?   Where was Samantha Power?
Today it is reported she missed the meeting in order to attend a Charlie Chaplin Film Festival.   No joke, this is the real reason.   It sure explains why the White House was dodging the question and refused to answer.
But here comes the historical context. (more…)

Major Nidal Hasan has been convicted of premeditated murder for the 2009 terrorist rampage shooting at Fort Hood.    He’s now eligible for the death penalty (link)