American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
NY-23: Scozzafava Endorses Owens
State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R), who dropped from the special election in Upstate New York yesterday, has now thrown her support to Democrat Bill Owens.
As Bruce put it,
Scozzafava Proves She is a Democrat After All
Last week Betty found out she’s really married to a Dick rather than a Don, but even then everybody looked mahveloss.
Surprisingly, it took three seasons for Brooks Brothers to come up with this,
Suit up like a ’60s Mad Man, limited edition of 250 suits, available until Nov. 8, the season finale.
As you can see, the Brooks Brothers suit is a near-replica (except for the pocket flaps) of Cary Grant’s suit in North By Northwest:
Obama makes Bush his blame czar
There was Barack Obama only the other day, blaming everything on the president – no, no, silly, not him, the other fellow, the Designated Fall Guy who stepped down as head of state in January to accept the new constitutional position of Blame Czar. Musing on problems in Afghanistan, Obama blamed the “long years of drift” under his predecessor. The new president – OK, newish president – has been Drifter-in-Chief for almost a year but he’s too busy speaking truth to the former power to get on top of the situation. It could be a while yet. In his more self-regarding moments, such as his speech to the United Nations, he gives the strong impression that the “long years of drift” began in 1776.
Donald Sensing compares Barack Obama and General McClellan, and also links to Thomas Sowell’s two-part essay, “Dismantling America,” Part One and Part Two.
Obama needs a blame czar to divert from the real issues of the day, and from the huge errors he has made from the day he took office; Criticism of Obama or his policies gets fierce reactions from his supporters. Sowell recalls one episode from Sowell’s academic past that explains why the reactions:
“Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts.”
Here, and now,
Internationally, Barack Obama has made every mistake that was made by the Western democracies in the 1930s, mistakes that put Hitler in a position to start World War II– and come dangerously close to winning it.
At the heart of those mistakes was trying to mollify your enemies by throwing your friends to the wolves. The Obama administration has already done that by reneging on this country’s commitment to put a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe and by its lackadaisical foot-dragging on doing anything serious to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That means, for all practical purposes, throwing Israel to the wolves as well.
Countries around the world that have to look out for their own national survival, above all, are not going to ignore how much Obama has downgraded the reliability of America’s commitments.
Iraq, for example, knows that Iran is going to be next door forever while Americans may be gone in a few years. South Korea likewise knows that North Korea is permanently next door but who knows when the Obama administration will get a bright idea to pull out? Countries in South America know that Hugo Chavez is allying Venezuela with Iran. Dare they ally themselves with an unreliable U.S.A.? Or should they join our enemies to work against us?
This issue is too serious for squeamish silence.
Thirty czars, and a blame czar. Anything to divert from this issue, this reality.
