That is, until it dawned on me that we are staring down the barrel of the Rick James presidency.  Who among us did not convulsively ROTFLMAO at David Chapelle’s rendition of the now-departed Superfreak?  Witness Obama’s curt dismissiveness at the slightest hint of critique, whether he’s trying to sumit the GOP House delegation into supporting Purkulus or reacting to John McCain’s condemnation of the Teheran crackdown. “I’m POTUS, bitch”. Look at Obama’s relationship with a groupiesque media that covers for his catastrophic shortcomings between leg thrills.  “Bitches, show POTUS your bias”.  Is not Obama’s brazen contempt for taxpayers the equivalent of the “F*** yo’ couch…” tirade?

Be not deceived by Obama’s past preference for powdered confections a’ la Rick James (“cocaine’s a hell of a drug”).  Obama’s brain is now addled by his hatred of capital and individual achievement.  Here’s hoping our own electoral Charlie Murphy turns up in short order.

]]> http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/06/26/video-of-sanfords-evita/feed/ 44 http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/05/29/dinner-and-a-show/ http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/05/29/dinner-and-a-show/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 03:48:54 +0000 Kid from Brooklyn http://hotair.com/greenroom/?p=3616 Why, of course.  Where else is The Hippest President Evah going to go to catch some fine thee-a-ter?  It’s not like there’s any urgent business back in the office or anything.  My only question is…will they take the southern approach into NYC?

Local reaction was swift and loud, as expected.  Today, we hear from the Florida Minority Community Reinvestment Coalition.  Everything you’ll need to know about them can be found in that screed they fired off to Spirit Air…which they wrote in the midst of planning their hunger strike on Bank of America.  Economic apartheid?  In Florida?  Seriously?  These clowns need to drive up and down the Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, where Latino businesses (particularly taquerias) are popping up like mushrooms after an afternoon rain.  I sincerely hope that Mr. Pina et.al are directed to pound sand with grrrreat vengeance and fuuuurious annnnger.

By the way, I get some of the outrage.  The dark brown skin, excessive makeup and outsized hoop earrings are clear depictors of someone whose rich life experience involved use of the D and 4 trains as her primary means of transportation.  However, since Cartoon Judge is way hotter than Actual Judge…no blood, no foul.    

Any actual Sotomayor outrage is best directed where it belongs…at Ricci, Didden, Doninger, and Maloney (sucks for Sotomayor that she’s going to have to make her Second Amendment stand over the Constituional right to bear…nunchaku!).

 I, for one, wonder where all the Latino outrage went when Miguel Estrada was stoned at the gate.  Until these La Raza clowns can justify their shameful behavior then in relation to the present, my response to their “grievances” can best be found within the last 1:30 of “Killing In The Name Of”.

O’Reilly beclowned
Tell me how my loofah tastes
Pinhead of the day

Phone sex and loofahs
Who has time to moderate?
Bill’s prime time, bitchez!

Exit Question:  Is there an over/under for O’Reilly leaving Fox for more ”moderate” pastures? 

This kid is good…holding his composure even as he meets Ozzy.  And don’t think the job offer is mere head-patting to be dispensed as a sop to the awed otaku.  There is ample precedent for fanboys eventually getting the dream gig.  

Now, back to the kid…that cherubic grin, the angelic voice…where have I heard it before?  Why does this child sound so hauntingly familiar?  Oh, yeah.  Japan rocks! 

Speaking to a politically mixed crowd in Daytona Beach, Crist emphasized his support for the bill as practical and pragmatic, though it would have meant crossing party lines. Only three Republican senators backed the stimulus bill, and Martinez wasn’t one of them.

Now Florida stands to get about $15 billion over the next two years through different stimulus grants.

“A lot of that $15 billion dollars you sent to Washington, D.C., and my view is we ought to get it back,” Crist told his audience. “Florida deserves her fair share.”

Admission of such an unpopular (among likely GOP primary voters) position in advance of a bruising primary reveals astounding arrogance, and reveals the isolation of the elites that backed him over a true conservative in the name of “winnability”.  Furthermore, Crist announces his willingness to RINO up at every possible opportunity:

“It’s important to have something in Washington who works well with others,” he said.

The NRSC has lost sight of the fact that Conservatism doesn’t need the Rahm Emmanuel blueprint to win.  It only needs principled conservatives.  Crist is not one of them,

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

44 years later, we find Republican leadership betraying this most fundamental of conservative principles…in particular, the NRSC’s endorsement of Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio.  Adding insult to injury, Florida GOP Chair Jim Greer wants Crist to be treated like an incumbent !  Rather than let Floridians decide who is best suited to represent them in the U.S. Senate, a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital has made that decision in advance.  When Arlen Specter left the GOP, he was roundly criticized for his refusal to subject himself to Republican primary voters.  In a few short weeks, the NRSC has come full circle and now seeks to insulate Crist from a primary…never mind that he is no different from Specter.  Now more than ever, this is a time for choosing.

 Venezuela’s president launched the handset on his TV show with a Mother’s Day call to his mum and predicted it would conquer all rivals. “This telephone will be the biggest seller not only in Venezuela but the world,” he said. “Whoever doesn’t have a Vergatario is nothing,” he joked.

Governor Charlie Crist is expected to announce for the Senate as early as Tuesday, potentially setting up a moderate vs. conservative primary in which he faces off against a staunch conservative, former House Speaker Marco Rubio.  Crist’s special brand of squishy centrism is a matter of public record.   Crist, among other things, reversed himself on a conservative Supreme Court appointment, blocked a coal-powered plant due to environmental concerns, and was the state’s largest (and most vocal) Porkulus supporter.  It should be noted that this is Crist’s second run at the Senate (he lost to Bob Graham in 1996).  Since then, Crist has undergone more reinventions and makeovers than Madonna, with the sole intent of raising his profile for his next shot at the Senate.  His assumed personae have run the gamut…from hard-nosed “Chaingang Charlie” as AG, all the way to his current iteration, which I choose to name Skinny Arnold.  Pretty much everything we need to know about Crist can be summed up in this bon mot from state GOP chair Jim Greer (emphasis mine):

Crist has “concluded that the problems and issues that Floridians are facing high unemployment and the economy can’t be solved in Tallahassee, they need to be solved in Washington, and I believe that’s what he’s going to do.”

Turns out, it was Photoshopped after all.  Many thanks to Slublog.

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

After the Cabinet fiasco, President Obama needs to score an easy confirmation somewhere.  It is pure folly to just expect Obama to beclown himself in a Supreme court nomination process, given his Cabinet woes and his alleged reputation as a legal scholar (which is also at stake here).  I just don’t think that this is the Supreme Court vacancy with which Obama recklessly attempts an exotic pick.  

Moving forward, I expect the operating word here to be “confirmability”.  As Legal Insurrection explained, 60 votes in the Senate are worth a bucket of warm spit if you can’t get your appointee out of committee (hey, Benedict Arlen finally came through for the GOP, but I digress).  Thus, I don’t expect a galvanizing pick in the mold of a Koh or a Kagan.  In terms of sheer confirmability,  Sonia Sotomayor is the only candidate a with a clear, filibuster-proof path…and here’s why.  

In order to break down the “Filibuster in Committee” strategy, we must first take a look at the GOP side of the Senate Judiciary Committee…currently comprised of Hatch, Grassley, Kyl, Sessions, Graham, Cornyn and Coburn.  Of these, Grassley, Kyl, and Sessions voted against Sotomayor’s appointment to the 2nd Circuit, and can be expected to vote ”No” now…with Cornyn and Coburn voting “Hell, No”.  This leaves Hatch and Graham.  Hatch then chaired the Judiciary Committee and voted for Sotomayor.  Does anyone see Hatch changing his vote to “No” now that it’s a Supreme Court nomination?  Yeah, me either.  All this time, there’s been this Graham talk when Hatch is the real key.  After all, there should be no mystery about which way Graham is going on this appointment.  Anyone seriously expecting Lindsey “La Raza” McGrahamnesty to stone the first Hispanic Supreme Court appointee at the gate had better put down the crack pipe…right now.  So much for filibustering Sotomayor in Committee.

When Sotomayor’s appointment to the 2nd Circuit finally went before the full Senate, she got Yays from current GOP Senators Collins, Snowe, Bennett, Gregg, Hatch, and Lugar.  Add that plus Graham to 59 Democrats, and you already have 65 votes (Compared to 68 in 1998.  Roll call here).  So much for a filibuster on the full Senate floor.

Realistically, the only play the GOP has here is to endorse Sotomayor.  Say Graham comes out for Sotomayor.  Two things would happen.  First, such an endorsement would preemptively shut down the grievance machine before it even has a chance to warm up.  Second, GOP support would force the Left to reflexively push harder for one of the academic ideologues; thus forcing Obama to referee a left-wing interest group battle royal…which Sotomayor wins anyway lest The One risk cutting into that 67%.  

Barring an exotic pick born solely out of Obamesque “I Won” hubris, I fully expect that Sonia Sotomayor will be named as the next Supreme Court appointee.  I can’t see President Obama passing on the opportunity to appoint a historic “first” to the bench, and Sotomayor has enough of the treasured “empathy” Obama is seeking.  I concur with Allahpundit’s assessment that she may be the most centrish-ish nominee to come from The One.  I’d bet anyone a cup of office coffee that the White House has already collected Sotomayor’s signature on a Form 4506.  Barring a black swan, this appointment’s a done deal.  The only thing left to do is to see how the GOP plays it, and to pray for the continued health of the remaining Justices. 

Update: Sessions is the next GOP Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  I’d be more excited about this, but it’s more of a placeholder thing until the 112th Congress is sworn in…after which, they play musical chairs.  Then it’s Grassley.  Both voted No on Sotomayor, FWIW. 

One of the early favorites to succeed Justice Souter is Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit.  Obama would score huge by nominating a Hispanic woman, thus delivering a historic first for Hispanics that supported him by such wide margins.  A Sotomayor nomination would almost be impossible to oppose, given that Senators Snowe and Collins both voted for her confirmation (as did Benedict Arlen, but as L.I. explained this morning, he’s moot now).  Given their previous votes, and how easily the Maine Moderates were flipped on Porkulus, I can’t see them holding the line now (the same goes for La Raza McGrahamnesty).  However, this doesn’t mean that the Senate GOP should automatically let itself get rolled.

This potential nomination is a teachable moment in how the Democrats truly view race.  Contrast the inevitable Sotomayor buzz with the shameful treatment received by Miguel Estrada during his confirmation process.  Let us remember the Durbin memos which targeted Estrada for filibuster solely on race and ideology.  Let us engage Democrats on their special level of contempt they reserve for “minority” individuals that leave the liberal plantation.  Given her temperament and disposition; why, exactly, is Sotomayor a safe pick and Estrada “extremely dangerous”?  Schumer, Durbin, and Leahy need to be held accountable for their despicable actions, then and now.  

Note:  I write this as a son of Puerto Ricans, born in pre-gentrified Williamsburgh.  However, I will not allow anyone to dictate how I should think or act, based solely on my parents’ birthplace.  Remember Estrada.

Q: And it’s going to be hard for people who don’t have the option of paying for it.

THE PRESIDENT: So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right?

I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

Q: So how do you — how do we deal with it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance. And that’s part of what I suspect you’ll see emerging out of the various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill right now.

Let’s set aside, for one second, the galling ghoulishness of a President who does not hesitate to use his deceased grandmother as an empathy beard.  Allow me to cut through the sales pitch and translate:  We’re gonna ration.  Dude, if end-of-life and chronic care is 80% of the bill, and you’re looking to cut costs, isn’t that the first place you’d look to cut?  I don’t see any other possible justification for a “difficult democratic conversation”, and I don’t think Obama’s vision of “guidance” is similar to mine.  His kind of “guidance” is currently on display with TARP, GM, and Chrysler.  Congressional Democrats aren’t looking to cram socialized healthcare through budget reconciliation just to give themselves “not-determinative guidance”.  This is where the personal approval polls meet the job approval polls.  This is the first shot in the 2010 midterms.  I knew all along that L.I. was right, I just didn’t expect The One to screw up so soon.

But none of us wants to own an assault weapon, because we have no desire to kill policemen or go to a school or workplace to see how many victims we can accumulate before we are finally shot or take our own lives. That’s why the White House and Congress must not give up on trying to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, even if it may be politically difficult.

In this brief yet noxious screed, Carter shows us the kind of dedication to weakness that characterized his disastrous presidency.  Rather than acknowledging the individual right to bear arms, Carter chooses to smear all tactical weapons owners as cop-killers, and to repeat the tired “our guns flow into Mexico” canard.  Of course, there is no acknowledgement of D.C. v. Heller.  There is only a collection of half-truths and omissions…not to mention this early entrant for Irony Of The Year (emphasis mine):

Many of us who hunt are dismayed by some of the more extreme policies of the National Rifle Association, the most prominent voice in opposition to a ban, and by the timidity of public officials who yield to the group’s unreasonable demands.

Of course, Carter saved his special brand of timid yielding for the unreasonable demands of anti-American tyrants…which leaves no room for yielding to American citizens’ Constitutional concerns.  Carter always knew how to do “politically difficult”… unfortunately, these “political difficulties” often came at the expense of our national security, economic stability, and our global standing.  Carter represented then, and still does now, the worst combination of the liberal’s misguided sense of justice and blame-America-first weakness. 

Blessed are the weak, for they get ink while America still cleans up their mess.

 Most states have hit the panic button, including Florida, where Republicans have cut the budget but also imposed highly regressive “sin taxes,” including cigarette and tobacco sales.  They’re now worrying about the state’s bond rating in the Sunshine State.

The Sunshine State has no income tax, and requires a stronger-than-most hand on the till…particularly during times like these.  So how is Chaingang Charlie handling Florida’s business?  Apparently, he isn’t. 

Before last fall’s election, Crist took time out of his work schedule to campaign for McCain, appearing at rallies, raising money for him in Texas and California and visiting the GOP candidate at his ranch in Sedona, Ariz.

“He was with him so many times I thought he was an adopted member of the family,” said Mitch Ceasar, Democratic chairman of Broward County.

Back home, Florida’s economic crisis was deepening. But Crist did not step up his workload, according to his schedule.

Since August, his calendar shows 23 weekdays with no appointments or work time, and a partial schedule on 30 other days.

Crist as governor is the antithesis of the hands-on Jeb Bush.  Like Barack Obama, he ran on flowery prose and promises of post-partisanship; he has a fondness for skipping town when things get hot, and his approval ratings far exceed his actual performance.  Crist’s best national moment came when he played kingmaker in Florida and caught a little VP buzz.  Beyond that, I can’t see this lightweight anywhere near the 2012 GOP ticket.  With even crazier budget fights looming in the next couple of years, Mel Martinez’ seat is looking better and better…

But last year the relationship ruptured over media coverage of a farmers’ tax revolt against the government. Grupo Clarin media were critical of Fernandez during the conflict and at government rallies her supporters waved banners saying “Clarin Lies,” and “TN: Totally Negative.”

Fernandez’s draft bill would reduce the number of broadcast licenses firms can have, and might open a door for telecoms firms Telefonica de Argentina and Telecom Argentina to compete with Clarin on triple play — a joint phone, broadband and cable television service.

“The status quo would be the best outcome for Clarin,” said Mariano Kruskevich, an analyst at the Grupo SBS consultancy.

The government proposal also aims to increase the number of soccer games shown on free television as opposed to pay TV, which would be popular with football-loving Argentines.

At a weekend match between Argentina’s two biggest soccer clubs, fans blanketed the stands with banners reading “Clarin: We want football free on TV.” Critica newspaper said Kirchner, a key player in his wife’s government, was behind the stunt.

  In both instances, these retaliatory measures were enacted in response to unfavorable coverage.  Given Barack Obama’s historically cozy relationship with American broadcast media, can similar proposals be too far off if unfavorable coverage of any particular incident misstep were to erode The One’s popular support?  Leftist regimes require total message control as a neccesary element of survival, which is why it is so reliant on propaganda…and the era of hopenchange is no different.  At the very least, we now know why the NYT spiked the torture story.  All politics is localism.

Barack Obama moves up now on 100 days in office, and is still like some baseball pitcher whose performance is analyzed pitch by pitch. It generally makes for a political discourse in this country dumber than socks.

You mean the same way W’s every move was dissected like a lab frog, and every move attributed to a shadowy Halliburton cabal pulling the strings?  You cheerled him, now suck it up.

Lupica manages to add this gem, right after blaming Eisenhower for Kennedy’s piss-poor execution of the Bay of Pigs plan:

Continuing Bush’s old schoolyard beef with Venezuela doesn’t help us or make us safer.  

See, that’s dumb.  If “schoolyard beefing” (otherwise known among thinking adults as the application of diplomatic pressure) with a known contributor to FARC and enabler of Hezbollah (Margarita Island.  Google it.) doesn’t make us safer, then I don’t know what does.  In Mike Lupica’s world of sunshine and unicorns, rogue leaders can be brought to the side of reason with flowery speeches and hopeychangey prose.  In the real world, submissive leaders get used over and over again, as props in humiliating photo ops…not unlike the prison punk.  Until Mr. Lupica understands this distinction, I suggest he confine his mewling to the sports pages.  If it isn’t about A-Rod or about the Mets not closing the deal (yet again),  Mr. Lupica is no different than his champion…which is to say, in way over his head.

The only guarantees inherent with this proposed program are that it will come in way over budget, and it will not be profitable.  I shudder for joy at the possibility of more government control of our transportation system.  What could possibly go wrong?

“It was an intensive, three-hour dinner at 30 Rock which Zucker himself was behind,” a source familiar with the powwow told us. “There was a long discussion about whether CNBC has become too conservative and is beating up on Obama too much. There’s great concern that CNBC is now the anti-Obama network. The whole meeting was really kind of creepy.”

Creepy, you say?  Like Chris Matthews leg-thrill creepy, or Olbermann-in-general creepy?  I’m only surprised that the Code Red wasn’t ordered earlier.  The piece goes on to say that Santelli wasn’t there, but Cramer did attend.  Well, there you have it.  After his appearance on Jon Stewart and his flip-flop on Obama, who among us didn’t question the timing?  Well, now we know.  And really, given NBC’s storied, leg-thrill laden “special relationship” with this Administration, I expected no less.  Now, at least, we know where this week’s “teabagging” fetish comes from.

The UFC is the crown jewel of America’s fastest growing sport…having gone from “human cockfighting” and the verge of bankruptcy to an all-time high in popularity, record ratings and record profitability seemingly overnight.  White is very much a hands-on executive who fears neither the spotlight nor a fight and demands excellence in all aspects of the operation he oversees, not unlike George Steinbrenner when he was still The Boss.  So why cave to GLAAD when the UFC fanbase is so quick to forgive the slur and move on?  Two words: The Garden.  

The UFC has long wanted to come to New York, where MMA is still illegal.  The UFC needs to perform on the biggest stage of all in order to consolidate its place in the top tier of American sports.  Cash-strapped New York could greatly benefit from a few UFC shows a year.  So it’s a slam dunk, right?  Ryan Hockensmith doesn’t seem to think so:

Some time in the next few months, White, the UFC and MMA will take center stage in front of New York state legislators. The goal: convince them to sanction the sport in New York. The key piece of persuasion in the UFC’s favor was pure dollars.

“In a time of economic struggle, why wouldn’t the state of New York want to fill up a few arenas and put people to work?” White could have asked.

A week ago, those sanctioning hearings were all but a formality. The majority would have recognized that the UFC is worth too much, financially, to turn away for another year. White would have been there, and he’d have put on a show. He probably would have put on a suit, cleaned up the language and not punctuated his arguments with expletives.

Even then, there were going to be a few politicians who wouldn’t have bought White’s pitch, dancing around the fact that, basically, they believe the sport is a barbaric, ill-mannered anachronism that has no place as sanctioned family entertainment in their state.

Now, if they play White’s video blog, they might not have to say it out loud.

Really?  New York is going to tax porn downloads and hike subway fares while cutting entire lines, but keep the ban on MMA in place because Dana White dropped the other f-bomb?  Ask the Chicago City Council how that worked out for them when they tried to jerk with Wal-Mart.  They may ground and pound White a bit for his remarks, but in the end, I suspect they’ll vote with their wallets and let the UFC in.

The first shoe dropped with the appointment of David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit, followed by (Dean of Yale Law) Harold Koh’s appointment to State, as chief legal counsel to Hillary Clinton.  Now comes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, advocating U.S. adoption of foreign precedent in the plainest language possible.  Money quote:

“Why shouldn’t we look to the wisdom of a judge from abroad with at least as much ease as we would read a law review article written by a professor?” 

 Here, Justice Ginsburg, is your answer.  It may sound familiar to you.

“I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”

What else can we expect from Supreme Court Justices who can’t even be trusted to properly interpret their own oath of office?  Truth be told, liberal jurists need foreign precedent in order to justify future rulings on concepts now considered unconstitutional, such as “hate speech”.  If we allow foreign precedent into an opinion, it will creep into a decision and form precedent.  If you give a mouse a cookie, it’s going to ask you for a glass of milk.  Given the ramifications of an Obama court, it would be dangerously naive to think otherwise.  In light of these remarks, the appointments of Koh and Hamilton are ominous signs that are not to be ignored or taken lightly.

Indeed, elections have consequences.  Please join me in praying for increased health and long life…for the entire bench.

Gen. Banks was distressed with solicitude as to what he should do with the Negro. Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, “What shall we do with the Negro?” I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don’t disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot- box, let him alone, don’t disturb him! [Applause.] If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone,–your interference is doing him a positive injury. Gen. Banks’ “preparation” is of a piece with this attempt to prop up the Negro. Let him fall if he cannot stand alone! If the Negro cannot live by the line of eternal justice, so beautifully pictured to you in the illustration used by Mr. Phillips, the fault will not be yours, it will be his who made the Negro, and established that line for his government. [Applause.] Let him live or die by that. If you will only untie his hands, and give him a chance, I think he will live. He will work as readily for himself as the white man.

Fast forward to 2009, and it is Barack Obama playing the role of General Banks, distressed with his own “solicitudes”; and after all these years, the remedy is still the same notwithsanding individual circumstance.  We only need substitute “the Homeowner” or “the taxpayer”, for “the Negro” to capture the timeless prescience of Mr. Douglass’ words.  Viewed under the harsh light of history, these are not just words…not just speeches, but an enduring expression of the inalienable right to liberty with which our Creator endowed us.  Take note, Mr. President…for this is what true hope looks like.  And this hope, like Mr. Douglass’, is strong enough to endure you.

The events of the past week and a half bring the ancient Chinese curse to memory, for we are most certainly living in interesting times.   First comes news of the failed ‘Dong launch and our limp reaction, followed by news of our friends and collective mortgagees the ChiComs using New York banks to funnel resources to the non-existent Iranian nuclear program.  Meanwhile, a new Iranian hostage situation flares up, our President bows submissively to the Saudi king (while brazenly denying it in this YouTube age), and over in the Indian Ocean, the most powerful Navy in history is held at bay by four Somali pirates.  Interesting times, indeed.

 The pirate incident brought to mind a wonderful Mamet essay I read only because I made an impulse purchase at the airport.  I quote below, but highly recommend reading the entire piece. 

In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway creates a scene between a young lieutenant and an old European count. They are discussing the great war the lieutenant has been fighting. The count assures the young man that the Allies will win. How does he know? It is always the young nations that win the wars. But, the lieutenant says, will they, then, become powerful forever? No, the count says, they will become the old nations.

Writers from Edward Gibbon ( The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776) through Oswald Spengler ( The Decline of the West, 1918-1922) to Samuel Huntington ( The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order, 1996) have documented the progression. Power attracts sycophants, and worth attracts predators. The sycophants spawn bureaucracy, the predators scheme to overcome might with cunning, and find, as Frederick the Great taught, that he who defends everything defends nothing.

The underdog, on the other hand, must pick his shots—when and how he means to fight—and hemust have a defined objective. (The notion of an “exit strategy” indicates an absence of such. “Exit ­strategy” means the physical implementation of an excuse for abandonment of a failed enterprise.) In a contemporary war—a war between the weak and the strong—fast, audacious, and unconventional are not merely “better,” that’s all there is. Three murderers in caves could plan and ­successfully execute a devastating attack on the United States, while Jimmy Carter, executive of the greatest concentration of power in history, could not extract the Iran hostages.

As I saw these events unfold, I saw the contrast between this pirate crisis, and the original pirate crisis over 200 years ago.  Once again, a few bandits find and exploit weaknesses inherent within our bloated bureaucratic decision-making processes.  Thankfully, Capt. Phillips’ bravery gave this Administration a Mulligan.  Our forces, of course, performed admirably, even with one hand tied behind their backs by layers of bureaucratic numbskullery.  I wonder how many JAGs had to sign off on this operation before the pirates were engaged.  The White house claims this to be a major interagency success.  Seriously?  Interagency?  Homeland, Justice, Defense…all gave their two cents’ worth.  How many agencies did the pirates have to consult before seizing the Maersk Alabama?  We would do well to consider what our institutional bloat has done to our ability to respond to such situations…or to respond, period.  China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and the rest of the global rogues’ gallery have certainly done so…and have planned accordingly. 

By the way…as I write this, the NBC News and WaPo fawn machines are touting Capt. Phillips’ rescue as passage of the Obama Administration’s first major foreign-policy test.  Our media would be well-served to remember that signing your name correctly does not pass anyone a test.  Especially this weeklong test.