The credit Obama deserves, FTW

Someone in the past week made the point that if you don't give Obama any credit for Bin Laden's death, then you can't blame Bin Laden for 9/11 since he wasn't flying the planes himself.

Bin Laden's dead. Now what?

  It's late and I'll keep this brief because I'm tired. Bin Laden is dead. He was killed in Pakistan. The country where our CIA is conducting a cover war. Gen. Petraeus is being moved to head the CIA. Panetta (whose primary mission from Obama was apparently to get Bin Laden) is being moved to Defense. So surge-master Petraeus has basically been made leader of that covert war. For some reason I'm feeling that Bin Laden's death is only the highest profile incident to come of our covert war in Pakistan. Not the terminus. With a military, counterinsurgency man at the helm I think our involvement in Pakistan is going to get a lot more hot.

Since it's 4/20 and all...

"To make marijuana against the law is like saying that God made a mistake. Like on the seventh day God looked down, "There it is. My Creation, perfect and holy in all ways. Now I can rest. [Gives shocked expression] Oh my Me! I left (expletive deleted) pot everywhere. I should never have smoked that joint on the third day. Hehe, that was the day I created the possum. Still gives me a chuckle. But if I leave pot everywhere, that's gonna give people the impression they're supposed to … use it. Now I have to create Republicans." " … and God wept", I believe is the next part of that story."   ----Bill Hicks

Not a weed smoker, and I don't think God wastes his time smoking indo, but dang it the way Bill Hicks could construct a joke and continue it makes me miss him every time I'm subjected to any Blue Collar Comedy tour comedian or most network TV sitcoms. And so many of our drug laws are very stupid.

Which brings us to Gary Johnson. The pro-legalization former GOP governor of New Mexico. He's supposed to announce his candidacy tomorrow in New Hampshire. He's a refreshing, laid back, and fiscally responsible face for the GOP. Here's hoping his support doesn't come too heavily from the legalization crowd and that he can focus on many of the other issues in our country. Otherwise I'm not sure how far he'll make it in the primary. He'll certainly insure that the debates will suck a little less though.

How Republicans respond to Libya

This chart has been making the rounds and I think it's a decent illustration of how idiotic the response of most Republicans has been to Obama's response to the happenings in Libya.

The only anti-U.S. involvement in Libya argument that resonates with me is that put forth by Ron Paul and his left wing equivalent Dennis Kucinich. They have gone so far as to say it's an "impeachable offense" because the dropping of bombs could be considered an act of war and the president didn't consult Congress. Paul has backed off of that some, but I do have to say that the Dems would have been flipping out if Bush had done something similar without taking it before Congress.

Mandatory Gun Ownership?! Really?

   The daily question on morning call-in show on KARN has always seemed like it's designed to be a big hunk of red meat for the ultra-conservative callers of Arkansas. It's as if the idea is "let's ask the most broad open-ended question that will be guaranteed to draw negative calls." This approach isn't totally surprising since I'm aware that the self styled libertarian (but generically conservative sounding at times) Dave Elswick isn't just a host on KARN, he's also programming director. The hosts of the morning show attempt to sound neutral but their occasional tossed off comments and chuckles in response to the comments of some callers belie this.

    The other day the question was "How do you feel about the president of the NRA refusing to meet with President Obama?" Well one of our resident geniuses in this state said loudly, and proudly "I think it should be illegal to not own a gun." Whaaa???

    And herein my dear readers is the main reason I can't align myself with conservatives. While I don't agree with the fiscal soundness (or unsoundness) of everything liberals want for our country, I could never align myself with a side that has people like Mr. Gun Dude on it. I know he's probably an exception, but can you deny that there are some people deep down inside who think they are just slightly more American for owning guns than those who don't?

   The most "radical" thing most liberal callers I've ever heard on any radio show have ever proposed has been a single payer health care system for all Americans. I'm not coming out in support of universal health care here, but considering so many of our citizens in this country have received government health care before "Obamacare" even, that sounds a lot less crazy than forcing everyone to own a firearm. And in all honesty, liberals are such wusses for the most part that their extremist wing scares me a lot less.

Well just to lighten things up a bit...

Wow. This has been a rough week, what with natural disasters hitting Japan and human disasters unfolding before our eyes in Libya. So for a quick Friday night post I thought I'd share something somewhat humorous for any readers who might be watchers of HBO's "the Wire", and familiar with the character Clay Davis, the corrupt Maryland state senator, and his ubiquitous use of a certain word. This poster may have existed for awhile, but I've only recently seen it and it is easily my favorite parody of the famous Obama campaign poster.

Cheers.

Obama's handling of Egypt

   Mike Masterson writing in today's Democrat-Gazette points to a video that can be found on YouTube of an MSNBC interview with Niall Ferguson. Masterson quotes a friend of his who apparently said of the video, "finally someone in academia who gets it." The video can be watched here.

   I'm fairly tired of the criticism of Obama's handling of Egypt. Believe me, there are plenty of things we can criticize our president for at the moment, but his response to the revolution in Egypt should not be one of them. The funny thing is I haven't heard any suggestion as to what he should have done differently that resonates. I've heard from his critics that he either should have said more or said less, or supported the protesters more or supported Mubarak more. I think he hit about the right note.

  The sillier criticisms I hear are that since Obama "didn't say enough" during the protests following Iran's most recent presidential election, it was inconsistent for him to come out in the end for a change of power in Egypt. Iran's leaders are no friends of ours and any strong or vocal support for those protesting the regime would just allow those leaders to paint genuinely domestic revolutions as U.S. engineered. Egypt on the other hand, since Mubarak was an ally, was a totally different dynamic and the same principle wasn't in place.

  As far as Mr. Ferguson and his comments in the video, all I can say is that if you take away his oh-so-intelligent sounding accent he doesn't really sound any different than Hannity or any other blowhard you hear on FOX. Something along the lines of "Blahblahblah Obama blahblahblah Muslim Brotherhood blahblahblah".