Chickenhawks: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result

Speaking to an audience at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Pittsburgh, President Obama said:

“Some of the same politicians and pundits that are so quick to reject the possibility of a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program are the same folks who were so quick to go to war in Iraq and said it would take a few months.  We know the consequences of that choice, and what it cost us in blood and treasure. So I believe there's a smarter, more responsible way to protect our national security.”

And:

“Instead of rushing into another conflict, I believe that sending our sons and daughters into harm’s way must always be a last resort, and that before we put their lives on the line we should exhaust every alternative.”

But, I heard on Fox News that most members of ISIS are from Iran.  And Rush Limbaugh said the Benghazi terrorist attack was carried out by Iranians.  Now, if we stage a pre-emptive military strike against Iran, our soldiers will be greeted as liberators; they'll be showered with candy and ice cream by throngs of grateful Iranians...

Climate Change Vigilance = National Security

Here's an excerpt from President Obama's Keynote Address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Commencement:

“When you’re on deck, standing your watch, you stay vigilant. You plan for every contingency. And if you see storm clouds gathering, or dangerous shoals ahead, you don't sit back and do nothing. You take action — to protect your ship, to keep your crew safe. Anything less is negligence. It is a dereliction of duty. And so, too, with climate change. Denying it, or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security. It undermines the readiness of our forces.”

My sentiments exactly.  Climate-change denial — the fossil fuel barons who are choreographing it and the millions of inbreds who keep dancing to it — is a dire threat to our national security.

How DARE the president compare the Islamic State to the Christian Crusades?!?

At yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama had the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to compare the Islamic State's atrocities to the Christian Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition.

After rightly condemning the terrorist tactics of the Islamic State, President Obama proceeded to insult the very concept of Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism:

“And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ...Part of what I want to touch on today is the degree to which we’ve seen the professions of faith used both as an instrument of great good, but also twisted and misused in the name of evil.”

That does it!

Is our Kenyan-born Muslim Socialist president even aware of the horrors being committed by the Islamic State???

The crazed jihadists of the Islamic State have committed excruciating tortures on innocent people, tortures that have never ever been imagined before.

FANTASTIC News about Keystone XL Pipeline: No Radioactive Wastes will be Transported across America. Ditto for the Ebola Virus.

I don't mean to be negative about a (slightly) positive news item, but this has been bugging the shit out of me for hours and I'm going to fuckin' RANT!!!

Around mid-afternoon today (meaning yesterday, December 16th), I got this absolutely ecstatic e-mail from the Interior Department exclaiming that President Obama has used his executive authority to stand up to Big Energy interests and protect Bristol Bay, Alaska.  And I became equally ecstatic.  YES!!!  For several years — being on the mailing list of several environmental organizations — I've been kept apprised of the raging battle between protecting Bristol Bay, Alaska and the global rapists mining corporations that are determined to rip open this unique treasure for whatever gold and other minerals they might find.  (Google “Pebble Mine” for more information.)

Robert Redford, among others, has been using his celebrity status to push for the protection of Bristol Bay.  Bristol Bay is not only an incredibly beautiful pristine region; it's also the world's largest salmon spawning ground.  About fifty local tribes are dependent on salmon for their economic survival.  A mining accident of any kind could devastate this pristine environment as well as wreck the livelihoods of thousands of indigenous people.

Needless to say, when I got this exuberant e-mail about President Obama protecting Bristol Bay, I assumed they meant the proposed Pebble Mine was toast.

Ahem, actually, uhh...Not exactly.  But President Obama did promise that there won't be any oil or natural gas drilling in Bristol Bay.  Well that's nice.  Nice to know that something I wasn't even worried about — hey, no worries.  The problem that never existed still doesn't exist.

Whew!!!

Anyway, when I got that bubbling jumping-for-joy e-mail, I googled Obama Bristol Bay just to confirm this fantastic news.  One of the linked articles actually deigned to mention the Pebble Mine, in terms of “oh, Pebble Mine will be a separate decision, probably in a few weeks.”

Oh well, let's stay positive.  Have you heard the great news?!?  The unemployment rate has gone below 12%, the United States is NOT planning to invade Israel, and there will be absolutely no —repeat NO — nuclear reactors inside Yosemite National Park.

“Workplace Policies that Belong in a Mad Men episode”

...and a few other one-liners from tonight's State of the Union speech.

Before Obama's speech, talking heads were saying the President needed to play offense instead of defense, and to be upbeat and not too confrontational.  He delivered.

Referring to equal pay for equal work and paid sick leave for employees taking time off to care for a sick child/spouse/parent, President Obama said “It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a 'Mad Men' episode.”

His speech basically stressed the broad areas where everyone agrees (hopefully) and avoided doing too much partisan toe-stepping-on.  Other memorable quotes included:

“...here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.”

“And my administration's launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Youngstown, Ohio, where we've connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies.Tonight, I'm announcing we'll launch six more this year. Bipartisan bills in both houses could double the number of these hubs and the jobs they create. So, get those bills to my desk and put more Americans back to work.”

“And taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth.”

“So tonight, I've asked Vice President Biden to lead an across- the-board reform of America's training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now. (Cheers, applause.) That means more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life. It means connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to fill their specific needs. And if Congress wants to help, you can concentrate funding on proven programs that connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs.”

“Americans understand that some people will earn more money than others, and we don't resent those who, by virtue of their efforts, achieve incredible success. That's what America's all about. But Americans overwhelmingly agree that no one who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty.”

[referring to Obamacare] “So again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, increase choice, tell America what you'd do differently. Let's see if the numbers add up.  But let's not have another 40- something votes to repeal a law that's already helping millions of Americans.”

Anyway, that was just a few highlights.

Apparently, Obama's SOTU speech was so good — how good was it? — it was soooooo good, the GOP needed not one, not two, but THREE rebuttal speeches.

I surfed through all our TV channels, and the only counterpoint speech I saw was the official one from Cathy McMorris Rodgers.  Now, nobody will admit it, but the GOP has an unwritten ironclad rule that when their designated drone delivers the SOTU rebuttal speech, he/she MUST maintain a fixed simple-minded thousand-yard-stare smile while bobbing one's head up and down in a GOP-prescribed rhythm.  (And if “GOP” and “rhythm” isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is.)

The one meaningful phrase uttered among McMorris Rodgers' platitudes was “But the real gap we face today is one of opportunity inequality.”

OK, good point.  And your solution is ________??????????????????

Uh, we're still waiting...I guess we'll never know.  Or, film at eleven.  Probably not though; don't hold your breath.

Senator Mike Lee (R—Wall Street) delivered the rebuttal to the rebuttal.  I couldn't find anything on TV or the Internet except for this video link.  Go ahead and watch in case you care.

And Rand Paul:  as of this writing — about an hour and a half after the SOTU speech — the only thing I've found on the Intertubes about Rand Paul's rebuttal to the rebuttal to the rebuttal speech was a few news stories saying Rand Paul will rebut the president's SOTU speech. 

Stay tuned...

Fifteen — FIFTEEN!! — Recess Appointments

A president’s gotta do what a president’s gotta do. The Party of “Cross Your Arms, Thrust Out Your Lower Lip and Stamp Your Feet” has left Obama with no other choice.

Obama is making fifteen recess appointments. Finally he can fill some of these positions that have been vacant for eons, thanks to the ongoing Republican Poutfest.

Republicans — unable to make the simplest cognitive connection that most 5-year-olds could make — are throwing a hissyfit. Non-Republicans, however, shouldn’t have any trouble making the connection.

If a highway is closed because of roadwork and there’s a detour sign — if any Republicans are reading this, try to keep up here — drivers who need to get from Point A to Point B are going to follow the detour. Pretty simple, no?

Republicans spent eight years blocking so many of President Clinton’s judicial nominees that when Dumbya took over — Presto! — Wow, look at all these judicial vacancies we can fill.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been functioning for the past two years with only two board members. There are supposed to be FIVE. Obama will appoint Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to the NLRB. The Oligarchs and their Republican prostitutes have had a special hard-on for Craig Becker. He’s a pro-labor lawyer who’s worked for the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union.

A pro-labor lawyer serving on the National Labor Relations Board?!?!?!? The henhouse is supposed to be guarded by a FOX, Goddamn it!

Obama has a total of 217 nominees who are still pending. Thirty-four of them have been pending for more than six months. I think Obama should appoint all 34 of them — or all 217 of them for that matter — during this recess period.

If the Republicans want to keep pushing themselves further and further out to the margins, let ‘em. Apparently they’d rather be forty-one pitiful little waifs standing outside, looking in, with their noses pressed up against the window pane. (Name that tune.)

Works for me.