We’d all love to make such despicable crimes impossible. Love to. But Democrat responses of (a) confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens, (b) publish names and addresses of gun owners, (c)blame Republicans for a “gun culture” that instigated this mass murder is (depending on which Democrat) moronic or supremely, cynically tyrannical. When the NRA leader had a public appearance at which he stated (a) it ain’t the NRA’s fault, and much to the contrary NRA promotes responsible gun practices, and (b) why don’t you put armed security people in public schools (which by the way 30% of all schools already do that). The Commie Left went completely nuts over that.

Which is what you get from the Commies when you (a) stand up to their bullying, and (b) suggest a solution that is elegant in its simplicity and effectiveness. Typical.

I point out that (a) Connecticut already has some of the strictest gun laws in America, (b) nothing the Dems propose would have helped stop this mass murder, (c) only one mass murder in the last 50 years has happened at a place that was NOT designated a gun-free zone.

Aside from the specifics of the Connecticut mass murder, I want to point out this to the idiots, jerks, and Commies that want to dismantle or undermine the Second Amendment. I mean, besides a great big FU. The Second Amendment had (and has) a fairly specific purpose, along with the obvious (free society, let a man keep guns if he wants to). Read the latter part of Federalist Paper #46. What the Founding Fathers had in mind was not the liberty to own sporting guns and shoot geese. A competently armed America is a formidable bulwark against the possibility of the federal government going tyrannical.

So, you know what a good assault rifle is good for, or more properly, half a million assault rifles, 5 million deer rifles, and 50 million pistols? Yep, that’s right. Holding your own against a professional military who ALSO has good assault rifles (and jets, and tanks, and smart bombs) who has been ordered to shut down a free America. You think that can’t happen in the SCOAMF’s America? You think the Commiecrats don’t want that? Really?

Boom. End of debate.

Just great. We have the best state anywhere. Texas would, if it were in this world alone, be a top-ten economy and top-five military power. Business-friendly, mild winters, cattle, oil, farmland, and most importantly, a personality — friendly, but can whip your ass no matter what weapon you are holding, outshoot you, out-spit you, and everything we have or do is bigger than what your state has or does.

The flip side: all these outside people make a toilet bowl of their own state (NY, NJ, MI, CA, CO) with liberal-commie policies. Then they move to the Greatest State Ever, and start spoiling it by voting Democrat. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And one thing I hate is people that make their problems my problem.

On other fronts, the Boehner fold is as inevitable as the sun rising in the East. House Repubs will manage somehow to both sell out, and get blamed for the economy tanking because of the Democrat insistence on raising taxes on employers (in what universe is that not perfectly obvious). Samo, samo.

Michigan Repubs, like Wisconsin Repubs, are what we call MANLY MEN. The contrast between them and Boehner’s House Hussies is night and day. So when you scoff about secession talk, you should perhaps think that over just a bit more.

Nothing new.

But hey, just because their evil is commonplace and silently sanctioned by the standing US government doesn’t mean that the point need not be made. Many people simply have trouble with the abundantly obvious, so let’s lay it out there: Democrats are manifestly and deeply evil.

Michigan is the hub of the domestic auto industry (the former GM, Ford, and Chrysler, now called Government Motors, Ford, and Fiat), and as such may be the very epicenter of the labor union infestation of America, with the full cooperation of the state government for decades. As a result, the state has one of the worst unemployment rates in the nation. Crime-ridden and half-empty Detroit teeters on the edge of default. So the fact that the legislature majorities and governor swung sharply Republican in 2010 may be no huge surprise.

So. The Right to Work legislation was passed today, and without getting too much into the features, pros, and cons, suffice it to say that this single move takes away a massive amount of the power, political and otherwise, wielded by unions over employees, businesses, and the state. And when Democrats have their gravy train threatened, we know how it goes.

In 2009 during Tea Party’s nascent rise to prominence in the town hall meetings, the SEIU “Purple People Beaters” were out in force, assaulting, biting off fingers, intimidating. In 2011 in Wisconsin, they attempted to hijack the legislative process (you know, that thing known as “the normal workings of fairly elected governments”), pulled legislative shenanigans, filled legislative corridors, common areas, and all the outdoor areas with unruly, screaming thugs, made threats on the persons of legislators. Many of these bullies were bused in from out of state (and I’m trying to see where that fits into the democratic process). Teachers attended protests instead of teaching class, and even brought young children (who don’t know any better) out to chant with them. Evil, that is, to warp young minds intentionally. Dark, dark.

Now this. Obama and his henchman Holder having survived the 2012 election (I do not say that they won) means there is no crime the Democrats/unions/media can commit against the people of America for which they will be forced to pay. And it shows.

Here we see what they do when they know they will face no punishment:

• Democrat Michigan legislators, seeing that they were not going to be able to stop passage of the legislation, said “there will be blood,” encouraging the mob scene and violence that then came.
• Jimmy Hoffa, head of the Teamsters Union, called for a “civil war” on air on CNN.
• Just as in Wisconsin, thousands (yes, thousands) of union thugs poured into the building housing the legislature during the final debate and passage of the bill, chanting, disrupting, intimidating, and assaulting.
• Outside the building were riots more protests, vandalism, and assault. On video, FNC contributor and RTW counter-protester Steven Crowder was assaulted twice (that I could tell) on camera.
• The tent set up by AFP was pulled down by union thugs, with people in it.
• I thought it was not possible for Obama to have a bigger jackass than Robert Gibbs for a spokesman. I was wrong, oh so very wrong. Current Obama spokesman and supreme crap-weasel Jay Carney played dumb on the thuggery in Lansing, having no condemnation for the “there will be blood” threat. Obama himself accused Republican leaders of “taking away your rights.”
• Statewide, teachers went on a “sick-in”, calling in sick, which caused numerous schools to close for the day.
• Naturally, the left-media did their part. CNN mentioned no thuggery, no assaults. According to them, they were all singing kum-ba-yah and holding hands by candle light: “Thousands of people, many of them union workers, gathered outside the statehouse, chanting and holding signs as snow fell. “

All of that is typical Democrat behavior. Let me finish the thought, though, because the deeds need to be put into perspective. First, Right To Work legislation abolishes what we call “closed shops,” which mean that neither businesses nor employees have any control over who works for the business – the union calls the shots. That is, straight-up, anti-freedom, anti-American, taking away free enterprise, free association, the simple and basic right of a business to go about seeking business and profit as it chooses, the basic right of a person to seek employment without being put in bondage to a union. So RTW repairs that damage to the heart of liberty.

Unions hold great power over individuals. Because they suck dues out of the pockets of their workers, then hold businesses up for ransom, they have tons of money, which they then use to buy influence in the Democrat Party, which in turn stacks the laws in favor of unions. Passing RTW takes free money out of the pockets of both unions and Democrats.

When Republicans lose elections, or lose key legislative votes, they spend many hours blaming themselves and each other, navel-gazing over how they could have rallied, or how they could have surrendered principles and retained some kind of victory. Democrats, they don’t do that. They turn to riots, to mobs, to theft, to stuffing ballot boxes, to passing 2700-page bills that nobody gets to see, to selecting fellow thugs and commies into the courts, to blaming Republicans.

Because at the heart of it, Democrats don’t want to govern. They want to rule.

That, my friends, is supremely evil.

Well, probably not, on the avoiding cursing thing. Well, just excuse the [s-bomb] out of me for not accepting this. There is no question whatsoever that had registering, voting, and counting been done according to law, more electoral votes would have gone to Romney than to the no-good [b-bomb] who now [s-bomb] in the White House.

But the election was stolen, it was obviously stolen. Folks dare not speak of it out loud, but it was done. And now you can kiss America goodbye. Sorry to be a grumpy cat, but there it is. There is no tomorrow, and there [d-bomb] sure will never be another free election in the United States. 2010 was the last one.

Democrats are, by definition, thieves. If you are one or voted for one in 2012, you are either supremely evil or supremely stupid. Maybe both. Either way, you ain’t a patriot, and you ain’t a countryman of mine.

There was at least a week’s notice that this was coming. I don’t begrudge that the infrastructure took a huge hit. I only partly begrudge ordinary people not planning a little better for food/water/gas shortages. And then that idiot barack strolled around the Jersey shore in his photo-op with FatBoy™ and actually said “if they need something, we figure out a way to say yes”, in association with something he called the “15 minute rule.”

Yeah, right.

The Boy President made a speech (apparently his solution for everything), then jaunted over to…. you guessed it, Vegas. Meanwhile, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE (that’s me ) why is power/plumbing/gas shortages causing civil unrest 5 days later, with no relief in sight? We understand he doesn’t like America, but these are not those gun-toting bitter clingers in TX and AZ. These are his blue-state peeps here. That is cold, simply one cold, cold, heartless man.

Skip for the moment the typical Commie Media treatment here (in short, by this time in the Katrina aftermath, GWB was already sentenced to the 9th ring of hell for not having New Orleans rebuilt better than new). Barack, how can you make those promises, and apparently give nobody in your administration the responsibility to see it happen? You just abandoned those people. The storm caused a certain number of deaths (sub-100, and I don’t think that number will ever be firmed up). But there is going to be a body count associated with taking OVER A WEEK to bring a semblance of order and provision to the devastated areas. And it ain’t going to be a low body count. It’s going to be over 100, and might go much higher. And it won’t be just starving/contaminated water poisoning/cold. There are going to be killings in those gas lines, and in burglaries and looting.

Obama, seriously. You really can’t get out of our lives fast enough.

Any way you count it, this Tuesday has been circled on the calendar for quite some time. It is the day that the forces of the Constitution are arrayed from one side of the valley to the other, against the forces of Statism. The valley is filled from wall to wall, and there is nobody on the battlefield who has not trained and worked tireless days, weeks, and months, all pointed to this day.

Every helmet and breastplate has been cleaned and polished to a shine, every dent hammered out. Every strap is on tight. Every weapon has been checked and rechecked, every blade honed down to a fine edge.

This is the day we have lived for.

If the work, the ongoing skirmishes and battles leading up to this have sapped you of your strength, if your courage has run out, if you no longer have the stomach for war, then I submit that you’ve forgotten, or perhaps never knew, what we are fighting for. This is not the red team against the blue team. This is our Republic. It is in mortal peril.

We are fighting for individual liberty here and across the world, for the ascendancy of Exceptionalist America, for ordered freedom, for justice, for God and Country. It is for this that over a million soldiers have died over 230 years, to secure and protect this flag, this Republic, this Constitution, this Vision, this Hope.

If that’s not enough to propel you to the day of battle, here in the predawn darkness, then I suggest you turn in your weapons and armor, hike up your skirt and trundle on over the ridge to safety before the battle gets started. You go ahead and have yourself some tea and crumpets.

For the rest of us, it’s win or die. This day we intend to soak the earth with the blood of our enemies. If it requires the cost of our own blood, then so be it. At the end of this day, November 6, we will have saved our Republic and vanquished the Visigoths, or died trying.

So. Anybody here too tired to fight for 5 more days?

Yes? No?

I didn’t think so. Not here.

But I do find it disappointing that they are so stupid. Just once could we get an evil but brilliant adversary? Perhaps we could meet the Kleptocrats halfway: give us an adversary that can button his fly without a government-issued manual.

This little gem by Dionne is called Obama, Democrats are more willing to compromise than GOP. OK, Captain BrainEnvy. You win. Democrats shoved ObamaCare down the throats of an unwilling America (and Republicans took the side of the people). They routinely provide implacable opposition to any Republican judicial nominee who might not bow at the Abortion Altar, while we give their radical nominees a free ride.

In his own words:

While polls find that six in 10 Democrats regard themselves as moderate or conservative, nearly three-quarters of Republicans say they are conservative. And tea party Republicans, who loom so large in primaries, are especially averse to giving any ground.

Moreover, Democrats still have a positive view of government and regard trade-offs between taxes and spending as a normal part of governing. Republicans care most about reducing government’s size and in cutting taxes.

So, Democrats regard themselves as moderate, which is frankly delusional. Kinda comical. But of course, their thinking so makes it true, right? And therefore, because Republicans have standards (like the right to life, and by golly, that whole “keep government small and intrusive” thing [incidentally, kind of like the Constitution and Founding Fathers fellows did]), WE are the virulent and uncompromising crowd.

OK, EJ. You keep living the dream, pal. And if you need some help figuring out how to tie your shoes, this is how I feel about it. Don’t ask. Just get slip-ons.

On another note, this EPU guy, he’s generally more impressed with the sound of his own words than I find appropriate. But he did alright on this Gutless Call number. That leaves a mark. Those CIA boys were heroic and deserved so much better than the unbelievably cynical and cowardly leaders (Obama and Panetta) they served under.

Not bad, friend. Not bad.

In the immediate aftermath we heard the administration line that it was a spontaneous mob gone wild, and we knew instinctively that was too pat, and contradicted facts which were already becoming known. The whereabouts of the ambassador were unknown for several hours, and the battle was known to have gone on for hours at at least two sites. We watched Obama’s pitifully inadequate statement just before he jaunted off to Vegas for scheduled campaign activities.

We saw several embassies attacked in the following days, and the black Al Qaeda flag raised over at least two portions of sovereign American soil, while no saber-rattling proceeded from an administration that seemed bent on excusing the terrorists. We saw our UN Ambassador and our President peddle known lies to the UN, blaming an obscure video for inciting the Muslim mobs. We got word of a multi-million dollar ad that supposedly ran in Pakistan in which both the President and Secretary of state denounced the video.

Americans were bitterly angry at such cowtowing, lying, and blame-shifting. Obama’s poll numbers in the upcoming election immediately began to crumble.

Boy, weren’t those the good old days for the Obamanistas. It’s a ton worse now.

Fast forward to now. We are in possession of very damning facts that we did not know originally. Further, we can connect the dots into some areas, and every pathway through the matrix speaks of even worse facts.

• FACT – in months leading up to the terrorist strike, the ambassador and military and CIA assets on the ground had described a dangerous and deteriorating security environment in Libya and Benghazi.
• FACT – Ambassador Stevens made repeated requests to the top of the State Department for additional security, and was repeatedly and emphatically denied. In fact, security units rotated out of Libya and were not replaced.
• FACT – numerous entities had live video feed from on-site cameras of the events unfolding at the consulate – among them CIA headquarters in Langley; Africa Command (AFRICOM) HQ in Germany; the Situation Room in the White House; and the State Department.
• FACT – along with video feeds, there exists a protocol of alerts (think of email or IM, except with very large red print and loud sirens that go off) such that when an emergency takes place anywhere in the world, a communication from an on-site person gets the immediate attention of numerous entities, including all those listed above.
• STRONG EVIDENCE – implied in statements by SecDef Panetta are that the WH Situation Room [or alternatively the Pentagon, with Panetta himself aware of unfolding events] was indeed monitoring the situation in real time.
• FACT – Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb, who has some responsibilities in the area of diplomatic security, says that she received such an alert within 20 minutes of the first attack on the Consulate, and that she followed the events in real time.
• SPECULATION – surely, surely, Charlene Lamb brought events to the attention of SecState Clinton very early in the attack.
• STRONG EVIDENCE – standing protocol indicates that an event such as that in Benghazi with an ongoing attack and a missing US Ambassador would cause instant notification of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the President’s Chief of Staff. High-ranking people have indicated that AFRICOM was in the loop.
• FACT – there was no mob. The video contains no evidence whatsoever of a mob, and numerous eyewitnesses have confirmed that in the days since.
• STRONG EVIDENCE – it stretches the imagination to suppose that Obama and Clinton did not know that the “mob angry over the video” story was false. But I suppose at this point it’s not proven. If they did not know it was a lie, then very high-ranking people lied to them both, knowing they would act and make public statements blaming mob violence, and knowing the truth was unlikely to be suppressed for long. Also, Obama has a notable penchant for blaming others when caught in the squeeze. Panetta would not have lied on this. Obama or his advisors concocted the story, and pinned the blame on the video.
• FACT – for all of the latter portion of the fight, America had drones overhead making real-time video to go along with that of on-site cameras.
• FACT – the fight went for 7 hours at 3 facilities. During all of that time the whereabouts of the ambassador were unknown. It was by every definition a major emergency.
• STRONG EVIDENCE – One of the CIA operatives “painted” an enemy mortar position with a laser. That is done ONLY when supporting forces (air assets) are in the area and able to strike. It is not done in the hopes that assets 2 hours away might come. This means that there were assets in the area. Either there was a C-130 Spectre gunship (very unlikely, because it would have been supported by jet fighters, and nobody anywhere is saying that happened), or an armed Predator drone (highly likely).
• FACT – AFRICOM had at its disposal numerous assets that could have been brought into play within 1, 2, or 4 hours. Among them: fighter jets; C-130 Spectre gunships; weaponized Predator drones; teams of Special Forces;
• STRONG EVIDENCE – a unit located at a CIA compound a mile way from the consulate made repeated requests to CIA to allow them to engage the enemy at the consulate. They were refused, and ultimately they defied orders and went to the aid of Americans. Two of those men died very late in the fight after heroic efforts that saved numerous lives.
• STRONG EVIDENCE – protocol is such that immediate and decisive military support from AFRICOM would have been the default action and need not have required OK higher up the chain.
• WELL-INFORMED SPECULATION – the United States military forces, particularly those in-theater and battle-experienced, have a culture and a history of not leaving men stranded. Call it machismo, call it heroic; either way, it’s there and it’s strong. General Carter Ham, the CINC of AFRICOM, is hardly a desktop warrior, having commanded forces on the ground in Mosul, Iraq, and commanded the (illegal, undeclared) war on Libya in 2011. It is highly doubtful that General Ham would have been originator of “stand down” orders.
• FACT – SecDef Panetta claims that no action was taken because we didn’t have a firm grasp on exactly what was happening on the ground.
• FACT – he lies when he says we did not have good on-site intel. It is known that the Americans were feeding constant information up the chain. In addition, two drones (Predators I believe) were above, feeding real-time video up the chain. They had better real-time on-site intel than most combats missions do.
• FACT – Panetta is admitting that the decision not to send support during the ongoing attack was at his level or higher. Only Obama is higher.
• FACT – Obama has claimed in the last couple of days that as soon as he was informed of events in progress, he immediately issued orders “to make sure we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to do.”
• FACT – that directly contradicts the statement of SecDef Panetta. Panetta says we didn’t secure our forces because we didn’t have enough on-site information. If Obama actually ordered action, then Panetta countermanded it. And if that happened, Obama would have acted against Panetta (blamed him, fired him, something of that sort). Failure to do take any action is implausible.
• LOGICAL CONCLUSION – Obama is lying. Panetta is lying about a lack of information, but telling the truth when he says the “no action” orders came from SecDef or President. And if those two were in conversations during the events, which they surely were, then the decision to leave our people in Benghazi to die was made by Obama. Or more likely, he dithered, left orders to wait for further instructions, then went to bed.
• INFORMED SPECULATION – Furthermore, it is very possible that people at AFRICOM could have acted in the absence of orders, or in defiance of orders, and did not. Time will tell us more of what happened at that site. Needless to say, nobody there is talking right now.

We are faced with a reality that the president knew in real time what was going on, and due to decisions by him, American personnel were needlessly left stranded. Americans on the ground (and probably others, as the future may bear out) acted heroically, and two of them died directly due to inaction from above. In full possession of the facts, the next day he made public statements blaming a video and spontaneous mob violence, then he flew off to Vegas for campaign events. I don’t care if it’s incompetence or indecisiveness, or if he just doesn’t care about American lives and American interests. In the end, the costs were steep.

Nice gutless call, Not-My-President. Have fun next Tuesday, while your own assets fail to come to your aid when you need it most.

OK now, Bambi says he’s kept faith with the troops. Which is, of course: why no in-theater troops can seem to get any absentee ballots; why the ROE keep getting our young patriots killed; why active-duty military would have missed paychecks in the early 2009 government shutdown since Resident Bambi marked troops as “non-essential government personnel”; all those Navy corpse-men; 104 rounds of golf, 1700 troops killed (h/t EPU); and I could go on awhile.

Yeah, you regular troop-hugging dandy you.

In other debate notes, Romney decided not to pummel His Royal Highness on Libya, which I found faintly irritating but I get it. Mittens has this election in a walk (actually an avalanche, on the 56-44 order – Jaded over at UP says look more at 60-40). All he has to do in the last debate is look presidential (he did) score some points on the foreign policy of appeasement (apology tour was a body slam – straight out of the Tea Party VRWC code book), and don’t risk anything. Big success, and as a bonus, he had the Bamster sputtering more than once.

Chrissy Matthews can pee his pants again over how awesome his man-god was. OMG did you see him after debate 2? According to him Obama had out-debated Lincoln at Gettysburg, out-orated Cicero, and out-generalled Alexander the Great. But Romney had a 28-10 lead going into the fourth quarter. Final score, 35-20. Suck on it, pal. Your guy is going down, and thank God our country may yet be saved.

Mandate for change
Never in the history of this Republic has a mid-term election brought such a smack-down to the ruling party as that in 2010. The 63-person swing in the House and 7-person swing in the Senate was both retribution (for Porkulus, for ObamaCare, for not even addressing the economy, for the Gulf drilling moratorium, and for the attempts on card check and Cap-and-Trade energy tax) and mandate (stop the spending, stop the regulatory bloom, stop the debt spike, and generally hold the line until we could get a new president and a two-house majority in 2012 and repeal BambiCare). From top to bottom, from governor down to dog catcher, Americans rejected the Democrat agenda in toto. Lock, stock, and two smoking barrels. Republicans had firm control of the House at 242-193, and near-parity in the Senate, 47-53.

Same old Vichy Republicans
What we got for our trouble came a little short of what we call “representation.” Most of these fresh-faced Jimmy-Stewart-goes-to-Washington people gladly rode the wave of Tea Party anger/resolve/desperation to office in Congress. Some of them lied; most of them just lacked the huevos to act on the principles they ran on. The minute they got there, and possibly before, they discovered how Washington works™. Before the first month was gone, they had been co-opted by Speaker Boehner and the Vichy Republicans: turned to the Dark Side, quite truly and seriously.

America sent the Class of 2010 to change how Washington works™. What America got was reruns of the popular TV series “I’ve Seen This One Before.” The Democrats under Pelosi, the Vichy Republicans under Boehner. No real difference. Debt ceiling raised (how many times now?) with no Democrat concessions; government “shutdowns” averted by Republicans agreeing to Democrat spending; no real budget passed, only “continuing resolutions” of old budgets written under Democrat rule; recess appointments when Congress was not in recess; radical anti-Constitutional federal judges being approved; EPA conducting war on coal, on oil, and on entire states like Kentucky and Texas; an illegal war in Libya (the one earlier this year, not the consulate fiasco); sequestration (aka cutting the Defense budget in half).

All that can be laid at the feet of the Vichy Republicans, and the Class of 2010 that stood right there with them. You see, it’s not just how you vote, it’s what you do and what you allow. When Obama recess-appointed 4 people when Congress was not in recess, that was a Constitutional crisis, not a territorial spat. O’Connell and Boehner threw a couple of mini BF’s (see the movie White Chicks) but did nothing. What, did your tampon come loose? [next time, get the ones with wings] What they should have done was shut down all business in Congress until Obama backed down and followed the Constitution. When the Vichy leaders didn’t do it, then the House Freshmen should have done it, led by their so-called leaders like Allen West. Ditto for the Libyan war, and the EPA power grabs. And they should have let the treasury go empty before agreeing to (still more) unabated Democrat spending.

With your shield or on it
Many new (and old) Representatives were shocked and angered that when they marched in lockstep with the Vichy, their constituents went crazy and wore out the Congressional staff with phone calls, email, and snail-mail. “These unreasonable people just don’t understand how Washington works™.” They didn’t like taking the heat for promising one thing on the campaign trail and at the Tea Party rallies, and then joining the good ole’ boy club once they got to Washington.

They’re wrong about one thing, too. Americans understand just fine how Washington works™. We reject it. We want it changed. We sent the Class of 2010 to change it. They didn’t even try.

So, class of 2012. We’re sending you to Congress to change how Washington works™. Do it or die trying. I dare say the American public is not in the mood for any more betrayal.

Wartime, or any time when American soldiers are in battle and experiencing many casualties, constrains a president’s behavior somewhat. His commander-in-chief role becomes more prominent. Some of the light-hearted presidential perquisites must be put aside. This is not difficult to understand.

When you are the president, you do not play golf 104 times while troops are in the field, fighting and dying. You do not do this. That’s not even something a serious person, an adult with a brain, would contemplate.

There are many other ways, private ways, to relax and let the burdens of the presidency down for a moment. Americans expect their president to take care of his health and his sanity by offloading his burdens in this way. No, this public display on the golf links is deliberate. This man has been made well aware, for quite some time, of the implied messaging of this thing. Yet he duffs merrily on, cheating on his scores, laughing and yukking it up as if there’s not a care in the world.

It’s a slap in the face, an insult of the lowest kind, to America, to troops, and to the families and loved ones of the some 1700 brave patriots who have died under his command. These young men volunteered to serve their Republic, their Flag, their Constitution. They did so, fully aware that they might be killed in action. To merely say “they deserve better” falls woefully short. They deserve our whole nation’s enduring love and gratitude. And by God, they deserve at least the appearance of dignity from their president.

A person who can do such a thing is not, and could never be, my president.

Spin that all you want to, but that’s what he said. That’s what the context shows too.

The statements in more context…
April 6, 2009, in a “press availability”:

I think that where — where there’s the most promise of building stronger U.S.-Turkish relations is in the recognition that Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership in which a predominantly Christian nation and a predominantly Muslim nation, a Western nation and a nation that straddles two continents — that we can create a modern international community that is respectful, that is secure, that is prosperous; that there are not tensions, inevitable tensions, between cultures, which I think is extraordinarily important.

That’s something that’s very important to me. And I’ve said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is — although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.

Were this the only statement on the topic, I would find some fault with his characterization of America as a secular nation, but it would not be outrage. Alas, we were soon to see more of the heart of Obama.

June 1, 2009 in interview with French TV station Canal Plus:

What I want to do is to create a better dialogue so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what’s happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.

You can believe what you want to. What seems inescapable to me is Obama attempting to place an imprimatur of Islam on the United States. Not like a badge. More like a cattle brand. Just like those yahoos who wanted to build a mosque within blocks of the World Trade Centers grave, purely to show some kind of sneering dominance.

You know what? A guy who says that, who even thinks like that, is not my president.

PS – for the record, what he said about America having one of the largest populations in the Muslim world? Wrong. Just stupidly wrong. The top Muslim populations: Indonesia at 205M; Pakistan 180M; India 180M; Bangladesh 150M; Egypt 80M; Iran 80M; a several in the 25M to 50M range. American Muslims? About 3-5M.

Hu Jintao, Premier of Communist China

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Mayor Pam Iorio of Tampa, FL (see here for why he bowed to her)

Um, NOPE. Not my president.

The Founding Fathers were well aware of the importance of a free press and its role in keeping the terrors of tyranny at bay. It’s not exactly a rocket scientist concept; it has a rather “yeah no kidding, stupid” sense about it for many of us. But humor me as we state the obvious. With today’s higher education system crapping out legions of morons, and Democrats lurking under every rock, we can’t assume everybody gets it intuitively.

The first principle of the three we shall cover: A controlled press is essential in keeping tyranny in place

To keep your tyranny secure, keep the people uninformed. Use the news media to show that you are their ally, that life outside the walls is worse than on the inside, and have them constantly in fear of enemies and circumstances against which you are the only defense. A large and formidable enforcement arm of the law is the “muscle” side of this equation, but if the people are well-informed and able to communicate, no amount of subjugation will keep them down. You will eventually be overthrown.

The Soviet Empire stood for 74 years
The Communists of the USSR reigned over Russia and cast its shadow over much of Asia from 1917-1991, give or take. Their military might was formidable, and they eventually expanded their reach to Southeast Asia, Central America, and Africa. But as the post-WW2 West blossomed in prosperity, technology, and opportunity, the people of the Soviet Empire lived in dirt-poor squalor not so terribly advanced from a century previous. As in any tyranny, the “haves” did pretty well though.

The Soviet Empire in large part kept power because the state-controlled media (Tass and Pravda) for decades made the people think that America wanted to overthrow the USSR, and that the whole world was just as dirt-poor as the Russian people were. Obviously a whole class of people were in the know, but for the most part, the masses were given no hope that there was a better life.

until…
The collapse of the Soviet Empire was relatively sudden. Starting in 1985, reform-minded Premier Gorbachev instituted two policies, perestroika and glasnost (roughly translated restructuring and openness). To make a fantastically deep and long (and wonderful in spots) story into a bite-sized nugget, glasnost (openness) involved freeing political prisoners and relaxing control (somewhat) over the press.

The crack in the door of information flow became a torrent by 1987, as the masses of people displayed a great thirst for knowledge and information, and champions of truth emerged as if from the ground. In 1989 the Baltic States peeled off to independence, and the Empire fell entirely in 1991. That’s how quickly the Empire fell. Six years of freedom of the press.

So….
The easy 1-2-3 lesson? If you want to keep your empire, don’t let the people listen to anything you don’t want them to hear.

Because I get windy, but I still want you to read it all, I’m breaking this Freedom of the Press essay into a series of three: Kept Press and Keeping Tyranny, Free Press Keeps a Free People, and When Government Watchdog Becomes Government Attack Dog.

President of the United States is a tough job. Nobody questions that. It demands the utmost even of a tough, capable, intelligent, and experienced person. Having a lesser, unprepared person in that seat is a disaster for America. That is one reason the job interview process is *usually* so thorough, the vetting process *usually* so rigorous. It is required during a sudden national emergency that the president act swiftly and effectively to secure the nation, minimize further damage, and put the nation on a footing to recover or respond.

In the immediate aftermath of terrorist attack on the American consulate and our ambassador in Libya on 9-11-2012, none of these things happened.

Hillary Clinton,during the Democrat primary race in 2008, questioned whether Obama would be able to lead during a national crisis, in which the president was woken up by a “3 am call.” Obama’s early actions illustrate that Hillary was right to bring that up.

The entire topic of the embassy and consulate attacks is loaded with multiple story lines and subplots touching on many things before, during, and after the events. NMP 8 concerns itself with one thing: once the crisis began, what were the actions of Obama and his inner circle, and how did those actions stack up with reasonable expectations that America would have of its leaders in a crisis.

Briefly, a timeline – not an all-inclusive one, just one with the required basics and what we know of Obama’s acts and statements. All times are ET. In bold are the times, and in blue are actions and statements by Obama and his inner circle.

• 9-11 1200 : Cairo embassy condemns a little-known and long-released anti-Mohammed video, in the face of what appear to be active protests going on.
• 9-11 1600 : main consulate at Benghazi begins taking fire. 25-30 employees on site and at annex. Soon the main consulate is in flames.
• 9-11 1630 : Cairo embassy is breached, and an Al Qaeda flag is raised in place of the US Flag.
• 9-11 1720 : US & Libyan forces retake Benghazi consulate compound. The whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens are unknown.
• 9-12 1800 : annex comes under heavy fire again for 2 hours. Two more killed.
• 9-11 2020 : Politico says Obama admin is disavowing Cairo embassy statements.
• 9-11 2225 : Romney campaign emails statements to media – outrage at the attacks and the murders, and Obama admin’s response is disgraceful.
• 9-11 2244 : Hillary condemns Libya attack.
• 9-11 2304 : White House statment to ABC says nobody approved the Cairo embassy statements.
• 9-12 0000 : US officials are told that Stevens is dead (at dawn local time). Body is returned to US personnel at Benghazi airport.
• 9-12 0606 : wire services report Ambassador Stevens killed in mob attack, along with 3 others.
• 9-12 0618 : AP reports Libya confirms death of US Ambassador Stevens
• 9-12 0722 : WH emails statement from Obama , that includes: “While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.”
• somewhere in this time frame, possibly earlier, the administration orders tighter security at American embassies worldwide.
• 9-12 1020 : Romney televised, stands by his criticisms of WH, noting that US Embassies are part of the administration.
• 9-12 1044 : Obama in Rose Garden, with Hillary alongside, condemns Libya attacks, pledges to increase security for embassy personnel and to seek justice for the killers. No justification for this senseless violence.
  9-12 1415 : Obama and campaign depart for Las Vegas and scheduled campaign events.
• 9-12 evening : In a speech to campaign volunteers, Obama compares them to fallen embassy personnel.

In the next couple of days
In a 9-12 evening interview with Telemundo, Obama :

I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy. They’re a new government that is trying to find its way. They were democratically elected. I think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident.

On 9-13, a “clarification” from WH spokesman Tommy Vietor in Obama’s “Egypt Frenemies” gaffe:

I think folks are reading way too much into this. ‘Ally’ is a legal term of art. We don’t have a mutual defense treaty with Egypt like we do with our NATO allies. But as the president has said, Egypt is longstanding and close partner of the United States, and we have built on that foundation by supporting Egypt’s transition to democracy and working with the new government.

In subsequent days, Obama and his spokesmen make numerous statements claiming justice will be done, and efforts will be underway to find the killers, and so on. As of today’s date, 9-28, the FBI is still not on the scene.

9-13 : large protests are conducted outside US Embassies in Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Palestine, and elsewhere. In Yemen, the outer wall is breached and an Al Qaeda flag is raised.

By 9-14 reports are widespread that attack was a planned and coordinated act of terror, yet WH spokesman Jay Carney and UN Ambassador for days insist that the attacks were spontaneous mob actions fueled by anger over the video.

9-15: Sudan refuses U.S. request to send a team of US Marines to further secure embassy and personnel.

9-15: CNN personnel discover Ambassador Stevens’ personal diary, as they described it, “on the floor of the largely unsecured consulate compound.”

So what did Obama do with the wakeup call?
In summation, what were the acts by Obama and his team in the first 24 hours that they knew what had happened in Cairo and Benghazi?

• disclaimed statements made by the US Embassy in Egypt.
• had public cat fights with the Romney campaign in the press.
• waited 7 hours after it was known Ambassador Stevens was dead, before making any statements about it.
• refused to acknowledge or even consider that this was a terrorist attack.
• deflected blame from their administration by blaming the attacks on anger at a video by a private citizen.
• ordered tighter security at American embassies worldwide, yet a day later, the compound in Yemen was breached and again an Al Qaeda flag was raised in place of the American flag on sovereign US soil.
• failed to secure the crime scene in Benghazi.
• after making some perfunctory remarks to America, trundled off to Las Vegas for scheduled campaign events.
• compared his own campaign volunteers with the fallen embassy personnel.
• made a substantial gaffe regarding the US relationship with Egypt.

In addresses to America by Obama and by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the acts were condemned but tempered by blaming the video. They made tepid comments about bringing the killers to justice, as if this were merely a criminal matter and not an act of war. In no way possible can it be construed that they sent a message declaring that failure to secure the safety of US State Department interests carried any consequence for any government anywhere.

What they showed America was a shocking lack of pride and interest in defending America, her people abroad, her interests, or her reputation. It is the natural reaction of any real red-blooded American that when America is attacked, that we react, swelling with pride and love of country, and grab a stick and whack the crap out of whoever did it. It’s an act of war to conduct a coordinated attack resulting in the assassination of our ambassador. Ditto for breaching our embassy wall, burning the American flag and running an Al Qaeda flag up the pole on what is sovereign American soil. A man who can’t get worked up about that is no leader and no patriot, that is for sure.

But certainly a guy who did nothing of consequence in the first hours of a genuine national emergency is not my president.

But what about Bush and the 7 minutes on 9/11?
In the aftermath of the original 9-11 terrorist attack, much was made by hostile press and Democrats over the fact that after President George W Bush was informed of the attack while sitting in an elementary school classroom in Sarasota, Florida, he sat for 7 minutes with the children before excusing himself. Yes, not ready for the emergency call, and all that.

Really? Here’s a partial timeline for the first hour after Andy Card whispered in his ear. As you can see, Bush and his administration got busy in a hurry:

• 0902 : the second plane hits the WTC.
• 0905 : Andy Card whisper’s in the ear of Bush what has happened.
• 0912 : GWB excuses himself and leaves the classroom.
• 0923 : conference call with VP Cheney, NSA director Condi Rice, and FBI director Mueller.
• 0926 : FAA cancels all flight departures in the USA, and directs all inbound international flights to divert to Canada.
• 0930 : GWB makes very brief public statement in the auditorium of that school.
• 0932 : NYSE closes.
• 0935 : Bush motorcade leaves the school.
• 0937 : Third terrorist airplane hits the Pentagon
• 0940 : FAA orders all commercial aircraft in American skies to land ASAP.
• 0947 : US military worldwide ordered to threat level delta.
• 0955 : Air Force One departs the airport with Bush on board.
• 0955 : VP Cheney orders that USAF pilots may shoot down hijacked planes.
• 1000 : NRC orders all nuclear plants on full alert
• 1003 : fourth hijacked plane, headed for Washington DC, is driven into the ground thanks to an onboard revolt by passengers who had been made aware of the WTC attacks.

That night at 2200, Bush addresses the nation, and declares that there will be no safe harbor for the terrorists or their enablers. 24 days later, the first bombs fell on Afghanistan.

Forget the 7 minutes. That is a man that acted quickly and decisively under duress. As something of a side note. note that government agencies got into action in a hurry as well. Leadership also involves delegating responsibility to competent people.

Compare all that to our current White House occupant and try to picture him and his administration on 9-11-2001. Just try it.

We’ve all noticed in this campaign that many big players in the conservative press seem to have gone to great effort to do everything possible to undermine conservative goals – not exactly a surprise, and not exactly the first time (ahem do the 72,000 choruses of “John McCain, the electable candidate!” ring a bell?). During the primaries they undermined Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Herman Cain, and promoted the moderate Mitt Romney. They got their wish. However, once Romney got the nomination, he became suddenly a much more aggressive candidate and effective communicator for conservative principles than anybody thought he would be. I know, I’m still stunned.

Why do they do it? [they are stupid louts] Do they want to lose? [probably] Are they that ashamed of real-life conservative and family values? [yes] Do they really think we are the uncouth, unsophisticated bumpkins? [yes]

I believe that the GOP Establishment and leadership are institutionalized (to use a term from the movie Shawshank Redemption). They are so used to and so content with second-class status, with the chains put on them by the Democrats and the evil press, so comfortable knowing their place and their duties, that they desperately fear “a big life” (a term from the TV show Bones) outside the walls. They believe the polls by leftist outfits like the Washington Post and PPP; they hear only the media cacophony and believe that is representative of the opinions and views of Joe and Jane Voter; and they believe that there is no Republican force that can withstand a full media onslaught, in spite of the evidence right in front of their eyes.

They wouldn’t know what to do with freedom, or with freedom of expression, or the dominant political status. They would be terrified, living in stark fear of their own printed words and statements being the “opinion of record” for America. They can’t cope with a Tea Party that won’t take “sit down and shut up” for an answer. They can’t work with a candidate (even a moderate one) who won’t let the press bully him into silence, who punches back HARD (God bless him); who articulates, in public and for the record, conservative values. They are in sheer panic, not so much that he might win, but that they might be viewed in their parlor liberal world as being in favor of the crude, simplistic, mom-and-apple-pie foolishness that Romney preaches.

So they tut-tut these recalcitrant, unherdable cat conservatives and candidates. I am not certain that they deliberately undermine them at this stage. Perhaps so, perhaps not. But they make clear their disapproval of Republican candidates taking the gloves off and tossing aside the so-called “gentleman’s rules” (which are in fact required ONLY if the other side plays by them too – that not being the case, the first party is expected, according to actual gentleman’s rules, to play hard-knuckled himself, and not be taken advantage of).

Bottom line for me – I’m keeping score on these Vichy Republicans. I despise them. I mock their cowardice, and their moral equivalence arguments that tolerate the unvarnished anti-freedom evil of the Left. The minute we drive out the Nazis, I am all in for retribution. I am not going to coexist with Joe Scarborough, Erick Erickson, Peggy Noonan, George Will, and the lot.

When we get the country back, it’s going to be shaved heads for the prostitutes who profited from the occupiers. They can keep their jobs with the Compliant Media. History will not honor them as members or leaders of the movement that restored America to greatness.

Does America really, truly have a White House occupier who can’t even get himself worked up over a day that involved 2 American embassies breached, flags taken down, desecrated and replaced with a black Islamic flag, and culminating in the murder of our Ambassador to Libya by a mob? He’s delivered a couple of tepid statements decrying “senseless violence” and now is proceeding to Las Vegas for previously scheduled campaign events. What kind of unserious, golf-playing parlor dilettante does that?

Let’s put it this way. Not my president.

There’s so much wrong in the Libyan situtation that one hardly knows where to start. What I mean is, there’s so much wrong in the Libyan situation ENTIRELY AVOIDABLE AND FOR WHICH THE BLAME SHOULD BE LAID AT THE FEET OF OBAMA that one hardly knows where to start.

First, this administration from the beginning embarked on a foolhardy and reckless policy toward the militant Islamists in the Middle East. Long-term posture of appeasement toward not only the Middle East (except for Israel) but militant Islamist forces has not resulted in the hoped-for better and renewed warm-fuzzy relations with that “religion of peace”. I believe the word “unexpectedly” applies here the same as every time we have bad economic news. Instead, as every conservative in America could have easily predicted, this policy has resulted in forces of evil in ever-growing boldness and power. We are not loved more abroad; we are in fact hated more. Now we can add to that the fact that we are not even respected or feared.

Second, the Obama administration was fully behind the “Arab Spring”, a movement with a thin veneer of democracy that any person not an idiot could see was backed by Muslim extremists such as Al Queda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Third, Obama personally conducted an illegal war to support the overthrow of the Ghaddafi regime in Libya. The military activities were clearly in violation of the Constitution, clearly in violation of the War Powers Act, and it’s not like he was not called on it. Republicans in Congress raised up the hue and cry loudly, while the Complicit Media pretty much blacked it out. This regime of extremists now in charge of Libya are people that Obama empowered to get there. Their views were widely known beforehand, and this week’s events can hardlly be a surprise.

So now, the stage was set for this week. Yesterday’s murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans is a despicable and outrageous act that requires retribution. Circumstances surrounding the events strongly suggest that Libyan officials were complicit.

What would a real president do? OK, not counting the fact that a real president would not have taken steps 1, 2, and 3 that got us here. Pretend a real president was installed today. What would he do in response to this act of war?

There would be a response that rhymes with “air strikes”. And he wouldn’t be headed off to Vegas for campaign events. None of this “peace in our time” business.

Politico is well known as the Washington Post’s overt political arm where they can take all the political potshots at the right that are too blatant even for WaPo’s tainted Left election machine. Today they tried explain the runaway Empty Chair phenomenon, which I predict will become as much a part of the 2012 election lexicon as “you didn’t build that”.

Lead paragraph:

The right rallied on Labor Day to celebrate “National Empty Chair Day,” a show of solidarity with Clint Eastwood after his rambling address to an invisible President Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention last week.

So according to these clowns Tim Mak and Juana Summers, the Online Right is only doing this to give some cover for poor old doddering Clint Eastwood. Wouldn’t have anything to do with:

• It’s frickin’ hilarious
• it speaks truth to power (or perhaps mockery to power)
• Clint Eastwood doesn’t need protecting. And you just might want go get off his lawn.

It does rather seem that these Lefties online, who are supposed to be both devilishly clever and all-powerful, are having trouble getting out from under one 10-minute, rambling, ineffective speech from a crusty old nobody.

The article suggests that the Democrats, those good sports, have joined in on the joke. It tells that this morning the AFSCME (a creepy-stalker public sector union like SIEU) president gave a “fiery speech” this morning to the Wisconsin delegation at the DNC (what would that be, 100-200 delegates?) in which he brought up an empty chair which is supposed to be Clint Eastwood’s presence. He exchanged words with it, and apparently upon losing the debate, he kicked the chair off stage (also here).

Now THAT was a clever bit, yes?

These people are going to lose.

The commies at MSLSD are fine with constantly lying about conservatives throwing granny over the cliff, about the violent and racist Tea Party people. They can mock conservatives’ dismay over the skyrocketing debt, and over the massive corruption and denial of freedoms under ObamaCare™, ObamaIRSDenyConservatives501c4Status™, ObamaEPAYouCantBuildThat™, ObamaBuyUnionsACouplaCarCompanies™, and ObamaCronyFakeGreenCompanies™.

They can routinely accuse us of being the racist party while MSNBC fails to show RNC speeches from 5 Republican minority speakers on Tuesday in order to make the convention look all-white. Apparently that’s all good.

But hey, poke a little fun at their own Glober religion? Oooooh, that is bad. Apparently, this little riff from Romney’s acceptance speech has lefty panties all bunched up:

President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.

This blog from some yahoo on TheMaddowBlog is titled “Rising Sea Levels Aren’t Funny“. Yes, he actually titled the article that way. I actually laughed until I cried. So many points of humor :

• First, the title of the blog pre-supposes that sea levels are rising. Um, no they are not, and no competent scientist thinks so.
• “as if the very idea of addressing the climate crisis is ridiculous….”. OK, I see that “climate crisis” is the new phrase. Well, seeing as how we now know the so-called climate scientists fabricated all their data, we also know there is no “climate crisis”.
• “…and those who take this seriously are fools worthy of mockery.” To comment on this would be to gild the lily.
• The Junior Madcow author believes killing Obamacare will cause you and your family to have “less access to affordable health care.” Because…..the government will do for the whole country what they are doing for veterans in the VA hospitals?
• Apparently throwing that bum Obama out will give families “less access to education, and fewer investments in roads and infrastructure.” How much Porkulus money actually went to those “shovel-ready” projects? And exactly who does not have access to government indoctrination camps education? Heck, even illegal alien kids, by the million, are taught in public schools, and would also be under a Romney administration.
• “The Republican audience took their cues, literally laughing at Obama’s efforts to address global warming” – like Solyndra, like the Chevy Volt, like shutting down coal industry and Gulf drilling (at least for American rigs). Yeah.
• And finally, the underlying premise of the whole thing is that this ass-clown listened to His Royal Majesty’s speech where he said the fact of his nomination would be looked back on as the day when the rise of sea levels began to stop rising. First, this idiot believes that Obama has the power to stop sea levels rising (if, you know, they actually HAD been rising). Second, he believes that Obama actually cares about it. Sucker.

Anyway, I don’t expect to convert fools over. I don’t expect left-wing bloggers to understand the basics of science. And I don’t expect them to give up their life-sustaining anger and hatred.

But it is fun to see them when they know they are getting mocked. Reminds me of when a cat gets all wet.

Judging by past behavior of the Kept Media, apparently …. yes! Or…….. no!

Actually it makes perfect sense if you let this scene from Princess Bride be your guide:
.

Got it? Now let’s let history teach us how to please the Kept Media when hurricanes and politics intersect, which is pretty much any time the Democrats want it to:

• In 2005 President Bush did not land in the NOLA (New Orleans, LA) area within 3 days of Hurricane Katrina (and specifically and correctly said it was because his entourage and security would be a huge charlie-foxtrot and would be grossly counter-productive). Pravda crucified him for years, for being so uncaring. So I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
• In 2008 as Hurricane Gustav was approaching NOLA at about the start of the GOP Convention, former DNC Chairman Don Fowler was caught on video (h/t Caleb Howe) laughing at the timing. “That just illustrates God is on our [Democrat's] side. Everything’s cool.” While the right-side New Media went crazy with it, and that youtube became famous, the Kept Media made little note, mainly running his apology as their “coverage” of the whole thing. But hey, the Dems are much more caring than the Repubs. So I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.
• During the relatively minor Hurricane Isaac this week that hit well west of NOLA, some charlie-sierra idiot from the Kept Media said in live coverage of the Repub Convention “Republicans are happy to have a party while black people are drowning.” This was also while His Majesty was somewhere up north fundraising and campaigning but apparently he is deeply concerned with people. This talking chimpanzee, I think his name was Chalain, was summarily fired (good for Yahoo) but this incident of course is no sign that Pravda is biased or kept. Just a little brush fire. Romney still hates black people. So I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
• Immediately after the convention (and 5 days after the hurricane hit) Romney surprised everybody and headed for NOLA. BAM! Remember that this was 5 days after a Category-1 (relatively mild) hurricane hit 100 miles west of NOLA. Naturally the Kept Media were all up his keester because he’d just be in the way of recovery efforts. He’s concerned? Nah, he’s a Republican, he can’t care about all those poor drowning brown people. So I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.
• Meanwhile His Royal Majesty and his handlers were still campaigning and fundraising up north, but hey, I think they might have sent out a memo expressing how deeply they cared about the people of Louisiana, so clearly he cares. Deeply! But at least today they were astute enough to see how they got played by Romney, so they (a) announced that His Royal Majesty had changed plans and would be headed to NOLA on Monday, and (b) this had already been decided before it came out that Romney was headed there today, so hey, no, we’re not following. We’re LEADING! Romney probably got the idea from US. And naturally, no word from the Kept Media that (a) that is just stupid or (b) His Royal Majesty will just “be in everybody’s way”. So I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

Those readers who know how the above scene from Princess Bride ends will understand how the PravdaMedia™ play this: if you are the Republican, it doesn’t matter which goblet of wine you drink from. They’re both poisoned.