Things I’d Like to Post About Today ….. (072108, Morning Closet Cleanout, Round 2)

But I Don’t Have Any Time For:

(The clutter cleanout continues)

• The “get out of the bunker” scolding by the presidential candidate I refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama - Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) of Afghan President Kazai about 10 days ago was weak, even by Obama’s non-standards. On top of that, Obama said “that the Bush administration had allowed Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup, by diverting vital US forces to the war in Iraq.”

  Really? A commenter at this Commentary post is more reality-based: “….. these were all NATO failures. The Italians were supposed to organize the judiciary — they didn’t. The Germans were supposed to organize the police force — they didn’t. The Brits were supposed to interdict the drug trade — they didn’t. Obama leads the NATO oversight committee in the Senate. Why didn’t he get interested in all this three years ago?”
  Not global warming. If anything, global cooling.

• “Denver businesses stiffed by DNC.” Consider it a sneak preview of an Obama Administration’s general treatment of taxpayers.
• Volkswagen AG is building its new US auto plant in Tennessee. Not in Ohio, home of the year-old Commercial Activities Tax, which should have been killed. Not Michigan either. TN is a right to work state. OH and MI aren’t. Draw your own conclusions.
• Obama is better off trying to put the focus on the New Yorker’s cartoon, because his portrayal at the hands of Ryan Lizza (yeah, THAT Ryan Lizza) has a couple of damning doozies, including this one (HT Stop the ACLU) from an “it’s our fault” speech shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks:
  

  We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. ….. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

  We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad.

  The first excerpted paragraph ignores the fact that most of the 19 plane hijackers weren’t poverty-stricken in fact or in background. The second slanderously presupposes that US military action isn’t cognizant of civilian issues.

  No wonder you haven’t heard about anything besides the cartoon from Obama’s lapdogs in Old Media.

• At Jewish World review, from Jonathan Rosenblum: “A warning from Canada for those who value life,” along with an important background column. As I’ve noted several times, including here, nationalized health care causes societies losing their grip on the sanctity of life to slip into euthanasia-lite.
• Anyone should have seen this coming (HT Hot Air), though the timing is delicious — because people are driving less, and because the national vehicle mix is moving towards a higher average MPG, “lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.”You read that right.

  Captain Ed at Hot Air points out that a pork-free highway budget, as opposed to the earmark-laden disgraces Congress has typically passed, would very likely not require a tax increase. This one’s easy — Congress had better kill the pork, because the alternative may be political suicide.