The President's New Syria Policy: Blame it on Congress

After months of dithering over Syria, after months of Syria crossing the President’s red line in the sand, after months of trying to ignore Syria’s use of chemical or biological weapons, the feckless president has reached a decision. He will take it to Congress to authorize or refuse the use of military force against Syria. That is, not too much force, not to remove or cripple the Assad Regime, but just a shot across the bow, hardly a decisive act of leadership. What a great political decision! If Congress approves, President Obama gets cover from Congress. If the military response succeeds (highly unlikely), then the President receives the credit. He will bask in the reflected glory of the military, which his Administration has been diminishing, just as he self-glorified in the Bin-Laden takedown. If it fails, then Congress gets the blame. He has forced Congress to do that which its individual members hate to do – to vote on an unpopular measure, the odds of which are failure. Congress is on the horns of a political dilemma. The members know, as Congressman Abraham Lincoln learnt the hard way, the public wants Congress to support the military in times of crisis or war. Thus many Democrats voted to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then ran away from their votes. The Representatives and Senators also recognize that the American public is greatly opposed to military action in Syria. Afghanistan and Iraq exhausted their tolerance for war in the Mideast – a war which involves no critical American issue. The Obama view of the world, apparently until now, is that America cannot serve as The Policeman of the World. They know that the President’s rhetorical ability will not sway public opinion. Indeed, if healthcare and gun control are illustrative, the more he speaks, the greater the rejection. Part of the public resistance is because of the long campaign the anti-war Democrats waged against the “Bush wars.” Senator Obama was a leader in delegitimizing the Iraq War. He is asking Democrats to vote against their core beliefs on the use of military force and a significant block of the Democratic Coalition. He is asking many to commit political suicide. To some extent he is now hoisted upon his own petard as he is asking Congress to enter into new military action without a coalition, except for France which was vilified for opposing the Iraq War. The President cannot even get England to support the action. Parliament overwhelmingly voted a few days ago against military action in Syria. The British action was personal. President Obama and his Administration have treated the British with contempt. They derided the “special relationship” between the United States and England. One of his first acts as President was to unceremoniously return the Churchill Bust to England. He tried to bankrupt BP, the lynchpin of the British economy, after the Gulf Blowout. He has questioned the legitimacy of the British control of the Falkland Islands. No wonder the British aren’t there when he needs them. His inaugural worldwide apology and kowtowing tour created no lasting goodwill for America. He’s letting Iran get the bomb while failing to support the Iranian people in their opposition to the stolen election 4 years ago. China and Russia contemptuously spurn him. They both snubbed him on Snowden. They witnessed how he hid from Benghazi. They witnessed how he unilaterally retreated from Iraq, and is repeating the process with Afghanistan. They witness how he is bankrupting the American economy and shrinking the military. From a two ocean Navy, we are headed to 8 aircraft carriers. America is neither feared nor respected by world leaders. That’s the effect of a foreign policy of appeasement, disengagement, and retreat. He is asking for Congress to vote for military action when he has declared that the military action is not intended to be meaningful. He is asking Congress to vote when his own indecisiveness has created the problem. Yet, he has called the bluff of the members of Congress calling for a Congressional vote. It’s great politics, but furtherance of a bad foreign policy. President Truman famously had a plague in his White House office. It said “The Buck Stops Here.” If Congress rejects the use of military force in Syria, then America will be further shamed throughout the world. He will blame it on Congress for the buck never stops in his Office.

Reflections on The Historic March on Washington 50 Years and 1 Day Later

Yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic “I have a Dream” Speech during the Civil Rights March on Washington. The March and Speech represented an epochal change in America. They were soon followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. President John F. Kennedy would have had difficulty getting Congress to enact these statutes. Tragically he was assassinated, as was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a year later. President Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, previously presumed to be a racist Senator from Texas, jammed these measures through Congress. He believed in equality and integration. America was changed forever. The keynote speech yesterday given in the footsteps of Rev. King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial was by President Obama, the African American President of the United States. America has changed for the better. President Obama in the 2008 Election carried the southern states of Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. America is changed. The solid Southern states of Louisiana and South Carolina have elected an Indian man and an Indian woman as their governors. The South has changed. South Carolina elected in 2010 a Black Republican, Tim Scott, to Congress. Congressman Scott now serves as a Senator from South Carolina. Many of the Congressmen and Senators from the South last century were rabid racists. The third ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, James Clyburn, is an African American from South Carolina. South Carolina is changed. The number one movie in America, The Butler, features Black actors (Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker) as its stars. The American people have changed. The 1963 March on Washington was called by A. Philip Randolph and organized by Bayard Rustin – distinguished leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, leaders who have been lost to history. The 2013 March was partially organized by the Reverend Al Sharpton, a fire-breathing black racist. White racist police officers, exemplified by Bull Conner, often led the attacks on Blacks. The current Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, is African American. Blacks have served as police chiefs of our largest cities. The United States Military was once heavily racist. President Truman ordered it to integrate. General Colin Powell, an African American, has served as Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as Secretary of State. Condoleezza Rice, an African American professor, also served as Secretary of State. African Americans have risen to leadership positions in American business, including IBM and Xerox, as well as presidents of some of America’s great universities. Sports and sporting venues no longer discriminate against Black athletes. Indeed, big time basketball is now primarily an African American sport with jokes about “White men can’t jump.” Not all the changes are good. The predominant black music 5 decades ago was the Blues, Jazz, Rock, and Barry Gordy’s Motown. Today’s music is hip hop, which glorifies the subordination of women and the killing of police officers intermixed with obscenities. Sadly, African American elected officials can be just as corrupt or licentious as they white counterparts. Yesterday’s activities received great publicity as the country recognized the amazing changes of the past half century. Yet, yesterday’s ceremonies are a poor shadow of the original. It became just another political rally on behalf of the Democratic Party. LBJ needed a large number of Republican votes for his measures to pass Congress. Indeed, the legislation was bi-partisan. Three dozen speakers appeared on the dais yesterday. Not one was a Republican. Both President Bush’s apparently declined for medical reasons, but a replacement could have been found. Instead, Senator Scott, the only African American Senator, was explicitly not invited to speak. The only Republican on the platform was President Abraham Lincoln, but he was stone mute. The speakers five decades ago mourned Medgar Evers. Yesterday’s speakers cried out for Trayvon Martin. There is no comparison. Medgar was assassinated because he was a black elected official. Trayvon was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - not because he was black. Rev. Sharpton may have been outspoken on the killing of Trayvon, but he is strangely silent on the two teenage black punks who brutally killed 88 year old veteran Delbert Beldon in Spokane a week ago. Dr. King strove for equality and integration. He wanted voting rights. Yesterday’s speakers were opposed to voter’s ID, apparently in favor of voting fraud. They spoke against “Stop and Frisk” and “Stand Your Ground,” apparently preferring to perpetuate black on black violence. Most significantly, 250,000 were present five decades ago when Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream spoke to all America. Only about 20-30,000 were present yesterday as the speakers spoke to themselves. Dr. King and President Obama are gifted orators. Dr, King’s cadence resonated throughout America, and through the decades. President Obama’s cadence was lacking in substance, as usual.

Steve Ballmer's Retiring - 14 Years Late

Bill Gates turned over management of Microsoft to Steve Ballmer in January 2000, naming him Chief Operating officer of Microsoft. Steve Ballmer announced last Friday that he will be retiring as CEO of Microsoft sometime in the next 12 months. Neither a successor nor interim CEO has been named. Ballmer’s performance as CEO is outstanding – on paper. The company had sales of profits of $9.421 billion when he became CEO and now profits of $21.503 billion, quite an impressive increase. Yet the stock price of Microsoft dropped from $53.91 to $34.71 during his reign, but jumped 7% when his resignation was announced. Full time employment increased from 39,000 to 99,000 during this period, with little to show for it. His reign has been termed Microsoft’s ”Lost Decade;” a 14 year lost decade. Perhaps his performance in office can be analogized to Arafat and the Palestinians. They never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Microsoft’s sales and profits come its near monopoly in Windows and the Office Suite, a shrinking market. Apple rose from the dead with the IMac becoming a major seller as PC sales dropped. Apple gave us ITunes, Apps and the IPod. Steve Jobs at Apple revolutionized music distribution with the ITunes Store becoming the largest music retailer in the world. Ballmer countered with the Zune, which was terminated in 2011. Apple brought the IPad to the market. Ballmer responded years later with the Surface Tablet, which led to a $900 million write off last year. Steve Jobs unveiled the IPhone in 2007. Steve Ballmer is famously reported to have bad-mouthed the IPhone: “I see no chance that the IPhone is going to get any significant market share.” Google with its Android operating system is outselling Apple’s IPhone. Ballmer has entered into a deal with Nokia for the once dominant manufacturer of dumb phones to use the Windows Phone OS in its new smart phones. Nokia is sadly fading into the sunset, following Blackberry. Microsoft has never been known for the quality, reliability and cleanness of its operating systems, but it lows with Vista and now Windows 8. Google dominates the search market. Ballmer belated responded with Bing, which is only marginally successful eventhough it comes pre-installed in every Microsoft PC. Microsoft finally opened its retail stores in 2009, years after Apple’s highest grossing retail stores. You can often hear the sounds of silence as you walk past the Microsoft stores. Steve Ballmer’s problem was two-fold. First, he didn’t understand technology. Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Steve Jobs and Paul Wozniak, Larry Page and Sergei Brin, were all technology geeks. They saw things in Hi-Tech. Ballmer is smart, but he’s a “numbers guy.” His undergrad degree from Harvard was in applied mathematics and economics. He worked for Proctor & Gamble for two years and then dropped out of Stanford Business School to join his college friend, Bill Gates, at the fledging Microsoft. His second problem was that, like many monopolists or quasi-monopolists, he attempted to preserve the company’s existing markets, which meant stifling internal innovation. Microsoft, like past market dominators, is a follower- not a leader in technology. It buys technology, such as Hotmail and Skype. The one major success, albeit not very profitable, in the past 14 years is the X-Box, but that was designed by a small team outside the purview of his office. Steve Jobs famously removed Computers from Apple’s name. He recognized technology was the market – not the PC. Thus, Apple could adjust to the ITouch, the smart phone and the tablet, while Microsoft fumbled. Technology moves fast. IBM ultimately failed in PC’s. The future is not the PC. Steve Ballmer could not see outside the small box. He was the wrong leader for the then technology leader.

Samantha Powers is AWOL in the UN on Syria: A Perfect Fit for the Obama Administration

Samantha Power has been the United States Ambassador to the United Nations for 19 days, during which time the Assad regime in Syria used chemical weapons against its people – most recently a few days ago. The United Nations Security Council held a special meeting yesterday on the Syrian use of chemical weapons. Ambassador Powers tweeted yesterday: “Reports devastating: 100s dead in the streets, including kids killed by chem weapons. UN must get there fast & if true, perps must face justice.” She stated in her confirmation hearings that the Security’s Council’s failure to act on Syria is a “disgrace that history will judge harshly.” What did Samantha Powers do at the session? Nothing. She wasn’t there, and no one has disclosed her whereabouts. The State Department simply said she was on a pre-arranged trip. Ambassador Powers is picking up where her predecessor Susan Rice left off. Ambassador Rice was notorious for missing UN sessions. Ambassador Powers, the supposedly strong advocate of international human rights was strangely absent during the debate on one of the great human rights issues of today – the use of chemical weapons against civilians. The strong opponent of genocide is continuing President Obama’s policy of benign neglect of Syria. The President did not interrupt his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard or his current campaign on college campuses to impose federal controls on our colleges to address the Syria issue. President Obama said a year ago that if chemical weapons were used in Syria, then that would be a red line. Syria crossed that line months ago with everyone but the President seeing it. The President blinds himself to “inconvenient” international problems that don’t interest him or go against his core beliefs. Thus he was silent on the Iranian suppression of the hundreds of thousands of student protestors against the stolen Presidential election 4 years ago. He has been silent on the militant Islamist terror throughout Egypt, Nigeria, Mali, and elsewhere in the Mideast and North Africa of Christians and churches in a manner reminiscent of Kristellnacht. He turned a blind eye to the Moslem Brotherhood’s attempt to turn Egypt into an Islamic Republic like Iran, but is upset with the Egyptian military throwing out the Brotherhood. The President himself was AWOL during Benghazi while the cover-up continues. Admittedly the Security Council would not do anything substantial against Syria in light of the strong China and Russia support of the Assad government. However, the absence of Ambassador Powers reinforces the international image of a feckless United States and President Obama. Once again the world sees that the United States is led by a leaderless President.

The Other News

In between the usual news tragedies, politics, weather, celebrity mishaps, and sports are non-front page human interest news stories - the true oddities. They may be humorous, tragic, tragic-comedic, or full of pathos or irony, but they’re outside the norm. Here’s the news you may have missed. Let’s start with Bob Filner, Anthony Weiner, and Detroit, all in the news. As the soon to be ex-mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner, was undergoing therapy, vacationing, and mediation, the Chief Administrative Officer of San Diego changed the lock on his office door. He has no office to return to. He also will not be eating at Hooters. A prominent sign was posted in four San Diego Hooters Restaurants: “The Mayor of San Diego will not be served in this establishment. We believe women should be treated with respect.” Hooters, which is otherwise known for sexualizing women, got the language for the sign from Glenn Beck, which he proposed on his show. What a hoot! Sydney Leathers, Anthony Weiner’s sexting partner, filmed a porn flick. It would sell better if the ex-Congressman contributed his privates to the movie. Detroit is not totally down. 1.3 million people witnessed the Woodward Dream Cruise, an annual cruise of Detroit heavy medal, classics and hot rods. Very few incidents were reported. On the other hand two police officers, a sergeant from Detroit and a sergeant from the neighboring St. Claire Shores, were arrested for pistol whipping and robbing a victim at a CITGO gas station. The detectives viewing the videos originally thought the assailants were impersonating police officers. Imagine their surprise when they realized they were looking at police officers impersonating police officers. Conversely a criminal impersonating traffic cops made the mistake in New Mexico of pulling over an unmarked cap with two real state police officers inside. Former California madam Heidi Fleiss was busted for growing 400 marijuana plants in Pahrump, Nevada. 18 year old Kendra McKenzie Gill, the winner of the Miss Riverton beauty pageant in Utah, surrendered her crown when it was revealed she was arrested on August 3 for throwing from her car homemade “bottle bombs,” otherwise known as Molotov Cocktails. She acted with three friends – all four of whom were honor students. Dirk Anderson was celebrating his friend’s bachelor’s party at the Lady Luck Casino in Blackhawk, Colorado by climbing out of the room on the eleventh floor ledge and falling to his death by landing on the roof of a parking garage. Derek Miranda murdered his wife in south Miami by shooting her multiple times. He then posted a photo of her bloody body lying on the kitchen floor on Facebook. He sought his 15 minutes of infamy by including this statement: “I’m going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys. Miss you guys take care Facebook people you will see me in the news.” Will it be life or capitol punishment in Florida? Huntington Beach suffered a major riot in July 28 after the U.S. Surfing Open. It posted online photos of several participants. One was Luis Enrique Rodriquez who allegedly wrote obscenities on the sides of police cars. He was so proud of the Facebook photo that he “liked” it and circulated. He was arrested. Another early arrestee was 30 year old Michael Lytle of Anaheim. Michael’s full time job was as a firefighter in Fullerton. He is now on administrative leave. Aeromexico Airlines apologized for its ad agency sending out a casting call specifying that only “light skinned” people need apply.

The Obama Foreign Policy Defined: Apology, Denial, and Retreat

Apology President Obama began his Presidency with the global “Apology Tour.” He never actually used the word apology, but repeatedly complained of past acts by the United States. Denial Ambassador Curt Stephens asked for increased security in Libya. It was refused. He paid with his life, as did two ex-SEALS and an embassy employee. Nothing was done to protect our people in Benghazi once the attacks were underway. Indeed, the President was AWOL for 5 hours. Yet someone issued an order to stand down. The Obama Administration knew from the beginning that it was a terrorist attack, but to admit it would undermine a critical talking point of the reelection campaign “Al Qaeda is on the run, and Osama Bin Laden is dead.” Instead, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately blamed the attack on a spontaneous demonstration directed at an anti-Muslim video “The Innocence of Muslims.” Hardly anyone had scene the video prior to the attack. Ambassador Susan Rice went on the weekend TV circuit blaming the video for the tragedy. President Obama denounced the “cruel and disgusting” video before the United Nations. The President and Secretary Clinton were featured declaiming the video in a $70,000 advertising run in Pakistan. The effect of the Obama Administration focusing attention on the previously unknown video was to alert the Muslim world to its existence, and set off anti-American riots throughout the Muslim world. The Obama Administration denied the threat of Al Qaeda throughout the election campaign, even with the attack in Benghazi. Politics trumped national security and reality. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the producer of the video, was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail. Retreat The Obama Administration unilaterally pulled out of Iraq, perhaps snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is coming close to a unilateral pullout from Afghanistan in 17 months. This past week it closed 22 embassies and consulates in the Mideast and North Africa for a day and 19 of them for a week. “Non-essential” personnel were flown out of Yemen. This action was taken in response to an intercepted telephone conversation between Al Qaeda’s chief, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The threat was unspecific. The nature of the threat, the timing, and location were unspecified. Yet the United States closed its embassies and consulates and issued a world wide alert in response to a non-specific threat. President George W. Bush said “My answer is bring ‘em on.” President Obama said ‘Shut ‘em down.” Al Qaeda’s not on the run. The image to Islamicists and Jihadists is that the United States is on the run. They are laughing at the impotence of the United States. Osama Bin-Laden’s view of the United State was that it runs. He misjudged President George W. Bush. President Obama is proving him right. The President showed up on Jay Leno Tuesday night and said we should “Lead our lives,” He is doing so by playing golf, visiting Camp David, appearing on Jay Leno, campaigning, and traveling, all at taxpayer expense. The dilettante President is not letting Benghazi or an Al Qaeda threat interfere with his life style. The Administration’s response a few days ago to Benghazi was to issue sealed indictments against some of the perpetrators. Al Qaeda sent in AK-47’s and mortar rounds into the Benghazi consulate annex. We respond by sending in lawyers. The Explanation The Obama Administration entered office with the foreign policy baggage of the left. President George W. Bush was a trigger-happy, unsophisticated cowboy from Texas (ignore the Yale and Harvard degrees), who has humiliated America throughout the world. He tortured our prisoners and then shipped them to Gitmo. His statements in a Texan drawl, such as “Bring ‘em on,” and “Wanted Dead or Alive” repelled them. They failed to see that after 9/11 President Bush’s overriding goal was the security of the American people. He succeeded. President Obama would bring into the White House a sophisticated, world based foreign policy. No more torture, no more Gitmo, no more needless wars, no more war for oil, no more arrogance or bullying. Turn his back on Israel and play to the Arab Street. Forget the special relationship with Great Britain; he returned the Churchill Bust. Use the Arab Spring to toss out President Mubarak and bring in the Muslim Brotherhood to govern Egypt. Draw down the military. President Obama is a citizen of the world. American would seek forgiveness from the world and thereby earn respect. America now has neither respect nor fear in the world. Not even our allies trust us. Vladimir Putin mocks us and Iran is close to the bomb. Apology, denial, and retreat sounds a lot like appeasement.

Nathan Louis Campbell: Why?

Who, what, when, where, and why – the classic 5 W’s of journalism. We know who, what, when, and where for Nathan Louis Campbell, but not the why. Campbell at 6:00pm on Saturday casually got into his Dodge Avenger parked on Dudley Ave in Venice, California, drove up on a sidewalk to circumvent 5 street barriers, and then accelerated to 60mph into the crowd by the Venice Boardwalk. The videos showed he deliberately drove into the crowd, tossing them asunder like bowling pins. He killed Alice Gruppioni from Italy on her honeymoon and injured 16 others. He turned himself into the Santa Monica Police Station an hour later. The police have charged him with 1st Degree Murder. The question we don’t know is why. The usual questions do not seem to apply. 1) Was he off his meds, such as Steven Kazmerczak at Northern Illinois on February 14, 2008 when he killed 5 and injured 21, Seung-Hui Cho who fatally shot 32 and injured 17 at Virginia tech on April 16, 2007, or the bi-polar David Attias on February 23, 2001 drove his car through a crowded street at 50-65mph in Isla Vista a few blocks from the University of California Santa Barbara campus. Attias called himself the “Angel of Death?” He had stopped taking his meds, but had been on Ecstasy. 2) Should he have been placed on meds, such as Jared Lee Loughner, who fatally shot a federal judge and five others and critically wounded Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords and 11 others in Tucson, Arizona on January 11, 2011, or Steven Allen Abrams who intentionally rove his 1967 Cadillac into Costa Mesa, California day care center on May 2, 2004, killing two children and injuring four others plus a teacher? He had long fantasized about killing children. He said “I was going to execute those children because they were innocent.” 3) Had the assailant fried his brain through substance abuse, such Jared Loughner? 4) Was it perhaps a psychopath whose violence may have been triggered by medications, such as Zoloft or Luvox as with Eric Harris at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, killing 12 students and one teacher while wounding 24 students? Harris’ partner, Dylan Klebold, suffered from depression.. 5) Could it have been anti-government animus, as with Timothy McVeigh truck bomb which kiled168 and injured close to 700 at the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on September 19, 1995? 6) Did a wife discover her husband was cheating on her, such as Clara Harris, who ran over her husband three times in a Houston Hilton parking on July24, 2002 lot with her Mercedes-Benz, parked the car on his body, and said “It was an accident?” 7) Is it an old driver, who claimed to have accidentally placed his foot on the accelerator rather than the brake, such as 86 year old George Russell walker on July 26, 2003 whose car mowed straight through Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade into the Framers Market, killing 10 and injuring 63? He reportedly said to the surviving victims “If you saw me coming, why didn’t you get out of the way?” 8) Was it perhaps a case of “Sudden Jihad Syndrome,” such as Mohammad Reza Taheri-Azar who drove his Jeep Grand Cherokee in a crowded student courtyard on March 3, 2003 at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, injuring 9? He then phoned the police and turned himself in. 9) Was he seeking his 15 minutes of infamy, such as James Eagan Holmes who fatally shot 12 and wounded 70 in an Aurora, Colorado theater on July 12, 2012? 10) Was it a gangbanger asserting turf or undergoing initiation? None of these apply, which is not to say on the information presently available Campbell that Campbell did not have an alcohol or drug problem. His acts, as caught on video, showed a well-considered act. Perhaps a different theory, my far out theory, might answer the question of why. Reports this morning were that he was a homeless transient living out of his car. He also is reported to have asked “How many did he injure?” Let us assume in his warped mind, perhaps not criminally insane, that he figured that if drove into a crown and injured a few bystanders, then the people of California could provide him room, board, and medical cade, perhaps for life.