Flexible Cold War Chess Board
President Obama whispered in Dmitri Medvedev’s ear that, after the 2012 election, he could be flexible.
In the final 2012 presidential debate Mitt Romney called Russia our greatest geopolitical threat. Obama mocked him by saying “the 1980’s is calling for its foreign policy back because, you know, the cold war’s been over for 20 years”. Looks like the 1800’s are on line 2. John Kerry’s response to Putin’s invasion of Crimea was that it was a “19th century act in the 21st century”. Light Brigade, report for duty.
The president still insists this isn’t about some “cold war chessboard“. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers thinks it is, “Putin’s playing chess and we’re playing marbles”.
The Washington Post editorial page thinks President Obama has lost his marbles. It says his “foreign policy is based on fantasy”:
FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces.
Speaking of how he thinks the world should operate, Obama commended the Ukrainian government for its “restraint” during the current unpleasantness. To which Bret Stephens responded in the WSJ:
The Ukrainian government isn’t showing restraint; it is merely tragically impotent in the face of blunt aggression.. It used to be that defiance, not restraint, was considered the appropriate response to a foreign invasion”.
Stephens thinks Obama invited Putin’s behavior by not seeing a connection to his capitulation to Putin on Syria. Then there’s also the failed Reset and abandoned missile defense for Poland and the Czech Republic.
Flexible Critics
This is all a little much for Dana Milbank, also in the Post. He wants to know how Obama can be such a power grabbing, constitution shredding tyrant at home and a flexible weakling on the international stage.
I think he has a point. I should have drawn the Flexible One wearing his crown.
IRS Shared Responsibility Payment
In America we’re innocent until proven guilty. Thanks to the fifth amendment we aren’t required to testify against ourselves. That would be the same fifth amendment IRS boss Lois Lerner invoked to avoid testifying about IRS harassment of conservative groups.
As it happens, the one area where we don’t have fifth amendment protection is when it comes to reporting our obligations to the IRS.
In order to bestow on the federal government the power to force us to buy health insurance, Chief Justice Roberts deemed the penalty for not buying insurance to be a tax. That’s because while the U.S. Constitution overlooked insurance sales, it does give Congress the power to tax.
Being a tax, we are required to prove to the IRS that we don’t owe it.
IRS
To soften the blow the IRS isn’t calling this tax the Individual Mandate to Violate of Our Constitutional Rights. They are calling it your Shared Responsibility Payment. Kind of has a ring to it – the Affordable Care Act’s Shared Responsibility Payment.
Where the hell are we?
Just for the fun of it if you want to hear Obama insist again to George Stephanopoulos that the mandate isn’t a tax Click here. (You’ll have to watch a short commercial but it’s worth it.)
Harry Reid’s Horror Stories
You like your doctor but you can’t keep him. You like your insurance but you can’t keep it. ObamaCare is a train wreck.
Koch Brother Horror Stories
These horror stories are all lies, lies, and damned lies according to cowboy poet Harry Reid. They didn’t really happen to you. They were ginned up at the un-American Brothers Koch Fairy Tale mill to send red state democrats running for cover.
Polar Vortex Crosses Red Line in Climate War
The Polar Vortex is back. Used to be March just came in like a lion.
It doesn’t matter. Lions, lambs, vortexes, snow, rain, drought, ObamaCare – it’s all your fault. All things are made by man-caused global warming. Al Gore says so, JohnKerry says so, and President Obama says so.
Vortex of Climate Change
So, if you like your polar vortex, you can keep your polar vortex. Period.
Update:
Here’s Victor Davis Hanson on Obama’s many red lines.
The President, the Governors, and the Minimum Wage
In his continuing effort to avoid Congress, President Obama met with state governors on Monday. He stressed that they can can do practical and popular things together, like raise the minimum wage. He’s already flown solo raising the minimum for federal contract workers.
Minimum Wage Economy
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal responded that the Obama economy is a minimum wage economy. Jay Carney said Jindal prefers a $7.25 economy.The Office of Management and Budget says raising the minimum wage will cost 500, 000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the economy in North Dakota is booming. Wages there are soaring for workers who do the one thing the president hates most – produce fossil fuels.
