[PJM] Recent polls suggest Barack Obama has become a turn-off. Why? My "turn off" began on a November evening in 2008.
In part, all presidents wear on Americans. Their presence has become as ubiquitous in our lives as the busts of the emperor Augustus dotting the Mediterranean world. So who wouldnt annoy after speaking and appearing on our screens 24/7 for five years?
But in Obamas case, two character traits made him especially aggravating this year. Both explain why vero possumus and hope and change have descended to you can keep your plan, period. I could name a dozen more, but why waste the keystrokes.
One, Obama blames everything bad on everyone else, and takes credit for a few good things that he had nothing to do with. He reminds me of a losing Little League coach who blamed the lights, fans, and umpire for his last-place standing, only to brag about his own genius after inserting a 12 year old who hit a freak homer to win his only game.
Why so? Few care to speculate anymore other than the obvious that his cursus honorum was always characterized by rhetoric in lieu of achievement. By that I mean I dont know how his transcript merited admittance to Harvard Law School; what publications he authored as editor of Harvard Law Review; on what basis he was offered tenure at Chicago; how his record in the Illinois legislature prepped a U.S. Senate career; or why his brief sojourn as a U.S. senator qualified him as president. But I do concede through it all he sounded pretty confident and mellifluous.
George Bush, ATM machines, the Tea Party, the post-2010 Congress, the earthquake in Washington, D.C., the Japanese Tsunami all this and more have caused Obamas otherwise brilliant policies to fail. You would have thought that he entered office with a Republican supermajority in the Senate and a raging Tea Party majority in the House, all conspiring to thwart his every godhead from January 21, 2009.
Putting higher taxes on the productive classes, discouraging energy exploration of federal lands, adding more regulations, chronically bad-mouthing the successful, borrowing $6 trillion to waste on stimulus and handouts, and socializing a sixth of the American economy with an unworkable Obamacare plan apparently had nothing to do with our non-recovery. Plausible enough theory by VDH, but don't blame me. I voted for the American (both times).
#2
If he had not run again in 2012 (for health reasons or whatever and let Hillary run) he'd have been a Democrat God forever. Every mistake came to roost after reelection and would easily have been blamed on mismanagement by the followup administration. As is, it is much harder to dodge and his legacy sinks and stinks with him.
#2
Duh. The reason for existence of the EU bureaucracy in Brussels is to end national sovereignty. Can't stand competing centers of power to thwart their design to impose their will upon the continent.
[DAWN] IN the years that Pakistain has been mired in militancy and terrorism, there has been no dearth of detractors maintaining that it is the inefficiencies of different arms of the state -- if not outright collusion -- that has allowed matters to reach such a pass. This charge is hotly denied, by state representatives who say they have no part in the mess, and by a citizenry that cannot digest the levels of ineptitude on part of the leadership that this would imply. Unfortunately, there is no denying that with distressing frequency, evidence of such monumental incompetence surfaces that questions cannot but be raised about the state's levels of political will and operational ability. In this category must be included the revelations about July's Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... jailbreak, when turbans managed to free over 250 prisoners without so much as a peep from the law enforcement and security apparatus.
The report of the inquiry commission tasked with investigating the incident, the contents of which were made public by this newspaper yesterday, constitutes an indictment of the security and law enforcement agencies. It ought to have served as a wake-up call of no minor proportions at all levels. Instead, it was shelved -- to the utter lack of surprise of those familiar with the head-in-the-sand approach in Pakistain. The report notes that over two dozen Mehsud myrmidons, accompanied by several more from Punjab, Uzbekistan and other places, managed to travel all the way from South Wazoo to D.I. Khan. Once there, they set up pickets at 10 strategic locations around the prison, cutting off security and law enforcement personnel's access to the area. Shockingly, most of these pickets were located not far from police and military checkpoints. The turbans blew the prison's gates open with rocket-propelled grenades and over the next 45 minutes or so conducted a "methodical" search of the cells and barracks, freeing prisoners and even identifying and executing four members of a minority sect. Having done so, they dispersed; some headed back to South Waziristan, others melted into the city. All this was achieved with virtually no interference from the security and law enforcement apparatus, which had in the preceding days been beefed up, according to the report.
Continued on Page 49
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12/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] IF we can change one thing about Pakistain in 2014 can that please be our mindset? Can we cure ourselves of the Pakistain-versus-the-rest paranoia that cultivates the image of a conspiring wicked world ganged up against us? Can we begin appraising our acts and omissions critically and take responsibility for our faults instead of justifying them and reinforcing failure? Can we build a Pakistain that is not infested with rabid intolerance that is dehumanising us as a society?
Paranoia is a mental condition in which one loses touch with reality. If you took Pakistain to a psychiatrist, it would be prescribed a pill. Individuals inspire themselves in different ways: motivation can come from the constructive desire to succeed or from negative emotions such as jealousy. But hatred for others can't be the source of inspiration leading an entire country towards progress. If our national leadership is united over one thing, it is blaming the world for our failures.
Pakistain lives on false binaries. If we love Pakistain, we must hate the US and the West and India. If we don't, we are enemy agents who have sold ourselves for financial gain. In public our leaders compete rabidly for appearing more anti-West. But in their personal lives they are rational. They will send their kids to the West for education or to settle down. They will even form a beeline to shake the US ambassador's hand when possible, but froth at the mouth in public.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2013 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Loony old wigger. Who knows what he'll be coming up with next. 
[DAWN] IN the years that Pakistain has been mired in militancy and terrorism, there has been no dearth of detractors maintaining that it is the inefficiencies of different arms of the state -- if not outright collusion -- that has allowed matters to reach such a pass. This charge is hotly denied, by state representatives who say they have no part in the mess, and by a citizenry that cannot digest the levels of ineptitude on part of the leadership that this would imply. Unfortunately, there is no denying that with distressing frequency, evidence of such monumental incompetence surfaces that questions cannot but be raised about the state's levels of political will and operational ability. In this category must be included the revelations about July's 
Wazoo
[DAWN] IF we can change one thing about Pakistain in 2014 can that please be our mindset? Can we cure ourselves of the Pakistain-versus-the-rest paranoia that cultivates the image of a conspiring wicked world ganged up against us? Can we begin appraising our acts and omissions critically and take responsibility for our faults instead of justifying them and reinforcing failure? Can we build a Pakistain that is not infested with rabid intolerance that is dehumanising us as a society?
