Obama's Secret Service Codename Revealed

This will be about the third time I've pointed out that whenever Obama senses he is under pressure he resorts to playing the race card. It's fair to speculate if the Secret Service hasn't assigned him the codename of Viktum by now. If Obama can't forget that he's black, putting race out of the race, he's going to lose much bigger than anyone might think. He's still steeped in the politics of Chicago's Southward. I imagine more and more Democrats are coming to regret their selection everyday. Now I'm hearing on the radio that Hillary refuses to attack Palin too aggressively? How special is that! ha!

“I know that I’m not your typical presidential candidate,” Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told executives and employees of the Schott glass company Friday afternoon, “and I just want to be honest with you. I know that.”

“And I know that the temptation is to say, ‘You know what? …The guy hasn’t been there that long in Washington.,’ You know, ‘he’s got funny name,’ You know, ‘we’re not sure about him,’” Obama continued. “And that’s what the Republicans, when they say, ‘This isn’t about issues, it’s about personalities,’ what they’re really saying is, ‘We’re going to try to scare people about Barack. So we’re going to say that you know, maybe he’s got Muslim connections or we’re going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals or he’s not patriotic.’

Comments

[seekeronos]

"--- You may as well vote for Obama as Barr. The result will be exactly the same - except in your mind. ---"

In the end, you are likely right.

But I have very little trouble with it as a rational choice: I live in a very, very blue state, where McCain will not get more than 40% of the popular vote, and none of the electoral votes.

And in principal, Dr. Baldwin, Mr. Barr or even Dr. Ron Paul (as a write in) would be better than what Obama (socialism) or McCain (corporatist-New World Order NeoConservatism) has to offer.

Neither of those two distinguished senators will do much to change anything, aside from slightly to significantly worsening our economy, geopolitical standing, and national security.

Maybe if I lived in a red state or a battleground/swing state, I could be convinced to "hold my nose" and choose the lesser of two evils".

But the even the lesser of two evils is still ... well, ... evil.

Granted, it is much too late to talk about what we "could have" or "should have" done: i.e. withdraw all of our armed forces from the Middle East, and making a command-economy decision - go to a "war footing" to move from M.E. oil to domestically produced energy, instead of fighting a war with great cost yet with little returns for our investment.

"Spreading democracy" is not something that should be done at gunpoint, nor against the will of an otherwise sovereign nation that is neither culturally able to accept a representative republican government, nor particularly able to achieve a feat which took Western civilisations some 500-800 years to accomplish in the space of eight years.

Both Iraq and A'stan are deeply tribal societies - tribal patriarchies which only cooperate when faced with overwhelming force or existential crises, of which Saddam and later, US forces were the former, and massive internecine violence the latter.

And while the object of Osama Bin Laden's motivation was to remove the US military presence from the Middle East (and ostensibly, our support for Israel) -- in this, we might have done well to accommodate him by threatening the Saudis by withdrawing our military and leaving the region, unless they worked to capture OBL.

Let the Muslims - the Shi'ites and the Sunnis - massacre each other, rather than our young men and women.

And lest anyone forget, the subjugation of Germany following the cessation of the European theatre of operations in WW2 was most total, and very brutal. Our original O-Plan called for the reduction of the German civilians to a 1,000 calorie per day diet ... that is little more than starvation rations; we operated in this fashion for at least two years. Many Germans died as a result, especially during the extraordinarily harsh 1946-1947 winter.

This was done to demoralize the Germans and to show them that we were unequivocally their masters.

We did no such thing to either the Iraqis or the A'stanis.

Now I honestly believe that the current generation of our leadership - our elders of the War Babies and elder Baby Boomers lack much of the internal fortitude needed to have ask the people of this great Republic to go to war - a formal declaration of war against the government of Saddam Hussein and that of Mullah Omar of the Taliban.

For that would have meant going to a war economy, much more widespread disruption, and even a draft to supply the 4 million feet on the ground it would have taken to conquer Iraq and A'stan in a total war scenario.

But no, we compromised, and have nearly hopelessly entangled ourselves into a military commitment that will take decades to complete.

And while some might say that our current and six-decades ongoing occupation of Germany and Japan, and 50+ years in Korea are as bad, well... I am inclined to agree that our overseas forces are long overdue to come home for good.

Let the Russians have their part of the world, the Chinese theirs, and Europa its own, should they ever pluck up the courage and consensus to make a unified European Defense Force out of NATO.

Meanwhile, we can secure our own continent and our trade channels, and make our own peace with the new emerging powers of the world... and make quite sure that we have an unchallengeable strategic nuclear deterrent to any nation or any organization that would threaten us.

Yet, in order for us to become great once more, we must become "smaller". We must reject global empire, and embrace the well-being of our Republic and those in it once more.

America first, America only, America always.

[Alan M]

Obama reminds me of a bag of cotton candy at the county fair. It starts out with a LOT of sugar, then comes the HOT air and what you end up with is a bag of NO substance when it's over. He got his ride to the big dance but NO ONE will give him a ride home. McCain- Palin allllllllll the way!

[Philip McDaniel]

Frank01:
There, there…you need to have a lie-down and rest for a spell; then, a good review of the Constitution, and a refresher course in U.S. History. I suggest you check out the following by Samuel Eliot Morison:
The Oxford History of the American People: Volumes 1-3
The Growth of the American Republic Volumes 1 & 2
Oh, and you might consider a refresher course in English grammar while you’re at it. A spell checker is always nice as well.

[Philip McDaniel]

Frank01:
There, there…you need to have a lie-down and rest for a spell; then, a good review of the Constitution, and a refresher course in U.S. History. I suggest you check out the following by Samuel Eliot Morison:
The Oxford History of the American People: Volumes 1-3
The Growth of the American Republic Volumes 1 & 2
Oh, and you might consider a refresher course in English grammar while you’re at it. A spell checker is always nice as well.

[Befair]

Thank goodness in previous "conflicts" "police actions" etc. we did not have a population of people who think nothing of strapping explosive devices on and walking into a public place and blowing themselves along with innocent people to bits. The game has changed and it will never be the same. We can argue for a good, long time about other "wars" but what we have now is beyond understanding for me. Have we really "won" anything with this type of mentality running loose in the world? When I am here, I expect to be attacked as stupid, ridiculous, and pathetic - so fire away!!! Enjoy.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"Thank goodness in previous "conflicts" "police actions" etc. we did not have a population of people who think nothing of strapping explosive devices on and walking into a public place and blowing themselves along with innocent people to bits."

Beefer, I wont call you stupid but you aren't much of a student of martial history. The muzzies are hardly the first to willingly destroy their own children in this way. You're right about one thing, we have not and will not "win" in the mid-east and we haven't the will to subdue them which is all they know. That is how Saddam kept a lid on Iraq, the Taliban ruled A'stan and how the Ayotallah's ran Iran.....It's all they know and all that works.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Peoples, quit beating up on Beefer. You're acting like KOSkids.

[Darth Malice]

Seek,Paul is no conservative or Libertarian.....Barr and Baldwin are liberal ass-clowns who could never win anything.Palin is our best chance.

[Anon]

That makes perfect sense other than the minor detail that libertarians believe in individual will, small government and property rights and marxists believe in socialism and centralized government.

[seekeronos]

"--- The muzzies are hardly the first to willingly destroy their own children in this way. ---"

True, this is. While this sort of religion-induced suicidal notion of warfare tends to surface most often in non-Christian cultures, particularly Islam, the Japanese had a particular knack for it (sending their "Tokko" or "Kamikaze" pilots to crash onto troop carriers and aircraft carriers), and even going back to the Catholic Pope's "Children's Crusade" where kids barely able to heft a single-handed sword or draw a bow were sent to face the Caliph's armies.

And the scenario depicted in that crusty old favourite movie, "Red Dawn" is not entirely implausible either: were we invaded on our own turf by surprise or overwhelmed by vastly superior force, I believe that we Americans too, would engage in such warfare.

"--- You're right about one thing, we have not and will not "win" in the mid-east and we haven't the will to subdue them which is all they know. That is how Saddam kept a lid on Iraq, the Taliban ruled A'stan and how the Ayotallah's ran Iran.....It's all they know and all that works. ---"

Also very true. Middle Eastern societies are still very tribal... tribalist 13th century nations with 21st century firepower and tons of oil wealth. The thing to do would be to divest ourselves of Middle Eastern energy, and apply our full might into developing local resources. The wealth transfer to these barbarous heathens is nothing but a great shame upon us.

[seekeronos]

"--- Seek,Paul is no conservative or Libertarian.....Barr and Baldwin are liberal ass-clowns who could never win anything.Palin is our best chance. ---"

I can't speak too loudly for Bob Barr, as he kind of flip-flopped on numerous things, and had been in the neocon camp for some time.

But Dr. Baldwin and Dr. Paul are two men who have a far deeper lve and understanding of the Constitution than most folks in Washington:

They believe what General Washington said about avoiding entangling alliances with foreign powers.

They believe in sound, proven theories of Austrian School economics (sound money backed by a rare metallic standard) which in turn works to restrain the madness of the politico class.

They believe in the value and promise of the "meritocracy" over either the public welfare system of the Democrats or the corporate welfare system of the GOP.

And I believe that either of these two men would make a fine POTUS, setting the stage for much wider constitutionally-sound reforms in the way our governments do business.

They are conservatives in the same sense that Calvin Coolidge, Robert Taft, and Barry Goldwater were.

While you may call them "liberal" on account of their desire to end our involvement in policing the world, and because such a demobilization appears on the surface to be along the same lines as Code Pink or some other fruit-bat liberal position, in actuality, it is VERY conservative, in that it conserves our power to defend our coasts, our merchant trading lanes, our borders, and aerospace.

I'd be more than happy to see us withdraw from the UN (useless nations debating club) and NATO, and pull our troops home from every nation except for perhaps a few selected forward naval and air stations as required by certain bilateral treaties that are in our interests to maintain.

I'd much rather see $1BN per month freed up to be spent on developing and deploying alternative energy projects than the $12BN per month we spend pacifying a group of murderous tribalists who really don't care too much for us to be there.

The sooner we have energy independence, the better.

[Darth Malice]

The Iraq war has helped us.Lots of Al Quaeda were killed.I will tell you this war is being won.It got a whole lot better by the time I left.

[Darth Malice]

Seek then how come Paul did not win the Republican nomination?Baldwin's Consitution Party has no prayer .We are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan an enemy that will destroy us unless we crush them.Please trust me on this.We need a powerful military and giving our military to Obama is a huge mistake.

[Darth Malice]

Terry Paulbots and Libertarians are marxist with better haircuts

[seekeronos]

Not all Paulbots (or libertarians - note the "small-l") are created equal.

Realistically, you are 120% correct. The CP doesn't have a prayer - on a GOOD election day, they might seat a congressman or pick up upwards of 7% of the popular vote (no electoral votes of course). On a VERY good day.

The Libertarian Party will likely do a bit better by picking upwards of 10% of the popular vote, and may even muster a few EV's out in one of the North-westish small population states.

But the LP is much like a herd of cats, too many factions to effectively make the wider population happy (where the LP was commonly referred to as the "party of pot" for its dog-like adherence to that the infamous plank put in by the NORML wing of the party)

And Dr. Paul was effectively mustered out of the party, if not in fact then pretty much by virtue of shutting him out of the convention, and playing dirty ball at the caucuses and state-level conventions.

The neocons controlling the senior leadership of the party never came him a first look, much less a second.

McCain had help - Fred Thompson (God bless the man for anything else) was a stalking horse in SOuth Carolina to help kill the "Huckaboom". Rudy G. was a stalking horse for McCain elsewhere (particularly Florida). You watch, and see if they don't get cabinet positions, or maybe slotted for SCOTUS (in Fred's case, I'd not object one whit... but I'd likely not be too happy if gun-grabbing, cross-dressing, baby-killing Rudy got that job).

All things being equal, Dr. Paul would have had a much closer shot at the nomination had Rudy, Fred and Mitt not colluded to some large degree -- mostly to prevent a paleo-conservative like Dr. Paul well away from the nomination.

Now if you say that there were some nutballs associated with Dr. Paul's supporters, I won't tell you that you're wrong. There are some folks who were truly disconnected from reality who were on the fringes of his grass roots campaign.

But by and large, a lot of Paul supporters I met and dealt with are quite thoroughly normal folks like us who are just sick of the stupidity, vice, and evil coming out of D.C. from both parties (but especially the GOP).

Go check out the Campaign for Liberty (humour me) at http://www.campaignforliberty.com to see what the vision for (small-"l") liberty is about.

And by no means do I wish to gut our military: we most definitely should have the most powerful military on earth, capable of defending our soil, air, space, and waters from foreign invasion.

I just don't think we need a "virtual empire" with permament deployments to over 130 other foreign nations to do so.