SamSaid!

David Letterman is a bright, intelligent, articulate entertainer. To many, he is the ultimate entertainer  –  never mind the element of news. He likes to be out in front of his competitors, so he and his writers are always on the cutting edge of decency vs indecency or class vs crudeness. Always looking for anything new that they can get away with on prime time TV. A week ago he went overboard with his disgusting swipe at the daughter(s) of Sara Palin.  Now, give Sarah credit  –  she put him in his place. He has retreated to a public apology, but it has been lost in the uproar that is not likely to evaporate any time soon.

When Sarah burst on the national scene at the Rebublican  convention last year, the Dems were caught flatfooted. Their carefully scripted game plan was in jeopardy, so the war cry went out to their left wing legions  –  “Sarah Palin must be destroyed!” Go after her, her husband, her kids, anyone. And to a degree they succeeded. But Sarah hasn’t gone away and if anything, Letterman’s gaffe enhanced her popularity, especially among women.

Maybe Letternan’s popularity and ratings will remain high, but I think he will pay the price for his atrocious commentary   –  in his parlance, a “joke”.  Better keep laughing, Dave.  And be sure to read the scripts before delivering your ho-hos.

As far back as I can recall, the Secretary of State has been a horsepower member of our President’s cabinet, and our history books are full of famous names of SecStates. Now, Hillary Clinton follows a distinguished list of predecessors. Well, sort of. It is time to ask, “Where is Hillary?”.

Obama really is in love with the vertical pronoun  –  “I”, and there obviously is little room for sharing at the top. He has appointed his guys as the lead spokesmen in most of the key nations of the world and specifically the “hot spots”.  Hillary has all but disappeared.  When it comes to headlines Obama is in the lead with no one in 2nd place. Just think  –  a year ago she was close to being the most powerful woman in the world. Now she is a figurehead and little else.  We have N Korea, missiles, test blasts, Iran, Nukes, the UN, Israel, Airplane crashes, droughts, floods, the Russians, the Chinese, etc. etc., but no Hillary.

She is no shrinking violet and won’t be silenced forever. If her fuse is short, it won’t take long.

America is a great country when it comes to memorable events or speciall people. We have a national anthem, a national flag, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, A National Bird, and the list goes on and on. Now we are on the verge of a National biscuit or cookie. Obama has us well on the way. Just think about it  –  we now can see the fruits of Presidential equivocation,

I will end the Iraq war and bring the troops home  —-  except for the 50,000 who will remain.

I will close Guantanamo  —–  If we can figure out what to do with the “worst of the worst” prisoners.

I will urge the bad guys to behave    —   based on clever persuasive rhetoric rather than muscle  —NO really doesn’t mean NO

Government will be open and we will share information with the people. Transparency will be the watchword  —  except for the data and info we choose to keep secret.

When the newscasters accuse Obama and the Dems of using weasel words,  I think of a national breakfast favorite —–  the WAFFLE. It seems to fit the Democrat’s favorite rock hard position  –  waffling.  Hot off the gridle!  With or without the syruppie camouflage.  Fresh waffling every day!

A national cookie  –  The waffle.

Last week the Prez hosted a dinner for the Press corps and there were numerous offerings from the invitees. One of the speakers was a relatively obscure black comedienne named Wanda Sykes who offered the lowlight of the entire program when she hoped that Rush Limbaugh’s kidneys would fail.  The death wish brought laughter from the left wing press as well as the Prez. Pretty sad, really. But as her supporters said  –  “remember, it is only a joke”. If so, it was very sick humor.

Why not take it as a joke and give her the benefit of the doubt. But humor cuts both ways. Maybe our advice (and response) to Wanda would be “to fly your left wing colors and participate in a same sex marriage. That way you can’t contaminate the nation’s gene pool.  But remember , Wanda, ho ho ho it’s only a joke. Got that??  Tee Tee  Ho Ho. Joke, right??

There are memories, clear memories and selective memories.  Most if not all policians possess all three. Obama pledged open transparency in  government  — remember? And Nancy Pelosi followed suit by beating up on those deceitful Republicans. Remember? And now we have the public brouhaha over water boarding and “torture tactics” used in Iraq interrogations. The media simply gags at the thought of embarrassing Bam Bam or Nancy. So they switch the subject back to the economy.

Seriously, can you imagine being personally briefed on the “Interrogation ” techniques that were never intended to be used?  Why on earth would the CIA schedule briefings to high ranking people (40 briefings in all) on methods that would NOT be used. So now Nancy fumbles over her own words regarding waterboarding. Remember, this is the  #3 person in our government. Her politico buddies say that she may have mispoke. Lying is such a nasty word.

And then we have the “openness” idea from which Obama hides. There were any number of memos at the CIA and Obama was familiar with all of them. He — only he  –  selected the two to be released publicly and of course they cast doubt on the value of aggresssive interrogation. There were other memos that strongly supported the agressive interrogation techniques and offered examples of the high quality information obtained. But these memos have not been released and the stonewalling continues. To the Obama camp, transparency is about like looking thru a jar of molasses.

To most Americans, this pattern is clear, but the media is looking the other way. Don’t touch Obama!!  Who knows, he may throw Nancy to the wolves.

As a teenager I liked to read adventure stories taking place in far away places.  In those imaginative stories, torture went hand in hand with captured prisoners. Chinese water torture  was often used and described as was severing fingers one by one or stretching people on the rack.  People in the Middle Ages were very creative in their treatment of fellow men  — and women.  They would likely consider water boarding pretty tame. Now we have the battle of terminology.

The BamBams like to call aggresive questioning  torture while the Bushies talk about enhanced interrogation. And the Speaker (or is it the Speakess) of the House says she was briefed on interrogation techniques including water boarding but never dreamed that they would actually be used when interrogating the terrorists captured after 9/11. Come on Nancy, don’t make us barf. Can’t you just see a terrorist yelling “torture” and demanding a lawyer?  War is a messy business and BamBam is well advised to stay away from the details. When the world agrees on the line that separates torture from ordinary inquiry I’ll give a little more credence to BamBam’s cop-out. But when we are dealing with savages who include TVed beheading of prisoners just to spice up an Islamic lawn party I think we are naive to think that our polite rhetoric will have much of an influence on the so-called Mullahs.

One personal experience is instructive. Following WWII I made 5 trips to Japan and on one of our trips the guide/interpreter was a Japanese military officer captured on Okinawa. During a break,  we informally discussed nuclear weapons and the A-bombing of Hiroshima. His comment about the A Bomb was brief and to the point  —  ” If we had it, we would have used it”.

Spare me the squeamish hypocrisy over water boarding.

NERO

During the 50 years before the coming of Christ, the Emporer of Rome was Nero. He was not one of the great ones, and is mostly remembered by the phrase “Nero fiddled while Rome burned”. I can still recall the picture in the History book —   A befuddled Nero standing on his balcony holding his violin watching the major fires in Rome. It is still the classic example of a leader preoccupied with trivia while major tasks go undone.

That brings me to appearance of BHO on the the Jay Leno show last week.

Granted, the Prez is a busy guy without much time for fun, and  he is certainly entitled to a bit of levity and light humor. No argument here. But his preoccupation with the NCAA basketball brackets seems a bit out of character while his pet spending projects and key operatives are floundering in Washington. He has painted the critical need for swift action in his doom and gloom scenarios on TV any time he gets the chance. If these bills are so important, why isn’t he in Washington twisting arms?  No doubt, the left wing press will not draw the Nero comparison, but other journalists may well wonder about his fiddling in LA while Washington is ablaze.

Maybe he needs more time to make Chris Dodd look salvagable

I’ve been a baseball fan since I was 6 years old, so early on I learned about baseball terms and acronyms –  LOB, BA, AB, RBI, ERA, SB, K, DP, etc., etc.  Now that our media is dedicated to the world of high finance (or low finance??), there are many more acronyms or abbreviations in play. AIG is a good example.  Last year I probably thought AIG meant  Almost inconceivable  Greed, or maybe Average Industrial Growth, or maybe even Almost Intelligent Guesswork. But not a financial giant big enough to turn the world upside down. Now our history books will refer to the Scandal of the Bonuses (SOBs)

The formula for sure failure is (a) make sure the project is huge  b) make sure it has many parts  c) Make sure is is very complex  d) make sure it is prepared in secrecy e) make sure it is approved in a hurry under a lot of time pressure f) Make sure there isn’t time to read the text, and g) press for a quick vote.

The Democrats succeeded admirably in the AIG Bailout package. It went  by script except for the little matter of $156 Million dollars paid AIG people as as bonuses. Now all the finger pointing starts amidst the BamBams.  I can see it all coming. A full blown investigation  –  maybe 6 months or so– followed by a report that says something bad happened but it wasn’t anyone’s fault. End of case.

Personally, I have no support for $40 – 50 million bonuses to anyone for any purpose, any time, any where for any reason. That is wholly inconsistent with any thing as simple as goals and achievements. Culprits should not be rewarded. On the other hand I have no sympathy with the Democrats in congress. They passed the bill blindfolded and now they want to blame others for their own stupidity. We the taxpayers are going to be stuck with the bill either way. But rank hypocricy is suffocating what is left of good government. BamBam’ words have been eloquent. But will he face down his own troops who have screwed up royally?  I doubt it. Not even sacking Chris Dodd.

When Sarah Pilan appeared at the Republican Party Convention last fall,  The Bamacrats were caught flat footed. Surprised at her looks, TV presence, and  verbal skills they knew that she would have to be marginalized –  promptly. The task of character assassination of Sarah, her husband and her family fell to the Obama Adoration Choir  –  the Democratic dominated mass media.  And attack her they did. The word went out across the land  — “Destroy Sarah”, and to a large degree they succeeded. “No mercy, Babe.  Sorry”

Now we are at Chapter 2, and this time the target is Rush Limbaugh, who is a radio commentator slinging barbs at the Bamacrats. But this time, BamBam himself and his henchmen are personally   involved in delivering the message, “Destroy Limbaugh”. The attack is on, led by the Torquemada of the Bam Bam staff, Rahm Emmanuel.  Rush might be a tougher adversary than Sarah Pilan, since he has a devoted following of 20 million voters and also has access to the national airwaves every day….. and he can choose the agenda and ask very difficult questions.

In the spirit of openness, fairness and good government, Bab Bam may play his trump card and use the force of the Democratic Congress to force Rush off the air. Watch the public debate over the “Fairness” doctrine, but don’t let it fool you. Nothing Fair about it. Just using our tax dollars to negate the free speech comments of Rush. He won’t go down without a battle. But this is another example of BamBam “change”. If Rush gets in the way, “Destroy him”.

Question  —   Is it possible for eloquence to become boring??  Something to think about.

When I first heard and observed BHO speak publicly, maybe  2 years ago, like many others I was duly impressed. He can really turn a phrase and has a very good command of the English language. And I continued to be favorably impressed as the campaign progressed and he made major speeches at conventions, Party gatherings, debates, nominations, etc etc etc. He clearly has an ongoing love affair with microphones and captive audiences, and many audiences still are captive to his eloquence.

By the time we got to the $787 Billion speech plus the $400 Billion Budget his pitchmanship had begun to run a little thin. I wondered aloud if I was watching a re-run since his deliverances had begun to sound pretty much the same. Is this the Prez addressing the country  or just another campaign speech? Have I heard this before??

I answered my own question. Yes, it is possible for eloquence to become boring?  And once it becomes boring, it is no longer eloquent.  It just becomes smoke and mirrors.

Whatever became of what we used to call straight talk??  For example, ……  “The probabiliity is something less that positive… ”    How about just saying NO?