piracy

Another day -- and another day of inaction by Obama with regard to the pirates. What a wimp!

Impoverished pirates

Ever notice that each story about the somali pirates mentions that they come from an impoverished country, or-- worse -- that they are impoverished themselves. Media as diverse as don Imus' show (where the pirates were called starving) and the New York Times (where the country was called impverished three times in one article) make the implicit point that we should understnad the motivations of these enemies of humanity since they are poor. This has to be one of the greatest bits of nonsense ever promoted in the media. In the last year, the pirates have received well over 100 million dollars in ransoms for various ships they have taken. Even in Somalia, 100 million dollars is a lot of money. Indeed, the pirates now have enough as a group to live well for the rest of their lives. they are not taking over these ships due to their poverty. They are seizing the ships since they are criminals who have no respect for the law. It would make great sense for the US and other countries who have been affected to attack and wipe out as many of these pirates as possible. We have every right to do so under international law. Pirates are specifically denied the coverage of the Geneva Conventions. Pirates are also not considered criminals who must be tried and convicted; rather, they are deemed enemies of humanity who have no rights whatsoever. I wonder if the Obama folks will ever bring themselves to take action against these brigands. I will not hold my breath waiting for action, though. So far, Obama is making Jimmy Carter look strong and decisive, and that, my friends, is saying something.

Why can't Obama be honest?

Today, President Obama is in Iraq touting his new policy for US involvement in that country. After a campaign full of endless criticism of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, Obama has now made clear his plans for this middle eastern battlefield. What are these new plans? Why, they are the same plans as those he denounced, the same as those of the Bush administration.

Obama wants to remove troops as the situation in Iraq improves and Iraq can take care of itself. Bush used to describe this policy as "we will sit down as the iraqi troops stand up." Obama also has a withdrawal plan where he only withdraws about 2/3 of the US troops in Iraq. This is pretty much in line with the plans announced by Bush last summer, although Bush's plans had less certainty about the dates.

Does anyone remember the Democrat attack ads that ran when McCain said that his goal was not removing troops, but rather saving lives, so that it would be ok with him to have US troops in Iraq for 100 years if it meant that they were not being wounded or killed. Now Obama is leaving 1/3 of the troops there and we do not hear a peep out of the same Democrats.

Wouldn't it be nice if obama just once were to congratulate the troops for victory in Iraq. We hear about the dead and wounded, but never about what they accomplished. No one among the Democrats has the guts to admit that Bush and the surge brought us victory rather than the defeat that Reid announced and most of his Democratic colleagues rooted for.

Words and Deed? or just words!

President Obama took the occasion of North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile to roundly condemn the actions of that rogue regime and call for serious sanctions against the crazies in Pyonyang. Okay, we got words from the master orator. Now we will get to see (with apologies to Peggy Lee) "Is that all there is?"

The NK leadership has come to realize that words will never hurt them and that words from the UN are never accompanied by sticks and stones. What will Obama and his minions do? Speak louder? Try different words? Those are my guesses, since the likelihood of serious countermeasures against NK coming from this administration is essentially nonexistant.

Let's see if Obama can limit himself to meaningless words without looking impotent and foolish. Let's see if obama can realize on his own that his words will have no effect.

It will be interesting to watch.

More on NY - 20

As the recanvas continues in NY-20, Tedesco, the Republican, keeps picking up votes. As of Friday morning he is a dozen votes ahead. We should know in two weeks who won for sure. right now, the republican looks to be in good shape.

NY-20 Update

As of Thursday morning, the results in the NY-so district election to Congress shows the Democrat only 13 votes ahead. With thousands of absentee and military votes still to be counted and with those remaining votes coming nearly 60% from registered Republicans, we are more likely than ever to see a victory for Tedesco, the Republican. This is a real slap at Obama who just carried the district in November with 61% of the vote.

NY-20

The special election yesterday in NY's 20th congressional district has ended with a very close race, but with the likely winner being the Republican. As of now, the tabulated vote shows Murphy, the Democrat, about 64 votes ahead. There are over 6000 absentee and military ballots still to be counted, however. Of these, ballots received from Republicans outnumber those from Democrats by close to 800. There is still time to receive more absentee and military ballots in the mail -- although the most likely number of additional votes is under 1000. As a result, if these additional ballots break along party lines (which is certainly likely), the Republican should triumph.

This district voted over 60% for obama in November and has been represented by a Democrat in the last two terms. It is much more Republican than the average NY district,but a Republican victory here would still be big news particularly since Obama lgot involved in the campaign (along with many other national Democratic figures).

The message seems clear here. The honeymoon is over for Obama.