"I felt as if I were walking with Destiny and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial. Eleven years in the political wilderness had freed my from ordinary party antagonism. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed and were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Fact are better than dreams."
There is an air of absurdity to what is mistakenly called "health-care reform." Everyone knows that the United States faces massive governmental budget deficits as far as calculators can project, ....
It would create new, open-ended medical entitlements that threaten higher deficits and would do little to suppress surging health costs. The disconnect between what President Obama says and what he's doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president, his advisers and allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both....
The campaign to pass Obama's health-care plan has assumed a false, though understandable, cloak of moral superiority....
The pretense of moral superiority further erodes before all the expedient deceptions used to sell Obama's health-care agenda. ......
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"Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness. A sincere love of peace is no excuse for muddling hundreds of millions of humble folk into total war. The cheers of the weak, well-meaning assemblies soon cease to count. Doom marches on."
Even if the president eventually sends a significant number of additional troops and allows General McChrystal to implement a counterinsurgency strategy, this painfully drawn out process has had negative consequences and does not bode well for the future U.S. commitment in Afghanistan. As a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant emailed to me after reading one of my Corner posts:
"Our service members are dying and the president is dithering. I have been in the military while a president dithered or failed to make a tough decision, it is eviscerating, and a rot settles in. “Commander in Chief” is not just a fancy title. The president is the ultimate officer and like any poor officer his failure to make tough decisions is seen as a weakness by his NCOs and men. Morale, that most fragile base of any good military unit suffers immediately. When our officers are fearful and indecisive, we become fearful and indecisive.
NCOs find reasons not to patrol or to avoid high-risk areas, Convoys are diverted to avoid possible confrontation, our allies desert us and the advantage is ceded to the enemy.
And this happen quickly, weeks are all that’s left to keep the advantage in Afghanistan. After a certain point in time “mission weariness” begins to settle in and the edge is lost on our weapon and almost impossible to regain. Quite frankly I fear that the time to make a difference is quickly slipping away and even if he eventually approves the fully levy of Gen McChrystal’s request the momentum may have been permanently lost."
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Re ‘Two Profiles in Class’ [Jay Nordlinger]
Since January 20, I have thought occasionally of that famous JFK putdown of Nixon: “No class.” I thought of it when President Obama knocked George W. Bush on foreign soil — to a group of Turkish students. I thought of it when he laughed his head off at a death-to-Rush joke. I thought of it when he told those New York donors that Republicans can’t think for themselves. And I’ve thought of it now that he has slimed conservative protesters as “teabaggers.”
Remember when we were told that the best thing about Barack Obama would be his temperament? I’m not sure it’s better than his policies.
EUGENE - University of Oregon senior running back LeGarrette Blount has been reinstated to the Ducks' football program and will be available to play Saturday when they host Arizona State in a game scheduled to kickoff at 7:20 p.m. (PST), according to an announcement from the school's head coach Chip Kelly Monday.
Blount, who has missed Oregon's last eight games after being suspended by Kelly following the season-opening loss at Boise State, has remained a member of the team and has participated in practice since the post-game incident which led to his suspension.
Kelly said he forwarded his recommendation for Blount's reinstatement to Oregon Athletics Director Mike Bellotti Sunday night, who in turn passed it along to University President Richard Lariviere and Pacific-10 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott.
Blount's suspension was originally announced to encompass the entire 2009 season, but Kelly announced on Oct. 2 the potential for reinstatement contingent upon the running back completing a series of conditions to the satisfaction of athletics department, University and Pac-10 officials. Kelly emphasized that Blount would continually be held accountable to those conditions for the remainder of the year.
"I'm grateful to Coach Kelly that he cares enough to offer me this second chance," Blount said. "Now it is up to me to prove to people that their lasting impressions of me are not what they saw in Boise.
"When I am ready to address this further with the public and the media, I will do so," Blount added. "Until that time, I feel my actions can speak louder than anything I could say. I just want to help my teammates who have been supportive of me."
The Ducks' 1,000-yard rusher from a year ago was held to minus 5 yards in his only appearance this year in a 19-8 loss at Boise State.
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Earlier today, the Democratic Party of Virgina left this on my door to remind me that the outcome of the Virginia Governor's race does not reflect upon the popularity or public support of Barack Obama(sarcasm)
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