Well, trouble may be brewing with the folks north of the border.  Although I don’t think anything approaching a resumption of hostilities is imminent, I believe everyone expects some type of provocation by Mr. Kim, Jong Il.  Question is what type and where?

A situation like this calls for a repeat viewing of Team America: World Police.  Which I did just the other night. 

There is no disputing that Mr. Kim is an asshole.  I guess we will find out soon if the USA is gonna be a dick or a pussy.

Pussies don’t like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn’t appropriate – and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves… because pussies are an inch and half away from ass holes. I don’t know much about this crazy, crazy world, but I do know this: If you don’t let us fuck this asshole, we’re going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!

(My favorite quote from Team America.)

Commenter VJ noted that when it comes to national security poliices, it’s hard to see much difference between Obama and his predecessor.   It is all about nuance, my friend.  Watch and learn:

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Hat Tip: Instapundit

As the Instapundit is prone to say: They told me if I voted for McCain the Bush administration anti-terrorism policies would remain in place.  And they were right!

On the bright side, this is change I can believe in.

Over at The Corner they have a nice take on the big showdown between Cheney and Obama:

President Obama and former Vice President Cheney weren’t so much a study in contrast today as a portrait of harmony. Both men agree that the Bush administration’s anti-terrorist policies were largely correct. Cheney signaled his acceptance of this view by vigorously defending those policies. Obama signaled it by largely adopting those same policies and emitting a fog of words to cover up the fact.

I’d say that pretty much nails it.

Well, the USA as we knew it anyway.  Don’t miss Victor David Hanson’s take on the situation.  Pretty much captures my sentiments.

An excerpt:

Obama could have had a one-time stimulus, then vowed to balance the budget. He might have praised wind and solar as he asked the carbon industry to ‘get us through.’ He could have politely disagreed with Bush, but framing differences in the tragic notion of no good choices. He might have cooled the overseas apologies, savvy that other nations have more to apologize for than his own. Obama should have established zero-tolerance for tax avoidance at a time of record tax increases. He could have remonstrated with Wall Street, and sought to rein in excess without Europeanizing the financial sector. He could have proactively reformed entitlements with bipartisan support, rather than, as will happen, drastically address them in the 11th hour. But then to do all that would be to assume he never went to Trinity Church, knew no Rev. Wright, Ayers, Khalidi, etc., did not run mysterious campaigns that eliminated opponents before the elections, was not the most partisan Senator in Congress, and avoided rather crude social and racial stereotyping while campaigning. Most who read this will not agree, given the mesmerizing effect of the Obama charisma. But in time, unless there are radical changes, I think the nation will come to learn that such talent was not put in service to our collective welfare.

Read the whole thing.  If you have the stomach for it.

…well, can it get any worse?

Man, oh man.  This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.  I keep thinking it can’t get worse.  Someone, anyone, please tell me it doesn’t get worse.

Oh my.

Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block and, over the next four years, he will spectacularly sell out the interests of the West with every kind of liberal-delusionist initiative on nuclear disarmament and sitting down to negotiate with any power freak who wants to buy time to get a good ICBM fix on San Francisco, or wherever. If you thought the world was a tad unsafe with Dubya around, just wait until President Pantywaist gets into his stride.

Read the whole thing…

More hope and change from The One:

“Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.” That’s what President Barack Obama said to Rep. Peter DeFazio in a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week, according to the Associated Press.

A few weeks ago, Mr. DeFazio voted against the administration’s stimulus bill. The comment from Mr. Obama was a presidential rebuke and part of a new, hard-nosed push by the White House to pressure Congress to adopt the president’s budget. He has mobilized outside groups and enlisted forces still in place from the Obama campaign.

Its targets were initially Republicans, as team Obama ran ads depicting the GOP as the “party of no.” But now the fire is being trained on Democrats worried about runaway spending.

Americans United is going after Democrats who are skeptical of Mr. Obama’s plans to double the national debt in five years and nearly triple it in 10. The White House is taking aim at lawmakers in 12 states, including Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. MoveOn.Org is running ads aimed at 10 moderate Senate and House Democrats. And robocalls are urging voters in key districts to pressure their congressman to get in line.

Support continues to decline for the proposition that a big boost in government spending will lead America to prosperity. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll early last month found that 61% of Americans were concerned that “the federal government will spend too much money” (up 12 points from December), and only 29% were concerned “it will spend too little money to try to boost the economy.”

This growing skepticism will not be assuaged by White House Budget Director Peter Orszag’s bewildering response when asked by a reporter last week about increasing federal debt. He said, “I don’t know what spiraling debt you’re referring to.”

Members of Congress should also worry about how Mr. Obama is “keeping score.” He is steeped in the ways of Chicago politics and has not forgotten his training in the methods once used by Saul Alinsky, the radical Chicago community organizer.

Alinsky’s 1971 book, “Rules for Radicals,” is a favorite of the Obamas. Michele Obama quoted it at the Democratic Convention. One Alinsky tactic is to “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” That’s what the White House did in targeting Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer. (The president’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, went so far as to lash all three from the White House press podium.) It may also explain Mr. Obama’s comments to Mr. DeFazio.

After all, Alinsky’s first rule of “power tactics” is “power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.” Team Obama wants to remind its adversaries it has plenty of power, and it does. The question is whether the White House will wield it responsibly. The jury is still out, but certain clues are beginning to emerge. “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother,” even if said with a wink and a smile, isn’t quite the “new politics” we were told to expect.

To further enjoy the irony (or perhaps more aptly, hypocrisy) here’s the ad MoveOn.org ran about the comparitively small deficits under Bush (updated to reflect the pending disaster Obama is creating):
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Let me apologize now to my sweet granddaughter Gracyn.  The country went temporarily (I hope) insane.  Sorry you have to pay for that madness.

but I admit to a fair amount of disgust.  I keep telling myself we survived 4 years of Jimmy Carter, but the world is a much more dangerous place these days.  A bad time to have a fool in the White House.

Scott Johnson at Power Line has a post today that pretty much captures my sentiments.  Probably the only reason I am not depressed is because I’m 7000 miles away and don’t have to see America’s destruction up close and personal.  It is much easier to think about North Korean biological warheads raining down on Seoul.  Here’s some excerpts for those too lazy or unmotivated to click the link:

I feel utterly powerless to do anything about the fellow in the Oval Office who combines infantile leftism and adolescent grandiosity in roughly equal measures. It seems to me that every day he is responsible for assaults on the freedom and well being of the American people. I can’t keep up and I can’t stand to pay attention.

His aim seems to be to reduce us to government dependents. His inattention to rehabilitation of the financial system in lieu of vastly expanding the size and scope of the government is a dead giveaway, as is his lack of concern over the vast destruction of wealth his policies are working (and will continue to work).

Perhaps most depressing to me is the manifestation of his adolescent grandiosity in his stewardship of foreign policy and national security. He doesn’t understand that the government of Iran is intent on acquiring nuclear weapons it can put to evil purposes. He thinks he can sweet-talk them out of achieving this objective.

He doesn’t understand that the government of Iran is a tyranny that oppresses the Iranian people. He thus addresses the mad mullahs as though they represent the people of Iran.

Get a clue, man! The mullahs who rule Iran with an iron fist hate you and everything you represent. They hate you in part because they view you as an apostate. They hate you in part because you represent the United States. They hate you in part because you represent the American people. They don’t hate us becasuse President Bush didn’t talk nice to them!

Thus his response to Vice President Cheney’s criticism of Obama for undoing, and vowing to undo, the Bush administration policies that kept the American people safe from attack safe for seven years after 9/11:

President Obama, rejecting former Vice President Dick Cheney’s contention that Obama has put the nation at greater risk of terrorism, suggests in an interview airing tonight on “60 Minutes” that the previous administration’s stance was an “advertisement for anti-American sentiment.”

“How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?” Obama asks. “It hasn’t made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment.”

“Brought to justice”? Good god, man, what the hell are you talking about? I don’t know what he is talking about — they haven’t seen the inside of the United States District Court for the District of Colulmbia? — but I do understand what Obama means when he says the Bush policies were “a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment.” Obama and his fellow Democrats helped make them so by spreading pernicious falsehoods about their illegality and cruelty. Even worse, like the pitiful Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Obama aspires for us to be be well liked!

I am depressed because the president of the United States is a fool who will immiserate us, render us wards of the state and lose us our life and liberty to those who understand what they are about.

Hell, after reading that again, maybe I am depressed.Scott’s blogging partner John Hinderaker offers this video as inspiration not to give up the good fight:

(Hmmm, I can’t seem to imbed the video.  Here’s the link, go have a look and be inspired) 

Carpe diem and all that.  HooAh!

So, it turns out I am VERY conservative. Big surprise huh? Actually, it really kind of is a surprise, at least to me. Certainly, I had my thinking set straight about some things one beautiful September morning in 2001, but otherwise my core beliefs and values haven’t changed all that much. I mean, I didn’t vote for my first Republican until 2004. So, maybe all those years I thought of myself as a moderate Democrat were just living a lie.

Anyway, I am out of the closet now. So, where do you stand? Take the quiz here. And if you got the guts, leave your score in the comments.

I scored 209. 146

UPDATE: I actually scored a 146. 209 is the mean. Thanks to Jenn for pointing that out.

…same as the old boss?

Well, we can always “hope”.

I don’t write much about politics these days. Not that I don’t care, but being several thousand miles away from the Homeland does take some of the edge off the things that used to get me worked up.

So we have a new President. Not the one I would have preferred, but the only American President we got. And for that reason alone he has my respect and sincere best wishes for success in the job.

I read some pundit who said those who didn’t vote for Obama will be less disappointed in his presidency than those who did. I think that’s probably right. One of the scariest things during the election cycle was the press and Obama partisans portrayal of him as a messiah-like savior of the nation, hell the world. Well, you heard it here first folks, Obama does not walk on water. Trust me on that.

Today, I am hoping that Obama can at least live up to his predecessor’s achievments. Foremost among them is that we have not had a successful terrorist attack on American soil since that fateful September morning in 2001. I hope that Mr. Obama has the good judgment not to dismantle the tools that have made that possible.

And Bush’s steadfastness and refusal to surrender led to victory in Iraq, something Obama said couldn’t be done. I hope Obama has the political courage to see us through to victory in Afghanistan (a war he did support) as well.

Good luck Mr. Obama. God bless America.

Last night I dreamed I was John McCain’s running mate.

And we STILL lost the election!

Go figure.

Well, seeing the hypocrite Obama Hussein, er, Hussein Barack, um, well, you know that guy with three years of Senate experience who thinks he should be the leader of the free world, squirm over the NAFTA kerfluffle is quite entertaining.

So, the plan is to mend our relations with the world by unilaterally repudiating a multilateral treaty? Yeah, that will work. And I guess not being a lying politician (sorry for the redundancy) isn’t the kind of change Mr. Obama is talking about. Hell, I already had him pegged for a Carter-like weasel anyway.

No, what has been great has been the reaction up north. Our Canadian cousins are calling Barack out on his double talking, and the Obama-maniacs are taking it rather poorly. Noam Scheiber, Obama’s chief economist, wonders: What is it with these Canadians? Are they running some sort of entrapment operation up there? Why do they keep trying to torpedo Democratic candidates?”

HaHa! Yeah, just what are those wacky Canucks up too? Trying to get McCain elected?

Nah, Daniel Drezner has got it all figured out:

Based on my extensive experience with the people of the Great White North, I’ll be happy to answer Scheiber’s question. All understanding about Canadians are based on based on three very simply rules of thumb:

1) Canadians are the most polite people on earth. Really, compared to Americans, it’s just embarrassing at times. Canadians never lose their temper in meetings, ever. This is deceptive, however, because…..

2) Canadians are also the most passive-aggressive nationality on earth. For their entire lives, Canadians have had to cope with the fact that everyone assumes they’re essentially just like Americans — including Americans. The best way to make a Canadian blow a gasket is to mistake them for an American. There are other dyads that have this kind of dynamic as well (Russia-Ukraine, Australia-New Zealand), but among Canadians it leads to this kind of resentment boiling just beneath the surface that, if ever unleashed, would look like a scene from 28 Days Later.

This has a profound effect on Canadian behavior vis-a-vis the rest of the world, because just when you think a Canadian is on your side, s/he does something that completely gums up the works of a policy initiative. In the case of Canadian-American relations, this is compounded by the final rule….

3) Canadians are really schizophrenic about American attention. On the one hand, countries that are the focus of lots of American attention don’t necessarily fare all that well. Canadians like the fact that their country is often below the radar.

That said, I’m always surprised when, every four years, Canadians ask me, “So will Canada be an issue in the presidential campaign?” Every time, I say, “no chance in hell.” Clearly I’ve been proven wrong this year, but this is because the Canadians themselves lengthened the news cycle.

So to answer Noam’s question: the Canadians are doing what they’re doing because they don’t want any Americans taking Canada for granted. But they’ll do it as politely as possible.

Try applying these rules whenever one deals with Canadians — they’re easy, and fun!

I basically gave you lazy people who won’t follow a link all of Mr. Drezner’s piece (hope he forgives the violation of fair use), but click the link anyway because the comments are quite entertaining as well.

And to my Canadian buds here in Korea all I can say is pretty good stuff, eh?

Well, one of these days I’m gonna sit down and write about the presidential campaign. But this is not that day. Now that my man Thompson has dropped out I’m not sure where my loyalties lie (Huckabee being the only one I could not vote for). I presume regular readers know that Billary and Hussein would be nightmares. Anyway, all I know for sure is that a change is gonna come. Don’t believe me? Check out this video for proof:

Classic.