Motley Moose – Archive

That’s part of the title of a piece from The Times regarding this week’s visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.

From this…

To this…

I have to admit that I have mixed emotions when it comes to Florida Democratic Representative Alan Grayson.  I do appreciate that he is willing to give it back to Republicans.  I, however, do think he can take things a bit too far.

I’ll let you decide this one.

“I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you,” she said at a recent panel discussion with tea party leaders in Washington.

Who said this?  Not just anyone “ordinary citizen” but the wife of a Supreme Court justice ~ specifically Virginia Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, who went on to say that she was energized by President Obama’s “hard-left agenda.”

“I adore all the new citizen patriots who are rising up across this country,” Thomas, who goes by Ginni, said on the panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “I have felt called to the front lines with you, with my fellow citizens, to preserve what made America great.”

Where is everyone?  I can talk to myself any day of the week but y’all can’t be that busy.

Last week Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen indicated strong support for a repeal of DADT.  Sec. Gates, to the consternation of some, said that the military would conduct an 11-month review that, as Rep. Barney Franks later stated, would dictate how (but not whether) DADT would be repealed.

In what may be the most recent salvo in the fight to repeal DADT, word comes today that Daniel Choi, the gay military rights advocate, is back doing regular drill duty (that one weekend a month thing).

I volunteered to do a live blog ’cause our aged member across the pond claims it’ll be past his bedtime.  I’m posting it a bit early to give folks a chance to settle in and discuss what they want the president to say or not say.

The president steps up to the podium sometime after 9:00pm ~ after the entrances by the cabinet and whatnot.  And after he’s gladhanded members of Congress who reach out their hands like teenaged groupies (I hollered like a 12-year-old when I saw him during the primaries so I can say that). Just, please, no Bachmann/Bush-style kissing allowed.  Blech!

Then the president will stand at the podium for five minutes saying, “Thank you!  Thank you!” while members of the Democratic Caucus cheer and Republicans … don’t.  Then all with settle down and the president will begin his address.

In an “exclusive” The Washington Times, which is considered right-leaning, notes:

President Obama notched substantial successes in spending cuts last year, winning 60 percent of his proposed cuts and managing to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years.

snip

The administration says Congress accepted at least $6.9 billion of the $11.3 billion in discretionary spending cuts Mr. Obama proposed for the current fiscal year.

snip

Among the president’s victories are canceling the multibillion-dollar F-22 Raptor program, ending the LORAN-C radio-based ship navigation system and culling a series of low-dollar education grants. In each of those cases, Mr. Obama succeeded in eliminating programs that Mr. Bush repeatedly failed to end.

The article notes that this still accounts for less than 1-half of 1 percent of the total budget.  But, hey, you gotta start somewhere.

forgets 9/11?

“What [Obama] should be doing is following the right things Bush did. One of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama,” Giuliani said.

At the end of last year, or the last decade if you prefer, President Obama named Amanda Simpson as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department, specifically in the Bureau of Industry and Security.  Her job will be to monitor the exportation of weapsons systems.

As a general rule this would probably be a rather routine appointment.  After all, Ms. Simpson

brings considerable professional credentials to her new job. For thirty years, she has worked in the aerospace and defense industry, most recently serving as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona. She holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration along with an extensive flight background.

This appointment, however, has generated some controversy because Ms. Simpson is one of the first transgender presidential appointments.

I couldn’t come up with a catchy title like Chris so I’ll let the video speak for itself.