Yesterday, I turned 53.  I had a nice afternoon and evening with my bride (the Queen of Christmas) as we sifted through our 6 plastic tubs of accumulated Christmas decorations.

As we sorted through our mess, trying to make something beautiful out of it, Herman Cain was attempting to do the same:

Per the Los Angeles Times:

Herman Cain, the insurgent populist whose candidacy has been ensnared by allegations of sexual impropriety, said Saturday that he is leaving the race for the Republican presidential nomination, saying that the allegations have cast a “cloud of doubt over me and this campaign.”

“As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign,” he said at an event in Atlanta. “I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt . . . on me, on my family, not because we are not fighters, not because I am not a fighter.”

Cain’s campaign had sent mixed signals as to his future since Ginger White, an Atlanta woman who claims to have had an affair with Cain for more than a decade, went public with her story earlier this week. While Cain has said he has been “reassessing” his candidacy, he also, at times, has been fiercely defiant, suggesting that unnamed enemies have been trying to do him in and vowing to press forward.

“The pundits would like for me to shut up, drop out and go away,” he said. “I am not going to be silenced, and I am not going away.”

White’s claims came after Cain faced weeks of allegations of sexual misconduct by at least three women stemming from his tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Assn. in the late 1990s.

Even as Cain continued to decry the claims as “false” and “baseless,” the sheer weight of the scandal has taken a brutal toll on the campaign, diverting Cain from advocating the “9-9-9” tax plan that helped turn him into a household name almost overnight, costing him financial support, and damaging him in the polls.

Whether or not Cain is guilty of infidelity seems to pale in comparison, as Americans take stock of the political hatchet job perpetrated on the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.

For instance, consider the following blog, published on alternet.org, on 2/15/11.  The web master describes the writer as the

Editor and founder of the blog We Are Respectable Negroes which has been featured by the NY Times, the Utne Reader, and The Atlantic Monthly. Writing under a pseudonym, Chauncey DeVega’s essays on race, popular culture, and politics have appeared in various books, as well as on such sites as the Washington Post’s The Root and Popmatters.

Check out this “respectable” hit piece:

…When race minstrelsy was America’s most popular form of mass entertainment, black actors would often have to pretend to be white men, who then in turn would put on the cork to play the role of the “black” coon, Sambo, or Jumping Jim Crow. Adding insult to injury, in a truly perverse and twisted example of the power of American white supremacy black vaudevillians would often pretend to be white in order to denigrate black people for the pleasures of the white gaze.

Herman Cain–an ironic name if ever, and one more suited to a tragic figure in a Harlem Renaissance era novella–is not “blackening twice” as some race minstrels chose to do.

[Unfortunately, the attendees at CPAC are not the butt of some type of joke where the white man wearing the cork is really a black man in secret.]

Instead, Herman Cain’s shtick is a version of race minstrelsy where he performs “authentic negritude” as wish fulfillment for White Conservative fantasies. Like the fountain at Lourdes, Cain in his designated role as black Conservative mascot, absolves the White racial reactionaries at CPAC of their sins. This is a refined performance that Black Conservatives have perfected over many decades and centuries of practice.

Let’s consider the routine. First, Cain enters the stage to Motown music. Then Cain feigns swimming after rolling up his sleeves to show them his black skin and how he is a hardworking negro (not like those other ones). Cain bellows in a preacher affected voice and channels the folksy negro down home accent of his late grandpappy. In the money shot, Cain gives the obligatory “black folks who are not Republicans are on the plantation” speech to the joyous applause of his White benefactors. And he doubles down by legitimating any opposition to President Barack Obama as virtuous and patriotic regardless of the bigoted well-springs from which it may flow.

In total, CPAC is a carnival and a roadshow for reactionary Conservatives. It is only fitting that in the great tradition of the freak show, the human zoo, the boardwalk, and the great midway world’s fairs of the 19th and 20th centuries, that there is a Borneo man, a Venus Hottentot or a tribe of cannibals from deepest darkest Africa or Papua New Guinea on display. For CPAC and the White Conservative imagination, Herman Cain and his black and brown kin are that featured attraction.

We always need a monkey in the window, for he/she reminds us of our humanity while simultaneously reinforcing a sense of our own superiority. Sadly, there are always folks who are willing to play that role because it pays so well.

Classy, huh?

If Cain actually did everything he is accused of, then, he certainly did not deserve to be president.

If though, he is innocent of the “charges” leveled against him, then Americans need to step back and consider the double standard practiced by a Liberal ideology and its Media minions that revere a former president who disgraced the Oval Office with an intern, and yet jump upon alleged, unproven infidelities concerning a man who was not even his party’s nominee, yet.

John Edwards was unavailable for comment on this story (mainly, because I didn’t ask him to.)

Under the cover of a Friday Night Document Dump, as has been the wont of this Administration when they have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, President Barack Hussein Obama and his minions…

...provided Congress with documents detailing how department officials gave inaccurate information to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border.

In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not sanctioned the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser and that the agency makes every effort to intercept weapons that have been purchased illegally. In Operation Fast and Furious, both statements turned out to be incorrect.

The Justice Department letter was responding to Grassley’s statements that the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations the ATF had sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers. Grassley also said there were allegations that two of the assault weapons had been used in a shootout that killed customs agent Brian Terry.

In an email four days later to Justice Department colleagues, then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix said that “Grassley’s assertions regarding the Arizona investigation and the weapons recovered” at the “murder scene are based on categorical falsehoods. I worry that ATF will take 8 months to answer this when they should be refuting its underlying accusations right now.” That email marked the start of an internal debate in the Justice Department over what and how much to say in response to Grassley’s allegations. The fact that there was an ongoing criminal investigation into Terry’s murder prompted some at the Justice Department to argue for less disclosure.

Some of what turned out to be incorrect information was emailed to Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division. Breuer sent an email saying “let’s help as much as we can” in responding to Grassley.

The emails sent to Capitol Hill on Friday showed that Burke supplied additional incorrect information to the Justice Department’s criminal division that ended up being forwarded to Breuer. For example, Burke said that the guns found at the Terry murder scene were purchased at a Phoenix gun shop before Operation Fast and Furious began. In fact, the operation was under way at the time and the guns found at the Terry murder scene were part of the probe. Breuer was one of the recipients of that information. In written comments this week to Grassley, Breuer said that he was on a three-day official trip to Mexico at the time of the Justice Department response and that he was aware of, but not involved in, drafting the Justice Department statements to Grassley. Breuer says he cannot say for sure whether he saw a draft of the letter before it was sent to Grassley.

Where Burke got the inaccurate information is now part of an inquiry conducted by the inspector general’s office at the Justice Department.

So, someone who reports to Attorney General Eric Holder is investigating Eric Holder?

Heck, I feel better already, don’t you?

Rep. Darrell Issa has also been investigating this tragic fiasco for over a year now.  He was interviewed during a breakfast, hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, by The Washington Times:

“It is not about one person,” said Mr. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, during a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

“It is about a failure that seems to be pervasive within Justice that investigations play fast and loose with the expectations of what is right or wrong when it comes to what I am going to call collateral damage,” he said.

Mr. Issa said Fast and Furious was not the first federal investigation in which “bad people are allowed to continue to do bad things in the name of going after bad people.” He said he was not joining dozens of Republican congressmen in calling for Mr. Holder’s resignation in part because his committee had not “reached all the conclusions that are appropriate in this investigation.”

“(Mr. Holder) did not order this operation,” Mr. Issa said. “He didn’t demand they do something this stupid.” He said Mr. Holder should fix the problem and it was up to the White House to decide whether the attorney general should go.

Mr. Issa said congressional investigators had established that Fast and Furious was a “dumb program” and were now looking into a suspected “coverup” and also trying make sure a similar operation never happens again.

But, Rep. Issa…isn’t Eric Holder in charge of the Justice Department?  Therefore, he is responsible for everything that happened under his leadership.

Furthermore, isn’t President Barack Hussein Obama, the boss of Eric Holder?

Therefore, isn’t he responsible for Eric Holder’s performance as Attorney General?

Where does the buck stop, Rep. Issa?

Is it April Fool’s Day already?

President Barack Hussein Obama must think so.

The AP reports that President Obama tried to assuage Jewish supporters during a fundraising stop in New York hosted by a prominent Jewish donor, who had been billed among prospective fundraisers ahead of time as a chance for a “substantive and candid” discussion about concerns in the Jewish community.

Chief among them has been Israel and lingering questions among some Jewish voters about the administration’s commitment to Israel.

When the fundraiser’s host, American Jewish Congress chairman Jack Rosen, mentioned “concerns” about the ties between Israel and the U.S., Obama declared, “We don’t compromise when it comes to Israel’s security.”

According to the AP report, Obama said no ally surpasses Israel in importance to the U.S.

Yeah, right.  That used to be the case, prior to January 2009.

Tell us another story, Uncle Barry.

Allow me to direct your attention to the president’s Foreign Policy Speech last May 19th, when he said:

Now, ultimately, it is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to take action. No peace can be imposed upon them — not by the United States; not by anybody else. But endless delay won’t make the problem go away. What America and the international community can do is to state frankly what everyone knows — a lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples: Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people, and the state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people, each state enjoying self-determination, mutual recognition, and peace.

So while the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated, the basis of those negotiations is clear: a viable Palestine, a secure Israel. The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.

…Now, let me say this: Recognizing that negotiations need to begin with the issues of territory and security does not mean that it will be easy to come back to the table. In particular, the recent announcement of an agreement between Fatah and Hamas raises profound and legitimate questions for Israel: How can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist? And in the weeks and months to come, Palestinian leaders will have to provide a credible answer to that question. Meanwhile, the United States, our Quartet partners, and the Arab states will need to continue every effort to get beyond the current impasse.

I recognize how hard this will be. Suspicion and hostility has been passed on for generations, and at times it has hardened. But I’m convinced that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians would rather look to the future than be trapped in the past. We see that spirit in the Israeli father whose son was killed by Hamas, who helped start an organization that brought together Israelis and Palestinians who had lost loved ones. That father said, “I gradually realized that the only hope for progress was to recognize the face of the conflict.” We see it in the actions of a Palestinian who lost three daughters to Israeli shells in Gaza. “I have the right to feel angry,” he said. “So many people were expecting me to hate. My answer to them is I shall not hate. Let us hope,” he said, “for tomorrow.”

That is the choice that must be made -– not simply in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but across the entire region -– a choice between hate and hope; between the shackles of the past and the promise of the future. It’s a choice that must be made by leaders and by the people, and it’s a choice that will define the future of a region that served as the cradle of civilization and a crucible of strife.

For all the challenges that lie ahead, we see many reasons to be hopeful. In Egypt, we see it in the efforts of young people who led protests. In Syria, we see it in the courage of those who brave bullets while chanting, “peaceful, peaceful.” In Benghazi, a city threatened with destruction, we see it in the courthouse square where people gather to celebrate the freedoms that they had never known. Across the region, those rights that we take for granted are being claimed with joy by those who are prying loose the grip of an iron fist.

Prying loose? Nope, Scooter. That grip in Egypt just got a whole lot tighter:

According to israelnationalnews.com:

Judges overseeing the vote count in Egypt’s parliamentary elections say Islamist parties have won a majority of the contested seats in the first round. The judges spoke on condition of anonymity because official results are expected to be released later Thursday.

They say the Muslim Brotherhood could take 45 percent of the seats up for grabs. The liberal Egyptian bloc coalition and the ultra-fundamentalist Nour party are competing for second place.

Together, Islamist parties are expected to control a majority of parliamentary seats by March. This week’s vote was the first of six stages of parliamentary elections that will last until then.

Continued success by Islamists will allow them to give Cairo’s government and constitution a decidedly Islamist character. It could also lead Cairo to shift away from the West towards the Iranian axis.

It will also diminish the influence of Cairo’s caretaker junta, which has sought to maintain the Mubarak-era status quo and keep US foreign aid dollars – running into the billions per annum – flowing.

Analysts say Islamists may also seek to annul the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, which could prompt Israel to seize the Sinai Peninsula for the fourth time in its history to create a strategic buffer zone.

After reaching the Suez Canal in 1967 and controlling the Sinai for twelve years,, Israel ceded Sinai to Egypt under the 1979 treaty on condition it remains demilitarized.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which birthed the virulently anti-Israel Hamas terror militia, might also seek to effectively annex Gaza. Should Hamas be triumphant in future PA elections, they would also gain a foothold in Judea and Samaria.

…a choice between hate and hope; between the shackles of the past and the promise of the future…?

It appears that the volatile Middle East is in the process of making their choice, Mr. President, choosing hate and the shackles of barbarism.

Smart Power?  Hardly.

May God continue to protect Israel...and us, too.

Somebody call Smokey Bear.  Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

From judicialwatch.org, 11/30/11:

The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.

Instead, federal law enforcement officers lost track of more than 1,000 guns which have been used in numerous crimes. In Terry’s case, five illegal immigrants armed with at least two semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and Terry got hit.

We know this only because Washington D.C.’s conservative newspaper , the Washington Times, got ahold of the court documents before the government suddenly made them off limits. The now-sealed federal grand jury indictment tells the frightening story of how Terry was gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers patrolling the rugged desert with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents.

Former potential Republican Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin published a Facebook Note on November 10th, 2011 titled “Fire Eric Holder”.

Here is an excerpt:

…When the stories about Operation Fast and Furious first broke, it sounded too crazy even for this administration.

Why would any government official with an ounce of common sense think it’s a good idea to facilitate the smuggling of thousands of guns into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels? That’s what Operation Fast and Furious did.

You might think Eric Holder’s Department of Justice was setting up a sting operation in which our federal agents would swoop down and arrest the bad guys the minute the guns traded hands. But that’s not what happened. Eric Holder’s DOJ had American gun dealers sell weapons to “straw purchasers” tied to drug cartels without actually following the movement of the guns as they were then sold to Mexican drug lords. They apparently thought this so-called “gun-walking” operation would help them chart the path of gun smuggling, but they didn’t have a plan to actually control the weapons’ movements as the guns were allowed to “walk” into Mexico. All Holder’s DOJ did was arm violent criminals. What manner of fools do we have working in this administration? What’s next? Supplying nuclear weapons components to the Iranians so we can track their activities?

Fast and Furious isn’t just your typical government incompetence. This is a deadly tragedy. U.S. border agent Brian Terry was gunned down with weapons connected to Holder’s debacle. At least 200 Mexican citizens were also killed by criminals using Fast and Furious weapons. We can only imagine how many more people will be murdered by criminals our government armed.

When an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blew the whistle on this operation, the DOJ leaked sensitive information about him to the press. This week, the former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, who was ousted in the wake of the scandal, admitted to being the leaker.

And where is President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder in all of this? When did he first know about the operation? In his testimony to the House Oversight Committee on May 3, 2011, Holder stated, “I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” But the DOJ’s own documents prove that Holder had been receiving briefings on Fast and Furious for nearly a year before that date. In other words, our government’s top law enforcement official, Eric Holder, lied to the American public. He finally admitted this week to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “In my testimony before the House committee [on May 3], I did say a few weeks. I probably could have said a couple of months. What I said about a few weeks was inaccurate based on what happened.”

Governor Palin was spot on.

Yesterday, Holder got just a wee bit testy with a reporter working for dailycaller.com:

Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder today demanded The Daily Caller stop publishing articles about the growing calls in Congress for his resignation because of the failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program.

As Holder’s aide was escorting the attorney general offstage following his remarks Tuesday afternoon at the White House, a Daily Caller reporter introduced himself and shook Holder’s hand. The reporter asked him for a response to the growing chorus of federal legislators demanding his resignation.

Holder stepped towards the exit, then turned around, stepped back toward the reporter, and sternly said, “You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”

Holder then walked offstage without answering TheDC’s request for comment about calls for his resignation.

So, on the same day that he and his boss, President Barack Hussein Obama, seal the files regarding the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, AG Eric Holder lashes out at a reporter trying to cover the story.

Why, if one was the suspicious type, one might suspect a full-blown cover-up was  in progress by the Obama Administration.

Naw, couldn’t be.  Next, you’ll be telling me that the Obama Administration has been funneling money to failed Green Energy Corporations.

Among the Republican Presidential hopefuls, Newt Gingrich, whose campaign was once on life support, has pulled a Lazarus and surged into the lead for his party’s nomination in many polls.

Gallup.com tells us that while Gingrich’s Positive Intensity Score is rising, Former Front-runner Mitt “The Legacy” Romney’s score is heading in the other direction:

Newt Gingrich’s most recent Positive Intensity Score of 20 in Gallup tracking conducted Nov. 14-27 is the highest of any Republican candidate, while Mitt Romney’s current score of 9 is his lowest of the year by one percentage point.

Gingrich and Romney are essentially tied as the front-runners on Gallup’s latest trial-heat ballot measure, but their Positive Intensity Scores this year have followed substantially different patterns.

Romney’s highest Positive Intensity Score this year is 20, measured in March, but he has been at or below 16 since late July. Romney’s score of 9 for the two-week period of Nov. 14-27 is his lowest of the year.

The trajectory of Gingrich’s Positive Intensity Score has shown a substantial drop and then an equally substantial rise over the course of the year. Gingrich’s score was 19 in March, but by summer it had plummeted to 1. The former speaker’s score then began an upward track, and has now reached 20 for two weeks in a row. This is Gingrich’s highest score of the year, is currently higher than the score of any other candidate by an 11-point margin, and leaves Gingrich as the only candidate with a double-digit score.

Still, for the first time since early May, the highest Positive Intensity Score over the last three weeks has been 20. This suggests that Gingrich leads in an environment in which Republicans are relatively unenthusiastic about any of the candidates running for their party’s nomination.

Romney’s strategy for combating this?

Produce a television ad explaining his platform?  Nope.

Go on a bus tour of the Heartland and press the flesh with Walmart Shoppers?  Nope.

Then what is his plan, you ask?

Why, launch an ad hominem attack, of course.

Romney on Tuesday lodged his first attack on his surging rival, Newt Gingrich, by labeling the former House speaker “a lifelong politician” and suggesting he lacks credibility on the economy.

Asked by Fox News’s Bret Baier in an interview Tuesday whether Gingrich could beat President Obama, Romney said: “I think to get President Obama out of office, you’re going to have to bring something to the race that’s different than what he brings.”

“He’s a lifelong politician. I think you have to have the credibility of understanding how the economy works. And I do. And that’s one reason I’m in this race.”

Among the Republicans running for president, Romney said that he believes he has the best shot “by far” of defeating Obama. He called Gingrich “a good man,” but highlighted the differences in their backgrounds.

“He spent his last 30 or 40 years in Washington,” Romney said. “I spent my career in the private sector. I think that’s what the country needs right now.”

Actually, sir, you were “reared” in the bosom of the Body Politic.

Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947 in Detroit.

…Raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Mitt Romney attended the prestigious Cranbrook School before receiving his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in 1971. He attended Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School and received both a law degree and an M.B.A. in 1975.

Mitt Romney married Ann Davies in 1969; they have five sons, Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.

The son of George Romney, Michigan governor and Republican presidential nominee (he was defeated by Richard Nixon in 1968), Mitt Romney began his career in business. He worked for the management consulting firm Bain & Company before founding the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984. In 1994, he ran for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts but was defeated by longtime incumbent Edward Kennedy.

In 1999, Romney stepped into the national spotlight when he took over as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. He helped rescue the 2002 Winter Olympics from financial and ethical woes, and helmed a successful Salt Lake City Olympic Games in 2002.

In 2004 Romney authored the book Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games.

Romney parlayed his success with the Olympics into politics when he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2003. During Romney’s term as governor, he oversaw the reduction of a $3 billion deficit. Romney also signed into law a health care reform program to provide nearly universal health care for Massachusetts residents.

After serving one term, he declined to run for reelection and announced his bid for U.S. president. Romney made it through Super Tuesday, winning primaries in Massachusetts, Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado and Utah, before losing the Republican nomination to John McCain. In total Romney spent $110 million on his campaign, including $45 million of his own money.

Romney continued to keep his options open for a possible future presidential run. He maintained much of his political staff and PACs, and raised funds for fellow Republican candidates. In March 2010 Romney published a book titled No Apology: The Case for American Greatness in March 2010. The book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list.

…And it was all downhill from there.

The key to the battle between these two professional politicians is genuineness.

Whoever conveys that personality trait most effectively to Conservatives /Republicans will win their vote.

And, right now, it’s not the author of Romneycare.

Since President Barack Hussein Obama took office (which seems like an eternity ago), he has increased the amount of drone attacks in the Middle East.

Which is an extremely hypocritical policy, considering how he’s blasted the Bush Administration’s War on Terror, err, excuse me, man-caused disasters:

During an Oct. 3, 2011, appearance on the Fox Business Network, Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said he agreed with comments critical of President Barack Obama that former Vice President Dick Cheney had offered one day earlier during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

Cheney had argued that Obama had criticized aspects of the Bush-Cheney approach to countering terrorism, yet once in office chose to follow many of his predecessors’ policies. “If you’ve got the president of the United States out there saying we overreacted to 9/11 on our watch, that’s not good,” Cheney said.

Host Candy Crowley then asked Cheney, “You’d like an apology, it sounds like?”

Cheney responded, “Well, I would. I think that would be, not for me, but I think for the Bush administration. …”

Fleming, in his Fox Business Network interview, echoed Cheney’s line of argument. During the interview, host Eric Bolling asked Fleming, “Does the president owe an apology to Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney?”

Fleming answered, “Absolutely, Eric. I agree with the former Vice President. President Obama is more and more beginning to look like the hypocrite-in-chief when it comes to the war on terrorism. All sorts of things that he criticized the president for, he’s actually continued and even extended. This drone attack program, he’s got it at the highest level ever.”

Unfortunately, the more you use a technology, the more you take the chance that the technology, or its operators,  will eventually screw up:

The Obama administration promised a full investigation into a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers Saturday.

Hours after the attack, Secretary of State Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed regret over the loss of life to their Pakistani counterparts, officials said.

Officials in Islamabad claimed the United States-led forces fired on the Pakistan Tensions between Islamabad and Washington, which have been high for years, grew worse after terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden was found living peacefully in Pakistan.

U.S. officials have also accused Pakistan of not doing enough to stop militant attacks on American soldiers, while many in Pakistan have long been suspicious of the NATO presence in the region.

NATO investigators believe the air strike was meant for insurgents who inhabit the troubled border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The coalition launched an immediate investigation into the attack, officials said.

Needless to say, Pakistanis do not wish to forgive and forget:

Hundreds of enraged Pakistanis took to the streets across the country Sunday, burning an effigy of President Barack Obama and setting fire to US flags after 24 soldiers died in NATO air strikes.

The rallies were organised by opposition and right-wing Islamist groups in major cities of the nuclear-armed country of 167 million people, where opposition to the government’s US alliance is rampant.

In Karachi, the port city used by the United States to ship supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan, more than 700 people gathered outside the US consulate, an AFP photographer said.

They shouted: “down with America, stay away Americans, Pakistan is ours, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our army”, while Pakistani riot police were deployed near the consulate.

Outside the press club in Karachi, dozens of political activists burnt an effigy of President Obama, an AFP photographer added.

In the central city of Multan, more than 300 activists loyal to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as well as local traders took to the streets, burning US and NATO flags.

They carried placards and banners, and shouted: “down with America,” “down with NATO,” “Yankees go back”, “vacate Afghanistan and Pakistan” and “stop drone attacks” — a reference to a CIA drone war against Islamist militants.

Speaking at the rally, opposition lawmaker Javed Hashmi demanded that the government end its alliance in the US-led “war on terror”.

In Islamabad, at least 200 activists of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party held a rally in the middle-class I-10 neighbourhood.

“We strongly condemn the attack and the killing of our soldiers,” local JI chief Mian Aslam told the rally in reference to the air strike early Saturday, as protestors chanted “Pakistan is America’s graveyard.”

Pakistan has reacted with fury over the killings, and has called the attack by NATO helicopters and fighter jets on two military posts close to the Afghan border “unprovoked”.

In response, Islamabad has sealed its Afghan border to NATO supply convoys and is reviewing its alliance with the United States and NATO, mulling whether to boycott a key international conference on Afghanistan next month.

Unfortunately for Obama, and even more unfortunate for Americans, this incident is just a pimple on the posterior of a failed Foreign Policy which has allowed the replacement of Moderate Muslim Dictators in the Middle East with hard-line adherents, who are friendly with, if not members of, the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic Terrorist organization our idiotic Administration has been courting.

All of this, under the watch of a Commander-in-Chief who once said that

The Muslim Call to Prayer is one of the prettiest sounds on Earth.

Because of his dangerous Foreign Policy, several of the countries in the Middle East will be hearing that sound more often.

When did the Occupy Wall Street movement start and why are these hygenically-challenged, Moms’ basement-dwelling slackers still around?

Per the Liberal-leaning wiki.answers.com:

The Occupy Movement began in September 2011, with the occupation of Wall Street in New York as a protest against the fact that roughly 1% of the world’s population owns and manipulates the world’s wealth as well the 99% from whom it derives that wealth.

Towards the end of November 2011 the Occupy Movement had spread to just under 1000 cities in 82 countries all over the planet.

The Occupy Movement is a protest against the transnational corporations and companies (including financial institutions, like banks) whose only motivation is greed and profiteering, and who do not care about the preservation of the world’s diverse cultures and environments, or the exploitation of the world’s precious resources, or the continuing pollution of the planet and the irreversible damage that is being done to the delicate biosphere in which we all must live.

Delicate biosphere, my foot.

September…September…what else was going on in September?  Oh, yeah…Obama proposed a $447 Billion fiasco of a jobs bill:

I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It’s called the American Jobs Act. There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been supported by both Democrats and Republicans — including many who sit here tonight. And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything.

The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for long-term unemployed. It will provide — it will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business.  It will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled, and give companies confidence that if they invest and if they hire, there will be customers for their products and services. You should pass this jobs plan right away.

Everyone here knows that small businesses are where most new jobs begin. And you know that while corporate profits have come roaring back, smaller companies haven’t. So for everyone who speaks so passionately about making life easier for “job creators,” this plan is for you.

Support for Obama’s Jobs Act has been non-existent.  Congresscritters have been running away from the bill faster than Occupiers from personal responsibility.

Why, if someone was a conspiracy buff, one might think that the Occupy movement was nothing but camouflage for the Administration…a misdirection play, if you will.

Nah, couldn’t be…could it?

Gentle Reader, have you been wondering where these Moms’ basement-dwellers have been getting the money for their exercise in futility?

Reuters.com reported on 10/13/11 that:

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

“I can understand their sentiment,” Soros told reporters last week at the United Nations about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, which are expected to spur solidarity marches globally on Saturday.

Pressed further for his views on the movement and the protesters, Soros refused to be drawn in. But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh summed up the speculation when he told his listeners last week, “George Soros money is behind this.”

He’s not the only one, Rush.  Gateway Pundit reported on 10/15/11 concerning thisannouncement from the Communist Party USA:

This is an exciting time! Thousands of mainly young people have been occupying Wall Street for three weeks already, and the “Occupy Movement” has spread to more than 200 other cities. On Oct. 6 the actions spread to our nation’s capital.

The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) will hold a national teleconference to discuss it:

Arturo Cambron

The Communist Party and the Occupy L.A. Movement

Tuesday, October 11, 8 pm Eastern

Teleconference number: 605-475-4850 (please note this is the corrected number. ignore previous.)

Access code: 1053538#

Southern California Party leader Arturo Cambron will share how the CPUSA and Young Communist League (YCL) are working in “Occupy Los Angeles.”

This movement, also known as the “99% movement,” is being hailed across the country. Movements and organizations are reaching out in solidarity. The AFL-CIO is opening union halls and offering other material assistance. Ordinary people are donating food, money and materials.

In many areas, the “Occupy Movement” is linking up with the National American Wants to Work Week of Actions, Oct. 10-16.

No doubt the “Arab Spring” demonstrations and those that exploded in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere have inspired it. But underlying it all is the economic crisis, the massive unemployment and growing realization that nothing is getting better, and in fact we may be slipping into a “double dip” crisis. The crushing student debt and the feeling of being locked out of society with no future compound this.

The movement is the newest wrinkle in the all-people’s upsurge against the banks and corporations and reflects a new level of class-consciousness.

So, here we are, at the end of the Thanksgiving Holiday, and the Occupiers are still around.  However, regardless of what Liberals will tell you, they are not making friends and influencing people:

If anything, the Occupy crowd’s efforts have backfired. A new survey (as of 11/17/11) by the liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling finds just 33% now support the Occupy movement, down from a month ago and lower than the 42% who say they support the Tea Party. And Gallup finds more identify themselves as conservative today than did so two years ago.

Personally, I find myself agreeing with Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who had the following advice for the Occupiers:

Go get a job right after you take a bath!