So Far, Obama’s Words don’t Match his Acts
[Guest post by DRJ]
Earlier this week, I applauded President Obama for talking smart and tough on terrorism. His statement today was equally commendable. Unfortunately his actions fall woefully short of what he says:
As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough the Director of National Counterterrorism Center was away skiing after the attempted Christmas day plane bombing, the White House amazingly is now claiming they told him to go on vacation in the immediate aftermath before the full scope of what happened had even been determined.
***
It was obvious for days afterward Obama was the least bit concerned as he sunned himself and golfed for four days before even addressing the media. Oh, and do they think we forget the infamous “the system worked” comments of Janet Incompetano? Obviously they didn’t understand the severity of what went down so why would they object if Leiter went on vacation.”
I’m still glad Obama finally seems to realize we’re at war with more than a few guys in Afghanistan and that he’s talking seriously about terrorism. Now he and his Administration need to focus on acting decisively, a trait that has proven much more difficult for him as President.
— DRJ
Umm..Obama..said that we are at war with Al Qaeda.
beedubya (46b990) — 1/7/2010 @ 4:31 pmSo why the hell are we trying in them in criminal court like they were just trying to stick up a 7-11?
…and the buck stops with me.
Wait…
What?
Alright dammit…who the hell typed that in the teleprompter?
Barack Obama (46b990) — 1/7/2010 @ 4:33 pmHope triumphs over reality…
AD - RtR/OS! (88245d) — 1/7/2010 @ 4:35 pmexcept when people die.
Did you like the part about how they missed connecting the dots on the panty bomber because his name was mis-spelled on a list somewhere? Of course I don’t imagine that sort of thing will be a problem when they’re typing all our medical records into a database.
elissa (422448) — 1/7/2010 @ 4:45 pmJust think “Terminator”, and the bar-code Reese had on his arm.
AD - RtR/OS! (88245d) — 1/7/2010 @ 4:50 pm“President Barack Obama says when it comes to terror threats against the nation, “the buck stops with me.”
And it only took him one year to figure this out — wow, the dems sure know how to pick’em.
Pons Asinorum (b200bb) — 1/7/2010 @ 4:52 pmHe’s changed fingers!
htom (412a17) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:02 pmWonder what he’ll figure out next year…
Pons Asinorum (b200bb) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:05 pmQuite a leader, eh? No doubt the troops look up to him and would follow him anywhere, even into battle. But since he thinks this is all really just a law enforcement problem, they shouldn’t.
Dmac (a964d5) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:17 pmTalk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words and his actions – which to this point – have been weak, inconsistent, reactive and counter-intuitive.
Our enemies exploit his weakness and our remaining allies – who at first were amused – grow increasingly alarmed.
GeneralMalaise (68a574) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:23 pmfirst off be quiet, he thinks he has a game to attend tonight.
*******
Second
You know somebody, like a lot of somebody’s really screwed up when a the french pres dressed if full back strip yellow, calls him a spineless chicken shit!
TC (0b9ca4) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:32 pmTalk is cheap. Obama will say anything to preserve The Won. This latest routine means that he’s been studying the video tapes on “How to be a Leader”. I’ll give him a C minus.
Meanwhile, I’m glad that I’m at a point in life where I never have to get on an airplane again.
Mike Myers (3c9845) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:35 pmLook at those nipples !
I wonder how his swing is.
Mike K (2cf494) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:52 pmCome on people! Cut Barry some slack. D’ya think you can get a focus group together overnight to find out what will play best with the proles? Sheesh!
Gazzer (8c29b8) — 1/7/2010 @ 5:55 pmAs a lady said at last year’s Tea Party gathering in our little town in AZ,
” Mr President, if actions speak louder than words…I can’t hear you.”
DRJ, are you really still inclined to believe anything that Barney Fife says?
its easy to tell when Ear Leader is lying: his lips are moving.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 1/7/2010 @ 6:05 pmMmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm
PatriotRider (1729de) — 1/7/2010 @ 6:10 pmMooslems don’t fear da brutha.
Barack Hussien Obama!
Mmmmm Mmmmm MMMMM!
You can bet it is someone else’s buck. A buck that stops with him only long enough for him to redistribute it. He is an expert in other people’s bucks.
Oh… does mentioning President Obama “sunning” himself have any racist overtones? I’ll ask Charles Johnson.
Huey (b957d9) — 1/7/2010 @ 6:11 pmNow, that’s funny. I don’t care who you are.
PatriotRider (1729de) — 1/7/2010 @ 6:11 pmIt’s interesting how interchangeable President Obama’s explanation given today today is with the explanation he gave for the AIG fiasco and Tim Geithner’s screwup. In both cases, he declared, “The buck stops with me” and refused to fire anyone. Just change the subject matter and a few words here and there, and the banking fiasco becomes the terrorist fiasco,
Asked today whether Treasury Secretary Geithner or other members of his administration are at fault for allowing the AIG bonuses or not knowing enough about them, President Obama had a simple answer: “The buck stops with me.”
“Ultimately I’m responsible, I’m the president of the United States,” he said. “We’ve got a big mess that we’re having to clean up. Nobody here drafted those contracts. Nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in. We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me. And my goal is to make sure that we never put ourselves in this kind of position again.”
The president was specifically asked about calls for Geithner to resign from his post over the matter.
“I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner and my entire economic team,” Mr. Obama said. “Tim Geithner didn’t draft these contracts with AIG.”
How many similar responses qualifies as a pattern?
Dana (f64b7d) — 1/7/2010 @ 6:17 pmHe’s not talking seriously about terrorism. Not one bit.
SPQR (26be8b) — 1/7/2010 @ 6:25 pmthat’s disturbing about the nipples. He’s such a weirdo I can’t stand him.
happyfeet (e9e587) — 1/7/2010 @ 7:21 pmFamed lyricist Oscar Hammerstein may be dead and buried but keep your eye on PatriotRider!
elissa (422448) — 1/7/2010 @ 7:25 pmMmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm
I typically read Obama’s words but this time I had a chance to see and hear his speech. I noticed his statement that “the buck stops here” and his treatment of this as a war, not a crime. But the thing that most struck me was the bolded portion of this sentence (at approx 1:55):
Obama routinely denigrates his domestic adversaries but he rarely (if ever) denigrates America’s foreign enemies. To describe al Qaeda as a band of “small men” is a slap that suggests Obama is mad. Unfortunately, I suspect what made him mad is that al Qaeda made his Administration look bad, not that it threatened Americans.
DRJ (84a0c3) — 1/7/2010 @ 7:39 pmDRJ, I just assumed he misread the teleprompter and meant to say small band of men.
elissa (422448) — 1/7/2010 @ 7:51 pmBut the consummately opportunistic little president man with his ruinous and debilitating spending thieving spending thieving could never hope to define the character of our country and god help us if it comes to that.
happyfeet (e9e587) — 1/7/2010 @ 8:01 pmkeep hoping, DRJ. if you believe enough, it could happen!
Born Free (00406d) — 1/7/2010 @ 8:15 pmAs Hillary nailed it during the Dem primaries, he gives a good speech.
jim2 (96d10c) — 1/7/2010 @ 8:34 pmThat’s the only time he gets mad, whether it’s Rev Wright or AQ. Did you note his petulant “we tried to be friends” with you line? Pathetic. Keep making him mad, AQ, at least he drones a few of you in revenge.
Patricia (b05e7f) — 1/7/2010 @ 8:51 pmsnortin that good blow he got from Chavez….. that’s what the picture is.
a diplomatic pouch is a wonderful thing.
too bad the fool in the white house is a booger eating moron.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 1/7/2010 @ 9:28 pmWell, at least we know what happens when the phone rings at 3 AM. He rolls over and goes back to sleep. Early tee time.
Mike K (2cf494) — 1/7/2010 @ 9:39 pmVery funny, Mike K.
DRJ (84a0c3) — 1/7/2010 @ 9:44 pmFound this in an excerpt of today’s speech from the President:
So all we have to do is to figure out how to conduct combat against hatred and violence. Pure genius!
It took him a year to figure out we are out war. Guess it will take him another year to figure out the enemy is not a “network of violence and hatred”, but rather a network of Islamic Terrorists (of which al Qaeda is a subset).
What competence, he’s a keeper for sure!
Pons Asinorum (b200bb) — 1/7/2010 @ 10:35 pmPons – He’s a slow learner and a fast forgetter, great qualities for a President.
daleyrocks (718861) — 1/7/2010 @ 10:39 pmdaleyrock – Yes, and he sure knows how to pick a crack-team of security advisers too.
We are soooo lucky.
I feel safer already and am certain that “violence and hatred” are shaking in their boots.
Pons Asinorum (b200bb) — 1/7/2010 @ 10:53 pmWith the leadership of DHS, DoJ, TSA, and NCTC, what do we have to be worried about?
If I can’t drive there, and El-Al doesn’t fly there, I ain’t going!
AD - RtR/OS! (88245d) — 1/7/2010 @ 10:56 pmPons – I think violence and hatred have been shaking in their boots over there since at least 1979 and it’s not out of fear. I take great comfort that Helen Thomas doesn’t understand it either so Obama is in good company.
I’m not sure violence and hatred are laughing at Obama as hard as the Iranians over the passage of his last absolute, positive, I really mean it this time or bad shit is going to happen, deadline.
daleyrocks (718861) — 1/7/2010 @ 11:06 pmMemo to POTUS
Subject: Wilton Parmenter
The speech. By the book. Followed the manual. Borrowed Kennedyesque comments from his Bay of Pigs presser and seasoned with Trumanesque talk of ‘the buck stops with me’ mastered the obvious… and was uttered a speech too late to carry much weight.
It goes with out saying that after billions spent and eight years, the reorganized bureaucracy from the Cheney/Bush era is yet another mess in need of reform and one of many uncomfortable reminders why the majority of the electorate rejected Republicans in 2008. But cajoling civil servants to be better bureaucrats is an amusing if not formidable task. Since you evoked the ghost of JFK, dig deeper and review his requests for removal of obsolete Jupiter missiles from Turkey before the Cuban Missile Crisis.[source- pgs 94-95, ‘Thirteen Days’ by RFK].) That went well, didn’t it.
Contrary to the shrill and barking partisanship that makes for good talk radio and TV, good citizenship includes challenging the competence of bureaucrats who have demonstrated an incompetence on the job and demanding accountability when they place life and property at risk. So it was with the likes of ‘heck of a job, Brownie’ and so it is with John Brennan.
Brennan and his paper jockeys had the dots and did not or could not connect them. That’s the bottom line. This may pass as ‘not bad for government work’ but pull this crap in the private sector and you’re canned.
Common sense tells most Americans that holidays are a time to be on increased alert. So the questions become, are you the Chief Executive of the United States, or a lucky, accident-prone captain in command of Fort Courage? Are you Barack Obama or Wilton Parmenter?
Brennan boasts of three decades of experience in government and failed Americans when his talents were needed most. He had the opportunity to resign in his own presser today and admitted accountability when he ‘let you down.’ In fact, he let the people of the United States down, said he’d ‘do better’ and chose not to resign. That’s fine if he was only managing a McDonald’s.
Fire him.
Not pickles, lettuce or the ficticious Hekawis but the lives of thousands and millions of dollars are at risk on the ‘audacity of hope’ that Brennan will do better next time. What would Wilton do? What should Barack do? Fire him.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 1/7/2010 @ 11:09 pm“… the reorganized bureaucracy from the Cheney/Bush era is yet another mess in need of reform …”
If you’re referring to the creation of the DHS, you overlook (why am I not surprised) that this was a creation of Congress,
AD - RtR/OS! (88245d) — 1/7/2010 @ 11:18 pmwho has yet to streamline the reporting/oversight process so that this Department only has to report to one cmte in each part of the Congress.
And, any reform would have to come from the same Congress that created the mess in the first place.
But, when all that you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
“It goes with out saying that after billions spent and eight years, the reorganized bureaucracy from the Cheney/Bush era is yet another mess in need of reform and one of many uncomfortable reminders why the majority of the electorate rejected Republicans in 2008.”
DCSCA – Apart from the superfluous attack on Bush it had the makings of a decent comment. Which reorganized bureaucracy failed under the Bush administration? Can you point to near misses such as the croth bomber on American Soil after 9/11 that give your side comment above any semblance of meaning?
daleyrocks (718861) — 1/7/2010 @ 11:18 pmDCSCA:
You’re wrong. The Obama Administration report specifically found (pp. 2-3):
The report goes on to note the CIA and NCTC had joint and “intentionally redundant” obligations to analyze the “pieces of information about Mr. Abdulmutallab, information about AQAP and its plans” but they both failed to “connect the dots.”
The Bush Administration overcame entrenched, uncoordinated intelligence bureaucracies and set up intentionally redundant systems to share intelligence information, thereby making it more likely analysts could “connect the dots.” The information was shared but the intelligence agencies were unable to “connect the dots.” Instead, the “information that was available to analysts, as is usually the case, was fragmentary and embedded in a large volume of data.”
In sum, America is ready to take the next step in the process of improving its intelligence capabilities, something that would not be possible without the Bush Administration’s successes.
DRJ (84a0c3) — 1/7/2010 @ 11:57 pmwould not be possible without the Bush Administration’s successes.
Comment by DRJ — 1/7/2010 @ 11:57 pm
HERETIC!!!
it is well known that Bush accomplished nothing…..
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:16 amThe immense intellect, aka DuckCrap, is never wrong.
AD - RtR/OS! (88245d) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:28 amIt might occasionally be in error, but never wrong (with appologies to the writers of In Harms Way)!
Also, DCSCA, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly admitted the State Dept had information about Abdulmutallab but did not revoke his visa:
But revoking Honduran visas is the State Department’s responsibility:
Amazing, isn’t it?
DRJ (84a0c3) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:39 am#40- Perhaps. Perhaps not. “Add to the list of President George W. Bush’s failures his inability to straighten out what he regarded as one of the top national security needs: a more effective U.S. intelligence community.
Despite upping the U.S. intelligence budget to $45 billion from about $30 billion—and signing legislation in 2005 meant to end “turf” battles—Bush left behind an intelligence community suffering from poor communications among agencies and a flawed management structure, according to an inspector general’s report finished in November and released last week.” source: http://www.inthesetimes.com 4/9/09
Apparently, eight years on the bureaucratic calendar of Planet Government is 8 months, Earth time. But then, it’s been said bureaucracies take on a lifeforce all their own. Conservatives best stand back and watch this train wreck play out. Others are, both here and abroad. For this ‘screw-up’ regardless of its origins, is crying out for firm executive action and in thirteen days, we’ve had a committee and a report. President Kennedy averted a thermonuclear war in less time. It’s hard to fire people. But, as W reminded us, it’s a hard job.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:39 amHere is a link to DCSCA’s article and the About Us section of In These Times.
DRJ (84a0c3) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:47 am#43- The incompetence of entrenched bureaucracies, civil servants, career department officers and the like never ceases to amaze, amuse and in this case, alarm. It is doubtful the current president will be any better at it than the last or any of their predecessors. But then, there’s that ‘audacity of hope’ thingy.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:49 amAnd it’s a damn good thing that Jack avoided that nuclear conflagration, since his fecklessness demonstrated in his previous meeting with Khrushchev is what precipitated the confrontation over Cuba!
AD - RtR/OS! (88245d) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:51 amGod, you are absolutely insufferable.
#45- Read the report itself but bring your own aspirin.
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Office of the Inspector General. (Unclassified) CRITICAL INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES. November 12, 2008. Edward Maguire, Inspector General.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 1/8/2010 @ 1:37 amgraphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/02/us/02intel-report.pdf
“So all we have to do is to figure out how to conduct combat against hatred and violence. Pure genius!”
Oh now you’re figuring out the problem with going to war with a concept?
imdw (017d51) — 1/8/2010 @ 3:52 am“If I can’t drive there, and El-Al doesn’t fly there, I ain’t going!”
Usually I’ll prefer the train. Specially when it’s actually shorter that going via airports and security.
[note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]
imdw (795ee1) — 1/8/2010 @ 3:54 amMy kingdom for a non-disingenuous comment from the mendoucheous twatwaffle, iamadickwad.
JD (636015) — 1/8/2010 @ 4:17 amOh now you’re figuring out the problem with going to war with a concept?
If only the President would.
So far the President does not seem to realize the physical reality of our enemy in terms that lend themselves to defending the nation.
Philosophical concepts are typically applicable to anything. For example, a network of hatred and violence might include the mafia, the KKK, extreme Leftist ideology, etc. Philosophical concepts are neat, but when our nation is under attack and people are being killed by evil men, its time to focus on reality.
Hatred and violence exist throughout the world, one cannot extinguish it. It takes evil men to marshal it and transform it into material and action. It would be nice (actually, imperative) that the President realize this in word and deed.
We are at war with Islamic Terrorism (at least, they are with us).
I just hope it does not take another year for him to figure that out.
Pons Asinorum (b200bb) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:01 am