INGRATE

It may have escaped your notice -- certainly the lamestream media did its best to make sure of that -- but the democratic nation of Iraq just carried out quite a successfull election of provincial representatives in 14 of its 18 provinces. By all reports (all three of them?!) it was a surprising and promising victory for the secular Shiite party of current Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

A Shiite majority overall is not a surprise, especially to the Sunnis who decided to encourage full participation this time instead of the boycott they staged at the previous election -- but the marginal showing of the Shiite religious factions is a new shift, and augurs well for a dwindling influence of the more divisive tribal or Sadrist groups.

Once again, over 130,000 American military personnel are on the ground, as they were in 2005, to maintain security for the now-free voters of Iraq to exercise their franchise. Across the nation, the purple fingers have been raised in triumph, and few of the voters would not acknowledge (grudgingly or no) that their triumph comes on the backs of American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. [GatewayPundit takes note]

Back in Washington D.C., another finger is raised. It's the middle digit, and it is launched via the words of the Commander-in-Chief. For, as he made quiet and under-reported public note of the successful election, he also made a point of praising the efforts of...

THE.

FRICKIN'.

UNITED NATIONS.

By contrast, he made no point whatsoever of praising the United States military, for its efforts this week, last week, or any other week, grinding out their sweat and spilling their blood to bring to 25 million victims of oppression the kind of freedoms taken largely for granted in North America. Oops -- oh yeah -- presidents are supposed to keep the military in their minds when thinking about, oh, just about anything that goes on beyond the boundaries of the their (putatively) native land. Right -- durn it. By the way, can we get a 10% cut in your funding over there at the Pentagon? Wonder how these folks feel about that?

MEANWHILE, OUT ON THE FIELD...

SMALL PEACHES

Next to the stars of Super Bowls past, General David Petraeus actually looked pretty small as he went out for the opening coin-toss [COIN -- heh] of Sunday's big game. The football greats who towered over him got pretty serious applause, but the house totally gave it up for the guy with the chest full of Fruit Salad. Check it out. Hope the Commander-in-Chief took note.




EMPEROR NERO, CALL YOUR (FEMA) OFFICE

Obama fiddles, eats $100 per pound steak, while Kentucky freezes.

People are dying without heat and services -- where's Spike Lee? where's Sean Penn? where's Governor Blanco?

Where's Waldo?










DOING THE JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO

NEW PRESIDENT KEEPS OLD P.O.W. POLICY:

RENDITION

Americans do not torture, asserts the new Obamessiah -- who needs to when you can out-source it to our Allies, like, say, Libya?


ABOUT THAT AL-ARABIYA THING

The more I think about this, the more I read about what was said, the madder I get. Who is this punk kid to stand on his apple crate before the Arab world, wearing his President of the United States Halloween costume, and APOLOGIZE for the country that has not only done more for the well-being of Muslim society than any other country in the word, but probably more than most Muslim societies have ever done for themselves -- well, at least since they were turned back at the gates of Vienna.

With his customary aplomb, the Krauthammer NAILS IT.

...his self-inflation as redeemer of U.S.-Muslim relations leads him to suggest that pre-Obama America was disrespectful or insensitive or uncaring of Muslims, he is engaging not just in fiction but in gratuitous disparagement of the country he is now privileged to lead.

I have to hand it to this guy -- I've never had any desire to cultivate a case of Obambi Derangement Syndrome; I have observed his ascendancy without enthusiasm, with considerable fear, but without anything resembling hatred -- yet it must be said that he's has PISSED ME OFF more in two weeks than he did in the preceding two years of campaigning.

I knew he'd smoked dope, and I knew he'd done a little blow, and I knew he spent a lot of time sucking in the heady vapor of flattery, but I failed to recognize his consuming addiction to spontaneous, ignorant platitudes -- and that this addiction would follow him into office and do major foreign policy damage to the interests of the United States in less than a fortnight. I've had heads of romaine that stayed crisp longer than this administration. God help us all.


I THINK THIS WAS INTENTIONAL --
What do you think?