Obama - War Criminal?

Though it has no police powers or police force, the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, has just issued an arrest warrant for Libyan strongman/dictator Muammar Qadaffi. Presumably, any individual, military force, nation or group apprehending Qadaffi must turn him over to the Court so he can be tried on the charge “crimes against humanity for killing civilians who rose up against his rule,” according to the Associated Press, 28 June. Presently, Qaddafi is more or less hunkered down and dodging bombs and missiles being rained upon him by the U.S. and NATO, though obviously not in its usual “peace-keeping” mode.

Similar “crimes” have been the order of the day in the Middle East since time immemorial, with a few others also in motion now in places such as Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and, of course, Iran. The word from Libya is that hundreds have been arrested, injured or killed, with reasonable grounds that Qaddafi and his son were responsible. Of course, the figures are without verification (always hundreds or thousands in these dustups – no one knows). The current figures in Syria in that ongoing bloodletting is something like 1,400, but where do the figures come from? Only recently has strongman Assad allowed any reporters in.

So…Qaddafi is in trouble with the Court because he allegedly has killed Libyans, his own people. He probably has…probably quite a few of them, and he promised to maintain his methods, like all the other dictators, until the insurgency is stopped. There probably is proof of this, though it has never been brought forward. Perhaps – if it had either the authority or the funds – the Court should offer a $25 million reward for the capture of Qaddafi (but not for killing him – that would be un-Courtly). After all, the U.S. offered that reward to anyone leading to the capture or killing of bin Laden, about which the president crows on a daily basis. Bounty-hunters would crawl out of the woodwork all over the world, especially in Somalia, where flesh-trading and kidnapping are a way of life.

Beyond a shadow of doubt and with abundant proof, however, the president of the United States has ordered his military to kill Libyans, beginning last March and continuing until now, with no end of the killing in sight and with some $750 million invested in the project already. His claim to have handed the killing operation off to NATO is, as Veep Biden would have it, FLUFFERNUTTER, the appellation he ascribed to John Edwards’ speeches in 2008. The U.S. owns NATO lock, stock and barrel and finances its operations as well as kicks in with human resources. At a word from Obama, the killing would stop immediately. Virtually all, or at least a huge part, of the killing was done by the U.S. in the first ten days of Obama’s massacre, while NATO was deciding whether or not to do as told by Obama and continue the carnage.

Since it is abundantly demonstrable that Libya had not attacked the U.S. and had made no threats to do so, as well as it being a public record that Obama did not consult Congress as required Constitutionally
for the act of war he committed, there is an extreme irony. Under current law and the manual for courts-martial, “An order requiring the performance of a military duty or act may be inferred to be lawful and it is disobeyed at the peril of the subordinate. This inference does not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime.”

Since the president was not acting in defense of the nation in attacking Libya and therefore willfully committing warfare, he was committing a criminal act (murder), thus violating his responsibility as commander-in-chief and citizen. Since the president was guilty of committing the same crimes as the Court accused Qaddafi of committing, i.e., killing Libyans, he was (or should be judged) just as guilty as Qaddafi under the aegis of the Court in the Netherlands. In other words, if Qaddafi is a war criminal, so is Obama.

The further irony lies in the fact that a service-member might well have been absolved of any order-disobedience because of being ordered to commit a criminal act (murder of innocent civilians). Indeed, both Defense Secretary Gates and Joint-Chiefs Chairman Mullen had publicly advised against Obama’s off-the-wall, totally wacky action, apparently taken on a mere whim without even sufficient military or post-war planning, as evidenced by Gates’ further description of the action during his trip to Russia as the hostilities began: "We haven't done something like this, kind of on the fly before." He obviously was out-of-the-loop.

There can be no greater arrogance or infamy than willful killing. The president will not be hailed into Court in the Netherlands, though he for no reason has attacked a weak nation with a population two million less than that of New York City…sort of like a lion attacking a mouse, except that the lion has a reason. One wonders if Obama has a reason for continuing the massacre, and if it might have something to do with NATO members Britain, France, Spain and Italy vis-à-vis Libyan oil. One hopes not.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

The Three Caveteers

It’s midnight in a cave somewhere in the mountains just east of the Afghan-Pakistan border. Ayman al Zawahiri, new al Qaeda chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, and Bashir al Assad, Syrian head of government, are meeting. Hereinafter, they are referenced as Z, M and A.

**M: I’m tired of meeting in these caves, Ayman…Allah be praised anyway…and would rather meet somewhere else, preferably in my safest of all countries.
**Z: Bah, Mahmoud, you Shiites are all alike…Allah be disappointed…tenderfoots…
**A: That’s tenderfeet, Ayman. Your Arabic translation of the western words, besides being scandalous in the first place are…well…I lived in England for years and I know…
**M: One more word about Shiites, Ayman, and…Allah forgive me for not making it a suicide assassination…I’ll have you dispatched to the devil. (reaches for AK-47)
**A: Fellow Muslims…Allah, forgive us all…let’s not fight among ourselves! Let’s show disrespect for the Great Satan by speaking in English…or American…or whatever the actual tenderfeet class is speaking these days in the U.S., which has as many strange accents as…takes folks in Mississippi, for instance, a full minute just to say good morning and everything is in Spanish these days…hoo hah…try to get American on the telephone!
**M: Well, I hate these caves…Allah be not blamed for caves…but I understand a drone dogs your every move, Ayman, so you can’t leave the country…so…no offense intended. (puts away the AK-47)
**A: So, why this urgent meeting, Ayman? I can hardly afford to leave Damascus…Allah, give me safekeeping…while there are still insurgents to be shot down in the streets.
**Z: Yes, Bashir, not since your father shot them down like the dogs they are have you had such an opportunity to keep order in your country. What was it…20,000 dispatched by Hafez to the hereafter, with blood in the streets? Allah be praised for sanctioning bloodshed! That was about eleven years after he took charge, about the same as since you took charge.
**M: I notice the Great Satan president Obama is not threatening any action toward you, Bashir, even though he is killing Libyans right in their houses with his bombs…Allah, take revenge on the great Satan!
**A: The Obama is smart enough to pick on the weakest of nations if he feels, as American presidents sometimes do, that he is entitled to at least one war.
**Z: Allah be amused…the Obama says he is killing Libyans for humanitarian reasons…oh hoo hah…humanitarian reasons! (giggles wildly) Everyone knows he is the lackey for the Brits, Frenchies, Latinos and Italians, who get their oil from Libya and are tired of paying those humongous kickbacks to that serpent Qadaffi. The Great Satan has spent $750 million and counting while the others say they are out of ammunition, planes, rockets, missiles and everything else. O hoo hah! The U.S. gets no oil from Libya but Obama tries to kill Qaddafi anyway.
**M: Back to the subject, Ayman! Why are we meeting in this bat-infested cave? How is it that you’ve been in these miserable caves while bin Laden was living in luxury until some Pakistani gave him up for that $25 million reward?
**Z: That’s just it…Allah be beseeched for a little luxury to go along with the bat-droppings. (brushes his hair) The Pakistanis loved Osama because he gave them money. I can’t even feed all my wives and children, much less bribe the Pakistanis to hide me as they did Osama and even furnished him a TV so he could watch the soaps and the reality shows from the evil Great Satan…all those women not wearing burkas…Allah be shamed.
**A: So what do you want, Ayman? I don’t have all night.
**Z: I’m sure you’ve heard that I’m now the head of al Qaeda…Allah be praised for his wisdom!
**M: So, how many competitors did you knock off, Ayman, to get the top job? From what I’ve heard, most of al Qaeda’s assassins hate your guts so you must have gotten to them before they got to you.
**A: Or did you take a vote…oh hoo hah…take a vote in al Qaeda…Allah be amused, Ayman.
**Z: Not funny, Bashir. As a matter of fact, Osama planned it that I would take his place if it ever came to that. Why do you think I’ve been number two all these years? Actually, it’s a dangerous job. Instead of a paltry $10 million on my head, I’m sure now that the Obama will raise it to the same as Osama’s – a cool $25 million. How many goats and poppy fields would that buy, Bashir? Even my bodyguards have bodyguards.
**M: So you’re a big deal now, Ayman…so what else is new? Allah, do not look upon this boredom. What do you want from us?
**Z: Part of the deal I made with the other leaders to get this job included my promise to infiltrate and/or attack Guantanamo and grab Khalid Sheik Mohammad from the Americans, sort of an eye for an eye since the SEALS not only grabbed Osama but shot him, too. So, I need help and…
A: Oh…hoo hah, grab Khalid from the Americans…Allah forgive this fool. You have as much chance of that as Mahmoud, here, has of getting the bomb.
**M: (grabbing his AK-47) Them’s fightin’ words, pilgrim.
**Z: Oh…so you’ve been watching the evil Great Satan TV, too, Mahmoud. Hahahahaha! Fightin’ words, pilgrim…oh hoo hah.
**M: (fires gun into the ceiling) Oh no…not again. (wipes bat-feathers and -intestines out of his eyes). You did that or somebody did that the last time I met with you and Osama. Look, the latrine is running under your rug, Ayman…I’m outta here. (leaves)
**A: Me, too, Ayman…Allah, have mercy on this Sunni madman. What you need are the armies of China, Russia, Pakistan, England, France, and even the Taliban if you can find Mullah Omar.
**Z: But the Castro brothers have already agreed to give me the key to their side of Gitmo so I can just slip in and…by the way, Bashir, I have to pay for that key…so… (Assad leaves) a-a-r-r-g-g-h-h-A-A-R-R-G-G-H-HA-A-R-R-G-G-H-H!!!!!!

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

DNC Memorandum #2

From the office of the ChairWOMAN, 22 June 2011

***Listen UP! There has been dereliction of duty in the DNC. A request was made in last month’s memo for a red/yellow/black/white-paper describing the reasons POTUS has been bombing Libya since March. Thus far, only two papers have been received, with one locating Libya in California and the other wondering if Libya is in POTUS’s denomination and needed retribution instead of prayer. Both were from Harvard graduates, who have been assigned to the Everglades for door-to-door organizing. Since 24 Libyans, none of whom were soldiers, were wasted in raids over the weekend, either NATO’s aim is worse than Cheney’s or there’s something rotten in Demark (not a racist remark because I say it isn’t). Possible research sources are Britain, France, Italy and Senator McCain, all of whom are gung-ho for wiping Libya off the map without putting boots on the ground. If possible, make the paper 25 words or less since POTUS maintains that amount of verbiage to comprise the attention-span of the public. This is why his speeches are long and often…no harm can be done after the first 25 words, whether teleprompted or not.

***Account former Congressman Weiner’s bizarre activities of late, liberalism has been given a bad name and, consequently, must be refurbished. The wag who posted on the bulletin board that a Weiner/Frank garnished with exotic sauces will soon be served in the House cafeteria has been banished to digging up dirt on Rand Paul, starting with the fact that the latest al Qaeda goons were arrested in his hometown. In any case, the Weiner/Frank will be served with the usual – catsup and mustard. A good starting point for reestablishing credibility will be researching all Congressmen and CongressWOMEN to discover how many served well in either Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but certainly not in both. That would only add to the problem.

***Make every effort to quash the rumor that the First Lady and her mother and daughters each had her own Air Force plane for the goodwill trip to South Africa. The rumor has come about, apparently, because POTUS and FL needed three planes just to have a date in NYC soon after the wearying inauguration. Also, no mention is to be made concerning the actual number of planes, helicopters, armored cars, secret service agents, hairdressers, marines, personal chefs, personal dry-cleaners, costume/dress designers, vegetarian gurus, food-tasters, etc., were needed for this important trip. When questioned about these apparent extravagances, mention that Hillary visited at least 75 countries when she was first lady and even camped out in Morocco.

***In town-hall meetings, stress the fact that SCOTUS erred in ruling against the class-action suit brought against WalMart by 1.6 million women employees or former employees. Though eight justices agreed in one part of the ruling, the main ruling was agreed to by five men. All the SCOTUS women voted to make the 1.6 million plaintiffs wealthy even if bankrupting WalMart were the outcome. This is further evidence that men are not capable of running the country, and no apology is offered herein to DNC male-staffers who might think of suing the DNC over this statement. It is not discriminatory or sexist because the chairWOMAN says it isn’t. Facts are facts.

***Chief DNC propagandist and movie producer Michael Moore is planning a new movie tentatively entitled The Guantanamo Brief. It will feature the actions of a Mississippi lawyer protecting a president from underhanded actions by scurrilous republicans determined to stop POTUS from closing the terrorist prison on the island shared with Cuba. Moore has been denied the use of Guantanamo as the location by the military but is appealing to POTUS, who, as commander-in-chief in an election cycle, is deciding whether or not to intervene, meaning that he’s keeping a close eye on the polls. If POTUS reads the polls as negative, the movie location will be moved to just the other side of the gate at Guantanamo and rented from Fidel Castro or his brother Raoul (who knows who’s calling the shots there?), who has promised Moore that he will furnish all the torture-victims for the realistic torture-scenes, actual water-boarding included, even though it has been declared as non-torture since it neither injures nor kills. Moore is deciding whether or not Cubans could be made to look like Arabs and is devising applications for potential Obama-look-alikes.

***Be aware, account the Libyan action, that the term “no-fly-zone” has been redefined. It now includes, besides planes and helicopters, birds (especially birds of prey), butterflies and other creatures that can be used for carrying chemicals or small nuclear warheads and programmed as to available sites for dive-bombing activity. This explains why NATO pilots often kill civilians, the reason being that their ammo has already destroyed creatures defying the new no-fly-zone, which nevertheless lack the mass to slow the ammo before it hits the ground or a child or whatever else has no right to be in a certain place at the wrong time. This is very important to POTUS since the old no-fly-zone was accomplished four days after the action started on 19 March, while attacks have been continued ever since, meaning that this should be part of the reasoning as the red/yellow/black/white-papers are prepared. Also, since Defense Secretary Gates announced in Moscow that the action was done “on-the-fly,” implying no planning, the actual definition for this term is “strategic planning via leading from behind,” thus describing POTUS’s genius in military matters.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Obama's Illegal War

This is from the New York Times of June 17: “WASHINGTON — President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations. Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, and Caroline D. Krass, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, had told the White House that they believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to “hostilities.” Under the War Powers Resolution, that would have required Mr. Obama to terminate or scale back the mission after May 20.”

The president’s rape of Libya for reasons known only to him since nobody with walking around sense would swallow some kind “compassionate considerations” is now not only a war of choice but one of stark illegality. Without even consulting the Congress, the president, in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, has commited U.S. military and treasure to what amounts to the inculcating of a “killing field.” First the U.S. and now NATO at Obama’s behest, have been “shooting fish in a barrel,” since the Libyan military is virtually powerless against them.

First advertised as the instituting of a “no-fly zone,” the actions have deteriorated into taking sides in a civil war, with the U.S. and NATO just as responsible for the bloodshed as any group on the ground in Libya. The no-fly zone was accomplished within four days of the first U.S. bomb/missile raid on the hapless Libyans. Now, it appears that the targets are residential neighborhoods, although NATO honchos are condemning Qaddafi for using mosques and play-fields as shields, according to the BBC. What did they expect as they rained death on anything and everything, moving or non-moving?

Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mullen both went on the record as advising the president that attacking Libya was a bad idea. When Obama pulled the trigger, Gates was in Russia and termed Obama’s war as something “done on the fly,” meaning with little forethought and even less methodology, since Obama seemed to believe that wars could be won just by bombing the enemy into submission. Since Obama also had no exit strategy or even the definition of an end of hostilities, “on-the-fly” was an even more apt description defining the actions of someone with not even one hour’s experience in the military or, certainly, how and when to even use it.

U.S. Constitution Article I(8): “The Congress shall have power…to declare war.” U.S. War Powers Act, 1973, Section 3: “The President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situation where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and after every such introduction shall consult regularly with the Congress until United States Armed Forces are no longer engaged in hostilities or have been removed from such situations.” Then comes the requirement cited in the article above concerning Congressional authorization, scaling back or getting out altogether.

From the get-go, Obama has engaged in what amounts to terrorist activities, the killing of civilians. Libya, population two million less than that of New York City, has never posed a threat to this nation, has never attacked it, and has a military of only 76,000 troops, as opposed to the U.S. contingent of 1.6 million active duty and about 3 million altogether. There was not one American interest abused or one American citizen in danger in Libya at any time this year. There was not one reason for Obama’s war, no matter what he claims. His job is to protect the interests and welfare of American citizens…ONLY. Meddling in the affairs of other nations without a compelling reason is not the president’s business.

It’s probable that no U.S. president has ever been as unprepared for office as Barack Obama. Even worse, it’s doubtful that any president has ever learned less on the job once in office. Obama has reverted to the monarchical model in his presidency, having appointed 35-40 czars (no one knows how many) answerable only to him in setting up regulations designed to run the country into the tank. The latest regulations, designed to put coal-fired generating-plants out of business or make electricity rates “skyrocket” (as he promised in his campaign), or both, has just been awarded a two-month abeyance. Apparently, someone has reminded him of November 2012.

Only a socialist/communist/fascist leader could have the arrogance of instituting his own war. This is something Hitler did in the 1930s-40s. The American GIs lacking any provocations by Libya but dropping bombs on ordinary citizens anyway deserve better than to be ordered to commit such atrocities. One wonders where the Congress is. Sadly, Congress probably wonders where it is, too.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Dear President Obama,

In connection with your current effort in Libya, I’m offering the services of the Institute for Modifying All Governmental Entities (IMAGE, for short). It’s the job of IMAGE to enhance the persona of a client in such a way as to make him/her appear acceptable to the public regardless of how brilliant, incompetent, stupid, or just squirrelly he/she (equal opportunity, diversity, multiculturalism, ethnicity, creed, etc. always observed respectfully) may be. Speaker Boehner is publicly on your case presently regarding all those Libyans you have ordered killed in behalf of saving other Libyans’ lives, or something like that. This is not a criticism of your heroic effort, just stating facts. Senator McCain was in Libya in April and said the Libyans you’re saving are his heroes, besides being nice people we can trust.

The arm of IMAGE that would be appropriate at the beginning is the seminar entitled Waging Alien Readjustments, or WAR, for short. You are entitled, as any president is, to conduct at least one war, with two or more even better. Your problem now is that you have told a number of heads of governments to get out of Dodge (little old-west levity there, meaning “run for their lives”) but some of them have refused to do so and have even had the temerity to pay no attention to you, an actual act of diplomatic war, figuratively speaking, requiring not diplomatic revenge, but a reasoned explanation of why they should obey the loudest mouth in the world. WAR operatives can help you form these reasoned arguments, even if there aren’t any, and explain why you can’t just order world leaders around or accuse them of acting stupidly, as you have done with regard to white policemen.

The arm of IMAGE that would obviously follow is the Bureau for Utilizing Loquaciousness in Liberty-Yammering, otherwise known as BULLY. In connection with Libya, you have done what any playground monster would do, namely, pick on the smallest available potential victim. Libya’s population is two-million less than that of New York City and Qadaffi has to make do with hired assassins from the Congo or somewhere, so you could hardly lose, although you actually do need to give Qadaffi the “Osama treatment” before Boehner starts blathering about NATO’s costs, which are mostly borne by American taxpayers. Your choice of Libya for your war was not the problem; rather, you haven’t explained why you chose it. No one expected you to invade Russia or China or even Syria for your war.

Both the Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973 have to do with your responsibility to protect the public from invasions, etc., but you haven’t explained how Libya was a clear and present danger to this country. BULLY operatives would prepare your teleprompters in such a way as to make the case that Qaddafi threatened the whole world with his huge army (76,000 troops) during his UN speech in 2009 about global things. Also, when he pitched his tent in New York City and demanded camel-space in violation of city ordinances, he was obviously sending a message that a hotel might come under attack at any moment, meaning one that he had planned but obviously went awry. See the difference between all that compassion-dribble and far better, more reasoned propaganda? BULLY would also help you explain why you didn’t listen to the military guys, Gates and Mullen, both of whom said publicly that attacking Libya was strictly bananas.

The next entity in IMAGE that would help you is the Agency for Rationalizing Arab Beheadings and Stoning Prerogatives in Rebellions/Insurrections Necessitating Gravitas, otherwise known by its acronym, ARAB SPRING. This is right in line with your glorification of all the people in the streets this year in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and now Libya, despite the fact that a slew of them have already been buried on the same day their protests took place. If you had been in IMAGE’s care, you would not have encouraged young people, for instance, to take the fall, but old codgers, who are pretty well washed up anyway. ARAB SPRING will help you explain to the American people that Muslims are happy and of no threat, and that their requirements for societal welfare are just different from those of even hillbilly Kentucky. Instead of an eye-for-an-eye, they sometimes require a whole body-for-an-eye. It’s just a matter of degree.

The second area of ARAB SPRING, regarding gravitas, has to do with your needed efforts to convince Arabs and Muslims that they need to have better reasons for cutting off limbs, for instance, just for stealing a loaf of bread. Or, you need to convince them of the need to explain to the world how their punishment is better than civilized punishment, to wit for instance, that a one-armed teenager will have a harder time breaking and entering in order to steal another loaf of bread, or in this country, Lebron James sneakers. This will require IMAGE-ARAB SPRING to work with your state department, but a bit of caution is in order regarding personnel. William Ayers, your friend and mentor, of Weather Underground – Community Organizing fame, is not a candidate for dealing with the Muslims since he is just like them. The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright might be helpful since he’s made it clear that one can damn this country but still thrive quite well in it. That should make any Arab happy and score points for you in 2012.

Hoping to hear from you.

Respectfully,
I.M. Reverself, CEO
IMAGE

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Weiner's Partners in Crime

Everyone is piling on Congressman Weiner now and, of course, he deserves it as more of his disgraceful shenanigans are exposed almost daily. His claim to be seeking solutions (would Obamacare cover it?) for his problem seems vague enough. Is he having a “Tiger Woods Moment?” No such thing as sex-addiction has ever been declared by any psychiatric or social or psychological agency, so all the stuff about treating it is smoke and mirrors.

Interestingly, not much is said about the fact that on the other end of all Weiner’s tweets or Facebook whatevers – everything from phone sex to lewd pictures? – is a gaggle of females, many if not most of them perfectly willing to go along with the sleaze. They’re characterized in the media as “victims,” the watchword of modern-day America – everybody just has to be a victim of some kind – while poor Weiner is the only villain. Gimme a break!

I surfed onto Hannity the other evening (I’m not a Hannity type) and who was there all the way from Seattle or somewhere out west but the (gasp) college student victimized by Weiner, naturally just horrified – actually, amused – by the whole thing and obviously enjoying her 15 minutes of fame. She’s 26, a single mom (child’s father not mentioned) and a veteran of the U.S. Army, hardly a naïve college girl being seduced by a lecherous old congressman. She was as calm and collected as anyone could hope to be on Fox News, not the least bit upset. Even Barbara Walters or Diane Sawyer couldn’t have made her weep bitter tears of trauma, though they might talk her into suing Weiner. That would be a great story.

Well…the network girls have dragged out Sanford, Spitzer, Edwards and hammered them, the cads, with great fervor, but don’t mention the distaff operatives involved in their hanky-panky. They even dredged up poor old Gary Hart and resurrected him from the eighties, the better to make their case that men are animals while the women are poor things just USED – oh, mercy, bless them all – by the insensitive creatures. An errant Congressman is not to be tolerated while practitioners of the oldest profession are to be pitied and glorified for showing strength amidst catastrophe. Egad!

I surfed onto ABC the other morning (okay, just five minutes, admittedly) to discover Christiane Amanpour conducting a panel comprised of some of the highest-profile women to be found anywhere. I gathered in my short viewing that the girls agreed that women are team-oriented and get things done while men are competitive to the point of pushing themselves at the expense of everything and everybody else, the devil take the hindmost. Oh…those cro-magnon-types…keepers of the Glass Ceiling, the devils!

The cutest irony, though, concerns the cuties who do these shows – not all but many, especially news and commentary – and take the lead in crucifying poor Weiner. That infamous press conference of his is still playing, and the cuties, who make sure to exhibit the greatest possible cleavage and the most possible thigh-skin put the dagger in Weiner’s back while displaying the most amazing come-ons ever imagined by the girl-on-the-move, doncha know. They give a show-and-tell lesson about how Weiner got hooked…or “hookered.”

The cuties contrive to give learned opinions (oh, the legal eagles among them) and talk about tornadoes and murders and Middle-East blood-in-the-streets while being painted and primped to the penultimate like they just dropped in for less serious things while on their way to the nearest cocktail party. While their male counterparts are dressed to the nines head-to-foot, suit-and-tie, they come in dressed off-the-shoulder (or sometimes off of more) and, prim and proper with their legs crossed just so, seeming to tease the camera-man about a possible crotch-shot lapse.

Let’s face it. Weiner has had it. I don’t care if he resigns or not. After all, the people elected him, and Congress has featured, does feature, and will always feature strange people, so Weiner is not necessarily out of place. If Slick Willie, who makes Weiner look like a Boy Scout, could hold the presidency, Satan itself could hold a seat from New York. In both perverted behavior and consummate lying, Weiner could never hold a candle to Bubba, who actually discovered what “is” is, perhaps the greatest lesson learned from his peccadilloes. Maybe Weiner will discover what “are” is, or maybe that should be what “are” are. Who knows…or cares?

In the meantime, let’s hear it for the girls who do the necessary in order to seduce these weak legislators and then make hay of it (how smart they are!) and the girls in their iffy clothes (or non-clothes) who make the Tube even boober as they juice up the nightly news and the morning doldrums.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Weiner Warped in the Whirlwind!

The fact that New York Congressman Weiner was messed up in some sort of sexual business, albeit, at least according to him, at a distance and not involving intimacies, is not exactly surprising since this kind of stuff has been going on with elected officials virtually since the birth of the nation. The fact that he lied through his teeth about his rather sordid behavior when caught also was not surprising. This seems to be the knee-jerk reaction of politicians – perhaps most folks…who knows – when they’re caught in some sort of skullduggery, so what else is new?

The fact that Weiner called a press conference – not in Washington but in New York – to apologize all around to everyone he hurt, especially his wife, and to call himself out as a liar was not surprising, either. After all, he was caught and had no other option short of emigrating to Borneo. The fact that he stated his intentions to make no response of any kind concerning the dirt that is sure to be coming along was not surprising since to do so would merely enhance his guilt. In any case, he’s assured of soft treatment by the so-called mainstream media because he’s a democrat and because he’s Obama’s man Friday.

Weiner made it plain in the press conference that he would not resign his seat, as a New York colleague, also caught recently in shady stuff, did, as have many others. After all, former New York attorney-general and governor Eliot Spitzer, caught in a sordid business with high-priced prostitutes, resigned and is now doing quite well at CNN, a mainstream outlet, conducting his own talk-show and probably making bigger bucks than he ever would have as governor, at least as far as salary and not kickbacks are concerned. Sleaziness as a silent part of a resume apparently speaks well for broadcasters at CNN, so if worse comes to worse and Weiner should be forced out he could figure on a plush job at CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS or maybe the New York Times, though he would probably favor TV, the better to show his anatomy.

The most disgusting thing about the affair, however, is the fact that a Congressman, supposedly a mature man who understands the seriousness connected to his job, could be caught up in the often, if not essentially, juvenile exercise of tweeting, texting, sexting or participating in Facebook or some other online silly bare-all vehicle, in which everything from the lurid to the totally inane, insane stuff is posted for all the world to see. Weiner made a laughingstock of his very position, one to which most folks – the voters – attach grave importance.

Weiner placed himself on the same level as a hormone-driven-high-school-sophomore boy, who’s likely to tweet before he thinks or place some ridiculous picture of some part of his physique on the internet, never realizing that it can be passed around the world in minutes, no matter how obnoxious or embarrassing to his family. Apparently, it never occurred to Weiner that all his tweeting and face-booking – even phone conversations…maybe phone sex a la Bill Clinton & Monica? – could come back to haunt him, even though after sitting through myriad hearings or congressional sessions he had to know how easy it is to surf the internet and find all kinds of incriminating stuff. Should one believe he was just plain stupid?

There’s a darker angle to this matter. On the basis of what Weiner did – with all other officials having the same online/electronic tools at their disposal – should one wonder how trustworthy these public servants are? Congressmen in both Houses have access to sensitive information, often delivered behind-closed-doors-only. How susceptible are they with respect to blackmail when to be embarrassed or – worse – lose their positions could be an outcome if they don’t “cooperate?” This makes Weiner’s utter lack of plain common sense all the more graphic.

In fact, his lack of plain common sense was vividly portrayed in that weird press conference that was actually co-opted for a while by his tormentor, Andrew Breitbart, when he said he would not resign – this despite the fact that he himself was in the process of destroying any credibility he might expect people to believe he had/has. One of his “ladies of interest” has indicated publicly that she talked on the phone with Weiner while he was in his office using a telephone, both provided as resources by the taxpayers. This is patently a no-no and will now be front-and-center in the House at the very time important matters are on the agenda. One suspects the democrats are hoping the problem will go away, meaning that Weiner will go away.

Oh…well…at least Weiner’s wife didn’t appear with him like a zombie standing by her man. Good for her!

And so it goes.
Jim Clark