Shall We Dance?
Jake Tapper describes an off-mic conversation between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.
When asked to explain what President Obama meant, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Ben Rhodes told ABC News that there is room for the U.S. and Russia to reach an accommodation, but “there is a lot of rhetoric around this issue — there always is — in both countries.”
It’s hard to avoid drawing the inference from the dialog that President Obama intends to concede something to the Russians in his second term which, if revealed now, would prevent him from being elected to a second term in the first place. Here is yet another instance of our old friend, the principal-agent problem.
Who is the principal? The American people who “hire” the chief executive of the Republic. Who is the agent? – in the ordinary economic sense — it is the President, who is supposed to act on behalf of the principal. What is the principal-agent problem?
In political science and economics, the principal–agent problem or agency dilemma treats the difficulties that arise under conditions of incomplete and asymmetric information when a principal hires an agent, such as the problem of potential moral hazard and conflict of interest, in as much as the principal is—presumably—hiring the agent to pursue the principal’s interests …
The principal–agent problem arises when a principal compensates an agent for performing certain acts that are useful to the principal and costly to the agent, and where there are elements of the performance that are costly to observe …
Here, principals do not know enough about whether (or to what extent) a contract has been satisfied. The solution to this information problem — closely related to the moral hazard problem — is to ensure the provision of appropriate incentives so agents act in the way principals wish.
In simple terms the principal agent problem occurs when the agent secretly sells out or represents the principal in order to advance his own (the agent’s) interests.
In this instance the voters hired Obama to defend the national interest, whatever the cost might be to him personally. Whatever he intends to avoid must be costly since he told Medvedev that he wished to wait until his second term to do whatever he intends to do.
The is also the presence of information asymmetry. The agent (Obama) has information about his private costs and about the costs to the principal of which the voters are not aware. This is known only to himself and his Russian counterparts.
This creates the classic principal-agent problem. Few would tolerate it. Imagine your lawyer saying he will agree to something which he will not reveal until he gets you to sign a blanket, irrevocable authorization to do whatever it is. You may still wish to retain that lawyer on trust, believing he will always act in your interests. However you ought to be aware there is a chance that he is fixing to sell you out. Moreover, his behavior is suggestive of bad faith.
When agent does not faithfully represent the principal, the possibility of “secret diplomacy” arises. This creates the ultimate principal-agent dilemma because the principal can be committed to actions of which he is completely unaware. The practice of “secret diplomacy” contributed significantly to the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914 and the Second War in 1939.
A secret treaty is a treaty between nations that is not revealed to other nations or interested observers. An example would be a secret alliance between two nations to support each other in the event of war. The opposing nations would be unaware of the treaty and therefore unable to add it to their calculations, which could obviously result in a difficult situation for the party that declared war when they are suddenly confronted with the troops of two or even three nations. Secret treaties were common before the First World War, and many blamed them for helping spark that conflict. Other noted secret treaties include the sections of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe …
Secretly diplomacy is now widely considered to be inadvisable. Although diplomats and chief executives may treat operational and tactical matters as “secret”, elected officials generally have no business making fundamentally new arrangements in despite of the electorate because they are merely the agents, not the principals, of the nation. Any attempt at substantive secret diplomacy, that is to save the evasion of electoral accountability in the pursuit of his foreign policy raises real and fundamental issues.
The main issue with the agent in these cases is ‘who is he working for”? If he is working for the American people, then he has a political and moral responsibility to tell them what he plans to arrange with Foreign Powers, in policy terms at least, before he does it. If he is working for himself he should resign as agent. In this case the President works for the people. The people do not exist to supply passive objects for whatever “arc of history” he may have in mind.
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Wretchard writes, “It’s hard to avoid drawing the inference from the dialog that President Obama intends to concede something to the Russians in his second term which, if revealed now, would prevent him from being elected to a second term in the first place.”
Actually, and this from someone who doesn’t like what Obama stands for, there is an equally compelling and far less damaging explanation. That explanation is that Obama is using the excuse of election-year constraints to bide his time and that while his buying time may be advantageous to him personally, it may also be to the benefit of the larger US interests.
I’m not suggesting that this is the correct explanation, or even that it is equally probable. Much less that it is the only other reasonable explanation.
All I’m suggesting is that we should not let our views about this President color everything we see to such a degree that we become blind to other thoughts and explanations.
What the GOP NEEDS to do in this frightening event is not to point out that Obama said this and wonder what it is about. What the GOP NEEDS to do is flat-out assume that Obama intends to bury missile defense, say so loudly and forthrightly, and force the president to either agree or clearly deny it.
Oh, wait, ABC News top of the hour news just started, I need to hear what they are saying about this —
(………chirp………..chirp…………..chirp………)
Uh huh.
This is intriguing. So is the silence – so far – on the part of the Republican candidates.
Intrade Prediction Market: Obama, last price, 59.9, down today to 59.8
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That is a likely reading of the situation. On the other hand, it may just be Obama stalling.
Or it may be a “no” in the least confrontational way. As anyone with children knows, “not now” sells easier than “no” but the result in at least the short term is the same.
AZM would have a good point but for the observed fact that Obama has frequently acted contrary to true American interests, including obligating America to fight in a war (and carry the major burden thereof) without ever obtaining the consent of Congress. He has demonstrated on a number of occasions that he believes international obligations and governing bodies supercede and override national interests and the American people’s interests.
What Obama is discussing with Medvedev may prove to be innocuous or even smart diplomacy, but the President’s track record engenders suspicion.
Yes that’s possible. We let lawyers shade our intent when we believe they are doing so in order to get a better deal. Especially when they are implicitly trusted.
In this case however, the President already announced his preference to abolish “unproven missile defense systems” and to defund “all future combat systems” during the campaign. So it is public record which direction he wants to go.
In fact, one might argue that his mandate from the voters already includes a substantial element of unilateral disarmament. He has downsized the military. He has done what he said he would do. And that’s ok because the electorate signed off on it. If they didn’t want that, they would have elected John McCain.
However, his conversation with Medvedev would be unnecessary unless he planned to go beyond what he has done already. There must be something the Russians are asking for which he cannot, even with his mandate, commit to. What are the Russians offering in return? Syria perhaps? Who knows. But the fact remains that not knowing what your lawyer will agree to is a risky way of doing business. It might be a tactic, but it might be a sellout. How do you know which it is?
That is the point: there is no way of knowing which it is. You might trust President Obama, but that is an act of faith, not a calculation based on positive information.
As evidenced by this and other actions, it is apparent Obama believes his fiduciary responsibility is not to the American people. One of a dozen examples that come to mind would be: his administration is bankrupting the country and its citizens, if the administration is as “smart” its supporters say that bankrupting is being done on purpose, and if it is being done on purpose their loyalty lies elsewhere.
He has absolutely no idea what he is doing. He has no concept what effect his words have, especially in a matter such as this, where one word misplaced, may prove disasterous. These foreign leaders are surely “horse-laughing” at this imposter. Obama is a mockery, a sham and a fraud. It would be like me, a prosecutor, being made the head of Los Alamos, walking around issuing orders and making policy statements-within minutes I would rightly be pegged as a fraud and “frog-marched” to the exit. I know deep down that everybody working for this “man” knows without a doubt,(the press especially), what the deal is and they are struggling just to hold this thing together with duct tape and fishing line. I feel as if I am constantly watching a sitcom drama about an unqualified man acting as Commander-in-Chief.
I do not like Mitt Romney. The differences in record between what Romney has stated as his beliefs and what he has actually done, and what Obama believes and has done are not wide enough to earn my support and trust. Especially trust.
His own campaign staff contradicts his promises to Conservatives. Senator Norm Coleman, who is expected to be the HHS Secretary in a Romney administration has stated that they will NOT repeal Obamacare. His Communications Director has stated that come the General Election campaign, everything from the primary will be turned over like an Etch-a-Sketch. In the context of a campaign where Romney is desperately trying to convince the Conservative base of the party that he is not another McCain, who will campaign to lose and if he lucks into winning will stab Conservatives in the back on a regular basis; that means everything he has said to us is perhaps going to be “inoperative”.
Our country is literally at the edge of a cliff. There is no more political, economic, or social design margin left. We need someone who will fight back against the Enemy with every fiber of his being. Mitt Romney has never, ever, in his 20 year political career dug in his heels and fought against the Left for anything but his own election. And that last, poorly. He has never fought against the Democrats as hard as he fights against Republicans, and based on his record [and statements] there is not that much expectation that he will go after Obama. Which means he is probably going to lose if he is the candidate.
I have been an active Republican for 32 years. I have been elected as a delegate to our State Convention ["where's my calculator?"] 87.5% of the time for those 32 years. I have run a successful presidential campaign in my county. My bona fides as a Republican and as a Conservative are established.
I am hoping for a brokered Republican convention that will give us a fighter.
If the Institutional Republican Party foists Mitt Romney on us as the candidate; despite his history of not fighting the Left, and apparent lack of any discernible Conservative principles beyond recent lip service; I and my family [we have discussed this] will go to the County Clerk’s office the first business day after his nomination and change our registration to unaffiliated. For the Institutional Republican Party will have proved that it is profoundly unserious about defending the Constitution and the country I have sworn an Oath to defend.
I will devote myself to working to see that the TEA Party becomes the second party in the country on the way to becoming the dominant political party in the country in any putative elections in 2014, if they do in fact occur. If they do not, the Oath abides.
That said.
As much as I will hate to. As sick as it will make me feel to know that this is how bad conditions are; if Willard Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate against Buraq Hussein Obama, even though I will no longer be a Republican, I will vote for the stupid, inbred, spineless stack of meat. Because for all his faults, and they are many, he is not openly conspiring with a hostile foreign power against our country.
Subotai Bahadur
I would hope that Mr. Romney will politely ask President Obama in their first debate what other commitments the President has made that he has chosen not to tell the rest of us proletariat about. Either potential answer would be entertaining.
Some of you may still recall when it was the rule never to discuss nuclear weapons because loose discussion might add or detract from the quantity that used to be called “credibility” — the resolve to use them when the time came, however unthinkable.
Strategic weapons are chiefly useful as demonstrations of resolve. If you actually have to use them, you have failed. Hence, statements about strategic posture were treated with an almost religious reverence because they affected the “signal”. The signal was in fact the actual utility of the strategic weapon.
This contributes to stability. Having a President say “well I can do this … when I am re-elected” can have unwarranted consequences. Maybe this is all passe. But its worth remembering that Korea may have been invaded in 1950 because the SOS of the era simply omitted it from a policy speech he made, or the Cuban Missile Crisis may have been precipitated by Kennedy’s flaky performance in Vienna with Khrushchev.
The fundamental policy of a great state should be KNOWN so that others may never mistake it. So they may calculate upon it. So they may rely upon it. It is dangerous to make the policy of superpowers contingent on “if I am elected”, for that introduces an element which the Russians are bound to act upon.
Is it not true that it would now be in Russia’s interests to help Obama get re-elected? Because if he is re-elected then he can give them what they want. Perhaps he did not mean to say that, but has it not been said anyway unintentionally? The whole principal agent problem rests upon the alignment of interests. The interest of the agent and the principal should for safety’s sake be one and the same.
When you create a situation where your agent declares his interest coincides with Russia’s interest, that opens a crack. Nothing may whistle through that crack, but can anyone deny that the moral hazard crack once made, exists?
Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you keep it a secret! Why didn’t you tell the world, EH?
Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.
Always fascinated by the Cold War, after watching a Archer episode I stumbled upon Operation Gladio, after wading through all of the KGB disinformation about the program I thought about how many NATO planners ever thought of the need of a “stay behind force” in North America? How much of the unprecedented panic buying of firearms in America are people unconsciously making their own gladio cell? Gun owners and dedication & reverence to the Constitution usually go hand in hand. If this isn’t proof of a TWANLOC capture of the WH I don’t know what is. Lets hope this nightmare ends without having to exercise the wolverine option.
This is really bad.
This latest outrage from our Dear Leader is just too much to take.
In this next Presidential election, it seems we will be left to chose between a Socialist Crony Progressive who will manage a descent into permanent Crony Socialism, where all but a few of us will be bound to serfdom, and a Marxist Traitor who would much prefer a Police State where many of us would be rounded up and sent to a gulag, if he couldn’t sell us out to our foreign enemies who will destroy us first.
A vote for serfdom or a vote for destruction. That’s what we got.
Jim M – don’t expect diddly squat from the Republican Establishment on this- they already sold us out on Start II.
@12 Very good point. I remember that.
Others have already made the point that he may have been just saying no in a non-confrontational way. I would like to flesh it out just a bit. (as I posted in Tatler.)
One could argue that he is just stringing them along. The problem is, well, it is just too damned believable that he means it! If another President, clearly pro-America, had said that, we wouldn’t be upset.
“I’m sorry, but there is no way with my re-election coming up that I can even begin to discuss something like this. It would give my opponents something to latch onto, and you and I would get nowhere on this. It might be that some kind of deal could be made in the future, if you are willing to give up something of equal value to us, but it simply cannot be done at all right now. It is not something I can even begin to discuss, at the moment.
Besides, this is a high-value thing, and I am not sure you have enough to offer, regardless, but that doesn’t mean I won’t hear you out in the future, if you come up with something inspired.”
I think it may simply be that Obama simply has no command of delicate, diplomatic language, so it looks worse than it is. I struggle to imagine what these leaders of other countries must think about our Amateur-in-Chief. They have to be appalled. How they must dread having to deal with him. It must be like your horrid Mother-in-law coming for Thanksgiving. Grit your teeth, and try to not recoil and sneer.
I’m guessing Obama is a lousy poker player.
On another note: yesterday I paid 4.60 per gallon of regular (in Cook County). Can’t go on this way much longer. Much higher and I can’t afford to drive to work.
Man oh man this is bad. Going to renew my FOID tomorrow.
Marc,
Mr Spock said it best, “Only Nixon can go to China.” Since President Obama betrayed the Poles in 2009 with cancellation of the Anti-Missle base on their soil, his hot mic graffe is grounds to get new representation for the American people.
If Obama is narrowly defeated America will probably be weakened by years of race baiting and conspiracy theories. Millions of minorities will be permanently alienated, becoming in place members of Another Country like Palestinians in Lebanon. If Obama is decisively rejected then we may be able to reach those trapped by his bigotry and restore their chance at the American Dream.
Obama’s problem is that he is, or at least appears to be vainglorious, and that is a very dangerous position to be in. When you think you’re more clever than everyone else, you almost assuredly are not and it causes you to make mistakes that you can’t see because you may be unwilling to earnestly consider good advice from your support staff and ultimately from your principles.
What does the precautionary principle say? On the evidence President Obama may be the Manchurian Candidate; He may be pursuing his own, secret agenda; he may be a very inept negotiator. It could be all three and two are likely. Do you vote for him?
You do if you exist in The Ruling Class False Consciousness Bubble. The ruling class believes that the American People — by and large — are ignorant rubes and war mongers and racist who are easily manipulated by their oppressors which, in the ruling class way of thinking, does not include the ruling class (they are “The Catchers in the Rye”). They think the people need to be tricked into doing what is good for the people (though it is actually good for the ruling class). So they will be very understanding of what the President is doing. I would say about 40 percent of the population share this point of view. I sometimes point out to people that as far as D.C. is concerned they are the rubes — that the readers of the New York Times and The Washington Post are the rubes but it does little good.
They don’t mind the lies because the lies are necessary to pursue the agenda. Unfortunately, after decades of spin and outright deception they are no longer sure what the agenda is, if it will work when in place or if it even makes sense. Their False Consciousness requires them to shun analysis lest their whole program be picked apart — and the parts they favor go down with the whole.
I do not believe that the ruling class views Romney as an existential threat. So the precautionary principle may go into play if he is the nominee and the economy remains sour — in this case the precautionary principle is “go with the winner.”
I wonder about the other end of the issue. Why are the Russians so fixated on US missile defense?
In the Reagan days of SDI, I think that the Soviets were not afraid so much of SDI but rather what it represented in terms of R&D. SDI actually was a huge expansion of US R&D into new areas, ranging from not only actual missile intercepts but also areas such as new rocket propulsion systems and directed energy weapons. The Soviets had already been complaining that arms control agreements with the US were useless because we kept inventing so much new stuff. And the last thing a society like the USSR wants is one game changer after another. From their viewpoint SDI was nothing but game changers, completely aside from what it did for missile defense.
But what about now? I predicted to Wretchard that the Russians would react to our Eastern European missile defense plans – which they would view as our intrusion into their area of interest – by doing something that we did not see as related but that they would. The result was their invasion of Georgia.
But again, what about now? Obama soothed their ruffled feathers by canceling our missile defense plans that involved bases in the former Warsaw Pact countries, so why do they care now? The claim that missile defenses are an offensive effort directed at them does not hold water. I think there is something else going on that goes beyond the usual focused pettiness of the Russians or their legendary bureaucratic inertia.
Charlie #14:
After the fall of the USSR it was revealed that the Soviets had located weapons caches in the US. And it was revealed that we did the same thing in Eastern Europe. You have to wonder how much of that stuff has yet to be cleaned up.
Fortunately -or not- I don’t think the Russians trust him either.
Blast/19: good point. A close result will be like Bush/Gore only much, much worse. So we need to hope for a blowout. In either direction. What are the odds of that? I speculate, long odds indeed. If Obama is close, he will pull out all the stops to win, and his obvious overstepping will embitter most of the country. If he is losing big, he will do the same only more so, either because he’s too stupid to know when to quit or because he wants to punish the country for its disloyalty; and an even worse result will ensue. Only if he is completely in the lead, or completely out of the running, will we avoid a virtual race-war in the fall. It’s underway. Saint Trayvon has already been given a field beatification by Revs. Sharpton and Jackson, with Obama’s gratuitous intercession.
I often wonder if this is what Obama says on camera then what does he say outside of camera shot when only Valeria Jarrett is listening?
#22 RWE – I often thought the same thing. The Russians and Chinese are just sitting back wondering how can we get our researches to think up all this new stuff. Personally if I were them I would say deploy all this stuff, field test it and then we (the Russian and Chinese) can steal it all later.
Occam’s Razor indicates that, at this point and with all the previous evidence, the most likely explanation of Obama’s statements are that he’s trying to sell out American citizens in favor of an internationalist agenda. He has not done anything to earn our trust on issues like this, and has in fact done much to throw away whatever residual trust his predecessors may have left him.
Beyond that, there is a considerable degree of asymmetry in the different assumptions we could make. If his plan is to sell us out as soon as he no longer needs to run for re-election, then the downside for us is enormous. Disarmed and helpless in an increasingly hostile world.
On the other hand, if Obama somehow does have more noble reasons for his curious whisperings to the agent of a revanchist Russia, the potential upside for us is rather limited. There is no immediate threat of nuclear war, or really any other sort of war, with Russia. There could be in the future of course, but for the moment, there is no great pressing need to conclude a new treaty with Russia in order to stave off armageddon. Besides, it’s not as if Obama and his political appointees have proven to be any great shakes at foreign policy, regardless of what side of the asle you come from. If we do need a new treaty with Russia, this administration is more likely to bungle it than get it done.
Shorter version: Obama hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt for either his intentions or his ability.
Subotai #10. I completely agree, except I’m not sure I can make myself vote for Romney. A vote for Romney just says to the RINO establishment that they can continue to conduct business as usual. We are at the edge of a cliff. We’re not running out of time, we have run out of time. The fact that at this moment in our history the best option we have is to vote Romney means we really have no options. Those who support the Constitution are disenfranchised. We have no say, and as long as we continue to vote “the lesser of two evils”, we will continue to have no say. We have become little better than slaves.
As to those who wish to be “open minded” and to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, remember that this not a game. Our lives and the fate of our country is at stake. If in every situation where a decision must be made one considers every possibility as equally likely, then no decision can be made. How do you make any decision about anything if this is your mode of problem solving? And this is an issue much more important than most. Everything Obama has said publicly lends support to the idea that in this case he means just what he is saying. And why would he want to “string the Russians along”? Has there been any instance of his administration’s negotiations with Russia that provides any reason whatsoever to believe that they support a strong national defense for the United States? I was watching a program last night on the run up to WWII. Of course it is hindsight, but it was hard to believe watching that program that people could have been so stupid as to believe that Hitler wasn’t a serious threat. But back then, the majority “gave him the benefit of the doubt”.
Buzzfeed carries a newspaper link from Poland reacting to the off-mic Obama comment:
Well of course not? Right. Surely not. The Poles must paranoid. The the poor deluded fellows have been reading too many history books and starting to believe that Poland can be sold down the drain. Everybody knows that the President would never do that. Don’t they?
It may in fact be the case that Obama is standing up for Poland in private. But we have no way of knowing, other than faith. The faith defense is interesting because it will probably be invoked by liberals who otherwise have no use for the notion of blind trust. Believe in God? What superstitious drivel!!! But what about Obama? Oh yes, have faith in Obama. Have faith in Obama. Ok, but why?
At least we have one advantage in respect to Obama that we lack with God. We can overhear him, and have done several times. Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection argues that almost every time Obama has been overheard, the public sees a different Obama from the public version.
If whenever you have an unscripted sample, the “real Obama” turns out to be very different from the public Obama, then which Obama was likely speaking to Medvedev, given that it was unscripted? That is not a conclusive line of argument, but it certainly one which argues that “faith” alone is not a sufficient defense against reasonable doubt about the President’s conduct.
The right approach has already been suggested. Someone — maybe Romney — ought to pin him down on the issue. Force him to nail his colors to the mast; to commit, as it were, to a public course of action from which he could not easily back down. What would be the problem, if he meant it?
I’m praying for $8.00 gas and The One promoting wind-powered cars-I believe they have bitten off more than they can Chu.
#27 John Work
I understand that your mileage may vary. Part of my personal decision is based on the belief that it is indeed a long shot, and that Romney will lose horribly if he is the nominee. Part, because I will be separating from any formal connection with the Institutional Republicans. And an understanding that a re-elected, or non-elected, Obama in a second term pretty much rules out electoral politics as having any real bearing on events in the foreseeable future. Politics will continue, just not by those means. Even in the absence of elections, political movements shape battlegrounds. You have to go where your conscience guides you. I have a feeling a lot of Americans are going to be consulting with their consciences over the next year or so.
From “the Scottish Play”:
Blow, wind! Come, wrack! ….
Subotai Bahadur
A hot mic just a little too convenient. They want Romney at the helm while everything collapses, all the better to blame the Right. Does Obama get to keep the balance of the 85 million he’s raised if he loses–maybe that’s why his fund raising has such a manic quality.
In the interest of peace of mind, I’m not thinking about the pathetic Republican Presidential field. I’m just putting my hopes on getting conservative control of as many other offices as possible. I’ll hold my nose, retreat to my “happy place” and vote straight Republican when the time comes. I just hope that come February that whoever the President is he’ll see a majority of Tea Party faces showing him their white and shiny fangs.
10. Subotai Bahadur
Between you and Rush I think I’ll vote against Obama. I don’t consider there to be any difference between them and Obama would be easy to impeach but this is the last straw.
“I wonder about the other end of the issue. Why are the Russians so fixated on US missile defense?”
RWE, ICBM’s are all they have. Russia is a low tech shithole. They are decades behind the US Military in everything except small arms. When Israel crunches the Iranian nuclear program, it will be obsolete Russian gear the F-16′s fly past.
Take away the ICBM’s and Russia has the same level of military power as Pogo Pogo.
The USA offered to GIVE the Russians Star Wars. The Russians didn’t want it. Remember the targeting problem. The USA is a democracy of sorts. Wipe out our leadership and we elect more, might even do better. Russia is ruled by tyrants and despots. Drop a bucket of sunshine on Pootie and the struggle to be the next despot begins.
The ceiling for Nukes in START was set at 775 ( I think) because the Soviets guessed it would take almost 900 Nukes to damage America to the point of no return. Best guess was that less then 30% of Soviet Nukes would hit their target and work. Quality control was never a hallmark of Soviet gear. Still isn’t.
Rumors were rife in the Defence business back in the 70′s of something called a WBW. Wide Beam Weapon. It was a Laser that could set polarity from 100′s of klicks away. The goal was to run it in a rastor scan over incoming warheads. Turn them all into lighting rods. As the warheads approached earth, they would be zapped by Lightning. That would either start a Fizzle or fry the electronics to the point where the warhead wouldn’t detonate.
So the USA might have something better then an ABM system.
“On the evidence President Obama may be the Manchurian Candidate”
Except that the Manchurian Candidate had the excuse of being brainwashed…
And was born in the US.
33. This is why I love the comment section here.
22. RWE
I wonder what the commies put in the caches here? Was it local stuff or combloc junk? I’d much rather see a SDS or OWS’er try using an AK with its terrible ergonomics and lousy site picture than a western rifle. Now a AR15 with a Eotech; give me under 5 minutes and I can teach a 16yo girl to hit center mass at a 100yrds.
Subotai,
Our best bet is to kick out Obama and elect so many tea partiers to congress that they limit Romney’s establishment-prone treachery. Maybe we’ll get a good VP and if Romney isn’t up to the challenge we can impeach our own guy.
What we are witnessing with this “open mike” revelation is a novice way out of his depth. It’s not “sinister” in any diabolical way…just a fool being foolish. Hopefully next time we will get better choices. Obama / McCain. Yeesh. Lately it does not appear that the cream rises to the top in either of the two major parties.
Very educational. Can anyone hazard a guess or offer insights into elements of the treaty that would impact the US’ ability to support Israel if the latter chooses to strike? Are there any obvious links?
To paraphase Rummy: “You go to an election with the politicans you have, not the politicans you wish you had.” Unfortunately we are stuck with the turd Romney as the alternative to Obamao. I had hoped we would have had the Valkyrie (Palin) going up against the One but sadly that isn’t in the cards. So we are left with the Establishment’s candidate. Not happy one bit about the prospect but the alternative (four more years of Obama) is even more unacceptable. So I will be a good little solider and eat my gruel. But I don’t have to like it.
That said, Romney should nailed Obamao @ss to the wall on this, get him into the corner and never let up. Sort of like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ywc_7_IE8
Sadly, chances are good he won’t even utter a peep about it. If asked he will deflect the question and change the subject. So once again it falls to Palin to voice the outrage over this:
“Whoever chooses to merely dismiss the significance of today’s exchange between our President and Russia’s President should have their intelligence and patriotism questioned. Let this exchange be a warning to voters: President Obama will have “more flexibility” to weaken us if he’s re-elected in November. He was caught speaking candidly to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev before a “hot mic” today (and surely one must believe he didn’t know the mics were still on; surely he’s not so audacious as to purposefully broadcast his intentions), as reported by ABC’s Jake Tapper. Here’s the exchange:
President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.
Let’s consider what this “flexibility” might mean. We know that he has repeatedly conceded to foreign demands and backed down on missile defense. I pointed this out as Governor of Alaska when he proposed reducing Alaska’s missile defense system capabilities. I explained then that the President’s proposed military cuts would diminish Alaska’s opportunity to defend the union with our strategic location’s defense infrastructure. We also know that in 2009, as part of his “reset” with Russia, President Obama turned his back on our Eastern European allies by abandoning past promises for a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
We can’t know for certain what this newly revealed “flexibility” means, but considering President Obama’s past actions, be sure it won’t involve a position of strength for America and our allies. Russia has been thwarting us on one issue after another, including the rushed-through New START Treaty that many of us questioned after Obama insisted America ratify it first, then allow Russia to sit on it – unratified on their end – until it suited that foreign power’s needs.
Meanwhile, North Korea is planning another long-range missile launch, and the United States and our allies are still vulnerable to the threat of ballistic missiles. Our president has done nothing to alleviate this vulnerability; in fact, he’s done just the opposite. He has consistently taken a position of weakness and naïve trust in Putin’s Russia. Consider that one-sided New START Treaty as an example of this. Or consider those cuts to Alaska’s missile defense system, which leaves us much more vulnerable in the face of a nuclear North Korea. Now consider the state of our national defense under a President who whispers to a foreign power that he needs even “more flexibility” to weaken us further.”
- Sarah Palin
Russia is now mainly a petro-economy looking to Europe to sell its oil and gas.
Re Iran
The US Military and US Intelligence community do not want a war with Iran
The US taxpayers do not want a war with Iran
India, China and Russia do not want a war between America and Iran
Our NATO and SEATO allies do not want a war between America and Iran
Most importantly-Iran does not want a war with America
Therefore–If KSA and Israel declare war with Iran then they are on their own
QED
famous secret diplomacy with heavy consequences !
with such protagonists, France couldn’t alone invade the Ruhr in 1936
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-German_Naval_Agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stresa_Front
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoare-Laval_Pact
A FRAGMENT ONLY OF THE OFF MIKE REMARKS BY OBAMA HAS BEEN RELEASED. HERE IS THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION.
Right after the election
He said with eyes cast low
I’ll give you a selection
Of things you need to know
Our missile shield defenses
Of course our missile strength
The plans for our offenses
And after that at length
I shall arrange surrender
Whatever be your terms
Just make the terms not tender
Harsh measures kill the germs
That fill the world with sickness
Spread by this hateful land
But act with speed and quickness
We’ll work this hand in hand
I want but for my name to
Be written in the stars
Of course if it all came to
I’ll be one of your Tsars
Missile defense can have several parameters:
1) sale or deployment of technology to allies or friends that are threatened by the large nuclear powers (China, Russia, and a few more yet to come)
2) Naval theater ABM’s: Notice that 4 guided missile cruisers that have or could be upgrade to ABM capabilities are being retired before their service life is over. Perhaps a unilateral move to decrease any seaborne ABM systerms to “reassure” the Russians and Chinese of our “good will”?
3) the directed energy programs have already been de-emphasized. More cutting edge technology at DARPA may be shelved. The Russians and Chinese don’t like surprises, as someone else mentioned above.
4) and the interceptor site in Alaska, could be mothballed. Defense economic cuts, of course. We have to save money.
Romney’s came to America as English converts to Mormonism before the Civil War. Not one has ever worn a uniform or fought for anything. Heck, for a while the fled to Mexico, where some still live. Mitt has never shown anything but ambition and quivering calculation.
#43 wretchard
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary estate should be getting royalties hand over fist, because so much of our current political scene is a replay of Hound of the Baskervilles. We can define the parameters of the trap we are in, in large part by “the dog that did not bark”.
I’ve distrusted Buraq Hussein from before day one of his regime. But it was a series of silent canines that worried me most. And they have not been Democrats.
Since the election of 2010, the Republicans have held the House. Under our Constitution, all revenue raising and spending measures HAVE to come from the House. Under any form of democratic Republic, the legislature has control of the power of the purse, not the executive. We have not had a constitutional budget for 3 years, and Harry Reid promises that there will not be one for a fourth. In the Alphonse and Gaston surrender routine over budgets in 2011, the House surrendered the power of the purse to the White House. Amongst the losses; in the Continuing Resolution [which was passed by both Houses and signed by Obama] the funding for 4 of the unconstitutional “Czars” was zeroed out totally. As he signed the law, Obama said that he would not obey that provision, and whether Congress approved or not, the Czars would be funded.
Charles I of England tried that. He lost his head [literally] over it.
The Republicans, especially the House Republicans, did not bark.
Obama took it upon himself to void the Congressional power of Advice and Consent for appointments by unilaterally arrogating the power to determine when the Senate was in recess. The Republicans did not bark.
In September 2011, elected and appointed Democrats began publicly calling for cancellation of the 2012 elections and “reducing the amount of democracy” in our system. I expected the MSM to go along with it, but both for Constitutional and purely political reasons, the Republicans should have been screaming like ruptured Bann Sidh. They did not bark.
The Institutional Republicans are determined to nominate a presidential candidate with no history of fighting Democrats, impaired ability to do so, and who has stated that he will not attack Obama even though it would get headlines and improve his standing with the Republican base. Sounds like a campaign without even a whimper.
Now, Obama is on record [until Google sends it down the memory hole] as having arguably colluded with a hostile foreign power against the interests of what supposedly are his own country and people. And the only Republican who argues back [and very well done] is Sarah Palin, who is hated by the Institutional Republicans. The dog is silent yet again.
We have more than a few data points here. And there are more than I have not mentioned, such as the regime sponsorship of the #Occupy rioters and the current attempt to incite racial violence.
Enough data that certain theories can be raised. And they are not pleasant.
Subotai Bahadur
Stoicheon #33:
Give them SDI? That’s much too strong. I was once in a meeting at the Pentagon in which the possibility of a joint U.S./Russian SDI system was discussed, one that would enable us to make sure no one got a missile off we did not approve of. But that was in the Bush I era. Russia’s innate attitudes and Clinton’s pointless military adverturism, together with a Democratic Congress both openly and covertly hostile to SDI put an end to that.
My own view is that Russia and China view North Korea, Iran, Venzeulea, etc. as useful idiot proxies for The Great Game. It helps ensure that the USA has to devote resources to countering the Nuts With Bombs crowd and also gives them a ready market for their technology. We will not sell ICBMs or even IRBMs or nuclear technology to people to counter the Nuts. They will. They don’t want their stuff devalued. And besides, they clearly think it’s all fun, anyway.
Charlie #35:
Don’t know what they used in their caches – and I find it curious that no one has reported finding any. But the report I read said that they had been booby trapped, and it was entirely possible some of the stuff would just start going off of its own accord. I have been waiting to hear that someone was tearing down an old house or digging a trench for a pipeline and had one of those commie toyboxes blow up in their face. Given Russian obtuseness it may well be impossible for them to tell us about it in detail. They might not even know themselves, given that Beria had most of their Western agents executed in the early 1950′s. Of course, Sara Connor probably has found and moved them all now, anyway…..
I feel sure that after the Warsaw Pact dissolved we quietly told the new governments in Eastern Europe where our caches of M1′s, M3′s, Thompsons, Bazookas and grenades were located.
Anyway, I have been waiting on a movie based on the idea. Sort of “The Goonies” with automatic weapons instead of pirate treasure.
#45 RWE
4th and final post, this thread.
Don’t know of any on the mainland, but I know of encounters with SPETZNAZ caches on St. Lawrence Island off Alaska and on Iceland.
Subotai Bahadur
Subotai,
Minor correction, I believe the dog that didn’t bark was from a different mystery than The Hound of the Baskervilles. That particular dog most definitely did bark, enough so to cause a man’s death by heart attack. It also mauled a couple of men to death, as I recall.
I think the rest of your post shows that what Obama et al are plagiarizing is history rather than fiction. And you’re right, the obvious theories are not at all pleasant.
In the upcoming election, I’m not all that worried about which candidate has the best chance of avoiding various economic or cultural calamaties. I don’t think they’re avoidable any longer – we’re going to have some hard landings on several subjects and neither Romney nor Paul nor Gingrich will be able to prevent them. Nor, for that matter, do I think Obama will be able to make them any worse at this point.
What will matter is who can best keep the pain and hardship from instigating a cascade of negative events that could go critical. Obama most certainly will make that worse. Not only are his politics all wrong for it, he and his insane clown posse of an administration have proven them utterly incompetet crisis managers.
Whether you think Romney or Paul (or Santorum) will be the better crisis manager is perhaps the more important question at this point…
RWE @ 45
To the point you are driving at, I think that the Russians and Chinese want a certain amount of calculated uncertainty and chaos to make themselves appear stronger than they are, being able to create “chaos” far from home to distract the US.
ABM technology trumps a certain amount of chaos they could create, by creating uncertainty in their minds about whether their exported weapons will work as advertized. The Patriot missiles in the Gulf War I did, to some degree, neutralize the “remote terror” which Saddam Hussein (client state of the USSR) could create in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
North Korea, Venezuela, Iran and a few others are just the ticket to create the kind of international entropy that gives Russia and China that sort of “deniable” power to screw around.
An ditty from a sci – fi anthology of the early sixties keeps running through my head;
What ya’ gonna do when the rockets come
And the whole town blows up baby?
What ya’ gonna do when the rockets come
And there ain’t no town no more
Maybe some one remembers the rest of it?
Not coincidentally, Ace of Ace of Spades first reaction was:
“Who’s this son-of-a-bitch working for?”
A slightly more colorful but succinct restatement of the principal-agent problem.
I’m not going to drop a link, not trying to advertize for Ace – most who read this probably know the site. I just thought the coincidence (in the strictest sense of the word) was striking.
In fact Russia is cooperating with NATO re AfPak, it is cooperating with NATO on Syria.
Germany, a NATO member, is looking to Russia for its future energy needs as it has –foolishly–given up on nuclear power and has seen that solar and wind are a boondoggle.
Obama, fortunately, now listens to and follows the advice of the US Military, the US Intelligence community and the US Business community.
Russia does benefit from volatility in the price of oil and gas-but they have smart analysts who can forecast the impact of US domestic oil, coal and gas reserves.
Rationally-Russia does not want KSA/Israel to declare war with Iran because the refugees would flood into Russia and destabilize their backdoor.
Again-if Israel attacks Iran they will be on their own for a very, very long time.
re: #10. Subotai Bahadur
Ditto.
I cannot know how good or bad a second Obama term nor a first Romney term will be. I am certain, however, that I cannot trust either man to put America’s interests first, and to keep his word.
I will not vote for Romney in the primary nor the General Election. There is no conservative VP candidate this time around who could join a Romney ticket and make it whole.
And yes, if Romney represents the GOP in 2012, it’ll be the last GOP Presidential election where the GOP will be anything other than a trivial minority. The GOP ends when Mitt becomes the nominee.
I have served my country as a Navy officer and as an elected GOP county central committee delegate. I will serve it once more by doing everything legally possible to ensure Romney is not President.
O.S.
If Obama triumphs in the fall, we will be the ones needing “flexibility,” since we’ll be kissing our asses goodbye.
sb @ 10: am hoping for a brokered Republican convention that will give us a fighter.
yeah but who?
what I’m afraid of is a brokered convention that gives us Romney/Santorum.
not Romney, Santorum, you, nor I would be very happy with that result.
(neither is it even geographically balanced)
one of my favorite cliches: you can’t beat something with nothing.
apply that as many times as necessary to the situation.
I keep hearing about a brokered convention. Not that I’ve looked terribly hard, but no one seems to be able to say exactly what that is and what it would entail and which, if any, new candidates it could throw up. If it did happen, could it result in Palin getting the nod?
Subotai has it right.
As does wretchard. Who does Obama represent?
It does not feel like us.
Re: brokered convention, I should add that I’ve gone through the wikipedia entry (which isn’t too bad) and other materials but as to how that bears on THIS Republican nomination, I have not been able to find any detailed explanatory or analytical material. If anyone here has seen anything noteworthy that lays it out in a way that is topical and current, please offer a link or two. Thanks.
If Israel attacks Iran they may be on their own until 12:01 01/20/2013 EST, God willing. If Obama tries to actively stab Israel in the back it might split the US military. Then again Obama Jenrette & Co. may want that.
My hope is that a drowning Democratic Party goes just far enough over the top to expose their worst tactics and discredit them for a generation. Let them lay out for the public to see every dirty trick of character assassination, moby trolling, foreign money, unconstitutional bureaucratic abuse, union coercion, partisan misuse of charities, and voter fraud. Then we may have a mandate so that a new broom can sweep all their tools away.
The best result would be a 1980 or 1984 level repudiation of the Left. Remember that even in those case the Donks got 40% of the recorded vote. A larger blowout won’t happen, they own about 30% of the (living legal) votes. If they get over 46% of the vote and lose then their partisans and those vulnerable to the racist message of victimhood politics will likely enter a period of active opposition to America greater even than what hobbled the Bush (43) administration. If they get less than 43% of the vote then a new President and a new Congress may be able to change the game and free many of those who have been trapped on the Democrat’s plantation. The difference will be about 4 million votes out of over 125 million to be cast. In between would be more politics as usual and history driven by external events.
OT,
Tonight I attended a lecture sponsored by the NY Academy of Sciences Anthropolgy section on “Syndemics and the Contemporary Global Health Transition.” The level of reflexive ascientific expression regarding topics like Global Warming “It’s settled science,” current events with the gratuitous introduction of a reference to Trayvon Martin apropos of nothing to justify some argument for a radical restructuring of society to meet the health care needs of the poor, and a response regarding the desirability of increasing scarce resources by growing the economy to allow more effective responses to pandemic threats and reducing dysfunctional cultural patterns that impact the poor that consisted of “Republicans think so,” met every unfortunate expectation that we can harbor.
The rituals of scholarly inquiry have been abandoned.
O.S.@52
“I will not vote for Romney in the primary nor the General Election.”
Well then, why don’t you just proclaim obama president by default!
I will vote for whoever the Republican nominee is. This nation can not survive another four years of the present regime.
I get not just a little tired of the “I’ll vote my conscience, I’ll send a message, I’ll show ‘em” crowd. That might have worked for them when they were three years old and held their breath until they turned blue, and mommy gave in. But this is for keeps! The democrats are praying there are enough misguided people of that mindset, to stay home or vote third party, and throw the election to obama.
Obama has done NOTHING since becoming president that gives me any reason to give him the benefit of the doubt. Odd how there are a number of apologists for Obama on this thread that I do not recognize as a regular reader. That just indicates to me how big a gaff his “off mic” comments were and that damage control is in full-court press.
I wish I could say this was surprising but I never bought Obama’s act from the git-go so it only reinforces my disgust for the man. The fact he was elected in the first place after what was known, and not known, about him indicates there may be civil war in our future. I continue to hope for a peaceful resolution but prepare for the alternative. Either way it is time to decide what you believe and are willing to fight to defend.
#59 is absolutely correct. Vote Republican, remember no one on this earth is perfect, work for conservative candidates at every level, and vote Romney.
Obama and the culture that has produced him – and is in the midst of wrecking the US – must be absolutely discredited at the ballot box.
The one good thing is: election is in Nov, which is COLD, and so there won’t be huge riots.
And I think that the crises coming down the track will require a lot of smart people. Romney has the right cast of mind, I think, to deal with these issues. There certainly will be no money to try out any more splendid giveaways. He will focus.
My advice to Democrats? Go to your caucuses, etc., and support NEW candidates. So much of the coming wreck is because of time servers running the country.
The Kennedy brothers (John & Robert) paid the ultimate price for ‘dancing’ w/our declared enemies Russia(Kruschev, “..we will bury you…”) and China. So said author Jas. Douglas in his heavily footnoted book “JFK and The Unspeakable.” He almost lost me when one peculiar footnote turned out to be a quote from ex-tenured, ex-professor of American Indian Studies @ Univ. of CO, Ward Churchill. The book was a long, tough read w/200 pgs. of footnotes. I would never have known about this book but for a blogger from BC. Gracias!
Alpha 66, an interesting codename for original Central Intelligence Agency group. FYI–your local library branch may have to order it from your nearest major city main library, and it cannot be renewed (at least in my county).
m
Well, at least, Romney is troubled by Obamao’s intention to concede something to the Russians if he gets a second term. Troubled. I would have used words a tad more strong, but guess Romney isn’t capable of going beyond troubled. Mittens lives up to his nickname.
59. Deano41
You are behind the curve, way behind. You think there are significant differences between Republicans and Democrats. I challenge you to find them. The rhetoric is different but where the rubber meets the road (D)’s and (R)’s have more in common then in difference. Regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, the Department of State controls Foreign policy.
Some POTUS might think he does but by year two he has lost that quaint notion. A professional Diplomat that cannot manipulate the average politician doesn’t get issued lace pants.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes… It may be that in the final analysis, there may be only one reason to vote Republican in the presidential election. Change things up. It takes a huge amount of time and effort for one administration to assess and then endeavor to put in place its pieces to effect whatever it wants to do that may be different from the previous administration. In the process, there is renewal and discovery to the extent that the “new” administration is awake, earnest and determined to change things for the “better”. From one perspective, it makes sense to have change for its own sake.
“In fact Russia is cooperating with NATO re AfPak, it is cooperating with NATO on Syria.”
Either a bald faced lie or a complete misunderstanding of the meaning of the word “cooperating”
“Again-if Israel attacks Iran they will be on their own for a very, very long time.”
6 to 8 hours. Obama either stands behind Israel in an overt and public manner or the Jewish Lobby ensures he is a one term president. They have that power and everybody knows it. Everybody as in all Americans familiar with our body politic. To use one of the Obominations favorite phrases,”They punch above their weight class.”
Are you aware that during the ’73 (Yom Kipper) War, The US Navy was flying F-4 Phantoms off Carriers directly to Israeli air bases to replace combat loses? Arabs like to fantasize about the USA abandoning Israel but that is all it is. Anybody that thinks Israel will just sit on 200 nukes when push comes to shove is as clueless as the Arabs.
“Is it not true that it would now be in Russia’s interests to help Obama get re-elected? Because if he is re-elected then he can give them what they want.”
Perhaps this is THE driving goal behind zerO’s comment. He is looking for whatever advantage Russia can provide him in the upcoming election.
Deano41 #59. I think you may have missed the point. By not voting for Romney, I won’t be trying to “send a message” (to whom?) or “vote my conscience” (who cares?). The point is that it won’t matter. I have no reasonable candidate to vote for (trailing prep). Subotai is probably right that Romney will be defeated handily. And even if not, a Romney win will only slow (slightly) the inevitable disaster.
Many are in denial about our situation. “If that bully pushes me one more time, I’ll … If that bully pushes me one more time, I’ll….” No one can see the future. And if all possibilities are equal, then anything may happen. “It’ll all work out”. I’ll continue to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. And I expect the worst to be very bad indeed.
OBAMA’S EPA DECLARES WAR ON AMERICAN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS!!!! http://tinyurl.com/c835455
“The Environmental Protection Agency is set to introduce new rules Tuesday that take aim at greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, an administration official said.
The long-awaited action will sharply limit the emissions allowed from power plants built in the future, but will allow existing coal plants to keep operating for years.
The new rules will essentially make it unviable to build new coal-fired power plants, unless they are fitted with yet-to-be-commercialized carbon-capture technology.
Nice little Catch 22 there isn’t it? You can’t build a coal fired power plant without carbon capture technology, but no one has yet built a commercial plant with carbon capture technology!
Meanwhile the Chinese have already built the Yuhuan ultra-supercritical coal fired power plants that do not have carbon capture technology. http://tinyurl.com/cx4j3w4
“Supercritical operation of large thermal baseload power plants during the 1980s used steam temperatures of typically 550ºC, leading to around 40% thermal efficiencies. Ultra-supercritical steam conditions now use supercritical pressures up to 300bar, with 600°C steam and reheat steam temperatures. This gives a net efficiency of 46%.
Siemens reports that just a 1% gain in efficiency for a typical 700MW plant reduces 30-year lifetime emissions by 2,000t NOx, 2,000t SO2, 500t particulates and 2.5 million tons CO2.
“It is claimed that Yuhuan Units 1 and 2 are the world’s cleanest, most efficient and most advanced ultra-supercritical units. “New units also incorporate high-efficiency dust removal and desulphurisation. This has led to the claim that Yuhuan Units 1 and 2 are the world’s cleanest, most efficient and most advanced ultra-supercritical units.”
But you American construction workers cannot build them because Lisa Jackson says “NO!”
And at a 6% gain in thermal efficiency, a 700MW plant woud reduce 30 year lifetime emissions by 12,000t NOx, 12,000t SO 2, 3,000t particulates and 15 million tons of CO2!
And all this is to take place in the USA, the “Saudia Arabia of Coal”!
PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES ANYONE?
The most compelling case I can see for voting for Romney is that the present Administration is operating lawlessly. They can do as they please because no one can indict/prosecute them for criminality without being branded a racist. It is a bulletproof shield to hide behind. I believe Romney will at least operate within the realm of the law.
The Right’s despair is palpable and I share it.
It’s like being on a ship. The sea cocks have been opened and she is sinking. Can we overpower those in control of the valves and then man the pumps or should we just go below deck and start opening portholes and hope we drown them when she sinks?
I have a lifeboat and I believe it to be seaworthy but many don’t. However,being alone on an open boat in the middle of the ocean is not a safe place to be.
Is Wisconsin having a primary soon?
I wonder what all those mining equipment manufacturing employees think about Obama’s WAR ON COAL?
P&H http://tinyurl.com/c7r2jjk
Bucyrus International http://tinyurl.com/cwpc3vn
WISCONSIN UNION MANUFACTURING WORKERS AGAINST OBAMA?
feeblemind @ 70 – CHEER UP! Tomorrow Doc Hastings will have his hearing to get subpeonas for information from the White House regarding their sabotaging of BP’s efforts to stop the Gulf Oil Spill in May 2010, before the oil came ashore and the DOLPHINS DIED!
The House can IMPEACH OBAMA! That puts Harry Reid on the hot seat!!!
Will the Senate CONVICT OBAMA because CHU LIED, DOLPHINS DIED!
All you media types want to see Chu turn white from fear? Ask him the meaning of
WHAT DO WE WANT?
LUBRICATE AND BLEED!
WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
NOW!
They both look and sound a bit too G&D for me…….
#69-”Pitchforks and Torches anyone? I’ll take two of each.
Re: Romney-Just some thoughts.
1. He will be working with a majority in the House and Senate, most likely;
2. After election, he will be free to do as Obama-”I didn’t know it was so bad,” “After examining the options, it is not feasible to close Citmo,” et al,
3. He will have a real chance to go down as an outstanding President, if he changes our disasterous course and acts boldly and decisively;
4. A strong, principled conservative Vice-President such as Rubio, Allen West, Paul Ryan and a few others may have some real influence;
5. His tendency to change when it’s in his best interest may merge with the need to change the course of the nation, which is in his best interest.
Obama was handed the chance to be a transformative figure on a silver platter. He screwed it up so badly that his election may be remembered as the worst mistake in this country’s history-his Socialist/Radical/Progressive DNA dominated his actions.
I would vote for the Hitler Youth before Obama. For 20 years I have prosecuted sociopathic, psychopathic, evil, manipulators, frauds, scam artists, pathological liars, thieves and so on and so on… It took me about 2 minutes to size up this malignant, warped imposter as I’m sure many of you did. A 47-year old “Blank Slate” is a deep character defect, not a positive trait as he imagines.
I shall impale the Romney “chad” so hard, my hand may go through the voting machine
W: “In simple terms the principal agent problem occurs when the agent secretly sells out or represents the principal in order to advance his own (the agent’s) interests.”
Our Founding Fathers desired to set up a Declarational/Constitutional Republic where We the People (the principal) were the masters of government (the agent) – a small group of other people after all – not the other way around – as it had been throughout human history.
“Every government [agent] degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves [principal] are its only safe depositories… It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government [agent] is independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people [principal] is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass [principal]. They are inherently independent of all but moral law… Does the government [agent] fear us [principal]? Or do we [principal] fear the government [agent]? When the people [principal] fear the government [agent], tyranny has found victory. The federal government [agent] is our [principal's] servant, not our master!” Thomas Jefferson
“We the people [principal] are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts [agents], not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men [agents] who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln
Look, folks, Romney is not my first choice, although he was in the 2008 primaries, given the alternatives.
But the choice is between overpowering the hijackers on 9/11/01 and putting a guy in the pilot’s seat who has only flown single engine Cessnas or letting the hijackers proceed undisturbed. The Cessna pilot might very well crash the airliner while trying to land it, but there is no doubt what the hijackers will do.
I hear people saying they are going to vote for Obama although they despise him, because they think that will bring about the utter and total defeat of the Left in the USA when the Left crashes the country. As Rep Dick Armie might say, if Obama is re-relected, within a few years people will be hunting Democrats with dogs. I want to try to avoid that, even if it is inevitable, I want to try.
Storm-rider @ 74 – Speaking of “rightful masters of…the courts”… http://tinyurl.com/3fz5pfs
In Massachusetts v. EPA the SCOTUS held that carbon dioxide is “the primary species of greenhouse gas”. BALONEY! As the chart shows water vapor absorbs a great deal more infrared radiation than carbon dioxide and the atmosphere of the “Blue Planet” is loaded with water vapor!
WATER IS BOTH THE PRIMARY SPECIES OF GREENHOUSE GAS AND THE MOST ABUNDANT!
So what does the IPCC have to say about water vapor’s “global warming potential”? http://tinyurl.com/6xrd3v
“Although water vapour has a significant influence with regard to absorbing infrared radiation (which is the green house effect; see greenhouse gas), its GWP is not calculated. Its concentration in the atmosphere mainly depends on air temperature. There is no possibility to directly influence atmospheric water vapour concentration.
So if Obama cannot control it, we can just ignore the water vapor in the atmosphere as it pertains to “Global Warming” or “Global Climate Change” or “Global Climate Variability”!!
IT’S TIME TO RAIN ON OBAMA’S PARADE!
Not altogether O/T vis-a-vis the Principal/Agent problem in electoral politics, but Whiskey was really feeling his oats today:
http://whiskeysplace.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/obama-and-trayvon-martin-stalingrad/#more-963
Wretchard may have made the right call on universally banning from BC Whiskey’s predictably outrageous (maybe to the squishier amongst us) postings, although he handled it with characteristic honor and integrity by keeping Whiskey up there in the BC blogroll…
But in any event he should kindly update that link to:
http://whiskeysplace.wordpress.com/
In the past I have likened our national situation to the NTSB phrase used often in the aftermath of a pilot’s error -”controlled flight into terrain.”
It’s becoming clear that after all our situation is more like Flight 93, and we’re just waking up to the real nature of the monsters in the cockpit.
The VP will be Bush. Jeb Bush that is. Already slotted, imho. Especially if Romney is in the lead against Pres. OBama in August. JB brings much more experience to the table. More than Rubio, West, Ryan or Santorum, with all the Bush family connections and experiences. Think Fla, Texas, New England and DC.
69 Machias
The efficiency gain from building ultra supercritical (or even advanced ultra supercritical) plants is even greater than in your example. The new plants, were they to be built, would replace older plants with 30% or so conversion efficiency, not the 40% of a supercritical plant.
The average coal plant fleet efficiency in the US is 33%. The lower half of the fleet cannot be retrofitted to become better neighbors, it can only be replaced.
If advanced coal plants do the replacing then coal use, CO2, SO2, NOX, particulates, Hg, the whole shooting match, will fall by about 50% for the plants that are replaced.
The overall benefits, emissions reductions, smaller coal plant footprints, smaller reserve piles, fewer unit trains, etc., plus all the construction jobs represent a considerable potential boon to the country.
Too bad it won’t happen. Instead natural gas will be the fallback as all the other options go away (nukes, these people, are you serious?). With gas use in power generation doubling or more all of the thoughts of LNG exports, lower heating bills, and natural gas in transportation will start to fade away. The U.S. has a lot of gas, but not so much that we can narrow our fuel choices to one point.
Right on schedule from RealClearPolitics: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said people should not be critical of Obama or our country while he’s abroad.
“Well clearly, the President is overseas. He’s at a conference and while the President is overseas, I think it’s appropriate that people not be critical of him or of our country,” Boehner said at a press conference today.
And I once thought Boehner was one the least squishy. My Bad.
ST @64
I realize I am not as learned as many who post here. Which is why I read more than comment. And I also understand there is a “ruling elite” that dominate politics in Washington. The difference is the communist/socialist party has taken over the democrat party. They are intent on destroying our country by turning it into a socialist state, with of course them in charge.
I am not impressed with any of the Republican candidates. I also understand that they think they are intitled to be in charge. But I don’t think the Republican candidates want to turn America into a “1984″ country.
Not voting, or voting third party is a vote for the democrats. Ross Perot proved that!
The Santorum bumper sticker on the back of my car just saved me $300!
I was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol the other day on a back road, for speeding after passing a truck. The officer asked for my license, insurance, and registration. I immediately produced the first two but dug around for the registration while the officer walked around my car and wrote up a ticket.
When he came back to my car window I had the registration but he said he didn’t want to see it and handed me a fix-it ticket to present the document and $20 at a CHP office with a warning about the speeding. I signed.
He then started a 15 minute conversation with “Do you think Rick has a chance?” We talked politics and had a great meeting of the minds except when I asked if CHP officers were in a union. He exclaimed, that no, CHP officers had an “association.” I left it at that.
Obama needs better handlers. He’s opened his mouth on two criminal cases now where he was flat wrong and now he’s overheard saying stuff that will end his reelection hopes. Definitely needs better handlers.
Obama’s reelection campaign speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4nvhAZ0vr0 – enjoy!
John (27), Subotai is right, and you’re overly morbid. Voting for Mitt doesn’t mean the RINO old guard has won, not if plenty of Tea Party types have won Congressional seats or more incumbents have the fear of Tea put into them… carried forward to the next mid-terms, state-level elections, etc.