January 20, 2013

"All Hostages Dead/Slaughtered in Sahara."

The Drudge headline hangs over from yesterday, even though Barack Obama will be sworn in to his second term in office later this morning. It will be a quiet little affair — a "bare-bones ceremony" to "satisfy the constitutional requirement that the president’s swearing-in take place by noon on the Jan. 20 after an election."

It's January 20th and also a Sunday, so the festivities are delayed until tomorrow.
A White House statement said the only witnesses to [today's] Blue Room ceremony would be family members of the president, including his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia.
I fantasize about a President who pares all ceremony down to the bare-bones, eliminates all extravagance, across the board. Take on the humble servant image, be a tightwad for the taxpayers,  maintain a small carbon footprint, and say — implicitly and continually — the work of the President is gravely serious and never-ending. All Hostages Dead/Slaughtered in Sahara.

50 comments:

pm317 said...

only witnesses to [today's] Blue Room ceremony would be family members of the president, including his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia

Shouldn't there be third party witnesses to this? What is going on here?

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

A dignified, understated presidency would be classy, and the Obamas are anything but classy. They are textbook nouveau riche.

Paco Wové said...

"I fantasize about a President who pares all ceremony down to the bare-bones, eliminates all extravagance,"

You fantasize about...... Jimmy Carter?

pm317 said...

And this is smaller headline on the third column on Drudge:

Obama seeks 'fuller understanding' of what happened in Algeria siege...

seeks fuller understanding?! How long will it take? or will it ever happen?

rhhardin said...

What should be done with these styrofoam columns.

AllenS said...

He could send Hillary over there for some answers. Is she still wearing the football helmet?

Maybeline said...

We have a celebrity/ cult leader President. The big parties go with that.

Maybeline said...

We have a celebrity/ cult leader President. The big parties go with that.

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to a bare-bones populace and a full-bodied presidency.

pm317 said...

We have a celebrity/ cult leader President.

We have not heard the last of it. He is a social entrepreneur! More like Don Carleone, a gift from Chicago to America.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure that wasn't your dream ("I fantasize") of the other night.

Jason said...

I would want to attend the 2nd inauguration of such a president. So I hope he makes an exception for that!

Jason said...

In 2009, Obama became the first POTUS in 56 years to snub the Salute to Heroes Ball in honor of our nation's recipients of the Medal of Honor.

The StH Ball is going to be held on Monday night this year. Will he snub them a 2nd time?



James said...

And this is smaller headline on the third column on Drudge:

Obama seeks 'fuller understanding' of what happened in Algeria siege...

seeks fuller understanding?! How long will it take? or will it ever happen?


Let's see... an FBI investigative team will go to Algeria (because the administration thinks its a criminal matter) and will stay in the capital for at least two weeks before visiting the site of the attack because their safety can't be guaranteed.

Then, it will be another 134 days before the FBI director visits Algeria.

kentuckyliz said...

You know he's drooling over being inaugurated on MLK Day. He should stage it in front of the MLK sculpture for the optics, and so that the low information morons get the point.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Obama seeks 'fuller understanding' of what happened in Algeria siege...

He's mastered the rhetoric and display of the reasonable and thoughtful looking jackal.

Weasel-words, all of it.

Fasten your seat belts and hold firmly to your principles, folks - the next four years are going to be something to behold.

Bob Ellison said...

I share your fantasy, but most people who study government would say it's impossible, because the POTUS is both the head of state and the chief executive. That took me a while to understand when I was in college. Most Western/developed countries assign those roles to separate individuals. The UK Prime Minister runs things, but when a new ambassador from Whatwheristan shows up, he/she presents his/her credentials to Queen Elizabeth. Germany is even weirder; they have an elected "President" who mostly eats sausages and farts all day.

So anyway, our President has to serve a ceremonial role to satisfy the people. I don't think that can be avoided. People want a degree of pomp and circumstance.

TSE said...

I fantasize about a President who pares all ceremony down to the bare-bones, eliminates all extravagance, across the board. Take on the humble servant image, be a tightwad for the taxpayers, maintain a small carbon footprint, and say — implicitly and continually — the work of the President is gravely serious and never-ending.

Dream ON!

Bob Ellison said...

Way off-topic: I'm installing Windows 8. Pity me. I'm sorry for the way I'll probably blather online while this bloated hog squeezes itself into my nice new computer.

Michael K said...

I wonder if any black arm bands are being worn today.

Sorun said...

I hope my life never depends on Algerian "special forces."

ErnieG said...

If Obama wishes to gain a fuller understanding of the Algeria siege, he might start with today's Belmont Club, by Richard Fernandez. In a nutshell, it's a cultural and training thing. The Algerians were using Russian doctrine in dealing with hostage takers, and not Western doctrine.

chickelit said...

Women fantasizing about Barack Obama is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Yeesh -- talk about your poor choice of words.

kentuckyliz said...

I changed my profile pic to honor the moment I joined the NRA (yesterday).

Being thusly armed will come in handy when the Muslims try to dominate us and force sharia law down our throats and set up the 12th Caliphate.

Over my dead body but I'm not going down without dragging some of those motherfuckers to hell with me.

chickelit said...

I read the news about the dead hostages gave me a sense of dread. It reminded me of the Soviet tragedies and disasters -- submarines, mining, etc., where no extraordinary measures were extended, and thus fatalistic consequences ensued.

And still we have a President obsessed with being Lincoln or MLK. Tell me what is wrong with that picture.

virgil xenophon said...

@chickelit/

I'll start REALLY worrying about Obama (as if I'm not already) when he starts wearing a shawl, lol.

ricpic said...

I, Hussein, swear on this bitter clingers' bible to take their guns, when they rise in rebellion impose martial law, then fill my reeducation camps with the remnant that WILL NOT SUBMIT, so help me my brother in seething unappeasable revenge, Frantz Fanon.

TSE said...

And still we have a President obsessed with being Lincoln or MLK. Tell me what is wrong with that picture.

What?

Lincoln and MLK were assassinated.

Barack Obama claims the right to be an Assassin. Perhaps this should be considered palliative ObamaCare?

December 14, 2012, New York – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued the following statement in response to U.S. officials’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the targeted killing of three U.S. citizens, including a 16-year-old boy, in Yemen last year:

The essence of the government’s argument is that it has the authority to kill Americans not only in secret, but also without ever having to justify its actions under the Constitution in any courtroom.

The president himself has acknowledged that the targeted killing program must be subject to more meaningful checks, but there is little evidence of that recognition in the brief filed by the government today. If the court accepts the government's position, it is not only the current president but every future president who will wield the power to kill any American he or she deems to present a threat to national security, without ever having to explain that action to a judge. The Constitution requires more."



The Algerians might be operating covertly under Obama's direction - and the slaughtering of all hostages would be in accordance with the practice of the Obama Administration.

Adam Lanza = 20

Barack Obama = 62+

*WINNING*

Jason said...

I'll bet a bunch of the Al Qaeda types who just struck in Algeria were the same people who hit the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and exposed themselves to Spectre gunship fire out in the open but we didn't kill them when we had the chance.

chickelit said...

Lincoln and MLK were assassinated.

So? Quit making silly inferences. I'm talking about the fawning adulation--the impulse that lower informed people need to put this man on a pedestal. I even see it around here on occasion.

Brian Brown said...

Hey is this one of those Hillary Clinton success stories that ritty the retard told us there were a bunch of?

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Had this exact same event happened under a Republican president the media would be ripping the Republican president and Republicans a new asshole. The problem isn't who the media support, the danger is that the media do support a political philosophy and a party.

Leland said...

Not that what happened in Algeria is anything but an atrocity and a failure of foreign policy, but Drudge's headline is wrong. Just clicking the link tells a different story. The situation was closer to the Mumbai hotel siege, but of the hostages held at gunpoint, not all of them were killed. Drudge's point could be made without that headline.

Sam L. said...

pm317 (8:36), I say 'never'.

edutcher said...

Interesting he wants "to "satisfy the constitutional requirement". He doesn't seem to any other time.

Erika said...

A dignified, understated presidency would be classy, and the Obamas are anything but classy.

They're also anything but dignified or understated.

PS Since the media has covered up Benghazi, it's fascinating we have a new disaster to take its place.

Paco Wové said...

he wants "to "satisfy the constitutional requirement".

Some requirements are more important than others.

chickelit said...

PS Since the media has covered up Benghazi, it's fascinating we have a new disaster to take its place.

And notice how effortlessly POTUS uses the words Al Qaeda and terrorist -- now that there are no electoral consequences. No need to find a scapegoat.

Paul said...

Jesus....

And I bet they had drowns again above the conflict and Obama and CO. watched the who macabre thing go down.... and did nothing.

Voted present again.

Tries to 'understand'.

Bush MANAGED his wars. Obama just kicks the bucket over and watches them die and 'tries to understand'.

Paul said...

And NEWS FLASH!!! Hillary says it was a TERRORIST ATTACK!

Took'em only two days this time when it took MONTHS last time.. oh yea, no re-election to worry about.

Anonymous said...

Surely, you've heard the one about the guy mooching money for his wife's operation. Then proceeds to head to the casino..."well, I have gambling money!"

n.n said...

He lay down with cartels, terrorists, and criminals.

Retropundit said...

Hardly a fantasy to imagine an inauguration being pared down to avoid unnecessary expense. It's happened!

In 1913, president-elect Woodrow Wilson cancelled the Inaugural Ball because he could not justify the $95,000 indirect cost to the government -- even though the government had just ended 1912 in the black, with "plenty of money":

http://retropundit.wordpress.com/1913/01/17/inaugural-ball-cancelled

Clyde said...

You know it's a Third World rescue when most of the hostages die and all of the terrorists do. (No, I'm not going to use the politically correct term "militants"!) When the best you can say is, "well, not ALL of the hostages died," you know it was a complete and total clusterfuck.

machine said...

Such bitterness....should get outside more more...

CWJ said...

Machine, sometime it would be nice if you had something to contribute.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I fantasize about a President who pares all ceremony down to the bare-bones, eliminates all extravagance, across the board. Take on the humble servant image, be a tightwad for the taxpayers, maintain a small carbon footprint

Fat chance.

hiscross said...

Didn't this person vote for Barry in 2008? Yep.

Rusty said...

CWJ said...
Machine, sometime it would be nice if you had something to contribute.

That would require an IQ in triple digits. Alas. Machine has a way to go yet.

Crimso said...

Someone needs to figure out how to get al Qaeda off the run, ASAP.