The Obama administration is having a banner week.
First up,
LA Times: Former President Clinton, two journalists welcomed back from North Korea. Here's a great clip of Hillary Clinton being asked about John Bolton's criticism of the humanitarian mission, in which she addresses the remarks by pointing out that if President Obama walked on water "he'd say he couldn't swim." Priceless.
From North Korea we move on to the historic confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina and only the third woman to ever be appointed to the Supreme Court. The official vote was 68-31, with all Senators present except Edward Kennedy (D) - Mass.
Nine Republicans voted to confirm Sotomayor- Susan Collins, Me., Olympia Snowe, Me., Judd Gregg, NH, George V. Voinovich, OH, Mel Martinez, FL, Dick Lugar, IN, Christopher Bond, Mo., Lindsey Graham, SC, and Lamar Alexander, TN.
Judd Gregg said it best, "Although Judge Sotomayor and I may not see eye-to-eye on all issues or share the same political ideologies, our democratic system should allow for such differences. Judge Sotomayor is President Obama's choice, and she is obviously well qualified to be the next Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Her views and decisions, although strongly stated, are certainly not out of the mainstream of American jurisprudence or political thought."
In what is quite possibly the most underreported story of the year,
Pakistan's most notorious Taliban leader was killed in an attack this week. Sources say he was killed by unmanned CIA drones. Now, the name Baitullah Mehsud isn't as well-known as Osama Bin Laden, but his death is quite possibly the biggest victory we've had since the capture of Saddam Hussein. According to the Financial Times, Mehsud was a top Pakistani Taliban operative and linked to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. This guy was kind of a big deal in Taliban circles, and they will suffer his loss.To end the week, we received news that the unemployment rate dropped from 9.5 to 9.4%. One-tenth of a percent might not seem like much, but combined with the UK's Financial Times prediction that
US gross domestic product growth may have turned positive in July and rises in the Dow Jones and NASDAQ - it must be getting harder and harder for the GOP to continue to blame Obama for the mess that they created.Need further proof that this has been a great week? When's the last time you heard anyone talking about the beer summit?
I have FOX on right now, and they are just falling all over themselves to say that the economy (you know that economy they said was in good shape last year) hasn't really recovered at all.
Oh, and now they're about to attack Obama over North Korea.
I just always love Hillary. She is so smart but didn't know she could be witty too. I love that walk on water and couldn't swim bit. LOL...just sooo true too!
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I think it's more important that Sotomayor is a woman than it is for her to be Latina. They make too much of a big deal that someone is of a different national origin.
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Like, I don't understand about her statement, that became so ridiculously controversial. Why didn't she cause an outrage when she said "woman" rather the uproar was when she said Latina?
Yea, and the economy is turning around, but you will never convince the haters. They are too busy whining and bashing to notice, and somehow think it's supposed to be repaired overnight.
They don't seem to be able to reason either. They don't bother learning about why it was so important that the USA bailed out it's own banks and auto manufacturers. They don't see why or what the stimulus money is supposed to do, it's like they are so myopic they can't see anything a few feet from them or they are just bent on bitching and moaning for the sake of it.
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Other countries have done the same thing,to stimulate their economy, we aren't the only ones. Besides the consequences of not having done all that would have been devastating.
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The same morons that are complaining are the same mentally impaired crowd that, whine and bitch about the oil companies making a profit.
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It boggles my mind when a person lives in Texas and complains about the petroleum industry, when their livelihood is totally affected by their prosperity or not. Even if they don't work for directly in the oil business, it IS a big part whatever business they are in, whether they realize it or not.
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I do thank the moronic ones though, makes me feel smart and lets me know how not to be!
I am feeling great about the economy. Better than I did six months ago. We are seeing the results. Unfortunately, Sarah tries to grab the spotlight to make her usual uninformed, ignorant statement about healthcare. Sarah Palin = ignorant woman who did not teach her children about birth control. That Sarah? Go buy a clue. Is her daughter collecting food stamps or WIC?
Well, I know that some of my investments are coming back to life in a roaring good manner. (Not that I have a lot, mind you!)My investment adviser said that last year was the worst in 72 years. LAST YEAR. When George Walker Bush was the President. Not this year. He said things are turning around and heading back up now.
I love the comment from Hillary about "if he walked on water, he'd say he couldn't swim." That is the kind of blind partisan hate we see from the rightwingers. They won't see the truth if you staple it to their noses because what they ultimately want...really, truly want.....is for America (ie, Obama) to fail. They want to come riding in on their white horses (gotta be white, you know!) and "rescue" things and say, "nyah nyah nyah, told you so. Only we can do it!" And then install their version of a Christian theocracy where the likes of Dobson, et al, can tell everyone what to do.
I'm thrilled about the journalists being home. I'm thrilled to see the economy begin to turn around. I'm beyond thrilled to see Justice Sotomayor confirmed.
I want to knock the frickin' crazy off these wingers though.
Artemus, of course Kathleen won't respond. Because she's batshit crazy herself.
Sarah Palin - not the healthcare reform - is what is evil. That woman is just beyond insane and what is scarier, there were people willing to put that freaking idiot one step away from the White House.
I see this morning the Taliban is denying that Mehsud is killed. But they haven't paraded him around the block yet. Methinks they do protest too much.
The right wingers are pooh poohing the weeks accomplishments and asking to see the birth certificate.
Apropos of the topic and of the GOP responses to his successes, I'm proposing that we have an ongoing column containing emails we have sent to Texas Sparkle that, in her world, don't merit public viewing. That would include anything I have sent to her in the last several months. Here is what I just posted - which will never see the light of day on her Chron blog.
"From your heroine, Sarah Palin: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Kathleen, please point us to the section of any of the bills that describes such a death panel, or how it might be applied to Sarah's Down syndrome baby. If that section exists, I think you have an obligation as an American citizen to warn us about it. I really, really want to be educated about this.
Fact is no such panel exists and no one is going to kill her child. But the fact this woman would even have such a thought, much less express it in public and actually expect anyone to take her seriously is what concerns me.
Sarah Palin is completely delusional. She's completely off her rocker. Totally batshit crazy. Please tell us, Kathleen, that you have a better comprehension of reality.”
Bob, thanks for the CNN link on Predator drones. However, one comment disturbed me. "[Pete] Singer fears the use of drones is misunderstood as cowardice, undermining the effectiveness of attacks and ultimately losing the war UAVs are fighting." Huh?
If this guy is really advising Barack Obama, I hope he was quoted out of context by CNN and not really THAT clueless. Who CARES if the enemy that is trying to kill us thinks we're cowards, as long as they cannot achieve their goals and we do. I don't care if the enemy killed by a Predator (at no risk to a US human pilot by the way) respects us or sneers at us as he is blown up. Hell, they think we're cowards anyway for not blowing ourselves up intentionally as an acceptable combat tactic. Does THAT bother us and cause hand wringing over whether it will "lose the war"?
During the Revolutionary War, the British thought we were cowards for hiding behind trees and rocks for cover while shooting rather than "heroically" standing out in the open, side by side in formation to shoot, per tradition at that time. Um, guess who fought more effectively in that turkey shoot and won that war?
The amazing thing is that the pilots of the drones in Iraq and Pakistan fly them from an airbase in Las Vegas. That's right, they fly them remotely by satellite from Las Vegas.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/23/wus.warfare.remote.uav/
The weird thing is that these guys still suffer from combat fatigue and PTSD flying these things on a computer screen. Killing is still killing.
Drones are remote controlled aircraft. They're designed so we don't put our pilots at risk. The Department of Defense "track and control" team works on missile accuracy and apparently, has done an incredible job.
Kelly, thanks for writing about the highlights of President Obama's week! The bringing home of the two American journalists from North Korea was one of the best pieces of news we've had this summer, and ALL Americans should be pleased that Judge Sotomayor was confirmed.
I have no illusions, however, that such will be the case.
There is one thing I'm a bit concerned about. You write that Mehsud was killed by "unmanned CIA drones". No doubt getting rid of the Big Cheese is major. But what the hell do they mean by "unmanned CIA drones"?