Docere et Vagire

Does this mean "Do the vagina"?

I like to think of myself as the Dennis Miller of the three monday night football commentators. I bring the humor. You guys can post the intellectual stuff.

The Buck Flies On By

Has America ever had more of a spineless punk for president? One thing you expect out of a president, regardless of party or political outlook is responsibility for his actions and decisions. That is entirely lacking in President Present, who apparently doesn't remember which party he was in, which party was in the majority, and which party developed the budgets that President Bush signed into law which resulted in the deficits that Obama inherited. He pushed for those big budgets and big deficits when he was in Congress and he pushed for, and received the much bigger ones we have now. He is entirely responsible for that debt, and in addition the debt from reduced tax generation due to the recession, which in turn was caused almost entirely by the subprime loan crisis. While in Congress, he helped Democrats fight President Bush and Senator McCain when they attemped to rein in the subprime loan policy of Fannie Mae. This should be a surprise to no American. He certainly had/has good intentions for what he is doing. He should man up and say "yes, I am doing this, it needs to be done, and here's why..." rather than pointing at others, as he seems to do with every single issue that comes up and saying, "not me, he did". Contrast this with President Reagan, a real leader, who said "yes, we're going to raise the Prime Lending rate, this will contract the economy, and cause job losses, but it needs to be done to break inflation."

Here's a good time to link the Cake video "Building A Religion"

Pakistan Collapsing III

Wow, it appears that Pakistan doesn't even want to fight. Long War Journal has the depressing details. Read past the headlines: Rangers for Pakistan doesn't mean the same thing as Rangers for the US.

Atlas Shrugs Again

I'll bet we get a series going on this subject too! The Empty Suit is busy demonizing the engines of Capitalism, determined to sap America of initiative and innovation, as is the wont of a Marxist. He's fulfilling his campaign promises here, so America is just getting what she asked for in the last election. Enjoy.

The Devil Comes Down To Georgia

Here we go! Vlad is back, itching for an excuse with Georgia, saying to Obambi, "what's it gonna be, boy?" This is high stakes stuff: NATO has scheduled an excercise with Georgia in early May, so Vlad steps things up right before. Talk about effin' balls. We're gearing up to go in to work with our potential new NATO member and he's saying, "dudes, this is MY turf". If we mean business we need to face Russia down, but at the same time they've deployed the Black Sea Fleet! This is more high stakes than the first invasion because we are actually gearing up to go to Georgia, which we weren't doing before. Dang...these would be exciting times if the West had a leader with any balls, but, since we don't, this humble reporter is predicting Game Over for our brave but probably foolish friends in Georgia. I don't even think we should try to pick a fight with Russia in Georgia, but now would be the time to go full-speed-ahead with the anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, but Obambi has already preemptively de-nutted the West's ability to respond in this way. What a dink.

I've got to say, I wish Vlad The Impaler were our President (assuming he supported Free Market Capitalism and Invidivual Rights of course). This is what a real leader of a powerful nation does for his country.

Hold That Bro-shake!!!

Are we going to have to say Obama did something else right? We just may: It looks like he was reading Robinson Talking Points and realized he better buck up and give our best South American ally some lovin'! Columbia and Chavez Arch-Enemy President Uribe do deserve this Trade Agreement. Good move #2 Sir!

ANTI OBAMA EDITORIAL IN WASH POST: CIA Techniques Helped War on Terror

This editorial (be warned, you might need free membership with Post to read it) surprised me as generally the Washington Post generally licks the soles of Obama's feet.  Thus a well structured and potent argument citing specific instances in which our "enhanced" tactics have lead to actionable intelligence in the Post caught my attention.  Obama might have appeased a bunch of college students and burnt out hippies but this will be a mistake later.  

It was good to see similar reporting coming out oф drudge (links a msnbc article citing the NYT).   Glad officials are setting the record straight on what Obama released and what he didn't.  Bet your ass that the administration is going to try to defend itself over this gaffe, and it will develop a life of its own.   

Must suck to know that not everyone in your administration is going to allow you to get away with whatever you want. 

100 Billion For IMF

Wow.  This picture is big.  But you know what's even bigger?  This.  But the tragedy is what Obama and his international ilk are attempting to do to the IMF.  Before, we could always rely on the funds we inject into the IMF to actually be used to create positive market reforms in countries accepting them.  In that mission I support the IMF (if the Robinson Talking Points is unsure what organization to support, large protests by hippies is generally a good indicator the org is doing something right), and would support increased money being contributed to it.  Unfortunately this crisis is leading to the proposition of some fundamentally crazy reforms.  I find the idea of removing political conditions for loans crazy and could lead to the IMF shifting from dealing with the heart of a crisis to treating the symptoms.  This will lead to the org being exploited by third rate powers (especially when they're proposing that Third World officials take CHARGE of the IMF!).  

The economists that argue the US is the cause of the current crisis might be accurate.  Nonetheless, that doesn't warrant the claim that the IMF should change its overall philosophy.  If anything, this "no strings attached" policy's long term impact is to allow corrupt or unaccountable regimes/parties to stay in power in loan recipient countries.  Thus removing their incentive to remove obstacles to a market economy (cough, or a democracy) and only be a perpetual drain on the successful.  A true beginning to a Rand's nightmare.  

Our Allies during the Reign of the Empty Suit

Whether a deliberate policy or not, it is clear that the Obama administration is not interested in defending Western culture or maintaining relationships with our 'natural' allies. I use the term 'natural' to mean Western-style democracies, not exclusively nations we have long-standing friendships with. In this article, the second of a continuing series, we track the decisions and actions of our erstwhile allies whilst our president spends his time sucking up to dictators. I think we'll spend time tracking the two 'I's quite a bit. Of course I mean India and Israel. I think we'll be tracking them for a few reasons. Primarily, they are the two western-style democracies that are on the front line against militant Islam. Secondly, they are fairly recent products of Western Imperialism, in particular of the British Empire. Thirdly, and this probably tied to the second reason, they are successful democracies surrounded by a world of dictatorships, true monarchies, and anarchy.

Anyway, in our second article on this subject since this blog's creation (still the month of April!) we see another example of Indo-Israeli cooperation: India launches an Israeli-designed spy satellite. Its purpose is to monitor Pakistan mostly. I wonder what Israel gets out of the deal...? Surveillance of Iran...? Landing field for bombers after a long flight to Iran...?

Kudos To Obama - UN Racism Conference

We are fair and balanced here at Robinson Talking Points, and do not slam anyone if they don't deserve it. And if they get it right, we praise them. Obama gets one right here: Obama directs the US to boycott the UN Conference on Racism, drawing heat from his closest supporters both at home and abroad. The conference, which is nothing but an excuse for nations to slam Israel and ex-colonial nations, was boycotted by Israel and the US in 2001. Obama continues one of Bush's policies in boycotting it again this year; and this time those two nations are being joined by other European nations, Canada, & Australia in boycotting it again.

Obama drew criticism from the Congressional Black Caucus as well as Muslim and African nations by this boycott. Kudos for him for taking a principled stand for fairness and reasonableness in the face of peer group pressure from his supporters.

And the sooner we get out of the absolutely useless organization known as the United Nations, the better.

Chicago Tea Party Interview

Here's a fun example of a reporter treating her job as she is trained to do in college Journalism schools: not reporting the news, but driving an agenda. The idiot cannot understand the rubes who disagree with her Messiah, and instead of just reporting what's happening, she tries to lecture them. Hilarity ensues.

Oregon Beer Tax

I can't believe I haven't posted on this already: A point of particular concern to beer-drinking Robinsons (I believe there are a few): Oregon Legislature Pondering 1900% tax increase on Beer!!!!!!!!

If this weren't a family-oriented and clean-mouthed Robinson blog I'd be foaming at the mouth (and not beer foam) with obscenities! Not only punishing beer drinkers, but punishing one of Oregon's few home-grown entrepreneurial success stories. This tax punishes all Oregon beer drinkers, but in particular, Oregon beer-makers in that it taxes beer by the barrell sold here. As Oregon microbrewers sell virtually all their beer in Oregon, this hits them fully, whereas national brewers only have a small fraction of their sales hit by this tax increase (the fraction that is sold in Oregon). Therefore, the national brewers can diffuse the damage throughout their sales territory and not increase the cost of their beer as high as the Oregon microbrewers do.

And people wonder why Oregon's unemployment rate is higher than the national average: Oregon punishes its own entrepreneurs hardest.

Obama-Chavez Love Fest

The picture everyone is talking about. A Bro'-shake for his best buddy. Here Commander Zero is buddying up to a proven and admitted Left Wing Terrorist Drug Smuggler Supporting Marxist while at the same time his DHS department gins up fear-mongering over US Right Wing Extremists...oh and by the way the US Congress shoots down a trade treaty with Columbia, a country which has done heroic work trying to get its drug trade under control and cooperate with the US. Thanks Obama! Thanks Democrats!

There are so many links out there proving Obama's and his buddy Ayers' admiration of Chavez that there's no point even beginning with links. Google away and see for yourself. Though, most Robinson Talking Points readers already know this.

Rip City!!!!!

I hate that phrase, but The Robinson Talking Points blog is jacked about The Blazers making the playoffs, and going into them with a full head of steam. Go Blazers!

The DHS Intimidation Report

The Department of Homeland Security's Rightwing Extremism report is a cheap political hitpiece, meant purely to intimidate conservatives and timed to counteract the Tax Day Tea Party rallies. This is pure Big Brother, Soviet style, government propoganda. I fear for this country.

Pakistan Collapsing Part II

It's not nearly as much fun to post this under a comment...

My previous comments about the ability for the Taliban to make inroads into the non-tribal regions may be undermined by this.  It's not enough that the Taliban have adopted the regular party line religious elements, but adding a marxist re-distribution of wealth argument could have a profound impact on the over 100 million people living at or below poverty in the country (and the millions in the Punjab region)...

Seriously, this situation getting scary fast.  I'm even beginning to wonder if the tipping point has already been reached and that collapse is inevitable.  Is that like the Chinese Revolution in which an overly funded yet corrupt and inept government couldn't halt a revolution sweeping the peasantry?  If so, there's little we can do to induce the Pakistani Gov't to "not be corrupt," and might be high time for us to identify where their nukes are and take them out...Obviously an operation that India would be interested in doing as well (since they're the most likely to feel the effects).

We need to identify if this is a failed state and quickly.  We also need to seriously consider whether the zillions of dollars that we're about to give them for weaponry is going to be later used to arm our enemies.   

Obama's World Wuss-Out Tour

As Obama tours the world, insulting and abandoning our allies and sucking up to our enemies, sensible members of our ex-allies consider their options. This article in the Jerusalem Post is written by Caroline Glick, who is a fairly conservative Israeli and a sharp cookie. Read her article to see how nations and people that do rely on America are reacting as we cease to be the land of the free and home of the brave.

Of course, when I say "sucking up to our enemies", he's actually sucking up to his friends, Muslim dictators. Remember, we are now led by a President who hates everything about what the US has been and those who identify with what the US used to stand for.

Pakistan Collapsing?!

A follow on to Melkor's article: Australian Advisor to both Bush & Obama says collapse of the nation of Pakistan is "months away". We are seeing more and more collapsing nations around the world, primarily Muslim nations. Of course Pakistan has never been a fully unified nation. The northwestern part of the country has always been semi-autonomous and now is more or less fully autonomous.

Fun things for Obama:

- Nukes in the hands of militant Islamic fundamentalists

- Reactions of India, China, and Iran to the power vacuum.

- Far more people and territory to recruit and train Islamic fundamentalists

Perhaps persuasive talk and stern letters will help. To be fair though this slow motion train wreck has been coming for a while and it's hard to know what to do about it. However, threatened nations are doing something about it. India is buying an anti-missile system from Israel. See the next article regarding responses of our erstwhile allies as Obama proceeds to abandon them.

Portland Taxday Teaparty

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=53611114229

Wednesday 3:30 PM-7:30 PM. I'm pretty sure I'm going. It's time working people staged a hippie protest!

Pakistan Passes Shari'a Law For Most of the Northwest Frontier Province

I think this would be cause for Ace's mushroom cloud graphic, I'll have to find a way to make something like it.

I want to say "head in the sand" but I honestly can't propose what else the government should do. They've attempted to root the Taliban out with their vastly larger conventional military but every campaign has been mired down into a mess in the mountains.  Throwing more money at Pakistan won't do anything as the only way to make their military capable of doing counterinsurgency would be to train them (and we can't do that as it would lead to further protests and decreased indigenous support).  

I think in the medium term this is a good move for the Pakistani government.  It has such a thin hold on stability at the moment (although, I'm suspicious of anything Hagel and Kerry worked on together, see article).  For it to try to continue on in its war would further show its incompetence leading to more fissures that could crack the country apart.  As I mentioned before, I see Pakistan as the center of gravity for the continued war in Afghanistan (and the war on terror in Central Asia?).  

Therefore I think the question is whether the civilian government would be further weakened by trying to maintain this cease-fire and allowing for Shari'a to ravage the countryside, or would it be better to continue fighting?  Both options have long strings of failures.  

But I think the Government should try to push for the ceasefire.  The one good thing about "most" of Pakistan is that it has relatively large population that isn't fundamentalist and activist (especially after the lawyer protests over reinstating the Supreme Court Justice and against Musharaf).  The population needs to feel that the war against the Taliban is not America's war but their own and that the Taliban is a greater menace than the Indian Army. Thus, I think its better for the government to try to pass numerous peaceful measures knowing they will be violated by the Taliban.  Each failure however, makes a "plan of peace" by the government such an utter failure that either this one or its successors will demand much more bolder and forceful action.  

Marines Give South Park Creators Highest Honor

The Telegraph reports that Marines have given Matt Stone and Trey Parker a signed picture of Saddam Hussein in honor of their help in 'entertaining' him when he was under their care.

Video: Whom Does the President of the USA Respect?

Hot Air has video comparing his bow to the Queen of the nation what birthed us with the King of Saudi Arabia. Whom does Obama respect more? I think it's clear from the video. Draw conclusions.

Portland Emo Fags

Ok. Its time to start a new and important topic. Portland emo rockers are taking music and making it a form of social status. Like saying, "Hey look at me. I listen to alternative progressive rock and go to many rock shows. Whether I am at a show or talking at a bus stop, I have the same gay monotone voice and body emotions. I am so cool cause I go to rock shows and act like I'm sitting in my bedroom and staring at the wall." It is just as scary as the socialist cancer that is taking over the political world. Its an emo cancer that is taking over the rock and roll underground. A bunch or pseudo intellectuals. I went to a buckethead show to find this smack in the face.
I came to see the face melting guitarist that played along bands like Primus, Korn, Guns and Roses, and Slash(these bands aren't that great but they atleast attempt to rock), and experience a good show. What I found was a whole venue of zombies. Nobody rocks anymore. I was the only one moving in there! I'm not saying moshing either. I was just dancing. Moving my body and feeling the music. I think most people thought I was a freak. Fuckin boots! You're supposed move at shows you damn hippies! Thats whats beautiful about rock n' roll! Nobody cares about status! Just ROCK!
More recently, I went to a show with Ashley and Jake to see Black Mountain. A bad ass rock band. Same scenario. Jake and I dancin and feelin it while everyone else sipped their expensive micro brews like it was a damn latte(no disrespect on lattes or micro brews for I am a fan of both, but you get the vibe). One girl asked Jake at some point in the show, "I heard there is a good mosh place in Eugene. " Jake was under the impression that what she meant was, "Um, why don't you go hang out with all the immature frat boys and mosh to some Metallica or something? This is Portland and we don't dance to music."
Where is the next Kurt Cobain that can kick the otts in the ass and propel us into the teens?

Oregon Unhappiest State

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_040709_lifestyle_oregon_unhappiest_state.b12148aa.htmlEvidently, according to an online survey, Oregon is the unhappiest state based on fiscal security. Why the hell are we still getting swarms of Californians and Mexicans? Hillsboro is like a big smelly Californian terd. Trust me, I know. The flamin limon cheetos sell best there. What does that tell you?
We may be unhappy based on fiscal security. But if you look around, everyone is still doing alright. Afterall, hippies don't really care about money.

Blogger Topic

Your guy's handles sux....stop being ghey....

Palin Fights For Missile Defense

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/Sarah Palin makes a strong and sensible (for her position as governor of Alaska) statement slamming Obama for Missile Defense cuts:

“I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program
which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United
States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead,”.

Read the whole thing. You go girl! Showing more Defense and Foreign Policy sense than her president. Hey leader of the Federal Goverment, your most important job is defense of the nation!

"Sovereign State"? Ya say ya want a revolution...

Request: Sean can you explain how to embed the link in a word? Thanks.

Security Topic: Defense Spending

So Obama was clever in retaining Gates as his Secretary of Defense.  Gate's new budget for the military shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.  He start talking Democrat in the waning years of the Bush administration to keep his post (more spending for the State Dept, more operation responsibilities for non-military actors abroad), Obama has talked repeatedly about cutting "wasteful" programs, and now we have a new plan from Gates that is going to hurt the future effectiveness of the military for years to come.  I think this plan is going to sail through despite the severe lobbying that's bound to come from defense firms attached to the Schinseki's Future Combat Systems (FCS) because of the "bi-partisan" nature of a joint Gates/Obama plan to slim down defense spending.  If a democrat was sitting in this position, it would be a different story.

The real question then becomes: is the plan necessarily bad?  To get the obvious out of the way, there will be no impact on funding for the war, if anything we'll be sinking more into the abyss that most call Afghanistan and there are no signs of a 14 month withdrawal in Iraq.  So in the short term no one can say that Gates/Obama (Gaoma) plan will hurt our current operational committments.  What I'm worried about are long term implications.  

What's important to note about Gaoma's plan is that it shifts the operational focus of the military to COIN ops and low scale conflict operations.  The programs that might get axed are not only those that Gates says are bloated or inefficient but those that are centered around large scale conventional war.  Gaoma have staked their bets that the age of nation-state wars passed with last century and that the low intensity conflict is going to be the problem of the future.  

A lesser analyst would focus on raising a political battle cry that this is the problem, "we're losing against China/Russia, China is the lurking enemy."  These concerns are certainly true and valid, but what I'm more worried about is what this President and future Presidents will do with a military that becomes increasingly built on low scale conflicts/operations.  If they think they have a military that is built to handle these problems than I feel like they'll be more willing to use it and deploy us into more conflicts.  The real concern than becomes whether or not the Military will be used for our security, or the moral maxims of whatever teleprompter chained dupe the short sighted masses elect next (even worse....whatever problems the UN drags us into).  

In addition, we've already seen the costs of COIN focused militaries in their confrontation with large well armed conventional forces; they get obliterated (see the latest Georgian conflict).  If the conventional force has the political will to disregard concern for civilian safety than no low-intensity military can stand up to it.  Sure, the age of Western Nation States using their militaries in such a fashion is over, but we've seen no sign this is true from Russia or China (thinking of the brutal repression over the last year of Tibet).  With a long term change in direction we are subordinating our military initiative to them while simultaneously potentially dragging ourselves into numerous humanitarian messes across the globe.  

This will be the eclipse of the American Epoch.  

Test Post

Comment and post guys. Hopefully, I will be able to post some thoughts that aren't completely derivative of Ace's blog.