Foreign policy so easy even a "monkey" could do it, and this is no country for old [black] men.

Wow, I guess "the times they are a changing". Now the right has new found love for the Russians and Vladimir Putin is their hero. (The enemy of my enemy is my friend.) Nice. They deserve each other.

Anyway, here is hoping that O rethinks his Syria strike. Forget the poll numbers, forget the neocons and a pliant media, forget the criticism of his seemingly fractured plan when it comes to Syria. If a new compromise (A Russian proposal no less) is what it takes to say no American bombs in the Middle East, well then so be it.

The irony is, of course, that O made a big political miscalculation by asking congress to authorize the use of force in Syria. But I am glad for that mistake, because it's looking more and more like it's not going to happen.

Still, I wouldn't want to be one of O's speechwriters right about now. This was supposed to be his turn to explain to the American people why Bashar Assad was going to catch a beat down for gassing his own people. Now, given the way the world is turning, this is probably not going to happen. That, to me, is a good thing.

Sometimes the Big R wants you to chase, but it is not always wise to bite.

Take for instance Ann Coulter's latest cry for attention. Ann didn't want to be left out of the Syria debate, but rather than give us something of substance, she gives us this:

 "Ann Coulter joined Sean Hannity on Monday night to bash President Obama for a failure of leadership on Syria. Hannity called Obama “confused” and “wimpy,” while Coulter derided the White House for thinking this is a simple Aaron Sorkin monologue away from being solved, adding that she believes Vladimir Putin has made Obama into a “monkey” on Syria.

Hannity found the day’s events “embarrassing” for Obama, while Coulter acknowledged that Kerry’s off-the-cuff comment about Syria handing over their chemical weapons was ver cleverly snatched up by Putin. Hannity was astonished that Putin appears to be the “great peacemaker” in all this, with Coulter saying he’s “looking like a man” while Obama looks week.

She reminded Hannity how much the media (“Obama’s PR crew”) mocked Mitt Romney last year for saying Russia is America’s “number one geopolitical foe.” After using the Obama-as-Putin’s-”monkey” line again, Hannity asked her why she’s using that word specifically. Coulter simply insisted that “Putin is playing with him and making him look ridiculous.”

Moving right along and giving chase where the Big R needs chasing; Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

The more I read this story the angrier I get. (h/t Mike)

"When the time came to move 107-year-old Monroe Isadore to a new home, police say he resisted and barricaded himself inside. Authorities tried using a camera to monitor him, along with negotiating tactics, and finally gas to get him to come out.

None of it worked.

So, a SWAT team went inside and was greeted by gunfire, authorities say. The team fired back, and Isadore died.

The weekend confrontation raised a flurry of questions Monday as residents struggled to make sense of how someone known as a pleasant, churchgoing man who was hard of hearing and sometimes carried a cane had died in an explosive confrontation. Did authorities know how old he was? Did they follow proper procedure? Could they have done anything differently?

“It’s just a big puzzle,” said Ivory Perry, who has known Isadore for decades.

The standoff began Saturday, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press. Laurie Barlow, 48, of Lonoke, told officers she had gone to the house where Isadore was living temporarily to help him move to a new home. She said Isadore had previously been excited about the move but that when she arrived Isadore barricaded himself in a room.

“Ms. Barlow stated his granddaughter finally got him to open the door and she went around to speak with Mr. Isadore, at that time she stated Mr. Isadore raised his arm and pointed a gun at her and stated `You better stop breaking in to my house,’” the report said.

After police moved Barlow and the granddaughter across the street, Isadore fired at a door moments after police tried to contact him. A SWAT team, called out when negotiations failed, maneuvered a camera into the house to see how Isadore was armed, then stormed inside after deploying gas and a distraction device, the report said. When Isadore fired, the entry team fired back.

Police Sgt. David DeFoor said Monday that Isadore had been living at the home temporarily, but did not go into more detail. The sergeant also said officers may not have been aware of the man’s age.

“The only thing they knew that I’m aware of was that he was older,” DeFoor said." [Source]

Sgt., I am quite sure that they knew something else, and it had nothing to do with his age.  

  

Where is Vin Diesel when you need him?

Whenever I hear the words fast and furious I think of Vin Diesel and really fast cars. Now when I hear it I will think of really stupid republican politicians who like to overreach. (Oversight and overreach are two different things.)

The wingnuts in charge of the house oversight committee voted to hold the AG in contempt today. They think that there is a fire when most of us don't even see any smoke.   

But politircksters will be politricksters. It is, after all, political season. They have a presidential race to win, and anything to make the HNIC look bad will help their cause.

They want documents from the "Fast and Furious" gun walking "scandal", and they think that Holder and his peeps are hiding something. Of course O invoking executive privilege in the matter didn't help. A move that I personally didn't like and that I have to rip O for as well. I know that you have to protect your boy, (and possibly the office you hold, since W and his peeps were also mixed up in this mess)  but you have to remain consistent. That was not the case here.

I am no big fan of Lady Nancy, but she is right about this latest charade out of Washington. It's a joke.

"On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) slammed the House Oversight committee’s hearings relating to the Fast and Furious gun walking scandal and the imminent committee vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. “I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day,” said Pelosi." [Source]

One of the reasons that I am no fan of Mrs. Pelosi is that she didn't arrest the little bastard. Or at least make his life more uncomfortable while he was using Washington as his own personal playground.

Oh well, this too will pass. But it should be fun to see what happens as the summer heats up.

Finally, do you want to know why the GOP will never get more than 10% of the African American vote in this country?

Read the following:

 "You might recall that, yesterday, we reported that Arizona radio host Barbara Espinosa is defending comments she made about referring to President Barack Obama as a “monkey” and telling a caller to her show that she does not “believe in calling him the first black President. I voted for the white guy myself.”

As it turns out, there was a guest with her that day: Arizona Republican Party Chair Tom Morrissey.

RELATED: Radio Host Barbara Espinosa Stands By Calling Barack Obama ‘A Monkey’

And, as Think Progress is reporting today, Morrissey said not a word on the air regarding Espinosa’s “nickname” for the President. Instead, he shared that, as he sees it, Americans who do not support Obama are nothing short of patriots.."
[Source]

"Patriots"? So that's what they are calling bigots these days?







    

Look before you leap.

When a regular reader to the fields sent me an e-mail about the Barnes & Noble Book Store in Florida placing a book about monkeys with the Obama book display, I was fit to be tied. I couldn't wait to jump all over the Barnes & Noble folks. But something told me to chill and learn some more about the situation before I got on the grievance train.

Well I am happy to report that I did. Because as it turns out Barnes & Noble has apologized for what happened, and they swear up and down that they had nothing to do with it. Apparently the hard economic times are getting to those citizens down in Florida. They have to take out their angst on somebody, and right now it looks like the guy in power who they think is closer to the monkey in the evolutionary chain.

Now some bloggers still don't believe that Barnes & Noble weren't aware of the display, and they are still pissed at the large bookstore chain. I am not going to go that route, because I know how our fellow A-merry-cans can be. We can be hard on each other sometimes, and it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to see some customer going over to the display and doing a quick makeover.

But still, this is A-merry-ca, and a part of me wants to agree with the blogger, "Mr. Grey Ghost", when he posted this:

"'This was not a company driven decision," Edgar Chang, the store manager, said in an interview with TheDefendersOnline. “We are not sure how the book got in the window, but we believe it was put there by a customer who didn’t like the fact that Obama won the election.'

I'm not buying this apology. How does a customer get the time to place a book in a store window? Much less, how does the monkey book stay there long enough for people walking on the street to take photos? This sounds like the work of a bigot store employee. This Barnes & Noble store needs to conduct a thorough investigation of its workers, because so far their excuse sounds pretty lame. "

Hmmm, okay, I will buy the fact that it could have been an employee. And it shouldn't be hard to find the culprit. Just watch for the one driving out with the McCain/Palin bumper sticker on the back of their ride.