Barack Obama -- April 14, 2009

April 14, 2009

Custom Search

Obama once dressed as
a Somali elder. Now he has
to kill Somali pirates.

event	description
How The Rescue Happened	Blackfive makes the point that the commander on scene already had the authority to deal with an imminent death situation in his standing rules of engagement. That means that when this situation was escalated to national command authority, i.e. Obama, those rules were suspended and Obama implemented new ones specific to this incident. Then he had to restore the authority the captain already had to use deadly force to save a hostage from execution. There is considerable talk that the initial new "Rules of Engagement" (ROE) that Obama instituted did not allow a rescue so as to allow the negotiations to proceed, and then a second set of ROE was instituted after the Navy could not respond to Captain Phillip's escape attempt. That is unconfirmed but fits the facts as they happened. Blackfive just finished listening to the press conference with Admiral Gortney about the rescue of Captain Phillips. At the time it happened the USS Bainbridge was towing the lifeboat to calmer waters as the sea state was deteriorating. One of the pirates was on board the Bainbridge as the talks about obtaining Phillip's release continued. The lifeboat was approximately 25 meters behind the Bainbridge when snipers on the fantail observed one of the pirates in the pilot house of the lifeboat pointing an AK-47 at the back of a tied up Phillips and the other two pirates on board were visible (at least shoulders and heads). The standing authority gave them clearance to engage the pirates if the life of the captain was in imminent danger. The on scene commander deemed this to be true and gave the order to fire. All three bad guys were taken out and then a rigid inflatable boat went to the lifeboat to retrieve Phillips. It is unknown at this point whether the shooters were SEALs or Marine Scout Snipers as both would have been available. This was not a rescue attempt ordered by National Command Authority, i.e. the President. It was a reaction by the on scene commander under standard authority to safeguard the life of a hostage. The AP is reporting that President Obama gave the order to use military force to rescue the hostage, that is misleading. Obama did affirm the military's authorization to use force if the captain's life was in danger, but the Navy already would have had that authorization as part of their standard rules of engagement. If there are innocents about to be slaughtered the same reasoning that authorizes self defense also covers an imminent execution unless the ROE specifically forbid it. The AP is making it sound like there was an active rescue ordered by Obama. It was not, there was an imminent threat and the local commander gave the order to fire. Good on Obama for ensuring their authorization was clear, but let's also be clear that he did not authorize or order an active rescue attempt. Obama's part in this was apparently to reinforce the authority already possessed by the on scene commander. Matter of fact if there was a second communication with Obama it may have been because his first order actually restricted them from taking action, i.e. why nothing happened when Phillips made his escape attempt. Regardless, Obama did not order a rescue and Blackfive doubts he would have. Blackfive wonders why the pirates would have threatened Phillips or considered killing him. It would be an obvious death sentence, as evidenced. The second they shot him, it would have allowed free rein for the Bainbridge to blow them out of the water. Oh and for you lefty Kossack wankers, these were SEALs, Marines and sailors with zero Special Forces. Not that an uninformed ass clown would know. There's more here . . .
Obama Allows Travel, Money Transfers To Cuba	Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. Obama had promised to take these steps as a presidential candidate. It has been known for over a week that he would announce them in advance of his attendance this weekend at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Other steps taken Monday include expanding the things allowed in gift parcels being sent to Cuba, such as clothes, personal hygiene items, seeds, fishing gear and other personal necessities. The administration also will begin issuing licenses to allow telecommunications and other companies to provide cell and television services to people on the island, and to allow family members to pay for relatives on Cuba to get those services, the official said. Obama also promised to engage in direct diplomacy with Cuba, "without preconditions" but with "careful preparation" and "a clear agenda." Obama, a big fan of reparations for descendants of slaves, didn't mention anything about reparations for the American properties that were seized by Castro's communist regime.
Media Mainstays Ignore Tea Parties	Major members of the traditional media in the United States -- television networks, daily newspapers and the like -- are ignoring the potentially nation-shaking story of the Tea Party protests because they attack Obama's massive tax-and-spend policies, according to a media analyst. "I don't think they like a nationwide protest they perceive as attacking their guy," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Media Research Center's Business and Media Institute. "Yes, the mainstream media helped Obama get elected," he affirmed. Gainor said the ethics of professional journalism require that the "big news" of the day be covered. The American Family Association is reporting Tax Day protests for 2,000 cities -- and Tax Day Tea Party claims the movement has now spread overseas. With less than two days before citizens take to the streets, the mainstream media are beginning to report the widespread movement -- but many major outlets are doing so in critical columns and television reports. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote, "Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn't feel right to make fun of crazy people." He said the tea parties are not an accurate representation of public sentiment. They're AstroTurf (fake grassroots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects," he wrote. USA Today reported that the nationwide protest would number only 500 U.S. town and cities, while a Forbes columnist argued that "federal revenues as a share of the gross domestic product will be lower this year than any year since 1950." MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" denigrated the movement with puns for 13 minutes, calling it "insanitea" organized by conservative activists. She laughed out loud as she disparaged "tea-baggers" during the broadcast. MSNBC's David Shuster accused Fox News of "fluffing" the Tax Day tea parties after the news channel became one of few major media outlets to consistently report on the events. Newsweek Senior Editor Daniel Gross said the movement was "AstroTurf" rather than grassroots because he alleges it began from the top down, according to NewsBusters. "I think, when it comes to teabagging, the president should probably just ignore this," Gross said. "He's got 10 other things on his plate, you know, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the banking crisis, the overall economic situation, health care. To get bogged down with a -- you know, what seems to be a fringe group of people throwing consumer products into the lakes and rivers of this nation doesn't seem to be worthy of his attention." A Huffington Post columnist mocked, "Yes, stand up. You've been pushed around by Obama for too long -- nearly 80 whole days. You poor long suffering muted people." However, hundreds of U.S. dailies and local news stations are announcing Tax Day tea parties in various towns and cities.
Obama Granted Time Extension Request	The Right Side of Life is reporting that Mario Apuzzo, attorney for Plaintiffs in Kerchner v. Obama, posted on his web site that two of the Defendants, USA and Barack Hussein Obama, had asked and were granted a 15-day extension for time to respond. Two defendants in the Kerchner et al v Obama & Congress et al lawsuit, Barack Obama and the USA, have filed an "Entry of Appearance" and have requested a 15 day extension to the time allotted to them to respond. This is beyond the 60 days they were provided initially. When the government is the defendant, the government is given 60 days to respond. With the filing today, they asked for another 15 days and the court granted it. The new response date is May 5th, 2009. For more details see the documents at SCRIBD.com.