Posts Tagged ‘obama administration’

It’s always Massachusetts isn’t it?

Posted: July 9, 2010 by datechguy in elections, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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How is it the judges here are such idiots?

A federal district court judge in Boston today struck down the 1996 federal law that defines marriage as a union exclusively between a man and a woman.

Judge Joseph L. Tauro ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage law violates the Constitutional right of married same-sex couples to equal protection under the law and upends the federal government’s long history of allowing states to set their own marriage laws.

This is going to be a big game changer. Liberal sites on Memeorandom are all over it.

First of all those who said a constitutional amendment was not necessary have no leg to stand on, however those who were saying that knew it was false when they said it, they were playing for time. Little did they know that time state after state, even ones as liberal as Maine and California would reject Gay Marriage at the ballot box. So much for stalling for time.

Second of all democrats in borderline districts are now going to be in even worse shape. If the party opposes an amendment even more seats will be lost in swing states.

Third of all this is a big issue in both the Black and Latino communities and it’s an issue that the democratic party is on the wrong side of. They don’t want to deal with it but now they have no choice.

Fourth of all suddenly the Elena Kagan nomination becomes perhaps something worth fighting for and a test vote on gay marriage that democratic senators don’t want to have.

Finally this forces the president to make a call. If he comes out in favor of gay marriage that will be a bridge too far for the religious Black community particularly with only one vote making the difference on the court. There is no barrier to break anymore. That will be the difference in 2012. Expect him to speak against this ruling, but avoid introducing a constitutional amendment unless he is sure it will be defeated.

In one respect the timing isn’t bad for democrats, this is going to be a bad year anyway so you might as well get it all over with.

5 Years is all it took

Posted: July 6, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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On Jan 30, 2005 back in the days before I was blogging anywhere Glenn Reynolds put up a post about the Iraqi elections and printed this e-mail:

I’m remembering the coy saying about the French resistance. “If everyone who claimed to be in the resistance really had been, there would have been nobody left to collaborate.”

I make the following prediction: In 20 or 25 years (it might not even take that long) all the people who where saying that the war was wrong and Iraq was wrong will talk about how America brought democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and how they were a part of it due to their protests and desire for democracy and the end of tyranny. (of course they will not mention that the tyranny that they meant was us.) If the same people who write the current history books write them again be sure that this will happen.

Well it’s been 5 1/2 years and here via Gateway Pundit is Joe Biden:

Vice President Joe Biden said after a three-day trip to Baghdad that the American people will see President Barack Obama’s Iraq policy as a success when the “combat mission” ends on schedule Aug. 31. Biden said the administration “will be able to point to it and say, ‘We told you what we’re going to do, and we did it.’”

“I think America wins,” Biden told POLITICO in an end-of-trip interview at the ambassador’s residence in the sprawling U.S. Embassy complex. “I sound corny, but I think America gets credit here in the region. And I think everybody gets credit, from George Bush to [President Obama].

Now for myself as long as we actually win I don’t care and in fairness given his previous statements the President had great potential to mess things up, and didn’t.

Hot air pundit is quite correct that they are mostly taking credit that they don’t deserve for victory, but it’s a lot better than them getting proper credit for our defeat.

Talk about grading on a curve

Posted: July 2, 2010 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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If your goal is to make a political point then ranking a sitting president all time is useful, but frankly any group that ranks President Obama over Reagan is idiotic and not to be trusted.

In terms of ranking he also has the unfair disadvantage of the expectations game, if you compare him to expectations he would rank near Hoover except that he didn’t have you know anything near the actual accomplishments of Hoover before the presidency.

My own rankings of presidents is here but they are not numerical they are by group. I still think he has to potential to end up almost anywhere in the list because of the major crisis that he has to deal with. The trick is the results of many of them aren’t going to be apparent for a while, maybe even not until years after he is out of office.

I don’t care for this president, but it’s just not fair to try and rank his place in history right now. I’m too close to it and there are too many variables.

For example regardless of the reason for it the appointment of Petraeus could dramatically change things, if congress changes sides as is likely how he manages to work with such a congress can make a difference. We are still not even half way into his first term.

Do I expect positive changes? Frankly no, but that doesn’t mean the can’t or won’t happen. He is the president of my country and I want the best for my country, I don’t think he will bring it but I’d be very happy if he did.

When those historians rank this president where they do they once again create a set expectations that have great potential to be unmet. They serve him and the country very poorly.

Update: Smitty makes the same point I did

A sign of sanity: Mosab Hassan Yousef case dropped

Posted: June 30, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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A rare sign of good news and sanity from the war on terror:

EMET has just received word directly from Mosab that the Government has officially dismissed its deportation case against Mosab Hassan Yousef at a federal detention center in San Diego.

Mosab has told us that it was thanks to the efforts of EMET that the government decided to dismiss its case and grant him political asylum.

We talked a bit about Mosab here, but other blogs such as Camp of the Saints and The Lonely Conservative and Maggie’s Notebook really carried the ball on this one.

The blog they set up is here.

Now that he won’t be a gimme target back home look for him to be more of a target here, so that means he will need to be more careful.

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