Blue State Blues, Bluer Than Blue, and The Massachusetts Job Fair

A Massachusetts employment organization has canceled its annual job fair because not enough companies have come forward to offer jobs.

Richard Shafer, chairman of the Taunton Employment Task Force, says 20 to 25 employers are needed for the fair scheduled for April 6, but just 10 tables had been reserved. One table was reserved by a nonprofit that offers human services to job seekers, and three by temporary employment agencies.

Shafer tells the Taunton Daily Gazette the lack of employers means the task force won't have enough money to properly advertise the fair.

The task force has been organizing the job fair nearly every year since 1984.

Shafer says the cancellation reflects the current economy -- even though things are getting better, companies are still cautious about hiring full-time workers.

Why would Massachusetts companies be reluctant to take on new workers?
Obamacare?
Threat of new taxes?
They're in a Blue State?
Card Check has not yet been defeated?
Uncertainty?
The Fed printing money?
The White House seems determined to punish success?
Regulatory Hell?

Pick one.

Here's Michael Johnson, singing a late '70's classic.

How to keep a government employee from falling asleep on the job - Hire one to keep him awake.

A government employee was caught sleeping on the job. 

The air traffic controller suspended for failing to respond to two planes heading into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has told investigators that he had fallen asleep, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The controller, a 20-year veteran, "indicated that he had fallen asleep for a period of time while on duty," according to a statement released Thursday by the safety board. "He had been working his fourth consecutive overnight shift (10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.)."
"Human fatigue issues are one of the areas being investigated," the statement read.

Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt said earlier Thursday that the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident and that the air traffic controller has been suspended from all operational duties.

You gotta love the phrase "Human Fatigue Issues" in place of "sleepy".  It's right up there with "Kinetic Military Action" in place of "Blowing Up Arabs". Here's Hot Air with some more detail on what happened.  

The control tower at Reagan National Airport went silent early Wednesday, forcing the pilots of two airliners carrying a total of 165 passengers and crew members to land on their own.
he tower, which normally is staffed by one air-traffic controller from midnight to 6 a.m., did not respond to pilot requests for landing assistance or to phone calls from controllers elsewhere in the region, who also used a “shout line,” which pipes into a loudspeaker in the tower, internal records show.
An American Airlines Boeing 737 flying in from Miami with 97 people on board circled the airport after receiving no response from the tower at midnight. Minutes later, a United Airlines Airbus 320 flying in from Chicago with 68 people on board also got no answer from the tower.

Here's the Bureau of Labor Statistics on who this dude worked for:

Air traffic controllers held about 26,200 jobs in 2008. The vast majority were employed by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), while a small number of civilian controllers also work for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Here's your obligatory statement of outrage from Federal Aviation Administration Chief Bruce Babbitt:

"In my 25 years as a professional airline pilot, I've never seen anything happen like this. "I am outraged by it," Babbitt said. "We're going to make sure something like this never happens again."

Here's why Babbitt and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood need to get their shit together:

-- A March 23, 2006, incident in which a Chicago air traffic controller cleared a plane to take off from a runway on which, 15 seconds earlier, he had cleared another aircraft to cross. The pilot of the departing plane stopped when he saw the other craft in the taxiway intersection. The controller told investigators he had slept only four hours during a nine-hour break between shifts.

-- An August 19, 2004, incident in which a Los Angeles controller cleared one passenger jet to take off and another to land on a runway at the same time. The pilot in the landing aircraft noticed the other on the runway and pulled his plane up 12 seconds before they would have collided. The controller said he had slept five or 6 hours before coming to work.

-- A September 25, 2001, incident in which a Denver air traffic controller approved a request from a cargo plane pilot to take off from a runway that had been closed for construction. The aircraft came within 32 feet of hitting lights that had been installed in the construction zone. The controller said he'd slept only two hours between work days.

-- A July 8, 2001, incident in which a Denver controller cleared one passenger plane to cross a runway where another was about to land. The landing pilot hit the brakes, stopping 810 feet from the other plane. The controller said he had worked three shifts in two days.

Here's why Canada doesn't have so many problems with Air Traffic Control, according to the International Air Transport Association.  Their air traffic is supervised by an outfit called Nav Canada:

Nav Canada is a global leader in the efficient implementation and reliable delivery of air traffic control procedures and technologies. It actively engages its customers at all levels in regular and meaningful consultations. “The performance of Nav Canada has been enhanced by the right technical and operational investments following extensive cost/benefit analyses. Nav Canada’s effective management has allowed the company to reduce its charges in 2006 and 2007, and freeze them at that level ever since,” Bisignani said.



Here's the Cato Institute on what's so special about Nav Canada:

Unlike the government-run ATC system in the U.S., Nav Canada is a privately run, not-for-profit corporation. As a Cato essay on privatization explains, the U.S. system leaves a lot to be desired while the private Canadian system has been a tremendous success:

The Federal Aviation Administration has been mismanaged for decades and provides Americans with second-rate air traffic control. The FAA has struggled to expand capacity and modernize its technology, and its upgrade efforts have often fallen behind schedule and gone over budget…The GAO has had the FAA on its watch list of wasteful "high-risk" agencies for years…Canada privatized its ATC system in 1996. It set up a private, nonprofit ATC corporation, Nav Canada, which is self-supporting from charges on aviation users. The Canadian system has received high marks for sound finances, solid management, and investment in new technologies.

So are Babbitt and LaHood considering privatizing the FAA?  Are they going to admit basic incompetence and let us save some money by following the Canadian model?  Naw.  That's not in their DNA. 

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered the FAA on Wednesday to schedule two controllers on the overnight shift.

Yeah.  If one government employee is failing, the only solution is to hire more.  Always, always, always, hire more. 

Pics came from here and here and here. 

The in-depth analysis you deserve

Claire McCaskill - doing her part to prevent government waste

According to a bunch of Republicans in Missouri, Senator Claire McCaskill never saw a tax that she didn't love:

McCaskill has opposed every tax relief package that passed the Congress over the last five years. Those tax cuts included marriage penalty relief, death tax relief, an increase in the child tax credit and small business tax relief.

Well, those taxes were for the little people, those everyday Americans who don't have to worry so much about their money being wasted.  And let it be known that Senator McCaskill has done her part to prevent government waste. 
I give out an award called "The Whitey" to people who prevent government waste.  But only if they do it by not paying their taxes (the only guaranteed way to ensure government won't blow the money). 

Go here to see a list of previous winners. 

Reverend Al Sharpton, through a spectacular effort of gall and hypocrisy, has already won the 2011 trophy.  The best that Senator McCaskill can do is claim runner-up. 


Here's Hot Air on McCaskill's efforts to take the trophy:

McCaskill has been answering questions about the plane since POLITICO recently reported that she billed taxpayers for a political trip around Missouri. POLITICO also reported that McCaskill spent $76,000 from her Senate budget on trips on the aircraft over the past four years, prompting the senator to refund the Treasury Department more than $88,000 for the cost of the trips plus pilot fees.

McCaskill’s announcement Monday is the latest twist in a political scandal that has dogged her for the past two weeks. The expensive fiasco clashes with her self-made image as a reformer and good-government advocate during her first term in the Senate. McCaskill has now shelled out more than $375,000 in payments to cover the cost the plane flights and back taxes, a series of events the senator herself has called “embarrassing.”

On top of this, McCaskill signed on in February as a co-sponsor of Senate legislation that would fire federal employees if they are “seriously delinquent” in paying their own federal taxes…
“There are people I could blame for this, but I know better. As an auditor, I know I should have checked for myself. I take full responsibility for the mistake,” added McCaskill, Missouri’s former state auditor from 1999 to 2007. “I should have checked the documentation. I should have been asking the questions. I shouldn’t have assumed that somebody was doing it.”

Mistake, my ass.  Senator McCaskill, you were just trying to earn a Whitey.  You registered the plane in Delaware (where you didn't pay taxes on it) before you moved it closer to home in Missouri (where you didn't pay taxes on it.) 
Here's your nomination trophy:

Here's a rather harsh anti-Claire video that the Republicans are going to be throwing down soon.  Don't they understand that the Senator was just trying to put the money to its best use, rather than see it wasted? 



Here's the link to a GENIUS "Claire Air" website.  The in-flight entertainment is outstanding. 

A final (imported) nail in the Locavore coffin

You might remember the "Locavore" movement, the anti-growth/anti-globalism folks who want to mandate that we supply ourselves within spitting distance of our front yards, or some such silliness.  At one time they were proposing legislation that required grocery stores to show how many "food miles" each product had travelled. 
Yeah.  Seriously. 

Yes, I guess you could grow oranges in Fort Worth, Texas, but they would have bigger carbon footprints than Al Gore's mansion(s).  And they would probably be so crappy that the producers couldn't get any economies of scale in their orange shipments.  I could go on and on, but there's no point in it. 

Here's another argument against the Locavores by Tim Worstall.  I found it on Samizdata:

Take local food. So, if everyone in North-Eastern Japan were to be reliant upon local food supplies then everyone in North-Eastern Japan would now be condemned to starvation in the next month or so. Not just the ten or twenty thousand who have already died, but the hundreds of thousands, millions, that make up the entire population. For in the wake of an earthquake that destroyed much and a tsunami that swamped the rest, there is no food, no saved food storage and no damn chance of growing any for the forseeable future.


"Localism” would kill all of these people. And the same would be true of localism in Pakistan when it floods, Queensland when it floods, Cockermouth when it floods, any damn where when there’s a drought and, in fact, any part of the planet that could be hit by any of those natural disasters which a vengeful planet can plop upon us, from the flood and drought already mentioned through to hurricanes, cyclones, potato or banana blight and plagues of frogs.

Think about any place suffering from a famine.  Famines happen when the local food supply doesn't come through, and the locals haven't been allowed to trade with neighboring (or faraway) nations. 

Ok, but what about the disruption to supply chains?  Haven't we all read about how Toyota plants in the U.S. and other a few other automakers are having to shut down assembly lines because they relied on Japanese parts? 
Wal-Mart figured that one out a long, long time ago.  They have a minimum of two suppliers for everything, just in case one of them goes broke, gets hit with an earthquake, a tsunami, or gets too uppity.  Within a couple of years, every one of Japane's major customers will have done the same. 

So good riddance to the Locavores.  If they had their way, I would be stuck eating local Texas barbeque. 

If you've got a few more minutes to kill, go here to read an account of a Locavore in British Colombia who drove all over town in a damn SUV to pick up food to serve at a locally-grown meal designed to get neighbors to turn off their floodlights.  I don't think he meant that part of it to be funny.  These are nice people, but they don't understand economies of scale. 

Whatever happened to the anti-war movement?

Reason magazine asks the obvious question....

And from David Boaz:

In October 2007, Obama proclaimed, “I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.” Speaking of Iraq in February 2008, candidate Barack Obama said, “I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home.” The following month, under fire from Hillary Clinton, he reiterated, “I was opposed to this war in 2002….I have been against it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8 and I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don’t be confused.”

Indeed, in his famous “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow” speech on the night he clinched the Democratic nomination, he also proclaimed, “I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that . . . this was the moment when we ended a war.”

Today, however, he has tripled President Bush’s troop levels in Afghanistan, and we have been fighting there for more than nine years. The Pentagon has declared “the official end to Operation Iraqi Freedom and combat operations by United States forces in Iraq,” but we still have 50,000 troops there, hardly what Senator Obama promised.

Yeah, and we've got 9 more months to go in 2011.  Who will bomb next, Iran or Pakistan?  I'm voting Pakistan. 

You cannot accept gold as payment. You must accept Ben Bernanke's worthless paper.

From Sovereign Man:

The United States Department of Justice delivered a very clear and unfortunate message on Friday:

“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism. While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country.”

These remarks were released by the US Attorney’s office in the western district of North Carolina following the conviction of one Bernard von NotHaus, the creator of the ill-fated Liberty Dollar.

As you likely recall from a few years ago, Liberty Dollars were privately minted gold and silver rounds. Paper certificates, akin to warehouse receipts were also issued, effectively giving the bearer a right to claim a certain amount of gold or silver at the group’s warehouse in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

This is traditionally how the system of money used to function– precious metals would be stored in private, secure storage facilities, and paper certificates were issued as a medium of exchange that entitled the bearer to redeem metal from the vault. Liberty Dollars represented a return to that system.

Clearly, the Justice Department feels otherwise… instead viewing these silver rounds as an attempt by terrorists to undermine the US dollar.

Hit the link to read the rest of Sovereign Man's post.  It's worth the trip. 

Anyway, back during the previous Great Depression, FDR decided that he didn't want gold to compete with his valueless paper money.  Here's Wikipedia on the infamous Executive Order 6102:

Executive Order 6102 required U.S. citizens to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 per troy ounce. Under the Trading With the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, as amended on March 9, 1933, violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000 ($167,700 if adjusted for inflation as of 2010) or up to ten years in prison, or both. Most citizens who owned large amounts of gold had it transferred to countries such as Switzerland. 

Order 6102 specifically exempted "customary use in industry, profession or art"—a provision that covered artists, jewelers, dentists, and sign makers among others. The order further permitted any person to own up to $100 in gold coins ($1,677 if adjusted for inflation as of 2010; a face value equivalent to 5 troy ounces (160 g) of Gold valued at about $6200 as of 2010). The same paragraph also exempted "gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins." This protected gold coin collections from legal seizure and likely melting.

The price of gold from the Treasury for international transactions was thereafter raised to $35 an ounce ($587 in 2010 dollars). The resulting profit that the government realized funded the Exchange Stabilization Fund established by the Gold Reserve Act in 1934.

So what? 

Well, if people are ever allowed to swap real honest-to-god silver and gold coins in exchange for goods and services, it won't be long before people refuse to do business with Bernanke Bucks.  There is a relatively limited supply of gold and silver.  Bernanke's capacity to print $20.00 bills is unlimited.  If you ever wrap your mind around why counterfeiting is illegal, and why debtor governments love inflation, then you'll understand why our government doesn't want a currency competitor. 

If I agree to accept a gold nugget as payment for goods and services, it's nobody's business but mine.  If I agree to accept Mickey Mantle baseball cards, ditto.  I'm making the choice.  As long as nobody mis-represents the nuggets or the cards, government has no business getting involved. 

But if people continue to accept worthless paper from Bernanke's printing press?  Well, somebody ought to be a good neighbor and suggest some alternatives.  I'm just sayin'.....

The picture of Bernanke's Printing Press came from here. 

Quotes and actions that will make your Bovine Excrement Meter go into the red

From our Constitutional Law Professor In Chief, back when he was running for office:

The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.

As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States. In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch. It is always preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action.

From Ralph Nader, who thinks it is time for impeachment:

"Why don't we say what's on the minds of many legal experts; that the Obama administration is committing war crimes and if Bush should have been impeached, Obama should be impeached," Nader said in an interview with the anti-war Democracy Now! organization.

Nader's comments came before the U.S. launched military strikes into Libya on Saturday but are among the toughest criticisms Obama has endured from the left.
The consumer advocate participated in an anti-war demonstration outside the White House this weekend, during which over 100 protesters were arrested.

Here are some more anti-invasion quotes from Candidate Obama, from the Verum Serum website:

That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.

Now let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.
He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.
I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the middle east, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda.

Well, yeah.  I think we've proven that already.  Here's Hot Air, reminiscing about the last time we saw objectives that were as muddled as those of our Barack 'n' Hillary's Excellent Libyan Adventure:

The American military has the facilities and experience to assume tactical direction of the operation, and that appears to be what has shaken out.  That doesn’t mean we are in charge from the standpoint of policy or strategy.  There is an enormous difference between our public finding out about the command assignments second-hand, through the news media, and the communication practices of the last seven presidents, which were direct, explicit, involved, and responsible.  We haven’t had an administration even close to this coy about the use of force since Lyndon Johnson’s.

Ouch. 
Ok, you remember that scene in "Taxi Driver" when Robert De Niro is on a pay phone in a hallway, and he discovers something that is so painful that the camera has to turn away, shifting its eye away from the humiliation that De Niro's character is going through?  Well, the guys at The Riehl World have re-posted an old Andrew Sullivan piece called "Top 10 Reasons Conservatives Should Vote For Obama".  What they've done to it hurts.  It really hurts.  And like Martin Scorsese, I'm not going to show any of it to you.  You'll have to hit this link if you choose to go there.  It's like watching someone torturing puppies.  You've been warned. 

And finally, here's the U.K. Guardian, via Reason magazine:

Muammar Gaddafi has been handed a "non-negotiable ultimatum" by Barack Obama to accept an immediate ceasefire, pull back from Libyan rebel strongholds and permit humanitarian assistance – or face the full onslaught of UN-endorsed air strikes.
In an attempt to reassure Middle East opinion and his own domestic audience, Obama said the US would help to co-ordinate a no-fly-zone, but not lead an operation that will include French, British and Arab jets.

You probably need one of these by now, don't you?  Don't you wish everyone had purchased one before the 2008 elections? 









Bovine Excrement Meters stolen from here. 

Touched by an invasion

Here's a close approximation of the Neocon response to Obama's decision to go into Libya....

The difference between the Iraq War and the coming Libyan War.

In which someone contrasts Iraq and Libya on Ann Althouse's blog:

Iraq – blood for oil, war for neocon corporate interests and U.S. hegemony only
Libya – no blood, no oil. Obama’s motives pure because, well, good women are running the show for him – Hillary, Susan, Samantha – and everyone knows that when women (and the French of course) run a war good things happen!

Iraq – weapons of mass destruction what weapons of mass destruction?
Libya – no weapons of mass destruction because, well, okay, because Bush invaded Iraq and Gaddafi shit his pants and gave up his nukes. Pshew!

Iraq – benign dictator who never hurt anyone, wasn’t a threat to his neighbors, did not support terrorists, and, through the Oil for Food program, only wanted to share his oil with Europe in exchange for food and medicine for his long suffering people
Libya – Gaddafi is acting like a big jerk.

All clear now?  Good. 

Barack Obama has fired more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined !!!

From the comments of the Just One Minute Blog:

Barack Obama has now been responsible for firing more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined.


He's still in 2nd place for number of Arab deaths caused (and 3rd place for Muslim deaths) behind Yassir Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Yeah, I thouht that when a politician got the Nobel, it was for negotiating, or talking, or de-fusing tense situations. 

The pic came from here. 

The Three Women Who Led Barack Obama Into War With Libya

Lord have mercy, what a week. 

Here's Ann Althouse on the Code Pink group, and the three women who led Barack Obama by the nose into Libya. 

It's the opposite of the Code Pink idea that women bring the peace. How long have I heard this feminist plaint: If only women had the power, we would have peace, not phallocratic war.

Well, Ms. Althouse doesn't agree to let an interesting theory get in the way of some cold hard facts:

In a Paris hotel room on Monday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton... changed course, forming an unlikely alliance with a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention.


Within hours, Mrs. Clinton and the aides had convinced Mr. Obama that the United States had to act...

... Mrs. Clinton joined Samantha Power, a senior aide at the National Security Council, and Susan Rice, Mr. Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, who had been pressing the case for military action, according to senior administration officials speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ms. Power is a former journalist and human rights advocate; Ms. Rice was an Africa adviser to President Clinton when the United States failed to intervene to stop the Rwanda genocide, which Mr. Clinton has called his biggest regret.

Now, the three women were pushing for American intervention....

Is this kinda like Bush being led into war by Rumsfeld and Cheney?  I'm sure that the facts will come out later. 

Here's the latest zinger from Ms. Althouse:

To ally with Power and Rice, Clinton had to make "an unusual break with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who, along with the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and the counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, had urged caution." Oh, timid men. Step aside! Yield to the boldness of women.

Ouch. 

She Whose Name Is Not Spoken has already announced that she doesn't want to be Secretary Of State any longer.  I'll bet dollars to donuts that she's going to run against The Teleprompter next year. 

To the eternal credit of the Code Pink group, they did design this little gem of a poster:

That was before we opened a 3rd front in the Middle East. 
Code Pink doesn't have anything condemning this latest "intervention" on their website yet.  We'll see. 

They do have a bookmark that you can slip into copies of Don Rumsfeld's biography that accuses him of being a war criminal. 
Here's the bookmark that stealth shoppers can slip into unsold copies of George Bush's "Decision Points". 
And here's a handy link telling readers how to execute a citizen's arrest, just in case they want to detain one of the warmongers from the Bush administration. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the bookmark they design to slip into copies of "Dreams From My Father", by Barack Obama.
I'm looking foward to seeing these ladies take to the streets in protests next week. 
Or not. 

"No Blood For Oil" - Libya edition

From my buddies over at the Gotta Get Drunk First blog.  A couple of headlines dated exactly 8 years apart:

MARCH 19, 2011
OBAMA: 'Today we are part of a broad coalition. We are answering the calls of a threatened people. And we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world'...

MARCH 19, 2003
BUSH: 'American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger'...

Is there anyone out there who thinks we'll be out of Libya in 8 years? 
Any takers? 

According to some of the Talking Head on Meet The Depressed this morning, we're already moving beyond enforcing the "No Fly Zone".  We've already bombed a few of Gaddafi's troops.  We're taking sides in a civil war.  Qaddafi is a very bad man, but we have no freakin' clue as to the character or goals of the people opposing him.  If I'm not mistaken, the complexity of Libya's tribal loyalties makes Iraq look as homogeneous as a Klan rally. 

We have learned absolutely nothing from the past 8 years. 

A poster from the Brazilian Socialist Worker's Party

My friend Harper over at Passed Up Strange has an interesting post about the Brazilian oil company Petrobas (partially owned by George Soros), our own drilling bans, and some of the hostility that The Teleprompter Jesus is now facing during his weekend in Brazil. 
It's worth reading, and not just because she graciously includes a link to one of my Facebook rants. 

I mean, where the heck did Harper dig up this priceless poster from the Brazilian Socialist Worker's Party?  Can't the BSWP (something is lost in translation, I'm sure) recognize one of its own? 

Oh well....Prophets are seldom recognized by their own. 
But that doesn't excuse this huge banner, does it? 

I hope this doesn't come across as schadenfreude based on the harsh treatment that Bush received for going to war with even less justification that Obama.  I'm not going to say anything obvious, like HOW IS THAT HOPE AND CHANGE CRAP WORKING OUT FOR YOU?????

In my case, it is about Not Trusting Politicians.  None of them.  

As long as they are in the thrall of the military/industrial machine, as long as they can be bought and sold like East Fort Worth Crack Whores, as long as people like Hillary Clinton She Whose Name Is Not Spoken can whisper seductive promises of military glory in their ears, they're going to get us into messes like we're about to enter in Libya. 
We're going in with no idea how to get out.  How the hell can we end a war whose stated objective is to provide humanitarian assistance, air cover, and logistical support, but does not say anything about removing Gaddafi????
Saddam slaughtered 90,000 Kurds while the international community did nothing.  I'm glad we hung the S.O.B.   But we're the ones left cleaning up the mess. 
The nutcase running Libya deserves the same fate.  But why do we have to be the ones to deal with it every single time? 
We might be doing the right thing in Libya, but the Brazilian Socialist Worker's Party sure doesn't appreciate it. 

P.S. - I think I'm going to sit and drink double espressos and blog about this glorious farce until 9:00 p.m.  Can someone bring me food?