It's been a good week in politics:

1.  For the second time in two months, Obama goes to Copenhagen and comes
home empty handed - no Chicago Olympics and no "global climate change"
agreement.  For some odd reason, Obama is enough impressed with himself that
he believes his mere presence will produce agreement with his ideas (requiem
for Narcissus, anyone?).  At Copenhagen, Cigar Willy's ever more frumpy wife
proposes a transfer of vast wealth from the United States to the third world
so that they can join the fight against something that does not exist.

2.  Ben Nelson (D) acquiesces in bribery to push democrats over the top in
their effort to socialize medicine with the federal government picking up
Nebraska's future half of Medicare payments forever.  In the end, the "pro
life" Nelson throws his weight behind federal funding of abortion in
exchange for money.

3.  Robert Ray, successor to Ken Starr, says that he informed Cigar Willy
and his fishwife in certain terms that he was about to indict them both for
felonies associated with Whitewater and Slutgate.  Mr. Ray told Cigar that
any plea deal he entered must forever bar him from the practice of law, up
to an including the Supreme Court.  Cigar acquiesced in Mr. Ray's demand,
entering a plea deal that covered himself and the current United States
Secretary of State.  I wonder how many questions Cigar and his fishwife will
be asked about this by the mainstreatm press?  My guess is zero.

4.  The rest of this installation is quotes from Nat Hentoff, libertarian
scholar and self-described Jew atheist, in an interview with John Whitehead
of the Rutheford Institute:

    a.  "I try to avoid hyperbole, but I think Obama is possibly the most
dangerous and destructive president we have ever had."

    b.  "In terms of the Patriot Act, and all the other things he has
pledged he would do, such as transparency in government, Obama has reneged
on his promises."

    c.  "I am beginning to think that this guy is a phony. Obama seems to
have no firm principles that I can discern that he will adhere to. His only
principle is his own aggrandizement. This is a very dangerous mindset for a
president to have."

    d.  "In fact, we have never had more invasions of privacy than we have
now. The Fourth Amendment is on life support and the chief agent of that is
the National Security Agency. The NSA has the capacity to keep track of
everything we do on the phone and on the internet. Obama has done nothing
about that. In fact, he has perpetuated it. He has absolutely no judicial
supervision of all of this. So all in all, Obama is a disaster."

    e.  "I am an atheist, although I very much admire and have been
influenced by many traditionally religious people. I say this because the
Left has taken what passes for their principles as an absolute religion.
They don't think anymore. They just react. When they have somebody like
Obama whom they put into office, they believed in the religious sense and,
of course, that is a large part of the reason for their silence on these
issues. They are very hesitant to criticize Obama, but that is beginning to
change. Even on the cable network MSNBC, some of the strongest proponents of
Obama are now beginning to question, if I may use their words, their
'deity.'"

    f.  "Obama has little, if any, principles except to aggrandize and make
himself more and more important. You see that in his foreign policy. Obama
lacks a backbone - both a constitutional backbone and a personal backbone.
This is a man who is causing us and will cause us a great deal of harm
constitutionally and personally."

    g.  "As usual, the people who are poorest - the blacks, Hispanics and
disabled people - are going to suffer more than anyone else under the Obama
administration. This is a dishonest administration, because it is becoming
clear that the unemployment statistics of the Obama administration are not
believable. I can't think of a single area where Obama is not destructive."

Entire interview is here:

http://www.rutherford.org/oldspeak/articles/interviews/oldspeak-Hentoff_2009.html

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