The Patriot Post® · Obama Gets Schooled by Putin, and Other News

Some days I just shake my head and wonder if I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland, a topsy-turvy world where everything is upside down and backwards, and nothing makes sense. Scrolling through the news stories each day is enough to make you wonder if you are on a hidden camera show, with a TV audience laughing with delight at your expressions of shock, skepticism, and bewilderment. But alas, no, the stories are real, and the world really has become that bizarre. Just a few examples from recent news:

Barack Obama, proclaimed by leftist media and academic sycophants as the smartest man ever to become president, and “sort of a god”, was made to look like an utter fool on the world stage by Russian President Vladimir Putin. After looking pathetically weak and indecisive as to how to deal with Syria after the “red line” of chemical weapons use had been crossed, Obama declared the right to initiate force against Syria without Congressional approval, but then proceeded to ask for congressional approval. Then, when it was clear he would not get approval from not only the Republican-controlled House, but even from the Democrat-controlled Senate, Obama gave a speech to the nation, declaring he had asked Congress to delay an authorization vote in order to give diplomacy a chance (more about that in a moment). This is the political equivalent of your girlfriend dumping you unceremoniously, and then you yelling as she walks away that you think the two of you should see other people.

To add to the embarrassment of this Keystone Kops routine, Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry gave conflicting stories as to the administration’s position on Syria this past week, with Kerry giving a cynical response to a question as to whether there was anything Syria could do to avoid an attack, and Kerry replying that Syria could turn over all of its chemical weapons to the world community, but that we know Syria would never agree to that. Except they did (or at least claimed that they would). After the Obama administration declared Kerry made a huge gaffe, it reversed itself and made Kerry’s gaffe official policy.

To top off this mind-numbing comedy of errors, Putin became the newest contributor to the New York Times, lecturing Obama as if he were an ignorant schoolboy. Come to think of it, when it comes to the world of geopolitical conflict that is exactly what Obama is. Laughably, Obama now claims that this was all part of his plan, arguing it was only his threat of American military force that brought Syria and Russia to the table. Considering he could not even convince his own party to authorize force, it is a stretch to think that Assad was all that worried.

Maybe most bizarre of all is that Obama (who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize shortly after taking office) and a large chunk of his (formerly anti-war) party, which now desires to attack Syria, have become the new neo-cons, and it is left to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president and former KGB Director, to avert a war which could ignite a powder keg in the Middle East. Strange times indeed.

Speaking of strange, is it not odd that Obama and the Democrats have not simply declared Syria a gun-free, bomb-free, and chemical-weapons free zone, and be done with it? After all, as they have lectured us so often regarding domestic gun control policy, once you establish a gun free zone, the bad guys know not to bring weapons there. See? Instant peace in the Middle East!

In other news…

Can anyone explain why the press describes Obama, who had a black father and a white mother, as the first black president, but describes Michael Dewayne Jones (one of three young men charged with murdering Australian baseball player Christopher Lane), who also has a black father and a white mother, as a “white” teenager?

In a whiplash-inducing about face, a growing number of labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, the National Treasury Employees Union (which represents the IRS employees who are supposed to implement ObamaCare), the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, and the International Association of Firefighters, are turning against the ObamaCare law. These union workers are terrified of getting hammered with costly penalties for their “Cadillac” health insurance plans, and are pressing Obama for exemptions or even full repeal. While I am glad that the labor unions are finally seeing the light when it comes to ObamaCare, it is hard to feel sorry for them considering they donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Obama and the Democrats, provided an army of door-knockers and phone-bankers, and were a key force in pushing the law through. Sometimes karma bites you in the tail.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, liberal Democrat from California, wants the government to be able to regulate who is and is not a reporter, and therefore protected under the First Amendment’s freedom of the press. So, let’s get this straight…Feinstein wants the government to define what constitutes the press, which is the only profession protected by the Constitution, and protected because the Founders understood the need for an adversarial free press, which would be a watchdog against government abuse. Any guesses as to whether Feinstein would consider the likes of Fox News, Human Events, and an army of conservative bloggers as “legitimate” members of the press? To put this in perspective, Democrats like Feinstein think that pornography and flag-burning are protected free speech, but any speech critical of their statist agenda is not.

In an embarrassing blow to the global warming scare-mongers, recent reports show only three hurricanes hit the U.S. over the last five seasons. In addition, NASA satellite photos show the Arctic Ice cap, supposedly on the verge of completely melting away, grew by an astonishing 60% over the last year (nearly a million square miles of new ice). And in the coup de grace, the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s supposed foremost authority on global warming), now reports that the Earth will be in a cooling trend over the next 50 years (and has already been cooling for a dozen years). Now THAT is an inconvenient truth for the likes of Al Gore.

And finally, a question to ponder as we remember the devastation wrought by the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001…

What has done more damage to the long-term strength of our republic; the terrorists that flew planes into the WTC, the Pentagon, and a third which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania; or the policies of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who is determined to “fundamentally transform” America?

America had largely recovered from the economic impact of the 9/11 attacks within two years, yet after almost five years under Obama we have higher unemployment than we had following 9/11 (and indeed, unemployment is now higher AFTER the end of the recession than during the recession itself), a stratospheric national debt which keeps us teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and a president who recognizes no constitutional limitation on his powers (which makes him feel justified in spying on every American, detaining them indefinitely if he so feels, forcing them to pay for abortions against religious objections, attempting to destroy the 2nd Amendment, etc.)?