Elizabeth Crum

Michael J. Totten’s recent interview with Robert Kaplan is a college semester’s education in and of itself.  It’s a longie but goodie, and some of the photos are just great.  Highly recommended.

I am shocked and outraged.

It is well-established historical and political fact that America does not negotiate with terrorists regarding the release of hostages.  We do this so terrorists will not be emboldened to take even more hostages  in order to have even more of their demands met.

But apparently, about two weeks ago, Obama authorized the release of an Iran-backed terrorist who is responsible for the 2007 abduction/murder of American troops (five murdered, four of them after being kidnapped) in Karbala.  And did so as barter for five British hostages.  Or rather, for two dead bodies of former British hostages – because that is what we actually got back.  Two corpses.  In exchange for the freedom of a terrorist who murdered American soldiers.   

Andy McCarthy has all the details – including a very plausible theory about how Obama’s decision might be tied into some Guantanamo prisoners being sent to Bermuda.  Here’s the money quote from his piece:

Back in May 2008, in a speech before the Israeli Knesset, President Bush derided the “foolish delusion” of unidentified, naïve politicians who “seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.” Exhibiting a thin-skinned consciousness of guilt, Sen. Barack Obama assumed Bush had been referring to him, and lashed out: “George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists.”

President Obama is now way beyond mere support of such engagement. Under his leadership, and even as the mullahs who have been at war with the United States for 30 years are engaged in a Tiananmen-style crackdown, Obama is neck-deep in terrorist-for-hostages negotiations with Iran-backed killers who have American blood on their hands.

A WaTi write-up is here.  Senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona have written a letter demanding answers.  I would think so.  And where is the LameStream Media?  Still under the ether…

What a cute little spat they are having in the Iran presidential campaigns.

Be nice if Ahmie lost, tho. 

(That’s my pet name for Ahmadiniejad.  I like to call him that when he’s in the news.  And then  imagine him getting really irritated about it.  ”Stop calling me that, infidel woman!”)

Ok, maybe a short glass.  But I stand by the rest of the header.

Today’s Heritage Foundation Foundry quote of the day.  With pic.  (Check out the sunglasses on this lunatic.  Talk about a Hollywood complex.)

Excerpted and condensed from an email from Erick Erickson at RedState:

Obama has proposed sending the International Monetary Fund (IMF) billions of dollars as a quasi-bailout for European banks. 

The word is, House Republicans are going to vote in a block to oppose this, which means around thirty Democrats are needed to defeat the bill.   Blue Dog Dems are the key, along with Dems in districts that tilt Republican.  

Call 202-224-3121. Ask for the members of Congress below and tell them to oppose H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Bobby Bright AL-02
Parker Griffith AL-05
Ann Kirkpatrick AZ-01
Suzanne Kosmos FL-24
Walt Mitnick ID-01
Frank Kratovil MD-01
Glenn Nye VA-02
Tom Perriello VA-05Travis Childers (MS-01)
Harry Mitchell (AZ-05)
Gabby Giffords (AZ-08)
Jim Marshall (GA-08)
John Barrow (GA-12)
Bill Foster (IL-14)
Baron Hill (IN-09)

One of my favorites over at The Corner, Victor Davis Hanson, explains:

When Obama said he would restore our image in the world, few were mature enough to realize that there were already sympathetic governments in Europe, India’s billion people liked us, and all of Africa was appreciative of what Bush had done. Fewer still accepted the fact that, given the sorry state of the world, the United States faces a awkward choice: It can either be largely disliked for taking a principled stance in support of constitutional government and open markets, or it can be liked for being unprincipled.

We seem to have forgotten that those who most hated the Bush-Cheney administration were Putin, Chávez, Assad, the Castro brothers, Kim Jong Il, Ahmadinejad, Hamas — and European intellectuals. So, yes, we can be liked in the age of Obama, and the way to do it is to give up Eastern Europe to Russian concerns, be praised by Chávez for our newfound socialism, drop sanctions against Cuba, talk to Iran and Syria without preconditions, ignore Korean missiles, rebuild Gaza (though I hope that does not include restoring the depleted rocket inventory), tack hard to the left of the salons and coffee houses of the EU, and drop all that bothersome talk about democracy and constitutional government.

In other words, the way to be liked is to become like those who don’t like us. Who knows — maybe the U.S. will now be asked to chair the U.N. Human Rights Council?

U.S. Customs and Border Protection provides a map and photos showing the current status of The Fence between the U.S. and Mexico.

Hat Tip: Mark Krikorian @ The Corner