Some of this makes for a damned depressing Saturday morning

Now Obama's off the prompter, when his silver-tongued rhetoric invariably turns to sludge. But he's talking about a dead man here, a guy murdered in public for all the world to see. Furthermore, the deceased's family is standing all around him. And, even for a busy president, it's the work of moments to come up with a sentence that would be respectful, moving and true. Indeed, for Obama, it's the work of seconds, because he has a taxpayer-funded staff sitting around all day with nothing to do but provide him with that sentence.

Instead, he delivered the one above, which in its clumsiness and insipidness is most revealing. First of all, note the passivity: "The loss of Daniel Pearl." He wasn't "lost." He was kidnapped and beheaded. He was murdered on a snuff video. He was specifically targeted, seized as a trophy, a high-value scalp. And the circumstances of his "loss" merit some vigor in the prose. Yet Obama can muster none.

Even if Americans don't get the message, the rest of the world does. This week's pictures of the leaders of Brazil and Turkey clasping hands with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are also monuments to American passivity.
...
Listen to his killer's words: "The American Jew Daniel Pearl." We hit the jackpot! And then we cut his head off. Before the body was found, The Independent's Robert Fisk offered a familiar argument to Pearl's kidnappers: Killing him would be "a major blunder... the best way of ensuring that the suffering" – of Kashmiris, Afghans, Palestinians – "goes unrecorded." Other journalists peddled a similar line: if you release Danny, he'll be able to tell your story, get your message out, "bridge the misconceptions." But the story did get out; the severed head is the message; the only misconception is that that's a misconception.

I hate to think how Pearl's father felt, being used the way he and his family were. But that's what Obama & Co. do best, use other people.


And speaking of either passivity or stupidity,
And who was responsible? One of the torpedo fragments bore North Korean markings. Moreover, the recovered parts were identical to those depicted in a blueprint of a torpedo in a North Korean marketing brochure. Investigators also found traces of a mix of explosives used by communist-bloc countries, including North Korea. Other evidence, analyzed by a group of specialists from six nations, pointed to the only plausible culprit: Pyongyang.

So what will the United States, required by treaty to defend South Korea, do about the sinking? Just hours after the incident, Washington leaned on President Lee Myung-bak to stay quiet and forego retaliation for the ghastly crime. The Obama administration has so far failed to label the torpedo attack an act of war. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that North Korea had already been punished merely because it had further isolated itself from the international community by committing the horrific act.
Because if they acknowledge what it was, they might have to actually do something other than just talk; and even talking nasty, that's too high a price for a bunch of dead South Korean sailors, right?


No, I don't think teenagers 'sexting' is a good idea; I do think charging them with a felony is worse. And just flat stupid.


And, as if the National Socialist Democrats haven't proven before that they have no regard for things like 'truth',
While addressing a crowd at a 2007 Memorial Day parade -- which included the family of a Marine killed in Iraq -- Blumenthal said, "In Vietnam, we had to endure taunts and insults, and no one said, welcome home."

The Democrat added, "I say, welcome home."

In fact, Blumenthal had never served in Vietnam. So naturally the Democrats last night endorsed this pathological liar.

Despite the revelations, state Democrats gave Blumenthal their endorsement last night to run for the seat vacated by Chris Dodd, who is retiring.

And on that cheery note, I leave you for the day.