Obama’s cabinet selections made official, also, the war is cool now

Nothing surprising, but it’s official now:

President-elect Obama officially announced his national security team today, naming Hillary Clinton, a top rival for the Democratic nomination with whom he sparred on foreign policy, as his Secretary of State.

Obama also retained Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon, named former Marine Commandant and NATO Supreme Allied Commander retired Gen. James L. Jones as his national security adviser, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Security and campaign foreign policy adviser and Africa expert Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations.

Additionally, Obama officially named Eric Holder attorney general.

I previously talked about the disaster Napolitano would be in this position, it looks like now we’ll get to see if I was right. The other really notable name on this list is Eric Holder – the same guy who was instrumental in the shady Clinton pardon of Mark Rich, the billionare tax evader who makes oil deals with terrorists. Holder also helped out with the strongly-opposed pardoning of 16 FALN terrorists who were responsible for at least 120 bombings on American soil which caused “6 deaths and the permanent maiming of dozens of others, including law enforcement officials,” according to Congress. The idea that such a man could be appointed to an office that requires him to enforce the laws he so blatantly disregards is so absurd it would take a Clinton to think of it. Yes, it appears we’re headed for Clinton’s third term – this time with even more Kool-aid and no economic wave to ride.

So instead they’re setting up to give Obama all the credit for the victory in Iraq. He hasn’t done anything yet, and we’ve already won, but somehow it will remain a hopeless quagmire until sometime around January 21st, at which point NBC will acknowledge what we already know by announcing a victory in Iraq. But they’ll redirect all the praise to the newly-appointed Messiah figure they’ve propped up for themselves and try to slather onto his cardboard image a bit of legitimacy. It will be desperate, and it won’t be pretty, but then again… what have they done lately that was?

h/t: Ace

Desperately grasping at straws

Because they don’t have anything legit to criticise him about, I guess?

After pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey in a public display of mercy Wednesday, President Bush will be served turkey as part of his holiday meal. Critics call the practice a “charade.”

Questioned about the apparent hypocrisy of the practice, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel was unruffled. “You should try your hand at open mic night at the Laugh Factory,” said Stanzel. He promised he would attend the performance.

A spokesman for president-elect Barack Obama declined to comment on the matter.

Oh, the humanity! He, and every president since Truman, has done this every year. This is nothing new and nothing to get worked up about. I bet you, though, that at least one of those reporters helped put away one of the 45 million turkeys that got cooked up this year. Hypocrisy, indeed.

h/t: Ace

More fun from Chris Matthews & Co

The man just doesn’t stop delivering the goods in this panel on how awesome Obama the Lightbringer is:

MATTHEWS: One reason for the rage from the east, and I’m no expert. All these years that have led to the terrorism, the undercurrent of rage against the west, us, is the sense that we have disrespected them, their culture, we have looked down on them. In fact, we have defeated them technologically in some cases. But there’s that sense that they feel they’re reacting to the hatred of the west. By electing somebody with this name, are we going to diffuse some of that? I think that would be very hopeful if we could.

KATTY KAY, BBC: Yeah, I think it really does undermine some of that knee-jerk criticism of America. It’s much harder if you’re in the Middle East now to stand up and reject an American president whose middle-name is Hussein. It just, it just is.

As noted in the link, it’s amazing how fast saying his middle name changed from being “racist” to being “inspiring” once they came up with a spin for it. And then there’s this gem from NBC executive Mark Whitaker on the same panel:

I think it’s a bigger phenomenon which is the leader of the biggest democracy in the world is now a person of color and that is going to give him what political scientists would call a legitimacy in the street around the world that I don’t think an American leader has had, ever perhaps.

So he’s going to be great because he’s black? Really?

Who’s the racist now?

h/t: Daily Pundit

More from Mumbai, with an extra serving of bias

It has now come to light that the hostages killed by the terrorists in Mumbai were brutally tortured before they died – and that the Jewish hostages recieved the worst treatment. While I can’t say I’m entirely shocked by the barbarism displayed here by these animals, it’s notable that they were so forthright with their special treatment of these hostages. Combine that with the AP labeling the Chabad house the “headquarters of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group,” and we have a winner. It’s obvious that the terrorists hated the Jews and wanted to brutalize them – but why must our own media try to sugarcoat that by making it sound like they somehow deserved it?

Here’s a brief explanation of why the labeling of Chabad is so inaccurate, from a commenter over at Ace’s:

First, the rabbi you will find at a Chabad house is a Lubavitcher (named after a town in Russia), which means he is someone who is dressed traditionally, but has an extremely modern outlook. Lubavichers are, generally, very cool, worldly people. They aren’t typical traditional Jews who, e.g., are very suspicious of the Internet and all things modern. Also, as this is AOSHQ, a Lubavitcher rabbi’s wife is allowed to look beautiful (if modest) in her dress. These are very cool, very warm, very with it people; they aren’t quite modern orthodox a la Senator Lieberman, but nor are they “ultra orthodox.” as in detached from the modern world, etc. Check out Chabad.org. These folk were some of the first to use the Internet in a powerful way.

Second, whether it be in Mumbai, or Knoxville, TN, most of the people you’ll find at a Chabad House will not be Lubavitchers, or even the Orthodox; they’ll be just ordinary Jews looking for some Jewish culture, spirituality or kosher food off the beaten path.

Additionally, big-O “Orthodox” is a proper name for this group of Jews. Saying this Jewish center is “ultra-Orthodox” is analogous to calling St. James’ Church “ultra-Catholic.” It’s inaccurate and superfluous, and serves only to conjur up the image of radical religion that has been associated in the pop culture with the word “orthodox.”

Just another case of media bias trying to portray a slaughtered family as somehow “deserving” of the tragedy being passed off as journalistic integrity. Sickening.