Critics of Obama way off base on this one
Yes — the not-so-bright, would-be terrorist from Nigeria got though international and domestic security mechanisms supposed to have stopped him long before the jerk lit his underwear afire before landing in Detroit. And yes — the incident happened during the administration of President Barack Obama. But the sniping at the president by Republicans, including former Vice President Cheney, and by conservative radio and TV commentators, borders on — if not passing into — asinine.
The criticism has included such childishness as blasting Obama for waiting a few days before making a national speech on the incident. For heaven’s sake, the president was briefed on the incident from the moment it occured; he made statements almost immediately indicating his concern and that he was being regularly briefed; he took time to gather the facts and meet with his national security team; and then he appeared publicly to give a rational, measured, but hard-hitting response. And for this, a former vice president criticizes him.
Partisanship truly has pervasively infected our political system when a reasonable, measured, factual, timely and substantive response by a president to a single security incident — the roots of which clearly indicate long-simmering problems that predated his tenure in office — is publicly blasted as irresponsible. In point of fact, those levelling such counterproductive attacks are the ones engaging in irresponsible behavior.
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822 comments Add your comment
Mark
January 8th, 2010
12:45 pm
chuck: Partially wrong. The represrntatives are to look for our interests according their best judgment. But they are not there to just express OUR points of view – if that were the case, we would not need them, and we could have a direct Democracy, decide everything by referendums or polls..
Hillbilly Deluxe
January 8th, 2010
12:49 pm
801?
Bob you must of really pushed some buttons to get 800 comments.
Chris Broe
January 8th, 2010
1:13 pm
Hillbilly, Drudge linked Barr’s article and the Tea-bees attacked enmasse. I tried to blow smoke at them, but nothing would assuage their buzzing. I’ve never seen anything like it, except when everyone comes after me for a joke gone bad.
Have you ever been bit by a dead bee?
chuck
January 8th, 2010
1:31 pm
Mark, I’ll give you that to a point, but a representative who doesn’t express the view point of his constituents, will not be one for long.
bruce arnold
January 8th, 2010
2:38 pm
Another False Flag Op: Following the preordained pathway and modus operandi of his predecessor, US Puppet President Barack “MoDubya” Obama declared that black bloomer bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had ties in Yemen to “al-Qaeda”, the CIA-fabricated global network of boogeymen whose “terrorist cells” conveniently pop up wherever and whenever “they”–the consortium of Wall Street Banksters, Peak Oil Gangsters, and Military-Industrial Profiteers who rule America–need an excuse to take the rights and resources away from yet another sovereign nation. But choose your source, left or right, the message is the same: After secretly evacuating Yemen’s Jews (tinyurl[dot]com/yhtf4mc), “they”–most likely through intelligence operatives–staged the failed attempt to blow up Delta flight 253, using that Nigerian patsy as pretext for extending the No-Fly List, renewing the Patriot Act, and expanding our global war for peak oil and profit into Yemen. See tinyurl[dot]com/false-flag-yemen
Intown Lib
January 8th, 2010
3:07 pm
3rd perfect column since I started reading you Bob. The other two covered tri-state water wars.
DirtyDawg
January 8th, 2010
4:22 pm
Well Bob, you see what your leadership from the Right hath raught? If you had displayed this kind of reasonableness back when you were hell-bent on impeaching Clinton, there might just be a few million less asinine a$$-holes taking you to task. Nowadays when you try to display a little common sense, the hun-yuks come out of the woodwork and try to beat you back down – don’t let ‘em, cause they ain’t the future of the country. They are the end of it.
Midori
January 8th, 2010
5:14 pm
reading these comments only reinforce to me that Republicans are petty, vicious, out of touch hypocrites.
You’re nothing more than a parody of Rush and Hannity talking points.
kenthebusdriver
January 8th, 2010
8:33 pm
Absolutely spot on analysis Mr. Barr, and ok..I am a neo-social conservative, previously never agreed with you, I appreciate your newest entry.
aboch
January 8th, 2010
8:36 pm
Are people really comparing Obama’s reaction to the FAILED terrorist plot to Bush’s for the both very real 9/11 and Katrina? Thanks for making me laugh.
Thera
January 9th, 2010
5:15 am
I wonder how representative most of these comments are to the feelings of mainstream America. I’m beginning to think that the teabaggers are a terrorist group in its infancy. How long before the radical fringe of this group thinks it’s a good idea to blow something up just for the attention it will bring their “cause”?
Chris Broe
January 9th, 2010
8:08 am
Not fair, Thera. Drudge has a cadre of trolls who he can dispatch anywhere anytime. He basically smart-mobs a blog like Barr’s whenever it suits him. Look, no matter what anyone writes, only half the people are going to like it. The other half cant read, don’t care, or don’t like it. So what? That’s the only truth in politics or life: only half the folks who see and hear you are gonna like you, (except Sara Lee).
Now the poison that has infected the language is also not as potent as it seems. Because we’re writing anonymously, we are tempted to go over the top when our true feeling fall short. Ardor doesn’t cause war. The world wades into war with their eyes wide open. Calmly. With precision.
Look at the Invasion of Iraq. We had to UN-whisper for it. We actually had to present a power point presentation, (profusely illustrated) to very calm, sophisticated, and bored members of a prestigious and respected assembly. Even though it was seven years ago, I remember every detail. Our argument was black and white. The world saw gray.
Of all the elections in all the nations in all the world, W had to stuff ballots in mine. But if you can stand partisan lock step tunes, so can I. Play it, Thera. Play it against Uncle Sam.
david wayne osedach
January 9th, 2010
8:45 am
There are millions of flights daily. A few anonamlies like the Nigerian terrorist with his underwear bomb are bound to get through. Our record thus far is commendable.
Thera
January 9th, 2010
8:52 am
Perhaps I should have separated the two ideas. (1. I wonder how representative most of these comments are to the feelings of mainstream America.) (2. I’m beginning to think that the teabaggers are a terrorist group in its infancy. How long before the radical fringe of this group thinks it’s a good idea to blow something up just for the attention it will bring their “cause”?)
Your Casablanca paraphrase was just confusing. I’m still not sure what point you’re trying to convey.
Mark
January 9th, 2010
9:29 am
I do not think the teabaggers are a very monolithic group. There are some who are venting their anger and frustration over Obama’s election victory. There are many who express their anger against the government in general, Whipped up by irresponsible talk show hosts, like Neal Boortz, they speak against the government as if it were an occupying force. At the same time, they claim admiration for the Constitution, no seeing the contradiction: The government is what we are creating according to the Constitution.
I am not sure if the main danger is of a radical fringe getting the idea to blow up something, if we mean by that an organized group. It seems more likely that it would be some unstable individuals, encouraged by the emotions of the whole group, who would resort to violent action.
Average Joe
January 9th, 2010
9:44 am
Chris
Thanks for clarifying that Drudge had linked to BB’s editorial. When I first read the responses my mouth hit the floor because I couldn’t believe the tone and hatefulness from so many of the responses. I was happy to return later and see that the discussion had become more civil and constructive. I believe most mainstream Americans can agree with Bob’s point. We truly need to start working together or this nation is going to continue its downward spiral.
I have to agree with Thera somewhat though. Does anyone remember the Oklahoma City bombing? What about the Atlanta Centennial Park bombing? These were the result of far right, radical AMERICANS. I’m not saying the tea baggers are going to organize something so devastating but, American terrorists do exist.
Cindy can call me Bwana
January 9th, 2010
10:32 am
Human Sacrifice in Africa: Asking the Gods for Wealth via African Telecoms–
One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to killing at least 70 people including his own son.
The latter has now given up the ritual and is campaigning to stamp it out, according to BBC News.
The African country’s government claimed human sacrifice was on the increase.
According to officials trying to tackle it, the crime is directly linked to rising levels of development and prosperity – and an increasing belief that witchcraft can help people get rich quickly.
During its investigation, to be broadcast on Thursday on Radio 4 and Newsnight, the BBC team witnessed anti-sacrifice campaigners torching the shrine of a witch-doctor in northern Uganda, who agreed to give up the practice.
He said clients came to him in search of wealth.
“They go and capture other people’s children. They bring the heart and the blood directly here to take to the spirits,” he said.
“They bring them in small tins and they place these objects under the tree from which the voices of the spirits are coming.”
The witch doctor, who said he was paid 500,000 Ugandan shillings (around £160) for a consultation, denied any direct involvement in murder or incitement to murder, saying his spirits spoke directly to clients.
Moses Binoga, the assistant police commissioner who is head of the Ugandan anti-human sacrifice and trafficking task force, said there were 26 murders thought to be part of ritual sacrifice last year compared with three cases in 2007.
“We also have about 120 children and adults reported missing whose fate we have not traced,” he added. “From the experience of those whom we recovered, we cannot rule out that they may be victims of human sacrifice.”
Crossing Continents – Uganda: Battling the Witch-Doctors will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 11am on Thursday.
Newsnight – Uganda: Battling the Witch-Doctors will be screened on BBC2 at 10.30pm
Mark
January 9th, 2010
10:44 am
Today we have been served in AJC with another of opinions of Mr. Neal Boortz. Since AJC does not allow the readers to comment (why not AJC?), this is one of the few places one can do it.
Mr. Boortz took his aim at a study of two Harvard University professors, who estimated that the lack of insurance results in 45,000 deaths in the US. The way Mr. Boortz describes the results is typical of his way of distorting the truth, in effect lying: He writes about the 9000 Americans followed in a CDC study: “Naturally, not all of these Americans made it that far. Some died. So, some people who did not have insurance at some point between 1988 and 1994 took the eternal celestial dirt nap before the end of 2000. Happens to the best of us.”
The clear implication is that the number 45,000 deaths is simply an extrapolation of the deaths in the study group to the general population. The tiny detail Mr. Boortz forgot to mention is that the extrapolated number of deaths is the EXCESS mortality for people who did not have health insurance.
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Mr. Boortz has not given us any statistic to his claim that “ObamaCare plan would do more damage to this country than a terrorist attack.”
Neal can't take the heat
January 10th, 2010
4:41 pm
Mark, Neal is notorious for not being able to take the heat when he can’t control the microphone. That’s probably why he won’t allow comments.
He’s still smarting from when Cynthia Tucker cleaned his clock in a public debate awhile back.
Chris
January 10th, 2010
7:46 pm
Bob, thanks for reminding me why I don’t read your column. Almost 300 people died and you don’t care. Obama kept playing golf, but you try to put a different spin on it.
From Tea to Shining Tea: An Interview with Stephen Gordon | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen
January 12th, 2010
4:56 am
[...] Barr wrote a piece at the AJC which I saw on Drudge, Politico, MSNBC and other locations. In it, he accused establishment Republicans of “irresponsible behavior” and he’s taking a lot of partisan criticism in the comments section for it. Weigel went through the same when he covered racism within the Ron Paul ranks. There are some people, on the left and the right, who consistently do what they perceive as being the principled thing to do – no matter the immediate political consequences. [...]
Martin
February 24th, 2010
8:02 pm
Thanks, Bob. If more conservatives and liberals would attach reason to arguments and less time dissing the other side, we might be able to resolve the big problems facing our country. It is unforgiveable that Republicans are more focused on defeating Obama as a strategy for winning power in 2010 than honestly working on policy.
Also, thank you for your courage and integrity for standing up to boos at CPAC and telling them that waterboarding is torture. America doesn’t torture. If we lose our values, we lose.