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My Rahm Reunion
May 16, 2013 | 16 comments
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The Left Hates Us
May 9, 2013 | 143 comments
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Such a Dynamic Duo
May 2, 2013 | 49 comments
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The Continuing Crisis
May 1, 2013 | 0 comments
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Calvin Coolidge: His Times Are Our Times
April 26, 2013 | 22 comments
The Current Crisis
Obama’s Second Systemic Failure
A galleria of rogues has insinuated itself into this huckster administration.
WASHINGTON — When a very stern President Barack Obama addressed the American people a week ago about what he termed the “systemic failure” of our security services, he could have been referring to his amusing November 24th state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Actually Mr. Obama had in mind a more serious event, to wit, their failure to prevent 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (UFA) from flying into the country on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underpants that could have killed 300 people.
Yet it now appears that a “systemic failure” also took place on November 24. That absurdly extravagant state dinner for some 400 guests in a huge tent on the White House lawn was not only crashed by the clownish Tareq and Michaele Salahi. This week we have been informed that there was a third gate-crasher, one Carlos Allen, a 39-year-old hustler from what he calls Hush Galleria, identified on his website as “an exclusive and luxurious private social club whose members enjoy unparalleled access to elite movers and shakers.” I suppose the same claim could be made by the Council on Foreign Relations.
At this writing it is not exactly clear what Hush Galleria is. Carlos’s lawyer, a specialist in white-collar crime by the name of A. Scott Bolden, claims that his client is also the publisher of HushSocietyMagazine, an online effort that reports on the philanthropies of “the rich and the powerful.” But the Washington Post reports that on Carlos’s website he also announces such events as “Hush Magazine Happy Hour Friday’s.” An April 3, 2009 event promised “cocktails and eats,” “plenty of eye candy for the guys and the girls,” and “networking contacts” at its “Carlos Allen’s Hush Galleria Mansion” located in the District. Incidentally, Carlos is no fool. He explains that “Hush” is an acronym for Help Us Support Humanity. The Salahis too claim humanitarian pursuits, their agency being a polo organization of doubtful authenticity.
Lest you think Carlos is a deadbeat rastaquouere on the order of the Salahis, who have a longstanding record of not paying their bills, lawyer Bolden hastens to add that Carlos was invited to the state dinner unlike the Salahis, who left the dinner before it was discovered that there was no place for them to sit. “He participated in the reception. He participated in the dinner,” Bolden affirmed to journalists. Yet how did he get in without an invitation? Apparently Carlos entered the White House with a delegation of Indian businessmen, who at the behest of the Indian embassy were added to the guest list at the last minute. Somehow Carlos — properly attired in tuxedo — linked up with the hastily added Indian delegation at the Willard Hotel, from whence they were conveyed to the White House in a van —a State Department van!
Thus it looks at this point that there was what the President would call a “systemic failure” extending from the State Department to the Secret Service to the White House Social Office. Possibly it even included the White House chef, who must have added a last-minute extra meal. Remember, lawyer Bolden insists that Carlos surpassed the Salahis. He partook of what Carlos calls the “cocktails and eats.” All of this took place despite the Secret Service’s announcement this week that Carlos was “not on the White House guest list.” Fortunately he did not have a bomb in his underpants.
This week while learning on the job, our President spoke out very firmly against U.S. intelligence agencies that “failed to connect the dots.” He went on to say, “In other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.” Well, Mr. President, that is the kind of failure our intelligence community has suffered since Pearl Harbor, when we had an abundance of information that the Japanese were planning an attack, but no central agency into which the intelligence could be jointly pooled and effectively analyzed.
The reforms of our intelligence agencies in recent years have merely added bureaucracies and damaged the efficient collation and analysis of intelligence. They have failed to achieve what our military began achieving back in the 1980s, “jointness.” That is to say, having all branches operate in a way that integrates resources, planning, communications, and everything else that composes a method to dominate any battlefield. Jointness needs to be adopted by our intelligence agencies from CIA to NSA to Homeland Security, including all the agencies in between, say, FBI and TSA. It is a huge challenge that since 9/11 has eluded us. Let us get on with it, and for now put the state dinners on the back burner. There are just too many hucksters on the make around the White House.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Pingback| 1.7.10 @ 6:19AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Obama's Second Systemic Failure [spe links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jim O'Brien| 1.7.10 @ 6:52AM
It's the ACORN administration. Throw in Congress and we have a lying, corrupt, feckless, and treacherous government.
Interested Conservative| 1.7.10 @ 12:04PM
Here's a curious sentence, "They have failed to achieve what our military began achieving back in the 1980s, "jointness."
More curious is whether any popular historian (i.e. non-academic, and certainly non-military) is preparing a book on the accomplishments of Sec. Rumsfeld in this regard.
The long run may well show him to be the most consequential post-Lincoln era cabinet secretary in American history.
megapotamus | 1.7.10 @ 12:56PM
Rumsfeld is of course a favorite bugaboo for the anti-Bushies. Quite by rote he is denounced as the worst SecDef in history. Who might be second worst? Or who might be just another holder of that office? Well, they don't know. This whole notion of generic "consequence" of some politician, severed from any analysis of the nature of those consequences is a part of the gunslinger's world; the Karl Roves and Carvilles, the Shields and Gigots. It allows say, the architect of the War on Poverty to be held in equal or even greater regard than the architect of the War of Insurrection. In any event it boils down mostly to name recognition. The nation can neither be governed or beneficially released from governing while our opinion-validating class are restrained by improperly applied standards of "civility". This was the sort of thing that lets a Major Hasan continue and prosper in his position regardless of his lunatic behavior.
Of course the elected mugs also practice this poisonous leveling. Oh, that Barack, he is just smart as a whip! He is just in thrall to some foolish notions, that is all. Orrin Hatch would never hear, much less utter, any indictment of Kennedy regardless of the provocation. And this is while the Left feels free to denounce Bush, Rumsfeld, Rove, Cheney et al as fascisti from the well of the Senate! McCain astonishingly seems to have grown a vestigial spine lately, seeing affront and insult for what it is finally. This is a late opening of the eyes but probably will only increase. Possibly the rules governing debate within the House and Senate are justifiable in session but that should not prevent anyone from giving honest opinions, yes including on the character of other members, in other fora. Well, the solution is already in train, that is for the Reps to suffer more insult until finally they stiffen up a bit, start playing some hardball on the odd moments they get the chance to pitch. Why this takes so severe a level of abuse to become clear is mysterious. Perhaps the habit of this "My distinguished friend from the Great State of Massasota... " pervades. Listen fellas (and ladies), they can't ALL be geniuses temporarily confusted by the siren of socialism. Most are actually True Believers... deal with it. The rest are dupes to one degree or another. Deal with that, too.
Brooke| 1.7.10 @ 3:56PM
McCain hasn't changed, he just wants to get re-elected; Senator Lindsay 'Shammesty' Graham is carrying RINO water for him now.
Margie| 1.7.10 @ 7:17PM
Such a vision... Graham carrying a bucket of RINO water.
Dixie Pixie| 1.7.10 @ 4:16PM
To: Megapotamus
Any list of the best or the worst is purely subjective.
Historical debate is still in flux on Secretary Rumsfeld.
Your guess is as good as mine as I am not a professional historian.
But to answer your question here is my list of the worst Secretary's of War / Defense.
Worst______William Tecumseh Sherman
2nd Worst ___Robert Strange McNamara
3rd Worst____Donald Henry Rumsfeld
Make of it as you will.
Dai Alanye | 1.7.10 @ 7:06PM
Rumsfeld took down the Taliban and Saddam in about a month each, with forces far smaller than the professionals recommended.
Looks like we'll need to invade Yemen next, so I suggest he be brought back during… oh, say March or April to handle that one.
Margie| 1.7.10 @ 7:15PM
Love it.
carnot| 1.9.10 @ 8:09PM
then again...there are those who are aware of how Rummy arrogantly ignored the CoA analyses advanced by the Services leading into the wars.
btw....Rummy didn't take a D thing down. the United States Army/Navy/Marine Corps/Air Force did the heavy lifting.
Rummy is to be credited for pushing the transformational ball forward. but the opportunity cost of his management style and decisions was sometimes quite high.
Margie| 1.7.10 @ 6:11PM
"This week while learning on the job, the President..." Ha! Love it.
You know, we always hear about how Sarah Palin wasn't experienced enough to be President, but when I read or hear about Obama's inexperience I always picture Sarah Palin actually getting the job done that needs to be done. Just imagine if she were in his shoes (ugh) but anyway.. if she were, she would be getting this job done~~ "Jointness needs to be adopted by our intelligence agencies from CIA to NSA to Homeland Security, including all the agencies in between, say, FBI and TSA."
~In a heartbeat.
explosion proof floodlight | 11.25.10 @ 1:24AM
If freedom has a natural home in the modern world, therefore, it is the nation-state: the legal entity that claims sovereignty within a bounded territory, and which can grant freedom within that territory through its law.
Higgins| 1.7.10 @ 6:39PM
Say what you will about those other two men, but leave William Tecumseh Sherman alone! His only mistake was not burning more, destroying more, laying more to waste. Dear old Dixie needed to be taught a lesson. That men would shed blood to keep other men in chains... General Sherman should be put on Mount Rushmore.
Pingback| 1.7.10 @ 6:48PM
Ccol4him's Claymania: National Inclusion Events for Early 2010 | Golfing Leisure Know links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John II| 1.7.10 @ 10:28PM
"Second Systemic Failure": Is that what James Jones had in mind when he alluded to "two strikes" in his defense of Obama today? (And by the way, why are the spokemen for this administration always drawing their wagons around the President rather than the policy? Do they entertain doubts about this rube?)
John II| 1.7.10 @ 10:29PM
And, come to think of it again, does anyone think Jones reads the Spectator online?
Oliver| 1.7.10 @ 11:05PM
To tell you the truth, It may take some time to him to correct the system.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Forc.....id=2921490
John Blake| 1.7.10 @ 11:27PM
Belafonte has long gone simpering racist, but from his 1950s glory days we cite (as amended):
"Banana-- a little louder;
Banana-- We can't hear you!
Banana, he take me money,
And he run Indonesia."
Exeunt, Stage Left in Chorus.
beijing shenzhen | 1.8.10 @ 5:36AM
beijing shenzhen
Pingback| 1.8.10 @ 1:45PM
The American Spectator : Obama's Second Systemic Failure Mobile links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
jaya| 1.11.10 @ 1:03AM
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