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Loose Canons

Obama’s January SGO

Making sense of endless streams of ugly nonsense.

While John McCain was playing kissy face with John Kerry in Kerry’s confirmation hearing, Dianne Feinstein was pushing gun control, Obama was planning immigration legislation, and Leon Panetta was lifting the ban on women serving in combat. There was so much SGO in Obama’s full court oppress last week, we need to take some time and sort it all out.

(For those just joining us, “SGO” is an acronym for “s*** going on,” a comprehensively useful term coined by former SEAL Al Clark.)

If John Kerry were Barry Obama, he’d spend the next four years blaming his predecessor for the sorry mess the world is in that he’s inheriting from Hillary Clinton. But after Hillary’s bravura performance in last week’s Benghazi hearing, Kerry should ask her for a tutoring session. Clinton, claiming responsibility for the Benghazi disaster, then denied knowledge of or involvement in any aspect of the attack, saying that someone else had knowledge of and responsibility for the long list of errors that ended with four dead Americans. It was the best performance since her best pupil claimed he “didn’t have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.”

Kerry will also find the double Islamic play combo — from Afghanistan to Libya to Mali — somewhat difficult to deal with. Kerry said that he wanted to focus on global warming so he’ll try to ignore the effects of Obama’s ill-advised intervention in Libya which has so far resulted in terrorists being armed all across northern Africa with arms flowing from Libya’s arms caches. Vichy John Kerry may again find common cause with the French intervention in Mali, another comprehensively bad idea. He and Chuckie Hagel will get along just fine, giving gifts to our Islamic enemies such as the twenty F-16s we’re giving to Egypt’s president Muslim Brotherhoodlum Mohammed Morsi.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) was brave enough to ask Hillary about the abject lies she, Obama, and UN Ambassador Rice spread by insisting for weeks that the attack on the Benghazi consulate was a spontaneous demonstration against an obscure anti-Islamic video. But Hillary was prepared with righteous indignation and even tears. She shouted back at him, “What difference at this point does it make?”

None whatever, except that another chance was lost to hold Team Obama responsible for its manifest errors. But, as usual, Johnson and the rest of the Republican senators were less tough and resolute than Clinton. Part of their irresolution may reflect the fact that they came to the hearing fresh from their party’s annual “retreat” in Williamsburg, Va. Subsequent to the retreat, Speaker Boehner’s statement that Obama was trying to annihilate the Republican Party resulted in the RNC’s decision to decamp from his D.C. headquarters to permanent positions in Lord Cornwallis’s former entrenchments in Yorktown, Virginia. The RNC is rumored to be asking the French government for the architectural drawings for the Maginot Line.

Meanwhile, Beyoncé apparently lip-synched the national anthem at Obama’s inauguration, to the dismay of the Marine Band. Later in the week, while announcing an appointment, a housefly buzzed persistently around the president’s head apparently detecting food content in Obama’s words.

The White House flies were apparently dealt with before Obama’s interview aired last night, side-by-side with Hillary, to praise her performance as secretary of state. The only fly buzzing around was Joey Biden, kept outside the room, who may have lost his shot at the 2016 presidential nomination with Obama’s praise of Clinton.

Late in the week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit threw out Obama’s “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board because they were made when the Senate wasn’t in recess. The court’s action invalidates about 300 NLRB rulings over the past year as well as rulings by the Consumer Finance Protection Board which is chaired by another Obama “recess” appointee, Rich Cordray. This will rein in Obama’s appointments because he — and future presidents — can’t decide for themselves when the Senate is in session or not. (Just for laughs, constitutional law expert Obama might want to re-read Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution which says that the House and Senate make their own rules and procedures, which means they decide when they’re in session or not.)

The courts will be busy sorting out what the NLRB and CFPB did while the illegal appointees ruled the day. In the meantime, companies that suffered from the rulings by illegal appointees would be well advised to ignore them.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.) led her gun controllers to the podium to push her new version of the “assault weapons” ban. Her bill, as I pointed out a few weeks ago, is probably unconstitutional as Justice Scalia’s opinion says in the Supreme Court’s D.C. v. Heller decision.

In an effort to show how reasonable her approach is, DiFi’s bill lists hundreds of weapons that aren’t banned. I’m sure that the Holland and Holland people, makers of some of the world’s best shotguns, are relieved to see that their “Royal Series” of elegant shotguns — each of which costs upwards of $100,000 — aren’t banned. I’m waiting for a stimulus program that will entitle each gentleman shooter to buy a pair at government expense.

DiFi’s bill makes for some pretty hilarious conversations among gun cognoscenti.

For example, the bill bans guns such as the Ruger Mini-14 and Remington 870 shotgun if they have folding stocks or pistol grips, but not if they don’t. The fact that they’re functionally identical with or without the scary-looking “military” features is irrelevant to DiFi. And anyone who knows how to use a screwdriver can change one configuration to the other with readily available parts.

Some of the gentlemen shooters who know how to do that — special operators in the SEALs, Green Berets, and Marine Force Recon — are pretty angry at the women in combat policy announced by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. I’m getting some pretty strong feedback which isn’t quotable in a family publication.

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About the Author

Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (50) |

drudge ette obama| 1.28.13 @ 6:37AM

First of all, that was no Housefly - it was a Horsefly. Big difference, especially if it lands on your face. Perhaps Obama has nerve damage and doesn't feel the flies. Reminds me of this last week when I went outside to find a venue of vultures circling over my yard.

Sen. Feinstein is wrong here about the guns. This is pure Alinsky-style, complete with Rahm Emanuel from shoot-em-dead CHicago coming to D.C. to help with the gun movement. What's wrong with that picture?

R.M. - Stay in Man's Country http://www.manscountrychicago.com

where I read O. and R.E. visited together. How bizarre is that?

How is it that the federal government can ban guns but not cigarettes which kill many more people, or abortion?

Nothing about any of this makes sense.

benny havens| 1.28.13 @ 7:02AM

I am not surprised that Obama didn’t feel the fly on his face. Last night he said that he and Hillary are thick skinned.

TLP| 1.28.13 @ 8:22AM

First of all, didn't Al Clark play Granpa on The Munsters? And why is Mr. Babbin being so hard on Cement Head Kerry?

Considering the IN YOUR FACE HIPOCRACY of the Halfrican, it seems only Logical that he would replace a Lying, Thieving, Multi-Millionaire Secretary of State, with a Billionaire one who had his Multi-Million $ Yacht built in New Zealand (Instead of his home state of Massachusetts) to save his Wife some money by not using Labour Union Ship Builders who charge Union Scale out the @ss.

He then Docks his Multi-Million $ Yacht in Rhode Island so he doesn't have to spend his Wife's money paying the Taxes in his State (Mass.) which I think we can all safely assume, he was ALL FOR when they were proposed. Hell, he's probably the Guy who Proposed them.

Women in the Military? Why is this a surprise? Show me one Man, in this Administration. One Guy who Played Sports (other than Lacrosse) Combs his Hair or Served in Combat.

Our known Gay Bathhouse Frequenting President has already put Gays in the Military. Why not put REAL GIRLS on the Front Lines? He's already seen a Male Ambassador being Sodomized and Murdered. In the name of Fairness it's time we get to watch a Female go through an Arab Spring Break hazing. Why should Robert Menendez' Child Prostitutes have all the Fun?

Di Fi's Gun Grab? That's what happens when your Husband retires and you no longer need to STEER GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS to the Companies that he's "involved with".

And he's just getting started.

Drunken Sailor| 1.28.13 @ 10:48AM

A horsefly huh? How appropriate!

mike 3/505| 1.28.13 @ 11:17PM

Wait a minute...At what part of the horse do the flies congregate ? Jes axin'.

Appleby| 1.28.13 @ 6:47AM

It's the End Times and things will be getting a whole lot worse by summer. As the doomed Nazi said in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, " it's time to ask yourself WHAT YOU BELIEVE. You're going to have to act on it sooner than you think.

P.S. Someone should ask John Kerry to produce The Hat. He says he has The Hat to this day.

TLP| 1.28.13 @ 7:13AM

If I may? I would like to draw your attention to the Photo on Drudge.

It clearly puts the lie to the "Testimony" given by Secretary of State Hillary Cattle Futures Rose Law Firm Billing Records White House Travel Agency Firings Vast Rright Wing Conspiracy Clinton.

The Photograph clearly shows the Administration watching the attack on our Consulate in Benghazi, if not the actual Rape and Murder of the Ambassador, on a Monitor, in Real Time.

Jim Adcox| 1.28.13 @ 12:05PM

With all the SGO, someone should the Kerry to GO S in his Hat.

Jim Adcox| 1.28.13 @ 3:26PM

Fingers faster than brains: "someone should tell Kerry to GO S in his Hat." It felt good to write that correctly, esp. because I got to make the comment twice.

Al Adab| 1.28.13 @ 8:25AM

One wonders exactly what alternate universe these people of The Left inhabit. John Kerry, unindicted traitor, gets kid gloves from many GOP types; meanwhile Ms Clinton rants and dissembles and is ajudged as courageous; the president fills the air with metaphorical smog and is praised for his vision; Feinstein names naughty guns by name as though any ever animated itself.

Is it all a matter of appearence, of "doing something" or is there something more malevalent going on? Is there an overall strategy which confronts us as citizens with a full frontal assault from every corner? It seems this mass push, full of distractions, is part of a major offensive to silence the opposition and bring into being a world very different from that we inhabited even ten short years ago.

Mike W| 1.28.13 @ 8:35AM

Babbin and Lords are the only people on this site that make it worth reading.

The immigration issue is the big one. It is simply a matter of life or death for the GOP and eventually the country. The 1986 amnesty is a big part of the reason we now have Obama, why California is a permanent blue state. The 2013 amnesty will make that all irrelevant. We won't even recognize anything within 5 years of this amnesty. We can't give up on this issue . On the same topic, shame on Arizona Republicans for putting the vile despicable John McCain back in office.

Joellen| 1.28.13 @ 8:56AM

McCain, Boehner, Chris Christie, and all those so called Republicans need to do the Party a favor and just officially join the other side.

I was sick to my stomach when I watched the glove treatment Hillary got from "our side".

I've said it before and I will keep saying it, she is more evil then Bubba & obama. She is truly the eve who keeps eating the apple offered by the devil and then with her shrill laugh offers the apple to those around her.

I got sicker when I watched on FOX news the interview with the two Saul Alinskynites (book dedicated to Satan) lovers. You said it the other day T, I expect their heads to start rotating any day now.

To think that all we will hear from now until election 2016 - is Hillary is the new ONE!

In 2014 WE MUST elect true conservatives Senators, both fiscally and morally.

That should be our number one agenda - and we cannot count on anyones but ourselves to make this happen.

Dont contribute to the Republican party, contribute to those candidates who are Conservative.

Keep calling your reps and let them know you demand they act in a fiscal and socially conservative manner. If not, they will know your anger at the election booth.

Remind them always they work for us and since they work for us they must answer to us.

Now get out there and make a difference.

Maxwell| 1.28.13 @ 8:43AM

Mr. Babbin, you forgot to include the e-mails that are being withheld from the EPA. Second, correct my memmory, didn't Kerry say he was to release all of his .MIL records after his last run for President? What happened to that?

Lastly, is there someone, ANYONE with a set of stones on our side that knows how to play HARD ball?

Stephie| 1.28.13 @ 8:53AM

In regard to your last sentence, "no"

Hardcard| 1.28.13 @ 9:00AM

This nation is being bled to death one slash at a time , one day at a time 24/7, in every way. The ruling class is becoming wealthy by robbing our treasure, corruption is the norm, perversion and immorality prevail, TLP has summed it up perfectly.

KennesawJack| 1.28.13 @ 9:09AM

Yes. And the truly said part? No one is going to do a damn thing to stop it.

TLP| 1.28.13 @ 12:52PM

All of a sudden, I'm gettin a good feeling about your chances on Friday.

No reason.

Louis Jenkins| 1.28.13 @ 9:10AM

Hats off to Obama and Hillary on their interview yesterday. Bite Me was not on camera, but bets are he was knashing his teeth as Obama sold Hillary for 2016.

DiFi? She had a gun show after the conference and made a mint. Those dirty gun owners didn't have nothing over her. Permit to carry? I don't need no stinking permit to carry. I can out shoot anyone of you limp wristed DC-MSM types.

Kerry is about as subtle as a turd in a punch bowl. Yet all of the RINOs love him. Afterall, he's wrote the book on how to get around tax laws. Parking his yacht in RI, well, the port facilities there are better, and it's most likely low wage.

Yep, we got gays in the military, so why not put women in with the front edge warriors. Panetta knows where his bread is buttered, and it sure ain't on the front side. We'll have more generals, and more of the deserving personnel will have yet another hurdle to jump over. The 337th PMS brigade marches proudly to the front, but wait, I've got my period.

Heil Hitler you idiots!

Anthony| 1.28.13 @ 9:13AM

No Jed, Slick wee Willie, the sociopath-in-Chief, is not Hillary's star pupil. Hillary learned from the master himself. You know the old saying, about those who lie with pigs.
However, the rest of your article clearly shows how utterly corrupt and vile the Washington establishment has become.
Caligula's Rome had nothing on these people.

Von Mises Jr| 1.28.13 @ 9:38AM

Rome fell for the same reasons we are in dire straits. The moral and financial corruption was pervasive. It took Rome much longer to debase its currency since they were relegated to shaving or melting down and diluting the metals in the coins turning 10 gold pieces into 12, then 12 into 15....They also destroyed their military as they expanded employing conquered barbarians into front-line service against the next barbarian peoples.
Today we enlist Islamist such as Major Hasan, arm the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda in the Middle East and North Africa and the boys want to bring in play-things to join them in their barracks on lonely excursions away from home. Rome spread their Empire from Jerusalem to Britain just as America has bases in about two-thirds of the nations in the world.
And most of all, the people of Rome degenerated to become degenerates who could not defend them against the invading barbarian hordes. Apparently that is why we need QE3 and QE4, gays and women in the Military and Immigration Reform for the invaders as we arm the Mexicans on the Border with AK-47's.
Other than that I can't think of any similarities.

Al Adab| 1.28.13 @ 10:41AM

Caesar is at the gates yet where is Cicero and Cato? We must all hope we can escape the alternative that played out in 44BC and the civil war which followed.

Peppermint Tea | 1.28.13 @ 11:40AM

Where is Cicero and Cato?

We still have Ben Stein.

He's either napping with his dog, watching Skyfall for the 27th time, ogling women, or dreaming about Dick Nixon.

And he's about to wake up again and ask for more taxes.

Pecos Pete| 1.28.13 @ 9:54AM

And, the next SGO will be ..... what?

TLP| 1.28.13 @ 12:01PM

Contest, Friday.

PolishKnight| 1.28.13 @ 10:02AM

What I loved about Bill Clinton's "apology" to the American people after he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar was the Orwellian nature of it. The way he treated the average voter as a rube and winked at his supporters.

Clinton started out by making a bold faced lie and saying he told the truth at his depositions. Then he whined that nobody should be questioned about their personal life (nevermind that it wsa his party's sexual harassment policies that blew up in his face) and later implied that, hey, all of you cheat on your wife too, right? Then he weasled with a claim that he was not "technically" lying, legally, but that's ok. Then he closed with "move on already and just do what I say."

This is the same as Hillary taking "full responsibility" and then saying none of it is her fault and stop asking her already. It's the philsophical summation of leftism.

Peppermint Tea | 1.28.13 @ 11:33AM

"Full Responsibility?"

"I do not think that word means what you think it means." Inigo Montoyo.

Kwan| 1.28.13 @ 10:22AM

With the country's economy in the worst shape its been in since the Great Depression Obama continues to be laser-focused on his leftist agenda, which continues to make the situation worse. Immigration reform? With the new unemployment norm now evidently 8% or higher do we need to flood the country with millions of uneducated, poverty stricken illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America? Of course you do if you're faithfully following the Cloward-Piven Strategy of overloading the welfare system. Like Dracula the Global Warming hoax-a-rama continues to rise from the dead. It now appears that the scientific community has polarized into two different groups: there's real scientists who seek genuine knowledge about nature, and there's leftist scientists that manipulate facts to support some leftist fantasy like Global Warming. Of course this is lining the pockets of Obama's Crony Capitalist contributors who start-up phony companies like Solyndra to combat the non-existent threat of Global Warming, leaving the taxpayers suckered for millions of dollars.

Occam's Tool| 1.29.13 @ 12:28AM

The Great Kwan strikes again! Kudos, good sir.

Kwan| 1.29.13 @ 2:14AM

Thanks for the positive comments Occam's Tool.

spike59| 1.29.13 @ 6:08AM

Kwan+hammer meets nail+head

Drunken Sailor| 1.28.13 @ 10:53AM

With the Republicans desperate to try to win over some of the hispanic vote, don't expect them to stand up to this Amnesty push. It will go through.

bopberrigan| 1.28.13 @ 11:15AM

Ok, we now have all the substitutes we need for Curly, Moe and Larry and they are Hagel, Brennan and Kerry.

Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.28.13 @ 12:25PM

Curly was likable, and even Shemp could draw a laugh. Your trio is definitiely a Joe Besser episode.

Jacob McCandles| 1.28.13 @ 12:58PM

I think I'd rather watch 8 straight years of fat clone Joe episodes than endure this federal govt.
I think poor Curly had a stroke....

cicero| 1.28.13 @ 11:41AM

Al and Von Jr., your likening of our current history to that of Rome is spot on. The more you look into the actual fall of the Roman Republic, the more it resembles the plunder and corruption that we are now witnessing. There should be classes on this taught in every high school. The college history departments are not qualified.

As for a fall off in military recruitment with the new "women in combat" policies, I think the fall off may occur more as a result of the setting aside of the "no one left behind" doctrine. Seems that those two guys left to fight for their lives for 8 hours while Hillary and Barry watched them hold off the hordes, and gave stand down orders to those who should have gone in to pull them out, will have more of an effect. The girls won't be able to qualify for the job. Our girly man President and Secr. of State, as well as our military brass who saw fit not to go in, despite civilian orders to the contrry, will cause our spear points to resume civilian employment.. So far as I am aaware, no one has been fired, demoted, or called to task. The Republican Senators never even askedd about it. For shame!

Al Adab| 1.28.13 @ 1:26PM

Plus Cicero, we are about to grant citizenship to the Germans, oops I mean the illegals today, for joining the Legions. How long before one of them decides to... well you understand.

Pillar of Iron, Taylor Caldwell, fictional bio of Cicero states "Any resemblance between the American nation and Roman republic is purely historical."

RJ| 1.29.13 @ 1:14AM

Some years ago, a former Marine officer who was a veteran of the Gulf War said he wouldn't fight for this country again - it wasn't worth it anymore. I am sure that recruiting is going to take a hit.

Related to recruiting, two years ago Army recruiting officers told me that about 23% of the nation's recruiting base is qualified to serve as a private in the army reserve. How can our nation survive with so many unqualified young people? Our society could well be collapsing much quicker than anyone imagined.

Hardcard| 1.28.13 @ 1:38PM

Joe Besser will always be Stinky on The Abbott & Costello TV Show. There was Curly Joe Daretta another inadequate fill in for Curly Howard who died early from accidentaly swallowing 72 carpet tacks in the 1939 Classic " Don't Throw that Rug at Moe"

Drunken Sailor| 1.28.13 @ 1:59PM

Actually Curly died of a massive stroke. His health had gone downhill before then and he had pretty much been replaced by Shemp. Even Shemp would do a better job than Boehner.

Occam's Tool| 1.29.13 @ 12:32AM

And if you note the history of the Stooges, Moe was actually the paterfamilias for everyone, including Larry. In reality, a classy guy.

Curly Howard was obese and a setup for stroke for a long time. He actually at one time did have beautiful hair, which he shaved for his comedy. Unfortunately he was taken advantage of by a number of gold diggers.

Interestingly, after all the Stooges had died, a trial was held regarding who should have custody of the rights. The Plaintiff attorney was Bela Lugosi, Jr.

Occam's Tool| 1.29.13 @ 12:38AM

And Bela, Jr. won, so the wives beat Columbia Studios, who had shafted the Stooges while they were alive, badly.

Curly's final wife was actually VERY devoted to him. The only one who was.

cicero| 1.28.13 @ 2:20PM

How did we go from the leaders of the free world to the Three Stooges . . . Oh, yeah, I see.

RJ| 1.29.13 @ 1:00AM

I wish we only had THREE stooges. The Beltway has become a convention of stooges.

Minuteman78| 1.29.13 @ 2:41PM

Right - I believe there are at least 535 Stooges up there.

spike59| 1.29.13 @ 6:10AM

believe me, it's a step UP to the Stooges

RJ| 1.29.13 @ 3:31PM

You are right Spike - the Three Stooges were only acting for entertainment purposes. They weren't harming anyone.

Bernfp| 1.28.13 @ 2:37PM

What is most interesting to me about the military "equality" is that women have been getting paid the same as men for the right "not" to die in combat - or to work near as hard - as the men. Where's the equality of work for the equality of pay? How about giving all the male GIs the opportunity to claim pregnancy and get out of a combat zone and/or the military?

Occam's Tool| 1.29.13 @ 12:27AM

"What difference does it make?"

The difference lies in the concept of the outside audit, invented by the Greeks, and greatly responsible for the advent of Western power.

You look at problems, establish root causes for the messes, and correct them. This ensures that people who have responsibility for human life are always on their toes. Now, it can be done stupidly, as in the audit of Themistocles following Salamis, or it can be useful in maintaining unit cohesion, as in the march of the Ten Thousand.

The beauty of the Constitution is that it is designed to allow our Nation to survive the rule of Idiots for quite some time. We are dealing with them now.

RJ| 1.29.13 @ 12:59AM

The Republican party always surprises me in its ability to disappoint its base and enable its opposition. The biggest issue facing the federal government is its bankrupting spending habits, performed without a budget for over four years. Yet, the GOP elected officials have no trouble being taken off message. A few days after Mrs. Clinton's obnoxious performance before Congress, Paul Ryan builds her up by saying as President, she would have solved the spending crisis (what evidence is there of that? Nonetheless, she can use that as a campaign ad.) Of course, John McCain and Jeb Bush are happy to take us off course in pushing for citizenship for illegal aliens.

Yes there is a lot of SGO and the GOP is only too happy to play along. We don't need a third party. We need a second party. What is going on in the Beltway is worse than a bad joke. It is the death of a sensible society.

GoodBusiness| 2.1.13 @ 3:52PM

It is time in America to end the politics of racial division . . . Washington, DC is broken per 77% of a Gallop poll and the people do not think it can be fixed with just elections . . Here is how we American citizens can take our Constitution back and end the Super Power of money in DC to divide and bribe voter groups while conducting Social engineering - Picking winners and losers in the economy usurping the constitutional limits on Central government powers.
It is long past time to just take away the power from all three Central government branches and Restore the Founders designed weak and limited powers Federal government and Restore the strong and unlimited State governments. This site also has one of the largest FREE Constitutional and history of government libraries. It contains links to original sources, Founders and Framers papers, convention notes, State Constitution debates, it is a place you can learn what America is all about . .
http://articlevprojecttorestoreliberty.com./

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