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Bitter Harvests to Come   [Victor Davis Hanson] If one were to sum up the Obama speech, it is the same old, same old formula: "I am a uniquely post-American fresh start; the era of Bush and our dreadful past is over; and because this is our moment, you, the world, owe me attention and support for my redefining America more to your tastes."The problem with all this is endless: (1) most existing problems predated Bush and transcended him, as Obama is discovering with Iran, radical Islam in America, North Korea, Russia, etc.; (2) By separating himself from the past, Obama sends...

The World’s PresidentThe President’s UN* talk was more of the same, same old formula: Me, me, me / then Bush blew it / then I came /and, presto, the waters parted.There is no need to listen to these speeches anymore: Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentleman: it is my honor to address you for the first time as the forty-fourth President of the United States. I come before you humbled by the responsibility that the American people have placed upon me; mindful of the enormous challenges of our moment in history; and determined to act boldly and...

The following is a transcript of Bill Whittle's video essay first aired on the PJTV on August 31, 2009. Link to the VIDEO. It was posted here. Whittle's presentation is passionate, takes 15 min, and IMHO better to be watched than read. Anyway, the transcript is below. Back to Bill: [It's taken me a while to catch up on the Afterburners. There are some major projects in the works -- and they have been in the works for eighteen months now -- and I promise they will not disappoint.Here I am on my favorite ground. Some of this may...

Bill Whittle did not participate in the rally on DC, but he did in a rally in California. This is his speech and his few comments. Delivered in his usual simple, straightforward and passionate manner. Afterburner with Bill Whittle Why We Should All Be Worried ... And Why You Should Run For Office Sep 21 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   12min A Tale of Two Revolutions: The War of Ideas & the Tragedy of the Unconstrained Vision Sep 10 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   10min Bill Maher, Barack Obama and the Truth About American Exceptionalism Aug 31...

Policies no, Obama maybe…Barack Obama is charismatic. He can charm, and has mastered the art of set cadence, pause, articulation, and voice modulation, in the manner of a JFK.  He has appeared on television far more in nine months than have prior presidents in an entire administration. But his problem is that his policies—cap and trade, nationalized health care, $2 trillion deficits, fringe-politics czars, therapeutic foreign policies, etc.—poll below 50 percent. So his advisors quite understandably  assume that by sheer magnetism Obama can still sell the public a product they doubt—sort of like GM’s top salesman thinking he can sell...

In the wake of Joe Wilson's crude outburst, many network commentators (and Jimmy Carter, of course) are weighing in on the new racism that supposedly explains 1) rising opposition to Obamacare and 2) the president's sinking polls. I think this is a disastrous political move to save a health-care plan that simply has not appealed to a majority of Americans. I suspect it will result in another 5-point poll slide. To prove their charge, those who allege racism would have to show empirically that the present angry rhetoric eclipses what was said about and done to Bush. It does not...

It was certainly uncouth of Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.) to scream, “You lie!” at his commander-in-chief in the middle of Barack Obama’s recent health-care speech before a joint session of Congress. And others who keep insisting that the president doesn’t have an authentic U.S. birth certificate clearly come off as unhinged — much like just-resigned White House green-jobs czar Van Jones does for having signed his name to a petition stating that the Bush administration may have allowed the 9/11 murders of 3,000 people to happen. During his speech the other night, the president calmly called for a new...

It was the biggest friendliest mob I've ever seen. A fantastic parade of smiling faces. People went out of the way to be nice to each other, police, an occasional opposition. And clean up after themselves and others.We came in late and were standing first opposite the National Archives, then crossed to the other side of the Pennsylvania Avenue. It was a non-stop 2 hours movement of people. Very impressive. See the slide show of my album at the link:  http://s648.photobucket.com/albums/uu207/tolik001/2009-09-12-DC-TeaParty/?albumview=slideshow                       

The economic crisis of the past year, centered as it has been in the financial sector that lies at the heart of American capitalism, is bound to leave some lasting marks. Financial regulation, the role of large banks, and the relationships between the government and key players in the market will never be the same.More important, however, are the ways in which public attitudes about our system might change. The nature of the crisis, and of the government's response, now threaten to undermine the public's sense of the fairness, justice, and legitimacy of democratic capitalism. By allowing the conditions that...

Afterburner with Bill Whittle  A Tale of Two Revolutions: The War of Ideas & the Tragedy of the Unconstrained Vision Sep 9 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   10min Bill Maher, Barack Obama and the Truth About American Exceptionalism Aug 31 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   15min MSNBC & The Great Liberal Narrative: The Truth About The Tyranny of Political Correctness Aug 24 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   13min The Power & Danger of Iconography: The Resistance Steals Obama's Weapons Aug 14 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   8min Beyond the Angry Mobs: Only You Can Bring Congress...

Van Jones is the latest romantic, pseudo-revolutionary surrounding Obama to carve out a capitalist career in the field of duping liberals. New Communiqué from the Ministry of TruthAt one point, the Obama administration was bragging about bagging one Van Jones; Valerie Jarrett, in fact, even gushed that they had been scouting the erstwhile mostly unknown Jones for quite a while. The word czar was employed of his new responsibilities, and we were subsequently lectured that “over $80 million” in stimulus money was going to be under Jones’s control—given his innovative “green jobs” approach that married civil rights with radical...

From a reader: Jonah, The following quote from your column was spot on: "This suggests that the White House still thinks it has a communication problem, and if only it dispels the cloud of “lies” belched up by the opposition, there will be nothing but blue skies ahead. Funny how the people who run the most sophisticated communication operation in the history of the presidency keep concluding that their difficulties stem from their inability to get their message out and never from what their message actually is." Marketers make this mistake all the time, which ensures that marketing consultants like...

This is a MUST WATCH 13min video by a brilliant Bill Whittle No transcript yet.

The following is a transcript of Bill Whittle's video. It works as a standalone article, but it's really better if you watch the video in all it's Afterburnery video glory here.(8 minutes)  THE CULT OF ICONOGRAPHYI’d like to take just a few moments to talk about the power of Iconography.  If you happen to be a high-level Republican strategist, you’re probably saying, “the power of Ica-what-now?” If you’re a high-level Democratic strategist, you might be thinking, “Aw, crap! He’s onto us!” See this lovely steak dinner? Appetizing, isn’t it? Of course, if you put this in a blender and hit Puree,...

Means and Ends in the Age of ObamaOne of the stranger things about this eerie first eight months of the Obama administration is how brazenly its supporters have been about the noble ends justifying the disreputable means.Taxes for TheeTake taxes. I thought the mantra was that the Bush tax cuts — equal percentages of cuts to all involved, an even greater number of households excused from the tax rolls altogether — were supposed to be cruel and proof of conservative selfishness.Candidate Obama once in an interview seemed to agree that greater revenue ensued for the federal treasury, but he felt...

The anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan headed this week to Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama is vacationing. Once again she is protesting our two wars abroad. But Sheehan is a media has-been. ABC’s Charlie Gibson used to cover her anti-Bush rallies in Crawford, Tex. Now he says, with a sigh, of her recent anti-Obama efforts, “Enough already.” The war in Iraq is scarcely in the news any longer, despite the fact that 141,000 American soldiers are still protecting the fragile Iraqi democracy, and 114, as of this writing, have been lost this year in that effort. But after the success of...

Forget the recession and the "uninsured." Obama has bigger fish to fry.If we believe that Obama is trying to end the recession or fix the health-care system, we’ll miss his real agenda. The first seven months of the Obama administration seemingly make no sense. Why squander public approval by running up astronomical deficits in a time of pre-existing staggering national debt? Why polarize opponents after promising bipartisan transcendence? Why create vast new programs when the efficacy of big government is already seen as dubious? But that is exactly the wrong way to look at these first seven months of...

Obama and his ilk continually fall for the myth that those living under dictatorships are united against American "aggression." (This is part five of a series. Read parts one, two, three, and four.)at Freerepublic:  parts one + two , part three, part four Oleg Atbashian, a writer and graphic artist from Ukraine, currently lives in New York. He is the creator of ThePeoplesCube.com, a satirical website where he writes under the name of Red Square. part five: We Are the Children: Sing in Unison to Save a Dictator If the American society is constantly torn apart by ideological confrontations,...

Obama's policy on Iran and Honduras is to respect the sovereignty of the dictator, not the people. (This is part four of a series. Read parts one, two, and three.) at Freerepublic:  parts one + two , part three Oleg Atbashian, a writer and graphic artist from Ukraine, currently lives in New York. He is the creator of ThePeoplesCube.com, a satirical website where he writes under the name of Red Square. part four: Whose Sovereignty Is Obama Respecting? In his speech to graduate students in Moscow, Obama opined: State sovereignty must be a cornerstone of international order. … States...

(This is part three of a series. Read parts one and two.) at Freerepublic: both parts are hereObama Regresses to Cold War Mythology … and Switches Sides Obama’s Quest into the Magic World of Anti-American Mythology Oleg Atbashian, a writer and graphic artist from Ukraine, currently lives in New York. He is the creator of ThePeoplesCube.com, a satirical website where he writes under the name of Red Square. part three: A U.S. President, Raised on KGB Propaganda The former chief of Romania's espionage service sees an American president fully invested in the lies he helped disseminate along with the...