Friday, November 01, 2013

Why isn't President Obama attending the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address?

(My new American Thinker post)

My late great uncle used to recite The Gettysburg Address when we visited him in Cuba.  He called it the greatest speech delivered by a democratically elected leader.  He was a great admirer of rhetoric and President Lincoln.

We will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the address this month.  Yet, President Obama is not planning to attend:   

"Officials at Gettysburg National Military Park said Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will represent the administration the Nov. 19 sesquicentennial.   
Jewell and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson will share the role of keynote speaker.  

Other events include a reading of the Gettysburg address by a Lincoln portrayer. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett also plans to attend the ceremony.   

Lincoln delivered the immortal words of the address at a dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery on Nov. 19, 1863, more than four months after the Civil War's pivotal battle.  

More than 3,500 Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg are buried there."

Frankly, this is appalling.  We are talking about the 150th anniversary of one of the key moments in US history.

So why won't President Obama attend the ceremony?  What else is on his schedule that day?  Hard to believe that he does not have a morning or afternoon free to attend the events.

Our kids need to learn more about US history. It would be helpful if the President of the US would show more respect for the speech and the men buried there.   

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.




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The media in panic that Obama is the 'nowhere man sitting in his nowhere land'

(My new American Thinker post)

There are lots of media people humming The Beatles' "Nowhere Man" these days, especially the line "Nowhere man please listen you don't know what you are missing, Nowhere Man the world is at your command."

There is a lot of panic because the investment is in serious danger, or a devaluation is likely as they say in currency markets.  The latest RCP poll average is approval 44% and disapproval at 52%.  

We remind you that most of these polls were taken before Americans started getting insurance cancellations and President Obama's "you can keep your policy" line came under scrutiny.

The media is concerned that President Obama looks detached, aloof and any other word synonymous to disconnected.  They don't understand how the smartest man to ever take the oath knows so little of what is going on around him.   ("He's as blind as he can be, Just sees what he wants to see, Nowhere Man can you see me at all?")

According to news reports:

"A string of embarrassing episodes for the Obama administration that the president didn't seem to know about until the public did is raising questions about why he wasn't in the loop and who should have told him.  
Knowledge that the IRS was excessively targeting Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations during the 2012 election cycle arguably would not reach the president's desk before the news media learned this spring. 
But reports over the past week weeks that President Obama was not aware of the National Security Agency monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone nor of the technical problems that plagued the ObamaCare website ahead of its Oct. 1 launch suggests he is taking too much of hands-off approach or perhaps not surrounding himself with people who can keep him informed, critics say.
Also this week, NBC reported first that the administration in 2010 that ObamaCare was written in such a way that the president's promise about Americans being able to keep their health insurance plans could not be kept."

Maybe John Lennon's "Nowhere Man" has finally been found. He is Barack Obama, or the man "making his nowhere plans for nobody".

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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Babalu: “Yo no fui” Obama throws the NSA under the bus



(My new Babalu post)  

The NSA people are furious that they are getting thrown under the bus for carrying out orders, according to Max Boot:  
"The intel community isn’t happy about being blamed for conducting what Obama implies is a rogue operation: “People are furious,” said a senior intelligence official. “This is officially the White House cutting off the intelligence community.”
Not only is Obama blaming the intel community for doing something wrong, he is leaking word that he will order a ban on spying on allied leaders.
One wonders how “allies” will be defined since no nation stands with the U.S. on every single important issue.
Germany, for example, supported us in Afghanistan but not in Libya. (I am tempted to say Germany didn’t support us in Syria either but since we have no coherent policy on Syria it is hard to say whether they support us or not.)
If he is serious about it, Obama’s actions will result in a loss of valuable intelligence and will hardly appease the NSA’s critics who think that all data-hunting operations except perhaps those focused on Ayman al-Zawihiri’s emails should be shut down.
Obama was aware earlier in his administration of the danger of stigmatizing the hard-working intelligence professionals he needs to keep America safe; that’s why the administration shut down attempts to prosecute CIA personnel over the use of torture.
But now, in a frenzy to appease European critics, the president is demoralizing the intel community and sending them a signal that aggressive collection efforts will not be rewarded. That’s a bad tradeoff."
Here is the problem. The men and women at the NSA follow orders.  They do espionage or carry out policies approved by the president.
President Obama should support the men and women at the NSA for carrying out his policies.  He should not play word games and throw patriots under the bus.
Taking ownership and responsibility won't make the hyper sensitive Europeans happy but it will establish that someone is in charge.
We desperately need to know that someone is in charge in Washington!
"Yo no fui" Obama is making the US, the NSA and President Obama look rather silly.  He needs to "man up" and support the people who are carrying out his orders!
P. S. Speaking of "our shocked European allies", they should watch "Casablanca" tonight:


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We spoke with Brian Llwyd French author of "Mojito"


Image result for brian lloyd french mojito images

We spoke with Brian Llwyd French in Toronto.   As you may know, CGI is a Canadian company that worked on the ObamaCare website.  They have a controversial track record in Ontario.  It's hard to believte that the Obama administration did not do a little "due diligence" and discovered that this company had problems.

He is the author of "Mojito", a great novel about Cuba today:





Tags: Cuba and "Mojito", a novel  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!