Comments on The Belmont Club,"Your turn"

Obama has achieved an own goal hat trick. If BHO and his apparatchiks really believe that under BushCheneyMcChimpyHalliburtonHitler the United States committed War Crimes or Crimes against Humanity then he has to prosecute. By issuing the charge through the press and then absolving the operatives he has effectively given them a pass for "just following orders." That is one thing the US can never permit. The Europeans and World Court enthusiasts have to fight this because if the precedent stands then no one can ever be prosecuted at the Hague, or anywheres else on a human rights issue, except maybe for a Head of State. The only way out now is for the US to issue a big thick report exonerating the use of these methods, which is also of course impossible for Obama to do. The White House and its staff are exposed as again as clumsy children. Random diplomats are going to start giving our people at the UN wedgies as a casual greeting in passing.

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Enjoying the "Holiday from History" ride folks? Remember It's A Small World, just ignore that munching sound coming from the bend in the tunnel.

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For anyone who needs a good laugh, the Media and the Pirates, after no doubt protracted negotiations, have settled on a story. The Pirates are Green Heros who were driven to their wild ways by a need to protect the environment, the scamps. Nato Frees Pirate Hostages, Belgian Ship Seized

The commandos briefly detained and questioned the seven gunmen, he told Reuters, but had no legal power to arrest them.
"NATO does not have a detainment policy. The warship must follow its national law," he said.
"They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters."
...
The Somali government plans to present its proposals to combat the sea gangs at a major donors' meeting on Somalia in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.
It says it needs more money to tackle insecurity on land and to provide jobs for the country's many out-of-work young men.
Most of Somalia's pirate gangs operate from the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland, where many of them say they first took to the seas to stop illegal fishing by European fleets and the dumping of toxic waste.

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cdor,
(who asked if Obama's acts were "either a clueless act of an idiot or a very clever and dangerous deceit of a man intent on doing great harm to this country. Which is worse?")
It is far worse if he is part of organized conspiracy to harm the United States. How can you even ask which is worse? If he is simply an over-promoted fraud then in theory that could even restrain near peer competitors such as Russia and China. The one thing mature power realists fear is uncertainty, with the attendant risk of accidental war. Revolutionary competitors, such as Iran, may not feel those constraints if America undergoes an epileptic seizure. If the President is proven to be simply spectacularly incompetent then in theory it could be treated as a disabling condition under the 25th Amendment. That would only apply of course if the Cabinet and the Congress were up to the task of taking power from the President. In theory he could contest the action. In effect the amendment gives the Cabinet the power to serve as a second forum to move for the impeachment of the President.

Unfortunately given the composition of the Congress and the Cabinet at this time that scenario is not worth speculating on. After 2010 it may be a different situation. For the present however things do not look good.