Obama the Unready. A new sobriquet for His Highness? 

The swine flu pandemic is spreading fast, without warning. Obama does not have a confirmed secretary of Health and Human Services. Neither does he have a Surgeon General or many dozens of other public health officials in place and ready to lead.

Which means the United States is unprepared for this potential disaster. And that is nobody’s fault but obama’s, the unready, over his head, unprepared, flip-flopping, inexperienced, unmitigated DISASTER.

Also, Taggles at Widdershins points our attention to these brave souls in wheelchairs who have chained themselves to the White House fence (and are being arrested) to protest President O’Liar’s failure to act on his promise to help them have some control over their own health care and stay out of nursing homes.

Have I mentioned today that obama is a jackass?

(Today’s PROWL is HERE if you’re just logging in.)

According to your own words and actions:

HUMAN RIGHTS IS NOT A PRIORITY

How this will affect your policies?

1. Foreign Relations: no expectations for countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, China, Saudi Arabia, and Syria to commit to ending specific, egregious abuses (including torture, mass killings, forced sterilization, and of course brutal gender apartheid) in exchange for meaningful negotiations with the United States

2. National Security: Wiretapping American citizens without warrants; Spying on American citizens without warrants; Secret detentions of American citizens.

3. Global Trade: Serious and measurable efforts to end human trafficking, human slavery, including the sexual enslavement of children for mostly Western male “masters,” will NOT be a pre-condition of entering and renegotiating trade agreements with Asia, Africa, or Eastern Europe.

It is very simple. If the people of the United States, as a whole, disapprove of slavery, gender apartheid, torture, and mass killings (as we, obviously, DO) then our government has two options:

1. Isolate completely from the worst offending countries — no diplomatic, economic, or political ties whatsoever. Such as how we treat North Korea, Iran, and Cuba.

2. Negotiate WITH CONDITIONS. If the United States’ bargaining position is SO WEAK that we cannot extract ANY measures to curb oppression, torture, and apartheid in Asia and the Muslim world then why the hell are we at the table in the first place? Shouldn’t we be regrouping, rebuilding, and preparing to negotiate from a position of strength? Why is the United States purposefully engaging these countries with our tail between our legs? What possible good can come of negotiating from a position of weakness?

Obama’s negotitiating skills are so pathetic it has moved beyond a national embarrassment to a national tragedy. John McCain, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton were CORRECT during the primaries. Each of them chided obama for his utter ignorance about dealing with the bad guys.

Obama will never move the hearts and minds of Muslims committed to Islamic rule in their countries. And if he does, at what cost to America’s values and integrity? There ARE no moderate Islamic states. There may be moderate individual Muslims; there are certainly secular Muslims, reform-minded Muslims, and peaceful Muslims. But that’s a straw man argument. The existence of a minority of relatively moderate individual people spread across the globe in various countries is irrelevant to how the United States formally treats with the governments of Afghanistan, North Korea, Uganda, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Negotiating with those countries by dismissing human rights as an “ideal” is exactly the same level of evil as allying or negotiating with Apartheid-ruled South Africa.

If Obama chooses to sweep human rights off the table in order to make friends with Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East that would be pretend peace — and a peace at too high a cost. Islamic fundamentalists BELIEVE in their way of life. They are not going to moderate it. If anything, Obama’s blundering admission that human rights are not important to the United States will EMBOLDEN them to pass more laws oppressive to women, to FURTHER restrict individual rights in their countries, and to EXPAND the tyrannical reach of their blood-thirsty imams.

With friends like that I’d rather have enemies.

Whatever. The real work begins today. They’re driving over his mug in the streets of Iran, where reportedly 1,000 Muslims have shown up for suicide bomber training. Riverdaughter has a good To Do List for obama today, including ending the Gag Rule and dismantling the Department of Homeland Security. I’m with her on the first, but not so sure about the second. I’d like to see a thorough and non-partisan (hey, I can dream right?) review of the department’s efficacy before just closing it down. Of course Janet Napolitano, though she may be a hardworking lesbian with no life as Ed Rendell points out, DOES seem to be a quintessential bureacratic hack who believes life is a finite series of agendas presented in power point slides on a projection screen. Kind of like Plato’s Cave. Bumper sticker idea: Life is a Very Long Meeting and Then You Die. Nah, not catchy enough. I’ll work on it. 

For me, there’s one, overriding domestic issue that would have been on Madame President’s desk this morning IF the DNC had done the right thing and nominated the primary winner: Universal Health Care. There are 46 million Americans with no health insurance — fully 18% of all Americans under the age of 65 have no access to medical services they can afford. Since the vast majority of Americans buy their health insurance subsidized through their employers, as the unemployment rate climbs closer to double digits, the number of uninsured may skyrocket (because ONE job often buys insurance for three, four, or five members of a family). (h/t notyoursweetie)

           NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT FROM 1998 TO 2008

Auto industry posts “staggering losses.” Joblessness soars. Colleges cutting back budgets by billions. Even Berkshire Hathaway is pinched — income  fell a whopping 77% in October for Warren Buffet’s legendary cash machine.

And who did we elect? A rookie with no record and no promise. But he’s getting a PUPPY!! Yay!

I guess we still are the country that elected George W. Bush. Twice.