“Present”
By Mitch Berg
President Obama declined to comment about the ongoing hostage crisis in the Indian Ocean:
Obama was asked to comment on the situation several times by reporters at a White House event on refinancing for homeowners. Obama, however, stuck closely to the script and replied that he wanted to remain focused on housing.
Teleprompters can only react so fast.
It’s apparently above their pay grade.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
can’t he just eat his waffle?
April 9th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
“Obama, however, stuck closely to the script and replied that he wanted to remain focused on housing.”
Incapable of multi-tasking. How reassuring!
April 9th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Ah, remember when you douchebags used to call this sort of thing “discipline.” Whatevs. Sucks to be on the outside, eh?
April 9th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
There are currently FBI on site with the navy to negotiate the hostage release.
So, just maybe, he is not commenting so as not to interfere with the activities of those who are on location dealing with the problem until more suitable time. I would expect that there will be an announcement within the next 24 to 48 hours, more likely sooner than later, when there is something new to report, good or bad. This president has been reasonably communicative.
He’s the president. He should be allowed to have some control over what he says and when he says it, when it can potentially screw up things for the professionals doing their jobs. These pirates apparently have reasonably sophisticated satellite information guiding their attacks on shipping; it is not such a stretch to figure out they might also be tracking world news reports which are even more easily available.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Good points, Dog Bone.
Hey wingnuts, here’s a primer for you on what you meatheads might call “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” The much cleverer Jon Stewart calls it “Baracknophobia.”
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=223862&title=Baracknophobia—Obey
Remeber, wingnuts: It’s supposed to taste like a shit taco.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Did anyone else notice that AC basically just said Jon Stewart is much cleverer than himself?
Not that he’s wrong, mind you.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
“these pirates apparently have reasonably sophisticated satellite information guiding their attacks”
Huh? What are you talking about?
April 9th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
So, just maybe, he is not commenting so as not to interfere with the activities of those who are on location dealing with the problem until more suitable time.
YEAH! Why did he just sit there reading “My Pet Goat!”
Oh, wait. . .
April 9th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Wow, reading is hard for you, eh Cathcart? Angryclown isn’t even mentioned as a subject in the post. The contrast was made between John Stewart and “you meatheads.”
Seriously, Cathcart, that’s the best shot you could take?
April 9th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
“AC basically just said Jon Stewart is much cleverer than himself?”
I think he was referring to Obama.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
“Shut down all air traffic! Divert international flights to Canada! Scramble jet fighters to provide cover for the major cities! FOUR SOMALI PIRATES HAVE KIDNAPPED SOME GUY!!!!!”
Such a douchebag you are, Cathcart.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Hey, what’s one American life to AssClown? I bet AC cheered Kos when he said “screw ’em”.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I’ll see your douchebag and raise you, you turd-corn eating chronic masturbator to images of Abe Vigoda.
Internet insults are teh awesome!
April 9th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Hey! Leave Fish out of it! He does not deserve this indignity.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Clownie is right. How can you people doubt Obama’s leadership after his powerful response to the North Korean missle launch?
April 9th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Master of None writes:
“these pirates apparently have reasonably sophisticated satellite information guiding their attacks”
Huh? What are you talking about? >>
Dog Gone says:
There are numerous references in new sources of all kinds, as well as other documentation, of the Somali pirates going ‘hi tech’, employing specialized technical support to locate and coordinate scouting targets and executing their attacks. Here is just one quote, from the Chicago Daily Herald online:
“Somalia’s 1,900-mile (3,057-kilometer) long coastline borders one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and offers a perfect haven to the heavily armed pirate gangs. They often dress in military fatigues and use GPS systems and satellite phones to coordinate attacks from small, fast speedboats resupplied by a larger “mother ship.”
April 9th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Note to self: my Garmin and cell phone provide access to “sophisticated satellite information.”
April 9th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Oh, GPS and sat phones, that’s not much more than a well equipped golfer.
You made it sound like they had satellite data.
“reasonably sophisticated satellite information”
April 9th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Kermit Says:
“April 9th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Clownie is right. How can you people doubt Obama’s leadership after his powerful response to the North Korean missle launch? ”
You’re right Kermit; it must have taken a lot of self control for Obama not to laugh out loud at that pathetic failure of a missile launch. I have no doubt that there were multiple governments set to shoot the darn thing down had it gone anywhere close to an actual target. You have to feel a certain pity for a dictator that has to make up such lame lies about their supposed satellite in orbit broadcasting songs to Kim Jong-Il. Presumably dictator Kim is listening to them via a tin foil hat? Kim Jong-Il is a wacko, but he does seem to be a fairly well contained wacko; the whole thing was one big teapot tempest.
We’re all in more danger from space debris falling out of the sky than we are in danger from North Korean missile technology. It would have been stupid to give Kim a response against which to react further; Kim is a shrieking little twerp, more a danger to his own people than anyone else.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Perhaps Obama can scold them and say they’d better not misunderestimate him and that he wants them dead or alive.
LOL
April 9th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Nice try, Peev, but having read your sniveling novella diatribes here over the last couple of years, I know for a fact you have never “LOLed” in your life.
Unless you think LOL stands for “Living Occasionally Lucid,” I guess. . .
April 9th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Master of None Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Oh, GPS and sat phones, that’s not much more than a well equipped golfer.
You made it sound like they had satellite data.
“reasonably sophisticated satellite information”
MoN, that was the phrasing used by several news agencies. At least some of the information reported suggested that there were people as part of the support staff to the pirates with access to radar, monitoring radio traffic, etc. I don’t golf; presumably the professional/commercial equipment used at sea is more powerful than the usual consumer electronics?
In any event, I take it to mean that the relatively primitive Somalis who live in poverty, without many amenities, are acting at a technical level greater than their usual daily living arrangements where they lack electricity and plumbing.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
““reasonably sophisticated satellite information” Show me an article that used that phrasing.
“relatively primitive Somalis” — Primitive? They’re Third World, they’re not aboriginals. They’ve made over $100 million hijacking ships. They ain’t hurting for money.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
MoN writes:
““relatively primitive Somalis” — Primitive? They’re Third World, they’re not aboriginals. They’ve made over $100 million hijacking ships. They ain’t hurting for money.”
They are not just third world, they have no government to speak of, have suffered civil war and islamist extremists, and now are dominated by lawless pirates. A good part of the population survive primarily on the hand outs from people who have fled the country as refugees and international aid.
Piracy is practiced by a faction of the population, which have gotten a lot of money from it, but the rest of the country is literally dirt poor. Not even good dirt; ARID dirt. I’d bet that whenever the piracy is finally eradicated, it will turn out that the Arab banking systems through which they process their ransom money has taken out a hefty chunk of those proceeds, given that these pirates are unlikely to waltz into a Swiss bank anytime soon.
Indications are that these people resorted to piracy out of desperation, not because they were bored out on the back nine of the local country club.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Kim Jong-Il is a wacko, but he does seem to be a fairly well contained wacko
With nuclear weapons.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Foreign policy crisis? Time to break out the Presidential knee-pads.
Maybe send Biden in first to soften ’em up with a barrage of apologies.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
“It’s supposed to taste like a shit taco.”
AssClown giving AC Jr. a pep talk on following the ol’ man into the family butthole sucking business.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Kermit Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
“Kim Jong-Il is a wacko, but he does seem to be a fairly well contained wacko”
With nuclear weapons. >
Those nuclear weapons are questionable, much like Saddam’s supposed WMD. Pakistan’s nukes are a bigger concern. China is better situated to slap Kim down that we are. The North Korean stash of chemical weapons is a more serious concern than nukes – IMHO.
In any event, so far, their missile program is a dud.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Ha ha ha, funny one Swiftee. Are you asking for a shunning? Ha ha ha ha ha
“Perhaps Obama can scold them”
Peeve, President Barry “global regime” Obama doesn’t have the cojones to do that, he will prolly ask the UN for a “stern response” like he did when NK flipped him the bird.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
IS OBAMA LOSING THE WAR ON AQUATERROR?
President Fails to Answer Reporters’ Questions
Wingnuts in a Tizzy
April 9th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Obama doesn’t have to answer any questions; You work for Obama; Obama does not work for you or answer to you.
When was the last time pirates took over a ship under the US flag? Way to go Barry!
Waiting for Assclown or Peev to blame this on Bush.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
“their missile program is a dud”
“Sunday’s Taepodong-2 rocket is believed to have traveled 3200 kilometers. That’s double the range North Korea achieved in a launch eleven years ago.”
a 3200 km dud, on just the first stage.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
MoN writes:
“a 3200 km dud, on just the first stage. ”
MoN, I’ll defer to groups that are better qualified and who spend a lot more time than I do on this, like NTI (the multi-national Nuclear Threat Initiative) who deemed the launch a technical failure. It isn’t much of a success if those 3,200 kms were not even in the intended direction, much less the intended distance.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
How do they know the intended direction? Or even if they intended to test anything more than the first stage?
And, do you know how to post a link? We can teach you if you don’t. Even the clown and post a link, and he wears Depends.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
DG, they weren’t aiming at a country. It was a distance test. North America is a pretty big place. If they can get er up to 5000 the threat is substantial. And as you have already stated, chem/bio weapons are a greater concern than nukes.
April 9th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
And did you know that Pakistan is supplying parrots and eye patches to the North Koreans?
AQUATERROR RED ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 9th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Kermit, MoN, the North Koreans provided a warning of the intended direction of their missile before launching. A brief search online provided multiple listings of that information; personally I found the English language online site of the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi Daily Press to be one of the best pictorial depictions; similarly the major news programming on television provided that information, including some very nice graphics. Such warnings are expected from any country in advance of any significant launch, and N. Korea has provided them for all previous attempts, not just this one.
The missile went south of it’s intended trajectory; it did not go anything like as high as it was supposed to go to launch a satellite, and the final two stages did not properly disconnect (according to a report attributed to the US Navy). This does not constitute much of a success, even if it is a slight improvement over blowing up on the launch pad, catching fire, falling over, and sinking into a swamp.
April 9th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
So you can’t post a link?
Do you know what a link is?
April 9th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
As I said before, the west coast of North America is a big target. Pinpoint accuracy isn’t required for a terrorist attack.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
MoN, yes, I do know what a link is, and no, as it happens, I am not going to post a link, because at the moment the preponderance of my attention happens to be focused elsewhere. Mitch’s blog is an entertaining way to pass the intermittent phases of a hurry up-and-wait situation.
Frankly I don’t feel obligated to do anything just because you ask, particularly not when you do so rudely. I choose to write courteously; if you cannot or will not, I see no reason to respond to you at all. You are superfluous. There are plenty of other participants on this blog writing interesting thoughts in a manner that demonstrate both courtesy and intellect. Terry, Troy and Kermit come to mind. And of course, first and foremost – Mitch.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
It’s not hard.
“You are superfluous.”
and you use a lot of words without saying a damn thing.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
The missile was apparently a squib.
So were the first several US rocket launches, fifty years ago. Epic fails, in fact, the initial series of tests on which not only the ICBM but the Moon programs were based.
Just saying. Science is built on failure. And not just ours.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
It was a lost opportunity to test our ability to shoot it down quickly.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Maybe Kim Jong Il wants to put North Koreans on the moon. Betcha didn’t think of that, Mitch.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
put North Koreans on the moon
Can’t blame him. The moon has a healthier economy than the DPRK.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
More food too.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Good point right there.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:19 am
The recent photos of Kim show him looking quite Ill, (pun intended). I suspect that his effective death grip on NK may be increasingly finite, not unlike the ageing leadership in Cuba. Given their small resources, comparative to ours in the space race, there is some hope that Kim may be finished before a successful rocket or missile is.
Given the lingering ill will towards Japan for the atrocities of WW II, even after all this time, I think they have far more to worry about short term as a target than we do from North Korea.