Syria

The Red Ranger: So we have a country that has used chemical weapons on its citizens and the world fails to take quick and decisive action.  I would have thought that a Nobel peace prize winner like Obama would have been able to quickly pull together a bilateral coalition to extract some payback on Assad.  I guess that he does not really have the confidence of the world leaders like everyone thought he would get when he was elected.

In fact, Obama seems to be totally fumbling US foreign relations.  Other than getting Bin Laden which if you believe some accounts Obama wasn’t too interested in following what has he done.  Our relations with Russia are probably at their lowest level since the pre-Reagan years, the Benghazi attackers have gotten away unscathed and even Britian, our former strongest ally, will not fall in line with us.  Let’s not forget his support of the Muslim Brotherhood in the coup that ousted Mubarak in Egypt.  How many Christians have the Brotherhood murdered or how many churches have they destroyed since their ouster in Egypt.

Looking back the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to Obama when they did makes the committee look pretty foolish.  The award shouldn’t have been given based upon hope but on actual results.

 

Nattering Naybob: First, am I to believe that you are still adhering to that Sean Hannity nonsense that Obama “didn’t really want to get Osama bin Laden”? You’re joking, right? From Day 1 in office, Obama informed his National Security team that catching bin Laden would be a priority. Unlike George W. Bush, who replied in a press conference on Marsh 13th, 2012, LESS THAN ONE YEAR AFTER THE 9/11 ATTACKS, and I quote: “I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority”.

Every President has foreign policy mis-fires, it’s part of the cost of doing business. Stop reading columns by John Bolton.

The Red Ranger: I did not mean to imply that Obama did not want to get Bin Laden, I was just referencing the fact that there were reports that he wasn’t too interested in watching the actually taking down of Bin Laden.

I would classify a mis-fire as something that happens on a rare occasion.  It seems like other than Bin Laden all of Obama’s foreign policy moves have been mis-fires.

Nattering Naybob: Oh. You are only saying that there are “rumors” (source: unknown) that he did not want to actually watch the video of bin Laden being taken down. Frankly, I don’ think it’s important whether he did or not. All I know is that he was there, watching intently. Or, you may have been seeing those internet reports from the usual Right-Wing nuts, that claim Obama’s image was somehow CGI’d or Photoshopped into the official photographs of the “war room” during the raid.

I find it truly, profoundly, pathetic that so many people waste so much time trying to discredit or criticize every single aspect of this President’s life. Over two years after we successfully captured and killed the perpetrator of the worst carnage ever inflicted on this country’s soil from outside forces, Republicans are still scraping, scratching, clawing, biting, and in some cases, chewing, to find any possible way to criticize Obama’s role in it. Sad.

And still, The Red Ranger always wonders: “What is happening to our country?”

The Red Ranger: Did you find it as profoundly, pathetic that so many people wasted time trying to discredit or criticize every single aspect of Bush’s life?  Or were you just part of the mindless Democratic horde partaking in this sport?

Nattering Naybob: No, I was not, if you want to know the truth. I thought George W. Bush  was an incompetent Chief Executive who listened too much to people who were giving him terrible advice (read: Dick Cheney). However I actually gave him credit for the way he handled the aftermath of 9/11. His “bullhorn moment” at the top of the debris pile at Ground Zero was a stroke of leadership genius, and one of the iconic moments in the history of the American Presidency. I thought he was unfairly criticized for continuing to listen for a few minutes to the reading of the students whose class he was visiting, before he started to take direct action on the news given to him on that morning.

I think Bush did a good job in imploring the nation to not take individual vengeance for 9/11 on Muslims in their neighborhood, or who they came across during their day. I think it was disgusting that someone threw shoes at him during a press conference in Iraq late in his Presidency because I think that could conceivably have been deemed an assassination attempt, and it was horrible that anyone would laugh at that and praise the show-thrower.

Bush was and is a devoted and faithful husband, father, and son, and I think his wife was an excellent and dignified First Lady. I think that any suggestion that he would have taken part in a “plot” to help facilitate 9/11 is outrageous and utterly contemptible because for all his management deficiencies, I think he is at heart a patriot and loves his country.

These are all positive comments that Republicans and the Right-Wing lunatic fringe, would never in a million years consider bestowing on Obama.

Reflections on the Boston Marathon bombings

A note to our readers: The below is an amalgam of several emails that The Red Ranger and Nattering Naybob exchanged starting on the day that the two Boston Marathon terrorists were killed and captured, Friday April 19^th. The Red Ranger is employed in Boston and after Nattering Naybob confirmed that no harm had come to him or his family, they resumed their usual bickering about the aftermath of the attack. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost their lives and our wishes for a continuing recovery to those many who were seriously injured.

The Red Ranger: Wow, what a night and day here in Boston.  I just happened to wake up about 12:30 last night and turned on the news and saw all the craziness going on.  I am actually in my office today.  Now I think I am on lockdown in the office.  Who knows when I will get home. I was off work the day that the explosions were a couple of blocks from my office.  I walk by those locations often on my lunch hour in my search for sustenance.  The explosions were near where the boys and I watched the marathon last year.

Nattering Naybob: Friday was one of the most bizarre news days I have ever seen. You have to give credit to the FBI, police, etc. It was amazing how they were able to connect all the dots so soon. Althought these two brothers were not exactly criminal masterminds.

The Red Ranger: I agree they did a good job after the fact but it looks like there may have been some shoddy work before the fact as the US was told by Russia that Tamerlan had turned radical but let him slip through the cracks.  While I understand that there is a fine line of how much can be done to monitor someone, he was not a US citizen and could have been deported quite easily I believe.  However, as usual it seems like we failed to take the hard line approach and you can see what the results are.

Separately, the day after the attack I was in a conference room that overlooked Boylston Street and the finish line of the marathon.  There were three other people in the room looking out and one woman nonchalantly blurts out that it must be some right-wing radical who did this.  As you can guess my blood pressure immediately shot up and it took a lot of self-control on my part not to get into a heated discussion with her about her viewpoints.  Obviously, she was a devotee of MSNBC where as soon as something like this bombing happens they try to link it to some right-wing group as has been the case with the Gabby Giffords shooting, the Aurora shooting and the recent murder of the Texas DA.

Being in Boston with its long history of liberalism I would have thought that the bombing may have been the work of some OWS or Bill Ayers type.  I do not believe Boston has many right-wing extremists running around.

Nattering Naybob: Leave it to the Red Ranger to use a terrorist atack on US soil to dredge up tired Republican talking points like Bill Ayres and MSNBC. I know that you are fond of implying that the less well-off and minority segment of our population are the biggest offenders when it comes to handouts, wanting free things, etc. so I was interested whether you saw this video of a swarm of obviously well-off white people helping themselves to an abandoned supply of Boston Marathon running wear and souveniers, in the immediate aftermath of the bombings. To use the vernacular of your home region, “that’s WICKED bad!”

The Red Ranger: I am not sure how you could discern from this video that these people were well-off.  I guess you were just stereotyping and racial profiling and assuming that because these people were white they were well-off.  Funny how you libs are allowed to do this but not conservatives.

I do not condone this behavior in any way and all of the people in this video should be prosecuted as there was no reason for this behavior.  They are no different than those who loot during a blackout or any other event.

Did you attend any May Day rallies yesterday?  Notice how some of them turned violent with arrests.  Funny how that happens with all these so called peace loving liberals but never at the war-mongering, gun-toting Tea Party events.

By the way next time I see you and Elizabeth I have a couple of Boston marathon jackets for you.

Nattering Naybob: I could tell that they were affluent because I have an instinct for that kind of thing. I was born with it. Trust me, they were all high-level business executives, probably all Republican, who thought they were justified in taking the jackets because they pay too high of a tax rate and a free jacket is the least they can pilfer to level the playing field.

I would not attend a May Day protest even if I knew that Salma Hayek would also be attending while wearing a bikini. I think the people who attend those protests and engage in violence are a sad echo of the 1960s radicals who gave true Liberalism a bad name. And have you ever noticed how a lot of the most violent protests of these kind, usually take place in old sleepy, laid-back Pacific Northwest?

We will be looking forward to our Boston Marathon jackets, I hope they still had our correct size.