The Spag Report

Relative Danger

Peter Wehner writes on the latest Left wing alarms that criticism of Obama's policy is a dangerous thing:

"Most of us struggle with the temptation to employ double standards, to cloak political agendas in the language of moral concern and outrage. Some individuals do an admirable job resisting that temptation. Others, like Tom Friedman, do not. He would have a lot more credibility now if he had actually spoken out before."

I guess the racism charges went nowhere, so now the Left has pulled out the "crazy killers" card.

For a study in utter hypocrisy on the subject, read this thread. You would think that everyone commenting over there absolutely loved George W. Bush and never uttered or heard a hateful, critical word about him. One of my favorite lines comes from a man who relentlessly criticized George W. Bush but now finds mere criticism itself dangerous with a new man in the White House, and believes that anyone who denies it is stupid.

I guess he didn't realize just what a dangerous person he was himself.  It looks like Wehner has him and his flock nailed, too.  Where the hell were they when the venom was spewing under Bush?  Wait.  I forgot.  They were doing a lot of the spewing.

Of course, one of the things that is lost in all the noise is that the criticisms of Obama are mainly about his policies, not him personally. This is demonstrated by the fact that his personal likability ratings remain much higher than the approval polls on his policy choices. Even I still like the guy even if I don't approve of most of his policies. Contrast that with Bush, where the majority of Left wing criticisms were not only about his policy (and that is a whole other exercise in hypocrisy), but also highly personal and hateful towards the man himself.

Nobody has thrown a shoe at Obama, or an egg at Keith Olbermann (as happened to Pat Buchanan), or a pie at Rachel Maddow (as happened to Ann Coulter). SNL hasn't done to Obama what they did to Bush (and Palin!).  There are no snarky cartoons on Comedy Central ridiculing Obama ("Lil' Bush).  No sitcoms on t.v. ("That's My Bush").  No nightly sarcasm from Jon Stewart.  No prolific "Worst President Ever" or "Impeach Obama" bumper stickers.  And let's face it, Beck and Limbaugh aren't doing anything different towards Obama that Keith Olbermann didn't do towards Bush, except the former are actually milder.  Recall Olbermann accusing Bush of "murderous deceit" and screaming for Bush to "shut the hell up" and asking for him to resign. 

How soon they forget.

Opaque Transparency

When Barack Obama promised "transparency" during the presidential campaign, I guess he meant the opaque kind. The ACLU certainly thinks so:

"Especially now in light of the Obama administration saying they wish to have greater transparency, it's more than a bit ironic that members of the press are now being denied access to the camps when they had it before under President Bush"

What's missing are the cries of outrage from the Far Left.

Cue Roch and the word "context".  I get it, less transparency is more.

Best Soundtrack?

NME debates the greatest soundtrack of all time.

My opinion is that Saturday Night Fever is the clear winner. 

Pop would vote for West Side Story, but in my opinion that isn't really fair because those tunes came from the Broadway musical first.

Police Officers Say "No" To Blake Reinstatement

The Greensboro Police Officers Association is upset that Officer A.J. Blake was reinstated on the force by interim City Manager Robert Morgan:

"Mr. Blake, in our opinion, has violated numerous departmental directives, to include but not limited to, baseless accusations against fine officers as well as consorting with a convicted felon and known gang leader. 

Chief Bellamy and the (General Board of Inquiry) made the right call in terminating Mr. Blake, as he, in our opinion should not be a member of this agency. We wish to let the public know our disagreement with this decision and our deep disappointment with city administration in not investigating this matter correctly, if at all."

Tons more on the Blake reinstatement at Guarino's.