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TIME Magazine’s Joe Klein made a rather ridiculous claim this past weekend while on Chris Matthews’ show.

JOE KLEIN, TIME MAGAZINE: The other thing is there’s still tension between [President Obama] and Petraeus about what exactly, how exactly to close out Afghanistan. I’d say the relationship is pretty good, very, better than it was with Bush because the military hated the fact that he wasn’t really doing the job in Iraq.

It is worth noting that in the same discussion, Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times mentioned how “the military was not behind the Libya campaign.”

One can’t help mentioning two more things in response to this absurdity.

First, a new Gallup poll shows that veterans and active-duty military personnel give Obama lower marks than non-military Americans.

Second, I present this:

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:

Regarding that Gallup poll Matt linked to – Obama is just no Commander in Chief – the troops will do as they’re told because they’re good troops, but one thing veterans demand of those who put them in harm’s way is a conviction that there is no substitute for victory. Obama doesn’t have that conviction, and the military and veterans know it.

Did you hear what Whoopi Goldberg said on The View today?

“You know how Donald always says, ‘People are laughing at us, thinking we don’t have it’? “Here’s one of the reasons they’re laughing at us, Donald. When you show such insane disrespect to the president of your country, people in other countries think that we’re idiots. So I’m just pointing that out.”

So, I guess it was okay to show insane disrespect to George W. Bush when he was president? What a hypocrite.

In the earliest days of the Libya attack, the Obama regime was quick to declare that a) this would be a short engagement, and b) it was not a war.

Well, according to new reports, U.S. officials are no longer talking about days or weeks with regard to military operations in LIbya… they are talking months.

So,  we have our military involved in what can only be classified as a war with no plan or strategy. There is also some big questions on who exactly has command over our military…

Sometimes I think Obama is just trying to use up all of his vacation time while he still has a job.

I point you to a story from December of 2003, a little over a week after Saddam Hussein was captured…

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, in an exclusive interview with CNN, acknowledged Monday that the war in Iraq may have played a role in his decision to dismantle his country’s weapons of mass destruction programs.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: and the kook left is already out there protesting the US action. Now, liberals, where is the declaration of war which you insist must happen before any US military action? Shouldn’t you now get out there and demonstrate against Obama’s illegal war for oil?

UPDATE II, by Mark Noonan: Ok, so this is the War to Protect Civilians. Does this mean we’re protecting all of the civilians of Libya, or just rebel civilians? Do we care at all about the civilians still suffering under Gaddafi’s rule? What is the purpose of our action? Are we trying to get rid of Gaddafi? Just prevent his victory? Are we hoping for a negotiated settlement between Gaddafi and the rebels? Suppose Gaddafi adheres to no-fly (and he probably will by fact of his pilots refusing to go in to the air) but still drives on over land? Maybe not at Benghazi where attention is focused but round about to hit the rebels at Tobruk?

Inquiring minds want to know…but the basic we have here is that there is no policy, there is an attitude. Something had to be done, and so something has been done…but there is no direction from the President of what we hope to accomplish.

UPDATE III, by Mark Noonan: Early reports are that 110 cruise missiles have been fired. That is the sort of softening up you’d do if you planned on invading…are we going to send in the Marines? If that is the case, then that would be a good thing…ensures an anti-Gaddafi victory…but leaves open what sort of post-Gaddafi regime we want and what we’re willing to do to ensure it happens. And if we’re not going to send in troops, then why take a sledge hammer to a flea?

The Middle East is spiraling out of control…

Gas prices are going through the roof…

Japan has suffered a natural catastrophe and is at risk of a nuclear catastrophe…

…and where is Obama? On the golf course, naturally.

Recently, in this country, people guilty of tax evasion can either go to jail, get a slap on the wrist, or a position in Obama’s Cabinet. It is an unfortunate reality that equal justice under the law doesn’t really exist anymore… perhaps it never did.  It is rather disturbing that a point in history where technology allows us, as the public masses, be more informed than ever, that such injustices continue to occur without public outcry.

Just recently, we’ve seen Rep. Charlie Rangel, who has deliberately evaded paying thousands and thousands in taxes, year after year, not only stay in Congress, but get a mere slap on the wrist. Rangel was just reelected in November by an overwhelming majority in his district. Despite his crimes, he will serve out congressional term after congressional term, not a jail sentence.

And then there’s former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, an innocent man whose legal activities on behalf of Republicans made his the target of a politically motivated persecution.  The editors at National Review call DeLay’s guilty verdict and sentence Travesty in Texas, and that sums it up perfectly.

As Tom DeLay fights for justice and his freedom, there is something we can do to help.  I encourage all of you to contribute to the  Tom DeLay Legal Defense Fund to help him in what will be a long and expensive appeals process.

This isn’t about one man, this is about the integrity of our legal system. We cannot continue to sit idly by and let criminals go free as innocent people lose their freedom. All of us, Republicans and Democrats, should want equal and fair treatment under the law.

Let’s help Tom DeLay. Politics is not a crime.

A few days ago, Michael Moore, in his own way of posturing, posted bail for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

This act has a new sense of irony, as it has now been revealed, via WikiLeaks, that “Cuba banned Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted such a ‘mythically’ favourable picture of Cuba’s healthcare system that the authorities feared it could lead to a ‘popular backlash’, according to US diplomats in Havana.”

The revelation, contained in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks , is surprising, given that the film attempted to discredit the US healthcare system by highlighting what it claimed was the excellence of the Cuban system.

But the memo reveals that when the film was shown to a group of Cuban doctors, some became so “disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba that they left the room”.

Castro’s government apparently went on to ban the film because, the leaked cable claims, it “knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.”

Sicko investigated healthcare in the US by comparing the for-profit, non-universal US system with the non-profit universal health care systems of other countries, including Cuba, France and the UK.

It was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary feature but was also castigated for being naive and tendentious.

Oh, the irony.

UPDATE: Michael Moore is now claiming on his website that “Sicko” was not banned in Cuba. Say Anything Blog has a response to Moore’s claim.

Moore claims: “The entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television”

Unfortunately, The entire nation of Cuba does not own television sets. 75-80% of the population does not. I would imagine that the top 20-25% of income earners have both TVs and access to betterhealth care than the populace at large.

ownership tv-sets: 200 – 246 per 1000

http://www.populstat.info/Americas/cubag.htm

I’ll have to look into that statistic, and see if it is households with (a) TV set or just the number of TVs per capita. If it is the latter, then, anyone with multiple sets would mean an even smaller percentage of the populace would have access to anything broadcast.

Of course, anyone who would take Moore’s explanation at face value is quite gullible. Moore’s deceptive practices with his “documentaries” are no secret. But hey, if Moore actually believes Cuban health care is so much better than ours, he is perfectly welcome to go there for all of his medical treatment. He’s gotta burn all that evil money he’s made thanks to capitalism somehow.