The Nineteenth Amendment? You’ve come a long way baby.

Sure as she made little golden apples, there's a reason that Eris made surrogates and hatchet-men.

It’s so that when you court the “unemployed I’m the voice-of-my-generation so pay my rent Dad!” voting block with your glass-eyed celebrity looking for a big, strong Welfare State to be her husband-daddy your campaign has some plausible deniability.

Not all attempts to be hip and edgy work out.  And you kind of want an escape hatch.



Yes... there's a full minute of her "too hip for the world" prattle.  Why that's like 45 minutes in college minutes!  And boy does it feel that way.

Remember, "this is an official Obama for America ad. This isn’t some PAC, or some minor celebrity trying to get upvotes on Funny or Die. OfA put this out there."

Further, Treacher points out this is what the Dems think of their own base, women so "so helpless and infantilized that something like this appeals to them.”  Or worse it's what they think will sway independents.

Again,  this is why you have surrogates and hatchemen and PACs and fellow travelers. Keep your own hands clean.  Have an alibi.

I mean geeze, Progs. It’s not like the Republicans haven’t been giving you plenty of ammo in your “war on women” you don’t have to go full Stepford.

Is that why Obama admitted that he has trouble with ninth grade math? Did he think it would help woo voters he assumes are intimidated by all those scary numbers?

It's sad when the Daily Kos puts together a better "Republicans are Scary to Women" advert.

Oh and to add to the pile of Sad?

It's a copy of a Putin campaign ad. 

*puts on black framed glasses*
"Yeah, it's a fun ad in an ironic, trying to hard, way,  but I liked the original better.  It was Russian, I'm sure you haven't heard of it."

Via Weerd, of course who also links Crowder actually managing to satirize the vid.
Way to fight against Poe's Law!

Now that's Testing and Evaluation.

Aviation week has a short piece on the 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron

A very interesting read on what it was like to fly and test "procured" Russian aircraft, complete with stuff like the "BOMB EXPLODE" switch, the superior abilities of inferiority made Russian flares, and the near miracles done by the maintenance staff.

They had to keep planes flying with no support documentation, no plans, and no supply chain.

Spaaaaaaccceeee

So SpaceX's craft has linked up with the ISS.


And here's some photos of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Fascinating to see the equipment they use, their facilities, and, what stuck out to me, the condition of the grounds.

As a meal that doesn't look half bad.

Maybe not half good, but this Russian RP-SPN Special Forces Food Ration looks a lot better than I thought it would.

From MicroBalrog a site that has a lot of neat historical and current Russian military stuff.

Via C-90 on GBC

Uh oh

Richard Fernandez examines the wikileaks thing and comes to some disturbing conclusions.

If President Obama has shown himself to be disappointing, Hillary has not exactly covered herself in glory. But it is the contrast between their previous bluster and the present result which is so ludicrous. Here was the team that was going to restore America’s standing among allies; going to ‘end things where they began in Afghanistan’; begin a new era of engagement in the Middle East; prosecute terrorists in court to show moral superiority; create “a world without nuclear weapons”, dismantle “unproven missile defenses”; make the oceans fall; bring prosperity to America and solve health care. And to do this they had the smartest woman in the world at State; huge majorities in the Senate and House.

And all they have to show for it are a few ripped up tickets, some smudged receipts and a few giveaways from a box of crackerjacks. That and pie in their face.

Now the Republic’s enemies must be asking themselves: where is the bottom to these people’s incompetence? Can they do anything at all? How safe is it to rush ahead? Why don’t we try?

Remember, Obama's bulster on all his domestic solutions? Any bets that those plans will be anymore competent? Interesting times.

Via Rand

History

Here's Glenn Beck being amazingly restrained.

Whitewashing mass murder on an industrial scale, why to the Reds get a pass?
The Soviet Nazi alliance?
Have you ever heard of the Holodomor? Intentional famine in the Ukraine? Seven to ten million dead in one year.
Che, beyond the tshirt.
Or Mao and his 70 million.

Watch it all. Remember.




Hat tip Ed Driscoll

Remember when people try to justify massive social control, or excuse the actions of such people. Remember, so you'll see when people try to excuse or worse repeat these systems.

Oh Russia... or More "Smart Diplomacy"

Things tend to balance out. The US is going to do massive cutbacks on our military spending, and the Russians are going to boost theirs. Focusing on their nuclear capability.

If only we had some kind of foreign policy genius to sort this out.

And here's even more Smart Diplomacy. Nice to see Obama's repairing relations with allies that Bush so thoughtlessly damaged

Oh wait... it looks like Obama's started a trade war. Maybe you can give the Mexican Government a pretty speech instead.

What is Russia up to?

Remember how immediatly after the election the Russians said they would put Iskander Missles in Kaliningrad as a blunt to the US-European Missle Sheild?
Strategypage goes behind the headlines and looks into the logicstics and production of the Iskander Missle

Russia now plans to send five brigades of Iskander (60 launchers, each with one missile, plus reloads, which could amount to over a hundred missiles) to Kaliningrad. Iskander is just entering production, and it would take several years, at least, to produce that many. Actually, it might take five or more years to produce enough missiles for five brigades, because Russian missile production capabilities have sharply deteriorated since the end of the Cold War in 1991. This is one reason why the current Russian government is making so much noise about this imaginary NATO plot to surround and subdue Russia. Losing the Cold War did not go down well in Russia. Rather than forget and move on, many Russians prefer to remember, and use the imagined evil intentions of their Cold War foes to explain away defects in the Russian character.

This Russian deployment to Kaliningrad is all about a unique feature of Iskander, which is that it is not a traditional ballistic missile. That is, it does not fire straight up, leave the atmosphere, then come back down, following a ballistic trajectory. Instead, Iskander stays in the atmosphere and follows a rather flat trajectory. It is capable of evasive maneuvers and deploying decoys. This makes it more difficult for anti-missile systems to take it down.

The Bear tries something new

Russia's novel idea to renew the lease on the Crimea: The carrot.

They're gonna tempt the Ukraine with contracts to build aircraft carriers.

More on Military stuff.

The "Insurgents" in Iraq are having trouble. Money is getting harder to get, arms are getting more expensive, and trained people are either being killed, captured, or leaving.
Which has caused the IED to morph into the "homemade grenade".
StrategyPage has more.


Recently I was talking with a friend about how Russia lost so many aircraft to the relatively weak Georgian air defenses and that the Russians had very poor performance in their bombing accuracy. Well, Strategypage has an article on that exact subject. Russia's problem in Georgia.

Russia Withdrawals?

If true this is good news. It looks like Russia is finnaly withdrawing from Georgia.

Uh oh Putin...

Reynolds has a roundup. Germany Offers Support for Georgia's NATO Bid. Ukraine to join in US-led missile shield in Europe, and more. "It seems that Putin's bullying is having precisely the opposite effect he intended."

And Richard Fernandez reports on the immediate problems for Georgia. The problem is how to push the Russians out of the main part of Georgia or even get them to ceasefire. As it is now Georgia is split into two at Gori.


What can Georgia do militarially, and what the US can do to help.

Russia Update.

Richard Fernandez at Belmont Club has a few thoughts on what's been going on.

I should add that if China is "paying Russia to do this" then the Chinese have paid the Russians to cut their own throats. The Russians above all fear the absorption of their former Eastern provinces into the Chinese sphere of influence, a project which is going full speed ahead through commercial deals and Han migration. There are places with only a few million ethnic Russians into which Han Chinese are pouring in like water rushing into the hold of the Titanic. And the day after a Chinese arrives he's got a store, a business or some trading going. And on it goes.

From the strategic point of view the Russian action is pure lunacy. They are uncompetitive with the Chinese, who will steamroller them. They face restive Muslim populations. And now they want to play macho man with Uncle Sam. Oh, they have the EuroLeft and their leftist acolytes. But on the Chinese will come. On and on. Putin should think about that when he finds the money to pay for his Black Sea freight insurance policies.

Putin has committed the classic two-front blunder. In dealing with two fronts you need a quick knockout on one side so you can turn your attention to the next. If Putin had planned on forcing a Georgian surrender in a week, and installing a tame government in Tbilisi, thereby handing the West a fait accompli it has all gone terribly wrong. Georgia, simply by surviving, is drawing him in. More men, more equipment. More risks.

Every mile the Russians go forward increases the chances of incalculable consequences, now that Americans are coming in to Georgia. And now that he has made a monkey of Sarkozy, the French, though they might not be able to do much, can help by not hindering. That too we may now owe to Putin.

This can still be unwound if Putin pulls back to Ossetia and moves his major units back to Russia. It's still not hopeless. But right now Georgia is an abyss into which Moscow can fall. There's no bottom to it. Putin has just dropped a stone into the darkness of what he assumed was a shallow cavern and is waiting to hear it's fall. He's still waiting.

There is another aspect to this. The Pew Polls show McCain level with Obama and significantly, "the base is coming home for McCain. He's getting the Republicans, white evangelical Protestants, and the white working class voters are coming onboard." Putin may have cut the ground from under Barack "I will abolish all future Combat Systems" Obama. Just imagine how absolutely stupid Obama's sophomoric speeches in front of rockstar crowds will start to sound with every passing day.

And to return to China: China will soon be virtually dependent on overseas energy to keep going, so it can keep its economy ramped up to sell to its biggest clients: the USA, Europe, Japan and South Korea. What does Russia buy from China? And China is going to give Russia the handle on the spigot its energy? Give Putin the ability to turn the lights out in Beijing? China is Russia's rival from Central Asia; it is other big player in the Great Game.

Lastly, Russia slapped China across the face by timing this with the Beijing Olympics. That may not seem like much, but I think it is one more suggestion that Putin has a cheap KGB mind. Clever in his own way but strategically stupid.

BBC report of the War

You know... it's not much of a ceasefire when Russian planes are still bombing Gori, a town not in South Ossetia. Oh Vlad, you scamp.

Russia trying to hand Gori back over to Georgia?

A bit more history as to why the Ossetians and Abkhazians are prefeclty happy to side with Moscow.
Well... this is getting frustrating for Putin. Georgia sitll existing is quite troublesome for him. As long as Georgia isn't a puppet state, Putin has to sink more men et al into the area
And it's driving Urkaine firmly into NATO's arms. Poland has a missile and defense deal that just got in today.

Does Russia like having a deep water BlackSea base? Ukraine may hand the base over to the USN.


Mr. HopeChange is enough of a fool to want to cancel all US anti-missile tech, all future combat stuff (which while wasteful there is some good stuff), and get rid of the US nukes
Man... did he just Hope Putin would play along?

Odd how Bush is , rightly so, mocked for "seeing Putin's soul", but Obama is expected to heal our enemies by just talking with them.. What would we get under President Obama: "The Prime Minister Putin that invaded Poland is not the man I knew." ?


It doesn't help that Obama's trapped policy-wise. He can either sound like a far-left Liberal or McCain lite. To be blunt. We HAVE a McCain already running.

Via Glen Reynolds.

UPDATE: A reader emails: "For the record, Russia won the recent battle against Georgia but lost the war. The war is Russia against all of her neighbors. By continuously ticking off all of her neighbors, Russia is causing them to fight back any way they can. Eventually Russia will die the death of a thousand cuts. Russia's thug economy won't be strong enough to handle this war long-term, especially when energy prices drop."

All the more reason to open up drilling.

More Russo-Georgia War.

Ossetia War Update: Surprise! Russia Not Quite Done Yet

But is it not going as well as Russia has hoped?

Clarity, and why we need an "all of the above" approach to energy solutions. Especially in light of the Ossetia War

Some very strong words from Condi


McCain: Bring Georgia and Ukraine into Nato.


Airlift 2008?

Gori and Western Georgia have fallen.

It looks like things are getting dire. From the Belmont Club.

Another commenter (RAH) describes the new defensive position the Georgians have established to defend Tbilisi. “There is a ridge and river crossing from Gori to Tbilisi at Mtskheta that would make a good defensive position . The mountains to the south would prevent Russian tanks and a bridge over a river makes a narrow defile to defend. ” But in the end Tbilisi will be taken, and if the past is any guide, the retreat will continue. Those who want to look at the map can examine this link for themselves. A clickable thumbnail is also provided on the left margin of this post.

The Georgian strategy is born of military necessity. They appear to have chosen to abandon a major part of their country in order to stay together as a nation. As the Georgians move around the Lesser Caucasus, falling back on the Armenian and Turkish borders — the only borders not controlled by the Russians, they have among them about 130 US advisers.

....

The Georgian refusal to surrender and fallback to their south potentially means they are raising the stakes. If the Russians continue to pursue, they will inevitably risk crossing the Turkish and Armenian borders. But those possibilities are in the future. For the present, an intact Georgian army will delay the Russians at the Mtskheta chokepoint to buy time; time perhaps to get what they can behind the Lesser Caucasus and to whatever fate awaits. Georgian President Saakashvili laid out his war aims in a speech to his nation a few hours ago. He remains open to a negotiated settlement, but not at the cost of surrendering Georgian sovereignty. His goal is simple: Georgia must survive.

Status of the Russo-Georgia War

More on what's happening, and what else Russia wants from this war.
Status of the war.The provided map is qutie informative. Russia going after Gori is quite important.

As outlined in this post with some background.
Gori is under attack and have have been captured. Anyone still think this is just about South Ossetia independence?

Russia opens a second front in the war. It looks like it's away from the two breakaway provinces.

It's 3AM and Russia is Invading...

Remember that silly 3AM ad that Hillary used?
The thrust was bad stuff can come up suddenly and the president has to deal with it?

Well, we've got a real crisis on our hands.
Let's see how the candidates respond to it.

McCain obviously took time to determine first that Russia had indeed attacked Georgia before demanding restraint from the victim. It’s apparent that McCain has a better grasp of the situation and understood its ramifications as events unfolded. Obama issued a boilerplate statement that generically demanded that everyone start getting along, and had to modify his stance as his 300 foreign-policy advisers had a chance to tutor him on the conflict.

I’d rather vote for the man who gets it right and has spent years studying foreign affairs, warfare, and American strategic needs than the man who makes it up as he goes along. McCain is right; this was a 3 AM moment, and Obama proved himself unprepared and unsuited to answer the call.

The irony of the "War on Terror" (man what a silly name) is that it made people forget that wars can be fast and involve "big countries" and that it doesn't have to be the US at fault.

We are not post history. Other nations are still jerks and bastards and nasty shit happens. It's not always our fault and sometimes we have to deal with it.

Ukraine Responds

Ukraine has bared russia from using it's Ports. And that counts the major one that Russia "leases" from the Ukraine.

This seems to have caught the Russians by surprise.

Finnaly a War to Protest

Charlie Foxtrot has a little checklist.

Naked Imperialist aggression? Check!

Indiscriminate bombing and killing of civilians? Check!

Designs on another nation's energy resources? Check!

Remember all those breathless, and wholly incorrect, charges leveled at he U.S. at numerous "peace" protests concerning the war in Iraq? Well now all those charges are *actually* happening in South Ossetia.....so where are the calls for vast marches on the National Mall, or in Paris or Berlin, to protest this *actual* imperialist aggression?? Nowhere to be seen....

Well... let's give them some time to organize their protests. I mean it's not like the "protester set" has a history of letting Russian agression slide.


Via Glen Reynolds

Uh oh

Russians bomb Georgian city

Wouldn’t this constitute a war crime, if deliberate? The Russians dropped bombs on the city of Gori today, killing civilians, while announcing that they had taken the capital of South Ossetia back from Georgia. Meanwhile, the US struggles to find a response that will contain the aggression and hostilities, but Georgia has war on its mind

The US, meanwhile, has tried talking with both sides, but unsurprisingly have not gotten far with either. Georgia claims that Russia started the war by supporting the separatist attacks and then escalated with their own attacks on Georgia proper; Russia claims that they are only fulfilling their role as peacekeepers and would stop if Georgia withdraws from South Ossetia. The Russians claim that the US got taken aback by Georgia’s actions, praising our efforts to defuse the crisis but noting that those efforts proved fruitless.