It's like it was with JFK. Just substitute "is a muslim terrorist" for "is a lackey of the Pope"; rest is the same. Then, you foment discontent among nut cases. Throwing lots of international challenges at him came next, and BHO should watch for at least a few Cuban style CIA inflamed crises.

THEN, when he's shown he really is change and hope, they just shoot him. And 20 years later, Americans will probably elect one of the henchmen, just like last time. Of course both are a kind of fluke, unless you accept that the Chicago machine is a legitimate force in American politics.

I think you mean "buffer" and suspect you're right.

Carla:

The real problem for the Redstate clan is they want Obama to screw up.

Bob T:

Yes, I suppose such idiots do exist, and they do on both sides. Bush's eight years were full of giddy blog and web idiots having a good time discussing and wishing for screw-ups.

Carla:

I suspect this outcomes serve to buffet Obama's very high favorability ratings.

Bob T:

Let's hope he doesn't count on this the way the Clinton team eagerly awaited new poll numbers following the cruise missile strike on Sudan.

Hey, isn't it a good thing to have a well-trained military full of such teams that can kill rather than arrest pieces of garbage like those three?

Bob Tiernan Portland

I believe I saw on Fox News that Rush Limbaugh personally led the rescue effort, I assume wearing his size XXXXXXXXXXL black jump suit.

It sounds like a fantastic performance by our Navy and Navy Seals, as well as a spot-on call by the President and his team.

If Redstaters want to compare and contrast, they should look no further than their other usual target, the French. Here is a particularly revealing look at how not to deal with the pirates, French-style.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/somali-pirates200904

The Navy kills seals. Quit pandering to their whiteshit wash. They're an assault team. Fuck the inspirational eponyms. Go rent one of your stoopid Hollywood morality stories about The Bad Men, the Great Man, the loyal followers and a lot of outcomes to inspirational music that have no causes.

Piracy only took off when we gutted everything and spat in the face of the law of the seas to make narcotics intervention the first, last and only priority. Have you forgotten how we screwed up Somalia at a critical time, just so 41 could stick Clinton's dick in a buzzsaw?

They're looking for an excuse blather on about how the President just can't handle the "3AM phone call".

Which is interesting, since they like to call Reagan the greatest President. So, they really think he could? Maybe if he had the number forwarded to his astrologer.

The U.S. government and E.U. are the real pirates.

"Dean" Rusk,

Right, they let Reagan sleep when the air fight was happening over Libya.

Tired of playing with their feces, it seems the residents of the primate house have some crims to bandy about!

Just how long are you going to have to evolve before it stops being about good guys and bad guys? Simple narratives for simple minds.

I want off. Don't you have some sugar to suck on?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html?view=print

I thought Obama was anti-war. Now that he has sunk his teeth into Thomas Jefferson type pirate ass kicking, all the liberals jump on the war band wagon. This is another case in point of democratic hypocricy.

Of course had George Bush attempted to handle the pirate issue during his tenure, Obama would have skewered him and David Wu would have made another stupid Kling-on speech, while Nancy and Harry would have voted for impeachment.

I wonder why it took so long for Obama to kick pirate asses.

I was in Operation Comfort as well as the operation after they drug the dead marine through the streets of Mogadishu. I called the second operation; Operation "Let them starve!"

I would have laid waste to them after they seized the first tanker. Put some reservists out there that need a little target practice.

Will we second guess Obama and talk smack for the next 5 years over the priate response? Will Republicans be a drag on America like Obama on Iraq over this issue?

I dont think so!

The circle is complete. Obama has become LBJ heavy with a little Corporate national Socialism thrown in....

I wonder if Rush brought his Red light saber along?

REPUBLICANS ROCK!

Hi Carla

He only attacked the pirates to take our minds off Lary Sinclair and impress Jodie Foster! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY7m5yfD2kM

Anyone complaining about the pirates needs to get a grip on reality. Or perhaps too many trips to the Disney version of pirates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XASbRbtTpLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7t7cGwN7_0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UqKRGW6_rw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3YqaIxDp_0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x39eRJA1aVU&feature=related

blblabla

Hooray for the Navy Seals, congratulations to the USS Bainbridge, too bad for the pirates. If this happened a lot more often, the pirates might find something else to do.

RE to Adam: I'm a libertarian.

Of course had George Bush attempted to handle the pirate issue during his tenure, Obama would have skewered him and David Wu would have made another stupid Kling-on speech, while Nancy and Harry would have voted for impeachment.

If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid wouldn't impeach for shredding the Constitution and getting the U.S. into an illegal war that evolved into a crime against humanity and a crippling financial burden it is difficult to conceive what it would have taken to move them to impeach Bush. Reid, Pelosi, Bush, Cheney - they were all key players in the Washington Establishment of which Obama is now one of the new members.

As a former merchant mariner I'm delighted that Captain Phillips was rescued; however, while listening to CNN and getting the Navy's story relayed by CNN's DoD stenographer I found myself thinking of the Army's stories of their "heroes," Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman and wondering how much of the Navy's story is true or if it has as much bullshit as the Army's when it used Lynch and Tillman for their dishonorable purposes.

There's been Somali pirates for at least the last 8 years. That would of given Good Old Boy President GW plenty of time to do something manly about them if he wasn't such a pansy.

Really, he just should of just sent Deadeye Dick Cheney over there. He would of shot all them pirates like a flock of pen raised quail.

Really this whole line of complaint against Obama is laughable.

Why do conservatives hate America?

Can't the neo-cons & right-wingers pull together a blog of their own? Has it come to this, the last vestiges of a dying party loitering and littering an area to make it unattractive because they have no place to go?
irritating. But I guess that is the point, the only way they know they are still alive, they've irritated someone.

While we're on this subject, it wouldn't hurt to run by Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli - one of a group of treaties to deal with pirates in the Atlantic and Mediterranean:

"Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

  This was ratified by unanimous vote of the Senate  - although not everybody was there that day - and signed by President John Adams in 1797. It would seem to indicate speration of church and state and was printed in newspapers of the time without causing any dissent.

On a day like today there are no liberals or conservatives, only proud Americans. I salute the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces who put their lives at risk to save a fellow American.

Let all who would threaten any American anywhere think twice; three sniper shots, three dead pirates. Yea baby!!

All the more appropriate coming on a day remembered for resurrection. God bless the United States of America.

The whole thing is a good reminder of a few things - 1. Left or right, negotiating with criminals willing to kill on terms other than surrender into custody or be killed is folly. Our allies have been paying ransoms right and left and all it does is increase piracy. We should be pressuring other countries NOT to pay ransoms. 2. The military is very very good at managing a rather narrow set of consequences of larger problems. Rescuing the captain was heroic. But that doesn't mean that the solution to the bigger problems Somalia is necessarily entirely a military one. 3. The blather in the blogosphere about pulling the trigger versus not pulling the trigger is idiotic. The real question is not whether or not the president is willing to pull the trigger, but whether using force is the appropriate response under the circumstances. Here, it clearly was - the limited use of force against specific people directly involved in a crime. That doesn't mean that bombing their home port and killing innocent people would be a good idea. He showed good judgment in choosing the most limited degree of force necessary to resolve the crisis, allowing him to address the larger issue more deliberately.

I will be the first to admit that I have written some pretty horrid things on this blog and others. However, using this Easter Sunday and a great moment to make a political point is a level I shudder when looking down at, from my cave 400 feet under the ground. Shame on you Carla.

That being said, I will jump into the fray :)

Carla, you are exactly right that redstate AKA Reagan's disciples want Obama to fail. Let me breakdown my humble opinion why:

1. Denial. Republicans do not want to admit that the US public rejected their values and policy positions in 2 consecutive elections. I surmise that they will still run the same run-of-the-mill "1994 and Reagan" crap come 2010 making it 4 consecutive losing campaigns.

2. Empty Pockets. I fail to see where Republicans get their money from? Democrats have the public sector Unions and inspirational candidates who use social networking sites to get millions in $10 to $25 donations. What do Republicans have?

3. Cantakerous Talking Heads. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Cavuto, Malkin, Ingraham, Coulter, O'Reilly, and on. None of these "Leave It to Beaver" types actually care about Republicans winning elections or the "Conservative" movement. All they care about is their own asinine polemical statements giving them the opportunity to plug their radio show or book on Fox News or whatever desperate channel will book them.

I could go on, but I do not want to murder Lincoln's Party.

The SEALs more than likely were on this from day one planning the op. They had to get a lifeboat like the one on the ship or a mock up of one. Then they figured out the best way to approach it and what team assets to use. Then they trained for the mission over and over. Then they had to get to the area. Once there it was just a matter of time. SOP.

Its not like they don't have contingency plans for these things. Just another day at the office.

Congratulations to our navy Seals. Thank God for the safe return of Capt. Philips ( who bartered himelf for the safety of his crew and ship). Thank you to our President who wisely stayed out of this publicly and allowed the professionals an ability to handle the immediate situation.

There have been pirates in those oceans since the 1800's. In fact the second line of the Marine Corps Hymn, "... to the shores of Tripoli;" refers to the first Barbary War of 1801 where the US took military action against muslim countries engaged in piracy.

It is not the shipping lines refusal to arm their mercgant marine members; rather complicated weapons laws of the very countries harboring the current day pirates that make armed protection difficult. That and the size of the mammouth ships themselves make the situation perfect for the quick attack style of these pirates.

Good for the United States in upping the ante for pirates. Like the French and English in the 18th century, many countries are paying ransoms and fees to these modern pirates instead of taking decisive action.

Speaking of St. Ronnie,

His administration made the hostage situation worse by routinely trading arms for their release. One would be released, and soon enough, another would be captured.

W. isn't a slam-dunk for Worst President because of Ronnie. In fact, W. is just the culmination of processes started under Ronald W. Reagan.

From a comment online in the Oregonian: As a citizen of Portland I must reassert these questions:

Did authorities verbally or in correspondence warn the pirates before this extralegal assassination?

Did American unilateral invasion of the seas, the property of all humankind not just the Americans, provoke these men to their piratical action?

Did this violence by the Americans really seem a proportionate response?

Now really, we come to the crux question: these nomads of the sea that have been murdered by the Americans must have left behind children and wives, perhaps several wives a piece - will there be adequate reparations?

As a citizen of Portland I must remind you that injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. Never forget that it was American capitalism that forced these men to this desperate measure to relieve the distress of their family (families).

I can only hope that this was extreme hyperbole....

Let all who would threaten any American anywhere think twice; ...

And that warning, if not the recent response, should apply not only to pirates on the oceans around the world but also to people in corporate boardrooms on Wall Street and Congress.

The shipping companies refuse to arm their crews and have demonstrated a willingness to pay ransoms. Thus, the pirate "business model" is a sound one, from their perspective. Change those two factors and piracy won't pay.

This statement obviously originated from someone who has spent most of his days in some comfortable office and next to none in the real world.

Commercial cargo ships only carry crews of 20 people or less and they are of varying degrees of physical and psychological fitness so arming them and expecting them to defend their ship with weapons would be, to put it mildly, problematic on dry cargo ships, such as the Maersk Alabama. In the case of oil tankers the situation would be much more difficult if the pirates had firepower that could cut through the ship's hull and penetrate the tanks.

If this problem is to be solved it will require the wisdom and courage of someone with great intelligence and humanity who can see the whole picture. Show me a coastline that is fraught with piracy and I'll show you a country where poverty and lawlessness prevail. John Wayne-type action might have worked in this instance, but it is no solution to the overall problem.

Tiernan sez: "Hey, isn't it a good thing to have a well-trained military full of such teams that can kill rather than arrest pieces of garbage like those three?"

Mr. Tiernan, I agree, arrest would have been preferable. Now please explain how that was going to be accomplished without Capt. Phillips being put in mortal danger.

Kari: For gawd's sake, block Brodhead's IP!! Let him spew over at Free Republic.

Let all who would threaten any American anywhere think twice; ...

And that warning, if not the recent response, should apply not only to pirates on the oceans around the world but also to people in corporate boardrooms on Wall Street and Congress.

The shipping companies refuse to arm their crews and have demonstrated a willingness to pay ransoms. Thus, the pirate "business model" is a sound one, from their perspective. Change those two factors and piracy won't pay.

This statement obviously originated from someone who has spent most of his days in some comfortable office and next to none in the real world.

Commercial cargo ships only carry crews of 20 people or less and they are of varying degrees of physical and psychological fitness so arming them and expecting them to defend their ship with weapons would be, to put it mildly, problematic on dry cargo ships, such as the Maersk Alabama. In the case of oil tankers the situation would be much more difficult if the pirates had firepower that could cut through the ship's hull and penetrate the tanks.

If this problem is to be solved it will require the wisdom and courage of someone with great intelligence and humanity who can see the whole picture. Show me a coastline that is fraught with piracy and I'll show you a country where poverty and lawlessness prevail. John Wayne-type action might have worked in this instance, but it is no solution to the overall problem.

It is interesting that everyone is happy about sniping the pirates without trial, but most progressives are ideologically opposed to the death penatly for murderers of children when there is due process.

Kari:

1. The shipping companies refuse to arm their crews and have demonstrated a willingness to pay ransoms.

Bob T:

Most or all of the countries the freighters pull into will not allow armed crews, and the thieves know it. If any crew hides some weapons and then winds up having to use them, that will create problems.

Yes, paying the ransoms has been considered the better deal. But it gets worse because since, seeing all of this in basic economic terms (which can't be avoided because that's reality), when you subsidize something you get more of it. Just ask the Dutch about the warehouses they had to build for storage of paintings by all those citizens who were told that their paintings (even stick figures) would be purchased by government if they wouldn't sell, and the buildings that had to be constructed and staffed to handle all of the "bad back" problems that appeared once the government decided that they would pay retirement pensions to anyone at any age who developed a "bad back" and could no longer work. So, we've reached a point where subsidizing piracy must end (and it should not have been allowed to get this far).

Bob Tiernan Portland

Let all who would threaten any American anywhere think twice; ...

And that warning, if not the recent response to the pirates, should apply not only to pirates on the oceans around the world but also to people in corporate boardrooms on Wall Street and Congress.

The shipping companies refuse to arm their crews and have demonstrated a willingness to pay ransoms. Thus, the pirate "business model" is a sound one, from their perspective. Change those two factors and piracy won't pay.

This statement obviously originated from someone who has spent most of his days in some comfortable office and next to none in the real world.

Commercial cargo ships only carry crews of 20 people or less and they are of varying degrees of physical and psychological fitness so arming them and expecting them to defend their ship with weapons would be, to put it mildly, problematic on dry cargo ships such as the Maersk Alabama. In the case of oil tankers the situation would be much more difficult if the pirates had firepower that could cut through the ship's hull and penetrate the tanks or incendiary devices to toss on the decks where smoking is always prohibited.

If this problem is to be solved it will require the wisdom, humanity and courage of people who can see the whole picture. The Somalis are the obvious targets for blame, but there are many others who have contributed to this chamber of horrors. Show me a coastline that is fraught with piracy and I'll show you a country where poverty and lawlessness prevail. John Wayne-type action might have worked in this isolated instance, but it is no solution to the overall problem.

Bob T:

Most or all of the countries the freighters pull into will not allow armed crews, and the thieves know it. If any crew hides some weapons and then winds up having to use them, that will create problems.

Bill B:

Close, but not right on the money, Bob. A ship can enter a foreign port with a supply of arms as long as those arms and each piece of ammunition are declared on a form presented to Customs on arrival. In most ports, the arms would have to be secured in a safe or some locker that would be sealed while the ship was in port. There were, and probably still are, exceptions where Customs or other officers might want to buy some of these goodies.

Jamais Vu, That quote is a real classic, isn't it? I forced it in based on the pirates topic because more people should know.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Indian Ocean connects to the Red Sea - where I went snorkeling as a kid - and that connects to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. Using your definition of connecting the Indian Ocean also connects to the Mediterranean through the Atlantic.

 The Suez Canal lost a lot of its strategic importance when the oil tankers started being so big they couldn't use it anyway.

 The connection everyone worries about now is the Strait of Hormuz. I could see the Persian Gulf from the roof of my house growing up, and if this narrow waterway ever gets pinched off, we'd feel it within hours.

 You won't see pirates pulling this crap in the Persian Gulf. The stakes are way too high there.

As criminal as these pirate activities might be they are relatively minor league when compared with how the "titans" of Wall Street and their concubines in Congress have plundered the United States.

Good point Bill, please remind us of the "titans" of Wall Street who have held a loaded weapon to the head of any US citiizen. If that is too difficult Bill, please tell of us any living human being that these "titans" have held a loaded weapon up against.

I'm waiting......

Good point Bill, please remind us of the "titans" of Wall Street who have held a loaded weapon to the head of any US citiizen. If that is too difficult Bill, please tell of us any living human being that these "titans" have held a loaded weapon up against.

How about Bernie Madoff and other Ponzi scheme operators who cost hundreds of people their life savings and 401(k)s and pulled the rug out from under charitable organizations? Is that okay with you, Kurt, as long as they don't hold a gun to the head of someone? And, how about the fact that the taxpayers are having to bail out a bunch of high rollers on Wall Street who lost hundreds of billions of other people's money? Okay with you? And, how about the millions of people losing their jobs and homes in part because of the games Wall Street "titans" played? Okay with you? These "titans" don't go in for mugging individuals with guns. That's for pikers. They do it wholesale shuffling paper and buying politicians in Congress.

By the way, Kurt, did you chuck Faux News after I agreed that Maddow and Olbermann had biases?

Frankly, I had never heard of Redstate until this kerfuffle came along. Their post is stupid and factually wrong, and I don't think anyone should take them seriously. They're not worth the psychic energy being expended on them.

The comment from the Oregonian quoted by Kurt Chapman (just above) bothers me more than the Redstate post. Proves the point that extremists on both ends of the spectrum are fools.

Good point Bill, please remind us of the "titans" of Wall Street who have held a loaded weapon to the head of any US citiizen. If that is too difficult Bill, please tell of us any living human being that these "titans" have held a loaded weapon up against.

This is from "Bad Money" by Kevin Phillips (Chapter 1):

"The behemoth financial conglomerates, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, et al., were liberated in 1990 for the first time since the 1930s to marshal banking, insurance, securities, and real estate under a single, vaulting institutional roof. Hedge funds, the bold boutiques, had multiplied from just a couple of hundred in the early 1990s to roughly ten thousand in mid-2007, deploying over $1.8 trillion in assets. Like digital buccaneers, (my emphasis) and hardly more restrained than their seventeenth-century predecessors, they arbitraged the nooks and crannies of global finance, capturing even more return on capital than casino operators made from one-armed bandits and favorable gaming-table odds."

Yes, but Bill they did not hold a loaded weapon to anyone's head. Bad people? Bad intentions? Bad results? Certainly Bernie Madoff is certainly one who should rot in hell. But he and the enron gang et.al. are not terrorist commiting murder.

And I got to hand it to you for the compelling admission regarding MSNBC, but no, I will continue to watch Fox; if only to counterbalance the equally left leaning drivel from MSNBC.

Kari,

I believe your factually incorrect regarding the shipping companies "refus(al) to arm their crews"...They are prohibited from doing so by most port authorities, who are worried about mariners arriving in their ports with firearms. If they were permitted to arm themselves, I'm sure some of them would.

If Clinton had not turned tail in Mogadishu, the Somalian "failed state" may have (with time and money) recovered.

Well, I think there's no question that the GOP bloviators and presidential wannabes, like Newt, were hoping for a disaster that they could pin to Obama, but as that didn't occur, they've just shifted their message to "see, this is why we need to spend more on the military." See Lowry's column in The O on Tuesday.

This is from "Bad Money" by Kevin Phillips (Chapter 1): "The behemoth financial conglomerates, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, et al., were ... Like digital buccaneers, (my emphasis) and hardly more restrained than their seventeenth-century predecessors, they arbitraged the nooks and crannies of global finance, capturing even more return on capital than casino operators made from one-armed bandits and favorable gaming-table odds."

There are two aspects to the piracy off the Somali coast. One is the money. The highest estimate for ransoms paid that I have heard or read is $180 million. For easy counting, let's say $200 million. Now compare that with Madoff's $50 billion (250 times as much), AIG's $180 billion (900 times as much) and the first Wall Street bailout of $350 billion (1,750 times as much). Compared with what the taxpayers and other people lost to these Wall Street wheeler-dealers the Somali pirate conglomerate got chump change. This does not justify this piracy but does put it in perspective.

The other aspect, that is the human element, is much more serious. Taking and holding hostages in the way the Somali pirates have done is vile and squalid and much more criminal. But compare that with what the Bush administration and their neocon supporters with the complicity of about three fourths of the politicians in Congress and a similar proportion of the American people did in Iraq. They started an illegal war and sent more than 4,000 American military personnel to early deaths, thousands to be maimed physically for the rest of their lives, and an unknown number to suffer from PTSD and commit suicide. The final financial cost has been estimated to eventually be two to three trillion dollars. In the case of the Iraqi people, for whom most Americans on the right probably don't give a damn, the scores are much worse. Responsible estimates put the figure up to a million dead, an untold number maimed, and two to four million refugees displaced from their homes.

Not to mention the destabilization effects throughout the Middle East.

Now let's consider the point that has so incensed Kurt Chapman (above) and others of his ilk. The pirates held a gun to Captain Phillips' head. This could be fiction like the Army's stories about Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, but let's say it was true. Does anyone with any sense think these three trapped pirates would have killed Captain Phillips at the time of this alleged incident? Let's assume the unthinkable and say they killed him. Then what? You have three hapless creatures in a lifeboat against a Navy ship with about 400 crew that could sink a battleship. Captain Phillips was the pirates' only bargaining chip. What could they have done if Captain Phillips was dead? Would they have told the commander of the USS Bainbridge, “We warned you not screw with us. You could have had Captain Phillips back alive for $20 million. Now, if you want your lifeboat back it will cost you $40 million.”

As a former merchant mariner I find our government's concern for the crew of this American ship to be a refreshing change from how the Johnson administration and Admiral McCain treated the crew of the USS Liberty in 1967.

Juan Cole's posting for today (4/14/09) at juancole dot com has a very interesting review of this event.

And I got to hand it to you for the compelling admission regarding MSNBC, but no, I will continue to watch Fox; if only to counterbalance the equally left leaning drivel from MSNBC.

In other words, you reneged on your promise to chuck Faux News. Not that I expected you to live up to it.

Imagine if GW Bush would have ordered the execution of these teenagers who now were reportedly wanting to give the Captain back and go home because they running low on food.

The cry's for bring up GW as a war criminal in The Hauge would be deafening by the national press and across the World. The progressives would flood the street protesting.

Obama, does it, and nothing, nada, some occasional puffery by progressives (Kurt) but no cry for Obama as a War Criminal and no protests on the street.

Imagine if GW Bush would have ordered the execution of these teenagers who now were reportedly wanting to give the Captain back and go home because they running low on food.

jonnie: It's about time you learned to think for yourself instead of letting Limpbag and Faux News stuff your head full of crap. If GW Bush could get away with starting an illegal war that has cost more than 4,000 Americans their lives it's beyond comprehension why people would raise hell over three teenage pirates.

<h2>PS: It's also about time for you to learn how to spell if you want people to take your comments seriously.</h2>