Another One Bites the Dust Under the Bus

Another appointment under the bus, thank goodness. Freeman is out! The more that came out about him the worse it got. I researched him a good bit, but by the time I got to the fact that he thought 9/11 was our fault, I was done.

The bigger question is what silly galoof thought he was a good choice in the first place? Oh wait....

Saturday Round-Up

For the Saturday Round-up, another gratuitous hunk picture - Hugh Laurie.

Blogging may be light today as I am off to purchase a new router. My router has been dropping signals for a few weeks now and I've tried all troubleshooting tips I can find to no avail. So, off to big box store for new one.

The yard is begging to be mowed.

My mother is having a horrible vertigo attack today and I need to be over there instead of in front of my computer.

My house is covered in dust. My carpets need to be cleaned.

So much to do!

Political news this week has been grim; I'm sensing a growing unease with our president, but some would say that it's just what I'm choosing to read that makes me feel that way. I know that I personally have a growing unease - and yes, I've been uneasy from the beginning, so this is not news.

But, my mother received a letter this week from a relative who is from Britain and had lived most of her life in Argentina. She's been living in America for a large part of her adult life, married to my Dad's cousin. I couldn't tell you how old she is, but she's a mature, older lady. In her letter she expressed unease about Obama and said "it seems as if he will wreck this country if he is able to do all that he is promising to do" and then went on to say that "he is a wonderful speaker but when he speaks to the crowds he reminds me of our South American dictators in his tone and arrogance."

As far as this week's debacles go, the Charles Freeman thing is most troubling and I can't believe that the administration would think this guy is okay. How can they overlook these issues that come with Freeman? Thus the arrogance - it's a "we don't care what you think" attitude; it's not a Senate confirmed position anyway and we can do what we want. "We won." Arrogance.

The stock market is still nervous about Obama's plans. You can't blame the stock market on George Bush as the market looks forward, not backward. Obama's plans will increase the cost of living on all the middle class. Energy costs are going to increase some 40% if the cap and trade policy goes through as planned. That will more than eat up the $13 (then $7) per week increase the middle class will get. Of course, you realize, the tax tables aren't going to be revised and so you will eventually pay taxes on that little increase, which negates the whole thing yet again.

I can't think about this now; I have to go buy a router now and stimulate the economy a little bit!

Charles Freeman: NIC

What in the world is with the 'appointment-jinx' in the White House? Is it not possible to find someone who isn't controversial, who has actually paid taxes, or who doesn't have some skeleton in a closet somewhere?

Let's check the list, shall we?
Bill Richardson
Sen. Judd Gregg
Tom Daschle
Nancy Killefer

And then of course Geithner, who should have withdrawn; I mean, some of these other folks had tax issues also but they withdrew. Geithner did not. You could add Hilda Solis to the list but it was her husband who was the tax cheat, technically, and not Madame Hilda. What about Rahm and his failure to declare his rent-free apartment? It goes on and on.

Someone should check to be sure Obama's pick for chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Charles Freeman, has paid his taxes. If he hasn't, it would be the least of the issues against him.

The short version is that Freeman brings horrible associations and baggage to this job. As described by NRO, Freeman's role would be "determining what specific intelligence the president consumes from the torrents of information gathered...".

His resume includes president of the Middle East Policy Council which, coincidentally, received a huge endowment from the Saudi royal family. He was also a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and was chairman of Projects International, Inc, a company that develops international business deals. One of the companies he dealt with was the bin Laden family through their construction conglomerate. After 9/11 he said in an AP interview (via The Daily Beast) that he was still "discussing proposals with the BinLaden Group -- and that won't change."

The Wall Street Journal calls Freeman a "China-coddling Israel basher."

Decide for yourself. Here are some choice Freeman quotes:

On the massacre at Tinanamen Square in 1989: "The truly unforgivable mistake of the Chinese authorities was the failure to intervene on a timely basis to nip the demonstrations in the bud." (2006)

"Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them." (2007)

"The primary reason America confronts a terrorism problem today is the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by an Israeli occupation..." (2007)

In 2002, Freeman accused America of a "lack of introspection about September 11." As reported in NRO, "What commanded Freeman’s attention was not the jihadist ideology that brought about the murder of nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens, but what he described as 'an ugly mood of chauvinism' in the United States. Americans, he maintained, 'should examine ourselves' as we consider 'what might have caused the attack.'"

We caused the attack? Seriously? And this is who we're putting in charge of National Intelligence? This post does not require Senate confirmation hearings, sadly.

This appointment is meeting with some controversy already even though it has reportedly been offered and accepted. A group of GOP leaders, including Cantor and Boehner, have requested an investigation into his background and the conflicts it might bring. Stay tuned.