Barack Obama continues to this day, well beyond his campaigning period, to blame the last president for his (Obama’s) own failures — for example, the 10% unemployment rate that Obama clearly owns after spewing forth one of the first of his hideous lies last year, that his stimulus would keep unemployment under that figure.

Meanwhile, the former president that Obama scorns so has this to say:

GREGORY: In some circles, the President’s been criticized for politicizing this disaster. Do you think that’s fair?

BUSH: I don’t know what they’re talking about. I’ve been briefed by the President about the response. And as I said in my opening comment, I appreciate the President’s quick response to this disaster.

So yeah. I’d never put myself forward as an example of someone with class, but I’ll say this: president Bush’s graceful answer to a question that gave him a huge opening to bray like Al “He betrayed us!” Gore demonstrates far more class than the current president who tapped Bush to help with aid efforts while still blaming him for his own failures. And that’s got to just kill Bush bashing libs if they’re honest with themselves.

But I don’t. From that bane of Democratic politicians, Game Change:

After his election as Senator a lot of requests came in for him to speak..many of them fundraisers for other candidates. They required registration systems be set up that allowed Obama to get the email of all attendees for someone else’s event. But that is a digression. His aides were “praying it wouldn’t go to Obama’s head; his ego was robust enough already. They even conferred on the senator a new nickname: Black Jesus.”

Black Jesus. His aides called him that.

Ahem. You can bet your ass you’ll see the narcissist in chief referred to as “Black Jesus” on this blog now and again. Hell, if it’s good enough for his own aides, it’s got to be good enough for a bitter clinger, right?

You’ve got to love Obama’s spinners, the air of desperation they exude is more savory than most, because they insisted to us for the past three years that Obama was so precious, so special that we’d all just keel over and gaze into his light once he had the office he sought.

Only not so much:

“This is a Creigh Deeds situation,” the Democrat says. “I don’t think it says that the Obama agenda is a problem. I think it says, 1) that she’s a terrible candidate, 2) that she ran a terrible campaign, 3) that the climate is difficult but she should have been able to overcome it, and 4) that Democrats beware — you better run good campaigns, or you’re going to lose.”

No, of course the precious’s agenda isn’t a problem. Why, his own approval ratings are only the lowest ever fucking recorded for a president in his second year. And yes, Obamites, that’s a Fox News link. Feel free to ignore it, as it’s not a real news organization, per your messiah. Ignore those Rasmussen polls too, by all means.

Virginia. New Jersey. New Jersey, for crying out loud! But Massachusetts? Democrats are perilously close to losing JFK’s Senate seat, and they honestly think it is the candidate in Massachusetts who is at fault? Before Obama started shafting the country in favor of his liberal elite buddies and union sycophants (and demonstrating just what he meant by “post-racial” during his lying, hypocritical campaign), they would have elected a fucking ham sandwich in Massachusetts before they elected a Republican.

That’s OK, though, Obamites. Just keep telling yourselves there’s nothing wrong with The Won’s agenda. I’ll check back with you in November and we can talk about it some more.

Hm. Lee Stranahan, a Huffpo blogger who supported, worked for, and voted for Barack Obama, has something he’d like you to see:

The interesting statement to me is right at the beginning: Stranahan doesn’t know what Obama stands for. Well, Lee, a lot of us couldn’t figure that out during the primaries or the election either, and when we said so, we were called racists and worse.

I’m beyond even getting pissed off over this any longer.

In keeping with the blog coming back to its old format (that’s a nice way of saying you guys only have to deal with my bullshit now), here’s something I wanted to write about during the hiatus, but didn’t feel comfortable throwing on the front page of a pure political site. My wife and I went to Costa Rica right before Christmas to get some dental work done, given the four local dentists and seven local oral surgeons we got quotes from averaged around $25,000.00 for the work we needed. My father had been to a dentist’s office in Costa Rica in 2005 to have some veneers and a few other things done, and he was really happy with the work, so we decided to get a quote from the same folks.

The quote from Costa Rica was $10,000.00. Add in $800 for a week’s hotel stay, $800 more for airfare, and $500.00 for eating and getting around town (we didn’t plan a lot of tourism, given we were expecting to be in quite a bit of pain that week), and we would still save $12,900.00.

That’s a no-brainer, right?

So we made appointments with the fine folks at Prisma Dental in San Jose, booked our tickets, reserved our hotel, and started to read everything we could get our hands on about Costa Rica. Sadly, we did rule out most tourism, given we needed pretty extensive work and expected to be miserable for most of the trip, but we were going to be staying in San Jose for eight days, so we did scout out museums, shopping, etc. in the city so that we’d at least be able to make a few day trips.

We arrived in San Jose late on a Thursday night (around 9:30PM), and had an uneventful disembarkation and experience with Customs and Immigration. Once we left the baggage claim area, though, we ran into bedlam, even at that time of night — Like several other International airports I’ve been to in the last few years, this one had a crowd of scruffy looking individuals attempting to lure travelers into their “taxis” — their personal automobiles, in which they will either take you to your destination and overcharge you severely, or take you somewhere and dismember you. Fortunately, at Juan Santamaria International Airport, there is a contracted cab service. It is something of a racket itself, in that you tell someone behind a window where you are going, and they collect the fare at the window before putting you in a cab, but it is still preferable to dismemberment or worse (and I see the airport will be sourcing the contract again, because of this little racket the current contract holder set up). Once the fare was paid, however, we simply hopped in our cab, gave the driver one of the little cards I had printed before we left home with the hotel’s address on it, and we were off.

Now, you’ll probably have noted that if I spoke any Spanish whatsoever, I’d have simply told the driver our destination. Fact is, neither my wife nor I have any Spanish beyond “Dos Cervezas, por favor”…and that wasn’t an issue but for one or two occasions on the entire trip. All of the Airport staff, the hotel staff, and most retail stores (with the exception of the pharmacy, which we’ll talk about later) seemed to have enough English to make communication a non-issue.

The hotel we selected was the Quality Hotel in Santa Anna, roughly 6 miles from San Jose proper. The main reason for this was what we had read about San Jose and the crime level there — We were concerned about the potential of purse snatching, robbery, mugging or whatever while I would be somewhat incapacitated with a devastated oral cavity and a foggy head from pain medication. I have to seriously pat myself on the back for this choice…not only was the hotel brand new and simply gorgeous (fully equipped with swimming pool, gym with treadmills, dumbbells, and benches, a business center with three PCs on high speed internet, 24-hour room service, and a free breakfast buffet that rivals anything I’ve ever seen), but the area was super nice (restaurants and shopping within walking distance, with none of the slinky, threatening vibe that hovers over San Jose), and the staff were excellent.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel buffet (which runs, incredibly, from 5AM to 10AM), then took a cab to Prisma Dental, arriving at 9AM for what we thought was my wife’s evaluation appointment. I was a bit surprised to be called to the back myself, but Tiffany, the super cool office manager with the perfect English assured me that my wife would also be seen in a few minutes. I was set up in a dental chair, and by about 9:07AM, Dr. Telma Rubinstein, one half of the couple who own Prisma (her husband, Dr. Josef Cordero would be seeing my wife in a few minutes) was examining my teeth.

I wasn’t surprised at her expression of concern, as I knew I was in terrible need of a bunch of fillings, a root canal, and some crowns — remember, we had gotten numerous quotes in the States. I was a bit surprised to find that I didn’t have enough bone mass in my jaw to support dental implants for three missing teeth I had planned to replace, but Dr. Rubinstein explained to me that I could choose either to have bone grafts done to support the implants, or to opt for a partial denture for those teeth. Upon hearing her explain that I would also have to have a sinus lift to allow for the implants, I decided to go with the partial denture. The entire evaluation and final price quote was complete by 9:30AM, by which time I was thoroughly impressed with the facility, the staff, and Dr. Rubinstein. I had anticipated finishing up by 11AM or so, then waiting the rest of the day while my wife’s work was completed.

That, however, was not to be. I learned immediately that Doctors Rubinstein and Cordero do not waste time — my wife and I were ushered to separate chairs, and the work began immediately. That Friday was the longest day of my life to date…I spent 8 hours straight in the dental chair, starting with a root canal by Doctor Hernandez, who put me entirely at ease (although he did hit a nerve in my lower jaw while injecting novocaine, I forgive him for it in light of the fact that was the only pain I experienced during the procedure, which he referred to as an “extreme” root canal), and followed by nine fillings and having seven teeth ground down in preparation for crowns. All three of the Doctors worked on me at one point or another, and as I went from room to room, I could see that there were several other patients in addition to my wife and myself being treated that day. At about 5:30PM I was finally finished, and Tiffany gave me a prescription for pain medication and pointed us to the pharmacy (Farmacia) two blocks away.

We picked up our prescriptions with no problem, although the pharmacy staff spoke no English (or pretended not to), and were somewhat unfriendly. This was not the norm, as we visited several other pharmacies during our trip (either for different prescriptions from the dentists, or for OTC stuff we hadn’t packed), and the staff there were super friendly and spoke excellent English. If you ever find yourself in Rohrmoser, though, don’t go to the Farmacia Fischel in Plaza Mayor — wait to go somewhere else. Somewhere else, for example, like the Farmacia Fischel or Farmacia Sucre in the Multicenter in Escazu (about 2 miles from Santa Anna).

The Multicenter is a mall the likes of which I’ve never seen even in our own U.S. mall culture…this place is huge. Three levels, enough restaurants to feed the city, and even a grocery store (the Auto Mercado). The Escazu area is full of American expatriates and retirees, and the affluence shows. You can walk in any direction and never be out of eyeshot of a Costa Rican police officer — A well groomed, English speaking one at that, who won’t hold you up for a bribe. From Cuban cigars to designer clothing, the Multicenter has it, and as you might imagine, my wife made me go into every store. That was an entire afternoon and evening gone.

The bit about the police officer is important, by the way. We read a lot about crime in Costa Rica, and especially in San Jose before we left, but the city more than lived up to everything Frommer’s had to say about it. Our first afternoon at the dentist’s office, a man came up the stairs complaining that he had been held up at knife point in the parking lot right outside…in broad daylight. When we went downtown to see the Gold museum and the National Theater, the cab driver tried to talk us out of even getting out of the car, and when we did, instructed us sternly to speak to no one, ignore any taunts or threats, stay on the main streets, don’t look any “youths” in the eye, and keep a firm hand on belongings. He told us to stay away from the police, as they were likely to demand a bribe as soon as they realized you were foreign. In the event, we had no trouble…I’m a fairly big guy, and my wife has a Hispanic look about her, so those may have been factors, but there is definitely a nasty, brutish sort of atmosphere around San Jose that is palpable at times. Guests at our hotel, a Danish couple we met on a walk, and some German tourists at the National Theater all told of being robbed at knife point (one at gunpoint), or of having purses or cameras snatched out of their hands by “youths” on motorcycles. It’s a shame, really, as there is a lot of really beautiful old architecture in San Jose to see, but most folks simply use the city as a point of ingress for air travel, moving on to the beaches or the rain forest for most of their stay because of the amount of violent crime one risks while in the city.

We were, as I expected, too battle scarred from our dental visits (we had two more each during that week) to do much touring, but we did take all of Wednesday to go to the Mount Paes volcano and a coffee plantation, which was really cool. We simply went to the tourist desk at the lobby of the Gran Hotel downtown San Jose and selected & paid for a tour, and the van picked us up the next morning. In all it was a great experience, and as my wife has to go back in May to have her implants completed, we’ll probably make another week of it. That gives me five months or so to learn as much Spanish as I can, and to save up some loot to do a bit more touring this time around, as the dental work won’t be as traumatic, and only one of us is having it.

I can’t recommend Drs. Rubinstein, Cordero, and Hernandez enough…they and their staff are friendly, professional, and absolutely fantastic at what they do. The quality of the work they do easily matches or surpasses anything I’ve had done in the States, and their prices are unbelievably low compared to what you would pay anywhere here. I’m looking forward to sampling a bit more “Pura Vida” on our next trip!

We’ve had some rows here in the past regarding this president’s treatment of our British ally. I’ve maintained that Obama’s actions towards the British since entering office have been overtly disdainful, and sneeringly patronizing: Returning the bust of Churchill from the Oval Office, presenting the Queen with an iPod featuring a mix tape of Obama’s greatest hits, presenting the prime minister with a set of DVDs that won’t even play on Euro hardware, and the various diplomatic snubs he’s tossed their way. I might have chalked that up to inexperience at first (this guy is, after all, clearly having more trouble with his on the job education than he anticipated), but as the roster of snubs piled up, it became clear that Obama really just isn’t that into our old ally.

Well, when it comes to sneering, disdaining, and yes, payback, Barack Obama is a rank amateur compared to the British, and it appears he may be reaping the beginning of his comeuppance:

Barack Obama is under pressure to disclose what information MI5 passed to the American authorities about the Detroit bomber after Downing Street disclosed that a file had been “shared” with the CIA in 2008.

After initially denying that they had received British intelligence, senior American sources confirmed last night that they were “reviewing” what British information had been received on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

The admission is embarrassing for the White House and threatens to provoke a rift with Gordon Brown. The conflicting briefing over the shared intelligence also suggests that the transatlantic relationship may have weakened in recent months.

Uh-oh. If there’s one thing president “I Won” doesn’t like to even think about, it’s being embarrassed.

The combination of presuming himself so popular that European leaders won’t call him on his arrogance and the huge mistake of attacking our intelligence agencies in tandem with his pet lawyer Holder (really: how stupid is it to attack the guys who can leak your ass into electoral oblivion?) may put the final stamp of a one-term president on Barack Obama. Here at home, the nefarious process used to pass the health care boondoggle, the failure of the stimulus to relieve unemployment, and the clear rank incompetence of the administration in keeping their eye on American safety (tasking intelligence gathering agencies and equipment with collecting global warming data? Really?) while they scramble desperately to pass 50-year old liberal wish list legislation is going to hurt Obama badly enough. Throw in what is shaping up to be a horrible election year for Democrats and foreign policy disasters he’s brewing up among our Eastern European allies, our British ally, and the complete, utter goat fuck he’s made of the Israeli / Palestinian “peace” process, and you’ve got a guy whose record actually looks worse than Jimmy Carter’s.

I love this (in regards to the health insurance “reform” boondoggle) from TNR:

Whatever form the final discussions take place, a decision to bypass conference would undoubtedly expedite the debate, clearing the way for final passage (if not signing) by the end of January. And, as long as both chambers still get their say, that’s a good thing.

Yes, Republicans are sure to complain that they’re being excluded from deliberations. But given their repeated efforts to block not just reform but even mere votes on reform, it’s not clear why Democrats are obligated to include them in discussions anymore.

That’s a quote that the author is just begging to have thrown back in his face, isn’t it? Just wait, by-God, until a GOP congress (and yes, kids, there will be another one of those someday) does something that even hints Democrats in the minority shouldn’t be included in discussions or negotiations.

Well. It’s not as if the netroots can get any uglier, or nastier when such an event comes to pass, but I’ll guarantee you supposedly reasonable “center-left” blogs like the one at TNR will enter shrill, screechy, hateful mode immediately. And when that happens, Jonathan Cohn, if he’s wailing, should have this tossed at him quite literally, via paper airplane if necessary.

Like the sudden interest on the left in getting rid of the filibuster, all I can say is be careful what you ask for. Lord help us all if you hyper-partisan activists not only get someone like, say, Mitt Romney elected in 2012, but also clear the decks for him to use a GOP congress to shove Mitt-centric legislation down our collective throats. It’s not as if two years of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid won’t cause enough damage, after all.

That’s the question I asked myself after the scale told its horrific tale this morning…between Oktoberfest in Helen on October 14th and lunch at Ryan’s yesterday, I gained 22.2 pounds over the holidays.

That is a lot of weight, at 45 years of age. Now, I can probably lose it in a month, maybe 6 weeks, but it is going to be tough. It gets tougher every year.

So I’ll be getting up an hour earlier for the next month to month and a half in order to do an hour on the treadmill, and that’s on top of my normal 2 mile daily run. Serves me right, I suppose.

Here’s a note for my kids: You’re all skinny buggers right now, but mark my words, you have it in your genetic code to get fat. I’ve fought since I left active duty, successfully for the most part, but it is a fight, no doubt about it. Don’t get too enamored of cheese, baguettes, or, for God’s sake, beer, and you’ll probably be OK.

In other health / fitness related news, the timing for this couldn’t be worse, because of course the first Monday in January every year marks the beginning of the first of two of what I call “heavy quarters” (winter and summer) — The quarters of the year where I focus on lifting heavier weights, with a few less reps to try to gain a few pounds of muscle. The other two quarters (spring and fall) are moderately lighter weights with no rep count at all, just going to failure. So what I’ve done to myself now is create a “heavy quarter” where I have to limit calories. That’s just not going to be so good for me.

One day I’ll learn, but apparently that day ain’t here yet. So, as usual I’ll post my diet progress, and give you all an opportunity to suffer vicariously with your Daddy.

Update: Almost missed the opportunity to plug one of my favorite tools — The free calorie counter at about.com. This thing is really good, it gives you many of the options that pay sites such as southbeachdiet.com or ediets.com have, but free of charge. You can create a food log, a weight log, and even set goals which the software will coach you along with. For those of you who need a little more support, there are also communities right there on the site, enough to choose from that your demographic is almost guaranteed to be there. Give it a try if you have weight to lose, or just want to reshape yourself — As I said, it’s free. What do you have to lose?

Well, well. Kathleen Parker, one of the leading lights of the Obamacon brigade who spent so much effort in 2008 writing to convince moderate conservatives and Independents that Obama was really a safe bet, then spent the period immediately after the election going viciously after the conservative base, the GOP leadership, and Andy Sullivan’s “Christianists”, has apparently had a visit from her conscience.

A bit too late, Ms. Parker, but instructive nonetheless:

Every president deserves a year of grace to adapt to the job and adjust to its Himalayan learning curve. As Obama’s first year ends — almost with a bang, thanks to a lonely Nigerian who found love in jihad — his grace period is up.

Indeed, depending on how he responds to the security breach that almost brought down a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam, Obama’s presidency is at risk of being rendered prematurely impotent.

If Bush could be blamed for the dot-connecting inadequacies that helped enable the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, eight months into his administration, then Obama can fairly be held responsible for the incompetence that allowed a disaffected jihadist to get explosive powder onto a plane.

(bold mine)

Hm. A point I’ve made myself, actually. Not that your admirers on the left will appreciate your making it, Ms. Parker (in fact, I predict you’re going to hear a lot about having written for NRO before your WAPO gig, now that you aren’t peddling the Obama as cool, calm, moderate lefty line — This week, anyway), nor will the Obama press shop be quite as receptive to your calls any longer.

Why, the next thing you know, Christopher Buckley or David Frum might express concern regarding what the vast majority of Americans are already worried about: This president, and this administration are either hopelessly inept when it comes to national security, or they are so wrapped up in their mad rush to pass huge tax increases in the guise of health insurance reform and climate change legislation, electoral advantages for themselves in the form of immigration “reform” and giveaways to labor unions, and mad power grabs like takeovers of auto firms and financing companies that they don’t have time to take care of that most important aspect of their duties — The safety of the American people.

Let’s review, shall we?

The United States of America is now making deals with Terrorists.

Obama has completely pissed off the Intelligence Community. A few well-placed leaks by these guys, and he’s a lame duck after one year in office.

Despite incontrovertible evidence that Yemen is a jihadi breeding and training ground, Obama still intends to release Gitmo detainees to that country.

In Obama’s third statement after the attempted Christmas bombing, he’s still pushing the trope of poverty stricken Muslims becoming terrorists, when we already know this guy Mutallab was, by any stretch of the imagination, extremely privileged. Obama’s also still referring to Mutallab as “the suspect”, for God’s sake.

And then this morning, Janet Napolitano tells us that hey, it is our goddamned job to watch our own asses on airplanes, not hers, her departments, or Barack Obama’s:

I think we do a disservice if we tell people there are 100 percent guarantees. I think we tell them we’re doing everything we can to reduce risk. I think we tell people that they are also part of the system. I mean, the passengers on this plane were a line of defense, the flight crew were a line of defense. So everybody has a shared responsibility here. You can’t just say, well, this government department or that government department’s got the whole shebang.

Yeah, these clowns are doing “everything they can” to keep Americans safe. But hey, Kathleen Parker made the jump from NRO to the WAPO’s opinion page, so there’s that. Well done.

In the meantime (via Glenn), “Belief that the bad guys are winning the War on Terror is now at its highest level in over two years, and nearly half of U.S. voters say America is not safer than it was before 9/11.” But wait, I’m sure the Obami and their admirers will ignore that polling…it’s Rasmussen, and Rasmussen today is hated only slightly less than Fox News by Democrats. Oh, and by Andrew Sullivan, he of “no party or clique” (chortle). Well, we know Andrew around here, and Politico’s description of those deriding Rasmussen fits him to a “T”:

The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda.

(bold mine)

Hm. Well, the tactic being used by Obama and his folks against Rasmussen ties right in with the tactic they appear to favor where the threat of terrorism is concerned…ignore it and it will go away. It is a tactic my kids favored when they were in their teens, too — And it usually ended badly.

Oh yes, those presidential daily briefings…to hear from the likes of Markos Moulitsas and the denizens of Democratic Underground, key issues or warnings in a presidential briefing that don’t bring about immediate activity that produces dramatic, verifiable results in stopping an act of terrorism “man-made disaster” should be taken as a) clear sign of incompetence on the administration’s part, or b) clear evidence that the attack was “LIHOP” or “MIHOP”, and the administration is in on it.

So given the fact that Barack “da Bomb” Obama received a briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the US, and yet an apparently not too bright Islamist fanatic still managed to get through security with his bomb components and almost destroy a great number of people, what would that tell these folks who have insisted for so long that the August 6th PDB should have been grounds for impeachment? What do these folks have to say about the responsibility Obama himself holds for the events that just unfolded over one of our busiest travel seasons?

Shit, they are too busy defending Janet Napolitano to even consider the damage all this could do their wunderkind. If fact, they’re so confident he’ll step out of this smelling like roses that they are posting this little gem again:

Well, Joan Walsh gives us a hint, of what they’ll tell us, I suppose…dissent, it is clear, is no longer the highest form of patriotism. Not that we didn’t all see that one coming as soon as it was clear the next president would be a Democrat, and a black one to boot:

The climate right now is that Republicans use everything they can to undermine and delegitimize this president. And it‘s actually un-American. It‘s traitorous, in my opinion. Do you want to give aid and comfort to our enemies? Continue to treat this president like he wasn‘t elected and he doesn‘t know what he‘s doing! He knows what he did. He knows what he‘s doing. I‘m proud of him. I believe that he has the stalwart, resolute nature to get this done.

Good to know. Hell, I’ve been proposing for years that Democrats acted in an un-American, traitorous manner towards George Bush simply by virtue of having done everything they did to undermine and delegitimize him (remember “selected, not elected”?) Why, did they want to give aid and comfort to our enemies?