Reason Morning Links: Obama Speaks to UN, New Strategy in Afghanistan, New Policy on State Secrets

- Obama expected to give blunt speech to United Nations today.

- White House considering new strategy in Afghanistan war.

- Attorney General Holder may raise standards for federal government to invoke state secrets.

- FBI criticized for destroying its files on Walter Cronkite two years ago.

- Economist starts new column on innovation, entrepreneurship, and dynamism named after Joseph Schumpeter.

Comments

[FrBunny]

Obama expected to give blunt speech to United Nations today.

Resolved: Phillys are superior to Black n' Milds.

Aw, crap. That was racist, wasn't it?

[James Ard]

Why waste time destroying Walter Cronkite's FBI file? Everybody knows he was a soviet operative, or at least, every thing he did would be the same as if he was a soviet operative.

[franz kafka]

Ard
excellent post

[new englander]

SWAT plays Wii Bowling!!!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2009/09/22/nr.wii.bowling.raid.cnn

[John Tagliaferro]

Obama expected to give blunt speech to United Nations today.

Rollin' a big fattie?

[hmm]

? Obama expected to give blunt speech to United Nations today.

As in how to roll a blunt and what cigar to use?

[hmm]

Damnit missed it by that much.

[J sub D]

Obama expected to give blunt speech to United Nations today.

Yea! The UN is gonna get serious and responsible now. Woo Hoo! We are on the threshold of a golden age of international cooperation and rational altristic behavior by the United Nations members, forthrightly and selflessly dealing with the world's problems.

[FrBunny]

I wonder if the representative from Tatooine will call for a vote of "no confidence"?

[J sub D]

Attorney General Holder may raise standards for federal government to invoke state secrets.

If this happens (it will take time to ascertain if this is more than PR window dressing), I will laud the AG and his boss for it.

[John]

It will happen J sub D, but it won't mean anything. We over classify so much crap that you could declasify 80% of it and still not release anything of value or do anything for transparancy of the government. Whoopi, that e-mail I sent on SIPR yesterday about some mundane matter will get declasified. It is a shell game.

[Warty]

U.N. is right, you can't get any more un-.

[John Tagliaferro]

From the UN speech:

"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Mr. Obama said in a passage of the speech he was delivering Wednesday to the United Nations General Assembly.

Did not see where he told them to leave. At least he didn't surrender to anybody.

[John Tagliaferro]

More at the UN:

He said if the world is honest with itself, it has fallen woefully short.

"Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world," Mr. Obama said. "Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease."

'Global warming' hidden but not forgotten.

[Whatchoo Lookin\' At]

As in how to roll a blunt and what cigar to use?

Puns are the lowest form of humor.

[FrBunny]

Puns are the lowest form of humor.

They are naught.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Puns are the lowest form of humor.

Which is why anyone who mines that vein of humor probably does so in underground clubs.

[Rich]

FrBunny FTW!

[Hugh Akston]

Which is why anyone who mines that vein of humor probably does so in underground clubs.

He that does so indeed mines in vain.

[Meta4]

Mike Myers says it's foolish to catagorize comedy. Something is either funny or it isn't.

[John Tagliaferro]

Something is either funny or it isn't.

That is only true for binary comedy.

[Jason Woods]

LOL, unreal dude these guys are insane!

RT
http://www.online-privacy.us.tc

[Art-P.O.G.]

And Anon-Guy definitely is funny.

[Xeones]

If by "funny" you mean "smacked up in an alley somewhere," i agree with Art.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Xeones is clearly a man who knows how to read between the lines.

[akorozco]

The White House better be "considering new strategy." Nobody's happy with the path we're on now in Afghanistan. http://www.newsy.com/videos/finding_the_right_path_in_afghanistan

[Fred Allen]

Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.

[TrickyVic]

"""That is only true for binary comedy."""

There are only 10 people understand binary, those who do, and those who don't.

[Xeones]

TrickyVic, that joke is so old that the first time i heard it i dropped my stack of punch-cards and couldn't program my Jacquard loom anymore.

[Meta4]

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News Sunday on September 20 that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." But her claim crumbles before the $548,213.25 federal tax lien that the Internal Revenue Service filed against the embattled New Orleans-based activist organization. Louisiana state tax officials also have slapped $334,121.43 in tax liens on ACORN since last October 29.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjgzMGExNzJlYjIwNTYwNDljZDY1NGQ5YzQzZDljOWM=

[Meta4]

Also from the article (ACORN is toast!):

As if its federal woes were insufficient, ACORN is in big trouble with Baton Rouge, too.

"We have a full-scale investigation into ACORN and all of its subsidiaries," Tammi Arender, spokesman for Louisiana Attorney General Bobby Caldwell recently stated. "No stone will be left unturned. We're still looking into their recent activities." Caldwell subpoenaed ACORN, former ACORN head Wade Rathke, and the group's financial institution, Whitney Bank. Caldwell seeks information stretching back to 1998 on ACORN and some 361 tax-exempt and non-tax-exempt outfits in its universe.

[Publilius]

There are only 10 people understand binary, those who do, and those who don't.

I thought it was, "There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't."

If only DEAD people understand hexadecimal, how many people is that?

[B]

Wow, Obama is looking for ways to break his campaign promises on Afghanistan. I just love how Bush was constantly pilloried by the Democrats for supposedly not listening to what his commanders wanted, yet they are now pushing a plan by Biden (you can't be fucking serious) instead of listening to General McChrystal. Joe Biden is the most inconsequential Vice President in US history, yet we are giving his brain dead ramblings precedence over those of the guy in charge of fighting the war in Afghanistan? This piece of shit president is incompetent beyond the wildest dreams of the most rabid Obama hater.

[GILMORE]

Is there a video "greatest hits" of Qadaffi's speech anywhere? I hear he went off

e.g.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/world/24nations.html?hp

Surprising? no. But always amusing