bloviators.net BloviBlog

‘Oh My!’ indeed.  Does anyone think North Korea’s successful test of a nuclear weapon and the subsequent launch of several short, medium, and long range missile systems is something to pay attention to?  I am not talking about the kind of attention where we go running to the UN with the misguided impression that they’ll actually do something about it, I mean the kind of attention where America decides to stand up and do what needs to be done.

This is how the recent history of the world has played out every time:

European nations sit around and talk about the power of negotiations.
The effectiveness of sanctions.
The need to resolve things peacefully.

Those all sound great on paper, but in the real world things don’t always work out like they do in the movies.  Somehow that point is lost on most of the world.  Sure, we all live on the same planet, but some of us have a, shall we say more rosy view of how things work.

The Bloviator is concerned about what North Korea is doing.  I would suggest that you think for yourself rather than listening to what you hear in the media every day.  There is reason to be worried here.  There is cause to pay attention.  This is more important than whoever won that damn ‘American Idol’ contest this year.  While I am concerned for the 30k+ troops we have in South Korea waiting to apply the beat-down if necessary, I am more concerned about the possibility that North Korea will sell this technology to more dangerous nations.

The Bloviator thinks this week has been one big sales demonstration.

Kim Jong Il is the leader/dictator of a poor and isolated nation that desperately wants to make it in the big leagues.  What better way than to make some noise, blast off some firecrackers (potentially capable of carrying a nuclear warhead) and show nations like Iran what’s on the market.

I sincerely hope that our president is paying attention and doing something behind the scenes.  If we continue to waste our time with the UN we will get nowhere, while North Korea continues to develop their weapons systems and potentially starts to sell them to even more dangerous nations.  Perhaps this is the “test” that Vice President Big Mouth mentioned on the campaign trail last fall.  Let us all hope that we are doing the right thing.

America, up to now, has had a proud tradition of stepping up and acting to do the right thing, even when such actions are not popular to the rest of the world.  America is supposed to stand up for freedom and prosperity, and not apologize for doing so afterwards.

The Bloviator, for one, would rather be safe and proud of what his country has done than be ‘liked’ by the rest of the world.  America acts first and asks for forgiveness, not permission, when the stakes are this high.

Wednesday afternoon Senator John McCain announced that he intended to suspend his campaign and return to Washington to do his part in assisting the $700 billion bail-out package to pass.  Specifically, McCain knows that he is crucial in delivering the the House republicans’ votes.

So – do we need McCain’s help or not?

If all you listen to is NPR, CNN, and MSNBC/NBC News, you might think we were close to a deal yesterday afternoon before McCain arrived for the meeting with the President and house & senate leaders.  Majority leader Harry Reid came out and made a statement that Senator McCain’s assistance was not needed and that he would only hurt the process.

However, less than 24 hours before Senator Reid made that comment he had personally called Senator McCain and explained to him how important it was going to be to have his support on the legislation.  So – which is it?  This perplexes The Bloviator, and it usually takes a lot for my eyes to cross.

McCain’s annoncement to suspend his campaign to, well…to do his job as a United States Senator, was brilliant.  Whether you believe it was a political move or not is beside the point.  He is the leader of the Republican party and is doing his job as a US Senator by returning to Washington to help work on this package.

That announcement came around 2:30pm ET on Wednesday and from that point until the Gallup daily tracking poll came out the next morning McCain had not only closed the gap in the polling, but had tied Obama at 46% each.  It would appear that many undecided voters did not think this was a political move.  In fact, the only playing of politics The Bloviator has seen was when Harry Reid announced that a deal was imminent on Thursday around noontime and McCain was not needed.  That, combined with the majority leader’s comments today speaking about a ‘nameless senator who flew in to town’ that caused the deal to fall apart, are clearly partisan moves trying to discount the role McCain is clearly playing in this process.  Senator Reid’s statement that we were anywhere close to a deal was inaccurate at best, and at worst a lie designed with the sole intent of attacking McCain.  There has been nothing constructive in anything Senator Reid has said this week, on any topic.

Senator Obama phones it in…

Senator Reid had to say something negative to try and derail McCain, especially since Senator Obama’s only plan (until the President called him to come to DC) was to be “on call.”

The Bloviator isn’t allowed to “work from home” so why should we pay our Senators more than $160,000 per year to not even go to the office?  Senator Obama basically told the country “Hey…I’ve got a campaign to run, so call me if you need me,” whereas Senator McCain said “Hey…this crisis is much too important for me to be focusing on my campaign, so I’m going to do my job.”

Were it not for President Bush calling on Obama to join the meetings on Thursday he would have remained in Clearwater, FL preparing for Friday’s debate.  Wait…didn’t Obama tell us a president was supposed to be able to multi-task?

With the reports of the deal falling through last night Senator Obama took the opportunity to make an “I told you statement” when he said that was what he hoped to avoid by not bringing presidential politics into the argument.  That is a silly argument in and of itself as either McCain or Obama is going to have to deal with the fall-out from this mess as president.  Any rational American would assume the next potential presidents would want input into the policies they are going to have to manage in just a few short months.

To Debate, or Not To Debate…that is the debate.

As part of Senator McCain’s plan to suspend his campaign he called for a delay in tonight’s presidential debate in Mississippi, citing concerns over the rocky debate of bail-out package.  Senator Obama immediately stated that he thought the debate should continue, and The Bloviator actually found himself agreeing with Obama on something.  The debate tonight is crucial, and based on past track records, will likely help McCain anyway as Senator Obama has not traditionally performed well in situations without a teleprompter to tell him what he thinks about something.  Do you remember the abortion question at the Saddleback Church forum?  I wonder what questions tonight might be ‘above Obama’s pay-grade.’

As of a little after noon Eastern time it appears the debate over the debate is over as McCain’s campaign announces they are resuming all activities and that McCain will attend the forum this evening.  The senator does intend to return to DC following the debate to review the final versions of any agreement that is reached.  It is widely perceived that any bill will not pass without the support of the House Republicans, whom which McCain can deliver.  While the democrats have the votes to pass the measure they do not dare do so without a wide base of republican support for fear of being held responsible if the package fails to fix the problem…or worse yet if the crisis intensifies as a result.

The Bloviator is sure he will not be able to contain himself during this evening’s debate, so look for posts hitting the blog in near real-time as the canidates meet for their first showdown.