Yesterday’s White House Bergdahl spin is just more B.S.

The Obama administration told senators it didn’t notify Congress about the pending swap of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban officials because of intelligence the Taliban might kill him if the deal was made public.

Courtesy of NRO…

Allahpundit noticed problem number one, from the New York Times, May 9, 2012:

The parents of the only American soldier held captive by Afghan insurgents have broken a yearlong silence about the status of their son, abruptly making public that he is a focus of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Taliban over a proposed prisoner exchange.

The negotiations, currently stalled, involved a trade of five Taliban prisoners held at the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of the Army, who is believed to be held by the militant Haqqani network in the tribal area of Pakistan’s northwest frontier, on the Afghan border.

Then John Sexton noticed this Associated Press report from June 20, 2013, roughly one year ago:

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Attempting to distract the American people from the Benghazi, VA and other scandals, President Obama committed another major blunder instead of the media coup he desired.  The illegally executed, ill-considered trade for Sgt. Bergdahl aids the enemy and will cost Americans and many others their freedom and/or their lives.

According to the military Sgt. Bergdahl was not a prisoner of war.  He voluntarily and secretly abandoned his post in Afghanistan, reportedly to join the enemy.  Soldiers in his unit call him a “deserter” if not a “traitor”, and some believe that he gave the enemy information that helped them kill more Americans.

The trade for Sgt. Bergdahl released five top Taliban terrorist (unlawful enemy combatant, not soldier) leaders including some al Queda members and some wanted by the World Court for War Crimes (for killing thousands of civilians).  From a danger standpoint, Viet Nam veterans should consider these terrorist commanders as dangerous as Viet Cong or North Vietnamese Commanders like General Giap.  WWII veterans should consider them as dangerous as Commanders like Admiral Yamamoto, who planned and attacked Pearl Harbor, or Field Marshal Rommel, who won many victories, including beating our army at the Kasserine Pass.  Such trades would have been unthinkable because such trades would, just like this trade will, cause many thousands of people to suffer and die.

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When Liberals attempt to make hay out of today’s Labor Report, you should nudge them to look at all the data, not just the parts that soothe their cognitive dissonance about this economy and the disaster that is the Obama administration’s mishandling of it.

And, after all, data must always be put into context and shown relative to historical trends – it can always be made to look good in isolation.

The first metric in the report shows that the economy added 217,000 jobs in May, a little short of the predicted 218,000.  Not a tragic difference, so they will try to applaud that.  Fine.  I’m glad these people got jobs.

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Seriously,  this Political Correctness on campuses is just getting well past “Stuck on Stupid”.  Does anyone study any serious subjects anymore?  Or is this stuff just the end result of the intersection of the Self-Esteem Trophy movement in our educational system with the Cultural Marxist (aka, Political Correctness) – just a huge puddle of precious snowflakes that are too fragile for normal life?  This from The College Fix (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Stanford University’s Inter-Sorority Council hosted a public forum last week in response to protests against a Cinco de Mayo-themed fundraiser at Pi Beta Phi and a number of other Greek life events.  “As a rule of thumb, if an item or tradition is stripped of its original intent or cultural significance, it’s probably cultural appropriation,” said the moderator in opening the discussion.  He added cultural appropriation is the stealing of intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission – and it’s made worse when “the source is a minority group that has historically been oppressed.”

Like the title asks – WHO would you ask for permission?  Is there some council or Star Chamber group that every ethnicity has stashed away somewhere so that you could knock on the door, rush in, hushly ask “hey, this ok?” and then go out and party?  Well of COURSE not, you dumbo!  Just the fact that you have to ask in the Progressive controlled cultural world now means that you’re one of the moronic insensitive unenlightened unwashed.

Cultural Appropriation.  Sigh.  One thing is sure, the Political Correctness crowd has no sense of: 

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Steve already had part of the Editorial up, speaking that Brown refuses to be on the hot seat – there’s always a scheduling conflict that is the ready answer.  This is the part that got my attention (emphasis mine):

Back in April, Scott Brown, the former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, announced his “Obamacare Isn’t Working Tour,” which followed closely on the heels of his “Main Streets and Living Rooms Tour.” That last one took him to all 10 New Hampshire counties as a run-up to his announcement that he would seek the New Hampshire seat in the U.S. Senate now held by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Brown this week announced his “Making Energy Affordable Tour.”

That’s all well and good, but it’s time Brown started his “The Public is Entitled to Some Answers Tour.”

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From the Union Leader (emphasis mine, reformatted):

One Medicaid managed-care company leaving the state

CONCORD — Meridian Health Plan, one of the three managed-care companies administering the state Medicaid program, will withdraw June 30.  Meridian, based in Detroit, Mich., said it wants to focus on its core businesses in the Midwest.  With the NH Health Protection Program beginning this year, Meridian and the Department of Health and Human Services agreed a summer withdrawal would minimize disruption to the program and newly eligible patients.  “We will work quickly with the company to develop a transition plan that protects Meridian members,” said Health and Human Services Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas. “Meridian’s members and providers can be assured that we will work very closely with Meridian on how best to transition their members to our other two MCOs.”

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“I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood just south of downtown in 1991 and has watched her property tax bill soar to $8,500 this year.“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”

Buy that park.  Buy that library.  Buy more schools.  Buy light rail (think Boston’s Green line).  Buy EVERYTHING for that foundational Progressive saying “It’s about the quality of life!”.  Sure it is – for there is NO connection between having Government do more and more for your quality of life and the cost of the same.  Congratulations, Gretchen, you just “only a cuppa coffee a day” yourself out of the neighborhood for every spending project possible – how’s that “Java tank truck” of your’s getting for mileage now?  You wanted it, you voted for it – and now you are complaining that you’ve priced yourself out of your own home?   While on my Budget Committee in my hamlet, I fought against new or expanded projects because I KNOW the people that can’t keep up with rising property taxes.  But this one, that did it to herself?  Hoisted on her own petard, logically speaking – no sympathy for this one.

We think of Texas as being this really Conservative state – but just like Portsmouth or the college towns here in NH, Austin is a dot of Liberal Progressive blue in a sea of red.  Liberal?  Check.  High taxes?  Check.  Looking for a scapegoat instead of looking at yourself and said “maybe we shouldn’ta bought all that stuff“?  Check (emphasis mine, reformatted):

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