ShoutyBear: Politics. Foreign Affairs. Zarf.

This week we examine the evolution of Barack Obama’s Iraq policy, preview his big trip abroad and give him some advice on how not to screw up.

Warning: Make sure the volume is at a reasonable level. I hope our European audience isn’t too put off by my big American laugh. You can listen to this week’s roundtable here.

That’s right — I call him Barry Hussein in my head. Because it’s funny. Know what else is funny? The cover of this week’s New Yorker. It’s very, very funny.

What isn’t funny is Barack Obama’s high-pitched squeal as he runs as fast as he can from the misconception that he’s a Muslim. First, he wouldn’t be photographed with a couple of head-scarved supporters. Now his campaign is dismissing as ”tasteless and offensive” a cartoon from a mostly liberal and Obama-friendly publication. He’s like the frat boy who resorts to fisticuffs after someone innocently mistakes him for gay. It begs the question: What are you so afraid of? Continue reading Barry Hussein’s Islamophobia, And Why It’s A Problem…

Judging by the Comments page, reader reaction to the Washington Post’s year-long 12-part investigative series into the 2001 disappearance of 24-year-old intern Chandra Levy is mostly negative — even downright ugly.  

I get why readers think this series is a waste of the WaPo’s time, having suffered from Missing White Woman fatigue myself at a certain cable news network. But I also get why this is still a story. This woman’s murderer is possibly still at large and still wandering the District. The media frenzy over the case destroyed a congressman’s career, possibly unjustly. And readers still interested in the story should not be judged too harshly, either. Releasing your child into the world requires a certain amount of good faith. Parents cannot be faulted for worrying over the ways in which that faith can be broken.

That said, I can’t help sharing an anecdote from PeePeeBear. Without going too heavily into racial politics, the MSM and what-have-you, here it is:

Continue reading On The Post’s Chandra Levy Series, Briefly….

It’s all about the boys this week, as John McCain can’t keep his on point and Barack Obama needs to shield his from an ax-wielding Jesse Jackson. This week Kellie and I do our best to discuss WhinersGate and NutsGate while Olly tries to get us to predict the future — on behalf of all those excited Euros, presumably.

Listen to this week’s roundtable here. I’ll have a report on my visit to Obamaland (aka Chicago) up soon(ish).

This week Kellie and I try not to OD on all that Democratic unity, tackle John McCain’s “monkey in the middle” problem, and parse Barack Obama’s backing of the Supreme Court’s D.C. gun ban ruling.

Listen to this week’s roundtable here. We’re off next week for the July 4 holiday. America!

Really? Really??? Continue reading BREAKING: Matchy-Matchy Clinton And Obama Are In Love!…

From a Dr. Pee-Pee e-mail:

in other news a patient purposefully farted on me today. awesome. i was not amused.

Wow. I am never complaining about my vocation again.* Continue reading I’m So Glad I Didn’t Go To Med School…

Way to hold the world’s lone superpower hostage, DPRK. Maybe Seoul should send all that unwanted U.S. beef your way? It’s not like mad cow could make Kim Jong-il any crazier, waka waka. Make fun of this guy all you want: He won this staring contest for sure. Congratulations, North Koreans. I hear eating is like riding a bicycle — you should pick it up again in no time.

Maybe the most underreported fact about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is that he hasn’t shown real courage as a legislator. That’s partly the result of his newness to the U.S. Senate, but all those “present” votes during his turn in the Illinois legislature just might indicate something. The contrast between Obama and John McCain on this point is rather stark, considering how McCain stuck his political neck out on an immigration compromise, the so-called surge strategy, and on torture.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting his decision to back the compromise legislation on FISA, but look at it this way: A scaredy-cat panderer would dig his heels in on telecom immunity because the bill is going to pass no matter what. John Kerry, whose undoing in 2004 was probably the mistaken notion that he needed the Nation crowd to win election, would totally have voted against cloture yesterday. (And in the Some People Never Learn vein, he did.)

Here’s the thing about telecom immunity: It’s beside the point. Continue reading Barack Obama Does Something Brave, Finally….

This week Kellie and I resurrect an old debate over how sexist the American electorate is when it comes to their first lady pickins’. Is Michelle Obama too angry? Is Cindy McCain too reserved? Plus: Why Barack Obama’s hypocrisy on public financing probably doesn’t matter to the Obamaniacs.

Listen to this week’s roundtable here.