THE UNION SECEDES FROM TEXAS

Were it only true ...

In their press release (scroll down) celebrating 100 days of the Obama administration, State includes travel to Texas as one of their major foreign accomplishments:



Via Hot Air:

Secretary Clinton is already the most traveled Secretary of State in a new Administration. The Secretary’s trips have included her inaugural trip to Asia, the Middle East and Europe, Mexico and across the border to Texas, the Hague in the Netherlands, Europe with President Obama, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago with President Obama, and to Iraq and Kuwait.

State has apparently decided to give full diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Texas, helping Governor Rick Perry by mooting a need to secede.

To borrow a phrase from Instapundit, this country’s in the best of hands.

FIRST U.S. SWINE FLU DEATH

"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," Richard E. Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "As we continue to investigate cases here, I expect that we will see deaths in this country."

I heard Dr. Besser’s statement on the radio earlier this week ... he sounded almost gleeful.

Now it has happened. “The first U.S. death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night at a Houston hospital. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted the child would not be the last U.S. death from swine flu.”

Do I detect a “See? See? We told you so!” attitude on the part of our government panjandrums?

OBAMA'S 100-DAY PRESS CONFERENCE

President Obama held his 100-day presser last night. My thoughts from notes taken during the press conference.

Initial remarks:

PC enforcement - swine flu is now the H1N1 virus.

I thought we elected a President, not a Nanny-in-Chief.

He wants credit card companies to reduce fees and interest rates. Is this something really worthy of presidental interest?

Now to the questions:

(1) HEALTH CARE & (2) AUTO INDUSTRY - The government has a responsibility to the American people. My goal is to ... (stay in control).

(3) TORTURE & (4) TORTURE FOLLOW-UP - did the previous Administration sanction torture? Obama waffled; didn’t answer directly. His take - we could have gotten the information other ways. England didn’t torture the Germans during WWII (but neither did Germany torture the English - however imperfectly, both followed the Geneva Convention for POWs).

(5) SECURITY OF PAKISTANI NUKES - Asked if he would guarantee the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, he turned the question to non-military aid. Did make a veiled threat about U.S. military action within Pakistani borders.

(6) IRAQ TIMETABLE - nothing new.

(7) ARLEN SPECTER - nothing of interest.

(8) FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT - Clinton-esque waffle; the usual safe, legal, and rare.

(9) SURPRISED/TROUBLED/ENCHANTED/HUMBLED - Obama used “humbled” to laud the military (they obey orders from their CinC).

(10) IMMIGRATION REFORM - A complete waffle; nothing useful said.

(11) HELP FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS - a bit of a surprise at the lack of direct pandering, but his answer could be read as “I’m helping the poor; all blacks are poor; so what are you complaining about?”

(12) STATE SECRETS - no surprise; state secrets are important when you are the state.

(13) SHAREHOLDER OF LARGE CORPORATIONS - soft fascism again; governtment control without ownership.

END NOTE: Again there were exactly 13 questions; and again the questioners were pre-selected from a list on the podium. Why did the other correspondents bother to attend?