The President’s pronunciation of “Taliban” as “tallee-bahn” is a peculiar affectation, much like Madonna’s odd mix of American and British pronunciation.  Just as annoying, too.

The media were all aflutter a few years back about the ‘correct’ pronunciation of Qatar and insisted on using “Gutter”.  Even the foreign minister of Qatar uses the anglicized version when speaking in English.

Next time someone pulls this pronunciation business, ask them what the capital of France is.  Paris, they’ll say.  No, you reply, it’s “Par-ee”. Then you can roll your eyes and either mutter “idiot” as you walk away, or just stare while you relish the uncomfortable silence that ensues.

Powerline continues its streak of devastating commentary on the President’s many and increasingly frequent stumbles and gaffes.  Quayle-like, even (although Quayle wasn’t anything like the media caricature).

Orion is one of the best-known constellations, mostly because it actually looks like its namesake. So evidently we have to add astronomy to history and economics as subjects of which Obama is remarkably ignorant. I’m beginning to fear that our President has below-average knowledge of the world. Not for a President, but for a middle-aged American.

Yeah, but he doesn’t say ‘nucular’, so he’s still a genius.

From Powerline, an excellent summary of the AIG bonus fiasco:

* All of these payments, as to AIG’s troubled financial products division, are retention bonuses, not performance bonuses.
* The money is not going to anyone responsible for the implosion of AIG–those people, who were in the credit default swap area, are gone.
* These retention bonuses were promised to AIG employees who are responsible for winding down the company’s financial products division. At the beginning, this division had a potential exposure of $2.7 trillion. Winding down AIG’s book of business in this area was a dead-end job, and there was a great likelihood that the people responsible for the work, who knew the most about the products involved, would take jobs elsewhere.
* In late 2007 or early 2008, AIG made a deal with these employees: if they would stay at AIG until specified conditions were met, i.e., either certain business was wound down or a given period of time had elapsed, they would receive a specified retention bonus.
* As to all of the employees involved, they satisfied the terms of the bonus by wrapping up a portfolio for which they were responsible and/or staying on the job until now. As a result of the efforts of this group, AIG’s financial products exposure is down from $2.7 trillion to $1.6 trillion.

…

Much of the money that AIG owed was due to European banks. For the American government to bail out European banks would have been a tough sell, to put it mildly. Other third parties were entities like Goldman Sachs, which said it didn’t need to be bailed out but received, I believe, $13 billion in taxpayer dollars that was funneled through AIG.

What is happening in Washington is a scandal and an outrage. Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi should not be allowed to divert attention from the disastrous policies they are pursuing by focusing on the sideshow of AIG bonuses.

Someone in the  White House needs to work on keeping their messages in synch.  Is the economy on the verge of catastrophe or is it fundamentally sound? Depends on what day of the week it is.

During the fall campaign, Obama relentlessly criticized his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, for declaring, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Obama’s team painted the veteran senator as out of touch and failing to grasp the challenges facing the country.

…

Just a week ago, White House Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag declared that “fundamentally, the economy is weak.” Days later, Obama told reporters he was confident in the economy.

“If we are keeping focused on all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy, all the outstanding companies, workers, all the innovation and dynamism in this economy, then we’re going to get through this,” Obama said, striking a tone that his top aides mimicked.

At some point, the MSM is going to notice that the savviest, most ethical team of cool kids to ever run the White House are mired in constant scandal, foreign policy blundering and tone-deaf arrogance.

Can Team Obama be seriously considering making vets pay for service-related health care with private insurance?

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance. …

Apparently, yes.

President Obama likes to say it’s a bad bill but he has to sign it because he inherited it from the previous administration.  Blame games aside, you know what else he inherited?  The veto pen.

First, anyone named Charles who goes by ‘Chas’ is immediately suspect.  Had he been a Bush nominee you’d hear no end of blue-blood country club jokes.  But it is his extreme, Saudi-funded views that are of real concern:

Imagine if George W. Bush had nominated someone whose earnings depended on the largess of the House of Saud or who advocated crushing Chinese dissidents — indeed faster than the Chinese government.

How is this different than when Bush was in charge?  Oh right, not a Republican.

Can we please stop talking about the president’s oratorial mastery now?  Can you even imagine the outcry if this were Bush using a teleprompter for the simplest spoken events?