Pirates Take American Hostages

Just when I was wondering what Obama was going to do next to emulate Jimmy Carter this came on the news. I feel bad for the sailors because Obama only just became president. Will it be almost four years before this hostage crisis gets resolved?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513183,00.html

Somali Pirates Hijack Ship, Seize 20 Americans

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members aboard, FOX News has learned.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya at the time it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

A Kenya-based diplomat identified the vessel and told the Associated Press all crew members are American. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The U.S. Navy confirmed the hijacking early Wednesday off the eastern coast of Somalia and said it is monitoring the situation with its own ships.

Spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the attack happened in the early hours of the morning, about 280 miles northeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.

“The area, the ship was taken in, is not where the focus of our ships has been,” Christensen told The Associated Press on the phone from the 5th Fleet’s Mideast headquarters in Bahrain.

“The area we’re patrolling is more than a million miles in size. Our ships cannot be everywhere at every time,” Christensen said.

He declined to release the name of the ship until the family members of the crew are notified.

He said the ship was operated by the Danish company Maersk, which deals with the U.S. Department of Defense. Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when hijacked.

“Our initial concern is to ensure proper support of the crew and assistance to their families,” Maersk said in a statement.

An U.S. embassy spokeswoman was not immediately able to confirm the incident.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program said the ship was taken about 400 miles from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week and the first with an all-American crew.

[quote]Sifu wrote:
Just when I was wondering what Obama was going to do next to emulate Jimmy Carter this came on the news. I feel bad for the sailors because Obama only just became president. Will it be almost four years before this hostage crisis gets resolved?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513183,00.html

Somali Pirates Hijack Ship, Seize 20 Americans

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members aboard, FOX News has learned.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya at the time it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

A Kenya-based diplomat identified the vessel and told the Associated Press all crew members are American. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The U.S. Navy confirmed the hijacking early Wednesday off the eastern coast of Somalia and said it is monitoring the situation with its own ships.

Spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the attack happened in the early hours of the morning, about 280 miles northeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.

“The area, the ship was taken in, is not where the focus of our ships has been,” Christensen told The Associated Press on the phone from the 5th Fleet’s Mideast headquarters in Bahrain.

“The area we’re patrolling is more than a million miles in size. Our ships cannot be everywhere at every time,” Christensen said.

He declined to release the name of the ship until the family members of the crew are notified.

He said the ship was operated by the Danish company Maersk, which deals with the U.S. Department of Defense. Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when hijacked.

“Our initial concern is to ensure proper support of the crew and assistance to their families,” Maersk said in a statement.

An U.S. embassy spokeswoman was not immediately able to confirm the incident.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program said the ship was taken about 400 miles from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week and the first with an all-American crew. [/quote]

Carter’s record was 444 days, but that coincided with Reagan being inaugurated, so the record might be in jeopardy.

No doubt the administration will issue a strongly worded message…I’m sure the pirates are shaking with fear over the Obama/Hillary tongue lashing.

Clearly we should have shown more respect and paid tribute to the locals to pass by their country while delivering our imperialistic aid.

[quote]hedo wrote:
No doubt the administration will issue a strongly worded message…I’m sure the pirates are shaking with fear over the Obama/Hillary tongue lashing.

Clearly we should have shown more respect and paid tribute to the locals to pass by their country while delivering our imperialistic aid.[/quote]

Word, we should have delivered them some 50 caliber at about 2700 fps. this crowd doesn’t understand the speak softly and carry a big stick. It’s not yell loudly and do nothing.

funny thing, liberals are like some women. My wife is a great lady but does flip out more often than me. she will yell at her daughter and my kids more. not out of line, but more.

Another funny thing, A get more response with a cold stare and soft modulated voice. I think I actually yell 3-4 times a year. It just has more effect.

Blowing some of those clowns out of the water would do everyone a lot of good. but with the Obama crowd, they might think those affluent Americans were asking for it by being on a luxury cruise in the first place.

SEAL team six,Actually, I thought Carters plans was good, but the Military dropped the ball. (I am not blaming the Military) but his plan was to put Tehran asleep and take the hostages

Maybe merchant marines need to be trained in combat

[quote]Sifu wrote:
Just when I was wondering what Obama was going to do next to emulate Jimmy Carter this came on the news. I feel bad for the sailors because Obama only just became president. Will it be almost four years before this hostage crisis gets resolved? [/quote]

See, Obama is trying to be all of the previous Democratic Presidents of the 20th Century, all at the same time.

Which means he’ll send helicopters to try to rescue the hostages from Somalia, but some will crash into a refueling aircraft in a sandstorm, and others will go down in the middle of downtown Mogadishu, to be mobbed by the natives. In a fit of pique, he will bomb an aspirin factory.

Meanwhile, he’ll send CIA and operatives, in concert with Somali refugees, to take out the head pirates, but inexplicably withdraw air support at the last minute, causing the operatives to be cut to ribbons on the ground by enemy fire.

Back home, he’ll confiscate all of the privately-owned gold bullion in the United States, enact a plethora of socialist make-work programs, and present the United Nations with a fourteen-point list of conditions under which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. It will piss everyone off, allies and enemies alike.

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Sifu wrote:
Just when I was wondering what Obama was going to do next to emulate Jimmy Carter this came on the news. I feel bad for the sailors because Obama only just became president. Will it be almost four years before this hostage crisis gets resolved?

See, Obama is trying to be all of the previous Democratic Presidents of the 20th Century, all at the same time.

Which means he’ll send helicopters to try to rescue the hostages from Somalia, but some will crash into a refueling aircraft in a sandstorm, and others will go down in the middle of downtown Mogadishu, to be mobbed by the natives. In a fit of pique, he will bomb an aspirin factory.

Meanwhile, he’ll send CIA and operatives, in concert with Somali refugees, to take out the head pirates, but inexplicably withdraw air support at the last minute, causing the operatives to be cut to ribbons on the ground by enemy fire.

Back home, he’ll confiscate all of the privately-owned gold bullion in the United States, enact a plethora of socialist make-work programs, and present the United Nations with a fourteen-point list of conditions under which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. It will piss everyone off, allies and enemies alike.
[/quote]

top it off with a well publicized blow job

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Sifu wrote:
Just when I was wondering what Obama was going to do next to emulate Jimmy Carter this came on the news. I feel bad for the sailors because Obama only just became president. Will it be almost four years before this hostage crisis gets resolved?

See, Obama is trying to be all of the previous Democratic Presidents of the 20th Century, all at the same time.

Which means he’ll send helicopters to try to rescue the hostages from Somalia, but some will crash into a refueling aircraft in a sandstorm, and others will go down in the middle of downtown Mogadishu, to be mobbed by the natives. In a fit of pique, he will bomb an aspirin factory.

Meanwhile, he’ll send CIA and operatives, in concert with Somali refugees, to take out the head pirates, but inexplicably withdraw air support at the last minute, causing the operatives to be cut to ribbons on the ground by enemy fire.

Back home, he’ll confiscate all of the privately-owned gold bullion in the United States, enact a plethora of socialist make-work programs, and present the United Nations with a fourteen-point list of conditions under which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. It will piss everyone off, allies and enemies alike.
[/quote]

The American Conservative, echoing Andrew Bacevich, noted that Carter’s famous “malaise” speech is the most conservative thing any American politician has said in decades:

"Self-sufficiency, discipline, sacrifice, conservation, independence, the striving for meaning and purpose beyond material wealth. All of these characteristics were once associated with conservatism, and they were all part of a speech given by a man who was naval officer, farmer and large landowner, small businessman, Sunday school teacher, and Southerner. Does this not sound the background of a conservative?

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

Mr. Conservative himself, Barry Goldwater, said much the same thing when he accepted the Republican nomination in 1964: ‘There is a virtual despair among the many that look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives.’ But just as Goldwater’s words were of no help in the year of Lyndon Johnson’s landslide, Carter’s words did not prevent his defeat in 1980.

Caddell and Carter had hoped the speech would create a new synthesis between the neoliberalism that emerged from the 1960s and the traditional conservatism of, say, the Nashville Agrarians, but the exact opposite took place. Instead, the backlash led to a synthesis between New Deal liberalism and nationalistic Cold War conservatism. Reagan never repudiated his four votes for Franklin Roosevelt and soon began gathering elements of the traditional New Deal coalition into his fold: neoconservatives; socially conservative Democrats of the Midwest, urban Catholic Northeast, and the Protestant South; and idealistic Kennedy Democrats who could not stomach the notion that a country that put a man on the moon should turn down the thermostat.

The new anti-malaise coalition, Left and Right, agreed on a nationalism that regarded an America with any kind of limits as a place that could never be America in any meaningful sense. They believed in the divine American mission and the rhetoric behind it: ‘leader of the free world,’ ‘the last best hope for man on earth,’ ‘the shining city on a hill.’ Carter’s speech, to them, was heresy. Thus Reagan, with help from other former liberals, could transform conservatism from a traditional doctrine of prudence, caution, and sustainability - a tough sell politically - into a highly marketable brand of American exceptionalism.

Unfortunately, as Carter feared, the American mission and lifestyle proved unsustainable. In the short run, the Saudis and other OPEC nations and oil producers slaked America?s dependence on foreign oil. The Chinese and other emerging industrial nations were willing to provide cheap consumer goods and buy U.S. Treasuries so that American consumers could have plenty of choices at the marketplace. This cut the inflation that bedeviled the Carter administration. In return, the U.S. military provided protection and stability around the globe through deficit financing. The hoped-for reduction of government that was a part of Reagan’s rhetoric was junked because it threatened to shatter the ‘you can have it all’ coalition. Instead, government grew, in part through a neat trick called supply-side economics in which the New Deal, the New Frontier, and even the Great Society could be offered at low cost to taxpayers through massive levels of borrowing. Wrapped around all of this was a nationalistic attitude. The launching of a few cruise missiles every now and then disguised the loss of American economic independence.

After what happened to Carter, no American politician today is brave enough to ask for limits. Bush I said that our way of life is non-negotiable. Bush II told Americans to go shopping after 9/11. President Obama says Americans ‘will not apologize for our way of life.’ President Carter is remembered as a weak man - yet no politician now (outside of perhaps Ron Paul) has the guts to make a similarly bold speech during our current economic crisis."

http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/apr/06/00014/

Quick, let’s get UN resolution!

[quote]GDollars37 wrote:
Varqanir wrote:
Sifu wrote:
Just when I was wondering what Obama was going to do next to emulate Jimmy Carter this came on the news. I feel bad for the sailors because Obama only just became president. Will it be almost four years before this hostage crisis gets resolved?

See, Obama is trying to be all of the previous Democratic Presidents of the 20th Century, all at the same time.

Which means he’ll send helicopters to try to rescue the hostages from Somalia, but some will crash into a refueling aircraft in a sandstorm, and others will go down in the middle of downtown Mogadishu, to be mobbed by the natives. In a fit of pique, he will bomb an aspirin factory.

Meanwhile, he’ll send CIA and operatives, in concert with Somali refugees, to take out the head pirates, but inexplicably withdraw air support at the last minute, causing the operatives to be cut to ribbons on the ground by enemy fire.

Back home, he’ll confiscate all of the privately-owned gold bullion in the United States, enact a plethora of socialist make-work programs, and present the United Nations with a fourteen-point list of conditions under which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. It will piss everyone off, allies and enemies alike.

The American Conservative, echoing Andrew Bacevich, noted that Carter’s famous “malaise” speech is the most conservative thing any American politician has said in decades:

"Self-sufficiency, discipline, sacrifice, conservation, independence, the striving for meaning and purpose beyond material wealth. All of these characteristics were once associated with conservatism, and they were all part of a speech given by a man who was naval officer, farmer and large landowner, small businessman, Sunday school teacher, and Southerner. Does this not sound the background of a conservative?

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

Mr. Conservative himself, Barry Goldwater, said much the same thing when he accepted the Republican nomination in 1964: ‘There is a virtual despair among the many that look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives.’ But just as Goldwater’s words were of no help in the year of Lyndon Johnson’s landslide, Carter’s words did not prevent his defeat in 1980.

Caddell and Carter had hoped the speech would create a new synthesis between the neoliberalism that emerged from the 1960s and the traditional conservatism of, say, the Nashville Agrarians, but the exact opposite took place. Instead, the backlash led to a synthesis between New Deal liberalism and nationalistic Cold War conservatism. Reagan never repudiated his four votes for Franklin Roosevelt and soon began gathering elements of the traditional New Deal coalition into his fold: neoconservatives; socially conservative Democrats of the Midwest, urban Catholic Northeast, and the Protestant South; and idealistic Kennedy Democrats who could not stomach the notion that a country that put a man on the moon should turn down the thermostat.

The new anti-malaise coalition, Left and Right, agreed on a nationalism that regarded an America with any kind of limits as a place that could never be America in any meaningful sense. They believed in the divine American mission and the rhetoric behind it: ‘leader of the free world,’ ‘the last best hope for man on earth,’ ‘the shining city on a hill.’ Carter’s speech, to them, was heresy. Thus Reagan, with help from other former liberals, could transform conservatism from a traditional doctrine of prudence, caution, and sustainability - a tough sell politically - into a highly marketable brand of American exceptionalism.

Unfortunately, as Carter feared, the American mission and lifestyle proved unsustainable. In the short run, the Saudis and other OPEC nations and oil producers slaked America?s dependence on foreign oil. The Chinese and other emerging industrial nations were willing to provide cheap consumer goods and buy U.S. Treasuries so that American consumers could have plenty of choices at the marketplace. This cut the inflation that bedeviled the Carter administration. In return, the U.S. military provided protection and stability around the globe through deficit financing. The hoped-for reduction of government that was a part of Reagan’s rhetoric was junked because it threatened to shatter the ‘you can have it all’ coalition. Instead, government grew, in part through a neat trick called supply-side economics in which the New Deal, the New Frontier, and even the Great Society could be offered at low cost to taxpayers through massive levels of borrowing. Wrapped around all of this was a nationalistic attitude. The launching of a few cruise missiles every now and then disguised the loss of American economic independence.

After what happened to Carter, no American politician today is brave enough to ask for limits. Bush I said that our way of life is non-negotiable. Bush II told Americans to go shopping after 9/11. President Obama says Americans ‘will not apologize for our way of life.’ President Carter is remembered as a weak man - yet no politician now (outside of perhaps Ron Paul) has the guts to make a similarly bold speech during our current economic crisis."

http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/apr/06/00014/
[/quote]

Excellent post, I think the problem is he was a Democrat not that he was not conservative enough