A vacuum at the top

    In the vacuum of leadership created by the haloed One, Michael Ledeen worries what comes next to prove One's manhood. 
  The falling poll numbers, the perception of a weak and bumbling president who is unfamiliar with leadership, the desire to remain in office all lead to an inescapable problem: Obama may choose to act militarily in a foolish imitation of manhood in a bid to gain back all the independent voters he's lost, who grow increasingly disillusioned with his dithering and failure to take any kind of world leadership role. 
  Ledeen writes at Pajamas:

  And so I asked myself, is there a point at which a president realizes that wimps don’t get reelected? And if so, what might he do to shatter that image? For the next two years I worried that Carter might overreact to some international crisis in order to make folks see that he was really a tough guy.

  At RadioViceOnline, Steve M. writes of the police and fire unions who are extorting local businesses in Wisconsin to openly take a stand against Gov. Walker's anti-collective bargaining bill at the threat of losing business:

Not only are they suggesting they publicly oppose the fiscal-sanity measures in Wisconsin, they are flat out telling them they will publicly boycott businesses who do not proactively do so. From James Taranto’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

  This is why it's such a bad idea to have collective bargaining in the first place with workers who are employed to protect the public. Public servants shouldn't be able to go out on strike and they shouldn't be allowed to try to extort local businesses to support one thing or another. It's not right and it is the very reason this bill has come about in the first place. 
  The Radiovice article references James Taranto's article at the WSJ, in which Taranto details who all is involved in this thuggery:

Palmer's union is the first of the seven "undersigned groups"; the others are two more police unions, two firemen's unions and two teachers unions. Although the new legislation excludes police and fire unions from its limits on so-called collective bargaining, one can understand why they would oppose it: Their own privileges become less secure if they are the only ones to enjoy them.

  One wonders if these dedicated public servants have hearts like the Fukushima 50. 
  Some eyes are being opened, however.  
  Huffpo (also published at Big Hollywood) has an interesting piece on Breitbart's invitation to a liberal writer to write for BH researching the press's lack of coverage on the Wisconsin death threats. Apparently there is an honest liberal in the crowd. From Huffpo:

Burying the death threat story is a clear example of intellectual dishonesty and journalistic bias.

Don't take my word for it, though. Look into the story of death threats in Wisconsin yourself and see who has been covering the story and who hasn't. Try for a moment to see this story from the perspective of those who you may disagree with on policy and ask yourself how this looks to them. Can you blame them for feeling that way? Then take a few seconds and read those questions I asked you at the beginning of this article.

And then ask why progressives shouldn't expect more from our media -- and ourselves -- than we expect from our political adversaries. 

  And holy smokes! Andrew Malcolm at the LA Times sums up the contradictions of this White House, perfectly summed up by the cancellation of the "transparency" award Obama was supposed to receive yesterday, but canceled. He didn't cancel all the closed hearings he had scheduled though. This is a must read:

As a nod to today's goof, the White House announced the transparency award ceremony had been canceled due to "changes" in the president's plans, adding it would be re-scheduled. Don't hold your breath.

Taken individually -- like Mrs. Obama notoriously wearing $600 tennis shoes to a food bank event -- these acts can seem minor gaffes. Everyone expects a president to relax or exercise or stage elegant parties. But in the broader context of events nowadays such a blatant pattern of persistent insensitivity comes across as, at best, just plain stupid, or possibly brazenly indifferent. We're here and you're not. 

  While we await the arrival of the much lauded and feared nuclear plume, raise a glass for St. Patty's Day!! NY Times:

Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable .