Jill Rants and Raves: the piracy of the airwaves

What must Captain Phillips have felt as his life changed - from hostage with an AK 47 pointed at his back to free man - his three Somali captors cut down in an instant by three Navy Seal marksmen. I have tried to imagine that moment as three sets of pirate legs buckled, their heads ripped apart and then lying there motionless and gone. And whether Philips feared another shot might still come through the roof of the small dank oven-like lifeboat reeking of fear and human waste. I was transfixed by this story - not least because of the right wing efforts to discredit the Obama administration with tales of a military so castrated, a navy so dispirited by liberalism, a fighting force so scared of taking action that they would rather pay a ransom or 'appease' terrorists than be the American Hero of Reagan or Bushie Jr.

Talk show hosts from Savage, Levin, Hannity, our local Babe In The Bunker (I kid you not) and points in between were foaming with rabid vitriol about the FBI hostage negotiation team being sent out to Somalia, were effusively praising the French for storming a yacht to free hostages (though it took a week for them to make the decision to do so and a hostage was killed in the effort), were bemoaning the fact the 'French have more balls than we do' and were convinced that Captain Phillips was such a hero that he would rather die in an attack on these pirates than have America humiliated in the eyes of the world. 'Blow them out of the water' various armchair experts and unemployed plumbers ranted as they took their 35 seconds in the spotlight on AM radio. This is a direct result of this 'dangerous Socialist' being in the White House screamed the talk show hosts. This Marxist, this Communist, this...this...this Portugese Water dog loving, effete, community organiser they spluttered. And there he was - the cheerleader in chief - hosting an Easter egg party like none ever seen before, one which was open to families of all communities. OMG.

Meanwhile back off the coast of Somalia it seems like the military, the Navy and the FBI were doing a pretty fine job of tricking the pirates into letting them come close enough for a clean shot, and then, when the moment was right - bang, bang, bang - you are freakin' dead dudes.

It was too much to hope that the right wing - birds can't fly with just one wing, ever noticed that? - would calm down and say 'hmmm...maybe we got it wrong'. Nope. They began a new series of rants saying that the leftists were now crediting Obama with firm and clear directives when really Obama did nada, niet, nothing. Just signed a presidential order authorising deadly force. So, let me get this clear. If the hostage situation didn't get resolved, it was because Obama had personally gone to Fort Dix and confiscated the armory, and told everyone to wear pink and make a cuppa tea for the pirates, but if it did get resolved it was because Obama did nothing.

Here's the thing - I like this outcome. And not because it shows that Obama can multi-task when faced with a crisis, and not because he did not go in front of a hungry crowing media and grunt 'we'll get you mothafuckahs', but because those who were heroic in this story stood out and our President simply gave credit where credit was due after it was all over.