The photo of the billboard is not very clear, so this is what you are missing….

On the left is a picture of Aurora, Colorado, shooting suspect James Holmes. Above his face are the words, “kills 12 in movie theater with assault rifle.”  Below his face, ”everyone freaks out.” On the right is a picture of President Obama. Above his face are the words, “kills thousands with his foreign policy.”  Below, “wins nobel peace prize.”

The bilboard was put up by Maurice Clements. His group is dedicated to Libertarian hero Ralph Smeed. Clements says his group is angry over the President’s failure to bring the troops home from Afghanistan, a decision made more by the generals on the ground than by the President. They advised him that a rapid withdrawal would plunge Afghanistan back into civil war and the Afghan government needed more time. They were the ones who wanted a new surge to do what we should have done instead of invading Iraq. Clements says that “We’re all outraged over that killing in Aurora, Colorad, but we’re not outraged over the boys killed in Afghanistan.”

Don’t you just love all the people who own crystal balls in this country? You know who they are, the ones who tell us how “everyone” thinks, or speaks for “the American people.” Clements, with his “we’re not outraged” comment is one of those crystal ball gazers. A lot of us are outraged, including a lot of liberals and Democrats. Obama made us a promise, and he was unable to keep it. But, unlike the inability to close Guantanamo, this was failure that was not the fault of a Congressional block on his plans. As much as we want our troops out, that is how much our military is opposed to the withdrawal plan. After the 33,000 troops of the surge are removed, the military wants to remaining 68,000 troops stay, not be withdrawn in phases. The withdrawal was a case of clashing promises – one to remove the troops, the other to listen to the generals on the scene.

The billboard has gone viral and there really is a great deal of outrage – at Clements.