You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2008.
This is what I call a shocker.
Best parts:
“My visit left me even more deeply convinced that we not only have a moral obligation to help displaced Iraqi families, but also a serious, long-term, national security interest in ending this crisis.
… Today’s humanitarian crisis in Iraq — and the potential consequences for our national security — are great. Can the United States afford to gamble that 4 million or more poor and displaced people, in the heart of Middle East, won’t explode in violent desperation, sending the whole region into further disorder?
What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made.
… As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: U.N. staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs. And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq. They have lost many friends and want to be a part of the humanitarian progress they now feel is possible…”
I wonder what Mr. Magic and Hillary have to say about this… If Angelina Jolie is really serious about this, the next step is to endorse McCain.
Cubans are complaining – Loudly
“What changed is that a little more than a year ago, after becoming interim president, Raul Castro actually urged Cubans to openly air their grievances. He even listed some of his own complaints about waste and inefficiencies in the government-controlled economy.
With that as a cue that they were now allowed to speak out, millions of Cubans let loose and registered a long list of criticisms.
They are fed up, they said, with low wages that can’t even cover basics necessities, overcrowded buses, meager supplies in government-run stores and long waits and too few workers in Cuba’s vaunted health care system.”
This is going to break the bleeding hearts of some Fidel fans…
Didn’t always agree with him, but he was quite a guy.
U.S. Exchange Student Starved by Egyptian Host Family Loses 50 Pounds
This is by far the best part:
“The host father, Shaker Hanna, rejected McCullum’s story as “a lie,” suggesting that he made it up because his parents were hoping to recover some of the money they paid for his stay as compensation.
“The truth is, the boy we hosted for nearly six months was eating for an hour and a half at every meal. The amount of food he ate at each meal was equal to six people,” Hanna said. He added that the boy was active, constantly exercising and playing sports.”
I say send every Liberal who complains about the horrible living standards in America to a quick tour of Egypt. If nothing else, it would solve the obesity problem really quickly.
Here is what the latest polls show:
In a general-election match-up among registered voters, McCain is 2 points ahead of Obama, within the margin of error; he beats Clinton by 6 points.
McCain runs ahead of Obama on every issue except health care. The Arizona senator has a 13-point advantage on Iraq and a 37- point lead on terrorism. He also does better on managing the economy. One area where Obama has a clear edge is on the question of who would bring the most change in Washington; the Illinois senator has an almost 3-to-1 lead.
When it comes to who has the right experience to lead the nation, McCain has a 12-point lead over Clinton, compared with a 31-point advantage over Obama.
In another sign of strength for McCain, more than half of Republican voters say they are happy with him as their nominee, including a majority of conservatives.
Independents appear to be a significant problem for Clinton in a general election. While she has strong favorable ratings from Democrats, at 82 percent, just 48 percent of independents agree. Obama has a 63 percent favorable rating among independents, while McCain has a 65 percent positive rating.
It is so funny to watch the left talking about Fidel… The eternal game of “I love Democracy but I love Fidel too” is just so absurd but these guys never stop trying. Truly pathetic.
Among all the hogwash, Mr.Smarto came up with a great one: “The US should either renounce any form of intervention in Cuba or propose a formal annexation, giving Cubans the rights of citizens”.
Welcome to the Cuban American World. It is not a small one by any means (1.2 million people, about 10% of the whole Cuban population) and they are all regular citizens (a Republican leaning group of citizens by the way). They are also a very successful group as well (look at the economic info for them and compare it to the widespread poverty provided by the Cuban paradise).
So I would say that it would be very easy to annex Cuba. All that Raulzito has to do is to allow people to escape the prison island. I bet the US would have no problems leaving that piece of rock for the old commies as long as they don’t point nuclear missiles to Florida.
Very simple stuff.
UPDATE
M.R. has an interesting post about why anyone might think Cuba is doing OK.
Man, this is creepy beyond belief…
Who would have thought that, ironically, Living Colour would be the best to describe this Obamania:
“And during the few moments that we have left, we want to talk, right down to
earth, in a language that everybody here can easily understand.” (Malcolm X)
Look in my eyes, what do you see?
the Cult of Personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
I’ve been everything you wanna be ohhh…
I’m the Cult of Personality
Like Mussolini and Kennedy
I’m the Cult of Personality
the Cult of Personality
the Cult of Personality
Neon lights, Nobel Prize
When a mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You won’t have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face of your T.V. ohh…
I’m the Cult of Personality
I exploit you; still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three ohh…
I’m the Cult of Personality
Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi ohh…
I’m the Cult of Personality
the Cult of Personality
the Cult of Personality
Neon lights, Nobel Prize
When a leader speaks, that leader dies
You won’t have to follow me
Only you can set you free
(Guitar solo)
You gave me fortune, you gave me fame
You gave me power in your God’s name
I’m every person you need to be ohh…
I’m, the, Cult, of, Per, Son, Al, Ity
I am the Cult of (x8)
Personality
“Ask not what your country can do for you…” (John F. Kennedy)
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
I am amazed at how people are just fine and dandy with all this race rhetoric being used by Obama.
Mr. Smarto says that is totally OK to say that you are voting for him because he is black because this has to do with “the social class of the majority of blacks“.
It is another layer to the fallacy. And a funny one when you think about it. I wonder if this trick could work anywhere…
Let’s say that I decided to run for some public office. Would it be ok if I advertised myself as “the candidate for the poor Latino immigrant community” just because I am a immigrant from Latin America?
Do you think it would still work when people realized that I have blue eyes and very light skin?
Or do you think the breaking point would be that… well… I am not poor?
What is the scale here? Could I pull it off if I were poorer but still white? Or would it be better if I were brown but still not poor? Would it help if I say that I am not concerned about being shot because people get shot all the time in Brazil???
This is a bullshit argument no matter how you look at it. To say that Obama represents something more just because of his skin color is totally racist. There is no rationalization that can get you out of this. A straw man is a straw man, no matter what color you paint it.
There are plenty of interesting things in this new Pew research poll about the US economy.
But these two things have really puzzled me:
How in the world 30% of Americans think China is the world leading economic power? And it’s not even a liberal thing; conservatives (with the exception of moderates) think that is true too!
Here is the real size of world’s economies:
Can you spell media bias brainwashing here?
Second thing:
Wow. Look at how the pattern of thinking the countries’ economy goes up and down exactly as we had Democrats in the White House. And see how this is clearly not related to the real situation, defined by how people feel personally about their economic situation.
This is just plain dangerous.
Let’s celebrate Kosovo’s freedom, and the people who freed them:
The people of Kosovo know that well, of course. And to be sure, even though that war was ‘easy’ for the US, it was very hard on them (10,000 deaths on a country little over 2 million would be equivalent of 140 thousand dead Iraqis, for instance).
Let’s also not forget about the usual naysayers, the crooks from Russia and China, and especially people like Tariq Ali, who still insists that the Kosovo war was just another imperialist move of the big devil.
Freedom is not free, and it is definitely not a magic solution for all problems. But it does happen, and the United States continues to be the major force behind it in our world.
At first it seemed like a few random cases of lassitude among Mary Chapin Carpenter devotees in Berkeley, Cambridge and Chapel Hill. But then psychotherapists began to realize patients across the country were complaining of the same distress. They were experiencing the first hints of what’s bound to be a national phenomenon: Obama Comedown Syndrome. The afflicted had already been through the phases of Obama-mania — fainting at rallies, weeping over their touch screens while watching Obama videos, spending hours making folk crafts featuring Michelle Obama’s face. These patients had experienced intense surges of hope-amine, the brain chemical that fuels euphoric sensations of historic change and personal salvation.
But they found that as the weeks went on, they needed more and purer hope-injections just to preserve the rush. They wound up craving more hope than even the Hope Pope could provide, and they began experiencing brooding moments of suboptimal hopefulness. Anxious posts began to appear on the Yes We Can! Facebook pages. A sense of ennui began to creep through the nation’s Ian McEwan-centered book clubs.
Up until now The Chosen One’s speeches had seemed to them less like stretches of words and more like soul sensations that transcended time and space. But those in the grips of Obama Comedown Syndrome began to wonder if His stuff actually made sense. For example, His Hopeness tells rallies that we are the change we have been waiting for, but if we are the change we have been waiting for then why have we been waiting since we’ve been here all along?
Patients in the grip of O.C.S. rarely express doubts at first, but in a classic case of transference, many experience slivers of sympathy for Hillary Clinton. They see her campaign morosely traipsing from one depressed industrial area to another — The Sitting Shiva for America Tour. They see that her entire political strategy consists of waiting for primary states as boring as she is.
They feel for her. They feel guilty because the entire commentariat now treats her like Richard Nixon. Are liberal elites rationalizing their own betrayal of her? Is Hillary just another fading First Wife thrown away for the first available Trophy Messiah?
As the syndrome progresses, they begin to ask questions about The Presence himself:
Barack Obama vowed to abide by the public finance campaign-spending rules in the general election if his opponent did. But now he’s waffling on his promise. Why does he need to check with his campaign staff members when deciding whether to keep his word?
Obama says he is practicing a new kind of politics, but why has his PAC sloshed $698,000 to the campaigns of the superdelegates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics? Is giving Robert Byrd’s campaign $10,000 the kind of change we can believe in?
If he values independent thinking, why is his the most predictable liberal vote in the Senate? A People for the American Way computer program would cast the same votes for cheaper.
And should we be worried about Obama’s mountainous self-confidence?
These doubts lead O.C.S. sufferers down the path to the question that is the Unholy of the Unholies for Obama-maniacs: How exactly would all this unity he talks about come to pass?
How is a 47-year-old novice going to unify highly polarized 70-something committee chairs? What will happen if the nation’s 261,000 lobbyists don’t see the light, even after the laying on of hands? Does The Changemaker have the guts to take on the special interests in his own party — the trial lawyers, the teachers’ unions, the AARP?
The Gang of 14 created bipartisan unity on judges, but Obama sat it out. Kennedy and McCain created a bipartisan deal on immigration. Obama opted out of the parts that displeased the unions. Sixty-eight senators supported a bipartisan deal on FISA. Obama voted no. And if he were president now, how would the High Deacon of Unity heal the breach that split the House last week?
The victims of O.C.S. struggle against Obama-myopia, or the inability to see beyond Election Day. But here’s the fascinating thing: They still like him. They know that most of his hope-mongering is vaporous. They know that he knows it’s vaporous.
But the fact that they can share this dream still means something. After the magic fades and reality sets in, they still know something about his soul, and he knows something about theirs. They figure that any new president is going to face gigantic obstacles. At least this candidate seems likely to want to head in the right direction. Obama’s hype comes from exaggerating his powers and his virtues, not faking them.
Those afflicted with O.C.S. are no longer as moved by his perorations. The fever passes. But some invisible connection seems to persist.
David Brooks, for the NYT.
This gets better and better.
Now the Magic Man is making people faint. Supposedly…
Is this really necessary? What the hell is going on with this guy?
USDA Orders Largest Meat Recall in U.S. History
Here is the video (if you have the stomach):
“Question: What made you interested in Obama?
Answer: I’m interested in the fact that he’s black. I feel the race issue in this country is more important than the feminist issue. I think that the importance to blacks would be tremendous. He’s an attractive man, he’s smart, he happens to be tremendously articulate. His position in the Democratic Party is more or less okay with me. And I think it would be important to American blacks if he became president.”
This is Philip Roth in an interview for the Der Spiegel.
What can we expect from the regular American voter if all our intellectuals are all delusional like this?
You see, I had this crazy idea that saying that you are interested in someone because of the color of his skin would make you a… racist.
So if Obama wins because he is black, the world should consider the US as a pretty racist country.
I know I will.
By Making Holocaust Personal to Pupils, Sarkozy Stirs Anger
This is really interesting… So we shouldn’t be traumatizing kids now by telling them about jewish kids who actually died in Nazi’s hands.
The most stupid point against this plan was that it would take blame away from the Vichy government’s collaboration with the Nazis. How would knowing more about victims take away responsibility from the people who murdered them?
This is all very typical of the left. This whole thing about not pissing people off just shows how this politically correct spirit can be dangerous.
Now the funniest part of this NYT article was the one where they say this is all America’s fault:
“Other analysts blamed the confessional approach of the United States for infecting Mr. Sarkozy’s thinking. “Listen, it’s in the air of the times,” said Régis Debray, the philosopher and author, on France Inter radio Friday. “There is a religious sentimentality, a pretty vague religiousness, let’s say, in the world of show business, in the world of business, that comes from America. It’s the neoconservative wave of the born-agains.”
Oh yeah. Paying homage to dead kids is a very born-again kind of thing.
And all of this because he was trying to honor kids killed by Nazis. Can you imagine if he was trying to change the Anti-American education European kids get?
Crazy stuff.
Why a country that has murder rates similar to a war zone, with an average of 150 people being murdered daily, has the first page article of his most popular newspaper dedicated to a shooting of 5 kids in the US?
I wonder.
You got to be kidding. I can only imagine the level of idiocy this will get if this guy wins the nomination.
Truly pathetic.
Showdown looms in ‘treasonous’ Berkeley
They are not only loons but big time hypocrites. They preach freedom but don’t want to allow people to sign in (it is a voluntary service after all). Worse, they don’t want to obey the federal government but want the fat pork money from it.
Typical of libs.
Recent Comments