We can thank Pres. Woodrow Wilson, an Ivy League academic turned Democrat politician, for turning the keys for the financial destiny of the United States over, in 1913, to an Internationalist Banking cabal called the "Federal Reserve"- a group of people whose loyalty is to their own financial interests and 'bottom line', not to the United States.
Wilson, by the way, is the SAME president who introduced the American people to the Internal Revenue Service, took the United States into World War One (after promising in his election campaign that he wouldn't), and pushed hard for U.S.membership in the "League of Nations", an impotent forerunner to the current impotent United Nations.
Since Wilson turned U.S. financial policy over to the Federal Reserve, the U.S. economy has been held on the 'short leash' by International bankers, pursuing their global agenda.
Compliant and well-rewarded U.S.politicians in the Congress and White House have implemented the policies and goals of these bankers.
We are in the 'end-game' of a subversion of U.S.sovereignty, and an undermining and debasement of its economic system, that has been going on for a long, long time. And it all began with an Ivy League internationalist, turned Democrat politician, named Woodrow Wilson.
Pulling the United Nations OUT of the Federal Reserve is the first step to restoring U.S.sovereignty and economic freedom.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
To All Our Liberal Friends
Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.
Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere.
Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To All Our Conservative Friends:
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.
Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere.
Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To All Our Conservative Friends:
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Senator's Slurs &c.
Regarding the recent comments by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.):
Resorting to polemical and outrageous claims of racism is the last refuge (or sometimes the first) of liberals who can’t win substantively on issues.
They remind me of a law professor who once told me that if you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you don’t have the law but you have the facts, ignore the law and argue the facts.
If neither the law nor the facts are on your side, then attack your opponent to distract the jury from the fact that your client is guilty as hell.
Resorting to polemical and outrageous claims of racism is the last refuge (or sometimes the first) of liberals who can’t win substantively on issues.
They remind me of a law professor who once told me that if you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you don’t have the law but you have the facts, ignore the law and argue the facts.
If neither the law nor the facts are on your side, then attack your opponent to distract the jury from the fact that your client is guilty as hell.
Advice To Avatars Galaxy Wide
Andrew Bolt From Herald Sun December 23, 2009 (Australia)
MOST people will date the death of the great global warming scare not from the Copenhagen fiasco - boring! - but from Avatar.
It won't be the world's most expensive warmist conference but the world's most expensive movie that will stick in most memories as the precise point at which the green faith started to shrivel from sheer stupidity.
Avatar, in fact, is the warmist dream filmed in 3D. Staring through your glasses at James Cameron's spectacular $400 million creation, you can finally see where this global warming cult was going.
And you can see, too, everything that will now slowly pull it back to earth.
December 2009. Note it down. The beginning of the end, even as Avatar becomes possibly the biggest-grossing film in history.
Cameron, whose last colossal hit was Titanic, has created a virtual new planet called Pandora, on which humans 150 years from now have formed a small settlement.
They are there to mine a mineral so rare that it's called Unobtainium (groan), of which the greatest deposit sits right under the great sacred tree of the planet's dominant species, humanoid blue aliens called Na'vi.
If Tim Flannery, Al Gore and all the other Copenhagen delegates could at least agree to design a new kind of people, they'd wind up with something much like these 3m-tall gracelings.
The Na'vi live in trees, at one with nature. They worship Mother Earth and, like Gaians today, talk meaningfully of "a network of energy that flows through all living things". They drink water that's pooled in giant leaves, and chant around a tree that whispers of their ancestors.
They are also unusually non-sexist for a forest tribe, with the women just as free as men to hunt and choose their spouse. Naturally, like the most fashionable of Hollywood stars, they are also neo-Buddhist reincarnationists, who believe "all energy is borrowed and some day you have to give it back".
And, of course, the Na'vi reject all technology that's more advanced than a bow and arrow, for "the wealth of the world is all around us".
Sent to talk dollars and sense into these blue New Agers and move them out of the way of the bulldozers is a former Marine, Jake Sully (played by Australian Sam Worthington), who drives the body of a Na'vi avatar to better gain their trust.
(WARNING: Spoiler alert! Don't read on if you plan to see the movie.)
But meeting such perfect beings, living such low-emission green lives, Sully realises instead how vile his own species is.
Humans, he angrily declares, have already wrecked their own planet through their greed.
"There is no green" on their "dying world" because "they have killed their mother". Now we land-raping humans plan to wreck Pandora, too, with our "shock-and-awe" bombings, our war on "terror" and our genocidal plans to destroy the Na'vi and steal their lands.
So complete is Cameron's disgust with humans - and so convinced he is that his audience shares it - that he's made film history: he's created the first mass-market movie about a war between aliens and humans in which we're actually meant to barrack for the aliens.
(WARNING: Second spoiler alert!)
In fact, so vomitous are humans that Sully, the hero, not only chooses to fight on the side of the aliens but to actually become an alien, too. He rejects not just humans but his own humanity.
All of this preaching comes straight from what's left of Cameron's heart after five marriages and a professional reputation of on-set meanness.
Avatar, he's said, tackles "our impact on the natural environment, wherever we go strip mining and putting up shopping malls", and it warns "we're going to find out the hard way if we don't wise up and start seeking a life that's in balance with the natural cycle on life on earth".
Mind you, most of this will be just wallpaper to the film's real audience, which won't be greenies in Rasta beanies or wearing save-the-whale T-shirts made in Guatemala.
No, scoffing their popcorn as they wait impatiently for the inevitable big-bang shoot-'em-up after a fairground tour of some cool new planet will be the usual bag-laden crowd from the Christmas-choked megaplex - the kind of bug-eyed folk who thrill most to what Cameron claims to condemn, from the hi-tech to the militaristic.
Still, you can hardly blame them if they don't buy the message that Cameron's selling, since he doesn't really buy it himself.
Here's Cameron condemning consumerism by spending almost half a billion dollars on a mass-market movie for the Christmas season complete with tie-in burger deals from McDonald's and Avatar toys from Mattel.
Here's Cameron damning our love of technology by using the most advanced cinematographic technology to create his new green world.
In fact, here's Cameron urging his audience to scorn material possessions and get close to nature, only to himself retire each night to the splendid comfort of his Malibu mansion.
Not even his own creations live up to the philosophy he has them preach.
For all their talk of the connectedness of nature, the Na'vi still kill animals for food - although not before saying how sorry they are, of course, since we live in an age in which seeming sorry excuses every selfishness.
Likewise, despite all their lectures on not exploiting nature, the Na'vi still come out top dog in the food chain.
Even when they physically become at one with wild pterodactyls, by hooking up to them through some USB in their blue tails, they manage to convince their flying reptiles to act like their private jets.
Isn't this against the rules? I mean, in this caring and at-one-with-nature world, shouldn't a plugged-in pterodactyl just once in a while get to direct its human passenger instead - by either telling it to take a flying jump or to at least act like lunch?
In all of this, Avatar captures precisely - and to the point of satire - the creed of the Copenhagen faithful.
Rewind what you've seen from those Copenhagen planet-savers in the past two weeks.
There were the apocalyptic warnings of how we were killing the planet. There were the standing ovations the delegates gave last week to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's furious denunciations of capitalism, consumerism and the US military.
There was Bolivian President Evo Morales' cry for a simpler life: "It's changing economic policies, ending luxury, consumerism ... living better is to exploit human beings."
THERE were great crowds of activists such as Australia's Professor Clive Hamilton, who, like Avatar's Jake Sully, sermonises on the need to embrace "Gaian earth in its ecological, cybernetic way, infused with some notion of mind or soul or chi".
And there was the romanticising of the primitive by the demonstrators outside dressed as ferals and wild bears, as they banged tribal drums or chanted "Om" to Mother Earth.
Of course the Cameron-style have-it-both-ways hypocrites were there, too, luxuriating in the very lifestyles they condemned.
Take Prince Charles, who flew in his private RAF jet to Copenhagen to deliver a lecture on how our careless use of resources had pushed the planet "to the brink".
And then had his pilot fly him home to his palace.
But, yes, you are right. How can I say this great green faith is now toppling into the pit of ridicule, when Avatar seems sure to do colossal business? Won't a whole generation of the slack-jawed just catch this new green faith from the men in the blue costumes?
That's a risk. But having the green faith made so alien and such fodder for the entertainment of the candybar crowds will rob it of all sanctimony and cool.
Would a Cate Blanchett really be flattered to now be likened to a naked Na'vi, running from a pack of wild dogs in a dark forest?
Would an Al Gore really like to have millions of filmgoers see in 3D where his off-this-planet faith would lead them - up a tree, and without even a paddle?
No, we can now see their green world, and can see, too, it's time to come home.
MOST people will date the death of the great global warming scare not from the Copenhagen fiasco - boring! - but from Avatar.
It won't be the world's most expensive warmist conference but the world's most expensive movie that will stick in most memories as the precise point at which the green faith started to shrivel from sheer stupidity.
Avatar, in fact, is the warmist dream filmed in 3D. Staring through your glasses at James Cameron's spectacular $400 million creation, you can finally see where this global warming cult was going.
And you can see, too, everything that will now slowly pull it back to earth.
December 2009. Note it down. The beginning of the end, even as Avatar becomes possibly the biggest-grossing film in history.
Cameron, whose last colossal hit was Titanic, has created a virtual new planet called Pandora, on which humans 150 years from now have formed a small settlement.
They are there to mine a mineral so rare that it's called Unobtainium (groan), of which the greatest deposit sits right under the great sacred tree of the planet's dominant species, humanoid blue aliens called Na'vi.
If Tim Flannery, Al Gore and all the other Copenhagen delegates could at least agree to design a new kind of people, they'd wind up with something much like these 3m-tall gracelings.
The Na'vi live in trees, at one with nature. They worship Mother Earth and, like Gaians today, talk meaningfully of "a network of energy that flows through all living things". They drink water that's pooled in giant leaves, and chant around a tree that whispers of their ancestors.
They are also unusually non-sexist for a forest tribe, with the women just as free as men to hunt and choose their spouse. Naturally, like the most fashionable of Hollywood stars, they are also neo-Buddhist reincarnationists, who believe "all energy is borrowed and some day you have to give it back".
And, of course, the Na'vi reject all technology that's more advanced than a bow and arrow, for "the wealth of the world is all around us".
Sent to talk dollars and sense into these blue New Agers and move them out of the way of the bulldozers is a former Marine, Jake Sully (played by Australian Sam Worthington), who drives the body of a Na'vi avatar to better gain their trust.
(WARNING: Spoiler alert! Don't read on if you plan to see the movie.)
But meeting such perfect beings, living such low-emission green lives, Sully realises instead how vile his own species is.
Humans, he angrily declares, have already wrecked their own planet through their greed.
"There is no green" on their "dying world" because "they have killed their mother". Now we land-raping humans plan to wreck Pandora, too, with our "shock-and-awe" bombings, our war on "terror" and our genocidal plans to destroy the Na'vi and steal their lands.
So complete is Cameron's disgust with humans - and so convinced he is that his audience shares it - that he's made film history: he's created the first mass-market movie about a war between aliens and humans in which we're actually meant to barrack for the aliens.
(WARNING: Second spoiler alert!)
In fact, so vomitous are humans that Sully, the hero, not only chooses to fight on the side of the aliens but to actually become an alien, too. He rejects not just humans but his own humanity.
All of this preaching comes straight from what's left of Cameron's heart after five marriages and a professional reputation of on-set meanness.
Avatar, he's said, tackles "our impact on the natural environment, wherever we go strip mining and putting up shopping malls", and it warns "we're going to find out the hard way if we don't wise up and start seeking a life that's in balance with the natural cycle on life on earth".
Mind you, most of this will be just wallpaper to the film's real audience, which won't be greenies in Rasta beanies or wearing save-the-whale T-shirts made in Guatemala.
No, scoffing their popcorn as they wait impatiently for the inevitable big-bang shoot-'em-up after a fairground tour of some cool new planet will be the usual bag-laden crowd from the Christmas-choked megaplex - the kind of bug-eyed folk who thrill most to what Cameron claims to condemn, from the hi-tech to the militaristic.
Still, you can hardly blame them if they don't buy the message that Cameron's selling, since he doesn't really buy it himself.
Here's Cameron condemning consumerism by spending almost half a billion dollars on a mass-market movie for the Christmas season complete with tie-in burger deals from McDonald's and Avatar toys from Mattel.
Here's Cameron damning our love of technology by using the most advanced cinematographic technology to create his new green world.
In fact, here's Cameron urging his audience to scorn material possessions and get close to nature, only to himself retire each night to the splendid comfort of his Malibu mansion.
Not even his own creations live up to the philosophy he has them preach.
For all their talk of the connectedness of nature, the Na'vi still kill animals for food - although not before saying how sorry they are, of course, since we live in an age in which seeming sorry excuses every selfishness.
Likewise, despite all their lectures on not exploiting nature, the Na'vi still come out top dog in the food chain.
Even when they physically become at one with wild pterodactyls, by hooking up to them through some USB in their blue tails, they manage to convince their flying reptiles to act like their private jets.
Isn't this against the rules? I mean, in this caring and at-one-with-nature world, shouldn't a plugged-in pterodactyl just once in a while get to direct its human passenger instead - by either telling it to take a flying jump or to at least act like lunch?
In all of this, Avatar captures precisely - and to the point of satire - the creed of the Copenhagen faithful.
Rewind what you've seen from those Copenhagen planet-savers in the past two weeks.
There were the apocalyptic warnings of how we were killing the planet. There were the standing ovations the delegates gave last week to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's furious denunciations of capitalism, consumerism and the US military.
There was Bolivian President Evo Morales' cry for a simpler life: "It's changing economic policies, ending luxury, consumerism ... living better is to exploit human beings."
THERE were great crowds of activists such as Australia's Professor Clive Hamilton, who, like Avatar's Jake Sully, sermonises on the need to embrace "Gaian earth in its ecological, cybernetic way, infused with some notion of mind or soul or chi".
And there was the romanticising of the primitive by the demonstrators outside dressed as ferals and wild bears, as they banged tribal drums or chanted "Om" to Mother Earth.
Of course the Cameron-style have-it-both-ways hypocrites were there, too, luxuriating in the very lifestyles they condemned.
Take Prince Charles, who flew in his private RAF jet to Copenhagen to deliver a lecture on how our careless use of resources had pushed the planet "to the brink".
And then had his pilot fly him home to his palace.
But, yes, you are right. How can I say this great green faith is now toppling into the pit of ridicule, when Avatar seems sure to do colossal business? Won't a whole generation of the slack-jawed just catch this new green faith from the men in the blue costumes?
That's a risk. But having the green faith made so alien and such fodder for the entertainment of the candybar crowds will rob it of all sanctimony and cool.
Would a Cate Blanchett really be flattered to now be likened to a naked Na'vi, running from a pack of wild dogs in a dark forest?
Would an Al Gore really like to have millions of filmgoers see in 3D where his off-this-planet faith would lead them - up a tree, and without even a paddle?
No, we can now see their green world, and can see, too, it's time to come home.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
A Note From The Donkeys
Friend --
2009 has been a year of many important accomplishments for Democrats, and I'm grateful for all your help in making these successes possible.
So with the help of our friends at Organizing for America, the grassroots project of the Democratic National Committee, we put together a special holiday message, personalized for you, and I think you'll like it.
Click here to view it:
http://my.democrats.org/holiday
Thanks again for everything you do -- and happy holidays!
Governor Tim Kaine
2009 has been a year of many important accomplishments for Democrats, and I'm grateful for all your help in making these successes possible.
So with the help of our friends at Organizing for America, the grassroots project of the Democratic National Committee, we put together a special holiday message, personalized for you, and I think you'll like it.
Click here to view it:
http://my.democrats.org/holiday
Thanks again for everything you do -- and happy holidays!
Governor Tim Kaine
The Good News Is. . .
. . .this:
Feast, my friends, on the bitter tears of our enemies:
Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator for the G77: "This deal . . . has the lowest level of ambition you can imagine. It's nothing short of climate change scepticism in action."
John Lanchbery, Birdlife International: "It sounds very vague. There's no next step, nothing to link through to how to get a final deal done."
Carl Pope, Sierra Club: "President Obama and the rest of the world paid a steep price here in Copenhagen because of obstructionism in the United States Senate."
John Ashe, Chair of Kyoto Protocol: "Given where we started and the expectations for this conference, anything less than a legally binding and agreed outcome falls far short of the mark."
John Sauven, Greenpeace: "It seems there are too few politicians in this world capable of looking beyond the horizon of their own narrow self-interest, let alone caring much for the millions of people who are facing down the threat of climate change."
Kate Horner, Friends of the Earth: "This toothless declaration, being spun by the US as an historic success, reflects contempt for the multilateral process and we expect more from our Nobel prize winning president."
Tim Jones, World Development Movement: "This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish, culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that has condemned millions of people around the world to untold suffering."
Feast, my friends, on the bitter tears of our enemies:
Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator for the G77: "This deal . . . has the lowest level of ambition you can imagine. It's nothing short of climate change scepticism in action."
John Lanchbery, Birdlife International: "It sounds very vague. There's no next step, nothing to link through to how to get a final deal done."
Carl Pope, Sierra Club: "President Obama and the rest of the world paid a steep price here in Copenhagen because of obstructionism in the United States Senate."
John Ashe, Chair of Kyoto Protocol: "Given where we started and the expectations for this conference, anything less than a legally binding and agreed outcome falls far short of the mark."
John Sauven, Greenpeace: "It seems there are too few politicians in this world capable of looking beyond the horizon of their own narrow self-interest, let alone caring much for the millions of people who are facing down the threat of climate change."
Kate Horner, Friends of the Earth: "This toothless declaration, being spun by the US as an historic success, reflects contempt for the multilateral process and we expect more from our Nobel prize winning president."
Tim Jones, World Development Movement: "This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish, culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that has condemned millions of people around the world to untold suffering."
Friday, December 18, 2009
Capitalism, Copenhagen & Chavez
Our president is in Copenhagen. Perhaps while there he can sharpen his killing-capitalism skills. The Australian reports on the Hugo Chavez summit speech:
President Chavez brought the house down.
When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.
When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.
But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell...let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.
A standing ovation. Just thought you'd like to know. After all, this isn't just some activist with nutty ideas at a specialized, quirky side rally. It's the president of Venezuela at a global summit our president is now attending.
President Chavez brought the house down.
When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.
When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.
But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell...let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.
A standing ovation. Just thought you'd like to know. After all, this isn't just some activist with nutty ideas at a specialized, quirky side rally. It's the president of Venezuela at a global summit our president is now attending.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Global Warming v. Iran
A theme I have sounded before: the immense, world concern for global warming versus the concern over a nuclear Iran, and what some call “Islamofascism” more generally.
Tehran just test-fired a new missile, which is capable not only of hitting Israel but of hitting Europe.
The leaders in Copenhagen, waxing apocalyptic about global warming, were forced to take a little timeout to talk about Iran. Then they returned to Topic A, the obsession over climate.
Obviously, the world — “the world,” I should say — can address more than one concern at the same time (and must). But priorities come into play as well.
A friend sent me a quotation from Dennis Prager, which I’d like to share with you: “One day, our grandchildren may ask us what we did when Islamic fascism threatened the free world. Some of us will say we were preoccupied with fighting that threat wherever possible; others will be able to say they fought carbon dioxide emissions. One of us will look bad.”
That sums up neatly.
Tehran just test-fired a new missile, which is capable not only of hitting Israel but of hitting Europe.
The leaders in Copenhagen, waxing apocalyptic about global warming, were forced to take a little timeout to talk about Iran. Then they returned to Topic A, the obsession over climate.
Obviously, the world — “the world,” I should say — can address more than one concern at the same time (and must). But priorities come into play as well.
A friend sent me a quotation from Dennis Prager, which I’d like to share with you: “One day, our grandchildren may ask us what we did when Islamic fascism threatened the free world. Some of us will say we were preoccupied with fighting that threat wherever possible; others will be able to say they fought carbon dioxide emissions. One of us will look bad.”
That sums up neatly.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
I'm Not Dead Yet
Last August, we were told that the Lockerbie bomber, Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, had prostate cancer and would be dead within three months.
The authorities then returned him from his Scottish prison to his home town of Tripoli in Libya, but you would have to be pretty simple to believe that they had acted purely from humanitarian motives, as they claimed.
Were they not inspired by vast oil and gas contracts with Libya? Six months have now passed, and al-Megrahi is still with us.
More than that, he has broken the terms of his release, which involved keeping in touch by telephone with Scottish authorities — not much of a restriction either. The guard outside his house says al-Megrahi is not there, and he is not in the hospital either.
The British government evidently has played its part in effecting a miraculous cure for that terminal cancer. It is easier to imagine al-Megrahi in a tuxedo in the Monte Carlo casino than in the morgue in Tripoli.
The authorities then returned him from his Scottish prison to his home town of Tripoli in Libya, but you would have to be pretty simple to believe that they had acted purely from humanitarian motives, as they claimed.
Were they not inspired by vast oil and gas contracts with Libya? Six months have now passed, and al-Megrahi is still with us.
More than that, he has broken the terms of his release, which involved keeping in touch by telephone with Scottish authorities — not much of a restriction either. The guard outside his house says al-Megrahi is not there, and he is not in the hospital either.
The British government evidently has played its part in effecting a miraculous cure for that terminal cancer. It is easier to imagine al-Megrahi in a tuxedo in the Monte Carlo casino than in the morgue in Tripoli.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Obama's Business Smart Administration
This extract from the Glen Beck show presents the percentage of each president's cabinet appointees who had previously worked in the private sector.
Roosevelt: 38%
Taft: 40%
Wilson: 52%
Harding: 49%
Coolidge: 48%
Hoover: 42%
FDR: 50%
Truman: 50%
Eisenhower: 57%
Kennedy: 30%
LBJ: 47%
Nixon: 53%
Ford:42%
Carter: 32%
Reagan: 56%
George HW Bush: 51%
Clinton: 39%
George W Bush: 55%
And...
Obama: 8%
Obama's guys are holding a "job summit." That ought to go really well.
Roosevelt: 38%
Taft: 40%
Wilson: 52%
Harding: 49%
Coolidge: 48%
Hoover: 42%
FDR: 50%
Truman: 50%
Eisenhower: 57%
Kennedy: 30%
LBJ: 47%
Nixon: 53%
Ford:42%
Carter: 32%
Reagan: 56%
George HW Bush: 51%
Clinton: 39%
George W Bush: 55%
And...
Obama: 8%
Obama's guys are holding a "job summit." That ought to go really well.
Friday, December 11, 2009
We Got Another One!
Reports about this have been floating around for a while but this is the first I've seen with a name—and that of a "natural successor to Bin Laden" to boot.
(CBS)--A U.S. government official says a top al Qaeda operative has been killed in a drone attack in western Pakistan, and local media says that the strike killed al Qaeda's number 3 in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.
The U.S. is still not confirming the report, CBS News has learned.
Abu Yahya al-Libi is the spiritual successor to Palestinian philosopher Abu Azzam - and the inspiration for much of Bin Laden's beliefs, according to CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan. He is very powerful and believed by some to be the natural successor to Bin Laden.
Intelligence officials have confirmed that the pace of attacks by armed unmanned aerial vehicles has increased during the Obama administration.
As Jim Geraghty tweeted: "If our drone killed an al-Qaeda bigwig DURING Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech, it would be as cool as the closing scenes of The Godfather."
(CBS)--A U.S. government official says a top al Qaeda operative has been killed in a drone attack in western Pakistan, and local media says that the strike killed al Qaeda's number 3 in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.
The U.S. is still not confirming the report, CBS News has learned.
Abu Yahya al-Libi is the spiritual successor to Palestinian philosopher Abu Azzam - and the inspiration for much of Bin Laden's beliefs, according to CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan. He is very powerful and believed by some to be the natural successor to Bin Laden.
Intelligence officials have confirmed that the pace of attacks by armed unmanned aerial vehicles has increased during the Obama administration.
As Jim Geraghty tweeted: "If our drone killed an al-Qaeda bigwig DURING Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech, it would be as cool as the closing scenes of The Godfather."
Monday, December 7, 2009
Pearl Harbor Day 2009
'I think of Pearl Harbor probably every day'
JOHN BURGESS/ PD Don Blair, 89, is the president of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
Published: Monday, December 7, 2009 at 4:02 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, December 7, 2009 at 4:02 a.m.
There are times, some marked by panicky midnight dreams or haphazard flashbacks, when Don Blair would rather forget Pearl Harbor.
"It's not as vivid now as it was," said the private and contemplative ex-sailor and retired postal employee. "But I think of Pearl Harbor probably every day, one way or another."
At 89, Blair is president of the regional chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association whose membership has dwindled to a handful of old salts.
The Rohnert Park resident is proud to have served with the Navy and to have been at Pearl Harbor, even though the terror of what he saw and experienced aboard the beleaguered battleship Nevada 68 years ago today still haunts him.
At 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, 23 members of a Navy band launched into the National Anthem for the morning's raising of the flag aboard the 29,000-ton battleship USS Nevada.
The Nevada -- America's 36th battleship, named for the 36th state -- was moored just off Pearl Harbor's Ford Island near the clustered battleships Arizona, Tennessee, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Maryland and California.
Suddenly, waves of Japanese torpedo bombers and dive-bombers attacked. All members of the Nevada's band stood their ground until finishing "The Star-Spangled Banner," then sprinted to their battle stations.
Blair, who served as a yeoman, has plenty to say about Pearl Harbor, but he is reluctant to say anything for fear it may sound like he's complaining. As grateful as he is that some people still honor WWII vets and show an interest in their war, he recoils at the thought of anyone equating him with his fellow warriors who demonstrated great valor under fire.
"I'm not unique," Blair said. "And I'm no hero."
At 8:10 a.m., a torpedo struck the port side of the Nevada and exploded. Water streamed in through the damaged hull.
The dreadnought's acting commanders -- Capt. F.W. Scanland had begun the day in Honolulu and was racing back to Pearl Harbor -- decided to make a run for the open sea.
As the ship groaned past the mortally damaged USS Arizona, an explosion on the Arizona blew a shower of metal debris onto the Nevada, killing several of its sailors.
Blair was born in North Dakota and grew up a hardworking and poor Depression-era farmboy. He enlisted at 19 in 1939 after a man-to-man with his girlfriend's uncle, a Navy recruiter.
"My gal friend and he talked me into it," he said. For Blair, putting on a military uniform was a pinch-me moment.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "Me? Joining the Navy?"
It was mind-bending for him, too, to step aboard the 583-foot-long USS Nevada in San Pedro in September 1939.
"It was overwhelming," he remembered.
A petty officer, Blair was assigned to a steady stream of clerical duties related to the upkeep and repair of the battleship. He vividly remembers gazing out a porthole in his office as the ship lay moored on Battleship Row in sunny Pearl Harbor the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
"I saw this plane flying in low -- and it had a meatball on it," he said. Then bombs fell.
As the only battleship to get under way that morning, the Nevada came under intense dive-bomber attack when it entered the harbor's main channel and made for the ocean.
Fearful it would be sunk and would block the entrance to the harbor, harbor officers ordered the Nevada to intentionally run aground at the channel's edge.
Crewmen worked fiercely to extinguish fires ignited by bombs as, shortly after 9 a.m., tugboats pushed the listing battleship onto the mud.
Blair's battle station was the central station, several decks below the Nevada's conning tower. He spent the entire morning of Dec. 7 down there and well into the afternoon, receiving and forwarding damage reports and standing ready to answer ship-structure inquiries that would require review of the Nevada's blueprints.
The great ship shivered and rocked as divebombers scored hits and near-misses. Blair could only imagine what was happening on deck and in the harbor.
By midafternoon, the seawater seeping into the damaged Nevada reached Blair's ankles and he requested permission to come up onto the deck. "I was afraid of getting electrocuted," he said.
When the attack ended, the Nevada had lost 50 officers and crewmen and it sat beached and swamped at the side of Pearl Harbor's channel.
Still, she had come through in far better shape than other battleships that had sat like ducks off Ford Island.
More than 1,100 sailors perished in the massive explosion aboard the Arizona. The Oklahoma lay on its side and both the California and West Virginia were sunk.
Across Oahu, the death count would reach 2,390.
Blair at last received permission to come up onto the main deck at the rear of the Nevada. There, the 21-year-old petty officer gulped the fresh air and got a taste of what had happened that morning.
"I could see blood all over the deck," he said. He came upon pallets waiting to be moved off the grounded ship. They were loaded with bodies and pieces of bodies.
"I didn't start to grasp any of it until I was standing on the main deck aft," Blair said. He remembers, too well, the sheer terror that occurred below deck later that night, when planes roared in that turned out to be American but everyone believed were returning Japanese.
The Nevada lay idled alongside the channel until she was refloated on Feb. 12, 1942.
The battleship was repaired and upgraded on the West Coast, then raced to rejoin the fight. It served in the Aleutians in mid-1943 and a year later became the only Pearl Harbor battleship to take part in the Normandy invasion.
The ship returned to the Pacific in 1945 to assist in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and await, if necessary, the invasion of Japan.
Blair was among the sailors transferred off the Nevada as 1942 dawned and America switched fully into war mode. Though sorry to leave the ship, he served as a yeoman at several Pacific posts and was in San Francisco when the war ended.
He remained in the Navy's active reserves for most of his working life. A highlight of his retirement in Sonoma County was discovering the Santa Rosa-based Chapter 23 of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
As old age and deaths have reduced the active members to only four or five, there was talk earlier this year of shutting the chapter down. Blair was among the old vets who wouldn't hear of it.
"When it folds up, it just puts us in the final hole in the ground," he said.
Too antiquated for further military duty, the USS Nevada was used as a target in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini in the Marshall Islands.
The Navy decommissioned the storied battleship in August of 1946. She was towed into the open ocean off of Hawaii and on July 13, 1948, was sunk by gunfire and torpedoes.
Blair has by now pondered the lessons of Pearl Harbor for almost 70 years. He learned for sure the true meaning of the National Anthem.
When it streamed through the fractured fleet's radios the day after the attack, he said, it resounded within him much more personally than it had when the Nevada's band struck it up just as hell broke loose the previous morning.
". . . the bombs bursting in air . . . our flag was still there." His flag was still there, and so was he and so was the now unified resolve of his nation.
"You never saw so many people cry" as when the anthem rallied hope across Pearl Harbor that Dec. 8, the old sailor said. "They tried to hide their crying. I did, too."
JOHN BURGESS/ PD Don Blair, 89, is the president of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
Published: Monday, December 7, 2009 at 4:02 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, December 7, 2009 at 4:02 a.m.
There are times, some marked by panicky midnight dreams or haphazard flashbacks, when Don Blair would rather forget Pearl Harbor.
"It's not as vivid now as it was," said the private and contemplative ex-sailor and retired postal employee. "But I think of Pearl Harbor probably every day, one way or another."
At 89, Blair is president of the regional chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association whose membership has dwindled to a handful of old salts.
The Rohnert Park resident is proud to have served with the Navy and to have been at Pearl Harbor, even though the terror of what he saw and experienced aboard the beleaguered battleship Nevada 68 years ago today still haunts him.
At 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, 23 members of a Navy band launched into the National Anthem for the morning's raising of the flag aboard the 29,000-ton battleship USS Nevada.
The Nevada -- America's 36th battleship, named for the 36th state -- was moored just off Pearl Harbor's Ford Island near the clustered battleships Arizona, Tennessee, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Maryland and California.
Suddenly, waves of Japanese torpedo bombers and dive-bombers attacked. All members of the Nevada's band stood their ground until finishing "The Star-Spangled Banner," then sprinted to their battle stations.
Blair, who served as a yeoman, has plenty to say about Pearl Harbor, but he is reluctant to say anything for fear it may sound like he's complaining. As grateful as he is that some people still honor WWII vets and show an interest in their war, he recoils at the thought of anyone equating him with his fellow warriors who demonstrated great valor under fire.
"I'm not unique," Blair said. "And I'm no hero."
At 8:10 a.m., a torpedo struck the port side of the Nevada and exploded. Water streamed in through the damaged hull.
The dreadnought's acting commanders -- Capt. F.W. Scanland had begun the day in Honolulu and was racing back to Pearl Harbor -- decided to make a run for the open sea.
As the ship groaned past the mortally damaged USS Arizona, an explosion on the Arizona blew a shower of metal debris onto the Nevada, killing several of its sailors.
Blair was born in North Dakota and grew up a hardworking and poor Depression-era farmboy. He enlisted at 19 in 1939 after a man-to-man with his girlfriend's uncle, a Navy recruiter.
"My gal friend and he talked me into it," he said. For Blair, putting on a military uniform was a pinch-me moment.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "Me? Joining the Navy?"
It was mind-bending for him, too, to step aboard the 583-foot-long USS Nevada in San Pedro in September 1939.
"It was overwhelming," he remembered.
A petty officer, Blair was assigned to a steady stream of clerical duties related to the upkeep and repair of the battleship. He vividly remembers gazing out a porthole in his office as the ship lay moored on Battleship Row in sunny Pearl Harbor the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
"I saw this plane flying in low -- and it had a meatball on it," he said. Then bombs fell.
As the only battleship to get under way that morning, the Nevada came under intense dive-bomber attack when it entered the harbor's main channel and made for the ocean.
Fearful it would be sunk and would block the entrance to the harbor, harbor officers ordered the Nevada to intentionally run aground at the channel's edge.
Crewmen worked fiercely to extinguish fires ignited by bombs as, shortly after 9 a.m., tugboats pushed the listing battleship onto the mud.
Blair's battle station was the central station, several decks below the Nevada's conning tower. He spent the entire morning of Dec. 7 down there and well into the afternoon, receiving and forwarding damage reports and standing ready to answer ship-structure inquiries that would require review of the Nevada's blueprints.
The great ship shivered and rocked as divebombers scored hits and near-misses. Blair could only imagine what was happening on deck and in the harbor.
By midafternoon, the seawater seeping into the damaged Nevada reached Blair's ankles and he requested permission to come up onto the deck. "I was afraid of getting electrocuted," he said.
When the attack ended, the Nevada had lost 50 officers and crewmen and it sat beached and swamped at the side of Pearl Harbor's channel.
Still, she had come through in far better shape than other battleships that had sat like ducks off Ford Island.
More than 1,100 sailors perished in the massive explosion aboard the Arizona. The Oklahoma lay on its side and both the California and West Virginia were sunk.
Across Oahu, the death count would reach 2,390.
Blair at last received permission to come up onto the main deck at the rear of the Nevada. There, the 21-year-old petty officer gulped the fresh air and got a taste of what had happened that morning.
"I could see blood all over the deck," he said. He came upon pallets waiting to be moved off the grounded ship. They were loaded with bodies and pieces of bodies.
"I didn't start to grasp any of it until I was standing on the main deck aft," Blair said. He remembers, too well, the sheer terror that occurred below deck later that night, when planes roared in that turned out to be American but everyone believed were returning Japanese.
The Nevada lay idled alongside the channel until she was refloated on Feb. 12, 1942.
The battleship was repaired and upgraded on the West Coast, then raced to rejoin the fight. It served in the Aleutians in mid-1943 and a year later became the only Pearl Harbor battleship to take part in the Normandy invasion.
The ship returned to the Pacific in 1945 to assist in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and await, if necessary, the invasion of Japan.
Blair was among the sailors transferred off the Nevada as 1942 dawned and America switched fully into war mode. Though sorry to leave the ship, he served as a yeoman at several Pacific posts and was in San Francisco when the war ended.
He remained in the Navy's active reserves for most of his working life. A highlight of his retirement in Sonoma County was discovering the Santa Rosa-based Chapter 23 of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
As old age and deaths have reduced the active members to only four or five, there was talk earlier this year of shutting the chapter down. Blair was among the old vets who wouldn't hear of it.
"When it folds up, it just puts us in the final hole in the ground," he said.
Too antiquated for further military duty, the USS Nevada was used as a target in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini in the Marshall Islands.
The Navy decommissioned the storied battleship in August of 1946. She was towed into the open ocean off of Hawaii and on July 13, 1948, was sunk by gunfire and torpedoes.
Blair has by now pondered the lessons of Pearl Harbor for almost 70 years. He learned for sure the true meaning of the National Anthem.
When it streamed through the fractured fleet's radios the day after the attack, he said, it resounded within him much more personally than it had when the Nevada's band struck it up just as hell broke loose the previous morning.
". . . the bombs bursting in air . . . our flag was still there." His flag was still there, and so was he and so was the now unified resolve of his nation.
"You never saw so many people cry" as when the anthem rallied hope across Pearl Harbor that Dec. 8, the old sailor said. "They tried to hide their crying. I did, too."
The Speech That Will Live In Infamy
EDITORIAL: Leadership in war
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Today is the anniversary of a day that will live in infamy. On Dec. 7, 1941, Imperial Japan launched surprise attacks that brought America into the Second World War. The United States and our allies were blessed with leaders who were dedicated to doing whatever it took to defeat the enemy, no matter how long that took. As General Douglas MacArthur put it so succinctly, "In war, there is no substitute for victory." That's a lesson our current president still needs to learn.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dec. 8, 1941: "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. ... With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God."
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, May 10, 1940: "Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. ... The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.
"Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
President Harry S. Truman, July 19, 1950: "We know that the cost of freedom is high. But we are determined to preserve our freedom - no matter what the cost."
President Barack H. Obama, Dec. 1, 2009: "There are those who oppose identifying a time-frame for our transition to Afghan responsibility. Indeed, some call for a more dramatic and open-ended escalation of our war effort. ... I reject this course because it sets goals that are beyond what we can achieve at a reasonable cost, and what we need to achieve to secure our interests."
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Today is the anniversary of a day that will live in infamy. On Dec. 7, 1941, Imperial Japan launched surprise attacks that brought America into the Second World War. The United States and our allies were blessed with leaders who were dedicated to doing whatever it took to defeat the enemy, no matter how long that took. As General Douglas MacArthur put it so succinctly, "In war, there is no substitute for victory." That's a lesson our current president still needs to learn.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dec. 8, 1941: "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. ... With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God."
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, May 10, 1940: "Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. ... The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.
"Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
President Harry S. Truman, July 19, 1950: "We know that the cost of freedom is high. But we are determined to preserve our freedom - no matter what the cost."
President Barack H. Obama, Dec. 1, 2009: "There are those who oppose identifying a time-frame for our transition to Afghan responsibility. Indeed, some call for a more dramatic and open-ended escalation of our war effort. ... I reject this course because it sets goals that are beyond what we can achieve at a reasonable cost, and what we need to achieve to secure our interests."
Tiger's Wood
So the count has reached nine. Do you suppose we'll eventually end up at Tiger's 19th hole?
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Obama's Ebb & Flow
The surge in troops is to be followed immediately by the drawdown in troops.
Even while we make it clear that we’re not planning to stick around, we will somehow persuade Afghan Muslims to carry on the fight on our behalf against their fellow Afghan Muslims.
And in that 18-month bat of an eye, we will do what we haven’t been able to do in seven years, namely, turn Afghan security forces into competent soldiers and police who are motivated to do what we’re telling them it’s not worth our effort to do: battle the Taliban (who are not leaving in 18 months, by the way).
And, in that same blink of an eye, we’ll also do what no one’s been able to do in history: Turn Afghanistan into a functioning country.
This would be preposterous if it were actually a national-security strategy. But it’s not. It’s a political strategy. It’s incoherent, but it’s working: The Right is snowed, the Left is appeased.
We’re coming, but we’re leaving.
We’re sending thousands of warriors, but they won’t be making war. We’re nation building in a place we’d have to occupy for a century to build a nation, but we’re not occupiers, and we’ll be calling it a wrap in 18 months.
In the interim, Afghanistan can go off the radar while we socialize medicine, save the planet from the contrived heat death, and get ACORN busy on the midterms.
We can deal with Afghanistan again in July 2011, when we’ll have a better read on the landscape for Obama’s 2012 reelection bid.
Saul Alinsky would be proud.
Even while we make it clear that we’re not planning to stick around, we will somehow persuade Afghan Muslims to carry on the fight on our behalf against their fellow Afghan Muslims.
And in that 18-month bat of an eye, we will do what we haven’t been able to do in seven years, namely, turn Afghan security forces into competent soldiers and police who are motivated to do what we’re telling them it’s not worth our effort to do: battle the Taliban (who are not leaving in 18 months, by the way).
And, in that same blink of an eye, we’ll also do what no one’s been able to do in history: Turn Afghanistan into a functioning country.
This would be preposterous if it were actually a national-security strategy. But it’s not. It’s a political strategy. It’s incoherent, but it’s working: The Right is snowed, the Left is appeased.
We’re coming, but we’re leaving.
We’re sending thousands of warriors, but they won’t be making war. We’re nation building in a place we’d have to occupy for a century to build a nation, but we’re not occupiers, and we’ll be calling it a wrap in 18 months.
In the interim, Afghanistan can go off the radar while we socialize medicine, save the planet from the contrived heat death, and get ACORN busy on the midterms.
We can deal with Afghanistan again in July 2011, when we’ll have a better read on the landscape for Obama’s 2012 reelection bid.
Saul Alinsky would be proud.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Searching In Vain for the Obama Magic
President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech left a bad taste in many mouths. This is a solid piece.
Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.
One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama's speech would be well-received.
Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool.
One didn't have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama's speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.
An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan -- and then they will march right back out again. America is going to war -- and from there it will continue ahead to peace. It was the speech of a Nobel War Prize laureate.
Just in Time for the Campaign
For each troop movement, Obama had a number to match. US strength in Afghanistan will be tripled relative to the Bush years, a fact that is sure to impress hawks in America. But just 18 months later, just in time for Obama's re-election campaign, the horror of war is to end and the draw down will begin. The doves of peace will be let free.
The speech continued in that vein. It was as though Obama had taken one of his old campaign speeches and merged it with a text from the library of ex-President George W. Bush. Extremists kill in the name of Islam, he said, before adding that it is one of the "world's great religions." He promised that responsibility for the country's security would soon be transferred to the government of President Hamid Karzai -- a government which he said was "corrupt." The Taliban is dangerous and growing stronger. But "America will have to show our strength in the way that we end wars," he added.
It was a dizzying combination of surge and withdrawal, of marching to and fro. The fast pace was reminiscent of plays about the French revolution: Troops enter from the right to loud cannon fire and then they exit to the left. And at the end, the dead are left on stage.
Obama's Magic No Longer Works
But in this case, the public was more disturbed than entertained. Indeed, one could see the phenomenon in a number of places in recent weeks: Obama's magic no longer works. The allure of his words has grown weaker.
It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives -- their job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.
Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where campaigners -- particularly those with a talent for oration -- are fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign headquarters, in an enormous tent called "Hope."
In his speech on America's new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.
The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's already got himself.
This is an International Opinion from Spiegel Online International by Gabor Steingart.
Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.
One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama's speech would be well-received.
Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool.
One didn't have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama's speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.
An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan -- and then they will march right back out again. America is going to war -- and from there it will continue ahead to peace. It was the speech of a Nobel War Prize laureate.
Just in Time for the Campaign
For each troop movement, Obama had a number to match. US strength in Afghanistan will be tripled relative to the Bush years, a fact that is sure to impress hawks in America. But just 18 months later, just in time for Obama's re-election campaign, the horror of war is to end and the draw down will begin. The doves of peace will be let free.
The speech continued in that vein. It was as though Obama had taken one of his old campaign speeches and merged it with a text from the library of ex-President George W. Bush. Extremists kill in the name of Islam, he said, before adding that it is one of the "world's great religions." He promised that responsibility for the country's security would soon be transferred to the government of President Hamid Karzai -- a government which he said was "corrupt." The Taliban is dangerous and growing stronger. But "America will have to show our strength in the way that we end wars," he added.
It was a dizzying combination of surge and withdrawal, of marching to and fro. The fast pace was reminiscent of plays about the French revolution: Troops enter from the right to loud cannon fire and then they exit to the left. And at the end, the dead are left on stage.
Obama's Magic No Longer Works
But in this case, the public was more disturbed than entertained. Indeed, one could see the phenomenon in a number of places in recent weeks: Obama's magic no longer works. The allure of his words has grown weaker.
It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives -- their job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.
Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where campaigners -- particularly those with a talent for oration -- are fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign headquarters, in an enormous tent called "Hope."
In his speech on America's new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.
The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's already got himself.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Jobs And Reality
The jobs report might, to borrow a phrase, "hide the decline" in employment.
Two economists who predicted that the November numbers would be better than expected say the improvement may be attributable to quirks in the Labor Department's statistical models.
The models adjust for regular seasonal fluctuations in employment, but give added weight to fluctuations in recent years.
So the 610,000 jobs that were lost last November in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse — the first decline in that month since 2001 and the largest ever recorded —figured heavily into the Department's estimate of new jobless claims, and could have given "the impression the labor market is improving faster than it actually is."
Said one of the economists: "It may not be a sign that we have gotten to the point where we are going to see sustainable gains in employment.”
The seasonal adjustment issue seems to have worked in reverse for October, making it appear as though the economy shed more jobs than it actually did.
The economists cited in the story also correctly predicted that the jobs report would revise October assessments downward.
Two economists who predicted that the November numbers would be better than expected say the improvement may be attributable to quirks in the Labor Department's statistical models.
The models adjust for regular seasonal fluctuations in employment, but give added weight to fluctuations in recent years.
So the 610,000 jobs that were lost last November in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse — the first decline in that month since 2001 and the largest ever recorded —figured heavily into the Department's estimate of new jobless claims, and could have given "the impression the labor market is improving faster than it actually is."
Said one of the economists: "It may not be a sign that we have gotten to the point where we are going to see sustainable gains in employment.”
The seasonal adjustment issue seems to have worked in reverse for October, making it appear as though the economy shed more jobs than it actually did.
The economists cited in the story also correctly predicted that the jobs report would revise October assessments downward.
Stimulating, Baby!
So what can Recovery.gov tell us about the impact of the stimulus on Allentown, Pennsylvania, the first stop on President Obama's jobs tour?
Examining Zip Code 18102 on Recovery.gov tells me that the "City of Allentown" was awarded $672,157 in total gifts, and 0.00 jobs were created or saved from it.
Then another $2,258,098 was awarded to the "City of Allentown", with another 0.00 jobs created or saved.
The "Allentown Housing Authority" was awarded $2,274,904, with another 0.00 jobs created or saved.
The "School District of the City of Allentown" was awarded $5,967,031 with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
So there's $10 million with no jobs created.
Then the "Roberto Clemente Charter School" was listed as "amount for location" of $100,560, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
"Allentown Art Museum Inc." was listed as "amount for location" of $50,000, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
"Boys and Girls Club of Allentown" was listed as "amount for location" of $42,500, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
"Valley Youth House Committee" was listed as "amount for location" of $85,111, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
The "Lehigh County Conference of Churches" was listed as "amount for location" of $225,000, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
Hey, I think I spotted the problem with the economy! All of this money is being thrown around, but nobody's created any jobs with it!
Examining Zip Code 18102 on Recovery.gov tells me that the "City of Allentown" was awarded $672,157 in total gifts, and 0.00 jobs were created or saved from it.
Then another $2,258,098 was awarded to the "City of Allentown", with another 0.00 jobs created or saved.
The "Allentown Housing Authority" was awarded $2,274,904, with another 0.00 jobs created or saved.
The "School District of the City of Allentown" was awarded $5,967,031 with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
So there's $10 million with no jobs created.
Then the "Roberto Clemente Charter School" was listed as "amount for location" of $100,560, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
"Allentown Art Museum Inc." was listed as "amount for location" of $50,000, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
"Boys and Girls Club of Allentown" was listed as "amount for location" of $42,500, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
"Valley Youth House Committee" was listed as "amount for location" of $85,111, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
The "Lehigh County Conference of Churches" was listed as "amount for location" of $225,000, with the space for "jobs created/saved" left blank.
Hey, I think I spotted the problem with the economy! All of this money is being thrown around, but nobody's created any jobs with it!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
House Cancels Estate Tax Repeal
From the Washington Post:
The House votes 224-199 to cancel a one-year repeal of the estate tax, set to begin next month, and instead permanently extends the current tax, with a top rate of 45 percent on estates larger than $3.5 million.
The House votes 224-199 to cancel a one-year repeal of the estate tax, set to begin next month, and instead permanently extends the current tax, with a top rate of 45 percent on estates larger than $3.5 million.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Here Comes Santa Claus (Again)
For 20 years, they have put up a Christmas tree in the Orange County Superior Courthouse. I’m talkin’ California — Bob Dornan country (at least it used to be that).
The tree is part of “Operation Santa Claus,” which gives gifts to poor children. This year, a member of the public complained about the tree, and, on the basis of that one person’s complaint, the court ditched the tree.
Said a spokeswoman, “It’s a public building and we have to serve the diversity of our community.”
But other people were not willing to accept that view of American life and law.
Court employees petitioned for the reinstatement of the tree; citizens at large gave the court an earful, too. Long story short: The court’s powers-that-be brought back the tree.
Who said every one of these “War on Christmas” stories has to have an unhappy ending?
And who said that, on hearing the word “diversity,” every Christmas tree must wilt?
The tree is part of “Operation Santa Claus,” which gives gifts to poor children. This year, a member of the public complained about the tree, and, on the basis of that one person’s complaint, the court ditched the tree.
Said a spokeswoman, “It’s a public building and we have to serve the diversity of our community.”
But other people were not willing to accept that view of American life and law.
Court employees petitioned for the reinstatement of the tree; citizens at large gave the court an earful, too. Long story short: The court’s powers-that-be brought back the tree.
Who said every one of these “War on Christmas” stories has to have an unhappy ending?
And who said that, on hearing the word “diversity,” every Christmas tree must wilt?
Poker According To Hoyer
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer seems as out of date as the Huffington Post: "House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) lashed out at the Bush administration's handling of Afghanistan in a morning press conference Tuesday."
That's not an old story; that's from yesterday.
Also note that Hoyer said back in October that he had "reservations" about sending more troops to Afghanistan, but that yesterday he accused the Bush administration of "abandoning the effort" in Afghanistan and claimed they "turned tail."
Somehow President Bush managed to abandon Afghanistan while the number of troops in the country increased every year.
So, just to clarify, Hoyer contends when Bush didn't send troops in previous years, he was abandoning the effort, even though Hoyer is not sure sending more troops will do any good.
Look, sir, perhaps you should just stick to "it's all Bush's fault" and save the rest of us some time.
That's not an old story; that's from yesterday.
Also note that Hoyer said back in October that he had "reservations" about sending more troops to Afghanistan, but that yesterday he accused the Bush administration of "abandoning the effort" in Afghanistan and claimed they "turned tail."
Somehow President Bush managed to abandon Afghanistan while the number of troops in the country increased every year.
So, just to clarify, Hoyer contends when Bush didn't send troops in previous years, he was abandoning the effort, even though Hoyer is not sure sending more troops will do any good.
Look, sir, perhaps you should just stick to "it's all Bush's fault" and save the rest of us some time.
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