COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
We should sue the bums.
ReplyDeleteThey're givin' elephants a bad name.
These protesters are like most others. College age kids with nothing better to do. They really get it going when the cameras are on, then go back to laughing and cutting up when they are off. Ho hum.
ReplyDeleteGE had their hands in a multitude of diverse businesses. Seemed to make money for a long time. Until Immelt.
ReplyDeleteJohn McCain raised an interesting point about the wave of protests that are metastasizing across the Middle-east from Tunisia to Yemen and Lebanon to Jordan. He notes that it is not causing a ripple in Iraq, which already has a working democracy and elections. Of course the libstream media won’t mention this because it’s a point for W.
ReplyDeleteWe Once had Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash.
ReplyDeleteNow, We Have Obama, No Hope and No Cash.
Protests have also occurred in Lebanon, where Elie Khoury, 25, of Beirut, co-founded a startup called Woopra. We exchanged messages on Skype this week, and Khoury said the independence and innovative thinking shown by protesters bodes well for the region's startup potential.
ReplyDeleteI hope his optimistic view turns out to be correct.
"I think this is going to be positive for entrepreneurship in the long term," Khoury wrote. "We should look at the bigger picture here.
Needs Startups
Maybe the King can cut it off, at the pass.
ReplyDeleteMost likely not, though.
He is not nearly as popular as his father was.
AMMAN - Bowing to anti-government protests inspired by a wave of unrest across the Arab world, King Abdullah II of Jordan dismissed Prime Minister Samir Rifai and his cabinet on Tuesday and ordered a new premier to carry out speedy political reforms.
The surprise move by the monarch, a key U.S. ally, was intended to prevent growing demonstrations across the country from gathering further steam. But the Islamist opposition promised more protests, charging that the new prime minister is unfit to rule and that the king's step did not go far enough.
Members of Islamist and secular groups had demanded the dismissal of Rifai and his cabinet, widely accused of corruption. The government was also blamed for cutting subsidies that led to rises in fuel and food prices and for moving too slowly on political reform.
Cabinet dismissals are not rare in Jordan and are used to offer a semblance of change without disrupting the underlying authority of the ruling Hashemite family. The prime minister's job has frequently rotated among members of a few well-connected clans - Rifai's father and grandfather each held the position more than once - and Abdullah's statement after the dismissal did not directly address the allegations that protesters had levied against the government.
O'McBama had a Czar E-I E-IO. & Quack Czar here, & a Quack Czar there-Everywhere a Czar Czar E-IE-IO...
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, Israel gave no official reaction to Mr. Mubarak's announcement that he won't seek another term in office and will step down after elections slated for later this year.
ReplyDeleteThe speed at which Mr. Mubarak's troubles escalated appeared to blindside Israeli officials, who have watched with growing alarm as protests in Cairo and other Egyptian cities swelled, endangering the grip on power of their strongest ally in the region. Inspired by a popular uprising in Tunisia, Egyptian protests swelled in a matter of days late last week. By the weekend, it was clear Mr. Mubarak's reign was in jeopardy.
"We were caught by surprise," said Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in New York, a few hours before Mr. Mubarak's announcement. "The Egyptian regime seemed very strong and very stable."
Mubarak says he won't run again; protesters say it's not enough
ReplyDeleteBy the CNN Wire Staff
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Bowing to eight days of protests, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced Tuesday night that he will hand over power to an elected successor "in a constitutional way" when his term ends in September.
ReplyDeleteThat's not good enough for Obama. O says it's gotta be now.
ReplyDeleteMubarak calls for Obama to resign.
ReplyDeleteChina used 7.7 million barrels of oil/day in Nov, '09.
ReplyDeleteIn Nov, 2010 China used 10.4 Million Barrels of Oil/Day.
Global oil exports are declining, and China, India, et al Are Ramping Up.
Prices will escalate until the Next Crash. The small Arab States that were minor exporters, and are, now, importers are hurting.
A small Arab country that has gone from oil exporter to importer, and is, also, a Food Importer (this is virtually all of them) is in one hell of a fix.
In the next 3 years 25% of the World's new workers will be Indian.
ReplyDelete15 Mind-blowing facts about India.
Sure that it will not be 25% of the whirled's unemployed, rufus?
ReplyDeleteMaybe more.
ReplyDeleteMaybe less.
Joe Biden says he will include Cairo in upcoming South American tour.
ReplyDeleteIt is a long way from Cairo to Quito
ReplyDeleteCheck the drafts, fellas, and take it from there, if you would.
ReplyDeleteThe Dow Jones industrial average closed above 12,000 Tuesday for the first time since June 2008. The milestone was another mark of recovery from one of the worst financial crises in the nation's history - and a sign that investors expect the economy to keep growing instead of taking a second dip into recession.
ReplyDeleteWaPo
The Internet has been restored in Egypt. Having supported Mubarak for three decades America is despised in Egypt and can't do anything about the crisis.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, Obama says Mubarak must begin his transition now, but ignores the Judicial Death Panel verdict that ObamaCare™ is unconstitutional. And do you remember the last time Obama gave a speech urging Muslims to stop the suicide bombings in Pakistan and elsewhere? Me neither.