Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sarah Palin on the Road in Pennsylvania
Sarah Palin has arrived in Philadelphia on day three of a mystery bus tour that is swamping US media coverage of the Republican race for the White House, leaving her rivals struggling to win attention.
Palin, who began her road trip in Washington, is refusing to provide an itinerary for the media, in what is being interpreted as payback for the hostility she faced in the 2008 election.
"It's not really an intention to play cat and mouse," she said. But the tactic has worked spectacularly to her advantage, with reporters gleefully turning her tour into a chase and guessing game about her next stop.
Reporters are enjoying the novelty so much that there is even a Twitter hashtag, #wheressarah, logging sightings and speculating on her next venue.
When reporters do catch her, the inevitable question is whether she intends to join other Republicans in seeking the nomination to take on Barack Obama in 2012. She insists she has not made up her mind. "I don't know, I honestly don't know," she says.
The 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate may be engaged in an elaborate tease but, after a few months in which she largely dropped out of public view, the bus tour has renewed speculation that she is contemplating joining the contest.
She even admitted to reporters she had been thinking about what kind of campaign she might run, saying it would be non-traditional and unconventional – a bit like her bus trip.
She spent Tuesday at a hotel near the site of the battle of Gettysburg, in Maryland. Journalists gathered in the morning outside her bus but she had slipped out earlier to view the battlefield in peace.
The media then followed her bus to Philadelphia, where she visited the sites associated with the 1776 declaration of independence.
Her trip, accompanied by husband Todd and the rest of the family, has included the capital, George Washington's home at Mount Vernon and Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where the British laid siege in 1814.
She will almost certainly go to Boston, scene of the Tea Party. But there is speculation, too, that she will go to New Hampshire, where the second round of the Republican nomination contest will be held, a sign that political ambition rather than a historical lesson is at the forefront of her mind.
She is also planning to visit Iowa, where the first round will be held and where she is to attend the premiere of a documentary about her time as Alaska's governor.
Replying to reporters' questions about whether she will stand, she said: "It's still a matter of looking at the field and considering much. There truly is a lot to consider before you throw yourself out there in the name of service to the public because it is so all-consuming."
She has given only one interview, to Fox's Greta Van Susteren, the only reporter allowed on the bus.
Asked why she was not providing reporters with an itinerary, Palin, who has an intense dislike of much of the media, said: "They want, kind of, the conventional idea of, 'we want a schedule, we want to follow you, we want you to bring us along with you'. I want them to have to do a little bit of work on a tour like this, and that would include not necessarily telling them beforehand where every stop is going to be. The media can figure out where we're going if they do their investigative work."
The game partly explains the renewed media interest in Palin. But the attention also reflects the lack of excitement about the present Republican field.
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and Republican frontrunner, is due to announce his candidacy formally in New Hampshire on Thursday.
A Gallup poll of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents published on Tuesday put Romney on 17%, with Palin in second place on 15%, followed by Ron Paul on 10%, Newt Gingrich on 9%, Herman Cain on 8%, Tim Pawlenty on 6%, Michele Bachmann on 5%, and Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum and Gary Johnson all on 2%.
These candidates have had a hard time getting on air and when they do they are almost inevitably asked about Palin.
Bachmann, who is to declare within the month, was invited on to ABC and asked how she differed from Palin. Bachmann deflected the question, saying they were friends.
Pawlenty was interviewed at the weekend and showed signs of irritation when asked about Palin.
Palin described the field as quite strong but predicted "there will be more strong candidates jumping in" and wondered about the Texas governor, Rick Perry, and others coming in. She added: "The field isn't set yet, not by a long shot." GUARDIAN
Getting America off the road to bankruptcy?
Battle of the Budgets
Is it too late to get America off the road to bankruptcy?
Since America is on the road to bankruptcy, we've got to make some changes. What would you do?
The Peter G. Peterson Foundation gave $200,000 to six think tanks to write budget proposals. The money went to the conservative American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation; the "liberal" Center for American Progress, Economic Policy Institute, and Roosevelt Institute Campus Network; and the Bipartisan Policy Center.
On my Fox Business show tonight, representatives from most of these think tanks will summarize their proposals, and I'll have the audience pick its favorite. It's a "Battle of the Budgets." The winner will get one of the Emmys I won during my days as a consumer reporter. I know, it's corny, but I produce a TV program. If the subject is budgets, I'll use any gimmick to make it interesting.
The proposals:
The American Enterprise Institute plan would reduce the debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio to 60 percent. It's 68 percent now.
AEI would preserve most military spending, but cut Social Security by giving every retiree an $850 monthly check and not letting 62- to 65-year-olds collect benefits early. The payroll tax would be eliminated on people 62 and older to encourage them to stay in the workforce. The age for Medicare would rise to 67, and the program would be revamped into a government subsidy for private insurance. AEI would eliminate farm subsidies and the child tax credit. AEI would replace all current taxes with a consumption tax like the "Fair Tax."
The Bipartisan Policy Center plan would cut the debt to about 50 percent of GDP within 25 years. It would freeze military and discretionary spending, require people with incomes over $106,000 to pay more into Social Security and "slightly" reduce benefits for the wealthy. Medicare spending growth would be limited to the GDP increase plus 1 percent. Beneficiaries could move to private plans.
The center would cut the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 27 percent and establish a new 6.5 percent "Debt Reduction Sales Tax."
Yikes! A new tax! I'm reminded of Milton Friedman's words: "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."
The Roosevelt Institute claims to reduce our debt to 63 percent of GDP. The plan would cut spending by ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by 2015, but make no cuts in Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. The institute wants more spending on "domestic investment"—universal preschool, the safety net, transportation, and worker retraining. Roosevelt's tax plan would cut corporate rates by 3 percentage points, but create a new "too big to fail" tax on banks and impose a new "financial transactions" tax.
Under the Economic Policy Institute's plan, jointly written with Demos, our debt would increase to 90 percent of GDP. Military spending would be cut by $960 billion over 10 years. People making over $106,000 would pay more into Social Security, but Medicare and Medicaid would not be touched. The plan calls for $84 billion a year more in discretionary spending than President Obama wants—more for early childhood education, child care, public transit, rural broadband connectivity, and research and development.
EPI and Demos would repeal the George W. Bush tax cuts on high-income people; enact a 50 percent tax on estates worth over $10 million, a financial speculation tax, and a surcharge on top earners; tax capital gains and dividends as ordinary income; and increase the gasoline tax. It's good to hear what liberals would do if they were in power.
Finally, the Heritage Foundation plan is the only one that would actually balance the budget. Federal spending would gradually drop to 18.5 percent of GDP, below the modern average. Heritage would preserve most military spending, but Social Security and Medicare benefits would be phased out for individuals making over $110,000 a year. The eligibility age would rise to 68 and then be indexed to life expectancy.
Heritage would replace all taxes with a simple flat income tax, with deductions remaining for higher education, charitable donations/gifts, and mortgage insurance.
As a libertarian, I'm underwhelmed. This year, our government will spend an astounding $3.8 trillion. We need to eliminate entire agencies, departments and missions. None of these think tanks do that.
John Stossel is host of Stossel on the Fox Business Network. He's the author of Give Me a Break and ofMyth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity. To find out more about John Stossel, visit his site atjohnstossel.com.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Memorial Day 30 May, 2011
There is Only One American Flag. Remember Those Who Fought and Died for Their Country
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Side Cars: Viagra Fueled Harley's
IRBIT, Russia — This is the story of how a dying Soviet-era industry and an aging biker population in the United States met and found happiness together on the streets and highways of America.
Multimedia
Maxim Marmur for The New York Times
A Ural bike outside the factory town. Irbit sold only 20 bikes in Russia last year, but older sidecars are still put to use for cargo. More Photos »
Think of it as Easy Rider, the golden years.
It started as a matter of survival for the Irbit Motor Works, which for decades had churned out its signature Ural motorcycle with sidecar attachment, but which discovered that its business was sputtering into the Post-Communist sunset like so many other Soviet enterprises.
Irbit found salvation in an unlikely niche market: older American riders seeking utility, not thrills or spills. Suddenly the sidecar, a seemingly anachronistic product evoking a World War II newsreel, had a new life among the late middle-aged.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
All Right, the Party is Over
On my way back, I sat next to a twenty something IT expert who was a chatty little thing. I rarely talk to the person next to me on a flight for the simple reason that a long air flight is one of the few times where you can have several hours of uninterrupted privacy, but she was cute in her own chubby little way and determined to talk.
We discussed the internet and the evaporation of privacy. She said something that really jarred me and that was "the Milleniums" (her word for her generation) have no expectation of privacy. That expectation has been shattered by social media. After she stopped talking and fell to sleep, I thought to myself, "Can you have freedom without personal privacy?"
____________________
It's been nearly a decade since Congress, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, hastily approved the USA Patriot Act and its historic expansion of law enforcement and domestic intelligence-gathering powers.
For just as long, civil libertarians have been agitating for legislators to hold a full-blown debate on the sweeping measure, fast-tracked to President George W. Bush's desk just four days after it was raised in Congress.
This week, the Senate failed again to have a robust back-and-forth on expiring provisions of the act that allow wide latitude in surveillance of Americans.
The pressure on the House and Senate, from the White House and others, was to extend the measures — not to question if they infringe too much on civil liberties.
But freshman Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and Tea Party favorite, raised a ruckus with leaders of both parties over the lack of debate, and forced the issue into the spotlight briefly but potently.
Julian Sanchez of the libertarian Cato Institute has suggested, only half-jokingly, that it would take a "legislative boxing match" to get the press and the public interested in a policy debate over a byzantine intelligence law.
Paul, in taking on Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also from Kentucky, provided that fight.
Paul has since been hailed by civil libertarians and privacy activists for reinvigorating the debate over what rights Americans, in the name of counterterrorism, may have sacrificed.
"It is amazing how much he's been able to drive attention to this by breaking the cozy agreement between Republicans who didn't want to revisit the Patriot Act, and Democrats who didn't want to call too much attention to it," says Sanchez, a longtime advocate of Patriot Act reforms.
And though civil liberties activists may not agree with some of Paul's anti-Patriot Act agenda — including his unsuccessful effort to amend the act to restrict national security officials' access to gun records — his passion and Tea Party clout are seen as an asset to those who have long pushed Congress to rein in aspects of the legislation.
Says Laura W. Murphy of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office: "Rand Paul took a very strong stand — he wasn't in the control of the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party."
"If he didn't feel strongly about the substance of the Patriot Act, it would have been perceived as just another — yawn — procedural dustup," Murphy said. "But you could tell that he felt passionately about this."
She says sees common concerns among Tea Party Republicans and progressive Democrats "about the way the Patriot Act undermines our Fourth Amendment rights" that guard against unreasonable searches and seizures.
And Murphy is among those who are not looking to the White House to lead on the issue.
"We'd hoped for a much more progressive position out of the Obama administration," she said.
Paul Vs. Reid And McConnell
What happened between Paul and Majority Leader Reid came pretty close to Sanchez's "boxing match." And there was an equal struggle behind the scenes between Paul and fellow Republican McConnell, who wanted to move to a quick vote without considering changes Paul wanted included.
Reid, from the Senate floor, had attacked Paul's push-back on the Patriot Act as akin to aiding terrorists by giving them "the opportunity to plot against our country undetected."
A clearly infuriated Paul responded later from the floor, saying Reid's comments were "offensive" and "personally insulting." And he dressed down the majority leader for abandoning an earlier promise to have a week of debate on the issue.
"I think we should have an intelligent and rational discussion about this," he said. The issue, he said, is "not so simple that you can just say well, I'm either against against terrorism, or I'm going to let terrorists run wild and take over the country."
Paul also took on McConnell, sending out a statement to supporters that asserted the senior Kentucky senator was working against efforts by his junior colleague to force a debate on amendments to the act.
With pressure building on both Reid, who took heat for his treatment of Paul on the floor, and McConnell, buffeted by Tea Party backlash, Paul was allowed to introduce two amendments — both of which failed — before moving to a final vote.
Paul pronounced himself "pleased that we cracked open the door to shed some light" on the Patriot Act.
Consistent Pressure
Congress has always been under pressure to extend expiring provisions of the counterterrorism law.
And the Obama administration has pushed Congress just as hard as the Bush White House. It insisted that if Congress failed to extend the provisions that were set to expire Thursday, terrorism investigations could be compromised.
James Clapper, director of national intelligence, was even dispatched to warn Congress that analysis of "information obtained at the Osama bin Laden compound" could be slowed if the surveillance provisions lapsed.
Sanchez is among those who have long suggested that the need for many of the expanded government powers under the Patriot Act are overstated, as is the imperative that extensions of expiring provisions must be done quickly and without lapse.
"If an investigation is already open, it's grandfathered in if a provision expires," he says. "And if they need to open a new investigation, I would be very surprised if they couldn't figure out a way to do that."
"Terrorism investigations happened before 9/11," he says.
Future Of Debate
Paul has teamed up with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on an amendment to the Patriot Act that would phase out so-called National Security Letters. The controversial letters allow the FBI to collect, without court approval, personal records from financial institutions, credit card companies and Internet service providers.
Paul did not raise the amendment last week; Leahy has promised to raise it as a stand-alone bill.
Murphy, of the ACLU, says she's been heartened to see more members of Congress willing to push back on Patriot Act extensions. They include Democratic Sens. Mark Udall of Colorado, Jon Tester of Montana and Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana.
She sees a western and New England flavor to the core of opposition.
It appears that Paul will remain at the center of the ongoing debate over counterterrorism policy executive power.
"If he can do what he's just done, and show that there isn't a huge political price to pay for saying that there should be limits on government surveillance, maybe other people will step forward, too," Sanchez says.
We discussed the internet and the evaporation of privacy. She said something that really jarred me and that was "the Milleniums" (her word for her generation) have no expectation of privacy. That expectation has been shattered by social media. After she stopped talking and fell to sleep, I thought to myself, "Can you have freedom without personal privacy?"
____________________
Rand Paul, Tea Party Ask: What About Privacy?
It's been nearly a decade since Congress, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, hastily approved the USA Patriot Act and its historic expansion of law enforcement and domestic intelligence-gathering powers.
For just as long, civil libertarians have been agitating for legislators to hold a full-blown debate on the sweeping measure, fast-tracked to President George W. Bush's desk just four days after it was raised in Congress.
This week, the Senate failed again to have a robust back-and-forth on expiring provisions of the act that allow wide latitude in surveillance of Americans.
The pressure on the House and Senate, from the White House and others, was to extend the measures — not to question if they infringe too much on civil liberties.
But freshman Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and Tea Party favorite, raised a ruckus with leaders of both parties over the lack of debate, and forced the issue into the spotlight briefly but potently.
Julian Sanchez of the libertarian Cato Institute has suggested, only half-jokingly, that it would take a "legislative boxing match" to get the press and the public interested in a policy debate over a byzantine intelligence law.
Paul, in taking on Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also from Kentucky, provided that fight.
Paul has since been hailed by civil libertarians and privacy activists for reinvigorating the debate over what rights Americans, in the name of counterterrorism, may have sacrificed.
"It is amazing how much he's been able to drive attention to this by breaking the cozy agreement between Republicans who didn't want to revisit the Patriot Act, and Democrats who didn't want to call too much attention to it," says Sanchez, a longtime advocate of Patriot Act reforms.
And though civil liberties activists may not agree with some of Paul's anti-Patriot Act agenda — including his unsuccessful effort to amend the act to restrict national security officials' access to gun records — his passion and Tea Party clout are seen as an asset to those who have long pushed Congress to rein in aspects of the legislation.
Says Laura W. Murphy of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office: "Rand Paul took a very strong stand — he wasn't in the control of the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party."
"If he didn't feel strongly about the substance of the Patriot Act, it would have been perceived as just another — yawn — procedural dustup," Murphy said. "But you could tell that he felt passionately about this."
She says sees common concerns among Tea Party Republicans and progressive Democrats "about the way the Patriot Act undermines our Fourth Amendment rights" that guard against unreasonable searches and seizures.
And Murphy is among those who are not looking to the White House to lead on the issue.
"We'd hoped for a much more progressive position out of the Obama administration," she said.
Paul Vs. Reid And McConnell
What happened between Paul and Majority Leader Reid came pretty close to Sanchez's "boxing match." And there was an equal struggle behind the scenes between Paul and fellow Republican McConnell, who wanted to move to a quick vote without considering changes Paul wanted included.
Reid, from the Senate floor, had attacked Paul's push-back on the Patriot Act as akin to aiding terrorists by giving them "the opportunity to plot against our country undetected."
A clearly infuriated Paul responded later from the floor, saying Reid's comments were "offensive" and "personally insulting." And he dressed down the majority leader for abandoning an earlier promise to have a week of debate on the issue.
"I think we should have an intelligent and rational discussion about this," he said. The issue, he said, is "not so simple that you can just say well, I'm either against against terrorism, or I'm going to let terrorists run wild and take over the country."
Paul also took on McConnell, sending out a statement to supporters that asserted the senior Kentucky senator was working against efforts by his junior colleague to force a debate on amendments to the act.
With pressure building on both Reid, who took heat for his treatment of Paul on the floor, and McConnell, buffeted by Tea Party backlash, Paul was allowed to introduce two amendments — both of which failed — before moving to a final vote.
Paul pronounced himself "pleased that we cracked open the door to shed some light" on the Patriot Act.
Consistent Pressure
Congress has always been under pressure to extend expiring provisions of the counterterrorism law.
And the Obama administration has pushed Congress just as hard as the Bush White House. It insisted that if Congress failed to extend the provisions that were set to expire Thursday, terrorism investigations could be compromised.
James Clapper, director of national intelligence, was even dispatched to warn Congress that analysis of "information obtained at the Osama bin Laden compound" could be slowed if the surveillance provisions lapsed.
Sanchez is among those who have long suggested that the need for many of the expanded government powers under the Patriot Act are overstated, as is the imperative that extensions of expiring provisions must be done quickly and without lapse.
"If an investigation is already open, it's grandfathered in if a provision expires," he says. "And if they need to open a new investigation, I would be very surprised if they couldn't figure out a way to do that."
"Terrorism investigations happened before 9/11," he says.
Future Of Debate
Paul has teamed up with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on an amendment to the Patriot Act that would phase out so-called National Security Letters. The controversial letters allow the FBI to collect, without court approval, personal records from financial institutions, credit card companies and Internet service providers.
Paul did not raise the amendment last week; Leahy has promised to raise it as a stand-alone bill.
Murphy, of the ACLU, says she's been heartened to see more members of Congress willing to push back on Patriot Act extensions. They include Democratic Sens. Mark Udall of Colorado, Jon Tester of Montana and Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana.
She sees a western and New England flavor to the core of opposition.
It appears that Paul will remain at the center of the ongoing debate over counterterrorism policy executive power.
"If he can do what he's just done, and show that there isn't a huge political price to pay for saying that there should be limits on government surveillance, maybe other people will step forward, too," Sanchez says.
Friday, May 27, 2011
You Leave Me No Choice
So You Think You Can Dance 2011: Season 8 Premiere Review
It’s time for So You Think You can Dance 2011! American Idol is over. Scotty McCreery has been crowned the winner. You know what that means? It’s time to stop focusing on singing and start to pay attention to…. DANCE! (And people who think they can do it!)
It’s time for So You Think You can Dance 2011! American Idol is over. Scotty McCreery has been crowned the winner. You know what that means? It’s time to stop focusing on singing and start to pay attention to…. DANCE! (And people who think they can do it!)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
While the Boss is Away the Children Must Play
It seems to me that no matter what the post is y'all need something to start you off in the morning. Maybe it's not the post, maybe its Deuce. Doug does a fabulous job and while he is working on his next post, I thought I would throw in this post until he's done. I can't deliver Deuce and the birds slept in this morning, so this is all I have. And don't sit behind your little square screens and grin. Did you really expect anything else from yours truly. Sheesh….
While Arnold is getting all the attention these days for his ten year secret, what an ass, it's taking some of the heat off our good friend Charlie Sheen, who has been replaced with Ashton Kutcher. Now I don't know if Ashton is replacing his character or coming in as a long lost third cousin who ran away with his half sister's first cousin 20 years ago just so they could live in peace and harmony. As you can tell I really don't give a shit.
In other news the famous, Mark Burnett, who started the domino effect on reality TV shows, starting with "Survivor" and then later "The Voice" and "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader" is now doing a five part ten hour series on The Bible. Why? I haven't a clue but he will re-create some famous stories from Genesis to Revelations. You go Mark. I hope, The Bible, is more fulfilling than 16 half nude men and woman surviving on a tropical island.
The Hangover Part 2 almost didn't make the opening show on Thursday because of a lawsuit from the artist who apparently designed the tattoo on Mike Tyson's face that was used in a scene, of The Hangover Part 2. The artist said he has copyrights since he designed the original tattoo, and wanted to be paid for the rights to use his art in the movie. He lost, of course, because Warner Bros wasn't using the tattoo to sell tattoos but was using it as a parody, which falls under "fair use" under the copy right laws. People will do anything to try and make money.
The Obamas met William and Kate yesterday. Yeah… You're right who cares.
And there is really only one pirate that is worthy of any ten year secret and that would be Capt. Jack Sparrow. Yummy….
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Bibi, Barack and Tom
Reading a Tom Friedman column on Bibi and Barack is to take a step into a virtual reality show, where the director, Tom Friedman, says there will be no connection to any real facts or any real history. Rather, the director, Tom Friedman, will superimpose a virtual reality of wishful thinking and pet prejudices that will serve as a new substitute reality.
In the new Tom-Friedman-directed reality, the Arabs are surging towards peace and democracy in a Barack-Obama-driven world. Arab oil prices are stable and low out of gratitude to Sheriff Barack, who drilled Osama bin Laden, and is about to drill for oil off-shore, perhaps in one Gulf (Mexican) or the other (Persian). And, yes, he is also about to “drill” Bibi Netanyahu, the villain who has come to town.
Tom the Director has the tough and decisive sheriff read a few lines to the world’s new outlaw—Bibi Netanyahu: “Yo, Bibi, you better get out of them there West Bank settlements by sunset, or you’re gonna be pushing up daisies, pilgrim.”
According to Tom the Director’s script: Bibi, the black-hatted villain surrenders and leaves or gets shot down at high noon on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Arabs in the audience cheer and everyone rolls in oil and a surging economy.
Yup. You-betcha. That’s Tom’s World—flat and wishful. Barack Obama is John Wayne as the Sheriff. Tom Friedman is director John Ford, and Benjamin Netanyahu is the evil and villainous rancher-rustler-”dirty Injun” who gets “run off the reservation.”
As a virtual reality show this only nets a small audience, because most of us recall where this kind of script has gone before. But Director-Screen Writer Tom Friedman has apparently not learned or perhaps forgotten the plot line from the real world.
In the real world, Sheriff Barack Obama’s attempt in 2009-2010 to impose terms on Israel caused the worst set-back in 20 years of Arab-Israeli negotiations. Obama demanded and got an Israeli settlement freeze that goaded the “moderate” PLO “leadership” of Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Marshal Abu-Mazen in some scripts) to refuse even to talk to Israel about anything. This was quite an achievement for Sheriff Barack and Director Tom. Let’s remember that other sheriffs have also had their own virtual scripts, too. Deputy Sheriff Condoleezza Rice demanded that Israel allow Hamas to take over Gaza in the 2006 “elections,” and this led to a new terror state in Gaza. But Deputy Condi cannot equal Sheriff Barack.
Sheriff Barack also tried to talk sweet to the Islamist government of Turkey, the ayatollahs of Iran and what Deputy Hillary called the “reformers” of Syria. We have all seen the success of that virtual reality script. Sheriff Barack made his first foreign speech in Turkey that was once the hope of a truly modernized Muslim community. Now, it has returned to the dark side of Islamism. Sheriff Barack even sent an ambassador to Syria where they tried to build a nuclear reactor with the help of Iran and North Korea. Iran is continuing its own nuclear weapons program.
Most of us who have seriously studied and lived in Arab countries know that Israel is a familiar excuse—but not a real cause—for any of the problems or turmoil inside the Arab countries. There is widespread Arab yearning for better government and for an end to fasaad (corruption, in Arabic). There is also a tremendous yearning for better jobs and opportunities for real careers, especially among the educated youth, and there is a search for a more normal role for women.
None of this has anything to do with Israel, and it has nothing to do with Israeli “settlements”, which (sorry about this, Tom) are completely legal (take a look at the League of Nations resolutions, San Remo documents, etc).
The only way to bring a chance for more peace and development in the Middle East is “to get real,” not to be surreal. This seat-of-the-pants analysis is not real analysis.
Israel is real. It is also a successful democratic state, though not a perfect one. In some respects, it is much more successful and democratic even than Britain, France, and the United States. For example, it has a lower unemployment rate, and it successfully absorbed more immigrants than any other country in the world.
Tom Friedman and the other surreal pundits should stop trying to bully Israel or to re-draw Israel in the image of its neighbors. Rather they should encourage Israel’s neighbors to face their own problems the way Israel has faced its problems.
Israeli prime ministers are not villains. Whenever a classroom had to be built or a water carrier or sewer needed fixing in Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, Golda Meir or David Ben-Gurion did not ride into the United Nations or the White House and claim that all the problems were caused by the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Iranians etc. Rather, they tried to fix the problem.
So, the first step for the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Iranians and Tom Friedman is:
Get real.
As Israel’s prime minister comes to town, Tom Friedman and his ilk should not be organizing an Obama-Osama greeting card.
Update:
KISS' Gene Simmons: Obama 'Has No F***ing Idea What The WORLD Is Like'...
JANE WELLS, CNBC: What do you think of President Obama’s suggestion that the borders be redrawn pre-67?
GENE SIMMONS, KISS: President Obama, I voted for an idea. What I didn’t realize what I was getting was an idealist.
If you’ve never been to the moon, you can’t issue policy about the moon. You have no f—king idea what it’s like on the moon.
For a president to be sitting in Washington, D.C., and saying, “Go back to your 67 borders in Israel,” how about you live there and try to defend an indefensible border nine miles wide?
On one side you’ve got hundreds of millions of people who hate your guts, on the other side you’ve got the Mediterranean. Unless you control, in Israel, unless you control those Golan Heights, it’s an indefensible position.
It’s a nice idea, when you grow up you find out that life isn’t the way you imagined it, and President Obama means well. I think he’s actually a good guy. He has no f—king idea what the world is like because he doesn’t have to live there.
As someone that has stood on top of the Golan Heights, I can attest to what Simmons said, as they overlook Israel and giving them back would mean Syria could lob munitions into a completely indefensible Jewish state.
Anyone who's been there knows this is something Israel will never agree to, and if Obama would visit there and see it for himself, he would immediately realize how absurd his speech was Thursday.
Obviously, Simmons - who Hot Air Pundit accurately noted was born in Haifa with the name Chaim Witz - understands this far better than the man currently in the White House as well as all his sycophants in the media that praised him since he threw Israel under the bus.
Although the vulgarity was unnecessary, Witz was spot on.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye Day, It's Over, May 21 2011
It's The End of the World as we know. It's The End of the World as we know it. I feel fine.
That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...
(It's time I had some time alone)
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn Has a P*ssy Problem
Dominique Strauss-Kahn to face fresh sex assault complaint
French writer Tristane Banon claims the IMF chief acted like a 'rutting chimpanzee' in an attack on her nine years ago
French writer Tristane Banon is to lodge an official sexual assault complaint against IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Photograph: Daniel Janin/AFP/Getty Images
For some, the story of Strauss-Kahn's fall from presidential hopeful to prison cell was a combination of sordid tale and Shakespearean tragedy. For others the story was so extraordinary it smacked of a set-up.
Only three weeks ago, Strauss-Kahn evoked such a possibility in an interview with French newspaper Libération when he said he thought he was under surveillance and named the three principal difficulties he foresaw if he was to stand for the presidential elections.
"Money, women and the fact I am Jewish." He added: "Yes, I like women ... so what?" He said he could see himself becoming the victim of a honey trap: "a woman raped in a car park and who's been promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent such a story ..."
Friday, May 13, 2011
Blogger is Back
I was very disappointed in the way Blogger handled this outage, at times giving away email address and other personal information. i can understand things breaking, but repairing it on line in real time is bad news.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Great Poll for Elephant Bar Pub Bashers
(we know who you are)
Has Obama really bounced to 60% approval?
That’s what the AP would have you believe, dropping this poll like a spiked football.
(. It’s pretty easy to get Obama to 60% when Republicans are undersampled by almost half.)
President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit its highest point in two years — 60 percent — and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"In worrisome signs for Republicans, the president’s standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans — a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election — caused the overall uptick in support by sliding back to Obama after fleeing for much of the past two years"
Yellow flag: With gas prices continuing to rise, home values continuing to fall and inflation becoming more of a threat as unemployment remains stuck at 9%, how did Obama’s approval rating on the economy improve?
It didn’t, or at least, the AP poll doesn’t show that it really has. The AP has delivered an outlier poll here, and Ed at Hot Air does the number crunching to show how:
The Dem/Rep/Ind breakdown in this poll is 46/29/4, as AP assigned most of the leaners to the parties. That is a 17-point gap, more than twice what was seen in the 2008 actual popular vote that elected Obama. It only gets worse when independents are assigned properly. When taking out the leaners, the split becomes — I’m not kidding — 35/18/27. Oh, and another 20% “don’t know.” That’s significantly worse than the March poll, in which the proper D/R/I was 29/20/34, and far beyond their post-midterm sample of 31/28/26. It’s pretty easy to get Obama to 60% when Republicans are undersampled by almost half.
Indeed, and the AP seems to be aware that its sampling is problematic. You have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the article about the poll, which most readers won’t do, click on a link that’s labeled “Online” with a URL, then click on a link sandwiched between two large graphics to even get at the poll data. And the partisan breakdown itself is in the middle of the PDF, not the top or the bottom where it’s easier to find. Most readers will react to the headline and at most the first paragraph or two, and only a tiny tiny number will ever jump through all the obstacles AP has tossed in the way to get to the data that drives it.
All in all, AP has done a better than average job of hiding the data in a way that gives them a plausible out since they can claim “But we linked it!” Yeah, about as indirectly as they could.
Has Obama really bounced to 60% approval?
That’s what the AP would have you believe, dropping this poll like a spiked football.
(. It’s pretty easy to get Obama to 60% when Republicans are undersampled by almost half.)
President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit its highest point in two years — 60 percent — and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"In worrisome signs for Republicans, the president’s standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans — a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election — caused the overall uptick in support by sliding back to Obama after fleeing for much of the past two years"
Yellow flag: With gas prices continuing to rise, home values continuing to fall and inflation becoming more of a threat as unemployment remains stuck at 9%, how did Obama’s approval rating on the economy improve?
It didn’t, or at least, the AP poll doesn’t show that it really has. The AP has delivered an outlier poll here, and Ed at Hot Air does the number crunching to show how:
The Dem/Rep/Ind breakdown in this poll is 46/29/4, as AP assigned most of the leaners to the parties. That is a 17-point gap, more than twice what was seen in the 2008 actual popular vote that elected Obama. It only gets worse when independents are assigned properly. When taking out the leaners, the split becomes — I’m not kidding — 35/18/27. Oh, and another 20% “don’t know.” That’s significantly worse than the March poll, in which the proper D/R/I was 29/20/34, and far beyond their post-midterm sample of 31/28/26. It’s pretty easy to get Obama to 60% when Republicans are undersampled by almost half.
Indeed, and the AP seems to be aware that its sampling is problematic. You have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the article about the poll, which most readers won’t do, click on a link that’s labeled “Online” with a URL, then click on a link sandwiched between two large graphics to even get at the poll data. And the partisan breakdown itself is in the middle of the PDF, not the top or the bottom where it’s easier to find. Most readers will react to the headline and at most the first paragraph or two, and only a tiny tiny number will ever jump through all the obstacles AP has tossed in the way to get to the data that drives it.
All in all, AP has done a better than average job of hiding the data in a way that gives them a plausible out since they can claim “But we linked it!” Yeah, about as indirectly as they could.
Note to The First Asshole: We Don't Want a Moat, We Want You to Enforce the Law.
A Moat With Alligators
Submitted by may on Wed, 2011-05-11 00:54 Lubbock on Line
In a first of many planned speeches to push for amnesty for illegal aliens, otherwise known as Unregistered Democrats, President Barack Obama mocked Republicans and stretched and twisted facts on Tuesday in El Paso.
Obama said that Republicans would never be satisfied with the security on our border with Mexico. While Obama claimed that almost all of our southern border is secure, in reality less than 5% is both fenced and secure. Obama also suggested that even a moat with alligators as added border protection would not satisfy his critics.
"Maybe they'll need a moat," he went on. "Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat."
Obama is obviously pursuing Hispanic votes for 2012 elections. A Gallup Poll reported in mid April showed only “47% of Hispanics said they approved of the job Obama was doing as president.” This is the lowest approval rating Obama has ever received from Hispanics and is dramatically down from 85% in mid April 2009.
Obama has not yet pursued a “comprehensive immigration” bill, as he promised to do during his first year as President. There has been pressure on Obama from the Far Left to use his Executive powers to stop the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants. It appears this already may betaking place.
Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Arizona, testified before a House Homeland Security subcommittee about the administration’s lack of seriousness about securing our border. Sheriff Dever made headlines last month when he said that the Border Patrol had directed its agents to stop arresting immigrants. Instead, he says they were ordered to “TBS” them – to tell the illegal immigrants to “Turn back South.”As Dever explained to Fox News, “This only causes more problems as the aliens … don’t just go back to Mexico and give up. They keep trying… This makes the job for agents more dangerous. Not only are the aliens more defiant, they also begin to feel like they can get away with breaking our federal laws.” Dever noted that illegal immigrants who are detected but not apprehended are often considered to have been “turned back South.”
If Obama thinks our southern border is so secure, why did he give his speech in El Paso with a solid stone fence to his back?
Like a nigga in position with the stolen card the credit Fuck flipping the script
First Lady Michelle brings Nigga values to the White House
Sum Shit I Wrote Lyrics
Artist(Band):Common
Marks I erase like racism, I'm as large as a bigot
Groove is my escapism, when I'm bubbly I just kick it
What I need from you is understanding that I'm standing
On my own two, down with my own crew
Toe cancer, I'm bad to the bone too, I'm prone to snap off
When I'm off that Cognac I can't hold back like a massouse
I get loose like a screw turned from left right to tight
When it's time for some action I get Red's "Tonight's Da Night"
An eye for an eye, a life for his wife
Dissected I'm on some hi-tech shit computers want to bite
Your style is Pascal, mine is Basic and just instinct
I'm with the fam and ran scams, me and Murray got up on big links
And if knowledge is the key, goddammit I'm the locksmith
Started a missionary way on my life, the mic I rust like bostage
I switch styles like a channel with controls that are remote
Engage in a page, and with words I elope
Walking down the aisles with styles I freak the viles
Anti-Nazi when I rocks like a Z-28
At any rate, brothers gain interest because I loaned them microphones
They couldn't house the shit so they had to rent to own
It's like that, coming from the go rapper
I wanna bone Jada Pinkett and that hoe Patra
So keep on, and you don't, now come on
Ah keep on, and you don't
Sometime when I'm alone in my room I stare at the wall
And in the back of my mind I hear a wack-ass rhyme
And I catch Alz-rhymers, then forget it, I get charged
Like a nigga in position with the stolen card the credit
Fuck flipping the script, the rap scene I'm trying to edit
My mellows call me "Never", they be like "Never's going to get it"
Never's too much, I'm much too, I do justice to poetics
That's why cats be like "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!"
Other studs come through to see what I am up to
They be on the dick of crew that be giving us sweet and buying us fruit
Like Kareem I got the hook up, brothers look out because they look
Rest in peace to ?Heavena?, washing tons of rappers like Booker
Tee told me "You gotta get out of the crib, get into the world"
How you going to come off with the style that's thourough?
It's like that, keep on, ha ha
It's like that, keep on
My foundation is in black block of niggas that rock they hat cock
I'm real like a fight with my rap, rappers I slapbox
Back I got my rap, now get your glock out the black face
Got tall flavor with fat taste, the rat race is a rat race
Just cause you got Adidas with the fat laces and the fro don't make you hip-hop
You sorry excuse for funk rap
Why is there so many cranks trying to rhyme, yo funk that
The real shit's starting to come back
The Go is where I'm from and where I'm at, jack
I started eating cat when I was 10
Before dinner I was getting big dog like Glen Robinson
I don't see nothing wrong with a little bump and grind
But comes a time when you gotta get off of that booty
The facts of life I didn't learn from watching Tootie
But living in the big city but I still like Tootie cause she got big titties
My style is steep, I write rhymes on the incline
Splat guts plus fat nuts and lay up like a crib line
I'm slamming, jamming on the one
I'm a bad man, you're just a good son, come on
Hat Tip: Crazy Ass Wolf Shagging Bob
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