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."

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

"Disappointment with Obama is a foregone conclusion,"

Today, thank God, marks the end of the Democrat primaries.

Yesterday, Father Pfleger had to apologize for his tasteless parody of Hillary Clinton. From Barack's "former" church, the monsignor portrayed a Hillary shocked at the come from nowhere and on-to-victory stealth candidate. "Damn," he has her saying to Obama, "Where did you come from?" Father Pfleger's parody was tasteless but in-part, true. Barack's ascendancy has been a phenomenon perhaps never before seen in the history of US politics.


Has a candidate for the United States Presidency ever said less with greater effect? Women swoon and world leaders fawn. And at what? Does anyone really know what the candidate stands for? Or has everyone simply projected their "hopes" into his message of change?"

Obamamania Infects Germany

By Ralf Beste

Berlin political circles -- both liberal and conservative -- are fawning over US presidential candidate Barack Obama. Many in Germany see him as a cross between John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., but expectations may be exaggerated.

Germans are intoxicated by Barack Obama's political message.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier had hoped to meet personally, but Barack Obama has a lot on his plate at the moment and Germany's foreign minister had to make do with a telephone conversation with the presidential candidate during his recent visit to Washington. Still, that's all it took to stir Steinmeier's enthusiasm for the candidate.

The American may be deep in the midst of a campaign, but members of Steinmeier's entourage told SPIEGEL that Obama's foreign policy questions were very engaged, and he peppered his conversation with questions about the German foreign minister's views on Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.

The conversation lasted about 15 minutes and was very focused. Obama's rhetorical "cruising altitude," was apparently quite high, an advisor to Steinmeier said. At the end of the conversation, the Democratic presidential candidate promised to come to Germany as soon as possible.

The few minutes spent on the telephone gave Steinmeier the impression that Obama is prepared to fundamentally reconsider the course of US foreign policy. Steinmeier was impressed, and only a day later he publicly outed himself as the senator's latest fan. "Yes we can," the minister, not known for his emotional outbursts, chanted, evoking Obama's campaign slogan during a speech at Harvard University. Steinmeier used the term to express his desire for a renewal of trans-Atlantic relations.

'Germany Is Obamaland'

But the foreign minister hasn't been alone in his admiration for the candidate -- Berlin has been teeming with Obamamania for weeks now. Even conservatives are taken by the Democrat. After the Bush era, Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democrats can easily imagine working together with a liberal Democrat in the White House. And Norbert Röttgen, chief whip for the Christian Democrats in parliament, sees Obama as the messenger of a new wave of politics that could also provide a model for Germany.

"Germany is Obamaland," says Karsten Voigt, the German government's coordinator for trans-Atlantic relations. He says Germans see the African-American senator as a kind of "mixture of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr."

People are projecting their hopes and dreams on Obama, adds Constanze Stelzenmüller of the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. He's perceived here as peace-loving and cooperative, and those are the kind of traits Germans admire in a foreign politician.

Obama's Republican contender John McCain is viewed with greater skepticism in Berlin, where the 71-year-old Vietnam veteran is considered by many to be a Cold War relic. McCain, for example, announced that he wanted to kick Russia out of the G-8 and instead found a "League of Democracies" that, in emergencies, could also circumvent the United Nations around the world. Those aren't the kind of words that get a warm welcome in Germany.

McCain is not an unknown quantity in Germany, either. As a dyed in the wool trans-Atlanticist, he regularly participates in the annual Munich Security Conference. The senator has a reputation there for his sharp attacks against German politicians -- his fits of rage are feared and his political positions are known because of the numerous debates he has taken part in.

Obama, though, is less known. The best even the most dialled-in US experts in Berlin have managed is a handshake with the senator. He routinely denies requests from members of the German parliament to visit with him in Washington. Most of the information they have on Obama comes either from YouTube films or the papers. "Obama has no relationship with Europe whatsoever," said Hans-Ulrich Klose, the foreign policy spokesman for the center-left Social Democrats.

Still, if Obama becomes president, many Germans are hoping for a political honeymoon that lasts for at least a few months. Veteran diplomats believe there will be a "window of opportunity" that will make new initiatives possible.

But most believe the honeymoon won't last too long, experts agree. "The Germans' hopes are almost excessive," says government coordinator Voigt. "Some trans-Atlantic problems won't simply disappear because Obama is president." Obama, too, he said, would be willing to deploy troops without first getting permission from the United Nations.

"Disappointment with Obama is a foregone conclusion," added the German Marshall Fund's Stelzenmüller.

97 comments:

  1. What if all us EB'ers put on Black Face and start talkin Shit?
    Elephants will rule the World!

    ReplyDelete

  2. Barack Obama & Trinity United Church of Christ


    Having now left Trinity United Church of Christ, can Barack Obama escape responsibility for his decades-long ties to Michael Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright? No, he cannot. Obama’s connections to the radical-left politics espoused by Pfleger and Wright are broad and deep. The real reason Obama bound himself to Wright and Pfleger in the first place is that he largely approved of their political-theological outlooks.

    Obama shared Wright’s rejection of black “assimilation.” Obama also shared Wright’s suspicion of the traditional American ethos of individual self-improvement and the pursuit of “middle-classness.” In common with Wright, Obama had deep misgivings about America’s criminal justice system. And with the exception of their direct attacks on whites, Obama largely approved of his preacher-friends’ fiery rhetoric. Obama’s goal was not to repudiate religious radicalism but to channel its fervor into an effective and permanent activist organization. How do we know all this? We know it because Obama himself has told us.

    A Revealing Profile
    Although it’s been discussed before (because it confirms that Obama attended Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March), a 1995 background piece on Obama from the Chicago Reader has received far too little attention. Careful consideration of this important profile makes it clear that Obama’s long-standing ties to Chicago’s most rabidly radical preachers call into question far more than Obama’s judgment and character (although they certainly do that, as well). Obama’s two-decades at Trinity open a critically important window onto his radical-left political leanings. No mere change of church membership can erase that truth.

    By providing us with an in-depth picture of Obama’s political worldview on the eve of his elective career, Hank De Zutter’s, “What Makes Obama Run?” lives up to its title. The first thing to note here is that Obama presents his political hopes for the black community as a third way between two inadequate alternatives. First, Obama rejects, “the unrealistic politics of integrationist assimilation — which helps a few upwardly mobile blacks to ‘move up, get rich, and move out. . . . ’ ” This statement might surprise many Obama supporters, who seem to think of him as the epitome of integrationism. Yet Obama’s repudiation of integrationist upward mobility is fully consistent with his career as a community organizer, his general sympathy for leftist critics of the American “system,” and of course his membership at Trinity. Obama, we are told, “quickly learned that integration was a one-way street, with blacks expected to assimilate into a white world that never gave ground.” Compare these statements by Obama with some of the remarks in Jeremiah Wright’s Trumpet, and the resemblance is clear.

    Obama Speaks
    If there is any doubt about the accuracy of De Zutter’s detailed account, we get the same message from this too-little discussed but revealing and important piece by Obama himself. This chapter from a 1990 book called After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois was originally published in 1988, just after Obama joined Trinity. The piece is called, “Why Organize? Problems and Promise in the Inner City,” and it shows exactly what Obama hoped to make of his association with Pfleger and Wright.

    Obama begins by rejecting the false dichotomy between radicalism and moderation:
    The debate as to how black and other dispossessed people can forward their lot in America is not new. From W.E.B. DuBois to Booker T. Washington to Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X to Martin Luther King, this internal debate has raged between integration and nationalism, between accommodation and militancy, between sit-down strikes and boardroom negotiations.

    The lines between these strategies have never been simply drawn, and the most successful black leadership has recognized the need to bridge these seemingly divergent approaches.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just like the Germans, falling all over themselves over some upstart golden lipped promiser. Has a more thoughtless people ever lived? Meanwhile, the good people of South Dakota and Montana-- Obama was supposed to win both-- may be having second thoughts--

    South Dakota and Montana are the last contests of the Democratic primary season that ends on Tuesday, 3 June. Sen. Hillary Clinton has a huge lead over Obama in South Dakota, while Sen. Barack Obama has an edge over Clinton in Montana; that’s what the new Montana / South Dakota Polls say –

    American Research Group’s South Dakota Poll conducted from 31 May to 1 June shows Clinton leading Obama by 24 % points – 60% to 34% among the South Dakota Democratic primary voters. Conducted on 600 registered Democratic voters of South Dakota, the poll – with Margin of Error ±4 %, indicates a huge victory for Clinton.

    American Research Group’s Montana Poll conducted from 31 May to 1 June shows Obama leading Clinton by 4 % points – 48% to 44% among the Montana Democratic primary voters. Conducted on 600 registered Democratic voters of Montana, the poll – with Margin of Error ±4 %, indicates a close contest and Obama’s thin margin win over Clinton.

    ReplyDelete
  4. McCain, the old fox, isn't disappointed in Hillary, wink, wink, nod, nod--

    McCain lavishes praise on Hillary, says she's inspired American women


    When a questioner at John McCain's town hall meeting earlier today in Nashville noted that the Republican was talking all about Barack Obama when Hillary Clinton was still in the race, the Republican nominee used the opportunity to pay tribute to his colleague from New York.

    "Yes, Sen. Clinton is still in the race," McCain acknowledged to scattered laughter among the conservative crowd. "I have known Sen. Clinton, I admire her and I respect her. She has inspired generations of American women to believe that they can reach the highest office in this nation and I respect that."

    McCain's praise drew a nice if not boisterous round of applause -- but he wasn't done.

    After noting that he and Clinton had "stark differences" on issues, McCain continued: "But I admire the campaign she has run and I think she deserves a great deal of credit."

    And, perhaps hoping that she'll keep the Democratic contest going into the summer, McCain said by way of punctuation that she ought not be totally discounted.

    "I think the few of us who have been around politics for a while learned a lesson way back in 1992: that you better not count a Clinton out of any race."

    I get the sense that this isn't the last time McCain will offer a bouquet to Clinton as her voters start to ponder where they'll go in November.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Superdelegates predict quick primary end


    Many expect superdelegates to fall in line for Obama by Tuesday night.

    As the Democratic nomination marathon neared a potential finish line, key senators said the results of Tuesday’s South Dakota and Montana primaries will have a domino effect on uncommitted superdelegates – quite possibly clinching the nomination for Barack Obama.

    Maybe, maybe not.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ash, take a look at this. Can this be right?


    Section 7.1
    Section 7.1 of the British Columbia Human Rights Code states, re a "hate" offense accusation:

    ...innocent intent is not a defense, nor is truth, nor is fair comment or the public interest, nor is good faith or responsible journalism.

    Apparently there is no defence, since taking offense is a subjective experience or, more likely, a manipulative power play out of the Al Sharpton handbook.

    MacLean's blog is live-blogging the Mark Steyn/MacLean's tribunal show trial. The Canadians are playing with fire.

    from MF

    The Canadians are damned fools, if that is correct. Under that, you can't even have a philosophical discussion, in Canada. Sharia law, in a way, already rules there.

    What the hell?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't know where you pulled your quote from Bobal but it does not appear to be accurate, at all. Though, "I didn't know that was illegal" has never been a valid excuse in a court of law, which the Human Rights Commission isn't.

    "Discriminatory publication
    7 (1) A person must not publish, issue or display, or cause to be published, issued or displayed, any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that

    (a) indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate against a person or a group or class of persons, or

    (b) is likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to hatred or contempt

    because of the race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation or age of that person or that group or class of persons.

    (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a private communication or to a communication intended to be private."

    http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/h/96210_01.htm#section7

    ReplyDelete
  8. So Christians that think gays are immoral are haters and belong in jail if they voice their opinions.

    ReplyDelete
  9. (in public)
    (like Laura Schlesinger)

    ReplyDelete
  10. hmmm, it was posted over at Maggie's Farm. It looked so draconian, thought I'd ask. Thanks for the input. Hope you are right. That really sounds terrible, so bad it must not be right.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Talking about gays, the California Constitutional initiative on gay marriage made it onto this fall's ballot. So the people will decide, one way or the other. Obama pulling in a lot of young people to the polls this year, it may fail.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I found where the quote came from and it was the guy doing the liveblogging from the commission hearing.

    http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/06/02/liveblogging-the-bc-human-rights-tribunal%E2%80%94part-i/

    ReplyDelete
  13. No Doug, but if you systematically discriminate against Gays, urge violence, deny them work and places to live then you've got a problem. Simalarly, you will get a problem if you systematically discriminate against Jews. The big problem with legislation, in my view, is when they throw in the illdefined notion of "hate propaganda" which contradicts the Charter of Rightss and Freedoms.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Laura never advocated violence against gays, but she was deemed a hater, and banned from Canada's Airwaves.
    Free, at last!
    Liberte!

    ReplyDelete
  15. The Trinity Church has recieved and administrated over $15 million USD, in Federal Grants and Programs, it was reported on FOX News just yesterday.

    So, it seems clear that the Federal Government sees no problem with that Church or the positions of the clergy, there.

    Has there been any misappropriation or fraud involved, in those Grants. The FOX team thought not, that all was above board.

    No harm, no foul

    The Trinity Church is a mainstream Chitown establishment, its' "Good Work" funded, in part, by the Feds.

    Funded by GWBush's policies and programs

    Just another "Point of Light"

    Love it or Leave.

    ReplyDelete
  16. "systematically discriminate against Gays, urge violence, deny them work"
    ---
    ...like the Boy Scouts.
    (your average parent not wanting their young son to be the object of affection/lust of his scoutleader)

    ReplyDelete
  17. ummm, Doug, there IS a difference between being gay and being a pedophile.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Just another "Point of Light"
    Fed money for "La Raza"
    Big John addresses "La Raza."
    Viva la Raza!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Um, Ash, the Catholic example demonstrates otherwise.
    ...if you include teenagers as pedos.

    ReplyDelete
  20. ...as I always surmised, there is not a light switch that turns on at age 18, that then drives Priests wild w/desire for young men who previously held no interest to them.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Doug, are you saying all Catholics are pedophiles?

    ReplyDelete
  22. "in them"

    ,,,thousands of examples.

    ReplyDelete
  23. ...or just all Catholic priests are pedophiles?

    ReplyDelete
  24. I'm saying you're fucked, Ash.

    ReplyDelete
  25. ...also do a fine impression of DUMB!

    ReplyDelete
  26. That is bullshit, doug.

    Here, in the Paradise Valley School District, we've had, I believe, at least two cases of female teachers having illicit and illegal affairs with their young students.

    Using the Boy Scout model, no cross gender teachering would be permitted, in Public Schools, after these female teachers past behaviour patterns were publicly known.

    It is not safe to be a male minor in the Paradise Valley Schools, sexual predators monitor the halls and run the classrooms.

    No more co-ed classes or cross gender teachers, it's the only way to ensure the safety of our choldren!

    ReplyDelete
  27. (NO comment on Laura being banned from the pristine Canuck Airwaves)

    ReplyDelete
  28. I see doug, so you also believe that men shouldn't teach high school unless it is in a boys only school, and women should only be able to teach girls only schools? Unless, of course, they are gay.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I am unaware of Laura's circumstances. Please elucidate.

    ReplyDelete
  30. To you, bullshit.
    To me, Truth!
    (but then, none of my female teachers molested me for some odd reason.)

    ReplyDelete
  31. ...but then I didn't camp out w/my 8th grade teacher, or call her my scoutmaster.
    JEEZE!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I, too, was safe the wiles of the sexual predators, doug.

    Woe is me!

    My self-esteem will never recover from that factoid.

    But then we matured in another place, another time. To a differing set of realities.

    Viva McCain, Viva la Raza!

    That natural born American from
    Panama

    We'ra all Americans, now

    We are the World

    ReplyDelete
  33. (maybe the reason none of my female teachers did not molest me was they did not have the incentive of a bunch of voyeuristic perverts that would pay to watch them retell the story on TV)

    (or maybe they just never considered it a sane and moral thing to do.)

    ReplyDelete
  34. "none of my teachers molested me"
    ...honest.

    ReplyDelete
  35. It was love, actually.
    I was chemically impaired, and could not take my eyes off the thick black mane of my German teacher, reaching clear down to her waste in a neatly weaved ponytail.
    ---
    ...but then I was not a pedo, just a perv on the GI Bill.

    ReplyDelete
  36. See how America has grown, fellas ...

    Now-a-days it is Mr McCain that represents "Conservative" thinking in the public square.

    a carbon "Cap & Trade" policy
    Regularization of illegals
    Open Borders, in reality as opposed to rhetoric.
    Extended military occupation of Iraq

    Not the things I think of, when thinking "Conservatively"

    ReplyDelete
  37. There are only 31 delegates at stake tonight in the last two states, and Obama needs 47 delegates to clinch. That means he needs 16 superdelegates to put him over the top. Unfortunately, Hillary is going to surprise everyone on South Dakota, despite ex-Senate leader Tom Daschle's support of Obama, and only lose by single digits there. Then she will have that all-important "Momentum", and all three hundred or so remaining superdelegates will break for her, with none for Obama, or at best nine or ten. It could happen! And some of superdelegates who have already pledged for Obama could see the tide turning and jump over to the Clinton ship. That's why Clinton won't get out of the race until July. And if by some wild fluke Obama actually gets all the delegates he needs tonight, Harold Ickes has been instructed to appeal to the credentials committee on the first day of the Convention, not only that all the delegates of Michigan and Florida be seated, but due to the fact that Hillary wins the popular vote (if you exclude Guam and the Virgin Islands for not being "real states" and include Puerto Rico, and exclude the people who voted in caucus states because caucii are easily manipulated) that the Florida delegates be given seven votes each as reparations for the 2000 election when Al Gore won the popular vote but Floridians were disenfranchised by the Supreme Court.

    ReplyDelete
  38. For some reason I'm less concerned with my grandson nailing his eight grade teacher, than I would be with his scoutmaster trying to nail him.

    In one case I'd have to feign "shock;" in the other case I'd have to spend time in jail for beating someone to a bloody pulp.

    No, they're not the same.

    ReplyDelete
  39. But the female teachers, rufus, are but the tip of the threatening iceberg.

    Do you think that there are no gay public school teachers, male or female?

    There is no prohibition on gay teachers, only on sezual behaviour with minors.

    This prohbition should be enough, in public schools or civic groups.

    Now I have no problem with the Boy Scouts prohibiting gay members, but I have no problem with public, government owned facilities, not providing them a subsidy, either.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Each locality can come to its' own decision with regard to subsidizing the Boy Scouts, with below market rental agreements.

    In those locales where the public supports the Boy Scout position, the subsidies can, will, continue. In those where the Scouts are seen to be out of the local cultural mainstream, they will lose the sibsidies.

    Local government representing the will of the people. Except in Oregon, where many of the small town administrations felt the need to resign.

    ReplyDelete
  41. That natural born American from
    Panama. We'ra all Americans, now.


    Think about it for a second. If you read the Constitution, it says a President must be a natural born citizen at least 35 who has resided in the US for at least 14 years. If you interpret that to exclude citizens born overseas (say in a US Army hospital in Germany, or yes, Panama) then the 14 year residency requirement is redundant, since a 35 year old man meeting your test will automatically have resided here for 35 years.

    ReplyDelete
  42. On Federal property, it'll depend on the policy promoted by the President.

    I recall a military post that prohibited the Scouts, early on in Team43s tenure. The civilian leadership of the military reversed the decision.
    It did not have to.

    So the cultural norm of behaviour, for rental subsidies at the Federal level, is what the President deems prudent.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Even though you're new light, it seems a bit dim.

    The subtext of the comment as to Mr McCain is not to the technical requiremnts of the Presidency, but to the scope of Empire and what "America" is.

    in the context of a global, tri-lateral social order. Which the governing elites are pursuing. Regardless of Party affiliation.

    We have documented and discussed the cultural identity of the ruling elite in the pursuit of the program, to FDR's grandfather's tenure as President of the Russell Company, traders in coolies, tea and opium. To both Bush41 & 43 being members of a "secret society" fraternity, at Yale, funded by the Russell Trust.

    How Mr McCain's birthplace and subsequent connection to Arizona's power elite tie directly to the "One Americas" that they are pursuing. Both factually and symbolicly.

    Lighten up

    ReplyDelete
  44. heck, might as well go all the way and just make it a monarchy.

    ReplyDelete
  45. It is the factions, within the elite, that keep it fresh, ash.

    It is not a monolitic elite,


    A research study conducted by the New England Historic Genealogical Society has turned up a variety of interesting relations to the current Democratic & Republican presidential candidates. According to the study, Barack Obama is distantly related to such luminaries as George W. Bush and Brad Pitt, ...
    John McCain turns out to be a cousin of First Lady Laura Bush.
    ...
    Illinois Senator Barack Obama, who was born in Kansas, can lay claim to at least six past U.S. presidents in his genealogical tree—George W. Bush & his father, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and James Madison.

    Obama and the current President Bush are 10th cousins, once removed, according to the study. Obama is also distantly related to ... Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Other cousins include Vice President Dick Cheney and British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.


    But some do claim it retains genetic links to the British Monarchy.

    ReplyDelete
  46. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  47. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Among its other findings:

    McCain, the Vietnam War veteran who spent five years as a prisoner of war, descends from a long line of kings: Scottish King William the Lion, English King Edward I and French King Louis VII.

    ...
    Obama is cousins with six U.S presidents, including Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. He is also linked to American artist Georgia O'Keefe, the Duchess of Windsor and two men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
    ...

    Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is related to beatnik author Jack Kerouac, Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Rat, I was referring to your oft stated opinion "...is what the President deems prudent."

    ReplyDelete
  50. You go back far enough we're all related. The trick is to get someone who is from the honest side of the family. I'm related to Queen Elizabeth the First and Pontius Pilate.

    Those scallaways in "Huckleberry Finn" were royalty too. The Duke and the Dolphin.

    Doug's related to John the Baptist, Rat to Julius Caesar. Teresita to Cleopatra. Ash to Charlemagne and Pierre Trudeau.
    ---
    We need a new polical party in this country.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Rufus is related to the biblical Rufii, and Darius the Great; and Habu to Ghengis and Hulegu Khan.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Well, sure, ash.

    The President has some truly impressive tools to work with, in guiding US policy.

    Or to let lay, while pursuing One America. The US border used to be patroled, and secured by the US Military and then para-military forces, that's why so many bases a situated along the frontier.

    The Msrines in San Diego and Yuma, the Army still at Fort Huachuca and Fort Sam Houston.

    Now securing the frontier is a job left to "vigilantes"

    ReplyDelete
  53. Open Borders

    C2C tonite

    Always on tap with contemporary events. C2C examines the aliens, tonite--

    Tue 06.03 >>
    Author Jerome Corsi and filmmaker Chris Burgard will discuss the making of Border, an investigative documentary on the turbulent state of America's southern border with Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Phil at MF says--

    My Name is African Swahili - NOT EXACTLY, your name is
    Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means
    'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
    Barack Hussein Obama is not half black. If elected, he
    would be the first Arab-American President, not the first black
    President. Barack Hussein Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side
    and 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side. While
    Barack Hussein Obama's father was from Kenya, his father's family
    was mainly Arabs.. Barack Hussein Obama's father was only 12.5% African
    Negro and 87.5% Arab (his father's birth certificate even states
    he's Arab, not African Negro).

    ReplyDelete
  55. The Great Immigration Panic

    Published: June 3, 2008

    Someday, the country will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don’t mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it.

    A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away.

    An escalating campaign of raids in homes and workplaces has spread indiscriminate terror among millions of people who pose no threat. After the largest raid ever last month — at a meatpacking plant in Iowa — hundreds were swiftly force-fed through the legal system and sent to prison. Civil-rights lawyers complained, futilely, that workers had been steamrolled into giving up their rights, treated more as a presumptive criminal gang than as potentially exploited workers who deserved a fair hearing. The company that harnessed their desperation, like so many others, has faced no charges.

    Immigrants in detention languish without lawyers and decent medical care even when they are mortally ill. Lawmakers are struggling to impose standards and oversight on a system deficient in both. Counties and towns with spare jail cells are lining up for federal contracts as prosecutions fill the system to bursting. Unbothered by the sight of blameless children in prison scrubs, the government plans to build up to three new family detention centers. Police all over are checking papers, empowered by politicians itching to enlist in the federal crusade.

    This is not about forcing people to go home and come back the right way. Ellis Island is closed. Legal paths are clogged or do not exist. Some backlogs are so long that they are measured in decades or generations. A bill to fix the system died a year ago this month. The current strategy, dreamed up by restrictionists and embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, is to force millions into fear and poverty.

    There are few national figures standing firm against restrictionism. Senator Edward Kennedy has bravely done so for four decades, but his Senate colleagues who are running for president seem by comparison to be in hiding. John McCain supported sensible reform, but whenever he mentions it, his party starts braying and he leaves the room. Hillary Rodham Clinton has lost her voice on this issue more than once. Barack Obama, gliding above the ugliness, might someday test his vision of a new politics against restrictionist hatred, but he has not yet done so. The American public’s moderation on immigration reform, confirmed in poll after poll, begs the candidates to confront the issue with courage and a plan. But they have been vague and discreet when they should be forceful and unflinching.

    The restrictionist message is brutally simple — that illegal immigrants deserve no rights, mercy or hope. It refuses to recognize that illegality is not an identity; it is a status that can be mended by making reparations and resuming a lawful life. Unless the nation contains its enforcement compulsion, illegal immigrants will remain forever Them and never Us, subject to whatever abusive regimes the powers of the moment may devise.

    Every time this country has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Think of the Chinese and Irish, Catholics and Americans of Japanese ancestry. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation’s most deeply held values.
    "

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/opinion/03tue1.html?hp

    ReplyDelete
  56. Earthworm Speciman To Be Tested

    Tests needed to see if creature found in Washington is Giant Palouse Earthworm

    Peshastin, Washington AP--

    Soil researchers may have found the Giant Palouse Earthworm in Chelan County of Washington State. But tests in a laboratory will decide if a patch of earth in Peshastin, Wash., has been home to the elusive creatures.

    Jodi Johnson-Maynard, soil scientist at the University of Idaho, and Karl Umiker, senior scientific aide at U of I, said last week there is evidence the giant worm exists in the area and found samples to test. The earthworms they found were not full-sized, they said.

    The site where they searched was located on a hillside in Peshatin, near Leavenworth, Washington.

    The researchers dug holes and followed tunnels to find the worm.

    Scientists have officially found the worm only four times since the 1970's. The giant earthworm was last found in 2005 by an Idaho graduate student near Pullman.
    But one researcher called the worms abundant in the late 1800's.

    --
    Bulshit! I have talked to the farmers. If they were "abundant in the late 1800's" we'd know about it.

    Bullshit! Peshastin in the hell up in the Cascade Mountains, far far from the Palouse.

    Our country is sinking fast. We can't build a nuclear generating facility, drill for oil, close the border, or educate the kids, and now we're going to kill the rest of our industry with "crap 'n trade", but by God we can waste tons of money on this crap.

    Bullshit! We're killing ourselves with this crap.

    We need a new political party in this country.

    ReplyDelete
  57. You take them up there in Canada Ash. 20 million of them.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Hillary says she would take the VP spot, craven bitch that she is. Unfortunately, that's the thing that would make it a winning ticket.

    Boys, we may be sunk.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Hillary comes with too much baggage. She'll be left at the curb (I hope!)

    ReplyDelete
  60. Bobal, re. immigration - no one is saying let 'em all in but rather a rational policy need be forged which allows for the chance to enter and stay lawfully.

    ReplyDelete
  61. And Brigitte Bardot Is A Threat To Society

    The West is taking leave of itself, losing the desire to exist.
    --
    I don't know, Ash. Obama needs her, I think. I think she's the only one that can get him elected. Well, we're going to find out.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Why? It's no longer the 1800s. Immigration made sense then. This is 2008. We've got over 300(three hundred million!) million and rising. We are beginning to struggle to deal with what we've got. Parts of LA are looking third world. We don't need it. We don't need any more people, of whatever kind, at all.

    ReplyDelete
  63. unfortunately our way of life is predicated upon growth - no immigration no growth. Look at the dire economic hardships some are enduring and we aren't even in recession yet (well maybe a mild one?)

    ReplyDelete
  64. Time to go race that sailboat. C'Ya...I'm sure you all will have the immigration problems solved by the time I get back.

    ReplyDelete
  65. You can have plenty of 'growth', without growing the population. Growth in goods and services of all kinds.


    Have that immigrant laborer lift up the sails! Count yourself lucky, your head probably works, and if it doesn't you can crap over the side, which they can't do in the Space Shuttle, which may return to earth early, for lack of a working toilet. All that empty space and nowhere to relieve oneself.

    Good sailing to you.

    ReplyDelete
  66. You can also take Viagra:
    Growth is guaranteed.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Why don't they have little ejection rockets to send bags of shit on seperate trajectories?
    (in extremis only, of course)

    ReplyDelete
  68. "Solid Fuel for Solid Waste!"

    ReplyDelete
  69. FOX is running that Obama is over the threshold, got the 2111 votes tallied, today.

    Though things can always shift, rules changed, within the Dems party.

    Still a long way to Denver, from St Paul.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Obama effectively clinches nomination
    David Espo And Stephen Ohlemacher

    Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, becoming the first black candidate to lead a major party into a campaign for the White House. Vanquished rival Hillary Rodham Clinton swiftly signaled an interest in joining the ticket as running mate.

    Obama arranged a victory celebration at the site of this summer's Republican National Convention — an in-your-face gesture to Sen. John McCain, who will be his opponent in the race to become the nation's 44th president.

    The 46-year-old Obama outlasted Clinton in a historic campaign that sparked record turnouts in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.

    In a campaign of surprises, Clinton's comments about joining the ticket rated high.

    According to one participant in an afternoon conference call among Clinton and members of the New York congressional delegation, Rep. Lydia Velasquez said she believed the best way for Obama to win over Hispanics and members of other key voting blocs would be to take the former first lady as his running mate.

    "I am open to it," Clinton replied,
    if it would help the party's prospects in November

    ReplyDelete
  71. WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton told colleagues Tuesday she would consider joining Barack Obama as his running mate, and advisers said she was withholding a formal departure from the race partly to use her remaining leverage to press for a spot on the ticket.

    ReplyDelete
  72. A Big Dog in Winter
    By Rich Lowry

    Few things are sadder than former greats past their prime. A bloated Elvis Presley in a sequined suit; a diminished Michael Jordan making one last comeback with the Washington Wizards; and, we can add, a gaunt Bill Clinton desperately plugging his wife's doomed presidential campaign -- the Big Dog in winter.

    With his media enablers gone, with his most faithful constituency (African-Americans) lured away by another, with the prospect of again attaining the commanding heights of American politics lost, with his magic touch in abeyance, Bill Clinton has been whittled down to a long, self-pitying plaint.

    ReplyDelete
  73. MaYHeM said...

    "The unilateral association of slavery with confederacy is the largest white wash in history.

    As they say, the victor writes the history books.

    Confederacy vs Federalism
    PERIOD! Drop the charade.
    Support the 'Union' isn't a good thing to a Libertarian.

    Slavery would have died on it's own, with or without the so called Union."

    ReplyDelete
  74. The advisers said Clinton has made a strategic decision to not formally end her campaign, giving her leverage to negotiate with Obama on various matters including a possible vice presidential nomination for her. She also wants to press him on issues he should focus on in the fall, such as health care.

    Universal health care, Clinton's signature issue as first lady in the 1990s, was a point of dispute between Obama and the New York senator during their epic nomination fight.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Hell, Doug, you'd soil outer space itself? Turds floating aroud in orbit? That's what I want to see in my telescope!

    ReplyDelete
  76. Obama's the nominee--break out the crack!

    ReplyDelete
  77. I assume you have a computor on your racing sail boat, Ash, so here's the answer to our discussion--

    About the BC Human rights commission:

    I checked their webpage here:

    http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/H/96210_01.htm

    I looked at section 7.1 (and at the rest of the document) and could find nothing that indicated "...innocent intent is not a defense, nor is truth, nor is fair comment or the public interest, nor is good faith or responsible journalism."

    I detest what is happening to Steyn, but I think it's important that we always have our facts straight.

    -- DW
    #5 Doug Wolf on 2008-06-03 15:44 (Reply)
    Get your context hat on Doug. Reading the document precisely shows what was said to be true. The statement you take issue with describes possible defenses to the charges which are not specifically listed as a defense in 7.1.

    In other words- you are making the author's point. There is no defense, at least not the reasonable kind listed by the author listed in 7.1. So the fact that it's not in there- proves that it's not in there!

    Here's a relevant passage from 7.1:

    A member or panel may, at any time after a complaint is filed and with or without a hearing, dismiss all or part of the complaint if that member or panel determines that any of the following apply:

    (a) the complaint or that part of the complaint is not within the jurisdiction of the tribunal;

    (b) the acts or omissions alleged in the complaint or that part of the complaint do not contravene this Code;

    (c) there is no reasonable prospect that the complaint will succeed;

    (d) proceeding with the complaint or that part of the complaint would not

    (i) benefit the person, group or class alleged to have been discriminated against, or

    (ii) further the purposes of this Code;

    (e) the complaint or that part of the complaint was filed for improper motives or made in bad faith;

    (f) the substance of the complaint or that part of the complaint has been appropriately dealt with in another proceeding;

    (g) the contravention alleged in the complaint or that part of the complaint occurred more than 6 months before the complaint was filed unless the complaint or that part of the complaint was accepted under section 22 (3).

    So you see: telling the truth, or not being a meanie about it, or actually trying to help the public, and a few other good excuses, ARE NOT LISTED AS REASONS TO DISMISS THE CHARGES. Instead you get reasons like: only if the accuser is lying (and we'll be the judge of that) etc.

    Good job on keeping the facts straight there pal.
    #5.1 Phil on 2008-06-03 17:51 (Reply)

    ReplyDelete
  78. French anti-racism laws prevent inciting hatred and discrimination on racial or religious or racial grounds. Bardot had been convicted four times previously for inciting racial hatred.

    "She is tired of this type of proceedings," he said. "She has the impression that people want to silence her.

    She will not be silenced in her defense of animal rights."


    Race Case

    ReplyDelete
  79. Dick Morris thinks Hillary would only bring one vote extra to Obama campaign--Bill Clinton's vote. Don't know about that, but Hillary--what was it Marilyn Monroe said, "To get what I want, I'd blank every blank in Hollywood."?

    NO MÉNAGE-À-TROIS FOR OBAMA

    By DICK MORRIS


    Putting Hillary Clinton on the ticket for vice president creates a ménage-à-trois. Bill will be the unexpected roommate. Even if a President Obama can discipline Hillary and get her to play second fiddle, there is not the remotest chance that he can get the former president to accept such rules. Even if Bill Clinton wanted to rein in his newly prolific public expressions of rage and frustration, there is doubt that he is any longer capable of doing so.

    Hillary, who likely desperately wants to be tapped for vice president, is going about it in exactly the wrong way. She seems to be demanding a kind of coalition government between herself and Obama, a definition of the vice presidency not likely to appeal to the president. It reminds me of 1980 when there were discussions of a ticket with Reagan as the presidential nominee and former President Gerald Ford as the vice president in a coalition government where the VP would have extraordinary powers.

    Intended to reassure voters who were panicked by Reagan’s “extreme” conservatism, the arrangement never came to fruition, a development which gave us the House of Bush.

    Instead of conceding defeat and campaigning for Obama, auditioning for the spot of loyal teammate, Hillary insists on keeping her options open and vies for the spotlight with Obama, exactly what you do not want a vice president to do.

    Last night, when Obama went over the top in delegates and could claim the nomination as his, Hillary organized a rally of all of her supporters, directly competing for airtime with the newly minted nominee.

    Adding Hillary to the ticket would not bring Obama a single vote (except possibly for Bill’s). Her supporters are divided into two distinct categories. The original Clintonistas were strong Democrats, party faithful, pro-choice, middle-aged and up, largely female and all white. But Hillary’s recent backers have been downscale whites of both genders who were turned off by Obama’s pastor, wife and other associates and were afraid he might be a Muslim in disguise. Unhappy about voting for a woman, they never really liked Hillary but turned to her when the alternative was Obama.

    If Hillary had won the Democratic nomination, these latent backers of Hillary in the primaries might still have voted for McCain in the general. Their support of Hillary is purely linked to her opposition to Obama. Were she to join the ticket, they would vote for McCain anyway. After all, Obama will still be black and the Rev. Wright will still be nuts.

    But adding Hillary to the ticket brings, along with her, Bill.

    The public Bill Clinton has morphed over the past few months from a statesman and philanthropist to a petulant, angry, cursing, spoiled narcissist, accusing everyone of being sleazy and biased and in so doing fashioning himself as a foil for Obama. This unattractive image is not the right one for the bottom of a ticket in a presidential race. And make no mistake, Bill comes along with Hillary.

    But the more serious problem is the public record that Todd Purdum, an excellent journalist, laid out in his Vanity Fair piece. Bill’s relationships with billionaires, his pursuit of financial gain, his alliance with the emir of Dubai, and his acceptance of speaking fees and income from some of the least savory of types is not what you need to carry around with you in a presidential race. To put Hillary on the ticket is to confront nagging questions about donors to the Clinton Library and Bill’s refusal to release them. It would be to inherit a load of baggage that Obama does not need as he tries to position himself as the candidate of change, antithetical to the corrupt and corrupting ways of Washington.

    On her own, Hillary would be no bargain as vice president. She would never accept direction and never sublimate her ambition or agenda to Obama’s. But with Bill in tow, her candidacy becomes even more fraught with peril should Obama be inclined to bow to pressure and put her on the ticket.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Brit Hume was saying last night that Obama, come November, will effectively have a net loss of 2 votes/Clinton supporter. Reasoning that majority of Clinton supporters have stated that they will either sit out or vote for McCain.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Here are seven reasons Clinton failed:

    1. A yearning for change:

    Clinton underestimated Democrats’ yearning for something beyond politics as usual and their disdain for the Iraq war and George W. Bush. Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the war became a symbol of status quo, allowing Obama, who had opposed the war, to become the agent of change on an issue that had inflamed the left.

    2. Hot and cold persona:

    Clinton could never seem to settle on a political style or persona. In her defense, she may have been hurt by gender bias.

    3. Race trumped gender:

    When Democratic voters assessed the breakthrough aspects of having a black man or white woman head their ticket, race ultimately won out over gender. The excitement over Obama’s candidacy and the prospect of the first black nominee of a major political party brought young voters into a process they had ignored in the past.

    What Went Wrong

    ReplyDelete
  82. NY Times Neo"Con" David Brooks:

    "I’ve spent the past few years trying to find conservative experts to provide remedies for middle-class economic anxiety. Let me tell you, the state of free-market thinking on this subject is pathetic. There are a few creative thinkers (most of them under 30), but for the most part, McCain is forced to run in an intellectual void.

    Today, he is scheduled to give a forceful speech on why “reform” is better than “change.” He plans to describe how to remobilize government and address economic anxiety.

    But McCain’s reform message is only being carried by him and a few bloggers.

    Obama can draw on a coherent body of economic work and 10,000 unified voices.
    "

    What

    "coherent body of economic work and 10,000 unified voices. "
    is Davey refering to?

    ReplyDelete
  83. I left out this Gem, saying if they had not betrayed conservatism, we'd be even worse off.
    F...... East Coast Liberals!

    "More fundamentally, McCain’s problem is that his party is unfit to govern. As research from the Republican pollster David Winston has shown, any policy becomes less popular when people learn that Republicans are supporting it. If the G.O.P. sponsored the sunrise, voters would prefer gloom. Many Republicans are under the illusion that they are in trouble because they’ve betrayed their core principles. The sad truth is that if they’d been more conservative, they’d be even further behind. "

    ReplyDelete
  84. If the G.O.P. sponsored the sunrise, voters would prefer gloom.

    hehehe

    What

    "coherent body of economic work and 10,000 unified voices. "
    is Davey refering to?

    Marxism, the labor theory of value, the war of the classes. the exploitation of labor, of course! 10,000 unified voices say it is so.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Hillary won S. Dakota, but can't find by how much, Obama won Montana, can't find by how much.

    ReplyDelete
  86. SD - Hillary +11 - 80% reporting.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Turkish General Staff has sent a large group of troops to the region bordering Iraq to fight against the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) on Tuesday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    The report said the General Staff sent the Turkish troops to Besta region and Cudi and Gabar mountainous areas in Sirnak province along the neighboring country early Tuesday.

    Last Thursday, Turkish jets launched an air strike against 16 PKK targets in the north of Iraq.


    Border with Iraq

    ReplyDelete
  88. The heads of Christian churches across the country have released a statement calling for the Australian Government to become more involved in bringing about peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

    The statement follows a visit to the Middle East by a group of Australian church leaders last year, including Uniting Church president, the Reverend Gregor Henderson.

    "It's time that the Australian Government took a more active role as a member of the international community in working for peace in the Palestine and Israel," he said.


    Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

    ReplyDelete