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The Kids Are Going To Be Alright

Sep 082009

School begins today for a vast majority of students in this country. The President has decided to mark this occasion by releasing a speech with some words of encouragement to the nation’s children, along the lines of stay in school and try hard. This, of course, portends an impending socialist indoctrination of the country’s students to obey the President. No, really:

But this speech has roused controversy among some conservatives, who have said he is trying to indoctrinate their children with a “socialist” political agenda. Some parents have said they would keep their children home from school rather than allow them to watch the president. The controversy, stoked by conservative talk-radio hosts and some politicians, took White House officials by surprise, and marked a new low in the deteriorating relationship between Mr. Obama and a right wing he had pledged to work with in a postpartisan presidency.

I feel deeply sorry for any children out there who are being raised in such an upbringing where the political beliefs of their parents are forcibly projected onto them in the form of keeping them out of school. I’m sure the kids don’t mind. I know if I was dreading going back to grade school I’d take any excuse my parents would offer up to extend summer vacation just one more day. Of course, that’s why kids don’t get to decide these sorts of things and that’s why they have to go to school – it’s a part of the whole learning process. If only the parents had been raised the same way.

I could see the cause for anger if the speech was, say, some sort of campaign speech designed to… make children influence the votes of their parents? Well anyway, I could see the cause for anger if there was anything to be really angry about – but the whole thing is basically a positive stay in school type of message:

“I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education — and to do everything you can to meet them,” Mr. Obama will say in a televised speech from a Virginia high school, according to a transcript released Monday by the White House.

“At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world — and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools, pay attention to those teachers, listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed,” he will say.

With the talking about individual responsibility and the need to instill a core ethic of hard work, you would think that conservatives of all people would love this speech. Somehow a request to try harder in school and to live up to one’s potential turns into some sort of socialist suggestion that everyone must unite under the banner of Obama… or something along those lines.

The truth is, of course, that the meme on the right is one of “call everything Obama does socialist – no exceptions”. Lord help this guy if there’s a picture of him taken eating French toast, that’s all I have to say. It’s the same sort of anger that has simmered throughout the man’s presidency from the birth certificate to health care to death panels and now here… to a stay-in-school speech.

You know you might have gone a bit too far if Laura Bush of all people feels like she has to chime in to support the current President:

Former first lady Laura Bush on Monday expressed support for President Barack Obama’s decision to speak to the nation’s school children, saying it is “really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States.”In an interview with CNN, Mrs. Bush, a former school teacher, said, “There’s a place for the president of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children” to stay in school. And she said parents and others also need to send that message.

For anyone who would like to read the whole of what will be spoken today, word for word, I invite you to check the already released transcript. For the socialist-hunters out there, I dare any of you to find any sort of indoctrination hints at all in that speech. I suppose Obama is trying to indoctrinate people into being productive members of the future society, but other than that – find me something that is actually wrong.

It’s another facepalm moment, another in a lengthy series that we seem to be having these days. I suppose we all missed the part where the hopes of “post-partisanship” wound up translating to “we’re just not going to talk to you”. I guarantee that even though the text of the speech was released the day before it is to be given, some parents will think they are fair and just when they keep their kids out of school to avoid the president and his suggestions – all because the shouting man on the television or the radio told them to do so.

For the children who are old enough to realize what is going on, I am hoping that they can see through it. For those who are not, I hope they aren’t raised to be the ignorant-class of the future.

On this most socialist of holidays…

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Sep 072009

Clearly socialist propaganda

Who thought a series of degrading events would leave one hearkening back for the old days when “liberal” was the ultimate insult that could be hurled against any politician. Well past that looking glass, we’ve now entered a most unique land where socialist, marxist, nazi, fascist, and communist all apparently mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably to describe the same person or policy. That alone is almost worth the humorous snicker that it gets but finds itself surpassed only by the look of confused disbelief on the faces of someone who has to have the differences in such different theories explained to them – if they even take the time to listen and don’t just respond by shouting socialist nazi!!!!! back at you even louder than the first time.

Such… unique circumstances… are where we find ourselves in today, where the “insult” socialist is apparently the new black. I wish I could only be referring to something as simple as the health care debate – even those were good old days that left us earlier this summer. Now anything and everything proposed by someone on the left side of the political isle is being branded as socialist (or nazi, fascist, whatever else) by a rather impressively organized (or desperate) right. So I figured – why not point out the socialist tendencies of Labor Day, and maybe that can be protested against in earnest as well. Maybe we can get hysterical paid-for “grassroots” protesters to shout at town halls or perhaps parades until we are relieved of this terrible liberal nazi socialist fascist plot to turn America into an evil red country that has a day off every year in honor of the labor movement. Continue reading »

Rumors send Muslims into Christian killing spree

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Aug 032009

In today’s edition: Pakistan sees anti-Christian violence, America’s income is falling off a cliff, and more birther bits.

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Pakistan, a country that is unstable at best, was rocked over the weekend by violent protests targeting the Christian community in the central part of the country. According to the country’s government, a radical group of Muslims spread and acted upon a rumor that some Christians had desecrated a Quran and attacked minority Christian neighborhoods, setting fire to homes and killing at least six people. The military had to be called in to break things up.

On Monday, paramilitary troops patrolled near the dozens of targeted houses, with their blackened walls, charred furniture, and twisted ceiling fans. Six people died in the fires, two by gunshots.

Authorities urged calm and promised that local police would be investigated for their inability to stop the violence, which spiraled even after an initial probe debunked the rumor that a Quran had been defiled.

“It was like hell. Nobody was coming to help us,” said Atique Masih, a 23-year-old Christian who was shot in his right leg.

Both the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Pope criticized the violence, but odds are the efforts and words of either will be able to prevent such actions in the future. Pakistan itself is sliding down a road toward more and more of a radicalized society – with that radical element flexing its muscle by instigating these violent attacks with little fear of reprisal – and perhaps even complacency by the local authorities.

The outlook isn’t that good…

…mosque prayer leaders on Saturday stirred the pot by calling for every Christian to be killed. Christians repeatedly sought police help but to no avail…

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American income is falling off a cliff. Not just in terms of the income of actual individual American citizens, but the actual income that the government is getting is also falling rapidly:

The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

Logically, for the government to continue functioning and providing services to its people, income will have to rise some how and some way. This has to come in the form of increased taxes on someone. There is a gold mine of money that can be made by raising the taxes on income earners of $250,000/yr or more – returning the balance of tax power back to what it was during the Clinton years while avoiding any negative impact on the middle class. No such tax increase will be spun that way by the opposition, it will be spun as a failure of the administration and backtracking on a campaign promise – even though the campaign promise was only regarding people whose incomes are less than that $250,000/yr level. There’s also a $11 trillion debt out there somewhere, increasing by the second, that will have to be answered for at some point down the line.

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The birther thing will not go away – and it’s been a story so many days now it’s earned its own tag on this blog. Congrats, nutters! Today’s big hoo-ha deals with the supposed finding of Obama’s actual birth certificate, from Kenya, which proves that he is not an American citizen and shouldn’t be President and something something conspiracy… and so on. If you need to be entertained, check the supposed true document out.

…and now for the eloquent debunking, already done for us, thanks to DailyKos.

First, the hospital is Coast Provincial General Hospital (sometimes said to be Coast Province General Hospital), not Coast General Hospital.

Second, Kenya was a Dominion the date this certificate was allegedly issued and would not become a republic for 8 months.

Third, Mombasa belonged to Zanzibar when Obama was born, not Kenya.

Fourth, Obama’s father’s village would be nearer to Nairobi, not Mombasa.

Fifth, the number 47O44– 47 is Obama’s age when he became president, followed by the letter O (not a zero) followed by 44–he is the 44th president.

Sixth, EF Lavender is a laundry detergent.

Seventh, would a nation with a large number of Muslims actually say “Christian name” (as opposed to name) on the birth certificate?

Eigth, his father (born in 1961) would have been 24 or 25 when he was born and not 26.

Ninth, it was called the “Central Nyanza District,” not Nyanza Province. The regions were changed to provinces in 1970.

Of course the debunking of the conspiracy is just a part of the conspiracy, and the concept of the truth is also part of the conspiracy, because the entire world is united against American conservatives because of their great conspiracy and… this is never going to die down. I suppose the question now is who had it worse: Obama and the birthers or Clinton and everyone wanting to know about his sex life.

The birthers? How much further can a party fall? (QH: 27 July 2009)

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Jul 272009

The upcoming celebration of the 50th year since Hawaii was admitted to the union might just have some political fireworks – the remarkably useless, pointless, idiotic, and nonsensical kind. To combat a rather strange charge in the minds of those on the far-right, that President Barack Obama is somehow not an American citizen and does not have a birth certificate, Representative Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) has a rather unique idea:

“In the language of the resolution, there is a statement that Hawaii is the birthplace of the 44th President of the United States,” Abercrombie spokesman Dave Helfert confirms.

Adorable. In the midst of fixing the economy, trying to get people back to work, unintentionally running a couple of car companies, and making an attempt at sorely needed comprehensive health care reform, there is an effort to call out the shamed-in-the-electoral-sense political party into admitting if they stand with a stark raving loony mad minority faction, for the entertainment of the rest of us. While I find it humorous, I believe the Congress has better things to do. This will probably ultimately get nowhere, as queen of that loony faction, Michelle Bachman (R-MN), killed this.

If this becomes a 2012 issue, I may have a heart attack laughing.

—–

Scott Roeder, murderer, is thrilled that he killed George Tiller, doctor, but is rather upset that those who speak so highly of murder in the name of their God (sorry, in the name of what’s right), are not rushing to his defense:

The Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller said in an interview he was angry at a major anti-abortion group that he thought had abandoned him.

Scott Roeder also said from jail that he was elated that Tiller was dead and that he knew he could be going to prison for decades.

…a money-shot of a quote comes a little later in the article:

“I told him, ‘You better get your story straight because my lawyer said it’d be good for me to show that I was supporting a pro-life organization.’ ”

…a murdering pro-life person. Only in Christian America.

—–

The United States has laid out an overture to Iran to have an open dialog about their nuclear program. Secretary of Defense Gates made it clear that this offer won’t last forever:

Strains between the United States and Israel surfaced publicly in Jerusalem on Monday, as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates tried to reassure Israelis that American overtures to Iran were not open-ended, and as Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel expressed impatience with the Americans for wanting to engage Iran at all.

“I don’t think that it makes any sense at this stage to talk a lot about it,” Mr. Barak said at a joint news conference with Mr. Gates at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, referring to the American offer to talk to Iran about giving up its nuclear program. Nonetheless, he said Israel was in no position to tell the United States what to do.

That last statement represents an Israel that is frustrated with a not-so-warmongering United States these days. Also, while ultimatums might get the wheels turning, one has to wonder exactly who will even be running the show in Iran by September, as things like this continue:

The Iranian opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi spoke out more strongly than ever before on Monday against the arrests and killings of protesters, hours before Iran’s supreme leader ordered the closing of a “nonstandard” prison in an apparent effort to deflect rising criticism over the issue.

“How can it be that the leaders of our country do not cry out and shed tears about these tragedies?” Mr. Moussavi said, in comments to a teachers’ association that were posted on his Web site. “Can they not see it, feel it? These things are blackening our country, blackening all our hearts. If we remain silent, it will destroy us all and take us to hell.”

Mr. Moussavi’s angry tone appeared to reflect the steadily rising toll of those killed — some after being beaten in prison — in the crackdown that followed the disputed June 12 presidential election. A funeral was held in Tehran on Monday for Amir Javadi-Far, a student activist who died in prison after being arrested, and reports emerged of still more deaths.

Call a spade a spade, and don’t step back from it (QH 24 July 2009)

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Jul 242009

Our latest distraction from wars and the economy comes in the form of a tidbit that came from President Obama’s most recent news conference. President Obama called “stupid” the case of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor who was arrested in his own home in a very white area because, forgetting his keys, he broke into his own house. Mr. Gates Jr. presented his own ID to the police officer sent to his home, and wound up being arrested anyways.

To review… a man was arrested in his own home, after proving it was his own home, because the police officer did not think he belonged in that home. I believe this meets the general definition of “stupid”. The President saw it as such as well, and spoke his mind at a news conference. Conservatives were waiting to pounce and did. The President, for some reason, finds himself on the defense now:

Knocked off stride by a racial uproar he helped stoke, President Barack Obama hastened Friday to tamp down the controversy. Obama, who had said Cambridge, Mass., police “acted stupidly” in arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., declared the white arresting officer was a good man and invited him and the professor to the White House for a beer.Obama conceded his words had been ill-chosen, but he stopped short of a public apology. He personally telephoned both Gates and Sgt. James Crowley, hoping to end the rancorous back-and-forth over what had transpired and what Obama had said about it. Trying to lighten the situation, he even commiserated with Crowley about reporters on his lawn.

Hours earlier, a multiracial group of police officers had stood with Crowley in Massachusetts and said the president should apologize.

Thankfully it’s not an election season.

—–

In Iran, instability in the ruling regime continues in the wake of the people daring to vote for someone than the chosen leader. The leadership remains restless and annoyed:

In the latest sign of dissension within Iran’s conservative ranks, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial new deputy withdrew on Friday in response to a letter demanding his removal written by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state television and news agencies reported.

The resignation resolved a week of acrimony over the deputy, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who had drawn fierce criticism from hard-liners over comments he made last year that were friendly to Israel. It also underscored the authority within Iran’s Islamic political system of Ayatollah Khamenei, whose hand-written letter — made public by state television on Friday — appears to have overridden Mr. Ahmadinejad’s persistent refusal to dismiss his trusted deputy.

The dispute may also be a sign that Mr. Ahmadinejad is more vulnerable to conservative rivals in the wake of last month’s disputed presidential election, analysts said.

—–

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, let the American people be damned, because politicos can’t quite figure out if taking care of your fellow man is a good idea or not:

Dissension among Democrats over health-care policy flared anew on Friday, as a top House Democrat threatened to bypass his own committee to speed passage of a bill to subsidize health insurance for tens of millions of Americans.

The threat by the Democrat, Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, came on a day of fast-paced developments that laid bare growing tensions between liberal House Democratic leaders and fiscally conservative Democrats in the House Blue Dog Coalition.

The Blue Dogs’ point man on health care, Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, said that after weeks of negotiating with Mr. Waxman, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, discussions “pretty much fell apart this afternoon.”

How many more thousands of American citizens will get to go bankrupt for the crime of living? Someone ask Mr. Waxman, when they get a chance.

There But For The Grace of a Suit Jacket

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Feb 092009

Obama doesn't have a jacket on, we are doomed

No jacket? Where are the good old days of torture, war, and wiretapping?

I don’t… is this really a story? Are there people somewhere out there actually getting bent out of shape about this? Is this actually being considered an issue of character by someone – potentially more than one – out there? Alright, I’ll bite – if for nothing else because I am an admitted political wonk.

So former White House chief-of-staff Andy Card (under the previous administration – I still love saying those words in reference to George W. Bush) decided last week to take some time off from not being heard from to out-and-out rip the new President for… for what? His handling of the bailout bill? The Pakistani missile strike? Some sort of made up nefarious connection to the cluster that was the attempt to replace his Senate seat? No, no – something much, much more terrible than that. His… appearance.

Try to not smack your forehead too hard as we give this 15 seconds of “why? why oh why?”

Forget the issues, let’s talk bowling!

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May 062008

There was a time when talking politics was talking about the issues. More taxes or less? More regulation or less? Are we on the right track or not? Most importantly, how do we fix what we perceive as wrong?

But since the Reagan Administration, and particularly since the rise of Fox News, politics has become less about the issues and more about personalities. George Bush is a man people would like to have a beer with. Gore is cold and robotic. McCain is an honorable man of the people. Obama is elitist. Edwards is obsessed with his hair. Y’know what? I don’t give a damn how much Edwards pays for his haircut or how well Obama bowls. I want to know what they propose to turn this nation back into a place I’m proud to call home. Because for the past seven years, I’ve been ashamed to call myself American.

I love hearing about moralistic politicians having sex as much as the next timid political observer, but why do I care?

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Jul 202007

Why do you? Why do any of us? There was a Madam running an operation in our nation’s capital until recently, a woman by the name of Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Her slice of the American Dream was to run a $2m prostitution ring in Washington under the guise of an “escort fantasy service”. She was eventually nabbed on federal racketeering charges and faced increasing legal fees. There was only one weapon left in her arsenal that could earn some money, and that was her client list. Who wouldn’t want thirteen years of data on hypocritical lawmakers? If we were lucky, maybe we could catch a couple heads of state as well – assuming they would be dumb enough to use their real names, of course.

First to go was Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias – who resigned his position in the Bush Administration before the list actually hit the press. Perhaps it was the guilt of not being faithful, or perhaps it was an easy out for a tenure spent under the President’s extension at the State Department, Condi Rice. On his way out he assured people that he didn’t have any sex – a time horned defense that hearkens back to such political lore as “I smoked but I didn’t inhale”.
Continue reading »

…the heck does Australia have to do with this?

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Feb 122007

I really wasn’t planning on getting into “election 2008” entries until, well, 2008 – if it’s one thing I hate is the seemingly never-ending election cycle in this country. Sometimes a little down time would do us all some good. Seeing as that is never going to happen I was aiming to eventually write about the recent announcement by Senator Barack Obama from Illinois joining the race, and the fun that can ensue from there. All of that has been pushed to the side, however, thanks to a loud voice from the other end of the world: Australia. What exactly does Australia have to do with the race for the Democratic nomination, still more than a year away? In a logical world, it has nothing to do with it. Turn to a supporter of our current President to inject the lack of logic we need to spice things up and get this election started on an odd foot.

Perhaps confused between his upcoming 2007 election and the 2008 American election, Australian Prime Minister John Howard decided to take a shot, out of the blue, at Senator Obama, soon after Mr. Obama’s announcement that he is running for President. Obama is big on the anti-war movement, and actually wants to introduce legislation into the Senate that states American troops will all come home by March of 2008. Australia, a partner-in-crime in the Iraq mess (though they have a bit over 1,000 troops there compared to America’s 200,000) didn’t take kindly to the thought of being left in Iraq holding the bag, even though the anti-war movement there has been going on much longer than it has stateside. Whatever the reasoning, Mr. Howard took a shot across the bow with the following quote:

I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for (an) Obama victory. If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats.

Someone hide John Kerry’s microphone

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Nov 012006

It is rather nice being disconnected from the 24/7 cable news cycle. I still do have cable, and those channels, but I choose to not watch them religiously as I used to do. I find that I can find much more information and much less talking head-isms in the online world (thank you Google News). Still, every now and then something so epic in its stupidity comes along that it leaps from a filler for news network programming into a national… “issue” would be the wrong world, but “something to talk about” sounds too general. In any event, one of those just happened, and it involved my second favorite liberal-minded person that I love to hate right after Senator Hillary Clinton, and of course I am speaking of the somewhat honorable Senator from Massachusetts, Senator John Kerry.

In the event you were further under the rock than I was, Mr. Kerry was on the west coast giving a speech about education to some college-aged students when he decided that he would try to channel some Jon Stewart and break off into some political one-liners. The result led to some instantaneous forehead slapping on my part, and a needed distraction for the Republicans as we head into prime time in the election run up. The quote:

Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.

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