Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward was interviewed by CBS Sixty-Minutes reporter Scott Pelley the other evening concerning Woodward's claim of a split between President Bush and his generals – at least the biggies at the Pentagon – about the troop-surge that began in January 2007. Not coincidentally, Woodward's latest book (his fourth, The War Within) about the Bush administration is coming out also not coincidentally at this particular juncture of the quadrennial election circus while Obama and Biden are trying desperately to join McCain hip-to-thigh with Bush. The book is published by CBS-owned Simon & Schuster, and Bush has no more venomous enemy than CBS…so, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
One never knows about Woodward with respect to what's true and false, especially considering his claim that he actually visited former CIA chief William Casey virtually during Casey's last hours. Those around Casey at the time claimed this meeting never happened, and the inclination is that Woodward made it up. Also, all the stuff about "Deep Throat" vis-à-vis the Watergate thing might have never actually happened, either, notwithstanding the "appearance" of the alleged "Deep Throat," who was to remain nameless until after his death, when Woodward, Bernstein, and Post onetime head honcho Bradley would tell all. After the Janet Baker scam at the paper some years ago, anything could be possible.
Doubtlessly, Woodward, apparently like many other Washington insiders, has/had his sources for this new book, at least allegedly. This is from the interview: "'You've obtained a number of documents, classified secret that the president was receiving in this period of time. What was the president hearing about what was going on in Iraq?' Pelley asked." Woodward did not say, "No," and then went on to tell about a "top secret special compartmented information report." Neither Woodward nor any other reporter should have access to secret information, so the reader of the book is invited to exercise his judgment about Woodward's veracity. If he did gain access to such information, both he and the provider should be brought up on some sort of charge.
Without question, every official in Washington, especially the president, has enemies, so it's conceivable that one such could have spilled his tortured guts to Woodward out of nothing more than spite, especially if he has lost a position or failed to gain one he coveted or been proven wrong in a decision. It's ominous that secret information could be disseminated so cavalierly, but actually not surprising, given the egos that inhabit Washington, and few egos, if any, could be larger than that of many generals.
The main thrust of the interview was not that the surge is working. Indeed, it was admitted that the plan has worked, as well as the plan that recently culminated in the turning over of the security of Anbar Province to the Iraqi police force. The main thrust, not surprisingly, was that President Bush has lied, since he has always insisted that he depended on the information from his generals for carrying out troop commitments and strategies. The point Woodward makes is that President Bush's "troop surge" plan came directly from the White House, no thanks to the Pentagon and all the generals who work there. In fact, according to Woodward, they hated the idea.
Woodward also noted that Bush acted upon the advice of General David Petraeus with respect to strategy and "cleaned house" with respect to commanders. In doing this, Woodward obviously contradicted the notion that Bush was lying about listening to his generals. Bush was still listening to his generals, but to a new set of generals who had new ideas about how to win in Iraq. In this area, McCain profits by his association with the surge, since he had been demanding that more troops be sent to Iraq and that losing would be very perfidy. Significantly, Obama finds it almost impossible to admit that things are much better, leaving the impression that to cut and run would not be all that bad.
From the interview: "But beyond all of that, Woodward reports, for the first time, that there is a secret behind the success of the surge: a sophisticated and lethal special operations program. … 'Yeah,' Woodward said. 'If you were an al Qaeda leader or part of the insurgency in Iraq, or one of these renegade militias, and you knew about what they were able to do, you'd get your ass outta town'."
Woodward made it plain that he knew the details of this secret weapon but would not divulge anything since to do so would compromise the operation, which seems to be a highly sophisticated surveillance and assassination tool. Pelley seemed to think he should, anyway. Egad! Woodward claimed it was as much a landmark advancement as the role of the tank and airplane in other wars. One can be greatly encouraged if he's right, but one also wonders if he feels safe in making it known that he has the answers. How would he feel if he were kidnapped and made to undergo water-boarding…like spilling the beans, for instance?
Hopefully, Woodward is not Dan Rather all over again. Time will tell.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
DNC Memorandum #34
From the office of Dr. Howard Dean, chair-spout (Save the whales!)
***Senator Obama remains displeased with the white-, black-, and any-shade-in-between-papers (diversity-configured, including red, brown and yellow, in recognition of the party's non-racist configuration) concerning a proper description of the "typical Muslim." Michigan, home of multitudes of Muslims, is vital in November but the senator has excused himself from identifying the typical Muslim since he was partly raised as one and thus would appear as self-serving. The anonymous paper noting that the typical Muslim can be found in the midst of bloody body parts while reading the Koran has been flushed and the writer, when apprehended, will be assigned to Senator Durbin's Pol Pot Project for reeducation, known as the "Killing Field Protocol."
***Senator McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Palin to be veep has been so thoroughly disquieting as to require a special committee staff to make all appropriate haste in not only totally nullifying her influence but also totally scandalizing her in the interest of comparing democratic purity to her republican down-and-dirty politics in cleaning up corruption in Alaska. Any suggestions will be welcome, but absolutely no reference to either Clinton will be entertained for obvious reasons. Much is to be made of the fact that Palin's husband, when he was 22 (22 years ago), was arrested for DUI. This, alone, should knock Palin for a loop since anyone that old should know better, whether she knew him then or not. In this regard, do NOT mention Congressman Kennedy, who apparently tried to drive his car up the Capitol steps on a recent night. More importantly, do NOT – repeat – do NOT mention that Senator Obama admitted to using hard drugs at about that time. Also, be certain not to mention that a woman with five children is not up to the task. Speaker Pelosi, also with five children and a gaggle of grandchildren, has been in politics practically forever, not to mention that Geraldine Ferarro already had three while on her way to the veep nomination in 1984.
***Senator Obama is also requesting a you-know-what-type paper (if not, see above) on the "typical Pentecostal." This is due to the fact that Palin belongs to that church, thus his need to get out front in appealing to that crowd before she attempts some sort of evangelistic revival and grabs all Pentecostal democrats and (gasp, for emphasis) the democrat Baptists (millions of the poor dumb souls/voters), as well. Feel free to scandalize Palin over the unwed pregnancy of her 17-year-old, perhaps painting the governor as not living up to the standards of Pentecostalism, assuming that Pentecostals take a dim view of fornication, but be careful not to mention that the girl should have been handcuffed to the bedpost. Unfortunately, she is not having an abortion, since that would have made things so much easier, but do your best. The senator again has expressed appreciation for the document provided by the DNC that describes the "typical white person" but has reemphasized that no mention is to made of his grandmother in Hawaii, his grandmother in Africa or his step-mothers anywhere. He has also said that he never claimed that his father was not a bigamist and that he won't ever claim that again.
***The DNC secret plan to sabotage the teleprompters during the speeches of Huckaby, Giuliani, and Palin on Wednesday evening at the repub clambake was carried out, at least with respect to the latter two. Huckaby is so glib and quick on his tongue that we don't know whether or not his teleprompter backfired, since he never missed a beat and had the crowd in his palm. Unfortunately, Giuliani and Palin just let the applause roll during the glitches and actually did better than if they had had to depend on the machines. Apologies all around for this, and the staffer who made that suggestion in the first place has been assigned to canvass for votes in the newly flooded section of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
***The National Enquirer has come up with a photo of Governor Palin in a bikini, but everyone is reminded not to exploit the fact that she's in a bikini, since the current ethos of the Democrat Party women is "the more shown the better" (also true for republican mothers), as exemplified in how their high-school daughters dress for class. However, it is quite alright to criticize the governor for being too chubby for a bikini, thus exercising poor judgment in wearing one. This lack of judgment consequently renders her incapable of handling that 3:00 a.m. phone call made famous by Senator Clinton. Feel free to imply that Senator McCain would be too deaf to hear the phone, in the first place, and too arthritically indisposed by legs broken in Vietnam to hit the ground running.
***There has been snickering reported around the bottled-water keg and non-trans-fat, non-hamburger, non-hotdog, non-dairy-product-of-any-kind, non-chocolate, non-smoking (smoking okay if Obama lights up), veggie-fortified, yogurt-enhanced snack-bar and body-mass-chart, carbon-cap-graph, and snail-darter obituary-list area about Senator Obama writing another autobiography, since it's been at least two years since the last one and even longer, of course, since the one before that. This is no laughing matter since the senator's celebrity and notoriety have been noticed throughout the world, the evidence in Berlin being overwhelming. It's even been rumored that the French like him almost as much as they adore John Kerry. Unfortunately (for recent graduates of public schools), the Germans and Frenchies can't vote. It's only reasonable that the candidate bring his virtually sacred life (although any allusion to "Obamessiah" will be punishable by the perpetrator being assigned to the hills of eastern Kentucky, where a knock on the door is considered trespassing and first-graders can shoot a squirrel at 100 yards) up-to-date. He IS looking for a bright staffer to write another autobiography, since he lacks the time to write it himself. NOTE: Technically, it would be a biography, but those with the essence of greatness have the right to call it an autobiography…or anything else they desire, so forget any credit being given to you.
***Michael Moore is planning a new movie – actually a quickie quasi-documentary – tentatively entitled Alaskan Amazon Amok and will feature an evil female governor bashing baby seals in the head, drilling for oil through grizzly-bear hibernation caves, frog-gigging and rabbit-hunting with a 5,000-watt spotlight, and seeding catfish ponds with bales of hay. In the mix is a plot to blow up Alaskan democrat headquarters and the Rev Dr. Jeremiah Wright's new mansion in Chicago. It sounds like a cinch for Oscars, so stay tuned.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
***Senator Obama remains displeased with the white-, black-, and any-shade-in-between-papers (diversity-configured, including red, brown and yellow, in recognition of the party's non-racist configuration) concerning a proper description of the "typical Muslim." Michigan, home of multitudes of Muslims, is vital in November but the senator has excused himself from identifying the typical Muslim since he was partly raised as one and thus would appear as self-serving. The anonymous paper noting that the typical Muslim can be found in the midst of bloody body parts while reading the Koran has been flushed and the writer, when apprehended, will be assigned to Senator Durbin's Pol Pot Project for reeducation, known as the "Killing Field Protocol."
***Senator McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Palin to be veep has been so thoroughly disquieting as to require a special committee staff to make all appropriate haste in not only totally nullifying her influence but also totally scandalizing her in the interest of comparing democratic purity to her republican down-and-dirty politics in cleaning up corruption in Alaska. Any suggestions will be welcome, but absolutely no reference to either Clinton will be entertained for obvious reasons. Much is to be made of the fact that Palin's husband, when he was 22 (22 years ago), was arrested for DUI. This, alone, should knock Palin for a loop since anyone that old should know better, whether she knew him then or not. In this regard, do NOT mention Congressman Kennedy, who apparently tried to drive his car up the Capitol steps on a recent night. More importantly, do NOT – repeat – do NOT mention that Senator Obama admitted to using hard drugs at about that time. Also, be certain not to mention that a woman with five children is not up to the task. Speaker Pelosi, also with five children and a gaggle of grandchildren, has been in politics practically forever, not to mention that Geraldine Ferarro already had three while on her way to the veep nomination in 1984.
***Senator Obama is also requesting a you-know-what-type paper (if not, see above) on the "typical Pentecostal." This is due to the fact that Palin belongs to that church, thus his need to get out front in appealing to that crowd before she attempts some sort of evangelistic revival and grabs all Pentecostal democrats and (gasp, for emphasis) the democrat Baptists (millions of the poor dumb souls/voters), as well. Feel free to scandalize Palin over the unwed pregnancy of her 17-year-old, perhaps painting the governor as not living up to the standards of Pentecostalism, assuming that Pentecostals take a dim view of fornication, but be careful not to mention that the girl should have been handcuffed to the bedpost. Unfortunately, she is not having an abortion, since that would have made things so much easier, but do your best. The senator again has expressed appreciation for the document provided by the DNC that describes the "typical white person" but has reemphasized that no mention is to made of his grandmother in Hawaii, his grandmother in Africa or his step-mothers anywhere. He has also said that he never claimed that his father was not a bigamist and that he won't ever claim that again.
***The DNC secret plan to sabotage the teleprompters during the speeches of Huckaby, Giuliani, and Palin on Wednesday evening at the repub clambake was carried out, at least with respect to the latter two. Huckaby is so glib and quick on his tongue that we don't know whether or not his teleprompter backfired, since he never missed a beat and had the crowd in his palm. Unfortunately, Giuliani and Palin just let the applause roll during the glitches and actually did better than if they had had to depend on the machines. Apologies all around for this, and the staffer who made that suggestion in the first place has been assigned to canvass for votes in the newly flooded section of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
***The National Enquirer has come up with a photo of Governor Palin in a bikini, but everyone is reminded not to exploit the fact that she's in a bikini, since the current ethos of the Democrat Party women is "the more shown the better" (also true for republican mothers), as exemplified in how their high-school daughters dress for class. However, it is quite alright to criticize the governor for being too chubby for a bikini, thus exercising poor judgment in wearing one. This lack of judgment consequently renders her incapable of handling that 3:00 a.m. phone call made famous by Senator Clinton. Feel free to imply that Senator McCain would be too deaf to hear the phone, in the first place, and too arthritically indisposed by legs broken in Vietnam to hit the ground running.
***There has been snickering reported around the bottled-water keg and non-trans-fat, non-hamburger, non-hotdog, non-dairy-product-of-any-kind, non-chocolate, non-smoking (smoking okay if Obama lights up), veggie-fortified, yogurt-enhanced snack-bar and body-mass-chart, carbon-cap-graph, and snail-darter obituary-list area about Senator Obama writing another autobiography, since it's been at least two years since the last one and even longer, of course, since the one before that. This is no laughing matter since the senator's celebrity and notoriety have been noticed throughout the world, the evidence in Berlin being overwhelming. It's even been rumored that the French like him almost as much as they adore John Kerry. Unfortunately (for recent graduates of public schools), the Germans and Frenchies can't vote. It's only reasonable that the candidate bring his virtually sacred life (although any allusion to "Obamessiah" will be punishable by the perpetrator being assigned to the hills of eastern Kentucky, where a knock on the door is considered trespassing and first-graders can shoot a squirrel at 100 yards) up-to-date. He IS looking for a bright staffer to write another autobiography, since he lacks the time to write it himself. NOTE: Technically, it would be a biography, but those with the essence of greatness have the right to call it an autobiography…or anything else they desire, so forget any credit being given to you.
***Michael Moore is planning a new movie – actually a quickie quasi-documentary – tentatively entitled Alaskan Amazon Amok and will feature an evil female governor bashing baby seals in the head, drilling for oil through grizzly-bear hibernation caves, frog-gigging and rabbit-hunting with a 5,000-watt spotlight, and seeding catfish ponds with bales of hay. In the mix is a plot to blow up Alaskan democrat headquarters and the Rev Dr. Jeremiah Wright's new mansion in Chicago. It sounds like a cinch for Oscars, so stay tuned.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
LONG KNIVES Fillet Palin
Get ready…the LONG KNIVES are already out as the mainstream media, otherwise known as the Obama propaganda-arm, prepare to fillet Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's veep choice. The dems put on quite a show last week in Denver – everything from Stevie Wonder to a gaggle of retired generals, with one of them doing the usual hatchet job on George Bush. Among them was onetime prexy hopeful Wesley Clark, whose last credential as NATO head-honcho was his being jerked out of the Kosovo matter before he started World War III.
Time now for the republicans…and everyone is invited to gasp four times and have three palpitations of the liver in order to face this McCain/Palin calamity – Palin's 17-year-old daughter is PREGNANT without benefit of marriage, just a boyfriend. Hoo-hah! The girls from the National Organization of Women are scandalized out of their gourds…to think that Palin is four-square in favor of (another gasp is invited) ABSTINENCE before marriage and even promulgates that old-fashioned idea as THE way to teach the subject of sex in the public schools.
Strangely, she insists that abstinence absolutely guarantees against pregnancy…but then, so do the scientists/biologists (not to mention parents), who reportedly know about these things. So…Palin uses common sense, like the experts. Why should she, mimicking the liberals, think that hormones should rule, disposing toward all the problems besides pregnancy such as the STDs that girls in middle school are being vaccinated against now? The pregnancy is unfortunate, but 30% of all white births and 70% of all black births are to single mothers, so what else is new?
Back in July, it was reported on (what else) – the liberal-revered Huffington Post – that Michelle Obama made it plain in some sort of "roundtable" conflab that Barack Obama's mother was SINGLE when the candidate was born. So…does it naturally follow that if a veep candidate's expectant-single-daughter disqualifies Palin from running for the second spot the candidate for the top spot is doubly disqualified…or something like that…for the same reason? Word has been put out otherwise that Obama's parents were married in February 1961 and he was born in August 1961…h-m-m-m…and that the parents divorced in 1963. Actually, no one seems to have come up with a marriage certificate, birth certificate, or divorce papers. So…only the Shadow knows…as well as Obama's grandmother in Hawaii, and apparently she ain't said. Maybe former CBS-fraud Dan Rather can come up with the documents.
It gets better. From the NOW Web-site currently: "NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy said, 'Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.'" Oh…really! In other words, this NOW gal says that other gals are so dumb that they would vote for that dragon – McCain – just to spite Obama for throwing Hillary under the bus, and throw their weight around even if to do so means they cut off their own collective noses to spite their own collective faces. That's about as juicy as John Kerry's statement that the guys who can't make it in high school wind up in Iraq.
But what's transpired so far is nothing compared to the honing of the LONG KNIVES as they contemplate and salivate vis-à-vis Palin's guru/pastor and – one more gigantic gasp with a drum-roll – her church…PENTECOSTAL! Oh…mercy…blessings on the nation are desperately needed – a fire-and-brimstone PENTECOSTAL as vice president? Can anyone hear a resounding AMEN…or a collective Protestant/Catholic/Jewish plea for Divine unction against such a possibility…or even a funereal dirge?
Shades of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, whose anti-American outbursts finally forced Obama to throw him under the bus, only to be thoroughly pummeled by the reverend before – gigantic gasp in order again – the Press Club in D.C., the very mainstreamers upon whom Obama depends for free exposure and politics-mongering? Of course not…nothing like that kind of hateful stuff! The Pentecostal approach by Palin's pastor, Ed Kalnins, is on the other end of the spectrum…he seems to think well of the USA.
This, from the Huffington Post: "The church runs a number of ministries providing help to poor neighborhoods, care for children in need, and general community services. But Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war 'contending for your faith;' and said that Jesus 'operated from that position of war mode.'" That may or may not be true, but it's bound to set the liberal pundits' teeth on edge as they sharpen their swords.
By the way, at the Last Supper, just before the crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples to secure swords even if they had to sell clothing to do so, not to defend him but to defend themselves. Liberals don't like that kind of talk, but Palin and her pastor understand…and so do bin Laden and Ahmadinejad.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Time now for the republicans…and everyone is invited to gasp four times and have three palpitations of the liver in order to face this McCain/Palin calamity – Palin's 17-year-old daughter is PREGNANT without benefit of marriage, just a boyfriend. Hoo-hah! The girls from the National Organization of Women are scandalized out of their gourds…to think that Palin is four-square in favor of (another gasp is invited) ABSTINENCE before marriage and even promulgates that old-fashioned idea as THE way to teach the subject of sex in the public schools.
Strangely, she insists that abstinence absolutely guarantees against pregnancy…but then, so do the scientists/biologists (not to mention parents), who reportedly know about these things. So…Palin uses common sense, like the experts. Why should she, mimicking the liberals, think that hormones should rule, disposing toward all the problems besides pregnancy such as the STDs that girls in middle school are being vaccinated against now? The pregnancy is unfortunate, but 30% of all white births and 70% of all black births are to single mothers, so what else is new?
Back in July, it was reported on (what else) – the liberal-revered Huffington Post – that Michelle Obama made it plain in some sort of "roundtable" conflab that Barack Obama's mother was SINGLE when the candidate was born. So…does it naturally follow that if a veep candidate's expectant-single-daughter disqualifies Palin from running for the second spot the candidate for the top spot is doubly disqualified…or something like that…for the same reason? Word has been put out otherwise that Obama's parents were married in February 1961 and he was born in August 1961…h-m-m-m…and that the parents divorced in 1963. Actually, no one seems to have come up with a marriage certificate, birth certificate, or divorce papers. So…only the Shadow knows…as well as Obama's grandmother in Hawaii, and apparently she ain't said. Maybe former CBS-fraud Dan Rather can come up with the documents.
It gets better. From the NOW Web-site currently: "NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy said, 'Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.'" Oh…really! In other words, this NOW gal says that other gals are so dumb that they would vote for that dragon – McCain – just to spite Obama for throwing Hillary under the bus, and throw their weight around even if to do so means they cut off their own collective noses to spite their own collective faces. That's about as juicy as John Kerry's statement that the guys who can't make it in high school wind up in Iraq.
But what's transpired so far is nothing compared to the honing of the LONG KNIVES as they contemplate and salivate vis-à-vis Palin's guru/pastor and – one more gigantic gasp with a drum-roll – her church…PENTECOSTAL! Oh…mercy…blessings on the nation are desperately needed – a fire-and-brimstone PENTECOSTAL as vice president? Can anyone hear a resounding AMEN…or a collective Protestant/Catholic/Jewish plea for Divine unction against such a possibility…or even a funereal dirge?
Shades of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, whose anti-American outbursts finally forced Obama to throw him under the bus, only to be thoroughly pummeled by the reverend before – gigantic gasp in order again – the Press Club in D.C., the very mainstreamers upon whom Obama depends for free exposure and politics-mongering? Of course not…nothing like that kind of hateful stuff! The Pentecostal approach by Palin's pastor, Ed Kalnins, is on the other end of the spectrum…he seems to think well of the USA.
This, from the Huffington Post: "The church runs a number of ministries providing help to poor neighborhoods, care for children in need, and general community services. But Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war 'contending for your faith;' and said that Jesus 'operated from that position of war mode.'" That may or may not be true, but it's bound to set the liberal pundits' teeth on edge as they sharpen their swords.
By the way, at the Last Supper, just before the crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples to secure swords even if they had to sell clothing to do so, not to defend him but to defend themselves. Liberals don't like that kind of talk, but Palin and her pastor understand…and so do bin Laden and Ahmadinejad.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Gustav & the Big Easy
Tropical storm Gustav is expected to become a hurricane as it bears down on what the prognosticators deem to be the Gulf of Mexico, with landfall possibly being in the New Orleans area – a sort of Katrina II but hopefully not as vicious as the Katrina of August 2005. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin did virtually nothing to prepare for the disaster of Katrina in August 2005, though he announced recently that the levees are not "repaired" yet. Of course they aren't. The schedule calls for them to be repaired by some time in 2011. It's a safe bet, though, that the citizens, as they remember the mayor's total failure in 2005, are taking things into their own hands this time. One still remembers all those school-buses standing in the water, when they might have been used to evacuate tens of thousands.
By contrast, "with memories of Hurricane Katrina still vivid, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal issued a state of emergency [days ago] and asked the federal government to issue a "pre-landfall federal declaration," both of which set in motion the deliverance of aid and staffing of emergency shelters, should they be needed, The Town Talk (which serves central Louisiana) reports on its Web site. About 3,000 National Guard soldiers have already been put on alert" (Scientific American, 28 August). The Southern Decadence Festival, a gay and lesbian gathering that draws ``several thousand people every Labor Day,'' was still on schedule on 28 August, according to a spokesman. That's just what the Big Easy needs, another dose of decadence.
One remembers the unbelievable misconduct of both Nagin and then Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco during the time before and after Katrina hit New Orleans and the adjacent areas in coastal Mississippi and Alabama. Nagin had made no provision for the thousands stranded in the Louisiana Superdome even though it had been used before as a shelter from hurricanes. People were stranded there for days. Blanco simply waffled in signing the papers that would have allowed the federal government to get itself in place to help. As a result, TV-viewers were exposed to the sight of Coast Guard helicopter- crews rescuing nearly a thousand people from rooftops. This time, however, New Orleans citizens are already being evacuated to other places in both Louisiana and other states.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was slammed by the media and by people in Congress for mismanagement but the actual blame lay with the state and city officials, mainly Nagin and Blanco. For his glaring incompetence, Nagin was later reelected in a vote (fax, absentee ballot) that was made up in part from people nowhere near New Orleans but scattered throughout the South. Governor Blanco is no longer in place to do damage.
President Bush was wildly ridiculed by the media when he declared that FEMA's on-scene director, Mike Brown, had done a good job. For his trouble, Brown was thrown under the bus by the president, under this intensive media barrage. One remembers Fox's Shepard Smith and Geraldo (too important to have more than one name) caterwauling around the Superdome and frantically approaching hysteria in their dumfounded condition as to why something wasn't being done.
Later, the House held hearings. By that time, the democrats realized that the fault did not lay with Brown, but mostly with Nagin and Blanco, so they were no-shows in their own committee's investigation of the matter. They just washed their hands of it rather than face and respond to the truth. Before that, the U.S. government, which could have been on-scene and in operation from the get-go with the proper papers being signed by Blanco, had already resettled tens of thousands, many if not most, at least at first, being put up in hotels, where they stayed for months and to whom the government merely and merrily doled out taxpayer cash with little or no accounting as to how it was spent. There were plenty of mobile homes available and a multitude of them stand vacant today. The stories are now legend about the unbelievable waste.
In New Orleans, the police department folded and looters took over the city. The Big Easy is dangerous in the best of times but exponentially so when the law is virtually nonexistent. The crime rate there was out the top in 2005 and is bad again as many have moved back.
The government frantically works on levees that will never guarantee the city's safety – not in a million years. New Orleans is, on average, eight feet below sea level and, due to the massive pumping operations to keep it dry, is sinking at the rate of three feet per century. With levees totally surrounding the city, if a levee fails, as happened in 2005, the result is catastrophic; yet, the government is pouring tens of billions of dollars into what everyone knows is a hopeless hole in the ground. In 2005, the decision should have been made, while well over half of the citizens were no longer residents and probably well over half of all residences were wrecks, to permanently locate the populace to safe areas. This would have been far less expensive, even in the short term, not to mention the out-decades, but maudlin attitudes prevailed.
So…while it's hoped that Gustav will go elsewhere, though anywhere in that area means devastation, New Orleans Mayor Nagin whines that the levees – huge mounds of earth and rock (350 miles of them) that accommodate a myriad of pump stations – are not completely reinforced. Apparently, he thinks that an effort this huge is done at the snap of the fingers. In any case, the entire force of governments is in place this time, so there shouldn't be the chaos that accompanied Katrina, though there may well be abundant evidence again that the Big Easy is too expensive for the rest of the country to support.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
By contrast, "with memories of Hurricane Katrina still vivid, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal issued a state of emergency [days ago] and asked the federal government to issue a "pre-landfall federal declaration," both of which set in motion the deliverance of aid and staffing of emergency shelters, should they be needed, The Town Talk (which serves central Louisiana) reports on its Web site. About 3,000 National Guard soldiers have already been put on alert" (Scientific American, 28 August). The Southern Decadence Festival, a gay and lesbian gathering that draws ``several thousand people every Labor Day,'' was still on schedule on 28 August, according to a spokesman. That's just what the Big Easy needs, another dose of decadence.
One remembers the unbelievable misconduct of both Nagin and then Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco during the time before and after Katrina hit New Orleans and the adjacent areas in coastal Mississippi and Alabama. Nagin had made no provision for the thousands stranded in the Louisiana Superdome even though it had been used before as a shelter from hurricanes. People were stranded there for days. Blanco simply waffled in signing the papers that would have allowed the federal government to get itself in place to help. As a result, TV-viewers were exposed to the sight of Coast Guard helicopter- crews rescuing nearly a thousand people from rooftops. This time, however, New Orleans citizens are already being evacuated to other places in both Louisiana and other states.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was slammed by the media and by people in Congress for mismanagement but the actual blame lay with the state and city officials, mainly Nagin and Blanco. For his glaring incompetence, Nagin was later reelected in a vote (fax, absentee ballot) that was made up in part from people nowhere near New Orleans but scattered throughout the South. Governor Blanco is no longer in place to do damage.
President Bush was wildly ridiculed by the media when he declared that FEMA's on-scene director, Mike Brown, had done a good job. For his trouble, Brown was thrown under the bus by the president, under this intensive media barrage. One remembers Fox's Shepard Smith and Geraldo (too important to have more than one name) caterwauling around the Superdome and frantically approaching hysteria in their dumfounded condition as to why something wasn't being done.
Later, the House held hearings. By that time, the democrats realized that the fault did not lay with Brown, but mostly with Nagin and Blanco, so they were no-shows in their own committee's investigation of the matter. They just washed their hands of it rather than face and respond to the truth. Before that, the U.S. government, which could have been on-scene and in operation from the get-go with the proper papers being signed by Blanco, had already resettled tens of thousands, many if not most, at least at first, being put up in hotels, where they stayed for months and to whom the government merely and merrily doled out taxpayer cash with little or no accounting as to how it was spent. There were plenty of mobile homes available and a multitude of them stand vacant today. The stories are now legend about the unbelievable waste.
In New Orleans, the police department folded and looters took over the city. The Big Easy is dangerous in the best of times but exponentially so when the law is virtually nonexistent. The crime rate there was out the top in 2005 and is bad again as many have moved back.
The government frantically works on levees that will never guarantee the city's safety – not in a million years. New Orleans is, on average, eight feet below sea level and, due to the massive pumping operations to keep it dry, is sinking at the rate of three feet per century. With levees totally surrounding the city, if a levee fails, as happened in 2005, the result is catastrophic; yet, the government is pouring tens of billions of dollars into what everyone knows is a hopeless hole in the ground. In 2005, the decision should have been made, while well over half of the citizens were no longer residents and probably well over half of all residences were wrecks, to permanently locate the populace to safe areas. This would have been far less expensive, even in the short term, not to mention the out-decades, but maudlin attitudes prevailed.
So…while it's hoped that Gustav will go elsewhere, though anywhere in that area means devastation, New Orleans Mayor Nagin whines that the levees – huge mounds of earth and rock (350 miles of them) that accommodate a myriad of pump stations – are not completely reinforced. Apparently, he thinks that an effort this huge is done at the snap of the fingers. In any case, the entire force of governments is in place this time, so there shouldn't be the chaos that accompanied Katrina, though there may well be abundant evidence again that the Big Easy is too expensive for the rest of the country to support.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Odd Couple - Michelle & Sorensen
I have to confess to not watching much (okay…almost none) of the Democrat Convention now playing in Denver to the usual captive audience blathering the usual inanities, though theirs is hardly worse than the banalities of the speakers who are paraded across the podium for their few minutes of supposed fame to yammer about education, poverty, health-care, war – the usual stuff that's resurrected every four years from tombs of no-action by every administration and congress from time immemorial…or at least in memory. One may find the protesters much more entertaining and actually long for the days of 1968 in Chicago, when Mayor Daly the First set the police upon the carousing hippy-dippy, free-love types who were so high brain-wise that they could have floated body-wise out over lake Michigan.
Back then the convention amounted to something since the candidates were actually elected by the delegates on-scene. The choice of Hubert Humphrey was disastrous, but such would have been the case with any democrat. Lyndon Johnson had long since abdicated, the administration had obviously decided not to win the Vietnam War, the civil rights stuff actually belonged more to the republicans than the democrats (those insensitive southerners), and so Humphrey became the sacrificial lamb. By contrast, the current administration, also caught up in wars, has made it plain that these wars will be won, whatever that might mean. The nation is buying time for the whole world, and gobs of government heads know this, so the world-unpopularity thing that democrats harp about constantly is a red herring.
Speaking of the world, I'm reminded of the delegates-awaiting-with-bated-breath speech of Michelle Obama. I listened to that oration, since all the other speeches could be expected to be the usual boilerplate that puts people to sleep, no matter how passionately delivered. Also, she shoots from the lip, so she might have been expected to say something interesting. She disappointed. Her speech was all about what Barack Obama would do for the world. She touched on this theme enough that it became key to the whole bit. All the usual other stuff (blue-collar beginnings, good parents) was there but she harped on Barack as the hope of the world. This perhaps explains his gravitas-enhancing campaign in Germany, France and Afghanistan, where in about a week he learned enough to be the messiah for the whole world. Egad!
Michelle Obama made sure to say unequivocally that she LOVES this country, an absolute must for her since she campaigned on a theme of her own expressing just the opposite and noting how "mean" this country is. I was tempted to head for the antacids when she mentioned Obamessiah's great achievements in the Senate, perhaps never realizing that everyone knows that since he entered that august body in January 2005 he's been AWOL for the most part and would find it difficult to locate a restroom in the capitol, much less his office. In any case, any freshman senator is about as effective as warm spit during her/his entire initial term, even if he IS reputed to be savior of the world.
Perhaps the strangest episode occurred on Tuesday afternoon. I caught it while just surfing. Ted Sorensen, speechwriter for and confidant of President John F. Kennedy (nominated 1960), was walking toward the podium, so I decided to listen to this man, the ultimate insider and one of the "later whiz kids" associated with Kennedy, who, by the way, would not be recognized today as a democrat. I was amazed to hear Sorensen completely equalize Obama with Kennedy – "had finally lived long enough to recognize a candidate (Obama) who stacks up with Kennedy" – or, something like that.
This fawning was sickening. Kennedy served three terms in the House and was on his second term in the Senate when he was nominated. He was a decorated WWII PT-Boat skipper whose craft was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in 1943. He led the surviving crew members (nearly all) through a six-day-night ordeal of swimming and island-hopping that became the stuff of legends, and then made it out, courtesy of natives hiding him under palm fronds in a boat, to lead rescuers back to them himself. To compare Obama to Kennedy was practically blasphemy…but anything goes in the world of politics, even by old codgers who would sell their souls for the party, with loyalty, at least to a memory, of no consequence.
Sorensen even charged that the Marines went to Iraq for oil, while Kennedy instituted the Peace Corps as well as overcame Kruschev and the Soviets in the "Cuban Missile Crisis" of 1962. He hasn't been in a cave for the last few years, so he certainly knows that if this country were after Iraq's oil it would be shipping it into the states by the tanker-full. He also should know that saving the U.S. from Soviet missile-attacks from Cuba was the same as saving the U.S. from those vowing to destroy this country through terror currently. There's nothing more pathetic than an old bureaucrat who, after being privileged to function in the excitement of government, does a complete sellout vis-à-vis integrity.
The notion in this corner is that voters may well decide to elect a republican president along with a democrat-controlled Congress, maintaining the current situation. Senator Biden has caused no groundswell of enthusiasm, if any, and it's doubtful that Obama will get much of a "bump" when all the posturing is over in Denver. In any case, the whole thing is "dullsville," as will be the republican clambake next week, though McCain, the ultimate surprise-maker, may spice-up the affair.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Back then the convention amounted to something since the candidates were actually elected by the delegates on-scene. The choice of Hubert Humphrey was disastrous, but such would have been the case with any democrat. Lyndon Johnson had long since abdicated, the administration had obviously decided not to win the Vietnam War, the civil rights stuff actually belonged more to the republicans than the democrats (those insensitive southerners), and so Humphrey became the sacrificial lamb. By contrast, the current administration, also caught up in wars, has made it plain that these wars will be won, whatever that might mean. The nation is buying time for the whole world, and gobs of government heads know this, so the world-unpopularity thing that democrats harp about constantly is a red herring.
Speaking of the world, I'm reminded of the delegates-awaiting-with-bated-breath speech of Michelle Obama. I listened to that oration, since all the other speeches could be expected to be the usual boilerplate that puts people to sleep, no matter how passionately delivered. Also, she shoots from the lip, so she might have been expected to say something interesting. She disappointed. Her speech was all about what Barack Obama would do for the world. She touched on this theme enough that it became key to the whole bit. All the usual other stuff (blue-collar beginnings, good parents) was there but she harped on Barack as the hope of the world. This perhaps explains his gravitas-enhancing campaign in Germany, France and Afghanistan, where in about a week he learned enough to be the messiah for the whole world. Egad!
Michelle Obama made sure to say unequivocally that she LOVES this country, an absolute must for her since she campaigned on a theme of her own expressing just the opposite and noting how "mean" this country is. I was tempted to head for the antacids when she mentioned Obamessiah's great achievements in the Senate, perhaps never realizing that everyone knows that since he entered that august body in January 2005 he's been AWOL for the most part and would find it difficult to locate a restroom in the capitol, much less his office. In any case, any freshman senator is about as effective as warm spit during her/his entire initial term, even if he IS reputed to be savior of the world.
Perhaps the strangest episode occurred on Tuesday afternoon. I caught it while just surfing. Ted Sorensen, speechwriter for and confidant of President John F. Kennedy (nominated 1960), was walking toward the podium, so I decided to listen to this man, the ultimate insider and one of the "later whiz kids" associated with Kennedy, who, by the way, would not be recognized today as a democrat. I was amazed to hear Sorensen completely equalize Obama with Kennedy – "had finally lived long enough to recognize a candidate (Obama) who stacks up with Kennedy" – or, something like that.
This fawning was sickening. Kennedy served three terms in the House and was on his second term in the Senate when he was nominated. He was a decorated WWII PT-Boat skipper whose craft was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in 1943. He led the surviving crew members (nearly all) through a six-day-night ordeal of swimming and island-hopping that became the stuff of legends, and then made it out, courtesy of natives hiding him under palm fronds in a boat, to lead rescuers back to them himself. To compare Obama to Kennedy was practically blasphemy…but anything goes in the world of politics, even by old codgers who would sell their souls for the party, with loyalty, at least to a memory, of no consequence.
Sorensen even charged that the Marines went to Iraq for oil, while Kennedy instituted the Peace Corps as well as overcame Kruschev and the Soviets in the "Cuban Missile Crisis" of 1962. He hasn't been in a cave for the last few years, so he certainly knows that if this country were after Iraq's oil it would be shipping it into the states by the tanker-full. He also should know that saving the U.S. from Soviet missile-attacks from Cuba was the same as saving the U.S. from those vowing to destroy this country through terror currently. There's nothing more pathetic than an old bureaucrat who, after being privileged to function in the excitement of government, does a complete sellout vis-à-vis integrity.
The notion in this corner is that voters may well decide to elect a republican president along with a democrat-controlled Congress, maintaining the current situation. Senator Biden has caused no groundswell of enthusiasm, if any, and it's doubtful that Obama will get much of a "bump" when all the posturing is over in Denver. In any case, the whole thing is "dullsville," as will be the republican clambake next week, though McCain, the ultimate surprise-maker, may spice-up the affair.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Monday, August 25, 2008
Dear Senator Joe Biden
Dear Senator Joe Biden:
Now that you've become the democrat vice presidential candidate, I'm contacting you to suggest that you avail yourself of the services of the Institute for Modifying All Government Entities, known familiarly, especially in Washington, by its acronym – IMAGE. Since its clients are already known for their depth of intellect and honesty, the job of IMAGE is merely to tweak their images as accurately and effectively as possible for public consumption, translated, of course, as into votes in November. Proof of IMAGE's effectiveness is seen in its recent success in making Vice President Cheney appear humble, after he told Senator Leahy to commit a terrible act upon himself and actually shot a fellow hunter. Mr. Cheney followed the directions of an IMAGE agency, the Department for Understanding Propaganda Effects, known by its acronym DUPE. Check out his speech at that media-bash to see what DUPE can do.
Since you've been known – excuse me for mentioning it – to lose your temper at times, you might consider an arm of IMAGE known as the Emotion Manipulation Office for Tactical Effects, known more familiarly by its acronym EMOTE. You lost a bit of credibility, for instance, when you snarled at Chief Justice Roberts during his nomination-hearing before the Judiciary Committee, though you are to be commended for not frothing at the mouth like Senators Schumer and Feingold. EMOTE's experts have already noted that your smile was not authentic in that hearing and that it was so broad that it allowed you to bare your fangs, as it were. An automatic-smile-under-any-circumstances is always easy to spot, so EMOTE would teach you when and how to avoid what actually is a know-it-all smirk.
EMOTE will also teach you when to shed tears, a perfectly acceptable exercise in what has become a feminist society, when to pound a lectern, when to tell or laugh at (or not) an off-color joke, and – most importantly – when NOT to upstage your running mate by bragging about your law-school accomplishments…or anything else, such as beginning in the Senate when your running-mate was only 12-years-old or just recently visiting troubled Georgia while Senator Obama was titillating the teeny-boppers in Berlin.
There are some – present company not included, of course – who charge that you sometimes let out the clutch on your mouth before getting your brain in gear. It would be well, however, to consider an arm of IMAGE known as the Bureau for Labeling Accurately Bureaucrats, Blather and Erratic Rhetoric, known, as you might guess, as BLABBER. If you had been a client that day in the Delaware diner, you would not have characterized Senator Obama as clean, bright, and articulate, not that he isn't all of those things, as you noted, but because you made everyone else in his race suffer by comparison as being dirty, dull, and dense. In other words, you indulged in erratic rhetoric, an absolute no-no in campaigns, which the pundits parse relentlessly. Also, you made a mistake in the euphoria of the announcement-ceremony in Springfield by referring to Senator Obama as "Barack America," a penultimate example of blather and an absolute campaign-killer south of the Mason-Dixon line and even out west.
One of the most important consortiums in IMAGE is the Agency Wonk – Patriotic and Homiletic Outpourings, Objurgations and Evangelical Yammering, known, of course, by the shortened AW- PHOOEY. Since religion and values are big these days and since democrats have an acute problem with the so-called evangelicals, especially those millions who are so short-sighted as to consider fornication and adultery wrong, not to mention anal sex, you need to know when and what to say where. In Massachusetts and California, anything goes, so you need to "preach," for instance, on the sanctity of homosexual marriage, with or without condoms, at every opportunity. Try that in Alabama, though, and you will be ridden out of town on a rail since Baptists are known to play rough there. Don't try to identify with the snake-handlers in Kentucky and Tennessee, either, since…well, you guessed it.
If Senator Obama had come to us years ago, he would never have suffered through what many consider mutual escapades with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright in damning this country for dropping the A-bombs that ended WWII and foisting the HIV virus off on African Americans. AW-PHOOEY would have separated him from that windbag long ago, as well as advised him not to describe typical white people as leery of anyone different nearby (like his grandmother) or as paranoids grasping their Bibles and guns while sniffing out immigrants…at least in Pennsylvania. Since you and your running-mate will soon spend every Sunday through November preaching in black churches, AW-PHOOEY will not only write your sermons, but coach you on their delivery, especially helping you develop the black cadence and alliteration-techniques. Note: Plagiarism, a sensitive subject for you, will not be a problem since it's understood that politicians always speak what someone else has written.
These are just a few examples of what IMAGE can accomplish. We constantly stay in touch when aiding and abetting a campaign. For instance, our Idiosyncrasies of Debate-Department, known as ID, will prepare you for each debate, otherwise known as the "news-anchors" hour, since these are "gotcha games" the anchors use for reputation-enhancement but for which you must be prepared. ID will also warn you away from substantive exercises, like the recent "Warren Interviews," in which Senator Obama hemmed-and-hawed his way into inscrutableness, a campaign-killer. ID would have devised for him a pocket-teleprompter so he would not have strayed from his programmed image. As you can see, IMAGE is state-of-the-art and I hope to hear from you soon.
I.M Reverself, CEO
IMAGE
Now that you've become the democrat vice presidential candidate, I'm contacting you to suggest that you avail yourself of the services of the Institute for Modifying All Government Entities, known familiarly, especially in Washington, by its acronym – IMAGE. Since its clients are already known for their depth of intellect and honesty, the job of IMAGE is merely to tweak their images as accurately and effectively as possible for public consumption, translated, of course, as into votes in November. Proof of IMAGE's effectiveness is seen in its recent success in making Vice President Cheney appear humble, after he told Senator Leahy to commit a terrible act upon himself and actually shot a fellow hunter. Mr. Cheney followed the directions of an IMAGE agency, the Department for Understanding Propaganda Effects, known by its acronym DUPE. Check out his speech at that media-bash to see what DUPE can do.
Since you've been known – excuse me for mentioning it – to lose your temper at times, you might consider an arm of IMAGE known as the Emotion Manipulation Office for Tactical Effects, known more familiarly by its acronym EMOTE. You lost a bit of credibility, for instance, when you snarled at Chief Justice Roberts during his nomination-hearing before the Judiciary Committee, though you are to be commended for not frothing at the mouth like Senators Schumer and Feingold. EMOTE's experts have already noted that your smile was not authentic in that hearing and that it was so broad that it allowed you to bare your fangs, as it were. An automatic-smile-under-any-circumstances is always easy to spot, so EMOTE would teach you when and how to avoid what actually is a know-it-all smirk.
EMOTE will also teach you when to shed tears, a perfectly acceptable exercise in what has become a feminist society, when to pound a lectern, when to tell or laugh at (or not) an off-color joke, and – most importantly – when NOT to upstage your running mate by bragging about your law-school accomplishments…or anything else, such as beginning in the Senate when your running-mate was only 12-years-old or just recently visiting troubled Georgia while Senator Obama was titillating the teeny-boppers in Berlin.
There are some – present company not included, of course – who charge that you sometimes let out the clutch on your mouth before getting your brain in gear. It would be well, however, to consider an arm of IMAGE known as the Bureau for Labeling Accurately Bureaucrats, Blather and Erratic Rhetoric, known, as you might guess, as BLABBER. If you had been a client that day in the Delaware diner, you would not have characterized Senator Obama as clean, bright, and articulate, not that he isn't all of those things, as you noted, but because you made everyone else in his race suffer by comparison as being dirty, dull, and dense. In other words, you indulged in erratic rhetoric, an absolute no-no in campaigns, which the pundits parse relentlessly. Also, you made a mistake in the euphoria of the announcement-ceremony in Springfield by referring to Senator Obama as "Barack America," a penultimate example of blather and an absolute campaign-killer south of the Mason-Dixon line and even out west.
One of the most important consortiums in IMAGE is the Agency Wonk – Patriotic and Homiletic Outpourings, Objurgations and Evangelical Yammering, known, of course, by the shortened AW- PHOOEY. Since religion and values are big these days and since democrats have an acute problem with the so-called evangelicals, especially those millions who are so short-sighted as to consider fornication and adultery wrong, not to mention anal sex, you need to know when and what to say where. In Massachusetts and California, anything goes, so you need to "preach," for instance, on the sanctity of homosexual marriage, with or without condoms, at every opportunity. Try that in Alabama, though, and you will be ridden out of town on a rail since Baptists are known to play rough there. Don't try to identify with the snake-handlers in Kentucky and Tennessee, either, since…well, you guessed it.
If Senator Obama had come to us years ago, he would never have suffered through what many consider mutual escapades with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright in damning this country for dropping the A-bombs that ended WWII and foisting the HIV virus off on African Americans. AW-PHOOEY would have separated him from that windbag long ago, as well as advised him not to describe typical white people as leery of anyone different nearby (like his grandmother) or as paranoids grasping their Bibles and guns while sniffing out immigrants…at least in Pennsylvania. Since you and your running-mate will soon spend every Sunday through November preaching in black churches, AW-PHOOEY will not only write your sermons, but coach you on their delivery, especially helping you develop the black cadence and alliteration-techniques. Note: Plagiarism, a sensitive subject for you, will not be a problem since it's understood that politicians always speak what someone else has written.
These are just a few examples of what IMAGE can accomplish. We constantly stay in touch when aiding and abetting a campaign. For instance, our Idiosyncrasies of Debate-Department, known as ID, will prepare you for each debate, otherwise known as the "news-anchors" hour, since these are "gotcha games" the anchors use for reputation-enhancement but for which you must be prepared. ID will also warn you away from substantive exercises, like the recent "Warren Interviews," in which Senator Obama hemmed-and-hawed his way into inscrutableness, a campaign-killer. ID would have devised for him a pocket-teleprompter so he would not have strayed from his programmed image. As you can see, IMAGE is state-of-the-art and I hope to hear from you soon.
I.M Reverself, CEO
IMAGE
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Replay It Again, Sam!
One would never have suspected it would happen, or at least one would not have suspected such a thing as recently as last year; however, baseball – the national pastime – is about to enter the 21st century, joining its old rival, football, for fan attention…by being cursed with the "instant replay," an interesting oxymoron in that a play can never be replayed. The term is actually a euphemism for "playback," since that's all it is, a playback of a play that's been taped from several angles, the better to keep a referee or umpire honest…well, okay…accurate, correct, observant, properly located…whatever. It's being used this summer in Little League playoffs, just another catalyst for inciting idiot parents to riot and/or generally otherwise make trouble.
The intrepid and motor-mouthing play-by-play announcers and their cohorts, the oracular commentators, who laugh-it-up and discuss everything but the game much of the time, along with their partners in crime, the camera operators, have already been at this project for a few years, giving the best angle-look at a close play at first, for instance. The camera-guys zoom right in on the first thread in the toe of a first-baseman's shoe to see if it's on the bag when any thread of the runner's shoe is in the approximate vicinity. The guys in the booth then pronounce the solemn judgment as to whether or not the first-base ump called it right. After the game, the managers and players look at the tape of the play and then discuss ways of annihilating umps at all bases, without resort to AK-47s, of course.
This procedure will do for baseball what it has done for football…mostly make the games much longer, thus making the owners/concessionaires happy because the fans experience greater and greater thirst and hunger. For those who prefer the bubbly, the replays practically guarantee more fights and car-wrecks in after-game booze-inspired predispositions of fans toward mangling selves and others. The coaches are happy, since, in addition to all the commercial timeouts that make the games freakishly long anyway, they can now call for instant replays, which can take up to five minutes as someone in the booth high above pronounces judgment while the referee feigns intense staring at a hooded TV.
During the sacred replay, everyone on the field takes a rest and plots further mayhem, thus all the timeouts are saved for the last two minutes, which usually require 30 minutes to play. One wonders if the league honchos sometimes make the decisions, the better to keep losing-teams in a state of viability and thus encouraging fan–attendance (even diehard fans tire of losers).
On a given Monday evening via ESPN, after a pitch is made the techies flash above home-plate a strike-zone rectangle (unless the batter is awfully short, in which case, a square) with the arc of the ball intersecting the geometric figure so that the TV viewer can see how far wrong the plate ump's call was. Help is given by the commentator, of course, so that there's no doubt as to who was cheated, the batter or the pitcher. Since every ump's strike zone is a bit different, not to mention his vision and judgment as he contemplates what part of his anatomy is likely to be painfully pounded now and again by a foul tip, the commentator is hard-pressed not to exclaim favorably or unfavorably.
Imagine the time consumed (okay…sometimes saved, but rarely) by a disagreement among managers and umps over whether or not a fly-ball hit the wall above or below the yellow home-run line while the techies run the tape to see just what happened. If the techies disagree (or the shot was missed), about the only option left is a coin-toss, which could have been the primary method anyway. Even the most astute students of baseball insist that it's a "game of inches," so it naturally lends itself to being a game of occasional mistakes. Battles are won or lost on the basis of which side had the best aim…a circumstance involving inches. A close call at second when nobody on the field but the ump can see that the tag is a half-inch shy of the runner is a case in point. The cameras can never pick up this stuff.
Okay…the replay could keep officials honest, too. NBA basketball referee Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison a few weeks ago for wagering on games – actually for "fixing" games. He's probably just one among others who haven't been caught. This would especially apply to plate umps, who can make or break a team's chances in a game. So…why not just do away with the pitch-calling of the plate-ump and let the machines automatically make the call, even proclaim it loudly? After all, the TV guys in the booth use the technology every game, quite often pointing out the ump's "mistake." That worthy would just be left with the responsibility of calling plays at the plate – most umps would probably go for such an arrangement that would preempt all those bruises and concussions. If they miscued on a close play with a tag in question, the techies would set it right. It's a win-win all around.
In the meantime in football, especially with the overhead traveling-camera now in place to join all the others, referees and umps could be completely banished. The software and computers would take care of everything from establishing and keeping scores…to which play it is…to what penalty…to which player is guilty…to what time to stop play for commercials, with all info boomed over the loudspeakers. The games would go much faster. No one would have to carry the yard markers, since that yellow line that's been used on TV for years would always mark the spot and the camera would laser-beam the ball-placement position, with the quarterback responsible for putting the pigskin on the spot. A keypad could be at each bench, with all possibilities on it such as whether or not to accept a penalty, and the coach could just punch in the info, though that might be a bit harrowing for those who are not computer-literate. A game might last 2.5 hours, and that would be worth the mechanization…no bothersome replays!
Yeah…replay it again, Sam. Some day, the players will probably join the umps and refs in being outsourced to the computers and only the cheerleaders will be left…no danger of replacing them.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
The intrepid and motor-mouthing play-by-play announcers and their cohorts, the oracular commentators, who laugh-it-up and discuss everything but the game much of the time, along with their partners in crime, the camera operators, have already been at this project for a few years, giving the best angle-look at a close play at first, for instance. The camera-guys zoom right in on the first thread in the toe of a first-baseman's shoe to see if it's on the bag when any thread of the runner's shoe is in the approximate vicinity. The guys in the booth then pronounce the solemn judgment as to whether or not the first-base ump called it right. After the game, the managers and players look at the tape of the play and then discuss ways of annihilating umps at all bases, without resort to AK-47s, of course.
This procedure will do for baseball what it has done for football…mostly make the games much longer, thus making the owners/concessionaires happy because the fans experience greater and greater thirst and hunger. For those who prefer the bubbly, the replays practically guarantee more fights and car-wrecks in after-game booze-inspired predispositions of fans toward mangling selves and others. The coaches are happy, since, in addition to all the commercial timeouts that make the games freakishly long anyway, they can now call for instant replays, which can take up to five minutes as someone in the booth high above pronounces judgment while the referee feigns intense staring at a hooded TV.
During the sacred replay, everyone on the field takes a rest and plots further mayhem, thus all the timeouts are saved for the last two minutes, which usually require 30 minutes to play. One wonders if the league honchos sometimes make the decisions, the better to keep losing-teams in a state of viability and thus encouraging fan–attendance (even diehard fans tire of losers).
On a given Monday evening via ESPN, after a pitch is made the techies flash above home-plate a strike-zone rectangle (unless the batter is awfully short, in which case, a square) with the arc of the ball intersecting the geometric figure so that the TV viewer can see how far wrong the plate ump's call was. Help is given by the commentator, of course, so that there's no doubt as to who was cheated, the batter or the pitcher. Since every ump's strike zone is a bit different, not to mention his vision and judgment as he contemplates what part of his anatomy is likely to be painfully pounded now and again by a foul tip, the commentator is hard-pressed not to exclaim favorably or unfavorably.
Imagine the time consumed (okay…sometimes saved, but rarely) by a disagreement among managers and umps over whether or not a fly-ball hit the wall above or below the yellow home-run line while the techies run the tape to see just what happened. If the techies disagree (or the shot was missed), about the only option left is a coin-toss, which could have been the primary method anyway. Even the most astute students of baseball insist that it's a "game of inches," so it naturally lends itself to being a game of occasional mistakes. Battles are won or lost on the basis of which side had the best aim…a circumstance involving inches. A close call at second when nobody on the field but the ump can see that the tag is a half-inch shy of the runner is a case in point. The cameras can never pick up this stuff.
Okay…the replay could keep officials honest, too. NBA basketball referee Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison a few weeks ago for wagering on games – actually for "fixing" games. He's probably just one among others who haven't been caught. This would especially apply to plate umps, who can make or break a team's chances in a game. So…why not just do away with the pitch-calling of the plate-ump and let the machines automatically make the call, even proclaim it loudly? After all, the TV guys in the booth use the technology every game, quite often pointing out the ump's "mistake." That worthy would just be left with the responsibility of calling plays at the plate – most umps would probably go for such an arrangement that would preempt all those bruises and concussions. If they miscued on a close play with a tag in question, the techies would set it right. It's a win-win all around.
In the meantime in football, especially with the overhead traveling-camera now in place to join all the others, referees and umps could be completely banished. The software and computers would take care of everything from establishing and keeping scores…to which play it is…to what penalty…to which player is guilty…to what time to stop play for commercials, with all info boomed over the loudspeakers. The games would go much faster. No one would have to carry the yard markers, since that yellow line that's been used on TV for years would always mark the spot and the camera would laser-beam the ball-placement position, with the quarterback responsible for putting the pigskin on the spot. A keypad could be at each bench, with all possibilities on it such as whether or not to accept a penalty, and the coach could just punch in the info, though that might be a bit harrowing for those who are not computer-literate. A game might last 2.5 hours, and that would be worth the mechanization…no bothersome replays!
Yeah…replay it again, Sam. Some day, the players will probably join the umps and refs in being outsourced to the computers and only the cheerleaders will be left…no danger of replacing them.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Keeling & Gang
Boy Columnist, aka Larry Keeling, of the Lexington Herald-Leader, opined on 20 August as to whether or not the oil companies are lowering gas prices in an effort to help republicans in the November voting. He has a right to any opinion, but in all honesty should mention that gas prices rose by only 35% from $1.70 in September 2001 until January 2007 (republican administration and congress for nearly 6 years), when the price reached $2.30, and when the democrats took over Congress. Since January 2007, the price under the no-drill democrats had risen to $4.07 a month ago, for an increase under the no-drill democrats of some 77% in just 18 months. The experts attribute the recent decline in prices to $3.72 as the product of significant public lowering of driving (billions of miles), thus easing demand and not by any artificial tampering by the oil companies.
The lead editorial of 20 August was headed Parasitic growth risk to farm fund. Fanfare, please! Waste has been found in the use of public money for "agricultural ventures." This is probably true, but the democrats have ruled the state auditor's office for…well, how long. The blame is Fletcher's, of course, according to the paper, but…just the usual boilerplate. This is the editorial board that keeps pushing for millions in local tax money to be dished out to "farmers" in Fayette County in behalf of bribing them not to "develop" their land, no matter how far from the service area it is and therefore any possibility according to the zoning requirements of doing so for years and years, if ever. One remembers the huge H-L layout last fall picturing the mayor handing out an enormous sum to folks whose land was not remotely developmental. This is the boondoggle that the "insiders" have designed for the great unwashed (taxpayers) to ignorantly ante up. Get ready for another huge H-L layout soon, when another handout should be in the offing. Since this makes no sense, one wonders what the incentives for what amounts to official theft are, as well as to whom or for whom and by whom. Is it another case of raiding deep pockets to "enhance" other pockets of any size?
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
The lead editorial of 20 August was headed Parasitic growth risk to farm fund. Fanfare, please! Waste has been found in the use of public money for "agricultural ventures." This is probably true, but the democrats have ruled the state auditor's office for…well, how long. The blame is Fletcher's, of course, according to the paper, but…just the usual boilerplate. This is the editorial board that keeps pushing for millions in local tax money to be dished out to "farmers" in Fayette County in behalf of bribing them not to "develop" their land, no matter how far from the service area it is and therefore any possibility according to the zoning requirements of doing so for years and years, if ever. One remembers the huge H-L layout last fall picturing the mayor handing out an enormous sum to folks whose land was not remotely developmental. This is the boondoggle that the "insiders" have designed for the great unwashed (taxpayers) to ignorantly ante up. Get ready for another huge H-L layout soon, when another handout should be in the offing. Since this makes no sense, one wonders what the incentives for what amounts to official theft are, as well as to whom or for whom and by whom. Is it another case of raiding deep pockets to "enhance" other pockets of any size?
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Monday, August 18, 2008
DNC Memorandum #33
DNC Headquarters; Dr. Howard Dean, chair-penguin (Save a Glacier Today)
***The white-papers, also called black- and somewhere-in-between-papers (to observe diversity, the ruling ethic currently) that have been returned with regard to Senator Obama's need for a definition of a "typical Muslim person" have been unsatisfactory, though the senator has expressed gratitude that the staff has defined the "typical white person," mainly along the lines of those who are never in fear of anybody anywhere, especially nearby, and never grasping or even (gasp – added for effect) reading the Bible, against all firearms, and having constant warm feelings for illegal immigrants, who should have all the welfare benefits available. The anonymous staffers who returned papers describing the "typical Muslim person" as anyone wearing a suspiciously large belt under either a coat or a burka will be fired if apprehended. Also, it should be noted that no responder made an effort to define roadside bombs as religious icons, like candles, for instance. This needs to be remedied for an obvious reason – the Islamic-fanatic vote.
***There has been snickering reported around the bottled-water tank and non-trans-fat, non-hamburger, non-hotdog, non-dairy-product-of-any-kind, non-chocolate, non-smoking (smoking okay if Obama lights up), veggie-fortified, yogurt-enhanced, snack-bar and body-mass-green-chart about Obama walking on the Elbe River in Berlin. The senator has said he did not say he did and will not say it again. Also, the report that Michael Moore hired those 200,000 Berliners to scream and throw underclothes at him (just the women, of course) is false and Moore has sworn he will not do that again…in Denver. Be aware of your dress at the convention. You may appear laid-back in sandals, no ties, and no cocktail dresses (that diversity thing again…the young people treated as king-makers), but cover all tattoos and remove all rings, especially those in noses, lips, tongues and other places that can be seen. Navel rings are okay, since navels are never to be seen. Along with a multiplicity of old hippies, there are still some old un-hip democrats (will they never leave us?) who take a dim view of "body art" and "body ring-racks" and have threatened to stay home in November if Obama appears too dippy.
***The rumor that Senator Obama has suggested that the Colorado legislature vote to ban smoking and dipping snuff and chewing Redman anywhere inside buildings or anywhere on the outside is untrue, but any staffer seeing him light up at any time is to report this to me. This includes in all areas, especially restrooms (but watch out for Senator Craig – little joke on the republicans there). Note: All staffers are required to never go near – much less eat in – a fast-food establishment, and pamphlets explaining how obesity causes carbon emissions and immediately kills penguins and snail darters and polar bears will be available for distribution throughout Denver. When you canvass neighborhoods, pass out these pamphlets and do not -- REPEAT -- do NOT laugh in the process. Also, condensed copies of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth will be available, though at that time and altitude it may seem incongruous, especially since this summer has been cooler than last summer and nothing like the torrid summers of the 1930s, when Oklahoma got so hot and dry, most of it blew over to California.
***The suggestion has been taken under advisement with regard to handing out dollar bills at the convention and throughout Denver to prove that Senator Obama is not racist and does not want his picture on a dollar bill anyway, but just wants everyone to know he is "not one of them," as he has made clear. The rumor that he has said he would consider replacing Abraham Lincoln on the five-dollar bill is untrue and the senator has said he never said that and will not do so again. The wag who is reported to have said in the above location that Obama wouldn't dare touch the Twenty in fear that Andrew Jackson would come back from the grave and exorcise him personally has been reprimanded and assigned to the hottest part of Brownsville, Texas, for door-to-door canvassing through November.
***Senator Clinton and former president Clinton are actively working for Senator Obama by contacting all super-delegates in the interest of unity, which they consider attainable by a unanimous election of the nominee. The fact that Clinton (either one) is suggesting that the majority of voters is made up of women is not to be taken as a grab by Clinton of the nomination, as she has explained, and Bill has mentioned the same approach with regard to the fact that this demographic applies in the black community as well and added that a third term is allowed four years after a term in office. Hispanic democrats are advised not to take umbrage at this, since their guy, Bill Richardson, may be positioned for the veep spot, although success in Iraq has hurt his argument for withdrawal of all troops at midnight of the first day in office. Adulterer-in-chief John Edwards (little joke there) has suggested that the first executive order, instead, be structured to not only allow but practically beg homosexuals to join the military, in which former Senator Gravel said during the primaries that they excel, particularly since they learn to love their comrades through sharing foxholes.
***Accruing to the debate of Senators Obama and McCain at Saddleback Church the other night is the need for position papers to be used by Senator Obama (anyone calling him Obamessiah will be fired) on the subject of when life begins, the definition of a rich person, and the exact location of Georgia (not the state next to Alabama, for recent PhD grads – little joke there). Note: Comparing a fetus to an old codger in a coma has already been ruled out for obvious reasons. Both are helpless, but one is not in some forsaken womb instead of the graveyard, where he ought to be, but isn't, thus the need for the definition of life and what can and cannot be done with life, once the definition of same has been established…or something like that. After all, I'm just a doctor, not a philosopher.
***Michael Moore is preparing a new movie tentatively titled Saddleback Mountain featuring a racist interview of two presidential candidates, with one whipping out a copy of the Constitution and beating the other half-to-death with it. Little imagination is needed to see that this approaches an actual documentary, and may be called such as soon as it is vetted by the group called AGHAST, which stands for Agency Googling Hospices and All Sites for Torture. The movie will also include water-boarding and the need for better brain-puncturing procedures used in late-term abortions, the latter subject requested by Senator Obama and Dr. Me, since brain-puncturing violates the Hippocratic Oath…or something like that.
***Finally, the rumor that the Clintons will use a smoke-bomb during voting at the convention in Denver is untrue, and both have said they will not mention this again. Also, there will be no possible opportunity for hanging chads, since the delegation from Florida will not be allowed to vote. If this changes, there will be a roll call of individual delegates, and one Supreme Court judge has promised to be in attendance.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
***The white-papers, also called black- and somewhere-in-between-papers (to observe diversity, the ruling ethic currently) that have been returned with regard to Senator Obama's need for a definition of a "typical Muslim person" have been unsatisfactory, though the senator has expressed gratitude that the staff has defined the "typical white person," mainly along the lines of those who are never in fear of anybody anywhere, especially nearby, and never grasping or even (gasp – added for effect) reading the Bible, against all firearms, and having constant warm feelings for illegal immigrants, who should have all the welfare benefits available. The anonymous staffers who returned papers describing the "typical Muslim person" as anyone wearing a suspiciously large belt under either a coat or a burka will be fired if apprehended. Also, it should be noted that no responder made an effort to define roadside bombs as religious icons, like candles, for instance. This needs to be remedied for an obvious reason – the Islamic-fanatic vote.
***There has been snickering reported around the bottled-water tank and non-trans-fat, non-hamburger, non-hotdog, non-dairy-product-of-any-kind, non-chocolate, non-smoking (smoking okay if Obama lights up), veggie-fortified, yogurt-enhanced, snack-bar and body-mass-green-chart about Obama walking on the Elbe River in Berlin. The senator has said he did not say he did and will not say it again. Also, the report that Michael Moore hired those 200,000 Berliners to scream and throw underclothes at him (just the women, of course) is false and Moore has sworn he will not do that again…in Denver. Be aware of your dress at the convention. You may appear laid-back in sandals, no ties, and no cocktail dresses (that diversity thing again…the young people treated as king-makers), but cover all tattoos and remove all rings, especially those in noses, lips, tongues and other places that can be seen. Navel rings are okay, since navels are never to be seen. Along with a multiplicity of old hippies, there are still some old un-hip democrats (will they never leave us?) who take a dim view of "body art" and "body ring-racks" and have threatened to stay home in November if Obama appears too dippy.
***The rumor that Senator Obama has suggested that the Colorado legislature vote to ban smoking and dipping snuff and chewing Redman anywhere inside buildings or anywhere on the outside is untrue, but any staffer seeing him light up at any time is to report this to me. This includes in all areas, especially restrooms (but watch out for Senator Craig – little joke on the republicans there). Note: All staffers are required to never go near – much less eat in – a fast-food establishment, and pamphlets explaining how obesity causes carbon emissions and immediately kills penguins and snail darters and polar bears will be available for distribution throughout Denver. When you canvass neighborhoods, pass out these pamphlets and do not -- REPEAT -- do NOT laugh in the process. Also, condensed copies of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth will be available, though at that time and altitude it may seem incongruous, especially since this summer has been cooler than last summer and nothing like the torrid summers of the 1930s, when Oklahoma got so hot and dry, most of it blew over to California.
***The suggestion has been taken under advisement with regard to handing out dollar bills at the convention and throughout Denver to prove that Senator Obama is not racist and does not want his picture on a dollar bill anyway, but just wants everyone to know he is "not one of them," as he has made clear. The rumor that he has said he would consider replacing Abraham Lincoln on the five-dollar bill is untrue and the senator has said he never said that and will not do so again. The wag who is reported to have said in the above location that Obama wouldn't dare touch the Twenty in fear that Andrew Jackson would come back from the grave and exorcise him personally has been reprimanded and assigned to the hottest part of Brownsville, Texas, for door-to-door canvassing through November.
***Senator Clinton and former president Clinton are actively working for Senator Obama by contacting all super-delegates in the interest of unity, which they consider attainable by a unanimous election of the nominee. The fact that Clinton (either one) is suggesting that the majority of voters is made up of women is not to be taken as a grab by Clinton of the nomination, as she has explained, and Bill has mentioned the same approach with regard to the fact that this demographic applies in the black community as well and added that a third term is allowed four years after a term in office. Hispanic democrats are advised not to take umbrage at this, since their guy, Bill Richardson, may be positioned for the veep spot, although success in Iraq has hurt his argument for withdrawal of all troops at midnight of the first day in office. Adulterer-in-chief John Edwards (little joke there) has suggested that the first executive order, instead, be structured to not only allow but practically beg homosexuals to join the military, in which former Senator Gravel said during the primaries that they excel, particularly since they learn to love their comrades through sharing foxholes.
***Accruing to the debate of Senators Obama and McCain at Saddleback Church the other night is the need for position papers to be used by Senator Obama (anyone calling him Obamessiah will be fired) on the subject of when life begins, the definition of a rich person, and the exact location of Georgia (not the state next to Alabama, for recent PhD grads – little joke there). Note: Comparing a fetus to an old codger in a coma has already been ruled out for obvious reasons. Both are helpless, but one is not in some forsaken womb instead of the graveyard, where he ought to be, but isn't, thus the need for the definition of life and what can and cannot be done with life, once the definition of same has been established…or something like that. After all, I'm just a doctor, not a philosopher.
***Michael Moore is preparing a new movie tentatively titled Saddleback Mountain featuring a racist interview of two presidential candidates, with one whipping out a copy of the Constitution and beating the other half-to-death with it. Little imagination is needed to see that this approaches an actual documentary, and may be called such as soon as it is vetted by the group called AGHAST, which stands for Agency Googling Hospices and All Sites for Torture. The movie will also include water-boarding and the need for better brain-puncturing procedures used in late-term abortions, the latter subject requested by Senator Obama and Dr. Me, since brain-puncturing violates the Hippocratic Oath…or something like that.
***Finally, the rumor that the Clintons will use a smoke-bomb during voting at the convention in Denver is untrue, and both have said they will not mention this again. Also, there will be no possible opportunity for hanging chads, since the delegation from Florida will not be allowed to vote. If this changes, there will be a roll call of individual delegates, and one Supreme Court judge has promised to be in attendance.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Campaign Foolishness
The election season gets sillier by the minute. John Edwards was an actual contender in the primaries, though he had to know full well that his peccadilloes would be aired sooner or later, probably sooner if had won the democrat nomination. Senator Obama was hopelessly naïve in not realizing that his associations with strange people would lead to hassles that he could have avoided by getting out in front of the curve.
Candidates still parade their families before the public as if that has any connection to establishing their fitness for office. If Obama had known about the damage his wife could wreak in her statements about the nation being "mean" or the fact that she was not proud of the country virtually all of her life…another way of saying she hated it, he might have told her to stay at home and take care of the girls. Edwards' exploitation of his wife has been sickening, especially in light of his lurid infidelity and continuing episode, apparently, of "mistress subterfuge and support."
McCain and Obama "debate" in a church in California, notwithstanding that to do so stretches the First Amendment past the limit, since each man will be interested in making political points, not "testifying." It is more than probable that neither of them has much of a theological background (not said in unkindness, since the same would apply to most people). So… after they say they have the "faith," what else do they have to offer? Does anyone suspect that they will in any way denigrate Islam, which has as a tenet of its faith the command that Muslims "off" infidels (everyone else) at every opportunity? Of course not! That would lose votes in Michigan, a vital state.
Senator Obama pledged to help Senator Clinton recoup her $12.5 million investment in her losing campaign, and apparently expected everyone to both believe him and be impressed. It was actually a dumb thing to do and made any thinking person suspect ulterior motives, not to mention judgment on about the level of a kindergartener. Why should he or anyone else give a fig about Clinton's risking some of her multi-millions for any reason…except maybe in illegal futures-trading? He thought he could buy her support.
Did Obama buy Clinton's support? Oh…yeah! While he's been on vacation, the Clintons (Bill much in evidence) have literally "stacked" the convention. Support! Egad! Anyone who believes that this is not a blatant move on their part to snatch the nomination is eligible for a "bridge-offer," something like the Brooklyn Bridge for ninety-five cents. Obama caved on the roll-call vote thing vis-à-vis Clinton's bid, proving a wimpyness not suitable for running the country. He should have told Clinton and her screeching gang to bug-out…but he didn't. What would he do if the nation were threatened…look around for someone to "support" him…or maybe someone with whom to have a talk?
Now, the word is out that the candidates are mulling the veep choices with nary a thought regarding that person's qualifications for the office of the president in case the president should meet a Muslim imam in a dark alley. Word is that McCain may be looking for a pro-abortion running mate to make the NOW girls happy, since he is on the record concretely as against abortion. Make sense? Of course not! Obama may be looking for someone to ingratiate him with those "racist" southerners. Both are looking for states with huge electoral votes. George Bush picked a veep candidate from a state with three (count 'em) electoral votes. What if he'd picked someone from New York?
One tries not to either watch or even think of the campaign ads or, especially, the millions wasted on their cost – millions, as some are bound to remind, that could be used for humanitarian reasons. The ads are marked with silliness and condescension, the objective seeming to be the edification of the "great unwashed" out here in the boondocks. Paris Hilton? Berlin hunk? How unrelentingly silly and insulting can it get?
Then, there's the length of these superficial exercises in what some (the candidates) call patriotism, while others yawn and just wonder why the fuss? It's almost gotten to the point of "Who cares, anyway?" The obvious egotism and opportunism (admitted egocentrism for Edwards, not to mention his admitted narcissism) is enough to make one grab for Pepto. Perhaps the silliest episode in the coming days will occur at the Democrat Convention, when the gloves come off and the Clintons go at it with Obama.
This actually would be laughable – this silly campaigning that goes on virtually during the entire election cycle of four years. But, it isn't. The selection of the president, a presumptive world leader, should not devolve into the chicanery in evidence now on all sides. This country deserves better.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Candidates still parade their families before the public as if that has any connection to establishing their fitness for office. If Obama had known about the damage his wife could wreak in her statements about the nation being "mean" or the fact that she was not proud of the country virtually all of her life…another way of saying she hated it, he might have told her to stay at home and take care of the girls. Edwards' exploitation of his wife has been sickening, especially in light of his lurid infidelity and continuing episode, apparently, of "mistress subterfuge and support."
McCain and Obama "debate" in a church in California, notwithstanding that to do so stretches the First Amendment past the limit, since each man will be interested in making political points, not "testifying." It is more than probable that neither of them has much of a theological background (not said in unkindness, since the same would apply to most people). So… after they say they have the "faith," what else do they have to offer? Does anyone suspect that they will in any way denigrate Islam, which has as a tenet of its faith the command that Muslims "off" infidels (everyone else) at every opportunity? Of course not! That would lose votes in Michigan, a vital state.
Senator Obama pledged to help Senator Clinton recoup her $12.5 million investment in her losing campaign, and apparently expected everyone to both believe him and be impressed. It was actually a dumb thing to do and made any thinking person suspect ulterior motives, not to mention judgment on about the level of a kindergartener. Why should he or anyone else give a fig about Clinton's risking some of her multi-millions for any reason…except maybe in illegal futures-trading? He thought he could buy her support.
Did Obama buy Clinton's support? Oh…yeah! While he's been on vacation, the Clintons (Bill much in evidence) have literally "stacked" the convention. Support! Egad! Anyone who believes that this is not a blatant move on their part to snatch the nomination is eligible for a "bridge-offer," something like the Brooklyn Bridge for ninety-five cents. Obama caved on the roll-call vote thing vis-à-vis Clinton's bid, proving a wimpyness not suitable for running the country. He should have told Clinton and her screeching gang to bug-out…but he didn't. What would he do if the nation were threatened…look around for someone to "support" him…or maybe someone with whom to have a talk?
Now, the word is out that the candidates are mulling the veep choices with nary a thought regarding that person's qualifications for the office of the president in case the president should meet a Muslim imam in a dark alley. Word is that McCain may be looking for a pro-abortion running mate to make the NOW girls happy, since he is on the record concretely as against abortion. Make sense? Of course not! Obama may be looking for someone to ingratiate him with those "racist" southerners. Both are looking for states with huge electoral votes. George Bush picked a veep candidate from a state with three (count 'em) electoral votes. What if he'd picked someone from New York?
One tries not to either watch or even think of the campaign ads or, especially, the millions wasted on their cost – millions, as some are bound to remind, that could be used for humanitarian reasons. The ads are marked with silliness and condescension, the objective seeming to be the edification of the "great unwashed" out here in the boondocks. Paris Hilton? Berlin hunk? How unrelentingly silly and insulting can it get?
Then, there's the length of these superficial exercises in what some (the candidates) call patriotism, while others yawn and just wonder why the fuss? It's almost gotten to the point of "Who cares, anyway?" The obvious egotism and opportunism (admitted egocentrism for Edwards, not to mention his admitted narcissism) is enough to make one grab for Pepto. Perhaps the silliest episode in the coming days will occur at the Democrat Convention, when the gloves come off and the Clintons go at it with Obama.
This actually would be laughable – this silly campaigning that goes on virtually during the entire election cycle of four years. But, it isn't. The selection of the president, a presumptive world leader, should not devolve into the chicanery in evidence now on all sides. This country deserves better.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
L'Affaire Edwards
On CNN on 09 August, democrat strategist Paul Begala said, regarding the John Edwards affair, that Edwards didn't order anyone to be tortured, did not violate the Geneva Convention, and did not forge a document that "led us into war." He just cheated on his wife…happens every day. If a "love child" (actually, lust-child) should be his…well, 30% of all white births are "love children" and 70% of all African-American births are "love children," so what's the big deal?
This kind of tawdriness was a big deal when Newt Gingrich, a republican, was caught. It was a big deal when homosexual Senator Craig, another republican, was caught. It was even a big deal when "Slick" was caught, but, after all, he was a president dallying with a young woman snapping her thongs (gasp) during working hours. It's a big deal because Edwards was most likely negotiating a quid pro quo in May when he threw his gang to Obama – something like "my guys for the attorney general's chair, or maybe even another shot at the veep spot." He didn't back Obamessiah for nothing and certainly not until he knew which way the nomination was going.
Shack-ups (or hook-ups or whatever fornicators are doing nowadays) are counted in the millions these days, so why did the National Enquirer and, finally, the mainstream media get all bent out of shape over Edwards' indiscretion? After all, Slick Willie got elected to a second term, never mind Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones and all the other rag-tag sleazy possibilities. He even earned an impeachment, but didn't come close to removal from office. Has the American citizenry lost its collective sophistication, to wit, that anything's okay if it feels good, the devil take the hindmost.
Of course, if l'affaire vis-à-vis Monica Lewinsky had been made public in 1996, when apparently it was actually going on, Clinton might have taken a fall that election year, but the lurid details didn't come to light until much later, when he was safely ensconced in the Oval Office for a second term. By 1996, people had had a chance to forget the peccadilloes brought to light much earlier. Edwards doesn't have it so good, so political hacks like Begala make haste to change the subject, but quick. When in doubt about anything – even the levees along the Mississippi – blame George Bush, but puh-leeze…change the subject.
But the subject won't go away. The mainstream media have been forced to confront it, never mind that their fair-haired boy with the $400-haircuts has given the telling of lies a new start and new significance. The fact that Edwards actually ran for veep in 2004 and the presidency in this election cycle blows the mind, not because he didn't have the right but because anybody dumb enough to believe a high-profile apparatchik jerk like himself could get away with adultery and a cover-up so transparent as his (just the usual political knee-jerk – the BIG LIE) could be smart enough to run the country. The mainstreamers chose to let him off because they form the democrat fifth column, but it didn't work.
It has gotten worse as further information keeps rolling out about the glamour candidate who engaged the services of a company starting in July 2006 that wasn't even licensed until a bit earlier that year and AFTER Edwards met his new girlfriend, who virtually was the company. His campaign was probably its only client for work for which Rielle Hunter had little experience and paid her some $114,000 for six months work. It seems obvious enough that the company and the payments were designed to keep Ms. Hunter around, and for little else. There were some YouTube segments on the Internet, as if they were worth that kind of money, and they could have been handled by a rank amateur, probably for free by a volunteer.
During his campaign, Edwards made speeches about morals, the family and family values, with all this lurid stuff marking him as the quintessential hypocrite, but which he mistakenly thought would never come to light. Throughout 2007, when the question concerning his peccadilloes came up, he told lie after lie, this man who probably had hopes of becoming attorney general. During all that time, the mainstream media gave him a pass, never made an issue of it. At the beginning of one of those YouTube fiascos, he said ,"I actually want this country to be who I am." As he indicated in his valedictory delivered AFTER he had been undeniably caught, he was so narcissistic and egocentric that he actually believed what he said. Imagine a country with his morals…disgusting!
Edwards didn't operate in a vacuum in 2007. He announced his campaign in December 2006, the year of l'affaire, in a backyard in New Orleans, eschewing his own state for that event. He campaigned hard and spent the money of a lot of trusting citizens, all the while apparently being brazen enough to think he could escape his own foot-shooting.
In the mix, it appears that his campaign finance-person was also being serviced by Ms. Hunter and has even said that he, a married man with a family, is her child's father, though Edwards visited with Ms. Hunter just a few days ago during more than five hours of a night in a Los Angeles hotel. Ms. Hunter lives in a three-million-dollar house in Santa Barbara and has received plenty of money from an Edwards backer. He denies any knowledge of this, but should know full well that nobody believes that.
More will come to light in the coming days, and one thing is for sure…indeed, has already started, namely, the dredging up again of John Cain's misconduct all those years ago, entirely similar to that of Edwards. It's enough to make any citizen scream "A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR HOUSES!" and look for someone else. But, of course, Edwards is out of it now, and it isn't likely that he has any political future…and he shouldn't have.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
This kind of tawdriness was a big deal when Newt Gingrich, a republican, was caught. It was a big deal when homosexual Senator Craig, another republican, was caught. It was even a big deal when "Slick" was caught, but, after all, he was a president dallying with a young woman snapping her thongs (gasp) during working hours. It's a big deal because Edwards was most likely negotiating a quid pro quo in May when he threw his gang to Obama – something like "my guys for the attorney general's chair, or maybe even another shot at the veep spot." He didn't back Obamessiah for nothing and certainly not until he knew which way the nomination was going.
Shack-ups (or hook-ups or whatever fornicators are doing nowadays) are counted in the millions these days, so why did the National Enquirer and, finally, the mainstream media get all bent out of shape over Edwards' indiscretion? After all, Slick Willie got elected to a second term, never mind Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones and all the other rag-tag sleazy possibilities. He even earned an impeachment, but didn't come close to removal from office. Has the American citizenry lost its collective sophistication, to wit, that anything's okay if it feels good, the devil take the hindmost.
Of course, if l'affaire vis-à-vis Monica Lewinsky had been made public in 1996, when apparently it was actually going on, Clinton might have taken a fall that election year, but the lurid details didn't come to light until much later, when he was safely ensconced in the Oval Office for a second term. By 1996, people had had a chance to forget the peccadilloes brought to light much earlier. Edwards doesn't have it so good, so political hacks like Begala make haste to change the subject, but quick. When in doubt about anything – even the levees along the Mississippi – blame George Bush, but puh-leeze…change the subject.
But the subject won't go away. The mainstream media have been forced to confront it, never mind that their fair-haired boy with the $400-haircuts has given the telling of lies a new start and new significance. The fact that Edwards actually ran for veep in 2004 and the presidency in this election cycle blows the mind, not because he didn't have the right but because anybody dumb enough to believe a high-profile apparatchik jerk like himself could get away with adultery and a cover-up so transparent as his (just the usual political knee-jerk – the BIG LIE) could be smart enough to run the country. The mainstreamers chose to let him off because they form the democrat fifth column, but it didn't work.
It has gotten worse as further information keeps rolling out about the glamour candidate who engaged the services of a company starting in July 2006 that wasn't even licensed until a bit earlier that year and AFTER Edwards met his new girlfriend, who virtually was the company. His campaign was probably its only client for work for which Rielle Hunter had little experience and paid her some $114,000 for six months work. It seems obvious enough that the company and the payments were designed to keep Ms. Hunter around, and for little else. There were some YouTube segments on the Internet, as if they were worth that kind of money, and they could have been handled by a rank amateur, probably for free by a volunteer.
During his campaign, Edwards made speeches about morals, the family and family values, with all this lurid stuff marking him as the quintessential hypocrite, but which he mistakenly thought would never come to light. Throughout 2007, when the question concerning his peccadilloes came up, he told lie after lie, this man who probably had hopes of becoming attorney general. During all that time, the mainstream media gave him a pass, never made an issue of it. At the beginning of one of those YouTube fiascos, he said ,"I actually want this country to be who I am." As he indicated in his valedictory delivered AFTER he had been undeniably caught, he was so narcissistic and egocentric that he actually believed what he said. Imagine a country with his morals…disgusting!
Edwards didn't operate in a vacuum in 2007. He announced his campaign in December 2006, the year of l'affaire, in a backyard in New Orleans, eschewing his own state for that event. He campaigned hard and spent the money of a lot of trusting citizens, all the while apparently being brazen enough to think he could escape his own foot-shooting.
In the mix, it appears that his campaign finance-person was also being serviced by Ms. Hunter and has even said that he, a married man with a family, is her child's father, though Edwards visited with Ms. Hunter just a few days ago during more than five hours of a night in a Los Angeles hotel. Ms. Hunter lives in a three-million-dollar house in Santa Barbara and has received plenty of money from an Edwards backer. He denies any knowledge of this, but should know full well that nobody believes that.
More will come to light in the coming days, and one thing is for sure…indeed, has already started, namely, the dredging up again of John Cain's misconduct all those years ago, entirely similar to that of Edwards. It's enough to make any citizen scream "A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR HOUSES!" and look for someone else. But, of course, Edwards is out of it now, and it isn't likely that he has any political future…and he shouldn't have.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Obama, the Military & National Police
This is from MSNBC-TV (a democrat propaganda agency, as well) of 13 February 2007: "Stumbling out of the gate, Sen. Barack Obama said in his first presidential campaign news conference that the lives of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq were 'wasted.' He quickly retracted the statement, and later apologized to anybody he offended." Offended? Anybody? One wonders if he understood that he had offended literally millions of Americans or their relatives who had fought or are now fighting the nation's enemies.
This is MSNBC again, on 01 November 2006: "The war of words, tough even for this hard-fought campaign season, came after [Senator John] Kerry told a group of California students on Monday that those unable to navigate the country’s education system 'get stuck in Iraq'." Obama thinks, never mind the meaningless retraction, that the GIs who die have made the ultimate sacrifice for nothing, while Kerry thinks, never mind his preposterous explanation of something about a joke, that those GIs are too dumb to go to school. Words mean something and those spoken spontaneously mean the most since they reveal the actual mindset of the speaker.
Obama and Kerry share the Clinton doctrine known as LTG – Loathe the Military. Obama has not been able to fully admit that the "surge" has worked in Iraq and that great progress is being made there. To do so would be his admission that heroic GIs doing what he has never had to do – face death on a daily basis – have not died in vain. One can only wonder what Kerry might say today, since he testified in 1971 before a Senate committee that American GIs had killed 200,000 (count 'em) Vietnamese civilians a year back in the sixties. He probably doesn't know what he would say, come to think of it, seeing as how he said he voted for the Iraq War before he voted against it, as if that meant anything
These instances should be taken within the context of Obama's constant harping on his intention to bring massive CHANGE to the country. Perhaps the most recent defining aspect of that change accrues to his current effort to be sure he isn't seen as a white person, and certainly not the "typical white person" he has described, using his grandmother as a paradigm, as being fearful of those around her. The other typical whites he has described as paranoid Bible-grasping, gun-toting posses on the lookout for pesky immigrants. He made this non-white affirmation abundantly clear in Berlin during his campaign stop there and elaborated on it last week by making sure everyone knew he was not the same color as those guys on the one- and five-dollar bills – Washington and Lincoln.
The most dangerous aspect of CHANGE, however, has to do with Obama and the military. One remembers the approaches of both Carter and Clinton, to wit, let things slide militarily. Tax and spend in the interests of establishing a socialistic state, in other words, while ignoring the high cost of security. BUT, even that change is not as mind-boggling as the one he mentioned in a session on 02 July in Colorado Springs, where he said: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
One wonders what "national security objectives" Obama had in mind when he indicated the need for a national police force to achieve/enforce them, as well as just who he meant in his plural attribution to the source(s) for determining those objectives. In other words, who helped him decide what a national police force would do. One immediately thinks of such terms as KGB (Soviets), Gestapo (Hitler's Germany), and the Stasi (Honecker's communist East Germany). These police establishments participated in the most heinous of crimes against their own people. They were the national police.
The insidiousness of such a thing as a national police force to hold sway over the civilian population is unthinkable, incomprehensible in this country. In socialist/communist societies, this is commonplace, indeed the only way to keep the citizens subservient enough to insure the common welfare of the dictators and their minions who run the governments, including also running the military. Terrorism is the hallmark of "national policing," in which citizens just disappear or live in dread of the three o'clock a.m. knock on the door…and then disappear. The accounts coming out of communist China now that have to do with repression in advance of the Olympics should be chilling enough, not to mention the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 (several hundreds shot dead by the Chinese Army).
Oh…yeah…just what this country needs – a national police force. Did Obama mean that? After all, his remarks were not in his prepared speech. This means he spoke SPONTANEOUSLY, ergo, he said just what was on his mind and has been on his mind and will remain on his mind. The time has come for citizens to take a long, hard look at this candidate, who makes it a stock-in-trade to suggest that he's not like the white guys who have held office…another way of saying it's the black guy's turn. It's the laying on of the guilt-trip, the old "you owe us" mantra of the reparations gang, a kingpin in which is the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Coincidence? Hardly!
National Police Force…Egad! Obama isn't against the use of force, but does he favor military force to keep the peace vis-à-vis the world…or a national police force to keep…what?
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
This is MSNBC again, on 01 November 2006: "The war of words, tough even for this hard-fought campaign season, came after [Senator John] Kerry told a group of California students on Monday that those unable to navigate the country’s education system 'get stuck in Iraq'." Obama thinks, never mind the meaningless retraction, that the GIs who die have made the ultimate sacrifice for nothing, while Kerry thinks, never mind his preposterous explanation of something about a joke, that those GIs are too dumb to go to school. Words mean something and those spoken spontaneously mean the most since they reveal the actual mindset of the speaker.
Obama and Kerry share the Clinton doctrine known as LTG – Loathe the Military. Obama has not been able to fully admit that the "surge" has worked in Iraq and that great progress is being made there. To do so would be his admission that heroic GIs doing what he has never had to do – face death on a daily basis – have not died in vain. One can only wonder what Kerry might say today, since he testified in 1971 before a Senate committee that American GIs had killed 200,000 (count 'em) Vietnamese civilians a year back in the sixties. He probably doesn't know what he would say, come to think of it, seeing as how he said he voted for the Iraq War before he voted against it, as if that meant anything
These instances should be taken within the context of Obama's constant harping on his intention to bring massive CHANGE to the country. Perhaps the most recent defining aspect of that change accrues to his current effort to be sure he isn't seen as a white person, and certainly not the "typical white person" he has described, using his grandmother as a paradigm, as being fearful of those around her. The other typical whites he has described as paranoid Bible-grasping, gun-toting posses on the lookout for pesky immigrants. He made this non-white affirmation abundantly clear in Berlin during his campaign stop there and elaborated on it last week by making sure everyone knew he was not the same color as those guys on the one- and five-dollar bills – Washington and Lincoln.
The most dangerous aspect of CHANGE, however, has to do with Obama and the military. One remembers the approaches of both Carter and Clinton, to wit, let things slide militarily. Tax and spend in the interests of establishing a socialistic state, in other words, while ignoring the high cost of security. BUT, even that change is not as mind-boggling as the one he mentioned in a session on 02 July in Colorado Springs, where he said: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
One wonders what "national security objectives" Obama had in mind when he indicated the need for a national police force to achieve/enforce them, as well as just who he meant in his plural attribution to the source(s) for determining those objectives. In other words, who helped him decide what a national police force would do. One immediately thinks of such terms as KGB (Soviets), Gestapo (Hitler's Germany), and the Stasi (Honecker's communist East Germany). These police establishments participated in the most heinous of crimes against their own people. They were the national police.
The insidiousness of such a thing as a national police force to hold sway over the civilian population is unthinkable, incomprehensible in this country. In socialist/communist societies, this is commonplace, indeed the only way to keep the citizens subservient enough to insure the common welfare of the dictators and their minions who run the governments, including also running the military. Terrorism is the hallmark of "national policing," in which citizens just disappear or live in dread of the three o'clock a.m. knock on the door…and then disappear. The accounts coming out of communist China now that have to do with repression in advance of the Olympics should be chilling enough, not to mention the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 (several hundreds shot dead by the Chinese Army).
Oh…yeah…just what this country needs – a national police force. Did Obama mean that? After all, his remarks were not in his prepared speech. This means he spoke SPONTANEOUSLY, ergo, he said just what was on his mind and has been on his mind and will remain on his mind. The time has come for citizens to take a long, hard look at this candidate, who makes it a stock-in-trade to suggest that he's not like the white guys who have held office…another way of saying it's the black guy's turn. It's the laying on of the guilt-trip, the old "you owe us" mantra of the reparations gang, a kingpin in which is the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Coincidence? Hardly!
National Police Force…Egad! Obama isn't against the use of force, but does he favor military force to keep the peace vis-à-vis the world…or a national police force to keep…what?
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Obama the "Berliner-Celeb"
Now that enough time has passed in the week since Senator Obama's famous conquest of Berlin, at which appearance he became a worldwide celebrity basking in the glow of universal warm-fuzzies, as Senator McCain's ad recently displayed regarding Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, a lovable "hunk" to the women and a properly domesticated male to both the women and, as Governor Schwarezeneggar would have it, all the "girlie-men," one might look past the o-o-hs and a-a-hs to consider what he said then and now. In the process, one can be happy not to be listening to the constant uh-uh-uhs and broken sentences and thoughts Obama presents in press conferences and interviews, all thanks given to the marvelous teleprompter as used in Berlin and sorely missed off-the-cuff.
The senator – right out of the gate – played the race-card in Berlin with this statement: "I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city." Yeah…General Eisenhower and presidents Kennedy and Reagan were white, therefore privileged – that's the gist of what Obama meant, never mind that he has done exceedingly well as a black in the American system, and hasn't done diddley-squat for Berlin. By contrast, Eisenhower gave West Germany back to Germans and Reagan gave all of Germany and all of Berlin back to Germans.
It's amazing that Obama brought up the subject of race in Berlin, where being in the wrong race meant near-certain death at the hands of Germans in the 1930s-40s, six million Jews and five million "other-than-German" types simply murdered, with a bit of torture thrown in, of course. The allied armies discovered corpses to be about as thick as flies when they made the scene in 1945…not even given a burial, decent or otherwise. General Patton grew sick at the sight.
The race-card is alive and well these days, too, for Obama, who made it plain this week that his face certainly doesn't appear to be similar to the faces on the one- and five-dollar bills, that belong to white men, one of whom was the father of the nation and the other, its savior. That he would mention himself in that esteemed and heroic company is virtually blasphemous. Perhaps it's the "our turn time" concept that the candidate is using to exploit the public, never mind that blacks still make up only a little better than 12% of the population. Senator Clinton had a better "our turn" argument, with respect to the ladies, who make up more than half the population. Neither race nor gender should decide the office, and Obama merely annoys people with this approach.
In Berlin, this is what Obama said: "And that's when the airlift began … But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning." This is the sort of pandering that marks a candidate as being short on substance and long on flattery. The airlift was carried out primarily by U.S. pilots who flew around the clock from June 1948 until May 1949 and kept enough supplies moving into Berlin, even in the rigors of a cold winter (hauling coal by air), to keep Berliners alive. In the darkest hours, it was the ministry of these selfless airmen that kept hope alive, not the Berliners. Obama is also short on history, but not on oratory.
In Berlin, Obama said this: "People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one." In the first place, "a world that stands as one" has absolutely no meaning whatsoever, and the wall didn't come down because a continent came together (Europe is always hopelessly fractured politically), but it was knocked down primarily through President Reagan's resolve as abetted by that of the American citizenry. The challenge WAS too great for the "world that stands as one," (Egad!) but not too great for the United States. Obama is history-challenged or his speech-writers are nincompoops…or both.
Obama said this in Berlin: "As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya. … This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands." This is the penultimate example of crass disingenuousness, not to mention a fear tactic that insults any intelligent person.
Save the planet? Indeed! This is the kind of unmitigated arrogance that merely annoys. The climate is going through a not unusual warming cycle (check the 1930s for some actual, unrelentingly hot weather, then followed by cooling until the 1970s). Obama was – and still is – playing the "climate-card," even though the outrageous claims in Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, with respect to manmade activities, are routinely being shot down now by renowned scientists, proving the UN-IPCC report to be false. Glaciers reached all the way into Kentucky eons ago, according to the experts, and then warmed away when there were no manmade carbon-belching machines, probably before the time of the wheel.
This was a "piece de resistance" by Obama in Berlin: "This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons." He just doesn't get it. There will never be a world without nuclear (or worse) weapons, and this country would be led by a fool if he didn't realize this and tried to disarm this nation. Quite the opposite is needed – the best technology in the world to provide the state-of-the-art weaponry to keep this country safe.
Finally, this, in Berlin: "With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again." Such arrogance! It's hard to remake anything that one hasn't made, in the first place. The leaders of this country, as well as the citizenry, need to be concerned with all the world's people, but the notion that the world can be remade is merely silly. Most of the world's people don't want to be remade, though they do want help. The job of president is first, to keep this country safe, and second, to furnish as much help as is possible to everyone else. That's the U.S destiny, and Obama can let the Berliners speak for themselves.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
The senator – right out of the gate – played the race-card in Berlin with this statement: "I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city." Yeah…General Eisenhower and presidents Kennedy and Reagan were white, therefore privileged – that's the gist of what Obama meant, never mind that he has done exceedingly well as a black in the American system, and hasn't done diddley-squat for Berlin. By contrast, Eisenhower gave West Germany back to Germans and Reagan gave all of Germany and all of Berlin back to Germans.
It's amazing that Obama brought up the subject of race in Berlin, where being in the wrong race meant near-certain death at the hands of Germans in the 1930s-40s, six million Jews and five million "other-than-German" types simply murdered, with a bit of torture thrown in, of course. The allied armies discovered corpses to be about as thick as flies when they made the scene in 1945…not even given a burial, decent or otherwise. General Patton grew sick at the sight.
The race-card is alive and well these days, too, for Obama, who made it plain this week that his face certainly doesn't appear to be similar to the faces on the one- and five-dollar bills, that belong to white men, one of whom was the father of the nation and the other, its savior. That he would mention himself in that esteemed and heroic company is virtually blasphemous. Perhaps it's the "our turn time" concept that the candidate is using to exploit the public, never mind that blacks still make up only a little better than 12% of the population. Senator Clinton had a better "our turn" argument, with respect to the ladies, who make up more than half the population. Neither race nor gender should decide the office, and Obama merely annoys people with this approach.
In Berlin, this is what Obama said: "And that's when the airlift began … But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning." This is the sort of pandering that marks a candidate as being short on substance and long on flattery. The airlift was carried out primarily by U.S. pilots who flew around the clock from June 1948 until May 1949 and kept enough supplies moving into Berlin, even in the rigors of a cold winter (hauling coal by air), to keep Berliners alive. In the darkest hours, it was the ministry of these selfless airmen that kept hope alive, not the Berliners. Obama is also short on history, but not on oratory.
In Berlin, Obama said this: "People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one." In the first place, "a world that stands as one" has absolutely no meaning whatsoever, and the wall didn't come down because a continent came together (Europe is always hopelessly fractured politically), but it was knocked down primarily through President Reagan's resolve as abetted by that of the American citizenry. The challenge WAS too great for the "world that stands as one," (Egad!) but not too great for the United States. Obama is history-challenged or his speech-writers are nincompoops…or both.
Obama said this in Berlin: "As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya. … This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands." This is the penultimate example of crass disingenuousness, not to mention a fear tactic that insults any intelligent person.
Save the planet? Indeed! This is the kind of unmitigated arrogance that merely annoys. The climate is going through a not unusual warming cycle (check the 1930s for some actual, unrelentingly hot weather, then followed by cooling until the 1970s). Obama was – and still is – playing the "climate-card," even though the outrageous claims in Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, with respect to manmade activities, are routinely being shot down now by renowned scientists, proving the UN-IPCC report to be false. Glaciers reached all the way into Kentucky eons ago, according to the experts, and then warmed away when there were no manmade carbon-belching machines, probably before the time of the wheel.
This was a "piece de resistance" by Obama in Berlin: "This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons." He just doesn't get it. There will never be a world without nuclear (or worse) weapons, and this country would be led by a fool if he didn't realize this and tried to disarm this nation. Quite the opposite is needed – the best technology in the world to provide the state-of-the-art weaponry to keep this country safe.
Finally, this, in Berlin: "With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again." Such arrogance! It's hard to remake anything that one hasn't made, in the first place. The leaders of this country, as well as the citizenry, need to be concerned with all the world's people, but the notion that the world can be remade is merely silly. Most of the world's people don't want to be remade, though they do want help. The job of president is first, to keep this country safe, and second, to furnish as much help as is possible to everyone else. That's the U.S destiny, and Obama can let the Berliners speak for themselves.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Obamessiah's Overseas Campaign
The world is probably witnessing a "first in history," at least as far as the U.S. is concerned, to wit, a presidential candidate campaigning in the Middle East and Europe for the highest office in this country. Having announced a foreign relations platform guaranteed to save the world, before he left on this tour, he is now in the process of getting it rubber-stamped by the jihad crowd, whose stock in trade is comprised mainly of stoning bad girls and beheading anyone who takes the name of Mohammad in vain, and the citizens of Olde Europe, who just naturally hate this country and don't give a fig who runs it as long as it can be claimed to be badly done and sends troops to save their bacon when one of their countries does mean things to another(s).
Barack Hussein Obamessiah plans to speak at the Brandenburg Gate and has been told once an hour by his handlers that it's not located in Sioux City, the better for him to know where he is. The word is that he's been practicing John F. Kennedy's famous pronouncement when he spoke in Berlin in 1963: "Ich bin ein Berliner." Getting the hang of speaking German with a New England accent is a bit much, so he'll have to settle for a smooth Hawaiian chant. He might have tried for Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" proclamation in 1987 when the Gipper spoke in Berlin but that would have been too republican as well as too obvious in terms of what it takes to stand tall and walk the talk…McCain style.
Since the on-scene reporters lack the proper gravitas to understand and describe/interpret such an earth-shaking event, the millionaire news anchors of ABC, CBS, and NBC have all tagged along the better to advance the networks' extensive Obama propaganda machine. They were shut out of the action in Afghanistan (weekend time off), but will get their chance to ooh and aah as the great one deigns to breathe his intellect upon them Jimmy Carter style, complete with grumbling on foreign soil about the monster cowboy from Texas. He will need to practice the Carter smile but be careful not to break his jaw in the process or possibly establish an insulting smirk, something he might have learned from wife Michelle, who smirks about her "mean country" (probably the reason she didn't make the scene).
Obama will feel at home in the Middle East, since he should understand that folks there are just like the paranoid folks he described in Pennsylvania – typical white people (like his grandma) who are suspicious of folks not like them, clutch their Bibles to their hearts and keep their shotguns at the ready. In the Middle East, they keep their beheading swords at the ready, their Korans out of the toilet, and their women covered so nobody can tell what their ethnicity (or measurements) might be, ergo, they will understand B. Hussein, whose middle name probably makes them quiver with the same ecstasy described by MSNBC's Chris Mathews when he mentioned last February that an Obama speech made a "thrill go up his (Matthews' ) leg." TV anchors can be weird in spouting democrat boilerplate but still make millions while their legs do funny things. One wonders if Matthews should see a psychiatrist or a neurologist.
The messiah has two fellow-senator tagalongs in Hagel and Reed, the former a much decorated Vietnam vet and the latter a graduate of West Point and former army officer. This arrangement is probably meant to give Obama some commander-in-chief bona fides, but one wonders if he just needs someone to help him with the when and where and method concerning a possible need to salute. He's already said plainly what he plans to do militarily, so there's actually no need for him to meet with the military on this trip, but the photo-ops are of the utmost importance. Expect to see the senator, who experienced 143 Senate work-days from January 2005 in his first term until announcing for the presidency early last year, eating with the GIs and feigning satisfaction with the food (while probably wondering if his underarm deodorant is working in the 120 degree weather). Thousands have spent years in Iraq/Afghanistan while Obama worked the equivalent of just under five months in the Senate and has been AWOL since February 2007.
The poop about this trip is that Obama must meet with world leaders to learn something about foreign affairs so that he can take his best shot in behalf of the U.S. in making policy decisions. Never mind that foreign-affairs specialists who have been in the business for decades still have problems, he's supposed to incur enough gravitas in a week or so to make him an expert. Actually, Barack probably means to let everyone know that he's a team player and that all he said about that terrible world-trade and anti-globalization stuff was just politics, meant to get elected, not govern. Democrats are one-world-government people but republicans still believe in looking out for this country as a first and foremost consideration. Olde Europe will love Obama, the best reason imaginable for seeing that he's never elected. One wonders if he would be in favor of adopting the euro, and even if he might so indicate (privately, of course) that fact to the French and Germans. Egad!
Elections are always silly seasons, but this one takes the cake, with a candidate campaigning overseas primarily because he has no idea what has been happening overseas. The messiah will be in big trouble if he mentions Sioux City at the Brandenburg Gate.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Barack Hussein Obamessiah plans to speak at the Brandenburg Gate and has been told once an hour by his handlers that it's not located in Sioux City, the better for him to know where he is. The word is that he's been practicing John F. Kennedy's famous pronouncement when he spoke in Berlin in 1963: "Ich bin ein Berliner." Getting the hang of speaking German with a New England accent is a bit much, so he'll have to settle for a smooth Hawaiian chant. He might have tried for Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" proclamation in 1987 when the Gipper spoke in Berlin but that would have been too republican as well as too obvious in terms of what it takes to stand tall and walk the talk…McCain style.
Since the on-scene reporters lack the proper gravitas to understand and describe/interpret such an earth-shaking event, the millionaire news anchors of ABC, CBS, and NBC have all tagged along the better to advance the networks' extensive Obama propaganda machine. They were shut out of the action in Afghanistan (weekend time off), but will get their chance to ooh and aah as the great one deigns to breathe his intellect upon them Jimmy Carter style, complete with grumbling on foreign soil about the monster cowboy from Texas. He will need to practice the Carter smile but be careful not to break his jaw in the process or possibly establish an insulting smirk, something he might have learned from wife Michelle, who smirks about her "mean country" (probably the reason she didn't make the scene).
Obama will feel at home in the Middle East, since he should understand that folks there are just like the paranoid folks he described in Pennsylvania – typical white people (like his grandma) who are suspicious of folks not like them, clutch their Bibles to their hearts and keep their shotguns at the ready. In the Middle East, they keep their beheading swords at the ready, their Korans out of the toilet, and their women covered so nobody can tell what their ethnicity (or measurements) might be, ergo, they will understand B. Hussein, whose middle name probably makes them quiver with the same ecstasy described by MSNBC's Chris Mathews when he mentioned last February that an Obama speech made a "thrill go up his (Matthews' ) leg." TV anchors can be weird in spouting democrat boilerplate but still make millions while their legs do funny things. One wonders if Matthews should see a psychiatrist or a neurologist.
The messiah has two fellow-senator tagalongs in Hagel and Reed, the former a much decorated Vietnam vet and the latter a graduate of West Point and former army officer. This arrangement is probably meant to give Obama some commander-in-chief bona fides, but one wonders if he just needs someone to help him with the when and where and method concerning a possible need to salute. He's already said plainly what he plans to do militarily, so there's actually no need for him to meet with the military on this trip, but the photo-ops are of the utmost importance. Expect to see the senator, who experienced 143 Senate work-days from January 2005 in his first term until announcing for the presidency early last year, eating with the GIs and feigning satisfaction with the food (while probably wondering if his underarm deodorant is working in the 120 degree weather). Thousands have spent years in Iraq/Afghanistan while Obama worked the equivalent of just under five months in the Senate and has been AWOL since February 2007.
The poop about this trip is that Obama must meet with world leaders to learn something about foreign affairs so that he can take his best shot in behalf of the U.S. in making policy decisions. Never mind that foreign-affairs specialists who have been in the business for decades still have problems, he's supposed to incur enough gravitas in a week or so to make him an expert. Actually, Barack probably means to let everyone know that he's a team player and that all he said about that terrible world-trade and anti-globalization stuff was just politics, meant to get elected, not govern. Democrats are one-world-government people but republicans still believe in looking out for this country as a first and foremost consideration. Olde Europe will love Obama, the best reason imaginable for seeing that he's never elected. One wonders if he would be in favor of adopting the euro, and even if he might so indicate (privately, of course) that fact to the French and Germans. Egad!
Elections are always silly seasons, but this one takes the cake, with a candidate campaigning overseas primarily because he has no idea what has been happening overseas. The messiah will be in big trouble if he mentions Sioux City at the Brandenburg Gate.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Monday, July 21, 2008
Town-Hall Meetings & Casinos?
Here is the first sentence of an Associated Press account of 10 July: "Gov. Steve Beshear is planning a series of town hall meetings across Kentucky in an effort to regroup from a rocky start as the state's top-elected official." Here is the second sentence: "Beshear Chief of Staff Adam Edelen said the town hall meetings are intended to help the administration retool its agenda in the wake of uncertain economic times and a rough first go-around with the General Assembly this spring."
Well…which is it, the first explanation or the second? Is the Kentucky governor trying to burnish a badly damaged image or is he actually interested in finding out things he already knows? And, by "rough go-around," did Edelen mean to drag the legislature into the governor's troubles?
Town-Hall meetings have been in the forefront of politics in this country for well over a year, as they are in especially the last year of every four-year presidential-election cycle. They are designed for one thing only – as campaign efforts in the drive to win an election. The governor is starting almost four years ahead of time with regard to his situation, but only a few months ahead of time concerning the November elections in the state, the results being absolutely vital to his "retooling" of his agenda, which has only one item at present – casino gambling, euphemistically referred to by the pooh-bahs as "gaming."
Perhaps the main subject in his now infamous trip – because of wasting thousands of dollars to fly everybody but the Frankfort street-sweepers – to Pikeville/Virgie last week was casino gambling, a subject near to the governor's heart since he sees it as the pathway to financial glory…for the state coffers, of course, though one always has to wonder just which official is getting what in the run-up to effecting the proper legislation, bill-signing, etc. In the early 90s, state officials were on the make (or make that "take") over other matters, and quite a few of them went to the Big House for their trouble. If Bill Clinton hadn't fired all the federal prosecutors right after taking office, without giving any reason, there might have been some more vacations taken where the barbed wire crowns the fences around pastures not frequented by cattle.
Make no mistake. The governor will conduct 12 more "town-halls" before the dust clears (Somerset and Winchester on 21 and 24 July, respectively) and the major motive for same will be drumming up support for casino gambling come next January, when the legislature enjoys its "short" biennial session. That it can do anything in 30 days will be problematic, given the usual performances by the solons, but that may be why the guv is getting such an early start on getting his ducks in a row, the major element of such effort probably being to make the gambling the preserve of the horse-racing crowd, rich folks perennially whining about the travails of the "sport."
Naw…the guv's not worrying about his 39% approval rating last April…is he? He's just "retooling the agenda," meaning, "get the word out that the state will go bankrupt if more suckers do not join the lottery crowd and lose their money in the slots or by way of cards, roulette wheels, etc., in these uncertain economic times, as Edelen would have it.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Well…which is it, the first explanation or the second? Is the Kentucky governor trying to burnish a badly damaged image or is he actually interested in finding out things he already knows? And, by "rough go-around," did Edelen mean to drag the legislature into the governor's troubles?
Town-Hall meetings have been in the forefront of politics in this country for well over a year, as they are in especially the last year of every four-year presidential-election cycle. They are designed for one thing only – as campaign efforts in the drive to win an election. The governor is starting almost four years ahead of time with regard to his situation, but only a few months ahead of time concerning the November elections in the state, the results being absolutely vital to his "retooling" of his agenda, which has only one item at present – casino gambling, euphemistically referred to by the pooh-bahs as "gaming."
Perhaps the main subject in his now infamous trip – because of wasting thousands of dollars to fly everybody but the Frankfort street-sweepers – to Pikeville/Virgie last week was casino gambling, a subject near to the governor's heart since he sees it as the pathway to financial glory…for the state coffers, of course, though one always has to wonder just which official is getting what in the run-up to effecting the proper legislation, bill-signing, etc. In the early 90s, state officials were on the make (or make that "take") over other matters, and quite a few of them went to the Big House for their trouble. If Bill Clinton hadn't fired all the federal prosecutors right after taking office, without giving any reason, there might have been some more vacations taken where the barbed wire crowns the fences around pastures not frequented by cattle.
Make no mistake. The governor will conduct 12 more "town-halls" before the dust clears (Somerset and Winchester on 21 and 24 July, respectively) and the major motive for same will be drumming up support for casino gambling come next January, when the legislature enjoys its "short" biennial session. That it can do anything in 30 days will be problematic, given the usual performances by the solons, but that may be why the guv is getting such an early start on getting his ducks in a row, the major element of such effort probably being to make the gambling the preserve of the horse-racing crowd, rich folks perennially whining about the travails of the "sport."
Naw…the guv's not worrying about his 39% approval rating last April…is he? He's just "retooling the agenda," meaning, "get the word out that the state will go bankrupt if more suckers do not join the lottery crowd and lose their money in the slots or by way of cards, roulette wheels, etc., in these uncertain economic times, as Edelen would have it.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Governor Beshear's Costly Excursion
Office-seekers on every level make much each election cycle of erasing all government-waste and -fraud virtually overnight upon assuming office. This is the mantra in Kentucky, where waste and fraud are as justifiably expected as the next sunrise, horse races, bourbon/moonshine, and various grades of tobacco, not to mention marijuana in secluded areas, usually in the knob/mountainous regions. The waste and fraud are never erased but the citizens are so inured to this circumstance that they give it a ho-hum and continue channel-surfing.
Case in point: Lexington Herald-Leader reporter/columnist Ryan Alessi went to some pain in the 19 July edition (front-page-above-the-fold-first section) to give Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear some notice concerning his gobbling up of the state's money in treating his capitol-gang to a three-airplane round-trip excursion to Pikeville, Ky., on the seventeenth, though the meeting they attended was in Virgie, Ky., (population: 2768), requiring more transportation on the ground. Alessi also laid it on the governor over this trip on the Kentucky Education Television program COMMENT on the eighteenth. The cost, not counting that which applied on the Virgie end: more than $7,000.
The guv's spokesperson made it plain that time was saved in the process – time so valuable that a 350-mile round-trip requiring some six hours by highway had to be avoided. The plane trip(s) and additional ground transportation at Frankfort to and from the airport and Pikeville airport to and from Virgie (a distance of 15-20 miles) probably took no less than four hours, so a strategic TWO hours were saved for these important people.
A check on the Internet with Bus Bank turned up the information that a deluxe motor-coach seating 45-55 people and equipped with air-conditioning and a bathroom, of course, would cost between $600 and $1500 per day, depending on further amenities such as a hostess, obviously not needed for this excursion, which would have taken 9-10 hours, including the "town-hall" meeting at which only the governor spoke. Typically, excursions such as this one are figured at about $20 per person per day.
The kicker, though, is in the fact that the trip was made by the governor and 15 state officials, all of whom could have been accommodated on the two state planes that were used, which seat a total of 19 people. This makes one wonder why a private plane, at a cost of $4474, was chartered, when the two state planes, at a combined cost of $2614, could have handled the whole entourage, with three seats to spare. The question: who were the passengers who had no business on a strictly business trip? The extra plane could hold 11 people, making their transport cost $407 per person to fly Frankfort-Virgie and return.
A further question would have to do with any possible considerations accruing to the fact that the government's Beechcraft King Air cost $1320 to operate for the trip while the private plane, also a Beechcraft King Air seating the same number of people cost $4474, far more than three times as much. What connections could this suggest between the governor and the operator of the private service? One wonders what the state auditor might say about this, although she may have been one of the officials on the trip.
This stinks, of course, especially since the governor plans 12 more such "town-hall" trips around the state, with the expectation being that a similar rip-off is in the offing each time. For probably no more than $1000 the transportation right to the front-door in Virgie, bypassing Pikeville airport altogether, could have been effected on a luxury motor coach, such coaches seen all the time throughout the state. No official would have had to drive and could have snoozed on the return trip and been back in Frankfort by midnight. Disgusting! If the governor thinks this stuff will help the 39% approval rating he enjoyed in April at the end of the legislative session, his elevator is not reaching the top floor.
Actually, the governor posited his entire campaign last year upon his promise to bring casino-gambling to Kentucky (thereby forestalling bankruptcy), such gambling actually to be handled by the horse-racing crowd if it, whether if agreed to by the governor or not, could get away with it by getting the legislature to ante-up. The fractious legislators, recognizing the unfairness to other operators and no doubt understanding prices to be paid at vote-time this November, killed the putsch. Having ignored an actual problem January-March, that of restructuring the state pension-system, the governor convened a special session of the legislature in June at a cost of $60,000 per day that did in five days what it couldn't do in three months, thus more waste and fraud.
And so it goes in Kentucky. Sound familiar?
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Political Odd-Couple
Political candidates pull the most transparently devious stunts, apparently under the impression that the public is so collectively gullible that it will swallow anything as authentic. Big news: According to the candidates themselves, Senator Clinton is hitting the campaign trail with Senator Obama (in tow?) in order to help him save the nation…BUT in the process Senator Obama will help the hapless Clinton recoup her $12.175 million "loan" to her campaign, just part of its deficit of some $22.5 million. It's hard to believe but she spent (or misspent) $207 million contributed by a gullible public in her lost cause. How many free lunches would that buy?
Who do they think the average Joe Blows are…idiots to be conned into believing that either of these candidates is interested in saving the nation? Senator Obama is interested in being president and is willing to "buy off" Clinton in order to get the female and union vote. Clinton is interested in getting her money back, hopefully with interest, and will swallow her pride in the process. The best thing that can happen for her is the defeat of Obama in November; otherwise, her chances in 2012 are out the window…unless Obama should be elected and then be as inept as Jimmy Carter. Thus, Obama will need to handle her very carefully. In their love-in in Unity, N.H., (unity – get it, giggle, giggle) on the 28th, they praised each other as something only marginally less than the gods and goddesses on Mt. Olympus…this, after explaining for months why each other shouldn't be president.
Or…take the latest Obama gaffe. In a recent performance he made mention of the fact that the mean republicans will come after him now, inducing FEAR in the populace because he is (gasp and three palpitations) a BLACK MAN. Even after his weird statement in Philadelphia in March about his own grandmother being a "typical white person," i.e., AFRAID of those of another color in her vicinity, he said something this dumb – playing the race card, never mind that his speech in Philadelphia the day before was billed as a speech about RACE, even though it in part was actually a defense of his then pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, a rabid anti-American.
Apparently thinking that the "average" American can't put two and two together and never checks the news, he made that weird statement in the Hollywood fundraiser a few weeks ago concerning the white folks in Pennsylvania regarding their FEAR of immigrants, and even placed it in the context of their being so uptight that they held their guns close-by and grasped their Bibles. Now…that's an attempt at genuine fear-mongering. So, according to Obama, is the "typical white person" a paranoiac so scared of anybody of another race that he/she becomes a recluse with a gun in one hand and the Bible in the other? The race-card again, this time combined with creating fear.
On 25 June, African-American pastors, led by the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Alveda King, a former member of the Georgia state Legislature and the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., marched on the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters to demand that candidates refuse donations from Planned Parenthood. They believe that Planned Parenthood allows racist donors to designate their money to go to fund abortions of blacks. Planned Parenthood has outlined a $10 million campaign to fund candidates who support abortion. Dr. King mentioned in a TV interview on Fox News that of the 50 million abortions since 1973, 14 million (or 28%) have been performed on black women; however, they make up only 13% of the population.
According to Michael Gerson of the Washington Post (02 April 2008), "Obama's record on abortion is extreme. He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion -- a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called 'too close to infanticide.' Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban. In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion. And now Obama has oddly claimed that he would not want his daughters to be 'punished with a baby' because of a crisis pregnancy -- hardly a welcoming attitude toward new life." Punished with a baby? Crisis pregnancy? Egad! Of all the candidates throughout the nation, who will receive the lion's share of that $10 million?
To get an indication of the elitism possessed by Obama, notice that he hired Clinton's former campaign manager to be chief of staff for the vice presidential nominee, whoever that will be. In other words, the veep nominee either won't have the good sense or the permission to hire his/her own chief of staff. Weird! In the Unity rally, Obama promised everything to every American but a piece of the moon and made it clear that under his power the nation will take over the cradle-to-the-grave existence of every citizen. Egad! By the time Labor Day rolls around, Obama will have said too much to be credible, and the average Joe Blow will understand.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Church Homosexual-Problem
In the Anglican Church tradition, of which the American Episcopal Church is a part, the Lambeth Conference is held every ten years, the last one in the summer of 1998. Next month in Canterbury, England, at the University of Kent, Lambeth 2008 will be held. It will be attended by the more than 800 bishops of the Church, who will come from throughout the world, representing some 73 million congregants, the vast majority of them outside both England and the United States.
A 20-day affair, the conference will have as its focus these elements: Biblical interpretation / Hermeneutics; Ecumenical Management; Anglican identity, the role of bishops; Issues of Covenant; Listening Process (within the Communion); Engagement with other faiths; Evangelism and Mission; Gender and Sexuality; Relationships, Social and family relationships; HIV/Aids; Millennium Development Goals.
According to the BBC of 14 February 2007, the head of the Anglican Church and Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has said that he fears that the Church may split over the row sparked by the appointment of openly gay US bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003. Robinson is the bishop for all of New Hampshire. He and his "partner" were also "united" on 07 June in a civil ceremony, followed by a church celebration, the obvious implication being that they are now married, notwithstanding both biblical and legal principles obtaining that marriage can only be enacted by one man with one woman. The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that homosexual behavior is deemed by Robinson to be both biblically and legally sound.
Katharine Schori, the presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church, is publicly on the record as approving both same-sex marriage and the ordination of homosexuals to ministry. Churches and even entire dioceses are currently aligning themselves with overseas arms of the church, particularly with bishoprics in Africa. They have to accept the loss of church property to do so, notwithstanding that congregations have paid in part or in whole for these properties and their maintenance. Such are the legalistic entanglements endemic to hierarchal governance of religious entities.
The 1998 conference was marked by dissension so profound as to be palpable over the homosexuality question. Especially the African bishops, representing 38.6 million congregants, more than on any other continent, including that of England, where it's the official state church, made it clear then that same-gender marriage (goofy as a possibility on biological grounds alone, notwithstanding scripture edicts) and ordination of homosexuals, a clear consequent adjunct, would not be acceptable. Thus, the die has been cast for the meeting in July – stormy.
Roiling the ecclesial waters will be Robinson, banned understandably from attending the conference officially, who plans to be in Canterbury as an outside observer of some sort, thereby calling attention to himself as the highest-profile bishop there, anyway, and to the profligacy he represents. This will antagonize the Africans all the more, but it mainly says a lot about Robinson as a representative of the militant, hard-core homosexual community in this country that constantly demands attention all out of proportion to its importance, not to mention the perversions it represents as perfectly normal. Then Joint-Chiefs Chairman Marine General Peter Pace caught a fury of criticism from the mainstream media last year when he used the term "immoral" to characterize homosexual acts.
Six of the eight democrat president-wannabes (Dodd and Biden declined) appeared before some sort of Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual group for a full debate a few months ago to glorify the homosexual way of life and promise everything from gay marriage to out-of-the-closet homosexuals in the military. Predictably, the republican candidates wouldn't touch that outfit with a ten-foot pole. This, however, is indicative of the inordinate drive in the country, now overseen largely by the hippy-dippy boomers, toward a weird political correctness that violates even the obvious physiological attributes of human beings.
The other mainline denominations that have allowed the homosexual question to demand a fixation on the problem of affirming the homosexual lifestyle or not, notwithstanding its total condemnation in both biblical testaments, have seen their memberships riddled since 1960, during a large part of which time the homosexual question has overshadowed everything the church should be doing. Since 1960, the Episcopal denomination has decreased in membership by 48%; the United Methodists by 25%; Presbyterian (USA) by 44%; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) by 74%, Evangelical-Lutheran by 31%.
By contrast, in the last 48 years the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon, Mitt Romney's church), which adamantly condemns homosexual behavior and insists that those addicted to it can be "healed," has grown in membership by 243%. The Southern Baptist Convention, in which the homosexual question is considered unworthy of even a thought, has grown by 76% to a membership of more than 17 million, according to the National Council of Churches statistics for 2007.
So…will Robinson make his point in Canterbury and probably cause schism, the penultimate act of self-interest and indication of super-ego? It remains to be seen, but hopefully the time will soon come when the inordinate drive toward some sort of weird political/social correctness in this country, the ugliest aspect of which is the attempt to normalize sexual perversion, is short-circuited and the relatively few left in many denominations can start rebuilding.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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