Enter the lexicon, Go in shame

As regular readers of this site will attest, there are no depths to which the faith in governmentalism will not sink.

Last week, after the convictions of three shreds of human debris responsible for the death of a 17-month old toddler, Peter Connolly (Baby P), who expired in the abject shame of a blood-soaked cot with a broken back, we witnessed governmentalism for what it is: Pass the buck, run the firgures on a spreadsheet, slap it on a powerpoint, hold a news conference, proclaim victory, and hold on to that wonderful tax-payer funded pay cheque.

What else do we learn about this sordid, and highly increasingly governmental, failure:

A sister of Baby P, the 17-month-old boy killed while under the protection of Haringey social services, was allegedly seriously abused despite also being on the council’s "at risk" register.

The primary concern of any government is to protect their citizenry from harm, whether that harm come in the form of internal or external agents. To say this borough (Haringey) of one of the greatest cities in the world (London) failed in its primary mission is beyond an understatement. This system, despite having millions of pounds at its disposal, is shown for what it is, an absolute failure. A failure in protecting the most innocent life imaginable.

Given this squalid and abject failure, one which makes you scream to the rafters and beyond, there is no doubt that a new adjective will enter the lexicon of governmentalist failure, shoesmith. The etimology of this word is derived from the Haringey Director of Children and Young People's services, Sharon Shoesmith. This is a governmental employee who refuses to take responsibility for the absolute failure of the governmental department she heads and for the absolute governmental failure which ultimately led to the death of a 17-month old toddler, Peter Connolly.

For those unfamiliar with the way governmentalism works (both writ small and large) the trick is this: Ensure all forms are filled properly, Ensure all meetings are held promptly, Ensure all reports include "action-word" verbology, Ensure all press conferences are well publicised, Ensure all funding is received, Ensure all concern is duly noted, Ensure all accountability is deflected. The fact that your primary purpose, the safety and well-being of children, is not met ........ easily waved-off with a powerpoint slide showing how your department "tried".

This site never seeks perfection. Seeking competency, always.

Go in shame Sharon Shoesmith, you have failed utterly. Your price for governmental failure and form over substance ideology is steep:

News that does not matter....

...because Joe the Plumber is not a leftist of course:

Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles said his office is now looking at a half-dozen agencies that accessed state records on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

Futuris

Remember the old saw about the pocket calculator being an off-shoot of man's mission to the moon back in the day? That seems imminently preferrable to the limitless possibilities of the current space programme.

Toilet-to-tap, finally a reality:

NASA plans to double the size of the space station crew from three members to six next year. The shuttle carries two new sleeping compartments and a water recycling system that will enable the crew to purify urine and other wastewater for drinking.

"We did blind taste tests of the water," said NASA's Bob Bagdigian, the system's lead engineer. "Nobody had any strong objections. Other than a faint taste of iodine, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water."

"I've got some in my fridge," he added. "It tastes fine to me."

Can't wait to get my first snifter full.

So, are ya Feeling "Global"?

It's the European self image, and it's all about the warm-fuzzies found in free-riding and feeling good about having all kinds of fine principals that you proceed to ignore. Like human rights, security risks, and doing things that actually are good for the environment, or anything else for that matter.

When Europeans talk about "multilateralism," they typically don't mean agreeing on a common policy to carry out together. They mean defaulting global security to the United Nations, where Russian and Chinese vetoes curtail effective action. At best, multilateralism à la Paris and Berlin is short for European approval for where and how Americans may intervene around the world.

The Continent's free-riding on U.S. security while criticizing the way that security is provided predates the Bush Administration and will outlive it. President Bush has mainly provided Europeans with an excuse for refusing the kind of cooperation they'd rather not provide anyway. Mr. Obama has promised a multilateral surge of troops into the Afghanistan-Pakistan front. He may find, like Mr. Bush, that most of those troops will have to be American.

- from the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.

The writer never thought (s)he would be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s (danke schön zu Larwyn).

…now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more imporant.)

Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down to one word: change.

Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

Perhaps there is a law against this....

...but should we really care.

Having spent most of the past five years living and working in a very hot war-zone, your very humble co-host has seen and experienced some not so pleasant things, so be it.

That being said it is quite difficult to fathom, read, or comprehend this story in London (Haringey) regarding the long-standing torture and murder of a 17-month old child, Baby P . The long-standing torture and murder carried out by his "mother", Tracey Connolly, his "step-father", Stephen Barker, and his "step-uncle", Jason Barker (Owen).

Quite unbelieveable why these absolute shreds of human debris can not be named by the media. We just did, fuck 'em. Along with the governmental response.

Please do not waste your time thinking about these three shreds, think about the 17-month old they tortured and murdered, Peter Connolly .... Baby P .

Update: The BBC has 404'd their related links above. Courtesy of Google, the cache version of the original BBC article from August 2007 which names the murderers.

Do whales trump national security?

Now, conservative members of Congress will know what to ask an Obama appointee to the Supreme Court.

If forced to choose, would you rule in favor of the rights of sea mammals against a (nonexistent) threat or in favor of the safety of the United States fleet — and, therefore, of the country?

So, it was true!

My EU-centric brothers and sisters have spent years refuting the claims of bendy-banana and ugly-squash regulations propogated by Bruxelles. The rules were derided as "populism" and "non-existant". Imagine the "surprise" when "discovering" the regulations are true:

In the European Union, carrots must be firm but not woody, cucumbers must not be too curved and celery has to be free of any type of cavity. This was the law, one that banned overly curved, extra-knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves.

But in a victory for opponents of European regulation, 100 pages of legislation determining the size, shape and texture of fruit and vegetables have been torn up. On Wednesday, EU officials agreed to axe rules laying down standards for 26 products, from peas to plums.

So, relaxing 100 pages of legislation that "never" existed. Gosh, who knew?

This all sounds vaguely familiar

One difficulty about blogging and/or reading blogs (besides: spelling, coherency, vituperativeness, etc) is that one assumes others have similarly read the myriad of articles, are rational, and are working from the same information base. Not necessarily the case. For instance, should this article be highlighted?

One assumes that after reading this:

Advocates for the nation's automakers are warning that the collapse of the Big Three -- or even just General Motors -- could set off a catastrophic chain reaction in the economy, eliminating up to 3 million jobs and depriving governments of more than $150 billion in tax revenue.

That any reader would have a slight reptillian flicker and recall the exact same wording used as a reason for the banking bailout in September.

One assumes after reading this:

"We've got to do this because the cost of inaction is so high to communities, to workers, to companies," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio. He was among many lawmakers worried that an industry collapse would be devastating for everything from school districts to small businesses.

That any reader would think, "Why does this politician care so much?" Possible answers: humanitarian, economist, statesman, keeper of the people ....... not quite:

If the industry failed, among the hardest-hit communities would be Lordstown, Ohio, a village of 3,600 people about 50 miles east of Cleveland that has been home to a GM factory since 1966.

Ahhh, so it might just be a vote-getting ploy.

One assumes after reading this:

A study by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor estimated that the failure of Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. would eliminate up to 3 million jobs, including those at parts suppliers and smaller businesses that rely on the automakers.

That any reader would take a spin around the Center for Automotive Research website to see what their bag is and who funds that bag (a'la Exxon funds all global-warming debunk reports). Sadly, no such financial information on the site. One can assume the Big Three give a few bucks to the non-profit organisation. A vested interest?

One assumes after reading this:

State, local and federal governments would lose more than $150 billion in tax revenue over three years, the study said.

That any reader would see the true attention-getting aspects of the CAR report. Assuming the CAR report is entirely correct, the 3 million unemployed is one thing to try and get political attention (as well as possible future funding all around). It is the loss of more than 150 billion USD in tax revenue which really is designed to grap the political types by the lapel and say "the goodie bag will be a lot slimmer (as well as possible future non-funding all around)".

One assumes after reading this:

David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, said Detroit is losing money now because it has too many factories making more vehicles than the market is buying.

That any reader would also need to be told that grass is green and beer makes you drunk, a truly blinding revelation.

Maybe I am the only one who knows about this type of thing and how it works. I just assumed everyone else did as well.

How Quickly They Regress

Saturday in front of Berlin's Brandenburg gate, there was a retread of the kind of dope-palooza that one sees rather more frequently in places infected by French social though, such as people in Belgium striking over the cost of living as if the global commodities market was listening.

The usual amusement included home-made sandwich-board signs about how "without weapons sales, the rich could not exist" and "capitalism is failed" as if socialism ever succeeded.

Onward to a new REAL Socialism AT LAST!

This is where it gets funny. The people holding that banner (comforting to some, and menacing to anyone with any brains and memory) – is within 10 feet of the curb where the fence of the Berlin wall whipped around. The banneristas are standing in the narrowest extension of the famous death strip so loved by the happy smurfy people who in large part, were resigned to being imprisoned in and by the thing they're so adamant about making "real" "at last."

It seemed pretty damn real the first time.

Making it up as you go along

The use of improvisation as a comedic device is one thing, using the very same to avert economic stagnation is quite another. The latest stand-up routine from Night at the Improv:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. on Wednesday announced a major shift in the thrust of the $700 billion financial rescue program, at the same time joining several agencies in prodding banks to speed up the thaw in the country's credit system.

Paulson said the $700 billion would not be used to buy up troubled mortgage-related securities, as the rescue effort was originally conceived, but would, instead, be used in a broader campaign to help financial markets and, in turn, make loans, including car and student loans, more accessible for creditworthy borrowers.

Or was it all just a bait-and-switch routine?

Those headline writers

German Minister Cautions Against Rise of Right in Time of Crisis

Is there ever caution called for against the rise of the Left in times of crisis?

Interesting to note that even a German publication gets the whole left/right thing mixed up when it comes to that political movement in the 1920s-1930s.

Is the honeymoon already over?

The Zombies Among Us

Funny about all that Europhoria at the election of Barack Obama. The way it starts is that as soon as you respond to someone's question about being an American, they congratulate you. Then they dismissively lecture you after telling them that you didn't vote for the man.

Then, sooner or later, as if they let themselves not live in the third person for a moment, probably after the day's boozing has finally gotten to them, they spew some of the usual racist crap, or if they're sensitive, unwitting racist crap. All of this is, of course, supposed to be regarded as their divine illumination for our benefit.

The rest I leave to Denis Boyles

Le Monde seems to have wisely realized that the entire Obama campaign may have created a sky-high set of expectations that may result in "regrettable disappointments" — especially, the paper warns, if Obama is serious about adding troops to Iraq, or if he puts Europe in an "awkward" situation with Russia by helping Ukraine and Georgia join NATO, or if he slips into protectionism as an economic strategy — and that those who sing his praises loudest now may be howling loudest later.

Which along with a new myth which is forthcoming, probably something along the lines of what the CIA that controls AmeriKKKa will not let Obama do to remake us in the image they long since resigned, is the architecture of the next form of underlying hatred they will hold for all 300 million of us. As you know, we'll report – you decide. Further to that Boyles over-estimates the capacity at reason he sees in the "new realists" trying to talk the EUphorics down off of the ledge – their readers would be hard pressed to understand why in America a president could not simply declare socialization of health care, or as virtually everyone whom I've talked to about it seems to find of utmost national import, the doing away with having to fill out declaration forms on airliners entering the US – in other words, and as usual - them, which is the only kind of change they can believe in.

The gist here, if I'm not being clear, is that Le Monde, its readers, its bloggers, its coffee-drinking bureaucrats — the entire population of its small cosmos, in fact — are humming with an intensified version of the fervor that fills the tent just before the evangelist jumps to the pulpit. "With the 44th U.S. president, we reach the highest stage of worship, that accorded to God . . . Obama has already entered the pantheon. Soon, no doubt, he will perform miracles." Soon? Rousseau and Houdart must be kidding — and of course they are. This is meant to be arch humor, but something tells me not everyone gets the joke.

Funnier still at the fear of filling out a form, the same people who complain about this seem in abject ignorance their own casual references to "diese Schawrtzer" or the fact that a foreigner living in the EU faces a series of annual reporting requirements at the police station, and any other kind of window they can find. In the abstract, it's more akin to a round the clock rectal exam when you compare it to the "atmosphere" in America that they seem to so readily to whine about.

Nonetheless, they out that mask back on, and repeat what they think they should about the US just as they do in nearly every feature of their own lives as it relates to having an opinion heard by others.

There are only so many ways to say "I love you, Barry," so naturally a certain amount of contrarianism has already set in. Le Monde, in an editorial called "After the Euphoria," tried to dial back the rapture a little by wisely observing that in the election, race had been a secondary issue — at least for white voters — since Obama had been very careful during the campaign not to become "the candidate of blacks." Mostly because he didn't have to, but that's a salient point, since if he had run a campaign based on entitlement, he would have lost —

Which is funny, because between calling me a racist for voting McCain, having to listen to their own racism, and their childish inability to realize that race is not shorthand for any sort of ideology that they want it to be, I still wonder why the UR-Europeans can't get a life and stop trying to project their own internal social problems on the way they look at the rest of the world.

A Pittance of Time

(Thanks to Laurel's mother)

What does the Left's self-blinding, superior mindset explain?

David Limbaugh answers the question (while Michael Reagan launches a new website)…

The college sophomore who thinks he can change the world because he's never had to run anything

[Barack Obama has] accomplished nothing other than to advance his career through rhetoric

says Thomas Sowell (thanks to Frank) as he speaks with Peter Robinson (6:00),

and it reminds me of a sophomore in college who thinks he can change the world because he's never had to run anything.

50 Million Americans

Because of the complete lack of balance of the mainstream media (thanks for the post to Larwyn), a group called 50 Million Americans is forming a citizens' coalition to fight media bias.

Un único momento en que los sectores de izquierda alcanzasen el poder en tantos países de América Latina

El presidente brasileño señaló ante el de Cuba, general Raúl Castro, que "en todo el mundo existe una puntita de alegría'' en las mentes de la gente pensando en "cómo sería de bueno que un negro fuera elegido presidente de Estados Unidos''.

Thus speaks Brazilian President Lula (gracias to Angela) in Miami's Nuevo Herald, comparing Obama's election (celebrating it, in fact) to the ascension of leftist governments all over Latin America, while visiting the Castros in Havana, and proclaiming that the coming American administration will end the "blockade" of Cuba (it's actually more of an embargo, meaning that other countries are not prevented from enjoying trade rapports with the island, meaning in turn that the responsibility for Cuba's dire conditions can in no way be imputed to the "Great Satan"). (By the way: why is it, again, that the Miami Herald and its Spanish version have lost so many subscriptions in the past few years?)

El presidente brasileño, Luiz Inácio, Lula da Silva, afirmó hoy que la elección del demócrata Barack Obama como presidente de Estados Unidos sería como la suya y la de otros líderes de izquierda de Suramérica, y que el próximo gobierno norteamericano acabará el "bloqueo'' a Cuba.

"De la misma manera que Brasil eligió a un metalúrgico, Bolivia a un indígena [Evo Morales], Venezuela a [Hugo] Chávez y Paraguay a un obispo [Fernando Lugo], creo que será una cosa extraordinaria si en la mayor economía del mundo un negro es elegido presidente'', dijo Lula en La Habana.

The Chicago crowd knows that Obama is the obedient servant of one of the most squalid and unshakeable political machines in America

The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilisation

quips Peter Hitchens (cheers to Larwyn).

At least Mandela-worship – its nearest equivalent – is focused on a man who actually did something.

I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts.

…Proper books, recording his sordid associates, his cowardly voting record, his astonishingly militant commitment to unrestricted abortion and his blundering trip to Africa, are little-read and hard to find.

…Perhaps, being a Chicago crowd, [his admiring audience] knew some of the things that 52.5 per cent of America prefers not to know. They know Obama is the obedient servant of one of the most squalid and unshakeable political machines in America. They know that one of his alarmingly close associates, a state-subsidised slum landlord called Tony Rezko, has been convicted on fraud and corruption charges

…From now on, the rough boys and girls of America’s Democratic Party apparatus, many recycled from Bill Clinton’s stained and crumpled entourage, will crowd round him, to collect the rich spoils of his victory and also tell him what to do, which is what he is used to.

…the Mexicans, Salvadorans and the other Third World nationalities … grasped the real significance of this moment. They knew it meant that America had finally switched sides in a global cultural war. Forget the Cold War, or even the Iraq War. The United States, having for the most part a deeply conservative people, had until now just about stood out against many of the mistakes which have ruined so much of the rest of the world.

…And now the US, like Britain before it, has begun the long slow descent into the Third World. How sad. Where now is our last best hope on Earth?

Freedom now stands alone: The suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery

The fear however is that the world now becomes very much less safe for all of us as a result [of] a watershed election which changes the fate of the world

writes The Spectator's Melanie Phillips (gracias para Luís Afonso).

Those of us who have looked on appalled during this most frightening of presidential elections – at the suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery -- can only hope that the way this man governs will be very different from the profile provided by his influences, associations and record to date. It’s a faint hope – the enemies of America, freedom and the west will certainly be rejoicing today.

…What this election tells us is that America voted for change because America is in the process of changing – not just demographically by becoming less white and more diverse, but as the result of a culture war in which western civilisation is losing out to a far-left agenda which has become mainstream, teaching American children to despise the founding values of their country and hijacking discourse by the minority power-grab of victim-culture.

The reaction of conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic to this undoubted change – not just in the US but in Britain too – shows the intellectual disarray caused by these profound developments. They say politicians must stop trying to hold the cultural line and go instead with the flow of change. In Britain, the Tory party has adopted this strategy. Now there are Republicans saying the same thing.

But John McCain is a Republican who does not fit the old template, who does subscribe to some of this ‘change’ agenda on a number of issues. As a result, he was incapable of attacking Obama on the most important grounds of all: that he stood for values inimical to America’s founding principles. When he did venture into this territory, it was half-cocked and far too late, appearing merely like the desperate throw of a loser.

…So now we are promised a change in America’s fundamental values. And they really will be changed. Obama has said in terms that he thinks the US constitution is flawed. America’s belief in itself as defending individual liberty, truth and justice on behalf of the free world will now be expiated instead as its original sin. Those who have for the past eight years worked to bring down the America that defends and protects life and liberty are today ecstatic. They have stormed the very citadel on Pennsylvania Avenue itself.

Millions of Americans remain lion-hearted, decent, rational and sturdy. They find themselves today abandoned, horrified, deeply apprehensive for the future of their country and the free world. No longer the land of the free and the home of the brave; they must now look elsewhere.

Launch the Torpedoes

…what would Rahm Emanuel do if he had Congressman John Boehner's job as House Minority Leader?

asks James G. Wiles in the the Bulletin.

That's easy. Put as many long-range torpedoes into the water aimed at Senator Obama's ship of state before Republicans lose control of the Executive Branch as possible. Here are a few:

• Appoint U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzpatrick as a special prosecutor so he can pursue his investigation of Tony Rezko and his corrupt dealings with Illinois's governor and other creatures and spoilsmen of the Daley Machine. This will make it politically difficult for a President Obama to pardon Mr. Rezko and impossible for him to terminate Mr. Fitzpatrick as a federal officer come January 21 as a way of de-railing this investigation.
• Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate ACORN's voter registration methods and its dealings with the Obama campaign.
• Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Obama campaign's on-line fundraising operation, including its disabling of the credit card security software on its on-line donations system. File a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding same.
• Appoint a bipartisan (love that word!) presidential commission to review the candidates' fundraising in this election cycle and to recommend changes in federal election laws.

File ethics complaints against Sen. Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank for their relationship with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Countrywide Mortgage.

Be it noted that, in his day, this is probably what Newt Gingrich would have done, too. It was then-Congressman Gingrich's persistent filing of ethics complaints against then-House Speaker Jim Wright, D Texas, which eventually brought Speaker Wright down and made possible the Republicans' re-taking of Congress in 1994 on the platform of the Contract with America.

Barack Obama is the antithesis of King's dream: He's a man judged by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character

"It's been tough, fellow Patriots; tough to stomach the idea that more than half of my fellow citizens who vote, have booted a genuine American hero to the curb for a rudderless charlatan. What a sad indictment on our citizenry that some are so eager to overlook his myriad flaws -- his radical roots, his extreme liberalism, his utter lack of experience or achievement. Barack Obama is the antithesis of King's dream: He's a man judged by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character. If it's God's will that Barack Obama is our next president, then so be it. We Patriots will pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and wade back to the war front, intent on liberty or death."

— quoted by Mark Alexander

A Nearly Flawless Race

I always get this confused with "Blue Steel", "Ferrari", and "Magnum"

A matter of perspective really

Depending on your world-view it is a case of "strike while the iron is hot" -or- "bend over ..... again".

Are the collective "we" supposed to make amends for this foolishness?

Is the bank to blame? The individual? I really do not care, not once, twice, or three times:

The loan that made up the difference, with closing costs, broker’s fee, taxes and insurance, meant a monthly bill of $1,873.96, about $100 less than her monthly take-home pay as an administrative assistant.

Hope re-defined:

"I was hoping I would get a second job. I was hoping for a Prince Charming. I was just hoping things would get better," she said.

"Hope" in one hand and do something else in the other, see which one fills-up quicker. Of course if that "something else" is having the government pick the pocket of a more responsible citizen you may be in luck.

"Real" Reality vs. "Expert" Reality

Witness how things go askew. If one is so-eaten up as to believe that that the new president-elect is not an important person who deserves a certain ratio of latitude to implement what they are duly-elected to do (right or wrong), do not worry. The victors have a way of neutering themselves.

It is always the daggers from your own-side that hamstring you the most. Witness attempts to do everything (something ...... ANYTHING!) which of course will end in nothing (right or wrong) writ venti large:

Mr. Obama repeated on Saturday that his first priority would be an economic recovery program to get the nation’s business system back on track and people back to work. But advisers said the question was whether they could tackle health care, climate change and energy independence at once or needed to stagger these initiatives over time.

Attempts to be all things to all people = 0.

If your attempt is to woo all left-handed persons not married over the age of forty who have a pre-condition which does not allow them to have right-handed twins yet they compost pile and do not utilise the stand-by function on any electronic computer component as well as adhere to the stricture of not buying food products not produced within a home radius of 2.67 kilometers while at the same time eschewing all manufatured clothing in lieu of hemp-based under-garments, you will precis make a "difference" in the life of a left-handed person not married and over the age of forty who has a pre-condition which does not allow them to have right-handed twins yet have a compost pile and do not utilise the stand-by function on any electronic computer component as well as adhere to the stricture of not buying food products not produced within a home radius of 2.67 kilometers while at the same time eschewing all manufatured clothing in lieu of hemp-based under-garments.

Does the urgency of "doing something" (that in reality is governmentalist nothingness) matter that much?

The answer to a governmentalist is, YES!™ ................... of course.

Beneath the tail.....

As a doyenne of No Pasaran you may be interested in reading the absurd as reality, so be it.

From time to time an article is viewed in which the abject nothingness is beyond overwhelming. Such as this tripe from that former presidential candidate Al Gore. Take your pick from this derelique article of pronouncements. Personal fave, noted:

"What happened in the election opens a full new range of possibilities and now is the time to really move swiftly to exploit these new possibilities," Gore said of turning the power of the Internet to cooling global warming.

Translation from that speak of politique:

"Now is the time to really move swiftly to exploit these new possibilities before people actually think about and look into the issues and realize that what we are peddling is absolute horse-squeeze."

"I think voting twice is against the law, but that's OK"

(Fist bump to Hervé)

Some Good News

The first good news of the election are coming in (thanks to Larwyn)…

Change You Can Believe In…

(Zank iou tou Hervé)

"At this moment — but for how long ? — we can say with far more conviction than on 11 September 2001 : we are all Americans"

In a In a Le Monde piece entitled Sorry we can't — and half-written in English — Robert Solé says he can't write, because he is weeping for joy, all the while:
• informing us that Obama's election is nothing less than the "first worldwide good news since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989"
• basically admitting that the French did not really feel much empathy with America af ther the 9/11 murder of 3,000 citizens, and
• stating that today, because of the election results, "we [truly] are all Americans" but immediately casting doubt onto how long he thinks that will last…

Sorry. No column today. The keyboard is not responding. History is a page being turned. Three words on the screen: "Yes we can." While it is impossible to joke with genocide or disaster, it is equally impossible to joke with an event that makes you weep for joy. The first worldwide good news since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 needs more than a pirouette or an amused wink. At this moment - but for how long ? - we can say with far more conviction than on 11 September 2001 : we are all Americans.

(Désolé. Pas de billet aujourd'hui. Le clavier ne répond pas. L'Histoire est une page qui se tourne. Trois mots sur l'écran : "Oui, nous le pouvons." S'il est impossible de plaisanter avec un génocide ou une catastrophe, il est tout aussi impossible de plaisanter avec un événement qui vous arrache des larmes. La première bonne nouvelle planétaire depuis la chute du mur de Berlin en 1989 appelle autre chose qu'une pirouette ou un clin d'oeil amusé. A cet instant - mais pour combien de temps ? -, nous pouvons dire, avec beaucoup plus de conviction que le 11 septembre 2001 : nous sommes tous américains.)

Much maligned....

.....but truly one of the greats:



The key to note is both lines in the clip. Wallowing in self-pity and nothingness is the job of our leftist brothers and sisters. Do not take the bait.

Straight to acceptance

No thank you, I won't be moving to Canada. Maybe Andorra, but never Canada.....

No long faces here*

Absolute congratulations to the next President of the United States, Barack Obama. The personal story is something everyone cheers, the policy story .... well that is indeed another story.

As it stands it would appear that non-leftists should wait and see what the new President does once ensconced in office. With a group of real leftist howlers running Congress, chances are it will not be pretty. Do not believe me, believe the thoughtful and beautiful amongst us. Those are fights for another day. Remember to judge the new President by what he does once in office, not based on the past (that was settled yesterday) and not how one "feels".

A good maxim to remember:

I am not interested in government or politicians making a difference in my life. I am interested in government and politicians staying out of my life.

Investing oneself emotionally in government or politicians will lead you down the path of poor Richard: bereft, discouraged, depressed, and searching for that non-existent (at least in a democracy thus far) uber-talisman of using the hyper-force of the state to ensure absolute conformity from the masses and their wallets. The use of force because the hard-left is unable to persuade with thoughts and deeds.

* There may be long faces at Der Spiegel today though. The three-legged stool of European-based anti-Americanism took it in the shorts yesterday. The "dead, dying, and racist" prolix which has been the standard of our European press masters is no more. Until we see a minority reach the top elected office in any of our European capitals it might be best for our continental betters, next time they get that "amerikkkaistheworstthingtohappentohumanityonany-givendayoftheweekmonthyeareverinthehistoryofever" urge, to take a bit of advice from the great Henry Rollins:

"Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up!"

Transatlantic Transfiguration? Don't Bet on it!

What if what we have got to look forward to is years of two-way transatlantic lip service? Aport from health issues on a global scale, monetary policy coordination as an imperative at the moment, the respective publics on each side of the North Atlantic need to brace themselves for a potential slumber; and a sort of kabuki theater of asking one another for initiatives that might indulge the egos and worries of their populations (move European troops for ISAF, environmental commitments from the US and Canada), only to find it come in at too high a political or economic cost for their taste.


it actually feels like it's already started: the early morning: post U.S. election talk shows on German television (for example.) including a few people speaking at the more venerable looking round tables,were repeating the recitation of cultural and political complaints that we've had to hear over and over these past years including the mantras of the now victorious American left.

We are who we are, after all, and it might he too much to expect that this temperament of the American left and of the European popular media w N be any different today as it was (very literally,) two days ago.

Barring a disaster, I don't see the promise behind that enthusiasm found on both sides of the Atlantic preparing itself to accomplish anything that its' complaints seem to have wanted to promise, and still looks trapped in that vulgar habit of evasion and taunting, if one judges the reactions by and on the press for anything.

As with the kabuki mentioned earlier, there's also a risk of repeating a past no-one is sentimental about – one where the overtures themselves are a depressing and repetitive set of non-starters and amount to little more than domestic ideological politicking 'such as the European interest in bravery the U.S. sign a "son of Kyoto" treaty with some sort of transatlantic lip service as a secondary use.

la fact now we need to genuinely explore the model and ask just what is this ”'transatlanticism” that is so anticipated can really shape up to be. In the past it was largely limited to mutual security, economics, and dealing with potential pandemics on behalf of a world beyond that of the alliance – and this sort of bilateral, mission-oriented statesmanship was always was the strength of the likes of John McCain, JFK, and other veterans who ended up in politics.

It was also intentionally less socially intrusive and invasive, avoiding the issues that resembled the sort typified by "the personal is the political” in the interest of cultural respect and to contain the hegemon of homogeneity, something at risk where social issues are transformed into international issues.

A hope land many also have too is that the relationship isn't informed only by crises. As things go, who warts another "unifying event” to be forced on us in the form of a global financial crisis or large scale terrorist attack? There must be something more that can embolden the alliance in a way that is neither informed by fear or isn't an intellectually thread-bare act of just seeming vacuously "nice”.

The need for that bond is real, and we need it to deal with just those things that we wish didn't have to inform it to begin with - the real calamities, and our mutual well-being and security. But the sophistication just isn't there (zum beispiel) here in Berlin, where the only questions one gets about Obama is about his skin color, and literally nothing else.

The President-Elect Metamorphosing From a Black Man Into a Man of Mixed Blood

Barack Obama remporte l'élection présidentielle américaine
	Selon les estimations d'Associated Press, le démocrate est désormais assuré de l'emporter face au républicain John McCain. Il devient ainsi le premier Noir élu président des Etats-Unis.

Besides some dubious humor, the language was changing within minutes… It's no longer "un (homme) noir" who has won the White House, according to Le Monde's email service, but "un métis". (That way, the path is open for charges of anti-"black" racism to be levelled at (white) Americans in the future…)

Barack Obama entre dans l'histoire américaine
Le candidat démocrate, 47 ans, sera le 44e président des Etats-Unis. Pour la première fois, un métis va diriger les Etats-Unis, tout en bénéficiant d'une forte légitimité en raison d'un taux de participation très élevé. "Il en a fallu du temps, a déclaré Barack Obama devant une foule en liesse de 65 000 personnes à Chicago. Mais ce soir, grâce à ce que nous avons accompli aujourd'hui et pendant cette élection, en ce moment historique, le changement est arrivé en Amérique." Les électeurs votaient également pour renouveler un tiers du Sénat et les 435 représentants de la Chambre. Les démocrates ont renforcé leur majorité, gagnant 5 sièges au Sénat et obtenant plus de 60 % des sièges à la Chambre. Ce qui aidera M. Obama à faire passer ses réformes.

Am I wrong to point out that I predicted this in my post on racism?

…the bean-counters, the snickerers and the snorters … will say that oh, sure there is an African-Americans (there are African-Americans) whom Americans have elected president, but… his (but their) skin color wasn't dark enough. "Would they ever" — insert knowing ironic smile here — "elect a really dark Negro?"

It's Mourning in America

…and in the world…

Those who say otherwise — notably those who are ecstatic — remind me of an old joke…

A man and his wife are driving in the countryside, when they stop to get out and take a look at the panorama.

Suddenly, a robber appears before them. Give me your clothes, he demands. Give me your car keys. Taking out a piece of chalk, the man draws a big circle on the road. Get in there, he tells the naked husband. If you as much as put a single foot outside of it, I'll kill you.

The thief takes the naked wife behind a couple of trees and rapes her. Then he takes their money, their clothes, and their car, and drives off.

The weeping wife comes staggering back to where the husband is in his circle. To her surprise, he is laughing. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

How can you laugh?! She says between two sobs. That beast raped me, and took everything we got!!

Between two snickers, the husband replies: Because I managed to put my foot out of the circle — three times! — and he never saw me do it!

Let's Hope This Helps…

Seen earlier in the day:

An appropriate vanity license plate…

Their House is a Museum When People Come to See 'Em

People are leaving the Netherlands and the other ‘prime cuts’ of the EUtopian rump, and in record numbers for peacetime.

National emigration figures for 1999 to 2006 show that men are twice as likely to emigrate as women, and it is mostly the young (under 30) who emigrate. Furthermore, it is the Dutch in the top decile of the income distribution who are most likely to emigrate. Sixty-nine percent of Dutch emigrants choose a European destination. It should not be a surprise that most emigrants move to one of the neighbouring countries Germany and Belgium. However, it is well established that this applies mainly to cross-border migration, where people live just across the border and still work in the Netherlands. High housing and land prices in the Netherlands drive many to move to Belgium or Germany, which offer spacious houses that are almost unaffordable for middle-income households in the Netherlands. When Belgium and Germany are left out of the equation, 31% of emigrants are headed to European destinations. The US and Canada account for another 15%.

Alas but why?

Examining the determinants of emigration intentions and subsequent actions reveals a clear picture. The determinants may classified into two groups: (a) the individual characteristics that one would expect to be relevant if emigration were a matter of private gains (like age, human capital, health, networks, psychological personality characteristics) and (b) the provision and perceived quality of the public domain of life in the Netherlands. Every individual depends on the actions and solidarity of others and perhaps more so in a crowded country such as the Netherlands which is also known for its extensive welfare state. The following elements were determined – based on a statistical analysis – to represent the public domain: (1) the Dutch welfare state and institutions which provide the public goods and services (law and order, social security, education, health care); (2) the quality of the public space (noise pollution, space, nature, crowdedness); and (3) the evaluation of social problems addressed by the government, like crime, pollution, and ethnic tensions.
The results of our study reveal that both the private and the public domain of life are important to understanding emigration from a high-income country like the Netherlands. The more negative one is about the public domain, the more likely it is that one will actually emigrate (see Figure 1). Of course, the Dutch who stayed are also negative about large parts of the public domain, but emigrants (“movers” and “dreamers”, i.e. those who intended to emigrate but have not yet) are far more negative than those staying behind.1 The biggest difference between emigrants and those staying behind is the evaluation of the quality of public space. Without knowing how people feel about the quality of the public domain, large-scale emigration would remain a mystery.

In other words, a poor quality of life – and this is THE NETHERLANDS we’re talking about, possibly the most interventionist nanny state in existence. Deep intervention in social matters seems to show that those with a latent anger and an expectation that the rest of the population is structured to serve their aesthetic needs stick with it.

They go on to note that they are the more ambitious people who originate in the middle income and lower middle income brackets – those more likely to spur innovation. That they are largely male and in their prime also has a prospect of hitting the future in other ways. If social, academic, and economic activity are not robustly started or maintained by the bright ones of parenting age, what does that hold for a society’s evolution? In relative terms, not as much as it could, and what energy it does have will be a result of initiation, programming, funding, or managing by government, much as government supported art and music foundations are slowly overwhelming what used to be a private matter or the result of non-government-funded symphonies, operas, and the like.

Sooner or later, if ex-migration of the most dynamic isn’t matched by inward migration of the people with the same energy and commitment to the place, It thins out the herd, and leaves the culture on a trend toward dullness, inaction, selfishness, or disconnection from the idea that we all have a personal obligation to contribute our effort to make a good society. In its’ place goes government managed guidelines, rules, programs, etal – truly the stuff of dreams, non?

Our study suggests that the quality of the public domain is an important part of quality of life, and those Dutch who have moved are implicitly casting a vote of no confidence in those who govern the nation. This lesson may also be of some relevance to other European countries where emigration has taken off and crowdedness has become a concern. For example, England’s population density is similar to that of the Netherlands (394 inhabitants per square kilometre), and British surveys seem to register the same type of dissatisfaction witnessed in the Netherlands.

Which is hard to believe given that one of the big criticism Europeans harbor for the US, Canada, Australia, etc., is the lower apparent quality of things like parks, streets, the artfulness or otherwise of public structures. For the Dutch especially this doesn’t hold, especially for those moving to places that are more angry and cramped like greater London.

But like we often see with surveys, the questions only address the questions asked, and that the way those questions were asked hint at a subtext. Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the feeling of being fenced in, or the surprising unsociability of a place still characterized as libertine. Maybe what’s angry and cramped in this case is entirely social. When in the NETHERLANDS 30% of those who leave cite the health care system (of supposed global envy) as one of many reasons, you know that it’s isn’t just a matter of “doing more of it” to make them happy.

In any event, a loss of that sort can’t be sustained forever.

Obama's Attack Ad On Himself

"Wake Up, America": Que Dios bendiga a America

Obama supporters just came into my front yard and put signs against McCain on my car and on the sign of McCain in my front lawn

reports Xiomara Pagés, a Floridian from Kendale Lakes.

This is before Election day and before knowing who will win... Can you imagine?... what type of followers are these?...It just remind me of Castro Cuba's patrol not respecting the freedom of everyone. What a shame, Wake up America ...(*)

Thanks and God bless America!!

(*) my next door neighbor is Black, and he came a while ago to show his sorrow for what happened, He doesn't approve of this.....we hugged because we both said Friendship should not be damaged for political reasons. That already happened in Castro's Cuba.....I wish a lot of people would understand that.

Acaban de entrar a mi patio de enfrente y a mi carro a poner letreros contra McCain
acabo de llamar a la policia y a noticieros,
diganlo por todos lados....y que se sepa
tome fotos de los letreros

Es asi es como quieren ganar las elecciones? haciendo lo mismo que los comunistas... ....pues no es solo entrar a una propiedad ajena sino atentado contra la libre expresion y la libertad de todo ciudadano de tener en SU PATIO Y SU CARRO. EL CANDIDATO QUE QUIERA..

YA YO VOTE....SOY REPUBLICANA Y VOTE' ya POR McCAIN (mi vecino es negro y vino hace un rato a presentar su pena por lo que me paso hoy que me pusieron letreros contra Mc Cain en mi patio delantero y mi carro, el no esta de acuerdo con este vandalismo, y nos abrazamos, pues el y yo dijimos que la amistad no debe perderse por diferencias politicas, no vale la pena, Ojala mucha gente supiera respetar esta division de familias y amigos, que ya paso en Cuba...

Que Dios bendiga a America

Cuba Got "Change" in 1959…

…Be Careful What You Wish For…

That was the message Florida's Cubans had for America as they greeted John McCain at the Republican candidate's (midnight) arrival at the University of Miami's Bank United Center on November 2, 2008, for a Road to Victory rally, accompanied by Cindy McCain, their daughter Meghan, Joe Lieberman, Tom Ridge, Mel Martinez, Kelsey Grammer, and others…

Also in Florida was Atlas Shrugs, who could not make the McCain bash, desafortunadamente, but before she returned to New York, I witnessed her get some hard hits in…







See also the Iraqis' message to America during her presidential election…












Echoing Ronald Reagan…

So Long, Democrats

…says the Democratic speech writer Wendy Button.

I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

Did you Realize that there are Acts More Patriotic than Paying Taxes?

The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Oil

And the rusty trombone gets the mouthpiece. Or whatever... It seems hotel workers in Strasbourg are no obliged to police the private lives of Ministers of European Parliament, because it seems that many of them have to buy what their personalities can't provide otherwise: whatever preferred form of nookie they it is that gets their great deliberative body off.

It also seems that they have a Reaganite, aspirational streak, looking to be more than they are themselves:

"The parliamentarians are not interested in street prostitutes. They prefer escort girls, call girls of a slightly higher level. They find little adverts and make telephone calls. That's how they take care of business," the NGO's Isabelle Collot said.

- Via Brussels Journal, who suggest that MEPs

deserve as much regulation as their victims.

Red County

Thanks, Rich! Two articles of mine (Is Sarah Palin the Dan Quayle of 2008? and What Is It About Obama's Friends and Acquaintances That Stands Out? They All Belong to the Blame-America-First crowd) were reprinted on (in?) Red County…

Now It Is Not Only Change, It Is "Universal Change": Oh Hail the Messiah

Is that the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan calling Obama the messiah?

Barack Obama's ties to the black nationalist movement in Chicago run deep, and that for many years the two men have had "an open line between them" to discuss policy and strategy, either directly or through intermediaries.

Ignorance is the new Red

A student explains rather plainly the lesson drawn from life in France:why Obama sucks.

I am living in France with two other Americans, both of whom voted for Obama. The election has come up a few times, and also the subject of socialism. I said, "I'm not voting for Obama, because I don't want to see my country become socialist."
One of my American friends, twenty-two years old, said, "What's wrong with socialism? I don't think it's a bad idea."

I was speechless for a second. But then those little warning bells that tell me, "say something. Don't let that pass. Even if her vote is cast, you can still try to give her an alternate perspective for the future," made me open my mouth.

So, I said, "What's wrong with socialism? We live in a socialist country right now, and you hate it here. You just spent all day yelling, "Damn these French!" Imagine this level of bureaucratic frustration and ineptitude taking over every aspect of American life." I didn't want to belabor the point. But I kept thinking of life here in a socialist nation

As with the passionate babble and desperate defenses I've been hearing in Paris about DSK, the French will defend the idea, because it's all they have at this point. Once a pickle, never a cucumber!

- With many thanks to Stavn

He Had His Entire Adulthood to Distance Himself From Ayers, but Didn't

The Love Bus Ends at the Terminal

Thank a Leftist

The self-absorbed me generation types are terminal, some of them can only think of one thing on the way out.

What do you expect? Merging class-selfishness and class-warfare with fake concern gave Europeans socialism-by-any-other-name, now that they’ve made every personal matter one of the society at large, they’ve gotten to the point where they have to ration human rights – such as the right to live – to make that all-important “social budget”.

On pitiless Planet Warnock, people are valued in proportion to their ability to lead an independent life. If they can't do so, they are to be written off as valueless - and even more nauseating, they are being told they actually have a duty to end their lives.

The elderly and chronically sick - indeed, anyone who constantly depends on others for care - often dread being a burden on their nearest and dearest. To be told that they must end this burden by finishing themselves off can only increase their guilt, despair and suffering.

On Planet Warnock, it seems that ties of family and kinship, acts of selfless love, the deep satisfaction from bringing comfort to those who are helpless or who are so poignantly leaving

It doesn’t appear to be asking “what kind of life is worth living” if you can’t quite hang from an S&M trapeze anymore – not even that... The motive is depersonalized and arbitrary, identical to that of those of the old eugenicists: to dispose of those who can’t produce anything for them anymore, but require a resource from the glorious welfare state that they idolized for so long.

Actually, it’s the bonds formed by love at all that have to be disposed of to get to the point where it seems okay to “mulch the aged in the interest of society”. Looking back, why is it that people are so much more likely to want to believe that their “independence” is a virtue, when in fact they have been socialized to be so unlovable?

Wake Up, America: Que Dios bendiga a America

Obama supporters just came into my front yard and put signs against McCain on my car and on the sign of McCain in my front lawn

reports Xiomara Pagés, a Floridian from Kendale Lakes.

This is before Election day and before knowing who will win... Can you imagine?... what type of followers are these?...It just remind me of Castro Cuba's patrol not respecting the freedom of everyone. What a shame, Wake up America ...(*)

Thanks and God bless America!!

(*) my next door neighbor is Black, and he came a while ago to show his sorrow for what happened, He doesn't approve of this.....we hugged because we both said Friendship should not be damaged for political reasons. That already happened in Castro's Cuba.....I wish a lot of people would understand that.

Acaban de entrar a mi patio de enfrente y a mi carro a poner letreros contra McCain
acabo de llamar a la policia y a noticieros,
diganlo por todos lados....y que se sepa
tome fotos de los letreros

Es asi es como quieren ganar las elecciones? haciendo lo mismo que los comunistas... ....pues no es solo entrar a una propiedad ajena sino atentado contra la libre expresion y la libertad de todo ciudadano de tener en SU PATIO Y SU CARRO. EL CANDIDATO QUE QUIERA..

YA YO VOTE....SOY REPUBLICANA Y VOTE' ya POR McCAIN (mi vecino es negro y vino hace un rato a presentar su pena por lo que me paso hoy que me pusieron letreros contra Mc Cain en mi patio delantero y mi carro, el no esta de acuerdo con este vandalismo, y nos abrazamos, pues el y yo dijimos que la amistad no debe perderse por diferencias politicas, no vale la pena, Ojala mucha gente supiera respetar esta division de familias y amigos, que ya paso en Cuba...

Que Dios bendiga a America

"What's wrong with socialism? I don't think it's a bad idea"

I am living in France with two other Americans, both of whom voted for Obama

sighs Marianne (merci à stavnpiranha).

The election has come up a few times, and also the subject of socialism. I said, "I'm not voting for Obama, because I don't want to see my country become socialist."

One of my American friends, twenty-two years old, said, "What's wrong with socialism? I don't think it's a bad idea."

I was speechless for a second. But then those little warning bells that tell me, "say something. Don't let that pass. Even if her vote is cast, you can still try to give her an alternate perspective for the future," made me open my mouth.

So, I said, "What's wrong with socialism? We live in a socialist country right now, and you hate it here. You just spent all day yelling, "Damn these French!" Imagine this level of bureaucratic frustration and ineptitude taking over every aspect of American life."

Read Marianne's six points…

I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the founding fathers

How much have things changed in 44 years? Ronald Reagan (02:56, thanks to the person who reminded me of the address) in 1964:

…I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the founding fathers.

Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refuge — a businessman who had escaped from Castro — and in the midst of his story, one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are!" And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are?! I had some place to escape to…"

And in that sentence, he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth…

And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man.

This is the issue of this election!

Who Would the Iraqis Vote For?

Meanwhile, which candidate would Iraqis vote for?! With all the hysterics and the apocalyptic language that the media, the Left, and the war opponents use for the conflict, shouldn't the Iraqis' views be taken into account? (Answer: not if their views doesn't mesh in with the Media's, the Left's and the war opponents' (simplistic) views…) For the rest of us, however…

"The Iranians believe that if Obama is elected he will not take action against them despite their nuclear ambitions. That worries me," said Ali, sitting on an old bench in Al-Zahawi coffee shop.

"If the Iranians get the bomb they will become the Tarzan of the region," said the former teacher and lecturer at the University of Baghdad, referring to the vine-swinging strongman of the jungle in old Hollywood movies.

Mohammed, also a professor at the university, said he too preferred McCain "because Obama supports a rapid withdrawal of US troops."

"Our army is still too weak and Turkey and Iran are threats. Iran's President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad has warned Iran would fill the void left when US troops depart," he said.

Like I've always said, the thing to notice about Iraq articles and columns and op-eds in the mainstream media in both America and abroad is how few of their signers have Arab names; is how few of the holders of these opinions are in fact Iraqi; is how few of them live in Iraq now and how few of them had to live in Iraq under Saddam Hussein… (Of course, the same thing — with Iraqis changed to Vietnamese — can be said for opinions about the "horrid" Vietnam war…)

Another Foreign Member of the Blame-America-First Crowd Joins the Obama Bandwagon

Another friend of America (sic) joins the Blame-America-First crowd, writes Ken Blackwell.

Ali Larijani … the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament [said on] October 22 … that the regime in Iran would like to see Mr. Obama elected president.

Mr. Larijani is not the first hostile foreign leader to endorse or be aligned with Mr. Obama. In April, top Hamas advisor Ahmed Yousef also endorsed Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama’s long-time associate and self-described Marxist, Bill Ayers, actively backs him. Mr. Obama’s mentor and two-decade long spiritual leader, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, traveled to Libya to meet with the controversial Moammar Gadhafi. His church published a pro-Hamas piece on Rev. Wright’s “Pastor’s Page.” The article defended terrorism against Israel and denied Israel’s right to exist.

Mr. Obama’s political alignments are alarming.

Terrorist leaders never endorsed Bill Clinton, or Al Gore, or John Kerry. And to the best of my knowledge, terrorist leaders have never publicly supported a major party presidential nominee—until now.

Meanwhile, Richard Olivastro asks (while quoting the martyred reverend), Who Would MLK Support?

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Read also:
• On Foreign Policy, It's Ace Vs. Amateur
• What Is It About Obama's Friends and Acquaintances That Stands Out? They All Belong to the Blame-America-First crowd

More Double Standards: The Press Protects (?) Its Own…

Do you remember the fuss that was kicked up when George W Bush got a critic with the White House press office replaced (by a blogger, if memory serves me correctly)?

Well, Barack Obama, aka the healer of the divides, isn't even president yet, and he already got three newspapers lobbed off the Democrats' airplane.

And of course, the mainstream media which went berserk regarding the Bush decision, crying censorship and imperial presidency and so on, is hardly saying a word…

Read (merci, François) Victor Davis Hanson's The End of Journalism for Obama’s advocacy for a share-the-wealth socialism and other central issues…

Imagine the reaction of the New York Times or the Washington Post had John McCain renounced his promise to participate in public campaign financing, proceeded instead to amass $600 million and outraise the publicly financed Barack Obama four-to-one, and begun airing special 30-minute unanswered infomercials during the last week of the campaign…

Imagine the reaction of Newsweek or Time had moose-hunting mom Sarah Palin claimed FDR went on television to address the nation as President in 1929, or warned America that our enemies abroad would test John McCain and that his response would result in a radical loss of his popularity at home…

Imagine the reaction of CNN or NBC had John McCain’s pastor and spiritual advisor of 20 years been revealed as a white supremacist who damned a multiracial United States, or had he been a close acquaintance until 2005 of an unrepentant terrorist bomber of abortion clinics, or had McCain himself sued to eliminate congressional opponents by challenging the validity of African-American voters who signed petitions, or had both his primary and general election senatorial rivals imploded once their sealed divorce records were mysteriously leaked…