Today's post is very late due to some technical glitches, but I finally managed to improvise something...
Sarah Palin, just after the 2008 elections:
'I wish Barack Obama well as the 44th President of the United States,' she told the Republican Governors Association Meeting in Miami yesterday.
'If he governs with the skill and the grace and the greatness of which he is capable, we're going to be just fine.'
"It would be my honor to assist and support our new president and the new administration," the former Republican vice presidential nominee told CNN.
The following clip is from an interview given around the time of President Obama's inauguration:
She has changed her tune quite drastically since she first expressed her support for the President and has attacked both occupants of the White House relentlessly for over two years.
It looks like Sarah Palin finds it more honourable to spew vitriol for money than to support a President who puts the people ahead of the corporations. The very people she mentioned in the clip...
Showing posts with label barack obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barack obama. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Good for Palin, bad for Obama?
How come Sarah Palin proudly took on the largest corporations in the state of Alaska, taxing them in a way she thought was fair, raising billions of dollars in revenue for her state, but President Obama can't do the same for the country?
The Alaska Legislature adopted a plan proposed by Palin in 2007 (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share) that raised the tax that oil companies have to pay on their profits from a base rate of 22.5 percent to 25 percent. Oil companies, including ExxonMobil, opposed the tax hike, claiming it would affect their project investments. The revenue generated from the tax increase, which significantly added to the state’s budget surplus, allowed Palin’s administration to issue a one time "resource rebate" of $1,200 to eligible state residents in 2008 to help with increasing energy prices. The rebate came in addition to the annual dividend check ($2,069 in 2008) that residents receive as their part of the state’s oil wealth.
The state of Alaska wasn't going through a major financial crisis, and yet she counts ACES as one of her achievements as governor.
Now she's writing Facebook notes encouraging the GOP in Congress to thwart Obama's plans for solving the debt crisis through his proposal of a tax hike for the corporations, something similar to what she implemented in Alaska, but not to butter up the electorate, all he wants is to save the economy and prevent defaulting on the debt.
Obama is not planning to send every American a $1,200 check, he just wants to balance the books and preserve vital services for the needy. Sarah Palin wishes to protect the profits of the least needy.
What was clear and equitable for Alaskans is not clear and equitable for her precious real Americans?
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Sarah Palin Strikes Again - VIDEO
Sarah Palin went on Judge Jeanine Pirro's show last night and spouted her usual tried and tested common sense catchphrases: "The left wants to make us sit down and shut up," "We have to draw a line in the sand," and a few others...
She was particularly aggressive when talking about the president, accusing him of using the troops as political pawns.
Other highlights:
Rep Ryan's proposals are a good start but don't go far enough.
Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare can and should be on the table when considering budget cuts.
Iraq and other countries that counted on any assistance from the US should compensate the US if they have the resources. In the case of Iraq, their oil.
President Obama is insulting Americans by shoving stuff down their throats.
Republicans and the Tea Party have to be more aggressive.
Sarah Palin talking about the president's birth certificateThe best bit was about president Obama's birth certificate. She thinks it's wonderful that Donald Trump is using his resources to get to the bottom of it because there are so many people interested in this. Sarah Palin believes that Obama was born in Hawaii because there was a birth announcement in a newspaper, but thinks he's hiding something because he spent 2 million dollars to prevent it from being made public. "There must be something in that birth certificate he doesn't want people to see."
Well, well.. there must be something in Trig's birth certificate that Sarah Palin doesn't want the world to see. Is there a Donald Trump out there prepared to spend some money to get to the bottom of it? It would interest the American public just as much as Obama's "secrets."
Trig Palin, official birth date: April 18, 2008.
Seen here hours after arriving 5 weeks prematurely,
weighing 6 lb 2 oz
Seen here hours after arriving 5 weeks prematurely,
weighing 6 lb 2 oz
I have changed the photo of Trig because I had mistakenly used a picture taken at a later date. (H/T to minnesotamud)
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Sarah Palin - $4 per gallon of BS
Sarah Palin is blaming President Obama (surprise, surprise!) for the high price of fuel. In her latest Facebook note she attempts to prove her claims by offering Exhibits A, B, and C, making very simplistic connections between domestic oil production and prices at the pump.
In Exhibit A, she condemns the president's moratorium on deepwater drilling as an emotional and political reaction to the Gulf spill. Emotion is something Sarah Palin doesn't comprehend at all. We all watched in horror as the spill progressed, with the oil industry experts scratching their heads, not knowing what to do next. Neither the president nor the experts took her Dutch and Norwegian dike suggestion seriously.
Not everybody believes that God put the oil under American soil and costal waters to be recovered at any cost. In Sarah Palin's book, the environment and wildlife are nothing, profits for Big Oil are everything.
Exhibit B is a laugh. In this one, the governor who took on Big Oil and raised their taxes points to the 2012 budget, where tax incentives for the industry were removed. Well, she believes in tax incentives, but only for some of her chums, as in the case of the $193 million tax credits given to 15 secret oil and gas companies.
Exhibit C blames Obama's anti-drilling regulatory policies for companies giving up on drilling. Shell decided to abandon exploratory drilling on the Chukchi and Beaufort seas after becoming despondent about these regulations over five years (Obama has been president for just over two years!). Sarah Palin doesn't specify what these horrible regulations are, but at the time of the Gulf spill she was all for regulation:
"Government can and must play an appropriate role here. If a company was lax in its prevention practices, it must be held accountable. It is inexcusable for any oil company to not invest in preventative measures. They must be held accountable or the public will forever distrust the industry.
This was the position I took as an oil and gas regulator and as Governor of Alaska when my administration ramped up oversight of the oil industry and created a petroleum-systems-integrity office to monitor our oil and gas infrastructure for potential environmental risks. I took a lot of heat for the stand I took “against the oil industry” (which is how political adversaries labeled my actions). But we took tough action because there was proof of some improper maintenance of oil infrastructure which I believed was unacceptable. We instituted new oversight and held British Petroleum (BP) financially accountable for poor maintenance practices. We also filed a Friend-of-the-Court brief against Exxon’s interests for its decades-old responsibility to compensate Alaskans affected by the Valdez spill, and I took other actions “against” the industry which ultimately helped hold it accountable."
I suspect Obama's regulations have something to do with the environment and vulnerable wildlife habitats, a big no-no for Sarah.
Throughout this note, Sarah Palin implies that oil production has fallen due to Obama's anti-drilling policies. The Financial Times begs to differ:
US oil production last year rose to its highest level in almost a decade, thanks to an increase in the use of “unconventional” extraction techniques.
As a result, analysts believe the US was the largest contributor to the increase in global oil supplies last year over 2009, and is on track to increase domestic production by 25 per cent by the second half of the decade.
According to the US government’s Energy Information Administration, domestic production of crude oil and related liquids rose 3 per cent last year to an average of 7.51m barrels a day – its highest level since 2002.
The rise enabled a 2 per cent drop in US oil imports to 9.45m b/d, in spite of rising demand as the economy recovered.
She closes Exhibit C with something about Harry Reid's cowboys. I must confess she lost me at this point...
Sarah goes on to mention the price of fuel in the UK, showing that she doesn't understand how things work over there.
Fuel tax in the UK is constantly changing and has risen steadily over the last 15 years. Between 1993 and 1999 there was a rapid increase with duties on fuel increasing by 3% above inflation. This was due to a major change in petrol taxation in 1993 when the Conservatives introduced the Fuel Price 'escalator'. This was a way of the government making money and also to help protect the environment by discouraging people from using their cars.
A 0.76p increase on the 1st January 2011 brought the duty rate for the main road fuels up to 58.95p per litre. This coincided with the 2.5% increase in VAT rate, which is now at record high of 20%.
She concludes her note with the usual blah blah blah about energy independence, how America has to depend on the enemies of all things American for their energy needs, etc etc. She calls energy the buiding block of the economy and accuses the president of purposely weakening the building bock and the country.
Sarah Palin's note is confused and confusing, relying on dodgy "facts," just another opportunity to bash Obama and paint herself as an energy "expert." It's business as usual in Palinland, is it not?
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Sarah Palin: I won't talk to the "lamestream" media while running for President - PLUS: Palin's "favorite" tweet features an Obama "birther" fanatic
The dust from the election slowly settles, and it's time to "move on" again, back to our "daily business." However, this headline by UK Guardian shouldn't be missed:
"Without the energy of the Tea Party, we wouldn't be looking at Speaker Boehner," Nicolle Wallace, a senior John McCain aide who has had a number of high-visibility clashes with Palin, told MSNBC television. "Republicans accept we made some tradeoffs."
But maybe not for long. Palin's aggressive intervention in the midterm elections – and the mixed results – has refocused attention on her personal flaws as presidential material.
She may be a heroine to the Tea Party activists, capable of firing up the deeply conservative wing of the party. But she is poison to the broader electorate – in opinion polls, two-thirds still think she is unfit to be president – and she has shown she values ideological purity over electability.
That could present some conflicts further on to Republicans looking to build on their big gains in Congress before the 2012 elections. Palin made it clear yesterday that she is expecting payback, and that Republicans can not take her or the Tea Party activists for granted.
"Flawed presidential material" or not, Sarah Palin is going to run for President. She can! She will! She must!
However, there are some very silly people in the media who haven't understood yet that Palin wants nothing more than the Presidency, that she is simply obsessed with it, and that rational thinking has nothing to do with it at all. Well, they are going to find out soon.
Speaking about the "lamestream" media: On election night, Sarah Palin was interviewed on Fox by Shepard Smith. He asked a very important question: If Palin runs for President, will she "step out of the box" and talk to other media, apart from Fox, a channel which is giving her, as Shepard Smith puts it, a certain degree of "protection from other media outlets?"
Her answer couldn't have been more clear:
"I will not talk to reporters who have an obvious bias or vendetta or are going to turn my words into something that they are not meant to be and take these out of context. I would much rather be able to speak to the people without that lamestream filter that would pervert what it is that I am trying to say. I've lived through it. I don't need it. And, we have a lot of problems in the world of journalism today, much more biased, I believe, much more unethical that it was when I received my communications degree many many decades ago. But back then, Shep, we learned the who? what? where? when? and why? of journalism and we reported the facts and then the viewers and readers made up their own mind. It's not like that anymore."
So, ABC, CBS, NBC, Politico, Washington Post, New York Times and whoever else is out there who is biased and potentially un-American, please don't expect to get any face-time with the Queen. She doesn't want you, she doesn't need you, and like any good "dictator in training", she will stick by her No 1 rule: Control the message.
So how does Sarah plan to deal with the media when she is President? Will she give press conferences? Why am I even asking? Aren't these press conferences just an unproductive waste of time anyway? Who really needs to talk to all these nosy reporters with their silly, meaningless questions, when President Palin can just go on Hannity and explain herself without being hassled by evil gotcha journalists? It's much more time effective as well, isn't it!
Well, if I had so many dirty secrets like Sarah Palin, I wouldn't want to talk to the media either...
Meanwhile, the media slowly starts to realize that Sarah Palin is an extremist. You don't say! OK, snark aside. It's long overdue that the media finally discovers the "real" Sarah Palin - the woman who started her political career while being firmly embedded within the right-wing AIP-fringes in Alaska (also HERE).
It is also no concidence that Sarah Palin was photographed as mayor in 1995 at her desk with an article in front of her which was published by the John Birch Society - a fact which the "Birchers" confirmed themselves.
Michael Gerson discovered Sarah Palin's extremism and wrote in the Washington Post on Tuesday about Sarah Palin's endorsment of Tom Tancredo in Colorado:
But this election season has called that perception into question. Palin's endorsement of Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware Republican Senate primary revealed a preference for a shallow ideological purity above achievement, qualification or electoral success. And on Monday, Palin issued a robocall for Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo in Colorado, one of the most divisive figures in American politics.
Tancredo has made a career of fanning anti-immigrant resentment and lobbing ideological grenades. The people who voted Barack Obama into office, in his view, "can't even spell the word vote or even speak English." America would be better off with a "civics, literacy test" for voting. The National Council of La Raza is "a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses." Miami is a "Third World country." Pope Benedict's embrace of immigrants is all about "recruiting new members," in an attempt at "faith-based marketing." "The guy sitting in the White House," says Tancredo, is a greater threat to the Constitution than al-Qaeda. "If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don't we just send him back?"
It would be the worst outcome of this Election Day if the conservative wave were to carry Tancredo into office. The replacement of the supremely decent Colorado Governor Bill Ritter with a nativist who mocks the dignity of the presidency and poisons American political discourse would help discredit the decent aims of the Tea Party movement. But Palin calls Tancredo the "right man for the job." Her endorsement raises the question of whether Palin has any standards for her support other than anti-government rhetoric.
Palin recently took to Fox Business Network to call establishment Republicans "sleazy." "Some within the establishment don't like the fact that I won't back down to the good old boys club," she said. This odd mix of Tea Party Jacobinism and feminist grievance has become Palin's operating style. What many Republicans, establishment and otherwise, don't like is this: The leading figure of the Tea Party movement seems increasingly indifferent to Republican fortunes and increasingly tolerant of disturbing extremism.
Extremism? Yup yup, you betcha!
The "lamestream" doesn't need to look further than Sarah Palin's notorious twitter account.
Take a look at Sarah Palin's "favorite tweets." UPDATE! Sarah now deleted all her "favorites" on twitter - I also saved a PDF-copy of this page earlier today, together with this screenshot:
"THE BLOOD OF JESUS AGAINST OBAMAHISTORY MADE 4 NOVEMBER A TALIBANMUSLIM ILLEGALLY ELECTEDPRESIDENT USA: HUSSEIN"
Oh yeah, which real American wouldn't want to "favorite" this tweet!
Pastor James David Manning is a rabid Obama-birther, a vicious hate-monger who is obsessed with labeling Obama "Hitler." He made his rounds in various TV-shows, and fortunately he was also interviewed by Jason Jones from the "Daily Show", which turned out to be the PERFECT venue for him - watch for yourself:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Unusual Suspect | ||||
| ||||
I watched this clip when it came out, and it was always one of my favorite Daily Show clips ever.
OMG, I have something in common with Sarah Palin: We both have a "favorite" which includes statements by James David Manning.
God help me!
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Please re-tweet:
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UPDATE:
Double LOL!
The nutty Pastor Manning published a new video yesterday, explaining how much he despises Sarah Palin!
Karma is a bitch, Sarah! ;-)
Manning: "Sarah Palin is a dipsy-doodle!"
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UPDATE 2:
Sarah Palin now deleted all her favorites on twitter!
Well, I guess we gotcha you there, Sarah.
Earlier today, I also made a PDF-copy of this page, see HERE.
Rebecca!! Rebeccaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! Make this go away!!!!! NOW!!!!! REBECCAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
Sarah, you don't even know how to handle twitter, and you want to become the most powerful person in the world?
Can somebody wake me up, please? I think I am dreaming.
You really are a dipsy-doodle, Sarah!
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UPDATE 3:
Sarah Palin wrote to Jake Tapper from ABC News and tried to "explain" the incident!
Her excuse: The blackberry didn't know what he/she/it was doing!
“Jake, I've never purposefully ‘favorited’ any Tweet. I had to go back to my BlackBerry to even see if such a function was possible. I was traveling to Alaska that day...it was an obvious accidental ‘favoriting,’ but no one can mistake that Ann Coulter was obviously being tongue in cheek with that Tweet. Shall I correct this with whichever wonderful media outlet ran with this (an obviously bored reporter...since there must be nothing going on in the world today, like, um, ramifications of a shake up of power in the U.S. House of Representatives?).”
Dear Sarah:
I know you are reading this. Let me explain: "'Favoriting' a tweet" is not function in the Blackberry, ok? It's a function in this little twitter thingy which you love to use every day to spread your wisdom.
You favorited not just one tweet, but six tweets in total, including a fundraising appeal to SarahPAC. To refresh your memory, these were your "favorited tweets" before you deleted all your favorites today (larger screenshot HERE):
Sarah, you don't know how to handle your twitter account, and in fact, you don't know how to handle anything. Please go to your doctor in Wasilla, continue with your treatment and care for your family. Many thanks.
Try to take responsibility for your actions, just try, only once, ok? After all, you want to become the most powerful person in the world, and this person should have a certain idea of what "responsibility" looks like.
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UPDATE 4:
Anderson Cooper was on the case yesterday on CNN and did a good job, but what truly stood out were the statements by his guest, Marc Lamont Hill, who sent out the original tweet and who didn't let Sarah Palin "off the hook." Afterwards there was also an excellent interview with Jim Vandehei, executive editor of Politico.
Watch:
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UPDATE 5: The pitfalls of sarcasm
In the eyes of the Palinbots, Sarah Palin's latest cock-up is of course just another "non-scandal." Surely almost everyone favorited tweets by accident before, right? Doesn't it happen every day?
Well, this was apparently the general line of thinking for Sarah Palin's fan who sent the following tweet to ABC journalist Jake Tapper, who responded promptly:
Haha...LOL...good one, Jake!
But, but....Jake!! Didn't you know that when you use sarcasm or irony, you have to EXPLAIN to Sarah Palin's fans that you just were sarcastic or ironic? Because you see, Jake, in Sarah Palin's world, sarcasm and irony does not exist, because "above average" intelligence is sometimes required to "get" the "joke." Therefore Sarah Palin would immediately ban all expressions of sarcasm or irony for being "too confusing and potentially subversive" if she ever became the Queen of the USA.
So you shouldn't be surprised that Sheya from Conservatives4Palin and PalinTV, who in real life is a Jewish folk singer based in London, UK, God bless her, did not really understand what you were trying to bring across in your tweet:
"It happens to the best of us."
Yes, you are SO right, Sheya, it does, it does!
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Websites which linked to this post:
The story was also picked up by:
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Saturday, 9 October 2010
Letter from Barack Obama - PLUS: Two documentaries about the US media everyone should have seen - Open Thread
Rarely do we write about President Barack Obama. My feeling is that his presidency will be one of the most under-appreciated ever, during the time of its course - but that later he will become a highly respected "elder statesman", and that the people in retrospect will see his presidency in a much more favorable light. Right now, in this deep economic crisis and rough political climate, it's certainly hard for many people to really appreciate this first-class President.
Today, President Obama sent a letter to his supporters. We thought that it would be a good idea to publish the letter as well, so that as many people as possible can receive it. Many thanks to mrsgunka for forwarding the letter to us!
President Obama wrote:
"K --+++
I come into this election with clear eyes.
I am proud of all we have achieved together, but I am mindful of all that remains to be done.
I know some out there are frustrated by the pace of our progress. I want you to know I'm frustrated, too.
But with so much riding on the outcome of this election, I need everyone to get in this game.
Neither one of us is here because we thought it would be easy. Making change is hard. It's what we've said from the beginning. And we've got the lumps to show for it.
The fight this fall is as critical as any this movement has taken on together. And if we are serious about change, we need to fight as hard as we ever have.
The very special interests who have stood in the way of change at every turn want to put their conservative allies in control of Congress. And they're doing it with the help of billionaires and corporate special interests underwriting shadowy campaign ads.
If they succeed, they will not stop at making our work more difficult -- they will do their best to undo what you and I fought so hard to achieve.
There is no better time for you to start fighting back -- a fellow grassroots supporter has promised to match, dollar for dollar, whatever you can chip in today.
Please donate $3 -- and see who wants you to re-commit to this movement.
I know that sometimes it feels like we've come a long way from the hope and excitement of the inauguration, with its "Hope" posters and historic crowds on the National Mall.
I will never forget it. But it was never why we picked up this fight.
I didn't run for president because I wanted to do what would make me popular. And you didn't help elect me so I could read the polls and calculate how to keep myself in office.
You and I are in this because we believe in a simple idea -- that each and every one of us, working together, has the power to move this country forward. We believed that this was the moment to solve the challenges that the country had ignored for far too long.
That change happens only from the bottom up. That change happens only because of you.
So I need you to fight for it over the next 26 days. I need your time. I need your commitment. And I need your help to get your friends and neighbors involved.
If you bring in a new donor today, your $3 donation will become $6. And our Vote 2010 campaign will have twice the resources to make important investments like putting staff on the ground, providing materials for volunteers, and turning out millions of voters come Election Day.
Please donate $3 -- and renew your commitment today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/OctoberMatch
If we meet this test -- if you, like me, believe that change is not a spectator sport -- we will not just win this election. In the years that come, we can realize the change we are seeking -- and reclaim the American dream for this generation.
Thank you for being a part of it,
President Barack Obama"
PLUS:
We received very positive feedback after posting the excellent, must-see documentary "White Power USA", created by "Big Noise Films."
Therefore we thought that it would be a good idea to continue to post important documentaries on a regular basis - especially documentaries you won't see on mainstream TV.
Today I would like to present two essential documentaries about the US media.
Some of you have certainly seen these documentaries before. But even so - maybe it's a good time to revisit them.
First documentary: "Orwell Rolls In His Grave"
"Could a media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth?..."
Director Robert Kane Pappas’ "Orwell Rolls In His Grave" is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn’t like to talk about: itself.
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Second documentary: Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a 2004 documentary film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald that criticises the Fox News Channel, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, claiming that the channel is used to promote and advocate right-wing views. The film says this pervasive bias contradicts the channel's claim of being "Fair and Balanced", and argues that Fox News has been engaging in what amounts to consumer fraud.
Enjoy!
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Sunday, 26 September 2010
US politics today: The Koch brothers profit massively from "socialism" - and Forbes Magazine jumps the shark with bizarre Obama cover story - UPDATES!
American politics in 2010 is nasty business, thanks to the noisy right-wing extremists, who receive generous support by the infamous Koch brothers. More fascinating facts regarding the Koch brothers further below.
First, I would like to mention the new cover story in Forbes Magazine about Barack Obama, which I think is supposed to be published in print on Monday. "HOW HE THINKS" screams the cover...
...and it promises to examine the roots of "Obama's big problem with business."
Well, I don't know too much about Forbes Magazine, apart from the fact that it's a major business magazine, but if you want to see an example of biased, manipulative journalism, you just need to read the opening paragraphs of the article, which was published online already several days ago:
"Barack Obama is the most antibusiness president in a generation, perhaps in American history. Thanks to him the era of big government is back. Obama runs up taxpayer debt not in the billions but in the trillions. He has expanded the federal government's control over home mortgages, investment banking, health care, autos and energy. The Weekly Standard summarizes Obama's approach as omnipotence at home, impotence abroad.
The President's actions are so bizarre that they mystify his critics and supporters alike. Consider this headline from the Aug. 18, 2009 issue of the Wall Street Journal: "Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling." Did you read that correctly? You did. The Administration supports offshore drilling--but drilling off the shores of Brazil. With Obama's backing, the U.S. Export-Import Bank offered $2 billion in loans and guarantees to Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras to finance exploration in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro--not so the oil ends up in the U.S. He is funding Brazilian exploration so that the oil can stay in Brazil."
Wow! So Bill Kristol's "Weekly Standard" said that Obama's approach is "omnipotence at home, impotence abroad?" I guess it has to be true then. How thankful we are that Forbes educates us on this point.
If you think the article gets off to a bad start, it get's worse - much worse:
"Theories abound to explain the President's goals and actions. Critics in the business community--including some Obama voters who now have buyer's remorse--tend to focus on two main themes. The first is that Obama is clueless about business. The second is that Obama is a socialist--not an out-and-out Marxist, but something of a European-style socialist, with a penchant for leveling and government redistribution."
Sure, he is a socialist. Didn't we already know it. Europe is apparently full of them, also, too.
But wasn't there something else? Barack Obama, he is, well, not REALLY one of "us", right?
"But we have been blinded to his real agenda because, across the political spectrum, we all seek to fit him into some version of American history. In the process, we ignore Obama's own history. Here is a man who spent his formative years--the first 17 years of his life--off the American mainland, in Hawaii, Indonesia and Pakistan, with multiple subsequent journeys to Africa."
So he spent his "formative years" in rather obscure parts of the world. Forbes Magazine, we are just dying to hear more...
"A good way to discern what motivates Obama is to ask a simple question: What is his dream? Is it the American dream? Is it Martin Luther King's dream? Or something else?
It is certainly not the American dream as conceived by the founders. They believed the nation was a "new order for the ages." A half-century later Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of America as creating "a distinct species of mankind." This is known as American exceptionalism. But when asked at a 2009 press conference whether he believed in this ideal, Obama said no. America, he suggested, is no more unique or exceptional than Britain or Greece or any other country."
So the business people dislike Barack Obama, he is a European style socialist, spent much of his younger life in some weird countries. Wasn't there something else?
He had a father...
"So who was Barack Obama Sr.? He was a Luo tribesman who grew up in Kenya and studied at Harvard. He was a polygamist who had, over the course of his lifetime, four wives and eight children. One of his sons, Mark Obama, has accused him of abuse and wife-beating. He was also a regular drunk driver who got into numerous accidents, killing a man in one and causing his own legs to be amputated due to injury in another. In 1982 he got drunk at a bar in Nairobi and drove into a tree, killing himself."
In 1965, Obama Sr. wrote an "important" article with "anti-colonial" content:
"Obama Sr. wasn't a doctrinaire socialist; rather, he saw state appropriation of wealth as a necessary means to achieve the anticolonial objective of taking resources away from the foreign looters and restoring them to the people of Africa."
"It may seem incredible to suggest that the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. is espoused by his son, the President of the United States. That is what I am saying. From a very young age and through his formative years, Obama learned to see America as a force for global domination and destruction. He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder. Obama grew to perceive the rich as an oppressive class, a kind of neocolonial power within America. In his worldview, profits are a measure of how effectively you have ripped off the rest of society, and America's power in the world is a measure of how selfishly it consumes the globe's resources and how ruthlessly it bullies and dominates the rest of the planet.
For Obama, the solutions are simple. He must work to wring the neocolonialism out of America and the West. And here is where our anticolonial understanding of Obama really takes off, because it provides a vital key to explaining not only his major policy actions but also the little details that no other theory can adequately account for."
You get the picture. Barack Obama is "anticolonial", and that's the main motivation which drives Obama. We don't really need more facts, it all falls nicely into place, doesn't it: With such a strange father and having lived his "formative years" in even stranger countries, how can Barack Obama possibly please the "Founding Fathers?
I guess this article which in my opinion is completely devoid of any facts, logical thought and reasoned thinking and paints Obama as one gigantic "self fulfilling prophecy" will probably be part of the the next edition of Texan textbooks. With this peculiar black man in the White House, America can never be pure and exceptional again. It almost feels like America's honor has to be restored. Can it be that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were right? You betcha, Americans! Let's take the country back from the evil socialist with the even more evil father! Says Forbes Magazine, if I understand it correctly.
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Speaking of Socialists:
The Koch brothers - they hate socialists. Really, they do. They are currently "waging a war against Obama", using their seemingly endless funds, recently also massively donating to one of Karl Rove groups, providing 91% of its funding.
They are supporting the "libertarian" Tea Party parrots like Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell and Joe Miller, who are all running on the Republican ticket and would like to dismantle social security, and while we are at it, who needs healthcare anyway? Real Americans don't get sick. And if they do, it's their own fault if they are not stinking rich and can pay for it themselves. Who needs all these ugly poor people who would like to have healthcare anyway? Certainly not the Koch brothers.
Despite that fact that they apparently hate nothing more than evil socialism, the Koch brothers seems to have quite a cozy relationship with the benefits of "socialism" - as the New York Observer reports, giving seven well researched examples.
From socialist shipbuilding, investments in Venezuela, subsidies for ranching and ethanol production - Koch Industries loves state aid and state subsidies. This is contrary to the libertarian dogmas of their own Cato Institute "brain trust", but who cares - it's all about making money in the end, isn't end?
If you do real research, if you report real facts, you will find surprising answers.
If you just want propaganda, then you don't need those pesky facts which are just standing in the way of "American purity."
The hypocritical Koch Brothers are by far not the only industrialists who finance extremist right-wing movements for their own gain.
It happened before. Adolf Hitler already knew:
"Millions are standing behind me!"
(Montage by John Heartfield, 1932)
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UPDATE:
"Campus Progress" has a very detailed portrait of the author of this Forbes article, Dinesh D'Souza.
Some excerpts:
"A darling of the right-wing-campus-newspaper-backing Collegiate Network, D’Souza helped found the infamous ultra-conservative Dartmouth Review as an undergrad. Under D’Souza’s “leadership,” The Review ran notoriously tasteless, bigoted, and just downright offensive articles of all stripes. Among his signature pieces: a parody of African American students at Dartmouth entitled “This Sho Ain’t No Jive Bro”; an interview with a Ku Klux Klan member featuring a graphic of a hanged black man; and selected words of wisdom from Adolf Hitler. The Review consistently referred to gay men as sodomites, and D’Souza himself publicly outed one gay student in an article based on stolen correspondence between members of the Dartmouth Gay Student Alliance.
With his journalistic career on the upswing (if not the up and up), D’Souza was hired as the editor of Prospect, a magazine started by a conservative Princeton alum. D’Souza’s stint as editor helped him expand his already outrageous repertoire to include a sexist attack on the field of women’s studies. Also while he was editor, the magazine published an expose of a female undergrad’s sex life without her permission.
In 1987 his free-flowing conservative prose, which by now included a glowing biography of Moral Majority Leader, Jerry Falwell ironically titled “Jerry Falwell: A Critical Biography,” got him a job inside the Beltway as a domestic policy analyst for Reagan. He served in the administration for only about a year, which was long enough for him to collect enough material to write his second celebrity bio ten years later, this time a fawning portrait of his former boss, titled Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader.
By 1989, he began receiving annual grants from the Olin Foundation, which funds the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research amongst other conservative intellectual beacons. He now seems to be on Olin’s permanent payroll, receiving annual payouts, often of upwards of $100,000."
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UPDATE 2:
Not surprisingly, the piece by Dinesh D'Souza encountered some harsh criticism. The "Economist" published a very informative response: "How D'Souza thinks", in which the "Economist" gives a lot of details about D'Souza's personal and ideological background. The conclusion:
"But I think we do better when we criticise people's ideas and programmes on their own terms, rather than seeking out mysterious causes in their childhoods. There's no need to search for abstruse reasons why an extreme movement conservative like Dinesh D'Souza might oppose raising taxes on the rich or defend privilege in access to education. And it's not surprising that a centrist liberal like Barack Obama thinks people earning more than $250,000 per year ought to be paying more taxes. In fact, that conviction is shared by a majority of the American electorate. If Mr D'Souza finds it bizarre, it's not Mr Obama who's out of touch with America."
The "Columbia Journalism Review" called D'Souza's article "shameful" and adds:
"So it’s come to this: Forbes cover story on “How Obama Thinks” is a gross piece of innuendo—a fact-twisting, error-laden piece of paranoia. This is the worst kind of smear journalism—a singularly disgusting work.
Forbes for some reason gives Dinesh D’Souza the cover and lots of space to froth about the notion popular in the right-wing fever swamps that Obama is an “other”; that he doesn’t think like “an American,” that his actions benefit foreigners rather than Amurricans. It’s too kind to call this innuendo. It’s far too overt for that."
Dinesh D'Souza was as a guest on the Colbert Report in January 2007, and let's just say it didn't go to well for him:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Dinesh D'Souza | ||||
| ||||
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Friday, 12 February 2010
Gregory Girard, IT-Consultant and outspoken Sarah Palin fan, arrested for stockpiling weapons and explosives
TPM reports:
"The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent "Armageddon" appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a "righteous 'Mission from God,'" as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society.
As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was "preparing for domestic and political turmoil," and feared martial law would soon be imposed.
Girard's wife said her husband had recently told her: "Don't talk to people, shoot them instead," and "it's fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it."
But it appears that Girard had lately found a community with which to share some of his growing fears. A "Greg Girard," listing his location as Manchester, Mass., has a personal page on the "Patriots of America" online network, a popular site affiliated with the Tea Party movement."
"The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent "Armageddon" appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a "righteous 'Mission from God,'" as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society.
As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was "preparing for domestic and political turmoil," and feared martial law would soon be imposed.
Girard's wife said her husband had recently told her: "Don't talk to people, shoot them instead," and "it's fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it."
But it appears that Girard had lately found a community with which to share some of his growing fears. A "Greg Girard," listing his location as Manchester, Mass., has a personal page on the "Patriots of America" online network, a popular site affiliated with the Tea Party movement."
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If you have politicians who behave like demagogues and who use inflammatory language, it should come as no surprise that some citizens will take them seriously - VERY SERIOUSLY. Gregory Girard has an account with the "Patriots for America" network, and a visit over there leaves me in no doubt that these people are collectively talking themselves into believing that they are currently at war with the "marxist" federal government. It is certainly a fringe group, but 3,583 members who are probably all fairly heavily armed are 3,583 members too many.
Gregory Girard has extreme radical right-wing views, and at "Patriots for America", there are lots of people who agree with him.
On January 24, 2010, he let his friends on "Patriots for America" know what he thinks about Obama and his "diabolical plans", and what he thinks should be done:
I have studied the "National Security Force," which is Obama's name for the secret police force he is creating. I have read the new law that gives them the right to operate as an extension of the DoD, carrying firearms, and executing search warrants, executing arrest warrants, and the like. Needless to say, it's a secret police force of some kind, and it appears likely to be created from inner city youths. These "volunteers" are paid a salary as well. So we have 350,000 young toughs doing whatever their vague mission is. FDR created a similiar force of well over 100,000 thugs at a time when the population was much smaller, and no where near as well armed.(...)
If they are attacking people, invading homes, or otherwise terrorizing any community, they will have signed their death warrants. Desperate to defend home, property, and our way of life, communities accross the country will declare it to be open season on these thugs, and a eighty to one hundred million weapons will annilate them and any others with them no matter where they go. There will be millions of ambushes across the highway system, and any place they attempt to stay for the evening will be subject to any one of a thousand different types of murderous traps, contrivances, and deceptions.
The gov't can make all the diabolical plans it wants to terrorize citizens, and no doubt the gov't will succeed in some towns initially. But once the surprise is gone, Americans will be motivated by this desperate struggle to defend home and loved ones; to that end, they will exploit the fact that they are well armed, and stocked with ammo, and then apply their ingenuity to the task of pursuing a truly brutal and horrific defensive program that puts and end to the reigh of terror. We would not throw up our hands, and squeal in fear, but instead we might put our heads down to plan, practice, and push ahead with all we have. And some of might take a moment to thank the Lord for blessing us with the courage and resolve to steadfastly protect those we love, and to ultimately fight to restore our Constitution.
I have studied the "National Security Force," which is Obama's name for the secret police force he is creating. I have read the new law that gives them the right to operate as an extension of the DoD, carrying firearms, and executing search warrants, executing arrest warrants, and the like. Needless to say, it's a secret police force of some kind, and it appears likely to be created from inner city youths. These "volunteers" are paid a salary as well. So we have 350,000 young toughs doing whatever their vague mission is. FDR created a similiar force of well over 100,000 thugs at a time when the population was much smaller, and no where near as well armed.(...)
If they are attacking people, invading homes, or otherwise terrorizing any community, they will have signed their death warrants. Desperate to defend home, property, and our way of life, communities accross the country will declare it to be open season on these thugs, and a eighty to one hundred million weapons will annilate them and any others with them no matter where they go. There will be millions of ambushes across the highway system, and any place they attempt to stay for the evening will be subject to any one of a thousand different types of murderous traps, contrivances, and deceptions.
The gov't can make all the diabolical plans it wants to terrorize citizens, and no doubt the gov't will succeed in some towns initially. But once the surprise is gone, Americans will be motivated by this desperate struggle to defend home and loved ones; to that end, they will exploit the fact that they are well armed, and stocked with ammo, and then apply their ingenuity to the task of pursuing a truly brutal and horrific defensive program that puts and end to the reigh of terror. We would not throw up our hands, and squeal in fear, but instead we might put our heads down to plan, practice, and push ahead with all we have. And some of might take a moment to thank the Lord for blessing us with the courage and resolve to steadfastly protect those we love, and to ultimately fight to restore our Constitution.
He followed up on that on January 30, 2010 and explained how to deal with the "Federal Gangsta's":
"Federal efforts to take away guns during emergencies were outlowed after the Katrina incident. And at all times, the Constitution would prohibit such a thing. So, one can know that any such effort is against the Constitution and against specific laws regarding states of emergency, and thus the effort, if it involved breaking into your home, would be no different than any felonious breaking and entry by one or more armed assailants. The Castle law in one's state, or simply the common law of the right to self defense, would ensure that close range discharge of double-ought buck from a 12 ga at the assailant's face (from behind cover!), would be a perfectly legal defense in response to an attack of armed assailants tearing the door from your home and threatening with deadly force, in the form of loaded rifles pointed in your direction. The hard part is not preventing the confiscation, but surviving the murderous rampage of the state and Federal gangsta's that would almost certainly be very enthusiastic about gunning the defending homeowner down."
"Federal efforts to take away guns during emergencies were outlowed after the Katrina incident. And at all times, the Constitution would prohibit such a thing. So, one can know that any such effort is against the Constitution and against specific laws regarding states of emergency, and thus the effort, if it involved breaking into your home, would be no different than any felonious breaking and entry by one or more armed assailants. The Castle law in one's state, or simply the common law of the right to self defense, would ensure that close range discharge of double-ought buck from a 12 ga at the assailant's face (from behind cover!), would be a perfectly legal defense in response to an attack of armed assailants tearing the door from your home and threatening with deadly force, in the form of loaded rifles pointed in your direction. The hard part is not preventing the confiscation, but surviving the murderous rampage of the state and Federal gangsta's that would almost certainly be very enthusiastic about gunning the defending homeowner down."
So, apart from the obvious, why am I very concerned?
Because Gregory Girard is not only a gun-obsessed lunatic, but also an outspoken Sarah Palin fan. This is what he had to say about Sarah Palin on January 30, 2010:
As a sidebar, I believe that the ONLY ----- ONLY ------ potential presidental candidate I have seen with the sheer force of will and God-insprined rightous determination to bringdown this "War Powers" evil is Sarah Palin. I respect a great many conservatives, and many with great courage in battle or in certain political venues. I highly doubt any have the stomach for political morass and firestorm that result for an effort dismantle a 50 year legacy of Executive Orders and legislation that have spawned thiis murderous monster of tyranny discussed above.
Since first became aware she existed, I observed carefully and came to admire her remarkable person resolve in a range of life situations, including the political arena. I noted an outspoken willing to proclaim and live by her Christian moral beliefs despite more than a few opportunities to set them aside. Later a came to see her straight-line, logically consistent conservative thinking and then later learned of fearless efforts to route out and destroy corruption in her state, which occurred (unfortunately) greatly at her own expense. Finally, the woman has oodles of charm and excellent sense of humor while retainining seriousness of purpose.
To me, these characterist were most admirable, and could only with so measure up to some of them over my life time. However, I was unimpressed with her historical and political knowlege, both in terms of backgroun information and current events. I felt the high office of president demanded a level of intellectual sophiscation that can only come from diligence in degree work, such as at a university, or preferably, a passional effort at self-education through extensive reading, study, and writing on a subject. More to the point, her general knowlege of the gov't structure, important court decisions, and the technical aspects of legislation needed some work. Finally, her formal grasp of economics was weak at best.
Since that time over year ago, she has addressed many of the issues above that would give me pause to support her president. Although I believe it would take closer to a decade to learn,aborb, and fully understand the major systems of governement, politics, economics, and American History, recent speaking engagements, talk show appearances, and her policy discussions with various individuals make it clear she has come far towards leaning the language of politics, as would be required of an executive leader -- certainly enough effectively communicate with world leaders and with expert advisors.
This more sophisticated Sarah Palin has not left behind the magical combination of charisma, a remarkable reserve of personal strength and committment, and her righteous "mission from God" drive return this country to its convservative, Constitutional foundation. The very existance of this "War Powers" and "contintutity of gov't" plans are some of the major impediments to restoring our Republic to Constitutional supremecy, and therefore I believe that if she were made fully aware of this menace ot libery and justice, she would do to it what she did to the corrupt politicians she routed out and had removed in Alasksa.
, fearless advocacy for justice (often at her own expense), and boatloads of personal charm that
As a sidebar, I believe that the ONLY ----- ONLY ------ potential presidental candidate I have seen with the sheer force of will and God-insprined rightous determination to bringdown this "War Powers" evil is Sarah Palin. I respect a great many conservatives, and many with great courage in battle or in certain political venues. I highly doubt any have the stomach for political morass and firestorm that result for an effort dismantle a 50 year legacy of Executive Orders and legislation that have spawned thiis murderous monster of tyranny discussed above.
Since first became aware she existed, I observed carefully and came to admire her remarkable person resolve in a range of life situations, including the political arena. I noted an outspoken willing to proclaim and live by her Christian moral beliefs despite more than a few opportunities to set them aside. Later a came to see her straight-line, logically consistent conservative thinking and then later learned of fearless efforts to route out and destroy corruption in her state, which occurred (unfortunately) greatly at her own expense. Finally, the woman has oodles of charm and excellent sense of humor while retainining seriousness of purpose.
To me, these characterist were most admirable, and could only with so measure up to some of them over my life time. However, I was unimpressed with her historical and political knowlege, both in terms of backgroun information and current events. I felt the high office of president demanded a level of intellectual sophiscation that can only come from diligence in degree work, such as at a university, or preferably, a passional effort at self-education through extensive reading, study, and writing on a subject. More to the point, her general knowlege of the gov't structure, important court decisions, and the technical aspects of legislation needed some work. Finally, her formal grasp of economics was weak at best.
Since that time over year ago, she has addressed many of the issues above that would give me pause to support her president. Although I believe it would take closer to a decade to learn,aborb, and fully understand the major systems of governement, politics, economics, and American History, recent speaking engagements, talk show appearances, and her policy discussions with various individuals make it clear she has come far towards leaning the language of politics, as would be required of an executive leader -- certainly enough effectively communicate with world leaders and with expert advisors.
This more sophisticated Sarah Palin has not left behind the magical combination of charisma, a remarkable reserve of personal strength and committment, and her righteous "mission from God" drive return this country to its convservative, Constitutional foundation. The very existance of this "War Powers" and "contintutity of gov't" plans are some of the major impediments to restoring our Republic to Constitutional supremecy, and therefore I believe that if she were made fully aware of this menace ot libery and justice, she would do to it what she did to the corrupt politicians she routed out and had removed in Alasksa.
, fearless advocacy for justice (often at her own expense), and boatloads of personal charm that
Screenshot:
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Oh, I can already hear the screams of the Palinbots. Queen Sarah is of course not responsible for any of that. Did she tell this misguided and apparently very dangerous man to amass a stockpile of weapons? No, she did not.
But what Sarah Palin does is to nurture the extreme right-wing fringe for example by obsessing over the military and over war. She is ready to embrace extreme right-wingers as her fanbase, while at the same time for example using highly inflammatory language directed at Barack Obama during the Presidential campaign, from which she has never ever distanced herself:
“Our opponent,” Ms. Palin told donors in Englewood, Colo., “is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
She added, “This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,” she said. “We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism.”
“Our opponent,” Ms. Palin told donors in Englewood, Colo., “is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
She added, “This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,” she said. “We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism.”
Sarah Palin neatly tapped into those sentiments again during her recent speech in Nashville when she proclaimed that "America is ready for a new revolution and you are part of it".
Chris Matthews made the case very well just a few days ago:
Matthews went on to say that Palin "has nothing going on mentally... I'd be afraid of her because I think she's an empty vessel ready to be filled by ideology she doesn't understand. And that is really scary."
Matthews went on to say that Palin "has nothing going on mentally... I'd be afraid of her because I think she's an empty vessel ready to be filled by ideology she doesn't understand. And that is really scary."
Sarah Palin makes it far too easy for gun-obsessed, dangerous lunatics to "do the filling" and find political justification for their dangerous beliefs - and, in the worst case, for their unfortunate actions. But what can you expect from a woman whose favorite talk-show host is a neo-fascist?
The "Ocean of Urine" nurture their own gun-obsessed lunatics, too, for example William Henley - and many over there at C4P evidently agree with him:
If that comment of William Henley didn't frighten you enough, you should take a look at the comment he left on C4P for Sarah's birthday - which was of course also much loved by the Peelanders.
I do hope that the US authorities will ensure that the worst case never happens, or otherwise the empty vessel from Wasilla might be partly responsible for a very out of control, ugly development - and Sarah would then "wash her hands" and deny all responsibility, as she does it with everything else she has ever said or done.
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