Calculated manipulation June 17, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Government , add a commentI have watched the primaries with sheer amazement, even try to lend some advice to those caught up in a trance to stop and think about what they are doing, as those of us with any memory (from our own memory bank, not what the media tells us to remember and what to disregard). These video links go to prove a fact that the majority of people make their decision based on a entralling speech and are gullable sheep. “D the facts, we want change!”
I have heard comment after comment about hillbillies, rednecks and the evangelicals (people who cared enough about the political process to participate without prodding) and those old people. I have heard how factory workers who are white and don’t have a college education just aren’t with it enough to make a good decision and keep pulling the progressive movement off track. I have heard people whine about how the man is trying to keep Obama down.
Instead of launching into a rant, at least today (and I can leave that up to you to fire away with yours!) I think David over at The Political Junction nails it dead on.
Intellectuals, Zombies and the Stupid
“Historically, about one-half of the eligible voters have never bothered to show up at the polls. Evidently this segment of society has never related the success or failure of the economy to their lives.
Maybe the nation should be thankful. Anyone unable to see the relationship between voting and protecting the nation’s self-interests doesn’t have a clue about the consequences of bad government policy. So it is just as well that they have stayed home for generations upon generations.
But the times are a changing!
The current presidential campaign is trumpeted by the press as opening the eyes of millions of these people to the power of voting. Based on the poll numbers, quoted ad nauseam by the media, little, if any, of this enthusiasm is based on political knowledge.
These are the country’s dumbest voters. They are sleep walkers who head to the polls to vote for candidates because of their gender and/or ethnicity. They are joined and encouraged by the intellectuals who want to demonstrate their racial tolerance, and the zombies who automatically vote Democratic.
The vast majority of these Americans, if aware, would protest against any bill that brought the cost of gasoline to $8 a gallon, or doubled the cost of heating and cooling their homes, or tripled the cost of groceries.
They would come unglued if the US Congress promised the United Nations .75% of the US Gross National Product ($845 billion annually) for worldwide charitable causes, and knew America’s poor would never see a penny of this money.
So what if the Democrats want to protect the environment by confiscating the money used to grow the economy? They don’t see the personal relevance. And how could they?
They are blinded by the color of Senator Obama’s skin. That’s enough information for them. And they heard he’s about change. So what if he has no international experience, is pro-terrorist, an economic neophyte, and has demonstrated common sense shallower than the morning dew. No one is perfect.
These voters are in an ethnic trance. They don’t know that Obama introduced the bill (The Global Poverty ACT, S.2433) which automatically deeds nearly 1% of the US’s wealth to those conniving thieves running the UN.
They don’t know he supports the bill pending in Congress that will drive energy prices through the roof to “save the planet.” They don’t know that scientists are uncertain about the root cause of global warming.
They don’t know Obama plans on ransacking the retirement accounts of Americans by doubling the capital gains tax. They probably don’t know what an earmark is, or for that matter, the government’s source of revenue.
They don’t know that Obama supports the Boxer-Warner-Lieberman bill pending in Congress that will cost $6 trillion to reduce global warming 1%. They don’t know China and India’s growth could offset this expenditure.
They don’t know Obama will open the borders and encourage millions of illegal aliens to take their jobs. They don’t know he has promised to gut the US missile defense network. They just know he is black.
Senator Obama’s success confirms that most intellectuals lack common sense, and that political zombies and the stupid are the gravest threat our democracy faces.” (The Political Junction)
Now watch these two videos:
Gullible sheep.
Globalization and the World’s Rising Living Standards June 17, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Government , add a commentDespite the conclusions one might draw from the constant barrage of media negativity, never before have people lived longer, healthier, and wealthier lives with lower risks of malnourishment, illiteracy, or death by war or natural disaster. In a recent report for the Swedish government, Cato senior fellow Johan Norberg has documented the largest, most rapid rise in human living standards ever, which occurred over the last four decades. He reviews the factors that generated these advances and explain how even more economic liberty, free trade, and globalization are necessary to sustain them.
In many ways this is going to be a core contrast in this election and a major difference between the candidates-protectionism or free trade? How you vote in November may well determine our economic future in the world market place. Or then again, are we only led to believe that democratic are in fact protectionist and not rhetoric to appease union labor voters?
What say you?
A lost lexicon June 17, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Government, Media , add a commentWhen up is down and right is left
I have long held and written on the fact that our current President out-democratted the democrats in most areas of his first two campaigns and administrations. The major exception which gave him a voting block of Catholics and Evangelicals was his pro-life stance (which he violated in approving the morning after pill under heavy legislative pressure spearheaded by Senator Clinton ) and his pro-Israel stance, and willingness to risk an Armageddon and bring on the end of the world.
Today it seems like the descriptive terms of conservative and liberal are all confused and the entire political lexicon is skewed, making it difficult to hold an intelligent political conversation with any historic perspective.
Conservatives love war, empire, and the military-industrial complex. They abhor peace, the sole and rightful property of liberals. Right? Wrong.
According to Bill Kauffman, true conservatives have always resisted the imperial and military impulse: it drains the treasury, curtails domestic liberties, breaks down families, and vulgarizes culture. From the Federalists who opposed the War of 1812, to the striving of Robert Taft (known as “Mr. Republican”) to keep the United States out of Korea, to the latter-day libertarian critics of the Iraq war, there has historically been nothing unusual about anti-war activists on the political right.
And while these critics of U.S. military crusades have been vilified by the party of George W. Bush, their conservative vision of a peaceful, decentralized, and noninterventionist America gives us a glimpse of the country we could have had—and might yet attain.
Passionate and witty, Ain’t My America is an eye-opening exploration of the forgotten history of right-wing peace movements—and a clarion call to anti-war conservatives of today.
Watch the Event in Real Video
Download a Podcast of the Event (MP3)
For balance, Michael Tomasky, the former executive editor of the American Prospect who now edits the Guardian newspaper’s American online edition, begs to differ.
In years past, it was the Republicans who got us out of wars, but since the Bush Republicanism has redefined the party it is now the Republicans who gets us into them.
Is Israel pushing for war now? June 5, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Church/State, Government , 1 comment so farIs Israel using the end of the Bush administration to push for war with Iran? Is this a case where two leaders may entangle their nations in a war based on speculation , at a time when Iran has made corrective steps to comply with the IAEA ? Or is it that we want them to thumb their nose at the IAEA to justify an attack on Iran? Somebody needs to remind the President sometimes being a friend means saying no.
The Washington Post is reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to use his White House visit today to push President Bush to take a more aggressive approach toward Iran — and there are some signs that he’ll have a receptive audience.
Both Olmert and Bush are badly wounded . Olmert is facing corruption allegations that could drive him from office. Bush is unpopular, with even the Republican candidate trying to keep him at a distance. It’s in this environment that the Jewish Telegraph Agency reports: “Ehud Olmert will urge President Bush to prepare an attack on Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported.
“Citing sources close to the Vice President Cheney appears to be on the warpath, pushing if not for a preemptive U.S. attack, then for an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities or U.S. airstrikes on suspected training camps for Iraqi insurgents within Iran — either of which would presumably provoke a protracted U.S. military campaign.
According to the conventional wisdom, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been holding Cheney at bay. But as Helene Cooper and Isabel Kershner write in the New York Times, Rice “escalated the Bush administration’s anti-Iran rhetoric on Tuesday, accusing its government of pursuing nuclear weapons and calling any dialogue with its leaders pointless until they suspend the country’s enrichment of uranium.
Will Bush cave to the pressure?
Globalization and the World’s Rising Living Standards June 5, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Ethnicity, Government , add a commentDespite the conclusions one might draw from the constant barrage of media negativity, never before have people lived longer, healthier, and wealthier lives with lower risks of malnourishment, illiteracy, or death by war or natural disaster. In a recent report for the Swedish government, Cato senior fellow Johan Norberg has documented the largest, most rapid rise in human living standards ever, which occurred over the last four decades. He reviews the factors that generated these advances and explain how even more economic liberty, free trade, and globalization are necessary to sustain them.
In many ways this is going to be a core contrast in this election and a major difference between the candidates-protectionism or free trade? How you vote in November may well determine our economic future in the world market place.
Agree or Disagree?
When up is down and right is left June 5, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Government , add a commentI have long held and written on the fact that our current President out-democratted the democrats in most areas of his first two campaigns and administrations. The major exception which gave him a voting block of Catholics and Evangelicals was his pro-life stance (which he violated in approving the morning after pill under heavy legislative pressure spearheaded by Senator Clinton ) and his pro-Israel stance, and willingness to risk an Armageddon and bring on the end of the world.
Today it seems like the descriptive terms of conservative and liberal are all confused and the entire political lexicon is skewed, making it difficult to hold an intelligent political conversation with any historic perspective.
Conservatives love war, empire, and the military-industrial complex. They abhor peace, the sole and rightful property of liberals. Right? Wrong.
According to Bill Kauffman, true conservatives have always resisted the imperial and military impulse: it drains the treasury, curtails domestic liberties, breaks down families, and vulgarizes culture. From the Federalists who opposed the War of 1812, to the striving of Robert Taft (known as “Mr. Republican”) to keep the United States out of Korea, to the latter-day libertarian critics of the Iraq war, there has historically been nothing unusual about anti-war activists on the political right.
And while these critics of U.S. military crusades have been vilified by the party of George W. Bush, their conservative vision of a peaceful, decentralized, and noninterventionist America gives us a glimpse of the country we could have had—and might yet attain.
Passionate and witty, Ain’t My America is an eye-opening exploration of the forgotten history of right-wing peace movements—and a clarion call to anti-war conservatives of today.
Watch the Event in Real Video
Download a Podcast of the Event (MP3)
For balance, Michael Tomasky, the former executive editor of the American Prospect who now edits the Guardian newspaper’s American online edition, begs to differ.
In years past, it was the Republicans who got us out of wars, but since the Bush Republicanism has redefined the party it is now the Republicans who gets us into them
Wave good-bye to free speech and diversity June 5, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Ethnicity, Government , add a commentMinnesota Teens Barred From Graduation for Displaying Confederate Flags on Pick-Ups
video link-So much for free speech and diversity
“I’m just a country type of person, country music, big trucks and everything, that’s basically all it means to me.”
A foretaste of an Obamanation?
Saying good-bye to Bo June 3, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture , add a commentBo Diddley bridged the blues and rock ‘n’ roll
Bo Diddley Video (link)
Mr. Diddley, whose signature bomp ba-bomp bomp bomp bomp beat influenced musicians from Buddy Holly and the Rolling Stones to Bruce Springsteen and U2, had suffered a heart attack last August, three months after being felled by a stroke during a performance in Iowa. He had returned to Florida, his home of 20 years, to rehabilitate.
Mr. Diddley cut a distinctive figure in music during a career that spanned more than a half-century with his ever-present black hat, horn-rimmed glasses, and rectangular guitar - originally rigged with junkyard clockworks and car parts to create a distorted and otherworldly tremolo sound that would be heard a decade later in the work of Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy.
Even though Mr. Diddley enjoyed only a handful of hits during a 40-year recording career, his impact on the evolution of rock music was vast.
“Bo Diddley is one of the seminal American guitarists and an architect of the rock ‘n’ roll sound,” said Terry Stewart, president and chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. “His unique guitar work, indelible rhythms, inventive songwriting, and larger-than-life personality make him an immortal author of the American songbook.”
Mr. Diddley, who bridged the blues and rock ‘n’ roll with a string of groundbreaking records in the 1950s, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (by the members of ZZ Top) in 1987 at the museum’s second annual ceremony.
He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards in 1996 and a similar honor at the Grammys in 1999.
But like other black, midcentury music innovators, Mr. Diddley said he received neither the credit he deserved from the press or the public, nor financial compensation for his recordings. He remained bitter for the rest of his life about what he viewed as the exploitation of early rock ‘n’ rollers by record companies, promoters, and publishers.
“Elvis was not first; I was the first son of a gun out here, me and Chuck Berry. And I’m very sick of the lie,” Mr. Diddley said in a 2005 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “You know, we are over that black-and-white crap, and that was all the reason Elvis got the appreciation that he did. I’m the dude that he copied, and I’m not even mentioned. . . . I’ve been out here for 50 years, man, and I haven’t ever seen a royalty check.”
Mr. Diddley performed tirelessly until last year.
Has Iran finally had enough of Ahmadinejad? June 3, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Government , add a commentWe have heard for years that the Iranian people were not on the same page as their extremist leaders but now we are starting to see some action in the Iranian political arena.
Video of Ahmadinejad threatening the British Embassy( link )
Ali Larijani is in a very good position to question Ahmadinejad’s policies
 |
| Ali Larijani, 01 Jun 2008 |
Iran’s new parliament elected Ali Larijani as temporary speaker last week, but has now voted to give him the job for a full year.Larijani is seen as a key rival to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from within the president’s conservative movement. He resigned from his position as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator last year and was elected to parliament in March. Some believe he could use his new post to challenge Mr. Ahmadinejad in next year’s presidential election.
Analysts say the conservative camp has become divided into competing factions over two main issues - Mr. Ahmadinejad’s economic policies and his aggressively anti-Western approach to the nuclear dispute, which his critics say has further isolated Iran.
Kuwait-based political scientist and regional affairs expert Mohammad El-Sayed Selim said Larijani’s new position is one with significant influence.
“I think the election Ali Larijani to some extent weakens the grip of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on power,” said Mohammad El-Sayed Selim. “Now Ali Larijani is in a very good position to question [Mr.] Ahmadinejad’s economic policies, and he is quite critical of his economic policies.”
Video outlining the differences between Ali Larijani and Ahmadinejad. (link)
Talks with Iran are not always headline news
Washington and Tehran held low-level talks on Afghanistan in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that ousted the Taliban regime and more recently on stability in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion of that country in 2003. The talks on Iraq broke off last year after just three rounds.
Condoleezza Rice has held out the possibility of high-level talks, but only if Iran first suspends uranium enrichment activities that the West fears could produce a nuclear weapon. Tehran, which says its nuclear program is purely for civilian energy production, has refused to meet that condition.
Speaking at a Washington diplomatic forum on May 14 and before the Senate on May 20, Gates said the United States should raise pressure on Iran as a means of pushing the Islamic Republic to engage in talks.
“The key here is developing leverage, either through economic or diplomatic or military pressures on the Iranian government, so that they believe they must have talks,” Gates told a Senate appropriations panel.
“Robert Gates has more credibility in the Middle East than any other member of the administration. And the fact is that, for Arabs, the indispensable part of American power is military power.”Overview
Overview
Changes finally seem to be forthcoming in Iranian politics, something that has been forecasted for almost ten years but the solidarity of the Iranian people to have a right to nuclear power allowed Ahmadinejad to ride to victory. However the tide is turning, and it may occur about the same time that the American administration changes occur as well.
Make no mistake, Ali Larijani is not a friend of the United States, rather he is not a cowboy like Ahmadinejad and Bush. Let’s pray we can make it through until January 2009 without a war in Iran. Perhaps both countries have said enough is enough of chest-bumping presidents.
Barack Obama, David Axelrod and Mayor Daly June 1, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Government , add a commentClassic Chicago political machines being foisted off as progressive.
“Here comes Barack Obama out of Harvard, using political tactics like a machine to get rid of the [Alice] Palmers and then calling themself progressive.” John Kass, Chicago Tribune
Hat tip to CNN and Breitbart TV