Yes - tis true - this clip from RM made me get all teary eyed. I love baseball. I love Americans. What is a middle aged man to do while sipping coffee at his desk except and seeing this story ....except get choked up?
French Open Closes for Nadal:Oh, Rafa - say it ain't so. Serena and Andy Roddick are still in - so I have reason to watch and root...but Rafa...oh Rafa...why you do this to me, Rafa?
The Survialist next door: Stock up on canned food and live ammo - everyones doing it!
Firstly, please read an update on this post. I took what can only be read as a swipe at Chris Hedges which I was unfair and wrong of me.
Over a hundred civilians were killed by - what appears to be - American air raids in Afghanistan yesterday. Pictures of the results are linked here with a warning that they are sad, sickening, and heartbreaking.
I am not going to write about what I think of this particular war - which is now clearly Obama's but it must be made clear over and over again that - whether the Afghanistan war is right or wrong - that innocents die. Young innocents.
Obama's stance on this war is one of the many things that was ignored by the Obama Pod-O-Sphere. His duplicitous stances on Iraq were also papered over by the dutiful minions on the Move-On Left. His strategy has always been to expand the Afghan war and move it when necessary into Pakistan. All along he stated that we would get out of Iraq. Though the timetable for that is now no different than Bush's. I've stated before what I believe to be true: He won't exit Iraq - or won't be able to - and there will be a continued expansion of troops into Afghanistan through out his term.
Of all the shuck and jive (go on call me racist, I'm well past giving a shit.) Obama and his minions threw down last year, the double and triple speak on Iraq, which made room for false hope regarding Afghanistan is the most despicable.
A long time ago reasonable people realized that we will be in what amounts to a permanent war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. A permanent war, that is, until this country simply has no more resources to fight it. I do not like the willy nilly use of the word "imperial" by anti-war commentators - but the war is about power and resources much more than it is about "radical Islam". We control the region or someone else does. That is how it goes with powerful countries in a world with other powerful countries.
Geo-politics were not changed on January 20th. No one should kid themselves.
It is the Code Pink ninnies and the other adjacent jackasses on the Left that refused to press Obama on the wars that deserve our contempt and a severe comeuppance
Make no bones about it. They sold their souls and their principals. Not by supporting Obama over McCain but by refusing to see the reality of their chosen one and demand answers before handing him the keys to the kingdom.
The Museum of Hoaxes lists the top 100 April Fools jokes of all time. Here's their number one: "1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, 'place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.'" Absolutely, the best. I saw it years ago, and it has always been my favorite - Caro
Harvesting Pasta
Obama tries to rally world to cope with downturn (AP) President Barack Obama sought Wednesday to rally the world's top and emerging powers to help cope with a global economic downturn, saying, "We can only meet this challenge together."
Obama Adviser Invokes Great Depression in Warning of Need for Nations to Cooperate (by Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller at Political Punch, ABC News) "The stakes for this summit are very high," said Mike Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs today in an OFF CAMERA briefing for reporters. "They are magnified by the fact that much as happened since the G-20 summit in November. The last summit focused largely and importantly on a number of regulatory issues. But the economy has declined, and in November and December the crisis has spread and the countries of the G-20 have been focused on restoring demand and restoring growth."
Invoking the Great Depression-and the failure back then of the world's industrialized nations to cooperate-Froman said it was critical that the challenges of the summit be met.
Obama turns on charm to smooth ruffled British feathers (McClatchy) With a salute, a smile and maybe just a little sucking up, President Barack Obama worked hard Wednesday to make up for any diplomatic rift he may have caused several weeks ago in the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Obama, Medvedev hail 'fresh start' in U.S.-Russia relations (McClatchy) President Barack Obama will travel to Moscow in July, part of what he and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, are calling a "fresh start" in strained relations between the nuclear powers.
This caused howls of protest from the Left, many who had already thrown in with the "man who pledged to end the Iraq war" -or so they chose to believe. The "America out or Iraq wing" of the Left embraced a single speech BHO made that was not even recorded at the time - as proof that he was one of them.
Fast forward to February 2009 current President Obama, has now embraced the Bush Iraq time line, having thrown 15 other Iraq war stances overboard. Further, he has ordered 17,000 more troops into Afghanistan. Let us call this a surge of troops. Though, they refuse too.
I do not fault Obama for this order. He campaigned on a pledge to increase American presence in Afghanistan. Nor do I fault him for the sneaky way he announced the buildup. (As an afterthought to the stimulus signing.) His week was about the economy and he played that up. "More war" would have been a buzz kill.
I do, however, fault all the pro-Obama peaceniks for their unbelievable level of denial. The fact is Obama is hashing out various plans for the troops he's sending to the region but he still has not settled on one. Sound familiar? W, Cheney, Rummy and crew pulled this stunt in Iraq.
As is too often the case, those, like me, who are generally, but not always, against interventions, are of two minds. I supported the invasion of Afghanistan. Still do. I think we should have fought and won Afghanistan in the first place before moving on to Iraq - which is is not a war against a government that harbored people who attacked us - but a resource war. The sickening truth about not vanquishing the Taliban in the first place is that now nuclear armed Pakistan is in peril. The drive to set up a pro American oil state in Iraq may now have horrific unintended consequences.
Do not be fooled into believing this is a change in strategy on Obama's part. This is an extension of the same strategy started by W in 2001: Control and dominate the region. Obama is fulfilling the next step. Or going backward to clean up the first, bobbled, incursion if you like that view better.
If Thomas Ricks is correct, and the Iraq war it is not winding down, it is entirely possible that in the few years we will fully engaged there and Afghanistan. The man who came to end the Iraq war will oversea a massive extension of war in general.
And why must we control the region? Simple answer: Oil. Slightly more complex answer: Oil and the need to check China, Russia, and Iran.
Have any opinion you like about this. I, myself, am torn. But getting out of the region is not on the table. The American policy argument here is purely one of where and how - not why and when to exit - as so many on the Left want to have us believe. We are not leaving. We can't, unless we are willing to cede a massive chunk of power to Russia, China, and Iran.
A simple follow up to last night's post. This blog started because of an incredulous reaction a friend and I had to the LACK of media coverage to a prostitute being given press credentials and allowed to ask questions at White House Press briefings. At the time the MSM felt this "was not a story." (sound familiar?) A hooker named Jeff Gannon asking leading liberal bashing, pro W, questions of the WH press secretary was "not a story." Wow. Monica's dress is in the Smithsonian - but a gay hooker getting a white house press pass - not a story...
(I'd like to interject, with my tongue barely in my cheek, that Arianna Huffington is not a prostitute. She is a madam.)
The America propaganda media changes horses but not tactics.
This blog has been very critical of the Iraq invasion. I still contend - as I did last night - that the war was and is about oil. That the war was and is about a "clash of civilizations" - just not the West and Islam. The clash is between the democratic West on one side, and China and Russia on the other. Though China and Russia are not allied. The war is over resources. Namely oil. Not ideology.
Funny thing, oil. It is like booze in an alcoholic family. Until they wake up to their own, less obvious, emotional addiction, a drunk's family will make any excuse for the lush's rotten life. The spouse and parents will come up with a hundred reasons and excuses to explain the drunk's behaviour. Alcohol is never one of them.
We are the drunk here. The economy is physically dependant on oil. Oil becomes expensive and/or scarce and the economy gets the Delirium tremens. The fact is, we are so far into our addiction that without oil there is no economy.
Believe whatever you like about "peak oil." The fact is the USA does not have enough oil to sustain its current economy. We have not developed alternatives, though Carter warned us to 30 years ago. What societies do when they don't have the resources they want or need is - they go and get them.
Ask any ancient Roman General you happen to see today. Or 1930s era German General. Or A Dutch business man in 1660. Or Elizabeth the First. or,or,or.....
It is a curious American denial mechanism to pretend we are somehow not like other great powers in history. Most bizarrely with some on the Left - there has been a truly weird denial that the war could have possibly been all about oil. Even those on the Left who acknowledged the "blood for oil" aspects of the invasion only took their analysis far enough to bash American corporations. Or to squawk about "imperialism" while plastering "War is not the answer" stickers on their SUV's, stuffed with Whole Foods groceries flown in from Argentina....
Denial. Is. Powerful.
The Left was unable to successfully counterpoint the rush to invade Iraq for a few reasons. The main one, and the only one wholly within its control, was the refusal to face the reasons for the war head on - and lay out the "oil addiction" narrative.
I said then and I'll say now: The most effective anti-war protest there can be is to cut your oil consumption by 50%.
Now.
Take away oil and we would not be in Iraq. We would not be in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, and almost certainly, "they" would not have been in lower Manhattan on 9/11/01. So we would not be in Afghanistan....We, with our new "change" (lol) leadership would not be in about to extend the war into Pakistan...and so on and so forth.
Resource wars. Get use to them. More are coming.
I remain opposed to the war in Iraq. But I adamantly refuse to pretend that I do not know that how we live and expect to continue living was a main reason for it.
Republicans have been surprisingly fierce in opposition to Obama thus far. Barring an unforeseen event that brings the country together, I can't imagine this will taper off much. The GOP can't stand being out of power - which they truly believe is their God given right.
Though I have taken some joy in Obama's screw ups, I certainly don't count the guy out yet. Still, his support among his "non base" is in no way personally connected to him. It is all about results. His fervent base (25-30%? maybe) will follow him anywhere. But the middle that is still giving him the benefit of the doubt will peal away if things don't turn around. And do so quickly. Despite all his P.R. he does not connect on a personal level, like Clinton or FDR. With out the noise of the media at his back he is testy and effete. Again, the kool aid drinkers don't feel this way. But they are hypnotized.
We'll see how things go after the stimulus bill passes.
I do wonder about the other constituency that all Presidents must nurture: the military. No Quarter featured a piece on Iraq yesterday. It reminded me of what I have been saying for over a year: Obama mislead by omission and commission on Iraq - deluding his followers into believing the war would be over quickly. This was, and remains, nonsense. Regardless, even with his shifting stances, the pods willy nilly proclaimed him the "peace" candidate. We'd be out of Iraq quickly if BHO won and the great wrong would be corrected - so the Pod tale went. Tom Ricks author of the compelling Fiasco and the new book The Gamble - thinks otherwise. He says we have 5-10 years left in Iraq and from this corner, I see no other logical - or sane - conclusion.
I still believe the fundamental reason for the invasion was oil - and its macro-implications. We needed a secure base (or bases) in the Middle East to ensure the steady flow of oil to the West. Saudi Arabia is not secure enough. Besides, if we didn't get Iraq's oil - then China just might have. Of course, other reasons for invading were plentiful - but remove oil and the investment required makes an invasion much less appealing. Of course, W and his crew botched the war for years. But the essential reason remains - and we may well come out of it okay in the very long run. "Okay" being relative. We may be bankrupt - check that - WE ARE BANKRUPT - but barring a quick departure - the oil in Iraq will travel west.
I don't think Obama has the cojones to get us out of Iraq quickly. Nor do I think he has the final say. (Yes - there are institutions more powerful in the U.S. than the White House.) General David Petraeus is, almost alone, the brain trust behind Iraq now. From the NQ post: For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years-and that that outcome is a best case scenario.
For the Code Pink crew who mindlessly drove gasoline powered vehicles to mindless "peace" rallies for Obama - and saw no disconnect - a cold,cold, shower awaits. It is probable that the Lightbringer will stand for re-election in 2012 with the U.S. still fully engaged in Iraq.
It certainly makes Obama's dash to the middle politically explainable. It may be all he has in 2012.
But by then the GOP will be at more than full speed.
While money doesn't buy love, it puts you in a great bargaining position.
Christopher Marlowe
No, I did not watch: I like the speech on paper. It does strike me as excessively derivative of other big presidential speeches. That might come with the turf. But he did not break any new ground, poetically speaking. Unless I am missing something...
Favorite bit: As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.
Rewrite: This sentence missed its own payoff: "what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage." Shouldhave been "when imagination is joined to necessity, and courage to common purpose.
Clip: So Barry, is the first brigade coming home from Iraq right now? Like you promised? A pod is emailing me that BHO has been consitent on Iraq. I mentioned this to my very pro Obama lefty neighbor and even he laughed explosively. Here is a McCain video - yes MCCAIN - but it is all Obama talking. It's painful and funny to see what a liar the man is.
Music: This clip makes me reflective and sentimental. I have no idea why and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.
...a funny thing happen to Barack Obama on the way to his inauguration. He became a Clintonista! ...Obama moves from one political position to another with ease. He has advanced 7 different positions on the Iraq war and, save for Bill Clinton, no one seemed to notice or care. Bill Clinton was called a racist for his efforts.
Yup - I'm wading into the birth certificate business again tonight...ick! I have discovered that Obama was born on a grassy knollbehind the Freemason lodgein Roswell. I jest. (sort of can't help it. It gets me in trouble...) But I do still have questions about all this birth business. Just can't quite bring myself to post it so early on a Sunday.
So another "A.D.D." post instead.
1. I intone about myths pretending to be fact a lot here - white obama pods voted for him because he is qualified and not because of his race -es is one. here is another: UCLA football ever mattered, matters now, or ever will matter. It's a basketball school they should leave the football to the grown ups in Los Angeles. Congrats to the Trojans for their 7th consecutive PAC-10 championship. Fight on! 2. A joke. This came from my solider friend in Iraq: A new priest at his first mass was so nervous he could hardly speak. After mass he asked the monsignor how he had done. The monsignor replied, ' When I am worried about getting nervous On the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip.'... read the rest.
3. These pics were also from my friend serving in Iraq.
4. And just because I love this guy. "You ain't the Dukes of Hazard!"
The December Liberal Rapture Donation Drive has now begun. If you would like to donate to L.R. please click here.
The December Liberal Rapture Donation Drive is now over. Thank you for attending.
The photo is from a friend stationed in Baghdad - though clearly it was not taken there - it came to him from a fellow solider in Bamberg, Germany - and he passed it along. It makes me feel all Christmassy... though I have no idea why - I'm from So-Cal and Christmas never looks like this...still I love the photo
New Depression tip: Okay not really a tip for hard economic times but in keeping with my very gloomy famine post this morning - if things really go haywire in the next few years...a self reliance course from Cody Lundin may be in order.
Why not - I know I would benefit from some "Palin-tology" ie: learning to kill and skin a...whatever...animal...food...thingy.... a deer? a squirrel? Actually I'm not sure what wild protein sources would be roaming in Griffith Park if disaster struck L.A. Coyotes? Bobcats? Confused Endeavor agents? Dazed Beverly Hills trophy wives? David Geffen's pool boys?
Music: More Lennon...
Some Shakespeare: Peter O'Toole recites a sonnet...
And finally a quote:
"Economics is a form of brain damage." --Hazel Henderson
What is so depressing today - other than the Dodgers lost both games back east - is that it appears to me that the idea that we have a vibrant and open election process is dead.
The concept that we choose our leaders is history. We have now seen this media/power elite game in 3 consecutive elections - they choose - we are told. The way Obama is handled by the press and the way W was in 2000 are strikingly similar. Except the media is much more overt in its adoration of Obama. Because they can be... The same process unfolded before the Iraq invasion. We are being coached and cajoled and massaged into an Obama presidency. Why? and Is it time to kill your television?
I am sick of Obamatons using "the war" as their FINAL ANSWER for supporting him - usually when "hope" "change" and "insults" have run their course. Obama will not be able to extract us from Iraq. Period. We are in Iraq to keep the Chinese out. We are there to makes sure the oil is ours when it is extracted. Everyone knows this except the American public. Unless WE change our basic assumptions and expectations - the war won't end. Obama can't end it. Clinton can't end it. McCain can't end it. All of them know it. They can manage it better. That is all. All three have lied about the war. Obama has lied the most.
Iraq is NOT Vietnam in one basic way. Iraq is an economic war in an almost pure sense. There is no ideology involved. Some has been grafted on for public consumption - however our men and women are indeed fighting for "our way of life":
excessive air travel complete reliance on cars a massive, diverse, food supply (often unhealthy - but profitable) that uses enormous amounts of oil over sized, ego driven, often tacky homes 40-100 miles from ones workplace, etc etc -
If you REALLY want to end the war here are few suggestions that have nothing to do with protesting or who you vote for - but if enough people got on board - the war will end:
A. Cut your energy consumption by 50% RIGHT NOW. Or at least see if you can. B. Eat as little food as possible that was produced more than 100 miles from where you live - unless you have no choice. C. Stop shopping at all BIG BOX Stores. The sooner the "10,000 mile supply line" is put to rest the better. (it will be put to rest soon enough. As will 10,000 mile tossed salad. )
This is a start. Crazy? No. We are in an oil war in Iraq. It is a very normal outcome given our recent power as a nation - and should have been expected. Nations go to war over resources all the time. We are no different. Oil is essential. So essential in fact - we simply would no longer function as a society without it. So no offense 'Arugula Bumper Sticker Crowd' but for now -War IS the Answer - until enough of us change our way of life and our thinking. Ah, the irony of a car BUMPER STICKER that says "War is Not the Answer". Not as ironic as the Warhol Obama - but close.
Nice speeches by state senators don't change facts on the ground. When I say "A President Obama will certainly disappoint and fail" I am mostly referring to this issue. Of the three candidates left he understands it the least.
The wide assumption in the DNC and Obama cabal of elites and scoundrels is that those of us who refuse to vote for Obama under any circumstances (and we are legion) will come to our senses by November and vote for the chosen one.Since they have no principles beyond money and faddishness they cannot see that our refusal to vote for this woefully unqualified man is fundamentally based in core principles - not anger, disappointment or passing frustration.
The assumption that we will vote for BHO in the end is false and stupid. Here's why: The most consistent Democratic voters in general elections are African Americans and white "arugula" liberals. AA's vote Democratic at a rate over 87% in general elections routinely. A few rich "arugula" or "latte" Democrats bark about Nader or the equivalent every four years - but they invariably wander back to Kerry or Dukakis, etc. The template for disaffected Democrats "always coming back" being put forth by pundits now it based on the history of "latte" Democrats. Not "lunch bucket" Democrats.
This year the disaffected Democrats are lunch bucket dems, not the lattes. Evidence suggests that lunch bucket Dems vote according to a candidate's affinity to their values over all else. The "What's the matter with Kansas?'" meme put forth by the certain elites - including Obama in his famous San Francisco flub - misunderstands something basic: to many of us there are principles more valuable than money. In fact, there is intelligence in understanding that the elected head of government should reflect one's basic values regardless of policy differences. This is not ignorance - it's wisdom.
Obama's 20 year stint in the retrograde church and his encouragement of sexism in his campaign go to core values. It tells us who he is. (Examples: he flipped off a former first lady -there is no denying it, and uses repellent woman hating rap "artists" at his rallies). He has become offensive to 2 large groups of Democrats: blue collar workers and white women. Telling these groups to vote for him merely because he is a registered Democrat and "not McCain" is insulting. I attend a large liberal church. On occasion I disagree with what is said and done there - but overall I am comfortable with it because it reflects my values. A stranger could correctly infer much about my beliefs by viewing sermons I sit through at my church . You can here if you like.
We have every right - in fact every duty - to make judgments about Obama based on where he spent 20 years of his spiritual life. To insist it is all okay because he dumped Wright after a press club rant is to insist that one ignore critical thought. I won't even consider giving Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis a pass until she explains how she changed. Until then it stands as her belief. The onus is on her, not the rest of us. Stop asking us to check our values at the door just so your guy can win. Stop implying we just don't understand Obama when all the evidence suggests we understand him completely. Much more than his myopic fan base.
I will not vote for Obama because he represents values I am fundamentally opposed to: racism, sexism, condesension to the working class, lack of judgement about associates, political expediency, graft, and entitlement. How can I say this? I've examined not what he has said but what he as done, and where he has spent his adult life. I encourage you to do the same.
Besides, as of now there is no compelling economic reason to violate my core principles and vote for BHO. If there was I might look twice. His "Democratic" economic stances are boilerplate and innocuous. Regarding the economy he inspires no faith and doesn't even seem to understand the basics.
Howard Dean and Barack Obama have willfully shrunk the Democratic big tent. The rump party they have created is no longer the party I was once proud to be part of.
BIG P.S.: Before I get comments about Iraq - let me just add - anyone who thinks Obama is going to magically end that war is a fool of the first order. Obama will fund the war if he wins. He'll have to. Delusions to the contrary are just that - delusions. All 3 candidates are stuck with Iraq. All three candidates will have to spend 4 years backing off the Bush mess. But we are staying in Iraq. We can't up and leave. Stop fantasizing about it. Until we end our addiction to oil, indeed, our need for oil, we will have to have bases in countries with it. Every segment of our American lives depends on oil. So please no crap that starts with "but the war!!!". If you want the war to end cut your energy usage 50% RIGHT NOW. If you won't do that and still insist Obama can get us out of Iraq - then you're too far gone to be bothered with. We ain't there to stop the "bad guys" we're there to make sure the Chinese aren't. The Chinese are stuck making deals with Sudan and Venezuela for now. Sadly, everyone on earth seems to know this except the American public.
Okay we all know Bush is a dangerous moron. He is probably going to send America over the edge with his stupidity. Until there are massive rallies in the streets of America against Bush's escalation of his "war for his EGO” the whole thing has become redundant. He will do what he wants. No one will stop him. Things will get worse. and on and on.
However all is not lost for us on the Left Coast: Arnold, as I predicted years ago, is governing to the Left of the man he ousted. Let the California secession movement begin! We, like Islam in the Dark Ages, will preserve all that was once great about Western Civilization that BGC (Bush, Greed, and Corporations) have destroyed. But first we Californians must build a wall along our border with Nevada and Arizona to ensure that the hordes of Red Staters don't try to enter our homeland after the utter destruction of the U.S. is completed by Bush.
