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Nov 07 2008
Obama brings international acclaim, from people who hate the USA
Arabs happy Obama won… and that Bush’s man lost | Middle East | Jerusalem Post
Arab and Muslim reaction to incoming US President Barack Obama’s electoral victory around the globe has been largely optimistic, but some remain skeptical that Obama will bring significant change to the Middle East.
The excitement appears to be as much a celebration of Obama’s victory as of the perceived defeat of President George W. Bush – in the shape of his would-be Republican successor John McCain – whose foreign policies in the region have drawn widespread criticism from the Arab and Muslim world.
“Farewell racism, farewell tyranny, farewell wars and terrorism,” wrote Muhammad el-Said of Egypt Wednesday on the Facebook social networking site page entitled “The Arab campaign to support Obama…a necessity and a moral obligation.”
In rare praise, Syria’s state-run newspaper Al-Thawra said Thursday that it “extends its hand to Obama,” that his win “inspired” people around the world and that the American people should be congratulated for electing him.
One can only wonder how tangible was the “necessary and moral” support for Obama. “The Arab campaign to support Obama” sounds like a possible source for all the “untraceable” donations that came into the Obama campaign via its validation-free online credit-card donation system. Somehow, I suspect some of those donations came from Ali Baba… or one of his friends.
Then there’s this, after the 9/11 attacks:
Let’s try to put this another way, for perspective. What would have been the reaction of the American media and the Democrats if a Republican president-elect was hailed as a new beginning by an obviously racist, apartheid regime, maybe something like South Africa some years back? Would Democrats and the media be talking about how this means the new president will be able to reach out and negotiate effectively with the racist regime?
SURE they would….
Nov 07 2008
Post-Election Predictions: Bumped
This was originally posted Oct. 31, so the references to McCain just possibly winning can be ignored. Most of the post is predictions about what happens under an Obama presidency, particularly with regard to media and foreign policy challenges, especially terrorism.
Maybe nothing new here, but I haven’t seen these prognostications made just this way anywhere else. It is, of course, always dangerous to predict the future, since you’ll always be wrong about something… events have a way of overwhelming the current appearance of things. But these predictions flow from the necessities of the various groups to preserve themselves and their power base.
After the election, if Obama wins, he’ll have a short honeymoon. And then, embarrassed at the world knowing how totally they were in the tank for Obama and the Dems in Congress, expect the press to become gradually quite savage in its treatment of Obama, somewhat after the manner of how Clinton’s personal failings were handled by the press, while still avoiding serious criticism of his policies.
Nov 06 2008
I must be a truly post-modern professor
A former student wrote on my Facebook wall recently, and said:
You were by far the most brilliant, confusing, and memorable professor I had.
My reply to him (a touch tongue-in-cheek, perhaps):
Confusion is actually a sign of great wisdom, since nothing is really comprehensible, and so if you THINK you understand, you’re almost certainly wrong.
Nov 06 2008
Economic reality, government programs, food and energy
John Stossel has some good thoughts on what is, and is not, in the power of governments. He begins by quoting African-American economist Walter Williams:
“Politicians have immense power to do harm to the economy. But they have very little power to do good,” Williams says.
The failure to understand this is at the root of many of our problems.
“Most of life is outside the government sector,” says David Boaz of the Cato Institute. “Most change in America doesn’t come from politicians. It comes from people inventing things and creating. The telephone, the telegraph, the computer, all those things didn’t come from government. Our world is going to get better and better, as long as we keep the politicians from screwing it up.”
Continue reading “Economic reality, government programs, food and energy”
Nov 05 2008
Obama’s grandmother will have electricity now
Celebrating Obama’s victory with his grandmother in Kenya
Obama’s grandmother, overwhelmed by journalists seeking to interview her, was optimistic that her grandson would become the first black American president.
“He has come a long way and I know that he will be next president of America,” she said.
A barefoot old woman in a ripped dress is sitting on a log in front of her tin-roof bungalow in this remote village in western Kenya, jovially greeting visitors.
Mama Sarah, as she is known around here, lives without electricity or running water. She is illiterate and doesn’t know when she was born.
I heard on the radio today (ABC news) that as a result of the election of Obama, electricity is being brought to Mama Sarah’s home. I guess having a multi-millionaire grandson wasn’t enough to accomplish this: he had to be elected president first.
Hmm
Nov 05 2008
Historic Election: the understatement of the year
President-elect Obama’s victory is proof of several things about America, some good, some not so good. I’ll explore them at length, sometime soon.
Unlike the Left, which seems always to hope for the worst whenever Republicans are in power, I hope Obama’s presidency is marked by calmness, prosperity for all, peace, graceful resolution of conflict, and unity at home. If I could do anything to bring about an 8 year reign at the end of which we have not been attacked, there are no new (or rediscovered) deadly enemies looming on the horizon, Israel is at peace, our economy is humming, and social problems are significantly reduced, I would do it.
Come to think of it, the one thing we can all do is pray, genuine earnest prayer that his presidency will be as described above.
Unfortunately, that probably also means praying that he does not keep all of his campaign promises, or is blocked, somehow, in carrying them out. This is not snark; some of what he has promised will be deadly to some of us, sometime during his presidency, in all likelihood (difficult to know exactly who and when, of course). I hope his declaration of Christian faith was sincere, and I hope he prays sincerely for guidance. If he does, and tells the press about it, it will be interesting to compare their reactions to what they said about Bush’s piety.
The president-elect is a magnificent campaigner (at least, when he has an utterly compliant media backing his play, a factor which will change fairly soon, I think). He is going to learn that his charm will be utterly lost on our enemies, and many of our allies, hopefully not as riskily as John F. Kennedy, who nearly led us into nuclear exchange with the Soviets by showing weakness earlier. I’m not sure he knows just yet that he can’t hope to retain the grand acclaim with which he was received on his “credential building” world tour/”royal progress”, but perhaps God will guide his hand in choosing advisers, and some will be able to educate him. Perhaps the intelligence and military briefings he will receive during the transition period will sober him. Perhaps he will learn the craft of placating the radical Left, his most vociferous supporters, while not doing the radically stupid thing that leaves us vulnerable to our enemies. We can hope, and pray that he does not believe the praises heaped upon him by his acolytes.
He might benefit from someone following him around saying, “You are not a god. You are not a god.” Unfortunately, he may believe his own campaign releases.
It would be lovely if Russia, China and resurgent radical Islam would just fight it out between themselves, and leave us out of it, until it was time for us, being Americans, to send in humanitarian relief via the Navy, Air Force and Marines. I do not expect that to happen. All of our competitors know we’re the big dog they have to take down. We will not be able to lie down and look inoffensive and hope to be left alone. It has been tried already. It has never worked, and won’t this time, either. But our memory is short, as the election proves, and so painful reminders will sooner or later be the order of the day, I suspect.
Here are a few reflections from Power Line.
The historic election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States calls for reflections far beyond these provisional thoughts, but here are ten:
Nov 04 2008
“A twisted dollop of evil scum”: the man has a way with words
ABC News’ Jake Tapper reports (h/t InstaPundit) that Bill Ayers voted this morning at Chicago’s Shoesmith Elementary School, shortly before another “guy from his neighborhood,” Barack Obama.
I’m sure someone had the job this morning of making sure that they were never in the same room, or otherwise capable of being captured within the same camera viewfinder, at the same time.
Ayers has the legal right to vote only because law enforcement screw-ups prevented him from being prosecuted for and convicted of the multiple felonies to which he’s confessed. He remains, however, a twisted dollop of evil scum, a description that I’m quite proud will be forever associated with his name in major online search engines.
Actually, Ayers didn’t vote for Obama. He is widely believed to have planned to write in Che Guevara, with whom he shares more in common. After all, the graveyard vote is big in Chicago, and we don’t have Barry’s birth certificate, either. And Che was widely reported to have been born in the Argentine American Embassy, legally American ground, so he could qualify, too.
Nov 04 2008
Don’t believe a WORD about election results until the LAST COUNT is done
Based on their performance in 2000 and 2004, I expect the major media to literally lie about the results they get from exit polling, as they try to affect the election like they did in 2000 and 2004.
The election night decision of the networks in 2000 to call Florida for Gore –erroneous, and done even before Florida had closed its polls– was the single worst intervention in America’s elections by the MSM in history. It cost Republicans across the country an untold number of votes and many seats in the House and the Senate, and almost cost Bush the election.
The second worst intervention was the bogus exit polling in 2004, which had effects across the country too complex to chart.
In both instances the MSM’s “decision desks” injured the basic functioning of our democracy, and tomorrow the trend will probably hold as MSM analysts –except the always-to-be-trusted Barone– work overtime to find in their numbers the results their polls have been predicting for a month. This dynamic will slow down any good news for McCain and accelerate any perceived good news for Obama.
Play the part of Charlie Brown if you like tomorrow and try and kick MSM Lucy’s football, but the best advice is believe nothing until all the polls have closed and the real results are tallied.
We’ve been fooled twice by media liars. If we’re fooled again, we are indeed the fools.
And the funny/sad part: even if Obama wins, in the end, the media will still have lied, because they will have “called the election” before they REALLY knew the result.
Nov 04 2008
The Dishonest “No on 8” campaign
I’ve already commented on how dishonest the “NO on 8” campaign is, to try to defeat Proposition 8 in California, which would restore marriage to the status it has held for some thousands or years, namely, between men and women only. The No on 8 ad claims that it won’t affect the schools, when gay marriage advocates know that it will, and already has. And, they’ve stalled on implementing lawsuits to force even more gay marriage propaganda into the schools, until they defeat Prop 8, if they can, knowing that it wouldn’t look good for them to be suing for yet more specific pro-gay marriage influence in the schools when their ads are claiming it won’t happen.
A new ad just hit the airwaves tonight, and it isn’t on youtube yet, but it quotes Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Diane Feinstein, a couple others, all claiming that Prop 8 is (horrors!) discriminatory. It doesn’t even say what Prop 8 is about. Neither the word “gay” nor the phrase “gay marriage” is used. Obviously, we’re supposed to recoil in horror at the word “discrimination” and flee the battlefield.
To hear them tell it, you’d think that Prop 8 was trying to keep Romeo and Juliet apart.
This is fundamentally dishonest, of course. It’s a very close election, and most people have made up their minds by now, but they’re hoping, at the last minute, to snag some people who have no idea whatsoever just what Prop 8 might be about, but can be swayed with mindless use of the word “discriminate”. One is reminded of the way pro-choice advocates never use the word “kill”, unless it’s to describe the incredibly small amount of violence aimed at abortion providers. (About one abortion worker killed for every seven million babies aborted, over the life of Roe v. Wade, meaning abortionists are far safer in their clinics than driving home, despite the nonsense you’ve heard in the major media.)
One of the best ways to lie, of course, is to simply avoid telling the whole truth.
Here’s a video of another group of people, who give about as much actual information in this display of public discourse as the ad with the big names.
Of course, Prop 8 does NOT discriminate. Anyone can marry a person of the opposite sex, just like it has always been, for all of human history.
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