Sep 13 2008

Foreign travel, foreign policy “experience” and judgment

Category: election 2008,Iraq,McCain,media,middle east,Obama,Palin,politics,White House — harmonicminer @ 11:19 pm

As usual, the Obama campaign is still playing catchup to Sarah Palin. Now the big question is whether she actually crossed the border into Iraq by a half-mile, or stayed at the border.   Obama camp suggests lies over Palin visit to Iraq – Yahoo! News

The question of whether Sarah Palin has ever been to Iraq pushed Obama aides Saturday to accuse the McCain campaign of outright lies, distortions and distractions to the American people.

Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped the Alaska governor to be his running mate on Aug. 29, questions about her experience have been fueled by her relatively brief tenure in office, as well as a dearth of foreign travel.

What matters isn’t how many countries she’s visited, or even how many heads of state she knows on a first name basis.  What matters is the judgment and values of the candidate.

When Russia invaded Georgia, Obama’s first response was to hope that both sides would exercise restraint, in a perfect-pitch-for-the-left rendition of moral equivalence, the natural born instinct of leftists everywhere.  That tells us what we need to know about Obama’s judgment and values.  Obama’s warm reception during his grand international P.R. tour doesn’t change who he is, a person who can’t quite define evil, and isn’t quite sure what we should do about it….  in his own nuanced way, of course.

I doubt an academic study can be found to demonstrate that shaking hands and chatting about inconsequentials with foreign leaders (the usual meaning of “getting to know them”) has produced better decisions than are reached by simply considering the facts at hand.  Roosevelt “met” with Stalin, and still gave away half of Europe.  Bush met with Putin and “saw into his soul”, and still didn’t understand, it would seem, what a fascist Putin would turn out to be.  Kennedy “met” with Kruschiev, and that resulted in the Cuban missile crisis when the Communist dictator decided that Kennedy could be rolled.

It’s decisions based on evidence that matter, not face time.  And tourism is not a pre-requisite for the Presidency or vice-Presidency, much as the Left might wish it was.

In the meantime, whether Palin made it 2500 feet into Iraq, or stayed at the border, matters not a whit.  The Obama campaign must really be spooked by this lady.  They should be…  she is something beyond their experience, a genuine person who simply says what she means.

OH, and the lead sentence to the quoted article is truly hilarious:  Imagine, the Obama campaign was “pushed” into calling the McCain campaign liars.  Gee…  you mean they just couldn’t help themselves?

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Sep 13 2008

First, Do No Harm

Category: election 2008,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 8:54 am

Being a politician, and especially being President, has aspects in common with being a parent, and with being a physician.

Good parents, first and foremost, need to avoid damaging their children.  Maybe I have low standards for parenting.  But if you can raise a child to the age of 18 or so, and have helped them avoid doing damage to themselves (they aren’t substance abusers, high school dropouts, criminals, etc.), and if they know you love them, and they love you, you’ve probably won.  Sure, there are tons of nice things to try to do, but they depend at least as much on the nature of the child as on parenting magic.  The point: you are to raise the child, help where you can, not go against the fundamental nature of the child by trying to get things from them they can never do or simply hate (and you’ll have to be somewhat sensitive while discovering the child’s nature), and avoid messing the child up.  Everything else is gravy, and we all know how bad that is for your health, in excess.

There is a similar principle in medicine, sometimes attributed to Hippocrates, “First, do no harm.”  It means, generally, that if you can’t fix it, at least don’t make it worse, or create a new problem.  Medical doctors used to attach leeches to “bleed” patients to remove “ill humors” that were making them ill.  Of course, they were simply weakening their patients, in most cases.  Thalidomide babies of 1950s helped lead to the creation of the modern FDA drug approval process (which has created its own problems), another example of doctors causing harm while trying to do good.

What has this to do with politics?  It’s pretty simple: some problems are very complex, and are rooted in human nature and individual choice.  The attempt to use governmental power to “fix” them is likely to create new problems, frequently without making a serious dent in the old ones, and sometimes making the old ones worse.

So: beware of the politician who promises things that have never been, that sound too good to be true, that depend on very complex systems managed by governmental power and oversight, and that create incentives for individuals and organizations to behave in ways counter to the intent of the new program or policy.  Raise taxes on the rich, and they’ll change their behavior in ways that don’t lead to economic growth, and you’ll actually reduce tax receipts to the government.  Offer benefits to unwed mothers, and you’ll have more unwed mothers.  Fix prices at some “fair” level, and you’ll have shortages.  Provide “free” or “cost controlled” healthcare, and you’ll soon run out of healthcare services….  a special case of price fixing, in essence.  And so it goes.

I think it’s very likely that Obama plans huge, radical changes which will have unpredictable effects, not solve the problems he claims the changes are aimed at (or make them worse), and create new ones.  The article at the previous link makes it clear that the danger of Obama’s election is not that he won’t keep his promises; it’s that he will.  What else can you expect from someone whose ideological hero’s manifesto is titled Rules for Radicals?  And he is likely to appoint judges who have similar intentions, to make sure his radical changes are declared to be “constitutional”.

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Sep 12 2008

The AP is totally in the tank for Obama

Category: election 2008,McCain,media,Obama,Palin,politics,White House — harmonicminer @ 9:35 pm

If you have any sense, you’ll simply ignore all AP reporting in this election cycle.  In what pretends to be a news article, the AP claims that McCain’s claims skirt the facts. This bit of magnificent analysis is by one Charles Babington.  The only hint given to the reader that it is mere opinion, and not NEWS, is the word “analysis” in the title. By rights, it has no place in a list of “news stories”, and should be clearly marked “editorial by left leaning writer”, but of course the AP isn’t that interested in helping you discern the difference. Here’s the first paragraph:

Republican presidential nominee John McCain, a self-proclaimed tell-it-like-it-is maverick, keeps saying his running mate, Sarah Palin, killed the federally funded Bridge to Nowhere when, in fact, she pulled her support only after the project became a political embarrassment. He said Friday that Palin never asked for money for lawmakers’ pet projects as Alaska governor, even though she has sought nearly $200 million in earmarks this year. He says Obama would raise nearly everyone’s taxes, when independent groups say 80 percent of families would get tax cuts instead.

This is risible. 80 percent of families don’t PAY income tax. About 40% of families pay no federal income tax. Obama wants to simply GIVE non-tax paying people a “tax cut” by sending them a check. In many cases of the 60% who DO pay income tax, the “tax cut” will amount to more than the taxes they pay.   He will pay for this by raising taxes on the top 5%. There are a couple of names for this: “welfare” is the polite one. Pure class-warfare socialism is another.

Further, if you ask the people in Alaska who “killed the bridge to nowhere”, they will say Sarah Palin.  Sarah Palin’s political enemies in Alaska say that she killed it.  Palin’s political friends say she killed it.  80% approval rating is hard to argue with.  But of course, Mr. Babington (one wonders if this is mispelled…  should it be Blabington?), from his olympian position as an AP flack, knows things that no one in Alaska knows, being so much smarter than the average Alaskan.

Even in a political culture accustomed to truth-stretching, McCain’s skirting of facts has stood out this week. It has infuriated and flustered Obama’s campaign, and campaign pros are watching to see how much voters disregard news reports noting factual holes in the claims.

Since this “news” story is full of factual holes, one can only hope the voters disregard it.  This diatribe goes on for a dozen more paragraphs of distortion about McCain and Palin, until at last, we get this sop to evenhandedness:

Obama, of course, has made exaggerated or questionable assertions as well. Earlier this year, for instance, he repeated a claim that more black men are in prison than in college, after news accounts refuted it. He also used a McCain remark about having troops in Iraq for “100 years” to exaggerate McCain’s proposals for being fully engaged militarily in that country.

THIS is the best this writer can find to document Obama’s false claims and questionable assertions?  What diligence.  What attention to detail.  What thorough research.

Voters are going to have to be very careful this season.  The major media are so far in the tank for Obama that they present pure opinion/spin pieces as if they are news.  A simple challenge to anyone who doubts this: try to find an AP piece, by ANY writer, ANY time in the last 6 months, that is this negative about Obama.  Since the AP seems to think it’s OK to disguise pure opinion as news, surely, if they were being evenhanded, they would publish at least ONE that was negative about Obama in the radical way that this piece is negative on McCain. 

Start looking.  I’ll check back next week to see if anyone found anything and put it in the comments area.  Oh:  and if, by some miracle, you find one, can you find another one? 

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Sep 12 2008

“Birds Of A Feather Flock Together” / “A Man Is Known By The Company He Keeps”

Category: corruption,election 2008,friendship,Obama,politics — amuzikman @ 8:00 am

When I was about 11 years old I remember my parents telling me they had some serious reservations about my hanging out with a couple of guys from school who didn’t meet with their approval. At the time I took great offense, telling my folks their concerns were misplaced, and secretly harboring no small resentment against them for trying to tell me who I should and shouldn’t have for friends.

Not too long after that our family moved and I didn’t see those guys as much. I do remember one of the last times we were together I noticed they seemed to have developed quite a taste for finding ways to skip school and get high.

In retrospect my parents were absolutely right!

A few years later they were at it again, this time about a girl I was dating. Again I became indignant over their “meddling” and again, I had to admit to myself later they were right.

As a parent, and now officially on the “other”side of the hill, I see the same issue playing out in the lives of my own kids. And the perspective that comes from adulthood adds a dimension to this subject I didn’t have as a child. For now I realize the problem wasn’t necessarily who my friends were, it was the judgment, or lack thereof, I exhibited in making choices about who I would invite to be a part of my life.

Every parent breaths a sigh of relief when their kids make good choices about the friends they run with. And the two wise old sayings that serve as title to this blog have entered the American lexicon precisely because we know them to be true.

So, do we suspend this truth with candidates for the highest office in the land? Do Presidential candidates get a free pass on the company they keep? Or is the truth still the truth? William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khaladi, Louis Farrakhan, and Kwame Kilpatrick are all friends of Barack Obama. If Obama was my child I’d be worried. If Obama becomes president I’ll be afraid.

Here is more detail on the company Obama keeps.

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Sep 11 2008

Time to DRILL. Here. Now.

Category: energy,global warming,McCain,Obama — harmonicminer @ 10:34 pm

Venezuela’s Chavez says US ambassador must leave – Yahoo! News

President Hugo Chavez ordered the U.S. ambassador to leave Venezuela within 72 hours on Thursday, accusing the diplomat of conspiring against his government and saying he would also withdraw his own envoy from Washington immediately.

Chavez made the move in solidarity with Bolivia after his Andean ally expelled the U.S. diplomat there, accusing him of aiding violent protests. He said a new American ambassador will not be welcome in Caracas “until there’s a U.S. government that respects the people of Latin America,” suggesting that diplomatic relations will be scaled back until President Bush leaves the White House.

“They’re trying to do here what they were doing in Bolivia,” Chavez said, accusing Washington of trying to oust him.

“That’s enough … from you, Yankees,” Chavez said, using an expletive. Waving his fists in the air, he added: “I hold the government of the United States responsible for being behind all the conspiracies against our nations!”

Holding up a watch to check the time, Chavez declared: “From this moment, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas has 72 hours to leave Venezuela!” He told his foreign minister to recall Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, “before they kick him out of there.”

The U.S. Embassy said it was aware of Chavez’s speech but had not received official notification. Embassy spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer said Ambassador Patrick Duddy is traveling in the United States this week.

The diplomatic spat brings relations between the two countries to a new low and raises questions about whether it could hurt trade. Venezuela is the fourth-largest oil supplier to the United States, and Chavez also threatened to cut off crude shipments “if there’s any aggression against Venezuela.”

How clear can it be? If you’re against drilling in the USA, everywhere we have oil, then you are consumed with some kind of sick self-hatred, and you hate the rest of us, too.  It’s time for the America hating eco-panic “gotta keep the wilderness no one ever sees pristine” Left to be replaced with someone who has our better interests in mind.

In the meantime, does anyone with a desire to survive and to live in a free nation really want Obama in charge when the Russians start putting bomber bases in Venezuela?

Maybe he’ll negotiate nicely with Putin….  hold him down to just a couple dozen bombers, and maybe only 100 or so nukes. 

In return we’ll promise not to admit any more former Warsaw block nations into NATO.

Fair trade, right?

We really, really need you, Senator McCain.

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Sep 06 2008

Hey, Obama – About Those Comments You Made….

Category: China,Obama,USA — amuzikman @ 1:01 am

August 21, 2008, Chester, Virginia. Barack Obama says the following:

Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics, Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, “Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”

September 5, 2008. Los Angeles Times, page A7.

CHINA: Schools Were Poorly Built:

A Chinese government scientist says a rush to build schools probably led to construction flaws that caused many of them to collapse in May’s devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, the first official admission that building standards may have contributed to the deaths of many children.

The quake killed nearly 70,000 people and damaged more than 1000 schools.

So I’m thinking – NOW I know why Obama wanted to boycott the China Olympics. He doesn’t own a hard hat. And who’d want to be inside the Birds Nest stadium in an earthquake without one? Do we dare to imagine what might have been had the earthquake hit Beijing?

So, if you had to ride out a 7.9 earthquake, which country would you rather be in? And with a straight face Obama tells us China’s infrastructure is vastly superior to the United Sates. Tell that to the 70,000.

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Sep 05 2008

Oprah’s Right To Choose

Category: Obama,Oprah — amuzikman @ 10:14 am

Much has been made about Oprah Winfrey’s decision to throw her support behind Barack Obama. She has campaigned with him and for him. She has raised campaign funds for him. Perhaps most significantly she has hitched her considerable trademark to him and bestowed upon him her personal seal of approval.

Much has been said and written about whether or not this endorsement or any celebrity endorsement has any significant effect on a political election and one can find a variety of opinions on the subject. If nothing else, apparently Oprah will get credit for popularizing the description of Obama as “The One”. The fact that this smacks more of idol worship than of informed decision making is perhaps the subject of another blog.

The reason(s) for Oprah’s endorsement have also been the subject of considerable conjecture. I think it is safe to say two possible reasons can be removed from the discussion.

First, it is not because Oprah thinks this is a historical moment for African Americans. Her refusal to schedule Clarence Thomas on her show during his recent book tour seems to indicate political ideology trumps Civil Rights. After all, can there be a more powerful example of black achievement than his ascendancy to The Supreme Court of the United States?

Second it is not because Oprah thinks this is a historical moment for Women’s Rights. She has been profoundly anti-Hillary and again is using her veto power on the subject of inviting Sarah Palin to her show.

Oprah can do whatever she likes with her TV show. She has earned the right. And by the way, she too is a tremendous example of achievement, not only for the African American community and for women, but for anyone seeking inspiration for success. But let’s not pretend her reasons are lofty, noble, or worthy of a time-share in Valhalla. Oprah endorsed Obama for political reasons, plain and simple. Her viewers are not ignorant of the fact either. This from her community message board:

I’ve been watching O for years and I’ve increasingly come to the realization that her politics are far more important to her than the principles she espouses for ratings.

The good news for Clarence Thomas and Sarah Palin is that they are going to be just fine. I doubt either will lose any sleep over an Oprah snub. The good news for Americans is that we do not select our President and Vice President based on celebrity endorsements. But whether it is good news for Oprah to reveal herself to be just another “toe-tag’ liberal….well, that remains to be seen.

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Sep 04 2008

John McCain convention speech

Category: election 2008,McCain,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 10:00 pm

I watched McCain’s speech to the Republican National Convention tonight.

There will always be some policies that he’ll promote with which I’ll disagree.  I don’t expect to approve of his approach to illegal aliens, campaign finance “reform”, “global warming” or “climate change”, “bipartisanship”, etc.  He is starting to make the right noises about drilling…  now if he’ll add Anwar to his offshore drilling commitment, and nuclear energy as well.  We’ll see on that.  He occasionally makes populist sounding noises, and seemed to be suggesting a new entitlement program for people who have “lost jobs due to globalization”.  That’s worrisome, but maybe he only means to suggest a different way of allocating current unemployment compensation funds.

Nevertheless, with all the likely policy disagreements I’ll have with him, I have nothing but respect for McCain the man, and I think he’ll do the right things on foreign policy, taxes, spending, judges, education, etc.

Continue reading “John McCain convention speech”

Sep 04 2008

Camelot or Spamelot?

Category: Obama — amuzikman @ 12:40 am

There seems to be an effort, conscious or unconscious, on the part of Barack Obama to portray himself as JFK 2.0. He likes to cherry-picks certain historical events involving the former president as justification for his own views. His demeanor, charm, eloquence, and family (attractive wife, two lovely younger children) all invite comparisons with the man who’s abruptly abbreviated time in the White House was referred to as “Camelot”.

interestingly the origins of the connection between JFK and Camelot appear to have come from Jackie Kennedy, and only after JFK’s death (whereas Obama seems to want to perform a self-coronation). The comparison is certainly not surprising when one considers that the Broadway show, Camelot opened just a couple weeks after JFK’s inauguration and the song “Camelot” seems to have been a favorite of his. http://ask.yahoo.com/19990809.html

But beyond appearances there is little to commend a comparison between Obama and JFK. Larry Elder has a wonderful piece this week on Townhall.com showing little doubt that if he were alive today, JFK would have been much more at home in the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. http://townhall.com/Columnists/LarryElder/2008/09/04/jfk_democrats_role_model?page=1

I think in this case as with so many things about Barack Obama, he is a just a paper King Arthur – a life-sized cut-out, a cheap knock-off, a spoof of the original item, insisting to his followers that he also pulled the sword from the stone. But the comparison is only skin-deep and when I look at him I don’t think of Camelot so much as I do Spamelot.

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Sep 02 2008

THE ONE

Category: election 2008,humor,Obama,politics,White House — sardonicwhiner @ 9:41 am

Obama being THE ONE and everything, do you ever find yourself wondering if there are any Obamas left in the alternate universes of the multiverse?

I’m trying to remember:  I used to live in an alternate universe myself, and I’m pretty sure there was no Obama in it.  Maybe there’s a reason he’s so accepting of “illegal aliens“…  Just ask yourself:  if the Obama we know is from another universe, how would we know?  Would it be the sparks when he makes an entrance (no border fences will be stopping this guy)?  Or something else?    Maybe like this?.

If Obama starts in with the flashy kung fu stuff, I’m outta here.

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