Category Archives: Political polemics

OLIVER STONE

Director Oliver Stone went Moore Mad. From the London Sunday Times came this:

Director Oliver Stone belittled the Holocaust during a shocking interview with the Sunday Times today, claiming that America’s focus on the Jewish massacre was a product of the “Jewish domination of the media.”. The director also defended Hitler and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and railed against the “powerful lobby” of Jews in America.

Upon seeing the public furor over the remark, he  retracted his statements and apologized.  Apology accepted. He sincerely acknowledged that some of the things one believes should not be expressed in public.

However, if ever there was a man of the Left, Oliver Stone is it. Please note, this man of the left sided with Adolf Hitler in his interview with the Sunday Times. He is not the first from the Left to do so and do so. No less an icon than Charles Lindberg was a Hitler supporter. Lindberg supported Hitler (early on) because he, Lindberg, was a liberal and saw merit in Hitlers’s socialist agenda. Our liberal compatriots like to paint old Adolf as a man of the Right. Don’t believe it. Hitler’s Party was the National Socialists Party and nothing, absolutely nothing that he did would ever be condoned by the folks the Left calls ‘right wingers’, extremist or not.

KRUGMAN ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The year 2010 is the year “all hope of action to limit climate change died”, says economist columnist Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times. Really? I wish it were true, but I am afraid Krugman is wrong again.

He continues

One of the favorite tricks of climate-change deniers: they point to an unusually warm year in the past, and say “See, the planet has been cooling, not warming, since 1998!” Actually, 2005, not 1998, was the warmest year to date.

He has a point. In 2007 NASA changed their numbers and declared 2005 to be the warmest year on record, not 1998 as they had previously reported. They do acknowledge other agencies still put 1934 as the warmest, but that’s a moot point. Some things Krugman fails to say are:

The third hottest year on record was 1921.

Three of the five hottest years on record occurred before 1940.

Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred.

NASA’s ground-based temperature records for the past 120 years’ which have been the basis for most of the claims that global warming is happening at an unprecedented rate, — have now been corrected to show that much of the warming occurred before CO2 emissions and concentrations began to rise significantly.

And that is an important point, because the real argument is not over warming, but over the cause. Is it man made as scientists Al Gore and Paul Krugman claim or is it natural, perhaps from temperature changes at the sun’s surface, as some other scientists claim? If the latter are correct, building windmills on hills to fight the sun is a bit quixotic, don’t you think? Or perhaps it is just plain silly.

The most honest of all was G. W. Bush. When asked for his for his position on the issue, he said “I don’t believe we should be making sacrifices for something we dunno.”. There is nothing silly about that.

Bob B

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CNN WOULD CENSOR BLOGS

Obama is not the only one with audacity. Wee though I may be, I have the audacity to call myself a member of “the press”, the great public press, the new press, the real press, the open press, the complete press. Freedom of the press applies equally to the New York Times, Huffington Post, Random Thots and the guy next door who started his first blog last Tuesday.

There is beauty, trash, idiocy, and profound thinking available to all, on the internet. There are lies too outrageous for the National Enquirer to publish and truths too enlightening for the New York Times to put in print. It’s there, the good, the bad; and the ugly. It’s all there. It is for the reader to discern and choose the good from the bad, the same as one does when choosing friends and companions. When government is given the power to control what our our eyes may see and what our ears may hear, the end of freedom is at the door.

The founders of this great nation trusted the people of this great nation more than they trusted the government of this great nation. The very first Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom from government control of speech, religion and the press. End of rant.

Why the rant? News anchors Kyra Philips and John Roberts, members of the press no less, are calling for the government, or someone to control the press, that’s why the rant. They don’t want CNN to be censored, of course, only the blogs.

Roberts:

“there’s going to come a point where something’s going to have to be done legally”. [legally = government]

Philips:

“There has to be some point where there’s some accountability. And companies, especially in the media have to stop giving these anonymous bloggers credit,”

Then this idiocy – Roberts first points out that some countries, like Iran, are closed societies where the internet may be their only source of uncensored reporting, then adds:

“But when it comes to a society like ours, an open society, do there have to be (sic) some checks and balances, not national, but maybe website to website on who comments on things?”

Huh? Because ours is a free and open society we need to control the blogs? Mr. Roberts, as you might put it, ‘there do not have to be’.

Fear not, Congress will never enact a law rescinding freedom of speech.  If however, it ever comes up in a referendum, at least 3 votes would be assured, those of  Roberts, Philips and Rather.

Bob B

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http://newsbusters.org/blogs/alana-goodman/2010/07/23/cnn-host-calls-crackdown-bloggers-wake-sherrod-incident-something-s-g

RUSSIANS KNOW THE FOREST, AMERICANS CAN’T EVEN SEE THE TREES

"HA'PNY"

British half cent (half penny) coin

The other day, my wife and I were leaving a restaurant in a tourist town. As we stepped out the door, a couple was standing on the sidewalk looking at the menu in the window. They asked us what we thought of the food and service. We had just dined there, we should know. Hold that thought.

Pravda became internationally known as the propaganda organ of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev’s Glasnost gave them an independent, if not totally free, voice. Today’s Pravda is largely free to express the thoughts and minds of the Russian people.

There is a certain form of government we call Communism. The Russians call it Marxism; academics call it Central Planning or Collectivism; the Tea Party calls it Socialism; author Mark Levin, in Liberty and Tyranny calls it Statism. There is not a ha’pny’s difference between them. The Russian people know this form of government very well. They have been dining there for years. Here is what Pravda had to say three months after the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama.

American capitalism gone with a whimper
PRAVDA 27.04.2009

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters. First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger than for their constitutional rights.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress.

Then came Barack Obama’s command that GM’s (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of “pure” free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK’s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our “wise” Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.
Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper…

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set “fair” maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.          Stanislav Mishin

I know, the author is disdainful, crude and given to overstatement. Even Barney Frank deserves a little more respect. But how is it so many in our land lack the vision to see where we are headed when someone 5000 miles away sees it so clearly? Somehow, I think, Stanislav Mishkin is equally perplexed.

The answer, of course, is that they have already been where we are just now going.

Bob B

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FRANK-DODD ACT PART TWO, WHAT IT DOES AND DOESN’T DO

We have written that the Act is vague in many respects. However, some of it is specific and some of it is good. For example, it puts an end to “Liars Loans” also called NINJA loans because you could get a mortgage with No Income, No Job and No Assets. Also good is the provision known as the Volcker Rule that puts limits on how far a bank can go in trading in derivatives and swaps for their own account, i.e, how much risk they may take in search of trading profits.

Anyone who listens to the excellent Howard Clark show knows there is need for reform in the credit card industry. We have no details, but the Act purports to bring needed reform here. Sounds good.

What the Act fails to do, and fails completely, is to fulfill its stated purpose. That is to take measures to prevent a recurrence of the financial collapse from which we are all still suffering. Can anyone deny the primary cause was too many sub-prime loans? Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Barney Frank, Franklin Raines, Andrew Cuomo and Jamie Garelick were the major players in designing, building, promoting and protecting the house of cards whose inevitable collapse created the crisis. It would be naïve to expect Barney Frank to censure Barney Frank but not to reform Fannie and Freddie is an unmitigated disgrace.

Space here does not allow a complete analysis of the causes and contributors to the crisis and the recession. Fortunately, some excellent, well written articles on the subject were published at Town Hall a year and a half ago. I urge you to click the blue links and read them.

Mortgage Mess Blame Game.

The Day the Democrats Brought Down the World

Pelosi’s Gall

(Confession: I wrote them)

Bob B

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LAST WEEK

Week ending July 16, 2010

Monday
White House denies NASA remark on Muslim outreach
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently told Al-Jazeera network that Obama told him “to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering.”

Tuesday
Salazar continues to fight the law over drilling moratorium
(AP) Rebuffed twice by the courts, the Obama administration is taking another crack at a moratorium on deep-water drilling.

ABC/WaPo poll reveals confidence in Obama has reached a new low.
About two-thirds of all voters say they are dissatisfied with or angry about the way the federal government is working.

Wednesday
Obama calls al Qaeda, racist
Expresses concern over al Qaeda now that they have killed Ugandans in Africa. How many dead Africans will it take before he acknowledges al Qaeda as terrorists? Apparently dead Americans don’t count.

Thursday
Clinton fundraiser gets 12 year prison sentence. Read about it.

Wall St Journal headline “Hillary for President!”
We said it would happen, the headlines, that is.

Friday
Announcement – Bush memoir Decision Points to be released before election day.
Dems not happy. Original release was scheduled for Nov 9th

Obama household cook gets to be a czar
“Sam Kass went from being a 20-something, Windy City gourmet cook – privately paid by the Obamas to feed them – to big-time White House adviser in a matter of months,”
What’s next, Obama’s barber as hair czar?

Bob B

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GAZA, WAR, and ISRAEL

AT THE MARKET IN GAZA

“The Palestinians of Gaza descended from refugees of the 1948 war that created Israel.”  That’s a stretch. Now any high school student should know the Jews were given a homeland by by the U.N. in a Partition Plan, not by war.  Who is so uninformed (or biased ?) that they would print such nonsense. The New York Times, that’s who.

The war of 1948 was a war against the Jews declared by Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq in an attempt to nullify the U.N. ruling and drive the Jews from the area. It is true that Israel did not declare their independence until the conclusion of the fighting, but the inference that Israel obtained its independence by going to war against its neighbors is simply false.

In the article, the Times points out,

“Today Hamas has no rival here. It runs the schools, hospitals, courts, security services and — through smuggler tunnels from Egypt — the economy.”

and,

Young men [in Gaza] carried posters of a man with vampire teeth biting into a bloodied baby.

The vampire was not Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. It was Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank

and,

[The Palestinian people] have not one government but two, the Fatah-dominated one in the West Bank city of Ramallah and the Hamas one here [in Gaza]. The antagonism between them offers a depth of rivalry and rage that shows no sign of abating.

Its latest victim is electricity for Gaza, part of which is supplied by Israel and paid for by the West Bank government, which is partly reimbursed by Hamas. But the West Bank says that Hamas is not paying enough so it has held off paying Israel, which has halted delivery.

“They [Fatah] are lining their pockets and they are part of the siege,” asserted Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader and a surgeon, speaking of the West Bank government. “There will be no reconciliation.”

Nevertheless, the tone of the NYT article puts the onus of Gaza’s problems on Israel and headlines their piece Trapped by Gaza Blockade, Locked in Despair.

Bob B

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WHEN NATIONS GO BANKRUPT

Have you ever wondered what happens when a nation goes bankrupt? There is no bankruptcy court for nations. A country cannot just fade away into non-existence as can a corporation. Merger is not a way out either.

A look at the country of Greece and at the city of Oakland, California will give us a clue. Neither is quite bankrupt but both are on the verge. In Greece riots over reduction in spending have already killed a few people. In Oakland the police chief threatens not to respond to telephone calls in cases of burglary, grand theft, vandalism or auto accidents, and a list of certain other offenses. This is no doubt a threat for political purposes, but it gives us a hint as to what can happen when a government entity truly cannot pay their bills.

Policemen, firemen and teachers, will they continue to work if they are not paid? They will not and chaos is the result. Sporadic riots and looting erupt. Some people die. If the nation is one with a single payer* health plan and can no longer pay its bills, everyone’s health care is in curtailed. Radical change in government becomes acceptable, even sought for by the people.

The change can take a turn to conservative rule such as happened in Chile, or it can be reliance on the grand promises of a despot as happened in Germany. It can revert to prosperity as have Chile and Germany, or continue to meander somewhere between mediocrity and misery such as was the case for the people of the Soviet Union and its satellites. These are the inevitable ends for nations that continue to spend beyond their means, right  into insolvency. Obama is accelerating our descent into this pit. He can be stopped. He must be stopped.

Bob B

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*propagandic – for fully government paid and controlled

UPDATE July 16
Philadelphia Mayor calls for closure of firehouses.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS, U.N. STYLE

The United Nations arm for overseeing women’s rights is the Commission on the Status of Women. Right off the bat, if you permit me the vernacular, there is a problem with the title. It is not propagandic. It is straight forward and honest. The commission is not about promoting equality for women, it is about the status of women, that’s all.

For a look beyond the title we go to the Commission’s own website where we find their mission statement which says,

[The Commission is] dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.

Well, that’s better; “policies to promote gender equality”, good. At least the ethics missing from the title are present in the mission statement. Perhaps I should soften my view of the U.N., but wait. I see a recently appointed member of the very same Commission was preparing to stone a woman to death for an alleged indiscretion. Sharia (Islamic law) calls for the young mother to be buried to her shoulders then stoned to death. It has been deferred, deferred mind you, not canceled.

Should the Commission call for an equal number of men to be stoned? That is a very sick joke. So is the United Nations.

Bob B

A HOUSE DIVIDED

Democratic state governors are disturbed over Obama’s stance against the states over immigration policy. The governors have expressed concern that it may cost them their re-election. What should really concern them is his intrusion on the sovereignty of the states. What should concern us all is the division Obama is fostering between the States now United.

“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand”. Matthew, chapter 12 verse 25

We have found it appropriate to publish excerpts from Lincolns famous House Divided speech in our REFERENCE feature.

Looking back over history one might ask, why the new continent developed into a great world power but Continental Europe never did. The answer is clear. Europe remained balkanized while in America the states united. Our strength, indeed our very existence derives from our unity. Barack Obama is assaulting that unity.

What is it that drives this man???

Bob B