Tag Archives: Middle East

2016: Obama’s America

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This afternoon I went to the first showing of the above mentioned movie at Wolfchase. A line for tickets had already formed, which was surprising since we got there 20 minutes early, and this was the 1:10 showing, not usually one where you have to wait to purchase tickets.

Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative writer born in India, narrates the film. D’Souza felt a strange sort of kinship with Obama. His life follows, in an odd way, Obama’s. He was born in the same year, 1961; graduated the same year as Obama; and even got married the same year as Obama and Michelle. Both had exposure to life in the third world during their childhoods. But this is where the story diverges.

In a very fair way, D’Souza examines the background of Obama, especially his father. As he says, Obama’s “autobiography” (after numerous accounts, I share the belief that the true author is Bill Ayers), Dreams From My Father, is from his father and not of. It’s an important distinction.

So he goes in search of what Obama Sr.’s dreams were. D’Souza explains and shows that they are not dreams from America’s Founding Fathers. The dreams of Obama Sr. concerned getting the British out of his native Kenya. He hated all colonial nations and even suggested 100% income tax on the wealthy. The idea is to bring down the colonial powers by bringing them down to the level of the third world so that they suffer as he did.

Bus aside from his real father, Obama’s spiritual fathers are examined because they provided guidance his absent father did not. They are Bill Ayers, Edward Said, Jeremiah Wright, Frederick Unger, a Harvard professor from Argentina, and Communist Frank Marshall Davis.

For Americans, the dreams these men have are nightmares. Reducing our nuclear stockpiles until we are powerless, a United States of Islam in the Middle East, halting our energy production so that other powers like Brazil can overtake us are on the list and fast becoming realities. So is the scary scenario of a tipping point brought on my our debt. David Walker, U.S. comptroller from 2000-2008 paints a dire situation. We are near Greece in our debt situation. If we fall, it will have repercussions for us, but the whole world, too.

Throughout the movie, D’Souza interviews great thinkers, among whom Dr. Shelby Steele is one of the best and most enjoyable.

At the end of the movie, an unusual thing happened. The lights dimmed and a ripple of applause broke out and got louder. How many movies have you gone to where that happened? I can’t recall one. And this for a documentary – something Americans aren’t supposed to tolerate.

Go see the movie and see it quickly. Hard to say how long it will be here, but it’s a must see.

Thoughts on the Debate

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Saturday night ABC took its turn at hosting a presidential debate. Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos moderated. Could Sawyer be more irritating? Her saccharin demeanor doesn’t hide her real bent. You know she despises everyone up on the stage.

Romney needs to chill. His mouth runs so fast he seems to huff and puff his way to his point. His attempt to claim he’s against Obamacare always falls flat.

Ron Paul got off track on the fidelity to the wife question. The Patriot Act? How does that fit in with character? He sounded like a ranting grandpa.

Newt must feel uneasy about his citizen review board for immigration because he started off with “First of all.” It’s always a sign he is weak in his thoughts about it. Then he mentioned deportation. I think that was absent earlier. Sawyer trotted in the number from the Pew Center – 3.5 million people could be applicable for his board judges. Newt squirmed by disputing the number. You see, he was uncomfortable with this issue. Diane gave up.

Perry scored with the immigration when he said he would not do to Arizona what the Obama administration is doing. He referred to enforcing laws on the book, but says to secure the border first.

Paul fumed about all that “mess” in the Middle East. He’s too busy for it! Leave it to the people who are involved. So let one get a nuke and that’s a “conversation” starter for them? A hulluva “chat” that would be.

Romney wouldn’t call the Palestinians an ‘invented people.’ As he said that Newt had that distractingly smug look. But Newt’s right about them. Romney criticized Newt on speaking for Israel. They both claimed they have known Bibi Netanyahu for a longtime in a comeupsmanship that looked childish, particularly on Romney’s part.

Thunderous applause when Perry spoke about the issue, defending Newt and attacking Obama.

Newt and Romney both tried to disavow their health care stances. Newt claimed he was only acting because of Hillarycare in the 90s and tried to frame his recent defense of it as a response to that. Funny, at the time Hillarycare’s demise no one moved for more changes. The zombie came back anyhow. Romney made his absurd bet that Perry’s fact on his earlier book was wrong and Perry deftly skirted that. Mitt looked desperate at that point.

Michele Bachmann sucked up to the Cain supporters twice. She mentioned his 9-9-9 plan early and returned to it at the end of the debate. Her obvious courting of Cain voters was blatant.

They’ll have another chance to go at it on Thursday when Fox News Channel hosts the next debate.

The Power of Power

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Imagine that the cost of gas is so low, you could hop in a big SUV, drive across town, get what you need and do it the next day if you wanted to. Or, you could hop in that big car, drive off to Nashville or Little Rock and never even factor in the cost of gas.

How would it be to set the thermostat at 72 in the summer and 75 in the winter and still be able to buy food? To have plenty of hot water for everyone’s shower or to wash small loads of clothes without consideration of the MLGW bill? Maybe you would like an extra refrigerator or freezer, so that all you haul in your SUV can easily be available for dinner. A new appliance? No worry about energy efficiency.

Would you order more goods if shipping fees were negligible? Feel free to use Fed Ex without cost analysis? Enjoy lower costs of all things since more could be made in the U.S. inexpensively and without overseas transportation?

See our city boom with Fed Ex business exploding? See a boost in tourism and restaurant use? See China fade against our manufacturing and the Middle East become irrelevant to our energy supply?

Of course you would.

It’s not a dream. It’s Rick Perry’s energy/jobs plan. And it’s a winning Republican issue.

Cain has scored with his 9-9-9 plan, but when you look deeper into it, it is fatally flawed. First, it would be DOA in Congress. Cain does not have the governmental experience to work it through. Not just Democrats would oppose it, but Republicans, too. Wouldn’t it impose a big hardship on consumers? Yes. Lower income people would be less able to afford the basics. It would hurt older people and diminish Social Security. And what about jobs? Wouldn’t it lead to fewer after you got rid of the IRS (not a bad thing for all of us, but a lot of job losses) and who would need accountants?

As the Ace of Spades blogger says, in the 9-9-9 plan you are really just taking the same amount of money the government takes in and shifting it around. “Arranging deck chairs on a ship, not turning the ship around,” as he notes.

Ace continues: “Energy production is, however, tangible. It’s a valuable commodity. People will pay for it. And with more in country energy production, that’s more jobs and more tax revenues and lower energy prices, besides as OPEC’s ability to set prices is diminished.”

As one commentator said, opening up the country to more energy excavation does drive down the price of oil. When President Bush just lifted moratoriums on some of the offshore drilling restrictions, the cost of oil immediately went down and stayed down.

Construction workers, manufacturers, blue and white collar jobs, drilling jobs and everything that surrounds the effort, such as transportation and food, would get a boost. Certainly agriculture and food prices would go down when the production costs benefit from cheaper energy.

In addition, Americans could get that pesky power grid fixed and properly defended from attack. This is easily a national security issue.

Governor Perry was smart to introduce his plan in Pennsylvania. It’s an area that has greatly suffered but could easily have a comeback. Harrisburg, the capital, is the first state capital ever to declare bankruptcy. Things are that dire.

If President Obama loses Pennsylvania – and his numbers there are not good – he is toast.

Perry has introduced a very good plan. He intends to offer more economic policy this week. Hope people take a listen to his powerful arguments.

“We Got Him!”

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The Navy Seals finally delivered justice to Osama Bin Laden and every American is glad.

While President Obama got to go on TV last night and announce the good news, Bin Laden’s death was brought to us courtesy of the U.S. military and the efforts of the Bush administration.

Karl Rove noted on Fox this morning that President Obama misspoke when he said he had given the orders to kill Bin Laden. That order was given by President George W. Bush  a decade earlier; it had never been rescinded.

Bush was proved right again regarding Guantanamo Bay and overseas prisons. The latest information says tips were given up on the mastermind’s whereabouts by Khalid Sheik Mohammed at Gitmo and from others in overseas prisons.

Rove applauded the capture but said, “I do think we need to step back. This is a moment of great danger for the Obama administration in that people now think that we’ve got Osama Bin Laden and this is over and the president’s already got numbers upside down on the conduct of the war in Afghanistan. He needs to now engage the American people and help them understand that as important as this was, we still have a long way to go to tear down al Qaeda and to make Afghanistan an ally in the war on terror. Now is the time that we need to redouble or efforts before we can say things are done and let’s come on home. It’s going to take presidential leadership.”

Obama has promised to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July. However, this seems premature.  After the Bush administration captured Saddam Hussein, things did not settle down in that country and are still unsteady.

What does it mean for our relationship with Pakistan? Were they helping to hide him? Evidently Bin Laden was cheeky enough to pick a home by a military school in which to live. Will Pakistan face open revolt from Islamasists?

The disarray of the Middle East at this point is also troubling. Some have likened it to the Balkans in 1914. Will Obama be adept enough to avert further wars? It’s not clear.

 

 

Fishing Polls

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Somehow, I am one who gets a Zogby poll in my email from time to time. Yesterday I got one dubbed Zogby International and was interested in what questions it would have vs. the usual plain old Zogby.

Every time it asks standard  background info such as age, state, political party, income and education level. It also wants to know how often I shop at Walmart,   how often I attend church and whether  I consider myself a fan of Nascar. Do I consider myself a social networker is a new one. Has anyone in my family gone without food , lost a job or suffered a decrease in pay. I wonder if elements of these answers mean they throw your answers away. After all, as we know from NPR, there are a lot of dangerous gun toting churchgoers – perhaps brain starved from lack of food in the Obama economy – who need to have their opinions thrown out.

Zogby presents statements to which I am to reply whether I agree, disagree, strongly agree, strongly disagree or no hold no opinion on various  statements. Here were the current ones:

“Most politicians who want to pass laws preventing public employees from negotiating their benefits are union busters.”

“Most public employees are greedy and unwilling to make concessions in their union contracts.”

“Republicans in states where they want to prevent public employee unions from negotiationg benefits want to weaken unions and their ability to campaign for Democrats.”
“Democrat politicians now defending public employees know that these workers are too highly compensated and are just trying to protect the campaign cash and support they get from unions.”

“Many public employees do not have the skills and ambition to find similiar jobs in the private sector.”

“If compensation, including benefits, for public employees such as teachers, police and firefighters is decreased, fewer qualified people will want those jobs and the services they provide will suffer.”

Rather slanted, don’t you think? Some answers put you in the Simon Legree category. Some are too broad brushed. For instance, most public employees do have skills to get a job in the private sector; but undoubtedly, some don’t.

How about the poll phrase it like this: “States that find themselves in a critical economic situation need to cut back on minor negotiations so as to save as many jobs as possible.”

“Politicians  who find the coffers empty do not have enough money to pay bus drivers a salary of $157,000 a year (as they do in Wisconsin) so they need to make cutbacks so that the state functions at all.”

“Do you think that the winning party in a state that took control of the governorship, house and senate can consider their voters’ wishes a mandate?”

“Credit ratings for bankrupt states mean states will no longer be able to fund themselves and belt tightening is one solution.”

Zogby’s questions are framed as to look for certain answers. But wait; there’s more.

Usually there is a political match up or several that it wants to know about. For instance, the list of contenders includes Chris Christie, who has said he will not run for president, along with Huckabee, Romney, Palin, et al. I’m asked whether I would vote for him, does he represent my views and could he defeat Obama. At one point, you wonder if this is opposition research.

Zogby likes to throw in a few outside-politics questions in a bid, I suppose, to put the poll taker at ease or maybe to distract us from the “hard” issues we’ve had to handle. The poll this time veered to whether I purchase anything from Amazon or am a Netflix subscriber. Curiously, this is followed by a commentary on Amazon’s streaming of TV and movies without any question to answer. Previously he’s thrown in such oddball questions as whether I believe in horoscopes and whether I ever urinated in a neighbor’s pool. 

Finally, Zogby throws in the Tea Party. Do endorsements by the Tea Party organization make you much more likely to vote for a candidate, somewhat likely, somewhat less, much less, no difference, not sure or I refuse. Perhaps they could ask whether the network news shows  have the same effect.

I never did find any question that had any international bent. Nothing about the Middle East, world economy or China.

Maybe that one is for the next time.

Thanks, President Obama!

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Obama’s much heralded speech in Cairo was supposed to put us on the path to popularity in the Middle East, pundits said. Well, maybe not, according to a recent Zogby International poll. He found that in Egypt, 85% of them had an unfavorable attitude towards the U.S., 87% had no confidence in the U.S. and 92% saw the U.S. as one of  two nations  they consider their biggest threat.