Category Archives: Politics

And Then There’s Pakistan

In a geopolitical sense, I don’t think there has been a more sensitive time with so much at stake. Like in Pakistan for example. A nuclear (bomb) power. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is not popular and both the good guys and the bad guys want him gone, one way or the other, depending on the critic.

Stupidest Question Ever

Especially for a man who wants to be President and change the health care system in the country. At a Democrat debate over the weekend, John Edwards took a question whether he liked the Cuban model of health care. His response . . .

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports, “When an Iowa resident asked former Senator John Edwards whether the US should follow the Cuban health care model, Edwards deflected the question, saying he didn’t know enough to answer it.” The Breck Girl said, “Well, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know a lot about Cuba’s health care system. Is it a government-run system?”

Is the Cuban governments health care system run by the government? Fidel Castro’s Cuba? Forget about how to spell potato(e). Wonder what his wife will say in defense of such a stupid statement?

Desperate Socialists

And socialism marches on, speaking about the dictator in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez. Affectionately called here the hemisphere’s idiot. Now he is clearing way to be president for life, ending term limits for himself by changing the constitution he made in 1999. The changes . . .

would strip the Central Bank of all autonomy, allowing the government to spend the country’s foreign reserves. The government would be given power to expropriate private property by decree, and to promote co-operatives and state enterprise.

State governors and mayors will still be subject to term limits—otherwise they might become caudillos, Mr Chávez said recently, without irony. They will be sidelined by new communal councils, dependent on the presidency. Another proposal is to reduce the maximum working day to six hours. “Now we are headed straight towards socialism,” Mr Chávez said. But first the plans must be approved by referendum.

Chavez has come a long way since the corrupted election that put him in office. Jimmy Carter will tell you how corrupt it was, even though he didn’t have the courage to tell the Venezuelan people and the U.N. the truth about it at the time he was ‘overseeing’ it. He took it upon himself to deceive the entire country. But that’s another story. So, one would expect this referendum to pass with a 99 % majority.

Here’s Chavez record on freedom. In his own words. . .

“We have broken the chains of the old, exploitative capitalist system,” said Mr Chavez. “The state now has the obligation to build the model of a socialist economy.”

He has nationalized the oil and energy industries, same with the communications industry including the press and on-air broadcast, put price controls in place on everything from food to fuel. No such thing as private property any more. The result is predictable, no food on the shelves, high (for them) fuel prices. A suppressed media that supports only the Chavez administration keeps the people ignorant and riled up.

Of course there’s no domestic media that considers this newsworthy. It’s the Desperate Socialists club of Chavez, Castro and Putin.

War Coverage Down

Coverage by U.S. media of the Iraq war, war on terror, or whatever you want to call it, is down 7% to 15%, down from 22%. Could it be that good news isn’t news to the MSM? Its just another conflict with the their mission, which is to discredit the administration and the war. Reporting of any good news would not advance their position. Its just that simple.

Taken together, the war’s three major story lines — the U.S. policy debate, events in Iraq and their impact on the U.S. homefront — slipped roughly a third, to 15 percent of an index of total news coverage, down from 22 percent in the first three months of the year.

This doesn’t jibe with assertions by progressives that the Right controls the media. The truth seems otherwise.

Way More Than The Lincoln Bedroom

Who believes that the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill worked, that is, did it accomplish what it was intended to accomplish? Of course not, and right from the start. Now, how effective do you think the ethics legislation just passed is? More importantly, how can Nancy Pelosi claim this as historic legislation? Because she’s Nancy Pelosi of course. Take pay for access
for example.

In a day and at a time when political ethics issues cast a pall on Washington D.C. caused by ‘special interests’ that influence politicians with money (all out of the kindness of their shareholders’ heart), with NO expectation of government decisions favorable to their company, you might be surprised to hear about this. . .

The host committees of 2008’s biggest political gatherings are soliciting corporations, wealthy individuals and others with a lot at stake in government decisions for seven-figure payments. In exchange, the givers receive all sorts of goodies, including access to lawmakers and other politicians. The more money the donors spend, the more access they get.

A million or five will get you a good meal and some face-time with the man, or woman. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It does raise money necessary to conduct a campaign. It just seems like campaign finance reform is the one thing that politicians really don’t want but say they do.

The premise that special interests, aka money, are corrupting the politicians and that laws need to be made to limit the money, totally misses the point. If anyone is corrupt, it is the politician that does a quid pro quo or who otherwise breaks the law in money laundering and/or takes bribes like William Jefferson (D-La) did. It’s not the donor, it’s what the recipient does. Don’t re-elect a crook.

IMHO McCain-Feingold should be repealed. Despite what the SCOTUS says, limiting political speech is unconstitutional. Besides, it doesn’t work anyway.

WaPo: Convention Party Favors Include Face Time

UN Does Human Trafficking Too! And Putin Is Not Pleased.

Two (Russian) United Nations employees were busted for visa fraud. They were essentially writing letters of special permission for certain people to enter the country to ostensibly attend a special meeting or some diplomatic business at the UN. Neither happened, the people just came over.

Noteworthy in this news article is the fact that the MSM here in the US is mute on it. A google search right now shows a Reuters, VOA, and foreign media outlets. No NYT or LAT, no WaPo, no CBS, NBS, or ABS. Definitely does not fit the template.

The Reuters article is the most complete. Two are from Russia. And you ought to see how Pravda reports this. This is the Putin media talking with a Michael Moore twist. That’s President Vladimir Putin, the guy who put democracy in Russia into reverse.

update: The link to the Pravda story is gone. The story isn’t on the server, if the error msg is to be believed. Lesson here is, when it comes to Putin’s press, better capture it because the link won’t be there when you return.

What you missed is the whole tone of the article is different. As though it is a different story altogether. In Putin’s version, it is just trumped up charges on Russian citizens in order to further the anti-UN fervor in the US as an excuse to get out of the UN. And it goes on from there, tinfoil hat and all.

Putin characterizes the US negatively in such a way that he’s not speaking of an ally of Russia. He seems to use this topic as a means to launch on to other attacks. Like James Carville with hair. There is no anti-US reporting in the other Russian media accounts of this story. Well, not yet anyway. The other Russian media’s versions of this story are nothing of the sort of the Pravda version. They are all using a shorter version of the Reuters story.

From here it looks like Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to create some anti-US sentiment in his country. Why would this be? It is what he would need to justify (to the Russian people) his recent arms escalation and unwillingness to participate in a cooperative missile defense arrangement in that part of the world. That is presuming he gives a wit about the Russian people. Seems to me Putin has his sights on eliminating most, if not all, of the freedoms the Russian people are supposed to be able to enjoy. A ‘free’ media in Russia is on the endangered species list.

UPDATE: 8/8/07, the link is back but Putin and references to Putin are gone. His picture is gone. All of that was on the original story. For starters, here is the headline and sub-head.

USA arrests Russian UN officials to slander the organization

American authorities have been looking for a reason to get rid of the UN and obtain the absolute freedom

Congresswoman Bolts From Hearing, Of Progress

Qualifying for the most ridiculous item of the day try this. Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS) ran out of an Armed Services Committee hearing when retired Gen. Jack Keane described positive developments in Iraq. The purpose of the hearing was to inform Congress on the situation in Iraq. She then accused the General for further dividing the country by his assessment of progress with the war in Iraq. What’s wrong with this picture?

It’s what happens when your party is invested in defeat. I hope the good people of Kansas will make a different choice when Boyda’s term expires.

RealClearPolitics: Michael Barone

Not Much Diversity In The ‘Center’

The group claims to be the political center of the Democrat party. But people attending the Yearly Kos convention, a gathering of the wacko left blogosphere, noticed an elephant in the room. It’s pretty white.

“It’s mostly white. More male than female,” says the former high school math and science teacher turned activist. “It’s not very diverse.”

“I was completely surprised — shocked even. The political blogosphere isn’t as white as the people in this convention.”

“I hate using the word ‘diversity.’ I don’t know what we use there. But what we definitely need are voices from different communities,” she says. And the problem, she adds, stretches beyond ethnic and gender inclusion. There’s a socioeconomic gap, too.

Washington Post link