tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33425425329237770362024-02-07T04:06:43.936-05:00Opinions on Our Lives & Times. . . . . . . . . . . . .Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice Doggie" until you can find a rock - Will RogersSteven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-70223182982777510422009-12-09T07:34:00.006-05:002009-12-09T12:25:11.942-05:00Asking for readers' insights on this issue . . .<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #00b050;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">What's up with Islam ?</span></span><br />
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</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaxgLiejeIzvmgwgy6u7VrHebz7Jl2qvYferXlVNdj6Il1dboaKRo_tGgrU49n7KUS75zyGNB-DZq6Bqk2jNea0K8zK8IIYlTx9atikXhHs1RztkCNev0XGiPjVjXBIOZpdxCe72eI1okM/s1600-h/ibn_warraq_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaxgLiejeIzvmgwgy6u7VrHebz7Jl2qvYferXlVNdj6Il1dboaKRo_tGgrU49n7KUS75zyGNB-DZq6Bqk2jNea0K8zK8IIYlTx9atikXhHs1RztkCNev0XGiPjVjXBIOZpdxCe72eI1okM/s200/ibn_warraq_2.jpg" /></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">I came across <a href="http://www.city-journal.net/2009/19_4_snd-tu-quoque.html">an article in City-Journal by Ibn Warraq</a> on the use of a highly inaccurate history of the Crusades as a meme for contemporary militant Islam to justify itself. That's my characterization of his article. (Ibn Warraq (son of Warraq) is a pseudonym, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al_Warraq">referring to Muhammad al Warraq, a 9th c. skeptic of Islam</a>.) <a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/02/ibn-warraq-extr.html">He has published several books and is active in defense of Western Civilization.</a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">I have lived nearly two decades of my life in Turkey. I have seen many faces of Islam. I have seen fervor and I have seen casual disregard. I have occasionally seen quiet certainty that Islam will take over the world, but I have never seen anger. Whatever the peculiarities and extremes of the Turkish national experience since 1922, there has been an accommodation between Islam and the West. The Turks may welcome or not welcome XXIst Century Consumer Culture, but they do not fall back upon the rationalizations of the rioting, righteous fringe in the process.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Why that should be so is a question for another day - historical and psychological and political, at the very least. However, without going into a lot of details that could get me fatwa'd, I will make my point:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjFjW5jIuPF3kx8EG9zehLmE8nN3D2hCwIGzyxionzpCCmsQwEjYYLcZxWeOPCNkhA5aaacTk31n4Ehr4cdE-wAE4BkhqzvMOtbtj-IShLxaf-sA4mWF3Ycqat3N1wP6oUhZlU_ihWyaKk/s1600-h/muslim+riot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjFjW5jIuPF3kx8EG9zehLmE8nN3D2hCwIGzyxionzpCCmsQwEjYYLcZxWeOPCNkhA5aaacTk31n4Ehr4cdE-wAE4BkhqzvMOtbtj-IShLxaf-sA4mWF3Ycqat3N1wP6oUhZlU_ihWyaKk/s200/muslim+riot.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">There seems to exist no mechanism to control the anger and violence of the rioting, righteous fringe. The entire Muslim world lives in fear of that fringe. Their imams will not say "no." Their governments will not say "no." The western governments have repeatedly refused to say "no."<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">And, then, pundits pose the question, "Why are there so few voices of moderation in Islam?" The answer is that they are intimidated into silence.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">The al Warraq article mentions, in passing, the excesses of Christian zealotry as an inadequate rationalization for militant Islam. This prompted the question, "What moderated Christian zealotry?" I don't know the answer and I wonder whether there is a prospect for some similar moderating influence on contemporary militant Islam.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">My initial thought about contemporary Turkey is that there is a long tradition of political control of extremist factions. The Ottoman Sultan was also the Caliph, the titular head of Islam. Kemal Ataturk, who founded the Turkish Republic in 1923, placed severe political controls on Islam and set the Turkish military as the guarantee of that secularism. Readers' views on this are welcome. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Will readers also, please, suggest what moderated Christian zealotry, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition">in the form of The Inquisition</a>, and other forms – in both Catholicism and Protestantism.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-48464620598735818822009-11-27T09:48:00.000-05:002009-11-27T09:48:14.244-05:00Blogging's been lightBlogging has been light while I’ve been doing non- political consulting in Geneva, Istanbul and Manila. What I’m posting today is from notes made during my trip.<br />
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I've been working from notes and books I've been reading, so I've been posting "think pieces" mostly. Please let me know how you enjoy them.Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-38575972419311505312009-11-25T21:55:00.001-05:002009-11-25T21:57:11.226-05:00Another Take on the Decline of Empire<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most readers consume a blog from the top (most recent) downward, which rather discourages traditional continuity of thought. A week ago, I posted several paragraphs on the decline of the Roman Empire, written in 1963 by L. Sprague Decamp – a writer of exceptional imagination who, in 1963, saw no parallel between Rome and the United States. I found that failure of imagination a telling reflection upon how rapid has been the intellectual decline of the West.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, I post a rather long paragraph, written in 1930 by<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham"> W. Somerset Maugham </a>in a travel book entitled “The Gentleman in the Parlour,” upon the decline of the British Empire.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">It is true that should the historian of the Decline and fall of the British Empire come across this book on the shelves of some public library he will have hard things to say of me. “How can one explain,” he will ask, “that this writer, who in other places showed that he was not devoid of observation, could have gone through so many parts of this Empire and not noticed (for by never a word is it apparent that a suspicion of anything of the sort crossed his mind) with what a nerveless hand the British held the power that their fathers had conquered? A satirist in his day, was there no matter for his derision in the spectacle of a horde of officials who held their positions only by the force of the guns behind them trying to persuade the races they ruled that they were there only on sufferance? They offered efficiency to people to whom a hundred others things were of more consequence and sought to justify themselves by the benefits they conferred on people who did not want them. As if a man in whose house you have forcibly quartered yourself will welcome you any more because you tell him you can run it better than he can! Did he go through Burma and not see how the British power was tottering because the masters were afraid to rule, did he not meet judges, soldiers, commissioners who had no confidence in themselves and therefore inspired no respect in those they were placed over? What had happened to the race that had produced Clive, Warren Hastings, and Stamford Raffles, that it must send out to govern its colonies men who were afraid of the authority entrusted to them, men who thought to rule the Oriental by cajolery and submissiveness, by being unobtrusive by pocketing affronts and giving the natives powers they were unfit to use and must inevitably turn against their masters? But what is a master whose conscience is troubles because he is master? They prated of efficiency and they did not rule efficiently, for they were filled with an uneasy feeling that they were unfit to rule. They were sentimentalists. They wanted the profits of Empire, but would not assume the greatest of its responsibilities, which is power. But all this, which was staring him in the face, seems to have escaped this writer, and he contented himself with jotting down little incidents of travel, describing his emotions and inventing little stories about the persons he met; he produced a book that can be of no value to the historian, the political economist or the philosopher: it is deservedly forgotten.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I take from this is that the British Empire, too, collapsed from losing conviction and confidence. In a great many instances, colonization was replaced by some variation of totalitarianism and kleptocracy. Former colonial powers or multi-national corporations continue to profit from these former colonies. Multi-national institutions (United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank) continue to subsidize, enable and attempt to guide the development and governance of these regions. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would say that not much has changed, except what category of individual is capable of holding power. Most of the improvements since Maugham’s time have come from efforts of the former colonial powers (in public health and education), multi-national corporate activities and the imperatives of technological development. Very little credit can be given to the governments of most of the former colonies for doing more than accepting aid and lining their own pockets.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would say that the major change from Maugham’s time to our own has been: 1)the re-primitivization of the major powers by decline in civics and education, 2)the colonization of the major powers by multi-national corporations and domestic vested interests, 3)demographic changes (falling birthrates, longer life spans and immigration), 4)encroachment of government into what was once considered private life (taking the nearly inevitable corruption of government into every aspect of daily life) and 5)the loss of conviction (much as cited by Maugham, above) in the intellectual foundations of the West.</span>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-42878145445697925752009-11-13T13:56:00.004-05:002009-11-13T21:43:28.509-05:00Many years ago, I issued a fatwa on Umberto Eco for his intellectual depravity in writing "The Name of the Rose" and here's an example of why . . .<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
<h1 style="color: #666666; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>On July 8, 2009, I posted here a commentary called</i></span></span><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/07/voodoo-trifecta-memetics-hermeneutics.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> "The Voodoo Trifecta of Nonsense" </i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>in which the interviewee, below, featured prominently. If you have any doubt about the menace of his intellectual nihilism or wonder why I so dislike Umberto Eco, please</i></span></span><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,druck-659577,00.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> read the entire Spiegel interview here</i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>. Or, you can read the excerpt below and get the general idea.</i></span></span></h1><div><br />
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</div><h1 style="color: #666666; font-size: 1.18em; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</h1><h1 style="color: #666666; font-size: 1.18em; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">SPIEGEL Interview with Umberto Eco</h1><h2 style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0) !important; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2777em; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 17px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">'We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die'</h2><div class="spAuthor" style="font-style: italic;">By Susanne Beyer and Lothar Gorris<br />
</div><div id="spIntroTeaser" style="font-weight: bold;">Italian novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco, who is curating a new exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, talks to SPIEGEL about the place lists hold in the history of culture, the ways we try to avoid thinking about death and why Google is dangerous for young people.<br />
</div><div id="spArticleBody" style="float: none;"><b>SPIEGEL:</b> Mr. Eco, you are considered one of the world's great scholars, and now you are opening an <a href="http://www.louvre.fr/llv/exposition/liste_expositions.jsp?bmLocale=en" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="The Louvre Invites Umberto Eco: Mille e tre">exhibition at the Louvre</a>, one of the world's most important museums. The subjects of your exhibition sound a little commonplace, though: the essential nature of lists, poets who list things in their works and painters who accumulate things in their paintings. Why did you choose these subjects?<br />
<b>Umberto Eco:</b> The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order -- not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists -- the shopping list, the will, the menu -- that are also cultural achievements in their own right.<br />
<b>SPIEGEL:</b> Should the cultured person be understood as a custodian looking to impose order on places where chaos prevails?<br />
<b>Eco:</b> The list doesn't destroy culture; it creates it. Wherever you look in cultural history, you will find lists. In fact, there is a dizzying array: lists of saints, armies and medicinal plants, or of treasures and book titles. Think of the nature collections of the 16th century. My novels, by the way, are full of lists.<br />
</div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-16487889602441247922009-11-10T03:37:00.007-05:002009-11-10T07:38:50.408-05:00The absolute absence of irony here is what strikes me . . .<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifDAYVpmzAhqN7Z_GYYZ588shWAtJWbYSJLOTHE27DNDtjh15Av0PnptBBnibp7Bu8xbLipP9NqQyy8XgQsMl0lP5xhcPZRrtpfI3sEF2qugtnZuacMxMAUc6lnwmmZUzgS7A5OckAKS1e/s1600-h/ancient+engineers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifDAYVpmzAhqN7Z_GYYZ588shWAtJWbYSJLOTHE27DNDtjh15Av0PnptBBnibp7Bu8xbLipP9NqQyy8XgQsMl0lP5xhcPZRrtpfI3sEF2qugtnZuacMxMAUc6lnwmmZUzgS7A5OckAKS1e/s320/ancient+engineers.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The following excerpt is from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Engineers-L-Sprague-DeCamp/dp/B000HQF4CG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257839991&sr=8-1"><span style="color: blue;">The Ancient Engineers, by L. Sprague deCamp.</span></a> <span style="color: purple;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Sprague_deCamp"><span style="color: purple;">L. Sprague deCamp is known primarily as a writer of science-fiction and science-fantasy - a colleague and contemporary of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. </span></a><span style="color: purple;"> </span>This book deals with engineering in civilizations prior to the Renaissance. In this passage, he discusses the decline of the (western) Roman Empire without ever drawing a parallel to modern American history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This book was published in 1963 and even an author steeped in the use of his imagination, as L. Sprague DeCamp was, could not imagine what follies America would pursue in the 40 years that followed the book's publication. It is this utter inability to imagine what has transpired that continues to strike me. It is a measure of the failure - not of the author, so much as the ability of two generations of Americans to appreciate and defend their heritage (with special mention of Senator Ted Kennedy).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">beginning on p. 246:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Some take the view that there was no one cause of Rome’s downfall. Instead, the Roman government, like every other, was confronted by a series of problems. For a long time it succeeded in solving them well enough to carry on. At last, however, as much by luck as anything else, a number of these problems piled up all at once at a time when the Western Empire lacked strong leadership. The wonder is not that Rome fell but that it managed to keep going so long.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The principle problem, of course, was the barbarians. Before +400 their incursions had been only raids, destructive but not fatal. However, in +406 the Vandals, Suevi, and Alans burst into Gaul and headed for Spain at a time when the emperors of East and West were too busy fighting each other to defend the frontiers. A few years later the Franks, Burgundians, and others came in, settled, and refused to leave. Although willing at first to acknowledge the Emperor’s rule, they proved too numerous to absorb and too strong to oust; so it was only a matter of time before they took over the rule of the lands they occupied.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Another factor in Rome’s fall was that, while the Romans were almost standing still in science and engineering, the barbarians were advancing. They were learning the roman arts of peace and war, the former by trading contacts and the latter by mercenary service in the armies of Rome. The arts of peace enabled their lands to support denser populations, while the arts of war made them as formidable, man for man, as the Romans.</span><br />
</div></span>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-71087554284312490772009-11-05T16:37:00.007-05:002009-11-06T00:11:55.399-05:00Nancy Pelosi is many things . . .but stupid isn't one of them.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring ObamaCare to a floor vote this Saturday seems to me to be widely misunderstood. It calls to my mind nothing so much as</span><br />
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</div><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_w5Pa7RlbrUBD-MUDwPP369WRPZPgXKuPbzQ9SNTuIiJn3wbhR9l9oqALVX1voHb7s-xPZ5eLGSxAJH3fIOQ07lnjhRuSORogTmI1pQ8CWKQ0FLDcAsbJ6RkepkihxUyYlRQI-DkuqKd/s1600/Pelosi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_w5Pa7RlbrUBD-MUDwPP369WRPZPgXKuPbzQ9SNTuIiJn3wbhR9l9oqALVX1voHb7s-xPZ5eLGSxAJH3fIOQ07lnjhRuSORogTmI1pQ8CWKQ0FLDcAsbJ6RkepkihxUyYlRQI-DkuqKd/s320/Pelosi.jpg" /></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg">The Battle of Gettysburg</a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both sides are throwing all their resources into a desperate confrontation, whose outcome cannot be clearly foreseen. Madame Speaker is clearly mindful of the manifest discontent in the electorate's voting this past Tuesday. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: blue;">She will never be in a stronger position </span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: blue;">than she is right now, </span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: blue;">so she is wisely pressing for victory without delay.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Republicans are shouting how she should take note of the Democrats' eroding support. The Democrats have duly noted it. </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hey, GOP, get a clue.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://memeticsmarketing.blogspot.com/">get your clue at http://memeticsmarketing.blogspot.com</a></span></span><br />
</div></span></span>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-65058036451970542622009-11-04T23:40:00.006-05:002009-11-07T10:12:36.879-05:00Obama White House War with Reality: we report - you decide!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjl13nNx85DY8HyqNak2IHzY7nuuPAl5iGHsNa1AqPb-kgqaFPwlA1kQVu0bM5a6N-bkleb6Hf5TKKYQpPZskIx75allc_ysTi-q9TeAH3hN-5bItZtrz43NwOsgsUrPvvKtz41i_cMMx/s1600-h/dunn_anita_259x146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjl13nNx85DY8HyqNak2IHzY7nuuPAl5iGHsNa1AqPb-kgqaFPwlA1kQVu0bM5a6N-bkleb6Hf5TKKYQpPZskIx75allc_ysTi-q9TeAH3hN-5bItZtrz43NwOsgsUrPvvKtz41i_cMMx/s320/dunn_anita_259x146.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the Obama White House to go to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-ratings-soars-after-snub-from-obama-2009-10">war with Fox News over ACORN scandals</a> was bizarre, in that it should have been beneath the purview of the Presidency.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the Obama White House to go to <a href="http://www.detnews.com/article/20091029/AUTO01/910290491/1148/rss25">war with Edmunds</a>, the perennially dorky automobile folks, for their estimate that Cash-for-Clunkers brought in only 125,000 in car sales that would not otherwise have happened (==> $24,000 for each car that would not have otherwise sold) was petty and peevish. Edmunds did the math. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-white-house-stupidly-goes-to-war-with-car-website-edmundscom-2009-10">All the White House did was pout.</a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now comes <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jMNoef6xDenBbHWO0Im6rIjDmAgAD9BOJH300">comic calculations of jobs saved and created by the Obama Stimulus</a>, through creative mathematics operating upon raises given to existing federal and <a href="http://memeticsmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/11/weve-seen-fraud-and-corruption.html">Quango</a> staff.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">My most favorite excerpt</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At Southwest Georgia Community Action Council in Moultrie, Ga., director Myrtis Mulkey-Ndawula said she followed the guidelines the Obama administration provided. She said she multiplied the 508 employees by 1.84 — the percentage pay raise they received — and came up with 935 jobs saved.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I would say it's confusing at best," she said. "But we followed the instructions we were given."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My least favorite excerpt: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ed DeSeve, who oversees the stimulus at the White House, said the Head Start numbers "represent a few percent of all jobs reported" and said the problems would probably be balanced out by other errors that underreported jobs. So we don't expect any corrections to this data to meaningfully impact the total 640,000 direct jobs," DeSeve said.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think that these behaviors should be noted. I think that this blog is an appropriate place to note them. This is part of American governance at this time and it should be noted and known.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prior blog entries here have noted that <a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/">the Obama Administration has concentrated its recovery funds where they will most immediately and directly improve the economic indices, rather than where they will actually promote recovery.</a> We've also noted that</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"> </span><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/08/fake-statistics-for-spectacular.html"><span style="color: purple;">very early in this administration, the economic statistical tables were re-stated back to 1929 in order to dramatize the messianic recovery that has not materialized</span></a><span style="color: purple;">.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whether this constitutes <a href="http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a751124604">paranoid transference</a>, corrupt governance or politics as usual, I leave to others to discern.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">photo, above: Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director - </span><a href="http://spectator.org/blog/2009/10/16/anita-dunn-mao-tse-tung-fan"><span style="font-size: small;">famous for quoting Mao Tse Tung to high-school students in a speech about freedom</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">. She should read </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Missionary-Position-Mother-Teresa-Practice/dp/185984054X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257395962&sr=8-6"><span style="font-size: small;">Christopher Hitchens' take on her other favorite philosopher, Mother Teresa</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span><br />
</div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-71354206892754790582009-11-03T00:22:00.007-05:002009-11-05T23:45:03.197-05:00Headline: FDIC closes 9 banks in one day . . .Oct. 30, 2009 . . .What you don't see behind the curtain is . . .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJocClVjlRFCAy5tD4mVaEJ_Z3Lwdqegn49rfNR0tC3pk9GsJwZULX8P5Je0gh60tuqOJfJmvgIySGMt6mEK5BQZ-kbRzCOYQH3LUOz2pcDJMub8I-zW-1NjVprk92tg5RzvWTO1ptKwl/s1600-h/fbop-home-img.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399744407008769410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJocClVjlRFCAy5tD4mVaEJ_Z3Lwdqegn49rfNR0tC3pk9GsJwZULX8P5Je0gh60tuqOJfJmvgIySGMt6mEK5BQZ-kbRzCOYQH3LUOz2pcDJMub8I-zW-1NjVprk92tg5RzvWTO1ptKwl/s400/fbop-home-img.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 103px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">image from FBOP's home page</span><br />
</div>All banks were owned by FBOP Corp. of Chicago. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fbop-seize-oct30,0,502486.story">The Chicago Tribune covered the situation comprehensively here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fbop-seize-oct30,0,502486.story</a><br />
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Excerpts: 1) Until recently, Kelly was viewed as a brilliant operator. But he had an abrupt reversal of fortune last year when the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exposed the holding company's large concentration of Fannie and Freddie preferred stock. The company unsuccessfully applied for about $500 million in federal TARP funds<br />
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2) The timing was awkward. The government shut down $4.7 billion-asset Park National on the same day that its community development arm, Park National Bank Initiatives, received $50 million from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at a ceremony in Chicago.<br />
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3) The Park National shutdown occurred after several Illinois congressmen, including Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis and Sen. Roland Burris, called the FDIC asking it to delay closing the bank for at least a week, said Marilyn Katz, a bank spokeswoman.<br />
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4) "At 10 a.m. this morning they were praising them and giving them $50 million, and at 10 p.m. this evening they'll be putting the padlock on the door," Rush said Friday evening. "There is something wrong with this picture: Wall Street wins and Main Street loses."<br />
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This story is a clear (in its muddledness) example of how the intermixing of federal interventions and private enterprise conjures tragedy and travesty, when it doesn’t conjure conspiracy and crime.<br />
==><a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=18770&seenIt=1"> Michael Kelly was seen as a canny operator. He erred in trusting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock.</a> The man and his company are ruined because the feds drew their line on the other side of them.<br />
==> The holding company was reported still profitable, but could not meet capital requirements after the quasi-government entities defaulted.<br />
==> FBOP was denied TARP funds. Again, FBOP found itself on the wrong side of the Fed’s line.<br />
==> Intervention by local politicians was insufficient. When you play in these games, you never know.<br />
==> Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s right-hand didn’t know what his left-hand was doing.<br />
==> This company (nine banks) and its sole proprietor, Mike Kelley, foundered in the cross-winds of Washington politics and policy. It did not fail from lending policy. In fact, it did not fail for lack of performing loans. This was and is just a nasty, stinking mess.<br />
==> Under Obama, one immediately wonders whether Mike Kelly didn't put his political support in the wrong place.<br />
<a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=31185"><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;">More details here: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=31185</span></a>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-50345502947281637982009-10-27T03:38:00.003-04:002009-10-27T03:42:47.574-04:00News for the Blues - Stuff I Couldn't Have Made Up<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9YEgxx2-svMoTWwqOdt3kfiOCZwQkhczYrSzV2sYn5n-Y_zzrXsPzm_VmUj56TfK_xITIYOtvAF7WRjMc7CEBGIcau92gk7F5_vzHBViOE2-XA25Ok40dtYuP5lvEJTyGu1ykweBv5ZC8/s1600-h/marge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9YEgxx2-svMoTWwqOdt3kfiOCZwQkhczYrSzV2sYn5n-Y_zzrXsPzm_VmUj56TfK_xITIYOtvAF7WRjMc7CEBGIcau92gk7F5_vzHBViOE2-XA25Ok40dtYuP5lvEJTyGu1ykweBv5ZC8/s320/marge.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE59P3ZL20091026?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true"><span style="color: #990000;">from Reuters: <span style="font-size: x-large;">Kremlin Warns Against Wrecking Russia With Democracy</span></span></a> Who would have imagined <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">this?</span></span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/08/18/theory_of_international_politics_and_zombies"><span style="color: #990000;">from Foreign Policy : <span style="font-size: x-large;">Theory of International Politics and Zombies</span></span></a> Bureaucrats dialogue while the zombies prevail.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1256618088302"><span style="color: #990000;">from the National Security Archive: </span></a><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px;"><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20091022/index.htm"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Musicians Seek Secret U.S. Documents on Music-Related Human Rights Abuses at Guantanamo</span></span></a> Artists seek to learn the torture playlists; are they seeking royalties? Will the guilt of their music having tormented detainees keep them up at (whenever they sleep)?</span></span><o:p></o:p><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #990000;">Marge Simpson</span></span> is Playboy's November playmate of the month. </span></span><br />
</div></span></span>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-65639727298743219692009-10-21T23:11:00.005-04:002009-10-27T09:54:02.898-04:00Rush was Right<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoj86JjDRhUa3KZa2mYxGwetL-e7cT91_8nQ6UMAjD-PDvk3G35WkYI53Lrd_h1VOFKFiiw0X-pU73rjoFa1ami51hZs_UqaGYF_yD-aszyY7LM9Ya9kwSH9JsdnKegq9Qib8CJsTiWGjy/s1600-h/panic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoj86JjDRhUa3KZa2mYxGwetL-e7cT91_8nQ6UMAjD-PDvk3G35WkYI53Lrd_h1VOFKFiiw0X-pU73rjoFa1ami51hZs_UqaGYF_yD-aszyY7LM9Ya9kwSH9JsdnKegq9Qib8CJsTiWGjy/s640/panic.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;">Obama's policies fail. There was never any doubt that they would fail . . .and they have failed. Rush had the courage of his convictions - of the validity of economics and politics as science. We should all have the courage of his convictions, rather than permit him to be dismissed as "just an entertainer." Such a dismissal demeans all humanity.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 32px;"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-10-15-cola-wages-drop-recession_N.htm"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wages tumble toward 18-year low (USA Today)</span></span></span></a></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; line-height: 23px;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=150826"><span style="color: #990000;">7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs</span></a></span></span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;">(from the House Ways & Means Committee - 2,700,000 jobs lost vs Obama's promise of 3,460,000 to be created by the Stimulus = swing of - 6,160,000 jobs)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; line-height: 23px;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">What will the electorate learn from this?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Watch how the media slowly turn on Obama, motivated by their very own pocket-book nerves.</span></span></span></span>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-56633068602415684592009-10-09T08:12:00.011-04:002009-10-27T10:02:47.160-04:00Satire Becomes Impossible . . . No, No, Not Yet!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgghdMA08OmDc9ZZdPpwlqjcyMsVJjonstaJyMbnMHgAQzkFffrECuaciOQ9fnKWXvZns2eRoyZA86jSqj-BJJd5gkwhx-szY_eAZihYjpR9i7zwsLD7iPk2nH2K0kCShf7ak5wpLp6Grud/s1600-h/ob.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390573162129819282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgghdMA08OmDc9ZZdPpwlqjcyMsVJjonstaJyMbnMHgAQzkFffrECuaciOQ9fnKWXvZns2eRoyZA86jSqj-BJJd5gkwhx-szY_eAZihYjpR9i7zwsLD7iPk2nH2K0kCShf7ak5wpLp6Grud/s400/ob.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 124px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 120px;" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize</span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Better now than later. Later it could have been construed as a political statement. Now it is patently absurd - a product of delusion.</span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Satire becomes impossible, again!</span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-------------------------------------------------------------------- </span></span></span><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UPDATE:</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><i><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama wins Kentucky Derby!</span></span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><i><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></i></span></span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">---------------------------</span></span></b></span></span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Obama wins Car of the Year!</span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The human spirit rises to the occasion and finds satire still possible !</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1256652017759"><span style="color: #741b47;">SECOND UPDATE:</span></a></span></b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1256652017759"><span style="color: #741b47;"><br />
</span></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1256652017759"><span style="color: #741b47;"> </span></a></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1256652017759"><span style="color: #741b47;">A. Barton Hinkle, if that's his real name,</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1256652017759"><span style="color: #741b47;"> has a full article</span></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1256652017759"><span style="color: #741b47;"> in the Tampa Tribune on this subject</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2009/oct/24/obama-wins-world-chess-championship/#comments"><span style="color: #741b47;"> that will make you laugh. </span></a></span><br />
</div></div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-42131979015181368622009-10-08T10:26:00.017-04:002009-11-05T23:50:42.886-05:00Did the success of American government policies cause the failure of California?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjvXxrkB8uymBE9FXkhl-Z5SHAv9qVYHENK-8AO_D0mjjlxR504ZeConB2TjipnLTi4e_n71PkAI2bhc4-XhcLJJquLHZzicWLsFFS7yDiEbHcyqrJLviLa9wP7ZdV_MiZFkE-QglGc8Ep/s1600-h/sch+bigger.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390246556933386690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjvXxrkB8uymBE9FXkhl-Z5SHAv9qVYHENK-8AO_D0mjjlxR504ZeConB2TjipnLTi4e_n71PkAI2bhc4-XhcLJJquLHZzicWLsFFS7yDiEbHcyqrJLviLa9wP7ZdV_MiZFkE-QglGc8Ep/s400/sch+bigger.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 130px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 99px;" /></a><br />
<span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #660000; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large; line-height: 37px;">Will California become America's first failed state?</span><br />
<span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #660000; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large; line-height: 37px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: -webkit-xxx-large; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/california-failing-state-debt" style="color: #3366cc; font-weight: bold;">This very good question was recently asked by The Guardian (UK)>link<</a></span><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><h1 style="display: block; font-size: 26px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px;"><h1 style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(214, 29, 0); border-collapse: collapse; border-left-color: rgb(214, 29, 0); border-right-color: rgb(214, 29, 0); border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.154; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 460px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: -webkit-xxx-large; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;">Indicators <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state">(Wikipedia)</a> of a Failed State:</span></span></span></span></span></span></h1></span></h1><div id="previewbody" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-size: 17px; margin-left: 0.2em;"><span style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><ol style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-image: none; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 3.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Demographic pressures</b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Massive movement of refugees and internally displaced peoples</b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Legacy of vengeance-seeking group grievance</b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Chronic and sustained human flight</b></li>
</ol><ol start="5" style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-image: none; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 3.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Uneven economic development along group lines</b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Sharp and/or severe economic declin<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">e</span></span></span></b></li>
</ol><ol start="7" style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-image: none; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 3.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Criminalization and/or delegitimisation of the state</b></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Progressive deterioration of public services</b></span></b></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Widespread violation of human rights</b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Security apparatus as ‘state within a state’</b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Rise of factionalised elites</b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b>Intervention of other states or external factors</b></li>
</ol><div><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, the article envisioned a sovereign nation but most of these factors can be seen in California. They can be seen almost anywhere. What matters is the pernicious interaction of these factors and a lot of that is present in California. Illegal immigration, La Raza - the irredentist movement agitating that California is part of "Greater Mexico," gang violence and drug trafficking acquire more importance together with the economic and political problems of the host organism - the presumed "real life" of an American state. The flight of businesses and productive families from California is remarkable and unique in the history of the state.</span></span><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #660000;">How about the idea that this failure began 30-40 years ago - and was concealed by major global factors.</span></span><br />
</div><div><ol><li><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Illegal immigration providing cheap labor and lower effective tax rates(lower wage and no withholding taxes) for employers. What was the economic effect of upwards of ten million illegal immigrants sending remittances home? What did the availability of this labor do to the legitimate labor market?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Capital flight from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asian countries - providing exogenous demand for real estate (residential and commercial) and capital infusion.</span></span></li>
</ol><div><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: large;">How about the idea that the failure of California is partially explained by the success of American policies? What would that tell us?</span></span></span><br />
</div><div><ol><li><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To whatever extent illegal immigration has been reduced, has life in California been improved by it?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The demand from Asia for California real-estate is now not discernible. It is gone. Has economic and political stability in Asia caused the collapse of real estate in California (and elsewhere in the US)?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Changes in defense spending, reducing one of the major sources of work, investment and innovation in California. Silicon Valley's boom and bust and recovery notwithstanding, California has suffered from closing of military bases and movement of defense spending to other states.</span></span></li>
</ol></div></div></span></span><br />
</div></span><br />
</div></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state"></a>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-34490002671422329782009-09-24T05:43:00.011-04:002009-10-16T08:53:34.003-04:00Is American Politics REALLY Worse Than Ever ??? -- Part I<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2GwqK6ej0-E6V48q3XBu4LBVYglK8_4p2awSX1aCMPxxXNr2z8kM3UWOL0efKMsV2gflVgO0hbd34hUfUe2PaTY63V_AgHuDzU-mAXKluVwx20Rja77s4xZXSWoRoOEVDRrUbU4CGFrf/s1600-h/Obama+thundering.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384974204274825650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2GwqK6ej0-E6V48q3XBu4LBVYglK8_4p2awSX1aCMPxxXNr2z8kM3UWOL0efKMsV2gflVgO0hbd34hUfUe2PaTY63V_AgHuDzU-mAXKluVwx20Rja77s4xZXSWoRoOEVDRrUbU4CGFrf/s320/Obama+thundering.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 212px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have asked myself this question and now will attempt to answer it. Comments and suggestions are welcome.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is American politics worse than ever? Probably not. Buying votes with cash, coal or whiskey was a long-standing tradition. Crass corruption and trading of favors ("log rolling") were rife and unrepentant - </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1876"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">think of the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877>link<.</span></span></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What, if anything, is worse than ever about American politics?</span></span><br />
</div><div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Civility - Nah! - There is far more civility in modern politics than there has been since the founding-fathers retired from politics. This is not all to the good. It reflects a pact among incumbents to protect each other - to their own profit and to the detriment of responsive, responsible government.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Educational Context - Eh - High-school graduates used to have better education in English and history than college-graduates have today . . .</span><a href="http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d97/d97t099.asp"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">however, a larger percentage of the population has these diminished skills now than at any time except 1940-1980 (when the percentage of high-school graduates crested while educational content declined)</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Literacy - Hmm - The complexity of public discourse is much simplified, compared to any previous period in American history.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Media Behavior - </span></span><b><i><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simplify, then Exaggerate! </span></span></span></i></b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> has always been the motto of the "yellow" press. Print media have almost always been driven by profit-pressures of advertising, so that radio and, later, television, have only maintained the same set of behaviors - seeking readers/listeners/viewers by whatever means possible.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Media Bias - Most metropolitan areas now have only one newspaper. The perspective of most reporting is therefore less challenged and more conformist.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Media Technology - The internet as a news source, Facebook, Twitter and Lord-knows-what-comes-next make news more accessible, faster, cheaper and more varied. For some, this makes a wider range of views accessible while, for others, it permits a more narrow, more parochial view.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Span of attention - A lifetime of news factoids and commercials has left nearly all of us with impaired powers of attention and critical analysis.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Power of Special Interests - $$$ - As long as there has been government, there have been special interests attempting to influence that government. The larger and more powerful the government, the larger and more corrupting the efforts of special interests. Eisenhower warned of the "military-industrial complex" that had developed out of World War II. The subsidies and rules that protect Big Ag and Big Pharm have become part of the fabric of American life. Are special interests worse now than ever . . .or are their resurgence and detriment now more visible?</span></span></li>
</ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some Conclusions:</span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is tempting to opine that what is worse than ever about American politics actually the failure of our education system to produce citizens with a sufficient grasp of history, civics and rhetoric - leaving voters prey to all manner of legerdemain.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One might say that American politics is no worse than ever and that our crisis, if there is a crisis, is the lack of a coherent view of the future. Those who lived through the Cold War, the Kennedy & King assassinations, the Civil Rights Movement and the Viet Nam War can tell the rest of us about lack of a coherent future. Closer to the truth is the abiding, patent, smarmy conspiracy of politicians to say one thing and do another, yielding lack of coherence the way the circus magician makes the elephant disappear before 20 guys in overalls push the empty box off the stage.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So some things are worse and some things are better and some things are just different. So what?</span></span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The answer to "So what?" is in Part II - </span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to be found at Memetics & Marketing, here</span></span><br />
</div></div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-50585196186552659042009-09-15T07:54:00.011-04:002009-10-16T08:54:22.092-04:00Presidential Legacies - Part II<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><br />
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</div><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381668776140555970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicG055icn0hM-Foa2Qnf_Qink5EbiNbKg2Z28PfcJYtOKiC3pyNpzIJiKpkiNhpYD6ArTbkavi9_xLqXiGPghyphenhyphenqG7YEbhjdAfpsTSecNjliTaGedMG04oOrlsJRK2va6Po_KT3EQJ6k-UW/s320/200px-7babushkadolls.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 200px;" /><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The historical legacies are like a series of matryoska dolls, going back to the War for Independence.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have to begin somewhere.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’ll begin with Ronnie . . .and save the earlier administrations for a cold winter day when there’s nothing current to think about.</span></o:p><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ronald Reagan was nominated and elected as Governor of California, then the second most populous state (=beaucoup electoral votes), as the then-most-recent neurotic electoral reaction to Kennedy Assasination-Johnson/VietNamChaos-NixonScandal-Ford-CarterMalaise.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ronnie came and the political system seemed to stabilize. He brought a few trusted staff from California and winged the administrative process with whatever GOP talent was around. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his mind, he was President and then he was going home.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s what he did.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If readers can point to any action he took to develop or sustain his policies, or to build GOP leadership, beyond his last day in the White House, please inform us all with a comment.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Geo.H.W.Bush was a different story.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was born to the Washington game.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He, his family and the family friends have been in this game since his grandfather's time.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He and the folks behind him have been planning and developing talent and making use of every opportunity for more than a hundred years.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s how H.W. could sit on Naval Observatory Hill for eight years and not go mad.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/09/untold-story-of-geohwbush-and-ronald.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">>link here< </span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He put his folks in the Reagan administration when he could and he had a regiment of his own people ready when he took his turn in the White House.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Being clever does not mean being smart.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">H.W. ran his administration a bit too transparently as his own.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His slights and mistakes, large and small, accumulated.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ross Perot’s third party candidacy from the right cost H.W. re-election.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bill Clinton took a Democratic Presidential nomination that no one else wanted, because the experienced Washington politicians “knew” that H.W. couldn’t be unseated in his re-election bid.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clinton was lucky and smart and canny and won.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He didn’t know anything about Washington but he was a quick learner.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hillary was such a shrewish hick that on her first night in the White House she was throwing White House china at Bill – leaving the Secret Service with a novel dilemma of how to protect the POTUS.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good Old Hillary - when in doubt, be a bitch – but is it sexist to observe that men don’t throw china?</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bill was canny and clever and imagined being in power forever.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apart from some awful bits of his wife’s campaign for the Presidential nomination, actually, Bill remains a world power.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BabyBush was waiting.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/06/even-george-w-bush-was-democrats-fault.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was also lucky.</span></a><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/06/even-george-w-bush-was-democrats-fault.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></a><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/06/even-george-w-bush-was-democrats-fault.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I wrote in an earlier post, he won the governorship of Texas through luck.</span></a><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/06/even-george-w-bush-was-democrats-fault.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> >link< </span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From there, Daddy and his friends just carried him along.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://memeticsmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-wont-read-them-here-to-explain-why.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The magic words about the Baby Bush administration will have to remain unwritten here. Those words are for sale to some clever and discriminating candidate for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination. I am not about to give them away here for free.</span></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BabyBush and Cheney and Daddy’s team were very “adult” in preparation for BabyBush’s administration.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Plans, personnel and appointments were in very good order from the first day of this administration.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Baby Bush and Cheney gave no thought to their legacy.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They took no interest in promoting individuals or ideas to perpetuate GOP leadership.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They took no interest in establishing an identity for the GOP in the mind of the electorate.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bad, bad, bad. Both BabyBush and Cheney exploited their opportunities, packed their bags and left. The United States deserved better.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ask yourself where we would be today, if BabyBush had put the Democrats on the defensive in 2007 with Tort Reform and interstate sales/portability of health insurance, instead of building his library. </span><a href="http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com/2009/05/obama-mess-really-is-bushs-fault.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BabyBush's Bungling in the 2006 Congressional elections is discussed >here<.</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
</div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Richards"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Richards"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama came in with magical thinking and with very little preparation.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, ten months after his election, important positions are unfilled and embarrassing faux pas have littered the nomination & confirmation process.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama’s personality and behavior is focused on himself.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is no evident thought to any legacy other than his personal glorification and power.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like Bill Clinton, he envisions being in power – one way or another – forever. </span></a><a href="http://memeticsmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/09/little-thought-experiment-how-would-you.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">>link<</span></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Biden was likely an impetuous choice to balance Obama’s youth and inexperience. The media were hilarious in their denial of Biden’s record as a corporate lackey and his well-known gaffe-a-minute behavior. Biden was never intended to be a future Presidential candidate.</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Try to imagine what, or who, comes after Obama. To ponder that is to realize how thoroughly Obama consumes the oxygen of the current political process.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Anointed Won will give no thought to what comes after him, because it doesn't concern him! There is meager consolation that, if he wins a second term, there will be only wreckage for the Democrats to build upon and so, presumably a great opportunity for the GOP. The catch is that the GOP will have to both accept the far-left detritus as a starting point and make some clearly principled distinctions in order to remain a viable political movement. The world will be a far better place if The Anointed Won is weakened in 2010 and defeated in 2012.</span><br />
</div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-29805258808705066532009-09-09T06:48:00.010-04:002009-10-16T08:55:42.636-04:00The W Legacy . . .the Reagan Legacy and Presidential Legacies, in General<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeRmw6a8vz9HXnOi0ZeZ6XAv4dkiDPmUXzBGtradh6dy-nLLfqYOEqoT1QncsrhUcx31ue_dAXCBk3ne8mI-nGy2iLZmLwt02_qVKHWfImZyZRSuKuqRri8Crpm1OCFai_HRL4DFy-lMe/s1600-h/ike.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379426444263676066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeRmw6a8vz9HXnOi0ZeZ6XAv4dkiDPmUXzBGtradh6dy-nLLfqYOEqoT1QncsrhUcx31ue_dAXCBk3ne8mI-nGy2iLZmLwt02_qVKHWfImZyZRSuKuqRri8Crpm1OCFai_HRL4DFy-lMe/s320/ike.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 96px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 138px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL1-ER98jbfOMjal4pR0Vm4uFPvaFNxBeGdINWqzcHbGOPQCfA6LyGICaGJsYEumuoc9wcAq3UabhvhB1kDBgUD_nNLiVsFAun8c61hpCqo36_LU0MX4En67xhRWlvWA6QSGKCCziZXqha/s1600-h/ike2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379426313170827810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL1-ER98jbfOMjal4pR0Vm4uFPvaFNxBeGdINWqzcHbGOPQCfA6LyGICaGJsYEumuoc9wcAq3UabhvhB1kDBgUD_nNLiVsFAun8c61hpCqo36_LU0MX4En67xhRWlvWA6QSGKCCziZXqha/s320/ike2.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 144px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 117px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a story that, after the inauguration of John Kennedy on January 20, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, thanked the White Staff, got into their old station-wagon (stuffed with suitcases and souvenirs) and drove home to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I like the idea of the old general and his wife just driving home.</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, legacies are more complex. I'll give away my plot here: </span><br />
</div><div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reagan didn't plan for a successor; I don't think he cared, but Daddy Bush was there to pick up the opportunity. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clinton thought he would go on in power forever, in one form or another. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Baby Bush didn't plan for a successor; he didn't care, either. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obama came into office thinking he, too, would go on forever; we'll see how he changes when he realizes he won't.</span><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379427248963959218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhksO5W13v2gQn2TNLar2Mxpiz0GQI16afdsABWvhA9kFdXLzEkGz2qMohtqoMsn9y28fMWqo94JvuiNEWyDzGVFpi_5vJepDR0fyOPvBeGgyHzmtN7rDGzEZGSvUemhnB1yNOp8nMWIccs/s320/w.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 108px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 117px;" /></li>
</ul></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I like Baby Bush for the villain of this particular blog, but you'll have to read</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">down to find out how and why.</span><br />
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</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ike left Richard Nixon in the wings, but between the stuffed ballot boxes in Illinois and Nixon deciding to lose, rather than make a fuss,there was JFK . . .and then the assassination and LBJ's disastrous application of legislative prowess to the executive branch . . .and then Nixon's return, disgrace and resignation, leaving Gerald Ford . . .and then the un-Republican Carter . . .and un-Carter Reagan and his VP, H.W. "Daddy" Bush . . .then the un-Bush Clinton elected because of Perot's third-party candidacy . . .and "Baby" Bush . . .and Obama.</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm reminded of H.L. Mencken's statement: </span><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.</span></i></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, all of this is a digression. Today I am contemplating legacy in terms of staff and leadership. In Biblical terms: </span></span><br />
</div><div><ul><li><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ike begat Dick and Dick begat Ford.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">JFK begat LBJ.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reagan begat Daddy Bush and Daddy Bush (with an interruption) begat Baby Bush.</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The discontinuities here are Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Obama.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Legacies take several forms:</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">v</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The received legacy</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> – talent that occupies the upper echelons of an administration</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The non-political appointments of the preceding administrations which are held over. Federal judicial appointments are the clearest example, but there are many.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The pool of talent of the incoming party, from which political appointments will be made. For example, Dick Cheney was chief of staff for Ford, Secretary of Defense for H.W. (during the 1st Gulf War) before he was BabyBush's Vice President.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">v</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bequeathed legacy</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> – what is left behind as an administration exits the Executive Branch</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The political talent that is permitted to develop and is bequeathed to future administrations.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The non-political appointments which are made. Again, judicial appointments and inspectors-general are good examples.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The identity that the administration and party leave in popular opinion when that administration departs. These days, this is called “branding.” BabyBush's bloated budgets and erratic leadership bequeathed no coherent branding. The Anointed Won's brand is "Change we can believe in," if you can continue to believe it.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The issues that are dealt with – resolved or kicked far enough down the road that the subsequent administration does not have to confront them, if they choose not to. Examples of this type are difficult to recall.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The issues that it fails to deal with, which are then passed on to the next administration. Iraq and Iran are two of many examples. Social Security is another.</span><br />
</div></span></span><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381668776140555970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicG055icn0hM-Foa2Qnf_Qink5EbiNbKg2Z28PfcJYtOKiC3pyNpzIJiKpkiNhpYD6ArTbkavi9_xLqXiGPghyphenhyphenqG7YEbhjdAfpsTSecNjliTaGedMG04oOrlsJRK2va6Po_KT3EQJ6k-UW/s320/200px-7babushkadolls.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 150px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px; width: 200px;" /></span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://memeticsmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/09/is-american-politics-really-worse-than.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> . . . continued here. . .</span></a></span><br />
</div></div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-78728359051874181372009-09-02T08:13:00.008-04:002009-09-08T04:42:51.185-04:00The Untold Story of Geo.H.W.Bush and Ronald Reagan<div style="text-align: justify;">While it is difficult not to guffaw at this story . . .and to dismiss it as gossip . . .what I am describing was a fundamental dynamic of 12 years of American history - the eight years of the Reagan Presidency and highly formative of the subsequent four years of H.W.'s Presidency. Surely, too, W's impressions of the presidency were affected by his father's experiences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Geo. H.W.Bush was the son of a senator. He went to Phillips Exeter and Yale. He gave heroic service as a pilot in WWII. He campaigned for the GOP nomination in 1980 and lost to Ronald Reagan. Reagan invited him to be the vice-presidential nominee.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9yoKOMI5d9j2TDatKu9C-BNHwz_UkP7XXajvoUN9MK9nk8WWQj7vk0mO6zklO8sBN4oHNbhgtaMkPIa1IrltsQnACvFHkagXX07fXVt1nNdRvMdbSiDZwEiV2kbhLJdj2KNwcKAaZtFny/s320/Reagan+and+Bush.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 141px; height: 113px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376847068330316338" /> And, they never talked to one another again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Geo. H.W.Bush was the first Vice President to occupy the new V.P. Residence on Naval Observatory Hill in Georgetown. For eight years, his one sworn duty was to call the White House to see if Ronnie were still breathing . . .and his duties were done.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm not a fan of H.W. He had a major role in The Bay of Pigs while he was at the CIA. I suspect that his talents were mostly mediocre and that he successes in life were rewards for reliability and family connections. However, as a pilot myself, I find his war record and his reluctance to exploit his war record for political gain to be impressive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Regardless, my point here is:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">H.W. wasn't ever invited to the White House for eight years, not even invited to the state dinner when Queen Elizabeth II visited the Reagan White House.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Imagine how you would feel, sitting up on that hill for eight years with nothing to do, as Vice President of the United States! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, imagine how it felt to be sitting at lunch with some Washington character and get the call that the President had just be shot . . .by the son of the man sitting across from you! Talk about wanting to bury an incident!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reagan recovers and, still, eventually H.W. becomes President.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I think that a great deal of H.W.'s impetuousness during his single term as President stems from eight years of humiliation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I also think that the press showed uncharacteristic gentility or altogether characteristic stupidity in failing to comment on Baby Bush's immediate appointment of Daddy's State Department press spokesperson, Margaret Tutwiler, to be ambassador to Morocco (and, later, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs). That's how that family deals with family secrets; all the more reason to respect and sympathize with Barbara Bush - to bear five children and support that man, to live with this sort of thing and have it abetted by her son.</div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-24426935712707237822009-08-14T13:04:00.003-04:002009-08-14T13:13:48.559-04:00I don’t think the Obama Administration took over GM. I think GM took over the Obama Administration.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUJLjB1x6P-vtB8qZ67esWzh9JIhyMlvhp7Y4XWPxBk4Yv_mr2U_2FNwP3e8Zp0togD4vbrvfTaFh5E-Z21haqyb1A4-EWX5AJD2G7ofAC9PB5JLcTIBBqDKV8AuQSToXy9gBvOG553si/s1600-h/glenn+reynolds.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 98px; height: 119px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUJLjB1x6P-vtB8qZ67esWzh9JIhyMlvhp7Y4XWPxBk4Yv_mr2U_2FNwP3e8Zp0togD4vbrvfTaFh5E-Z21haqyb1A4-EWX5AJD2G7ofAC9PB5JLcTIBBqDKV8AuQSToXy9gBvOG553si/s320/glenn+reynolds.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369867826502223762" border="0" /></a><a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" ></span></span></a><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" >SO YOU’VE GOT A BLOATED, UNTRUSTWORTHY PRODUCT THAT PEOPLE<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;" ><a style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" >AREN’T BUYING</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" ><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a style="text-decoration: none;">DON’T LIKE</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>— WHAT’S YOUR SOLUTION?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a style="text-decoration: none;"><em>Run more advertising saying that it’s great!</em></a></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" >I don’t think the Obama Administration took over GM. I think GM took over the Obama Administration.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><span style="font-style: italic;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" ></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;font-size:12;" ><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">The above is from Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds - showing why he's the Big Daddy of mostly-political bloggers.</span></a><br /></p></span></span>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-87143484972738991332009-08-10T23:47:00.010-04:002009-08-11T02:44:36.317-04:00Support Democracy in Iran !!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmBkLLG9uMwqBEZx4YfHsbq1SQFZ3-c0QMpFBd7PaHfgNaY6qL_9CoMev5iQ0Co3aA6PEQAigLN6Dgrc3aMPxEfhyphenhyphentW09_uj4z5lMRU73ILDn22Y-ZM0jXnPro6CRpdudA19PsHLotJ2ko/s1600-h/iran+dem2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 103px; height: 143px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmBkLLG9uMwqBEZx4YfHsbq1SQFZ3-c0QMpFBd7PaHfgNaY6qL_9CoMev5iQ0Co3aA6PEQAigLN6Dgrc3aMPxEfhyphenhyphentW09_uj4z5lMRU73ILDn22Y-ZM0jXnPro6CRpdudA19PsHLotJ2ko/s320/iran+dem2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368552018948220498" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hbumf8URS4TNxDgD01TcmYiJOG-ygSlintBB39OCDIjhu409E3wg1x3jBVeDXCgXC7B0W720MW052pKzHKbKj2U_3IFMcDc5Xd2_dahXD6NWbZqgNj2DZ4QTZrehOz81W9l0QyAxGB2Q/s1600-h/iran+dem1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 116px; height: 116px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hbumf8URS4TNxDgD01TcmYiJOG-ygSlintBB39OCDIjhu409E3wg1x3jBVeDXCgXC7B0W720MW052pKzHKbKj2U_3IFMcDc5Xd2_dahXD6NWbZqgNj2DZ4QTZrehOz81W9l0QyAxGB2Q/s320/iran+dem1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368552462084823218" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I do not know how to support Iranian democracy at this moment. I do know that we must - as a moral imperative, as well as a hope to avoid war soon and a nuclear confrontation sooner or later.<br /><br />The anecdotal news from Iran is blood-curdling, hard to verify and likely true.<br /></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443842931&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull"><span style="font-style: italic;">Raped; then hanged</span>. This article recounts a man's confession of "marrying" </a><a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443842931&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">female protestors so that they could be executed, since the Koran forbids execution of a virgin.</a></li><li><a href="http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1399">This article recounts the existence of special prisons to "break" political opposition, where the incidents in the above article took place.</a><br /></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">The Obama administration should be doing a lot. The world press should be giving more attention to Iran.<br /><br />Hillary Clinton should be making big noises here and there's nothing but Bubba bringing back babes from North Korea to a welcome choreographed by LA public-relations firms. The situation in Iran is reminiscent of Bubba's inaction in Bosnia while Muslim women were dying of dehydration tied to beds in Rape Motels.<br /><br />The details are appalling but ineluctable, making these questions clear and obvious:<br /><ul><li>Why all this silence?</li></ul><ul><li>What does it cost us to protest these travesties?</li></ul><ul><li>What does it cost our souls to fail to protest these travesties?</li></ul></div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-29312019289282064442009-08-08T03:38:00.013-04:002009-08-12T08:57:19.775-04:00Economic Viet Nam<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJsXHlQci4s9qSna8sqAN4iYL4v1SqLceHFrQwAS37Z1uRSvU2T20bNdPy6LkwH8khjGe88Oih_YPktADe8KWL6xEfe-Niwuxdh3CES4IHNLZWyN7Vm4WkUXdL8ircyS_453a2dzZcFFgZ/s1600-h/westmoreland+time.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJsXHlQci4s9qSna8sqAN4iYL4v1SqLceHFrQwAS37Z1uRSvU2T20bNdPy6LkwH8khjGe88Oih_YPktADe8KWL6xEfe-Niwuxdh3CES4IHNLZWyN7Vm4WkUXdL8ircyS_453a2dzZcFFgZ/s320/westmoreland+time.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367495292600705954" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify; color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">2009-2010 will see a turning point in American politics analogous to the public repudiation of the Viet Nam War. It will cross political lines and generational lines and racial lines. It's coming.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKR_lQTe9swwqMRbb3Ryv8s6_gD7o2N_HX6FO-Ii3jd9HuKy6KYTPQyFZ0BC3M5zYeyNKTDy26-vXGLW54o0W4TVj0UAZR1MOBSXJtAjG5ZyBpVLbh-9UwtGiSkaSlxiXFrsS6r75FvZ8/s1600-h/Obama+time.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKR_lQTe9swwqMRbb3Ryv8s6_gD7o2N_HX6FO-Ii3jd9HuKy6KYTPQyFZ0BC3M5zYeyNKTDy26-vXGLW54o0W4TVj0UAZR1MOBSXJtAjG5ZyBpVLbh-9UwtGiSkaSlxiXFrsS6r75FvZ8/s320/Obama+time.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367494408714367346" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It's coming because people all over the United States know from their own personal experience that the economic news out of Washington has no correspondence to the truth, as they can see it every day of their lives. Moreover, their state and local governments confirm their own experience and deny the statements of the federal government.<br /><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The economic policies put in place by Barack Obama have not been focused on improving the living conditions of his constituents.<br /><br />Obama's policies have been narrowly focused on improving the economic indicators. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The map is not the territory.</span><a href="http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/226469-steven-hansen/21636-cutting-through-the-smoke-mirrors-finding-the-real-economy"> That's <span style="font-style: italic;">how</span> this situation has come to be.</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Why</span> has this situation come to be? <span style="font-style: italic;">It doesn't matter why. </span>Whether the Obama Whitehouse has done this cynically, thinking that people can be convinced to deny what they see with their own lying eyes . . .or naively, thinking that conditions will be improved if only the indices can be brought back up . . .there's no denying that this has been done expertly.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cash-for-Clunkers</span>: Gross National Product is designed to be a measure of over-all wealth creation - new goods and services. New Car Sales are an increase to GNP and national wealth; used-car sales are a transfer of an old toy to a new owner and do not count. The destruction of several million working automobiles does not affect GNP. Increased prices of used cars and used car parts, due to the destruction of several million cars, are weighted by the volume of sales - so the rising prices are washed out by the destroyed cars taken off the market.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What's Wrong With This Picture?</span> Millions of real people are affected by the higher price of used cars and used-car repair. Everyone is affected by the debt and interest payments on $3 billion in subsidies for new car purchases.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Stimulus/Porkulus Package: </span>The money provided in this bill has been poorly accounted for and disbursements have been timed and focused to manipulate various economic indices and to reward political allies of President Obama.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What's Wrong With This Picture?</span> The management of publicly-held stock companies have a duty to their shareholders to maximize shareholder value. After seeing how these appropriations are being disbursed and how GM/Chrysler dealerships with Republican affiliations were closed as part of the bankruptcies of these companies, no further lessons are necessary. No commercial interests will oppose Barack Obama.<br /><br /><a href="http://memeticsmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/08/politicians-lie-to-reporters-and-then.html">When Obama stands before the cameras has says x, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">he believes it . . .while virtually all of his viewers know that what he says is the not the truth</span>.</a><br /><br />Soon, this is what you will see:<br /></div><ul style="text-align: justify; color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><li>politicians becoming frantic, desperate tap-dancing-magicians - attempting to be all things to all people until they can figure out what will keep them in office</li><li>the public, as voters, becoming angry and nihilistic</li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);">the public, as consumers, continuing to be too scared to support an economic recovery.</span></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;">UPDATE: A few days after this posting, the Washington Post picked up on it: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081100988.html?hpid=topnews">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081100988.html?hpid=topnews</a></span>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-67266380238277793152009-08-07T07:25:00.004-04:002009-08-07T07:31:53.896-04:00Icky Old Stuff - How Younger Voters Tune Out ObamaCare<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYP7JL4ZWZx-WAAhA_HHA2V5BG2urd7wPvPx8koe4zNnCMHTKGBVS5a64dH3xh51celNyIWkMQXX2G3VLLWyic3DAmrkzCEhlXZPZX6fb3iLbuIb0Q0aHlwXHfuFJmItm0SsUjiMuhKdDC/s1600-h/wrinkle+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 110px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYP7JL4ZWZx-WAAhA_HHA2V5BG2urd7wPvPx8koe4zNnCMHTKGBVS5a64dH3xh51celNyIWkMQXX2G3VLLWyic3DAmrkzCEhlXZPZX6fb3iLbuIb0Q0aHlwXHfuFJmItm0SsUjiMuhKdDC/s320/wrinkle+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367182089421621506" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUl49ZX5bj_FLqDiSBCemoJj-WXNQmYwlK0mYc9lbaBOQdqrZODD6uY5UAaXa5anatVsz2I77CH1ycK6DLQsPZ0sfj0rKTVvVH2oJHqTgEKFxlQXyO-9Rvb77tY_ubZT0Ojcjk2wGlgg1A/s1600-h/wrinkle+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 166px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUl49ZX5bj_FLqDiSBCemoJj-WXNQmYwlK0mYc9lbaBOQdqrZODD6uY5UAaXa5anatVsz2I77CH1ycK6DLQsPZ0sfj0rKTVvVH2oJHqTgEKFxlQXyO-9Rvb77tY_ubZT0Ojcjk2wGlgg1A/s320/wrinkle+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367181892993175250" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">What do voters under 40 make of the fracas over ObamaCare?<br /><br />Does anyone over-40 remember what they thought of Social Security when they were younger? No, they don't. They never thought about it. Never. Social Security and Old Age were things that would never happen to them. Young folks still think that Old Age will never happen to them.<br /><br />If anyone were driving the run-away bus that is the Republican Party, someone would be sparing some effort to educate younger voters. Younger voters have more to lose. Younger voters can be swayed by this issue, if they understand it. In a 50.1% electoral world, one would be wise to remain mindful of younger voters:<br /></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>Old age <span style="font-style: italic;">will</span> happen to them.</li><li>The younger they are, the more broken will be the system that they inherit.</li><li>Young voters have more to lose, not less - financially and politically.<br /></li><li>Freedom and liberty issues will fall more heavily upon the young - required this and forbidden that. They will not be spared the life-style mandates that are embodied in the 1,300 pages of law.</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">But . . .nobody is driving the run-away bus.</div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-90650515470770523122009-08-04T09:00:00.015-04:002009-08-12T08:56:17.833-04:00Fake Statistics for a Spectacular Recovery - Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIAA7qkLqu-93xQY4I0-vsqBmu9WnfrrTFUu4jovDc-EB-tJdgXoNHR6iXN4x4AbCLTNlUUjZryGyUxfFktAwirIlOmWL5uXrNpoaan50aqfa5lmd5LyGVm80GEX7YXNmZ0M9MBeuuXqG/s1600-h/wizard+of+oz.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 140px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIAA7qkLqu-93xQY4I0-vsqBmu9WnfrrTFUu4jovDc-EB-tJdgXoNHR6iXN4x4AbCLTNlUUjZryGyUxfFktAwirIlOmWL5uXrNpoaan50aqfa5lmd5LyGVm80GEX7YXNmZ0M9MBeuuXqG/s320/wizard+of+oz.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366097712763838322" border="0" /></a><br />Aug 1, 2009 - headline:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNivTjr852TI"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:16;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">U.S. Recession Worst Since Great Depression, Revised Data Show</span></span></span></a> courtesy of Drudge and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Bloomberg</span>.<br /><br />Behind the curtain and nearly <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">un</span>-reported was this boring July 31 news release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Dept. of Commerce: <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 13px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11;" ><pre>NATIONAL INCOME AND PRODUCT ACCOUNTS</pre></span></span></a><a href="http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 13px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11;" ><pre>GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: SECOND QUARTER 2009 (ADVANCE ESTIMATE)</pre></span></span></a><a href="http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 13px;font-family:Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11;" ><pre>COMPREHENSIVE REVISION: 1929 THROUGH FIRST QUARTER 2009</pre></span></span></a></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">REVISED - All the economic data from the last 80 years has been revised;</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"> that's why the Recession was/is worse than previous reported (components re-weighted, in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">geekspeak</span>). Gee, why? No answer. Gee, why now? No answer.</span><br /><br />Permit me to make a cynical conjecture:<br /><ul><li>All the data have been revised and their components re-weighted so that the likely path of this 2009-2012 recovery will appear more dramatic for the election purposes of the Democratic Party. </li><li>The Bush-bits will be shown as worse than before and the Obama-bits will then resemble nothing so much as the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Obamassiah</span> himself - transcendent.<br /></li><li>The first step was to make the recession look worse. </li></ul>Now the only thing that can go wrong is for the recovery to take an unexpected course . . . which is not all that unlikely.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The tip for this blog item came from economic analysis by Steven Hansen: <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/153061-the-great-recession-continues">http://seekingalpha.com/article/153061-the-great-recession-continues</a> . Thanks to him.</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNivTjr852TI"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:16;" ></span></span></a>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-3298231308866479882009-08-01T12:49:00.010-04:002009-08-02T09:36:54.895-04:00Iran and Israel . . .Hot Air and Physics<div style="text-align: justify;">Israel is facing the promise of annihilation from the ruling government of<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz72UUjGGdmTbEEBKgr9aDPUJunFfHKjwoLuMq7SV3_XELSJET45uDaYliYPp7ikjjs7G98Fszbyk8hecjEPPaQgHpO4bOduuoMCQuyq2Iycej3Tk0qYyz_K4Vgmq8XgzAexUNv1NalP15/s1600-h/F16.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 147px; height: 114px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz72UUjGGdmTbEEBKgr9aDPUJunFfHKjwoLuMq7SV3_XELSJET45uDaYliYPp7ikjjs7G98Fszbyk8hecjEPPaQgHpO4bOduuoMCQuyq2Iycej3Tk0qYyz_K4Vgmq8XgzAexUNv1NalP15/s320/F16.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365045697619702818" border="0" /></a> Iran.<br /><br />Two Israeli governments have permitted themselves to be dithered (if that verb can be used in the passive <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_cK-eSPTY6kuX0oXYuVtF00ersD2sltaQE-1FvKCW8427fh6hw_nbSgDxLXBHeFMyJFBBDcMSLGg6JvNLuxKg2KoduX7XmPPqEBF4n1ni6T9Y0OgSbWmH2iyphHNUXcfEztWqww9FCz2/s1600-h/iran.missile.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 124px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_cK-eSPTY6kuX0oXYuVtF00ersD2sltaQE-1FvKCW8427fh6hw_nbSgDxLXBHeFMyJFBBDcMSLGg6JvNLuxKg2KoduX7XmPPqEBF4n1ni6T9Y0OgSbWmH2iyphHNUXcfEztWqww9FCz2/s320/iran.missile.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365351151586682146" border="0" /></a>voice) for at least two years by two US governments = nothing that anyone, anywhere, should be proud of.<br /><br />The election protests in Iran have met with appalling repression and have given vain hope that military force will be unnecessary. More likely to be the case is that military force will make Iranian government reform more possible and more likely in the disorganization that will follow the Israeli strike.<br /><br />At the moment, the timing comes down to physics:</div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>when Iranian bomb deployment becomes inevitable</li><li>heat and humidity that affect the fuel/bomb/missile loads of the Israeli aircraft.</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">This has been an immense ugliness since Jimmy Carter failed to support the Shah and failed to support the frail democratic government that replaced the Shah - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerensky">shades of Kerensky</a> and Lenin's October Revolution that has made democracy impossible in Russia ever since.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsS09G2eQEuR5sAyLIxvGMwR1MCtzv7__xjjj7xcdd13NSjCI1_xrHql5waLLDXx1cRjgx6VDuf6oDX070F4dtRbUVj-cFxajkgVAGpftXndmrztsSJZaiuPkapKen4wQk_fksXYI7jjk/s1600-h/Kerensky.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 82px; height: 117px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsS09G2eQEuR5sAyLIxvGMwR1MCtzv7__xjjj7xcdd13NSjCI1_xrHql5waLLDXx1cRjgx6VDuf6oDX070F4dtRbUVj-cFxajkgVAGpftXndmrztsSJZaiuPkapKen4wQk_fksXYI7jjk/s320/Kerensky.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365046479180244642" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnZy2VgPgfmf_vMEHcFaBlg7pSU86FvYlivJobHzGAiCtVY1kXImJGb6QsWoyJhkeh9rOH-vNkM5oQRcxuQ42xxQdi4GRLZYDTWCbK0k9oeydNABAARkJiXUHtI0Ctb1zbM7zuaOhpuBn/s1600-h/Lenin.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 95px; height: 117px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnZy2VgPgfmf_vMEHcFaBlg7pSU86FvYlivJobHzGAiCtVY1kXImJGb6QsWoyJhkeh9rOH-vNkM5oQRcxuQ42xxQdi4GRLZYDTWCbK0k9oeydNABAARkJiXUHtI0Ctb1zbM7zuaOhpuBn/s320/Lenin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365046479361938386" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1N4o0J85YxUHKXbiyLELECVeWb-p1GrimwtSVlav51Q4O_9SwMzIzHL9kVpNUUbskswPC8hx4liYNtW6ymYAD7FNEabGLhMxf9mmXOmXiSkRM32K1q3M8p19MLHTBVlyJhHxNsJbWHN35/s1600-h/Khomeini.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 98px; height: 116px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1N4o0J85YxUHKXbiyLELECVeWb-p1GrimwtSVlav51Q4O_9SwMzIzHL9kVpNUUbskswPC8hx4liYNtW6ymYAD7FNEabGLhMxf9mmXOmXiSkRM32K1q3M8p19MLHTBVlyJhHxNsJbWHN35/s320/Khomeini.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365046486522790290" border="0" /></a> <br /></div><br />There was a bizarre disinterest from both of W's Secretaries of State - Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice - in supporting pro-American demonstrations in Iran. Colin Powell replied to a question about his lack of interest thusly, "I don't think we should involve ourselves in a family dispute in Iran." Much, much better to let them develop nuclear weapons, rape and murder democratic demonstrators and put Israel in the inevitable position of contesting its annihilation.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyRVuAOCKqfaA02eV0EDvX3bxYN9dupzg8AhJDtncyYvY_PFsNZxLmX4M1FWA6GGpl6cgfTCO0cBQpUWGwbh-ug6-Zdt27sFH6ov3pjjampGgZnRf6R84mJDQSmmy58SynE5kTWxrW3xpI/s1600-h/Powell.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 94px; height: 121px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyRVuAOCKqfaA02eV0EDvX3bxYN9dupzg8AhJDtncyYvY_PFsNZxLmX4M1FWA6GGpl6cgfTCO0cBQpUWGwbh-ug6-Zdt27sFH6ov3pjjampGgZnRf6R84mJDQSmmy58SynE5kTWxrW3xpI/s320/Powell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365047797002339298" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUvDtb5_2FH5uRHRZ8FeXffsfC5WOjc5S_H26RJmg73hetT7B7rpWYJj_PR7TJvNHoqzerS0eg3jZJlQ7fwusa9MwTOAWwL111tgwDdXebIoQeg0nh-9H4ILVZ8UpJOlHqNWjfoUBDTup/s1600-h/Rice.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUvDtb5_2FH5uRHRZ8FeXffsfC5WOjc5S_H26RJmg73hetT7B7rpWYJj_PR7TJvNHoqzerS0eg3jZJlQ7fwusa9MwTOAWwL111tgwDdXebIoQeg0nh-9H4ILVZ8UpJOlHqNWjfoUBDTup/s320/Rice.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365047799828190498" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:100%;"><br />All a matter of hot air and physics.</span></div></div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-70123831657673364012009-07-30T10:24:00.010-04:002009-07-31T00:17:19.570-04:00Cash for Clunkers . . . Will they do better with your appendix?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Um9amrngqoy0RmwY0x3EOYFXvsiQZsJehNzo7gneQgi1yloEA73Xb2-dvT7NUsyazqgGB5PloHWhuGDZ7_jW3qmlxKfXVsMtpEao_f6_ue-ryHXAgxuZQkWcI_TY535EfonpMDSSdowR/s1600-h/clunker.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 130px; height: 92px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Um9amrngqoy0RmwY0x3EOYFXvsiQZsJehNzo7gneQgi1yloEA73Xb2-dvT7NUsyazqgGB5PloHWhuGDZ7_jW3qmlxKfXVsMtpEao_f6_ue-ryHXAgxuZQkWcI_TY535EfonpMDSSdowR/s320/clunker.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364260590141862418" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">-----------------------------------------------------------------------</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />Update - July 31 - AP reports that Cash For Clunkers program suspended because the number of rebates unprocessed in the system is unknown. USA Today spins the same story that the program is suspended until the $1 billion appropriation can be increased to $4 billion.</span><br />---------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Original Post - </span><br /><br />The federal Cash For Clunkers program began July 1, but the regulations weren't ready for another three weeks. The program ends when the $1 billion is gone, so it's first come/first served. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hasn't paid out any money yet because they can't get their "on-line" system to work.<br /><br />Dealers are fronting the money in order to not lose sales. <a href="http://http//www.startribune.com/business/51943937.html?page=1&c=y">In the Twin Cities, not one dealer has been paid by the government. Not one.</a> Dealers can't be sure when they'll be paid or if they'll be paid. What a great country!<br /><br />Gee, aren't you glad it isn't your appendix that's waiting.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKG0uPQTjnVZangNVGaWbGfGRX5rxlMjRGOOsKfD3zR5jLzm5C2q_c5nryuvqN_8RRuOQUAWMy7dTJ-SlTnS8Kx2Zz61tFIAvZtAZSqCAHph91rLxrCtLGQ7cZ462F38A2SXFmNCDbuHR/s1600-h/appendix+scar.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 124px; height: 93px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKG0uPQTjnVZangNVGaWbGfGRX5rxlMjRGOOsKfD3zR5jLzm5C2q_c5nryuvqN_8RRuOQUAWMy7dTJ-SlTnS8Kx2Zz61tFIAvZtAZSqCAHph91rLxrCtLGQ7cZ462F38A2SXFmNCDbuHR/s320/appendix+scar.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364272867102761762" border="0" /></a>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-32760694593935230372009-07-30T08:18:00.018-04:002009-10-16T08:57:45.967-04:00Congressman John Conyers. . . James Madison . . . and for some strange reason . . . . . .The Treasure of Sierra Madre .<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFDwGQW_ze-E5cdKofQ-4EiuKHjlifoqwsAUaZvKyICKItwzOKajhQpWMtZSID6JWW33R0kcWwcriTyxfkB9yPWK6WKg0yfzhg-7tETaDOQgYLziF6xiQfPZGiacgGjNjNU6t5Io3Z0hD/s1600-h/Detroit+ruin.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364228876159782642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFDwGQW_ze-E5cdKofQ-4EiuKHjlifoqwsAUaZvKyICKItwzOKajhQpWMtZSID6JWW33R0kcWwcriTyxfkB9yPWK6WKg0yfzhg-7tETaDOQgYLziF6xiQfPZGiacgGjNjNU6t5Io3Z0hD/s320/Detroit+ruin.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 106px; width: 114px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4cmcoGZpnKfhftcFT0zxdmuTCVg4i1-V4lVUgryjmSFOo_uAiz-6aoRM2llMPcU-E0-sfwLX_I4VeJqRCreGMQcEI3iJ4fHb3cjrhKEUvSm4CDNiZKhEGQ76M3lhSmtV4M0fBWvBaruES/s1600-h/John+Conyers.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364228868846628114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4cmcoGZpnKfhftcFT0zxdmuTCVg4i1-V4lVUgryjmSFOo_uAiz-6aoRM2llMPcU-E0-sfwLX_I4VeJqRCreGMQcEI3iJ4fHb3cjrhKEUvSm4CDNiZKhEGQ76M3lhSmtV4M0fBWvBaruES/s320/John+Conyers.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 107px; width: 88px;" /></a> <span style="color: #000066;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">July 29, 2009 - Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan)*: </span></span><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #000066;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I love these</span></span><span style="color: #000066;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #000066;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill. What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span> </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHHS_3bpjqSoXG3wE-xcvi5zoTAcVBT9f3ISFLBQq2aN877ibyWiw-rhlKKZcUvdK1glua-ENQLxt4adiYHsFtT6RVwpupTSwLfxgGBnXgzziEjk5lkZwRM7qT2BYTAKHjtuHPOA-tVgBh/s1600-h/James+Madison.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364228884244367586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHHS_3bpjqSoXG3wE-xcvi5zoTAcVBT9f3ISFLBQq2aN877ibyWiw-rhlKKZcUvdK1glua-ENQLxt4adiYHsFtT6RVwpupTSwLfxgGBnXgzziEjk5lkZwRM7qT2BYTAKHjtuHPOA-tVgBh/s320/James+Madison.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 113px; width: 122px;" /></span></a><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000066; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">February 27, 1788 - James Madison (later, fourth President of the United States) in Federalist Paper #62: "</span></span></span><strong style="color: #000066; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood</span></strong><span style="color: #000066;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule which is little known, and less fixed?"</span></span><br />
<span style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi_RMaOB1Sphzx43382HcuwWp4w_sYlH-mRE-8edxg0hs9LO-PaGl_yfq1kMhPfm7y5PTw3TArsXlcsN4JAoUMhIYX8KwfcMkIWF0M3zztExbalaSaiJVJGEJKH4dYilCKfvNo4T0Ufhk/s1600-h/bogard.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364232024868193762" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi_RMaOB1Sphzx43382HcuwWp4w_sYlH-mRE-8edxg0hs9LO-PaGl_yfq1kMhPfm7y5PTw3TArsXlcsN4JAoUMhIYX8KwfcMkIWF0M3zztExbalaSaiJVJGEJKH4dYilCKfvNo4T0Ufhk/s320/bogard.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 112px; width: 150px;" /> </span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ0m-NJCbaNM9-wMUmkWTH7lky2TS5AKvJjjlAq0UBEFxmKJUSIe9tabnjUrtBlE2cmtvl6yOydJCFsK40stT2xK0ebN4HdQPPCGor6IkXqoyi-sp7kkqzvQrVOV5N2idjolP_aBG4vRXK/s1600-h/badges.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364232032669528018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ0m-NJCbaNM9-wMUmkWTH7lky2TS5AKvJjjlAq0UBEFxmKJUSIe9tabnjUrtBlE2cmtvl6yOydJCFsK40stT2xK0ebN4HdQPPCGor6IkXqoyi-sp7kkqzvQrVOV5N2idjolP_aBG4vRXK/s320/badges.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 113px; width: 150px;" /></span></a><span style="color: #660000;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
Dobbs:</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'If you're the police where are your</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">badges?'</span></span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gold Hat:</span></span></i><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!</span></span><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*from Wikipedia e</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ntry for John Conyers: </span><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He is married to</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Monica_Conyers" style="background-image: none; color: #002bb8; text-decoration: none;" title="Monica Conyers"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Monica Conyers</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, who is former President Pro-Tempore of the</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Detroit_City_Council" style="background-image: none; color: #002bb8; text-decoration: none;" title="Detroit City Council"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Detroit City Council</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation into political corruption in the city,</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3342542532923777036&postID=3276069459393523037#cite_note-0" style="background-image: none; color: #002bb8; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></a></sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and who has pled guilty to conspiring to commit bribery.</span><br />
</div></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
I thank www.amusedcynic.com for this contrast of Conyers and Madison.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi_RMaOB1Sphzx43382HcuwWp4w_sYlH-mRE-8edxg0hs9LO-PaGl_yfq1kMhPfm7y5PTw3TArsXlcsN4JAoUMhIYX8KwfcMkIWF0M3zztExbalaSaiJVJGEJKH4dYilCKfvNo4T0Ufhk/s1600-h/bogard.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></span> </a>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342542532923777036.post-12413694965363523422009-07-28T04:35:00.024-04:002009-07-31T00:57:18.238-04:00ObamaCare = Cap & Trade = Letting Your 8-Year-Old Take the Family Car<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WTM637SyZN5-Z-MeVCzQpflOR-DQqLBSlgRZjv90zSKUUXEHBelNIgb5fWwO2tOJ7pm_w68pEWgFCtNhbyJSPyArLINXECKpvvxubbsaij1PzduJnDRmkjMFvHhYfFxEFJsA1fVfdE6v/s1600-h/kid+driving+car2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 147px; height: 109px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WTM637SyZN5-Z-MeVCzQpflOR-DQqLBSlgRZjv90zSKUUXEHBelNIgb5fWwO2tOJ7pm_w68pEWgFCtNhbyJSPyArLINXECKpvvxubbsaij1PzduJnDRmkjMFvHhYfFxEFJsA1fVfdE6v/s320/kid+driving+car2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363439732107652386" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">-----------------------------------------------------------</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />Update - </span><a style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;" href="http://http//www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=7341904">Life immitating this blog: Sheriff's Office releases video of Congress managing health care.</a><br /></div><br />------------------------------------------<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Original Post -</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:180%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">Don't be naive!!!</span><br /><br /></span></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>Letting "the government" regulate something does not convene the best and the brightest to govern in Socratic fashion.</li><li>Letting "the government" regulate something is turning some unknown 30-year-old lawyer loose to concatenate sonorous phrases, subject only to</li><li>demands from legislators and lobbyists</li><li>demands from the White House</li><li>empire building by career bureaucrats<br /></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">screw the consequences</span>; the 30-year-old lawyer will be elsewhere by the time there are consequences (judicial reviews, prison sentences, citizen protests). <br /></li><li>See my May 26, 2009, post, below, entitled "Two Fuses linked all the nastiest bits of the 2008 Economic Collapse" for a good example.<br /></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1972, I was in the corporate headquarters of Norton Simon, Inc., then owner of Hunt Foods, Wesson Oil, Canada Dry, McCall Pattern/Publishing (and soon: Max Factor, Halston, Avis). Nixon - <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/07/opinion/07SAFI.html">see how his then-speechwriter thinks about all this</a> - imposed wage and price controls. Some 30-year-old lawyer was writing what became thousands of pages of regulations that sounded great and <span style="font-style: italic;">every single case I handled went between the cracks of the regulations</span>. There were criminal penalties for violating regulations that had never been previously applied or litigated; <span style="font-style: italic;">no one knew what they meant, but I could go to jail for doing it wrong</span>.<br /><br />Later, in Singapore, I got to know a guy who had handled the same work for another major corporation. He confided his company's point of view toward the same wage and price controls: utter contempt. "We shipped off the paperwork and forgot it. The dumb bastards were buried in exceptions and never dug their way out." I had to give high points for bravado, given the penalties provided in the law.<br /><br />I wasn't born when Roosevelt set up the Interstate Commerce Commission, with the assurance that every trucker would receive documented rights to carry whatever commodities he was currently carrying; no one would lose anything. No one lost their past, but the future became an expensive mess. When my employer had to ship bridge-beams to somewhere in the Mid-West and the trucker didn't have interstate rights to carry bridge-beams - which were separate rights from structural steel or a hundred other varieties of steel - the bridge construction waited while we called around for an available trucker with the right trailer and the right rights. We had to pay the published rate (the government set rates for every commodity) and "fees."<br /><br />Welcome to Cap & Trade {Waxman-Markey} carbon rights. Initially, it will be a mad grab for as much as everyone (everyone on the inside) can grab. And, then, everything that could be grabbed will be auctioned to the highest bidder - creating money out of a new commodity (the right to pollute) and punishing the chumps who aren't in on the game. Twenty years ago, the Federal Communications Commission declared that cable-television rights were a local monopoly owned by each city, township, whatever . . .and those cable monopolies were auctioned off faster than the speed of light while those transactions never quite saw the light of day - who paid what to whom and whose brother-in-law owned what - and why everybody's local politicians wore grins? Remember how cable-television was expensive and sucked until competition was permitted?<br /><br />Welcome to ObamaCare, where you can't have more of this or less of that unless five criteria have been met retroactive to the year preceding the onset of the condition or the five-doctor governing board has agreed to an exception. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will issue guidelines to determining the sex of a patient. There's no end; the 1,000 page bill is just the beginning.<br /><br />Don't forget that these 30-year-olds and their typists make mistakes. <a href="http://economicsofcontempt.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-highlighted-this-provision-in.html">EconomicsofContempt.blogspot.com has a nifty item about new banking regulations that include compulsory bankruptcy for the largest financial institutions in the US - compulsory - and theorizes that this is a mistake.</a> Ooops.<br /><br />There is no way things get better or easier or cheaper when you impose government adminstration - because there is no incentive to improve and no alternative to compliance. The powers of government are wisely used only sparingly because every use is an opportunity for corruption and stagnation.<br /><br />This is no way to maintain the integrity of your body or your life or your family. This is no way to maintain the growth and opportunity that has made the United States the leader of the world in freedom and innovation and quality of life.</div>Steven Bassionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03883833455543307172noreply@blogger.com0