I'm taking a time out from my usual reporting/editorializing to discuss an issue that is sitting in the peripheral of the US conscience. And who can blame us? Our economy is in the shitter! Personally I get a tickle every time I hear some say Deep Recession. Take an e out of Deep and "ec" out of Recession and mash the words together and what do you get? Depression! Call it what it is!!! Quit trying to soften the blow. Would a doctor tell a patient with diabetes that he's just sensitive to sugar? No! He'd tell him to change his whole lifestyle because he has diabetes!!! Christ...
Oh.. Local Nostalgia channel is playing Andrews Sisters' Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy! Almost makes me wish they actual had buglers playing reveille still. So much better!
Anyways, the issue I'm going to get to tonight is Partition. It is rarely a pleasant experience to partition a nation. Examples: India comes to mind. Ireland. Germany. Georgia. The United States. Yes, we were partitioned. It was called the Civil War.
The idea of dividing Iraq has been around since... well... a very long time! First, lets look at the history of the area. I'll keep this as brief as I can. Then, we'll analyze the ethnicities, religious groups, geography, politics and even culture to gain a better perspective on this puzzling issue.
The area that Iraq occupies is some of the richest and most productive land in the Middle East. To the rest of the Arab world, Iraq is Iowa. Two rivers converge there and frequently flood leaving alluvial deposits behind that nourish the otherwise deprived soil. These two rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Historically this was called Mesopotamia: Greek for "between the rivers".
It was home to the world's first known civilization, the Sumerian culture, followed by the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures, whose influence extended into neighboring regions as early as 5000 BC. These civilizations produced some of the earliest writing and some of the first sciences, mathematics, laws, literature and philosophies of the world; hence its common epithet, the "Cradle of Civilization".
Oh.. Local Nostalgia channel is playing Andrews Sisters' Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy! Almost makes me wish they actual had buglers playing reveille still. So much better!
Anyways, the issue I'm going to get to tonight is Partition. It is rarely a pleasant experience to partition a nation. Examples: India comes to mind. Ireland. Germany. Georgia. The United States. Yes, we were partitioned. It was called the Civil War.
The idea of dividing Iraq has been around since... well... a very long time! First, lets look at the history of the area. I'll keep this as brief as I can. Then, we'll analyze the ethnicities, religious groups, geography, politics and even culture to gain a better perspective on this puzzling issue.
The area that Iraq occupies is some of the richest and most productive land in the Middle East. To the rest of the Arab world, Iraq is Iowa. Two rivers converge there and frequently flood leaving alluvial deposits behind that nourish the otherwise deprived soil. These two rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Historically this was called Mesopotamia: Greek for "between the rivers".
It was home to the world's first known civilization, the Sumerian culture, followed by the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures, whose influence extended into neighboring regions as early as 5000 BC. These civilizations produced some of the earliest writing and some of the first sciences, mathematics, laws, literature and philosophies of the world; hence its common epithet, the "Cradle of Civilization".
Milorad Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, was removed from office after a brief, and famously boycotted, Impeachment trial. The Illinois State Senate voted 59-0, with one vote at the end caught in a technical glitch, to remove the 52-year-old father of two from office for alleged abuse of power. The Governor has been accused of using the Senate seat recently vacated by now President Barak Obama to leverage political and individiual gain. Though he claims that he was trying to gain projects for the people of Illinois, tapes of recorded conversations, obtained by the FBI, allegedly prove otherwise. It has been released that within the tapes are conversations where Blagojevich attempts to procure lucrative jobs for himself and his wife.
I watched a particular segment on CNN about a man in New Zealand who'd purchased a used MP3 player at a thrift store. But later he discovered that the player held top secret information including lists of soldiers and pertinent contact information. Also, it appears they may have been plans on the player that date to 2005.I should not have to ask what makes this startling. There's plenty! Like how did such a breach even occur? Government servers probably log whenever a file is copied. If the copy was authorized then what the hell was it doing on an MP3 player? If they were unauthorized... well, there are plenty more questions that need asking like how did they not track it down? Who did this? And if they didn't know?!?! sigh....
Its too much ask the people whose job is our security to bother with security it seems. But I will wait until this turns into nothing and forget about it like a Good Stupid Fox watching idiot. Alas, I'm not. Sorry.
Anyways...
President Obama met with House Republicans today behind closed doors. The President's $825M stimulus plan is now the Republicans are now calling it theirs. They claim the problem is the Democrats who are drifting from the President's original plan. There are things the Democrats pulled out of the plan such as a plan to pay for contraceptives and help for the Middle Class. John Boehner does not need to fear that women who could not afford birth control let alone the children they might have will be getting pills to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
I think as much as it sounds like the GOP are in bed with Obama, I'm thinking this is political chess. Eventually they will build a plan that resembles little to nothing that Obama initially presented to Congress. Then they'll vote it down! And it seems the bipartisan President may have sacrificed his own majority for the sake a lukewarm Republican pool?
Also, I have to commet on Obama's first formal interview. It was on al-Arabiya if you haven't heard. He has I think made a huge positive move. Here's why. Terrorists are political actors albeit non-state actors but so are Churches and Greenpeace. The War on Terror as it were actually legitimizes the terrorists. We s
ank to their level by taking the war to them. Again, sacrificing our principles is always a losing tactic. By going to the Saudi based network and doing a cordial and well spoken interview sends an important message to the Middle East. The USA is going to treat the sovereign nations of the world as just that. We cannot, should not and shouldn't have sunk to their level, which is what the invasion of Iraq was: State sanctioned Terrorism.Author John Updike passed away. I would have said died but saying John Updike died is awkward. John Updike won the Pulitzer Prize Rabbit twice with Rich and Rabbit at Rest published in 1981 and 1990 respectively. He was the "chronicler of suburban adultery". He passed today at Beverly Farms, Massachesetts.
Personal Notes: I'm debating some changes to this blog such as adding podcasts and thereby putting more into the podcasts and posting links on the page. I started this blog in reaction to then President Bush's second term and my rising ire towards it. I'm thinking of changing the bland conservative look of this site that doesn't change. Stay Tuned!
The Senate confirmed Geitner. I actually sat through Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, go on about all the economic woes besieging our great nation. It made me want to commit suicide. How the hell are we going to ever get out of this hole?Geitner has been praised up and down mostly by Democrats such as the aforementioned Dodd and Harry Reid of Nevada. When the vote happened almost all Democrats voted for him. All (not including Al Franken. He's still here in Minnesota, twiddling his thumbs) but 3 Democrats voted against the confirmation: Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Robert Byrd from West Virginia, the oldest and cootiest coot in the Senate and the Dean (I think Byrd is lonely now that Ted Stevens is a criminal and Ted Kennedy is in the process of kacking Both named Ted...). Eleven Republicans also voted against him. This includes John McCain, Susan Collins, Richard Lugar and Arlen Specter. These are republicans Obama wants to bring into his sphere of influence. There may already be problems. The margin 60-34 which according to Bloomberg news, is the smallest margin for confirmation of Treasury Secretary. Wow. Someone had little to nothing to do.
Seriously, I'm gonna start using "Honest Mistake" on my tax forms pre-emptively. If they come after me for soing them badly I won't even fall back on ill-written tax code. I'll just invoke the Geitner doctrine. During the White House Press Briefing one astute reporter asked that if say Wesley Snipes, a notorious tax evader, were to have been nominated, would he too have seen his tax case handled with kid gloves? Compelling... Nah! Now that Geitner's done we got Daschle to look forward to now. Oh, break out the popcorn!
On to other things. Rod Blagojevich continues his media blitz. He is now officially a broken record. He need only record himself citing the 6th Amendment, presumption of innocence and the non-contextual snippets of recordings of him speaking with censored expletives. Is there anyone that is convinced that this man is actually telling the truth? He's a democrat so if he can't even get to believe in his so-called good intentions, then he's as good as dead.
Blagojevich knows he's toast. He's doing this blitz with several possibilities in mind. 1) He's tryin to taint the prospective jury pool. This may or not be the case. He is a former prosecuter who has gone on record saying that he is censoring himself from talking about details of a pending criminal trial. He has also commented that he thinks this a good choice. I concede that he may honorable on this issue. Or is he? The fact remains, when the public has little to no access to the evidence, we can't verify what he is or isn't leaking. He may well be telling enough to taint future jury pools and just enough.
2) He's gunning for a book deal. Everyone can write a book these days. Someone gave Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris all book deals so its not much of a stretch to imagine that scenario. Sarah Palin, aka Moose Hunter Barbie, is hoping to snag a $11M book deal. (Really. She really is a self-important hack.) I can see that possibility. By upping the ante and taking his case to the American People, likening himself to Gandhi, MLK and Nelson Mandela and referring to his trial as a an West shootout, he has created a very important ingredient in National politics and public relations: a brand. You need a brand to sell peanut butter and you also need one to sell yourself to the public whether that be food, a tv, a talk show, President or a failed but colorful former governor from one of the most politically corrupt states in the Union. Yeah...
3) He really is pleading his case to the people of Illinois. Realizing that most state news outlets will be more concerned with the Impeachment trial proceedings, he got the last outlet left to him. National Media needs something else besides the latest Obama event like going to the bathroom and kissing his daughters good night. But if he thinks this may actually win the people over, good luck! I consider myself an Illinoisan. Its where my hometown is (Bloomington-Normal, just northeast of Springfield). I still have family living there. On election night, I had a long conversation with my sister, Mary. I would describe my sister as a casual politico. She's not a junkie, an addict or a fanatic such as I am. But even she hated Blago then and knew of plenty of people who wanted him out of office... in November! You think finding out that he might also be guilty of corruption, abuse of power and... oh yeah.... extortion. Keep digging!
Besides, he's got two daughters and his wife lost her job as a fundraiser. And she's also named in the probe of the Governor. Turns out
Thats it from here. Its freaking cold as hell and I think I have frostbite on my toes. No joke. If they turn black and fall off I'll blog about and include snazzy pictures. Till then!
It's been awhile.I have have some of the worst 6 months of my life. I worked a despicable job, had a disastrous love affair, health problems and an abysmal semester. And along the way there was an election. We got now President Barack Obama. I really don't have to talk about this. I think there has been more words written about him in the past year than the entirety of literature proceeding his candidacy.
What I do want to bring up is someone I cannot stand: Ann Coulter. I can't stand her mostly because she is the reason Conservatives are so easy to mock (and rile). There have been great SNAFUs on her part such as claiming that Jews needed to be perfected and that women should not be able to vote because they don't understand money. But recently she posted in her own column a rather interesting tidbit.
When will the first reporter ask President Obama to admit that he has made mistakes? Try: Never.
No, that question will disappear for the next four years. It will be replaced by the new question for conservatives on every liberal's lips these days: Do you want Obama to succeed as president?
Answer: Of course we do. We live here, too.
But merely to ask the question is to imply that the 60 million Americans who did not vote for Obama are being unpatriotic if they do not wholeheartedly endorse his liberal agenda.
I take issue with the question "Do you want Obama to succeed as president?" The reason I take issue with this is because of the question that was asked to liberals about the war in Iraq. "Don't you want the war to succeed?" We argued that this was a loaded question. It was a question that was just as bad as "When did you stop beating your wife?" These are unanswerable questions. And Miss Coulter has a very short memory to not remember this fact. She also shows that her sense of humor is pretty much non-existent.
In addition, Miss Coulter also went on to rail about liberals:
Liberals always have to play the victim, acting as if they merely want to bring the nation together in hope and unity in the face of petulant, stick-in-the-mud conservatives. Meanwhile, they are the ones booing, heckling and publicly fantasizing about the assassination of those who disagree with them on policy matters.
Doth mine ears heareth whining? Whining is something that Ann Coulter has turned into an artform. It has enabled her to sell trite little books calling people names and laying down baseless claims and smug arrogance that the radical right laps up. As educated as she is, she uses more anecdotal evidence than facts. Or she does the most dangerous thing: generalizes. These leads to stereotypes and prejudices. This leads me to make the following statement.
Politicsm. Racism is, God willing, slowly receding though far from being history. It is not acceptable among polite society. But hating people of another party is completely acceptable. Telling lies about that party, those ideas and those who represent that party are perfectly fine. But no less disgusting. I call it politicsm for now due to the lack of another word.
As long as Ann Coulter uses unsubstantiated claims and views on liberals, or anyone for that matter, she will not have any respect from this Libertarian. She is only helping herself I might add. The arguments she uses against liberals can and do apply to everyone.
[Liberals] viciously attack all while wailing that they are the true victims.but also states in the same text, Guilty, that
Liberals seem to have hit upon a reverse Christ story as their belief system. He suffered and died for our sins; liberals make the rest of us suffer for sins we didn’t commit.
People portray themselves as victims while viciously attacking the other side because, um, that's what humans do. We do in arguments with family, coworkers, the legal system... Ann Coulter seems to have a problem: self-awareness. Does she realize she is guilty herself of the very things she is angry about? Or would that be right up there with money and be too difficult for her to understand? She doesn't seem capable of turning the other cheek instead she is on the offensive with obvious defensive motivations. I do think if she is that hypocritical then her book titles like Slander, Treason, Godless, Guilty... actually fit her...?
I don't know how Andrew Stein was capable of dating her. Once.
After all that, I have nothing more to add. Listen to Democracy Now! for today for some stuff I really dig. David Korten is someone I can so get behind! He has great ideas that are congruent and complimentary to many of my political ideas.
You can check out Ann Coulter's column (if you must) here. You can also subscribe to Democracy Now! if you'd like.
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