Nation Tottering Close To Political Idolatry

[HT:LK]
It is understandable that most would take an interest in the peaceful transitions of power that take place in the United States between one administration to the next as it is a skill less civilized countries have failed to master; however, what is taking place right now in relation to Barack Obama is downright frightening and almost idolatrous in its implications.

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Liberal Tolerance

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New president cheered, old one jeered

As a helicopter carried George W. Bush away from the U.S. capital where he has served as president for the past eight years, those in the crowd sang the taunting sports anthem, “Na na na na, hey hey, goodbye."

The 43rd president certainly didn’t hear them. But he might have seen the “Arrest Bush” signs waved by some spectators as he rode in the presidential limousine toward the Capitol.

He also might have heard the chants of “No more Bush” shortly before the swearing-in ceremony began.The sentiment was apparently widespread.

“People have been coming up to me all day saying, ‘Nice sign, let me take a picture,’” said Washington prison guard Jewell Lee, 44, referring to her styrofoam sign that said simply: “GET OUT.”

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Bush Mocked As He Arrives on Inauguration Dais

The crowd packed on the west side of the Capitol grounds serenaded President Bush in mocking fashion when he took to the inaugural stage alongside Vice President Dick Cheney. "Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye," a section of the crowd chanted.

The crowd packed immediately below the podium received Bush in stony silence when he took his seat on the stage surrounding the podium where Barack Obama was scheduled to take the oath office to become the 44th president of the United States

But at least one man was seen giving the chopper what Bush used to call the "one-finger salute." Another man, with a thick New England accent, yelled, "Go back to Crawford!" And a woman shouted, "Good riddance! He's leaving"

[aren't we proud]

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Bush's Real Sin Was Winning in Iraq

... Yet perhaps the most important reason for this unpopularity is the one least commented on. Here's a hint: It's not because of his failures. To the contrary, Mr. Bush's disfavor in Washington owes more to his greatest success.

Simply put, there are those who will never forgive Mr. Bush for not losing a war they had all declared unwinnable. [snip]

That was Vietnam thinking. And the president never accepted it. That was why his critics went ape when, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he touched on the killing fields and exodus of boat people that followed America's humiliating exit off an embassy rooftop. As the Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti noted, Mr. Bush had appropriated one of their most cherished analogies -- only he drew very different lessons from it. [snip]

Mr. Bush's success in Iraq is equally infuriating, because it showed he was right and they wrong. Many in Washington have not yet admitted that, even to themselves. Mr. Obama has. We know he has because he has elected to keep Mr. Bush's secretary of defense -- not something you do with a failure.

Mr. Obama seems aware that he will soon find himself under pressure to measure up to two Bush achievements: a strategic victory in Iraq, and the prevention of another attack on America's home soil. As he rises to this challenge, our new president will learn that when you make a mistake, opponents and pundits will make you pay dearly.

But it will not even be close to the price you pay for ignoring their advice and succeeding.

[A plausable shot at BDS explained: Recommended > ]

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Is This How the Post-Racial Obama Administration Begins?

Martin Luther King's dream has come to life. Or at least I thought so.

There, he was — at the threshold of history. Fifty years ago, a black man couldn't be served at lunch counters in some cities. And today, Barack Obama stood in front of millions of Americans on the mall — black and white, right and left— to take the oath of the highest office in the land.

His speech generally respected the situation —- heavy on those things that bring us together and shed light on specifics that might divide. In the days leading up to the speech, some on the left claimed that division would be coming from that evil minister of hate — Oprah Book Club author Rick Warren. His crime: He agrees with much of Obama's platform on gay marriage. What bigotry there.

However, it was another minister — Reverend Joseph Lowery — who used his benediction, to ask God for this:

"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right."

Is this how the post-racial Obama administration begins? That someday the brown can stick around, the yellow can remain mellow, and the white will embrace what's right?

Even at the inauguration of a black president, we are being called racist.

USA Today reports that you smiled when he said this and shook your head. And it's not like you didn't know what you were getting yourself into. This is the same Reverend Lowery that even made Coretta Scott King's funeral about politics*.

Mr. President — I want to believe. I want to trust. I want to hope for change — but I am really failing to see how this is any different.

There are many that didn't vote for you, myself included, that want you to succeed, and that pray for you and your safety. You may be fascinated to learn that we don't hate minorities, and we don't want to starve the poor, and we are perfectly fine with the brown sticking around.

We will do our part. But help us help you. We will argue about politics — but let us expect the best from each other, and chastise those who insist on driving wedges between us...

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[* In 2006, at Coretta Scott King's funeral, Dr. Lowery remarked before four U.S. Presidents in attendance:

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor! "

Observers claimed his comments were inappropriate in a setting meant to honor the life of Mrs. King, especially considering Mr. Bush was present at the ceremony.]

AP Describes Black Minister's Mockery of Whites as Not Right As 'Note of Racial Caution'

The Associated Press noticed liberal Rev. Joseph Lowery's prayer raised eyebrows when he prayed for that day in the hazy future when "white will embrace what is right." That divisive note drew this headline: "Lowery gives sole inaugural note of racial caution." The entire dispatch was brief:

"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around.

"When yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right."

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[I heard this 'live' on my way into work and was profoundly saddened. Here we are, swearing in our fist black president which required a majority vote of the entire nation, and this guy drudged up every divisive topic known (he also disparaged the successful in the classic class warfare card).

I guess the grievance industry is just to big and powerful to face the fact that the pervasive racism they've been selling for years has just been disproved.]

[re: AP's obfuscation...

Face of Defense: Amputee Earns Commission Through Army ROTC

The blast of a roadside bomb in Iraq's Sunni Triangle resulted in the amputation of a portion of Richard Ingram's left arm, but it did not rob him of his dream of becoming an Army officer. Ingram's dream became a reality Dec. 13 when he graduated from North Georgia College and State University and became a second lieutenant.

“I am extremely proud to have earned a commission through the Army ROTC program at North Georgia College, and I look forward to serving as an Army officer," Ingram said. "I didn't decide to do this just to get a slap on the back. I want to be an inspiration to others who were wounded."

He is the first individual with such severe combat injuries suffered during the global war on terrorism to earn a commission through the Army ROTC program, military officials said.

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Iraqis out stumping for votes in show of democracy

BAGHDAD -- Candidates in this month's provincial elections are answering questions from voters and debating issues ranging from Baghdad's housing shortage to the need to attract foreign investment. This is the new style of campaigning in Iraq, where candidates feel safe enough to stump for votes and focus on grass-roots issues instead of the religious divisions and violence that overshadowed earlier elections held after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in 2003.

[focusing on issues instead of divisions - I'm envious.]

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'Israel won, but could have gone deeper'

Israel clearly won the latest round with Hamas, but could have gone deeper into Gaza and done greater damage to the organization, according to military analysts in the US media who were visiting the region this week.

"I think you achieved what one Israeli general called 'changing the reality' in which Hamas operates, but I think you were too restrained and could have gone deeper into Gaza,"

Lt.-Gen. Thomas McInerney, a 35-year veteran of the US Air Force and a Fox News military analyst, told The Jerusalem Post Monday after touring the Gaza periphery and receiving briefings from Israeli officials

"The Israeli public's support for this war mutes global opinion. When a nation is united in its right to defend itself, it makes it more difficult for Europeans, the Left or the Arab media to counter that."

Commenting on the unilateral cease-fire announced on Saturday, he suggested that

"your leadership is too sensitive about world opinion. Israel did not want to destroy Hamas. I believe you should have."

[but they didn't, so they'll be more 'rounds' in the future]

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Hamas holds victory rallies as UN chief tours Gaza

Gaza City, Gaza Strip -- The U.N. chief inspected the devastation wrought by Israel's onslaught in Gaza on Tuesday, leading a moment of silence at the smoldering U.N. headquarters, as the territory's militant Hamas rulers, triumphant at having survived, held victory rallies amid the ruins.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded a full investigation into strikes on United Nations facilities...

FLASHBACK: "Gaza headmaster was Islamic Jihad ''rocket-maker''

... headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip built rockets for Islamic Jihad. ... laid bare and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted terrorists fighting the Jewish state...

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Poor countries 'need carbon cuts'

Poznan, Poland - People in developing countries will need to make big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if ''dangerous'' climate change is to be avoided, a report warns. Researchers at the Third World Network calculate that even if rich nations make deep cuts, the developing world will face per-capita reductions of 60%.

It suggests this would pose challenges to these countries' development.

[it would cause the death of thousands, possibly millions by retarding how they'd otherwise develop. But they're only people...]

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James Hanson's Factory of Death

James Hansen, a politically connected scientist who uses his NASA sinecure as a pulpit from which to preach the global warming creed, has written an open letter to the new president calling for a moratorium and phase-out of coal-fired power stations, which he calls "factories of death."

I have found varying estimates of the percentage of this country's electrical power that is produced by coal-fired plants, but they vary within a range of 40 to 60 percent. This means that Hansen is proposing to cut off, within a few years, about half of the nation's power supply, offering only vague hopes about "renewable energy" or as-yet-undeveloped "fourth-generation nuclear power" to fill the gap.

All of this is to be accomplished by a massive new "carbon tax" on all forms of fossil fuels, with a "100% dividend"—i.e., the proceeds from the tax will be given back to the American people in the form of direct monthly subsidy. This is a kind of welfare payment intended to bribe the American people into thinking that they are benefiting from a scheme that is actually designed to collapse the economy.

It is Hansen's scheme that is the real factory of death—a mechanism for permanent global economic collapse, with all of its horrific consequences.

For those who want to see it for themselves, Hansen's original letter is available here, though in a poorly formatted version.

Global Warming Skepticism Panic Attack at Huffington Post

Please pay no attention to the evidence right outside your windows! Despite the fact that we are experiencing the coldest weather in decades, Kevin Grandia blogging at the Huffington Post wants you to ignore this and start worrying about the growing trend of global warming skepticism.

According to Grandia, questioning the holy theology of the Church of Global Warming is a seriously disturbing heresy. He even catalogued the increased levels of global warming skepticism by analyzing Google search stats in excruciating detail:

Our 2008 analysis of global warming misinformation finds that there was a very significant upswing in online activity.

This trend should be troubling to US policymakers and campaigners wanting to implement new greenhouse gas reduction strategies.

Here's the stats I've generated as evidence of my conclusions:

"Global Warming" hoax
A Google blog search for the term "global warming" hoax between January 1, 2008 and January 1, 2009 reports 49,719 page results. The same search for the previous year reports only 22,077 page results.

Eeek! The number of global warming thought crimes more than doubled in just a year. Grandia continues to give us more "grim" Google statistics about this growing heresy:

"Global Warming" skeptic
A Google blog search for the term "global warming" skeptic between January 1, 2008 and January 1, 2009 reports 73,956 page results. The same search for the previous year reports only 38,346 page results. Fancy graph.

But..but Kevin. How can we keep the majority of mainstream media, who are in the tank with you over global warming, from preventing their weather people from delivering reports about the record cold temperatures? Grandia delivers more sad news about why the global warming ideology is crumbling:

Here's some recent findings that should trouble anyone working to implement new laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

1) The Internet is now a larger source of news for people than newspapers.

2) Millions of people are seeking global warming information online.

Gasp! How dare people search for global warming information on their own outside of the reliable mainstream media which continues to support this climatic notion despite evidence to the contrary! Grandia concludes that in order to combat the growing global warming skepticism, more propaganda is going to have to shoved down the throat of the public:

If this is going to be the year that we have the political leadership in the United States with the will to take real action on climate change, we're all going to have to double, or even triple our efforts to dispel the myths and lies being spread online about the realities of the situation.

Of course, in order to promote the global warming ideology, Grandia might want to start by silencing Harold Ambler who wrote this incredible heresy in his own Huffington Post:

Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is in." Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.

So the first place to send in the global warming Thought Police would be right there in the Huffington Post.

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[Typical logic pattern of the alarmist mind: they guy is blogging his dismay that people are reading the Internet.

As enjoyable as I found this piece, truth is - thanks to the capitulation of corporate America {third leg in stool: governments, media, business} - if we're to prevent the ruination of our economy and protect our children's civil liberties it's we realists (if you don't mind) who will need to become much, much more vociferous in our opposition.

Silence will be taken as consent, and all legislative momentum is on the side of the environmoral fascists. {so sharpen you email}]

The Goodfellas at the Fed

The basic pattern of Washington's financial panic continues: the more the government tries to stimulate the economy, the more depressed it gets.

According to the latest report in the New York Times, after hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, the stimulus is not working. The banks who were supposed to be saved by the first round of bailouts are actually in worse shape and need more federal cash.

Even before word came on Tuesday that Citigroup might split into pieces to shore up its finances, an unpleasant message was moving through Congress and President-elect Barack Obama's transition team: the banks need more taxpayer money... a lot more money...

The obvious question is: why are private investors scarce? Maybe it has something to do with the terms of the bailouts and "stimulus" aimed at them. The Times story contains only one hint at this:

Mr. Obama's economic team is planning a broad overhaul of the program to impose more accountability and more restrictions on executives at companies that receive government money.

"More accountability" means more government management of the banks; more restrictions means more measures designed to reduce the profitability of the banking industry and drive out the best talent. For an example of what all of this "accountability" means, consider the Wall Street Journal's overview of the government's treatment of the healthiest of the big nationwide banks, Bank of America.

After BofA shareholders approved the Merrill purchase on December 5, Mr. Lewis saw Merrill's assets plunge in value and began to explore a way out. At least he wanted a better price….

Mr. Lewis's effort to protect his common shareholders was vetoed by his most important shareholder, the feds.

In October the US Treasury had 'insisted' on investing $15 billion in his bank. Come December, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told him that Merrill had to be saved, and that BofA had to be the savior….

In other words, the feds believe that the way to calm financial markets is to force the nation's largest, and a heretofore healthy, bank to swallow toxic assets it didn't want...

[this is an example on how government always screws the pooch when it tries to manage markets - can't be done. We must let the market work itself out with as little government intervention as possible - i.e., money if we must - but for heaven's sake no 'instructions' from government (unless you find Congress well run?)]

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$825 Billion 'Stimulus' Plan to Pay for New Windows, Day Care, Cable TV

[exhibit A re: Congress' budgetary acumen, HT:BC]
The $825 billion government stimulus package unveiled by congressional Democrats on Friday contains billions of dollars in government spending supposedly designed to create jobs and stimulate the economy. However, the package also contains a host of items congressional leaders rarely mention, including hundreds of millions of dollars for cable TV boxes, new windows in government housing, and day care...

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HOUSING PUSH FOR HISPANICS SPAWNS WAVE OF FORECLOSURES

California
For years, immigrants to the U.S. have viewed buying a home as the ultimate benchmark of success. Mortgage lenders appear to have regarded Latinos as a largely untapped demographic

• Between 2000 and 2007, as the Hispanic population increased, Hispanic homeownership grew even faster, increasing by 47 percent, to 6.1 million from 4.1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• In 2005 alone, nonprime mortgages to Hispanics jumped by 169 percent, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

Regions of the country where the housing bubble grew biggest, such as California, Nevada and Florida, are heavily populated by Latinos, many of whom worked in the construction industry during the housing boom. But when these markets began to weaken, bad loans depressed the value of neighboring properties, creating a downward spiral.

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Obama's First Act as President

Barack Obama emphatically promised more than a year ago, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." Will he keep his word?

The Freedom of Choice Act is a sweeping bill that would abolish all pro-life regulations across the nation, from parental notification laws to bans on federal funding of abortions. The Office of the General Counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops identified 13 categories of pro-life laws that would be stampeded and nullified by FOCA.

The fight to pass FOCA is being waged despite a new nationwide survey revealing that about 4 in 5 U.S. adults would limit abortion's is some way. About 1 in 3 would limit abortion to rape, incest or saving a mother's life. One-third also would limit abortion to either the first three months of pregnancy or the first six months. Only 9 percent said abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy.

As far-reaching as the decision of Roe v. Wade is into the states' jurisdictions and our lives, even it, for example, showed certain respect for state laws and limits on infringing regulations in the medical field. FOCA shows no such restraints; it nails shut the coffin on pro-life choices and safeguards... [snip]

sign the online petition to fight FOCA, and then contact your representatives and senators to tell them how you expect them to vote on the bill.

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[me, I'm pro-choice - with caveats - not the least of them having to do with the protection of states rights][what do you think? tell 'em...]

Name That Party: He's a Mayor Accused of Soliciting Sex From Child... But is he a Democrat?

Mayor Gary Becker of Racine, Wisconsin, received some unwanted attention from the Old Media and the local police today because of his arrest for using a computer to solicit sex from a child. According to the Associated Press, Becker is "tentatively charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, child enticement, possession of child pornography, exposing a child to harmful materials, using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and misconduct in public office."

The AP spends several paragraphs detailing the world of Mayor Becker. It describes his election, his marriage and kids. It describes his accused crime and where and how he was snapped up by the police. But there is one little thing the AP can't seem to find any information on... his party.

That's right, once again the Old Media gives us an alleged criminal sexual pervert politician and somehow forgets to mention the accused is a Democrat.

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ABC Cites Only Democrats as the 'Warriors' in the Civil Rights Movement

"And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at all the warriors, black and white, who made this moment where we are today possible."

All the warriors? The piece went on to feature clips from eight Democratic politicians in addition to a number of non-political civil rights pioneers. Republican Abraham Lincoln went unmentioned, so did New York Governor Thomas Dewey who signed one of the nation's earliest civil rights laws in 1944 and President Ronald Reagan who made Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in 1983. In fact, no Republican was mentioned.

That's particularly egregious given the (evidently inconvenient) fact that a higher percentage of Congressional Republicans voted for the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act than did Democrats. Another point left unmentioned was the heroic effort by the conservative GOP minority leader in the Senate, Everett Dirksen, in supporting that legislation (see a December 14, 2002 article by Diane Alden on NewsMax.com.

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Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism

WASHINGTON- The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed and 43 suspected of "returning to the fight."He said the figures, updated at the end of December, showed a higher rate of recidivism than seen in a previous report showing 37 former detainees as active militants.

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Court rules in favor of Cheney in lawsuit

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ruled Monday that Vice President Dick Cheney has broad discretion in determining what records created during his eight-year tenure must be preserved. Absent any evidence that Cheney's office is failing to safeguard records, it is up to the vice president to determine how he deals with material, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled.

[another 'scandal' down the crapper]

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Obama gets smelly 'gift'

Toulouse, France - French cheese producers sought to cause a stink for incoming US president Barack Obama on Friday, sending him a case of pungent Roquefort to protest American import tariffs.

George W. Bush, already a hate figure here after eight years of tense trans-Atlantic relations, bade farewell to French shepherds by slapping 300% import duty on their prime product.

[Consequences to speech? Intolerable!!!] :^)

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