The dogs President

Coming to you via Kathy Shaidle in FiveFeetofFury

This was an op-ed in the New York Times:

Here, in a few sentences, Obama did the following: He deepened his bond with every dog lover in America. He identified with every household that’s tried to figure out what kind of dog to get. He touched every parent with a kid allergic to pets. He showed compassion by preferring a dog from a shelter. And he demonstrated a dry and slightly politically incorrect wit by commenting that “a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”

Not bad. It could be a tough four or eight years for conservatives.

When I first read it, I thought he was taking the piss. He isn't. He is dead serious.

No wonder the Republicans lost... they didn't even bother courting the "dog" vote.

Excuse me sir, i think that's the wrong flag....

You know how it is, being young, beautiful US citizen having elected the first 'black' US president, swept up in the moment of "Change" and "Hope" and letting your hair down and screaming and waving the Hammer and Sickle flag in support....hang on...what?

E-shopping you can believe in

Would you trust an online e-commerce site that had knowingly disabled all anti-fraud mechanisms on their credit card payment processing? How about if it turned out they had re-written or bypassed any anti-fraud payment processing checks?

Would you trust the CEO of that organisation if he/she was willing to keep using the money and the system even after the story made it to the press?

What if that person was running for public office? Say, president of the United States?

A less nuanced approach to the story:

• Mark Steyn
• A credit card expert

Agent of Change? Or Unreformed Socialist?

(source: http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/MichaelRamirez/2008/10/9)

Unless you've been living in Tasmania, you may have noticed that the US presidential election is weeks away. And the sheer volume of media coverage on Sarah Palin should give you cause for concern.

The more someone tells me I have to believe something, the less inclined I am to believe it. My current denial of man-made global warming is as a direct result of being bombarded with messages since I was about 5 that we (and by we, I mean the West and it's offspring, capitalism) are entirely responsible for all environmental degradation since the dinosaurs.

The 24/7 media "investigations" into every minute aspect of Sarah Palin's life is raising a constant source of non-scandals that is keeping the mainstream media way too busy to look into the real scandals of their chosen presidential candidate.

If you recognise even two of the names in the cartoon above, then clearly you're getting your news from sources other than the papers. If John McCain had been associated with any of those characters, he would have been publicly crucified and hung out to dry (and rightly so I might add).

However, instead of trying to work out what actually triggered the current financial crisis and the consequent USD$700 billion government bailout, (and exactly how much a particular presidential candidate had in causing it) we are treated to some real hard-hitting scoops on the cost of Sarah Palin's wardrobe.

The media bias in this election has got to such a stage that there is now an increasing. amount. of. journos. (registered Democrats some of them) that are horrified that among other things, instead of investigating Obama's ties with unrepentant domestic terrorists, they are going after a private citizen Joe the Plumber who had the temerity to ask the Chosen One a question.

In this media saturated modern age, perception is everything and that is exactly what the Obama campaign is counting on. The possibility that the next US president could be a fully committed socialist is astounding in the fact that there appears to be absolutely zero interest by the media in investigating it.



Links
Mark Steyn (as the last loyal right-wingnut pundit) on the current state of the campaign:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/obama-most-one-2205757-world-people

"We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years. We are deeply affected by the historic events of our time in the struggle against U.S. imperialism.
Our intention is to disrupt the empire, to incapacitate it, to put pressure on the cracks, to make it hard to carry out its bloody functioning against the people of the world, to join the world struggle, to attack from the inside. "
Bill Ayers manifesto: http://www.zombietime.com/prairie_fire/

Government Computers used to dig dirt on Joe:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/10/24/joe.html?sid=101

A history lesson

I haven't written too much on the US election, not because I haven't been following it but more my underwhelming cynicism on who America choses as the next leader of the "free world".

Most of my peers seem to be in the Obama camp, to the point where at a dinner recently, a close acquaintance mentioned something about the brand of Obama's walkman, musical choice, or some such inane 'fact' about the (potential) next US president.

Since when did knowing the brand of anything of a US presidential nominee uses, confer any sort of suitability to run the biggest economy in the world???Who cares if Obama eats the same brand of baked beans as me??!?!

This is a dude who will potentially have to sit down with the following characters and negotiate:

Vladimir Putin	Hu Jintao	Mahmoud Ahmanadinejad	Kim Jong-Il
(president of USSR Russia, ex-KGB, loves fishing, judo, the great outdoors and the odd extremely bloody territorial conflict. Also has a lot of nukes, not entirely sure where all of them are...)	(president of China, with a 1.3billion population and a proud 3,000 year history of which about 100 years have been spent opposing the US in almost everyway possible)	(president of Iran, desperately trying to acquire offensive nuclear capability, believer in the resurrection of the 12th Imam, who's return will mean the end of days)	(semi-retarded son of previous leader of Nth Korea, currently starving his population as he spends too much money trying to spread North Korean missile and nuclear technology across the world)

Some history:

Jimmy Carter was the American President from 1977-1981. In November 1979, some "students" took the 52 people hostage in the American embassy in Tehran and kept them hostage all the way through to the day before Pres. Jimmy left office in 1981 (coincidence? ya think?). There are rumours that Ahmadinejad was one of the hostage takers. Now tell me he isn't just itching to smack the US in the face again..

What does this have to do with Obama? This:

"The lesson of being strong in defending interests and combating enemies has not quite been learned. Today, the opposite is the mainstream prescription for success and the United States may be about to elect a president whose world view parallels the way Carter worked."

From the Obama campaign website (viewed on 11th October, 2008):

"Making clear that he planned to talk to Iran without preconditions, Mr. Obama emphasized further that "changes in behavior" by Iran could possibly be rewarded with membership in the World Trade Organization, other economic benefits and security guarantees."

Oooooooh Membership in the WTO, what an awesome carrot as inducement away from "wiping Israel off the map". Because all the previous dealings with Iran have been so...fruitful.

There is sooo much wrong with the political positions (and acquaintances) of Obama that are being glossed over in the media. What I see in the world is Gen X and Ys desperate for salvation from the 'sins' of Bush, thus putting all their goodwill, media organisations, and votes behind a man who stands for...what exactly?

Just don't be surprised if he does get elected that his actual politics will come to the fore, and then, Space Monkey help us all.....

Afterword:
Pootie really is a black belt in Judo....

Community Organizer vs Hockey Mom

Democracies often of provide tepid choices as nominations for leaders, and as a voter you have a choice between someone you don't want to vote for, and someone worse.

The current US election is fascinating in that finally they have some candidates with a bit of excitement. With the introduction of McCain's choice for VP, Governor Palin, people on both sides of the aisle are going beserk with a mixture of admiration, rage, fear and awe.

I'm not really one for nuance, and I'm decidedly pro-West in most situations. So for me, the choice between the Chosen One and an old white male, is not so difficult. I just look at the enemies of the Free World and see who they're Baracking for (pun intended), and I choose the other guy.

So it's really a no-brainer. When Hamas endorses Obama, any and all reservations I have for the other guy just...disappear. When Obama has to sack an adviser for talking to Hamas, I know I'm on the right track (no pun intended). And finally, when Iran starts repeating Democratic talking points re: Gov. Palin, well, I feel almost energised enough to start campaigning for the Republicans.

A regular contributor at Ace of Spades, Gabriel, put's it best:

"Let me put it this way. Do we want to elect men and women whose first response to a terror attack is to ask "Why do they hate us?" Or perhaps something more along the lines of "Don't we have a carrier group in the region right now?"