Tag Archives: politics

May 6, 2011 · 9:31 pm

Margaret and Helen are Back!

My favorite 80 something year old bloggers have been quiet for a while and I was growing concerned…

Well, they’re back with a new post.

I’m glad to see the old girls are still alive and kicking!

Margaret, I wish Harold could have lived to see this day.  As a veteran, he was always hopeful that we would one day get Bin Laden.  He would have been very proud and then he would have been pissed.

Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it.  FOX found a way to turn even this into a negative for Obama.  I tuned in after you called and watched Sean Hannity make a fool of himself like you were saying.  Honestly, that is exactly what I would have expected from FOX – complaining because the US military took the time to follow Muslim traditions before eventually ditching the son-of-a-bitch at sea.   Sean, of course, wanted something a bit more flashy.  Had we done it Hannity’s way, the body would have been photographed wearing Princess Beatrice’s hat.  Honestly FOX, why don’t we just  hang him on a cross and see if his followers retaliate?  Sean is an idiot.

Of course Greta and Glenn were vying for stupidest person on FOX as well, but a race to the bottom on that network is over before it begins.  Was I the only one who noticed all three of them kept accidentally saying Obama rather than Usama? I bet not.  But I bet I am the only one who points it out.

It’s called honor Mr. Hannity, Mr. Beck and Mr. Van Susteren… you jackasses.  Obama understands it.  The US military has it.   FOX needs it. It makes us better than them.  But I guess the morons over at FOX are more worried that 72 Virgins really were waiting for him.  And yes, I know I typed Mister Van Susteren… plastic surgery can only get you so far.

Ten years were a long time to wait for the end of Bin Laden.  I ask you, how long before we see an end to FOX?

Change the channel America.  I mean it.  Really.

via Margaret and Helen.

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May 6, 2011 · 8:36 pm

Osama bin Laden’s Death May End Afghanistan War

Even more good news….

This is now the longest war in U.S. History.

Hopefully, now we can get the hell out…

Word from the Obama administration is that with al Qaeda spiritual leader Osama bin Laden dead, U.S. forces may now have found the fast-track to exit the Afghan occupation.

It won’t be easy, and it will require more than just political capital in the U.S., but unnamed officials tell The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran that, with a negotiated settlement between America and the Taliban, the Afghan war’s “endgame” will be nigh.

On one key front, the president can now put negotiators at the table with Taliban forces without being criticized for “negotiating with terrorists,” Chandrasekaran noted. On another, Taliban faction leader Mohammad Omar will likely be under tremendous pressure to end his alliance with al Qaeda, breaking another key barrier to U.S. withdrawal.

“Bin Laden’s death is the beginning of the endgame in Afghanistan,” an unnamed senior official reportedly said. “It changes everything.”

via Osama bin Laden’s death may end Afghanistan war sooner than planned | The Raw Story.

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May 6, 2011 · 6:18 am

One in three Africans is now middle class, report finds | Global development | The Guardian

The world is changing….

We just need to change with it…

And adjust our perceptions to the new reality….

We aren’t the only rich consumer society anymore…

From The Guardian:

One in three Africans is middle class, a rising group of consumers to rival those of China and India, researchers have found.

Record numbers of people in Africa own houses and cars, use mobile phones and the internet and send their children to private schools and foreign universities, according to the African Development Bank.

Mthuli Ncube, the bank’s chief economist, said the findings should challenge long-held perceptions of Africa as a continent of famine, poverty and hopelessness.

“Hey you know what, the world please wake up, this is a phenomenon in Africa that we’ve not spent a lot of time thinking about,” Ncube said. “There is a middle class that is driven by specific factors such as education and we should change our view and work with this group to create a new Africa and make sure Africa realises its full potential.”

Ncube said the study used an absolute definition of middle class, meaning people who spend between $2 and $20 a day, which he believed was appropriate given the cost of living for Africa’s nearly 1 billion people.

The study found that, by last year, Africa’s middle class had risen to about 34% of the continent’s population, or about 313m people – up from around 111m (26%) in 1980 and 196m (27%) in 2000.

More:   One in three Africans is now middle class, report finds | Global development | The Guardian.

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May 5, 2011 · 11:05 pm

The Dog That Took Down Osama Bin Laden

Talk about Man’s Best Friend….

From The Huffington Post:

Of the 80 member team that was deployed to take down bin Laden, few draw more speculation than the one on four legs.

Most likely a Belgian Malinois (though officials say it could also have been a German Shepherd), there was one non-human member of the SEAL team that raided Osama bin Laden’s compound, according to the New York Times. The heroic pooch was strapped to a Navy SEAL as they were lowered from a hovering helicopter.

The news of the dog’s use in the raid broke Wednesday, but like the other members of the team that was deployed, its identity remains unknown.

While the dog is known for its bomb-sniffing prowess, it has other capabilities that make it a wonderful dog-of-war. According to the Atlantic, the dog may have been trained to “sniff out enemy troops from up to 2 miles away.”

The sensory perception brought by these dogs in a wartime situation is unparalleled. “The capability they bring to the fight cannot be replicated by man or machine,” General David H. Petraeus said last year, calling for more use of dogs.

But the coolest thing about these guys? Many SEAL dogs come equipped with “titanium fangs capable of ripping through enemy protective armor,” at a cost of “about $2,000 a tooth,” according to the Daily. That’ll get the job done.

via Belgian Malinois: The Dog That Took Down Osama Bin Laden?.

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May 5, 2011 · 8:55 pm

After Osama bin Laden’s Death, An End to ‘Bad Guys’ | The Nation

Nice to see other folks thinking along the same lines as my personal thoughts in my earlier post about how bin Laden changed us….

I do hope we can all grow up now that the boogie man is dead….

From The Nation:

We can use the occasion of bin Laden’s death to grasp back for the moment when the world seemed simple, or we can turn away from that impulse. We can say that with his death, we return to the world as our adult eyes see it, shot through with suffering and complexity. We can feel compassion for the thousands of innocents who died by bin Laden’s hand as well as our own, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time in places like Bagram and Baghdad. We can remember that just because there is evil in the world that we are fighting—and bin Laden was a mass murderer and war criminal—that does not mean we are purely righteous. We can reject relativism and still embrace nuance. We can have the courage to speak and act like adults, to put away childish things, to once and for all banish the bad guys from our nightmares.

via After Osama bin Laden’s Death, An End to ‘Bad Guys’ | The Nation.

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May 5, 2011 · 7:57 pm

What’s your Political Type?

I’m a “Winter”…

Oh, that’s something else….

Here’s a great quiz from the Pew Research folks to see where you fall as to your Political “type”.

I had fun taking it….

No surprise, I came out as “Solid Liberal.”

Here is the link to the Quiz:

Where Do You Fit? 2011 Pew Research Political Typology Quiz | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

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May 5, 2011 · 7:53 pm

An Average CEO At America’s Big Corporations Earns 200 Times The Salary Of A Navy SEAL

Uh, who do you think is worth $11mm a year?

I’d vote for the Navy Seals if I had to vote for anyone….

This pay thing differential thing is really getting obscene….

From ThinkProgress.org:

After the killing of Osama Bin Laden at a compound in a suburb of Islamabad, Pakistan, much of the nation’s focus has turned to the men in our military who were responsible for the raid. The combat team that attacked Bin Laden’s compound was composed of an elite unit of Navy SEALS.

As economist Dean Baker points out, ABC News did a feature story about the SEALs to highlight the sacrifices those enlisted in the unit make. ABC compared their base salaries of $54,000 a year to the average annual salary for teachers. Baker notes that perhaps their salaries should be compared to Wall Street CEOs who earn tens of millions of dollars:

In the wake of their successful assault on Osama Bin Laden’s hideout, ABC News did a short feature on the Navy Seals. The report tells us that the people who hold this highly demanding and dangerous get paid about $54,000 a year. It then adds that:

“The base salary level [of Navy Seals] is comparable to the average annual salary for teachers in the U.S., which was $55,350 for the 2009-2010 school year, according to the Digest of Education Statistics.’ That is one possible comparison. There are other possible reference points. For example, the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan both pocket around $20 million a year.

Baker’s query poses an interesting question. What would the numbers look like if the base salary of a Navy SEAL — who risk their very lives in their day-to-day work — was compared to the compensation of the CEOs of some of America’s wealthiest corporations? Data from the AFL-CIO’s Executive Pay Watch finds that the average 2010 CEO compensation at an S&P 500 company was $11,358,445…

It’s important to note that the gap between executive compensation and average worker compensation has exploded over the past few decades. CEOs at America’s largest companies now earn 343 times more than the typical worker. In 1970, the average CEO earned 28 times as much as the typical worker.

via ThinkProgress » GRAPH: An Average CEO At America’s Big Corporations Earns 200 Times The Salary Of A Navy SEAL.

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May 4, 2011 · 9:41 pm

Dems To Force Vote On Ending Oil Subsidies

This should be interesting…

I hope the Dems can continue to “out” the Republicans and their true agenda of supporting the Corporations and the Rich at the expense of the Middle Class…

Or what’ left of the Middle Class after the GOP policies of the Bush Administration….

From the Huffington Post:

Eager to prove that Republicans don’t want to end oil subsidies despite public GOP opposition, House Democrats plan to force a vote Thursday on a measure that would block a major tax break for the five largest oil companies.

As Republicans call for major cuts to domestic spending, Democrats are pushing for tax code changes that would allow the government to bring in more money, particularly from high-profit industries Democrats say do not pay their fair share. President Barack Obama and key Democrats have called for an end to some oil and gas subsidies, arguing gas prices are high enough to sustain industry investment in the United States.

John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil, said in February that major oil companies do not need government help given the high price of gas.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made a similar point at a Tuesday briefing with reporters, shooting down questions about whether ending oil subsidies could increase the price of gas.

“The gas companies are making record profits,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a credible argument that reducing the subsidy on a product that is now getting record prices…will lead to higher [gas] prices.”

House Speaker John Boehner indicated some support for reconsidering those subsidies last week, telling ABC News that they “ought to be paying their fair share.” Obama quickly jumped on the statement, sending a letter to Congress urging an end to the tax breaks.

Boehner quickly walked back the statement, and last Thursday turned down a request by Democrats to vote on legislation to eliminate billions of dollars of oil subsidies.

via Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies.

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May 4, 2011 · 9:28 pm

The Associated Press: Americans 45 and older are new voting-age majority

Uh, maybe the GOP should have read this before they went after Medicare…

But I’m glad they didn’t….

I’ve said it many times:  Demographic trends are against the Republicans in the longterm.  We just have to survive them in the short term….

From the AP:

For the first time, Americans 45 and older make up a majority of the voting-age population, giving older Americans wider influence in elections as the U.S. stands divided over curtailing Medicare and other benefits for seniors.

Along with the information about the growing influence of older adults, preliminary census estimates also show a decline in the number of married couples with children, slight growth in household size and a rapid rise in the number of Mexicans.

The findings, based on the latest publicly available government data, offer a preview of trends that will be detailed in the next round of 2010 census results being released this month that focus on age, household relationships and racial subgroups.

As a whole, the numbers point to a rapidly graying nation driven largely by the nation’s 78 million baby boomers, who are now between the ages of 46 and 65 and looking ahead to retirement.

“The center of American politics gets older,” said E. Mark Braden, a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee who now advises elected officials and state legislatures. “Given the current fiscal concerns, it’s going to be a test case whether Republicans or Democrats can talk about entitlement reform without getting killed” politically.

via The Associated Press: Americans 45 and older are new voting-age majority.

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May 4, 2011 · 8:44 pm

How Osama Bin Laden Changed Us…

Just as Hitler had an impact, so did Bin Laden….

I’m very glad he’s gone.

My biggest regret is how we let him change us.

Some of that is due to the fact that George W Bush was President when 9/11 happened.  His cowboy mentality put us on the road to a police state and changed both the way the U.S. government operated and how it was perceived…..

He used our fear to drive political goals…

I’ll never forget how everyone in the world was an American on Sept 12th, 2001.  And how belligerence and posturing destroyed that feeling of unity.

The way Bush handled the horror that Bin Laden unleashed blew our chances at unity as a country and with the rest of the world…

I just wish we, as a Nation, could have faced the challenges driven by Osama Bin Laden’s hate and horror with a little more intelligence and a little less fear-driven bravado…

We could have built a better country and a better world…

I’m afraid, in some ways, Bin Laden ultimately won.

In many ways, he made us change into something less than what we were before September 11, 2001….

Maybe with his death we can put aside the fear and start to look at the world with hope and unity again.

Maybe now we can start to remember what it used to mean to be an American- to be against hate and torture and for equality and justice.

I hope so….

But I’m not optimistic…

From the Kansas City Star:

Without him, there would probably be no Department of Homeland Security, no Patriot Act, no Qur’an-burning pastors.

Had Osama bin Laden never been born, there would surely be fewer memorials to slain firefighters, less need for prosthetic limbs for young troops, an American public still largely ignorant of the Muslim notion of martyrdom.

Our military probably would still be more interested in tanks and aircraft carriers, less wary of roadside bombs and suicide belts. The development of killer robot planes might not have come so far. The need to deal with asymmetric threats — battling an army not of battalions but of insurgents — would not be so pressing.

And America would certainly be a country with far fewer long-fading yellow ribbons.

The man who came to symbolize a bloody rejection of all things U.S. left a legacy among those he hated, and those he inspired to hate them. Little wonder that his demise brought so little sympathy.

“In the past few years, (bin Laden’s) main military triumphs have been against such targets as Afghan schoolgirls, Shiite Muslim civilians, and defenseless synagogues in Tunisia and Turkey,” wrote pundit Christopher Hitchens on news of bin Laden’s death and dumping at sea. “Has there ever been a more contemptible leader from behind, or a commander who authorized more blanket death sentences on bystanders?”

In ways small and monumental, bin Laden’s two decades on the world stage changed how America operated within its borders and with other nations. It may not have been entirely his doing, but his life had a profound impact on the nation he so loathed.

via Osama bin Laden changed us in ways minute, monumental – KansasCity.com.

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