Hillary Sinks Into Racism

updated 3/19/08

Clinton Facing Narrower Path to Nomination - New York Times: "Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said they had spent recent days making the case to wavering superdelegates that Mr. Obama’s association with Mr. Wright would doom their party in the general election.

That argument could be Mrs. Clinton’s last hope for winning this contest."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Huffington Post | Danny Shea | March 28, 2008 03:08 PM

on Yahoo!

Ever since Vogue put basketball star LeBron James on its cover — only the third man, and the first African American man, to gain that distinction — the cover has sparked discussion. Critics have slammed Vogue for "perpetuating racial stereotypes," depicting the "dangerous black man" running off with a beautiful white woman (model Gisele Bundchen).

This AM, James Carville was on CNN. I admire Carville and believe he is a good man. He spent every possible instant of the time saying that the Clinton<>Obama campaign is not dirty. The cali came up over and over again. When a professional like Carville behaves i such a monomaniac way, the only possibility is that the public is perceiving Hillary as a Bitch. Carville did not even try to deny the tactic or assert.. very much .. that both sides have become Rovian.

My point is NOT to replay Carville here, but to point out that these are the words of a desperate professional. Combined with a repetitive claim that no one on the HRC camp is ready to concede, I think this suggests two things. 1. Hillary's internal polls must look like hell. 2. They are desperately looking for a tactic to turn the tide.

Bundchen Sets the Standard, Oil next!

repost from 11/5/07

UPDATE: things are getting worse. No one is talking about the role of the Chinese in the US financial crisis. Just to put a log on this fire .. what if China is still run by orthodox communists? A little damage to China's controlled economy would never have detered Mao from using this situation as a weapon. We better pray to Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand that President Hu is a closet capitalist.


Bloomberg.com: Worldwide: "Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Gisele Bundchen wants to remain the world's richest model and is insisting that she be paid in almost any currency but the U.S. dollar. Like billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Bill Gross, the Brazilian supermodel, who Forbes magazine says earns more than anyone in her industry, is at the top of a growing list of rich people who have concluded that the currency can only depreciate because Americans led by President George W. Bush are living beyond their means."

Asia Times: US dollar hegemony has got to go: "World trade is now a game in which the US produces dollars and the rest of the world produces things that dollars can buy. The world's interlinked economies no longer trade to capture a comparative advantage; they compete in exports to capture needed dollars to service dollar-denominated foreign debts and to accumulate dollar reserves to sustain the exchange value of their domestic currencies. To prevent speculative and manipulative attacks on their currencies, the world's central banks must acquire and hold dollar reserves in corresponding amounts to their currencies in circulation. The higher the market pressure to devalue a particular currency, the more dollar reserves its central bank must hold. This creates a built-in support for a strong dollar that in turn forces the world's central banks to acquire and hold more dollar reserves, making it stronger. This phenomenon is known as dollar hegemony, which is created by the geopolitically constructed peculiarity that critical commodities, most notably oil, are denominated in dollars. Everyone accepts dollars because dollars can buy oil. The recycling of petro-dollars is the price the US has extracted from oil-producing countries for US tolerance of the oil-exporting cartel since 1973. By definition, dollar reserves must be invested in US assets, creating a capital-accounts surplus for the US economy. Even after a year of sharp"

Sit or Squat: Chinese Toilets Refitted for Olympics

Sit or Squat: Chinese Toilets Refitted for Olympics: "Sit or Squat: Chinese Toilets Refitted for Olympics


In preparation for the upcoming Olympic games in China, organizers in Beijing are having to refit toilets at three of the Olympic venues after complaints of having to squat by foreign athletes.

MERKEL TO BOYCOTT OLYMPICS...

Many of the toilets in China are still of the squatting variety, instead of the sit-down versions used by Western cultures. Currently, Beijing has 5,200 public toilets available, more than any city.

Yao Hui, senior official for Olympic venues management, said that the Water Cube aquatic stadium, the Bird's Nest (Indoor Stadium), and the National Indoor Stadium will be changed to sit-down toilets, and will expand to many of the 31 venues also."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Sorry but I could not resists the humor. Nonetheless, my salute to Germany. Some people apparently can learn from their mistakes!

I realize the government can do little about Tibet, but wouldn't it be great if there were an international tourisdt boycott?

Readers may want to look at my essay on the "Ugly Chinaman."

Rule of Jihad

Reposted from 6/10/07


Today's NYTimes has a lengthy and thoughtful review of the Islamic philosophy of Jihad.

There is something wrong in this article. The pieces is an effort to find out how a religion of peace can justify killing. I am, however, bewildered by why anyone would consider Islam a religion of peace. The prophet was, after all, a general. He conquered Arabia and his immediate followers , presumably those best informed about the Quran, swept out of Arabia with the most successful effort at conquest over a very short time in all of history. Within a hundred years the Islamic rule had extended itself from Spain to India ... a span equal to that of the Roman empire but achieved in a far shorter time.

This does not make Islam a bad religion. Religious conquest in intrinsic to Christianity and I suspect more folks have died impaled on the sharp point of the cross shaped sword than sliced by the edge of the moon shaped scimitar.

What is new and different abut modern Islam is that murder has become form many a doctrine. Like the crusaders of a millennium ago, the modern Muslim, or at least a large number of them, sees killing of others as acceptable, even noble behavior. A recent pole in the US found that 25% of American Muslims feel this way.

Bush's disaster is that he has be incredible stupidity put the secular world into a religious conflict. Our, secular, world wide morality should reject islamo fascism as much as we reject National Socialism. We need to celebrate the tendrils of humanism In Islam as much as we can. Where are the liberal Muslims?

OBama and Clinton

March 28, 2008

Gallup Daily: Obama Back Into Lead in Democratic Race

McCain enjoys advantage in general election trial heat

• USA
• Election 2008
• Gallup Daily
• Americas
• Northern America

PRINCETON, NJ -- Today's Gallup Poll Daily tracking update finds Barack Obama with an eight percentage point advantage over Hillary Clinton (50% to 42%), this gives him a statistically significant advantage for the first time since before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy.

J'Accuse

UPDATED from 3/27/08

SeattleJew says on HorsesAss

@32 mark and your ilk

I am very angry. As an early Obama supporter I told others and myself that the race issue was largely over and BHO would be able to win because he is a great American.

Unlike Mr. Obama I lack the kindness and tolerance to forgive and understand the reactions I have seen to Jeremiah Wright’s sermons. The outrage shown by the press is an ugly charade. Rev. Wright surprised no one who has ever been to a Black church are spent time with African Americans. There is great pain in that community. To misuse that pain is not a lot different than bringing back lynching.

Guess what, my Jesus worshiping friends, we Jews say many of the same things about you! As much as I try to forget, there are six million memories that make me respect even the extremists within our people. I know Armenians, American Indians, and .. frankly even Southerners who have similar feelings toward the Turks, the US Army, and Lincoln. Why, why would the grandchildren of American slavery feel anything different?

Goddamn America for what happened is, indeed, too gentle an expression, for the people who committed such sins.

Yet, Rev. Wright has moved on from his own anger. He has helped many people and he NEVER taken out his anger on “white” folk. Do his words hurt"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

More Clintonism

This is disgusting (Clintons, McPeak, American Spectator)

James Fallows, The Atlantic

26 Mar 2008 01:21 am

Watching from 12 time zones away, I've tried to stay out of campaign blow-by-blow.

But if, as I assume is true based on Marc Ambinder's report, the Hillary Clinton campaign is circulating a hit job from the American Spectator, this is simply disgusting. (Marc has just confirmed to me that indeed the article came in an on-the-record email from Phil Singer, the Clinton campaign spokesman.)

That the Clinton family would dignify the American Spectator, of all publications, is astonishing to anyone who was alive in the 1990s.

That they would bless this attempt to paint Merrill McPeak as an anti-Semite is grotesque.

I doubt that the author of the hit job ever bothered to speak with or interview McPeak. I have done so many times, during and after his days as Air Force chief of staff (which he was during the first Gulf War). People can agree or disagree with McPeak's foreign policy or his record at the Pentagon -- but that's not what we're talking about here. Any attempt to fish out a quote that will banish him as a bigot is exactly as fair and accurate as depicting Bill Clinton as being personally a racist based on his "fairy tale" and "Jesse Jackson" comments around the time of the South Carolina primary. I say this having heard McPeak lay out his views, starting while the Gulf War was underway 17 years ago, about how to maintain general stability, US interests, and Israeli security in the Middle East.

McPeak may have gone too far in saying that Bill Clinton's earlier comments (that it would be "a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country" -- namely, Hillary Clinton and John McCain) amounted to "McCarthyism." But that's a pretty fair description of this latest round. I don't like attempts to stifle argument when they occur in China, and I don't like this in the United States.

I can easily believe that the Spectator would publish such an article. That the Clinton team would circulate it I'm still trying to deal with.

Three Versions of Hillary's Grand Bosnia Escapade

		Air Force Pilot Who Flew Clinton to Bosnia Tells His Side of the Story
"Yeah, so, no evasive maneuver. I gotta tell ya, I will give it to the commander of Air Base Eagle. He had that place - you know, not only were there no bullets flying around, there wasn't a bumblebee flying around."

The Arms Race

Hizballah more than trebles rocket arsenal to 40,000

March 22, 2008, 12:09 PM (GMT+02:00) DAVKA

While Hilalry wastes time.

New Iranian surface missiles delivered to Hizballah

Hizballah’s heavy armament was to figure large in the talks US Vice President Dick Cheney is holding with Israeli leaders on the Iranian nuclear threat. DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Hizballah has built up its rocket arsenal to three and-a-half times its pre-2006 Lebanon War stocks. Some of the 40,000 rockets of Syrian and Iranian manufacture can hit Israel targets as far south as Beersheba.
More...

Obama Girl!

Easter

Somebody wished me Happy Easter yeste4rday.

I always wonder what this is supposed to mean? Is the well wisher aware that not all Americans are Christian? How would they feel if I wished then=m a Happy Rosh Hashana?

I suspect this is a subtle part of evangelism, bringing the good news to all.

Saudi King Preaches Peace? Invites Jews to Talk?

from Jerusalem Post

Saudi King Abdullah's desire to convene a meeting between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious communities was reported today by the official Saudi Arabian News Agency.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Photo: AP

"I invite representatives of all the monotheistic religions to meet with their brothers in faith," the king was quoted as saying. The theme of the expected conference was reported to be "respect among the religions."

The news agency reported that senior Muslim leaders authorized the idea and consultations would be made with Islamic religious authorities from other countries. The king went on to say that "with God's help we will meet our brethren from other religions, including those who believe in the Torah and in the Gospel, in order to find ways to defend humanity."

This, he said, comes after humanity has lost its morality, sincerity and steadfastness. Also, the religions are confronted by challenges such as dealing with the disintegration of the family and ever-expanding Atheism.

King Abdullah revealed that he had been preparing the convention for two years and discussed it with the Pope when he visited the Vatican a year ago. Abdullah has not determined a specific date for when he would like to hold the meeting.

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger expressed his pleasure over the announcement. "Our hands are extended to any peace initiative and to any dialogue that will bring about an end to terrorism and violence," he said in a statement. "I have said on numerous occasions that the true path to the peace that we long for is through interfaith dialogue."

Cheney On 4,000 Dead Americans: They Volunteered »

---

ABC News | March 24, 2008 at 01:49 PM

Wrapping up a nine-day overseas trip to Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, about the effect on the nation of today's grim milestone of at least 4,000 U.S. deaths over the five-year Iraq war.

Noting the burden placed on military families, the Vice President said the biggest burden is carried by President Bush, and reminded ABC news that the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

Biting Political Images

Great post from Huffington.

by Nico Pitney

And on the other side:

WASHINGTON, March 23 (UPI) -- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Sunday aides to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., use "gutter" politics to get their way.

The former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination was compared by one Clinton adviser to Judas this week following his voiced support of Clinton's rival, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., The Washington Post reported.

"I'm not going to get in the gutter like that," Richardson said of the comments from informal Clinton adviser James Carville. "And you know, that's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."

Richardson has been critical of the ongoing fight for the Democratic nomination, but his scorn of such tactics has primarily been aimed at Clinton's camp.

"The campaign has gotten too negative," he said of the electoral battle.

"I just feel the time has come to come together behind a candidate."

DAMN MICROSOFT GODDAMN MICROSOFT

Rev. Wright got trashed for screaming about the USA ...
Can I get the same for dissing Microsoft.

I spent 3 hours already trying to activate the current versdion of Office 2007.

This is hopeless.

Microsoft has invented enough jargon to confuse the CIA. The product has .. an activation number, a product key, and installation number and gawd knows how many other numbers thast some way I, a custoimer, am supposed to know which is which.

The brueau that ahndles install problems does NOT support the product so they can only handle installs that wor5k ... you figure THAT out!

Then the gomer from Goombai tells me I shuld stick with Office 20003 because it works under Vista. Even though MS says it is not.

gak

The Indian Ocean

Diplomacy IS the key element in resolving Iraq and it is THE undiscussed issue of this campaign. BTW if I am wrong on this, I would welcome recommendations as to reading.

The Darcy Plan says vague things about Diplomacy and all three surviving candidates have avoided the issue .. giving it lip service at best.

Sadly, the intellectual media .. from the Council on Foreign Relations to Human Events, are also quiet on these issues., Are they afraid to comment during a political season? ...

Why is this issue so little discussed?

Because a diplomatic solution, which MUST occur, is going to require decisions that probably can not be debated in public without the media turning the debate into yet another circus of recriminations.

For whatever it is worth, here is my analysis as an amateur:

MINIMAL DECISIONS

Sadly even the most minimal. most obvious decisions will be controversial. For example, Kurdish policy. We do not have one. Turkey, Russia, Kurdestan, and Iran all do ... they would wipe out the Kurds as an independent people. The situation, moreover, i8s a lot like the situation in Israel ... "morals" are trumped by oil and the control of oil.

The relationship to Israel i9s never discussed by the media but the Kurds are allied with Israel for obvious reasons.

So, if by diplomacy we decide to let .. say .. Turkey have it s way, President Next will take a huge moral blame.

I assume that McCain, Hillary, and Obama all have thought a lot about this simple issue but there is no way they could discuss it without losing votes.

There are many other similar, "minimal decisions." Another example may be the fate of Kuwait. Ironically Sadam's claim to this toy kingdom does have some merit and strategically could make sense if it resulted in a more stable economy for the Iraqi Sunnis. Imagine, however, hullabaloo if any candidate suggested such a "minor thing."

While I am at it, a VERY minor issue, unless you are Jewish, is that US sponsored constitution is expressly antisemitic, disowning Iraqi Jews (who have been there for about 2500 years) of their property.

and these are the MINOR issues!

MAJOR DECISIONS


The most important of these is the recognition that solving bush's mess will have long time consequences that could, if mishandled, lead anywhere including WWIII.

The most obvious issue here is the future of Israel. That is a real issue because our defense of the Jewish state distorts all other security parameters in the area. Natural allies of the US .. Syria, Iran, and Egypt can not be our close allies until that issue is solved.

BUT Israel in not the largest issue.

The key to this is understanding the Indian Ocean. Control of the Indian Ocean is critical to the flow of oil and therefore to the status of ALL the world powers. China has as much of a stake in the Indian Ocean as we do.

Right now the Indian Ocean Ia an American lake. Achieving the kind of support Darcy's plan talks about will require long term commitments to the future of that Lake. As one small example, recently Pakistan has allowed China to establish a naval base on the Indian Ocean! Iran and India are both in the early stages of an arms war to create fleets that could challenge the US there as well.

The reasons for these nationalistic efforts are obvious as is the lack of US policy. To get the help of major players, like China, India or Iran, we will need publicly or quietly to concede some level of control of this critical waterway.

Moreover, control of this lake is not independent of what happens on its borders. Peace in the Indian ocean can be challenged by surrogate wars in Somalia or Sri Lanka. So far those wars have been minor annoyances but what happens if, say, Iran, decides to support the Tamils in Sri Lanka or the Chinese support one or the other side in Somalia?

Most serious of all is the fate of Saudi Arabia. Every economist I have read says that SA will fall in the not far off future. That is fine by me, but what will replace it? An even more strict Wahhabi regime (Taliban), a Chinese friendly corporate regime, or ???? From the POV of China, some sort of corporate state would be easiest to do business with. That might be OK for us too, although there is the little matter of democracy. OTOH, Iran may not want a corporate state because it, Iran, is committed a model of Islamic democracy. Decisions as to control of the Indian Ocean may well determine the future of Saudi Arabia.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some will say that we need a simple policy .. US should act like a minor power and get out of everyone else's affairs. Well, imagine what would happen in Hillary proposed sharing the Indian Ocean with China?

New Art

Frame That Spam! Data-Crunching Artists Transform the World of Information

By Tim McKeough 02.29.07 | 3:00 PM

Intro Photograph: Gabriela Hasbun
Flash Design: officevsoffice

ABC News: Sneak Peek: Obama: Beach Bound?

After a long week of speeches and campaign stops, is Illinois Sen. Barack Obama headed for the beach this weekend? (Fame Pictures )

I am putting this up to illustrate one of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama campaign .. its restraint. Obama's youth and his body are irrelevant attribute rs that are totally appropriate for the campaign .. but unused/ He is off to the Virgin Islands for a three day vacation .. will the campaign use images like this to create the obvious contrast t his elderly and female opponents? I doubt it but who knows?

This restraint is also illustrated by the recent endorsement of the Obama by Bill Richardson. The Governor explained his choice in terms that praised Obama but also disparaged the nature of the Clinton campaign.

Richardson clearly meant , the Clintonista sense of entitlement trumping everythng else. That asense was summed up, I fear, by this remark of James Carville:“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” How sad.

In the meantime from Politco:

The Clinton myth

By JIM VANDEHEI & MIKE ALLEN | 3/21/08 1:32 PM EST

One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.

Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.

Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.

People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.

As it happens, many people inside Clinton’s campaign live right here on Earth. One important Clinton adviser estimated to Politico privately that she has no more than a 10 percent chance of winning her race against Barack Obama, an appraisal that was echoed by other operatives.

In other words: The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe.

Great Photographs

Iraq - Yahoo! News Photos

Somehow this wat has engnedered few gereat photographs..
.

Purim

Three Kassams shatter Sdot Negev Purim festivities

None hurt as rockets hit open areas; countrywide celebrations clouded by terror warnings; Hamas man dies in blast at Gaza training facility.