Seething on the Third Rock

2008-09-30 When Madmen Reign

By Bob Herbert, The New York Times, September 29, 2008 [1]

I’m not holding my breath, but I would like to see the self-proclaimed conservative, small government, anti-regulation, free-market zealots step up and take responsibility for wrecking the American economy and bringing about the worst financial crisis since the Depression.

2008-09-13 Greenspan Says the U.S. Can't Afford McCain's Tax Plan

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. can't afford $3.3 trillion of tax cuts proposed by Republican presidential nominee John McCain without similar reductions in the federal budget.  Greenspan, a lifelong Republican and longtime friend of McCain, said on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital With Al Hunt'' that ``I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money.''
 

2008-09-10 WSJ Opinion: How to Save Detroit And $50 Billion

or a sum small compared to their revenues but large in relation to their market caps, the Detroit auto makers were all over the two conventions. Their lobbyists had something to sell -- a plea for $50 billion in federal loans. Congress practically owes us this money, Ford, GM and Chrysler argue -- because Congress slammed us with new fuel mileage mandates that will cost us $100 billion to meet.

John McCain caved. The White House is in the process of caving. Barack Obama didn't need to cave. But before rushing to pass the legislation, there's an easy way to save $50 billion or whatever part of these loans wouldn't be paid back: Just repeal the fuel economy rules.

"How to Save Detroit and $50 Billion", By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR, WSJ, Business World, September 10, 2008; Page A13

See all WSJ editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal. 

2008-07-17 A Generational Challenge to Repower America

We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.

--Al Gore, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. July 17, 2008

See the complete video --> here.

Ladies and gentlemen:

There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more – if more should be required – the future of human civilization is at stake.

I don’t remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Distinguished senior business leaders are telling us that this is just the beginning unless we find the courage to make some major changes quickly. 

2008-05-13 Bush says gave up golf in solidarity with Iraq dead

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf," Bush said in an interview with Yahoo and Politico.com.

"I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal," he said.

Bush said his last round of golf was in August 2003 when he was informed that a truck bomb had wrecked the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

"They pulled me off the golf course and I said, it's just not worth it anymore to do," Bush said.

(Writing by JoAnne Allen; editing by Todd Eastham)

2008-05-12 President Apostate?

Barack Obama has emerged as a classic example of charismatic leadership — a figure upon whom others project their own hopes and desires. The resulting emotional intensity adds greatly to the more conventional strengths of the well-organized Obama campaign, and it has certainly sufficed to overcome the formidable initial advantages of Senator Hillary Clinton.

One danger of such charisma, however, is that it can evoke unrealistic hopes of what a candidate could actually accomplish in office regardless of his own personal abilities. Case in point is the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world.

This idea often goes hand in hand with the altogether more plausible argument that Mr. Obama’s election would raise America’s esteem in Africa — indeed, he already arouses much enthusiasm in his father’s native Kenya and to a degree elsewhere on the continent.

But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.

As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

2008-02-05 The World's Rubbish Dump Stretches from Hawaii to Japan

Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent, The Independent, 5 February 2008

A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.  More...

2007-10-26 FEMA Stages a News Conference

The US Federal Emergency Management Administration has apologised for having its employees pose as reporters at a hastily arranged news conference.  More...

2007-09-13 Military Donors Shift a Bit To Democrats

by Katharine Q. Seelye, The Caucus, The New York Times

In the 2002 election cycle, which is the last full period before the war began, members of the military gave 23 percent of their donations to Democrats. So far this year, they have given 40 percent of their donations to Democrats, both for Congress and president.

The top recipient among presidential candidates is Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, who began building his candidacy on his opposition to the war and has received about $27,000 from uniformed service members.

Among Republican candidates, Representative Ron Paul of Texas is the only one who opposes the war in Iraq and he is the top recipient of money from military members. He has received $19,250 so far.  More...

2007-08-22 Columnist Sent to Mental Health Program

I wrote about this guy [Kenneth Eng] before.  [1]  Sad really.  Of course he'd be no one at all without the thoughtlessness of Asianweek.  Thanks guys!

Here is the nut job on "fair and balanced" Fox --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK4fjMhGn-I

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Columnist Sent to Mental Health Program

The Associated Press
Friday, August 10, 2007; 5:52 PM

NEW YORK -- A former columnist and self-described Asian supremacist who applauded the Virginia Tech slayings has been sentenced to a year of mental health treatment for waving a hammer in his neighbor's face and threatening to kill her and her family.

Kenneth Eng, 24, of Bayside, N.Y., pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted assault and harassment charges stemming from the incident last April in his neighbor's yard.

Eng was fired in February from the San Francisco-based weekly newspaper AsianWeek for writing a column titled "Why I Hate Blacks." During a newspaper interview months later, he gloried in the killings of 32 students and faculty members at Virginia.  More...