The return of I

When Barrack Obama won then entered the White House, there were many unable to ignore the way in which he talked. He used references to himself more than was comfortable. It seemed the country had chosen a ego-filled narcissist as POTUS. The "I" counts were high in each of his speeches.

With the recent death of Usama bin Laden, in his statement to the world it seemed Obama returned to the many, many self-references that had put off many people in his first year or so in office. Perhaps it is because he is a narcissist, not unheard of among politicians. But perhaps it is out of a larger arrogance, a self-absorbtion that is found in the worst leaders of history.

Likely, whatever else it is, it is evidence, after only a short respite if any at all, of the president's return to campaign mode. The campaigner-in-chief is back.

Brace yourselves. And if you know anything good about relevant jobs creation and economic revival, hope for a very strong, principled, and equally driven GOP candidate for 2012.

- jR

Bin Laden raid noises described on Twitter - UPI.com

Bin Laden raid noises described on Twitter

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/05/02/Bin-Laden-raid-noises-described-on-Twitter/UPI-61471304345714/ :

 

"Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter :-/," he messaged before the attack began.

Within minutes, he posted, "A huge window-shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S."

Eventually, Athar resent a post from Munzir Naqvi: "I think the helicopter crash in Abbottabad, Pakistan and the President Obama breaking news address are connected."

Shortly thereafter, another Twitter user confirmed the news, the Journal reported.

 

On Monday, the IT consultant wrote, "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it."

 

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The mass media pooped all over the facts on this one, early on. Too bad they weren't watching activity on Twitter, the reports all would not have claimed that: 1. The death happened the week prior to the actual event; 2., happened due to a drone -- or other -- bombing. Again, a week prior.

 

They might have reserved their knee-jerk speculation for more important things, like Trump's shots at Obama's secret college records, Trump's views and character defects, or the next time he takes a shot at the Most Transparent Presidency Ever.

 

 

Morally corrupted? Yeah, that fits. "Choose labels carefully," say Mexico's US ambassabor

Mexico's ambassabor to the US realizes what they are, knows that they are violent and criminal, these drug cartels of his country, but it seems he cannot grasp it in rational terms. He starts by disagreeing with the term "terrorists". What's wrong with his response is where he goes from there.

Choose labels carefully
Re: "Let's call México's Cartels what they are: terrorists," Friday Editorials.
The editorial should be better headed "Let's Call Mexico's cartels what they are: very violent, well-financed transnational criminal organizations."

These transnational criminal organizations, which operate in both our countries, are not terrorist organizations. They are very violent criminal groups that are well-structured and well-financed. They pursue a single goal. They want to maximize their profits and do what most business do: hostile takeovers and pursue mergers and acquisitions. They use violence to protect their business from other competitors as well as from our two governments' efforts to roll them back. There is no political motivation or agenda whatsoever beyond their attempt to defend their illegal business.

Misunderstanding the challenge we face leads to wrong policies and bad policy making. If you label these organizations as terrorist, you will have to start calling drug consumers in the U.S. "financiers of terrorist organizations" and gun dealers "providers of material support to terrorists." Otherwise, you really sound as if you want to have your cake and eat it too. That's why I would underscore that the editorial page should be careful what it advocates for.

Arturo Sarukhan, Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S., Washington, D.C.
(via Dallasnews.com)

And a response at the same paper's site:
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/04/mexico-ambassad.html

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The Economic Asteroid Plan

The federal government failed to sort out a budget again, many months after the supposed due date, which was OCTOBER 2010. Just a little late now that it is April.

To budget or not to budget, that is the problem, it seems. It is way beyond WHEN.

I am already good and tired of the scare tactics by the leftists. They gave the same emotion-based proclamations over ObamaCare. Not surprisingly, these are the same "leaders" who in recents decades have always insisted on adding more and more government, Now they are insisting it will all be paid for with magic pixie dust or something. To the very brink, these folks had also insisted there was nothing wrong with certain federal financial programs, such as the CRA that allowed loans to the unemployed, and Fannie and Freddie, which were the nonsensical housing debt twins by the time 2008's economic fall happened. 

I'd like to see a real reason, not some emotion-charged twaddle that explains why a tightened budget shouldn't happen. Not just some 5% haircut that hurts education and the poor, but broad pay cuts (to put public employees on par with private!), nonessential program slimmings, defense project trimmings, etc. Barring that, how about a good reason -- emotion and threat-free -- why a shutdown should not happen, from leftists. 

Maybe I have it wrong, perhaps it is better to continue pretending that government is not too large and it is paid for, that the majority of citizens and our futures aren't getting a raw deal by the feds, that poor habits and waste are virtually gone from government, that loopy politicians and interest groups are not bent on further betraying the basic concepts of the republic. 

Yeah, it will aaaaall be OK so long as we keep putting off the tough trim-down. The US seems to be no longer the Eagle, instead the 500-lb man who refuses to see his doctor for a checkup. (You gonna eat that?) How very American and exceptional it is to pretend necessary decisions away! 

We can always hope an asteroid hits the planet and that solves the economic problems for us. Party till the planets bursts! 

jR

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Haiti's new president: Unexpected but understandable

Haiti's new president: Unexpected but understandable

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/04/05/haiti.martelly/

 

I have long hoped for something pleasantly short of a dictatorship, and lacking the brutality seen in Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s, with battles in the streets, and images of bodies of victims stacked like sacks of rice to get them off the streets.

 

CNN offered a nice little piece, by Moni Basu, on the newly decided president of Haiti, Michel Martelly, a political outsider (apparently) who was known for his music, not his politics. It is that is short enough to read in a few minutes that offers a picture of a man who might try to see change (while what kind of change is yet to be seen, as guns and money have spoken more effectively than words in Haiti for decades). Even if one is cynical of Martelly's outsider status, he is not a career politician, or a career con man (apparently).

 

I quote the end of that article, but the real quote is bolded, the money quote (literally). If we are going to help the unsophisticated masses improve their lot, trusting them with lots of money is not the way to go about it, but to help them to help themselves. And throwing money at them won't do that, much as throwing money at a child will not teach them to earn it for themselves. Active input, needed supplies and guidance are acts of hope, not money.  

... Haiti will go nowhere, he said, unless the people have a president they can trust, a president who is honest. He was that man, he insisted.

"I've been on the ground with them for 22 years. The people know me. I represent the light at the end of the tunnel."

But the man also had plans.

He said, for instance, that the $12 billion that was pledged by the international community for earthquake assistance should come in the form of infrastructure, not money, because Haitians don't know how to manage money.

"People are fed up here," he said. "They have no food, no education, no health care. What kind of place is it when a young girl will sell her body to buy a phone card?"

So what makes a man who made a name with dance music think he can change things in Haiti?

Martelly flashed his signature smile; the light glinted off his tet kale.

"Well," he said. "Look at what the politicians have done."

 

- jR (aka @AirFarceOne on Twitter)