One for the true believers
Here’s one from George Monbiot for the Slugger true believers.
Quotes
“How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind’s closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are?
In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves round the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15-year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD.”
It’s at this point that the British fall into the trap of misguided complacency, aka feeling jealous of Americans. However, with all the current talk of a return the Keynesianism, I can’t resist sharing a piece of doggerel from 1946. This was when, with the British ambassador to Washington Lord Halifax, Keynes the world’s most celebrated economist was desperately negotiating the post-war financial bail-out with the hard-nosed Americans – and sometimes riling them with his brilliance. (This isn’t one for angry anglophobes).
“In Washington Lord Halifax,
Once whispered to Lord Keyes:
“It’s true they have the moneybags,
But we have all the brains.”
Dave ,
‘That is why the system failed, and that is what Alan Greenspan was getting at. For more detail on this, see Greenspan’s mentor, Ayn Rand.’
So Greenspan supped at the feet of the Goddess of Greed and self Ayn Rand ?. When you add Rand’s brand of early 20th century voodoo onto Friedman trickle down economics it should come as no suprise to anybody that the USA under the neo conservatives for the better part of the past 30 years has ended up as virtually a basket case economy mired in war and with it’s overseas reputation at an all time low
Perhaps you need to read the American Constitution to wean yourself away from the fundamentalist nutters on the right and it’s ‘intellectual ‘ underpinners Rand , Limbaugh , Friedman , and media shock jocks O’Reilly , Hannity , Coulter etc etc etc etc .
The American Constitution begins with
‘WE the people’ and not with with ‘I the Corporation’ or ‘I the entrepreneur’ or ‘I the mortgage broker’ or ‘I the fundamentalist’ or ‘I the banker’.
Individuals have rights as well as responsibilities . We owe our freedoms to the fact that ‘individuals ‘ have banded together historically to ensure that ‘individual’ despots kings , dictators , popes , tsars etc had their powers reduced or curtailed for the greater good.
Ayn Rand was a naive idealist who somehow believed that man was or could be an entirely ‘rational ‘ animal . The lesson of history is that whereas many may strive for that goal ‘humanity ‘ has an emotional side .
In a world with 7 billion ‘individuals’ the cult of the ‘individual uber alles ‘ is not one that will ever make practical political or economic sense -never mind the fact that it is pseudo philosophical horseshite of the first order !
We Irish may live on an island but we’re not alone
6county prod ,
Never mind the Lord repaying – it’s the voters in his own home State that Senator McCain has to fear at this stage .
‘Barack Obama’s campaign announced Friday that it was going on the air in John McCain’s home state of Arizona for the first time this cycle, as a new CNN poll of polls released this morning finds the Republican nominee leading the Illinois senator there by just 4 percentage points, 49 to 45 percent. Six percent of the state’s voters said they were unsure about their presidential pick.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters the campaign’s positive closing argument spot, ‘Something,’ will hit the airwaves in Arizona. He also said the campaign was going back on the airwaves in Georgia and North Dakota with its negative closing argument spot,
360 Electoral College Votes for Obama with McCain at 180 .
It’s goodbye and good riddance to Senators Stevens , Dole and to many Republican Senators and Congressmen who have not as yet been ‘jailed ‘ for fraud , corruption or sexual malfeasance with minors or female office staff etc .
Greenflag
FLASHBACK
November 2, 2000 Florida tracking poll: ‘Gore leads Bush by 12%’, NY Times
So what do OB and Chavez have in common?
Perish the thought, but it looks like, in the coming Age of Obama, only the worshippers will get front-row seats to history.
6countyprod :
Flashforward it’s 2008 not 2000.
In retro Bush was very lucky to win in 2000 .Gore was too confident . Obama has run a much more professional campaign . If he manages to run the country the same way he’s run his campaign the country should be well on the way to ‘recovery’ by 2012 .
It’s obvious to all bar the blind, deaf and dumb that the Republicans have nothing to offer but a semi bare board of half baked ideas which have not worked for most middle class Americans .
So what’s your prediction for Electoral Colleg votes or would that exercise be just too painful ?
‘So what do OB and Chavez have in common? ‘
More ‘fear mongering ‘nonsense . More important is what has Chavez got in common with all of South America’s political leaders except for Colombia ?
The answer is that since Bush/Cheney and the neo con nutters of the extreme right took control of the USA government in 2000 they have turned every country in South America against the USA in a manner not seen since the 19th century .
IN the Economist worldwide ‘electoral college ‘ Obama is ahead by 9,000 to 230 for McCain . The only coutries giving McCain a small advantage are Iraq , Sudan , Namibia , and Algeria ? The rest of the world is solidly 85% in favour of a change in the USA administration .
Just as well they haven’t got a real vote eh ?
Greenflag:
Here are 10 reasons why Americans should vote for McCain,
and here are 10 reasons why McCain might just win come Nov 4.
PS God help Colombia if Obama starts backing the scumbags of FARC!
Seems like Obama is better than Palin after all!
Greenflag,
You’re wasting your breath. It’s like trying to describe green to a blind man. Roll on Tuesday. Hopefully it’ll be one for the wee man at last.
‘believed humans and dinosaurs lived on earth at the same time.’
Should we judge Ireland by it’s recent leaders?
Yes. Although Ireland doesn’t have a large military and lots of angry people who want to use it to invade countries over faked intelligence reports.
Talking to Dave is like arguing with a drunk. You can’t get through. Only Rush Limbaugh and his contemporaries can.
Projection
Obama 360 Electoral College votes
McCain 180 ECV’s
One of the most amazing election campaigns in USA political history . Not only interesting because of the increased polarisation of American society over the past 8 years but also in the extent to which the incumbent President had to keep his mouth shut during virtually the entire campaign .Cheney finally gave McCain the old knife in the back treatment by endorsing his campaign from Wyoming ? That’s all McCain meeded at this stage .
Thank you Dick was Obama’s response
Comrade Stalin, I enjoyed the dramatic irony of a socialist complaining about ideological indoctrination.
Greenflag, and what does your last post tell you about your thesis that Americans now a support social democratic model as is common in Europe? They are voting against the Republicans as opposed to voting for the Democrats. In short, they are ‘agin’ and not for. That was the angle that Obama used. He didn’t argue for anything: he argued against the status quo, i.e. his mantra was ‘change from…’ and not ‘change to…’ And even as Bush sank in the opinion polls to a record low, ensuring that a Yorkshire terrier could have been proffered by the Democrats and duly elected by the public, Obama can barely scrape a single digit lead over a Republican. Some endorsement, eh? As Bill said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And it is the economy that will undo the tax-and-spend Democrats in one term.
Greenie, no one dies to defend an economy. They fight for fundamental freedoms and the right to self-determination. So, while the economy is important to people, their freedom and fundamental rights are far more important to them. This is another area were Obama will come unstuck as he tries to meddle with the Constitution. Now, as for your remarks about the US Constitution, perhaps you should ask the Americans to read it and to ponder if they should elect a president as its upholder who has stated that he doesn’t respect it, stating that it has “deep flaws” and is an “imperfect document.” He regards it as a “document of negative rights” and believes that it should be a document of positive rights. This is a common agenda among social democrats who want to remove certain political and economic policies from everyday government and inject them into a Constitution, thereby ensuring that certain functions must be performed by the State irrespective of the philosophy of its elected government. For example, the right to own private property stated in the Constitution as a negative right (meaning that the government must not prevent you from owning a house) could be restated as a positive right, imposing an obligation on the government (i.e. taxpayers) to provide you with a house. FDR tried this before in his defeated proposal for a second Bill of Rights, and you can bet your last dollar that Obama (and especially Barney Frank – who has most responsibility for the affordable housing fiasco of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) will be planning along similar lines. This deranged idealism will make it an interesting four years ahead as the mediocre teacher with impeccable liberal left credentials encounters the real world.