Bloodthirsty Liberal

Congrats, again, to Michael Steele on becoming the Chairman of the Republican National Committee:

Members of the Republican National Committee elected their first African-American party chief Friday, choosing former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to chair the organization after six tumultuous rounds of voting.

…

“We’re going to say to friend and foe alike, we want you to be a part of us,” Steele told party members in his victory speech. “And to those of you who will obstruct, get ready to get knocked over.”

And that’s not all he said:

“For so long we’ve allowed the Democrats to define us. We’ve allowed the media to define us,” he said. “And so it’s important for us to be able to establish with clarity what we believe.”

Steele also had a message for President Barack Obama, who stumped for his opponent during his unsuccessful 2006 Senate campaign.

“I would say to the new president, congratulations. It is going to be an honor to spar with him,” Steele said. “And I would follow that up with: How do you like me now?”

I don’t know Steele well enough to know how well he’ll hold up in the ring against President Obama, but at least he’ll be on an even footing. It saddens me to say what is obvious and undeniable: the Republican Party needs a black person to lead the opposition against Obama. Rush Limbaugh may be the best street fighter among the conservatives, but to the liberal intelligentsia of the media he is a nasty brawler (and a good thing, too!).

Let the white snobs look down their noses at Steele, as they surely will. Let them pay the price, as they surely ought to.

Okay, I’m having a few problems with this story now:

The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week conceived all 14 of her children through in vitro fertilization, is not married and has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager, her mother said.

Angela Suleman told The Associated Press she was not supportive when her daughter, Nadya Suleman, decided to have more embryos implanted last year.

“It can’t go on any longer,” she said in a phone interview Friday. “She’s got six children and no husband. I was brought up the traditional way. I firmly believe in marriage. But she didn’t want to get married.”

…

While her daughter recovers, Angela Suleman is taking care of the other six children, ages 2 through 7, at the family home in Whittier, about 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

She said she warned her daughter that when she gets home from the hospital, “I’m going to be gone.”

It’s not the marriage part that bothers me, it’s the lack of family of any kind. As the anti-abortion ad we played here the other day made clear, a child born of a mixed race marriage, where the father disappears and the mother dies, can still grow up to be president.

But it helped to have grandma, however typically white. Here, even grandma ain’t gonna be around.

And one of her six previous kids is autistic.

I still resent the hell out of the invasion of her privacy—more like a seizure and annexation of her privacy—and how we judged her solely on her having the kids, as if she were just another greedy CEO paying herself an obscene bonus.

Have we strayed so far from the biological necessity and destiny of procreation? Are children now a burden instead of a blessing?

To be sure, these fourteen children will be a burden to someone, and no child should have to be. But why were so many so quick to condemn her as public enemy number one—it sure wasn’t about the kids.

You know, Aggie, I’ve been thinking. Why should it be all heartache for George Obama?

Busted for holding a little weed, a little medicinal herb, he’s rousted from his house and hauled off to the can.

Yet his brother, who has described their only meeting as “painful”, has readily admitted to inhaling in his own past (as well as snorting, which George could never afford on one dollar a day), and sits today in the Oval Office of the White House (heated to 78 degrees—”coincidentally” the same temperature as today’s high in Nairobi Kenya, I note suspiciously).

If Billy Carter could make a little money off his brother’s fame with Billy Beer (see below), why shouldn’t George Obama similarly capitalize?

I propose, yet again free of charge:

Each pack would hold twenty reefers packed with the finest Kenyan Gold. Perhaps accessories like roach clips and suchlike could be decorated by the Presidential Seal.

In keeping with the creeping communism of our times, we can cap his profits—say, at five dollars a day, which should be plenty to keep him in tar paper. The rest could go to the Glaucoma Foundation.

He ain’t heavy, Barack. He’s your brother.

I had to let you guys in on this. Someone wrote to The Boston Glob to offer appreciation for the fact that George Bush did prevent subsequent terror attacks, after 9/11. He pointed out that the World Trade Center had been bombed under Clinton, but that the Clinton administration did not respond strongly enough to prevent September 11th.

So this Bozo posts a comment:

We talk about protecting us against terrorist attack but we weren’t protected against weather, bad food, bad water, bad drugs and the collapse of the financial markets that led to the wounding of the global economy. All that makes a terrorist attack almost look good.

I expect Barack Obama to do something about the miserable weather immediately.

- Aggie

Good article here about the craziness

In fact, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria — which tend to reveal more about those who feel them than the men at which they are directed — are opposite sides of the same coin. Both represent the triumph of passion over reason. Both are intolerant of dissent. Those wallowing in Bush hatred and those reveling in Obama euphoria frequently regard those who do not share their passion as contemptible and beyond the reach of civilized discussion. Bush hatred and Obama euphoria typically coexist in the same soul. And it is disproportionately members of the intellectual and political class in whose souls they flourish.

I think that the reason they exist in the same soul is because the individuals have split the world into Good and Bad. Bush Bad, Obama Good. This is a primitive way of coping with the world and is more appropriate to the two year old set than to university professors and journalists.

- Aggie

Michelle follows up on the story of President Obama’s preference for a carbon footprint second in size only to President Al Gore’s.

Oops! Did I say President Gore? Old habits…

Anyway, I want my president focused and clear-headed. Decisions made while he’s sluggish and muddled from the arctic cold of Washington are not even to be thought of.

I’ve done some research, again free of charge for my country, and I suggest we order up a mess o’ these babies:

For the ultimate in nasty weather, you’ll want the ultimate in down coats. The Mountain Hardwear Sub Zero SL Parka covers you in 650-fill down to keep you warm, and is made with Conduit laminate to be water- and windproof. Nutshell Taslan reinforcement is super tough to resist the ravages of pack straps, rock and the rest of the abuse you put your poor, innocent coats through. The Parka compresses down mind-bendingly small into the included stuff sack. The Sub Zero’s down-filled hood gives you super warmth for super cold conditions, and it snaps off easily. Baffle construction keeps the down where it belongs so it doesn’t all shift to one end of the coat.

Baffling? How perfect for this president! And won’t the color nicely set off the powder-blue logo he’s so fond of?

Anyhow, it sounds up to the task of keeping him warm and functional in the harsh conditions of the Oval Office at 72 degrees.

We’ve had some serious discussions about how Obama ran Jimmy Carter’s campaign and how Obama’s foreign policy seems like the Carter years all over again. But I hadn’t realized that there were other similarities

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) — George Obama, the half brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, has been arrested by Kenyan police on a charge of possession of marijuana, police said Saturday.

Inspector Augustine Mutembei, the officer in charge, said Obama was arrested on charges of possession of cannabis, known in Kenya as Bhang, and resisting arrest. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday, Mutembei said.

He is being held at Huruma police post in the capital of Nairobi.

CNN Correspondent David McKenzie talked with George Obama at the jail where he is being held. Speaking from behind bars, Obama denied the allegations.

“They took me from my home,” he said, “I don’t know why they are charging me.”

Do you remember Billy Carter?

The photo is President Carter’s brother, Billy. He was a self-described “red neck”. And he came out with Billy Beer (which was just awful) during the Carter years. George Obama needs to figure out how to capitalize on his brother’s success. I’m not kidding.

This is the wikipedia description of Billy Carter, a fun reminder of the good old days:

Born in Plains, Georgia, Carter attended Emory University in the Atlanta area but did not complete a degree. He served four years in the United States Marine Corps, then returned to Plains to work with his brother in the family business of growing peanuts. In 1955, he married Sybil Spires (born 1938), also of Plains, Georgia. They were the parents of six: Kim, Jana, William “Buddy”, Marle, Mandy and Earl, who was just 12 years old when his father died.

Billy Carter ran for mayor of Plains in 1976, but lost the election.

In 1977, he endorsed Billy Beer capitalizing upon his colorful image as a beer-drinking Southern boy that had developed in the press when his brother ran for President. Carter’s name was occasionally used as a gag answer for a Washington, D.C., trouble-maker on 1970s episodes of The Match Game. Carter was known for his outlandish public behavior. For example, he once urinated on an airport runway in full view of the press and dignitaries.

But there is a darker side to this tale:

In late 1978 and early 1979, Billy Carter visited Libya three times with a contingent from Georgia. He eventually registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government and received a $220,000 loan. This led to a Senate hearing over alleged influence peddling which some in the press dubbed “Billygate.” A Senate sub-committee was called To Investigate Activities of Individuals Representing Interests of Foreign Governments (Billy Carter-Libya Investigation).

After the failure of Billy Beer, Carter sold his house to settle back taxes with the IRS.

That’s interesting because Jimmy Carter is also fascinated with rogue Arab entities, such as Hamas, and with various Arab governments. Perhaps George could get his act together and become a lobbyist?

- Aggie

I don’t know why I bother with this story, really, except for pure enjoyment:

George Obama, the half brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, has been arrested by Kenyan police on a charge of possession of marijuana, police said Saturday.

Inspector Augustine Mutembei, the officer in charge, said Obama was arrested on charges of possession of cannabis, known in Kenya as Bhang, and resisting arrest. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday, Mutembei said.

…

George Obama and the president barely know each other, though they have met before. George Obama was one of the president’s few close relatives who did not go to the inauguration in Washington last week.

In his memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” Barack Obama describes meeting George as a “painful affair.” Barack Obama’s trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known.

McKenzie tracked down George Obama in August 2008 and found him at a small house in Huruma, a Nairobi slum, where he lives with his mother’s extended family. His birth certificate shows he is Barack Obama’s half brother.

His what?

His birth certificate?

How come we know what George Obama’s birth certificate says, but not his brother’s? When one was born in Kenya and the other was born in, ahem, America?

I’m sure once George is cleared of the Bhang rap, he can come to America and stay in Auntie Zeituni’s place in Boston. She’s broken so many laws living in public housing as an illegal immigrant, what’s another violation?

I truly don’t wish the president any more “pain” from his family—and it must have pained him greatly to leave a half-brother in a Nairobi slum. George Obama seems nothing more sinister than an honorable heir to the throne of Shaming Sibling in the White House: Donald Nixon, Billy Carter, Roger Clinton, Hugh Rodham, et al.

But I do have to wonder about the circumstances of the drug bust. George Obama (and his family tree) had to be known to the authorities, and I’m going to make a wild guess that this was not the one and only time he could be found with Bhang on his person (and in his bloodstream).

So why bust him now?

I wonder if President Obama’s time in office won’t be more painful for George than the other way around.

I’m sitting here shaking my head

From the Guardian:

Evidence is emerging of a wave of reprisal attacks and killings inside Gaza that have left dozens dead and more wounded in the wake of Israel’s war.

Among the dead are Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the Israeli military. Others include criminals who were among the 600 prisoners to escape from Gaza City’s main jail when it was bombed as the war began. Their attackers are thought to be their victims’ relatives.

Got that?

During and after the war, there have also been attacks on security officials from Fatah, the bitter rival of Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of the Gaza Strip. One witness told the Guardian how her brother, a Fatah military intelligence officer, was shot three times in the legs in an apparent punishment attack by gunmen from Hamas’s armed wing.

…

Palestinians in human rights organisations are reluctant to speak publicly about what is a sensitive issue, but one respected human rights worker in Gaza said he believed between 40 and 50 people had been killed in reprisal attacks since the start of the war. But there was not yet enough evidence to suggest this was an organised campaign by Hamas, he said.

“We don’t know who’s doing the killing,” the worker said. “Some are individuals, some might be from Hamas. It’s been happening over several days, all across Gaza. It’s not all necessarily Hamas actions against Fatah.” Another human rights worker put the figure at between 25 and 30 documented cases of reprisal.

The Guardian is a left-wing British rag. If they’re owning up to this, it is probably a pretty big problem.

One woman from near Zeitoun, south of Gaza City, described how masked men with ID cards showing they were members of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, shot her brother in the legs. The family had fled the house but returned on 18 January, the first day of the Israeli ceasefire. At 8pm several gunmen appeared at the gate asking for her brother, a 36-year-old Fatah military intelligence officer who had not been working since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007. The men searched the house for weapons, but found none and later left.

Early the next morning they returned. “They started firing in the air,” said the 23-year-old sister, who declined to give her name for fear of further attacks.

“They asked him to put his hands up.They fired one shot into his left knee. He fell to the floor and started screaming and saying: ‘I didn’t do anything.’”

He was then shot in the right leg and again in the left. “They were holding us back and we were watching him bleeding,” she said. The victim is now in a Cairo hospital after two operations on his legs.

She said several of his Fatah colleagues had been targeted: “It’s a kind of revenge on Fatah. They thought they were responsible for what was going on in Gaza.”

Separately, Hamas is believed to have stopped Palestinians reaching an Israeli field hospital on Israel’s side of the border at Erez. “We don’t care about it,” said Hassan Khalaf, Hamas’s deputy health minister. “They are just claiming they care about human beings but they don’t.”

Can’t we all just get along?

- Aggie

We found out it is false

Whoever started that is not helping the conservative cause, if that was the goal.

- Aggie