Bloodthirsty Liberal

Iranians want peace and prosperity—it’s just this regime (now 33 years old) that stands in the way.

Okay…

In the high-stakes international discussions surrounding Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, Iran’s 80 million people are often forgotten. So I, along with a small team of Israelis, decided to explore the driving forces of Iranian society. There have been signs, on the streets and over the Internet, of a battle raging between the country’s Islamic fundamentalists and the proponents of freedom. The question we set out to explore is where the majority of the people stand.

Soon we were joined by leading experts in the fields of social psychology, cross-cultural research, the Shiite Muslim religion, statistics, and dozens of Farsi-speaking volunteers.

Circumventing Iran’s “electronic curtain”—as President Obama described the Iranian government’s efforts to control contact with the outside world—our research team conducted telephone interviews in late 2011 and earlier this year with nearly a thousand Iranians. The latter constituted an accurate representative sample of Iranian society, including all of Iran’s 31 provinces as well as a representative distribution of all ethnic groups, ages and levels of education. The interviews were conducted anonymously and the country the calls came from was concealed in order to ensure the safety of the respondents.

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An analysis of the Iranian sample showed that alongside conservative values, such as conformity and tradition, Iranian society is characterized by strong support for pro-liberal values such as a belief in the importance of self-direction and benevolence. For example, 94% of the respondents identified with the sentence “freedom to choose what he does is important to him,” and 71% of the respondents identified with the sentence “being tolerant toward all kinds of people and groups is important to him.”

Israel could not be reached for comment.

Actually, it could:

Iran upheld on a death sentence against a man convicted for assassinating a nuclear physicist two year ago, and 13 others may face the same fate after having been found guilty on Sunday for working for the Israeli Mossad spy agency.

The Tehran prosecutor said on Sunday that Majid Jamali Fashi, convicted for assassinating nuclear physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, will be executed as planned, the Tehran Times reported. The death sentence reportedly will be carried out on Tuesday.

We would all love to see Iran transition to representative democracy. It’s just that Israel (recently likened to a “mosquito” by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) doesn’t have all the time in the world to wait.

Our findings demonstrate that Iranian society as a whole is characterized by a pro-liberal value structure that is deeply at odds with the fundamentalist regime. This presents considerable potential for regime change in Iran and for the development of liberal democracy.

We know there are at least a few Iranians who fit the ACLU, Coexist, Dissent-is-the-highest-form-of-patriotism model—or were. I don’t know how many survived the purges after the last round of protests. There’s an old football saying: you are who you are. Your record, your level of play—results matter. After almost two generations of ayatollahs, isn’t Iran what it is? Why should we assume otherwise?

PS: Is “mosquito” an improvement over “black and filthy microbe”? And “cancer cell”? Is this an attempt at reconciliation, or does he still believe Israel should be “wiped off the map”?

I hope it’s not a pre-existing condition!

Two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. Supreme Court should throw out either the individual mandate in the federal health care law or the law in its entirety, signaling the depth of public disagreement with that element of the Affordable Care Act.

This ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that Americans oppose the law overall by 52-41 percent. And 67 percent believe the high court should either ditch the law or at least the portion that requires nearly all Americans to have coverage.

The high court opens hearings on the law’s constitutionality a week from today.

Rasmussen’s polling reinforces this view:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 56% at least somewhat favor repeal of the health care law, including 46% who Strongly Favor it. Thirty-nine percent (39%) oppose repeal, with 29% who are Strongly Opposed.

I’m not aware that the Supremes take public opinion into account, but it doesn’t hurt. Anyway, if Obama thought the law would get more popular as people found out what was in it (in Nancy Pelosi’s felicitous phrase), he’s about to urp up that leek and yam smoothie that Michelle prepared for his breakfast this morning.

Fill ‘er up!

A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling the economy — with a record number who “disapprove strongly” — amid soaring gas prices and an uncertain fiscal future, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey out Monday found.
The poll found that 50 percent of those surveyed strongly disapprove of Obama’s economic performance — the highest in the poll’s history. A total of 59 percent gave the president negative marks on the economy.

With rising gas prices hitting Americans at the pump, 65 percent said they found Obama’s handling of the issue unsatisfactory. Of that number, 52 percent were said to “disapprove strongly” and only 14 percent “approve strongly” of Obama’s performance on gas prices.

Maybe if he cleaned the windshield, we wouldn’t resent the prices so much.

Let me be clear, pump. I do think at some point you’ve
made enough money per gallon.

Remember his energy policy!

Seriously, dude. What’s so funny?

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.

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For the third consecutive day, Mitt Romney leads President Obama by five points in a hypothetical 2012 matchup. It is still, however, too early to tell if these results reflect a lasting change in the race or are merely statistical noise. Today’s numbers show Romney at 48%, Obama at 42%. That matches the largest lead Romney has ever enjoyed over the president.

Romney’s support among Republican voters has moved up to 83%, just about matching the president’s 84% support among Democrats. However, only six percent (6%) of GOP voters would vote for Obama if Romney is the nominee. Twice as many Democrats (12%) would cross party lines to vote for Romney. The former governor of Massachusetts also has an eight-point advantage among unaffiliated voters.

Consider this: Romney has been the default leader among Republican candidates since 2008—yet he still can’t close the deal! Even so, he’s still kicking Obama’s a** (inshallah)!!!

That’s okay, Pals. Not everyone can be a winner:

The large majority of Americans continue to view Israel favorably (71%), while far fewer say they view the Palestinian Authority (19%) or Iran (10%) very or mostly favorably.

These data are from Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey, conducted each February since 2001. The Feb. 2-5, 2012, survey asked Americans to rate a list of more than 20 countries. Iran ranked at the very bottom, the Palestinian Authority was several spots higher up, and Israel was much closer to the top of the list.

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The majority of Republicans 80%, independents 71%, and Democrats 65% view Israel favorably, though Republicans give Israel its most positive ratings. All three groups are much less likely to view the Palestinian Authority (Republicans 15%, independents 22%, and Democrats 22%) or Iran (Republicans 6% , independents 9%, and Democrats 12%) favorably.

Look at the bright side. The Arabs in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria can kill, maim, injure, stone, riot, burn, slander, slur—and incite more of same—and they still have a solid backing of one out of five Americans. I’d say that’s pretty good PR. Iran does pretty much all of the above, and stones women, hangs gays, and imprisons and tortures its internal political opposition—and they still win the hearts and minds of every tenth American.

Keep up the good work!

Obama?

Score!!! You guess it! He’s lower than Jimmah…

President Obama’s slow ride down Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.

Since March, Obama’s job approval rating has hovered above Carter’s, considered among the 20th century’s worst presidents, but today Obama’s punctured Carter’s dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama’s job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter’s 51 percent.

Back in 1979, Carter was far below Obama until the Iran hostage crisis, eerily being duplicated in Tehran today with Iranian protesters storming the British embassy. The early days of the crisis helped Carter’s ratings, though his failure to win the release of captured Americans, coupled with a bad economy, led to his defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980.

According to Gallup, here are the job approval numbers for other presidents at this stage of their terms, a year before the re-election campaign:

– Harry S. Truman: 54 percent.

– Dwight Eisenhower: 78 percent.

– Lyndon B. Johnson: 44 percent.

– Richard M. Nixon: 50 percent.

– Ronald Reagan: 54 percent.

– George H.W. Bush: 52 percent.

– Bill Clinton: 51 percent.

– George W. Bush: 55 percent.

What’s more, Gallup finds that Obama’s overall job approval rating so far has averaged 49 percent. Only three former presidents have had a worse average rating at this stage: Carter, Ford, and Harry S. Truman. Only Truman won re-election in an anti-Congress campaign that Obama’s team is using as a model.

The Iranian problems are eerily duplicated, eh? I don’t think so. I think that appeasement invites aggressive behavior. Both Carter and Obama are wimps.

- Aggie

He was surging, riding a wave of relative popularity, but now he’s wiped out:

We’ll give him credit. It only took two-plus years to do it, but the Obama Recovery may finally have stopped hemorrhaging jobs:

Fewer Americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits last week.

About 388,000 people filed for initial unemployment benefits in the week ended Nov. 12, the Labor Department said Thursday. The number of claims fell 5,000 from the revised 393,000 in the prior week.

From week to week, the number of initial claims tends to be a choppy number, so economists often look at a four-week moving average to smooth out volatility. At 396,750 last week, the four-week moving average is now hovering at its lowest level since April, a sign many economists say shows slight improvement in the job market.

NB: the numbers are always revised, always upward, but the trend is clear. At this rate, the unemployment rate will drop below 9% before Halley’s Comet returns.

You know what we’re going to say to the Democrats in about a year? Don’t let the door hit you, ass, on the way out:

The number of Republicans increased by half a percentage point in October, while the number of Democrats decreased by a similar amount.

During the month of October, 34.3% of Americans considered themselves to be Republicans, up from 33.9% in September. The number of Democrats fell to 33.1% from 33.7% the month before.

Of course, that means the number of so-called Independents is about a third, too. But Obama is trailing among them, too.

Or did the designer of the poll have an agenda?

It comes from the NY Times, so I am suspicious, but on the other hand, the American public overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama.

With Election Day just over a year away, a deep sense of economic anxiety and doubt about the future hangs over the nation, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, with Americans’ distrust of government at its highest level ever.

The combustible climate helps explain the volatility of the presidential race and has provided an opening for protest movements like Occupy Wall Street, to highlight grievances about banks, income inequality and a sense that the poor and middle class have been disenfranchised.

Almost half of the public thinks the sentiment at the root of the Occupy movement generally reflects the views of most Americans.

With nearly all Americans remaining fearful that the economy is stagnating or deteriorating further, two-thirds of the public said that wealth should be distributed more evenly in the country. Seven in 10 Americans think the policies of Congressional Republicans favor the rich. Two-thirds object to tax cuts for corporations and a similar number prefer increasing income taxes on millionaires.

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released a new study concluding that income distribution had become much more uneven in the last three decades, a report that could figure prominently in the battle over how to revive the economy and rein in the federal debt.

The poll findings underscore a dissatisfaction and restlessness heading into the election season that has been highlighted through competing voices from the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements, a broad anti-Washington sentiment and the crosscurrents inside both parties about the best way forward.

Not only do 89 percent of Americans say they distrust government to do the right thing, but 74 percent say the country is on the wrong track and 84 percent disapprove of Congress — warnings for Democrats and Republicans alike.

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The approval rating for Mr. Obama, 46 percent, appears to be elevated by positions he has taken on foreign affairs. Sixty percent of those questioned said they approve of his handling of Iraq, a question added to the poll after his announcement last Friday that American troops would come home by the end of the year.

But the president, whose disapproval rating is also 46 percent, also faces mixed signals from the public about his latest job-creation proposals. While the poll found substantial support for the plan’s individual components, more than half of the public say he lacks a clear plan for creating jobs, despite his extensive travels around the country over the last six weeks selling his proposals.

With the nation’s unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, income inequality remains a palpable issue for Americans. Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats, two-thirds of independents and just over one-third of all Republicans say that the distribution of wealth in the country should be more equitable, even as a majority of Republicans said they think it is fair.

“I don’t want to blanket the whole government that way, but it’s getting scary,” said Jo Waters, 87, a Democrat and a retired hospital administrator from Pleasanton, Calif., speaking in a follow-up telephone interview. “Everything is for the wealthy. This used to be a lovely country, but everything is sliding.”
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Only about a quarter of the public said that lowering taxes on large corporations or repealing the entire national health care law was a good idea. But half of the public favors reducing or repealing regulations on businesses in the United States.

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A remarkable sense of pessimism and skepticism was apparent in question after question in the survey, which found that Congressional approval has reached a new low at 9 percent. The disapproval toward Congress has risen 22 percentage points since the beginning of the year when Republicans took control of the House.
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In February, a CBS News poll found that 27 percent of the public said the views of the Tea Party movement reflected the sentiment of most Americans. In the current poll, 46 percent of the public said the same of the Occupy Wall Street movement. “They do reflect the discontent of most Americans,” said Sheila Shriver, 69, a retired special education teacher and independent voter from Columbus, Ohio. “People are unhappy with the way the country seems to be moving, especially when it comes to lack of jobs. Washington hasn’t even been concerned about that.”

Obama will win reelection by dividing us further. But here’s the rub, guys. He couldn’t do that if the American public bothered to be informed. We are too lazy to care.

- Aggie

Such as it is:

Obama and Hillary did everything but cut off one of Qaddafi’s ears and stick his head on a pike. And they get a two-point bounce from yesterday.

I have joked that Obama would need to bite the head off a rabid chicken to match his rampant bloodletting. But really what he needs is more notorious Muslims to kill. I’m sure the Muslims will oblige.

Eat lead, you Mohameddan camel[bleeper]. Obambo.

Here’s hoping he wipes out like that ski-jumper in the opening to the old Wide World of Sports TV program:

President Barack Obama’s 11th quarter in office was the worst of his administration, based on his quarterly average job approval ratings. His 41% approval average is down six percentage points from his 10th quarter in office, and is nearly four points below his previous low of 45% during his seventh quarter.

And what’s he been doing the last quarter but rousing the rabble and waging class war? Keep it up, Mr. President, and why not borrow more from your mentor, Saul Alinsky, and hold a fart-in (aka a “flatulent blitzkrieg”)? I think the America people would respond really well to Jay Carney and Hillary Clinton passing gas in unison.

Naturally, I’m reminded of a limerick:

There was a young fellow from Sparta
A really magnificent farter
On the strength of one bean
He’d fart God Save the Queen
And Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Or, if you prefer:

There was a young man from Sparta,
Who was an incredible farter.
He could boom from his ass
Bach’s B Minor Mass,
And Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

[Here BTL collapses in a paroxysm of infantile laughter.]

Hey, President Obama! You just offed Moammar Qaddafi after 40 years of brutal rule, and single-handedly ended the Iraq War. What are you going to do?

I’m going to Disney World!

Makes sense. With those ears, you could pass for Dumbo. Actually, Obama might do well in Disney World. They believe in talking mice, dancing hippos, flying elephants, and ducks with nephews down there. The America Jobbed Act might just fool ‘em.

For those who don’t get the reference: