[Peace-discuss] Who bailed out...

Sun Oct 5 16:44:15 CDT 2008

You should have quoted the whole article, which also considered the  
McCain women. And as an antidote to the "populist" Palin, I would  
suggest a look at what Bill Blum has to say. See
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/aer62.htm

His description is a trifle different, viz:

Palintology
What's the proper term to use to categorize a person who is ...  
blindly patriotic, jingoist, an evangelical Christian creationist,  
gun and hunting enthusiast, National Rifle Association supporter;  
denies the science behind global warming, with a philosophy of "dig,  
dig, dig", and in foreign policy: "bomb", "bomb", "bomb"; untraveled,  
uneducated, ignorant, a devoted book-banner, racist, opposed to equal  
rights for gays, fanatically anti-abortion, anti-feminist, and has a  
17-year-old daughter pregnant and unmarried?

The proper American term is "white trash". Or, as the honorable  
governor of Alaska apparently prefers, "redneck" -- "Rouge cou" is  
what she called a business she registered.

And what do you call the person if on top of all that she declares in  
the year 2008 that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9-11 and  
that "a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it  
has proven to have done in Iraq"? The proper term is "scary", or  
perhaps "scary moron".

And what do you think of this person when you learn that she believes  
that the war in Iraq is a "task that is from God"? I think this is  
actually a form of insanity. There are people in institutions all  
over the world charged with killing others, who insist that they were  
acting under God's command.

And if the above is not enough to make you fall in love with the  
woman, consider that she believes that humans coexisted with  
dinosaurs 6,000 years ago; and have a look at a video of the vice- 
president/president-to-be undergoing an exorcism performed by a  
minister to free her body from "witches".[6] When we consider the  
flak that Barack Obama received because his minister is not in love  
with US foreign policy, imagine what Palin will get for having a  
minister who performs witch exorcism. Nothing.

So, have we forgotten anything about her charming belief system?  
Santa Claus? The Easter Bunny? Oh, she must have been kidnaped by a  
space alien at one time. I hope some day to meet her and have her  
read my palms, my tea leaves, my aura, my horoscope, and my tarot.

--mkb

On Oct 4, 2008, at 11:53 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> The brief mutiny is over. The Democrats, who control Congress, have  
> pushed through the outrageous Paulson swindle, giving an initial  
> $700 billion or so to Wall Street. The Democratic presidential  
> nominee, Barack Obama, lobbied hard for the bankers’ bailout,  
> according to reps and senators receiving his phone calls. Obama  
> voted for the package of course, and so did the vice presidential  
> Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.
>
> With McCain one could at least speculate, as I did here last week,  
> that he might have opposed the bailout in one last desperate throw  
> to rescue his flagging campaign. In the event he disdained that  
> lifebelt,  clicked his heels and saluted the big money, just like  
> Obama and Biden.
>
> I never heard anyone speculate that Obama might, against all the  
> odds, rally to the “No to Bailout” cause. His Yes was pure. He told  
> reporters in Clearwater, Florida last Wednesday that "issues like  
> bankruptcy reform, which are very important to Democrats, is  
> probably something that we shouldn't try to do in this piece of  
> legislation." In addition, he said that his own proposed economic  
> stimulus program "is not necessarily something that we should have  
> in this package."
>
> In the crunch, almost invariably, Obama does the wrong thing and in  
> my opinion he always will. Just count out the moments of surrender:  
> reauthorize the Patriot Act? Aye, from Obama. The “class action  
> fairness act”, sought by Big Business for years. Aye from Obama.  
> Capping credit card interest rates? No-o-o from Obama. FISA? Aye  
> from Obama.  With Robert Rubin at his side, his bailout vote was as  
> sure as that of the harlot of the credit card companies, the six- 
> term senator from Delaware, Joe Biden.
>
> Normally, in these elections, one  tries to peer forward into the  
> future, to alert people to impending villainies, still dim in  
> contour.  Rare is it to have corrupt servility to the Money Power  
> so brazenly displayed by the Democratic ticket merely a month  
> before the ballot. We have just witnessed  a class struggle where,  
> for once,  we had a huge popular coalition stretching all the way  
> across the political spectrum. The coalition was there; the anger  
> was there;  the timing was perfect. “ The great appear great to  
> us,” James Connolly wrote, “only because we are on our knees. Let  
> us rise.” This time it was Paulson who was on his knees. Could not  
> Obama, at this moment of  extraordinary power, have extorted  
> extraordinary concessions from these frantic bankers? He could, but  
> he fled the task.   Could not Bernie Sanders have filibustered the  
> bill? Of course not. That would have taken the Vermont blowhard  
> “independent” far beyond his ritual bluster.
>
> Obama’s designated role in these fraught times is to de-fuse, not  
> inspire; to urge the angered crowd to remain calm, and disperse  
> quietly, not to march upon the citadel, pitchforks upraised.
>
> But somehow Obama is not the focus of the liberals’ fury. From many  
> of the pieces pouring into my inbox, I can scarcely deduce that he  
> was even at the scene of the crime. Sparing Obama, the left and the  
> progressives reserve their venom for the Republican vice  
> presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.
>
> I read more than one piece from these gallant leftists hailing  
> Biden for his fine performance. Biden! This is a man with six full  
> terms of infamy in the US senate. Find a Palestinian kid maimed  
> from a cluster bomb, and you’ll likely read “Greetings from Joe  
> Biden” scrawled on the casing. Find someone crippled from 25 per  
> cent interest charges on credit card debt, and you’ll espy “Best  
> wishes,  Joe Biden” scrawled across the front of the bill. He’s a  
> poster boy for all that is foul about the Democratic Party. Here  
> are some of his lines inn Thursday’s debate:
>
> Biden: Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better  
> friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have never, ever joined  
> this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my  
> passion….Here's what the president said when we said no. He  
> insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others  
> said, and Barack Obama said, "Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll  
> legitimize them." What happened? Hamas won. When we kicked -- along  
> with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack  
> said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you  
> don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it."
>
> Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the  
> government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.  The  
> fact of the matter is, the policy of this administration has been  
> an abject failure.
>
> And speaking of freedom being on the march, the only thing on the  
> march is Iran. It's closer to a bomb. Its proxies now have a major  
> stake in Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip with Hamas.
>
> We will change this policy with thoughtful, real, live diplomacy  
> that understands that you must back Israel in letting them  
> negotiate, support their negotiation, and stand with them, not  
> insist on policies like this administration has.
>
> Ifill: Senator, you have quite a record… of being an  
> interventionist. You argued for intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo,  
> initially in Iraq and Pakistan and now in Darfur, putting U.S.  
> troops on the ground. Boots on the ground. Is this something the  
> American public has the stomach for?
>
> Biden: I think the American public has the stomach for success. My  
> recommendations on Bosnia. I admit I was the first one to recommend  
> it. ….With regard to Iraq, I indicated it would be a mistake to --  
> I gave the president the power. I voted for the power…. I don't  
> have the stomach for genocide when it comes to Darfur. …. We can  
> lead NATO if we're willing to take a hard stand…. When a country  
> engages in genocide, when a country engaging in harboring  
> terrorists and will do nothing about it, at that point that country  
> in my view and Barack's view forfeits their right to say you have  
> no right to intervene at all.
>
> I will place my record and Barack's record against John McCain's or  
> anyone else in terms of fundamental accomplishments. Wrote the  
> crime bill, put 100,000 cops on the street….
>
> Had enough? We’re not talking a novice ,two-year governor of Alaska  
> here, a woman the liberals and pwogs are –in my view somewhat  
> creepily -- thrill to beat up on. We talking a man with a lot of  
> blood on his hands, a man who has played a serious role in  
> incarcerating, hence disenfranchising millions of poor people, many  
> of them black, for drug offenses...
>
> [The entire article is at <http://www.counterpunch.org/>.]
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