[Peace-discuss] Bill Blum asks T-Party questions:
E. Wayne Johnson
ewj at pigs.ag
Sat Dec 4 05:45:16 CST 2010
On 12/3/2010 1:32 PM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
> the president is black.
That is Absurd.
Actually:
1 In 5 Americans Believe Obama Is A Cactus
WASHINGTON—According to a poll released Tuesday, nearly 20 percent of
U.S. citizens now believe Barack Obama is a cactus, the most Americans
to identify the president. ...The poll, conducted by the Pew Research
Center, found a sharp rise in the number of Americans who say they
firmly believe Obama was either born a cactus, became a cactus during
his youth, or has questionable links to the /Cactaceae/ family.
"We asked people of varying races, ages, and backgrounds the same
question: 'What is President Barack Obama?'" Pew spokeswoman Jodi Miller
told reporters. "And a fifth of them responded, 'A cactus.'"
According to the poll, Obama has lost favor among many voters who
supported his candidacy in 2008 but have since come to doubt he is a
mammal. While these Americans concede Obama may not specifically be a
cactus, most believe he is a plant of some kind, with 18 percent saying
the president is a ficus, 37 percent believing him to be a grain such as
wheat or millet, and 12 percent convinced he is an old-growth forest in
Northern California.
When asked why they agreed with the statement "President Obama is a
large succulent plant composed of specialized cells designed for water
retention in arid climates," many responded that they "just know,"
claiming the president only acts like a human being for political
purposes and is truly a cactus at heart.
<http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-1-in-5-americans-believe-obama-is-a-cactus,18127/#enlarge>
A number of polled Americans identified the above as a photo of
President Obama.
White House officials have asserted that the nation's 44th president is
a person.
"You can't go a day without hearing how Obama's a radical cactus
sympathizer who wants to sap America of all its drinking water, or how
he was actually born in the Kalahari Desert," said media critic Lynn
Pelmont, referring to cable news outlets that suggest the president has
prickly spines he uses to protect himself from thirsty animals. "For a
man who prides himself on delivering a coherent message, there's an
awful lot of confusion out there about whether he's a Harvard Law
graduate or a leafless flowering shrub."
"He must speak frankly to the American people about his mammalian
background," Pelmont added. "If not, it's only a matter of time before
people start believing those fringe bloggers who claim the president of
the United States is actually an old washing machine."
Some Beltway observers have accused Republicans of tacitly encouraging
the cactus rumor, pointing out that if millions of voters believe Obama
produces buds through spirally arranged areoles situated along his stem,
the GOP has a much better chance of retaking Congress in November.
"If the president says he is a human being, I'll take him at his word,"
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on /Meet the Press/.
"Though I've never heard him complain about being thirsty. Not once.
That could be a coincidence, I suppose, but it's really not my place to
say."
During a Wednesday morning briefing, White House press secretary Robert
Gibbs once again denied that President Obama is a cactus, citing
numerous physiological attributes of the nation's chief executive,
including his ability to walk upright and to manipulate objects with his
opposable thumbs.
"Cacti don't talk," said Gibbs, shaking his head. "They just don't."
President Barack Hussein Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, HI to
parents Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. From the ages of 6 to 10 he
lived with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia, where he attended
Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School. In 1971,
Obama returned to Hawaii, where he was raised primarily by his
grandmother until he left home to attend Occidental College in Los Angeles.
"I don't care what he says or what his people say or what anybody else
says," 48-year-old Kansas resident Jake Nolan told reporters. "The guy's
a cactus, plain and simple. I mean, Christ, look at him."
(the ONION)
> To Libertarians and their defenders:
>
>
> Some questions to ask our quaint little Teaparty friends
>
> The Teaparty folks never tire of calling for "smaller government". How
> sweet. Most other Republicans repeat the same mantra /ad nauseam/ as
> well, as do many liberals (not to be confused with progressives). So
> for all these individuals I have some questions:
>
> * When there's a plane crash the government sends investigators to
> the crash site to try to determine the cause of the accident;
> this is information that can be used to make air travel safer.
> But it's really BIG GOVERNMENT, forcing the airlines to fully
> cooperate, provide all relevant information, secrecy is not
> permitted, and make changes or face severe penalties. Do you
> think the government should stop doing this?
> * Following this year's BP oil spill do you think the government
> was right to bully and threaten the company for an explanation
> and solution for the catastrophe, or should it have been "hands
> off" for the sake of small government?
> * Following a major earthquake there's usually a cry from many
> quarters: Stores should not be raising prices for basic
> necessities like water, generators, batteries, tree-removal
> services, diapers, etc. More grievances soon arise because
> landlords raise rents on vacant apartments after many dwellings
> in the city have been rendered uninhabitable. How dare they do
> that? people wail. Following the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles
> the California Assembly proceeded to make it a crime for
> merchants to increase prices for vital goods and services by
> more than ten percent after a natural disaster.^11
> <http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-11> Following the
> destruction caused by Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, the
> governor and attorney general of Virginia called on the
> legislature to pass the state's first anti-price-gouging law
> after receiving about 100 complaints from residents. North
> Carolina had enacted an anti-gouging law just shortly before.^12
> <http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-12> Does such
> blatant big-government interference in our God-given
> Supply-and-Demand system bother you? Do you think that our
> legislators should simply allow "the magic of the marketplace"
> to do its magic?
> * Do you think that the government should continue waging war
> against what they call "terrorists" abroad, since there's no
> bigger or more expensive big-government action than this?
> * Do you think the government should continue with its electronic
> strip searches and body feel-ups at airports or should we allow
> the risk of bombs being brought on board airplanes? (Or — as an
> alternative to either — do you think the government should cease
> its bombing, invading, occupying, overthrowing, killing and
> torturing around the world so as to put an end to its creating
> anti-American terrorists?)
> * If your bank fails — and hundreds have done so in recent years —
> are you willing to accept the loss of your life's savings? Or
> are you thankful that big, big government steps in, takes over
> the bank, and protects every penny of your savings?
> * Do you think that big government — federal, state or local —
> should stop haranguing the citizenry about the environment:
> recycling, air pollution, water pollution, soil runoff, etc.,
> etc., or that people should simply be allowed to do what is most
> convenient for them, their families, and their businesses?
> * Do you think that manufacturers should have the right to run
> their factories à la a sweatshop in a Bangkok alley 50 years ago
> or that big government should throw its weight around to assure
> modern working conditions, with worker health and safety standards?
> * When a prescription drug starts to kill or harm more and more
> people, who should decide when to pull it off the market: Big
> Government or the drug's manufacturer?
> * Are you glad that food packages list the details of ingredients
> and nutrition? Who do you think is responsible for that?
> * A huge number of Americans would be facing serious hunger if not
> for their food stamps; more than 40 million receive them. Where
> do you think food stamps come from? No, not from Sarah Palin.
> * And where, pray tell, do you think unemployment insurance,
> housing subsidies, and Medicare come from? (There were of
> course, lord help us, the Teaparty signs: "Keep your government
> hands off my Medicare,"^13
> <http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-13> while
> simultaneously ridiculing Obama's push for "socialized
> medicine".) Some of you would probably rather see widespread
> hunger, poverty, homelessness, and illness in America than have
> people dependent upon the BigGovernmentMonster.
> * Do you think that big government is no match for the private
> sector in efficiently getting large and important projects done?
> Big government in the United States has created great dams,
> marvelous national parks, an interstate highway system, the
> peace corps, social security, the National Institutes of Health,
> and the Smithsonian Institution; it's also landed men on the
> moon, wiped out polio, and built up an incredible military
> machine (ignoring for the moment what it's used for), and much more.
> * Do you know that twice in recent years the federal government
> undertook major studies of many thousands of federal jobs to
> determine whether they could be done more efficiently by private
> contractors? On one occasion the federal employees won more than
> 80% of the time; on the other occasion 91%. Both studies took
> place under the Bush administration, which was hoping for
> different results. ^14
> <http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-14>
>
> We have to remind the American people of what they once knew but seem
> to have forgotten: that they don't want BIG government, or SMALL
> government; they don't want MORE government, or LESS government; they
> want government ON THEIR SIDE.
>
> I think the Teapartyers are motivated primarily by two factors: 1)
> they don't have the intellectual competence or ideological
> independence to place the blame for the sick economy where it belongs:
> the recklessness and greed of Wall Street, the banks, and other
> financial corporations; and so they blame the president and his
> "socialist" policies; 2) the president is black.
>
> *Mark Brzezinski, son of Zbigniew, was a post-Cold War Fulbright
> Scholar in Poland: "I asked my students to define democracy. Expecting
> a discussion on individual liberties and authentically elected
> institutions, I was surprised to hear my students respond that to
> them, democracy means a government obligation to maintain a certain
> standard of living and to provide health care, education and housing
> for all. In other words, socialism." *^*15*
> <http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-15>
>
>
> http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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