Clipmarks | ouyangwulong's 'gop' clips

The Jew Problem

Fri, 23 May 2008 06:16:15 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Let's see how many people click on that title!

I hope I have your attention now, because this is important!

Some politically active Jews, although certainly passionate, often have trouble telling friend from foe. The belief among Jews that the Christian Fundamentalist Evangelical community is a friend is a big mistake.

Some worry that Obama is part of the nation of Islam, or Palestinian, or that he won't help Israel. But they think the GOP will.

But what is the Christian Right's agenda in helping Israel? Clearly, right-wing evangelical fundamentalists like Hagee have no tenderness or fondness for Jews.

They believe Israel is simply a part of God's ultimate plan leading to the apocalypse. Although they support the Jews returning to Israel, they also believe it is Biblical prophecy that there will be continuous warfare, so they don't support peace, but an Israel besieged. Many believe this is the prelude to the final destruction of the Jews by a wrathful God.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

But the resistance toward Obama appears to be rooted in something more than factual misperception; even those with an accurate understanding of Obama share the hesitations. In dozens of interviews, South Florida Jews questioned his commitment to Israel — even some who knew he earns high marks from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies the United States government on behalf of Israel.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Senator John McCain on Thursday rejected the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, a televangelist, after a watchdog group released a recording of a sermon in which Hagee said Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God's plan to chase the Jews from Europe and drive them to Palestine.

The latest Hagee remarks to surface may strike at the heart of McCain's efforts to reach a critical group of voters, Jews, some of whom have viewed Obama with suspicion.

Tags: jews, israel, christianity, fundamentalism, hagee, obama, racism

The New Face of Racism: Hilary Clinton

Thu, 15 May 2008 10:31:56 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Hillary Clinton may well be the youngest living Dixiecrat. Basically, her campaign strategy has come down to this:

1. There are lots of Americans who would vote against a person based on the color of his skin. (I bet you can't guess which color they "aren't quite ready for"!)

2. These people are so important to the Democratic Party that we should on no account offend their delicate sensibilities by fielding an, ehm, colored candidate.

3. By virtue of her being white, she has the key character trait that appeals to the DNC base, which is the ability to pander to the much vaunted "Racist Redneck" demographic.

Are her values in line with the Democratic Party? They certainly don't represent me! In fact, I would prefer it if racists didn't vote for the candidate I support. After all, nobody is looking for the David Duke endorsement!

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

Clinton's victory in West Virginia simply gives her more venom to poison the well against Obama. West Virginia is one of the whitest, oldest, poorest, least educated states in the Union, and Clinton will keep playing those demographics against the Illinois senator

While Clinton has, at least temporarily, toned down her rhetoric, she paints herself as the candidate of "hard working Americans, white working class Americans". In a race against a black candidate, that's hardly conciliatory. As half of a $110 million income in recent years, facing a guy who grew up on his (white) mother's food stamps, that's downright disingenuous.

A ride on the subway reveals the rainbow that is New York, so Clinton's label as the candidate of hard-working white people isn't likely to play well in the Big Apple. That ride on the subway is a reminder that many of America's working class voters aren't white.

Tags: clinton, obama, election, democrat, racism, republican, gop, dnc, dixiecrat

The Verdict on Bush's Reganomics: Guilty as Charged

Thu, 15 May 2008 09:28:05 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: There were those who were critical of Bush's economic policies, who said it would lead to disaster. We were dismissed as not understanding economics. We were accused of being anti-business. Well, a few years later, whaddya know...

One of the central tenants of the resurgent Republican Revolution, among the GOP leadership ascendant in the mid-to-late nineties, was the idea that Regan's "trickle-down" economics worked, and that lowering taxes on the rich and encouraging rapacious spending would somehow develop an economy despite nagging social problems in the lower strata.

This "well, I guess I feel rich..." approach was a lie everyone wanted to believe, because they didn't want the party to end.

Now, though, even before Bush's term is over, we see a stunning economic crisis, for which he has no one to blame but himself, and which was clearly created, gift-wrapped, and delivered with flowers by the GOP's bizarre and destructively delusional view on economics.

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

Somewhere along the line, America got the idea that the buck generated from financial services, from manipulating money, from passing it from hand to hand, was equivalent, or even superior to

the same buck made actually making and sustaining something - such as the great brand Sears once was.

Here is the actual core of the current crisis of American overconsumption. The music has stopped, the dance is over, the great credit and money creation machine of the past few years has shut down. As the dust settles, we see that, for all the money, and supposed wealth, created over the past few years, very little of actual value, of real worth remains. As does now Lampert's, as does now America's, and its dream of endless wealth created through little or no actual work, phantasms still dance into and out of our world with the pages of a calendar, and only the very foolish mistake their ever-vertiginous presence with reality

Tags: bush, economy, colapse

The Question of the South

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:51:43 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Now, I would like to disagree with the author (Matt Bai) on two points...

First: He argues that the loss of the South for the Democrats was due to desegregation, which is no doubt party true. But if that's the case, what does he mean when he says Democrats have to run a candidate who "resonates in the south..."

As I see it, the Democrats are already suffering from a retreat in their values. Pandering to isolationist extremists still absorbed in racism and a antebellum culture of violence is not the way to win the country, its a way to lose your credibility.

On the other hand, I think Mr. Bai stereotypes the South as most Northerners have, by presuming that it is and always has been a land of Bible-belt anti-government racists and redneck gun nuts.

The truth is the South is not nearly so monolithic as pundits portray it. Southerners are not as backwards, not as ignorant, and not as conservative as most political analysts think.

The Democrats need to Awaken the Radical So

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Democrats feel as assured of recapturing the presidency as they have at any time since the post-Watergate election of 1976. Now it’s reality-check time. After early contests in friendlier territories, the nomination fight moves this week into the heart of the Old South, where the inspiring story line of a woman dueling with an African-American will collide, at last, with another side of history.

You could offer a lot of reasons why Democrats have held the White House only sporadically over the last four decades, but mathematically speaking, the greatest obstacle has been the South. In signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Lyndon Johnson predicted that he and the Democrats were also signing away the next generation of Southern voters, and he was right

If Democrats want to win those perennial swing states by anything other than the tiniest of margins, then they will probably have to put forth the kind of candidate and argument that will also resonate in much of the South

Tags: south, politics, gop, dnc, election, president, primary, race, racism

On The Difference Between Belief and Politics

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:19:34 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: If someone holds conservative, right wing beliefs, I've got not problem with them. I might even find myself agreeing with them sometimes.

On the other hand, right wing politics are what really get under my skin. And when it comes to Bush, it's pretty much 100% pure politics.

So what's the difference? Well beliefs are ideas - principles you think are right, and that you are willing to stand up for.

Politics is using other people's beliefs to get what you want. Bush doesn't believe in being a "fiscal conservative!" He just talks about that so that right wing voters will support him. He wants to be fiscally conservative on public schools and health care and other areas that don't directly benefit him or his friends, but when it comes to something he wants, belief takes a back seat to unadulterated greed.

Why do conservatives feel they have to defend him? Why deny reality to defend something that is against your values?

Bush has dragged the entire GOP into deluded solipsism

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Bush unlikely to defy Congress on pet projects

Lawmakers, including the House Republican whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri, have cautioned the White House that a furor over earmarks could upend Bush's hopes for cooperation with Congress on other issues, including efforts to revive the economy.

Moreover, Republicans shudder at the possibility that a Democratic president might reject all their earmarks.

A new tally by the White House Office of Management and Budget shows that the 2008 spending bills signed by Bush include more than 11,700 earmarks, totaling $16.9 billion. By the White House count, the number was down 1,754 from 2005, and the amount of money was down $2.1 billion, or 11 percent.

Bush recently mocked earmarks for a prison museum in Kansas and a sailing school in California.

Nearly one-fifth of the earmarks and more than one-third of the money were in the Defense Department appropriations bill.

Tags: bush, fiscal, policy, spending, out of control, crazy, denail, delusion, politics, greed

A Positive Political Process

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:02:02 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Frank Rich, in an op-ed I don't feel like clipping (too glib), declared the GOP Platform to be Dead on Arrival.

I beg to differ. Although McCain had a dark period of pandering, he seems to be back to saying what he thinks, and playing clean. He's the Boy Scout of Electoral Politics, and he's got my respect. (Not something I give out often to candidates.)

But the really interesting thing is that Huckabee, who was always a nice guy, seems to have become more insightful and philosophical as the campaign goes on.

His observations on political process I thought were exactly what America should be. We'll put him on my "provisional respect" list.

Although his last bizarre bit about the Confederate flag will probably cost him the Hootie and the Blowfish vote, I'd bet they were already going to vote for Hillary anyway.

Now if only the losers like Thompson and Giuliani will take a hint: sharpen up, start thinking, or drop out.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In his concession speech, Mr. Huckabee praised Mr. McCain for running “a civil and a good and a decent campaign” and vowed to battle on.

“The reason that I want to encourage you tonight is to remind you that politics — and particularly this year, more than perhaps any other — this is not an event,” he said. “It is a process. And the process is far, far from over.”

Mr. McCain had predicted that he would win the primary here, and, although many polls were close in the last week, he campaigned as if he were the strong front-runner, pressing his twin issues of military strength and fiscal conservatism. He never disparaged or engaged Mr. Huckabee, even in the face of a spate of phone calls and radio advertisements attacking him by independent groups supporting Mr. Huckabee.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Mr. Huckabee also dove into the murky waters of Southern cultural identity politics

when he said that it was not his business whether the state chose to fly the Confederate battle flag over the Capitol.

Tags: america, politics, election, good, gop, republicans, mccain, huckabee, fred thompson, south carolina

The Middle Swings Left this Year

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:28:21 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: I was discussing this with Kmcolo, and this seems to bear out some of my hunch.

It would appear that the Republican Party is polarizing in the primaries, rather than gaining strength as it did in the past. It would appear that only the core party faithfull are turning out for the primaries.

This is especially striking in Michigan, because there was no functional Democratic primary. (Their delegates got suspended) This should bring up independent numbers voting GOP since it was pretty much that or stay home.

Given this, it looks like the independents in Michigan are pretty squarely waiting to vote for the ultimate Democrat nominee.

Romney, Huckabee and Ron Paul are all riding high on a wave of pessimism that drives away normal voters and leaves only extremists.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

More than two-thirds of voters in Michigan's Republican primary described themselves as Republicans, up from 48 percent in the 2000 Republican primary. This gave a clear boost to Romney, who won Republican votes by double-digit margins.

McCain countered with stronger support among independents and Democrats, but they accounted for a far smaller share of the electorate than in 2000. This year, 32 percent of voters here described themselves as independents or Democrats, down from 52 percent in 2000 when McCain defeated George W. Bush.

Tags: romney, huckabee, swing voters, michigan, primary, president, election, republican, gop

Putting Huckabee in Perspective: Understanding Caucuses

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:53:16 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Although various people have come up with various interpretations of the Huckabee (almost all of which reinforce the positions they held to begin with...) they have all overlooked one critical element: This was a caucus primary!

What does this mean?

It means that, a certain number of people who woke up that morning had decided already that they were going to support a republican but they didn't know who. They then went to the caucuses, and talked with their neighbors for an afternoon, and slowly, the candidates with less support were eliminated in favor of those with more. Like an endless series of run-off elections, with your friends and neighbors acting as cheer leaders, it finally comes down to one.

This means that Huckabee had the most zealous and energetic adherents among the voters so conservative that they defacto caucus for the GOP. While most moderates are swinging behind Obama, it seems like Huckabee is simply cashing in on the influence of the fringe in primaries.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

"To the extent that Governor Huckabee succeeds in advancing this new agenda that combines cultural conservatism with an economic and foreign affairs populism," Green said, "it could undermine the existing Christian conservative political leaders and their organizations."

After Iowa, many evangelical political leaders hailed Huckabee's victory as a resurgence. "Not bad for a supposed bunch of demoralized, depressed, disillusioned and disengaged Reaganites," James Dobson of the conservative Christian advocacy group Focus on the Family said in a prepared statement.

"What happened in Iowa was a strong reaction from social conservatives to the idea that the Republican establishment was pushing Rudy Giuliani, who is anathema" because of his support for abortion rights, Perkins said. "What we saw in Iowa was a shootout between the core evangelical base and the GOP establishment

Tags: huckabee, gop, republicans, evangelicals, election, iowa, caucus, primary

Who is the greediest? Communists or Capitalists?

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:16:51 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Although I do not believe that socialism and capitalism necessarily conflict, this article raises a very interesting point. To talk about a slightly different point, I think Communism definitely does make people more greedy and materialistic.

Communism (and to be more specific, I refer specifically to Marxism, and large-country model Communism, namely Stalinism and Maoism) is much more complex than simply being the opposite of capitalism, thus it doesn't offer a true counterpoint to capitalism free of other complicating variables.

But, even if its not perfect, it provides some valuable insight. From my experience studying the Chinese culture and the way it changed in the last 50 years, communism breeds nothing but greed, materialism and elitism. Most alarmingly it creates a sense of entitlement without the sense of responsibility.

It is the freedom of capitalism that saves it. We should be very careful to ensure that our markets are in fact free. Otherwise we are no differen

Clip Source: www.mises.org

Does Capitalism Make Us More Materialistic?

By Ben O'Neill

There was a time when the advocates of socialism argued that it would lead man to material abundance, whereas free-market capitalism would lead only to increasing misery and would ultimately collapse under its own internal stresses.

These days the attack has shifted. Capitalism does not lead us to poverty; it leads us to too much wealth. This makes us "greedy" and "materialistic." It leads us to excessive "consumerism."

Some things of value are alienable goods: they can be transferred to others. So, for example, we can give a gold watch or a pair of shoes to another person. We can teach a person to play the piano or supply them with a cruise on a ship. But some things are inalienable goods: they cannot be transferred to others. We cannot transfer our time, our knowledge, our health, or our physique to another person. They must acquire these things on their own, by their own effort.

Tags: communsim, capitalism, greed, corporations, china, usa, gop, socialism, freedom

Why the GOP Gerrymanders Better

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:26:29 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: It should be an important question: why the GOP plays the political game of controlling our country better than the Democrats.

One reason that occurs to me is elitism. These days the Grand Old Party is heavily entrenched in the milieu of the elite, or as Bush calls them, "his base." When placed in the uppermost echelons of any social body, it is easy to develop a distorted sense of entitlement.

This mentality of elitism and entitlement is inherently resistant to the chaos of democracy and seeks to establish a predictable order in the system. Thus as long as there has been democracy in America, there have been those seeking to diminish it. Elbridge Gerry, for whom gerrymandering is named was a Founding Father who signed the Declaration of Independence.

In the end, the question is not about left and right, or Democrat and Republican. The question is who has critical momentum at this point? The forces of order of the forces of reform?

Clip Source: onlinejournal.com

GOP secretly behind proposal to change California electoral disbursement solely to benefit its 2008 presidential candidate
By Terry Heath

Online Journal Guest Writer

Aug 31, 2007, 02:37

The California Republican Party has surreptitiously filed paperwork with the state Attorney General�s office in Sacramento to amend how the state awards its 55 Electoral College votes in future presidential elections.

The initiative would change the current law allowing the popular voting tally winner taking all of the delegates to apportioning the count to where the party winner from each of the congressional districts gets to choose their own delegate. That individual then actually selects this nation�s chief executive in a move that could have a monumental impact on the 2008 election and beyond if approved by the voters.

Tags: gerreymandering, elitism, gop, republicans, corruption, fraud, democracy

An Articulate Voice for the Conservative Cause: Fred Thompson?

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:08:45 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: You know, I can understand why many people are interested in Fred Thompson, but perhaps this is going a little too far. I mean seriously, is he considered articulate by conservative standards? Sure he's conservative, but articulate?

Vaclav Havel is articulate political voice. Fred Thompson is still in the minor leagues. I mean, don't conservatives have plenty of more articulate voices? Why not start with William F. Buckley Jr. or William Safire, or does anyone still still watch John McLaughlin?

For the sake of all of America, I hope the GOP and conservative voters start raising the bar before they start gushing over another pugnacious actor with few inhibitions.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

"As a candidate, he's got instant credibility. He has very solid conservative credentials," said state Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, who has not endorsed anyone. "He's a pretty articulate voice for the conservative cause. He will be a force in the race right away."

Tags: fred thompson, presidency, gop, articulate

Democracy at work: Unity in Contempt

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:10:43 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Just as Clinton galvanized the GOP into the unified organization that took back congress, and then the white house, Bush now does the same for the left. So it's time for the pendulum to swing the other way...

...and you can't even get off it, even if you get dizzy!

Clip Source: www.nybooks.com

One of the few foreign policy achievements of the Bush administration has been the creation of a near consensus among those who study international affairs, a shared view that stretches, however improbably, from Noam Chomsky to Brent Scowcroft, from the antiwar protesters on the streets of San Francisco to the well-upholstered office of former secretary of state James Baker.

This new consensus holds that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a calamity, that the presidency of George W. Bush has reduced America's standing in the world and made the United States less, not more, secure, leaving its enemies emboldened and its friends alienated.

Tags: democracy, politics, buh, consevatives, liberals, pendulum

Fred Thompson Shakes Up the GOP Primary

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:40:57 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: So, from the conservatives I talk to, here and elsewhere, I get the impression that Fred Thompson would really energize the GOP.

The Republicans aren't running as disciplined of a process as they usually do, so it seems this could shake up a rather sloppy field.

Who do you think stands to lose the most from F. Thompson's candidacy? Who do you think stands to gain the most? (I see a boost for Tommy Thompson, riding a wave of twin Thompson confusion...)

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Stir in G.O.P. as Ex-Senator Moves to Run

WASHINGTON, May 30 — Former Senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee has taken new steps that make it clear that he is likely to run for the White House, potentially shaking up a field of candidates that has failed to strike a chord with the Republican base.

The disclosure of his intensifying activities sent ripples through the party, with the campaigns of two of the main Republican candidates checking with their deputies in Iowa and New Hampshire to monitor any hiring or fund-raising efforts by Mr. Thompson, 64. One campaign held a brief strategy session to review poll results on Mr. Thompson, and found him well-positioned even as an unannounced candidate.

Tags: fred thompson, president, election, primary, republican

Republican quotes KKK founder on House floor

Wed, 09 May 2007 05:54:00 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: And Republicans still wonder why they have difficulty convincing the African-American community they have their best interests at heart.

Clip Source: www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com

Republican quotes KKK founder on House floor

Roll Call reports today that a House Republican delivered a foreign policy speech yesterday in which he quoted Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK.

On Monday, Rep. Ted Poe took to the House floor to discuss foreign policy matters. To make a point, the Texas Republican invoked the words of Civil War Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest: “Git thar fustest with the mostest.”

The quotation got some floor watchers’ attention pretty quickly. Forrest is a controversial figure who was one of the Klan’s first grand wizards.

Most lists of the worst Americans in U.S. history include Nathan Bedford Forrest near the top. That’s what happens when someone creates the KKK to terrorize freed slaves and their allies, after taking up arms against the United States. What on earth would possess a GOP lawmaker to quote Forrest on the House floor?

Post Script: And, just as an aside, the quote Poe used was wrong.

Tags: kkk, hate, bush, conservative, democrat, election, politics, pelosi, republican