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Posts Tagged 'Stephanopoulos'
'One of the prettiest sounds on earth': A Quarter Of Americans Now Think Obama Is A Muslim
Why do nearly one out of every four Americans now believe that Barry Hussein is a Muslim?
More Americans say Obama is Muslim
By Olivier Knox (AFP) – 13 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Roughly one in five Americans wrongly says President Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to two new US opinion polls out Thursday amid a furor over a planned mosque near New York's "Ground Zero."
And about 30 percent of Americans say followers of Islam should be barred from running for president or serving on the US Supreme Court, according to one of the surveys, published in Time magazine and available on Time.com.
The Time poll found 24 percent of respondents said Obama — a Christian church-goer who has repeatedly spoken out about his faith — is a Muslim, while 18 percent said the same in a study from the non-partisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
On top of the Americans who believe Obama is Muslim – including a hefty percentage of Democrats, for what it's worth – is the fact that more than half of Democrats, and even more than half of African Americans, don't believe that Obama is a Christian. And less than half of all Americans think Obama is a Christian.
Two years into Obama's presidency, the American people don't know who or what the hell has his feet on the desk in the Oval Office. Kind of strange coming from a man who promised unparalleled transparency.
So the question that matters is why Americans believe that Obama is not a Christian, but is in fact a Muslim.
Well, at least partly because OBAMA once actually said he was a Muslim:
Let's not play games. What I was suggesting — you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come–
STEPHANOPOULOS: Christian faith.
OBAMA: — my Christian faith. Well, what I'm saying is that he hasn't suggested–
We all know about Freudian slips. All I know is that I have never been so confused about my Christianity that I had to be corrected as to which religion I sincerely and passionately held.
But that doesn't explain why MORE Americans now believe Obama is a Muslim than at any time in the past. You know what does? The fact that the American people have had time to see Obama as he really is in his actual policies, rather than as a preening pretender saying whatever he needs to say.
Maybe Americans have finally digested the New York Times article that came out over three years ago:
Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it'll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset."
And what was it that Obama recited, and called "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth"?
"Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet… "
Now, you see, as a genuine Christian, I DON'T happen to find that chant very pretty. Because Allah is NOT supreme – even if you say it four times. And I particularly find that "there is no god but Allah" part to be anything but ugly.
Because, unlike Obama, I actually AM a Christian, and take no artistic pleasure in claims which specifically deny Jesus Christ's deity.
In fact, I believe that I would refuse to recite those words even with a gun pointed at my head. Much less admire their beauty.
It's remarkably sad that Barack Obama would find some of the most hateful blasphemy ever uttered to be "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth."
Maybe Americans believe Obama is a Muslim because they took the advice of their president and started giving Muslims' beliefs more credit:
And while Obama may not identify as a Muslim, that's not how the Arab and Muslim Streets see it. In Arab culture and under Islamic law, if your father is a Muslim, so are you. And once a Muslim, always a Muslim. You cannot go back. In Islamic eyes, Obama is certainly a Muslim. He may think he's a Christian, but they do not.
I mean, why is Obama so intolerant to so flagrantly deny the sincerely-held belief of Muslims?
And, given that converting to Christianity would make Obama an apostate subject to death under islam, Obama being a Christian would be the worst possible thing in terms of our relationship with Islam. Why do we want a Muslim apostate for a president?
Maybe it's because Obama – who routinely cites the "Holy Koran" as authoritative – mocks the Bible which he doesn't bother to refer to as "holy":
Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount – a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our Bibles. Folks haven't been reading their Bibles.
For the record, I dealt with Obama's profoundly un-Christian argument in another article. Like everything else Obama says, it offers a candy-coating of truth over a big chewy mass of lies.
And a lot of Americans realize that no true Christian would think or argue that way.
Obama doesn't believe the Bible is authoritative. It's just the words of a bunch of moldy old long-dead men who weren't even particularly wise. It's a book filled with errors and inaccuracies. Unlike the "holy Koran," which Obama has repeatedly cited as being incredibly relevant to our times.
Maybe Americans realize that a guy who pisses on the Bible and yet seems to revere the Koran is a hell of a lot more of a Muslim than he ever will be a Christian.
Maybe Americans need to start hearing Obama start pissing on the Koran the way he's pissed on the – dare I say it – HOLY Bible.
Maybe it's because Obama tried to ban Christ from Christmas, but celebrates Ramadan. Why is that?
Maybe it's because of the way Barack Obama has repeatedly attacked Christians, calling them racist bitter clingers desperately hanging on to their implements of violence:
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Obama said:
"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked," presidential hopeful Obama said. "Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us."
Those are incredibly harsh words coming from the most polarizing and divisive president in American history. If Obama actually bothered to give the Bible any real credit, he'd think about Jesus' words about taking out the log in his own eye before attacking someone else for the speck in theirs.
Barack Obama has only managed to unite everyone once in his entire embarrassing career, during one of his myriad greed-sicking fundraising events in Los Angeles:
A two-mile drive on the Westside took 45 minutes. Frustrated drivers vented on the Los Angeles Times' website, among others. No matter their politics, Los Angeles residents were united.
"It was a beautiful thing," said Brentwood resident Myles Berkowitz, commiserating with his neighbors on Montana Avenue. "Young, old, black, white — everyone was pissed off."
Maybe the American people find it bizarre that evangelical Christians are much more the enemy to Barack Obama than the terrorists who have actively murdered Americans. Maybe Americans find it weird that Obama believes that evangelical Christians are more dangerous than terrorism (a label he banned until political pressure forced him to put the word back into use).
Maybe it's because most Americans can't understand why Obama pushed for the construction of the Ground Zero mosque but didn't bother to assist the Christian church that was destroyed in the 9/11 attack and has never been allowed to rebuild.
Maybe it's because of the weak, apologizing, appeasing stupidity toward Islam Obama has displayed again and again and again in his apology tour, in his asinine Gitmo policy, and other atrocities of moral reasoning.
Getting back to the mainstream media characterization of Obama as a "Christian church-goer." Really?
From ABC News:
If church attendance is one measure of a man's faith, then President Obama may appear to have lost some of his. The first family, once regular churchgoers, have publicly attended services in Washington just three times in the past year, by ABC News' count, even bypassing the pews on Christmas Day.
By the most recent count I could find, Obama has now gone a total of five times. Out of 83 weeks.
I wonder if my boss would call me a "work-goer" if I strolled into the office once every three weeks and change or so.
It's a shame we have a media that just will not simply tell the truth.
I've also got to laugh at the fact that 24% became "roughly one in five" as though 24% is closer to 20% than it is to 25%.
So maybe it would help Obama if he went to church. And I mean a decent Christian church that disavows radical black liberation theology Marxism, too.
Pope Benedict correctly labeled liberation theology as a heresy of Catholicism, and said of Obama's version of "Christianity":
"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic." Pope Benedict XVI
And the Pope – who understands something about Christianity – got it right: "Demonic" is the right word to describe Obama's Marxist apostate Muslim Christian heresy.
Because maybe the American people can't see "Christianity" in Barack Obama's Marxist collective (as in "collectivist") view of salvation that is nowhere found in the Bible Obama has trivialized.
So unlike the mainstream media – which has just become psychologically unraveled over this poll – I understand why so many people think Obama is a Muslim. And it is frankly incredible to me that so many supposedly smart people in the media don't get it.
For the record, I am personally much more worried that Barack Obama worships himself than I am that he secretly worships Allah.
Tags:9/11 attack, Alabama, Allah is Supreme, always a Muslim, antipathy to people, apostate, Arabic, Bible, but demonic, call to prayer, Christian, Christian faith, Christmas, church, collective salvation, Democrats, divide us, divisive, drive us apart, Dueteronomy, everyone was pissed off, fundraising, Gitmo, Ground Zero, Holy, Leviticus, liberation theology, Marxism, Marxist, mosque, Muslim, my Muslim faith, not divine, Obama is a Muslim, one of the prettiest sounds on Earth, Pew, polarizing, Pope Benedict, Ramadan, shellfish, slavery is OK, Stephanopoulos, stoning, terrorism, they cling to guns or religion, they get bitter, time
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Politics, religion, Religion and Culture | 5 Comments »
We Can't Just Ignore It: Democrat Bill WILL Ration Your Health Care
Mammograms – or the lack of them – are all the buzz right now.
They are serving as warning shots of the massive health care rationing to come if the Democrat health plan becomes law.
The former head of the National Institute of Health says that women should very forcefully ignore the recommendations of the Obama administration's U.S. Preventative Services Task Force:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) — The former head of the U.S. National Institutes of Health says American women should ignore the mammogram recommendations of a government breast cancer panel.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," former NIH chief Dr. Bernadine Healy, now health editor for the magazine U.S. News & World Report, said she disagreed with the assessment of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a 16-member panel assembled by Department of Health and Human Services. The group this month recommended women under 50 forgo routine breast cancer tests and instead get mammograms individually in consultation with their doctors.
Asked if women should ignore the panel, Healy said, "Oh, I'm saying very powerfully ignore them, because unequivocally — and they agreed with this — this will increase the number of women dying of breast cancer."
But as it turns out, neither women nor anyone else can ignore these recommendations.
Rationing via "death panel" is coming home to roost, to paraphrase Jeremiah Wright.
Sunday morning, on ABC's "This Week," with George Stephanopoulos, we saw how a fairly harmless sounding paragraph in a bill can have massive consequences on real people.
George Stephanaopoulos and Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn – when they were actually get a word in edgewise over Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's constant grandstanding – underscored that the country will find itself facing rationed health care:
BLACKBURN: And, George, this is exactly how it happens. If you go to page 1,296 of the House bill, the engrossed copy, and you began to read in title three of that bill, on preventive and wellness services, and you get down to section 2301, this is what happens. In section 3131 of that bill, it changes the Preventive Services Task Force to the Clinical Preventive Services Task Force.
Then, you go back and you see that that task force on preventive clinical services is tasked with rating A, B, C, D, or I all preventive services. Then you go back into section 222 of the bill…
(CROSSTALK)
BLACKBURN: Yes, I have read this bill. And it indicates what would be paid or covered. And this is where the actual link comes, and I'll read it for you. In section 2301, it says, "All recommendations of the Preventive Services Task Force" — that's the group that did the mammograms — "and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, as in existence on the day before the date of the enactment of this act, shall be considered to be recommendations of the Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services."
STEPHANOPOULOS: So the guidelines — the point is that the guidelines then…
BLACKBURN: They become the law.
STEPHANOPOULOS: … would — would become…
BLACKBURN: They become the law, the mandate.
STEPHANOPOULOS: … would become controlling.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: No, they would not be.
BLACKBURN: Yes, they do.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: And what's unfortunate is that the Republicans, and Ms. Blackburn, have for the first time politicized breast cancer.
BLACKBURN: That is incorrect.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: That is — no, it is not. And I'm a breast cancer…
BLACKBURN: No, it is incorrect.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: As you know, as a breast cancer survivor, Marsha…
BLACKBURN: That is incorrect. It's in the bill, Debbie.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Excuse me.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let her finish her point.
BLACKBURN: I have a great respect — yes.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: As a breast cancer survivor, I came out against these — these recommendations. Every major cancer organization has come out against these recommendations. The task force language in that bill actually makes sure that prevention — preventive services like mammograms and colonoscopies and other cancer screenings would be free. The task force recommendations — the language in the bill…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, Debbie, let me — let me clarify this…
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: … that even more women would get access to…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Excuse me for a second. That — that is true. But let me clarify a little bit, because under the — the bill — and we have — we have the language, as well. It says that a group health plan and health insurance issuer offering the group (ph) shall provide coverage, but only under — if the Preventive Services Task Force rates it as an A or B.
BLACKBURN: That's right.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And, actually, under the — under the task force, they said that these mammograms for women 40 to 50 is rated C. So they actually wouldn't be covered. So you have a great expansion for a broad part of the population, but actually, these guidelines would be controlling for ages 40 or 50.
With all due respects to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's inability to face reality, ABC News' Chief Washington Correspondent and former Clinton administration Communications Director George Stephanopoulos and Rep. Marsha Blackburn are right: under this bill, when a government panel recommends that care be rationed, that care gets rationed.
And you'd better face up to that reality.
And if government rationing isn't bad enough, there is also the fact that this takeover of the private health care system will also result in higher premiums, according to the CBO. You will pay more and get less.
You'd better face up to that reality, too.
You'd also better face up to the reality that once this bill gets online, it will cost at least $2.5 trillion every ten years – and very likely ten times that figure if history is any guide.
Democrats argue that we should pass this bill to "get something done," and then come back and fix it later. But this bill is beyond dreadful. The Dean of the Harvard School of Medicine gave it a flunking grade, and The Wall Street Journal called it "The Worst Bill Ever." The Democrats' plan is beyond bad; it is evil. We can surely start with something better than this.
This bill WILL lead to a government takeover via a public option (whether it is present in the bill or presented as a 'trigger' to happen later), and it will CERTAINLY lead to rationed care along with a shortage of doctors to provide medical services.
It is human nature to avoid dealing with unpleasant realities. And the Democrats' attempt to take over health care is the epitome of an unpleasant reality. If it passes, it will be too late; and voting Democrats out of office in retaliation will be way too little, way too late. The American people must either rise up and scream this monstrosity down, or it will very likely become the law of the land.
Tags:$2.5 trillion, can't ignore, CBO, Clinical Preventative Services Task Force, colonoscopies, controlling, Healy, higher premiusm, mammograms, mandate, Marsha Blackburn, November 22, page 1296, preventative, Preventative Services Task Force, rationed care, rationing, recommendation, recommendations, section 2301, shall be, Stephanopoulos, This Week, worst bill ever
Posted in Conservative Issues, Democrats, health care, Politics | 4 Comments »
Barack Obama's Ties With ACORN Go Back 20 Years
You can learn all about the community organization ACORN via BigGovernment.com:
Baltimore: Exclusive Story | Full Audio (MP3) | Full Transcript
DC: Exclusive Story | Full Audio (MP3) | Full Transcript
New York: Exclusive Story | Full Transcript
San Bernadino: Exclusive Story | Full Transcript
San Diego: Exclusive Story
On ABC's "This Week" George Stephanopoulos was the only one of the five interviewers who bothered to bring up the massive ACORN scandal in which a pair of kids posing as a pimp and a prostitute showed the full degree of massive corruption and total depravity of a liberal/socialist organization that has received tens of millions of federal dollars and stood to qualify for BILLIONS under Obama's stimulus. In at least five cities, ACORN employees were willing to help the pimp and prostitute fraudulently file income taxes so they could purchase a home which they planned to use as a brothel with more than a dozen 13-15 year old illegal immigrant girls.
If that isn't loathsome enough, we are also learning that ACORN has received federal funding to give sweetheart "low-interest" or "no-down-payment" home mortgage deals to illegal immigrants.
Here's the Commander-in-Chief becoming the Weasel-in-Chief:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you're – have some of your allies made it easier for — handed your opponents some ammunition, like ACORN, for example…
OBAMA: Well, look, the — you know, I think that — are there folks in the Democratic camp or on the left who haven't — haven't always operated ways that I'd appreciate?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Congress has just cut off…
OBAMA: Is — is…
STEPHANOPOULOS: …all funding for ACORN.
OBAMA: It's…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you for that?
OBAMA: Is that true on the other side, as well?
Of course that's true.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?
OBAMA: You know, if — frankly, it's not really something I've followed closely. I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off.
OBAMA: You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're not committing to — to cut off the federal funding?
OBAMA: George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to.
As Fund points out in his story, "ACORN Who?" "Mr. Obama took great pains to act as if he barely knew about Acorn."
That doesn't seem to be ACORN's story regarding Obama. They worked hard for Obama. They helped Obama. They say:
"Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office. Thus, it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for State Senate and then his failed bid for U.S. Congress in 1996. By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends."
John Fund has the story out on how Obama's ties with ACORN go back over twenty years.
We find that:
– In 1991, he took time off from his law firm to run a voter-registration drive for Project Vote, an Acorn partner that was soon fully absorbed under the Acorn umbrella. The drive registered 135,000 voters and was considered a major factor in the upset victory of Democrat Carol Moseley Braun over incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary.
– He became a top trainer at Acorn's Chicago conferences.
– In 1995, he became Acorn's attorney, participating in a landmark case to force the state of Illinois to implement the federal Motor Voter Law. That law's loose voter registration requirements would later be exploited by Acorn employees in an effort to flood voter rolls with fake names.
– In 1996, Mr. Obama filled out a questionnaire listing key supporters for his campaign for the Illinois Senate. He put Acorn first (it was not an alphabetical list).
– In the U.S. Senate, Mr. Obama became the leading critic of Voter ID laws, whose overturn was a top Acorn priority.
– In 2007, in a speech to Acorn's leaders prior to their political arm's endorsement of his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama was effusive: "I've been fighting alongside of Acorn on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote in Illinois, Acorn was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
– The Obama campaign also gave Citizens Consulting, Inc., an Acorn subsidiary, $832,000 for get-out-the-vote activities in key primary states. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Obama campaign listed the payments as "staging, sound, lighting," only correcting the filings after the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review revealed their true nature.
-[T]he Obama campaign didn't appear eager to discuss the candidate's ties to Acorn. Its press operation vividly denied Mr. Obama had been an Acorn trainer until the New York Times uncovered records demonstrating that he had been.
Fund goes on to conclude:
"Given his longstanding ties with Acorn, President Obama's protestations of ignorance or disinterest in the group's latest scandal seem preposterous. Here's hoping White House reporters will press the president to clarify just how much he really knows about Acorn and when he knew it."
I hope John Fund doesn't hold his breath. The same reporters who dug through Sarah Palin's garbage and rummaged through Joe "the Plumber"Wurzelbacher's private records never once bothered to look into Obama's past.
Tags:acorn, Acorn subsidiary, Baltimore, Braun, Citizens Consulting, DC, illegal immigrants, lawyer, lighting, mortgage, Moter voter, New York, old friends, San Bernadino, San Diego, sound, staging, Stephanopoulos, supporters, This Week, trainer, training, voter ID, voter-registration
Posted in Barack Obama, Politics, socialism | 6 Comments »
On Barack Obama Needing To Be Reminded He's Not A Muslim
Did Barack Obama wear a Freudian slip under his trousers Sunday morning?
In an interview Sunday with ABC's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos, Obama tried to suggest that FOX News and others "closely allied" to Republicans are promulgating the notion that the Illinois senator is Muslim.
Asked about whether McCain himself has done anything to suggest he's Muslim, Obama said, "Let's not play games. What I was suggesting — you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come…"
"Christian faith," Stephanopoulos interrupted, correcting Obama. (more…)
Tags:$5 million, 100 years, Barack Obama, Christian, define, hypocrite, Iraq, John McCain, my Muslim faith, rich, Saddleback, Sarah Palin, seven houses, Stephanopoulos, This Week
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Democrats, John McCain, Politics, Sarah Palin | 10 Comments »
Media Frenzy over ABC Democratic Debate Reveals Leftist Bias
This was the best panorama of media reaction to the ABC-hosted Democratic debate in Philadelphia:
The Democratic debate in Philadelphia last night was dominated by a wall of stupid painstakingly constructed by ABC's moderators, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos.
Their obsession with trivia and avoidance of substance submerged this affair from its opening introduction. It's hard to say it much better than Washington Post critic Tom Shales who leads off by saying that "Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances," and then proceeds to say what he really thinks.
And he's not alone…
Tom Shales (Washington Post) – "For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with."
Will Bunch (Philadelphia Daily News) – "By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself."
Greg Mitchell (Editor and Publisher) – "In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia."
Andrew Sullivan (The Atlantic) – "The loser was ABC News: one of the worst media performances I can remember – petty, shallow, process-obsessed, trivial where substantive, and utterly divorced from the actual issues that Americans want to talk about."
Joanne Ostrow (Denver Post) – "Wednesday's televised candidates' debate from Philadelphia, tape delayed in Denver, got around to issues eventually. But the first round– devoted to pettiness and word obsession and gaffes– was more revealing."
Joe Klein (Time) – "The ABC moderators clearly didn't spend much time thinking about creative substantive gambits. They asked banal, lapidary questions, rather than trying to break new ground."
Michael Grunwald (Time) – "At a time of foreign wars, economic collapse and environmental peril, the cringe-worthy first half of the debate focused on such crucial matters as Senator Obama's comments about rural bitterness, his former pastor, an obscure sixties radical with whom he was allegedly "friendly," and the burning constitutional question of why he doesn't wear an American flag pin on his lapel."
Richard Adams (The Guardian) – "A stinker, an absolute car crash – thanks to the host network ABC. It was worse than even those debates last year with 18 candidates on stage, including crazy old Mike Gravel."
Noam Scheiber (New Republic) – "The first half of the debate felt like a 45-minute negative ad, reprising the most chewed over anti-Obama allegations (bittergate, Jeremiah Wright, patriotism) and even some relatively obscure ones (his vague association with former Weatherman radical Bill Ayers)."
Daniel Rubin (Philadelphia Inquirer) – "We've revisted bitter. We've gone back to Bosnia. We've dragged Rev. Wright back up onto the podium. We've mis-spent this debate by allowing Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos to ask questions that skirt what in my mind is what we need to know now. What would they do about the mess they'd inherit? The war. Health care. The economy. Stupid."
Cathleen Decker and Noam N. Levey (Los Angeles Times) – With the moderators and Clinton raising assorted questions about Obama's past for the first half of the debate, issues received relatively short shrift. Not until 50 minutes in was a policy issue — Iraq — asked about by the moderators. More than an hour went by before a question was asked about what Stephanopoulos called "the No. 1 issue on Americans' minds" — the economy."
Stephanoupolos defended himself by saying that voters are concerned with "…experience, character [and] credibility. You can't find a presidential election where those issues didn't come into play."
The problem is that you can't find a but a trace of questions in this debate where those issues did come into play. The moderators had obviously decided that they were going to chase petty controversy and ratings by focusing on tabloid trivialities. Their cynical smugness and conceit are a sad commentary on the state of journalism and politics.
MoveOn has started a petition to ask the media to "stop hurting the national dialogue in this important election year."
http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=866
My favorite, in terms of being a pure, unadulterated, over-the-top, self-righteous indignate hissy-fit, was Will Bunch's "An Open Letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041708B.shtml. You can almost feel the tears striking the keyboard as you read it.
A paraphrase from Shakespeare always goes a long way: "Methinks thou dost protest too much."
If Will Bunch had become as livid when John McCain's character was needlessly assaulted by the New York Times on the flimsiest of stories (notice how that whole female lobbyist story went away?), and had he similarly become this angry when President Bush was assaulted with charges of dodging service in the Vietnam War – complete with forged documents waved by CBS' Dan Rather as proof of the crime – maybe I'd buy the "righteous" part of Bunch's indignation.
But I'm afraid I smell the rabid rodent of liberal media bias.
I remember the craziness that followed CBS' Bernard Goldberg's 1996 Wall Street Journal op-ed.
As Goldberg related what happened in his book "Bias," he received an angry phone call from a friend who had just watched the 8 February 1996 CBS EVening News. "Did you see that 'Reality Check' story? You got too many snippy wise guys doin' the news."
Goldberg asked his friend what the problem was. "You get a tape of the news and watch it. Then you tell me if there's a problem."
When Goldberg watched the news, he was shocked. Ostensibly, it was a story about presidential candidate Steve Forbes' flat tax. In Goldberg's own words, "But the more I watched the more I saw that this wasn't simply about a presidential candidate and a tax plan. It was about something much bigger, something too much of big-time TV journalism had become: a showcase of smart-ass reporters with attitudes, reporters who don't even pretend to hide their disdain for certain people and certain ideas that they and their sophisticated friends don't particularly like.
I begin quoting Goldberg's book Bias from page 21:
"Dan Rather introduced [CBS Washington correspondent Eric] Engberg's piece with the standard stuff about how it would "look beyond the promises to the substance" of the Forbes flat tax…
Engberg's voice covered pictures of Steve Forbes on the campaign trail. "Steve Forbes pitches his flat-tax scheme as an economic elixer, good for everything that ails us."
Scheme? Elixer? What the hell kind of language is that, I [Goldberg] wondered. These were words that conjured up images of con artists, like Doctor Feelgood selling worthless junk out of the back of his wagon.
But that was just a little tease to get us into the tent. then Engberg interviewed three different tax experts. Every single one of them opposed the flat tax. Every single one! Where was the fairness and balance Rather was always preaching about? Wasn't there any expert – even one – in the entire United States who thought the flat tax might work?
Of course there was. There was Milton Friedman and Merton Miller, both of the University of Chicago and both Nobel Prize winners in economics. There was James Buchanan of George Mason University, another Nobel laureate. There were also Harvey Rosen of Princeton, William Poole of Brown, and Robert Barro of Harvard. All of them were on the record as supporting the flat tax to one degree or another.
Engberg could have found a bunch of economists to support the flat tax, if he wanted to. But putting on a supporter of the flat tax would have defeated the whole purpose of the piece, which was to have a few laughs at Steve Forbes' expense.
There was absolutely no way – not one chance in a million – that Engberg or Rather would have aired a flat-tax story with that same contemptuous tone if Teddy Kennedy or Hillary Clinton had come up with the idea.
But even if you opposed the flat tax, even if you thought it was a bad idea that helped only the wealthiest Americans – fat cats like Steve Forbes himself – what about simple journalistic fairness? What about presenting two sides? isn't that what Rather was always saying CBS News was about: objectivity, fairness, balance?
And then Engberg crossed that fuzzy line that's supposed to separate news from entertainment. He decided it was time to amuse his audience…
Which is why Eric Engberg decided to play David Letterman and do a takeoff of his Top Ten list.
"Forbes' Number One Wackiest Flat-Tax Promise," Engberg told the audience, is the candidate's belief that it would give parents "more time to spend with their children and each other."
Wacky? This was a perfectly acceptable word in the United States of Entertainment to describe, say, a Three Stooges movie. Or Hamlet, starring Jerry Lewis. Or My Fair Lady, with Chris Rock playing Professor Higgins.
But "wacky" seemed an odd word to describe a serious idea to overhaul America's ten-trillion page tax code that enables lobbyists to donate tons of money to politicians who then use this same Byzantine tax code to hand out goodies to the very same special interests that just gave them all that money. If anything is "wacky," it's the current tax system, not an honest attempt to replace it with something new.
Besides, what Forbes meant is that since many Americans – not just the wealthy – would pay less tax under his plan, they might not have to work as many hours and might actually have more time to spend at home with their families. Maybe it's true and maybe it isn't, but is "wacky" the fairest and most objective way to describe it?
Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams, a network news reporter calling Hillary Clinton's health care plan "wacky"? Can you imagine Dan Rather or any other major American news anchorman allowing it?
And, finally, the coup de grace, the knife to Steve Forbes' throat as Engberg went on camera to end his story. The "on camera," as we call it in the TV news business, is when the reporter gets to look the viewer in the eye and deliver a sermonette. This is when the reporter, if he hasn't been slanting the news story up to this point, will often give you a little editorial just to make sure you know how you're supposed to think about the subject at hand. Eric Engberg ended his little vaudeville act thus: "The fact remains: The flat tax is a giant, untested theory. One economist suggested, before we put it in, we should test it out someplace – like Albania." Engberg flashed his signature smirk and signed off – "Eric Engberg, CBS News, Washington."
There is junk science and junk bonds. This was junk journalism.
Goldberg continued…
"…The left routinely uses words like "scheme" instead of the more neutral "plan" to describe tax cuts that favor "the wrong people." Sometimes they put the word "risky" before "scheme" to make it sound really scary. Al Gore did precisely that, about a hundred times a day, when he was running for president against George W. Bush. I understand why Al Gore and other liberals call something they don't like a "scheme." Politicians and partisans are allowed to do that. But should supposedly objective people like news reports, people like Eric Engberg, use that kind of loaded language? Should a journalistic enterprise like CBS News – which claims to stand for fairness and objectivity – allow words like "scheme" and "wacky" in what is supposed to be a straight news story about a legitimate candidate running for president of the United States?
Engberg's piece – its strident, mocking tone, its lack of objectivity, its purposeful omission of anyone who supported the flat tax – was like a TV commercial paid for by Opponents of the Steve Forbes Flat Tax.
From top to bottom the Engberg piece was breathtaking in its lack of fairness. So how could CBS have put it on the air?
Bernard Goldberg tried to talk to a number of executives at CBS before finally deciding to write his now famous op-ed. As he put it, "The way I saw it, I wasn't taking on Engberg or Rather or CBS News for airing one snooty story about some politician's tax plan. For me, this was about a nagging problem that none of the big shots would take seriously. It was about the liberal biases that overwhelm straight news reporting."
Goldberg points out that "Jerry Kelly from Enterprise, Alabama [the friend who'd told Goldberg about the story] spotted the bias in the Engberg report. Jerry Kelly spotted the wise guy tone and the one-sidedness. And Jerry Kelly is a general building contractor, not a newsman.
Who didn't find anything wrong with Engberg's piece? First off, Engberg didn't. His producer in Washington didn't. The Evening News senior producer in Washington didn't. Jeff Fager, the executive producer of the CBS Evening News in New York, didn't. His team of senior producers in New York didn't. Andrew Heyward, the CBS News president and Harvard Phi Beta Kappa, didn't. And finally, Dan Rather, the anchorman and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, didn't.
Not one of them spotted anything wrong with a story that no one should have let on the air in the first place" (29).
Had the story remained at this point, it would have at best remained a single sorry episode of bias. One story among thousands. But Goldberg – after trying in vain to get somebody, anybody, to focus on a very real problem – got his dander up and decided to take the initiative and go outside of his network to expose this incredibly blatant case of bias and thus focus attention on a national issue that went far beyond CBS.
So Goldberg wrote his op-ed piece: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95001668
The resulting media firestorm over a senior award-winning network news journalist writing about bias in the media was enormous – and nearly universally painted Bernard Goldberg in a negative light. Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings joined Dan Rather in attacking Goldberg. A lot of media power-players dialed a lot of numbers from their media roledexes and got a lot of airtime and ink condemning Golderg's character and integrity as well as his objectivity. Rather than seriously examining the facts of Goldberg's case, the focus quickly became Bernard Goldberg himself.
"Bob Schieffer, the chief Washington correspondent for CBS News, told the Washington Post, "It's just such a wacky charge, and a weird way to go about it… I don't know what Bernie was driving at. It just sounds bizarre" (39).
Wacky. Weird. Bizarre. There were those words again.
Dan Rather – who would, in 2004, show America just what it looked like to REALLY be a political hack, labeled Goldberg "a political opportunist" (36). In another interview, Rather claimed Goldberg was trying to intimidate him into reporting the news his way (38). It was pure, over-the-top paranoia.
Andrew Heyward, the president of ABC News, told Goldberg that writing his op-ed amounted to "an act of disloyalty" and "a betrayal of trust." And when Goldberg pointed out that he could have quoted Heyward himself to have essentially agreed with him that the news was biased, Heyward screamed in his face, "That would have been like raping my wife and kidnapping my kids!"
Which is why I read all these over-the-top media rants I listed above and think, "Yep. I've heard this before."
One of The New York Times' heaviest hitters, veteran political analyst R.W. "Johnny" Apple, said on CNN's Reliable Sources, "He [Goldberg] has simply stabbed this guy [Engberg] in the back" (41).
Goldberg points out that "whistleblowers" are always sacred cows for news organizations – unless they're trying to expose the news media. Then they get downright mean. He pointed out that the media – unlike any other enterprise, looks into everyone else's business for a living, and that therefore it is entirely reasonable and necessary that they permit an examination of themselves (and in fact blatantly hypocritical NOT to permit an examination of themselves). But they won't. Goldberg writes, "Liberals in the media – who would have come down with the vapors if a conservative CEO had so much as given a reporter a dirty look – didn't flinch when CBS News executives took me off the air and suggested I might be fired because they saw me as a whistle-blower, which, the bst I could figure, made me the first whistle-blower in history who wasn't turned into a national hero by the media."
The way the media circled the wagons, the way they ganged up on Goldberg and did everything they could to trivialize his revelation by turning away from his substance to personal attacks displayed just how radically biased the media was.
And still is.
Also in 1996, the Freedom Forum and the Roper Center released the results of a now famous survey of 139 Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents (the epicenter of the media world – the heartbeat of journalism, if you will. Both the Freedom Forum and thand Roper Center had attained a solid reputation for independence. "No way that the data are the fruit of right-wing press bashers," as journalist Ben Wattenberg put it. The results were stunning.
* 89% of these significant journalist said they voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, compared with just 43% of nonjournalist voters.
7% of the journalists voted for George H.W. Bush, as opposed to 37% of the general electorate.
* 50% said they were Democrats. Only 4% said they were Republicans.
* When asked to characterize their political orientation, 61% said "liberal" or "moderate to liberal." Only 9% said they were "conservative" or "moderate to conservative."
As Goldberg puts it, "89% voted for Bill Clinton. This is incredible when you think about it. There's hardly a candidate in the entire United States of America who carries his/her district with 89% of the vote. This is way beyond mere landslide numbers. The only politicians who get numbers like that are called Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein." … The Washington Post's Sally Quinn said "The Washington press corps is not some monolith… We all work for different organizations. We all think differently." [But] "The same journalists that Sally Quinn tell us do not constitute a "monolith" certainly vote like one" (129).
And the 1992 election was no fluke. A 1972 poll showed that of those reporters who voted, 70% went for McGovern, the most liberal presidential candidate in memory, while 25% voted for Nixon – in a landslide year when Richard Nixon carried every single state in the country except Massachusetts.
In 1985 the Los Angeles Times conducted a nationwide survey of about 3,000 journalists and the same number of people in the general public to see how each group felt about the major issues of the day:
* 23% of the public said they were liberal; 55% of journalists described themselves as liberal.
* 56% of the public favored Ronald Reagan; 30% of the journalists favored Reagan.
*49% of the public was for a woman's right to have an abortion; 82% of the journalists was for such a right of a woman to choose abortion.
* 74% of the public was for prayer in the public schools; 25% of the journalists were in favor of prayer in public schools.
* 56% of the public was for affirmative action; 81% of the journalists were in favor of affirmative action.
* 75% of the public was for the death penalty; 47% of the journalists were in favor of the death penalty.
* 50% of the public was for stricter gun control; 78% of the journalists were for stricter gun control.
More recently, Fox News' Britt Hume ran a story titled "Cash Coverage." I will quote Britt Hume's report, but provide the link to John Lott's 31 March 2008 article itself:
"University of Maryland senior research scientist John Lott Jr. says news coverage of the economy is slanted. Lott writes, "Over 78 percent more negative news stories discussed a recession when the economy — under a Republican president was soaring than occurred under a Democrat when the economy was shrinking."
Lott — who researched 12,500 newspaper and wire service articles from 1985 through 2004 — also found that Democratic presidents got positive headlines 15 percent more of the time than Republican presidents for the same economic news.
Of his findings Lott writes, "The media's focus on the negative side of everything surely helps explain people's pessimism… Indeed, research has indicated that media bias is real."
http://johnrlott.tripod.com/op-eds/FoxNewsRecessionMyth033108.html
Yesterday, I got in an argument with a man I know who works at Wal Mart. He claimed that the economy is far worse than it ever was under Clinton. I pointed out that this is simply not true. He claimed that its harder to find a job than ever before. Today (April 19) I can point to a Press Enterprise story (titled "Area trims more jobs") by Josh Brown that at 7.1% unemployment, the Inland California region is suffering its worst jobless rate since… July 1995, when Bill Clinton was president. But due to biased coverage, no one seems to be able to remember that.
Indeed, a study of the unemplyment rate (http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp) through October 2007 shows that – Despite inheriting a Recession from the Clinton Administration (http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/3/20/190717.shtml), being forced to manage through a series of corporate scandals with roots in the Clinton years, and having to recover from the 9-11 attacks that crippled the US economy, the average monthly unemployment rate during the Bush years now bests the Clinton years: 5.2049 to 5.2052.
Here's a quote from Professor John Lott's article:
"Indeed, research has indicated that media bias is real. Kevin Hassett and I looked at 12,620 newspaper and wire service headlines from 1985 through 2004 for stories on the release of official government releasing numbers on the unemployment rate, number of people employed, gross domestic product (GDP), retail sales, and durable goods.
Even after accounting for how well the economy was doing (e.g., what the unemployment rate was and whether it was going up or down), there was still a big difference in how positive or negative the headlines were. Democratic presidents got about 15 percentage points more positive headlines than Republicans for the same economic news."
Here are links to recent, significant studies that show that the media continues to trend way over to the left of the general public. The first study comes from the Center for Media and Public Affairs and the second comes from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/homeland.php?id=376809&PHPSESSID=9f062c3b00054dddd759712c55999870
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2008/03/19/four-times-more-journalists-identify-liberal-conservative
James Glassman once put it this way on the Washington Post. "The people who report the stories are liberal Democrats. This is the shameful open secret of American journalism. That the press itself … choses to gloss over it is conclusive evidence of how pernicious the bias is."
So I look at the media's reaction to the tough questions directed at Hillary Clinton and (mostly) at Barack Obama, and I understand the plainly visceral reaction against the questions by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos.
I remember that it took a Saturday Night Live sketch – set in a debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – that displayed for all the world to see a caricaturization of the gross, one-sided, nearly adoring coverage that the media gave to Barack Obama in lopsided manner. Hillary Clinton, in the ones of one editorialist, was learning what it was like to be treated like a Republican.
Whether the media goes after every political candidate's "negatives," or whether they refuse to go after any candidate's "negatives," I really don't care. What I do care about is that they are objective and fair in their coverage. What I have bee seeing since the Democratic debate in Philidelphia, is what appears to be a media campaign of a screaming, ranting, crying frenzy being directed over negative questions being raised against Barack Obama in an effort to stifle any future questions that reflect poorly on him.
In my view, Gibson and Stephanopoulos recognized that the media was simply not going after the Democratic candidates (Obama especially) on the campaign trail, and forcing them to answer tough, legitimate questions. Thus the Wright scandal, the "bitter… clinging" remark, the "flag pin" (and, by the way, the picture that shows every Democratic candidate with hand over heart except Barack Obama, whose hands are clasped at his groin-level), and the "Bosnia sniper fire" were all fair game for an objectively fair debate.
Some Bernard Goldberg article references:
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/3/215106.shtml
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/current/in_our_opinion/bernard_goldberg.htm
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95000520
Tags:ABC, Barack Obama, bias, CBS, Clinton, Dan Rather, Democratic debate, fenzy, Gibson, Goldberg, Media, media reaction, Philadelphia, Stephanopoulos
Posted in Media, Politics | 12 Comments »
Obama's Democratic Debate Goofs
During the 16 April Democratic debate, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Senator Barack Obama the following question:
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to give Senator Clinton a chance to respond, but first a follow-up on this issue, the general theme of patriotism in your relationships. A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He's never apologized for that. And in fact, on 9/11 he was quoted in The New York Times saying, 'I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough.'
An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?"
SENATOR OBAMA: "George, but this is an example of what I'm talking about.
This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.
And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George.
The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions.
Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those either."
What exactly can we say about a man who equates being a murderer and a terrorist bomber with being a pro-life conservative U.S. Senator? Isn't that frankly over-the-top nuts? Not to a liberal, so it's perfectly okay in the People's Republic of Leftistan. Surprise, pro-lifers: you're just as vile as terrorist bombing murderers! How dare you believe babies deserve to live!!! Quit clinging to your religion, you bitter people!
And the fact that Ayers bombed some 20 places forty years in the past (and, just to make sure we all know, Ayers has admitted his involvement in the bombings; he was arrested and tried for the crime, but was acquited on a technicality) when Barack Obama was "8 years old" should somehow mean its okay to be his buddy now?
Beyond the affirmation that Barack Obama and William Ayers "were friendly" comes the realization that Obama went to Ayers' house to garner support for his campaign. The two men went to speaking engagements together. They served on the same board together. They had the sort of relationship that Americans would not expect between candidate for the office of President of the United States and admitted terrorist bomber of American targets.
Do you think it will be okay to be in a friendly relationship with an unrepentant al Qaeda terrorist who killed Americans in a few decades? Is that a guy you don't mind being on friendly terms with? Apparently, if you are a liberal, it's just not that bad.
Here was another magic moment during the debate:
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS (asking about Rev. Jeremiah White): But you do believe he's as patriotic as you are?
SENATOR OBAMA: This is somebody who's a former Marine. And so I have — I believe that he loves this country, but I also believe that he's somebody who, because of the experiences he's had over the course of a lifetime, is also angry about the injustices that he's seen.
Well, Lee Harvey Oswald was a former Marine, too. And he was pretty darned angry about injustice, as well. Does that make Lee Harvey Oswald a patriot too, Senator Obama?
A liberal patriot, of course, is a person who dedicates his life to attacking and undermining America (oh, I'm sorry: AmeriKKKa).
Oh, as a follow-up question, as a white man living in poverty, could you please explain how Reverend Wright – who will be living in a 10,000 ft/sq house located on the fairway of an exclusive country club with a $10,000,000 line of church money – is angry? And what I did to him? I'm not sure I get that.
The resulting media firestorm has been both predictable and amusing. The New York Times – the flagship of the elite media – thought it entirely appropriate to write a front page story about a "relationship" Senator John McCain had with a female lobbyist. The story was clearly nothing more than an uncooborated hatchet piece alleging impropriety and sleeze against a Republican. But when there are genuine, documented events concerning Senator Obama's pastor for 20 years, concerning a former Marxist terrorist whom his own campaign acknowledged as being a friend – these things should be completely off limits?
I have heard liberals ask, "How would John Mccain like it if the media looked into his pastor?" I honestly don't think the man would mind. Unlike Barack Obama, I don't think John McCain has been sitting under a Marxist preacher for twenty years. Nor do I think he's friendly with terrorist bombers who attacked the United States.
This little allegory might help liberals understand why Barack Obama's relationship with William Ayers is disturbing:
"Senator John McCain was linked today with a former Army of God member who bombed a string of women's health clinics that provided abortion, it was revealed today. In 1985, Michal Bray was charged with conspiracy, following a series of clinic bombings. The Maryland Metropolitan Medical Women's Center, a Planned Parenthood office and also the Washington Office of the American Civil Liberties Union were bombed. Two doctors who performed abortions were killed in the attacks.
"Reporters verified that Senator John McCain served on a board with Mr. Bray, and the two attended a number of speaking engagements together. When his campaign was contacted for comment with the story, McCain campaign manager Terry Nelson acknowledged, "They're certainly friendly with each other."
Michal Bray has repeatedly acknoweldged taking part in the bombings, and several years ago said, "My only regret is that I didn't bomb more abortion clinics" at the anniversary of Roe. V. Wade Decision."
And, again:
"In an unrelated story, we have just obtained video of Senator John McCain's paster for the past twenty years, the Rev. Tom Robbe, engaged in a series of racist rants against African Americans. The Senator has been a member of Rev. Robbe's congregation for the past twenty years. The church features a "White family contract" and preaches white separatism.
In one video-taped sermon, Rev. Robbe calls African-Americans "degenerate criminals, drug addicts, murderers, rapists, and gang banging thugs who have children like rabbits and inflict their animal behavior on white America." In other videos he claimed that America deserved 9/11 for tolerating black behavior and for not shipping blacks off to Africa.
Contacted for comment, Senator McCain said he was shocked at the the racist comments, and claimed that he had not been in the church when the remarks were made."
I made up these stories. But imagine they were true. As a liberal, what would you think of Senator John McCain? Would liberals and the liberal media be saying, "Well, we can't convict a man of guilt by association"? No friggin' way!!! They would not only be demanding that Senator McCain suspend his presidential campaign; they would be hysterically demanding that he resign from the U.S. Senate!!! You KNOW they would.
And rightfully so. If John McCain had those associations, it would disqualify him from ever being president, and should frankly disqualify him from continuing to serve in the U.S. Senate.
But please tell me the difference between Senator Obama's "associations" and the one's I just made up (and realize, the only reason I have to make them up is because – unlike with Obama's – they didn't happen). It turns out that the only difference is the fact that Obama's bomber bombed the Pentagon and New York Police headquarters (good targets from a liberal perspective) and my bomber bombed abortion clinics (bad targets from a liberal perspective). And it turns out that Obama's pastor is an anti-American anti-white racist (good targets from a liberal perspective) and the pastor I desribed is an anti-American anti-black racist (bad targets from a liberal perspective).
It is time that liberals grew up and learned that hate is hate, and racism is racism, and it is simply unacceptable from anybody – particularly when it can be associated with a man who wants to be the president of the United States.
Any genuine candidate of reconciliation would not EVER have tolerated such people in his life. He would have confronted their racism, their anti-Americanism, and (in the case of Ayers) their violence against Americans, and they would have refused to associate with them. Period.
Tags:9/11, abortion, Ayers, bombing, Debate, Democrat, Jeremiah Wright, John McCain, Marine, New York Times, Obama, Pentagon, racism, Stephanopoulos, terrorist, Tom Coburn, William Ayers
Posted in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Media, Politics | Leave a Comment »
Democratic Debate: Promising Armageddon
As a conservative, I obviously found difficulties in a number of issues and statements raised in the Democratic debate last night (April 16). But the candidates response to the issue of the war in Iraq – particularly framed as it was against the even greater issues of a looming nuclear Iran and the threat of a nuclear arms race in the most violent, terrifying, and paranoid region in the world – was downright disturbing.
As I listened to the Democratic candidates, I had a dizzying moment of "deja vu all over again" as I recalled the historic lessons of the disasterous liberal failures that enabled World War II. And I could not help but remember the biblical narratives prohecying that total future apocalypse commonly known as "armageddon."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/us/politics/16text-debate.html?pagewanted=13.
MANDY GARBER of Pittsburgh asked the following question: "So, the real question is, I mean, do the candidates have a real plan to get us out of Iraq or is it just real campaign propaganda? And you know, it's really unclear. They keep saying we want to bring the troops back, but considering what's happening on the ground, how is that going to happen?"
CHARLES GIBSON followed up: "Let me just add a little bit to that question, because your communications director in your campaign, Howard Wolfson on a conference call recently was asked, "Is Senator Clinton going to stick to her announced plan of bringing one or two brigades out of Iraq every month whatever the realities on the ground?" And Wolfson said, "I'm giving you a one-word answer so we can be clear about it, the answer is yes."
So if the military commanders in Iraq came to you on day one and said this kind of withdrawal would destabilize Iraq, it would set back all of the gains that we have made, no matter what, you're going to order those troops to come home?"
SENATOR CLINTON replied: "Yes, I am, Charlie. And here's why: You know, thankfully we have a system in our country of civilian control of the military. And our professional military are the best in the world. They give their best advice and then they execute the policies of the president. I have watched this president as he has continued to change the rationale and move the goalposts when it comes to Iraq.
And I am convinced that it is in America's best interest, it is in the best interest of our military, and I even believe it is in the best interest of Iraq, that upon taking office, I will ask the secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and my security advisers to immediately put together for me a plan so that I can begin to withdraw within 60 days. I will make it very clear that we will do so in a responsible and careful manner, because obviously, withdrawing troops and equipment is dangerous.
I will also make it clear to the Iraqis that they no longer have a blank check from the president of the United States, because I believe that it will be only through our commitment to withdraw that the Iraqis will begin to do what they have failed to do for all of these years.
I will also begin an intensive diplomatic effort, both within the region and internationally, to begin to try to get other countries to understand the stakes that we all face when it comes to the future of Iraq.
But I have been convinced and very clear that I will begin to withdraw troops within 60 days. And we've had other instances in our history where some military commanders have been very publicly opposed to what a president was proposing to do.
But I think it's important that this decision be made, and I intend to make it."
CHARLES GIBSON addressed Senator Obama with the same question: "And Senator Obama, your campaign manager, David Plouffe, said, when he is — this is talking about you — when he is elected president, we will be out of Iraq in 16 months at the most; there should be no confusion about that.
So you'd give the same rock-hard pledge, that no matter what the military commanders said, you would give the order: Bring them home."
SENATOR OBAMA: "Because the commander in chief sets the mission, Charlie. That's not the role of the generals. And one of the things that's been interesting about the president's approach lately has been to say, well, I'm just taking cues from General Petraeus.
Well, the president sets the mission. The general and our troops carry out that mission. And unfortunately we have had a bad mission, set by our civilian leadership, which our military has performed brilliantly. But it is time for us to set a strategy that is going to make the American people safer.
Now, I will always listen to our commanders on the ground with respect to tactics. Once I've given them a new mission, that we are going to proceed deliberately in an orderly fashion out of Iraq and we are going to have our combat troops out, we will not have permanent bases there, once I've provided that mission, if they come to me and want to adjust tactics, then I will certainly take their recommendations into consideration; but ultimately the buck stops with me as the commander in chief.
And what I have to look at is not just the situation in Iraq, but the fact that we continue to see al Qaeda getting stronger in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, we continue to see anti-American sentiment fanned all cross the Middle East, we are overstretched in a way — we do not have a strategic reserve at this point. If there was another crisis that was taking place, we would not have a brigade that we could send to deal with that crisis that isn't already scheduled to be deployed in Iraq. That is not sustainable. That's not smart national security policy, and it's going to change when I'm president."
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS then turned attention to the issue of Iran and the threat it represented to the region: "Senator Obama, let's stay in the region. Iran continues to pursue a nuclear option. Those weapons, if they got them, would probably pose the greatest threat to Israel. During the Cold War, it was the United States policy to extend deterrence to our NATO allies. An attack on Great Britain would be treated as if it were an attack on the United States. Should it be U.S. policy now to treat an Iranian attack on Israel as if it were an attack on the United States?"
SENATOR OBAMA responded: Well, our first step should be to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of the Iranians, and that has to be one of our top priorities. And I will make it one of our top priorities when I'm president of the United States.
I have said I will do whatever is required to prevent the Iranians from obtaining nuclear weapons. I believe that that includes direct talks with the Iranians where we are laying out very clearly for them, here are the issues that we find unacceptable, not only development of nuclear weapons but also funding terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as their anti-Israel rhetoric and threats towards Israel. I believe that we can offer them carrots and sticks, but we've got to directly engage and make absolutely clear to them what our posture is.
Now, my belief is that they should also know that I will take no options off the table when it comes to preventing them from using nuclear weapons or obtaining nuclear weapons, and that would include any threats directed at Israel or any of our allies in the region."
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "So you would extend our deterrent to Israel?"
SENATOR OBAMA: "As I've said before, I think it is very important that Iran understands that an attack on Israel is an attack on our strongest ally in the region, one that we — one whose security we consider paramount, and that — that would be an act of aggression that we — that I would — that I would consider an attack that is unacceptable, and the United States would take appropriate action."
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "Senator Clinton, would you?"
SENATOR CLINTON: "Well, in fact, George, I think that we should be looking to create an umbrella of deterrence that goes much further than just Israel. Of course I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States, but I would do the same with other countries in the region.
You know, we are at a very dangerous point with Iran. The Bush policy has failed. Iran has not been deterred. They continue to try to not only obtain the fissile material for nuclear weapons but they are intent upon and using their efforts to intimidate the region and to have their way when it comes to the support of terrorism in Lebanon and elsewhere.
And I think that this is an opportunity, with skillful diplomacy, for the United States to go to the region and enlist the region in a security agreement vis-a-vis Iran. It would give us three tools we don't now have.
Number one, we've got to begin diplomatic engagement with Iran, and we want the region and the world to understand how serious we are about it. And I would begin those discussions at a low level. I certainly would not meet with Ahmadinejad, because even again today he made light of 9/11 and said he's not even sure it happened and that people actually died. He's not someone who would have an opportunity to meet with me in the White House. But I would have a diplomatic process that would engage him.
And secondly, we've got to deter other countries from feeling that they have to acquire nuclear weapons. You can't go to the Saudis or the Kuwaitis or UAE and others who have a legitimate concern about Iran and say: Well, don't acquire these weapons to defend yourself unless you're also willing to say we will provide a deterrent backup and we will let the Iranians know that, yes, an attack on Israel would trigger massive retaliation, but so would an attack on those countries that are willing to go under this security umbrella and forswear their own nuclear ambitions."
Now, I am glad that both candidates want to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, want to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the region, and want to promise to protect our allies in the region. I believe these are all very good things.
But I want to focus attention on the fact that withdrawing from Iraq will actually have the very opposite effects from these goals, and will virtually guarantee that none of these goals would be attainable. If the United States abandons Iraq, it will put us on a trajectory toward disaster.
In an earlier article, I attempted to draw some of the parallels between our abandonment of Vietnam between 1973 and 1975, with what would almost certainly happen were we to similarly abandon Iraq. In short, the United States pulled its forces out due to domestic protest after it had painstakingly attained a stable military situation. The 1968 Tet offensive had been a military disaster for the Communist North, and the Viet Cong guerrillas had been annihilated in the American counteroffensive. But the domestic protests, and the scandal that undermined the Nixon presidency, forced the United States to negotiate with the North. Nixon claimed a "Peace with honor," but the Democratic-controlled Congress refused to honor the American commitment to South Vietnam. Military aid ceased; funds were cut off. And when North Vietnamese tanks rolled on Saigon, the Republic of South Vietnam had nothing to stop them with. A bloodbath of massive proportions followed that spread from Vietnam to Cambodia to Laos. Three million died after the war, and untold numbers of refugee "boat people" perished at sea.
American prestige was terribly undermined as our enemies realized we truly could be defeated, and our allies realized that we would not necessarily keep our promises. The United States soon withdrew its commitments elsewhere, including its backing of the Shah of Iran, who had been the closest American ally in the region. To this very day, our enemies believe that the United States can not stand a prolonged war with casualties, and that we will withdraw – "cut and run" – from our allies and our interests if they can pile up enough bodies.
I think about these things. And I greatly mourn that we may very well be in the process of repeating our same mistakes in nearly exactly the same manner. Only this time the stakes are much, much higher, and the disaster that will surely follow will be much, much worse.
As a student of history, I remember the abject failure of the Western allies to grasp the growing threat of their enemies throughout the 1930s. I remember the refusal of the liberal governments of the Allied powers to comprehend what are now known to have been fundamental realities of naked aggression and looming war. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain abandoned his country's commitment to Czechoslovakia with a promise from Hitler of peace. The liberal, "anti-war" Chamberlain returned home saying, "I believe it is peace in our time!" Chamberlain saw Britain's policy as a willingness to compromise and a desire for peace. But Hitler saw only weakness, hesitation, and cowardice, and became emboldened for total war. Again and again, the West had had an opportunity to demonstrate its genuine resolve to Hitler, and again and again the West had failed to stand.
In our present day, the Democratic Party has demonstrated a shocking degree of treachery in regard to Iraq. It is their war as much as it is Republicans' war – because it should be America's war.
In his 1998 State of the Union Address before the United States Congress, President Clinton told the world, "I say to Saddam Hussein: You cannot deny the will of the world. You have used weapons of mass destruction before. We are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again." A week later, President Clinton said, "I will say again, one way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
On 31 October 1998, President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act into law, saying, "It should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace the regime."
After the horror of the 9/11 attacks, the full horror of Islamic terrorists murderous intent was nakedly revealed to a shocked United States. Military and civilian national security authorities alike immediately realized that the attacks would have been far, far worse if the terrorists had been able to obtain WMD capability. And they knew that major terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda were determined to obtain WMD.
President Bush confronted Saddam Hussein over his country's weapons program, but the Iraqi dictator refused to give the United States a clear picture of his capability. The United States Senate voted 77-23 to authorize President Bush to attack Iraq in 2002; the United States House of Representatives approved the resolution, 296-133. The vote wasn't even close. The resolution actually passed by wider margins than the 1991 resolution that had empowered President George H.W. Bush to go to war to expel Iraq from Kuwait. That 1991 measure passed 250-183 in the House and 52-47 in the Senate. Furthermore, a clear majority of Democrats in the Senate supported the October 2002 war resolution: 29 Democratic Senators voted "aye" and only 21 "nay."
On 17 March 2003, Senator Hillary Clinton said on the eve of war, "Tonight, the President gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to avoid war, and the world hopes that Saddam Hussein will finally hear this ultimatum, understand the severity of those words, and act accordingly. While we wish there were more international support for the effort to disarm Saddam Hussein, at this critical juncture it is important for all of us to come together in support of our troops and pray that, if war does occur, this mission is accomplished swiftly and decisively with minimum loss of life and civilian casualties."
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on 15 December 2003 after celebrating the capture of Saddam Hussein, she declared, "I was one who supported giving President Bush the authority, if necessary, to use force against Saddam Hussein. I believe that that was the right vote" and was one that "I stand by." The speech she gave that evening is noteworthy given the abject treachery she would come to show in repudiating everything she said that evening.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/6600/remarks_by_senator_hillary_rodham_clinton_transcript.html
Democrats can't just walk away from a commitment to a war that this nation elected to undertake, can they? But that is exactly what they did. To paraphrase the famous John Kerry flip flop of his failed 2004 presidential campaign, "I voted for that war before I voted against it." We were at war, but the Democrats turned and ran on Republicans the moment the fighting got fierce. And for simple political opportunism they have spent the five years since talking about Republican war-mongering rather than their own moral cowardice.
UPI reported on story titled, "Negative U.S. media linked to increased insurgent attacks." The article begins: "Researchers at Harvard say that publicly voiced doubts about the U.S. occupation of Iraq have a measurable "emboldenment effect" on insurgents there. 'We find that in periods immediately after a spike in anti-resolve statements, the level of insurgent attacks increases,' says the study, published earlier this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a leading U.S. nonprofit economic research organization."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080324/FOREIGN/259963993/1003
Can anyone believe that when major Democrats say things such as, "The war is lost" (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) that this doesn't embolden our enemies to stay in the fight?
Somehow, both Democratic presidential candidates as well as the very nearly the entire Democratic political apparatus believes that they have absolutely no responsibility for the war, or to the people of Iraq. They believe they can simply blame it all on Bush and the Republicans and count on an ignorant and increasingly amoral America to go along with their revision of history.
But when they abandon the commitment to Iraq that better and more honorable Americans made to that country, they will be undermining the future of America.
Democrats will be mouthing the mantra, "I believe it is peace in our time!" Even as they set the stage for total Armageddon. Iran – just as Nazi Germany – will see what the Democrats view as high-minded liberal foreign policy as weakness, hesitation, and cowardice. And the next Democratic president will either see that Armageddon arise during his/her own administration, or else he or she will set it up for the next presidential administration just as Jimmy Carter set up the modern state of Iran by betraying the Shah and enabling the Ayatollahs to take over in his stead.
Both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama agreed that we must not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. But how will the Democrats – who now universally and roundly condemn President Bush's decision to attack Iraq without total proof of WMD when he had used WMD repeatedly on his enemies – arrive at the threshhold of certainty? The fact is, we can never be certain what is going on iside a totalitarian state such as Iran (or Iraq). Further, when the Democrats have spent the last five years proclaiming that the war in Iraq was a mistake, how are they now going to be able to say with a straight face, "And we're willing to make the same mistake with you" to Iran?
Iran will know that 1) all they have to do is continue to develop their nukes in some degree of murkiness, because Democrats can't go in unless they are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN Iran has such weapons. So we won't ever be able to go in there under a Democratic administration. And 2) Iran will know that even if Democrats DID go in (Which they won't!), they wouldn't stay the course if the fighting got tough (which it most certainly would). All Iran has to do is keep piling up bodies – even if its just the bodies of their own – and Democrats will turn and run. It is what they do. More than anything else in our generation, cutting and running defines the Democratic Party.
Clinton and Obama also let it be known that Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt will trust them when they pledge to defend them from Iran, making their own nuclear programs unneccessary. The problem of a nuclear Iran goes beyond a nuclear Iran: it creates an imbalance of power that will force Sunni nations such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt to develop their own nuclear programs to balance the Shiite Iranians. Think of a nuclear arms race going on in the most radical, terrifying, murderous, and paranoid region in the world. And Sunnis – who we know DON'T get along real well with Shiites, will trust the United States to stick by them through thick and thin? Yeah, right; the Democrats who have spent five years vowing to cut and run from staying in Iraq will now stand by their word to help you, Saudi Arabia and Egypt? ("But we really mean it this time!").
Allow me to guarantee you that a Democratic administration will see a nuclear Iran. Given their policy on Iraq, it becomes an implicit campaign promise. And it will see a nuclearized Middle East. Democrats have spent forty years proving that they are cowards who will not stand by their allies, and their actions will come home to roost.
A Republican president can say to the Iranians, "We went in to Iran when we thought they might attack us, Iran. And I promise that will do the same to you if you continue your weapons program." And no one can question that. A Republican president can say to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, "We stayed with Iraq and defended them even when it was difficult, and we'll do the same for you." and no one can question that.
Tags:armageddon, Chamberlain, Clinton, Debate, Democratic, Democrats, egypt, Gibson, Iraq, nuclear weapons, Obama, peace, saddam hussein, saudi arabia, Stephanopoulos, Viet Nam, World War II
Posted in Politics, War | 3 Comments »

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Official Documents and Reports
European Commission, Communication on Fostering a European approach to Artificial Intelligence, April 2021
European Commission, Proposal for a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence, April 2021
European Commission, Review of the Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence, April 2021
European Commission, Public Consultation on the AI White Paper - Final Report, November 2020
European Commission, White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: a European approach to excellence and trust, 19 March 2020
European Economic and Social Committee, Opinion: Coordinated Plan on the development of Artificial Intelligence in Europe, May 2019
European Commission, Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence, 9 December 2018
Brief overview of current and upcoming EU actions and funding related to AI, November 2018
European Commission 'Commission Communication on Artificial Intelligence for Europe', 25 April 2018
'Declaration of Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence', 10 April 2018
European Commission 'Member States sign up to cooperate on Artificial Intelligence', 10 April 2018
European Commission 'The European AI Landscape', workshop report, April 2018
European Economic and Social Committee 'Artificial Intelligence – The consequences of AI on the (digital) single market, production, consumption, employment and society, May 2018
European Economic and Social Committee 'Artificial intelligence: anticipating its impact on jobs to ensure a fair transition (own-initiative opinion)', February 2018
European Economic and Social Committee 'Trust, privacy and consumer security in the Internet of Things (IoT) (own-initiative opinion)', February 2018
European Economic and Social Committee 'Artificial intelligence for Europe (communication)', April 2018
European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies 'Statement on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems', 9 March 2018
European Political Strategy Centre 'The Age of Artificial Intelligence', 27 March 2018
High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence
Report and videos from the first AI HLEG workshop, September 2018
'European AI Alliance Input for the first workshop of the AI HLEG', September 2018
'Concept Note on the AI HLEG', July 2018
'Minutes of the first meeting of the AI HLEG, 27 June 2018', July 2018
'AI HLEG Rules of Procedure', July 2018
'Artificial Intelligence for Europe', presentation by Khalil Rouhana, Deputy Director-General at DG Connect, at the first meeting of the AI HLEG, 27 June 2018
'Which themes should the AI HLEG tackle? (summary of ideas and suggestions from the AI Alliance for the first meeting of the AI HLEG)', 25 June 2018
Danmark – National Strategy for AI, March 2019
France – 'Villani Report', 29 March 2018
France – 'France Intelligence Artificielle', 2017
France – CNIL report: 'The ethical matters raised by algorithms and artificial intelligence', December 2017
Germany – 'Artificial Intelligence Strategy', November 2018
Germany – 'Industrie 4.0'
Ireland – Irish Development Agency 'Ireland AI Island'
Italy – 'L'intelligenza artificiale al servizio del cittadino', March 2018
Lithuania – Artificial Intelligence Strategy: A Vision of the Future, March 2019
Sweden – 'National orientation for artificial intelligence', May 2018
'Department of Defense: artificial intelligence, big data and cloud taxonomy', Govini, December 2017
Committee on Technology, National Science and Technology Council, Executive Office of the President 'Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence', October 2016
'AI Strategy', July 2017
'National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence', June 2018
'Artificial Intelligence Technology Strategy', March 2017
'Government response to House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Select Committee's Report on AI in the UK: Ready, Willing and Able?', June 2018
'AI Sector Deal', April 2018
'House of Lords Report 'AI in the UK: ready, willing and able?', April 2018
Visegrad 4 countries' thoughts on the Artificial Intelligence and maximising its benefits, April 2018
'Charlevoix Common Vision for the Future of Artificial Intelligence', 9 June 2018
'G7 Innovation Ministers' Statement on Artificial Intelligence', 28 March 2018
Betreiber der Website: Dirección General de Redes de Comunicación, Contenido y Tecnologías


If you're afraid to walk your dog at night (and your dog is the kind that would rather lick the attacker than protect you) – this werewolf muzzle is for you! The Russian-designed dog muzzle sells for about 30 USD and permits your dog to slightly open its mouth, allowing it to pant. It is made from non-toxic plastic and nylon.
Marina Kurulyova became an internet sensation after she posted a picture of her own dog, a giant Schnauzer, wearing the muzzle to the internet. Discussing the product in Russian, the dog lover said: 'This muzzle is just a comic alternative. It is rather made for fun than for training.
Captured on camera, the Schnauzer and the Doberman model the werewolf muzzles and look every bit as terrifying as you would imagine while on a regular trip to a park in Moscow.
What do you think? Scary or still cute? I go the former!! Share this article with your friends using on the of sharing buttons below.
Where can I purchase the werewolf mask for my Doberman?
Banned From Posting On Facebook!


Inductaflex | Press braked channels curved the hard way..
Press braked channels curved the hard way..
Using folded sheet for sections is an economic way of getting a bespoke section for your application. Quite often these need to be formed and this can cause a problem if not handled expertly.
Some shapes are quite easy, but change the direction of bend and often they become imposible.
Inductaflex has tried and tested methods for bending seemingly impossible sections sucessfully.
We seem to be the go to manufacturer now for complicated bends for structural, automotive and manufacturing industries. Countless times out agents bave sent drawings and models of parts others say are imposible, only for us to produce a sample of what they had wished for.
A recent bend test for a customer was using 1.6mm thick plate folded to a 100mm x 50mm channel. These were sucessfully formed on the strong axis with our AL-3e machine. Prevously these items were fabricated at considerable extra cost.
Roll formed sections can be formed to often quite tight diamters; building purlins being a typical example.


SOURCE: I have a leisure rangemaster 110 dual fuel cooker.
Have had trouble with our timer on our Rangemaster 110 so ordered a new timer only to be credited as it is no longer available. Dont realy want to buy a new cooker this side of christmas, any way of bypasing the timer ?
when the clock does not work, the (left hand) oven will not work too I suppose.
Often when the clock does not work, it is only the timer that does not work. In that case, the timer can be bypassed. The oven still works then, but without the timer and the clock will also work as a clock.
When it is an older rangemaster, and the ignition does not work, then probably are some wires leaking. I that case the power for the spark does not come to the burner sparkplug.
But when all plugs do not spark then there are 2 possibilities I think.
Can I convert a dual fuel cooker to LPG?


First Round with Clomid - a BUST..
OMG!! We are starting IVF in April for sure!!!
thought id come over and say hi!
Good Luck Jessy and Jill!!!
I'm in Beta Hell...UPDATE Sono #2!
3rd follie check, what the heck is going on?
1st RE appt on thursday! What should we expect?
Good luck at the RE today, Kari!!
Early prego...walking on eggshells, anyone?
Questions about the new JM?
My RE Appointment Update + Questions.
Should I push for a lap?
PLEASE RESPOND!! OMG!!! I'm freaking out!!
Cramping from 6dpo and until AF shows?
finished Provera 10 days ago and NO AF!
Has anyone taken Prometrium vaginally?
What to expect at fertility specialist appoitment?
Girls I need your help!!
Tales from the 'collection' clinic!
O Pains on CD 13?
Warning: Do NOT get baby readings from Ruby!
Got any success stories for me???
Discomfort on my right side... Question???
DO you have higher temps from your Clomid??
New cycle, new DR, new plan!
Would like to join you!
My (Long) update after appt. with NEW Dr.
How long is YOUR Luteal phase??
I have the CURE for the 2ww!!!!!!!
How exactly does FET work?
Can you girls give me some ideas?
Shall I cry NOW or LATER???
I need someone to talk me down!!!!
Has anyone heard of these?? ROAD TRIP!!!!!


In September 2011, less than a month after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi by the Libyan Revolution, Ahmed A. Kashadah found himself as managing director of a multi-billion-dollar foreign investment fund of the new Libyan government—the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP).
Ahmed A. Kashadah comes to LAP with solid educational credentials and experience. After graduation from high school in Libya, Mr. Kashadah attended St. Andrew's College in Cambridge UK, preparatory to earning two Bachelor of Science degrees, first from Queen Mary College of the University of London in engineering and business and second from Oxford Brookes University in applied accounting. Subsequently, Mr. Kashadah qualified for affiliate status with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants UK (ACCA).
After completing his education, Mr. Kashadah worked from 2007 to 2010 for the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), as a member of the investment team and one of the initiators. Thereafter in 2010, he joined Kashadah & Co., a Libyan accounting and consultancy firm founded in 1974. Later in 2010 he joined the General Investment Fund (GIF) as deputy CEO, developing the fund strategy and setup.
LAP is a multi-billion dollar capital investment fund that was created by the former Libyan government in 2006 with an initial capital of USD 5 billion. LAP has supported various activities across diverse sectors, such as airlines, banking, hospitality, oil and gas, trade, and telecommunications, with the goal of generating a positive impact on development across the African continent.
LAP has been a significant presence on the continent and—under its telecom arm, LAP Green—has invested in Zambia, Uganda, Niger and Ivory Coast. LAP also invests in these regions in other sectors mainly in Hospitality, Oil & Gas and others.
When Mr. Kashadah was first appointed as managing director of LAP in September 2011, he had to overcome insuperable difficulties. First were the effects of the revolution: "When we first came to LAP the building was looted, so we had a serious loss of documentation." Next, it was discovered that "LAP had no clear financial statements. Transparency had to be restored and confidence regained. Finally, during the revolution many of LAP's assets were frozen by foreign governments.
Addressing the Crans Montana Forum on Africa and African Development in Brussels, Belgium, last spring, Mr. Kashadah highlighted the new strategies developed to conduct the LAP as a "professional investment portfolio with no political or personal interests." He also briefed the forum in how "LAP's image has been improved as a result of the efforts of LAP Groups teams."
The Libya Africa Investment Portfolio is unique in that it was created to invest surplus Libyan oil revenues outside of Libya. As Mr. Kashadah explains, "By law LAP is not allowed to invest in Libya. We have an exemption from this law in two of our subsidiaries, but generally by law we cannot invest in Libya." Instead, Mr. Kashadah says, "LAP is a future generation fund that is trying to help the country diversify its income away from oil."
The goal of LAP, therefore, according to Mr. Kashadah, is to "build a strong fund that acts like a private equity fund but is not really private equity. The difference between a private equity fund and us is that a private equity fund would build businesses and they would sell them. We build businesses to stay and add value to the regions that we enter."
"We are trying to build a healthy future generation fund. We believe in the importance of investing in the neighboring countries, we share geography and more than that we share religion and history in some cases with these countries."


Please note that all JPMorgan Chase & Co lending products are are subject to credit and property approval under the Secure & Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing (SAFE Act) and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
When paying online a user can pick a due date, avoid costly stamps, change or cancel the service at anytime. Chase also provides helpful alerts in regards to payment due dates, an Alert when an annual escrow analysis is complete and when a payment has been made. Please note that in many cases if taxes or insurance payments increase the customers mortgage payment is likely to increase as well.
Chase Bank is an equal housing lender and is based in Minneapolis, MN.


Mint Coriander Chutney is a colorful and nutritive chutney. This is easy to prepare and goes well with all south Indian snacks. As this chutney does not contain coconut or dal, it can be kept without refrigeration even for a day.
Mint is Pudina in Tamil and Coriander is Kothamalli in Tamil.
Chop and grind together all the ingredients nicely except items given for seasoning.
Heat a pan with oil and do the seasoning; add the ground items and fry for one minute; cover and cook for minimum 5 more minutes; remove when oil separates from the surface with nice aroma.
Tasty mint coriander chutney is ready.
Use fresh mint and coriander leaves.
mint coriander chutney looks very delicious, must be excellent with samossas and hot snacks!! delicious recipe!!!
I love to combine both mint and coriander too,but my hubby dont like this combination…feel like having few tsp of chutney with hot crispy dosas..
Wonderful chutney! Just looking at ur pics makes me drool, and no doubt the chutney will be yummy too. thanks for the recipe!