Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Decency, Indecency, and Hypocrisy
"Israel is making difficult for its friends in the Muslim world to stay friends with it by constantly killing innocent people. Be it Turkey or Egypt, Israel’s actions have made it near impossible for the governments in the said countries to overtly support it. "
He raises an interesting point.
If we're talking about killing innocent people, I haven't noticed the Muslim world exactly falling over itself to condemn Hamas, now or ever...and they've been known to kill a fair amount of innocent people. Except,unlike the IDF Hamas deliberately targets civiians, don't they?
Or what about the Sudan's President Bashir who's got an arrest warrant out on him by the ICC and InterPol for what he ordered done to innocent people in Darfur?
The Muslim world ain't condemning him either. He's travelled to Egypt, Libya and Qatar and is getting a hero's welcome at the Arab League Summit as I write this!
Can Mr. Hayat spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y? I'm sure he can.
I would also question Mr Hayat's premise that Egypt is really a friend of Israel, given the popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood and the anti-Semitic propaganda and incitement that is routine in the Egyptian media. What Egypt and Israel have is essentially an armistice, based on the fact that the Egyptian regime knows it can't afford to lose another war with Israel, with $1.5 billion of desperately needed US aid in the balance and a sucession for the Mubarak regime close at hand.
As for Turkey, as PM Tayip Erdogan's Islamist government gets more of a handle over the secular military, that friendship has become pretty strained too. When a spoiled brat like Erdogan can throw a biased tantrum in public that even sparks a response out of an old dove like Shimon Peres, it tells us something, doesn't it?
The world is not divided by Muslim and non-Muslim, but by the decent and indecent.
It'a a source of sadness to me that so many Muslims ( not all, thank G-d) are unwilling to make a stand for decency and place that above tribal loyalty. Ultimately, it will cost them a great deal.
Weekend Monkey On Politics: The Real Banana,3/31/09
Hidey Ho, Primates! Welcome to the return of one and only Real Banana, your source for the real poop on politics.
Let's get right down to it, shall we?
Today's big noise is the special election in New York's 20th Congressional District. With the old rep Kirsten Gillibrand because kicked upstairs to the senate by Gov Patterson ( and lemme tell you, primates, I sure didn't see that one coming!) the race is on to replace her between Tedisco and Murphy.
If you still got a few shekels to bet, I figure the reThugs take this one by a couple of points, so it'll be Tedisco.
That particular district ain't Manhattan, it's upstate and thus a little more GOP leaning. Plus, people aren't exactly turning cartflips over the new state budget and all those Democrat inspired tax increases.
On the bright side for my Democrats it'll be close, so no real referendum on Obama. Although I gotta say, so fsr he screwing it up even worse thanI thought he would.
Anyhoo, bet Tedisco to win, or if you can find a 'tard who'll give you Murphy and three or four points, I'd bet the spread.
The other beeg noise today is Chris Dodd's political meltdown on his home ground in Connecticut. The Senator from CountryWide and AIG is in real trouble, even if the election isn't 'til next year. I mean, when your home state newspapers are calling you a lying weasel and the polls show some dumbass House rep with higher poll ratings than you when you're a five-term incumbent, it might just be time to pull the plug and ride off into the sunset with whatever you've been able to steal.
I wouldn't be surprised if Dodd did just that.
Weekend Monkey was a Democratic candidate for president in the 2008 election, and a frequent contributer to Joshuapundit.He is currently working on a book about the campaign. He can be contacted at Wendmonkey@ yahoo.com The Dinosaur Media Cooks The Polls For Obama
As President Obama jets across the Atlantic, the big headlines read :
Blame for downturn not fixed on Obama
Poll Finds Most Americans Approve of Obama's Economic Policies
Six in 10 Americans Approve Of Obama's Handling of Economic Crisis
Sure they do.That is until we take a closer look:The percentage of Americans in the new poll who said the country is on the right track still stands at just 42 percent, but that is the highest percentage saying so in five years and marks a sharp turnabout from last fall, when as many as nine in 10 said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Fifty-seven percent now consider the nation as moving on the wrong track.
Now doesn't that seem a mite contradictory? Here we are in the age of The One, with hope n' change in the air like a miasma of rotting meat and almost two thirds of the country disapproves of the way things are going? With Obama in charge? Somehow, that doesn't seem to square with the headlines, does it? Let's go on:At this early stage in his presidency, Obama continues to benefit from a broadly held perception that others should bear the bulk of responsibility for the severe economic problems that confront his administration. Americans see plenty of offenders, but only about a quarter blame the president and his team for an economy that's in the ditch.
Despite the increasing optimism about the future, the nation's overall mood remains gloomy, and doubts are rising about some of the administration's prescriptions for the economic woes. Independents are less solidly behind Obama than they have been, fewer Americans now express confidence that his economic programs will work, barely half of the country approves of how the president is dealing with the federal budget deficit, and the political climate is once again highly polarized.
Hmmm..once again, some contradictory statements in the same paragraphs. Only 25% of those polled think Obama's responsible for the current state of the economy,yet only half of the respondents approve of how he and his team are dealing with the economy?
I'd love to see how they worded the questions to come up with that. But let's continue...Obama's overall approval rating among independents has dipped six points, to 61 percent, and fewer than half, 45 percent, said he is doing a good job of handling the deficit. His approval rating among Republicans has dropped seven points, to 30 percent.
OK, so apparently the numbers are skewed by party lines.Just for giggles let's take a look at the actual polling data...and see how the partisan split affected the poll itself, in terms of whom the respondents were:
Democrat: 36%
Republican: 25%
Independent: 33%
So even with an 11-point in built pro-Obama skew to the poll from Democrats, Obama hasn't convinced a majority that the country is on the right track or that his economic approach is working. Only 27% say the economy is improving, while 36% say it's getting worse...and that's with the lopsided partisan Democrat advantage in favor of Obama!
I'm surprised that after a couple of months and with all the energy spent on blaming Bush that the numbers are this bad. Can it be that the One's honeymoon is over, even with a chunk of his own party?
As for the WAPO/ABC minions that conducted this 'poll'..well, figures lie, and liars figure, don't they?
', 'Monday, March 30, 2009
SecDef Gates Sends A Message To North Korea, Iran And Israel
In an interview with Chris Wallace on FOX last Sunday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was asked about North Korea's impending missile test and simply said "I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it."
This, after Gates admitted, "I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended to mask the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile."
In the same interview, Gates also danced around direct questions from Wallace about the Obama Administration's desire to severely cut funds allocated for missile defense.
There's a message here to a number of interested parties. The Mullahs of Iran now know that if the US is unwilling or unable to interfere with the North Koreans' ICBM test or take any effective action against their illegal nuclear program, the current occupant of the White House is certainly not going to interfere with Iran doing the same thing.
And the Israelis, if they're paying attention, should realize that the US either couldn't or wouldn't do anything to stop North Korea, they're not going to stop an Iranian missile strike on Israel either. And that any guarantees the Israelis get on that score are pretty much worthless.
Last but not least, of course is the message to the American people, who mostly aren't paying attention. Allowing rogue states to obtain and perfect nuclear weapons will eventually affect us severely, and the people supposedly in charge of dealing with this sort of thing apparently have more pressing concerns.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Blogger Sikander Hayat writes:
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