Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Ehud Olmert Is Finally History
As the new Netanyahu government moves in, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is moving on.
As such, he deserves a requiem of sorts.
What sort of music would go well with the exit of the most corrupt and weak leader in Israel's history?
Verdi's Otello? The Simpson's theme? Black Sabbath's first album? Maybe a Hebrew version of 'Jailhouse Rock' ?
Olmert, you see, is that rare bird who crapped in his own nest.
He's not renowned for building anything or achieving anything.
No, his fame comes from sleazy dealings that would embarrass a Chicago alderman, from kicking Jews out of their homes and beating and imprisoning teenagers, and from being the first Israeli PM to lose one war and essentially draw in a second.
Unlike most of Israel's leaders, Olmert had no military background. Instead, he was just anothe rcrooked lawyer who saw plitics as a way to enhance his lifestyle.
Olmert's tenure in office relied on lying and deceiving his countrymen, when he wasn't hitting them up for 'expenses' and ' contributions'. And while that Chicago alderman might actually deliver something for the money, Olmert delivered nothing, because he felt like it was all due him. He specialized in personal agrandizement and ineptness.
He presided over an equally inept troika, which included Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz who combined with Olmert to throw the IDF into a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon without any particular plan in mind, and without the strength needed to get the job done on the ground - and finished it with a meaningless 'ceasefire' that saw accomplished nothing and saw Hezbollah fully re-armed within months.
Peretz at least had the dignity to resign from this trainwreck, but Livni stayed on to make a trip to Annapolis and sit by while the Saudi 'peace' ultimatum became legitimized in US policy. Even worse, the two of them combined once more to fumble a chance to destroy Hamas and the threat on Israel's southern border in one swoop. As it is, Olmert has left Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran for his successor to deal with.
Along with Olmert, Livni is gone now too, back to the rock she crawled out from under, but not before the two of them did enormous damage.
Olmert finished up with a real bang.Even with multiple indictments piling up, the cops interrogating him and his associates around the clock and approval ratings that suggested his support was limited to his immediate family, he didn't have the simple decency to resign earlier and let the country go to elections. Instead, he held on to the last possible moment, finally doing a pro forma 'resignation' and going through the farce of letting Tzipi Livni try and form a government when he knew it was impossible - so he could stay on a caretaker until the new PM was sworn in.
Ehud Olmert is finally gone. He was a vicious, foul scumbag of a man,the truth was not in him and he was so crooked that he needed a couple of aides to screw his pants on in the morning so he could get dressed.
Ehud Olmert has finally left the building and removed a foul stench in the process
Il ya un peu moins mal dans le monde...
Selah.
Another Democrat Tax Cheat!
Does the Obama Administration have the ability to nominate anyone for the cabinet who actually pays the high taxes they want to impose on the rest of us? This time, its Health and Human Services nominee Karen Sebelius...Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors"—the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee.
The Kansas governor explained the changes to senators in a letter dated Tuesday that the administration released. She said they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.
Sebelius said she filed the amended returns as soon as the errors were discovered by an accountant she hired to scrub her taxes in preparation for her confirmation hearings. She and her husband, Gary, a federal magistrate judge in Kansas, paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest to amend returns from 2005-2007.
Asked by The Associated Press to comment on the amended tax returns as she left a Capitol Hill restaurant Tuesday night, Sebelius said, "We put out a statement and the statement speaks for itself."
Several Obama administration nominees have run into tax troubles, notably the president's first nominee for HHS secretary, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. He withdrew from consideration while apologizing for failing to pay $140,000in taxes and interest.
Hmmmm...almost $8,000 is a pretty sizeable 'unintentional error'. And this person is going to be in charge of the multi-billion dollar universal health care system Obama plans to sadlle us with? I guess she's planning on running HHS the way she ran the Kansas state budget.
I can ceetainly see why these people are unconcerned about raising taxes. They don't intend to pay them!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?
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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