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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Barack Obama Pt. 1 | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Barack Obama Pt. 2 | ||||
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The suit that Justice Wooten allowed to proceed claims that in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4, were racing their bicycles, under the supervision of their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, on the sidewalk of a building on East 52nd Street. At some point in the race, they struck an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menagh, who was walking in front of the building and, according to the complaint, was “seriously and severely injured,” suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died three months later of unrelated causes.
The Obama Brand.
Or where John McCain missed it.
I started this a few days back and since I am out the door in a little bit to vote I might as well finish it up:
Thankfully we are only a few days out from the election. I say thankfully because I tire of the quadrennial frenzy out nation descends into every time a Presidential election rolls around. If only people would get as excited and as passionate for local elections – where are all you f*@#ers then?
Anyway, watching John McCain flounder through this campaign has been a real wonder to behold. I mean that in the most snarky and sarcastic sense because if ever there was a political candidate who so embodied the character from Animal House it would be Red State John.
Watching the ’08 edition of the Republican Party flail away has been simply amazing as they have tried time and time again to make something stick against Teflon Barack.
The thing is, Barack Obama has positioned his brand so well coming into this election cycle, he made himself almost impossible to beat.
Obama’s campaign from the very start was based around a single premise, a premise his whole brand identity was built upon.
Change.
It’s as simple as that, you can sum up Obama’s campaign in a single word and the candidate has hammered away continually reinforcing it in the electorate’s mind. A single word, which serves a multiple purpose.
First, it plays well to all the people who have been carrying pent up anger and venom ever since the 2000 election. These are the people who have so loudly and repeatedly called for some kind of change in the makeup of our government.
Funny thing is, we had a taste of that change during the ’06 midterm election when the Democrats. The end result... not much.
Six-point plan
Prior to the election in July 2006 Democrats unveiled a six-point plan they promised to enact if elected with congressional majorities. The plan was billed the “Six for 06 agenda” and officially called "A New Direction For America" and compared to the 1994 Republican “Contract with America.” The six-points of the plan include: “honest leadership and open government, real security, energy independence, economic prosperity and educational excellence, a healthcare system that works for everyone, and retirement security.”
People in this country have short memories, plainly put with a Democratic majority in both houses for the last two years and Congress has very little to show for it. This rally cry against one party or another doesn’t address the underlying dysfunction in our government. The government of our nation has been at best a reactionary force in American society and at worst a sterling example of how bureaucracy fails when compromised at the alter of Capitalism.
The dialog in our country especially in regard to the current election has been a fascinating glimpse into the fractured psyche of the American public. Is our government supposed to be a paternalistic entity? If so, how far are we willing to let our government become involved in our affairs? People at once want government to do something about health-care, about education, about business and a host of other issues but how restrictive do we want government to be? When government starts becoming involved in social issues, is it a good thing or a bad thing? We walk a tightrope here, some recognize it but many do not.
Getting back to the current election though, Obama has built the perfect brand... his brand is change.
Are you unhappy? Change.
Not making enough money? Change.
Don’t like our foreign policy? Change.
Worried about government spending? CHANGE!
It’s so broad and generic a term it defies the inherent hazards of specificity.
This is where John McCain has failed because he has been unable to distance himself from the current administration. John McCain’s campaign has tried repeatedly to figure out how to position their candidate - first it was as the ‘experienced guy’ but that didn’t work. Then, it was as the ‘heroic guy’ but that didn’t work either. Finally it was the ‘progressive guy’ (as evidenced by his VP choice) but ultimately that didn’t work either.
In the meantime, Obama has positioned himself as an agent of change. What that change will be, the American people have a vague idea of but it will be change.
I’ve gotten emails about our descent into Socialism, as if somehow this is supposed to raise some specter of fear in me.
Yet, I’m not afraid.
McCain has not been the only candidate frustrated by the Obama campaign’s deft positioning... speak to any HRC supporter and you’ll find a lingering bitterness, a disbelief in how her coronation somehow could not come to pass. How was it possible for the ultimate strategists to be outsmarted so?
Strategy? You must of course realize Barack Obama has not just foiled the plans of the RNC. No, he has also managed to foil the very carefully mapped out plans of the Clinton camp. Plans that included HRC sticking it out through Bill’s many dalliances, HRC taking a senate seat in a state to echo the path of RFK and all the built-up goodwill of stumping for so many Democratic candidates over the last 8 years building chits to be called in during her abortive presidential bid.
In any case, this year’s election has to be one of the best examples of the marketing of a candidate to come along since we started having elections. This has been the perfect example of an election for a media-obsessed society. To the detriment of everything else put on hold as we progress to this one-day.
I’m back and I’ve already taken care of voting. It promises to be one of those elections where there is a big turnout. I was 31 out of 400 registered voters for my polling location and it wasn’t even 7:30! I’m not going to watch all the polling news, I’m not going to stay riveted to the TV over this. Tomorrow, one way or the other it will be settled, we will have voted and a decision will have been made. It’s not a football game, or the World Series where you root for one side or another. As long as people come out and vote... we all win. (1123 Views pre transfer)
Don’t believe in change.
Election day is almost upon us and of course in the next few days the drumbeat will increase to a fever pitch as the very real prospect of one candidate winning and the other losing will become a reality.
I’ve made up my mind who I’m voting for, I still can’t fathom people who say they are as yet undecided. Do these same people need help having someone picking out their clothes for them in the morning or having another person feed them?
Thing is, whoever gets in, people need to be a lot more realistic about what our prospects are.
We are on the cusp of a prolonged recession. The volatility of the market aside, over the coming months there will be decreased consumer spending, higher unemployment and growing deficits.
If you doubt me on this, ask yourself how freely you spend money given the current economy and how secure you feel about money going forward.
The point is whoever wins this election will have a tough row to hoe. There will be very little leeway for any chief executive after dealing with the problems of the economy. Consequently, expect the next year to two years to be a very difficult time.
I don’t want to sound pessimistic but, as caught up as people can get in the frenzy of campaign season, it is imperative to realize January 21st, 2009 if your guy wins, the sun will not immediately come out, birds will not start singing and all will not suddenly become happiness and light. The people who believe that are going to be in for something of a rude awakening.
Likewise, if your guy loses... well, it’s not all the new President’s fault if things suddenly don’t go swimmingly. I would venture between now and round about June of 2010 were going to be having some sobering times. The booms in the last century were in the 20’s, the 50’s and the 90’s it may be a bit of time before another boom comes along. (1334 Views pre transfer)
Perhaps the Rangers’ greatest sales pitch simply was having Kristen sit in the visiting family section at Yankee Stadium during the playoffs. She says there were ugly taunts. Obscenities. Cups of beer thrown. Even fans spitting from the section above.Yes, Yankee fans just can’t learn what it means to comport themselves with the pride the franchise is supposed to embody. If the Bronx Zoo were written today, it would most likely be about what goes on in the stands than what goes on in the clubhouse because all too often Yankee fans at the Stadium behave like animals.
“The fans did not do good things in my heart,” Kristen says.
“When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it’s hard not to take it personal.”
Who knows if the fans’ behavior will have any affect on Lee’s decision. Nothing ever unravels him, Kristen says, unless something interferes with him during deer hunting season, which starts Nov. 13 in Arkansas. Free agency can wait a little longer.
He played 61 games for San Francisco and 57 games for Texas during the regular season. Molina has sparkled during the postseason, batting .333 with two homers and seven RBIs in nine games.
It may to many be a matter of surprise that so few vacant spaces have been left, and those so small, for the benefit of fresh air and consequent preservation of health. Certainly if the city of New York was destined to stand on the side of a small stream such as the Seine or the Thames, a great number of ample places might be needful. But those large arms of the sea which embrace Manhattan island render its situation, in regard to health and pleasure as well as to the convenience of commerce, peculiarly felicitous. When, therefore, from the same causes the prices of land are so uncommonly great, it seems proper to admit the principles of economy to greater influence than might, under circumstances of a different kind, have consisted with the dictates of prudence and the sense of duty.
Signs, signs, everywhere there’ve been signs at Citizens Bank Ballpark during the NLCS. Some of them, held up behind the visitors dugout during Game 1, were downright nasty toward San Francisco Giants slinger Tim Lincecum(notes).And that doesn’t even compare to what happened to the players in the Rangers bullpen at Yankee stadium as garbage and beer bottles were thrown down at the players from the stands:
Welcome to Izzy Spellman’s off-kilter world. Equal parts Sam Spade and Bridget Jones, she’s a damn good investigator—if only her dysfunctional family would back off and let her do her thing. Izzy’s cynical—okay, wise—enough to realize that a primrose-covered cottage with a white picket fence is not in her future. That’s okay with her. Ever the jaded P.I., she catalogs her ex-boyfriends with calculated brevity, reducing her romantic misjudgments to curt summaries of name, age, occupation, hobbies, duration, and last words.
Her parents said, girl don’t leave home
But her heart kept cheering her on
She had a real good man, steady job
But the two of them just weren’t in her heart
She only wanted to be close to me
To give me the love she knew someday I’d need
But I kept saying girl you’re wrong, go home
Long days, short nights when you’re on the road
For a pretty girl it’s a heavy load
And even so who’ll pay your fare
She said I’ll make it on a wing and a prayer
She only wanted to be close to me
To give me the love she knew someday I’d need
But I kept saying girl you’re wrong, go home
She said I’ve no right to tell her how life should be
Especially when the only one she ever cared about in life was me
But she agreed to go along with my final word
As fate would have life come around
My world started tumbling down
I lost my family, my friends and job
And set free the only one who stuck with me from the start
She only wanted to be close to me
To give me the love she knew someday I’d need
But I kept saying girl you’re wrong, go home
She said I’ve no right to tell her how life should be
Especially when the only one she ever cared about in life was me
But she agreed to go along with my final word, my final word
As fate would have life come around
My world started tumbling down
I lost my family, my friends and job
And set free the only one who stuck with me from the start
She only wanted to be close to me
To give me the love she knew someday I’d need
But I kept saying girl you’re wrong, go home
She only wanted to be close to me
To give me the love she knew someday I’d need
But I kept saying girl you’re wrong, go home
Go home baby, you better go home right now
Go home, little girl you better go home
On Dagen H, Sunday, 3 September, all non-essential traffic was banned from the roads from 01:00 to 06:00. Any vehicles on the roads during that time had to follow special rules. All vehicles had to come to a complete stop at 04:50, then carefully change to the right-hand side of the road and stop again before being allowed to proceed at 05:00. In Stockholm and Malmö, however, the ban was longer—from 10:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday—to allow work crews to reconfigure intersections. Certain other towns also saw an extended ban, from 15:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday.
What are we waiting for?Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all key policy issues, said Monday that Iran was determined to press ahead with its nuclear program despite the Security Council deadline.I have no issue with the Iranian people. How long will it take for people to wake up and realize that everything Iran is doing is a delaying tactic designed to allow them time to accomplish their goal? I am not saying we should send troops into Iran but, you have a regime that refers to our country as ‘The Great Satan.’ Does anyone honestly believe the government of Iran wishes us well?
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization deputy head Mohammad Saeedi said the same day that Iran would “provide Europe with an exceptional chance for an understanding and a return to the negotiating table,” but insisted an enrichment freeze was “no longer possible.”
“Broad economic sanctions, comparable to the isolation of Iraq in the 1990s, are no longer feasible,” Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, told a congressional committee. “Many Americans would question harsh measures that might push oil above $100 a barrel and trigger a world recession.”
As far as U.N. alliances in calling for sanctions, Russia, France and Britain have oil companies with interests in Iran. China is Iran’s second-biggest oil export market, and Beijing is negotiating a $70 billion deal to develop a natural-gas field, in exchange for imports of Iranian natural gas, the newspaper said.———— ————Iran remains a serious foreign policy challenge for our country and the democratic world at large. For nearly a quarter century the United States and Iran have been without diplomatic relations. With the images of our Embassy hostages seared so deeply into our collective consciousness, it is easy to forget that our countries once enjoyed excellent relations and, only a generation ago, 200,000 Iranians were studying in the U.S. The United States is proud to be home to a large community of extremely talented Iranian immigrants who preserve a cultural and personal bridge to Iran where diplomatic contact long ago broke off.
It is not with the Iranian people, but with the Iranian regime’s threatening and often irresponsible behavior, that our concerns rest. We have repeatedly made clear our grave concerns regarding the Iranian government’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and long-range delivery systems; its sponsorship of terrorism including its direct support to Hizballah and Palestinian rejectionist groups; its appalling human rights and democracy record; its support for violent opposition to efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East; and its interference in the affairs of its neighbors.———— ————With Iran feeling emboldened after the performance of its client organization, Hizbullah, in its war with Israel, and with the US facing deepening problems in Iraq, the Iranian leadership may not believe it has a lot to worry about, analysts say.
“The Iranians are feeling pretty confident and full of themselves right now, so that has probably only enhanced their calculation that they can defy anything the Security Council throws at them,” says Patrick Lang, a Middle East specialist and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst.———— ————Beyond the issue of sanctions, however, there are experts who fear that confrontation could in due course mean military action.
Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow in non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: “This won’t drag on for years. There are two deadlines of sorts at the end of 2008. That is the earliest date by which some people think Iran could acquire a nuclear weapon. I think the date is more like 2010.
“And on November 2008, there is the US presidential election. President Bush will be inclined not to let this problem be passed on. There will be a growing mood in the US administration to take other action.”———— ————Iran 'attacks Romanian oil rig'
A Romanian oil company says one of its rigs stationed in the Gulf has come under fire from Iranian troops. A spokesman for the firm GSP said Iranian troops had seized the rig after firing from a nearby ship, and GSP lost contact with its 26 workers there.
I looked Dhimmitude up in google. This will scare you!
VOTING IN NOVEMBER IS A MUST IF WE HOPE TO TURN THINGS AROUND !!!
Subject: Word of the Day: Dhimmitude
Need something to get your blood boiling????
Has anyone heard of this new word? Dhimmitude?
Amish and other religious groups may be exempt from forced purchase of healthcare policies under Obama care. You know what other groups this could include ???Muslims and Christian Scientists may be exempt from having to have government healthcare.
Word of the Day: Dhimmitude
Unbelievable
I had my doubts so I checked with Snopes. There is an exemption for "certain religious groups" in the Health Care Bill. Obama supporters check it out yourself.
Had never heard the word until now---Type it into Google and start reading Pretty interesting. Note that Muslims and certain other religions are exempt from the Obamacare penalties and it is supported by law. We are surrendering from within! The prez is leading us right down the path to total Muslim control and you don't care! Maybe you voted for him but now the truth comes out. Maybe you should rethink what you have done.
Dhimmitude is the Muslim system of controlling non-muslim populations conquered through jihad. Specifically, it is the TAXING of non-muslims in exchange for tolerating their presence AND as a coercive means of converting conquered remnants to islam.
The ObamaCare bill is the establishment of Dhimmitude and Sharia muslim diktat in the United States . Muslims may be specifically exempted from the government mandate to purchase insurance, and also from the penalty tax for being uninsured. Islam considers insurance to be "gambling", "risk-taking" and "usury" and is thus banned. Muslims may be specifically granted exemption based on this. How convenient. So I John Smith, as a Christian, will have crippling IRS liens placed against all of my assets, including real estate, cattle, cars and etc. and even accounts receivables, and will face hard prison time because I refuse to buy insurance or pay the penalty tax. Meanwhile, Louis Farrakhan will have no such penalty and will have 100% of his health needs paid for by the de facto government insurance at our expence. Non-muslims will be paying a tax to subsidize muslims. Period. This is Dhimmitude.
Dhimmitude serves two purposes: it enriches the muslim masters AND serves to drive conversions to islam. In this case, the incentive to convert to islam will be taken up by those in the inner-cities as well as the godless Generation X, Y and Z types who have no moral anchor or belief in God! If you don't believe in Christ to begin with, it is no problem whatsoever to sell Him for 30 pieces of silver. "Sure, I'll be a muslim if it means free health insurance and no taxes. Where do I sign, brother?" Now all you Obama voters get in line for your free stuff!...However, I suggest you don't hold your breath!...
I recommend sending this email to all your contacts. This is desperately important and people need to know about it and what the past election has done to all of us!
PS Have you heard about the summit Obama is holding this month in DC for the future Muslim business leaders in the US ? He wants to increase their ability to begin business opportunities in the US for the Muslim community! Better start looking for a country that doesn't cater to the Muslims ~ Austrailia doesn't because this country will be overrun by Muslims like Europe is currently experiencing. And you thought our problem was the Mexicans!......
