Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Presidential Trip Hypocrisy

UPDATE IV: "When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, we have a problem. It becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues — deficit reduction, health care, taxes, energy/climate — let alone act on them. Facts, opinions and fabrications just blend together. " Read The New York Times, Too Good to Check.


UPDATE III: He's no friend of Democratic presidents. But read what he has to say regarding Obama's trip to India, at the Washington Post, Why President Obama is right about India.


UPDATE II: Read CNN, Debunking the myth: The cost of Obama's trip to Asia.


Update: What are the facts about presidential trips? Read Politico, How much do Obama's foreign trips cost? and FactCheck.org, Trip to Mumbai.

The lie: Obama's trip to India is to escape post-election Washington and will cost the U.S. $200 million per day.

The trip to India was officially announced as early as June, after a trip to Indonesia and Australia was postponed.

"The trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan encompasses a G-20 summit, an Asia-Pacific Economic Council summit, major holidays in India and Indonesia, and bilateral talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and at least five other leaders, as well as four presidential news conferences."

It is true that an entire hotel was rented, but the same was done when Bush visited India.

The cost of the trip are "wildly inflated", actually the figure is probably fabricated and no doubt real cost is similar to the cost of Bush's trips.

I did hear any complainin' from the Republi-cons about Bush's 77 trips to Crawford, TX.

Why Is America Great?, Part V, It's Not Because We Are God's Chosen Nation

"American exceptionalism is now the central theme of Sarah Palin's speeches . . . [but is it] presumptuous, if not offensive." Read the Washington Post, Ohhh, America, you're so strong, which notes:

"The conservative use of American exceptionalism as a political sword today is perversely revealing. There's something off when the first generation of Americans that is less educated than its parents feels a deep need to be told how unique it is. Or that a generation that's handing off epic debts and a chronically dysfunctional political process (among other woes) demands that its leaders keep toasting its fabulousness. . .

Sarah Palin's focus on this theme proves she is shrewder than her critics acknowledge. I don't doubt that Palin's beliefs are sincere. But she's also tuned in to her audience: Millions of Americans who are anxious about America's trajectory and worried about their family's economic future. If you don't have real answers, soothing words are a start. "

Fair Play?

UPDATE II: Speaking of good sportsmanship, "Wisconsin’s 63-point victory over Indiana showed that compassion takes a back seat to perception in big-time college football." Read The New York Times, In B.C.S., No Reward for Sportsmanship.


UPDATE: "Just because it's legal, that doesn't make it right -- especially when an adult coach puts one over on the kids. Such trick plays are many things, but they're not good sportsmanship, says [NPR sports commentator] Frank Deford." Read, or listent to, NPR, Trickery On The Football Field: Like Child Abuse?

From Time, Best Middle School Football Play Ever: Quarterback Sneak Goes Viral, "the Corpus Christi, Tex., Driscoll Middle School Defenders came up with a deceitfully simple slow quarterback sneak":



But was it a fair play?

Compare it to The New York Times, Flap Over Lost H.S. Football Plays in Connecticut.

Republi-CON Health Care Hypocrisy

"[A]n incoming legislator who staunchly opposes the new health-care law and ran promising its repeal, [is upset that he has] to wait a month for his government-funded health-care benefits to kick in." Read the Washington Post, GOP legislator frets over 28 days without insurance -- but what about 30 million he'd leave uninsured?, which includes a graph showing "the number of uninsured under the status quo, the GOP's alternative health-care plan, and the [Patient Protection and] Affordable Care Act:"



No wonder they are proudly Republi-cons!

OBL Is Lovin' It!

Do we have a government that now "needlessly humiliates American citizens":

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
TSA Full-Body Scanners - Jeffrey Goldberg
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes2010 ElectionMarch to Keep Fear Alive


Makes ya wonder if OBL won.

Watch What You Wish For, You Might Lose Your Job

UPDATE IV: And if you lose your job, just die. Read the Washington Post, GOP to jobless: Drop dead.

Thank god for Republi-cons, defenders of the rich!


UPDATE III: What if those waskly Republi-cons had won in 2008?

"The Republicans opposed the stimulus package, and the nonpartisan

In other words, under Republican leadership, we would have at least an additional 1.4 million people out of work. As FactCheck.org, the indispensable truth squad Web site puts it: 'It’s just false to say that the stimulus created 'no jobs.
Congressional Budget Office estimates that it created between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.''"

Help reelect Obama, vote Republi-CON!


UPDATE II: "Private businesses added 64,000 workers in September." That's about 850,000 more than in Bush's last month.

But if you're still thinking it's time to balance the budget, read the rest of the story, The New York Times, Cuts in Government Led U.S. Economy to Lose 95,000 Jobs.


UPDATE: The articles to which Al referred during the Your Turn discussion today:

Reuters, Job losses in 2009 likely bigger than thought; and

Gallup, Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 10.1% in September.

For all those who pine for the Bush economy and the 'good ol' days of Republi-conism, from The Washington Monthly, Private-Sector Job Growth, "showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession" (emphasis added), with red columns for the Bush administration and blue columns for the Obama administration: