12 April 2008
Weekend Chat - 04/12 & 13/08
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: What's News .
15 Comments so far...
Cameron Says:
12 April 2008 at 10:52 am.
I have wondered if Obama was an elitist and now, on a personal level, after reading this, I am convinced he is. I am not buying his argument that his remarks were ill chosen. I believe what he said the first time, not what he later came back and said he meant. I am putting up my favorite paragraphs from the article.
Obama concedes remarks were ill chosen
MUNCIE, Ind - After a full throated response to criticism that he is condescending, Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday conceded that that comments he made about bitter working class voters who “cling to guns or religion” were ill chosen.
“I didn’t say it as well as I should have,” he said.
(Hillary Clinton’s words)
“Senator Obama’s remarks were elitist and out of touch,” she said, campaigning about an hour away in Indianapolis. “They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans.”
At issue are comments Obama made privately at a fundraising gathering in San Francisco last Sunday. He explained his troubles winning over working class voters, saying they have become frustrated with economic conditions:
“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.”
The flap threatened to highlight an Obama Achilles heel — the image that the Harvard-trained lawyer is arrogant and carries himself with an air of superiority.
The campaign has been quick to react, hoping to defuse any damage caused with working class voters that Obama needs to win over in upcoming primaries in Pennsylvania and Indiana.
“Lately there has been a little typical sort of political flare up because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois who are bitter,” Obama said Saturday morning at Ball State University. “They are angry. They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they’re going through.”
“So I said, well you know, when you’re bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country or they get frustrated about you know how things are changing.”
Article
Cameron Says:
12 April 2008 at 11:11 am.
Hu must think we are idiots. Tibet does not threaten to split the motherland. It wasn’t until their recent history that they invaded Tibet and claimed their land. Besides, Tibet is on the far western edge of China. The unrest that is happening now is because they are trying to wipe out Tibetan culture and religion. He is a bald-faced liar. He is also saying that the world should shut up. Their murder and abuse of their people is nobody’s business. What a jerk.
China’s Hu: Tibet is an internal matter
By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer
BOAO, China - Chinese President Hu Jintao took a hard line Saturday in his first remarks on the recent unrest in Tibet, saying the matter is an internal affair that directly threatens Chinese sovereignty.
Hu’s comments to visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd came at a meeting on the sidelines of a regional economic forum in the southern province of Hainan.
“Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem,” the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Hu as saying, referring to supporters of Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing blames for fomenting the unrest. “It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland.”
E.E. Says:
12 April 2008 at 11:29 am.
Cameron, I’m with you on Obama. I’m not buying it either. I think he is two-faced.
E.E. Says:
12 April 2008 at 11:34 am.
This is scary. We have those anti-terrorism laws too. This reminds me of the things Joy was saying about her family being on a watch list.
Anti-terror laws used to spy on family
A family who were wrongly suspected of lying on a school application form have discovered that their local council used anti-terrorism surveillance powers to spy on them.
The family, from Poole in Dorset, said they had been tailed for three weeks by council officials trying to establish whether they had given a false address in an attempt to get their three-year-old daughter a place at a heavily oversubscribed local nursery school, which their two older children had attended. The family had in fact done nothing wrong, and the investigation was eventually aborted.
Yesterday it emerged that Poole borough council had legitimately used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to monitor the family. This involved keeping a detailed log of their movements for two weeks, following the mother’s car as she took her three children to school each day and even watching the family home to ascertain their sleeping habits.
The Act, passed in 2000, was supposed to allow security agencies to combat terrorism.
The 39-year-old mother, a businesswoman who wished to remain anonymous, said: “I can’t imagine a greater invasion of our privacy. I’m incensed that legislation designed to combat terrorism can be turned on a three-year-old. It was very creepy when we found out that people had been watching us and making notes. Councils should be protecting children, not spying on them.”
Matt Says:
12 April 2008 at 12:40 pm.
Cameron, I liked what you wrote about the Chinese arrogance about Tibet. Sounds like Hu is living in the dark ages. Dictators are scary.
Jan W. Says:
12 April 2008 at 3:12 pm.
We are becoming a lot like Germany in the 1930s and their records show they were keeping an eye on huge numbers of their people. Wouldn’t we be pretty naive to think with the technology we have that it wouldn’t be happening here? Especially since the Patriot Act was put in.
Matt Says:
12 April 2008 at 8:57 pm.
G-7 Signals Concern on Dollar’s Slide, Weaker Growth (Update2)
By Simon Kennedy and John Brinsley
April 12 (Bloomberg) — Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven nations signaled concern on the dollar’s slide and said the global economic slowdown may worsen amid an “entrenched” credit squeeze.
“Since our last meeting, there have been at times sharp fluctuations in major currencies, and we are concerned about their possible implications for economic and financial stability,” the G-7’s finance ministers and central bankers said in a statement after talks in Washington yesterday.
The officials downgraded their outlook for the world economy from that of two months ago, blaming the U.S. housing recession, credit-market turmoil, commodity prices and inflation pressures. The dollar has lost 8 percent against the euro and 6 percent versus the yen since the G-7 last met in Tokyo in February.
“They ratcheted up the currency rhetoric a notch or so,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. “They’re trying to buy some time for the dollar.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7Yh8jULL1W8&refer=worldwide
Cameron Says:
13 April 2008 at 7:35 am.
More concern about food prices.
n world food prices, market woes
BY HARRY DUNPHY, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Finance ministers and central bankers are focusing their spring meetings on ways to deal with the unfolding financial crisis that has roiled economies around the world and led to higher food and energy prices.
Sessions of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank end Sunday with a look by the bank’s policy-setting committee at the effect on developing countries, especially poor ones where the bank is trying to reduce poverty.
“We must respond to the immediate emergency situation,” Robert Zoellick, the bank president, said before the meeting, but in a way that helps developing countries achieve objectives such as improved health care and reduced malnutrition and infant mortality.
The officials are also talking about climate change, investment in Africa and rising food prices.
“In the U.S and Europe over the last year we’ve been focused on the prices of gasoline at the pump,” Zoellick said. “While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs. And it’s getting more and more difficult every day.” The poor already spend up to 75 percent of their income on food in many developing countries, he said.
Zoellick has said that to deal with the immediate crisis, the international community must fill a food shortage valued at a minimum of $500 million by the U.N. World Food Program.
A similar warning was sounded Saturday by the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He said there would be dire consequences if food prices remain high in developing countries, especially in Africa.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080413/ap_on_bi_ge/finance_meetings
Cameron Says:
13 April 2008 at 9:24 am.
Meanwhile, 400 kids have been taken from their homes. I don’t like how this has been handled but I do hope the polygamists will stop the marriage below 18 practice.
Rangers talk with polygamist ranch suspect
ELDORADO, Texas (CNN) — Texas Rangers on Saturday met with — but did not arrest — the man accused by a teenage girl of physically and sexually abusing her at a polygamist compound.
Arizona probation officials said the meeting with Dale Evans Barlow, 50, happened just across the Arizona state line in St. George, Utah.
“The Texas Rangers met with him. He was allowed to go, and no arrest was made,” said Friend Walker, director of the Mojave County, Arizona, probation office.
Barlow’s attorney, Bruce Griffen, said the meeting was voluntary.
He said he and Barlow are working to gather evidence that his client could not have been in Texas when the crimes are said to have happened.
“We shook hands; we left,” Griffen said outside Barlow’s home in Arizona.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/12/polygamy.suspect/index.html
Matt Says:
13 April 2008 at 2:48 pm.
Before she was for guns, she was against guns. Flip…flop.
Clinton Portrays Herself as a Pro-Gun Churchgoer
VALPARAISO, Ind. - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton managed to co-opt Mr. Obama’s message of hope and optimism, beginning a speech in Valparaiso, Ind., by talking about how positive and “fundamentally optimistic” Americans are.
“We don’t get bogged down and looking back – we’re always looking forward,” she said, as heavy applause nearly drowned out her words. “Whatever obstacle we see, we get over it. Whatever challenge we have, we meet it. We’re the problem-solvers, we’re the innovators, we’re the people who make the better future.”
For the third time since Mr. Obama’s remarks were made public Friday night, Mrs. Clinton criticized him at length, saying his comments seemed “kind of elitist and out of touch.”
“I disagree with Senator Obama’s assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about immigration or trade simply out of frustration,” she said.
She described herself as a pro-gun churchgoer, recalling that her father taught her how to shoot a gun when she was a young girl and said that her faith “is the faith of my parents and my grandparents.”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/clinton-portrays-herself-as-a-pro-gun-churchgoer/
Joy Bischoff Says:
13 April 2008 at 3:01 pm.
I remember watching Bill Clinton give a speech years ago and he said that Americans were going to have to give up their obsession with their second amendment rights.
Not buying it, Hillary.
Jesse Says:
13 April 2008 at 5:39 pm.
He’s no Ron Paul but I still don’t like how much this guy gets trashed. Seems nothing he does or doesn’t do pleases the press.
MITT ‘VEEPS’ OPTIONS OPEN WITH MCCAIN
By GINGER ADAMS OTIS
April 13, 2008 — He’s in the papers and on TV, shaking hands and kissing babies, acting like any other candidate who’s running for president - except he’s not.
Mitt Romney’s running for vice president.
Romney’s been playing foot soldier for Sen. John McCain in Pennsylvania - lobbying heavily for an “M&M” ticket in November. His enthusiastic courting of the job, when most play coy or at least cool, has made him the target of an anti-Mitt media blitz.
Paul Weywrich, co-founder of the Moral Majority, used to be a Romney backer, endorsing him for president last November.
But now the Christian conservative’s done an about-face - and everywhere Romney appears for McCain, Weywrich’s group places full-page ads in newspapers declaring the former Massachusetts governor “utterly unacceptable” as a veep choice.
Romney’s “actions as governor flatly contradict both the values widely associated with his faith as well as his pro-life and pro-traditional marriage campaign rhetoric,” the ads say.
The Moral Majority placed the ads in Pennsylvania newspapers last week to coincide with Romney’s appearance at a Republican dinner in Lancaster on Thursday night, but the McCain camp declined to comment on them.
It was the first time Romney headlined a banquet for McCain, although he’s already done some campaigning for the GOP nominee in western states.
Once formidable rivals on the campaign trail, Romney and McCain have since formed a solid working relationship that’s paying dividends for the Arizona senator.
“The two of them have had the opportunity to spend some time together, and they really enjoy each other’s company,” said a source close to McCain, who said much of the tension between the two disappeared once the campaigning ended.
Romney is doing more than just stumping for McCain. The wealthy, former Massachusetts governor has opened up his Rolodex of deep-pocketed donors and is soliciting funds for the cash-challenged candidate.
Matt Says:
13 April 2008 at 5:58 pm.
I wasn’t sure whether or not to pull this from Committed to Romney website but after reading what Jesse put up there by the snotty out of touch MSM, I figured we should have this:
From: Right Wing News
Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired Vice-President For John McCain
Right Wing News emailed more than 230 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a ranked list of 1-5 people they’d most like to see as John McCain’s Vice-President and the 1-5 people they’d least like to see as John McCain’s Vice-President. Representatives from the following 45 blogs responded…
The Anchoress, Argghhhh!, AtlanticBlog, The Baseball Crank, Blonde Sagacity, Bluey Blog, Boi From Troy, Bookworm Room, Classical Values, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Club For Growth Blog, Conservative Grapevine, Damian Penny, Drumwaster’s Rants, Elocutio, Eternity Road, Musings, Fetching Jen, Cassy Fiano, Fraters Libertas, GraniteGrok, GayPatriot, IMAO, Jeff Gannon - A Voice of the New Media, JackLewis, Liberty Pundit (Brian), GOPUSA Northeast (Hank), Rachel Lucas, Mainstream Libertarian, Midnight Blue, mountaineer musings, Moxie, Newmark’s Door, Noisy Room, No Oil For Pacifists, The Nose On Your Face, Pal2pal, The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill, Pirate’s Cove, Don Singleton, Sister Toldjah, Solomonia, The Sundries Shack, Don Surber, WILLisms,
The Most Desired Vice-President For John McCain
18) Rudy Giuliani: Former Mayor, New York (5.0)
17) Tim Pawlenty: Governor, Minnesota (5.5)
16) Jim DeMint: Senator, South Carolina (6.0)
15) Mike Pence: Congressman, Indiana (7.0)
14) Phil Gramm: Former Senator, Texas (7.0)
13) Elizabeth Dole: Senator, North Carolina (7.0)
12) Sarah Palin: Governor, Alaska (9.0)
11) David Petraeus: General (10.5)
10) Newt Gingrich: Former Congressman, Georgia (11.0)
9) JC Watts: Former Congressman, Oklahoma (12.0)
Haley Barbour: Governor, Mississippi (13.5)
7) Mark Sanford: Governor, South Carolina (16.5)
6) Duncan Hunter: Congressman, California (17.0)
5) Bobby Jindal: Governor, Louisiana (20.0)
4) Condi Rice: Secretary of State (22.0)
3) Fred Thompson: Former Senator, Tennessee (26.5)
2) Michael Steele: Former Lieutenant Governor, Maryland (28.5)
1) Mitt Romney: Former Governor, Massachusetts (29.5)
The Least Desired Vice-President For John McCain
15) Tom Ridge: Former Governor, Pennsylvania (5.0)
14) Tommy Franks: Former General (5.0)
13) Tim Pawlenty: Governor, Minnesota (5.5)
12) Rudy Giuliani: Former Mayor, New York (7.0)
11) Newt Gingrich: Former Congressman, Georgia (7.5)
10) Elizabeth Dole: Senator, North Carolina (7.5)
9) Mel Martinez: Senator, Florida (10.0)
Condi Rice: Secretary of State (16.5)
7) Christie Todd Whitman: Former Governor, New Jersey (19.5)
6) Joe Lieberman: Senator, Connecticut (19.5)
5) Charlie Crist: Governor, Florida (20.0)
4) Colin Powell: Former Secretary of State (23.0)
3) Jeb Bush: Former Governor, Florida (23.5)
2) Lindsey Graham: Senator, South Carolina (26.5)
1) Mike Huckabee: Former Governor, Arkansas (42.5)
Sid Says:
13 April 2008 at 6:24 pm.
That’s good news. At first I was reading it wrong and I thought Mitt was at the bottom then I realized he was first. Huckabee is number one but on the wrong list. I love it.
Cameron Says:
13 April 2008 at 8:21 pm.
Matt, good call. That is great news. What a crack up that Huckabee is at the bottom and it is his people that are putting out the anti-Romney VP message. Gives me more faith in America to see they can see through Huckabee’s phoniness.
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