Archive for July 14th, 2008
When a Flip-Flop Becomes A Flim-Flam
Flim-flam is a senior classification as a label for those who not only change their opinion but do so with a malice, deceit, dishonesty, stupidity; or all of those.
In 2000 an acquaintance was involved in a campaign to defeat former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio for U. S. Senate, and was lamenting his flip-flops which I characterized as upper class flim-flams. One thing lead to another and “Flim-flam Florio” was born. Now I think it worthwhile to resurrect the senior classification as a label for those who not only change their opinion but do so with a malice, deceit, dishonesty, stupidity; or all of those.
As an example Senator John Kerry flip-flopped on his support for an Iraqi invasion and later said he’d voted against it. On the other hand Kerry’s whoring up of his military record was a flam-flam and comes with a special decoration.
So from now on I will nominate “flimflammers” whenever I perceive they deserve it, and I invite you to use it appropriately as well.
With Friends Like These.
Maybe The New Yorker Should Receive A Special Category Hypocrisy.com Horse’s A** Award.
Barack Obama’s campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is “tasteless and offensive.” The notoriously liberal magazine defends itself by saying its satirical cartoon cover raises the issues in such an absurd way that they can be more easily debunked and its editor said he was surprised by the furor.
Huffington Post, a left-leaning blog, said: “Anyone who’s tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who’s tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism - well, here’s your image.”
The cartoon also features an American flag burning in a fireplace behind the couple, and that itself is cited by conservatives as offensive in the extreme. The whole thing is tasteless and foolish exemplifying a magazine’s’ staff run amuck.
The New Jerker Magazine Fanning Flames of Ignorance and Bigotry
The Satire below Is a Disservice to the Public:
The Obama and McCain campaigns each immediately expressed disdain for the satirical cover showing Obama in traditional Muslim attire and his wife Michelle wearing rifle, doing a fist tap, which I have grown partial to as a non traditional handshake I can actually remember how to do.
All in an oval office setting with a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall and a US flag burning in the fireplace.
Just because one can make up this satire does not make it right. Yes, I meant to say right. Even if the Onion printed this, it would be appropriate for thinking people to wonder how it serves any public purpose. Appropriateness should still matter. The extreme rights of no one should completely crowd out community standards.
How much more arrogant, elitist and money mongering can any one magazine become? Can they not care about the unintended consequences of this presumably protected action?
I would cancel my subscription if I had one. Maybe we should all call up and order a subscription and then cancel it during the consideration period. It would be well earned if instead of padding their pockets due to increased circulation and driving more traffic to their web if this more than tasteless action backfired and they lost readership.
Just because they are clever and know that they are intending to make an outrageous swipe at those who believe or spread false rumors about the Obamas, does not make this acceptable. Not everyone who will see this on the magazine stands in every Barnes and Noble and other magazine racks will know all that the editors of this New Jerker edition knows or think they know. Not everyone reads everything there is to read about politics, let along understands the off the wall selfish motivations of The New Jerker in this case.
How can Obama or any of us expect his words of individual responsibility to gain a foothold if the likes of these jerks, and Jesse Jackson, can whimsically dilute the message and still benefit from the publicity, bad or good. It is a loss to society when bad publicity is profitable to individuals or companies. It is not profitable to the public,
Did I mention I think they are jerks?
Americans Overwhelmingly Support More Domestic Oil Production
Offshore Oil Drilling Ban Lifted Now It Is up To Tone Deaf Congressional Hypocrites.
President Bush’s lifting of the Executive Order banning offshore oil drilling signals that only Congress is standing in the way of lessening America’s dependence on foreign oil.
There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by former President Bush in 1990. Bush’s move echoes a call by Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain.
Congressional Democrats are harrumping while Americans pay through the nose at the gas pumps. But, the move is overwhelmingly supported by voters nationwide and with Congress’ approval rating scraping the bottom of the barrel at a miserable 9% can the likes of Reid and Pelosi block more domestic oil production. Such drilling has been blocked for 27 years.
A June 26-29 CNN / Opinion Research poll founds only 27% oppose drilling offshore. A June 18-19 Pew poll found 60% favor new oil development over environmental concerns and increase from 49% in May. The same poll favor drilling in ANWR 50-43%. Even an LA Times poll found support for drilling with proper controls is favored by 57-22%. A June 17-18 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll 76% favor increasing oil drilling immediately; 77% favor drilling in the Gulf of Mexicso; 53% favor drilling in ANWR; 51% favor building nuclear power plants. 63% oppose gasoline rationing, and 83% say no new taxes on gasoline.
Most non-partisan economist generally agree a U. S. move to more oil drilling ban would fairly quickly take pressure off world oil prices.
Today I am Fat
If I reduce my eating, today, it will take a long time for me to lose weight.
So can you please pick me up, today, and take me to the Dairy Queen for a large Blizzard?
I have no savings and I can’t afford gas, today, so what can I do but eat ice cream, today?
Damm that Bush, he wants to drill for more oil. Today. I only want green energy and I want it today!
U. S. Newspaper Readership Steady As Advertisers Desert
Good and Bad News for U. S. Newspaper - Great news for Asia
Newspaper readers are not deserting at anywhere near the rate of advertisers says the latest edition of the Readership Institute (RI) tracking study among 3,000 readers of 100 newspapers.
The Institute observes that as newspaper staffs contract it’s a challenge, to say the least, for a smaller staff to produce, sell and deliver a high-quality local news. Newspaper readers spend, on average, 27 minutes with the daily paper, little changed in the last six years. Readers spend 57 minutes with the Sunday paper, but that figure “has been slowly dropping” since 2002.
The bad news is that 62% of respondents said they had never gone to their local paper’s Web site — and just 14% said they had visited between the last seven to 30 days. RI’s Site Usage Measurement (SUM) score — measuring the frequency and duration of visits — has changed little for newspapers over the years, and is a “feeble” 1.26 on a scale of 1 to 7. A Neilsen Survey of US Newspaper websites attracted more than 66 million unique visitors in the first quarter of 2008 — a record, and a 12 percent increase on a year ago, according to Nielsen Online analysis. Forty percent of all Internet users visit a newspaper site.
U. S. newspaper circulation is down 30% since 1985. Seven of the 10 best-selling daily newspapers are in Asia, which also has the three largest markets: China, India, and Japan
No To VP Slot Says Lieberman
Maverick Lieberman Calls for Maverick McCain Election
“…I really have been there and done that,” Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) told ABC News. “I am not a candidate. I am not interested in doing it. I hope John [McCain] is elected president. I’m going to work hard to do that. And I think the best thing I can do to help him be the great president I think he’s capable of being is to be Democratic senator working across party lines to get things done.” Born Joseph Isadore “Joe” Lieberman he is serving his fourth term in the US Senate. In 2000 he became the first Jewish VP candidate on Al Gore’s ticket and ran for the Democrat Presidential nomination in 2004. His “conservative” views put him on the outs with the Democrat party, and he lost its nomination for reelection in 2006 before being reelected as a third party candidate as “Connecticut for Lieberman.” He caucuses with Democrats and is officially an “independent Democrat” and openly supports John McCain to the chagrin of many Democrats.
Shift on Iraq Found in New Polling
Partisan Split on Iraqi Victory
Forty percent (40%) of American voters now say victory in Iraq is possible. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that a slightly larger percentage-44%–disagree and say victory is not possible. The issue splits on party lines — Republicans, by a 3-to-1 margin, say victory is possible. Democrats, by a similar margin, say it is not. Unaffiliated voters are evenly divided. A plurality of men say victory is possible while a plurality of women say it is not. Those figures reflect more optimism than was found a year ago. In July 2007, just 32% of American voters said that victory was possible and 54% disagreed.
Only 5% believe that terrorist organizations will stop attacking the United States if we withdraw our troops from Iraq. Eighty percent (80%) disagree and believe that terrorists will continue attacking the U.S. regardless of whether or not we have troops in Iraq. Just 13% believe that withdrawing troops from Iraq will make the United States safer than it is today. Thirty-eight percent (38%) say that withdrawing troops from Iraq will make the United States less safe and 45% say it will have no impact.
Most Americans-52%–said in a May Rasmussen Survey that bringing the troops home within four years is a higher priority than winning the War. Other research seems to show political motivations that if it takes losing the war to get Obama elected that is acceptable to Democrats but the converse is not true for Republicans.
Thirty-nine percent (39%) disagree and say winning the War is more important. Thirty-eight percent (38%) say that withdrawing troops from Iraq will make the United States less safe and 45% say it will have no impact. Fifty percent (50%) say that the people of Iraq will be less safe if U.S. troops withdraw. Only 8% believe the Iraqi people will be safer without U.S. troops.
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Some days (particularly Mondays) require more than one cuppa. Today is one of those days.
1. Word for the day: transparency
BlackListed News: Kucinich Demands Congress Issue Subpoenas for Continuity of Government Plans
John Conyers has been issuing subpoenas on other issues, which may be important. However, what could be more important for Congress than determining whether or not the Constitution is still the controlling document for our country? What could be more important for Congress than determining whether COG planning documents strip Congress of its power, and give sole power to the executive branch?
2. If we add another battle front (cough-Iran-cough), we will need more “waivers” to fill the ranks…
Huffington Post: Greg Mitchell: Shocker: More than 1 in 10 Army Recruits Now Given “Moral Waivers”
In 2007, almost 10,000 recruits were granted waivers for past misdemeanors. over 2100 for “serious criminal misconduct” — over four times the 2003 rate - -and almost 1500 for drug or alcohol abuse.
3. Just another example of children being trained to be good little sheeple…thankfully, the appeals court did the right thing.
Joanne Jacobs: Strip search violated girl’s rights
To learn if Savana Redding was carrying over-the-counter pain pills such as Advil or Motrin, a school nurse told her to remove her clothes, including her bra, and shake her underwear. A classmate caught with ibuprofen had named Savana as her supplier. No pills were found.
Did China save the 1984 Olympics?
A very good read from the New York Times , which is apparently taking a day off from criticizing Beijing’s Olympic efforts:
At the other end of the line was Charles Lee, the man he had sent to persuade the Chinese to send their team to the Olympics for the first time. Ueberroth, the leader of the Los Angeles organizing committee, was asking China to defy a Soviet Union-led boycott that was announced four days earlier. The Soviets said the boycott would keep 100 countries away from the ’84 Games. If the Soviets succeeded, Ueberroth said flatly, “we were done.”
Salvation came when Lee called and told Ueberroth, “They’re coming.”