I am perplexed by President Obama’s speech last night. He spoke to the American people from his Oval Office to announce the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While that declaration is not confusing, this paragraph is:
And so at this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy, and grit, and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad. They have met every test that they faced. Now, it is our turn. Now, it is our responsibility to honor them by coming together, all of us, and working to secure the dream that so many generations have fought for — the dream that a better life awaits anyone who is willing to work for it and reach for it. (taken from the transcripts on CNN)
Isn’t it logical that if a group enjoys a privilege that they would self-police themselves to a great deal to protect that right? Shouldn’t a group of journalists being extremely hard on one of their own that pontificates opinion as being fact and deliberately distorts the facts of their investigation to imply something significantly different?
I think this is logical. By challenging the journalists that hurt the Freedom of Press right or cause it to be abused, the journalists of the world are self-policing themselves. They are saying that with a Right comes a Responsibility. Abuse of the responsibility for fair reporting risks the rights of all journalists and, by extension, the rights of all US citizens.
A member of the US Congress assaults a student on the sidewalk! I cannot tell the age of the student but if he is under 18 years of age, Mr. Etheridge should be arrested.
A recent article on FoxNews suggests that Barack Hussein Obama should drop Vice President Joseph Biden from the ticket in 2012 and put Hillary Clinton in the job instead.
I don’t think she will do it.
She will stay Secretary of State for the balance of the first term. If BHO is re-elected, she will resign shortly into the second term and no one will blame her as the SecState job is brutal. This will allow her to publish one more book and do the money-raising chicken-dinner circuit. She will then run in 2016 to succeed BHO, taking credit for thegood that she did as SecState but distancing herself from BHO’s screwups.
If BHO would lose in 2012 , she would be even better positioned for ‘16.
Even though the economy is slowly starting to recover from the excesses of spending of the George W. Bush administration (and the equally complicitous Congress), we are still far from out of the woods. The economy is in pain, in addition to the overspending, due to poor financial market regulation which destroyed several top-notch financial firms such as Lehman Brothers (who also appeared to break some standard accounting laws and best practices). The government responded to help these big institutions because they were “too big to fail.”
Let’s face it – there should be no such thing as “too big to fail.” Most of us work for companies that are not in that category. If our employers screw up and the company goes down the tubes then we will individually hurt and perhaps the micro-economy around that company will hurt a bit but for the most part the US GDP won’t even see the speed bump. This is the way that it should be – screw up and fail then just pick yourself up and get on with life.
I don’t have a huge problem with Mr. Specter on his voting record. He typically was a pain in the ass for everyone and it appeared that over the years, no one controlled him. My problem is the game that he played to avoid the voters in Pennsylvania. About a year ago, Senator Specter realized that his Republican base had dwindled considerably and he would probably not win a primary contest. Not wanting to put his career at the stake of these voters, Sen. Specter switched parties and said he was a Democrat. Yesterday, the Democrat Party voters rejected Mr. Specter as their candidate to run for the Senate seat.
Of course, Mr. Specter could still run for Senate. He could say that all parties are bad and run as an independent. He does not appear to have the ambition to do that based on this video clip.
I am so happy that I live in the USA where the pursuit of one’s religious belief is supposed to be accepted. I acknowledge that even in the US, it is not always easy to pursue one’s beliefs. I also acknowledge that there is still bigotry and racism, but in general, we are much more free than most places in the world.
Shame on the Belgium Parliament for passing this bill.
