Day: February 2, 2009

Steele: New RNC Leader

The GOP’s RNC has chosen its new helmsman for the future, but damn…I have heard his words before…..

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee today, giving the GOP its first African-American leader as the party seeks to reframe its identity under the presidency of Barack Obama.

Steele won after five rounds of balloting, beating four other candidates who sought the chairmanship. He finished with 91 votes in the final round — six more than the threshold required to win election — compared with 77 for Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

“This is awesome,” Steele told RNC members after winning the two-year term. “It’s time for something completely different. . . . We’re going to bring this party to every corner, every boardroom, every neighborhood, every community. And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike, ‘We want you to be a part of us, we want you to work with us. And for those of you who are ready to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over.’ ”

Is it me or does that sound a whole lot like Dean’s and then Obama’s 50 state strategy?  But what message will they bring?  If it is the same tired message they tried to pass off in the last election they will not be all that.

When asked about upcoming elections Steele said:   “Our game is not up … our message still rings true with countless Americans, specifically with those in the 20th congressional district.”

If the RNC is looking for a new direction to help them in the center then I would say that his statement points to the same old stuff, just as the Reps in Congress are up to the same old partisanship they have always been up to.

Look for the The GOP move further right than they were with McCain, it has been a proven tack in the past.

2008 ANAL-OCITY “ASSIE” AWARD WINNER

And The Winner Is!  MAY I HAVE A DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

2008

Lobotero’s Info Ink

The Anal-Ocity Award, “The ASSIE”

This award is given annually for the most ANAL Statement made by anyone in the news.  Duly chosen by the readers of Lobotero’s Info Ink.

Senator John McCain
Recipient

For his comment when speaking on Russia’s invasion of Georgia when he said
“In The 21st Century Nations Do Not Invade Other Nations.”
Category

01 February 2009                                                                              CHUQ/Info Ink

CONGRATS to the 2008 Republican candidate for president of the United States Of America for having uttered the most anal statement of the year.  Gets no better than this.  Now on to 2009 let the anal-ocities begin!

FINAL NOTE:  2008 was a really good year for Info Ink…THANK YOU my readers I appreciate all the participation and supoort.

Wait! The Palin–Palooza

I thought it was about all of her 15 minutes with her PAc….I was WRONG!   I forgot about her trying to negotiate a book deal with a high prced attorney, the same one that Obama used….the deal has been said to be around $11 million in the asking…my question is…what has she said that we have not heard?

Yes, you got it…there is even more…….remember during the Palin/McCain campaign just how much she hated and bad mouthed the political elites of Washington?  Her distaste for them left no doubt in anyone who supported her mind……..(a moment for reflection)….well Sarah will be in Washington at a Dinner of Washington elites,  the Alfalfa Club,  some of the other guest maybe McCain who she has not been too kind to and quiet possibly the present president who she basically called a country hating terrorist.  The Alfalfa Club is a dinner of about 200 of the wealthy elite of Washington, seems odd that someone who says these people are not anyone to be trusted would be at such a function but then she is a Repub and they are noted for their deceptions.

Oughta be an interesting dinner, huh?

When asked about her new PAC she said:

Does the PAC mean she’s running for president?

“No, not at all, not at all, no. It’s helpful to have a PAC so that when I’m invited to things even like to speak at the Lincoln Day dinner in Fairbanks, to have a PAC pay for that instead of have the state pay for that because that could be considered quasi-political.

“Other governors in the past they all had a fund to be able to travel for things like that. I do not. But now we’ll have an available source of funds so that we’re not coming close to any ethical line to be crossed in terms of travel or participation in events that will help Alaska but could be seen perhaps as not worthy of state funding.”

Uh huh and it will be Palin/Limbaugh in 2012….whatcha think?  Silly right?  Not so much.  I have been watching and writing politics for a long long time and when the Repubs run a moderate candidate and lose the party runs to the far right for the next election…it did so with Reagan and then GW …just a couple of the most recent ones…if the trend holds then Palin is certainly in the running for 2012.  Gotcha thinkin’,  huh?

Holocaust Denial

Seeing there has not been the usual uproar that others get with they make a statement this anal (btw he will make the list) I feel I must jump in here.

We all have heard that the holocaust never happened especially from Ahmed….ahmac….Ahmen…Ah…ah crap…that little short guy in Iran but did you know he is not alone?

Despite that, Pope Benedict XVI lifted an excommunication on Bishop Richard Williamson on the weekend, two days after he denied in a television interview that Nazi Germany murdered millions of Jews.

The Vatican is trying to stress that cancelling the excommunication does not imply in any way that it shares Bishop Williamson’s views.

Williamson has been rehabilitated despite his denial that during the Second World War millions of Jews were murdered. The now reinstated bishop went so far as to say that “not a single Jew died in the gas chambers” during this period. Van Bommel is also demanding that the Dutch ambassador to the Vatican register a protest against Williamson’s holocaust denial and his rehabilitation.

The bishop was excommunicated not for denying the Holocaust, but for being illegally consecrated by a French traditionalist prelate whom the Vatican accused of creating a schism in the Church.

But this has only created a new gulf with many Jewish leaders, who have been accusing Pope Benedict over the past two days of deliberately setting back relations with the Catholic Church.

Now where is the uproar from world leaders from this statement that the little demagogue from Iran has gotten back making the same statement?  I am sure that deep down he is a good Christian and he is just mistaken (that is called sarcasm).

“Buy American”–Good Or Bad?

A “Buy American” drive in President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan is sparking protests from businesses and trading partners, and drawing cheers from domestic manufacturers and unions.

Obama is pushing Congress for swift passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as vital to prevent the collapse of the fragile US economy amid the accelerating global financial crisis.

The House of Representatives passed an 819 billion dollar version of the economic stimulus package Wednesday that contains a “Buy American” provision generally barring the purchase of foreign iron and steel for any stimulus-funded infrastructure project.

The massive stimulus plan of tax cuts and spending has moved to the Senate, where lawmakers are working on their own version that extends the “Buy American” initiative on iron and steel to include all US manufactured goods.

As the global economic crisis continues to deepen, the unmistakable stench of economic nationalism is on the rise around the world. Confronted with collapsing industries and growing anger over job losses, governments are reaching for protectionist measures despite the disastrous consequences of such beggar-thy-neighbour policies in the 1930s.

The new Obama administration spurred on the rising tide of protectionism with the comments last week of Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner accusing China of manipulating its currency to boost exports. Designating Beijing as a “currency manipulator” would allow the White House to invoke a broad range of punitive tariffs and other economic penalties against China under US trade legislation.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives went one step further by including a “Buy American” provision in Obama’s $825 billion stimulus package approved on Wednesday. The clause, which requires infrastructure projects funded by the package to use only US-made iron and steel, has provoked protests from European steelmakers. Democrat senator Byron Dorgan is proposing a broader measure to exclude most foreign-made manufactured goods when the package reaches the Senate.

Such measures threaten to provoke escalating retaliation and a full-blown trade war. A comment in the US journal Foreign Policy warned that the “explicitly protectionist language” contained in the package would “certainly be taken as a bad sign by the rest of the world. The world can deal with a protectionist India or Indonesia. The trading system will have much more trouble if the United States starts to renege on its traditional leadership role.”

Is this move the slippery slope of economic nationalism?  Or possibly good politics?