A compilation of information and links regarding assorted subjects: politics, religion, science, computers, health, movies, music... essentially whatever I'm reading about, working on or experiencing in life.
From Berlin to Baghdad Will the peoples of Islam tear down their walls as the people of Central and Eastern Europe tore down theirs?
[...] A meandering road led from 11/9 to 9/11. The burning grounds of Islam are altogether different than the Communist challenge. There is no Moscow that serves as the seat of Jihadist power. This is a new kind of war and new kind of enemy, a twilight war without front lines.
But we shouldn't be surprised with some of history's repetitions. There are again the appeasers who see these furies of Islam as America's comeuppance, there are those who think we have overreached and that we are riding into storms of our own making. And in the foreign world there are chameleons who feign desire for our friendship while subverting our causes.
Once again, there arises the question in our midst of whether political freedom, broadly conceived, can and ought to be taken to distant lands. In the George W. Bush years, American power and diplomacy gave voice to a belief in freedom's possibilities. A different sentiment animates American practice today.
For the peoples of Islam, the question can be squarely put: Will they tear down their walls in the manner in which the people of Central and Eastern Europe tore down theirs? The people of Islam are thus sorely tested. They will have to show their own fidelity to liberty. [...]
This is the sort of thing that should have come out in the primaries, not 8 days before the election. Obama's comment to Joe the Plumber was just scratching the surface.
Now that brings again to Obama. You've heard, haven't you, that a 2001 Chicago Public Radio interview of then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama has surfaced. In that interview Obama says that it was a tragedy that during the civil rights era the Supreme Court didn't pursue "redistribution of the wealth." Here's the relevant portion of the interview if you care to hear it for yourself.
We've really made some progress here. Well, I guess that the left has really made some progress. We now have a presidential candidate who talks openly of increasing taxes not because the government needs the money, but because the people who do have the money don't actually deserve it and there are other people out there who need it more. Sorry folks, but facts is facts. Redistribution of the wealth is a basic tenant of Communism. To whatever degree you support a forced redistribution of wealth you are a Communist. Simple as that.
The warning signs have always been there. In his book Dreams from my Father Obama writes of a relationship he had in is late teens with someone named "Frank." For some reason Obama doesn't include his last name. Obama refers to Frank as "a poet" who was full of "hard-earned knowledge." He also says that Frank had "some modest notoriety once." Yeah, I'll say. Frank was Frank Marshall Davis was a member of the CPUSA. For those of you who don't like acronyms, that's Communist Party of the United States of America. Frank Marshall Davis ... some mentor, don't you think?
For all of you suburban housewives and country clubbers who think that you are just so, like, enlightened for voting for Obama, it's time for your wake up call ... though I don't know if it will help:
Barack Obama's core belief is that we belong not to ourselves, but to government. We are tools that the government is free to use to bring about what Obama calls "economic justice." The fruits of our labor belong to government ... and government can do with them what it pleases.
Now if this is your philosophy, then vote for this guy. Then every time you draw a paycheck why don't you drop him a line and ask him how much of it you can keep to care for your family and plan for your own future and how much he would like to have to redistribute to someone who sat on their butt while you were busting yours. After all, you voted for him.
AND HOLD ON TO YOUR PENSIONS WHILE YOU'RE AT IT
Some interesting happenings last week. Argentina proposes seizing all private pensions. The purpose? That would be to redistribute all of that money to people who actually need it more. Now I've exhausted my Google capabilities trying to identify this person, I believe it was Barney Frank, but some leading Democrat last week said that the pensions belonging to some evil CEOs would be the first to go. That's just the beginning folks. Mark my words, because I want the "I told you so" on this one, after Obama is sworn in you are going to see an attack on privately held pensions and 401K plans. There's about four or five trillion dollars out there, and the Democrats want their hands on it to further their redistribution schemes.
FINALLY, A REPORTER WITH SOME ONIONS (WELL, FIGURATIVELY ANYWAY)
West asked Biden about Obama's "spread the wealth" comment. She quoted Karl Marx and asked Biden whether Obama's comments were Marxist. Biden's response: "Are you joking?" West also asked Biden about his comments that Obama would be tested by an international crisis early in his presidency. His response to that: "I don't know who is writing your questions."
It doesn't matter who is writing the questions, Joe. What matters is that these are the questions that many Americans have been wanted answers to ... but nobody has dared to ask.
In fact, Biden was so upset by the interview, that the Obama campaign canceled an interview with Jill Biden, Joe's wife, because it was unhappy with West's questions.
Here's what the Obama campaign had to say about the interview. Notice how the Obama campaign has reacted to radio and TV stations that run unflattering ads or ask tough questions – ban them, ask the Justice Department to get involved, get a hold of their advertisers. This is just the beginning, folks.
"There's nothing wrong with tough questions, but reporters have the very important job of sharing the truth with the public -- not misleading the American people with false information. Senator Biden handled the interview well; however, the anchor was completely unprofessional. Senator Biden's wife is not running for elected office, and there are many other stations in the Orlando television market that would gladly conduct a respectful and factual interview with her."
"This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election."
So by asking these questions, West is deemed "unprofessional." How about those reporters who reported on Sarah Palin's children, or her days as a beauty queen? Those reports are not unprofessional, but when you ask a Vice Presidential candidate about tax policy ... THAT is unprofessional.
So the latest thing that has people on the far left and far right screaming is that McCain wants to lift ban on offshore drilling. The Right says he needs to drill ANWAR too, the Left says it proves he's not serious about the environment or global warming.
To me, it proves he's very much a genuine centrist. A centrist is willing to compromise, which always infuriates the extremists who are unwilling to bend.
I've been maintaining that many of the environmentalists are really just leftists wanting to use environmental causes to fight capitalism. Here is a good example. They don't want to let us drill off our coastlines, but they say nothing about Cuba hiring China to drill for oil just outside of where our drilling rights end. From last Friday's Nealz Nuze:
Yesterday Florida Senator Mel Martinez said that China drilling off the coast of Cuba was merely an urban legend. So because we here at the Neal Boortz Show are so incredibly fair and balanced ... we have tried to get to the bottom of this mystery. Here's what we found.
All the way back in 2004, China's Petrochemical Corporation known as Sinopec signed a memorandum of understanding with Cuba's national oil company, known as Cupet to explore four oil blocks in Cuba. Keep in mind that both of these companies are owned by their communist governments. China's Sinopec conducted six months of geological studies of the four Cuban blocks. This was the first attempt by Sinopec, China's second largest oil and gas company, to enter oil and gas exploration and production in Cuba.
Then in 2005, China's Sinopec signed an agreement with the Cuban government to jointly produce oil in Cuba off the coast of Pinar del R�o. Ok so let's get this straight. The governments of China and Cuba enter into a production sharing agreement ... what exactly does that mean? This is when the Cuban government awards the execution of exploration and production activities to an international oil company like Sinopec. The contractor bears the mineral and financial risk of the initiative and, when successful, recovers capital expenditure and costs incurred in the year (cost oil) by means of a share of production.
January 31: Cuba and China signed a contract in Havana providing for the Asian giant's participation in extracting oil from a deposit off the island's north shore, the press reported. The deal is between Cubapetroleos and the Chinese oil company Sinopec, said the official daily newspapaer Granma. In December, Fidel Castro announced discovery of oil at a site offshore from Santa Cruz del Norte, some 55 kilometers (33 miles) east of Havana. The deposit is believed to hold some 100 million barrels of "light" crude, or the equivalent of 14 million tons. (EFE, Prensa Latina, 31/1/05) February 8: China's oil giants began cultivating their virgin soil in Cuba. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), as the first comer, has inked a contract with Cuba Oil Company (Cubapetroleo) to jointly exploit oil in the Caribbean country. Under the terms of their contract, the two sides will join forces to prospect and exploit a potential oil-producing region. Chinese experts believe it is a significant beginning of the cooperation between China and Cuba in the petroleum industry. (SinoCast, 8/2/05) March 22: Chinese oil drilling equipment has begun arriving in Cuba as state-run Cubapetroleo (Cupet) and its foreign partners prepare to significantly increase drilling along the northwest coast, industry sources said. "Four service units and a small rig have arrived and we are waiting for more," said a Cuban oil service manager, asking his name not be used. There are currently five rigs operating along the northwest heavy oil belt, an 80-mile (128-km) stretch of coast in Havana and Matanzas provinces from whence come all of Cuba's 70,000 to 80,000 barrels per day of heavy crude at 8 API to 18 API and with a high sulfur content. The poor-quality oil is burned in modified power plants and factories. (Reuters, 22/3/05)
April 6: The operator of China's second-largest Shengli oilfield is stepping up overseas exploration, spending more on such ventures this year as the world's No. 2 oil user grapples with falling reserves, officials said. Shengli Oilfield Administration Bureau, a unit of state-run Sinopec Group, will spend about $40 million drilling for oil and gas in Cuba, Iran and central Asia in 2005, company officials said. "This will be the heaviest spending in a year and we expect the pace to continue in the next few years," a Shengli executive told the press. Shengli, which is among the first Chinese companies to venture abroad, will sink a total of eight wildcat and appraisal wells this year, four in Kazakhstan, two in Iran, and one each in Cuba and Kyrgyzstan. (Reuters, 6/4/05)
November 24: PetroChina Great Wall Drilling Co., Ltd. and Petroleum Company of Cuba held a ceremony for signing two drilling service contracts on November 3, 2005. It is the second-time cooperation between Great Wall Drilling Co., Ltd. and Petroleum Company of Cuba after the signing of a one-year petroleum service agreement on one 1500HP drilling rig and one 2000HP rig on April 8 this year. The contract signed this time includes three 2000HP drilling rigs. The contract has a period of one year and a value of over US$24 million. The project will be launched in January 2006. (China Chemical Reporter, 24/11/05)
December 22: Sinopec of China signed an agreement earlier this year to jointly produce heavy oil with Cupet in westernmost Pinar del R�o province, with drilling expected to begin in 2006. (The Oil Daily, 27/12/05)
Still not convinced Senator Martinez? Here are some more reports from 2005 from the Energy Intelligence Group and National Post's Financial Post & FP Investing in Canada.
... China is seeking oil everywhere and Cuba is no exception. Three large Chinese companies, SINOPEC, Petro China and CINOOC - China National Offshore Corporation, are involved in a large agreement, perhaps already underway, for coastal and deep-water explorations. Most significant to this topic, especially in light of other Chinese investment in Cuba, is the fact that Sinopec, China's second largest oil company, has stated a goal of helping boost Cuba's domestic oil production and producing 60% of its oil needs by 2006 ... Additional plans for exploration and development of other blocs of potential reserves were announced by two other Chinese oil companies, China National Petroleum Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp., after talks with CUPET, Cuba Petroleum. Some exploration will be in coastal regions but much, based on the better quality of the oil, will take place in off-shore deep waters.
Let's cut to the chase ... and pardon me if I scream here:
The point isn't that China is not presently drilling for oil within 90 miles of the U.S. The point is that they CAN! --- and, thanks to the Democrat congress --- we CAN'T.
Democrats would like us to wrangle over what IS happening. The issue is what CAN happen. They can drill. We can't. They're planning to. We aren't. Even government educated Democrat myrmidons can understand that.
So Cuba, with China's help (and the help of the Leftists in the USA), can drain the oil reserves WE don't ALLOW ourselves to drill, by drilling on the edge where our water rights end. The Commies win, we loose. Because we LET them.
This is the ad that's created such a fuss? Why? It just reminds everyone of what kind of Church Obama has attended for 20 years. What part of it isn't true? It makes perfect sense to preach "God Damn America" if you hate this country and think it's bad and evil. It also makes perfect sense to attend a church that teaches that if you agree with it. Duh.
I see Bill Moyer's (who has a long history of activism with the American Communist Party and related groups), did a softball interview with Rev. Wright, who insisted his comments were taken out of context. It begs the question, "What context makes 'God Damn America' a good thing to say?"
I fear I know too well. I lived in San Francisco for 23 years, and many people there agree with Wright. Many of them also happen to be communists and hard core socialists (or their overly emotional, easily manipulated "useful idiots"). They believe that America is evil because it is capitalist, and cannot be redeemed, until it CHANGES by renouncing capitalism.
Rev. Wright preaches Liberation Theology, which is Marxism dressed in religious clothing. Obama's church teaches that "middle classness" is wrong. Can you imagine what kind of "change" it is that Obama wants to bring about?
God Damn America? How about God Damn the main stream media, for refusing to talk openly and honestly about what Wright and Obama really believe?
The comments made by Wright are nothing compared to Obama's actual ties to terrorists and terrorist groups:
A thorough examination of these would do a lot to put "change you can believe in" into context. But don't hold your breath waiting for the MSM to tell you.
UPDATE 04-28-08
Rev. Wright maintains that "God Damn America" was taken out of context. It's that's true, then seeing the whole sermon should remedy that. And now you can see the whole sermon, on-line:
