Republican presidential candidate John McCain is doing his best to look smart at one moment and look like an idiot the next.
Let's start with his smart move. Finally McCain accused Barack Obama of playing the race card. Apparently McCain is starting to pay attention to Obama's speeches. It took him long enough. It was fresh meat that he didn't want to grasp his hands on.
Now, lets look at McCain being dumb. Yesterday, McCain pledged to work with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco, Calif.) if elected president. I know he was in San Francisco and was trying to be nice, but still, where is his backbone?!
Oh boy, McCain is trying to lose this election. Let's anger conservatives. Good move, McCain.
Now, I hear that the McCain campaign wants to get another maverick like him to be his vice presidential candidate. I certainly hope not, if that's true, just hand the election to Obama.
I may be rescinding my support to McCain very soon and I just gave him my support earlier today and I hear this. Great job McCain.
In the news:
McCain pledges to work with Pelosi
McCain camp accuses Obama of playing race card
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Congress apologizes for slavery
Now, this was a landmark decision by congress. What are Americans worried about? The economy and gas prices. So this House Bill fixed that? No. Really. What's new? Nothing. Congress, again wastes tax payer money to do nothing.
I am glad that Congress said it was wrong to have slavery. That's nice, but why did they have to waste time doing that with a House Bill?! Why couldn't congress just go out and say it, with their mouths! What is with this vote?!
Sadly, I think this happened to make Americans remember slavery. Why couldn't congress do this last year, or 20 years ago? Why now? Oh, yeah! Barack Obama is running for president. We have to feel sorry for him, because he's black and was a slave. Wait. No. Barack Obama was not a slave. So why? Oh yeah. Memories of the American Civil War. Sympathy vote.
I thought Abraham Lincoln did this by continuing the war from uniting the nation to a war to free the slaves. And wasn't it the rebel south who had the slaves in the end? The Union was anti-slave, right. Why couldn't a relative of a confederate general say this, instead of congress?
I don't mean to sound negative about this topic, it's a great topic, but how about lowering the gas prices?!
Below is an Associated Press article about this house bill:
----------------------------------------
House formally apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.
"Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week.
Congress has issued apologies before - to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.
Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations - payment for damages.
The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying "the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow."
It says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.
The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."
"Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth," Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, "is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong."
Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.
Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.
More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen's seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.
---
The bill is H. Res. 194
I am glad that Congress said it was wrong to have slavery. That's nice, but why did they have to waste time doing that with a House Bill?! Why couldn't congress just go out and say it, with their mouths! What is with this vote?!
Sadly, I think this happened to make Americans remember slavery. Why couldn't congress do this last year, or 20 years ago? Why now? Oh, yeah! Barack Obama is running for president. We have to feel sorry for him, because he's black and was a slave. Wait. No. Barack Obama was not a slave. So why? Oh yeah. Memories of the American Civil War. Sympathy vote.
I thought Abraham Lincoln did this by continuing the war from uniting the nation to a war to free the slaves. And wasn't it the rebel south who had the slaves in the end? The Union was anti-slave, right. Why couldn't a relative of a confederate general say this, instead of congress?
I don't mean to sound negative about this topic, it's a great topic, but how about lowering the gas prices?!
Below is an Associated Press article about this house bill:
----------------------------------------
House formally apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.
"Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week.
Congress has issued apologies before - to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.
Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations - payment for damages.
The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying "the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow."
It says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.
The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."
"Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth," Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, "is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong."
Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.
Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.
More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen's seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.
---
The bill is H. Res. 194
Lesser of Two Evils
I don't like John McCain. I really don't like Barack Obama. And, Bob Barr has no chance.
I'm tired of Obama's scare tactics. I'm tired of the media's love affair with Obama. He can practically do anything and the media will still love him. And the sad thing is that many voter believe what the media says. And if the media loves him, so should I, many voters have that idea.
Whatever happened to the issues as being a part of choosing a presidential candidate. It seems all we hear about is how nice Obama looks, how old McCain looks, how articulate Obama is. I'll tell you one thing, Obama can't speak without a TelePrompTer (and that's the correct spelling).
I'm at the point on choosing who I am going to vote for. Obama wants to socialize this country. That is the decider. It is time to back the "lesser of two evils" candidate. I don't like what I am about to do, but at this point I will back John McCain.
Frankly, I am tired of Obama using the race card. I'm tired of hearing quotes like this:
"Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama said. "You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
"It's true that change is hard, change isn't easy," Obama said. "Nobody here thinks that Bush or McCain has a real answer for the challenges we face so what they're going to try to do is make you scared about me."
Obama said these quotes in Springfield, Mo., yesterday.
And, remember this quote from Berlin:
"I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
"I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British."
What is Obama's plan. Obama always says it is the Republicans who are trying to scare Americans because he is black. I haven't heard that from the Republicans, I've only heard that from Obama's mouth.
Obama is no John Kennedy. John Kennedy would stand up against terrorists and protect this nation. Obama is a cross between Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter and that is not a good thing. Wilson and Carter were presidential pagent girls, "World Peace!"
I'm tired of Obama's scare tactics. I'm tired of the media's love affair with Obama. He can practically do anything and the media will still love him. And the sad thing is that many voter believe what the media says. And if the media loves him, so should I, many voters have that idea.
Whatever happened to the issues as being a part of choosing a presidential candidate. It seems all we hear about is how nice Obama looks, how old McCain looks, how articulate Obama is. I'll tell you one thing, Obama can't speak without a TelePrompTer (and that's the correct spelling).
I'm at the point on choosing who I am going to vote for. Obama wants to socialize this country. That is the decider. It is time to back the "lesser of two evils" candidate. I don't like what I am about to do, but at this point I will back John McCain.
Frankly, I am tired of Obama using the race card. I'm tired of hearing quotes like this:
"Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama said. "You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
"It's true that change is hard, change isn't easy," Obama said. "Nobody here thinks that Bush or McCain has a real answer for the challenges we face so what they're going to try to do is make you scared about me."
Obama said these quotes in Springfield, Mo., yesterday.
And, remember this quote from Berlin:
"I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
"I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British."
What is Obama's plan. Obama always says it is the Republicans who are trying to scare Americans because he is black. I haven't heard that from the Republicans, I've only heard that from Obama's mouth.
Obama is no John Kennedy. John Kennedy would stand up against terrorists and protect this nation. Obama is a cross between Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter and that is not a good thing. Wilson and Carter were presidential pagent girls, "World Peace!"
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Congressmen represent us, right?
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) has not had a real residence in Florida for the past 11 years. His official residence was at his parents house. He was living in Maryland and representing Florida. After an uproar (which should have happened long ago), Wexler has finally rented a home in his district.
Below is an article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
---------------------------------------------
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler to rent home in his South Florida district
Uproar over residency prompts him to take action
By Brittany Wallman and Scott Wyman | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
July 30, 2008
Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said Tuesday he will rent a home in Palm Beach County, after a week of criticism since his admission that he hadn't had a home in South Florida for 11 years.
Wexler sold his west of Boca Raton house in 1997, the year he was sworn in to Congress, and moved his wife and children to Maryland.
Meanwhile, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation into Wexler's Maryland homeownership reveals that he claimed that house as his primary residence for four years and received tax breaks there because of that claim.
Wexler represents District 19, encompassing a large swath of Palm Beach County and part of Broward County. He faces an election challenge from Ben Graber, a former Broward County mayor who is running with no party affiliation and Republican Ed Lynch, of Royal Palm Beach, who brought the residency questions to light.
Wexler revealed in a national TV interview last week the home he uses to meet residency requirements in Florida belongs to his in-laws and is in a seniors' community. The 47-year-old representative has a wife and three children.
Friday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that Wexler was the only member of Florida's congressional delegation who doesn't own or rent a home in his district. Other members of Congress fly home on weekends to spend time with family; some share living quarters in Washingtonwith other members of Congress.
Wexler said Tuesday he would respond to constituent concerns by leasing a home in Palm Beach County. His schedule shows he visited South Florida 14 times over the nine-month period starting last November.
"Although I am confident that I have represented my district as well as anybody possibly could," Wexler said in a written statement Tuesday, "I ... do not want this issue to distract from my advocacy of the important issues facing our community and country."
However, he reaped the benefits of Maryland homeownership, records show. Maryland offers residents a tax break similar to Florida's Save Our Homes exemption. Maryland residents receive a tax credit that basically caps how much their property tax assessment can increase at a maximum 10 percent a year.
Tax records show Wexler listed his home in Potomac, Md., as his primary residence in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. He changed his tax information in 2003 to state the house was not his primary residence.
Wexler's property tax bill ranged between $3,803 and $3,995 during the years he declared the home his primary residence, records show. The bill shot up to $5,147 in 2003 when he no longer received the tax break. This year's bill is $8,933.
Wexler spokesman and chief of staff Eric Johnson said Wexler made a mistake while signing documents at the closing on his Maryland house and corrected it once he realized it.
However, Maryland property records show that several times, and as recently as May 2005, Wexler signed home-loan documents declaring the Maryland home his "principal residence."
Johnson said it doesn't matter if Wexler got homestead benefits in Maryland; he's still a Florida resident. He said it's hypocritical of both opposing candidates to bring up tax issues because both ran into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. Lynch still owes $1.4 million in taxes to IRS, while Graber said his business-related tax problem was short-lived and occurred some 10 years ago.
"We paid it off right away," Graber said of his 1995 and 1996 tax liens.
Lynch said he disagrees with the IRS on how much he owes in personal taxes; he was audited and said the matter is still in dispute.
Wexler's residency became an issue last week, when FOX News' Bill O'Reilly acted on a tip from Lynch.
Staff writer Mark Hollis contributed to this report.
Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4541. Scott Wyman can be reached at swyman@sun-sentinel .com or 954-356-4511.
Below is an article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
---------------------------------------------
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler to rent home in his South Florida district
Uproar over residency prompts him to take action
By Brittany Wallman and Scott Wyman | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
July 30, 2008
Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said Tuesday he will rent a home in Palm Beach County, after a week of criticism since his admission that he hadn't had a home in South Florida for 11 years.
Wexler sold his west of Boca Raton house in 1997, the year he was sworn in to Congress, and moved his wife and children to Maryland.
Meanwhile, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation into Wexler's Maryland homeownership reveals that he claimed that house as his primary residence for four years and received tax breaks there because of that claim.
Wexler represents District 19, encompassing a large swath of Palm Beach County and part of Broward County. He faces an election challenge from Ben Graber, a former Broward County mayor who is running with no party affiliation and Republican Ed Lynch, of Royal Palm Beach, who brought the residency questions to light.
Wexler revealed in a national TV interview last week the home he uses to meet residency requirements in Florida belongs to his in-laws and is in a seniors' community. The 47-year-old representative has a wife and three children.
Friday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that Wexler was the only member of Florida's congressional delegation who doesn't own or rent a home in his district. Other members of Congress fly home on weekends to spend time with family; some share living quarters in Washingtonwith other members of Congress.
Wexler said Tuesday he would respond to constituent concerns by leasing a home in Palm Beach County. His schedule shows he visited South Florida 14 times over the nine-month period starting last November.
"Although I am confident that I have represented my district as well as anybody possibly could," Wexler said in a written statement Tuesday, "I ... do not want this issue to distract from my advocacy of the important issues facing our community and country."
However, he reaped the benefits of Maryland homeownership, records show. Maryland offers residents a tax break similar to Florida's Save Our Homes exemption. Maryland residents receive a tax credit that basically caps how much their property tax assessment can increase at a maximum 10 percent a year.
Tax records show Wexler listed his home in Potomac, Md., as his primary residence in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. He changed his tax information in 2003 to state the house was not his primary residence.
Wexler's property tax bill ranged between $3,803 and $3,995 during the years he declared the home his primary residence, records show. The bill shot up to $5,147 in 2003 when he no longer received the tax break. This year's bill is $8,933.
Wexler spokesman and chief of staff Eric Johnson said Wexler made a mistake while signing documents at the closing on his Maryland house and corrected it once he realized it.
However, Maryland property records show that several times, and as recently as May 2005, Wexler signed home-loan documents declaring the Maryland home his "principal residence."
Johnson said it doesn't matter if Wexler got homestead benefits in Maryland; he's still a Florida resident. He said it's hypocritical of both opposing candidates to bring up tax issues because both ran into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. Lynch still owes $1.4 million in taxes to IRS, while Graber said his business-related tax problem was short-lived and occurred some 10 years ago.
"We paid it off right away," Graber said of his 1995 and 1996 tax liens.
Lynch said he disagrees with the IRS on how much he owes in personal taxes; he was audited and said the matter is still in dispute.
Wexler's residency became an issue last week, when FOX News' Bill O'Reilly acted on a tip from Lynch.
Staff writer Mark Hollis contributed to this report.
Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4541. Scott Wyman can be reached at swyman@sun-sentinel .com or 954-356-4511.
Ludacris writes song because "the world is ready for change because Obama is here"
The rapper and actor Ludacris (Christopher Bridges) has written a song for Sen. Barack Obama. The song is titled "Politics (Obama is here)." Ludacris and Obama are friends and Obama has talked in the past of his likeness to Ludacris' songs. Personally, I don't think Obama is as loving of Ludacris' songs as he says to the public. But that's just me.
The song attacks John McCain, Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush. The song is all about payback from the 2000 Presidential Election.
Lyrics (from LiveLeak, see link below):
I'm back on it like I just signed my record deal
yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal
never should have hated
you never should've doubted him
with a slot in the president's iPod Obama shattered 'em
Said I handled his biz and I'm one of his favorite rappers
Well give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer
Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president
Hillary hated on you, so that b^$&%* is irrelevant
Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
if you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut!
and all you other politicians trying to hate on my man,
watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man
you can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history
the first black president is destined and it's meant to be
the threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
so get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote!
paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified
McCain don't belong in ANY chair unless he's paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and I throw em like candy wrap
cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents
get out and vote or the end will be near
the world is ready for change because Obama is here!
cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change because Obama is here!
Links-
Ludacris- Obama is here
MTV News story about Obama song
LiveLeak.com- Ludacris releases song
The song attacks John McCain, Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush. The song is all about payback from the 2000 Presidential Election.
Lyrics (from LiveLeak, see link below):
I'm back on it like I just signed my record deal
yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal
never should have hated
you never should've doubted him
with a slot in the president's iPod Obama shattered 'em
Said I handled his biz and I'm one of his favorite rappers
Well give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer
Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president
Hillary hated on you, so that b^$&%* is irrelevant
Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
if you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut!
and all you other politicians trying to hate on my man,
watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man
you can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history
the first black president is destined and it's meant to be
the threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
so get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote!
paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified
McCain don't belong in ANY chair unless he's paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and I throw em like candy wrap
cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents
get out and vote or the end will be near
the world is ready for change because Obama is here!
cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change because Obama is here!
Links-
Ludacris- Obama is here
MTV News story about Obama song
LiveLeak.com- Ludacris releases song
Sunday, July 27, 2008
When was the last time Europeans actually picked a good leader?
I have been thinking a lot lately about the messiah's tour of Europe. The Germans appear to love him, at least the ones that showed up. They all came praising him in all of his glory. They brought signs and wore clothes and bowed down to him (the Obama campaign supplied the signs and clothes). I saw many Germans waiting to get healed from all of their pain. This went on and on and on. Later, the messiah went to France and England, but he didn't do any large "sermon on the mount" speeches there.
The BBC, Reuters, NBC, CBS and ABC all said that Obama is loved in Europe and that Europeans want him to be the next leader of the "Free World." This is beginning to bother me. In a BBC piece, the reporter said Obama is the "political redeemer." Now, it's really bothering me.
I don't care what the Europeans want for President of the United States! They can't vote! (That may change if we keep going on this path.) Obama talked about uniting the world, and he even called himself "a citizen of the world." Now, I want to break out and sing now..."We are the world, We are the children, We are the ones who make a brighter day, So let's start giving, There's a choice we're making, We're saving our own lives, It's true we'll make a better day, Just you and me"...ok, I'm done, enough with that. I don't like Michael Jackson anyway, I don't know what just happened. In fact, lets just forget all about that song.
Back to business. When was the last time Europeans picked a good leader? This may be tough. Maybe if we asked what can be defined as "good"? Is good, Adolph Hitler? I hope not, if that is good, they picked a real winner. Is good, Benito Mussolini? Francisco Franco? Joseph Stalin? Vladimir Lenin? Napoleon Bonaparte? And these leaders are recent leaders, lets not talk about the distant past (Julius Caesar, and the rest of the Caesars after him, etc). So, if you consider these leaders as good, well, they were good at killing millions of people.
Now, one country has somewhat of a good track record, the United Kingdom. They at least had Winston Churchill as their leader. He was a success.
So where do the Europeans get off picking the United States' next president? They don't! They can't vote!
Since when do the Europeans have to bow down to what the Americans do? Aren't they proud of their home country? Or, do they want Americans to suffer with them with socialized healthcare? Why don't we all just "spread the wealth" together?! What is good for Europe is good for America, right?
The BBC, Reuters, NBC, CBS and ABC all said that Obama is loved in Europe and that Europeans want him to be the next leader of the "Free World." This is beginning to bother me. In a BBC piece, the reporter said Obama is the "political redeemer." Now, it's really bothering me.
I don't care what the Europeans want for President of the United States! They can't vote! (That may change if we keep going on this path.) Obama talked about uniting the world, and he even called himself "a citizen of the world." Now, I want to break out and sing now..."We are the world, We are the children, We are the ones who make a brighter day, So let's start giving, There's a choice we're making, We're saving our own lives, It's true we'll make a better day, Just you and me"...ok, I'm done, enough with that. I don't like Michael Jackson anyway, I don't know what just happened. In fact, lets just forget all about that song.
Back to business. When was the last time Europeans picked a good leader? This may be tough. Maybe if we asked what can be defined as "good"? Is good, Adolph Hitler? I hope not, if that is good, they picked a real winner. Is good, Benito Mussolini? Francisco Franco? Joseph Stalin? Vladimir Lenin? Napoleon Bonaparte? And these leaders are recent leaders, lets not talk about the distant past (Julius Caesar, and the rest of the Caesars after him, etc). So, if you consider these leaders as good, well, they were good at killing millions of people.
Now, one country has somewhat of a good track record, the United Kingdom. They at least had Winston Churchill as their leader. He was a success.
So where do the Europeans get off picking the United States' next president? They don't! They can't vote!
Since when do the Europeans have to bow down to what the Americans do? Aren't they proud of their home country? Or, do they want Americans to suffer with them with socialized healthcare? Why don't we all just "spread the wealth" together?! What is good for Europe is good for America, right?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Hope and Change Tour: Victory Column, Berlin
The Germans have gotten soft over the years. Now it appears that the chancellor cannot do anything and has to bow down to the United States. From what I have been seeing on tv, only the messiah, Lord Barack Obama can fix all of the world's problems.
Remember, this was not a political speech. He was talking only because he is an "American citizen and a citizen of the world."
Here are some more pictures from the messiah's day in Berlin.
A German paid by the Obama campaign passes out fliers about Obama's visit to Berlin.
Another German passes out fliers.
Thousands of Germans listen to healing words from the savior.
A German woman is holding up a Barack Obama sign supplied by the Obama campaign at Obama's speech in Berlin.
(Photos are courtesy of Reuters News Service, Associated Press News Service and Yahoo! News)
BBC News: Obama Political Redeemer?
A BBC News video on what the BBC thinks Germans think of Barack Obama:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G_inMOZ8zPU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G_inMOZ8zPU
Obama Prepares for Victory Speech at Siegessäule
Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, aka: the messiah of the world, will speak in Berlin today. It was originally going to be at the Brandenberg Gate, but only world leaders can speak there and Germans are strict.
The messiah has been busy on his world tour and has been praised by millions since the world wants him to be elected. However, there has been only one problem that has been reported. This was at Jerusalem's Western Wall where Obama angered many people there because of his high security and that he only went there for political reasons and not for the "right reasons." He arrived at the Western Wall early in the morning around 5:00 and left shortly there after. He also went to Bethlehem while in Israel. I'm not going to say more about that.
Obama is now in Berlin and will speak at the Siegessäule, the victory column. He will have another political speech there where thousands of people will be in awe.
(Photos courtesy of Reuters News Service, Associated Press News Service and Yahoo! News)
The messiah has been busy on his world tour and has been praised by millions since the world wants him to be elected. However, there has been only one problem that has been reported. This was at Jerusalem's Western Wall where Obama angered many people there because of his high security and that he only went there for political reasons and not for the "right reasons." He arrived at the Western Wall early in the morning around 5:00 and left shortly there after. He also went to Bethlehem while in Israel. I'm not going to say more about that.
Obama is now in Berlin and will speak at the Siegessäule, the victory column. He will have another political speech there where thousands of people will be in awe.
(Photos courtesy of Reuters News Service, Associated Press News Service and Yahoo! News)
Sights of Obama's World Tour
A look at Obama's "Hope and Change One" plane
A map of Obama's world tour.
Obama speaking in Jordan.
A group of Obama supporters in Israel.
Obama's "Hope and Change One" plane
A group of German Obama supporters are in awe of his sight.
A German Obama supporter is praising the messiah during his visit to Berlin.
Obama with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
No presidential candidate has ever spoken in Germany, this all changed on July 24.
A satirical picture of Lord Barack Obama.
Below is a satirical poem about Lord Barack Obama:
Barack loves me this I know
For the media tells me so
Citizens with big doe eyes
We are dumb but he is wise
yes Barack loves me
yes Barack loves me
Yes Barack loves me
The media tells me so
(Pictures courtesy of Reuters News Service, Yahoo! News, Associated Press News Service and GlennBeck.com Picture of the Day)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
PRC Has Plans To Take Over Africa
Below is an article from the London Daily Mail:
How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried
By Andrew Malone
Last updated at 4:16 PM on 18th July 2008
On June 5, 1873, in a letter to The Times, Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and a distinguished African explorer in his own right, outlined a daring (if by today's standards utterly offensive) new method to 'tame' and colonise what was then known as the Dark Continent.
'My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race,' wrote Galton.
'I should expect that the African seaboard, now sparsely occupied by lazy, palavering savages, might in a few years be tenanted by industrious, order-loving Chinese, living either as a semidetached dependency of China, or else in perfect freedom under their own law.'
Enlarge Close relations: Chinese President Hu Jintao accompanies Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
Despite an outcry in Parliament and heated debate in the august salons of the Royal Geographic Society, Galton insisted that 'the history of the world tells the tale of the continual displacement of populations, each by a worthier successor, and humanity gains thereby'.
A controversial figure, Galton was also the pioneer of eugenics, the theory that was used by Hitler to try to fulfil his mad dreams of a German Master Race.
Eventually, Galton's grand resettlement plans fizzled out because there were much more exciting things going on in Africa.
But that was more than 100 years ago, and with legendary explorers such as Livingstone, Speke and Burton still battling to find the source of the Nile - and new discoveries of exotic species of birds and animals featuring regularly on newspaper front pages - vast swathes of the continent had not even been 'discovered'.
Yet Sir Francis Galton, it now appears, was ahead of his time. His vision is coming true - if not in the way he imagined. An astonishing invasion of Africa is now under way.
In the greatest movement of people the world has ever seen, China is secretly working to turn the entire continent into a new colony.
Reminiscent of the West's imperial push in the 18th and 19th centuries - but on a much more dramatic, determined scale - China's rulers believe Africa can become a 'satellite' state, solving its own problems of over-population and shortage of natural resources at a stroke.
With little fanfare, a staggering 750,000 Chinese have settled in Africa over the past decade. More are on the way.
The strategy has been carefully devised by officials in Beijing, where one expert has estimated that China will eventually need to send 300 million people to Africa to solve the problems of over-population and pollution.
The plans appear on track. Across Africa, the red flag of China is flying. Lucrative deals are being struck to buy its commodities - oil, platinum, gold and minerals. New embassies and air routes are opening up. The continent's new Chinese elite can be seen everywhere, shopping at their own expensive boutiques, driving Mercedes and BMW limousines, sending their children to exclusive private schools.
The pot-holed roads are cluttered with Chinese buses, taking people to markets filled with cheap Chinese goods. More than a thousand miles of new Chinese railroads are crisscrossing the continent, carrying billions of tons of illegally-logged timber, diamonds and gold.
Mugabe has said: 'We must turn from the West and face the East'
The trains are linked to ports dotted around the coast, waiting to carry the goods back to Beijing after unloading cargoes of cheap toys made in China.
Confucius Institutes (state-funded Chinese 'cultural centres') have sprung up throughout Africa, as far afield as the tiny land-locked countries of Burundi and Rwanda, teaching baffled local people how to do business in Mandarin and Cantonese.
Massive dams are being built, flooding nature reserves. The land is scarred with giant Chinese mines, with 'slave' labourers paid less than £1 a day to extract ore and minerals.
Pristine forests are being destroyed, with China taking up to 70 per cent of all timber from Africa.
All over this great continent, the Chinese presence is swelling into a flood. Angola has its own 'Chinatown', as do great African cities such as Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.
Exclusive, gated compounds, serving only Chinese food, and where no blacks are allowed, are being built all over the continent. 'African cloths' sold in markets on the continent are now almost always imported, bearing the legend: 'Made in China'.
From Nigeria in the north, to Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Angola in the west, across Chad and Sudan in the east, and south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, China has seized a vice-like grip on a continent which officials have decided is crucial to the superpower's long-term survival.
'The Chinese are all over the place,' says Trevor Ncube, a prominent African businessman with publishing interests around the continent. 'If the British were our masters yesterday, the Chinese have taken their place.'
Likened to one race deciding to adopt a new home on another planet, Beijing has launched its so-called 'One China In Africa' policy because of crippling pressure on its own natural resources in a country where the population has almost trebled from 500 million to 1.3 billion in 50 years.
China is hungry - for land, food and energy. While accounting for a fifth of the world's population, its oil consumption has risen 35-fold in the past decade and Africa is now providing a third of it; imports of steel, copper and aluminium have also shot up, with Beijing devouring 80 per cent of world supplies.
Enlarge President Robert Mugabe leaving the eleventh ordinary session of the assembly of the African Union heads of State and government in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
Fuelling its own boom at home, China is also desperate for new markets to sell goods. And Africa, with non-existent health and safety rules to protect against shoddy and dangerous goods, is the perfect destination.
The result of China's demand for raw materials and its sales of products to Africa is that turnover in trade between Africa and China has risen from £5million annually a decade ago to £6billion today.
However, there is a lethal price to pay. There is a sinister aspect to this invasion. Chinese-made war planes roar through the African sky, bombing opponents. Chinese-made assault rifles and grenades are being used to fuel countless murderous civil wars, often over the materials the Chinese are desperate to buy.
Take, for example, Zimbabwe. Recently, a giant container ship from China was due to deliver its cargo of three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 3,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 1,500 mortars to President Robert Mugabe's regime.
After an international outcry, the vessel, the An Yue Jiang, was forced to return to China, despite Beijing's insistence that the arms consignment was a 'normal commercial deal'.
Indeed, the 77-ton arms shipment would have been small beer - a fraction of China's help to Mugabe. He already has high-tech, Chinese-built helicopter gunships and fighter jets to use against his people.
Ever since the U.S. and Britain imposed sanctions in 2003, Mugabe has courted the Chinese, offering mining concessions for arms and currency.
While flying regularly to Beijing as a high-ranking guest, the 84-year-old dictator rants at 'small dots' such as Britain and America.
He can afford to. Mugabe is orchestrating his campaign of terror from a 25-bedroom, pagoda-style mansion built by the Chinese. Much of his estimated £1billion fortune is believed to have been siphoned off from Chinese 'loans'.
The imposing grey building of ZANU-PF, his ruling party, was paid for and built by the Chinese. Mugabe received £200 million last year alone from China, enabling him to buy loyalty from the army.
In another disturbing illustration of the warm relations between China and the ageing dictator, a platoon of the China People's Liberation Army has been out on the streets of Mutare, a city near the border with Mozambique, which voted against the president in the recent, disputed election.
Almost 30 years ago, Britain pulled out of Zimbabwe - as it had done already out of the rest of Africa, in the wake of Harold Macmillan's 'wind of change' speech. Today, Mugabe says: 'We have turned East, where the sun rises, and given our backs to the West, where the sun sets.'
Despite Britain's commendable colonial legacy of a network of roads, railways and schools, the British are now being shunned.
According to one veteran diplomat: 'China is easier to do business with because it doesn't care about human rights in Africa - just as it doesn't care about them in its own country. All the Chinese care about is money.'
Nowhere is that more true than Sudan. Branded 'Africa's Killing Fields', the massive oil-rich East African state is in the throes of the genocide and slaughter of hundreds of thousands of black, non-Arab peasants in southern Sudan.
In effect, through its supplies of arms and support, China has been accused of underwriting a humanitarian scandal. The atrocities in Sudan have been described by the U.S. as 'the worst human rights crisis in the world today'.
Mugabe has received hundreds of millions of pounds from Chinese sources
The government in Khartoum has helped the feared Janjaweed militia to rape, murder and burn to death more than 350,000 people.
The Chinese - who now buy half of all Sudan's oil - have happily provided armoured vehicles, aircraft and millions of bullets and grenades in return for lucrative deals. Indeed, an estimated £1billion of Chinese cash has been spent on weapons.
According to Human Rights First, a leading human rights advocacy organisation, Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles, grenade launchers and ammunition for rifles and heavy machine guns are continuing to flow into Darfur, which is dotted with giant refugee camps, each containing hundreds of thousands of people.
Between 2003 and 2006, China sold Sudan $55 million worth of small arms, flouting a United Nations weapons embargo.
With new warnings that the cycle of killing is intensifying, an estimated two thirds of the non-Arab population has lost at least one member of their families in Darfur.
Although two million people have been uprooted from their homes in the conflict, China has repeatedly thwarted United Nations denunciations of the Sudanese regime.
While the Sudanese slaughter has attracted worldwide condemnation, prompting Hollywood film-maker Steven Spielberg to quit as artistic director of the Beijing Olympics, few parts of Africa are now untouched by China.
In Congo, more than £2billion has been 'loaned' to the government. In Angola, £3 billion has been paid in exchange for oil. In Nigeria, more than £5billion has been handed over.
In Equatorial Guinea, where the president publicly hung his predecessor from a cage suspended in a theatre before having him shot, Chinese firms are helping the dictator build an entirely new capital, full of gleaming skyscrapers and, of course, Chinese restaurants.
After battling for years against the white colonial powers of Britain, France, Belgium and Germany, post-independence African leaders are happy to do business with China for a straightforward reason: cash.
With western loans linked to an insistence on democratic reforms and the need for 'transparency' in using the money (diplomatic language for rules to ensure dictators do not pocket millions), the Chinese have proved much more relaxed about what their billions are used for.
Certainly, little of it reaches the continent's impoverished 800 million people. Much of it goes straight into the pockets of dictators. In Africa, corruption is a multi-billion pound industry and many experts believe that China is fuelling the cancer.
The Chinese are contemptuous of such criticism. To them, Africa is about pragmatism, not human rights. 'Business is business,' says Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong, adding that Beijing should not interfere in 'internal' affairs. 'We try to separate politics from business.'
While the bounty has, not surprisingly, been welcomed by African dictators, the people of Africa are less impressed. At a market in Zimbabwe recently, where Chinese goods were on sale at nearly every stall, one woman told me she would not waste her money on 'Zing-Zong' products.
'They go Zing when they work, and then they quickly go Zong and break,' she said. 'They are a waste of money. But there's nothing else. China is the only country that will do business with us.'
There have also been riots in Zambia, Angola and Congo over the flood of Chinese immigrant workers. The Chinese do not use African labour where possible, saying black Africans are lazy and unskilled.
In Angola, the government has agreed that 70 per cent of tendered public works must go to Chinese firms, most of which do not employ Angolans.
As well as enticing hundreds of thousands to settle in Africa, they have even shipped Chinese prisoners to produce the goods cheaply.
In Kenya, for example, only ten textile factories are still producing, compared with 200 factories five years ago, as China undercuts locals in the production of 'African' souvenirs.
Where will it all end? As far as Beijing is concerned, it will stop only when Africa no longer has any minerals or oil to be extracted from the continent.
A century after Sir Francis Galton outlined his vision for Africa, the Chinese are here to stay. More will come.
The people of this bewitching, beautiful continent, where humankind first emerged from the Great Rift Valley, desperately need progress. The Chinese are not here for that.
They are here for plunder. After centuries of pain and war, Africa deserves better.
How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried
By Andrew Malone
Last updated at 4:16 PM on 18th July 2008
On June 5, 1873, in a letter to The Times, Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and a distinguished African explorer in his own right, outlined a daring (if by today's standards utterly offensive) new method to 'tame' and colonise what was then known as the Dark Continent.
'My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race,' wrote Galton.
'I should expect that the African seaboard, now sparsely occupied by lazy, palavering savages, might in a few years be tenanted by industrious, order-loving Chinese, living either as a semidetached dependency of China, or else in perfect freedom under their own law.'
Enlarge Close relations: Chinese President Hu Jintao accompanies Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
Despite an outcry in Parliament and heated debate in the august salons of the Royal Geographic Society, Galton insisted that 'the history of the world tells the tale of the continual displacement of populations, each by a worthier successor, and humanity gains thereby'.
A controversial figure, Galton was also the pioneer of eugenics, the theory that was used by Hitler to try to fulfil his mad dreams of a German Master Race.
Eventually, Galton's grand resettlement plans fizzled out because there were much more exciting things going on in Africa.
But that was more than 100 years ago, and with legendary explorers such as Livingstone, Speke and Burton still battling to find the source of the Nile - and new discoveries of exotic species of birds and animals featuring regularly on newspaper front pages - vast swathes of the continent had not even been 'discovered'.
Yet Sir Francis Galton, it now appears, was ahead of his time. His vision is coming true - if not in the way he imagined. An astonishing invasion of Africa is now under way.
In the greatest movement of people the world has ever seen, China is secretly working to turn the entire continent into a new colony.
Reminiscent of the West's imperial push in the 18th and 19th centuries - but on a much more dramatic, determined scale - China's rulers believe Africa can become a 'satellite' state, solving its own problems of over-population and shortage of natural resources at a stroke.
With little fanfare, a staggering 750,000 Chinese have settled in Africa over the past decade. More are on the way.
The strategy has been carefully devised by officials in Beijing, where one expert has estimated that China will eventually need to send 300 million people to Africa to solve the problems of over-population and pollution.
The plans appear on track. Across Africa, the red flag of China is flying. Lucrative deals are being struck to buy its commodities - oil, platinum, gold and minerals. New embassies and air routes are opening up. The continent's new Chinese elite can be seen everywhere, shopping at their own expensive boutiques, driving Mercedes and BMW limousines, sending their children to exclusive private schools.
The pot-holed roads are cluttered with Chinese buses, taking people to markets filled with cheap Chinese goods. More than a thousand miles of new Chinese railroads are crisscrossing the continent, carrying billions of tons of illegally-logged timber, diamonds and gold.
Mugabe has said: 'We must turn from the West and face the East'
The trains are linked to ports dotted around the coast, waiting to carry the goods back to Beijing after unloading cargoes of cheap toys made in China.
Confucius Institutes (state-funded Chinese 'cultural centres') have sprung up throughout Africa, as far afield as the tiny land-locked countries of Burundi and Rwanda, teaching baffled local people how to do business in Mandarin and Cantonese.
Massive dams are being built, flooding nature reserves. The land is scarred with giant Chinese mines, with 'slave' labourers paid less than £1 a day to extract ore and minerals.
Pristine forests are being destroyed, with China taking up to 70 per cent of all timber from Africa.
All over this great continent, the Chinese presence is swelling into a flood. Angola has its own 'Chinatown', as do great African cities such as Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.
Exclusive, gated compounds, serving only Chinese food, and where no blacks are allowed, are being built all over the continent. 'African cloths' sold in markets on the continent are now almost always imported, bearing the legend: 'Made in China'.
From Nigeria in the north, to Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Angola in the west, across Chad and Sudan in the east, and south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, China has seized a vice-like grip on a continent which officials have decided is crucial to the superpower's long-term survival.
'The Chinese are all over the place,' says Trevor Ncube, a prominent African businessman with publishing interests around the continent. 'If the British were our masters yesterday, the Chinese have taken their place.'
Likened to one race deciding to adopt a new home on another planet, Beijing has launched its so-called 'One China In Africa' policy because of crippling pressure on its own natural resources in a country where the population has almost trebled from 500 million to 1.3 billion in 50 years.
China is hungry - for land, food and energy. While accounting for a fifth of the world's population, its oil consumption has risen 35-fold in the past decade and Africa is now providing a third of it; imports of steel, copper and aluminium have also shot up, with Beijing devouring 80 per cent of world supplies.
Enlarge President Robert Mugabe leaving the eleventh ordinary session of the assembly of the African Union heads of State and government in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
Fuelling its own boom at home, China is also desperate for new markets to sell goods. And Africa, with non-existent health and safety rules to protect against shoddy and dangerous goods, is the perfect destination.
The result of China's demand for raw materials and its sales of products to Africa is that turnover in trade between Africa and China has risen from £5million annually a decade ago to £6billion today.
However, there is a lethal price to pay. There is a sinister aspect to this invasion. Chinese-made war planes roar through the African sky, bombing opponents. Chinese-made assault rifles and grenades are being used to fuel countless murderous civil wars, often over the materials the Chinese are desperate to buy.
Take, for example, Zimbabwe. Recently, a giant container ship from China was due to deliver its cargo of three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 3,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 1,500 mortars to President Robert Mugabe's regime.
After an international outcry, the vessel, the An Yue Jiang, was forced to return to China, despite Beijing's insistence that the arms consignment was a 'normal commercial deal'.
Indeed, the 77-ton arms shipment would have been small beer - a fraction of China's help to Mugabe. He already has high-tech, Chinese-built helicopter gunships and fighter jets to use against his people.
Ever since the U.S. and Britain imposed sanctions in 2003, Mugabe has courted the Chinese, offering mining concessions for arms and currency.
While flying regularly to Beijing as a high-ranking guest, the 84-year-old dictator rants at 'small dots' such as Britain and America.
He can afford to. Mugabe is orchestrating his campaign of terror from a 25-bedroom, pagoda-style mansion built by the Chinese. Much of his estimated £1billion fortune is believed to have been siphoned off from Chinese 'loans'.
The imposing grey building of ZANU-PF, his ruling party, was paid for and built by the Chinese. Mugabe received £200 million last year alone from China, enabling him to buy loyalty from the army.
In another disturbing illustration of the warm relations between China and the ageing dictator, a platoon of the China People's Liberation Army has been out on the streets of Mutare, a city near the border with Mozambique, which voted against the president in the recent, disputed election.
Almost 30 years ago, Britain pulled out of Zimbabwe - as it had done already out of the rest of Africa, in the wake of Harold Macmillan's 'wind of change' speech. Today, Mugabe says: 'We have turned East, where the sun rises, and given our backs to the West, where the sun sets.'
Despite Britain's commendable colonial legacy of a network of roads, railways and schools, the British are now being shunned.
According to one veteran diplomat: 'China is easier to do business with because it doesn't care about human rights in Africa - just as it doesn't care about them in its own country. All the Chinese care about is money.'
Nowhere is that more true than Sudan. Branded 'Africa's Killing Fields', the massive oil-rich East African state is in the throes of the genocide and slaughter of hundreds of thousands of black, non-Arab peasants in southern Sudan.
In effect, through its supplies of arms and support, China has been accused of underwriting a humanitarian scandal. The atrocities in Sudan have been described by the U.S. as 'the worst human rights crisis in the world today'.
Mugabe has received hundreds of millions of pounds from Chinese sources
The government in Khartoum has helped the feared Janjaweed militia to rape, murder and burn to death more than 350,000 people.
The Chinese - who now buy half of all Sudan's oil - have happily provided armoured vehicles, aircraft and millions of bullets and grenades in return for lucrative deals. Indeed, an estimated £1billion of Chinese cash has been spent on weapons.
According to Human Rights First, a leading human rights advocacy organisation, Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles, grenade launchers and ammunition for rifles and heavy machine guns are continuing to flow into Darfur, which is dotted with giant refugee camps, each containing hundreds of thousands of people.
Between 2003 and 2006, China sold Sudan $55 million worth of small arms, flouting a United Nations weapons embargo.
With new warnings that the cycle of killing is intensifying, an estimated two thirds of the non-Arab population has lost at least one member of their families in Darfur.
Although two million people have been uprooted from their homes in the conflict, China has repeatedly thwarted United Nations denunciations of the Sudanese regime.
While the Sudanese slaughter has attracted worldwide condemnation, prompting Hollywood film-maker Steven Spielberg to quit as artistic director of the Beijing Olympics, few parts of Africa are now untouched by China.
In Congo, more than £2billion has been 'loaned' to the government. In Angola, £3 billion has been paid in exchange for oil. In Nigeria, more than £5billion has been handed over.
In Equatorial Guinea, where the president publicly hung his predecessor from a cage suspended in a theatre before having him shot, Chinese firms are helping the dictator build an entirely new capital, full of gleaming skyscrapers and, of course, Chinese restaurants.
After battling for years against the white colonial powers of Britain, France, Belgium and Germany, post-independence African leaders are happy to do business with China for a straightforward reason: cash.
With western loans linked to an insistence on democratic reforms and the need for 'transparency' in using the money (diplomatic language for rules to ensure dictators do not pocket millions), the Chinese have proved much more relaxed about what their billions are used for.
Certainly, little of it reaches the continent's impoverished 800 million people. Much of it goes straight into the pockets of dictators. In Africa, corruption is a multi-billion pound industry and many experts believe that China is fuelling the cancer.
The Chinese are contemptuous of such criticism. To them, Africa is about pragmatism, not human rights. 'Business is business,' says Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong, adding that Beijing should not interfere in 'internal' affairs. 'We try to separate politics from business.'
While the bounty has, not surprisingly, been welcomed by African dictators, the people of Africa are less impressed. At a market in Zimbabwe recently, where Chinese goods were on sale at nearly every stall, one woman told me she would not waste her money on 'Zing-Zong' products.
'They go Zing when they work, and then they quickly go Zong and break,' she said. 'They are a waste of money. But there's nothing else. China is the only country that will do business with us.'
There have also been riots in Zambia, Angola and Congo over the flood of Chinese immigrant workers. The Chinese do not use African labour where possible, saying black Africans are lazy and unskilled.
In Angola, the government has agreed that 70 per cent of tendered public works must go to Chinese firms, most of which do not employ Angolans.
As well as enticing hundreds of thousands to settle in Africa, they have even shipped Chinese prisoners to produce the goods cheaply.
In Kenya, for example, only ten textile factories are still producing, compared with 200 factories five years ago, as China undercuts locals in the production of 'African' souvenirs.
Where will it all end? As far as Beijing is concerned, it will stop only when Africa no longer has any minerals or oil to be extracted from the continent.
A century after Sir Francis Galton outlined his vision for Africa, the Chinese are here to stay. More will come.
The people of this bewitching, beautiful continent, where humankind first emerged from the Great Rift Valley, desperately need progress. The Chinese are not here for that.
They are here for plunder. After centuries of pain and war, Africa deserves better.
Why the U.S. Should Boycott Beijing Olympics
Every American should know by now of all the atrocities the People's Republic of China has done to its people. But this is not what I'm going to focus on. What is important is the Olympic Games right now. However I still feel bad for all the millions who have died within PRC's borders.
Here are the reasons the U.S. should boycott the Beijing Games. First, the PRC has told all of its restaurants and bars to not serve blacks and Mongolians. I know China hates Mongolia, that's why they built the Great Wall after all, but I feel that by not serving blacks that this is a cheap-shot towards Team U.S.A. I don't know what the Chinese Communist Government is thinking, but I hear that CNN is running a series about what it is like to be "Black in America." At this point I want to see what it is like to be "Black in the People's Republic of China" and see the vast difference in civil rights. Americans have rights, Chinese do not. I assume that the non-black American athletes will have to get their black friends food, at least I hope they can do that. There's nothing better than sack lunches at the Olympic Games.
Secondly, no dancing. Yep. No dancing. The PRC doesn't like fun, so they have banned dancing. So don't get to happy, or else you will end up in a place you don't want to be.
Thirdly, only people from Beijing are allowed in the city during the Games. There will be check points around the city to not allow people who are not from Beijing into the city. I can see some reason for this, after all, the PRC has over a billion people, but this is the country's Games, not just Beijing's.
Fourthly, no flights in and out of Beijing during the Games. If you are a local, you are stuck in the city and if you are an athlete, you are stuck in the city. Better hope nothing bad happens.
Fifthly, pollution. The pollution in China, particularly in Beijing, is the worst in the world. All athletes that have to compete outdoors will have slower times because they wont be able to breathe as well. This will be particularly bad for marathon runners.
Sixly, there will be cameras everywhere watching everyones every move around the city.
Lastly, how long will it take for the PRC to take control of the broadcast coverage of the Olympic Games? You do know that the television stations in the PRC are state-run, right?
Great choice International Olympic Committee! What a winner of a country! All those freedoms and everyone is happy!
IN THE NEWS:
Fears of no-fun games in Beijing
Africans in Beijing harassed as Olympics approach
Beijing airport denies closing for Olympics opening
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Gramm Resigns From McCain Campaign
Well, it finally happened. John McCain's economic adviser, or should I say former economic adviser Phil Gramm. He may have said that the country is experiencing "a mental recession" and "this is a nation of whiners," but is this a good reason to let him go?
Yeah, probably. These days it is probably smart to let go any distractions to a campaign. So, at this point Barack Obama has the advantage. But more distractions are yet to come with these two politicians. This is only the third quarter in the game, we still have the fourth quarter yet to come.
My score: Obama 58%, McCain 48% (margin of error +/-15%)
Yeah, probably. These days it is probably smart to let go any distractions to a campaign. So, at this point Barack Obama has the advantage. But more distractions are yet to come with these two politicians. This is only the third quarter in the game, we still have the fourth quarter yet to come.
My score: Obama 58%, McCain 48% (margin of error +/-15%)
Friday, July 18, 2008
WGN Parody of Jackson
I thought this was pretty good. Sadly, much better than Saturday Night Live could do.
(from YouTube via WGN-9 Morning News)
(from YouTube via WGN-9 Morning News)
Gore Wants Americans to Ditch Oil
You know by now what I think about ditching oil. This is not a solution. This creates a larger problem that no one seems to have an answer to. On second thought, let's just ditch oil right now and see what happens. It won't be good, believe me. (Read previous blog entries)
----------------------
(from the BBC)
Gore challenges US to ditch oil
The Nobel laureate and former US vice- president, Al Gore, has urged Americans to abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade.
Mr Gore compared the scale of the challenge to that of putting a man on the moon in the 1960s.
He said it did not make sense that the US was borrowing money from China to burn oil from the Middle East which then contributed to climate change.
Critics say weaning the US off fossil fuels is not possible within a decade.
Mr Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his work on climate change, insists his goal is achievable and affordable.
"The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels," he said in a speech in Washington.
"When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices."
To secure this green revolution, Mr Gore said the single most important policy change would be to "tax what we burn - not what we earn".
-Cold turkey-
Mr Gore's ambitious plan would still rely on nuclear energy for a fifth of America's energy needs. Many see the goal as unachievable.
Robby Diamond, president of a bipartisan think tank called Securing America's Future Energy, said weaning the nation off fossil fuels could not be done in a decade.
"The country is not going to be able to go cold turkey," he told the Associated Press.
"We have a hundred years of infrastructure with trillions of dollars of investment that is not simply going to be made obsolete."
US President George W Bush has often been criticised for not doing enough to tackle climate change.
-Green campaign-
At the recent G8 summit of developed nations in Japan, he did move the US closer to a consensus on climate change, by agreeing to language which makes achieving 50% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 a G8 "vision".
The BBC's Warren Bull says that whatever those seeking to succeed Mr Bush in the White House think of Mr Gore's plan, they appear to agree on the need for progress on green issues.
Mr Gore said US presidential contenders Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain were way ahead of most politicians in the fight against global climate change.
Whether their enthusiasm for the environment survives into the White House may be influenced by how much the electorate warms to Mr Gore's vision, our correspondent adds.
----------------------
(from the BBC)
Gore challenges US to ditch oil
The Nobel laureate and former US vice- president, Al Gore, has urged Americans to abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade.
Mr Gore compared the scale of the challenge to that of putting a man on the moon in the 1960s.
He said it did not make sense that the US was borrowing money from China to burn oil from the Middle East which then contributed to climate change.
Critics say weaning the US off fossil fuels is not possible within a decade.
Mr Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his work on climate change, insists his goal is achievable and affordable.
"The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels," he said in a speech in Washington.
"When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices."
To secure this green revolution, Mr Gore said the single most important policy change would be to "tax what we burn - not what we earn".
-Cold turkey-
Mr Gore's ambitious plan would still rely on nuclear energy for a fifth of America's energy needs. Many see the goal as unachievable.
Robby Diamond, president of a bipartisan think tank called Securing America's Future Energy, said weaning the nation off fossil fuels could not be done in a decade.
"The country is not going to be able to go cold turkey," he told the Associated Press.
"We have a hundred years of infrastructure with trillions of dollars of investment that is not simply going to be made obsolete."
US President George W Bush has often been criticised for not doing enough to tackle climate change.
-Green campaign-
At the recent G8 summit of developed nations in Japan, he did move the US closer to a consensus on climate change, by agreeing to language which makes achieving 50% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 a G8 "vision".
The BBC's Warren Bull says that whatever those seeking to succeed Mr Bush in the White House think of Mr Gore's plan, they appear to agree on the need for progress on green issues.
Mr Gore said US presidential contenders Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain were way ahead of most politicians in the fight against global climate change.
Whether their enthusiasm for the environment survives into the White House may be influenced by how much the electorate warms to Mr Gore's vision, our correspondent adds.
Democrats Are Loving High Gas Prices, Say "No" To Off-shore Oil Drilling
I just don't get it. What is so bad about low gas prices. You know, those prices we used to have. I would love to see $3.00 per gallon again. And, I thought that was expensive. Now we have gotten as high as $4.25 per gallon in north central Indiana. Thankfully it has dropped to $4.06 per gallon now, but for how long?
We now have airlines such as US Airways flying with unsafe amounts of gasoline on flights to save money.
What can be done? What can we do, I don't know, how about now? Obama, Pelosi and Reid have talked about alternative energies. These are great ideas. But, what about now! Each of them say it would take about ten years for these new off-shore drills to become effective (by the way, we would need new refineries too). But, they say this is too far away from now, so it can't work. Lets use this analogy: What's the point on going to school if it takes 13 years to graduate, or why college, it takes at least four years to earn a diploma. This logic the Democrats are talking about doesn't make any sense.
What is this alternative energy? They haven't said what it is. They just say that it is out there. But where? Where are the answers? And, if we would end our use of oil it would take at least 10 years to update the service stations. So, we are back at square one. What is the logical answer to the problem? Drill for oil!!
Nancy Pelosi interviewed by Wolf Blitzer
Harry Reid's plan on what to do...nothing...well, opening up the strategic oil reserve is a start, but this isn't an emergency.
Bonus Video
A look at who Obama is. We think. He is all about change, after all.
We now have airlines such as US Airways flying with unsafe amounts of gasoline on flights to save money.
What can be done? What can we do, I don't know, how about now? Obama, Pelosi and Reid have talked about alternative energies. These are great ideas. But, what about now! Each of them say it would take about ten years for these new off-shore drills to become effective (by the way, we would need new refineries too). But, they say this is too far away from now, so it can't work. Lets use this analogy: What's the point on going to school if it takes 13 years to graduate, or why college, it takes at least four years to earn a diploma. This logic the Democrats are talking about doesn't make any sense.
What is this alternative energy? They haven't said what it is. They just say that it is out there. But where? Where are the answers? And, if we would end our use of oil it would take at least 10 years to update the service stations. So, we are back at square one. What is the logical answer to the problem? Drill for oil!!
Nancy Pelosi interviewed by Wolf Blitzer
Harry Reid's plan on what to do...nothing...well, opening up the strategic oil reserve is a start, but this isn't an emergency.
Bonus Video
A look at who Obama is. We think. He is all about change, after all.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
McCain Praises Obama at NAACP Convention
Ok, first off, what is with John McCain? He seems to say about anything lately. Oh wait, that's what he normally does.
Last week, McCain threw his economic adviser Phil Gramm (fmr. Texas senator) under the bus.
"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," Gramm said. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."
"We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline. We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today. We have benefited greatly"
He later went on.
"Misery sells newspapers. Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."
Shortly after these quotes were said, Barack Obama went on attack mode, and why shouldn't he? It is just fresh meat. But what is troublesome is that McCain practically did the same thing by renouncing these comments.
This brings me to the present. John McCain practically endorsed Obama at the NAACP Convention in Cincinnati on Wednesday.
"Don't tell him I said this, but he (Obama) is an impressive fellow in many ways. He has inspired a great many Americans, some of whom had wrongly believed that a political campaign could hold no purpose or meaning for them," McCain said. "His success should make Americans, all Americans, proud. Of course, I would prefer his success not to continue quite as long as he hopes, but it does make you and me proud to know the country I've loved and served all my life is still a work in progress and always improving. Senator Obama talks about making history, and he's made quite a bit of it already. Whatever the outcome in November, Senator Obama has achieved a great thing -- for himself and for his country -- and I thank him for it."
It's to bad Obama doesn't hand out the same praise. All he says about McCain is that if McCain wins it would be "Bush's third term."
Please, tell me more. And, something I don't already know.
It is nice that McCain is a nice guy. And, he did pick a great place to praise Obama. But what is with him in the great scheme of things. Who is John McCain? And as I am asking questions, who is Barack Obama? Will we find out in time for election day? Probably not. Come November, these may be the worst choices for President of the United States, ever.
Last week, McCain threw his economic adviser Phil Gramm (fmr. Texas senator) under the bus.
"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," Gramm said. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."
"We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline. We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today. We have benefited greatly"
He later went on.
"Misery sells newspapers. Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."
Shortly after these quotes were said, Barack Obama went on attack mode, and why shouldn't he? It is just fresh meat. But what is troublesome is that McCain practically did the same thing by renouncing these comments.
This brings me to the present. John McCain practically endorsed Obama at the NAACP Convention in Cincinnati on Wednesday.
"Don't tell him I said this, but he (Obama) is an impressive fellow in many ways. He has inspired a great many Americans, some of whom had wrongly believed that a political campaign could hold no purpose or meaning for them," McCain said. "His success should make Americans, all Americans, proud. Of course, I would prefer his success not to continue quite as long as he hopes, but it does make you and me proud to know the country I've loved and served all my life is still a work in progress and always improving. Senator Obama talks about making history, and he's made quite a bit of it already. Whatever the outcome in November, Senator Obama has achieved a great thing -- for himself and for his country -- and I thank him for it."
It's to bad Obama doesn't hand out the same praise. All he says about McCain is that if McCain wins it would be "Bush's third term."
Please, tell me more. And, something I don't already know.
It is nice that McCain is a nice guy. And, he did pick a great place to praise Obama. But what is with him in the great scheme of things. Who is John McCain? And as I am asking questions, who is Barack Obama? Will we find out in time for election day? Probably not. Come November, these may be the worst choices for President of the United States, ever.
A Look Back On A LA Times Column
Obama the 'Magic Negro'
The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man.
By David Ehrenstein, L.A.-based DAVID EHRENSTEIN writes about Hollywood and politics.
March 19, 2007 (Link to LA Times site)
AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.
But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."
The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro .
He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.
As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."
Poitier really poured on the "magic" in "Lilies of the Field" (for which he won a best actor Oscar) and "To Sir, With Love" (which, along with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," made him a No. 1 box-office attraction). In these films, Poitier triumphs through yeoman service to his white benefactors. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is particularly striking in this regard, as it posits miscegenation without evoking sex. (Talk about magic!)
The same can't quite be said of Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy," "Seven" and the seemingly endless series of films in which he plays ersatz paterfamilias to a white woman bedeviled by a serial killer. But at least he survives, unlike Crothers in "The Shining," in which psychic premonitions inspire him to rescue a white family he barely knows and get killed for his trouble. This heart-tug trope is parodied in Gus Van Sant's "Elephant." The film's sole black student at a Columbine-like high school arrives in the midst of a slaughter, helps a girl escape and is immediately gunned down. See what helping the white man gets you?
And what does the white man get out of the bargain? That's a question asked by John Guare in "Six Degrees of Separation," his brilliant retelling of the true saga of David Hampton — a young, personable gay con man who in the 1980s passed himself off as the son of none other than the real Sidney Poitier. Though he started small, using the ruse to get into Studio 54, Hampton discovered that countless gullible, well-heeled New Yorkers, vulnerable to the Magic Negro myth, were only too eager to believe in his baroque fantasy. (One of the few who wasn't fooled was Andy Warhol, who was astonished his underlings believed Hampton's whoppers. Clearly Warhol had no need for the accouterment of interracial "goodwill.")
But the same can't be said of most white Americans, whose desire for a noble, healing Negro hasn't faded. That's where Obama comes in: as Poitier's "real" fake son.
The senator's famously stem-winding stump speeches have been drawing huge crowds to hear him talk of uniting rather than dividing. A praiseworthy goal. Consequently, even the mild criticisms thrown his way have been waved away, "magically." He used to smoke, but now he doesn't; he racked up a bunch of delinquent parking tickets, but he paid them all back with an apology. And hey, is looking good in a bathing suit a bad thing?
The only mud that momentarily stuck was criticism (white and black alike) concerning Obama's alleged "inauthenticty," as compared to such sterling examples of "genuine" blackness as Al Sharpton and Snoop Dogg. Speaking as an African American whose last name has led to his racial "credentials" being challenged — often several times a day — I know how pesky this sort of thing can be.
Obama's fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he's written in his two (count 'em) books, or even what he's actually said in those stem-winders. It's the way he's said it that counts the most. It's his manner, which, as presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden ham-fistedly reminded us, is "articulate." His tone is always genial, his voice warm and unthreatening, and he hasn't called his opponents names (despite being baited by the media).
Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.
Barack The Magic Negro song by Paul Shanklin
The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man.
By David Ehrenstein, L.A.-based DAVID EHRENSTEIN writes about Hollywood and politics.
March 19, 2007 (Link to LA Times site)
AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.
But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."
The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro .
He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.
As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."
Poitier really poured on the "magic" in "Lilies of the Field" (for which he won a best actor Oscar) and "To Sir, With Love" (which, along with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," made him a No. 1 box-office attraction). In these films, Poitier triumphs through yeoman service to his white benefactors. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is particularly striking in this regard, as it posits miscegenation without evoking sex. (Talk about magic!)
The same can't quite be said of Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy," "Seven" and the seemingly endless series of films in which he plays ersatz paterfamilias to a white woman bedeviled by a serial killer. But at least he survives, unlike Crothers in "The Shining," in which psychic premonitions inspire him to rescue a white family he barely knows and get killed for his trouble. This heart-tug trope is parodied in Gus Van Sant's "Elephant." The film's sole black student at a Columbine-like high school arrives in the midst of a slaughter, helps a girl escape and is immediately gunned down. See what helping the white man gets you?
And what does the white man get out of the bargain? That's a question asked by John Guare in "Six Degrees of Separation," his brilliant retelling of the true saga of David Hampton — a young, personable gay con man who in the 1980s passed himself off as the son of none other than the real Sidney Poitier. Though he started small, using the ruse to get into Studio 54, Hampton discovered that countless gullible, well-heeled New Yorkers, vulnerable to the Magic Negro myth, were only too eager to believe in his baroque fantasy. (One of the few who wasn't fooled was Andy Warhol, who was astonished his underlings believed Hampton's whoppers. Clearly Warhol had no need for the accouterment of interracial "goodwill.")
But the same can't be said of most white Americans, whose desire for a noble, healing Negro hasn't faded. That's where Obama comes in: as Poitier's "real" fake son.
The senator's famously stem-winding stump speeches have been drawing huge crowds to hear him talk of uniting rather than dividing. A praiseworthy goal. Consequently, even the mild criticisms thrown his way have been waved away, "magically." He used to smoke, but now he doesn't; he racked up a bunch of delinquent parking tickets, but he paid them all back with an apology. And hey, is looking good in a bathing suit a bad thing?
The only mud that momentarily stuck was criticism (white and black alike) concerning Obama's alleged "inauthenticty," as compared to such sterling examples of "genuine" blackness as Al Sharpton and Snoop Dogg. Speaking as an African American whose last name has led to his racial "credentials" being challenged — often several times a day — I know how pesky this sort of thing can be.
Obama's fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he's written in his two (count 'em) books, or even what he's actually said in those stem-winders. It's the way he's said it that counts the most. It's his manner, which, as presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden ham-fistedly reminded us, is "articulate." His tone is always genial, his voice warm and unthreatening, and he hasn't called his opponents names (despite being baited by the media).
Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.
Barack The Magic Negro song by Paul Shanklin
Remembering Tony Snow
(From: Fox News)
Tony Snow Funeral Held in Washington
Thursday, July 17, 2008
WASHINGTON — President Bush and the first lady were among a throng of dignitaries, media members and other mourners who gathered Thursday for the funeral of former White House press secretary and FOX News anchor Tony Snow, who died Saturday after a long, public bout with cancer.
Speaking at the funeral, Bush said Snow had "amassed a rare record of accomplishment."
"He knew the job of a reporter was vigorous. He understood the profession and always treated it with respect," Bush said, adding that Snow's was a life that was "far too brief."
The services were being held on the campus of Catholic University at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Bush also remarked on Snow's "wry sense of humor and abundant goodness. We will also remember he was lots of fun."
And, speaking directly to Snow's children -- Kendall, Robbie and Krisiti -- he said he regularly called on Snow over weekends seeking advice to learn that he was spending time with them.
"He loved you a lot," Bush said. "I hope you know we loved him a lot, too."
The service, open to the public, was being held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception near Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
An enlarged photo of Snow was displayed, showing him smiling at the press secretary's podium in the White House press room.
"The measure of this man's life can be found in his character, in his optimism, in his joy and humor, in his courage, in his passion for what was good and right, and in his love for God and family and neighbor and country," the Very Rev. David M. O'Connell, president of Catholic University, said in his homily.
"Tony Snow did not need a long life for us to measure. It was, rather, we who needed his life to be longer."
Row after row at the shrine was packed with people, including White House correspondents who knew Snow.
Bush was accompanied by some familiar faces from earlier in his presidency, including former top adviser Karl Rove and one-time chief of staff Andrew Card.
White House press secretary Dana Perino, who succeeded Snow, said Monday that Snow touched everyone's lives at the White House.
"Welcome back from what was a very sad weekend for all of us in the room," she said at the start of her daily off-air briefing with reporters.
"We greatly appreciate your support and the prayers and for Jill and the entire Snow family. She does really appreciate it. There's a lot of love in this room for him and for the family, so we thank you. As the president said yesterday, Tony Snow was a great friend to everybody at the White House," Perino said.
Bush and his wife, Laura, visited on Monday with Snow's family. Snow is survived by his wife, Jill, and their three children. The Bushes went to Snow's home in Alexandria, Va., and hugged family members on the porch before going inside.
Cancer survivor and multiple Tour de France victor Lance Armstrong, who had befriended Snow during his illness, also weighed in Monday.
"Tony died of colon cancer, his second bout with the disease. He was a courageous soul, a true fighter and a very warm, decent guy. Our hearts go out to his family, friends and colleagues who face the world without him now.
"As many of us rode and ran the San Jose Challenge this past weekend, we kept them and Tony in our minds, and remembered all the more clearly why elevating the fight against cancer must be a national priority," he said in a note released by The Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Snow was remembered over the weekend by the president, Vice President Dick Cheney, members of the White House press corps and others who described him as a happy warrior who woke up each day excited about life, enjoyed engaging the media and most of all loved his family.
"Laura and I are really saddened by his death," Bush said Sunday with his wife by his side. Bush described Snow as "a smart and capable man," "an honest guy" with a "wonderful sense of humor."
Bush said he and the first lady went to church Sunday and prayed for Snow's family.
"I just hope they understand that Tony was loved here in the White House," Bush said.
A syndicated columnist, editor, TV anchor, radio show host and musician, Snow worked in nearly every medium in a career that spanned over 30 years. And he was remembered for being great at every job he did.
"I've known or worked with a lot of press secretaries, White House press secretaries, in my 40 years in Washington, and I'd have to say that Tony's the best," Cheney said on "FOX News Sunday," the show first hosted by Snow.
"He had this rare combination of intelligence, of commitment and loyalty to the president that he was working for, but also this great love of going out behind that podium and doing battle with what in effect were his former colleagues.
"And it was this capacity that he had to be unfailingly polite, to maintain good humor under the most trying of circumstances and do it, I thought, better and more effectively than anybody I've ever seen in that post," Cheney said.
Snow died at 2 a.m. Saturday at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
"It's a tremendous loss for us who knew him, but it's also a loss for the country," Roger Ailes, chairman of FOX News, said Saturday morning about Snow, calling him a "renaissance man."
Snow, besides being the original anchor of "FOX News Sunday" in 1996, hosting each week from historic homes in Washington, D.C., because the burgeoning network had no studio, also hosted FOX News' "Weekend Live" and a radio program, "The Tony Snow Show," before departing for the White House in 2006.
As a TV pundit and commentator for FOX News, Snow often was critical of Bush before he became the president's third press secretary, following Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan. He was an instant study in the job, mastering the position — and the White House press corps — with apparent ease.
"One of the reasons I took this job is not only to work with the president but, believe it or not, to work with all of you," Snow told reporters when he stepped into the post in 2006. "These are times that are going to be very challenging."
During a tenure marked by friendly jousting with journalists, Snow often danced around the press corps, occasionally correcting their grammar and speech even as he responded to their questions.
"He would unfailingly challenge the premise of many of the questions. I'd never seen this before in a press secretary," said conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. "He challenged the premise and told them that they were wrong in the narrative or the storyline that they were tacking, and this caused the president's supporters, those who had seen it, to stand up and cheer."
"Tony did his job with more flair than almost any press secretary before him," said William McGurn, Bush's former chief speechwriter. "He loved the give-and-take. But that was possible only because Tony was a man of substance who had real beliefs and principles that he was more than able to defend."
As he announced Snow as his press secretary in May 2006, Bush praised him as "a man of courage [and] a man of integrity." Snow presided over some of the toughest fights of Bush's presidency, defending the administration during the Iraq war and the CIA leak investigation.
"I felt comfortable enough to interrupt him when he was 'BS'ing, and he kind of knew it, and he'd shut up and move on," Snow said.
His tenure at the White House lasted 17 months and was interrupted by his second bout with cancer.
Snow had his colon removed and underwent six months of chemotherapy after he was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2005. In 2007 he announced his cancer had recurred and spread to his liver, and he had a malignant growth removed from his abdominal area.
He resigned from the White House six months later, in September 2007, citing not his health but a need to earn more than the $168,000 a year he was paid in the government post. He was replaced by his deputy, Perino.
After taking time off to recuperate, Snow joined CNN as a political commentator early this year.
"The White House has lost a great friend and a great colleague," Perino said in a statement released to the media. "We all loved watching him at the podium, but most of all we learned how to love our families and treat each other."
Critics suggested Snow was turning the traditionally informational daily briefing into a personality-driven media event short on facts and long on confrontation. He was the first press secretary, by his own accounting, to travel the country raising money for Republican candidates.
As a commentator, he had not always been on the president's side. He once called Bush "something of an embarrassment" in conservative circles and criticized what he called Bush's "lackluster" domestic policy.
A sometime fill-in host for Rush Limbaugh, Snow said he loved the intimacy of his radio audience.
"I don't think you ever arrive," he said. "I think anybody who thinks they've arrived or made it, anywhere in the media — they're nuts."
Robert Anthony Snow was born June 1, 1955, in Berea, Ky., the son of a teacher and nurse. He graduated from Davidson College in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy, and he taught briefly in Kenya before embarking on his journalism career.
Because of his love for writing, Snow took a job as an editorial writer for the Greensboro Record in North Carolina and went on to run the editorial pages at the Newport News (Virginia) Daily Press, Detroit News and Washington Times. He became a nationally syndicated columnist, and in 1991 he became director of speechwriting for President George H.W. Bush.
"He served people, and we can learn from that. He was kind, and we can learn from that. He was just a good person," the senior Bush told FOX News.
Snow played six instruments — saxophone, trombone, flute, piccolo, accordion and guitar — and was in a D.C. cover band called Beats Workin'. He also was a film buff.
"He was a great musician," Ailes said. "And he loved movies."
More than anything, said Snow's colleagues, he was a joy to work with.
FOX News Chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle called Snow a "gentleman."
"He was a lot of fun," his former FOX News producer Griff Jenkins said. "This is a loss of a family member."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Obama Wants To Rid World Of Nuclear
(picture by Paul E Nunn)
Obama says time to rid world of nuclear weapons
From Alexander Mooney, CNN
Wed July 16, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday said he wants to rid the world of nuclear weapons and pledged to fight emerging threats posed by biological and cyber-terrorism.
Sen. Barack Obama joins in a roundtable discussion on national security Wednesday at Purdue University.
"It's time to send a clear message to the world: America seeks a world with no nuclear weapons," the White House hopeful said.
"As long as nuclear weapons exist, we'll retain a strong deterrent. But we'll make the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons a central element in our nuclear policy."
The remarks, delivered at Purdue University in Indiana before a roundtable discussion with foreign policy experts, come as the senator from Illinois is preparing for a trip abroad. Obama also is seeking to gain traction on national security issues.
In a fact sheet distributed to reporters, Obama's campaign said he will work to eliminate all nuclear weapons, but will not commit the United States to giving them up while other states retain them.
Going after one of John McCain's signature issues, the war in Iraq, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said invading the country after the September 11, 2001, attacks has allowed other emerging threats to develop.
"Instead of taking aggressive steps to secure the world's most dangerous technology, we have spent almost a trillion dollars to occupy a country in the heart of the Middle East that no longer had any weapons of mass destruction," he said.
"It's time to update our national security strategy to stay one step ahead of the terrorists -- to see clearly the emerging threats of our young century and to take action to make the American people more safe and secure.
"It's time to look ahead -- at the dangers of today and tomorrow rather than those of yesterday. America cannot afford another president who doesn't understand the threats that confront us now and in the future," he said.
Obama, who plans to visit Europe and the Middle East this month, said nuclear terrorism is "the gravest danger we face," and said he would seek to rally international support to place increased pressure on Iran and North Korea over their apparent nuclear ambitions.
"Both of these nations have a history of support for terror," he said. "Both should face strong and increasing sanctions if they refuse to verifiably abandon their illicit nuclear programs. And both demand sustained, aggressive and direct diplomatic attention from the United States, and that's what I'll provide as president."
The presidential candidate also pledged to protect the country from the threat of biological and cyber attacks.
"We know that the successful deployment of a biological weapon -- whether it is sprayed into our cities or spread through our food supply -- could kill tens of thousands of Americans and deal a crushing blow to our economy," he said.
The campaign also said Obama will seek to secure all nuclear weapons materials in four years and to increase funding by $1 billion a year to make sure nuclear weapons are removed from vulnerable sites around the world.
The scene of Obama's remarks was no accident -- Indiana is a state that has long voted Republican in presidential elections but one the Democrat's campaign is hoping to make competitive this cycle. Taking part in the roundtable discussion with Obama was Indiana's Democratic U.S. senator, Evan Bayh, a popular figure from a powerful political family.
Obama also went out of his way to praise Indiana's other senator, Republican Dick Lugar. The two teamed up in the Senate on legislation seeking to curb the threat of loose nuclear weapons.
Former Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia also joined Obama in the discussion. Nunn is considered one of the most respected Democratic voices on national security issues and, along with Bayh, is said to be on Obama's short list for vice president.
Shortly after Obama concluded his remarks, the McCain campaign released a letter signed by 10 retired admirals and generals touting the senator from Arizona's national security credentials.
"This country has learned the peril of treating terrorists and their state sponsors as little more than a law enforcement problem," the letter said. "We are unanimous in our view that the failures of the past should not be repeated, and we believe that John McCain's long record of national service, and his demonstrated judgment on matters of national security, make clear who can best defend this country abroad, and assure peace and prosperity at home."
The retired military officials who signed the letter were Navy Adm. Ronald J. Hays, Navy Adm. James L. Holloway, Navy Adm. Jerome L. Johnson, Marine Corps. Gen. P.X. Kelley, Army Gen. James J. Lindsay, Air Force Gen. John Michael Loh, Navy Adm. Leighton W. Smith, Army Gen. Carl Stiner, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Donald C. "Deese" Thompson and Coast Guard Vice Adm. Howard B. Thorsen.
Obama Heading To Iraq with Media
Good coverage, biased coverage, too much coverage? All three broadcast news anchors will be heading with Barack Obama when he goes to Iraq.
On each occasion when John McCain went to Iraq, there was no American media presence.
Charles Gibson of ABC, Katie Couric of CBS, Brian Williams of NBC are all going to the safe country of Iraq.
On each occasion when John McCain went to Iraq, there was no American media presence.
Charles Gibson of ABC, Katie Couric of CBS, Brian Williams of NBC are all going to the safe country of Iraq.
Want a Pair of These?
Who wouldn't want a pair of these Barack Obama Nike Jordan Air Force Ones? Vans, a follower of Lord Obama painted these shoes to be sold to fellow followers of the great one.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A Glimpse at Obama's Energy Policy
(Source: BarackObama.com)
In 2000, countries like Germany made a major commitment to increase the use of renewable energy and begin to get off oil. We elected George Bush and Dick Cheney -- who gave us a secret energy task force, a war in Iraq and the same old energy policies.
Eight years later, gas prices are soaring above $4 a gallon and the nation stands at a crossroads.
We can either “go big” and follow Barack Obama’s 2007 blueprint to create a new energy economy -- or we can rely on John McCain’s sudden 2008 urge to drill for offshore oil -- a distracting idea which won’t reduce gas prices but will boost oil company profits.
The facts are clear. Only one candidate has a detailed plan that is at Apollo moon-mission scale, using technologies that work right now -- Barack Obama. Clean energy isn’t pie in the sky -- the Germans created 250,000 jobs in less time than it will take for John McCain and Big Oil to drill for oil offshore -- and bring it to market. Failing to invest in new energy means we will continue to fall behind in the competitive race for new jobs and manufacturing. That’s not the road to smart energy independence; it’s a backwards formula for more Exxon dependence.
The Choice Is Clear
CHALLENGE Obama McCAIN
Immediate Financial Relief for Families This Summer
$300 per family in rebate checks from a second round of stimulus to help families offset the cost of $4.00 gas this summer.
(Obama Second Stimulus Plan)
No credible plan for immediate financial relief.
Proposed a gas tax gimmick that would provide at most 30 cents a day for the typical workers while increasing oil company profits and depriving our under-funded national highway trust fund of $10 billion.
(Tax Policy Center)
Making America’s Economy Vibrant and Competitive in the Long Haul Apollo-scale investment of $150 billion investment over 10 years to jumpstart renewable energy technology development and deployment.
No comprehensive plan for clean energy investments. Has repeatedly opposed any new investments and incentives in for renewable energy.
He rejects 99.8% of the Obama ideas for investing in our energy future – the advanced battery prize represents 0.2% of the overall investment in the Obama plan.
The Next 10 Years of Oil
3 million barrels of oil savings.
Plan will reduce U.S. oil consumption by about 3 million barrels of oil per day by 2018.
Supports new development on existing leases, which could nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75 percent.
((PDF)Obama Energy Plan)
Not a drop more.
McCain plan to open up our coastlines to drilling would not bring meaningful new production on-line for ten years.
(U.S. Dept. of Energy)
Reducing Dependence on Foreign Oil
Plan to reduce oil consumption by 10 million barrels, or at least 35%, by 2030. That is enough to totally offset our imports from OPEC countries.
Says No to this goal, and has no plan to reduce our long-term dependence on oil.
Green Collar Jobs
Plan for renewables, fuel economy and energy efficiency will help create 5 million new green collar jobs.
No green jobs plan.
Ending Excessive Speculation in Oil Markets
Supports fully closing the Enron Loophole and eliminating offshore loopholes that encourage excessive speculation. Plan will ease the impact of rising prices.
No plan.
Sen. Phil Gramm – one of Senator McCain’s chief economic advisors – was responsible for sneaking the Enron Loophole into law.
Fuel Economy v Offshore Drilling
Supports doubling the fuel efficiency of autos within 18 years, saving American consumers from purchasing a half trillion gallons of gas.
Taking this one step will achieve more than three times the oil savings than could be produced under even the most optimist scenarios of drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
(Obama Energy Plan; Department of Energy)
No plan to increase fuel efficiency standards.
Repeatedly opposed legislative efforts to increase CAFE standards. Now supports simply enforcing existing standards.
Energy Efficiency
Plan will reduce the energy intensity of our economy 50% by 2030, through improvements in building efficiency, smart grid, and giving utilities an incentive to invest in efficiency rather than new production.
No energy efficiency plan.
Windfall Profits Tax
Supports implementing a well-designed windfall profits tax on profits made over $80 per barrel to help families pay energy bills.
No windfall profits tax plan.
Supports $4 billion per year in new tax breaks for major U.S. oil companies, including $1.2 billion per year for Exxon-Mobil – the most profitable company in the history of the world.
((PDF)Center for American Progress)
Monday, July 14, 2008
What is America's New Largest Independent Brewery?
By now, you know it is not Anheuser-Busch, Miller or Coors, so what could it be?
Think back to the state that is known for its beer. The state that produced such beers as: Schlitz, Pabst, Miller, Blatz and Old Milwaukee.
The new largest independent brewery is City Brewery of LaCrosse, Wisc.
The Top 10 Largest Breweries in the United States:
# Name City Owner
1. Anheuser-Busch Inc. St. Louis, Mo. InBev
2. Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, Wisc. SAB-Miller
3. Coors Brewing Co. Golden, Colo. SAB-Miller
4. Pabst Brewing Co. Chicago, Ill. (fmr. Milwaukee)SAB-Miller
5. City Brewing Co. LaCrosse, Wisc. City Brewing
6. D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc. Pottsville, Penn. Yuengling
7. High Falls Brewing Co. Rochester, N.Y. High Falls
8. Boston Beer Co. Boston, Mass. Boston Beer
9. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Chico, Calif. Sierra Nevada
10. Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. Chippewa Falls, Wisc. SAB-Miller
(Source: BeerChurch and by knowing history of each brewery that closed)
Think back to the state that is known for its beer. The state that produced such beers as: Schlitz, Pabst, Miller, Blatz and Old Milwaukee.
The new largest independent brewery is City Brewery of LaCrosse, Wisc.
The Top 10 Largest Breweries in the United States:
# Name City Owner
1. Anheuser-Busch Inc. St. Louis, Mo. InBev
2. Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, Wisc. SAB-Miller
3. Coors Brewing Co. Golden, Colo. SAB-Miller
4. Pabst Brewing Co. Chicago, Ill. (fmr. Milwaukee)SAB-Miller
5. City Brewing Co. LaCrosse, Wisc. City Brewing
6. D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc. Pottsville, Penn. Yuengling
7. High Falls Brewing Co. Rochester, N.Y. High Falls
8. Boston Beer Co. Boston, Mass. Boston Beer
9. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Chico, Calif. Sierra Nevada
10. Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. Chippewa Falls, Wisc. SAB-Miller
(Source: BeerChurch and by knowing history of each brewery that closed)
Great American Beer Sold for $52 Billion
The time of large American breweries is over. Anheuser-Busch agreed today to be sold to InBev SA of Belgium. Years ago Miller Brewing Co. was sold to SAB Miller, and just this last year, SAB Miller acquired Molson-Coors Brewing Company and renamed the United States operations to MillerCoors.
At this moment, Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors are all owned by foreign companies. Who would have thought?
Below is the Associated Press story about Anheuser-Busch from Yahoo! News:
---------------------------------
Anheuser-Busch being sold to InBev for $52B
By AOIFE WHITE and CHRISTOPHER LEONARD, AP Business Writers 33 minutes ago
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The maker of the King of Beers has agreed to go to work for the Belgian brewer InBev SA.
Anheuser Busch Cos. said early Monday it had agreed to a sweetened $52 billion takeover bid from InBev, creating the world's largest brewer and heading off what was shaping up as an acrimonious fight for the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light beers.
The deal, which would also create the third-largest consumer product company, will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The Anheuser-Busch board accepted the higher takeover offer Sunday night from Belgian-based brewer InBev SA, according to a joint press release.
"I think we're going to bring the best of both companies into one company, our footprint with their amazing brands," InBev CEO Carlos Brito said in a video posted on InBev's Web site.
For InBev, the maker of Stella Artois and Beck's, the deal gives an aggressive company an iconic beer brand — Budweiser — to sell into emerging markets such as China and Brazil where it has already established a firm footprint.
InBev is currently the world's second-largest beer-maker, just behind SABMiller. Swallowing Anheuser-Busch sees it leap ahead, capturing half of the U.S. beer market and a fifth of China and Russia.
Brito will be chief executive officer of the combined company. Shareholders will receive $70 a share, a $5 increase over the offer Anheuser-Busch rejected in June.
Anheuser-Busch shares rose 79 cents to $67.29 in morning trading.
It wasn't immediately clear how long approval might take. Several Missouri politicians have expressed concerns about the merger — especially how it would affect the approximate 6,000 people employed by Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.
It also drew the attention of Mexico's Grupo Modelo. Anheuser-Busch also owns a 50 percent share in Grupo Modelo, which said in a statement Monday that its relationship with Anheuser-Busch gives it consent rights to the deal.
"Our agreement with Anheuser-Busch was carefully constructed to ensure we have a definitive say in who our partner is. We are confident that our agreement, which is governed by Mexican law, gives us the right to decide whether or not to consent to the potential acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev," Grupo Modelo said in a statement.
InBev said it plans to use St. Louis as its North American headquarters, and that it will keep open all 12 of Anheuser-Busch's North American breweries.
It has not said whether it will cut more jobs on top of the 1,185 positions Anheuser-Busch already said it wants to shed — mostly by offering early retirement.
It will, however, sell off "noncore assets" from both companies to raise some $7 billion to finance the deal. It will also borrow $45 billion and may sell shares to raise another $9.8 billion.
Shareholders won't see much joy in the short-term. InBev warned of lower dividends and no benefit to earnings per share until 2010.
But it is promising longer-term rewards in a stalling market. Beer sales in North America and Europe are flat as drinkers turn to wine and spirits. InBev has compensated by finding new drinkers in Latin America, eastern Europe and Asia that will now be handed a cold Bud.
InBev cost synergies of at least $1.5 billion a year by 2011 over three years. Most of that will come from managing the supply chain better. InBev's sharp eye on costs — which forces managers to justify every cent spent — will also play a major part.
Monday's kiss-and-make-up announcement from both companies came after several weeks of guns blazing. InBev said on June 11 it wanted to buy Anheuser-Busch, which distributes its beers in the U.S.
Anheuser-Busch shrugged off the first offer as two low, prompting InBev to seek the removal of all Anheuser's board members. Anheuser counterattacked, calling InBev's bid an "illegal scheme" because the company failed to mention that it owned a brewery in Cuba.
Few products are associated with America as much as Budweiser, which its owner calls the King of Beers. Its Clydesdale horses are fixtures of Super Bowl ads, and even the label is red, white and blue, with an eagle swooping through the "A."
To some in St. Louis, losing Anheuser-Busch to a foreign buyer meant losing a little bit of history. From college buildings to theme parks to offices to the stadium where the Cardinals play baseball, the Busch name is virtually everywhere in the Gateway City.
Despite more than 600 years of brewing beer in Belgium, InBev is more rootless. Although based in Leuven, Belgium, it is run by a Brazilian management team and sells most of its beer outside Europe.
It owns a massive portfolio of local brands from Siberia to Argentina that rarely travel. InBev has only recently started to push its two best-known brands — Stella Artois and Beck's — more widely.
___
AP Business Writer Christopher Leonard wrote from St. Louis, and Associated Press writer Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.
(Link to Yahoo! News article)
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