People of the World Mourn the Victims of Norway’s Terrorist

Swedish Muslims gather to pay tribute to the victims of Friday's massacre at the Norway Embassy in Sweden

Remembrances for the victims of Norway’s terrorist have begun to pour in from around the world. British Rock band Cold Play and singer Katy Perry are among celebrities expressing their sorrow for the horrible violence that has ended the lives of 90 plus–mostly very young–Norwegians.

Reacting to the news on Twitter, Perry wrote: “Let’s pray for our Norway friends as we lay our heads down tonight,” while Coldplay posted on their official profile: “Our love goes out to the people of Norway. What a monstrous thing to happen to such a beautiful country and people.”

Other stars to mourn the twin attacks included Boy George, who changed the background of his Twitter account to the Norwegian flag and wrote: “Today is the saddest day for the people of Norway, I cannot comprehend the crime, my prayers are with you all! Shocking!”

Singer Josh Groban also revealed on the site that he was “watching the horrible news about what happened in my beloved Norway. Such shocking attacks, sending love to everyone there.”

X Factor star Rebecca Ferguson added on her profile: “My prayers and thoughts are with the people of oslo ,

Memorials at the site of the bombings in Oslo

theres alot more serious things going on in the world its very sad xxx”, while Everybody Loves Raymond actress Patricia Heaton tweeted: “I can’t get my head around the massacre in #Norway. That one person can cause such senseless destruction. Pray for the parents of these kids”.

World leaders are expressing outrage at this senseless act of violence.

“I am deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic loss of life of so many people on the island of Utoeya and in Oslo. Prince Philip joins me in extending our heartfelt sympathy to your majesty and the people of Norway. Our prayers and thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by the dreadful atrocity.”
–Queen Elizabeth II

” The loss of life in Norway has been absolutely horrific. It’s on a scale, frankly, that is hard to comprehend. The Norwegians are old friends and allies and neighbors of Britain, and I know that everyone in Britain will want to stand with the Norwegian people in the days of sorrow that lie ahead. Also, we’ll want to make sure that we learn like others, any lessons there are to learn about how to be more secure against horrific outrages like this. And that’s something we can discuss at the National Security Council on Monday. These attacks are a stark reminder of the threat we all face from terrorism. I have called Prime Minister Stoltenberg this evening to express my sincere condolences and to let him know that our thoughts are with the Norwegian people at this tragic time. I have offered Britain’s help, including through our close intelligence cooperation.”
–David Cameron, UK Prime Minister

“I have been in contact with [Norwegian] Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg to deplore what happened and have offered our help if needed.”
–Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt

“Scotland and Norway enjoy very strong bonds of friendship stretching back over many years, and our thoughts and sympathies are today with the Norwegian people, particularly the families of all those affected by these terrible incidents.”
–Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister

“Our thoughts are with those who have died, the bereaved and those injured.”
– Mayor of London, Boris Johnson

Pakistan, itself, has suffered enormously from terrorist attacks and fully empathizes with the government and the people of Norway.”
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani

“I wanted to personally extend my condolences to the people of Norway. It’s a reminder that the entire international community holds a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring. We have to work cooperatively together both on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks.”
–U.S. President Barack Obama

“In this very serious and sad situation we stand firmly at the side of the Norwegian people, who are living through one of their darkest days. Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.”
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel:

Tenn et lys for de døde og skadde etter tragedien i Oslo og Utøya.

“Light a candle for the dead and injured after the tragedy in Oslo and Utøya”

The candle on my alter is lit for the victims and those who are suffering because of this act of violence. Om mani padme hum.


Norwegian Terrorist: Extremist Christian and Right Winger

You’re probably reading right now that around 90+ teenagers were gunned down in Norway simply for attending a labor party

Anders Behring Breivik

summer camp. If you made the rounds on some blogs yesterday as well as some main stream media sites, you’d have read some of the most blatantly hateful comments on Muslims that you could ever imagine.  The immediate assumption was this was an attack by Islamic extremists.  Frankly, many places read like it was an attack by a random Muslim.

Turns out that the Norwegian Terrorist is a fundamentalist Christian who admires infamous hate mongers and enemies of our liberties as spelled out in the US constitution Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs and Robert Spencer of  Jihad Watch.  I’ve read some of Breivik’s prolific internet writings now. He praises Lou Dobbs and criticizes CNN for telling him to tone down his rants dealing with Muslims.  He also likes to call every one Marxists at the drop of the hat; especially the press and academics.  Additionally, he thinks Christians need to go back to the basics and stop helping poor Palestinians.  Sound like any one you may know?

What I’d like to know is if we’re going to put those folks into indefinite detention now and subject them to enhanced interrogation by the CIA to determine the extent to which they were complicit (or not) in this terrorist attack?  Perhaps Rick Perry and his friends should be sent to Guantanamo so we all can feel safe.  I’m just waiting for New York Congressman Peter King to hold hearings on the radicalization of Nordic Americans.  Perhaps some people should start protesting the building of anything related to Freemasons especially near shops that sell herring.  Is that something Herman Cain is willing to take up?  Oh, wait, he’s probably one of them.  Off to Guantanamo for him and Michelle Bachmann.   These are just the application of the same prescriptions these people were applying to the wrong “goatfuckers” yesterday when the assumption was that it was an attack by an Islamic extremist rather than a Christian one.

Many bloggers and reporters without preconceived hatreds have been busy trying to find out the political leanings of mass murderer and domestic terrorist Anders Behring Breivik before the Freemasons and other interested parties–like Pam Geller–can scrub their sites. Here is a taste via the LGF link above to Doug Saunders whose Norwegian friend spent some time collecting and translating Breivik’s internet spew and has placed documents here.  They read like a manifesto against “multiculturalism”, Marxist professors and media, and Muslims found all around this country in Talk Radio, Republican Presidential Speeches, and right wing blog sites. Try this Breivik confession on for size.

I myself am a Protestant and baptized / confirmed to me by my own free will when I was 15. But today’s Protestant church is a joke. Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like the minimalist shopping centers. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic. In the meantime, I vote for the most conservative candidates in church elections.The only thing that can save the Protestant church is to go back to basics.

This is one rant that I found particularly recognizable from the American Right Wing and the extreme Christian right.

The problem is that it often does not help about 80% of Muslims are “moderates”, ie they ignore the Quran. “It takes very few people to overthrow a plane.

“What percentage is the Taliban of Pakistan’s population? 1%, 3%, 5%? And how much chaosis there today?In every society where Islam exists there will be a certain percentage of the Muslims who actually follow the traditional interpretations of the Koran.And then we have the relationship between conservative Muslims and so-called “moderateMuslims”.

There is moderate Nazis, too, that does not support fumigation of rooms and Jews. But they’restill Nazis and will only sit and watch as the conservatives Nazis strike (if it ever happens). If we accept the moderate Nazis as long as they distance themselves from the fumigation of rooms and Jews?

Now it unfortunately already cut himself with Marxists who have already infiltrated-culture,media and educational organizations. These individuals will be tolerated and will even work as professors and lecturers at colleges/universities and are thus able to spread their propaganda.For me it is very hypocritical to treat Muslims, Nazis and Marxists differ.They are alls upporters of hate-ideologies.

Not all Muslims, Nazis and Marxists are conservative, most are moderate. But does it matter? A moderate Nazi might, after having experienced fraud, choose to be conservative. A moderate Muslim can, after being refused to enter a club, be conservative,etc.It is obvious that the moderate supporters of hate-ideologies, at a later date may choose conservatism.

Islam (ism) has historically led to 300 million deaths

Communism has historically led to 100 million deaths

Nazism has historically led to 6-20 million deaths. ALL hate ideologies should be treated equally

Here’s an insightful comment gleaned by Sergey Romanov at the LGF link above showing that readers in the US that hang out at places like Pam Geller’s sight or Jihad Watch really agree with the Norwegian Terrorist.  This shows we undoubtedly have that problem brewing here.

One of them writes (sorry, won’t link; h/t: oslogin):

There is very little that he said that I would disagree with. It is clear that he is a Counterjihadist and visits the same sites that most of us do, Gates of Vienna, Jihadwatch, Atlas Shrugs, etc. He also follows political developments in Britain and reads the Telegraph and Daily Mail. The revelation of the Labour government’s conspiracy to flood the country with immigrants to “rub the right’s nose in diversity” was of great interest to him. I’m sure the bien-pensants in the British left will now want to reflect soberly on the folly of pushing people too far.What emerges very clearly from the comments is that he harbours resentment against the mainstream media for pushing a culturally Marxist agenda and covering up Muslim wrong-doing and the negative effects of mass immigration and multiculturalism in Europe generally. This applies especially in Norway, where he felt that the politically correct agenda was completely unchallenged by the mainstream press. This may explain the attack on the VG newspaper’s offices. In some of the comments, he discussed setting up a Norwegian media organisation with a culturally conservative focus.

The Guardian has gleaned through these documents and interviewed childhood friends of Anders Behring Breivik. Here is their latest profile.

A friend told the Norwegian newspaper VG that Breivik had been from the far right politically since at least his late twenties, when he began posting a series of controversial opinions on Facebook and the Norwegian site Document.no, which is critical of Islam.

What has emerged so far paints a disturbing picture: a Christian fundamentalist with a deep hatred of multiculturalism, of the left and of Muslims, who had written disparagingly of prominent Norwegian politicians.

Raised in Oslo, he is reported to have attended the same Smestad primary school as Norway’s crown prince, later attending schools in Oslo’s Gaustad and the Handelsgymnasium. Writing later about his teenage years, he would describe racial tension between Norwegians and young immigrants.

Another significant event was being baptised into the Protestant church of “his own free will” at the age of 15. More recently, however, he had expressed his disgust at his own church. “Today’s Protestant church is a joke,” he wrote in an online post in 2009. “Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centres. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic.”

He was a fan of violent video games and former neighbours said he had sometimes been seen in “military-style” clothing. In the pictures that have so far emerged, Breivik appears well dressed, slender and clean shaven, a picture of the young entrepreneur he wanted to be. His businesses, however, were not much of a success, each one being dissolved after a short while after making a loss, until he established his farm business in 2009 and moved out of Oslo.

The purpose of his businesses, as Breivik admitted in one posting, was in any case to support his political activities.

But the man who listed Kafka and George Orwell’s 1984 as his favourite books on Facebook made little secret to friends and others who frequented Christian fundamentalist and far-right websites of his racist views. A member of an Oslo Masonic lodge, reportedly a body builder and a hunter with two registered weapons – a Glock pistol and an automatic rifle – it has been Breivik’s online profile that has, so far supplied the most public information.

He was a former “youth member” of his country’s conservative Progress party between 1999 and 2004, a party he criticised in one posting for embracing “multiculturalism” and “political correctness” rather than taking an “idealistic stand”.

My question to you is how many “mainstream” Republican politicians, right wing talk shows, and posters on sites that you may frequent say the same kind of stuff?  I went yesterday to post a simple cat story on a friendly site and found similar hate mongering that could have come straight from this terrorist’s postings. How many neighbors do you know that hold similar views and have no problems venting them?  Hopefully, this should scare some people into realizing the extent to which all hatred, anger, and extremism turns many people into the worst examples of humankind.  My prayer is that we don’t see copy cats here.  I doubt it will change Pam Geller at all–here’s a nasty link to prove that–but I’m looking forward to watching her dance her way to a rationalization with the rest of her ilk.  Then there’s Herman Cain.  I also imagine he’s gotta have a doozy of an explanation up his blue serge sleeve for this Christian Cultural Conservative.

Oh, and just in case you have any doubt that he’s part of the Christian Cultural Conservative Movement, read this! We’re considered cultural Marxists or “Kulturmarxistene” so let’s join hands and sing the Internationale.

Kulturmarxistene managed to bargain crucial popular platforms that secured them victory:
Sexual Liberation (weakening of the church / morals / patriarchy / nuclear family / birth rates)
Feminism – positive and negative effects (weakening of the church / patriarchy / nuclearfamily / birth rates)
Rights of workers – positive aspects- Drug / alcohol / party of liberation (weakening of the nuclear family / moral / birth rates)
Multi-Cultural – sold in as the introduction of exciting offers / food / experiences (negativeaspects: mass immigration, Islam, ghettofication-> enklavisering, crime-murder / rape /robbery / violence, weakening of the identity / culture / unit / nation etc.. )
Too much of these elements (with a few exceptions) will help to draw us towards a Marxist utopia (chaos). The only pragmatic we can do is work on cultural conservative consolidation in the next10/20/30/40 year so that we can avail ourselves of the window that will surely open up (FjordMan scenario.)

98% of all Norwegian journalists are now cultural Marxists / multiculturalists / politically correct (or sympathize).The problem is that the fundamental institutions in Norway as for example, Volda University College (School of Journalism) and University of Oslo has been infiltrated already several decades ago (and most other schools for that matter). These are today indoktrineringsleire forfuture generations of the cultural Marxists / multiculturalists / politically correct.

This was obviously not last year. The cultural Marxists have had the opportunity (when the APnever punished / imprisoned them) to infiltrate our institutions since 1945. In 1968, the first”litter” indoctrinated with Marxists are ready to implement their doctrines. The results we seetoday.I have no idea how we are to reverse this. It seems as if Islam can actually solve this problem for us in the course of 30-70 years, when the cultural Marxists will soon lose control over these forces.I’ve always wondered, there was no cultural conservative intellectual and / or grass roots options in 1968? One can see forever the cultural Marxists demonstrating in the streets of the images in1968-1972, but where was the cultural-conservative forces?

Again, sound like any Republican Presidential Candidates, Radio Talk Show hosts, and bloggers you know?


Saturday: “Hillaryben” and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Saris

Hillary, wheels down in the land of my heritage, surrounded by vibrant power-saris instead of being the only bright corner in a sea of gray suits, as so often is the case, especially here in the US. (July 18, 2011/State Dept/Public Domain) ... CLICK PHOTO TO READ A TRANSCRIPT OF HILLARY'S REMARKS AT THE OPENING SESSION OF THE US-INDIA STRATEGIC DIALOGUE (July 19, 2011)

Morning, news junkies. This Saturday’s roundup is really more like two posts in one. It’s going to be top-heavy with news about Hillary’s current travels, so if you’re interested in other items about women’s issues, in particular news about Hillary protege Kirsten Gillibrand, please be sure to click after the jump for part 2! (There’s a bit more Hillary stuff in Part II, as well, not related to her current traveling per se.)

Alright, I’m going to start off part I with a mini-photo bomb of sorts (you can click on each photo to get more details about Madam Secretary’s travels):

First up, above to the right… Secretary Clinton arrived in New Delhi, India July 18 for the second round of the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. She was met by Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao. (July 18, 2011 STATE DEPT/PUBLIC DOMAIN)

Next, below to the left: BJP Party leader Sushma Swaraj speaks with Secretary Clinton at her residence ini New Delhi. (July 19, 2011 STATE DEPT/PUBLIC DOMAIN)

Second pic below to the left: All India Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi greets Secretary Clinton at her residence in New Delhi. (July 19, 2011/STATE DEPT/PUBLIC DOMAIN)

Third pic below to the left: Secretary Clinton arrives in Bali and Is Greeted By Indonesian Director for Protocol Kandou, Indonesian foreign Ministry Protocol Liaisons Novita and Moniaga, and Ambassador Carden. (July 21, 2011/STATE DEPT/PUBLIC DOMAIN)

Powerful woman pow wow, the Hillary and Sushma edition! (July 19, 2011/State Dept/Public Domain) ... CLICK PHOTO TO VIEW A CANDID SHOT OF HILLARY AND SUSHMA WALKING HAND-IN-HAND.

As epic as it gets...Hillary Clinton and Sonia Gandhi! (July 19, 2011/State Dept./Public Domain)... CLICK PHOTO TO VIEW A NICE SLIDESHOW OF HILLARY MEETING INDIAN LEADERS (including more pictures of Hillary with Sushma and Sonia.)

Hillary, wheels down in Bali! (July 21, 2011/State Dept/Public Domain) ... CLICK PHOTO TO SEE A SLIDESHOW OF MORE AT STILL4HILL'S BLOG.

Here’s a really great read to go along with these pictures, from the Telegraph, Kolkota’s KP Nayar: RARE OPPORTUNITIES – Hillary Clinton’s commitment to India remains undiminished. The “Hillaryben” mention below, in discussing Hillary’s earlier trip to Mumbai, pulls on my heartstrings twice–one time for the Desi factor and another for the sisterhood factor (Hillaryben means “sister Hillary”):

Vegetable vendors and embroidery workers from Gujarat, typically ordinary Indians, made her feel at home in Mumbai, when they unhesitatingly called her “Hillaryben” and reminded her that she was among one of her kind, a woman, wife and working mother, not the most powerful lady in the world, arguably.

I’ve only teased just a tiny portion here. Please click over to the Kolkata Telegraph to read this all in context. It’s the kind of article about Hillary you’d be hard-pressed to find examples of in American media.

PTI has a report of Hillary’s visit with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa… Jaya is a great personality: Hillary. There’s a cute pic of the two women (Jaya and Hillary) together at the link.

Now for a read that is just plain fun. Via the Hindustan Times: Clinton hit the bar, had tandoori murg. On the menu for Hillary and what the article describes as “her 100-strong entourage”:

On her platter were a choice of dishes like seekh kebab, tandoori gobhi, chholey, daal makhni, aloo jeera, rajma masala and fresh mango lassi.

In Indian meats, there was tandoori murg, murg biryani, khushk raan, barra biryani and murg tariwala. Staple consisted of assorted naan, roti and jeera pulao, and for dessert, there were Indian mithais.

Another fun one…it’s a PTI report via IBN (CNN’s sister network in India)… Cultural fare dazzles Hillary:

Chennai, Jul 20 (PTI) It was an enthralled Hillary Clinton this evening as the young faculty and students of a local cultural group brought on some captivating music and dance performance, prompting her to say she “was honoured” to be a part of the moment. […] Clinton said though she had witnessed some of these dances earlier, this was the first time she watched a performance so close that she “could see every muscle (of the dancers) move.”

You can see some fantastic PTI-copyrighted photographs of a bedazzled Hillary enjoying all this “cultural fare” here (via Sify).

And, here’s a very lovely picture of Hillary “sharing a lighter moment” with some women dancers (via the Deccan Herald, which has some interesting reporting about Hillary’s stay in India at the link). In the photo, you can see the tikka/bindi her Indian hosts put on her forehead, along with the garland. You can also see a big warm smile on Hillary’s face. Which reminds me of this great closeup of just Hillary from that night, via Getty Images. (I don’t know how long that link at DayLife will last for, so if you can’t see the photo there, let me know.)

Also, Dipnote has a picture up of Hillary with the dancers on a post about her meeting with the Working Women’s Forum. Oddly enough, they didn’t put a picture of her at the actual forum, but not to worry, sisters of the traveling stateswoman! Still4Hill has got the Hillary goodies on this one, all in one place.

Click to see S4H’s slideshow of Hillary at the Working Women’s Forum, as well as a transcript of Hillary’s remarks–if you love Hillary and her campaign for women, YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THESE PICS!

Toward the end of her remarks to the Working Women’s Forum, Hillary talked about the cookstove initiative (I’m quoting the latter half of what she said):

And so we will work with people around the world to help develop clean cookstoves, help to manufacture them so they are affordable for you to buy them, and we are delighted that we have partners right here with the Working Women’s Forum, with the Confederation of Indian Industries, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who have joined the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, to make your lives and the lives of your children better and healthier. (Applause.)

Here’s a small sampling of the news coverage on this:

Clinton takes “clean cookstove” drive to India (nice pic at the link of Hillary looking completely in her element as she addresses the crowd)

(Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed one of her simplest but potentially most transformative diplomatic priorities in India on Wednesday: clean cooking stoves.

Huffpo/AP… Clean Cookstoves: Hillary Clinton Fights Cooking Deaths In Developing World. Check out the photo Huffpo ran of Hillary. It’s almost…*gasp*…flattering (for Huffpo anyway). My, my… it seems like just yesterday that Arianna and her editors found the most distorted pictures of Hillary that they could and blasted them on their front page 24/7. What a difference three years makes!

Here’s a silly item about Hillary’s visit to Greece earlier in the week, with some fun photos: Hillary Clinton: What is a Greek “Frappe”? It’s tabloidesque, but not particularly the kind where you regret giving the story a click. The author makes a punchline at the end about Hillary enjoying her non-frappe, American-style warm coffee and “[leaving] for India to reveal the secrets of a good, ice-cold Lashi.” (Hopefully the first secret Hillary revealed is that it’s spelled “lassi.” And, bless the EVOO queen Racheal Ray who has concocted her own lassi recipe for her show before, but it’s not pronounced like the dog “Lassie” either. It’s “lus-see,” i.e. rhymes with hussy.)

But I digress! Back to Hillary in Greece.

I personally love this AFP shot of Hillary walking past the Acropolis (as she leaves a signing ceremony for a Cultural MOU on import restrictions for archaeological finds between the US and Greece.) H/T S4H, who has more pics+video/transcript of Hillary at the Acropolis Museum here.

Also if you missed the CNN-Turkey Coffee Break with Hillary from last Saturday, Stacy at SecyClintonBlog has all your video, transcript, and photo needs covered at the link, so be sure to check it out.

These are just some Hillary highlights I took away from this week–this really isn’t a comprehensive review of Hillary’s world tour in terms of all the important diplomatic and development work she’s doing. (For that, I suggest you keep an eye out for Dipnote‘s Sunday week-in-review tomorrow.) As much as I’d love to keep blogging about Hillary’s travels this week, I’m afraid the post would become way too long, even for me! And, I actually have a laundry list of other items I’d like to link to before I wrap up and get to the women’s history trivia for this Saturday.

So here goes… your Saturday: Part II link dump…. you can go grab another cuppa first or save this for reading later this weekend, but whenever you’re ready… Click to continue… Read the rest of this entry »


Yet another Economic WTF! Post

For more than the past two years, I’ve been arguing that Obama has been continuing the Bush/Cheney policies in nearly every possible policy area. However, in the economics realm, he’s following the Republican Myth of Reagan.  Ronald Reagan raised taxes 5 times. Ronald Reagan exploded the federal deficit and upped the debt ceiling 17 times in his two terms in office.  Ronald Reagan was probably the last of the presidents that openly used policies that were lopsided, wrongly transcribed Keynesian economics.  Keynesian theory shows the necessity of running surpluses in boom times, balanced budgets in times of full-employment equilibrium, and deficits in recessions and out of necessity in times of war.

Obama fits the mythic image of Republican’s version of Reagan more than the real Ronald Reagan himself.  It is only by the rule of soft bigotry–one that says all black people are some kind of monolith fitting a Sharpton/Jackson stereotype–that drives polls that say that Obama is too liberal, a communist, or a typical Democrat.  Obama continues to refit himself into the stereotype of Ronald Reagan. Period. My favorite place to reference this argument is the Black Agenda Report .  It one of the very few authentic left wing site representing a left wing agenda for America’s poor and black population.  The authors of BAR have had his number for a very long time.  A huge portion of the population just does not want to cast Obama and his policies in the light of a conservative black no matter what the evidence. This is our quintessential problem right now.

I’ve been watching the evolution of Paul Krugman who writes today about “The Lesser Depression” at the NYT.  Despite his mounting, published, and well discussed evidence, he still can’t just come out and say that Obama would be better placed in the Republican party. Obama is taking the same steps that the Herbert Hoover Administration took right before the Great Depression.  We are backtracking the way the Roosevelt administration did around 1936.  None of these policies led to economic confidence or growth. They led to job, financial, and economic loss. They made our country significantly worse off then and this senseless repeat is doing the same thing now.

So we have depressed economies. What are policy makers proposing to do about it? Less than nothing.

The disappearance of unemployment from elite policy discourse and its replacement by deficit panic has been truly remarkable. It’s not a response to public opinion. In a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, 53 percent of the public named the economy and jobs as the most important problem we face, while only 7 percent named the deficit. Nor is it a response to market pressure. Interest rates on U.S. debt remain near historic lows.

Bruce Bartlett–an economic adviser to Ronald Reagan–says that Obama is Richard Nixon.  I think this is generous.  Nixon had a more liberal approach to the nation’s health care challenges, the environment, and to spending.  Nixon accepted the Great Society Policies.  Reagan supported the Great Society Policies and reinvigorated two of them.  Obama obviously doesn’t even support the basics.  He is negotiating behind the back of Senate and Congressional Democrats so that the clock will run out before they can object. They will most likely kowtow to the right’s agenda YET again. Bartlett argues that Obama belongs in the ranks of Republicans.  I agree with this.  I just don’t think he’s as liberal as Nixon or that he is even “moderately conservative”.  Like Reagan, Obama has said one thing and done completely another.  Obama wants to be the Ronald Reagan that never was.

Liberals hoped that Obama would overturn conservative policies and launch a new era of government activism. Although Republicans routinely accuse him of being a socialist, an honest examination of his presidency must conclude that he has in fact been moderately conservative to exactly the same degree that Nixon was moderately liberal.

Here are a few examples of Obama’s effective conservatism:

  • His stimulus bill was half the size that his advisers thought necessary;
  • He continued Bush’s war and national security policies without change and even retained Bush’s defense secretary;
  • He put forward a health plan almost identical to those that had been supported by Republicans such as Mitt Romney in the recent past, pointedly rejecting the single-payer option favored by liberals;
  • He caved to conservative demands that the Bush tax cuts be extended without getting any quid pro quo whatsoever;
  • And in the past few weeks he has supported deficit reductions that go far beyond those offered by Republicans.

Perhaps this is why these CNN Poll results show that the country is fed up with the Republican Congress as well as Obama’s approach to the economy.  People are reluctant to overcome their stereotypes of black politicians, but know something is essentially wrong.  Recent hopes to change the direction that Bush/Cheney took our country have brought us more than just more of the same. Liberals approval of Obama is dropping while independent approval of newly elected Republicans is dropping all over the country.  (See BostonBoomer’s Thursday Morning Post.)  I suggest this shows support for my hypothesis.

President Obama’s approval rating falls to 45%, driven in part by dissatisfaction from the left with Obama’s track record, a new CNN/ORC International poll released today suggests.

The new poll shows that 38% disapprove of Obama because he has been too liberal, but 13% percent say he has not been liberal enough, nearly double those who felt that way in May. His approval rating among liberals is at 71%, an all-time low for his presidency. Overall, those who disapprove of Obama is at 54%, tying an all-time low hit just before November’s midterm elections.

Poll respondents’ negative opinions weren’t reserved just for the president, though — 55% of all Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, a 7-point increase since March. And only 37% feel the GOP’s policies would move the country in the right direction, a 9-point drop since the start of the year.

We’ve seen the Democratic Congress pulled along by an at best center-right policy on Health Care Reform. They were also party to the abomination of reinstating the Dubya Tax Cuts for Billionaire’s plan.  Now, they are screaming about their irrelevancy in this Debt Ceiling Debate.  The right question now is only this.  How far to the right will this deficit plan be? The necessary answer can be found in these questions. How thoroughly will Obama and congressional Republicans decimate the country’s social safety nets and its successful social insurance programs?  How detached will this plan be from using revenues from the beneficiaries of 30 years of bad policy to halt subsidizing the globalization of US Treasure?  How much longer will we continue to subsidize economic colonization with our wealth to places that only drag our wages down, decimate the global ecosystem, tolerate wars that make the world safer for US corporations, and import our jobs and investments? If Bartlett wants a realistic vision of a Republican President that fits Obama, I suggest Warren G. Harding.


Friday Reads

Good Morning!!

The debt ceiling debacle continues to be the top story. Politico has some interesting takes on some a$$ chewing that both Republicans and Democrats got late yesterday.  Economists from Standard & Poors told GOP pols there would be a ‘death spiral’ if they didn’t up the debt ceiling.

House Republicans were cautioned Thursday in a closed door meeting with credit rating agency officials that a “death spiral” in the bond market was one of the possible outcomes in the event of default.

One official warned of a worst-case scenario in which a default on the nation’s credit could result in a rapid drop in bond values, sparking chaos in the markets — a dramatic warning as Washington worked on a possible deal on deficit reduction and an increase in the debt limit.

Many of the right wing republican pols didn’t appear to get it.  Read some of the take away sound bits at the link and try not to bang your head on your desk too hard.  Meanwhile, Democratic Senators told Obama’s budget director they were tired of being left out of the loop. 

The White House faced a near rebellion from senators who were blindsided by word of a possible deal between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, with Democrats worried the president would cave on taxes while Republicans complained about being left in the dark on a potentially historic deficit plan.

Furious Democrats directed their ire squarely at Obama’s budget director, Jack Lew, at a closed-door lunch meeting, while Republicans peppered their leaders with questions about the possibility of being jammed into a multitrillion-dollar bill with virtually no time for review.

The frustration was evident in virtually all corners of the Senate on Thursday as it became increasingly possible that the body where landmark deals are usually made could effectively be left out of this one.

It seems that the sticking point is still that Republicans–mostly Teabots–refuse to consider any revenue enhancing measures. Obama is still asking for revenue increases while proposing about $3 trillion in cuts.

Efforts to craft a broad $3 trillion deficit-reduction deal gained traction on Thursday as the White House and top lawmakers scrambled to sort through competing options and stave off a devastating U.S. default.

With the clock ticking toward an August 2 deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, President Barack Obama and the senior Republican in Congress, House Speaker John Boehner, worked toward a budget plan that would include deep spending cuts but might leave tax reform for later, congressional aides said.

The main obstacle remained the issue of tax increases that Obama’s Democrats want and Republicans vehemently oppose. There were conflicting accounts of how and when higher revenue might kick in, and the White House vowed there would be no deal without this.

The main focus was on prospects for what congressional sources said was shaping up as $3 trillion in deficit cuts over 10 years, a figure that many in Washington hope would help salvage America’s triple-A credit rating. Rating agencies have called for a comprehensive deficit-cutting deal.

Negotiators have struggled to break their impasse and winnow options for raising the government’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Failure to reach a deal to increase U.S. borrowing authority would render the world’s biggest economy unable to pay all of its bills.

But confusion has grown amid a patchwork of proposals aimed at finding what a senior Democratic aide called the “magic formula” for resolving the crisis, which has dominated Washington’s agenda for weeks.

“Frankly, we’ve looked at a half a dozen fallback plans, none of which are all that appetizing,” Boehner — struggling with Tea Party lawmakers largely opposed to any compromise with Obama — told conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.

Emptywheel is now a stand alone blog and still has some of the best information around.  I recommend you read:Obama DOJ Doubles Down on President’s Ability to Detain US Citizens with No Charges.

Back in February, Obama’s DOJ stopped defending Donald Rumsfeld and others in Jose Padilla’s Bivens suit against them (though we’re still footing the bill for their pricey lawyers). At the time, it seemed DOJ might have concerns about the claims Rummy’s crew wanted to make about the torture Padilla was suing for.

But DOJ just filed an amicus brief in Padilla’s appeal. In it, they basically double down on the claim the President can deprive a citizen already detained in the US of all due process simply by engaging in some specious word games (in this case, by unilaterally labeling someone an enemy combatant).

Critically, the government is dodging the question of what happens in detention; as I’ll show below, rather than addressing that torture, they simply engage in circular logic.

Remember why Padilla is suing: he’s arguing that Rummy’s crowd violated his constitutional rights by seizing him from a civilian jail, designating him an enemy combatant, using that designation to deprive him of due process, and while he was detained on those terms, torturing him. He’s arguing the government violated his constitutional rights both by depriving him of due process and then torturing him. Illegal detention to enable illegal torture. The government wants to pretend they can separate those issues and argue just the basis for detention.

Think Progress has a great bit of information up on how one of Rep. Darrell Issa’s top staffers is a lobbyist for the financial industry with continued close contacts and associations.  There’s your congressional ethics for you!

When he became chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) hired a large new staff to assist him with investigations. As reporters from the Watchdog Institute noted, many of Issa’s recruits came from industry or with lobbying backgrounds. However, a ThinkProgress investigation has found that at least one of Issa’s hires still maintains a financial relationship with the lobbying group he left to become a federal employee under Issa.

Last year, as Issa began recruiting for his committee, he selected Peter Warren, a lobbyist for the student loan industry. Warren had been president and executive vice president of government affairs of the Education Finance Council (EFC), a trade association for student loan companies and nonprofits, since 2004. He left EFC for the Karl Rove front group American Action Forum for a brief stint in 2010 before joining Issa as the policy director of the House Oversight Committee.

Many lobbyists burrow into government to write laws or regulations, then leave to take even higher paid positions back in the private sector. This phenomenon — the so-called “revolving door,” or reverse revolving door in this case — has plagued government for years. While examples of such corruption are boundless on both sides of the aisle, Warren is particularly interesting given his continued relationship with his lobbying group.

Go check out the evidence.  Issa has to be one of the most corrupt politicians in the country.

Okay, so now some fun stuff. Anthropologists believe that one of our human ancestors had human feet more than 3 million years ago.

Nearly four million years ago, our human relatives were very different from modern man. Australopithecus afarensis had a longer torso, a smaller brain and significantly stubbier legs – but we did have one thing in common: our feet.

After examining the ancient species’ footprints using a new type of analysis, a team of British scientists concluded that the “human” gait emerged 3.7 million years ago. The study challenges previous research, which suggests that human-like walking did not develop in homonin species until nearly 2 million years later.

In the report, which was published online Wednesday by the Royal Society Journal Interface, scientists said the species presumed responsible for those tracks had feet that were strikingly similar to those of modern humans, and less like those belonging to chimpanzees or gorillas.

Since the footprints were found in Laetoli, Tanzania more than three decades ago, they have polarized the scientific community – pitting researchers who describe the footprints as more “ape-like” against those who see in them the origins of modern bipedal motion.

It appears that there were a lot of Viking women in those Viking invasions way back when.

So much for Hagar the Horrible, with his stay-at-home wife, Helga. Viking women may have equaled men moving to England in medieval invasions, suggests a look at ancient burials.

Vikings famously invaded Eastern England around 900 A.D., notes Shane McLeod of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Western Australia in the Early Medieval Europe journal, starting with two army invasions in the 800’s, recounted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. The Viking invaders founded their own medieval kingdom, ‘the Danelaw‘, in Eastern England.

“There is some archaeological evidence for early Norse female settlement, most obviously oval brooches, but this evidence is minimal. The more difficult to date evidence of place names, personal names, and DNA samples derived from the modern population suggests that Norse women did migrate to England at some stage, but probably in far fewer numbers than Norse men,” begins the study.

However, McLeod notes that recently, burials of female Norse immigrants have started to turn up in Eastern England. “An increase in the number of finds of Norse-style jewellery in the last two decades has led some scholars to suggest a larger number of female settlers. Indeed, it has been noted that there are more Norse female dress items than those worn by men,” says the study.

The Pentagon is set to announce that the DADT repeal is ready.

The Pentagon will announce tomorrow that the Secretary of Defense and the heads of each military branch have certified that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the military’s controversial policy barring openly gay men and women from serving in the armed forces, is ready to be repealed.

The leaders of each service branch have determined that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly will not harm military readiness. The move paves the way for the policy to be overturned in 60 days.

The announcement will take place in an event at the Pentagon tomorrow afternoon, just shortly after new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is formally sworn in.

This is one of the final steps in overturning the longstanding policy whereby service members are not allowed to admit they are gay and the military is allowed to ask if they are. President Obama pledged to reverse the policy, but only if military leaders agreed it is the right thing to do.

Congress repealed the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law last December, but the Pentagon still had to complete the certification.

As part of an effort to reassure the military leadership, individual service members, and concerned members of Congress, last year the Pentagon circulated confidential surveys to members of the military and their families asking their views on gays serving openly and what effect they believed it would have on their ability to perform their duties in battle and at home.

So, what’s your on your reading and blogging list today?