Absolutely Situationaly Unaware

This is a perfect example of one of the many problems with the modern Republican party. To many of their thinkers are as dump as posts. One of the standard questions in polling is the 'is the country moving in the right direction'. In the last month a number of polls have presented us with the response.

Wall St Journal - Wrong Direction 76%
Bloomberg - Wrong Direction 84%
Newsweek - Wrong Direction 86%
Pew - Wrong Direction 86%

AP, CBS, CNN and other have similar numbers. It is clear that the American public, by an overwhelming percentage, are very dissatisfied with the direction our nation is headed.

Now listen to what online editor of the National Review had to say.

We're One Day Away from Changing America

[Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Obama said that a few ago in Florida. Am I the only one who doesn't want to change America in any fundamental way? Does that make me crazy? And alone?

Crazy? well based on much of her work, maybe; Alone, not at all, about 15% of the population are happy with the direction of the country. So she is not alone, but seeing a statement like this from a person who is supposed to be intimately involved in the daily public discourse is astounding.

How stupid and detached from reality do you have to be to say this? Even the Republican candidate try to run on a platform based on change. Yet she apparently is totally unaware of the massive dissatisfaction of the people of Americia with our Republican leadership.

Someone buy this lady a subscription to some media outlet other than Faux News, she needs to be exposed to truth and not dogma based fantasy.



Tags
Election 2008, Republicans, Stupidity

Palin, More Cluelessness On Parade

She has no idea what the Bush Doctrine is (or what a doctrine is for that matter) and is equally ill informed about economics and the US budget.

Matthew Yglesias says it very well

If you try to sit down and make sense of John McCain’s tax and budget proposals, you’ll find that they don’t make any sense. There are assertions that certain kinds of cuts could save way more money than is in fact there, you’ll find budget figures that count on eliminating all U.S. aid to Israel, inconsistent projections, goofy talk about balancing the budget by achieving “victory” in Iraq, etc. But everyone in the press “knows” that John McCain is responsible, so he doesn’t get asked about this stuff. But Sarah Palin’s not in the club, so Charlie Gibson asks her some basic questions about the budget and it turns out that there’s no there there. But this has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with policies outlined by McCain before Palin joined the ticket:

GIBSON: So let me break some of those down. You talk about spending. How much smaller would a McCain budget be? Where would you cut?

PALIN: We’re going to find efficiencies in every department. We have got to. There are some things that I think should be off the table. Veterans’ programs, off the table. You know, we owe it to our veterans and that’s the greatest manifestation that we can show in terms of support for our military, those who are in public service fighting for America. It’s to make sure that our veterans are taken care of and the promises that we’ve made to them are fulfilled.

GIBSON: So you’d take military off the table, the veterans’ benefits. That’s 20 percent of the budget. &Do you talk about entitlement reform? Is there money you can save in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

PALIN: I am sure that there are efficiencies that are going to be found in all of these agencies. I’m confident in that.

GIBSON: The agencies are not involved in entitlements. Basically, discretionary spending is 18 percent of the budget.

PALIN: We have certainly seen excess in agencies, though, and in — when bureaucrats, when bureaucracy just gets kind of comfortable, going with the status-quo and not being challenged to find efficiencies and spend other people’s money wisely, then that’s where we get into the situation that we are into today, and that is a tremendous growth of government, a huge debt, trillions of dollars of debt that we’re passing on to my kids and your kids and your grandkids … It’s unacceptable.

I suppose in practice a McCain administration’s budgets would just look like George W. Bush’s budgets or Ronald Reagan’s budgets — tax cuts and huge deficits. But it is telling that the woman John McCain chose as his running mate doesn’t seem to understand what “entitlements” are. Clearly, just as most citizens don’t know what the Bush Doctrine is, most people probably aren’t all that familiar with the meaning of the entitlement/discretionary distinction in federal budgeting. But it’s a big deal for people who actually pay attention to political and policy issues in the United States. I wonder if McCain chatted with Palin at all about her views on entitlement reform before adding her to the ticket?

Palin has spent 2 weeks hiding from the media and when she finally agrees to a softball interview, she makes it clear she is in no way ready for prime time. She is undereducated, anti-intellectual and apparently unaware of her shortcomings.



Tags
Election 2008, Palin, Stupidity

Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia

This little adventure on the part of the Georgian government has held my attention for the last couple of day (well that and the Olympics). I keep thinking that some information will come out that makes Georgia's action make any sort of sense.

From what I can piece together; Over the last few weeks the cross border fire between the South Ossetia rebels and the Georgian military has been (per media reports) rather heavy. As a result the Georgian government made the decision to send forces into an area that, in addition to rebel forces, also had Russian 'peacekeeping forces' on duty.

In effect Georgia decided to attack Russia.

The foolishness of this boggles the mind.

Tags
Georgia, Russia, Stupidity

A Typical Slice Of South Carolina Stupidity

Like most of the news stations in the US, our here in Columbia have message boards where you can comment on each news story. The recent disagreement about and eventual approval of a gay-straight alliance for the school has generated alot of discussion, some of which makes is clear just how stupid and uninformed many or our residents are. Here is a truly frightening example:

Let's not forget that this nation was founded on Christian princples. This nation is allowing the minority to rule. As a parent I do not want educators teaching my children about the gay life style,or allowing my tax money to fund such a thing. Homesexuality is a choice not a right, it is an abomination against God! No wonder this country is falling a part. I for one think poverty, health care issues, homelessness amongst a few can be solved and handled without sacrificing this great christian nation of ours.

In only 90 words we find a mountain of stupidity.

Let's not forget that this nation was founded on Christian princples.

A common lie of the uneducated or dishonest christian. Our nation was founded during the enlightenment, or the age or reason. Our founders were looking for a form of non religious governance. The had countless options to force religion into the national mix and didn't do it a single time. The few time religion is mentioned it is to push religion out of government.

Our nation was founded primarily by Europeans, and they had basically christian heritages, but when building our nation they looked to logic and reason not the christian religion to craft the laws of our land.

This nation is allowing the minority to rule.

I am not sure how allowing gay students to from a club, like allowing chess players, or bible studiers or cheese lovers to form a club is letting them rule. One of the basic points of our laws is the protection of minority rights. It is quite simple, if the government allows some to do it, they have to allow all. Anyone who has done any reading of the history of our land knows this. It is a shame the this commenter is so uninformed.

Only those who are frightened about no longer being able to use the power of the state to deny rights and freedoms to others hold on to this stupidity.

I do not want educators teaching my children about the gay life style,or allowing my tax money to fund such a thing.

More stupidity on parade. The school is not teaching a single thing about homosexuality, this is an after school club. Your tax money is funding this club to the exact same extent as that they are funding the FCA or meet at the flag poll, which is about zero dollars. That said, homosexuals exist and I see no harm in their existence being acknowledged (and can anyone tell me, what the heck is the 'gay lifestyle'. Every gay couple I know has a lifestyle about as exciting as mine. They go to work, pay their bills, etc. I see nothing that unique in the lives of all the gays I know).

Homesexuality is a choice not a right,

Someone should have been paying attention in science class, or at lease done a little research prior to spouting off. Homosexuality is no more a choice that heterosexuality is, we are attracted to who we are attracted to. The only argument is; Should everyone, no matter what their sexual orientation, have the same rights.

it is an abomination against God!

Some rather backward Christians spout off this point of view, but there is little logic to their arguments. Other Christians see homosexuals as part of gods creation and see no sin in how they were created. In either case the argument is not relevant to the issue of how the state should relate to gays, since the state is designed to be neutral on religious issues, and this persons view on a homosexuals place in society is clearly motives by religious bigotry.

great christian nation of ours

Just to make this point clear, while we are a nations of Christian, we were not created as nor are we now a Christian Nation.



Tags
GSA, South Carolina, Stupidity

Just Another Day In Bush's Americia

To make air travel safer in a post 9-11 enviroment the US government took a noumber of steps. Two of these steps were to increase the number of Air Marshels flying undercover and to expand the terrorsit watch list and to deny boarding to anyone who is on the list.

It seems that we have now merged the program, and are putting air marshaels on the no fly list.

"Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) familiar with the situation say the mix-ups, in which marshals are mistaken for terrorism suspects who share the same names, have gone on for years — just as they have for thousands of members of the traveling public," the Times reports, based on anonymous sources.

The paper says some planes have taken off without the undercover federal agents, who are supposed to protect the cockpit from hijackers and the like.

Just another day in paradise.


Tags
Airlines, Stupidity, Terrorism

How Can Anyone Know?

Our dear leader is again making claims that are beyond any verification. Today, on the 5th anniversary of our attacking Iraq, he has decided that 'it' was worth it.

Since we have no clue how this war will end, since the invasions cost is almost incalculable at this point but well into the hundreds of trillions of dollars and since making any type of real analysis of the success of any venture means having a firm grasp of what the cost and the benefit are, how can he, in good conscience, make this claim?

We are not anywhere close to knowing the end result of his foolishness and to pretend otherwise is grossly dishonest.

There is an old saying that I have tried to use to guide my actions; "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." I guess our president has never heard it.





Tags
Bush, Stupidity

With Friends Like These

How can we consider a nation that still wants to execute women for witchcraft a safe sane and stable ally?



Tags
Saudi Arabia, Stupidity