Paul Krugman
Asif Ali Zardari
"Poetic justice is a beautiful thing. Republican Party grandees were all set to use Michael Steele in the most cynical way. Now it's becoming clear that Steele has been using the users all along." - Eugene Robinson
"As Congress and the administration try to reform the financial system, they should ignore advice coming from the supposed wise men of Wall Street, who have no wisdom to offer." - Paul Krugman
"We are fighting for our lives, and Pakistan's policies cannot be based solely on what is popular. When Franklin Roosevelt threw a lifeline to Britain with the Lend-Lease program, few Americans supported challenging the Nazis. Harry Truman had less than 15 percent support among Americans to rebuild Europe. They did what was right, not what was popular, and so will we." - Asif Ali Zardari
The links to the opinions above, and sampled quotes, are to three very different topics. The President of Pakistan, I felt rebutted what I said yesterday about him, so I had to include his impassioned speech. And I think it shows that we underestimate the resilience and determination of Pakistan to solve its own problems with as little outside help as possible. Once it starts making its own drones, it will be to kiss the CIA and Blackwater goodbye. I certainly hope that the military ultimately supports having a civilian government and not another military dictatorship so soon after Musharraf.
- What does it say about Washington's ''war on terror'' that dozen and a half people with paper cutters forced hundreds of thousands of Western troops into the battlefields of the "greater Middle East" region;
- That 100,000 foreign soldiers are bogged down in occupied Afghanistan wondering how many dozens of al-Qaeda operatives have remained, if any;
- That the most liberal democracy enacted new controversial illiberal laws and unpatriotic practices under its "Patriot Act";
- That one shoe-bomber has forced millions of people to take off their shoes every time they take a flight;
- That one underpants-bomber will expose every other traveler in most humiliating of ways;
- That after US loss of deterrence and prestige as well as trillions of dollars of military and other expenditures, al-Qaeda's top leadership remains at large; its bases/cells proliferate globally; that volunteers continue to flock into its ranks and young supporters to its websites… !!! And above all that it continues to terrorize America and Americans
A big flap is being made by Google because it traced some hacker attacks on 34 companies, including Google's gmail accounts, back to the Chinese mainland. They can't get any farther because of the tight control that China has over the Internet there. Instead of condemning the Chinese government, after all the hackers could just be a bunch of 15 year olds, we should put them to good use and have them direct their next hacker attacks towards the Iranian government and their ever tightening control over the Internet in their country. It takes a repressive hacker to know one... The chief of police in Tehran has issued a threat after arresting a cleric for supporting the opposition, not to use the Internet to arrange the next protest: "These people should know where they are sending the SMS and email as these systems are under control. They should not think using proxies will prevent their identification," Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said. "If these people continue, their (data) records will be examined and those who organize or issue appeals have committed a worse crime than those who come to the streets," he warned.
So let's use the repressive paranoids in the Chinese military to hack into and help the young people of Iran, block any attempt by the Iranian government to use the Internet for repression of their own. Maybe we could put out a call to all bored kids this summer, instead of creating viruses because you are bored, hack into Iran. Bonus points if you bring the government crashing down on its knees... Even more bonus points if you can put it on YouTube....
the pinoccio syndrome...
"You’re a blockhead. Your mind is totally closed. You have tampons in your ears. Nothing is getting through other than the biased crap that you read.” - Rush Limbaugh
The most recent flap came over Rush's statements of the disaster in Haiti: "Limbaugh has come under fire from both the right and the left for saying that the earthquake played directly into Obama’s hands, allowing him to look “compassionate. ”The host claimed the White House’s response would bolster Obama’s standing in the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.”
He also appeared to discourage help for the island nation, saying, “We've already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.” So I guess Rush won't be using any of his millions to donate to any humanitarian relief. In Rush's next contract, there should be a clause that he must spend one weekend per month working in a soup kitchen for the homeless, or spend three weeks per year living in Haiti or some other incredibly poor country. Maybe if he went to church and had a religious epiphany, learned what compassion is. But then he would be a nicer guy and lose his angry white male audience... OK I know that he has a more diverse audience. The woman who used to deliver my mail was a retired military, cracker lesbian, who loved to listen to Rush while she drove around each day. This is just to show that we can never be pigeon-holed as a stereotype, no matter how hard I try...
and now here's some late night jay leno jokes:
"Sarah Palin has signed with Fox News to be a correspondent. Well, in a statement today, Fox said if Palin does a good job, they'll sign her to a longtime contract. If she doesn't work out, they'll just blame Leno. That's what they said." –Jay Leno
"As you know, security is being upgraded at airports all across the country. They're really cracking down. In fact, today, Osama bin Laden's name was put on the do-not-fly list." –Jay Leno
"Well, a lot of people don't like these airport body scanners. They say they don't like security officials seeing naked images of their bodies. Huh? Have you seen most Americans lately? Come on. It's no picnic for the security people either." –Jay Leno
"The government issued a statement this week saying most people aren't complaining about the full-body scanners. See, the government always says that. Every time there's another intrusion into our privacy, they say most people aren't complaining. Well, of course, most people aren't complaining. You know what happens when you complain at airport security? You get a colonoscopy and wind up on a terrorists watch list." –Jay Leno
"Well, it's growing more and more likely that California will legalize marijuana. You mean it's not already legal?" –Jay Leno
"You know what that means? One day in California, you could be buying legalized marijuana at a Wal-Mart from a cashier who's not even legal." –Jay Leno
"Well of course, the big political story, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got himself in hot water during the election, when he described Barack Obama as a 'light-skinned' African-American 'with no negro dialect.' See, that may explain why Reid was the Senate majority leader and not the Senate minority leader." –Jay Leno
"But President Obama forgave him. Obama said today, he has 'nothing against really light-skinned people who talk with a cracker dialect.' So it all worked out." –Jay Leno
"Have you seen him on the news? Harry Reid is apologizing more than NBC affiliates." –Jay Leno
"He is not the only one. Impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, what a moron this guy is. He's in trouble after saying he's 'blacker than Barack Obama.' Barack Obama? He's not even blacker than Sammy Sosa." –Jay Leno
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi! Thanks for commenting. I always try to respond...