Year: 2009

The Obligatory Obama's Muslim Roots come out posting….

I hate to say it, but there are some seriously stupid people on the so called “Right”.  Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock; you most likely already know about the newest internet Meme that’s blazing around the political Blogosphere right now. It’s basically the accusation that Obama is now exposing himself as a Muslim President.

You can view a sampling of all the craziness of the Blogosphere, by clicking here.  It all started when Jack Tapper wrote a rather poorly written piece about Obama’s Muslim roots. Which took a quote and parsed it and twisted it slightly to reflect something that was not said.

The quote, which originated over at the NYT:

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”

Well, naterally, the Conservative Bloggers went to Defcon 1 status and you could almost hear the tortured screams of some of those who are of the “Obama is a Muslim” mindset.  Well the problem is, Obama did not say that; actually he said this:

“Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”

Steve Brennon weighs in here:

Greg Sargent explained, “Hard-core rhetoricians will note that Obama was employing an obscure tense known as the ‘conditional,’ and an arcane rhetorical device known as a ‘hypothetical.’ He said that ifcould see America as ranking up there with other Muslim countries — in numerical, hypothetical terms.” you were to take the number of Muslims in America, then one

This really isn’t complicated. In fact, given the size of the U.S. population, and the rich diversity of our spiritual landscape, you can pick practically any faith tradition, plug it into the president’s sentence, and it’d be true, too. If you took the number of Christians in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Christian countries in the world. If you took the number of Jews in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Jewish countries in the world. If you took the number of Hindus in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Hindu countries in the world. If you took the number of Buddhists in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Buddhist countries in the world.

That doesn’t mean we’re a Hindu country, or a Jewish Country, or a Christian Country, or a Muslim country, or a Buddhist country.

Another thing as well, is that Obama assumption is basically wrong, because according to a 2008 Pew Research Center poll:

major_religious_traditions

More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

The Landscape Survey confirms that the United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country; the number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51%. Moreover, the Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions – evangelical Protestant churches (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).

While those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation, Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic. These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration. The Landscape Survey finds that among the foreign-born adult population, Catholics outnumber Protestants by nearly a two-to-one margin (46% Catholic vs. 24% Protestant); among native-born Americans, on the other hand, the statistics show that Protestants outnumber Catholics by an even larger margin (55% Protestant vs. 21% Catholic). Immigrants are also disproportionately represented among several world religions in the U.S., including Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Although there are about half as many Catholics in the U.S. as Protestants, the number of Catholics nearly rivals the number of members of evangelical Protestant churches and far exceeds the number of members of both mainline Protestant churches and historically black Protestant churches. The U.S. also includes a significant number of members of the third major branch of global Christianity – Orthodoxy – whose adherents now account for 0.6% of the U.S. adult population. American Christianity also includes sizeable numbers of Mormons (1.7% of the adult population), Jehovah’s Witnesses (0.7%) and other Christian groups (0.3%).

Like the other major groups, people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (16.1%) also exhibit remarkable internal diversity. Although one-quarter of this group consists of those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4% of the adult population overall, respectively), the majority of the unaffiliated population (12.1% of the adult population overall) is made up of people who simply describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” This group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the “secular unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the “religious unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population).

Even smaller religions in the U.S. reflect considerable internal diversity. For instance, most Jews (1.7% of the overall adult population) identify with one of three major groups: Reform, Conservative or Orthodox Judaism. Similarly, more than half of Buddhists (0.7% of the overall adult population) belong to one of three major groups within Buddhism: Zen, Theravada or Tibetan Buddhism. Muslims (0.6% of the overall adult population) divide primarily into two major groups: Sunni and Shia.

So, while I can understand the anger that some Conservatives are feeling about this statement; I believe it is much ado over nothing. Not only is the President wrong, he simply made another one of his many verbal gaffes. What really troubles me is the extremist rhetoric being uttered by people such as Ann Coulter-Wanna-be and noted Jewish Race Baiter and Jewish Identity Politics shill; Debbie Schlussel and long discredited Conservative blogger Pamela Geller. Together these two continue to bring a bad name to, and cause those in the main stream to disregard the Republican Party.  There are some who Believe Michelle Malkin is the worst. I disgree, read Debbie and Pamela’s Blog for a week, and then go read Michelle’s. Michelle has nothing on these two at all. In fact, Michelle, I can stand to read; Pamela and Debbie, not so much.

The point I am trying to make here is this; if The Republican Party is going to win this battle of ideas, against the Liberals. We need to do it with factual information and legitimate criticisms. Not with false information and rheortic that is borderline racist, and with retoric that makes the Republican Party look like a bunch of Alex Jones crazies.

Video: O’Reilly Versus Olbermann on the Tiller Murder

It is not everyday that I get to do something of this nature. As you all know there was a murder of an abortion doctor in Kansas yesterday. As I said last night, I do not support this sort of extremist nonsense.  As neither does any other sort of sane thinking American; Conservative or Liberal, or anything else in between.

These videos, I believe are a text book example of the dogmatic positions that have infested the Liberal and Conservative factions of the political debate in this  country.

First off, here’s Bill O. condemning the attacks, and all the while denying the fact, that the killer might have actually watched his show:

Notice that there is no “Hey, We’re sorry that the man is dead.” or anything of that sort, just an arrogant bristle at his critics that accuse him of having at least some sort of culpability; even if it is simply being a messenger boy for the traditionalists.  

Next up, we have the poster child for the far left, the man; whom I thought was a legit answer to Wilsonian, Neo-Conservative Foreign Policy of George W. Bush. Whom also magically transformed himself, after the election of President Barack Obama; into a political hack and a defender of the throne, of sorts, to the new Liberal President.  What follows is nothing more than a Left Wing smear of the Conservatives, of all stripes and flavors:

As a libertarian-minded, Paleo-Conservative; I find both of these men equally disturbing.  First off; any broadcaster and political opinion maker who favors “quarantining” anyone’s freedom of speech, is as far as I am concerned not better than the soviet communists of old. That goes well beyond just being a Liberal Democrat; that is basically being a far left wing Liberal Fascist. This sort of nonsense is NOT, I repeat, NOT what the founders of the Democratic Party of old would have wanted.

Further more; I find Bill O’Reilly’s arrogance to be absolutely sickening. A man was just gunned down in the lobby of his own god damned Church for Christ’s sake; and the best this idiot Irish piece of shit can do, is smirk and bristle when someone points out the obvious about the far right and their tendency towards a fascist position of individual rights and freedoms of women?  It is no damned wonder that ALL of the old media is tanking like a leaking boat! 🙄

While I am quite sympathetic to the right to life cause. I cannot and will not endorse a policy that I feel to be border-line Nazi Fascist in nature. This is one of the main sticking points between me and the G.O.P.; I believe that Abortion and ANY laws pertaining to it, should be on a STATE level and NOT on a Federal level. How these Republicans can talk limited Government out of one side of their mouth and then want to have Federal Government regulation on something is now and should always be the choice of the individual, is nothing short of an equal with Hitler’s Nazi Germany. There is no such thing as big Government Conservatism. You are either a big Government type or a small limited Government person, you cannot be both.

While I am on the soapbox here, let me say a few other things that are radar here. I notice that today that there was a shooting of couple of our American Soldiers, by some Negro Muslim convert. I notice the Liberal Blogs are not exactly running this one up a flag pole, now are they? No! You know why? Because the Radical Muslims and possibly all Muslims in general share the same trait as the Liberals in this Country, and that’s a hatred of this Country’s Christian values and our Military.

…and one more here, before I finish this rather cranky blog post, another thing that I saw that burned my damned balls with this little gem by noted Neo-Conservative Blogger Ed Morrissey, on the Tiller Murder:

The murder of George Tiller at his church is a heinous crime, without any sense or justice. Regardless of how one feels about George Tiller’s profession, his murderer is nothing more than a domestic terrorist — someone attempting to impose by force a policy that one cannot get in place through democratic means. Tiller’s killer is no better than William Ayers, Kathleen Soliah, and Eric Rudolph, people who attempted to use violence for their extremist ends. Those who value life know that murder is the antithesis of the pro-life movement.

That stupid idiotic nonsense up there that I bolded, italicized and underlined up there. Could have been written by John Podhartz or Bill Kristol, both noted Neo-Conservatives. The cold, hard, sober fact is that this Scott Roeder is nothing more than a cold blooded killer; who was a part of a far right wing, anti-Governmental underground group, he is NOT a jihadist. I, quite frankly, wish that Ed Morrissey would pull his rather pointed head out his ass long enough to realize that. This drivel comes from the same place that says that Israel has never, ever, committed any acts of “Terrorism” themselves and the CIVILIANS (not Hamas or Hezbollah) of Palestine and more specifically Gaza; got exactly what was coming to them. 

The begrudgingly obligatory GM goes bankrupt posting

Yes, I know about the bankruptcy of General Motors. No, I will not be commenting on it. As I have a policy, as a blogger not to comment on issues that I personally am involved in and biased towards or against.

Here’s the facts, Via Keith Hennessey:

Process

* GM’s bankruptcy filing was expected to be at 8 AM EDT in NY Southern District in Manhattan. (CNBC)
* Obama and GM CEO Fritz Henderson are scheduled to hold back-to-back press conferences beginning at noon today. (CNBC)
* They are using the same Section 363 process that Chrysler used. The new GM buys the good parts of the old GM. The old parts are liquidated. (White House fact sheet)
* “… would allow a much smaller GM to emerge from court protection in as little as 60 to 90 days.” (CNBC) (This is a guess/spin. How optimistic is it? GM is much harder than Chrysler. –kbh)
* “Al Koch, a managing director at advisory firm AlixPartners, will be appointed chief restructuring officer in charge of liquidating those GM assets” (CNBC)
* “Autos task force will stay in business – shifting to an investment manager role”(CNBC)

In “the new GM,” ownership is:

* 60% of equity goes to the U.S. Government. USG also gets $8.8B in debt and preferred stock.
* UAW’s retiree pension/health plan (the “Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association”) gets 17.5% of equity, plus:
o warrants to buy another 2.5% of equity;
o a $2.5 B note (three installments, ending in 2017); and
o $6.5 B in perpetual preferred stock (9% coupon).
* Approximately 12% of equity goes to the Canadian (and Ontario?) governments. They also get about $1.7 B in debt and preferred stock.
* Bondholders of old GM get about 10% of the equity, for giving up $27.1 B in unsecured debt. This was approved by bondholders representing 54% of unsecured debt. The other 46% are the biggest risk for the bankruptcy filing. (CNBC, WSJ)
* “Bondholders could take up to 25 percent of GM if it recovers to be worth what it was in 2004, before it began round after round of cost-cutting in what proved to be a failed bid to make up for lost sales.” (I need to understand this better.)
* Secured bondholders expect to be paid face value. (WSJ)

Governance of the new GM

* UAW’s VEBA can select one independent director, but cannot vote its shares or other governance rights(!) (White House fact sheet)
* “Canadian government will have the right to select one initial director.” (White House fact sheet)
* “The U.S. Treasury will also have the right to appoint the initial directors other than those that will be selected by the VEBA and the Canadian government.” (White House fact sheet)

GM gets about $40 B of new cash to help pay its bills during bankruptcy. This is called debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.

* U.S. Government: $30.1 B in new debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. (WH fact sheet, CNBC)
* Governments of Canada & Ontario: $9.5 B

NewCo / OldCo

* “Today GM is announcing its intention to close 11 facilities and idle another 3 facilities.” (White House fact sheet)
* “[GM] has not provided an update target for job cuts but had been looking to cut 21,000 factory jobs from the 54,000 UAW workers it now employs in the United States.” (CNBC)
* “While the “new GM” is expected to emerge quickly from court protection, the automaker’s shuttered plants, stranded equipment and other spurned assets would be left to liquidation in bankruptcy.” (CNBC)
* Previously announced: “closing more than a dozen factories and shedding the Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer brands.” (WSJ)
* GM will “shutter 2,600 dealers.” (WSJ)
* “The new GM will also pursue a commitment to build a new small car in an idled UAW factory.” (WH fact sheet)
* GM will shed more than $79B in debt. (WSJ)
* “GM at the last minute also found buyers for some unwanted subsidiaries, including German-based Opel, which is being acquired by a consortium led by Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc., and the Hummer brand, whose buyer remained undisclosed.”

Future

* “The U.S. Treasury does not anticipate providing any additional assistance to GM beyond this [new $30.1 B] commitment.” (White House fact sheet)
* “As a result of this restructuring, GM will lower its breakeven point to a 10 million annual car sales environment. Before the restructuring, GM’s breakeven point was in excess of 16 million annual car sales.” (White House fact sheet)
* “The administration said the goal of the restructuring was to help GM be profitable in a year when the industry sells 10 million vehicles, versus the 16 million it sold in 2007.” (CNBC)
* “GM will continue to honor consumer warranties.” (WH fact sheet)
* GM is being removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 (“the Dow”), along with Citigroup. They will be replaced by Cisco and Travelers. (CNBC)

As you all can well guess; there is a great deal of sadness and a great deal of anger in this household today. I will give you all a fair warning. ANY sort of stupid or abusive or troll-like comments left in the comment section will result in your comment being deleted and your IP address being blocked from even viewing this blog. You just don’t insult my family. Period.

Others covering this story, their color codes should clue you into their political stances:

The Atlantic Business Channel, The New Republic, Above the Law, Gawker, The Stimulist, protein wisdom, Daniel W. Drezner, Wake up America, Mainstream Texas Conservative, Colorado Independent ,Gateway Pundit, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, DownWithTyranny!, The Big Picture, Kausfiles, Runnin’ Scared, The Caucus, ProPublica, The Moderate Voice, Wall Street Journal, Say Anything, Wonk Room, Hot Air, USA Today, Reason, CFR.org, The BLT, RedState, Ben Smith’s Blog, The Politico, TPMCafe, Democracy in America, The New Republic, Crooks and Liars, DealBook, The Nation, Law Blog, The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Boston Globe, Libertarian Republican, The Foundry and Betsy’s Page

My Feelings on the Murder of Abortion Doctor George Tiller

I believe that the Murder of the Abortion Doctor George Miller was just plain awful.

While I believe that Abortion is murder; I believe that using violence to achieve ones political agenda and those who partake in such morally depraved activities are no better than the abortionists themselves.

Further more, I find the reaction in the Blogsphere; both on the right and left to be absolutely disgusting.  Placing blame on a particular group does nothing to bring this man’s life back.  Further more; praising the actions of a cold blooded killer, who fired those shots of pure terrorism; does nothing, at all to further the cause of the Pro-Life movement. Shame on you all.

Statements:

National Right to Life extends its sympathies to Dr. Tiller’s family over this loss of life.

Further, the National Right to Life Committee unequivocally condemns any such acts of violence regardless of motivation. The pro-life movement works to protect the right to life and increase respect for human life. The unlawful use of violence is directly contrary to that goal.  – Via National Right to Life’s Website

From the Family Research Council:

We are stunned at today’s news. As Christians we pray and look toward the end of all violence and for the saving of souls, not the taking of human life. George Tiller was a man who we publicly sought to stop through legal and peaceful means. We strongly condemn the actions taken today by this vigilante killer and we pray for the Tiller family and for the nation that we might once again be a nation that values all human, both born and unborn.

Let me say that, I, Paleo Pat, the owner of this blog, agree wholeheartedly with the above statements. Also, out of respect for the family of murdered victim, and because I know that there will be idiots chomping at the bit to make asinine comments here, I am closing the comments on this entry.

Update:  I’m with Malkin, It’s going be a long week.  Others on the right are covering this and at this point, I’m not pairing Neo-Cons from the Paleo-Cons, because at this point, we’re all in this together…

Here’s the roundup: Hot Air, The Corner, The Strata-Sphere, Macsmind, Stop The ACLU, Sister Toldjah, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS,freerepublic.com, Scared Monkeys, Don Surber, Say Anything, Wizbang, BitsBlog, Weekly Standard, Gateway Pundit, Sweetness & Light, protein wisdom, Gateway Pundit, Sister Toldjah, Macsmind, Wizbang, The Sundries Shack, The Other McCain and Yes, liberals are covering… wanna see what they’re writing, go here.

The Southern Avenger on "The Problem with Sotomayor"

Yeah, I know what I wrote here, But Jack does bring up some vary valid points.

—

How President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, will place identity politics and liberal ideology above the Constitution.

The Obligatory Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor to SCOTUS posting

Yes, I know about the story that is burning up the Blogosphere right now.  I am talking about the nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the SCOTUS.

I suppose some of you are expecting me to go on some sort of half-cocked, loose cannon, type of rant about this. Well, surprise. I am not going to do that. Not on this one anyhow.

For starters; quite bluntly, elections have consequences. The American people decided that the George W. Bush style of rule, that being the Wilsonian, Neo-Conservative, Cowboy syle of rule was not going to stand any longer and they voted against it and John McCain and his wish-washy style of Conservatism. Instead, the American people elected a progressive; some would say, far left wing liberal President. The appointment of this lady to the SCOTUS is a direct byproduct of this.  This is the normal course of a free society, and a Constitutional Republic and the cost of free elections.   This is why it pays to be fully informed of whom exactly one is voting for.

For what I have read and observed on the far right; The Conservatives are acting like President Obama nominated Karl Marx.  Hopefully, the Republican Party does not get into this dangerous game of stupidity with this woman. It could very well cost them dearly in the coming 2010 elections.  Because you just know that the Liberals will take any sort of criticism of this woman that even remotely sounds racist and run it up a flag pole.  As sad as it is for me to have to write this and make this observation; But it is the facts, quite bluntly, The Democrats are holding the cards right now and controlling the poker table; the Republican Party and the Conservative are best to just stick to the issues and the facts, and stay as far away as possible from the stupidity people like Glenn Beck.  I mean, if I or some other well known blogger went off on him about his Mormon Religion or his Alcoholism or his inability to keep his first marriage together; we could be derided as haters, would we not? So, why should Beck get a free pass? He doesn’t. Not with me anyhow.

I believe in a balance of political opinion in the SCOTUS, some feel it is tiliting too far to the left. I disagree. I believe that for too long it has tiltled too far toward Conservatism. I would love to see a true blue Libertarian in there. Of course, we all know that this will never happen. So, you take what you can get.

I will be following this story and will post more, as details come out.