Obama: A Cliche is a Terrible Thing to Waste
September 3, 2008
Blogger Taylor Marsh proclaimed Obama’s speech to be “unmatched…in U.S. history” and “met Martin Luther King, Jr.” What a load of bitter melon. There is nothing post-partisan about blasting Bush with the title of that ’70s TV show, Eight is Enough. A cliché is a terrible thing to waste. His warm-up speaker already used up the Einstein quote about how insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Compare that with “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live…”
King did not undermine John F. Kennedy’s commitment in Vietnam to “bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe.” It was George W. Bush, not Obama, who proclaimed, “We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail” after Sept. 11. Bold leadership is driving al-Qaida out of Afghanistan, not leaving Iraq. Obama’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” and “Tear down this wall” was “We have not lived up to our best intentions.”
Obama can end dependence on oil in ten years by raising gas prices well above the $10 a gallon it already costs in Europe. Offering the expensive Congressional health plan to everybody is brilliant. Michelle never mentioned her $200,000 raise to “outreach” and tell the uninsured to not use her hospital. Folks, nothing Obama will ever say will hold a candle to likes of MLK, JFK, Reagan or even George W. Bush.
*****Related Articles:*****
“Lipstick on a Pig” Ad Attacks Obama - Pigs OK for Asians
Palin and Giuliani on “Community Organizers”
The GOP’s Paler Than Ever: From the tainted Bush to McCain’s Sarah Palin
Political Winds Blowing Jindal’s Way
Political Jiujitsu - Obama & Biden, McCain & Palin
******************************
Sarah WHAT?
McCain was playing Obama’s game when Palin stole the headlines from The Speech. Democrats are complaining about how McCain can run somebody for VP like Alaska Governor Palin, who rivals Obama in youth and inexperience.
But instead of soaring rhetoric, she’s got a solid track record of shaking up government of a state that now adores her. Compared to Hillary’s wooden “as I recall we did it before,” and Michelle Obama’s contrite celebration of how proud she is of America (now), Sarah’s honest speech was a breath of fresh air.
Palin was Alaska’s youngest as well as its first woman governor. Her 3 a.m. wake up call was to hunt for moose with her folks. “Sarah Barracuda” played a mean game of high school basketball. She was runner-up for Miss Alaska, a TV sports reporter, worked with her steelworker husband summers in commercial fishing and went back to work three days after giving birth. So far, everything I’ve heard about her I like.
She didn’t have to quit a hate-spewing church, pretend she was never a Muslim or apologize for ex-terrorist friends. A real-life Wonder Woman who is proud to own guns, hunt, fish, own a float plane and doesn’t think it’s her above her pay grade to declare that life starts at conception is a leader we can believe in, not a man who sells the magic words “hope” and “change.”
Comments
43 Responses to “Obama: A Cliche is a Terrible Thing to Waste”
Got something to say?
The insanity quote is John Dryden, not Einstien!!!
“She didn’t have to quit a hate-spewing church”
Yes, she didnt quit. She is still going there.
You are so right Mr. Hu!
The insight you exhibit is already spreading across America. The attacks by the Dems will backfire…bigtime.
Obama will go back to sleep in the Senate.
“…pretend she was never a Muslim ”
There you go again, perpetuating lies, lies and more lies.
Certainly, Obama will not get your vote. There is no shame being Muslim as Asia is full of Muslims. Where is your proof that Obama was ever a Muslim?
In campaigns the tendency to amplify and obscure happens regardless of party affiliation. I don’t believe Obama’s our messiah, and agree not JFK, MLK… even my BFF. However, perhaps everyone should let Gov. Palin enter the campaign fully and let the public scrutiny that has shone on McCain, Obama and Biden grace her as well before we declare she’s a “real-lfe Wonder Woman” with a “solid track record.” I think it’s safe to say that with the exception of those who know her professionally or have covered her in Alaska — none of us can speak with any reliability at this point in the game — including Sen. McCain.
Both campaigns have got the oversimplification and spin well-covered. All others would do well to offer cogent and responsible opinion based on agreed and reliable fact. Our views on the facts can differ, but we help noone by tossing more two-bits into the vacuous space.
An American
What vitirolic nonsense. It’s clear that you dislike Obama, but is it really necessary to promote mistruths about him in order to make yourself feel better? Pretend he was never a Muslim? Not that Obama was a muslim, but even had he been, the idea that there is something wrong with that is xenophobic and small-minded.
I
Sarah Palin has had to make daily decisions regarding and deal with state budgets, Alaska National Guard, Republican corruption, Health and Human services, environmental issues, big oil and “the good O’ll Boy” network. Delivered 5 children (something Obama/Biden could never ever do). She has 13 years in public service.
Obama/Biden(”Good Old Boys”), Obama, 141 days in the Senate, 200 days campaigning, 4 days of Foreign Policy experience (Trip to Iraq/Germany).
Joe Biden (Sexist), 36 years in the Senate, 10 years on the train from Wilmington to DC., 5 years in the same chair on Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees. His foreign relations experience, memerizing all the stops on the train from Wilmington to DC.
All he can say is “She’s good looking” . Suffers from a bad case of foot-in-mouth decease.
Amazing that a 43 year old woman is more qualified then the Obama/Biden combined.
“Governor Palin, who rivals Obama in youth and inexperience”
Why is this point not seen more often? She takes grief for being young and inexperienced, and then is criticized for it while being a runner-up for the oval office, when Obama is just as young and inexperienced and will (if some have their way) be IN the oval office?
I for one will not be voting for a party that disguises its own lack of leadership by attacking the lack of leadership in a runner-up…
All republicans do is whine and complain. Obama’s speech presented sensible ideas for change in a positive tone. That’s why many liked it. Try arguing on the substance for a change — or are you afraid that when it comes to substance your guy won’t measure up?
Thanks…that’s pretty much how I saw his speech.
Hm. Looks like 200 years after the Chinese were brought over in chain gangs to build our railroads, they’re still dutifully carrying water for America’s whitest (and oldest) political party. Of course, as a half-asian veteran and healthcare executive, I know to vote for my financial interests - not for an out of touch flip flopper like McCain who picks an airhead ex-beauty queen runner up to be his VP in case his old age gets the best of him.
It’s no coincidence that McCain has the support of the least educated among us. He bombs your forefathers and yet you kneel before him still. Weak.
“…pretend she was never a Muslim ”
There you go again, perpetuating lies, lies and more lies.
Certainly, Obama will not get your vote. There is no shame being Muslim as Asia is full of Muslims. Where is your proof that Obama was ever a Muslim?
–Muntu Muimpe on Sep 03, 2008
I don’t particularly care if Obama was a muslim or not. I DO care if he is a liar. His father was a muslim, as is father’s entire family, and his stepfather was a muslim who enrolled him in not just the public, but the catholic school as a muslim. His book says that he went to a “muslim school” and that he “had a muslim name”. If elected, he would not only be the first black, but first president of Muslim heritge (ahead of Jewish I think?) The mainstream press “fact” and campaign position that he has always been christian and never been a muslim shows how unlike John McCain, who will always tell you exactly what he thinks and pick whoever the hell he wants to pick, Obama will never reveal to anybody what he actually stands for except “hope” and change. Palin has turned out to be a bombshell in this campaign (in every sense of the word), and more power to her. People are starting to notice how vehemently this GOVERNOR for pete’s sake is being burned at the stake like Sarah of Arc for being a witch.
Dustin… that was kinda sad to listen to. I don’t mind you voting for McCain (well, a little, but whatever) but your reasoning… hurts.
In the end, do Americans really care? I can’t help but think that when it comes down to it, most people will vote for the ideologies and financial plan which most appeals to them intuitively, regardless of whos middle name is “Hussein” or who called his wife a dirty word. Sensible people will, at least.
Then again… the US is not exactly known for sensibility anymore, which is sad in itself.
Kevin, your words betray you… everybody knows that Hu is a Chinese last name and the US never bombed China… perhaps you’re one of the uneducated fools that you are talking about… We should all just learn to agree to disagree and leave it at that.
It’s no coincidence that McCain has the support of the least educated among us. He bombs your forefathers and yet you kneel before him still. Weak.
–Kevin on Sep 03, 2008
I am Chinese, not Vietnamese. My wife is Chinese who risked her life and her child siblings when she fled Communist tyranny there in a boat. The only Vietnamese flag you will find at Vietnamese American events is the yellow flag of free Vietnam. I have a master’s degree in computer science from MIT, I scored in the 99th percentile in both math and verbal SAT, and my parents also fled Mao’s China before the massive famines and insanity really took hold there.
John McCain risked his life in a bombing campaign he believes was a waste of both men and machines that was ordered by Democrat Lyndon B Johnson in a war that was inherited from JFK. That war ended (badly) when Republican Richard Nixon handed the war to a South Vietnam that was not strong enough to withstand another full scale military invasion of North Vietnam’s regular army spearheaded by Russian and Chinese T-55 tanks. McCain risked and gave years of his life to a war that DEFENDED THE FREEDOM OF ASIANS from communist agression directed from Beijing and Moscow. (See War of the World series on PBS about communist imperialism).
The modern “Asian American movement” was largely created by 60’s radicals indoctrinated in Marxism-Lennism, as was Obama and his wife (according to Dreams, he brags of hanging out with marxist professors, along with his marxist pastor) I still have a photocopy of a nakedly Marxist version of Asian American history for anybody that doesn’t believe the roots of this stuff. Obama’s ideas are not new, they are an Americanized version of the ideas which nearly destroyed freedom in the 20th century before it was defeated … by Ronald Reagan’s resolve to continue to oppose evil.
If Obama is elected, it will be a disaster for freedom in the world. People of the world, especially we Asians are grateful we had a place to run when the communists took over. Where will America go if it ever falls to Marxist ideals of promising the world with the magic word of “change?”
With only a $ 20 input I must be one of the Senate who leave the world with more money than they came with. We dumped John McCain, as we tend to do everywhere, and went out. Wow! Out of John McCain you come upon the world, red sandstone cliffs and gullies, and the most beautiful red sandstone arches.
Why leave the Senate is you’re not going to achieve this? The Senate are very, very mellow to say the least. It was a thoroughly enjoyable start to John McCain.
Speaking of fighting for Asians, the only people Asians hate worse than the Americans are the Japanese. If it weren’t for people like John McCain’s father who commanded a submarine, and his grandfather who commanded a carrier task force, all of Asia and the states of both hawaii and Alaska would be part of the empire of Japan.
Obama’s father left his new wife (he already had one in Africa) and son to collect his harvard scholarship, marry another woman, and go back to Africa to try out his Marxist ideas, and retire a bitter man who was drunk and crashed his cars a lot. That’s the legacy of a man who becomes president of the United States?? It’s all in his biography.
Sarah Palin, that was a terrific speech even if the media still wants to burn you as a witch instead of respect you as a governor. You did us proud. Like she said, what she’s going through is nothing like the indignities McCain had to suffer in Hanoi. Better a first term governor who’s already accomplished something than a phony who has authored two books, but no laws. Palin embodies what is truly great about America, not just another child of Marxism who finds himself and claims (hah!) to be above partisan politics.
Dear Art:
Well, finally, now I get it.
I too surmised, from your articles AND your posts, that you were Vietnamese, although I doubt not that more than a few, many?, Mainland Chinese would share your visceral revulsions towards the PRC and “communism.”
You say your wife and siblings fled on a boat, which would have to be during the Vietnam War, so, that experience had to be “Vietnamese” and not Chinese.
Huang Fong, I do believe, shares some of your experience and background, but he, in contrast, stands in diametrically opposite positions from both your political stances AND, to me, more to the point, your “takes” on what it is and means to be a “Chinese American” in America TODAY.
That last, very especizally, has to do with history, a lot of which antedated your own subjective experiences and fears and hatreds.
The Chinese laborers recruited, chiefly from Canton if my surmise is correct, since the San Francisco Chinatown of my day and my parents” days, was almost excluisively, if not totally, from the Guangdong area, the Toishan delta. Just as most of the Southeast Asia Chinese diaspora were Fukienese as well as Cantonese.
My point here, pal, is that, regardless of your 99-percentile scores in math and SATS, you are, in effect, a latecomer, and cannot begin to speak for anyone but yourself.
Anyone occupying the desk of a “columnist” owes it to himself, first, to be objective to the point of acknowledging wherefrom he speaks, and assiduously applying references and checkpoints as to whatever he indites.
Posts here, are freer, since ALL are free to agree or disagree.
But your diatribes, and not just on Obama, whom you dismissed a few months back, in this single view, whatever my “race” or “provenance,” culturally as well as intellectually, are, in a single word: absurd. Irrational as well, insofar as they are frequently non sequitur.
For someone with an advanced degree from MIT, I find your columns and posts less than accessible and more than confused and conflicted.
Like your assays of American culture and old films. Even more exaaperating, I find your grasp of history, recent AND a little further back, less than reliable. Off base? That too.
Your revulsion and angst in re, likely, the “Cultural Revolution” is more than understandable, but it is in no way a true and balanced record of the period, only your and your wife’s.
You make no reference to what caused and brought Mao to power. You have no idea of the 99.9% of the Chinese people who were barely subsisting if not outright starving before him and those hardy souls who accompanied him on the “Long March.”
And your appreciation of recent American political “history” is even funnier than your takes on old movies.
You embrace MLK and JFK in the same breath with the likes of Nixon and Reagan. Johnson was, er, ah, shall we say?, an interregnum.
That would be like lumping the Chiangs with madame’s sister, Mme. Sun and/or the monster’s mistress, you know, that Shanghai acress and leader of the renowned Gang of was it? Four.
You may find Nixon and Reagan icons, but I find them rascal and sellout.
And your claim that the Vietnam War represented an American defense of “freedom” for “Asians” is about as logical as the neocon lie in Iraq today.
No, Art, you and your wife and family are “safe” today herei in the still-benighted states of amurrika, until that day the neocons are driven out of power as well as office, and I grudge none of you.
Even your views.
But I can’t resist laughing at them. AND deriding them. For what they are: puny, personal perceptions of events considerably larger than themselves.
Obama a dire threat? No, it’s the other way around.
Grow up, Art, and beyond the bounds of your math and verbal skills I think, as a fellow “Chinese,” “American” or otherwise, I can pull generational rank and say that. In public too.
fraternally,
Frank
P.S.: Art, “communism” is no longer germane here or anywhere else for that matter. Elements, basic at that, have long been part and parcel of almost every “civilized” nation on earth. I’m not sure about “industrialized,” but I think television and the internet may have skipped THAT phase in the social evolution for EVERYone, including herders in Mongolia, poppy-harvesters in Afghanistan, coca farmers in Latin America, diamond miners in West Africa, and even the hallowed precincts of Grosvenor Square and the tidy precincts of the Norse. Dunno about the Mediterranean, where Berlusconi is back in power, OR Turkey, where secularism is hostage to the military’s whim. And Pakistan, like al-Maliki?, may yet turn one more page to the future that the neocons have not forefended.
P.P.S.: Let’s just see how the “Chinese American” vote goes come Nov. 4. Ditto the Asian-Pacific. Wanna bet?
An important part of the Filipino community doesn´t have any doubt they, mostly Catholic and with Spanish names and part of a country which was part of Spain for three centuries (more than some in Latinamerica), are part of the HISPANIC Community.
FILIPINOS ARE HISPANICS!!!!
One thing for certain, Vietnamese in American and Vietnamese in Vietnam will both support McCain. No Asian group is more GOP than the Vietnamese in America.
Arthur, if it wasn’t for your AsianWeek’s editor contacting me for permission to use my comment in their print edition, I wouldn’t have even seen your vacuous idolatry of your adopted white father, John McCain.
While you talk of patriotism, I lived it. You see, I actually wore this country’s uniform and served it with honor. I didn’t just hop on a boat to arrive at America’s shores, as your mom did once she figured out she placed her chips on the losing side (and against her own people for the French and then Americans) when Saigon was sacked.
So spare me your talk of patriotism and sophomoric meanderings on world history and foreign affairs. Unlike Exxon John, you have yet to earn that right. If you were grateful for the bone that was tossed to you, you would have joined the military and contributed to our national defense.
For someone who claims to be vietnamese and hold up the Vietnam War as some badge of honor in our nation’s history is so ripe with irony that it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so obviously ill-informed and pathetic. That war was the most glaringly shameful foreign adventure our country has ever undertaken, given that the American people was lied into it by the Gulf of Tonkin deception. That display of utter disregard for true democracy ultimately cost the lives of 50,000 Americans and 2,000,000 Vietnamese. Does the storyline sound familiar? It should, because the Iraq War is Bush’s Vietnam.
And thanks for speaking for all Asians, declaring that they hate Americans and Japanese almost equally. Very revealing of your ignorance and bigotted thinking. Of course, if I was Vietnamese and I knew that the Japanese succeeded in what the Chinese, French, and the Americans failed to do - utterly crush Vietnamese resistance and fully occupy their country during WWII - I guess I might hold a grudge against them too. Then maybe not, considering my more enlightened sense of history that understands that today’s generations are not responsible for the actions of the past.
Hey, tell you what. I’ll come back here on November 5th when Obama wins the presidency and we’ll have more words then. Such as discussing where you can move back to Vietnam with John who probably misses his old room in the Hanoi Hilton.
Until then, try and be proud of your heritage an realize that the world did not end in 1973 and that Vietnam is now enjoying economic growth and prosperity with fully restored trade relations with its old nemesis, the United States. And we didn’t even need to use napalm! Imagine that.
Art:
Kevin really nails this one.
But, there is one more little point, even though it may qualify as “beating a dead horse,” or kicking someone when he’s down, but . . .
Are you as a “Chinese” person actually claiming to be speaking for ALL “Vietnamese,” ‘”here” as well as “back there”?
Frank
P.S.: And did you note that today Ms. Steinem dismissed your convention “bombshell” as merely an “older” Phyllis Schafly? Actuially, doesn’t she “look” and sound more like an arguably “prettier” Tonya Harding? Who, obviously, doesn’t need to hire goons but can manage quite well on her own, a true duck-blind mate for someone like Dick Cheney?
Again, I’m Chinese, not Vietnamese, and wasn’t athletic enough to hack the military academies that I did apply for. At least I support the US military like most liberals like Obama obviously do not.
If Vietnam was a failure, it was the proving and training ground for the successful coalition forces removing Iraqi forces from Kuwait, and taking out Saddam Hussein, and the basis for an entirely new generation of maneuverable high performance aircraft - F-14 to F-18 and A-10 were all out the Vietnam experience, as was the M-2 Bradley, and electronic warfare aircraft like the EA-6B which blind radar guided missles like the SA-2 that bagged McCain’s Skyhawk. If anything, the Pentagon should be faulted for ignoring the lessons of the Vietnam war which is that vehicles and gunners must be protected by armor, as the old M113s that have been dusted off have been fitted with gunshields only after rediscovering how vulnerable unprotected gunners are.
If Vietnam has ultimately fallen into the horror of free enterprise and capitalism, wouldn’t it have been much LESS bloody if Ho Chih Minh had reunited his nation under the principles of freedom and democracy rather than the Marxism vision of “justice” by military force?
China was a bloodbath. Cambodia was a bloodbath. Stalinism was a bloodbath. All of the wars started in the name of Marxist “justice” and “democracy” were a bloodbath. The #1 cause of “excess” death in the 20th century was Marxism, Obama and Jeremiah’s true religion (not Christianity) , with over 100 million unneccesary deaths by some counts, not US capitalism.
eng: today Ms. Steinem dismissed your convention “bombshell” as merely an “older” Phyllis Schafly? Actuially, doesn’t she “look” and sound more like an arguably “prettier” Tonya Harding? Who, obviously, doesn’t need to hire goons but can manage quite well on her own, a true duck-blind mate for someone like Dick Cheney?
awarthurhu: Boy does McCain give a dull speech, but Sarah Barracuda packed them in with a BIGGER tv audience than the almighty Obama. Ask the residents of Alaska if they care if her daughter is pregnant, if she thinks Jesus Christ is her personal savior, if she think school kids don’t have to be forced to pledge their allegience to an evolution theory they don’t believe in, or if unlike Obama, she doesn’t think and unwed birth is a “punishment” and did recommend an abortion because she’s unsure of whether or not it’s not really human life.
It just kills me how politically correct people emphasize how nice we have to be towards blacks, Hispanics, Asians, lesbians and bisexuals, and black churches that proclaim “God Damn America!” but then be in complete support of an illegal internment of mormon polygamists, and call Sara a “white trash bimbo”, and accuse her of being a racist just because she’s christian and gave a warm state welcome to Pat Buchanan, who has never hung around Israel haters as much as Obama has. She’s a freaking governor, not a witch. It just goes to show which side is the one that is intolerant and full of hate, and witch burning is alive and well in the left.
While I did always think that Hu was a Chinese name and that Arthur here is Chinese, I agree with Frank Eng and others that Hu has a poor understanding of history and that his columns tend to be only semi-coherent. For a guy who has “a master’s degree in computer science from MIT… (and) scored in the 99th percentile in both math and verbal SAT,” Hu doesn’t show it in the logic and flow of his columns. He often connects facts that aren’t logically connected, jumps from one subject to another without logical transitions, and sometimes seems to make things up (such as the “hippie math” statement).
Regarding the fleeing on a boat issue, while the Vietnamese boat people were far more famous, there were a smaller number of cases of Chinese fleeing the Communists on boats, so Hu’s story is possible. Still, I have to say, Arthur, that others are right in that you fail to examine why the Communists came to power in various countries in the first place. The Communists could only have won against far more powerful military forces with the support of the majority of the people, and those people would not give such support without a reason. Even the OSS (forerunner of the CIA) predicted that the Chinese and Vietnamese Communists would win, for the same reason - the majority of people in those countries were desperately poor and oppressed by the Japanese and then the “nationalist” governments in power. This doesn’t justify all the abuses later committed by the Communists, but it does explain their rise to power. The objective reality is that both nationalist/capitalists and communists committed horrible crimes against humanity, and both were extremely bloody in power. The Chinese Communists have even officially admitted this with regard to the Cultural Revolution. Sadly, the type of crimes all sides have committed are crimes that humans have committed against each other often in the history of most of the world. To be honest and realistic, we have to admit this and not just continue to be blinded by past hurts and hatreds. At this point, both Viet Nam and China are moving forward with mixed communist / capitalist systems. We have to work from where we are, and try to build a positive future together.
Regarding Sarah Palin, I am attaching below a letter I already emailed to the Editor. For more information on her, see: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp and http://www.alternet.org/election08/97350
Mike Wong
Palin’s extremist values.
September 6, 2008
Dear Editor,
Arthur Hu (Sept. 5 - 11, p. 6) blasts Obama and lauds Sarah Palin. But consider Palin’s almost shocking positions. For most of her adult life, Palin belonged to the Wasilla Assembly of God, whose preacher Ed Kalinins taught that critics of George W. Bush would be sent to hell, doubted whether anyone who voted for John Kerry would get into heaven, and said that Jesus Christ “operated from that position of war mode,” rather than as the Prince of Peace. Palin believes in Creationism not science, once joined the Alaskan Independence Party which advocates secession from the United States, and failed in a car wash business. As major of Wasilla (pop. 5,000 at the time), she tried to ban books from her local library, slashed funding for teen moms, was for “the bridge to nowhere” before she was against it, and entered office with zero debt but left office with over $22 million in debt. Sarah Palin, one 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency? We should all be scared. Very, very scared.
Sincerely,
Michael Wong
Arthur Hu:
I believe your article is filled with the racist propaganda found in popular media that puts Obama down daily; on the other hand, we are all entitled to “free speech.” You have exercised yours and now I am exercising mine. This has to be one of the worst articles I ever read on AsianWeek–next to Kenneth Eng’s “Why I Hate Black People.”
“filled with the racist propaganda found in popular media ”
To the contrary, Michael Wong’s response is a fine example of all the ridiculous charges leveled against Palin. As somebody who grew up and assimilated against average Americans in suburban Seattle, I am much less alarmed by heartland Christians than a man who has just about stated that he would recommend that his daughters get an abortion if they ever conceived an “unwanted” baby, bragged about hanging out with marxist professors, quit the “God Damn America” church only after he told the nation in an acclaimed “race speech” that he could never dump Wright, etc. You PC “tolerant” folks are quick to embrace the most radical leftists, but quick to condemn and savage the christian right. What sets me apart from you folks is that I truly believe it is wrong to hate ALL people.
The PC believe it is OK to hate “bad” people. All people are god’s children, left or right, black or white. You Asian American’s think we are all a bunch of Berkeley hippies when many of us are children of parent who fled communism and do think that Jesus Christ is Lord, not Karl Marx or milder versions thereof.
It has taken the likes of Palin to knock down Obama’s celebrity status down to “old news”, and realize he’s just the latest huckster of the same old Democratic programs such as Hillary’s disastrous debacle of a health plan. Watch the polls. Palin may look like an alien monter to you folks, but she’s far more like the average middle class American than the Punahoe elite private school / Columbia / Harvard Obama whose true Lord is Karl Marx, not Jesus Christ.
” you fail to examine why the Communists came to power in various countries in the first place. The Communists could only have won against far more powerful military forces with the support of the majority of the people,”
I can’t believe (actually given the state state of indoctrination that is the US education system, maybe I can) that we are still arguing over whether Marxism / Communism was a miserable failure and the bloodiest most murderous idea ever inflicted on humanity, especially Asians. Communism is NOT about democracy. It’s about using terror to seize power. The so-called “desperately poor” and oppressed people only suffered from WORSE famines and WORSE human rights violations under communism.
“both nationalist/capitalists and communists committed horrible crimes ” illustrates the level of thinking of Obama supporters, who can only think like this after they have been brainwashed by the thinking of the elites that run the Democrat left. America and the West were not responsible for the famines and programs of Russia, China, Vietnam or Cambodia. The “ideals” of Marx were what justified such massive horrors and crimes against humanity.
Obama’s promised land is a land of milk and honey with “hope and change”. The world has heard such promises before, anything that’s too good to be true usually is. That’s why Republicans don’t make promies like that.
Check out CNN’s “Obama Revealed”. They stated Obama’s official line that “he did not go to a radical madressa”. But why would they leave out that his father was muslim, his stepfather was muslim, his name was muslim, his own book said he went to a muslim school, or that he was registered in both the catholic and government schools as a muslim? If the man had integrity, he would be PROUD of being America’s first president of muslim heritage, instead of spending so much effort denying his heritage. John McCain is proud of the faith of his fathers (the title of his book and movie), but clearly Obama is not.
I watch Bush for a few minutes addressing a group of VFWs and he mentioned that our two greatest enemy during World War II, Japan and Germany are now our greatest ally, then he paused with a smirk on his face and I thought have we become more like them or have they become more like us. Democracy is great, but when you point a gun at someone to accept Democracy, you already lost the value. Then, he mentioned that it was difficult to stand up for something that was not popular. Basically, we keep electing presidents that keeps doing things against the will of the people. CoCain McCain is addicted to Washington, once in office he will be another Dictator Bush, too proud to turn down a shoot- out. The greatest military is one that can defeat an enemy without firing a single shot.
awaarthur:
We gotta stop meeting like this, in public and sans shame.
You keep nattering on about stuff, s0 it’s difficult if not impoosible to challenge.
Still, I ask you, please ask the 1.3 billions of Mainlanders today, a “poll” if you please, by ANYone qualified to conduct same, how THEY feel about their circumstances.
Putin, it was said a few months back, enjoyed a 70% popularity rating, vis-a-vis Dubya’s 20, and I daresay the miserable masses on the Mainland will return a majority approval.
And if that wouldn’t convince you, just compare Sichuan to Katrina, for one. or ongoing investigzations of alternaztive fuel sources AND “green” approaches to socioeconomic and industrial conundrums.
By the way, Art, aren’t you an MIT grad and isn’t that one of your Ivy League bete noirs?
Frank
P.S.: “Asian Pacivic Americans,” unite! You have nothing to lose but the racist prejudices foisted on you. Yeah, that and their turncoat lackeys.
I know this is old, but still true. How many American are there breaking down the doors to “escape” to Sichuan and Putin’s Russia? How many Chinese and Russians play illegal games and risk their lives to move to America? Even Koreans who have education and skills would rather run dry cleaners just to put their kids in supposedly awful American schools. The economic level of African Americans is even or better than all but the most developed Asian nations. Sorry Eng, America is still the best country in the world, even with GW Bush as president.
eng: “Putin, it was said a few months back, enjoyed a 70% popularity rating, vis-a-vis Dubya’s 20, and I daresay the miserable masses on the Mainland will return a majority approval. And if that wouldn’t convince you, just compare Sichuan to Katrina”
awarthur:
This country could well be “the best” in the world if it began to live up to its self-billing.
If it stopped, this instant, its juvey, racist, chauvinistic, bloody, destructive, AND counterproductive to its own interests machinations around the globe.
If it began to address its own problems at home, its very
“Constitution” of governance AND its “Bill of Rights” wirh respect, and observing their intent of government “of,” “by,” and “FOR” the “people,” rather than selling off, piece by piece and chunk by chunk, the debris thereof to “private contractors,” this including the “sacred” duty and “right” of citizens to “defend” our own, emplacing latterday merecnaries of every stripe in Iraq for one, and making a mockery of the public trust in almost every precinct, especizlly in the so-called “Beltway.”
If it began to realize, much less act on, the depths to which the “capitalist” “free-market” economy has sunk and has accomplished what no “foreign” “enemy” could hope to do: bring this nation down to its economic knees and make mock of its claims to “hegemony,” of ANY kind.
If it began to address the sufferings and the fears of its citizenry who have lost their jobs, are losing their homes, forget their “aspirations,” and are beginning to face literal deprivation of food on their tables, for their children especially.
If it began to think in terms of printing money not just to salvage usurious banking and credit systems that reward incompetent CEOs, and outrageously at that, but, creatively, in a win/win solution, use same to restore or reconjuie the aging and rotting infrastrucures and thereby creating jobs.
If it began, simply, to rethink REregulation of same, and the so-called “public utilities” especially.
If it had the faintest notion or respect of the Constitutional edict on the “separation of Church and State,” and began to restore the “balance” of political power and render unto the secular state that which belongs to ALL, and not just to evangelicals and missionaries of one stripe of fundamentalism or another.
They’re entitled to their beliefs, but NOT to foist or force them on others.
If it even had the fainest notion, much less recognized and acted justly thereon, of its inherent institutionalized racism, blacks especially, Native Americans ditto, then the rest of the “raianbow” spectrum, incluiding here the “sexual orientation: groups, even “women” in regards to “equal pay,” but, very specifically, in regard to individual “human rights” to their own bodies.
If it began to understand and address the underlying psychic and visceral underpinnings that promote abominations of social injustice like inner-city slums and “illegal” drugs, not all that long ago it was “demon rum,” a sociocultural/sociopolitical construct that is entirely man-made, and idiotic at that.
If it began to face the TRUTH, the “realities” that is, of both human AND “natural” phenomena, instead of insisting on fearful and illogical, unreasoing, perceptions AND interpretations. For instance, searching for the motives rather than ineffectually criminalizing the acts.
And, finally, if it had the maturity, never mind wisdom, to begin to appreciate and honor its best thinkers, artists, and “creators,” those who think outside this earthly box and contemplate and dream and make possible the very likes of a “best nation on earth.”
Until the very “germ” of these likely impossibilities is, at the very least, “implanted” in thewe beautiful and more than promising United States of America, I, for one, disagree with you.
I have never said “we” were worse than others, only NOT GOOD ENOUGH, not by my puny standards. Indeed, if y ou think about it, not by our publicly trumpeted and vaunted standards.
Putin’s Russia may be a model for a rather impressive movie melodrama like “Eastern Promises,” but my guess is that his Russia is “progressing,” culturally as well as socially and economically, better than our has the past eight years.
As for the Mainland, had you heard some thousands of Iraqi have “busted the doors,” well, they were down anyway either by smartbomb or IED, and “fled” to said Third World relic? I have no wish to go there, for there, I would be as “alien” as I am perceived by your lordly hosts, who are, no more and no less, mine own compatriots, many of whom I honor and cherish, most of whom I know not, and a few of whom I challenge, you among them.
And, by the way, YOUR hero, one almost as senile as I, flew a mission that landed him in a lake, whence he was rescued by those he bombed and too civuilized to tear him limb from limb on the spot. I leave the sequence that followed to the “experts.”
But, contrast this to your diss’d George McGovern, who flew MORE than his 250quota missions over Germany, who eyewitnessed, next him, the severed body of a buddy over Germany, who subsequently rethought his wartime feats of “heroism,” and who, God bless him, and him a literally and truly God-fearing man like Jimmy Carter, after the Vietnam War ended, felicitated former “enemy” opposites as EQUALS, and not, NOT, I repeat, as “gooks,” OR those “Asians:” who did not value “life,” as did that Pacivic Fleet admiral of WWII. Was he McCain’s dad? I wouldn’t be surprised.
No, awarthur, I find your premises flimsy to say the least, your advocacies indefensible as well as insufferable, well, to me personally, that is. And if, indeed, this nation has not finally HAD IT with the bushytauked theoneocons, then, indeed, will it suffer the bloody and self-immolating consequences.
Frank Eng
P.S.: I don’t know about your attitudes towards your forebears, but I continue to stick to my convictions in the belief that I am honoring them in so doing. Myself, I matter little. And, in that little, I do believe that BOTH McCain and Palin matter even less.
Sorry.’
Make that 25-quota.
I think the man flew some 29?
And copy readers, we all need them, no?
awarthur:
Furthermore . . .
” . . . Even Koreans . . . drycleaners . . . schools . . .”
Is that a snide and gratuitous reference to the Cho family of Virginia Tech infamy?
What a low blow. And what a blowback to your concepts of “racial” and socioeconomic superiorities.
As for “blacks” living lives superior to those of almost evey other tribe or nation on this earth, has it occurred to you that to many of us, of any “color” or creed, ONE priority is R-E-S-P-E-C-T, something you appear to have scant supply, other than for juvey “heroes” of militarist bent AND questionable machismo, as in balls rather than appearances.
Although you may be correct in trumpeting “victory” before the battle is over in re this upcoming “election.” Your “guys” are riding the crest of a post-convention bump that may or may not sustain until Nov. 4, and Obama et cie. are suffering the smarts of their own :experts” and “advisors.”
If the latter is on-target, then the underdog candidate may well begin to “walk” his “talk” and bugger the gurus, since he may as well lose on his own terms rather than those of the spinners and smoke-and-mirror artists.
Frank
P.S.: Are your “Korean” teammates aware of just exactly how you really “feel” about them, as in “even Koreans”?
Tfhere are “bananas” and “bananas,” and, then, there’s Arthur Hu. On the other hand, you may well have earned your seat next to all those CNN talking heads, like Bill the Loofah and Lou the doorknob. Hey, they started this pissing contest, diddle they?
. . . Even Koreans . . . drycleaners . . . schools . . .”
Oh yeah, forgot to add corner grocers and high tech coolies while I was at it. Yes, Asians especially are willing to take a BIG cut in social status and cultural comfort for their kids, and I’m certainly grateful my parents made the trip to America from Taiwan, and I won’t have to make the same sacrifice for my kids. It’s sad to see Asian nations looking into adopting some of the same insane no-math mathematics reforms being sold to American schools though. Americans have their share of fools as well, take that Obama fellow for instance….
Art:
As far as “fools” go, you and I included, the medieval and Shakespearean variety were, in fact, sages.
Upstarts privileged to poke fun at their “superiors,” as in droit du seigneur and/or life-or-death judgments, one way or another. Someon on a progressive blog re-coined the noun “peonage” in reference to wage slaves and those who can never catch up with usurious “interest” computations.
So, today, a veritable “Vietnamese,” one Prof. Vuong, peppered these pages with a vigorous “defense” of “community organizers,” along with the ever-reliable Phil Tajitsu-Nash.
Actually, community organizers need no “defense,” only those who appreciate and understand their efforts, unlike your literally “fool-ish” identification with your snide superiors/inferiors.
A variation on the Stockholm Syndrome, neh?
Whatever, I find it difficult, if not impossible, to feel sorry for you, in your confused and confusing beliefs and allegiances.
Today’s “wildly enthusiastic” crowds turning out for Sarah Palin, is SHE the one running for Prez?, were almost convincing.
How many were paid extras by the Rovian handlers?
The “polls” reveal the superficial and the passing fad.
Let’s see how the remaining eight? weeks unravel.
More “cultural” swiftboatings for sure.
But when push comes to joblessness, it’s still a tossup?
Maybe a rude awakening for the cynical and the idiot?
Frank
Oh, come on now, Arthur, do you really believe that you are “tolerant” of folks on the left? I was trying to support you against challenges to your being Chinese and your wife fleeing in a boat. Did you even notice that? And I tried to point out the fact, well documented by many on all sides, that both capitalists and communists have committed war crimes. Somehow you thought that I was blaming America for that, but I didn’t even hint that America was at fault. After all, it was Chinese who did it to Chinese. And I pointed out that humans have been doing these things “often in the history of most of the world.” In other words, before America existed, therefore America can’t be blamed for all of that. Yet you seemed to perceive my position as a blind attack on you, god, and America, ignoring what I actually said.
As for Palin, if you can accept her extreme views, then why not Obama’s pastor’s views? Do you accept only one extreme but not the other? If so, then how are you more “tolerant” than us on the left? Perhaps we are all just flawed human beings. If so, it would be good for us to at least make an effort to get along. I don’t claim to be totally objective, but neither are you. We - including you - all have emotions and loyalties, and they color how we see things. If you can even admit that, it will be a big step forward.
Arthur, did you really say, “the only people Asians hate worse than the Americans are the Japanese.?” Uh, perhaps you forgot that Japanese ARE Asians? And, while China and Japan still have issues with each other, they are at peace. And America and Japan are solid friends. There comes a time when folks just have to get past the hurts of the past and move on.
Here is another example of our Media electing our president. Gibson plays the bad guy who bullies Palin practically to tears and she wins sympathy vote. I guess Obama just needs to stage a White supremacist assassination attempt.
Right again, Huang.
But let’s omit the riposte suggestion. Too close to “reality” for comfort. The racists are already out in droves, and not a few of them under the “feminist” banner.
No matter how you slice this one, it’s still racist.
And the media forgets Palin is running for “vice.”
So why should Obama respond to her? Unless the GOP is counting the head honcho out already.
By the way, politics junkies should read Alex Cockburn’s sum-up of the past week’s Palin amok-ery.
Matter of fact, so should Obama’s handlers.
Still, there’s seven? weeks left to go?
Maybe Sarah will lose her lipstick, or McCain utter some “maverick” nonsense, sans Lieberman whispering in his ear.
And I knew the official “unemployment” figure at 6.2 HAD to be low-ball, but Cockburn says the real figure stands at double. I believe him. And THAT should weigh enough to balance the scales of irrelevance?
Frank Eng