Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Al-Qaida is in big trouble now!

The drive-by media and the left are outraged by #2 al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahri's comments calling President-elect Obama a "house negro". Former Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice are also included in these comments. Al-Qaida has crossed THE line with these comments. Sure, the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians in terrorist attacks throughout the world is bad, but THIS! This is POLITICALLY INCORRECT!! Why I imagine this might even cause President Obama to keep Gitmo open. He'll show them!

And then there's the Reverend Sharpton's comments about Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice:


And then there's singer Harry Belafonte's comments about Colin Powell:
"There's an old saying," Belafonte said. "In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and [there] were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him."

Makes you wonder, where does al-Qaida get this stuff?

8 comments:

Mike West said...

Where's Jesse Jackson? I guess he started just started crying when he heard what they called Obama on the tape.

vwatt said...

Ahhh yes, this is the Bush I want to remember-he doesn't need any outside help to trash his "legacy".....150 billion for an insurance company on Wall Street most people have never heard of(AIG), but when it comes time to maybe take just a little chance that "only 25 billion" might save up to three million jobs, give the Big Three Auto companies a chance of turning it around next year, prevent another million retirees from losing pensions and health care, etc.....NO WAY! It's time to draw the line when it comes to real people!! Time to go back(find) to my conservative roots and let the free market take over again!! Let those peasants eat cake!! Oh we will miss him and his "gut" decisions-not. No wonder the conservative right took such a beating in the election!!

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 20, 2008; Page A10

After pledging more than $1 trillion to rescue financial markets, President Bush has sought a return to his fiscal conservative roots in recent weeks by opposing additional government interventions and extolling the benefits of free markets.

The White House, joined by Republicans on Capitol Hill, has derailed a second economic stimulus plan, fought a Democratic proposal to spend $25 billion to bolster Detroit automakers and continues to press for approval of a trio of stalled trade deals. Bush also persuaded foreign leaders to commit to free-trade principles during a global economic summit in Washington last weekend and will attempt the same at a meeting of Pacific Rim nations in Peru this weekend.

twest said...

What's that got to do with al-Qaida and Obama? The Bush-bashers seem to take every opportunty they can find to fill in a blank space. With that being said (one of my favorite idiotic expressions) I do find myself agreeing with vwatt. This whole avoidable fiasco is turning into a larger one because of ineptness and the lack of a do-able plan. Absolutely no leadership. The housing market supposedly created this credit crisis, yet the plan to address that has changed and the banks are taking the money and running. Just in time for Christmas bonuses, buying other banks that can't get the big bucks, not making loans. The auto industry is getting the brunt of this - they live (and die) on credit. The $25 billion would be a loan with strings but would bolster the industry till the market stabilizes. This is an industry that "makes" things and the U.S. can't let another one go like all the other manufacturing jobs. Al Qaida should beware - the House Negro may fool them.

vwatt said...

If Obama is the "house Negro", then I guess we could make Bush the "White House frat boy".....I knew I could find some way to link Bush to this thread....sure hope he gets that free trade agreement signed with Columbia before he leaves office...a man has to have his priorities...

Brodad Unkabuddy said...

"No wonder the conservative right took such a beating in the election!!" If memory serves me, McCain/Palin garnered 48% of the vote. That's more votes than Clinton got elected with twice! Obama/Biden won within the margin of error, which brings to mind another thought. January 20, 2009 - the beginning of a NEW error. The left is smoking cocaine (again) if they think they have a mandate.

Brodad Unkabuddy said...

Having lived through a major company's/industry's bankruptcy, I have little sympathy for the auto industry. Airline employees sacrificed their pay/benefit/personal lives to save the industry and so can the UAW. I don't buy into the secondary industry theory that if one of the Big Three declares bankruptcy the whole thing will collapse like a house of cards. I also don't buy into the theory that people won't buy cars from a bankrupt company. They sure bought tickets from bankrupt airlines! The banking industry has to be shored up due to the DEMOCRATIC screwups starting with the Clinton administration first, before handing out billions to an industry that is being held hostage by the UAW.

vwatt said...

Those darn blue collar workers-they are bringing the whole country down by trying to fight for a living wage!! They could have worked for half pay this year and GM would still post a loss....seems to me that is a mgt. failure-failure to offer competitive products, streamline/reduce production in the face of a global slowdow,etc. Besides finally selling two of their five jets just this week, it wasn't until just this fall that they cut loose their retired, over age 65 management employees from their lifetime company health plan. They had a no cost plan for life!! A recent Wall St. Journal covered this and pointed out the "trauma" these retirees were having in trying to figure out how to use Medicare like the rest of us are/will!! And to soften the blow, they are still paying them an extra 250/mo. so they can buy Medigap insurance...unbelievable....another perspective(lefty blogger on Daily Kos) follows below to counter the Rush Limbaugh/Hannity talking points:

"The average GM assembly-line worker makes about $28 per hour in wages, and I can assure you that GM is not paying $42 an hour in health insurance and pension plan contributions. Rather, the $70 per hour figure (or $73 an hour, or whatever) is a ridiculous number obtained by adding up GM's total labor, health, and pension costs, and then dividing by the total number of hours worked. In other words, it includes all the healthcare and retirement costs of retired workers.

The reason the US and Japanese companies have different total costs for their American workers? The US companies have been employing American workers for almost a hundred years. They have a lot of retirees. Most of the Japanese auto plants in the US are less than 20 years old. They have almost no retirees, so their costs are only for active workers.

So, why is this pernicious falsehood about inflated wages bouncing around the public discourse on the auto industry? Several reasons.

First, it demonizes unions and their members as greedy and not interested in the long-term health and profitability of the corporations with which they sign contracts. It also ignores the fact that in 2007 the UAW signed a landmark contract in which they assumed future responsibility for healthcare for their members employed by the Big Three. The auto companies paid in to a fund, which will be administered by the UAW. Over the long haul, this is expected to radically decrease the auto companies' legacy costs (although the best way to help company and union is to pass national health care).

Making false claims inflating the earnings of unionized workers is also part of the Republicans' long-held practice of class warfare. It's intended to gin up envy and disgust at people making a good hourly wage. Few people would be unsympathetic to an auto worker for making $58,000 per year. But more would feel unsympathetic if they thought that same auto worker made $73 per hour, which over the course of a year is over $150,000.

Finally, harping on imaginary and inflated wages for workers is a way to distract from one of the big problems with the US auto companies (and most US corporations in any sector): executive compensation. For instance, in 2007 General Motors CEO Rick Waggoner made close to $20 million in total compensation.

Are you surprised that conservatives are playing with math to come up with the false figure of $73 per hour for UAW members working at the Big Three, while saying nothing about a Big Three CEO making $9,500.00 per hour?

Me neither.

Brodad Unkabuddy said...

Based on the above reasoning, then none of the airlines should have filed bankruptcy because the startups are paying no retirements. We (labor) should have made no sacrifices and should have just waited until the government bailed us out (again). Has the UAW offered to help in this situation? Management needs to do like Iaccoca did in the 80s. Work for a buck/year until they make a profit.