American Republic Online

That’s right, we even beat President Palmer himself to his connection with Obama and history.  What we wrote on April 19th is now being confirmed by 24 star Dennis Haysbert.  Heroes beget followers and copycats.  And sometimes other heroes.  We’ll let you decide which category Obama belongs.

• Former ‘24? President Credits His Role for Obama Rise

I know that the ability to articulate is not a true indicator of intelligence but communication mastery -or lack there of- can certainly create an image of intelligence (or lack there of).  For instance, is this really the leader of the free world speaking?

What they’ll say is, “Well it costs too much money,” but you know what? It would cost, about… It — it — it would cost about the same as what we would spend… It… Over the course of 10 years it would cost what it would costs us… (nervous laugh) All right. Okay. We’re going to… It… It would cost us about the same as it would cost for about — hold on one second. I can’t hear myself. But I’m glad you’re fired up, though. I’m glad.

Yup, it is. Or will be. That was our savior of change, presumptive Presidential candidate, Obama - off teleprompter.  Which begs the question: Can we elect his speech writer instead?  He goes on in the same meeting to talk about breathalyzers & “InHALators” for asthma patients.

Here’s the YouTube link in case you doubt the transcript: Read the rest of this entry »

The dream died yesterday.  On June 11, 2008, Cuban Vice Minister of Labor and Social Security Carlos Mateu announced that Cuba will be removing its egalitarian wage system.  It’s about time.  What is really interesting is how the decision was framed.  Listen to Mateu (emphasis added):

“This (new) salary system should be seen as a tool to help obtain better results in output and services,” deputy labor and social security minister Carlos Mateu told the Communist Party daily Granma, noting that employers have until August to implement the changes…

“Generally,” the paper quoted Mateu as saying, “there has been a tendency for people to earn the same, and that egalitarianism is not helpful.

“That is something that we have to fix … because if it is harmful to pay workers less than they deserve, it also is harmful to pay them what they have not earned,” he added.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last month, General Petraeus was nominated to lead Central Command. His will probably one of Bush’s few disputed nominations. Even Democrats have softened their blows over his success in Iraq (though they don’t call it that). Presidential hopeful Barrack Obama remarked that

“I think that both of you gentlemen are doing the absolute best that you can given an extraordinarily difficult situation…”

General Petraeus has indeed been quite successful in Iraq. When is the last time we’ve heard about a civil war, or the word quagmire? The General’s success (thus far) has come through a “new” strategy. That is, his is a strategy akin to the old saying that “war is politics by another means.” Or, at least in Petraeus’ case, success has come through a union of war and politics. He recognized that victory would only come by involving local politicians. Demonstrable military strength coupled with political maneuvering have led to the recent stability in Iraq [note: so have the trebled oil prices, but that’s another post]. These two factors build on each other: they are not mutually exclusive. A strong military presence is not enough (as demonstrated over the past few years), nor is political will. Combined, however, is/was necessary. Petraeus saw this, and implemented it to a noticeable success.

This is where it gets interesting.

Read the rest of this entry »

So I have to wonder if the strong portrayal of President David Palmer by Dennis Haysbert in the hit series 24 helped Presidential Hopeful Obama in the American mindscape. President Palmer was the ideal man for the job for most Americans. Lets look at his qualifications:

• Tall
• Attractive (don’t kid yourself - these matter)
• “Presidential Presence”
• Compassionate enough to wrestle with weighty decisions of life and death
• Yet still has the balls to take the fight to our enemies and authorize whatever-is-necessary Bauer to kick ass

I believe this mix of strength and compassion is what most people crave in a leader. After 3 Seasons, Dennis Haysbert secured the idea of a Black American as a great President and got himself his own show (the Unit).

Read the rest of this entry »

The Bush administration is going to propose new regulations in the financial markets, and propose consolidation of regulatory power.  It is dressed in an “effort to limit Washington’s role in the market.”  But I’m not so sure.  The idea of consolidating power is, not surprisingly, unappealing to me.  This is especially true for an organization such as the Fed that has remained somewhat politically independent to this point.  Indeed, the Fed must be as politically independent as possible.   Can you imagine a room full of politicians deciding (even discussing) the issues faced by the Fed?

Well, what about a Fed that must answer to political posturing?  A Fed that must answer to Congress’ every whim and fancy.  In fact, the Fed is facing this very issue.  John Mauldin fills us in:

Basically, there are two vacant seats on the Fed. President Bush has nominated two very qualified people with distinguished records and backgrounds who have hands-on experience in real-world banking, as opposed to being academicians. These are not political appointments, but serious economists.

[Senator Chris] Dodd refuses to allow these nominations, or any others, to move forward…

Read the rest of this entry »

Obama took a breather from his recent sparring session with Senator Clinton to criticize Senator McCain. Who? John McCain, the guy running for president on the Republican side… yeah, remember him? Ever since he cinched up the nomination, it’s like the media packed up and forgot about him. Now, he may be taking a breather himself before he starts his general campaign. On the other hand, he may really be trying to make news. But he’s got a real task before him: how to get the media to look his way (besides hiring a high society hooker)? He can’t let Clinton and Obama hog the limelight this long. People will forget about him, thinking the race is between Obama and Clinton. If the Democrat process drags into the summer, McCain may be DOA. Perhaps this is part of the Democrat’s strategy: steal all the media attention and kill McCain’s campaign. It’s a Left Wing Conspiracy!

On the other hand, we haven’t seen Karl Rove in a while, and this “turn-the-Democrats-on-themselves” ploy is right up his strategery alley: have Clinton and Obama slice each other up, only to have McCain ride in, white as the driven snow, untouched by criticism. It’s a Right Wing Conspiracy!

As ARO pointed out recently, the Democrats will be demonstrating for us all whether sexism or racism is stronger in America (Democrat party), and here’s a glittering example:

Geraldine Ferraro has left Clinton’s team because of what she said about Obama, and an Obama aide stepped down for her remarks about Clinton.

It sure is getting fun to watch.

Sorry about the short outage.  We outgrew our old server and had to move to a bigger, faster server.