Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

Egypt and test of democracy

Posted: January 27, 2011 by datechguy in middle east, opinion/news
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Things continue to get more and more volatile in Egypt. Egypt has had a long-term relationship with the US and has received Billions each year as a bribe to keep the peace with Israel US ally. Egypt has also been a dictatorship that Mubarek and his clan has ruled for 40 years and this rule has reflected poorly on the US.

There is no question that the Egyptian people deserve to be ruled by leaders of their own choice. There is also no question that repressive government is unjust. There have been plenty of strategic reasons to have a good relationship with Egypt (the Suez canal comes immediately to mind) no matter who rules it but the US will be making a large mistake if it backs a repressive regime vs the will of the people.

The big question remains unanswered. If Mubarek falls what replaces him? If it is another strong man then we are right back where we were waiting to see what bribe he wants to be friends and awaiting the next coup for his removal. That is actually the easy scenario.

If Egypt becomes an Islamic state than all bets are off and we can expect a new and exciting conventional war with Israel before the end of the decade.

The really interesting test is if he is removed by a popular revolt and an actual republic is created. How will a democratic Egypt act?

Will it open the border to Gaza? Will it keep the peace with Israel? With it cozy up to Iran? With it with information not controlled by the media find out the realities of Egyptian defeats at the hands of Israel and demand revenge? How will the Christians be treated? Will it be a place of sanctuary for jihadists?

It has been an axiom that democracies do not go to war with each other, but the Arab public has convinced itself that Israel is the center of all evil in the world. Arabs have been fed a steady stream of anti-Jewish propaganda and it would not it would not be a shock for a democratically elected Egypt to decide to “avenge the wrongs” they believe have been done against them and their brother Arabs. Remember the generation that was crushed by Israel in 72 is in their 60’s. Their grandchildren have been told stories of Egypt’s great victories. They do not know or understand what they would actually be getting into and likely wouldn’t believe us if we warned them.

That is the elephant in the room. Will an Egyptian democracy decide to wage a popular war against Israel and ignite the entire Middle East? Will they decide that the balance of power has changed enough for them to win? More importantly will Israel decide that Egypt is planning on doing such a thing and 1967 them to keep it from happening or even worse, will they with Iran about to go nuclear, Lebanon now under Hezbollah control and an unfriendly Egypt to the north finally decide that the Nuclear option’s time has now come?

This more than anything else is the big question. It is also why stopping Iran was so important. if Iran was neutralized and their nukes stopped then Israel would not have to fear an Egyptian attack as they could count on their traditional forces to crush them if they tried anything and an Egypt seeing a neutralized Iran would be less inclined to follow their example.

I hope and pray that this works out right in the end but I’m very afraid that our decision to play “kick the can” with Iranian nukes to avoid a small conflict may result in a larger, more deadly and more catastrophic war than we can dreamt of.

Pay no attention to those complaining masses…

Posted: January 26, 2011 by datechguy in media, opinion/news, politics
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Libertarian Leanings notes this message from the NYT

…one thing seems clear to Ms. Stolberg. The public is deeply confused and should be ignored as this debate goes forward. Americans hardly ever know what’s good for them, so often voting against their own best interests. Didn’t they just do it again when they put a Republican majority in the House of Representatives last fall? It would hardly do to consider anything so unreliable as American public opinion when government programs may be at stake. If there are any besides Medicare and Social Security.

Yeah who needs the people in a representative republic.

This actually is part of a theme where every liberal outlet is calling for republicans to announce their cuts in Medicare and social security. This has been constant since the election. The line is basically “if they don’t cut social security or medicare then they are not serious”.

This way they can minimize any cuts they have already announced. Of course if any such cuts come then it will be all about the mean republicans hurting seniors. The moment any such cut comes watch the media turn on a dime. For Example:

GOP leaders may talk tough about deficits and federal spending, but their proposed cuts assiduously avoid any mention of Pentagon programs, Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Since those programs, along with interest payments, consume most of the federal budget, that means Washington politicians will keep fiddling while Rome burns.

Let’s be clear, entitlement cuts ARE necessary and I have no problem moving the retirement age up two years for anyone born after 1960 (that includes me btw) but expect this to be the MSM meme right up until it happens.

Blog reaction to the speech

Posted: January 26, 2011 by datechguy in blogs, opinion/news, special events
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I purposely avoided the blog reaction to the speech to see how the MSM was going to try to spin this unfiltered. Now that I see that even MSNBC considered the speech so bad that they aren’t even trying to spin it. Let’s look at the blogs:

Gateway Pundit:

Frank Luntz’s focus group gave Obama failing marks on this State of the Union Address tonight. The Atlanta focus group agreed that the nation was not out of its recession.

They also didn’t trust Obama at all on cutting the deficit… Maybe because he talked about increasing spending out of the other side of his mouth at the same time?


Stacy McCain ignored it (great minds think alike) but the photo of John McCain standing and applauding with John Kerry sitting down says volumes.

Neoneocon: “Sputnik! That’ll pull the young folks in. ”

Vodkapundit: A sample of his drunk blogging

6:47PM OK, here come the spending cuts… [CRICKETS]

6:49PM Freeze domestic spending for five years. That would freeze it at current levels. That’s not a cut. That’s not savings. That’s locking in four years of orgiastic spending.

Oh, except for some military cuts he finds “painful.” Boo-hoo.

6:50PM Don’t cut our investments! They’re investments! I swear! Listen: If you want investments, then stop taxing investors so much and let them do their thing.

Legal Insurrection has the best one liner: “A million points of Trite!”

Htothedizzle didn’t mention the speech but is still saying nice things about the radio show. God love her.

Josh Trevino (who I still owe a drink to) has another great Tweet:

After invoking the specter of Sputnik, the President boards Marine One with friends Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and Joe “Big Bopper” Biden.

Lonely Conservative: Obama Calls for Sputnik Moment a Year After Cutting NASA

Patterico was offended:

He said it in the prepared text and in the speech itself:

The bipartisan Fiscal Commission I created last year made this crystal clear. I don’t agree with all their proposals, but they made important progress. And their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it – in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes.

(emphasis added).

You got that? When you are allowed to keep your money, that is considered “spending” by the Federal Government. Because in reality all of the fruits of your labor belong to us, the government.

Ace is confused by the CBS poll:

I don’t know. I’m having trouble understanding how the most listless, incoherent and transparently deceptive SOTU I’ve heard managed to please 92% of its audience.

Easy because that’s the same network that told you only 86k showed up for the Beck Rally

A good night sleep beat out the SOTU…UPDATE: so bad even MSNBC not trying to spin it

Posted: January 26, 2011 by datechguy in media, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , ,

…so to see if my thoughts on the spin, propaganda, template mainstream media reporting is correct I’m going to avoid the write ups about the speech until I see what Morning Joe does with it today.

My base prediction has already been made so lets see if it is correct.

I will make only this comment from part of last night’s twitter stream that I saw. There was a telling comment:

Barbara McMahon (Aka @Southsalem) tweeted this and I saw it before I wrote what I did above

RT @RussertXM_NBC: Allen West: “When he talked abt American exceptionalism & American dream Gr8 2finally hear him say those type of things.”

That sounds like a complement, but consider. Barack Obama ran for president starting in 2007/2008 he has been president for over two years and he is only NOW talking about American exceptionalism?

Does anybody seriously believe he would talk this way if his party wasn’t seriously rejected at the polls in November? When a pol only starts talking about American exceptionalism when he needs to recover from a political defeat, that means he doesn’t believe in it and never has.

UPDATE: Holy Moley! The reaction from Morning Joe except for Howard Dean is “flat”.

When you hear them talk “substance” vs the “optics” on MSNBC that tell you that this is an epic fail.

I can’t remember the sitcom it was from (I think it was Herman’s Head), but I remember seeing a show where there was this exchange:

Guy 1: “What did you think of the movie?”

Guy 2: “I really liked the cinematography…”

Guy 1: “That bad eh.”

Boy it must have been really bad if these guys are saying this kind of thing. It will be interesting to see what they say about the republican response.

Andrea Mitchell says: ” He didn’t mention gun control”, Dean answers: “He didn’t mention Abortion either”

REWRITE!

Update 2 Even worse they showed a clip of Michelle Bachmann’s speech and not a single word of snark from the panel. If they can’t snark Bachmann on MSNBC this is panic time for Democrats.

Update 3: They complement Paul Ryan, the White House is calling Comacst to ask them to get Olbermann back on the air STAT!

Update 4: Not a another word about Michelle Bachmann’s response. I suspect they will continue to avoid it, after reading her speech I see why. If her delivery was as good as the speech then they HAVE to keep it off the air. When you spend months trying to spin her as some kind of violent nut you don’t dare show video that proves you wrong.

Update 5: I leave to drop one kid at school and give a ride to the other whose car was dropped off at T & R Custom Automotive (check out their DaTechGuy deal on labor) and here comes the instalanche. Thanks Glenn.

Now they are talking Backmann and their big critique is the tea party feed (although Mika to her credit says we’ve all looked at the wrong camera…after saying its all about her) If this is the best MSNBC can do for the White House then they are in real trouble.

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