Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Discussing advice from Dee Dee Myers on how to "reconnect" with the American people:
...Something more fundamental is going on here: Obama seems not to respect his fellow citizens -- the uninformed rubes who crashed the health-care town halls -- nor care what they think. All his energy now is devoted to disregarding their strong aversion to his idea of health-care reform and forcing through a vote on something the public doesn't want. It's hard to bond with the American people, which is what Myers is suggesting, when your agenda conveys disdain for their concerns....
Posted by: Mike ||
03/13/2010 07:43 ||
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your agenda conveys disdain
your agenda body language conveys disdain
your agenda look conveys disdain
Posted by: Shens Dark Lord of the Leprechauns6113 ||
03/13/2010 8:06 Comments ||
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The hardline philosophies of the charismatic TV host Zaid Hamid have permeated the grassroots political life of Pakistan, writes Manan Ahmed.
A new narrative is ascendant in Pakistan. It is in the writings of major Urdu-language newspaper columnists, who purport to marshal anecdotal or textual evidence on its behalf. It is on television, where the hosts of religious and political talk shows polish it with slick production values.
The basic elements of the story -- which has often, and erroneously, been called a conspiracy theory -- are simple. Local agents (or terrorists, or soldiers, or Blackwater employees) representing a foreign power (India, or the United States, or Israel) are intent on destroying Pakistan because they fear that it will otherwise emerge as the powerful leader of the Muslim world, just as the country's past leaders had predicted. The ascendant narrative is prophetic and self-pitying, nationalist and martial; it is a way to interpret current events and a call for activism to restore the country's interrupted rise to glory.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
03/13/2010 11:54 ||
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shift the role of Islam from Zias strictly performative one to a more flexible mould. His acolytes, who call themselves lal topis (red hats), see a pious man who is less interested in their actual religiosity whether they pray or not, give alms or not, wear hijab or not and more concerned with their devotion to the idea of a resurgent, independent Pakistan.
In other words he is a typical wanna be dictator / imperialist who would only use religion as one stepping stone as needed. I bet if you tried you could come up with a number of examples, no?
Virtually every aspect of Sikes's story as told to reporters makes no sense. His claim that he'd tried to yank up the accelerator could be falsified, with his help, in half a minute. And now we even have an explanation for why he'd pull such a stunt, beyond the all-American desire to have 15 minutes of fame (recall the "Balloon Boy Hoax" from October) and the aching need to be perceived as a victim. Couldn't find a finger to put in his chili, I guess? Next time put a razor blade in his Pepsi ...
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....and the aching need to be perceived as a victim.
...and be party to a class action lawsuite.
Here's a conspiracy theory. What if this entire bash Toyota media frenzy is an orchestrated scheme to cripple the non-union company and punish conservative voters by the UAW and their Obama administraation handlers? Examine the location of key Toyota plants.... Princeton, IN, Lafayette, IN, San Antonio, TX, Hunstville, AL, Georgetown, KY, Blue Springs, MS, Buffalo, WV, Troy, MO, St. Louis, MO, Jackson, TN.
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Dunno about the other news outlets in this town but 10News (Channel 10) in particular disgraced themselves with their complete acceptance of Sikes's story. They never even asked if he tried to shift it into neutral. That would have been the very first question I would have asked and I wouldn't have stopped asking it until I got some kind of an answer. Then, if the answer was not credible, I would have either run the story with emphasis on how this guy is a phony or I wouldn't have run it at all. This was bad journalism to the point of being suspicious. Just disgraceful.
It wasn't until the next day when they started looking into the guy's finances and found out that he has all kinds of debt and upside down mortgages that they began to wonder about his credibility. When they put him on the TV that first night I could see right through him right away. But the 10News reporter and her bosses at the station swallowed his whole story hook, line and sinker. Where do they get these people?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/13/2010 13:02 Comments ||
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Meanwhile, in the real world: Haven't found that software glitch, Toyota? Keep trying Having owned a Toyota myself, I have always been a fan of what I perceived to be the automaker's high standards for quality. I also happen to have more than three decades of experience designing, building and researching reliable computer systems, many of which are embedded inside other devices. Based on this experience, I find it very difficult to accept the statements from Toyota's chief engineer. And the implications extend beyond Toyota, to all other companies that rely on software for their product safety.
As anyone with experience in embedded systems will tell you, there are nasty software bugs that can be extremely difficult to reproduce in a laboratory test environment. There follows a fascinating story about how a simple-minded checking routine uncovered a critical flaw in NASA's Pathfinder mission operating system.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
