Found the above image in the comments section of Wonkette’s eulogy for the Ron Paul campaign. If anyone does snark better than the bloggers at Wonkette, it’s the commenters at Wonkette.
Interestingly, some thin-skinned Ron Paul supporters are trying to “bury” Wonkette at Digg.com in retaliation. Com on, guys — learn to take a joke.
I usually try to keep local stories on this blog confined to New York City or New York State. But this new program in Boston is so mind-boggingly fascist and ingeniously evil, I had to share. Plus, it’s only a matter of time before a similar program makes its way to New York, so you can say you read it here first.
So the stormtroo–um, I mean police officers–in Beantown have initiated a new “voluntary” program where they knock on doors of private houses and ask if they can come inside without warrants to search for illegal guns. Presumably they are counting on the sheeple being too intimidated to just say no, and naturally they are preying on minority and immigrant communities first.
And woe be the minority or immigrant who has the courage to refuse entry. Think they won’t be targeted for a little extra “community policing” surveillance and enforcement?
It seems not all the community activists in Brooklyn are as opposed to eminent domain as those in the Atlantic Yards area. Or maybe it just depends on the “public purpose” for which the property is stolen. At any rate, some “affordable housing”* proponents are seeking to steal a prime piece of Brooklyn real estate from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Ironically, Pfizer had an indirect role in the notorious Kelo v. New London eminent domain case. After Pfizer started building its new Global Research & Development headquarters in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Connecticut, the local bureacrats got it in their head to condemn the rest of the neighborhood for new development. Pfizer never directly benefited from the eminent domain abuse or took sides in the argument, although one of its former vice presidents sat on the board of the quasi-public body that led the government-sanctioned land theft.
Pfizer has cut about 1,000 jobs from its Brooklyn plant over the past two and a half years and wants to close the plant altogether. The company would naturally prefer to sell its property to the highest bidder, but the “affordable housing” activists — led by Assemblyman Vito Lopez — would rather just steal the land and give the company “fair” compensation. (What’s fair is decided by the thieves, of course. Like Don Corleone, they intend to make Pfizer “an offer they can’t refuse.”)
* I have always hated the “affordable housing” euphemism. All housing — from Yorkville to Brownsville — is affordable, or nobody would live in it.
Brooklyn Pfizer plant
Hat tip: Rational Review News Digest
By Ignacio Gutiérrez
February 10, 2008
It was only a matter of time until someone successfully invoked JFK’s image alongside Barack Obama’s timely call for change and hope beyond mere comparison. And with Theodore Sorensen endorsing Obama, it’s no accident either. The legendary speechwriter for JFK has claimed giving Obama “a phrase or suggestion or two”.
And for “the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion” as Obama stated after winning the South Carolina primary, there’s something for them too. A video making it’s rounds on the internet, replete with celebrities singing out the phrase “Yes we can” along with excerpts from other speeches.
OK, so I’m one of those cynics. And yet, I personally like Obama. He’s refreshingly honest, genuine and an optimist to say the least. It’s great that he’s managed to thwart apathy among voters and is getting more and more people involved. But his message and his following are starting to get a little creepy.
Democracy is the worst form of government if people choose evil, Churchill once said. While it would be an incredibly far stretch to label Obama as such, for anyone familiar with the Spanish translation of “yes, we can”, “si se puede”, and it’s overt use by the Castro regime in Cuba, this subtle call for socialism hits a little too close to home.
Ask anyone who has even traveled to Cuba and seen the inordinate amount of communist propaganda that puts Nike ad campaigns to shame. It’s unspoken and subtle reminder to everyone of its citizens that “yes we can” imprison you for decades without even so much as a trial by judge or jury for daring to question the common good and supposed “will of the people”, reverberates from every other street corner throughout the country.
Were it not for the fact that “si se puede” is actually referenced in the video, with someone even pumping their fist into the air, perhaps this connection would be superfluous. But whether by accident or design, the actual speech’s message is unmistakable. And just like clockwork, it’s timed to the best and noblest of intentions.
“It’s not about rich vs. poor” Obama mentions. However, the part where we “can’t afford another four years without decent wages because our leaders couldn’t come together and get it done” misses one obvious point. It’s not up to government to decide wages, its up to the marketplace, ie the people speaking with their dollars. And what better way for them to lose their jobs to foreign markets than by imposing mandatory wage increases on companies and increasing their costs of production, not to mention the cost of living for everyone overall.
“There are those who will continue to tell us that we can’t do this, that we can’t have what we’re looking for, that we can’t have what we want, that we’re peddling false hopes.” Intentionally peddling false hopes, maybe not. But then again, informing and educating people as to how the economy of any society functions most effectively and efficiently when government gets out of our way and stops mixing up our rights with entitlement programs has never been the hallmark of any Democratic, let alone socialist rhetoric.
Hopefully Sorensen will pen a more compelling line for Obama and all of us to follow. One as inspiring as “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. At least that one didn’t foster an entitlement mindset. Instead it motivated people to give more than they took and drove many to find and even create their own opportunities and destinies as opposed to expecting prosperity to be doled out like some welfare check. It almost demanded people take responsibility for themselves, and yet still be there for one another.
“Yes, we can heal this nation.” Sure, as soon as government stops intruding in our lives and the marketplace and ends the slow and steady pace towards a nanny state that could imperceptibly morph into a totalitarian one. Then there’ll be no doubt that “yes, we can seize our future” once again.
Anyone (like me) who was hoping that Ron Paul would run as a Libertarian or independent candidate for President once the Republican primaries ran their course can forget it. Dr. Paul slammed the door firmly shut on such notions in an email to supporters this evening:
February 8, 2008
Whoa! What a year this has been. And what achievements we have had. If I may quote Trotsky of all people, this Revolution is permanent. It will not end at the Republican convention. It will not end in November. It will not end until we have won the great battle on which we have embarked. Not because of me, but because of you. Millions of Americans – and friends in many other countries — have dedicated themselves to the principles of liberty: to free enterprise, limited government, sound money, no income tax, and peace. We will not falter so long as there is one restriction on our persons, our property, our civil liberties. How much I owe you. I can never possibly repay your generous donations, hard work, whole-hearted dedication and love of freedom. How blessed I am to be associated with you. Carol, of course, sends her love as well.
Let me tell you my thoughts. With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties — just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.
When I traveled in Mexico and the Caribbean many years ago, I always thought it interesting that the locals preferred U.S. dollars over their own local, hyper-inflationary currency. What goes around comes around, apparently, and now some New York businesses are posting signs proclaiming “euros accepted.” That’s the inevitable consequence of our insane monetary policy, which has debased our once strong currency.
I know I’d rather get paid in a currency that wasn’t constantly losing value. Maybe I can convince my employer to start paying me in gold bullion.
It seems that the fervour surrounding today’s primaries may, and I repeat ‘may’, be all about a moment of personal expiation. This I believe is an existential moment in American history - a time for mass psychoanalytic catharsis, and an opportunity for racial redemption and exorcism of collective guilt. In that polling booth one may confront the demons of yore.
An Obama victory may be deemed a ‘victory’ for a collective State - be it divided into red or blue.. It is a moment that race baiters despise, a moment that may seemingly erase centuries of sordid inter-group relations.
Yes, a sound political agenda may have been advanced. What counts though is its Messenger, one, through an ineffable destiny may lead this ‘great’ nation in holding hands with a third world that has long passed the test of tribal, caste, and gender tolerance in electing a leader.
Last August I submitted a Change of Enrollment form to the Board of Elections, indicating that I was switching my enrollment to <shudder> Republican just so I could vote for Ron Paul in today’s primary. I had been enrolled as “Other,” which was the closest the NYC BOE was capable of coming to complying with the court order to record Libertarian enrollments.
Anyway, I submitted the change way ahead of the October deadline, and you’d think they could handle something simple like enrolling me in one of the two major parties. But nooooo, I show up at my polling place today — the same polling place that I’ve used for the last three years — and my name wasn’t in the voter book, which means the stupid BOE bureaucrats didn’t yet have my change of enrollment listed. So I had to fill out an “Affidavit Ballot,” which will no doubt be duly counted shortly after the next ice age.
But I can’t really be too angry with the Board of Elections. To paraphrase Otter from Animal House, I fucked up — I trusted them.
UPDATE: My wife changed her enrollment from Democrat to Republican in September — still way ahead of the October deadline — but they still had her listed as a Democrat this morning. So she had to use an Affidavit Ballot too. Grrrr!
In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.
Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
Officials said the operation would begin in March.
Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will come from a pool of up to $30 million taken from $153.2 million in new federal transit grants to the state.
Each team in the operation will comprise a bomb-sniffing dog and six officers: a dog handler and a sergeant and four officers from the Emergency Service Unit who will be outfitted in heavy, bullet-resistant vests and Kevlar helmets and will carry automatic weapons, either an M-4 rifle or an MP5 submachine gun.
Wasted money on the illusion of safety and enhancement of the police state.
I’ve finally figured out what’s holding back the Ron Paul campaign. He hasn’t done enough to attract the white vote, at least according to the latest survey of New York State voters by SurveyUSA. Conducted over Jan. 30-31, the survey shows Ron Paul getting only 3% of the white vote in New York, compared to 17% of black voters and 11% of hispanics. By comparison, Mike Huckabee gets a big goose-egg among black voters.
The other interesting stat from the survey is that Ron Paul ranks second, at 14%, among voters who name “Education” as their most important issue for the next President.
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