To counter the rising unemployment numbers, the Prez-Elect has announced a dramatic increase in the size of the gubbermint. The number of people in public service has to be doubled. Qualified people are sought. Feeling qualified myself, I filled in the form and submitted it. I am of course no American but since Obami himself is Kenyan I didn't think that would be a problem. I received an email from Bernardine Dohrn, newly appointed US Labor Secretary albeit with execution experience, with the following questionnaire attached.
That did not go too well. For instance:
In April 2004, I sent an email to a friend of mine in which I described how utterly ridiculous I had received the speech of some upstart fella from the City of Dope or something. I flunked 13.
Ouch. I also flunked 10. I guess it won't do much good to point out that the list of aliases I used on the net is mercifully short, just MFBB and Outlaw Mike. Evil tongues say that these aliases are in fact the two parts of my split personality, the former being the one that is mad as a hatter, the latter the one that is criminally insane. Whatever.
I don't keep diaries. People who write diaries and too many biographies are narcissistic wussies. Hey, that rhymes! Flunked.
Are you nuts????? I have illegal immigrants swarming all over the place!!! Hell, I married one! F-L-U-N-K-E-D.
To cut a long story short, I busted all 7,562 items on the General Extended Shortlist for Trustworthy Audacious Personnel by Obama (GESTAPO). Obviously, I'm not the one he's been waiting for.
I am 43 years old and have been a keen follower of US and world politics since I was 16. I have never, never, witnessed the avalanche of dirt, lies, insults, vomit, ridicule and sheer hatred heaped upon George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, during his eight year long tenure.
George W. Bush inherited a recession and was thrown the gauntlet by islamic terrorists who had been let loose under his predecessor. In the wake of the compounding economic crisis he managed to liberate two countries and fifty million people and install democracies there, kept the homeland free from further terrorist attacks, and managed, through his tax cuts, to turn the tide of mounting budget deficits by 2004. En passant he profiled himself as the savior of Africa's tens of millions AIDS victims. Never one to appease the electorate or the elites, he took bold decision upon bold decision. Six months before his second term expired, the last timebomb from the Clinton era exploded in his face, and again he dealt with this crisis as best as he could, and seemed to be turning things around by November 3.
Adolf Hitler destroyed empires and kingdoms, states and entire peoples. Because he lived, an estimated 60 million died, very often in atrocious and appalling circumstances. Many millions more were wounded, maimed or psychologically ruined. Infrastructure was devastated on an unseen scale, financial systems broke down completely, and the entire world power balance was changed. Humanity was left with the shocking realization that there are no limits to its cruelty.
But not even Adolf Hitler ever received so much scorn as George Bush.
What is wrong with us? The WSJ's Jeffrey Scott Shapiro does not have the answer. But at least he asks the question.
It's about time.
THE TREATMENT OF BUSH HAS BEEN A DISGRACE
What must our enemies be thinking? By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro
Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president.
According to recent Gallup polls, the president's average approval rating is below 30% -- down from his 90% approval in the wake of 9/11. Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right.
This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans. During his 2004 victory speech, the president reached out to voters who supported his opponent, John Kerry, and said, "Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust."
Those bipartisan efforts have been met with crushing resistance from both political parties.
The president's original Supreme Court choice of Harriet Miers alarmed Republicans, while his final nomination of Samuel Alito angered Democrats. His solutions to reform the immigration system alienated traditional conservatives, while his refusal to retreat in Iraq has enraged liberals who have unrealistic expectations about the challenges we face there.
It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.
Yet it should seem obvious that many of our country's current problems either existed long before Mr. Bush ever came to office, or are beyond his control. Perhaps if Americans stopped being so divisive, and congressional leaders came together to work with the president on some of these problems, he would actually have had a fighting chance of solving them.
....
Just as Americans have gained perspective on how challenging Truman's presidency was in the wake of World War II, our country will recognize the hardship President Bush faced these past eight years -- and how extraordinary it was that he accomplished what he did in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.
Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.
John. E. Noonan, Private 107th Regiment, 27th Infantry Division. Fell in Flanders on August 13, 1918. Remember him.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Saint Charles Johnson again. For the umpteenth time LGF's Charles Johnson has found the definitive evidence that the Vlaams Belang, the party I am a member of, is a Nazi party and is therefore to be avoided by those who oppose the creeping islamization of the West. To tell you the truth, I am getting so B-O-R-E-D with constantly having to defend myself and my party against these ridiculous accusations, that I didn't feel like rebuking this drivel again. I have done so in the past, here, here, and here, and then I even forget some. But after having been questioned by longtime acquaintance Mr. Ghost, I realized there's still far too many people out there hearing but one side of the story. So here goes - please bear with me.
The Vlaams Belang is not a nazi party. It has murky origins though, but has gone through a lengthy process of cleansing. It is sad and ironic that the very person responsible for that cleansing process, former chairman Frank Vanhecke, has currently been stripped of his immunity as MEP for an idiotic fact he did not commit himself, nor was even aware of. Point is, anno 2008 the (pro-US) VB is clean, or at least clean enough, and given its programme encompassing supply side economics, strong ethically conservative stances, and opposition to limitless immigration, it is very probably Europe's closest equivalent to the GOP. That is not to say there are no unsavoury characters left in the VB... but you will find those in any party. And when these people reveal themselves in an unguarded moment, they are ousted.
So let's now take a look at the latest LGF allegations. From the website of Our Holy Trinity of Ignorance, Arrogance, and Obsession:
First off, those "Nazi style visor caps" are a rather common student accessory in Europe. I was not surprised to find a photo of them in a book dealing with the FarOer Islands, halfway Scotland and Iceland. Of course, Saint Johnson may claim that the FarOer Islands are one of those places where Martin Bormann and Co. fled to after Berlin fell in 45. But take a closer look as we proceed through the video. At some point Filip Dewinter - who, btw, is not the VB's Chairman but its fraction leader in Flemish Parliament - picks up a "Nazi" book and quickly fumbles through its pages here and there. He stops at the following page:
The guy you see on that photo is Joris Van Severen, who in Flemish nationalist circles is a revered hero. During the interbellum, Van Severen, a World War I veteran who became disillusioned with the Belgian state for the often harsh treatment of Flemish conscripts under Walloon officers, founded the Verdinaso, or Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal Solidaristen. This Flemish nationalist movement advocated corporatism, strong catholicism and the unification of The Netherlands with Flanders, a geographic entity they called Dietsland. For those people who thanks to Johnson's constant barrage of accusations think I'm making this up, I refer to the Wikipedia entry. Take especially notice of this exerpt:
It should be emphasized that Joris Van Severen, the man who despised the (then francophone) Belgian State for oppressing Flemish culture and language, exhorted his followers at the outbreak of the May 1940 invasion to take up arms for Belgium and fight the Nazi invader. As you can gather from the wikipedia entry, he was however rounded up by that same Belgian state and transported to France, where he met his untimely end at the hands of triggerhappy French soldiers who, apart from Van Severen, executed some twenty other persons suspected of espionage, an episode known as the "Bloodbath of Abbeville". Van Severen died a hero's death, as he was shot in the head and the stomach while trying to talk sense in a panicking French officer.
Okay-dokey. So much for the Obersturmbannfuehrer's biography Dewinter is so fascinated by. Now let's follow him further on his journey through the Nazi book:
If you thought Dewinter was admiring here a photo of Nazi officers on the Eastern Front, sorry, no such luck. It's a photo of Belgian Army officers prior to the war. On the photo, you can distinguish, second from the right, the Belgian King, Leopold III. Below you find a book cover with a photo of the King, wearing the high boots he was so fond of.
Sorry Charles, Leopold III may have been many things, but he was no Nazi.
So WHO THE F*CK got LGF's Grand Wizard this latest intel snafu? Johnson refers to a certain Thanos, and I thought it worthwhile to sniff a bit around on that fella's blog. Surprise surprise. I found this, RIGHT UNDER Thanos' entry regarding Filip Dewinter visiting a "Nazi Book Fair":
A-ha! I see! "Congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama." Who would have thunk it??? So now we have a Barack Obama supporter telling us that the Vlaams Belang is a nazi party! Well well well!!! Now THAT's what I call a reliable source. Not!!! Check your buddies Charles. No, seriously. You live in La La Land huh? We have a saying over here: "wie bij de hond slaapt betrapt zijn luizen". Yeah, it's in that peasant's language Flemish. Sorry. It means: "He who sleeps with a dog picks up its lice." Do your homework better dude.
In post-election Philadelphia, a man was arrested for wearing a McCain-Palin tee. Hat tip Gates of Vienna.
Watch it to the end and listen to the crowd. Just listen. Philly is called the City of Brotherly Love, isn't it?
You walk through that crowd with the tee to the left, you get a hero's welcome. You walk thru it with the tee to the right, you're arrested. Welcome to the New America. Some change indeed.
