Category Archives: Republicans

Everything You Always Waned to Know About The CNBC Presidential Debate* But Were Afraid to Ask

BAB's A List, Elections, Politics, Republicans, Ron Paul

BAB’s Myron Pauli has a “quickie” take on the debate that CNBC moderated at Oakland University:

Michele Bachmann (U.S. Representative, Minnesota, State Senator; Attorney): Was she even allowed to speak for 5 minutes? She made a point about the feckless payroll tax cuts and overspending BUZZ! Shut up!

Herman Cain (Chairman/CEO, Godfather’s Pizza): If you train Oscar-Wood, ilana’s adorable parrot, to say “Nine Nine Nine” repeatedly, does OW get into the next debate [yes!]? My problem is with the people who buy into this “999-solves-all-ills” nonsense.

Jon Huntsman (Ambassador to China, Governor, Utah; Deputy U.S. Trade Representative): Somewhat avuncular centrist who recognized that China is actually floating our economy and that starting a trade war over their subsidies is rather pointless. [A case of Pot. Kettle. Black, as far as the US goes. But Myron: was it not Rick Santorum who made this point? I thought so.—IM]

Newt Gingrich (Speaker of the House, U.S. Representative, Georgia, History Professor): Makes some good points from time-to-time. Most assuredly comes out better than Cain, Perry, Santorum, and insipid Romney.

Rick Santorum (U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, Pennsylvania, Attorney): He talks and words come out – sound and fury signifying nothing. But compared to Perry, the man is Socrates. [Myron: I think you hate Santorum enough to credit Huntsman with a point about China Santorum had made. But then my memory could be failing.—IM]

Ron Paul (U.S. Representative, Texas, Physician): Prophet Jeremiah speaketh the truth – let’s all stone the prophet!

Mitt Romney (Governor, Massachusetts; CEO, 2002 Winter Olympics Organizing Comm.; Co-Founder, Bain Capital): An automated bloviation machine with no philosophical anchor. He emits some good points and some bad points – but he is waiting for the others to slowly flame out and leave him standing by default. [MyRon: another of your pet peeves. Romney is quick on his feet. He can think; but he’s a utilitarian, as are most Americans. “It doesn’t work” must be the most frequent, and most pathetic, counterpoint to an argument Americans make.—IM]

Rick Perry (Governor, Texas: State Representative; State Agriculture Commissioner): Oh my F****NG G*d! Call the men with the white coats – quickly!

Ilana here: I’m still laughing. As I put it in the “Rick Perry Infarct” post: Perry stroked again. He mentioned three government departments he’d eliminate, but was unable to come up with the third. Commerce and Education were the first two.

Ten minutes later, Perry got his vim back and remembered the department he’d axe: Energy.”

[* For our youngster readers, the title of the post comes from this Woody Allen film.]

UPDATED: Rick Perry Infarct (He Strokes AGAIN)

Elections, Intelligence, Republicans

He says he’s not a great debater. Rick Perry flatters himself. Here the presidential contender appears to be “stroking” mid-speech.

UPDATE: CNBC promised a “Live Blog” of the debate. They must have hired a Millennial, who hasn’t yet begun substantive reporting; nothing but atmospherics. The moron is Mark Koba. In any case, Perry stroked again. He mentioned three government departments he’d eliminate, but was unable to come up with the third. Commerce and Education were the first two.

Perry just remembered the department he’d axe: Energy.

‘Aviation Gulag’

Government, Homeland Security, Individual Rights, Republicans, Terrorism, The State

A timely, TSA-related blog post at LRC.COM; a reminder that no action has been taken by the tired Tea-Party Congress to abolish the home of the homegrown terrorists of the Transportation and Security Administration:

Rep[robate] John Mica (R-Fl) has treated the TSA to yet another of his verbal lashings: the agency and its security sham are “idiotic,” “a mess,” and “off the charts” when it comes to rates of failure.
John seems to have forgotten we’ve heard it all before, on many, many occasions. Indeed, it’s way past time this chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee moved from words to deeds: Let him wield the power of his office to abolish the TSA.

As was pointed out in “‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,'” “the Fox News Blond Squad” (and its male equivalents) has often “implied that the interminable complainers at the terminals were no more than an insignificant group of noise-makers. Kirsten Powers, a liberal member of that squadron, expressed her satisfaction with the porn protocol. Her sympathies, she said, go out to TSA workers.”

UPDATED: ‘To Save One Life Is Like Saving the World’ (Republicans Disagree)

Individual Rights, Islam, Israel, Judaism & Jews, Liberty, Middle East, Palestinian Authority, Religion, Republicans

This may sound chauvinistic, but when nations are consumed with safekeeping their own, by default (and in self interest), they are more careful with the lives of their enemies.

Israel has demonstrated once again its commitment to that Talmudic verse, “To Save One Life Is Like Saving the World.” (The verse was ‘appropriated,” or ripped off, by Islam, and an exclusionary clause written into the equivalent Quranic ayah. Islam’s borrowed version, needless to say, is considerably less humanistic and universal.)

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir expressed bewilderment at the news that,

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and hundreds of Palestinians crossed Israel’s borders in opposite directions on Tuesday as a thousand-for-one prisoner exchange brought joy to families but did little to ease decades of conflict. …In all, Israel is setting free 1,027 Palestinians in return for the liberty of Shalit. Some have spent 30 years behind bars for violent attacks against Israel and its occupation of land taken in the 1967 Middle East War.
Over 100 of the 477 prisoners released in the first phase of the exchange were taken to the West Bank. The rest were coming into Gaza, apart from 41 who were due to fly out from Cairo to exile in Turkey, Syria or Qatar.

Bashir, a neocon-cum-liberal, is in good company here in the US. The following is from a 2004, Antiwar.com column:

… the neoconservatives at National Review have grumbled about Israel’s “lopsided prisoner exchanges” over the years. One “sofa samurai,” Eric Leskly, [once noted] the startling disparity of exchanging 5,500 Egyptian soldiers, following the Sinai campaign of 1956, “for the lives of the four Israeli soldiers captured in the fighting,” and over 8,000 Egyptians, after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in exchange for 240 Israeli soldiers.
Its official policy notwithstanding, Israel has also negotiated with terrorists for the lives and bodies of its soldiers. As Dr. Boaz Ganor, executive director of the International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, told the Jerusalem Post: “Israeli governments are more prone to the influence of public opinion.”

I remember thinking just that when, years back, I watched demonstrators heckle Ariel Sharon after yet another suicide bombing. One man yelled, “If you don’t sort this mess out, I’ll personally pay you a visit.”

UPDATE II: Bar Ron Paul, the debaters at the CNN Western Republican Presidential Debate related not at all to the Israeli position—a consistent preference for doing what it takes to save a life, even if not always strategic.