Osama, Obama, Hillary and the Leprechauns

Coughs and sneezes spread deception

It's difficult to know what to believe these days as far as politicians are concerned. Honourable gentlemen and ladies have spent a good deal of the 21st century behaving dishonourably. Or at least quite a few of them have. Do we believe the truth about wars, taxes, deficits, economies? They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes pictures are not even needed.

This morning, in my hazy groping for tea, cereals and other things for breakfast, my eight year old daughter quizzed me on Bin Laden's whereabouts. She'd been listening to BRMB, our local commercial radion station, and they had put on some joke about doorstepping somebody and confusing him with Bin Laden. Or at least that was the impression I got. My daughter went on about it and then ended up with asking if Bin Laden had been in Solihull. Now there's a thought! The very idea of him camped out in some Victorian villa caught my imagination. Would anyone have shopped him if they had spotted him? "You know something? You're the spitting image of that Osama Bin Laden, you are!" Might he have lived a reclusive life nearby? I have to say I might not have realised it even if I had met him. And telling the local police of such a find if I ever realised the truth would be some feat of persuasion. "No, honestly, he's in the house next to the...."

Reporters are now swarming all over Pakistan asking all sorts of questions. Many local people think he's still alive. In Pakistan. Outside Pakistan. It was not bin Laden but an old friend of the family. The Americans made a terrible mistake and so it goes on. In many ways Bin Laden's bearded face is an iconic image of a bogeyman terrorist. But if it is 20 years old what of the person that got shot? He appears to have been a prematurely aged greying loner when confronted by pepped up navy seals. Ideal for doppelgangers and professional doubles to take advantage.

So is the picture really Osama Bin Laden? The camera never lies is another saying. But apparently it is not good and relaying the truthful picture. Hillary Clinton was seen by the world looking as though she was horrified beyond measure by witnessing the killing of Bin Laden. Now we are told she was only stifling a sneeze. Or was it a cough? Or maybe a convulsion? Whatever the bodily shaking that she suffered it is not quite the same as being thought to see slaughter via video link.

The US government will not find the killing of Osama Bin Laden helpful. It may have given the average American a rush of "closure" adrenalin but this is a hopeless political gambit. Bin Laden will be like the baddy in a pantomime. "Where's Osama?" "He's behind you!" they'll all scream. No, President Obama is far better off encouraging the leprechauns of Ireland to promote his Irish ancestry. That's the brilliant thing about a mixed race president. Quite a few nationalities can get in out the act. If I were in his shoes, I could only offer watered down Spanish and Danish. Not quite the same thing as linking yourself to the Emerald Isle.

President Obama is visiting Ireland this month. The Irish Independent proudly announces -

US President Barack Obama will address 5,000 people outside the schoolhouse where his ancestors were educated. Offaly County Council is finalising plans for his visit to his ancestral village of Moneygall on Monday, May 23. Yesterday, the council, which is organising the Moneygall leg of the visit, moved to reassure villagers the occasion will not be hijacked by politicians or dignitaries. Moneygall residents will be allocated 1,000 tickets for Mr Obama's visit -- another 500 invites will be issued by both Offaly and North Tipperary county councils.

So Barack Obama is Irish after all! Now that takes some beating by Donald Trump. Obama trumps Trump! Apparently Moneygall, in Gaelic Muine Gall, means "foreigners' thicket". I do hope Osama Bin Laden won't spoil the celebrations!

No Oscar for Osama Bin Laden's home videos

You've been badly framed!

The White House has taken great delight in releasing some boring videos that they found in the Bin Laden compound. There aren't many laughs in them, so the comedy element is lacking. The wardrobe department is also rather lacklustre. All we see is Osama rambling on about the ills of the world as he sees it. His compound looks an untidy mess. I doubt he got his electrical wiring checked. It looked highly dangerous on the pictures. He could have set the house on fire just with his VCR collection.

No doubt all this plays well in America. President Obama's poll ratings have rocketed, all because of this feel good factor. But Bin Laden's death isn't going to help the deficit one iota. Americans are still fighting a war in Afghanistan on the ludicrous basis that he was thought to be there but he isn't there now because he's dead. He never was there, or at least not since 9/11. Pakistan was always going to be his best bet for a man as corrupt as he was knows a thing or two about corruption in a country like Pakistan. Also, he could have been bombed with impunity in Afghanistan if found out. Not so easy in Pakistan. He just didn't reckon with the navy seals. Neither did Pakistan for that matter.

al Qaeda is like some spore carrying fungus, popping up here and there where the ground is reasonably fertile. But it is also fast becoming a footnote in history. None of the franchised cells are having any influence in the Arab Spring. The vast majority of Muslims find the organisation objectionable. al Qaeda remains a threat but no more than it did last week when Osama Bin Laden was still checking over his video collection.

With the arch-terrorist dead, what now for the war in Afghanistan. The training seems to be taking for ever. Surely the Afghan police know how to make arrests by now? The Afghan army can shoot straight and obey commands, surely? The Taliban were never our enemy. They might have been the enemy of freedom for Afghans, but history tells us the Afghans are better off fighting amongst themselves. The only problem left is the wretched poppy crop and President Obama has done as much as his predecessor on this one. Diddly squat!

Afghanistan's poppy harvest by CNN_International

Bin Laden blame game begins

Tourist season starts again in Abbottabad

The two countries with most to gain or lose from the Osama Bin Laden shoot out are the United States and Pakistan. However, it's a bit like a snakes and ladders game at the moment. The Americans were quick off the mark to blame the Pakistanis for intelligence incompetence. This stung rather badly. It was a day before Islamabad could come up with anything to say. Before that happened many Pakistanis around the compound were putting their ten rupees worth into the mix. The shooting was condemned by some, doubted by others. The Americans then decided to tell the world that the first impressions should not be the lasting impressions. Bin Laden had actually not been armed and the woman thought to be a wife and a human shield was actually alive, albeit with a bullet in her leg. Children, who witnessed the carnage, were being "well treated". As President Obama and his team watched the event he must have seen the "truth". How come the muddle?

The Pakistanis did not react to this. They reacted to the stinging rebuke. Now they say they were tipped off two years ago, but the "world" should have done something about Bin Laden. Can't think what exactly?

In all these kind of events it is the minions that get the blame. So who better to get behind bars and beat the living daylights out of? It is the poor sod who sold the land to Bin Laden so he could build a fortress for himself. Now wouldn't you think the Pakistani authorities would have asked just at least one question whilst this edifice went up. I'd have asked "Who's going to live in this place?" but there are over 1,000 other equally good questions. But no. Nothing. The locals know better. Every time a creepy event occurs, the locals eventually spill the beans.

Mark Mardell of the BBC thinks the Americans never wanted Bin Laden alive. He's got a point. Why bother with the expense of carting him to Guantanamo Bay? You'd need more that an extraordinary rendition. In fact something out of this world. And the reward money has gone up in smoke, I'm sure of it.

David Cameron tells us we should all be on our guard in case Islamic fundamentalists get any ideas. That sort of implies we might have been better off if this episode had not been made such a public spectacle. Time will tell.

The Obama Osama contest for truth and certainty

Osama Bin Laden is dead. If I didn't know before, I do now. Just been down to the corner shop where the Daily Mail, The Sun et al scream out about the death. "Obama watched Bin Laden die on live video" declares the Mail. It then delicately asks the question in smaller print above the headline "Now the question Is the world any safer today?".

I think the finding of Bin Laden is just the beginning of the next phase. It hasn't done much to change the hearts and minds of those Muslims already at loggerheads with America. President Obama says Osama got a proper Muslim burial. Dumped at sea with the ship's cook saying a few choice Arabic sayings doesn't quite cut the mustard with the Muslims today. A lot of them are up in arms about it all. Hopefully it will die down and we can get back to discussing the real problems in the world.

It is quite marked how the "wife" of Bin Laden was sacrificed in this. She was probably either some deluded female follower or an innocent victim placed under his spell. What hasn't been said by the Islamic world is that it was a disgrace he used her as a shield. The weeping woman went to her death as an accessory to the killing. If the White House watched all that it must have been a grisly ordeal. I imagine one of the navy seals obligingly offered to be cameraman for the day. What Obama does not want is for that video to get out. On YouTube it would be the sensation of the century.

Now comes the dual contest between the conspiracy theorists and the Islamic radicals. Each side will have a vested interest in stoking the myths and the fictions. However, I can't help thinking that the Americans missed a trick here. By capturing him alive and holding him for trial, they could have unearthed far more support from those Muslims, the vast majority, who have no desire for al-Qaeda moralising. How is it Islamic to kill fellow Muslims? Bin Laden never apologised for their deaths in his atrocities. Instead, he is killed and dispatched in a way that smacks of US triumphalism. It was as if revenge comes before due process of law.

President Obama now has to fend off the Osama supporters who even now have started to question things. So it appears the White House, Pentagon and other institutions are considering releasing videos and pictures to prove the point. This is hardly edifying. Either leave well alone or let the ravening wolves feed from it all.

I think Obama should just say yesterday was yesterday and move on. No videos - no pictures - period!

Osama Bin Laden - Wanted Dead or Alive! Well, it's dead now

Killed in a compound not a cave!

So Osama Bin Laden is finally cornered and killed. Not in the Afghan hills. Not in the sandy deserts of Saudi Arabia. Not even in a cave in the Caucasus Mountains. No, he was found in PAKISTAN!! Right under the noses of those dozy "democrats" that the Americans trusted all these years. 35 miles away from Islamabad in a fortified compound enjoying some status as a recluse and a reject.

You'd think in a country as garrulous as Pakistan that somebody would have talked. In fact, it is unbelievable that the country's bigwigs did not know. Right now the president and prime minister are huddled together concocting some get-out clauses to put in a statement. Thank goodness the US authorities saw fit not to tell the Pakistanis what was going on. Pakistan has been a loose cannon ever since it was created. Anyway, they now know the world knows they can't be trusted. Since 2005 Bin Laden has been stuck in this compound, sipping mint tea and talking turkey with passing vagrants. Obviously somebody spoke up in order for the special forces to do the ultimate deed. But it's all grapevine stuff in order to put a stop to the wild goose chase that Bin Laden started. Don't ask the Pakistani president on a duck shoot. He'd fire off at the first flutter he saw.

With Bin Laden at rest, if not at peace, the world can move on. Hopefully the al-Queda franchise can go bust. Let them fade away. Today is a good day for President Obama. He stuck to the hunt for Bin Laden without fanfare and futile gestures. And he was not afraid to do the right thing. Sticking to diplomatic niceties would have been crazy. He ordered the raid and he got a result.

Osama Bin Laden killed. The White House releases information that public enemy number one is killed.

GOP leaders take fright at Obama deficit reduction plan

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

Republicans have today come out with fighting talk against the notions for deficit reduction that the Obama administration is contemplating. They had a message today, Wednesday, for President Obama as he prepared to outline his plans, with at least a partial emphasis on taxes.  "Don't go there!" is their message to him. GOP leaders reiterated their argument that Washington has a "spending problem," not a revenue problem, and that new taxes on the wealthy, who Republicans describe as the job creators and small business owners who will drive the economic recovery, are a bad idea.

Generally speaking I'd agree with them. However, I'd separate the corporate types from the small business owners. The likes of Wal-Mart have exported jobs to Mexico, China and India. Brazil is now in the mix. Small business owners create jobs built on effort. The larger corporations tend to rely on tax avoidance, cost cutting and funny money. America is suffering from the fact that the Federal Government needs to spend money in order to keep people off the streets, with the mayhem and bedlam that would cause. It is going to require more than tax rises or tax breaks. The whole system needs a makeover, starting with giving the computerised money makers a lesson in fiscal integrity.

Obama and his ratings

"Is that Peeping Tom over there?"

President Obama has let it be known he's running again for the presidency. 2012 will be an olympic year all round. One thing Americans get on a daily basis is a good dose of popularity ratings. Obama has had some of the highest highs and lowest lows. Pundits make a good living out of asking dumb questions to a befuddled nation. No wonder being president is an exacting business. It's not Libya, the debt crisis or the health care business that matters. No, it's the polls, dummy!

And one aspect of the polling business is telling the voters how religious or otherwise the candidates are. I've happened upon this site. Called "GodVoter.org" (as if God was on the ballot paper!) and it goes into detail about a candidate's religious affilations or lack of them. I get a distinct whiff of holier-than-thou mentality creeping in.

Barack Obama gets nobbled for his "unChristian heritage" and his "eccentric beliefs about God". Sarah Palin is upheld as a paragon of "pro-life" virtue. Yet she is not above letting bears of all kinds die in the name of oil exploration. Rather pompously this site says "John McCain identifies himself a Christian but what we have and have not heard from John McCain about his Christian beliefs raises some questions." Cheeky beggars. What business is it of theirs?

I do hope Americans vote for a president on the issues that matter and not on trying to emulate some kind of protestant conscience-prodding excercise. This organisation sounds like it is staffed by window peepers, keen on twitching the curtains. Are they so squeaky clean themselves? Or trying to be like the Pharisees?

US bans abusive teenage emailer for life!

I don't think it right in any way shape or form to send abusive letters or emails or telephone calls. It is scary at worst, but basically implies a total loss of the argument. If something is worth saying it is worth saying properly.

Luke Angel is a 17-year old British teenager who has been banned from America for life for sending Barack Obama an abusive email, in which he calls the President a p***k. Luke said,"The police who came round took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever." A Bedfordshire Police spokesman confirmed, "The individual sent an email to the White House full of abusive and threatening language. We were informed by the Metropolitan Police and went to see him. He said, "Oh dear, it was me"." Officers will take no criminal action.

So Bedfordshire police don't think much of it then? But what about the FBI and their nerves of steel. Seems Luke, being no angel, has shaken them up. So instead of being dealt with in a reasoned manner they get him banned for life. If he lives for another 80 years, will he still be banned.

American justice can be both summary and swift. Some hardened criminals are doing 200 years in jail. Of course, no living being could do that, but there has to be this savage revenge element in American justice which seems to be based in the dark recesses of the Puritan mindset. Woe betide the wrongdoer. Justice is battling on those scales with vengeance.

Luke Angel appears to be just a silly stroppy teenager. If the FBI can't deal with silly stroppy teenagers then they should let those who can. By banning him for life they show themselves up to be petty-minded authoritarians who should be told to stand at the base of the Statue of Liberty and have an hour's reflection.

Obama gets his health care reform

I've long been surprised more Americans don't get heart attacks just by the sheer worry about being American. Not only are there crazies with guns just waiting to pop off innocent folk going about their business, but jobs are not safe, the ponzi merchants are still in place, and the national deficit comes out once in a while to scare them witless. And that's before they get round to thinking of healthcare.

I don't get it with the Republican Party. They seem to think it is perfectly OK for 10% or more of the US population to exist without adequate healthcare. Some have no healthcare, others have pre-existing conditions ruling out any effective get-well-factor. That makes insurance companies no better than scam artists. There are all kinds of cases, such as the woman denied breast cancer surgery because she had been treated for acne in the past, and a person whose policy was rescinded because his insurance agent had incorrectly entered his weight on the application form. Hospitals operate some pretty dodgy dealings as it is. If a person gets ill and say the hospital bill comes to $20,000 and the patient can't pay, the hospital takes on the role of canny bailliff. First the patient is given all sorts of verbal threats and then suddenly a soft guy role enters the scene. How about paying only $2,000 and we'll forget the courts and any jailtime. So the patient coughs up the cash, literally in some cases, and the whole sorry system moves on. I wonder how many hospital bills are paid by the ten-cents-on-the-dollar method?

Having spent time in America, been with Americans (of all shades of opinion I hasten to add) and discussed this, most have a world weary acceptance that Uncle Sam has given up his benevolent status to some vile alter ego. This new creation pops out to cause trouble all through life. So a shrugging of shoulders is often the response to questions about healthcare. The Republican Party has dined out for decades on frightening the American public on "socialised medicine" and "the nanny state of Europe". But these cheesy comments bely the fact that state hospitals do exist and that most people are not allowed to die as a result of accident or injury. Just don't get ill seems to be the message.

The Republicans may think it is the sign of a true conservative to let a sickly person struggle to their own feet by their own means. I think such an attitude just shows the sign of a petty-minded selfish person. Proper conservatism is wanting to distribute largesse when it has been properly earned so that those who are less able can be helped. The Good Samaritan was only able to help because he had the means to do so.

President Obama has done well on this matter. The Republican Party has unfortunately shown itself up as being rather spiteful and self-centered. Such behaviour gives conservatism a bad name.

Obama banks on better banking

European banking shares have dropped after President Obama announced far-reaching plans to curb the activities of the biggest banks in the US. Some of these activities are akin to a Las Vegas gambler. He's not proposing restrictions other than on those deemed risky. Bank chiefs have appeared goggle-eyed recently at the prospect of their casino days ending. They threaten all manner of stuff like "leaving the country".

Obama's plans could lead to a worldwide reigning in of these profligate merchants who use the citizen consumer as fodder for their fun. Proper banking is to be welcomed. No modern society can exist without banks and it would be stupid to suggest otherwise. However, what we have here is not an issue about banking as such, but about a certain industry's right to have it all their own way every day of the year.

If a bank goes pear-shaped, then the bosses expect to be bailed out. If they make huge profits then they whine if questions are asked. I'm all in favour of the labourer being worthy of his hire, but I draw a line in the sand when it comes to scam artists considering they are worthy also.

But the biggest question of all is who calls the shots in a democratic society. Is it the elected representatives or a selected cabal of bankers? It's getting very close to High Noon!

Raunchy republican romps home in Massachusetts

Scott Brown has managed to win the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy. This is a triumph and I think it is a good thing in general. Normally I would tend to support the Republican Party over the Democrats. I'm of a conservative nature, so that would be a natural conclusion. However, the Republican Party does have a flaky side currently. I don't know much about Mr.Brown, but he obviously has that charismatic appeal much loved by Massachusetts voters. Ted Kennedy knew how to use that to get him out of the many scrapes he got into.

Newly-elected senator Brown is no stranger to poverty though. In that he is very different from Ted and his life. Kennedy had a good start and spent his political life championing the causes of the underprivileged. Scott Brown seems to be operating in reverse mode. On Wikipedia it says "Brown has said that he "didn't grow up with all the advantages in life" and that his working mother needed welfare benefits for a short period of time." So I would have thought that would give him some sense of priorities over healthcare.

This win is seen as a snub to Obama's healthcare plans. Maybe. But reality will kick in anytime soon and Americans will wonder what hit them. This country, the USA, is no longer a pioneer state made up of aspirant agricultural West Country workers and third sons of the English gentry. In fact the WASP ascendency looks like it buzzed off years ago. The modern United States is the melting pot come to the boil. Every class, creed and colour wants a slice of the action. America is built on being a giant financial bubble in dire need of regular puffs of hot air. Senator Brown looks to me to be just the man to give it some extra puffs. He once posed almost naked in his youth for a magazine, no doubt titillating youthful Sarah Palin types. However, rhetoric and rich talk like his seem to miss the point. And that is that the USA has a huge amount of underinsured and non-insured people with regard to health care. It's a time bomb ticking. Obama is trying to sort it out. Now his original plans may have been too much, but to do nothing is just plain daft.

Corporate America laughs in the face of democracy. They are just chasing the funny money dollars in order to sustain their avarice. Most small businesses only have access to real money. Average Americans don't get to turn bad loans into quality investments.

The Republican Party should try to get away from fantasyland politics and live in the real world. Interesting that the US government has so much available for Haiti (and rightly so) but some do not even want to discuss it for their own people. The day of reckoning will come when the bubble bursts and burst it will. The national debt of the United States is different from other countries. Not only has it been created by funny money, but by the dollar's position as a reserve currency. Cut the latter out and, well, it hardly bears thinking about.

I'd say it was a conservative thing to secure the future of your country and to give a level of personal security to the least of the citizenry. Not handouts, but a basis for self-achievement and prosperity. Just like Scott's mom!

JP Morgan Chase - Thin Air Specialists

Wall Street bank JP Morgan Chase has reported profits of $3.3bn (£2bn) for the last three months of 2009. Considering they got a hand-out from the American taxpayer, this seems like they are living in a land where "bust" is not in their vocabulary for themselves but it is for the poor American entrepreneur.

Banks can make money out of thin air - literally. It's called fractional reserve banking, whereby some invester places $10,000 in at the front desk only for a whizzkid to lend it out on the basis of it being $100,000. It's not exactly banking. It's more like Monopoly meets cyberspace. Only those crunching the numbers (or the angel dust) at the money shops know what's going on. The American government thinks it is dealing with businessmen when it invites the four squaddies from the banks to testify. They are nothing of the sort. It's about time we reigned these characters in.

The real question for us all is who exactly is in charge. Is it those guys on Wall Street or is it the President of the United States and Congress? Because if it's "those guys" we've been trussed up like a chicken, allowing them to feed off our bones!

Gatecrashers at White House

Well, well! what was that about getting on the A-list? It seems a couple gatecrashed their way in to the dinner that President Obama was laying on for the Indian Prime Minister. Tareq and Michaele Salahi were reportedly not invited but later posted photos of themselves on Facebook. Much to the chagrin of the Secret Service. Now they should be a service for uncovering other people's secrets, but all the gismos and gadgets failed to uncover this dining duo.

Apparently it was all about getting on reality TV. Really? What people will do to get noticed, eh?

Obama gathers his A list for first state dinner

Heard the expression "jockeying for position"? That's a mild expression for what's going on in Washington right now. It seems the race to be invited to President Obama's first state dinner is becoming something akin to the Gaderene Swine rushing for the clifftops. India's prime minister is being honoured. Possibly feted and fauned over in equal measure too. The Americans are very keen to make sure that the Indian government is made to feel very welcome and secure in its worldwide ascendency. It will be all posh poppadoms and rose-scented finger bowls!

In a departure from the traditional venue, the elegant State Dining Room, the Obamas will gather with a few hundred VIPs in a huge, heated tent on the South Lawn. I doubt though that Manmohan Singh is the man the tented diners will be there to see, though. No, they want to be seen there at the dinner by the TV and the loser B-Listers. To show that they are the pukka lot. It's the hottest ticket item in town. Dee Dee Myers, who served as President Clinton's press secretary, said the lobbying by people seeking an invite had probably been relentless. "The first [state dinner] is always the most dramatic," she said. "First impressions are important. That's your A list, that's your top game right there. By the time you get to the eighth state dinner, it'll be a lot less important." Those left off the shindig's list will be venting on the airwaves the very next day!

So, there we have it. Whoever gets to be at the eighth state dinner, either as guest or C-list attendee, it will be a very lowkey affair. The Indians must be wondering if being first has all the advantages. Hope the tent doesn't overheat. Might as well be back in Bombay!

Obama's poll rating falls below 50%

It's shock news to one and all apparently. President Obama is only reckoned to be turning in a good performance by 49% of the American people. He should worry. This news follows hard on the heels of Rush Limbaugh's ridiculous assertion that Gallup were oversampling blacks in order to boost the ratings. Gallup called this tosh "a complete and inexplicable fabrication". Limbaugh must be coming to the end of the road, surely? I used to listen to his rants on the radio whilst I drove around metro Atlanta. He always appeared harmless but with a limited ratio of intellect. It always bothered me that the Republican Party attracted people with only two beans for brains. The intelligent ones were in the background goading the likes of Limbaugh on. All very peculiar.

So inexplicable fabrications are par for the course. I do hope people realise that most of these radio jocks are just on-air businesses trying to crank up the dollar revenues at the expense of truth and decency. And what of this oversampling of blacks? Is Gallup being accused of stuffing focus groups with only African Americans or is it some kind of graveyard voting experience (like the good old days in Northern Ireland!)? It's a preposterous allegation. But being preposterous is what the American neocons are all about.

I sincerely hope all right-minded American conservatives will see the light and come to the aid of the party.

"You Lie!" taunt backfires against Congressman Wilson

Representative Joe Wilson has just experienced that defining moment in politics. One significant second when it all goes pear-shaped. Ted Kennedy had it at Chappaquiddick. Michael Heseltine had it when he unfortunately had a heart attack and looked weak and frail on TV pictures. Kennedy's was much of his own making, Heseltine's was not.



Joe Wilson is feverishly against Obama's health care reforms. One wonders why? He no doubt has his reasons. America is a nation divided. The haves and the have nots. When President Obama made his speech, Wilson shouted "You lie!" and pointed his finger at the Commander-in-Chief. This was over the statement that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the plans. Wilson thought the President would grant citizenship to the illegals thereby giving them coverage. I know it's easy to shout out when politically riled. I've done it myself. But there is a time and place for heckling and hecklers should know that it works both ways. You either get people onside and back your point or you get booed off stage. Wilson is getting the booing treatment.

I would have hoped that the 21st Century would have put paid to politicians who are working for themselves and their cronies rather than the people. Wilson's challenger in his district is Democrat Rob Miller. Miller raised $100,000 overnight from 3,000 individual donors after Wilson's dig at President Obama during his address to Congress on Wednesday night.

That shows some indignation. Even an apology is not enough, it seems. Wilson is learning the lesson that politics is a fragile business. A bit like butterflies in the summer sun. A sudden squall knocks them down and they are left fluttering on the ground.

PS. This is interesting too I think! "Joe Wilson: Healthcare Hypocrite"

Glenn Beck's democracy? It stinks!

Glenn Beck is an odd cove. He describes himself as a conservative and a libertarian. I'm thinking he is more a dogmatist and an illiberal. Not a very nice customer. He has taken some Americans by storm for being "conservative" and an attack dog against Obama liberalism. Beck is the kind of character who rabble-rouses in the pub. He's a modern day Archie Bunker without the common man's touch.

A mild-mannered professor by the name of Cass Sunstein has been nominated to lead the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Beck is apparently beside himself because Mr. Sunstein wrote something on animal cruelty once and Beck is all for guns and shooting animals (rather like Sarah Palin is). Now I'm not against hunting, shooting or fishing. Proper sports they are. But when it comes to giving guns to swivel-eyed potshotters like Beck I seriously doubt the sanity of it all.

Beck is hardly a suitable man to be in charge of a gun. His sobriety tests have in the past been a dismal failure, he is apparently an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder sufferer, not his fault, I grant you, but something that should warn us that he can fly off the handle. I suppose his Fox News appearances would not be affected by any of this. A good rant goes down well on that station. But is he seriously the right guy to be pontificating on Barack Obama's choice of appointee? This is all muck-raking just to prove a point.

Beck has apparently Twitted the internet for his adorable fans to go digging up the dirt on this man Sunstein. Do Americans think this a right and proper form of democratic freedom? I sincerely hope not. Beck is described as being a recovering alcoholic. It is a pity he is not a recovering citizen too!

In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition

This is a marvellous piece in the Washington Post about all the crazies in America who have come out of the woodwork since Obama became president. Of course, the USA is not alone. Every country in the world has it's home grown nutters. But American ones tend to have God on their side!

I just like the line from this guy in Pennsylvania (Randy Hook) who was accusing Senator Arlen Specter of being too kind to President Obama's proposals to make it easier for people to get health insurance. He is an ordinary citizen, burly, with a crew-cut. He stood up, trembling with rage, went nose to nose with his baffled senator, saying, "One day God's going to stand before you, and he's going to judge you and the rest of your damned cronies up on the Hill. And then you will get your just deserts." Now what I like is that God is assumed to be the one doing the positioning before the senator. No understanding of awe and wonder, just palpable guilt on behalf of Specter.

That is the truth about these crazies. God is their servant. In their minds, God does what they want Him to do. So if they think God is going to lambast all the ones they think are crazy then they really are crazy!

Europhobia Is Only Getting Uglier

So says Michael Freedman in Newsweek. The American Right has always been made up of a mixture of white supremacists, bible-bashers and the elegant elite who wish the Statue of Liberty had gone down with the twin towers. After all, that woman with the flame is flaming French! Rednecks, good 'ole bubbas, mixing it with the genteel folk. All grist to Rush Limbaugh's mill. I'm not the sort of conservative he cares for. He's not the sort I care for!

He's upping the ante with his so-called europhobia nonsense. On his radio show, Limbaugh compared all the ways Obama is like Adolf Hitler. "Obama is asking citizens to rat each other out like Hitler did," he said. "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate," he said. And so on. What a bollock-brained prat Limbaugh is. The real problem is that there are so many morons listening each day to his infantile rubbish.

Freedman has a good take on these nutters. Mostly they are enraged by Obama's health care program. I'd say this to the redneck roosters. If 40 million plus people went down with a disease that no hospital would treat because they had no insurance you'd have riot on your hands. Desperate people take desperate measures. In the crooked minds of the American Right the poor go hang but the rich get to steal and destroy banks with impunity. No wonder shrinks do so well. The next customer on the couch must be Rush Limbaugh!

Birther baloney continues with Chuck Norris

I knew there was talk around the time of the election that Barack Obama may not be a "proper" American. That was all based on him being born in Hawaii and when that state entered the union. But it appears now that there are loads of people who are convincing themselves that the President is not a natural born American at all. As if they are? Anybody who can be convinced of such nonsense is far too loopy to be a natural born anything.

Chuck Norris has entered the fray. He now wants to see the presidential birth certificate. What for I cannot know. Perhaps we can see Chuck's and wonder if his is real or fake. This trouble and strife all stems from the "natural born" reference. It has come to be implied to those born in the United States. However, it was originally put into the constitution to clarify the position of those born in the Colonies as British subjects who became American citizens as a direct result of the status of independence. Ten presidents were affected by this clarification.

In the sense of 18th Century English, "natural born" meant just being born in the United States of American parents. Birth meant citizenship, automatically. However, because a territorial description was not added conclusively a natural born person could possibly be born elsewhere to American parents. Because it is a quandary the US Government no longer refers to such in current laws regarding citizenship.

The inhabitants of the US Virgin Islands are citizens, probably natural born ones, but they cannot vote in presidential elections let alone be president. They can, though, vote in the primaries. A crumb of electoral comfort there then. So with this confusion comes the conspiracy theorists. Some may think anyone born in Hawaii isn't a proper American. Some may think that if your father is foreign you are no American. But then all this started with making the former Colonists into natural born Americans. They were born on the continent, but not in the USA, they started out as British and ended up as American, all the while being "natural born"!

Chuck Norris should just reckon that all this birther baloney is not natural. It is very unnatural. Instead of begging to see a certificate, he should be getting the Congress to write a definitive law on the matter. I bet Norris wouldn't have batted an eyelid if Bob Hope had ever wanted to be president. But Bob was born British, as was Jerry Springer and loads of other Americans who just missed being born naturally. In Jerry Springer's case he definitely was born unnaturally. In a tube station in London. His mother got him an audience that night!