Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for August 2012

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Clint turns rule #5 on Obama UPDATED

No, not Stacy’s rule 5; Alinsky’s rule 5,

“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”

Infuriated they are:
MEDIA STRIKES BACK AFTER DIRTY HARRY DARES TO MOCK OBAMA

The media, naturally, is furious. They don’t like to see Their Precious One mocked and they also understand the power of mockery — which is why they keep Stewart and Colbert on such a tight leash. This is why the media has already written 25 stories (5 from Politico) mocking Eastwood.

Shoe’s on the other foot.

UPDATE,

When you have to point out that the chair is occupied, that means that it isn’t. (h/t Gerard)

When the President of the United States, on the advice of some of the most savvy media operatives in the world, feels a need to tweet an instant response to a Hollywood actor who is doing a stand-up comedy routine, you can score one for Dirty Harry.

Oh yeah.

More, much more.

MOTUS knows the rules.

SING IT!!

Linked by Obi’s Sister. Thanks!

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Oh Susana!

New Mexico governor Susana Martinez, the first Latina governor of a state,

We grew up on the border and truly lived paycheck to paycheck. My dad was a golden gloves boxer in the Marine Corps, then a deputy sheriff. My mom worked as an office assistant.
One day, they decided to start a security guard business. I thought they were absolutely crazy-we literally had no savings, but they always believed in the American Dream.
So, my dad worked to grow the business.
My mom did the books at night. And at 18, I guarded the parking lot at the Catholic Church bingos.
Now, my dad made sure I could take care of myself.
I carried a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum — that gun weighed more than I did!
My parents grew that small business-from one 18-year-old guarding a bingo-to more than 125 people in three states.

Where was ABC? Interviewing Univision’s Mexican anchorman Jorge Ramos.

CBS News was interviewing John McCain.

UPDATE,
Fact-checking fact checkers

Via Instapundit, clerisy vs yeomanry: THE UNSEEN CLASS WAR THAT COULD DECIDE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION


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Reading: The War of All the People


Jon B. Perdue, director of the Latin American program at the Fund for American Studies, has written THE must-read book about our hemisphere, The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism.

The book arrived yesterday, and I read part I, A Brief History of Terror Collaboration, in one sitting. It is that good.

The title refers to Hugo Chavez’s name for his war on U.S. “imperialism”, an ideological and political, violent war involving Iran, terrorist organizations from around the world, and drug money. For instance (page 52),

The agreement between the Montoneros and the PLO had a clandestine aspect. When the PLO split and Fatah was formed, the new militant wing offerred the Montoneros training camps in Lebanon, military instructors, and heavy weaponry in exchange for the installation in southern Lebanon of a plastic explosives laboratory that had been developed by a Montonero with a PhD in chemical engineering. In Madrid in June 1978, Montonero comandante Horacio Mendizabal confirmed to reporters that a portable Montonero explosives unit had been set up in Lebanon for Fatah. And according to France’s intelligence service Deuxième Bureau, the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 299 U.S. and French servicemen was carried out with the explosives technology developed by the Montoneros.

Jon Perdue is not “connecting the dots”; instead, every connection, every fact, is thoroughly researched and well-documented in 30 pages of footnotes.

This is the most informative book on terrorism I have read since Andrew McCarthy’s Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. Buy it, read it, recommend it.

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A few comments on last night’s RNC show

I watched on CSPAN, since it’s undiluted by studio talking heads, and that made all the difference. After the event was over, I watched MSNBC briefly, where Chris Matthews was comparing Christie to Ralph Kramden – possibly hoping that at least one of MSNBC’s 11 viewers is old enough to remember The Honeymooners.

Juan Williams ought to stop watching Mad Men (h/t Instapundit).

Ted Cruz won essay contests in high school, and won the 1992 National Team debate title. No wonder he didn’t need a teleprompter or a podium.

Mia Love was fabulous,

Ann Romney looked beautiful. When Chris Christie tells you to stand, you STAND.

But my favorite of the night was Artur Davis: “Things that start with Styrofoam Greek columns and smoke generally don’t end well.”

John Nolte has a roundup of media bias; however, MSNBC outdid itself,

In lieu of airing speeches from former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, a black American; Mia Love, a black candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah; and Texas senatorial hopeful Ted Cruz, a Latino American, MSNBC opted to show commentary anchored by Rachel Maddow from Rev. Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes and Steve Schmidt.

No clips of Cruz, Davis, or Love on NBC, either. No wonder Matthews is raving about Ralph kramden; they’ve got to protect that meme every way they can.

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Earlier in the evening, I was in Silvio Canto’s podcast talking about tango, politics, and Latin America.

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Bloggers and reporters are slogging to the RNC, which is harder than ever. Even Taranto got drenched.

Jennifer Rubin has 10 myths about conservatives, but it’s pretty clear that To the Left, ‘Conservatism’ a Catch-All. Apparently even some neuroscientist has jumped to conclusions about “the conservative mind” from having people look at the letters “W” and “M” – if there are books to be sold and grants to be acquired, he may look at the rest of the alphabet.

Speaking of alphabets, is this the handwriting on the wall? Hillary Clinton to Flee the Country During DNC.


(Post re-edited to correct links & grammar.)

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Venezuela: Deadly socialism

Walter Russell Mead writes about how Socialism Kills, Venezuela Edition

On Saturday, 39 were killed and more were injured in an explosion at Venezuela’s Paraguaná Refinery, one of the largest in the world. This is only the latest in a string of accidents that the state owned oil company, Pétroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), has racked up in past years. The New York Times reports that—once again—faulty state supervision of the facilities is to blame:

José Bodas, an oil union leader, said that the company had failed to invest in maintenance. “This has as a consequence the increase in accidents and tragic deaths like what we are seeing today,” he said in a telephone call to Globovision, a television channel associated with the political opposition to President Chávez.

It is clear that the Chávez regime has been squeezing every last penny out of the oil sector, but despite the “Bolivarian” socialist rhetoric promising equal distribution of this wealth, the money hasn’t just been used for social programs, but also to fund Venezuela’s expensive foreign policy, as well as its efforts to cover up the results of poor policy, rampant cronyism, and the general mismanagement of the public sector. When things go wrong, Venezuelan citizens are the ones who pay the price for the state’s poor choices.

Time is asking, Venezuela’s Refinery Explosion: Will It Affect Hugo Chávez’s Re-election Chances?

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