American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
In Puerto Rico, when I was growing up, my aunts, who were very dignified ladies, referred to people who behaved without dignity, standards, or class as chusmas.
Wel, my friends, the Obama campaign and their supporters, finding themselves devoid of ideas or accomplishments, is appealing to the chusmas.
Last week there was the vagina monologue from Lena Dunham.
This week it’s the potty-mouthed seniors’ turn,
[NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK]
I’m staying at a local hotel, not feeling well, and not sure if I can find a place with heat/electricity later today.
UPDATE:
Shelter situation solved for the tonight, thank goodness.
All over the media there’s a big push to show Obama as some kind of savior, saying “we leave nobody behind” and forgetting Benghazi, where four were left behind. The NYTimes pushes the idea that “A Big Storm Requires Big Government,” and Taranto takes them to task,
The title was “A Big Storm Requires Big Government,” and here’s the nut: “Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of ‘big government,’ which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it.” That’s a straw man, as the Times itself admits at the end of the editorial by linking to a Politico story reporting “Romney would not abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
“Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions,” Politico quotes a Romney spokesman as saying. “As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”
It’s not clear if the Times disagrees with Romney’s actual position, which more or less describes the status quo. If you spent hours yesterday watching local TV news in New York, as we did, you saw a lot of Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and you heard a lot about state and local policemen, firemen and other emergency personnel. The federal government’s role was largely invisible.
The Times is also aghast that supposedly “Mr. Romney not only believes that states acting independently can handle the response to a vast East Coast storm better than Washington, but that profit-making companies can do an even better job.” For our part, we’d like to thank Con Edison for the uninterrupted electricity.
Let’s stipulate that FEMA is a vitally important agency, a point on which there seems to be no serious disagreement anyway. How exactly does that make the case for “big government”? FEMA’s annual budget is $14.3 billion, according to lefty Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein. That’s approximately 1/272nd of total federal spending, estimated at $3,888.4 billion by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
To be sure, there are other crucial government functions, such as defense, that cost more than FEMA does. But the Times has it utterly backward in suggesting that necessary government justifies extravagant government–that FEMA’s work somehow redeems everything from ObamaCare to Solyndra to Big Bird. (Speaking of which, further to the Times’s contempt for profit-making companies, yesterday afternoon all of New York’s commercial TV stations pre-empted their regular programming for news of the approaching storm. PBS’s Channel 13 was showing a cartoon.)
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Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Washington demobilizes for the storm.Making our point symbolically, Government Executive reports that most of the federal government responded to the storm by shutting down: “Washington-area federal agencies will remain closed Tuesday as Hurricane Sandy continues to unleash its wrath up and down the East Coast. . . . Emergency employees are required to report to work. Everyone else affected will be granted excused absence.”
And here’s President Obama, speaking yesterday afternoon at FEMA headquarters: “My message to the governors, as well as to the mayors, is anything they need, we will be there. And we’re going to cut through red tape. We’re not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.”
Even the most leftist president in American history is suddenly touting deregulation. Of course, he’s faced with responsibility to act in an emergency, not to mention a tough re-election challenge. The only real-world pressures on the Times editorialists were a deadline and an empty page. Still, you’d think a modicum of professional pride would stop them from filling it with such nonsense.
I don’t know when I’ll be able to post again.
Brendan Loy is tracking. We’re all worried, of course.
Meanwhile, yet more politics,
Did Barack Obama Intentionally Mislead KUSA’s Kyle Clark About ‘Abound Solar’?
Did Obama Lie About Political Pressure For Solar Abound’s DOE Loans?
Chile’s local elections, yesterday, had a 40% turnout,
Chile local polls see low turnout with voting voluntary
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera says the decision by many Chileans not to vote in Sunday’s local elections is a “warning sign” that should be heeded.
The polls, the first to be held since voting was made voluntary, were marked by an abstention of 60%.
The elections are seen as an early indicator with just over a year to go before the November 2013 presidential race.
Mr Pinera’s centre-right alliance lost some key races, including in Santiago.
Carolina Toha, who worked as spokeswoman for former president Michelle Bachelet, was elected mayor of the capital, defeating the current incumbent Pablo Zalaquett.
However, centre-right candidates held onto several big cities, including Valparaiso.
Results suggest centre-left parties took about 43% of the vote, compared with 38% for parties allied to Mr Pinera.
Among the winners was Salvador Allende’s granddaughter, Maya Fernández Allende,
Fernandez, 41, defeated incumbent Mayor Pedro Sabat of the center-right National Renovation party in Nunoa, a district of the capital. A socialist and veterinarian by trade, she served on the local council in the district after growing up in Cuba, where her mother Beatriz lived in exile after President Allende died during Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup.
The left’s biggest victory was in central Santiago, where Carolina Toha defeated Pablo Zalaquett of the ultra-conservative Independent Democratic Union. Toha served as former President Michelle Bachelet’s spokeswoman, and her father, Allende’s vice president, died after being jailed and tortured.
The low turnout was apparently unaffected by the new rule giving the vote to foreigners living in Chile for at least five years.
Some of my sources in the country believe that the particularly nasty campaign may have turned off citizens from participating; many of the right-leaning mayors were targets of mud-slinging, obnoxious claims by the left. Student demonstrations, while stirring the left, may have demotivated others now that voting is not compulsory.
Does this mean the democratic process has been undermined? We shall find out by next year’s presidential election.
For now, Sebastián Piñera’s odds of re-election are not looking very good.
ARGENTINA
Argentina supermarket roof collapse kills at least two
BAHAMAS
Hurricane Sandy Makes Landfall in The Bahamas
BOLIVIA
Bolivia vs. Venezuela’s Debt: What Are Investors Smoking (or Chewing)?
Boycott on Google News leads to 5% loss in web traffic: Brazilian newspapers
COLOMBIA
Cuba-supported Terror Group, FARC, Speaks with a Forked Tongue
Colombia to Develop Its Own Drone Program to Combat Drug-Trafficking
CUBA
THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS @50: A RECONSIDERATION
How Castro Held the World Hostage
Seven Proposals After Hurricane Sandy
Peter Hitchens: The Guardian interviews me. And some Thoughts in Passing on Cuba and DNA, via Carlos Eire.
Fidel Castro reflections fade to a shadow
ECUADOR
Reporter threatened in Ecuador after airing report on drugs and guns in schools
MEXICO
Pocket Litter: The Evidence That Criminals Carry
Mexico’s Drug Lords Ramp Up Their Arsenals with RPGs
Mexican Drug Gangs on “Verge of Collapse”?
The global Mexican
Mexico is open for business
Case of blonde girl beggar rescued from streets strikes nerve in Mexico; activists see racism, via Gates of Vienna.
PANAMA
Colon Free Zone: Panama debates land sale law repeal
Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Ongoing protests in Panama with possible violence
Day Two of dealing with hospitals in Panama.
PERU
Tense calm follows Peru market clashes
PUERTO RICO
These Bond Portfolios Invest 25% Or More In Puerto Rico
Humor: No Habrá Más Preguntas En Debates; Candidatos Solo Hablarán M**rda Por Dos Horas
VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s Future Up in the Air
The Venezuelan brand of democracy
The week’s posts:
Is the Obama administration planning to release two more convicted terrorists?
The WaPo finds 900,000 Puerto Ricans in Florida
Argentina: High-end retailers leave the country
While we stress out waiting for Sandy, it’s time to talk about the inconsequential Madonna:
MADONNA BOOED AFTER TOUTING OBAMA IN LA. CONCERT
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Madonna drew boos and triggered a walkout by several concertgoers after she touted President Barack Obama on her “MDNA Tour” in New Orleans.
The Material Girl asked during Saturday night’s performance: “Who’s registered to vote?” She added: “I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.” Drawing boos in touting Obama over Republican Mitt Romney, Madonna followed: “Seriously, I don’t care who you vote for … Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote.”
Aside from the amazement that she’s still performing her shtick while well into the sixth decade of her life (she was born in 1958), the fact is that she got boos and a walkout over Obama while in New Orleans.
Maybe she should have kept her mouth shut in NOLA and worn a ballot dress at an Obama fundraiser instead.
Madonna is now uncool.
Victor Davis Hanson writes about Cool, Inc.,
Apparently internal polls have prompted the Obama administration in the last month to double down on the young and hip vote to ensure that this cohort turns out on election day to help stem the erosion elsewhere. Thus the president hits the celebrity shows, the cool radio venues; in punkish-style calls Romney a bulls****er; and now releases a video of a young hip woman (with a visibly large tattoo or bad bruise on her upper arm), Lena Dunham (ironically the identical last name as Barack Obama’s mother and grandparents), who in not so disguised terms Sandra Fluke–style equates her sexual life with voting for the president, emphasizing the young cool lifestyle of today’s 20–30-something unattached young woman.
Yeah, because Fluke herself was such a huge hit at her Obama rally…with all 10 people who turned up.
Meanwhile, this girl has 50,965 viewers on parody she posted a day or two ago,
Which brings us to Dan Blatt’s survey, the Creepiest Obama video competition
Which of these videos is this [sic] creepiest?
“Yes, we can” children from 2008
Lena Dunham’s First Time
Future Children Project
If you haven’t seen it yet, the Future Children Project, featuring current children,
is creepy enough to make a father of six say, Let’s Make These Children Cry; The Right Scoop has the lyrics, which start with
Imagine an America
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea
and get worse.
The kids in that vaguely remind me of these,
Particularly with the Future Children’s final stanza,
We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And yeah, we’re blaming youYou did your best
You failed the testMom and Dad
We’re blaming you!
Mark Steyn is thinking in terms of someone else’s retirement (h/t Roger Kimball),
Obama’s own cue balls shriveled. Biden had offered up a deft campaign slogan encompassing both domestic and foreign policy: “Osama’s dead, and General Motors is alive.” But, as the al-Qaida connections to Benghazi dribbled out, leak by leak, the “Osama’s dead” became a problematic boast and, left to stand alone, the General Motors line was even less credible. Avoiding the economy and foreign affairs, Obama fell back on Big Bird, and binders and bayonets, just to name the B’s in his bonnet. At the second presidential debate, he name-checked Planned Parenthood, the General Motors of the American abortion industry, half-a-dozen times, desperate to preserve his so-called gender gap. Yet, oddly enough, the more furiously Obama and Biden have waved their binders and talked up Sandra Fluke, the more his supposed lead among women has withered away. So now he needs to enthuse the young, who turned out in such numbers for him last time. Hence, the official campaign video (plagiarized from Vladimir Putin, of all people) explaining that voting for Obama is like having sex. The saddest thing about that claim is that, for liberals, it may well be true.
Both videos – the one faking Obamagasm and the one faking a Benghazi pretext – exemplify the wretched shrinkage that befalls those unable to conceive of anything except in the most self-servingly political terms. Both, in different ways, exemplify why Obama and Biden are unfit for office. One video testifies to a horrible murderous lie at the heart of a head of state’s most solemn responsibility, the other to the glib shallow narcissism of a pop-culture presidency, right down to the numbing relentless peer-pressure: C’mon, all the cool kids are doing it; why be the last holdout?
If voting for Obama is like the first time you have sex, it’s very difficult to lose your virginity twice. A flailing, pitiful campaign has now adopted Queen Victoria’s supposed wedding advice to her daughter: “Lie back and think of England.” Lie back and think of America. And then get up and get dressed. Who wants to sleep twice with a $16 trillion broke loser?
That middle arrow runs right through here.
First of all, if you’re traveling to the Northeast in the next few days, don’t. Read Airline Crisis Survival Guide, reschedule your trip, and save yourself the hassles.
Coalition of the Swilling has the exhaustive list of preparations, which you must read if you live in this area.
If you live in Princeton, you can count on extended power outages, which means no blogging if my neighborhood has no electricity – almost a certainty.
Here in Princeton, with the combination of Third World infrastructure (i.e., electrical cables not underground, and not enough cell phone towers) and huge number of large trees, most people prepare by mobbing the Princeton Shopping Center, especially McCaffrey’s Supermarket.
Of course, I had to stop by and check ou the place. The parking lot was nearly-full, but I was able to find a spot right in front of Blue Ridge Mountain Sports, and picked up some fuel for my small camping stove. It turns out they had them on sale. During the last power outage, I had stopped at Radio Shack and bought a cell phone recharger for the car. (Call ahead and ask if they have any in stock.)
I walked by McCaffrey’s, which of course was packed. I only needed some powdered milk and a newspaper but decided against it when I saw the lines. It looked like people heading to a Romney rally. Since the store was out of powdered milk, I decided against standing in line for 1/2 hour just to buy a paper.
At home, anything that can fly must be taken indoors
The most important thing we did, and have always done, is CLEAR THE AREA OF POTENTIAL FLYING OBJECTS. Anything and everything in our yard AND the neighborhood that could be turned into a missile (including that 100lb garden pot you don’t think can fly…it can), goes into the garage.
Most importantly, you must get all your preparations done TODAY.
Once you have that done, stock up on wine, get all your laundry washed and dried, make sure all your battery-powered gadgets are fully charged, and hope for the best.
Ace posted a link to a BLACKOUT AND POWER OUTAGE TRACKER, which may come in handy.
UPDATE,
Gov. Christie’s press conference,
