Whats Your Definition of Elitist?

John Boehner: the second of 12 kids from Ohio who is Barack Obama's elitist target

The White House is attempting to cling on to Democratic control of Washington by portraying an Ohio congressman who grew up in near poverty as an elitist country club Republican controlled by wealthy lobbyists.

President Barack Obama is doing his best to turn Representative John Boehner, the House minority leader, into Public Enemy Number One. If Republicans win back the House of Representatives in November, as polls indicate, he will replace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

In a recent speech, Mr Obama mentioned Mr Boehner by name nine times. A fundraising email sent out from BarackObama.com this week stated that corporate interests and lobbyists “have put all their chips on one man: Congressman John Boehner”.

An Excerpt From the UK Telegraph

The end of the road for Barack Obama?
Barack Obama seems unable to face up to America's problems, writes Simon Heffer in New York.

"Obama's big problem," a senior Democrat told me, "is that four times as many people watch Fox News as watch CNN." The Fox network is a remarkable cultural phenomenon which almost shocks those of us from a country where a technical rule of impartiality is applied in the broadcast media. With little rest, it pours out rage 24 hours a day: its message is of the construction of the socialist state, the hijacking of America by "progressives" who now dominate institutions, the indoctrination of children, the undermining of religion and the expropriation of public money for these nefarious projects. The public loves it, and it is manifestly stirring up political activism against Mr Obama, and also against those in the Republican Party who are not deemed conservatives. However, it is arguable whether the now-reorganising Right is half as effective in its assault on the President as some of Mr Obama's own party are.

Well, with the exception of the "rage" I'd say most of what is stated in the above paragraph is true.

Repeating an action and expecting different results is insanity.

Are we doomed to repeat history? Its said that those that do not read history are doomed to repeat it. How about those that just flat out ignore history?

In 1932, the Great Depression was easing throughout the world. Employment was up in the US. And then FDR decided to "help," thereby turning our depression into a Great Depression, a depression WITHIN a depression.

It started with overspending and Smoot-Hawley.

Obama just started a trade war with China.

Obama is borrowing to spend our way out of the depression, sending our credit rating into the toilet.

Europe, though socialist lite, has not interefered to such a great extent in their economies as we have done. Europe is pulling out of the recession.

Now, for all those that expect inflation to jump, gold is very popular. Will Obama steal your gold, just like FDR did? Probably not. Its not necessary. Gold buyers have been demonized as "crazy". Its just gone up over $500 since 2003.

So, what will Obama do when his policies fail just like FDR's did? It took WWII to solve our problems back then.....

Iraqi neighbours rise up against al-Qa'eda

Why don't we read this in American newspapers? Where is the reporting on the war by the major newspapers and media of the US? Why do we have to find it from blogs and foreign news sources?

"Awakening" movements across Iraq are helping to rid Sunni neighbourhoods of extremist influence, writes Colin Freeman, in the UK Telegraph.

Mr. Freeman reports from the war torn neighborhoods of Baghdad:

Khalil Mohammed Abbas, a haggard, chainsmoking ex-Iraqi army officer, has good reason to puff on every cigarette as if it were his last.

After helping his neighbours in Baghdad rise up against the al-Qa'eda thugs who have terrorised them, he lives in constant expectation that the threats text-messaged to his mobile phone may one day come real.

"They are from al-Qa'eda, and they tell me I am a mercenary," he says, reading out the latest missive to bleep into his inbox.

"They ask how I would feel if they kidnapped my wife and children and kill and rape them. But I am not worried about those bastards. I know they could kill me at any moment, but if we do not fight them we will all die anyway."

The man al-Qa'eda describe as a mercenary is indeed a hired gun of sorts, however - as a leader of the so-called Sunni Muslim "Awakening", he is one of around 500 residents in his neighbourhood paid by US forces to help drive al-Qa'eda from their midst.

Many of his comrades previously saw the Americans as their enemies, but their decision to change sides is not just for the money: after two years of al-Qa'eda violence, their hatred of the terrorist group outweighs any lingering dislike of the US "occupiers".

Mr Abbas, 42, is typical. He was one of hundreds of thousands of men left jobless after the Americans disbanded Saddam's Sunni-dominated armies five years ago, a move that drove many Sunnis into the embrace of the anti-US insurgency and its allies of convenience in al-Qa'eda.

But as the group slowly took over Mr Abbas's home neighbourhood, what first appealed to many as a movement to defend Sunni Muslims soon revealed itself as a brutal, bigoted cause.

At the end of the article is a telling comment:

The patrol heads back to base, where, the night before, one of Mr Abbas's informants had rung the incident room with reports of two men robbing people at gunpoint.

It was the first recorded robbery Capt Battjes could recall since arriving here back in June, and the fact that the muggers now felt safe to come out brought a wry smile to his face.

"It sounds terrible, but maybe this is a sign that things are getting back to normal," he said. "That's not terrorism, that's just Detroit-style crime."