Month: January 2008

“The Stupid Party”

A reader writes:

You ask:

The Democrats aren’t that stupid, are they?

Yes, yes, we are.  In fact, we’re probably even more stupid than you can possibly imagine.  After all, we’re too stupid to realize that when we worry that the Republicans say we’re weak, we are being weak; too stupid to realize that when you consent to an Attorney General who won’t say whether waterboarding is torture, you get an AG who says later that waterboarding is not torture if it’s done to the right people; too stupid to realize that people want us to confront Bush more, not less; too stupid to realize that Hillary voted for the war with Iraq and another possible war with Iran; too stupid to realize that the Clintons both supported limited torture until the polls said otherwise; too stupid to realize that the Clintons are totally unethical (and why? because Bill is so damned charming!); too stupid to recognize that Bill Clinton sold us all out (I’m sorry, but gays and lesbians were not the only ones to give hand over fist only to be disappointed); too stupid to realize that 50% of the country will never vote for Hillary; too stupid to realize that we’ve got our Reagan, the reincarnate of JFK, staring us in the face; and too stupid to realize that, for the first time that I can think of, the most liberal candidate is the one that is most acceptable to independents and Republicans.

We don’t deserve to win this election if we don’t nominate Obama.  And you’ll see a lot of Democrats like me abandon the party if we don’t.  Just watch.  It’s hard to keep associating yourself with this kind of ineptitude.

On The GOP Freeway

A missive from California:

[After the debate], the press gangs assigned to both GOP front-runners trooped outside the library to board separate buses and make their way down the 118 to the 405 to the Beverly Hills Hilton where the campaigns had booked the press for the night, but not the candidates.

The Romney press bus was zipping along quite nicely in the left lane on the 118 when, with a rocking blast, the McCain press bus blasted by in the right lane to take the lead and disappear into the freeway darkness ahead.

Are you picking up on the symbolism here?

Yglesias Award Nominee

"My first choice for President in 2008 is Mitt Romney and my second choice is Barack Obama. And that would not be an anti-McCain vote. Like Romney, Obama is a man of vision and character and electing the first black president would ultimately do more to pry away black and other minority voters from a decadent American liberalism, than would anything else.

Certainly it would do more in that regard than anything any Conservative could hope to say – media darling, or not. One could no longer make the argument that America is racist, or unfair. Not when a black man has risen to the highest office in the land. And he will have done it without the need for some futuristic utopia which the Left insists we need. He would be a self-made man and his own worst enemy when arguing for a socialist-like, or welfare state. Also, multiculturalism cannot ultimately exist within a nation in which all races are seen as one. Has that not always been a conservative value and vision? I would assert it has.

My long-term goal is and will always be the furtherance of solid conservative principles that no more require modernization, than the Constitution itself. And I vote for people and to win. Right now, there are two people worthy of my support in this race. Both decisions would represent my belief in conservative principles and a forwarding of the Movement’s agenda, long-term," – Dan Riehl.

The Mobile Phone Genocide

A sobering look at cell phone use in Kenya – as troubling as the use of radio in Rwanda: 

There’s no denying that the mobile phone has revolutionized Africa. In some other parts of the world a mobile phone is just a mobile phone is just a mobile phone. Not so here.

In Kenya, I can store funds on my phone and transfer or liquidate these as necessary. It is also the primary internet surfing device for a good number of people I know. In addition, the mobile phone can be used as a social networking and newsgathering tool. Services such as Kazi560 and Ushahidi.com are to be applauded for catering to, and harnessing the power of, the bottom of the pyramid respectively.

Unfortunately, what can be harnessed for good can equally be exploited for sinister purposes. Regarding the escalating violence in Kenya, the ICRC spokesman in the country, one Bernard Barret is quoted as saying that rumours are being spread by mobile phone text messages predicting imminent attacks by one group or another and that this is heightening tensions. It’s difficult to attach a positive or negative value to these messages collectively. If they’re true, then they serve as a useful warning, enabling those who are due to be attacked to protect themselves or to flee.

If they’re not true, on the other hand, they cause unnecessary panic and might lead to those receiving them planning and executing attacks of their own in order to pre-empt the attack of the perceived enemy. And if you think this is farfetched, then take another look at the Akiwumi report in which some people were reported to have defended their acts of aggression by saying that they had received word that they were due to be attacked and that therefore they were merely being offensive in their own defense.

…What makes these subversive messages spread by mobile phone most sinister though, is the ability to select for audience.

It is one thing to broadcast subversive messages on Radio as was the case in Rwanda, and is alarmingly the case with some vernacular radio stations in Kenya.

It is an entirely different thing to send these messages to a carefully selected list of people on your contact list who will in turn send them on to their own select list of people so that the message spreads like a virus but catches only people who answer to certain ‘characteristics.’It is more dangerous because there is more stealth to it. It is not done in the open, it is done in secret, making it harder to put an end to. In addition, the dissemination instrument is not situated in one central place that can be clamped down on easily. Rather, every mobile phone in this country is a potential dissemination instrument, making it nigh impossible to crackdown on the proliferators of these messages.

I’m very afraid that mobile phones will be for Kenya what Radio was for Rwanda. I really look forward to being proved wrong.