Boker tov, Boulder!

Waiting for Caroline

I was waiting to see what Caroline Glick would say, as she strongly supported Netanyahu in the (fairly recent) election and even worked in his previous administration as Assistant Foreign Policy Advisor.  I thought she might be able to "explain."  And explain, she does.

She doesn't beat around the bush, either:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu weakened Israel this week. And he did so for no good reason.

And the OUCH doesn't stop there.

... far from winning American support or at least causing the White House to ease its bullying, US President Barack Obama sees Netanyahu's decision to implement a militarily irrational, bigoted policy of prohibiting Jews from building in Israel's heartland as a drop in the bucket.

 

Were Israel to see 20 Arab embassies opening in exchange for a temporary freeze in Jewish construction, one could say that Netanyahu's massive concession was justified. But Netanyahu decided to give away this high card - Israel's ace of spades as it were - for free. Actually, he paid for it.

 

And finally, here's the money quote:

In the hopes of appeasing the unappeasable Obama administration, the government has adopted Obama's anti-Semitic policies against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

 
 
 
  
Well, there goes the little Hope I had just earlier today. What can I tell you?  I am fool ... among many.  I should have known better. We all should've.

 

So do I have to tell you to read it all?

(Just don't forget to breathe.)

Independents favor Republicans 44% to 20%

Rasmussen:

Republicans Post Seven-Point Lead on Generic Ballot

Who knows? Maybe it's the building anger over deficits, or perhaps the latest Rolling Stone editorial, "Doubting Obama."  Whatever it is, the Repubs would be wise not to squander their lead, as the electorate is increasingly contentious.

mmmm ... mmmm

Ex-MK, traitor and spy: "No 'Palestinian' Nation. Never Was!"

BtB, 28 July 2008:

... the Knesset cannot even decide whether to bring to the floor resolutions that would revoke the pension of former MK Azmi Bishara, who fled the country to avoid espionage and treason charges.

The Arab MK "served" in the Knesset for eleven years and is accused of giving Hezbollah strategic information to aid them in their war on Israel in the summer of 2006.

Apparently, Israel has been releasing Bishara's pension payments - how or to whom no one is saying - since he "retired" to Qatar in April of last year.

UFB.

How odd to find common ground, even agreement, with this hideous enemy of Israel.

(IsraelNN.com) The Zionist Freedom Alliance of California has been circulating a video on the internet this past week exposing former Member of Knesset Azmi Bishara denying the existence of a “Palestinian” nation. The video was recorded years prior to Bishara entering Israel's parliament in 1996 as head of the Arab Balad party.

Bishara, who resigned from the Knesset and fled the country in 2007 just when Israeli Security Services were ready to arrest him on charges of treason and espionage, is shown in the video reiterating his Arab nationalist position that there is no such thing as a “Palestinian” people.

 

Translation: “Well, I dont think there is a Palestinian nation at all. I think there is an Arab nation. I always thought so and I did not change my mind. I do not think there is a Palestinian nation, I think its a colonialist invention - Palestinian nation. When were there any Palestinians? Where did it come from? I think there is an Arab nation. I never turned to be a Palestinian nationalist, despite of my decisive struggle against the occupation. I think that until the end of the 19th century, Palestine was the south of Greater Syria.”

Yehuda Katz, who leads ZFA in the largely anti-Israel Bay Area of northern California, told Israel National News that people should really investigate the basic claims of the Middle East conflict before expressing strong opinions:

 “History did not start in 1967. We, the modern day Hebrews, have almost a 4,000 year old history and an uninterrupted presence in our homeland for over 3,300 years. The Palestinian nation was invented in the 1960s by Yassir Arafat and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu in an attempt to erase our history and steal our land. These facts cannot be ignored any longer. ‘Palestine’ was initially a foreign colonialist concept invented by the Romans who massacred, exiled and enslaved the Jewish people. It is not an authentic Arab identity.”

 

More on "Palestinian" inventions here, including this bad joke:

The "palestinians" have also given a new meaning to the expression "Baby BOOMERS"

 

I told you it was bad.

Israel's Latest Concession: What Good Does It Do? What Harm?

 

"... Israel remains the only country in the world

whose very right to exist is challenged....

This has been facilitated by the opportunism,

bias and cowardice of much of the 'enlightened' world." 

-- Isi Leibler

 

 

So much for the context.  Now for the latest in peace processing.

 

 

Netanyahu (actually, he and his security cabinet) have announced agreement to a 10-month construction freeze - for Jews only - in Judea and the Shomron, ostensibly to lure the stateless Arabs back to the "negotiating table."  Right-wingers are correct in calling this concession "anti-Zionist," and they are up in arms... so to speak.

Usually I would be right there with them, but I find myself assuming (hoping) that there is much we cannot see from here.  Perhaps Netanyahu got Something Big from Omerica in exchange, and a unified front of nations poised against Iran - including the "biggies" at the UN - might actually mean something?

I feel much like this reader at Arutz Sheva: "Give now, get later, stay alive. Take it easy on Bibi" -- but I am teetering on the brink of this one: "Not a mistake, but a betrayal."

I admit I am much enamored of Bibi.  Maybe I am wrong, putting my trust in yet another "prince."  I know that if Olmert had made this concession, I would be all over it, excoriating him, but Netanyahu I am willing to trust... for a little while.  I do fear that he is slippery, just like many Israelis said he would be.  It boggles the mind to watch the leaders of Israel, one after another, fold in the face of "international pressure."  I pray that Netanyahu will be different, at least different enough.

I sat here and watched Ariel Sharon get elected to defeat the enemy, and then make a complete about-face, sacrificing the lives and homes of thousands upon thousands of Jews... for NOTHING (and worse).  I should know by now that anything is possible.

There is no question that a settlement freeze punishes innocent Jews, and for naught.  I don't know exactly why, but at the moment I find myself willing to give the Netanyahu government some benefit of the doubt. Surely they haven't been in office long enough to become totally corrupted.

What I do know is that I won't be able to trust them for long.  This is a real stretch, though I'm willing -for once- to wait and see what happens next. I just don't have the same clear cut feeling about this that I had about the "disengagement." The freeze is, after all, temporary and can be rescinded at a moment's notice.

You don't have to tell me (and I hope you won't) that DEBKA is much maligned, but I still like to read them.  Call me open-minded, see if I care :)

Here's their perspective, if you're interested.

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu appears to be working to a five-month cycle in his first year in office: It took him five months to line up behind Washington on a two-state solution, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians, and another five months to announce Wednesday, Nov. 25, that the security-political cabinet had approved a 10-month freeze on new apartment construction in the West Bank settlements in an effort to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton praised the decision as helping to "move forward" efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We believe that through good-faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders," Clinton said in a statement.

 

Excuse me?  1967?!  Would that be before or after the June 10 ceasefire?  The "Auschwitz borders" -- or the not-Auschwitz borders?

 

The Palestinians rejected the Israel step on the spot because it did not apply to East Jerusalem.

All three parties were following a familiar ritual which is fated to lead nowhere.

The trouble is not Netanyahu's policy positions, from which he is constantly being forced back, but President Barack Obama's loss of credibility with Arab leaders, including the Palestinians:

1. They perceive him as having failed to deliver on his early promise to turn a new page in the Middle East conflict and in America's relations with the Muslim and Arab world - as articulated in his June 4 Cairo speech of reconciliation. He is found to have disappointed the Palestinians and sacrificed Muslim and Arab respect by fighting Muslims in Afghanistan, Iran and the war on extremist Islamic terror in the Middle East and South Asia.

2. Arab leaders are watching with concern and amazement what seems to them to be the US president's [increasing] weakness in dealing with the ayatollahs of Tehran and their nuclear ambitions. That apparent weakness has deterred them from placing their chips on an Israeli-Palestinian solution under his auspices.

In these circumstances, any Israeli initiative is irrelevant because it cannot offer any real incentive for bringing the Palestinians to the negotiating table. By their implacable animosity toward Netanyahu, the Palestinians and Arab governments are signaling their disapproval of the United States and its current policies.

But even token gestures carry a price.

The Israeli prime minister has developed a routine whereby he backs away from his avowed principles and policies in the belief that he is gaining time. This form of escapism has shown up in two key arenas:

Iran: Netanyahu keeps on maintaining that he supports international action for stiffer sanctions to contend with Iran's nuclear violations, although he knows that sanctions are as real as Santa Claus.

Now and then he mumbles comments like: "Fateful days await us" - suggesting to the Israeli public that all other issues must be set to one side for the sake of preserving a military option against a nuclear-armed Iran.

Hizballah and Hamas: Like their predecessors, Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak are fond of harping on the fact that both the Lebanese and the Palestinian terrorists groups are constantly acquiring new and more powerful missiles capable by now of reaching every part of Israel.

They are all talk but no action to stop the rising menace. This undermines their credibility and leaves the Israeli prime minister looking as ineffectual as the US president.

 

 

YIKES

I was all ready to sweat the content of my 10,000th post.  I even entertained the possibility of a prolonged bout of blogger's block.  But then I read this post by Jennifer Rubin at contentions, and decided that one quick excerpt would be sufficient to mark the occasion.   

 

Over the next week, he will deliver multiple messages to multiple audiences: voters at home, allies, the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the extremists who are the enemy.  And as Mr. Obama’s own aides concede, the messages directed at some may undercut the messages sent to others. (NYT)

Jennifer writes: " Yikes. So in the end everyone will be unnerved..."

 

Yikes indeed. 

 

And that's the way it is...
 

 

 

Post.Script.

I was curious to see what my first post was [that is, at this url - even earlier archives are here] and I was delighted to see that it was an excerpt from the Most Excellent Mark Steyn.  I think there's still something to be learned from it (and the links just added), but you decide. Keep in mind that this was early September, 2004.

. . . . "Bush-despising" is . . . fine for cocktail condescension but utterly inadequate for an election campaign. You can't beat something with nothing, and Kerry is about as spectacular a nothing as you could devise - a thin-skinned whiny vanity candidate who persists in deluding himself that Bush's advantage is all down to "smears" and "lies" and "mean" "attacks". It's not.

Bush's something is very simple: his view of the war on terror resonates with a majority of the American people; when he talks about 9/11 and the aftermath, they recognise themselves in his words; they trust his strategy on this issue. For an inarticulate man, he communicates a lot more effectively than Senator Nuancy Boy.

. . . . "This Russian school business works for the Republicans," a Democrat griped to me over the weekend. Alas, it does - because it's a reminder for those who need it that the war on terror isn't some racket cooked up to boost Halliburton profits but a profound challenge to America and the world.

Could what happened in Beslan happen in the US?  Two months ago, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on a fellow called Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi, a suspected terrorist who'd fought with his fellow jihadi in Chechnya and somehow wound up in Minnesota, where he'd applied for licences to transport hazardous materials and drive school buses....

 

BtB post No. 9,999

 

I don't get it.

Slightly MORE voters blame Bush for the economy now, than they did a month ago?  How can that be?

 

Rasmussen:

Voters are a bit less inclined this month to blame President Obama’s policies for the country’s current economic problems.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of U.S. voters now say the problems are due to the recession which began under the Bush administration.

Forty-two percent (42%) blame Obama’s policies, and eight percent (8%) are not sure.

In a survey at the end of last month, voters were inclined to assess blame a bit more evenly. Forty-nine percent (49%) pointed the finger at the Bush-era recession, while 45% said the nation’s economic problems were caused more by Obama’s policies.

And get this jawdropper!  A month ago, 62% trusted their own judment more than Obama's.  Now? only 57%.

... 33% trust Obama’s economic judgment more, up six points from the previous survey.

 

 

the glamorous ends get the attention, not the mundane means

 

Apologies in advance to Esther Sarah.

 

Miscellaneous comment found on the interweb:

... I worked for a large scale turkey farm and breeding facility when putting myself through university.  While I can't vouch for wild turkeys, domestic turkeys are just plain dumb. The pens on the farm were equipped with specially designed water bowls which would keep a minimal amount of water in the bowl and shut off while the bird was drinking because, on occasion, a turkey would "forget" to lift its head and drown.

 

Even though the following essay was written back in the spring, it seems very appropriate to post it on Turkey Day ... and Thanksgiving, too.  You'll see what I mean, just read it. 

 

Americans want it both ways

By Victor Davis Hanson

Today's Americans inherited the wealthiest nation in history — but only because earlier generations learned how to feed, fuel, finance and defend themselves in ways unrivaled elsewhere.

Lately we have forgotten that and instead seem to expect others to do for us what we used to do ourselves.

Take our plentiful, cheap and safe food supply. Long ago, Americans struggled to create farmland out of swamp, forests and deserts, and built dams and canals for irrigation to make possible the world's most diverse and inexpensive agriculture.

Now in California — the nation's richest farm state — the population is skyrocketing toward 40 million. Yet hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland this year are going out of production, and with them thousands of jobs.

Why? In times of chronic water shortages, environmentalists have sued to stop irrigation deliveries in order to save threatened two-inch-long delta fish that need infusions of fresh water diverted from agricultural use. And for both environmental and financial reasons, we long ago stopped building canals and dams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to find sources of replacement irrigation water.

So farmers are asked to produce more food for more people in a desert climate with less water — while environmentalists dream of returning to a pristine 19th-century sparsely populated California of smelt and salmon in their inland rivers. But the end result will be more imported food from less environmentally sound farms abroad.

Consider energy consumption and supply as well. The United States still has plenty of untapped natural gas and oil — both offshore and in Alaska. We have nearly unlimited coal supplies and oil shale, in addition to the ability to build dozens of new nuclear plants.

Developing such traditional sources of energy responsibly would save us trillions of dollars in imported fuels, keep jobs here at home and allow the nation a precious window of energy autonomy as we steadily transfer to more wind, solar and renewable energy.

If we exploit our own energy carefully offshore and in Alaska, it will mean less sloppy foreign drilling off places like Nigeria or in the fragile Russian tundra to feed American cars and trucks.

But this generation of Americans does not want messy drilling at home — only to keep driving. That means more borrowing to buy imported fuel, while telling others to do the dirty work of drilling crude oil in their own backyard.

Both Democrats and Republicans have also taken for granted having enough military power to intervene overseas to remove tyrants like Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Manuel Noriega and the Taliban — and to stop atrocities whenever we can. But such power takes hundreds of billions of dollars in expensive hardware and military personnel.

Barack Obama is no exception to this bipartisan muscular idealism. He sent more troops into Afghanistan, keeps attacking terrorists in Pakistan and, during the campaign, even talked about deploying additional troops to save those in Darfur. But he also wants to keep the defense budget static, or even cut it in some places.

In our have-it-both-ways generation, we want to keep our involvements abroad while not worrying as much about the practical means to meet them.

Then there is the question of national debt. We are now projected to run a record $1.7 trillion deficit — and may add $9 trillion to our existing $11 trillion in existing aggregate debt over the next eight years.

The president, though, has outlined vast new entitlement programs in health care, education, environmental programs and infrastructure. The problem, of course, is that we have not earned enough money to pay for any of these additional expenditures. Again, the glamorous ends get the attention, never the mundane means of how to obtain them.

Americans became wealthy and strong through unique self-reliance, common sense and delayed gratification. And we — or our children — will soon become poor precisely because we hold on to the romance that producing food and fuel, and saving money are icky tasks to be ignored or left to others.

Until we change that attitude, we'll keep borrowing and spending on ourselves what we have not yet earned — all the way to bankruptcy.

 

 

'Tis the season (hajj)

 

Just days ago the White House announced they would be cutting by half the number of Jews invited for Chanukah.

 

According to the anonymous "Jewish officials" quoted at JPost, the White House is "loathe to be seen spending substantial sums on... parties" ... "given the current economic downturn."

How very sensitive of them.  Gd knows, kosher latkes are expensive. And have you seen the price of a jar of applesauce lately?  Oy gevalt.

 

Anyway, it's not Chanukah yet (not 'til sunset on Dec. 11th), so let's approach this season of religious holidays in their proper sequence.  Right now, it's time for the Hajj.

 

POTUS & FLOTUS issued the following official statement yesterday, "on behalf of the American people."

Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha.  The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions.

During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand in prayer on Mount Arafat.  The following day, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha and distribute food to the less fortunate to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son out of obedience to God.

This year, I am pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with the Saudi Health Ministry to prevent and limit the spread of H1N1 during Hajj.  Cooperating on combating H1N1 is one of the ways we are implementing my administration's commitment to partnership in areas of mutual interest.

On behalf of the American people, we would like to extend our greetings during this Hajj season – Eid Mubarak.

 

Funny, he didn't mention his grandmother.

No, not the "typical white" one, the other one.

 

Year before last, the Saudi King's special guest at the Hajj was Ahmadinejad. This year it's the grandmother of the Omerican president.

Mecca, 25 Nov. (AKI) - The grandmother of US president Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the 'Hajj' or Islamic pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, a Saudi daily said on Wednesday. Sarah Obama, 87, is being accompanied by a nephew and Obama's cousin, Omran.

On Wednesday Sarah Obama was in the valley of Mina with an African delegation, according to the Saudi daily Okaz.

Obama, the mother of the American president's father, lives in a village in Kenya and is one of the many guests of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud.

 

Yes, that King Abdullah.

 

Channel Africa (via Sweetness & Light) notes a slightly different configuration of the Obama Hajj Entourage:

Sarah Obama, one of her grandchildren and 10 people from her village in Kenya made the pilgrimage at the invitation of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, the newspaper reported.

The Saudi monarch invites Muslims from around the world to make the pilgrimage at his expense each year.

Among his nearly 3,000 guests this year, almost 2,000 are relatives of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

 

  
Hajj 2006: "... many members of the audience held up yellow placards reading 'Death to America' and pink placards reading ' Death to Israel.' 

 

State-run media has eleven (11) reporters fact-checking Sarah Palin's book and not even one covering the president's grandmother at the Hajj?   I wonder why. 

Maybe the silly infidel reporters can't get in -- you know, what with the religious apartheid and all.

 

 

 

Who are the Jews?

 

"I grew up being told that Israelis and Jews were the lowest type of creature in existence, put on Earth only to kill us Arabs. In math class the teacher would say, 'If one rocket killed X number of Jews, how many would six rockets kill?' "

 

Read this astonishing story of a Jew from Kuwait.

 

More deficit spending THIS YEAR ALONE than under ALL U.S. presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush COMBINED.

 

	Presidential Approval Index	Strongly Approve	Strongly Disapprove	Total Approve	Total Disapprove
	-15	26%	41%	46%	54%

And you thought healthcare 'reform' was about healthcare

 

Yeah, and the 'stimulus' was about stimulating the economy.

 

For Sale.

Bill sends this newsbit from Legal Newsline:

House health care bill expands state AGs' powers

 

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Nestled deeply within the 2,016-page national health care overhaul bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this month are three provisions that would significantly expand the powers of state attorneys general.

 

Sections of the $1 trillion Affordable Health Care for America Act would be a boon to the nation's trial lawyers, a key Democratic constituency, allowing their ranks to sue businesses through state attorneys general over alleged medical-related violations.

 

"With the national health care reform debate monopolizing the time and efforts of Congress over the past several months, the organized plaintiffs' bar has used this opportunity to redirect funding and lobbying power to go on the offensive," said Victor Schwartz, chairman of the Public Policy Practice at Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP.

 

Schwartz, a leading Washington legal mind, said the House-approved health care overhaul would give state attorneys general broad powers to enforce provisions outlined in Title II of the proposed law: "Protections and Standards for Qualified Health Benefits Plans."

 

His analysis indicates that attorneys general would be able to pursue monetary damages on behalf of private plaintiffs for even technical violations.

 

"Given the scope of the legislation, it will, as a practical matter, be extremely difficult for defendants to comply perfectly with every provision and corresponding regulation, especially where ambiguous," Schwartz wrote.

 

"For that reason, section 257 would effectively grant state attorneys general the authority to target almost any business" ....

Government... in the business of targeting business?  Certainly not what we're used to hearing.

 
Courtesy of a New York Times blog about books ~ May 21, 2008

 

Approaching a grim milestone

Another seven posts after this one and BtB will hit the 10,000-posts-mark. And that's just here, not counting our infancy at blogger.com.

It makes me sad, really, to think that I have hit my head on the same wall, over and over again, ten thousand times.  No wonder I don't feel so good.

While I try to think of something special for the 10,000th post... here's some Maureen Dowd for you from the archives.  This was little over a month after the speech that brought Barack Obama onto the national stage (on Tisha b'Av).  He had not yet even won election to the Senate. 

September 2, 2004:

.... Despite the fact that the economy is cratering, Iraq is teetering, Afghanistan is reverting to warlords, Dick Cheney is glowering at the world, the war on terror has created more acts of terror, Ahmad Chalabi is an accused spy for Iran and the Pentagon has an accused spy for Israel, Republicans felt so good about themselves that when Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was inspired to become a Republican by Richard Nixon, they exploded. When Tricky Dick is a hot applause line, they're feeling cocky.

Republicans are political killers....

I called that one, "The Left has lost its collective mind."

Little did I know.

Send sufganiyot! and blessings to our beloved Israeli soldiers

Map from the Perry-Castaneda Library Collection, University of Texas at Austin.
 

Shalom again from Yerushalayim.

For more than ten years we have been sending gifts to Israeli soldiers on behalf of generous people like you from all around the world. Thank you once again for sharing with them your warm greetings and blessings, together with pizza and other foods.

We are proud to be associated with the most moral army in the world, fighting against a brutal and unrelenting terrorist foe who threatens the stability of the entire world. We are proud of our soldiers, irrespective of governments who use them as a punching bag to further their hidden agenda.

Soon we will be celebrating Chanukah, the eight day long Jewish Festival of Lights. You can again treat our beloved soldiers, an army comprising of our sons and daughters and neighbors, to traditional Jelly Donuts (sufganiot). In this way you let them know that they have worldwide support and that many people understand and appreciate their daily trials and tribulations.

 

 

Showing your support for them is more appreciated now than ever. And they really do appreciate receiving your gifts and especially your greetings.

 

You can participate in our Donut Project by going to our website, www.PizzaIDF.org. On each night of Channuka we will send donuts to soldiers in different parts of the country, in addition to pizza, burgers and hot soup.

We bless our soldiers that they continue to epitomize the spirit of the Maccabees of old. We wish you and your families a Happy Chanukah -- and once again, thank you for your continuing support.

Karen
www.PizzaIDF.org

P.S.   Your gifts of over $250 are eligible for a US IRS tax deduction.

Please tell your friends about this splendid way to bless our soldiers and their families by clicking here at http://PizzaIDF.org/SendToFriend.htm.

In Manhattan, it's China that's "shovel-ready"

China Daily:

China State Construction Engineering Corp, the largest contractor in China, has bagged a subway ventilation project worth about $100 million in New York's Manhattan area, marking the construction giant's third order in the United States' infrastructure space this year.

The contract was given to China Construction American Co, a subsidiary, the Wall Street Journal quoted a source as saying.

"The new project, along with the $410-million Hamilton Bridge project and a $1.7-billion entertainment project it won earlier this year, signals China State Construction's ambition to tap the American construction market," said Li Zhirui, an industry analyst at First Capital Securities.

Li, however, said the order came as no surprise as the US government is spending massively on infrastructure projects.

The three orders only account for about 4 percent of the value of its total orders this year, Li added.

In the first three quarters of this year, the Chinese construction giant signed more than $2 billion worth of contracts in the US market. China State Construction was also the contractor for a high school, a railway station and the Chinese embassy in the US....

 

Good news, bad news, it's all in the eye of the beholden

As the White House continues to push the economy off a cliff, I read the headlines that hedge or proclaim the "good news," that not quite as many hundreds of thousands applied for unemployment benefits this week or month as last week or month.  The state-run media supports the White House. period.  But it was not always that way.

See for instance this very blog, six years ago:

I'm not very knowledgeable about economic matters, but yesterday the big economic story was that during the third quarter, our economy grew at an annualized rate of 7.2% , described by CNBC as "a simply stellar number."

The NPR reporter I heard said simply "this is good news for the Bush administration."

Isn't it good news for the entire country? Instead of welcoming favorable economic news, NPR seems to mourn it! They would rather see the economy, and maybe even the the country, go down the toilet -- just to vindicate their Bush-hatred. Now, how sick is that?

 

So I guess this is good news today - - for the Obama administration.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy grew at a 2.8 percent pace last quarter, as the recovery got off to a slower start than first thought.

The government's new reading on gross domestic product wasn't as energetic as the 3.5 percent growth rate for the July-September period estimated just a month ago.

The main factors behind the downgrade: consumers didn't spend as much, commercial construction was weaker and the nation's trade deficit was more of a drag on growth. Businesses also trimmed more of their stockpiles, another restraining factor.

The new reading was a tad weaker than the 2.9 percent growth rate economists expected.

And p.s., just for some further perspective, here's a look at some headlines from the Bush era, as noted here in late 2003.

Democrats doubt Bush's credibility ... Democrats challenge Bush's credibility ... Democrats attack Bush record ... lash Bush 'lunacy'... hammer Bush on Iraq ... rap Bush's postwar planning ... boycott Bush's nominee ... slam Bush ... bash Bush ... charge Bush ... blocking Bush ... rip Bush ... target Bush ... hit Bush ... blast Bush ... criticize Bush ... grill Bush ... welcome Bush's fall in polls ... call Bush a liar ... lambaste Bush ...

Even Ew-Richard-Cohen!

"... governing has to be informed by ... the sense that we always know the president's interior life -- his bottom lines.  Obama's political career has been too brief for us to know his bottom lines ... He had... but lots of rhetoric..."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/11/24/missing_barack_obama_99270.html