American Hegemony

Former Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean remarked in 2003's New Hampshire primary, that America "should be planning for a time when it is not the world's greatest superpower : 'We have to take a different approach [to diplomacy]. We won't always have the strongest military.' "

I was remined of that famous quote the moment I watched this ominous scene:



For all his faults, and despite all the disagreements I have with his policies, I don't get any pleasure out of seeing this done to the President of the United States. It's a sight to sadden the soul. All America is being humiliated in this video, not just its President.


The genius of the American system of government is that it perceived the truth about the people it governs: that Man is a fallen being, with a capacity for evil, and certainly a propensity for error. The checks and balances, the struggle that is involved in getting anything done, is meant to test ideas and the mettle of the mind's they spring from. The notion that Man can become so wise as to not need advice, as to not benefit from the judgment that comes with scrutiny, must surely, almost by definition, be un-American.


Yet when balance and judgment and humility were most needed, where were they? How to keep faith in democracy if its implementation seems to weaken the very system it's meant to uphold? How to keep faith in America?

Why are these modern-day commissars not shaking the democratically-elected President's hand as he moves down this line-up? Are they not supposed to, according to the protocol of the event? If not, why doesn't President Obama know that? If they are deliberately snubbing him, why do they think they can get away with that? What faith do they have in America, and in Americans?


God help the Republic.

Tuesday Tales

Reflections on matters large and small on a cold, damp Tuesday morning.

Happiness: Talk show host Hugh Hewitt put politics aside for a terrific hour of radio a few weeks ago, testing his guests to justify "Why the Ancient Greeks matter". Specifically, how did the classics influence the Founding Fathers of America, and whether we in our busy lives should make time to read and study the likes of Homer, Aristophanes and Plato today. History buff that I am, my ears always perk up for the monthly visits from classicists John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White when they appear individually, so it was a particular treat to hear them tag teaming together to present their case. Professor White's final point, in particular, has stayed with me, a case of someone successfully putting a shape to the half-formed understanding I had of how I'd been trying to live my own life this past year:

David Allen White: How about "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." We have a false idea of liberty; we think it means that I can do whatever I want to do. Aristotle in the Ethics tells us that "no, real freedom consists of doing that which is Good". You can only be happy when you come to some understanding of goodness. Thomas Jefferson, the Pursuit of Happiness: we'll never be fully happy, because we'll never be fully good; but if we follow that brilliant notion from Aristotle which goes through all the Christian order, goodness does indeed lead to something like the happy life.

Another benefit from the show was news of Professor Reynolds' book on the subject, "When Athens met Jerusalem". Sounds fascinating..!

When the apostle Paul stood on Mars Hill in Athens (Acts 17:16-34), he faced a listening audience prepared by centuries of discussion. Because Paul understood the intellectual baggage and issues of his day, he was able to impact and change the direction of that discussion. Paul changed the Greek and Roman intellectual world that day.
...
[C]hristendom was born in a time much like the start of the twentieth century. Religious uncertainty and change were in the air. Old ideas had failed spectacularly, but new ideas had not yet taken their place. Christians faced a cultural, political and social environment that was both attractive and, at least in part, hostile to the gospel. How they were able to not only survive but also thrive and create a better, more appealing culture is a good lesson for all Christians today. Even non-Christians, who may be swayed by facile attacks on the cultural importance or benefits of Christianity, can utilize such knowledge for better and more constructive conversations with the billion human beings who are followers of Jesus.

Concern: Has something happened to Suzanne's site, Big Blue Wave? I haven't been able to view it for weeks now, without it crashing on me.

Equity: Thomas Sowell's latest column, "A Personal Inequity": "The problem with trying to equalize is that you can usually only equalize downward."

Verisimilitude: A Blackpool waxworks display serves as a humbling reminder that re-creating a lifelike resemblance in wax must be extremely hard to do well, and how much artistic talent is derived from skill at perception; the first skill to be exercised, yet the last to be mastered. Failures like this make me realize we should extend more praise upon those who manage to succeed in such a difficult medium.

Monday Margins

Back again after a bit of a blogging hiatus. Been so busy I've rarely even been online, let alone had time for blogging. Hope to get back into a regular routine again this week, starting with this collection of marginal news items that caught my wandering eye while trying to catch up on a month's worth of missed news.

Double Hero: Amazing Washington teenager performs not one but two inspirational acts in one busy day. "It's all in a days work I guess," she says. "I mean, I don't see myself as [a hero]. ... I'm sure a lot of people would do the same thing."

Red Sun Rising: Last October we felt compelled to ask, "Will Japan become the new France?", after reading about the rising popularity of the Japanese Communist Party among young voters in Japan, partially resulting from the popularity of a comic book adaptation of the marxist novel, Kanikosen. This week the UK Telegraph offers its readers a troubling update: "Japanese turn to communists in downturn".

Rampant corruption combined with the spiralling unemployment caused by the global economic downturn has given the [Japanese Communist Party] a huge new support base.
Party officials say that more than 14,000 people have joined the cause in the last 18 months, a quarter of whom are under 30. Similarly, circulation of the party newspaper, Akahata (Red Flag) has risen to 1.6 million copies.
...
This increase in grass-roots support has been boosted by a manga version of Karl Marx's "Das Kapital," which sold more than 6,000 copies in the two days after it was released in December, and revival of interest in a 1929 novel titled "Kanikosen" that told of a rebellion among workers on a crab processing ship off northern Japan.
Despite the recent surge in its fortunes, Shii and his supporters accept that the JCP will not have a majority in the Diet in the near future. They will fight the national elections, of course, but they are focusing much of their attention on winning hearts and minds at the local level.

Winning hearts and minds, through popular culture like comic books. I wonder if that's been happening here, as well. [Ah: work in progress.]

Hill of beans: the state of modern parenting in Santa Barbera, California. If you don't treat your kids as if they are hapless imbeciles, they'll call the cops on you.

106th Birthday: An Indiana gardener celebrates the fruits of a life well-tended.

"I like to work in the garden, I like to play golf," Ethan says.
He began hitting the links at the young age of 72 and began ballroom dancing at 90.
...
And it's that on-the-go lifestyle that keeps this father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great-great-grandfather busy.
...
And Ethan's secret to longevity?
"I don't have any secrets," he admits. "I stay pretty active."
...
It is a remarkable birthday surrounded by family, friends, and more than a century of memories.
"I don't think you'd be able to add very much more to it. It seems just about perfect," Ethan concludes.

Home

I'm thinking of moving to the old homeland. Where to go? I'll consider gay rights, access to abortion, and the local recycling programme as well, I'm sure, in deciding for Obamanation or Palinville. What'll it be?

Crime Type		2006 Total	Per 100,000 People	National per 100,000 People
Overall Harrisburg Crime Index		3246	6831.7	4479.3
Harrisburg Violent Crimes		803	1690	553.5
Harrisburg Murders		10	21	7
Harrisburg Rapes		51	107.3	33.1
Harrisburg Robberies		461	970.2	205.8
Harrisburg Aggravated Assaults		281	591.4	336.5
Harrisburg Property Crimes		2443	5141.6	3906.1
Harrisburg Burglaries		629	1323.8	813.2
Harrisburg Larceny/Thefts		1655	3483.2	2601.7
Harrisburg Motor Vehicle Thefts		159	334.6	501.5
Harrisburg Arsons 1		32	67.35	N/A

For more city crime stats go to AreaConnect and select a city.

I'm not sure. For the sake of comparison, let's look at Texas:

Latest 2006 Crimes per 100,000 People:

	Georgetown, TX	Harrisburg, PA	National
Murder:	0	21	7
Forcible Rape:	22.43	107.34	32.2
Robbery:	22.4	970.2	205.8
Aggravated Assault:	79.8	591.4	336.5
Burglary:	216.8	1323.8	813.2
Larceny Theft:	1171.5	3483.2	2601.7
Vehicle Theft:	107.2	334.6	501.5

Actual Reported Population and Crimes:

	Georgetown, TX	Harrisburg, PA
Population:	40,121	47,514
Murder:	0	10
Forcible Rape:	9	51
Robbery:	9	461
Aggravated Assault:	32	281
Burglary:	87	629
Larceny Theft:	470	1655
Vehicle Theft:	43	159

http://harrisburgpa.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm?c1=Georgetown&s1=TX&c2=harrisburg&s2=PA

Anarcho-Tyranny in the U.K. / Modernity-wide Psychosis

I've been through some wars and other man-made disasters, and I've seen some of the worst that Man is capable of. There's no end to the evil things people can do, even things I see around me daily in this distant and dismal city here in Canada surprising me. I've also seen things and witnessed heroism and glory beyond the ken of the average man. What I see now, what passes for normal, what passes for The Good, is so disturbing that I conclude that the Modern world I love so much is sick in mind and soul. Yes, I have my pet theory, but that must wait. Below I hope you'll bear with the length of the post to witness some of what goes on in our shared reality, such as it is. This is a world of Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious as intelligentsia.

The world has come to this: after writing about George Washington's dignitas, some hack at the New York Times concludes with this:

Americans still admire dignity. But the word has become unmoored from any larger set of rules or ethical system.

But it’s not right to end on a note of cultural pessimism because there is the fact of President Obama. Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity. The cultural effects of his presidency are not yet clear, but they may surpass his policy impact. He may revitalize the concept of dignity for a new generation and embody a new set of rules for self-mastery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/opinion/07brooks.html?ref=instapundit

From the Washington Post there's the flip side of the fascism of the Left, not the Führer worship but the demonization of the petit-bourgeiosie:

Joseph Ashby, "Lunacy on Parade," American Thinker. July 07, 2009

Attempting to break the mold of mindlessness, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen has unleashed the full fury of his intellectual prowess on Sarah Palin.

Cohen’s piece manages to slog out 770 words without squeezing out an ounce of substance. He does make one thing clear: he lies awake at night worrying about Palin. Here is a sample of his Pulitzer-worthy commentary:

…dumb as a mud wall…
…utter disaster…
…awful…
…allergic to briefings…
…uncorrupted by knowledge…
…unfit for office…
…a ditz…

And Cohen gets paid to write this. Remind me again why newspapers are a dying business?

I suggest that many people are not intelligent even though they seem on the surface to be so, having, for example, high degrees from prestigious universities, a fair indication, as a rule, of some kind of intellectual competence, and further, that many of them are in positions of high public and private authority, by which I mean here our intelligentsia. As impressive as the titles and positions might well be, and even are, we still have what comes out in the light of reality to be intellectual monkeys. We have trained idiots holding positions of power and authority. Sarah Palin is "dumb as a mud wall'? It's a metaphor, to be honest, but stale and inappropriate. It's not mixed, but it's colorless and stupid. Sarah Palin isn't mute, i.e. "dumb." But to the point, what's the criticism and what is it based on? We have here a circle jerk, to be crude but plain. Our intelligentsia sit in a circle and each reaches over and plays with the one beside him, each thinking it's satisfying. How smart is that? I don't care if each and every one of them is happy about it. What does it have to do with anyone else? It's disgusting and shameful, and who cares about their status? Wouldn't you think of them as all the more disgusting for it?

Like monkeys imitating, we see the little monkeys doing it too. It's painful seeing little monkeys imitating large monkeys jerking each other off. We see below some moron in england aping his higher-ups, he likely knows not why. He's doing what his superiours are telling him, however indirectly. Little pukes do what big pukes do. And that., dear reader, can lead to the end of the world. Many people aren't thinking, and they never will. They just do what the rest do, even if it leads to destruction. Few like being on the outside. They'll do anything and not think about it at all, so long as it seems to be popular with those they fear and want to curry favor from. They want to get along and feel righteous. I call it stupidity. Why would we think it anything else? Well, we could consider it insanity. Unfortunately, it's normal.

UK deports terror threats!

Anjem Chaudary? Abu Qatada? Abu Izzadeen?

Nope. Kylie Shirley, age 14, and other members of the First United Methodist Church of Okeechobee, Florida.

When news stories danced and twisted and turned in order to avoid identifying the perpetrators of terrorist acts as Muslims, I've joked about Methodists committing terrorism -- maybe some UK official thought I was serious.

This incident is the direct fruit of anti-terror laws that were framed specifically in order to avoid giving the impression that they were drafted in order to fight against Islamic jihad terror. Such laws focus on minutiae and side issues, and 14-year-old Christians snapping tourist photos end up getting deported, while real Islamic jihad threats continue to operate freely in Britain, thumbing their noses at authorities.

One wonders how many jihadists from Pakistan eased through customs while British officials were detaining, questioning, and deporting the Methodists from Okeechobee.

Absurd Britannia Alert: "Teens from Okeechobee church deported from England after running afoul of anti-terror law," by Carolyn Scofield for WPTV.com, July 3 (thanks to L.A.):

OKEECHOBEE — Kylie Shirley took one picture in England.

The 14-year old and a friend posed in front of a window. Behind them is the British Airways flight that carried them to Gatwick Airport in London.

A few minutes later, guards confiscated her camera and cell phone.

Kylie and thirteen other members of the First United Methodist Church of Okeechobee were sent into a nearby room.

There immigration officials questioned, photographed and fingerprinted them before putting them on planes headed back to the United States.

"The guy from immigration came in and told us that we were going to be sent home and everybody started crying," says the 8th grader, who says England is her favorite country outside of the United States.

The church group was on a mission trip. They planned to help remodel the Islington Central Methodist Church and sightsee after that.

"When they were questioned about entry, we all gave the same answer," says Pastor Jim Dawson. "The answer was, we were here to do missionary work in a church."

The word "work" caught the attention of immigration officials.

Under the United Kingdom's tier system that's designed to deter illegal workers and potential terrorists, anyone doing any kind of charity or religious work must have a visa and Certificate of Sponsorship along with a passport.

The church group only had passports.

Dawson says they arranged the trip last year, before the rules went into effect. They booked everything through a travel agency in Tennessee.

The agency says it's the traveler's responsibility to know the rules.

So there they were, trapped in a room at Gatwick Airport, only allowed one phone call to the American Embassy.

William Shirley, Kylie's father, says within 20 minutes of going into the room, one immigration official told him they were already booked on a flight back to the U.S....

The group spent a year and a half raising money for the trip. Now they don't know if they'll ever get the $18,000 back....

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026851.php#respond

The case aboe is of a fool and a moron who doesn't get the tory at all. He's imitating others without a moment of thought of his own. He's usual. He's typical. He's ordinary and normal. That's a problem these days. It wouldn't surprise me to find the English national anthem changed to an old Sex Pistols tune. In fact, I think this should be it, at least till there is a reprisal of our Modernist revolution so suddenly halted in mid-stream.

Right ! now ! ha ha ha ha ha

I am an antichrist
I am an anarchist
Dont know what I want but
I know how to get it
I wanna destroy the passer by cos i

I wanna be anarchy !
No dogs body

Anarchy for the u.k its coming sometime and maybe
I give a wrong time stop a trafic line
Your future dream is a shopping scheme cos i

I wanna be anarchy !
In the city

How many ways to get what you want
I use the best I use the rest
I use the enemy I use anarchy cos i

I wanna be anarchy !
The only way to be !

Is this the m.p.l.a
Or is this the u.d.a
Or is this the i.r.a
I thought it was the u.k or just
Another country
Another council tenancy

I wanna be an anarchist
Oh what a name
Get pissed destroy !

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/sex+pistols/anarchy+in+the+uk_20123592.html

There are two kinds of people in this life: Modernists and primitives. The natural state of Humanness is a state of primitivism; and it's only in the past 250 years that Man has become Modern. Most aren't, and most will not become so in this period of history. Primitivism is normal. It's the way of Man. The monkeys of Modernity, our intelligentsia, are typical people of the typical sort. In my humble opinion, they are not special. They are just garbage. Removing them makes me happy, if only we could. We must do so if our revolution is to regain its course as the future of Humanness. It's not natural, this revolution. It's not the Human way of being. It's not going to et any sympathy from the primitives, even those sophisticated monkeys of the intelligentsia. They're up-scale Sex Pistols. They're going crazy and wrecking our world. They are nearly everyone, and unless we stop them because we believe in the just cause of Modernity, we will lose and be drowned. Us or them.

When a man loves a woman, if that's not too uncool.

When I heard that the kind-of-Black-guy pop star was kaput, I got excited. Then I found out it's Michael Jackson. I packed my bags for the trip to the memorial, but then I realized I'd left a glove on the coffee table, so I turned around and came home instead. I didn't feel like moon-walking all the way to L.A anyway.

Thomas Lifson, "Jackson funeral: BO Poison." American Thinker. July 07, 2009

The true extent of the media hype surrounding the death of Michael Jackson has been exposed. Fox News reports on air that as the Michael Jackson memorial was starting, tickets were being handed out to bystanders, as embarrassingly empty seats inside the Staples Center signaled reality refusing to conform to media-generated expectations.

More: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/jackson_funeral_bo_poison.html

Obama, Osama, Michael Jackson, I get them mixed up. They're all special though, as I understand it, which is probably deeply. 'Cause I'm bad.
http://nodhimmitude.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-rama-come-moonwalk-with-me.html

Oh, you want good? Well, maybe this works.

Obama and the Commie Dwarfs

I see Obama all over this story, but where's Sarah Palin? Where does she fit in here? We got yer Obama, yer Chavez, Ortega, Castro, Amadinejad, the creepy little priest, any number of scums like Howard Zinn, but where's Sarah Palin to wash it all away?

Earlier this year, in the face of strong public opposition, Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales declared that he would stage a referendum to have the country’s constitutional term limits law overturned, thereby allowing him to remain indefinitely in power. The people of Honduras had adopted the single, four-year--term limit as part of their Constitution in January of 1982. Significantly, the term limits provision is one of only eight “firm articles,” out of 375. By law, cannot be amended.

The Supreme Court of Honduras declared the Zelaya referendum unconstitutional, his own Liberal Party came out in strong opposition, and the public overwhelmingly opposed his power grab. Despite this, Zelaya, a leftwing politician with strong ties to Cuba’s Castro and Venezuela’s Chavez, scheduled the referendum for Sunday, June 28. At midnight, Wednesday, June 24, the strong-arm president gave a televised speech accusing his opposition of promoting “destabilization and chaos” by attempting to thwart his unconstitutional referendum.

As the situation in Honduras continued to deteriorate, the Zelaya’s attorney general called for his ouster; his Defense Minister resigned; he fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for stating that he would refuse to send out troops to put down public protests; the chiefs of the army, navy, and air force resigned; and the country’s Supreme Court ordered the nation’s army and police not to support the unconstitutional referendum.

Through all of this, Barack Obama abetted the Zelaya power grab through his calculated silence....

Full Story Here.

Obama's not the only one to give the people of Honduras a rough ride: the S.G. of the U.N. is in on it too. He's with Zelaya today flying in to help the past president reclaim his lost spot. Who? This guy, standing up for Zelaya, like Obama's doing.

The U.N. General Assembly president accused the United States on Tuesday of “demonizing” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the latest blast against Washington by the former Nicaraguan official.

“I don’t think anyone can doubt that in our part of the world, concretely here … Ahmadinejad has been demonized,” Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann told a news conference.
…
D’Escoto said that “the United States has been in the business of the demonization of people from (for)ever,” but had “canonized” former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza and former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

“And then we hear terrible things about Ahmadinejad,” D’Escoto said at the news conference on a recent trip to Syria, Finland, China, Bahrain, Switzerland and Iran to promote a U.N. conference in June on the world financial crisis.

D’Escoto said there had been “a big ado,” including protest letters written to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, when he went to a New York meeting attended by Ahmadinejad during the annual General Assembly summit last September. He did not say who had written the letters.

He said the “demonization” contrasted with the “great respect” in which Iran was held by its neighbors for hosting some 3 million refugees from Afghanistan.

D’Escoto also doesn’t want mass-murderer Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir busted because it would be “racist,”

He said it would “deepen a perception that international justice is racist.”

While he was at it, D’Escoto defends his statement accusing Israel of apartheid towards Palestinians because Jimmy Carter said it first.

http://faustasblog.com/?tag=miguel-descoto

Obama can nod and wink at Amadinejed, and D'Escoto can schmooze with him too. One big happy family.

Obama officials say talks with Iran still possible.

By PHILIP ELLIOTT The Associated Press
Sunday, June 28, 2009; 6:57 PM

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is open to discussions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions despite protests questioning the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, U.S. officials said Sunday.

Ahmadinejad has accused the West of stoking unrest, singling out Britain and the United States for allegations of meddling. Last week, Iran expelled two British diplomats, and Britain responded in kind. Iran, which detained nine British Embassy employees Saturday before releasing four, has said it's considering downgrading diplomatic ties with Britain.

The U.S. has not had diplomatic relations with Tehran since the aftermath of the Iranian revolution in 1979. On Saturday, Ahmadinejad said he would make the U.S. regret its criticism of the postelection crackdown and said the "mask has been removed" from Obama's efforts to improve relations.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday that Ahmadinejad is falling back on his government's usual strategy of blaming the West and the United States in particular for its internal problems.

"This is a profound moment of change. And what Ahmadinejad says to try to change the subject is, frankly, not going to work in the current context, because the people understand that the United States has not been meddling in their internal affairs," she said.

The legitimacy of the government, while questioned by the people of Iran, is not the critical issue for the U.S. goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear capability, Rice said.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062800672.html

Claudia Rosett has some good insight into the news from Honduras, particularly the Sandinista thug now in charge fo the U.N. Here's a bit of her piece, link to follow:

Zelaya — according to the AP – is traveling in a Venezuelan jet. And accompanying him is the last thing Honduras, or any other other embattled democracy needs: The president of the United Nations General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockman.

D’Escoto sums up just about everything wrong with the United Nations. As head of the 192-member-state General Assembly for its 2008-2009 session, he has been empowered to swan around the world, swaddled in the UN flag and purporting to speak for the poor, the oppressed, and the “international community.” In truth, d”Escoto is a Nicaraguan Sandinista retread, oozing hard-left dogma, praising some of the world’s worst despotisms and agitating from his plush UN offices in midtown Manhattan for massive transfers of wealth from the world’s leading democracies to his pals in tyrants’ cockpits of places such as Iran.

I mention Iran in particular because d’Escoto made a five-day visit there in March, with his expenses apparently paid by the Iranian government. He returned to New York to hold a press conference trashing free countries such as the U.S., and praising Iran’s regime as one enjoying “great respect.” For more detail, here’s a link to my column at the time for Forbes.com , covering D’Escoto’s performance on that occasion.

[d'Escoto embracing Ahmadinejad at the UN]

D’Escoto took special pains to denounce the U.S. for having “demonized” his buddy, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – whose rigged “relection” as president on June 12th, as we all know, has inspired massive protests inside Iran itself.

Wielding the credentials of president of the UN General Assembly, D’Escoto enjoys the pernicious position of being a prominent official who is responsible in theory to everyone, but in practice is accountable to almost no one — while serving at the pleasure of a General Assembly which is dominated by unfree states. The GA’s most powerful voting bloc is the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, which overlaps with the so-called Group of 77 — a UN caucus organization which actually includes 130 members, who chose as their chairman for 2009 … wait for it… Sudan. That’s the kind of crowd behind d’Escoto.

Nicely written piece. Read it all here: http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/the-last-thing-honduras-needs/

And who is this winner?

Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, M.M., born in Los Angeles[1] on February 5, 1933, is a Nicaraguan diplomat, politician and Catholic priest.[2] He is the current President of the United Nations General Assembly; taking up his one year term in September 2008 and presiding over the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

D'Escoto was ordained a Roman Catholic priest for the Maryknoll congregation, before engaging in politics. He was a key figure in the founding of the Maryknoll imprint, Orbis Books, in 1970, and was an official with the World Council of Churches. As an adherent of liberation theology, he secretly joined the Sandinistas.

He served as foreign minister in Daniel Ortega's FSLN government from 1979 to 1990. ... While foreign minister, he received the Lenin Peace Prize for 1985-6....

[Elected to head the U.N.] D'Escoto designated^[13] 15 senior advisers : Brother David Andrews CSC (USA), Ms. Maude Barlow (Canada), Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algeria), Mr. Leonardo Boff (Brazil), Mr. Kevin Cahill (USA), Mr. François Houtart (Belgium), Mr. Noam Chomsky (USA), Mr. Ramsey Clark (USA), Mr. Richard Falk (USA), Mr. Michael Kennedy (USA), Ms. Eleonora Kennedy (USA), Mr. Olivier De Schutter (Belgium), Mr. Joseph Stiglitz (USA), Sir John E. Sulston (UK), Mr. Howard Zinn (USA).

More, if you can stomach it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_d'Escoto_Brockmann

UN Watch has this on the "special advisors":

And now this: UN General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockman, former Nicaraguan FM and unrepentant Sandinista, has named a rogues’ gallery of anti-Western crackpots and 9/11 conspiracy theorists as his “Special Senior Advisors.” The indefatigable Matt Lee of Inner City Press has the story here.

Now advising the head of the UN’s parliament are Professor Richard Falk, cheerleader for the theory that 9/11 was an inside job; Ramsey Clark, tool of left-wing cultists who defend Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Rwandan torturers as anti-imperialist heroes, and Noam Chomsky, the anti-American guru who lends his name to Holocaust deniers. ...

http://blog.unwatch.org/?cat=47

What part of this are we supposed to like? Where's the part about Sarah Palin? Why is this all about Obama and the seven Commie dwarfs? What kind of country do we have here, anyway? Where's Sarah Palin?

[As Ralph Waldo] Emerson (1803 - 1882) sagely noted, every hero becomes a bore at last. The danger for the celebrity entertainer Barack Obama may lie not so much in his inane and perfectly commonplace juvenile politics, i.e. his "liberalism," as in the fact that he is beginning to bore the audience.

When the audience becomes bored by its heroes it begins to lust for something new - and that something new can always become the horrific spectacle of sudden fall and disintegration. It's all show biz after all - and the show must go on.

Teleologicus, Jun 30, 05:47 AM at: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/real_vs_an_authentic_world.html

Sarah Palin is like my mother, (assuming that I'd had one,) a normal and ordinary and decent woman like most others back home. Do we really want celebrity Commies for leaders instead? This just ain't right.

Fourth of July Palinism.

Don't tread on us.

[T]he Gadsden Flag "the most common symbol displayed by right wing terrorist organizations."

What is America?

When I was younger, America was a nation, the best on Earth, home of the brave and the land of the free, my home, a great place. Today I'm sick at the thought of it. Our natural president, Sarah Palin, is subject to insane hate-campaigns.

Our current office-holder bows down to foreign kings who set up terrorist acts against our people and our nation; he glad-hands drug-dealing, terrorist supporting Banana Republic dictators; schmoozes with Caribbean Communists; plays Stepin Fetchit like a second-rate warm-up comedy act for a stripper on the European stage; and bellies to the bar to slag his family in the hope of a few coins dropped his way for amusing the town hoods by way of sucking jihadis at Cairo. Our official leader blows off dying kids battling for democracy in Iran and blows Latino thugs in the the hope of gaining a wad or two by dumping on Hondurans. The man is facing hondos of his own. All down. This scum-bag is finished. In six months he's made many of us hate our own government more than we've ever hated anything else in life. He's not America. He's the end of the fasces.

Sarah Palin is the beginning of the renewal of America's beautiful Revolution. Four years from now it'll be long past time for many American citizenship-holders to leave. They won't have anything worth staying for anyway, but they'll have many good reasons to go. They'll be so deeply hated they won't be safe staying. Middle-class people will visit them and give them the belated message that America is for free people, that our nation is independent, that we live our own lives and the government is going to shrink to minimal. Maybe Sarah Palin will take office. If not, there will still be a palin nation for the president who comes.

The Greek word palin, as many must know now, means "return." Yes, we will return our nation to its origins, renewed and more beautiful than before. The intoxicated losers in the house of our nation today will find a reckoning coming. They'll find themselves held responsible for the damage when the parental people return. This party won't last. Then we'll rebuild.

The Gadsden Flag has been used throughout modern politics as a symbol of disagreement with the current governmment. This flag was most notably used during the Tea Party protests of 2009. The flag is often associated with the Right of revolution.

This current use of the flag has caught the government's attention.... Ironically, some authorities now label the Gadsden flag as "Extremist" .... Reports from Louisiana say that a man was detained by police for driving with a "Don't Tread on Me" bumper sticker on his vehicle.^[3] A 2009 unclassified report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) to Missouri law enforcement called the Gadsden Flag "the most common symbol displayed by right wing terrorist."^[4]

Sarah Palin is the America that's going to come back to bite the Left. Our country. Don't tread on it.

N.B. Left hate-graphics: http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2009/06/wonkette-goes-after-trig-palin-again.html
N.B.: [A] Department of Homeland Security report, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment"