Ho

I bet most people know the infamous “Who-Hu-is-leading-China” video of Condi and Bush.

But after the appointment of Herman van Who? Rompuy as EU President and Baroness Who? Ashton as High Representative for Foreign Affairs, most people wonder: WHO is leading Europe?

———————————

Who is leading Europe?WHO?!..err who?WHO?!!!...?????

Here is a fictional conversation between US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about WHO? is leading Europe……

Obama: Hillary! Nice to see you. What’s happening?

Hillary: Sir, I have the report here about the new President of Europe.

Obama: Great. Lay it on me.

Hillary: Who? is the new President of Europe.

Obama: That’s what I want to know.

Hillary: That’s what I’am telling you.

Obama: Thats what I’am asking you. Who?  is the President of Europe?

Hillary: Yes.

Obama: I mean the fellows name.

Hillary: Who?

Obama: The guy in Europe?

Hillary: Who?

Obama: The new President of Europe.

Hillary: Who?!

Obama: The Europeman!!!

Hillary: Who? Is leading Europe.

4
Obama: Now whaddya’ asking me for?

Hillary: I’am telling you Who? is leading Europe.

Obama: Well, I’am asking you. Who? is leading Europe?

Hillary: That’s the man’s name.

Obama: That’s Who?’s name?

Hillary: Yes.

Obama: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the President of Europe?

Hillary: Yes Sir.

Obama: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in Europe? I thought he was in the Middle East.

Hillary: That’s correct.

Obama: Then, Who? is in Europe?

Hillary: Yes Sir.

Obama: Yassir is in Europe?

Hillary: No, Sir.

Obama: Then Who? is?

Hillary: Yes Sir.

Obama: Yassir?

Hillary: No, Sir.

Obama: Look, Hillary. I need to know the name of the new President of Europe. Get me the Secretary General of the UN on the phone.

Hillary: Kofi?

Obama: No, thanks.

Hillary: You want Kofi?

Obama: No.

Hillary: You don’t want Kofi.

Obama: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the UN.

Hillary: Yes, Sir.

Obama: No Yassir! The guy at the UN.

Hillary: Kofi?

Obama: Milk! Will you please make the call?

Hillary: An call Who?

Obama: Who? is the guy at the UN?

Hillary: Who? is the guy in Europe.

Obama: Will you stay out of Europe?!

Hillary: Yes, Sir.

Obama: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the UN.

Hillary: Kofi.

Obama: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone! (H. picks up the phone.)

———————

Read an excellent article here in the Global Post:

Opinion: China has a President Hu, now Europe chooses President Who?

The process of elimination that led to Van Rompuy’s appointment represents all that is institutionally wrong with the European Union.

LONDON, U.K. — Two weeks ago, after eight years of politicking, voting — including one do-over to make sure the right result was achieved — the European Union’s Treaty of Lisbon was finally ratified.

One of its key provisions was the creation of the post of president. For once the people of Europe were genuinely interested in the doings of their union. Thursday night the EU’s first president was named and the EU went back to sleep. The winner is: Herman Van Rompuy, prime minister of Belgium.

Haven’t heard of him? Neither have most Europeans. One who has, Marie-Noelle Lienemann, a socialist member of the European Parliament, described Van Rompuy as “tasteless, odorless and colorless.”

Well, he is a bit more than that. He is an economist by training with a long career in Belgian public life as a member of the right-wing Christian Democrat Party. A year ago when he became Belgium’s prime minister his bifurcated nation was on the verge of splitting apart on ethnic lines and his emollient — or dull — personality is credited with dampening the tension between the Flemish and Walloon populations in the tiny country. Whether that same emollience is what the EU presidency is really all about no one is sure of.

The Lisbon Treaty is vague about what the president is supposed to do, besides chair summits of the EU’s 27 member states. But there has to be something else important because the job pays unbelievably well. Van Rompuy’s salary will be between 300,000 and 350,000 euros per year. At the current rate of exchange that is up to $100,000 more than U.S. President Barack Obama makes … and Van Rompuy doesn’t have to worry about 3 a.m. calls about nuclear triggers going missing in Pakistan.

Beyond the money, the very vagueness of the job description made it an attractive proposition for a number of former leaders of European countries including British Prime Minister Tony Blair who wanted the job — badly. Blair wanted to shape the presidency in his own image and give the EU a much larger presence on the world stage. Currently the organization’s main international function is to provide large sums of money to underwrite diplomatic deals reached by its biggest members: Germany, France and Britain.

The process of elimination which led to Van Rompuy’s appointment represents all that is institutionally wrong with the European Union. The EU’s democratic deficit has often been noted. President’s are usually elected by the public — not this time. The deal giving Van Rompuy the job wasn’t cut in the traditional smoke-filled back room. Rather German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy — neither of them a smoker (in public anyway) — had dinner on Wednesday night to decide who they would back from the field of possibilities.

At his inauguration a few days ago, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai told dozens of visiting dignitaries that Afghan forces will have the country securely in hand in just five short years. “We are determined that by the next five years, the Afghan forces are capable of taking the lead in ensuring security and stability across the country,” he said.

Great, just great. But who’s going to keep Afghanistan Safe for Democracy in the meantime? You guessed it. The suckers from the land of the Big PX, the United States. Right now, mind you, we’ve got about a dozen allies helping out in Afghanistan but over 2/3 of the troops on the ground are American. And most of our Allies sense the strong smell of cadaverine. They are planning to get out.

Three hundred dignitaries (a dignitary is a celebrity who is in no way entertaining) attended the inauguration ceremonies in the Kabul palace but outside the the streets were empty. Police had ordered citizens to stay home.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, however, there were street celebrations, including the south where a Taliban suicide bomber killed 10 civilians and a car bomber killed two more U.S. soldiers.

Karzai, taking a page out of Rodney (“Can’t we all just get along?”) King’s book proposed a “loya jirga,” a sort of Afghan version of a Sicilian “sit-down.”

Hillary and a Colleague Laugh It Up Over the Prospect of Kicking a Little Taliban Ass

The Taliban ridiculed the sit-down and Abdullah Abdullah, the guy who lost to Mr Karzai in the likely-rigged presidential elections also dissed it claiming Karzai was, is, and always will be corrupt.

But Karzai’s pledge to have Afghanistan securely under control (in just 5 years) was well received by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. Mrs. Clinton, who should know better after having lived with a pathological liar for over 35 years, apparently bought Karzai’s line of shit.

Mrs. Clinton’s boss, Barry Obama, has put off making any substantive decisions about American troop commitments in Afghanistan. When Barry took over as Commander in Chief he promised a swift decision on Afghanistan. While he has been dithering with things like the Chicago Olympics, 300 more Americans have died in Afghanistan. He announced Saturday that his decision will be postponed at least another week, until sometime after Thanksgiving. At the current rate another 20 Americans should die while he’s jacking off. Hard to tear yourself away from those photo ops and do something that requires balls, isn’t it Barry?

This all could be funny. But it isn’t

Let me tell you why it’s time to stop laughing. Obama likely will up our troop commitment in Afghanistan to around 110,000. They will be there for at least five years, probably more like twenty, because Afghanistan is fundamentally incapable of sustaining a democratic government for at least another generation.

With a median age of 18 (that means half of all Afghanis are under 18) the country will have an unlimited supply of terrorist recruits, gangsters, warlords, and common criminals for the foreseeable future. The country is without resources, an economy, a government, or a sense of nationhood. Afghanistan’s only identifiable skills appear to be rug making, opium cultivation, and tribal warfare.

Despite what Messrs Obama and Karzai and Ms Clinton say, we’ll be there at least ten years, if not twenty. Like Vietnam, our troop commitments will increase while our successes diminish.

Though the Obama flacks are talking around 110,000 troops (vs. the 68,000 currently there), I know from experience that we couldn’t do the job with 200,000. But I’ll stick with the “experts” and say that the commitment is 110,000 troops and I’ll cut my twenty-year estimate to just ten.

Using the conservative estimates above, here is the calculus of war: At our current military death rate in Afghanistan (5 deaths per thousand soldiers per year) we can expect to lose another 5500 young men and women over the next decade. Five thousand five hundred young Americans, most of whom are just now heading from middle school to high school.

If you’d like your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter to have a chance to be among these 5500 dead American youth, be sure to sit down tonight and write Mr. Obama, expressing your strong support for an American troop commitment in Afghanistan.

Eight US Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

UN Evacuating Workers from Afghanistan

I love that Hillary is back in the news!

Last week she was on the cover of Newsweek.

Now the Secretary of State is featured in Vogue. (You might remember Vogue reps said Clinton backed out of appearing in the magazine during the 2008 campaign because it was too feminine – and the President can’t be feminine.)

Clinton has not been this popular since Bill was impeached!

Personally, I think it has something to do with the fact that Hillary is no longer being perceived as a power-hungry machine. Clinton has focused on traveling the world and meeting with as many heads of state as she can. While Obama is being criticized for either not acting fast enough or not doing anything substantive, Clinton is coming off as the golden child of the Barack administration.

READ THE VOGUE ARTICLE! Even if it’s just because Hillary describes how easy it is to develop a crush on British Foreign Secretary David Millband.

We’re playing those mind games together
Pushing the barriers,
Planting seeds
Playing the mind guerrilla
Chanting the mantra, peace on earth
-John Lennon

It’s a chilling moment when the light goes out in someone’s eyes. A once-radiant child hardens from abuse. A woman’s heart shrinks after her husband’s abandonment.

The person looks the same, maybe acts the same. But something is gone, and what’s lost is irretrievable. It’s like when a person dies: in a heartbeat, the soul vanishes.

I witnessed this alteration recently when I visited my goddaughter, a radiant girl. Her mom, a hardcore progressive, has started exposing her to the darkest elements of the left. And the last time I looked in the girl’s eyes, the light had gone out. Disappeared. Just like that.

I see this phenomenon every day: a light dimming. The friendly shopkeeper snaps at me. My cheerful neighbor seems flattened.

And you hear it in the news: people acting strangely, going off the deep end. The most bizarre behavior becoming the new normal.

A thug bites off a finger. Sarah Palin’s church is torched. Bullies intimidate voters.

Last week, an esteemed Columbia University black architecture professor punched a white female coworker in the eye for not doing more about white privilege.

He has no history of violence. So why now?

Why now? This may be the most important question of our time. Why are some people reaching the boiling point? Why do many others look vacant, like an Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The shootings at military bases, from Little Rock to Fort Hood — why now?

It’s Obama, of course.

Liberals will excoriate me for writing this. They’ll insist that bad behavior is not Obama’s fault. He’s a man of peace.

But study the phenomenon of cults, and the dynamics are always the same. The leader can incite violence without ever getting his hands dirty. Obama is controlling the marionette of the masses.

If Obamamania is a cult, then Obama is the cult leader. Cult leaders routinely pull the strings of their followers. The most extreme example is Charles Manson. He rots in prison for murders he never committed. He didn’t have to do the dirty work. His brainwashed charges did his bidding.

I’m not saying Obama is a Charles Manson. There are varying degrees of manipulation, from using sexy blondes to entice men to buy cars all the way to hypnotizing them to drink poisoned Kool Aid. But there’s a common denominator in all mind control: manipulating people through mind games.

As soon as Obama came on the scene, the programming began. His face was plastered everywhere like Mao. In his speeches, Obama lulled audiences with a melodious voice and feel-good phrases repeated over and over. And he began inciting people with his charming smile.

First, the vultures starting swooping down on Hillary. Obama chose not to call off the dogs.

Then thugs invaded caucuses. Again, silence.

Which led to vicious misogyny against Sarah Palin and threats on her life. From Obama: not a peep.

We even saw armed thugs at polling places. Ignored and not prosecuted by Obama’s Attorney General.

The moment Obama became president, he upped the signals. At the swearing in, the entire family eerily chose to wear black and red, colors associated with communism and black nationalism. Obama’s first radio address was broadcast in the Arab world.

Obama returned Britain’s gift of a Winston Churchill statue while embracing dictators. He gave a white police officer a dressing down for doing his job, in effect calling him a racist.

Obama’s greatest magic trick? Brainwashing the masses to believe that racism is a greater danger than radical Islam, and that Obama himself is in constant peril.

Opposing health care means you oppose Obama. Oppose Obama and you’re part of a vast right-wing racist conspiracy.

Thus, more and more people are finding themselves on the receiving end of a fist, figurative or literal. After the White House released a directive for his followers to strike back hard, a frail, diabetic black man at a Town Hall was beaten up.

Even women can get slugged in the face. Obama signaled during the primary that women were fair game.

Obama and the Left are making sure that there ia an increasing number of persuadable people. By displacing workers, panicking business owners with Draconian laws, and whipping up rage and paranoia, they amass more lackeys.

The American Hard Left knows how to create a cult because it is a cult, one with a violent history. The Black Panthers, Symbionese Liberation Army, Weathermen, Black Muslims — all nefarious cults.

Members of the Weathermen, for instance, had their spirits broken through forced wickedness, such as animal abuse. Patty Hearst morphed into bank robber Tania after weeks of isolation, rape, and beatings by the SLA. Huey P. Newton sent his Black Panthers to the hospital or to the grave if they didn’t practice total obedience.

So what’s the end game here?

The first goal is power. The Left has an insatiable need to control every aspect of our lives.

But there’s a deeper reason, one much more insidious.

The Left wants to tear Americans down. Just as the Weatherman did to those naïve lost kids, they want to break our spirits. This goal of degradation is more crucial than their one-world government.

The progressives want to turn us into them, to make us feel as deprived and depraved and deadened. It’s the only way that they can silence the roar of shame and self-loathing.

What they don’t understand is this: it’s not going to happen. There are too many of us who won’t be hypnotized.

We can see right through them. We know who they are: the most piteous of human beings, and the most dangerous. Men without a country, orphans far from home. The forsaken and disowned.

They’re “hungry ghosts,” to use a Tibetan phrase: tormented beings who are starving to death from their inner nothingness.

Mother Teresa was once asked how she coped with serving the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. She responded that what she saw in the cities of the United States was much more disturbing, because it was a “poverty of the spirit.”

Poverty of the spirit. No truer words can be spoken of the progressive Left.

A frequent AT contributor, Robin is a psychotherapist and a recovering liberal in Berkeley.

source: flickr.com/marcn

]]> http://rightwingdog.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/barack-ob-ama-is-in-a-great-hurry-to-get-his-healthcare-bill-passed/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:34:19 +0000 rightwingdog http://rightwingdog.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/barack-ob-ama-is-in-a-great-hurry-to-get-his-healthcare-bill-passed/

I am going to use today’s post to bring you a GREAT column by Ben Stein who is one of MY favorite writers. Ben is the author of BEN’S DIARY in The American Spectator and has contributed to numerous other conservative media outlets.

*WE FIGURED HIM OUT! By Ben Stein*

Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized
medicine bill passed?

**They may have ruined my country and yours.**
**You must as an American FORWARD this to all, or you will wake up one
morning and your freedoms are no longer there. **

A surprising and impressive post from a pro-Hillary Liberal blog written (I think) by some gays –  Thank you former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush. 

We know absolutely no one in Bush family circles and have never met former President George W. Bush or his wife Laura.

If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.

Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush.  We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11.  He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone.  More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us.

Honestly, we don’t think President Gore would have been much better that day.  The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indominable spirit that day…and we will forever be grateful to this man for that.

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

FOR HOURS.

The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them.

If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks…you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes…and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people.

You may be as surprised by this as we are ourselves, but from this day forward George W. and Laura Bush are now on the same list for us as the Clintons, Geraldine Ferraro, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and the other political figures we keep in our hearts and never allow anyone to badmouth.

Criticize their policies academically and intelligently and discuss the Bush presidency in historical and political terms…but you mess with the Bushes personally and, from this day forward, you’ll answer to us.

We hope someday to be able to thank George W. and Laura in person for all they’ve done, and continue to do.  They didn’t have to head to Ft. Hood.  That was not their responsibility.

The Obamas should have done that.

But didn’t.

Wouldn’t.

Thank goodness George W. is still on his watch, with wonderful Laura at his side.

We are blessed as a nation to have these two out there…just as we are blessed to have the Clintons on the job, traveling the world doing the good they do.

And we are blessed to have Dick Cheney, wherever he is, keeping tabs on all that’s going on and speaking out when the current administration does anything too reckless and dangerous.

Cheney’s someone else we villainized and maligned in the past who we were also wrong about.  There has never been a Vice President, including Gore, Biden, or Mondale, who was more supportive of gay rights than “Darth Cheney”. There has never been a Vice President more spot-on right about the dangers facing this country from Islamic terrorism.

We live in strange, strange times indeed.

We are now officially committed fans of George W. and Laura Bush.  We are fans of Dick Cheney.  Our gratitude for them makes us newly protective of them, and the continued role they play in this country.

After the primary battle of 2008, we never thought we’d go back to Texas for anything, but sometime in 2010 we want to find some event in Dallas the Bushes will be at so at least one of us can go up to them, tell them we are deeply sorry for ever thinking ill of them, and thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their service to America.

We’re sure they will just stare at us and wonder why these gay Chicagoans are crying, but we don’t think we can get through a meeting with them without being emotional.

What they did at Ft. Hood for those families humbles us.  Every day, the Bushes are most likely doing something just like it behind the scenes.

We hope if any of you encounter them you will let them know this is deeply appreciated beyond partisan lines.

We will never look at the Bushes, the Bush presidencies, or their legacies the same again…and someday when his presidential library is built, we will be so proud to visit there and tell anyone will listen about November 10th, 2009, the day we finally appreciated former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.

Thank you for your service, Mr. President.  We’re sorry we didn’t appreciate you while you were in office, but we thank Heaven we’ve wised up and can see the good you are out there doing, under the radar, today.

The 67 heads of state, criminals, financiers and philanthropists who really run the world.

Forbes— In its inaugural list of the world’s most powerful people, Forbes has the News Corp. chief at No. 7, ahead of such luminaries as the king of Saudi Arabia (No. 9), Pope Benedict XVI (No. 11) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (No. 17),
Topping the list is President Obama, followed by China president Jintao Hu, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, is No. 10. Murdoch is the only pure media mogul to crack the top 10, though Brin and Page certainly dabble in media, as does No. 6 on the list Carlos Slim Helu, the Telmex CEO who recently purchased a 6.4% stake in the New York Times.

Other media bigwigs on the Forbes list of the 67 most powerful people include No. 13 Jeff Immelt, the CEO and chairman of NBC Universal parent GE.

Prime Minister of Italy and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi is No. 12, while New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of the business news service that bears his name, is No. 20.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is No. 45, New York Times editor William Keller is No. 51, Al Jazeera director-general Khanfar Wadah is No. 54, Apple founder and Disney director Steve Jobs is No. 57 and BBC director-general Mark Thompson is No. 65.

Forbes held its list to 67 “based on the conceit that one can reduce the world’s 6.7 billion people to the one in every 100 million that matter.”

Its criteria consisted of: the number of people one influences; one’s ability to project power beyond one’s immediate sphere of influence; control of or access to significant financial resources; and how actively one wields power.

The list even includes a few of the more notorious drug traffickers, terrorists and other assorted outlaws. Osama bin Laden, for example, is No. 37.


View the entire list @

This all started because I noticed recently that this post, in which I confessed to loving David Gergen and one my colleagues blurted out that

ahahaha! did you see him blush in the video? he’s so cute when he’s all “Gergeny!” i just love his baked potato head. it’s full of smartness and stuff. *swoon*

. . .continues to have a nice viewing audience. Also there was something about the image of the baked potato head being “full of smartness and stuff” that kept making me laugh out loud and then the big rock fell on my head: women really do think smart men are sexy.

And the reverse is not true.

Men learn to love smart women but it doesn’t come naturally. Smartness for men, I would wager, intially reduces sex appeal but it’s something they can think themselves over. If they’re smart, heh-heh.

The same doesn’t go for gay men or lesbians, though.

Smartness is sexy for lesbians and gay men and their partners, all-ways, two-ways, every-ways because they’ve freed themselves from continuing the species. Lucky them–the same rules don’t apply.

Straight men need to father as many children as possible. Straight women need to pick that special guy who can help her raise a child.

Hence smart men are sexy.

Smart women are the equivalent of the species thinking outside the box.

So don’t go all insane on me. In answer to my own question, yes. But not immediately.

Clinton Links Over-Population to Global Warming

Jurriaan Maessen
Infowars
November 8, 2009

What we are witnessing here is the true mindset and ambition of the globalists and their cronies, namely to reduce the world’s population, the sooner the better. As the elite often admit, the current fixation on CO2 is just a pretext in order to get the job done.

Population Control: The Eugenics Connection

Old Thinker News
June 24, 2008

Has eugenics faded away with time, or has the pseudo science morphed and cloaked itself under new auspices? Were some of the original founders of population control efforts themselves eugenicists? How and when did eugenicists shift from Galton era ideals to Malthusian population control?

Image courtesy of www.state.gov

This morning saw TV viewers, students, and even protesters across the Philippines abuzz. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton capped off her Philippine visit with a live forum, and people naturally wanted to know how America’s former First Lady and first female candidate for president would respond to questions about US-Philippine relations, questions on climate change and the recession, international relations, and on being America’s most popular diplomat.

I must admit, though: even as a female, I wanted Barack Obama to win over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. There was a different kind of energy around a young, savvy African-American president that no “first female presidential candidate” could muster. Still, watching Hillary Clinton live over ANC this morning made me admire and RESPECT this woman who has gone a long, LONG way from being the wife of the governor of a small state to the woman who STILL could be America’s first female–and possibly its next–President.

Here are some interesting Hillary facts (excerpted from her official bio):

• Hillary Rodham Clinton is the 67th Secretary of State of the United States.
• She and former Democratic rival,  President Barack Obama, both called Chicago home. Hillary Rodham was born there on October 26, 1947, while Barack Obama moved there in 1985.
• She falls under the zodiac sign Scorpio–feisty, passionate, strong willed, temperamental. (Her birthday is days after my mom’s
• She attended local public schools during her youth, but finished her law studies in Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton.
• Secretary Clinton’s professional life has seen her as a lawyer, an educator (assistant professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law), board member and chair of several public organizations, First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States, two-term Senator, author, and, now, Secretary of State.
• She had been a two-term Senator of the State of New York.
• Her pet advocacies are health care, children, and women’s and human rights.
• In 1995, she gave a speech in Beijing that became famous for declaring that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights”. (In this morning’s live forum covered by local cable network ANC, Secretary Clinton also said that “climate change is not only an environmental issue, it’s also a human rights issue.”
• She has authored two best-selling books: her memoir, Living History, and a children’s book, It Takes a Village.
• And, let’s not forget: she has lived through (and has overcome) the shame of Bill Clinton’s numerous indiscretions (who could ever forget Monica Lewinsky, right?) and continues to be married to him and supportive of his career.

At this morning’s forum, held at the historic University of Santo Tomas (Asia’s oldest Catholic university, which will celebrate its 400th year on 2011), Hillary Rodham Clinton showed that she was an astute politician and diplomat, issuing strong statements against corruption and human rights and for peace resolution in Mindanao while citing the Philippine government’s gains. She even reminded us that GMA and her husband were classmates in Georgetown.

Some of her more interesting pronouncements include the following:

• On being the first female candidate for President: “It’s not only about electing a woman president. It’s about making sure that every child–boy or girl–will have the opportunity to pursue their aspirations.”
• On corruption: “We want to see governments that are more accountable to their people. We want to see less corruption and greater transparency… We want to see more young people use social networking sites to report corruption.”
• On addressing poverty: “Progress has been made but a lot can still be done. People need to organize themselves. You need to ask yourself: What can YOU do to address poverty?”
• On democracy: “It can be difficult to fulfill the promises of democracy, but it’s by far the best system humans have ever created… Any society rests on strong legs of: a functioning government, a functioning market economy, and civil society… that brings positive energy to the people.
• On the conflict in Mindanao: “Working for peace in Mindanao is very important not only for Philippine but also for everyone around the world… People in this country WANT to see the end to this conflict. Everyone should be doing whatever we can… The conditions for peace are ripe. I hope nobody misses the opportunity.”
• On the forthcoming Pacquiao-Cotto fight: “OF COURSE the Pacman is going to win! I mean, is there any doubt?”

Watching her, I could see that this woman has a strong love for her country, a strong love for humanity, and a strong and long-lasting commitment to her work. She is a politician and a diplomat first, yes, but she also does her homework–she protects the interests of her own country while engaging with others; she knows how to encourage, empower, and give hope through her words; and she displays the kind of sincerity that we rarely see among politicians in the Philippines.

Hillary Clinton said that never in her youth did she imagine that she would someday be where she is now. Watching her as I did, and seeing what she’s achieved in her life so far, one can easily imagine where else she is set to go.

For Hillary Rodham Clinton, perhaps the best is yet to come.

So finally – some pictures of the new rug we bought on Monday!
We absolutely love it! It is made of wool, and it is very flat, and it has no matted bottom, it is just very, very thing wool. We wanted to try something a little different. And it was really cheap. It was normally 3300 sek (470$) for 1500 sek (215$)!! More than ½ off. (They were having a sale on some of their rugs.) We didn’t want a very fluffy rug, which is mostly what is sold now – because of cat hair. It can get really difficult to vaccum rugs. We love the color and the texture. We are anxiously awaiting new couches, as I have been since we’ve been living here.. ..but we’ll have to wait a bit longer, until we get Leia’s stuff out of the living room and up in her room (and that will be awhile – until she can go up and down by herself to play). Until then we are stuck with our blue couch. )

Ignore the yoghurt-covered red tablecloth in the dining room.. :/ ) Leia makes such a mess sometimes!

We are also trying to figure out what to do infront of the fireplace. We might go look at some tiles tomorrow.

And this past Sunday was Father’s day – I forgot to mention.
While we were out on Saturday, Fredrik picked out a radio that he liked and wanted – for using around the house – so he picked out what he wanted and I paid for it. That was his present.

Right now I am in a limbo of trying to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. My new American friend, who is 50+ and has been through everything that I have had to suffer, is helping me greatly. I am very happy that I was able to meet her because I think she will be very valuable to me. It is incredibly frustrating not knowing where to go or what to do or who to talk to, but she is guiding me in the right direction so I hope that something good comes from it.

Fredrik worked 2 days this week and he is off again tomorrow. So a fun family day.
We have our annual parent-teacher conference at daycare at the end of the month, and we are going to ask the neighbor if she will babysit Leia for us. ) So hopefully that will go well! Leia’s first non-family babysitter.

Tear Down the Last Wall!

Two decades have elapsed since November 9, 1989, when the border separating Western from Eastern Germany was effectively opened.

Prime Minister George Papandreou attended the events, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, held yesterday in Berlin. The premier called for the last wall still dividing a European city, Nicosia, to be brought down and stressed that “as Greeks and Europeans, we can shout: Tear down the last wall, the one that divides Cyprus into two.” In Berlin, Papandreou held also a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during which they discussed issues of mutual interest. Kathimerini daily: PM sets sights on Cyprus wall

“Breaking Down Walls, Building Bridges”

In Greece, the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall was commemorated in a special event, titled “Breaking down walls, building bridges” on November 8 at the City of AthensTechnopolis.

The President of the Hellenic Republic, Karolos Papoulias, Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas and the German Ambassador in Greece Wolfgang Schultheissaddressed the event, stressing the great importance of the fall of the Berlin wall, which has become the “symbol of freedom for all humanity.” The event organised under the auspices of the German Embassy in Athens. Droutsas also addressed the OSCE event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Vienna on November 6.

Conference: The Image of Germany

Τhe Association of Greek Press Attachés and the German Embassy in Athens are holding, on November 12, a conference titled “The public image of Germany,” at the Amphitheatre of theTheocharakis Foundation.

The event is being held on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, the 20th anniversary since the fall of the Wall and 10th anniversary since the transfer of the country’s capital from Bonn to Berlin.
Experts from Germany and Greece will discuss how the image of Germany has changed over the years, from the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the restoration of the unity of the country [Programme, in Greek]. Government Spokesman George Petalotis will address the event. International Communication Policy Forum: “The Public Image of Germany“

We had a long weekend, in a good sense! 

Fredrik and I have been so excited about our new living room..    We’ve been hunting and hunting a new rug, and we finally decided on one on Monday, so I’ll try to get a picture of that soon. 

Fredrik was off work from Friday – Tuesday, so he had a 5-day weekend, nothing wrong with that, ehh? 

Leia and I have been furiously baking gingerbread cookies.  They are by far Leia’s favorite cookies and they are not unhealthy, so we let her indulge herself with them. 

And Leia absolutely loves to help-out in the kitchen! For her birthday I bought her some adorable IKEA kitchen utensils for children and when Leia has any kind of inkling that I might be baking in the kitchen, she runs and tries to drag her high chair into the kitchen, grabs a bowl out of the drawer and gets her wisp.

There is also a picture of me carving our pumpkin for Halloween. And a couple of pictures of Leia meeting the Tom & Jerry characters at one of the shopping centers in Karlstad’s centrum. She was afraid of them, and wouldn’t even get close enough to take a piece of candy.

On Saturday we went to Örebro to visit with Fredrik’s morfar and farmor. We met Fredrik’s parents at morfar’s so we were able to spend time with them as well.

We also went to a furniture story to look for a rug. But we didn’t find anything that we liked.

I was the only one that showed up to my English class today, which is pointless. But I enjoy talking with my teachers. I have 2 teachers now, one is Swedish and the other is an American woman! We get along well and she is really nice. She’s lived in Sweden for over 20 years. Don’t ask me why there are two teachers, but there are. I think the one is retiring soon and the American will be taking over her position. But the American has given me lots of tips about schooling and all that and I really enjoy chatting with her.

Leia just came up to me and said “byta troja” (change shirts). ) She spilt some välling on her shirt and she wanted to change. She is talking more and more every day. Not nearly like other children her age, but she is doing very well.

Sunday was a cleaning, and Fredrik trimmed the tree in the front yard. Monday we ran some errands and Fredrik took branches to the dump. And on Tuesday I had an eye appointment. I haven’t gotten new glasses since right before I left the US 7 years ago! I am getting constant headaches and having trouble focusing, so we decided it was time for me to go. :/ I have had 3 check-ups though while living here, for driving purposes, so my eyes have been fine. But it has been very recently that they have gotten worse.

So I did the eye tests … very similar to the US .. but here it isn’t “1 or 2 … 1 or 2 … 1 or 2″ .. here it was more “that one or this one … that one or this one..” My eyes are worse, but she thinks also that since my glasses are so old that they have declined in strength, making an even bigger difference in how well I see. So I will have them in 7-14 days. And they weren’t as expensive as we thought they would be, 4000sek (571$). For eye test, lenses and frames. We thought they would be double that, since my eyes are so bad. We were almost considering investing in lasik eye surgery, to off-set the cost of future glasses.

But now it is time to put Leia to bed. I’ll try to get a picture up of the new rug.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

While one expects that Dave Brubeck and his quartet would sell out multiple performances at The Dakota Jazz Club after performing for 58 years on the world’s music stages, that the legendary pianist still has it going on musically may be assumed, subject to verification. Seeing, and hearing, confirmed the faith of Twin Cities fans gathered in Minneapolis, Nov. 4, for the last of six shows over three evenings.

Holding court at the Dakota’s Steinway, the 89-year-old Brubeck made playing with one hand sound like three or four, as he did in a solo containing echoes of “Sweet Georgia Brown” that morphed into interludes for bassist Michael Moore and drummer Randy Jones. This followed an opening mix featuring solos for Moore and saxophonist Bobby Militello.

Each piece mesmerized more than the last in a set that continued without interruption for nearly 100 minutes. “Over the Rainbow” opened with Brubeck on keyboard, gave way to a transcendant flute rendition by Militello, and closed with piano and flute together. In Brubeck’s “Dziekuje,” composed during a 1958 tour of Poland, the opening homage to Chopin evolved into a wailing sax before resolving to a finish by the group.

For an aficianado of jazz music and dance, the quartet’s concluding, 2009 version of “Take Five” missed only one element: the presence of the jazz choreographer Danny Buraczeski, who created the definitive dance expression of Brubeck’s classic in his 1980 work “Fission.”

A boisterous and affectionate applause brought Brubeck back for whimsical solo encores, beginning with “I’m tired and I wanna go home.” The audience – whose members included the Minnesota Orchestra’s Osmo Vänskä, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra’s Bill Schrickel, and veteran arts administrator Jon Lewis –  then joined in to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and to hum along with “Lullabye.”

In a verbal valedictory, Brubeck said, “I always enjoy our concerts here, and I hope to see you all again sometime.”

Brubeck will be presented with a Kennedy Center Honors medallion at a Dec. 5 dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The other honorees will include the soprano/mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry and rock-and-roll artist Bruce Springsteen, both of whom have performed in the Twin Cities in recent years. President Obama will host a White House reception for the honorees on Dec. 6, before the telecast gala from the Kennedy Center.

Performers at The Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant in coming months will include Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, Nov. 10-11; The Bad Plus, Dec. 25-27; Mark O’Connor, Jan. 20; and Ahmad Jamal, late Feb.

Get a clip of today’s Charlie Rose PBS interview with Hillary Clinton. She talks about how she and John Kerry went to Afghanistan and convinced Karzai to go along with a second election round “even though he thought he won” by telling him their empathy for his position “because of what happened to us in the US election in 2000.” Hillary cites Kerry’s unique ability to tell Karzai “I’ve been there” and that because of that he is the one guy who could have helped convince Karzai. Hillary says the Supreme Court was wrong in what they did and implies that is equal to the blatant fraud and corruption in Afghanistan.

After trashing the US, Hillary goes on to try to rewrite history, saying that she “accepted” the outcome as a good civics lesson when in fact the Dems spared no effort to undermine the election and anything that came of it. If anyone in Afghanistan takes that as a lesson they will be taught to commit any sabotage of whatever comes out of this election if they don’t manage to steal it.

See the video. It’s a hoot to watch Charlie Rose with his trademarked supine fawning, buying whatever idiocy Hillary is spinning. Plus, now it is official: US State Department policy is now to trash the US as a means of cajoling foreign would-be dictators. Heard it from Hillary first.

What happened to her?  What happened to HER?  Let’s clear this up.  Nothing ‘happened to her’.  She was living the lie of a RINO, benefiting from the Republican party coffers while traitoring as a Democrat at the voting booth.    Your grandparents would call it stealing.  And then a million dollars was wasted on her, and that was only recently.

“Oh, someone left chocolates for me!” she said, picking up a present from her aunt and uncle. Her GOP family has been less supportive. And she warns that what happened to her will happen to candidates like her.

via Political eyes on Republican Scozzafava after conservatives urge her to quit – washingtonpost.com.

On my drive to work today, Project 9-6-1 was debating the mayoral race in Atlanta – white woman vs. black man (ironical, isn’t it?). I began to wonder – people at my age or older have seen the Hillary / Obama race as breaking new ground, as “change” for race and gender reasons.

For the next generation, however, the idea of a black man or a woman running for the highest office or any office will be a no-brainer. It’s only change if you have experienced something before, if you have stereotypes built up.

Change is only change if you think about it that way … if you keep your mind young and fresh and open to new ideas, change is just … it just is.

During a visit to India in July of this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed not only the administration’s commitment to tackle ‘global climate change’, but also her willingness to link it to overpopulation.

After a roundtable discussion with Indian Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh, Clinton openly pondered this supposed link

These recent comments made by Clinton reflect the mindset of the neo-Malthusian scientists currently occupying key positions in the Obama administration

be it may not come as a complete surprise to those who have studied the matter in some depth. The same Malthusian idea that triggered eugenics in the past now inspires the current environmentalist movement pushing global carbon taxes and other supranational measures, supposedly to ‘curb our carbon footprint’
“We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can’t support many more people. There are probably already too many people on the planet.”