Thursday, October 30, 2008

Barack Hussein Marx?

I saw an interesting interview with Joe Biden earlier. The interviewer quoted Karl Marx and asked what Biden thought of Obama's Marxist ideals. Rather than answer he asked the interviewer: "Are you joking? Is this a joke? Or is that a real question?" The interview came to an abrupt end and the Florida station received notice from the Obama campaign that it now off limits for interviews, information and co-operation.

However Biden's theatrical drama-queen like response belies Obama's own beliefs. Obama himself acknowledges that he gravitated to socialists and even Marxists while attending college. Later in life, he continued to associate with Marxists- even choosing to launch his political career in the living room of a self-described Marxist, the terrorist William Ayers. "To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully," the Democratic presidential candidate wrote in his memoir, Dreams From My Father. "The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists."

Obama's obsession with leftism continued when he attended Columbia University. He lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and often ventured to the East Village for what he called "the socialist conferences I sometimes attended at Cooper Union." After graduation in 1983, Obama went to work for what he described as "a Ralph Nader offshoot" in Harlem. Also he has been the subject of criticism for choosing Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an anti-American firebrand, as his pastor. Wright is a purveyor of black liberation theology, which analysts have identified as being based in part on Marxist ideals.

You wont find anyone saying "Obama is a Marxist" however, that would be insane, no Obama is more a socialist at least according to McCain after the Democrat told Joe The Plumber that he wanted to "spread the wealth around." Bizarrely Joe Biden, recently completely contradicted Obama, saying: "He is not spreading the wealth around," when answering a question from a TV anchor who asked: "How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?"

A 2001 radio interview has now surfaced in which Obama lamented the Supreme Court's inability to enact "redistribution of wealth" -- a key tenet of socialism. Obama has managed to cultivate the image of a political moderate in spite of his consistently liberal voting record. In 2006, he published a second memoir, The Audacity of Hope, that leaves little doubt about his adherence to the extreme left. "The arguments of liberals are more often grounded in reason and fact," Obama wrote. "Much of what I absorbed from the sixties was filtered through my mother, who to the end of her life would proudly proclaim herself an unreconstructed liberal."

I finish with a quote from Sarah Palin: "Now is not the time to experiment with socialism".

Less than a week to go folks...


Source: Fox News, CNN

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh huh. And you, Lt. Colonel "Whopper" Creedon, know nothing about theatrics. Or drama. At all.

Anonymous said...

Most of the people saying that Obama is a Marxist, a Socialist, a Communist, etc. don't even fully understand what those terms mean nor have paid attention to Obama's plan. Obama, Socialist? Far from it. On the entire political spectrum (not the limited AMERICAN political spectrum), Obama is more conservative than most people are willing to admit. Pay attention--these extreme labels are being thrown around irresponsibly.

Anonymous said...

I think it's time you reported for new orders Creedon, this assignment to the field of politics is obviously not your calling!

Anonymous said...

Socialism, a Halloween Story

Little Constance and Little Bruce were looking forward to Halloween very much, and spent all week making their elaborate costumes. On the night, they went out with their parents and walked miles and miles, trick or treating around all their neighborhood. At the end of the night, Little Constance and Little Bruce each had a big bag full of candy that they planned to enjoy over the weekend.
As they got home, they were both surprised to see a man in a suit waiting for them on their driveway.
"Hello", he said, "I'm from the government and I've come to take half of your candy."
"But why, that's not fair" said both children.
"Well, you see, you worked hard on your costumes, and you have been out all night getting candy. Is that fair on the children who didn't do as well as you? Surely they should get some," said the man.
"Uh..." said the children, wondering why he'd even ask that question.
The man continued "and what about those who didn't have costumes, and just went knocking on doors, and, what about those who didn't even try - the ones who stopped at home - is it fair on them?"
"Yes, they should have tried more" Little Bruce said bravely.
The man moved to quickly counter Bruces confidence "well, that's where we - the government - disagree with you. Hand over the candy or we'll use state-sanctioned violence ... uh, I mean take you to court and lock you up!"
Little Bruce and Little Constance began to cry as the man took away their candy.
(with apologies to Bruce and Constance - the first names to come to mind)

Anonymous said...

And as the mean man stood counting Little Bruce and Little Constance’s candy, Little Bruce turned to Little Constance and gave her the high sign through his crocodile tears.

Little Constance, who was dressed as a cowgirl in the most adorable little ruffly skirt, red boots, and fringed vest, then pulled out her shotgun (because she knew the importance of accessorizing appropriately) and told the mean man to reach for the sky. At first the mean man laughed, then he realized that looked like a pretty real gun and slowly raised his hands. Little Bruce bravely walked up to the mean man, asked “is there anything I should know about?” and after getting a sheepish shake of the head, proceeded to pat the mean man down.

Little Bruce found the mean man’s wallet, which contained a drivers’ license, a medical card that said “I am a diabetic” on it (real big), a set of car keys, and no government id. Little Bruce whipped out his cellphone and dialed the police to report a child predator while Little Constance kept a sharp eye on the mean man. Little Bruce pushed the “Open door” button on the man’s key fob and quickly found his car. He opened up the trunk to discover bags and bag of candy, all stolen by the mean man from tiny Trick-or-Treaters.

The police quickly arrived on scene, arrested the mean man and took all the candy into evidence. To make it up to the children, the police drove them home and let them work the lights and the sirens all the way there. The police walked Little Constance and Little Bruce up to their respective front doors to their parents (who weren’t at all surprised to see their babies coming home in a police car). Little Constance’s parents invited Little Bruce’s parents over and they all sat down to some delicious chocolate cake, while the mean man was carted downtown to be booked and jailed.

And the moral of the story is: You might think it’s easy to take candy from a baby, but don’t even think about messing with Little Bruce and Little Constance!

Anonymous said...

Methinks someone rather missed the point!

Anonymous said...

Then thou shalt rethinketh thy thought, as "someone" couldn't have missed the point, as jabby and pointy as it was!

Ow, my eye!

Anonymous said...

What ever Halloween's point was, I think that we all, democrats and Republicans can agree, it's beteer not to run with it, as someone may end up getting hurt. ;)

Bruce Russell said...

Of course, everything is bound to change after the coming "race war." Whose side will YOU be on?

Anonymous said...

Bruce, the same side I am always on. America's

Anonymous said...

Oh yes. America and Ireland. Just like peanut butter and jelly.

Anonymous said...

I think Halloween's point was how unfair income taxation and redistribution can be.
For example, the average wage in my area is £16-18k, for a 40 hour week.
Is it fair that a single mother who works (and not exceeding) 16 hours a week can have her income topped up to an equivalent of £25k (including direct income transfers, council and housing tax allowances)

Anonymous said...

Perhaps this is the place to point out that Alaska has a reverse income tax.

Residents don't pay an income tax. They get a check from the government to redistribute money generated from Alaskan oil fields.

Do you think that Palin is so committed to not spreading the wealth that when she loses on Tuesday she'll go back to Alaska and stop the oil checks?

Anonymous said...

Ah, the wonder of the English language. I wasn't even aware check was a synonym for what is called a cheque this side of the Atlantic :)

As for Alaskan oil, I'll go for a more general answer. It really depends for me where the property rights are.
If the Alaskan oil comes from state-owned land, then it's not the same level of redistribution as if the land were privately owned, and the handouts came as pure redistribution of company revenue.
If privately owned and subsequently taxed, the policy is likely having the effect of increasing the price to the eventual consumers (this is what happens when you increase marginal taxes on goods with inelastic demand).
If state owned, then the Alaskans can be viewed more as 'shareholders', with the check/cheque as something of a 'dividend payment'.
In the second case, I'd have to ask why the government feels it needs to be involved in the oil extraction business.
Meh, then again, in days of energy shortage, it could be short-sighted to sell it off.

I dislike income taxes for the distortionary effect they have on labour (we use the u this side of the Atlantic - wierd?) supply, and the particularly perverse effect they can have when combined with benefit transfers that go beyond the subsistence level. That was my original point. I think.

Anonymous said...

"If state owned, then the Alaskans can be viewed more as 'shareholders', with the check/cheque as something of a 'dividend payment'."

Sithy, sounds remarkable like socialism to me?, you're not Red are you? ;)

Anonymous said...

I really shouldn't read this thing before work! But I did, so I will have to make my points quickly.

1) Sith "Master?" Did you get a promotion?

2) I believe that it was Noah Webster who was fed up with the variety of spelling and all of the extraneous words making English so complex who standardized American spelling. I wonder if he would approve of the current trend towards accepting all spellings, as long as they were phonetically correct?

3) ugh. Single parenthood. Could you have picked a less incendiary example? One of the stances I admire about Obama is his views on education. Providing teachers with an excellent education, a fair salary, schools with enough money (I saw a statistic that said teachers across America spend about 1 billion of their own money buying supplies - I know I pay my own way a lot of the time), and promoting early childhood education and school readiness. Parents are a child's most important teacher. What are you supposed to do when there is only one of them? Here, even if a man signs away his parental rights, he is still somehow financially responsible. (Here is where I insert my reminder about responsible reproduction: Wear a condom, people)

... and points 4 through 16 will have to wait until later. But just in case you were interested: my word verification is "wines" !!!

Anonymous said...

@ Overseer:
Socialism works awfully badly at best. One thing its good for is destroying both wealth and individual responsibility.
In an ideal work, the govt would have no interest in oil; there would be no lobby, and things would run rather more smoothly and efficiently. What I was getting at was that (maybe?) state-owned oil is less bad when created as state-owned, rather than if property-rights were expropriated and assets were seized at below-market values to affect state control. This happened here (UK) with hospitals, railways, mines, etc.
The only red thing round here is a lightsaber crystal.

@ Constance:
1) Yes. Surreptiitiously.

2) Languages evolve with time - witness the 'fun' people now how with Chaucer, Shakespeare, Malory, etc. Although things change, there are a number of circumstances where prescribed standardisation (we don't use the z as much as you, either!) is useful - instruction manuals, written contracts, statutory laws and so on.

3) I could have, but would it illicit the same response from you? :)
It's an issue here, as we have record (for the last hundred years) and rising levels of teenage pregnancy, despite increased amounts of sex-ed in school and availability of contraceptives. None of our elected representatives dares to say that for the large part, its the less educated underclass that's breeding whilst on benefits. I maintain that a lot of these girls (13/14 years old and up) see a child as a means of independence, as one will jump them to the head of the queue on the social housing list ... which they then get paid for by the taxpayer in addition to benefits.
On the education point - taking the education budget as a whole (in the UK), the issue our 'Dear Leader' is pushing - increased spending - is thoroughly misguided. The money value is about £5-6000 per pupil; the real issue is the fact that excessive bureaucracy leads to c.£2-3000 reaching the schools in many cases.
However: studies have shown that the single biggest determinant to a childs school success are it's parents. I'll leave you to fill in the blanks on that one rather than spell it out :)

*prepares self for points 4 through 16*

Anonymous said...

4) Even though your man brought up the whole "Obama is a socialist" thing, I don't think that he is and I'm not promoting it.

5) I take an active role in bettering the lives of children in my community. That includes working with parents. If I need money to buy play dough, I should get it!

6) If only everyone would get on board with my temporary sterilization plan, we could have some free time to give the children an education before they start reproducing. There is no way that you can convince me that motherhood at age 13 is a good idea. (once again, my reminder to reproduce responsibly: wear a condom!)

7) Here's how I would spend the education money: Put an apprentice teacher in the classroom with a veteran teacher. Lengthen the school day. Do away with the summer recess - give them three months off, but do it in one month increments spread out through the year.

8) If it is a fact that the less educated people are the ones "breeding whilst on benefits" why won't the politicians dare to say it?

9) "*prepares self for points 4 through 16*"??? Are you kidding me? You so love me. My erudite and insightful comments are a wonderful addition to all the "blam blam" boy stuff.

You're welcome.

10) Will you be keeping track of the election returns tomorrow?

Anonymous said...

@ Constance:
4) My man? Well, technically I don't have a vote in this week's election, and the only politician I campaigned for was a Conservative, here in the UK?
In terms of the US, I mentioned earlier my backing for Ron Paul. Not that my voice did him much good...

5) So you choose to spend your money on Play Dough, but think you should have it subsidised? Or receive others money so you can spend it on what you choose? Maybe you could start a sort of Play-Dough-In-The-Community group type charity thing?
I'd prefer to tax you less so you have more income to spend on what you choose to, and so you have time & resources to set up the PDITC thing.

6) In general, I'd have to agree. *checks wallet* Good to go...

7) Don't get me started ... a blind-man can see how to better things :)

8) Can't be seen to be elitist, can one? Although I do have a quote "the only thing worse than having an elite is not having one"

9) lol

10) probably, may be difficult as I'll be asleep when state results start coming through!

Anonymous said...

4) I meant your man Creedon! He who is suspiciously absent from this particular debate.

5) Hell yes I spend my money on Play Dough! It is a valuable early education tool.

6) Didn't anyone ever tell you NOT to keep condoms in your wallet? Also, there's an expiration date on there.

7) Don't get YOU started? You're the one who started! That's why I'm on this rampage!

10) swell. My bedtime is like 9pm! I'm going to try to stay awake.

11) Agree or disagree, all of this debate is a fine thing. I believe that the etymology of the word "idiot" stems from its original usage in ancient Greek society and describes persons who did not participate in the democratic process. But that is a whole nother lecture. Why do I let you get me started on this stuff? I have to go eat my lunch!

Major General Creedon said...

"He who is suspiciously absent from this particular debate. "

My blog, your comments people. You don't need me to come in and ruin everything.

As you were.

Anonymous said...

Lt.Col, Look what you started.

Sithy, Overseer?, what happened to Civvy?, is this an attempt to get folks to refer to you as Master?, honestly you knock off the head of the Sith Order and start to get such upper class notions.

Seriously, first you oppose Socialism then you're for it and now you're against it once again. Make up your dark arts practicing mind!. :)

You campaigned for a conservative, now wonder you're a Sith!

Good one on the Light Sabre Crystal.

Anonymous said...

@ Overseer:
I've no problem with anyone calling me Master :)
I opposed socialism, then cited an example where, in a new province/territory a natural resource can be socialised without depriving the public, as it was never in their hands in the first place. As I also said, why would a government need to compete in, say, the oil business. Either sell it, or save in a last-man-standing situation.
Then I opposed socialism again.