Obama's Idea Of Change -- Apologizing For Being America!

So now he has to go apologize for the United States of America. What is it? He's black, he's running for President of the United States, "We haven't perfected ourselves." You know, that's a key phrase, by the way, is one of the things that drives liberalism is the fact that they think people and institutions can be perfected. They think they can be perfect. And when nothing is perfect, then everything's wrong. But this is just beyond the pale. He's talking to Germans and making excuses for the United States of America, which to this day defends and protects Germany? (interruption) Exactly right. This is insulting. It is demeaning. "We have made our share of mistakes. There are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions." This is Iraq. But he's not a candidate, folks. He's just a guy strolling through the forest there who happened to see a microphone and a podium.

He says, "Oh, there's about 100,000 people out there. I think I'll go make a speech." This is change. But ladies and gentlemen, if you are wondering when you hear Obama talk about change, this is it. The change is: America sucks, America's deficient, America's guilty, but America is now willing to pay the price because we have a Messiah who understands the faults, the egregious errors made by the United States and her people. We are racists, sexists, bigots, homophobes. We discriminate against people who worship differently than we do, have skin color different from ours, and we have not always behaved properly in the world. And we torture. And we, of course, are biased against people who want to get into our country illegally. We have a lot to pay for. Not to mention that we are primarily the country responsible for climate change, shrinking the Atlantic coastline, melting the Arctic ice. This is the change. You want change? This is the change.

DKK
Rush Limbaugh  Via Powerline

Scientists Discover What Everyone Knew About The Lottery -- More Importantly, There Is Something Called The 'Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'

A new Carnegie Mellon University study sheds light on the reasons why low-income lottery players eagerly invest in a product that provides poor returns.

In the study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, participants who were made to feel subjectively poor bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets as a comparison group that was made to feel subjectively more affluent. The Carnegie Mellon findings point to poverty's central role in people's decisions to buy lottery tickets.

"Some poor people see playing the lottery as their best opportunity for improving their financial situations, albeit wrongly so," said the study's lead author Emily Haisley,a doctoral student in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. "The hope of getting out of poverty encourages people to continue to buy tickets, even though their chances of stumbling upon a life-changing windfall are nearly impossibly slim and buying lottery tickets in fact exacerbates the very poverty that purchasers are hoping to escape."

 Okay, so now we know what we already knew -- but we also know that there really is a magazine for everything.  Be sure to pick up your copy of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making for the full results.
DKK
Science Daily

Propaganda Art -- Obama Picks Winning Examples -- Too Bad Their Also Mass Murderers!

Certain precincts of the left are upset that conservative bloggers notice the creepy resemblance between Obama propaganda art and that of assorted demagogues. Now he is in Berlin, speaking at Hitler's favorite monument (moved to its location as the planned focal point of his reconfigured Berlin, to be re-named "Germania"). Teutonic Obama believers must be in charge of picking the poster art, and certain memories of poster art past are triggered by the latest Obama poster art, as noted  by blogger Dr. Melissa Clothier.

Lots of examples and comparisions at the link.
DKK
American Thinker -- Avert Your Eyes!

So Barack, How's That Diplomacy Supposed To Work -- Obama A Study In Failure

Iran signaled today that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.

The announcement from the Iranian Vice President, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, compounded skepticism about denting Tehran's nuclear defiance, just five days after Tehran stonewalled demands from six world powers that it halt activities capable of producing the fissile core of warheads.

Besides demanding a suspension of uranium enrichment — a process that can create both fuel for nuclear reactors and payloads for atomic bombs — the six powers have been pressing Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency's probe.

In the past I have referred to Bush as a chess player, could this move have been designed to prove to Europe and Obama learners/supporters the fallacy of their positions?
DKK
NY Sun

Executed Murderer's Last Words -- Vote Obama!

I'm not kidding:

Before he died Wednesday evening, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop apologized to his victim’s family, thanked America and urged people to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

This is the best endorsement he’s gotten since he picked up the William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson endorsement.

DKK
Patterico's Pontifications

Rice - NATO Warn Pakistan On Boarder Incursions

Pakistan needs to do more to prevent Taliban militants from launching attacks into Afghanistan from its territory, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday, echoing earlier remarks made by the chief of NATO.

Speaking in Australia, Rice suggested to reporters that a surge in Taliban-related violence in Afghanistan had its source in the restive semiautonomous tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

"We understand that it's difficult, we understand that the northwest frontier area is difficult, but militants cannot be allowed to organize there and to plan there and to engage across the border," Rice said. "So yes, more needs to be done."

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called Thursday for Pakistan to be more involved in tackling extremist bases on its soil.

Scheffer made the remarks as he visited Kabul amid increasing tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan over violence, including the bombing of the Indian embassy earlier this month that Pakistan has directly blamed on its neighbor's intelligence agency.

"I cannot think of anyone who would consider it acceptable that many terrorists from all over the world gather in a certain area and create mischief and havoc there," Scheffer told reporters, referencing militant bases in Pakistan.

DKK
Fox News

Bloomberg To Endorse McCain?

Fox is reporting that NY City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is having a press conference later today where he will, "if not endorse John McCain he will strongly support him."

Nothing online yet.
DKK

Daily Trek -- July 25, 2008

What'd I miss?

Everything you need to know to stay informed each day in 5 minutes or less!  Read your regular news and include this and you will be able to participate in most any current events discussion.
---------------------------
Republican States Gaining Power At Next Reapportionment.  That won't help for 2008, but will in 2012.  See if your state is one of those gaining or losing representatives.  Illinois is set to lose one seat.

As predicted the increase in minimum wage seems to have been accompanied by an increase in unemployment and inflation.

Obama criticized the President for going to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics so it would be really odd if he were to sponsor the games on TV.  But he did.

Why did FARC trust the hostage rescuers?  They were dressed as reporters.

How do Iraqi Islamists punish someone for being gay?  Gay rape?   "The men realized he was gay, Kamal said, when he took his shirt off and they saw his chest was shaved."  But pluggin him in the butt, well that was their duty, they didn't enjoy it!

While Obama tours Europe McCain is running ads in every Berlin, Paris, and London here in the United States, you know where they can actually vote for him!

Keeping Promises Among Partners -- Condoleezza Rice makes a compelling argument for passage of the Columbia Free Trade Agreement.

OBAMA GAVE UP ON IRAQ - OBAMA GAVE UP ON THE US MILITARY

Obama wondered if the President got to choose the new channel the military watches since all he saw was Fox News -- Too bad he is too partisan to bother with half the nation.

Man threatened, called racist for having an anti-Obama bumper sticker (showed someone peeing on the name Obama, image at link)

LA To ban building of fast food restaurants!

Obama is already working on his transition team and strategy!
----------------------------------------------
DKK

Green Sources Of Energy = Continued Poverty -- Just As The Greenies Hoped!

The economy is by far the No. 1 issue on most Americans’ minds. Gas prices are a close second. The two issues are intimately related. But the spike in oil prices this year is just the tip of the iceberg. Due to similar developments in supply and demand, electricity prices are set to skyrocket next year.

While American oil consumption has grown only 15% since 1973, electricity use has shot up 115%. Right now the U.S. has 760 gigawatts of power to meet consumption. We will need 135 gigawatts of new capacity over the next decade to keep the lights on, but right now only 57 gigawatts of power are planned. No matter what Barack Obama and Al Gore tell you, alternative energy sources cannot meet demand. Solar is still only one-tenth as efficient as the cheapest fossil fuels. Today 97% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels, nuclear and hydro power. Wind provides 1% and solar .01%.

The rest of the world knows that green sources of energy are inadequate to keep their people out of poverty. That is why around the world, from Europe to South America to Asia, countries are building coal and nuclear power plants at a dizzying pace while also drilling for oil wherever they can find it. Meanwhile, the United States, crippled by an out-of-control environmental movement, is refusing to develop needed energy sources.

DKK 
Morning Bell -- The world Is Powering Up While America Powers Down

Why Can't Obama Admit The Obvious

Why then can't Obama bring himself to acknowledge the surge worked better than he and other skeptics, including this page, thought it would? What does that stubbornness say about the kind of president he'd be?

In recent comments, the Democratic presidential candidate has grudgingly conceded that the troops helped lessen the violence, but he has insisted that the surge was a dubious policy because it allowed the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate and failed to produce political breakthroughs in Iraq. Even knowing the outcome, he told CBS News Tuesday, he still wouldn't have supported the idea.

That's hard to fathom. Even if you believe that the invasion of Iraq was a grievous error — and it was — the U.S. should still make every effort to leave behind a stable situation. Obama seems stuck in the first part of that thought process, repeatedly proclaiming that he was right to oppose the war and disparaging worthwhile efforts to fix the mess it created. Hence, his dismissal of the surge as "a tactical victory imposed upon a huge strategic blunder."

The great irony, of course, is that the success of the surge has made Obama's plan to withdraw combat troops in 16 months far more plausible than when he proposed it. Another irony is that while Obama downplays the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq, he is urging a similar tactic now in Afghanistan.

The paper goes on to say that Obama should admit the truth just as McCain should admit that the war was a blunder to begin with -- that is just false conventional wisdom that is so devoid of facts that it becomes a throw away line.  But it's there -- back handed slap for McCain even as they criticize Obama.

The USA Today has no way to know how many terror attacks were avoided here at home because the terrorist took Osama's advice and flocked to Iraq where they met the most effective fighting force man has known.  They were shredded and now, as of today, they are losing ground worldwide.
DKK
USA Today via Ace Of Spades

Get America Moving Again By Getting Out Of The Way -- Senate Republicans Blocking All Bills That Don't Address Drilling Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling.

Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed. …

Following swift Senate action on the narrow energy bill, Reid wanted the Senate to approve a massive defense authorization bill, an overhaul of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, legislation to protect reporters’ sources, an extension of expiring energy tax incentives, and a major package of 33 bills held up by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

But Republicans are planning to keep the Senate on the energy issue until their demands are resolved. The massive housing-rescue package might be the only other measure that gets valuable floor time before the August recess.  (Hot Air)

Republicans could actually be serious about getting America moving again by getting out of the way!

House Republicans are strongly pushing The American Energy that is co-sponsored by our own Representative Don Manzullo (HR 6566).

There are even calls for the President to call congress back into session if they do not act before their recess, pulling a Truman:

Bush needs to do what Truman did in 1948. He needs to call a special 11-day session of Congress over the summer recess and force the Congress to come back to Washington (the recess is Aug.11-Sept.5th).
Bush could then deliver a message where he asks Congress to do their jobs - legislate (!!), for example:

(1) address the energy/gas crisis (i.e, offshore drilling and/or nuclear); and/or

(2) pass a budget — they have yet to pass one appropriations bill this year because as Pelosi and Reid admitted — they are waiting for Obama to become president to do a budget, which btw — is simply irresponsible and wrong.

I believe that the Democrats would whine and not pass a thing. Then Bush and McCain could hammer them for being a "do-nothing Congress." Moreover, McCain has the experience legislating to show up Obama in the Senate during a special session — it's his turf and I think he could make Obama look foolish.

I believe it would work because (a) congressional approval is lower than the president's approval (by about 20 points); (b) Rasmussen's tracking poll shows that the Democratic advantage on the "generic ballot" has decreased in each of the last 5 weeks (people are tired of blaming Bush); and (c) Pelosi is not liked at all (people will readily transfer their angst about the government to her).

It would do wonders for his popularity and if it backfires he really has nothing much to lose.
DKK

Green Doesn't Sell -- Which Should Be Good Since Greens Don't Really Care About Anything But Controling Everything

Last week, The New York Times noted that the advertising industry is pulling back from green-themed marketing, having “grasped the public’s growing skepticism over ads with environmental messages.

And advertisers’ concerns are buttressed by the recent sales figures for magazines that have published a “Green Issue” this year. Time’s Earth Day issue was the newsweekly’s third-lowest-selling issue of 2008 so far, according to ABC Rapid Report. A typical issue of Time sells 93,000 or so copies on the newsstand; the April 28 installment, which substituted green for red in the magazine’s trademarked cover design, sold only 72,000.

Elle’s May issue sold a mere 275,000 copies, versus the title’s year-to-date average of 328,500. The last issue of Elle to sell that badly was in May 2008—another green issue, probably not coincidentally.

Discover also published a green issue this year, and also took a hit for it, selling 86,000 newsstand copies, compared to an average of 117,000 in the first half of 2007. (Discover doesn’t participate in Rapid Report.)

The only magazine that didn’t take a bath on its green issue was Vanity Fair, which reported 370,000 single copy sales for May, only a little below its year-to-date average of 375,666.

Portifolio

A technological breakthrough might just allow CO2 to be "scrubbed" from the atmosphere. This from the Guardian:

It has long been the holy grail for those who believe that technology can save us from catastrophic climate change: a device that can "suck" carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, reducing the warming effect of the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas produced each year.

Now a group of US scientists say they have made a breakthrough towards creating such a machine. Led by Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University in New York, they plan to build and demonstrate a prototype within two years that could economically capture a tonne of CO2 a day from the air, about the same per passenger as a flight from London to New York.

The prototype so-called scrubber will be small enough to fit inside a shipping container. Lackner estimates it will initially cost around £100,000 to build, but the carbon cost of making each device would be "small potatoes" compared with the amount each would capture, he said.

You would think that this would be an environmentalists wet dream. The perfect solution to their problem! Turns out...not so much. This from the National Center for Policy Analysis:

While some see the scrubber as an efficient and economical way to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide, many environmentalists oppose the technology because it allows people to use fossil fuels and emit carbon in the first place.

Doesn't that go to the heart of the agenda of the environmentalists? They're not really interested in solutions, just control. People shouldn't be able to emit carbon whether it has an effect on the environment or not.

Conservative Punk

Whose Moment Was That Again -- Today America and Berlin, Tomorrow The World!

DKK

Update:  Typing correction in title made.

Iraqi Olympians Banned From Games -- Wait, China Is The Host And Iraq Is Banned?

A few months ago, it seemed liked nothing could stop Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussain from representing her country in the upcoming Summer Olympics.

Then, the International Olympic Committee banned Iraq from competing because of what it says is the government's political interference in sports.

Hussain cried for hours after hearing the news, which arrived in the form of a letter to Iraqi officials.

"She hasn't stopped. It's like finding out that a close relative has died," said her coach, Yousif Abdul Rahman. Abdul Rahman attempted to console Hussain by assuring her that she could compete in the 2012 Olympics.

CNN

The Iraq government dissolved the National Olympic Committee in May and the interim IOC ban was put in place on 4 June.

Davies added that the Iraqi government had been asked to travel to Switzerland to meet the IOC to discuss possible remedies but failed to do so.

The committee which the government dismissed was elected in 2004, in line with the Olympic movement's regulations.

The Iraqi government said it took the decision to appoint a new committee because the previous one was corrupt and had not been functioning properly.

BBC News

Aliens Among Us -- The Really Alien Ones!

FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist.

And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head. 

NASA denies any knowledge but Mitchell seemed serious:

Mr Margerrison said: "I thought I'd stumbled on some sort of astronaut humour but he was absolutely serious that aliens are definitely out there and there's no debating it."

Officials from NASA, however, were quick to play the comments down.

In a statement, a spokesman said: "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe.

'Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.' 

DKK
News.com

The Obama Rainbow Tour -- Day 6 -- The German Tennis Match, um Speech, sorry

There you are, I told you so
Makes no difference where she goes
The whole world over just the same
Just listen to them call her name
And who would underestimate the actress now? 
Evita - Rainbow Tour

Okay, Somebody Had To Say It -- Was Obama Orating Or Watching Wimbledon?

Here is the transcript of the Obama Berlin speech

And here is the video.

"Just Hours After Obama's " Non-Political" Political Rally in Germany, His Campaign Finance Director Sends Out Solicitations for Donations, Citing His Non-Political Political Rally"

Are Obama's heavy handed actions causing an End of the Affair with the media?

To say that Europeans are fond of Barack Obama would be an understatement. It seems that he has reached the same level of adulation and worship as he has in the United States. So when asked who Europeans would prefer to see elected as the next US president, it is no surprise that citizens of France, Germany and the UK all chose Barack Obama ... by a landslide. In the UK, Obama was favored 60-15. In France, 64-4. And in Germany, they chose Barack Obama by a margin of 62-10 over John McCain. Frankly, I'm surprised that the numbers were this low.

Now if it were up to people like Barack Obama, the opinions of these foreign countries would matter. Remember Obama's thermostat comment ... "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK." What does it matter what other countries think about our habits? In fact, what business is it of our president? But the Europeans sure can't wait for this guy to be in power.

Now here's something that you won't hear from any of the networks when it comes to analyzing the European infatuation over Obama. Several months ago the Pew Research Center did some polling in Europe. That polling showed that 58 percent of Europeans want the United States to be weakened. They want a weaker America. Oddly, that 58 percent figure is pretty close to the margin for Obama. So how are you going to feel about European attitudes about our presidential election if you walk up to someone on the street and have this dialogue:

"Would you like the United States to be weaker or stronger."
"Weaker."
"Who do you support, then, for president?"
"Barack Obama"

Does anyone care to look into the motives behind this European love affair with The Messiah?

Neal Boortz

++ Paris Left Cold by Obama Visit ++
3:30 p.m.: While Obama’s Berlin visit has caused a stir, hardly anyone is interested in his trip to Paris on Friday. There are hardly any French media reports on the eve of his visit. There is merely some grumbling about the extensive itinerary for his trip to Berlin. “A speech in Berlin, five little hours in Paris,” writes French daily Le Monde.

Hot Air

Fox News poll: No bounce for Obama from trip, Maliki comments
Conducted Tuesday and Wednesday, three days after Maliki’s Spiegel interview dropped ... Head to head: Obama 41, McCain 40. On handling Iraq: McCain 47, Obama 39, a two-point gain since June. Maybe Obama’s position on the surge is starting to penetrate? There’s circumstantial evidence in the crosstabs. A quarter of independents and 15% of Democrats perceive “major improvements” in Iraq from the surge; many more see “minor improvements.” The fact that Obama’s popular with Europeans likewise is a wash. Democrats see it as positive, Republicans negative, and indies are split 26/25 — although people calling themselves “independents” these days are apt to include more disaffected Republicans so weigh that accordingly.

Hot Air

"Uh, it's a potentially bad thing if nobody shows up," Obama said, laughing. "You know, we're sort of on the high wire all of the sudden. It's like, 'I'm sorry, how many people does this accommodate? How many?'...We really have no idea what's going to happen. Sort of a crapshoot. I'm happy with the speech though."

A reporter noted that the campaign has been distributing fliers to Berliners to drum up attendance.

"Why don't you guys go out and distribute some fliers?" Obama asked. "Is that a conflict for you guys?"

Joked a cable news correspondent: "We have been. It's called television."

ABC

Afghan Troops: We got more thanks from the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than Barack Obama

McCain closing the gap? Update: Support for Iraq timetable decreases?

Reporters who have covered Obama’s biography or his problems with certain voter blocs have been challenged the most aggressively. “They’re terrified of people poking around Obama’s life,” one reporter says. “The whole Obama narrative is built around this narrative that Obama and David Axelrod built, and, like all stories, it’s not entirely true. So they have to be protective of the crown jewels.” Another reporter notes that, during the last year, Obama’s old friends and Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without permission.

TNR

Yes, Obama, they worked together because they feared Soviet tanks. They got together because of Truman, who suffered the lowest popularity of any sitting president. They got together because they knew war would come if they redeployed U.S. troops. They got together despite how they could have used the money to pay for infrastructure back home.

They got together because the only other option was to surrender separately.

Germany could no more stand on its own in 1948 than Iraq can in 2008 — something that Obama wanted to do.

If anyone should look at Berlin, it is Democratic Sen. Barack Obama Jr.

Don Surber

Before adoring throngs in Berlin and the entire world's media, Barack Obama stated that "many planes were forced to turn back" from the Berlin Airlift because of the bad weather. Great imagery, but contrafactual.

Obama should have read my book before making his claim about the Berlin Airlift.   Barely a handful of the nearly 28,000 flights "turned back" in the face ir the cruel winter of 1948-1949.

Obama obviously has limited knowledge of the Airlift, and automatically assumes that the USAF would send up aircraft in prohibitively dangerous weather (it didn't) and that, once up, large numbers of pilots aborted their missions.

Ironically, just last month I contributed to an article in the German pub Flugzeug Classic on the US aircraft that went down in the Soviet Zone.

American Thinker Blog

WOLF BLITZER: Did you get a sense, Christiane, that he actually delivered with his presentation, with his speech, his appearance in Berlin? Did people walk away seemingly satisfied or disappointed?

AMANPOUR: Well, I don’t think they were disappointed, and I’m not sure that they were thoroughly satisfied. I did ask some people as they were leaving what they thought. Everybody said good, good. But I was surprised that there wasn’t this sort of euphoria afterwards, given how many people had come to listen and how much it had been anticipated.

Newsbusters

McCain camp: Obama taking a 'premature victory lap'

Rob posted earlier on Obama skipping out on visiting the troops: Obama Skips Visiting US Troops In Germany To Make Time For More Campaigning In Front Of Germans.
Patterico’s Pontifications points to what could be the real reason!

One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama’s representatives were told, “he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers.” In addition,
“Obama could not bring any media.  Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama’s visit.”

NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski

What a class act! He could visit wounded soldiers, but no one would see him do it! In Barack’s world, What’s the percentage in that?

Say Anything Blog

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said during a visit to Sderot Wednesday that "Israel should not talk to Hamas as long as it poses a threat to its citizens."

"If someone was to fire at my house, where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything within my power to stop him and I expect Israel to do the same," he said.

But that is not what he said about diplomacy.

OBAMA Lures Massive German Crowd With Rock Bands, Brats & Beer!

SS DOUTHAT: "Yes, of course the Hitler comparisons are absurd, but I'd really like to know which genius on the Obama campaign thought it would be a good idea to have their candidate conduct a major campaign rally in Europe with three months to go till the election and their candidate, despite an incredibly favorable climate and a fumbling opponent, still clinging to a 2-4 point lead in the polls?"

Now it's on to Paris, London, then home -- wonder if they'll throw a parade when he gets back?
DKK

Okay, Somebody Had To Say It -- Was Obama Orating Or Watching Wimbledon?

Obama gave his Berlin speech and it made me wonder if the art of public speaking has died for good.  Bush I was unmemorable, Clinton always sounded like he was reading, W, well you know, now we have McCain and Obama.


There are orators and there are readers, and there is a big difference.

Obama is a reader, or maybe he's watching Wimbledon, I can't tell but it hurts my neck to watch and completely distracted me:

Via Redlasso

That is SEVEN head flips in 26 seconds.

Another reader who needed a massage following this workout, great match:

Via Redlasso

NINE in thirty-nine.

Seriously, here is a comparison of two orators and Obama:
Via Redlasso

That's FIVE in twenty five, his head flips almost as fast as his positions!

Twenty one quick head flips in a minute and a half!  And not once did he look forward or even pause on the way round!

DKK