Picasso, Clinton Both Had Their Blue Periods!

This from a fellow memo reader, a conservative who voted for Obama. Being a conservative and a lover of history I just could not resist posting. (See 1 below.)

This will keep the press and media busy for quite some time. Can Hillary be an impartial Secretary of State - of course she can. Why? Because she is so trustworthy. She proved that when the disappearing documents finally re-appeared on her table back in The White House during the Watergate mess. (See 2 below.)

The party's over? Certainly, Lina Monk thinks so. Before I was sent this by a fellow memo reader, I pretty much posed the same question in a recent memo entitled: "Americans Enjoy Being Shorn By Their Politicians?" (See 3 below.)

A long time friend of mine has just written a book which I have not read as yet but intend to do so. The author began his career as an analyst, became director of research at a prestigious counseling firm, then its Chairman. He made a veritable fortune following his own advice. Very conservative and astute. (See 4 below.)

Olmert runs into wall over Syrian demands. (See 5 below.)

Israelis continue to get hammered by Hamas while Olmert is busy trying but failing to give away more Israeli land to Syria. (See 6 below.)

I certianly could be wrong but I believe Obama's pre-inaugural activities and efforts are meant to disarm, create the appearance of being a centrist, drum up support from the press and media, even at the expense of ticking off his far Left supporters. However, when he takes office he will more than satisfy the most Liberal with proposed policy changes. Right or wrong, I believe he is as slick as 'Ole Willy,' probably as bright but possibly not as astute politically, though, both know how to wiggle around the truth - is is is. Old Bill could charm the clothes off anyone and as a matter of fact often did. Clinton is a political artist and like Picasso both had their Blue Period. Will Obama make us blue as well?

Granted I could be wrong and surprised by Obama. Perhaps he is a centrist and figures there are more centrist votes than extreme Liberals ones and is already gearing up for his re-election. That said, Obama did not run a centrist campaign. Is he prepared to disavow all his campaign rhetoric? I just do not believe so.

Starting with a trillion dollar spending program may sound like just what the patient needs considering his pain and suffering but I also believe it is financial over-medication and will create more problems later. Colds often take a week to end. Treating them often takes seven days.

I am sure Obama and his advisers sincerely believe we have pneumonia and a trillion dollars of monetary oxygen and anti-biotics will cure us. Having already pumped over 700 billion into the patient, with little result to date, no one seems to be deterred from spending more.

Have a great weekend as we approach Christmas and Channukah!

Dick


1)For those who don't know about history ... here is a condensed version:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals
2. Conservatives

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the Conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these Liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservative s are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history:

It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it.



A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to piss them off.

And there you have it. Let your next action reveal your true self...

2) Clinton dumps 2,922 pages of donor info
By: Mike Allen


Former President Bill Clinton beat his end-of-the-year deadline for disclosing the 208,000 donors to his foundation and presidential library, as part of the agreement that allowed President-elect Barack Obama to name Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state.

The list is here — all 2,922 pages.

It’s a classic Washington dump, where reporters get a barrage of information and have to hunt for the news — in this case, any surprising names. And there were a few.

The list includes a number of donors who have strong views on, or are major players in, some of the trickiest issues Hillary Clinton will confront as Secretary of State. The list also includes former members of Lebanese and Ukrainian parliaments, as well as major American backers of Israel.

Slim-Fast founder S. Daniel Abraham, who gave between $1 million and $5 million, is a member of the board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee whose bio boasts he “is a close friend of many of the leaders of the Middle East, with whom he consults regularly.” Bill Clinton wrote the forward to Abraham’s 2006 book “Peace is Possible.”

Univision lead investor Haim Saban, who gave between $5 million and $10 million, was a confidant of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and has openly wielded his political clout to try to push U.S.-Israel policy rightward.

The American Jewish Committee contributed $100,000 to $250,000.

A division of the controversial private security firm Blackwater – which provides State Department security in Iraq, but was accused of mishandling a 2007 shootout there – gave between $10,000 and $25,000.

The $450,000 contribution from the wife of fugitive businessman Marc Rich got a lot of attention towards the end of the Clinton presidency, but there are at least two felons listed as having donated $100,001 to $250,000, though they gave before their convictions.

Powerhouse lawyer William S. Lerach was sentenced in February to two years in prison for his role in a kickback scheme.

And Jim Levin, a Clinton fundraiser who slept at the White House several times, plead guilty to defrauding the Chicago public schools.

The foundation gave The Associated Press an early look at the data, in an effort to set a storyline that other news organizations would follow.

AP's Beth Fouhy and Sharon Theimer reported this morning: “Former President Bill Clinton's foundation has raised at least $41 million from Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments that his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, may end up negotiating with as the next secretary of state. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia gave $10 million to $25 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit created by the former president to finance his library in Little Rock, Ark., and charitable efforts to reduce poverty and treat AIDS. Other foreign government givers include Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica.”

The story did not point out that the Saudis gave at least $1 million to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Tex., along with elaborate gifts that included gold and silver camels.


A Clinton Foundation news release said: “The William J. Clinton Foundation today published its list of all contributors since its inception in 1997, with gratitude for the contributions they have made to sustain the work of the Foundation and its charitable initiatives. … The Clinton Foundation has received contributions of all sizes, from people of all means. The median gift amount over the life of the Foundation is $45. Nearly 90 percent of gifts (179,000 contributors) are valued at $250 or below, with 12,000 individuals contributing $10 or less. In addition, in a sign of the significance of the cause and the effectiveness of the work, a noteworthy 57,000 contributors gave more than once to the Foundation and/or the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.”

According to the William J. Clinton Web site, here are the 18 largest donors:

Greater than $25,000,000
The Children's Investment Fund Foundation
UNITAID

$10,000,001 to $25,000,000
AUSAID
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Stephen L. Bing
COPRESIDA-Secretariado Tecnico
Fred Eychaner
Frank Giustra, Chief Executive Officer, The Radcliffe Foundation
Tom Golisano
The Hunter Foundation
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The ELMA Foundation
Theodore W. Waitt

$5,000,001 to $10,000,000
Government of Norway
Nationale Postcode Loterij
Haim Saban and The Saban Family Foundation
Michael Schumacher
The Wasserman Foundation


3) THE PARTY'S OVER
By Linda Monk

The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.

The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America . The 'Omnipower' and 'Indispensable Nation' we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.

Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism. This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon Gecko ('Greed Is Good!') capitalism.

What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.

A true conservative (Rep or Dem) cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic. They believe in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in living within your means.

Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess -- that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk? 'Government must save us!' cries the left, as ever.

Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government -- the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy? For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt -- all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.

Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars. We are going to have to learn to live again within our means.

THE PARTY'S OVER! Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent. But this generation decided that was yesterday's bromide and we must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all depend on one another. American companies morphed into 'Global Companies' and moved plants and factories to Mexico , Asia, China , and India , and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.

As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GDP, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad. At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise. The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar. Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come. Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.

Who are we kidding?

What we are witnessing today is how empires end. The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars, or balance its budget.
Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars. What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system. Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it. Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen. Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U. S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages. They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves. Unelected financial elite are now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators.

What the Greatest Generation handed down to us -- the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved -- the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.

Added Comments: How do WE THE PEOPLE put the villains who are responsible under oath and sit them down at public hearings to determine whose necks should meet the guillotine? Hypocritically, those who had oversight responsibility such as Senator Chris Dodd [Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee] and Barney Frank [Chairmen, House Financial Services Committee] who helped get us into this mess are on every TV channel voicing their righteous indignation and pompously sitting on their elevated platform glaring down at those they are chastising and grilling, trying to pass the blame to others.

WE THE PEOPLE should be on the elevated platform in judgment and execution of the likes of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the band of thieves and conspirators who are responsible for the financial collapse of the USA . To name just a few of the culprits: Henry Paulson Jr, Secretary of the Treasury Alan Greenspan & Ben Bernanke -- Chairman Federal Reserve Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman.

But not to worry -- YOUR PUBLIC SERVANTS who fear being voted out of office will take their self-awarded Golden Parachute Congressional Retirement, give WE THE PEOPLE the finger one last time and head for their safe havens as the World Citizens they are. However, before they waddle off into the sunset, they will go on record one last time denouncing corporate greed, lavish salaries, and bonuses for their key felons at Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers & AIG.

Meanwhile, WE THE PEOPLE fiddle while Rome burns and were too lazy and indifferent to vote them out of office.

4) Special Offer:

Former investment advisor Solon P. Patterson is offering to cover S&H as well as sales tax on purchases of his newly published book Ten Rules for Real Wealth (list price of $8.95).

The book is available on Amazon.com.

5) Olmert's bid to revive Syrian track runs into blank walls


Syrian president Bashar Assad: No compromises

Israeli caretaker prime minister Ehud Olmert has been warned that the trip he booked to Ankara for next Monday will be an exercise in futility. Damascus let it be known Friday. Dec. 19, that acceptance in advance of its "borders document" was the pre-condition for direct peace talks. This six-point document covers Israel's withdrawal -not only from the Golan but also from another slice of territory, the northeastern bank of the Sea of Galilee and Hamat Gader region, which is part of pre-1967 Israel.

This maximalist approach, say sources in Washington, Jerusalem and Ankara, aims at notifying US president-elect Barack Obama and designated secretary of state Hillary Clinton that Damascus' "borders document" is a take-it-or-leave it proposition. Syrian leaders appear to believe that after he takes office, Obama will assign American partners to the negotiations who will tilt their tenor against Israel.

Israeli opposition leaders from right and left say that, as a provisional head of government until the Feb. 10 general election, Olmert has no moral or public mandate to go ahead with the initiative. He therefore has no valid business in the Turkish capital. This view was shared even by his own Kadima party colleague, Tzahi Hanegbi.

Opposition Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu said the post-election government he expects to lead next year would not be bound by any "Olmert-Livni concessions to Syria" or abandon the Golan.

Syria put forward the "borders document" Tuesday, Dec. 16, three months after indirect talks with Israel brokered by Turkey were bogged down: The Israeli side refused to define in advance the limits of its territorial withdrawal, while Syria withheld a prior commitment to break with Tehran, Hizballah and the Palestinian terrorists, for the sake of a peace accord.

It was published shortly before the arrival in the region of Dennis Ross, one of Obama's senior Middle East advisers. The sense in Damascus is that Ross will have an important role in putative Syrian-Israeli-US negotiations in the future. However, DEBKAfile's sources in Washington say his future assignment is still unknown, as is the Obama team's perception of the US role in the talks.

6) IDF's post-truce signal to Hamas: Same old rules unless you go too far

Military sources report: Minutes after Hamas declared the six-month "truce" was over and non-renewable at 6 a.m. Friday, Dec. 19, the Israeli Army spokesman had this to say: "Quiet will be met by quiet but we will not hesitate to respond to missile offensives."

Whereupon, proving the threat was hollow, Hamas fired three missiles, followed by

sniper fire which drove farmers from their fields at Kibbutz Nir Oz and damaged vehicles.

Unnamed defense officials admitted that a large-scale Israeli military operation to stamp out the missile offensive and destroy Hamas weapons stockpiles was not on the cards at this point. The IDF would stick to air strikes against missile cells and Hamas installations, however ineffectual barring major changes on the ground.

One military source commented: "The chief of staff (Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi) is too smart to be caught in this trap (of a major operation) with his hands tied."

The IDF spokesman then explained that in the current period of electioneering, there would be no one to back the chief of staff at home or in a world plunged in a struggle for economic survival."

The official added: "Hamas has missiles capable of reaching targets north of Ashkelon."

People in Sderot, Ashkelon and other targeted Israeli communities responded with outrage. They ask how Hamas, like the Lebanese Hizballah, were allowed to upgrade their deadly arsenals during the watch of defense minister Ehud Barak and Ashkenazi in a period before any election campaigns.

The population bordering on the Gaza Strip has opened up bomb shelters, is rehearsing emergency drill routines and bracing for the worst. Some will inevitably head north, particularly after the army spokesman's comment: "The IDF will strike only in the event of many casualties and a change in the general picture."

The Hamas was thus given to understand that Israel's virtual do-nothing military policy would change only if it fires too many missiles or kills too many civilians. Otherwise, the IDF will abide by the current rules dictated from Gaza and Damascus, which leave the initiative with the Palestinian terrorists and permit only a strictly controlled Israeli response.

In the first 18 days of December, when the notional ceasefire was still in force, Palestinian terrorists slammed 83 Qassam missiles and 52 mortar shells from Gaza into Israeli civilian locations.