Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
Bookie has a great find (here and here) in a review of Thomas Lifson's article from 2006 that, as she states, goes a long way towards providing the macro reason that we have seen a drift towards McCain.
Because it was written in 2006, it has a certain clarity to it that is worth close consideration.
Normally, forthcoming elections, especially presidential contests, cause a fraction of the public to pay closer than normal attention. So election season is normally Attention Season (2008 election). This is why Republicans tend to increase their support in generic polls about political preferences as elections approach. If one looked at off—year polling about party preferences, one would expect Congress to be in the hands of Democrats. But as political advertising reaches its peak prior to election day, Republicans tend to gain support, as a critical fraction makes up its mind at the last minute and pays attention to political arguments.
But Attention Season is not limited to election years. A crisis, such as 9/11, can focus Americans even in an off year. Nevertheless, Attention Season is a fleeting moment. Unless there is a special reason, most Americans do not really want to pay much attention to politics. They have far more important matters to attend to: their own lives. Outside a small percentage of political junkies in the populace, mostly those committed to one or another political viewpoint, most Americans perceive only headlines, sound bytes, images, and vague impressions of politicians, parties and issues.
It (the 2006 election) is Inattention Season, and that is normal American politics.
The default mode of Inattention Season strongly favors the Democrats. The overwhelmingly liberal media exercise their power in both blatant and subtle ways to convey a warm and fuzzy impression of Democrats. Photo editors at daily newspapers play a key role, selecting scowling pictures of Republicans and smiling pictures of Democrats, for instance. All of the television news outlets except Fox look for sound bites and visuals to reinforce a positive impression of Democrats whenever possible, and portray Republicans as mean, bigoted, white, male, awkward and stupid.
Monday’s New York Post included a revealing column by Amir Taheri, a respected commentator on the Middle East. The piece, bolstered by firsthand reporting, provided a troubling glimpse into Senator Barack Obama’s trip to Iraq in July.
According to Taheri, Sen. Obama used the trip to press Iraqi leaders to delay negotiations with a “weak” and “politically confused” Bush administration. Calling the U.S. presence in Iraq “illegal,” Sen. Obama also tried to press General Petraeus & Co. for a realistic withdrawal date, to no avail.
WIZBANGBlog reminds us of something that the MSM just won't talk about; the Freddie and Fannie tie in with Obama. Just the facts.
....two of his top economic advisers have some pretty darned good connections with those two.
Franklin Raines worked at Fannie Mae for years, rising to vice-chairman until Bill Clinton tapped him to head up the Office of Management and Budget. Raines returned to head Fannie Mae in 1999, staying until he "retired" in 2004 amid allegations of accounting irregularities and the revelation that he had received a sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide.
Jim Johnson preceded Raines at Fannie Mae, where he had run the company as chairman from 1991 to 1998. Johnson served on Barack Obama's vice-presidential search committee until it was revealed that he, too, had gotten sweetheart loans from Countrywide.
Sen. Obama has received $105,849 from donors tied to the companies since he ran for the senate four years ago, making him the third-largest recipient in Congress among the top 25 listed in a recent report by the Center for Responsive Politics, which examined contributions dating to 1989.
Sen. McCain wasn't listed in the report, and proponents of overhaul say lobbyists have tried unsuccessfully to win him over.
And let's look at that list a bit closer; I like Top 5 lists.
"When the highly-paid CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac felt reformers closing in, they needed a defender. They knew where to send their money. The Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd... and Barack Obama. They gave Obama more than $126,000, in less than four years. While Fannie and Freddie was running aground, Dodd, Obama, and Congress looked elsewhere. Ask yourself who can really bring change to Washington, and keep our financial system from running aground."
Acknowledging the importance of tapping the resources of Web 2.0 technology, namely one of its most prevalent user group, Net Generation-the generation born between the late 70s to the early 90s-the Navy's Chief Information Officer, Robert J. Carey, didn't send a memo; he blogged. "In addition to being raised on computers, this generation thinks differently from the generations that have preceded them. This Age of Mass Collaboration requires parallel rather than linear thinking, which the Net Gen has mastered as a result of their seemingly innate knack for multitasking," Carey said on his blog. According to the IT world, Web 2.0 has a myriad of meanings. But if one were to Google "Web 2.0," one of the first definitions of the term comes up as: "Web 2.0 encapsulates the idea of the proliferation of interconnectivity and social interactions on the Web." Each military arm's CIO has their own website, but Carey is said to be the first CIO to harness 2.0 technology with his blog.
They also go on to mention other Navy related blog's worth looking at. Humbled that this blog was mentioned (preen, preen), but they have a solid list some of which are new to me.
First they have a few friends of this blog like our MarStrat beer-buddie Galrahn, Sailors of Destroyermen, and my Blogger's Roundtable podcasting bud David from WarIsBoring.
If they managed to develop a good Computer Network Attack cell and get it to work. If they could have done this during the RNC, Obama would still be up 10+.
He throws stones at everyone from the middle of his EuroTaxpayer glass house. One of the most worthless members of the International Community overcompensates:
The West has no coherent strategy for victory in Afghanistan, according to the former EU envoy Francesc Vendrell. ... "Because for as long as the Bush administration is in office it is impossible to change the Bush administration's approach to Afghanistan.
"They don't want to see any changes because they still hope to present Afghanistan as a success story," Mr Vendrell said.
A couple of points: 1. He obviously knows nothing about military planning for Afghanistan. 2. What has teh EU have the point for WRT Afghanistan? EUPOL.
Heal thyself - and go to a few more briefs. It would be fun to watch him discuss the EU's failure on his watch to contribute more than a farthing to the Security Line of Operation - which as we all know has to lead Governance, Reconstruction, and Development.
Watch the video at the BBC link to see why I hug my USA passport every night.
