Thursday, January 07, 2010
Usual crap
We were supposed to be surprised by something in Sultan Obama's news conference this aft. Nope. Same old junk. "I take responsibility" is meaningless. An executive actually takes responsibility for an error by firing all the underlings who made the error, then resigning himself. Words like "The buck stops here" are just talking responsibility, not taking responsibility.
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Parliamentary systems are more functional because the opposition can demand the resignation of the prime minister; if he doesn't resign the opposition calls a Vote of No Confidence. The opposition always has a PM and cabinet ready for the switch. So the country gets fresh leadership immediately. Though the American system nominally has the option of impeachment, it's vestigial and meaningless because the unwanted president is replaced by his own chosen VP, not by the opposition. This guarantees total paralysis and collapse.
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Obama says: "Here at home, we will strengthen our defenses, but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don't hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust."
Well, he's exactly right, in a narrowly semantic way. We will not sacrifice the "open society and liberties and values" because those were gone a long time ago. Nothing left to sacrifice. ¶ 3:03 PM
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Parliamentary systems are more functional because the opposition can demand the resignation of the prime minister; if he doesn't resign the opposition calls a Vote of No Confidence. The opposition always has a PM and cabinet ready for the switch. So the country gets fresh leadership immediately. Though the American system nominally has the option of impeachment, it's vestigial and meaningless because the unwanted president is replaced by his own chosen VP, not by the opposition. This guarantees total paralysis and collapse.
= = = = =
Obama says: "Here at home, we will strengthen our defenses, but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don't hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust."
Well, he's exactly right, in a narrowly semantic way. We will not sacrifice the "open society and liberties and values" because those were gone a long time ago. Nothing left to sacrifice. ¶ 3:03 PM
