Conflicts of Interest

hillary.jpg

Sleep deprivation may or may not cause deliberate lying, but having trouble sorting out reality when you’re tired does not lead to “day one readiness” or fair well at 3:00 am under any circumstances. But what we have here today is some good old fashioned American hypocrisy. No, I am not talking about telling the American people that you have real solutions to their economic problems when you’ve just brought in over $100 million.

I am talking about traveling the country telling working class people that you’ve always been firmly against NAFTA and other free trade agreements when you weren’t in the past and you’re not in the present. Just ask Hillary’s Chief Campaign Strategist, Mark Penn. Penn continues to work as a lobbyist for a company that has recently been contracted to lobby Congress to pass a trade deal with Colombia. No matter how you pin it, it’s a conflict and smells real bad.

Leave a comment

Filed under Essays, Obama 08

Honey, We’re Rich!

i-am-rich.jpg

The Clintons are dirt. Dirt Rich! Hillary and Bill have just finally released their tax returns for the past seven years. In 2000, the last time they made their income public, the Clintons reported an adjusted gross income of $416,039. From that point until now — in only seven years — they’ve earned $109.2 million. Not bad at all! The Bush economy and NAFTA were sure good for some people. I never knew that politics could be so profitable. Being president was sure a solution for one family’s economy. Now it is pretty obvious why Billary is staying in the race until the very end.

Nevertheless, it will probably be a few more days before the information is fully scrutinized.

Leave a comment

Filed under Essays, Obama 08

Barack Likes Mediterranean Food

barack-comida-espanola.jpg

The Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, published this photo today of Obama enjoying Mediterranean cuisine. “Mediterranean cuisine”? Mediterranean cuisine can be Moroccan, Tunisian, Lebanese, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, and so on. Not necessarily Spanish. My guess is Barack is surrounded by French and Italian food, but if it makes El Mundo feel more patriotic to call it Mediterranean and have its readers believe it is Spanish, then more power to them.

It’s a shame that Spain does not do a better job of marketing and exporting its food.

1 Comment

Filed under Living la vida española, Obama 08

How Immigrants Saved Social Security

immigration-carabanchel.JPG

Heaven knows that I have done my share of waiting in long, depressing, and dehumanizing lines, and I have to continue to do so in the future. It is the life of an immigrant.

Regardless of what popular opinion tells us, it looks like legal and illegal immigration are good for the economy and social security. That’s what an editorial in today’s New York Times tell us. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Essays, Living la vida española

Books March 2008

books-march-2008.JPG

Recently, I haven’t had much time to write about books, so I thought I would briefly list the books that I read during the month of March:

Here are my observations: Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Digressions, Literature

“Yes We Can” T-Shirt

yes-we-can-tshirt.JPG

My friend and co-worker Jacobo (who I used to affectionately call Hysidro) made this Obama “Yes We Can” T-Shirt for me. It actually looks much better on than in the photo. Unfortunately, I had to crop the image to hide sweat marks.

Thanks Hysidro! ¡Eres el mejor!

2 Comments

Filed under Friends / Family, Obama 08

Lies and News Footage

Notice I didn’t say, “Sex, Lies, and New Footage” — there is no reason to bring up those lies as well. No one is interested in the Clinton’s sham marriage of political convenience. What is interesting are a few of the other takes on the Tuzla “mistatements”. I think that the video above does a great job of highlighting Hillary’s ability to willfully give false statements with absolutely no remorse and to craft them in such a way as to be detailed and unapologizing — not to mention that she is condescending to Sinbad.

Meanwhile, ReWrite recommended this video:

Continue reading

3 Comments

Filed under Essays, Obama 08

Ground Zero: There Goes the Neighborhood

old-days2.JPG

Esto me recuerda a mi primer divorcio. Después de más de dos años en la tercera planta, nos vamos (casi) todos a la planta cero para juntarnos con los técnicos y demás — “There Goes the Neighborhood!”

¡Cuanto recuerdo aquí en este espacio! Aquí empecé en el 2006 cuando éramos muy pocos. Hasta me recuerda a aquel poema que tanto me gusta del griego Cavafy: Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under FON

Liar or Delusional or Both

In a scathing op-ed piece, Christopher Hitches compares his own sniper fire landing in Sarajevo in 1992 to Hillary’s Tuzla landing in 1996. Similar to my own previous remarks on the matter, Hitches correctly highlights that Hillary flew into Tuzla with her teenage daugther, Sinbad, as well as others — would a rational person have put her daughter in to such a “dangerous” situation? The “sleep deprived” version of events was not a single event of misrepresented reality, but rather was repeated by Senator Clinton on numerous occassions over the past months.

Hitchens argues that the “Tall Tale of Tuzla” was of

either a) that she lies without conscience or reflection; or b) that she is subject to fantasies of an illusory past; or c) both of the above. Any of the foregoing would constitute a disqualification for the presidency of the United States.

I think it is about time for a little bit, just a little bit, of reality in the Clintons’ world. Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Essays, Obama 08

The Costs of Retreat?

bush.jpg

Yesterday, President George W. Bush gave a speech on the War in Iraq informing us that the “reality is that retreating from Iraq would carry enormous strategic costs for the United States.” The excellent orator that he is, Mr. Bush made a very powerful case about how leaving Iraq would be bad for the U.S. both at home and abroad, as well as having negative consequences for the Middle East.

Here are the president’s arguments with my comments in italics: Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Essays