Romney ou Perry: le choix des dirigeants du GOP

Approcherait-on du point de non retour dans la sélection du candidat républicain pour 2012?

"As the GOP presidential field emerges from the traditional Labor Day starting gate, the candidates are confronting a sobering reality: They’re already running out of time.

Though there are still months to go before Republicans start casting real primary ballots, party leaders say the dynamics of the race could be locked in place by the end of October. That’s because the Republican establishment – which has largely stayed neutral in the GOP primary – is about to start picking sides.

After countless attempts to lure new options into their party’s presidential field, GOP fundraisers and power brokers are coming to terms with what looks like an increasingly binary choice between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

There are plenty of other options to choose from – including activist favorites Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul – but neither is showing evidence of broad-based support. Only Romney and Perry appear to be in contention for the insider backing that could help them shape the hard contours of the race by mid-autumn.

“There is not necessarily an early establishment candidate. Romney is trying to be in that position and Perry’s announcement got him a good bounce,” said former New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, who chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Every week, people will move off the sidelines.”

The emerging duel between the two Republicans presents an agonizing choice for donors who want to support the better general election candidate, but also want to be on board with the winner of the party’s 2012 primary.

With elites hesitating over both the painfully cautious, independent-voter-friendly Romney and the blustery, activist-charming Perry, their affections could still turn either way in the next two months.

Put another way: It’s shaping up as a choice between one candidate who looks electable and other who might be inevitable.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62633.html

Labor day blues (Washington post)

Rien de bien réjouissant à l'horizon...

"On this Labor Day, there is little good news about labor. We have entered a long period of crushing unemployment and downward pressure on wages that may well transform the nation's economic and political landscape. There was no job growth in August, and the overall numbers are stupefying: 14 million unemployed; nearly 9 million part-time workers wanting full-time jobs; 6.5 million who want jobs but are so discouraged that they've given up looking and are, therefore, not counted in the official labor force. People are only gradually recognizing the magnitude of the problem.

This is a historic inflection point, symbolized by President Obama's promise of a new jobs program. It's unclear whether either he or his Republican critics truly know how to speed up job creation. Obama has already provided massive "stimulus": $4 trillion of budget deficits from 2009 to 2011. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has kept short-term interest rates near zero. Still, the economy languishes. Nor will the Republican emphasis on less regulation and lower deficits instantly provide a big boost. Smaller deficits, for example, won't much reduce interest rates, because they're already low.

Even if this skepticism proves overdone -- and an effective jobs program emerges -- high unemployment will linger for years. Here's why, thanks to some jobs math from economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.

To reduce unemployment, the economy must create enough new jobs to absorb entrants into the labor market and the existing out-of-work. Shierholz has calculated how many jobs would be needed to lower unemployment (9.1 percent in August) to 5 percent over five years. Her estimate: 16.9 million. That's an average of 282,000 jobs a month. The trouble is that this rate of job creation far exceeds the present level (105,000 a month since early 2010) or even the level (240,000) achieved during the boom between 1993 and 2000."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/05/labor_day_blues_111199.html

Zip homes: solution à la seconde récession!

Caricature "In my time": le grincheux

Caricature Oncle Sam et les mirages...

Colonel motors: Kadhafi et la Fiat 500 électrique!

Il a payé sa 500 légèrement plus cher que moi...

"Le rebelles cherchent encore Mouammar Kadhafi, mais ils savent au moins où il a stationné sa voiture la dernière fois. En fait, une de ses nombreuses voitures, car comme tous les dictateurs, il avait une collection.

Le quotidien italien Corriere della Sera rapporte la découverte à Tripoli d'une voiture unique inspirée de la Fiat 500 cabriolet, mais tout-électrique et sans portes, payée 200 000 euros par le Colonel Kadhafi au carrossier Castagno, de Milan. La commande passée en 2009 devait rester secrète. La voiture électrique n'était pas chargée et les insurgés l'ont sortie d'un bunker de Tripoli en la poussant.

Les excentricités automobiles de Kadhafi sont techniquement originales. Le devis soumis au carrossier et préparateur était exigeant. La voiture possède un moteur électrique de 34 kW procurant une vitesse maximum de 160 km/h et son ensemble de batteries lui assure une autonomie de 260 km. Elle se charge en 10 minutes grâce à deux énormes chargeurs à haute tension importés de Suède, probablement des ABB (le texte ne le précise pas).

En haut du marchepied gauche, une image rétro-éclairée d'Omar Al Mokhtar, emblème personnel du Colonel Kadhafi. Mokhtar, leader héroïque de la résistance libyenne au début du XXe siècle, a été exécuté en 1931 par le gouvernement colonial italien.

Sur le capot de la voiture de Kadhafi, pas d'emblème de Fiat, mais à la place, un écusson reproduisant le continent africain, en noir, avec seulement la Libye en vert, la couleur du régime.

Le reste est l'équipement standard des dictateurs, bois précieux et cuir cousu à la main, jantes en alliage de 17 pouces, un toit de toile couleur sable du désert, une carrosserie verte et or."

http://monvolant.cyberpresse.ca/nouvelles/201109/02/01-4431171-colonel-motors-la-fiat-500-electrique-de-kadhafi.php

Obama est faible? Pas selon JONATHAN CHAIT (NY Times)

Une analyse originale, différente de ce que je lis ces jours-ci.

"Obama’s image as a weakling and sellout on domestic issues now centers on his alleged resistance, from the very first days of his presidency, to do whatever was necessary to heal the economy. “The truly decisive move that broke the arc of history,” wrote the Emory professor Drew Westen in this newspaper, “was his handling of the stimulus.” Just as the conservative repudiation of George W. Bush boiled down to “he spent too much,” the liberal repudiation of Obama has settled on “he didn’t spend enough.”

There’s truth in that. President Obama underestimated the depth of the crisis in 2009 and left himself with bad options in the event the economy failed to recover as quickly as he hoped. And yet the wave of criticism from the left over the stimulus is fundamentally flawed: it ignores the real choices Obama faced (and the progressive decisions he made) and wishes away any constraints upon his power.

The most common hallmark of the left’s magical thinking is a failure to recognize that Congress is a separate, coequal branch of government consisting of members whose goals may differ from the president’s. Congressional Republicans pursued a strategy of denying Obama support for any major element of his agenda, on the correct assumption that this would make it less popular and help the party win the 2010 elections. Only for roughly four months during Obama’s term did Democrats have the 60 Senate votes they needed to overcome a filibuster. Moreover, Republican opposition has proved immune even to persistent and successful attempts by Obama to mobilize public opinion. Americans overwhelmingly favor deficit reduction that includes both spending and taxes and favor higher taxes on the rich in particular. Obama even made a series of crusading speeches on this theme. The result? Nada."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/magazine/what-the-left-doesnt-understand-about-obama.html?_r=3

Guerre avec la Chine: les américains devraient-ils s'en inquiéter? (Foreign relations)

"Is it possible that, a decade after 9/11, America has become too preoccupied with the threat from "nonstate actors" and too complacent about the more classic dangers posed by powerful and self-aggrandizing states? Or, put more succinctly, how afraid of China should the United States be?

We know, of course, that China owns $1.5 trillion worth of U.S. Treasury bills and thus has the U.S. economy by the short hairs; that China refuses to significantly revalue the renminbi and thus retains its colossal imbalance in trade with the United States; and that China has begun to buy American real estate and other assets (including, perhaps, the Los Angeles Dodgers). But should Americans regard China as a national security threat and not merely an economic one?"

À lire au complet!

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/02/over_the_horizon

11 septembre 10 ans après (La Presse)

J'apprécie jusqu,à maintenant le travail de Isabelle Hachey et Martin Leblanc dans La Presse. Particulièrement leur arrêt à Murfreesboro au Tennessee où l'islamophobie semble prendre des proportions inquiétantes...

"Il n’y a pas à dire, les gens de Murfreesboro savent recevoir. Même quand c’est pour raconter à leurs visiteurs, dans des mots très durs, tout le mal qu’ils pensent de leurs concitoyens musulmans. L’expérience n’en est que plus déstabilisante.

C’est le grand paradoxe de cette petite ville américaine, qui se fait une fierté d’être accueillante, mais qui s’en prend depuis plus d’un an à ses propres citoyens.

Tout a commencé par un acte de vandalisme. « Not Welcome », a-t-on écrit sur une pancarte annonçant la construction d’une nouvelle mosquée pour la communauté musulmane en pleine croissance. « Nous pensions qu’il s’agissait d’un acte isolé », nous a confié Saleh Sbenaty, professeur d’ingénierie installé depuis 30 ans à Murfreesboro.

Il n’a pas tardé à comprendre que le malaise était beaucoup plus profond, comme vous pourrez le constater dans notre reportage vidéo. À en croire leurs plus féroces opposants, les 250 familles musulmanes de la ville menaceraient l’existence même du christianisme au cœur de la Bible Belt…

Bien sûr, la controverse a éclaté en pleine période électorale, l’an dernier. Bien sûr, les candidats locaux du Tea Party savaient qu’ils pouvaient gagner des votes en agitant l’épouvantail de l’islam radical. Mais dans cette région très conservatrice, ils n’ont pas eu à l’agiter bien fort."

Murfreesboro a également pour principal héros Nathan Bedford Forrest, officier du sud pendant la guerre de Sécession et premier Grand sorcier du KKK...

À suivre!

http://blogues.cyberpresse.ca/11-septembre/2011/09/03/bienvenue-mais-pas-trop-a-murfreesboro/

Aisha Kadhafi: "The Claudia Schiffer of North Africa"

Nous n'en sommes pas à une contradiction près pour la famille Kadhafi...

"The fall of the Libyan regime has allowed many glimpses into the Gaddafi family lifestyle, revealing everything from their taste in gold mermaid furniture, their penchant for bad murals of sports cars and their apparent enjoyment of alcohol (despite the somewhat awkward fact that it was banned in the country by Gaddafi himself).

However, perhaps none of these revelations has been quite so bizarre and unexpected as the private photo album of Colonel Gaddafi's only biological daughter, Aisha Gaddafi.

Aisha herself is a bit of a surprise, in fact.

Known as the "The Claudia Schiffer of North Africa" by the Arab press, not only is she a Western-educated, dyed-blonde lawyer who worked for the defence in the trial of Saddam Hussein, Aisha is also a former UN goodwill ambassador and a defender of women's rights.

On the other hand she has always been a staunch defender of her father's regime, the IRA and various other groups with poor records on human rights.

Now fled to Algeria with many members of her family, it was announced on Tuesday that Aisha Gaddafi had also given birth to her"

Dick Cheney "Doing my time"...