[Rhodes22-list] The Ben and Brad show...(Political)

Thu Oct 2 11:21:44 EDT 2008

Ben C wrote:

Think of it in terms of converstions with folks who seem to want a President
who they'd be
comfortable having a beer ( or a shot and a beer) with. To be perfectly
frank, I don't want a President I'd like to hang out with; I want one who is
smarter, better eduacated, more sophisticated, more cosmopolitan, harder
working, more dedicated to public service, and better looking than I am.

I want a president that uses his common sense to make the right decisions.
He has all the experts he needs at his disposal. One person doesn't know it
all, I don't care how long they go to Harvard.
Jb

Ben C. wrote:

Harvard
> is the single most selective and competitive law school in the country.
> There's just no debating that point, and the fact that Obama was selected
> not only to attend, but excelled there to become President of the Law
Review
> is (to my mind) a tremendous feather in his cap, and a very objective
> measure of him as a spectacular intellect.

It seems those schools are more of Club.
You have to be the right kind of person to be accepted. I guess you could
call that elite.
Jb

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Benjamin Cittadino" <bigben65 at earthlink.net>
To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] The Ben and Brad show...(Political)

>
> Brad, Ed, Steve and Colleagues:
>
> I think we need to talk about this word , "ELITE".  Think of it in terms
of
> converstions with folks who seem to want a President who they'd be
> comfortable having a beer ( or a shot and a beer) with. To be perfectly
> frank, I don't want a President I'd like to hang out with; I want one who
is
> smarter, better eduacated, more sophisticated, more cosmopolitan, harder
> working, more dedicated to public service, and better looking than I am.
> (OK, Sarah Palin has met the last criterion).
>
> Can we have these conversations without "Mr Fancy Pants" type of
put-downs?
> That Barak Obama went to Harvard Law School is much to his credit.
Harvard
> is the single most selective and competitive law school in the country.
> There's just no debating that point, and the fact that Obama was selected
> not only to attend, but excelled there to become President of the Law
Review
> is (to my mind) a tremendous feather in his cap, and a very objective
> measure of him as a spectacular intellect.  He was certainly no "legacy",
as
> W was at Yale.  Obama's father, as Brad is fond of pointing out, did him
no
> favors and gave him no advantages.
>
> I do not listen to Christian Radio (please let's not start THAT debate)
and
> perhaps I therefor do not have my finger on the pulse of what the fans of
> that medium are thinking. Is this Ramsey guy simply a modern Father
> Coughlin?  If so I'll pass.
>
> best to all,
>
> Ben C.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
> >
> > Slim,
> >
> > Several years ago (pre 9/11) I boarded the airplane in Miami and there
> > was a Chinese gal sprawled out sleeping on the jumpseats. I woke her
> > up rather rudely and asked, "who are you and why are you sleeping on
> > my airplane?"  She apologized and told her story - something about
> > visiting a boyfriend and being tired and some other stuff I would
> > rather imagine than actually know.  I made her ride in the cockpit (we
> > could do that pre 9/11) and asked her if she knew where the best
> > Chinese food was in Memphis and then invited her to our house.  She
> > had already been accepted into Harvard's MBA program and I used to fly
> > the Boston trip while I was working on my MBA and compare notes with
> > her. We were using the same textbooks and studying the same cases.
> > The difference between our programs was that she and her fellow
> > students were all on the same trajectory to high flying firms with
> > "networking" you can only get at Ivy League schools, while my fellow
> > students were at best hoping to move a rung or two up the ladder they
> > were already toiling at on a daily basis. I'm not joining you in a
> > Bush bashing party, but could - just one data point that perhaps an
> > education from Yale or any of the other "elite" schools is way
> > overrated.
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Steven Alm <stevenalm at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> "Elites of course don't think those of us with degrees from state
> >> universities are sophisticated enough to handle complex problems."
> >>
> >> Brad, you're talking about Bush, right?  A Yalie.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 8:15 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Ed,
> >>>
> >>> Better get your licks in on the NY Times while you can.  The "grey
> >>> lady" as been morally bankrupt for some time and their business model
> >>> is failing - they will soon be financially bankrupt as well.
> >>>
> >>> I like Dave Ramsey and occasionally listen to his radio show.
> >>> Personally, I supported the 700 Billion dollar "bailout" plan even
> >>> though it went against personal and political philosophies.  Now that
> >>> it's been rejected (and wealth equivalent to the entire economy of
> >>> India has been wiped away in a single day) perhaps it's time to look
> >>> at some alternatives.  The mark to market accounting rule change
> >>> bought us some time.
> >>>
> >>> I'm including an article out today from Fred Thompson on Sarah Palin
> >>> because he references Brooks, the author of Ben's article.  Sarah was
> >>> able to shake-up the 'good ole boy' network in Alaska and made a
> >>> market based end-run around the Big Oil stranglehold on the pipeline
> >>> deal.  We could use some "Joe six-pack" common sense in Washington.
> >>>
> >>> Elites of course don't think those of us with degrees from state
> >>> universities are sophisticated enough to handle complex problems.  We
> >>> couldn't do any worse than they have.
> >>>
> >>> Brad
> >>>
> >>> ---------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Qualified
> >>> Fred Thompson
> >>> Tuesday, September 30, 2008
> >>>
> >>> When John McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin, as his running mate,
> >>> the Democrats and their far-left constituency let out a primal scream
> >>> that could be heard from sea to shining sea. How dare he choose
> >>> someone that they and their pals in the media had not had a chance to
> >>> vet (i.e. libel, slander, and otherwise and otherwise eviscerate). Ah,
> >>> but it was not too late. These seekers of "a new kind of politics"
> >>> poured torrents of malicious abuse upon her and her family.
> >>>
> >>> Plane loads of scandal mongers, lawyers and other truth seekers became
> >>> more numerous in Alaska than the polar bear, as they rallied local
> >>> Democrats and disgruntled Republicans to their cause.
> >>>
> >>> Here was a woman who chose to have children and a career. Aging
> >>> Washington socialites weighed in with newly discovered sensitivity for
> >>> mothers with careers outside the home. Here was a woman who became
> >>> upset because her ex-brother-in-law had tasered her nephew and
> >>> threatened her father. The Democrats and their friends had to save the
> >>> country from a woman like this.
> >>>
> >>> Governor Palin's every comment was scrutinized by the media and judged
> >>> against what Jefferson or Lincoln might have said. Never mind that her
> >>> counterpart, the 30-year-Washington-veteran Joe Biden, apparently is
> >>> unaware that America relies upon coal for a lot of it's electricity or
> >>> that he recently referred to a top level U.S. official's visit to Iran
> >>> that never happened. That's just Joe being Joe – protected by the
> >>> sheer number of his gaffes and the fact that he is Barack Obama's
> >>> running mate.
> >>>
> >>> For a while there it seems the fact that so many uninformed yahoos
> >>> (average people) love her was going to drive the main stream media
> >>> nuts. They had a hard time grasping the fact that people like her
> >>> because she is precisely the kind of politician that everyone has been
> >>> saying they've wanted: Independent, not a captive of the Beltway
> >>> including a Congress with a 9% approval rating, who will take on hacks
> >>> of either party; who has the tenacity to win and the courage to fight
> >>> for the long-term benefit of those she represents.
> >>>
> >>> Apparently what no one counted on was that a politician like this
> >>> would actually show up on the national scene. The media was caught by
> >>> surprise. The media doesn't like surprises.
> >>>
> >>> Naturally, there was a backlash to the treatment of Governor Palin and
> >>> cooler-headed critics have largely concentrated on what they claim is
> >>> her lack of qualifications. Of course much of the criticism of her
> >>> qualifications reveals the application of the same old double
> >>> standard. Less accomplished governors in times past have been
> >>> considered to be perfectly "well-qualified" as VP picks.
> >>>
> >>> However, it is a legitimate issue and should be taken seriously. I
> >>> especially take seriously the criticism of people such as New York
> >>> Times columnist David Brooks who I consider to be an insightful
> >>> analyst of the political scene.
> >>>
> >>> He recently wrote that governance is hard. It requires acquired
> >>> skills. Most of all it requires prudence. What is prudence? Among
> >>> other things, it is the ability to absorb information and discern the
> >>> essential current of events – the things that go together and the
> >>> things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in
> >>> complex deliberations and to understand which arguments have the most
> >>> weight. How is prudence acquired? Through experience. Experience
> >>> allows a leader to judge what is important and what is not. He added,
> >>> "Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a
> >>> corrupt establishment, she'd be your woman. But the constructive act
> >>> of governance is another matter."
> >>>
> >>> One can hardly disagree with the desirability of our leaders having
> >>> the qualities that Brooks describes (putting aside the question of how
> >>> many of our leaders who are not Sarah Palin have demonstrated these
> >>> qualities). But there are other important qualifications, such as
> >>> will, courage, and determination. Frankly, an infusion of these
> >>> qualities into our body politic is desperately needed – not just to
> >>> raise hell with the establishment, but to speak the hard truth about
> >>> unpleasant choices facing our country. To push for choices that will,
> >>> in the long term, benefit our country, our children and our
> >>> grandchildren. In other words, things which "prudent" leaders are all
> >>> too often reluctant to do.
> >>>
> >>> For many years we have failed to address looming problems that will
> >>> prove catastrophic to our nation. It's not because we are bereft of
> >>> leaders with great experience. And it is not because they do not
> >>> understand the "essential current of events." They know these things
> >>> all too well. It is because they do not have the political courage to
> >>> do anything about it.
> >>>
> >>> Recently, a Washington Post editorial pointed out that even before the
> >>> recent financial crisis on Wall Street, the Government Accountability
> >>> Office issued a report declaring the federal government on an
> >>> "unsustainable long term fiscal path." This was primarily due to the
> >>> projected cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, brought on
> >>> by an aging population. We will be spending $41 trillion dollars more
> >>> on these entitlements in the next 75 years than we will receive in
> >>> payroll taxes and premiums, although the crunch will actually begin
> >>> much sooner than that. And we already owe Japan and China about $500
> >>> billion each.
> >>>
> >>> David Walker, the former Comptroller General of the United States
> >>> calls this problem much larger than the recent financial rescue plan.
> >>> In fact he calls it the "super sub-prime crisis." Which bring me to
> >>> the current sub-prime crisis.
> >>>
> >>> Wall Street and Washington were full of people who were "qualified and
> >>> experienced" in the field of finance. Sen. Barack Obama, for one, has
> >>> a great deal of experience in the housing field. So do many of his
> >>> closest advisers. I would have traded some of that experience for a
> >>> few more leaders with less experience and more courage to buck the
> >>> establishment and tell the truth about what was happening.
> >>>
> >>> This brings me back to Governor Sarah Palin, and why I say that
> >>> courage and political will are at the very top of the "qualification"
> >>> requirements for today's leaders. So the question is, how does Sarah
> >>> Palin compare on that score with Biden and Obama, for that matter?
> >>> Very well, I'd say.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 7:04 AM, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> > Ben and Brad Show:
> >>> >
> >>> > Ben said,"
> >>> >
> >>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
> >>> >
> >>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
> >>> >
> >>> > The above link is to my favorite NY Times main stream media
columnist.
> >>> I
> >>> > like the way he thinks about the "bailout" issue.
> >>> >
> >>> > Brad said, "He got much of it right."
> >>> >
> >>> > Ben citation of the New York Times and its columnist is an issue for
> >>> two
> >>> > reasons.  The New York Times once billed itself as printing all the
> >>> new
> >>> that
> >>> > is fit to print.  It lost that standard over the years and the rest
of
> >>> the
> >>> > country recognizes it.  It has lost its credibility.
> >>> >
> >>> > Secondly, the New York Times is solidly main stream media as Ben
said.
> >>>  This
> >>> > means that reasonable people in the other parts of the country
> >>> understand
> >>> > that what ever it prints, it is biased reporting.  So even when as
> >>> Brad
> >>> > says, "He got much of it right", its veracity is questioned by the
> >>> rest
> >>> of
> >>> > the country.
> >>> > Ben has coalesced into the Northeast Pseudo Elitist mold.   This
type
> >>> of
> >>> > reasoning is exemplified by Chris Mattews.  Specifically that is put
> >>> down
> >>> > 'Blue Collar' America, because I have more than a high school
> >>> education I
> >>> > understand better and more.
> >>> >
> >>> > Blue Collar America does not read nor will it accept advice [even if
> >>> it
> >>> > good] from the New York Times.
> >>> > Here is where Blue Collar America is getting it ideas on the
situation
> >>> from:
> >>> >
> >>>
http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/fed_bailout/3_steps_to_change_the_nations_future_10928.htmlc?ictid=mlfrnd
> >>> >
> >>> > Now a read of David Brooks column cited shows that he has read
George
> >>> Soros
> >>> > books and his thinking is influenced by Soros's concepts of capital
> >>> flow.
> >>> > Why has no major media interview Soros?  That is a big mistake and
> >>> lost
> >>> > opportunity.
> >>> >
> >>> > And the White House failed in not inviting Buffet and Soros to get
> >>> their
> >>> > perspective and ideas.  Because you seek advice does mean you have
to
> >>> follow
> >>> > it.  But do get some good advice and not insider advice from Goldman
> >>> Sachs
> >>> > via Hank Paulson.  (Goldman Sach is openly supporting your
opposition,
> >>> so
> >>> > why would they give you the best advice?).
> >>> >
> >>> > Brad, thank you for pointing out that the old lack luster McCain has
> >>> looked
> >>> > at the accounting issues and spoke about them.  Whereas Obama has
> >>> developed
> >>> > an elitist attitude that is to let others decide.  Obama has
> >>> demonstrated
> >>> a
> >>> > real lack of understanding and leadership.  It seems that he does
not
> >>> have
> >>> > even average intelligence.
> >>> >
> >>> > This guy is a real example of Elmer Gantry, Jim Baker and other con
> >>> men.
> >>> If
> >>> > Obama was an army second lieutenant in combat he would have been
> >>> fragged
> >>> a
> >>> > long time ago.  He is a phony leader, a false god image.
> >>> >
> >>> > Ed K
> >>> > Greenville, SC, USA
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > --
> >>> > View this message in context:
> >>>
http://www.nabble.com/The-Ben-and-Brad-show...%28Political%29-tp19759011p19759011.html
> >>> > Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > __________________________________________________
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>
> -- 
> View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/The-Ben-and-Brad-show...%28Political%29-tp19759011p19771630.html
> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
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