kamui

Michelle Obama has white slave owners as ancestors: Henry Wells Shields is the man with the white beard. His wife, Christian Patterson Shields, sits to his right. Charles Marion Shields is the third man standing from the right. The white man who owned Mrs. Obama’s great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields, and his son, who most likely fathered Melvinia’s child. The photograph of those two men and their relatives, which is believed to have been taken in Georgia sometime around 1884, is being published here for the first time. The slaveowner was Henry Wells Shields, who inherited Melvinia when his father-in-law died in 1852. DNA testing and research indicate that he and his wife, Christian Patterson Shields, are the first lady’s great-great-great-great grandparents. Their son, Charles Marion Shields, worked as a farmer and a teacher. DNA testing and research point to him as the father of Melvinia’s son, Dolphus Shields. That would make Charles Mrs. Obama’s great-great-great grandfather. NYT

This might not decide this election, but 2016+ will become very interesting due to the ongoing demographic shift in favor of non-whites... Race gap hardens in 2012 contest By: Alexander Burns June 21, 2012 12:46 PM EDT The demographic battle lines of the 2012 campaign are rapidly solidifying as Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama gear up for a campaign defined by significant gaps between the candidates in voters’ race, gender and age. A trickle of recent swing-state surveys confirms a racial divide that’s already been on vivid display in national polling: Obama has failed to gain new traction with white voters whileRomney has either stalled out or lost ground with Latinos and other non-white voting groups. That pattern is only likely to intensify after Obama’s decision to allow some children of illegal immigrants to stay in the country. Romney criticized it for being a stop-gap measure but has not said whether he would maintain that policy as president. It’s not only race that divides the two candidates: the generational and gender gaps that have characterized both the Obama and Romney coalitions haven’t budged. The racial gap may be the most striking, given the rapidly growing Hispanic population and the relative decline of the white vote share. A Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters threw the divisions into relief Thursday morning. In the poll, Romney won voters over 55, white voters and men. All other demographic groups broke for the president: women, black and Latino voters, and voters 54 and younger. The survey gave Obama a 4-point lead against Romney overall, 46 to 42 percent. .... http://www.politico....0612/77700.html

The British media (right and left) has the tendency to overreact. In Germany we are used to it. Just today there is an article which says that Chancellor Angela Merkel is much more dangerous than Ahmadinejad (Iran) or Kim Jong-un (Korea). Just have a look at the latest magazine cover: The first paragraph of the article: I guess soon we will need a special visa for the enter the UK and we will have a secret service agent attached to every German visitor.

Couldn't find it, this wasn't one of your last three links...

Sounds like a storm in a (British) teacup. PS: Flash, I really enjoy you frequent presentation of the most obscure anti Obama article/websites on the web.

As I said, Obama has cornered Romney in regard to the immigration problem: Romney dodges immigration questions By REID J. EPSTEIN | 6/17/12 10:28 AM EDT Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he’d repeal the Obama administration’s decision to stop deporting certain undocumented immigrants. In an interview with Bob Schieffer aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,†the presumptive Republican presidential nominee five different times declined to answer whether he would conduct the same policy President Barack Obama on Friday announced his Department of Homeland Security will now pursue. Instead of answering the question posed, Romney called for a permanent solution. “With regards to these kids who were brought in by their parents through no fault of their own, there needs to be a long-term solution so they know what their status is,†Romney said. “This is something Congress has been working on, and I thought we were about to see some proposals brought forward by Sen. Marco Rubio and by Democrat senators, but the president jumped in and said I'm going to take this action, he called it a stop-gap measure. I don't know why he feels stop-gap measures are the right way to go.†After Schieffer asked, directly, four additional times if Romney would repeal the policy without receiving an answer, Romney called the move political. “I think the timing is pretty clear, if he really wanted to make a solution that dealt with these kids or with illegal immigration in America, than this is something he would have taken up in his first three and a half years, not in his last few months,†he said. Romney has yet to offer an opinion on the merits of Obama’s immigration policy change. On Friday, he told reporters in New Hampshire that he supports Rubio’s proposal, which has yet to be introduced in the Senate. On “Fox News Sunday,†Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said Obama’s moved successfully undercut both Rubio and Romney. “This was the anti-Marco Rubio initiative by the administration,†Kristol said. “They were scared. Sen. Rubio was about to introduce his version of the Dream Act, which would have been closer to what President Obama announced than the actual Democratic Dream Act. I wish Rubio had introduced it over the last month or two. He got stalled, not every Republican was on board, the Romney campaign’s been cautious about it.†And Kristol said Romney, who during the GOP primary staked out a more conservative position on immigration than his opponents, in particular Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is now in a tight spot. “This is a big problem for Romney,†Kristol said. “He needs to take the lead on this, and in my view embrace Marco Rubio’s Dream Act if that’s what he wants and say, ‘Let’s pass this in Congress over the next few months, this is what I’m for.†Politico

Good question. I wonder if it does matter to them that they did their bidding. I guess the GOP pols feel worse. Anyway, until the election the Dems will keep their mouth shut.

Yep, the argument against the competition for jobs is a really weak. 800.000 educated, but undocumented, immigrants now can have a career in the USA. To keep them away from the white collar job market was a total waste of "human capital" (and public money). It shows the helplessness of the conservatives in regard to Obama's immigration decision.

I wonder if Obama is executing a well prepared plan after being politically almost impotent in the past years. First the women: ordering the health insurance companies to pay for birth control pills. The GOP and the Catholic church took the bait and ran straight into his trap and thus mobilized women associations around the country. Second the gay, buy supporting gay marriage and shutting down don't ask don't tell. The GOP couldn't really react, since more and more Americans are pro gay. And now the Latinos, by bringing substantial relief to hundreds of thousands of young Latinos, who traditionally do not vote at presidential elections. Especially in regard to the immigration topic the GOP is now cornered and gave contradicting responses. Every time it was done just with the strike of his pen, without endless fights with congress and senate. And every time it was aimed at group which was disappointed by Obama. But of course this doesn't make Obama a winner - especially if the economy will tank further.

Does this have any consequences for Obama? Except the Cubans and the Puertoricans all other young Latinos will gain from Obama's decision.

Obama energizes Latino vote By: Edward-Isaac Dovere and Darren Samuelsohn June 15, 2012 08:20 PM EDT President Barack Obama on Friday tried to grab back the mantle of change — and remind his base why they came out in force for him four years ago. The broad strokes are the same as when he declared his support for gay marriage last month: a key 2008 constituency that had spent three and a half years nursing its disappointment, now thrown a late-breaking move to ramp up its enthusiasm. In both, the president had very little to lose — many voters who dislike his support for gay marriage or refusal to deport young immigrants probably weren’t in play anyway. But he had a huge amount to gain in enthusiasm, in reconnecting with the spirit of his first campaign, and most of all, in driving up turnout. In an election that could well turn on the margin of Latinos supporting him in key swing states— and coming out to the polls — that’s no small matter. ..... The bold move by Obama shows that he is still playing to win. He hit one of the weakest spots of Romney who is now cornered in the immigration debate. Romney was against the Dream-Act and for "self-deportation". It will be difficult for him to move away from this position without alienating the hardcore GOPs, while he knows that the Latinos will be able to decide _any_ election the future. The decision affects up 800.000 Latinos directly and millions of Lationo indirectly who have a family member or relative who is now secure to pursue his/hers career in the USA. Additionally the order is temporary as the GOP has pointed out (how stupid can they be?) which means that the Latinos know what will happen when Romney becomes president. IMHO this raises Obama's chances, because Lations are playing a major role especially in the swing states.

Are you sure?

The campaign money is being dwarfed by the amount of USD the Super PACs are planning to spend. HuffPo worte that the Koch brother alone plan to spend 400 Mio. for Romney.

I wonder if you have to watch your back when it is getting dark. Not that I know much about these matters, but what I have read in Thai newspapers....

In Wisconsin the GOP outspend the DEMs 8 to 1! Since the Citizen United ruling the rules of the game have changed completely. The Dem's grassroots fundraising machine has no chance against the GOP billionaires. A very small group of GOP big money donors can easily outspend 10 Mio grassroots Dem donors.

Germany doesn't downplay it at all. Otherwise it would have been impossible to develop really good realationships with our neighbouring countries as well as with Isreal. (of course occasionally there are some frictions) The German government(s) paid reparations to many countries and is still paying pensions to foreign victims of the Nazi regime in Poland and elsewhere. On a local level German history schoolbooks document the Nazi regime and WWII very well. Nothing is being denied or hidden. In many cities you will find Nazi documentation centers and many private citizens are involved in researching the fate of Jews e.g. in their cities and villages. In Cologne for example at many places you find small bronze bricks with names inscribed in the pavement in front of certain houses. These are names of Jews living in the house who where deported... That's quite different to Japan which still denies the Nanjing massacre, which has enshrined so called Class A war ciminals in a major temple in Tokyo and which for example denies individual payments to sex slaves of Japanese WWII regime.

For years the German-Poland relationship was very complicated. But it is getting better now. I just had been invited to Krakow (definitely one of the most beautiful cities in Europe) and it was extremely pleasant to work with the Polish. By the way, after the fall of the Iron Curtain many Polish went to work in West Europe (Germany, GB, e.g.), but now Poland is doing so well that most of them returned home. In regard to US jails my information is of course limited, but it seems that in some prisons they even stopped serving food 3 times a day for financial reasons. Another major problem seems to be that more and more people get really old in prison and that the prisons can't/ won't take care of them. The same seems to apply the growing number of people with mental illnesses.

In Germany, if you are on social security (called Hartz 4) of have a low income, you get a lawyer for free, paid by the state - if your case is deemed legit. The state pays as well all court fees and optional expert witnesses (if this is the correct term). Only if you lose a court case you'll have to pay the winning side. And unless like in the USA those 'free' lawyers are not the bad apples of their profession or the incompetent ones . More details here (in German language)

That's a fucking arrogant and insulting post. I guess it is time to put you on the ignore list.

Both examples in regard to Germany and Libya are not valid. Freeing the Lybian terrorist happened outside the usual process. It was in the end a political decision. Letting out German terrorists happened as well outside the usual process. They received amnesty by the German president after years of public discussion. None of the terrorists has committed a crime after they left prison. Generally in Germany very few people stay in prison for life without parole. This happens only to those who are deemed to go on with capital crimes (murder, pedophelia, e.g.) if they are let go. This is a small group. The USA seems to have a very high prison rate for minor offenses, especially due to three strike law and due to drug offenses non-withes. And they put many people in jail for life without parole. On the other hand, as I understand the USA has a strange amnesty system. Every outgoing US governor and president gives amnesty to prisoners, among them are usually prisoners who in a way connected to governor/president. Anyway, in Germany life is pretty secure. Driveby shootings are rare, as well as shootings within a family or among relatives/fellows, since an usual household doesn't own a gun... (personally I have never seen a gun private hands in my whole life). But this is a different topic. In the USA if terrible crime with guns happens gun laws are being softened. In Europe, when such a crime happens gun laws are being hardened (see Scotland and Germany). PS: just compare the number of prisons and prison cells in Germany and the USA for get a idea of the number of inmates. It's simple math.

A fine example of American exceptionalism: The USA has the most prisoners in the world. It's interesting to look at despised enemies of the USA like Iran or to countries the USA wanted to democratize like Iraq (144). LOUISIANA INCARCERATED How we built the world's prison capital http://www.nola.com/prisons/ PS: Louisana has 10 times as many prisoners as Germany (161 per 100.000) See full list here: http://en.wikipedia....arceration_rate

Reagan: End of the Cold War

Just before the sale, the FB increase the number of share as well as the price - while at the same time GM was pulling ads from FB worth 10 mio USD. It seems that FB and the supporting banks aimed too high and lost.. Which means that they did a bad job. A few billion USD were burned within a very short time. Since this sale had been hyped in the media for months, this is very bad PR for the stock market, which has already lost a large chunk of investors who don't trust the stock market anymore.

When quoting Breitbart.com you should wait at last 48 hours. Usually journalists don't need more time to disprove their stuff. See here: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201205180026

What's bad about the book text?