Sweetness and light and an amazing post up this morning with a partial transcript of a 60 minutes interview with George Soros.

I have only copied all of the excerpt as I do not want to be accused of quoting the man out of context.

(Vintage footage of women helping each other get on train; train door closing with people in boxcar)

KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the death camps.

Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that that’s when my character was made.

KROFT: In what way?

Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should understand and–and anticipate events and when–when one is threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it was a–a very personal experience of evil.

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.

KROFT: No feeling of guilt?

Mr. SOROS: No.

KROFT: For example that, ‘I’m Jewish and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.’ None of that?

Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c–I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was–well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in markets–that if I weren’t there–of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would–would–would be taking it away anyhow. And it was the–whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the–I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.

This is some pretty serious and scary stuff so I am very reluctant to conclude he actually meant what it sounds like he meant. Does this give any of my liberal friends pause? 

If it weren’t for John Kerry’s latest foot in mouth incident this would be the story of the day.

I have to see this interview and how Kroft reacted to Soros answers.

Dr. Sanity has a must read post today.

We have seen headline after headline proclaiming that the Republicans are in trouble and while there is some truth to this assertion, I am bored to death at hearing the media’s broken record.

The exception that the political left wants to make sure all of you retards out there are perfectly clear about is this: They want you to think that the only way the Republicans could keep their majority; the only way the Democrats would not “sweep” and take over in the 2006 midterm elections next week is…wait for it…if the Republicans cheated. 

I have not posted on this but as a layman I see the exact same set up she sees. Read the whole thing.  

This is the guy you wanted to be president?

Just watch the video at Hot Air.  I don’t have anything to add.

**update**

Ok I do have something to add. It’s the coverage of the event by the Pasadena Star. News. The story mainly talks about the cast of Democratic Party stars who came out to try and help Phil Angelides lose by less than 20 points.

“It’s not enough to have a governor that acts like a Democrat on Election Day. Phil Angelides will be a Democrat every single day,” said Boxer.

Sure thing Barb. But in paragraph 6 we to come to the good stuff:

But while the students showed proper enthusiasm for Angelides by waving his signs and wooing and booing at the right places, the energy in the room clearly belonged to Kerry. He took the stage to roaring applause and left it only to be mobbed by students and reporters.

It is completely understandable for a group of folks to be excited about the Democratic Party’s last nominee for president. But mobbnig him after his comments?

It gets worse:

Kerry then told the students that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs - “If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,” he said to a mixture of laughter and gasps.

I wonder exactly what the mixture was. Did half the crowd think that line was funny? 25%?

I have left a message for the reporter who wrote the story.

Others blogging: Blue Crab Boulevard doesn’t find it funny. Michelle Malkin noticed that line buried in the Pasadena Star as well. Dan Riehl thinks John Kerry should be tried for treason and shot! Captain Ed points out Kerry has always had contempt for the military.

This certainly helps.

The issue of race was introduced anew in the Maryland Senate race today, as Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) picked up the endorsements of all five black members of the Prince George’s County Council — all of whom are Democrats — along with the backing of Wayne Curry (D), who was the first black county executive in the majority-minority Democratic stronghold.

While it is hard to say what practical effect the endorsements will have on Steele’s Senate battle with Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), they are powerfully symbolic nevertheless.

Steele, one of the highest ranking black Republicans in the country and a resident of Prince George’s, is seeking to capitalize on black Democrats’ disenchantment with state party leaders over their reluctance to promote black candidates for statewide office.

Unlike the WaPo I thought Steele beat Ben Cardin going away in their Meet the Press debate over the weekend.

**Update**

Powerline had clips of a Cardin campaign ad and Steele ad in response. Kinda makes you wonder about all of those man on the street videos doesn’t it?

If Steele loses it will only be due to Cardin having a D next to his name.

What is the liberal thing to do about Iraq now? What should have been the liberal response to 9/11? What would a true liberal have done with Saddam Hussein after 9/11? What would a liberal do about the genocide going on in the Sudan? Does being a liberal mean there is nothing worth fighting for?

How should liberals react to Islamofascists? Are we even allowed to use that word?

These seem like reasonable questions to me. My fellow liberals continually accuse me of being a conservative because I thought the Iraq war was the right, moral and liberal thing to do from the beginning regardless of Saddam’s WMD capability.

You see the people in Iraq were being murdered by their government before we invaded Iraq. It was run by a ruthless dictator whose ties to and support for terrorism is long standing and well established. So is it the liberal thing to do to try and defend him?

To try and obfuscate the overwhelming evidence against him?

When liberals point out that there are lots of dictators in the world therefore we should never have acted against Saddam is that true to liberal tradition?

Of course it isn’t. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Birmingham bus, liberals didn’t start clamoring that the same policy existed in Tupelo and no one was doing anything about that.

So what should be the liberal position on Iraq? To re-deploy to Okinawa and let the UN handle it? If any liberal reading this really believes the UN or anyone other than the United States is going to lift a finger in Iraq please let me know because I have a bridge I would like to sell you.

What would have been a proper liberal reaction to 9/11? To go to the Taliban and offer them economic aid?

Let’s take the current debate raging in the UK over whether or not to allow women to cover their faces in public. Should women be allowed to wear Burkas, and Hijabs or other Islamic garb that dehumanizes them?

In my opinion as a Liberal I would say yes, but it is also my duty as a liberal to point out at every opportunity that this is a barbaric practice. If it’s your religion and that offends you too bad. You’re wrong. You need to reform your religion.

I think I am going to address these and other issues on an ongoing basis and I would love for my fellow liberal to weigh in and tell me where and how I am wrong.

Sitting in Seatac waiting for the plane. Finally headed home from the Blog Business Summit. Other than one guy in the crowd hi-jacking several of the sessions it was a great conference. A who’s who of blogosphere pioneers and super geeks including Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble , Chris Pirrilo, Dave Taylor, John Battelle, and many many more. Everyone I met was very friendly. If you blog for your business, or are thinking about blogging for your business, I highly recomend attending this next year.

Love him or hate him Jason Calcanis was one of the first people to get the power of blogging. Actually as Jason tells it his employees were some of the first to get it including Rafiq Ali of paidContent.org.

Jason just said something that struck me. After another one of his employees started to write for Boing Boing he asked he started to wonder if he was holding his people back. That as an editor he had been sifling fantastic writers.

I will have more later but the story of Weblogs Inc. is compelling and I don’t want to miss any of it.

I have heard a lot of keynotes and a lot of lame seminars in my life time. This one was great. Calcanis was funny, and very forthright, and as he so often is controversial.

His talk was full of anecdotes about how he created his Weblogs inc. empire including how he convinced a good friend to come to work for him instead of MySpace while they were at Burning Man.  oops.

He also had a hillarious imitation of his long time (in web 2.0 years) competitor/rival and now friend Nick Denton of Gawker Media.

Most of his points were hard to argue with and very quotable:

“Bloggers are a bunch of misfits who couldn’t make it anywhere else and if you try to control them you will ruin it.”

“Some people are great bloggers and some people suck at it.”

“If you want to post twice a month and have nothing to say then you are a loser.”

“Blogging is not broken, the blogosphere is not broken. Blogging is the best form of meritocracy in history. If you hustle you will be rewarded.”

“If you want to do a better job at blogging then blog more, blog better. Link to more people.”

“Covert marketing is also known as lying.”

“This podcasting thing is gonna be big.”

Calcanis also announced he will begin podcasting at PodTech, and that Go Daddy will be sponsorsing his podcast. Go Daddy and PodTech are jointly donating 100,000 to create a scholarship fund allowing two disadvantaged students to attend Bay Ridge Prep. school.

Others blogging: tucows 

The YouTube moment of the day … Calacanis doing Nick Denton.  God I hope it makes it up.

Lots of people will be talking about this today.

I am sitting at the Blog Business Summit and Dave Taylor is talking about the risks of corporate blogging. If you are a company who blogs, or is thinking about blogging or you sell some sort of product or service to companies interested in blogging and you aren’t here then you need to get to Seattle by tomorrow.

Lots of great information and lots of industry movers and shakers.

Others blogging about this: Intela liked Dave Taylor’s keynote.

Tris Hussey from Tucows is waiting for the pay-per-post fireworks.

Udpate**

the first argument of the conference has begun and it’s about ghost writing. Dave thinks it is fine and a couple of folks in the audience disagree. I thought Dave made a good point mentioning that the President or most politicians for that matter don’t write their own speeches.

[tags] blog, blogging, blog-business-summit, Business Blogging [/tags]

Yesterday I posted my thoughts on the current situation in Iraq and wondered exactly how we could/should change course. My friend Tim Boggs who is currently stationed in Mosul took the time to comment and I felt it deserved to be moved to the front page. Here is what Tim had to say:

A friend and I recently had a conversation similar to this and our conclusion was that we are beginning to think that the Iraqis are unworthy of our great effort on their behalf. I am growing more and more disappointed with the Iraqi population as they appease the criminals in their own country. I do agree that most of the attacks in Iraq are performed by Iraqis although I do not pretend that it is on their head alone. Iran and Syria also play a large part in the terrorism here in Iraq.

I do think we need some policy change here but I am not sure if it means we should just start eliminating our enemy at whatever cost. Killing at will solves the problem at hand but creates a bigger problem for the future. We need to find a happy medium where are hands can be untied while at the same time having the full blessing of the majority of Iraqis to do what we know is needed.

As far as “staying the course” I find nothing wrong with it. It doesn’t mean that we put our heads in the sand and dont make changes, it just means that we finish what we have started. Plain and simple to me.

By the way Tim should be coming home soon. Please stop by Tim’s blog and say hi or ask him some questions of your own.

Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard has a pretty astute observation. With the Dems lacking any real platform, or position that Americans support the huge popularity Barak Obama currently enjoys might just be a tactic from the Democratic leadership to energize the base and give them a reason to show up at the polls this year. Mr. Obama is certainly the brightest star in a party completely lacking in ideas, at least any ideas Americans support.

Others have suggested Obama indicated his interest as a means of selling his new book. Maybe.

Obama strikes me as a very shrewd politician but more than that he just comes across as someone who really believes what he is saying. Kinda like GWB. I loved his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The problem I have with Mr. Obama is that I think most of his left leaning form of liberal ideas time has passed and others have been proven failures.

I keep telling my fellow liberals that “liberalism” means having an open mind and looking for new solutions. He may reflexively support any Democrat but Juan Williams gets it. The old liberal platform is tired and people want something new.

others blogging this. Wizbang, and Big Lizards.

**update** La Shawn Barber doesn’t think much of Barak Obama:

I have a few ideas. First, Obama is “articulate.” No big deal, right? Well, for a black person, it seems to be. At least that’s how I perceive it. Back in 2004 when I was still working a day job at a heavily Democrat-voting organization, the word “articulate” was uttered frequently as white co-workers described Obama’s big speech at the Democratic convention. It wasn’t so much what he said, as I discovered when I read the text of his speech, but how he said it.

In “Barack Obama Goes To Boston,” I gave you my impressions of his speech. He’s a liberal who doesn’t like to be called a liberal. His speech contained nothing breathtaking, groundbreaking, or worth the hyperventilating hype that resulted from it.

As far as I could tell, Obama was just another infanticide-supporting liberal who white journalists — not black people, mind you — declared the great black hope.”

Ouch.