i.justrealized

Enough of George Bush quotations, here is a list of quotations by local politicians. There may exist misquotations, after all the source is an email.

“Right now we have Low Thia Khiang, Chiam See Tong, Steve Chia. We can deal with them. Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore, I’m going to spend all my time thinking what’s the right way to fix them, to buy my supporters votes, how can I solve this week’s problem and forget about next year’s challenges?”
Lee Hsien Loong, 3 May 2006.

“…you have to pay the market rate or the man will up stakes and join Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs and you would have an incompetent man and you would lose money by the billions!”
Lee Kuan Yew said on April 2007

“For a person who runs a million-dollar charitable organisation, $600,000 is peanuts as it has a few hundred millions in reserves.”
Mrs Goh Chok Tong

“If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society… So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.”
Lee Kuan Yew in 1983

“Only 5% are unemployed. We still have 95% who are employed.”
Yeo Cheow Tong

“Retrenchment is good for Singapore. If there is no retrenchments, then I worry.”
Goh Chok Tong

“We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two… We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellecually and culturally anaemic.”
Lee Kuan Yew in 1967

“Contrary to public perception, the White Horse classification is not to ensure that sons of influential men gets preferential treatment. Instead it is to ensure that they do not get preferential treatment.”
Cedric Foo

“No, it was not a U-turn, and neither was it a reversal of government policy. But you can call it a rethink.”
Yeo Cheow Tong

“I give you an example: you put out a fun podcast, you talk about”bak chor mee’; I will say “mee siam mai hum”, then we compete.”
Lee Hsien Loong

(more…)

Resolution 1860 calls for immediate cease-fire. Why does USA’s Rice prepare for it yet abstained from it? Ehud Olmert is Prime Minister of Israel.

PM: Rice left embarrassed in UN vote

The Security Council resolution passed on Friday calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza was a source of embarrassment for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who helped prepare it but ultimately was ordered to back down from voting for it and abstain, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday.

Rice did not end up voting for Resolution 1860, thanks to a phone conversation Olmert held with US President George Bush shortly before the vote, the prime minister told a meeting of local authority heads in Ashkelon as part of a visit to the South.

Upon receiving word that the US was planning to vote in favor of the resolution – viewed by Israel as impractical and failing to address its security concerns – Olmert demanded to get Bush on the phone, and refused to back down after being told that the president was delivering a lecture in Philadelphia. Bush interrupted his lecture to answer Olmert’s call, the premier said.

America could not vote in favor of such a resolution, Olmert told Bush. Soon afterwards, Rice abstained when votes were counted at the UN. (Source: JPost)

Sometimes siding allies can go a little too far.

Here’s George Bush with his favorite easter bunny (not photoshoped):

All politicians are prone to make slips of the tongue in the heat of the moment – and President George W Bush has made more than most.

The word “Bushism” has been coined to label his occasional verbal lapses during eight years in office, which come to an end on 20 January. (Source: BBC)

And out of the list of memorable quotes compiled by BBC, here are some worthy mentions:

1. “They misunderestimated me.” 
   Bentonville, Arkansas, 6 November, 2000
2. “There’s an old saying in Tennessee – I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee – that says, fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.”
   Nashville, Tennessee, 17 September, 2002
3. “I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.”
   Nashville, Tennessee, 27 May, 2004
4. “The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the – the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice.”
   Washington DC, 27 October, 2003
5. “You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”
   CBS News, Washington DC, 6 September, 2006
6. “You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”
   Townsend, Tennessee, 21 February, 2001
7. “It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”
   Reuters, 5 May, 2000
8. “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN’s aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.”
   Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 6 September, 2004
9. “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.”
   Saginaw, Michigan, 29 September, 2000
10. “That’s George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three – three or four books about him last year. Isn’t that interesting?”
    Speaking to reporter Kai Diekmann, Washington DC, 5 May, 2006
11. “And truth of the matter is, a lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody. To show you how important this one is, I read it, and [Tony Blair] read it.”
    On the publication of the Baker-Hamilton Report, Washington DC, 7 December, 2006
12. “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.”
    Washington DC, 12 May, 2008

I think I’m going to miss his jokes when he leaves. Obama doesn’t make too many funny mistakes.

Back in September, McCain’s top economic advisor, Holtz-Eakin, held up a Blackberry and announced that the device won’t be around if not for John McCain. “He did this,” Holtz-Eakin flashed the Blackberry. The internet (represented by Digg, Reddit and 4chan) ridiculed the statement. The McCain camp then clarifies the senator’s involvement in Blackberry.

This reminds me of Civilization IV where the internet upgrade icon as Al Gore’s head which I thought is just brilliant.

Carly Fiorina, a McCain advisor, was asked if she thinks Sarah Palin is ready to lead a company like HP. To which Fiorina responded, “No, I don’t, but you know what? That’s not what she’s running for.” Fiorina then clarifies that running a company is different from running a country.

It’s okay, ahem, the fundamentals of our economy are strong.

I love to see what the McCain camp has to say about technology. They haven’t exactly been the tech guys in politics and, if anything, they’re rather anti-Internet. McCain himself confessed he couldn’t do these techie stuff.

Then, oops, yesterday morning, a couple hours before the event began, the McCain camp emailed to say that, actually, no, sorry, Holtz-Eakin can’t make it for the 12:30 debate. Apparently he had very important meetings to attend. Right. Apparently, though, he stepped out in the middle. At 1pm he was on MSNBC attacking Obama, trying to tie him to George Bush’s economic policies. Meanwhile, Reed Hundt ended up talking about complicated tech issues alone. The event was still fascinating (and you can see video here) but a huge opportunity was lost.

In short: the McCain camp chickened out. Spinning is easy; debating is hard. And defending John McCain’s record on broadband deployment, spectrum issues, and net neutrality is particularly hard. “If I was voting on technology issues only, even I wouldn’t support McCain,” said one Republican who I interviewed while researching the scorecard. (Source: Wired)

But no. McCain camp won’t be doing tech talks. Gobama 2008.

This is a brilliant ad by the Obama campaign. For those of you who ain’t familiar with what’s going on, American politics is really interesting. McCain-Palin (Republicans) brought in phrases into American newspapers such as “hockey moms”, “Joe Six Pack” and “Joe the plumber”. These phrases are used to stereotype the typical American.

The thing that got me interested in politics is not the results the politicians are going to deliver. After all, staying thousands of miles away from the USA makes little difference on who’s elected anyway. What made me look at politics is the speeches, or more precisely, the ingenious use of the English language to reach people emotionally.

Introducing characters is just one way of doing so. As stupid as these phrases sound, people actually remember them. You can laugh at time but as long as you talk about it (even in a negative way), you are spreading the point of the politicians indirectly.

I think of these characters as stock characters (in the theater arts way) as they’re recycled time and again for every election. And politicians would just rebrand them in some little ways to make them sound new again.

McCain-Palin campaign has numerous such characters. I’m sick of them but I still laugh at them (alone, since no one bothers about US in Singapore). Anyway, here’s one endorsed by the Obama campaign:

Obama campaign introduces Al the shoesalesman

Find out your tax cut under Barack’s plan at http://taxcut.barackobama.com whether you’re single or married with children.

Previously John McCain repeated mentioned Joe the Plumber during his speeches, claiming he is a concern citizen who prefers the McCain tax plans.

Just to digress

For those people who knows the location of my other blog, it’s a tough decision if I want to put this post in this blog or that which is rather US. In the end I figured I should put it here since I want this blog to have more of my opinion. The other blog is visited by McCain supporters and they blast me even when I post a video that’s pro-Obama. That’s freedom of expression for me I guess.

And speaking of “plumber”, Uzyn corrected me on my pronunciation. I had always been pronouncing it as “plumb-ber”. Read it wrong for many years. “Plum-er,” he corrected me.

It’s funny that after Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama, Powell is less talked about as a war criminal. He played a key role in the invasion of Iraq after all. His endorsement of Barack Obama appeared to have gained him some karma points or something. The internet loves him again.

To the question whether Obama is a Muslim, Powell stressed that Obama is not, but highlighted the real answer to the question is – so what if he is. Powell then publically endorsing Obama and expresses discontent toward the Republican party, that is his Republican party.

It is courageous of him to be able to stand up for what he believes in (and that meant the opposition). Unfortunately much of these were not shown back then when he presented the case for the invasion of Iraq. Powell later claims he spent 2 hours convincing Bush not to invade Iraq but what’s done been done.

Bill Maher on The View 9/30/08 (September 30th, 2008) with Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

In Part 1 He calls Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin a bimbo and makes fun of religion, Dan Quayle, and the bible (specifically the story of Noah’s Ark). Bill Maher promoting his new film “Religulous”. Mocking Sarah Palin on The View. Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin has come under fire recently for a series of interview she gave Katie Couric which were then parodied on Saturday Night Live by Tina Fey.

In Part 2 Bill Maher Talks about his new movie “Religulous” and talks about his views on religion with the hosts.

Bill Maher on The View 9/30 (HQ) Mocking Sarah Palin and Religion – Bill Maher Calls Sarah Palin a Bimbo – Bill Maher On The View Promoting Religulous Part 1

Bill Maher on The View 9/30 (HQ) Talking Religion & His New Movie “Religulous” – Bill Maher On The View Part 2

[Okay, I really should do proper posts more than just posting videos.]