Hillary comes out in support of the 2nd Amendment, and Japan

comes out in opposition of protectionism. I expect Hillary to start telling us of her NRA life membership dating from her combat tour in Bosnia, and Japan to start claiming that free trade is something uniquely Japanese and that only the Japanese can understand it.

Japan expressed hope Saturday that the International Monetary Fund will play a more active role in monitoring the movements of sovereign wealth funds because such an involvement of the international body would help minimize "protectionism" in countries receiving their investment.

....SWFs becoming large shareholders in financial institutions in major economic powers could raise concern about the control of the financial industry by those funds and lead to protectionist moves, such as restricting their investment, in those countries. Japan Times.

Fukuda's party, the LDP, is considering starting a sovereign fund in Japan and is concerned . Some people are likely to be laughing and giggling at the idea of Japan complaining about restrictions on foreign investment, but this is serious. It means that it is bad if other countries restrict Japanese investment, but not if Japan restricts foreign investment in Japan. Japan, you see is special and unique. There is nothing hypocritical about it.

Nor is there anything hypocritical about Hillary calling Obama patronizing.

Japan's sudden concerns about protectionism is nicely addressed on Japan Economy & News Blog.

Not only Hillary and Bill, but

the rest of the cast eagerly awaits return to the White House:

Disloyalty That Merits An Insult
By James Carville
Saturday, March 29, 2008; Page A15 Washington Post.

Hillary to stay the course

No, not necessarily in the war in Iraq that she voted for, but in the war against Obama. It is vital to the U.S.A. and the world that she win the nomination. Then she can carry the fight against John McCain citing, her 500 years of "experience", including short-selling cattle futures, being a lawyer, and leading a ground assault through withering sniper and artillery fire in Bosnia to counter John's silly little claims of leadership experience.

Perhaps Bush should send her ass to Iraq to fight. She'll stay the course until the last, win or lose, no matter who it harms as long as she comes out on top. It's all about her, after all. Her and hubby Bubba.

She did have a good comeback against Obama when he said that he could no more reject his pastor than he could his grandmother. Hillary, sharp as a razor despite suffering severe PTSD from combat in Bosnia, said that we are stuck with our relatives, but we can choose our pastor. Wonder if she chose her husband?

I have to admit, I did not expect the Democrats to be able to blow any change of winning the presidency this time after 8 years of little Bush. I think I was wrong. I think that they will blow it.

Hillary's threat here.

Thank you Boy George and Hillary

...that whoever succeeds President Bush might restore something of the United States' battered image and standing overseas but that 'the magic is over.' . . .Washington Post.

Not that the U.S. was ever as loved overseas as Americans have been led to believe, but the change is palpable now---or at least people are more open about the dislike of many things American.

Not only should we thank Bush and Clinton (Hillary, without having bothered to read all pertinent reports available to her at the time, voted for a war that she now opposes), but all Americans who didn't take Colin Powell seriously when he said about Iraq, "If we break it, we own it."

It's too good. I didn't think of this, but I wish that I had:

....Senator Clinton’s assertion that she was qualified to be commander in chief, and that John McCain had also “certainly” crossed that “threshold,” but that the jury was still out on Mr. Obama.

In other words, if a choice on national security had to be made today between Senators Obama and McCain, voters — according to Mrs. Clinton’s logic — should choose Senator McCain. From Bob Herbert in the Washington Post.

Hillary Clinton? The one who now opposes the war that she voted for after declining to read the report on Iraq available to all U.S. Senators? The report that (as I recall) only six senators read, and all six of them voted against the war. Hillary is qualified? Obama is not? A bit confusing here, but wrestling with a pig probably isn't so straightforward.

Later Herbert writes:

We have seen election after election in which candidates have won by fanning the anxieties of voters. Elect me, or something terrible will happen to you!

How true. And if Hillary gets her way it will continue that way for the next 8 years.

Never wrestle with a pig

You'll both get dirty and the pig will like it. That's the choice Obama faces against Billary. Regardless of what Billary says about the vast conspiracy of the week against her and hubby Bubba, the Clintons are experts at pulling everyone down into the mud with them then acting as if they are victims.

That's what she is trying to do to Obama now. She has been baiting Obama for quite a while and he has not really sleazed down to her level yet. However, since she won the primaries in Ohio and Texas, Obama has been urged to get his shovel out to dig a hole down to Clinton country.

Yesterday one of his staff members bit, saying, "She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything"

This has been all over the news. To some Democrats, being called a monster is not nearly as bad as being likened to Ken Starr---the special prosecutor and lead evil player in the vast right-wing conspiracy against the saintly Clintons. One of the Clinton clan likened Obama to Starr last week so one might just assume that being called a monster is not as harsh as being likened to Starr among the party elite.

The question is, just how clean and civil can a candidate really be and have any chance in a presidential race? Perhaps it is impossible. As has been noted by many over the last few days, Obama may be caught in a trap. If he jumps into the hog slop and starts throwing mud with the permanent inhabitants of the pigpen, then his opponent can claim, "See, he is nothing special, he is just as filthy as I am."

At least the race is interesting in contrast to the last 3 or 4. However, if Obama loses then it will only be interesting to me because of the threat of Billary returning to the White House. Imagine, Bubba showed his beet red pumpkin head and opened his mouth during Super Tuesday and immediately angered/disgusted/sickened people--even those in his own party. Just imagine 4-8 more years of Bill and Hillary as we return to the mid-1990s.

Back to Reality.

Billary has won the Texas and Ohio primaries in the US which probably means that the Democrats will once again nominate some arrogant insufferable bore to run for president. Perhaps they will even lose again, even after Bush and most of the rest of the Republicans have done their best to destroy the party over the last 8 years. If Billary wins, is she gonna claim her 35 years of odd-jobs mostly unrelated to being the president or even holding an executive position trumps McCain's experience? OK, she was the president's wife which is the same thing, I am sure. Is she gonna claim to be the candidate of change back to the 90s? Should she become president, will we have to lock up the young women, goats, and chickens so pumpkin-head Bill won't be able to get to them? Another 4-8 years of trailer-trash in the White House. (Trailer-trash is probably not the right term as just because someone lives in a trailer or trailer park, does not make them trash. However, were I to imagine the unfair stereotype of trailer-trash, the Clintons fit it perfectly.)

My fantasy of a real general election conducted maturely and on the issues, as well as some possibility of real change---vague though that may be---if Obama were to be elected is quickly evaporating. How depressing.

Should Billary be nominated, at least it answers any question of who I will vote for this time. Or, more accurately, who I will not vote for.

The History of US Torture
A Japan Focus article---while it lasts.