Some Reactions To Heller

Although an individual now has a constitutional right to own guns, that new right is not unlimited, wrote [Justice Antonin] Scalia, a hunter. Reuters

I agree with the ruling, however, the Constitution does not grant us the right, it enumerates that right. It is a natural law that man is able to defend him or her self. Chuck Mallory

If D.C. street thugs are pleased by anything, it's probably the fact that five of the justices -- a slim majority, but that's all it takes to win -- have come around to seeing things their way. Colbert I. King

What I find very much amusing is that the second dissent in part relies upon laws passed in 18th century America. I mean, I thought the Consitution was an evolving document, and we couldn’t be expected to live our lives according to the dictates of 18th century life. But, lo and behold, the dissention references a law pertaining to the storage of gunpowder, something not necessary for the use of fire-arms today, as proof of the government’s ability to limit the second amendment right. Intriguing. VolMagic

It's good. If Fat Tony Scalia comes anywhere near your home, shoot the motherf*cker. David Ehrenstein

But I must first pass along this rather brilliant observation from professor Stephen Wermiel from American University, who wonders why none of the dissenters cautioned the majority that today's decision "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." (Boumediene, Scalia, J. dissenting.) Dahlia Lithwick

Unlike Senator Obama, who refused to join me in signing a bipartisan amicus brief, I was pleased to express my support and call for the ruling issued today. Today's ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller makes clear that other municipalities like Chicago that have banned handguns have infringed on the constitutional rights of Americans. Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today's ruling recognizes that gun ownership is an important right- sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly. John McCain

We’re all originalists now. One of the most extraordinary things about this case is that it presented, for the first time in modern memory, a chance for the Supreme Court to decide the meaning of a constitutional right without a heavy overlay of “constitutional law” – a body of relevant decisions from the Supreme Court itself. For “faint-hearted” originalists, like Scalia and others, the existence of non-originalist precedents can be a barrier to reaching originalist results. But here the issue was one of truly first impression, presenting a “clean” controversy. It therefore allowed the Court to address the issues on first principles of constitutional interpretation. Dale Carpenter

How is it 4 justices that could find a right that wasn’t there for terrorists can’t seem to locate the 2nd amendment? Sue

These comments clearly show which side is serious about constitutional rights, and which side isn't.

Gerrymandering: Perhaps Not Quite What You Think It Is

It is a bit surprising that venerable old pundit workhorse David Broder doesn't know how gerrymandering works, and what it is supposed to accomplish. Gerrymandering is a technique whereby politicians draw political boundaries in a way best suited to help their party - and it doesn't quite operate the way Broder thinks it does.

Broder sees gerrymandering as a huge problem, maybe even bigger than campaign financing itself:

As a number of scholars have pointed out, the scarcity of real competition in nearly all districts has many consequences -- all bad. It makes legislators less responsive to public opinion, since they are in effect safe from challenge in November. It shifts the competition from the general election to the primary, where candidates of more extreme views can hope to attract support from passionately ideological voters and exploit the low turnouts typical of those primaries.

Gerrymandered, one-party districts tend to send highly partisan representatives to the House or the legislature, contributing to the gridlock in government that is so distasteful to voters.

The problem with Broder's article is that the idea behind gerrymandering is not to build safe districts for the party. In fact, the point is to do nearly the exact opposite: build slim majorities in as many districts as possible, so as to maximize the party's number of representatives in Washington D.C.

Read the article and see if that doesn't completely change and obliterate Broder's analysis.

Hillary Open To Being Veep

Supposedly, allegedly:

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton told colleagues Tuesday she would be consider joining Barack Obama as his running mate, and advisers said she was withholding a formal departure from the race partly to use her remaining leverage to press for a spot on the ticket.

On a conference call with other New York lawmakers, Clinton, a New York senator, said she was willing to become Obama's vice presidential nominee if it would help Democrats win the White House, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak for Clinton.

Obama would be nuts to bring her on as VP. The Clintons would hover over him like vultures, undercut him at every opportunity, and plot his demise (one way or another) so Hill can run in 2012.

She also proved to be an inept campaigner . . . she went from being an all-but-coronated inevitability, to being beaten by a senate half-term nobody with a foot in his mouth. How much worse would she get if now she has to campaign for someone else; someone she would just as soon see lose?

Robert Byrd Taken To Hospital

Hugh Hewitt just reported this on his show, I went to Google news and a few other places and haven't seen any news on this come across the wire.

I suspect it is true though, given the senator's age, hopefully it is nothing serious.

Meanwhile, doctors have reported that the operation to remove a tumor from Ted Kennedy's brain "accomplished our goals", though creepily, Kennedy was awake during the operation and helped the doctors by giving them feedback.

Yikes.

Update:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Robert C. Byrd's spokesman says the 90-year-old lawmaker was hospitalized Monday night at his doctor's urging after suffering from lethargy and sluggishness at his home.

Press secretary Jesse L. Jacobs says the West Virginia Democrat will be there overnight for observation.

Byrd, who is the longest-serving senator in history, voted during a 5:30 p.m. roll call Monday, then went home. Jacobs says that less than an hour later the senator began to feel ill.

He was found to have a fever, and at his doctor's request he was taken to a nearby hospital.

Jacobs added that he didn't know which hospital Byrd was taken to.

Does The Michelle Obama 'Whitey' Video Really Exist?

There is, allegedly and supposedly, some kind of video of Michelle Obama with Louis Farrakhan railing against 'whitey'.

Or is it 'why'd he', as explained by Jim Gerahty:

Apparently, if the tape ever comes to light, her words will sound something like:

Whitey cut folks off Medicaid? Whitey let New Orleans drown? Whitey do nothing about Jena? Whitey put us in Iraq for no reason?*

...when the intended message is,

Why'd he cut folks off Medicaid? Why'd he let New Orleans drown? Why'd he do nothing about Jena? Why'd he put us in Iraq for no reason?

As for whether the tape actually exists, Roger Stone of Fox News claims that it does, and Geraldo Rivera gives Stone props for being right about Eliot Spitzer:

Well speaking of Geraldo Rivera, this mysterious tape might end up having all the impact and drama of Al Capone's vault.

If not and it proves to be real, the only two white people voting for Obama this fall will be Bill Ayers and Father Pfleger.

Quote Of The Day

From commenter Seneschal at Jake Tapper's blog Political Punch:

"John McCain spent five years in chains listening to anti-American propaganda, and he paid a dear price.

Barack Obama spent twenty years sitting in a pew listening to anti-American propaganda, and he happily paid for the privilege."

I read Tapper's blog a lot, because he is one of the very few MSM correspondents that doesn't think his job is to heap adoration upon Barack Obama.

Your Daily Obama Gaffe: Hate Crimes Against Hispanics Have Doubled?

From Mickey Kaus:

Where does Obama get that "hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year"--an alleged increase he blamed on "people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up"? The latest FBI statistics I can find are from 2006, not last year. They show about a 14% increase from 2005, by my calculation. Even the Southern Poverty Law Center only claims

According to hate crime statistics published annually by the FBI, anti-Latino hate crimes rose by almost 35% between 2003 and 2006, the latest year for which statistics are available.

A 35% increase over four years is not "doubled last year."

In the taxonomy of Obama gaffes this is not a 'misspoke' gaffe (uncle liberating Auschwitz) or a dumb idea gaffe (no preconditions for meeting with Iran), but a 'just making sh*t up that sounds good' gaffe.

Don't say he isn't thorough.

Moonbat Journalist (Redundant?) Fails To Arrest John Bolton

Sanity prevails:

The Telegraph newspaper reported that Guardian columnist George Monbiot, a critic of the Iraq war, tried to arrest the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations as he was exiting the stage at the Hay Literary Festival. The Telegraph earlier reported that Monbiot would try to arrest Bolton for war crimes.

According to the article, Monbiot was blocked by two security guards, and Bolton was ushered away even as Monbiot attempted to dart after him once he was released. Monbiot reportedly said he was "disappointed" he was unable to make the arrest.

World's Fastest Shooter

I was showing a friend the famous Magpul flashlight gun video, and he turned me on to this nearly unbelieveable video:

Every movie gunfight will look like molasses from now on.

Your Daily Obama Gaffe: Obama Makes Iran An Offer They've Already Refused

From Barack Obama's campaign website:

Obama is the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions. Now is the time to pressure Iran directly to change their troubling behavior. Obama would offer the Iranian regime a choice. If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for terrorism, we will offer incentives like membership in the World Trade Organization.

From Amir Taheri:

Mr. Ahmadinejad is talking about changing the destiny of mankind, while Mr. Obama and his foreign policy experts offer spare parts for Boeings or membership in the World Trade Organization. Perhaps Mr. Obama is unaware that one of Mr. Ahmadinejad's first acts was to freeze Tehran's efforts for securing WTO membership because he regards the outfit as "a nest of conspiracies by Zionists and Americans."

No, Obama is definitely unaware of that.

(h/t Gateway Pundit)

Obama Claims His Uncle Helped Liberate Auschwitz

Obama is in mass-production mode with his gaffes now. This one is a real howler:

Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz.

Now, is Obama so ignorant of history that he doesn't know that the Soviets, not the Americans, liberated Auschwitz (located in Poland), or is Obama now simply flaunting the fact that the press will cover for him, no matter what he says?

(h/t Purple Avenger)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And 'Medal Inflation'

Thomas Lipscomb at RealClearPolitics questions the motives of some groups seeking veterans' benefits in his article Purple Hearts for PTSD?

PTSD sure seems to be a real enough affliction. But, Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day soliloquoy from Henry V comes to mind:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'

Barack Obama, Gaffe Factory

If Dan Quayle were dead he'd be rolling in his grave. The left made a laughingstock out of him for misspelling 'potato' with an 'e' (once an acceptable spelling of that word) and implied that Quayle was a moron, a dummy, and unfit for office.

Well what does that make Barack Obama then?

Here is a guy who thinks there are 58 states in the union. He thinks Arkansas is closer to Illinois than Kentucky. He can't tell the difference between Sioux Falls and Sioux City. He can't tell the difference between Sunshine and Sunrise.

Here is a guy who, when he visited Hanford, Washington, said

Here’s something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that I’m not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you I’ll learn about it by the time I leave here on the ride back to the airport.

Wow. And the crowd applauded him! Here's the kicker, Obama voted on funding for the Hanford facility.

His latest slew of gaffes are truly frightening, however, because they show just how dangerous and conflicted his misunderstanding of foreign policy is.

Jake Tapper:

On Thursday Obama told the Orlando Sentinel that he would meet with Chavez and "one of the obvious high priorities in my talks with President Hugo Chavez would be the fermentation of anti-American sentiment in Latin America, his support of FARC in Colombia and other issues he would want to talk about."

OK, so a strong declaration that Chavez is supporting FARC, which Obama intends to push him on.

But then on Friday he said any government supporting FARC should be isolated.

"We will shine a light on any support for the FARC that comes from neighboring governments," he said in a speech in Miami. "This behavior must be exposed to international condemnation, regional isolation, and - if need be - strong sanctions. It must not stand."

So he will meet with the leader of a country he simultaneously says should be isolated? Huh?

This on the heels of Obama being torn between figuring out whether Iran is a tiny country posing no threat to the U.S., or a grave threat (perhaps this merely depends upon which audience he is pandering to at any given moment. But if he can't figure out that these contradictions will invariably emerge, that doesn't say much about his intelligence or ability to learn from experience either).

These are gaffes that would embarass a fifth-grader. It is just shocking that anyone would want to entrust our foreign policy to this lighter-than-air diletant. We can afford on-the-job training in foreign policy with a guy like Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush because they came equipped with solid principles to guide them and a policy that always puts America first. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has been contaminated by the Marxist nonsense of Black Liberation Theology, is steeped in blame-America-first leftism, and sees nothing wrong with befriending a terrorist like Bill Ayers.

Is it any wonder he has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to foreign policy? The guy doesn't have enough sense to pick the right friends, and apparently is too dense to identify our enemies.

Update: A foreign policy gaffe? Why, that's not a bug, it's a feature:

Before the Democratic debate of July 23, Barack Obama had never expounded upon the wisdom of meeting, without precondition, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar al-Assad, Hugo Chávez, Kim Jong Il or the Castro brothers. But in that debate, he was asked about doing exactly that. Unprepared, he said sure -- then got fancy, declaring the Bush administration's refusal to do so not just "ridiculous" but "a disgrace."

After that, there was no going back. So he doubled down. What started as a gaffe became policy. By now, it has become doctrine. Yet it remains today what it was on the day he blurted it out: an absurdity.

Mahdi Army Scores Another 'Victory'

At least that is how the MSM will probably spin the fact that the Iraqi Army dismantles Mahdi Army caches in Sadr City.

A few more victories like this, and Moqtada al-Sadr is finished. If he isn't already.

This is particularly interesting:

The Iraqi Army raided numerous Mahdi Army weapons caches in Sadr City May 22-23, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. The Mahdi Army has stockpiled weapons throughout the district. Eight of the armor-piercing, Iranian-made explosively formed projectiles have been found along with chlorine poison, eight roadside bombs, and large quantities of explosives, weapons, ammunition, and materials used to make bombs.

Someone please explain why we are supposed to talk to Iran when they are providing EFP's and weapons of mass destruction for the express purpose of killing our troops.

(Via Glenn Reynolds)

Headline Of The Day

Rev. Al Sharpton urges Hillary Clinton: Watch what you say

Wow. You have to be in pretty damn deep to have Al Sharpton warn you about your comments.

This RFK assassination thing must be far worse for Hillary than I thought.

Keith Olbermann, National Treasure

In this Super Extra Very Special Comment, Keith Olbermann presumes to speak for all Americans, engages in risible hyperbole, locks and loads his ego, and assumes his place as rightful heir of Edward R. Murrow.

In other words, it is just like that episode of Gilligan's Island where they almost escape the island, except Gilligan screws it up at the last moment.

He goes after Hillary and her RFK assassination comment, but it doesn't even have the novelty of being his his first attack on a Democrat. I think the Big Coif is losing his touch.

McCain Gets A Clean Bill Of Health

From USAToday:

Republican Sen. John McCain, who would be the oldest first-term president ever sworn in if he wins his White House bid this year, is in "excellent physical and mental health," the leader of his medical team said Friday.

"We can find nothing in his medical history that would preclude him from serving as president of the United States with vigor," Dr. John Eckstein, who serves as McCain's primary care physician at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., told reporters.

Eckstein and other Mayo physicians involved in McCain's care spoke with reporters after the Arizona lawmaker released 1,173 pages of medical records. Campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said the extent of McCain's disclosure is "unprecedented in the history of presidential campaigns."

Newflash: Democrats Lied About Ending The War

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) comes up with today's dog-bites-man story, in which he admits that Democrats 'sort of stretched the facts' when it came to their ability to end the war. Here is the full quote:

"I'll tell you my impression. We really in this last election, when I say we...the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the fleet, didn't say it, but we implied it. That if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody was a good student of Government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts...and people ate it up."

Not true actually, as far as all Democrats go. You might remember this YouTube classic in which David Obey (D-MI) tells an anti-war activist, in very blunt terms, that ending the war right away is completely impossible.

As honest as Obey was here, can you really blame the hopelessly uniformed anti-war activist here for actually thinking the war would end right away as soon as the Dems took over Congress? Gee, I wonder where she got THAT idea from.

Assassination? Why, You *Must* Be Talking About Obama

Hillary Clinton said this in regard to the drawn-out nature of the Democratic primaries:

My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it"

So of course Miss Cleo, working for the Obama campaign, used her questionable psychic powers to interpret this as some kind of attack on Obama. Because he is black I suppose, never mind that RFK wasn't African-American - Hillary must have really been talking in code about Barack Obama. So let's see . . . all historical references to Neville Chamberlain are off the table, because they are really crypto references to Barack Obama, and presumably any future mention of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. too will invariably be unfair somehow because, no doubt, they are really talking about Obama.

Obama seems to be taking a page now from the Clinton play book - it's all about Barack! Could this guy be any more thin-skinned?

Time To Break Out The Ticker Tape?

Great news: the Coalition Forces in Iraq are on pace to report the lowest monthly casualties since the Iraq War began. This is testament to the success of the surge, and the political and military progress made by the Maliki government. Is this an 'acceptable' level of casualties? There is no such thing. It is unacceptable that the enemy continues to have the ability to inflict injury and death, and we have to work smarter to make sure the bloodshed ends. However, the war, as such is over.

Last December, I said "let's see if the trend actually holds. Six more months of this (just one more Friedman Unit), and I am convinced that the war is over in all but name." Well, that Friedman Unit has come and gone, Basra has been pacified, Mookie al-Sadr is cowering, and tremendous political progress and reconciliation in Iraq has been achieved. Things have gone so well that not even Nancy Pelosi can suspend disbelief any longer.

The Iraq War is over, and we have won a crushing victory. There will continue to be casualties, but the conflict is no longer a 'war' but a terror campaign. To call it a 'war' implies that our enemies are 'warriors', an appellation they do not deserve.

This Is JUST SO WRONG

Hello Kitty was bad enough when it was merely a way to decorate an asian schoolgirl's pencil box. Now it has become a threat to western civilization itself.

Exhibit A:

Exhibits B and C:

I always knew the Japanese would finally get their revenge and find a way to completely subvert our way of life. If the Air Force adopts Hello Kitty as a fighter paint scheme, which seems inevitable now, I swear I will have to go seek asylum in Cuba.

Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

"Aggressively inarticulate."

Too true.

(h/t Ed Driscoll)

They Doth Protest Too Much

The response of the Obama campaign and his supporters to Bush's Knesset speech should have been something like "we know he wasn't talking about us. We abhor appeasement and reject it as a method of fighting the War on Terror." Considering that Bush did not accuse anyone person in particular of being guilty of appeasement, Instapundit's comment that "when somebody condemns appeasement, it doesn't help things to jump up and yell "Hey, he's talking about me!"' pointedly demonstrates how thin-skinned and unimaginative Obama can be. Obama displayed a similar lack of imagination when it was pointed out, incontrovertibly, that he enjoyed the support of Hamas. Rather than categorically rejecting Hamas' endorsement, he instead attacked John McCain for having the audacity to point out that terrorists prefer Obama. He should study the art of political judo a little more closely, he obviously has yet to master its nuances.

Obama walked into this like a drunk into an open manhole, drawing all kinds of attention to the fact that Obama does in fact favor appeasing America's enemies. Giving rogue terrorist states the honor and legitimacy of meeting with America's leader with no conditions and nothing more than a wistful hope that something positive will come of it is indeed appeasement, even if it is not on the scale of handing the entitre Sudetenland over to Hitler. Obama flip-flopped on his statement that he would meet with the leaders of Iran and North Korea without any preconditions and now claims he does not favor that policy, but it is too late. We now know what his instincts tell him to do, and it is to capitulate whenever possible. Presumably because America is at fault in the first place, which is of course what his good friend, mentor and spiritual advisor Jeremiah Wright counsels.

Your Daily Triviality

What is the dismal science, and the sweet science?

Happy Birthday, Israel

Today is the 60th birthday of Israel, the day in 1948 that David Ben-Gurion proclaimed its independence with the approval of the United Nations.

Against all odds, in a sea of enemies, Israel has managed to survive and thrive. May it continue to exist as the great ally and democracy that it is.

Obama: We Need More Arabic Speakers In . . . Afghanistan?

Obama actually catches himself here as he is about to say something monumentally stupid, and give him kudos I guess for knowing that Pashto, for example, is one of the main languages in the areas of Afghanistan where the insurgency is active, and not Arabic.

But, this little quip shows the absurd extreme to which Obama is willing to take the 'Iraq is a distraction' meme.

Everything is a distraction with this guy.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

The Thing That Just Won't Die

Slate Magazine has had the Hillary Deathwatch for what seems like forever, but maybe it is new for some of you folks out there.

It seems that with Hillary's West Virginia victory it will linger on as the entertaining triviality it is, much like Hillary's campaign itself.

Hillary Goes 'Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk'

Not even kidding here.

Hillary goes on the Keith Larson Show (WBT 1110AM, Charlotte NC) and does an imitation of Curly, late of the Three Stooges.

Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt, who said this is Hillary's Dukakis tank riding moment. Eh, she seems so over by now, I am not sure this bizarre performance will get much notice.

She also throws out some of that irritating cackling in the interview too. You have been warned.

Update: I suppose this was inevitable:

Sums it all up pretty nicely.

Gratuitous RON PAUL!!1!!1! Kinda Does Alright In Pa. Post

The dastardly, freedom-hating press is covering up the fact that Paul took a whopping 16% of the vote in the closed Pennsylvania Republican primary. Its a whopping percentage for Paul, anyway.

What, with all of those Operation Chaos Republicans crossing over for Hillary, the best Paul could muster was 16%? He had no opposition, in that McCain already has the nomination nailed and didn't bother to show up.

Persistence: it seems to be the only thing Paul and the Bots have.

Obama Ducks North Carolina Debate

Two mutually reinforcing theories on why Obama cancelled a debate next Sunday with Hillary Clinton: one, he is going to win North Carolina anyway, so why give the desperate Hillary a shot at him, and two, he is afraid of another dismal performance.

There is plausible deniability here, because normally you would expect Obama to turn down a debate when victory is a foregone conclusion, as it was last February when Obama refused a debate in Wisconsin.

Now that the focus is on Obama's debating skills or lack thereof however, it feels a bit different. Shouldn't Obama get back on that horse to prove that his poor performance in Pennsylvania was a fluke? Isn't he running a risk of confirming insinuations that he is indeed a wimp?

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, because if he does debate Hillary, he is also running the risk of proving again that his only real skill is reading prepared text from a teleprompter.

Is It A 'Federal Crime' To Criticize Democratic Candidates?

Get this: some pointy-headed writer for the New Yorker Magazine is complaining that last week's debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was 'something akin to a federal crime.'

Yes, how dare anyone ask Obama about his terrorist connections, or Hillary's brazen lies! Why, that time could have better spent trying to wedge a piece of paper into the policy differences between the two, just like all the previous debates. Or bashing a president who isn't even running for office.

Finally, in one debate, the Democrats got treated the way Republicans get treated in every debate.

At long last, Clinton and Obama were forced to confront their failings and their monumental judgement lapses before the American people. Character, judgement and truthfulness are always the top issues in a campaign, and no wonder the Democrats pretend they are trivial issues, and whine and complain with calls about how 'unfair' it is to even mention them.

It always turns out to be their downfall.

The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Philip Johnson

Ed Driscoll provides us with this vid of the admittedly great, but whitewashed, career of architect Philip Johnson:

It cannot be repeated too often: fascism is a disease of the left, not the right.

Must Read: How To Properly Arm Yourself Against Zombie Hordes

It's the biggest scandal of this campaign: why are Hillary, Obama and McCain not addressing the potential threat of zombie hordes rampaging through our neighborhoods? When is the press going to force them to discuss this critical issue?

If Obama says he is going to speak directly with the zombies, he will certainly lose my vote.

I urge all readers to take heed of the valuable advice provided in this article.

(h/t Hot Air)

McCain And Hillary Make Such A Cute Couple

You betcha that first one is going to make the caption contest rounds this week.

McCain seems to genuinely enjoy Hillary's company in these pics. Why not? They have all of those war stories to share with each other . . .

Obama Heard Racism From Wright In Person

Barack Obama may or may not have been in church to hear 'Reverend' Wright's bigoted greatest hits as shown on YouTube, but Obama most certainly did hear Wright preach that "white folks greed runs a world in need", perhaps the most racist statement by Wright yet uncovered.

How do we know Obama heard this in person? He himself says it, in this excerpt from the audiobook of Dreams From My Father:

Not only does Obama not criticize this in the slightest, Obama took the title of his book The Audacity of Hope from Wright's sermon that day.

Thanks to Powerline for generously offering the audio clip for the public to use, and thanks to Barack Obama for the fair use of the audiobook excerpt, not that he can Say Anything about it.

Ribs, Fishing, And The Amateur Diplomat

Jim Manzi at The Corner points us to a WaPo article about New Jersey restauranteur Bobby Egan, who serves up BBQ ribs and also dabbles in amateur diplomacy with the North Koreans:

"You couldn't put Condoleezza Rice or Madeleine Albright on a level with me in dealing with the Koreans," he says. "They've never even been in a fistfight. I've been in fistfights — including with the Koreans. These are tough guys. Condoleezza Rice is a piano player."

It is a fascinating story about how this guy just stepped in and made connections with both North Korean and Saddam-era Iraqi diplomats. He befriended them with fishing trips and ribs slathered in sauce, and proved his bona fides by willingly undergoing a 'chemical interrogation' by his North Korean handlers.

About a year ago, serious questions were raised about 'Damascus' Nancy Pelosi and whether her amateur attempt at mideast diplomacy violated the Logan Act. You could argue that Egan's forays too might have run afoul of the Act, except Egan seems to have been quite cooperative with the State Department and other arms of the federal government, and sometimes operated at their behest.

I disagree with Egan's fatuous statement that 'we got a few political differences, that's all' between the U.S. and North Korea. That Americans eat ribs while North Koreans eat bark demonstrates slightly more than a mere difference with the North Korean regime. But what Egan is doing is creative and is at least somewhat effective (the idea that he somehow prevented nuclear war in the Korean peninsula is, however, ridiculous), and it is great that the feds have enough imagination to work with him cooperatively instead of just dismissing him as 'obnoxious and pushy' as one agent described him.

Talk is cheap, so why not?

Quote Of The Day

Mickey Kaus:

I used to think working class voters had conservative values because they were bitter about their economic circumstances--welfare and immigrants were "scapegoats," part of the false consciousness that would disappear when everyone was guaranteed a good job at good wages. Then I left college. ...

Obama Disses The Hicks And Rubes Of Pennsylvania

There is video and a transcript of Obama hatin' on the poor country folk of Pennsylvania (it's from the Huffington Post, so it must be true):

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Perhaps this is Obama's odd pitch to make people cling to government instead. Does he really think that 'frustrations' are the only reasons people turn to religion, or choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights? Or that economic frustrations (and the inherent bigotry of the white man, perhaps?) are the only reasons to oppose immigration or trade?

This is probably just a tin-eared moment for a guy normally adept at avoiding such things. It does give a glimpse into his worldview, however.

World's Most Famous Liar Is At It Again

Who knew that Bill Clinton lying could still be considered 'news'? Clinton served up some hot, tasty whoppers yesterday in Boonville, Indiana:

"A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me," he said. "But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y'all see all that. Oh, they blew it up. Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and Gen. Wesley Clark -- who was there making peace where we'd lost three peacekeepers who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way -- both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flack jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony. Now I say that because, what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them when they're 60 they'll forget something when they're tired at 11:00 at night, too."

What a not-so-subtle way for Bill Clinton to torpedo his wife's campaign. He gratuitously reopens the Tuzla Lie just as it was fading away, subverts the idea of Hillary's 3 a.m. prowess at handling problems, reminds everyone that both Bill and Hillary are pathological liars, and points out that Hillary is old.

But, Bill Clinton did set a personal best here for stuffing the most crap into a sock. It is a masterpiece: interlocking lies, fibs, exaggerations, omissions, misdirections and mischaracterizations so profuse and well-crafted that one is only left saying, bravo! Except, in the YouTube age, this little game no longer works. And that, ultimately, is what is bringing the Clinton era to a close.

Corruption + Terrorism = Obama

Just incredible.

Barack Obama, while he was sitting on the board of the Woods Fund with his America-hating terrorist buddy Bill Ayers, helped fund a new organization by Rashid Khalidi, a mouthpiece for the terrorist PLO. From The Obama Files by John Batchelor:

In Chicago in 1995, Mr. Khalidi and his wife Mona founded the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), a group associated with confrontational statements of support for Palestinians and antagonism toward Israel. In 2001 and again in 2002, the Woods Fund of Chicago, with directors Ayers and Obama, made grants of $40,000 and $35,000 to the AAAN. Importantly, the AAAN vice-president Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada has remembered Mr. Obama's speaking in 1999 against "Israeli occupation" at a charity event for a West Bank refugee camp; and Mr. Abunimah, an American citizen, Hyde Park resident and Princeton graduate, has also recalled Mr. and Mrs. Obama at a fundraiser held for the then-Congressional candidate Obama in 2000 at Rashid and Mona Khalidi's home, where Mr. Obama made convincing statements in support of the Palestinian cause.

Batchelor's article is a must-read distillation of all the shady deals Obama is involved in, linking Tony Rezko, William Ayers, Nadhmi Auchi and Rashid Khalidi in a disturbing alliance of corruption and sociopathology.

You think Jeremiah Wright is bad? That guy is just a lot of hot air compared to Ayers, a Weatherman terrorist who planned multiple attacks against military targets inside the U.S., or Nadhmi Auchi, a crooked billionaire who helped Saddam Hussein rise to power.

Actions speak louder than words, and Obama's actions show where he really stands on the Palestine-Israel question. It shows where he stands on a lot of other questions, as well.

Andrew Greeley: Those Who Criticize Obama Have 'Sick Minds'

Greeley says that Thomas Sowell has a 'sick mind', but I'll put Sowell's intellect up against Greeley's (or just about anyone else's) any day of the week. In comparison, the paucity of Greeley's ability to reason shows itself quite clearly:

Neither expert, I daresay, ever drove by the church on 95th Street on Sunday morning. The people, including the young ones, are the best dressed and best groomed congregants I have ever seen, and they emerge from the most elegant collection of cars displayed in Sunday morning Chicago. No Catholic parish in Chicago I know of displays such relaxed prosperity on a Sunday. This is not Rev. Jess territory nor do the congregants look like radical white-haters.

They don't look like white-haters, therefore they cannot be white-haters? Greeley is trying to imply that he has familiarity with Chicago's South Side here. Well, he must have missed all of those impeccably dressed followers of Louis Farrakhan on the South Side, who are all unquestionably white-haters.

Here is Greeley's evidence of Sowell's 'sick mind':

Professor Sowell asserts that Barack Obama had to abandon his radical stance when he became a national public figure; he had to "project an entirely different persona, that of a post-racial leader who can heal divisiveness and bring us all together. The ease with which he has accomplished his chameleonlike change is a tribute to the man's talent and a warning about his reliability."

Yep, that Thomas Sowell is a raving lunatic, alright.

P.S. I'd like to add that I have met some members of the Nation of Islam, and their hatred of me simply because of the color of my skin was palpable. I tried to have a conversation with one young man, and I actually had to speak to him through another young black man (not a NOI member) because he would not speak to the blue-eyed devil directly. Even my 'interpreter' was put off and annoyed by it. I wasn't insulted really, but I remember thinking that as a black man, he of all people should know better than to treat others in such a racist fashion. Which is exactly why this whole Rev. Wright black racism thing is so disheartening, sad and hypocritical.

Hillary Has Trouble With Umpteenth Scandalous Contributor

Hillary is outraged by huge oil profits. Unless they end up in her pockets, of course:

A Texas oilman who’s accused of defrauding the Nigerian government by illegally pumping and exporting 10 million barrels of oil is a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The Yglesias Code: McCain Is Racist

Matthew Yglesias has a reputation for being a 'reasonable' liberal blogger, but does this seem 'reasonable' to you?

Ed Kilgore has an excellent post on the oddly backward nature of John McCain's current "biography tour" and the general weirdness of the campaign emphasizing the idea that their candidate is genetically programmed to monger war through his jingoistic heritage (or something). Ed notes the analogy to Bob Dole's 1996 campaign, the last time the GOP thought having an old man talk fondly about long-past suffering was a good way to win elections. Relatedly, I think it was Matt Stoller who pointed out recently that the candidate with the more impressive military record lost in 1992 and 1996 and 2000 and 2004 so there's reason to doubt that McCain's genuinely impressive military record will serve as an ace in the hole for his campaign.

What I'll say on behalf of this strategy is that it's the best way I can think of to try to take advantage of older people's potential discomfort with the idea of a woman or a black man in the White House that doesn't involve exploiting racism or sexism in a discreditable way. McCain's putting together an identity politics counter-narrative steeped in nostalgia; it didn't work against a white southerner running on a very cautious agenda, but 2008 is going to see the Democrats nominating an unorthodox candidate running on a more liberal agenda.

Yglesias is arguing, incredibly, that McCain's focus on his military record is both racist and sexist at the same time. Matt might actually believe this - he seems to be the type who sees racism lurking under every rock. Check out this Blogginheads.tv diavlog with Ann Althouse and go to the section called 'racists on a place' and tell me if he isn't all too willing to hurl the charge of racism in a very knee-jerk and unreasonable way.

The charges of 'racism' from the left seem to be coming much quicker and heavier in the aftermath of the Wright debacle. For example, check out this post entitled "John McCain's Racist Dogwhistle in Meridian, Mississippi" in which Matt Stoller claims that John McCain gave a speech at Meridian, Mississippi because it is only 40 miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi, which is where the Mississippi Burning murders took place.

Stoller says that "McCain also has some military history in the town", conveniently forgetting to mention that the airfield there is named after McCain's grandfather, and that McCain was a flight instructor there. But no, the real reason McCain went to Meridian is so he can send coded signals to all the KKK cells out there that he is their guy.

Get used to it, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If Obama wins the nomination, we will have many more liberal bloggers and pundits interpreting and translating all the coded racism out there for our convenience. How these liberals all became experts in this field will go unexplained, but never mind you racist.

P.S. Now the left is starting to experiment with 'swiftboating' McCain as well, such as this comment under a different Yglesias post:

Remember, the highlight of McCain's military career was his losing his airplane.

What do you expect?

This is pretty odious. I wonder if this commenter knows about the fire aboard the U.S.S. Forrestal that killed 134 sailors, which was started by a Zuni rocket misfired from McCain's plane. Is the left really going to try to make fun of things like that?

Somehow, I don't see this John 'Crash' McCain meme taking off the way the memes about Kerry's Vietnam service did.

Randi Rhodes Suspended From Air America For Calling Hillary A 'F-ing Whore'

Who knew Air America was still around? Rhodes also compares Geraldine Ferraro to David Duke in this 'standup' routine. Oh yeah, that's some big funny right there.

Language Warning: typical foul-mouthed liberal rant follows:

Good thing she only got suspended. She needs that day job.

Update: The Campaign Spot at NRO compares Rhodes' suspension to getting kicked out of Guns And Roses, as in this Dennis Miller bit.

Language Warning Again: but at least Miller shows Rhodes how it is supposed to be done -

Everyone Hates America! Except, Not Really

We have been told ad infinitum how President Bush and the War on Terror have caused every man, woman and child on the face of the planet to hate America, but according to the BBC this hardly seems to be the case.

If these poll results are to be believed, that is. Is it really true that only 19% of Israelis believe that the U.S. has a positive influence in the world, but that fully 23% of North Koreans believe the same thing? (Are these North Koreans all eating dirt in 'reeducation camps' now?) Just who was actually pounding the pavement to conduct that polling in North Korea, anyway? My guess is that it was not John Zogby.

The results showing that more Russians than Americans believe America is a positive influence in the world is a bit of a head-scratcher as well. I guess no one is a hero in their home town.

Your Daily Triviality

Who was voted the "second meanest" member of the federal House of Representatives, as well the "biggest windbag" and "show horse" in a 2006 Washingtonian article?

Boycott Pizza Hut

. . . if they don't give this guy his job back.

Hillary Won Texas! Except Not Really

Huh?

But, hey, at least Clinton can make the case that she won big states like Texas, right? Sadly, no. Final numbers are still trickling in from the district and county conventions Texas held on Saturday (Step 2 in the state's electoral freak show), but it looks like Obama won the day—and, by extension, the state's March 4 vote. Clinton netted five delegates in the primary, but Obama's estimated nine-delegate net in the caucus puts him ahead of her. Clinton will continue to say she won Texas, but if you're talking about delegates, she didn't.

I remember reading that Texas had an arcane way of alloting delegates. This proves it, I think.

This comes from the Hillary DeathWatch at Slate.com, which puts her at a precise 9.4% chance of success in winning the nomination. Ann Coulter must be getting nervous.

Alex Rodriguez Earns More Than Entire Marlins Roster

Woah . . . this is some serious cash:

NEW YORK - Alex Rodriguez makes more this year than his hometown Florida Marlins. Boosted by his new deal with the New York Yankees, A-Rod tops the major league baseball salary list at $28 million, according to a study of contract terms by The Associated Press. The 33 players on the Marlins' opening-day roster and disabled list total $21.8 million.

Yes, there is no crying in baseball.

Mugabe Stepping Down

WABC 77AM in New York City is reporting that Robert Mugabe is stepping down as president of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe was in negotiations with challenger Morgan Tsvangirai to arrange a settlement after Mugabe lost the national election for president.

Hard-core leftist Mugabe single-handedly destroyed the Zimbabwean economy by appropriating white-owned farm lands, printing money that caused 1,000+ percent inflation, and instituting price controls that caused shortages and literally starved his people.

If he has really been forced out, this is a day of celebration for those who treasure liberty.

Islam Is A Religion Of Peace, Kill Anyone Who Disagrees!

One reason I could never be a muslim is Islam's utter lack of a sense of irony:

 

Via Gateway Pundit, who has more about Indonesian muslims being all peaceful n stuff about Geert Wilders and Fitna.

Obama's Headaches With Another 'Reverend'

Via Hugh Hewitt we find at this adult-themed site as Hugh puts it, that Obama is on the verge of huge problems with another 'reverend' by the name of James Meeks, who is already well-known in Illinois as a state senator with a flair for outrageous statements, such as:

• He said, "we don't have slave masters. We got mayors. But they still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able, or to be educated."
• He is alleged to have blamed 'Hollywood Jews' for Brokeback Mountain.
• His church held a "Halloween fright night" which "consigned to the flames of hell two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals."

As with the 'Reverend' Wright, one has to wonder what Obama means by 'unity' and 'racial healing' when he forges close political ties with a bigot like Meeks. Either Obama is willing to put political gain ahead of his values, or Meeks views do not conflict with Obama's.

It is hard to think of any other explanation for this.

McPeak: Jews Get In The Way Of Middle East Peace

Barack Obama's foreign policy advisor campaign co-chair Air Force General Merrill A. McPeak (retired) said this in a 2003 interview with the Oregonian:

The other reason I would have put it ahead is I don't think we have anything like a strategy for the Middle East. And what we're doing in Iraq ought to be a piece of a larger undertaking. And it has all the aspects of a kind of a slapdash pickup fight, you know, where - I mean you always call audibles in war, but we're drawing the plays on the ground in the huddle here. We don't have a playbook for the Middle East. You know, for instance, obviously, a part of that long-term strategy would be getting the Israelis and the Palestinians together at . . . something other than a peace process. Process is not a substitute for achievement or settlement. And even so the process has gone off the tracks, but the process isn't enough. . . . We need to get it fixed and only we have the authority with both sides to move them towards that. Everybody knows that.

So where's the problem? State? White House?

New York City. Miami. We have a large vote - vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it.

Actually I was thinking of the larger lack of a Middle East strategy. Does that emanate out of the State Department or out of the White House, combination of both, is it a personality struggle, what's - what's going on?

I think that everybody understands that a settlement of the Arab-Israeli problem would require the Israelis to stop settling the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and maybe even withdraw some of the settlements that've already been put there. And nobody wants to take on that problem. It's just too tough politically. So that means we can't . . . you can't develop a Middle East strategy. It's impossible.

Do you think . . . there's an element within Hamas, Hezbollah, that doesn't want Israel to exist at all and always will be there?

Absolutely.

McPeak admits that Hamas and Hezbollah want to exterminate Israel, yet believes that Jews in New York and Miami are the ones foiling middle east peace.

Is it smart for Obama to keep this dunce around much longer?

P.S. McPeak is the guy who drubbed Hillary by saying that Obama "doesn't go on television and have crying fits; he isn't discovering his voice at the age of 60."

Don't say the guy doesn't speak his mind.

McCain Benefits From Democrat Turmoil?

Stubborn Facts informs us that John McCain is doing stunningly well at the polls:

* 67% of Americans have a positive view of McCain and only 27% have a negative view.
* His positive/negative numbers are better than both Obama (62%/33%) and Clinton's (53%/44%).
* McCain's approval rating jumped 26 points from what it was last summer, and 11 points since he won the party's nomination.
* McCain has a 52% favorable rating from Democrats and independents who lean Democratic, 13 points higher than Obama's favorable ratings among the GOP and right leaning independents.
* McCain has an 87% favorable rating from Republicans, which is better than Obama (79%) and Clinton's (80%) ratings among Democrats.

Indeed, the Gallup surveys show McCain whipping the Democrats as their fratricidal primaries drag on.

That old warrior McCain seems to have learned the lesson well that when your enemy is beating himself, get out of his way.

Any Criticism Of Obama Is Racist

This is the kind of garbage analysis of race and elections that might lose the White House for the Dems:

When the controversy over Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright reached critical mass last week, it was the political equivalent of the green flag at a NASCAR race. The conservative strategists and talkers had been slowly circling the track, feet itchy on the accelerator, just waiting for the signal to floor it. But now, as The Politico reported in a story titled "GOP sees Rev. Wright as path to victory," the Republican strategists know exactly what must be done, starting with famed ad man Alex Castellanos:

"All the sudden you've got two dots, and two dots make a line," said Castellanos. "You start getting some sense of who he is, and it's not the Obama you thought. He's not the Tiger Woods of politics."

Got that? If you even hint that Obama is not as pure in thought and background as Tiger Woods, you are guilty of playing the Willie Horton card. The author of this piece, Paul Waldman, who is a 'senior fellow' at the execrable Media Matters then goes on to say this:

As Castellanos knows well, these kinds of attacks have their greatest power when they tap into pre-existing archetypes voters already carry with them, and the deeper they reside in our lizard brains the better. So they will make sure white Americans know that Obama is not Tiger Woods. He's not the unthreatening black man, he's the scary black man. He's Al Sharpton, he's Malcom X, he's Huey Newton. He'll throw grievance in your face, make you feel guilty, and who knows, maybe kill you and rape your wife.

For a guy who claims to be against 'hate' he sure has some hateful things to say about Republicans here. Of course none of it is true - where have conservatives been claiming that Obama is Malcolm X? The conservative critique of Obama over Wright is that Obama showed extremely poor judgment and taste in choosing this man as a pastor, and that Obama passively or tacitly agrees with Wright. I have not seen any conservatives arguing that Obama himself is another Wright or Malcom X. Waldman's perception and judgment on this matter is so skewed and warped, he can't even admit that it was the liberal MSM that opened up this can of worms for Obama, not the 'right-wing attack machine'. The American people right away saw for themselves what a fraud Obama is when he claims to be a racial healer while holding fast to his black racist preacher. Waldman needs to somehow blame white racism for all this, while refusing to recognize that it is black racism that is causing all of these problems for Obama.

Waldman comes up with a lot more silly liberal gibberish, basically amounting to "hey whitey, shut up, or we will tar you as a racist." And that is exactly what Waldman and Media Matters intend to do, because they are losing the argument here and losing it badly. They are desperate to somehow turn this Wright thing around. So they fling themselves into brainless liberal attack mode, which is to screech at anyone they disagree with in the hopes that their foe will slink away out of annoyance at the sheer noise of it all, and ultimately shame them into voting for Obama.

When are liberals ever going to learn that trying to scold someone into voting a certain way simply does not work?

Hillary's Lies About Her Trip To Tuzla Exposed

This is a real man-bites-dog story. What is remarkable here is not that Hillary Clinton lied about something - William Safire didn't call her a 'congenital liar' for nothing - but that she actually admitted that she lied about facing hostile fire when landing at Tuzla during the Bosnian crisis. What is so stupidly ironic here is that Clinton lied about something that doesn't really bolster her credentials at all. If she really thinks facing phantom gunfire in a plane qualifies her to be president, then all she has done is bolster John McCain (who faced the real thing).

Once again we see that the Clintons are still reading from the old playbook in this YouTube day-and-age. Let's go to the CBS report that exposed Clinton's lie:

Update: Hillary won the coveted 'Four Pinocchios' for her whopper about Tuzla from the WaPo's Fact Checker.

Well-deserved, Hillary.

Is Limbaugh's 'Operation Chaos' Illegal Electioneering?

From the always reliable Truthout.org:

As Ohio election officials investigate illegal crossover voting in the 2008 primary, questions arise on Limbaugh's role.

As the board of election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where Cleveland is located, launches an investigation into illegal crossover voting in the state's 2008 presidential primary, a big open question remains unanswered: Will county officials go after the ringleaders of apparently illegal electioneering where thousands of Republican voters swore - under penalty of law - allegiance to the Democratic Party in order to vote for Hillary Clinton?

In case you missed it, Rush Limbaugh, the nation's top-rated talk radio host, was urging Republicans in Texas and Ohio to skip their party's primary on March 4 and instead cast a vote for Hillary Clinton in order to prolong the fight between her and Barack Obama. And that Tuesday, as media in both states reported, thousands of Republicans did just what Limbaugh and others had suggested - they changed parties to vote for Clinton.

"I want Hillary to stay in this, Laura," Limbaugh told Laura Ingraham on Feb. 29, near the start of his Hillary crusade. "This is too good a soap opera. We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically, and it's obvious that the Republicans are not going to do it and don't have the stomach for it, as you probably know."

Hey, Truthout . . . where's that secret Rove indictment we were promised?

The article mentions the prosecutions of ACORN volunteers who fabricated voter registration signatures, which is actual fraud. Ohio voters, the real ones that is, are entitled to switch parties or vote for whomever is on the ballot for any reason or no reason at all. "My dog told me to vote Democratic" is as legitimate a reason as "Limbaugh told me to vote Democratic".

Prosecuting political thought crimes in the critical battleground state of Ohio would be dumb, dumb politics. Funny, too, how the left is all over this, but Kos' similar electioneering in Michigan falls quietly by the wayside . . .

James Lileks: A Tale Of Two Preachers

James Lileks is an amazing wordsmith. Here he talks about Jeremiah Wright's 'jeremiads' .

I wish I'd thought of that.

Yeah, Yeah, 'Grim Milestone', We Get It Already

Sheesh.

I hate to be flip about this topic, but I am addressing the way the press handles it more than the actual tragedy of losing our four thousandth brave volunteer in Iraq. I had to create a jpeg here to show in graphic detail how unimaginative and welded to their narrative the press is when it comes to Iraq. Mentioning the overused and tired phrase 'grim milestone' not once, but three times within the headline and first two grafs of the story?

Oops! When I created the jpeg I missed those fourth and fifth grim milestones up at the right under that video.

I'd say this is almost Onion-like as a self-parody of what our press has devolved into. Except it isn't the least bit funny.

'Obama Is A Mac Daddy'

Wow, this preacher makes Jeremiah Wright look like Ellen deGeneres. Language warning: this guy spills the most bilious hate against Obama you can imagine. He also mentions 'tits'.

 

Who are these people, the black Fred Phelpses?

Just What Is 'Black Liberation Theology'?

As Jeremiah Wright's church website puts it, "the vision statement of Trinity United Church of Christ is based upon the systematized liberation theology that started in 1969 with the publication of Dr. James Cone’s book, Black Power and Black Theology," wherein Cone stated:

Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.

Just substitute the word 'white' for 'black', and you have a founding statement worthy of the Ku Klux Klan.

Update: Well how about this. Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, received a letter from Barack Obama senior's father in Kenya stating that he "didn't want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman." Poor Barack, jr. had it thrown at him from all directions, didn't he.

Obama Failed To Nail It

Why does Obama so disrespect his white heritage by subjecting it to abuse by a person like Jeremiah Wright? This is what disappoints more than anything about Obama. Not because white heritage is some precious thing that needs protection, but because it reveals that Obama's paeans about racial harmony and unity were nothing more than a series of opportunistic lies.

This is also disappointing:

I can no more disown [Jeremiah Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Is Obama saying that he must accept Jeremiah Wright because Wright is part and parcel with the black community? Well, the KKK is part of the white community I suppose . . . that doesn't mean I am going to run out and attend a cross burning. No one forced Obama to attend Wright's church; obviously the church had huge appeal to Obama. Unfortunately, that church is founded on black racism, and so one must conclude that black racism also appeals to Obama. Many are saying that Obama does not need to agree with everything his pastor says. Well it appears that nearly everything his pastor says is tainted with overt racism, crazy conspiracy theories, or glee over the catastrophes that hit America. It doesn't seem like Wright ever says much that isn't controversial. And there sat Obama for twenty years, lapping it all up.

It is hard to think of a speech that could undo the harm Wright has done to Obama's image. Whatever that speech could have been, the one delivered by Obama in Philadelphia yesterday morning wasn't it. It merely teased out more hypocrisies and raised more questions.

Your Daily Schadenfreude

First it was Keith Olbermann, now it is Kos going hammer and tongs against Hillary and her supporters, as Hillary's diarists go on 'strike' over at DailyKos.

According to Kos, Hillary "cannot win without overturning the will of the national Democratic electorate and fomenting civil war, and she doesn't care."

Now with Obama possibly imploding in Pennsylvania and the Democratic primaries dragging . . . on . . . endlessly . . . with a brokered convention knifefight looking more and more likely, one has to wonder how Karl Rove continues to work these miracles on behalf of the Republican Party.

Karl Rove, you magnificent bastard.

Was Obama A Black Panther???!?!1?

Only me and my copy of Photoshop Elements know for sure:

I didn't think Obama deciding not to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem or his decision not to wear a flag pin was a big deal. Hell, I don't do either of those things myself.

Hanging that Cuban flag with Che Guevara's puss on it in a local campaign office was tacky. I'm sure they know better now.

Michelle Obama's statement that Barack's candidacy was the first time she was 'very proud' of America was an arresting thing to say, but I thought maybe she misspoke. Context and all that, you know.

Knowing that Obama's pastor was a pal of Farrakhan was no big deal . . . all three of those guys are South Siders and well-known community activists. Eh, so what if the guy gets up in whitey's face sometimes.

And okay, so Obama had a fleeting acquaintance with one of the Weathermen. Who hasn't?

But . . . all of these things added together did raise questions. The Rev. Wright thing is pretty damn shocking though. I mean, I've never heard Farrakhan say stuff that inflammatory, let alone Jackson or Sharpton. Imagine if Obama wins. Will Wright have access to the White House when Obama is in a crisis and needs his 'mentor'?

Are we ready for a Black Panther Party in the White House ballroom?

Rezko Emerges As Even Bigger Fundraiser For Obama

Just breaking in the Chicago Tribune:

Indicted Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko was a more significant fundraiser for presidential candidate Barack Obama's earlier political campaigns than previously known. Rezko raised as much as $250,000 for the first three offices Obama sought, the senator told the Tribune on Friday.

The article notes that Obama said that voters should see it as "a mistake in not seeing the potential conflicts of interest." Obama is a lawyer and a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, yet he failed to see the potential conflict of interest in having substantial dealings with one of his fundraisers who was already before a grand jury.

Was he naieve, or very well-versed in the 'Chicago way'?

We Are All Racists Now (Or Soon Will Be)

It's coming. If Obama wins the Democratic nomination for president and you don't support him, you are racist. Period. Speaking the truth about Obama does not absolve you, truth is no defense. Just ask Geraldine Ferraro, who uttered the indisuptably true statement that Obama would not be where he is today if he were white. How do we know this is true? Just ask John Edwards, another lawyer who ran for office on marginal political experience and a left-wing platform.

How ironic that a political pioneer like Ferraro could be excoriated like this, by Democrats of all people. The Democratic Party is built upon racial identity groups, affirmative action, and special rights for special groups . . . but Ferraro had the nerve to point out maybe Obama's candidacy is not purely meritocratic! The Dems can't have it both ways, and they would have been more honest to say that what Obama represents counts for perhaps as much as what he has achieved. It is fair to do that; Obama does in fact represent a racial coming of age for America, and that shouldn't be downplayed. To say it has nothing to do with Obama's success thus far just stretches incredulity, however.

What Ferraro said was pretty tame stuff, yet now the word 'racist' is being affixed to her. Expect much more of this type of thing to follow if Obama is nominated. It won't come from Obama himself - he is too savvy for that, and he has plenty of minions to speak for him. But they will speak, and they will try to bully, shame and silence anyone who does not support Obama, and they will happily tar anyone with the brush of 'racism' whether that person deserves it or not. Many people, like Obama's mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, seem to think that racism is inherent in white DNA.

What people like this do is completely debase the term 'racist'. The knee-jerk charge of racism is rendering the word meaningless and trite. Here is a an example, an article in Slate by someone whom seems so upset that the term racist doesn't seem to stick that well, and asks "who does a guy have to lynch around here to get called a racist?" Quotas for racists. That's a new one right there.

So the next time someone calls you a racist, admit to it. They are going to call you a racist regardless of your response, so why fight it? Why submit to the bullying? Just shrug your shoulders and watch the magic of the word 'racist' just evaporate before their eyes. Chances are great that you are no more racist than the person hurling the charge at you in any event. Would you even trust someone who claimed they never had a racist thought in their whole life?

More: Here is an odd quote from a Hillary supporter who has now shifted to Obama at least in part because of what Ferraro said:

When a kid, the sight of black people being mowed down with water hoses in Alabama made a Democrat out of me before I knew what a Democrat was.

Funny, considering that the guy who turned the hoses on the black people was a Democrat. This is like a German Jew saying that Kristallnacht turned them into a Nazi. Makes about as much sense.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Lets Whitey Have It

Is this the type of 'unity' and 'bringing America together' that Barack Obama believes in? 'Cause Obama's minister sure sounds like an old-fashioned racial bigot to me.

Nothing Geraldine Ferraro said was one-tenth as offensive as that.

Your Daily Schadenfreude

Keith Olbermann nearly gets weepy as he considers Hillary Clinton's 'suicide pact' that is destroying the Democratic primaries. Keith seems a bit more reserved this time out, because instead of fighting the Third Reich armed with nothing but his coif and the ghost of Edward R. Murrow, this is his first ever 'special comment' targeting a Democrat.

 

Blue-on-blue is the richest, most savory schadenfreude there is my friends.

David Mamet: No Longer A Brain-Dead Liberal

The scales fell from Mamet's eyes when he realized that humans are more self-interested than good, and that our capitalist Republic is designed to work with this reality better than any other arrangement:

I found not only that I didn't trust the current government (that, to me, was no surprise), but that an impartial review revealed that the faults of this president—whom I, a good liberal, considered a monster—were little different from those of a president whom I revered.

Bush got us into Iraq, JFK into Vietnam. Bush stole the election in Florida; Kennedy stole his in Chicago. Bush outed a CIA agent; Kennedy left hundreds of them to die in the surf at the Bay of Pigs. Bush lied about his military service; Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a book written by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia. Oh.

And I began to question my hatred for "the Corporations"—the hatred of which, I found, was but the flip side of my hunger for those goods and services they provide and without which we could not live.

And I began to question my distrust of the "Bad, Bad Military" of my youth, which, I saw, was then and is now made up of those men and women who actually risk their lives to protect the rest of us from a very hostile world. Is the military always right? No. Neither is government, nor are the corporations—they are just different signposts for the particular amalgamation of our country into separate working groups, if you will. Are these groups infallible, free from the possibility of mismanagement, corruption, or crime? No, and neither are you or I. So, taking the tragic view, the question was not "Is everything perfect?" but "How could it be better, at what cost, and according to whose definition?" Put into which form, things appeared to me to be unfolding pretty well.

And he commits the ultimate apostasy here:

I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism.

Hillary Is A Congenital Liar About Her Foreign Policy Experience

Of course she is. If she doesn't make stuff up, it becomes painfully obvious that she has no more foreign policy experience than Obama does.

Greg Craig, former State Department senior advisor:

She did not sit in on National Security Council meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the Situation Room. She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. She did not do any heavy-lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not. She never managed a foreign policy crisis, and there is no evidence to suggest that she participated in the decision-making that occurred in connection with any such crisis. As far as the record shows, Senator Clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue – not at 3 AM or at any other time of day.

Craig goes on to chronicle Hillary's many and various lies when it comes to her foreign experience:

Lie #1 - Hillary Clinton said, “I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland.”

Lie #2 - 'Senator Clinton has pointed to a March 1996 trip to Bosnia as proof that her foreign travel involved a life-risking mission into a war zone.' Sinbad, of all people, has shown this is a lie.

Lie #3 - On Kosovo, Hillary Clinton said, “I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo.”

Lie #4 - Hillary Clinton pressured President Clinton to intervene in the Rwandan genocide.

Lie #5 - Some speech she gave in Beijing in 1995 shows she has experience handling foreign crises.

Her real foreign policy experience? Serving tea to the wives of visiting dignitaries. Visiting refugee camps. Performing onstage with a guy who won 'Star Search'.

CNN on Spitzer: Guess That Party!

There should be a new rule added to all stylebooks: whenever a politican makes the news, their party affiliation should be the very first word of the story. As in, "Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York . . . " It would just be a consistent and fair way to do it.

Ace tells us that CNN's article on Spitzer's dalliances fails to mention his party at all. The closest that story gets is this:

But his stint as governor has been marred by several problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear Spitzer's main Republican nemesis.

See? They added a clue to the guessing game.

Your Daily Triviality

Who is Dick Bong?

Obama Gives Up Power

Barack Hussein Obama's foreign policy advisor, Samantha Power, resigned from Obama's campaign today for saying that Hillary is a decitful 'monster'. Whatever happened to truth being an absolute defense?

Now we find that, on that same UK book tour, Power also said that Obama "will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator." Meaning that Obama will not necessarily stick to his firm timetable of all U.S. troops out of Iraq with 16 months of his inauguration.

Most odd, considering that Obama's economics advisor Austan Goolsbee not long ago told the Canadian government that Obama doesn't really mean all that anti-NAFTA-ness he has been touting lately, either.

Obama cannot afford to look as-light-as-helium on these issues. But now, when he makes a rookie mistake, his advisors can just say 'he didn't mean it!'

It's Better Than It Looks

It's an inherent risk of video: you set yourself up for driver's ID beauty photos like these. Maybe punditry does work better on the radio, after all.

In any event, it's Bloggingheads.tv!

Your Daily Triviality

What is "the longest, narrowest National Park in the world and is the most visited unit in the United States National Park System"?

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton Surging?

First of all, it is no longer just 'Hillary'. All references to presidential candidates will now include their middle names. Just to be fair to everyone.

HRC has stemmed the hemorraghing in the polls in Ohio, and may have climbed back into the margin-of-error in Texas. Mark Penn is naturally crediting the 3 a.m. phone call ad that seems to have made people question, rightly or wrongly, whether a noob named Barack HUSSEIN Obama should be the one to pick up the call. The photos of Obama in vaguely sort-of-Muslim-looking attire didn't help. We all know that the success of that ad isn't due to HRC actually having been tested handling disasters.

There is this thing called NAFTA-gate coming out that makes BHO look like some kind of inside-the-beltway panderer who changes his message depending upon what crowd he is performing miracles upon.

He seems to be a little two-faced when it comes to Israel, as well.

And of course there is that old-school Chicago corruption problem that isn't going away soon, either.

Not to mention, BHO just needs a new speech. Touting HOPE and CHANGE might still work on swooning teen girls, but even those who don't pay much attention to politics are now wondering what it will actually mean for the future.

I am so torn! Yeah, like Rush Limbaugh says, when you have a chance to show the cross to the vampire, you do it. I would love to see HRC finally get doused with Dorothy's bucket of water. But she is also so eminently beatable in the general election compared to BHO, and so whatever happens tomorrow it is a big win-win.

Chavez Says 'FARC You' To Colombia

Raul Reyes

Is there any lower life form than a Marxist narco-terrorist?

How about the guys who bankroll them, such as Hugo Chavez. Colombia has proof that Chavez gave $300 million to FARC in the wake of the death of their caporegime Luis Edgar Devia Silva, aka Raul Reyes. Reyes was killed inside Ecuador last Saturday by Colombian forces, along with 20 other guerrillas.

Evidence found in computers seized showed that Ecuadoran President Correa "has a relationship and commitments with Farc", and that "other evidence in the computers suggests FARC purchased 50 kilograms of uranium this month." For peaceful research purposes, no doubt.

This has led to Chavez taking South America to the brink of war. War? It sounds like Chavez has been waging war against Colombia ever since FARC took him on as a stooge while planning his next coup against the government of Venezuela.

P.S. I wonder what Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are planning to do about this. Check that . . . I wonder if they even realize what a serious situation this is. If they are even aware of it, that is.

Young Iraqis Rejecting Islam?

Can you blame them? Considering how horribly so many of the religious types have acted in Iraq, it seems many young Iraqis are developing a healthy skepticism of Islam.

These kids have seen what al-Qaeda means up close and personal, and naturally they reject it. Perhaps they now even see Islam as unreformable.

Feds Identify That Ricin Guy

When I saw that Homeland Security had identified Mr. Ricin, I immediately thought to myself "I bet it's a middle-aged white guy!" See, ricin is just a little too esoteric for al-Qaeda, who only seem to believe in things that go boom. My pundit perspicacity was immediately rewarded when I saw that the alleged perpetrator was a 57-year-old guy named Roger Von Bergendorff. For real? That sounds like one of the antagonists from Die Hard. I didn't realize there were still junkers out there using 'von'.