Clinton: The Democrats Did It

ITER vs The Stone Axe

Stephen Strauss takes a look at big science and comes away unimpressed. He talks about two exhibits he saw. One for the $15 billion ITER (pronounced EATER - heh) and another about neolithic technology - mat weaving, pottery making, chipping stone axes.

At the recent European Science Open Forum conference in Barcelona, for example, I was strolling through exhibits aimed at — please don't gag — science outreach. The underlying theme of all these displays seemed to me to be: since their schooling actually teaches many ordinary people to be discomforted by — if not to actually fear and loath — science, let's see if we can't do something in these venues to get people to hate science a little bit less.

And why do people hate science so much? Well it is hard to understand and requires a lot of complicated math and difficult concepts. I'm pretty good with that sort of thing. I understand Einstein but the math is beyond me. String Theory? Fuhgeddaboutit. So how about neolithic technology?

Right across from ITER was an exhibit in which a group of paleo-archeologists had set up a display to show the technology of the past in operation. So you had a guy sitting cross-legged, banging away at a rock to make a hand ax. Chip, chip, and chip. You had someone else weaving plants together to make a mat. Weave, weave, and weave. Someone else was taking clay and making a pot. There was no placard asking: Hand axe making, will it always be 40 years away? There were no critics of the effort calling it a huge waste of national resources.

So what does the juxtaposition of the two very different demonstrations of technology tell us about disbelief?

To begin with, the ITER project and all hugely expensive big science efforts — think the International Space Station, think Large Hadron Collider, which recently has received a tonne of press — aren't like making hand axes. I looked at the man diligently chipping away and realized that the price of his failure wasn't very high. So what if it turned out the rock type you made axes from wasn't strong enough to chop wood? You simply went back and made axes from something else until you got an ax that worked.

And you, in this case, would simply be some intrepid carver and not some large part of the Paleolithic science world.

On the other hand, if ITER fails, it is massively unlikely there is going to be another effort to correct its errors. Research on its level is simply too big and expensive and time-consuming. But what if it succeeds — but only kinda? What if its results show that you can produce energy, but that it is 10 time times more expensive than energy from other sources? What if figuring out how to make that equation more favorable will require at least three iterations of ITER?

So how should we be thinking about such projects? A little differently to be sure.

What you put in place with these vastly expensive research efforts is a "can't afford to fail" paradigm. Unlike trying to find the best plant material to weave into a mat, ITER, the Large Hadron Collider, etc., must succeed on first go-round. With ITER, there is no second kind of rock to be chipped away, no other plants to be woven, no different type of clay to be baked into a plate.

And that's what I so disbelieve about it. It's not really experimental science; it's risky, we-can't-fail, all-or-nothing science and I would respond to that paradigm with the wisdom of stone axe makers.

Sometimes your research should be based not on how glorious success might be, but on how little you will have lost if you screw up.

So what should we be doing about fusion? Lots of small "understand the science" and "proof of concept" projects. Say 100 two million dollar efforts. About 10 twenty million dollar efforts based on the successes of the two million dollar jobs. And one or two two hundred million dollar efforts based on the promise of the $20 million efforts. Total cost of around a billion dollars a year when everything is fully ramped up. Nothing that is too big to fail and nothing where testable results are fifteen to thirty years off.

Of course I have my favorites. Here is one that I described in the Fusion Report of 29 August 2008.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Who Stole The Chairs?

So who is to blame for the mess we are in? Victor Davis Hanson has some thoughts on the subject.

no one dares to ask what really drove the wheeler-dealer portfolio managers. Who re-elected these shady politicians of both parties? Who fostered the cash-in culture in which both Wall Street profit mongering and Washington lobbying are nourished and thrive? We citizens did — red-state conservatives and blue-state liberals, Republicans and Democrats, alike. We may be victims of Wall Street greed — but not quite innocent victims.

Let me explain. The profiteering was not just the result of a few thousand scoundrels on Wall Street or in Washington, as greedy and as bonus-hungry as many of them no doubt were. Look at the housing market as a sort of musical chairs in which everyone profited as long he grabbed a seat when the music stopped. Then those left standing — with high-priced loans and negative equity when the crash came — defaulted and stuck taxpayers with debt in the billions of dollars. But until then, most owners who had sold homes cashed out beyond their wildest dreams.

Thousands of dollars in past profits are still in sellers’ bank accounts or were spent on their own consumption. If the shaky buyer at the bottom of the pyramid should not have borrowed to buy an overpriced house, then the luckier seller higher up hardly worried that the cash-strapped fool was paying him way too much with unsecured borrowed money.

We created the cultural climate for this shared madness. Television shows advised how to “flip” a house after putting in cosmetic improvements. Real-estate seminars and popular videos convinced us that homes were not places to live in and raise a family but rather no different from piles of chips on a Vegas table.

We created the phony populist creed that everyone deserved to own a house. So lawmakers got the message to relax lending standards in service to “fairness.” But Americans forgot that historically nearly four in 10 of us aren’t ever ready, or able, to sacrifice for a down payment, monthly mortgage bills, home maintenance and yearly taxes — and so should stick to renting.

I'm one of those 4 in 10. And you know what? I'm renting. I may have no assets but my liabilities are limited as well. Call it a form of reverse security. If my income goes down I can move to cheaper digs. What can a home owner do when the market tanks and his income goes down? Marx had a term for it: Stucco. That would be Groucho not Karl.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Karl Rove On How Democrats Failed

Simon's Law:

It is unwise to attribute to malice alone that which can be attributed to malice and stupidity.

With Friends Like These

It looks like the community dis organizers need some help. From Mr. Obama.

WHAT exactly does a "community organizer" do? Barack Obama's rise has left many Americans asking themselves that question. Here's a big part of the answer: Community organizers intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to customers with poor credit.

In the name of fairness to minorities, community organizers occupy private offices, chant inside bank lobbies, and confront executives at their homes - and thereby force financial institutions to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgages to low-credit customers.

In other words, community organizers help to undermine the US economy by pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans. And Obama has spent years training and funding the organizers who do it.

THE seeds of today's financial meltdown lie in the Commu nity Reinvestment Act - a law passed in 1977 and made riskier by unwise amendments and regulatory rulings in later decades.

CRA was meant to encourage banks to make loans to high-risk borrowers, often minorities living in unstable neighborhoods. That has provided an opening to radical groups like ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to abuse the law by forcing banks to make hundreds of millions of dollars in "subprime" loans to often uncreditworthy poor and minority customers.

I have covered this at length but it you missed it try ACORN Is Not About Nuts and The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy and Barney Frank Frankly Not Frank.

What is going on in my opinion is nothing short of a coup attempt. The American Thinker explains who planned it and how they plan to pull it off. Obviously these events are way beyond my control. The only chance we have is on November 4th. If Obama gets in with a Democrat Congress you can kiss the Republic goodbye.

Let me add that Eric has a very nice chart from the American Thinker article that gives the basics in a very quick look.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Another Democrat For McCain

Another Clinton backer endorses McCain.

As Barack Obama and John McCain battle for the Hispanic vote, a leading Latino backer of Hillary Clinton is crossing party lines to support the Republican presidential nominee.

In an interview Thursday, Miguel D. Lausell, a Puerto Rican businessman and longtime Democratic activist and fund-raiser, came out for Sen. McCain. While he said he doesn't agree with all the policy positions of the Republican candidate and his running mate, Sarah Palin, Mr. Lausell added: "I find McCain to be a sound person and a man with a track record. I know where he is coming from." Mr. Lausell had been a major backer of Bill Clinton and served as a senior political adviser to Sen. Clinton's unsuccessful bid this year for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr. Lausell said he feels Sen. Obama "doesn't really regard the Hispanic community as important." Sen. Clinton won a large majority of the Hispanic vote in most primaries, and Latino voters are an important bloc in swing states such as Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. Most polls show Sen. Obama leads Sen. McCain among Latinos.

That may swing more than a few votes.

Let me add that there is a lot of bad blood between Latinos and blacks. The way the Latinos see it, fair or not, is this: Latinos mow lawns, blacks collect welfare. If the shift becomes major it could see a further cracking of the Democrat coalition.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Jules Likes Bikinis

Jules Crittenden discusses the Two Americas. He links to some Brit papers and my 4th of July Bikini edition. He has pictures. Yum. Here is a bit of what he has to say about the Two Americas.

Brit conducts research among the aboriginals, tries to understand their strange ways. Open-minded UK Guardian sophisticate Linda Grant to gap-toothed Yank hillbilly Republicans: What makes you so small-minded, bigoted and stupid?

Small-town Americans have values and a lot of those values are good ones: neighbourliness, family life, a knowledge of the land and what grows in it. The other America they see on TV seems without ethics - crime, violence, drug addiction, pornography and prostitution - and they don’t want any part of it.

So clear is the divide between big-city and small-town America that one American friend said to me: “These whitebread Republicans are like children - someone has to tell them what to do and what to think, they’re incapable of independent ideas.”

The conviction by the left that the right is stupid is one of the defining and least attractive characteristics of contemporary politics. Assuming that anyone who disagrees with you is too dim to get your point is not itself a particularly brainy way to win others over to the essential correctness of your views.

Jules of course tells the Brits where to get off. And he has some pictures of some very nice full bodied American women in flag bikinis that might help them get off. Needless to say you should read the whole article. And look at the pictures. And don't forget the Sarah Palin Swimsuit Competition now with a link to the video.

Barney Frank Frankly Not Frank

The Boston Globe, normally a reliable liberal paper, says that Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank (D - Corruption) has a lot to do with the mortgage crisis. It opens with a quote from Cong. Frank

'The private sector got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it."

That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best." And that philosophy goes "back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, 'Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.' "

In fact, that isn't what Reagan said. His actual words were: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Were he president today, he would be saying much the same thing.

Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits they weren't the ones who "got us into this mess." Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else.

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

I go into more detail on all the components of the problem at ACORN Is Not About Nuts and at The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy.

However, I just came across an American Thinker article which asks the question: are the people behind this stupid? Or was it a plan?

Despite the mass media news blackout, a series of books, talk radio and the blogosphere have managed to expose Barack Obama's connections to his radical mentors -- Weather Underground bombers William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and others. David Horowitz and his Discover the Networks.org have also contributed a wealth of information and have noted Obama's radical connections since the beginning.

Yet, no one to my knowledge has yet connected all the dots between Barack Obama and the Radical Left. When seen together, the influences on Obama's life comprise a who's who of the radical leftist movement, and it becomes painfully apparent that not only is Obama a willing participant in that movement, he has spent most of his adult life deeply immersed in it.

But even this doesn't fully describe the extreme nature of this candidate. He can be tied directly to a malevolent overarching strategy that has motivated many, if not all, of the most destructive radical leftist organizations in the United States since the 1960s.

So this is a long time coming.

The American Thinker article points out that the strategy behind it has a name. The Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis. Lenin also had a name for it: Worse Is Better.

I think a deeper look into what the American thinker has to say is in order:

Before the 1994 Republican takeover, Democrats had sixty years of virtually unbroken power in Congress - with substantial majorities most of the time. Can a group of smart people, studying issue after issue for years on end, with virtually unlimited resources at their command, not come up with a single policy that works? Why are they chronically incapable?

Why?

One of two things must be true. Either the Democrats are unfathomable idiots, who ignorantly pursue ever more destructive policies despite decades of contrary evidence, or they understand the consequences of their actions and relentlessly carry on anyway because they somehow benefit.

I submit to you they understand the consequences. For many it is simply a practical matter of eliciting votes from a targeted constituency at taxpayer expense; we lose a little, they gain a lot, and the politician keeps his job. But for others, the goal is more malevolent - the failure is deliberate. Don't laugh. This method not only has its proponents, it has a name: the Cloward-Piven Strategy. It describes their agenda, tactics, and long-term strategy.

The Strategy was first elucidated in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation magazine by a pair of radical socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. David Horowitz summarizes it as:

The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

You know that sounds a lot like the Alinsky Method - Rules For Radicals. The American Thinker article goes much deeper into Cloward-Piven with lots of links and how the players are connected (see the connection chart - it is a beaut). May I suggest that a thorough reading is in order?

H/T commenter Dan at Classical Values for the Boston Globe bit.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

A Man And His Mouth

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Say It Isn't So

The Jawa Report is discussing the Obama Truth Squads in Missouri. In his report he says:

Did you know that Barack Obama once had a gay sex orgy with the entire offensive line of the 2003 Nebraska Cornhuskers? I'm willing to swear an affidavit to it and take a lie detector test.

Now that is not the rumor I heard. I don't know where Rusty gets his misinformation but the way I heard the rumor was that B. Obama had a gay sex orgy with the starting line up of the Chicago White Sox and three players to be named later.

Macsmind Hacked - Obama Plans To Disarm America

Gateway Pundit has the details.

This is MacRanger of Macsmind. As you know I was hacked by operatives of the Obama Campaign last month. Well, it happened again. Basically they flooded the site with “sql bombs” according to the host that caused the shared server to stop running. Subsequently be had to disable the site. This had to do with running the “Obama wants to Disarm America” post which more than 2 million people viewed on the site. Just like the goons in Missouri, the Obama truthers can’t let the truth be known. I’ve now moved the blog back to blogspot at macsmind.blogspot.com at least temporally. Because of the hacking job I had to move to another host but unfortunately they haven’t got the server up yet to redirect the traffic to blogspot. I would appreciate a mention to your readers. I’m getting a couple of hundred emails about “what happened”, but as you can imagine it hard to get the word out by reply.

Thanks,

MacRanger

Macsmind can currently be reached at blogspot. Here is the video they didn't want you to see:



BTW you will note that this is the first video in a long time. I will be having them more frequently now that there are so few people still on dial up.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

ACORN Is Not About Nuts

ACORN is about vote fraud in Michigan.

Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.
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The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has a large voter registration program among its many social service programs. ACORN's Michigan branch, based in Detroit, has enrolled 200,000 voters statewide in recent months, mostly with the use of paid, part-time employees.

"There appears to be a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications," said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office. "And it appears to be widespread."

Chesney said her office has had discussions with ACORN officials after local clerks reported the questionable applications to the state. Chesney said some of the applications are duplicates and some appear to be names that have been made up. The Secretary of State's Office has turned over several of the applications to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Well. Two hundred thousand potentially fraudulent voter applications. I think it is a pretty good bet that those voters would be voting for Democrats since B. Obama has hired ACORN to do work for his campaign.

I think it would be instructive to learn more about ACORN.

If you thought the New Left was dead in America, think again. Walk through just about any of the nation’s inner cities, and you’re likely to find an office of ACORN, bustling with young people working 12-hour days to “organize the poor” and bring about “social change.” The largest radical group in the country, ACORN has 120,000 dues-paying members, chapters in 700 poor neighborhoods in 50 cities, and 30 years’ experience. It boasts two radio stations, a housing corporation, a law office, and affiliate relationships with a host of trade-union locals. Not only big, it is effective, with some remarkable successes in getting municipalities and state legislatures to enact its radical policy goals into law.

Community organizing among the urban poor has been an honorable American tradition since Jane Addams’s famous Hull House dramatically uplifted the late-nineteenth-century Chicago slums, but ACORN and Addams are on different planets philosophically. Hull House and its many successors emphasized self-empowerment: the poor, they thought, could take control of their lives and communities through education, hard work, and personal responsibility. Not ACORN. It promotes a 1960s-bred agenda of anti-capitalism, central planning, victimology, and government handouts to the poor. As a result, not only does it harm the poor it claims to serve; it is also a serious threat to the urban future.

It is no surprise that ACORN preaches a New Left–inspired gospel, since it grew out of one of the New Left’s silliest and most destructive groups, the National Welfare Rights Organization. In the mid-sixties, founder George Wiley forged an army of tens of thousands of single minority mothers, whom he sent out to disrupt welfare offices through sit-ins and demonstrations demanding an end to the “oppressive” eligibility restrictions that kept down the welfare rolls. His aim: to flood the welfare system with so many clients that it would burst, creating a crisis that, he believed, would force a radical restructuring of America’s unjust capitalist economy.
The flooding succeeded beyond Wiley’s wildest dreams. From 1965 to 1974, the number of single-parent households on welfare soared from 4.3 million to 10.8 million, despite mostly flush economic times. By the early 1970s, one person was on the welfare rolls in New York City for every two working in the city’s private economy.

That is very interesting. It may explain why Bill Clinton was so interested in welfare reform and why he worked with Republicans to get the job done. It may also explain why a certain faction of the Democrat Party hates the Clintons so. He was ruining their game.

What else has ACORN been involved in? Would you believe that part of their organizing has been an effort to get voters enrolled in states other than Michigan? And that in the original bail out plan ACORN was to get money from the plan?

Washington, Sep 27 - House Republicans have made clear that they will fight for an economic rescue package that protects the interests of families, seniors, small businesses, and all taxpayers. And as discussions continue in order to forge an agreement that reflects these principles, the American people are taking note of a left-wing giveaway Democrats are pushing to force taxpayers to bankroll a slush fund for a discredited ally of the Democratic Party. At issue is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – better known as ACORN – an organization fraught with controversy for, among other scandals, its fraudulent voter registration activities on behalf of Democratic candidates. Here are just some examples of ACORN’s most recent scandals and unlawful activities:

- “ACORN is a long-time advocacy group with whom Obama was once associated. Recently, though, ACORN workers in two states have pleaded guilty to election fraud, an unlikely recipient of federal largess.” (Fox News Report, 9/26/08)

- “Seven ACORN workers were charged with ‘committing the biggest voter-registration fraud in [Washington] state history.’’ (The Seattle Times, 7/26/07)

- ACORN workers submitted “just over 1,800 new voter registration forms, but there was a problem. The names were made up – all but six of the 1,800 submissions were fakes… The ACORN workers told state investigators that they went to the Seattle public library, sat at a table and filled out the voter registration forms. They made up names, addresses, and Social Security numbers and in some cases plucked names from the phone book. One worker said it was a lot of hard work making up all those names and another said he would sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out the forms.” (Fox News Channel, 5/02/08)

Those ACORN folks are some busy beavers. They kind of give a new twist to the idea of a work party. I wonder if they get their training in Chicago? Well no. ACORN Headquarters is in New Orleans, Louisiana. That might explain the Hurricane Katrina debacle. Curiouser and curiouser.

So who else was going to benefit from the mortgage bail out bill?

The housing package signed into law by President Bush extends an unlimited line of credit to troubled mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and rescues homeowners near or in foreclosure. The measure also increases the federal debt limit by another $800 billion — and sends millions of dollars in aid to [the National Council of La Raza] and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, says she finds it “unconscionable” that the legislation included funding for the two groups, which serve as political action arms of the Democratic Party.

Did you know that La Raza means "The Race" in Spanish? Fortunately they are not racists. At this point funding for ACORN and La Raza has been stripped out of the funding bill for the stock market bail out. I think that funding for them is still included in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bail outs unfortunately.

I wonder why ACORN has not been prosecuted under the RICO Statutes?

WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- James Terry, Chief Public Advocate for the Consumers Rights League, today testified at a joint House Administration and House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on "Federal, State and Local Efforts to Prepare for the General 2008 Election," where he highlighted "corruption at every level of ACORN including embezzlement, cover-ups, misuse of taxpayer funds and voter fraud." An excerpt of his testimony follows:
James Terry, Chief Public Advocate, Consumers Rights League:
"ACORN routinely says it will clean up its act. Yet, given its decade-long history of voter fraud, embezzlement, and misuses of taxpayer funds, ACORN's pattern of fraud can no longer be dismissed as a series of 'unfortunate events.'
"The problem of voter registration fraud raises serious questions for this committee, and the Consumers Rights League appreciates that the right questions are being asked.
"Here are the most important questions right now: We know about the thousands of potentially fraudulent voter registration cards turned in by ACORN and caught by officials. But given the size of ACORN's efforts and the fact that the abuses appear to be systemic, we believe it is fair to question how many more fraudulent registrations have not been discovered, Furthermore, as this mega organization with a decades long history of violating the law is turned to get out the vote efforts, we believe it is fair to question how many fraudulent registrations may lead to fraudulent votes or what other activities they are willing to undertake to influence the election.

Pretty good question. Why isn't the government going after them? One thing is for sure, if B. Obama gets in nothing will be done about them.

Oh yeah. If you want to learn more about how ACORN was also involved in mortgage fraud may I suggest reading: The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy.

Update: 29 Sept 008 0723z

Here is a present for ACORN that Chris Dodd and Barney Frank included in the mortgage bail out bill (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). A similar provision in the Wall Street bail out bill has been eliminated in the current version. So I'm told.

H/T commenter JBean at Just One Minute.

Update: 29 Sept 008 1129z

The American Thinker has an article that explains that the above documented methods of vote fraud are not an accident but part of a plan. Fraudulent names. The same name multiple times. Names out of the phone book etc.

Also this: Barney Frank Frankly Not Frank

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thought For The Day

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" - Samuel Adams

The Undone Deal

It seems that the Democrats who control the House of Representatives where spending bills originate are begging the Republicans to sign on to a deal to fix the mortgage mess they helped create. Hank Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury, went to a meeting of the Democrats to ask them to continue their efforts to make a deal.

It was then that Paulson gingerly walked in to beg, "Don't blow this up, please." The secretary feared that Democrats would throw their hands up and declare the deal dead.

The crowd erupted in unison, all barking at Paulson that they were not the problem -- he needed to talk to his own party. Under the barrage, Paulson dropped to one knee, clasped his hands in front of his face as if he were praying and joked: "Please, please, don't blow this up. Give me some time."

So let me get this straight. Democrats who control the House and have enough votes to pass the bill if they can get their party in line need the Republicans to pass the bill? Why? Because it is toxic with the voters in Democrat districts. I live in a Republican district, but let me tell you some of the toxic points for me. First money going to ACORN and La Raza (The Race - nice non-racist name there) and second restrictions on development of American oil resources. Third, nothing is included in the bill to reign in giving mortgages to people who can't afford them.

Lifeless, Aloof and Windy.

Well yes he can come across that way. And don't forget "um, ah, um, um" and the ever popular "I have always said..."

For a man known as a powerful speaker, Obama has rarely wowed people in political debates. He can come across as lifeless, aloof and windy.

But Obama didn't make any serious mistakes in the many debates during the Democratic primary, or when he was running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. He sometimes showed flashes of wit and charm. And, with a couple of exceptions, he got better with time.

"A year ago, he was not nearly as polished," said Timothy O'Donnell, a professor at the University of Mary Washington and chairman of the collegiate National Debate Tournament. "He equivocates less. He's quicker with examples."

O'Donnell says staying on offense will be key if Obama wants to shape the discussion and reach undecided voters.

The Illinois senator failed to do that in what is often mentioned as his worst performance in a major debate, an April 16 confrontation with Clinton in Philadelphia.

With Obama on the verge of wrapping up the nomination, the moderators focused on his potential weaknesses, asking questions about Obama's former minister, his policy on flag lapel pins and his comments about rural people clinging to guns and religion.

Obama seemed deflated by the questioning and failed to steer the debate toward his theme of change. His performance did little to reassure nervous supporters.

He didn't do well at the Rick Warren forum. I suppose it was above his pay grade.

The Lost 8 Million

Eight million voters that is.

According to a new AP-Yahoo national poll, 42% of Hillary Clinton supporters don’t plan to vote Obama.

That is nearly 8 million people! Eight million.

An Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll shows that among adults who backed his rival during their bitter primary campaign, 58 percent now support Obama. That is the same percentage who said so in June, when Clinton ended her bid and urged her backers to line up behind the Democratic senator from Illinois.

The poll shows that while Obama has gained ground among Clinton’s supporters — 69 percent view him favorably now, up 9 percentage points from June — this has yet to translate into more of their support.

In part, this is because their positive views of Republican presidential nominee John McCain have also improved during this period. Those supporting McCain have also edged up from 21 percent to 28 percent, with the number of undecided staying constant, the survey showed.

I don't know how this squares with Obama's numbers in the polls. Well there is only one poll that counts and normally the other polls show the Democrat up until it comes time to vote.

Between No And Hell No

Instapundit reports:

Reader John Marcoux writes:

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) was just on CNBC and said that his mail and calls on the bailout plan are running 50-50: 50% no and 50% hell no.

This is what Barney Frank is up against. Even if the Democrats ram through the plan without Republicans signing on, they will be left holding the bag if the plan fails, as it very well could, and have to face the wrath of their constituents.

The Democrat plan is larded up with pork for ACORN and similar frauds. The Democrats are also trying to use this bill to stop production of new oil resources. The Democrats have a majority in the House and there is no filibuster there. Let them pass it and reap the results. The Republicans need to stick to their guns. A clean bill or no bill.

I have already instructed my representative. Instruct yours:

Contact Government:

House of Representatives
The Senate
The President

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Obama's Attack On Free Speech

Read about it at Classical Values and see the NRA ad Obama is trying to silence.

Obama and the Democrats have declared war on America. Turn them all out.

The End Of Free Speech In Missouri

Two public officials in Missouri are threatening to bring criminal charges against any one who speaks falsely against Obama. You know it should be illegal to blaspheme against The One. In a police state.

St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch are threatening to bring libel charges against those who speak out falsely against Barack Obama.

KMOV aired a story last night, that stated that St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, both Obama supporters, are threatening to bring criminal libel charges against anyone who levels what turns out to be false criticisms of their chosen candidate for President.

St. Louis C of CC Blog has more on the Obama Truth Squads.

I have been saying for some time on various blog comments that a coup is under way. I'm going to say it out loud. If one Democrat is left in office after this election the American people will deserve what they get. The don't just need to be defeated. They need to be crushed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

News From The Front

An interesting comment from No Quarter.

Comment by Judyfrom MO 2008-09-25 07:19:17

BHO better fear this: Our tiny 2300 town in MO which is probably 90% democrat has a Republican headquarters :) I have not seen ONE bho yard sigh. All McCain/Palin in this democratic town.

I think Obama is in more trouble than the polls are letting on.

BTW the post itself is about Wisconsin being in play.

Obama Plans To Debate Himself

A senior guy in the Obama Campaign says Obama is going to show up at the debate Friday no matter what. John McCain says he will only show up if Congress does what it has to do to resolve the Mortgage Securities crisis. No doubt Obama needs the face time on TV to bolster his failing campaign, because if it wasn't failing he would have no need to show up.

Obama campaign senior strategist Robert Gibbs predicted this morning that John McCain will change his mind after all and show up tomorrow in Mississippi for the first scheduled presidential debate, rather than skip it to concentrate on the financial industry bailout. "I believe the debate's going to happen as scheduled," Gibbs told reporters at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "I actually think he's going to come to the debate," Gibbs said of McCain. "I think he will decide a president is capable of doing more than one thing at a time." In any event, Gibbs said, Barack Obama will be there.

If Obama shows up he is going to look like a fool debating himself. McCain is off in Washington trying to fix the Mortgage mess and Obama is on TV debating himself. Obama will be looking very Presidential. Very Presidential indeed.

Lets see how that would work in practice. Obama on the right says I have always said... and when it comes time for the Obama on the left to respond it will be that is not the Obama I once knew. I sure hope the TV guys provide a laugh track.

Did I mention that McCain has Obama pwn3d?

H/T Just One Minute commenters.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Bill Clinton Fires Up The Base

It appears that Bill Clinton has fired up the Democrat base. Not necessarily in a good way.

...the straw that really broke the leftwing camel's back was Clinton's statement today to Chris Cuomo on ABC's Good Morning America defending John McCain's request for a debate delay until after the financial bailout crises is resolved. Here are a couple of things that Bill Clinton said that drove the left absolutely bonkers:

We know he didn't do it because he's afraid because Sen. McCain wanted more debates.

...I presume he did that in good faith since I know he wanted -- I remember he asked for more debates to go all around the country and so I don't think we ought to overly parse that.

This caused a firestorm of anger at both the Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground. So just how angry is the leftwing blogosphere with Bill Clinton? You can get an idea by reading this sampling of comments posted at the Democratic Underground:

SHUT THE HELL UP BILL!!! I can't stand his ass anymore.

the reality is that his presidency was All About Bill, he screwed interns and progressive values with equal abandon, and he ushered in Republican control of all three brances of the government.

What "Jewish Holidays" was he talking about on Larry King,He said he would campaign for Obama after. The Jewish Holidays, WTF message is he trying to send. This is a man that knows exactly what his words are and mean.

Bill Clinton is a black hole that runs on egotism. I am so sick of tired, old act. Don't go away mad, Bill. Just go away.

The Daily Kos is also quite angry with Bill Clinton as you can see:

he has now put his legacy and his wife's future on the line with his comments this week...people will look back and place a lot of blame on him...otherwise Obama wins and Clinton is sent into the dust bowl of history...

now Bill clinton is hiding behind his freindship with McCain as cover for not attacking him. Would he be so charitable if Hillary were the nominee? i think not. The sooner we get both Clintons off the national stage, the better off we all are. I for one intend to rally New Yorkers to defeat Hillary in the next Senate race. Hers ad Bills type have seen their best days, and we should put them out to pasture. We all saw the real side of Bill Clinton during the primaries. He is a two faced little coward who once did some good things for the country, but that was then. What exactly has he done for anyonre lately besides side with Hillary in dragging down the Democratic party? besides, if he is the great all-knowing and powerful campaign person, why didnt Hillary win? Give me a break!!!!

If you are looking for more entertainment of a similar sort you can visit Daily KOS and/or Democratic Underground. I think Bill is a PUMA. You know the Party Unity My Ass brigade.

I think Barry made a big mistake when he got Bill to promise to campaign for him. Heh. Well the long knives are out and it looks like Bill has the longest and sharpest one. What can Obama do? Well nothing. He needs those PUMA votes.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

A Dog Man

H/T Beldar

Keeping Up The Burn Rate

Obama is going to have to raise a lot of money to maintain his required burn rate. His efforts should keep the television advertising business out of recession for a few more months.

Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign has budgeted $39 million to win Florida, and that’s just one of several “robust” set asides for swing states, campaign manager David Plouffe told supporters in a fundraising appeal this month.

That figure alone explains why Barack Obama decided to forgo taxpayer money for his general election campaign.

Simply put: His strategy for winning requires a bigger budget than public money would allow.

The Sunshine State strategic plan alone would have consumed nearly half of the $85 million allotted for the general election by the Federal Election Commission.

“This shows you the sheer magnitude of what we are trying to accomplish,” said Plouffe. “We are spending more money and more time on the grass roots than any presidential campaign in history.”
It’s a strategy, however, that has many other Democrats worrying.

"They’ve had an experience where every time they had a problem, people would donate money,” said one Democratic insider. Noting that some of Obama’s key primary victories came after he dramatically outspent former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, the insider asked: “What if they don’t outspend John McCain in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia?

Yep. What if they don't? And it is not just a matter of outspending. He has to do it by a large margin, because as his primary race against Hillary proved, he had to spend a lot more dollars per vote than Hillary did.

Lets look at some battle ground states and their electoral votes. And assume it will take money proportional to the electoral votes (very roughly) to win a state.

CO - 09 $13
OH - 20 $29
FL - 27 $39
PA - 21 $30
MI - 17 $24
VA - 13 $18

That is $150 million (roughly) to win those 6 states. That means he has to raise about $75 million a month just to win those states. If his calculations are correct. In August he only raised $66 million. Given other states he has to spend in and campaign expenses I'd say he has a problem. And that does not even count providing any money to down ticket races.

Look at it another way. He outspent Hillary by 3 to 1 or more in a number of states and still lost to her. No wonder why he has to rally by day and fund raise by night. If he maintains a pace like that he is going to be very tired by the last debate. And tired people make a lot of mistakes.

How is McCain dealing with the fundraising problem? He has decided to Leave The Money and Get The Votes. In other words he and Palin will be campaigning and doing very little fund raising. They will be rested and refreshed for the debates.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Obama To Get Help From Johnson Brief

Mr. Obama, who already has had a Johnson problem, is sticking his oar back in the same waters.

Former Fannie Mae chairman Jim Johnson was dumped from Obama's vice presidential search team, but he's still playing a behind-the-scenes role on the campaign.

Former Senator Tom Daschle, a top Obama backer, emailed a select list this afternoon that he and Johnson would be leading a briefing intended largely for Clinton's campaign brain trust next month.

"Jim Johnson and I have scheduled another informal breakfast discussion and update on the campaign early next month," he wrote to a list including Senator John Kerry, James Carville, and Richard Holbrooke, as well as Clinton's former top campaign aides, including Howard Wolfson, Geoff Garin, and Harold Ickes.

Johnson's involvement comes at a moment when political association with the failed mortgage giants is particularly toxic. He was already the subject of a McCain ad attacking Obama.

He must need those PUMA votes really bad to risk another attack ad from McCain tying Obama to one of the guys in charge of the Fannie Mae meltdown.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Top Obama Fundraiser Meets Ahmadinejad

That Obama has all the best friends.

A founding member of the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois met in New York City tonight with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Jodie Evans, who co-hosted Obama's first major fundraiser in Hollywood in February 2007 just after Obama announced his candidacy and is a top fundraiser and donor to Obama's campaign, led a delegation of leftist anti-American groups that held a private meeting near the United Nations. The stated purpose of the meeting was to "serve as an opening for diplomatic resolution" to prevent war between Iran and the United States.

The government of Iran is listed as a state sponsor of terrorism by the State Department and is strongly believed to be developing nuclear weapons.

Obama has stated that he would be willing to meet with Ahmadinejad and other enemies of the United States without conditions. Evans met with Obama in Beverly Hills last week at an exclusive $28,500 per person fundraiser. As a bundler for Obama, Evans is granted regular briefings with top Obama staff members and meeting with Obama and his vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

Obama has come under heavy criticism from military families and troops support organizations over his alliance with Evans.

Evans is co-founder of the pro-terrorist group Code Pink and works with state sponsors of terrorism to undermine America in the war on terror. She also has publicly announced her support for the terrorists in Iraq, her sympathy for Osama bin Laden and her "love" of Hugo Chavez.

You know, if this gets out it is sure to give the Obama Campaign a big boost with the bitter clingers. So you know. Spread it to all your e-mail buddies and help it go viral. Obama needs all the help he can get. With so many out of work in America these days it is your duty to help him keep his job. As the Junior Senator from Illinois.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

Just Weird

It seems like Mr. Obama has heeded the call of President Bush.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With extraordinary stakes on the line, President Bush has invited both presidential candidates and the leaders of the House and Senate to the White House on Thursday in hopes of securing a bill to rescue the economy. Bush took the unusual step Wednesday night of calling Democratic Sen. Barack Obama directly to invite him to the meeting, White House press secretary Dana Perino said. An Obama spokesman said the senator would attend.

Well. Isn't that lovely? Yes it is.

But what were Obama and his pals saying earlier? Obama had a few words on the subject.

But he disagreed with McCain's call for postponing Friday's first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi.

"It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person will be the next president," Obama said in Clearwater, Florida. "It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once. It's more important than ever to present ourselves to the American people."

Yep. Having the debates on time is so much more important than helping to negotiate one of the biggest spending bills Congress has ever authored.

Good ole Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, chimed in.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a statement saying that the presidential debate should go on and that McCain's negotiations should not be a "photo op."

This is the same guy who said a day earlier that McCain's presence was essential. Evidently once McCain decided to be there he was no longer needed.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said McCain's move was "just weird."

"We haven't heard hide nor hair of Sen. McCain in these negotiations," said Schumer, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. "He has not been involved except for an occasional, unhelpful statement, sort of thrown from far away, and the last thing we need in these delicate negotiations is an injection of presidential politics."

Good old Chucky Schumer. So according to Reid, Johnny Mac was essential until he wasn't and then Chucky sees McCain's move as a grand stand play. Until of course he finds out Obama has changed his mind. Then it will be Obama's being Presidential. And that evil McCain playing politics. First.

You know what is missing from the Democrat Machine is earpieces. So that when the message changes every one will be on the same page and speak with one voice. Axelrod needs to get right on it. Before his team looks even stupider. If that is possible. Given enough time I'm sure it is.

I forgot to add ∅ has been pwn3d.

And this little gem from Jim Ryan at Just One Minute.

By withdrawing into inaction, McCain leaves Obama with two intolerable options: follow McCain the leader or be left standing there with his dick in his hand.

It's a Zen thing.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Regulation Play

So what is the cause of our current financial miseries?

How did America wind up in its worst financial crisis in decades? Sen. Barack Obama explained it this way last week: "When sub-prime-mortgage lending took a reckless and unsustainable turn, a patchwork of regulators systematically and deliberately eliminated the regulations protecting the American people."

That's exactly backward. Mortgage lending took that "reckless and unsustainable turn" because of regulation - regulation driven by liberals and progressives, not free-market "deregulators."

Pushed hard by politicians and community activists, the regulators systematically and deliberately altered financially sound lending practices.

The mortgage market was humming along just fine when, in the late 1980s, progressives decided that it needed to be "fixed." Their complaint: Some ethnic groups got approved for mortgages at lower rates than others.

In reality, mortgage lenders were simply being prudent - taking care to provide mortgages to those who could best afford to make the payments.

The shift began in 1989, when Congress amended the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to force banks to collect racial data on mortgage applicants. By 1991, critics were using that data to paint lenders as racist by showing that minority applicants were approved at far lower rates. Banks were "Shamed By Publicity," as one 1993 New York Times headline put it.

In fact, they found a racial disparity only by ignoring relevant data on applicants' ability to make mortgage payments - such as their assets and credit history.

Hmmmmmm. 1993. Who was President then? That would have been W.J. Clinton. And the Majority party in the Congress? That would have been the Democrats.

We now know why the Congressional Black Caucus was so strongly supportive of the shenanigans at Fannie and Freddie. You know, if this get out it could lead to an unwarranted rise in racism. Especially if Obama loses the election. People are in an ugly mood and looking for people to blame. Me? There were a whole lot of Democrats and not a few Republicans in on the swindle.

Harry Reid Can't Make Up His Mind

Harry Reid yesterday said McCain's help with the financial crisis was essential. According to a McCain adviser:

"Yesterday, Harry Reid said that consensus couldn't be achieved without John McCain's leadership. John stepped up and is providing that leadership.

Today the Senator from Nevada changed his tune.

A Democrat tells ABC News that, in a phone call late this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that it would NOT be helpful for him to come back to Washington, D.C., to work on the Wall Street bailout bill.

McCain this afternoon suspended his campaign and said he would skip the first presidential debate in order to return to Capitol Hill to work on the log-jammed Bush administration legislation, which, as of Wednesday afternoon, was in peril.

McCain had phoned Reid to ask about the prospects of him, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and others to sit down and work together on hammering out a bipartisan proposal.

"Sorry," Reid said to him, a Democrat close to Reid says.

I suppose Obama will be voting absent when it comes to hammering out a deal. Evidently in the Senate he is NOT The One they have been waiting for.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

McCain Suspends Campaign To Work Mortgage Crisis

John McCain suspends campaign asks Obama to do the same.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain will suspended his campaign tomorrow to work on the U.S. economy.

He has also requested a postponement of this Friday's presidential debate.

In addition, McCain has asked Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to join him in setting aside campaigning to focus on the financial crisis.

Obama said he is talking to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. He said if you need me call me. Evidently he doesn't think his presence will help. I'm inclined to agree.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

FBI Goes After, Fannie, Freddie, AIG, Lehman

The New York Times has the story.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under pressure to look at possible criminal activity in the financial markets, is expanding its corporate fraud inquiries in the wake of the tumult in the last 10 days, officials said Tuesday.

The F.B.I. has now opened preliminary investigations into possible fraud involving the four giant corporations at the center of the recent turmoil — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and the American International Group, The Associated Press reported.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said it was “logical to assume” that those four companies would come under investigation because of the many questions surrounding their recent collapse.

Do you suppose some one has talked? I hope so.

FBI director Robert Mueller has a few words on the subject.

Mr. Mueller told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that the major corporate investigations are aimed at companies that “may have engaged in misstatements in the course of what transpired during this financial crisis.”

He added that “the F.B.I. will pursue these cases as far up the corporate chain as is necessary to ensure that those responsible receive the justice they deserve.”

I wonder if they will reach as far up as members of Congress? What are the odds? Given that there has been no action in the case of William "Cold Cash" Jefferson so far I wouldn't bet on it.

Jewish Democrats For McCain-Palin

I assure you that Democrat assistance for the McCain/Palin team wasn't intentional.

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Politics and diplomacy were not a good mix at Monday's protest rally against Iran at the United Nations.

Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin didn't participate in the "Stop Iran Now" rally and there were a lot of hard feelings about it.

It was a simple sign that read "We Want Sarah. Shame On The Rally Organizer."

Howard Webber from Brooklyn held it.

"As important an event as this is, you needed a unity of Democrats and Republicans to show Ahmadinejad that we're not going to accept a nuclear Iran."

Buddy Macy of Little Fells, N.J., felt much the same way.

"I'm so disappointed, upset," Macy said. "She would have brought 10,000-20,000 more supporters of Israel. People who were curious were stopped because of partisan action."

Well it was more partisan in the aftermath than the Obama team hoped.

"Republicans benefitted more than the Democrats did," political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said. "Why? Sarah Palin wanted to be there, but it looks like she was purposely told not to and rejected. It gives her standing, particularly among those people who are thinking about voting Republican anyway."

For Jews in New York to be even thinking about voting Republican is a serious reversal of fortune for the Obama team. I covered the New York situation a while back in Is NY In Play? And you know what? Maybe it is.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Eight Is Enough

Evidently, despite the poll numbers, the Obama Campaign is in melt down mode. The ever popular Jane Pauley, a former NBC regular, is not a big enough draw to get many Obama supporters to come have a look. Quoting from the Times of Northwest Indiana about a panel discussion on the economy:

PORTAGE Former television news anchor and Hoosier native Jane Pauley returned to her professional roots Monday during a local appearance on behalf of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Pauley, who said she worked for the state Democratic Party before launching her successful news career, took part in a panel discussion aimed at touting the benefits of Obama's economic plans for Hoosiers over that of his Republican challenger John McCain.

While the subject matter was complex at times, Pauley occasionally took the opportunity to inject partisan humor into the discussion.

"Why would you want a maverick when you've had a cowboy in the White House for two terms already?" she asked, referring to McCain's description of himself.

She doesn't know that real Americans play cowboys and Indians when they are kids? Or that Maverick was once a very popular TV show? Well it doesn't matter.

Alas, Jane's witty comment didn't enjoy as much currency as it deserved. That's because only eight people showed up for the rally.

According to carnival slang that would be a "blue one". In other words a low turn out appearance as opposed to a "red one" where the crowds are numerous. I think it has to to with Obama's numerous friends who "burned the lot".

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Thrill Is Gone Along With The Ethics

It seems like B. Obama is having some trouble in Wisconsin.

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Hoping to shore up support in his suddenly undependable backyard, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama flew here Monday to talk about how he’d handle economic crises as president.

Recent polls have shown that Wisconsin — once pretty solidly in Obama’s column — is now a statistical dead heat between Obama and Republican John McCain.

“You all know that you hold this election in your hands,” Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat who said he worked on ethics legislation with Obama, told a crowd of about 6,000 cheering Obama fans in the arena next to Lambeau Field. “We just barely won this state for Al Gore in 2000 and we just barely won this state for John Kerry in 2004.”

The numbers in Wisconsin and Minnesota are getting close enough that the Obama campaign closed its 11 campaign offices in North Dakota and moved the 50 staffers there to these two states.

Just a week ago, John McCain and his vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin — who can bring out crowds the way Obama can — appeared in this same stadium, Resch Center, to a crowd of 10,000 fans. There were an uncharacteristic amount of empty orange seats for Obama’s rally.

Well Wisconsin and Minnesota are not his only trouble spots. He looks to be having trouble in Michigan [pdf] as well. And yet according to today's Real Clear Politics Obama is up 2.5% in the vote nationally and up 8 votes in the Electoral College.

What do I attribute the shift to? McCain ads tying Obama to Jim Johnson and a bunch of Unsavory Characters and The Crooks from Cook County (Chicago) and The Housing Problem and Higher Taxes and The Detroit Mayor and Franklin Raines are beginning to bite.

And Obama working on ethics legislation? I'd say ethics was the core of his problem.

The Crony Capitalist Clique

Our financial troubles are caused by people treating the government as if it was their own piggy bank. And it is quite evident that our current troubles are a case of hogs gone wild.

In the past couple of weeks, as the financial crisis has intensified, a new talking point has emerged from the Democrats in Congress: This is all a "crisis of capitalism," in socialist financier George Soros' phrase, and a failure to regulate our markets sufficiently.

Well, those critics may be right — it is a crisis of capitalism. A crisis of politically driven crony capitalism, to be precise.

Indeed, Democrats have so effectively mastered crony capitalism as a governing strategy that they've convinced many in the media and the public that they had nothing whatsoever to do with our current financial woes.

Barack Obama has repeatedly blasted "Bush-McCain" economic policies as the cause, as if the two were joined at the hip.

Funny, because over the past 8 years, those who tried to fix Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the trigger for today's widespread global financial meltdown — were stymied repeatedly by congressional Democrats.

This wasn't an accident. Though some key Republicans deserve blame as well, it was a concerted Democratic effort that made reform of Fannie and Freddie impossible.

The reason for this is simple: Fannie and Freddie became massive providers both of reliable votes among grateful low-income homeowners, and of massive giving to the Democratic Party by grateful investment bankers, both at the two government-sponsored enterprises and on Wall Street.

So we know who the pigs are. And we know who was dishing out the slop (taxpayer dollars - your dollars). Sadly the pigs are going to require one more feeding before they get slaughtered and delivered to the market.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Leave The Money - Get The Votes

It looks like Sarah Palin has more value as a vote getter than as a fund raiser.

John McCain’s campaign is scrapping, rescheduling or offering surrogates for nearly every one of the fundraisers Sarah Palin was to hold this month, instead having her campaign jointly with McCain, prepare for her sole debate next month and get some foreign policy exposure.

According to an internal fundraising calendar put together in late-August just before McCain’s vice presidential selection, Palin was to have headlined nine fundraisers across five states by now.

She’s attended just one to date.

And she’ll miss several more that had been in the works for this week, having reunited with McCain to stump in suburban Philadelphia Monday before heading to New York City for two days of meetings with foreign leaders in town for the United Nations General Assembly.

“It only makes sense that we would maximize her time and make sure the schedule lets her spend time meeting with voters, mobilizing volunteers and communicating her record,” said an aide to Palin, requesting anonymity to discuss strategic matters.

It seems like that is a very good idea. According to the polls at Real Clear Politics Obama has been gaining ground. And that does not even include ACORN vote fraud.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Master Of The Astroturf

That would be David Axelrod, Obama's Campaign Manager.

David Axelrod has long been known for his political magic. Through his AKP&D Message & Media consultancy, the campaign veteran has advised a succession of Democratic candidates since 1985, and he's now chief strategist for Senator Barack Obama's bid for President. But on the down low, Axelrod moonlights in the private sector.

From the same River North address, Axelrod operates a second business, ASK Public Strategies, that discreetly plots strategy and advertising campaigns for corporate clients to tilt public opinion their way. He and his partners consider virtually everything about ASK to be top secret, from its client roster and revenue to even the number of its employees. But customers and public records confirm that it has quarterbacked campaigns for the Chicago Children's Museum, ComEd, Cablevision, and AT&T.

ASK's predilection for operating in the shadows shows up in its work.

The article is kind of old (March of this year) so why did I bring it up? It might have something to do with a bit I posted earlier today: Is Team Obama Astroturfing? And for those of you not familiar with the term the wiki has an explanatory article Astroturfing. The short version: a well financed public relations campaign pretending to be a grassroots effort.

It seems nothing about Obama is what it seems to be. Except for his Chicago/Crook County connections. Which are better left in the dark. For Obama. Obviously McCain has other ideas.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

There Is No Blockade Of Iran

At least not yet.

Here is where it started for me.

The Vice President From Rezko

It looks like Joe Biden and B. Obama have some mutual acquaintances. Or at least mutual once removed.

DENVER -- No matter what help Barack Obama might get from Sen. Joseph Biden, his newly named vice presidential running mate won't give Obama much cover on the Tony Rezko front.

Biden has described himself as a 30-year friend of a key figure in the Rezko trial who's pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge in Chicago and is awaiting sentencing.

When the Delaware senator began contemplating his own 2008 presidential run, he initially was helped by Chicago lawyer Joseph Cari Jr., who also served as Biden's Midwest field director in his failed 1988 bid for president.

In 2005, Cari admitted to taking part in an $850,000 kickback scheme that prosecutors say was part of a larger political fund-raising operation for Gov. Blagojevich overseen by Rezko, who was convicted in June of wide-ranging corruption involving state deals.

On the day Cari's name first surfaced in the federal probe of the state Teachers Retirement System, the former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee and for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was to have hosted a Biden fund-raiser in Chicago. Cari was a no-show at that July 25, 2005, event.

Offering Cari a vote of confidence at the time, Biden said, "All I know is Joe Cari is a friend, and he's an honorable guy, but I don't know anything beyond that."

So how did Biden approach Obama? My guess is that he said "A friend of a friend sent me."

You can take the politician out of Chicago, but you can't take the Chicago out of the politician.

I'm looking forward to Obama's "I am not a crook" speech.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Is Team Obama Astroturfing?

My Pet Jawa thinks so.

It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:

* Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.

* The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.

* Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.

* Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.

* The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.

* This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod's firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as "astroturfing."

* David Axelrod is Barack Obama's chief media strategist.

* The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.

This suggests that false rumors and outright lies about Sarah Palin and John McCain being spread on the internet are being orchestrated by political partisans and are not an organic grassroots phenomenon led by the left wing fringe. Our findings follow.

Go and read it all.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

A Moose Shootin Mama

Audio by Pat Garrett

Palestinians Will Be Forced To Take A Shower

It is true. The latest Israeli crowd control weapon will force Palestinians to take a shower.

Israeli police say the new crowd-control method, which they call a "skunk bomb," was used for the first time Friday in the village of Naalin. Palestinians have been holding almost daily protests against a security barrier that Israel is building in the area.

Israeli police say a water-spraying device showered the liquid on the demonstrators, forcing most to rush off to change their clothes.

Clearly inhuman and a violation of all the Palestinians hold sacred.

According to the Jerusalem Post, "some demonstrators described the smell as similar to that of sewage, adding that it was hard to get rid of, even after a shower."

I predict this will reduce attendance at demonstrations. Death would be kinder and be more useful for propaganda purposes. After all, what reporter would want to interview a demonstrator smelling like a sewer?

A Few Democrats Involved In Florida Scandals

It appears that one Democrat has family adding to the illegal immigration problem.

WASHINGTON — Florida Rep. Allen Boyd's son was arrested in Arizona Sunday and charged with human smuggling after K-9 dogs allegedly sniffed out individuals hiding in the bed of his truck.

John F. Boyd attempted to drive through a Border Patrol security check in Willcox, court documents revealed, according to KVOA-TV in Phoenix. Five illegal aliens, including a 6-year-old girl, were found in the truck.

The criminal complaint obtained by KVOA states, "At the primary inspection area, a Border Patrol K-9 alerted to the possible presence of illegal aliens in the bed of the truck. A primary inspection agent approached the truck and saw an individual hiding under a piece of plywood in the bed of the truck."

The documents also say the illegal immigrants planned to pay $3,000 each to Boyd to smuggle them into the final destination in the United States.

The vehicle contained "two plastic bags that contained several rocks of crystal methamphetamine, four unopened syringes, a spoon with white residue and burn marks on the bottom, and three knives. A further search of the vehicle revealed a Beretta 22LR pistol loaded with eight rounds of ammunition and a spare magazine loaded with eight rounds of ammunition in a suitcase in the bed of the truck," read documents cited by KVOA.

Whew. That is a relief. For a minute I thought he might have been one of those gun ban guys. And BTW some one needs to wise up the Democrats when it comes to crime. One at a time boys. One at a time.

OK. There is another Democrat in Florida who seems to be having some social problems.

The discrepancies in where Mahoney claims his primary residence and the address listed on his voter I.D. card (a barn) are supposedly due to the fact that Mahoney and his wife no longer share the same address.

Apparently, Tim Mahoney, through one of his consultants, has paid a former staffer, Trish Allen, $250,000 in hush money to keep a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Mrs. Allen against Congressman Mahoney from the public view.

This is the reason for the conflicting addresses.

Mrs. Allen has already sat down with her family and explained to them that there was a good possibility that this may be made public and to be prepared.

Click on the link to get the full story on this and links to sources. Plus dirt on other Florida Cong. Critters.

On With The Show

A comment seen on the 'tubes:

"I want Obama to lose this election on so many levels, not the least of which is I want to see Keith Olbermann commit suicide on national TV"

Bigoted Democrats Keeping Obama Down

A reader sent me a link to this: Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama. No wonder Obama is always complaining about racists. I'm a Republican and frankly I don't know any. So I kept wondering who the racists were that Obama keeps talking about. Well now I know.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles.

The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.

Well that certainly is a problem. It is called the Bradley effect. Maybe it will now be called the Kilpatrick effect after the former Mayor of Detroit.

More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.

Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution.

"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.

And a man who can't cure the racists in his own party is going to be the post racialist candidate how?

And telling his followers "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." is going to help with that Kwame Kilpatrick image how?

You know I don't think he has thought this through. Maybe all that Harvard education is preventing him from thinking.

Mommy, I Learned A New Word - Psephology

Long time commenter and e-mail friend linearthinker brought that word to my attention. He quotes this definition:

"...the statistical analysis of elections. Psephology uses compilations of precinct voting returns for elections going back some years, public opinion polls, campaign finance information and similar statistical data."

And then he explains why it is important.

One quarter of all registered voters are Catholics and Biden is losing Obama their votes.

And since he was so kind to include a link to an article on the subject I will too. The Elephant Bar quotes from The Telegraph UK.

Remember, you read it here first: on September 11 this blog reported a mounting backlash from Catholic bishops against Biden, Barack Obama's "Catholic" pro-abortion running mate. At that time I estimated eight bishops had come out to denounce Biden; the total is now 55. Beyond that, Biden is being trashed across every state of the Union by Catholic newspapers, TV and radio stations, and blogs. It is a tsunami of rejection.

The story has now hit the secular media. Last Saturday Time magazine asked: "Does Biden Have a Catholic Problem?" By Wednesday the issue had moved onto the front page of the New York Times. Joe the Jinx has blown it, big time. Biden has only himself to blame: he started this war, with his notoriously undisciplined mouth. He knew the dangers. Last August, Archbishop Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St Louis and now Prefect of the Apostolic Segnatura in Rome, said communion should be denied to pro-abortion politicians "until they have reformed their lives".

Archbishop Chaput of Denver had already announced Biden should not receive communion because of his pro-abortion views. Defiantly, Biden took communion in his home parish in Delaware in late August. On September 2 the Bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania (a crucial swing state) banned him from communion in his diocese. That is effective excommunication.

Uh. Oh. Joe is deep in it. Now here is the killer:

There are 47 million Catholic voters in the United States. One quarter of all registered voters are Catholics. At every presidential election in the past 30 years the Catholic vote has gone to the winning candidate, except for Al Gore in 2000. This year 41 per cent of Catholics are independents - up from 30 per cent in 2004. Psephologists claim practising Catholics were the decisive factor in the crucial swing states in 2004: in Ohio 65 per cent of Catholics voted for Bush, in Florida 66 per cent. They were drifting away in disillusionment from the Republicans and split 50-50, until Joe Biden worked his magic. This is electoral suicide by the Democrats.

Yep. And Jews are drifting away from the Democrats as well. In fact it looks like they are now being pushed. It all starts with an anti-Ahmadinejad rally. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were both invited to the rally. When Hillary pulled out Democrats threatened to sic the IRS on the Jewish organizations if Palin showed up at the official event.

CBS2 has a Democratic politician on record with the story of why Sarah Palin's invitation was rescinded after Hillary Clinton pulled out of the event upon hearing that Palin was also invited and planned to attend the rally to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at the UN, with one Democratic lawmaker calling it "McCarthyism."

Once Clinton canceled and announced she would not attend, according to the report, the "axes were out for Palin" and the Jewish Groups which organized the event were told their tax exempt status would be jeopardized if Palin attended but Hillary Clinton or Democratic vice presidential candidate, Joe Biden did not.

CBS 2 spoke to Assemblyman Dov Hikind, Democrat from Brooklyn, who said, "This is insulting. This is embarrassing, especially to Gov. Palin, to me and I think it should be to every single New Yorker."

Hikind goes on to to declare, "It's an absolute shame that this has happened. To threaten organizations … to threaten the Conference of Presidents that if you don't withdraw the invitation to Gov. Palin we're going to look into your tax exempt status … that's McCarthyism."

Jeeze Democrats. What a way to shore up support for a core constituency. First the Catholics. Now the Jews. You would almost think that this was an attempt to lose in a landslide. Here is another little bit on the subject from an article titled: Jews For John McCain Poll Shocker.

The Siena Poll of New York likely voters is really going to upset the tummies of the Democrat Party, if they have any sense at all.

New York Jews have not voted Republican en masse since Ronald Reagan and as of six months ago didn't appear to have changed.

The tide has seemingly turned though. In the Siena Poll (cross tabs) section is a demographic which should make Mr Obama start thinking about what to do with all of his spare time after next November.

The issue would be Sen. John McCain garnering 57% of the New York Jewish favorable view and Mr Obama getting a miserable 38% favorable rating.

That is not good news for the Obama/Biden camp, since the last time this happened Ronaldus Maximus Reagan won in such a landslide the world doesn't even remember who his opponent was. (actually the guy who ran against Reagan went on to get a job building houses for free and roaming the globe trash talking the United States and Israel)

It seems like the only identity politics the Obama team can play well is Black. That will guarantee him about 12% of the vote. Add in the Democrat "progressives" and it is still not enough to win an election.

You know this is pretty stupid for a Harvard educated guy who taught at the University of Chicago. Not to mention the fact that he has spent his adult life in Chicago identity politics. He should have spent more time in the ethnic wards on the North Side. They have Catholic areas up there. Jewish areas. And don't forget the hippie contingent. He might have learned a thing or two.

I think he is one of those kind of people who are over represented in academia. Too smart to learn anything new.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Soros Stocks Up On Lehman

This is a story from August 15th so it is a little old. However, it ties in with this story about the interrelations among climate change profiteer Al Gore, climatologist Jim Hansen, and the financial firm Lehman Brothers. So lets look at the connection between George Soros and the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers.

George Soros thinks the world may be in for a long recession and that housing prices will continue to fall more than most economists expect. He thinks a "superbubble" has been forming for 25 years—and it's currently collapsing.

But he thinks Lehman Brothers is going places.

The notable philanthropist, political activist, and hedge fund investor who made a killing on smart currency bets in the 1990s, disclosed in a filing yesterday that his fund raised its stake in the troubled investment bank from 10,000 shares to 9.5 million shares during the second quarter.

The stake, worth about $188 million, comes to 1.4 percent of Lehman's outstanding shares.

Let's hope he's in it for the long haul, because the trade doesn't seem to be paying off so far. Lehman shares started the second quarter in the mid-$40s, falling to $19.81 by June 30.

Lehman Brothers is trading today at about 21¢. Which is to say George has lost all his money. Unless he made money covering the positions of naked shorts. Which is way more complicated than I want to explain here. You will have to look it up.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

McCain Palin Rally Michigan

The people of Michigan are mad as hell and don't know who to blame.

This state, which was living with economic catastrophe long before this week's Wall Street meltdown, could be to this election what Ohio was in 2004 and Florida was in 2000.

And voters here are so angry -- about unemployment measured at 9 percent and some of the country's highest rates of foreclosures and outbound one-way U-Haul rentals -- that no one is certain where they will lash out.

"What's challenging about Michigan is that they've suffered this economy in its worst form," said Stan Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who has studied the state for years. "They blame the Democratic governor and the Democratic Party, and the Republican president and the Republican Party, and an elite they believe sold out their state."

It's no wonder, then, that John McCain and Sarah Palin held their first joint town hall meeting in this solidly Republican city on Wednesday, or that McCain played his newly discovered populist tune during a visit earlier in the day at a General Motors plant. "We are not going to leave the workers here in Michigan hung out to dry," McCain said, "while we give billions in taxpayer dollars to Wall Street."

Uh, Oh. Does this mean a bail out of GM and Ford? I hope not

Washington Post Says: Don't Trust Us

It seems that the Washington Post says that Franklin Raines really wasn't an Obama adviser. And by the way, you can't believe what we write in our newspaper. Talk about boosting the brand.

The Obama campaign last night issued a statement by Raines insisting, "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters." Obama spokesman Bill Burton went a little further, telling me in an e-mail that the campaign had "neither sought nor received" advice from Raines "on any matter."

So what evidence does the McCain campaign have for the supposed Obama-Raines connection? It is pretty flimsy, but it is not made up completely out of whole cloth. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers points to three items in the Washington Post in July and August. It turns out that the three items (including an editorial) all rely on the same single conversation, between Raines and a Washington Post reporter, Anita Huslin, who wrote a Style section profile of the discredited Fannie Mae boss that appeared on July 16. The profile reported that Raines, who retired from Fannie Mae four years ago, had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."

So yeah. Obama seeking advice from Raines is not the same as Raines advising Obama.

Well there is at least one impossible thing there I can believe before breakfast. Hope and Change people. Hope and Change.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

John McCain Plays Race Card

Time Magazine says this video ad plays the race card. Two black guys stealing from an old white woman.

This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.

Let me stipulate: Obama's Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn't even mention a far more significant tie--that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama's vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama's principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.

Well yes. Johnson is fair game. In fact Mr Johnson has been hit hard today in a video showing his connection to Senator Obama.

So I guess what we have today is a white guy and a black guy teaming up to steal from the white woman. We are truly fortunate that Mr. Obama is no racist. Otherwise the number of crooks he could partner with would be severely limited.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Man With No Plan

It seems like the man with a plan for solving the Iraq War has No Plan for solving the economic crisis.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said on Friday he supported efforts by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to shore up confidence in the financial markets and said he would hold off from presenting his own economic recovery plan.

"The events of the last few days have made it clear that we must take further bold and decisive action to shore up confidence in our financial markets and avoid a deepening economic crisis that could jeopardize the life savings and well-being of millions of Americans," Obama said in a statement.

But mister we has proposed no bold and decisive action. I guess voting present is bold and decisive for him. No doubt he has to confer with Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines before he can take any bold action. Or perhaps he has to visit the Mudd hut to find out what to do. After all the man whose name is Mudd personally thanked Obama for his help. And why shouldn't he? The man whose name is Mudd wound up with a 22 room Colonial mansion in return for assisting with the destruction of Fannie Mae. I'm betting that Obama is now wishing that he only had slum lord Tony Rezko to worry about.

One thing you can say for sure. Mr. Obama appears to have a lot of friends who are real estate geniuses. People who can take trillions and turn them into billions while making a tidy profit on the side.

It is my opinion that given his understanding of economics, we should all work hard to help Barack Obama keep his Senate seat.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sarah Has The Ladies Fired Up

Sarah has the ladies of Lebanon, Ohio fired up.

As ear-splitting screams and wild applause welcomed Sarah Palin to Lebanon, it occurred to me: Dick Cheney never got cheers like this. Joe Biden? Dream on. Barack Obama, sure - but the women who were yelling for Palin are not fainters.
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They were jammed together in rain ponchos, overflowing the metal cattle corrals, spilling into side streets a block away. They furiously hammered their blue McCain balloon-tube clappers. It sounded like a Toby Keith concert.

And that's something entirely new for buttoned-down, Brooks Brothers Republicans.

"SARAH, SARAH, SARAH," they chanted, waving signs that said "Read My Lipstick - Drill Now," and "Working Mom 4 Palin."(Best T-shirt: "Small-town Gun-toting Christian for McCain." That was a woman, too.)

The speeches were cut-and-paste leftovers. But only the press seemed bored. When Palin said, "This is what America is all about - small-town America," the noise could be heard five blocks away.

I think Sarah represents a return to the Jeffersonian ideal of America. People capable of standing on their own with the help of their neighbors. The yeoman farmers. The practitioners of a trade. The small businessmen and women. The once forgotten Americans. The little people. The people the elites can't see. The people of fly-over country. Obviously they have become the no longer silent Americans. Which is a good thing.

Palin Visits With Hannity

YouTube Video Part 1

YouTube Video Part 2

YouTube Video Part 3

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YouTube Video Part 6

YouTube Video Part 7

John McCain Is A Great Man

Yeah. We all knew that. So that is not the story. What is the story? Look at who is saying it.

Former President Bill Clinton has largely kept himself out of the public eye since his wife lost the Democratic primary to Barack Obama.

However in a rare television interview tonight, the former president called Republican presidential candidate John McCain "a great man" and praised GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as an "instinctively effective candidate."

On a day when Obama sought to convince voters that he's best able to handle the economic crisis, the former president said it was his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who gave today "the most detailed position."

In an interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Clinton, who has tried to put to rest rumors of tensions between himself and Obama said, "I've never concealed my admiration and affection for Sen. McCain. I think he's a great man.

I'm sure Bill has Obama's best interests at heart. Like helping him keep his seat as the Junior Senator from Illinois.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Gains Of 30 Years Wiped Out

click for larger image
It looks like the era of Global Warming is Over. Icecap reports:

Many scary stories have been written about the dangers of catastrophic global warming, allegedly due to increased atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the combustion of fossil fuels. But is the world really catastrophically warming? NO. And is the warming primarily caused by humans? NO.

Since just January 2007, the world has cooled so much that ALL the global warming over the past three decades has disappeared! This is confirmed by a plot of actual global average temperatures from the best available source, weather satellite data that shows there has been NO net global warming since the satellites were first launched in 1979.

Since there was global cooling from ~1940 to ~1979, this means there has been no net warming since ~1940, is spite of an ~800% increase in human emissions of carbon dioxide. This indicates that the recent warming trend was natural, and CO2 is an insignificant driver of global warming.

Furthermore, the best fit polynomial shows a strong declining trend. Are we seeing the beginning of a natural cooling cycle? YES. Further cooling, with upward and downward variability, is expected because the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has returned to its cool phase, as announced by NASA this year.

You know this is really terrible news for financial outfits like Lehman Brothers.

LONDON - Lehman Brothers shut down its carbon emissions trading desk after the bank filed for bankruptcy protection, a source close to the company told Reuters on Monday.

"Everything's stopped, blocked ... it's a bit anarchic," he said.

Lehman declined to comment on the matter.

Trouble ahead, trouble behind. And speaking of behind. Who was helping Lehman to make carbon trading popular?

Al Gore’s carbon trading business GIM was banked with Lehman Bros. It will be interesting to see how this will play in the future but I suspect that this increases the risk of participating in Carbon trading. Merrill Lynch was also deeply involved in this business.

Last year Lehman Brothers released a long and highly publicized report about climate change in which they preached about decarbonization, trying to make their investors keep getting high profits from the Kyoto carbon trade scheme and the support of huge public subventions. All that, of course, with the applause of the usual choir of politicians, the entire media and the Greens.

Last year Lehman Brothers released a long and highly publicized report about climate change in which they preached about decarbonization, trying to make their investors keep getting high profits from the Kyoto carbon trade scheme and the support of huge public subventions. All that, of course, with the applause of the usual choir of politicians, the entire media and the Greens.

A year ago they couldn’t predict their bankruptcy but were predicting the climate 100 years ahead. Thousands of green militants have been using the Lehman report as a proof of global warming and impending chaos. Lehman Bros said it! sacred words! Its scientific advisor is James Hansen!

Well what do you know? Gore and Hansen. Two of the most prestigious names in the Carbon Trading and Global Warming Science business. If you have any stock in those two guys now is the time to short it, before it goes to ∅.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Raines In Obama Parade

Ben Smith had this cute little piece out on 16 July of this year on the Raines - Obama connection.

An ill-timed -- for Obama -- profile of former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines, forced out in an accounting mess a few years ago.

The Style Section piece reports that he's recently been taking "calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."

Taking calls? Doesn't that mean Obama has been calling him? The McCain Campaign hsd a nice video out on the connection between Obama and Raines. And there is another video out of Fannie Mae head Daniel Mudd praising Obama.

So who is Daniel Mudd? I think it will come as no surprise that he lives in a Mudd hut. A 22-room Mudd hut. Evidently ripping off the taxpayers pays very well. Very well indeed.

As more than a million US homeowners face devastating mortgage foreclosures, ousted Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd continues to live in an opulent Washington, DC, mansion replete with expansive gardens, servants' quarters and a home theater.

Mudd, whose former company is being bailed out by billions in taxpayer dollars, calls home a 22-room Colonial mansion on Newark Street in tony Cleveland Park, built on the former property of President Grover Cleveland.

The eight-bedroom, eight-bath pad includes large public rooms with fireplaces, a home theater, a gym, a wine cellar, a solarium, servants' quarters, a terrace off the master-bedroom suite, and a gourmet kitchen.

The gated, landscaped property also features a pool, fountains, gardens and a guesthouse.

The property is so lavish that some company employees dubbed it "Mudd Manor."

And they're furious that the executive at the helm of the ship as it sank into profound crisis has surfaced relatively unscathed, at least for now.

"Hey, he lost his limo and corner suite [at the office], but Mudd Manor is not a bad place to contemplate your next move," said a bitter Fannie Mae employee who requested anonymity.

"Most Fannie Mae employees are reeling from their employee stock-option-plan account balances' going to cents on the dollar."

So the little people get fleeced and the big guys walk.

That Obama has some really swell friends.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Democrats Behind Hack Of Palin E-Mail

It looks like Democrats are behind the hack of Sarah Palin's e-mail account.

State Rep. Mike Kernell confirmed Thursday that his son, a University of Tennessee-Knoxville student, is at the center of heated Internet discussion into the hacking of the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

What do ya know.

I thought ∅ was against old style politics. I guess he really didn't mean it. After all he is a Chicago politician.

An Admission Of Guilt

It looks like Congress is planning to leave town without addressing the financial meltdown.

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn't equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can't agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.

Lawmakers say they are unlikely to take action before, or to delay, their planned adjournments -- Sept. 26 for the House of Representatives, a week later for the Senate. While they haven't ruled out returning after the Nov. 4 elections, they would rather wait until next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who are leading efforts to contain the crisis, call for help.

One reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that ``no one knows what to do'' at the moment.

Yeah. They don't know what to do. Why would that be? Maybe because they have their finger prints all over the cause of the problem? What are the chances Congress will work to fix what it broke? There is a number that expresses the odds exceedingly well.

∅


Cross Posted at Classical Values

Fannie CEO Lauds Obama and the Black Caucus

Daniel Mudd speaks before the Congressional Black Caucus.

This is going to hurt.

Also see The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy.

I wonder if William "Cold Cash" Jefferson was in the crowd.

Are You People Insane?

I just saw this headline at Politico: Even GOP says McCain must accept earmarks.

Out on the stump, John McCain gets wild applause each time he promises as president to veto every spending bill that contains an earmark.

But McCain will find it almost impossible to live up to his vow, and gridlock would result if Congress refused to go along with such an executive branch power grab.

And that’s what members of McCain’s own party are saying.

“I don’t think it’s the right approach,” said Rep. Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican who has spent three decades on the House Appropriations Committee. “I haven’t done an earmark I wouldn’t be happy to have spread all over the front pages of the paper.”

Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), a former Appropriations Committee chairman, warns that both parties in Congress would protect their power against a no-earmark policy.

The Republicans are going to lose a lot more seats than they expect, because I'm going to work against every single one of them if they don't straighten out and fly right.

Whose Side Is He On?

There is a video going around about Senator ∅'s interference with American foreign policy in Iraq. So I thought I'd look into the matter.

It seems like Senator ∅ has taken a crash course in order to gain foreign policy expertise. One minor problem. The course is crashing.

The Obama campaign spent more than five hours on Monday attempting to figure out the best refutation of the explosive New York Post report that quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying that Barack Obama during his July visit to Baghdad demanded that Iraq not negotiate with the Bush Administration on the withdrawal of American troops. Instead, he asked that they delay such negotiations until after the presidential handover at the end of January.

The three problems, according to campaign sources: The report was true, there were at least three other people in the room with Obama and Zebari to confirm the conversation, and there was concern that there were enough aggressive reporters based in Baghdad with the sources to confirm the conversation that to deny the comments would create a bigger problem.

Instead, Obama's national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi told reporters that Obama told the Iraqis that they should not rush through what she termed a "Strategic Framework Agreement" governing the future of U.S. forces until after President Bush left office. In other words, the Iraqis should not negotiate an American troop withdrawal.

According to a Senate staffer working for Sen. Joseph Biden, Biden himself got involved in the shaping of the statement. "The whole reason he's on the ticket is the foreign policy insight," explained the staffer.

What a howler. Joe Biden a foreign policy expert.

And Candidate ∅ calling for troop withdrawals in America and trying to delay them in Iraq.

How about that New York Post article?

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."

"However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open." Zebari says.

Well what do you know. The Iraqis would rather be running their own country instead of having a Junior Senator from Illinois running it. It is almost like they favor self government over foreign rule. I thought the lefties were saying that self government in the Middle East was impossible. I think the evidence points to the contrary. It appears it is rather robust and in fact so robust that they have rolled Senator ∅.

Speaking of lefties. I appears that the Demthuglies are out in force on this issue.

The real news I see in the Obama statement is that there may be an encouraging evolution in his position on Iraq: The "rebuttal" shows that the senator no longer shares his party leadership's belief that the United States has lost the war in Iraq.

He now talks of "the prospect of lasting success," perhaps hoping that his own administration would inherit the kudos. And he makes no mention of his running mate Joe Biden's pet project for carving Iraq into three separate states. He has even abandoned his earlier claim that toppling Saddam Hussein was "illegal" and admits that the US-led coalition's presence in Iraq has a legal framework in the shape of the UN mandate.

In his statement on my Post article, Obama no longer talks of "withdrawal" but of "redeployment" and "drawdown" - which is exactly what is happening in Iraq now.

While I am encouraged by the senator's evolution, I must also appeal to him to issue a "cease and desist" plea to the battalions of his sympathizers - who have been threatening me with death and worse in the days since my article appeared.

And that is not the only place the Demthuglies have been out in force. It seems they still don't like Milt Rosenberg.

Rosenberg's producer, Zack Christenson, e-mailed National Review's Corner with this message:

Tonight, we have David Freddoso on our show discussing his new book. As we speak, thousands of Obama supporters are flooding our phone lines and e-mail boxes, just as they did for our show with Stanley Kurtz. An Obama Action Wire was sent out tonight to intimidate us into taking Freddoso off the air.

I caught the last twenty minutes of Extension 720. I'll download the podcast as soon as it is available.

The first thing I heard when I tuned in was a female caller who identified herself as a journalism student. She started reciting obvious Obama-nut talking points, when Rosenberg--a very calm man by the way--interrupted and asked, "Did you receive that e-mail and are you quoting from it?"

She responded that she had, but was adding her own insight. She then went on to tell the longtime host of the program that she supports Obama because he "simultaneously represents integrity and class."

The Obama campaign has nothing to do with integrity and class. The first attempted disruption of Rosenberg's program could have been written off the work of a rogue staffer. But this time, uh-uh, no way, not a chance. The Obama campaign...no, make that Obama himself has to answer for their intrusion on free discourse.

And just in case you were wondering about the book being discussed. Here it is with a link to Amazon so you can check it out. The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate

In any case I seem to recall that this kind of political behavior was well known in history. So well known that it had a name. Storm something I think.

H/T Just One Minute.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

An Amazing Legislative Record

Senator ∅bama got five bills passed in the Senate. An amazing record for some one who only actually spent 143 legislative days in the chamber. Some of the bills have had a major impact on the country. A commenter at Riehl Worldview looked them up so I didn't have to.

1. To congratulate the Chicago White Sox on winning the 2005 World Series Championship.

2. Recognizing the historical significance of Juneteenth Independence Day and expressing the sense of the Senate that history should be regarded as a means for understanding the past and...

3. Designating July 13, 2006, as 'National Summer Learning Day.'

4. Whereas Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson was born in 1939 to Bishop W.A. and Mrs. Mary Patterson, Sr., in Humboldt, Tennessee;

5. Designating July 12, 2007, as `National Summer Learning Day'.

Major impact on the country? Hey. I'm still looking. I'm sure he will do something important in the Senate next year.

McCain Goes After Vote Fraud

John McCain has opened up a new front in the vote fraud wars.

ARLINGTON, VA -- The McCain-Palin 2008 campaign today announced the formation of the Honest and Open Election Committee, with a mission to ensure that every qualified citizen has the opportunity to vote in a fair and transparent manner. The committee will work with state and local election officials to anticipate, and where possible resolve in advance, problems likely to arise on Election Day.

The advisory committee will be co-chaired by former United States Senators John C. Danforth and Warren B. Rudman. The committee also includes current and former members of Congress and former state secretaries of state, election officials, and state attorneys general, along with prominent academic experts in election law. The diverse composition of the committee reflects the McCain-Palin campaign's desire to put partisan politics aside in the hope of seeing a fair and transparent election in November.

The committee will advise the campaign with respect to policy and actual or potential legal proceedings involving the campaign laws and practices in various states working towards avoiding litigation when possible.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Democrats have a nationwide vote fraud machine by the name of ACORN. I have looked at their involvement in vote fraud at Election Fraud Control. There are links there that explain how to report suspected election fraud. I also look at how they have been involved in the mortgage meltdown at The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Is Virginia Lost For Obama?

Real Clear Politics has the State of Virginia in a dead heat. And yet the ∅bama team is pulling its people from Virginia and sending them to Pennsylvania. This seems like a desperation move for ∅. At this point Pennsylvania is tied according to some polls.

I just got an email from Barack Obama's campaign urging me to drive to Pennsylvania. The thing is... I live in Virginia. Virginia is supposed to be a swing state. They would rather have me knock on doors in Pennsylvania than Virginia? That sounds like they are abandoning Virginia.

Moving people from one state to another definitely gives you a fall off in effort due to distance, time, and interest. The better application of resources where there is hope is for the local people to do local work.

Things must be crashing badly for ∅. However, this is no time to let up our efforts. We must work to drive ∅'s numbers lower in order to give McCain a Congress that will support his policies.

Fighting Over The Money

It seems like the Democrats are fighting over money.

Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a personal appeal to Barack Obama: Help me grow the Democrats’ Senate majority by sharing some of the $77 million you’ve got in the bank.

Obama’s campaign said no.

Although Democratic insiders say a better deal could still come, the Obama campaign so far has agreed only to let Senate Democrats use Obama’s name — as well as those of his wife and running mate — in mail and online fundraising pitches. The campaign has planned no joint fundraising events with House or Senate Democrats, and insiders say none is likely to be held before Election Day.

In rejecting a direct request from his Senate leader, Obama has put a fine point on the financial pressures he’s feeling as the presidential race turns toward the fall.

Obama raised a record-setting $66 million in August, leaving his campaign with about $77 million in cash now. Because he has turned down public financing, he can keep raising money through Election Day. John McCain, having accepted public financing, can’t do that — but he already has the $84 million in public money in his campaign coffers.

More importantly, McCain will get substantial help from the Republican National Committee — which has dramatically outraised its Democratic counterpart — and the Republican Party’s state and local committees.

I discussed ∅bama's money troubles in Obama Piggybank Broke. His figuring was that he had to raise $100 million a month for three months for his campaign and $50 million a month for Congressional races. So although $66 million may be a record it is far below what he needs to win. Given that he outspent Hillary by margins of 3 to 1 or more in a number of states and still lost those states in the primaries he is in a world of hurt. And so is the Democrat Party.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Bob Shrum Hammers Palin

Democrat operative Bob Shrum has a devastating critique of Sarah Palin.

The campaign’s claims about Sarah Palin are often whoppers. She did too travel to Ireland (for an airport refueling stop). And she went to the war zone in Iraq (or at least to the Iraqi border to see an Alaskan re-enlist).

That is really going to hurt Palin badly. I just can't figure out how. With the Irish vote? With the military?

Well any way I'm glad he set the record straight. And Bob, keep 'em coming.

H/T Instapundit

Big McCain Rally Lined Up

I'm looking forward to the biggest McCain/Palin rally of them all.

70 million plus - Nov 4th.

It is going to be televised so we can watch the whole thing for free. I'm told they have 4 years worth of entertainment lined up.

Prompted by this American Thinker article which references a Washington Post piece stating that there was an ∅bama rally in DC where 500 showed up. You know. Maybe he doesn't have a lock on the Black vote.

Name Calling

I just saw a great way to reference the Democrat Candidates for President and VP.

Zero and What's his name

Teleprompter Rodeo

It seems like ∅bama is practicing for the debates. He brought a teleprompter to a rodeo.

(CNN) — It appears Barack Obama's teleprompter is hitting the campaign trail.

The Democratic presidential nominee has never tried to hide the fact he delivers speeches off the device, though normally he doesn't use one at standard campaign rallies and town hall events.

But the Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.

You know. It is very important that we not make fun of the handicapped. The fact that speaking extemporaneously to people is very hard for him with out making a lot of uh, uh, uh, mistakes should not be held against him. I mean what if he has to deliver a tough message to Putin face to face? He should be allowed to have a speech writer and a teleprompter operator with him where ever he goes. Wouldn't want him startin' no wars by accident without Axelrod's permission. He should only start them by accident with Axelrod's permission.

Fannie - A Timeline

If you want to get deeper into the history of the mortgage meltdown, The Wall Street Journal has a page of links to its past articles. Here are a few titles and dates to give you an idea.

• Inside Fannie 03/19/02 – Fan and Fred don't function like other companies. They're allowed to pile up debt, implicitly guaranteed by taxpayers, without being held to even the minimum of corporate governance standards.

• Frantic Fannie 02/28/02 – Companies taking on so much risk and debt, and backed by taxpayers, ought to be more transparent in what they tell the world.

• Fannie Mae Enron? 02/20/02 – Fan and Fred look like poorly run hedge funds: lots of leverage and snarkily hedged risk. Does the word Enron ring any bells?

Go to the page for links.

Here is a relevant bit from the New York Times from 2003.

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

Did the new oversight plan get passed by Congress? What do you think? I'll save you the trouble of looking it up. No.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy

This is a long and complicated story about how Obama backers were behind the mortgage industry meltdown. It hast to start some where, so lets start with a well known Chicago name Penny Pritzker. It starts with a bank failure.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for the 1,406 people who lost much of their life savings when Superior Bank of Chicago went belly up in 2001 with over $1 billion in insured and uninsured deposits. This collapse came amid harsh criticism of how Superior’s owners promoted sub-prime home mortgages. As part of a settlement, the owners paid $100 million and agreed to pay another $335 million over 15 years at no interest.

The uninsured depositors were dealt another blow recently when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision to put any recovered money toward the debt that the bank owners owe the federal government before the depositors get anything.

But this seven-year-old bank failure has relevance in another way today, since the chair of Superior’s board for five years was Penny Pritzker, a member of one of America’s richest families and the current Finance Chair for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, the same candidate who has lashed out against predatory lending.

Yeah, that ∅bama. A man who stands up for the little guy. After his friends have kicked them down.

Though Superior Bank collapsed years before the current sub-prime turmoil that is rocking the world’s financial markets – and pushing those millions of homeowners toward foreclosure – some banking experts say the Pritzkers and Superior hold a special place in the history of the sub-prime fiasco.

“The [sub-prime] financial engineering that created the Wall Street meltdown was developed by the Pritzkers and Ernst and Young, working with Merrill Lynch to sell bonds securitized by sub-prime mortgages,” Timothy J. Anderson, a whistleblower on financial and bank fraud, told me in an interview.

“The sub-prime mortgages,” Anderson said, “were provided to Merrill Lynch, by a nation-wide Pritzker origination system, using Superior as the cash cow, with many millions in FDIC insured deposits. Superior’s owners were to sub-prime lending, what Michael Milken was to junk bonds.”

In other words, if you traced today’s sub-prime crisis back to its origins, you would come upon the role of the Pritzkers and Superior Bank of Chicago.

Well, isn't that special. Kind of reminds you of ∅'s special friend Tony Rezko who worked the low income housing scam in Chicago. Small potatoes that Tony. He only destroyed millions in housing value. Pritzker was involved with trillions. But you know the Democrats really have a heart for the poor. As long as they can rob them blind.

OK we have a looked at one thief for ∅bama. How about another? James A. "Jim" Johnson,

James A. "Jim" Johnson, born in Benson, now lives on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., with views of the Potomac and the Washington Monument. But you'll also find him in the inner circle of many of the nation's power groups.

In the last year, Johnson, who once was a member of an organization known as Friends of Hillary, has become tightly tied to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. It's Johnson's job to vet potential vice presidential candidates for Obama, a duty he also performed for Walter Mondale, who ended up running with Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and John Kerry, who ended up with John Edwards, four years ago.

Just a regular guy with lots of money? Maybe not so regular.

He was a backer of Walter Mondale in 1984.

Following the failed 1984 presidential bid, Johnson went about the business of making money. He joined with diplomat Richard Holbrooke in founding Public Strategies, which gave political advice to business clients. Later, he did similar work with Sherman Lehman in D.C. Holbrooke and Johnson remain together now, as vice chairmen of Perseus, an international merchant bank and private equity fund management company.

In 1990, Johnson went to work for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and quickly became its $5 million-a-year chairman. His compensation rose to a reported $21 million by his final year, 1998.

But Johnson did more than make a lot of money at Fannie Mae. He increased his connections — and his access to power — by establishing Fannie Mae foundations that spread around millions of dollars. Homeless shelters, colleges, hospitals all benefited from Fannie Mae Foundation money.

Well, what do ya know. Another ∅bama backer tied to the breakdown of the mortgage industry.

Which brings us to the Fannie Mae Foundation. A sweet little set up for handing out cash to a nice little outfit called ACORN among others. Here are a few of the grants to ACORN.

ACORN Housing Corporation - Dallas
Dallas, TX $20,000 approved in 1993
Support of a housing counseling program.

ACORN Housing Corporation - Little Rock
Little Rock, AR $1,000 approved in 1997
Ninth Maxwell Awards of Excellence honorable mention grant for a 9-unit affordable homeownership project using sweat equity.

ACORN Housing Corporation - Washington, DC
Washington, DC $3,386 approved in 1994
Support of computer equipment necessary to operate the Desktop Home Counselor.

ACORN Housing Corporation of Illinois
Chicago, IL $3,386 approved in 1994
Support of the purchase of computer equipment required to operate the Desktop Home Counselor.

ACORN Housing Corporation of Illinois
Chicago, IL $35,000 approved in 1994
Support of the placement of Americorps members with homeownership counseling programs.

ACORN Housing Corporation-National
Chicago, IL $100,000 approved in 2004
General operating support of an organization that helps families of limited means to secure and protect decent housing by providing housing counseling services, building homes, and educating policy makers in Chicago, IL; Phoenix, AZ; and Brooklyn, NY

OK so ACORN helps people who were barely qualified or totally unqualified get housing. So what would they be doing? Finding landlords who would rent to them? Well no. Landlords want to get paid. Fannie Mae had no such scruples. Ever hear of NINJA mortgages? Funny name, huh? It stand for No Income, No Job, No Assets. Just the kind of reliable folk honest lenders are looking for. People with a credit score of ∅.

Help with getting poor people mortgages was only one service ACORN provided. Another was help with elections. I wrote a little about that in Election Fraud Control. Let me quote a little from that piece. The question I'm asking is who you might need to be on the look out for when it comes to voter fraud?

Now who might you want to be on the look out for? A group called ACORN.

Late last month six people hired by ACORN were indicted for their role in filing false voter registration forms involving a 2006 drive to increase Missouri's minimum wage.

Here is something else interesting I'll bet you didn't know about ACORN:

ACORN is a former legal client of Senator Obama's, as the Sun-Times reported in 2006:

In 1995, former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar refused to implement the federal "Motor Voter" law, which Republicans argued could invite fraud and which some Republicans feared could swell the ranks of Democratic voters.

The law mandated people be allowed to register to vote in government offices such as driver's license renewal centers.

Obama sued on behalf of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The League of Women Voters and other public-interest groups joined in.

"He and his client were the ones who filed the original case -- they blazed the trail," said Paul Mollica, who represented the League.

Voter fraud? From a Chicago Machine politician? I'm shocked. Actually I think the Chicago Machine needs to be praised. Jesus brought a few people back from the dead. Jesus himself is reported to have come back from the dead. But the Chicago Machine is special. They bring tens of thousands back from the dead. No wonder they hail ∅bama as The One.

It seems the Obama campaign has rather close ties to ACORN.

JAFFA, Israel – Did Sen. Barack Obama's campaign attempt to hide a paid working relationship with a radical leftist organization that has admitted to major financial improprieties and has been convicted in numerous major voter fraud scandals?

That question is being openly asked by the Republican National Committee after it was disclosed Obama's campaign paid more than $800,000 in services to Citizen Services Inc. (CSI), a nonprofit organization that is an offshoot of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

That ∅bama. He has such an honest face.

Here is an interesting case of Name That Party.

Milwaukee has discovered some more voter fraud with 10 more voter registration workers are being investigated by Wisconsin authorities. Fittingly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the story in its paper on August 29. Unfittingly, the Journal Sentinel forgot one, tiny aspect of the story... that the voter fraud was perpetrated by Democrats. In fact, one of the organizations, ACORN, is intimately linked with Barack Obama.

Milwaukee’s top election official said Thursday she plans to seek criminal investigations of 10 more voter registration workers, including two accused of offering gifts to sign up voters.

So, what we have here is an Old Media story about voter fraud where the salient fact that the fraud is being committed by Democrats and Democrat organizations is somehow absent from the story. What a surprise, eh?

Yes it is a surprise. Why would an honest Party like the Democrats do such a thing? I blame it on a few bad apples. ∅bama, that proud community organizer, has been duped. No way he could be involved in such shenanigans.

Well it seems like he actually was tied in to the ACORN web of intersecting interests.

And ∅bama was not the only one involved. Barney Frank a noted champion of the poor was out in front, attacking the Fannies.

There were many moments of high entertainment during last week's House hearings on Fannie Mae's creative accounting. But our favorite was the Mister Magoo performance given by Barney Frank (D., Massachusetts) after learning that Fannie had handed out $245 million in bonuses over five years. Mr. Frank chided Fannie CEO Frank Raines and CFO Tim Howard, saying, "At the level of compensation you get, we ought to be able to count on you to do your very best without additional incentives."

Here's a case of misplaced moral outrage if we've ever seen one. Mr. Franks is mad about the salaries when he really should be mad at the rigged political game that has made them possible. Fannie's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, has reported that Fannie has been cooking its books. Add that to the increasing evidence that Fannie has been ignoring its mission to provide affordable housing, and we wonder if Mr. Frank doesn't need an eye checkup.

Ditto for the good liberals in the Congressional Black Caucus. Members of this group are often the loudest defenders of Fannie and her brother, Freddie Mac. Can it be that the annual donations made by the Fannie Mae Foundation to the Caucus have blurred their vision too?

Well what do you know. A wretched hive of scum and villainy. Our very own Congress. Well that was a report from 2004. Let me use the Way Back Machine and go back to 2002. A lovely year. We were still distracted from the thieves by the aftermath of 9/11. But some people were paying attention. The Wall Street Journal for instance. They had a cute name for their piece Fannie Mae Enron?

We were reading President Bush's budget the other day (we know, get a life), when we came across an unusual mention of our all-time favorite companies -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What we found is a tale we think taxpayers and investors should want to hear.

It seems that Fan and Fred, two "government-sponsored enterprises" that hold the majority of all home mortgages in the U.S., have been growing their debt at an annual rate of 25%. They now have about $2.6 trillion in debt outstanding, a big number in any case, but really big considering that taxpayers are on the hook for it. The budgeteers also expressed some anxiety about Fan and Fred's increasing dependence on derivatives.

Hmmm. Where have we heard this before? The more we've since looked at Fan and Fred the more they look like poorly run hedge funds: lots of leverage and snarkily hedged risk. The word Enron ring any bells?

Last year, Fan's debt/equity ratio was about 60 to 1, more than five times the average for commercial banks. Moreover, as mortgage lenders, Fannie's equity can hardly be said to be well-diversified. Risk thus becomes a critical question.

Fan and Fred face two kinds of risk: credit risk from the possibility that mortgage holders will default, and interest-rate risk from the possibility that mortgage holders will prepay, leaving Fan and Fred on the wrong side of the spread, that is, lending at low rates and borrowing at high rates. Of course, giant risk won't lead to giant problems if it's properly hedged.

But Fan and Fred's risk management looks to be rather frisky. Take insurance. Some credit risk can be reduced by buying insurance against default. But lately the siblings have been cutting back on insurance, leaving them with greater exposure to default. Self-insurance may not be a dumb strategy in good economic times, but in a sharp downturn it can look pretty stupid.

Well, things have turned down. The Chickens are coming home to roost. Say haven't I heard that some where before? Oh, yeah. ∅bama's favorite minister. Before he wasn't ∅bama's favorite minister.

Well Barry ∅bama was right in there looking out for the interests of the taxpayers.

Senator Barack Obama and two other prominent Democrats urged federal housing regulators on Tuesday to cut the golden parachutes of the ousted leaders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, another sign that the government bailout of those mortgage giants could reverberate through the presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, asked that any “inappropriate windfall payments” to the chief executives and senior managers of those agencies be voided, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new regulator for Fannie and Freddie.

Together, Daniel H. Mudd of Fannie Mae and Richard F. Syron of Freddie Mac are eligible for as much as $24 million in severance, retirement benefits and deferred compensation.

“Under no circumstances should the executives of these institutions earn a windfall at a time when the U.S. Treasury has taken unprecedented steps to rescue these companies with taxpayer resources,” Mr. Obama wrote.

Why yes. Mr. ∅ was outraged. The very people who helped to rip off the American people were taking millions from the taxpayers while ∅ was helping the thieves get away with trillions. I'm outraged. At the theater. What a great act. And he seems so sincere.

Bob Sikes looks into some of the fun and games. He quotes Jennifer Rubin.

During Obama’s time on the Woods Funds ACORN received grants of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), and $40,000 (2002) from the Woods Fund. (Obama in the early 1990’s helped train ACORN organizers and later served as counsel in 1995 for ACORN in a “motor voter” registration lawsuit.) And ACORN certainly appreciated whatever assistance Obama afforded the radical organization over the years.

∅ must be a genius to keep all that all in his head. So lets look at another little connection. Which politicians did Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's Political Action Committees support? How about a look at the top five.

1. Dodd, Christopher J D-CT $133,900

2. Kerry, John D-MA
$111,000

3. Obama, Barack D-IL
$105,849

4. Clinton, Hillary D-NY
$75,550

5. Kanjorski, Paul E D-PA
$65,500

You know. Some of the names on that list look familiar. I'm sure I've seen them some where before.

Let's follow the money some more. Brian Lamb is interviewing Peter Wallison a Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.

LAMB: Let me show you a piece of paper. This is not very fancy graphics, but there are 70 members of the House Financial Services Committee. Every time you see a line through a name, that means that, in the 2008 cycle – and you can actually turn the pages here, same thing on the other side – the names really don’t matter.

But out of the 70 members, 50 of them got (ph) money for their campaigns …

WALLISON: That’s right.

LAMB: … from Fannie Mae. And, of course, money from Freddie Mac.

But we can add to that, not only do they get tremendous amounts of money all the time in the coffers, they have their PACs give to PACs.

WALLISON: Yes.

LAMB: And the PACs end up serving the members.

WALLISON: Right.

Well that is more than enough for one day. You have enough leads to follow the money and vote out the bastards behind it.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Update: 29 Sept 008 1135z

Here are some more articles that will help flesh out the story:

ACORN and vote fraud: ACORN Is Not About Nuts

Especially have a look at the American Thinker article linked at: Barney Frank Frankly Not Frank which also covers the mortgage fraud stuff.

Is NY In Play?

The New York Post has some surprising news. Johnny Mac and Sarah Palin have picked up 5 points in New York State.

Boosted by the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, Republican John McCain has experienced a surge of support among women in heavily Democratic New York state - where he has closed the gap with Barack Obama, new private polls show.

The internal Republican and Democratic polls, details of which were provided to The Post, have stunned members of both parties - and produced deep worries among Democrats.

One great concern for Democrats is that the data show a continuous movement toward the McCain-Palin ticket by women, a majority of whom traditionally favor Democrats.

The movement by women toward McCain is being credited to Democratic attacks on Alaska Gov. Palin, last week's "lipstick on a pig" crack by Obama and to the continuing unhappiness by female Democrats over Obama's failure to pick Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate.

"If it winds up being tight in New York, that means McCain wins the election nationally," said a prominent Democrat familiar with some of the polling data.

I guess ∅bama's team was scoring an own goal with all the attacks on Sarah and ∅'s cuteness with the lipstick joke. Evidently no women want to be called pigs even vicariously. Given the way Black Culture disrespects women (shouldn't that be sluts, skanks, and hos? ed. - yes it should), how was he to know? Besides, it worked against Hillary. And you know what happens in a typical family when the woman makes up her mind? The man gives in eventually just to keep the peace. Lets see, there are about seven more weeks of hectoring to go. Hardly a man can stand up to that. Not to mention getting cut off. Fork it. ∅ is done.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Is Obama Jesus?

In this video Tom Brokaw holds up an ∅bama button saying Attention Sarah Palin. Jesus Christ was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a Governor. Thus comparing ∅bama to Jesus. Well they do say he is The One We Have Been Waiting For. So maybe the connection is not so far fetched. Stupid maybe. Not far fetched.

Just another sign that ∅ and his friends don't understand Christians. How in the heck do they expect to get the Catholic Democrat vote with carp like that? Or evangelicals? Maybe they are trying to get a lock on the Unitarian vote or hope that they can lock up the Atheists for Jesus contingent.

They just added another point or two to McCain/Palin.

Now I'm Jewish and naturally have my reservations about the Son of God bit. But still, I know way better than to insult my Christian friends with shite like that.

Yet ∅'s "friends" think that is a winning slogan. ∅'s friends are his biggest enemies. Seriously. I couldn't think of a more stupid slogan in what is mainly a Christian nation.

The bitter clingers are not going to like that at all. At all.

And a lot of Blacks are devout Christians. What is he trying to do? Suppress the Black turnout? It is hard to imagine a more inept political campaign. In fact I have never seen one this bad in my lifetime. No doubt we will have to wait four more years to see something worse if the Gore, Kerry, ∅bama progression holds.

It is like they think religion is for the little people whose votes he doesn't need to win.

Of course the wags on the right have a really good counter slogan. Invoking Godwin's Law of course. Adolph Hitler was a Community Organizer. FDR was a Governor. We all know how that one worked out.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Corruption Eruption

There is a video out where Obama tells of his connection to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

The panel interviewing ∅bama was from WTTW (PBS) Chicago. It looks like the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the connection between it ∅bama and Ayers is going to break out big time now that there is video footage out there where ∅bama admits the connection. Maybe we will finally get some media attention to the results of ∅bama's efforts on behalf of education in Chicago.

It will be interesting to see how ∅ handles this latest corruption eruption.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Don't Tease Me Dude

It seems that the Dems are trying to scare voters by saying that there is a great likelihood of McCain dying in office and Sara Palin becoming President. I like what commenter Revenant said at Althouse (don't stop me if you have heard this before):

dude -- don't tease me like that

Florida Anecdote

I picked up this bit of political intel from the comments at No Quarter.

Comment by glennmcgahee 2008-09-14 07:01:34

There are many, many ads in our newspapers, on Craigslist and flyers offering $10 an hour “to bring hope” to the country by working phone banks on behalf of “Deomocracy” here in South Florida. I sawsome of them yesterday for the 1st time and knew what that was all about immediately. I’ve been receiving calls all week asking me if I support the Obama. I just tell them NO. There must be a ton of money being put behind this effort. One funny thing was I talked to one worker about my support of Hillary and the disenfranchised vote here and she actually agreed withme by the time I finished the call with her. haha

Obama has spent $8 million on ads in Florida plus more setting up an operation in Florida including 50 offices and 350 paid operatives.

Barack Obama could be on the verge of falling out of contention in Florida.

Despite spending an estimated $8 million on campaign ads in America's biggest battleground state and putting in place the largest Democratic campaign organization ever in Florida, Obama has lost ground over the summer. Florida has moved from a toss-up state to one that clearly leans toward John McCain, fuelling speculation about how much longer the Democratic nominee will continue investing so heavily in the state.

Obama can still win Florida despite the polling gains McCain has made since naming Sarah Palin his running mate, and there is no sign Obama is pulling back in Florida yet. Obama allies say he has about 350 paid staffers in the state and about 50 field offices, including in places not known as fertile ground for Democrats.

But for all the attention to Florida from the Obama campaign, there's little tangible evidence it's paying off.

He is farther behind in the state than John Kerry was at this point in 2004, even though McCain began buying Florida TV ads only last week.

Now that is what I call an economy of force operation. Suppose the Obama operatives can reach 30 people an hour to make their pitch. And suppose they are 10% effective in changing a vote. That means it is costing Obama about $3.50 a vote. If he needs 500,000 votes to turn the State that means it will cost him some where around $1.5 to $2 million to turn Florida. And that is based on an optimistic assessment of the success of the operation.

Given the fact that he is having money raising troubles and difficulties in other must win states it is hard to see how he can keep up the burn rate until 4 Nov. And that is not counting the need to go back and re-convince people after the next campaign blunder. Like dissing McCain for his so called computer illiteracy. In a state full of retirees many of whom bypassed the computer revolution that is not going to be a winner. It may be that the word of that blunder is mostly out there only on the internet, however retirees have children who call them at least every week. It takes a while for these effects to filter through the social networks, but there are 50+ days until 4 Nov.

Goddess Of Liberty With Glasses

Glasses added by Jay Allman.

On The Verge

It seems things are not going well for The One we have been waiting for. In fact it seems like fewer and fewer people are waiting for him.

The Democratic presidential candidate's slump in the polls has sparked pointed private criticism that he is squandering a once-in-a-generation chance to win back the White House.

Party elders also believe the Obama camp is in denial about warnings from Democratic pollsters that his true standing is four to six points lower than that in published polls because of hidden racism from voters - something that would put him a long way behind Mr McCain.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that senators, governors and union leaders who have experience of winning hard-fought races in swing states have been bombarding Obamas campaign headquarters with telephone calls offering advice. But many of those calls have not been returned.

He got off on the wrong foot with the "bitter clingers" and has not managed to get back on their right side. Now with Sarah Palin attracting the "bitter clinger" vote because she is one of them he has his work cut out for him. How does he win them back? There is already evidence he doesn't have a clue. Here is some more:

A senior Democratic strategist, who has played a prominent role in two presidential campaigns, told The Sunday Telegraph: "These guys are on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the history of American politics. They're the most arrogant bunch Ive ever seen. They won't accept that they are losing and they won't listen."

After leading throughout the year, Mr Obama now trails Mr McCain by two to three points in national polls.

Party leaders and commentators say that the Democrat candidate spent too much of the summer enjoying his own popularity and not enough defining his positions on the economy - the number one issue for voters - or reaching out to those blue collar workers whose votes he needs if he is to beat Mr McCain.

Others concede that his trip to Europe was a distraction that enhanced his celebrity status rather than his electability on Main Street, USA.

Yep. That "Celebrity" commercial that McCain ran and that went viral on the Internet punctured that bubble. ∅bama has come off as weak. And as I pointed out in Midway For Obama, Americans do not elect weaklings to office.

Since Sarah Palin was unveiled as Mr McCain's running mate, the Obama camp has faced accusations that it has been pushed off message and has been limp in responding to attacks.

A Democratic National Committee official told The Sunday Telegraph: "I really find it offensive when Democrats ask the Republicans not to be nasty to us, which is effectively what Obama keeps doing. They know thats how the game is played."

Dem mean ole Republicans are being mean to us. Waaaaaaaah. Mommy make them stop. It hoits. Not a winning message.

Mr Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, called it the first day of the rest of the campaign.

But that was the fourth time in the last nine months that Mr Obamas team have been forced to declare that the gloves are coming off. And Mr Plouffe's dismissal of Democratic doubts as hand-wringing and bed-wetting only served to reinforce the growing doubts about what some see as a bunker mentality among Obamas inner circle - where outside advice, even from highly experienced people, is not welcomed.

The Democratic strategist told The Sunday Telegraph: "They think they know best. They don't return calls. There are governors and senators calling them up with ideas. They don't get back to them.

"These are senior people from the border states and the South who know how to beat Republicans, and they're being ignored. They ignored everyone during the primaries and they came through it, so they think they can do the same again."

Damn. The ∅ campaign has more pairs of gloves than OJ. What ∅ needs to do with some of his campaign money (which is not flowing the way it used to be) is to buy a glove factory so he can spend his days putting on and taking off the gloves. Better yet, I think he needs to buy a clue factory. Fortunately he is too proud to do something like that.

Obama's big mistake is in thinking that a campaign that worked in the Democrat primary caucuses can work in a general election. Thugs like ACORN can take you far in a caucus state. However, there are no caucus states in general elections. Vote fraud and voter intimidation only carry you so far in a general election. It works in big cities, especially in Democrat Machine Cities. In the suburbs and rural areas its effect is slight to non-existent.

Mark Cunningham of the New York Post summed up the private views of many: "If it suddenly seems like the Obama campaign doesn't have any idea what it's doing, maybe that's because it doesn't."

Party elders are also studying internal polling material which warns the Obama camp that his true standing is worse than it appears in polls because voters lie to polling companies about their reluctance to vote for a black candidate. The phenomenon is known in the US as the Bradley effect, after Tom Bradley, a black candidate for governor of California who lost after leading comfortably in polls.

The strategist said: "I've seen memos where they've been told to factor in four to six points for the Bradley effect, but they're in denial about it.

They hope to make it up with the youth vote. That may have worked except for two things. The youth factor exceeds in enthusiasm that is for sure, but it has a bad record of showing up for elections. Second, since the announcement of Palin as VP the youth vote is now evenly split between Obama and McCain. Besides, youth thrives on novelty and Obama is so yesterday. He was last year's celebrity. And now there is a new fresh face on the block.

And what has been the McCain Campaign's best line of attack?

A senior aide to one of the most powerful Democrats in the House of Representatives voiced the fears of many: "Palin doesn't just play to the Republican base. She has much broader appeal."

The aide said that her repeated mockery of Mr Obama's boasts about his time as a community organiser in Chicago are "the most effective criticisms of Barack Obama we have yet seen." He said: "Americans in small and medium size towns dont know what the hell a community organiser is. Real Americans graduate from high school or college and get a job that pays a wage. Campus radicals go off and organise a community."

That is right. Obama has been tarred with the campus radical label in two words. However, considering his Communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, his seeking out Marxist professors, and his associations with Bill Ayers, it fits pretty well. On top of that he admits he was a failure at community organizing. Evidently Marxism doesn't even sell well to its target population: the poor.

Another Brit paper, The Times Online tells a similar tale of woe about the ∅ campaign.

THE high-heeled, moose-hunting governor of Alaska has sent Barack Obama’s campaign into a state of panic as support for the Democratic presidential candidate haemorrhages in the battleground states he must win to reach the White House.

Sarah Palin, 44, continued to scythe through Obama’s support among women by taunting the first potential black president for declining to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate and by declaring that questions about juggling work and family were “kind of irrelevant” in the modern age.

The mother of five, who has been called Xena, the warrior princess, said in a television interview: “I think he’s regretting not picking [Clinton] now, I do. What determination and grit and even grace through some tough shots that were fired her way - she handled those well,” Palin said.

I saw that. It should help the McCain/Palin ticket pick off a few more Hillary voters.

In the face of Palin’s onslaught, Obama has continued to base his campaign on the outdated claim that John McCain and his running mate represent four more years of a failed Bush administration.

A senior Obama adviser said candidly that claim did not work. “I don’t think it’s sticking. The McCain campaign has stolen our message of ‘change’ - the very thing we’ve been campaigning on for 20 months. Well, who’s the change? It’s McCain.” Palin’s astounding rise has left the Obama camp floundering for a new narrative that will capture the imagination of voters in the run-up to the November 4 election. “There is overreaction and panic,” the official admitted. “The hard part for Barack is she’s stolen his thunder a bit. It has knocked us off our game.”

Actually, as far as I can tell, they have no game at this point except mud slinging. Change has been stolen from them and they are left without Hope.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

In Her Own Words Part 2

Sarah Palin with Charlie Gibson Part 2 Section 1

Sarah Palin with Charlie Gibson Part 2 Section 2

You can watch part one of the interview at In Her Own Words. One interesting aspect of this exercise is the fact that when Charlie Gibson interviewed Obama he gave him a bunch of softball questions. Palin was hit hard on all kinds of policy questions. ∅bama? Not so much.

Here is the first question asked ∅bama.

How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?

Here is the first question asked Palin.

Do you have enough qualifications for the job you're seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?

Follow the link to read the rest. So who do you think Charlie's candidate is?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

John McCain Doesn't Do E-Mail

The ∅ campaign is mocking McCain for being a computer illiterate in their latest ad.

NEW YORK (AP) — John McCain is mocked as an out-of-touch, out-of-date computer illiterate in a television commercial out Friday from Barack Obama as the Democrat begins his sharpest barrage yet on McCain's long Washington career.

The new fighting spirit comes as McCain has been gaining in the polls and some Democrats have been expressing concern the Obama campaign has not been aggressive enough. Obama's campaign says the escalation will involve advertising and pushes made by the candidate, running mate Joe Biden and other surrogates across the country.

"Today is the first day of the rest of the campaign," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe says in a campaign strategy memo. "We will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain's attacks and we will take the fight to him, but we will do it on the big issues that matter to the American people."

The newest ad showcasing their hard line includes unflattering footage of McCain at a hearing in the early '80s, wearing giant glasses and an out-of-style suit, interspersed with shots of a disco ball, a clunky phone, an outdated computer and a Rubik's Cube.

"1982, John McCain goes to Washington," an announcer says over chirpy elevator music. "Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn't.

"He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail, still doesn't understand the economy, and favors two hundred billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class," it says.

Well that is certainly going to hurt McCain with all the folks who are up to date with the latest computers, cell phones, and iPods. What an old out of touch guy. At least so it would seem.

Until you know the rest of the story.

McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Well that sure is taking the fight to McCain. I hope they choke on it. In fact I'm sure they will. That should add another two or three points to McCain's totals.

∅bama is swine. And no amount of lipstick on that pig is going to change it.

H/T Just One Minute

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Goddess Of Democracy

H/T Vanderleun

Worried - Not Yet Panicked

The Democrat chances in November appear to be declining at a very rapid pace. Their numbers are falling off a cliff.

Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election.

Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence.

A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain.

“If people are voting for McCain it could help Republicans all the way down the ticket, even in a year when the Democrats should be sweeping all before us,” said the fundraiser, a former Hillary Clinton supporter.

“There is a growing sense of doom among Democrats I have spoken to . . . People are going crazy, telling the campaign ‘you’ve got to do something’.”

The problem with that attitude is that when people get panicked they often do the wrong thing.

Let's take a look at what Bill Whittle has to say about that in his piece Forty Second Boyd. He is discussing an engagement between two fighter pilots

Red and Blue are closing at 1000 miles an hour. Fight’s on!

Blue breaks left. Red does too. Both pilots observe, orient, decide, act. But Blue is faster. While Red is still orienting himself, building the situational awareness he needs to decide and plan his action, Blue has already chosen a maneuver and executed it. This renders Red’s previous orientation useless: Blue is no longer where he was a moment before.

Red must re-orient so he can make a new decision. Blue sees the confusion and delay. He’s already oriented. He decides and acts again. His advantage increases.

Now Red is confused and at 500kts he is flying pretty God-damned quickly into full-on fear. This confusion and fear cause him more hesitation. Out of rising panic he commits to an action that may have been appropriate two Blue cycles ago, but which is now – no other word for it – obsolete. Blue is now cycling so fast that he maneuvers for a position where any course of action Red may take will result in his fiery demise. He’s below and behind him – out of sight – not anywhere near where Red expected him because he has been observing, orienting, deciding and acting at a much faster pace.

And that is what is happening to the whole Democrat party. The fight is now so lopsided that they are no longer co-ordinating their efforts. They no longer have the power of unified action. They set themselves up for defeat in detail.

I expect big gains for the Republicans in the House and Senate despite the fact that the conventional wisdom in June was that the Democrats would be making gains.

And lets not forget that the fight over energy resources hasn't even begun. Their bad situation has come from skirmishes without the weight of unified action which has yet to come.

∅ has lost two or three days fighting over pigs and lipstick. He is off message. How does he get back on track? His only hope is to break contact and then come back with a new message. He has to stop his attacks on Palin and focus his attentions on his opponent, John McCain. Can he do that? I doubt it. It takes the ∅bama campaign days to respond to Republican attacks. Where he needs to be agile he is cumbersome. Because of that, even if he can retool he will be addressing a situation that no longer exists.

∅bama's position on the Russia/Georgia dust up is instructive. McCain came out with a position in hours. ∅bama came out with a position that did not help him electorally. Over a period of three days he modified his position and modified it again until at the end his position was the same as McCain's. Look at that again. Hours vs. days. As Bill Whittle would say: He is out of altitude, out of airspeed, out of ideas. Eject! Eject! Eject!

I think ∅bama and the Democrats are going to be ejected by the voters come November 4th. I don't think I have ever witnessed an election campaign where a candidate and a party has come from so far behind to whip the opposition so badly. Only 54 more days to go. This has got to be an eternity for the Democrats. From caviar to ashes. It will no doubt leave a bad taste in their mouths for a long time to come.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

This Is My Fourth Year

Starting year five.

If you would like to leave a little something in the tip jar it would be most appreciated.

Let me add that I owe it to Wretchard of the Belmont Club who started requiring registration to post at his blog.

Charlie Interviews Sarah

Here is the Charlie Gibson Sarah Palin Interview. Let me start you out with a question or two and then go read the whole thing.

GIBSON: Governor, let me start by asking you a question that I asked John McCain about you, and it is really the central question. Can you look the country in the eye and say "I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just vice president, but perhaps president of the United States of America?"

PALIN: I do, Charlie, and on January 20, when John McCain and I are sworn in, if we are so privileged to be elected to serve this country, will be ready. I'm ready.

GIBSON: And you didn't say to yourself, "Am I experienced enough? Am I ready? Do I know enough about international affairs? Do I -- will I feel comfortable enough on the national stage to do this?"

PALIN: I didn't hesitate, no.

H/T Just One Minute

Cross Posted at Classical Values

9/11 Roundup

Eric at Classical Values says it better than I could.

He ends his piece with one point I would take issue with. He quotes some one who says it is not a day for politics. Given that there is a large faction who are tepid in dealing with the fascists who perpetrated 9/11 and their supporters around the world, I think politics is definitely in order. There is a faction in America who would have given up on Iraq when the going got tough. Who would have given it up to the terrorists. One member of that faction is running for President. I will not shut up about politics.

Let me add that at 11 Sept 2001 13:03:07z - 4 seconds before 2nd plane hit I said to my mate "This means war". We will never surrender. They will.

It's A Nightmare

The Democrats appear to be in a lot of pain. Their hopes and dreams appear to be fading away. Normally they don't start getting desperate until October. This is an early crash. Even by Kerry standards.

“They were set up to run ‘experience versus change,’ what they had run [against Hillary] Clinton,” Trippi said. “And I think Palin clearly moved that to be change [and] reform, versus change. They are adjusting to that and that threw them off balance a little bit.”

A major Democratic fundraiser described it a good bit more starkly after digesting the polls of recent days: “I’m so depressed. It’s happening again. It’s a nightmare.”

Adding to Democratic restlessness, McCain has largely neutralized some issue advantages that have long favored Democrats.

This week’s USA Today/Gallup poll reported a split on which candidate “can better handle the economy”; 48 percent chose Obama while 45 percent said McCain. In late August, Obama had a 16-point edge on the issue.

Also this week, an ABC News/Washington Post poll reported that when voters are asked “who can bring about needed change to Washington,” McCain still trails Obama by 12 points. But in June, McCain trailed by 32 points.

That shift in the public’s perception of the issues, in Democratic pollster Celinda Lake’s words, “tremendously concerns me.”

Some Democrats aer saying that they didn't define McCain. That they left him alone to control his image. Hmmm. I thought they spent a LOT of time working the McSame bit. You don't even hear that much any more. And how did ∅ get tied with the ∅ label? And he was so proud of being a community organizer in a Democrat town. Now he is running from that. School reform? He has the perfect solution. For his children. Send them to a private school at a cost of $15K a year. If it is good enough for him why wasn't it good enough for the communities he was organizing?

Obama's problem is that McCain has a better resume. Which is to say he has more to work with. Successes and failures. What does Barry have? ∅. And don't forget those 130 Present votes in the Illinois Legislature. McCain has good ideas and bad ideas. Barry has ∅ ideas. Or at least none that the American people as a whole are buying. His party controlled Congress for the last two years. In that time oil prices have doubled. How does that compare to their promise to lower oil prices?

Their problem isn't definitions. Their problem is that they are our of altitude, out of air speed, and out of ideas. I discussed this a number of years ago in Socialism has died - it has not gone to heaven v2.0. Now I must admit I thought the crash would come a lot sooner than it has. I chalk that up to my eternal optimism. However, the analysis still rings true. The fundamentals are correct. Without Socialism as a guiding principle they have nothing.

Oh, they rant a lot about civil liberties. So let me ask you, are they fighting Drug Prohibition or promoting it? George Bush has quietly reigned in Drug Task Forces. More than any liberal has done on the issue. What did Clinton do? Redoubled the war on Pot smokers. And you know what? More people die of aspirin overdoses every year than have ever died in all history from Pot overdoses. So are they trumpeting this fact? Of course not. Why? Well they depend on money from the Prison Guard Unions to run their political campaigns. The Drug War is not about stopping drugs. It is about funding their brand of politics. And that is true about almost every program they champion.

Nightmare? It has only started and will get worse. Why? Because Alaska has some of the most liberal pot laws in the nation. And their situation is no worse with respect to pot than the places with the most draconian laws. Why is that? Pretty simple. According to the NIDA Addiction Is A Genetic Disease. I defy you to explain to me how laws can affect a genetic disease. So why are the Democrats silent? Follow the money. Follow the money. They are not about helping people. They are about using them.

It is only going to get worse for them. Much worse. The curtain has been opened and we are about to see who the man behind the curtain really is.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Weakness

Everyone has moments of weakness. Beware of those who make a career out of it.

The Split

I was just doing some idle musing about the split in the Democrat party. A lot of Clinton Voters are going R this year. Now suppose the Clinton faction regains control for the 2012 election. Does that mean that a lot of the Obama faction will be going for the R candidate that year? Can the Democrat party ever be united again?

The Victim

Barack is in trouble. So says Mind Ray Magician Karl Rove.

If Mr. Obama keeps attacking Mrs. Palin, he could suffer the fate of his Democratic predecessors. These assaults highlight his own tissue-thin résumé, waste precious time better spent reassuring voters he is up for the job, and diminish him -- not her.

Consider Mr. Obama's response to CNN's Anderson Cooper, who asked him about Republican claims that Mrs. Palin beats him on executive experience. Mr. Obama responded by comparing Wasilla's 50 city workers with his campaign's 2,500 employees and dismissed its budget of about $12 million a year by saying "we have a budget of about three times that just for the month." He claimed his campaign "made clear" his "ability to manage large systems and to execute."

Good argument Barry. But it only works if you are up in the polls. Once you start free falling it works against you.

A debate between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Palin over executive experience also isn't smart politics for Democrats. As Mr. Obama talks down Mrs. Palin's record, voters may start comparing backgrounds. He won't come off well.

Then there was Mr. Obama's blast Saturday about Mrs. Palin's record on earmarks. He went at her personally, saying, "you been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person."

It's true. Mrs. Palin did seek earmarks as Wasilla's mayor. But as governor, she ratcheted down the state's requests for federal dollars, telling the legislature last year Alaska "cannot and must not rely so heavily on federal government earmarks." Her budget chief directed state agencies to reduce earmark requests to only "the most compelling needs" with "a strong national purpose," explaining to reporters "we really want to skinny it down."

Mr. Obama has again started a debate he can't win. As senator, he has requested nearly $936 million in earmarks, ratcheting up his requests each year he's been in the Senate. If voters dislike earmarks -- and they do -- they may conclude Mrs. Palin cut them, while Mr. Obama grabs for more each year.

Yeah Barry. That is not going to look so good.

Well Karl is on a roll so far. And then he makes a huge mistake in analysis.

In Denver two weeks ago, Mr. Obama said, "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from." That's what he's trying to do, only the object of his painting is Sarah Palin, not John McCain.

Actually, Barry is painting himself as low class. A gutter snipe. Normally it is the VPs roll to be the attack dog in the campaign. It allows the top dog to be above the fray and look "Presidential". So why has Barry reversed the rolls? First Biden is not up to the task and second Barry ∅ is only qualified for the VP slot. Under Hillary. That would have been a tough ticket to beat. However, given his performance so far I think it is safe to say that strong women scare him. I think that gives a big insight into his personal weakness.

In my post Midway For Obama I quoted Spengler of Asia Times on why Palin was an inspired choice. I think it is worth repeating:

McCain's selection was a statement of strength. America's voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it.

The longer the campaign goes on the more evidence we find of Obama's insecurity when dealing with strong women. Obama's shtick works with people who see themselves as victims. It was little noticed but I did a review of McCain's acceptance speech which I called The Sermon. I didn't mention it then but I will say it now. That speech was the opening shot in the war on "The Victim Culture". Why did John McCain survive as a prisoner of war? Because with the help of other prisoners he refused to be a victim. Even when he failed he did not fall into self pity.

And who is going to be the first major casualty of that war? Barry ∅. The champion of the victim. He is going to be a victim of his identification with the victims of the world. Every day he looks more and more like a master of self pity. A master of weakness. America is not interested in pity parties. It is not very attractive. At least not attractive enough to win Presidential Elections.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

You Can Have It Both Ways

∅bama has made a statement about pigs in lipstick that seems to insult Sarah Palin. In fact it seems to have insulted a lot of women.
If it was unintentional - ∅bama is a stupid politician.

If it was intentional - ∅bama is a stupid politician.

Proof positive you can have it both ways.

Which leads to the inescapable conclusion that ∅bama doesn't need the women's vote to win. You can see the McCain video response at Smeared Lipstick.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Acting Like Swine

There is a whole lot of smoke about Obama's latest insult of the McCain/Palin Campaign. Instapundit has a good roundup. It appears that Obama is resorting to something called the dozens. An art form popular in the ghetto where males hurl insults at each other to prove their manhood.

"The Dozens", also known as "Yo Momma Fights", is an element of the African American oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head to head in a competition of often good-natured, ribald "trash talk". They take turns insulting--"cracking", "west coast dissin'," or "ranking" on--one another, their adversary's mother or other family member until one of them has no comeback. This is called playing the Dozens or doin' the Dozens, and sometimes dirty Dozens, The Dozens is a contest of personal power--of wit, self-control, verbal ability, mental agility and mental toughness. Each putdown, each "snap," ups the ante. Defeat can be humiliating; but a skilled contender, win or lose, may gain respect. The Dozens is one of the contributing elements in the development of hip hop, especially the practice of battling.

So what is my advice to the McCain/Palin campaign? Keep it classy. Let the other side de-moralize themselves. As the Drill Sgt says: "Campaign's be they political or military are all about morale. Him that has it wins, him that don't becomes worm food."

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Drill Sgt. Says

Over at Althouse I noticed a particularly interesting comment.

The Drill SGT said...

Camapaign's be they political or military are all about morale. Him that has it wins, him that don't becomes worm food.

In a small unit action, you can hear it. the weapon noises are balanced, then something happens and all of a sudden you start hearing more M-16's and less AK's, then the noise tempo shifts further and the AK's drop off, and you start hearing yells in English as the good guys recognize that they are dominating the enemy. The battle is all over but the pursuit.

Unless McCain is destroyed in the debate or they find Palin guilty of taking kick-backs, the good guys have the momentum and it will be extremely difficult for Obama to recover any initative.

Compounding that, Obama now has a funding problem. He needs to raise 100 million a month and has many many fund raisers scheduled. McCain is completely free to campaign. Obama donors would give when Obama was sure to win, will they spend when obama is losing? who knows. McCain is getting 80 million regardless.

2:48 PM

Very interesting. Good stuff to know if you are ever leading small unit action in any field.

Candidate Raises Big Money In Illinois

The candidate raised $1 million an hour in Chicago for a total of five million. Which candidate? Try this:

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Republican John McCain raised about $5 million in Chicago Monday night, or about $1 million for each hour he spent in Democrat Barack Obama's home town.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports the only glimpse of McCain the public got came as his motorcade departed. Like every Republican presidential nominee since 1984, McCain appears to regard campaigning in heavily Democratic Illinois a waste of time.

Raising Money is why national Republicans come here, and McCain took away an astounding $5 million. Several dozen of the biggest contributors who had dinner with him told CBS 2 McCain's elated by new voter opinion surveys showing that, for the first time, he's ahead of Obama.

"Everybody in the room said 'wow.' This was even beyond what many expected. He is wonderfully self-confident but not cocky," said McCain contributor Craig Duchossois.

For a further explanation of the McCain vs ∅bama money machines read: ∅bama's Piggybank Is Broke.

H/T Coalition of the Swilling where there is more about ∅bama's money troubles.

Obama Piggybank Broke

A few days ago American Thinker did a post on how the ∅bama money machine was breaking down.

We have heard quite a lot over the past year about Barack Obama's fund raising prowess. But the good times may be over.

Now it suddenly appears that John McCain and his campaign are no slouches in this area. The announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate has changed things.

Ah yes. Finally. Change we can believe in.

The American Thinker links to a Wall Street Journal article.

During the primary campaign, Sen. Obama set fund-raising records while Sen. McCain struggled to meet monthly budgets. Now it appears Sen. Obama's money advantage is far smaller than it was assumed to be early on.

Sen. McCain's fund-raising operation has rebounded since he emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee. One reason is due to a fund-raising account that allows Republicans to solicit individual donations of as much as about $70,000, far above the normal limit of $2,300 per individual per election.

How can they do it? They take the money given and divvy it up into smaller chunks to stay within the law. ∅bama has a similar operation but it is not working as well as the McCain fund raising efforts.

Sen. Obama turned down the government funds, opting instead to raise money from the public. When he secured the Democratic nomination in early June, Sen. Obama's campaign said it hoped to raise a total of $480 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Fund-raising reports through July show that the DNC and Sen. Obama have raised about $150 million but spent much of it already; going into August, the campaign reported having $68.5 million on hand. The reports also showed that in July, the campaign was spending at a rate that was faster than donations were coming in.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on its fund raising or spending in August. One major donor said it is likely the campaign has only a small cash cushion at the moment.

The Journal goes on to describe how the money being raised will go to support Republicans in House and Senate races. Of course all the money coming from the McCain campaign will go to unify the message of the Republicans across the board.

It looks like the ∅ campaign is having trouble raising money according to their plan.

After months of record-breaking fund raising, a new sense of urgency in Sen. Barack Obama's fund raising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign's decision to bypass public financing for the general election is upon them.

Pushing a fund raiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply worded note last week to Illinois members of Obama's national finance committee, calling their recent efforts "extremely anemic."

The signs of concern have become evident in recent weeks as early fund raising totals have suggested Obama's decision to bypass public financing may not necessarily afford him the commanding financing advantage over Sen. John McCain that many had originally predicted.

Extremely anemic. Which means that instead of campaigning ∅ will have to take time out to raise money. It becomes a vicious cycle. The more time he spends fund raising the less time he has to garner free media making him look weaker, lowering his fund raising ability.

The Obama campaign is struggling to meet the goals it set in mid-June of raising $300 million for the campaign and more than $150 million for the party, fund raisers said. As of the end of July, the Obama campaign was well short of the $100 million a month pace it had set, taking in about $77 million between the campaign and the party that month.

Moreover, McCain will have the luxury of concentrating almost entirely on campaigning instead of raising money, as Obama must do.

I think we can start a death watch for the Obama campaign. One sign is that they begin thrashing around striking in every direction and going off message. What was their message? Let me see if I can remember. Oh yeah. Hope and Change. And what have they been doing lately? Well it seems like Sarah Palin has become a burr under their saddle. And they are lashing out hard. This has two effects. It leaves McCain untouched and draws sympathy for Palin. Every blow they strike comes back at them doubled. What is the best thing to do in that case? Nothing. Get back on message and sell your plan. I believe it is something they are incapable of. They can't hold their fire and regroup. Why? They don't have the strength to appear weak.

The New York Times has an interesting report from California.

A California fund-raiser familiar with the party’s August performance estimated that it raised roughly $17 million last month, a drop-off from the previous month, and finished with just $13 million in the bank.

Still, the Obama campaign said last Thursday that it had raised $10 million over the Internet in the 24 hours after the speech by Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, at the Republican convention on Wednesday, a one-day record for the campaign.

Hmmm. I find that suspicious. Of course they can announce anything they want and it will be a while until the facts can be checked.

The Republican Party can spend unlimited amounts of its money independent of the McCain campaign. It can also split the costs of so-called hybrid advertisements with the campaign, commercials that must promote not only Mr. McCain but also other Republicans down the ticket, something media strategists said could be ineffective when trying to create a cohesive message. Nevertheless, McCain fund-raisers pointed out the pressure is now on the Obama campaign to raise far more than it ever has before.

Well yes it could be ineffective if there is no unified message. So what might a unified message look like? How about Energy security = economic security = national security. Gee. That was tough. How did I outsmart the media strategists? Just lucky I guess. We will see if the Republicans follow my advice.

So how is fund raising in the black community coming along? For that we have to depend on the BBC for our news.

Nigerian anti-graft investigators have seized money raised by the head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to support US presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would give the money back to those who attended a gala dinner in Lagos last month.

The EFCC said it had seized 74m naira ($630,000, £314,000), but said no Nigerian laws had been broken.

US political parties are not allowed to receive contributions from abroad.

Stock exchange chairwoman Ndi Okereke-Onyuike is also the head of Africans for Obama, a Nigeria-based support group.

She was interviewed by the EFCC after media reports that the Obama campaign had disassociated itself from the group.

Well, well, well. ∅bama was once associated with the group but now that the fraud is out in the open they are under the bus. What an embarrassment. I wonder if ∅bama has any other friends in the world who would like to see him become President?

How about a Saudi Billionaire?

New evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In a videotaped interview this year on New York’s all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama.

Percy Sutton, the former borough president of Manhattan, off-handedly revealed the unusual circumstances about his first encounter with the young Obama.

“I was introduced to (Obama) by a friend who was raising money for him,” Sutton told NY1 city hall reporter Dominic Carter.

“The friend’s name is Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, from Texas,” Sutton said. “He is the principal adviser to one of the world’s richest men. He told me about Obama.”

Sutton, the founder of Inner City Broadcasting, said al-Mansour contacted him to ask a favor: Would Sutton write a letter in support of Obama’s application to Harvard Law School?

Well there is enough there that you can start looking deeper into the connection. I want to go forward with another of ∅bama's overseas friends. Nadhmi Auchi.

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko's still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.

Well that is right neighborly of him.

You know if Obama's overseas pals don't come through for him and Americans won't pøny up for the phøny he could very well lose the election. I hope so.

And to finish this off how about a little anecdotal evidence from No Quarter

Comment by sayitisntso 2008-09-09 00:43:42

“Every advantage it seemed that Obama has had is evaporating. Obama was supposed to have so much more money. Perhaps he does but he certainly isn’t spending it on ads in Michigan where McCain seems to be running 3 ads to every one for Obama. I wouldn’t be surpised to see McCain taking the lead in Michigan with the next poll.”

YaYYYYYY!

Well that is good news indeed. Without Michigan it will be nearly impossible for ∅bama to win the election.

Let me just add that there is so much I have left out of this report. Read all the supporting material and remember Google is your friend.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Alaskan Hick Bitch

It seems like I have a commenter who doesn't like hick bitches. Especially if they are from Alaska.

I would personally like to thank the commenter for driving the bitch vote, the hick vote, and the hick bitch vote to MCain/Palin. I'm sure they will welcome with open arms all the votes ∅ doesn't need.

Thank you from a supporter of the McCain/Palin Team. And please keep it up.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Building Bridges

Looks like a couple of lawyers, who are also Senators running for President and Vice President like building bridges to "No Where" in Alaska.

Now that Alaska is front and center in the news again, it is a good time to catch up on a favorite story, The Bridge to Nowhere, using the Washington Post US Congress Votes Database.

Though Gov. Palin originally supported the earmark spending on the Ketchikan bridge (“to nowhere), she eventually killed the project, chosing to spend Federal money on other infrasturcture programs.

However, Sen. Biden and Sen. Obama voted for funding the Bridge, even when given a second chance by Sen. Tom Coburn, who proposed shifting earmark funds to Katrina relief.

And after all the howling ∅ and Biden have been doing about the Republicans and Katrina. Why you might think it was just political posturing. But that would be cynical.

Sarah Is A Bitter Clinger

∅bama said today:

Obama told the crowd that McCain and Palin spent most of the convention talking about their biographies.

Palin's bio is "compelling," Obama said.

The crowd booed. "No, it's an interesting story." More boos. "No, no, it is. I mean that sincerely. Mother, governor, moose shooter."

I thought ∅bama needed the votes of the "bitter clingers" to win the election. I guess he must be way up in the polls. Øøps. Maybe not.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Election Fraud Control

I did a couple of posts earlier in this election season on election fraud. You can read them at What Counts? and at Black Box Voting. So what is to be done to prevent this election from being stolen? Here is what a commenter at No Quarter suggests.

I was advised to be very alerted to this by taking a camara or a photo mobile phone with me when I go to the poll station in November. If you see anyting suspecious or fraudulent, photograph it and report to Republican Lawers on the following websites:

Republican National Lawyers Association

Find A Republican Lawyer

Now who might you want to be on the look out for? A group called ACORN.

Late last month six people hired by ACORN were indicted for their role in filing false voter registration forms involving a 2006 drive to increase Missouri's minimum wage.

Here is something else interesting I'll bet you didn't know about ACORN:

ACORN is a former legal client of Senator Obama's, as the Sun-Times reported in 2006:

In 1995, former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar refused to implement the federal "Motor Voter" law, which Republicans argued could invite fraud and which some Republicans feared could swell the ranks of Democratic voters.

The law mandated people be allowed to register to vote in government offices such as driver's license renewal centers.

Obama sued on behalf of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The League of Women Voters and other public-interest groups joined in.

"He and his client were the ones who filed the original case -- they blazed the trail," said Paul Mollica, who represented the League.

Voter fraud? From a Chicago Machine politician? I'm shocked. Actually I think the Chicago Machine needs to be praised. Jesus brought a few people back from the dead. Jesus himself is reported to have come back from the dead. But the Chicago Machine is special. They bring tens of thousands back from the dead. No wonder they hail ∅bama as The One.

It seems the Obama campaign has rather close ties to ACORN.

JAFFA, Israel – Did Sen. Barack Obama's campaign attempt to hide a paid working relationship with a radical leftist organization that has admitted to major financial improprieties and has been convicted in numerous major voter fraud scandals?

That question is being openly asked by the Republican National Committee after it was disclosed Obama's campaign paid more than $800,000 in services to Citizen Services Inc. (CSI), a nonprofit organization that is an offshoot of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

That ∅bama. He has such an honest face.

Here is an interesting case of Name That Party.

Milwaukee has discovered some more voter fraud with 10 more voter registration workers are being investigated by Wisconsin authorities. Fittingly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the story in its paper on August 29. Unfittingly, the Journal Sentinel forgot one, tiny aspect of the story... that the voter fraud was perpetrated by Democrats. In fact, one of the organizations, ACORN, is intimately linked with Barack Obama.

Milwaukee’s top election official said Thursday she plans to seek criminal investigations of 10 more voter registration workers, including two accused of offering gifts to sign up voters.

So, what we have here is an Old Media story about voter fraud where the salient fact that the fraud is being committed by Democrats and Democrat organizations is somehow absent from the story. What a surprise, eh?

Yes it is a surprise. Why would an honest Party like the Democrats do such a thing? I blame it on a few bad apples. ∅bama, that proud community organizer, has been duped. No way he could be involved in such shenanigans.

I think this year's election advice has to be the same as the election advice in 2004: if it isn't close they can't cheat. Well at least not enough to win.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Michael Moore Gets It

No seriously. He gets it.

But before everyone gets all smug and self-righteous about the Palin selection, remember where you live. You live in a nation of gun owners and hunters. You live in a country where one out of three girls get pregnant before they are 20. You live in a nation of C students. Knocking Bush for being a C student only endeared him to the nation of C students. Knock Palin for having kids, for having a kid who's having a baby, for anything that is part of her normalness -- a normalness that looks very familiar to so many millions of Americans -- well, you do this at your own peril. Assuming she's still on the ticket two weeks from now, she will be a much tougher opponent than anyone expects.

Now I have read the rest of the piece so you don't have to. And I really don't recommend it. It is his usual load of crap.

But in that one paragraph he shows that he at least knows the American scene. He may not like it. But he does know it.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

An Interview There Will Be

Talk Left is discussing the pressure on Sarah Palin to do an interview. They basically have covered the bases so I'm just going to let them have their say. Pretty smart for a bunch of lefties. If you want to stop reading this post now let me just give you the short version. Those clamoring for an interview by a major Shrinking Media outlet have been pwned.

Here is a person who thinks that all the "she is afraid to be interviewed" stuff in numerous comments on the 'net have worked in Palin's favor.

Lowered the bar again. by Chisoxy on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:35:31 PM EST

And we played right into it. Let's say she passes this test and comes off as competent on matters, where are we then

I know the answer, ask me ask me. A little farther behind. Of course it does help ∅bama, it takes the spotlight off Biden.

Now here is a commenter who understands PR. Give kredwyn a cigar.

Isn't it a rule of PR... by kredwyn on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:40:49 PM EST

that you make the thing that everyone wants unavailable until the calls hit a point...and then you pump it up a bit more by offering a few of that item?

Hollywood PR by dailygrind on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:21:47 PM EST

You not only limit access you control who gets to talk to you. You control what gets to be asked. Liberals are so dumb. I say that as one. The same things we know in other context, we go brain dead in the political setting. The Republicans long ago mastered the art of media management. Meanwhile, we are happy just to get them to stop blocking us. It's quite sad.

Well yes it is. For Democrats. For Republicans - not so much.

The McCain campaign is playing this by tootired on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:47:18 PM EST

like a violin. And it's a Stradivarius. Underestimate them at your own peril.

What digby Said by kaleidescope on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:00:03 PM EST

Here's what she said:

They are going to work themselves into a frenzy over this. And the right will hold Palin off just long enough for the outcry to become deafening. And then Palin will appear in front of a gargantuan television audience (again) on something like 60 Minutes --- and do quite well. They are already working the media hard to make sure they don't go for the jugular -- and they won't.

As usual, digby makes depressing sense. All the clamor for Palin to be interviewed succeeds in setting the bar so low that when she performs relatively well on a toothless interview, she'll be spun as the second coming. Who's going to be interviewing her? Mr. capital gains tax cut, Charlie Gibson. Remember how he performed during the Democratic debates? Wanna take any bets on whether he gives Palin a serious grilling, showing clips of her telling Congress, "thanks but no thanks" about the bridge and then pulling up all her statements in favor of it? Gibson will be eating out of Palin's hand.

Since in politics as in warfare moral forces prevail, getting the opposition in a bad psychological state is the first step to a win. And if you can get them in a bad enough state, an easy win.

In StrategyBHL Hart suggests that the best tactic is to hold off your offense until the defense is frothing:

It was Lenin who enunciated the axiom that 'the soundest strategy in war is to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the enemy renders the delivery of the mortal blow both possible and easy.'

I think press access to Sarah will be rationed. This gives the campaign the leverage to choose the interviewer and makes the rest of the press start behaving better in the hopes of an interview. Sound tactics. As one of the commenters alluded to above: these guys are no ordinary fiddlers.

Now here is a commenter that notices something important.

This is why the GOP by Salo on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:07:01 PM EST

do not select lawyers as their Chief. They select professional actors instead. The main legacy of Reagan if you like

Even if he's done the research to grill her she'll do what she needs to do. The expectations are so much lower than Bush in '99--she's the No2 and she's a former beauty queen and she's a novice and she's only just popped onto the radar--and fatally for Obama chances in November, the media piddled on Hillary Clinton in a completely disgusting and unfair way. The GOP clearly have teh momentum and if she's just professional, demure and cleverly echo's a few of Clinton's rhetorical tricks she'll crush any attempt to ambush her.

So how about the Dem ticket. Well if you want to score it that would be 2 lawyers to 0 lawyers. Which clearly puts the Democrats behind. Which reminds me of a joke I read in a comment today in reference to Sarah Palin being a pit bull with lipstick. The commenter said "They put the lipstick on the wrong end of the pit bull". OK. Back to serious stuff.

The downside? by Donald from Hawaii on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:31:03 PM EST

That would clearly be if said interview is conducted by Charles Gibson.

Charles Gibson is the one that... by Maria Garcia on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:34:14 PM EST

...George Bush favors when he wants to do an interview.

Welcome to the downside. by Donald from Hawaii on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:37:56 PM EST

The New York Times September 7, 2008

Palin Interview Goes to ABC News - "ABC's Charlie Gibson is scheduled to interview Ms. Palin in Alaska sometime later this week. The McCain camp did not say why it chose Mr. Gibson, but it had selected him last week as the only major journalist to interview Mr. McCain himself during the Republican convention in St. Paul. After his interview with Mr. McCain had aired, Mr. Gibson posted on his blog that he had 'fretted' about how to approach the many personal issues that had come up about Ms. Palin and decided to ignore them."

Ruh, Roh.

Now here is some really bad news for Democrats

Historically, by tootired on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:45:10 PM EST

after both conventions are over, and we move into the general election, Republicans gain in the polls, and Democrats go down. Obama has no margin. The full bounce for McCain has probably not been reached yet. It doesn't mean that Obama will lose the election, but it does say that he not yet on a roll.

Well as of today the candidates are tied, even steven, although some polls give McCain/Palin a slight but statistically insignificant margin.

Now I have a theory as to why the polls tend to go in the Republican direction as it gets closer to election time. Pollsters cheat. When the election is at hand they want to be as close as possible because it makes them look good. But in the early stages of the election season they want to demoralize the Republicans. The bad thing though is that it gives the Democrats over confidence and they can't figure out why they lose elections. You know, it is the old "but we were way ahead in the polls" refrain.

Baring some catastrophe it looks to me like the Democrats have lost the election. I expect the ∅bama campaign to get more frantic as time goes on.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Palin Rumor Control

I'm sure by now you have heard many rumors about Sarah Palin. I think the latest is that she censors books. Well no. Here is a site and its blogspot mirror that can be used to check out rumors. It has links to sources.

Palin Rumors

Sarah Palin Rumors

If you hear a rumor that is not on the list leave a link in the comments at either site and Charlie will check it out.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Half Baked

A commenter named baked at Just One Minute was trying to explain ∅bama's position on Iraq and the surge vs McCain's position on Iraq and the surge. He wasn't doing a very good job so Charlie(Colorado) cleared it up for him.

So, baked, you're saying you prefer someone who got it wrong once and changed his mind to someone who got it wrong, changed his mind, changed his mind again, said he didn't change his mind, said claiming he'd changed his mind was a distraction, changed his mind again, said he didn't mean what he'd said, changed his mind again, and finally changed his mind and said that even though he was wrong before he was right to be wrong because being wrong wasn't right.

The next clarifying statement I expect from ∅bama on the subject is "I've said all along..."

Cross Posted at Classical Values

HTML Lesson: Zero

To help you improve your html skills today we are going to cover characters with slashes through them.

First is the capital letter "O" the code for it looks like this: Ø When rendered it looks like this: Ø

Second is the small letter "o" the code for it looks like this: ø When rendered it looks like this: ø

Third is one of my favorites, the symbol for the empty set. The code for it looks like this: ∅ When rendered it looks like this: ∅

Typical usage:
Øbama - Øbama
øbama - øbama
∅bama  - ∅bama

If you want to teach some one how to make a ∅bama you can use this code: &empty&#59;bama

For a whole table of special character codes visit here.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Used Flags

There seems to be a controversy about the disposal of used flags after the Democrat Convention. Pal2Pal has the Story with more pictures. GRTWT.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

I Will Not Be Bullied

When Obama says, "We will not be bullied". What he really means is that his team is being used as a floor wipe. By a woman.

On The Ticket

Why is Joe Biden on the ticket?

Because Obama is afraid of girls.

She Is A Mother

H/T Patriot Room

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Sermon

I believe McCain gave the best sermon I've ever heard last night and let me tell you why. Nothing says it better than giving the core of the sermon and then I'll touch on some other excerpts.

Long ago, something unusual happened to me that taught me the most valuable lesson of my life. I was blessed by misfortune. I mean that sincerely. I was blessed because I served in the company of heroes and I witnessed a thousand acts of courage, and compassion, and love.

On an October morning, in the Gulf of Tonkin, I prepared for my 23rd mission over North Vietnam. I hadn't any worry I wouldn't come back safe and sound. I thought I was tougher than anyone. I was pretty independent then, too.

I liked to bend a few rules and pick a few fights for the fun of it. But I did it for my own pleasure, my own pride. I didn't think there was a cause that was more important than me.

Then I found myself falling toward the middle of a small lake in the city of Hanoi, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and an angry crowd waiting to greet me.

I was dumped in a dark cell and left to die. I didn't feel so tough anymore. When they discovered my father was an admiral, they took me to a hospital. They couldn't set my bones properly, so they just slapped a cast on me. And when I didn't get better and was down to about a hundred pounds, they put me in a cell with two other Americans.

I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even feed myself. They did it for me. I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence.

Those men saved my life.

I was in solitary confinement when my captors offered to release me. I knew why. If I went home, they would use it as propaganda to demoralize my fellow prisoners. Our code said we could only go home in the order of our capture, and there were men who had been shot down long before me. I thought about it, though. I wasn't in great shape, and I missed everything about America, but I turned it down.

A lot of prisoners had it much worse...

A lot of -- a lot of prisoners had it a lot worse than I did. I'd been mistreated before, but not as badly as many others. I always liked to strut a little after I'd been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before, for a long time, and they broke me.

When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn't know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door to me, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me.

Through taps on a wall, he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for my country and for the men I had the honor to serve with, because every day they fought for me.

That I thought was the most powerful and moving part of the speech. Blessed by misfortune. I think that is one of the very best lessons of life. To find out how to take misfortune and turn it into a blessing.

Now how about some other good bits?

On cultural modification of Washington:

And let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big- spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second crowd: Change is coming.

Going after the enemies of the people:

I've fought the big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, and the first big-spending pork-barrel earmark bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. I will make them famous, and you will know their names.

On foreign policy:

We're going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much...

Economic plan:

Cutting the second-highest business tax rate in the world will help American companies compete and keep jobs from going overseas.

That is probably enough. You can read the whole thing at the above link or watch the video here.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Pinhead

When discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin it would be wise to get the right pinhead.

Populism

We Will Work For You

Obama - will make government bigger and more intrusive
McCain - will make government smaller and less intrusive

Two different kinds of populism.

The Orange Revolution

Did anyone notice all the orange in the crowd at the Republican Convention? Some Democrats did.

Comment by Zeke 2008-09-04 00:12:23

Any one know what the Orange cloths were? A number of women were waving Orange polyester fabric around and unless they were from the “Sovereign State of Tennessee” I would like to buy a vowel…

Comment by WMCB | 2008-09-04 00:23:54

Orange is the color of PUMA. Hillary wore it for her speech last week. The entire Alaskan delegation decided to wave Orange as a shout out to PUMAs.

And John McCain wore an orange tie.

And what is PUMA? Here is an explanation. The very short version: Hillary supporters. Disaffected Democrats.

Here is what Zeke thought when it was explained to him:

Comment by Zeke 2008-09-04 00:59:56

I had hoped that was what I saw…

Guys,
If that isn’t laying out the welcome mat, I’ve never seen it!
How cool is that? PUMA’s at the Republican Convention. Did you see all the Country First signs?

This could be the start of real cooperation. The sort of thing that turns nations around. Knowing there is a higher calling than party, and that it is called Country First.

My hope has truly been revived.

This election has all the makings of a landslide. For the Republicans. Not only are Republicans fired up for the McCain/Palin ticket. So are a lot of Democrats. The Republicans are in touch with the pulse of the voters this year.

Of course when I first learned Sara was the pick I was fired up. It only took the rest of the Nation five more days to catch on. Wooo Hooo.

I ♥ Sarah'cudda and Johnny Mac

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Just Say No To Cowards

In my post, Midway For Obama, I looked at Obama's prospects for November 4th. Here is a quote from Spengler that sums up his take:

McCain's selection [of Sara Palin - ed.] was a statement of strength. America's voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

So I'm visiting No Quarter (a pro Clinton site), one of my frequent haunts of late, and what do I come across? A very interesting comment in the context of strength and weakness

Comment by Seattle Moss 2008-09-03 23:56:42

Just say no to cowards and those who would surrender American sovereignty.

The democrats are the new scum!!

Obviously there is a certain animosity towards Obama (hell - a lot), but still the phrasing is interesting.

Here is another comment on weakness.

Comment by SJ 2008-09-03 23:13:09

I am so proud of her [Sara Palin - ed.] she is doing on thing that will change this game, she is taking the fight to Obama and all those willing to go toe to toe with her.

Hillary’s problem was that she did not want to do any of that, she came off too soft and that is why she is where she is today, Hillary was too weak to take the fight to Obama

Weakness is unpopular. As his supporters leave him he will get weaker. As he gets weaker he will become more unpopular. A death spiral.

Comment by John 2008-09-03 23:20:16

She is one tough woman. Wow. She gave the speech I wanted Hillary to give all year.

Here is what happened to me to night: I TRUST PALIN. I trust if she did become President because of something happening to McCain she would have to learn quickly but she would. I trust her. That is what I needed.

A tough woman. She can be trusted. A lot of people are going to be making decisions like that over the coming days.

As has often been pointed out: A people pick A people and Sara is certainly from the A team. B people pick C people. And Biden is as third rate as politicians come. Well maybe except for Harry Reid. As another A Team guy said a long time ago "I pity the poor fool."

Midway For Obama

Asia Times commentator Spengler was at the Democrat's Convention and thinks that Obama is going down to a crushing defeat.

The Democrats were watching the brightest and most articulate presidential candidate they have fielded since John F Kennedy snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And this was before John McCain, in a maneuver worthy of Admiral Chester Nimitz at the Battle of Midway, turned tables on the Democrats' strategy with the choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Spengler thinks that Obama is at his core a weak man. He works so hard to please because he can't make the hard choices. We have already seen that with his reply at the Saddleback interview when he was asked about abortion. "It is above my pay grade", he said.

Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee. However reluctantly, Clinton would have had to accept. McCain's choice of vice presidential candidate made obvious after the fact what the party professionals felt in their fingertips at the stadium extravaganza yesterday: rejecting Clinton in favor of the colorless, unpopular, tangle-tongued Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain's selection was a statement of strength. America's voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it. Obama's prospective defeat is entirely of its own making. No one is more surprised than Republican strategists, who were convinced just weeks ago that a weakening economy ensured a Democratic victory.

And what about that old war horse McCain? The ancient mariner?

McCain doesn't have a tenth of Obama's synaptic fire-power, but he is a nasty old sailor who knows when to come about for a broadside. Given Obama's defensive, even wimpy selection of a running-mate, McCain's choice was obvious. He picked the available candidate most like himself: a maverick with impeccable reform credentials, a risk-seeking commercial fisherwoman and huntress married to a marathon snowmobile racer who carries a steelworkers union card. The Democratic order of battle was to tie McCain to the Bush administration and attack McCain by attacking Bush. With Palin on the ticket, McCain has re-emerged as the maverick he really is.

The young Alaskan governor, to be sure, hasn't any business running for vice president of the United States with her thin resume. McCain and his people know this perfectly well, and that is precisely why they put her on the ticket. If Palin is unqualified to be vice president, all the less so is Obama qualified to be president.

McCain has certified his authenticity for the voters. He's now the outsider, the reformer, the maverick, the war hero running next to the Alaskan amazon with a union steelworker spouse. Obama, who styled himself an agent of change, took his image for granted, and attempted to ensure himself victory by doing the cautious thing. He is trapped in a losing position, and there is nothing he can do to get out of it.

It is interesting that the Democrats keep nominating successively weaker candidates. First Gore. Then Kerry. And now Obama. I think it is becoming obvious for all to see that the Democrat Party has no soul. As such it has no direction except the will to power. In fact the behavior of his base since Palin was nominated is an expression of that weakness. It would appear from their behavior that strong women frighten them. And they should be frightened.

There is more detail to Spengler's analysis which deals with his psychological profile of Obama. He also refers back to a column he wrote in February that I highly recommend. You should definitely read them both.

I think it is telling in many ways that the left's caricature of evangelical relations with women is really a projection of their own weakness. In fact Moloch is the god of the weak. You have to be strong to raise children. Not just for a day or a week but for 18 or 20 years. In fact for a whole lifetime. Which is exactly why what the left is going through now with the abortion issue and Sarah Palin and her daughter is so telling. They are attacking the mother and daughter because they are strong. And such strength only illuminates that which they would prefer to remain in darkness. Their weakness.

Does this mean I want abortion made illegal? Don't be silly. Such a law would serve no useful purpose. Botched abortions kill. They can also prevent future births when the woman and man involved find their strength. But that does not mean that we should avoid looking at it square on and seeing it for what it is. The fact that the Democrats and especially Obama have to a great degree fetishized abortion is very telling. Very telling indeed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Funny Names

I'm imagining a scene in the Track Palin house hold.

Cell phone rings. Track's mate recognizes the number and answers the phone.

"This better be important because I'm on Track."

Tax Policy

Fred Thompson had a few things to say about tax policy last night:

We need a President who understands that you don't make citizens prosperous by making Washington richer, and you don't lift an economic downturn by imposing one of the largest tax increases in American history.

Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases.

They tell you they are not going to tax your family.

No, they're just going to tax "businesses"! So unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline ... or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small "business", don't worry ... it's not going to affect you.

They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform.

Executive Experience

Executives don't get to vote "present."

H/T Splash

MoveOn.Org Has Taken Over Democrats

Newsweek reports that John Coale, a major Hillary fund raiser, has gone over to John McCain. There is a video from the Republican Convention at the link showing a five minute interview with Mr. Cole.

John Coale, a prominent Washington lawyer, husband of Fox TV host Greta Van Susteren and a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, announced today that he was supporting John McCain for president. Coale, who traveled with Sen. Clinton, President Clinton and her family through out the primary season, complained of sexism, and said the Democratic Party is "being taken over by the moveon.org types" in an exclusive interview with Newsweek.com's Tammy Haddad. He said he tried to prevent Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, from attending an August 18th meeting in Scranton, Pa. with McCain campaign surrogate Carly Fiorina. "I urged him not to go and told him it would embarrass his sister, but he has a mind of his own."

And what do you know, Clinton's own brother has been meeting with the McCain campaign. Huge.

In terms of voters, what happens in a deal like this? At first the defections are a trickle. A few come over and test the waters. When they see they are treated with decency and respect a few more come over. The trickle becomes a stream. Then a river. Then a torrent and then (you will pardon the expression) a flood. People tell their friends. Those people tell their friends and pretty soon it is a respectable position. Once it is respectable any one who has misgivings about the Democrats can change position without becoming a social outcast.

I think you can mark August 29th as the official beginning of the end of the Obama campaign.

Let me add that I think it is Hillary's intention to destroy the Democrat Party. Why? Because George Soros has bought the party. It is no good to her any more. Here is a report on it from 2004.

In a December 9th e-mail signed by “Eli Pariser, Justin Ruben, and the whole MoveOn PAC team,” the Soros front group stated: “In the last year, grassroots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the Party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive. Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back.”

Who is behind the MoveOn PAC? George Soros. Another is the Tides Foundation which is funded by John Kerry's wife, Teresa Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry.

There is one saving grace. Despite the $300 million that supported the Kerry Campaign, he lost. He was defeated by the lightly funded Swift Boat Veterans For Truth and John Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia.

H/T No Quarter

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Chicken Thief

It seems that when Obama made a refreshment stop on the campaign trail he didn't have time to wait for the restaurant to prepare his food and Biden couldn't wait to get to the bar.

Obama then joined Joe Biden, who had made directly for the bar when the two candidates arrived, at a table celebrating another birthday.

“He’s eating our appetizers,” said Luanne Gearhart, who had stepped away from the table for a few minutes only to find Obama in her seat. “But God’s made it this way.”

Luanne was most gracious. Good on her.

H/T No Quarter

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Petrol Dictators Unpopular

Canadian Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein has a few words about polls in America.

"The polling demonstrates that energy independence is looming as a bigger issue than the economy," said Sen. Grafstein. "It's good, but it's not directing that venom at us, but to the petrol dictators.

He goes on to say that Canada wants to help. I for one want them to.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Democrats Worry Canadians

It looks like the Democtat vow to regain respect for America on the international scene has hit a snag.

DENVER, Colo.—Canadian Parliamentarians in Denver last week tried to seek assurances that Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama isn't singling out Canada as he vows to wean the U.S. off foreign oil and protect domestic jobs.

The Democratic National Convention was a chance for the party to tout its messages of energy independence and renewing the livelihoods of middle-income workers, leaving Canadian politicians guessing as to whether it was all made for primetime or if more concrete policy positions are on their way—provided that the Democrats win the White House.

As the U.S.'s largest supplier of oil and its biggest free trade partner, Canada is a prime target for Sen. Obama's campaign against high gas prices and outsourced jobs, about which the Liberal Party, for one, expressed concern.

"They're very protectionist on trade. They're very aggressive on energy policy and much more open about climate change and global warming than what we've seen before. I've been impressed by some things, but the protectionism thing is a challenge for us because the rhetoric is all about exporting jobs to China, and then they talk about bad trade deals. Well, generally they mean NAFTA. That's a tough issue for us," Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.), who last week attended his fourth Democratic convention, said in an interview.

Great job Barry. You are not even in office and already you have one of our largest trading partners worried.

Fortunately I don't think that Obama and his ship of fools will be doing well in November.

In fact Sarah Palin who had to work with Canada to get a natural gas pipeline built will be much more reassuring to them. They will know her. Now about that no foreign policy experience meme the Democrats are pushing. I'm betting that it is a wet noodle.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Most Convention Activities Suspended

Republicans will be running an abbriviated convention due to hurricane Gustav.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced most of first day’s activities at the Republican National Convention would be cancelled due to incoming hurricane storms in the South.

“We are going to suspend most of our activities tomorrow except for those absolutely necessary,” McCain told reporters in St. Paul via satellite from St. Louis Sunday afternoon.

As he spoke Hurricane Gustav, predicted to reach Category 5 status, was approaching New Orleans, the site where deadly Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. McCain said,“It’s time to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats and say ‘American we are with you and America, we are going to care about people in their times of need.'”

A Cat 5 hurricane would be just huge. The hurricane that flattened New Orleans was a Cat 3.

I think it is fortunate that we had Katrina as a warm up. Also that Blanko is out as Governor of Louisiana and Jindal is in. Unfortunately Ray "Buses Underwater" Nagin is still Mayor of New Orleans.

Republican National Committee Chairman Robert “Mike” Duncan said “essential” activities such as the election of officers, rules adoption and a vote for they party’s platform would be performed Monday.

“We will proceed with business tomorrow, it will be abbreviated,” Duncan said. Campaign Manager Davis described these functions as “requisite duties that are required…to constitute” the convention and the convention would resume “as soon as is practical.” Convention rules require that GOP delegates do meet and formally nominate McCain as their official presidential nominee.

Davis also said the GOP would refrain from any “political rhetoric” for the day as well.

Let us hope things turn out as well as possible for the people of the Gulf Coast. If you are the praying kind, say one.

Cross Posted at Classical Values