Palin Derangement Syndrome corrupts absolutely

Schadenfreude, it's not just for breakfast anymore!

via Salon – "I am a Democrat, a mother of three, and a full-time attorney. During the primaries, I was torn between Hillary Clinton, who I believed had the experience to be president (and really, really, really wanted it), and Barack Obama, who I believed was not only highly capable (albeit less experienced), but also the more sincere of the two and who inspired me on an emotional level that Clinton did not. In addition, as my kind friends pointed out to me, Clinton was carrying a lot of baggage in terms of her own scandals, not to mention Bill's little problems. So, in the end, I did what my heart really wanted me to do all along and voted for Obama. And then I totally checked out of the election. I've always disliked the pettiness of politics, the lies, the mudslinging, the arguments over meaningless minutiae, the parsing of personalities ad infinitum, etc. My perspective was, short of Obama being caught on video strangling his children with his own two hands, he had my vote, and thus I had no need to pay attention to all the nonsense that would occur in both campaigns prior to the election.

And then came Sarah. My reaction to her, and the way the Republican Party threw her in our faces, and the pandering and hypocrisy that was behind their decision to do so, was immediate, visceral, and indeed, vicious. I have crossed every line I believed should never be crossed in public discourse -- I have criticized not only her policies and her record, but her hair, her personal style, her accent, her abilities as a mother, etc. I've also begun to suffer personally and professionally. I bore my friends with my constant tirades against her, and am constantly distracted from my work by my need to continually update myself on the latest criticism, and indeed, ridicule, of her. In my hatred for her, I have begun to hate myself.

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I don't want this woman ruining my life before she even gets a chance to ruin our country. How do I stop? Is there a self-help group for this?

A 'Hater'"

Personally, I think these folks just can't stand the thought of a strong, successful woman who eschews leftist-style feminism for traditional values. That, and the fact that after 8 years of ever-escalating Bush Derangement Syndrome, the far left apparently can't cope without a target for their unstable emotions.

But be sure to read Salon columnist Cary Tennis' response. He suspects Sarah Palin tests as ESFJ on the Myers-Briggs personality test and infers that anyone of that persuasion is inarticulate and incapable of reason, which thus explains why Democrats (paragons of intellect and reason) cannot stand her.

I find that opinion interesting, particularly in light of the words I emphasized in the Salon reader's missive shown above. The woman in question comes at things from an entirely emotional and irrational perspective, yet those are the very things cited by Tennis as being the cause for liberals' intolerance for the Alaska governor.

Projection, anyone?

A special message from Obama's teleprompter

Breaking: House rejects bailout 228-205

The final vote was 228-205 aginst the bailout propsal: Democrats opposed - 95, in favor - 140; Republicans opposed - 133, in favor - 65. And while I think it was probably the right thing to do, the reason GOP lawmakers gave for the rejection was Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan speech in which she dishonestly blamed Republicans for the Great Depression 2: Electric Boogaloo.

via NYT – Immediately after the vote, many House members appeared stunned. Some Republicans blamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, for a speech before the vote that disdained President Bush’s economic policies, and did so, in the opinion of the speaker’s critics, in too partisan a way.

C'mon, people. Grow up. Pelosi is as morally bankrupt as they come, but being outraged at her demonstrably false blameshifting is not sufficient cause upon which to base one's vote. This one will rightly bite Repubs in their collective arses.

Here's the speech that killed the bailout:

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UPDATE: Time's Swampland blog has the entire text of Pelosi's ridiculous screed.

Obama's brute squad

Oh, sorry, I meant to say "truth squad." Guess I better watch what I say about The One, or I'll be targeted by Missouri law enforcement and prosecutors.

KMOV Channel 4’s TV newscast night before last at 6 PM had a story, that stated that St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, both Obama supporters, are implying that they will bring criminal libel charges against anyone who levels what turns out to be false criticisms of their chosen candidate for President.

"The Barack Obama campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading TV ad during the presidential campaign."

Missouri governor Matt Blunt is speaking out about Obama's thought police. (h/t: Allahpundit)

St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

Looks like it's the next logical step of Obama's in-your-face initiative. So much for "a new type of politics."
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Previous posts for further reading:

• Obama campaign aims to silence WGN...again

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UPDATE: More hope and change... Obama Goon Squad Shuts Down Macsmind Blog

Sarah Palin swimsuit video

This is absolutely pointless aside from the obvious titillation value, so with that in mind here's the vid that's been unearthed of Sarah Palin competing in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant.

Reminds me of the classic ad for Wendy's (aside from the fact that Palin didn't look like these contestants):


Is next...swimwear. Very nice!

Not so fast there, Maverick.

I may believe that McCain has outflanked Obama by showing a willingness to put the country's problems ahead of a meaningless debate, but he's definitely gone too far if his campaign is actually posting this ad (shown above) claiming he's already won a debate that hasn't happened yet. History seems to indicate that premature celebration isn't the best idea.


And while we're talking debates, isn't it interesting that back in May, Obama was talking smack, saying:

"If John McCain wants to meet me anywhere, anytime, to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, in Iran, in the Middle East or around the world, that is a conversation I am happy to have."

Then he refused to debate McCain, who called his bluff and accepted his challenge. Now "The One" wants to debate rather than do his job and deal with actual policy problems.

A plague on both your houses!

Too tired to celebrate

No, I'm not referring to McCain. I mean me. I'm worn out. I've been up for the past 30 hours completing a freelance job and now my back, shoulders, and especially my eyes want to take out a contract on my life.

But, I've just gotta announce that after 18 months (since being laid off on April 10, 2007) of freelance gigs to make ends meet, I've finally landed a full-time job! Official as of today! It doesn't pay nearly what I was making at my last position, but it's a management position, I've got an office instead of the cubicle I've been in for the past year, and the salary is more than I've been making doing jobs for which I was qualified 20 years ago. Best of all, I can maintain my insurance without being raped every month by COBRA!

So today, I'm both excited and exhausted. Yay me...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Obama prefers partisanship to problem-solving

"Yeah, there's a looming crisis as bad as the Great Depression. But I need my TV time, dammit!"

That's the essence of the recent shallow, egoistic grandstanding from Obama. But then again, what else should we expect?

While Obama makes with a disingenuous political maneuver to force the debate tonight in the midst of what he called "a financial crisis as profound as anything we have faced since the Great Depression," Ed Morrissey takes him behind the woodshed for his selfishness and ignorance:

We’re in this crisis because government intervened to impose its ideas of “fairness”, “balance”, and “responsibility to one another”. Congress demanded that lenders lower requirements for borrowers and then mandated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy the bad paper and resell them as securities in order to encourage overzealous risktaking. This is not a free-market failure, it’s a government-mandated collapse, thanks to a Congress that forced “fairness” over discipline and responsible lending. The fact that Obama to this moment still doesn’t understand that shows that he would not just repeat the same mistakes that led to the collapse, but would redouble efforts to mandate “fairness”, “balance”, and “responsibility to one another” — and lead us into the same trap all over again.
[...]
The debates themselves are nothing more than political stunts. They pit two candidates against each other to discuss complicated issues, and give them each 120 seconds to discuss them. The debates exist to produce sound bites, not public policy. They’re a game show aimed at people who don’t pay attention to policy and make up their minds by determining who delivers the best comeback.

Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark.

Who caused the subprime crisis? Set your Wayback Machine to 1999.

Are you believing the ludicrous – and erroneous – assertion by Obama and the Democrats that the current subprime crisis is the fault of Republicans?

Let's have a little memory refresher, shall we? Set your Wayback Machine to 1999 and read this article from The New York Times:

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
[...]
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

"From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us," said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."

$700 billion dollars worth of Democrat chickens, coming home to roost...in our wallets.
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Previous posts for further reading:

• How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis
• Obama's inconvenient ties to Fannie Mae
• Further proof of Democrats' fault over economy

Conservative arguments against the bailout

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) argues for caution:

There are those in the public debate who say we must act now...The last time I heard that, I was on a used car lot. The truth is every time somebody tells you that you have to do the deal right now, it usually means they are going to get the better part of the deal. The American people deserve a seat at the table in this debate as well.

Thomas Sowell argues for speed:

The longer it takes Congress to pass the bailout bill, the more goodies are going to find their way into the legislation. Speed is important, not just to protect the financial markets but to protect the taxpayers from having more of their hard-earned money squandered by politicians.

Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las Vegas casinos. As recently as July of this year, Dodd declared Fannie Mae and Freddie "fundamentally strong" and said there is no need for "panicking" about them. But now that the chickens have come home to roost, Dodd wants to be sure to get some goodies from the rescue legislation to pass out to people likely to vote for him.

Fred Thompson:

You’d think we’d have learned by now: when the backstop of the federal treasury makes it easier for politicians, lenders, borrowers, welfare recipients, government contractors, or anyone else, to serve their own self interest at the expense of the taxpayer, many will do just that.

That is why we continue to see self-dealing, moral lapses, outright fraud and lack of management and oversight in a wide array of programs and government-sponsored entities, from housing to Medicare, education and the Small Business Administration, all costing taxpayers billions, even trillions of dollars.

George Will:

Members of Congress are being exhorted to stampede, like lemmings in reverse, away from a postulated cliff. But some of the economic geographers who say they know that the cliff is there, and that the economy will plunge over it if Congress stops to think before empowering the secretary of the Treasury to control the flow of capital through the veins of American capitalism, are some of those experts who said in March that prophylactic federal intervention in the matter of Bear Stearns was necessary to contain the crisis.

Everything that has been done for the last six months has been done to cope with what previous actions were supposed to prevent. A perhaps pertinent axiom: There is no education in the second kick of a mule.

Newt Gingrich:

I think the idea of giving the Secretary of the Treasury $700 billion to bail out Wall Street is just so profoundly wrong. I can't quite imagine that they're moving forward with it. I mean, it's wrong in every way. It's wrong to take money and bail out Wall Street. It's wrong to give that kind of power to the secretary of the treasury. Watching this Congress write it makes me worry about what all the hidden details will be.

William Kristol:

[The bailout proposal] would enable the Treasury, without congressionally approved guidelines as to pricing or procedure, to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars of financial assets, and hire private firms to manage and sell them, presumably at their discretion. There are no provisions for -- or even promises of -- disclosure, accountability or transparency. Surely Congress can at least ask some hard questions about such an open-ended commitment.

Surely we can trust our Congress to spend $700 billion dollars without being wasteful, right? Surely nobody will take this crisis as some kind of blank checkbook with which to further rob taxpayers!

Breaking: Dems launch widespread voter fraud

Looks like Democrats are getting an early jump on voter fraud this year. See how many times you spot ACORN, the radical left-wing, government-subsidized group which serves as an activist branch of the Democrat Party (and for whom Barack Obama worked as a "community organizer").

WESH - Orlando

Local elections officials are looking into potential election fraud and some of the information is pointing to a Democratic-leaning voter's group.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now, has been registering thousands of new voters for this year's election, but in Seminole County, some voter applications are being withheld until it's proven they're legitimate.

Election fraud is a felony, but first it has to be proven and someone has to be charged.

So far, elections officials said they are just beginning to gather clues in this case.

Seminole County's elections supervisor is holding up dozens of voter registration applications because they appear to be fraudulent: wrong addresses, bad signatures and more.
[...]
Many of the applications with suspect information were turned-in by the activist group ACORN.

Durham, North Carolina

A Durham official is asking state elections administrators to check approximately 80 voter registration forms for possible fraud.

Mike Ashe, Durham County's elections director, said the forms were among about 4,000 submitted to his office over the past four to six weeks by a national left-wing group called Acorn, for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

"They will be turned over to the State Board of Elections for investigation and prosecution," Ashe said of the questionable documents.

Most of the forms at issue bear one of six names. Ashe was not sure whether the people named existed or not.

Many of the papers are incomplete, which Ashe said is a nuisance, not a crime. But the group contains very different versions of what are purportedly the same person's signatures.

Signing another person's name on a voter registration form can result in up to 15 months in prison.
[...]
A woman who visited the elections office Wednesday said that Tamion Richardson of Buffalo Way had received a mailing stating that he had been registered to vote. The woman, who said she was Richardson's mother, said he was 14 years old and ineligible to vote.

KKTV – Colorado Springs

In just over six weeks, voters will be heading to the polls. Now though, the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink said he’s making sure voters are who they said they were when they registered.

The election office launched an investigation Monday, cracking down on voter registration fraud.

Fake names, fake driver's license numbers and fake addresses are apparently on at least one dozen voter registration forms. El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink is trying to get to the bottom of it. "If you let one person who’s not eligible to vote, vote, then they just canceled your vote," said Balink.

“For years, in every presidential election, it’s the same old thing. Radical liberal groups have voter registration drives and in some instances, there is fraud and we prosecute them," said Balink.

New McCain ad – “The Coal Miner”

Obama and Biden take a page straight out of Clinton's "say anything for political gain" playbook. What poseurs. Are they for coal mining or against it? Hey hey, they're both! These guys are the Reese's of politics; everybody gets what they want. (h/t: Allahpundit)

How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis

With a $700 billion dollar bailout being considered by Congress, it's important to not only discuss the solution (if there should even be one), but also examine how we got into this mess so we don't repeat the mistake.

I've already posted evidence demonstrating how Democrats' misguided priorities have fouled our banking system so thoroughly, and I've also contrasted Obama's complicity in the market collapse with McCain's and Bush's attempts to reform it.

Now, Bloomberg News has posted a must-read editorial that makes the case way better than I could.

The economic history books will describe this episode in simple and understandable terms: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exploded, and many bystanders were injured in the blast, some fatally.

Fannie and Freddie did this by becoming a key enabler of the mortgage crisis. They fueled Wall Street's efforts to securitize subprime loans by becoming the primary customer of all AAA-rated subprime-mortgage pools. In addition, they held an enormous portfolio of mortgages themselves.

In the times that Fannie and Freddie couldn't make the market, they became the market. Over the years, it added up to an enormous obligation. As of last June, Fannie alone owned or guaranteed more than $388 billion in high-risk mortgage investments. Their large presence created an environment within which even mortgage-backed securities assembled by others could find a ready home.

The problem was that the trillions of dollars in play were only low-risk investments if real estate prices continued to rise. Once they began to fall, the entire house of cards came down with them.

There's a lot more and it's worth the click.

This bailout is a terrible idea. Total clown shoes. As a society, we need to stop rewarding failure and penalizing success. I think it's time for Atlas to shrug.

The novel's title is an allusion to the Greek Titan Atlas who was described as literally holding the celestial globe on his shoulders (as per Atlas), discussing what might happen if those holding up civilization suddenly decided to stop doing so.
[...]
In the world of Atlas Shrugged, society stagnates when independent productive achievers began to be socially demonized and even punished for their accomplishments, even though society had been far more healthy and prosperous by allowing, encouraging and rewarding self-reliance and individual achievement.

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UPDATE: Emperor Misha has a great analogy for the bailout...

When was the last time that YOU got a share when those corporations that you’re now about to be forced to bail out were turning a profit? Huh?

Then tell me, please, how it is in any way, and let’s forget the ridiculously overused word “fair” for a moment, LOGICAL that you should be forced to take your share of their LOSS? Tell me, please. Then, if you think you can do that, kindly go buy me, say, $2,000 worth of lottery tickets and hand them over to me. If all of the tickets are duds, then you just wasted 2 grand. If I win, then I get to keep all the winnings and you can kindly go fuck yourself. Makes perfect “sense”, doesn’t it?

The bailout that BOTH sides of the aisle are negotiating right now amounts to the exact same thing. There is absolutely NO difference.

Canadian dies after 34 hours in ER waiting room

Barack Obama is fond of telling Americans he wants a single-payer "universal" health care system, just like the socialized medicine our Canadian neighbors have.

No thanks. (h/t: Lasso of Truth)

Winnipeg – Health officials say a man who died in the waiting area of a major Winnipeg hospital’s emergency department may have been dead “for some time” before medical staff was alerted — 34 hours after he arrived. The 45-year-old arrived by taxi at the Health Sciences Centre around 3 p.m. Friday from the Health Action Centre, a community health centre in central Winnipeg, where he had an earlier appointment, officials said. He was found dead after midnight Sunday.

Texas Supreme Court ignores law, allows Obama & McCain on Texas ballots

Last Friday, I blogged about Libertarian candidate Bob Barr's legal challenge to Obama & McCain's names being allowed on Texas ballots due to the fact that both campaigns missed a state deadline to certify the names of their presidential and vice presidential candidates for the ballot.

As it turns out, neither party needed to worry. The Texas Supreme Court was more than willing to ignore the law, presumably in order to avoid an embarrassing Electoral College nightmare.

Austin – The Texas Supreme Court rejected a request Tuesday by Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr to keep Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama off the Texas ballot.

The court denied the request without explanation.

Barr filed a lawsuit last week claiming the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees should be removed from the Nov. 4 ballot. He says they weren't formally nominated by their parties before the filing deadline.

The Texas Secretary of State's Office has said repeatedly that the Texas ballot — including the names of McCain and Obama — was certified properly.

Pat Dixon, chair of the Libertarian Party of Texas, said the decision raises the question of whether parties are bound by the Texas Election Code and whether there is a "grace period" for meeting deadlines.

"We are naturally disappointed that the Supreme Court has refused to enforce the law against Republicans and Democrats in this case, when courts have repeatedly enforced the law against Libertarians, other minor parties, and independents in past cases," Dixon said.

I have a pretty low opinion of Bob Barr and didn't figure his lawsuit was gonna go anywhere, but he had a valid case. And I expected the Texas Supreme Court to at least do some legal wrangling to deny his claim. No matter. The courtroom version of the "Jedi Mind Trick" worked just fine.



These aren't the droids you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.

Midweek Peek 09.24.08

I may have missed the Emmys last weekend, but it's hard to miss Christina Hendricks, star of AMC's series Mad Men

Obama pushed radical indoctrination in Chicago schools at Ayers' behest

As you may recall, the University of Chicago recently resisted journalists' efforts to review public records on the Chicago Annenberg Project, Obama’s sole claim of executive experience. Perhaps Stanley Kurtz's Wall Street Journal article, "Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools", reveals the reason why. In it, he exposes embarrassing information regarding Barack Obama's activities under the direction of William Ayers, peddling far-left propaganda in Chicago public schools.

The CAC's basic functioning has long been known, because its annual reports, evaluations and some board minutes were public. But the Daley archive contains additional board minutes, the Collaborative minutes, and documentation on the groups that CAC funded and rejected. The Daley archives show that Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.

One unsettled question is how Mr. Obama, a former community organizer fresh out of law school, could vault to the top of a new foundation? In response to my questions, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying that Mr. Ayers had nothing to do with Obama's "recruitment" to the board. The statement says Deborah Leff and Patricia Albjerg Graham (presidents of other foundations) recruited him. Yet the archives show that, along with Ms. Leff and Ms. Graham, Mr. Ayers was one of a working group of five who assembled the initial board in 1994. Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval.

The CAC's agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers's educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism. In the mid-1960s, Mr. Ayers taught at a radical alternative school, and served as a community organizer in Cleveland's ghetto.

In works like "City Kids, City Teachers" and "Teaching the Personal and the Political," Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. His preferred alternative? "I'm a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist," Mr. Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk's, "Sixties Radicals," at about the same time Mr. Ayers was forming CAC.
[...]
Mr. Ayers's defenders claim that he has redeemed himself with public-spirited education work. That claim is hard to swallow if you understand that he views his education work as an effort to stoke resistance to an oppressive American system. He likes to stress that he learned of his first teaching job while in jail for a draft-board sit-in. For Mr. Ayers, teaching and his 1960s radicalism are two sides of the same coin.
[...]
The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming "guilt by association." Yet the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle.

There's a lot more information there, so read the whole thing.

So much for Obama's mendacious denials that Ayers is, "just a guy who lives in my neighborhood" and "...not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis." The facts seem to indicate that Obama exchanged over $100 million dollars in leftist ideas with the unrepentant terrorist on a regular basis, in the form of the CAC's failed agitprop.

No wonder Barack Obama is considered by many to be the most radical member of the Senate, a fact he seems to be going to great lengths to conceal.

Obama's PR firm busted for astroturfing smears

astroturfing - noun

The use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to newspapers from soi-disant 'concerned citizens', paid opinion pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is fake grass; hence the term).

Dr. Rusty Shackleford at The Jawa Report has posted a HUGE exposé linking Barack Obama's PR firm (and David Axelrod, Obama's chief media strategist) with a dirty smear campaign and possible violations of federal election law. If all of Shackleford's extensive evidence is correct, this could come crashing right down on Obama's head – provided, of course, that the media investigates and holds the campaign accountable for its deceitful behavior. Here's a quick summary of his allegations...

Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.

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.

Listen to the two voice-overs and judge for yourself.

Michelle Malkin and Ace of Spades HQ have also been tracking the scandal and have posted multiple screencaps of the evidence in order to refute the Democrats' sloppy cover-up of their dishonest attempts to manipulate public opinion.

Ed Morrissey sums it up:

If all of this is true and the Obama campaign can be connected to it, it would represent a massive set of FEC violations, as well as the ultimate repudiation of "hope and change" and "New Politics". In fact, it would be a massive demonstration of Chicago Politics on a national scale.

FBI investigates Tennessee student David Kernell in Palin hacking scandal

"Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed"
~ Heraclitus of Ephesus

With all of the anti-Palin ugliness being promulgated by the Obama campaign and the Democrat party, is it any wonder self-professed "Obamacrat" David Kernell thought it was his duty to (allegedly) hack into Gov. Sarah Palin's personal email account and publish the contents on the web?

Knoxville - The FBI searched the residence of the son of a Democratic state lawmaker in Tennessee over the weekend looking for evidence linking the young man to the hacking of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

David Kernell, 20, has not returned repeated phone calls or e-mails from the AP since last week. He is the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee. The father declined last week to discuss the possibility his son might be involved in the case.
[...]
A hacker last week broke into one of the Yahoo Inc. e-mail accounts that Palin uses, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate. The McCain campaign confirmed the break-in and called it a "shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law."
[...]
After the break-in, a person claiming responsibility published a detailed chronology of the hacking on the Web site where the break-in was first revealed. That person identified his e-mail address as one that has been linked publicly to David Kernell.

Experts said the hacker apparently left an easy trail for investigators.

"He might as well have taken a picture of his house and uploaded it," said Ken Pfeil, an Internet security expert. "He should have just set up a big beacon that said, 'Here's my house,' or confessed. If they can't catch this guy based on all the information posted on the Web then all bets are off."
[...]
The FBI and Secret Service are now investigating.

Florida crushes Tennessee 30-6

I was unable to watch the Florida-Tennessee game on Saturday because our Dish Network was out all weekend, but I was thrilled to get the scores on my phone at the end of each quarter and know that the Gators were handing out a major ass-whupping. Take that, Rocky Top!

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – It was supposed to be Florida's toughest SEC road game of the season.

As it turns out, it was never a game.

The script was a familiar one in a rivalry that's becoming more watered down by the year. Florida set the tone on special teams and blasted Tennessee 30-6 in Neyland Stadium for its fourth straight win over the Vols, the second straight in blowout fashion.

Brandon James was spectacular for the Gators. He returned the opening kickoff 52 yards to set up the first touchdown and later returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. On his punt return, he made at least five Tennessee defenders miss.

The Gators have now scored points on special teams in all three games this season.

The only real uprising for Tennessee occurred at halftime -- the mass of orange-clad fans leaving Neyland Stadium with the Gators leading 20-0.

LOLcat bible!

Before we all dive back into the 2008 election as well as all the heavy issues and the identity politics, here's a bit of levity to start your week.

You probably already know my fondness for The Brick Testament, a one-man labor of love which bills itself as "the largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible in the world with over 3,600 illustrations that retell more than 300 stories from The Bible." But these aren't your traditional Sunday School illustrations, they're with Lego figures posed to exemplify the stories. (It's pretty extensive. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth the click.)

Well, not to be outdone on the sacrilege meter, allow me to introduce...the LOLCat Bible Translation Project, dedicated to translating the entire Bible into lolspeak! (h/t: The Kitchen Alchemist)


Genesis 1:1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.


Revelation 1:3 Everwun what reedz these wurdz will has cheezburgrz and everwun what heerz theez wurdz will has cheezburgrz. Also, pay attenshuns, cuz iz comin. Habeeb it.

Sandra Bernhard: Sarah Palin should be gang-raped

It's really starting to look like the Democrats are trying to outdo Fred Phelps. First it was the hacking into Sarah Palin's personal email account, now this from has-been never-was Sandra Bernhard. The newest liberal talking point: if you disagree with abortion on demand, you deserve to be gang-raped. How progressive!

Sandra Bernhard issues 'gang rape' warning to Sarah Palin
Sandra Bernhard issued a blistering warning to Sarah Palin during a performance of her new one-woman show.

The Republican V.P. nom would be "gang-raped by my big black brothers" if she enters Manhattan, Bernhard said. Palin is said to be making a campaign stop in New York next week.

"[The gang rape comment] is part of a much larger, nuanced, and yes, provocative (that's what I do) piece from my show about racism, freedom, women's rights and the extreme views of Governor Sarah Palin, a woman who doesn't believe that other women should have the right to choose," Bernhard told the Daily News today.

Of course, this new viciousness couldn't possibly have anything to do with Obama encouraging his supporters to get more aggressive. Nahh, just a coinkydink.

More Marxist patterns in Obama's past and present

I've said before that Barack Obama is a socialist who is hiding his real agenda and ideology behind populist rhetoric. And we know the Communist Party USA gives him their full endorsement, as they are confident that his confiscatory plans for the federal government are in alignment with their goals of wealth redistribution and social re-engineering.

After hearing Joe Biden's ridiculous speech portraying higher taxes as "patriotic," as Catholic doctrine, and as "American values," I was motivated to do a little more digging into the creeping socialism these two candidates apparently have in mind for America.

Even knowing what I do about Obama's past, I was still more than a little surprised today to find a page devoted to Marxists, Communists, and Socialists right on Obama's campaign website. Here's how these enemies of freedom describe their Democrat candidate:

This group is for self-proclaimed Marxists/Communists/Socialists for the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency. By no means is he a true Marxist, but under Karl Marx's writings we are to support the party with the best interests of the mobilization of the proletariat. Though the Democratic Socialists of America or the Communist Patty of America may have more Socialististic (sic) values, it is pointless to vote for these candidates due to the fact that there is virutally (sic) no chance they will be elected on a National level.

No wonder we see so many Obama supporters wearing Che Guevara shirts and Soviet symbols.

Back in May, Investor's Business Daily dug a little deeper into Obama's connection to "black liberation" theologian James Cone:

As this long primary season drags on, the presumed Democratic nominee for president still won't bring his vision for "change" into focus. He continues to speak in glittering generalities, providing few details.

The reticence, combined with Obama's radical ties, begs the question: Is he hiding an un-American agenda?

We know his longtime mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, detests America and its capitalist system, viewing it as unjust, oppressive and enslaving to minorities. He and his fellow travelers think they have in Obama the perfect candidate to remake America into a self-loathing dispenser of apologetic largesse to victim groups at home and Marxist regimes abroad.

Key among these is reverend-turned-professor James Cone, who believes merging Marxism with the Gospel will liberate African-Americans from the supposed economic slavery of "white" capitalism. "Together," he says, "black religion and Marxist philosophy may show us the way to build a completely new society."

Cone is the mentor of Obama's mentor, Wright. Wright adopted Cone's "black liberation theology" as his church's core doctrine. According to Cone, the reverend "is really the one who took it from my books and brought it to the church."

Accuracy in Media has a pretty extensive article detailing Obama's numerous ties to people like US Socialist Party activist Saul Mendelson and Communist Party USA activist Frank Marshall Davis.

And from what I have seen so far, Obama's time in Chicago politics involved town meetings organized by the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America. Here's what they wrote about him in their own newsletter:

One of the themes that has emerged in Barack Obama's campaign is "what does it take to create productive communities", not just consumptive communities. It is an issue that joins some of the best instincts of the conservatives with the better instincts of the left. He felt the state government has three constructive roles to play.

The first is "human capital development". By this he meant public education, welfare reform, and a "workforce preparation strategy". Public education requires equality in funding. It's not that money is the only solution to public education's problems but it's a start toward a solution. The current proposals for welfare reform are intended to eliminate welfare but it's also true that the status quo is not tenable. A true welfare system would provide for medical care, child care and job training. While Barack Obama did not use this term, it sounded very much like the "social wage" approach used by many social democratic labor parties. By "workforce preparation strategy", Barack Obama simply meant a coordinated, purposeful program of job training instead of the ad hoc, fragmented approach used by the State of Illinois today.

The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs. As Barack Obama noted, when someone gets paid $10 million to eliminate 4,000 jobs, the voters in his district know this is an issue of power not economics. The government can use as tools labor law reform, public works and contracts.

The more stones I turn over, the more connections I find between Barack Obama and the cockroaches who wish to delude America into becoming a new Soviet Union. What's especially distressing to me is how successfully he is advancing their failed ideology with his fluffy, feel-good terminology.

Progress. Change. Hope. Fairness. Dreams. Obama just conveniently leaves out Karl Marx's name from his reformulated manifesto. But the roots of his philosophy, and the people with whom he chooses to associate, speak volumes about his true intent and provide the details missing in his proposals.

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
~ Winston Churchill
---
Previous posts for further reading:

• Obama: the Communist Party's candidate of choice
• Explaining Obama's punitive liberalism
• Hillary or Obama = socialism

Sarah Palin's Freudian slip

"...a Palin and McCain administration"? Don't get ahead of yourself there, Mrs. Palin.

Will Obama & McCain be on Texas ballots?

My friend Tirya sent me a link to a developing news story.

Libertarian Bob Barr moves to keep Obama, McCain off Texas ballot
Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr is forcing a legal showdown in the Texas Supreme Court to keep the names of Barack Obama and John McCain off the November ballot.

The issue is whether both parties missed a state deadline to certify the names of their presidential and vice presidential candidates for the ballot.
[...]
The Libertarians are contending that the Democratic and Republican nominees are disqualified from appearing on the ballot because they missed the state’s Aug. 26 deadline to certify candidates. During the national conventions, Mr. Obama was not voted as the nominee until Aug. 27 and Mr. McCain claimed the GOP nomination on Sept. 3.

No one can legally certify something that has not yet happened, Mr. Barr argued. In addition, Sarah Palin was not named to the GOP ticket until Aug. 29 and so it would be impossible to certify her name by the deadline.

Regardless of what one thinks about Bob Barr, he has a point. Texas election code clearly states:

SUBCHAPTER B. PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

§ 192.031. PARTY CANDIDATE'S ENTITLEMENT TO PLACE ON BALLOT. A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees for president and vice-president of the United States placed on the ballot in a presidential general election if:

1. the nominees possess the qualifications for those offices prescribed by federal law;


2. before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before presidential election day, the party's state chair signs and delivers to the secretary of state a written certification of:
   (A) the names of the party's nominees for president and vice-president; and
   (B) the names and residence addresses of presidential elector candidates nominated by the party, in a number equal to the number of presidential electors that federal law allocates to this state; and


3. the party is:
   (A) required or authorized by Subchapter A of Chapter 172 to make its nominations by primary election; or
   (B) entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the general election ballot under Chapter 181.

Appropriately for Talk Like A Pirate Day, Tirya's opinion echoes Pirates of the Carribean's Captain Barbossa:

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Not that I expect McCain or Obama to be taken off the ballot, but it ought to really shake some people up. Not to mention open some interesting discussion about "when are rules actually 'rules' and when are they more like 'guidelines'?"

Happy "Talk Like A Pirate" Day '08

Avast, ye scurvy dogs! It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day!
(h/t: HotPirateBabes.com)

Further proof of Democrats' fault over economy

The more I dig into the facts behind our current economic crisis, the more I find that points to Democrat corruption, short-sightedness, and obsession with political correctness.

• The Bush administration tried to reform oversight of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae back in 2003, but was blocked by Democrats.


• John McCain co-sponsored the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 which was, of course, blocked by Democrats.


• JustBarkingMad.com posted a good article replete with linked evidence pointing to...you guessed it, Democrats: President Clinton and his Deputy Attorney General Jaime Gorelick

Several other bloggers (much more talented than I) have already detailed the evidence...

Protein Wisdom:

As with much of their showy populism, Congressional Democrats were more interested in the short term — and wholy self-serving nobility — of being perceived as championing the little guy than they ever were with the long-term effects such socially-engineered practices must necessarily have.

Morrissey compares the Democrats’ posture here as being similar to their posture on Social Security reform. But to my mind, the clearest analog in practice is to race-based affirmative action — where the short term pressure on universities to admit students of various ethnic backgrounds has led to a disproportionately high drop-out rate among those same students.

I’m all for evening the playing fields, be it in education or credit allocation. But simply wanting to do so doesn’t mean we should rely on easy, superficial remedies — particularly if all we’re doing is putting a Band-Aid over a wound that is deeply infected and requires more than a kind of Democratic Christian Science to heal it.

Investor's Business Daily:

...it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions.

Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties.

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but "predatory."

Dr. Walter Williams (George Mason University professor of economics):

Many politicians and pundits claim that the credit crunch and high mortgage foreclosure rate is an example of market failure and want government to step in to bail out creditors and borrowers at the expense of taxpayers who prudently managed their affairs. These financial problems are not market failures but government failure. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 is a federal law that intimidated lenders into offering credit throughout their entire market and discouraged them from restricting their credit services to low-risk markets, a practice sometimes called redlining. The Federal Reserve Bank, keeping interest rates artificially low, gave buyers and builders incentive to buy and build, thereby producing the housing bubble. Lenders were willing to make creative interest-only loans, often high-risk "no doc" and "liar loans," in order to allow people to buy more housing than they could afford. Of course, with the expectation that housing prices will continue to rise, it was no problem for lenders and borrowers but housing prices began to fall, leaving some people with negative home equity and banks in trouble.

The credit crunch and foreclosure problems are failures of government policy. In fact, what we see now is a market correction to foolhardy government policy. Congress' move to bailout lenders and borrowers who made poor decisions will simply create incentives for people to make unwise decisions in the future. English philosopher Herbert Spencer said, "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."

Obama's inconvenient ties to Fannie Mae

No wonder Democrats like Nancy Pelosi are trying like mad deny their responsibility to the current fiscal bust and falsely assign blame to Republicans. They're neck deep in this after their heavy-handed efforts to force lenders to "make good on the American dream" by offering ill-advised mortgage loans to high risk borrowers.

Gateaway Pundit has the details tying this millstone squarely around the neck of Sen. Barack Obama.

In 2005-- Senator John McCain partnered with three other Senate Republicans to reform the government’s involvement in lending, after an attempt by the Bush administration died in Congress two years earlier. Democrats blocked the reform.

In 2005-- Barack Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus met with Fannie Mae for a "family" event. In 2005 Democrats also blocked reform of Fannie Mae:

This was before Fannie Mae started filling the pockets of Barack Obama with political donations. The junior Illinois senator collected more money from Fannie Mae than any other Washington politician except Senator Dodd in the last decade.

Obama was able to accomplish this feat in just 3 years.

The top three U.S. senators getting big Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions were Democrats, and No. 2 is Sen. Barack Obama, who scored $126,349 from PACs and individuals on their behalf.

Obama took huge political contributions from Fannie & Freddie and turned a blind eye to their shoddy business practices. Meanwhile, John McCain correctly identified the problem and predicted the coming disaster.

Now, what was it Democrats have been saying about McCain being unable to understand the economy? What was it they've been saying about Obama being a reformer?

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
---
UPDATE: Here's a great article offering further details on Democrat obstruction and corruption regarding our economy, appropriately titled "It’s Time For Washington Politicans To Go Directly To Jail"

UPDATE: Welcome, Gator Country readers!

Star Trek Inspirational Posters

There are no words to do justice to the awesome geekiness of Star Trek Inspirational Posters!

Obama as Castro redux

Taken from a letter to the editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, this video makes an apt comparison between two young upstarts promising "change" to a weary nation. (h/t: Say Anything)



This reminds me of the opening line from W.W. Jacobs' classic horror story, "The Monkey's Paw":

"Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it."

Sarah Palin's personal email account hacked

Palin Derangement Syndrome just reached a new low. The leftist trolls digging into Sarah Palin's personal life haven't hit bottom yet.

via Wired – Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail account was hacked, and some of its contents posted on the internet Wednesday.

The internet griefers known as Anonymous took credit for the intrusion, and screenshots of e-mail messages and photos belonging to the Alaska governor have been published by WikiLeaks. Threat Level has confirmed the authenticity of at least one of the e-mails.

"This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law," Rick Davis, McCain-Palin campaign manager said in a statement. "The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."

FBI spokesman Brian Hale said, "The FBI is aware of the alleged hacking incident involving Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and is coordinating with the United States Secret Service on the matter."

These internet bullies have not only circulated the contents of Sarah Palin's personal email inbox and address book, they've posted private family photos, personal cellphone numbers for Bristol and Track Palin, and husband Todd’s private e-mail address.

Hacking email is a federal offense. I hope the Secret Service finds these bastards and hangs them out to dry.

Cleavage caucus

Since it's Wednesday, here's a little (well, not SO little) bonus Midweek Peek. Governing Bodies is a minisite on CollegeHumor.com which encourages female viewers to post pictures of themselves endorsing their candidate of choice across their cleavage (not unlike the more altruistic "Boobie-Thon" breast cancer fundraiser...speaking of which, this year's is coming up Oct 1).







Heyyy, where are my Cthulu boobs?
---
UPDATE: Well, I asked and my friend Dan provided. Boobs for Cthulhu!

A better presidential choice?

Ok, I'm officially sick of this election. I'm bored with Obama/Biden and Palin/McCain McCain/Pain. And since I'm not irretrievably stupid, there's no way I can vote for the Libertarian Party's Bobb Barr/Wayne Allyn Root or the Green Party's Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente ticket.

I think instead of enabling another cycle of partisan dysfunction, I'm going to write-in a different candidate entirely.

Cthulhu.

Yes, I know. You're all out there saying, "But R_V, isn't Cthulhu a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline with an octopus-like head whose face is a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind? And more importantly, isn't he evil?"

Well, yeah. But allow me to point to Cthulhu's campaign slogan: "Why vote for the lesser evil?"

Honestly, is "a pulpy, tentacled head surmounted by a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings" really any worse than the two lame choices with which we're faced? Plus, check out the Great Old One's political positions, as listed in his platform.

(Oh, and it should probably be noted that Cthulhu will not have a running mate since he/she would simply be eaten anyway.)

Still not convinced?

Ok then, if voting for a wicked Lovecraftian god doesn't do it for you, who would be your write-in candidate of choice? Post your ideal ticket in the comments.

Hack the Debates!

Those of you who read here probably already know I'm an avid user of Twitter. Well, it looks like they're finally breaking into the big time, teaming up with Current (Al Gore's TV network) in an event they're calling "Hack the Debate" which will allow tweeters to post live comments during the upcoming events.

NEW YORK - Current TV is handing over feedback on the upcoming presidential debates to those who make up so much of the network's programming: its audience.

During the debates, the network bent on viewer-created content will broadcast Twitter messages — or "tweets" — from viewers. In close to real time, Current will display comments on the screen while Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama face off.

It's an all the more interesting new kind of interactivity in political discourse given that Current was co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Joel Hyatt, CEO of Current, said the technique — dubbed "Hack the Debate" — was not Gore's idea, but he and Gore both share a dim view of post-debate punditry.

"He certainly shares the belief that the punditry aspect of the process has not been enriching to American democracy," said Hyatt. "We're trying to empower young adults to participate in the process, to have their voice heard, to join the conversation."

Hyatt lamented the limiting nature of debate coverage, populated by experts with axes to grind and predictable partisan arguments to make: "We want our audiences to take over the process," he said.

Comments will be filtered, but Hyatt claims they will only be filtered to suit broadcast standards.

The first presidential debate is planned for Sept. 26, with two more debates and a vice presidential debate to follow.

It almost goes without saying they'll filter the tweets so that profanity doesn't go out over the air. I'll just be curious to see if the majority of comments have any substance to them, or if a continuous stream of "McCain sucks!" and "Obama sucks!" will make everyone long for the return of the superfluous talking-head pundits.

Religion of Peace update: Death to Paul McCartney, horoscopes, and Mickey Mouse!

The purveyors of perpetual outrage have been busy this week; it's a regular fatwa-palooza!

• Muslims threaten to kill McCartney in Israel
  A Muslim terrorist leader based in Lebanon has threatened to send suicide bombers to kill former Beatle and international music icon Paul McCartney when he performs in Israel later this month.
  
  McCartney will perform in Tel Aviv as part of ongoing celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's modern rebirth.
  
  In remarks carried by British tabloid Sunday Express, Sheikh Omar Bakri said that makes McCartney the enemy of all Muslims.
  
  Bakri, a Syrian national who once resided in London, warned McCartney that if he will be targeted if he comes to Israel.
  
  "Paul McCartney is the enemy of every Muslim. We have what we call 'sacrifice' operatives who will not stand by while he joins in a celebration of [Israeli] oppression. If he values his life Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him."


• Saudi cleric wants death for TV "sorcerers"
  RIYADH, Sept 14 (Reuters) - A senior Saudi cleric has said purveyors of horoscopes on Arab television should face the death penalty, a paper said on Sunday, days after another cleric argued death for TV owners.
  
  "Sorcerers who appear on satellite channels who are proven to be sorcerers have committed a great crime ... and the Muslim consensus is that the apostate's punishment is death by the sword," Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan told al-Madina daily.
  
  "Those who call in to these shows should not be accorded Muslim rites when they die," the prominent cleric added.


• Mickey Mouse must die, says Saudi Arabian cleric
  Sheikh Muhammad Munajid claimed the mouse is "one of Satan's soldiers" and makes everything it touches impure.
  
  But he warned that depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, and Disney's Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable.
  
  The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed. [I guess it wouldn't help to point out that one cannot kill a cartoon? - Ed.]
  
  Mr Munajid was asked to give Islam's teaching on mice during a religious affairs programme broadcast on al-Majd TV, an Arab television network.
  
  According to a translation prepared by the Middle East Media Research Institute, an American press monitoring service, he said: "The mouse is one of Satan's soldiers and is steered by him."

Midweek Peek 09.17.08

Jessica Alba

Obama campaign aims to silence WGN...again

"Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war."

Chicago radio station WGN-AM is again coming under attack from the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama for offering airtime to a controversial author.

It is the second time in recent weeks the station has been the target of an "Obama Action Wire" alert to supporters of the Illinois Democrat. (Ed Morrissey posted the entire thing if you wanna read it)

Monday night's target was David Freddoso, who the campaign said was scheduled to be on the station from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Chicago time.

"The author of the latest anti-Barack hit book is appearing on WGN Radio in the Chicagoland market tonight, and your help is urgently needed to make sure his baseless lies don't gain credibility," an e-mail sent Monday evening to Obama supporters reads.

"David Freddoso has made a career off dishonest, extreme hate mongering," the message said. "And WGN apparently thinks this card-carrying member of the right-wing smear machine needs a bigger platform for his lies and smears about Barack Obama -- on the public airwaves."

How dare they allow a reporter to speak on the public airwaves about his research into Barack Obama's public record. Much better to intimidate the station into silence, huh?

Let's break out the dictionary again today, shall we?

to·tal·i·tar·i·an
–adjective

1. of or pertaining to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.
2. exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of others; authoritarian; autocratic.

---
UPDATE: Guy Benson recalls the details of the last time Obama's "Ministry of Truth" swung into action:

During the August fiasco, outraged pro-Obama callers fumed that WGN had offered Kurtz an unchallenged forum, despite the fact that Team Obama had declined an invitation to appear alongside Kurtz for the duration of the program. This time, however, Freddoso was actually paired up with an Obama-supporting counterpart. This wasn't good enough for the Obama thought police, who blasted out marching orders to shut down the discussion. Once again, the phones melted down. The Obama campaign should be proud.

Interestingly, the call-to-action email devotes a great deal of space to trying to discredit Freddoso himself — citing allegedly offensive articles he authored as far back as 2003. Apparently shooting the messenger is a major element of what the email calls "fighting the good fight."

McCain helped invent the Blackberry?

Puh-leeze.

They can't possibly be serious. This marks a new high in stupidity for the Republicans. Didn't these guys see what happened to Al Gore when he boasted, "...I took the initiative in creating the internet"?

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the Republican presidential candidate's economics guru, was being grilled about Mr McCain's qualifications for addressing the current crisis in the markets when he made the claim.

He cited the senator's experience and leadership of the US Senate Commerce Committee, saying it placed him at the intersection of a number of economic interests, including the telecommunications industry.

And when pressed on Mr McCain's achievements on the committee, Mr Holtz-Eakin pulled out his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and declared: "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

Someone call 911, that gunshot wound to the foot has got to hurt.

The Audacity of Big Brother

No, it's not a Photoshop. That's an Obama tapestry at one of his campaign headquarters. Creepy, huh? I guess they got tired of the Che Guevara flag and decided on the new, improved Marxism poster boy. (h/t: Slublog)

This all fits a very disturbing pattern. Indulge me a moment.

I was reading an article in Rolling Stone this weekend (I wouldn't normally, but I got the rag sent to me somehow after buying Ozzfest tickets online). And while I wasn't surprised that they were unapolagetically in the tank for the Democrat nominee, I was struck by the author's accidental honesty in describing the brainless support for Obama being expressed by many of his followers:

"All of this saccharine talk of "change" is so transparently a mechanical come-on that if it were anybody but Barack Obama uttering the word, you'd want to throw up at the very sound of it. And yet, as I watch Obama deliver the same hackneyed act I've seen hundreds of times before, I feel against my will that I am actually watching something different at work."

"I ask a woman named Melanie Threatt why she thinks her life would improve under an Obama presidency. "It just will," she says. When I press her for specifics, she says, "I just think doors are going to open." You hear stuff like this a lot on Planet Obama, and it makes you wonder just what it is you're encountering. Obama's followers implicitly believe in the things he says, and the fervor of their belief is more religious than intellectual, closer to faith than to reason."

"But even I find myself being seduced by Obama, despite everything I know about the party he represents, its record and where it gets its money. There's just something about the guy; he has that effect."

Yeah, there's something about the guy, alright. Let's take a look at the accusation leveled most often: that Obama's supporters are more like a cult.

cult – noun

1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
   


2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers.
   


3. the object of such devotion.
   


4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
   


5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
   


6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
   


7. the members of such a religion or sect.
   


8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.
   

Democrats in desperation overdrive

Everyone says they want candidates to debate the issues. But the recent Obama campaign ads reveal their willingness to not only get down into the mud, but dig to new depths. Like mocking McCain's age and computer skills.



The Obama-approved campaign ad willfully overlooks the fact that it's difficult for McCain to use a keyboard due to injuries he sustained as a P.O.W. being repeatedly tortured by the Viet Cong, choosing instead to ridicule his disability as being an indication that he's "out of touch."



Nice going, Dems. I guess that's the "new kind of politics" Obama bragged about in yesterday's Freudian slip:

"If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily."

If the age/handicap smears weren't despicable enough, far-lefty loudmouth Randi Rhodes sinks even further, rabidly accused Gov. Sarah Palin of being a pedophile...



That one is so ridiculous, it's outright laughable. It reveals the despair-fueled insanity being felt by the Obama faithful, and their willingness to do anything necessary to personally destroy anyone who dares oppose The One.

FactCheck.org debunks several of the most common anti-Palin smears.

We’ve been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.

• Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she increased funding and signed a bill that will triple per-pupil funding over three years for special needs students with high-cost requirements.


• She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a “What if?” question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin’s first term.


• She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.


• Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a “courtesy” when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.


• Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska’s schools. She has said that students should be allowed to “debate both sides” of the evolution question, but she also said creationism “doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”

Most recently, freelance photographer Jill Greenberg revealed her blatant bias and unprofessionalism when she doctored out-takes of the already-unflattering photographs of McCain she took during her commissioned photoshoot for The Atlantic and used them for an anti-McCain screed on her website. Now that's a mature, substantive discussion of the issues, isn't it? The Atlantic has been forced to disavow her deranged work and apologize to McCain.

It's another page right out of Vladimir Lenin's playbook, "A lie told often enough becomes truth." And it's worked for the past 8 years of the Bush administration (no blood for oil, unjust/illegal war, etc). Clearly, these "progressives" will continue to push the boundaries of bad taste...right down the throats of voters.
---
UPDATE: Ace has some interesting accounts of "Concerned Christian Conservative Commenters" sockpuppets coming out of the woodwork and astroturfing the comments section of conservative blogs with Obama talking points. Same old desperation, now with 100% more conservative flavor!

Video: More details tying Obama to terrorist William Ayers

The melodramatic music is a bit much, but this video certainly seems to point out more details between Obama's questionable connections to the Weather Underground domestic terrorist, William Ayers. Obama himself cites the job Ayers gave him as qualification for the Senate. (h/t: Say Anything)

No wonder Obama has tried to minimize his working relationship with an admitted terrorist.

"This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis."

The facts indicate otherwise:

• They both sat on the eight-person board of the Woods Fund of Chicago from 1999 to 2002


• Ayers helped found the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Fund with Obama as the first Chairman of the Board, and 140 boxes full of documents put Obama and Ayers in the same room for meetings, retreats and at least one news conference together

Ace asks:

"How did Obama's time on the Annenberg Challenge board go from being a key bullet-point in his resume -- by his own accounting -- to one the media refuses to even mention?"

---
See also:

• Obama's history of meeting with terrorists
• Obama asks DOJ to censor Ayers ad

Study shows vegetarian diet shrinks brain

No wonder militant vegans like Pamela Anderson are such dimwits. (h/t: The Lasso of Truth)

MELBOURNE – Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.

The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87.

Like the saying goes: if we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

Obama undercuts troop withdrawal from Iraq?

Obama claims he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq. But according to this story in the New York Post, his hubris has other plans. (h/t: Ace of Spades HQ)

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."
[...]
Though Obama claims the US presence is "illegal," he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the "weakened Bush administration," Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.

Does anybody else think Obama's selfish meddling sounds like a textbook violation of the Logan Act?

The Logan Act is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.

---
Recommended reading:

• Villainous Company analyzes the pros and cons behind enforcement of the Logan Act.


• The Minority Report looks at the charges and the likelihood of action against the overweening junior senator from Illinois.

SNL video: Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler opened tonight's episode of Saturday Night Live with a great skit where they satirized Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. Fey already bears an uncanny resemblance to Palin, and she totally nailed her distinctive accent. This election season just got a lot more entertaining.
---
UPDATE: Definition of FLIRGE – First Lady I'd Rather Get Elected (than have sex with). h/t: Ragnar

Sooooo close to a new job!

I hope this post doesn't jinx it.

Just a quick update since I haven't blogged much personal stuff lately. Those of you who've read here for any length of time know that I've been out of work (well, out of full-time employment) since being laid off in April 2007. Since then, I've been working as a freelance creative for various advertising agencies in Dallas. It's been a rollercoaster ride, with periods of high activity followed by doldrums which threatened to ruin me financially. Luckily, I've managed to pay my bills every month, long enough to become somewhat successful as a freelancer. I've even got a working relationship as a creative consultant with a German ad agency who wanted my perspective on bringing their campaigns to an American audience! In addition to that, I've proven my worth to Dallas agency for whom I've been working pretty steadily since October.

A few weeks ago, I was approached to come on full-time and head up a new production department for the agency. We've been talking back and forth since then, working out the details and responsibilities of the position. Now we're down to salary. The offer they made is about 22k less than I used to make in my previous job, so I'm attempting to negotiate some kind of happy medium. I'm still waiting to hear whether my counter offer will be accepted. I know they want me for this position, all that remains is the final deal. And I'm hoping that will come through before I head home today.

If it goes through, this will mark a new chapter in my career. Not that I haven't managed departments before, because I have. But this will be slightly less creative-focused than my career path has been thus far. From that perspective, I've struggled with an initial blush of disappointment. But it has also encouraged me to re-evaluate of what I want from my career. Bottom line, I really like this agency where I'm working, I like the people, I like the work we do, and I think the opportunities are such that this is something I can really sink my teeth into. In short, I'm pretty stoked about it. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report soon.

Illinois governor weighs in on Sarah Palin's experience

Surprisingly, this endorsement of Gov. Sarah Palin's executive experience is not from a Republican pundit, but from the Democrat governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich:

“The reality is, governors every day have to make decisions for better or for worse. That’s part of the job. It’s an executive position. And it’s a position that is like what you’re going to do when you’re president. Legislators, they do different things. They debate and they pass their bills back and forth. But governors make decisions, and I think it’s a tactical mistake for the Democrats to question Gov. Palin’s experience when she’s been a governor of a state. I don’t think the size of the state is relevant. It’s the kinds of decisions you have to make as governor.”

More proof that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Anybody wanna bet Mr. Blagojevich gets taken to the woodshed this weekend?

Is Obama losing it already?

More Democrat angst at Politico. They smell what Barack is cooking and it ain't smelling like change anymore. Or victory.

“It’s more than an increased anxiety,” said Doug Schoen, who worked as one of Bill Clinton’s lead pollsters during his 1996 reelection and has worked for both Democrats and independents in recent years. “It’s a palpable frustration. Deep-seated unease in the sense that the message has gotten away from them.”

Joe Trippi, a consultant behind Howard Dean’s flash-in-the-pan presidential campaign in 2004 and John Edwards’ race in 2008, said the Obama campaign was slow to recognize how the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate would change the dynamic of the race.

“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.”
[...]
Yet still, the Obama campaign seems to be struggling to find a consistent, cohesive economic message. One can understand why aides would not want to muddy his mantra of change and his image as a post-partisan, revolutionary figure. But blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Michigan likely won’t vote for Obama because of some meta-narrative or a series of fabulous speeches.

“The [Obama] campaign is beginning to look like other campaigns,” said a former top strategist for past Democratic presidential campaigns, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
[...]
“A lot of Democratic elites thought this was a slam-dunk. And I thought, no it’s not,” said Lake, the pollster. “People in this town were already measuring drapes. And I was thinking, have you been in the real world lately?

It's still too early to gloat, there's a LOT of time between now and November. But the Obamatons keep getting peeks at the man behind the curtain, and they're seeing their messiah's "change" B.S. doesn't measure up to McCain/Palin's record of actual reform. And that's a good thing.

Bring on the debates!

Never forget: seven years later

I will never forget what happened to us that day; September 11, 2001.

I will never forget the victims of United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77, and United Airlines Flight 93.

I will never forget my shock at the sight of smoke pouring from the Pentagon and World Trade Towers.

I will never forget my anguish at seeing my fellow Americans falling out of the Towers to their untimely deaths.

I will never forget my horror at the sight of those Towers collapsing.


9:59 am Eastern Time


10:29am Eastern Time

I will also never forget my outrage at the sight of those who celebrated and danced in the streets when they heard the news of the mass murder of thousands of innocent civilians.

I will never, never, never forget how I felt that day.

But I find it difficult to fully express my feelings. And I feel inadequate to the task of commemorating such a solemn occasion. So this year, I will just give thanks.

Thank you to the brave passengers on United Flight 93, who refused to allow their plane to become another weapon to murder thousands of innocent Americans.

Thank you to the first responders who selflessly gave of themselves at the Towers and the Pentagon, courageously rescuing others at their own peril.

Thank you to the thousands (if not millions) of Americans who stepped up to help in the aftermath, giving generously to aid those affected by the 9/11 attacks.

Thank you to our military and our civilian security personnel for their vigilance in preventing another attack over the past seven years.

Thank you to President Bush and those in Congress who made the decisions to commit our forces to engage and destroy the terrorists who want us dead because we do not worship as they do.

I know it is said often, but it bears repeating: never forget. These posts and pictures are more than just catharsis. They are an important part of maintaining the willpower to achieve victory. We must not only keep our eye on the goal, we must remember our motivation as well.

On that September morning, we were not Democrats and Republicans; we were all Americans united.

"The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."

- President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001 Address to the Nation

Let's be grateful for our continued safety, let's mourn those who were taken from us, and let's renew our resolve to achieve victory over the craven bastards who wait for another opportunity to attack us.


Lan astaslem: Arabic for "I will not submit/surrender"
---
Suggested reading for today:

• Radio Patriot has news on the Pentagon Memorial
• Blackfive remembers with a petition to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 9/11 hero Rick Rescorla
• The Jawa Report says "never forget, never forgive" with a pictorial essay
• Gateway Pundit looks at seven years of safety
• Michelle Malkin has several good posts today
• Sweetness & Light offers details on Obama's empathy for terrorists
• Six Meat Buffet highlights Google's non-acknowledgement of 9/11
• Stop the ACLU quotes Keith Olbermann's attack on 9/11 remembrance
• The Pirate's Cove offers a tribute to 9/11 angels
• Jihad Watch delineates the difference between McCain's & Obama's approach to terrorism
• Crush Liberalism pulls no punches contrasting the two candidates
• Jenn of the Jungle wrote the most moving remembrance I've read today

The dirty secret behind Obama’s “change” shibboleth

The more I've looked into Barack Obama's days as a "community organizer" and his formative years studying Saul Alinsky, the more I'm disturbed by the divisive manipulation at the heart of his – and the Democrat party's – tactics: the Alinsky Method (which, in turn, is based on the Delphi Technique). Now I'm getting a better idea of why liberals rely so heavily on subtle racism and class warfare, and how Obama's "change" campaign has been so wildly successful among presumably intelligent people.

The change agent or facilitator goes through the motions of acting as an organizer, getting each person in the target group to elicit expression of their concerns about a program, project, or policy in question. The facilitator listens attentively, forms "task forces," "urges everyone to make lists," and so on. While s/he is doing this, the facilitator learns something about each member of the target group. S/He identifies the "leaders," the "loud mouths," as well as those who frequently turn sides during the argument — the "weak or noncommittal".

Suddenly, the amiable facilitator becomes "devil's advocate." S/He dons his professional agitator hat. Using the "divide and conquer" technique, s/he manipulates one group opinion against the other. This is accomplished by manipulating those who are out of step to appear "ridiculous, unknowledgeable, inarticulate, or dogmatic." S/He wants certain members of the group to become angry, thereby forcing tensions to accelerate. The facilitator is well trained in psychological manipulation. S/He is able to predict the reactions of each group member. Individuals in opposition to the policy or program will be shut out of the group.

The method works. It is very effective with parents, teachers, school children, and any community group. The "targets" rarely, if ever, know that they are being manipulated. Or, if they suspect this is happening, do not know how to end the process.

The desired result is for group polarization, and for the facilitator to become accepted as a member of the group and group process. S/He will then throw the desired idea on the table and ask for opinions during discussion. Very soon his/her associates from the divided group begin to adopt the idea as if it were their own, and pressure the entire group to accept the proposition.

This technique is a very unethical method of achieving consensus on a controversial topic in group settings. It requires well-trained professionals who deliberately escalate tension among group members, pitting one faction against the other, so as to make one viewpoint appear ridiculous so the other becomes "sensible" whether such is warranted or not.

Sounds like an exact description from the Democrat playbook – divide and conquer.

Richard Poe wrote an excellent article with numerous links detailing Alinsky's history as well as Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's indoctrination into his "method" for subtly advancing radical socialism and cloaking their true intentions with the Alinsky/Delphi technique.

In a 1971 book called Rules for Radicals, Alinsky scolded the Sixties Left for scaring off potential converts in Middle America. True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within.

Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties.
[...]
Alinsky’s crowning achievement was his recruitment of a young high school student named Hillary Rodham. She met Alinsky through a radical church group. Hillary wrote an analysis of Alinsky’s methods for her senior thesis at Wellesley College. They remained friends until Alinsky’s death in 1972.

Alinsky tried to hire Hillary as a community organizer, but she chose instead to attend Yale Law School. Nonetheless, Alinsky’s network continued guiding Hillary’s career.
[...]
Many leftists view Hillary as a sell-out because she claims to hold moderate views on some issues. However, Hillary is simply following Alinsky’s counsel to do and say whatever it takes to gain power.

Barack Obama is also an Alinskyite. Trained by Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, Obama spent years teaching workshops on the Alinsky method. In 1985 he began a four-year stint as a community organizer in Chicago, working for an Alinskyite group called the Developing Communities Project. Later, he worked with ACORN and its offshoot Project Vote, both creations of the Alinsky network.

Camouflage is key to Alinsky-style organizing. While trying to build coalitions of black churches in Chicago, Obama caught flak for not attending church himself. He became an instant churchgoer.

That Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama share an Alinskyite background tells us two things. First, they are leftists, dedicated to overthrowing our Constitutional system. Second, they will go to any length to conceal their radicalism from the public.

That is the Alinsky method. And that is today’s Democratic Party.

Pretty strong stuff. But don't take my word for it. Or even Poe's. Read some of Obama's own racist, divisive words and judge for yourself.

From The Audacity of Hope:

"It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere...That's the world! On which hope sits!"

From Dreams from My Father:

"I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites."

"To avoid being mistaken for a [racial] sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism, and patriarchy."

"It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names."

"I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela."

"Desperate times called for desperate measures, and for many blacks, times were chronically desperate. If nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence."

Obama's lipstick smear

I had to blog this yesterday as soon as I heard it on the Hugh Hewitt show. And at the time, nobody had really picked up the story other than Drudge. But it's all over the blogosphere and the news today. The McCain campaign even launched a web-only response ad (above). And the more I look at the context in which Obama made his comment, the more I'm convinced this was no coincidence. I may think Obama's dead wrong on the issues, but I don't believe he's stupid. I'm quite sure these remarks were carefully planned.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It's still a pig."

"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink."

"We've had enough of the same old thing."

Ed Morrissey notes that Obama's audience certainly picked up on the inferences in his idiom.

Given that Palin had very publicly made the lipstick/pit bull joke during her widely-seen acceptance speech, it certainly seems that Obama intended to reference both Palin and McCain respectively in this sequence, with Palin being the pig and McCain the "old fish" wrapped in change. The crowd certainly understood what Obama meant, and roared appreciatively.

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UPDATE: One of Michelle Malkin's readers has an awesome idea..."disgruntled women should send Obama their lipstick." Oink for Obama!

Here's the mailing address:
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003

DNC Main Phone Number:
(202) 863-8000

Obama's campaign address: (thanks to commenter Mediakatz)
Obama for America
P.O. Box 8102
Chicago, IL 60680

Obama's campaign headquarters phone number:
(866) 675-2008

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UPDATE: Here's another reason to disbelieve Obama's huffing denials and feigned outrage. This lipstick kerfuffle is looking more and more like the result of a carefully planned and disseminated Obamaton talking point that backfired. Yesterday, Rep. Russ Carnahan (D- MO) introduced Obama's running-mate Sen. Joe Biden with the following line: (h/t: Allahpundit)

"There's no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick."

Midweek Peek 09.10.08

Since The Sarah Connor Chronicles started again this week, this week's peek is Summer Glau as the terminator named Cameron.

Did Obama call Sarah Palin a pig?

I heard this on the radio tonight and it sounded so outrageous, I had to look it up just to see if it was true.

Looks like it is (and Hugh Hewitt has the clip).

Obama seems to be getting really defensive now that his "change" rhetoric is being undercut by the record of actual change accomplished by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

So did Obama just shoot himself in the foot? Judge for yourself.

Lebanon, VA – Barack Obama says the John McCain-Sarah Palin policies don’t represent change, they’re "just calling the same thing something different."

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig," Obama said during a town-hall style event here Tuesday night.

The comment played on Republican vice presidential candidate Palin’s joke during the Republican National Convention that the only difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom was lipstick.

Obama has a history of making sexist remarks. That's misogyny we can believe in, sweetie.

What did Obama do – and learn – as a community organizer?

Ok, so extravagant campaign spending aside, let's look at Sen. Obama's other supposed qualification for the Oval Office – his time as a community organizer in Chicago. Byron York examines his record and his memoirs to reveal the man behind the catchphrase.

Perhaps the simplest way to describe community organizing is to say it is the practice of identifying a specific aggrieved population, say unemployed steelworkers, or itinerant fruit-pickers, or residents of a particularly bad neighborhood, and agitating them until they become so upset about their condition that they take collective action to put pressure on local, state, or federal officials to fix the problem, often by giving the affected group money. Organizers like to call that "direct action."

Community organizing is most identified with the left-wing Chicago activist Saul Alinsky (1909-72), who pretty much defined the profession. In his classic book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky wrote that a successful organizer should be "an abrasive agent to rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; to fan latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expressions." Once such hostilities were "whipped up to a fighting pitch," Alinsky continued, the organizer steered his group toward confrontation, in the form of picketing, demonstrating, and general hell-raising. At first, the organizer tackled small stuff, like demanding the repair of streetlights in a city park; later, when the group gained confidence, the organizer could take on bigger targets. But at all times, the organizer's goal was not to lead his people anywhere, but to encourage them to take action on their own behalf.
[...]
We look to formative experiences to help us understand presidential candidates. Visit an aircraft carrier in wartime and you'll learn something about John McCain. Pilots fly off the deck, and sometimes they come back, and sometimes they don't. One day, McCain didn't, and began the time as a prisoner of war that both revealed his character and launched his political career. No matter what he has done since, the U.S. Navy is the culture that made McCain, with his heavy emphasis on duty, honor, and country.

Community organizing is just as essential in understanding Obama. But what does it say about him?

The first thing is that he has a talent for, well, organizing. Everyone who worked with Obama says he was good at the job. And he has used the techniques he learned in Chicago to organize his own presidential campaign, going so far as to enlist Mike Kruglik to help start a "Camp Obama" program to instill organizing principles into Obama supporters. The result is a campaign that even Obama's opponents admit is a very impressive operation.

But Obama's time in Chicago also revealed the conventionality of his approach to the underlying problems of the South Side. Is the area crippled by a culture of dysfunction? Demand summer jobs. Push for an after-school program. Convince the city to spend more on this or that. It was the same old stuff; Obama could think outside the box on ways to organize people, but not on what he was organizing them for.
[...]
When he left for law school, Obama wondered what he had accomplished as an organizer. He certainly had some achievements, but he did not — perhaps could not — concede that there might be something wrong with his approach to Chicago's problems. Instead of questioning his own premises, he concluded that he simply needed more power to get the job done. So he made plans to run for political office. And in each successive office, he has concluded that he did not have enough power to get the job done, so now he is running for the most powerful office in the land.

Over the next few months, keep your eye out for Obama's solution to everything; most notably the powerful hammer of government, forcing the square Marxist peg into the round capitalist hole.
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UPDATE: In case you haven't done any reading on Saul Alinsky, here are two quotes which offer an interesting view into the core values of radical Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who follow Alinsky's philosophy.

"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history...the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer."

Yep, quite an interesting starting point for "change": follow Satan's example. Nice one.

Dostoevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution.

Demoralization we can believe in?

Obama having difficulty managing his campaign budget

We've been asked to believe the ridiculous assertion that despite his lack of legislative accomplishments or executive experience, Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States because...he's run a campaign to be President of the United States.

Even if we were inclined to believe such circular logic, Obama's campaign management skills aren't all they're cracked up to be:

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

At a convention-week meeting in Denver of the campaign’s top fund-raisers, buttons with the image of a money tree were distributed to those who had already contributed the maximum $2,300 to the general election, a subtle reminder to those who had failed to ante up.

The signs of concern have become evident in recent weeks as early fund-raising totals have suggested that Obama’s decision to bypass public financing may not necessarily afford him the commanding financing advantage over Senator John McCain that many had originally predicted.
[...]
The Obama campaign does not have to report its August fund-raising totals until next week, so it is difficult to tally what it has in the bank at this point. A spokesman said that August was its best fund-raising month yet and that the campaign's fund-raising was on track. But the campaign finished July with slightly less cash on hand with the Democratic National Committee compared with McCain and the R.N.C. The Obama campaign has also been spending heavily, including several million more than the McCain campaign in advertising in August.

Having trouble living within a budget, Sen. Obama? Don't worry, if all goes your way, soon you'll just be able to raise taxes (only on the evil rich, of course) whenever you want more money to spend.
---
UPDATE: Slublog notes some examples of how Barry likes to spend other people's money.

And then of course there was the $3 million the campaign spent gratifying Obama's ego with a stadium rental and Greek temple. You've got to wonder how these donors who are now being pressured feel about the campaign's completely out of control spending. According to the Weekly Standard, Obama spends nearly 10 times as much on event staging and two and a half times as much on lodging, to start.

Speaking of budgets, contrast Obama's spending with Gov. Sarah Palin's. The Washington Post ran an attack piece today which attempts to paint her as an extravagant (and, as inferred by the headline, unethical) spender, but ultimately proves her per diem and travel expenses were not only legal, they were 1/5 of that spent by her predecessor.

Desperate Obamatons create Sambo attack on Sarah Palin

Man, you can tell the looney left is really coming unglued with the arrival of Sarah Palin and the post-convention bounce now giving McCain a 54%-44% lead over Barack Obama.

So far, they've been content to hurl invective like "Caribou Barbie" and "Failin' Palin". But now that they're seeing the way conservatives have embraced her in a way heretofore reserved for their Obamessiah, they're ratcheting up the hate machine in a frantic attempt to discredit her.

Cue the racism smears:

Via Newsbusters – A new whisper campaign is forming in the blogosphere and creeping into web search engines across the internet as a self proclaimed e-zine called "LA Progressive" is spreading a false rumor that Sarah Palin called Barack Obama 'Sambo' while dining in an Alaska restaurant. Charley James, the author of the article that is unlikely to have his blogspot site shut down for Obama bias, also claims through 'anonymous sources' that Palin called Hillary Clinton a "b#^@h" in the same breath. It is getting pretty desperate out there.
...
Some may point out that LA Progressive is just a small time internet site and that may be true; but this junket of a story is actually getting exposure. It has appeared on Memeorandum, Google and Yahoo Buzz. It appears that some readers have been successful in getting some sites to remove the actual story from their news sections. The story has already been removed from multiple Craigslist boards and the Newsvine community has followed suit.

Of course that hasn't stopped the Daily Kos from feeding into the 'smear Palin' frenzy. Before you write off The Daily Kos as a potential vehicle for spreading lies and rumors I shall remind you that a couple of Congressmen have active diaries there and it has been host to many politicians over time. A site that prominently boasts top leaders in the Democratic Party as guests, writers and diarists is often lent a certain amount of credibility by association. Noel Shepherd reported earlier today that netroots are often the source for lies that make their way into the mainstream media consciousness.

Michelle Malkin has been tracking the venom also and points out radical Democrats' history of maligning politicians with racial epithets.

Florida Gators whip Miami Hurricanes 26-3!

Go Gators!

In front of a Ben Hill Griffin Stadium record crowd of 90,833 fans and a national television audience watching on ESPN, the fifth-ranked Gators (2-0) handed Miami a 26-3 defeat on Saturday night. The victory snapped a six-game Florida losing streak against the Hurricanes dating back to 1985. The win improved UF head coach Urban Meyer to a perfect 6-0 against in-state opponents, outscoring the opponents by a 227-56 margin. Miami’s three points were the fewest the Hurricanes have scored against the Gators since an 18-0 Florida shutout in 1960.

Junior quarterback Tim Tebow (Jacksonville, Fla.) was 21-of-35 for 256 yards and two touchdowns and rushed 13 times for 55 yards. He established a school record with 130 consecutive passes without an interception and also surpassed UF legend Steve Spurrier on Florida’s all-time total offensive yards list to move into ninth place with 5,473 total yards.

Obama finally admits the surge worked

A little Monday morning quarterbacking from Obama.

The troop surge in Iraq has been more successful than anyone could have imagined, Barack Obama conceded Thursday in his first-ever interview on FOX News' "The O'Reilly Factor."

As recently as July, the Democratic presidential candidate declined to rate the surge a success, but said it had helped reduce violence in the country. On Thursday, Obama acknowledged the 2007 increase in U.S. troops has benefited the Iraqi people.

"I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated," Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. "I've already said it's succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."

Yeah, nice bit of history revision there, Barry. Nobody anticipated the success of our soldiers in Iraq? Just keep telling yourself that to feel better about your profoundly misguided opposition. Good thing you weren't commander-in-chief, huh?

McCain makes his case for the presidency

Yesterday was a killer for me. I was completely snowed under with work, didn't really get to blog about Sarah Palin's speech in as much detail as I would have liked, and didn't get home until almost 10:00pm. So I had to watch McCain's speech when it was rebroadcast after midnight.

Although I've never been that impressed with John McCain's oratory skills, I though he did a pretty good job last night.

There truly was some "straight talk", especially when he addressed his own responsibility in Congress' collective propensity for living in their own little world of power struggles, petty politics, and ever-growing government.

I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger. We lost their trust when instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties and Senator Obama passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies. We lost their trust, when we valued our power over our principles.

And here's what I thought was one of his better moments:

I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

Here's the rest of his speech, in case you didn't catch it.


(video re-posted to eliminate that annoying "auto-play")

I noticed McCain didn't say a single thing about border security or immigration last night. I was VERY disappointed about that.

I hate to admit it, but I'm way more enthused about Sarah Palin than I am about John McCain (and no, not because she's hot...although she is). I think her addition to this ticket really marks a new chance for Republicans to rebrand themselves to the American people who've been programmed to hate conservatives. To wit; the agency where I work is filled with young people who display Obama stickers on their cubicles and are often prone to bouts of leftist rhetoric, and when I gently probe for further meaning (keep in mind, I'm freelancing here and don't wanna get myself booted from the job), I've found that every single one of them doesn't really know why they believe what they do. Nor can they even explain what their party's policies will do to our society and economy. They've just heard it that way, so they believe it. Thanks a pantload to MTV and Michael Moore.

I've been very uninspired by McCain ever since I heard he was gonna be the nominee. And I've already blogged about several reasons why McCain doesn't deserve my vote (see also: The McCain Quandary). But I must admit, the RNC has done a pretty good job of telling Americans who John McCain is and why this man deserves the presidency. I still believe we'd have been better served by Fred Thompson or Duncan Hunter, but since that isn't gonna happen and since I just can't stomach the Trotsky-style Marxism being pushed by Obama/Biden, I'm going to have to find a way to be at peace with the idea of voting for McCain. The past three days have helped a little.

Obamessiah non sequitur

Via Jim Treacher:

A commenter at QandO was nice enough to explain the difference between Obama Black Nixon and Palin:

Jesus was a community organizer. Pilate was a governor.

Hey, you know who else was a community organizer? Don Corleone.

(insert rim shot here)

Sarah Palin's speech

In case you didn't already see what all the buzz is about, here's the entire acceptance speech for the VP slot given by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at the RNC last night.

The double standard for Sarah Palin

I had a long workday yesterday and went straight from the office to my local watering hole for food, fun, and karaoke with friends, so I didn't get the chance to watch the RNC until after midnight. But upon viewing the re-broadcast and watching Sarah Palin's speeches, I must admit I was impressed. She was absolutely terrific.

And Obama's handlers must be absolutely terrified.

The Alaska governor took the stage last night at the RNC and knocked one out of the proverbial park. And it didn't even take 5 minutes for the establishment to pat her on the head and say, "Aww, isn't she cute? I bet someone wrote that for you, didn't they?"

But the patronizing didn't end with the mainstream media. The Obama camp, whose leader can't seem to speak without a teleprompter, sharpened their knives and started in on Palin as well.

News flash: all politicians have professional speech writers.

What they don't all have is the poise, humor, and character that has made this firebrand the darling of the Republican party, and the bane of the liberal left.

Whatever happened to that meme of the "strong woman" that we're all supposed to respect? Oh, I forgot, they probably meant to say "strong LIBERAL woman".

Pam Meister noticed the same thing:

It’s funny how Hillary Clinton was lauded for her lack of baking skills, but Sarah Palin’s dedication to her career is questioned by self-annointed elitist feminists like Sally Quinn because Palin has lots of children, one with special needs, and a pregnant teenaged daughter. It’s amazing what a difference the capital “R” after your name can make.

Pam really did a yeoman's job of annotating Palin's speech, do yourself a favor and check it out.

(By the way, I was gonna write a LOT more about the speech, but today has just been crazy busy for me. So check out these fine folks who did a much better job saying what I was going to say.)

Flopping Aces did the same, with plenty of "greatest hits" quotes.

"Here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.
And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

"This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn’t just need an organizer."

Powerline elaborated on what Newt Gingrich pointed out yesterday:

The Associated Press, a solidly Democratic institution, can't deny that Sarah Palin socked it to the Dems tonight, as they headline: "Palin delivers star-turning performance at RNC." The AP begins: "Sarah Palin delivered." From there, they go on to do all they can to mitigate the basic point, describing Palin as "embattled," and a "novice" who "lacked the soaring oratory skills of Obama."

Which raises an interesting point: I really don't believe the Republicans are smart enough to pull this off, but how can it be bad that our Vice-Presidential candidate is constantly being compared to the Dems' Presidential candidate?

The Wall Street Journal picks up on what's causing all the anti-Palin animosity from the left: fear.

Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain’s veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose a threat to their coronation of Barack Obama and the return of Camelot-on-the-Potomac...

They want a VP to be a kind of parliamentary choice, someone they have already vetted, someone who’s made them laugh with insider jokes at the Gridiron dinner. The Beltway class whines constantly about how it wants fresh voices in politics, but we guess this means a first-term Democratic Senator rather than a first-term Republican Governor from some godforsaken U.S. state few of them have ever been to.

We are instructed that Mrs. Palin isn’t qualified, because she lacks Washington experience. But until recently that was said to be a virtue in Mr. Obama, who is at the top of his ticket. Meanwhile, there’s hardly a peep of media notice that the Obama campaign is preposterously trying to remake Joe Biden into a poor scrapper from Scranton when he’s been in the Senate for 36 years. They all know Joe. But when Mr. McCain picks an authentic middle-class mother who is also a Governor, we are told she’s not up to the job.

Ed Morrissey gets right down to the reason for the left's anxiety over Palin.

The outrage has little to do with experience, and almost everything to do with being outfoxed by McCain. The media expected a staid, boring, safe white man that they could pigeonhole. Instead, they got a dynamic, successful, smart conservative "hockey mom" with a record of reform that Barack Obama cannot match and that is the antithesis of Joe Biden. They got knocked out of their lane, and now they have to figure out how to explain how they could possibly have overlooked Palin in their calculations. Presto! They overlooked her because she's so inexperienced!

Palin's home run RNC speech!

Here are some of the highlights from Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC last night. This morning's a busy one for me, so I'll be back with more in a little while.

Sarah Palin facts

Before her RNC speech tonight, here's a bit of silly fun, Chuck Norris-style: (h/t: The Corner)

Little Known Facts About the Alaska Governor

• Sarah Palin is on loan from the Justice League.


• Iran’s nuclear program is a response to Sarah Palin.


• Global Warming doesn’t kill polar bears. Sarah Palin does - usually with her bare hands.


• It’s not raining in DC. Those are God’s tears of joy that McCain picked Sarah Palin.


• Sarah Palin turned down a job as skipper of a Deadliest Catch boat because it wasn’t challenging enough.


• Sarah Palin is the reason compasses point North.


• Sarah Palin’s brain is three times the size of Joe Biden’s. It’s science.

Contrasting Sarah Palin's experience with Obama's, part 2

Newt Gingrich brings the heat, comparing resumes between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama. (h/t: Flopping Aces)

Allahpundit quips:

Jonah Goldberg’s correct that the talking point about leading the Alaska National Guard sounds lame, and to the extent Newt means Palin showed guts in taking on an incumbent governor, Barry O surely showed some too in challenging the Clinton machine that ruled the party as of last year. Righteous stuff otherwise, though. I only wish he’d thought to call out The One’s charming habit of demeaning Palin by referring to her as the mayor of Wasilla instead of the governor of Alaska. Perhaps she’ll return the compliment tonight by addressing him as the state senator from Chicago.

Muslims, war, and Metallica's new video: The Day That Never Comes

Seeing how Metallica has a habit of knocking down sharing of their music, I don't know how long this video will be functional. But I wanted to go ahead and post it. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Last night, my girlfriend traci told me about this video from Metallica's upcoming album "Death Magnetic" and wanted to know what I thought about it. When I started watching it and saw that it was about war (purposely ambiguous about whether it's set in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere), I was leery that it would have some kind of heavy-handed message. What I saw instead was an interesting story that reveals the connection between suspicion and cautious forgiveness that I liked. Metallica frontman James Hetfield explained it this way:

"The main [theme of the video] is the human element of forgiveness and someone doing you wrong, you feeling resentment and you being able to see through that in the next situation that might be similar and not take your rage or resentment out on the next person and basically keep spreading the disease of that through life."

traci was surprised that I enjoyed the video and we had a good conversation about it. Since I have strong opinions about Islamic radicalism and am vehemently opposed to terrorism in Allah's name, she had thought that I would dislike the portrayal of the Arabic-looking civilians in the latter half of the video. I found it very realistic, with the soldiers cautiously approaching with weapons trained and only after both people expressed their need for assistance and demonstrated their peaceful intentions did the soldiers lower their rifles and render aid. To me, it looked pretty accurate to how our brave men & women conduct themselves with honor every day, carefully walking into dangerous situations and helping those in need.

It got me thinking, if someone who knows me well thinks I'd instantly dislike anybody Arabic-looking or Muslim, I can only imagine what my readers here must think of my views on tolerance and a live-and-let-live philosophy. Yes, I use sarcasm to skewer the "religion of peace" label that's often used to excuse Islamic intolerance and violence. But make no mistake, I wish to peacefully coexist with Muslims who are willing to coexist with me (and every other non-Muslim). Clearly, I've not been expressing myself well over the past few years and it's something I will strive to do better in the future.

Breaking: Desperate Democrats release Sarah Palin's SSN and address

Alaska Democrats are getting desperate. They (most likely Tony Knowles; her opponent in the 2006 Alaska gubernatorial race) have released Sarah Palin's social security number to Politico.com as part of their "opposition research". RedState is chronicling the "ethics" of the Democrat party.

The Politico has received an opposition research file from the Alaska Democrats. You can read it in PDF here.

In the file, the Democrats have released Sarah Palin's social security number minus the last four digits. Also tied to the information are her various home addresses.

Back in 2005, Democrats used Michael Steele's social security number to get his credit record.

It is atrocious that the Democrats would not only seek out Sarah Palin's social security number, but release it in opposition research to the press.

We need to know who did this. We also need to know what happened. We also need to know if it was used to bolster the Democrats' opposition research.
...
It's ironic the party that thinks only Republicans invade privacy, invaded the privacy of Sarah Palin enough to learn her social security number and distribute it to the media.

Alaska has a very strong law against identity theft and the leaking of sensitive personal information (Social Security Numbers are not public record). Someone could be going to jail for this.

Alaska’s HB 65 restricts the request, collection, sale, and sharing of Social Security numbers by both private parties and government agencies. The new law contains limited exceptions for specific purposes such as for insurance, medical services, fraud prevention, law enforcement, or when the use of Social Security numbers is required by law.

Liberals have howled for years about government surveillance of Americans who engage in overseas communication with terrorists. How convenient that they now overlook personal privacy when it comes to their political opponents. Clearly, they believe terrorists are to be given greater consideration than fellow Americans of a different political party.

I wonder if Obama will denounce this unethical behavior by Democrat operatives, or if he'll allow his surrogates to continue their dirty work while he retains plausible deniablity? To his credit, at least he's issued some strong statements against involving families in politics. Let's hope he'll be as vocal about illegal violations of privacy.

Dunny Series 5 launches tomorrow

Great. As if I needed yet another temptation to further thin my wallet, the new Dunny series 5 launches tomorrow!

Start the countdown, the epic legend of the world's greatest vinyl canvas continues September 4 with Dunny Series 5! Collect 19 new and insanely detailed designs by the biggest players out there, blind boxed for $6.95 each. If luck is on your side, you’ll find 1 of 600 Golden Tickets redeemable for an elusive, 3-inch Huck Gee.

Artists include Amanda Visell, Aya Kakeda, Clutter, Devilrobots, Dirty Donny, Frank Kozik, Huck Gee, JMGS//Jellymon, Jesse LeDoux, JK5, Junko Mizuno, Kathie Olivas, MAD, Mad Barbarians, MISHKA, Reach, Sneaky Raccoon, Steven Harrington, TOOFLY.

Midweek Peek 09.03.08

Christina Aguilera

Sarah Palin's experience surpasses Obama's

As James Carville famously said to Bill Clinton during his 1992 campaign, "It's the economy, stupid."

And while leftards consume themselves with pathetic attempts to dig up decades-old dirt on McCain's new veep candidate Sarah Palin, more details are emerging which demonstrate her experience as a smart executive.

James Pethokoukis at US News and World Report lists some of Palin's tax cutting and balanced budget policies from when she was mayor of Wasilla:

[her team]"...invited investment and encouraged business growth by eliminating small business inventory taxes, eliminated personal property taxes, reduced real property tax mill levies every year I was in office, reduced fees, and built the infrastructure our businesses needed to grow and prosper."

Among her tax other reductions, courtesy of the Cato Institute, were a $20 million tax credit for film production in the state, a $2 million repeal in tires taxes, a $40 million suspension of the state fuel tax, and a 50 percent cut in the annual business license fee. Plus, there was a $1,200 tax rebate that came from raising taxes on oil companies. Now that last bit sticks in the craw of conservatives. But pro-Palin forces point out that those tax hikes merely reversed some tax breaks obtained by bribery.

For more details on that tax increase, Cary Wesberry at Townhall.org has collected some of the history on Palin's role as a corruption fighter and capable reformer while serving as Alaska's governor:

After rampant corruption was stopped and criminal politicians, along with oil executives, fined and/or thrown in jail, Sarah Palin set out to reverse the damage done...Governor Palin did what any conservative worth their own soul would have done. She gave tax dollars that were literally stolen from Alaskan taxpayers right back to them and appropriately reversed corrupt tax policy. Not only did she bring ethics back to the tax policy in regards to the oil industry in Alaska, she improved the policy itself in her proposal.

The tax raises when oil prices are high, and falls when oil prices are low. This give amazing incentive for the oil companies to produce more oil, which increases supply, and lowers prices for everyone including the taxes they themselves pay the state.

Remember that the next time you fill up your tank. And the next time someone uses "fairness" to cloak an agenda of class warfare. We need leaders willing to stand up to backroom deals with a firm belief in economic responsibility and the people's right to keep more of what they earn. Despite McCain's faults, he seems to have scored big in this regard with Sarah Palin. She's a leader with a record of real change and accomplishment, not just fancy rhetoric from a teleprompter.

Gratuitous Sarah Palin bikini post

Now that the far left has released the hounds, they're scrambling like mad to find pictures of Sarah Palin – then Sarah Heath – in a bikini (see update below). They're guessing that far-right voters are so sexually repressed, they'd refuse to vote for a former beauty contestant who wore a skimpy bathing suit.

Although I'm not on the far right, let me be the first to say that swimsuit pics of Sarah Palin won't mean squat to me.

Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.

If someone has pictures of Palin in a bikini – then or now – please send 'em to me. Seeing that she was Miss Wasilla and first runner-up in the Miss Alaska contest back in 1984, I'm betting they'd make a helluva Midweek Peek!
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UPDATE Don't be fooled by this bad Photoshop forgery that's making the rounds. Whoever did it must either have also worked on the fauxtography for China's Olympic fireworks or Iran's recent missile tests.

UPDATE: Ace and see-dubya have the buzz and Right Wing News has already posted the unretouched original.

Why Bristol Palin is a non-issue for me

I'm not gonna waste much time on this because I don't see what the big deal is about Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter. She got pregnant. Big deal. Although regrettable, it's not something that reflects on Palin as a mother. I've known several good families who've found themselves in similar situations, despite the availability of birth control and an open atmosphere where contraception has been discussed.

Newsflash: teenagers can be pretty stupid.

I do disagree with the position taken by Palin, McCain, and those that believe abstinence-only is the way to go in sex education. I think it's a HUGE mistake to leave contraception out of the mix. I can understand the arguments that it sends mixed messages, and I disagree with handing out contraceptives in schools; that truly does come across as school-endorsed sex. But at the end of the day, I think teaching contraception and recommending abstinence is the smart way to go about it.

The proof in this pudding is how the Palin family is handling their situation. And to me, they're doing it rather well. Bristol is keeping her baby and marrying the father, as opposed to how Obama has claimed he would help his daughters get an abortion:

"Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

From what I've read, the Palins are staying true to their beliefs. If they were sneaking an abortion, I could see how this would be an issue of hypocrisy. But they didn't, so it isn't.

The only thing I've seen about Sarah Palin so far that I'm not so sure about is the fact that she's poised to step into the Vice Presidency with a new baby with special needs. But I'm guessing that if she and her husband have discussed how to manage their family in the event they make it to the White House, that's their decision to make.

In the meantime, I'd like to think that the extreme leftists such as those on the Daily Kos would heed Obama's call to "back off" the attacks on Palin's family. But something tells me they just won't be able to help themselves. All that Bush Derangement Syndrome animosity has to be redirected somewhere.

Obama makes history again

No wonder there's been such a stir over Barack's birth certificate! (h/t: Writemarsh)