Thursday, July 31, 2008

I got sunshine

Phony Greenies

My co-blogger Mick Stockinger at UNCoRRELATED has a great post, including this:
Its a tremendous irony to realize that the complex of hotels, gift shops, gas stations and restaurants surrounding Old Faithful occupies a larger footprint than what has been described as the ANWR oil recovery complex--all this in an "environmentally-sensitive" national park.

Obama & His Women-Hating Friends

Barack Obama has been courting people of faith with pious talk, abetted by the MSM. (In reality his plan would most surely gut real faith-based programs. In reality he is a cold-blooded extremist.) Now a rapper Obama favors on his iPod, Ludacris, releases a new song calling Hillary a bitch, sparking a fierce backlash from her supporters. Erika Alexander, BlogHer:
But this is much bigger than Hillary. Let's put it in perspective. Would you sit back and be silent while Coretta Scott King was insulted on a daily basis, as sport, without the outrage and defense of others? We are so used to hearing women demeaned in our music (and culture) that it has become the first note of the down beat on a phat track. If any of us ignore these attacks it is only a matter of time until they come for all of us. If we say nothing, we are all complicit.
It's not just Hillary supporters who are taken aback, count me among the outraged, not so much for the word itself, but for the hatred, (which we have seen before among his close supporters--among his spiritual advisers!)--and the hypocrisy. Obama campaign response. Via Ben Smith, The Politico (emphasis mine):
"As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to," said spokesman Bill Burton. "This song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics."
But this is not the first time one of Obama's rapper favorites has surfaced--as one his daughter likes to dance to. David Brody, CBN recalls Obama talking about his 3 year old liking Snoop's Drop It Like It's Hot. What are Barack and Michelle thinking to expose their kids to this trash?--demeaning to women--no wonder Michelle's so angry! (Oh, but after all, they brought their daughters to listen to the Rev. Wright's raunchy and racist sermons at a tender age, for years, so why should we be surprised?) Video of Obama on the subject back in 2004: I have never heard these Snoop lyrics--have you? Brody asks--how will this play in the heartland--judge for yourself. Would you let your little one listen to this?:

[Intro]
Snooooooooooop..
Snooooooooooop..

[Chorus - Snoop Dogg]
When the pimp's in the crib ma
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When the pigs try to get at yea
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
And if a nigga get a attitude
Pop it like it's hot
Pop it like it's hot
Pop it like it's hot
I got the rolly on my arm and I'm pouring Chandon
And I roll the best weed cause I got it going on

[Verse - Pharrell Williams]
Uh! I'm a nice dude, with some nice dreams
See these ice cubes, see these Ice Creams?
Eligible bachelor, million dollar boat
That's whiter than what's spilling down your throat
The Phantom, exterior like fish eggs
The interior like suicide wrist red
I can excercise you, this can be your Phys. Ed
Cheat on your man ma, that's how you get ahizzead
Killer wit the beat, I know killers in the street
Wit the steel that'll make you feel like Chinchilla in the heat
So don't try to run up on my ear talking all that raspy shit
Trying to ask me shit
When my niggaz fill ya vest they ain't gon pass me shit
You should think about it, take a second
Matter fact, you should take four B
And think before you fuck wit lil skateboard P

[Chorus]

[Verse - Snoop Dogg]
I'm a gangsta, but y'all knew that
Da Big Boss Dogg, yeah I had to do that
I keep a blue flag hanging out my backside
But only on the left side, yeah that's the Crip side
Ain't no other way to play the game the way I play
I cut so much you thought I was a DJ
[scratches] "two!" - "one!" - "yep, three!"
S-N double O-P, D-O double G
I can't fake it, just break it, and when I take it
See I specialize in making all the girls get naked
So bring your friends, all of y'all come inside
We got a world premiere right here, now get live!
So don't change the dizzle, turn it up a little
I got a living room full of fine dime brizzles
Waiting on the Pizzle, the Dizzle and the Shizzle
G's to the bizzack, now ladies here we gizzo

[Chorus]

[Verse - Snoop Dogg]
I'm a Bad Boy, wit a lotta ho's
Drive my own cars, and wear my own clothes
I hang out tough, I'm a real Bo$$
Big Snoop Dogg, yeah he's so sharp
On the TV screen and in the magazines
If you play me close, you're on a red beam
Oh you got a gun so you wanna pop back?
AK47 now nigga, stop that!
Cement shoes, now I'm on the move
You're family's crying, now you on the news
They can't find you, and now they miss you
Must I remind you I'm only here to twist you
Pistol whip you, dip you then flip you
Then dance to this motherfucking music we crip to
Subscribe nigga, get yo issue
Baby come close, let me see how you get loose!

[Chorus]

[Outro]
Snooooooooooop..
Snooooooooooop..
This is sick. Obama mildly says Ludacris "should be ashamed". Barack--why are all these disgusting people your friends and supporters? Once again--why is your hope based on hate?

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

McCain Ad: Celeb

UPDATE: Obama wants to pay reparations, like the most leftist of Chicago politicians. Hugh Hewitt on the slavish MSM coverage, and absolutely right with this:
A McCain presidency would be grounded on the firm conviction of American greatness and exceptionalism, as well as the uniqueness of the American mission in the world.

Obama's would be built on the "mature" understanding of America's many past sins, its enormous greed and grasping, its unfair use of vast quantities of resources and its need to respect world opinion and world institutions even when those opinions and institutions are at cross-purposes with American national interests.

Is American greatness the engine of the world, or American guilt an explanation for it?

Obama is rightly getting hammered for skipping a meeting with wounded American warriors in German --the WaPo tries to give Obama some cover, but the only fact that matters is that Obama committed to going and then he didn't go-- but the real story of the past ten days is his full unveiling as Europe's candidate for the presidency, with an attitude and a platform indistinguishable from the standard critique America has been receiving for fifty years from the people it rescued sixty years ago.

The rapidly spreading understanding of Obama as an arrogant elitist with an enormous sense of entitlement combined with an awesome contempt for America as it has been in the post World War II era accounts for the air escaping from the Obama boomlet. Tromping through Europe to the wild applause of the anti-America left is a big flare for most voters. "Who is this guy, and why isn't he lecturing Europe on its gratitude gap?"
And Obama begins to earn the mockery of the Washington Post's prime mocker. If the Big O's not careful, he may begin to seem too much the incumbent. The Left attack dogs may get confused. The Rose Garden strategy may not work.

Homeowners' Rights

The Tribune is shocked, shocked that some realtors on the north shore are fighting back against the nanny-state mentality that is eroding our freedom as homeowners:
The wealthy North Shore has become ground zero for a well-funded Realtors group that has launched campaigns to fight everything from the creation of historic districts to sprinkler requirements for new homes.

Using techniques normally associated with well-heeled political campaigns, the North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors (NSBAR) has launched Web sites, sent out slick mailings, placed automated telephone calls, conducted opinion polls and used other tools to rally support for the group's position on issues loosely grouped under the umbrella of homeowners' rights.
If the Trib reporter thinks the proponents of the nanny state aren't slick or politically connected, think again. And again. My friend earlier here. Wilmette Life here. More here.

And who was being political here? Who initially went national? I remember when the national group took over the Kenilworth train station with signs and flashy media coverage--in an attempt to intimidate and preempt debate.

I live in an old house, and it's on a street that's on the preservation list. But we homeowners all agreed to it after careful consideration we would not be bound in any way. Making the whole village a district seems dictatorial.

Meeks Targets New Trier

Sun Times:

Mayor Daley said Tuesday he understands state Sen. James Meeks' frustration about the school funding disparity between rich and poor districts, but he said that doesn't justify an opening day boycott.

A South Side pastor with a huge congregation, Meeks has pledged to keep "several thousand" Chicago public school students out of class Sept. 2. Instead, he and fellow pastors will try to enroll them in the wealthy New Trier district in Winnetka.

Um, Rev. Meeks. It's mostly not the money. And you shouldn't have sold out to Rod Blagojevich. Good luck with the liberals at New Trier.

P.S. Does Barack know about this?:) Might cost him the love of some upscale liberals.

Gender Bender by the Left

Well I'm no math genius, but the story that there was no math gender gap seemed strange to me, because it doesn't square with the evidence I've observed. I thought it was perhaps that boys had been horribly dumbed down and worn down by the feminized outcome-based education (math "journals", etc.) which rules today. But now we have confirmation the story is wrong. Canada's National Post, "Larry Summers' Revenge":
Unfortunately, journalists of both sexes tend to not be math geniuses. Few of them anywhere on the continent noticed that Ms. Hyde's data actually come a lot closer to supporting Mr. Summers' hypothesis than they do to refuting it.

The study certainly does confirm that there is probably no difference between males and females in math ability, on average. This means that, if one were to plot out the observed mathematical proficiency of a large number of male and female individuals, the resulting graphical pattern would produce two sex-segregated bell curves centred on roughly the same average point.

But that doesn't mean the two profiles would be identical. Decades worth of data show that male populations exhibit greater variance in their observed mathematical ability (and their intelligence more generally, for that matter). This means that men exhibit "fatter tails" on their bell curve, with more statistical outliers in the far-flung domains of genius on one side, and total dullard on the other. In the case of women, on the other hand, typical psychometric findings show their abilities to be clustered more tightly around the mean.
I remember the Summers' flap--the universities have been dumbed down too by the priestesses of political correctness, including Harvard.

Heather MacDonald also takes the study apart in CityJournal:

The Science researchers themselves try to downplay the significance of the two-to-one ratio for whites—the vast majority of students—on the grounds that it should produce a 67 percent to 33 percent disparity in male-to-female representation in math-dependent fields. Yet Ph.D. programs for engineering, they say, contain only about 15 percent women. Therefore, the authors conclude, “gender differences in math performance, even among high scorers, are insufficient to explain lopsided gender patterns in participation in some [science and math] fields.”

This reasoning is flawed, however, because the tests used in their study are pathetically easy compared with what would be required of engineering or other rigorous math-based Ph.D.s. The researchers got their data from math tests devised by individual states to fulfill their annual testing obligations under the federal No Child Left Behind act. NCLB has produced a mad rush to the bottom, as many states crafted easier and easier reading and math tests to show their federal overseers how well their schools are doing.
Give it up feminists, liberals, and the NY Times--you are harming your own credibility with these bogus claims. And doesn't it bother you that you may be harming boys, some very poor, stuck in underperforming schools, left to rot? Do you think elevating their sisters at the expense of their brothers is ethical, or healthy--for them or society? Don't you care about your sons too? Couldn't the next cure or technological breakthrough come from a man? The world won't wait for us.

Can't you be OK with women choosing to compete as they see fit and as best fits them--as individuals? Heather MacDonald:
Far from raising the presumption of gender bias among schools and colleges, the Science study strengthens a competing hypothesis: that the main drivers of success in scientific fields are aptitude and knowledge, in conjunction with personal choices about career and family that feminists refuse to acknowledge.
Precisely.

Obama Will Kill the Economy

The Obama killer tax hikes. Back to a Jimmy Carter style recession with a vengeance. Michael Boskin, WSJ:
The top 35% marginal income tax rate rises to 39.6%; adding the state income tax, the Medicare tax, the effect of the deduction phase-out and Mr. Obama's new Social Security tax (of up to 12.4%) increases the total combined marginal tax rate on additional labor earnings (or small business income) from 44.6% to a whopping 62.8%. People respond to what they get to keep after tax, which the Obama plan reduces from 55.4 cents on the dollar to 37.2 cents -- a reduction of one-third in the after-tax wage!

Despite the rhetoric, that's not just on "rich" individuals. It's also on a lot of small businesses and two-earner middle-aged middle-class couples in their peak earnings years in high cost-of-living areas. (His large increase in energy taxes, not documented here, would disproportionate harm low-income Americans. And, while he says he will not raise taxes on the middle class, he'll need many more tax hikes to pay for his big increase in spending.)
Barack Obama, economic illiterate. Killing the American Dream with tax after tax.

(Gathering material for his next book on himself--Dreams About Me.)

--crossposted at UNCoRRELATED

Obama Stood Apart

NY Times profiles Obama at the U of C law school:
“I don’t think anything that went on in these chambers affected him,” said Richard Epstein, a libertarian colleague who says he longed for Mr. Obama to venture beyond his ideological and topical comfort zones. “His entire life, as best I can tell, is one in which he’s always been a thoughtful listener and questioner, but he’s never stepped up to the plate and taken full swings.”
Obama stood apart.

Does this remind you of something?

Related posts: Lunch with Michelle, BarackBook, Opaque Barack Obama

Outing my inner pariah





I started emailing links. After that it was just a matter of time until I became a blogger. My son first suggested I blog, and the final impetus was signing a pork-busting petition--you had to be a blogger.

That was in January 2006. Initially I wrote for family and my right-wing conspiratorial women friends. It was easier than a newsletter and more timely. When I was a kid my mom, who'd been a journalist, had a big bulletin board in the hall full of clipped newspaper articles. For my kids I put articles on the kitchen table, eventually emailing them. Now that I have a blog, I'll probably be posting in perpetuity.

The other impetus was local, both in the village and the city of Chicago. I regularly got mad at the coverage or lack of it in the MSM Chicago papers. The local suburban news sheets were essentially real estate rags, and often you would only find out what was going on in town by reading the letters to the editor. When I wrote my own, sometimes they would be published, sometimes not, and if they were sometimes they were grossly edited--because to be a conservative on the north shore of Chicago was to be counter-cultural. Being a conservative was something to be spoken of in hushed tones in polite company, if at all. Being a conservative was to be despised.

I wasn't always a conservative. I was raised a Democrat. But after a while I didn't believe in Democrat solutions, because they never seemed to want to solve problems, just complain about them, throw money at them, and then complain again when whatever they tried didn't work. Meanwhile taxes always went up, along with societal ills, and our weak foreign policy invited murderous adventurism by the evil dictator of the day. I was schooled well by Jimmy Carter, the last Democrat I voted for, and became a Reaganite.

After a while I got tired of pretending not to be a pariah in my PC community. I decided to embrace my inner pariah. I became a conservative blogger, and I revel in being irreverent.

I got a whiff of eminent domain in town and blogged about that. Driving out family businesses to create some Disney-esque downtown with taxpayer subsidies seemed unrealistic and expensive to me. I was still mad about their dumbing down the academics of our elementary schools, especially math, while the schools spent money hand over fist on buildings and technology. Then there was the time the village board signed on to the Kyoto treaty--foreign policy--let's run the world while the sewers and streets needed repair. That cost two board members reelection. And if any liberals think that approving Kyoto was OK locally imagine if you were in the minority and your village declared war. Local politics is fraught enough without taking on world issues of GREAT IMPORT, especially when just asking questions in a public forum may be viewed by some on either side as beyond the pale.

At any rate, I turned to blogging so as not to bore my family, nor alienate my liberal women friends with conversation political, and along the way I made some new friends. At least I entertain myself. And Obama is from Chicago, so he and Michelle are a hot topic for me.

While I missed meeting up for my first BlogHer convention, I hope to go next year. And yes, I was at another conflicting convention--not Kos, but the conservative alternative, where I met more than a few notable women bloggers. (Women are much in demand this year.)

I am not alone any more:) (eeek)

--crossposted at BlogHer

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lunch with Michelle

Michelle is talking about food. Kind of a safe subject. And she has lunch with one of the girls. But she can't help herself, she still veers into vanguard of the proletariat talk, according to Sweet:
The Obamas have become known for their healthy eating habits; Michelle Obama, picking up on Waters message, said food is "one of the issues we have to address."
Food nazis in the White House, and on the march around the country. Recall the mandates, (limited, for now):
No fried food. And, on the theory that nutritious food is more vibrant, each meal should include "at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white." (Garnishes don't count.)
"Barack will require you to..." eat what he says. Lunch with Michelle becomes tedious.

Kirk Airport Security Efforts

From Rep. Mark Kirk (R-10th) July 28th:
More than a year ago, CBS 2's Dave Savini exposed a major breakdown in security at O'Hare Airport in which airport contractors failed to reclaim security badges from employees who quit, were fired, or were otherwise reassigned. These badges are the only identification necessary for law enforcement officials, independent contractors, baggage handlers, flight attendants and pilots to enter the most secure areas of the airport. In my view, such a casual attitude toward reclaiming security badges was not acceptable - especially in this post-September 11th world.

To help close this dangerous security lapse, I joined with Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-IL) in offering an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 Homeland Security Appropriations to require airport contractors to retrieve badges from employees whose term of employment ends and to notify the local airport authority of the termination within 24 hours. Under the Kirk amendment, failure to comply would result in a civil fine of up to $10,000 per badge per day. On December 26, 2007, the Kirk amendment became the law of the land when the President signed H.R. 2764, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008.

Late last year, we also learned that more than 30 illegal aliens gained access to O'Hare's most sensitive areas. Without valid Social Security numbers, illegal aliens were given official badges to access the tarmac and the airplanes. This was not the first time. It had happened before at airports around the country because current law does not require airport badging authorities to even check a job applicant's Social Security number.

o In November 2002, authorities arrested 65 illegal immigrants at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport.

o In March 2005, authorities arrested 14 illegal immigrants at Boston's Logan Airport.

o In June 2006, authorities arrested 55 illegal immigrants at Washington Dulles.

o In November 2006, authorities arrested six illegal immigrants at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

To protect our nation's homeland security and set basic federal standards for those who seek access to an airport's most sensitive areas, I offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2009 Homeland Security Appropriations bill during the Appropriations Committee markup on June 24, 2008. Under my amendment, an individual seeking access to a secured area of an American airport must be a U.S. national or legal permanent resident, possess a valid Social Security number that actually belongs to that individual, and verify that number through the federal government's E-Verify verification system.

This amendment seemed like an obvious reform to make. In fact, Section 524 of the bill already required E-Verify verification of all new hires inside the Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security. To my amazement, Representative David Price (D-NC), the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, opposed the Kirk amendment and it was defeated by a partisan vote. In the end, the Appropriations Committee stood for the principle that we should verify the legal status of a desk clerk in the Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security, but should not verify the identity of a person given direct access to airplanes, tarmacs and baggage loading areas. Rest assured, I will offer my amendment again and again before the full House of Representatives when this bill moves forward.

Thank you again for your continued interest in homeland security and immigration enforcement. Please feel free to visit my website, www.house.gov/kirk, or contact me again should other issues of concern to you come before the Congress. To stay better connected to current legislation please sign up for my e-newsletter at kirk.houseenews.net/mail.

It is an honor to represent you in Congress.

BarackBook


Barack Obama's Facebook page:)

Obama friends Chicagoan Marilyn Katz, Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko, Alexi Giannoulias, among others.

(Courtesy of the RNC.) HT Political Punch

We the trivial

Amazing. Democrats and the greenies have been blocking nuclear power, domestic oil exploration and refineries for a generation--and they were "caught off guard". The Politico
....Democrats admit privately that they were caught off guard by the spike in gasoline prices and the hardship it has imposed on middle-income and working-class voters.

With fewer than 20 legislative days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the entire appropriations process has largely ground to a halt because of the ham-handed fighting that followed Republican attempts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration. And after promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives.

“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.”

“I respect the office that I hold,” she says. “And when you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.
No matter the issue, Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Democrat. Blind to reality, drunk on power. It's not we the people, it's we the trivial.

--crossposted at UNC0RRELATED

Monday, July 28, 2008

Not a Parody

This is not a parody. (As Rush would say, skulls full of mush.) MoveOn video for The One:

Death Row Endorsement

Barack Obama receives another unusual endorsement. Marathon Pundit.

Cindy in Rwanda

Cindy McCain in the news. WSJ: "Rwanda's Women Lead the Way":

I have recently returned from Rwanda. I was last there in 1994, at the height of the genocide that claimed the lives of more than 800,000 Rwandans. The memories of what I saw haunt me still.

I wasn't sure what to expect all these years later, but I found a country that has found in its deep scars the will to move on and rebuild a civil society. And the renaissance is being led by women.

Women are at the forefront of the physical, emotional and spiritual healing that is moving Rwandan society forward.

41% of Rwandan businesses are owned by women. (And if you educate a girl or mother, you educate a society.)

Educated in special needs, McCain is a can-do person herself, expanding her family business, adopting a needy child, and establishing an organization-- taking personal risk to bring medical care to war-torn parts of the world.

Related post: Cindy Compares Well

Impeach the Governor

Galesburg. Peoria. Rockford. Southern Illinois. Madison County. Chicago Daily Herald. Chicago Tribune. Enough. Impeach Governor Blagojevich.

Get his attention. Sign this petition.

And throw the Dems out in November.

Opaque Barack Obama

Fresh from his photo-op world tour de force, Barack Obama may have a bounce in the polls, but there are a few months left until the actual coronation. It's possible actual voters may not anoint the Great Hope when they really focus. Veteran ABC 7 investigative reporter Chuck Goudie this morning in his Daily Herald column brings us back to Earth:
As Mr. Obama jetted around the Middle East and Europe last week looking worldly and presidential, he talked about the next phase of tearing down walls between the United States and its allies, just as the Berlin Wall once tumbled.

The Rev. Wright flap, Obama's financial dealings and his relationship with Tony Rezko were all forgotten, almost as if the campaign had built a wall in the middle of the Atlantic to keep them at bay.

Even as the Obama campaign plane flew by convicted, corrupt businessman and political fundraiser Tony Rezko's birthplace in Syria, it was unlikely anyone noticed or cared.

But for someone who promotes himself as representing a new kind of politics, how about some transparency, Barack? Obama may have ushered in improvements in Washington on this score, but his effort in Illinois when he had the chance was sadly lacking. (Here is an example of model legislation.) Could that be why his Illinois records have mysteriously disappeared? No Harvard Law Review articles to his name, nor any as a law prof at U of C, no release of his legal billing records. The NextRight has picked up the ACORN story and noted Obama's close connection.

And even the center-left TNR has picked up on the less than forthcoming nature of Barack Obama and his campaign:
"They're an arrogant operation. Young and arrogant," one reporter covering the campaign says. "They don't believe in transparency with their own campaign," another says.

Reporters who have covered Obama's biography or his problems with certain voter blocs have been challenged the most aggressively. "They're terrified of people poking around Obama's life," one reporter says. "The whole Obama narrative is built around this narrative that Obama and David Axelrod built, and, like all stories, it's not entirely true. So they have to be protective of the crown jewels." Another reporter notes that, during the last year, Obama's old friends and Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without permission.

Opaque Barack Obama.

Who is Barack Obama? Can we entrust our safety and our future to this elusive smooth-talker, who campaigns overseas and stonewalls at home?

Sunday, July 27, 2008

McCain Ad: Troops

New McCain ad, Troops, after Obama blows off the option of an unheralded visit to our wounded warriors in Germany. This after he also ignored the contribution of our military and American resolve in keeping Berlin free in his speech there. (Who flew those planes, Barack?) You'd think he could have kept the trip fact-finding and foregone the overseas campaigning--where are his priorities? Where is his judgment--putting his own interests first. And is Obama losing steam in the new media battle? McCain ad:

Friday, July 25, 2008

Pump

Then there's John McCain: Country First

Verily...Verity

Gerard Baker, Times of London:
When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”
Verity...the Washington Post truth-telling editorial on Obama's position on Iraq and Afghanistan, via Powerline:
If Sunni leaders still believe that American troops are essential, even after al Qaeda has been routed, then the role of our troops, and of the new strategy associated with the surge, must have played a critical role in sustaining the "awakening" when al Qaeda was running rampant.

Second, the Post brilliantly takes on Obama's claim that Afghanistan is the "central front" in the battle against terrorism:

[T]here are no known al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, and any additional U.S. forces sent there would not be able to operate in the Pakistani territories where Osama bin Laden is headquartered. While the United States has an interest in preventing the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban, the country's strategic importance pales beside that of Iraq, which lies at the geopolitical center of the Middle East and contains some of the world's largest oil reserves. If Mr. Obama's antiwar stance has blinded him to those realities, that could prove far more debilitating to him as president than any particular timetable.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Buzzing Around

Busy with family gatherings. Back next week!

Nobody Laughs

Kass on media bias:
Meanwhile, the Democrat Obama is treated quite differently. He's the Mr. Tumnus of American politics, the gentle forest faun of Narnia, with throngs of reporters trembling to sit with him at tea and cakes, like the little girl in the C.S. Lewis story, as he plays the flute, chanting "We Are The Change We've Been Waiting For." And nobody laughs.

You don't laugh because you can't make fun of Obama. The ground would swallow you whole.
Bob Novak was the speaker last Friday night at Right Online--he said the media was in love with Obama. Once again we are left with the thought--nobody ever charmed anybody out of a nuclear weapon. Nobody laughs.

Wilmette Strikes Handgun Ban

Happy day. The Wilmette Village Board voted to toss out its ill-advised gun ban. Wilmette Life:

The proposed ordinance to repeal the local ban was passed unanimously late Tuesday night.

“The Supreme Court has made their decision. It calls into question our ordinance,” said Village President Chris Canning. “We thought the best thing to do was to suspend enforcement immediately and then look at our legal options, and at least personally, I think the strongest option that would give a clean slate to the whole situation would be to repeal the ordinance.”

Trustees said they would explore other possible regulations, but felt the current ordinance would not withstand a legal challenge.

A clean slate. It's a good thing. The extreme stance made a laughingstock of the village, and thankfully common sense has prevailed. Frank Penn, The Chicago Daily Observer with background on pending cases around Chicago.

Nationally it's still an issue. The Hill. Not surprisingly.

Related posts: Burglaries in Wilmette, 2nd Amendment Empowers Women, Oak Park Intolerance

No House for You

I've always kind of liked quirky Jerry Brown since he floated out there with his Star Trekkie presidential campaign slogan, "Protect the Earth, Explore the Universe, and Serve the People". I thought it was sweet. But no more. Now California AG Jerry Brown wants to take away your house. Should you have your own vision of the future, should you have earned your own American Dream, too bad-- your dream is not his dream. Serve the people has fallen off the face of his Earth-first fiat-- no house for you.

It's part of his latest campaign plank. WSJ:
Today he is mulling a run for governor in 2010, when he will be 72.

In the meantime, Mr. Brown is taking aim at the suburbs, concerned about the alleged environmental damage they cause. He sees suburban houses as inefficient users of energy. He sees suburban commuters clogging the roads as wasting precious fossil fuel. And, mostly, he sees wisdom in an intricately thought-out plan to compel residents to move to city centers or, at least, to high-density developments clustered near mass transit lines.

Mr. Brown is not above using coercion to create the demographic patterns he wants. In recent months, he has threatened to file suit against municipalities that shun high-density housing in favor of building new suburban singe-family homes, on the grounds that they will pollute the environment.
Back when Jerry was a young man, I imagine he heard Pete Seeger sing a tune or two. I would think he considered suburban uniformity a crime against man and nature, no matter that post-war Levittown made the American Dream affordable for many returning G.I.'s. Suburbs aren't necessarily all made out of the same mold these days, nor are all condos or apartments downtown, but if they want honest ticky-tacky shouldn't Americans have a choice?

Brown wants to stuff us into modern-day urban cave dwellings, which seem rather soulless to me. Even greenie Ed the cable guy has a place in the sun. He may have an astroturf lawn, but he plants a garden. He may time his wife in the shower, but as far as I know he hasn't installed a smart thermometer to lower the temperature of the water on her. And many cities have evolved to clusters of jobs and homes with shorter commutes all on their own.

Then there's the government mandate of higher building temperatures at their discretion, which the California Energy Commission has proposed. I welcome voluntary programs, but no force, please. Not in my house. Maybe if humans became an endangered species we'd have more say. Remember that horrible August the French disgraced themselves heading to the beach like lemmings for their annual vacance, only to come home to their dead grannies? There was no air conditioning in the socialist paradise. But the French didn't know any better. We do.

Meanwhile, the EPA is planning Big Brother, Big Green. And Congress is phasing out the ordinary old light bulb in favor of one you need a hazmat suit to pick up if you break it.

Over in England there's talk of carbon ration cards (!) and the NY Times proselytizes for meters with beepers. They're trying to make old homes more efficient, a good idea, but what if it's not enough for the eco-Brownshirts? What if your historic house is getting more creaky and historic every day?

What if it's just in the way ?!!

And why are we doing all this anyway? Could flaky Jerry Brown and the greenies be wrong?

--crossposted at BlogHer

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

NewsBusters

Met some of the NewsBusters in Austin. Here's their latest comedy clip:

Pity Me Michelle

Michelle throws Barack's white grandfather under the bus. Her BlogHer guest post. Life wearing $600 earrings is pretty grim after all--
And he sees me, his wife, trying to juggle jobs and raise kids; often feeling like when I’m with the kids, I’m shortchanging work, and when I’m at work or campaigning, I’m shortchanging the kids. I know you understand these struggles. Barack understands them too.
But Michelle, I thought Barack will require us to work--why are you complaining?

But she's not the only self-centered whiner in the family. Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe, "The Audacity of Ego":

Obama finds criticism of his wife "infuriating" and doesn't want either of them to be the target of satire. Tell that to the Carters, the Reagans, the Clintons, and the Bushes, father and son.

There's no such thing as a humble politician. But when Obama looks into the mirror, he doesn't just see a president; he sees JFK.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy accepted his party's nomination with an outdoor speech at the Los Angeles Coliseum. But he waited until he was elected before going to Germany to declare "Ich bin ein Berliner."

NOW members weigh in--if Michelle dishes it out, she should take it. Despite her pushing her campaign role beyond even what Hillary attempted as Bill's spouse when he ran, since Michelle is attempting to channel Jackie (again) we're supposed to treat her with kid gloves. Over and over again, the MSM courtiers join the pity me Michelle chorus. Self-pity is much less attractive than self-deprecation. And how about just being gracious?

P.S. AWK. The self-appointed guardians of Michelle at Michelle Obama Watch raise the question of whether or not this is an appropriate photo of Michelle. This comment was a real jaw-dropper:

I was waiting for someone to respond to what the photographer was trying to show us as well as tell us , michelle obama is under a microscope, and what she wear’s and say’s will be analyzed to the utmost, why do you think the picture is on the website, first of michelle say’s prefer’s not to wear panty hose, well quess what people let me just remind you that her husband is running for the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE’S OF AMERICA and he is trying to get the evangelical vote, and michelle has to make sure that she is alway’s in a favorable light , and in my opinion if barack can wear a suit seven day’s a week then it will not hurt michelle to cover up her arm’s and leg’s when she has to speak at public gathering , it’s called give and take, she has to understand that it’s no longer business as usual, i myself as a african american woman have spoke at church’s, conference’s, and i know for a fact that their is no way i can get on a pulpit with my arm’s out or with no panty hose on, this is not acceptable for a woman of God, so michelle has to learn that in order to become the first african american first lady she will be judged in so many different area’s in her life , and trust me people this is just the beginning , so let’s see above and beyond what we see with our natural eye’s, let’s see with our second sight and that mean’s seeing the whole picture, the republican’s are going to do every evil trick in the book to bring barack and michelle down , they are known for that , and they will not have any mercy in the mist of it, they are corrupt, vicious, evil, demonic, destructive , and above all they would rather to let this country go under rather than to accept change, i support barack and michelle obama, and i want them to be victorious in the battle , but also want them to see the full picture. > PROPHETESS <

The comments were stopped in their tracks after that.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Speculators Manage Risk

In defense of speculation. OpEd piece in the NY Times yesterday by two Illinois profs:

Efforts to rein in supposedly damaging speculation have run the gamut from requiring futures exchanges to raise margins to an outright ban on trading. But there is no historical evidence that politically inspired increases in futures margins — or other attempts to limit futures trade — have been effective at lowering overall prices. The only consistently documented impact of higher margin requirements has been a decline in futures trading volume.

Current legislative proposals might similarly curtail speculation by reducing the volume of trade, but it is unlikely that they would cure the “problem” of high prices. The measures, however, are likely to hurt the ability of futures markets to accommodate businesses that need to manage price risks.
Economist J.D. Foster at the Heritage Foundation, "Oil Speculators: A Marginal (at Best) Cause of High Energy Prices.

Previous posts: Durbin's Deathbed Conversion, Of Oil and Onions, Political Speculators, Energy Independence Day , McCain: Energy Security, Environmental Imperialism, Sensible Energy, Dick Durbin Partisan Hack, Durbin Dumb and Dumber

Latest Greenie Offensive

Embrace your inner cavedweller. That's the future in store for us if the left has its way. (Goracle adherents exposed below: video) The EPA has developed draconian rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (which we emit when we breathe), in the wake of the supremely silly Supreme Court decision of last spring. This may be held over until the next administration, but comment now, comment often, as you may not have another chance.

ANPR preamble by the EPA
administrator, who thankfully has some sense, but the greenie careerists there are on a rampage. Excerpt:
EPA's analyses leading up to this ANPR have increasingly raised questions of such importance that the scope of the agency's task has continued to expand. For instance, it has become clear that if EPA were to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act, then regulation of smaller stationary sources that also emit GHGs--such as apartment buildings, large homes, schools and hospitals--could also be triggered.

One point is clear: the potential regulation of greenhouse gases under any portion of the Clean Air Act could result in an unprecedented expansion of EPA authority that would have a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy and touch every household in the land.
It's Big Brother Big Green.

All this for the supposed global warming crisis, which is increasingly being discredited--wonder why the lefties now refer to "climate change", to obscure the issue:
After nine years of non-warming, the planet actually began to cool in 2007 and 2008 for the first time in 30 years. The net warming from 1940 to 1998 had been a miniscule 0.2 degree C; the UK’s Hadley Centre says earth’s temperature has now dropped back down to about the levels of 100 years ago. There has thus been no net global warming within “living memory”!
Also check out Iain Murray's book, The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them.

Meanwhile, the NY Times is in love with leaves: "Leaves Speak; a Journalist Listens":
Mature, callow, tattered or freshly unfurled, her subjects stare forth from the page, exactly the same yet endlessly varied. Viewed on their own, they might be thought merely beautiful or occasionally odd. But as a group, they reveal a cross-section of diversity, their stories as complex as those of any human upon which Ms. Malcolm has cast her eye.
It's for the leaves.

Promised video:

--crossposted at UNCoRRELATED

Kirk Looks Strong

In case you missed it, latest polling shows Rep. Mark Kirk looks strong in the 10th. Reid Wilson, RCP's Politics Nation. Kirk has high favorables, especially compared to his hapless Dem opponent. And it's no wonder--view this video on said Seals, among others:

Obama's "Faith" in Action

On the way home from the rightie conclave in Austin I had plenty of time to read the Sunday papers. Tucked into the NY Times Magazine was this explosive profile of DNC Chairman Howard Dean's left-hand--his chief of staff and CEO of the Dem convention, Leah Daughtry.

Appointed a year ago spring, right about when Barack Obama shunted the Rev. Jeremiah Wright off the stage for his Springfield campaign kickoff, Daughtry is a ticking time bomb. For she's a Rev. in her spare time, and she espouses the same black liberation theology Obama finally repudiated a few months ago. Daniel Bergner, NY Times, "Can Leah Daughtry bring faith to the party?" A few excerpts, starting with her father's ministry:
A prison convert who served time in his early 20s for armed robbery and passing bad checks, Herbert Daughtry — whose father founded the church and whose grandfather and great-grandfather were also ministers — became the church’s pastor 50 years ago, and today Leah was delivering the sermon as part of an anniversary celebration. Below the sanctuary, in the fellowship hall, a banner for slavery reparations proclaimed, “They Owe Us.” Fliers recounted Herbert Daughtry’s arrest, a few weeks earlier, as he led marchers protesting the not-guilty verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man. His ministry has always combined consuming spirituality with black liberation theology — the theology Jeremiah Wright invoked this spring to defend his controversial sermons — and zealous political activism. Leah holds these forces within her.
She usually has her own church in a meeting room in her condo building, but celebrated with her father that day. More:
“THERE WERE THE YORUBAS dressed in all-white,” Daughtry said, thinking back to the 1970s, to the disparate array of black New Yorkers who gathered at her father’s House of the Lord Church to fight injustice. “There were the black nationalists and separatists. The black polygamists who were trying to model their lifestyle on African ways. The Black Hebrews with their long beards, walking with their wooden staffs.” In 1976, when a 15-year-old African-American, Randolph Evans, was fatally shot by a police officer in Brooklyn, Daughtry’s father, despite death threats, led demonstrations and boycotts for a year in the borough’s downtown, until businesses agreed to finance a scholarship program in Evans’s honor. Leah, who was raised according to a strict religious code that forbid females to wear pants, lipstick or makeup, took part in the protests at the age of 13. Her eyes brightened when she recalled those demonstrations and the assorted groups that joined together to give them strength, just as her voice took on extra passion when she discussed black liberation theology and the writing of James Cone.

It was this writing that Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s longtime pastor, cited to support the sermons that led Obama to cut ties with Wright in April. Daughtry didn’t want to comment on the sudden distance Obama put between himself and his pastor, except to say that it pained her to see such a meaningful and private relationship come to such a public and distorted end. But she didn’t put any distance between herself and Cone’s book “A Black Theology of Liberation,” which she suggested I read and which relies on the words of Malcolm X to make its religious arguments. “Some may find it disconcerting,” she replied, when I asked if she feared driving away voters by standing behind ideas that could be deemed radical. “But they are far outnumbered by Americans who are concerned about the disparities.
Just as a reminder, Cone's core philosophy in his own words:
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.
Bergner also delves into her track record on setting up the Dem's Faith in Action team (the current advisory council is effectively defunct, and at the very least discredited among those who are more than nominally Catholic anyway) among evangelicals in red-state Alabama in 2006:

F.I.A. has also financed the faith outreach of state parties, sometimes in striking ways. In Alabama, the pro-life party chairman was given F.I.A. money to publish a “Faith and Values Voters Guide” in local newspapers just before Election Day in 2006. The 12-page insert provided the religious narratives of statewide Democratic candidates — “I was richly blessed in my life with parents who raised me in a Christian home. . . .” — and concluded with a Democratic “covenant for the future.” The covenant pledged to “require public schools to offer Bible literacy as part of their curriculum” and made at least two vows that run counter to positions of the national party: to “pass a constitutional amendment confirming that all life is a gift from God and should be protected; and that life begins at conception” and to “defeat any efforts to redefine marriage or provide the benefits of marriage to a same-sex union.”

Daughtry sounded surprised when I read her these vows. Though she is a biblical literalist who sees no problem with teaching creation theory side by side with evolution — “For me, the Bible is history” — she, following the teaching of her father’s church, is also pro-choice. “God allows us to choose in the biggest matter,” she said, “whether to accept Him in our lives. How then can we take away choice on other profound issues? We don’t believe the government should interfere.” Hearing Alabama’s covenant, she said right away that F.I.A. has not vetted everything the state parties have done with its money. Then she leaned heavily on the poles of the big tent: “The wonderful thing about the Democratic Party is that we have room for all kinds of opinions.”

On the basis of all this wonderfulness, I would say no on faith as a plus for the party. Perhaps all this works for the Rev. Daughtry, but many on the secular left will object to her and the Dems turning a blind eye to the Alabama anti-abortion stance and push for Bible-literacy in the schools, while many center-right voters will once again be appalled by the racist black supremacist creed of the Rev. Wright which Daughtry apparently shares.

UPDATE: Displaying some nuance, but not nearly enough, Dawn Turner Trice in today's Trib:
The other part of this disconnect in the poll is that Americans still have so few substantive interactions across racial lines. Though most people, no matter their race, resist being lumped into faceless, soulless categories, it's so easy for all of us to rely on stereotypes. It's also easy to not see people and issues regarding race in a nuanced way.

The Rush Limbaugh types, the Fox News types, the Rev. Jesse Jackson types have made a living drawing an all-too-willing flock into their one-dimensional echo chamber of ideas.
At least she dissed Jesse, who has been around how long? But I listen to Rush and watch Brit's show on FoxNews--are you condemning me as one-dimensional Ms. Trice? By the way, I listened Saturday to a number of disparate speakers at the conservative Americans for Prosperity American Dream Summit, including top blogger Michelle Malkin, rising star and Texas RR Commissioner Michael Williams and GOPAC head Michael Steele.

--crossposted at UNCoRRELATED

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Home on the Right Range

OK, y'all, I'm off to Austin tomorrow to the conservative alternative to the Yearly Kos--RightOnline. Will blog when I get a chance or maybe not until next week. (This pix is not in Texas, but you get the idea.)

Michelle Grounded!

Via Drudge. Gee. Wonder why. And no chance to tell them Barack will fix their souls, or that America is downright mean.

Previous post: Michelle's $600 earrings

AL Wins Again!

Got that home field advantage for the Sox, should we be there:
"It would be huge, I think, to win," said Kerry Wood, the All-Star closer who sat out the game to let a blister heal. "We're playing really, really well at home and not so good on the road. It would be huge for us if we got to the World Series."

He's right. The team with home-field advantage has won 18 of the last 22 World Series, including the White Sox's sweep of Houston in 2005.

"The significance of this game is huge," White Sox third baseman Joe Crede said. "It's big to get home-field advantage, get the first two games at home. This is obviously a big game."
...sorry Cubs fans:)

Call a Medic

He says "help me, help me". Call a medic. Oh, gee, he allegedly killed an unarmed paramedic. The other medic he didn't manage to kill saved his life.

Why didn't the Tribune tell us about that? That is why he is in jail, awaiting trial after all. 60 Minutes, Nov, 2007:
In 2002, Omar was captured in the firefight and asked to be killed. And there was more to come. In 2003, a Pakistani army unit attacked a house with suspected al Qaeda members inside. They showed off the bodies of men they had killed. One of them turned out to be Omar’s father.

Omar's younger brother, Abdul Karim Khadr, 14 years old, had been in the house with his father. He was shot in the back and paralyzed.

In 2004, the remnants of the Khadr family moved back to Toronto, where George Crile interviewed Abdul Karim and his mother, Maha Khadr.

"Were you in some way sorry that you did not die that day?" Crile asked Abdul Karim.

"Yeah," he replied.

Sorry, he said, because he was denied the opportunity of getting to paradise, where 72 stunning virgins would await him. "Somebody would look at them like for 40 years and he would stay looking and looking," Abdul Karim said.

"Because they’re so beautiful?" Crile asked.

"Yeah," the teen replied. "And one piece of her perfume would come it would, you wouldn't smell anything but that."

"Mrs. Khadr, can you explain the concept of the virgins for the brothers?" Crile asked Maha Khadr.

"Yes. They talk about it day and night. And sometimes, some wives would get so, you know, kind of annoyed or they say, 'Well is this all you’re fighting for?' You know? Because they really just go in too much details about the description," she replied.

Abdul Karim said he even offered to become a suicide bomber. "I told my father, 'Just give me a belt and I’ll blow myself up. I'll go and just do anything,'" he said.

As for his brother Omar, Abdul Karim believed he'd get out of Guantanamo and get even. "When he’s all right again he’ll find them again … and take his revenge," he said.

That was in 2004. Today, the Khadrs have changed their tune. In their small apartment in Toronto, they no longer speak about Omar taking revenge.
Have the trial. But this tape is just part of the story. That medic died.

Michelle's $600 earrings

Amanda Carpenter, Townhall, brings us this:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, complained the government’s $600 economic stimulus check was only enough to buy “a pair of earrings” while stumping for her husband.

“You're getting $600 - what can you do with that?” Mrs. Obama said in Pontiac, Michigan last week. “Not to be ungrateful or anything, but maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn't pay down every bill every month. The short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good, and it may even feel good that first month when you get that check, and then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings."

She made these remarks at a “working women’s roundtable discussion.”
Do you think maybe Michelle's out of touch, hmm?

HT Mary Katharine Ham.

--crossposted at UNCoRRELATED

LOOK AT THIS CHART


I posted on this previously but the pix was at the end--so I'm putting it front and center because this is an amazing and important fact. FREE OUR OIL, DEMOCRATS!

Abortion is Barbaric

There is nothing enlightened about abortion. And now that cameras can see into the womb, life is undeniable. Now that preemies survive life outside the womb at a younger age than many of those aborted, the barbarism of this practice is clear to those who have eyes to see.

As a matter of advancing the cause of women, why is someone who treats her body as a commodity to be admired?

Why is a woman with so little self-respect as to have sex without commitment to be admired?

Why is a woman who has so little care for her child that she would sentence her to death be lauded as enlightened?

No. A thousand times no.

Abortion is a moral wrong.

Feminists scream about choice, but what choice does this child have, ripped from life?

And do you know the leading cause of death in black America?

Roe v. Wade should be overturned, if only to turn this debate back to the states--which is all it does. Abortions do not suddenly become illegal if Roe v. Wade is overturned, it merely restarts the arrested development of the debate summarily cut off by the courts from the people back in 1973.

There are arguments that need to be resolved, and it's long past time.

Women have more opportunity now than in the early ’70’s. Surely fair-minded observers will note that feminism in the US has largely succeeded from an economic and educational standpoint. To bear a child as a single mom these days brings no shame, though the breakdown of the family was one of several negative cultural consequences, including abortion:
One of the greatest ways women have devalued children is by accepting abortion. A respected feminist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, once said “"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Overseas, abortion is associated with sex selection, which more than likely leads to the abortion of girls. During this election process, talk of the hanger coming back is fear-mongering. While abortions are in decline in the US, abortion pills have made the process easier, the internet as well. Of course, all this has unintended consequences--the ease and social complicity in sexualizing younger and younger girls, their being abused by older men, or in some cases coerced by members of their own family to have abortions or take abortion pills--a significant number with life-threatening or even fatal consequences--I guess I should say not just fatal for the baby.

I am not absolutely opposed to abortion for any reason, but the start of the debate should recognize that abortion snuffs out innocent life.

Putting a baby on death row for the crime of simply being conceived is pure evil.

And repeated use of abortion as birth control is criminal.

There are alternatives.

In all honesty, can we really look our daughters in the eye, or sons for that matter, and tell them that living a sexually hedonistic lifestyle is just fine, all about "personal fulfillment" and without hurtful consequences? That some lives are more "equal" than others? That is the unacknowledged subtext of being pro-abortion.

A society that holds life so cheaply is not admirable. It is neither enlightened nor civilized. It is not a guardian of individual and civil liberty when it so easily sanctions robbing its most vulnerable and innocent of life.

--crossposted at blogher