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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Obama: They're Trying to 'Make You Scared of Me' | The Trail | washingtonpost.com

Obama: They're Trying to 'Make You Scared of Me' | The Trail | washingtonpost.com:

"So what they are going to try to do is make you scared of me,' Obama warned a crowd in Springfield this morning."

Well, it so happens that many of us are scared of Obama as president, but not for the reasons he says. It's not because of his color, or his ethnicity, or his exposure to Islam (he claims to be a Christian, but he did, in fact, attend a Muslim school for a time).

No, the reason I fear Obama as president is because our international enemies will perceive him to be weak. It doesn't matter if he is or not, it's a fact that overseas miscreants will read Obama's inexperience as an opening for them to achieve whatever goal they think they should pursue.

There is historical precedent: In 1961, Khrushchev read Kennedy's inexperience as being a weak president, and the next thing that happened was the Soviet Union moved missiles into Cuba. And we know the crisis that ensued - the world was on the precipice of nuclear war for 13 days.

Obama is anti-war; the Democrats are anti-pretty much everything involving security. But what happens when terrorists see this as weak (and they will)? September 11 might just have been the prelude that they intended...

Pre-playing the race card, but from the bottom of the deck

Obama: They're Trying to 'Make You Scared of Me' | The Trail | washingtonpost.com:
"Obama did not mention race directly or that other hot button issue, his full name. But when John McCain's campaign responded, it said Obama had 'baselessly forecasted that John McCain would make claims about Obama's physical appearance and middle name.'

'Like most celebrities, he reacts to fair criticism with a mix of fussiness and hysteria,' said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds."

Scoundrels

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- HL Mencken"

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Majority of economists see McCain better for stocks | Reuters

Majority of economists see McCain better for stocks | Reuters:
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. stock market would fare better in the first year after a victory by Republican presidential candidate John McCain than by his Democratic rival Barack Obama, according to a majority of economists at U.S. banks and research groups polled by Reuters."

Looking behind the curtain

If you thought government was big now, here's a glimpse at what Obama will do.

Obama tour staged for political pop - Yahoo! News:
"As the presumptive Democratic nominee tours five countries in five days, he brings an entourage that would make a pop star envious.

A dozen top foreign policy advisers are either traveling with Obama or doing ground work ahead of his arrival in each country. This group is supplemented by his usual contingent of almost a dozen traveling aides, including chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and communications director Robert Gibbs, and too many advance staff to count. With layers of Secret Service agents, they zipped through Amman Tuesday in a motorcade of 20 vehicles.

The mix of policy and political advisers reflects the split dimension of the senator’s tour through Europe and the Middle East: Even as his closest aides insist that the trip is a fact-finding and relationship building mission, Obama’s every step is being intricately managed to maximize political advantage.

From the saturated media coverage to the one-on-one meetings with heads of state, the trip already had a White House feel. The scope of the traveling staff simply adds to an aura of a president-in-waiting. On Tuesday, aides attempted to invoke White House rules and traditions by requiring reporters to withhold the names of senior advisers who brief the press. But they were reminded twice by reporters that they were not in the White House and Obama was not president."

"When asked for an exact count of staff and advisers, Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to offer specifics.

“Enough,” she said.

Monday, July 21, 2008

PC, presidential Elections and Public Health?

The salmonella outbreak has decimated tomato farmers nationwide in the US. Now, the FDA thinks it has the culprit - a pepper grown in Mexico and packed in Texas.

Is it possible that, in an election year where no one wants to alienate the beloved Hispanic, that the FDA purposely didn't scrutinize imports involving Mexico and Mexicans?

It wouldn't be the first time public health took a back seat to politics.

No matter what, however, I hope the panty-waists in Washington pay reparations to the tomato farmers for the loss caused entirely by the FDA's incompetence.

Salmonella mystery: the smoking pepper: The Swamp: "Call it the smoking jalapeno. After nearly two months of mystery, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified a jalepeno pepper that is contaminated with the same strain of Salmonella saintpaul that has sickened more than 1,237 people in 43 states.

It's the first time during this outbreak that a test has found the salmonella strain in a piece of produce.

The discovery, which will be announced shortly by FDA, was made at a packing plant in McAllen, Texas, according to a source familiar with the issue. The pepper was grown in Mexico, the source said, but was sent to the U.S. for sale. Authorities are not sure where it was contaminated with salmonella."

Media Outrage Du Jour: New York Times Blocked Op-Ed Response to Obama - America’s Election HQ

McCain Campaign: New York Times Blocked Op-Ed Response - America’s Election HQ:
"The New York Times on Friday blocked an opinion piece submitted by John McCain to the newspaper shortly after it printed a piece by his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, McCain campaign officials confirmed to FOX News on Monday."

Friday, July 11, 2008

Civil Rights Activists and Obama

Obama is a man who has not only moved well beyond anything that affirmative action could do for him, but well beyond anything that almost anyone in the USA could achieve - being a party nominee for president of the most powerful nation in the world.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the race-mongers like Jesse Jackson and the NAACP view Obama's candidacy with ambivalence. They see everything through the filter of "race first," so they love that Obama is black (or at least half so); on the other hand, they despise him for not playing the victim using the "race card."

The civil righteous (meaning those who exploit real rights issues for their own purposes) should correctly see this as a threat to their tyranny over minorities, as those like Obama tout American values such as personal responsibility, hard work and achievement, over feeling victimized.

And good for Obama. Let's just hope he doesn't change his mind about that, too.


Behind Jackson's outburst -- baltimoresun.com:
"'There is a lot of debate within the civil rights community about Obama,' said J. Whyatt Mondesire, a member of the NAACP board from Philadelphia. 'A lot of the old war horses like Jesse and I have had serious questions about his orientation to race, given his words about transcending race. Saying that he didn't believe there was a systematic racial problem in this country - that goes to a very core of the way we see racial issues in this country.'"

Thursday, July 10, 2008

No Pablum Here, or Why I Like McCain

Politics News - McCain jokes about killing Iranians with cigarettes:
"PITTSBURGH — Presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be 'a way of killing 'em.'"

Racist TV

Shown for what they are. And in the bargain, blacks are given no opportunity to evaluate alternative ideas and make an educated choice.

The message to blacks: Race uber alles, as proclaimed by Hitler some 80 years ago.

Network Commits to Obama-only Coverage - As Seen on TV:
"Network Commits to Obama-only Coverage
By Victor Balta
Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:59:45 GMT

"The TV Critics press tour took a political turn Tuesday morning when TV One, a cable network that reaches 40 million homes and is geared toward African-Americans, unveiled its plans to cover the Democratic National Convention. Network President and CEO Johnathan Rodgers unapologetically announced that his network would cover the convention because of the historic nature of Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy making him the first African-American to win a party's nomination for President.


"Asked whether he thought it was unfair that the network wouldn't also cover the Republican convention, Rodgers was adamant, saying, 'My audience is 93 percent black. I serve my audience.'"

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Obama's Pre-failed Energy Policy

15 years ago I was sold on the idea of energy independence using biofuels. Ah, how the times they do a-change.

Barack Obama is hanging his energy hat on biofuels - an unproven technology on a mass scale, but with a technological sexiness that sounds like it might be right. Liberal dogma is such that if it sounds right, it's great policy, facts be damned. However, there's a downside to everything, and with biofuels it's the competition for agricultural areas worldwide pushing up the price of crops dramatically across the board - raising the price of both biofuels and food.

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis | Environment | The Guardian:
"Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.


The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil."

This is the price of inexperience and naivete, a price paid by everyone other than Obama.

What's the answer? McCain has it partly right, but I don't think he knows why. The answer is electricity, a power source we can generate ourselves using a variety of means. McCain thinks that nuclear (nucular? I'd be willing to impeach Bush just for saying that word) is the answer, and he's right, but he never utters the words "electricity." Well, maybe he does think so, since he's offered a $300M bounty on a better battery.

But in the short term, we're bound to the energy source prevalent in the US for more than the last hundred years - oil. So we have to drill, at least in the short term to ease prices here at home and to buy time until we can get alternatives online.

But clearly, Barack is playing to his liberal environmentalist audience, who insist we all be in the poorhouse so their personal convictions will be eased. Such is liberalism.



Thursday, July 3, 2008

The Obama Waffle House

Those who supported Obama in the primaries must be livid. Or they should be. The centerpiece of that liberal hellion's campaign was that we'd begin withdrawal from Iraq "immediately." To paraphrase President Bill Clinton, I guess that depends on what your definition of "immediately" is.

Is Barack Obama softening his Iraq withdrawal time line? | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times:
"On the campaign website, Obama says he would 'immediately' begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and would have 'all of our combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months.' But at a news conference, he was asked about concerns by some that he was backing off on that timetable.


Obama responded that he is planning a trip to Iraq to do 'a thorough assessment' and consult with 'commanders on the ground.' Key, he said, is to not jeopardize U.S. national security interests. But he did not say that he was still committed to the 16-month timetable, and he has previously seemed to give himself a little wiggle room on the time line."

Black and Corrupt? Call the NAACP!

Charges have not even been lodged, nor does anyone know what evidence is being presented, yet the NAACP is busy defending Baltimore's first black female mayor against allegations that are currently nothing more than hearsay to the public, that she favored her boyfriend in lucrative city contracts..

If there's even a rumor of a black doing something corrupt, like Ulysses Currie using his elected position to ramrod development plans through for his client, Shopper's Food Warehouse, call on the NAACP to jump forward and defend you, even if you do turn out to be guilty and have violated ethics laws, lined your pockets, and turned your back on the public trust.

wjz.com - Baltimore Branch Of NAACP Defends Mayor Dixon: "Baltimore Branch Of NAACP Defends Mayor Dixon
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ― The Baltimore branch of the NAACP comes to the defense of Mayor Sheila Dixon. The state prosecutor has been presenting evidence to a grand jury these past few days. Much of it may be connected to a relationship between Dixon and a Baltimore subcontractor when she was City Council president."

The dems Call on The Devil for Election Help

abc11.com: Political ties in satanic sex case a concern 7/03/08:
"DURHAM, NC (WTVD) -- The strong political ties of two people charged in an alleged Satanic rape, torture and kidnapping claim is raising concerns about who should prosecute the case, according to Eyewitness News sources."

ABC News: 'Satanic' Trio? 3 Arrested in Sex Ritual Case:
"A second local Democratic Party official in North Carolina was arrested Wednesday in connection with alleged satanic rituals that involved beatings and sexual assault."

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Courting Change? Really?

Barack Obama has been hawking his "Change" message for awhile now, but one would be hard-pressed to see how he differs not only from other Democrats, but now too from Democratic punching bag and U.S. President George Bush:

Obama courts conservatives with new faith program - Yahoo! News:
"Taking a page from President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants to expand White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, risking protests in his own party with his latest aggressive reach for voters who usually vote Republican."

The liberals and Dems nearly had an aneurysm when Bush proposed these initiatives, citing conflicts between church and state. But somehow it's now different, since Bush's plan worked, and Obama finds himself short of votes from the same "bitter" religious folks that he derided just a short time ago. If you don't recall Obama's comment, here you go.

Obama's similarities (and hypocrisy) shared with Democrats also reaches into the mortage crisis being felt in the United States. Obama had been making political hay by using a scythe on Countrywide Loans, one of the largest lenders in the sub-prime flap. But while that was going on, it was reported that several ranking Dems, including none other than the head of the Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd, had received special deals from Obama's favorite mortgage-biz whipping boy, Countrywide. Since no good deed goes unpunished, Obama finds himself under that same microscope:

Obama Got Discount on Home Loan - washingtonpost.com:
"Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a 'super super jumbo.' Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates."

Further, Obama's VP vetter Jim Johnson, former head of Fannie Mae, was also the recipient of this sugar. If there's no corruption here, I'll eat my keyboard. Read this for Countrywide's list of "friends."

And then there's immigration reform:

Obama, McCain hide immigration similarities:
"WASHINGTON — When it comes to immigration, Barack Obama and John McCain generally agree. It's just that they don't want to say so.

Instead, the White House rivals accuse one another of flinching when it mattered most, during and after last year's Senate debate on a bill that would have given millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship."

If Obama is really talking change, especially from "George Bush's failed policies," then why is he not only adopting at least one of them, but why did Obama say this in support of his old positions:

"I get tagged as being on the left and, when I simply describe what has been my position consistently, then suddenly people act surprised," he said. "But there hasn't been substantial shifts there."

Ultimately, this guy wears more hats than a hydra. But, he's more dangerous, because he's just another lying politician; only this time, the ever-naive American public think they've got a hero. Shame on us.