Speaking for myself (and I am sure a number of others) I not for once bought any of the hyperventilated hype about OHNO bringing racial harmony to our nation. In fact, either way I think an Obama presidency will only serve to exacerbate it. If he loses the election, we will hear about how we are such a racist nation for a bit and then the Democrats will return to their normal level of racial demagoguery.
However, if OHNO wins the election, anytime anyone speaks up in opposition to OHNO they will be condemned as racist.
Even if you vote for Obama, you’re still probably a racist, according to Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, in his remarks at a recent panel discussion at my alma mater.
How's that, exactly?
Ogletree, Obama’s top advisor on race issues, explains that since Obama is “biracial,” his election won’t prove that racism has receded. White America won’t vote for blacks, Ogletree argues, and Obama’s election is possible only because he’s partly white.
You knew that, right? Because it's been all over the news.
Bonus:
The ABA Journal predicts that Ogletree, who has long advocated race-based reparations, will be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration.
FYI - Ogletree is black, so voting against Obama just to keep him out of the Justice Department would be racist. Of course, since you're already a racist no matter how you vote, you might as well get the most bang* for your dumb cracker buck.
* Please not that the use of the word "bang" in this post was purely metaphorical and should not be construed as any sort of threat either real or implied.
I've received five different election mailers the past two days. Good ones. But…I already voted, so that's kinda wasted money.
Not that they would've changed my mind, but you know: it's like announcing you have an extra ticket to the game, and then the next day somebody comes up to you really excited about asking for it because they really want to go and they'll even drive and bring the grill…but you already gave it to somebody else.
His 30-minute TV special was aimed at the middle class and depicted a few Americans struggling with finances and health care that left you with a feeling of depression rather than hope.
Those vingettes [sic] were far more engaging than the prerecorded segments of Obama speaking in a room that looked an awful lot like the Oval Office, and the pitches by business execs and politicians, including Gov. Deval Patrick.
I'll add that voters may see it as a move of desperation. Nonetheless, about those "vignettes": Will we ever see happy middle class people who've benefited from... anything a candidate promises and carries through with?
Government in action: In the meeting, Councilmembers noted that they warned they'd cut funding last year, and parks are more important than history. In this increasingly isolationist state and era, they've forgotten Wisconsin's heritage of joining the struggles of this nation and the price we paid for helping win the Civil War.
The property is beautiful for its architecture as well as being an important historical site; it's one of two in the county. Consider opening that beer tent one of the Gazette commentors proposed, Lincoln Tallman House.
Al Gore is uncharacteristically silent, but then he's not running for anything right now, except maybe a seat at Obama's table.
And what would he say, anyway? I believe he'd mumble something about carbon credits and happy little third-worlders who can keep haulin' water by hand to offset the big O's daytripping.
grumps: Obama suspended his campaign to detour to Hawaii, but since fans got to see him there, we'll call it a campaign stop? Nice try, but you'll have to do better. If Palin's clothes matter, Obama's detours paid for by his campaign do, to.
He and his body guards coulda flown first-class commercial easily for a couple of Palin's jackets and shoes, but he still wouldn't have anything to donate except a bigger carbon footprint.
Sheriff's deputies in Tennessee arrested two white supremacists last week on suspicion of planning the murder of, among many others, presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Not to make light of such a serious thing, but Jules Crittenden noticed this picture of one of the perps, and writes:
Hey, is it just me or does that neo-Nazi assassination plotter look like maybe he goosesteps with the left jackboot as well as the right? You know, siegheils from both sides of the Nuremberg rally. Like maybe his death train rattles in both directions...
Damn. That sure is one pretty Nazi. He’ll be popular where he’s going!
I saw a print of the wire version of that shot in the newsroom, and it definitely looks like Sturmführer David von Bowie’s wearing lipstick and eyeliner. All dolled up for a little Anschluss. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Life is a Kabaret, mein Freund.
So they have tranny skinheads? I did not know that.
Mockery is the sincerest form of disdain. Naturally, I join in.
Barack Obama’s trips to Hawaii on a chartered Boeing 757 each cost more than twice the price of Sarah Palin’s new clothes.
Brad Blakeman, who was in charge of scheduling for President Bush, says a Boeing 757 costs about $20,000 an hour for fuel, crew, and maintenance. Since a trip to Hawaii entails 10 hours of flying time from Chicago, the total cost for each round-trip comes to about $400,000.
…On the other hand, the media are highlighting the Republican National Committee’s purchase of $150,000 in clothes for Palin, even though the dresses will be donated to charities. The New York Times played the story on page one.
…as a self-declared conservative capitalist, I don’t begrudge anyone how they spend their money. But for Obama to be using campaign money for that trip while saying that anyone making more than $250,000 should have their money redistributed to others, and then for the NYT to whiiiiiine about the price of Palin’s clothes on their front page without mentioning the cost of O’s trip is the acme of hypocrisy.
All true, of course, but missing the overall point: why does Obama hate the Earth so much?
Somebody explain to me why you can't play baseball in the rain.
I don't want to hear anybody making any cracks about soccer being a wimpy sport until they can explain convincingly why soccer players can play in lousy weather, but baseball players can't.
I've seen this in a few different places today (including Badger Blogger, Fairly Conservative, and Stepping Right Up): CBS with a – well, not critical exactly, but not not critical, either – expose on Obama’s fundraising.
The piece highlights Obama's anonymous donors like “Doodad,” and also the vast amounts given Obama by financial interests.
Watch:
I wish they’d made the connection between those financial interests and the $700 billion “bailout” a little clearer, and I wish they’d have pointed out that Obama is the second biggest recipient of political money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the last ten years, even though he’s only been in Washington for four.
Still. Is anybody else noticing a slight drift away from Obamamania in the MSM?
There’s also this, via Gateway Pundit: another local news channel asking some tough questions of Joe Biden and – according to this report, at least – being banned for it.
This latest station is in Philly, which means it's probably all Skye's doing.
Where is Russ? Recall McCain-Feingold? Two Senators worked the Senate for campaign reform albeit mild reform. But Russ has given a pass to Obama for not taking public funding, and he has remained silent as John McCain has made Atwater and Rove look like guys committed to fair play. And Herb Kohl?
Naturally, he had to "balance" his nuanced criticism of Obama by instead criticizing Feingold, and by including a shot at McCain. Still, at least he mentioned it.
When trick-or-treaters come to the door, it will be answered by two large 'Secret Service Agents' with one bearing a nearly empty bowl of candy. If there are two or more tricksters ringing, the agents will compare all of their bags. If one child has more in his bag the agents will take some of his 'earnings' and redistribute it to the others. If there is only one child at the door the agents will take candy from his bag and redistribute it into our bowl, put some acorns in his, thank the child for his patriotism, and close the door.
You don't have to do your place up to pull this one off, just buy one Obama mask and two McCain masks (he'd cross the aisle on this one to play Secret Service, don't you think?), and one bag of candy.
Don't forget the Acorns, and thank you for your patriotism!
We've all read a lot about the "politicization" of the Justice Department in recent years, and that political pounding is having an ironic effect. The prosecutors who are supposed to guard against voter fraud don't seem very interested in running the political risk of doing their job.
…Justice recently decided to reverse a policy in place since 2002 to send criminal attorneys and other federal employees to monitor polling places. The decision came two weeks after a September meeting to which the Civil Rights Division invited dozens of left-wing activist groups to discuss voter "access" to the polls.
It’s incredible that a Republican-run Justice Department would give in to pressure from liberal groups, whose purpose clearly is to loosen the rules until there are, in effect, no rules at all.
Of course, it’s just as incredible that Democrats would want this, given that the Obamessiah is supposedly running away with this thing. Democrat tidal wave. Electoral blowout.
If the election is really in the bag, why don’t Democrats back off, score a big win with Republicans watching as closely as we want, and thereby decrease our credibility on the issue?
Hmmm.
Anyway, the story speculates on the “why this happened:”
…attorneys charged with supervising voting issues are avowed Barack Obama supporters. According to Federal Election Commission data, James Walsh, an attorney in the Civil Rights Division, has donated at least $300 to Mr. Obama. His boss, Mark Kappelhoff, has given $2,250 -- nearly the maximum. John Russ, also in Civil Rights, gave at least $600 to Mr. Obama.
If that’s really the reason, even in part, it means the Bush administration has lost all control over the bureaucracy. It also means attorneys at Justice don’t give a rat’s patoot about the appearance of impropriety.
There’s no rule against them contributing, the story goes on to say. Well, good. There shouldn’t be a rule. Lawyers should be smart and honest enough to remove themselves from positions of authority when they’ve got such a clear conflict of interest without any rule.
But then, conflicts of interest don’t bother Democrats.
I’m done kvetching now, but thought these last paragraphs were interesting – I hadn’t heard of this before:
In 2001, the Palm Beach Post reported that more than 5,600 people who voted in Florida in the 2000 Presidential election had names and data that perfectly matched a statewide list of suspected felons who were barred from voting. Florida was decided by about 500 votes.
In 2003, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the result of a mayor's race because of absentee ballot fraud -- a case that led to a stricter Indiana ID law recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2005 Tennessee state Senate race was voided after evidence of voting by felons, nonresidents and the deceased. A Washington State Superior Court judge found that the state's 2004 gubernatorial race, which Democrat Christine Gregoire won by 133 votes, had included at least 1,678 illegal votes.
I'll admit, Milwaukee has started to grow on me a little bit. Still, it remains a place I will visit selectively but would never chose to live in. This is just another reason why:
After acting to protect their travel budget and to keep their right to receive $150 a year in car allowance and $3 for each time they go somewhere in the city on official business, Milwaukee School Board members approved a budget for this year that will raise the amount to be collected in property taxes for schools by 14.6%.
14.6%. Take a moment to think about the number one concern for most people right now: the economy. And in the face of people's concerns about how the economic downturn is going to affect their ability to pay their bills, MPS doesn't just ask for more, it mugs them. And it does so with great arrogance by protecting their perks.
Spread the wealth around! Make our country Russian! Turn it upside down! Economic destruction!
Love to tax it... Love to tax it... Love to tax it...
I dunno, which is better? His songwriting skills, or his singing?
Yeah, his songwriting skills. I heard him hitting the high notes, too.
Make sure and watch at least until 3:47, when Josh does his Barack Obama impersonation. That's right, people: Josh Schroeder doing Barack Obama singing Gloria Stephan. God bless the internet!
Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign the read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed--just imagine the coincidence.
When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need-- the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.
I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.
At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.
I should say: liberals except for Jack Lohman, who's probably giving birth to kittens right about now.
The story: Obama raised $150 million in September alone - that's nearly double what the "public financing" system gives a presidential candidate.
Has the 2008 election signaled the end of public financing for presidential campaigns?
In some ways, yes. Barack Obama, the first major-party nominee to forgo federal funds since the advent of the system in 1976, has raised more money than even his own campaign thought imaginable. The Democratic nominee’s $150 million haul in September alone dwarfs the $84.1 million total that Republican John McCain can deploy for the entire general election season in his public grant. Overall, Senator Obama has raised more than $600 million, nearly twice what Senator McCain has. Party money has supplemented both campaigns’ efforts, but not enough for McCain to keep up with Obama.
As disturbing as Obama's money lead is, particularly to someone who voted for John McCain earlier today, my honest reaction is: geez, my side shoulda raised more.
Spending my own hard-earned cash to support a cause I believe in is an extension of my First Amendment rights. Any attempt to stop me is a subversion of those rights. Money in politics might be a problem, yes. But the "solutions" we've been offered are worse.
In the past, liberal thinkers haven't thought so. For example, back in 2006, Ed Garvey wrote:
...they sure as hell don't want to discuss campaign finance reform and the governor's lack of leadership on the issue, not to mention his questionable fundraising from state vendors, utilities and casino advocates.
Green reported that he has raised $1.4 million and his Republican opponent has raised $67,000. Terri McCormick has $1,000 and change in the bank and Mr. Per Diem Gard has $657,000 in the bank. Surprise prediction: Gard will win the primary.
The system is broken. The realtors, bankers, utilities and WMC members nominate their candidate. I don't know Terri McCormick and you won't get to know her either because the main-street media has written her off. Why? No money. Ideas, maybe, but no money so bye-bye.
We need a better answer.
Funny, isn't it, that I have to go back to 2006 for that. You'd think he'd still be writing about it now. Especially now.
One's on the 1200 block of E. Mifflin; the other's right around the corner from there. Not the absolute pit of deep Madison liberalism, but in the second-to-bottom circle, that's for sure.
Of course, one can't tell whether the actual residents put these up, or whether the houses are rented, and the landlord put them there. But, feh.
I noticed them on Monday, and they were still there today.
I heard a little of Charlie Sykes today – he was asking listeners what they hope to hear from the McCain campaign in these next two weeks.
It may be too late for this, but I still think the way to go is to paint a positive, inspiring picture of the candidate. Best thing about this candidate: you don't have to reach very far. His own story is positive and inspiring.
Watch this video. It's the John McCain bio shown at the convention. It’s a little long – 8:26 – and the voiceover gets a little hokey sometimes. Still, this has what I want to see out of the McCain campaign.
I’ve transcribed the best parts below.
Highlights:
At 1:15: “A four-star father, Commander of the Pacific at the time that his son was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. His father would take a single guard and drive to the border between North and South Vietnam. He’d stand for hours, gazing north. It was as close as he could get to his son, who was imprisoned in downtown Hanoi, the city he’d just ordered to be carpet-bombed.”
3:25: “When the North Vietnamese realized who his father was, they offered John early release… He said no. He’d honor ‘first in, first out’ like everyone else. And so, he chose to spend four more years in Hell.”
4:25: “It says much about the man that Senator McCain led the effort to normalize relations with Vietnam. Five and a half years in their hell, and he chose to go back. Because it was healing for America. That’s country first.”
Tell that story, and end with: “Country First, not just a slogan to John McCain.”
Or: “Times are tough. We need a leader who’s faced even tougher, and won.”
Or: “John McCain, ready to lead,” which is a nice contrast to their “not ready to lead” shots at Obama.
Yes, I know, they've told the story. America has a short memory, though. So tell it again. The Ayers/Rezko/racist pastor storylines aren’t resonating. The negative campaigning from both sides are becoming a wash.
As undecided voters begin to break, they’ll break toward the candidate about whom they feel the most positive. What better way to instill a positive, inspiring image of McCain than to tell that story?
Here’s another thing we should revisit after the election
I linked to Elliot's post the other day, in which he made a point to remember Barack Obama's "promises" on tax cuts. Point being, when those promises are broken, we'll have the exact quotes ready to hand.
This sounds like large-scale, institutional suppression of the vote down in Florida:
MIAMI (AP) - Florida kicked off early voting on Monday, with record crowds heading to the polls and voters waiting hours to cast their ballots. Elections officials said the few reported problems were minor.
Excuse me? Minor? Long waits at the polls are exactly the same - exactly the same - as voter suppression!
Police rescue Lefty protesters from homicidal Palin motorcade!
Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has the story about protesters trying to impede Sarah Palin’s motorcade in Colorado:
Eight to 10 protesters broke away from a larger group of demonstrators and darted into the street in front of Palin's car just after the first police motorcycles in her motorcade had passed, said Acting Chief Troy Smith of the Grand Junction Police Department.
Wearing bandanas and with their faces covered, the protesters blocked the path and held up a large banner. Officers stopped their motorcycles, grabbed the protesters and dragged several out of the path of the oncoming motorcade.
How come they’ve always got their faces covered? Are they ashamed of themselves or something? Mom and Dad might stop your allowance if they see you on the news acting stupid?
Smith said officers saved the protesters from injury because "the motorcade likely would not have stopped" for them. He said "we don't know what their intentions were" in trying to block Palin's motorcade.
See, the Secret Service is not going to allow the motorcade to stop in an unsecured area. They'd keep right on going, even if they had to run somebody over.
But if they ran somebody over, that would reflect on Palin and the campaign – not on the idiot who ran in front of a moving vehicle.
I’m just hoping there aren’t any Obamaniacs out there infatuated enough to “take one for the Messiah” in quite that fashion.
I think the word "racist" just automatically spills out whenever a Lefty opens his mouth.
Or her mouth. Could be a her. I don't want to be accused of misogyny.
Perusing Memeorandum earlier today, I came across these two passages at blogs I don't normally read. First, from Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo:
I don't think there's any question that McCain's is the dirtiest and most dishonest campaign, certainly in the last 35 years and possibly going much further back into the early 20th century.
The racist and xenophobic bile that has flowed from the right-wing Republican base and spokesmouths like Rush Limbaugh has been unprecedented in this campaign season…
“The dirtiest and most dishonest campaign?” Run by a guy who wouldn’t let an old lady describe Obama as an “Arab” at a campaign stop?
“Racist and xenophobic bile?”
I know I'm setting myself up for a bunch of unrelated anecdotes and hard-spun "lies," but I want to see some examples.
Please note: we on the Right are calling Obama's promise of "no tax increases for 95% of Americans" a lie. We're calling Obama's "status" as a post-racial healer a lie. We're calling his claim that he had no idea Bill Ayers was an unrepentant terrorist a lie.
For the sake of this discussion, I'm willing to call those things "campaign statements," which could be spun as untrue, but could as easily be spun as true. For the sake of this discussion, those don't count.
When you start calling McCain's campaign the "dirtiest and most dishonest," that goes beyond campaign-speak. When you start throwing around the words "racist and xenophobic," you're saying something specific. I want to know exactly what it is.
For the record, I don't think they've got anything but Leftist spin and kneejerk assumptions that, hey, he's a Republican, so he must be racist!
By contrast, only 44 percent of National Public Radio listeners got all three questions correct.
The questions were:
What party controls the U.S. House of Representatives?
Who is the U.S. Secretary of State?
Who is Great Britain’s Prime Minister?
According to our poll, 2% of respondents got either zero or one question correct; 14% got two correct, and 81% of respondents got all three questions correct.
Just 44 percent of BBC viewers identified the prime minister correctly.
BBC viewers are, I assume, largely British. And we're more likely to know who their PM is than they are.
Ha!
Of course, there are other possible explanations. For example, it was easier to cheat on this poll than it is to fraudulently vote in Milwaukee.
Also, the answer to question #3 was leaked by people who will remain nameless, except to say that her initials are tee bee and he took the poll from where he sits.
“I promise you this: not only will the middle class get a tax cut under my plan, but if you make less than $250,000 a year — which includes 98 percent of small business owners — you won’t see your taxes increase one single dime,” said the Illinois senator. “Not your payroll taxes, not your income taxes, not your capital gains taxes — nothing. That is my commitment to you.”
Elliot says:
And if it’s Congress that raises one of those taxes and Obama only signs it into law, it will still count as a broken promise.
I'd add that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire - which will raise taxes on the middle class - will also amount to a broken promise.
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, an editorial about just what Americans can expect from full Democrat control of the federal government, especially if Democrats have 60 or more - a filibuster-proof majority - in the Senate.
The worst part, in my opinion:
A liberal supermajority would move quickly to impose procedural advantages that could cement Democratic rule for years to come.
It's also important to remember that, should Democrats take over the state Assembly this year, they'll do the exact same thing for Wisconsin.
In these challenging times, wouldn't $60 million come in handy?
With Governor Diamond Jim telling us that Wisconsin will have a structural deficit of some $3 Billion, wouldn't it be nice to have that $60 million the Ho-Chunk tribe owes the taxpayers?
As if it didn't take him long enough to decide to play in 2008, New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre is already fielding questions regarding his status in 2009.
"We'll take it week to week," the Jets' quarterback said Wednesday. "At the end of the season, I'll take a look at ... I'll assess how I played this year and talk with the Jets and we'll see from there. I think it's way premature to even think about next season."
It matters, and yet it doesn't.
Hat tip Kevin Binversie, and this is officially my first post that got its start on Twitter.
Okay, so the RNC is ceasing their own TV ads in Wisconsin. That doesn't mean this thing is over. For one thing:
The McCain campaign is continuing to advertise in Wisconsin, and the RNC will continue to air joint ads with the McCain campaign, a strategy aimed at helping McCain get more bang for his limited bucks.
The story also says the RNC is continuing direct mail and other efforts in the state.
I was gonna find Lance's poster maker and put this together with a "Hunters, Welcome to Rock County! Bring your rolling papers!" sign, but it's hard to limit the tag lines to the story.
Help a sister out - post your own Kona comedy gold poster titles.
John Kerry came to Madison, and all I got was this lousy video
Sen. John Kerry headlined an Obama rally at the State Capitol yesterday, and I was there.
The crowd was estimated at 250-ish, which sounds about right. That includes a couple dozen College Republicans, who showed up at the rally, too. I got a shot of them:
Also, you can see them in the background of this picture:
That’s Kerry at the podium, and the CRs across the way. Some Democrats managed to get a big banner up in front of them a little later, so you can’t see them anymore.
I suppose I should mention: I am not hiding in the bushes. This was the only vantage I could find with a clear view of the podium. Sorry about the poor video quality, but the audio is good. Hippies know their woofers and tweeters.
On to the video. On energy policy, Kerry told the crowd that “it’s a question of how we’re going to deal with our responsibility to the planet.”
Kerry was a target-rich environment in 2004, and he’s still a target-rich environment today. I’ll excerpt:
“We’ve been trying to break the cord of our connection to fossil fuels for years, and we can’t break it because too many Republican Senators and administrations are so tied to oil and gas and oil interests that they deny us the future we deserve.”
Say, Senator Kerry, have you divested yourself of your own ties to “oil and gas and oil interests” yet? You know, those six-figure investments?
No? Huh.
I love the way Kerry mentions Al Gore – inventor of the internet – and then within a minute uses the metaphor “there are three or four Googles equivalent yet to be created in alternative and renewable fuels…”
What’s Al waiting for, exactly? Get inventing!
More:
“Think what a difference it would make if instead of sending a billion dollars a day to the Middle East we sent a billion dollars a day to the Midwest of this country…”
The Democrats’ new energy policy: drill in the Great Lakes!
This was weird:
“In solar-thermal alone you could do 6 times the electricity needs of the United States just in the southwest of our country…”
What a load of biomass. Where, exactly, did he get “six times?” The best figure I could find is in this article, which claims we could produce 90% of our electricity needs by 2050, and even that’s disputed.
Oh, I get it: it depends on the definition of “could.” See, we could supply all our energy needs with hamsters on exercise wheels, if we only had enough hamsters. And enough wheels.
That may be a good investment tip for the future, by the way.
On to health care: Kerry pokes fun at Republican dislike of “government programs.”
Notice: Medicaid used to be part of the “safety net” that keeps people from falling all the way to the bottom. Now everybody should have something like it. The VA was created to help military vets and their families. Now we should give that same help to everybody.
Lesson: government programs always grow.
There’s a baldfaced lie in this next clip:
McCain’s plan to give tax credits to help pay for health insurance “doesn’t work,” Kerry says:
“…unless you use tax credits, or unless you earn enough income that tax credits work for you, that doesn’t work for a lot of Americans.”
If that's not a lie, it's a willful deception. The tax credit, you see, is refundable. Like the $1,000 per-child tax credit that Democrats will slash once in office. A refundable credit means: you get the money, even if you don’t pay taxes.
Everyone can use it. Everyone. Kerry knows that, but chooses to lie about it.
I’m not endorsing McCain’s plan – I don’t understand enough about it, and the Democrat-controlled Congress won’t pass it, anyway – but even the New York Times says that most Americans will come out ahead, dollar-wise, and those who don’t will be primarily “those with high incomes and expensive health plans.”
In other words, exactly the people Democrats want paying more taxes.
As far as his description of Obama’s health plan…please. Obama’s plan requires companies to either provide insurance or pay a tax to support the government’s plan. Which will most companies choose? The latter. Less hassle, less cost. People will begin to actively reject employer-provided care in order to get the government plan, because the Democrat-controlled Congress will load that sucker up with benefits.
You put Obama in the White House with a Democrat Congress, and watch what they try to do. Hillarycare is going to look like something Hayek would endorse, by comparison.
On to Iraq. The new Obama theme song: "Bomb bomb bomb...bomb Pakistan!"
“His (Obama’s) judgment was right and John McCain’s was wrong.”
Of course, Obama was in the Illinois State Senate when all this was being debated, so his “position” has the benefit of hindsight. And of course, if “his judgment was right and John McCain’s was wrong,” then so was John Kerry’s.
And of course, when we heard those calls for more troops, it was John McCain who stood his ground and insisted on more troops, even though it was unpopular at the time. And of course, it’s worked, meaning McCain’s judgment was right and Obama’s and Kerry’s were wrong. And of course, our troops continue to kill and capture Al Quaeda leaders and operatives in Iraq.
Maybe Iraq wasn’t the center of the War on Terror in 2003, but it was the only place where we had the moral and legal ability to open a second front. So we did. Only a serial opportunist – like Kerry – would suggest otherwise.
One more clip: Kerry talks about achieving a filibuster-proof majority (shudder), and takes a little shot at Joe Lieberman.
All signs are pointing to Democrat gains this year. I can only hope that the voters, in their wisdom, continue their usual policy of not putting all our eggs into one basket.
It looks increasingly likely that we will not fulfill our tagline here at the BBA.
The Republican National Committee is halting presidential ads in Wisconsin and Maine, turning much of its attention to usually Republican states where GOP nominee John McCain shows signs of faltering.
The party's independent ad operation is doubling its budget to about $10 million and focusing on crucial states such as Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and Virginia where Democrat Barack Obama has established a foothold, according to a Republican strategist familiar with presidential ad placements.
So how does a deployed soldier stay in touch with the people he's hoping to represent? Start a blog!
Mike Hahn for Assembly Launches New Blog
Today Mike Hahn, candidate for the 45th Assembly District, launched a new blog that is designed to serve as a way to communicate and interact with the voters of 45th District while he is preparing to deploy to Iraq with the United States Army. The new blog’s address is: www.mikehahnforassembly.blogspot.com and there is also a link at the campaign’s website www.mikehahnforassembly.com.
He plans to update every Tuesday and Thursday, and answer comments on Fridays.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, trailing in the polls with just more than three weeks left before the election, sought Monday to portray himself as the underdog.
McCain acknowledged that he is “six points down,” adding that “the national media has written us off.”
It's true: we all pretty much wrote McCain off during the primaries, myself included. But he's still in the race.
MADISON -- A third person in Milwaukee faces charges of election fraud after prosecutors say he turned in 54 fake registrations, including one for a man who died 16 years ago.
Frank Walton, 29, submitted the inaccurate voter forms to the city Election Commission, according to a criminal complaint, with errors that also included fake driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers.
…Walton becomes the third worker at Community Voters Project charged with election fraud in Wisconsin.
The complaint said Walton collected 70 voter registrations for CVP between June 4 and June 17. He was fired him after the Milwaukee City Election Commission notified the CVP that Walton had registered a dead man. Investigators determined only 16 of the 70 registration forms Walton turned in were accurate.
Driver's license information on 17 of 23 forms were incorrect and 40 of 45 forms that used Social Security numbers didn't match the voter. Some of the registrations also included addresses that didn't exist or led back to businesses or vacant buildings.
The story doesn't say, specifically, but it sounds as though the registrations were checked against existing records ("Driver's license information on 17 of 23 forms were incorrect").
Without that safeguard, the names on these registrations would now be on the voter rolls. With the names on the rolls, anyone could simply walk in, claim to be one of them, and cast a vote without having to provide any proof of identity.
Anyone who claims not to see this problem is being willfully blind.
Re: Haven't the comments been interesting here at BBA lately?
Re the supposed right-winger advocating violence. At first I go for the obvious explanation and take it all literally. However, how many of us conservatives believe a word after hearing "I have been a Republican all my life, but..."? In addition, only a five or six months ago Owen had his one little "conservative" threatening violence only to find out upon investigation it was nothing but a minion from the Teacher's Industrial Complex (TIC) attempting to caricature conservatives as uneducated violent hicks. Kinda fits the mold here in this case.
Some of us work and slave and fight for every single hit...
...others of us have thousands of hits thrust upon us, simply by opening our email.
Fred Dooly, proprietor of RealDebateWisconsin and member emeritus here at BBA, had bumper-to-bumper traffic all day long today. A-list kind of traffic. Because Fred broke the story about there being a 15-page Ode to Obama in an official Racine School District textbook.
Seems a student's mom emailed him about it. Lucky bastard That's an example of a blogger having built a readership that likes and trusts him.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) --- The University of Wisconsin-Madison has apologized to a black student who during a class last year was shown a clip of the movie "Blazing Saddles" that features racial epithets.
During a workshop for working professionals last year, an instructor showed a scene of the 1974 comedy in which blacks are shown working on a railroad. Whites call the workers racial epithets and an overseer orders them to sing like slaves.
...Department official James Campbell says it was "an insensitive error to use a video clip that included inflammatory and offensive language, and it will not happen again."
I wish we knew why the instructor chose that clip - what was the benefit to the workshop? And did he mention up front that the clip included racial epithets?
I also wish somebody would point out: the racist characters in “Blazing Saddles” are gleefully portrayed as idiots. The racist overseers in this particular scene are rather easily made to look like fools by the black workers.
But I didn't really want to say any of that. No, the only reason I'm posting this is to link to this review I wrote back in 2004: Blazing Saddles, A Parent's Handbook.
Re 'Flame war' and 'Interesting comments'; elsewhere Jib notes that the spommenters here followed the CNN link (I suspect that accounts for both the lefty flamers and mock-flyover retributive rants).
Maybe I shoulda posted this CNN-bleg-based post - regarding some thinly disguised Obama-blegging via Campbell Brown - over here. BBA has the kinda traffic those CNN trolls love to ride.
Unlike Campbell Brown, I don't expect they actually represent a significant voter constituency. Just a bunch of... well, you know (via Owen).
Congratulations, South Central Wisconsin. Despite having Dane County in your midst, you bucked the trends of global warming, gas conservation, and economics by actually increasing the number of SUVs and trucks you purchased.
Via Fausta's Blog, more peaceful non-hatred aimed at Republicans:
PORTLAND, Ore. - Authorities have arrested two men after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a 4-foot by 8-foot campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a southeast Portland yard.
Karen Scrutton said she was asleep inside her home at 7956 S.E. 17th Ave. in the Sellwood neighborhood when she saw her sign go up in flames after 1 a.m.
…Witnesses said the suspects threw a Molotov cocktail at the sign and used another as a torch.
The Scruttons worried that their home could have caught on fire.
"Our whole house could have burnt down," Karen Scrutton said while thanking her neighbor for intervening.
Gee, I hope they didn't have any kids at home.
Alternate tagline: aren't Molotov cocktails bad for the environment?
I wonder if the perps are sons of Democrat congresspeople. That would fit the ususal profile, wouldn't it?
It's like 1996 all over again. There was never any possibility that a majority of Americans were going to vote for Bob Dole. He was simply a bad candidate. He lacked charisma and his record was not conservative. (Newt Gingrich famously called Dole "the tax collector for the welfare state.") Yet conservatives had got the idea into their head that Bill Clinton was so vastly unpopular, such a transparently evil man, that any Republican could beat him.
Emphasis added.
I'm not sure that I'm right. I simply remember us all going bonkers that America was voting for Clinton when it was so obvious that he was a slimeball. I see the same thing happening now.
Haven't the comments been interesting here at BBA lately?
Indeed they have. We got a rash of spomments on this post by tee bee last week, and then a troll pretending to be a conservative on this post of mine.
Liberal blogs aren’t immune, either. Mike Plaisted got a comment from a supposedly-conservative reader that included this sentence (errors in the original, censoring by me): "I am predicting this year is that someone (not ME LMAO) will assasinate the dumb socialist n-----."
That was referring to Barack Obama, in case you didn't guess.
Some small amount of consideration might lead one to suspect that commenter of being a lying troll, but of course, Mike doesn't. He fell for it, because that comment fits his caricatured idea of what conservatives are.
Notice: the deadline for filing fraudulent voter registrations by mail is tomorrow
Those fraudulent registration forms have to be postmarked by Wednesday, October 15 if you want them to count.
True, legitimate forms have to be postmarked by then, too, but if you’re filing a legitimate form, then you’re only filing once, so there’s less pressure on you to get it all done in time.
I wrote Thursday about what I think McCain has to do to turn this election around.
Not that anybody should listen to me, necessarily, but pundits have to punditize. Thus, onward.
Anyway, a couple quotes from two of my favorite blogger/writers seem to support my case. First, Ann Althouse:
McCain has lost definition.
Pro-McCain crowds seem to want him to work harder on defining Obama, but the problem I see - and, I believe, that Althouse sees - is that he himself is no longer defined.
Here is a warning for Republicans: When your crowds go from "I love you" to "I hate the other guy," you are in trouble, you are on a losing strain. Winning campaigns are built on love. This is the time for "McCain is the answer," not "The other guy is questionable."
Wilcox argues that savers who are dutifully contributing to their 401(k) plans face a real risk, because they won't pay taxes on the money until they retire. "It's easy for me to imagine 10 years from now a political candidate saying, 'We have all these people with $3 million in their 401(k) plans and we need to impose taxes on those people and shore up Social Security for people who didn't have access to these 401(k)s,'" he says. "It's a big fat target for politicians."
This reminded me of this passage from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged:"
Those who had once simpered: “I don’t want to destroy the rich, I only want to seize a little bit of their surplus to help the poor, just a little, they’ll never miss it!” – Then, later, had snapped: “The tycoons can stand being squeezed, they’ve amassed enough to last them for three generations” – then, later, had yelled: “Why should the people suffer while businessmen have reserves to last a year?” – now were screaming: “Why should we starve while some people have reserves to last a week?” What were they counting on?
Wisconsin's rural counties have some of the highest rates of uninsured people in the state, according to new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Now here's the headline:
Wisconsin has third-lowest rate of uninsured residents in U.S.
Notice the difference? The headline took the best news out of the story, while the lead focused on the worst news. It's a little inverse bias – usually, we expect the reporters and copy editors to focus solely on the bad news out of a story like this.
After lecturing on the Fed yesterday, I headed out to the Rock River of Rock River Salmon and Rock Salmon* fame, and caught one. We teachers call them our Friday contact hours.
*Every year a big fishery operation sets up below the 4th Street dam in Beloit and harvests these babies for the New York markets.
...I really want to do another one of these posts, but I can't think of anything that swings this wildly. A spider in a Zoot Suit clinging to a thread attached to a roller coaster during a hurricane doesn't swing this wildly.
We had a really good event at the McCain/Palin - Sauk County GOP headquarters last night. A really good event. Lots of people, lots of good food, lots of enthusiasm both for the top of the ticket and the state legislative races.
A couple pictures:
You can make out Tim McCumber, chair of the Sauk GOP, speaking up front. He told us we've flown through 800 McCain/Palin signs in just over a week.
He's not really that tall. He's standing on a chair.
You can just barely see state Senator Dale Schultz up front (right side - and he is that tall).
I counted 80 people while I was standing in the back. Would've been more, but the Sauk County Right to Life banquet was last night, too, so a bunch of people went to that instead.
Since I saw several people leave before the speeches started, we're rounding our official attendance estimate up to 200.
Oh, no, wait: that's anti-war protest math. Sorry.
Wendy, posting about the McCain/Palin rally in Waukesha:
There was already a long line of ticketholders waiting to get in, and about 20 protesters yelling and chanting. I think I saw Lance Burri in line [Update: It was not Lance Burri, it was some other 8 foot man with dimples.].
Part of the answer lies in understanding bubbles and monetary inflation, but especially the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve is charged with controlling inflation through interest rate manipulation, however, many fail to realize that creating money, and therefore inflation, is really its only tool. When the Federal Reserve inflates the dollar as drastically as it has in the past few decades, the first users of the newly created money go in search of investments for their dollars. They must invest this money quickly and aggressively before it loses value. This causes certain sectors to expand beyond what would naturally occur in the free market. Eventually the sector overheats and the bubble bursts. Overinvestment in dotcoms eventually led to a collapse of the NASDAQ. Next we had the housing bubble, and now we are seeing the price of oil being bid up in the creation of another new bubble. Investors are now looking to commodities like oil, for stability and growth as they pull capital out of real estate. This increased demand for investment vehicles related to oil contributes to driving up the price of the actual product.
Doesn't matter where the fake dollars go, the Fed will be there with more free money. Next:
On Friday [Aug. 10, 2007], the Federal Reserve — and other central banks around the world — pumped money into the global credit markets to head off a developing panic. The move was supposed to calm down the markets and ease fears that the mortgage mess will get worse before it gets better. All of which has some readers wondering just what happens when the Fed pumps money into these systems. Whose money is it — and where does it go when the pumping starts?
What does it mean when the Fed (and other countries) inject money into the banking system? Does this mean the government is printing money to get itself out of jam? Doesn't such an action create inflationary consequences? If so, wouldn't lowering interest rates be an at least equally effective mechanism? It seems to me that of those two mechanisms, even though both have inflation consequences, the lowering of interest rates would help the end consumer quicker.
— Richard, address withheld
The Federal Reserve, like all central banks, has several tools at its disposal to pump more money into the banking system (or drain it out), which helps to grease the economy and the financial markets — or slow them down. Contrary to popular notion, printing physical reserve notes (currency) isn’t the most important mechanism. (Thanks, anyway, to those readers who kindly remind us that the Fed's secret manipulation of illegitimate, 'fiat' currency is root cause of the world's economic and financial ills.) Most of the ‘money’ that flows through the global financial markets is actually electronic data moving from one account to another.
One of the more mysterious areas of the economy is the role of the Fed. Formally known as the Federal Reserve, the Fed is the gatekeeper of the U.S. economy. It is the central bank of the United States -- it is the bank of banks and the bank of the U.S. government. The Fed regulates financial institutions, manages the nation's money and influences the economy. By raising and lowering interest rates, creating money and using a few other tricks, the Fed can either stimulate or slow down the economy. This manipulation helps maintain low inflation, high employment rates, and manufacturing output.
Of course, there are those who are in denial:
The Federal Reserve DOES NOT create money out of thin air. Every dollar printed is backed by collateral- that collateral being a US treasury bond which is sold off by the federal reserve to a buyer like your grandma, China, a pension fund, etc. That means every dollar is borrowed and has to be paid back with interest. How do we pay it back? With your tax dollars. 100% of your federal income taxes goes to pay these bond holders back. NONE of your taxes goes to fund the govt. or the military [emphasis mine, since for some it may be unclear that neither your grandma, China, nor a pension fund are actual collateral].
It may be easier for the government to manage money now that it's not based on anything at all, but that's also become its greatest weakness. It's just paper, and we can pump out a lot of paper.
I've been wondering whether all the recent financial unpleasantness - the G.I.Normous (and seemingly neverending) bailouts, the Dow Jones dropping like a rock - has taught us anything yet.
Well, I saw these while on a lit drop in Appleton yesterday:
Why not help yourself to a heaping portion? The moonbats haven't been winging around conservative sites like in past elections, so we've put together a nice, safe terrarium of 'em for you to play with.
Dont' worry - they're not bright, but they're not shy either!
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday agreed to provide insurance giant American International Group Inc. with a loan of up to $37.8 billion, on top of one made to the troubled company last month.
Another $37.8 billion? Is this another $37.8 billion? On top of all the other money?
And where, exactly, is it coming from?
Under the new program, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will borrow up to $37.8 billion in investment-grade, fixed income securities from AIG in return for cash collateral. These securities were previously lent by AIG's insurance company subsidiaries to third parties.
So the Fed is going to borrow all that money to lend to AIG.
But...I thought the credit industry was totally kaput. Who is the Fed borrowing it from, and why can't AIG just borrow it from them themselves?
And by the way, if all this federal spending is supposed to calm the markets, it isn't working.
This election is starting to feel a lot like 1996. Then, Republicans and conservatives simply couldn't believe that the American public might vote for Bill Clinton, what with all the slimy, unethical, and quite possibly illegal things he did or was involved in and which were constantly being pointed out by Republican and conservative outlets.
But they did. American voters yawned. Near-complete glovelessness on our part didn’t do the trick.
I'm getting the same vibe now. I feel the American public yawning, stretching, and slipping slowly away.
We all want McCain to "take the gloves off," but...well, that didn't work in 1996, and it doesn't seem to be working now.
I do have a suggestion (as little as I tend to rely on my own political instincts): McCain should get back to telling his story. It's powerful stuff, and no amount of spin can possibly wash away that contrast.
Anyway, I've written a lot more on the subject over at my place. Go on over and read.
Which could indicate that he simply suffers from a selective amnesia that occurs randomly every four years in October over a suddenly perceived awareness of "the depths that the Republican Party is willing to sink to try in win this election."
I felt that way when I saw an article today about "race baiting," and half-a-dozen on Palin's Ayers attack (no, not the kind that are critical of Obama's history with the terrorist-cum-professor).
Except, unlike Bunch, I know I've felt this way before.
Update: A primer for those spommenters who foam at the mouth when Obama and Ayers are linked.
