Why I'm a Conservative Republican who's Voting for McCain/Palin

Not only could I not have said it better myself, I could not have had nearly as much fun saying it as this dude. He rocks the house!

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) Pwns

"Today you are being asked to choose between bread and freedom. I suggest that the people on Main Street have said that they prefer their freedom - and I am with them."

Per Chris Wallace on Fox: "We wouldn't have a deal today if it hadn't been for John McCain"

UPDATE:  Politico just confirmed that the ACORN issue is now off the table. 

After several days of rage from conservative activists regarding a provision in the bailout bill that would send some of the profits from the sale of distressed assets the goverment buys into an affordable housing trust fund, congressional negotiators have removed section 105(d) of the bailout proposal, according to aides on both side.

In response to the completely dishonest attempts by Harry Reid and the Obama campaign to credit their candidate for saving the American economy single-handedly while discrediting John McCain's pivotal role in the negotiations, I transcribed this interview which occurred Sunday morning on Fox News Election Headquarters between Eric Shawn (ES) and Chris Wallace (CW) after a preview of  Wallace's interview with Lindsay Graham and John Kerry, explaining their candidates' roles in the "Rescue Plan" (aka bailout) discussions.  Regardless of how you feel about the deal itself, it is crystal clear that no deal would have occurred without McCain intervening to foster negotiations both by returning to work in Washington and continuing to work the phones after the debate.

1.  Contrary to Democratic talking points, no deal was struck prior to McCain's intervention

ES:      Good morning, Chris
CW:     Good Morning, Eric
ES:      From your conversations with the two Senators [Graham and Kerry] and they both represent their respective Presidential candidates, who came out on top with this bailout?
CW:    Certainly McCain played a much bigger role than Obama did, and here's where McCain did play a big role.  For all the talk on Thursday that there was a deal, in fact there was no deal because the House Republicans, who are quite conservative as a caucus, were not going to sign on to the bill as it then stood and McCain was able to bring them in, to get them on board, there were some changes made in these meetings over the weekend and as a result it looks like this will pass with a lot of votes from Republicans and Democrats in both houses.  In the House, particularly, the Democrats were not going to pass the bill even though they have a majority, unless there was a big Republicans sign-in.

2.  Obama's "leadership discussion" consisted of hectoring the Cabinet Room meeting participants

ES:     You know it's interesting, in what we heard from Senator Kerry saying that Senator Obama's been on the phone dealing with this for weeks and then they had this meeting, that he handled these questions for the President when they were sitting in the Cabinet Room.  The New York Times says John McCain didn't ask one question.  So is this all, you know, spin?
CW:    Well, it is a fact that Obama talked a lot more than McCain did in the meeting in the Cabinet Room.  In fact, some people said that Obama kind of "hectored" everybody else. On the other hand though, you know, I think a lot of this stuff doesn't happen in those kinds of meetings.  It happens behind the scenes, and McCain was very involved, as I say, in getting the House Republican caucus on board and we wouldn't have a deal today if it hadn't been for that.
ES:     And bottom line, how do you think this will shape out?  The House goes back in session, the Senate, tomorrow.  What can we expect?
CW:    I think we'll probably get a bill passed.  They're going to work like crazy.  Of course they don't go into all the details when the negotiate the deal, all the top leaders, so now the staffs have to sit together and actually put this into legislative language.  It sounds like there's going to be a vote in the House first, then the Senate, and I suspect they're going to get it before the end of business on Monday. 
ES:     All right, House back in session about two hours, three hours from now [11 am Sunday, 9/28/08] and we'll be on top of it all afternoon.  Chris, good to see you as always, thank you.
CW:    Thank you so much, Eric.

3.  Politico verified McCain's instrumental role in the negotiations

In the article published Saturday night titled Obama, McCain signal support for bailout plan, Politico stated the following:

Republicans complained that the presence of the additional Democrats was making the process more difficult; by setting up shop in Boehner’s office, Paulson was able to get some breathing room after spending hours in close quarters, where at times he was hectored by some of the Senate Democrats.

Earlier in the day Saturday, Boehner had gone before the TV cameras to say that House Republicans would not agree to a bill “that bails out Wall Street at the expense of American taxpayers.”

Sources said Saturday afternoon that as many as 40 Republican senators were prepared to vote for the emerging bailout deal if bankruptcy and social spending provisions are dropped. And while McConnell was not yet ready to abandon House Republicans — or McCain — sources said his views might change if there were still no deal by Sunday evening.

For his part, McCain – fresh off his debate with Obama in Mississippi – spent Saturday calling House Republicans to test support for the rescue plan, according to one lawmaker who was contacted. In addition to President Bush and Paulson, the McCain campaign said the Arizona senator had been in touch with McConnell, Gregg, Sen. Jon Kyl, Boehner, Blunt and nine other House Republicans.

4.  House Republicans represented voter anger over the initial bailout agreement

In an article published on Sunday titled Early Anger for the Agreement, Politico stated:

The House opened Sunday with a string of one-minute tirades about the tentative agreement congressional negotiators brokered hours earlier with administration.

None of the speechmakers - from liberal Oregon Democrat Peter DeFazio to conservative New Jersey Republican Scott Garrett - was expected to back the financial markets rescue plan, so their remarks are an inaccurate metric to chart support for - or opposition to - the bill.

"It does not do what the American people are asking to do, and that is protect their tax dollars," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

5.  Democrats are setting up a self-funding mechanism via ACORN by exploiting a severe financial crisis

In The Democratic Acorn Bailout, posted on Saturday, Hot Air reported:

[Senator Lindsay] Graham told Greta van Susteren that Democrats had their own priorities, and it wasn’t bailing out the financial sector:

"And this deal that’s on the table now is not a very good deal. Twenty percent of the money that should go to retire debt that will be created to solve this problem winds up in a housing organization called ACORN that is an absolute ill-run enterprise, and I can’t believe we would take money away from debt retirement to put it in a housing program that doesn’t work."

With mad props to Hot Air, here is the video of Graham's interview with Greta explaining how and why they were working overtime on the bailout well ahead of their Democratic colleagues:

Shocking Video of Democrats Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis

In the excerpts from hearings to investigate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's illegal bookkeeping, Rep Richard Baker (R-LA) says "It is indeed a very troubling report, but it is a report of extraordinary importance not only to those who wish to own a home but to the taxpayers of this country who would pay the cost of a clean-up of an enterprise failure. The analysis makes clear that more resources must be brought to bear to ensure the high standards of conduct are not only required, but more importantly, they are actually met."

Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA): "Through nearly a dozen hearings where, frankly, we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke..." [no pun intended there, I'm quite sure]

This is a long video, but well worth the effort. It clearly indicates Republicans attempting to oversee and obtain accountability for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with complete resistance on the part of Democrats. One of the most chilling scenes involves the praise heaped upon the now completely discredited (and sacked) Obama campaign advisor and former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines. When questioned as to why Fannie Mae's capital had fallen below the absolute minum level of 5%, Franklin Raines said "These investments are so riskless that the capital for holding them should be under 2%".

Note: there are already 800 comments on YouTube for this video. As of this post, it's only been up for two days.

UPDATED: Burning Down the House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis

UPDATED: This version does not violate Time/Warner copyrights - that whole ploy only indicates how terrified the Left is of this video going viral. Remember, it had over 2,000 hits in 2 days on YouTube before Warner forced YouTube to pull it! Hat Tip to Matt Drudge for the original video exposing the Community Reinvestment Act, and to RedState for resocializing it:

The Real Debate Outcome

There has been a great deal of debate over who won the first Presidential debate. Each campaign claims victory. However, it would appear that the real debate outcome was this great ad by the McCain campaign:

"Real News"

Someone commented the following on another site where I posted the "palinsvagina" story:

The Obama campaign uses auto-follow on Twitter, so anyone who follows the campaign is automatically followed by the campaign. Your comment that "'following' is a voluntary action" is totally wrong in this case.

With over 86,000 followers, there is no way this is a manually managed program.

In fact, given the auto-follow setting, whoever owns this Sarah Palin twitter account just had to follow Obama to become followed by him.

Let's focus on some real news.

Here are my thoughts on that point, which is valid.

According to Twitter's help site:

Auto-follow isn't enabled by default. Twitter users have to request it via the Twitter help form. If you believe Twitter has turned auto-follow on for your account, you can use the same form to request that they disable it.

So today I'm schooled on auto-follow. I stand corrected that "following is voluntary". In some cases, it isn't.

But to address the issue of whether or not this is "real news", I would say it depends on what you consider "real news". Does this story address the economy? No. National Security? Nope. But neither does Sarah Palin's email hack. Does this story address the exploitation of the Internet and social media by political activists to further offensive assaults on Republican candidates? You bet.

Once again, as with the email hack, we can ask the question "what if someone had reversed the offensive remarks and pointed them toward Michelle or Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden? Would there be a considerable outcry from the media, the campaign and the supporters?" Absolutely there would, and we all know it.

If it involved Barack Obama, Republicans would be charged with racism. If it involved Nancy Pelosi, Republicans would be charged with sexism. If it involved Joe Biden, Republicans would be charged with just being generally disgusting and offensive. But since it involves a conservative Republican candidate, hey - no worries, it's all good. We're fine with it.

That's just an unacceptable double standard. Spare me the same old "let's not distract from the real news" bamboozle. If we didn't have such low standards of ethics, consideration of others, socially acceptable behavior, disrespect for privacy, intolerance, bias, and utterly incomprehensible offensiveness toward people running for public office in this country, we'd have a lot less news of corruption, sex scandals, embezzlement, fraud, and other "soft crimes" that supposedly "don't hurt anyone". Except these "distractions" do harm us. They harm us because they erode our culture and our social contract, and lower the bar to a degree that perpetrates a slippery slope of what's acceptable until what is not acceptable is no longer definable because "we shouldn't judge" and "there is no real right or wrong". We've slipped all the way into moral relativism where absolutely everything is free of boundaries. We've opened the Pandora's Box and released the hounds.

If you don't see that as a problem, it looks like about half the voting population agrees with you, which is their choice, but it's a choice that troubles me. My values are "live and let live". What we've seen exposed on the Left are the values of "if you're not like me, if you're Other Than Me, then you deserve to be spit upon verbally, physically, and threatened with gang rape if you disagree with me." And that troubles me a lot.

Oh, Noes! Barack Obama is Following Sarah Palin's Vagina on Twitter. Does Michelle Know?

Thanks to Sarah Palin, Election 2008 has provided us with a new twist on Class Warfare: Classy vs. Class-Free.

Just when I think that the far Left wing of the Democratic Party can't possibly get any more interestingly offensive or entertainingly disturbing, they never disappoint me. For example, today I discovered that Barack Obama is following Sarah Palin's Vagina on Twitter.

For those who don't use Twitter, which is a micro-blogging tool that allows 140-character updates and links to be sent and received via remote devices as well as your computer, "following" is a voluntary action that an account holder takes to view the posts of other accounts. Twitter posts are called "tweets". Take a look at the tweets from an account that goes by the swanky screen name of palinsvagina, and decide for yourself how Presidential you think it is that the account that goes by the name of Barack Obama has decided to follow someone who issues these comments...



Apparently National Public Radio is also a big fan of "Sarah Palin's Vagina". Your tax dollars at work!



And the feeling is mutual, as "Sarah Palin's Vagina" follows the presidential leadership of Barack Obama as well. I guess they call it Team O for a reason.



Ah, the post-feminism of it all. The delicate Sisterhood of Vaginal Politics is hereby in full flower. Can we say "pigs with lipstick"? Why, Yes We Can.



When I sent several messages to my constituents on Twitter while researching this, I received an interesting reply from one of them, who said "I have to be fair: @BarackObama uses a auto follow script. It's not their fault. It's unreasonable to expect the campaigns do fulltime twitter monitoring." I think it is reasonable to expect campaigns to monitor their associations with supporters using these tactics. What are your thoughts?

U.S. Bails While Russia Sails Around Arctic, and Docks in Syrian Harbor

Debkafile military sources report that Israeli military and naval commanders were taken by surprise by Rear Adm. Andrei Baranov's disclosure that 10 Russian warships are already anchored at the Syrian port of Tartus.

"What most worries Israeli military leaders is an earlier announcement by Adm. Wysotsky that Russia’s Mediterranean assets would subjected to its Black Sea fleet command, thereby placing Russia’s warships near Israel’s shores at the service of Moscow’s contest against the US and NATO in the Caucasian. It is feared that Israel will be dragged into another cold war."

The Russians are making no secret of their intention of using their naval presence in Syrian ports as a deterrent to a possible Israeli air strike against Syria.

Meanwhile, current.com reported in June that Russia has reintroduced its warship patrols in the Arctic for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia has also been moving to "stake its claim to resources that are increasingly accessible as Global Warming melts Arctic ice." Research indicates a massive underwater mountain range beneath the North Pole, where Russia notoriously planted a flag, contains huge oil and gas reserves. This is said to be part of Russia's Continental Shelf. What about the Continental Shelf surrounding the U.S.? Now that the do-nothing Congress has done nothing but pretends to have made outstanding progress aimed at gagging the Republicans who actually understand the issue and all its security and financial implications, the matter is now being passed to the do-nothing Senate. Many thanks to Thad McCotter (R-Awesome), Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee, for sending this message to what Ed Morissey at Hot Air succinctly refers to as The Gang of 10/16/20. I will repeat but a portion here:

Dear Senators:

On behalf of our constituents and every American, we U.S. House Republicans urge you to reconsider your well-intentioned but ill-advised proposal to unleash but a portion of our nation’s energy supplies.

McCotter goes on to list the financial implications of a "government-imposed ban" on energy development along the most resource-rich inner coastal section of our Continental Shelf, and how the #dontgo Republicans are compelled to oppose it. Not only are there financial implications, but as both McCain and Palin have repeatedly emphasized since their nomination, this has staggering national security implications also. On a March evening in 1964, there was enough moonlight for me to see the Ala Wai harbor, beach and reef infrastructure completely exposed as as the water completely receded. We were extremely fortunate to have escaped a massive tsunami generated by the great Alaska earthquake in lieu of a large surge which caused extensive street flooding but no major damage. Watching the exposure of what formerly lay hidden in our media, culture, financial institutions and government over the past several days, weeks and months gives me the same uneasiness I had watching the ocean recede in front of Waikiki Beach. I feel that much bigger events are being generated, hidden from view at the moment. It's tempting to become seductively distracted by all the strange information now being exposed, but as anyone who's ever seen a tsunami knows, that would be a very big mistake. The prudent thing to do is to move to higher ground and remain alert. With the financial markets in turmoil, it's important to remain alert to national security issues as well. Geraldo Rivera made an interesting remark in passing on Fox and Friends this morning. He said that the only part of the government he trusted to be effective, and not to be completely incompetent, was the U.S. military. Why so interesting? Perhaps because of the new toxic meme being perpetrated by the Far Left, via carriers such as Democratic Underground:

A five day long martial law DRILL is to be held from Oct 15th to the 20th. Word of it trickled through the State system. The putative scenario is that blue state Oregon with all it's enviromentalists and peaceniks is attacked and Iranian terrorists are blamed. This justifies a nuclear attack on Iran, causing vast domestic protest and requiring a state of martial law to suppress and incarcerate enemies of the state....

And Daily KOS:

The ultimate goal however is now to create so much chaos across a very wide spectrum of the social, political and economic sectors of the world that the only sane way (at least as how the neocon's see it) is to expand the war from a regional conflict to a world wide conflict.

When this unhappy event occurs, however it may occurs (Attack on Iran, Nuclear Terrorist Event etc...), widespread rioting by the general population in America will trigger martial law in the name of national security.

Should these events occur before this next election. The election will be aborted until after the domestic crisis is dealt with and security is restored in all cities through out America.

Say goodbye forever to Freedom, Justice and America.

If we were truly energy independent, with the rights and the technology to extract oil and natural gas from all of our American resources, if we had listened to John McCain in 2005 when he insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac required strict reform and oversight, and if we were not being consistently undermined by the constantly rising tide of the miserable Left relentlessly wearing away the rock of conservatism, we would be on much higher ground today.

With an eye on current affairs, I am hoping for a storm surge rather than a tsunami.

And the hacker is...

I first heard the news was out through a friend on Twitter, who sent a link to Libertarian Republican.

Skirts, Not Pantsuits reports that the identity of the hacker who broke into Sarah Palin's email and posted her personal emails on Gawker.com is allegedly this kid:

My name is David KernellI am 15 a white cacasian male i live in memphis, TN.

This bio was posted in 2003 to a blog linked to the email address rubico10@yahoo.com. Now he would be about 20. There is a democrat representative from TN named Mike Kernell. Coincidence?

Email: rubico10@yahoo.com
Blog: http://apocalypticvisions.blogspot.com/

Hats off to Michelle Malkin and all the bloggers and Tweeters who brought this into daylight so quickly. Malkin's site has "the rest of the story".

UPDATE, h/t Ace of Spades HQ:

The son of state Rep. Mike Kernell has been contacted by authorities in connection with a probe into the hacking of personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Kernell told The Tennessean.

Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, said his 20-year-old son David had been contacted by authorities investigating the hacking of Palin’s personal e-mail account, the newspaper reported on its Web site this afternoon.

The FBI and the Secret Service started a formal investigation Wednesday into the hacking, according to the Associated Press.

Several bloggers with skillz commented on Ace's post that this kid was no hacker, no cracker, no script kiddie - just a lucky guesser.

The "hacker" simply guessed at the answer to her security question. Which was, unfortunately, what high school did you attend. And the answer was pretty easy to guess -- "Wasilla high."

Michael at Ace of Spades reports:

Apparently AP remains in contact with the hacker, while as of last notice, still not complying with the Secret Service's request for the emails, despite the emails being evidence of a federal crime.

Does the Left suffer from Oppositional Defiance?

The NYT posted a very informative article today called The Bipolar Puzzle. Why do I mention it here? After reading the article about the horrifically antisocial, bizarre, semi-violent, often hysterical and completely oppositional behavior of an extremely challenging child to a mother who probably does the best she can with the hand she's been dealt, I was struck at how remarkably this dysfunctional family reminded me of our political environment. Bush = "Daddy" and the kids simply despise him. Any kid with a half a brain knows that the best defense against his sneaky lying, spying, nationalistic, patriotic, capitalistic garbage is to overthrow Daddy as quickly and efficiently as possible and replace his boring parental dominance with an eight year Hip Hop party at the White House. That would make government Cool again.

But wait - what's this!? Now Mommy is on the scene!!!?? That is so unfair! It was bad enough when Daddy was in charge, but now these kids, who are so close to Party Time, have to deal with both Mommy and Daddy at the same time? OMFG, forget it! No way!!

The kids are definitely not all right. Am I saying the Left is suffering from some form of collective bipolar disorder, ADHD, and/or oppositional defiance? I'll leave that to Charles Krauthammer, who's eminently qualified to do that analysis whereas I'm not. But what I will say is the similarities between the characteristics of those disorders described in the Times article and the outward behavior of a lot of very vocal folks the Left are striking. Absolutely striking.

Let the Market help stubborn residents decide how to choose wisely

In times like these with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, people do become legitimate victims, so it can be somewhat challenging to come out on the side of personal responsibility - which is one of my core conservative values.

I live in Earthquake Country. In California, becoming a victim of a natural disaster can happen so rapidly, without any warning whatsoever, that it seems very inappropriate to "blame the victim" unless it's a homeowner or landlord who knowingly took shortcuts and didn't build a structure to code, or something similar.

At the same time, I also live in Fire Country. While the residents closest to the genesis of the fire may have almost no warning, the local infrastructure has been much improved over the years to notify the rest of us. Both my incorporated City area and my County use technology such as auto-dialing along with bullhorns, media inundation and old fashioned door-to-door notification.

Yesterday during Hurricane Ike coverage on Fox News, several people were on the phone with the media explaining their reasons for choosing to completely ignore dire evacuation warnings. Consistently they told the journalists that "the media has overhyped this situation" and "our home survived the past x number of hurricanes so we feel confident that it will survive this one, too."

Last night and early this morning, some of the same Fox journalists reported that these people "greatly underestimated" the gravity of their situation and now found themselves trapped and in need to rescue. To be fair, the stubborn resident scenario is in stark contrast to the unempowered resident scenario of Katrina, where people felt they did not have either the ways or means to evacuate - people without transportation and with limited financial resources have an absolute requirement to depend on government and private sector assistance.

Notice I list both government and private sector - and this is where I strongly disagree with Obama and strongly agree with both McCain and Palin when it comes to how best to provide service.

Reliance on government alone is inefficient, incomplete and inequitable.

But for stubborn residents in hurricane, flood and fire zones who put first responders' lives in danger as well as their own, the first thought that comes to my mind is, why don't we charge them for this service? It's a free country, and everyone is free to choose how they would like to react to this type of situation. But why should it be a free of charge country? When residents' choices to stay behind cost thousands of dollars in overtime, equipment, fuel, water and food paid for by taxpayers, then I recommend we let the market help these residents decide how to choose wisely by providing them with an estimate of approximate costs they will be billed for in exchange for services above and beyond patrolling neighborhoods to protect private property.

Note to Governor Paterson and Cong Cohen on Community Organizing

First to Governor Paterson, who said:

"I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention – a 'community organizer.' They kept saying it, they kept laughing," he said.

Paterson referred to McCain's running mate Sarah Palin who compared her work experience to Obama's.

"So I suppose a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except with real responsibilities," she said at the convention.

Paterson sees the repeated use of the words "community organizer" as Republican code for "black".

"I think where there are overtones is when there are uses of language that are designed to inhibit other people's progress with a subtle reference to their race," he said.

But the McCain/Palin campaign quickly fired back in a statement, saying: "It is disappointing that Governor Paterson would launch accusations of racism. … Governor Palin's remarks about Barack Obama's work as a community organizer was in response to the Obama campaign's belittling of her executive experience."

Governor Paterson, you are absolutely correct that the term Community Organizer is code to some Republicans.  As a student of what we euphemistically like to call Social Science (aka Sociology), which I studied under a self-described Marxist professor at Purdue University in the 1970's who utilized a textbook titled Rules for Radicals written by a grassroots Community Organizer named Saul Alinsky, I commend you for understanding that this term is often used as shorthand by those of us who know what it really means.  But what it really means to us is not "black", what it really means to us is "Marxist".  Back in the days of the Cold War, the term "Marxist" was also interchangeable with "Communist". So you're on the right track, but you're meandered down the wrong sidetrack. 

You see, contrary to the Democratic Party talking points, the deal here is not that Republicans are racists.  The real deal is that we're Capitalists.  We believe that Americans do best when they work for a living.  We believe that this country provides opportunities for everyone, regardless of racial, economic, regional or cultural background and that everyone has the exact same opportunities to get ahead IF they are willing to work hard, sacrifice, persevere, save their money and get a few lucky breaks.  Those lucky breaks don't include having wealthy relatives or attending Ivy League universities like Harvard or Princeton, or private college preparatary academies like Punahou (although that can help).  The lucky breaks I'm referring to are the ones that Sarah Palin talked about when she said "the harder you work, the luckier you get". 

To Congressman Cohen:  your "minister" who taught you that Jesus Christ was a Community Organizer needs to pick up Mr. Alinsky's manual on community organizing, Rules for Radicals, and read his dedication.  Let's see if I can locate it for you - Oh Snap!  Look - here it is! 

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

Look into it.  Oh, and whatever you do, please continue the attacks on McCain/Palin.  So far your party has managed to "invest" approximately 10 days of nuanced discourse about Governor Palin's executive experience and leadership ability.  Far from distracting Americans from the real issues, this strategy appears to be bumping McCain/Palin's poll numbers up on economic issues, national security issues, foreign policy issues, experience issues, leadership issues and so on.  You guys are awesome - please keep up the good work!

When the Left believes that any stick will do, they pick up a Boomerang

I read a comment at The Next Right that described the salient feature of this week so perfectly: Sullivan and KOS jumped the shark. So did US Magazine, Sally Quin, Richard Cohen (he of "Incitatus" fame), and even the esteemed Mort Kondracke of Roll Call, who stepped out his normally professional demeanor this weekend on The Beltway Boys to refer to Sarah Palin as "That Far Right-Wing Wack-o". Hmmm....

There were a few days at the beginning of the week when I found the US Magazine treatment of our dear little Sarah (or at least my dear little Sarah - I've been a fan of hers since March, 2008 when she first came to my attention as a possible VP candidate) absolutely abhorrent. I even downloaded the slimetastic content of the Daily KOS and all of its (at that time) 1573 comments as proof positive of the lengths to which the Left will go in transferring Bush Derangement Syndrome to Palin. Silly me, I thought that this was some sort of one-off deviancy - little did I ever, ever suspect that I'd find the meme that Sara Palin was her own baby's grandmother being proliferated on the websites of Alan Colmes or Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish at that stalwart home of American literary talent known as The Atlantic, much less CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and so forth and so on. Perhaps the most amusing display of over-the-top zeitgeist was this photo on CNN's front page on September 4:

This photo was done up by the same media flacks who lionized Barack Obama for speaking to a rally of thousands upon thousands of Germans, and raved about the styrofoam Hollywood columns that some compared to the White House, others compared to a Greek Temple, and some of us thought were merely a cheap copy of the Brandenberg Gate. The irony alone is simply priceless.

The erudite Nick Cohen seems to have the best handle on the phenomenonal snatch of defeat from the jaws of victory by the Democrats this week, in an understated manner that is so exquisitely British:

During the 1997 British general election, the late Lord Jenkins said that Tony Blair was like a man walking down a shiny corridor carrying a precious vase. He was the favourite and held his fate in his hands. If he could just reach the end of the hall without a slip, a Labour victory was assured. The same could have been said of the American Democrats last week. But instead of protecting their precious advantage, they succumbed to a spasm of hatred and threw the vase, the crockery, the cutlery and the kitchen sink at an obscure politician from Alaska.

In an age when politics is choreographed, voters watch out for the moments when the public-relations facade breaks down and venom pours through the cracks. Their judgment is rarely favourable when it does. Barack Obama knows it. All last week, he was warning American liberals to stay away from the Palin family. He understands better than his supporters that it is not a politician's enemies who lose elections, but his friends.

Indeed. On Sunday, September 7, two significant indicators should strike fear into Democrats. The first is a statement by Fox news producer embedded with the McCain campaign, Mosheh Oinounou. Mosheh said that typically, McCain audiences tended to draw 500-750 attendees. Ever since the convention, however, Mosheh said he's not seen one appearance with crowds under 7,000. The same day, Professor Larry Sabato told Brian Wilson on Fox News that he was privy to "inside information" that McCain's convention bounce will leap ahead of Barack Obama in the following week's polls "well outside the margin of error".

Cohen reminds us that as tempted as we may be to compare Palin's populist appeal to Ronald Reagan, the truest comparison is probably to another great conservative lady who was a dear friend and ally of Reagan.

In Britain, the most snobbish attacks on Margaret Thatcher did not come from aristocrats but from the communist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who opined that Thatcherism was the 'anarchism of the lower middle classes' and the liberal Jonathan Miller, who deplored her 'odious suburban gentility'.

The Daily Mail called Thatcher the Siouxsie Sioux of politics, a political punk rocker.

Margaret Thatcher was the first politician in a generation to appeal to something visceral in voters. That appeal was not dissimilar to what made punk music attractive to fans of the Sex Pistols. To be a punk fan was to protest against the existing order. To vote Thatcher was a cry of rage. ...Less edifying were the constant sex and sexist jibes about her, often recycled mother-in-law jokes in which she was seen as a ball-breaker.

Most of us undoubtedly assumed that the so-called "vetting" of Governor Palin by the so-called "journalists" of the American Media was nothing more than a pack of hounds attacking what they thought was a very vulnerable fox who'd somehow managed to sneak into their hen house and displace the front-running rooster. By keeping her cool, Governor Palin has out-foxed the flagrant media both by ignoring them, and most shockingly and effectively, by dismissing them by, as Cohen said, going right over the heads of the reporters to the very public they pretend to represent.

'I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion,' she said as she deftly detached journalists from their readers and viewers. 'I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country.'

I think Maggie would just love her. The Piece of Flair one of my Facebook friends just sent me says it all: She is the change that He just talks about.

Come Take a Hike with Governor Palin in Beautiful Downtown Juneau, Alaska

This is an utterly charming  treat, a real homespun video of an average guy from Kodiak goin' down to the Big Capital City of Juneau, Alaska where he takes a cup of Heritage coffee over to the Governor's Mansion to present to Sarah Palin while they hike over to the State Capitol together.  This video's becoming a little bit famous because it includes the scene in her office where you can see three, and only three flags displayed:  The U.S. Flag, the Alaska State Flag, and the Israeli flag.  So much for anti-Semitism in the Alaska Governor's mansion. 

Aside from the down-homey-ness of Alaskans which reminds me so much of the wonderful folks in the Seattle area, my favorite part of this video is where she refers to the Governor's Mansion as "The People's House".  If you didn't "get" her before, you sure will after you see this.  Enjoy!

 

Sponsored by God

I've had a wonderful morning running errands and chatting with fired-up conservatives. For those of you who were at the RNC, who felt the actual electric excitement in the air and saw it up close and personal, I can see why you might be a little nervous, a little hungover today - why the stakes feel particularly high and the bottom looks such a long way down. I grew up in Hawaii and learned to surf when I was 6 years old. I don't hit the waves every day any longer, but I know there's a big difference between what that precipice looks like to the average person compared to how exciting and inviting it looks to a world class athlete and adventuress.

Every year, spectators arrive on the shores of several fiercely beautiful-yet-terrifying extreme big wave surf breaks such as Waimea Bay, Pipeline, Jaws, and the aptly named Mavericks while a handful of hearty professionals venture out into riptides, undertows and monster waves that would violently drown the unprepared. Generally the realm of male athletes, there are a handful of women such as San Luis Obispo's aptly named Sarah (Gerhardt) and the equally amazing Jamila Haje of Santa Cruz, who are capable of carving, slicing, ballet dancing, and literally flying across waves from 50-100 feet high. I've seen some of these women up close and personal, just like you've seen Sarah Palin. We know they actually exist even though they've become larger than life once we've seen them execute what we can only imagine.

Legendary people are natural. Legendary people are real. Legendary people are humble. Legendary people have that intangible something usually known as "it". Regardless of whether they're athletes, artists, composers, authors, performers, diplomats, heads of nations or heads of households, legendary people cannot possibly let us down. They transcend our expectations because they do not solely exist on our plane. We can see them, hear them, perceive them, but they exist in a great universal canvas and have a direct connection not to us, but to Something Much Greater.

Today Laura Ingraham had the courage to come right out and say it. At the end of a long, dark night of several Republican victories but many disturbing failures, in the middle of a great culture war and unrelenting partisanship, Something Much Greater has placed not just a legendary woman, but her entire family into the spotlight - and not just into the spotlight of our nation, but the spotlight of the world. Laura wondered how many childrens' lives will be saved by someone who's discovered that they, too have an unwanted pregnancy and have now seen the absolute unconditional love and approval showered upon Bristol Palin by her family, John McCain, and the entire Republican National Convention this week? How many women and young girls might just choose life and how many families will embrace them and acknowledge that choice is as valid and vital a choice as any choice in our so-called pro-choice culture?

All it takes for the people who are simply wrong on the Left to hoist themselves on their own petards of intolerance, totalitarianism, narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy and incivility is for a vibrant, robust Conservative movement to be willing to stand up with this legendary woman and her family and take it to the Left on a daily basis with as much gusto as they've taken it to the Right now for decades. Sarah cannot let us down, only we can let ourselves down. We've been given another opportunity to get it right. Let's do that, shall we?

The long, dark battle between the Shire and Mordor

This week the news seems to be all about the vetting process, no? And yet, it appears to be to be about something far more interesting and gripping...the battle between good and evil, truth versus lies, heroism versus cowardice, you know....the same old wonderful story we've been hewing to 'round the camp fire for thousands of years.  The tale has a wizardly professor, an evil Orc who escaped prosecution for terrorism on a technicality years ago, a beautiful Elven Queen, many dark knights and wraiths, and many brave Roherum and everyday men and women like you and me.  We've even seen the temporary citadels of the competing kingdoms - one a a glittery, huge display of projected power, the other a subdued, quiet mix of strength and support  to the people quelling a dangerous dragon named Gustav. 

As our wizard, Professor Stanley Kurtz, attempted to get his research publicized in the process of vetting Obama by carefully analyzing the stacks of the Annenberg Challenge at the Daley Library in Chicago, IL, he and his host at WGN Radio in Chicago were given the radio-caller version of a Denial of Service Attack thanks to the Obama Campaign Email (which has since been scrubbed and refurbished, but here's the original text):

Obama's e-mail about WGN-AM

Text of the e-mail the Obama campaign sent to supporters:

August 28, 2008

In the next few hours, we have a crucial opportunity to fight one of the most cynical and offensive smears ever launched against Barack.

Tonight, WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears. He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers.

Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse.

Call into the "Extension 720" show with Milt Rosenberg at (312) 591-7200

(Show airs from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. tonight)

Then report back on your call at http://my.barackobama.com/WGNstandards

Kurtz has been using his absurd TV appearances in an awkward and dishonest attempt to play the terrorism card. His current ploy is to embellish the relationship between Barack and Ayers.

Just last night on Fox News, Kurtz drastically exaggerated Barack's connection with Ayers by claiming Ayers had recruited Barack to the board of the Annenberg Challenge. That is completely false and has been disproved in numerous press accounts.

It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves. At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies.

Kurtz is scheduled to appear from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. in the Chicago market.

Calling will only take a minute, and it will make a huge difference if we nip this smear in the bud. Confront Kurtz tonight before this goes any further:

http://my.barackobama.com/WGNstandards

Please forward this email to everyone you know who can make a call tonight.

Keep fighting the good fight,

Obama Action Wire

Just to be clear, Professor Kurtz' mission is far larger than "playing the terrorism card".  His mission is to discover once and for all whether the Celebrity Prince, Barack Obama and the Orc King, William Ayers, allegedly diverted $49M in Annenberg funding and another $50M in matching public funds to Radical Left fringe groups instead of distributing those funds to the intended beneficiaries, which were the school children in Chicago, IL. 

Mudslinging and passing around gossip about Sarah Palin's innocent family from The Shire are what substitute for real research, freedom of speech and honest debate.  This scorched-earth media tactic grealy resembles the scorched-earth caller tactic used by the Obama Campaign at WGN.  By inundating the airwaves and blogs with their own message, Obama supporters have tried desperately to suppress any opposing point of view - so far.  And let us not forget how ABC producer Asa Eslocker was manhandled, arrested, and had to pay for his release for...well...standing on a public sidewalk while collecting evidence that Barack Obama and the DNC are up to the old politics-as-usual in the form of collecting money from corporate fat cats and lobbyists in Denver. 

Today we see the Obama campaign take Rick Davis' quote and turn it into another 100 Year War in Iraq meme.  “This election is not about issues, this election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” The original WaPo article stated that Davis added that

issues will no doubt play a major role in the decisions undecided voters will make but that they won't ultimately be conclusive. He added that the campaign has "ultimate faith" in the idea that the more voters get to know McCain and Barack Obama, the better the Republican nominee will do. 

But who cares what Davis meant when such a great opportunity for verbal semiotics presents itself?  Obviously the Obama campaign is not capable of running with the entire context - just the symbolism of the sound bite truncated to meet their requirement.  This is a battle of verbal swords and magic words if there ever was one!

On the subject of the serious vetting of Barack Obama, the hypocrisy alone is enough to cause anyone truly interested in honest politics to surrender to the war of attrition.  The phrase "honest politics" is obviously such a huge oxymoron that someone who might even remotely, possibly, actually practice it, such as the enchanting Sarah Palin, has now become the enemy personified to the political operatives in the Obama campaign, the Radical Left Wing activist movement personified by the Daily KOS, and of course the Left Wing media personified by...well...most of the media in America.  What they have all seriously disregarded is the fair and bold Queen Sarah's ability to become  a heroic archetype to conservatives, the legend of her wisdom and beauty simply builds with each attack by these left wing Ring Wraiths.  Was the Old Warrior King McCain in his dotage to appoint her his liege and heir, or will he turn out to be truly the wisest of men? 

Interestingly, like Gandalf after his battle with the Balrog, Stanley Kurtz has gone dark since Friday while the Palin frenzy has reached a crescendo.  I'm definitely looking forward to his upcoming report, which I expect we won't hear more about until after the RNC.  I'm also looking forward to O'Reilly's interview with The Celebrity Prince Obama on Thursday night.  One can only hope that maybe we will see at least a modicum of serious vetting, after all.  If nothing else, it will be another chapter in a very great and epic battle. 

 

Sleep Hard or Die Trying

I dunno, every now and then something just strikes me as being completely awesome. This isn't exactly one of them, but it's still pretty good...

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Jon Stewart's Porcine Humor

Apparently Andrew Sullivan thinks this is a riot - the beginning of a "rich late-night comedy political season". I wish I thought so too. I used to enjoy Stewart and Colbert, and did not think of Stewart as a partisan pig prior to now.

Let's watch along with Sullivan, Stewart and "Samantha Bee" as they coin a new phrase in relation to the Palin choice: Proud Vagina-American. I'd love to see what the Obama campaign's reaction would have been to Comedy Central referring to him as a Penile-American.