The hills they die on #7

I attend a mega church. Our congregation has always been privy to the "The Hills we Die On". It's kind of a mission/vision statement as to the principles our church and congregation will always live up to, or die trying.

I started thinking about this in terms of democratic politics. The democrats like to fashion themselves as a big tent party, one that's inclusive of so many interest and ideas. A party that is inclusive of dissent.

However, in the next week, we'll go after the seven hills the democratic party dies on. The things that are non-negotiable to be a true democrat. The things they'll never let you address at a party convention.

Today #7 Caribou

Caribou is actually a euphemism for environmentalism and the democratic party will always put environmental issues in front of almost everything (except no.'s 1-5). You will never hear a speaker at a democratic function put an American worker in front of a seal, except at a campaign rally in OH, PA, MI.

Seriously, have you ever heard a member of the house or senate talk about changing legislation to put people in front of the environment? What about a democratic convention? Even when The Messiah speaks to working people in small towns he turns around and disrespects them as "clinging to God and guns".

The democratic party likes to say that it's out for the working guy. But ask yourself this question; if it came down to creating jobs for working stiffs and protecting a caribou in Alaska, who wins?

We have the capability to start domestic drilling here in the US. domestic drilling accomplishes a number of good things for this country. It lessons our dependence on resources from rogue nations, it strengthens our dollar, it lessons our trade imbalance, it increases US Treasury receipts, it creates good high paying, union jobs.

Yet with all these positive aspects of domestic drilling who do you think is primarily responsible for killing it? Hint, it's not republicans.

Watch the video from a month or so ago and tell me that democrats care more about the working stiff struggling to pay $4/gal for gasoline over saving some caribou in Alaska or sea otter off the San Francisco coast

In addition what party is responsible for killing our most efficient source of energy, nuclear? Again, a source of power that provides great, union jobs for the people in our society who most need them.

Do you want to know why Joe six pack votes "provincially"? Because a high school drop out and a Teamster guy like my dad can see that liberals will always put a freakin' polar bear in front of the working guy who drinks in his bar.

They still don't get it

Here's a lib who just can't get her arms around Palin Power.

Let me clue this writer in on a few pointers for liberals.

1) You might get more respect if you practice what you preach.

You care about the poor. Try giving more than $300 bucks to charity. See, liberals have turned the "conservatives have no compassion for the poor" meme into a cottage industry, while these same conservatives are actually working in homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

These same conservatives who give more than $300 to charity...while they're in college.

2) If a woman truly has choice, quit vilifying her for exercising the "life" choice.

I cannot begin to number the liberal blog posts absolutely trashing Palin for giving birth to a baby with Down Syndrome. It's disgusting.

3) You care about Joe "six pack". How about putting his interest in front of fucking caribou in Alaska.

You can read my thoughts on this here.

4) How about that democratic leadership of yours sending their kids to the very crappy schools that are good enough for the masses.

See, this jerk off can't understand why Palin Power is so rampant among conservatives. Well, because she doesn't talk about people with some modicum of common sense like they're a pack of rubes. Palin actually gives them a voice to be heard.

Imagine if we would get a government who would do the same.

You can take that back to the Arugula King.

Thought of the Day

It's apparent that someone in the media needs to ask President Bush exactly what "The Bush Doctrine" actually is.

A republican finally makes the point

I really don't know why republicans refuse to exploit the obvious. When democrats rule, every economy looks like Michigan's.

You need evidence? Just look at Michigan.

Phil Gramm makes the case.....

The Competitiveness Index created by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) identifies "16 policy variables that have a proven impact on the migration of capital -- both investment capital and human capital -- into and out of states." Its analysis shows that "generally speaking, states that spend less, especially on income transfer programs, and states that tax less, particularly on productive activities such as working or investing, experience higher growth rates than states that tax and spend more."

Ranking states by domestic migration, per-capita income growth and employment growth, ALEC found that from 1996 through 2006, Texas, Florida and Arizona were the three most successful states. Illinois, Ohio and Michigan were the three least successful.

The rewards for success were huge. Texas gained 1.7 million net new jobs, Florida gained 1.4 million and Arizona gained 600,000. While the U.S. average job growth percentage was 9.9%, Texas, Florida and Arizona had job growth of 18.5%, 21.4% and 28.9%, respectively.

Remarkably, a third of all the jobs in the U.S. in the last 10 years were created in these three states. While the population of the three highest-performing states grew twice as fast as the national average, per-capita real income still grew by $6,563 or 21.4% in Texas, Florida and Arizona. That's a $26,252 increase for a typical family of four.

By comparison, Illinois gained only 122,000 jobs, Ohio lost 62,900 and Michigan lost 318,000. Population growth in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois was only 4.2%, a third the national average, and real income per capita rose by only $3,466, just 58% of the national average. Workers in the three least successful states had to contend with a quarter-million fewer jobs rather than taking their pick of the 3.7 million new jobs that were available in the three fastest-growing states.

What's so "progressive" about a shitty economy?

More.....

Ice forms... proof of global warming

Apparently, "scientists" have found an increase in Antarctic Ice.

"The Antarctic wintertime ice extent increased...at a rate of 0.6% per decade" from 1979 to 2006, says Donald Cavalieri, a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. ... Since 1979 ... the average year-round ice extent has risen too."

Of course this evidence doesn't disprove global warming, it actually proves it.....

"The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown in recent Septembers in what could be an unusual side-effect of global warming, experts say."

So using scientific logic, if ice melts, it proves global warming, if ice forms it proves global warming.

And these are the same people who make fun of creationists?

More.....

Biden cares about the poor?

In just one more example of liberal hypocrisy, Joe Biden released his tax returns. (HT TaxProf)

Are you kidding me?

This guy has made on average $250,000 and his charitable donations average about $400 a year.

What did he do? Give some cans to a homeless guy.

Hey, at least when he knew he was running for president he stepped up and gave a whopping $995 (.32%) of his earnings.

Whoa!!!!

I guess in Joe Biden's edition of the Bible that verse in Matthew so many democrats love to quote must have had the caveat "take care of the least of you, but only if it's with taxpayer money".

How this isn't on the front page of every newspaper is beyond me.

The quote from taxprof (which is powerful since his site is nonpolitical)

It is jarring that a couple earning over $200,000 per year would give as little as $2 per week to charity. This giving compares very unfavorably to John McCain, whose tax returns show that he gave 27.3% - 28.6% of his income to charity in 2006-2007. During the same period, the Obamas' tax returns show that they gave 5.8% - 6.1% of their income to charity.

Perhaps the Obama-Biden campaign needs a new slogan: "Change You Can Believe In (As Long As Someone Else Pays For It)"

The Palinator

See more Gina Gershon videos at Funny or Die

What would you expect from a babe that slept with BJ Clinton?

Slick Willie Houdini

From the Politico on BJ Clinton's advice....

The fact that Obama is even with or behind John McCain despite so many favorable trends for Democrats shows that there is still plenty he could learn from the master — the political Houdini who is the only Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win two terms.

Is that the same BJ Houdini who got a whopping 43% of the vote against G.H.W. Bush and an incredible 49% against a mannequin.

Was his advice to see if Ross Perot was available?

Not that I want to see democrats succeed, but they really do need to step out of the delusion that the American people love liberals and liberal politics and use Bill Clinton as proof. The fact is, the stars aligned perfectly for our first black president. Clinton was only able to achieve his success because of a third party and the fact that he ran as a southern moderate. If he were another northeastern liberal he would have been shelled too.

Now that I think about. Obama, take notes from the master. Go ahead.

Why people hate Palin

This is hilarious and from Fox news....

But I know the real reason why every single elitist media type is terrified of her. They've never met her. And by "her," I don't mean Sarah Palin. I mean "her", an actual normal woman with a bunch of kids, an average husband and no desire to watch "The L Word."

She's scary to these folks the way Wal-Mart is scary to them: Both are alien to someone who blogs about their chakras. They won't go there, because they've never been there.

To them, hating Sarah Palin is a symptom of larger bigotry against the rest of us, the normal. If they saw her at a party, they would wonder how she got in. She's the anti-Obama, the anti-New York Times, the anti-everything that Tim Robbins loves, which is why I love her — and you should too.

Tonight's waste of government resources

There will be a DUI checkpoint somewhere in Butler county this evening.

When and if I find the details, I will post them.

Fact Check

Let's let these guys elect our leader

Well we know that Europe is solidly "blue". McCain probably won't even campaign there since Obama has all their electoral votes locked up.

But exactly what is the collective wisdom of that Eurotopia.

Here's the polling from the question, "Who was responsible for the 9/11 attack".

That pretty much lines up with democrats here in the remaining 57 states Obama's campaigned in.

More at Hot Air

With friends like these...

... who needs friends....

Another lib with Palin Derangement Syndrome....

Belief in god, like getting pregnant, is a private matter between consenting adults (or one consenting adult and one or more deities) and is no one else's business. I am on record in this blog (and have not budged an inch) as not objecting to any candidate's religious views.

But I object strongly when anyone (and especially anyone with political power) tries to take their theology out in public, to inflict those private religious (or sexual) views on other people. In both sex and religion (which combine in the debates about abortion), Sarah Palin's views make me fear that the Republican party has finally lost its mind.

More.....

Equal pay for equal work

We're on Obamamania's plan to pay the same for the same job.

Let's start with his own campaign....

Non-intern female employees did better working on the Senate staffs of John McCain and Hillary Clinton during the latest public reporting period than they did working for Barack Obama, Cybercast News Service determined through an analysis of payroll data published by the Secretary of the Senate.

Both McCain and Clinton also employed more female than male staffers, while Obama employed more males than females. However, Obama's staff was more balanced between male and female staffers than either McCain's or Clinton's.

Remind again who the misogynist candidate is.....

I'm glad they vetted this

The Washington Post with a front page piece on Cindy McCain's addiction to pain killers after back surgery, from 1992.

When Cindy McCain is asked what issues she would champion as first lady, she often cites one of the most difficult periods of her life: her battle with -- and ultimate victory over -- prescription painkillers. Her struggle, she has said repeatedly, taught her valuable lessons about drug abuse that she would pass on to the nation.

That's awesome. This piece should help bring Brett Favre lovers into the republican fold.

Seriously, when will the media actually vet the democrat actually running for president.

Friday Funny

Failed Olympians you didn't see in Beijing.....

Progressive = Poverty

Don't know how I missed this, but Glenn Beck has a nice analysis of the top ten poverty stricken cities in the US. And guess what? You won't find a republican running one of them.

No matter what side of the political aisle you're on, that is nothing short of appalling. Yet if you ask people what we should do about it, you'll probably hear answers that inexplicably break down right along party lines.

Is there a perfect answer? Probably not. But what bothers me is that people stubbornly stick to their solution, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it's not working.

For example, Detroit, whose mayor has been indicted on felony charges, hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961. Buffalo has been even more stubborn. It started putting a Democrat in office back in 1954, and it hasn't stopped since.

Unfortunately, those two cities may be alone at the top of the poverty rate list, but they're not alone in their love for Democrats. Cincinnati, Ohio (third on the poverty rate list), hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1984. Cleveland, Ohio (fourth on the list), has been led by a Democrat since 1989. St. Louis, Missouri (sixth), hasn't had a Republican since 1949, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (eighth), since 1908, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (ninth), since 1952 and Newark, New Jersey (10th), since 1907.

The only two cities in the top 10 that I didn't mention (Miami, Florida, and El Paso, Texas) haven't had Republicans in office either -- just Democrats, independents or nonpartisans.

Over the past 50 years, the eight cities listed above have had Republican leadership for a combined 36 years. The rest of the time -- a combined 364 years -- they've been led by Democrats.

This is a nice lead in to a commenter who accused republicans of being "provincial".

Maybe, we red necks in fly over country see how well the democrats run our cities and we're not all that impressed about areas that look like third world countries; high crime, horrible schools, and low standard of living. And yet they want to pigeon hole conservatives as small minded.

The only thing that exceeds liberals' ignorance is their arrogance.

What's so progressive about poverty?

Will the media vet this

Now that we know that Sarah Palin borrowed a book from the public library in 1970 and never returned it, maybe the NY Times can pull one of its investigative reporters to track down a number of interesting factoids on Obamamania....

Barack Obama apparently wishes his two autobiographies to be the definitive record of his past. He has blocked efforts by others who wish to independently examine his past.

He won't allow his transcript from his undergraduate days at Columbia University to be released.

He "lost" his thesis on Soviet nuclear policy (see "Where in the World is Obama's Missing Thesis" which might provide insight regarding his seeming lack of knowledge about Soviet policy during the Kennedy years).

He won't answer questions about his days at Harvard Law School.

He "lost" his Illinois Senate records.

He will only release a simple one-page letter from his doctor on his medical condition.

More......

Of course, that wouldn't get in the way of a major media outlet reporting this important factoid about Palin.

Who will they vote for? #617

Meet the protesters at a recent Cal-Berkeley rally. In particular note Ms. Dumpster Muffin (about the 4:50 on the video).

These fine upstanding citizens were protesting the cutting down of trees on campus so the university could put up a building.

Take a wild guess and tell me, will these fine upstanding citizens vote for another 4 years of George Bush or The Messiah?

Check out more at Protestshooter.com

Never forget

From a 9 11 commemorative parade in 2002 in Loveland.

As the tragedy fades into the background, the city stopped doing the parade.

They may forget but we won't.

Lipstickgate

From the party of "pro choice"

From the South Carolina democratic chair....

South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate " whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

When will this be vetted?

Out of curiosity, I was wondering when the congressional hearings on Fannie & Freddie were going to start.

After all, it appears that shareholders losses in these two companies make the Enron losses look like a vending machine eating my change.

None the less, don't look for a hearing any time soon. Why? If you answer money, that's a good start. It looks like the democrats we're big time winners in the Washington influence game.

Who got the most?

Look at this chart.

1. Dodd, Christopher J	S	D-CT	$133,900
2. Kerry, John	S	D-MA	$111,000
3. Obama, Barack	S	D-IL	$105,849
4. Clinton, Hillary	S	D-NY	$75,550
5. Kanjorski, Paul E	H	D-PA	$65,500
6. Bennett, Robert F	S	R-UT	$61,499
7. Johnson, Tim	S	D-SD	$61,000
8. Conrad, Kent	S	D-ND	$58,991
9. Davis, Tom	H	R-VA	$55,499
10. Bond, Christopher S 'Kit'	S	R-MO	$55,400

That B. Obama guy did pretty well given that he was in the senate for all of 4 years of the twenty reported in this chart.

Randi Rhodes Says McCain Was 'Well-Treated' In Vietnam

Gosh, how is it that democrats can't seem to attract that working class voter even when many would benefit from their programs?

Well, it could be that ding dong liberals (is that redundant?)like Randi Rhodes here make these kind of statements about the people who actually know something about war. Because they actually fight them.

Then they'll wonder why promises of free arugula for everyone doesn't translate into votes in small town America.

Who's telling the truth on the "bridge to nowhere"

Well, if our liberal blogger friends would actually read their own Bible, The NY Times, the might actually learn the truth....

From The Times 9/22/07

Gov. Sarah Palin ordered state transportation officials to abandon the ''bridge to nowhere'' project that became a nationwide symbol of federal pork-barrel spending. The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island. ''Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport,'' Ms. Palin, a Republican, said in a news release, ''but the $398 million bridge is not the answer.'' She directed the State Transportation Department to find the most ''fiscally responsible'' alternative for access to the airport. Ketchikan is Alaska's entry port for northbound cruise ships that bring more than one million visitors yearly. Flights into Gravina Island require a 15-minute ferry ride to reach the more densely populated Revillagigedo Island and Ketchikan.

More....

"Community Organizer" is code for "black"

According to NY Governor, David Paterson, the words "Community Organizer" is code for black.

On Monday, Gov. David Paterson angered some state lawmakers by comparing them to vampires, calling them a bunch of "blood suckers." On Tuesday, he raised eyebrows again, and tempers, by accusing the John McCain campaign of veiled racism.

At the Crain's Business Forum this morning, Paterson drew attention to a phrase used numerous times by speakers at the Republican National Convention to describe Barack Obama's leadership experience: community organizer.

"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".

Sorry David but I pulled out my old white guy code book and I couldn't find it anywhere in there. In fact, I had never even heard the term before The Messiah actually started calling himself a former "community organizer". See, we rednecks out in the suburbs don't have "community organizers", we do these new, crazy, progressive things like fix our own broken plumbing.

UPDATE

Whooops, I'm sorry, a buddy of mine has a more current edition of the white guy code book and it defines Community Organizer as code for "a do nothing shit starter". Given that Obama can't seem to identify who he actually worked for during those years or note what he actually organized during that period, that seems appropriate.

I guess I need to go to my nearby country club and pick up a new edition of my sanctioned code book.

Government run health care pays dead doctors

HT Brian Thomas

In July, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed Medicare's latest embarrassment: significant payments for medical services ordered by dead doctors -- $60 million to $92 million such claims paid between 2000 and 2007. Some doctors had been dead for more than 10 years.

Dead doctors are not the first to embarrass Medicare, which also has paid millions of dollars in treatments for dead patients, many of whom apparently start new treatments months or years after death. Deportees, previously banished from the country, and prisoners (who receive healthcare through other systems) also show up, when they obviously should not, in Medicare's paid claims.

For the ''dead doctors'' problem, the Office of Inspector General for Health and Humand Services proposes the same formulaic approach used for every other category of obviously bogus claims: They say that the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should obtain timely and accurate data regarding deaths, deportations and imprisonment from other relevant agencies, and then implement system-edits so that their computers can auto-reject bad claims.

Palin Derangement Syndrome Watch

According to all things liberal, Sarah Palin is single handedly responsible for burning down a library, having triplet devil babies, and having a state trooper executed.

But did you also know that she's mean to animals?

Over at Newsbusters....

Joy Behar, one of the hosts of ABC's daytime show "The View," took to CNN's "Larry King Live" Tuesday night and delivered a new line of attack on Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska: Palin's “very mean” in how she treats wildlife because she hunts them and is opposed to putting polar bears on the endangered list

Just the other night, some democrats actually witnessed her throwing cute little puppies into a wood chipper.

How about vetting this one

Riehl World View has an interesting piece on the Amtrak travel on one Senator Biden.

Apparently, Sen. Biden has been running many of his Amtrak tickets through his own failed campaign.

Update: To be clear - this is election travel expense data. But it gives a general idea of what Biden's AMTRAK travel costs run. And some of them require some explanation - perhaps buying multiple tickets in advance on the same day?

AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $500 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $460 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $426 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $338 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $258 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $252 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $241 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $232 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $232 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $232 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $230 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $224 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $202 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $190 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $169 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $108 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $101 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $90 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $90 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $90 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $82 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $54 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $54 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $-10 April 01, 2007 Travel
AMTRAK Wilmington, DE $-64 April 01, 2007 Travel

So maybe when the Washington Post has concluded it's investigation of the Palinator, they might find time for this one...

Paglia on Palin

Camille Paglia on the Sarahcuddha....

The gigantic, instantaneous coast-to-coast rage directed at Sarah Palin when she was identified as pro-life was, I submit, a psychological response by loyal liberals who on some level do not want to open themselves to deep questioning about abortion and its human consequences. I have written about the eerie silence that fell over campus audiences in the early 1990s when I raised this issue on my book tours. At such moments, everyone in the hall seemed to feel the uneasy conscience of feminism. Naomi Wolf later bravely tried to address this same subject but seems to have given up in the face of the resistance she encountered.

If Sarah Palin tries to intrude her conservative Christian values into secular government, then she must be opposed and stopped. But she has every right to express her views and to argue for society's acceptance of the high principle of the sanctity of human life. If McCain wins the White House and then drops dead, a President Palin would have the power to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, but she could not control their rulings.

It is nonsensical and counterproductive for Democrats to imagine that pro-life values can be defeated by maliciously destroying their proponents. And it is equally foolish to expect that feminism must for all time be inextricably wed to the pro-choice agenda. There is plenty of room in modern thought for a pro-life feminism -- one in fact that would have far more appeal to third-world cultures where motherhood is still honored and where the Western model of the hard-driving, self-absorbed career woman is less admired.

But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech. When they become baying bloodhounds of rigid dogma, Democrats have committed political suicide.

This is actually a good and thoughtful piece from a pro abortion liberal on the need to acknowledge the violence of abortion.

Mike Gravel Interviewed on Sarah Palin

Listen to the interview.

HT Hillaryclintonforum.

Biden Gaffe: Asks a Gentleman in a Wheelchair to Stand Up

I think the dems are the ones who need to worried about the VP debate.

Quote of the Day

From NRO

This "Pilate was the Governor, Jesus was a community organizer" meme is monumentally stupid on so many levels, not the least of which is that it demonstrates a total lack of Biblical literacy. Pilate merely voted "present."

Biden on Debating Gov. Palin

Joe, buddy, you might want to consider that she's actually smarter than you.

After all, you are a US senator.

Obama vetting

A great piece in The American Thinker on how the media's lack of vetting of Obama cost The Billary the nomination...

Deny it though she will, this galling reality cannot have escaped Hillary's awareness. As she watches the media devote its considerable resources to a smear and destroy attack on Governor Palin, Hillary must be seriously annoyed. And rightly so.

For during the last week-and-a-half we have been treated to an astonishing affirmation of how thoroughly our nation's impartial media can bird dog the tiniest, least relevant fact fact about a candidate, how quickly it can penetrate through the fog of time back to the beginnings of a politician's career, all with the laudable goal of testing whether the image the candidate projects accords with the record.

Where was this frenzy of journalistic zeal and competence when Barack Obama was building up an insurmountable delegate lead over Hillary?

Where were the media articles, digging into the earliest days of Barack Obama's political origins in the corrupt Chicago machine and the far left fever swamps of Hyde Park? Where were the articles explaining Obama's long, close and deep connection to unreformed Marxist revolutionary and proud domestic terrorist Bill Ayers?

Where was the in-depth series on how Obama came to his first prominent job in 1995 as Chair of Ayers' $100 Million plus Annenberg Challenge grant? Just what was it about Obama's views that made Obama attractive Ayers, so attractive that Ayers not only picked Obama to chair his grant, but gave Obama's kick-off party for the Illinois state senate in 1996?

Where were (are?) the articles on just how closely these two men worked together for at least four years (1995-2005)? On who received the grant money, what they did with it and to what effect?

And, even more crucially, where are the deep and nuanced media analyses of Ayres' views -- about education and other matters -- and how congruent Obama's are with his?

Where were the probing analyses of Obama's improbable claimed shock at his minister's racist and hate-filled ravings? Where were the mainstream media's interviews of parishioners (and others) in Chicago who could affirm or contradict that Obama was asleep during the Reverend's worst rants? Or the reverse -- that Obama in fact agreed with some or all of them?

Kind of makes you wonder how hard Hillary's going to work that Obama victory tour.

Dems admit Palin killed the Bridge

Another gift that keeps on giving....

Conservative bloggers point out that in their campaign against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Alaska Democrats gave credit to Gov. Palin for helping to kill the Bridge to Nowhere.

“Gov. Sarah Palin said the $398 million bridge was $329 million short of full funding, and only $36 million in federal funds were set aside for it," the Democrats say. "She said it was clear Congress had little interest in spending any more money for it and that the state had higher priorities."

On another page the Dems say, “Gov. Palin recently cancelled the Gravina Island Bridge near Ketchikan that would have connected the Alaska mainland with Gravina Island (population: 50)."

When good oppo goes bad!

From Jake Tapper

The gift that keeps giving

Jake Tapper has a piece on William Ayers non apology/apology for his quote of "not doing enough".

Of course, does this unrepentant douche bag come out with an interview and totally condemn the actions of his youth? No. He does it with what looks like a Tom Tomorrow comic strip.

But you have to love this asshole's final take in the strip related to the violence he participated in....

I don't think violent resistance is NECESSARILY the answer? (my emphasis)

Wanna bet Obamamania's out there telling all of his arugula eating, piece of shit friends to quit trying to help.

Was Palin put on because of her gender?

Lisa Schiffren has a great piece noting that so many liberals have incorrectly assumed that Palin was put on the ticket for the women vote.

It turns out that she was probably put on the ticket to attract the votes of all those gun totin', god fearin' non arugula eatin', red necks....

But — was Palin really put on the ticket as a babe magnet? That’s only the cover. The real mission is class, not sex. The Obama campaign may have missed the true nature of the threat. Sarah Palin — like Joe Biden — was chosen in large part because she could appeal to working-class voters, who by rights should be voting for the Democrats’ politics of the trough in this economic downturn. Did you hear how much applause Palin got the other night when she mentioned that her husband was a member of the Steelworkers Union? The GOP wants its Reagan Democrats back!

Even the subtle difference between the newly hot “hockey moms,” and the “soccer moms” of yore has to do with class. Soccer is played in the leafier suburbs, and the moms drive Lexus SUVs. Hockey is grittier (and field hockey doesn’t count).

Those blue-collar guys and gals in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania (three states mentioned by Palin in her acceptance speech), were put off Obama during the primaries because of his caricature of their God-and-guns culture, his penchant for arugula (and all that that implies), and his general elitism. And maybe race.

But maybe race per se wasn’t the primary reason. Maybe the problem is the somewhat alien background — the Kenyan father, the Indonesian youth, the runaway mom. Maybe it is a little puzzling how this man went from total outsider to the Harvard Law School national elite, collecting his $200 without passing Go . . . as they have not been able to do. That’s hard to relate to if you have lived in a town where your dad worked at the plant his whole life, and you were going to do that too. But now the plant has closed, and you need a plan so you can support the family and work for the next 20 years.

Old time political humor

A little mid season political humor

Use his own words

Play the game

One of the things that's amusing about the Obamamania campaign is their insistence in letting McCain/Palin frame them and playing right into their game.

Kirtsten Powers at the NY Post has more...

Obama's toughest challenge has always been to connect with working-class swing voters. So attacking the poster child for small-town values, Sarah Palin, was a bad strategy.

No, Obama didn't engage in the mass sneering at Palin - but he did fall into the trap of disrespecting her. When McCain chose her, the Obama campaign's first response was to ridicule the size of her town. Then the candidate himself began referring to her as a "former mayor" when she is in fact a sitting governor.

When she retaliated (justifiably) by mocking his stint as a organizer, the Obama camp was clearly rattled. Obama himself actually began arguing about the importance of community organizing. His supporters amplified this cry - claiming Palin's attack was a racist slur and passing around e-mails titled "Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Meanwhile, the rest of the country was probably wondering what being a community organizer has to do with being president.

Lured by the McCain camp, Obama supporters engaged in an argument about who had more overall experience - the top of the Democratic ticket or the bottom of the GOP ticket. This diminished Obama.

More....

Do Over

So you flunk that test to get into med school. Can you just say "do over"?

You can if you're a public school system....

More than three-quarters of Maine's eighth-graders performed below standard on the state writing test for 2007-08, prompting education officials to toss the results and try to figure out why so many students missed the mark.

State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron and her staff say the one-question test was somehow flawed because 78 percent of the estimated 14,900 eighth-graders who took the exam failed to write a persuasive essay as required.

That's a 50 percent increase, over 2006-07 in the number of eighth-graders who failed to meet or only partially met state writing standards.

In a rare move, Maine's Department of Education found the test results inconclusive, and withheld them from school districts and the media when it released the latest Maine Educational Assessment scores in July.

More.....

Rangel

Charlie Rangel at his interest free villa. Or is he at a house committee meeting?

HT Brian Thomas

You'd think he's know his faith....

I like to have some fun when a liberal candidate screws up on the stump. Usually, I don't make a lot out of it because we'd all end up saying something stupid if we had a camera on us 24/7.

But then again, I don't confuse my Christian faith with my Muslim faith.

From BOTW

Stephanopoulos: Yesterday you took off after the Republicans for suggesting you have Muslim connections.

Just a few minutes ago, Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, said they've never done that. This is a false and cynical attempt to play victim.

Obama: You know what? I mean, these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand. . . .

Stephanopoulos: The McCain campaign has never suggested you have Muslim connections. . . .

Obama: Let's not play games. What I was suggesting--you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come.--

Stephanopoulos: Christian faith.

Obama: --my Christian faith. Well, what I'm saying is that he hasn't suggested--

Stephanopoulos: Has connections, right.

Obama: --that I'm a Muslim. And I think that his campaign's upper echelons have not, either.

Maybe he converted in one of those 51-57 states.

What is community organizing?

Apparently, I'm not the only person who's not really sure what the "community organizer" moniker entails. It turns out that even Obama himself doesn't really know.

Even Obama didn’t know when he first gave it a try back in 1985. “When classmates in college asked me just what it was that a community organizer did, I couldn’t answer them directly,” Obama wrote in his memoir, Dreams from My Father. “Instead, I’d pronounce on the need for change. Change in the White House, where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds. Change in the Congress, compliant and corrupt. Change in the mood of the country, manic and self-absorbed. Change won’t come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots.”

Byron York at NRO is actually doing some vetting on Obama's community organizing activity has some great insights as to what Obama's activities actually entailed.

More.....

Two America's

Once again, it's time for my quarterly challenge to "progressives" on the Two America's John Edwards so rightly pointed out between his trips between the sheets....

The map to the side, points out the red/blue 2000 election results (by county). Note that most of the country is red except for our urban centers.

Now, consider all the things you would include if you were measuring a quality of life for a particular area...

Unemployment
Crime
Schools
Growth
Road maintenance
Cost of living
Homelessness
Taxes
Amenities such as shopping and restaurants

By any of these measures, the red areas will always be superior to the blue areas. And what is the other common denominator of these areas? The red areas are run by republicans and the blue areas are run by democrats.

I've been doing this blog for two years now and I'm still waiting for some "progressive" to challenge me on these assumptions or to tell me exactly why the blue areas they run are vastly superior to the red areas.

The bottom line? Is it that they can't or they won't?

Barracuda

The Gekko's went out for our last outdoor concert of the year; Cheap Trick, Heart, & Journey.

First, let me say that I've been to Buffett & Dave Matthews concerts that weren't as crowded last night. I was surprised given that I hold Journey responsible for ending good rock and roll when they released Oh Sherry.

General notes

Cheap Trick - The guys are starting to show their age but I'll always love the name Bun E. Carlos.

Heart - I don't know why they share a stage with any band. This is the second time I've seen them and they get it going better than any concert act I've ever seen. I'm hoping to see them some day where we get to see a full show rather than the one hour warm up.

By the way, love the covers, Love Rain on Me and Goin' to California. I wish more bands did good covers of others music.

I also loved the tribute to Sarah Palin when they did Barracuda.

Journey - Let's just say that whole concert was set up for lots of Mom's to sing along with a band and call it rock and roll. But what else would you expect from the band that single handedly killed rock and roll.

Bengals fans

I like to think of Bengals fans as clones of Clark Griswold, the character from the Vacation movies and I'm Marty, the black jack dealer from Vegas Vacation.

To paraphrase a quote from Marty "why don't you just give me half of your season ticket money, I'll kick you in the balls and we'll call it even".

On a serious note, who is the last ass kicking team member, coach or owner to grace either the Reds or Bengals. Really, when is Palmer going to throw a ball at one of his offensive lineman for throwing a look out block.

This city has spent a billion dollars in stadia. We don't deserve this.

But it does put in play an old adage "You rarely get what you deserve. Usually you get what you're willing to put up with".

This city continues to put up with a-holes. I guess that's what we get.

Palin v Reagan

Here's a good piece on Palin v. Reagan....

It took Ronald Reagan 14 years to create a confident, optimistic Republican Party. Gov. Sarah Palin did it in six fraught days. Her introductory odyssey concluded with the great exhale of Wednesday night when the vice presidential nominee joined the thin ranks of performers who possess the power to astound.

Palin displayed the champion's most elusive talent: She made it look easy. The past two weeks saw a few hundred of the nation's most ambitious, familiar politicians mount their party's podium straining to make an address memorable. Most failed.

Palin on Wednesday, like Barack Obama in Iowa on Jan. 3, delivered a speech that demolished the campaign's assumptions. In Iowa, Obama was no pushover. In St. Paul, Palin wasn't Ma Kettle.

For her first five days as John McCain's running mate, Palin took a shelling from a congress of the usual suspects — and some unlikely detractors — that would have disoriented the toughest veterans. Her critics finally found something they wanted to drill for. Sweet crude vitriol gushed.

In all due deference to Palin, she only reignited a conservative flame that still existed but had been pissed on by the republican brand for the last 10 years.

It took Reagan 14 years because for decades conservatives like Barry Goldwater had been portrayed as "kooks".

The Big O in his own words

He judgment seems strong given that we've lost more young men in Chicago this summer than Iraq.

Sorry hun, I was just "born that way"

So let's say you've met some young honey in your office and you decide to put your career, your marriage and your self respect all on the line to get a little play with a youngin'.

Well now you've got a built in excuse; you were just "born that way".

From Bloomberg news.....

Investigators have long known the gene that controls the hormone vasopressin is responsible for monogamy in prairie voles, small animals common in the grasslands of North America. Now researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm have uncovered it in men -- and showed it may play a role in whether they and their spouses are happily married.

The researchers ran genetic tests on 2,186 participants in the Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden and had them fill out a survey about the quality of their marriage. Men with a genetic variation scored significantly lower on a scale of partner bonding. One in three reported a crisis in their marriage within the past year, twice the number as those without the variation.

Of course, when I fired this by Mrs. Gekko, I got the "Honey, if you find your clothes out in the street. Don't worry. 'I was just born that way'" response.

Maybe we can rename this gene Marc Dannimal syndrome.