Saturday, July 26, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Obama's Jewish Problem
Kathyrn Jean Lopez over at NRO interviewed Caroline B. Glick, who is the deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and the senior fellow for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy.
Read the whole thing, but two things Glick said stood out to me:
Glick: Obama acts like a European leader in his treatment of Israel. On the one hand, he professes this profound respect for Israel and the Jews, and goes on and on about how our security is important to him. On the other hand, he espouses policies that undermine Israeli security and threaten its survival, and demands that the Jewish state become the only state that turns its other cheek towards our enemies as they try to kill us. This is the same sort of message that we hear from all Europeans leaders. And it is tiresome and insulting.
.......
Lopez: Does Obama have it? (a commitment to Israel)
Glick: No, Obama doesn’t have it. His statements about Iraq being a “diversion” alone are proof that he fundamentally refuses to acknowledge that there is a global jihad raging, that Israel is a frontline state in the jihad and that the U.S. cannot allow jihadists to gain control of any territory and particularly territory as strategically vital as Iraq or Jerusalem and the West Bank. Obama is a quintessential leftist who thinks that war can be wished away by blaming the U.S. for its enemies’ hatred and malicious designs. This is the type of person who will push very hard not only for America to stand down from the war and ask the Iranians for forgiveness while enabling them to get the bomb, but will blame Israel for the Arab world’s refusal to accept its right to exist.
Obama's prayer that he stuck in the wailing wall was taken and given to the press, which is wrong and disturbing. But almost as disturbing to me is the fact that the prayer was obviously written with the intent of it being given to the press. You can read the prayer at the link. I don't feel that comfortable publishing here myself.
It doesn't get any funnier than this...
The right person just has to write it. Here is a taste:
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.
The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.
The Dark Knight and the WOT
As I was watching it, I kept trying to keep out of my head that the movie was swimming in metaphors about the war on terror. I tell myself that I am obsessed with world events and I can't keep seeing things through that prism. I tell myself to just enjoy the frickin movie.
Well, I am not the only one who saw the Dark Knight as a metaphor for Bush and his courage to fight the war on terror despite being hated for it.
Andrew Klavan of the WSJ says this:
There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.
That seemed obvious with wall of computer screens at Bruce Wayne's home that were "spying on every one in Gotham City" through their cell phone or some sort of sonar. The character of the scientist played Morgan Freedman says he will do it this once during this crisis and then resign, and as he does the screens blow up.
Message to Bush: When we have defeated these monsters, the wiretapping thing has to go.
Then there is The Joker telling Batman that his problem is that has "rules" and the Joker has "no rules." Yeah. Guess who else doesn't have any "rules?" The terrorists. The movie even used the word "terrorists" a few times.
Not too get too deep here (I know, I know..it's just a movie!) But I have to write about my favorite part of the movie. If you haven't seen it, this won't give anything away and if you have, then you will know what I am talking about.
It's when the prisoner tells the policeman on the ferry to give him the device and he will do what the policeman should have done 10 minutes earlier. Which turns out to be the right thing.
Omg....I love it when people do the right thing.
The movie is just full of scenes that stir in us thoughts of what is good and evil and how we define it. Are we all susceptible to it? When do we become as bad as what we are fighting? Do the ends justify the means? At one point The Joker says, "everyone says I'm crazy, but I'm just ahead of the curve."
When I was young I read William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." I cried and cried at towards the end at this line:
"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."
It was the first time in my life that I thought about how easy it could be for us to lose our sense of morality and become animals. Since then I have learned a great deal about the darkness of man's heart, but I have also learned that in all of our history, man has also managed to bring the light out of the darkness. Even in the blackness that was the Holocaust, good people stood steadfast in the goodness of man's heart.
Yeah, it's just a movie. It's just a comic book movie, but it's a dang good one if it makes contemplate such things.
h/t BigDog
Funny
I am currently at home in Mississippi, so I found it amusing that I find this on boing boing while here. This is part of a series of short films created by Mississippi Public Broadcasting on how to use the library. The funny part is the idea that they are in a post-apocalyptic world roaming the earth in a bookmobile. Imagine my surprise when I recognized the girl playing Margaret (orange jumpsuit) as a girl I did a play with in college. I'm guessing these were made around 1977.
Where in the world is Hillary Clinton?
On the plane Wednesday I read a Vanity Fair piece about the Hillary primary campaign. Basically it was infighting and Bill that brought things down. It was all pretty brutal.
Last we heard Hillary said she would work hard for Obama. So where the heck is she?
I did actually get to feeling sorry for Hillary at the end there. It seemed everyone she counted on abandoned her. Now things are even worse. Her biggest fan and backer, Terry McAuliffe suggested to a crowd of Virginia Democrats this week that Gov. Tim Kaine would be the best choice for Obama's V.P. pick.
Ouch.
Last I heard she was speaking to the American Federation of Teachers in Chicago on July 12th. Has anyone seen her lately? In addition to that, the big donors to the Hillary campaign aren't exactly rushing with their cash to Obama .
According to BizJournal, fewer than 3 percent of Clinton's top donors have given any money to the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Also, this interesting tidbit:
Lynn, Lady de Rothschild, one of Clinton's biggest supporters, has started a web site that aims to place Clinton's name into the nominating process at the convention. Lady de Rothschild, like many Hillraisers, is reluctant to support Obama.
Where is Hillary? I don't know. Maybe plotting?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The before picture
For those of you who were wondering what the Obama plane with the American flag looked like before they changed it to the "O" symbol, here ya go.
Please...
Obama implies to Fox News reporter that Bush directs the TV's on Armed Forces television to be on Fox News
I just love it when Gretchen Carlson gets all indignant. She does it so well.
Forget the troops...
A Dying Endorsement
(CNN) — Support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to extend to death row Wednesday.
According to The Jackson Clarion Ledger, a Mississippi newspaper, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop's final words before being executed Wednesday night included an appeal to Americans to vote for the Illinois senator.
"For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice," Bishop said, according to the paper.
Really? Obama's supporters are working behind the scenes while Obama says this in front of the cameras?
"I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes,"
You mean they are saying one thing to our face and advocating another behind our back?
Just another day in Obamaland.
Zu viel zu früh
Obama isn't getting to speak in Germany at Brandenburg Gate to make a dramatic speech as John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan did. I guess he couldn't "speak that into being."
But since symbolism is everything, Obama is doing the next best thing. He is speaking in front of "the Siegess'e (victory column) monument — or "Goldelse" ("Goldlizzie"), as Berliners affectionately dub it because of a golden statue of the goddess of victory that crowns the monument."
I really do believe that this over the top thing that Obama and the media is participating in, is going to backfire. I don't think it's just Jesus that is rolling his eyes at all this.
First political ad on MTV and it's against Obama
There is some sweet irony there. Imo political ads on MTV are a waste of time. Unless Tila Tequila is running for President, this generation doesn't much care. Oh, they may swoon for Obama for now, but they will be too hung over to vote on election day.
Did any of you watch Jay Leno's interviews on the street last night? He interviewed the MTV generation and as funny as it was, it was also embarrassing. No one knew who the Vice President was. One didn't even know who the President was. The funniest/saddest was one who thought Nancy Pelosi was someone in prison for embezzlement and another thought she was a porn star. Heh.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Obama: Speak It Into Being
Once I was speaking with a black friend of mine who had been interviewed to be a manager at a company that day. I asked him about it. He said, "I am the manager." I said, "Oh, you already heard from them?" He said," No, but I am speaking it into being."
After *cough/laughing* about this and saying, "Say what?", I found that this was a belief practiced at his Church and it was a common way of thinking and believing in the black church in general. The idea is to speak to what you want in your life and make it real, make it happen. Speak it into being.
It occurred to me today that that is perhaps exactly what Obama is doing. From his "presidential seal" to his trip to the Middle East it seems Obama is telling us that he is already President. He is speaking it.
As the Politico reports:
From the saturated media coverage to the one-on-one meetings with heads of state, the trip already had a White House feel. The scope of the traveling staff simply adds to an aura of a president-in-waiting. On Tuesday, aides attempted to invoke White House rules and traditions by requiring reporters to withhold the names of senior advisers who brief the press. But they were reminded twice by reporters that they were not in the White House and that Obama was not the president.
It explains alot of the seeming arrogance of this campaign. It explains the staging of everything Obama does. It isn't that they want him to look Presidential. He is Presidential. He is the President.
The truth of the matter is Obama's experience in no way compares to McCain's. What Obama knows he has, that McCain doesn't, is star power. He is using it effectively. But in the end I don't believe that the future of this country will be put in the hands of a political star that is good with words, but bad at policy. Who speaks in platitudes and compromises that are the opposite of everything that he has actually promoted in his life.
Let Obama try to speak it into being.
Let's vote it into not being.
Drill some sense into Democrats
When it comes to drilling (and I know a bit about it), I couldn't figure out lately whether Democrats were liars or just ignorant. I think it's a little of the latter and a lot of the former.
If I hear one more Democrat whine about the leased land that isn't being used to drill I will scream. Ask yourself this basic simple question. If an oil company has a lease on land with oil there, why wouldn't they have already drilled there? Does that make any sense?
The reasons could be that there may not be enough oil and gas to make it worth the enormous cost or there isn't any at all. It may be regulations a mile long that make it impossible. Don't even get me started on lawsuits over whales and cows. Drilling is always a gamble. There isn't a stick you can put into the ground that tells you that there is oil there. It's a complicated and expensive process just to see if there is oil there. There is a reason Petroleum engineers make good money. They are paid to figure it out.
There has never been a better time to fight for more drilling. The Democrats are faced with a public that is demanding it. Politico reports on a "gang of 10," five Republicans and five Democrats trying to hash out a plan.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted Tuesday that 12 Democratic senators would join Republicans in voting to lift the offshore drilling ban if given the opportunity to do so.
But Democratic leaders are doing all they can to prevent a vote on drilling before members leave town in two weeks.
No one is working harder than John Boehner:
Republican House Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio returned Monday night from a trip to Colorado and Alaska, where he and a group of freshman GOP lawmakers traveled to show support for alternative energy approaches as well as oil drilling in ANWR.
He's hitting the news shows and he is making the case and he's doing a great job at it.
I laugh when I hear people whine about "Big Oil." Big oil is what keeps us warm in the winter, cool in the summer. It runs our factories, it runs our towns, it runs our cars, it runs our planes. Stop using those things if you don't like "Big Oil."
Oil has come a long way as far as environmental concerns go and they environmentalists know it. There is minimal environmental impact with drilling now.
We all know we have to look at alternative energy sources. T. Boone Pickens says we can't drill our way out of this problem. Maybe not, but we drill our way out of suffering while we develop what we need.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Edward's Love Child?
At first glance the John Edwards/Mistress/Love child story seems too tabloid to be true (and it was the National Inquirer that broke the story a year ago and everyone ignored it), but it looks pretty bad from here.
Imagine if Edwards had gotten the nomination? Wow. A presidential candidate whose wife has cancer and encouraged him to run anyway for the good of the country (because we need men like this, don't you know), and he gets his mistress pregnant in the middle of it all. Now he is caught visiting his love child.
Gee, it's like we're France or something.
Now, nothing surprises me any more. Especially when it comes to power and sex.
You have to feel sorry for Elizabeth on this one. A sorry tale. A sorry husband.
"The Obama Effect"
The Trailer.
From Politico:
Right-wing provocateur and well-known Clinton antagonist David Bossie says he will premiere a documentary critical of presidential candidate Barack Obama in Denver on the Sunday before the Democratic National Convention.
Expected to recycle the “greatest hits” of cable TV clips that damaged Obama’s candidacy, from the wailing of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to Michelle Obama’s “proud of my country” gaffe, the project from Bossie’s group Citizens United released an online trailer over the weekend and is being advertised on Fox News this week. It will be released on DVD nationwide Sept. 1.
I don't know how effective these things are. It seems too contrived with the flipping screens and all that. I am so sick of Obama at this point that I don't even want to see anything about him, critical or not.
It seems to me just a straight forward review of Obama's past record, flip/flops, and questionable ties is all we need.
Follow me on twitter..
I've just started getting into it. I'm Rightwingsparkl there, without the "e." I guess they only allow 15 characters. Anyway, I'll see you on twitter!
Kewl...
I was picked up by the Chicago Sun Times last week and missed it!
Picked up by Rueters too. It's so cool to see that.
Check out this photo..
Even those across the pond call this a circus
AFP photo
Meanwhile even the left leaning media is concerned about the nice tightly wrapped package that is the Obama tour in the Middle East. There is simply no way the campaign was going to allow a mistake. They were not going to allow the free flow style of McCain:
MITCHELL: Let me just say something about the message management. He didn’t have reporters with him, he didn’t have a press pool, he didn’t do a press conference while he was on the ground in either Afghanistan or Iraq. What you’re seeing is not reporters brought in. You’re seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questions by the military, and what some would call fake interviews, because they’re not interviews from a journalist. So, there’s a real press issue here. Politically it’s smart as can be. But we’ve not seen a presidential candidate do this, in my recollection, ever before.
***
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about access to the troops, Andrea. A lot of African-American faces over there, very happy, delighted faces. Is that a representation of the percentage of servicepeople who are African-American, or did they all choose to join someone they like, apparently? What’s the story?
MITCHELL: I can’t really say that. Being a reporter who was not present in any of those situations, I just cannot report on what was edited out, what was, you know, on the sidelines. That’s my issue. We don’t know what we are seeing.
via PW and Newsbusters
I also noted, as did others, that the volunteer greets in Afghanistan for Obama seemed to lack "diversity." Most of the faces were black. Why was that? I found it curious. After those initial meetings I suppose someone in the campaign noticed this and Obama started meeting with unit formations. Because it is all about the presentation here folks.
Obama thinks he is already the President
Or at least his advisors think so. Good grief.
At a morning background briefing, reporters parried with senior advisers on the characterization of Obama’s speech Thursday in Berlin as a campaign rally. The outdoor speech at the Victory Column could draw thousands of people, similar to the size of Obama events in the United States.
“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.
“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser.
“He is going to talk about the issues as an individual … not as a candidate, but as an individual, as a senator,” the adviser added.
The ego of this campaign is starting to get on my last nerve.
The Surge Worked
Yet Obama says if he had to do it all over again, he still wouldn't support it. In other words, defeat would have been just fine.
TERRY MORAN: The surge of U.S. troops, combined with ordinary Iraqis' rejection of both al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have transformed the country. Attacks are down more than 80% nationwide. U.S. combat casualties have plummeted, five this month so far, compared with 78 last July, and Baghdad has a pulse again. If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you — would you support the surge?
OBAMA: No, because — keep in mind that —MORAN: You wouldn't?
OBAMA: Well, no, keep — these kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20/20. I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with…"
Meanwhile, for once, McCain isn't letting Obama get away with it:
When you win wars, troops come home," McCain said. "He's been completely wrong on the issue. ... I have been steadfast in my position."
......
And McCain continued assaulting Obama's record of not supporting the surge of additional troops to Iraq, a strategy that McCain championed and that observers say has helped drive down violence.
"I'm proud that I was right," McCain said. "....That's what judgment is all about. That's why I'm qualified to lead."
Unfortunately for McCain, amid the media Obama crush train, there isn't much attention being given to the truth. I hope McCain is putting together a campaign ad highlighting the fact that Obama was wrong and would have brought our boys home in defeat. It can wait until closer to the election, but it has to be done.
Obama removes American flag from his campaign jet
Check this out
How famous are you online?
It's called a Vanity Validator. (Scroll down just a bit)
Using Google's PageRank technology, you can scan trusted sites to measure your Internet fame on a scale of 1 (unknown) to 100 (ubiquitous).
I typed in Kathleen McKinley and got a score of 52. Not bad. Rightwingsparkle got a 46.
Monday, July 21, 2008
The NYT refuses to print McCain editorial
So here it is. You gotta love the blogosphere sometimes. via MVRWC
Update: HotAir has the e-mail from the NYT sent to McCain on why they can't publish it.
McCain to announce V.P. this week?
My drinking buddy, Robert Novak says so:
Sources close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip. The name of McCain's running mate has not been disclosed, but Mitt Romney has led the speculation recently.
Not a good idea in my opinion. But we all know McCain listens to no one and he always seems to do just fine.
via Patrick Ruffini
The Tax Man
I always wondered what would be an effective and funny way of illustrating to young people how ridiculous and overburdened we are with taxes. I saw this video at the RightOnline.com blogger summit. I think it does the trick.
Just when I think dogs cannot be more awesome....
They will be strapped to members of the SAS, fitted with oxygen masks and will be sent to countries like Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defence has not revealed what tasks they will perform but it is thought they may be used to sniff out explosives.
They may also prove useful for searching confined spaces.
BBC defence correspondent Paul Adams said dogs were first parachuted into combat zones as early as World War II, but that these dogs will be a breed apart.
ABC's Terry Moran gets the Obama interview in Iraq
The only one Obama will be giving in Iraq.
In case you aren't aware of it, Terry is the brother of Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House.
Are illegal immigrant enforcment laws working?
I was reading this article in the WaPo regarding the enforcement campaign against employers who knowingly hire illegals. The article complains of high costs but limited results.
It seems to me that if the "results" we are looking for is less illegal immigration, then we are doing better than ever. Although employers who do hire illegals should be punished, the real goal is stopping illegals from getting jobs here in the first place. So I looked around.
In El Paso Texas illegal immigrants crossings have dropped dramatically. In 1992, the sector's agents apprehended nearly 286,000 illegal border crossers. The end-of-year total this year is expected to be about 34,000.
Let that sink in for a second. Just in El Paso alone going from 286,000 in one year to 34,000 in one year.
This article from Dec. of 2007 describes how illegals are packing up and self deporting in Arizona because of the new laws.
Last year, Oklahoma's Legislature passed the nation's toughest law on illegal immigrants, making it a felony to harbor, transport, shelter or conceal undocumented immigrants. It also gave police authority to check the immigration status of anyone arrested (can you believe that wasn't allowed before???) This summer the law also also allows U.S. citizens to sue employers if they think they were fired in favor of illegal workers.
Since this law was passed in Oklahoma, the Greater Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce says that 15,000-25,000 illegal immigrants have left Tulsa County alone.
In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents. South Carolina became the first state to bar undocumented students from all public colleges and universities. In May North Carolina's community colleges ordered its 58 campuses to stop enrolling undocumented students after the state attorney general said admitting them may violate federal law.
Something is working my friends. Maybe we aren't punishing the employers as we should, but the illegal workers are getting the message. You won't hear much about the success of laws like Oklahoma, but for those living in these areas, the success is obvious.
Dr. Dobson is coming around....
Most bloggers and readers I know don't really care what Dr. James Dobson thinks, but you are being politically naive to think that his opinion doesn't matter. Among evangelicals, it matters a great deal. These religious values voters (of which I am one) pay a great deal of attention to respected leaders like Dobson. So this is significant when it comes to the crucial votes we need to win this thing:
"I never thought I would hear myself saying this," Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air Monday. "... While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might."
.......
There's nothing dishonorable in a person rethinking his or her positions, especially in a constantly changing political context," Dobson said in a statement to the AP. "Barack Obama contradicts and threatens everything I believe about the institution of the family and what is best for the nation. His radical positions on life, marriage and national security force me to reevaluate the candidacy of our only other choice, John McCain."
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Rising Star
There is this politican. He is black, charasmatic, and intelligent. Now that may sound like Obama, but this guy happens to be right on all the issues, instead of wrong like Obama.
Meet Michael Williams, Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas. He spoke at the RightOnline blogger summit this weekend. Keep an eye on this guy.
Al Gore Hypocrisy Video
Kentucky Progress reminded me of this video shown at the conference.
Hilarious. So typical of the left mind set. Lecture us, but live they way they wish.
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