Red State

Remember, as you read this that it is more important to feel pity for the people of Venezuela than it is to feel schadenfreude over the potential political trouble that Hugo Chavez might get into thanks to his bungling and incompetence:

Dear Lord, we may have to put up with this for at least four years:

If Biden knew anything about tax policy in particular and economics in general, he would know that his comments constitute fatuous nonsense. But I suppose that it is now "unpatriotic" to point out these basic facts.

Interestingly enough, all of those people who decried supposed attacks on their patriotism during the course of the Bush years are now silent while Joe Biden goes about trying to prove Samuel Johnson to have been one of the smartest people to have ever walked the Earth. Expect their silence to continue.

We've heard a lot of stories about the phenomenon. I presume that it refers to this:

And this:

None of the people responsible for these outrages and obscenities can be said to be representative of the Democratic Party or of the Obama campaign. Distinctions need to be made.

Too bad they weren't made when a few rotten apples at McCain rallies were used to tar the entire campaign and the Republican Party as a whole.

They are falling:

Now, I know that the price drop has to do with supply and demand fluctuations--as the first paragraph of the article points out.

But while oil prices were rising, certain people--you all know who you are!--were telling us that the reason oil prices went up was that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the oil companies conspired to price gouge.

Logic would dictate that this same group of people--let's call them "the reality-based community" just for the sake of convenience--would now write that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the oil companies conspired to de-gouge and thus give Bush, Cheney and the oil companies as much credit for reducing the price of oil as they gave them blame for increasing it.

But since when has the "reality-based community" followed the dictates of logic?

It isn't every day when socialists express the fear that the world might become too protectionist:

One hopes that Lamy--who really is a socialist but who has an uncommon (among socialists) appreciation of the benefits of free trade--is right when he says that we have learned from history. But when one looks at the campaign rhetoric from Team Obama on the issue of trade, one cannot help but wonder whether a refresher course is needed.

I should perhaps add that Lamy is a very close friend of World Bank President--and one of the Official Public Policy Heroes of Pejman Yousefzadeh--Robert Zoellick. Both Lamy and Zoellick are excellent on the issue of trade and both need help from the next American President to spread the benefits of trade liberalization.

They will get that help from John McCain. From Barack Obama? All signs point to "not so much."

To wit.

You know, tossed-off comments like the one Dionne made are easily rebutted and dispensed with. One wonders why the Washington Post tolerates his continued presence on their editorial pages if he can't form a more cogent, coherent and tough-minded argument. Does the Post think so little of its readers that it believes they can't see through Dionne's nonsense?

VDH writes and people ought to listen. Of course, he is quite right in pointing out that Obama has prepped the rhetorical contest so that any criticism of him is met with overwrought expressions of concern and criticism, not to mention the now-expected tut-tutting that the McCain of 2008 is not the McCain we saw in 2000. The major reason why McCain is no longer a media darling is that he is now the Republican nominee and no longer a foil to the hated George W. Bush, but since this cannot be said out loud, pundits pretend that the scales have suddenly fallen from their eyes, that McCain has "changed," that if only they could vote for the McCain of 2000, they would, etc.

This constitutes brilliant campaigning by the Obama team. But let's be honest as well; it isn't as if the Obama campaign had to work hard to set the rhetorical groundwork in the way that it did. The media is in the tank for the Obama campaign, after all. If they weren't, they would have noted long ago that rage is a two-way street. And so is guilt by association.

There's no defending a comparatively few violent criminals who think molotov cocktails are an acceptable form of political expression. But what do you say about hundreds of liberal Democrats from one Maryland community who want to boycott a business whose owner dares to show his support for John McCain?

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Go here for the transcript, and here for Allahpundit's commentary on the video:

AP's worried (not very surprising: he's a good and habitually pessimistic blogger) that this is more evidence that McCain & Palin are at odds with each other over how hard to hit the Democrats on this and other issues.

I do not agree.

Anyway, while not a Evangelical myself, I fully understand why David Brody is so happy with the text quoted in the subtitle above; I share his reaction. It's refreshing to have a politician that's this unapologetic about the ultimate source of her stance on life issues: unapologetic, and unafraid. Far too many of our current legislators act as if straightforwardly acknowledging the influence of their religious beliefs on their moral philosophy is somehow... tacky. Watching somebody who won't do that soothes.

Moe Lane

Sunday, October 12, 2008

PREFACE:

On FOX News Sunday, host Chris Wallace first talked to Rick Davis and David Axelrod, who spoke mostly at the same time. Davis posited that the media would not discuss Bill Ayers, and Axelrod countered that Bill Ayers the most discussed "unknown public figure" in the history, I suppose, of unknown public figures. In the next segment, Governor Tim Pawlenty stressed Obama's inexperience while Governor Ed Rendell said that, despite his ravings about how Pennsylvanians hate blacks, this time the economy will trump race in his State. Rendell said also that divided government is a bad thing and the entire system should be run by one party.

On ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos talked first to former Larry Summers and James Baker. Summers said that it is time to stop talking and to start acting. Former Treasury Secretary James Baker said that "this will be with us for a while," but "we will come out of it." In the next segment, Congressman Barney Franks said that it is "very important to get this done today." Congressman Roy Blunt argued that there were going to be losses, but it should not be the taxpayers who lose.

On NBC's Meet the Press, it was Rob Portman and John Corzine. It was a civil exchange between adults, despite Tom Brokaw attempts to stir things up. For instance, Portman spoke of McCain's proposed spending freeze while Corzine spoke of Obama's plan to start spending $50-billion dollars to create jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, converting to alternative energy, etc.

On CBS's Face the Nation, Lindsey Graham took offense at the Obama campaign comparing John McCain and Sarah Palin to George Wallace. Congressman Adam Putnam sees McCain as strong in Florida. Douglas Wilder sees the Bradley Effect being nullified because of Obama's gifts and because "America is ready." Colorado Governor Bill Ritter declared that "the gloss has come off Governor Palin." NEXT SEGMENT, Fred Bergsten, a former official in the Administration of Jimmy Carter, declared that there is now a "crisis of confidence." (Where have we heard that one before?) However, he thinks the "authorities" are doing the right things this time and we should come out of it alright.

On CNN's Late Edition, Senators Chuckie Schumer and Arlen Specter had a major dustup over Schumer's political attacks on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on an issue over which everyone agreed that there would be no partisan attacks.

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Both presidential candidates have been accused of not meeting the Constitutional requirement that only "natural-born" citizens hold the presidency.

Last month a federal judge threw out a lawsuit seeking to remove John McCain from the California ballot because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone:

Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court ruled late Tuesday that the law at the time of Mr. McCain’s birth automatically granted citizenship to offspring of American citizens.

Mr. McCain’s parents were both citizens when he was born on Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, an American territory where his father was stationed with the Navy.

Obama still faces a legal challenge to his constitutional eligibility to be president. A lawsuit, Berg v. Obama, brought by Philip J. Berg, a Philadelphia attorney, alleges Obama is not eligible to be president.

Instead of producing records proving Obama is a natural born citizen, Obama and the Democratic National Committee have filed a motion seeking a protective order to block production of documents until a motion to dismiss is the law suit is ruled on by the court. Obama and the Democratic National Committee also claim attorney Berg has no standing - has no right - to bring the lawsuit.

What is it that Obama and the Democratic National Committee are trying to hide? Why not just produce documents that prove Obama's citizenship and make the lawsuit go away?

Watch the following video, in which Berg talks about his lawsuit:

I repeat, what is it that Obama and the Democratic National Committee are trying to hide? If Obama can post his birth certificate on his website why can't he provide it to the court?

Everybody did.

Gotta love modern engineering, huh?

Open thread.

Because it's getting harder and harder to keep track of who's doing what, and to whom.

Via Ace of Spades

Moe Lane

PS: Just to reassure Allahpundit: here's a link to the connections that the CCC has with all of its community organization friends, not to mention Leftist, Marxist, and generally radical activist groups. These people have been pretty much all living in each other's pockets for the last forty years; by now they're more incestuous than a Faulkner novel.

PPS: You may want to have a chat with DNC mouthpiece Brad Woodhouse about what the phrase "There's no relationship here" actually means. Although I must say that the accelerated mushroom treatment that you've put the DNC through seems to have paid dividends: they repeat the Approved Points of Talk quite steadily. Electroshock? Drug cocktail? Forced memetic downloading?... oops, ignore that last one.

Let's just call John Lewis (D-GA) what he is: a race baiter.

It is not deniable. It is not controversial. John Lewis, who made history standing up for civil rights, has become a parody of his former self. It is somewhat understandable. He struggled for civil rights in the sixties. He saw friends gun downed by white police officers and was himself targeted.

But John Lewis has never put aside the legitimate hate he developed in the sixties. All struggles now are as bad as struggles then for John Lewis. He uses his celebrity to drive the hyperbole of race baiting.

The left may not like me saying it, but it is the truth.

In 2006, John Lewis cooperated with a radio ad for John Eaves, the present Chairman of the Fulton County Commission in Georgia. The ad played on black radio stations. In it, Lewis said this:

This was followed with Atlanta's current mayor Shirley Franklin claiming the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. might be undone and of former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young saying they couldn't afford to turn the clock back.

Lewis, though, got the last word, saying:

The message is clear: Vote Republican and you go back to slavery.

John Lewis is a race baiter. The man who routinely sows seeds of hatred in the black community against the white community is really in no position to accuse John McCain of anything.

Leslie Brockette Leudtke and Kevin Carl Robinson - the two suspects - didn't just happen to have incendiary devices in their car trunk. They had a plan. Via Protein Wisdom Pub:

And yes, "Molotov cocktails." That's what it says on the news release.

Moe Lane

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