Call him The Chosen One, The Enlightened One, The Messiah, whatever. Just please don’t call him Mr. President next January. Barack Obama’s policies would be disastrous for this country. In an interview with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, this empty suit being foisted on Americans said this about the increased troop levels in Iraq that have resulted in victory and fewer deaths.
“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”
Not. True.
One man had the experience and wisdom not to dream but to act. One man was willing to give up his own dream of being president so that our troops would be safe and victorious. One man had the courage to stand up and fight not only the left but his own party. That man?
John McCain.
It was shortly after the 2006 elections and Republicans were downcast and downtrodden. The voters had just kicked them out of power and the pundits were comparing Iraq to Vietnam. No Republican politician wanted anything to do with Iraq, much less show support for our efforts there. Except John McCain. Robert Novak thought Sen. McCain’s shot at the White House was over because of it.
In the latest Evans-Novak Political Report, conservative columnist Robert Novak suggests that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) “aggressive” push for a U.S. troop expansion — or “surge” — in Iraq may be costing the top 2008 GOP contender in the polls, especially when matched against another presumed front-runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).
But Sen. McCain didn’t back down. He didn’t cut and run. He stood in and fought. And won that battle. Now, by any and all accounts, even by the wildest dreams of an unqualified candidate for president, Iraq is a success. It would not have happened without the fierce determination of John McCain.
Rudy Giuliani has some advice for Barack Obama.
When Russia rolled over Georgia, John McCain knew exactly how to respond.Having been to that part of the world many times and having developed a clear worldview over many years, John knew where he stood. Within hours, he established a very strong, informed position that let the world know exactly how he’ll respond as President. At exactly the right time, John McCain said, “We’re all Georgians.”
Obama’s first instinct was to create a moral equivalency - that “both sides” should “show restraint.” The same moral equivalency that he has displayed in discussing the Palestinian Authority and the State of Israel.
Later, after discussing it with his 300 foreign policy advisors, he changed his position and suggested that the “the UN Security Council,” could find a solution. Apparently, none of his 300 advisors told him that Russia has a veto on any UN action. Finally Obama put out a statement that looked …well, it looked a lot like John McCain’s.
Here’s some free advice: Sen. Obama, next time just call John McCain.
Here is some free advice for voters: vote for John McCain. He will make certain that America is secure so that you can pursue your wildest dreams.
“For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff,” Monegan said Friday from Portland. “What they said directly was more along the lines of ‘This isn’t a person that we would want to be representing our state troopers.’ “
The Monegan in that quote would be Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, whose recent firing by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and now Republican Vice-Presidential nominee has been dubbed ‘Troopergate’ by a liberally biased national media looking for anything to stop the momentum of the McCain/Palin ticket.
This latest attack on her involves her former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten. In 2005, long before she even ran for governor, she, along with other members of her family and community, tried to get the Alaska State Troopers to investigate the thuggish behavior of Trooper Wooten, who was married to her sister Molly McCann.. In the end, he was investigated and had 11 charges against him sustained by Colonel Julia Grimes, Director, Alaska State Troopers.
Included in the charges that were sustained are:
- Wooten used a Taser on his stepson.
- He illegally shot a moose.
- He drank beer in his patrol car on one occasion.
- He told others his father-in-law would “eat a f’ing lead bullet” if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce.
These findings are in addition to many other incidents, from drunken brawls to having another trooper drive him home after pulling him over after a night of drinking. To calling Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol, a f’ing ***hole and losing his football coaching position at the local high school. Here is a portion of his official reprimand letter:
“The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession,” Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in March 1, 2006, letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After the union protested it, the suspension was reduced to five days.
Wow. A 10 day suspension, reduced to 5 after union thugs got involved. For tasing his 10 year old stepson. Illegally hunting. Drinking while on duty and while driving a state patrol car. Threatening to kill his father-in-law. A 5 day suspension.
And you will note that this occurred prior to Sarah Palin being elected governor – Frank Murkowski had yet to be defeated by her. Is it any wonder that, after the election and she was in office, Gov. Palin would say this:
“It was a joke, the whole year long ‘investigation’ of him,” the e-mail said. “This is the same trooper who’s out there today telling people the new administration is going to destroy the trooper organization, and that he’d ‘never work for that b****’, Palin’.)”
Or, when she was trying to clean up the corruption in the state, this:
In that first e-mail, sent a few weeks after the meeting, Palin encouraged Monegan to testify for a bill that would require 99-year sentences for police officers found guilty of murder. “For police officers to violate the public trust is a grave, grave violation — in my opinion. We have too many examples lately of cops and troopers who violate the public trust. DPS has come across as merely turning a blind eye or protecting that officer, seemingly ‘for the good of the brotherhood’.”
It is no wonder to me at all. But the liberal press expects politicians to be politicians, keeping the status quo in order to get along.
Sarah Palin is about anything but status quo.
Do you really want change in America? Neither Barack Obama nor Joe Biden have the intestinal fortitude to take on the establishment. Can you imagine either of those guys taking on the entire State Trooper department? Laughable.
But Sarah did. Call it Troopergate if you want. I call it courage. Courage to take on the good old boys and accept nothing less than honesty and demanding that police officers be held accountable for breaking the law. I hope she takes that same attitude into the Vice-Presidency.
Background:
Statement by Charles Heath, Sarah Palin’s father (pdf)
Initial Investigation of Trooper Mike Wooten (pdf)
Second Investigation of Trooper Mike Wooten overturning parts of the first (pdf)
Suspension Letter of Trooper Mike Wooten (pdf)
InDepth Investigation by Anchorage Daily News
Washington Post Hit Piece Outlining Several Emails
Sarah Palin’s Ethics Disclosure Form (pdf)
No, not the Peter Rabbit that Beatrix Potter created. This Peter Rabbit is a 32 year old horse being kicked off his birthplace in the latest example of the loss of property rights in the U.S.
The owner of a 32-year-old horse named Peter Rabbit wasn’t able to buck a local ban on livestock within city limits.After widespread publicity of the ban that threatened to kick Peter Rabbit off the pasture where he was born, the Hickman City Council considered an ordinance Tuesday night that would allow horses inside city limits. But council members ultimately voted 4-2 against adopting it, leaving the ban intact.
Lest you think this is simply urban progress, consider that Hickman has a total population just over 1,000 and is supposed to be a retreat from that ‘urban’ center of Lincoln, NE, population roughly 250,000. And yet, they were able to annex property that had been in this family since 1935 and dictate what the property can be used for.
I’m very sad for Peter Rabbit but I am much sadder that this once great nation has all but eliminated private property rights. As Thomas Sowell would phrase it, “Property Rites“.
According to the Constitution of the United States, the government cannot take private property without compensation. However, judges have been letting governments get away with doing just that for about half a century now. So long as the title to the property remains in the hands of its owners, the courts let local, state and federal governments do pretty much what they please, even if that destroys much of the value of the property.
He further identifies the root cause of the abandonment of the Constitutional protection of property rights.
One of the reasons property rights do not get all the protection that the Constitution prescribes is that they are seen as special benefits to the affluent, which must give way to the general welfare. The old leftist phrase “property rights versus human rights” summarizes this mindset.
This ignores the value of property rights to the society as a whole, including people who own no property. Most Americans do not own agricultural land, but they get an abundance of food at affordable prices because farmers own both land and its produce as their private property, and therefore have incentives to produce far more efficiently than in countries where the land is owned by the government. The Soviet Union was a classic example of the latter, with hungry people despite an abundance of fertile land, inefficiently used under government control.
He’s a fairly bright fella, isn’t he? Unlike this city councilman.
City Councilman Richard Harms said before Tuesday’s meeting that he didn’t plan to be swayed by all the talk.
“I’m not giving them breaks anymore,” Harms said. “They’ve had opportunities in the past.”
Besides, Harms said, “a horse is a horse and a mule is a mule _ it’s all livestock.”
No, Mr. Harms, it isn’t all livestock. It is, ultimately, the deterioration of a free society in favor of a collectivist one.
A few credible sources are floating the idea that Sen. Joe Lieberman is going to be John McCain’s pick for VP. Political strategists often float ideas to get a feel for the public’s reaction.
Here is my public reaction: No.
Why on earth would the Republicans pick a liberal Democrat to be on the ticket? Winning isn’t worth that, if that is what winning takes. Sure, he supports the Iraq war but what else? Seriously?
Nothing else, at least nothing that the party as stood for since the early days of Reagan’s first term. Let’s look at his record on a few issues that conservative Republicans are interested in.
Abortion - most conservatives are for eliminating it. Mr. Lieberman takes the safe, legal and rare approach but his record says otherwise.
- Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
- Rejected partial-birth ban since it ignored maternal health. (Oct 2000)
- Voted NO on defining unborn child as eligible for SCHIP. (Mar 2008)
- Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion. (Mar 2008)
- Voted NO on barring HHS grants to organizations that perform abortions. (Oct 2007)
- Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
- Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. (Mar 2003)
Energy - Drill here, drill now, pay less?
- 50% Excess Profits Tax on oil companies’ undeserved profit. (Oct 2006)
- Support Alaskan Natural Gas Pipeline; opposes drilling ANWR. (Nov 2003)
- Accept some American responsibility for global warming. (Nov 2003)
- Destroying pristine ANWR not worth 6 months of oil. (Oct 2000)
- Save 3 mpg and we conserve same as drilling Alaska. (Oct 2000)
- Voted YES on disallowing an oil leasing program in Alaska’s ANWR. (Nov 2005)
- Voted YES on banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Mar 2005)
- Voted NO on drilling ANWR on national security grounds. (Apr 2002)
- Designate sensitive ANWR area as protected wilderness. (Nov 2007)
Immigration - wouldn’t it be nice to have a person on the ticket to balance McCain’s views?
- Voted YES on continuing federal funds for declared “sanctuary cities”. (Mar 2008)
- Voted YES on comprehensive immigration reform. (Jun 2007)
- Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government. (Jun 2007)
- Voted NO on building a fence along the Mexican border. (Sep 2006)
- Sponsored comprehensive immigration reform, without amnesty. (May 2005)
- Provide funding for social services for noncitizens. (May 2006)
- Rated 0% by USBC, indicating an open-border stance. (Dec 2006)
I’m not saying that Sen. Lieberman is a terrible person or a flaming left-wing libnut. He is a middle to left Democrat. Don’t believe me? Let’s ask Sen. Harry Reid.
But Reid said he would continue to resist calls from the Democratic Party’s base to strip Lieberman, now an independent, of his Senate positions for his disloyalty.
“All my close votes, he’s always with me, whether it’s the budget or energy issues,” Reid said. “No matter what it is, he’s always with us. He just does not vote right on Iraq. … Why would I want to throw away a good vote?“
That is my point. Sen. Lieberman is a Democrat, sides with Democrats and votes with Democrats. Harry Reid is the Majority Leader of the Senate because of Joe Lieberman.
If John McCain does pick him to be his running mate, it will be a slap in the face to every citizen and office holder that is a Republican.
Just say no to Joe.
Texas and US Lag Unlikely Player in Nuclear Energy
This morning’s Wall Street Journal piece on nuclear energy by William Tucker is one of the most cogent yet easy to understand stories I’ve seen on the virtues of nuclear energy and the arguments of nuclear opponents. Money quotes:
While we may be at a turning point, one enormous question still hangs over this revival of nuclear power in the U.S.: Who is going to pay for it?…. the capital will have to be raised from Wall Street. But not many investors are willing to put up $5 billion to $10 billion for a project that could become engulfed by 10 to 15 years of regulatory delay — as occurred during the 1980s.
Of course, the inevitable “regulatory delay”. Who can blame investors for not wanting to fork over $10B of of hard-won money on the vague hope that some regulatory bureaucrats will get off their keister in time to get a decent ROI. I’m all for proper environmental protections, but does it take 15 years to get those issues figured out? Surely somebody, somewhere in the world has figured out how to responsibly handle nuclear waste and accelerate their nuclear energy development.
BREAKING: SCOTUS rules 2nd Amendment protects individual rights
by Matt Bramanti · 06/26/2008 9:20 amAny minute now, the Supreme Court will release its ruling on D.C v. Heller. In the meantime, here are all the documents you could ever want regarding the case.
Here’s a quick history. In 2003, six Washington, D.C. residents sued the District, claiming that D.C.’s ban on handgun ownership is illegal. The court dismissed the lawsuit. The residents appealed, and the appellate court found the law to be unconstitutional. The district appealed to the Supreme Court.
UPDATE: Heller was affirmed. The gun ban has been ruled unconstitutional. SCOTUSblog has more:
The Court has released the opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), on whether the District’s firearms regulations – which bar the possession of handguns and require shotguns and rifles to be kept disassembled or under trigger lock – violate the Second Amendment. The ruling below, which struck down the provisions in question, is affirmed.
Justice Scalia wrote the opinion. Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg. We will provide a link to the decision as soon as it is available.
UPDATE: Here’s Justice Scalia’s opinion, writing for the majority. Some quotes:
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditional lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or
laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.
Assuming that Heller is not disqualified from the exercise of Second Amendment rights, the District must permit him to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home.
Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.
We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
It is so ordered.
UPDATE:
In interpreting this text, we are guided by the principle that “[t]he Constitution was written to be understood by the voters; its words and phrases were used in their normal and ordinary as distinguished from technical meaning.”
In 1848, Karl Marx wrote this:
The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.
Yesterday, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) said this:
“If there’s any seriousness about what some of our Republican colleages are saying here in the House and elsewhere about improving the number of refineries, then maybe they’d be willing to have these refineries owned publicly, owned by the people of the United States, so that the people of the United States can determine how much of the product is refined and put out on the market. To me that sounds like a good idea.”
Nothing yet on MSNBC.
UPDATE: MSNBC confirms:
WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday, NBC News said. He was 58.
Drudge says he collapsed while recording in Washington.
A cancerous brain tumor caused the seizure Sen. Edward M. Kennedy suffered over the weekend, doctors said Tuesday in a grim diagnosis for one of American politics’ most enduring figures.
Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma.
Malignant gliomas are a type of brain cancer diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year — and the most common type among adults. It’s a starting diagnosis: How well patients fare depends on what specific tumor type is determined by further testing.
Average survival can range from less than a year for very advanced and aggressive types — such as glioblastomas — or to about five years for different types that are slower growing.
I’m certainly no fan of Ted Kennedy, but I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. Here’s hoping he recovers.
As you sit there, drinking your coffee, I know what you’re saying to yourself:
“I really enjoy this mug, but I wish it wasn’t so inexpensive and durable. It would also be nice if it bore the name of my dead-last choice for President.”
Well, you’re in luck. Presidential hopeful John McCain has unveiled a line of environmentally responsible merchandise, including this little gem:
Go Green McCain Travel Mug with New Recycle Logo
Molded with up to 100% Recycled Material & an Enhanced Biodegradability Additive
It’s just like a normal mug, only twice as expensive, and it’s specifically built not to last! Everybody wins!
Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Small Town America! You’re a bunch of gun-toting religious-zealot racist xenophobe protectionist yahoos!
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Yeah, that’ll win ‘em over.
To see the typical rich white folks Obama uttered these clever insights to, take a look at ZombieTime’s excellent coverage.
The always spot-on Iowahawk has this exclusive from “Kristen’s” press conference:
New York - At a hastily scheduled morning press conference at the headquarters of New York’s exclusive Emperors Club prostitution ring, high priced call girl “Kristen” announced that she would temporarily step aside in the wake of charges that she had engaged in sex with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
“I made a serious mistake and betrayed the trust of my co-workers, my many clients, and my pimps,” she said in a quiet voice cracking with emotion. “I will be taking a leave of absence to earn their forgiveness, and redeem myself in the eyes of the entire expensive whore community.”
The embattled prostitute did not mention Spitzer by name, and stopped short of offering an official resignation. But longtime sex industry insiders say that it will be difficult for Kristen to return to her post in light of mounting federal wiretap evidence that she had sexually serviced the Governor on at least two occasions.
Read the whole thing.
[Hat-tip: FasterNU426]
What did you do the night before Valentine’s Day? Make dinner reservations? Call your favorite florist?
Not Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-N.Y.). He spent the evening banging a call girl:
ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.
Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 after inquiries from the Times.
Mr. Spitzer, a first term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform an end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.
Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.
But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.
The governor’s travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13.
When he’s not washing baby powder off himself before his wife gets home, Spitzer spends his time taking on The Really Big Issues, like the horrifying practice of executives making money.
In Monday’s episode, titled “Aftertaste”, the medium (“Allison DuBois,” played by Patricia Arquette) suspects an ex-POW Arizona state senator is involved in a murder she sees in her dreams. Through a series of psychic flashbacks, she discovers that the senator (“Jed Garrity,” played by Gregory Itzin), as a young Army captain held by the North Vietnamese, proposed to his cellmates that they kill and eat a dying American soldier rather than starve to death. “Garrity” drew the short straw and committed the actual murder himself by strangling the dying soldier.
Next up, corporate executive “Rick Caney” will ascend to the vice-presidency on a steady diet of puppy smoothies.
Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced Tuesday by a City Council committee.
Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of “self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width,” after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park.
Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith (28th) said the ban is part of a desperate effort to stop what he called “the most destructive force” in Chicago neighborhoods.
“We need to use every measure that we possibly can to stop it because it is destroying our kids,” he said.
Yeah, I’m sure that’ll work.
Next up, Chicago will stop the DWI problem by banning glassware, the kidnapping problem by banning car trunks, and the bank-robbery problem by banning big canvas sacks with dollar signs on them.
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