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June 27, 2008

Exclusive: Friday, June 27

Presidential Watch

To hear Obama's words about "white folks," CLICK HERE.

Obama Claims Drilling Would Worsen Our Oil Addiction -

Barack Obama, speaking in Jacksonville Florida last Friday called offshore drilling a gimmick and said it would not lower prices at the pump. Obama instead proposed more taxes as a solution to the problem and a new round of stimulus checks to American consumers... Watch video HERE.

‘The Axis of Idiots'

J.D. Pendry, Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired, J.D. Pendry.com

Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam .. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq .. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam .. You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.

You are America 's ‘AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Read article.

Carlson Pitches Gore for VP: 'Brains, Good Judgment and Experience'

Brent Baker, NewsBusters.org

"The most important reason [Al] Gore should be Vice President is that he's suffered and learned. He has the temperament some of us reach on our death beds," former Time magazine Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson trumpeted in a column posted Thursday on Bloomberg.com. In "Gore Has Right Stuff for Second Turn as No. 2," Carlson effused:

If there's anything we need to rescue us from the last eight years, it's brains, good judgment and experience. Obama has the first two. Gore has all three.

Though on this weekend's Political Capital program on Bloomberg Television she hailed Gore's "presidential timber," she was more restrained than in her column:

If what Obama needs, and I think it's what he needs, somebody of presidential timber, why not get somebody who won the popular presidential vote and who's done everything? And who was right about the Middle East, right about this Iraq war, knows where the lights are in the White House, has gravitas? Read article.

Pivoting to Victory

James Taranto, Online WSJ.com

A Washington Post editorial reports on a meeting between the Post's editors and Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in which Zebari describes a conversation he had with Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee:

The foreign minister said "my message" to Mr. Obama "was very clear. . . . Really, we are making progress. I hope any actions you will take will not endanger this progress." He said he was reassured by the candidate's response, which caused him to think that Mr. Obama might not differ all that much from Mr. McCain. Mr. Zebari said that in addition to promising a visit, Mr. Obama said that "if there would be a Democratic administration, it will not take any irresponsible, reckless, sudden decisions or action to endanger your gains, your achievements, your stability or security. Whatever decision he will reach will be made through close consultation with the Iraqi government and U.S. military commanders in the field."

This confirms the reporting of Al-Hayat, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper, which we noted Friday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reports that Obama, who last set foot in Iraq in 2006, before the surge, "is considering going to Iraq soon to visit with troops and commanders," even though snarly Susan Rice, a top Obama foreign-policy adviser, says that the GOP argument that he should do so is "complete garbage."

Could it be that Obama is planning to pivot?

If so, he would risk alienating those among his supporters who crave defeat in Iraq, either for ideological reasons or out of sheer hatred for George W. Bush. Read article.

Broder: Obama brand damage?

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air.com

David Broder wonders whether Barack Obama has underestimated the damage he has done to his brand through two recent and controversial decisions. Given the relative lack of public record on Obama, Broder argues that he needed to spend his time reinforcing his identification as an agent of reform and change. Instead, by dodging John McCain on town-hall debates and opting out of the public-financing system that he himself supports, he risks permanent damage to a brand he hasn't even fully established with American voters:

McCain benefits from a long-established reputation as a man who says what he believes. His shifts in position that have occurred in this campaign seem not to have damaged that aura. Obama is much newer to most voters, less familiar and more dependent on the impressions he is only now creating.

Broder wonders whether Obama has built sufficient trust with the American electorate to begin on this series of reversals. Dick Morris last week referred to this as "political antibodies", which candidates build up from a long period of public service. Voters get to know them from years of action, and that gives politicians the ability to be flexible, especially as circumstances change. For instance, most voters understand McCain's shift on off-shore drilling, because circumstances have not just changed but have made life more difficult for Americans across the board.

In contrast, Obama has almost no public record at all - no legislative track record, no executive experience, no foreign-policy experience, and no military experience. He has not built public trust, but has become popular through his promises of reform. He claims the mantle of crusader, someone who will courageously attack Beltway business as usual and bring a new era of government excellence as a result.

Broder, I think, misses the main point why his examples will resonate harshly against Obama. It's not the trust; it's the lack of testicular fortitude. Obama once bragged that he would debate McCain "anywhere, anytime" on foreign policy, but then decided that he could only do that on July 4th, when no one would be watching. Read article.

Bless the Speculator

John Stossel, Townhall.com

"I believe there needs to be a thorough and complete investigation of speculators to find out whether speculation has been going on and, if so, how much it has affected the price of a barrel of oil. There's a lot of things out there that need a lot more transparency and, consequently, oversight."

Those are the words of presidential candidate John McCain. This man is the Republican?

There's more.

"I am very angry, frankly, at the oil companies not only because of the obscene profits they've made but at their failure to invest in alternate energy to help us eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. They're making huge profits and that happens, but not to say, 'We're in this so we can over time eliminate America's dependence on foreign oil,' I think is an abrogation of their responsibilities as citizens."

Let me get this straight. A potential president of a putatively free country scolds companies for "obscene profits," failure to invest in competing products, and therefore irresponsible citizenship. Why? Is McCain running for national economic commissar?

This is not the first time McCain has displayed what I would call an anti-capitalist mentality. In an early presidential debate he countered former businessman Mitt Romney's claim to superior executive experience by saying, "I led the largest squadron in the U.S. Navy, not for profit but for patriotism".

Why the put down of profit? Read article.

Howard Dean tells Muslims to run for office to achieve their goals

Infdels Are Cool.com

Thanks, Dean...Typical Leftist-Islamic alliance. This is the Enemy Within, folks.

He said these things at the ISNA conference. The ISNA is of course the a front group for the Islamic Muslim Brotherhood which has been named an an un-indicted co-conspirator in the federal terror trial of the Holy Land foundation.

So we have the leader of the DNC speaking at a conference of radical Muslims telling them to "run for political office"

Blind ignorance will get you killed... Read article.

You Need a Weatherman To Tell Which Way Obama Will Go

Mary Grabar, Townhall.com

When I heard that a major part of Barack Obama's resume included a stint as a "community organizer," I asked myself what the term meant.

It's sort of like "activist."

I had always wondered what the job description for "activist" was. How do you apply? Where do you apply? It was unlike any of the jobs I had had, whether it was pouring beers, serving fish fries, cleaning toilets, pruning in snow-filled vineyards, or marking grammatical errors on freshman essays.

I imagine if someone like Barack Obama had come to Beach Street in Rochester, New York, in the 1960s where my neighbors relaxed on their lawn chairs on front porches and stoops after a hard day in the factory, and said, "Hi, my name is Barry Obama, and I am a community organizer," the unanimous response would have been, "A what?"

"A community organizer. I've come to organize you, your community."

This would have immediately raised suspicions.

So the term "activist" was a foreign one for me. I only started hearing it in graduate school in relation to what we as teachers of freshman composition were expected to do: train our charges for "social activism." They said that right there at the orientations and in the books. We were to pass on the tradition of the tenured professors who themselves had been "activists" in the day: burning draft cards, carrying placards, trashing deans' offices, giving inflammatory speeches, and sometimes throwing bombs. They would speak proudly about how they brought about "social justice." Read article.

Obama's Dubious Crime Excuses

George F. Will, NY Post.com

Listening to political talk requires a third ear that hears what is not said. To day's near silence about crime probably is evidence of social improvement. For many reasons, including better policing and more incarceration, Americans feel, and are, safer.

The New York Times has not recently repeated such amusing headlines as "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling" (1997), "Prison Population Growing Although Crime Rate Drops" (1998), "Number in Prison Grows Despite Crime Reduction" (2000) and "More Inmates, Despite Slight Drop in Crime" (2003).

If crime revives as an issue, it will be through liberal complaints about something that has reduced the salience of the issue - the incarceration rate.

Any revival will be awkward for Barack Obama. Liberalism likes victimization narratives and the related assumption that individuals are blank slates on which "society" writes. Hence liberals locate the cause of crime in flawed social conditions that liberalism supposedly can fix.

Last July, Obama said "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities." Actually, more than twice as many black men 18-24 are in college as there are in jail. Read article.

An Open Letter To Senator John McCain

Lee Ellis, Conservative Truth.org

Dear Senator McCain:

As a supporter, a life-long Republican, and also a service-connected disabled American veteran (WWII), I am planning now how I should vote in November. Obviously I desire, as do my friends, to vote for a conservative Republican.

First, let me congratulate and thank you for your announcement to ask Congress to lift the ban on federal control of off-shore drilling. Many states will welcome this ability. At the same time, it is even more important for the federal government to encourage additional underground drilling. I have been disappointed to see you side with the Democrats and the pseudo-environmentalists who prevent this country from reaching the tremendous amount of oil under our soil, especially when we have more oil underground here than Saudi Arabia has there.

Just to hear you say, "I would no sooner drill in ANWR than I would in the Grand Canyon" is shocking. Such words imply that we voters are unaware of our geography or that we lack knowledge about our country. You have to be aware, as are we, that thousands visit the Grand Canyon daily to admire its beauty, while no one in his or her right mind vacations in ANWR, especially in the winter when the temperature can reach minus 70 degrees without the wind chill and the oil rigs would do their drilling. You must also be aware that there is no oil under the Grand Canyon, yet there are millions of barrels under ANWR.

Oil is not everywhere, but we do know there is oil in Alaska, the Colorado shale, the coal gasification in Montana and off our American shores. Yet our federal government does nothing about this nor does any candidate even promise to take strong action if elected.

We need a future President and Congressional members who understand these facts and who are willing to place America first, and above political power and greed. Read article.

Anti-Americanism Is Mostly Hype

Fouad Ajami, Online WSJ.com

The Pew survey tells us that some foreign precincts show a landslide victory for Barack Obama. France leads the pack; fully 84% of those following the American campaign are confident Mr. Obama will do the right thing in foreign policy, compared with 33% who say that about John McCain. There are similar results in Germany, and a closer margin in Britain. The populations of Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan have scant if any confidence in either candidate.

If there is enthusiasm for Barack Obama on foreign shores, his rise to fame and power must be a tribute to the land that has made this possible. Where else would a boy of marginality and relative poverty find his way to the peak of political life? Certainly not in his father's Kenya, where the tribal origins of the Obamas would have determined young Barack's life-chances. In an Arab world hemmed in by pedigree, where rulers bequeath power to their sons and the lot of the sons is invariably that of the fathers, the tale of Obama is fantasy.

There are lines, and barriers, of race which bedevil Arab lands, and they will be there awaiting a President Obama should he prevail in November. Consider a recent speech by Libya's erratic ruler, Moammar Gadhafi, to his countrymen.

He said he feared that Mr. Obama, as a "black man," might succumb to an "inferiority complex" if he were to come to power. "This is a great menace because Obama might turn out to be more white than the whites, exaggerating his persecution and disdain of blacks. The statements of our Kenyan brother with an American nationality about Jerusalem, and his support for Israelis, and his slighting of the Palestinian people is either a measure of his ignorance of international politics or a lie perpetrated on the Jews in the course of an election campaign."

It is one thing to rail against the Pax Americana. But after the pollsters are gone, the truth of our contemporary order of states endures. We live in a world held by American power - and benevolence. Nothing prettier, or more just, looms over the horizon. Read article.

Vero Possumus (Free Speech Road Kill)

Bruce Kesler, Democracy-Project.com

Barack Obama's new "presidential" seal declares "Vero Possumus." As pointed out here, those familiar with possums would translate that as ""It's the truth, I'm lying like a possum!" It's more like "laying," but free speech is the road kill.

The leading "progressive" campaign law attorney, Bob Bauer, now serves Barack Obama.

Obama has a good advocate in that respect, Obama's online fundraising outstripping former efforts.

One wouldn't expect Bauer to, then, reflect that since all the law's barriers to free speech haven't stopped candidates from tapping seamy sources, that only leaves the independent citizen at a speech disadvantage since they can't afford to deal with the complexities.

Two critics from the Right, however, are more forthcoming. Former Federal Election Commission chair Brad Smith points out, more even-handedly,

... both major party candidates seem determined to make one thing clear - this election is not about you, your hopes, your ambitions, your desires for government policy. No, this election is all about them, and their plans for you.... Read article.

A Socialist by Any Other Name . . .

Selwyn Duke, SelwynDuke.typepad.com

One of the consequences of being right in an age of lies is that it brands you as a radical. Remember that being an extremist doesn't mean you're wrong, but simply that your views deviate greatly from those of the mainstream. If you say that 2+2=4 in a land where everyone else insists it's 5, you'll be labeled a radical. The same is true if you assert that a certain society of men is full of wolves when everyone else believes they're sheep.

Now, for years I've been telling people that most of our Democrats are essentially socialists; sure, either they won't admit it publicly or aren't fully aware of it themselves (quite common; self knowledge is often sorely lacking, especially among leftists). It was a message as hard to relate as it is for many to accept, as it renders you something less than the kind of "credible" commentator who gets invitations to appear on Fox News (bigot Opio Sokoni was on O'Reilly last week). But that message now goes down a little easier with the recent Democrat proposal to nationalize oil refineries.

Winston Churchill observed this decades ago when he said:

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Read article.

Small business owner seeks professional advice; CPA concludes she can't afford Obama

Obama Wtf.Blog.com

I have made up my mind whom I will vote for (should Hillary not be the nominee). I too could not see myself voting republican, I have spent the last 7 yrs in tears over Bush. But I am voting McCain for several reasons.

1. Its a protest vote, I feel my vote will be more powerful against Obama.

2. If not now for Hillary then 2012.

3. He is not McSame, do check out their website.

4. Tax cuts hmmm let me address this. We have had a small business for the past 18years. When the housing market slowed so did our income. We went from a debt free life (exception mort.) to the most debt we have had in our lives. My husband had to close his doors and take a job fours hours from home.

We, of course are trying to get my husband back here and restart the business. We sat down with our CPA running through the numbers, do we move, do we stay, is this worth it etc.... Anyway she told me that if Obama gets in our "small business will pay between 25-30% more in tax". If that is the case then we cannot be in business for ourselves.

5. I feel McCain will keep our country safer than Obama.

6. McCain is a patriot with boys serving in the military, that counts for something. I am sure he wants them safe and home.

7. Michelle Obama keeps telling everyone on the stump that when Barack is in office.

Read article.

Is Obama Teflon?

Morris & McGann, Vote.com

It's been a rough two weeks for Barack Obama, but his poll numbers remain strong and unchanged. Is he a Teflon candidate?

Consider what's happened since he clinched the Democratic nomination and Hillary "suspended" her campaign: Read article.