Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Obama public relations people work their magic


Politico ("Muslims barred from picture at Obama event") and Fox ("Women in headscarves banned from Obama photo-op") report on the inclusiveness of the Obama public relations machine.

Two Muslim women were prohibited from sitting behind the podium at Barack Obama’s Monday rally in Detroit, apparently so their headscarves would not appear in photographs with him, according to a report Wednesday in the Politico.com.

The Washington-based Web site reported that Obama campaign volunteers said the women could not wear the hijabs behind the candidate, though they gave different reasons for the rule.

One volunteer said that one of the women could not be seen on TV with Obama “because of the political climate and what’s going on in the world and what’s going on with Muslim Americans,” according to the Muslim woman’s friend.

The other volunteer gave a less political explanation to the other woman, according to the article, claiming nobody with any kind of headpiece could sit behind the stage.

Inclusion! Hope! Change!*

*Inclusion, hope and change not included in an actual Obama administration.

Barack O'Carter: anything but oil


Let me see if I get this straight.

No drilling. No nuclear. No coal. No refineries. Oh, and a bunch of new "Windfall profits" taxes on energy companies.

While alternative energy sources remain an admirable goal, they are decades away from becoming serious alternatives to oil.

...If we lost all oil and gas products tomorrow, ...the world would simply collapse. There would be an immense depression beyond anything we saw in the 1930s -- the economy would go back to a primitive state. There would simply not be a functioning society. It would be as if there had been nuclear war, minus the casualties from blast and radiation... In a word, we cannot as a modern society or even a modestly industrial society live without oil and gas. That is, [it is not] a luxury or a narcotic. [It is] a basic necessity of life, as basic as almost any commodity there is.

Does the name Barack O'Carter ring a bell?


Linked by: Gateway Pundit. Thanks!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

"Hi, John McCain. This is Alex."


Hi, John McCain. This is Alex.

He's my first.

And I pray every day he's smarter than I am.

Because when you said you would stay in Iraq for a hundred years...

I was afraid you meant Alex.

But then I remembered we don't have a draft.

*Sigh* - Like I said, I hope my son is smarter than I am.

'Cuz, maybe then, he won't be making union wages working as a mouthpiece for MorOn.org like his Mama.




Update: Don Surber suggests Alex's side of the dialogue:

"Hi John McCain."
"This is Alex."
"I realize you cannot pick your family."
"But sheesh."
"What a dingbat I have for a mother."
"She's a loon."
"Single mom."
"Eats seaweed."
"Calls the dog her 'animal companion.'"
"Doesn't bathe because soap is made from oil and she wants to reduce her carbon footprint."
"You can see why she's a single mom."
"Fortunately, Dad was a regular guy."
"An Alex P. Keaton type."
"Maybe that's how I got my name."
"Look, about this Iraq thing."
"Can I sign up now?"
"I know I'm little and all and way underage."
"But you gotta save me. She's a loon."

Won't you please help? If we can save even one child...

Update II: OMFG, Don Surber adds another classic song to the mix. I wonder if the peaceniks at MorOn.org have a contract out on Mr. Surber...?

Yup: Don Surber, Memeorandum and Wonkette are all cracking me up.

Idea ripped off from: Larwyn

I'm offering this television commercial to the GOP free of charge


For twenty years, Barack Obama sat in the pews of Trinity Church...

...while his Pastor railed against America...

...visited Libya's dictator Gaddafi, the mastermind behind the Pan Am 103 terrorist bombing...

...honored notorious racist Louis Farrakhan...

...and offered his newsletter and website to the same Hamas terrorists who murdered hundreds of innocents including Americans.

For twenty years, Barack Obama sat in the pews of his church listening to his pastor...

...whom he called his "spiritual adviser", a "mentor", and a "dear friend".

A president has his finger on the red button.

Shouldn't judgment be the first requirement of the job?

Bush says 30,000 troops leaving Iraq next month. AP wonders why no one knows about it.


Funny - I didn't see this headline in the American press. Iraqi news service Aswat Al-Iraq (via Gateway Pundit and Larwyn):

U.S. President George Bush on Monday announced the withdrawal of 30,000 troops by July, highlighting that any further withdrawal of the troops will depend on the security conditions in the country... This came during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London.

In concert with this hidden report, Ace calls attention to an AP article, which wonders why the successes in Iraq are generating scant attention in the U.S.

Signs are emerging that Iraq has reached a turning point. Violence is down, armed extremists are in disarray, government confidence is rising and sectarian communities are gearing up for a battle at the polls rather than slaughter in the streets....

...positive signs are attracting little attention in the United States, where the war-weary public is focused on the American presidential contest and skeptical of talk of success after so many years of unfounded optimism by the war's supporters...

...American deaths last month — 19 including four non-combat fatalities — were the lowest monthly tally of the war. In May 2007, 126 American service members died...

Many Sunni insurgents have stopped fighting and turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, which U.S. commanders say still remains a threat.

Could the main reason that "positive signs are attracting little attention" be that media coverage of Iraq dropped by 90+% while U.S. troops achieved victory?

Nah, that couldn't be it.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Some days, the snark just writes itself


The Telegraph (UK):

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”

For the Clinton administration, that sounds about right.

Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the children’s classic, which says: “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”

Cripes. Try as I might, I can't think of any snark to add to that.

Hat tips: LGF Quick Links and Shiplord Kirel

Obama's "Mideast advisers" set the stage for another bloodbath


Doesn't anyone read history books anymore?

Barack Obama's crack staff of Middle East advisers consist of Dennis Ross and James Steinberg. You may remember the pair: Ross served as President Clinton's lead Mideast negotiator and Steinberg was a deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration.

In January 2004, Jonathan S. Tobin described Ross' stellar track record.

...don't blame Dennis Ross personally for the thousands of lives sacrificed in the name of the peace process that he championed. He didn't plant any of the bombs, and his good intentions are not really in question... [but did] Ross learn anything from these failures? And what, if anything, would he do differently if he got another chance to play the game?

...Ross, the supposed arbiter of peace, sanctioned official whitewashes of the P.A. as it built a corrupt dictatorship intent on fomenting hatred of Israel and carrying on a terror war against its existence, rather than fostering peace... ...everything that Ross and his masters did during their years in power had convinced Arafat that they would never turn their backs on him, no matter what outrages the Palestinians committed.

No amount of violence or bad will exhibited by the Arabs would deter either Bush I or Clinton via their envoy Ross from pressuring Israel to give more and more. Sold a program of "land for peace," the Israelis got "land for terror" instead... ...it was Ross who convinced the killers that they would face no penalties for their crimes...

I'm physically disgusted to share a surname with this chump.

Let's not forget the Clinton administration's other accomplishments.

...the Clinton administration's effort in 1998 to open a dialogue with Tehran's former reformist leader, President Mohammad Khatami, was rebuffed and did nothing to retard Iran's pursuit of nuclear technologies.

Sen. McCain believes any attempt to reach out to Iran's current hard-line government, particularly President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, could result in a worse outcome... "Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents as the radicals and hard-liners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability," Sen. McCain said.

Members of Sen. Obama's brain trust, however, draw a different lesson from the Clinton overture. Mr. Ross thinks it illustrates the need to reach out to the right leaders in Tehran, rather then the most public ones. Mr. Ross says Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the only official inside Iran's theocracy with the power to authorize and execute the suspension of Iran's nuclear program and its support for militant groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah...

Well, that's using the phrase "brain trust" loosely.

As for Steinberg, let's not forget the Clinton administration's sparkling record in dealing with terrorism. A brief history of terror attacks prior to 9/11 should be enough to convince an unbiased observer of that administration's repeated failures. And, if not, Sandy Berger's cover-up of Clinton-era activities should sound the alarm claxons.

Put simply, we tried the Ross/Steinberg approach to dealing with Middle East negotiations and terrorist nutjobs. It yielded thousands of dead Americans and the Intifida as an added bonus. Next time, with these same advisers in an Obama administration, we might not get away that clean.

Prepare for the bloodbath.

Update: AJacksonian has the full roster.

They drained the swamp... and found more swamp


I've heard of Name that Party, but this is ridiculous. I scanned dozens of paragraphs trying to find a direct reference to the political affiliation of this sleazebag. I came up dry, which pretty much indicates he's a Democrat.

Clyburn's Earmarks: U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, criticized in the past for using tax dollars to fund pet projects, has set aside at least $6.2 million in federal budgets this decade for projects that could directly benefit his friends and family members, an analysis by The Sun News shows.

The budget appropriations, known as earmarks, include taxpayer dollars for a museum his nephew is helping to design, a community center that runs a program employing his sister-in-law and money for a Columbia wellness center that employs his daughter... A taxpayer watchdog group says the earmarks are such blatant examples of patronage that the House Ethics Committee should investigate them.

Y'think?

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal notes Senator Chris Dodd's sweetheart loan with Countrywide Financial while proposing a $300 billion mortgage rescue.

[Dodd] chairs the very Banking Committee responsible for drafting the laws that govern Countrywide's market. Mr. Dodd is still in denial mode, but so far no one has knocked down the Portfolio.com story that he received discounted loans as part of Countrywide's "Friends of Angelo" program.

...In the week since the Journal revealed this program, the key questions have become clear: What did Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo receive – or think he would receive – in return for the friendly loans to politicians? And what did Mr. Mozilo get – or think he would get – in return for sweetheart loans to Fannie Mae CEOs Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines? Mr. Conrad says he called Mr. Mozilo at the suggestion of Mr. Johnson, a leading and long-time member of the Democratic Beltway establishment.

...But taxpayers should not have to wait for the results of an investigation. Democrats in Congress are trying to pass a bailout for mortgage borrowers and lenders like Countrywide, and they have been holding reform of Fannie Mae and its cousin Freddie Mac hostage to get President Bush to agree. Mr. Dodd is one of the main hostage-takers. It is time he and Mr. Frank dropped this political ransom-taking and finally subjected Fannie and Freddie to tough oversight...

Interesting how Dodd just happened to do business with Countrywide prior to proposing a taxpayer-funded $300 billion mortgage bailout.

If our crack legal watchdogs had an ounce of power, Clyburn and Dodd would be getting introduced to their new cellmates about now. Instead, they'll probably just redistribute billions more of our hard-earned funds into the pockets of themselves and their relatives.

Change!


Linked by: Don Surber. Thanks!

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Bob Beckel bans himself from TV!


• Froma Harrop: Obama's confusing poetry.

• BBC: Gaza voices: a year of Hamas.

• Country Store: Obama's brother Malik says his sibling will be a good president "despite his Muslim background".

Malik must not have gotten the email.

• American Digest: Roll your own Obama Posters!

• American Thinker (J.R. Dunn): Conservatives must not practice the politics of despair:

Let's keep in mind that Obama is merely the latest invincible candidate. We saw another one just recently, one who strode the earth like a colossus, who knew all the tricks, who had an unbeatable organization, an answer for everything, a plan that could not be overturned. A candidate who embodied liberalism as a world-historical force.

That was only last year. Her name was Hillary Clinton.

• LGF: The Audacity of Bob Beckel; and Gateway Pundit has the five-second summary:

Back on June 3, 2008 Bob Beckel told the Fox News audience that a big shoe was about to drop and that it had something to do with Michelle Obama (the dreaded "whitey" tape)... The blogosphere went wild over this rumor he started... Today Beckel said that whoever started that rumor should be banned from television

I'm thinkin' that ban is a heck of an idea.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Iconography of the Shovel


The American Thinker's Ed Lasky notes that the iconography of Barack Obama is just beginning.

We saw it... [with] the bike-riding. Obama at the beach; Obama playing basketball... The campaign will not have to SAY anything; subliminally, it works.

Of course, McCain cannot lift shovels of dirt because of the injuries he was subjected to during his captivity in North Vietnam.

That will not be told.


It just seems the mainstream media has a shorter memory than the American people.

Hat tip: Larwyn
Linked by: Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities. Thanks!

Barack Hussein Erkel threatens to Pop a Cap


Ace o' Spades:

The fighting, fighting nutroots certainly found their candidate in Barack Obama.

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said

Jim Malone would be proud.

Now, it’s a kind of funny thing for him to say at a fundraiser but consider two things.

If a Republican had used a gun metaphor against Obama or any Democrat, the world would have come to an end. The press and the Democrats (pardon the redundancy) would go bats**t crazy about it and my guess is McCain would borrow Obama’s bus to throw the offender under it.

Secondly, it’s great for Obama to talk all tough but there’s the little part about him not being man enough to take up McCain’s joint appearance challenge...

That's why I've taken to calling the erstwhile Democratic candidate Barack Hussein Erkel.

Does something strike you as odd about this man's physique?


Yep, you guessed it. He hasn't been using sunblock and he seems somewhat burned.

This is Jay Cutler, a recent Mr. Olympia winner and Oscar nominee for "Actor who most resembles a child's plastic action figure."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

More from the new neighbor


I don't know if the ACLU Welcome Wagon ever showed up.

The Sky, From Above


Gorgeous photographs of Earth taken during various shuttle missions...

You can find 15 spectacular photos at Boston.com.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Rockwell predicted Obama




Idea ripped from: Vanderleun.

Line o' the day: Obama's next move


Abe Greenwald, writing in Commentary Magazine.

It's clear that Obama and his supporters are guilty of the charge they'd grown accustomed to leveling at the Bush administration: no Iraq foresight. It's true that President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld had not come up with a plan B in the case of strong Iraqi resistance. Obama and Co. have failed to consider what their next move would be in the face of U.S. success.

Flag Day 2008



Atlas has the essential photo album (via Larwyn).

The new neighbor


The Supreme Court really blew this one. Many will die because of this brain-damaged decision.

Top 10 Barack Obama smears you might not have heard before


The Obama campaign has established a web site that attempts to address the smears and urban myths surrounding his upbringing and candidacy. The following list of lesser-known rumors may yet cause Obama's campaign some anguish and hand-wringing.

SMEAR #10. Barack Obama spelled backwards in Urdu yields the phrase "Janet Reno."
TRUTH: It spells "Party Time".

SMEAR #9. At a child's birthday party, Obama beat Barney senseless with a two-by-four and a chain.
TRUTH: Barney had asked Obama to stop smoking at which point the candidate gently escorted the dinosaur out of the room. Any injuries Barney may have sustained were due solely to "falling down the stairs."

SMEAR #8. While growing up in Indonesia, Obama studied to be a professional snakehandler.
TRUTH: Obama studied witchcraft.

SMEAR #7. In 1993, he and spiritual adviser Father Pfleger saw God after doing shots of Windex.
TRUTH: Neither he or Father Pfleger saw God after drinking Windex.

SMEAR #6. Obama killed a man in Reno "just to watch him die."
TRUTH: It was just a hitchhiker who jumped in front of Obama's SUV while he was driving on the berm. And it was in Toledo, not Reno.

SMEAR #5. Obama cheated William Ayers out of $25,000 during a game of Yahtzee.
TRUTH: It was only $5,000 and the game was "Connect:Four".

SMEAR #4. When asked for a campaign donation by Obama, the Dalai Lama responded that he could not contribute money, but "when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."
TRUTH: Obama has never met the Dalai Lama, but once met Richard Gere during a fundraiser for destitute gigolos.

SMEAR #3. Jeremiah Wright, the candidate's controversial pastor, once belonged to The David Duke Book Club.
TRUTH: Wright's check to the club bounced, and therefore he was never a member.

SMEAR #2. Barack Obama still believes in Eliot Spitzer's innocence.
TRUTH: Obama simply does not believe engaging a prostitute is cheating so long as "you don't look her in the eye."

SMEAR #1. If elected President, Obama promised his supporters he will add Che Guevera to Mount Rushmore.
TRUTH: Obama will add Lenin.

Linked by: American Digest. Thanks!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Line o' the day: a faux messianic soothsayer


James Edmund Pennington at The American Thinker via the indispensable American Digest (and the equally indispensable Larwyn):

Our beloved country, freedom's last redoubt, civilization's only power capable of resisting the advancing tide of barbarism, keep of Castle Earth, is seriously contemplating elevating to the presidency Barack Obama, an effete academic weakling, a messianic soothsayer, perfervid followers in tow, who believes America's collective soul is broken and that He has been called to mend it, a caricature Euro Statist whose voting record and public utterances reflect passionate belief in all the discredited far leftist critiques of America (and their attendant fixes), a dreamy naif with a permanently adolescent world view born of lifelong refusal to work in the real world, a thinly disguised leftist revolutionary who for decades eagerly immersed himself in a vile crowd of crypto-Marxists, quislings, racists, domestic terrorists, and antisemites, and who now simply says, calm as you please, he never really shared their views, a twenty-eight carat tyro whose resume of accomplishments would fit neatly on the back of a Visa card, a man whose scary wife (whom the candidate himself seems to fear) dislikes the country that has showered her with great good fortune.

Beautiful.

But "perfervid?" WTF? Dude, buy a spell-checker.