Words o' the day: "Inartful" and "Overheated"

Well, Obama's campaign has been calling his various verbal gaffes "inartful" and "overheated."

Others just call them "lies." As I see it, this Democrat is just another pandering politician, cut from the same cloth as the Clintons.

Democrats mythboat McCain

Wesley Clark, auditioning for the role of Dick Cheney in an Obama administration, stated:

[McCain] hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall...

SCHIEFFER: Can I just interrupt you? I have to say, Barack Obama hasn't had any of these experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

CLARK: I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.

As opposed to serving as a failed "community organizer"?

Clark's pathetic attack can't be called swiftboating since it has no basis in fact.

So I call it "mythboating".

Picking up the meme, hard left socialists like the ill-named AmericaBlog are asking the critical, salient questions on policy. Like:

Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?

It's not "nice" to ask the question, but it's actually a pretty good question. Yes, we all know that John McCain was captured and tortured in Vietnam (McCain won't let you forget). A lot of people don't know, however, that McCain made a propaganda tape for the enemy while he was in captivity. Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief? It's not like McCain rose to the level of general or something. He's a vet. We get it. But simply being a vet, as laudable as it is, doesn't really tell you much about someone's qualifications for being commander in chief...

Shhh... please ignore the fact that this very same rocket scientist fervently believed John Kerry's four months in 'Nam qualified him for CINC.

But this can't possibly be an organized mythboating by Obama's campaign: only seven prominent Democrats have attacked McCain's war record.

And Clark is a member of Obama's senior advisory staff. But that must be a coincidence.

A secular era dawns in Egypt

The Daily News of Egypt:

Tens of people spanning the social, ideological and religious spectrum gathered Sunday to discuss a new anti-discrimination and equal opportunity initiative proposed by lawyer and member of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) Mona Zulfakar... The meeting was held at the premises of the Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination (EARD) movement.

[Despite the optimistic discussion], the Sunday seminar participants questioned the possibility of passing or applying such a law. “The main problem in Egypt is that discrimination is the responsibility of the State,” argued Cairo Institute for Human Rights Director Bahie Eddin Hassan.

“It is not just about companies refusing to hire Christians, Muslims or women. The State will likely be one of the entities paying large fines if this law is applied,” said the Head of EARD movement Mounir Megahed. “For example, Christians are not allowed to join Al-Azhar University though it encompasses secular colleges having nothing to do with Islamic studies.”

Coptic secular intellectual Kamal Zakher pointed out another obstacle to applying such an initiative... “To top these challenges is Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution which dictates that the State’s source of legislation is Islam,” he said. “We have plenty of laws but the problem is how they can be put into force.”

Well, at least there actually is a movement inside Egypt pushing for secular government and an ongoing discussion. That's a tangible improvement.

I blame Bush's hegemonic policies.

Image: HOJ

Newspaper Correction o' the Day

The Guardian (UK):

[The story] "The Toxic Texan's foreign policy doctrine Will Endure", page 26, June 20, was referring to, not endorsing, the position taken by others when it used the term "apostate Muslim" in relation to Barack Obama. Obama has never been a Muslim.

Well, Obama's brother may have been mistaken about his sibling's religious background, but please: no one question the Guardian's label for George W. Bush.

If shifting positions is 'change', Obama's your man!

Chart helpfully provided by the AP.


Hat tips: Jammie Wearing Fool and Larwyn

Update: Krauthammer: "Obama may make Clintons look scrupulous"

Democratic divisions still linger, even after "Unity"

Don't ask why I've been trolling The New Republic, but suffice it to say there's some trouble brewing for Barack Obama among certain factions in organized labor.

At the AFL-CIO meeting this week that endorsed Barack Obama, one union president, Thomas Buffenbarger of the Machinists, voted “present.” In a letter to his members, Buffenbarger explained:

"...hope and change are not antidotes to the economic pressures blue-collar families face... In the Machinists Union, a predominately blue-collar union, the impression continues to grow that Senator Barack Obama could care less about folks like us. At the plant closings in Galesburg [where a Maytag plant moved its operations to Mexico] and Herrin, in llinois and during our fight to save pensions at United Airlines, he never lifted a finger to help our members... In phone calls to IAM members, Senator Obama never broke 18 percent in any state. He came in third, often a distant third, behind Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain. And our union made over a quarter million calls to its members."

...Buffenbarger was also miffed when the Obama campaign failed to respond to phone calls this Spring asking him to denounce the Pentagon decision to buy a new tanker fleet from Northrop Grumman, working in cooperation with AIRBUS, rather than from the Chicago-based Boeing company. The Northrop-Grumman planes would have been built partly in Toulouse, France. During the Washington primary in March, Obama had initially offered a tepid criticism of the decision, but at a town meeting in Wilkes Barre during the Pennsylvania primary, Obama had appeared to defend the Pentagon award to Northrop-Grumman and Airbus, infuriating the Machinists whose workers would have built the planes.

The Economist spells out a key point curiously ignored by our beloved mainstream media.

Many union members are culturally conservative whites who might be expected to vote Republican, especially now that Mr Obama, rather than Hillary Clinton, is the Democratic nominee.

Further, reports the Guardian:

...while Clinton and Obama were willing to put the past aside yesterday, resolving the divisions between their followers could prove far more challenging - even for professional politicians.

Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic candidate for Senate who spent the day campaigning with Michelle Obama on Thursday, could not entirely bury her sense of grievance at Clinton's loss. Shaheen had been one of Clinton's most powerful supporters in New Hampshire. "I know what it's like to make an important policy statement only to have the media report what you are wearing or what your hairstyle is," Shaheen told the crowd in Unity.

Some diehard Clinton camp followers say they will never get over their disappointment and have founded online groups like Puma, or Party Unity My Ass. Puma's followers are calling on women to support McCain, or stay home.

Puma's website can be found here, should you wish to lend your support.

Obama's birth certificate issue: resolved

Updated 18:30: I think I've found the signature block on the Obama document. See updates below.

One of the 'smears' Barack Obama has been fighting relates to his "missing" birth certificate. The Obama campaign apparently provided the Daily Kos site with a high-resolution scan of his Hawaiian "certification of live birth".

After numerous interviews with Hawaiian officials, a variety of media sources determined that the scan looked genuine with the exception of a couple of seemingly missing elements: a signature and embossed seal, both of which should appear on the reverse side and "bleed through".

A woman named Patricia DeCosta offered media sources with a copy of her birth certificate, which demonstrated that the signature and seal should indeed be visible.

When I overlaid the two certificates, the candidate's certificate matched up almost precisely with DeCosta's.

Furthermore, one of Pamela Geller's readers did some heavy-lifting with Photoshop and discovered what appears to be an embossed seal on the back of Obama's certificate.

I was startled because I had carefully reviewed the image weeks ago and not seen any clue of a signature or embossed seal. I spent some time this morning playing with various graphics settings until I was able to tease a similar image out of the scan.

It certainly appears to be legitimate.

Obama's birth certificate is most likely genuine and therefore a non-issue. Given that, conservatives and independents need to target the uber-liberal candidate for his outrageous policy statements, serial fabrications, and rapid-fire flip-flops that make John Kerry look like John Adams.

Update: Let's examine the signature block on the DeCosta document.

Note that stamp with three lines of text and a formulaic "signature".

Now let's examine the bottom of the Obama document.


Granted, it's murky, but I'm pretty certain the same elements appear at the bottom edge.

Linked by: American Thinker. Thanks! Hat tip: Larwyn

Cool site o' the day

Check out John Daly's Still Waiting for Greenhouse.

And you'll especially want to read his article "Climate Change through Color Change."

Behind the scenes: the secret negotiations between Barack and Hillary

In order to quell the discord in the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama arrived at a deal this week that would enable them to more effectively collaborate. The efforts to unify the Democratic factions stem from a groundswell of support within the party for John McCain (see: "Prominent Democrats Will Lead McCain's New Hampshire Organization" and "Over 100 Anti-Obama Websites Set Up By Hillary Supporters").

It is not entirely clear what sort of negotiations occurred behind the scenes to enable the two foes to arrive at a peace settlement. But Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle discovered the only known transcript of the first meeting between the winning and losing Democratic candidates.


Hillary, thanks so much for coming to meet me in private.

As you know, many of your supporters have pledged their allegiance to John McCain and the GOP.

Hillary, what will it take to get you to unify the party?

Barack, thanks for entertaining me here at your beautiful Jeremiahisport compound.

I've only got two demands, I mean, requests.

First, I want 21 million dollars to bring my campaign fund out of the red.

Second, if I'm chosen as your nominee for Veep, I want my own cool, fake vice presidential seal.

You know how you have vero possumus on yours?

Yes, it means "in truth, we are able."

Yeah, I read it on the Puffington Roast. I want the latin Secundum verum, nos reperio cameltoe on mine.

You've got it.

Err, Barack, why is a hotdog standing in the corner?

Who me?

Isn't that a member of your posse?

Hell no! I thought it was one of your bodyguards in disguise!

Security! Get that hot dog!

It's running away!

Take it down, take it down!

**KA-BLAM!!** **KA-BLAM!!**

Got it!

Bill Clinton?

Why, Bill, why?

I wanted to know if you were having an affair... I wanna be president again, where everyone'll lissen to me... I been out of the loop for so long....

But why in a hotdog suit?

I thought no one'd reco-nize me...

Sleepy... gettin' sleepy... I'm slippin' away... Jennifer, I'm comin' home...

Oh, the humanity!

Does this mean I can be VP now?

YouTube: Disgusting Liberal Blogger Spits on Veterans' Graves

Via Infidel Bloggers Alliance: this is one sick puppy.

I'm literally walking on the graves of these so-called heroes... I don't know them but they're scumbags...

I only have one thing to say to Private Toland, (spits) I spit on your grave...

People like him feasted on our tax dollars!

It's hard to tell whether Crook is just another insane liberal or a canny, self-promoting "progressive" out to pitch more books aimed at the MoveOn.org sycophants.

Either way, we mustn't forget they support the troops!