The hussy in question:

Story here:
http://tinyurl.com/627m9s

Click here to read our original report on the Edwards love child scandal from December 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/25utml

Black Education

R. Emmett Tyrrell: The Prophet Obama -- Not Funny

His speeches become a series of gaffes, allowing us to rechristen the affable senator the gaffable senator...

Obama Trip Abroad Shows How Election’s Being ‘Internationalized’

Cindy McCain and the Smell of Death

Michelle Obama is the direct opposite. She is a hate-filled, self-centered, bitter woman who is not grateful for the blessings she has had just by being born in this wonderful, free country. Instead, she has admitted that she was never proud of her country until her husband's success in his run for POTUS.

Obama Backs UN Bill to Disarm Americans

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-s2433/show

Handgun permit fears fail to materialize

Obama running for president of the world

Britons, French, Germans Solidly Back Obama

"This is all about world government...get used to hearing how Obama polls in Europe...real soon."

National Servitude

Obama's Foreign Contributions: Who is Ronald Hickel?

John and I, in continuing to pour over these documents in the old fashion way, tedious line by tedious line, have found dozens, literally dozens of instances in which people have clearly made contributions over the applicable $2300 per individual limit, without consequence or direction to the Obama campaign to disgorge such illegally gotten funds. The documentation is on adjacent lines right before the F.E.C. staff ......

The F.E.C. has simply been trampled by the Obama campaign.

This first and primary issue concerns “bundling,” the aggregation of small individual contributions, submitted for verification for legality by the Obama campaign to the F.E.C. John and I touched on this issue in my previous post, “Obama's Foreign Contributions: Who is Jeanne McCurdy,” in which the bundling tactics of an Obama fund raiser named Jeanne McCurdy was disclosed.

We documented almost $800 worth of campaign contributions which simply cannot be documented by anybody as to where they came from, or from whom, or whether the persons were American citizens or perhaps from person with interests violently opposed to American interests.

Atlas reader Gadget doc upped us by a significant margin, and documented that a Rebecca Kurth contributed $3,137.38 to the Obama Campaign in 112 donations, including 34 separate donations recorded on 30-April-2008. Gadget doc said another $500,000 came into the campaign via “not employed” people, an estimate John and I can attest to, after looking over the records we have.

Look at this history of anonymous donors from April of 2008, over just 3 pages of F.E.C. records. In contributions from $1 to $250 --over $800 came into the Obama coffers completely without attribution, and in a manner in which the sources can never be verified. The F.E.C. did absolutely nothing to regulate this.

We continue to analyze Obama's foreign contributions by

a.) payments by contributors way over the limits, and

b.) lack of oversight on the part of the F.E.C. There is no indication the F.E.C ever did anything about it: the entries go from pp. 89-90.Tabulations first, and then the entries from the FEC document are at the bottom of the post.

Here, for example are the tabulations for how much a Karen Olsen, a free lance interpreter from Geneva contributed to Obama's campaign, and how much a Canadian management consultant from Toronto named Ronald Hickel got away with. In a way, Mr. Hickel's misdeeds were even more brazen, as he did it in a number of days and it is listed on contiguous entries on the FEC files. Amazing. Wildly amazing that it would not attract any attention: one would think the goverment would have computers that would sound alarms on stuff like this.

Karen Olson, geneva, switzerland

date. amount.

02-feb-08 $ 500.00

17-jan-08 $ 100.00 (minus)(-) redesignation from

02-feb-08 $ 500.00

30-apr-08 $ 437.38 (minus)(-) a refund *** (the distinction between "redesignation" & "refund" is important)

17-jan-08 $ 100.00

02-feb-08 $ 500.00

02-apr-07 $ 115.79

16-apr-07 $ 50.00

16-may-07 $ 50.00

18-sep-07 $1,000.00

17-nov-07 $ 100.00

12-nov-07 $2,300.00

16-dec-07 $ 180.49

12-dec-07 $ 106.12 (minus)(-) redesignation from

17-dec-07 $ 100.00

17-nov-07 $ 100.00 (minus)(-) redesignation from

17-oct-07 $ 100.00

12-nov-07 $1,285.10 redesignation to

12-dec-07 $ 106.12 redesignation to

26-sep-07 $ 185.10

17-oct-07 $ 100.00

12-dec-07 $ 106.00

12-nov-07 $1,285.00 (minus)(-) redesignation from

total $7,041.22

Now, there may be some quibble on this, but I did not subtract the $100 from 17 Jan-08, nor the 106.12 from 12-Dec-07, nor the 1,285.00 from the total, as it appears to me that these are not really subtractions but switching the accounts. I did subtract the 437.38 from the total, as it was refunded to the contributor, the Barrack Obama campaign. I suppose they found a use for it somewhere. Quibble with my methods if you will, and I am not a bookkeeper nor an accountant, nor familiar with how the F.E.C.. views these minuses (-), but this account is seriously over the #2,300 spending limit, any way you look at it. For an F.E.C.. accountant or bookkeeper, I suppose the first clue that something was amiss might have been the $2,300 contribution received on 12-Nov-07, but perhaps I am mistaken.

Ronald Hickel, Toronto, Canada

01-apr-08 $ 250.00 (minus)(-) redesignation from

01-apr-08 $ 250.00 redesignation to ***

01-apr-08 $ 250.00

09-jan-08 $ 100.00

29-feb-08 $ 550.00 (minus)(-) redesignation from

29-feb-08 $ 550.00 redesignated to ***

25-feb-08 $ 250.00

29-feb-08 $2,300.00

total $3,700.00

John Jay explains, I do not view these transactions as yielding $00.00. Money was taken from one account, where it had previously been placed available to the campaign fund, and transferred to another count. (minus)(-) When taken from one account and when put in another, the upshot is that the campaign, after the switching of accounts, still had $250 at its disposal. This is why I do not subtract the "redesignated from" entries from the amounts available to the campaign, because they have not left the campaign. There has been no "refund," as in the Karen Olson "account."

Even if I do not understand how the F.E.C. adds and substracts, and without seeing the entire books, Mr. Hickel's activity, taking place mainly between 25-Feb-08 and 01-Apr-08 net the Obama campaign a tidy sum over and above the $2,300 limit.

There is another aspect of all of this, and is is vaguely reminiscent of a ponzi scheme. The federal government is never actually in possession of this money. It stays with the campaigns. In effect, from the day of receipt until the day the money is spent, it is in control of the Obama campaign, totally without interest. And, if it is refunded, it is without interest. And, if the money is directed from one accounting scheme to another, there is no loss to the campaign. Only if the money is directed to be refunded or if the campaign indicates that it has refunded the money, its use has been for free, and it has been replaced at that point anyway by further "ponzi" type contributions.

It would appear the ineptness of the F.E.C. and the slyness of the Obama campaign has rendered BO awash in so much money. And having found the sheer weight of keeping track of it has buried the government, the Obama campaign may have nearly unlimited freedom in how it describes the money received, and appears untrammeled in how it accounts for or spends it.

There are very many more examples of this, available for subsequent posts.

The raw data is below, and all tabs are derived from it, and accurately reflect the information in the data, taken from the file.

Page 94

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","GE","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",500,02-FEB-08,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",328366

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","GE","01203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",-100,17-JAN-08,"REDESIGNATION FROM","","REDESIGNATION FROM","SA17A",344001

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","GE","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",500,02-FEB-08,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",328366

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","GE","1203","","",-437.38,30-APR-08,"Refund","","","SB28A",341078

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","GE","01203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",100,17-JAN-08,"REDESIGNATION TO","","REDESIGNATION TO","SA17A",344001

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","GE","01203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",100,17-JAN-08,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",344001

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","GE","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",500,02-FEB-08,"REDESIGNATION TO","","REDESIGNATION TO","SA17A",328366

Page 139

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","NA","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",115.79,02-APR-07,"","","","SA17A",319100

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","NA","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",50,16-APR-07,"","","","SA17A",319100

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","NA","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",50,16-MAY-07,"","","","SA17A",319100

Page 142

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",1000,18-SEP-07,"","","","SA17A",325774

Page 180

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",100,17-NOV-07,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",338948

p. 187 bingo, seen you before karen olson, just as maureen dowd said. over the limit.

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",2300,12-NOV-07,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",338948

p. 188

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","NA","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",180.49,16-DEC-07,"","","","SA17A",338948

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",-106,12-DEC-07,"REDESIGNATION FROM","","REDESIGNATION FROM","SA17A",338948

Page 212.

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","NA","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",100,17-DEC-07,"","","","SA17A",338948

Page 243

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",-100,17-NOV-07,"REDESIGNATION FROM","","REDESIGNATION FROM","SA17A",338948

p. 248

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",100,17-OCT-07,"","","","SA17A",338948

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",1285.1,12-NOV-07,"REDESIGNATION TO","","REDESIGNATION TO","SA17A",338948

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",106,12-DEC-07,"REDESIGNATION TO","","REDESIGNATION TO","SA17A",338948

Page 255

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",185.1,26-SEP-07,"","","","SA17A",325774

page 366

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA","NA","1203","FREELANCE","INTERPRETER",100,17-OCT-07,"","","","SA17A",338948

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",106,12-DEC-07,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",338948

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",-1285.1,12-NOV-07,"REDESIGNATION FROM","","REDESIGNATION FROM","SA17A",338948

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","OLSON, KAREN","GENEVA, SWITZERLAN","NA","01203","SELF EMPLOYED","FREELANCE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER",100,17-NOV-07,"REDESIGNATION TO","","REDESIGNATION TO","SA17A",338948

Ronald Hickel

Page 89

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",-250,01-APR-08,"REDESIGNATION FROM","","REDESIGNATION FROM","SA17A",341078

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",250,01-APR-08,"REDESIGNATION TO","","REDESIGNATION TO","SA17A",341078

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",250,01-APR-08,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",341078

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",100,09-JAN-08,"","","","SA17A",344001

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","547","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",-550,29-FEB-08,"REDESIGNATION FROM","","REDESIGNATION FROM","SA17A",328366

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","547","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",550,29-FEB-08,"REDESIGNATION TO","","REDESIGNATION TO","SA17A",328366

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","547","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",250,25-FEB-08,"","","","SA17A",328366

C00431445,"P80003338","Obama, Barack","HIKEL, RONALD","TORONTO","CN","547","SELF EMPLOYED","MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT",2300,29-FEB-08,"","","ORIGINAL TRANSACTION","SA17A",32836

Over at CQ: "The table below is based on data from a Campaign Finance Institute pdf that lists donation totals from January 2007 through May 2008. I highlighted in red the higher figures for each category of totals received from "big" donors, and “mil” means “million”:

	$201-$999		$1000-$2299	$2300+	$1000+ (all)
Obama	$50 mil	.	$42 mil	$48 mil	$91 mil
McCain	$14 mil	.	$24 mil	$43 mil	$67 mil

I did not make up the categories. Obama’s campaign chose $200 as a cutoff point between big and small donors, as evinced by a statement that his staff made to the New York Times last month:

"The Obama campaign highlighted Thursday the fact that 93 percent of the more than three million contributions it had received were for $200 or less." (NY Times, emphasis added)

The $200 cutoff likely stems from the fact that the Federal Elections Commission doesn’t require itemization for donors who give a total of $200 or less. If the FEC and Sen. Obama use $200 as a cutoff, who am I to argue?
To prevent confusion over the New York Times quote, I’ll mention (as I did a few weeks ago) that small donors contributed 49% of Obama’s total donations (from January 2007 - May 2008), meaning that big donors contributed 51%. (From CQ)

Previous related post: Obama's Foreign Contributions: Who is Jeanne McCurdy

Posted by Pamela Geller on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 02:28 PM in Obama's Corruption Eruption, Obama's Foreign Contributions, WHITE HOUSE: THE RACE TO NOVEMBER | Permalink | Comments (4)

RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY MAY UNLOCK ENORMOUS OIL SHALE RESERVE --federal officials estimate that this resource could yield enough oil to meet U.S. demand at current levels for more than 250 years.

John Edwards Love Child ( UPDATE! Names Revealed !!! )

Blog Reaction Roundup

Breaking: Edwards press conference over Love Child rumor("I don’t talk about these tabloids,")

Story here:
http://tinyurl.com/627m9s

Click here to read our original report on the Edwards love child scandal from December 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/25utml

The Obamafication of Obamamania--50-foot wall of media breaks over Europe

Obama Worse than Clintons on Abortion Says National Right to Life Leader Interview-SCOTUS Critical

Obama says money for economy or energy more important than saving troops lives.

Dems "Scrambling to Run Down the Clock" on GOP Solutions to Help Lower Gas Prices

Excellent history....ping.

More important, even, than $5 a gallon fuel:

U.S. government: We know parenting better than you

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to debate two bills that could give the federal government unprecedented control over the way parents raise their children – even providing funds for state workers to come into homes and screen babies for emotional and developmental problems.

Glenn Beck: DNC takes a gas holiday

Emergency Petition To Congress: “Lift The Offshore Drilling Ban Before Congress’ Summer Recess”

My Energy Manifesto:

* Cease all ethanol subsidies. (If an entrepreneur want to “go for it” let ethanol be successful on its own merits with good ‘ol American market forces.) Ethanol takes away from food production and the unintended consequence is higher food costs. As diesel prices go up, the cost of farming tips the balance of cost to make ethanol a bad idea. Just say "no" to ethanol! Even Jimmy Carter says that diverting farm production from food to fuel is dumb – even HE gets it. This will create only ONE "blend" of gasoline and will cease regional "boutique" blends (gasohols) which are stupid, costly, and meaningless. Trucking custom blends around the country is wasteful. Ethanol blends may actually lead to fewer miles to the gallon, and adds to the cost of production and transportation. Newer cars do not need oxygenated fuels.

* Lift the restrictions in order to drill for oil in Alaska, Gulf of Mexico, and other sites in the CONUS as a matter of national security.

* Encourage the petro industry to construct state-of-the-art refineries and/or retrofit current and dormant ones and crank up production for our newly-accessed oil in the CONUS.

* Make all “carbon credit” scams unlawful. Discrediting Algore should have been a slam-dunk a long time ago. Stop electing Reps who buy into the Global Warming / Global Cooling / Climate Change Hoax. CO2 is not our enemy!

* Construct SEVERAL, regional Pebble-Bed Modular Reactors (or other similar modern designs) that are rechargeable, and cleaner than any current nuclear generator design. Refine spent nuke fuel for recycling. DO SOMETHING NUCLEAR to resolve energy problems.

* Use the residual heat from the reactors above to process motor fuel from coal and/or shale. Even though Clinton "stole" some of the best coal reserves, we still have a lot to use.

* Become independent enough to make the cartels (i.e. OPEC) inconsequential.

* Lift or cap the tax on gasoline. When the tax is higher than the profit margin, the argument over what is “obscene” becomes moot.

* List (chapter and verse) all the regulations and laws that need to be repealed in order to drill, and drill now. Use this list as the new "Contract With America for Energy Security". Have a mega-bill introduced that in one fell swoop removes the self-imposed energy embargo.

If you squint real hard, and read between the lines, the ‘manifesto’ will require fewer RINOs and LibDems and the election of some clear-minded conservatives to even consider the above.

14 posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:11:36 PM by SERKIT

Senator Salazar Lauds Oil Shale Limitations in Omnibus Bill (i.e., Senator Kenny is an idiot)

Wonder if any of those idiots in Washington ( but then, I repeat myself.. ) have read this?

RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY MAY UNLOCK ENORMOUS OIL SHALE RESERVE --federal officials estimate that this resource could yield enough oil to meet U.S. demand at current levels for more than 250 years.

Markets slump as gasoline build sinks oil price

Lots of people are mad as hell about gas prices, and are staying home for “Staycations” and feathering their nests with a big screen TV, or new furniture, new matresses, a home improvement project, all that use little gas, and less than half of what they would have spent on a traveling vacation...
Buying the grandparents a PC with a webcam, and having an in town relative teach them how to do an easy videoconference call to “visit” with the out of town grandchildren any time they want without a road trip involved.

Gassing Up With Garbage

Uprising Against the Ethanol Mandate

Morgentaler award renews abortion debate

Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States

The View Co-Host Sherri Shepherd Talks About Her Numerous Abortions

Barack Obama's Pledge to Overturn Every Pro-Life Abortion Law One Year Old

Victor Davis Hanson: Hillaryitis

More Fraud from the Party of Scams, scalawags, and swindles:

Bill O'Reilly Nails Robert Wexler (RAT-FL?) Really lives in Potomac MD

Why the Press Is Ignoring the Edwards "Love Child" Story?

The Enquirer has new details in its website:

We can now reveal that the man who drove Edwards was Bob McGovern, the same man who drove Rielle to the hotel from Santa Barbara and rented her room in his name. He was driving a 1999 four-door midnight blue BMW.

Said Butterfield: "The car had a baby seat in the back for Rielle's infant. He pulled into the parking lot, took a ticket from the automated machine, pulled forward, and stopped right after the parking gate lowered. Edwards got out of the passenger side, walked around the front of the car and went in a side entrance near the swimming pool.

"McGovern parked the car and then slowly walked back inside the hotel and went upstairs."

In the aftermath of our exclusive story, the NATIONAL ENQUIRER has now learned:

* Edwards' advisers are "spitting mad and furious" that his late-night escapades have made international headlines because it could derail his chances of becoming Barack Obama's running mate.

* Edwards has not explained his whereabouts to any members of other news media outlets who have been trying to follow up on the story.

* His mistress, blonde divorcee Rielle, meanwhile, has returned to her home in Santa Barbara, Calif., and sources say she is "in despair" that Edwards might cut off contact with her because their latest rendezvous has been exposed in the media.

After we posted the details of Edwards shocking meeting with Rielle, political sources close to Edwards revealed how he was candidly scolded by his advisors hours later...

More

Sen John Edwards caught with mistress and love child

Obama research thread

Dropping out of Lurk N' Link Mode...

When I started compiling this on December 07, 2003:

-Hillary Clinton- archives, comments, and opposition research --

The New, Improved Black Jesus ( and yes, I mean every one of those semantically-loaded words ) was not even a gleam in a pollster's eye.

As it became apparent he was The Jackal Pack Press's Shiny New Toy, I switched gears and began including links and quotes and quips and graphics on anything I could find on him, from Web and Blogosphere.

Skip the "comments," goto the "last," and scroll backwards for everything I have found on this corrupt, bigoted, typical Chicago Machine Politician.

It isn't pretty.

And it won't matter one Iota to the Hopiness & Changiness True Believers- or their pals in the Media-- either.

I just hope Cap'n Queeg's crew wakes up enough to cudgel him with some of the stuff innumerable people have uncovered.

And Never Forget ( as my old cyber-pal ALOHA RONNIE likes to say ) that Hillarrheah!© is still waiting, "suspended," in the wings...

The Clintons sure are quiet! Somethings up big Time!!!!

Did Obama Betray U.S. Intelligence With North Korea Nuclear Warheads Comment?

Obama spends only 12 minutes in Jerusalem (chaos, mob scene) ... DRUDGE REPORT... DEVELOPING...)

“Yes, and some blacks are beginning to realize this. Obama has no memory or understanding of the history of black people in America. He is not an American. He did not have a black mother and father or black grandparents who grew up in America and could pass on to him their memories of being black in America. He did not even have a black childhood being raised by white grandparents.

“His candidacy, whether he wins or loses, will be a disaster for American Black people because he is phony. There are many capable and wise black men and women in our country who could be nominated for president and be a credit to American black people and improve our race relations immeasurably. But not this jerk. “

Corrected link for Obama Berlin poster -no american flag!

There something even more disturbing about that campaign poster...

Obama's Berlin Moment

Obama's Premature Inauguration Syndrome is still giving him trouble, witness the mass Obama rally scheduled for Berlin's SiegessSaeule or Victory Column, to celebrate his penetrating insight in foreign affairs. Google's top listing of this Ueberphallic Prussian monument has to be seen to be believed: It is a favorite Berlin gay newspaper, as you can see. You have to admit those Germans have a sense of humor.

Putting Money Where Mouths Are: Media Donations Favor Dems 100-1

Nothing new- here's a very old file of mine:

"89% Voted"( for Clinton...)--

Public disclosure: Media are finally admitting their biases.

D.C. journalists favor Kerry 12 to 1: N.Y. Times informal poll confirms media lean left

Creator of 'Mr. Sterling' Admits: We TV Writers Are '99% Leftist'

Professor's Study Shows Liberal Bias in News Media

No Bias in Media, ha ha, tee hee

---92% voted for Clinton.

-Poll confirms Ivy League liberal tilt--

The Politics of Hollywood

12 posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Obamamessiah has another uh-oh! moment. (Caught lying, again)

PUMAs stalking Obama

Obama's 'civilian national security force

...you ain't gonna like very much...

Obama's Smear Campaign, ( He's published a list of "Enemies")

Nuclear Power: Lighting the Future

THE WORLD POWERS UP, while America powers down.

USGS: Arctic Holds 90B Barrels of Oil

Things you didn't know about OIL SHALE

Reid: $5-a-gallon gas is no problem

On YOUR Dime: Congressmen Lease Luxury Cars
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2010089/posts

DNC host's tax-free gas evaporates Angry reaction brings a halt to use of city pumps

Fox News uses empty chair in place of Dem congress critter in segment about gas tax increase

Price of oil ... falling fast

"OIL THIRST: Will it transform the election?" Only if oil prices stay high, which is looking iffy.

UPDATE: Obviously some people think it matters:

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other liberal leaders on Capitol Hill are gripped by cold-sweat terror. If they permit a vote on offshore drilling, they know they will lose when Blue Dogs and oil-patch Democrats defect to the GOP position of increasing domestic energy production. So the last failsafe is to shut down Congress.
Majority Leader Reid has decided that deliberation is too taxing for "the world's greatest deliberative body." This week he cut off serious energy amendments to his antispeculation bill. Then Senate Appropriations baron Robert Byrd abruptly canceled a bill markup planned for today where Republicans intended to press the issue. Mr. Byrd's counterpart in the House, David Obey, is enforcing a similar lockdown. Speaker Pelosi says she won't allow even a debate before Congress's August recess begins in eight days.
She and Mr. Reid are cornered by substance. The upward pressure on oil prices is caused by rising world-wide consumption and limited growth in supplies. Yet at least 65% of America's undiscovered, recoverable oil, and 40% of its natural gas, is hostage to the Congressional drilling moratorium.

Is this issue a winner for the Republicans? I don't know, but the Democrats are sure acting like they think it is.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Truman, 1948. What more can I say? (With apologies to Jan Deutsch.)

Are feds stockpiling survival food?

Mexico's Version of La Cosa Nostra Spreads Like a Virus

Dems pressured on guns ("NRA has 'scored' a discharge petition in determining" grades for Nov!)

Official Complaint Filed: Obama Lied on Bar Application

Obama's Trip: Some Questions Katie, Brian and Charles Should Ask (The shoe that keeps on fitting)

Bloomberg: Don't Worry America, to Arabs Obama 'Just an American With Muslim Middle Name'

Obama drops his father

Boortz: GUESS WHICH CANDIDATE WILL WIN THE HOMELESS VOTE

Obama opens up leads in Florida, Colorado, and Minnesota (Rasmussen)

JUST CAN'T WAIT TO GET THAT NATIONALIZED HEALTH CARE

Following The Money

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

(I recall seeing a similar chart at one time that compared the number of Canadian media sleeping with Liberal vs Conservative politiicians/operatives, but I can't seem to locate it at the moment.)

h/t

Posted by Kate at 10:14 AM | Comments (21)

Obama’s latest campaign prop: Jerusalem’s Western Wall; Update: Protests/heckling mar photo-op

July 23, 2008 09:57 PM by Michelle Malkin68 Comments

Next stop, Germany: Ich bin ein beginner!

By Michelle Malkin • July 24, 2008 09:10 AM

Germany awaits The One. After getting heckled at the Western Wall, a fact you will be hard pressed to find reported in the American media, Barack Obama has arrived in Germany.

Wonderful Tennyson Hayes has once again produced a special Obama poster to commemorate the occasion:

The Citizen of the World is ready for his photo-op:

“Barack Obama arrived in Germany Thursday morning to much fanfare, as local television stations aired live coverage and fans gathered in the streets for a glimpse at the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate who will be delivering a much anticipated speech here later today.
Obama said the speech, which is to address transatlantic relations, isn’t comparable to famous ones in Berlin by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan because “they were presidents. I am a citizen. But obviously Berlin is representative of the extraordinary success of the post-World War II effort to bring the continent together and to bring the West together and then later to bring the East and the West together. So I think it’s a natural place.”

Yeah, never mind all that Nazi symbolism and stuff…

***

“Griping.”

Posted in: Barack Obama

Send to a Friend
Printer Friendly

comments (130)

"The Empty Suit is over there giving poicy speeches, carrying out discussions and what-not as if he already is POTUS. the absolute ARROGANCE of this entire trip is mind-boggling. Yet the Left and their mouth-pieces in the MSM are going on and on about what a great and triumphant thing the whole trip is."

Runaway

A Washington Post editorial says that what the public believes is true about Obama’s reception in Iraq isn’t. But does it matter?

The initial media coverage of Barack Obama’s visit to Iraq suggested that the Democratic candidate found agreement with his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces on a 16-month timetable. So it seems worthwhile to point out that, by Mr. Obama’s own account, neither U.S. commanders nor Iraq’s principal political leaders actually support his strategy.

First impressions often last. And “initial” coverage sometimes molds public perception more permanently than subsequent corrections. “Initial” coverage is on Page One; editorials are on page A14. The Washington Post is worried by Obama’s disturbing policy declarations on Iraq, but comforts itself by imagining he really doesn’t mean it. But even the editors are unable convince themselves.

(more…) ...He’s no longer just running for President but striding forward to claim his destiny. Once the expectation of an Obama victory exceeds a certain point an actual electoral defeat would cause psychological damage to the trust mechanisms of political system, like a long announced celebration party or holiday that unaccountably never happens. He’s a runaway . I almost feel sorry for the media. Almost.

(58) Comments bullet

I think what’s really happening here is the media are motivated more than anything else right now by the sense that they are making history.

"Citizen of the World" Obama Vows to Reduce America's Nuclear Defense Arsenal

BARACK OBAMA BERLIN SPEECH: 'A WORLD THAT STANDS AS ONE'

Poll: Voters Have Misgivings About Obama

What Part of 'Drill Now' do they Not Understand?

Oil Down, Dollar Up Since Bush Lifted Drilling Restrictions

John McCain's Plan to Secure Our Energy Future

Pelosi prevents production of MORE than 700 million barrels of oil

A Skeptical Layman's Guide to Anthropogenic Global Warming Counsel: Confident (Chicago) Gun Ban Will Hold

OBAMA AT THE VICTORY MONUMENT: I think the Hitler-related criticism of this venue is misplaced. In modern times, the Berlin Victory monument is much more closely associated with the Berlin Love Parade, a rave/techno event that has far more in common with the Obama campaign than anything organized by Albert Speer. (Though I think the exclusion of Hardcore and Gabba music may have led to a few charges of fascism. . . .) While it's possible that some of the Love Parade-related images might not win over American swing voters, I think you'll agree that there's not much of the Nazi in them . . . . (Possibly NSFW).

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Ann Althouse. "I guess we're not supposed to think about how Obama wanted and still wants to give up on the Iraq war. Surely, if he'd been there in 1948, he would have said the Berlin airlift is hopeless. He thought the surge was hopeless."

Nailing Down The German Vote

Is there nothing that Obama can't do?

(h/t to Ed S.)

“Ich bin ein Beginner" *

Update - He said, "This is THE moment." Sixteen times.

And -

Never put a small man on a big stage. It just makes him look smaller. Watching that thing in the office, there were more than a few uncomfortable snickers. It looked ridiculous, even to those here who were considering him.
He’s not JFK standing for freedom against the partition of Germany. He is not Ronald Reagan putting a metaphorical dagger in the heart of the Soviet Empire. He’s just a guy trying to scramble onto their shoulders. He looked silly doing it."

Posted by Kate at 12:03 PM | Comments (52)

ET: "It's incredible - Obama is, as I keep saying, essentially a fictional character. A creation, a two-dimensional screen saver, morphing from a square to a circle to a triangle, from red to blue to green to...all in the space of a few minutes."

“If I go into politics it should grow out of work I’ve done on the local level, not because I’m some media creation.”
--Barack Obama, 1990

German interviewed calls Obama "his new messiah"(ABC World News Tonight)--a god, for the godless...

Offshore Oil Drilling: Cleaner Than Mother Nature

Is T. Boone Pickens 'Swiftboating' America?

Arctic May Hold as Much as a Fifth of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Reserves

1970’s nostalgia: double-nickel speed limit coming back?

July 24, 2008 10:59 AM by see-dubya

Where was I going with )all) this? Oh, right. This retrograde and despised Virginia slow-down policy has picked up an advocate for taking it national once again–Virginia’s Senator John Warner, who for some reason everyone claims is a Republican:163 Comments

TTFK said:

There is no doubt in my mind that this is not a case of saving gas, but rather of revenue enforcement.

Remember: Doing 15mph over the limit in VA (and if you are a VA license holder) gets you not only a speeding fine but MUCH MUCH more.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/18/1818.asp

“”The purpose of the civil remedial fees imposed in this section is to generate revenue,” the new law states. (Virginia Code 46.2-206.1)”

- Up to a $2500 fine.
- Up to 1 year in jail
- Mandatory $1050 tax penalty
- Up to an additional $700/year (depending on merit point standing) in additional fines.
- The conviction remains on your record for ELEVEN years.

Why the Press Is Ignoring the Edwards 'Love Child' Story

Why Vietnam Loves McCain

THE PRESS IS ACTING LIKE an abused spouse.

WELL, THIS HEADLINE WON'T HELP: Obama Scraps Visit to Wounded Troops.

UPDATE: McCain Campaign pounces.

POLL: No bounce for Obama from overseas trip. I don't think he cares -- I think he figures he's got the election won already, and that this trip is about laying the foundation for his administration's foreign policy.

UPDATE: That's the thinking in Germany, too:

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit — who was apparently open to Obama speaking anywhere he wanted in this most international of cities, including the Brandenberg Gate venue which Chancellor Angela Merkel, perhaps prodded by the White House, balked at — had this gushing comment following his meeting with Obama. “He is a very charming and determined man, who has a vision for America and the whole world.”
The whole world? Hmm …

He's not running for President of the United States. He's running for President of Earth.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Word for the day: "presumptuous." It's the new "gravitas"!

MORE: Europe and Obama: A Short-Term Relationship?

This, of course, is Europe's favorite dream: a post-Bush America cut down to size and chastened, a meeker and more modest America, a more "European" (that is, a more social-democratic) America, which at last casts off some of its nastier capitalist habits. An America that is a lot more like us Europeans who have forgone power politics and sovereignty in favor of communitarian politics and integration.
This is the canvas Europeans have been painting with wildly enthusiastic brush strokes. If Obama wins, the reality will be different. Sure, President Obama would speak more softly than did Mr. Bush in his first term, but he would still be carrying the biggest stick on earth. He will preside over an America that is still No. 1 and not part of a multipolar chorus populated by Russia, China, India, and the E.U.
Germans should have read the foreign-policy chapter in Obama's The Audacity of Hope. There are passages in there which read like pure Bush--on unilateralist action, on the right of pre-emption, on playing the world's "sheriff." Obama's upshot: "This will not change--nor should it."

Couldn't have said that better myself.

Some related thoughts here.

MORE STILL: Rasmussen: 63% Say Trip Does Not Make Obama More Fit to be President.

Plus, channeling Superman? Hey, that's better than David Hasselhoff!

Or even Mr. Cloudo, President of Heaven.

And Professor Bainbridge asks: "Is it just me or is anybody else starting to get a little creeped out by the whole Barack Obama phenomenon? . . . Personally, I find this fervor spooky and creepy. " Well, maybe. It reminds me of the Bay City Rollers.

Compare, contrast [Darleen Click]

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here — what we do with this moment.

~Barak Obama, “A World that Stands as One”. 2,983 words.

The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

~Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address” 285 words.

Brevity and humility just aren’t in the Barry arsenal, eh?

(via Dennis Prager)

Posted by Darleen @ 7:36 pm
Comments (16)

Comment by Jeff Y. on 7/24 @ 9:12 pm #
I’m surprised, really I am, at Nobama’s hubris, at Europe’s naivete, at the media’s insensibility.
Is the world mad?

Does anybody know what moment it is?

In his sermon to the Germans, Barack Obama presents himself both as Barack the Baptist and the Obamessiah. Nevertheless, Americans naturally root for for the underdog to prevail. For pride to take a fall. Don't we instinctivelyy seek to puncture the grandiose pretensions of a blowhard? It seems to me that this is the question that Obama's speech elicits.

And one more question. I wonder if Americans will appreciate Obama's deprecation of the United States on foreign soil for his own self-aggrandizing purposes. Surely one does not need to be a conservative Republican to recoil from this display.

To comment on this post, go here.

Posted by Scott at 3:31 PM | Permalink

Obama’s German Rally Poster In The Eye Of Beholder

The Full Text Of Obama’s Berlin Speech

July 24th, 2008

Via ABC News:

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen — a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father — my grandfather — was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning — his dream — required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.
That is why I’m here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.
Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.
On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.
This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.
The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.
And that’s when the airlift began — when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.
The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.
But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won. The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty. People of the world, look at Berlin!”
People of the world — look at Berlin!
More »

18 Comments »

"I’m confused. Is this delusional freshman senator running for President of the World? Or is he just under the mistaken notion that Germany is one of our 57 states?"

What some of his supporters say about the speech is nothing short of amazing. Please keep in mind that they are serious:

http://www.americablog.com/200.....qus_thread

JohnMG
July 24th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
sheehanjihad; …..”I just read the first batch of posts at americablog………”
Likewise. Are these morons for real? I hope the momma with the 5-year old daughter and 16-month old son knows how to sew burkhas and fabricate suicide bomb vests. They will be the first useful idiots to succcumb to the purge. What is it Larry says….”Ya can’t fix stupid”?
Obama has a lock on the easily mislead. They vote. Democratic. Well….we survived carter…we can survive this one...'
Wanna bet your life- and your country-- on it?

SHOCKING Obama words: What He Really Thinks Of White Folks

"I truly believe that a country as great as America is too smart to be conned by this racist snake-oil salesman.
Obviously, there are many idiots as evidenced by the Dem base making up roughly 1/3 of the voting public.
Nevertheless, we have vetted similar wolves in sheeps clothing and aside from Slick Willy (who never got 50%) Americans have had a pretty solid track record in the last 28 years.
If you woke up from a coma and watched the news for a few hours you would think that Obama has been elected King Of The World. Or that perhaps he was walking away with this at the very least, correct??
That is far from the case and this fool is in big trouble because the media know the Emperor has no clothes. It’s getting harder and harder to hide and though they may try to fool us, we are catching on. The guy is a dolt and an idiot."

ObamaMessiah: The Musical (youtube)

...in the NYT, “Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.”

Citizen Of The World Rips America (Rush: Obama's Speech Deserves A BARF Warning Alert)

Washington Post continues to push the "Michelle Obama critics are racists" line

Springtime for Obama in Germany

Obama for President of Germany!

Obama in front of Hitler's favorite symbol: “The Siegessäule in Berlin was moved from the Reichstag to its current position by Adolf Hitler," he told the Bild am Sonntag. "It was a symbol for German supremacy and victorious wars against Denmark, Austria and France.”

"Obama for Chancellor" (I second that!)

UPDATE: Germans were told to leave their placards home - seems that didn't want all those anti-American signs dotting the Obama carefully planned landscape.

Posted by Pamela Geller on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

"He may not be Hitler, after all the Democrats have gleefully called President Bush this for almost 8 years, but Obama sure the hell is a totalitarian thinker and actor."

Camp Obama

Sounds like those training camps in Afghanistan. Will there be paintballing? The latest in my daily Obamalerts

You have an opportunity to play a major role in this nationwide movement for change.
Dedicated volunteers like you have brought us this far. But to execute our strategy for the general election, we need supporters to step into one of the most important roles of our campaign.
If you're ready to take the next step, you are invited to attend a two-day Camp Obama training session near you.
Learn more about this special opportunity and apply to attend Camp Obama right now:
http://ny.barackobama.com/CampObamaNYC
Camp Obama trainings offer a unique, in-depth look at the strategies and techniques that have driven this campaign.
These two-day sessions, to be held August 22nd - 23rd, are led by experienced Obama campaign staffers and other professional organizers who are eager to empower dedicated supporters like you.
After completing a camp session, attendees will be asked to fill essential volunteer positions in battleground states -- these are demanding roles, but they are a vital part of our election strategy.
Supporters with experience in community organizing or political campaigns are strongly encouraged to apply. But the only requirement is that you support Barack and be ready to turn your enthusiasm and energy into action.
Here are some of the skills you'll learn at Camp Obama:

Tactics that will help you creatively and effectively organize voters
Tips to increase the visibility of the campaign in your area
Keys to mobilizing other volunteers to join our movement

Apply now for a Camp Obama training near you:
http://ny.barackobama.com/CampObamaNYC
We're excited to invite our most dedicated supporters to get involved with the campaign in this crucial role.

Posted by Pamela Geller on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:34 AM in WHITE HOUSE: THE RACE TO NOVEMBER | Permalink | Comments (0)

WaPo to Pelosi: If There's A Reason Buried In There For No Voting on Drilling, We Missed It.

Drilling in ANWR will Cut Gas Costs ( Rep. Michelle Bachmann R-MN )

Whistling Past the Graveyard--Osama sets up his “American Hiroshima.”

Obama and the Press

DUmmie FUnnies 07-25-08 (KOmmies Get An Obasmic Thrill Up Their Legs)

Obama's $845 billion U.N. plan forwarded to U.S. Senate floor

--The U.S. Senate soon could be debating whether you, your spouse and each of your children – as well as your in-laws, parents, grandparents, neighbors and everyone else in America – each will be spending $2,500 or more to reduce poverty around the world.

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "CHANGE THEY CAN BELIEVE IN" by Stephen Brown (July 25, 2008)

HypeMovie.com: "HYPE The Obama Effect"

ONE NEWS NOW.com: "OBAMA RADIO AD TARGETS FOCUS ON THE FAMILY" by Jim Brown (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Spokesman Carrie Gordon Earll says Focus on the Family's response to the ad would be Christ's words found in Matthew 7:20, "You will know them by their fruits."") (July 24, 2008, 5:00 am)

POWERLINE - blog: "THE FINE LINE BETWEEN PANDERING AND LYING" (July 23, 2008)

Link

UPI.com: Sderot, Israel - "OBAMA: 'I'd still talk with Ahmadinejad'" (July 23, 2008)

TRUTHUSA.COM: "A LOOK AT IRAN"

ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS.com - ARUTZ SHEVA - Opinion: "An Open Letter to Barack Obama" by David Ha'ivri (Published July 22, 2008, 11:52)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "OBAMA'S HEALTH RX" by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann (July 22, 2008)

WOMEN IN GREEN.org - Ruth Matar's Letters from Jerusalem: "THE TEDDY BEAR DEMONSTRATION" (July 17, 2008)

TOWNHALL/VIDEOS: "OBAMA: Let's stop 'air-raiding villages & killing civilians'" (Added August 15, 2007)

Topic: Obama (Archived Links - Post. no 14 - Click Here.)

3 posted on Friday, July 25, 2008 07:01:50 AM by Cindy

Swooning over Princess Obama ...about to have its Princess Obama moment. Get out the smelling salts and prepare to swoon...

He Ventured Forth to Bring Light to the World...

Energy Made In America

Arctic Holds 90bn Barrels of Oil And Gas Equal to Russia's Reserves

UPDATE 1-U.S. Senate energy speculation bill fails key vote (Rats still won't vote for drilling)

Yes, We Can Drill Our Way out of This Mess

Offshore oil drilling -- cleaner than Mother Nature

Wind turbine marketers are full of hot air

"My conclusion is that Texas utility bills are going higher."

T. Boone Pickens' * real investments are in candle futures;

E.on is Germany's largest utility company. Here is their 2005 Wind Report in pdf. I would recommend to everyone to read it. Sometimes they can use the wind power and sometimes they can't, and because their effective usage is so low, they have to keep building traditional power plants. In 2004 the average feed-in to the grid varied between about one third and zero percent of the load. Obviously that sort of performance places upper limits on usage. I quote:

As wind power capacity rises, the lower availability of the wind farms determines the reliability of the system as a whole to an ever increasing extent. Consequently the greater reliability of traditional power stations becomes increasingly eclipsed.
As a result, the relative contribution of wind power to the guaranteed capacity of our supply system up to the year 2020 will fall continuously to around 4% (FIGURE 7). In concrete terms, this means that in 2020, with a forecast wind power capacity of over 48,000MW (Source: dena grid study), 2,000MW of traditional power production can be replaced by these wind farms.

The rest of the report comments on the grid problems and the need for specialized control of wind turbines, plus upgrade of the transmission lines and grid to deal with the pulsing of wind power. They have invested in programs to predict and control it, but they haven't produced much effect. Now they are looking to replace the older turbines with newer, taller ones and to move offshore for more reliable winds. At the end of the report they discuss the potential for grid instability, and cheerfully note that if they are not careful, they may blow up pieces of the Polish, Netherlands and Czech power supply.

Apparently, all those pesky engineers who hang out* around here are right!

On June 1st, I asked our readers the question - "What is your primary occupation?"

(Physicist and engineer) Ed Minchau collated the 633 responses as of 1:46 am, June 3rd. Do read the whole thread - many of our readers have multiple or specialized fields of expertise that general categories don't quite do justice to.

engineers: 61
computer programmers/consultants/systems analysts: 47
management: 46
military: 36
educators: 31
scientists: 28
small business: 28
technicians/technologists: 27
accountants/bookkeepers/economists/taxation/insurance: 24
construction/electricians/plumbers/carpenters/contractors: 23
financiers/brokers/bankers: 21
farmer/rancher/cowboy/agriculture/veterinary: 19
stay-at-home parents: 18
consultants: 18
sales: 16
pilots/air traffic control: 15
lawyers/legal assistants/advocates: 14
doctors/nurses/healthcare: 14
pastors/priests/missionaries/social workers/psychologists/counselors: 13
civil servants: 12
artists/musicians/photographers: 12
manufacturing/machinists: 10
writers/journalists/reporters: 10
police/corrections/security/investigation: 8
students: 8
truckers/railroad workers: 8
statisticians/actuaries/data analysts/librarians: 8
architects/draftsmen/urban planners: 8
radio/television/telecom: 7
mechanics/heavy equipment operators: 6
oil workers: 6
real estate: 4
forestry: 3
purchasing/logistics/warehousing: 3
secretary/administrative assistant:3
quality assurance: 2
map maker/surveyor: 2
human resources: 2
other: 12
total: 633

(Lots more at the link.)

Posted by Kate at 6:17 AM | Comments (25)

"Some of us on this site patiently explained why wind power is not a viable option for a main source of power at this time and many tried to shout us down. Engineers deal with these problems every day and we have to be realistic. There has been entirely too much wishing for something to be true and thinking that will make it happen, instead of dealing with reality.

It really drives me crazy that our politicians are pandering to these people as well. Give them the reality and facts, if they can't deal with it, too bad. We need to stop treating ignorant people with kid gloves because we are being polite."

Obama Accepted Anti-Semitic Hate Group’s Support

MICKEY KAUS:

In a move that has apparently stirred up some internal discontent, the Los Angeles Times has banned its bloggers, including political bloggers, from mentioning the Edwards/Rielle Hunter story. Even bloggers who want to mention the story in order to make a skeptical we-don't-trust-the-Enquirer point are forbidden from doing so. . . . That will certainly calm paranoia about the Mainstream Media (MSM) suppressing the Edwards scandal!

Much more at the link. Seems to be slipping out elsewhere, though.

PETER KIRSANOW: "Judging from the local drive time radio shows, we bitter, religious pistol-packers here in flyover country remembered only two things from Obama's Berlin visit: the phrase 'citizen of the world' and Obama's failure to visit wounded troops at Landstuhl and Ramstein."

UPDATE: Jennifer Rubin says the media missed the big story on Obama's trip...finally, Obama’s mega-gaffe in snubbing the wounded troops in Germany (with the excuse he wouldn’t want to use campaign funds for such a visit) left even the MSM scratching their heads. There could be no perfect example of the argument McCain has been making: this is a callow man whose ego blinds him to the sacrifice of military service. Coming on the heels of news that Obama is already planning his White House transition, it seemed to put new emphasis on the question the McCain camp has been implicitly asking, “Who does he think he is?”

A More Perfect (European) Union

The text of Barack Obama’s sermon to the Germans in Berlin yesterday is an incredibly rich and revealing document. Prerhaps more than anything else, it was almost perfectly calibrated to tell the Germans what they want to hear. The fecklessness of the UN shows how little it means to be a "citizen of the world." It means something, though, to be a citizen of the EU, and Obama espoused distinctly European views, pledging to move American policy in a European direction—and to make the United States more European—under a President Obama.

After giving the Obama version of Cold War history, where humanitarian aid rolled back communism, Obama devoted a sentence to discussing the terrorist threat. He moved on to the heart of his speech, stating, implicitly or explicitly:

• That the Europeans are right to consider global warming the primary threat we face: “As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya” and “This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.”

• That the US will not act independently of the Europeans: “That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone.” Especially not the Iranian nuclear threat: “My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions.”

• But that the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons supersedes the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon: “This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons…It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.”

• That trade policy under an Obama administration won't be for free trade, but for trade conditioned upon union, environmentalist demands. Trade will facilitate wealth redistribution rather than a free market: “Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet.”

• That the European Union is the model of the future and that we have transcended the era in which America should assert itself on the world stage: “…we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century - in this city of all cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.”

• That we should emulate the Germans on carbon reduction ("Let us resolve that all nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere.")

• Finally, Obama apologized for America's wrongdoing, promised to stop the use of torture, and asked for Germany's (and Europe's) help in extending European policy across the Atlantic: “Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law?” and “Let us build on our common history, and seize our common destiny, and once again engage in that noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world.”

Josef Joffe noted in The New Republic, “If he ran in Germany, Obama would carry the country by a landslide, with 67 percent of the vote.” This comes as no surprise, as this is a speech about turning America into the European Union more than anything else.

Posted by Scott at 11:40 AM | Permalink

Rush knows what moment it is

On his show yesterday, Rush Limbaugh provided his take on Obama's sermon to the Germans as it was delivered. At one point Rush explicated this key portion of the text:

People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time. I know my country has not perfected itself. (cheers) At times we struggle to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people, we've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

Rush's sense of "the moment" fleshes out what I tried to say briefly yesterday:

So now he has to go apologize for the United States of America. What is it? He's black, he's running for President of the United States, "We haven't perfected ourselves." You know, that's a key phrase, by the way, is one of the things that drives liberalism is the fact that they think people and institutions can be perfected. They think they can be perfect. And when nothing is perfect, then everything's wrong. But this is just beyond the pale. He's talking to Germans and making excuses for the United States of America, which to this day defends and protects Germany? (interruption) Exactly right. This is insulting. It is demeaning. "We have made our share of mistakes. There are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions." This is Iraq. But he's not a candidate, folks. He's just a guy strolling through the forest there who happened to see a microphone and a podium.
He says, "Oh, there's about 100,000 people out there. I think I'll go make a speech." This is change. But ladies and gentlemen, if you are wondering when you hear Obama talk about change, this is it. The change is: America sucks, America's deficient, America's guilty, but America is now willing to pay the price because we have a Messiah who understands the faults, the egregious errors made by the United States and her people. We are racists, sexists, bigots, homophobes. We discriminate against people who worship differently than we do, have skin color different from ours, and we have not always behaved properly in the world. And we torture. And we, of course, are biased against people who want to get into our country illegally. We have a lot to pay for. Not to mention that we are primarily the country responsible for climate change, shrinking the Atlantic coastline, melting the Arctic ice. This is the change. You want change? This is the change.

Suffice it to say that Rush knows exactly what "moment" it is.

Posted by Scott at 5:35 AM | Permalink

Flashback: Obama: troops "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians"

Flashback: Obama on Iraq: "3,000 lives of Americans...Wasted"

The Manchurian Candidate: The Muslim Takeover of America

The evidence is overwhelming:
http://theobamafile.com/ObamaIslam.htm

What's black and white and yellow all over?

Obama and the Economy: The Tax Questions ( will cause "big recession" -- Nobel laureate)

The only place Democrats want to drill

By Michelle Malkin • July 25, 2008 08:58 AM

Scroll down for updates…Senate GOP holds the line on energy…

Not in ANWR.

Not offshore.

Where?

Yep: Your wallet.

Gotta get me one of those bumper stickers.

Meantime, another failure from the Nancy Pelosi and the 14 percenters:

The House of Representatives on Thursday failed to pass legislation intended to cool off gasoline prices by requiring the government to sell 70 million barrels of light sweet crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the national stockpile.
Democrats had pushed the legislation, hoping to lower surging oil prices by putting more of the reserve’s light sweet crude, sought by refiners, on the market. Sweet crude is desirable because it has less sulphur and is more easily refined into gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products.
The White House had threatened to veto the measure, arguing that Congress should work toward increasing domestic supply rather than tap into a strategic reserve.
Although the House voted 268 to 157 in favor of the legislation, the measure fell short of obtaining the two-thirds “yes” vote that is required when the chamber suspends its rules to act quickly on a bill.

Michael Franc at Heritage says public pressure is working:

For the first time in a while, House Republicans are on the offense on an issue of national importance: removing obstacles to the production of more American energy.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey abruptly shut down his committee indefinitely rather than allow Republicans to offer an amendment to open more areas to drilling for new sources of oil and natural gas. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid concur. According to the New York Times, she and Reid “appear intent on holding the line against calls to approve drilling in areas now off limits.”
Obey fears that the amendment, by drilling advocate Rep. John Peterson (R., Penn.), would win. As many as eight of the committee’s Democrats have supported similar amendments in the past, while only a couple of the committee’s Republicans (who represent well-heeled suburban districts) have stood with the environmental lobby.
Democratic defections, moreover, likely would spread beyond the Appropriations Committee. A careful analysis of previous floor votes on a wide array of energy production issues indicates that as many as 40 House Democrats would join the overwhelming majority of House Republicans in support of an agenda to increase American energy production dramatically…
…Quietly, in recent weeks House Republican leaders have adopted precisely this strategy. Rank-and-file Republicans have been filing one discharge petition per week (five thus far), demanding floor action on a far-reaching energy agenda. The agenda includes bills to construct new oil refineries; drill for oil and natural gas offshore as well as on a tiny portion of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge; repeal regulations that needlessly increase the price of gasoline; produce energy from alternative sources such as oil shale, tar sands and coal-to-liquid; and explore the next generation of oil and natural gas fields in deep-sea regions far off our coasts.
With little media coverage, and lacking the visible support of business groups, conservative organizations or talk radio, these petitions have nevertheless garnered as many as 153 signatures, with one Democrat — Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D., Hawaii) — even risking the wrath of his leadership by signing on.
An informal head count suggests there are an additional 75 to 100 House members, including those 40 Democrats, who, based on their previous support for proposals to increase American energy production, could be open to signing these petitions, thereby pushing the number of signatures over the required 218.
Should the conservative media, the conservative movement, and, yes, the president (his soapbox still carries weight) catch on to this strategy, pressure would increase on pro-energy lawmakers to sign on. Voters would learn that the Speaker’s word isn’t final. And we just might get a real debate on the merits of producing more American energy.

***

Ed Morrissey checks out the latest WSJ poll on energy and points to WaPo taking on do-nothing Pelosi over her drilling intransigence.

Posted in: Enviro-nitwits

Send to a Friend
Printer Friendly

comments (131)

It is all nice and rosy to be a greenie when someone else has to pay the freight (see Gore), but when it hits your pocketbook, or job, or price of food, or, most importantly here in the Northeast, the price of heating oil, things become less theoretical and more practical. See Hawaii.

...The old hippie, Neil has been getting an earfull from the Democratic faithfull in Hawaii. High oil prices are devastating the economy...

Update on Breck Girl Affair/Love Child Story (El Rushbo)

LA Times gag on Edwards love child story

How Mainstream Media Will Kill A Story

Has Sen. Murkowski LOST her mind?

So with this explanation I repeat, with all due measure and perspective: this might be either the most misguided or most cynical argument I have ever encountered. Source

Nuclear Power Wins Support on the Campaign Trail

Call Congress Back To Vote On Drilling

Iran says oil could reach $500 on dollar, politics

So, like the idea of $20 a gallon heating oil?

General Electric and Al Gore Scheme to Undermine Domestic Oil Drilling

Drill ANWR

ANWAR in Pictures

The Presumptive - and Presumptuous - Nominee

Media coverage of the week [Karl]

MSNBC’s First Thoughts:

So was this week a turning point in the presidential race? The Obama campaign certainly believes it was, and that this will be the moment that Obama grabs the lead for good. If McCain never catches up at this point, his campaign’s actions this week (its blistering criticism of Obama and the media, the visuals it picked, its body language, its VP games) will get second-guessed for months. We know this was a significant week; the question is was it enough to erase the doubts voters have with Obama about his ability to be commander-in-chief? But just asking: Did this week tell us more about Obama or McCain?

I thought this week has had the potential to be that turning point, as noted here earlier. The latest Gallup tracking poll gives Obama a 6% lead — the same pop he got at the start of his World Tour. But Gallup showed that pop petering out (as did the FNC poll), while Rasmussen suggests that most think that the trip does not make Obama more qualified. So waiting until next week for a judgment would be prudent.

The MSNBCers wonder if this week shows that McCain will be reactive for the rest of the campaign, asking:

Why, for instance, did the campaign insist on the equal treatment (see network interviews) this week and not simply attempt to create its own week of coverage from the nets? They were second fiddle all week, and seemed to almost demand being highlighted in that way.

Camp McCain — even if it had its act more together — was not going to come up with better ”optics” than Obama this week (though emphasizing throngs of cheering germans may not play well universally). The McCain campaign did try for a dramatic photo-op at an offshore oil rig, but had to cancel due to weather. Their fallback event at a German restaurant in Ohio at least allowed for the message that McCain is focused on voters at home — and was probably guaranteed coverage in a swing state. It certainly beat the earlier optics of McCain riding in a golf cart with former Pres. George H.W. Bush.

Team McCain may have seemed whiny to the media regarding their coverage, but Howard Kurtz notes that it paid off with interviews on the networks — and perhaps influenced the anchors’ interviews of Obama. The MSNBCers gloss over the fact that Obama coverage consistently overwhelms McCain, so any free media time he gets on the big networks is valuable. Playing the media underdog probably does not hurt McCain (esp. w/ GOP base voters), so long as he does not overdo it. And I suspect that the general public probably has a higher tolerance for media criticism than the media does.

Posted by Karl @ 12:20 pm
Comments (72) | Trackback
ShareThis

The McCain Contraption [Karl]

In today’s New York Post, Kirsten Powers may overestimate how juggernauty Barack Obama’s campaign may be, but she is generally correct about the way in which the McCain contraption (credit Allahpundit) is still sputtering: “If he wants to run as Hillary 2.0, then McCain should rip off some of her better stuff.”

Camp McCain does not lack for analysis of the campaign’s weaknesses. Powers follows Time magazine’s Mark Halperin (h/t RTO Trainer) and National Review’s Rich Lowry & Ramnesh Ponnuru in offering analysis and advice. The point common to these pieces — though not always expressly stated — is messaging. The McCain campaign too often seems like a pudding without a theme.

The Wall Street Journal (temp Google News link) reported earlier this week that Steve Schmidt, recently handed day-to-day authority over Maverick’s campaign, is trying to impose discipline over daily messages and the overall themes of the effort:

Above all, Mr. Schmidt argues that a campaign needs one positive message about its own candidate, and one negative message about the opponent. Sen. Obama has that: He’s for change, while Sen. McCain represents more of the same. Sen. McCain long didn’t have a strong, simple message of his own.
Now, Mr. Schmidt has settled on this formula: Sen. Obama represents a big risk, while Sen. McCain rises above partisanship to put country first. Expect to hear that sentiment nearly every day between now and Nov. 4.

I understand why Camp McCain would go with painting Obama as risky; most voters already think so. However, that fact shows that this is currently an insufficient negative message, as Obama maintains a persistent (albeit slim) lead in the polls. In a “change” election, where most voters think the country is on the wrong track and that the economy is deteriorating, there is likely to be a higher tolerance for risk.

That is why my commentary on the Lowry/Ponnuru advice suggested that it might be more effective to tie the negative messaging to Obama’s record. If Camp McCain hammered home that Obama is promising a middle-class tax cut, but he already voted this year to hike taxes on people making as little as $31,850 annually, they could not only establish that Obama is untested, but also argue that this is not the Obama voters thought they knew. If McCain hammers Obama’s opposition to offshore drilling is one plank of a platform that supports higher gas prices, a recycled, failed windfall profits tax, getting you to turn your thermostat down and government handouts for corn-based ethanol that enrich his backers but raise our food prices, he can show that Obama is not merely untested, but also out of touch with the economic pinch people feel at the pump, the grocery checkout line, and when they get their utility bills. Moreover, these are negatives that can be framed as positive messages for McCain — he cares, while Obama is aloof. As a bonus, a new Pew poll suggests Hispanic voters care more about issues like the economy than immigration, which would give Maverick an opportunity to try to erode Obama’s lead with that demographic without pandering on immigration reform and alienating base voters.

The positive message Schmidt has selected is not bad, though one now wonders anew why the campaign did not bring Mike Murphy onboard to do his Maverick-y thing (unless they felt he would not be able to resist overdoing it and alienating base GOP voters). The message also allows Mccain to contrast his record of bipartisanship on tough issues with Obama’s record of working with Republicans only on the easiest of issues. Thus, the positive message can also carry a negative message — Obama claims he will bring people together, but McCain has worked hard to actually do it (even if taking positions with which I personally strongly disagree). The campaign does have to be careful not to overdo the “putting the country first” angle as well — Camp Obama and its supporters will be all too eager to play the “don’t question my patriotism” card.

In short, McCain’s themes have potential, if sharpened to specifics — but whether Schmidt can get his Maverick to stick to them with discipline remains to be seen.

Posted by Karl @ 11:22 am
Comments (12)

America’s New First Family

Judi McLeod, Editor and award winning journalist of the Canadian Free Press, has assembled this family album (passed on by Poland-based journalist and CFP columnist David Dastych). Thanks Judi, we owe you a debt of gratitude. And thanks Obama for these words of unity and post-racial harmony. This would be a wonderful spread for People magazine. America loves stars and their families. Looking forward to widespread mainstream media coverage on this. (/sarc tag off) Read the whole post here.(hat tip Jane).

Barack Obama’s grandmother, Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama
With mother Stanley Ann Dunham. In his own autobiography Obama writes, ‘How and when the marriage occurred remains a bit murky, a bill of particulars that I have never quite had the courage to explore.’ (His father was still married to his first wife Kezia in Kenya at the time.)
U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s uncle has been a prisoner in his own home, trapped by post election violence that has left more than 600 Kenyans dead. ‘If Barack Obama were elected, he would improve relations between Africa and America because he had his roots in Africa’, his uncle said.
Luo dancers from the Senator Barack Obama Primary School
Barack has stated his support for Luo Raila Odinga (Opposition Leader in Kenya who signed a ‘Shariah pact’ with Muslims and claims to be Obama’s cousin) and is married to Ida Odinga. They have four children - two sons and two daughters. His oldest son, Fidel, is named after Fidel Castro
Barack’s father, Muslim, hard-drinker, was married three times, attended Harvard and returned to Kenya. Obama claims he was an atheist, but he was raised Muslim and was given a Muslim burial at Barack’s family’s request.
His father’s only visit while Obama was in Hawaii
Mother’s 2nd husband Lolo Soetoro (Indonesian Muslim), their daughter Maya, and Obama.
Abandoned by his father and shipped off by his mother to his white grandparents, Barry Sotero becomes Barack Hussein Obama. Obama would describe his grandparents as ‘white folk.’ (Yeah, ‘white folk’ that would NOT abandon you, their grandchild. Shame on you Obama.)
Barack stands behind Kezia (stepmother) in a Kenyan family shot. (Including brother Abongo ‘Roy’ Obama who is a Luo activist and a ‘Militant Muslim’ who argues that the black man must ‘liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture.’ ) ‘Abongo’s new lifestyle has left him lean and clear-eyed, and at the wedding, he looked so dignified in his black African gown with white trim and matching cap that some of our guests mistook him for my father,’ Obama wrote in Dreams From My Father.
Obama’s visit to Africa ‘06 (Where are the transcripts of the speeches he gave here? Campaigning for Odinga? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to read these? Do the people of the state of Illinois know about Obama’s radical background?

Posted by Pamela Geller on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 03:31 PM in Muslim in the White House?, WHITE HOUSE: THE RACE TO NOVEMBER | Permalink | Comments (6)

Camp Obama

Sounds like those training camps in Afghanistan. Will there be paintballing? The latest in my daily Obamalerts

You have an opportunity to play a major role in this nationwide movement for change.
Dedicated volunteers like you have brought us this far. But to execute our strategy for the general election, we need supporters to step into one of the most important roles of our campaign.
If you're ready to take the next step, you are invited to attend a two-day Camp Obama training session near you.
Learn more about this special opportunity and apply to attend Camp Obama right now:
http://ny.barackobama.com/CampObamaNYC
Camp Obama trainings offer a unique, in-depth look at the strategies and techniques that have driven this campaign.
These two-day sessions, to be held August 22nd - 23rd, are led by experienced Obama campaign staffers and other professional organizers who are eager to empower dedicated supporters like you.
After completing a camp session, attendees will be asked to fill essential volunteer positions in battleground states -- these are demanding roles, but they are a vital part of our election strategy.
Supporters with experience in community organizing or political campaigns are strongly encouraged to apply. But the only requirement is that you support Barack and be ready to turn your enthusiasm and energy into action.
Here are some of the skills you'll learn at Camp Obama:

Tactics that will help you creatively and effectively organize voters
Tips to increase the visibility of the campaign in your area
Keys to mobilizing other volunteers to join our movement

Apply now for a Camp Obama training near you:
http://ny.barackobama.com/CampObamaNYC
We're excited to invite our most dedicated supporters to get involved with the campaign in this crucial role.

Posted by Pamela Geller on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:34 AM in WHITE HOUSE: THE RACE TO NOVEMBER | Permalink | Comments (3)

Dick Morris: Media is for Obama, but Voters are split

Historical Top Tax Rate (94% at times!)

http://gawker.com/5029139/la-times-bloggers-ordered-to-ignore-john-edwards-late-night-tryst-with-elephant-in-room

LA 'Times' Bloggers Ordered to Ignore John Edwards' Late Night Tryst With Elephant in Room

Tony Pierce is in charge of all the L.A. Times blogs (there are like 30 of them or something? Crazy.) He is a good blogger and a keen editor (signing up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to blog was weird and awesome). So he's probably regretting sending this email, which Times arch-enemy Kaus picked up as an example of MAINSTREAM MEDIA MISSING THE POINT in re: the John Edwards Love-Child and Mistress Scandal.

stew at 01:05 PM on 07/25/08

Dear Mainstream Media,

This is why we left you.

Love,

The people your adverti$er$ can no longer reach...

Borne Upon A Donkey

Verily, it is said - there is nothing that the O-Child can't do!

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.
When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

Posted by Kate at 7:19 PM | Comments (19) I haven’t seen this much girlish behavior by journalists of all genders since the Beatles as a kid...

"Obama and the media are mirror reflections of each other - both frivolous, both stupid, they both live off of scripts that are useless to them 24 hours later."

That Thumping in the Wheel Wells [Dan Collins]

Oxymoran has a list of those thrust beneath the bus by Obama, so far. A moment of silence, please.

Posted by Dan Collins @ 7:40 pm
Comments (11)

Remember Bill Clinton's dead "friends?"

Comment by sashal on 7/25 @ 10:33 pm #
TAMIKA HILL - A former secretary for Obama’s office in Chicago was murdered July 6, 2005 at a rib shack in the south side. Hill had spoken off the record with a reporter from the Chicago Sun Times about meetings Obama had with black militants in the city. She was murdered before she could ever be properly interviewed.
HASAD AL SHAREEZ - FBI informant. Reported to his handler in January 2001 that he had a tape about of a person named simply “B. Hussein” meeting with 9/11 hijacker Mohatma Atta in Prague. Was found shot in the basement of a mosque in Dearborn, MI in October, 2001.
DARSANO RAHARDJO - Childhood classmate of Barack Obama when he attended a madrassa in Indonesia. Was found with his head cut off in a Jakarta alley way in 1970. Many children at the school attributed Rahardjo’s murder to the young Barack Obama. It was likely done as an initiation ritual, since Islam demands that a boy spill another’s blood before the age of ten to prove their loyalty to Allah.
REVEREND DAVID MANNING - Former head of the Trinity Baptist Church in Chicago. Was murdered during the apparent robbery of a catfish restaurant in 1972. Shortly afterwards, Rev. Jeremiah Wright took over as head of Trinity and a many parishoners (who later left the church) suspected Wright in having a hand in Reverend Manning’s death. Decades later, Manning’s son JAMAL MANNING was found dead of an apparent crack overdose in 2004. It was rumored he was going to bring evidence of Wright’s complicity in his father’s death. His testimony was timed to coincide with Obama’s first senate race.
CHRISTOPHER HARGROVE, A former lover of Larry Sinclair. Found dead in a hotel room of apparent auto-erotic asphyxiation in January 2001. Was said to have been enraged when he found out that Sinclair had cheated on Jackson with Obama in the back of a limousine. To get revenge, Jackson planned to release digital pictures Sinclair had taken of the encounter on the Internet.
PAUL ROTHCHILD - Democrat National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Washington DC in 2003. A “friend and trusted advisor” to senatorial candidate Barack Obama. Dead of an apparent suicide.
CURTIS “POOKIE” JACKSON - Chicago drug dealer. Was the subject of a police investigation in which he was suspected of funneling money to Obama’s many various community projects. Killed in 1998 in an apparent gang murder.
HARVEY KENYON - Head of Obama’s senatorial security team in Chicago. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside of Grant Park in 2005. Kenyon’s son said his father was building a dossier on Obama. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house
SHEILA BAUGH - A Washington DC madame. Died from a gunshot wound. Reported to have a black book of people containing names of influential people who visited the prostitutes in her brothel. One of those names was allegedly Barack Obama.
KEYSHAWN “SPOON” CALWORTH - Was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose May 18, 1997. Was reported to have ties to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
LAWSHAWNA MARTIN- 26 year old mother of five, a Cabrini Green resident with a history of substance abuse. Told two of her co-workers at the Blue Peppermint Gentleman’s Club that she would have to quit work because she was pregnant again. Strongly implied that the “baby daddy” was Barack Obama. The next week, she was reported missing. No body was ever recovered, but Lawshana has not resurfaced since making those remarks.
BILL FERGUSON- Senior aide to Barack Obama. Found dead of an apparent heart attack.
GANDY BAUGH - Attorney for Obama friend Antonin Rezko died by falling out an eightieth story window of the Hancock Tower, January, 2003. His client was a convicted Chinese spy.
Comment by sashal on 7/25 @ 10:46 pm #
more:
SARAH BERKLEY - Author of “The Jihad at the Ballot Box” - a book examining Obama’s relationship with radical Islam. Died in a mysterious car crash in 2003.
RUSSELL MCDOUGAL - Former FBI operative, January 23rd, 2007. McDougal was known to hold sensitive information about meetings Barack Obama had with arms smugglers. His wife was murdered March 2006 after he went public with his initial reports. His father died July 8, 2006 four hours after McDougal presented his findings on the Savage Nation. Suffered administrative retaliation after reporting discussions by jihadist groups concerning Obama to his superiors.
RODRIGO VILLALOPEZ, a television news camera man who shot the footage of Obama describing small town voters as “bitter” and “clinging to their guns during the primary season.
BRIAN GORING - A defense attorney for Obama patron Antoin Rezko during his trial for extortion and bribery. Died of apparent “natural causes.”
MERCEDES HUGLEY, one of Obama’s many white, female conquests while at Harvard. Filed sexual assault charges against Obama for date rape in 1990. Because “date rape” was not considered a crime like it is today, she ended up dropping the charges. Two years later, she was found dead of an apparent cocaine overdose.

McCain Hits Hard

"The Audacity of Hopelessness,”

Before a military audience in Denver today, John McCain launched his strongest attack yet against Barack Obama. The attack was devastating because it is true. Here are some excerpts; McCain began by recalling the beginning of the surge:

Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama's failed.
We both knew the politically safe choice was to support some form of retreat. All the polls said the "surge" was unpopular. Many pundits, experts and policymakers opposed it and advocated withdrawing our troops and accepting the consequences. I chose to support the new counterinsurgency strategy backed by additional troops -- which I had advocated since 2003, after my first trip to Iraq. Many observers said my position would end my hopes of becoming president. I said I would rather lose a campaign than see America lose a war. My choice was not smart politics. It didn't test well in focus groups. It ignored all the polls. It also didn't matter. The country I love had one final chance to succeed in Iraq. The new strategy was it. So I supported it. Today, the effects of the new strategy are obvious. The surge has succeeded, and we are, at long last, finally winning this war.
Senator Obama made a different choice. He not only opposed the new strategy, but actually tried to prevent us from implementing it. He didn't just advocate defeat, he tried to legislate it. When his efforts failed, he continued to predict the failure of our troops. As our soldiers and Marines prepared to move into Baghdad neighborhoods and Anbari villages, Senator Obama predicted that their efforts would make the sectarian violence in Iraq worse, not better.
And as our troops took the fight to the enemy, Senator Obama tried to cut off funding for them. He was one of only 14 senators to vote against the emergency funding in May 2007 that supported our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. ...
Three weeks after Senator Obama voted to deny funding for our troops in the field, General Ray Odierno launched the first major combat operations of the surge. Senator Obama declared defeat one month later: "My assessment is that the surge has not worked and we will not see a different report eight weeks from now." His assessment was popular at the time. But it couldn't have been more wrong.
By November 2007, the success of the surge was becoming apparent. Attacks on Coalition forces had dropped almost 60 percent from pre-surge levels. American casualties had fallen by more than half. Iraqi civilian deaths had fallen by more than two-thirds. But Senator Obama ignored the new and encouraging reality. "Not only have we not seen improvements," he said, "but we're actually worsening, potentially, a situation there."
If Senator Obama had prevailed, American forces would have had to retreat under fire. The Iraqi Army would have collapsed. Civilian casualties would have increased dramatically. Al Qaeda would have killed the Sunni sheikhs who had begun to cooperate with us, and the "Sunni Awakening" would have been strangled at birth. Al Qaeda fighters would have safe havens, from where they could train Iraqis and foreigners, and turn Iraq into a base for launching attacks on Americans elsewhere. Civil war, genocide and wider conflict would have been likely.
Above all, America would have been humiliated and weakened. Our military, strained by years of sacrifice, would have suffered a demoralizing defeat. Our enemies around the globe would have been emboldened. ...
Senator Obama told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth.
Fortunately, Senator Obama failed, not our military. We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right. Violence in Iraq fell to such low levels for such a long time that Senator Obama, detecting the success he never believed possible, falsely claimed that he had always predicted it. ... In Iraq, we are no longer on the doorstep of defeat, but on the road to victory.
Senator Obama said this week that even knowing what he knows today that he still would have opposed the surge. In retrospect, given the opportunity to choose between failure and success, he chooses failure. I cannot conceive of a Commander in Chief making that choice.

That recitation of Obama's conduct is entirely factual. In this case, the facts are nuclear.

To comment on this post, go here.

"Succinct, truthful without embellishment and devastating. Moreover, it shows Obama for what he really is - a shallow opportunist mesmerized by the sound of his own voice, whose judgment is not only suspect, it is downright catastrophic for the United States.

McCain needs to hammer on this again, and again, and again. Mix McCain’s speech in with some clips of Obama saying those words, and you have the perfect storm of campaign messages. It will, quite effectively, hoist Obama on his own petard. "

Posted by John at 4:24 PM | Permalink

Death threats over anti-Obama sticker lead to arrest - with extra twisty goodness.

No. 44 Has Spoken (German puff piece on Obama)

"President-of-the-World"

Obama's $845 billion U.N. plan forwarded to U.S. Senate floor

The Far Left's War on Direct Democracy [stop ballot initiatives]

Would You Drive 55?

I remember....

Ceaseless Hot Air and Wasted Dollars

Read that again, “mostly natural.” The notion that human beings have had any impact on the Earth’s climate, while absurd when compared to that of the Sun, the Oceans, and other natural factors, is now headed for the trash bin of really bad ideas.

Penn & Teller Expose Socialist Roots To Environmental Hysteria

Global warming and psycho bears; Knut... A cautionary tale of animal celebrity

Wachovia Loses $8.9B, Exits Wholesale Mortgage

Tax Burden Continues Shift to the Rich Under Bush Tax Policy

Sanctuary For Citizens

My theory is that the Dems control all of the major cities in the USA: New York, D.C., Miami, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, LA, Denver, San Fran, Seattle, San Diego, et al. Their game plan is to give the illegals this next term in Congress and then they will control the major population areas. This all about power and retaining it. Once the Illegals get amnesty, there will be up to another 120M potential citizens voting Dem as payback for their loyalty.

Teen Pregnancy, Hollywood Style

Economic Freedom as a Human Right

LA Times gag on John Edwards love child story

Blame the Government

As our country was being built the citizens when faced by adversity would ask themselves two questions. Should the government do anything about this problem, and what can the government do about this problem.
Today, after the domination of entitlement programs and after several generations of government dependence has been instilled in our population socialism in this country exists and has created a government dependent society for about half of us.
Now the people ask, when is the government going to do something about this problem and how much money can I get out of it.
This is not a subtle change. This is not a healthy change for our people. I do believe that in the end it is a terminal change for our nation. If you want to see what always happens to socialist countries look at the final result of the USSR.

3 posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 01:35:30 PM by oldenuff2no

Sleaze Scuppers Democrat Golden Boy (John Edwards sex scandal)

Obama's brother is in Bracknell (UK) (OBAMA Sr. ALREADY HAD WIFE IN KENYA, WHEN OBAMA WAS BORN)

PRUDEN: When snake oil was in season

Video: Barack Obama: The Child - The Messiah - The Obamessiah

THE DAILY SHOW: OBAMA QUEST: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RHINE

CARE PACKAGES for our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2008

High oil prices heat up pellet stove sales

MICHAEL BARONE: "Sometimes public opinion doesn't flow smoothly; it shifts sharply when a tipping point is reached. Case in point: gas prices. $3 a gallon gas didn't change anybody's mind about energy issues. $4 a gallon gas did. . . . In a country with less in the way of checks and balances, which can be gamed by adroit lobbyists and litigators, we would be building more nuclear plants, and would be drilling offshore and in ANWR. We would be phasing out the corn ethanol subsidies that are enriching Iowa farmers and impoverishing Mexican tortilla eaters, and we would be repealing the 54-cent tariff on Brazilian sugar ethanol (the sugar for which would be produced not in defoliated Amazon rainforests but in the desolate and currently unused certao)."

Don't Let Them Fake It

Senate Republicans have taken a strong stand on energy: they won't cooperate in bringing legislation on any other topic to the floor until the Democrats allow a vote on expanding our domestic energy supplies. Mitch McConnell says:

We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of the country. This is the biggest issue since terrorism right after 9/11. People are pounding on their desks, saying, Why don’t these people get together and do something about this problem?

Yesterday the Republicans put that principle into action, blocking the Democrats' silly "anti-speculation" legislation because the Democrats would not permit votes on amendments that would expand drilling for oil and gas. The cloture vote was almost perfectly party-line, highlighting the fact that the Republicans want to expand domestic energy supplies, but the Democrats don't.

After the vote, a frustrated Harry Reid lashed out at reporters.

The Democrats' delusion that they can somehow regulate the global oil market is one more sign that they are living in the past.

To comment on this post, go here.

Posted by John at 8:36 AM | Permalink

They've got that global warming thing down cold (In 1975 icecaps were to be covered with soot)

Textbook Terrorism - Islamofascism

India: 29 dead after 17 blasts

More Bombings In India

For the second day in a row, terrorists have launched coordinated bomb attacks in India. This time, more than a dozen bombs went off within 36 minutes in the western city of Ahmedabad. At least 29 are dead and more than 100 wounded; two of the bombs targeted hospital emergency rooms to which victims of earlier bombs had been rushed. Many of the victims were struck by flying nuts and bolts that were packed with the explosives. A Muslim extremist group admitted guilt in connection with the attacks.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat state, said, "Terrorists are waging a war against India. We should be prepared for a long battle against terrorism."

To comment on this post, go here.

Posted by John at 3:41 PM | Permalink

Nobody Is Murdered for Christian or Jewish Satire

IBD: At Least 20,000 Terrorists In The US

July 26th, 2008

Once again front page above the fold news from the editors of Investor’s Business Daily: 4 Comments »

The Far Left's War on Direct Democracy

JOHN FUND: A war on democracy? Well, that "voice of the people" stuff is hard on elites.

TIM CAVANAUGH on the Seventies and the sexual revolution. "I always suspect that what was driving the suburban swingers who (at least in popular imagination) hit the key party circuit a few years later was a sense of having missed the party, that great opening up of consciousness and legs that marked the blissed-out sixties. Everybody has been plagued by the sense that somebody somewhere is getting laid in ecstatic new ways while you're slaving over a hot stove. But suburbanites in the early seventies had actual reason to believe it."

Latino vs Black Violence Drives Hate Crimes in L.A. County to 5 Year High

Another day in the Twin Cities

Last week we wrote (here and here) about the murderous July 4 gang assault on the father of a 12-year-old girl who was sexaully harassed at the local Twin Cities-area Valleyfair amusement park. The assailants knocked the girl's father to the ground and took turns stomping on his head.

The Star Tribune has failed to report any information on the criminal records of those charged with the assault. Easily accessible court records indicate that the very young adult defendants have a long record of criminal charges and convictions including aggravated robbery and promoting prostitution. Several of these assailants should not have been walking the street at the time of the assault. Unfortunately, they now appear to be out on bail.

I raised the question whether these apparently related defendants were the next generation of the notorious Minneapolis-based Evans family gang. In 1999 and 2000, 18 Evans family gang members were convicted or pled guilty in federal court to operating a juvenile prostitution ring. Twelve of the 18 were actual family members.

This past Sunday Star Tribune columnist (and my friend) Katherine Kersten devoted a column to the Valleyfair assault. Referring to hip-hop, Kathy ascribed responsibility for the assault "to part of a culture that is all around us and flourishes with our blessing." Speaking in its institutional voice, the Star Tribune looked to the usual "root causes." Both Kathy's cultural explanation and the Star Tribune's reference to root causes diffuse responsibility so broadly as to render it meaningless.

Neither the Kersten column nor the Star Tribune editorial connected closely with the facts of the Valleyfair assault. More than anything, additional information is needed, especially about the defendants.

The gist of the Star Tribune editorial -- instructing readers to overcome racist thoughts about the assault -- led many readers to infer that the victim of the assault was white. As I discovered talking to reporter Jim Adams on Friday last week, however, the victim and his family are black. Nevertheless, the Star Tribune only got around to reporting it in this story yesterday.

At the time I spoke with him last week Adams had not been contacted by anyone on the Star Tribune editorial board and was unaware of the Star Tribune editorial that had appeared that day on the Valleyfair assault. I therefore doubt the Star Tribune editorial writer knew that the Valleyfair victim was black. Coincidentally, the typical intraracial character of the Valleyfair assault tends to demonstrate how misguided the Star Tribune's race-based sympathy for the perpetrators of such offenses is.

Looking vainly for more information about the Valleyfair assault in the Star Tribune last Saturday, I instead found a horrendous wave of violent crime reported in the paper. At the top of page 1 Heron Marquez Estrada reported on the murder of the mother of the murderer's ex-girlfriend in "New Brighton murder suspect made a hit list."

At the bottom of page 1 Rochelle Olson reported on the sentencing of a woman sent away for 40 years for a four-year-old's beating death. Olson's story ran under the attention-grabbing headline "A family's anguished cry: 'Why?'"

On the front page of the Star Tribune's local news section, Paul Levy reported on a husband's knife murder of his wife and torching of their home in "Long-seething rage erupts in wife's slaying, flames." Levy leads with the perpetrator's status as a wounded, alcoholic Vietnam vet.

Elsewhere on the same page Jim Adams reports the story "Recently released con followed, killed elderly woman." Here the perpetrator brutally wielded a kitchen knife to kill his 90-year-old victim after robbing her in her suburban Twin Cities apartment.

Unlike the other serious crimes reported in last Saturday's paper, this murder is an interracial affair. The defendant is black and the victim (Irene Kunze) was white. The Star Tribune devoted a separate story to Ms. Kunze in "Mother's 9 decades were well-lived, daughter says."

Another serious crime reported in last Saturday's paper -- relegated to page B4 -- is one that I wrote about last year in "Rage against the bail." On Saturday Anthony Lonetree reported "Tragic past won't save convicted rapist from hard time." This story has obvious cultural components.

Somali immigrant Rage Ibrahim was charged with the horrifying rape of a Somali woman in an apartment hallway while as many as ten bystanders (most or all of whom were Somali, if I am not mistaken) looked on. These bystander witnesses refused to testify against Ibrahim at trial. He was convicted on the basis of a hallway video recording of the rape.

The perpetrator attributed his misconduct to alcholism. His attorney threw in post-traumatic stress disorder as well. The victim did not attend the sentencing or even provide the judge a written statement. According to the prosecutor, "she is being shunned by the Somali community."

Finally, also on page B4, the Star Tribune briefly reported on the case of a man accused of spraying pepper spray in a baby's face. The baby is the man's one-year-old daughter. The man is charged with 12 felony counts including beating the girl's mother and her friend.

Each one of these crimes could usefully be illuminated by additional information and each certainly warrants further analysis. That these local crimes all crop up in the paper in a single day also strikes me as a story unto itself.

To comment on this post, go here.

Posted by Scott at 7:46 AM | Permalink

===============================================

JOHN EDWARDS AFFAIR: CRIMINAL COMPLAINT FILED

All the News that Fits the Agenda ( AKA, the 'narrative...' )

I don't think we've written anything about the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter story. It isn't really our beat. As Roger Simon points out, however, the press's boycott of the story has become newsworthy in its own right, with the Los Angeles Times ordering its bloggers not to mention it.

I also find it ironic (though hardly surprising) that the New York Times has yet to mention the Edwards/Hunter story. The contrast with its behavior vis-a-vis John McCain is obvious: in that case, the Times didn't just report on a baseless rumor about McCain, it actually started the rumor. Given that Edwards is a former vice-presidential nominee, until recently a candidate for President, and currently, once again, a possible vice-presidential nominee, the paper's attitude toward the two stories can be reconciled only by the fact that McCain is a Republican and Edwards a Democrat.

To comment on this post, go here.

Posted by John at 8:18 AM | Permalink

ANOTHER MEMO TO BLOGGERS ABOUT THE EDWARDS./HUNTER AFFAIR at the L.A. Times.

I'll just note that the L.A. Times didn't have the same concern for propriety when it published what Larry Lessig described as "a baseless smear" against Judge Kozinski just last month. Conveniently flexible, those journalistic "standards."

UPDATE: In the London Times: Sleaze Scuppers Democrat Golden Boy. "The New York Times has not deigned to touch the story, although it recently ran thousands of words on a relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist, which appeared to be based more on innuendo than fact." As I say, flexible standards.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Richard Fernandez: "The irony is that the John Edwards legend and all of its props were created by artful manipulation of the media. Nobody objected to that. But when the National Enquirer threatened to introduce the legend to its opposite there was a hue and cry about their lack of professionalism, etc. It may be pertinent to point out the Enquirer’s offense wasn’t entirely against the privacy of three people. Their real crime was to threaten to expose the facade built up with the help of parts of the press itself; to destroy the accepted narrative with an inconvenient fact. The news wasn’t that two people were having an affair at the Beverly Hilton; the real headline was that a carefully contrived myth was in danger of being exploded."

MORE: Reader James Ruhland emails: "You say they have 'conveniently flexible' standards. But that's not true. They are very consistent in applying two standards: One for the Left, and one for everyone else. The standards aren't flexible at all, but very rigidly consistent when recognized, and are employed not just by journalists but across the board by the elect in this brave new world in which we live in." I stand corrected. And I appreciate the subtle James Bond/Paul McCartney reference, which is very appropriate.

Print the legend

Roger Simon comments on the Edwards/National Enquirer affair. Roger writes:

Some cheap psychoanalysis. I would guess that Edwards, like many cheaters, wanted to be caught. After all, it is hard to conceive he would be that dumb as to conduct a tryst in this modern/post-Bill Clinton era in, of all places, the Beverly Hilton. The Hilton — where such events as the Pre-Oscar luncheon and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent victory celebration are held — would be among the last places you would choose. It’s often a virtual den of paparazzi with staff and others always standing by to tip the gossip press on the latest celeb sighting. There are thousands of places in Southern California more low key for such a meeting. If Edwards is indeed that dumb, we are certainly lucky he never became President. Among those who should be scratching their heads at this moment are his supporters.

(more…)

Read bullet | (49) Comments bullet

Buy a billboard near the LA Freeway and put this on it:

His Wife Is Dying of Cancer
He Was With HIs Mistress
He Might Become Vice-President
The LA Times Did Not Think You Have The Right to Know.

No further explanation should be offered.( Or needed...)

“When every peccadillo of our right wing politicians, real or imagined, becomes a feeding frenzy in our media, and the first black Muslim born offspring of an Islamic harem is blatantly glossed over and placed off limits through vicious Press attacks and intimidation, you know we’ve gone very far down some kind of scary rabbit hole.”

For those who believe anything, it's easy to believe in Obama

S. 2433: Global Poverty Act of 2007 (Obama's Revenge on America) ...reparations for Africa...

He came, he saw, he sprinkled us with stardust. Even Gordon smiled (two bag barf alert)

A Tale from the Land of Fifty-seven States
American Thinker ^ | July 27, 2008 | Lee Cary

Posted on Sunday, July 27, 2008 02:34:00 AM by neverdem

In the eighth year of the third millennium, near the time the earth's Great Cooling began, a London town crier called Gerard the Baker heralded the coming of the Child who was the Anointed One. The London Baker's news fell upon many among the people with shock and awe as it offered a gift uncommon to the silly season -- laughter.

It was also true that, in the Land of Fifty-seven States, there were those among the town criers who took note of the Baker's proclamation with cold silence, for they knew that the Child was Him who was of their choosing. They had selected him from the herd called Candidates.

Now, among the criers were three Wise Anchors who brought gifts to the Child from the East. Katie of Couric, Brian son of Williams, and Charles of Gibson. They offered Favor, Deference, and Praise.

Along with Matthews of the Tingling Leg, Blitzer the Wolf, Howard called Fineman, Joseph in Klein, and many others among the loudest criers of the land, they had, as a guild, decided that the Child would be the Chosen One. When their eyes had first fallen upon him they all, with one voice, cried out, "This is the one for whom we have waited. Him we shall exalt above all others, and in exalting him, we too shall know the glory of exaltation."

So it was that whenever the Chosen One spoke, the criers of the land would make straight his crooked ways and pave smooth his path to ascension. For in placing him high upon the shoulders of the people, they hoped to uplift themselves.

Yet, there was another who aspired to be chosen. One called John the Warrior. Once upon a time, he had been the one from the Clan of Elephants most favored by the town criers, even over the clan's elder, Bush the Younger. Warrior John did not know that the criers had used him to foil the exploits of the one they called "W," for John was himself not without ambition.

John the Warrior was shocked and awed to find that he had fallen from favor in the eyes of the criers, for they no longer spoke his name, nor were they heard to refer to him anymore as Maverick.

Alas, the light of insight shined full bright on Warrior John the day the senior crier, Old Gray Lady, falsely claimed that John had known a woman of the Lobby Guild. The scales fell from John's eyes and he knew he was no longer a wild horse, but had been set, in the minds of the town criers, out to pasture. And so it was that John the Warrior knew he must steel himself for hard jousting with His Obamaness, the Favored One, for powerful were the forces that had chosen the Child.

Posted at 12:02 AM | Email | Permalink

"Obama Will Change the World" Says His Step Mother

The Well (Mexico going after deep offshore oil}

Washington Post: "Oil May Become GOP's 2008 Issue"

Is Offshore Drilling a Viable Solution to Energy Needs? YES! )

VIRGINIA: Sitting on the energy mother lode! "In Pittsylvania County, just north of the North Carolina border, the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the United States -- and the seventh largest in the world, according to industry monitor UX Consulting -- sits on land owned by neighbors Henry Bowen and Walter Coles. Large uranium deposits close to the surface are virtually unknown in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. And that may be the problem. Virginia is one of just four states that ban uranium mining. . . . Yet it is not as if we have no experience with uranium mining, which is in fact relatively harmless."

PETER HUBER LOOKS behind the carbon curtain:

To judge by actions, not words, the carbon-warming view hasn't come close to persuading a political majority even in nations considered far more environmentally enlightened than China and India. Europe's coal consumption is rising, not falling, and the Continent won't come close to meeting the Kyoto targets for carbon reduction. Australia is selling coal to all comers.
On the far side of the environmental curtain China already mines and burns more coal than any other country. Together, China and India control more than one-fifth of the planet's vast coal reserves. Dar predicts--very plausibly, in my view--that the two countries may fire up a new coal plant as often as once a week for the next 25 years, adding about twice as much coal-fired generating capacity as the U.S. has today. Persian Gulf states are planning significant coal imports, because coal generates much cheaper electricity than oil or gas.
In developing countries the political survival of the people at the top depends on providing affordable fuel for kitchens, farms, fertilizer plants, steel mills, highways and power plants. Oil and coal are the only practical fuels at hand.

Read the whole thing.

Murder in the Family: Honor Killings in America