November 17, 2008
For all the love and devotion he has inspired because of what he is, who he is still is still a largely unvetted, untested and inexperienced politician prone to exquisite gaffes when not following a prepared script. I jest in the headline that President Elect Obama is "Dan Quayle with Good P.R." but even that sadly over-inflates Obama's record.
By the time Quayle was Vice President, he'd been twice elected to the House of Representatives and twice elected to the Senate, and his ticket with George H.W. Bush won the 1992(no coffee today)88 Presidential election with a 53–46 percent popular vote margin by capturing 40 states and capturing 426 electoral votes.
But even worse that his insufficient record—and his associations with various radicals—is his utter foolishness in letting people create such high expectations of him when he knows they cannot be met.
In some ways I pity Obama for the unpopularity and outright hatred he is going to receive from his manic supporters when reality dashes their unrealistic hopes, but then I look at how Obama fed that mystique, encouraged unrealistic expectations, and made empty promises to everyone.
Barack Obama cannot be what he allowed the media, his own campaign, and his most ardent supporters built him into. No one can.
And he will have no one to blame but himself.
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November 16, 2008
Maryland Gomez, 61, was killed early Saturday morning when a tornado destroyed her home in Kenly, North Carolina. The Raleigh News and Observer ran the photo above, dominating page 1A above the fold in their Sunday paper. The photo is credited to Cary News photographer named Michael McLoone, and shows a Gomez family photo of the victim amid the wreckage of her home.
I may very well be wrong, but I suspect that this photo is staged.
Tornadoes are capable of astounding choreography, dancing over one home without disturbing a shingle, only to smash a neighboring home to kindling. Sometimes they'll even demolish an entire home, only to leave items in a single room almost untouched.
But I find it very hard to believe that:
this particular tornado,
on this particular night,
smashed this particular home,
and killed this particular woman,
and placed this particular photo,
ripped so delicately from its frame,
on this particular half of a smashed table,
with no human intervention,
while all beyond it is chaos.
Update: The N&O responds via email:
...There was no staging or Photoshop manipulation involved in the photo My [sic] Michael McLoone from the tornado aftermath. The situation was exactly as the photographer found it, and was not altered. This was indicated by the photographer in his communication with the photo desk on that day, and I have confirmed that in another conversation. Several friends, family members, and neighbors had been through the site, working to recover belongings of the family, and others had brought items found nearby back to the scene, where they were left.
It appears that the family photograph may have been placed on the table by human hands in the aftermath of the storm; the editors are simply claiming that the photographer was not responsible for the manipulation.
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November 14, 2008
Our soldiers in Iraq have played many roles and worn many hats, but it seems that their primary role now is that of a peacekeeper, providing support to a government and a people that seem increasingly capable of handling their own affairs.
We can declare victory because President Bush wouldn't quit on his troops. If Barack Obama had his way, a triumphant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would have had a chance to have made the same claim over the Caliphate of Iraq.
Glenn Reynolds has more.
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It seems the man you entrusted with your vote lied about his relationship with domestic terrorist and attempted mass murderer Bill Ayers.
Many of you either didn't hear about Ayers, or accepted Obama's evolving explanations that Ayers was "just a guy in his neighborhood," or someone that he thought had gone through some sort of terrorist rehabilitation—perhaps at the Yasser Arafat wing of the Betty Ford Clinic.
But now that Ayers has come out and admitted that their relationship is very close—"family friends" is how he put it—how does that make you feel?
I ask, becuase as Malcolm once explained, you've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, led amok. YouÂ’ve been bamboozled.
You've been conned in to voting the family friend of a known terrorist into the White House.
How does that make you feel?
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November 13, 2008
Others had previously attempted to claim Obama was ineligible for federal office because they claimed he did not register for the Selective Service System as required by law. I though I had debunked this claim in an investigation I did for Pajamas Media, when I contacted a Selective Service representative and he verified Obama's registration.
Mr. Owens,Barack Hussein Obama registered at a post office in Hawaii. The effective registration date was September 4, 1980.
His registration number is 61-1125539-1.
I though that confirmation was the end of this line of doubt, but Debbie Schlussel reports that a retired agent who obtained a copy of Obama's registration via a FOIA request suspects that the registration was forged.
How solid is the case they've made? I have no idea.
On the surface it raises some very interesting questions and potential inconsistencies, but I simply lack the technical (and historical) background to judge how much merit the individual claims are, or know if any are potential "smoking guns."
Take a look folks, and let me know what you think.
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November 12, 2008
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In Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin's controversial helicopter-borne culling of wolf packs has proven to be life-saving for an Alaskan caribou herd in danger of extinction. At times, shooting even beautiful wild things is a better option than doing nothing. Her pragmatic approach to wildlife management offers a caribou herd a second chance. Don't look for the animal rights groups that attacked Palin for the culling program to congratulate her on it succeeding.
Advocating the shooting of people, however, especially the President-Elect, isn't a good idea, as some N.C. State students are no doubt learning.
State has what it calls the Free Expression Tunnel where students are encouraged to communicate controversial ideas and thoughts without criticism as an exercise in free speech. That free expression stops when racial slurs are spray painted, along with the graffiti "Shoot Obama." The NAACP is now involved, pushing for the students involved to be punished by the University since criminal charges will not be filed. The right to free speech is not a freedom from responsibility.
But what about shooting some friends of the President-Elect? Is that permissible?
Someone pointed out that Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and others in the domestic terror group called the Weather Underground formally declared war against the United States, but that they were not aware that the WU ever signed a formal peace treaty. If someone decided to take a shot at members, could they argue they were targeting known enemy combatants?
I strongly suspect that defense would utterly fail in court, so I'd advise not testing it. Besides, if someone was successful in terminating them as they planned to do to 25 million of us, what would President Obama do? He'd no longer be The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers.
And speaking even more of Obama and guns, it appears that his campaign and election have done wonders for gun and ammunition sales, even as his policies seem ripe to wreck the rest of the economy.
Gun shops across America are seeing a massive increase in sales of both guns and ammunition as a result of Obama's historic victory. His record of supporting bans on all semi-automatic firearms and all handguns, his stated desire to reinstate the ineffectual Clinton-era ban on assault weapons, and fears that a Democratic Congress may attempt to raise prohibitive taxes on firearms has led to a shortage of certain kinds of firearms and ammunition across the country. In particular, semi-automatic rifles that would potentially be affected by such a ban are difficult to keep in stock, and many retailers are back-ordered.
I only how much more sales will increase when Americans learn that Obama actively sought to undermine the Second Amendment as a director of the rabidly anti-gun Joyce Foundation.
Quite by accident, Barack Obama seems poised to do more to increase gun ownership by American citizens than any President in history.
If I wasn't so bitter and clingy, I'd be thrilled.
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Barack Obama: A Leader for the 'We' Generation is a nauseated gush of emoting from George that one reads in building suspense, waiting for a punchline that never comes.
Somehow, the author pens a screed on Obama's executive leadership qualities that completely avoids discussing his one actual turn as an executive.
George trumpets the coming of the One as only a true believer can, beginning:
The sweeping victory of Barack Obama ushers in a new era of leadership that will affect every aspect of American institutions and that sounds a death knell for the top-down, power-oriented leadership prevalent in the 20th century.A new style of "bottom-up, empowering" leadership focusing on collaboration will sweep the country. A new wave of 21st century authentic leaders will take oversee U.S. institutions of every type: business, education, health care, religion, and nonprofits. These new leaders recognize that an organization of empowered leaders at every level will outperform "command-and-control" organizations every time.
The 20th century leaders focused on money, fame, and power, earning the title of the "me" generation. Their leadership destroyed many great institutions, as evidenced by the failures of Enron, WorldCom, and dozens of companies like them. The recent fiascos on Wall Street can be traced to the failure of "me" leaders who put themselves ahead of their institutions.
Mr. George is a Harvard Business School professor of management practice and former CEO, but from his emotion-driven rhetoric, you have every reason to suspect you might have stumbled into the conspiracy-and-unicorn-laced Huffington Post by accident.
Bottom-up leadership is of course preposterous; the people at the bottom of business culture in companies both large and small are those that are either to inexperienced to have yet shown evidence of leadership, or are those who simply have no talent or "head" for it. As for a collaborative model of leadership, anyone who has participated in a PTA project or organizing a youth league team dinner knows that collaborative, decision-by-committee leadership immediately leads to paralysis and incompetence.
Or in other words, Congress.
But putting an inexperienced leader in charge is our pending Presidential reality, so perhaps George's praise of bottom-up leadership is a desperate bid for hope—but somehow, I don't think so. No, Mr. George clearly, has bought into hope as a business model. Even the MBAs at the Vatican won't go that far.
But what is most notable in George's praise of the kind of leadership Barack Obama's leadership will inspire, is his utter refusal to discuss Obama's singular, failed turn as an executive.
As I noted in the comment's of George's praise and worship piece:
Mr. George, it seems very significant omission that you failed to mention Obama's one actual executive leadership experience, the multi-million dollar failure known as the Chicago Annenburg Challenge (CAC).The CAC was shut down after Obama and his mentor, a former domestic terrorist named Bill Ayers, helped funnel grant money to groups more interested in indoctrination than education (Ayers' Small School Workshop got more than $1 million). The Chicago school children that were supposed to be helped by more than $100 million in funds saw the bulk of it frittered away, with dismal results.
You cannot justify your grandiose claims based upon a thin record of proven failure, sir.
You own your readers an explanation, Mr. George, for providing them with unsound counsel.
Bill George doesn't want to discuss is Barack Obama's actual and proven record of failure in his only previous executive position.
Let's hope for our nation's sake that at least Obama has remained sober enough to realize that empty promises of hope and change are find for the stump, but hemlock in the boardroom.
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November 11, 2008
Please take a moment today to remember those who've served in this nation's military. We owe them our freedom, and owe them our heartfelt thanks.
I'll be offline most of the day today paying my last respects to a WWII U.S. Army veteran, my grandfather, R.W. Barbee, who passed this past Saturday.
We love you.
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November 10, 2008
BOSTON, MA, Nov 10, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — "A disturbing increase in reports that gun sales are dramatically increasing now that the presidential election is over indicates that other forms of intentional mayhem such as bio-chemical assaults might also increase," said BioDefense Corporation ( http://www.biod.com), producers of the new MAIL DEFENDER complete mailroom security solution."Incoming mail containing white powder discovered recently at major metropolitan daily newspapers, wire services and hundreds of other offices across the country are not 'hoaxes.' Rather, they are 'bio-chemical assaults,' with obvious intent to harm, disrupt, or even kill," said a spokesperson for BioDefense Corporation.
Large corporations, major financial institutions and businesses forced to lay off employees in difficult economic times are the bio-criminal's "bull's eye." Recent media tracking shows that mentions of "anthrax" and "white powder" hoaxes in newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and online media number in the thousands every week.
"MAIL DEFENDER, already hard at work at several high-level government and financial institutions, is the first line of defense against these criminal acts," the BioDefense spokesperson added. "A simple letter mailed for 42 cents should not have the power to disrupt and stop large organizations, unfairly tie up first-responder resources, and otherwise add to today's already anxiety-ridden environment," he said.
So Boston-based Bio-Defense hopes to reduce "today's already anxiety-ridden environment," by drawing utterly unsupportable correlations between the lawful purchase of a legal and Constitutionally-protected commodity by law-abiding U.S. citizens and vague reports of terrorist acts, in order to sell a product that they—surprise, surprise—just happen to have on hand.
I'm guessing they aren't part of the condescending 52.
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President Elect Barack Obama is looking at Jamie Gorelick as a possibly candidate for Attorney General. Gorelick is best know for her role in Bill Clinton's Justice Department creating a "wall" that kept American intelligence and law enforcement agencies from communicating with each other, which contributed significantly to security lapses that led to al Qaeda's success on 9/11.
But even without that taint of corruption, Gorelick would signal a return to incompetence and infighting. Gorelick played a major role in keeping counterterrorist and law-enforcement agents from sharing information and "connecting the dots" before 9/11. In a series of judgments at the DoD and at Justice during her tenure in the Clinton administration, Gorelick hamstrung our efforts to find and disarm terrorist infiltrators by discouraging any cooperation between intelligence and enforcement efforts by making "the wall" much more significant than Congress ever intended.Gorelick wound up serving as a panelist on the 9/11 Commission, but she should have been served a subpoena instead. Two memos from Clinton-appointed US Attorney Mary Jo White made this point crystal clear, as did an explanation from someone involved for years in the counterterrorist effort. Gorelick imposed an unrealistic standard on intelligence gathering that led directly to the 9/11 attacks. As AG, she would have even more power to reimpose those same limitations, and leave us just as blind as we were before those attacks.
Gorelick's fundamental incompetence played a role in the deaths of thousands of Americans, and that Obama is even considering her for such a position merely serves to highlight his own lack of judgment.
Obama is also secretly planning U.S. trials for terrorist prisoners of war. Like Bush's military tribunals, such trials fly in the face of the Geneva conventions and established historical customs, which stands firmly against the trial of POWs during a conflict for fear of unfair show trials. As I understand it, the proper method of dealing with POWs is to hold them in confinement until the conflict is over or until a prisoner exchange is implemented. Look for an Obama Justice Department unfettered by reality to set many, many terrorists free because soldiers fighting a war aren't equipped to collect evidence and play CSI-Tora Bora the way unreasonable ideologues prefer.
We learn all of this after finding out that al Qaeda, with all of their usual bluster, is once again claiming to have plans afoot for new wave of terror strikes on the West that will dwarf 9/11.
After 9/11, President Bush did everything within his power to keep another wave of terror attacks from claiming lives on U.S. soil. Obama's obvious contempt for President Bush seems to be detrimentally impacting his decisions, as he seems to imagining he can somehow return to a 9/10 world.
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You do remember the last eight years, right?
You lost in Florida. Remember how you reacted? "Selected, not elected," and "Not my President" were the order of the day. But that was just the beginning. You kept nursing your grudge, cultivating it, stocking it, and formed insular, community-based realities to echo and increase your hysteria.
That budding insanity you reveled in helped lead to ever-more vicious rants and vitriol, of course, including the "Chimperor" angle, where the lesser accomplished of you bashed the President's intellect, and later, of course, the frothing "Bushilter" and "Darth Cheney" rants.
Perhaps even worse, you let your contempt for President Bush and Vice President Cheney spread to hate those who put their lives on the line to serve this nation in your defense.
What, you don't remember these proud moments?
You swallowed false media accounts of civilians massacres uncritically because it reinforced your simplistic worldview and your biases against our soldiers, and even paid for the full-page "General Betray Us" ad in the New York Times.
You tried to lose the Iraq War and pull our troops out even as the surge was succeeding, even when such a defeat could endanger hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Iraqi civilian lives. Why? Just to hang a defeat on George W. Bush's neck... and to validate your worldview.
So pardon me, if after eight years of your hate, if I find your sudden desire to mend fences and become one big happy family to be just another self-serving ploy.
The sad fact of the matter is that after years of whining, screaming and crying that you've been ignored, cheated, and oppressed, you are now in charge, and you will have no more excuses for the failed ideologies you continue to support.
You have an impressive majority in the Senate. You have an insurmountable majority in the House of Representatives. You have a President-Elect with a record of being far, far left (not to be confused with his recent moderate campaign rhetoric that is already being abandoned). You've got all the power, and all the responsibility.
After all these years of carping, you're now in charge, and we'll see how your ideas stand up under real world conditions. Good luck with that.
You elected a man whose singular accomplishment prior to winning the Presidency was fertilizing an egg.
He has no record of executive leadership. He has no foreign policy experience. He has no economic experience. He was under-performing state Senator laughed at by his peers just four years ago.
And so it is very obvious that you want us to buy into his Presidency not because you want us to share his great visions of hope and change and unicorns, but because you've suddenly realized what kind of disaster you put into the White House. You don't want to share success; you want cover when it all comes apart.
So enjoy your two years of unquestioned power, 52. We'll see you at the midterms, and see if you're still smiling and reaching out when it isn't so self-serving.
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November 07, 2008
I can empathize with gays who want to marry their partners, but do they really think that threatening to burn churches—or worse, actually carrying out that threat—is going to do anything but hurt them in the long run? And do the dolts at the Huffington Post really think that an attempt to attack the Mormon Church over this issue is really accomplish anything other than further marginalizing gay marriage proponents?
I'm generally agnostic on gay marriage, and suspect my willingness to vote on a proposition for or against it would be swayed by how the two side of the debate handled themselves.
Agree with them or not, the Catholics and Mormons that supported Prop 8 did so (as best I can tell) as we hope citizens will, raising money, holding rallies, etc. What have the California gay marriage proponents offered in return? Threats against the churches. Racist epithets. Bullying tactics meant to intimidate and terrorize those that financially backed Prop 8.
All else being equal, my gut reaction is to empathize with those being attacked by angry mobs. I suspect others feel that way as well.
Gay marriage supporters may have legitimate arguments, but nobody is going to hear them over calls for violent and repeated shouts of "n*gger!"
Not content with losing the battle for public opinion, they now seem intent on forfeiting the war.
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11:05 PM
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The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nationÂ’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.
I am all for volunteering, and think it is something that people should do as they are able. My wife and I find it to be spiritually rewarding in addition to being something that helps the community, and I'm proud to say that our elementary-aged daughter recently raised hundreds of dollars worth of food and cleaning supplies for a local animal shelter based on her desire to help.
But such service—any service—requires earnest and enthusiastic volunteers to be successful in the long-term, not dis-spirited, perhaps resentful draftees.
The required service Obama proposes is nothing more than dressed-up impressment or conscription, and is unpaid forced labor. Stripping the racial overtones from slavery by requiring all to participate doesn't make it any less degrading. Involuntary servitude is reprehensible in any guise, and we should not suddenly embrace it as a consequence of "change" under the Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers.
Claudia Rosette is wary of the motives of our statist President Elect, and rightfully wonders if he is a threat to individual freedoms.
Time was when America's creed could be summed up pretty well by the words of the 18th-century revolutionary Patrick Henry, whose reply in 1775 to the oppressive ways of British colonial rule was: "Give me liberty, or give me death."In the American system built around that creed, the monstrous original failing and contradiction was the institution of slavery. America paid for that with a civil war, followed by another century in which, finally--about the time of Obama's childhood--segregation and discrimination began to give way to the equality and opportunities that Obama has now surfed to the presidency. Liberty prevailed.
The irony is that Obama arrives at the threshold of the White House steeped in ideas that subordinate individual freedom to the collective. In his campaign and his victory speech, Obama declares that America's "timeless creed" is now, "yes, we can." This is not a defense of liberty. It is a declaration so malleable and generic that it could have applied to anything from Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution to the Little Engine that Could.
Obama has called repeatedly upon America's people to sacrifice. What's not yet clear is whether this will entail sacrifice in the common defense of liberty, or whether it is liberty itself that will step by step be sacrificed in the name of the common good. If the latter, the implications are indeed world-changing. For the past century, America has stood as the world's great bulwark of freedom. That can no longer be taken as a given. Americans will be hard pressed to support freedom elsewhere if they do not protect it at home.
A propensity towards tyranny comes easily for statists, and when Obama trumpets his desire for radical change and hope, you would be wise to listen closely to what he is actually proposing and pushing to implement as law. Is he talking about what is best for individual Americans, or is he pushing his belief of how a larger government is better for... someone?
Update: At least he's a gutless statist.
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A homicide bomber attacked a gathering of anti-militant Pakistani tribesmen Thursday, killing nine and wounding 45 in a northwestern region where the military has clashed with insurgents for months, officials said.The attack in the Batmalai area of the Bajur tribal region was the latest to target tribal militias that have sprung up — with government backing — to take on Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters nested along the Afghan border.
Pakistan launched an offensive in Bajur three months ago to dismantle what it said was a virtual Taliban mini-state that is a source of militants flowing into Afghanistan.
The Salarzai tribesmen were preparing to stage an assault on local militant hide-outs when the blast occurred, said Iqbal Khattak, a government official. Malik Rahimullah, a tribal elder, said the bomb exploded as soon as armed contingents began to move.
He and officials initially said it appeared that a remote-controlled bomb was used, but later Khattak said mutilated body parts of an apparent homicide bomber were found, and that witnesses said they saw a young man rushing into the crowd before the explosion.
Amir Khan, a tribesman, said the scene was littered with severed limbs and that several tribal elders were among the dead.
After failing in their own efforts against the Taliban, al Qaeda, and related groups, the Pakistani military has attempted to spur a tribal rebellion against these groups akin to the "Awakening" movement in Iraq. These efforts will fail.
The question is whether or not the war in the tribal areas will spread into a civil war, and how secure Pakistan's nuclear warheads will be in the event of such a conflict.
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November 06, 2008
John Faulkner and his wife, Brenda, thought Wednesday was a good day to buy a handgun."I'm 37 years old, and this is the first time in my life that I am really scared for our future," said Faulkner, an oil field worker, as he perused the collection of weaponry in A Pawn Shop here.
At Aurora's Firing Line gun shop, Steve Wickham was also purchasing. "Anything I can get my hands on," he said as he cradled a $699 9mm handgun.
Same thing in Lakewood: "I was selling guns before I even opened the door," said George Horne, owner of The Gun Room. "It's gone completely mad. Everyone is buying everything I've got on the shelves. Sales have been crazy."
By midday Wednesday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's "Insta- Check" background check — required for the sale of a firearm and typically about 8 minutes long — was jammed with waits lasting more than two hours.Gun-shop owners and buyers said the urgency was fueled by Barack Obama's presidential win and Democrats' increasing their majority in Congress.
"I'm here because of Obama," Wickham said. "I think he's misinterpreted the Second Amendment. It's not about the right to hunt. It's about the right to defend yourself."
These scenes are being repeated all across the country.
As severe the rush is now, it would be even worse if more Americans knew of Obama's attempt to corrupt Constitutional scholarship while at the anti-gun Joyce Foundation. Barack Obama is a gun-banner at heart, and there is every reason for Americans to doubt his campaign's more moderate rhetoric when compared to his actual record.
Buy guns, America. It's good for the economy, good for the development of our nation's moral character, and our last bulwark against tyranny.
While you're at it, consider hitting the Paypal link in the sidebar to the right as a belated blogoversary present. What, you think that SLR 106FR is going to buy itself?
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Now that the campaign is over, however, some of McCain's staffers are seeking to blame others for the loss, instead of accepting defeat at the hands of an Obama campaign that was better focused, organized, and managed.
Michelle Malkin, Hot Air and Ace are just some of the blogs hunting down the anonymous McCain campaign sources so willing to blame someone else for their faliings. Red State has gone so far as to launch Operation Leper to run down and publicly name those unwilling to accept that it was their poor political skills and poorly run campaign that contributed to a campaign that never found its footing. So far they've named three McCain campaign staffers. I would not be surprised if there are a few more.
The people need to find another line of work.
John McCain's staff—no doubt including those leaking—ran an often unfocused campaign. If they want to start casting blame at those responsible, they better find a mirror first.
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11:12 AM
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states?
Jindal? Not much more experience as a Governor than Palin (maybe even less, haven't looked at the exact dates each took office), and he was in the middle of a real scandal with his state government raises.
Once you take a good, long, hard look at the alternatives, Palin suddenly doesn't look so bad.
And another point that's been brought out by other commentators... McCain picked her. Doesn't that reflect more negatively on McCain than it does Palin, even though she accepted?November 05, 2008
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Blogging has been very good to me. I've met some truly brilliant people as a result of blogging, both online and in person. Some of these people are bloggers and media personalities and politicians you may have heard of, and many more are commenters and those who actually do the things I write about, including soldiers, journalists, professors, and other hard-working Americans.
Those of you who do are are an inspiration to me, and keep me humble as I should be. Mostly, I write and reflect and pontificate. You make America—and other countries—work. I just hope that in some way I can contribute to furthering your far more important work, popularize those things you believe, and occasionally shine sunlight into those areas that need to be disinfected.
Thanks for the ride so far, folks.
I can only imagine what we'll do next.
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Smiley, who doubtlessly considered (and probably still considers) herself superior to most Americans, exposed an amusing sort of condescension as she sought to make a historical point involving the Civil War during her rant. It would have been far more biting and far less amusing if she had not gotten that history precisely backward.
Her arrogance and ignorance warranted correction, and led to this blog entry, my very first. Glenn Reynolds and Frank J both linked it (then on blogspot), and I've been hooked ever since, some 3239 blog entries, 34,000 reader comments, and 4.6 million page views later. It's been a good run thus far, and one that appears to be strengthening over time.
I'm quite sure that giddy liberals awoke this morning hoping to hear Smileyesque rants and tortured wails of defeat coming from those of us on the right, accompanied by empty threats of abandoning the country and declarations that Barack Obama isn't our President. It is what they did.
Such is not our style, however.
We love the United States. Through every conflict and war through the various permutations of the Democratic and Republican parties, we love the country, not its politicians. We know better than to subscribe to cults of personality, having seen the damage they've done to nations in other parts of the world.
And so we wish Barack Obama great success as our 44th President, because we want our country to succeed, for our children's sake. We want our kids to reach heights and have opportunities that their forefathers couldn't have imagined. We want them to have an ever-better world.
I'm sure that Democrats also want these things for their kids. We just have very different ideas on how to get there.
We now have a liberal President-Elect, a liberal-led Senate, and a liberal-led House of Representatives. They now have the power and the responsibility. We'll see how Hyde Park, Las Vegas, and San Francisco family values fare when applied to the rest of the nation.
Frankly, I have strong doubts about Barack Obama's capability to lead our nation. I will continue to oppose his policies and prescriptions that seem to oppose to goals of our Founding Fathers. But he is my President-Elect, chosen by my fellow Americans. I disagree with their choices, but I respect their right to make that choice. I won't insult them for their choices, but will instead attempt to be more persuasive in the next election.
In just two short years, in 2010, we'll ask our fellow Americans to consider what an Obama/Pelosi/Reid-led government has accomplished.
Two short years.
I can hardly wait.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at
11:44 AM
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