His connection to the unrepentant terrorist is closer than he wants Americans to realize -- and than the "In-The-Tank" Media are willing to report.

Am I calling Barack Obama a terrorist? No, I'm not -- and I'll even go so far as to accept that he deplores the attacks on law enforcement, US military, and the legislative branch of the federal government with which Ayers was personally connected. What's more, I'll concede that Barack Obama would never have condoned the intended attack on a dance at a military installation that was averted only by the premature detonation of the home-made anti-personnel device that killed Ayers' Weather Underground colleagues. Obama isn't a terrorist.

However, his willingness to go to work for one ought to raise serious questions in the eyes of each and every patriotic American. It is a matter of judgment -- and Obama has said that we should elect him because of his judgment, right?

Posted by: Greg at 03:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, the folks with the city of Seabrook still won't tell us when we can come home.

Not only are they not answering the number they told us to call for information, but it has been over 24 hours since they have bothered to update their website.

But not to worry -- they do have the manpower to block anyone from coming home to actually check on their property.

Sunday morning, residents of the tiny community of Seabrook near Johnson Space Center began trying to return home. They were met by a roadblock, and three Seabrook police officers standing in the rain, turning folks away. At times the line was six to 12 cars deep.

"It's gonna be a while," an officer shouted to one man as he made a U-turn. "Just listen to the news."

"Seabrook is a disaster area: no sewer, no infrastructure. It really isn't safe," said officer Charlie Skinner. "It's making residents pretty upset. I understand, but ... There's an order signed by the mayor. We can't let anybody in."

That's right -- the law-abiding folks who followed the mandatory evacuation order are not permitted home and are getting no information. The folks who flaunted it and stayed behind are being allowed to remain.

Seems to me that the approach being taken by the city officials in Seabrook is exactly what should not be done -- and the mismanagement of Mayor Renola, the City Council, the city manager, and the rest of the employees of Seabrook has been so bad that many people will refuse to evacuate in the future for fear of again being denied access to their homes by badge-and-gun wielding cops acting on orders from an unresponsive and unprepared city government.

Seabrook was once known as Recall City USA because of its frequent use of that tactic to get rid of unresponsive politicians. Expect it to happen again with the entire crew currently in charge.

UPDATE: Shortly after 11:00 PM, the city put out phone calls, emails, and updated its website to inform residents that those on the west side of town can return home after 6:00 AM on Monday -- but that the rest of us still cannot. Better late than never -- but it would have been nice for those impacted by this move to get a little bit of extra notice.

Posted by: Greg at 02:40 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Personal Loans can really help you out in a variety of situations. After all, there are many reasons you might need to borrow money - travel, tuition, the arrival of a baby, major emergencies, paying for a wedding and many more. That's why AfsLoansOnline.com exists -- to help you get the cash you need!

Here are some of the great things about their services. One, there are no application fees for your loan. and not only are there no hidden charges, you get your approval the same day you applied in most cases -- and you are guaranteed approval in most cases.

What would I need a personal loan for? Well, considering the eye of a hurricane just passed through my living room with a storm surge in front of it, I suspect I'll have a lo0t of unexpected expenses in the next few weeks. I hope I don'nt need to take out any loans, but it is good to know there are folks who can help if I need them.

Posted by: Greg at 05:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We got a bit of Houston news on MSNBC -- folks are not being allowed into Seabrook due to flooding, and we are being instructed to wait for the city website to announce we are allowed back. Oh, and the city website is off-line.

This may explain why.

Two blocks from city hall, two feet off Highway 146.
And 2 1/2 miles from my house.


About 1/3 mile down Highway 146 from the above picture,
near the bridge to Kemah.

So we remain in Austin.

Posted by: Greg at 05:53 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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The storm surge from Hurricane Ike and debris covers a street, Friday, Sept 12, 2008 in Seabrook Texas.
Incredibly, Ike's center was still some 200 miles away when this photo was taken. AP Photo/Kim Christensen

This shot was taken about 12 hours before the storm is scheduled to make landfall -- about 1-2 miles from my house. This is a major reason why I am certain that my Darling Democrat, the Apolitical Pooch and I are hiding out in a hotel in Austin.

Word is that there will be a storm surge of 18-22 feet in our area -- and what you see there is at perhaps 8 feet.

I don't want to imagine what we will be going home to -- and can imagine that we might not have a home to go home to.

UPDATE: Additional photos from Seabrook, Texas -- H/T Houston Chronicle

Local resident walking dog -- about 2-3 blocks from picture at top of this post.


See that picture at the top? This would be the same spot, facing the other direction.


See that white house in the center at the very top of the picture?
That is in front of the location with the debris.


Resident wading about 1/2 mile from the debris picture, on a side street.
This would be in the extreme upper left of the photo just above.

Our house would be another 1 1/2 miles past this, at about the same point on a side street -- but with a bit more land (1/4-1/3 mile) between us and the water. Needless to say, I'm not taking much comfort in what I'm seeing here.

Posted by: Greg at 10:13 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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If you've been following the news about Hurricane Ike, you will know that it is headed for the Texas coast. And its latest wobble has set it on a path to make landfall only 60 miles south of my home.

Unfortunately, that is going to push a great deal of wind and rain this direction, as well as a storm surge.

It also means that there will likely be a storm surge up Galveston Bay that will flood low-lying areas. That means our house, which in 30 years has never taken so much as a drop of flood water from any storm. I have every reason to expect that run of good luck to end between now and Saturday.

I'm asking for prayers, good wishes and positive vibrations, according to your inclination and tradition -- not just for me, the Darling Democrat and the Apolitical Pooch, but also for my fellow Gulf Coast residents. Pray that this storm is directed so that it hits when, where, and how it will do the least damage to the lives of the least people.

I'll try to get back online tonight and update you on the evacuation. May it not be the sort of fiasco we experienced three years ago during Hurricane Rita.

UPDATE: WE ARE UNDER MANDATORY EVACUATION AS OF NOON TODAY.

Posted by: Greg at 09:20 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Originally Posted on September 11, 2004 -- As is my custom, I repost it today.

So many died that horrible day.

One was my classmate at Washington and Lee University, Commander Robert Allan Schlegel.

I would love to tell you he and I were close. That would be a lie.

I would love to share stories of great times together. I don't have any.

What I can tell you is that I remember Rob Schlegel as a good guy, a friend of some friends. I remember him as being a bright guy, sitting a couple rows over and a couple seats back in a US History class. One of those classmates you later wish you had gotten to know when you had the chance.

Rest in Peace.

May all the victims of September 11 and the many men and women of our armed forces who have died fighting terrorism since that day rest in peace.

And let us not forget those heroes who still live.

Posted by: Greg at 09:08 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Interesting, isn't it, that another senior Democrat with a sweetheart mortgage deal has come to light -- and the media again issues a pass.

As House GOP leaders called for his removal from the powerful chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) announced yesterday that he will repay an unspecified amount in back federal, state and local taxes on unreported income from a Dominican Republic vacation property.

The Harlem Democrat will file amended federal, state and local tax returns to reflect $75,000 in income from the beachfront villa that he previously failed to list on tax and congressional financial disclosure forms, said his attorney Lanny Davis.

If this were a senior Republican -- say Mitch McConnell -- we would be seing lead stories on every network, demands for prosecution, and endless claims of a Republican culture of corruption. Yet somehow, the press just can't muster the outrage over this story, any more than it could over earlier mortgage deals -- or Obama's shady deal with Tony Rezko to get property at below market value.

Posted by: Greg at 10:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Why did he make such a poor choice of words?

Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin's new "change" mantra.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It's still a pig."

"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink."

"We've had enough of the same old thing."

Now let's consider a couple of things.

Yes, as the Obama campaign notes, the phrase is a not uncommon idiom. However, when you are running against a woman whose signature line is that she is a pit bull with lipstick, ANY reference to lipstick will be viewed as a reference to her. That crowd certainly took it that way -- and if Obama is even half as smart as he and his followers claim he is, then he knew it.

Oh, yeah, and for Obama and his supporters to claim that such an interpretation is unfair is rather disingenuous. After all, any criticism directed at Barry Hussein by his opponents has been deemed as "racist" by either him, his staff, or their surrogates in the media.

"Arrogant"? Racist!

"Elitist"? Racist!

"Inexperienced"? Racist!

"Community Organizer"? Racist!

So Democrats saying that the firestorm around the comment is unfair certainly strikes me as nothing more than whining.

Heck, I'm surprised that his syncophantic followers aren't claiming that Republican objections to the poor turn of phrase are racist.

Posted by: Greg at 10:39 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Well, now we have it -- a columnist from the Britain's socialist rag, the Guardian, is warning America of the dire consequences if we Americans don't fall in line with world opinion and vote for Barack Obama like the world wants us to.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.

And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race - that Obama was rejected because of his colour - the world's verdict will be harsh. In that circumstance, Slate's Jacob Weisberg wrote recently, international opinion would conclude that "the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race".

Even if it's not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars, that proves decisive, the point still holds. For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues."

Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.

Well, I've got a message for Jonathan Freedland and the world he claims to speak for -- BUGGER OFF! Because you are, on one level, correct -- I, and many other Americans, don't give a damn about your "esteem". Having seen our nation pull Europe (and much of the rest of the world) out of the cauldron of militarism and dictatorship twice in the twentieth century by intervening in two world wars -- and then standing as a bulwark between freedom and communist tyranny for half a century -- we Americans feel like we have more than earned the right to make our decisions for ourselves on who will lead our nation. We don't want, much less need, your approval.

besides, I think back to the last time that the rest of the world had such a serious concern about the wisdom of allowing Americans to pick their own leaders. It was my senior year of high school, and the choice that was so objectionable was Ronald Reagan. I seem to recall that Americans rather intuitively made the right choice on that one -- and that our choice turned out to have loads of benefits for a world that objected to our choosing "that cowboy". And while we had to listen to a great deal of anti-American whining from the Euro-trash, history has judged that choice to have been correct.

I've no choice that, for the third straight election, the choice of a Republican president will again be the correct one. Regardless of what "the world community" thinks of the voice of the American people.

Posted by: Greg at 10:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You may have noticed that the forecast map and tacking models have wobbled a couple of times over the last 24-36 hours. As a result, that means that we could be seeing the dirty side of the storm bringing us a surge that would literally cover my house (a 20 ft surge towards a home at 10 ft above sea level 1/4 mile from the water qualifies as a "bad thing"). So seeing stories like this one makes my heart quiver a bit -- while also fills it with hope that an evacuation won't be the pre-Rita mess we had 3 years ago.

The pressure of staring down Hurricane Ike is on as the storm moves across the Gulf of Mexico on an uncertain path that has officials along the Texas coast waiting to decide which communities need to evacuate — and when.

As of late Tuesday, Ike seemed set on coming to Texas, but it remained too early to know whether it would make landfall this weekend somewhere between Corpus Christi and Palacios, drop down into the Rio Grande Valley, or even make a hard turn that would bring it closer to Houston.

"When they get in the Gulf, they tend to do weird things, so we're going to keep watching it," said Francisco Sanchez, of Harris County's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. "We do have a bit of a sigh of relief."

Even if the storm doesn't head directly to Houston, its winds and rains still could be dangerous, said officials, who cautioned residents not to let their guards down.

"We are still in the monitoring stage now," Houston Emergency Center spokesman Joe Laud said. "There is always that chance it could turn back east."

So right now it looks like (probably) no evacuation for me -- but I'm not canceling that hotel room in Austin quite yet, either.

Posted by: Greg at 09:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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IÂ’ve always wanted to visit Amsterdam, with its wonderful history. There is just so much to do and so much to see in this beautiful city if you brook one of the many amsterdam city breaks available online. YouÂ’ll find friendly people bicycling down small, picturesque streets filled with interesting bits of period architecture. Like the tulips that the Netherlands are known for, great things just seem to bloom in Amsterdam!

Now for someone history-minded like me, there is a great deal. Interested in more modern history? You can see Anne FrankÂ’s House, which today is a museum of major historical importance dedicated to the remembrance of the evils perpetrated during the Holocaust. IÂ’m told it is well worth the time. There are so many other great museums of history and art, as well as historical sites available throughout the city. It is possible to take in a few of these during Amsterdam short breaks.

And then there is another unique feature of the city – the canal. If you do the canal tour, your guide will impart a lot about Amsterdam and its history. And the canal is a great convenience in terms of transportation as well -- you can usually hop on and off of these tours at spots that are of particular interest.

Amsterdam is also noted for the many small coffee shops, restaurants and bars that dot the city An hour or two in one of them will allow you to see what the city is really like, and to see what modern Dutch culture is really like.

Looking for deals on city breaks in Amsterdam? Well, check out the many available packages city break packages for the city and then make your break for Amsterdam. After all, these trips are reasonably prices and short enough to fit into any schedule. Just look, book, and see what you want to see!

Posted by: Greg at 07:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Richard Cohen argues that there has been some swiftboating going on since Sarah Palin was picked by John McCain.

Only she isn't the victim -- Barack Obama is.

What Obama does not understand is that he is being Swift-boated. The term does not apply to a mere smear. It is bolder, more outrageous than that. It means going straight at your opponent's strength and maligning it.

Yep -- questioning whether being a community organizer is really experience we can believe in is swiftboating -- because that constitutes the strength of Obama's candidacy. I don't know about you, but that looks like a concession as to how weak a candidate Barack Obama really is.

But somehow Cohen can't find it in him to comment on the scores of false attacks against Sarah Palin and her family.

It is almost as if he lives in an alternate reality.

But then again, he does -- the rarified air of the MSM enclave.

Posted by: Greg at 10:36 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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You could have gotten the same results anecdotally from any teacher.

Over four winters, Harvard researchers matched hacking adults' visits to Boston-area emergency rooms with Census data for 55 zip codes. Flu-like symptoms struck first and worst in the zip codes that were home to the most kids.

Every 1 percent increase in the child population brought a 4 percent increase in adult ER visits, researchers reported this summer in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

"The impact of kids and the flu is clear," says study co-author John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Children's Hospital Boston. "It doesn't mean the areas without kids are protected from flu. It just means they experience flu later and at lower rates."

Any parent can attest that youngsters are germ factories. It takes years of nagging before they cover coughs and sneezes. Little ones tend to pick their noses. Even teenagers aren't great hand-washers. Crowded schools, preschools and day-care centers act as incubators.

It's why we have little mini-epidemics at school every year -- and why teachers are eitehr decimated by something new or are gloriously immune after having been exposed to so much crap over the years. We all remember that first year of teaching when we got every byug that walked into our classroom.

And I suspect it is also not just that kids are less sanitary than adults, but also that adults let them inside our personal space more readily than other adults. Think about it -- we'll gladly pass around a baby or hug a sniffly toddler.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'd normally agree with the Washington Post on this one. The representatives of the people of the District of Columbia should ordinarily have relatively free reign in legislating for the District, Congress' constitutional powers to oversee the city government notwithstanding.

That said, in this case the Congress must act as it is prepared to do in order to safeguard the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

H.R. 6691 is the latest effort by the National Rifle Association to wrest jurisdiction over local gun legislation from the District's elected officials. It comes as city officials are in the midst of formulating permanent legislation to comply with the landmark Supreme Court ruling overturning the city's long-standing ban on handguns. Sponsors of the measure, 47 conservative Democrats and five Republicans, say that D.C. officials can't be trusted and so they are acting to ensure Second Amendment rights for city residents. It's a maddening argument considering that none of those who signed on to the bill would ever stomach letting Congress dictate local law to their constituents.

Equally troubling is that the bill goes beyond the scope of the ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller authorizing gun possession for self-defense in the home. The majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia specified that a range of gun regulations are "presumptively lawful." But, if sponsors of H.R. 6691 have their way, the District would be barred from passing any law that would "prohibit, constructively prohibit, or unduly burden" gun ownership by anyone not barred by existing (and weak) federal gun laws. That would mean that the District couldn't require a vision test or shooting proficiency or education about gun safety for children. Gun registration would be abolished, as would the ban on carrying weapons -- even military-style rifles -- in public. It's a scary scenario in a city where political protests, presidential motorcades and visits by foreign dignitaries are routine.

The problem, of course, is that the city has for decades violated the civil liberties of its residents, and after being told so has imposed regulations nearly as burdensome and likely as unconstitutional as those struck down by the Supreme Court this past summer. As such, it is Congress' duty to step in and stop such violations of the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment in the one place where it has the clearest constitutional ability to do so -- the District of Columbia.

I'm curious -- would the Post's editors be quite so upset if the legislation in question were designed to protect the press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment from a city government that showed them no respect? No, I didn't think so either.

Posted by: Greg at 10:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Looks like the Massachusetts Senator is making a good recovery following his treatment for cancer. He is even planning his return to the Senate.

The office of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) announced yesterday that he will not return to the Capitol this month and will remain in Massachusetts recuperating from brain surgery.

The announcement marked a change in plans for Kennedy; his aides and colleagues had said throughout the summer that he would return this week as Congress reconvened after a five-week recess and headed into a final legislative sprint before the November elections.

Kennedy aides said that the radiation and chemotherapy treatments at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are progressing but that doctors recommended he delay returning to Washington.

And frankly, this Republican is happy to hear the news. As I have said several times since the Senator took ill, my feelings towards the Senator as a politician and as a human being diverge -- and that this political news seems to indicate good news about his health makes me quite happy.

And maybe, just maybe, it signals that we will also have Bob Novak around a while longer, too.

Posted by: Greg at 10:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Even the New York Times admits that Sarah Palin is more than capable of giving her family and her job ample attention -- just like millions of other working moms.

Many high-powered parents separate work and children; Ms. Palin takes a wholly different approach. “She’s the mom and the governor, and they’re not separate,” Ms. Cole said. Around the governor’s offices, it was not uncommon to get on the elevator and discover Piper, smothering her puppy with kisses.

“She’ll be with Piper or Trig, then she’s got a press conference or negotiations about the natural gas pipeline or a bill to sign, and it’s all business,” Ms. Burney, who works across the hall, said. “She just says, ‘Mommy’s got to do this press conference.’ ”

Ms. Palin installed a travel crib in her Anchorage office and a baby swing in her Juneau one. For much of the summer, she carried Trig in a sling as she signed bills and sat through hearings, even nursing him unseen during conference calls.

In other words, she has found a way of doing things that works for her and her family. Isn't that what feminists have told us women ought to be able to do?

But beyond that, there are a couple of other details that show up in the article that go a long way towards driving the final nails in the coffin of Trig Trutherism.

On her trip to an from Texas, which occurred a full month before the baby's expected due date.:

Around 4 a.m. on the day of her presentation, Ms. Palin stirred in her hotel room to an unusual sensation. According to The Anchorage Daily News, she was leaking amniotic fluid. She woke her husband and called her doctor back home. Go ahead and give the speech, said the doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, who declined to comment for this article.

* * *

In fact, Ms. Palin was not in labor, and her doctor thought she had time. So the governor flew to Seattle, continued to Anchorage and then drove to a small hospital near her hometown, Wasilla — a journey of at least 10 hours.

“She wanted to get back to Alaska to have that baby,” said a friend, Curtis Menard. “Man, that is one tough lady.”

A woman with symptoms like Ms. Palin’s should be examined to determine her condition, said Dr. Laura Riley of Massachusetts General Hospital. The long trip home could have posed a risk, “but the odds were still in her favor that everything would be O.K.," said Dr. Susan E. Gerber of Northwestern University.

When Ms. Palin arrived at the hospital, she was still not in labor, so her doctor induced it, Ms. Bruce said. Trig was born early the next morning, weighing 6 pounds 2 ounces.

In other words, there was no undue risk posed by the trip either way, though some amateur OB/GYNs online tried to argue differently for partisan advantage.

Parents in the delivery rooms surrounding Palin's also note that Bristol Palin and her sisters were coming and going during the birthing process, so no chance remains that Bristol could be Trig's mother folks. Another Trig Truter rumor bites the dust.

Oh, and about the three-day turnaround time between Trig's birth and Sarah Palin's return to work? With daughter Piper, she had gone back to work the next day. Seems to me that there is a pattern there that makes the short maternity leave with Trig understandable.

My only surprise? That this article appeared in the New York Times.

Posted by: Greg at 10:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It would be great if it could be -- and would mean that Obama is in for a major drubbing if it does.

The Republican National Convention has given John McCain and his party a significant boost, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend shows, as running mate Sarah Palin helps close an "enthusiasm gap" that has dogged the GOP all year.

McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republican's biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points.

And that is among all registered voters. Look at the likely voters and the bounce looks even more significant, but buried much firther down in the article.

In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 points for both samples.

So when you get to those who are most likely to vote, that lead jumps from 4% to 10%. That would put Obama in a big hole right now.

Now I will concede that the analysis of Professor Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia is correct -- in the last half-century, these post-convention polls have only predicted the results correctly half the time. But when you consider where McCain and Obama were relative to one another at the start of the summer, the erosion of support for the Democrat and gain in support for the Republican is something that needs to be taken as a serious sign by both sides.

Posted by: Greg at 02:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, I'm not talking the NYT story on Trig Palin that everyone is talking about.

I'm talking this blurb:

MSNBC drops Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchor chair... David Gregory will anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night.... Developing...

You mean that utter lack of professionalism might actually have consequences at that discredited network? Granted, David Gregory isn't much of an improvement, but it is something.

Will the various NBC brands ever recover from the untimely death of Tim Russert this summer?

Hot Air is also blogging this one.

UPDATE: NYT has the story -- and here is the money quote:

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

UPDATE 2: The NYT story on Trig Palin I mentioned above is up -- and it is a reasonably sensitive piece that talks about the pregnancy and how she has dealt with motherhood. And it pretty effectively slaps down the "Trig Trutherism" of Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos, and the rest of the deranged left.

Posted by: Greg at 02:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, he does get that he gave a very stupid answer on the topic at Rick Warren's event at Saddleback, but that's about it.

Now, Obama tells ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview taped for “This Week”: “What I intended to say is that, as a Christian, I have a lot of humility about understanding when does the soul enter into … It's a pretty tough question. And so, all I meant to communicate was that I don't presume to be able to answer these kinds of theological questions.”

To try to turn it into a question of ensoulment (which is a theological question that has NO RELEVANCE to the issue as a matter of law) is to profoundly confuse the issue. The question is a legal one of when a human being gets rights, not when a human being gets a soul.

Which proves, of course, that Obama does not get the real issue (or is intentionally trying to obscure it)l. It really all comes back to when you have human life -- and scientifically that one is a no-brainer. It is conception. That is a settled question of biology. Theology does not enter into the picture.

Now, having established that you have a living human being based upon science, answering Rick Warren's question about when human rights begin should also be easy enough -- with that answer again being conception. If it isn't, you then allow for all sorts of legal and moral obscenities, with certain members of the species homo sapiens sapiens being considered somehow sub-human. Chattel slavery and the Holocaust spring to mind as the logical outcome of such exclusions, and I can't imagine there are many who wish to go down either of those roads again.

The question that Obama needs to answer -- and which really needs to be put to him in a public forum -- is whether or not he believes that some human beings are less worthy of human rights than others. And then demand that he tell us which ones.

UPDATE: Well, Biden got it half right:

In the interview Sunday, Mr. Biden tried to walk the line between the staunch abortion-rights advocates in his party and his own religious beliefs. While he said he did not often talk about his faith, he said of those who disagree with him: “They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life — I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception.”

Unfortunately, he is unwilling to accept it as a matter of science -- or the implications of his pro-abortion political philosophy as supporting the wholesale violation of human rights.

Posted by: Greg at 12:58 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Well, now that there is a brand new Watcher, we also have a he brand new Watcher's site up and running. And we now have our first announcement of a new week's winners.

1st place Council: Palin in Comparison by Wolf Howling.

1st place non-Council: Obama, McCain, Palin & Generosity by The Anchoress.

The full results can be seen here.

Posted by: Greg at 05:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm an American, living in America. As such, i'm blessed to be able to order pretty much anything I want from any American company I want, with it being delivered straight to my home. After all, I've got a US address.

But what about folks who live abroad -- Americans and non-Americans alike? Is there any way for them to gain access to those American shopping websites and the products available through them? Yes, there is -- they can establish their own personal US mailing address from which they can have their purchases forwarded to them abroad.

How do you accomplish this? With MyUS.com international package forwarding service! Using their services, any non-US resident can order the products they want from any US shopping site. The ordered products – vitamins, electronics, or whatever -- get delivered to a personal US address. Once it is there, it is easy to arrange to have the merchandise shipped on to their home anywhere in the world, as they direct. What this service does is open up more shopping options for people around the world who are interested in availing themselves of the wide variety of great consumer products available through the internet to folks with a US mailing address. So if you live abroad, check out the MyUS.com website for the way for you to start placing your orders with no hassles.

Posted by: Greg at 11:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I like http://www.bongoUS.com for parcel forwarding, they have great technology for controlling your shipment, tracking, viewing images of orders, etc. A lot of added value with a subscription.

Posted by: Jessica at Thu Feb 19 01:39:15 2009 (fWEXR)

2 MyUS requires a monthly membership I personally use http://www.oneUSAaddress.com

Posted by: Omar at Mon May 4 07:11:56 2009 (4caic)

3 How do you accomplish this? With MyUS.com international package forwarding service! Using their services, any non-US resident can order the products they want from any US shopping site.

Posted by: Paige at Fri Jul 20 00:49:29 2012 (Zc5PJ)

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These are your words, Senator.

What happened since then that led you to change your mind on this point?

What did you accomplish that you would cite as an actual qualification for the office which you said you were not qualified for?

And does running for President really count as experience that qualifies you for being president?

H/T STACLU

Posted by: Greg at 01:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Bob Novak writes about his tumor and its impact on his life.

More importantly, he writes about the response he has received from the many good people out there.

This detail brought a tear to my eye -- and made me thank God I had written what I did about Senator Ted Kennedy since his diagnosis with the same cancer.

After reviewing my case, [Allan H.] Friedman[, chief of neurosurgery at the Duke University Medical Center,] said a resection -- that is, a removal of the tumor -- was possible by surgery. He performed a similar operation this summer on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

In today's world, it is up to the "informed patient" to make many decisions affecting treatment. My dear friend Bob Shrum, the Democratic political operative, asked Sen. Kennedy's wife, Vicki, to call me. I barely know Mrs. Kennedy, but I have found her to be a warm and gracious person. I have had few good things to say about Teddy Kennedy since I first met him at the 1960 Democratic National Convention, but he and his wife have treated me like a close friend. She was enthusiastic about Dr. Friedman and urged me to opt for surgery at Duke.

The Kennedys were not concerned by political and ideological differences when someone's life was at stake, recalling at least the myth of milder days in Washington. My long conversation with Vicki Kennedy filled me with hope.

I'm with Novak on this point -- we can have heated and intense political disagreements with an individual, whether they are a private person or public figure, and still respect their dignity as a human being. Going through what is surely an intensely difficult time, it would have been easy and understandable for the Kennedys to take a pass on talking to an adversary of nearly half a century. They didn't, and that speaks well of them.

And it provides a pointed reminder of how we as Americans should act towards our fellow citizens, including the ones we disagree with. We can attack their ideas and their actions, but we should never overlook their humanity.

Posted by: Greg at 05:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My wife, a wheelchair user herself, forwarded this story on to me.

Dallas police on Friday searched for a man who robbed a 7-Eleven convenience store in his wheelchair, stealing 10 boxes of condoms and an energy drink before rolling himself out the door, authorities said.

That would qualify as seriously weird.

But then you get this at the end of the article.

Cpl. Janse said he couldn't recall another robbery involving a person in a wheelchair. He believes the culprit was probably intoxicated at the time.

Well, maybe.

Condoms and energy drinks? I'd conclude he was looking for a bit of fun and some "staying power."

Posted by: Greg at 02:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I realize, of course, that the New York Times doesn't have any respect for any provision of any Constitution other than one clause of the First Amendment, but in this case it also betrays such a fundamental ignorance of the law and the constitution of the State of Texas as to be laughable.

Texas is infamous for the cavalier way that it applies the death penalty. Still, the case of Charles Hood, who is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday is especially appalling. Mr. HoodÂ’s lawyers have presented evidence that during his trial, the judge was having an affair with the prosecutor. Gov. Rick Perry should grant Mr. Hood a temporary reprieve, and if the reports of the affair are correct, Mr. Hood must be given a new trial.

Only one minor problem there, NY Times editors -- Rick Perry cannot do that in the way you want him to.

You see, the governor does not have that sort of power here in Texas. Call it a remnant of the days of Reconstruction where the power to grant pardons, reprieves, and commutations was so abused by one of the incumbents that the 1876 state constitution effectively removed that power from the governor. For Perry to grand more than a 30-day reprieve, it would require an affirmative vote of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. At best, Perry can grant Hood a single 30-day reprieve -- after which the execution proceeds with no further gubernatorial intervention possible, absent a recommendation from the Board.

But there is one other minor detail -- the romance issue was apparently raised before, and not seen as grounds for overturning the conviction due to the lack of evidence of any inappropriate conduct or rulings that prejudiced Hood's right to a fair trial. That was the ruling of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which this week dismissed an attempt by Hood to raise the issue again (Oh, yeah -- NYT doesn't mention the fair trial issue has already been adjudicated against Hood). I guess that in this case the folks in New York don't really care about that whole separation of powers thing.

Oh, and by the way -- want the best example of how little respect the folks at the Times have for the unambiguous language of the Constitution? It is right here.

We believe the death penalty is, in all cases, unconstitutional and wrong.

However, the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution explicitly permits capital punishment. Unless we are to accept the argument that a part of the Bill of Rights itself is unconstitutional, their entire stance against the death penalty is based upon the belief that the opinions of the Editorial Staff, not the text of the Constitution, is (or ought to be) the Supreme Law of the Land.

Posted by: Greg at 02:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Debunking almost all of them -- and putting a few others in context in a way that makes things appear not only not scandalous, but downright reasonable.
Here are a couple of examples from this excellent blog post.

17. yes, she did fire the public safety guy — but he said in the Anchorage paper that, for the record, she never, and no one else in her administration ever, tried to make him fire her ex-brother-in-law
18. and yes, the state trooper (her sister’s ex-husband) she was worried about did: tase her 10 year old nephew; drive his state patrol car while drinking or drunk; did threaten to “bring her down”; and did threaten to murder her father and sister if they dared to get an attorney to help with the divorce.
19. yes, the state trooper was suspended when he was put under a court protective order
20. no, the trooper wasnÂ’t fired
21. yes, she did fire the Wasilla Chief of Police as Mayor; yes, it was because he was lying to the City Council.

* * *

26. yes, she did ask the librarian if some books could be withdrawn because of being offensive; no, they couldnÂ’t; yes she did threaten to fire the librarian a month later; no, that wasnÂ’t over the books thing but instead over administrative issues; no, the librarian wasnÂ’t fired either; yes, the librarian was a big supporter of one of her political opponents; yes, the librarian was also the girlfriend of the Chief of police mentioned above; no, this is not the first time in the history of civilization that someone has been threatened with being fired over a political dispute

The list is really comprehensive, folks, and doesn't spare her Palin where there is truth to the rumor -- but the ones where there is truth are generally either so trivial as to be irrelevant to the campaign or proof that she may be -- the horrors -- a human being like the rest of us.

My one suggestion for Charlie, though, is that he provide the links he says he has to back his information. he isn't consistent about hit -- but what he has written jibes generally with the press accounts I've read.

Posted by: Greg at 01:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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More to the point, he lied about how his wife and daughter died.

Since his vice presidential nomination, Joe Biden's 2007 statement that a "guy who allegedly ... drank his lunch" and drove the truck that struck and killed his first wife and daughter has gained national media traction.

Alcohol didn't play a role in the 1972 crash, investigators found. But as recently as last week, the syndicated TV show Inside Edition aired a clip from 2001 of Biden describing the accident to an audience at the University of Delaware and saying the truck driver "stopped to drink instead of drive."

The senator's statements don't jibe with news and law enforcement reports from the time, which cleared driver Curtis C. Dunn, who died in 1999, of wrongdoing.

So what we have here is a bald-faced lie in an attempt to drum up sympathy and votes -- and perhaps obscure the fact that investigators indicated that the accident may well have been caused by Neilia Biden's own negligent driving. One of the things that the official reports reject is the notion that Dunn was driving drunk.

What's more, Joe Biden knows it. He has for at least seven years, and likely for 36 years. How do we know he knows? Because the family raised this issue with him the last time he made this false statement in public, back in 2001.

After reading a News Journal account of Biden's 2001 speech at UD, Hamill sent Biden a letter on behalf of her father. The newspaper story included Biden's description of getting the call that his wife and daughter had died, but not his comments about Dunn.

Hamill said her note to the senator described how Dunn was affected by the accident.

Printed on the senator's letter head and dated Oct. 11, 2001, the response from Biden reads:

"I apologize for taking so long to acknowledge your thoughtful and heartfelt note," Biden wrote. "All that I can say is I am sorry for all of us and please know that neither I nor my sons feel any animosity whatsoever."

One could argue that the failure to dispute the Dunn family's claims indicates his implicit acceptance of their validity. Even if one does not want to go that far, it is clear that Biden should have known that there was serious question about his account of the incident, and that he ought to more fully research the issue before making the claim again.

And besides, there is plenty of documentary evidence that Mr. Dunn was cleared of any wrong-doing in the accident.

Apparently Biden lacked the decency to do so. But then again, we've all known that Biden is "integrity challenged" for a couple of decades now. But that the Obama campaign did not catch this matter earlier raises serious questions into the opposition research and vice presidential vetting conducted on Joe Biden. For that matter, it also raises questions about the willingness of the press to look into family issues that Biden has referred to on the campaign trail and used to solicit votes. After all, doesn't this relapse into dishonesty and cynical abuse of his family call for the same sort of hard-hitting coverage as Bristol Palin's pregnancy? Where the hell is Andrew Sullivan on this one?

How much longer can this dishonest man continue as the Democrat's candidate for Vice President? And what does his selection say about the judgment of Barack Obama?

H/T Malkin

UPDATE: Reading through the comments at the N-J, I came across this one that is striking.

I remember the 1972 accident well.I knew the Bidens then as they shopped in the butcher shop where I worked at that time. Let me make something very clear here. The accident happened at Tim's Corner & Limestone Road. Mrs Biden had a stop sign. Mr Dunn, traveling on Limestone Road, did NOT have any stop sign or any other traffic signal. He had the right of way. The speed limit on Limestone Road was 50 MPH. Mrs Biden either ran the stop sign or pulled away from the stop sign without looking or seeing the oncoming truck.

Those involved with altering the facts of this tragic event should be ashamed. My heart goes out to Mr Dunn's family that something like this is reported as "news". I'm sure there wasn't a day in his life (may he rest in peace) that he did not think of the accident. A car pulled directly in front of him and there was nothing he could have done to prevent what happened.

In other words, not only would this have been a situation in which Mr. Dunn was not at fault, the conclusion has to be that Mrs. Biden either didn't look, didn't see, or didn't care that the truck was coming and had right-of-way. Which means, of course, that the accident was most likely due to her own negligence or error. I understand that this may be an uncomfortable reality for the Senator to acknowledge, but for him to peddle the lie that Dunn was drunk -- especially after being told it was untrue -- is reprehensible and inexcusable.

And remember that the investigation, which was headed by an official who was a friend and neighbor of the Bidens, concluded there was no evidence that Dunn "was speeding, drinking or driving a truck with faulty brakes." Under the circumstances (a politically connected associate of a newly-elected senator investigating the death of the senator's wife), it is safe to conclude that no evidence against Dunn would have been overlooked, and that any evidence of wrong-doing on his part would have been used as grounds to file charges against him in a wreck that killed the wife and child of a senior elected official.

Also, while some may argue that this is an unfair attack on Senator Biden's family, I'd argue that it is a reasonable examination of Senator Biden's integrity. Regardless of the cause of the accident, I still feel an aching compassion for the man over the loss of two precious lives. But his pain is no excuse for bending the truth to the breaking point in his public statements -- while he is welcome to believe what he wants in the privacy of his own heart to deal with the anguish over a tragedy that must always be with him, he has no right to make public accusations that inflict pain today upon the family of a man who was cleared of wrongdoing and can no longer defend himself from such charges.

UPDATE 9/9/2008: MVRC is commenting on the story now. Her questions:

1. If Sarah Palin had this kind of “memory lapse” or told this kind of whopper, how likely would it be that she would get away with it?

2. BidenÂ’s sons were in the vehicle. They were in the hospital for weeks. He took his oath of office at their hospital bed. From then until they got out, he left them alone at the hospital to go to DC to do the senator thing. How is PalinÂ’s bringing her family to DC any worse?

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Posted by: Greg at 01:26 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Voters around Texas have consistently said that they don't want Chris Bell serving in any public office. His response? Take a page from the Barack Obama handbook and seek to kick the only other Democrat candidate off the ballot in his state senate race so that the district's Democrats don't have any other choice!

Democrat Chris Bell filed suit in state district court Thursday, seeking to remove an opponent from the ballot in the Nov. 4 special election for the District 17 state Senate seat.

Bell's campaign contends that Stephanie E. Simmons, an attorney from Missouri City who filed as a Democrat just before the filing period ended on Friday, is a "phantom" candidate planted by Republicans seeking to siphon Democratic votes from Bell.

Bell's best chance of winning the seat, previously held by Republican Kyle Janek, is to win outright on Nov. 4. Until Simmons filed, he was the only Democrat in the race.

And he need Simmons off the ballot, because his only real chance of winning is to somehow eke out 50% of the vote on election day. Otherwise he is in a runoff with a Republican, and ANY Republican will beat him in such a runoff. After all, he currently has only 34% of the vote according to polling data his campaign cites -- and removing Simmons will boost him a few points. Add in a high turnout on election day (which he hopes will favor Obama and the Democrats), and he might be able to scratch his way to 50% plus 1, but only if Democrats have no other alternative. In a runoff, though, united Republicans will get a solid 60% in this district, given that Bell's presumed flood of Obama voters won't turn out for a squirrelly white guy already rejected by Democrat primary voters for Congress and the general populace of the state of Texas in the 2006 gubernatorial race.

I've got a great idea for a bumper sticker for the Bell campaign:

Chris Bell
Pro-Choice On Abortion
No Choice On Election Day

Posted by: Greg at 10:45 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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It must suck to be Barack Obama, and see your lead go up in smoke.

A poll released today by CBS News reports that Barack Obama's post-Democratic convention bounce has been erased — and that for the first time, John McCain has drawn even with his Democratic opponent in the network's poll.

Only hours before McCain accepts his party's nomination in what will likely be the most-viewed moment thus far of his presidential bid, the race is knotted at 42 percent apiece, with 12 percent of voters stating that they are undecided, according to CBS. Obama was ahead 48 percent to 40 percent by CBSÂ’ measure following the Democratic convention.

Other polls have failed to show the same tightening of the race found by CBS. Neither the Gallup or Rasmussen daily tracking polls have registered a significant drop in ObamaÂ’s support from his post-convention bounce numbers. The Gallup tracking poll, for example, still has Obama ahead of McCain 49 percent to 42 percent.

CBS’s findings from Monday to Wednesday — covering the early days of the Republican convention — is particularly noteworthy because generally Obama runs stronger in the CBS poll than in other surveys.

That last paragraphy is why I bothered with this story. This poll is the one he usually does best in, and it now shows the race knotted. Is it an outlier? Or a harbinger of where the rest will go in the next few days?

Posted by: Greg at 10:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Looks like two American political figures gut cut-rate sentences yesterday for offenses which deserved more jail time.

First, in Detroit.

Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges here on Thursday and agreed to resign from office and serve 120 days in jail, ending eight months of political turmoil but also opening a new era of uncertainty for the city.

Uncertainty? Yeah -- the city's two top officials can't contain their personal animosity in public, and many of the members of the city council are under federal investigation for offenses even more serious than those against Kilpatrick. That city clearly needs a wholesale leadership change.

Too bad, though, that Kilpatrick wll escape the full penalty for all his offenses -- and will be able to run for office in a few years when his five years of probation ends.

On the other hand, an old acquaintance of mine from my college days is getting a cut-rate sentence for cooperating with the feds -- something I am not happy about.

Jack Abramoff, the powerhouse Washington lobbyist who admitted running a wide-ranging corruption scheme that ensnared lawmakers, Capitol Hill aides and government officials, yesterday received a reduced sentence of four years in prison because of his cooperation with federal investigators.

Again, and as I've said in the past, I object. Public corruption cases deserve full punishment, not "get out of jail early" cards.

And yes, it looks like a problem may be about to arise here in Houston.

Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole said Thursday that he expects to be forced from office by an FBI investigation into corruption allegations that appears to be centering on the design of his home by a prominent retired architect.

The Precinct 4 commissioner said FBI agents have interviewed many of his friends, some as recently as this week. He said he expects to be called in for questioning soon and would not be surprised to be indicted, though he insists he is innocent.

"I guarantee they can take that information that they've got and the friends that they've talked to and they can make a case on me," said Eversole, who volunteered the update regarding the investigation when asked about recommended ethics changes at the county. "That's why I say my days are numbered. There's no doubt about it."

And while that isn't quite an admission of guilt, I think it is sufficient grounds for me to make this Harris County Republican precinct chair to make the following demand of the Republican county commissioner -- RESIGN NOW, JERRY! I'll reserve judgment, though, on the matter of jail time.

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I think many Americans were touched last night by an image from the Republican convention. It is one that was frighteningly all-American -- but also controversial, with some saying the reality it represents being reason enough for Palin being rejected as Vice President, and why she should not be on it at all. I refer, of course, to the fact that Sarah Palin is the mother five not-entirely-perfect children, and that she is somehow a bad parent for seeking this office -- or even for being the Governor of Alaska.

I've held the image above in my heart even as I've struggled with how to refute that charge, with where I could look for an example from history to either disprove it or demonstrate its inherent sexism. And as I did so, a disturbing image popped into my head -- one that could only have sprung into the mind of a student of history.

Now some of you may not see the connection, and others may mistake what I mean by connecting last night's events with an American tragedy four decades ago. But consider the picture that the tragic event shown above deprived us of -- Senator Robert Francis Kennedy accepting the nomination of the 1968 convention in Chicago (either for president or vice president -- contrary to popular history he had not locked up the former and may have had to settle for the latter on a ticket with Hubert Humphrey), his arm around his visibly pregnant wife as the couple was surrounded by their TEN beautiful children under the age of 18 (as well as his niece and nephew, the children of his murdered brother).

Think about it -- rather than the stark shades of black and gray and white that depict the end of what many Democrats would describe as the Golden Age of American liberalism, we would have had an amazing technicolor celebration of what was seen as the model American Catholic family (though we now know that was merely a facade).

And no one would have dreamed of asking any form of the Sarah Palin question about Bobby Kennedy:

1. Was he selfish to seek this office?
   
2. Would he short change his brood to serve America?
   
3. Would he fall short as president because of his obligations as a parent?
   
4. Was he just plain a bad father because he didn't wait until they were older to run -- say 1984 or 1988?

That leads me to ask the obvious question -- why not? There are only two honest answers, either partisan bias or naked sexism. After all, the major difference in circumstance here is that Kennedy was a male liberal Democrat, and Palin is a female conservative Republican.

Personally, I'd argue that it is a lot of both, with sexism being the larger component. Consider the attempts to find nude Sarah Palin photos or pictures of Sarah Palin in a bikini. Has there been a comparable search for similar photos of Barack Obama or Joe Biden in order to discredit them-- and would anyone seriously argue that this picture of Obama on his recent vacation somehow makes him morally unfit for office?

Of course, given that there has been no serious effort to discredit Senator McCain with similar photos, we must be led to the conclusion that much of the opposition to Palin is based upon her gender.

And that my friends, is something we as Americans need to firmly and forthrightly reject. Too bad that the icons of feminism and so-called leaders on behalf of women's rights cannot be bothered to speak out against a return to the most egregious of sexual double standards at the same time they shrilly denounce Palin as unfit for office on the basis of ideology. Why can't they take the time to demand that their side hold a woman to the same standard they would hold a man of their own party?

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Posted by: Greg at 01:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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And that isn't just the GOP talking -- it is the take of academics and Democrat political pros.

Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCainÂ’s running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats.

Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen, who has written best-selling books on gender differences, said she agrees with complaints that Palin skeptics — including prominent voices in the news media — have crossed a line by speculating about whether the Alaska governor is neglecting her family in pursuit of national office.

“What we’re dealing with now, there’s nothing subtle about it,” said Tannen. “We’re dealing with the assumption that child-rearing is the job of women and not men. Is it sexist? Yes.”

“There’s no way those questions would be asked of a male candidate,” said Howard Wolfson a former top strategist for Clinton’s presidential campaign.

After all, have we heard that Barack is a bad dad for running for office with two small (and adorable) little girls back at home -- especially given Michelle Obama's presence out on the campaign trail with him? That isn't an issue for anyone -- but suddenly is when the candidate in question is a woman. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to draw the obvious conclusion.

Posted by: Greg at 10:44 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm going to be the exception on the conservative side of the blogosphere. I'm not going to analyze the speech given last night by Sarah Palin. Let's just say that virtually everybody but the hyper-partisans on the other side agrees she did a phenomenal job.

Which is why the criticism that Michell Malkin reports is so galling.

Right on cue, the Beltway snobs dumped on Gov. Sarah Palin’s brilliantly crafted and delivered speech tonight by immediately pointing out that the speech was “written for her.”

What officeholder — from mayors to the President — doesn’t have speeches written for them?

First, how dare anyone criticize the use of speechwriters as long as Barack "Deval Patrick" Obama and Joe "Neil Kinnock/John Kennedy/Robert Kennedy/Hubert Humphrey" Biden are running on the Democrat ticket.

Second, the use of speechwriters is standard practice. Even such signature words as "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" were, in part, the product of the speechwriter's pen. Why, now that a woman is using one, is it suddenly a problem? Could it be one more example of the double standard raising its head again when a qualified, competent woman raises her head above the crowd?

UPDATE: Just found this interesting take on speechwriters. I can't say I agree with the comparison -- especially since, like ghostwriters for books, their use is broadly accepted and widely disclosed.

And it looks like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (which my spellchecker keeps appropriately trying to change to "Madcow") objects to the standard practice of including phonetic spellings in teleprompter texts. Heck, when I preach (every now ant then) I use phonetic spellings in my text for words that I might trip over or misread. It isn't a sign of stupidity -- it is a common tool to prevent mistakes.

Posted by: Greg at 10:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The press really is in the tank for Obama. How else can one characterize this request?

Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being "on a mission to destroy" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying "a level of viciousness and scurrilousness" in pursuing questions about her personal life.

In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child's parentage.

Of all the audacity! Could you imagine the outrage if folks started asking for DNA tests to prove that Barack is the father of the children Michelle Obama claims are his? Or perhaps an exhumation of the infant killed with Joe Biden's first wife in 1972, just to make sure that she was really the Senator's child and put to rest the speculation that the entire accident was a set-up to get rid of an unfaithful wife and her love-child?

Of course, there is no actual question as to the parentage of the Obama children, or of the faithfulness and paternity of the two Bidens who died so tragically in 1972. But then again, there was and is no legitimate reason to believe that Trig Palin is not the child of Sarah and Todd Palin -- and all three requests ought to be considered beyond the realm of decency. Any so-called journalist who would make such requests, and any media outlet that employs them, have sunk from objectivity into baseless scandal-mongering. That it was presumed appropriate to seek such information from the Palins is a sign of how partisan our "objective media" has become.

But it isn't the first time we've hat such a situation this year, with the press being so partisan that it failed in its proper role. After all, there were serious questions raised about Barack Obama's citizenship this year, including the filing of a federal lawsuit on the matter. For some reason the media never bothered to seriously pursue questions about Barack Obama's birth certificate -- and that had a direct bearing on his eligibility for the office he seeks. Seems to me we still have not seen the ORIGINAL document signed by the physicians in 1961 -- will the press get cracking on that story?

After all, if they have time for something so outlandish and irrelevant as a request for DNA tests, wouldn't it be reasonable for them to obtain a public record that is relevant to the constitutional qualifications of one of the candidates for the job?

[NOTE: For the record, I'm not questioning Obama's citizenship -- I've written on that matter before. I'm just pointing out the clear double standard at work in the media.]

Posted by: Greg at 12:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Let’s be honest here – I’m not a particular fan of the woman, and I hate The View.

That said, she “gets it” on the Bristol Palin pregnancy.

God bless this woman for sticking with her kid. Because there are a lot of kids out there who get tossed out, thrown away, who are on their own. And so I tip my hat, and IÂ’m a pro-choice person. I tip my hat. My kid made her decision to have her baby. WasnÂ’t the choice that I would have liked her to make at 15, maybe not. But, you know, it worked out. Thank you God.

Now I’ll be real here – Goldberg isn’t going to cast a vote for the McCain-Palin ticket. But she sees what so many of us see – there is a right way and a wrong way for parents to handle a teenage pregnancy, and the Palins are doing it the right way.

I work with teenagers every day. Every year I have a bunch of pregnant girls in my classes, and also fathers-to-be. I don’t condone the actions that got them there, but I do my best to give them all the love and support I can. I’ve done the same with students who have aborted – some of whom think they were correct, and some of whom come to realize they were tragically wrong. And as an aside to Goldberg’s colleague Joy Behar – my students are have been 80-90% minority, and the proportion of those pregnant has reflected those numbers. It is called compassion. It is called love.

Good people, including those raised with conservative moral values, make bad choices and find themselves living with unintended consequences of those choices (not “punishment”, Barack). It is the obligation of the rest of the good people in the world to lend them our support when that happens. And the first line of support has to be the family – even when those teens went against the values which their parents tried to teach them and which they failed to live up to.

Interestingly enough, we know from her own life’s story that Whoopi didn’t do a particularly good job of dealing with just such a situation in her family. Maybe that makes her better equipped to comment than some of the “perfect people” in the media, the liberal blogosphere, and in public office who consider these two young people “fair game” in an effort to get Bristol’s mother.

But in the end, it isn’t about politics. It is about meeting our fellow human beings where they are when they are dealing with the difficulties that are a part of the human condition dating back to the Garden of Eden (be it a literal or metaphorical place). Sadly, large chunks of our society haven’t done a good job with that in the last week – and has then had the audacity to sit in judgment of those who have.

Posted by: Greg at 09:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After being greeted by his running mate and her family upon his arrival in the Twin Cities, W3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUs">who did John McCain spend the most time talking to?

McCain flew into the Twin Cities, arriving about noon at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. He was met on the tarmac by among others his wife, Cindy, and Palin and her family.

That included Palin's pregnant teenage daughter, Bristol, and father-to-be Levi Johnston. McCain gave Bristol numerous hugs, patted Johnston on the arm and spoke with the couple longer than any of the others in the greeting line.

Having grown up in a Navy family, knowing men like John McCain (including one of his fellow POWs), I can guess that the conversation was one of fatherly/grandfatherly advice to the young couple – and his offer of support to the two of them in what is an unimaginably difficult time when they have found themselves attacked in an unconscionable way by the indecent liberal and media hordes. He's been on the receiving end of such attacks many times before, and he knows that things will get better.

Call it an act of compassion by a man who could have just as easily dispensed with it and garnered neither notice nor criticism.

Posted by: Greg at 09:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I’m a voracious reader, but am very picky on what I add to my personal library. Usually I’ll pick up a particularly interesting history book, a work of political science (not current politics – political science), or some escapist science fiction that earned a place in my heart on first read.

But I am committed to buy one book, as soon as it is published, even without reading it or looking at the reviews.

ItÂ’s title? W3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7EaDiaMDCiUT">"The Jewel of Medina."

A historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns it would anger Muslims has been sold to another publisher, the author said Wednesday.

"We do have a U.S. publisher," Sherry Jones, of Spokane, told The Associated Press in an e-mail Wednesday. "We can announce that, but not the name until they announce it."

Jones' agent, Natasha Kern, said a publisher for "The Jewel of Medina" in the United States and the United Kingdom will be announced later Wednesday.
Jones said her debut novel will be published in October, two months after it was to have been published by Random House Publishing Group.

Random House caved in after pressure was brought to bear by a feminist Middle Eastern Studdies professer from University of Texas orchestrated a campaign against the work, leading Random House to conclude that the threat of violence was too great to justify the bookÂ’s publication. That act of cowardice was a disgrace to the publishing world, and to the notion that there should be a free exchange of ideas in the world. Instead, fear of the fanatical knuckle-draggers who murdered Theo van Gogh, hounded Salman Rushdie into endless exile, and rioted over a bunch of cartoons from Denmark was grounds for silencing the authorÂ’s voice.

I donÂ’t know if IÂ’ll like the book. I donÂ’t know if IÂ’ll read it all. But I will buy it.

After all, it is important to stand up to the forces of darkness that would impose the mores of seventh-century Arabia on the civilized world.

UPDATE: And the British publisher is -- Gibson Square, a small British publisher. They say the first run will be only 20K. I hope they are ready for a second run, given the interest the book has generated among friends of freedom in the English-speaking world. The US Publisher will be announced next week.

Posted by: Greg at 08:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Looks like the little pissant from Pyongyang is at it again.

North Korea, after halting the disassembly of a key nuclear center, is now putting the facility back together in violation of the United States' conditions for improved diplomatic relations between the countries, U.S. officials told FOX News on Tuesday.

The motive isn't clear but sources say North Koreans likely are reassembling nuclear facilities at Yongbyon partly to protest the United States' delay in taking the country off its list of terror-sponsoring nations.

"They've been threatening this move for some time," one U.S. official told FOX News, adding that until now the threats were seen as merely a way for North Korean officials "to express their anger."

I’ve got to wonder what they are going to want this time – and if they will again be rewarded.

Posted by: Greg at 09:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There are few people in the media I despise as much as Dr. Laura Schlessinger. My wife and I will sometimes listen to the harpy in the car and ask in stunned amazement why anyone would ever be willing to put the answer to any significant life decision in her hands. Often times I feel a need to shower after discovering I agree with her on some point or another.

And IÂ’m especially struck that this mother who has worked in private practice or on the air during virtually every moment of her childÂ’s life would take this position.

I am extremely disappointed in the choice of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Republican Party.

* * *

I’m stunned - couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? I realize his advisors probably didn’t want a “mature” woman, as the Democrats keep harping on his age. But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

She then goes on, at the end of the column, to darkly hint that Palin is a neglectful parent.

Schlessinger represents the worst sort of double-standard moralizing tradition in America. You know, just like the liberals who claim a woman can achieve anything – right up until the moment one actually appears on the verge of actually doing it. They make a great pair.

Especially since they despise each other – even as they take the same position for the same hypocritical reasons.

Posted by: Greg at 09:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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