September 30, 2008

How Deranged Can Palin Bashers Get?

Pretty deranged, as this at HuffPo demonstrates.

On September 10th, Wonkette received a tip that Sarah Palin's lipliner is a tattoo.


From: C______@gmail.com>
To: tips@wonkette.com
Date: Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Subject: tip on Sarah Pallin


Notes: Sarah's sister in-law owns a beauty parlor in Wasilla...apparently Sarah's lip liner is tattooed on...not sure what to do with that one.


leak to wonkette

So although the allegation comes in a strangely cryptic email and there is no actual proof that this procedure was performed, we've been studying Sarah Palin's mouth very closely (see slideshow below), and would like to put this question to the readers. Do you think Sarah Palin's lipliner is a tattoo? Cast your vote in the poll below.

First, why does it matter?

Second, is it really your intention to set women back this far by even asking the question?

Third, who cares one way or another -- as it proves noting of substance?

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More Democrat Voter Fraud

Remember, American patriots, the Democrats canÂ’t win if we donÂ’t let them cheat.

A Milwaukee woman is charged in what appears to be the stateÂ’s first election fraud case of the season. 21-year-old Endalyn Adams is accused of submitting dozens of false voter registration applications to the city.
It was her job to sign up potential voters for the Community VotersÂ’ Project and she could have been fired if she didnÂ’t submit 15 registrations per day, according to prosecutors. Authorities said it amounts to a quota. The same thing happened in the 2004 presidential contest and the state responded by banning payments for each registration an outside group submits. It was supposed to remove the incentive for submitting false names.
Milwaukee prosecutors said Adams is now one of 49 people being investigated as a part of two groups the VotersÂ’ Project, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Prosecutors allege she submitted well over 50 false names and the city was able to remove them all from its voter list.

We’ve seen ACORN do this again and again – and then seen them get rewarded by grateful Democrats with tons of government loot. They even tried to load up the bailout bill to funnel some of the dollars to Barack Obama’s fellow community organizers. I want to know when RICO is going to be applied to the organization and its leaders duly punished for the organization’s innumerable criminal activities.

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Nancy Pelosi – Failed Leader

All she needed to do was get another dozen Democrats to support her bailout bill and it would have passed.

But considering that only a dozen votes needed to switch in order to provide a different outcome, and 95 Democrats in the House voted against it, critics are now wondering why couldn't House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have assured a different outcome considering how important she said its passage was?

Pelosi, whose insults directed at Republicans before the vote were a proximate cause of the legislationÂ’s defeat, failed to exercise enough party discipline to get her people to pass a bill that she considered critical to the US economy. Why didnÂ’t she act like she was the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives and use her clout to get her people in line before driving the opposition party away from the bill by her intemperate language? Could it be that she has no leadership clout, or leadership ability?

By the way, IÂ’d like to suggest that any legislation introduced in the future include a clause removing Pelosi as the Speaker of the House. She clearly lacks the skills, qualifications and temperament to be next in line for the presidency after the Vice President.

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An Offensive Painting In Chicago

Some two decades ago, police and aldermen in the city of Chicago seized the painting “Mirth and Girth” from the walls of the Art Institute of Chicago over its offensively satirical treatment of the late Mayor Harold Washington. Many in the city took offense at the suggestion that the recently deceased mayor, a rumored cross-dresser, was disrespectfully treated.

I wonder – will any of them go after this offensive work that insults and degrades a living politician? Or will the fact that she is on the ticket opposing Chicago’s favorite son (and a healthy respect for the First Amendment) lead them to leave this one alone?

There's been no shortage of takeoffs on Sarah Palin lately, from television skits to action figures, but Bruce Elliott has gone one step further than most. He's taken off her clothes.

Elliott, whose wife, Tobin Mitchen, owns the Old Town Ale House on Chicago's North Side, painted a nude portrait of the Republican vice presidential nominee and hung it above the bar, where it's now a prime attraction among his display of more than 200 celebrity portraits and other racy art.

* * *

Despite their political differences, Elliott admits to a bit of a crush on the Alaska governor. He began painting her smile and trademark glasses, he said, before filling in the details: a gun, red high heels, polar bear rug, rugged Alaska landscape and a scared moose. His daughter, who looks a little like Palin and does a great impression of her, served as model for the governor's body.

Interestingly enough, the Chicago Tribune was more than willing to show the disgusting picture by a sick freak prominently in both print and electronic editions. Contrast this with their refusal to reprint the Muhammad cartoons for fear of offending Muslims. And I somehow doubt that such an insult directed at the very juniour senator from Illinois would be tolerated for long -- or so prominently distributed by the Chicago media. Could it be that the only folks allowed to be degraded in the city of Chicago are white Christian conservative women?

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September 29, 2008

Not That The Obama Campaign Is Sleazy Or Anything

But seeking out rape victims for political commercials is slimy, even when you play by Chi-town rules.

Barack Obama's campaign earlier this month sought to find a rape victim to appear in a campaign commercial, according to an email obtained by Politico.

Kiersten Steward, director of public policy at the Family Violence Prevention Fund, served as a conduit between the campaign and victims and women's advocates.

"Obviously, this is a big ask and I havenÂ’t seen a script but presumably it will be a brief this is what happened to me, we need someone who will fight for women like me, these are the guys to do it," Steward wrote in a September 15th email. "Again, thatÂ’s just my assumption given how these things
usually go."

Steward, a former top aide to Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), said the Obama campaign would have a crew in Washington and was hoping to film that week.

The topic of the ad? Abortion, apparently. Seems that Senator Obama and his staff consider the difference between he and McCain to be a matter of “full civil rights”. In other words, while they would never support the execution of a rapist even after a trial with due process, they fully support the execution of the innocent child to be appropriate without any due process at all.

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September 14, 2008

About That "Jesus Was A Community Organizer" Quip

It may be cute, but it is both wrong AND offensive. I don't care if it is uttered by a Democrat strategist, a Jewish Congressman, or a supposedly objective journalist.

The point of the comment is to equate Obama and the Democrats with Christ and Palin and the Republicans with Pilate.

Why is it wrong?

First of all, because Jesus was the Son of God who came to die for our sins and redeem the world, after a career preaching the importance of bringing man's ways into conformity with the ways of God.

Second, because Pilate was, first and foremost, the agent of the world's largest welfare state (bread and circuses, anyone), one that wanted its religious leaders subordinate to the power of the state as a condition of holding their offices and receiving the benefits thereof.

Now tell me -- which of these two sounds like he'd be at home among the Republicans, and which one would fit best among the Democrats?

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Just A Reminder On Barack Obama And William Ayers

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?

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September 09, 2008

Rangel: Well, I'll Pay Those Taxes Since I Got Caught

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.

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If Obama'sSuch A Great Speaker

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.

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An America Replies

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.

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September 08, 2008

A Most Outrageous Charge

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.

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September 07, 2008

Kennedy Returning To Senate In January

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.

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Yes She Can

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.

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Can This Bounce Be Sustained?

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.

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Obama Still Doesn't Get it On Human Life

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.

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September 06, 2008

What Changed?

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

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Read It And Weep

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.

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How About A Good Round-Up Of Palin Rumors

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.

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September 05, 2008

Biden Lied, His Family Died

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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September 04, 2008

Bell Seeks To Limit Voter Choice

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

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After The Bounce Is Gone

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?

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Go To Jail, Go Directly To Jail

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.

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A Bad Political Dad From History?

03blog-family[1].jpg

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.

rfk-death[1].jpg

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?

I say again, those questions would not have been asked in 1968, not even by his Republican opponents. Nor do I believe anyone would seriously ask them in 2008, even with full knowledge of the sad stories of drug abuse, child abuse, suicide, and other pathologies and bad choices we have seen among RFK's eleven offspring.

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?

artobama3[1].jpg

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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September 03, 2008

Yep, It Is Sexism

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.

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Another Sexist Jab

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.

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Let's Consider The Double Standard

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.]

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Praise For Whoopi Goldberg

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.

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An Insight Into McCain

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.

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IÂ’ve Gotta Laugh

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.

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Smaller Increase = Cut

I’m curious – if you increase funding for a program three-fold million, how can any honest person call it a cut?

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.

Interestingly enough, the money cut was part of what appears to be a block grant for all Covenant House programs, no anything specific to teen mothers. But more to the point, it left intact close to 80% of the funding as she cut the overall spending in the bill by $268 million. And this was not a cut in operating funds – this was a cut in a grant for capital improvements as Covenant House moved its facilities to another location. And what had Covenant House received in the 2006 and 2007 budgets? It was given $1.2 million and $1.3 million dollar by the state. So Palin’s cut meant that the 2008 funding was MERELY TRIPLED INSTEAD OF QUADRUPLED.

How bloated was this particular budget bill? Well, one of the Democrats in the legislature complained at the time that Palin didnÂ’t cut enough.

But Anchorage Democratic Rep. Mike Doogan said legislators were in "sort of your classic feeding frenzy" in putting the capital budget together.
"It's smaller now that she's done some vetoing, but I still think it's too big," Doogan said.

Yeah, you saw that one right – those were the words of a Democrat.
In other words, what we are seeing here is a cheap shot with extra spin following a responsible action by an executive charged with overseeing state spending. And we can be sure that there will be no such criticism of either candidate on the Democrat ticket – after all, neither of them has any experience as an executive, while both of them are known for their success at bringing home the pork.

Or maybe it is just bad math -- you know, becausethey think 1.3*3 is subtraction because the answer is less than 5.

H/T NRO, Malkin, Hot Air

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September 02, 2008

Was Chelsea Knocked Up In The White House?

Was Amy Carter preggers while her born-again daddy was in the Oval Office? Will one or both of the Obama girls get knocked up while their dad is president, if he serves two terms?

Statistically, one or more of those scenarios seems likely, followed by a quiet abortion, according to this piece.

Is Sarah Palin the first nominee on a major-party presidential ticket whose daughter got pregnant out of wedlock? Or is she just the first whose daughter didn't get an abortion?

The reason you're reading about Bristol Palin's pregnancy is that she's taking it to term. If she had aborted it, you'd never have known. Which raises the question: How many other daughters of nominees have gotten knocked up without your knowledge?

The article in question then goes on to do a bunch of statistical calculations that raises just such questions as I've posed above.

It points out that the only reason we even know about Bristo Palinl's pregnancy is that she has chosen to carry the baby to term.

But still avoids the major issue in the entire furor surrounding Bristol's pregnancy -- that it is a private family matter, and really not the public's business.

And the other question as well -- why hasn't Bristol Palin been shown the sort of respect for presidential children that was expected of the press during the Clinton and Carter Administrations?

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Spouse's Politics As A Disqualifier?

Well, over the weekend there were claims that Sarah Palin was the member of a fringe third party in Alaska, the Alaska Independence Party.

Unfortunately for those out to destroy Palin by any means necessary, the records demonstrate that to have been false.

So the new angle on the story is that her husband, Todd, was a member.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states' rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state. Sarah Palin herself was never a member of the party, according to state officials.

Which leads to the following question -- who cares?

Last time I checked, Todd Palin wasn't going to be on the ballot. Whats more, last time I checked, the right to associate politically is not limited to being a Democrat or a Republican, but extends to a whole host of peaceful political activity.

Indeed, this one reeks of something akin to what the Left would call McCarthyism -- with the significant difference that the Communist threat was real, while the Alaska Independence Party seems like a pretty harmless group advocating smaller government and more local control.

And as a life-long Republican married to a registered Democrat, I'm the first to tell you that it is simply impossible for anyone in a marriage of equals to control their spouses political behavior.

Besides -- given a choice between a candidate married to a political crank and a candidate who is long-time buddies with a unrepentant terrorist, I'll take the former.

UPDATE": Will the media retract the story?

Probably not – even though the source of the original claim admits error and documentary evidence disproves the initial claim.

The chairwoman of an Alaskan political party that advocates a vote on the stateÂ’s secession from the union said Tuesday that she had been mistaken when she said Gov. Sarah Palin was a member of the group.
* * *

On Tuesday night, Ms. Clark said that her initial statement was incorrect and had been based on erroneous information provided by another member of the party whom she declined to identify.

Want to bet we donÂ’t see front page retractions to correct the mistake, despite the fact that the story was highlighted by many in the media? And want to be that many on the Left ignore the correction, and continue to propagate the false claim about her membership?

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Sex Deviant Linked To Gay Whores Says Bristol Palin Fair Game

Yep, Barney Frank has hit a new low, even for a guy who put his gay hooker on his congressional payroll and got away with allowing the boy toy to run other gay hookers out of his Capitol Hill home.

Now he says that Bristol Palin's pregnancy is fair game -- because Sarah Palin has mentioned she has children.

Rep. Barney Frank is among the first Democrats to publicly say Alaska Gov. Sarah PalinÂ’s family background, including the pregnancy of her unwed teenage daughter, should be fair game for campaign discussion.

"TheyÂ’re the ones that made an issue of her family," Frank, D-Mass., said Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Well, this proves two things.

1) When Democrats insist that children of candidates are off limits, that only means the children of Democrats. Children of Republicans are always fair game.

2) Barack Obama is such an ineffectual leader that his own call to leave Bristol Palin alone is ignored even by the leadership of his own party. If he can't lead the Democrats, how can he lead the nation?

More At Gateway Pundit

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The Source Of palin Smears Revealed By AP

Want to take one guess where the AP places the blame for the Palin smears? In part on the Obama campaign -- and they name names.

Obama advisers and surrogates have also linked Palin to conservative former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan. An Associated Press story from Alaska, dated July 17, 1999, states that Palin, then the mayor of the small town of Wasilla, was wearing a Buchanan button during a Buchanan visit to Alaska.

The Miami Herald this week quoted an e-mail from Obama Florida spokesman Mark Bubriski that stated: “Palin was a supporter of Pat Buchanan, a right-winger or as many Jews call him: a Nazi sympathizer.”

The McCain campaign says Palin supported Steve ForbesÂ’ campaign in 1999.

So, what will Obama do about the spreading of false stories by one of his own spokespeople. Will he do the honorable thing and get rid of him? Or will he keep the guy on -- cause that's how they do things in Chicago.

Oh, and about that last snippy line in the story which notes "the McCain campaign says" Palin supported Forbes? As I pointed out Saturday, SO DOES AN ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY FROM THE TIME. Are the AP reporters implying that the AP is not a reliable source?

Posted by: Greg at 11:59 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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What The Left Finds Offensive About Palin

She's a conservative woman.

She's a believing Christian.

And she prays in public -- horrendous, outrageous prayers like this:

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

I guess praying for the troops and our nation's leaders makes one unqualified for high office in this country. I guess believing that God blesses America and has a special plan for our nation is seen as outside the mainstream by liberals.

This, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable:
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H/T STACLU

UPDATE: Looks like Newsweek is into the act, subjecting Palin's church membership to the type of scrutiny that they were loathe to impose upon Obama's -- despite the fact that the beliefs of the churches she has attended are significantly less controversial (and significantly more orthodox) that those preached at Trinity UCC. It would appear that they even want to make baptismal theology an issue.

Posted by: Greg at 11:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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September 01, 2008

Did Obama Vet This?

Since we are going to ask about family issues, this seems much more serious than a pregnant teenager.

A son and a brother of Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) are accused in two lawsuits of defrauding a former business partner and an investor of millions of dollars in a hedge fund deal that went sour, court records show.

Where is the wall-to-wall coverage of this story? After all, can we have a VP with family connections to a couple of fraudsters? You know, especially after Biden voted to help his son's employer, MBNA, rather than abstaining due to the conflict of interest. Yet it was buried on page 9 of the Washington Post, which had six major stories about Palin.

H/T Darleen's Place

UPDATE: Blogs for Victory raises some other issues in Obama's vetting of Biden -- since the vetting process is now the the issue for the press and the Democrats.

Posted by: Greg at 10:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Did Bristol Palin Tell Sarah To Say Yes?

That is the conclusion that at least one blogger is drawing from Sarah Palin's past history, when she decided against running for US Senate in 2004 because one of her children objected.

BeldarBlog shares this tidbit from Kaylene Johnson's biography of the VP nominee, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down:

In 2004, friends and supporters urged Sarah to challenge Lisa Murkowski. [By then,] Sarah had made a name for herself as a reformer, and supporters thought she had a good chance of winning. So, Sarah approached her family to discuss the possibility. Like all of her decisions, the decision had to be unanimous.

"People don't believe me, but it's true. It had to be a family decision," she said. Todd was up for a move to Washington, D.C. and the girls were on board as well. But son Track, in his early teens, was becoming aware of the contentiousness of a political battle. He valued his privacy, and felt uncomfortable in the limelight. "Track did not want me to run, and he was adamant about it. He had to bless me," Sarah said. "If he had said at the time 'This is great,' I would have done it."

Hmmmmm -- the kids were given a voice in that decision in 2004, and one actually vetoed a run that would have put her in the Senate at the same time as Barack Obama. In 2006, the whole family was on board with the gubernatorial run. This would certainly lead to speculation about the acceptance of McCain's offer to be his running might -- was the subject broached at some point early in the process? It seems likely, based upon Palin family history.

But that aside, I can't help but note the sexism of those who question Sarah Palin's decision to accept John McCain's invitation to join him on the ticket. After all, would we even be having a discussion of "is the candidate a good parent" if McCain had selected a man with a special needs child and a pregnant teen? I don't think so.

Indeed, one of the most admirable things I find in the biography ofDemocrat VP candidate Senator Joe Biden (and i do find some admirable things) was his decision to assume his Senate seat after the death of his wife and daughter and serious injury of his sons following that tragic accident after his victory in 1972. He made a valid choice to serve teh people of his state while bearing the burden of single father. I would never stand by and let anyone question that choice -- just as I will continue to defend Sarah Palin's choice today.

After all, I hold her to the same standard as a male candidate, not a higher one. Too bad the mouth-frothing left won't do the same.

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Terrorist Attack On Convention Bus!

Breaking News, reported by Gateway Pundit.

The bus I was riding was hit with cement bags that the anarchists were throwing off the overpasses onto the interstate. The anarchists missed the bus in front of us and nailed our bus with a direct hit.

The police had us slow down and then sent us under the interstate overpass when we were attacked.

No deaths, no injuries -- but this sort of activity could have easily resulted in multiple injuries and deaths. It constitutes nothing less than attempted murder.

I'm sure more will follow.

UPDATE: More has -- an attack on a delegation entering the convention site. And a riot broke out near the convention. Too bad the delegates are deprived of their Second Amendment rights while these terrorists abuse the First Amendment.

UPDATE 2: They apparently attacked a group of Cub Scouts, too.

Posted by: Greg at 08:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Top Clinton Supporter Backs McCain-Palin Ticket

Let the floodgates open.

John Coale, a prominent Washington lawyer, husband of Fox TV host Greta Van Susteren and a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, announced today that he was supporting John McCain for president. Coale, who traveled with Sen. Clinton, President Clinton and her family through out the primary season, complained of sexism, and said the Democratic Party is "being taken over by the moveon.org types" in an exclusive interview with Newsweek.com's Tammy Haddad.

There is also a tidbit about Hillary's borther meeting with McCain campaign surrogates. Could it be that there is something brewing in that direction?

Look out, Barry, the PUMAs are going to doom your sorry butt!

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Well, Folks, Looks Like She Was Pregnant After All

One of the most disgusting attacks on Sarah Palin and her family was the accusation that she is not really the mother of little Trig, but that she is actually his grandmother and she (her family, her staff, her doctors, the hospital personnel, news media, and who knows who else) were covering up the pregnancy of her oldest daughter.

It wasn't just the KOSsacks and DUmmies who were involved -- allegedly respectable folks like Andrew Sullivan were repeating the story, to the point it got picked up by the Times of London. Not only that, but reliably "pro-choice" commentators like Sullivan and Alan Colmes even decided it was within their purview to question her choices regarding pre-natal care, intruding in what they always claim is a supposedly sacred space between a woman and her doctor.

Well, let's settle the pregnancy question for you right now.

pregnantpalin.jpg

Fits pretty well with this entry from a non-political blog site, dated last April.

So, can we now start getting retractions from all the liberals making such scurrilous charges? Will The Atlantic fire Andy Sullivan and FoxNews can Alan Colmes? After all, there was NO ACTUAL EVIDENCE to support the claims that came from the sewers of the left-wing blogosphere.

Funny -- wasn't it just a few weeks ago that we were told we couldn't "attack" the family members of the candidates, not even for the words they said in stump speeches they were giving as a surrogate for the candidate himself. Does that rule only apply to Michelle Obama -- but not Bristol Palin, whose only "misdeed" here was being her mother's daughter?

And remember -- this claim involved libeling a young woman who is not a public figure. I'm hoping to see some lawsuits fly here.

UPDATE 1: Someone at Daily Kos tries to debunk the fake story -- KOSsacks want that story deleted, but not the original libel of Sarah and Bristol Palin.

UPDATE 2: Some folks will note that the stamp on the original flickr photo is March 19, 2005, and that this means the photo is a fraud. There are some problems with this argument:
1. Palin was not pregnant in 2005.
2. Palin was not in office in 2005, and so would not have been interviewed in that location in 2005.
3. The camera in question was not released to the public until July, 2005 -- and its year setting defaults to 2005.

Best explanation -- the photo was taken March 19, 2008 (or thereabouts), and the year had not been properly reset by the user.

Lots of coverage around the net on the hateful anti-woman tactics of the deranged left of the blogosphere.

UPDATE 3: Well, one story ends, another begins -- Trig can't be Bristol's baby because she is five months pregnant now.

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said.

The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple's privacy.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the statement concluded.

Want to bet that this doesn't satisfy the liberals, who will now demand a Taliban-style stoning of young Bristol for getting pregnant -- while those of us who are Christians will accept that the couple made a series of poor choices and are taking responsibility for them.

UPDATE 4: Bravo to the folks at Jawa Report for this gem:

Obama Camp Of Course Will Respect Bristol Palin


Lets see how "progressive" the liberals actually are. They can't condemn Bristol or the lovely Sarah when the great Barach has proudly and repeatedly described his mother "as a teenage mother, a single mother, a mother who worked, went to school and raised children at the same time."

It would be the height of hypocrisy for the leftards to make an issue of Bristol's pregnancy.

After all, Obama's parents got married after his mother was pregnant with Barack.

But given that the Left already attacked Bristol Palin and her mother with a completely unsupported (and now indusputably false) rumor already, I wouldn't be holding my breath for restraint now. Certainly the KOSsack commenters aren't showing much -- they are already playing the "litle slut" and "unfit mother" cards, as well as the "ignorant fundie" card. And Andrew Sullivan is still peddling the Trig is Bristol's kid story (no link -- he's lost his credibility).

UPDATE 5: How have conservative bloggers handled this story? Supportive of the Palins, especially Bristol. The most touching comes from Ed Morrissey of Hot Air:

Allahpundit has a great thread on the announcement from the Palins that their eldest daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.  Coincidentally, my daughter-in-law is at about the same point in her second pregnancy, and our second granddaughter will join our family at the end of the year.  When our first granddaughter, the Little Admiral, joined us, it was in a similar situation that Bristol and her fiancé now face.

The rest is quite moving -- you really do have to read it all. Morrissey touched me for two reasons:


  • First his nod to those, like my wife and I, who will never have the joyful experience of having a child of our own. We who have found ourselves faced with miscarriages and infertility know that the birth of a baby in not a tragedy, but is instead a cause for joy.
  • Second, because seventy-five years ago this past May, a young couple got married in their parish church in Rhode Island under similar circumstances. My mother, who will celebrate her 75th birthday next month, was born five months later. I thank God daily that all this happened four decades before Roe v. Wade.

Now will you tell me which side is tolerant and which is intolerant?

UPDATE 6: Gee, a sensible piece on the subject in Time.

UPDATE 7: I guess the Democrat faithful aren't listening to Barack Obama on this one -- John Cobarruvias, president of Houston's Bay Area New Democrats, KOSsack and NASA employee recently suspended for 180 days for illegal campaign and fundraising activity on behalf of Democrat state representative candidate Sherrie Matula, has decided to post this little gem on his site. Apparently even Democrat elected officials like John don't care that Obama says the kids are off limits.

Posted by: Greg at 04:06 AM | Comments (48) | Add Comment
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