Gustav may pre-empt RNC

John McCain, wife Cindy, and new VP pick Sarah Palin made plans to travel to Louisiana to review preparations and watch the storm preparations.   The convention program may be reduced or even suspended for a day, McCain told Fox News.

RNC is not as elaborate as the DNC – fiscal responsibility reigned as the convention was being put together and we see the wisdom in such an approach with the economy a major concern of the American constituency.

Aides to Mr. McCain, who has frequently criticized Mr. Bush’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina, said Saturday he would go to Mississippi on Sunday for an inspection of storm preparations.

As reported earlier, some Democrat former officials are giggling with glee at what they see as a “favorable sign from God.”   Not that they’re concerned about destruction from Gustav.

Sarah Palin on Glenn Beck

$$$$ for cap and trade.Will it work? Utilities up to unmanageable costs.Gas prices up $1.50

more about "Sarah Palin on Glenn Beck", posted with vodpod

Obama gaffes and Dan Quayle

Blogr August 30, 2008

The Democrats are having a field day with the nomination of Sarah Palin. They’re linking her name to Dan Quayle and generally saying nasty (liberal) things about Palin and McCain. Their top candidate, Obama doesn’t have the executive experience that Palin has, and Obama has no experience as a reformer that I can find. He left Chicago just as he found it – patronage, corruption, and nepotism.

Redstate reported the former National Chairman of the DNC made jokes about Palin, not realizing that someone was listening – then laughed and went on to say that God was on the Democrats side because Gustav was scheduled to hit the mainland when President Bush was to give his speech at the RNC. http://www.redstate.com/diaries/absentee/2008/aug/30/fowler-fouls-hurricane-is-gods-favor-to-dem/

I’ve read several reports that say conservatives are nicer than liberals and Fowler proves the point. – Michelle Obama must have been talking about liberals when she said, “America is downright mean.”

Dan Quayle is known primarily for one gaffe - the spelling of potato. How many gaffes has Obama made over the past year? This is a partial list.

Barac 0 bama meter

“we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee”: no, it’s not his committee.

“Israel is a strong friend to Israel’s”; lets hope they are

Scheduling a 10 Downing Street Press Conference, without the Prime Minister

Dealing with them for the next 8 to 10 Years?? Is he planning a third term?

Fallen heroes in the audience –fallen heroes only rise in Chicago on election day.

His uncle helped liberate Auschwitz… was he in the Soviet Army??

The memorable 57 States…but there was one more to visit.

Beathalyzer tests and other general goofiness

Wrong city (Sunrise / Sunshine )

State Geography

His own birth in relation to the civil rights movement

Ten thousand people dead from a Kansas tornado

My church isn’t particularly controversial (yeah Wright)

http://politicalinquirer.com/2008/07/20/the-obama-gaffe-executive-summary/

The last time I looked (several weeks ago) Obama still had up a claim about his grandfather and Auschwitz on his web site.  When he appeared on screen after his wife’s speech he first said that he was in St. Louis – his daughters asked him once more and he got it right the second time.

Truly – Obama doesn’t know geography of the US mainland very well.  But, hes the one Liberals have been waiting for…

Sarah Palin is no weakling

Blogr August 30, 2008

Sarah Palin

Most Republicans seem to be very pleased and enthused with John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his VP. As you would expect, the DNC is having a knee jerk reaction, attacking both McCain and his pick. As for executive experience, Palin has more than any of the Senators and is a tough reformer. What Obama says he will do, she has already done!

Obama left Chicago exactly as he found it—full of patronage, corruption, and nepotism. We’re the number one Nanny state in the union and that’s ironic because it’s the political machine that needs watching more than the ordinary citizens.

———-

McCain unveils ‘The Barracuda’

By Kim Ghattas BBC News, Dayton, Ohio

There were no late night text messages and perhaps not the same build up that preceded the announcement of Barack Obama’s choice for running mate.

But because it was kept a secret almost until the end, John McCain’s choice did generate a fair amount of rumour and speculation.

Was he going to pick a traditional candidate, a safe bet – someone like the young governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, or would the veteran Arizona senator go for the wild card?

The answer came on a private jet that flew in from the Alaskan city of Anchorage on Thursday night and landed outside Dayton, Ohio, apparently carrying on board a woman, two men and two teenagers.

Weekly Standard had this to say about Sarah Palin

A spectre is haunting the liberal elites of New York and Washington–the spectre of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism, rising out of the American countryside, free of the taint (fair or unfair) of the Bush administration and the recent Republican Congress, able to invigorate a McCain administration and to govern beyond it.

…So what we will see in the next days and weeks–what we have already seen in the hours after her nomination–is an effort by all the powers of the old liberalism, both in the Democratic party and the mainstream media, to exorcise this spectre. They will ridicule her and patronize her. They will distort her words and caricature her biography. They will appeal, sometimes explicitly, to anti-small town and anti-religious prejudice. All of this will be in the cause of trying to prevent the American people from arriving at their own judgment of Sarah Palin. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/500wrhjq.asp

——-

From the Chicago SunTimes, Mary Mitchell blog

Emil Jones, political godfather to Barack Obama called a fellow delegate an “Uncle Tom” at the DNC this past week because she was a Hillary supporter. Mary Mitchell says they made fools of themselves but chides Del Marie Cobb for talking to the press about it.

Obama is reported to have said, “We don’t have time for this stuff.” How is that for leadership?

Leave it to Illinoisans to make a fool of themselves

August 26, 2008   Mary Mitchell, Chicago SunTimes

So I’m in the middle of an air strip with a group of journalists and I have to ask Barack Obama the “Uncle Tom” question? I could hardly get the words out. What’s worse, why is it that some black folks love to act a fool in front of white folks?

Allegedly llinois Senate president Emil Jones called Del Marie Cobb, a Clinton delegate, an “Uncle Tom.” After denying he said it, Jones gave Cobb a half-assed apology.

——

Mark Steyn on Palin

I’m one of Mark Steyn’s biggest fans, though I haven’t agreed with him at all times- he does know how to bring his points home.

First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, “all-American”, but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I’m not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin’ Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who’s done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of “community organizer” and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy.

Second, it can’t be in Senator Obama’s interest for the punditocracy to spends its time arguing about whether the Republicans’ vice-presidential pick is “even more” inexperienced than the Democrats’ presidential one.

… Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain’t run nothin’ but his mouth. She’s done the stuff he’s merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party’s corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign’s thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night).

Fourth, Governor Palin has what the British Labour Party politician Denis Healy likes to call a “hinterland” – a life beyond politics…..Likewise, on abortion, we’re often told it’s easy to be against it in principle but what if you were a woman facing a difficult birth or a handicapped child?

Fifth, she complicates all the laziest Democrat pieties. Energy? Unlike Biden and Obama, she’s been to ANWR and, like most Alaskans, supports drilling there. http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODNhOTk2YTU0NWY4ZjY5ODNhZTgyOWZkNjY5YjFlMmY=

——-

Smile

Dave Barry’s take on the DNC convention

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/story/655722.html

——–

Getting Ethical At The DNC

I believe the democrats have suddenly developed a keen sense of morality.

John Edwards was banned from making a speech at the Democratic National Convention for having an affair and lying about it.

In his place, Bill Clinton spoke.

Maverick Palin joins McCain

August 29, 2008

Great pick for John McCain! Palin is a fighter and will do well for the GOP. I had to peruse the left-wing blogs and as can be expected, many of them are in full vitriol swing. Or skip the left wing blogs and go over to Hotair.com. You’ll find the worst published there I think.

Just to show, I’m a good sport, I’ll say to all left wing bloggers, congratulations on your VP pick, Joe Biden. He’ll fit the soft shoe routine with Iran perfectly. Jimmy Carter is proud of an Obama/Biden ticket too.

Not the Obama we know – By Ramesh Ponnuru

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDMxNjFiNDQ4NTNlYTM4MjUyNzc4NjZiOTllN2NmN2E=

“If all you knew of Obama was what he presented to you in his speech, you would think of him as a typical Democratic politician improved by the addition of a bit more thoughtfulness and idealism than the average representative of the class. You would be amazed to learn of his extremely close relationship to a radical anti-American preacher; or that he has followed a no-enemies-to-the-left approach to politics that put him in the company of an unrepentant terrorist. You would not suspect that he favors taxpayer-funded abortion or drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants. You would not realize that he has crossed party lines far less often than McCain. You would not imagine that he had ever voted against funding for troops in war zones. It would not cross your mind that this denouncer of hardball, self-interested politics might be having his campaign intimidate reporters out of looking into his record.”

I’d just like to add that Obama left Chicago and the state of IL exactly as he found it – a city of patronage and nepotism. There wasn’t any change, but lots of benefits to be had.

Vanity fair—it’s not fair says Dee Dee Myers .

“Worse, when Sarah Palin falls short—and I hope I’m wrong but I think in important ways, such as her debate with Joe Biden, she will—some people will conclude that women can’t cut it. That’s unfair to Sarah Palin—and it’s certainly unfair to the rest of us.”

Dear Dee Dee,

You’ve already had your convention and your nominee made his pick without your advise or consent. Please give the same courtesy to John McCain.

Don’t worry about Biden. His mouth sometimes goes on overtime, and I’m sure Palin will know how to respond. Giuliani can give her some great tips!

Pecanpii

Smile, its been a long day and David Brooks, NYT writes about Obamas speech in a very engaging manner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/opinion/29brooks.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Obama speech

Obama speech

Same hype, same message of change in a different package….and it marks the end of the Clinton era.

Courtesy of team McCain

Can a Chicago politician change anything? -Look, Obama didn’t even make an attempt to change Chicago politics, even when the opportunity was presented. How will he take on Washington? As for all the hype about reaching across the aisle – forget it, it didn’t happen! He voted with his party over 95 percent of the time. McCain voted with his party 88 percent, despite the figures Obama pulled out of his ..er..head.

National Journal named Obama the most liberal Senator in 2007. This year he hasn’t voted enough on any issue to make a good assessment. If he has one core policy it is redistribution of wealth and letting the government take care of your money.

Of course if the Dems dominate Congress that won’t be a problem for Obama. Here is what will be a problem for Obama…

Democrats love their pork: Earmarks will thrive with a Democrat congress.

Democrats love their lobbyists: many of them are family members.

Democrats love their perks: Watch Obama attempt to change them, if he even tries.

Bobby Allen who is a supervisor on Brittany Spears stage sets, designed the set at INVESCO Field.

Defang the Dems for freedom of speech

Defang the Dems… or endanger your freedom of speech.

President Bush Job Approval

RCP Average

Approve 30.0

Disapprove 66.2

Spread -36.2

Congressional Job Approval

RCP Average

Approve 17.3

Disapprove 74.5

Spread -57.2

http://realclearpolitics.com August 28, 2008

Reason to Defang the Dems

verbatim notes from CFIF.org

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell recently told an audience at the Heritage Foundation:

“Speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and ‘government dictating content policy.’”

And McDowell added that the Fairness Doctrine could end with “the government regulating content on the Web.”

“Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ which won’t be called that – it’ll be called something else. So, will Web sites….”

And McDowell isn’t the only one who sees what is coming down the road.
http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/fairnessdoctrinehe082908i.html

Use the hyperlink below to SEND YOUR 27 INDIVIDUAL AND SEPARATE FAXES to President George W. Bush and EACH and EVERY Member of the Leadership of the United States House of Representatives.

Tell them that the American people should be free to decide exactly what they hear on the radio and what they read on the Internet! We do not live in the former Soviet Union and liberals in Congress have no right to decide what the American people should or should not hear!

Demand that they bring Congressman Mike Pence’s Broadcaster Freedom Act — which is specifically designed to STOP the imposition of the so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine’ — to the floor for a fair up-or-down vote. If we don’t make a final push now… if we don’t turn up the heat in the weeks leading up to the election when legislators from both parties are most responsive to the desires of the people, it may be too late!

http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/fairnessdoctrinepushhetxti.html

Stop that radio show! Obama support follows orders.

Blogr August 28, 2008

Dr. Stanley Kurtz as I reported on this blog last week, requested access to the CAC files that documents the relationship of Bill Ayers and Barack Obama in their work together. UIC didn’t release them right away but Kurtz now has them and will be reporting on them.

Thursday Kurtz was a guest on Chicago radio station WGN to talk about the CAC files that were eventually released after being held back from him for a few days. The radio talk show host, Milt Rosenberg, and Kurtz were immediately inundated with emails from Obama supporters demanding that Kurtz be stopped from talking about Ayers and Obama.

After the emails, the phone lines were opened and the same type of callers began to call in with vitriol toward Stanley Kurtz calling him all sort of nice names that liberals use for conservatives. Most of them haven’t a clue about who Dr. Kurtz. It seems they had received talking points from Obama headquarters and they obeyed blindly without knowing the issues or the speaker.

“It didn’t take long to discover that the Obama campaign—which had declined invitations to join the show for its duration to offer rebuttals to Kurtz’s points—had sent an “Obama Action Wire” e-mail to its supporters, encouraging them to deluge the station with complaints.

Why? Because, naturally, Kurtz is a “right-wing hatchet man,” a “smear merchant” and a “slimy character assassin” who is perpetrating one of the “most cynical and offensive smears ever launched against Barack.” http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmRhYmE3NzFlMTljNTdmZGQ3MjhkYTVjNzdmMjVhMzE=

Read the Obama talking points here http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-obama-wgn,0,3744149.story

Stanley Kurtz – Who is Stanley Kurtz?

Stanley Kurtz

Adjunct Fellow

Biographical Highlights

Stanley Kurtz is an adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute and a fellow at the Hoover Institution with a special interest in America’s “culture war.” In addition to his regular contributions to National Review Online, Kurtz’s writings on the family, feminism, homosexuality, affirmative action, and campus “political correctness” have appeared in Policy Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Commentary.

Before turning his attention to America’s cultural battles, Kurtz was a social scientist specializing in family life and religion. He received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University and later taught at Harvard, winning several teaching awards for his work in a “Great Books” program. Kurtz was also Dewey Prize Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Chicago.

http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&eid=KurtStan

The First Amendment to the Constitution is about free speech. Maybe some of Obama’s supporters should read it. Maybe we should all be concerned about the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.”

Obama, Greek columns, and more “houses”

Political Punch asked the question about Obama’s theme for his INVESCO Field speech- it’s a structure with Greek columns. Tapper said…”and yes, the Greek columns on the stage look a bit weird.” He asked for comments, and I posted the following: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/column-inches.html?cid=128135388#comment-128135388

I say great! This Greek theme should be reassuring to the public that Obama is a “blue collar” worker and shares their values. This is the “world as it should be,” as wife Michelle spoon fed people at the DNC.

To give it the full effect, shouldn’t Obama descend from the clouds too?

All in all, this theme should help Obama “connect” with the common worker who struggles to put food on the table.

Since it was the Obama campaign brought up the subject of houses, we found:

His half-brother George lives in a shack and survives on next to nothing. He doesn’t brag about Obama because he is ashamed to say he is a brother.

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair says it tracked down George Hussein Onyango Obama living in poverty in a rundown shack in the violent town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.

George Obama, 26, is the youngest of the presidential candidate’s seven half-brothers and half-sisters.

He told the magazine: “No one knows who I am.”

He said he was embarrassed that he lived “on less than a dollar a month” and never mentioned his world-famous half-brother. “If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed,” he told the magazine. “I live like a recluse. No one knows I exist.”

Jeremiah Wright house, Obama’s old pastor, has a $1.6 million dollar house bought for him by the TUCC church.

Wright is about to move to a 10,340-square-foot, four-bedroom home in suburban Chicago, currently under construction in a gated community.

[and] But further investigation with tax and real estate attorneys showed that the church had actually secured a $1.6 million mortgage for the home purchase, and attached a $10 million line of credit, for reasons unspecified in the paperwork. http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/27/obamas-former-pastor-builds-a-multimillion-dollar-retirement-home/

Tony Rezko house, Obama’s Chicago friend and convicted felon hasn’t make a house payment in two years on his 6.5 million dollar home, but his family still lives there, apparently rent-free.

Rezko — the once-high-flying businessman convicted in June of federal corruption charges and now in prison — has been fighting the foreclosure suit that LaSalle Bank filed in Cook County court two years ago. The bank says Rezko owes more than $5.1 million on the home, once appraised for $6.5 million.

The Rezkos haven’t paid property taxes on the home since March 2006, either. They owe $86,010.31. http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/1132185,CST-NWS-watchcorner28.article

Obama is endeared to the MSM, swooning fans, and supporters all. Will the INVESCO Field make him seem more—or less like them?

All in the family Chicago style, part 2

Biden and Rezko name linked

http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=B4jhSTW4PgUEBBhg3Bli3T1tCzDifo10MjFIVCz709YN58LfpN&bbParentWidgetId=B8k88rWwXopuz5STgLeVwBLu

No matter what help Barack Obama might get from Sen. Joseph Biden, his newly named vice presidential running mate won’t give Obama much cover on the Tony Rezko front.

Biden has described himself as a 30-year friend of a key figure in the Rezko trial who’s pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge in Chicago and is awaiting sentencing.

When the Delaware senator began contemplating his own 2008 presidential run, he initially was helped by Chicago lawyer Joseph Cari Jr., who also served as Biden’s Midwest field director in his failed 1988 bid for president.

In 2005, Cari admitted to taking part in an $850,000 kickback scheme that prosecutors say was part of a larger political fund-raising operation for Gov. Blagojevich overseen by Rezko, who was convicted in June of wide-ranging corruption involving state deals.

Is this just Chicago politics as usual? Is this the kind of sleaze that will follow and Obama-Biden ticket to Washington? Where is the hope and change in this kind of politics?

Hugfest Chicago style

Jesse Jackson Jr and Bobby Rush hug

Jesse Jackson Jr and Mayor Daley hug

Gov. Blagojevich and his arch-nemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan, shared a hug too, but to call it authentic?? Blago is bad news for Dems because of the testimony against him and his ties to convicted Tony Rezko while Obama has escaped scrutiny for his ties to Rezko. Madigan will likely run for Governor next if Bill Daley decides not to run. Blago could be impeached or merely replaced by voters.

All this hugging brings a tear to the eye—but it will all be over soon.

Bill Daley video wouldn’t load- go here to view it. http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/dnc/1129006,CST-NWS-illdel27.article

A Chicago network

Commonwealth Edison ties: Bill Ayers father was former CEO to ComEd the electric utility, and was friends with the late Mayor Daley. David Axelrod is connected to the current Mayor Daley, engineered high rate hikes for ComEd through his other company ASK, and is the campaign strategist for Barack Obama. Obama and Ayers worked together on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Woods Fund. Governor Blagoyevich was friends with Rezko and both were friends of Obama.

There are many more politicians in that network–this is just an example of how Chicago “networks.”

Hon. Abner J. Mikva (Ret.) As Mikva said when he was first starting out in

Chicago… he volunteered and was asked, “Who sent you?” He replied, “nobody sent me” and the Chicago machine replied, “We don’t want nobody that nobody sent.”

It hasn’t changed, patronage and nepotism still rule in Chicago. If Bill Daley becomes our next Governor, the state is locked up for another decade. By that time, sons of the power brokers will be right up there ready to take over—I have no doubt.

The Chicago family is intact.