Obama's Half-Brother Lives In A Hut

His name? George Hussein Onyango Obama. (I lol'd.)

Radio Derb

Must-listen stuff.

McCain Shines At Saddleback Forum

Michael Gerson writes:

It is now clear why Barack Obama has refused John McCain's offer of joint town hall appearances during the fall campaign. McCain is obviously better at them.

Yup. I watched part of it, and was pleasantly surprised by McCain's performance.

The National Security Gap

From The Politico:

July's NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll found that three in four Americans believe McCain can "handle" the role of commander in chief, while only 19 percent said he "cannot," compared to a 50 percent to 42 percent split for Obama.

When asked which party is more capable of "dealing with the war on terrorism," 40 percent of respondents to the latest NBC/WSJ poll said Republican while 29 percent said Democrat. The parties had been effectively tied as recently as January of this year, and the 11-percentage-point gap is the largest since 2004, the last year these numbers shifted so dramatically and, not coincidentally, the last presidential election year.

Well, duh. This election is basically war hero vs. empty suit. I would certainly hope that McCain has an advantage in this area.

Hindsight Isn't 20-20

Superb column by Jeff Jacoby.

Bravo

To Michael Phelps, winner of eight Olympic gold medals.

Pat Buchanan Column

On the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

McCain: "In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations."



Is he really this clueless?

A worthwhile column on the Russia-Georgia conflict

In the Financial Times.

Yes, it was written by the Russian Foreign Minister, so it's certainly a one-sided account. But there were some valid points made in the article that aren't being mentioned much in the MSM.

Interesting column on education

By Charles Murray.

Obama on abortion

From Pat Buchanan's recent column:

As David Freddoso reports in his new best-seller, "The Case Against Barack Obama," the Illinois senator goes further than any U.S. senator has dared go in defending what John Paul II called the "culture of death."

Thrice in the Illinois legislature, Obama helped block a bill that was designed solely to protect the life of infants already born, and outside the womb, who had miraculously survived the attempt to kill them during an abortion. Thrice, Obama voted to let doctors and nurses allow these tiny human beings die of neglect and be tossed out with the medical waste.

How can a man who purports to be a Christian justify this?

If, as its advocates contend, abortion has to remain legal to protect the life and health, mental and physical, of the mother, how is a mother's life or health in the least threatened by a baby no longer inside her -- but lying on a table or in a pan fighting for life and breath?

How is it essential for the life or health of a woman that her baby, who somehow survived the horrible ordeal of abortion, be left to die or put to death? Yet, that is what Obama voted for, thrice, in the Illinois Senate.

I am unsure how exactly Obama manages to sleep at night, with this horror on his conscience.

Obama's Reckless Tax Policies

Exposed.

John Edwards Finally Admits To Extramarital Affair

Another left-wing hero exposed as gutter slime.

Paris Hilton responds to McCain's recent ad

Hilarious video.

Geez, even Paris Hilton supports drilling.

Republicans Protest Congressional Vacation As Gas Prices Soar

From ABC's Political Radar:

The Republicans became miffed last Friday when Democrats abruptly adjourned the House until September 8 without giving them a chance to speak on the floor about their energy plan, which includes exploring for oil in ANWR and more off-shore drilling.

Even though the House had officially gone out of session, some Republicans stayed on the floor and made speeches anyway.

After taking the weekend off, the guerrilla oratory continued Monday, with organizers of the talk-in estimating that 24 of the 199 House Republicans participated.

...

Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement on Monday saying, "This Republican hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to reduce the price at the pump and promote energy independence."

House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., referred to GOP tactics as "stunts" by a "smattering of House Republicans".

But Republicans claim their unofficial floor sessions are gaining traction with voters who are wondering why Congress is taking a five week vacation while gasoline prices remain so high.

They vow to continue speaking out on the House floor rest of this week and during the weeks ahead.

It looks like the GOP is finally fighting back against the Stalinist tactics of Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats. It's about damn time.

Gutless Obama backs away from McCain's debate challenge

From the AP:

Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain's challenge for a series of joint appearances before the political conventions, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall.

In May, when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, "I think that's a great idea." In summer stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.

On Saturday, in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the short period between the last political convention and the first proposed debate made it likely that the commission-sponsored debates would be the only ones in the fall.

...

A day after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination in early June, McCain challenged Obama to a series of 10 town hall meetings with voters in the months leading up to the conventions. The candidates' campaigns began negotiations, telling reporters that they agreed in spirit to the joint appearances.

When the idea first came up from the McCain campaign that May, Obama was still battling Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Obama said then: "Obviously, we would have to think through the logistics on that, but ... if I have the opportunity to debate substantive issues before the voters with John McCain, that's something that I am going to welcome."

How are we supposed to trust a guy who's apparently too afraid to debate John McCain at town hall events to be strong in face-to-face negotiations with thugs like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il?

Pat Buchanan

Very good column on Affirmative Action and media bias.

Ward Connerly

Great column on NRO.

Obama Flip-Flops Again!

From the AP:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.

Shifting from his previous opposition to expanded offshore drilling, the Illinois senator told a Florida newspaper he could get behind a compromise with Republicans and oil companies to prevent gridlock over energy.

Are there any issues left where this guy hasn't changed his position?

Saturn's Moon Titan Has Liquid Flowing On Its Surface

But it ain't water. Oh, well. Still pretty cool.

Dana Milbank

Mocks Obama for his unbelievable arrogance.

The DNC takes a gas holiday

From Glenn Beck:

[T]he DNC host committee in Denver, tanking up at city gas pumps to avoid paying the $0.40 a gallon in combined Federal and State gas taxes. Let me repeat that. The DNC would like to save money for their convention and so they have decided that they're going to buy it from the State gas pumps. You know where the police officers and State troopers and everybody else, you know, the snow removal trucks, where they gas up. The DNC has struck a deal that they can gas their cars up during the convention and they've already started this, to avoid the $0.40 a gallon gas tax. From the same people who said the gas tax won't make any difference, the gas tax means nothing.

Oddly enough, this hasn't made big news in the MSM. Oh, wait, that's right. They're all too busy covering the Obama World Tour. You know, objectively.

Europe's governments immune to Obama-fever

From Reuters:

European fans will cheer on U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama as he visits Berlin, Paris and London this week, but governments wary of his inexperience and evolving policies fear the euphoria is overdone.

...

But in the German Chancellery a few hundred meters away there is unease with the Illinois senator's cult-like following and skepticism about whether he can live up to the hype.

"There is a sort of Obama-mania in Germany right now, but I think a lot of people will have their illusions shattered if he does become president," an official in Chancellor Angela Merkel's office told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

Some European officials recalled how difficult trans-Atlantic relations were in the first few years of President Bill Clinton's administration because of his inexperience and the time it took to get his team into place.

...

A change in the White House could have the biggest impact on Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, both of whom have developed close ties to Bush in recent years.

Merkel, who has regular video-conference exchanges with Bush, and Sarkozy, who visited the U.S. president at his family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, could see their influence in Washington wane in the short-term under Obama.

The same can be said for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has made plain his "very personal preference" for McCain. Berlusconi's centre-left challenger in a May election, Walter Veltroni, had a campaign slogan borrowed from Obama -- "Yes we can" -- and compared himself to the U.S. Democrat.

In conservative Poland, there are fears an Obama administration could row back on the Bush administration's plans to deploy a missile shield in central Europe, leaving Warsaw to pick up the pieces.

"The problem with Obama is that we still don't know very much about what he thinks on foreign policy, he is tabula rasa," said Rafal Trzaskowski, an analyst at the Natolin European Centre, a Warsaw think thank.

Wow. Even socialist Euro-weenies are wary of this guy. God help us if the sheeple actually elect this empty suit in November...

McDonald's franchisee fined $1,000,000.00 for hiring illegal immigrants

Good.

Of course, this naturally raises the question: How does one say, "Would you like fries with that?" in Spanish?

The American Physical Society Opens Global Warming Debate

Consensus? What consensus?

From the DailyTech article:

The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."

In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,"There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution."

Al Gore is such an asshole.

Police Officer Accused Of Threatening Starbucks Managers For Free Coffee

You gotta love graft!

UN Sanctions Against Zimbabwe Vetoed By Russia, Red China

More proof that the UN is worthless. And South Africa played an appalling role in this debacle as well.

Barack Obama - The Least Experienced Major-Party Presidential Candidate In 64 Years

Read it at Blogcritics.

Hilarious Obama Satire

By Iowahawk

And The Father Of The Year Award Goes To...

...someone other than Brandon Hockman.

Congressional Approval Falls To Single Digits For First Time Ever



Well done, Nancy. Well done.

Democrats and the FARC

A disturbing relationship.

Gordon Brown has eight-course dinner before food crisis talks

And a six-course lunch!

Toddlers who dislike spicy food "racist"

Sheer madness from the UK.

Obama's Abortion Record

Absolutely sickening.

John Stossel

On the media's biased reporting on the economy.

Superb article by David Warren

On the Canadian "Human Rights Commissions" and their little show trials.

Yemen: Pedophile Nation

Highlights from a recent NYT article:

One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.

That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.

Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.

[...]

The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a recent study by Sana University researchers found.

[...]

Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee” for a good marriage.

[...]

The trouble started on the first night, when her 30-year-old husband, Faez Ali Thamer, took off her clothes as soon as the light was out. She ran crying from the room, but he caught her, brought her back and forced himself on her. Later, he beat her as well.

Lovely people.

Incidentally, Osama bin Laden's father was a Yemeni. He married somewhere between eleven and twenty-two different women, fathered over fifty children, and had as many as four wives at once. Also, he died in a plane crash. (The more you know...)

Interesting article by Paul Craig Roberts

Old, but still relevant.

George Will

A good column on crime, race, and politics.

George Carlin

Dead at 71.

Why are crime rates rising again?

Could it be ... liberal social experiments?

Gore Vidal

A real class act:

And what about Mr. McCain? "Disaster. Who started this rumor that he was a war hero? Where does that come from, aside from himself? About his suffering in the prison war camp?"

Everyone knows he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. "That’s what he tells us."

[...]

How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year? "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."

What a swell guy!

Election Time In Zimbabwe

I wish our elections could be this much fun!

Is the NBA...

...fixed?

Albinos Hunted In Sub-Saharan Africa

Horrifying:

Mluge is an albino, and in Tanzania now there is a price for his pinkish skin.

"I feel like I am being hunted," he said.

Discrimination against albinos is a serious problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but recently in Tanzania it has taken a wicked twist: At least 19 albinos, including children, have been killed and mutilated in the past year, victims of what Tanzanian officials say is a growing criminal trade in albino body parts.

Many people in Tanzania - and across Africa, for that matter - believe albinos have magical powers. They stand out, often the lone white face in a black crowd, a result of a genetic condition that impairs normal skin pigmentation and affects about 1 in 3,000 people here. Tanzanian officials say witch doctors are now marketing albino skin, bones and hair as ingredients in potions that are promised to make people rich.

What century are we in again?

Typical Obama Voter?

This is sort of offensive, but kind of hilarious, too.

The People Agree

The MSM is in the tank for Obama.

Third World California

This is just disgusting:

A rare form of tuberculosis caused by illegal, unpasteurized dairy products, including the popular queso fresco cheese, is rising among Hispanic immigrants in Southern California and raising fears about a resurgence of a strain all but eradicated in the U.S.

Cases of the Mycobacterium bovis strain of TB have increased in San Diego county, particularly among children who drink or eat dairy foods made from the milk of infected cattle, a study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases shows.

But the germ can infect anyone who eats contaminated fresh cheeses sold by street vendors, smuggled across the Mexican border or produced by families who try to make a living selling so-called “bathtub cheese” made in home tubs and backyard troughs.

[...]

“M. bovis TB is a disease of antiquity,” said Timothy Rodwell, a researcher who led the study published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It is important that it not be allowed to re-emerge as a cause of TB in this country.”

[...]

[T]he M. bovis bug is resistant to front-line drug therapy and adults who contract it are more than twice as likely as those with traditional TB to die before treatment is complete.

Why in the hell are these people eating unpasteurized cheese made in a bathtub, or worse yet, a backyard trough?

ProTip: You aren't in Mexico anymore. We have grocery stores here in America. They sell cheese there that won't kill you. You should try it sometime.

Clint Eastwood on Spike Lee

"A guy like him should shut his face."

George Will

On gas prices, ANWR, and the hypocrisy of Democrats.

Mark Hemingway...

...authors a great column on the show trial of Mark Steyn in Canada.

Defining Deviancy Down

Radical homosexual activist Frank Kameny "comes out" in support of bestiality.

Some sample quotes:

"Let us have more and better enjoyment of more and better sexual perversions, by whatever definition, by more and more consenting adults. We will all be the better off thereby. And that will be Americanism in action..."

"Bestiality is not my thing ... But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people. So, as long as the animal doesn't mind (and the animal rarely does), I don't mind, and I don't see why anyone else should."

"Anyone who does not choose to view some particular pornography has an absolute right not to view it. But there is NO valid right for such people even to attempt to limit or prevent its acquisition and viewing by those who do choose to view it. Such attempts represent moral fascism, the American Taliban, and Christianofascism in action. They must be resisted to the uttermost. That is the view of the National Consumers Association for the Advancement and Protection of Pornography, Inc., of which I am the founder and president."

N.B. - Kameny is the guy who successfully pressured the APA into removing homosexuality from the list of officially-recognized paraphilias.

Hugo Chávez Frías

Turns totalitarian.

Good news in Afghanistan

From the NYT: U.S. Reports Gains Against Taliban Fighters

Robert Samuelson

On "Cap-And-Tax."

The Kennedy-Khrushchev Conference

Lessons for Obama.

Obama's Unwanted Endorsements

Interesting article here.

Mark Goldblatt...

...reviews HBO’s Recount, and reminds readers of some facts about the Florida election fiasco of 2000 that seem to have "gone down the memory hole" ...

Top Ten Skeletons In The Left's Closet

Must-read article from FrontPage Magazine.

Caroline Glick

Destroys Obama's foreign policy.

John H. Hinderaker

On Jill Simpson, lunatic conspiracy theorist (and darling of the nutroots).

Mark Steyn

Superb column on Obama's defensiveness over Bush's remarks in Israel.

Hugo Chávez Frías Supports Leftist Terrorists

Now we have proof.

Interesting Article By Cinque Henderson

"The black case for Obama-skepticism."

Great George Will Column

Really funny stuff. Best line:

The Republican brand has been badly smudged by recent foreign and domestic policies, which are the only kinds there are [...]

Sad, but true.

Christopher Hitchens...

...on the ever delightful Michelle Obama.

The Truth About Tuskegee

Some facts from Jonah Goldberg.

Hillary now pandering to Guamanians

From Jake Tapper's blog:

In an interview with KUAM-TV, Clinton, asked about giving Guam citizens the right to vote for president, said, "It seems to me that it is long past time that we remedy this inequity. It doesn't reflect American values; it is out of step with the move towards equality and full citizenship rights, and I will do everything I can to make sure the people of Guam's vote are counted."

Clinton also expressed her support for legislation to offer up to $126 million in reparations to Guam residents for their suffering during World War II at the hands of the Japanese military, which occupied the island.

The U.S. would pay the reparations, since it long ago forgave Japan its war debts.

Lemme get this straight. Sixty-three years after WWII ended, the American taxpayer is going to shell out nine-figures ($126,000,000) in "reparations" to the descendants of the Guamanians who suffered under Japanese occupation?

All this for four delegates???

Charles Krauthammer

Must-read column on Obama and Wright.

Operation Frequent Wind

Great column by Arthur Herman.

Pat Buchanan

Nails McCain on trade, and other issues.

Great column on energy policy...

...by Robert Samuelson

Great article on "Global Warming"...

...by Mark Steyn.

Is Al Sharpton threatening...

...to incite a riot?

From the AP story:

Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to "close this city down" to protest the acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed a groom on his wedding day and wounded two friends.

"We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians," Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattan neighborhood. "This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell."

Sharpton was joined by the family of 23-year-old Sean Bell - a black man - and a friend of Bell who was wounded in the 2006 shooting outside a Queens strip club. Two of the three officers charged were also black.

The rally at Sharpton's office was followed by a 20-block march down Malcolm X Boulevard and then across 125th Street, Harlem's main business thoroughfare, where some bystanders yelled out "Kill the police!"

[...]

Sharpton urged people to return for a meeting this coming week "to plan the day that we will close this city down" with the kind of "massive civil disobedience" once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"They never accused Sean Bell of doing anything. Then why is he dead?" Sharpton asked, his voice roaring with anger. Authorities "have shown now that they will not hold police accountable. Well, guess what? If you won't, we will!"

"Shut it down! Shut it down!" the crowd chanted, standing up and applauding wildly.

Let's not forget that this raving demagogue is rather chummy with Senator Obama:

Charles Krauthammer

On Clinton and Obama:

Clinton's problem, however, is that a corkscrew landing under sniper fire is the kind of thing that is hard to forget and harder still for memory to invent. This is confabulation on a pathological scale.

A Clintonian scale. And that's the problem. Barack Obama has been gaining on Hillary in part because Tuzla reminds Democrats what they had largely succeeded in banishing from consciousness: the Clintons' rather arm's-length relationship with truth. The great New York Times columnist William Safire once called Hillary Clinton "a congenital liar" and made it stick. And that was more than a decade before snipergate.

...

It is not just that Obama surrogate Rep. George Miller denounced the Clinton campaign for bringing up Wright when talking to superdelegates as trying to "work the low road." You expect that from a campaign. Or that Andrew Sullivan called Hillary's commenting on Wright "a new low." You expect that from Andrew Sullivan.

But from the mainstream media? As National Review's Byron York has pointed out, when Clinton supporter Lanny Davis said on CNN that it is "legitimate" for her to have remarked "that she personally would not put up with somebody who says that 9/11 are chickens who come home to roost" or the kind of "generic comments (Wright) made about white America," Anderson Cooper, the show's host and alleged moderator, interjected that since "we all know what the (Wright) comments were," he found it "amazing" and "funny" that Davis should "feel the need to repeat them over and over again."

Davis protested, "It's appropriate." Time magazine's Joe Klein promptly smacked Davis down with "Lanny, Lanny, you're spreading the -- you're spreading the poison right now," and then suggested that an "honorable person" would "stay away from this stuff."

Amazing. We've gone beyond moral equivalence to moral inversion. It is now dishonorable to even make note of Wright's bigotry and ask how any man -- let alone a man on the threshold of the presidency -- could associate himself for 20 years with the purveyor of such hate.

Ann Coulter

On Obama's autobiography:

Nearly every page -- save the ones dedicated to cataloguing the mundane details of his life -- is bristling with anger at some imputed racist incident. The last time I heard this much race-baiting invective I was ... in my usual front-row pew, as I am every Sunday morning, at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Obama tells a story about taking two white friends from the high school basketball team to a "black party." Despite their deep-seated, unconscious hatred of blacks, the friends readily accepted. At the party, they managed not to scream the N-word, but instead "made some small talk, took a couple of the girls out on the dance floor."

But with his racial hair-trigger, Obama sensed the whites were not comfortable because "they kept smiling a lot." And then, in an incident reminiscent of the darkest days of the Jim Crow South ... they asked to leave after spending only about an hour at the party! It was practically an etiquette lynching!

So either they hated black people with the hot, hot hate of a thousand suns, or they were athletes who had come to a party late, after a Saturday night basketball game.

In the car on the way home, one of the friends empathizes with Obama, saying: "You know, man, that really taught me something. I mean, I can see how it must be tough for you and Ray sometimes, at school parties ... being the only black guys and all."

And thus Obama felt the cruel lash of racism! He actually writes that his response to his friend's perfectly lovely remark was: "A part of me wanted to punch him right there."

Listen, I don't want anybody telling Obama about Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" line.

Wanting to punch his white friend in the stomach was the introductory anecdote to a full-page psychotic rant about living by "the white man's rules." (One rule he missed was: "Never punch out your empathetic white friend after dragging him to a crappy all-black party.")

Obama's gaseous disquisition on the "white man's rules" leads to this charming crescendo: "Should you refuse this defeat and lash out at your captors, they would have a name for that, too, a name that could cage you just as good. Paranoid. Militant. Violent. Nigger."

For those of you in the "When is Obama gonna play the 'N-word' card?" pool, the winner is ... Page 85! Congratulations!

When his mother expresses concern about Obama's high school friend being busted for drugs, Obama says he patted his mother's hand and told her not to worry.

This, too, prompted Obama to share with his readers a life lesson on how to handle white people: "It was usually an effective tactic, another one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied, they were relieved -- such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn't seem angry all the time."

First of all, I note that this technique seems to be the basis of Obama's entire presidential campaign. But moreover -- he was talking about his own mother! As Obama says: "Any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning." Say, do you think a white person who said that about blacks would be a leading presidential candidate?

Victor Davis Hanson

On Obama:

For some bizarre reason, Obama aimed his speech at winning praise from National Public Radio, the New York Times, and Harvard, and solidifying an already 90-percent solid African-American base — while apparently insulting the intelligence of everyone else.

Indeed, the more op-eds and pundits praised the courage of Barack Obama, the more the polls showed that there was a growing distrust that the eloquent and inspirational candidate has used his great gifts, in the end, to excuse the inexcusable.

The speech and Obama’s subsequent interviews neither explained his disastrous association with Wright, nor dared open up a true discussion of race — which by needs would have to include, in addition to white racism, taboo subjects ranging from disproportionate illegitimacy and drug usage to higher-than-average criminality to disturbing values espoused in rap music and unaddressed anti-Semitism. We learn now that Obama is the last person who wants to end the establishment notion that a few elite African Americans negotiate with liberal white America over the terms of grievance and entitlement — without which all of us really would be transracial persons, in which happiness and gloom hinge, and are seen to do so, on one’s own individual success or failure.

Instead there were the tired platitudes, evasions, and politicking. The intelligentsia is well aware of how postmodern cultural equivalence, black liberation theory, and moral relativism seeped into Obama’s speech, and thus was not offended by an “everybody does it” and “who’s to judge?/eye of the beholder” defense. But to most others the effect was Clintonian.

Christopher Hitchens

On Obama:

You often hear it said, of some political or other opportunist, that he would sell his own grandmother if it would suit his interests. But you seldom, if ever, see this notorious transaction actually being performed, which is why I am slightly surprised that Obama got away with it so easily. (Yet why do I say I am surprised? He still gets away with absolutely everything.)

Looking for a moral equivalent to a professional demagogue who thinks that AIDS and drugs are the result of a conspiracy by the white man, Obama settled on an 85-year-old lady named Madelyn Dunham, who spent a good deal of her youth helping to raise him and who now lives alone and unwell in a condo in Honolulu. It would be interesting to know whether her charismatic grandson made her aware that he was about to touch her with his grace and make her famous in this way.

Pat Buchanan on Obama's speech

Excerpt:

It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."

Was "white racism" really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said -- that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Susan Estrich

On Obama's speech:

Obama supporters describe themselves as being moved and touched, and their candidate as being brave and nuanced and forthright. They breathed a sigh of relief this week, convinced, more than ever, that America needs Barack Obama to be President.

Talk to Obama critics and you wonder, for a minute, if they heard the same speech. It reminds me of nothing so much as the days of the O.J. Simpson trial, when we – black and white parents, who were sending our children to school together - discovered we simply couldn’t talk about the case, so different was what we saw and heard as to leave all of us shaking our heads in wonder and disbelief that our friends, with whom we agreed on so many things, could see this thing so differently.

What the critics are saying, sometimes out loud but also in quiet whispers, is that they don’t understand how a man who gives speeches about moving past the racial divide would choose a racist minister to be a member of his family, about why, with all the churches in Chicago, Obama not only picked this one but remained true to it, about how he could not have known what others knew, could not have heard what others did.

The critics will tell you that blaming white America for spreading AIDS to blacks is not the same as an elderly white woman admitting that she is afraid of black men, and that there is a difference between standing by the grandmother who raised you and standing by a religious leader who preaches hate.

Even Jesse Jackson admitted a few years ago to the sad truth that he was afraid of young black men. Most young black men don’t commit crime, but a disproportionate amount of crime is committed by the minority who do.

Being afraid of black men is, unfortunately, rational even if it is also racist, in the sense that it involves judging people negatively for no reason other than the color of their skin. Blaming white America for spreading AIDS to the black community is not only racist, but hateful, precisely because it lacks any rational basis.

Ann Coulter

Her latest column is worth quoting:

By Rev. Wright's own account, he was 12 years old and was attending an integrated school in Philadelphia when Brown v. Board of Education was announced, ending "separate but equal" schooling.

Meanwhile, at least since the Supreme Court's decision in University of California v. Bakke in 1978 -- and obviously long before that, or there wouldn't have been a case or controversy for the court to consider -- it has been legal for the government to discriminate against whites on the basis of their race.

Consequently, any white person 30 years old or younger has lived, since the day he was born, in an America where it is legal to discriminate against white people. In many cases it's not just legal, but mandatory, for example, in education, in hiring and in Academy Award nominations.

So for half of Rev. Wright's 66 years, discrimination against blacks was legal -- though he never experienced it personally because it existed in a part of the country where he did not live. For the second half of Wright's life, discrimination against whites was legal throughout the land.

Michael Medved

On Obama's speech.

Hot Air on Obama's speech

Worth a read.

George Will

On Kosovo.

Buchanan On Obama

Well said.

The New York Slimes

I'm not a huge fan of Governor Charlie Crist (R-FL), but this is nothing more than a political hit piece.

Pat Buchanan

Another great column here.

Hugo Chávez Frías - Warmonger

And also a supporter of Communist terrorists!

LOL

Headline from Media Matters:

Cunningham smeared Obama, used his middle name during appearance at McCain rally

Yes, because using a candidate's full name is the most despicable kind of smear imaginable...

Sigh...

McCain is such a lame candidate:

Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a "hack, Chicago-style" politician.

Hussein is Obama's middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee's appearance.

...

Asked whether the use of Obama's middle name — the same as former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — is proper, McCain said: "No, it is not. Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate."

Great column

From the Aspen Times.

The NYT endorses McCain

This piece is a-laugh a-sentence. (If you can keep your food down, that is...)

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Week 17

WEEK 16

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South Africa

Well on its way to becoming another Zimbabwe...

WEEK 15

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Grading the candidates on immigration

The Republicans

The Democrats

Learning from Diversity

Interesting column, here.

WEEK 14

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