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October 30, 2008

bullseye for Michael Ramires again

Posted by Darleen at 06:06 PM | Comments (4)

Got a 401k?

Not for long.

"A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, contains elements that are being considered. . . .

Under Ghilarducci's plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.

The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.
"I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s," Ghilarducci said in an interview. "401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won't have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break."


Oh, goody ... Social Security is now going to be incharge of a 401k that isn't even really yours anymore.

Not only is 15% of your earnings going to Social Security, but they are going to "administer" another 5%. By law.

Ghilarducci outlined her plan last year in a paper for the left-liberal Economic Policy Institute, in which she acknowledges that her plan would amount to a tax increase on workers making more than $75,000--considerably less than the $250,000 Barack Obama has said would be his tax-hike cutoff. In addition, workers would be able to pass on only half of their account balances to their heirs; presumably the government would seize the remaining half. (Under current law, 401(k) balances are fully heritable, although they are subject to the income tax.)

Here again is the underlying Leftist ideology concerning property ... IT BELONGS TO THE STATE. Work hard, be responsible, save, acquire wealth, and when you die the government gets it.

The Democrat troika we may get on Nov 4 is quite naked in its goal of making people so dependent on government they will never dare to cross Leftists again.

Posted by Darleen at 06:42 AM | Comments (1)

October 29, 2008

Don't judge Obama

by Michael Ramirez

Related

We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a clinton or mccain supporter who just switched our support for obama”

We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence.

We did this the whole primary and it worked.

Posted by Darleen at 06:21 AM | Comments (35)

October 28, 2008

Los Angeles Times to Readers

Go pound sand, we have a king to make on Nov. 4.

Posted by Darleen at 06:33 AM | Comments (0)

Pelosi tortures language, logic and listeners

There are just statements you see or hear that make you stand in awe, especially when you know the speaker may seriously believe her own rhetoric

"But I do tell you that if the Democrats win and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan"

Because, dammit, Nancy and Harry have done such a fine job with the "most ethical Congress" evah in the past two years!

Posted by Darleen at 06:26 AM | Comments (1)

Tito the Builder

Another person to be punished by Obama

Posted by Darleen at 06:10 AM | Comments (601)

October 27, 2008

Barack Obama is a socialist

He was quite candid about it in 2001. Why so coy today? Why send his minions out to try and destroy Joe the Plumber for exposing what he so obviously was willing to advocate 7 years ago?

Posted by Darleen at 12:06 AM | Comments (4)

October 26, 2008

'and they were dead serious'

Addendum

Posted by Darleen at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

BREAKING: FoxNews refuses to release video of Sarah Palin toasting white-supremacist

Oh, wait, my bad

The LA Times is holding a video that shows Barack Obama celebrating with a group of Palestinians who are openly hostile towards Israel. Barack Obama even gives a toast to a former PLO operative at this celebration. [...]

His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases...

It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."

...The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times. [...]

On Wednesday I talked with Peter Wallsten from the Los Angeles Times about the article on Obama and Khalidi:

Wallston was one of the few mainstream media reporters to report on this radical Obama associate.Wallston said that the article was written after he watched video taken at the Khalidi going away party. When I asked him about the video he said that as far as he was concerned he was through with the story.

I asked him if he was planning on releasing this video of Obama toasting the radical Khalidi at this Jew-bash. He told me he was not releasing the video. He also would not comment on his source for the video.



Nothing to see here. Move on.

Posted by Darleen at 10:23 AM | Comments (16)

October 25, 2008

O!'s Social Justice

Posted by Darleen at 02:59 PM | Comments (0)

Joe the Plumber - how an O! admin will handle apostates UPDATED

McCain cites O!'s revealing "spread the wealth" answer to Joe in the last debate and within 24 hours Obama supporters in Ohio government are accessing Joe's information

"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber." [...]

Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.

Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department. [...]

The attorney general's office is investigating if the access of Wuzelbacher's BMV information through the office's Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi.

"We're trying to pinpoint where it came from," she said. The investigation could become "criminal in nature," she said. Brindisi would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct. 16.

Records show it was a "test account" assigned to the information technology section of the attorney general's office, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Thomas Hunter.

Brindisi later said investigators have confirmed that Wurzelbacher's information was not accessed within the attorney general's office. She declined to provide details. The office's test accounts are shared with and used by other law enforcement-related agencies, she said.

On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland, records show.

Mary Denihan, spokeswoman for the county agency, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services contacted the agency today and requested an investigation of the access to Wurzelbacher's information. Cuyahoga County court records do not show any child-support cases involving Wurzelbacher.

The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate, Hunter said.

The LEADS system also can be used to check for warrants and criminal histories, but such checks would not be reflected on the records obtained by The Dispatch.


Don't worry, I'm sure the Ohio AG, you know, will get to the bottom of this breach that happened within her own department ... say sometime late November?

(h/t Michelle Malkin)

***UPDATE*** Jeff Goldstein points out this falls into line with Alinsky, coupled with The One's pay to play approach to media -- all designed to effectively control The Narrative(tm).

What we have been witnessing, since the political implications of the linguistic turn have been carefully studied and gamed, is the “civilized”, “academic” version of witch hunts — with the burnings, drownings, and lynchings replaced by metaphorical equivalents: loss of credibility, character taint, the appearance of impropriety (generally, in accusations of “racism,” “sexism,” “homophobia,” etc.).

This has all been carefully planned and implemented, and is — as I’ve long argued — the inevitable endgame for progressive politics and the philosophical assumptions and imperatives that underly the ideology.

By taking back language — the very thing that defines “truths” as man can articulate them, the very thing that frames “knowledge,” as man is capable of collecting it — we can take back the ground upon which meaning is decided upon. This need not be metaphysical; it could be nothing more than a return to the social contract built upon a rule of law wherein the law is decided upon based on a consensus opinion to appeal to the intent of the founders in whose politically experimental context we as a nation have agreed to operate.

Such a maneuver would make it far more difficult for identity politics and “multiculturalism” — the great balkanizing agents upon which progressivism depends — to survive logical scrutiny. It would turn the concept of a “Living Constitution” into unserious (and logically incoherent) mush; and it would reaffirm a common national social contract.

The election of Obama represents the opposite of all those ideals, just as progressivism, though it hides in the party that describes itself as “liberal,” is the precise antithesis of the classical liberalism upon whose precepts this country was founded.

To get back to celebrating and protecting the individual and individual rights, we must get back to respecting intent and appealing to it as a basis for securing a coherent epistemology.

Any thing else constitutes the poststructuralist’s vaunted and poet “drift” — the non-romantic upshot of which is that he who controls the ebb and flow of drift controls the paradigm, and so the power.

Posted by Darleen at 09:43 AM | Comments (11)

October 24, 2008

I am Joe

Posted by Darleen at 06:32 AM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2008

Experiment on Camp Obama ...

... which goes to explain there is little transparency and a whole lot of questionable "contributions".

I've read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering: How is this possible?

I run a small Internet business and when I process credit cards I'm required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchaser's address must match that of the cardholders. If these don't match, then the payment isn't approved. Period. So how is it possible that the Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn't ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and... "Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift."

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it's donors. Also, I don't see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn't allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn't match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.[...]

"I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn't allow the transaction." [...]

I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went through using the same credit card. I saved screenshots of the transactions.

Will the MSM cover this?

Probably as much as they've covered Barry's years in New York or Biden's rhetorical flourishes.

Investigating big money corruption, like calling views about "spreading the wealth" socialist, by The One is just racist.

One People.
One Nation.
One Leader.

QED

Posted by Darleen at 06:21 AM | Comments (2)

October 22, 2008

Elect Barry cuz ...

... he's dancer

At the end of a long campaign day Tuesday in Florida, Democrat Barack Obama had one more stop: "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."The TV talk show host got right down to business.

"Let's talk about dancing," she said. "Your wife, Michelle, was on the show and she was talking some smack about your moves."

DeGeneres played music and gave Obama 20 seconds to prove his spouse wrong. He complied, albeit in a decidedly awkward set of circumstances -- standing alone on a patch of concrete and looking into cameras that were to beam him into the studio, as supporters and reporters watched.

He gamely grooved a little, though mostly with his arms, before calling off the operation with a smile.

"Michelle may be a better dancer, but I am convinced I am a better dancer than John McCain," Obama said of his Republican rival.


You'd think after the O! campaign belittled McCain over his inability to use a keyboard due to the effects of being tortured as a POW, Barry would be a little more circumspect about snarking about how McCain moves.

I'm sure Barry is a better dancer than FDR was, too.

Posted by Darleen at 06:11 AM | Comments (10)

October 21, 2008

He's no lady

Story

Video

Posted by Darleen at 09:04 PM | Comments (3)

Diogenes' despair

Orson Scott Card in search of one honest reporter

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for? [...]

If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.

They'll get right on that, Mr. Card.

Oh, say, about 2016?

(h/t LGF)

Posted by Darleen at 06:24 AM | Comments (10)

October 20, 2008

Why shouldn't Europe be happy with a Prez Obama?

I mean, they are certainly helping to buy him

A Newsmax canvass of disclosed Obama campaign donors shows worrisome anomalies, including outright violations of federal election laws.For example, Obama has numerous donors who have contributed well over the $4,600 federal election limit.

Many of these donors have never been contacted by the Obama campaign to refund the excess amounts to them.

And more than 37,000 Obama donations appear to be conversions of foreign currency.

According to a Newsmax analysis of the Obama campaign data before the latest figures were released, potential foreign currency donations could range anywhere from $12.8 million to a stunning $63 million in all. With the addition of $150 million raised in September, this amount could be much more.


Well, Europe has been whining for some years that they should have a say in who gets to be the President of the United States.

Looks like they are putting money where their mouth is.

Posted by Darleen at 12:06 AM | Comments (8)

October 19, 2008

It's the class, stupid

In the 1985 movie The Breakfast Club five stereotypical teens are forced to spend a Saturday together in detention. John Hughes' funny and touching film is a hopeful fantasy about people from different classes learning to understand each other, accepting each other and, maybe, when Monday rolls around they might stand up to their friends and still talk to one another.

I called this a fantasy, right?

Because, if you want to see class enforcement writ large in supposedly "classless" America, then this election is one for the books

Why is Bill Ayers a respectable member of the upper middle class and Sarah Palin contemptible?

Pour yourself a Johnnie Walker Black and remember. The presidential campaign was going to be about sex--the sex of the inevitable winning candidate. Then it was going to be about race. We dreamed we would atone for slavery and the Berlin Airlift, impress Europe and charm the Arab world. But the undecided voters who will determine the winner are no longer interested in race or sex. They are looking at social class. Which ticket best expresses the values and tastes of the upper-middle-class--and captivates the rest of us who follow the lead of the upper-middles?

The class argument is why the Bill Ayers strategy won't do. In the sex and race eras, it would have worked nicely. Obama's longtime working collaboration with the radical educational theorist and retired terrorist would dramatize his carefully but hastily discarded political radicalism. But no longer. The anti-Ayers publicists are quite right about Ayers's malignity and Obama's connivance. But when they try to explain what Ayers has done in the past and still wants to do--turn schools into nurseries of revolution, make leftist views a condition for becoming a teacher, promote dictatorship, and glorify violence--they injure not help their cause. Class will always trump politics. Being the first in one's family to adopt liberal political sentiments or move to New York City means a step into the middle class, for most Americans, and an increase in social status. More extreme political radicalism lifts one a step or two higher. [...]

On the other hand, what can McCain and Palin offer except their two personal histories of struggle? John McCain speaks about service and sacrifice, and how he wore our nation's uniform, as if we want to hear about such things. But in my demographic slice of country, we are a little conflicted about such things as struggle, service, uniforms, and sacrifice. America's "officer class" does not generally include career military officers. In his book Class, Paul Fussell hypothesized that upper-middle-class men prefer natural-shoulder jackets because men's shoulders are a secondary sexual characteristic. "Epaulets emphasize the shoulders. They are thus associated with the lower classes, whose shoulders are required for physical work. The military makes much of epaulets, betraying instantly its prole associations."


This helps explain the outraged reaction to Joe the Plumber. He didn't know his place when he dared question Obama and Barry's minions were more than happy to help demonstrate to Joe that there are lines that must never be crossed.
And what about Sarah Palin? Here, the upper-middle-class deficit gets worse. Throckmorton-Zakaria's husband, Fareed Zakaria, uses a rare one-word sentence to make his entire argument against her: "Palin Is Ready? Please." She notoriously strikes the wrong class note on a thousand media keyboards with what Andrew Sullivan calls gallantly "Sarah Palin's cocktail waitress act." But the problem is not that the governor can't conform to upper-middle-class norms. It's that she won't.

If only Palin were really as trashy as Sullivan thinks she is. Sadly she is quite the opposite--one of nature's noblewomen. She rose by refusing to accept the limitations of her proper station in life; she is despised for continuing to do so. If Palin wants to pal around with the Throck-morton-Zakarias, she is wasting her time memorizing classic 19th-century Supreme Court decisions (Katie Couric isn't going to give her a mulligan). Instead, she should learn from watching herself as she ought to be.


Gov. Palin's rallies draw tens of thousands of people. People who, if you actually talk to them, who are enthusiastic about Sarah because her voice is their voice and they have felt as invisible as a NYCity doorman, acknowledged at Christmas time, but considered mere necessary equipment the rest of the year.
Scheiber's attempt to understand Sarah Palin, detailed in the New Republic, took him all the way to Wasilla, as strange to him as Ethiopia to Evelyn Waugh. Scheiber spoke to various people from Palin's past, all of whom have two things in common: Every one of them is smarter than Palin and none of them has been heard of since their encounter with her. Scheiber's pet specimen among what he calls "the more urbane members of the community" is a Dartmouth graduate who reads Civil War histories, self-published a book, and not only does but "savors" the New York Times crossword puzzle. This sort of résumé wouldn't get your niece an unpaid internship on L Street--but for a Rhodes Scholar lost in Alaska, the Dartmouth degree, the Civil War buffery, the Times crossword puzzle all take on huge significance. Unable to comprehend how Palin could have outpaced the Wasilla gentry, poor Scheiber clings for dear life to these sad fragments of class dignity.

While Palin threatens class solidarity, Obama is emollient. The more urbane members of the Hyde Park community are cleverer than their Wasilla counterparts and believe that they have captured Obama for their class--just as Richard Stern persuades himself that the still-radical couple he dines with are merely Unitarians in a hurry. But the man who may be president is cleverer still.

Obama and his surprising choice for vice president have spent most of their career working on their own images, smoothing out the rough edges, trying out devices, rhetorical and cosmetic, to make the nicer sort of people feel comfortable with them. Obama wrote his own life, and then wrote it again; Biden practiced for years in front of a mirror to overcome his childhood stutter. Carefully composed, Obama holds the upper-middle class in his steady hands, and has no need of Stern's help to assure our anxious electorate that he will not shock their class sensibilities.

The Republicans, alas, are stuck with this election's true and unrepentant revolutionaries. McCain and Palin have each refused, by sheer cussedness, to fulfill the social expectations of others. This may make them poison to undecideds who suffer, more than most, from class anxiety. But do not despise the undecideds. Even conservatives can contract Scheiber Syndrome. Think of David Brooks, Christopher Buckley, David Frum, Peggy Noonan, and George Will. The symptoms? Curiously amplified, obsessively repeated, sometimes elaborately stage-whispered doubts about the Republican ticket.

There is no cure, but there is an etiology. All share a dreadful secret--their writing is driven by an anxiety to be tastemakers to the gentry, not merely thinkers and entertainers. There is nothing more anxious-making than striving to create taste for the classes, not masses, or even to keep up with it. (The struggle to do so is etched in the lines of Tina Brown's face.) But what the classes think is a matter to which the GOP standard-bearers are sadly but nobly indifferent.


Obama has been embraced by the upperclass, so eagerly as to include a whole chapter in an 8th grade textbook
"The choice of this selection was to provide a contemporary and multicultural figure to explore the unit on community,’’ the district said.

The word missing in that excuse was "acceptable". Obama's "multicultural" background is acceptable whereas the Palins' is not. Obama's family diversity is celebrated, but Palins' is ignored. Obama gets lauded for a taxpayer-supported Ivy League education, Palin pays her own way through college and is mocked. The reason? Class. The Palins don't know their place and aren't ashamed of their lives.

It's interesting to note that at the end of The Breakfast Club, Claire gives Allison a "make over" into something a bit more acceptable. The quirky Goth Girl who Andy already found intriguing will now be acceptable to his friends.

Peggy Noonan, et al, the wannabe "tastemakers" decry Sarah for refusing the "makeover."

November 4th is this nation's Monday morning. Will classism trump values?

(h/t Miss Attila)

Posted by Darleen at 10:39 AM | Comments (3)

If you aren't on the right side of history ...

What ever will the true believers do to you to ensure One People, One Nation, One World, One Leader?

The supremely confident demeanour and exalted rhetoric of the Democratic nominee at a New Hampshire event betrayed that he is a man convinced he is poised to make history. ...

But much of Mr Obama's speech in Londonderry - punctuated by cries of "We all love you Obama", "I love you" and "We will work with you" - was devoted to the kind of quasi-religious sentiments and motivational-coach style exhortations, the kind of pride that set him up for a big fall in January.

"I want you to believe," said the candidate, clad in an open-necked shirt and barn jacket. "Not so much believe just in me but believe in yourselves. Believe in the future. Believe in the future we can build together. I'm confident together we can't fail."

There was a carnival atmosphere among the crowd of some 4,000, who almost drowned Mr Obama out as he reached his crescendo and said: "I promise you. We won't just win New Hampshire. We will win this election and, you and I together, we're going to change the country and change the world."

Mr Obama was described as "preternaturally confident" in a gushing endorsement by the Washington Post on Friday.

Posted by Darleen at 12:02 AM | Comments (3)

October 18, 2008

Vetting the Obama partisans 'Reporters'

The NYSlimes, desperate to drag Obama into the White House, publishes a hack-rehashed hit piece on Cindy McCain.

Cindy is the Second Wife!. Yawn
Cindy is Younger than John!. Ho hum.
Cindy was Addicted to Painkillers! Lordy, anything new?

So let's take a peek, shall we, at what "reporter" Jodi Kantor did in preparation for writing this breathless tome. Seems the "principled journalist" Kantor decided to slum around Facebook and solicit gossip from 16 yearold classmates of Bridget McCain. Here's one of Jodi's emails

I saw on facebook that you went to Xavier, and if you don’t mind, I’d love to ask you some advice about a story. I’m a reporter at the New York Times, writing a profile of Cindy McCain, and we are trying to get a sense of what she is like as a mother. So I’m reaching out to fellow parents at her kids’ schools. My understanding is that some of her older kids went to Brophy/Xavier, but I’m trying to figure out what school her 16 year old daughter Bridget attends– and a few people said it was PCDS. Do you know if that’s right? Again, we’re not really reporting on the kids, just seeking some fellow parents who can talk about what Mrs. McCain is like.

Also, if you know anyone else who I should talk to– basically anyone who has encountered Mrs. McCain and might be able to share impressions– that would be great.

Thanks so much for any help you can give me.
Jodi Kantor

Jodi's campaigning for Obama in the pages of the NYSlimes knows few bounds. Certainly her pointed, slam-piece on retired Jews in Florida is a great example of falling in line with Obama's demand that any criticism against him, any vote for McCain is nothing more than racism

Kantor’s main goal is to show us that all who question Obama are fools and backward morons. If in so doing she fosters hate, then so be it. Victory for the extreme left is all that Kantor and the New York Times have ever cared about.

Kantor’s not a racist, an anti-Semite or anti seniors. I believe her to be Jewish herself (so much for Jewish intelligence). I doubt that she has anything against senior citizens, except for conservative ones. But with her “save Obama at any cost” tactics, she may as well be all three.

Of course, it's not like Ms. Kantor has such a vaunted reputation in the first place.
When she was the young editor of the ’Arts & Leisure’ section of The New York Times, riding the coat tails of disgraced editor Howell Raines, Jodi Kantor came to be the willful embodiment of downmarket journalism. Since her ’reassignment’ after Raines’s departure, Kantor has practiced her hackwork in long form, chasing the Zeitgeist, writing thought pieces for the Times on pressing subjects such as the changing size of television sets.
Jodi's rehash on Mrs. McCain is not the first time she finds herself just pointlessly rewriting stuff already known in order to justify her paycheck.

Goodness knows, she rode into the NYTimes with little more than perkiness that stirred the loins of her middle-aged male bosses.

"I never thought I could make it as a journalist," Ms. Kantor said. "I thought it was like being an actor; I thought for every successful journalist, there were two or three thousand talented young wannabes who had just never gotten their chance at success."
Maybe there is more to how she got her job than just a well-written letter. Come on, Jodi, you wouldn't mind a little dirt digging and gossip mongering on you, would you?

(h/t SBP @ PW Pub)

More from Fausta

UPDATE: more from Ace on vetting the media

Posted by Darleen at 08:45 AM | Comments (26)

October 17, 2008

The ELITE plan

(h/t Carol)

Posted by Darleen at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)

George finds his balls ...

Did Sarah tell Mr. Crybaby to get 'em out of cold storage on her last swing through Ohio? I mean, where the hell did this come from?

Sen. George Voinovich, what do you really think of Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president?

“He is left of Teddy Kennedy. With all due respect, the man is a socialist.”

Ohio’s senior senator, a Republican, made his comments Thursday to a reporter for The Daily Sentinel in Pomeroy, Ohio. He was visiting the Meigs County Republican Party.

Voinovich said he felt that John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, had the “maturity, experience and proven record of reaching across the aisle” and would be a “responsible president” in one of the “most challenging times in the history of this country.”

Voinovich’s office did not back away from the “socialist” quote today.

Spokesman Chris Paulitz said it was based on Voinovich’s strong belief in a limited role for the federal government. Paulitz cited the 10th Amendment, which says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Said Paulitz: “Sen. Voinovich has been a mayor and a governor, and believes the 10th Amendment is sacred. And he does not believe that Sen. Obama has an understanding or respect of the 10th Amendment.”

McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, do, said Paulitz, adding that Voinovich has spoken with Palin specifically about the government’s role and that she, McCain and Ohio’s GOP senator are in agreement.

Yowzer. Insert quote about broken clocks here.

(h/t Jeff Goldstein)

Posted by Darleen at 03:00 PM | Comments (3)

October 16, 2008

Warning to Lefties DO NOT READ UPDATED

The following video will outrage and offend your eugenicist beliefs.

I know for Leftists these people ITS should never have been born.

Pictures of the snowbilly are in that video, too. It might cause you great distress. Do return to trashing a blue-collar family guy that had the audacity to dare to question The One.

Liberal Fascists. Who knew?

UPDATE: Just to be clearer, though Barry's Brownshirts won't care - facts are not a high priority to the Left - Joe IS a plumber.

Many news outlets have gotten it correct, but some have not and that needs to be corrected. Mr. Newell is licensed, and Joe the Plumber is just short of his five years before he can apply for licensure, but as supervised by Newell, he’s o.k.
Just doing the work that the MSM (Barry's PR division) refuses to do.

Posted by Darleen at 06:23 PM | Comments (22)

Spreading something ...

Posted by Darleen at 06:37 AM | Comments (29)

October 15, 2008

Mr. Hymietown returns, sez Zionists will lose under President Obama

Jesse Jackson, confident of an Obama victory, dusts off the anti-Semitism.

PREPARE for a new America: That's the message that the Rev. Jesse Jackson conveyed to participants in the first World Policy Forum, held at this French lakeside resort last week.

He promised "fundamental changes" in US foreign policy - saying America must "heal wounds" it has caused to other nations, revive its alliances and apologize for the "arrogance of the Bush administration."

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House. [...]

Obama has been "a neighbor or, better still, a member of the family." Jackson's son has been a close friend of Obama for years, and Jackson's daughter went to school with Obama's wife Michelle.

"We helped him start his career," says Jackson. "And then we were always there to help him move ahead. He is the continuation of our struggle for justice not only for the black people but also for all those who have been wronged." [...]

"Bush was so afraid of a snafu and of upsetting Israel that he gave the whole thing a miss," Jackson says. "Barack will change that," because, as long as the Palestinians haven't seen justice, the Middle East will "remain a source of danger to us all."

"Barack is determined to repair our relations with the world of Islam and Muslims," Jackson says. "Thanks to his background and ecumenical approach, he knows how Muslims feel while remaining committed to his own faith."

Now, let's be clear. The "Palestinian" definition of "justice" in the Middle East is the destruction of the state of Israel and the expulsion (or death) of all Jews. Mr. Jackson is not so stupid not to know that. Interesting that he finds the atmosphere so congenial he can let his anti-Semitic sentiments have full voice.

The One's campaign was quick to toss Rev. Jackson under the very crowded bus.

Obama's national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said Jackson does not advise Obama and is "in no position to interpret or share Barack Obama's views on Israel and foreign policy."
Though, considering Obama's own vacillation, either from naivete or indifference towards the ME, such statements from members of his political career family, shouldn't surprise.

People who think Israel has the right to sovereignty should pay attention.

Close attention.

Posted by Darleen at 05:36 PM | Comments (6)

Obama's little ACORN

Growing into massive frauds across the nation. Lawsuits, raids, and even a RICO filing abounds.

LANSING -- The head of a group that promotes voter registration acknowledged Tuesday that members of his organization have submitted bogus applications to county election offices.

But David Lagstein, head Michigan organizer for ACORN, the Association for Community Reforms Now, defended the effort.

"It's our policy to hand in every single card," he said. "Sometimes we do get the occasional application with names like Mickey Mouse or some silly thing like that. However, we don't want to be the arbiter. Our job is to hand in the applications."

What ACORN is doing is the paper equivalent of a Denial of Service attack on websites. Overwhelm small and medium election boards with thousands of fraudulent registrations, some may get through, many will not, but it will break down the system and errode confidence.

Michelle Malkin reports on out-of-state Obama activists registering to vote in Ohio.

Obama has extensive ties to ACORN, which he continues to obfuscate.

This is Chicago machine politics, married to Alinsky's Rules for Radicals brought to the national stage.

Unacceptable.

Posted by Darleen at 06:30 AM | Comments (4)

October 13, 2008

Liberal love in Manhattan

Posted by Darleen at 05:28 PM | Comments (7)

When teenagers have more class than adults

Trig Palin has been a touchstone of moral value in the national discourse. Sarah Palin eloquently speaks to the value of human life

When I learned that my son Trig would have special needs, I had to prepare my heart for the challenges to come. At first I was scared, and Todd and I had to ask for strength and understanding. But I can tell you a few things I’ve learned already.

Yes, every innocent life matters. Everyone belongs in the circle of protection. Every child has something to contribute to the world, if we give them that chance.

Vesus an eugenist ideology that posits humans are to be valued as objects - and damaged ones should not be suffered to live
"...it is crucial to reaffirm the morality of aborting a fetus diagnosed with Down syndrome (or by extension, any unborn fetus)"
This latter ethos of death is prevelant in contemporary American culture. It is worthy to note those teens who speak Truth to that Power.

Never has the selection of a homecoming queen sent so many tears falling so freely.

Kristin Pass, an 18-year-old senior with Down syndrome, became Aledo High School's homecoming queen Friday to a joyous standing ovation and the flutter of a thousand tissues on a remarkable night for an amazing young woman.

Her grandfather, Dr. David Campbell of Corsicana, escorted her onto the field and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as Kristin joined eight other young women in the Homecoming Court to await the results of the vote, cast by the 360-plus members of Aledo High's senior class

Then came the announcement ... and pandemonium.

"Oh my gosh! I was sitting in the student section and everyone stood up, crying and cheering for Kristin," said longtime friend and fellow senior Meaghan Geary, 17, who first met Kristin in the third grade. "It was great!"

Carolyn Pass stood at the edge of the football field, taking pictures of her daughter and friends' daughters in the court, when the stadium erupted.

"It's just something you can't even imagine," she said. "And afterward, everyone was just running down to her, congratulating her. And the other girls in the court, they're all just beautiful girls, inside and out."

Remember this the next time the moral morons of the Left call Trig "a prop" or are outraged he wasn't aborted.

Posted by Darleen at 08:22 AM | Comments (26)

October 12, 2008

Why do Liberals hate Christians

like Sarah Palin?

Part 1

Part 2

Posted by Darleen at 01:17 PM | Comments (2)

October 11, 2008

Go out and GET SOME!

Exposing the fallacy of the "45 million uninsured" meme

Cuz, ya know, dude, buying insurance means less money for partying and toys.

Posted by Darleen at 08:45 AM | Comments (1)

October 10, 2008

United Democrat Government

Here

Posted by Darleen at 09:06 PM | Comments (6)

OMG!!! You said 'slaves'? RACIST!!

Eric has the scoop. It appears Bill Whittle wrote an article pointing out, as I have previously, that declaring healthcare as a "right" comes with the logical conclusion to secure such a positive obligation on others means, ultimately, the enslavement of those others.

Koskiddie objects in a spectacularly craven way:

Barack Obama is the first African-American presidential candidate of a major American political party in the history of the United States. Bill Whittle knows this, unless he really is as dumb as he sounds. To indirectly call him a defender of slavery is despicable. For National Review Online to publish this incendiary garbage is, well, not surprising.
Barak is not a descendent of slaves. I am. So I do have the "moral authority" (according to the Left's own rule book) in this regard. There IS NO "right" to healthcare, food, homes, french-door refrigerators, x-boxes, computers, razor scooters. To demand such a right is to declare the labor of those that would voluntarily produce such as forfeit to the State.

The Left wants a person's primary relationship to be with the State, regardless of their bleeting about "freedom". Liberty is anathema to the Left.

Posted by Darleen at 06:30 AM | Comments (6)

October 09, 2008

Identifying why Perpetually Angry Handmaidens of the Left (aka "Feminists") seeth at Sarah

Camile Paglia

The hysterical emotionalism and eruptions of amoral malice at the arrival of Sarah Palin exposed the weaknesses and limitations of current feminism. But I am convinced that Palin’s bracing mix of male and female voices, as well as her grounding in frontier grit and audacity, will prove to be a galvanizing influence on aspiring Democratic women politicians too, from the municipal level on up. Palin has shown a brand-new way of defining female ambition — without losing femininity, spontaneity or humor. She’s no pre-programmed wonk of the backstage Hillary Clinton school; she’s pugnacious and self-created, the product of no educational or political elite — which is why her outsider style has been so hard for media lemmings to comprehend.
Paglia publishes and comments on several letters she has received from women who feel they have been ignored or dismissed by second wave feminists. Regardless of independence, accomplishment or choice, women like Gov. Palin don't fit into the tiny tent that is contemporary boutique feminism - pro-abortion, anti-family, anti-marriage, anti-capitalist, anti-personal responsibility - and therefore, "inauthentic women".

As Jeff Goldstein states

Sarah Palin, for her part, represents feminism as it should be, and it’s refreshing that an academic feminist like Paglia is so comfortable in her own skin that she is willing not only to admit as much, but to literally praise it. Palin is comfortable in her role as politician and mother. She is unafraid to speak her mind and demand to be taken seriously. In fact, she truly believes that she should be taken seriously on the basis of her ideas, not merely as a concession to her sex.

She is an individual who happens to be a woman; her beliefs are her own, and — far than suffering from “false consciousness” — she is settled in her convictions, as they are formed in equal parts by her sex, her faith, her upbringing, her political ideology, and her own thinking on issues. In short, she is the perfect feminist because she is the perfect individual — one who sees her sex neither as a stumbling block nor a card to be played when the game needs leveraging.

The derision heaped on "inauthentic women" has been described from time to time as "Mommy Wars", as if it were confined merely to working women v stay-at-home women. Yet the huge, positive reaction to Palin - something that confuses and angers boutique feminists - exposes to a wider audience that the "inauthentic woman" is indeed the foundational base of feminism and that we are tired of being ignored or derided.

Feminism isn't a public adherence to an imposed list of issues. Feminism isn't or shouldn't be an external movement. Feminism is really the internalized, self-realization of women as their own worth as individuals and finding their own fulfillment via their own personal choices, freely entered into.

Boutique feminism rejects marriage/children/capitalism because that interfers with the basic goal of the Left ... that an individual's primary relationship should be with the State, not with God or Spouse or Child.

Posted by Darleen at 05:59 AM | Comments (9)

October 07, 2008

Healthcare is a RIGHT?

No. HELL, no.

NO ONE has a "right" to something that necessitates the enslavement of others to provide that "right."

No one is entitled to healthcare as a "right" any more than they are entitled to food as a "right" or a house as a "right".

Red Barry can surely go fuck himself.

Posted by Darleen at 08:22 PM | Comments (24)

Sabotage of An American Carol?

Considering how the Left is treating NBC's SNL, or ABC/Disney's refusal to release The Path to 9/11 I'm not surprised. Miss Attila says:

Mpower pictures and Vivendi are starting to hear complaints about sabotage of An American Carol by employees of theaters that are carrying the movie. So far, ten theaters have been implicated in outright fraud regarding this movie.

Obviously, the producers and distributors would like to get to the bottom of this and find out the extent of any fraud, but they need our help to determine whether the problem is systemic, or confined to a few theaters in a nationawide release.

What we know: in at least ten theaters nationwide, customers were sold tickets they were told were for An American Carol but turned out to be for other movies.

Miss Attila lists other things individual theatres are doing to frustrate viewship of the movie.

If you encounter any of the things Miss Attila lists, please go to AAC Fraud site to report it.

Posted by Darleen at 06:44 AM | Comments (2)

SNL, not ready for courage

While the Biden/Palin skit still strides the internet, the Pelosi/Frank “CSPAN Bailout” skit, has gone down the memory hole. It used to live here (watch as the link to a specific clip is redirected to the general location). There was even a whole thread of comments, including criticism of the rapid pulling of the clip that ::::POOF::: no longer exists.

Michelle has some thoughts and links. Transcript.

MSM is not allowed to lampoon Leftists, especially those with lots of money and pretensions to power by funding far-left authoritarian organizations.

MsUnderestimated captured a copy.

Posted by Darleen at 06:16 AM | Comments (2)

October 06, 2008

Well, you know Obama did say ...

... to his supporters to get out there, confront Republicans and conservatives and "get in their faces"

(h/t Nice Deb)

Posted by Darleen at 06:08 AM | Comments (8)

October 05, 2008

Broken clocks

Posted by Darleen at 12:22 PM | Comments (1)

Palin Rally in California, but is the campaign poised to stumble? UPDATED

****UPDATE*** Jeff Goldstein further highlights continued demagoguery used by the Left in framing any, ANY criticism of Obama as “racially tinged”.****

First things first, I was at the Palin Rally yesterday at the Home Depot Center in Carson. The weather, which had been in the triple digits earlier that week, cooperated with a cool temperatures and a thick cloud cover. It started lightly raining towards the end, but when Sarah said "Maybe I should wrap this up?" the crowd emphatically roared "NO!". The stadium was packed and at least 5 deep in standing-room-only at the top perimeter. Normally the stadium holds 8,000, but there were extra seats and the floor in front of the podium was packed. I confirm that the estimates of 15-20,000 are about right.

While California is not really in play -- the royal fiefdoms of Los Angeles and San Francisco holding blue sway over the peasants in the rest of the state -- the rally was enthusiastic and there was a lot of "well, at least we can make the Obamaniacs sweat a little". Volunteerism is up at Republican headquarters throughout the state and many are also volunteering to go to battleground states, like Nevada, in the ten days leading up to the election.

Follow me over the jump for a few pictures I took and why I'm also worried that the McCain campaign handlers, already shown to boobishness over their not letting Sarah-be-Sarah for three weeks after the convention, are making additional extraordinarily foolish decisions.

The California rally was more about keeping state Republicans enthused and pumping up local elections. The crowd was there to see Sarah but reacted nicely to the short speeches by local politicians and party officials. Fun time when Jon Voight took to the stage. He talked about his change from leftist to conservative and also had some funny stories about his mom. He said he looked at Sarah as someone just like his mom from Yonkers, a strong, intelligent, principled woman, raising children with love and a firm hand.

Jon Voight October 4 2008 Carson CA pic by Darleen Click

A stunner was when Shelly Mandell, president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the NOW, life-long Democrat, took the stage to introduce Sarah. The money quote from her introduction:

This is what feminism looks like.

Shelly Mandell, Sarah Palin Oct 4 2008 Carson CA pic by Darleen Click

Sarah Palin Oct 4 2008 Carson CA pic by Darleen Click

Sarah Palin Oct 4 2008 Carson CA pic by Darleen Click

As the stadium emptied and the rain fell a bit harder, a woman in the row behind us was helpful enough to take my camera and snap a picture of:


baldilocks, me and Miss Attila.

If you need any further proof that for the Left their political ideology has become their cult religion, then a few pictures of the moonbats and knowing the the local Democrat party was out there trying to be as disruptive as possible (and a few Code Pinkers inside the rally) should help. As laughable as these loons are, a sobering thought is that you never see the reverse at Democrat rallies. While the Dems/Leftists are secure that their political opponents acknowledge their First Amendment rights, it is apparent they don't have the same respect for people who disagree with them.

This last picture (the bottom line of the sign is "from my house") is illustrative in a few ways. One is the mocking and threatening tone of the poster. The Left isn't out to ignore Palin and hope she just goes back to icky, backwater Alaska, the Left is out to destroy her and her career. They fear that even if Obama is elected, Palin will return to the national scene in the future. They won't have it. Hence the continued "scorch the earth" policy they have towards her - slander, libel, threats against her family - is all in play. Also notice the woman holding the sign, late 50's and grim-faced. A kool-aid drinking, boomer, gender feminist. Palin is a threat to her. This woman is not having a good time. A look at these "protesters" is to see people who are angry and hatefilled. Not a smile or laugh or chuckle amongst them. Palin's happiness, indeed any non-leftist who is happy, frosts them like nothing else. It pushes their derangement right up to eleven.

Which brings me back full circle to something to worry about. The McCain campaign does not have the time to make any more stumbles like it already has, but it looks not only they haven't learned but arestubbornly determined lose the election.

Here is the big question of the moment that many GOPers are asking: Why is John McCain not tearing into Barack Obama and the Dems on the huge role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act in the financial crisis on Wall Street? In fact, the biggest criticism by conservatives of Sarah Palin's debate performance last night was that she had the opportunity to talk about Fannie/Freddie and the CRA but instead criticized the role of "predatory lenders." [...]Why not? 1) It is a complicated argument, and McCain is not good at making complicated arguments, not even about earmarks. (Note, additionally, his lack of defense of the war in Iraq during his debate with Obama. Amazing.)

2) There is a racial component to criticism of the Community Reinvestment Act that can make it sound like you are scapegoating minorities for Wall Street's problems.

3) The campaign believes McCain's time is better spent talking about taxes and energy and healthcare. Really.


The campaign handlers don't seem to be getting that Obama/Biden are out there lying about how the whole subprime debacle is solely a Republican mess. McCain's 2005 legislation? Per the Dems: "NEVER HAPPENED".

McCain has to stop playing his campaign as if it were an extension of his Senate career, he can't be pulling his punches with Obama when The One and his acolytes are out to take a baseball bat to the back of his head and dance in his blood on the floor.

As Patterico says:

All you have to do is play the videos quoting Republicans worrying about Fannie and Freddie, as contrasted with the quotes from Democrats claiming there was no crisis.If they couldn’t see this crisis coming, how are they going to see an Al Qaeda attack coming?

If the McCain campaign handlers are the reason that Sarah Palin (and John McCain) didn’t hit back hard in the debates on Fannie and Freddie, then they have to be the most stunningly incompetent bunch of campaigners in history. This crisis is the biggest thing going. McCain and Palin have a great argument to make.

LET THEM MAKE THAT ARGUMENT.

Or we’re going to lose.

It’s just that simple.


Yes, it is that simple.

Posted by Darleen at 11:09 AM | Comments (17)

October 03, 2008

What just happened?

Posted by Darleen at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2008

I'm voting Democrat

because, well, you wouldn't understand, it's an elitist thing

Posted by Darleen at 06:18 AM | Comments (5)

October 01, 2008

Alaska's Political Circus

More here.

The reveal: the Dems/MSM have no problems dismissing the Chicago machine/Ayers/ACORN ties to Barry Obama, but they are all in favor of creating a scandal by attempting to support a racist, child abuser in Tasergate. It appears that child abuse is ok to the Left as long as it's done against the child relative of a godbothering conservative. Holding non-Left views makes one "inauthentic" and any threat, abuse, or Bad Thing that happens to them is just oky-doky.

Posted by Darleen at 05:37 AM | Comments (4)