Look! Look! Look! Now they have a blogger who’s a psychic! And she’ll help you become a psychic, yourself! Oh, this is just too good to not tell everybody. THE HUFFINGTON POST NOW ENDORSES PSYCHICS! This makes my day, it really does. What’s next over there, classes on how to make your own divining rod? Where to put those hot rocks on your skin to make your cancer go away? Jim Morrison’s cell number? Oh, this is GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT and I love it….
Whoever is responsible for this — denying Marines access to the passenger terminal, and then being too big a coward to take “credit,” instead citing the the Marines’ inability to pass “security” — ought to be publicly identified, excoriated, humiliated, and sent away. This is b***s***.
To “fix” it, says Bill Clinton, all we have to do is “slow down our economy.” Which has been the anti-West goal of its most ardent promoters all along. Nice to hear this honest if accidental assessment, especially from the finest truth-twister to ever twist a truth.
After the Big Kahuna of Florida, former New York Mayor Giuliani is bidding the campaign adieu. Former Senator John Edwards said “adios” today too. Former Senator Fred Thompson bid us farewell a short time ago, as did Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden and a host of other lesser lights. There are still a few hangers-on, like former Governor Mike Huckabee and the omnipresent Congressman Ron Paul.
Maybe I was absent the day that my school explained the definition of the word…. ‘public’. As it is used in the phrase ‘public servant’. You know those folks that work for some governmental function which as I recall was funded by those of us out here known as ‘taxpayers’.
It’s almost sacrilegious to criticize the comments of a grieving father, especially when they’re well-intentioned, yet Judea Pearl’s article in the Wall Street Journal (The Daniel Pearl Standard) has many holes in its reasoning. He writes: “The shocking element in Danny’s murder was that he was killed, not for what he wrote or planned to write, but for what he represented- America, modernity, openness, pluralism, curiosity, dialogue, fairness, objectivity, freedom of inquiry, truth and respect for all people. In short, each and every one of us was targeted in January of 2002.” Though all of these qualities may apply to a description of Daniel Pearl as an individual, and though he may have self-identified as these things, he was killed as a member of a specific group, not as a generic westerner. The words his murderers forced him to spew out before his decapitation were not “I am an American, a journalist, a freedom-loving, pluralistic, curious man.” They were instead, “I am a Jew.” They resonate across centuries of all too familiar anti-semitism and it is unseemly at best and dangerous at worst to distort this truth.
Senator John McCain, the scourge of many conservatives, won the first primary open only to Republicans. Stunning many observers, the Republican from Arizona won most of the Republican votes, showing that he’s not just the Republican Democrats love, but that he’s the Republican Republicans think can win.
Forget the other issues for the moment. If you’re one of those Americans who believes borders should mean something, that tens of millions of illegal aliens will deport themselves if the rule of law prevails, and that at least one viable candidate for president should represent those views–you’re in for a long four, possibly eight year trip through the wilderness.
A Texan with the initials “RP” is running for president. There is a Bush in the White House, the economy is in recession, American soldiers are dying in Iraq and many Dems think their best chances of recapturing the presidency is a candidate named Clinton.
I sure didn’t see that coming. McCain? The guy who flew back to DC six months ago so he could vote for amnesty for illegals–that McCain? Wow. That says to me that the illegal immigration issue isn’t nearly as big a deal as the media and punditocracy have made it out to be for the last four or so years. McCain is the leader of the band when it comes to favoring leniency on illegals. So now suddenly that’s no big deal to Republicans? The only way that could be is if it was NEVER that big a deal for Republicans. Anyway, it’s his nomination now, and I think his “narrative” (as is suddenly the fashion to call his combination of character and backstory) is strong–and in presidential elections, personality/narrative counts for a whole lot. Though he is more conservative, Romney has no compelling narrative. So at least we have that goin’ for us.
Okay, so Rudy came in third in Florida. And McCain is a good guy. And Rudy chose to opt out of competing seriously in the early primaries – his decision, and obviously a bad one. But it is also clear that the media’s relentless pounding of the “Rudy is not viable” script played an enormous role in this major loss.
Hillary Clinton (NY) won the FL Democrat primary, and gets bragging rights (“I am thrilled to have had this vote of confidence that you have given me today”) but no convention delegates because the national committee stripped the state of its delegates as punishment for moving up the date of the primary election from February 5th. To underscore that point, just after CNN called the race for Hillary, Obama’s campaign put out a statement: “Breaking… Obama and Clinton tie for delegates in Florida. 0 for Obama, 0 for Clinton.”
The FL Republican primary was do or die for Rudy Giuliani (NY). For weeks, pundits waited with bated breath to see whether Rudy would “do,” like John McCain (AZ) in NH or “die,” like Fred Thompson (TN) in SC.
We live in a golden age of golden ages. In the last half of the twentieth century, field after field after field of human endeavor burgeoned beyond anyone’s imagination.
In its endorsement of John McCain in the NY Republican primary on February 5th the New York Times reminded many Republicans exactly what it is they don’t like about the AZ Senator: “[O]ne of the first prominent Republicans to point out how badly the war in Iraq was being managed … stood up for the humane treatment of prisoners and for a ban on torture … recogniz[ed] the threat of global warming early … work[ed] with Senator Russ Feingold, among the most liberal of Democrats, on groundbreaking [campaign finance reform] legislation … worked with Senator Edward Kennedy on immigration reform.”
When I tell people that if I had to pick a Democrat for President, I’d pick Hillary, they don’t get it. Here’s why (from the Hill’s article about tonights SOTU): “When Bush proclaimed, “Ladies and gentlemen, some may deny the surge is working, but among terrorists there is no doubt,” Clinton sprang to her feet in applause but Obama remained firmly seated. The president’s line divided most of the Democratic audience, with nearly half standing to applaud and the other half sitting in stony silence.”
It’s easy to just focus on campaign news this week, but a journalist in Afghanistan needs help. Sentenced to die for distributing to classmates — not even writing, mind you — an article that asked why, if Muslim men could have four wives, women didn’t have the same right. This, according to a mullah court in Mazar-e-Sharif, is blasphemy for which Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh should die. Read more about the case and what you can do to help here.
“I’ve been outspent 20 to 1,” bare-boned Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee often tells a crowd. “[Just like] you feel you have been outspent 20 to 1 in just about everything you have ever tried to do.” Unlike, say, Hillary Clinton’s, his audience’s tears are real.
Let’s understand something. Pennsylvania is the coal capital of the world (well, pretty much). So why is my governor, Democrat Ed Rendell, pushing to hike taxes on electricity (produced by burning coal) so he can subsidize alternative fuels such as ethanol, something the state produces very little of?
In this space last fall (I’m too lazy to look up the link) I declared McCain toast on the basis of his enthusiastic let’s-rub-their-noses-in-it race to lead the parade in favor of leniency on illegal immigration. (Victor David Hanson at NRO reminds of the McCain eulogies here.) No reason to change that opinion now, despite the current McCain surge. Immigration is important to the Republican base. The base votes in primaries. McCain is aggressively wrong on immigration. And the base doesn’t forget. (And the money-men in the base will buy ads to remind us all of McCain’s in-your-face apostasy.) Hard to imagine McCain as the nominee–not impossible, but hard to imagine. And even harder to imagine that Republicans would turn out to vote for him enthusiastically in the general. Between his illegal immigration position and his embrace of the Global Warming Religion, I am not sure I’d bother to vote for him against Hillary. What’s the difference between them on these issues, anyway? The only saving grace he offers is his position on The Global War on Terror, and even then he gives too much consideration to the “we’re monsters who torture!” gang on the Left.
Senator Kennedy (who in his dotage has nothing to lose) and a lot of Democratic politicians who do are endorsing Senator Obama. They are getting behind the loser. While philosophically it may feel good to them, politically it is silly–and who now does not see, Democrat or Republican, that the Clintons have long memories? The senator from Illinois is not going to win. His South Carolina victory was built on black votes and Iowa is no bellwether, and never has been. The national numbers are all in Hillary’s favor. America is enchanted by Bill Clinton, and while a few in the media may be puffed up about his blowhard routine just now, the current state-by-state races are like dog-track stats: followed by a tiny hardcore, but ignored by the vast majority. A climber in the Senate would do well to remember who’s going to be in charge, should his party re-take the White House in a few months.
SC voters reacted to the Bill Clinton mudslide by giving Barack Obama (D-IL) a landslide. The margin of victory for Obama was 2:1 over Hillary (55 percent v. 27 percent) – significantly larger than pre-primary polling had indicated. And his appeal proved biracial and dual gender.
The last State of the Union Address of President George Bush must prepare the nation for the future not only state the perceived achievements. It must lay out the grounds upon which the next President would build the future stages of the War on Terror. The conflict with the Jihadi threat cannot be exclusively a matter of personal style, even a Presidential one. There should be national guidelines committing all Presidents to pursue strategies leading toward achieving precise goals. I expect from the President to state in his last Address the following matters:
News item: Prominent Democrats are upset with the aggressive role that Bill Clinton is playing in the 2008 campaign, a role they believe is inappropriate for a former president and the titular head of the Democratic Party — Newsweek, Jan. 28, 2008.