Fun With That Noted Theologian, Michael Moore

Business & Media Institute:  Michael Moore: Hurricane Coming During GOP Convention ‘Proof There Is a God in Heaven’

Who so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten son to win the Democrat nomination.

Politico:  Palin’s hubby and son not [registered] Republicans

Somehow, I doubt that she will have much trouble getting the votes of these two coveted independents.

E!:  Kevin Connolly Humbled by the Michael Phelps Phenomenon

He better be humble, because someone I’ve never heard of has no business being arrogant.

USNAWR:  Michigan Democrats Are Ready to Work for Obama

They shot down a proposal to work for Chuck Baldwin.

AFP:  Malaysian man gets nut stuck around penis: report

Don’t ask, don’t tell.  Cause I don’t wanna know how.

McClatchy:  Scientists close in on mass killer of life on earth

You better keep whatever that crud is in the thickest glass beaker locked behind the strongest padlock ever.

One out of Four Ain’t Bad

Politico:

Palin greeted by raucous Pa. rally

(snip)

“She knows what it’s like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries,” said McCain.

Yeah, unlike you, Obama and Biden.

Fun With Democrats’ Cheatin’ Hearts

CNN:  [Hillary] Clinton congratulates Palin

Bill wants her phone number.

CNS:  John Edwards to Give Speech a Month after Admitting Affair

And will talk about the Two Americas:  One that has affairs in the adorned Purple of the Oval Office, and the other, less advantaged one that is forced to have trysts in the slums at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica.

SF Chronicle:  Feinstein considers run for governor in 2010

But wait, all these Democrats that telling us that being the former mayor of the fourth largest city of the state doesn’t amount to having any experience.  Note that SF’s current mayor also wants to be Governor.

The Celebrity Cafe:  Chad Johnson Legally Changes Name To Chad Ocho Cinco

Now let’s hope that Marvin Lewis reassigns to him the number 84.

AP:  Ron Paul followers gathering for own convention

Ronstock!

AFP:  Sharp rise in alcoholism among Swedish women: report

And we’re supposed to take it at bad news that more Swedish blonds are getting drunk?

AP:  Diddy halts private jet flights over fuel prices

He’ll economize by using the fleet of Escalades more often.

AP:  Usher to help kick off NFL season with concert

Right at about the time when John McCain wants to tell you why he should be President.

Pretend It’s One Week Ago, and You’re Seeing These Photos for the First Time.

Would you ever in your wildest imagination associate these images with a potential Second Family of the United States of America?  These look more like the people next door than the people that work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  The more I look at these pictures, the more I think that McCain mad the right choice.

I tend to think McCain picked Sarah Palin because of her husband, Todd.  I think he’ll wind up being the secret weapon for the campaign.  Just looking at him, you know he actually works for a living, and works in a field that requires moderate physical labor.  And we know that he’s a member of a union.  Yeah, right, Michael Savage, Mitt Romney and his borderline metrosexual look would have done the trick.

Let me put it to you this way: Todd Palin looks like your average guy in Pennsylvania whose factory job was moved to China. Mitt Romney looks like the guy who moved the factory to China. (With Romney’s links to Bain Capital, and its Sino-perfidy, that might not be so far off the mark.) Sarah Palin looks like many of the former Western Union employees in Bridgeton and St. Charles, Missouri whose jobs were moved to Costa Rica. Mitt Romney looks like the Western Union CEO who decided to outsource.

All images are from the Anchorage Daily News.

Good News, in a Photo Essay

Endorsed

In 1996 and 2000.  PJB confirms on Chris Mathews last night, who presumably did not feel a tingley sensation going up his leg over one Sarah Palin.

HRC Hauls Out the Knife

CNN:

Clinton congratulates Palin

(snip)

Clinton’s statement reacting to Palin is markedly different than the Obama campaign’s initial reaction which made no mention of the historic nature of the Alaska Republican’s VP candidacy — instead painting her as woefully inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. The Obama campaign later released a joint statement from both the Illinois senator and his running mate, Joe Biden, praising Palin for making history.

***

Drudge already told us that Bill Clinton was not at Invesco during Obama’s acceptance speech/laundry list o’gripes.  But the TV never showed Hillary in the crowd during Obama’s speech, so I bet she wasn’t there.  That absence spoke thousands of words, and now her praise of Palin, in contrast with the Obama Campaign/MSM criticism of her “inexperience,” speaks thousands more words.

Hillary doesn’t want Obama to win, and, for the sake of her political future, can’t afford for him to win.  If Obama doesn’t, the 2012 Presidential race will be Hillary vs Sarah.

Career to Scale

Let’s construct the political career of a hypothetical liberal Democrat from San Francisco, California.  SF is California’s fourth most populous city.

This person starts out by winning and serving two terms on the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors (City Council).  S/he parlays that by winning Mayor of San Francisco twice.  After two terms, s/he tries to move on up to Lieutenant Governor of California, but loses in the Democrat Party primary, finishing 2nd place.  After that, s/he goes on to serve in some California State Government Natural Resources commission, resigning after two years because of rampant corruption among most board members.  A few years after that, s/he notices that California’s incumbent Governor, a Democrat, is unpopular and has very questionable ethics, and appointed his daughter to an open U.S. Senate Seat.  So our hypothetical San Franciscan challenges him in the GOV-D Primary and beats him, then goes on to win the general.  Two years into his/her governorship, his/her good job therein gets notice of the Democrat nominee for President, and he picks him/her as his running mate.

S/he also has five children, deciding with his/her spouse to care for the youngest one, as they don’t want to discriminate against a human being with a natural disability.

Would the liberals bash our hypothetical San Franciscan for a lack of experience?  Hell no.

This is Sarah Palin’s life, transverted to the scale and to the political climate of the most populous state in the union.  They bash her for being only a Mayor of a city of 9,000 as late as 2002, but Wasilla, Alaska, if it has 9,000 (figures vary), then that would make it AK’s fourth-biggest city.

This Day Would Have Some Rain

We have the first really big name right-winger not to heap praise on the Palin pick.

If Michael Savage is on tonight, he is probably going to savage (no pun intended) the pick, parroting DNC/Axelrod talking points about “no experience,” and claiming that John McCain, who Savage isn’t as negative toward as much as the rest of the conservative establishment, hurt his chances with this pick.  He is implying as much on his website at the time of this writing.

First, there’s a chance that Savage is deliberately being a contrarian, that he knows the rest of conservative talk radio is ecstatic about the choice, so he’ll come out with the opposite opinion just because.  But even if he doesn’t like the pick, then it’s too bad.

I haven’t yet registered my opinion, but I think that in the overall scheme of things, Sarah Palin is a good choice.  Not a great choice, but a good choice.  But in the context of the fact that John McCain was going to make the selection, we got the best possible running mate.

I know that he would have taken Lieberman or Ridge if there were no other pressures upon him.  I wanted him to take Duncan Hunter, because DH was the only candidate in 2008 and the only Republican with any sort of name rec who is both anti-immigration and anti-freetrade.  But you know JM would have never done that, because DH called JM a member of the Ted Kennedy wing of the Republican Party.

And it’s clear that a lot of McCain’s attraction to Palin came because Obama didn’t pick HRC.

I’m not the Republican nominee for President, and neither is Michael Savage.  John McCain is, so he got to do the picking.  He accidently stumbled into the best person within the universe of people he could have chosen.

UPDATE 6:40 PM: At this moment, Savage is live, though St. Louis won’t hear it until nine.  I understand, through reading certain blogs, that Savage wanted Romney.  First off, McCain would have never picked him, because they were fierce competitors during the campaign season.  With every third conspiracy theory about the JFK assasination revolving around LBJ, Presidential candidates seemed to have avoided ambitious running mates since then.  Notwithstanding that, though, Romney has experience questions, because he was self-limited one-term Governor of Massachusetts (I think he did not seek a second term, because he knew he would have lost in Nov. 2006).  His only other executive experience is the SLOC Chairmanship.  He ran for Massachusetts U.S. Senate in 1994 against Ted Kennedy, and while he gave ole TK the best challenge that he had ever face or has since, then, Romney still lost by 20.  Plus, there’s the incessant flip-flopping, and his wealth.  Plus he’s a free-trader.  That dog won’t hunt in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

Fun With the Unlikely and the Unfathomable

McPaper:  Study gives NFL B+ for diversity, incomplete grade on gender equity

Somehow, I doubt that the NFL will ever get a good grade on gender equity.

AP:  David Duchovny in rehab for sex addiction

48, married and two kids — probably the most unlikely profile for a sex addict.

CNS:  Gas Prices Up Amid Threat of Gustav

It’s the same f’n gas that was in the station’s big tank last night, so why is it all of a sudden 20 cents a gallon more expensive today?

KSDK:  Michael Jackson at 50: ‘The Best is Yet to Come’

Even though nothing good has come from him in 16 years, or 25 in the opinion of some, or 40 in the opinion of some, or 50 in the opinion of some.

P-D:  Steelman: Time for Palin; no word on Hulshof

If only she could have beat Hulshof and then Nixon, there would be a Governor Sarah to fill the void by the other Governor Sarah becoming Vice-President.

WND:  Nude workers shouting ‘Ask me why I’m naked!’

“Because I work for the Clinton Library.”

McClatchy:  At Obama’s Indonesian school, there’s no doubt he’ll be elected

They know because they saw a picture of the blank check payable to “Barack H. Obama” from the bank account of George Soros.

AFP:  Millions of young Chinese addicted to ‘unhealthy’ Internet games: report

The Brits tried Opium, now we can try Halo.

AP:  Obama’s speech seen by 38 million viewers

And heard recited some 38 million times previously during the previous four days.

Sarah Palin, As I Predicted

I wanted to wait to say this until the pick was made, and to make sure that McCain didn’t do something stupid like pick Jeb Bush.  But this ticket marks a break from a long string of prominent Republican names.  Every Republican Presidential Ticket since 1952 up to 2004 had a Nixon, Bush or Dole at the top or bottom, the only exception being 1964.

Frankly, though, the only reason McCain picked her is because Obama didn’t pick HRC, and the GOP base created a lot of blowback over Ridge and Lieberman, two examples of the kind of running mates McCain really wanted.

The Veep Debate at Wash. U. in early October will thus be Palin vs Biden.  She might be the only person on Earth with a thick enough skin to handle Biden’s acidic arrogance.  She might be the only person at a high level in American politics today who could take Obama in a game of 1-on-1 basketball.

Sarah Palin is Alaska’s version of Claire McCaskill, in that she defeated an unpopular incumbent Governor in his own party’s primary, in Alaska’s case, that being the ignoble Frank Murkowski.

If McCain wins and Obama loses, it’ll likely be Palin vs HRC in ’12.

The DNC’s Speeches Were Like Mariah Carey’s Songs — When You Heard One, You’ll Have Heard Them All

The David Axelrod Show is finally over.  Obama’s acceptance speech sounded more like a Clinton-Bush State of the Union laundry list o’wishes than anything approaching memorable political oratory.

Algore compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln.  If only Algore knew that Lincoln didn’t want blacks to have as much as the franchise, much less the Presidency.

Obama wants us to be our brother’s keepers*.

The End.

——

* – Only applies to full brothers.

Fun With Amnesty

CNS:  GOP Platform Opposes Amnesty

Bob Dole told us everything we need to know about how much a piece of paper actually matters to a GOP nominee.

CNS:  Thirty Percent of New Border Agents Leave Their Jobs in Less Than 18 Months

Better they leave now than get prosecuted for actually doing their jobs later.

CNS:  Hispanics Don’t Have to Fear Raids, Michelle Obama Says

Of course they don’t have to, if they’re not here illegally.

WCBS-2 NYC:  In NYC, New HIV Infections 3 Times National Rate

Considering that this number for the average big American city is probably 15, then Gotham is looking pretty good.

KSDK:  Musical Act Rage Against the Machine Draws 9,000 in Denver

Since only 1,000 people paid for tickets, then there really isn’t that much rage against whatever machine they’re mad at.

AP:  Hilary Duff’s dad to spend 10 days in Texas jail

Maybe he was supposed to stay away from alcohol, and was caught with a case of Duff Beer.

Politico:  Rove tried to kill Lieberman VP pick

A broken clock is right twice a day.

McClatchy:  Obama youth parade continues, but will it last?

Wasn’t this same youth parade supposed to elect John F’n Kerry in 2004?

Time:  Chicago Braces for a School Boycott

By breaking out in a chorus of “Happy Days Are Here Again”

AP:  Biden says nation needs more than a good soldier

No, just a bad community activist.

SPACE.com:  Drilling Into Alien Oceans

The DNC already has a platform stance against it.

AFP:  Sony to launch world’s slimmest 40-inch LCD TV

Like Saturn’s rings, dramatic if you’re looking at it from an angle, but almost disappear when you look at it side-on.

C|Net:  Bloomberg mistakenly publishes Steve Jobs obituary

In revenge, Apple should put all the speeches from the last five NRA conventions in the next iPod they sell to Michael Bloomberg.

Reuters:  Independent WHO study backs universal health care

Did you think an organization that depends on the funding of governments would want anything different?

AP:  Spielberg, Affleck, J.Lo at Democratic convention

J.Lo’s mother didn’t want her to go, warning her about the “moreno” that was going to be nominated.

Reuters:  Australian school may backflip on cartwheel ban

Because now the kids are getting fat.

WND:  Obama’s global poverty program

You get more poor, third worlders stay poor, and third world kleptocrats get rich.

To the Rescue

AP:

Charge dismissed in case of dog registered to vote

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – A judge has decided that a suburban Seattle woman who registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix to vote has spent enough time in the legal doghouse.

Jane Balogh (BAY’-loh) had been charged with making a false statement but entered into a plea agreement last year. A King County judge dismissed the charge Monday after Balogh showed that she had paid $240 in court costs and completed community service.

Balogh says she registered her dog Duncan to protest a loophole in the law that she says makes voter registration so easy a nonexistent person could be added to the voter rolls.

She says she made no secret of her action after the fact, telling a number of elected officials she had registered her dog.

And she says Duncan never voted.

Strangely, Washington Governor “Landslide” Christine Gregoire, who first won election by a razor ultra-thin margin four years ago, based on the suspicious appearance of some mysterious votes that took a judicial decree to allow, has been seen acquiring a lot of dogs.

Seriously, this proves that the system is broken, and is in serious need of reform.

Finally, Unions Grow a Spine on Immigration

WaPo :

Factory had tension between union, immigrants

LAUREL, Miss. — Union bosses in this region of rural Mississippi have long grumbled that the largest factories here hire illegal immigrants, and that the immigrants were starting to get more overtime and supervisory positions.

Friction between the union and immigrant workers, along with a tipoff at an electrical manufacturing plant, boiled over this week into the biggest workplace immigration raid in the nation’s history.

When the first of the 595 suspected illegal immigrants was taken into custody Monday, some fellow workers broke into applause. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the investigation started three years ago after agents received a tip from a union member.

Notice it took union members, not union leadership, to get this done.  Now, the next thing union members can do is to vote to unload its quisling fifth column B-school educated MBA-adorned “leadership,” which nowadays often has country club memberships at the same places with the business suits that they pretend to oppose, and vote for new leaders that actually puts unions to good use, in order to protest outsourcing, and outsouricing by insourcing using H-1-B visas.

Why I Opposed President Bush’s “Faith Based Initiative” Program

CNS:

Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative Gave Obama’s Former Church $1.5 Million

Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Ill. – where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama worshipped for two decades – has received more than $1.5 million in federal tax money since 2003 through the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI), according to data provided to CNSNews.com by the White House and confirmed by Rebecca Neale, spokesperson for the FBCI.

***

This was probably one of many F.B.I. fundings which turned into fungible contributions to hate-whitey black churches.

How the RNC Can Use Hurricane Gustav

There’s a lot of fear that the media will focus on Gustav hitting the Gulf Coast at the same time the RNC starts in St. Paul, Minnesota, and that the media will re-hash Bush/Republican “failures” in Katrina, all the while praising Blanco/Nagin for their prompt action.

I know how the GOP can react.  Because most of our offshore drilling is off Louisiana and eastern Texas, if Gustav hits there, it will cause supply disruptions and drive the price of oil up.  (Supposedly, though Camille hitting the gulf in 1969 didn’t drive the price up at the pump in its aftermath.)  If we had more offshore drilling, then a hurricane that hits any one area wouldn’t so dramatically disrupt supply as to cause price spikes.  So the speakers at the RNC can say that this is one more good case for more offshore drilling.

Get It While It Lasts

Soon, it’ll be as hard to find as “Song of the South.”

For Free

There is a lot of gloating at this DNC that Barack Obama’s campaign isn’t accepting any money from lobbyists.  Of course, he doesn’t have to.  Does anybody think he actually needs to buy advertising on MSNBC?

The Joe and Bill Show, DNC Day 3

Of course, schmucks like Joe Biden and most of the rest of tonight’s speakers were going to read Axelrod’s talking points.  But what surprised me to the point of jaw dropping is that Bill Clinton did, too, instead of reading something he or one of his flunkies would have wrote.  Oh, no, like HRC last night, he didn’t look happy at all in doing so, and at a couple of instances, he showed the Clintonite smirk that we all grew to know and love from the 1990s, the one that alerts us that he knows he’s BSing us, but somehow he bit the bullet.

I think Bill bit the bullet in order to appear like he is holding no grudge against the Obamaites.  However, there is a rumor going around that Bill himself called Obama “a Chicago thug.”

The most “unique” speech of the night was given by John F’n Kerry.  It was unique in that only half of it was Axelrod talking points, the other half consisted of his own campaign bromides from four years ago.

Don’t You Think Michael Bolton Would Have Made a Good DNC Speaker? After All, He Can Read David Axelrod’s Talking Points As Well As Anyone Else.

“Okay, Bill, where are you hiding the knife?”  Ironically, Obama’s watching C-SPAN, which, unlike the other networks, has no commentators gushing over Obama.

AP:  Clintons throwing a one-two punch at McCain

But deliberately missing.  After all, 2012 isn’t far away.

Sacramento Bee:  Gang violence seeps into Sacramento suburbs

A leader of a local MS-13 gang was quoted as saying, “me likey them subprime loans.”

P-D:  Off-the-wall crime-fighting idea? The urinal

Off-the-wall punishment idea?  Urinating on convicted violent felons.

P-D:  Rev. [Jeremiah] Wright resigns from state commission [on Slavery]

He once wanted God to damn America, looked around south Chicago, and figured his wish had been granted.

KSDK:  Study Reports More Than Half Of College Students Contemplated Suicide

Strangely, more than half of colleges recently rolled out a course along the lines of Moral Relativism 101.

KCBS-2 LA:  Gangsta-Porn Actor Thrown In Da Slamma, Yo

Don’t think either of his professions will be hindered by his incarceration.

Live Science:  Why Do We Get Baggy Eyes?

The answer is surely more complicated than the one for why do we get baggy pants.

AP:  Feisty puppy scares off 3 bears in NJ back yard

And yours truly had a dream overnight where an opossum chased a wolf out of my kitchen and back yard.

Reuters:  Thai police tighten noose round protesters

Jesse, Al, Abe and Morris are on a redeye to Bangkok for some odd reason.

Reuters:  North Korea still holds plutonium card: analysts

Why not?  The Plutonium Card has to have an even higher credit limit than even a Platinum Card or a Uranium Card.

AP:  Fear grips immigrants after Miss. plant raid

You shouldn’t have to live in fear.  Be free and without fear, in Mexico.

AP:  Mich. governor, Detroit mayor have strained past

No they don’t.  The only difference between them is that he’s wearing an ankle bracelet and she’s not.

AFP:  Teenaged Democrats flock to Obama’s side

Remember, even the Romans knew that old age and treachery will always defeat youth and skill.

Live Science:  Consumers Predict Inflation as Accurately as Economists

I’m guessing that the reason is that consumers actually buy stuff.

Info World:  Linux end-user summit planned

All the details will be provided in the file CONVENTION-HOWTO.html

AP:  Australia assessing visa for Snoop Dogg

Whatever you do, Oz, Don’t!

Reuters:  Nicollette Sheridan, Michael Bolton end engagement

She called off the wedding when she found out that Michael Bolton would be the wedding singer.

Approval Ratings

The speakers so far at the DNC are trying to captalize on President Bush’s low approval rating.  Trouble is, Congress’s approval rating is even lower than the President’s, and Obama, Biden and HRC are all in the Senate.  McCain is, too, but he’s more likely to pick a current or former Governor as running mate.

Musical

For as many times as I’ve heard “we’re all in this together” uttered by speakers at the DNC today and yesterday, I was thinking that this wasn’t the Democrat National Convention, but a rehearsal for “High School Musical.”

Again, with the exception of the first half of HRC’s speech, most of tonight’s speakers spouted the same lines and bromides.  Though it was somewhat different from last night, so it seems as if David Axelrod wrote another speech overnight.

Speaking of which, I get the feeling that the Democrat establishment have it in their minds that the only reason Bush won two national elections is because of Karl Rove.  Now you know my opinion of Karl Rove-r-rated and political advisors in general:  I wouldn’t give you two cents for most of them.  Political advisors get all the credit if their guy or gal happens to win, whether or not their advice and strategies were the reason for the victory.  If you luck out by being the advisor for enough winning candidates, you’ll rise through the ranks of that profession.

George W. Bush won two national elections in spite of Karl Rove, not because of him. (Verily, I think most of Rove’s advice was stupid.  Hispanic Strategy, anyone?)  However, that’s what many Dems think.  The reason they think that is because of the psychological phenomenon of “transferrance.”  You tend to see in other people qualities you know that you have yourself.  For instance, if you tend to think that most other people are dirty, filthy, lying rat finks, you’re likely a dirty, filthy, lying rat fink yourself.  If the Democrats think that Bush’s success is entirely Rove-r-rated, then this means the Democrats know that any of their success comes from their Roves, such as David Axelrod.  Being as Democrat strategists, as a tendency, are somewhat brighter and more astute than the Republican ones, it’s more the truth for them.

However, this means that they have handed over the keys to the party and the mortgages to all their souls to David Axelrod.  As such, virtually everything this party says and does up until November will be conceived and approved by Axelrod.  If Obama wins, then Axelrod will get all the credit, even if his advice was half baked and had nothing to do with it.

***

A few points on Mark Warner’s address, which was the keynote of the convention.  I noticed he used the word “Bangalore” in a snarky sense.  Again, this is the continuing Axelrod effort to make you think the Democrats are against free trade and outsourcing, without actually being against free trade and outsourcing.  (Hint:  Larry Ellison gives almost all of his political donations to Democrats.  Warren Buffet, who has made most of his fortune based on the rising stock values of corporations that become all the more profitable because of cheap labor and outsourcing, is an Obama economic advisor.)  Warner said that if a job can be done in Bangalore, it can be done in Danville, Virginia.  Trouble is, Mark, most of those jobs that were done in Danville are now being done in Bangalore because the labor is dirt cheap in Bangalore.  And if the job can’t be moved to Bangalore, then they move Bangalore to Danville, with H-1-B visas.

***

HRC may have had the words, but she didn’t have the music.  She did not look happy at all having to deliver this speech.  If not for her hands constantly being in front of her, I could well imagine that she would have had one hand with crossed fingers behind her back the whole time.  As it was, she certainly didn’t appear spirited, and seemed like she was delivering this speech as if she was just going through the motions, dry and technocratic like.

All Caps, Bold and Italic

One of the talking heads on MSNBC, in their pre-convention coverage this afternoon, gushed over Barack Obama’s plan to give Federal money to First Responders so they can become more capable.

Mark me.  Wherever there is Federal money, there is ALWAYS Federal control.  The money Obama’s promises will have strings attached.  Knowing who Obama is, and what political party he represents, those strings will be affirmative action mandates.  Most likely, they will require almost the total elimination of any semblance of standards for black and Hispanic hiring and promotion candidates.

Ironically, then, Obama’s Federal money will make many Police, Fire and EMS services more black and Hispanic, and therefore less competent.

Fun With the First Day and the Last Day

SNL:  Obama from a home in Kansas City: I’m ‘here in St. Louis’

So obviously the newspaper in Springfield has to make the biggest deal about it.

NPI:  Black history to be taught as part of school curriculum amid fears Churchill will be sidelined in lessons

A minute wasted on teaching about that ODWG could be put to good use to tell black “Britons” about Rosa Parks.

Alan Keyes, in WND:  Alan Keyes: Voters should say ‘no’ [to Obama]

All I can say is that, Alan, you had your chance to do that personally, four years ago.

St. Catharines (Ont.) Standard:  Co-author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die dead at 47

At the 47th thing to do or 47 years?

AP:  Cows seem to know which way is north

Let’s put an Outback north of every cow.

Info World:  13 best practices for IT outsourcing

Make this into a book, so we can see who checks it out of the library.  That way, we’ll know who the traitors are.

Reuters:  California stop-smoking campaign saved $86 billion: report

All that money saved, California ought to be running yearly budget surpluses.  Oh wait…

AP:  9-year-old boy told he’s too good to pitch

Because the point of youth baseball is not to win, but to maximize the self-esteem of those whom he would strike out.

You Might Be a Redneck If You’re This Stupid, or You Think Obama’s That Smart

But I don’t think they’re actually rednecks.  Note that one of them is a retired state bear.

KSDK:

Missouri ‘Rednecks for Obama’ Show Support in Denver

Tony Veissman and his buddy, Les Spencer, like to hunt and fish. They like their guns and the self-proclaimed rednecks like Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The two drove from Rolla, Mo., to show their support for the Illinois senator. They held their banner “Rednecks for Obama” outside a security checkpoint near the Pepsi Center, where delegates for the Democratic National Convention started gathering Monday.

“We’re trying to get all the rednecks to vote for Obama,” said Veissman, a retired Missouri state trooper. “He’s bright, intelligent.”

Veissman said he doesn’t share his fellow rednecks’ fear that Obama will try to take away their guns.

“We’ve had many Democratic presidents, and we will still have our guns,” Veissman said.

Spencer added: “Bill Clinton was president for eight years and I never heard of anybody losing their weapons.”

Duh, stupid.  You must have never heard of the NRA, and other similar organizations.  Barring that, don’t you think that LBJ, Carter and/or Clinton would have?  I wouldn’t even have trusted the two Bushes.

You’ll note, you stupid “rednecks,” (so-called), that gun confiscation in England and Australia happened under the auspcies of “mainstream conservative” political parties and their Prime Ministers, John Major and John Howard, respectively.

Besides, most real “rednecks” (i.e. the white working class) don’t oppose Obama because of guns, they oppose him because they have seen the failure of black rule in Detroit and Zimbabwe.

The Same Speech Recited By Twenty Different People

That’s what Day 1 of the DNC seemed like today.  It was “last eight years horrible McCain equals Bush hope change health care Barack was a community activist out of Iraq responsibly.”

So, David Axelrod is the Democrat Party’s sole speechwriter now?

I watched it gavel-to-gavel today.  (No, I’m not ordinarily a sadist.)  One thing that jumped out at me was the dichotomy that took place at 7 o’clock (8 Eastern).  Before 7, I saw kind of a kooky looking motley crew of an audience, holding handwritten signs.  The speakers tended to be more strident and radical, some speaking in Spanish.  Also, the music before 7 seemed to be provided by a bad house band that you’d hear in a crummy bar.

After 7, the audience seemed to get somewhat more respectable, the speakers more “mainstream,” the recitation of Axelrod talking points more precise, the signs professionally printed, and the music more slick and polished.

This has been the Democrat Party playbook for as long as I’ve had a conscious memory.  Behind the curtains, pander all out to blacks and (increasingly now) Hispanics.  In front of the curtains, hide the pandering and appeal to whites’ economic frustration.  And pray that the media don’t blow your cover.

David Brooks wrote in the NYT yesterday that, the DNC strategy will be the “genericificaton” of Barack Obama.  He says that a generic Democrat beats a generic Republican by a wide margin in polls, so the DNC has to make Obama more “generic,” while turning McCain into George W. Bush.  The trouble with that is that you can’t paint Obama and Michelle white.  That dog won’t hunt for much of anybody.

Also, tonight, former Republican former Congressman, Iowa “moderate” Jim Leach, spoke at the DNC and endorsed Obama, which was the only speech of the night that didn’t come off the Axelrod mimeograph.  What happened to Leach in 2006 also happened to a lot of lib-mod Republicans that November, like Lincoln Chaffee and Mike DeWine.  They all got bounced for real liberals and Democrats.  And now, they’re taking their anger out on their former party, even as their former party is getting ready to moderate one of their ilk for President.

Needless to say, I’m not watching gavel-to-gavel tomorrow.

Final Prediction on McCain’s Running Mate

I think he’ll go Palin, simply because Obama went with one of those old dreaded white guys, and thus didn’t do anything “special” with his pick for running mate, and stiffed HRC in the process.  I think McCain thinks that those 27% of HRC voters that say they’ll vote McCain won’t be bluffing if a woman is on the ticket.

Otherwise, I think McCain would have picked Pawlenty, simply because the RNC is in Minnesota.

There is a lot of fear that McCain would pick Secretary of State Cond. Rice-a-Roni, but he’s trying to distance himself from W.  Jamie Allman thinks it’ll be Michael Steele, but I don’t think that’ll happen, because he has never won an election on his own.  Jindal’s too new, not even a year as Governor of Louisiana, and Portman and Cantor are/were Congressmen, meaning that neither one has ever won any sort of statewide election.

***

In case you care, I wish McCain would pick Duncan Hunter, for his support of both immigration control and economic nationalism (i.e. opposing free trade), because all the other free traders (Romney, Portman, Cantor, K.B. Hutchinson)  he could take will flop in OH and PA.

Fun With DNC Funny Business

CNS:  Biden Has A Pro-Tax Career

35 Years as a U.S. Senator, with Uncle Sam paying his salary, so of course he’s for taxes.

Examiner.com:  2 tornadoes touch down south of Denver

One is Bill, the other is Hillary.

AP:  Spokesman says Detroit mayor will miss convention

*And*

AP:  Kennedy to appear, may speak at convention

Today’s Democrat Party:  Forcing old men with brain cancer to travel because the healthy young men are wearing ankle bracelets.

AP:  CodePink faces tough odds for public’s attention

Cause Obama’s co-opted so much of their agenda.

Politico:  McCain ad aims at swaying Clinton Dems

I dare you, John, start gushing over Hillary Clinton during your prime time speech next week.

KSDK:  St. Louis Could Benefit from Chicago’s Olympic Bid

We did in 1904.

AP:  Russian lawmakers recognize Georgia separatists

A lot of American lawmakers recognized Georgia separatists some 145 years ago, I wish a lot more would have.

Health Day:  Cheerleading Causes Majority of Female Athlete Injuries

Oh, good, because I was worried that football would be the #1 cause.

AP:  Border fence design blasted as causing flooding

Talk about an extra added benefit falling out of the design.  Hey, sometimes accidents happen :)

If a Party’s Presidential Nominee Accepts His Party’s Nomination, and Everyone Else is Watching Football, Did He Really Win?

I just thought of something.  Obama’s acceptance speech at DNC is this Thursday, adnd McCain’s at the RNC is next Thursday.  This Thursday night is the start of college football season, while next Thursday night is the first NFL game of the season.  I suppose both parties were so worried about scheduling their four-day political ads (a.k.a. conventions) as close as possible to the elections that they forgot an inconvenient little truth.

Here’s another hurdle for the Republicans.  Fox, which is always being raked over the coals as a pro-R network, is going to have its over-the-air network start is TV season next week, with two-hour season premieres for Prison Break on Monday, House on Tuesday and Bones on Wednesday.  And I like all three of them.

Also, I figured out why Obama really picked Biden.  Because Obama wanted someone with a more embarrassing middle name than himself.

Fun With Joseph Robinette Biden (Yes, That’s His Real Name)

KSDK:  Missouri GOP Leaders Say Biden is Good News For McCain

Missouri Democrats retort by saying Hulshof is good news for Nixon.

AP:  Biden got Obama call during wife’s root canal

Biden’s wife thus left the dental office with an extra bottle of Novacane.

McClatchy:  Biden quickly embraces role as Obama’s No. 2

Take out “Obama’s,” and that pretty much sums up my estimation of Joe Biden.

C|Net:  Joe Biden’s pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record

C’mon.  You didn’t expect a six-term U.S. Senator not to side with the copyright extremists, did you?

AFP:  Obama seeks to inspire US voters

He’ll have to do better than hope change Biden hope change Biden.

McClatchy:  Bhutto’s widower will seek Pakistan’s presidency

His first name is “Azif,” but I think that translates into English as something that sounds like “Jean.”

Time:  Can Science Tell a Gymnast’s Age?

Because our eyes and plain ole common sense are lying to us.

Time:  No “Men Working” Please

You’re getting your wish, with this economy.

Reuters:  Major life changes may lead to chronic headache

Unless you land all five numbers plus the Powerball, then that’s one major life change that won’t generate a headache.

AP:  Da Brat sentenced to 3 years for assault

She would have only gotten two, but the judge slapped an extra year on because she acted like a brat.

KSDK:  Back To School: Schools Separate Ninth Graders

That way, they can defer having to get wedgies from the Seniors until their sophomore year.