SUNDAY,  OCTOBER 25,  2009

ANOTHER OUTRAGEOUS NOMINATION - AT 6:49 P.M. ET:  Maybe Jodie Evans - see story right below - is also vetting Obama's California court nominees.  Given the views of one nominee, that sounds logical.

The Washington Times exposes the disgraceful views of one nominee, views that clearly didn't bother the president who nominated him:

Another day, another Obama nominee who doesn't appear to love America. Another nominee who thinks the United States is inherently racist...

...In this case, the nominee is Northern California federal district court nominee Edward Chen, forwarded by the Senate Judiciary Committee to the full Senate last Friday on a party-line vote.

Presenting Eddie Chen:

Judge Chen's words speak for themselves. When the congregation sang "America the Beautiful" at a funeral, Judge Chen told the audience of his "feelings of ambivalence and cynicism when confronted with appeals to patriotism - sometimes I cannot help but feel that there are too much [sic] injustice and too many inequalities that prevent far too many Americans from enjoying the beauty extolled in that anthem."

How chic.  I wonder how this blithering idiot explains Obama's election.  There's more:

In a speech on Sept. 22, 2001, he said that among his first responses to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America was a "sickening feeling in my stomach about what might happen to race relations and religious tolerance on our own soil. ... One has to wonder whether the seemingly irresistible forces of racism, nativism and scapegoating which has [sic] recurred so often in our history can be effectively restrained."

No country, internally, responded more nobly to an attack than did the United States after 9-11.  Muslims were not targeted.  They were not hated.  They were not rounded up and shipped off to camps.  The radical leftist Chens of the world simply cannot accept the basic goodness of the United States.

The Times concludes:

You get the picture. To quote and paraphrase Sen. Charles E. Schumer from another occasion, this man's attitude "doesn't even whisper 'judge.'" Instead, it yells out that he is a biased radical willing to impose his own politics from the bench. Judge Chen should not be confirmed.

No he shouldn't, but he probably will be.  And the president of the United States will be proud.

October 25, 2009   Permalink

FINALLY, SOME FACTS - AT 6:20 P.M. ET:  One of my great frustrations with mainstream news outlets is the way most of them paper over the harsh facts about the political left.  Euphemisms like "anti-war activists" or "human rights campaigners" often are used to disguise groups that are essentially anti-American and even pro-dictator.  I recall, during the Vietnam War, observing "peace" marches in which demonstrators chanted "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh!" as a tribute to North Vietnam's dictator.  Yet, when reported on the news, the marches simply became "anti-war" or "against administration policy."

Now, Andrew Breitbart's new Big Government site does a terrific story exposing the truth about Code Pink, that oh so lovable band of harmless eccentrics and "anti-war" activists who want, like, you know, to improve the world?

Last week in San Francisco, Obama headlined a three million dollar fundraiser at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The San Francisco Chronicle reports about 160 people paid $30,400 or more per couple for a private dinner with Obama followed by a reception costing $500 to $1000 that drew over 900 attendees. Among those at the dinner was the leftist, so-called antiwar group Code Pink co-founder, Jodie Evans.

The Chronicle reports Jodie Evans had a several minutes long conversation with Obama at the fundraiser.

And the politics of Jodie Evans?

Last year, right before Jodie Evans attended another high dollar event for Obama, she gave a radio interview in which she sympathized with Osama bin Laden about his reasons for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that murdered nearly 3000 Americans and foreign nationals...

...Jodie Evans has been espousing her support for terrorists for years. In February 2003, Jodie Evans and Code Pink traveled to Baghdad as a guest of Saddam Hussein’s government where they lobbied the world to keep the state sponsor of terrorism in power...

...Jodie Evans and Code Pink delivered over $600,000 in cash and humanitarian aid to what Code Pink called “the other side” in Fallujah as the U.S. was waging a hard fought battle to clear the terrorist safe haven of al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni terrorists...

Jodie Evans and Code Pink are also allied with the anti-American governments of Venezuela and Cuba. She met with Venezuelan tyrant Hugo Chavez in 2006 and has declared him a “sweetheart.” Jodie Evans traveled to Cuba in 2007 and worked with the Castro government to propagandize against the U.S.

In September 2008, just a couple of weeks after meeting Obama at a big money Hollywood fundraiser at the historic Greystone mansion in Beverly Hills, Jodie Evans met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York City. Afterward, Jodie Evans proclaimed him to be “really about peace and human rights and respecting justice.”

And...

Several questions are raised by Jodie Evans’ ties to Obama. Given her documented alliances with terrorists and state sponsors of terrorism, why is Jodie Evans repeatedly granted face time with Obama? Obama surely knows of her ties, as do her allies overseas like Ahmadinejad and Chavez. Is Jodie Evans acting as a go-between for Obama to our nation’s enemies? And if so, to whose benefit?

COMMENT:  She's granted face time with Obama because there's a certain wing of the Democratic Party that has no problem with Jodie Evans or her ilk.  Several years ago the head of the California Democratic Party was on TV attacking reporters who expose pro-terrorist activities in the United States.  he didn't attack terrorism.

Jodie Evans is a very rich woman who has used her wealth for the worst causes.  Yet, when she appears in the media, she's just simple Jodie, that "anti-war" activist.

In fact, she's a good friend of both reds and fascists - anyone, it seems, who's anti-American.

Harry Truman would have known how to handle her.

October 25, 2009   Permalink

GOP SPLIT IN N.Y. GOES NATIONAL - AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  Several readers have asked about the special election for Congress in New York's 23rd Congressional District, where the establishment GOP candidate, who's pretty far out in left field for a Republican, is being challenged by a Conservative Party candidate who's gaining national Republican endorsements.  This could be the first step in a major split within the Republican Party.  The Politico reports:

Some of the most prominent names in national Republican Party politics are lining up against the GOP nominee in a key upstate New York House special election, the latest being former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who weighed in Friday.

In endorsing Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in the Nov. 3 contest, Santorum joined former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, all of whom announced their backing for the conservative third-party candidate this week.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty suggested Friday that he might be the next well-known Republican to break with the party establishment and support Hoffman. When asked about the race Friday during an interview with ABC, he expressed frustration with GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava and said he will “probably” endorse in the race.

The GOP establishment didn't see this coming, and is reacting in strange ways.  Apparently, cops were called during a Scozzafava rally when a reporter dared to ask the candidate a question.

Scozzafava, a state assemblywoman who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and has a close relationship with leading labor officials in her region, has been the target of sustained criticism from conservatives who claim that she is so liberal that they cannot in good conscience support her candidacy. As evidence, they point to her unofficial endorsement from the leading liberal blog Daily Kos.

Yes, she's that bad.  How did she get to be the Republican nominee?  Well, she has a lot of friends in the party, and they vote.  And hubby is a major labor leader.

In fairness, we should point out that she does have the support of some conservatives, including Newt Gingrich.  Other conservatives are shying away from the race entirely.

Right now, though, it appears that the split in the party may well elect the Democratic candidate.

October 25, 2009   Permalink 

MORE DYNAMIC ACTION BY THE U.N. - AT 10:12 A.M. ET:  More protection for us:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A semiofficial Iranian news agency says U.N. inspectors have visited a formerly secret uranium enrichment site that has raised Western suspicions about the extent of Iran's nuclear program.

It was the world's first look inside the heavily protected plant, which is being built inside a mountainside near the holy city of Qom south of Tehran.

The Mehr news agency says the inspectors examined the facility Sunday, more than a month after Iran disclosed the site to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

COMMENT:  Which means Iran had a full month to clean up anything that needs to be hidden.  The inspectors will find nothing, and their report of "nothing" will thrill the appeasement crowd in this administration.

The key question, of course, is how many other secret sites Iran has.  We've now found this one.  It's entirely logical to assume that there are others.  That is why we have to be extremely careful about celebrating, Chamberlain style, any "agreement" with Iran.  The mullahs' cheating is documented.  So is the leftist utopianism of the current occupant of the White House.

October 25, 2009   Permalink

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS - AT 9:57 A.M. ET:  On the front lines of the war on terror, from the Washington Times:

Do counter-terrorism measures targeting bombers who dress as women offend the rights of transexuals? This is one of the pressing questions addressed in a new United Nations report on "Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism."

The 23-page document is the ultimate politically correct guide to combating terrorism. It is based on the work of U.N. special rapporteur Martin Scheinin, who notes that "immigration controls that focus attention on male bombers who may be dressing as females to avoid scrutiny make transgender persons susceptible to increased harassment and suspicion." The impact on transvestites (cross-dressers) and "intersex" individuals (those in the midst of a sex change) is even more dramatic.

COMMENT:  Stop the war on terror, and let's deal with this human-rights crisis.  Wait, there is no war on terror, according to the new order in Washington.  There are just "man-made disasters," itself a sexist phrase that deserves further scrutiny.

People are paid for this kind of work.

October 25, 2009   Permalink

OUTRAGE IN BAGHDAD - AT 9:37 P.M. ET:  Two suicide bombings rocked the Iraq capital today:

BAGHDAD — A pair of suicide car bombs exploded almost simultaneously in downtown Baghdad on Sunday, targeting two government buildings and killing at least 132 people and wounding 520, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The official said the toll may rise even more.

The blasts came just over two months after suicide truck bombs were exploded outside the Finance and Foreign Ministries in Baghdad, killing 122 persons, many of them ministry employees. The high death tolls then were blamed at least in part on the removal of blast-proof walls from outside the ministries.

COMMENT:  A key question here is the reaction of the Obama administration.  The reaction must be fierce and unyielding - that we will not buckle to this new terror. 

But how can the president say that convincingly when, all along, he's argued that Iraq was the wrong war?  Comments like that, and he's made many of them, give aid and comfort to the very people who pulled off this latest atrocity. 

We await Washington's reactions.  I suppose we'll get something on the Sunday talk shows.

October 25,  2009    Permalink

SATURDAY,  OCTOBER 24,  2009

HE MAY NOT SHOW UP - AT 9:32 P.M. ET:  We may have real history in the making.  Take note - this is what you'll tell your children or grandchildren about.  "Why, I remember the time..."  They'll come closer to you, wanting to hear every word.

There is news that Barack Obama may not show up at an international conference in a place where he's loved.  This has not happened.  Read, please:

President Obama will probably not attend the U.N. conference on climate change in December because it is not a "head of state" event, but may use his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize as a platform to address climate change issues.

Oh, come on.  Everyone knows he was scheduled to go.  This guy would show up at a cemetery if he could hear the applause.  The reason he's not going is that he has nothing to show for his "climate change" efforts here in imperialist, pollution-puffing Amerika, where the forces of darkness are stopping his saving of the world at every turn.

President Obama is "leaning toward not going" to the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, a senior administration official told Fox News.

The current thinking in the administration is that since the conference is not a "head of state" event, Obama will not attend. Obama will be accepting the Nobel Prize in Oslo on the second day of the Copenhagen conference and may use that platform to address climate change issues.

He's got to go to that one.  And they'll clap.  And now the truth:

One big reason the Copenhagen conference is not a "head of state" event is because of the slow progress of climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate. Absent Senate passage of a climate change bill mandating a cap-and-trade system, Obama will have nothing to bring to Copenhagen as part of a U.S.-led effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a factor likely to undermine global efforts to curb those emissions.

COMMENT:  What does Obama say?  What excuse does he give?  Does a new Ed McMahon go to the conference and announce, "Barack can't make it tonight, but sitting in for him is David Letterman."  (Cue music.)

Or maybe the president can get a note from Nancy Pelosi saying he's needed at home.  Could work.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

WHO ARE WE TO QUESTION ANOTHER CULTURE? - AT 7:02 P.M. ET:  A stark example of what we're up against in radical Islam.  From AP:

A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes.

Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment. The charges against her include involvement in the preparation of the program and advertising the segment on the Internet.

Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and
Information, told The Associated Press he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it.

In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes.

His television appearance shocked many in this conservative kingdom.

Saudi Arabia, which is the birthplace of Islam, enforces strict segregation of the sexes. An unrelated couple, for example, can be detained for being alone in the same car or having a cup of coffee in public. Saudis observe such segregation even at home, where they have separate living rooms for male and female guests.

COMMENT:  We await the reaction of "human rights" and "feminist" groups to this latest outrage.  We also await the reaction of the United States Government, and, of course, the multiculturalists in our universities.

The sound you hear is silence.

October 24, 2009   Permalink 

OUT OF CONTROL - AT 6:55 P.M. ET:  A Dem congressman should know he's in trouble when he's too much even for Chris Matthews.  The Politico reports on the latest adventures of Alan Grayson of Florida:

Here's Rep. Alan Grayson's money comment on Hardball last night, where the loudmouthed freshman congressman compares former Vice President Dick Cheney to a vampire:

REP. ALAN GRAYSON: “By the way, I have trouble listening to what [Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he’s talking, but my response is this: he’s just angry because the president doesn’t shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?”

MATTHEWS: Oh, God, we got to keep a level here.

Matthews also dubbed Grayson “Captain Cajones” at the end of the congressman’s MSNBC appearance.

Can you imagine the reaction in the mainstream media if a Republican had said something like that?  Yet, there is no condemnation of Grayson, and no apology, or demand for one, on the part of Democrats.

Grayson recently compared America's health system to the Holocaust. 

He is a graduate of Harvard, and went through Harvard in three years.  Must say something about Harvard.

October 24, 2009    Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 11:38 A.M. ET:  From Michael Barone, in the Washington Examiner, on the White House assault on Fox News, including the charge that Fox isn't a legitimate news organization, like the others:

"Other news organizations, like yours," Obama consigliere David Axelrod told ABC News, "ought not to treat them that way."

In other words, when Fox breaks the news that the White House green czar is a self-proclaimed "Communist" or that operatives of pro-Obama ACORN have been aiding and abetting child prostitution, other news outlets should spike the story. Or risk being demoted from great friend to bad apple.

Last February, Obama told Fox News (to which I am a contributor), "I don't always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that's part of how democracy is supposed to work. You know, we're not supposed to all be in lockstep here."

Now we are. Maybe Obama thought everyone in Washington would be his great friend. Having encountered un-Chicago-like dissent and disagreement, he has responded with classic Chicago brass knuckles. We'll see how far this kind of thuggery gets him.

COMMENT:  Well said.  One of the mistakes Jimmah Carter made, among many others, was bringing to Washington a group of local operatives and setting them loose on the national stage.  They didn't know the territory.

Obama has done the same with his Chicago crowd, which apparently thinks the St. Valentine's Day massacre was good sport. 

The president is being hurt, and doesn't realize it.  Neither did Carter.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

THE DEFENDERS OF OUR RIGHTS STRIKE AGAIN - AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Is there no end to the laughter provided by "human rights" groups?  These self-appointed protectors of The Rights of Man always, for some strange reason, wind up supporting dictators and totalitarians, all in the name of decency.  Now they're on their high horses again, refusing to visit Guantanamo Bay until their demands are met, even though Gitmo is being run by their dream president.  Fox News, that key member of the axis of evil, reports:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Three human rights groups said Friday they will spurn an invitation to tour the Guantanamo Bay prison next month because it doesn't include an opportunity to speak with prisoners.

We're sure the prisoners would be entirely honest, and report precisely on their experiences.

Amnesty International USA, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch all said the recent Defense Department invitation falls short of the full access to the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba that they jointly requested in a January letter to President Barack Obama.

My heart breaks - especially since all three organizations have already come to conclusions about the camp.  Nothing like neutral observers.

"What is needed and is still being denied .... is full access to the detention camps, including detainees, so that we may independently review and report on the conditions of confinement there," said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program.

Ah, old Jamil.  Another culturally sensitive type.  In fact, Gitmo is probably one of the best run facilities of its type in the world.  The Red Cross regularly inspects.  So do members of Congress.  This is no Devil's Island. 

A fourth group invited on the tour, Human Rights First, raised similar objections but hasn't yet decided how to respond to the invitation, which came in an Oct. 8 letter from Philip E. Carter, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy.

The four regularly send observers to the proceedings of the war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo but have sought to inspect the prison camps and meet with prisoners, hoping to provide the Obama administration with an outside assessment of conditions.

We hope they let us know the next time they're given full access to a Taliban detention camp.  We hear they have hot tubs and widescreen TV.

They were seeking far more than the standard short and superficial tours offered to journalists, lawmakers and other visitors to the U.S. base in Cuba. Instead, they wanted a role more like that of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which interviews prisoners but issues confidential reports to the government.

Maybe they'll demand movie rights as well, and the right to produce a Gitmo talk show.

Gitmo got a bad name because of the inventions of the political left and its amen corner in the press, and the unimaginative information policies of the Bush administration. 

So-called "human rights groups" tend to parrot the left-wing line.  They might devote more attention to the world's dictatorships.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE SEE - AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  The White House can curse Fox News as much as it wants to, but Fox News clearly isn't the problem.  The White House is the problem.  The president seems to be on a perpetual campaign tour.  Governing almost seems boring to him - too much detail, too little time. 

Here we have another example, and with it more damage to the "presidential" part of the president's weakening image.  From The Christian Science Monitor:

President Obama helped raise $600,000 Friday for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s reelection campaign – and it looks as if the governor is going to need it.

Governor Patrick faces an uphill battle in his bid for reelection in 2010, largely due to voters’ perceptions of how he has handled the state’s economy. Recent polls show him trailing his Republican challengers, despite the fact that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts 3 to 1.

At a fundraising luncheon Friday, the president said, “I want everybody to understand this: What happens in Massachusetts is going to have implications all across the country.”

Mr. Obama, who still enjoys high favorability ratings in Massachusetts, said Washington lawmakers, in particular, will be looking to the Bay State next November.

“Frankly, people on Capitol Hill, they watch the tea leaves,” he said. If they see a governor get tossed out who is implementing universal healthcare and progressive education initiatives, he added, they’ll be less likely to support those initiatives themselves, according to Politico.

COMMENT:  Well, you know, maybe if there was some real leadership from the White House, people wouldn't have to read state-level tea leaves. 

Again, the president sounds like a local politician.  He has not grown into the size of the presidential office.  You cannot be an entertainer/fundraiser and expect, ultimately, to be taken that seriously. 

President Reagan always wore a jacket when he entered the Oval Office, to show his respect for the presidency.  Obama wears Rahm Emanuel.  There is a difference.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS - AT 10:19 A.M. ET:  Rasmussen reports that Obama can't seem to improve his position in the polls, in part because his priorities seem out of touch with the people:

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters say cutting the federal budget deficit in half in the next four years should be the Obama administration's top priority, while 23% say health care reform is most important.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 17% say the emphasis should be on ensuring that every child has access to a complete and competitive education, while 16% cite the development of new sources of energy.

Clearly, Americans are deeply concerned about driving the country into bankruptcy.  Once again, they show greater wisdom than their leaders.  We can only have the goodies we want if we can afford them, or if our children can afford them.  Bankrupting the country in the name of "progress" will inevitably backfire.  It's no progress at all.

At the same time, the Republican Party doesn't exactly get bouquets:

Just 15% of Republicans who plan to vote in 2012 state primaries say the party’s representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing Republican values.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 73% think Republicans in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters from throughout the nation. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided.
These numbers are basically unchanged from a survey in late April.

Republican women are nearly twice as likely as men to say their representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing GOP values. Younger voters tend to be less critical than their elders.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of likely GOP primary voters rate economic issues as the priority in determining how they will vote, followed by 25% who see national security issues that way. Fiscal issues are most important for 15%, while 12% cite domestic issues and seven percent (7%) cultural issues.

COMMENT:  Both parties are out of favor, which means Republicans cannot be content just to rest on President Obama's considerable failures. 

Among a list of other things, Republicans lack a unifying personality, a Reagan, to pull things together.  But Reagan was a unique individual with remarkable communications skills, and he'd been a two-term governor of our largest state.

Ah, for 1980.

October 24,  2009   Permalink