Wake up America |
| As Obama's Lead Slips, Powell Endorses Obama Posted: 19 Oct 2008 11:34 AM CDT The obligatory Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama post....actually from listening to Powell over the last months, I seriously thought he already had and just hadn't made it official, so while it isn't a surprise by any stretch of the imagination, the left is acting all surprised. Actually makes me giggle. Meat and potatoes of this post though is that over the last week, Barack Obama's lead has shrunk to within the margin of error according to Zogby and even Gallup shows that among likely voters there is a 2 point difference with Obama 2 points ahead of McCain.  Will Powell's endorsement give Obama a boost to stop the tightening in the polls or will we see the polls tighten even more as they have been over the last couple weeks? .  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2008 10:53 AM CDT Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!!! (Note- The clips below are NBC clips and they take a moment or two to load up) The skit below is the first appearance out of two from last night's SNL show: Everyone knows Alec Baldwin is a liberal and his brother Stephen is a conservative, so Palin telling Alec she liked his brother Stephen better, amused me. Here, courtesy of SNL, are the scripts, via The Swamp: JASON SUDEIKIS - "Good evening, I'm Tim Lydecker Sarah Palin's spokesman and we're very excited to be holding the Governor's first official press conference. Now tonight, nothing is off-limits while at the same time, I urge you guys to 'be cool.' Seriously guys just be cool. And one last thing: no recording devices and don't write anything down." She made a second appearance during the weekend update portion of the show as well. All in all, Palin is a good sport appearing on SNL and she seemed to have a good time doing so. .  |
| What the World Thinks of America: One American's Response Posted: 18 Oct 2008 03:27 PM CDT  .jpg) What the World Thinks of America Foreign poll favours Democrat but shows hostility to USFrom The Guardian.co.uk Julian Glover Friday October 17 2008 People around the world are pinning their hopes on Barack Obama in next month's presidential election, according to an international survey published today. It shows that America can no longer count on the friendship even of its closest neighbours and allies after eight years of the Bush presidency. Only a minority in the countries surveyed describe relations with the US as friendly. Julian Glover reports that a newspaper poll around the world on the US election favours Obama. The research, carried out by eight leading newspapers including the Guardian, finds overwhelming support for the Democratic candidate. He would win by a landslide in every country surveyed, including Britain, where he is ahead of the Republican candidate John McCain by 64% to 15%. Support for Obama is stronger than backing for John Kerry in 2004, when the Guardian participated in a similar polling exercise. Then, the Democrat was the preferred candidate of 50% of British people. The poll, conducted by papers including France's Le Monde, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, Canada's La Presse and Mexico's Reforma, also shows that opinion of America has dropped sharply since the start of the decade. In France 75% say their view of the US has got worse or much worse since President George Bush replaced Bill Clinton in 2001; in Canada 77%; in Switzerland 86% and in Japan 62%. People everywhere have turned to Obama. He would win by a simple majority in six of the eight countries surveyed, including Canada, where he leads McCain by 70%-14%, and Japan, where the margin is 61%-13%. French voters are even more hostile to the Republican candidate, who gets the backing of only 5%, against 68% who hope Obama will win. In British results, from ICM/Guardian polling, 67% of voters say their opinion of the US is worse than it was before the Bush presidency began. Only 21% say it has improved. But the special relationship endures. People in Britain are more likely than in any of the other seven countries surveyed to say relations are friendly: 49% think this is the case, against 18% who say relations are tense and 30% who say they are neutral. Support for an Obama presidency is strong among all types of voters in Britain - 64% want him to win. He is most popular among more prosperous voters, where he has 71% backing, and least popular among people at the bottom of the socio-economic scale, 54% of whom want him to become president. Elsewhere, only in Poland and Mexico, both emerging democracies, is there any hesitation about the prospect of an Obama victory. In Poland he leads by 43% to 26% and in Mexico by 46% to 13%. Many people now fear rather than warm to America. In France 25% of voters say relations with the US are tense, against 38% who say they are friendly and 39% who think they are neutral. In Japan only 16% say friendship and 19% tension, with 62% neutral. In no country does a majority think relations should be described as friendly. Even America's two neighbouring states are sceptical of US intentions. Only 23% of Mexicans describe relations as friendly and 28% say they are tense. In Canada, which has just re-elected a Conservative minority government, voters are strongly supportive of a Democratic presidency; 43% say relations with the US are friendly and 14% tense. The survey also finds strong opposition to any attack on Iran and - in the six countries questioned on the issue - majority support for a rapid withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. The possibility of military intervention in Iran is opposed by a majority everywhere except in Poland and Britain. In Britain 47% say the next president should specifically rule out an attack, against 42% who say options should be left open. Read the rest here -------------------------------------------------------------------- One American's Response  Obama and the Peace of Vichy When the German Army mounted its Western Offensive in 1940, it had 2.5 million men and 2,500 tanks. Whereas the French Army had the ability to mobilize 5 million men, the German army supported by motorized infantry units and aircraft easily secured victory. Germany's subjugation of France took just six weeks, and on June 14, 1940 German troops marched into Paris.  The shocking and ignoble surrender was made official when the French formally signed the infamous Second Compiegne Armistice on June 22, 1940. Under the terms of the armistice the Germans were to continue to occupy Northern France, while the southern unoccupied third of France was ostensibly left free to be governed by the French. A collaborationist Government was formed under the aged WWI War hero, Marshal Phillipe Petain, and its new capitol was to be in the small town of Vichy, in central France, a name forever to be associated with her dishonor. Pétain and the Vichy regime willfully collaborated with the German occupation to a high degree. The French police and the state Milice (militia) organized raids to capture Jews and others considered "undesirables" by the Germans in both the northern and southern zones. The text from the Guardian article above is highlighted in yellow for a reason. This is why they hate America and love Obama. They hate America because we are unwilling to subject ourselves to the tyrants of this world like Hitler and Ahmadinejad. And this means war. And war means fighting and the disruption of civilian lives and the possibility of death. For some, the fear of the consequences of defending themselves is more onerous than the shame of capitulation. They have therefore embraced the cowardice of Chamberlain as their role model, and attempted to disguise their weaknesses by pretending that they are some higher form of civilized behavior called Multiculturalism. And as it was then, so it is once again. Resignation, accomodation, and capitulation. That's the tried and true European plan for dealing with the tyrants of this world, the Hitler's and the Mussolinis, and now the mad mullahs of Iran and their apocalyptic visions of nuclear destruction. And America -- that is, that once proud and bold America, that may just be slipping from our grasp -- is thwarting their plan of unending appeasement by its promises -- indeed, by its threats -- to intervene, to once again fight for its survival. So they want their Obama. Their universalist grand appeaser, the open friendly face of compromise, the last great hope of the fragile status quo. The world, this same cowardly Old World that still speaks so grandly of its noble traditions of honor and glory, yet so easily bartered its integrity for a coward's peace, is unhappy with us Yanks once again. We're rocking the boat. They don't hate us because of Bush; or even because of Iraq; they hate us because we are one of the last bastions of hope for freedom and democracy in the world and we're willing to fight for it, to put our lives on the line for it. We're an embarrassing reminder, we represent something they have long ago abandoned: manly honor and moral integrity. So they want an nonthreatening Muslim-friendly Chamberlain to represent them in the world court and to sue for peace with the Devil. For at least two generations now we Americans have been taking it on the chin from ignorant, self-righteous student activists and disillusioned psuedo-intellectuals from here at home and from around the world, brought up on that pervasive academic witches brew of those Marxist-driven, Moscow-coordinated, sanctimonious and cynically manipulated student protest movements of the 60s. We -- and you -- are now living with the bitter fruits of their destructive labors. Cynicism and disillusionment have become a refined art form throughout Old Europe and the UK, the motley uniform of the latest anti-capitalist, anti-American, antiwar avant-garde. To be wise is to be cynical, distrustful, and anti-American. To be wise in 2008 is to vote for Obama and appease the Devil and hope for a few more years of diminishing freedom and tenuous peace. It's an old familiar hope, an old familiar plan. It's called the Peace of Vichy. - rg Excerpts form The New Barbarians and Resignation, Accomodation and Capitulation.  |
| Posted: 18 Oct 2008 01:40 PM CDT By Marc Moore An oft-repeated refrain is that Americans are more divided than ever before. As one example, David Neiwert says that Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann should be censured for saying the media should investigate members of Congress who hold anti-American views. Bachmann's statement is not worthy of a Congresswoman; however, there's much more to consider about the causes of the political and social divide, as I discuss at length below. First, if Neiwert is honest he'd admit that Chris Matthews was obviously trying to taunt Bachmann into saying that Barack Obama is anti-American. Why? Because that's what he does. But if journalists were dogs, they shouldn't be rottweilers like Matthews or Keith Olbermann when we'd be better served by bloodhounds in search of the truth. Second, the truth - as Backmann ought to know - is that the Congress is unlikely to be harboring any true anti-Americans. It does include a significant minority of representatives who hold leftist political, social, and economic views that result in policies that are bad for the country. These people will acquire potentially unchecked power when Mr. Obama is elected president in just over two weeks and the potential for Democrats to do great misdeeds over the next two years, at a minimum, is quite high. This creates a climate of fear that is at least partially justified. Third, at a time in which great power is transitioning to the opposition it may seem to conservatives as though the congressional left are anti-American when in fact they are only wrong. Republicans need to get a sense of perspective on the situation that they themselves created through their own incompetence. Dave Winer recently wrote that when Republicans "attack people who support their opponents, they're attacking half of the country they say they love and supposedly put first." Dave doesn't say who is is that is being attacked by Republicans, but if we're talking about Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, and Tony Rezco, these are people whose relationship with the next POTUS deserves to be understood. Frankly, it does show poor judgment for Obama to accept a land-deal kickback from Rezco and to accept guidance from and give money to Ayers, a man who has no business whatever molding young minds. Dave's piece came out before the "Joe the Plumber" phenomena that's resulted in left-wing investigations into the personal life and finances of an ordinary man who did nothing more than ask Barack Obama the question that every American has the right to know the answer to, "What does your tax plan really mean to me?" The attacks on Joe Wurzlebacher are much, much worse than the inquiries, however pointed, into Obama's relationships with Ayers, et al, because:
The latter is telling. Barack Obama wants to "spread the wealth around". That is the truth, albeit one that cannot be said aloud in American politics. Wurzlebacher got Obama to do that and the Democrats' immediate response was to rape him media-style for accidentally causing Obama to speak the core of the leftist economic agenda aloud. Barack Obama is hardly unique in his socialistic views - wealth redistribution is the whole of the base on which leftist politics are based. But spreading the wealth around can only occur by taking from those who have and giving to those who do not. That's the left's economic policy in a nutshell - the government as Robin Hood - and honest liberals admit as much. Please read the entire column written by Marc Moore at PoliGazette.  |
| Spain Favors Georgia NATO Membership Posted: 18 Oct 2008 01:40 PM CDT Spain has joined the group of nations calling for Georgia to join NATO. Spain told Georgia's leaders that at the very moment it would own the presidency of the European Union, in 2010, Georgia would have a strong ally in the E.U., which would defend Georgia's territorial integrity and its attempt to join NATO. If this would happen it would almost certainly put Europe at odds with Russia, but Spain does not seem to be afraid of such a thing. Spain would, perhaps, even go on collision course with other members of the EU, this too does not seem to worry the Spaniards. "Always, Spain has defended this principle, not like other countries that consider that this principle can be used in certain circumstances," Spain's foreign minister said about Georgia's territorial integrity and other EU members.  |
| Harper Standing Alone. Kind Of. Posted: 18 Oct 2008 01:39 PM CDT In his latest column for the National Post, David Frum describes Canadian PM Harper as the only conservative on the world stage at a time of crisis. Although I certainly enjoy Harper's leadership as any other conservative in this regard, and at this decisive point in time, proving that conservative governance is also able to deal with economic misery, it seems that Frum forgets that Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is also a conservative, as is Angela Merkel of Germany (a conservative Christian Democrat - the CD roughly consists out of Christian Democrats most of whom are quite conservative and true conservatives). "Prime Minister Harper will soon confront some of the most difficult challenges faced by any Canadian leader since 1945: a global economic crisis, a grinding war on the other side of the planet and an aging population that will require more and more public support," Frum writes. Adding: "And he will face these challenges intellectually very much alone. Other recent prime ministers could all find inspiration and support from ideological soulmates around the world." Although I too respect the man greatly, the above is simply not correct. There are other conservative leaders out there, and more will join in the coming years. It seems more than possible that Spain's conservatives, for instance, will win the next elections. Same goes for the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. And then there is Nicholas Sarkozy of France who isn't exactly a dreamy progressive either. To be fair to Frum, he does mention European leaders, but he describes them as follows: " In Germany, a very slightly conservative party governs in coalition with Social Democrats. And in France, Nicholas Sarkozy is veering further and further left with every drop in the stock market indexes, calling, in a speech this week in Brussels, for a 'new form of capitalism' in which no financial institution \should escape regulation and supervision'." Anyone who calls Merkel "slightly conservative" after seeing what kind of policies Germany would pursue with the country's Social Democrats in power is either uninformed or either intentionally distorting the truth. Merkel is quite conservative, perhaps not to American standards, but most certainly to German's. And Sarkozy may have changed his tone a bit, but he remains a French conservative. What Frum, then, does not get, seemingly, is that the word conservatism does not mean the same in one country as it does in the other. Canadian conservatives are not the same as European conservatives, and they are also not the same as American conservatives. The same goes for Asian conservatives. They are conservatives, adhering to many of the same basic principles, but they also differ considerably. But that does not make them any less 'conservative.' Those differences aside, Harper is indeed in a fascinating position in so far that the two countries in which 'conservatism' resemble his most, the United States and Britain, have or will have progressive leaders to deal with the crisis. This means that Harper will be alone in the British speaking world. His leadership, and his success could very well have an impact on the other English speaking countries, and, yes, even on Europe. As an aside, Harper should spend time with David Cameron, the British Tory leader. The two men resemble each other closely in style and policy views and Cameron is likely to become Britain's next Prime Minister.  |
| Posted: 18 Oct 2008 01:35 PM CDT Text of John McCain's radio address 10/18/08: JOHN MCCAIN: Good morning, this is John McCain, speaking to you a couple of days after the final presidential debate. It was a good contest, and I thought I did pretty well. But let's have a little straight talk: The real winner on Wednesday night was a fellow known to America as Joe the Plumber. (Emphasis mine) Barack Obama is a socialist and it is about time that Palin and Mccain pound that point home directly to the American people. Palin did earlier and now McCain has during the radio address. They need to continue to focus on that issue hard and continue showing the video of Obama himself saying "spread the wealth around." Everyone needs to see it.  |
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