May 2008 Archives
Watching it live on CNN.com. Unanimous vote to devalue Florida's citizens. Michigan coming up - more later.
Update: Will Michigan will award 59 delegates to the candidate no one voted for? Hope and Change!
Harold Ickes: Hillary is taking this to the credentials committee!
Update: 19 for, 8 against. Michigan's voters are half value as well as Florida, with the addition of awarding delegates to a candidate who wasn't even on the ballot. Viva democracy!
No, it wasn't Obama who threw Florida's and Michigan's voters under the bus - be he'll surely be running them over with it on the way to November.
Gateway Pundit has video highlights.
AP kicks the downed Hillary: "The deal passed 19-8. Thirteen members of the committee supported Clinton, so she wasn't even able to keep her supporters together."
In a rapid decision that took less than twenty years, the Messiah acts:
ABARDEEN, S.D. - Barack Obama is resigning a 20 year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said Obama had submitted a letter of resignation to the church and would discuss his decision in a session with reporters later Saturday.
It could be iPods. They'd certainly be here long after we're gone, wouldn't they?
A Fox News employee who says she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being bitten by bedbugs at work filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the owner of the Manhattan office tower where she worked.
Maybe if they didn't provide beds for their employees....
Via AP/Yahoo:
Supporters for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton staked out competing positions Saturday as Democrats searched for a compromise to seat disputed convention delegations from Florida and Michigan and clear the way for a smooth end to the marathon struggle for the presidential nomination.In the opening hours of a daylong meeting of the convention's Rules and Bylaws Committee, Clinton's designated spokeswoman urged the panel to grant a full vote for each of Florida's 211 disputed delegates.
"In life you don't get everything you want. I want it all," California State Sen. Arthenia Joyner said with a smile.
But moments later, Obama's campaign called for half-votes for each of the 211. Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida said that marked an "extraordinary concession, in order to promote reconciliation with Florida's voters."
Wexler translated: "Florida's voters are only worth half as much as voters elsewhere, and should be so happy we've granted them half-person status that they'll fall in line with my guy Obama." Yep, that should promote reconciliation, alright.
It will be interesting to see how all of the bad feelings translate into real votes come November. Certainly there's no lack of bitterness about Hillary's supporters among the 'hope and change' set. A liberal Delaware blogger predicts:
Hillary Clinton supporters will continue to be the low class losers that we all know them to be.
Yeah. I can smell the bridge-building in the air. Can't you?
Not bloody likely. The Democrats who have blocked oil exploration, nuclear energy, and every other method of powering the country have clung to their flawed theories through thick and thin (mostly thin, as we're seeing wholesale damage to the economy as a result). Indeed, it's hard to find any type of energy they do support. Even wind power, popular with the local Joe-bag-'o-socialism class here in Delaware, meets heavy resistance from Democrat elitists at the federal level. One has to wonder what life for Americans would look like if Democrats in Washington took their distaste for all things energy to its logical conclusion and banned all energy sources they didn't like - something like this?
While Congress has been the real villain in the energy mess we find ourselves in, the executive branch could make an impact if the right approach were taken with Congress. Unfortunately, we have little to look forward to regardless of who wins in November. Obama would raise gas prices through increased taxation, and offers no hope at all that prices would decline through increased supply.
The nation wouldn't fare any better under McCain. McCain's "cap & trade" plan would be no less of a disaster than any similar plan advanced by the left, and he opposes increasing oil supplies. His only saving grace - indeed, his only dramatic difference from the Democrats - is his opposition to increased taxing of the American people through corporate surrogates (aka the oil companies).
An argument could be made that we may fare worse under McCain, as his legendary stubbornness would keep his administration stuck on stupid while the citizens suffer under an ever-worsening economy. Obama, on the other hand, is a political opportunist who might relent on some of his harmful agenda in response to negative polling. In other words, a weasel might be less harmful than someone guided by principle. That's a painful point to have to make, and shows just how bad things have been allowed to get in our political system.
*sigh*.
As I said above, though, Congress is the primary cause of the problem. This also means that they're in a position to correct it as well, if the pressure is high enough. It may not be possible, but there's nothing to be gained by not trying. Calls and letters to Congress are a start. In the same spirit, petitions and lobbying also make your opinions heard. If you're looking for a petition, start with Newt (H/T Don Surber):
While there are many important issues this election season, there are none that affect all Americans as much as this one. Regardless of political stripe, everyone should be joining in the effort to convince our government to stop obstructing energy independence and increased prosperity.
How can anyone claim to have good judgment when they surround themselves, for years, with people that have to be disavowed as soon as a public light is turned on them?
Because learning firsthand what's really happening in Iraq and visiting with all those victims in the US military he claims to care about would just be a "stunt":
John McCain's proposal is nothing more than a political stunt, and we don't need any more 'Mission Accomplished' banners or walks through Baghdad markets to know that Iraq's leaders have not made the political progress that was the stated purpose of the surge.
You really have to hand it to McCain - rather than shy away from the Iraq war as a campaign topic, he's been making it a centerpiece issue. You'd think that Obama, whose war stance was sold as the reason to pick him over more experienced Democrats in the primaries, would be delighted to go toe-to-toe with McCain on this issue. Instead, he cowers from any direct debate, and falls back on distortions such as his dishonest claim that McCain doesn't want the troops to get an affordable education or the "100-year war" lie that he's told so frequently.
It requires more than just judgment to lead. It requires courage as well. Obama is proving that he lacks both.
Amnesty International USA will be in Dilworth Plaza to protest Gitmo:
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) brings its national tour of a life-size Guantanamo prison cell replica to Philadelphia beginning Friday, May 30 until Sunday, June 1. On Saturday, May 31, AIUSA members and other activists will gather from noon to 2 p.m. in Dilworth Plaza (adjacent to City Hall) in Philadelphia, to listen to local musicians, the Late Nite Drifters and Tom Mullian, experience the cell and continue to push the Bush administration to shut down the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
That's the Guantanamo Bay facility that's full of people who, if they had the opportunity, would kill the protesters along with their family and friends and consider it a good day after doing so. And indeed, many of those who have been released from Gitmo have returned to the battlefield to fight for al-Qaida or the Taliban, either of which would provide prisoner treatment that would make Gitmo look like a day care center in comparison.
The exhibit will be complete with starry-eyed, deluded moonbats in stylish orange jumpsuits. AIUSA is also asking visitors to make useful idiot videos:
Visitors may tour the cell and record a 30-second reaction video that will be posted on youtube.com and tearitdown.org.
I hope they get lines of people to look in the camera and say "It's better than these killers deserve". I suppose we wouldn't see any of those clips on you tube, though.
MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, seen by some as the heir to the Kennedy family legacy, praised Sen. Edward Kennedy as a champion for the poor and struggling, as he stepped in for the ailing Massachusetts senator at a graduation ceremony.
Ick.
Are they prepping for an announcement? The headline sure makes it look that way: The era of big Clintons is soon over.
There's been a Clinton running for the White House or living in it for approximately forever. Bill, it could be said, was born to run. Running became Hillary's destiny, too.One quarter of Americans have never known life without a Clinton trying for or having the presidency. Millions have gone from diapers to diplomas in the time of the Clintons.
When Hillary Rodham Clinton finally exits the 2008 Democratic presidential race, she will end a decades-long, power-couple streak of unique political energy, savvy ideas, colossal policy flops and raw ambition dressed in pants suits and briefs, not boxers.
"Every day is an adventure," Bill said cheerfully at the start of it all. And how.
By now, the Clintons have been assigned mystical qualities of perseverance. The notion that the adventure is over is almost beyond comprehension.
"I never quit," she says. "I never give up."
Even in defeat, Hillary Clinton has made history as the first woman favored for a major party presidential nomination — the first with a real shot at the presidency.
Or maybe it's AP's way of telling us that they, like Jimmy Carter, aren't endorsing either Democrat.
It's not often I run across a blog post worth bookmarking - here's one: Barack Obama In Quotes: Version 2.0.
Added: Not as bookmark worthy, but in a similar vein: Politico's Guide to Undisciplined Messaging, a list of words and phrases candidates should avoid. Top of the list? "Sweetie".
Obama gets a double-super-secret back-door endorsement. Of course, it's only a distraction, folks. Via AP/Reuters:
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Monday called Democrat Barack Obama the candidate most advanced on social issues running for U.S. president but said his speech on Cuba last week was a "formula for hunger."In one of his periodic newspaper columns published in Communist Party newspaper Granma, Castro said he had "no personal rancor" toward Obama, but "if I defended him I would do a huge favor for his adversaries."
Che Guevara was unavailable for comment.
May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS, the world's largest commercial aircraft maker, is valued at ``less than zero'' after this year's 32 percent drop in the shares of parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., according to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. analyst Joe Campbell.``The market is viewing Airbus as a liability, rather than an asset,'' said Campbell, 62, who is based in New York and has ranked among the top five aerospace analysts for six consecutive years in an Institutional Investor magazine poll.
Normally, I tend to root for Boeing, being an American company and Airbus' biggest competitor, but I can't take any pleasure in this. I prefer for Airbus to be a healthy company, as it makes our aerospace industry players in the U.S. better.
I hope you are all having a wonderful long weekend. TB, the kids, and I certainly are. Yesterday we had a movie night, and broke with our usual routine to dine in front of the TV. The movie was National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The movie fell somewhat short of the first due to its predictability, but the banter and special effects were top notch. And there was a hint of a third movie to come which we'll definitely want to see.
Today, the kids are over at a schoolmate's house for the afternoon. TB is taking it fairly slow since she's recovering from a tooth extraction combined with a sinus infection. Me, I've got around 35 pounds of pork shoulder (butt roast) on the smoker - it's pulled pork for dinner tonight.
Had we not received the invite for the kids, I would have liked to have driven south to the tour of Dover's Revolutionary War veterans at Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery in Dover. Did you know we lost 25,000 people in the Revolutionary War? Not all were battlefield deaths, most died from disease or in prison ships. Casualty-wise, the Revolutionary War differs dramatically from our current conflict in scope. What the first war does have in common with today is that the troops then, as now, were all volunteers.
While all those who have died in defense of our country deserve respect and remembrance today and every day, there's a special place in my thoughts for those who willingly serve knowing that they may not survive. It's a devotion and love for country and countrymen that some Americans don't feel and can't understand. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as this is a free country and folks can believe as they wish. Still, I can't fathom the need for some to take a day like this and use it to deride the sacrifices so many have made for our country.
For example, I saw a post yesterday on another blog suggesting that we separate Memorial Day into two holidays - one to "honor the troops that were drafted into fighting", and another to shower contempt upon those "schmucks that signed up for it" who "knew what they were getting into". This means volunteers, including, for example, the 25,000 I mention above and the 6.3 million who volunteered during during the second world war.
However, it's still a free country, and I don't mind having volunteered 20 years of my life toward maintaining his right to spit contempt and ignorance.
Back to the real nature of the holiday, though. TB and I wish for all of you to have a safe and happy holiday as we honor and thank those who gave us the freedoms we enjoy today.
Especially the volunteers.
Spend a little time over at Newsweek and you might wonder if they have any time left over for journalism. Their left-leaning bias has been obvious in recent years, but they've finally shed any pretenses. Their current cover story is not even a news story, but a long memo to Obama with heart-felt advice on how the Messiah should run his campaign and win this fall. I'm still digesting it, but here's a little jewel from page 2 (emphasis mine):
It's also important for you not to play the race card yourself. You can't imply, or be seen to imply, that anyone who criticizes you is a racist, closeted or otherwise.
The addition of the word "yourself" is telling. Newsweek is actually suggesting that it would be bad for Obama should he play the race card himself, but it's OK through others. What others? Why, Newsweek, of course. The entire issue is devoted to the subject, and they've even developed a whole new poll just to suggest that anyone not voting for Obama just might be racist:
Even as he closes in on the Democratic nomination for the presidency, Sen. Barack Obama is facing lingering problems winning the support of white voters--including some in his own party. In a new NEWSWEEK Poll of registered voters, Obama trails presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain 40 percent to 52 percent among whites.
This even as Newsweek warns Obama that "You will never get the real racists to come around." The poll itself is here, and includes a "Racial Resentment Index" based on the following list:
Disapprove of racial preferences (Q17=2)
Less qualified people hired often (Q18=1)
Whites lose out (Q19=2,4)
Gone too far pushing rights (Q20a=1)
Poor too dependent on government (Q20b=1)
Blacks responsible for own condition (Q21=2)
Disapprove of interracial marriage (Q22=2)
Few things in common with blacks (Q23=3)
Would mind if black person moved close (Q24=1)
Would be upset if daughter dated black (Q25=2,3)
It would be difficult to imagine how they could be more incendiary in their questioning.
NewsBusters notes that there's only one side of the story in the Newsweek poll:
This raises two important questions for Newsweek:1. Why wasn't it concerned about McCain's lingering problems winning the support of black voters?
2. Why didn't it measure a Racial Resentment Index for the non-whites that participated in the poll, especially for the blacks that overwhelmingly support Obama?
Good questions. The answer is that their interest in McCain is how best to defeat him. In the same issue, Newsweek raises issues about McCain's age and health. Unable to find a smoking gun of imminent Alzheimer's or cancer, they conclude in one article:
But the eventual winner of the election—no matter who it is—should be forewarned. Roizen has assessed data on presidential health back to the 1920s and finds that the stress of the job takes a toll. "Every year in office, you age two years," he says. It's not hard to calculate the effect this would have on McCain. After two terms, his calendar age and Real Age would be right back in line.
And in another, they just go for negativism in the title: "An Answer for Every ‘Little Jerk’" Again, failing to find anything bad in the medical records, they feel compelled to insinuate that McCain's gaffe last December was directed at anyone who showed curiosity about his age and health.
It's sad that any news organization would go to these lengths to promote a political agenda. Sadder still is that this type of in-kind campaign donation posing as journalism will increase as November nears.
Via AP/Yahoo Green, more clinging to guns and xenophobia:
BUSKIRK, N.Y. - A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.
Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.
"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."
Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.
Maybe some of these folks have seen too many post-apocalyptic science fiction movies. Many are convinced that we're headed for anarchy by 2012. So they're planning for a personal future that looks like half the content on the Sci-Fi channel. Think "Little House on the Prairie" with Mel Gibson and Ruger's entire product line in the starring roles.
Democrat oil policies obstructionism doesn't seem to be creating the utopia that the left promised, does it?
I promised I'd write more on John Hawkins' pronouncement on John McCain and his shifting immigration stances. And I say "shifting" only because his stance has been perceived as shifting. Personally, I now believe it never did. While there may have been some confusion as to the scheduling of McCain's agenda , the priorities have remained the same.
I share John's (and other's) distaste with McCain on the subject of immigration. It's McCain's single worst position among the conservative base, and rightly so. Anyone who saw the interviews and and watched the debates last year where the Maverick gave his pained definitions of amnesty knew then that he too was aware of that fact, and carefully tiptoeing through his answers. McCain has carefully played word games in the media with great success. And regrettably, too many folks so wanted to make lemonade from lemons that he largely went unchallenged on what has from the beginning been about amnesty and never changed.
In this, I do fault Senator McCain. His semantic games have lacked the candor and bluntness that he likes to portray as his strengths. Here he is in September last year arguing that comprehensive immigration reform isn't amnesty (skip ahead to about 2:45):
I often wonder why McCain's definition of amnesty didn't sink his bid for the nomination as soon as he said it. It's a word that has multiple meanings, "forgiveness" is not even cited as a definition by most dictionaries. His willful misrepresentation of the context and definition of the word used by the citizens to whom he responded was a disturbing blast of arrogance and condescension that should have had more folks seeing flashing red lights and hearing klaxons. Sigh.
But back to the larger point - Senator McCain's position on immigration reform shifted little when he started proclaiming that he "got the message" from the border hawks. Indeed, all that changed was the schedule. Here he is on O'Reilly describing his vision of immigration reform:
Note how he combines the issues in his answer as "immigration reform". Other than the "security first" part, how is this different from his comprehensive immigration reform from last year?
Most of the punditry and the blogosphere (including yours truly) assumed that when McCain said "security first" he meant "separately". I'm going to suggest something to you all:
John McCain always intended to resurrect the previous bill in full, with the addition of some sort of timetable and milestone provisions regarding border security to pacify the border hawks.
Assuming that the suggestion above is correct, has John McCain lied about immigration? That's a toughie. Certainly he has through omission - his campaign speeches have been long on promise regarding immigration but short on the mechanics required to carry the promise out. In fairness, McCain may have originally assumed that everyone knew that his bill would come back with the addition of the security first provision. However, over time he surely should have been been aware that folks had the wrong interpretation, and he shouldn't have let let it go this far without clarifying his position.
But go back through everything he's said about immigration since last summer - can any of you find in his words something that refutes my suggestion above? I can't.
When a myth circulates that portrays a politician in a negative light, they're quick in the attempt to dispel it. But when a myth shows them in a positive light, there's a reluctance to do so. It's a quality not unique to John McCain. But this particular myth should have been exposed in the blogosphere, and it was not. Not to pick on John Hawkins, but he was taken in like the rest of us. From his commentary at Townhall.com:
Then there's immigration, where we know McCain is just dying to put the illegal immigrants in this country on a path to citizenship. However, he has pledged to secure the border before he does that. In all honesty, with the glacier-like speed that the federal government moves, there is zero chance that is going to be completed in the next four years. Yet, as security improves, more and more illegal aliens will leave the country on their own. So even though McCain's motives wouldn't be pure, enforcement by attrition would still occur during his first term and if conservatives hold McCain to his promise, it's very possible that he wouldn't be able to implement amnesty by 2012.
If you assumed that McCain would deal with amnesty in separate legislation only after the border is secured, this was a reasonable conclusion - the clock on McCain's presidency would run out long before he could enact amnesty. This was my hope as well. But McCain never said he would enact separate bills, he simply said the border would be secure first.
So based on recent statements, and reviewing past ones, what would immigration reform look like under John McCain?
It would be a comprehensive bill. Some sort of plan to secure the borders would likely be required to be accomplished first, followed by Z-visas and path to citizenship but only after certain metrics have been met. Even if the border takes more than four years to fix, we would be stuck with the enduring and destructive legacy of amnesty. No clock-watching will change it, and having already passed the larger bill, Congress will feel free to accelerate the more harmful parts without waiting for border certification. The danger here cannot be overstated. Once amnesty is the law, any pre-conditions can be altered quickly and easily.
Back to theme about McCain and whether his recent statements expose either lies or betrayals - have we been had? Yes, we have. But McCain doesn't deserve all the blame. The assumptions of how McCain's plan would manifest itself by the punditry and the blogosphere have been nearly universally flawed in spite of the fact that McCain himself never confirmed those assumptions. We hoped that he meant the issues would be dealt with separately, and didn't want to see that he could take other paths and still keep his promise.
Like it or don't, most of us on the right should be reserving some of the anger being displayed this week for ourselves.
One of my favorite bloggers has drawn the line - he ain't votin' for the Maverick. Why?:
He's a man without honor, without integrity, who could not have captured the Republican nomination had he run on making comprehensive immigration a top priority of his administration.
I think we'll be seeing more of this - I'll have much more later today.
And all due to a clerical error:
Only hours before the House's 316-108 vote, Bush had vetoed the five-year measure, saying it was too expensive and gave too much money to wealthy farmers when farm incomes are high. The Senate then was expected to follow suit quickly.Action stalled, however, after the discovery that Congress had omitted a 34-page section of the bill when lawmakers sent the massive measure to the White House.
That means Bush vetoed a different bill from the one Congress passed, raising questions that the eventual law would be unconstitutional. Republicans objected when Democrats proposed passing the missing section separately and sending that to Bush.
In order to avoid those potential problems, House Democrats hoped to pass the entire bill, again, on Thursday under expedited rules usually reserved for unopposed legislation. The Senate was expected to follow suit. The correct version would then be sent to Bush under a new bill number for another expected veto.
Lawmakers also will have to pass an extension of current farm law, which expires Friday.
"We will have to repass the whole thing, as will the Senate," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. "We can't let the farm bill just die."
Oh, yes we can - don't let this chance pass you by. Call your elected officials and tell them to start being responsible!
Update: Overridden as is, and they'll add the extra 34 pages as a separate bill after their Memorial Day break. Republicans are going to lose seats over siding with the liberals on this and other recent irresponsible porkfests. They just don't seem to get it, do they?
Congratulations to our newest Americans, and thanks for doing it legally.
NAYPYITAW Myanmar - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a mission to open Myanmar to international disaster assistance, said the ruling junta agreed Friday to allow "all aid workers" into the country to help cyclone survivors.Ban's comments came after a crucial two-hour meeting Friday with the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the country's most powerful figure. Myanmar's junta has until now refused to allow an influx of foreign aid and experts to reach survivors of the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis.
We may never know the human cost of the ruling junta's paranoia. Hopefully, the citizens of Myanmar will one day recognize where the responsibility lies and act accordingly.
Everyone complains about the rising costs here in the US, which are rising due to decades of liberal energy policies preventing supply from keeping up with demand. But at least we don't yet have runaway inflation like Zimbabwe:
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Weary Zimbabweans are facing a new wave of price increases that will put many basic goods even further out of their reach: A loaf of bread now costs what 12 new cars did a decade ago.Independent finance houses said in an assessment Tuesday that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572 percent based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs. Economic analysts say unless the rate of inflation is slowed, annual inflation will likely reach about 5 million percent by October.
As stores opened for business Wednesday, a small pack of locally produced coffee beans cost just short of 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars. A decade ago, that sum would have bought 60 new cars.
As bad as things are here, at least our oil-driven problems can be fixed over time - all it requires is for Republicans to stop acting like Democrats when it comes to oil policy (listening, Sen McCain?) and for Democrats to start thinking about what's best for Americans instead of bowing and scraping to environmental extremists who oppose anything resembling common sense.
An arrest was announced this morning:
A Boeing Co. assembly line worker from Trevose has been arrested on charges of hacking wires on a $30 million Chinook helicopter being assembled at a Ridley Township plant last week.U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan announced the arrest today, about a week after damage was discovered on two of the new model Chinook CH-47F helicopters. The dual-rotor aircraft were still on the assembly line, and no damage was found to other models in production or already deployed.
Meehan's office identified the arrested man as Matthew K. Montgomery, 32, an employee for 18 months at the Boeing plant. Montgomery admitted that he damaged one of the aircraft he was working on, Meehan said. Montgomery was arrested last night while being interviewed by Defense Department investigators.
Apparently, I was right about the motive - the sabotage was caused by a disgruntled employee:
Meehan said he would not speculate on a motive in the Montgomery case. According to an affidavit filed in the case, Montgomery was told on May 10 - two days before the severed wires were detected on one of the Chinooks - that he was being transferred to another assembly line at Boeing.Montgomery told investigators yesterday that he cut the wires the day he was told of the transfer, the affidavit said.
There may have been "some sense of lack of appreciation for the job he may have been doing," Meehan told reporters at a news conference.
Well, he certainly got his wish - there's no way he'll get transferred to another assembly line now.
He appeared before a judge today, and was released on own recognizance. He also agreed to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Both Boeing and the feds quickly settled on referring to this as "vandalism", rather than calling it sabotage. To me that suggested that they had an idea early on as to who and why.
They're still treating the second aircraft as a separate incident, and the investigation is ongoing.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and a one-time opponent of civil rights legislation, endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday.
Wright, Farrakhan, and now Byrd - Obama may have some difficulties with blue collar workers and bitter middle-staters, but he's close to getting that all-important hard-core racist demographic sewn up.
On the heels of attacking Republicans last week on what he called "fear-peddling" and "fear mongering", Obama misrepresents McCain's Social Security plan to a room full of seniors in order to frighten them:
"Let me be clear, privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it, it's a bad idea today," Obama said. "That's why I stood up against this plan in the Senate and that's why I won't stand for it as president."
Obama uses the same, tired, old politics tactic used before on this issue by his party. It's never been suggested by Republicans that all of Social Security be privatized, just a very tiny portion - yet Obama, just like the rest of the Democrat party, continues to paint it as if the plan transferred the whole ball of wax to penny stocks. But disclosing the truth wouldn't have the desired effect of fostering fear and uncertainty.
If an ordinary citizen like you or I went to a nursing home and told the residents vicious untruths about their future security and well-being for the sole purpose of frightening them, it would be characterized as cruel and terroristic, and rightly so. Yet for some reason, when a typical old-politics Democrat like Obama lies to the elderly with the intent to foment fear and panic, it's called "hope" and "change".
Elizabeth Edwards, in an email to Politico on whether she'll endorse a candidate:
"If I say I like chocolate ice cream better than strawberry, it doesn't mean either (1) that I like chocolate or strawberry as much as vanilla or (2) that I dislike strawberry. I say what I mean."
Yep, that clears it up. She goes on:
As for her personal relationships with Clinton and Obama, Edwards wrote, "I like both (or, counting spouses, all four) of these people personally. Do we play Boggle together or go biking together? No, although it would be okay with me if we did. They are interesting, compelling people with many of the same thoughts as I have about the issues that confront us."
Sounds like an invitation to me. Wonder if she'll serve ice cream?
AP reaches way down to dredge up some gratuitous victimization sympathy for Obama:
HONOLULU - Growing up as a young man of mixed race, Barack Obama benefited from the spirit of tolerance that defined Hawaii's racial climate.His childhood in the country's idealized melting pot was far from painless, though.
As part of the islands' small group of black Americans in the 1970s, he encountered racism and struggled to form a black identity.
Obama's experience in Hawaii is echoed by other blacks, including some of his schoolmates, and challenges the state's vaunted image of racial harmony.
"A big joke amongst the brothers was you could be anything else but a brother and have free rein of the world in Hawaii," said Rik Smith, a black former schoolmate of Obama's at Punahou, an elite private school in Honolulu. "When it comes to people of color, black people, there's a huge amount of racism."
Obama has carefully avoided making his race the main issue, but his surrogates and the media use it at every turn. One has to wonder if there will be a backlash against the continuous drumbeat of "If you don't vote for Obama you're a bigot", which the above-quoted article serves to underline. This is a major expansion of the theme, showing Obama as a life-long victim of racism, and the votes that aren't cast for him are just a continuation of that same injustice.
In discussions with friends and around the workplace, I've heard lots of reasons for not supporting Obama. His race isn't among them. If Obama's supporters in the media keep pushing this theme, that could change. Fostering racial division isn't the best way to win folks over.
Funny thing is, I've been waiting for this headline to show up eventually:
No, I'm not knocking Meals on Wheels, I know they do some good things. But that headline nears perfection in victimhood, and that doesn't happen every day...
In a story about old atrocities committed in another country by non-Americans, you'd think the title would identify the perpetrator of the atrocity directly. Not AP, though. Check this headline:
Here's some of the article itself, nearly as bad:
DAEJEON, South Korea - Grave by mass grave, South Korea is unearthing the skeletons and buried truths of a cold-blooded slaughter from early in the Korean War, when this nation's U.S.-backed regime killed untold thousands of leftists and hapless peasants in a summer of terror in 1950.With U.S. military officers sometimes present, and as North Korean invaders pushed down the peninsula, the southern army and police emptied South Korean prisons, lined up detainees and shot them in the head, dumping the bodies into hastily dug trenches. Others were thrown into abandoned mines or into the sea. Women and children were among those killed. Many victims never faced charges or trial.
There's always a way to blame America, isn't there?
You could also see this as a "name that party" exercise from history - can you guess who, in 1950, was in charge of the US military and his party affiliation from the article?
CHICAGO - Federal officials say a Chicago-based company is recalling beef products distributed in 11 states because of possible E. coli contamination.The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Saturday that no illnesses have reported from the meat, produced by JSM Meat Holdings Co. The agency was uncertain how much meat is being recalled.
The meat being recalled is used in ground beef products. Included are 30-pound and 60-pound boxes and 47-gallon barrels of "MORREALE MEAT" beef products. The products have the number "EST. 6872" inside the USDA mark of inspection.
The products have 15 different labels including, "Boneless Chucks," "Boneless Clods," "Flat Rounds," "Gooseneck Rounds" and "Knuckle."
A message left for a company spokesman after business hours wasn't immediately returned.
The states affected are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
E. coli, a potentially deadly bacteria, can cause diarrhea, dehydration and kidney failure.
Y'all be careful out there, okay?
Scott over at Power Line points out Obama's pre-loss excuse-making for the state of Kentucky:
"What it says is that I'm not very well known in that part of the country," Obama said. "Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it's not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle."
And Scott also points out that Illinois shares a border with Kentucky while Arkansas does not. Good catch.
Perhaps Obama is just too exhausted from his rigorous campaign schedule to remember the 58th and 59th states, Missouri and Tennessee, which fall between Kentucky and Arkansas.
Or, perhaps he was speaking metaphorically about the attitudes and intellect of the folks of Kentucky. Because we all know that Kentucky, like Arkansas, is full of bitter, gun-totin' bible-thumpin', racist backwater hicks who can't summon the intellect to see that Obama is the savior of us all.