WITH IRAQ WON, EXPECT THE LEFT TO TRY TO MAKE "BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN" THE ISSUE

THE LEFT'S WAR MEME IS THIS:

"IRAQ WAS A DISTRACTION - AND LOOK AT AFGHANISTAN: IT'S WORSE AS A RESULT OF BUSH'S ERROR IN LEADING US INTO IRAQ."

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE - FROM ABC NEWS:

As John McCain and Barack Obama attempt to boost their foreign policy credentials, both candidates may find that whoever wins the White House will likely have to focus more attention on the conflict in Afghanistan than the debate over Iraq that has dominated much of the foreign policy discussion this campaign season.

U.S. soldiers keep watch at the site where Taliban militants set fire to a convoy of supply trucks in Ghazni, southeast of Afghanistan June 24, 2008.(Shir Ahmad/Reuters)

After seven years of war and billions of dollars to support the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the security situation in Afghanistan is worsening as a resurgent Taliban mounts more attacks on U.S. troops. That makes it increasingly likely that the next administration will have to consider sending more troops to Afghanistan to meet the needs of military commanders.

As the number of U.S. fatalities has dropped in Iraq, those in Afghanistan have been steadily rising.

... . Obama has labeled Iraq a diversion from the real fight in Afghanistan and has expressed support for military commanders to increase the number of troops in that country. ... Obama, on the other hand, has made it a key element of his campaign that the war in Iraq was a costly diversion from the more critical effort in Afghanistan.

... Military officials cite several reasons for the increase in violence, namely the Taliban's "safe haven" in the western tribal areas of Pakistan, where they can launch operations across the border into Afghanistan. Also, unable to defeat U.S. and NATO troops in conventional fighting, the various groups that make up the Taliban insurgency have resorted to tactics like those seen in Iraq, primarily the use of roadside bombs. A third factor cited by American commanders is that with more American troops on the ground than ever there is more combat as they move into areas controlled by insurgents.

THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEFT'S ARGUMENT IS FALSE:

1. THE IRAQ WAR MADE US - AND THE ENTIRE WORLD SAFER.
2. THE REASON THE TALIBAN ARE STRONGER - AND INFLICTING MORE VIOLENCE ON AFGHANISTAN - IS THAT THE PAKISTANIS (AND THEIR NEW DEMOCRAT SUPPORTED REGIME) HAVE APPEASED THEM.

THE RECENT ESCALATION OF ATTACKS IN AFGHANISTAN IS THE FRUIT OF APPEASEMENT.

OBAMA WILL ONLY BRING MORE APPEASEMENT: UNCONDITIONAL TALKS WITH THE LIKES OF IRAN; UNILATERAL DISARMAMENT, ETC.

THIS WILL INCREASE TERROR WORLDWIDE.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

RULING AUSTRIAN COALITION COLLAPSES OVER LISBON TREATY

EURACTIV:

Austria's government collapsed today (July 7) over contradictions between coalition partners on how to reform the health system and a highly controversial statement by Prime Minister Alfred Gusenbauer on holding referenda on future EU treaties.

Ironically, the first government to fall following the Irish 'no' was not the one led by Brian Cowen. Although not the only reason which prompted Austria's People's Party to leave the coalition government, the blunder by Gusenbauer - who said future EU treaties, including an amended Lisbon Treaty, should be subject to popular referenda - triggered dismay even within his own Social Democratic Party.

The conservatives strongly oppose popular votes on EU treaties. Even within his own camp, Gusenbauer was seen as playing a dangerous game, tapping into anti-EU sentiments.

• THE POLITICIANS ALL WANT TO BRING ABOUT THE EUSSR, BUT THE PEOPLE DON'T.
• I WONDER WHY!? HEH.
• IF THE POLITICIANS DON'T STOP TRYING TO RAM THE EUSSR DOWN THE PEOPLE'S THROATS, THERE'S GOING TO BE A MAJOR BACKLASH - AND IT WON'T BE PRETTY...

OBAMA: PALSY-WALSY WITH A PREDATORY SLUMLORD

OBAMA-REZKO-GROVE PARC: DETAILS WITH LINKS HERE.

EXCERPT:

For more than five weeks during the brutally cold winter of 1997, tenants suffered without any heat in a government-subsidized apartment building. The 31-unit building in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood had been "rehabbed" just four years prior at taxpayer expense, no less.
...
All of these buildings were in -- or just blocks away -- from a single state senator's district. A district belonging to a young, up-and-coming politician named Barack Obama.

... During the winter or the scores of subsequent code violations, did state senator Obama ever lift a finger to protect his constituents from "predatory slumlords" like Rezmar?

The answer appears to be a resounding "No".

RTWT.

BOTTOM-LINE: OBAMA IS A CORRUPT, LYING POLITICIAN. BUT HE SURE DOES TALK PRETTY!

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

NOTE: THIS IS FROM A 2007 SUN-TIMES ARTICLE (WHICH WE LINKED TO BEFORE) REVIEWING THE HISTORY OF OBAMA-REZKO CONNECTION:

Obama's friendship with Rezko began with a telephone call.

It was 17 years ago. Obama had just become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Newspapers wrote about him. One story caught the eye of David Brint, a vice president of Rezmar, a new company that had become the Daley administration's favored developer of low-income housing.

"I just cold-called him," Brint said in an interview.

Brint said he wanted to know if Obama would come work for Rezmar, developing housing for the poor -- something Obama had expressed interest in, according to the story Brint had read. Brint arranged for Obama to meet Rezko, but Obama didn't take the job.

Obama, who has a law degree from Harvard, subsequently returned to Chicago to lead a voter-registration drive in 1992.

The next year, Obama joined Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland, a 12-lawyer firm that specialized in helping develop low-income housing. The firm's top partner, Allison S. Davis, was, and is, a member of the Chicago Plan Commission, appointed by Mayor Daley. Davis was also a friend of Rezko. Davis and Rezko would eventually go into business together, developing homes.

Another firm partner, Judson Miner, ran the city Law Department under Mayor Harold Washington, one of Obama's political idols.

Asked what Rezko cases Obama worked on, Miner told the Sun-Times, "We'll put together a list of the cases he worked on involving Rezko/Rezmar in the next day or two.''

That was March 13. He never provided the information.

• THEY'VE GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE.
• SOMETHING THE GOP HAD BETTER GET THEIR HANDS ON.
• IF THEY DON'T ALREADY...
  

REPEAT BOTTOM-LINE: OBAMA IS A CORRUPT, LYING POLITICIAN. BUT HE SURE DOES TALK PRETTY!

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

IT'S OFFICIAL: PUTIN'S PEOPLE WHACKED LITVINENKO

BBC:

The murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko was carried out with the backing of the Russian state, Whitehall sources have told the BBC.

A senior security official has told Newsnight there are "very strong indications it was a state action".

Mr Litvinenko, who was a fierce critic of former Russian President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned in London in 2006.

UK investigators suspect former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi of the murder, but he has always denied any involvement.

EVERYONE WITH A BRAIN - EXCEPT FOR AJ STRATA - HAS LONG BELIEVED THIS. (READ SOME OF AJ'S INSANE RUBBISH HERE AND HERE! IT'S HILARIOUS!)

• AJ STRATA FEELS LITVINENKO AND BEREZOVSKY WERE WORKING WITH CHECHENS TO MAKE NUCLEAR BOMBS - OR SOMETHING IDIOTIC LIKE THIS.
• I CALLED AJ OUT ON THIS - AND HE (LIKE LGF) BANNED ME.
• THE CLINCHER FOR ME WAS SIMPLE: LUGOVOI WENT BACK TO MOSCOW WHEN LITVINEKO BECAME ILL, AND IF HE WAS AN ANTI-PUTIN PERSON (LIKE BEREZOVSKY AND LITVINENKO), THEN HE WOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT.

END OF STORY. NOW WHITEHALL AGREES, PUBLICLY.

• PUTIN IS NO DIFFERENT THAN ASSAD: MURDEROUS TYRANTS.
• BUSH HANDLED BOTH INEPTLY AND INEFFECTIVELY, IT WOULD SEEM. THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS I FEEL DUBYA STANDS FOR WIMP.
• WE DESERVE A BETTER RUSSIA POLICY FROM OUR NEXT ADMINISTRATION - PERHAPS SANCTIONS AGAINST PUTIN AND RUSSIA.
  
• AND I DESERVE AN APOLOGY FROM AJ STRATA.
• ASIDE: THE "BRILLIANT" AJ STRATA ALSO FEELS THE OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS REAL; IMHO, THIS IS GROUNDS ENOUGH TO BELIEVE IT IS FAKE!
  

NYTIMES: TRAITORS; LIARS; AND HYPOCRITES WHO DON'T CARE ABOUT PUBLIC SAFETY OR NATIONAL SECURITY

FULL DETAILS HERE. THIS IS A MUST READ - ONE OF THE BEST POSTS OF THE YEAR.

EXCERPT:

Of all the self serving tripe contained in this backstory [THE NYTIMES' EXPLANATION FOR WHY THEY PUBLISHED THE NAME OF KSM'S INTERROGATOR], the notion that there is no threat because al Qaeda hasn’t gone after individuals yet is perhaps the most ridiculous.

It suicidally underestimates the capabilities of our adversary while giving the paper another “out” when it comes to responsibility if anything does happen to the interrogator. “How could we possibly have known they would kill the guy? They had never done it before…” would make an excellent lead editorial if, God forbid, al-Qaeda makes good on its threats.

SEEMS THE NYTIMES FORGOT AL QAEDA KILLED DANIEL PEARL.

• A JOURNALIST, NO LESS. KILLED BY KSM NO LESS - THE MAN INTERROGATED BY THE CIA AGENT THEY OUTED.
• ACTUALLY, THEY DO KNOW THIS - IT'S JUST THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT US.
• AS GOOD LITTLE POSTMODERN LEFTISTS, THEY WANT TO BRING BUSH, THE CIA, THE USA AND THE WEST THE CHASTISEMENT THEY FEEL THEY DESERVE.
• THAT'S WHY THEY'VE HELPED THE ENEMY EVERY CHANCE THEY HAD.
• AND WHY THEY CRY TREASON (AND BLAME CHENEY/BUSH/ROVE/LIBBY) WHEN ARMITAGE OUTED PLAME, BUT THINK WHEN THEY OUT A CIA AGENT IT'S OKAY.
• THE ONLY COMMON THREAD IS THAT EVERYTHING THEY DO IS ALWAYS DETRIMENTAL TO OUR NATIONAL SECURITY.
  

TRAITORS, LIARS AND HYPOCRITES.

NO WONDER THEY LIKE OBAMA: THEY'RE PERFECT TOGETHER!

Mony a mickle maks a muckle

The old Scots saying above translates roughly as "a lot of little things make a big thing". It is a saying that often occurs to me when I read a common Leftist defence of illegal immigration. David Leong has recently put up a comment (scroll down) on my Immigration Watch blog that is a characteristic version of that defence. The defence is that some individual immigrant is a good person and that therefore all immigrants should be accepted. Stated as baldly as that, the illogic is obvious but the argument is of course usually stated in a more emotional way, usually with some personal mention included and unreferenced assertions about the benefit of "diversity" etc.

Responding to illogic is always difficult but maybe I should have a brief stab at it. Mr Leong himself appears to come from a fine family of mostly LEGAL immigrants from China and Chinese people are of course famous for prospering wherever they go. And the characteristic virtues of the Chinese -- such as patience, reserve and self-control -- are ones that I personally admire. They are certainly virtues that help Chinese to fit in well with predominantly Anglo-Saxon societies.

The essential point here, however, is an unfashionable one: There ARE intergroup differences. Anybody who argues that (say) the Chinese are as a whole no different from Africans (considered as a whole) is simply not being honest. And from what I gather, the Chinese living in China certainly have a dim view of Africans when they are aware of them at all.

The defence mounted by those who are dishonest about group differences, however, is that realists such as myself are "racist". When conservatives do have that accusation hurled at them by Leftists (a common occurrence) however, conservatives sometimes reflect that if the very mild and centrist George W. Bush is accused by the same or similar people of being a Nazi, we are dealing with hysteria rather than reason. So it seems clear that the "racism" accusation is simply one piece of dishonesty being backed up by another piece of dishonesty. Such accusations do however have some effect in suppressing rational debate -- something that Leftists need to achieve in view of their own slim attachment to reality.

There are however many ways in which group differences can be denominated, quite aside from country of origin and I myself do not at all support immigration being based on race or country of origin. Most opponents of illegal immigration into the USA simply support the rules that the USA already has in place and seek to have those rules enforced. Those rules are a mish-mash of criteria but in all cases rely on people being categorized in various ways -- and none of those ways are racial.

If we ignore all criteria and let anybody in, however, we will soon find that the many "mickles" of individual people coming in will amount to a "muckle" that large numbers of the existing citizens of the country may not want. A big majority of Americans, for instance, are greatly displeased by what they see as the large numbers of unassimilated Hispanics who are now in their country and they want that influx stopped. Whether the political elite will do that, however, remains to be seen.

In the end, however, all that I have said above boils down to that very fundamental disagreement between Left and Right over equality. Conservatives believe that people are equal only in the sight of God and before the law whereas Leftists somehow, somewhere, detect an equality that conservatives cannot see at all. On many occasions, only conservatives seem able to see and admit the real differences between people both as individuals and as groups -- and if that is racist then it gives the term "racism" undeserved dignity.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, DISSECTING LEFTISM, GREENIE WATCH, OBAMA WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Israel Is 'Canceled' in Berlin

Germany's socialists haven't changed. They just don't use the word "National" any more

Iranian calls for the destruction of Israel are almost routine these days. But for a former official of the Islamic Republic to call for the destruction of the Jewish state in the city where the Holocaust was planned adds a repugnant twist - especially as the German government sponsored the event that gave the man from Tehran a Western stage.

At a conference on the Mideast in Berlin on Wednesday, Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani said the "Zionist project," which has "created only violence and atrocities," should be "canceled." Mr. Larijani, a former deputy foreign minister, is the brother of Iran's former nuclear negotiator and current parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani.

The conference organizers, the Peace Research Institute of Frankfurt, made a clumsy attempt at damage control. "We very much regret that the feelings of several Israeli participants were hurt," the institute said in a statement, making it sound as if the problem was with oversensitive Israelis rather than with the Iranian's call for the destruction of their country.

While the institute said that it rejects Mr. Larijani's comments, it still defended the decision to invite him. The institute says it wants to provide a "forum where politicians and experts can exchange positions - also controversial ones." But calling for the destruction of a country isn't "controversial" - it's beyond the realm of civilized debate. To give such views a "forum" is to give them legitimacy.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your roundup of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

NYTIMES: OBAMA ACCOMPLISHED NEXT TO NOTHING FOR CHICAGO

NYTIMES:

The Long Run

Obama’s Organizing Years, Guiding Others and Finding Himself

By SERGE KOVALESKI

Barack Obama’s time as an organizer in Chicago has figured prominently in his life story, though it is clear that the benefit of those years to Mr. Obama dwarfs what he accomplished.

OBAMA: NO EXPERIENCE; NO ACCOMPLISHMENTS; NO PRINCIPLES - AND BAD JUDGMENT.

The state senator who couldn't keep his constituents from the cold

"Senator Obama does not remember having conversations with Tony Rezko about properties that he owned" — Obama’s campaign staff, April 2007 (Chicago Sun-Times)

For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side... It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.

How cold was it?

During January and early February, temperatures routinely dipped to around ten degrees below zero.

But Rezko and his partner couldn't rustle up enough money to get the Englewood building's heat turned back on.

However their company, Rezmar Corp., did manage to find $1,000, which it promptly gave to the campaign fund of State Senator Barack Obama. The young politican had recently been elected the representative for the district that included the Englewood apartment complex.

The South Sangamon apartment building finally had its heat turned on in February 1997, but only after the city of Chicago sued, eventually collecting a $100 fine from Rezmar. There is apparently no evidence that the young state senator prompted Chicago's lawsuits against Rezko's various companies.

But the tenants there had no heat from Dec. 27, 1996, until at least Feb. 3, 1997, when the city of Chicago sued. It was during this exact period that the district's new state senator -- Barack Obama -- received a $1,000 donation from Rezmar. The date was Jan. 14, 1997.

The South Sangamon building was one of 30 low-income projects—containing a total of 1,025 apartments—that Rezko took on between 1989 and 1998. In all, Rezmar Corp. collected more than $100 million by arranging “public-private partnerships” with the city, the state and federal governments, and in bank loans to rehab South Side buildings intended as low-income housing. Neither Rezko nor his partner had any construction experience when they created Rezmar, but they became experts at working Chicago’s political system to acquire taxpayer subsidies for their redevelopment schemes...

...Not surprisingly, every one of the projects ran into financial difficulties within six years.

Eleven of Rezko's buildings were in Obama's district (and all were in close proximity to the district). The results of Rezko's housing experiment?

• Seventeen buildings -- many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat -- ended up in foreclosure.
• Six buildings are currently boarded up.
• Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs.
• Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans.
• At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings.

Did State Senator Obama ever complain to anyone -- government officials, Rezmar or Rezko -- about the conditions of Rezmar's buildings? There appears to be no documented evidence that Obama stood up for his constituents against Rezko.

But he did find time to write letters for Rezko; these requests were only recently discovered...

Click for the rest [Doug Ross @ Journal].

TAKE OFF THE GLOVES, JOHN! (continued)

I was reading this Dick Morris/Eileen McGann column, and it struck me that we are all on the same page here (see my earlier post): thus far as John McCain's biggest obstacle has been his own bull-headedness in trying to stay "above the fray" it what arguably has to be an ugly election campaign. The country is too polarized for it to be otherwise. But McCain is seemingly so afraid of "offending" some ultra-sensitive voters' sensibilities by telling the honest and open truth about his opponent, that it has tied both he and his campaign up in knots. It's sad.

John McCain desparately needs to get over himself, and especially to get over trying to be Mr. aw-shucks likeable Nice Guy--he is what he is: he's not "Bubba", he's not Reagan, and he is not going to beat Obama in a personality or beauty contest. The only chance he has is to tell the truth, and to not mince words about it. More pretense of being this "different" politician who is above the bloodsport of politics will only serve to alienate the public further about his toughness under fire. If McCain is truly tough enough to handle this job, he needs to start showing it now. Let it fly, John! Get angry! Tell it like it is!

All America wants is someone to tell the truth for a change. No Political Correctness. Stop pandering to the Left. The Left is going to vote for their guy: it is the Right that you need; and at the moment you are leaving the field to Obama's flip-flopping 180's--and thus bleeding away to the very votes you need the most to win.

Obama's "right flank" is exposed, and any field commander locked in a "no quarter" battle with a determined enemy knows what to do when that happens: when you see the opening, you have to quickly and decisively take advantage of it by hitting the enemy with everything you've got. The opportunity never lasts long...

If McCain wants to win, he needs to begin to relentlessly attack Obama when he flip flops--not with the mealy mouthed platitudes holier than thou "I'm above all that attack my opponent stuff" mentality he has been using. McCain does not get the MSM airtime nor the favoritism that Obama gets. McCain has to do this, it cannot be left to his underlings. And it has to be bold, clear cut, and factual. This rope a dope stuff is a losing strategy.

This is where we separate the men who are qualified to lead our nation in Wartime from the pretenders. The Presidency is not a High School "most popular" contest. Von Clausewitz said: "It is clear that war is not a mere act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means". The reverse it true too: In this election--when arguably our success in War, our energy independence, the future of our autocratic Supreme Court, and our economy itself--depends on the election. This year Politics IS War. Morris/McGann are exactly right: the longer McCain waits to go bare knuckles (or brass knuckles) with Obama, the longer his odds of winning become:

For the past two weeks, Obama has moved quickly toward the center. He has reversed his previous positions for gun control, against using faith based institutions to deliver public services, against immunity for tele-communications companies that turn records over to the government in terror investigations, for raising Social Security taxes, for imposing the fairness doctrine on talk radio, and a host of other issues.

McCain has watched passively as his rival repositions himself for November. Indeed, he has watched from afar as he took the time out to travel to Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, even though they have no electoral votes.

But now, there is a heaven-sent opportunity for McCain to strike. In his effort to move to the center, Obama has distorted his own record, meager though it may be, and is taking credit for a program he strongly opposed. McCain should immediately run an ad in all of the states in which his opponent is advertising setting forth the facts and explaining Obama's distortion.

A good tag line for the ad would be: "John McCain: when you have real experience, you don't need to exaggerate."

But, if McCain doesn't answer, or just replies with his own positive ad, he will let Obama move to the center, a key mistake from which he may never recover. If Obama can hold his 5-10 point lead until the conventions, he will have set in place a pattern that will be very hard to change. With his new ad, Obama could even elevate his lead to double digits.

On the other hand, if McCain calls him on his distortion, he can do grave damage to Obama on three fronts: credibility, centrism, and experience. By catching Obama in a lie, he can undermine the effectiveness of any subsequent ads the Democrat runs. By showing that he opposed welfare reform, McCain can do much to force Obama back to the left and cast doubt on his efforts to move to the middle. And by emphasizing Obama's limited experience, he can strike at a soft spot --- made softer by Hillary's attacks in the primary.

The move is right there for McCain. Now lets see how good his campaign really is.

It is all up to McCain. Does he continue to refuse to engage in a brawl with the most inexperienced candidate for the Presidency in American History? Does he continue to treat Obama like some distinguished, experienced statesman, or does he expose Obama for the Marxist, race-baiting, class-warfare enabling, anti-Capitalist, big Government, ROOKIE Senator--whose only experience is gathering leftist agitators and angry leftists in the "community", serving as a mediocre Illinois state senator, and "occupying the office" of the corrupt and shamed Carol Mosely Braun's US Senate seat (and for the most part being AWOL from that job since he got it)?

Barack Obama is a smooth-talking FRAUD, Senator; isn't it time that you called him on that?

Put more simply: do you want to retire in November, or are you going to finally decide that you actually want to be President of the United States?

Your move, Senator.

ARRESTS IN TURKEY: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS THE NYTIMES ANd AP BY 5 DAYS!

NYTIMES/AP - TODAY: 2 Ex-Generals Arrested in Alleged Turkey Coup Plot

Two retired generals were jailed Sunday in connection with an alleged plot to topple Turkey's Islamic-rooted government, the highest-ranking ex-soldiers detained as part of the probe, a news report said.

The two, arrested late Saturday, were among 21 people rounded up in the past week in the investigation into an alleged pro-secular and nationalist network called ''Ergenekon,'' the state-run Anatolia news agency said.

Ret. Gen. Hursit Tolon, who once headed the paramilitary force, and former top army commander Sener Eruygur, who helped organize a series of anti-government rallies last year, were being held at an Istanbul jail.

No charges have been filed, and details about the alleged plot were sketchy Sunday.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS - LAST WEDNESDAY: TURKEY: AKP MAKES A PREEMPTIVE FASCIST MOVE AGAINST SECULARISTS

THE TWO GENERALS 9HIGHLIGHTED ABOVE) WERE ACTUALLY PICKED UP WHEN WE FIRST BLOGGED IT - NOT WHEN THE AP/NYTIMES SAYS.

Regular readers know we do this all the time because we don't merely follow the pack - or the big blogfathers - when it comes to posting; we scour the internets (!) for important news ourselves.

That's why you get stuff here first - and with hard-hitting, conservative no-nuance analysis.

And our analysis on this news is this: ther AKP was making a preemptive strike against the forces of secularization. This is gonna get worse too: in the next month or so it is likely that the AKP will be banned by the Turkish Supreme Court.

And all hell might break loose when the AKP refuses to give up power voluntarily.

STAY TUNED.

SPREAD THE WORD.

BLOGROLL US.

HOT AIR, LGF AND AJ STRATA ARGUE THE OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS REAL - BUT IS IT???

HOT AIR LINKS TO A POST BY AJ STRATA.

AJ STRATA CLAIMS TO HAVE PROVEN THE OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE PUBLIHED BY DAILY KJOS IS REAL, AND NOT A FORGERY.

QUESTION FOR AJ: how's your Litvinenko was murdered by Berezhovsky/MI5 theory working out for you!?!? (AJ thinks Putin had nothing to do with it - despite the fact that the number one suspect went back to Russia and not into th arms of Berezhovsky oir MI5; despite the fact that Putin has probably had dozens assassinated. Somehoiw - for AJ - the SIMPLE truth is too much to bear.).

I bring this up to demonstrate why I put ZERO credence in anything AJ writes. ZERO.

Forgery or not, AJ ain't gonna prove bupkus to me. He ain't an expert, and his record on theorizing sucks.

BTW: Why was a "REAL" birth certificate put out by KOS and NOT an official Obama site like fightthesmears!?!?!

And why not release the real thing and not just recently issued doc!?

It doesn't add up.

And AJ can't disprove it anymore than anyone else; he's just got a different opinion - as is very often the case in forensic analysis like this. That's why legal cases often have dueling "experts".

BOTTOM-LINE: until Obama releases the real thing, I am SUSPICIOUS.

To me, it's no different than Kerry never releasing his full military records.

If Kerry is hiding something then so is Obama.

I know what Kerry is hiding. What Obama is hiding ... I have no idea.

But Obama must think it's not helpful - to say the least.

Or he'd release it.

UPDATE: VIA HOT AIR'S COMMENT THREAD: 2 SIMPLE REASONS WHY AJ IS WRONG. AND MORE QUESTIONS...

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT APPROVES JEWISH BUILDING IN HEVRON

A surprisingly positive step:

IsraelNN.com) For the first time in many years, the Israeli government has approved Jewish construction in Hevron, the City of the Patriarchs.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has given his approval to the expansion of the dormitory in Yeshivat Shavei Hevron, the largest Jewish institution in Hevron. Rabbi Chananel Etrog, Acting Dean of the yeshiva, said, "The expansion is an elementary need on the most basic level."

Approval of the expansion has been held up for no fewer than eight years. Rabbi Etrog said that a deviation of 90 centimeters (three feet) was the excuse for a court suit by left-wing elements. "And even after we submitted corrected plans, the Defense Minister at the time held things up by not signing the necessary papers," Rabbi Etrog said. "Ever since then they stalled and sidetracked the various Defense Ministers for years, until finally now Barak has signed the approval."

I do suppose though, that's he's doing it in order to offset his zigzag. Should that be overlooked? Not really.

ANOTHER FLIP FLOP ON TOP OF A FLIP FLOP FOR OBAMA

FILE UNDER: "SHIFTS HAPPEN"





HOT AIR HAS THE DETAILS. (IT'S PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION THIS TIME.)

• I'M GETTING THE FEELING THAT OBAMA IS ABOUT TO CRASH.

• HE WAS CREDIBLE WHEN ALL HE HAD TO FIGHT WAS HILLARY, BUT NOW HE HAS TO FIGHT THE TRUTH AND THAT'S OBVIOUSLY TOO MUCH FOR HIM TO HANDLE.

• OBAMA JUST CAN'T HANDLE THE SCRUTINY. AND IT'S ONLY JUST BEGUN.

• OBAMA'S SO SLIPPERY, THE DEMOCRATS ARE FAST GOING TO HAVE COMPLETE BUYERS REMORSE AND LONG FOR THE KERRY'S COMPARATIVELY STRAIGHTFORWARD PRONOUNCEMENTS AND BJ CLINTON'S VERACITY.

TOO EFIN' BAD.

FBI BACKGROUND CHECKS OF JIHADIST DETAINEES SHOW MANY WITH CRIMINAL RECORDS IN USA

WASH POST:

In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States.

... The records suggest that potential enemies abroad know a great deal about the United States because many of them have lived here, officials said. The matches also reflect the power of sharing data across agencies and even countries, data that links an identity to a distinguishing human characteristic such as a fingerprint.

"I found the number stunning," said Frances Fragos Townsend, a security consultant and former assistant to the president for homeland security. "It suggested to me that this was going to give us far greater insight into the relationships between individuals fighting against U.S. forces in the theater and potential U.S. cells or support networks here in the United States."

... The fingerprinting of detainees overseas began as ad-hoc FBI and U.S. military efforts shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It has since grown into a government-wide push to build the world's largest database of known or suspected terrorist fingerprints. The effort is being boosted by a presidential directive signed June 5, which gave the U.S. attorney general and other cabinet officials 90 days to come up with a plan to expand the use of biometrics by, among other things, recommending categories of people to be screened beyond "known or suspected" terrorists.

Fingerprints are being beamed in via satellite from places as far-flung as the jungles of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines; Bogota, Colombia; Iraq; and Afghanistan. Other allies, such as Sweden, have contributed prints. The database can be queried by U.S. government agencies and by other countries through Interpol, the international police agency.

Civil libertarians have raised concerns about whether people on the watch lists have been appropriately determined to be terrorists, a process that senior government officials acknowledge is an art, not a science.

... The effort, officials say, is bearing fruit.

"The bottom line is we're locking people up," said Thomas E. Bush III, FBI assistant director of the Criminal Justice Information Services division. "Stopping people coming into this country. Identifying IED-makers in a way never done before. That's the beauty of this whole data-sharing effort. We're pushing our borders back."

... The people being fingerprinted had come from the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. They were mostly in their 20s, Shannon [FBI] recalled. "One of the things we learned is we were dealing with relatively young guys who were very committed and what they would openly tell you is that when they got out they were going back to jihad," he said. "They'd already made this commitment."

... Investigators are working on ever more sophisticated ways to evaluate the data. Analysts at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, for instance, use software to scrutinize intelligence reports from sources such as electronic surveillance and informants. They then link the information to a person's biographic and biometric data, and look for relationships that might detect terrorists and plots.

RTWT.

THIS IS A GREAT THING. IT'S CALLED COLLECTING AND CONNECTING THE DOTS.

EXPECT THE NYTIMES AND THEIR COMRADES AT THE ACLU TO BATTLE THIS EFFORT AND THEREBY AID THE ENEMY - AS THEY HAVE DONE SO MANY TIMES BEFORE.

AGONISTOPHOBIA: fear of competiton

AGONISTOPHOBIA.

I'm coining that term. (At this moment, if you Google search the term it gets ZERO results.)

It means "fear of competition".

It's what leftists suffer from.

They fear competition.

It's why they want enforced outcomes and don't trust the free market.

They want daddy/mommy/nanny/big brother to determine outcomes... "for the common good" of course.

It's why they would rather have regulations - such as CAFE standards for fleets (if not nations!), than letting people buy the car with the MPG they want and can afford.

It's why they want quotas/"affirmative action" and price controls, and protectionism and tariffs and so on.

Perhaps all we need to do to defeat leftism is to get leftists into phobia therapy!

British sniffer dogs to wear `Muslim' bootees

Police sniffer dogs will have to wear bootees when searching the homes of Muslims so as not to cause offence. Guidelines being drawn up by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) urge awareness of religious sensitivities when using dogs to search for drugs and explosives. The guidelines, to be published this year, were designed to cover mosques but have been extended to include other buildings.

Where Muslims object, officers will be obliged to use sniffer dogs only in exceptional cases. Where dogs are used, they will have to wear bootees with rubber soles. "We are trying to ensure that police forces are aware of sensitivities that people can have with the dogs to make sure they are not going against any religious or cultural element within people's homes. It is being addressed and forces are working towards doing it," Acpo said.

Problems faced by the use of sniffer dogs were highlighted last week when Tayside police were forced to apologise for a crime prevention poster featuring a german shepherd puppy, in response to a complaint by a Muslim councillor. Islamic injunctions warn Muslims against contact with dogs, which are regarded as "unclean".

Police dogs at present are issued with footwear only at scenes of explosions to prevent them injuring their paws on broken glass.

Ibrahim Mogra, one of Britain's leading imams, said the measures were unnecessary: "In Islamic law the dog is not regarded as impure, only its saliva is. Most Islamic schools of law agree on that. If security measures require to send a dog into a house, then it has to be done. I think Acpo needs to consult better and more widely. "I know in the Muslim community there is a hang-up against dogs, but this is cultural. Also, we know the British like dogs; we Muslims should do our bit to change our attitudes."

John Midgley, co-founder of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said: "The police are in effect being overly sensitive to potential criminals and not being sensitive enough to the public at large who need to be protected. These sort of things have a counter-productive effect because they cause huge friction between different communities." Caroline Kisko, of the Kennel Club, said: "We would not condone any attempt to make search dogs wear special clothing, which could cause them distress."

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your roundup of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: WHAT'S NEXT, DOGGIE BURKAS!?

DANGEROUS FAD! Water and workouts to become compulsory for some Australian toddlers

What a picnic for lawyers the first time a toddler gets seriously hurt as a result of this nonsense! It looks like the kids are to be given lots of water one way or another but THAT IS DANGEROUS EVEN IN ADULTS -- to the point of death. And quite small amounts of water given to children can lead to water intoxication, resulting in brain damage. See also here, where it speaks of an "epidemic" of water intoxication among U.S. children. Blasted know-nothing faddists!

Children as young as three will undergo compulsory exercise regimes of up to two hours every day in preschools. The New South Wales Government's anti-obesity program also phases out junkfood with kids now drinking watered down juices and low-fat milk and parents receiving a list of recommended foods for their children's lunchboxes. Star jumps, action-singing songs as well as catching, jumping and running are just some of the exercises included in the roll call of daily activities.

The Munch 'n' Move blueprint aims to bring down the rocketing rates of childhood obesity [Utter rubbish! Obesity peaked in the late 1990s] in NSW with one in five preschoolers now either overweight or obese.

Nearly 1000 preschools will implement the new healthy lifestyles policy within the next 18 months, with childhood teachers in 14 centres receiving their initial training this week. "We do music and movement every day but this program also encourages us to do more structured exercise outside where we are teaching children the finer points in jumping, running, hopping, galloping and fundamental movement skills," said educator Vicky Smith from Five Dock preschool, which is implementing the program.

NSW Health's Centre for Health Advancement director Liz Develin said once the preschools were completed the program would be rolled out in long-day care centres. She said that while some parents might question the need to force active three-year-olds into exercise, Ms Develin said recent research showed 89 per cent of children aged four to five spend more than two hours watching a screen every day. "A lot of three to five-year-olds have started these bad habits early," Ms Develin said. [PROVE that it's a bad habit!] "If children are well equipped in fundamental movement skills they are more likely to participate in physical activity and sport later - they'll have the basic skills of how to run, throw and jump rather than just running around erratically."

Early childhood teachers will receive a 188-page manual outlining the details of the new exercise and food program, which includes giving children water rather than fruit poppers and cordials so that kids don't develop a sweet tooth. It also recommends limiting giving juice to once a day and to the 100 per cent variety, which is then diluted by water by at least half, and suggests reduced-fat milk for children over two.

NSW Health Minister Reba Meagher said the program was devised to combat the growing number of overweight preschoolers as well as educate parents. "There is clear evidence that the number of people who are overweight or obese is increasing," she said. "By the time NSW children reach kindergarten nearly 18 per cent of them are either overweight or obese."

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, DISSECTING LEFTISM, GREENIE WATCH, OBAMA WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

IN A MAJOR PROPAGANDA ARTICLE TODAY, NYTIMES OBFUSCATES THE REAL CAUSE OF THE ENERGY CRISIS

The NYTIMES titled their article, "American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot", but they should have titled it asleep at the speedometer OR gas gauge because the article is NOT about energy production or even gasoline production, but CAFE standards and how - "if only the left had been listened to from 1980 to 2008" - left-wing mandates on MPG minimums would have allowed the USA to avoid the current energy price crisis.

This is bullshit. And a lot of it. The article is 3715 words long.

3715 words and all BS. WHY BS!?

3715 words on energy policy and not one is CHENEY.

Remember him!? The evil aid to Dubya Mchalliburtonhitler - the president in the pocket of the energy industry!?

CHENEY: who met with energy industry experts and executives as he spearheaded the administration's efforts to write and pass a comprehensive ENERGY BILL!?

A bill which would have expanded ENERGY PRODUCTION - starting years ago (the bill was introduced in 2002!).

A bill KILLED by the Senate Democrats and 8 liberal Senate Republicans in 2003.

A bill which foregrounded expanding PRODUCTION - exactly what we really need right now.

We posted on this bill last week - linking to a contemporaneous TIME magazine article on it which said that Bush and Cheney wanted to expand production because they feared an energy crisis - but that nobody believed them.

Well... Bush and Cheney were right.

An no amount of liberal whining about CAFE standards can change that. Not 3715 whiny words from the NYTIMES.

The fact is simple, STARK: we're in this crisis for one reason: liberals blocked the Bush Energy plan.

We do not need more regulations. You cannot regulate your way out of this.

We need more energy production - from our off-shore oil, from ANWR oil, from nuclear, and from clean-coal.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

World Bank Secret Study: Biofuels Cause 75% Increase In Food Costs

NICE GOING, GORE.

His stupid notions on how to save the planet have punctured the American corpus and left us pouring our life into the ether.

Al Gore believes that man's pollution is the greatest threat the Earth faces. I think Al Gore is among the greatest threats we face.

From the Guardian, via Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred:

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. “It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House,” said one yesterday. The news comes at a critical point in the world’s negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.

It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a “significant” part in pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.

“Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises,” said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. “It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat.”

Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as “the first real economic crisis of globalisation”.

At one point, Al Gore was campaigning for a switch-over to an 15% Gasoline/85% Ethanol mixture.

The truth is, Ethanol actually only produces 67% of the energy (by volume) that gasoline does.

So, if you choose to use Ethanol, you're actually making your gasoline work harder.

Could we ever plumb the depths of Al Gore's environmental idiocy?

And, why does Al Gore pursue such a disastrous environmental policy? Is it because he is a pure being, a lightworker, an elevated soul like freaking Mahatma Gandhi or Jimmy Carter?

Could be.

Or, it could be because he is heavily invested in Ethanol?

IS BEN LABOLT CONNECTED TO THE OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE FORGERY?

WHO IS BEN LABOLT?

OBAMA'S PRESS SECRETARY.

WHAT' S HE EVER DONE TO MERIT SUSPICION?

THIS (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES):

Last year, Obama's Senate press secretary, Ben LaBolt, was the spokesman for the Brown campaign and roomed with de Vellis in an Ohio apartment. LaBolt only would echo the statement released by the Obama team: "The Obama campaign and its employees had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad."

De Vellis bragged about contributing to the official Obama Web site in a February e-mail: "I designed the MyBarackObama toolbox that is on the front page and all the sidebar pages." He even offered to take suggestions for improving the tools because he "can pass it along to the team."

Blue State Digital managing director Thomas Gensemer said de Vellis was writing about a software package, "MyBarackObama," that is part of its product line. "These are our assets," he said. He explained de Vellis' bragging as "we are a small company excited about having a new sexy client."

• DE VELLIS MADE THE INFAMOUS HILLARY/1984 AD. A CLEVER VIDEO MASH-UP.

• SUBSEQUENTLY THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN DENIED ANY KNOWLEDGE OR AFFILIATION WITH THE AD.

• BUT, LABOLT AND DEVELLIS WERE "ROOMIES".

• MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, LABOLT IS A LOOSE CANNON WHO HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH BOTH THE 1984 AD AND THE FORGED BIRTH CERTIFICATE?

• OR MAYBE THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN WAS DEEPLY INVOLVED IN BOTH AND JUST USED DE VELLIS AS A SCAPEGOAT?

• IN A WAY, THE FORGED BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS A "MASH UP" LIKE THE 1984 AD.

AND - TAKE NOTE - LABOLT WAS THE PERSON IN THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN WHO SAID THAT THE FORGED CERTIFICATE WAS THE REAL THING AND FINAL PROOF:

"I can confirm that that is Sen. Obama's birth certificate."
Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, to the Los Angeles Times.

WELL, THAT STATEMENT IS NOW ER ... UM, INOPERATIVE.

• WHO AUTHORIZED LABOLT TO MAKE IT?
• WAS HE A DUPE?
• OR WAS HE PART OF THE FRAUD?

BOTTOM-LINE:

• LABOLT SEEMS TO BE THE FULCRUM OF BOTH "FORGERIES".
• I THINK THIS NEEDS TO THOROUGHLY EXAMINED.
• HE MIGHT BE THE CULPRIT... OR BECOME ONE OF THE FALL GUYS.

STAY TUNED.

Islam in Europe Weekly Overview

Sadly, this week was marked by several stories of (alleged) 'honor' crimes.

* Tahira Bibi, a Danish-Pakistani woman living in Pakistan, was shot dead by her brother in law.  The woman's family accuses the husband, who lives in Denmark, of instigating the murder.  A close friend, however, says the couple had a good relationship and spoke several times a day.  She also says Tahira kept up with Danish news on the net  The police in Pakistan concur and say that they don't believe the brother in law's 'excuse' of honor murder.  They would like to interrogate the father, but he is currently not planning to travel there. 

Tahira had taken her two daughters to Pakistan in order to get to know their family there.  They will now be returned to the father. (see more here in Danish: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Danish right-wingers as well as the Muslim Council of Denmark want the government to research the problem of 'honor' murders and see what can be done.

'Honor' murders were discusses extensively on the news.  Though this was not the case here, there are apparently  Danish women being held abroad against their will.

* In Norway a father and son are charged with killing Vian Bakir Fatah (31), ex-wife and mother.  Vian Bakir Fatah, who had converted to Christianity and had a Norwegian boyfriend, had shown up for a reconciliation meeting with her ex-husband after which he killed her.

* In Norway, a father and his brother in law were sentenced for the abduction and forced marriage of a daughter, who was 14 at the time.  In Italy a 15 year old jumped out of her parent's balcony to escape a forced marriage.  The girl survived and told interviewers she wanted to be Italian.  This story followed that of last week, where a girl from Liege was killed in the same circumstances.  In both cases, the question is: were they trying to commit suicide, or were they trying to run away and couldn't leave through the door? 

* Police in the UK say that women fleeing forced marriage and 'honor'-related are betrayed by doctors, public servants and police.  This can sometimes happen unwittingly, when people are not aware of the grave dangers these girls face, but in some case, the girls are betrayed by people who know exactly what they're doing.


Mosques

* In the Czech Republic the Muslim community is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first mosque.  Meanwhile, the plans for the Grand Mosque of Marseilles were unveiled this week. 

* In Rotterdam, a dispute between mosque members and the administration over building financing has led to an appeal to the municipality to intervene.  A protest outside the mosque on Friday developed into scuffles and disturbances (NL), as well as an attack on the car of the person responsible for the building.  The protest ended with a prayer outside.

* Ahmed Marcouch, mayor of Slotervaart (Amsterdam), says that mosque 'Sunday schools' practice corporal punishment and teach their students to hate the West.  To combat the problem he wants to investigate the mosque schools, and to make bring Islam teaching into public schools. 


Terrorism

* The war against terrorism was hit twice this week: The American group Human Rights Watch accused French anti-terrorism measures of being illegal.  In Sweden an acquitted terrorism rendition deportee was awarded millions in damages.

* In Switzerland terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists are the greatest security threat.

* Members of Italy's Muslim community met in Rome to discuss ways of combating Islamic extremism.


Sharia

* The public prosecution in Amsterdam decided not to prosecute Geert Wilders while the Jordanian court accepted the lawsuit against him, leaving Wilders with a possible international arrest warrant.  His troubles in the Netherlands are not over either.

* The British Lord Chief Justice said in a lecture at London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel that he supports Sharia arbitration, though he rejects Sharia courts.  His comments came in support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had earlier this year that adoption of some aspects of Sharia law in Britain was 'unavoidable'.


Miscellaneous

* In Lancashire a Muslim female councillor says she's been subjected to a hate campaign by Muslim men.  In Oslo a local politician who looks like an immigrant also attracts unwanted attention from Muslim men, who in the best case, feel they can tell her what to do.

* Muslims participated in Oslo's gay parade for the first time.

* The application of an asylum seeker who had converted to Christianity in Norway was rejected.  Authorities strongly suggest he convert back to Islam.

* The father who removed a crucifix at a French Catholic clinic came to apologize, after his imam and community leaders did so.

* A local Muslim politician in Scotland complained about a police ad featuring a black puppy, leading the police to apologize.  The dog, Rebel, had been used by the police for a few months in order to encourage contact with the public.  Scottish Muslim groups denied the ad caused any offense.  Meanwhile, British police are to take extra precautions when using search dogs in Muslim houses.


-----

This article was cross-posted to Islam in Europe and to THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

DEMOCRAT CONVENTION LOOKING LIKE DEMOCRAT ADMINISTRATION: TOO MANY REGULATIONS; OVERBUDGET; BEHIND SCHEDULE

THEY'RE AS BAD AT RUNNING THEIR CONVENTION AS THEY HAVE BEEN AT RUNNING THE COUNTRY - AT LEAST THEY'RE CONSISTENT.

SERIOUSLY: THIS IS HOW THEY'LL RUN THE COUNTRY - GIVEN THE CHANCE.

RUN... DID I SAY RUN? I MEANT RUIN, R-U-I-N.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

NEW SLOGAN FOR OBAMA CAMPAIGN: "SHIFTS HAPPEN"

Instead of "CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN" the Obama campaign slogan ought to be "SHIFTS HAPPEN", cuz he has shifted positions so often lefties are getting whiplash!

He has done a few 180's and sometimes follows a 180 with another 180 the next dasy.

WHEW!

SO: Here's an idea for a new poster:

SEE SOME SHIFTS HERE.
MORE HERE.
AND HERE.
PARTIAL LIST WITH LINKS HERE.

REMEMBER: Kerry called his hypocrisy and inconsistency NUANCE.

Obama calls his flip-flops and policy shifts "clarifications".

And he or his campaign issues a "clarification" every other day, it seems.

So much so, I'm beginning to think he should change his middle name from Hussein to "Clarification".

BARACK CLARIFICATION OBAMA.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

IF YOU HAD TO PICK ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE OBAMA, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

ME: DECEIVER.

He's deceived a lot of people.

In his memoirs, he made a major point of how well he did it and how important the skill was:

HE VALORIZED HIS ABILITY TO BE PHONY IS IN HIS MEMOIRS:

As he wrote in his memoir, Dreams of My Father, Obama discovered a technique for allaying the suspicions of the white people with whom he came into contact:

It was usually an effective tactic, another one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves.

They were more than satisfied; they were relieved - such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn’t seem angry all the time. (Pages 94-95).

What would be the one word you'd use to describe Barack Hussein Obama Junior?

"KNIFE CONTROL": WHAT'S AT POWER LINE TODAY WAS HERE AT THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS... ER, UM... THREE YEARS AGO

KNIFE CONTROL.

• POWER LINE BLOGS IT TODAY.
• WE BLOGGED IT THREE YEARS AGO - WITH MEGALINKS DEMOSTARTING THE USELESSNES OF GUN CONTROL AND KNIFE CONTROL.
• TWICE - THE SECOND TIME WHEN BRITISH DOCTORS PROPOSED BANNING KNIVES..
• YEAH YEAH YEAH: IT'S BACK IN THE NEWS.
• BUT IT AIN'T NEW NEWS FOR REGULAR READERS OF TAB.

SPREAD THE WORD.

BLOGROLL US.

FLAGRANT FLIPFLOPPIN' FLAG-WAVING ON THE FOURTH FOR OBAMA

WHY IS OBAMA WAVING THE FLAG?

SHOULDN'T OBAMA HAVE MADE A DISSENT-FILLED SPEECH ON THE FOURTH,


AFTER ALL... DISSENT IS TRUE PATRIOTISM TO THE LEFT - ISN'T IT?!

"OBAMA CLARIFIES..."

WHEN YOU GOOGLE NEWS-SEARCH "OBAMA CLARIFIES: YOU GET 259 NEWS ITEMS... SO FAR.

SAMPLE:

• Obama Clarifies Iraq Remarks
• Barack Obama Clarifies Faith Policies, Abortion and Rumors With ...
• Obama clarifies mortgage deal
• Obama Clarifies Social Security 'Donut' Plan
• Obama clarifies position on DC gun ban
• Obama “Clarifies” His Comments on Jerusalem
• Obama Campaign Clarifies "Martyr" Comments on OBL
• Obama clarifies Iran remarks

ON THE ISSUE IN GENERAL: Is his campaign dishonest or disorganized?

HERE ARE A FEW LINKS USING THE TERMS "OBAMA SHIFTS":

• Obama Shifts on Welfare Reform
• Without shame, Obama shifts as it suits him
• Republicans Taunt Obama As "Spineless" Over FISA Reversal

FLIP-FLOPPING:

• FLIP-FLOPPING, OBAMA, AND GUN CONTROL
• Barack Obama's policy switches are giving the Left whiplash

AND SO ON.

AND THIS ONLY GOES BACK A WEEK OR SO.

AND WE HAVE A FEW MORE MONTHS TO GO.

BETWEEN NOW AND THEN OBAMA WILL EXPOSE HIMSELF FOR WHAT HE IS: INEXPERIENCED; UNPRINCIPLED; AND NOT READY TO BE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

OBAMA'S TRUSTWORTHINESS WILL SOON BECOME A MAJOR ISSUE FOR THE LEFT

SOME DAY SOON, THIS WILL HAPPEN:

• DAILY KOS ON OBAMA: "THIS IS NOT THE OBAMA I KNEW".

AND IT WILL SOONER THAN YOU THINK!

• BUYER'S REMORSE IS INEVITABLE FOR THE LEFT, AS OBAMA TACKS TO THE CENTER.
• IT'S ONLY JULY AND HE'S ALREADY FLIP-FLOPPED ON FISA, NAFTA, IRAQ, IRAN, CAMPAIGN FINANCING, THE FLAG-PIN, ABORTION, AND GUN RIGHTS.
• BECAUSE HE HAS NO RECORD, AND NO EXPERIENCE, THEY HAVE NO REASON TO STAND BY HIM.
• SO, THEY WILL STAY HOME.

SURE: MCCAIN HAS ISSUES WITH THE RIGHT-WING BASE OF THE GOP, BUT WE KNOW WHERE HE STANDS.

OBAMA HAS ZERO INTEGRITY, ZERO COURAGE AND ZERO PRINCIPLES.

THIS MAKES HIM AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY NOBODY SHOULD TRUST.