"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, August 23, 2008

OBAMA BOTCHED HIS FIRST BIG DECISION


FROM NRO'S THE CORNER:
Classic Noonan [Kathryn Jean Lopez]:
On Biden:

As he speaks, as he goes on and on and spins his long statements, hypotheticals, and free associations—as he demonstrates yet again . . . that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back—you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going.
Biden [Mark R. Levin]:
I think Biden is a great pick ... for the McCain campaign. Biden has run for president a few times and has never caught on in his own party. He dropped out after Iowa this time around. And when we speak of foreign policy experience, in Biden's case we are really speaking of his serving many years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with precious little useful to show for it. Biden's greatest role was on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he trashed originalist nominees and promoted extreme activists. McCain & Company should hammer this. Biden has spent 30-years radicalizing the judiciary.

08/23 08:49 PM
Obama-Biden 2008 [Peter Wehner]:
I have now watched and read Senator Biden's speech in Springfield earlier today. From the perspective of the craft of speechwriting, it was quite a thing to behold.

In a speech of just over 16 minutes, Biden used, by my count, the phrase "ladies and gentlemen" 18 times. (Apparently "ladies and gentlemen" is to Biden what "my friends" is to Senator McCain). Biden's speech was filled with the predictable hackneyed phrases. We were told the American Dream is both "slipping away" and dropping off a cliff. And "the future keeps receding further and further and further away as your reach for your dreams." Biden feels things with "ever fiber of my being." Barack Obama possesses "steel in his spine." And so forth. Biden also made silly claims, such as this being the "last chance to reclaim the America we love, to restore America's soul."

But what was particularly (if unintentionally) humorous was Biden using the phrase "literally" at least seven different times — including several times when Biden meant to say figuratively. For example, Biden said we have an opportunity "literally to change the direction of the world." Really? Is Obama so all-powerful that he can actually make the world travel in a different direction? We also learned that on day one in the Senate Obama "literally" reached across the aisle and passed legislation to secure the world's deadliest weapons? Wow; Obama not only figuratively but literally reached across the aisle and, on day one, passed legislation? That would be impressive. It would also be impossible.

For those of us who have watched Biden over the years, especially during Judiciary Committee hearings, this is nothing new. But for the uninitiated, it is something to enjoy. As my 10-year-old son put it to me after hearing Biden's speech, "This is going to be like Get Smart."

Indeed. We'll be watching Biden closely — and loving it.
BIDEN. AWESOME!

GOP DREAM TICKET ANNOUNCED: OBAMA-BIDEN!

THIS IS THE BEST TICKET THE GOP COULD HAVE HOPED FOR!

(Click to enlarge.)

OBAMA CAMPAIGN REVEALS NEW SLOGAN AND POSTER

ACE: "Clinton Insider" on Biden Pick: "Maybe it's a death wish".

MY TAKE:


"CHANGE YOU CAN BEREAVE IN."

The pick is a blunder and the Obama-Biden Campaign is "dead on arrival"!

BREAKING: OBAMA AND BIDEN WERE TESTED FOR AIDS!

HI LARRY US:

VIA ACE WHO ADDS: "We're gonna have fun."

RELIAPUNDIT: JOE "THE MOUTH" BIDEN AIN'T A LOOSE CANNON.

HE'S A LOOSE NUCLEAR ARSENAL!

OBAMAMESSIAH-BIDEN THEME: "THE RISING"

NYTIMES:
Obama brought Biden on stage with his glowing introduction to the strains of Bruce Springsteen's ''The Rising.''


SMART CHOICE OF MUSIC? FOR SOMEONE RIDICULED AS BEING "THE ONE"??!?

NOPE.

OBAMA: A BAD DECISION-MAKER CUZ HE'S GOT BAD JUDGMENT.

BTW/FWIW: I HATE SPRINGSTEEN - HE'S THE MOST OVER-RATED MUSICAN OF MY LIFETIME - (AS THE ABOVE VIDEO PROVES).

HERE'S A GOOD MCCAIN THEME SONG (HEH!):


HERE'S A BETTER ONE:

***UPDATED WITH PRICELESS LEVIN AUDIO*** Oops! The Chinese, a Little Girl, and Fixing the Game(s)

For the PRC, and its effort to show the "innate fairness" of its "new" 21st-Century society, it is back to the drawing board... (huge h/t here to outstanding work here from Gateway Pundit and others):
Below are a couple of screen grabs that might help [the IOC...] with their investigation...

The IOC has ordered an investigation into the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin. Reporters said the amount of evidence was insurmountable...

No kidding!

There were several articles published on He in the Chinese press this past year that said she was too young. The Chinese tried to scrub them away... But couldn't.

In this article on page 19 of Tianjin’s Jin Wan Bao up and coming Olympic stars were introduced in November 2007:

China Media Project reported that the first line identified her clearly as “13 year-old competitor He Kexin.”

Chris Chase at Yahoo sports reported on the IOC investigation today:
The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin, The Times of London reports. Faced with almost insurmountable evidence which suggests that He is two years younger than the birth date listed on her Chinese passport, the IOC has launched an inquiry that could result in the stripping of He's gold medals.

This news comes on the heels of another Times report that details the findings of a New York computer security expert who found official Chinese documents that list He's age as 14 years and 220 days. Mike Walker used a Chinese search engine's cache feature to find He's actual date of birth on spreadsheets from a Chinese government website. The spreadsheets were taken down off the site recently and He's name had been removed.

Assuming the IOC is committed to a real investigation and not some dog and pony show, the revelation that the Chinese government covered up the ages of gymnasts could end up being the defining moment of these Games for the host country. Officials wanted the Olympics to be a coming out party for a new China. But while the Games have been a huge success, there is a legitimate possibility that China's legacy from Beijing '08 will be that of a massive government cover-up, not the magical Opening Ceremony or the transformation of Beijing or anything else positive.
Good for the IOC!

After the rumors about the gymnasts first started China began scrubbing the internet---

In an article from May 23, 2008 on gymnast He Kexin (Google cache):

In the original article on May 23rd of this year the China Daily reported:

"The 14-year old newcomer to the national team, who was recruited last year, has raised a lot of eyebrows recently after she broke two world records on the uneven bars in as many months."
But, since it was first published in May the article has been scrubbed:

The article at the China Daily now reads:
The 16-year-old newcomer to the national team, who was recruited last year, has raised a lot of eyebrows recently after she broke two world records on the uneven bars in as many months.
The Chinese tried to scrub away the truth but Google cache wouldn't let them.
Bummer.
Bummer for them. Bummer for this little girl. But highly educational for everyone else whose eyes are open.

Meanwhile He Kexin, caught in the middle, has now been forced to openly LIE about her real age before the mikes and cameras of the world's press, under questioning--and for what? It is not like she would not have been a favorite for Gold four years from now--once she she really was of age... but to the tyrants ruling the PRC, four years was too long to wait, because the "show" had to be perfect this year.

Oops.

This isn't merely a case of a of a gymnast--or her parents--falsifying age for their child's personal advantage: this is a case of the Chinese Government making a State decision at the highest levels to fix the game for its own (ineligible in this case) athlete, talented as she is. All while as it spends billions and struggles mightily to convince the world that it has "arrived" as an egalitarian "fair" society.

Nice try.

It almost does not matter what the IOC rules now (remember: this is a huge totalitarian State apparatus which can after all compel anyone--parents, neighbors, schoolmates--to say whatever it wants them to say...or else). But it almost doesn't matter because now much of the free world knows the truth now--no matter how the IOC comes down on this. We know that the Chinese Government has officially sanctioned cheating to inflate its own medal count. And the real irony is that even without He, China would still lead in the Gold medal count.

But they just couldn't resist the temptation...

So what we are left with is a shameful and disgraceful display of a regime whose end justifies any means--including the falsification of birth certificates, doctoring published news stories, and a massive coordinated effort by the PLA pawns to erase all prior record of the truth from the massive Chinese state-monitored Web. Fortunately for the cause of the actual TRUTH, in this case they could not get to Google outside of China (not yet anyway).

The importance of this is: that this sequence of events could not have happened without full coordination from the junta ruling China with an authoritarian (and brutal) hand; when the State controls everything, it means the State also holds complete authority over birth certificates, death certificates, cause of death, passports, the media, and the official "vetting" of its athletes. This was no accident: this was their moment in the Sun. This fraud did not simply involve doctoring (or re-issuing an "official") back-dated birth certificate or passport--it also involved removing from Chinese Internet portals any traces that could be found (fortunately not ALL traces...) of prior news stories which had exposed the truth--before the Government decided that "some [14-year olds] are more equal than others". This level of cover-up cannot be accomplished without the participation and coordination of many people and numerous Government agencies; and in China it could only have been accomplished with the full power, consent and authority of the State.

This is the reason that this particular scandal rises way above a mere "personal" scandal in the Olympics--such as when an athlete in the West gets caught blood doping or taking meds. In this case it is unarguable that the rulers of the PRC made the decision to cheat.

And they got caught...

Unfortunately, the Chinese by their actions have placed a very talented and adorable 14-year old gymnast squarely in the cross hairs of international scandal, the klieg lights of the skeptical world press, and now the IOC. The irony is that what otherwise could have been genuine (untarnished) Gold medals--from this talented gymnast, 4 years from now--instead has morphed into a growing scandal about 1.5 medals "achieved" only by breaking the rules. No matter what, He Kexin will be tainted by the exposure of Chinese government's greed and heavy-handedness in placing propaganda and "National Image" above the Olympic ideal--and the damage to the reputation and sensibilities of a 14-year old child .

If the results are allowed to stand by the IOC, the "moral" lesson for all good Chinese automatons would seem to be that anything is justified if it enhances the reputation of the State--in this case what its leaders saw as China's "big moment" in the spotlight.

But in reality, did it enhance the State's reputation, or has it instead degraded it enormously? I would argue the latter.

China spent all that money and effort, leaving no stone unturned, in an attempt to show the world it belongs in the world community; yet today it is drawing comparisons to Adolf Hitler and Berlin, 1936. It is blatantly obvious that China's real goal in hosting these games (as was Hitler's in Berlin) was to demonstrate and project the Power of the State--but China attempted to do so under the guise of also demonstrating how much Chinese "egalitarianism" and fair play has evolved since the "Little Red Book" days of Mao, the purges of the "Cultural Revolution" or the massacres of Tienanmen Square. This was the script we were rather sickeningly fed (even by NBC) during the Opening Ceremonies. "How far they have come...", etc.

Well, maybe not so far after all...

By making this colossal error in judgment, China has now opened itself to even more world criticism--if not ridicule--and to the possibility of the IOC banning its gymnasts from future international competition (although I doubt this will happen). Instead of a demonstration of Chinese "fair play" and the "benefits" of central planning, this scandal has demonstrated yet again the old Jonathon Swift adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. We've had the chance to witness first hand a classic example of State totalitarianism, under a High-Def microscope--for all the world to see.

In the US, our Founders made sure that our citizens can freely talk about such matters, e.g. about corruption and rot in our own government and media (which most decidedly is running rampant in the halls of our Congress today), mostly without fear of being silenced (except during wartime)--excluding for the moment the Stalinists in the DNC who want to shut down the voices of dissenting blogs and talk radio.

But in China if you dissent, if you call attention to anything that has not been orchestrated or approved by the State, you become an even bet to disappear to a "re-education" center (also knows as organ donor farms); where the State can then benefit from harvesting and selling the body parts of dissidents on the world market.... We have also seen what happens when Olympic reporters attempt to cover any protests in China. We have seen repeatedly the rape of Tibet and the repression (if not "cleansing") going on there. We have seen the State-enforced media blackout on all matters Tibetan--or any other criticism for that matter (this is the PRC version of the "Fairness Doctrine"). We have seen what happens to the Falun Gong, or anyone else trying to discuss their personal religious beliefs (see: organ donor list above). We have seen what happens if you have too many children (especially female children) in China. And now we see that the tyranny has even fallen to the level of corrupting Olympic competition and inserting a 14-year old little girl into a scandal, when she was not even eligible to be there.

Yes, China's economy and standard of living has improved somewhat (through appliedCapitalism and highly selective de-emphasis of Socialism). But despite these "reforms", China's GDP output is nowhere near that of the United States (in fact, China's output is about 25% of that in the US), despite the fact that the US has only 1/4 of the population of China, and approximately the same unemployment rate (meaning China has millions more workers contributing to its much smaller GDP). How can this be? Because the State still insists to a large extent on interfering with commerce, ideas and the freedoms of its people. Yet another testimony to the failed ideology of Karl Marx (whose legacy in History has already caused the murder or starvation of over 100 million people in less than a century...). In fact, it could be argued that the extent to which China has raised its standard of living is directly proportional to the extent to which it has selectivly allowed the proven theories of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman to slowly erode the Socialist model from the bottom up.

But not at the top. Because that would mean giving up their power and control.

F
or those with the intellectual honesty to see it, the heavy handed tactics of the paranoids running China could not be hidden behind the large Olympic flag. Consider:
  • The fake fireworks and the other computerized made for TV illusions of the opening ceremony;
  • The substitution of an "attractive" singer of the Olympic hymn for one deemed less...telegenic of the real singer;
  • The repression and monitoring of all media reports going in and out of China during the Games, including the bugging and firewalling of all hotel accomodations of the foreign press, and even its own athletes;
  • Those eerie scenes of the Goose-stepping Chinese military in the Opening ceremony (and the bad memories stirred up thereby)--designed primarily to project Power and Nationalism, rather than to serve as homage to the athletes in attendance;
  • The pumped-up attendance figures for many events, accomplished primarily by forcing Chinese citizens to fill the stands--this is in an effort to hide from the cameras the fact that attendance at these Games has been a huge disappointment;
  • The Government-mandated shut down of everyday industry and 3/4 of all automobile traffic to hide (from the cameras and media) the horrific pollution of the worst violator of the environment on the planet (no, it isn't the US, no matter what Nancy Pelosi says...);
  • And now this--a case of State-sponsored falsification of birth certificates and subsequent media cover-up by the HOST nation.
Therefore, despite the great lengths to which the Chinese Government has gone to cover it up, the rotten carcass of Communist tyranny continues to cast its dark shadow over all apparent progress. And we can all see it quite clearly, thank you very much.

At a human level, you can only feel sorry for how all this must be weighing on that 14-year old girl, He Kexin, whose only crime is doing what she was ordered to do (i.e. to compete illegally, to pretend to be 16, and then to [badly] lie about it on behalf of her Government to the media). Of course she had no choice in these decisions--who does after all have such choices in the PRC? But now that the cat is out of the bag, how damaging and shaming is this for her? Knowing herself--and knowing that everyone else on the planet either knows or suspects--that her Gold medals were illegitimately achieved.

Still this is an excellent example for the rest of us of what inevitably happens to any Government that gets too much central authority--and the way that such power inevitably corrupts those it pretends to serve, eventually resulting in the brutal imposition of tyranny over the masses, micromanaging the freedoms and daily lives of all its subjects, whether they like it or not. This of course is the very core of Marxism, be it of the Socialist or Communist variety. It's all there in The Communist Manifesto:
"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie," Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto, "to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.

"Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production."

Of course... so even Marx suggests that for his manifesto to succeed there must be a period of "pain" (read: dictatorship and repression--which is still being used to justify: locking up political prisoners, purges, re-education...) before "the good of the whole" can be achieved... Right----That is if you happen to be one of those who are lucky enough to still be alive after the purges, marching in Revolutionary lock-step with the "Dear Leader", dutifully towing the party line and keeping your mouths shut as you suffer...

This is what history teaches us about State Socialism: the only "whole" that has ever benefited from consolidation of power at this scale are the elites in power themselves... in the history of Marxism/Socialism the overall standard of living has never gone up as a result of nationaliztion. It just doesn't work that way.

This should be a very sobering lesson, considering we have a Marxist right here in America who wants to become your President.

All in all, after watching these Olympics the impression I am left with is: despite the economic turnaround and growing business opportunities in China, not really that much has changed for the cause of freedom in the PRC. The ChiCom leadership remains petrified of freedom of speech, religion--and democracy--because beneath it all they understand that they (the leadership) are not there by the choice of the people, but because of their own manipulations of the system, repression, and hunger for power. Hence the horrors of Tienanmen Square.

My blog is banned in China, I am proud to say. Maybe someday that will change, but for now free speech and open dialogue in the PRC is a joke. Dissent in China continues to snuffed out as brutally as ever. And the millions of PLA cyber-warriors monitoring foreign visitors (and foreign blogs, obviously) and their own fellow citizens are using technology to make even the worst and most intrusive violations of the STASI seem minuscule in comparison. And so "Big Mother's" ability to see all and intrude in the everyday lives of its people becomes more ubiquitous and more powerful with each passing day.

Fortunately the athletes have at least made the competition at the Games entertaining. But as mightily as China tried to project an image of its new "modernity", the world now sees that beneath the trappings of (some) Capitalist wealth, not that much has changed at all. The olympian attempt by the Chinese to "hide" the corruption and repressiveness of its regime has become a miserable failure, for all the world to see.

"Meet the new boss... same as the old boss..." Pete Townsend probably did not mean these words to apply to the ChiComs when he wrote them long ago--but today, given the events of the last few weeks, they could not be more appropriate.

UPDATE: Saturday's Wall Street Journal added:
Age requirements for the Olympics are determined by the international governing bodies for each sport. In women's artistic gymnastics, competitors must turn 16 by the end of the Olympic year. The minimum age for Olympics eligibility was raised to 16 in 1997, a response to concerns about the physical and mental strain of intense training and high-pressure competition on girls whose bodies and psyches are still developing.
Obviously, the health and proper development of its adolescent girls (or infant ones for that matter...) is not a concern for the Chinese Government...

From the same article:
On Friday, the IOC said it was turning to gymnastic officials to further look into the matter because "more information has come to light," but wouldn't say what that information was.

In a statement released later that day, the gymnastics federation said "additional questions have resurfaced," and that "in the interests of laying the matter to rest" it would request further age documentation from the Chinese Gymnastic Association.

The statement said that the federation's conclusion will be sent to the IOC. "It is in the interests of all concerned, not least the athletes themselves, to resolve this once and for all," the statement said.

Chinese bloggers, many of whom are skilled at navigating government attempts to remove controversial content from the Internet, have also been hard at work on the search for articles and images that show a possible cover-up over Ms. He's age. But the media storm didn't begin in full until Mr. Walker published a blog post about the apparent government record he found via China's most popular search engine, Baidu.com.

The cached chart, a spreadsheet listing China's registered gymnasts from 2006, appears to be an official document from the General Administration of Sport of China. It lists Ms. He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994 -- not 1992, as her passport says.

The document, which The Wall Street Journal was also able to find, has been removed from the administration's Web site; a "cached" version, or the previous version of a Web page stored by search engines, is still available online.

A Chinese Gymnastics Association spokesman declined to comment. A statement on the association's Web site said media reports on Ms. He's age are "mistaken," and reiterated its argument that the international federation's clearance of Ms. He's passport is proof that she is qualified.

In his post, Mr. Walker encouraged his readers to make image captures of the document he found and upload them to other Web sites in order to prevent the spreadsheet's disappearance. Screenshots of old Chinese media references to Ms. He's age have also been uploaded by concerned Internet users. Some of those earlier reports, including articles from 2007 by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, have been removed from the news organization's Web site.

But even if the document's existence is undeniable, it's unclear whether the gymnast's true age will ever be determined beyond a doubt. The allegations are aimed at the Chinese government, which itself is held accountable for the proof.

Meanwhile, thanks to Dan Riehl, we have the juxtoposition of Barack Obama, who again shows his ignorance of history and his hard-left ideology by saying....(drum roll) that America should be more like China! I must say, The One does certainly does have an ironical sense of timing.

UPDATE: MUST LISTEN AUDIO--The Great One, Mark Levin RIPS Obama's comments about Russia and Chinaand his ignorance about the true state of the Chinese "infrastructure"; in same clip he discusses the correlation between the systematic killing of political dissidents, transplants, and the number of body organs available on the world market. The first 55 minutes is priceless audio...other topics also covered are the sleazy background of Barack/Michelle and the atrocious state of State run health care in the UK, and entitlements vs. demographics.

Take note: This is an instant "Greatest Hits" show, IMO. Download here (it's a keeper), Streaming Link Here (it's the 8/22 show), iTunes podcast subscription (free) here. Don't miss this.

He also includes links on his site to stories about the China-related topics here, here, and here. A sampling of the quoted material:

(On China's Murder of Dissidents and sales of their Body Parts--emphasis is mine):
In a 2008 United Nations report, Asma Jahangir Jahangir, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, demanded that China explain the dramatic increase in organs used for transplantation from 2000 to 2005, and the mismatch between the high number of transplants and the relatively few known donor sources.

The Chinese government responded that they have no statistics on the number of transplants between 2000 and 2005. The United Nations officials pointed out that the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners was the most brutal between 2000 and 2005. This time period coincided with the surge in organ transplantation in China. The report also stated that the United Nations had heard allegations that between 2000 and 2005, there were 60,000 transplant operations, averaging 10,000 annually.

The report said that in 2005, approximately 0.5 percent of the transplant organs came from patients' relatives. In 2006, there were 9 donors who died and donated organs to non-relatives. An approximate 1,770 people died from the death penalty in 2005, while 3,900 people were given the death sentence (not all of them were executed in that year). It has been alleged that the difference between the number of transplants and available sources was due to organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners.

A Canada-based special investigation group said that of the 60,000 transplants taken place between 2000 and 2005, at least 40,000 could not be attributed to known sources. The Chinese government has not given any explanation.
So: add (at least) another 40,000-60,000 to that hundred million murdered figure cited earlier...

(On China's "magnificent" infrastructure that Obama is saying we should emulate--emphasis mine):
Some experts and reporters have noted that this situation exposes insufficiencies and inefficiency in China's infrastructure, particularly for transport and the electric power system. It has also shown that its capacity to handle a crisis is very fragile; Chinese authorities need to consider this situation seriously.

According to a recent article written by Deng Liwen, a researcher at the Central Party School in Beijing, currently the biggest problem facing China's rail transit system is not only its inability to meet the demands of social and economic development, but also that it is falling behind the air and road transit systems.

As of 2006, China had less than 80,000 kilometers of railway, only six percent of the world's total railway length. This is an average railway length of about six centimeters per person in terms of China's 1.3 billion people, while its railway network carries 24 percent of the world's rail freight traffic.

[....]

Hu Xingdou, an expert in the difficulties facing China, at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said during an interview with VOA, "Sun Yat-Sen once said, 'China will have 100,000 kilometers of railway.' But to this day, we have yet to reach a goal set nearly a hundred years ago. That's why the existing railway systems bear the heavy pressure from passenger transportation during the New Year holiday—there are too many people traveling for the size of our operational railways."

MCCAIN AS MORE JACKSONIAN: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOP JONAH GOLDBERG BY ER, UM... 9 MONTHS!

GOLDBERG YESTERDAY:
Psephologist and columnist Michael Barone noticed during the primaries that, with the exception of the black vote, Obama’s support within the Democratic party is comprised almost entirely of cultural liberals. He dubbed this intra-Democratic split a divide between “academics and Jacksonians.” The Jacksonians are working-class, culturally conservative whites. The academics are the same people who formed the base for Howard Dean, Bill Bradley, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, George McGovern, and other successful presidents in the anti-matter universe where Spock has a goatee.

In this universe, however, you need Jacksonians more than you need academics to win a general election, which is one reason why no non-southern Democrat has won the presidency in nearly a half-century. It’s not that voters love southerners, either. Rather, southern Democrats simply seem more Jacksonian (even so, only Jimmy Carter won with a majority of the popular vote).
TAB ON 11/28/07:
We American's want tour president to be an American hero, of sorts.

Someone who embodies what makes this nation great.

Given the choice between an intellectual egghead and a man with common sense, we always choose the man with common sense.

We choose them man who we think is tougher in fight - and will probably win one, rather than someone who might talk his way out of one.

We prefer Andrew Jackson's stature to John Quincy Adams' weightiness.

[NOTE: EVEN IN 1824, JACKSON WON A PLURALITY IN BOTH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND THE POPULAR VOTE.]
  • We prefer Ike's leadership to Adlai's erudition - his wonkiness.
  • Truman's plain talking to Dewey's East Coast Republican urbanity.
  • JFK's vim and vigor and bellicosity was preferred over Nixon's seeming weakness & sickliness - (because of their appearance on the first Presidential TV debate).
  • Dubya was more likable, authentic, raw and rumpled than either Gore or Kerry.
  • LBJ - a deal-making cowboy - was liked more than Goldwater, an ideologue.
  • FDR was a cripple whose ability to surmount his handicap with a smile inspired a crippled America.
  • Clinton felt our pain and knew the price of a gallon of milk. GHW Bush was a blue-blood at sea.
  • Lincoln was born in a log cabin and chopped wood.
And so on.

Nearly every single race has been one by the more natural man. The man of the people. The more common man.

So what does this tell us about 2008?

Well, obviously McCain, Fred and Huckabee are the most Jacksonian on the GOP side. Rudy's okay, too. Mitt's big problem is that he seems too slick, too smooth, too smart. He can win the nomination, but - unless he can loosen up - he could lose the general election.

AND ON THE DEMOCRAT SIDE? I don't see one single solitary Jacksonian. Maybe Biden or Richardson - only it's difficult to seem Jacksonian when you've calling for retreat from Iraq for the past couple of years...

I guess I'm saying that right now - based on who is in the race right now - I'd bet that the race is in the bag for the GOP.

If they frame the race as Jackson versus Adams, and can cast their candidate as Jackson.
  • MORE FROM TAB ON THIS HERE (FEBRUARY '08) AND HERE (8/13/08).
  • ANY WAY YOU SLICE WE KICKED JONAH'S BUT ON THIS.
  • REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT THIS HAPPENS A LOT AT TAB - BECAUSE WE DON;T JUST FOLLOW THE PACK; WE LEAD.
  • SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US.

OBAMA BLEW IT!

AP/NYTimes:
Biden, 65, is a creature of Washington, a 35-year Senate veteran and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee whose national security credentials will help patch a hole in Obama's relatively thin resume.
THAT SAYS IT ALL.

THE AMERICAN ELECTORATE WILL NOT VOTE FOR A MAN WITH A THIN RESUME AND HOLE TO PATCH.

AND AS FAR AS BIDEN'S NATIONAL SECURITY CRED'S: HE VOTED AGAINST THE SURGE AND SAID IT WOULD FAIL.

WHAT DID JOE BIDEN REALLY THINK BEFORE HE SOLD HIS SOUL TO OBAMA?

OBAMA-BIDEN: DANGEROUSLY BAD JUDGMENT ON IRAN

UPDATE: HOT AIR RECOUNTS A SHOCKINGLY BAD BIDEN IDEA - WHICH PROVESD HOW EFFIN DUMB HE REALLY IS! HE FLOATED IT JUST AFTER 9/11: SENDING MONEY TO IRAN TO QUELL ARAB ANGER.

RJC: RJC: With Biden, Obama Ticket Gets Riskier
Washington, D.C. (August 23, 2008) -- Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Executive Director Matt Brooks issued the following statement today:

"With the selection of Senator Joe Biden as Senator Obama's vice president, the Democrat's ticket has now become an even greater gamble for the Jewish community.

Throughout his career, Senator Biden has consistently been wrong on Iran and his voting record on Israel has been inconsistent.

Like Obama, Biden fundamentally misunderstands the threat posed by an Iran determined to obtain nuclear weapons.

Biden has continuously demonstrated poor judgment on Iran.

He has voted against significant legislation that would pressure Iran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons.

Biden has failed to recognize the serious threat that Iran poses to Israel and the US and its allies in the Middle East," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

In 1998, Sen. Biden was one of only four senators to vote against the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act, a bill that punished foreign companies or other entities that sent Iran sensitive missile technology or expertise.

Biden was one of the few senators to oppose the bipartisan 2007 Kyl-Lieberman Ammendment labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

In a December 2007 debate, Biden said "Iran is not a nuclear threat to the United States of America."

On MSNBC's "Hardball," Biden said he "never believed" Iran had a weapon system under production.

"The Jewish community was already gravely concerned with Senator Obama's naïve understanding of the Iranian threat. An Obama-Biden ticket has proven that it is ill-equipped to deal with this threat. By selecting Senator Biden to join his ticket, voting for Senator Obama has now become an even greater risk," said Brooks.
OBAMA-BIDEN: BAD JUDGMENT.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

Reminder about Biden's 7-11 episode

Biden Commits "Racial Slur"

As NewsBuster Mark Finkelstein pointed out on Friday, there is quite a double-standard in the media concerning what's acceptable for a Democrat to say versus a Republican. With that in mind, as captured by C-SPAN, Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware) recently made some comments concerning folks from India that were not at all flattering. As of yet, there appears to be no media outrage. Here's what Biden said:
"In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

Our friend Ian at Expose the Left has the video so that you can watch for yourself to gauge the seriousness of these statements, and what might have happened if a Republican had said the same thing.

Source (See the original for links)

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

Northern Greenland glaciers showing fractures, large break; Is it global warming or natural?

The article below by Newsweak's Seth Borenstein is amusing. Even Greenie scientists he consulted would not buy into any scare but he nonetheless does his best to attribute a glacial breakup to global warming. Borenstein is an old Warmist from way back. See e.g. here. Also see real story on Greenland here.

In northern Greenland, a part of the Arctic that had seemed immune from global warming, new satellite images show a growing giant crack and an 11-square-mile chunk of ice hemorrhaging off a major glacier, scientists said Thursday. And that's led the university professor who spotted the wounds in the massive Petermann glacier to predict disintegration of a major portion of the Northern Hemisphere's largest floating glacier within the year. If it does worsen and other northern Greenland glaciers melt faster, then it could speed up sea level rise, already increasing because of melt in sourthern Greenland. [Pesky fact: 91% of earth's glacial ice is in Antarctica so any likely melts in Greenland would add only inches to sea level]

The crack is 7 miles long and about half a mile wide. It is about half the width of the 500 square mile floating part of the glacier. Other smaller fractures can be seen in images of the ice tongue, a long narrow sliver of the glacier. "The pictures speak for themselves," said Jason Box, a glacier expert at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University who spotted the changes while studying new satellite images. "This crack is moving, and moving closer and closer to the front. It's just a matter of time till a much larger piece is going to break off.... It is imminent."

The chunk that came off the glacier between July 10 and July 24 is about half the size of Manhattan and doesn't worry Box as much as the cracks. The Petermann glacier had a larger breakaway ice chunk in 2000. But the overall picture worries some scientists. "As we see this phenomenon occurring further and further north - and Petermann is as far north as you can get - it certainly adds to the concern," said Waleed Abdalati, director of the Center for the Study of Earth from Space at the University of Colorado.

The question that now faces scientists is: Are the fractures part of normal glacier stress or are they the beginning of the effects of global warming? "It certainly is a major event," said NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally [A prominent Warmist] in a telephone interview from a conference on glaciers in Ireland. "It's a signal but we don't know what it means." It is too early to say it is clearly global warming, Zwally said. Scientists don't like to attribute single events to global warming, but often say such events fit a pattern.

University of Colorado professor Konrad Steffen, who returned from Greenland Wednesday and has studied the Petermann glacier in the past, said that what Box saw is not too different from what he saw in the 1990s: "The crack is not alarming... I would say it is normal."

However, scientists note that it fits with the trend of melting glacial ice they first saw in the southern part of the massive island and seems to be marching north with time. Big cracks and breakaway pieces are foreboding signs of what's ahead. Further south in Greenland, Box's satellite images show that the Jakobshavn glacier, the fastest retreating glacier in the world, set new records for how far it has moved inland. That concerns Colorado's Abdalati: "It could go back for miles and miles and there's no real mechanism to stop it."

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

BIDEN PICTORIAL: A POMPOUS BLOWHARD










OBAMA-BIDEN = BAD JUDGMENT SQUARED: JOE BIDEN ALSO OPPOSED THE SURGE AND SAID IT COULDN'T WORK

BIDEN IS OFTEN PORTRAYED AS AN EXPERT ON FOREIGN POLICY.

BWAHAHAHAHA!
WATCH HIM IN THESE VIDEOS DISPLAY HIS OWN INCOMPETENCE AND IDIOCY. AND HIS AMAZING ABILITY TO BE AN ASININE BLOWHARD.





[ASIDE: IN THIS 2ND VIDEO, BIDEN ALSO DEMANDS PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS, AND DECRIES THE OBSCENE AMOUNTS OF MONEY WHICH ASRE CONTROLLING ELECTIONS. ER UM... WHERE DOES THAT PUT HIM WITH OBAMA!?!?!?]

BOTTOM-LINE: BIDEN WAS WRONG ON THE SURGE AND ON PARTITION - AND IT PROVES HE'S NOT FIT FOR THE OFFICE.

BIDEN: RINGMASTER OF THE SENATE'S WORST 3-RING CIRCUS, AND VIRTUAL LYNCHING

NEVER FORGET THAT BIDEN RAN THE LYNCHING...


Friday, August 22, 2008

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A HILLARY-SUPPORTER SCORNED


CNN: Source: Clinton has been told she's not the VP pick
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama has ruled out Senator Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate, a senior Democratic official told CNN on Friday night.

Clinton — Obama's main rival during the primary season — has been informed by Obama's campaign that she is not his choice to be his vice presidential candidate, the source said.
FROM THE COMMENT THREAD AT CNN:
Karen
August 22nd, 2008 11:04 pm ET

Well, if that's true, the entire election is over for me. I either won't vote or will write her in.

One way Obama could've softened the blow to us Clinton supporters and gained some respect back from us was to send us the first message explaining why he didn't choose her.

He shouldn't be favoring just his supporters now anyway. That is the most divisive move he can make. It's really foolish of him.
  • I HAVE HEARD THIS A LOT FROM MANY NYC DEM WOMEN.
  • THEY ARE NOT ALONE.
  • IT'S OVER FOR OBAMA.
  • HE WILL LOSE BY A LANDSLIDE.
  • GOOD.

ANOTHER WIN FOR THE RIGHT: ANNENBERG/AYERS-OBAMA PAPERS TO BE MADE PUBLIC!

NYT/AP:
The University of Illinois at Chicago said Friday it is releasing records of Barack Obama's service to a nonprofit organization linked to former 1960s radical William Ayers.

Supporters of John McCain have been trying to exploit the tie between Obama and Ayers, with a McCain fundraiser donating nearly $2.9 million for an independent ad focusing on Ayers. Ayers' Weatherman group took credit for bombings that included nonfatal blasts at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago.

The records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an organization that Obama chaired and that Ayers co-founded, will be made available to the public Tuesday, UIC said in a statement.
GOOD.
  • IF THERE'S NOTHING TO HIDE, THEN THERE'S NOTHING TO FEAR...
  • IF THERE WAS NOTHING TO FEAR THEN OBAMA WOULD HAVE PUBLICLY DEMANDED THEIR RELEASE.
  • HE'S SCARED...
GOOD.

THE KEY TO THE OBAMA VEEPSTAKES: WHO WOULD MICHELLE PICK?

MICHELLE WOULD PICK A WOMAN.

THEREFORE, IT MIGHT VERY WELL BE SIBELIUS.

AFTER ALL, SHE WEARS THE PANTS IN THE FAMILY.

PIC'S OF THE DNC'S STAGE IN DENVER

IT'S NOT RED WHITE AND BLUE;
IT'S... ER UM A RAINBOW OF FUCHSIA AND PURPLE.
IN KEEPING WITH THE LEFT'S MULTICULTURALIST IDEOLOGY.

WILL THEY HAVE MULTICULTURAL ENTERTAINMENT? WILL THEY FEATURE OBAMA'S AFRICAN ROOTS, OR NOT?

THIS WOULD BE APT:



AS WOULD BE THIS:



THEY'RE FROM OBAMA'S TRIBE.

[BTW: DON'T ACCUSE ME OF RACISM: I MARCHED WITH DR. MLK JR., AND HAVE POSTED A FEW TIMES ON THE BRILLIANT OLATUNJI. I LOVE AFRICAN MUSIC.

OBAMA HAS VERY REAL TIES TO AFRICA, KENYA AND THE LUO.

OBAMA IS HALF-AFRICAN AND HALF AMERICAN, BUT HE IS NOT AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN - WHICH MEANS A DESCENDANT OF SLAVES, WHICH STANDS FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS SURVIVED SLAVERY AND JIM CROW, AND SIGNIFIES A BLACK AMERICAN WHO FOUGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS.

MY WHITE JEWISH FAMILY IS MORE CONNECTED TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT THAN OBAMA.]

MAYBE THEY CAN INTRODUCE AMERICA TO OBAMA'S INDONESIAN BACKGROUND BY USING SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOR THE INVOCATION:



  • OBAMA HIMSELF HAS OFTEN SAID HIS INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND IS A PLUS.
  • WHY NOT FOREGROUND IT AND LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DECIDE IF THEY AGREE?
ALL I AM SAYING IS... THIS IS WHO OBAMA IS.
AND IT WOULD BE HONEST OF OBAMA TO LET AMERICANS SEE IT AND DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES.

ER, UM...

LET THEM... VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

OBAMA-BIDEN? IT WOULD BE GAFFE-O-LICIOUS!


HOT AIR:

Update (AP): If they really do hold it until the last possible minute, then needless to say, it’s not Bayh. The letdown would simply be too great. It’s either Biden or Hillary. Ambinder says there are reports of a charter jet on its way to Delaware from Chicago

Why not string it out to the max and have both Hillary and Biden attend the event in Springfield? That’ll really send the press over the edge.

Update (AP): Another Biden hint. Staffers cutting their vacations short?

GAFFE-O-MONGOUS, TOO!

AND THEY'RE TWO CONGENITAL LIARS!
  • YEAH: LIARS! THIS IS MY FAVORITE BIDEN LIE, BECAUSE IT'S SO GRATUITOUS, AND THE POINTS HE WAS HOPING TO PICK UP WITH THE LIE SO SMALL AND FLEETING:
    A UD alumnus, Joe Biden grilled Alito, and as is his SOP, put his foot in his mouth:
    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The conservative alumni group Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP) has been the subject of criticism in recent weeks, but yesterday the University itself also came under scrutiny.

    Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), who grilled Samuel Alito '72 about his CAP membership, also said that he "wasn't a big Princeton fan."

    "I didn't even like Princeton," he said, to laughter from the gallery. "I mean, I really didn't like Princeton. I was an Irish Catholic kid who thought it had not changed like you concluded it had," referring to Alito's earlier statement that Princeton had changed its traditional ways before he enrolled.

    But Biden had nothing but praise for the University in a 2004 speech at the Wilson School.

    "It's an honor to be here," he told the audience. "It would have been an even greater honor to have come here."

    Biden also said yesterday: "One of my real dilemmas is I have two kids who went to Ivy League schools. I'm not sure my Grandfather Finnegan will ever forgive me for allowing that to happen."

    But in his speech at Princeton, he said, "I have three children who have mercifully all finally completed undergraduate and graduate school. And I tried to get all three of them to apply here."

    He went on to recall how he tried to convince them to attend Princeton, but because they didn't, he's "counting on his grandchildren."
  • IT PROVES IS THAT HE'S SUCH A HUGE LIAR; IT'S REFLEXIVE; HE CAN'T HELP HIMSELF!
  • AND, OBAMA AND BIDEN ARE TWO BLOWHARDS! ASK THEM A SIMPLE YES-OR-NO QUESTION AND YOU GET A REAMS OF NUANCE AND BULLSHIT.
  • JOE BIDEN!?!?!? SHEESH: HE'S GETS BORED OF ANY CONVERSATION UNLESS HE'S DOING ALL THE TALKING.
BRING THEM ON!

PAKISTAN'S COALITON OF APPEASERS SELECTS THE CORRUPT BHUTTO WIDOWER TO BECOME PRESIDENT

NYTIMES:
The senior party in Pakistan’s governing coalition on Friday nominated Asif Ali Zardari, widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as its candidate in elections for president, now set for Sept. 6.

The Election Commission on Friday set Sept. 6 as the date lawmakers will elect a new president, after the resignation earlier this week of President Pervez Musharraf.

Hours later, members of the Pakistan Peoples Party said that Mr. Zardari, 53, who is a leader of the party, would be their candidate.
  • THE USA SHOULD ACCEPT THIS AND DECIDE TO DISREGARD THE "STABILITY" PF PAKISTAN'S "DEMOCRACY" AND ATTACK AL QAEDA & THE TALIBAN WITHIN PAKISTAN AT WILL -- AND, THAT IF THERE ARE, AS A RESULT, DESTABILIZING REPERCUSSIONS THAT OUR ALLIES IN THE PAKISTANI ARMY WILL STAGE A COUP.

MORE PROOF THAT OBAMA IS JUST ANOTHER SLEAZY CORRUPT CHICAGO POLITICIAN























WASHINGTON POST:
Two years ago, the office of Michelle Obama, the vice president for community relations at the University of Chicago Medical Center, published a glossy report detailing the improvements her office had made in the lives of local residents, in part by increasing ties to minority contractors.

Center administrators declined to disclose which businesses benefited; the report lists one -- Blackwell Consulting Services.

In 2005, the center expanded its bidding process and invited African American businessman Robert Blackwell Sr. to join a competition to upgrade the center's intranet, the in-house equivalent of a Web site. His company, Blackwell Consulting, won contracts totaling nearly $650,000.

Blackwell and his family, records show, have been longtime donors to the political ca
mpaigns of Michelle Obama's husband, Barack. Robert Blackwell Jr., a former partner in the firm, is a major fundraiser for Barack Obama. At various times, Blackwell Sr. says, his and his son's businesses each have retained Barack Obama as an attorney.
  • THESE TWO JUST MIGHT BE THE SCUMMIEST AND SLEAZIEST CORRUPT POLITICIANS ANYONE HAS SEEN ANYWHERE FOR DECADES!
  • WE MIGHT AS WELL RENAME THE OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN "BARRY AND MICHELLE'S SLEAZY ADVENTURE".
VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

JORDAN AND HAMAS: TARGETING JERUSALEM

YES, JORDAN:
Jordan Threatens Israel Over Jerusalem

Earlier this week Jordan's King publicly embraced Hamas and today Jordan's Foreign Minister warned Israel's Ambassador against a planned archaeological dig in Jerusalem because:

"This would also lead to a new violent conflict in the Middle East because Jerusalem is a red line for Muslims and Arabs."
AND HAMAS:
Hamas Targets Jerusalem

A Turkish News site is reporting that Hamas has publicly declared a campaign to stop the spread of Judaism in Jerusalem.

Hamas's declaration comes in a week where there were reports that Jordan's King is likely to start formal relations with Hamas.

  • ISRAEL SHOULD TELL THE "KING" OF JORDAN TO STFU OR WHACK HIM.
  • AND THEY SHOULD ASSASSINATE ALL THE HAMAS LEADERSHIP - AND ASSAD WHILE THEY'RE AT IT.
  • SOUND ROUGH!?!? NOPE. THE OPPOSITE: IF THE ALLIES HAD WHACKED HITLER IN 1938, THEN WW2 WOULD'VE BEEN AVOIDED.
  • AND 50 MILLION SAVED.
  • WE ARE APPROACHING A SIMILAR JUNCTURE VIS A VIS IRAN, HAMAS, HIZBALLAH AND AL QAEDA.
  • THE SOONER WE GET WHAT IS INEVITABLE THE FEWER THE CASUALTIES AND THE LOWER THE COST.

THE KUMBAYA TICKET: OBAMA-BAYH




MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT: OBAMA IS THE KUMBAYA CANDIDATE.

Kumbaya - Asidors Kids

OBAMA THINKS CHINA IS BETTER THAN AMERICA

From Copious Dissent:

Barack Obama is the most undisciplined person to run for office in the last 50 years. His Handlers better get control of him otherwise we will see another 1980 landslide with the Democrats wondering what happened. While Obama has made numerous ridiculous statements in the past, his latest statement reaches a new level of absurdity.

Barack stated in a recent speech off the cuff:
Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, “Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”





First and foremost, China has not yet figured out how to feed its entire population. The only parts of China where people are doing well is where they have mimicked the United States, such as Hong Kong. There is nothing uniquely Chinese that America should follow.

Moreover, China does not have the insane environmental regulations that we have in America. If they want to build 1000 power plants surrounding an elementary school, nobody is going to stop them. I wonder how the Sierra Club would feel about that?

Nevertheless, if you listen to Obama's statement, his only understanding of China is from watching the Olympics on television. We know now that most of what we see on China through the television is not true.

Lastly, I would like to mention that if Obama lived in China, one of his daughters would be dead. Or would he support the One Child policy too? I wonder when Obama will realize that people from Germany and China do not vote in our elections.

UPDATE:

Mitch comments:
If you want to do away with environmental regulations, take people's homes and businesses to build "infrastructure", use slave labor, send dissenters away to reeducation camps, move the homeless out of view and give big,big business huge tax breaks, then you too, may like China. This, I believe, really does reflect Obama's view of what is good.
Because of the one child per couple policy in China, there is a Gendercide going on, resulting in girls disappearing from the population by the hundreds of millions.

In 1997, the World Health Organization reported that over 50 million girls were missing from the Chinese population.

That was eleven years ago. Imagine the numbers now.

The ultimate result of this is what? When there are few women left what will happen?


Will China turn into one giant orgy of prison rape? Will the few women left be sold off to the highest bidder to as luxury vaginas?

Imagine the twisted sexuality of China turning in on itself, as males have no outlet. Ritualistic sexual violence and insanity would ultimately prevail in such a place.

This is a circle of hell deeper than Dante ever envisioned.

And, this all goes without mentioning the practical reality that Communism, as a Ponzi scheme, is based upon the idea that there will be an ever-expanding population paying the benefits of those who grow older and leave the workforce.

Women can only have one baby every ten months or so, even if they are "optimized". What is China going to do to sustain its Communist Ponzi scheme? Euthanasia of the aging population will become a must.

From each according to his ability, to each according to their need, until the need becomes too great to sustain, and then to each a dose of cyanide according to their body weight.

Barack Obama gazes over this lowest circle of hell and sees in it a promise for a better America.

Al Qaeda's New Strategy

Oh, joy. NOT! From this August 21, 2008 article:
A newly discovered online Al Qaeda manual is giving intelligence officials new insight into how the group's leaders are training recruits to further move the organization from a centralized operation toward smaller global cells.

The manual, called “Method for Building the Personality of a Terrorist Mujahid” and written by an Islamist forum contributor nicknamed "Shamil al-Baghdadi," encourages militant followers to stop focusing on pulling off attacks on the scale of 9-11 and to start executing numerous smaller attacks.

It states that if for some reason the mission fails, the Jihadi must not abort, but instead carry on alone — as a one-man cell.

According to New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, it's a strategy of which domestic law enforcement agencies are well aware.

"If you can't do the big attacks, do the small attacks. Do smaller attacks and more of them," Kelly said.

The new manual, which allegedly surfaced on an Islamic Web forum sometime in March, outlines a number of lessons, from how to form a terror cell to fundraising efforts.

It advocates assassinations by shooting, poisoning and booby-trapping cell phones and computers. The manual prioritizes targets by ranking and lists categories such as "high profile," which represent presidents and prime ministers.

Targeted organizations have a similar ranking, in which state sponsored groups are listed as “high-potential” organizations.

Recruits are also told to organize credit card scams and to rob police stations in order to get weapons.

Most shocking are the lessons on kidnapping, with orders to slaughter hostages in a way that will terrify the public.

"I propose you start with those that have blood on their hands torturing and suppressing Muslims like high-ranking intelligence officers, the governor or any foreign official," writes al-Baghdadi.

Cell members are also persuaded to carry out attacks on cultural and business centers, taking warfare to the streets.

As Al Qaeda cells become localized and more autonomous, terror experts say the techniques outlined in the manual illustrate of changing the face of the organization itself.

Dr. Matthew Levitt, director of The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, said the structure has shifted.

"You know, it used to be that the face of Al Qaeda was bin Laden and the core. That is still the case, but now we are reminded about Al Qaeda on a regular basis more because of the activities of the local cells."

Levitt said the manual is specifically tailored to its audience.

"What this does more than anything else is provides people who are inclined to carry out such attacks with the sense that they now have some information and pushes them to actually go through with it," said Levitt...
Read the rest.

The further in time we move from 9/11, the more complacent we become. The more we tell ourselves that wannabe terrorists are buffoons not to worry about. For example, consider the recent facts about Saleman Abdirahman Dirie:
Saleman Abdirahman Dirie was a 29-year-old Canadian citizen, a Muslim, and a former refugee from Somalia with no visible means of support and no money. He came to Denver from Ottawa by bus and checked into an upscale hotel (where the least expensive rooms rent for nearly $250 a night) for which he paid cash. There are reports that several thousand dollars in cash were also found in his room. He was not seen again until his body was found six days later next to a one pound jar of sodium cyanide crystals.
Read the rest of the essay by Ilana Freedman. I guarantee it will give you pause.

Also, consider Dirie's final arrangements, handled by the Muslim Society of America, despite reports of the man's not being particularly religious nor active in the adult Somali community.

Was Dirie a member of Al Qaeda? We don't know, and we may never know. The authorities have closed the investigation.

Nothing to see here, move right along.

Meanwhile, Al Qaeda and other Moslem terrorists are adapting, adapting, adapting. The inevitability of at least small attacks seems apparent. And if spectacular attacks occur, this will be the reaction from those who have blithely chosen to ignore the warning signs:
At some point our collective heads will come up out of the sand, probably by the force of an explosion; and we'll stand, mouths agape like so many fish out of water, trying to comprehend a situation we've done our best to ignore.
-Anonymous, 2005
(Crossposted to Always On Watch)

A good conservative comment from the WSJ:

As the 110th Congress continues its August recess, the big legislative news is that it has passed fewer laws than any Congress in the last two decades. An outfit known as Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that the fighting 110th has passed a mere 294 laws, while nonetheless finding time to consider 1,932 resolutions favoring such causes as National Watermelon Month. This is apparently supposed to be a matter of public consternation because Congress should be accomplishing more.

Sorry, but that's the best thing we've heard about this Congress. What a relief to discover the destruction could have been so much worse. With rare exceptions -- free-trade deals, money for the troops -- we wish the Members would spend every minute of every day passing resolutions. They'd have less time to do tangible harm.

Even we -- fated by bad career advice to write about this stuff -- haven't the foggiest idea what is in most of those 294 laws. The mayhem we know about is bad enough. There was that "reform" that blew up the student loan market and has led to Uncle Sam being America's college lender of first resort. This will be the Fannie Mae of the future. And don't forget the mortgage bailout, which puts taxpayers on the hook for as much as $300 billion in bad home loans.

Come to think of it, we'd feel safer if the whole crowd decided not to come back at all after Labor Day. Just stay home, or, even better, spend the rest of the year traveling on Congressional junkets. Sure, taxpayers would have to pay the airfare and hotel bills, but that's a bargain compared to what taxpayers will owe if Congress tries to solve any more problems.

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

Did McCain lift his cross-in-the-sand anecdote from Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago"?

Excerpt:

John McCain told a story about a Vietnamese guard who made a sign of the cross in the dirt while he was a POW. The story is very similar to a story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags. Did John McCain steal this story?

There's no such story in "Archipelago." There is a somewhat similar story attributed to Solzhenitsyn, which we've traced back to Rev. Billy Graham by way of former Richard Nixon aide Charles Colson. But that's not proof that McCain's story isn't true.

The stories aren't exactly the same. In McCain's telling, a Vietnamese prison guard shows him kindness one night by secretly loosening his cruelly tight bonds, then draws a cross in the sand with his foot to indicate that he is a fellow Christian. In the various versions attributed to Solzhenitsyn, the cross is drawn by a fellow prisoner, not a guard, and with a stick, not his foot. The story certainly does not appear in the place that some of McCain's detractors are suggesting that he got it.

The Controversy

The Internet controversy was touched off when McCain repeated his often-told story during an August 16 question and answer session at Saddleback Church in California:

McCain: Because it was Christmas day, we were allowed to stand outside of our cell for a few minutes. In those days we were not allowed to see or communicate with each other, although we certainly did. And I was standing outside, for my few minutes outside at my cell. He came walking up. He stood there for a minute, and with his sandal on the dirt in the courtyard, he drew a cross and he stood there. And a minute later, he rubbed it out, and walked away. For a minute there, there was just two Christians worshipping together. I'll never forget that moment.

Within hours the Internet was littered with blog entries hinting at the possibility Sen. McCain had lifted the anecdote from Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" and lied about it.

Solzhenitsyn's "Archipelago" was originally published in 1973 - the same year McCain returned from Vietnam. But "The Gulag Archipelago" contains no such story. We searched all three volumes of the work through an online version for several key words, and we found nothing remotely similar. It's just not there.

Just to be safe, we also checked the author's novel, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch." It's not there, either.

Tracing a Story

Many earlier blog entires don't quote Solzhenitsyn's "Archipelago" directly. Instead they quote a story told about Solzhenitsyn in a 1997 sermon from Fr. Luke Veronis, a Greek Orthodox priest:

Veronis: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian author who spent many years in the gulag of Siberia, bears witness to the power of the cross. . Laying his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude work-site bench and sat down. ...

Slowly, he lifted his eyes and saw a skinny, old prisoner squat down next to him. The man said nothing. Instead, he drew a stick through the ground at Solzhenitsyn's feet, tracing the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work. As Solzhenitsyn stared at the sign of the Cross, his entire perspective changed. He knew that he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. ... Solzhenitsyn slowly got up, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Nothing outward had changed, but inside, he received hope.

So we asked Veronis where he had acquired the anecdote. At first he said he had gotten it from Solzhenitsyn's "Archipelago," but later corrected himself. "I know I've read that story before. But I thought I had read it from Solzhenitsyn directly." Eventually, Veronis told us, "I don't know where I got it from." .....

But we see no evidence that McCain pilfered the quote. The two stories are markedly different, for one thing. In one version, it's a fellow prisoner drawing with a stick; in the other, it's a kindly guard drawing a cross with his foot. Furthermore, in Graham's version, Solzhenitsyn was contemplating suicide at the time. McCain says in his book that he did consider suicide while a prisoner, but that was on an entirely different occasion when he had been beaten for days and was about to sign a false confession to end his torture. It had nothing to do with the cross-in-the-sand story.

We asked the McCain campaign about the accusation, and a spokesman pointed us to a campaign blog entry with quotes attributed to Bud Day, a close friend of McCain. Day said that McCain told him the story prior to the publication of "Faith of My Fathers":

McCain Report: ...[Day] did confirm that "not long after we all got back together [in the camp]," McCain told him the story of the prison guard who drew a cross in the dirt one Christmas.

Another blog entry from the McCain camp says that Solzhenitsyn did tell the story but goes on to say: "The only similarity between the two stories is a cross in the dirt, but it is hardly an unlikely coincidence that there were practicing Christians in both Russia and Vietnam, or that in the prisons of those two Communist countries the only crosses to be found were etched in the dirt, as easily disappeared as the Christians who drew them." That entry quotes another former POW, who told the campaign that McCain told him the story sometime around the summer of 1971.

Ultimately, it's far easier for McCain's detractors to question his story than it is for McCain to prove it's true. Only McCain and the long-ago prison guard, if he exists and is still alive, know for sure. But in a world where there are hundreds of millions of Christians, we see no reason to believe that both the McCain story and the one attributed to Solzhenitsyn can't both be true.

More here

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