Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Why is Obama so vapid, hesitant, and gutless?
You can't get the right answer without asking the right question. For Hitch's answer, go here.
"We Want Sarah. Shame On The Rally Organizer"
Blowback from the disinvitation of Palin from the anti-Iran rally.
UPDATE: Caroline Glick in The Jerusalem Post has an outstanding take on the pettiness of the Democratic Jews in America, and the meaning of their refusal to allow Governor Palin to speak. An excerpt:
PS: I am no anti-Semite, so let me say this delicately: the politics of Jewish Americans, and the Joy Behar-ish in-your-face attitude with which those views are so often espoused, has done more to harm the reputation of Jews than anything that any 100 anti-Semites going off half-cocked about the Jooos! could ever do.
PPS: What is with the plethora of (relatively) new Jewish female writers who absolutely rock? Jennifer Rubin, Lisa Schiffren, Caroline Glick... It used to be just Mona Charen, but now there is an embarrassment of riches!
UPDATE: Caroline Glick in The Jerusalem Post has an outstanding take on the pettiness of the Democratic Jews in America, and the meaning of their refusal to allow Governor Palin to speak. An excerpt:
It was a remarkable speech, prepared by a remarkable woman. But it was not heard. It was not heard because the Democratic Party and Jewish Democrats believe that their partisan interest in demonizing Palin and making Americans generally and American Jews in particular hate and fear her to secure their votes for Obama and his running-mate Sen. Joseph Biden in the November election is more important than allowing Palin to elevate the necessity of preventing a second Holocaust to the top of the US's national security agenda.
PS: I am no anti-Semite, so let me say this delicately: the politics of Jewish Americans, and the Joy Behar-ish in-your-face attitude with which those views are so often espoused, has done more to harm the reputation of Jews than anything that any 100 anti-Semites going off half-cocked about the Jooos! could ever do.
PPS: What is with the plethora of (relatively) new Jewish female writers who absolutely rock? Jennifer Rubin, Lisa Schiffren, Caroline Glick... It used to be just Mona Charen, but now there is an embarrassment of riches!
"Yet the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation"
Stanley Kurtz nails Obama on another lie - Bill Ayers wasn't "just some guy in the neighborhood". He was, and remains, an unrepentant terrorist and anti-American, who sought to inculcate his poison vision of America into public school students. His choice for Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge? Barack Obama.
UPDATE: PowerLine is on this. Read their additional thoughts, particularly the "straight line" from the anti-Americanism of Bill Ayers to that of Jeremiah Wright.
UPDATE: PowerLine is on this. Read their additional thoughts, particularly the "straight line" from the anti-Americanism of Bill Ayers to that of Jeremiah Wright.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Media Mania
Just got off the phone with Mom and Mark, who informed me that the Media courthouse is absolutely mobbed with enthusiastic McCain-Palin supporters. By Mark's estimate, there are thousands in attendance, overflowing from the main stage area and extending several blocks beyond State Street. I am hoping to watch via a local news outlet online and post a video later. From what I could hear in the background, people are incredibly pumped up and ready to deliver the state for Republicans in November. My brother noted that the last time he witnessed such a palpable electricity in the Media crowd was when Reagan visited during the 1984 campaign. Not even Dubya elicited the same level of passion in 2004. Let's hope this is a good omen and that PA swings back to red this year!
UPDATE: Click here to watch the video.
UPDATE: Click here to watch the video.
More on the Palin Smear Story
The Examiner is on the case:
Bloggers at the website “The Jawa Report” have used their collective investigative talent to expose the smear campaign. Normally, the blog specializes in tracking down and stopping sources of internet-based Islamic extremism, also known as jihadist propaganda. The bloggers recently turned their abilities to finding the source of the Palin smear videos. They present strong evidence linking Winner & Associates to the videos including an email from one of the postings that is assigned to the domain name for the company's website.
The “Jawans” also compared the smear videos to videos known to have been produced by David Axelrod's media company in support of the Obama campaign. The Jawa Report presents strong evidence that the female voice-over used in the smear videos is the same voice used in all of the Obama campaign videos from Axelrod's company. In addition, the investigators who routinely review jihadist videos for clues have determined that the video and production quality of the smear videos was high and likely done by a professional production company, not a “grassroots” effort.
The connections provide a clear, although yet to be fully proven, scenario. Based upon the evidence it appears that Axelrod likely orchestrated the smear campaign providing his media company resources to create the smear videos for the PR firm which launched the viral campaign. It was all meant to look like it came from somewhere other than the Obama campaign, a prime example of “astroturfing”.
Axelrod and his ilk make Islamo-fascists look like pansies when it comes to organized character assassination. I only hope these invaluable bloggers can force the dinosaur media's hand, just as they did with the bogus, "fake but accurate" Dan Rather/National Guard takedown attempt of 2004. I'll say it again: I don't know how any thinking person could possibly even entertain the idea of voting for Obama! Sure, the drive-by's are in the tank for him, but with talk radio, cable news and the blogosphere out in full-force counteracting their propaganda, anyone with a brain would at least have serious doubts about the guy.
Hardball Chicago machine politics on a national stage -- a chilling reality that should be a wake-up call to all Americans. Let's hope Jawa and the rest find the conclusive evidence they need to put the final nail in Obama's electoral coffin. Between this and the email hacking incident, the Left and Obama have made it pretty clear what kind of "change" we can expect if -- shudder! -- he makes it all the way to the White House. If Americans truly value their freedom, they'll do everything in their power to elect McCain-Palin and send this guy to the dustbin of presidential campaign history.
Bloggers at the website “The Jawa Report” have used their collective investigative talent to expose the smear campaign. Normally, the blog specializes in tracking down and stopping sources of internet-based Islamic extremism, also known as jihadist propaganda. The bloggers recently turned their abilities to finding the source of the Palin smear videos. They present strong evidence linking Winner & Associates to the videos including an email from one of the postings that is assigned to the domain name for the company's website.
The “Jawans” also compared the smear videos to videos known to have been produced by David Axelrod's media company in support of the Obama campaign. The Jawa Report presents strong evidence that the female voice-over used in the smear videos is the same voice used in all of the Obama campaign videos from Axelrod's company. In addition, the investigators who routinely review jihadist videos for clues have determined that the video and production quality of the smear videos was high and likely done by a professional production company, not a “grassroots” effort.
The connections provide a clear, although yet to be fully proven, scenario. Based upon the evidence it appears that Axelrod likely orchestrated the smear campaign providing his media company resources to create the smear videos for the PR firm which launched the viral campaign. It was all meant to look like it came from somewhere other than the Obama campaign, a prime example of “astroturfing”.
Axelrod and his ilk make Islamo-fascists look like pansies when it comes to organized character assassination. I only hope these invaluable bloggers can force the dinosaur media's hand, just as they did with the bogus, "fake but accurate" Dan Rather/National Guard takedown attempt of 2004. I'll say it again: I don't know how any thinking person could possibly even entertain the idea of voting for Obama! Sure, the drive-by's are in the tank for him, but with talk radio, cable news and the blogosphere out in full-force counteracting their propaganda, anyone with a brain would at least have serious doubts about the guy.
Hardball Chicago machine politics on a national stage -- a chilling reality that should be a wake-up call to all Americans. Let's hope Jawa and the rest find the conclusive evidence they need to put the final nail in Obama's electoral coffin. Between this and the email hacking incident, the Left and Obama have made it pretty clear what kind of "change" we can expect if -- shudder! -- he makes it all the way to the White House. If Americans truly value their freedom, they'll do everything in their power to elect McCain-Palin and send this guy to the dustbin of presidential campaign history.
What She Would Have Said
From The New York Sun:
Governor Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, was scheduled to speak today at a rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to protest the appearance here of President Ahmadinejad of Iran. Her appearance was canceled by rally organizers who sought a nonpolitical event. Following are the remarks Mrs. Palin would have given:
***
I am honored to be with you and with leaders from across this great country — leaders from different faiths and political parties united in a single voice of outrage.
Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York — to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan — and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.
Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for action to thwart him.
He must be stopped.
The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a "Final Solution" — the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a "stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman — not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.
The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is running at least 3,800 centrifuges and that its uranium enrichment capacity is rapidly improving. According to news reports, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians may have enough nuclear material to produce a bomb within a year.
The world has condemned these activities. The United Nations Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend its illegal nuclear enrichment activities. It has levied three rounds of sanctions. How has Ahmadinejad responded? With the declaration that the "Iranian nation would not retreat one iota" from its nuclear program.
So, what should we do about this growing threat? First, we must succeed in Iraq. If we fail there, it will jeopardize the democracy the Iraqis have worked so hard to build, and empower the extremists in neighboring Iran. Iran has armed and trained terrorists who have killed our soldiers in Iraq, and it is Iran that would benefit from an American defeat in Iraq.
If we retreat without leaving a stable Iraq, Iran's nuclear ambitions will be bolstered. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons — they could share them tomorrow with the terrorists they finance, arm, and train today. Iranian nuclear weapons would set off a dangerous regional nuclear arms race that would make all of us less safe.
But Iran is not only a regional threat; it threatens the entire world. It is the no. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. It sponsors the world's most vicious terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. Together, Iran and its terrorists are responsible for the deaths of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, and in Iraq today. They have murdered Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians, and other Muslims who have resisted Iran's desire to dominate the region. They have persecuted countless people simply because they are Jewish.
Iran is responsible for attacks not only on Israelis, but on Jews living as far away as Argentina. Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are part of Iran's official ideology and murder is part of its official policy. Not even Iranian citizens are safe from their government's threat to those who want to live, work, and worship in peace. Politically-motivated abductions, torture, death by stoning, flogging, and amputations are just some of its state-sanctioned punishments.
It is said that the measure of a country is the treatment of its most vulnerable citizens. By that standard, the Iranian government is both oppressive and barbaric. Under Ahmadinejad's rule, Iranian women are some of the most vulnerable citizens.
If an Iranian woman shows too much hair in public, she risks being beaten or killed.
If she walks down a public street in clothing that violates the state dress code, she could be arrested.
But in the face of this harsh regime, the Iranian women have shown courage. Despite threats to their lives and their families, Iranian women have sought better treatment through the "One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws." The authorities have reacted with predictable barbarism. Last year, women's rights activist Delaram Ali was sentenced to 20 lashes and 10 months in prison for committing the crime of "propaganda against the system." After international protests, the judiciary reduced her sentence to "only" 10 lashes and 36 months in prison and then temporarily suspended her sentence. She still faces the threat of imprisonment.
Earlier this year, Senator Clinton said that "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in the forefront of that" effort. Senator Clinton argued that part of our response must include stronger sanctions, including the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. John McCain and I could not agree more.
Senator Clinton understands the nature of this threat and what we must do to confront it. This is an issue that should unite all Americans. Iran should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Period. And in a single voice, we must be loud enough for the whole world to hear: Stop Iran!
Only by working together, across national, religious, and political differences, can we alter this regime's dangerous behavior. Iran has many vulnerabilities, including a regime weakened by sanctions and a population eager to embrace opportunities with the West. We must increase economic pressure to change Iran's behavior.
Tomorrow, Ahmadinejad will come to New York. On our soil, he will exercise the right of freedom of speech — a right he denies his own people. He will share his hateful agenda with the world. Our task is to focus the world on what can be done to stop him.
We must rally the world to press for truly tough sanctions at the U.N. or with our allies if Iran's allies continue to block action in the U.N. We must start with restrictions on Iran's refined petroleum imports.
We must reduce our dependency on foreign oil to weaken Iran's economic influence.
We must target the regime's assets abroad; bank accounts, investments, and trading partners.
President Ahmadinejad should be held accountable for inciting genocide, a crime under international law.
We must sanction Iran's Central Bank and the Revolutionary Guard Corps — which no one should doubt is a terrorist organization.
Together, we can stop Iran's nuclear program.
Senator McCain has made a solemn commitment that I strongly endorse: Never again will we risk another Holocaust. And this is not a wish, a request, or a plea to Israel's enemies. This is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us. It is John McCain's promise and it is my promise.
Thank you.
Yep, them there are some mighty partisan words. Hillary Clinton should be ashamed (I don't think she knows how to feel shame, Bill having inured her over the years)...
Reality check
Here's the one The One extolling Chinese infrastructure:
Here's the reality:
But, hey, don't worry, because Barack knows that the Chinese economy, unlike ours, is fundamentally strong!
Here's the reality:
The Olympic flame is out, the smog is back, and traffic again clogs the roads.
Welcome to what commentators are calling China's "post-Olympic era," in which euphoria over the Beijing Games is slowly giving way to economic worries, new safety crises and a future both brimming with confidence and tinged with uncertainty.
So far, it's off to a rocky start.
China received widespread praise for organizing the games, which formally ended Wednesday with the Paralympics' closing ceremony.
Even before then, however, reality reasserted itself with the collapse earlier this month at an illegal mine waste dump that killed at least 259 people and forced the resignation of a provincial governor. Since then, a product safety scandal has roiled the nation, with contaminated milk powder causing the death of three infants and sickening more than 6,200 others.
Both crises point to underlying systemic weaknesses that the Olympics did little to eliminate, despite a massive effort to clean up Beijing's polluted air, boost security and ensure smooth logistics. China's mines remain the world's deadliest and creaky infrastructure a constant threat, while an overhaul of the product safety system has proved only partially effective.
A further post-Olympics worry is the state of the weakening economy, raising the prospect of unemployment and higher inflation in what remains a poor nation. Chinese shares fell Wednesday to a 22-month low and the communist leadership, ever mindful of threats to its authority, is on alert for possible unrest.
But, hey, don't worry, because Barack knows that the Chinese economy, unlike ours, is fundamentally strong!
The Plot Thickens
Getting ready for work so I don't have much time to analyze this now, but it looks as if intrepid bloggers have exposed the Palin-smearing effort as a scandalous plot cooked up by the Obama campaign, and not simply the villanous byproduct of deranged, garden-variety lefties. Could this be the "Rathergate" of the 2008 election?
Extensive research was conducted by the Jawa Report to determine the source of smears directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Those smears included false allegations that she belonged to a secessionist political party and that she has radical anti-American views.
Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.
It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:
Extensive research was conducted by the Jawa Report to determine the source of smears directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Those smears included false allegations that she belonged to a secessionist political party and that she has radical anti-American views.
Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.
It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:
- Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.
- The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.
- Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.
- Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.
- The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.
This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod's firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as "astroturfing." - David Axelrod is Barack Obama's chief media strategist.
- The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.
Also blogging on this breaking story: Little Green Footballs, Michelle Malkin, Dan Riehl, Ace of Spades and Patterico. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: Muir is on the job
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Farewell to Yankee Stadium
It's hard to believe that tonight is the end for "The House that Ruth Built". I almost forgot about it, but luckily I was channel surfing after the gigantic Eagles and Phillies wins, and caught the tail end of the final tribute. As they usually do, the Yankees did a first class job. They brought in such former stars as Yogi Berra, Don Larson, Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Paul O'Neill, and Willie Randolph. Don Larson the only man in history to pitch a perfect game in a World Series, actually reached down, grabbed some dirt from the mound, placed it in a plastic bag and put it in his pocket.
It gave me chills when they brought out the Babe's daughter to throw out the first and "final" pitch. She was accompanied by her son, who is of course the Babe's grandson. It was decided that since the first home run hit in the Stadium was by a Ruth, then the last pitch thrown would be by a Ruth.
I was introduced to the Yankee dynasty by my maternal grandfather who was the world's biggest Joe DiMaggio fan. He loved the Yankees in part because of the large number of Italian - American stars who played for them back in the day. The Yankees of that time were worshipped by Italian immigrants as the team gave them a feeling of pride and a sense of belonging in their new country.
While I am a Phillies fan and not a Yankees fan, I always felt a sort of kinship with them because of my grandfather. For example, I once saw Joe DiMaggio in person at a parade on the Ocean City boardwalk in the early 1980s. I felt a sense of awe in being in the presence of the great Yankee Clipper, and in that moment when he rode by a few feet away in his car, I felt as if my grandfather was alive again.
Somewhere the Babe, the Iron Horse, and the Yankee Clipper are smiling tonight. I was fortunate to have made one trip to the Stadium in 1997 with my wife, who was pregnant at the time with our only son. I remember looking at first base and thinking that Lou Gehrig actually played in that very spot on that field. I gazed to center and imagined DiMaggio running like a gazelle. I then looked to right and was overwhlemed thinking that the Babe once patrolled there. The highlight of course was seeing the monuments in the outfield, a veritable baseball heaven.
Love them or hate them, there is no dispute that the Yankee dynasty is impressive. Their 26 World Championships are evidence of their sustained excellence. Their story though is not unique, it is quite simply the story of American exceptionalism. It is a microcosm of what sets us apart from the rest of the world and always will.
It gave me chills when they brought out the Babe's daughter to throw out the first and "final" pitch. She was accompanied by her son, who is of course the Babe's grandson. It was decided that since the first home run hit in the Stadium was by a Ruth, then the last pitch thrown would be by a Ruth.
I was introduced to the Yankee dynasty by my maternal grandfather who was the world's biggest Joe DiMaggio fan. He loved the Yankees in part because of the large number of Italian - American stars who played for them back in the day. The Yankees of that time were worshipped by Italian immigrants as the team gave them a feeling of pride and a sense of belonging in their new country.
While I am a Phillies fan and not a Yankees fan, I always felt a sort of kinship with them because of my grandfather. For example, I once saw Joe DiMaggio in person at a parade on the Ocean City boardwalk in the early 1980s. I felt a sense of awe in being in the presence of the great Yankee Clipper, and in that moment when he rode by a few feet away in his car, I felt as if my grandfather was alive again.
Somewhere the Babe, the Iron Horse, and the Yankee Clipper are smiling tonight. I was fortunate to have made one trip to the Stadium in 1997 with my wife, who was pregnant at the time with our only son. I remember looking at first base and thinking that Lou Gehrig actually played in that very spot on that field. I gazed to center and imagined DiMaggio running like a gazelle. I then looked to right and was overwhlemed thinking that the Babe once patrolled there. The highlight of course was seeing the monuments in the outfield, a veritable baseball heaven.
Love them or hate them, there is no dispute that the Yankee dynasty is impressive. Their 26 World Championships are evidence of their sustained excellence. Their story though is not unique, it is quite simply the story of American exceptionalism. It is a microcosm of what sets us apart from the rest of the world and always will.
A Reformer's Tale, Part I
I tried to do for a county in New York what Sarah Palin did for the state of Alaska. She succeeded where I failed. In a nutshell, that is the key reason I admire her politically. Throw in her affirmation of the value of the life of her son Trig, as my own mother and father did with the life of my Down Syndrome brother Ralph (and the world is a better place for them having done so), and you will know why I admire her so very much personally. It is my sense that the magnitude of her accomplishment politically is significantly under-appreciated, not least of all by the curmudgeonly conservatives who have been so reluctant to embrace her. I think the unhinged Left doesn't care a whit about her reform credentials, and are threatened by her as a living, breathing embodiment of a person for whom "pro life" isn't a political designation, but a philosophy of life. As I say about my mom, she was pro life before being pro life was uncool.
Back to politics: I want to review my own (mercifully brief) experience in politics in an attempt to convey what some fellow reformers and I were up against in a small rural county in upstate New York. I first ran for the office of County Legislator in 2001. It was viewed by most as a bold and stupid move, as I was taking on a popular incumbent who had served since the position was created in the mid-'70s. However, a close friend had begun paying attention to the legislature, as it affected him in his business as a builder. He wanted to run (and he too was running against a popular incumbent) and recruited me to join him on the GOP slate. This was all new to me, and I hit the internet, reading whatever I could that I thought might help me run a campaign (I didn't get much help from the party). In addition to tactical advice, I poured over county financial data available through the New York State Comptroller's Office. I hit upon a way to present the data in just a few bar graphs, showing that per capita spending in our county was substantially higher than it was in bordering counties, as well as in counties of comparable size. I did the door-to-door campaigning thing, becoming intimately familiar with street names, presenting my graphs to the voters, and thoroughly enjoying the experience - I thought it was a neat way to meet a lot of neighbors I otherwise would never have known. It was cool swapping stories, discussing issues, and just jawing with the voters. (It wasn't all sweetness and light, but that can wait.) I could really feel the momentum building, and I thought that maybe the naysayers would be in for a big surprise. The voters really responded to my appeal to them.
Now, I want to be careful about how I say this, as I don't want to create the impression, in any way, that events of 9/11 are any more important to me than for any other citizen of this country because of what I am about to say: I truly believe that I lost a very close election in no small part because I lost a couple of weeks of campaigning in the wake of that horrific event. Whether right or wrong in that analysis, it doesn't change the fact that I lost, by about 30 votes (about 2,000 were cast, I think). I came much closer than anyone thought I could have. One of the things I showed voters was my prediction of the size of the coming tax increase (it wasn't hard: I simply saw that they drained the reserve fund in order not to have a tax increase in an election year, used the data to predict the budget for 2002, and realized that the tax levy would have to be increased by 28% to cover costs). Our opponents put out an infamous document the day before the 2001 election, warning voters not to fall for "Chicken Little" politics - the sky wasn't falling and the tax increase wasn't going to be nearly as bad as we were predicting. I might have lost that election, but when the inevitable occurred, and Chicken Little was proved right, it made the 2003 campaign a heck of a lot easier. The incumbent I ran against announced his retirement, as did a couple of other long-serving incumbents, and the Republican party took control of the legislature for the first time in many years. We had laid the groundwork for the landslide to come.
Before we get to 2003 and my time in office, though, let me briefly review the 2001-2003 term. The friend who talked me into running won his race in 2001, but he was one of only two reform Republicans elected. The GOP incumbents who were reelected ranged from clueless to passive. My friend didn't get into this for the health insurance bennies or the status (such as it was); he entered politics to make a difference, to do something about the rising cost of the government and the declining standard of living in our county. He would often vent when we would talk at school or church, but rarely as much as he would during our weekly racquetball match, which included two other friends. He would hit the ball with an anger born of frustration at the way things were, and at the inability to make anything positive happen. He would sometimes be so out of sorts that he had trouble concentrating on playing the game. He had no support from his own caucus, and he had to butt heads with the entrenched Democrats and bureaucrats who made effecting change one step short of miraculous. I realized I had better run again, and win, if just for his sanity. As it turns out, we won 14 of 19 seats, with 7 reform-minded Republicans joining seven passive Republicans and some new Democrats who, at least initially, worked hard to make things right.
The elephant in the GOP caucus room, which my friend had reminded me about over and over during his first term in office, was the Treasurer. He was a senior member of the GOP (he was the campaign director, but not much help to me, in 2001) and had the full support of the party leaders. However, his performance as Treasurer was abysmal, from his lack of basic accounting skills (no financial background is needed to be elected Treasurer in Cortland County, and he had none) to his lack of accountability. Several formal warnings from the Albany state government demanding mandatory fiscal data that had not been submitted went unaddressed. Our ability to reform the county government without trustworthy financial information, we knew, would be crippled. He did not discipline underperforming employees in his office. He did not attend Budget & Finance Committee meetings. He did not provide monthly financial data to the legislature. He was the face of GOP incompetence, and we knew we would have to deal with him. We also knew that this would be difficult, given that he was a member of our party, and that the 6 or 7 passive Republicans were not going to join us in fighting to make things right.
This is how we embarked on our journey to make the county government accountable to the voters, fiscally sound, and transparent in its operations: with a major obstacle in our path that had Sacred Cow status with the party elders. Sarah Palin must have felt the same way we did early on, when she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She realized early on that there were ethical problems with Republican officials on the Commission and in the state, and did not back off from making her concerns public. In the end, she forced the resignations of two high-ranking GOP officials, with one paying a hefty fine as well. Rather than being dragged down politically, she went on to bigger and better things.
In a future post, I will relate how we tried to play with the hand we were dealt. We didn't fail for a lack of energy, resolve, and willingness to work. We failed because we were opposed by the party apparatus, legislators who offered neither support nor a viable alternative, a lazy and often malicious press, and some double-dealing Democrats. We didn't fail without a fight, and having put my reputation as a physician in a small town on the line, I didn't take it lying down. I will talk about the progress we made but our ultimate failure to get things done. As I have said, Sarah Palin succeeded where I failed, and I regard the failure to appreciate her success as a shortcoming on the part of the David Frums, Charles Krauhammers, and Heather MacDonalds of the world. As I tell more about my own experience, I hope that the political skill she must have brought to bear will become evident. Stay tuned.
Back to politics: I want to review my own (mercifully brief) experience in politics in an attempt to convey what some fellow reformers and I were up against in a small rural county in upstate New York. I first ran for the office of County Legislator in 2001. It was viewed by most as a bold and stupid move, as I was taking on a popular incumbent who had served since the position was created in the mid-'70s. However, a close friend had begun paying attention to the legislature, as it affected him in his business as a builder. He wanted to run (and he too was running against a popular incumbent) and recruited me to join him on the GOP slate. This was all new to me, and I hit the internet, reading whatever I could that I thought might help me run a campaign (I didn't get much help from the party). In addition to tactical advice, I poured over county financial data available through the New York State Comptroller's Office. I hit upon a way to present the data in just a few bar graphs, showing that per capita spending in our county was substantially higher than it was in bordering counties, as well as in counties of comparable size. I did the door-to-door campaigning thing, becoming intimately familiar with street names, presenting my graphs to the voters, and thoroughly enjoying the experience - I thought it was a neat way to meet a lot of neighbors I otherwise would never have known. It was cool swapping stories, discussing issues, and just jawing with the voters. (It wasn't all sweetness and light, but that can wait.) I could really feel the momentum building, and I thought that maybe the naysayers would be in for a big surprise. The voters really responded to my appeal to them.
Now, I want to be careful about how I say this, as I don't want to create the impression, in any way, that events of 9/11 are any more important to me than for any other citizen of this country because of what I am about to say: I truly believe that I lost a very close election in no small part because I lost a couple of weeks of campaigning in the wake of that horrific event. Whether right or wrong in that analysis, it doesn't change the fact that I lost, by about 30 votes (about 2,000 were cast, I think). I came much closer than anyone thought I could have. One of the things I showed voters was my prediction of the size of the coming tax increase (it wasn't hard: I simply saw that they drained the reserve fund in order not to have a tax increase in an election year, used the data to predict the budget for 2002, and realized that the tax levy would have to be increased by 28% to cover costs). Our opponents put out an infamous document the day before the 2001 election, warning voters not to fall for "Chicken Little" politics - the sky wasn't falling and the tax increase wasn't going to be nearly as bad as we were predicting. I might have lost that election, but when the inevitable occurred, and Chicken Little was proved right, it made the 2003 campaign a heck of a lot easier. The incumbent I ran against announced his retirement, as did a couple of other long-serving incumbents, and the Republican party took control of the legislature for the first time in many years. We had laid the groundwork for the landslide to come.
Before we get to 2003 and my time in office, though, let me briefly review the 2001-2003 term. The friend who talked me into running won his race in 2001, but he was one of only two reform Republicans elected. The GOP incumbents who were reelected ranged from clueless to passive. My friend didn't get into this for the health insurance bennies or the status (such as it was); he entered politics to make a difference, to do something about the rising cost of the government and the declining standard of living in our county. He would often vent when we would talk at school or church, but rarely as much as he would during our weekly racquetball match, which included two other friends. He would hit the ball with an anger born of frustration at the way things were, and at the inability to make anything positive happen. He would sometimes be so out of sorts that he had trouble concentrating on playing the game. He had no support from his own caucus, and he had to butt heads with the entrenched Democrats and bureaucrats who made effecting change one step short of miraculous. I realized I had better run again, and win, if just for his sanity. As it turns out, we won 14 of 19 seats, with 7 reform-minded Republicans joining seven passive Republicans and some new Democrats who, at least initially, worked hard to make things right.
The elephant in the GOP caucus room, which my friend had reminded me about over and over during his first term in office, was the Treasurer. He was a senior member of the GOP (he was the campaign director, but not much help to me, in 2001) and had the full support of the party leaders. However, his performance as Treasurer was abysmal, from his lack of basic accounting skills (no financial background is needed to be elected Treasurer in Cortland County, and he had none) to his lack of accountability. Several formal warnings from the Albany state government demanding mandatory fiscal data that had not been submitted went unaddressed. Our ability to reform the county government without trustworthy financial information, we knew, would be crippled. He did not discipline underperforming employees in his office. He did not attend Budget & Finance Committee meetings. He did not provide monthly financial data to the legislature. He was the face of GOP incompetence, and we knew we would have to deal with him. We also knew that this would be difficult, given that he was a member of our party, and that the 6 or 7 passive Republicans were not going to join us in fighting to make things right.
This is how we embarked on our journey to make the county government accountable to the voters, fiscally sound, and transparent in its operations: with a major obstacle in our path that had Sacred Cow status with the party elders. Sarah Palin must have felt the same way we did early on, when she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She realized early on that there were ethical problems with Republican officials on the Commission and in the state, and did not back off from making her concerns public. In the end, she forced the resignations of two high-ranking GOP officials, with one paying a hefty fine as well. Rather than being dragged down politically, she went on to bigger and better things.
In a future post, I will relate how we tried to play with the hand we were dealt. We didn't fail for a lack of energy, resolve, and willingness to work. We failed because we were opposed by the party apparatus, legislators who offered neither support nor a viable alternative, a lazy and often malicious press, and some double-dealing Democrats. We didn't fail without a fight, and having put my reputation as a physician in a small town on the line, I didn't take it lying down. I will talk about the progress we made but our ultimate failure to get things done. As I have said, Sarah Palin succeeded where I failed, and I regard the failure to appreciate her success as a shortcoming on the part of the David Frums, Charles Krauhammers, and Heather MacDonalds of the world. As I tell more about my own experience, I hope that the political skill she must have brought to bear will become evident. Stay tuned.
The Sunshine State Loves Sarah!
Wow! She drew a crowd of 60,000 in The Villages, north of Orlando:
Republicans can always draw good crowds out at the sprawling Villages -- exactly a year ago I saw Fred Thompson thronged like a matinee idol there -- but the Florida GOP is saying tonight that Palin's crowd broke state attendance records. At the very least, it outpaced the 15,000 President Bush drew to the retirement community four years ago.
To reiterate: An Alaska governor who was virtually unknown a month ago and is the number two on the presidential ticket may have doubled or tripled the crowd for a sitting president. (emphasis mine)
In related news, Mom tells me Media, PA is preparing for at least 20,000 at tomorrow's scheduled rally. But the really, really great news is...the Eagles won! Just kidding, Cuda. These numbers you're racking up are doing my heart good; now if I could just stop poll-watching, maybe I can get through this election season with all of my mental faculties intact! And I thought 2004 was bad!
UPDATE: Click to watch. Talk about an enthusiastic gathering! Listen to the cheers when she introduces her family, especially Trig and Todd. :)
Republicans can always draw good crowds out at the sprawling Villages -- exactly a year ago I saw Fred Thompson thronged like a matinee idol there -- but the Florida GOP is saying tonight that Palin's crowd broke state attendance records. At the very least, it outpaced the 15,000 President Bush drew to the retirement community four years ago.
To reiterate: An Alaska governor who was virtually unknown a month ago and is the number two on the presidential ticket may have doubled or tripled the crowd for a sitting president. (emphasis mine)
In related news, Mom tells me Media, PA is preparing for at least 20,000 at tomorrow's scheduled rally. But the really, really great news is...the Eagles won! Just kidding, Cuda. These numbers you're racking up are doing my heart good; now if I could just stop poll-watching, maybe I can get through this election season with all of my mental faculties intact! And I thought 2004 was bad!
UPDATE: Click to watch. Talk about an enthusiastic gathering! Listen to the cheers when she introduces her family, especially Trig and Todd. :)
Top Ten Reasons To Vote Republican This Year
10. This isn't Russia, is this Russia, Danny?
9. It would really piss off the Dixie Chicks, Babs Streisand, Geroge Clooney, et al.
8. It helps to have a President who can walk and chew gum without a teleprompter.
7. Sarah looks a helluva lot better in a bikini than Joe Biden (or Barney Frank for that matter).
6. Everywhere socialism has been tried, it has been an abject failure (see Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany).
5. It's much better to have a President who did time in the Hanoi Hilton, rather than one who hangs with the likes of Paris Hilton.
4. Socialized medicine will kill more people than Stalin's five year plans.
3. Putin is licking his chops at the thought of a tasty morsel like Obama.
2. We absolutely need energy independence.
1. Civilization itself is at stake in the global war on terror (WW IV) and we absolutely cannot afford to lose.
9. It would really piss off the Dixie Chicks, Babs Streisand, Geroge Clooney, et al.
8. It helps to have a President who can walk and chew gum without a teleprompter.
7. Sarah looks a helluva lot better in a bikini than Joe Biden (or Barney Frank for that matter).
6. Everywhere socialism has been tried, it has been an abject failure (see Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany).
5. It's much better to have a President who did time in the Hanoi Hilton, rather than one who hangs with the likes of Paris Hilton.
4. Socialized medicine will kill more people than Stalin's five year plans.
3. Putin is licking his chops at the thought of a tasty morsel like Obama.
2. We absolutely need energy independence.
1. Civilization itself is at stake in the global war on terror (WW IV) and we absolutely cannot afford to lose.
Back in Iraq
Via Allah at Hot Air, if this doesn't fill you with pride for America, nothing ever will. Keep in mind, this is a New York Times reporter drawing a stark contrast between the Iraq of 2006 and its present-day incarnation. The transformation is miraculous --a testament to the power of tenacity in the face of virulent opposition, unshakeable faith in a noble mission against formidable odds and an unwavering commitment to the cause of freedom, no matter the cost:
Two years ago, when I last stayed in Baghdad, Karada Mariam was like the whole of the city: shuttered, shattered, broken and dead.
Abu Nawas Park — I didn’t recognize that, either. By the time I had left the country in August 2006, the two-mile stretch of riverside park was a grim, spooky, deserted place, a symbol for the dying city that Baghdad had become.
These days, the same park is filled with people: families with children, women in jeans, women walking alone. Even the nighttime, when Iraqis used to cower inside their homes, no longer scares them. I can hear their laughter wafting from the park. At sundown the other day, I had to weave my way through perhaps 2,000 people. It was an astonishing, beautiful scene — impossible, incomprehensible, only months ago.
When I left Baghdad two years ago, the nation’s social fabric seemed too shredded to ever come together again. The very worst had lost its power to shock. To return now is to be jarred in the oddest way possible: by the normal, by the pleasant, even by hope. The questions are jarring, too. Is it really different now? Is this something like peace or victory? And, if so, for whom: the Americans or the Iraqis?
There are plenty of reasons why this peace may only amount to a cease-fire, fragile and reversible. The “surge” of American troops is over. The Iraqis are moving to take their country back, yet they wonder what might happen when the Americans’ restraining presence is gone. The Awakening, a poetic name for paying former Sunni insurgents not to kill Americans or Iraqis, could fall apart, just as the Shiite Mahdi Army could reanimate itself as quickly as it disappeared. Politics in Iraq remains frozen in sectarian stalemate; the country’s leaders cannot even agree to set a date for provincial elections, which might hand power to groups that never had it before. The mountain of oil money, piled ever higher by record oil prices, may become another reason to spill blood.
But if this is not peace, it is not war, either — at least not the war I knew. When I left Iraq in the summer of 2006, after living three and a half years here following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, I believed that evil had triumphed, and that it would be many years before it might be stopped. Iraq, filled with so many people living so close together, nurturing dark and unknowable grievances, seemed destined for a ghastly unraveling.
And now, in the late summer of 2008, comes the calm. Violence has dropped by as much as 90 percent. A handful of the five million Iraqis who fled their homes — one-sixth of all Iraqis — are beginning to return. The mornings, once punctuated by the sounds of exploding bombs, are still. Is it possible that the rage, the thirst for revenge, the sectarian furies, have begun to fade? That Iraqis have been exhausted and frightened by what they have seen?
“We are normal people, ordinary people, like people everywhere,” Aziz al-Saiedi said to me the other day, as we sat on a park bench in Sadr City, only recently freed from the grip of the Mahdi Army. The park was just a small patch of bare ground with a couple of swing sets; it didn’t even have a name, yet it was filled to the bursting. “We want what everyone else wants in this world,” he said.
Read the whole thing. Then credit George W. Bush and John McCain for refusing to buckle to political pressure and demonstrating that true statesmenship involves a willingness to incite irrational hatred from those who stand to benefit the most. While America's elites rest comfortably in their ivory towers, true patriots both in Washington and on the battlefield quietly do the right thing, even if it means loss of life and limb. God bless them all.
Two years ago, when I last stayed in Baghdad, Karada Mariam was like the whole of the city: shuttered, shattered, broken and dead.
Abu Nawas Park — I didn’t recognize that, either. By the time I had left the country in August 2006, the two-mile stretch of riverside park was a grim, spooky, deserted place, a symbol for the dying city that Baghdad had become.
These days, the same park is filled with people: families with children, women in jeans, women walking alone. Even the nighttime, when Iraqis used to cower inside their homes, no longer scares them. I can hear their laughter wafting from the park. At sundown the other day, I had to weave my way through perhaps 2,000 people. It was an astonishing, beautiful scene — impossible, incomprehensible, only months ago.
When I left Baghdad two years ago, the nation’s social fabric seemed too shredded to ever come together again. The very worst had lost its power to shock. To return now is to be jarred in the oddest way possible: by the normal, by the pleasant, even by hope. The questions are jarring, too. Is it really different now? Is this something like peace or victory? And, if so, for whom: the Americans or the Iraqis?
There are plenty of reasons why this peace may only amount to a cease-fire, fragile and reversible. The “surge” of American troops is over. The Iraqis are moving to take their country back, yet they wonder what might happen when the Americans’ restraining presence is gone. The Awakening, a poetic name for paying former Sunni insurgents not to kill Americans or Iraqis, could fall apart, just as the Shiite Mahdi Army could reanimate itself as quickly as it disappeared. Politics in Iraq remains frozen in sectarian stalemate; the country’s leaders cannot even agree to set a date for provincial elections, which might hand power to groups that never had it before. The mountain of oil money, piled ever higher by record oil prices, may become another reason to spill blood.
But if this is not peace, it is not war, either — at least not the war I knew. When I left Iraq in the summer of 2006, after living three and a half years here following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, I believed that evil had triumphed, and that it would be many years before it might be stopped. Iraq, filled with so many people living so close together, nurturing dark and unknowable grievances, seemed destined for a ghastly unraveling.
And now, in the late summer of 2008, comes the calm. Violence has dropped by as much as 90 percent. A handful of the five million Iraqis who fled their homes — one-sixth of all Iraqis — are beginning to return. The mornings, once punctuated by the sounds of exploding bombs, are still. Is it possible that the rage, the thirst for revenge, the sectarian furies, have begun to fade? That Iraqis have been exhausted and frightened by what they have seen?
“We are normal people, ordinary people, like people everywhere,” Aziz al-Saiedi said to me the other day, as we sat on a park bench in Sadr City, only recently freed from the grip of the Mahdi Army. The park was just a small patch of bare ground with a couple of swing sets; it didn’t even have a name, yet it was filled to the bursting. “We want what everyone else wants in this world,” he said.
Read the whole thing. Then credit George W. Bush and John McCain for refusing to buckle to political pressure and demonstrating that true statesmenship involves a willingness to incite irrational hatred from those who stand to benefit the most. While America's elites rest comfortably in their ivory towers, true patriots both in Washington and on the battlefield quietly do the right thing, even if it means loss of life and limb. God bless them all.
Gutfeld on Sandra Bernhard on Sarah Palin
He wraps his thoughts in humor, but in laughter is truth:
But what you're really seeing, once again, is the amazing effect Palin has on the fragile minds of the C-list celebrity. It's as though Palin's success is a dog whistle that only unhappy has-beens like Sandra can hear. And it unhinges them completely. It would be funny if the responses were funny. But they're not. They're just vicious.
So where, again, does this hatred come from? A lot of it, simply, is envy. Perhaps Sandra realizes, sadly, that if we were to poll a group of rapists, they'd prefer Palin over her. But then again, they'd probably prefer a donkey, a blowfish, or maybe even a small discarded sponge dipped in lye. It's why she only does one-woman shows. No one else can stand to be near her.
Of course, Sandra's words are just another example of the rich intolerance only the tolerant left can muster. For more of it, check out how reporters are handling Palin's hacked emails. The media thinks the real story is about her use of a private email account - as opposed to her actual privacy being invaded. This cowardly garbage, mind you, comes from the same folks who decry Bush's imaginary infringements on our own personal liberties.
Keystone State Showdown
And I'm not talking about November 4 (though PA is definitely in contention)! I'm talkin' fitball! Go Eagles!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Our Sister Sarah
Ralph Peters explains the Palin phenomenon to befuddled Ivy Leaguers:
The opinion-maker elites see Sarah Palin clearly every time they look up from another sneering article in The New Yorker: She's a country-bumpkin chumpette from a hick state with low latte availability. She's not one of them and never will be. That's the real disqualifier in this race.
Now let me tell you what those postmodern bigots with their multiple vacation homes and their disappointing trust-fund kids don't see:
Sarah Palin's one of us. She actually represents the American people. (emphasis mine).
When The New York Times, CNN, the NBC basket of basket cases and all the barking blog dogs insult Palin, they're insulting us. When they smear her, they're smearing every American who actually works for a living, who doesn't expect a handout, who doesn't have a full-time accountant to parse the family taxes, who believes in the Pledge of Allegiance and who thinks a church is more than just a tedious stop on daughter Emily's 100K wedding day.
Go ahead, faux feminists and Hollywood deep thinkers: Snicker at Sarah America's degree from the University of Idaho, but remember that most Americans didn't attend Harvard or Princeton as a legacy after daddy donated enough to buy his kid's way in.
Go ahead, campaign strategists: Mock Americans who go to church and actually pray. But you might want to run the Census numbers first.
Peters also makes another interesting point I've not read anywhere else:
For the first time since Ronald Reagan, our last great president, we, the people, see a chance that one of us might have a voice in governing our country.
Speaking of Reagan (Eureka College, Illinois), every chief executive we've had since the Gipper snapped his final salute as president has had the imprimatur of an Ivy League university. And we've gone from bad to worse:
* George Herbert Walker Bush: Yale.
* William Jefferson Clinton: Georgetown, Oxford, Yale Law.
* George W. Bush: Yale and Harvard Business School.
The first lacked the sense to finish the job in Desert Storm; the second lacked the guts to go after al Qaeda when it was just a startup - and the third, well, let's just say he disappointed our low expectations.
Now we have the Ivy League elite's "he's not only like us but he's a minority and we're so wonderful to support him" candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (Columbia and Harvard Law).
Our country can't afford another one of these clowns. Harvard isn't the answer - Harvard's the problem.
Indeed. Power to the People, baby!
The opinion-maker elites see Sarah Palin clearly every time they look up from another sneering article in The New Yorker: She's a country-bumpkin chumpette from a hick state with low latte availability. She's not one of them and never will be. That's the real disqualifier in this race.
Now let me tell you what those postmodern bigots with their multiple vacation homes and their disappointing trust-fund kids don't see:
Sarah Palin's one of us. She actually represents the American people. (emphasis mine).
When The New York Times, CNN, the NBC basket of basket cases and all the barking blog dogs insult Palin, they're insulting us. When they smear her, they're smearing every American who actually works for a living, who doesn't expect a handout, who doesn't have a full-time accountant to parse the family taxes, who believes in the Pledge of Allegiance and who thinks a church is more than just a tedious stop on daughter Emily's 100K wedding day.
Go ahead, faux feminists and Hollywood deep thinkers: Snicker at Sarah America's degree from the University of Idaho, but remember that most Americans didn't attend Harvard or Princeton as a legacy after daddy donated enough to buy his kid's way in.
Go ahead, campaign strategists: Mock Americans who go to church and actually pray. But you might want to run the Census numbers first.
Peters also makes another interesting point I've not read anywhere else:
For the first time since Ronald Reagan, our last great president, we, the people, see a chance that one of us might have a voice in governing our country.
Speaking of Reagan (Eureka College, Illinois), every chief executive we've had since the Gipper snapped his final salute as president has had the imprimatur of an Ivy League university. And we've gone from bad to worse:
* George Herbert Walker Bush: Yale.
* William Jefferson Clinton: Georgetown, Oxford, Yale Law.
* George W. Bush: Yale and Harvard Business School.
The first lacked the sense to finish the job in Desert Storm; the second lacked the guts to go after al Qaeda when it was just a startup - and the third, well, let's just say he disappointed our low expectations.
Now we have the Ivy League elite's "he's not only like us but he's a minority and we're so wonderful to support him" candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (Columbia and Harvard Law).
Our country can't afford another one of these clowns. Harvard isn't the answer - Harvard's the problem.
Indeed. Power to the People, baby!
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