Europe: Weak, No Conscience | Russia: Strong, No Conscience

So let's see, the sum of world action against Russia since it raped the tiny country of Georgia: U.S.: strong protests by the administration, several good suggestions on the way forward. Europe: deny any remedial action, deny even to decide on any action, but come up with a strong resolution to put off more discussion into the future.

As mentioned here before, Russia smashed Chechnya when they tried to break away. Now, they've smashed Georgia as Georgia tries to prevent its own breakaway republics from leaving. This isn't logic, it isn't isn't about principles, it's simply hegemony on the part of Russia.

Ralph Peters at the NY Post has an excellent article here.

He astutely points out the always-damned positioned of the U.S. - we're roundly criticized for "going it alone", but yet when we don't, we cannot get anything done or any action out of the putrid molasses that is the EU and The UN. Europe, as he says, has no conscience.


Quotes:

The Bush administration begged for a unified front against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's barbarism. Rejecting any penalties for Russia, the EU took the bold step of postponing talks on a trade deal.

As I'd predicted, the Europeans found the rape of Georgia an embarrassment, nothing more. The odious former German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, even took Russia's side. (Of course, Schroeder also took a highly paid job with Russian energy interests, so he may not have been entirely impartial.)

Back when the United States went ahead with the liberation of Iraq over protests from France and Germany - whose corporations made money off Saddam - Washington was damned for going it "alone." Now, as we try to build a consensus to respond to brutal aggression, the same countries want no part of it. (Financial interests are involved again - this time, it's gas, not oil.)

Together, the Euro-American democracies had the power to inflict serious economic and political pain on the Putin regime. But Europe lacks a conscience - and, without Europe, we lack the clout.

This is all going to end badly. Putin's feeling invincible now, and, just to keep in practice, he's gone back to killing journalists who criticize the czar. Last week saw the murder of two more Russian-citizen media figures.

Let's face it: We've got Islamist extremism on the defensive. That's one thing the Bush administration got right. The Muslim-terrorist problem will be with us to some degree for years to come, but it's not remotely as great a threat as a resurgent militarist Russia bristling with missiles and led by a reincarnation of Ivan the Terrible.

Also, click here to see more analysis of Russia's actions.

And more coverage of critical issues and events around the world, at The Pantheon Journal.

What Media Bias???

740 AM KCBS, here in the San Francisco area, had these 'important' news stories this morning...

Teaser: Tree protesters in Berkley, Protests in S.F. against recent violence, O.J Simpson trial

When they got to the news stories, they went in this order:

• O.J. Simpson trial getting underway (nothing really going on yet)
• Hurricane Ike
• Then if I remember correctly, Ike, Dow Jones up, ....

Think about that - on a news day with the Federal Government taking over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, no mention of it. Don't know why.

On a day when McCain has now surpassed Obama in many polls, no mention of it. In some polls, McCain came back from an 11-point deficit. This story didn't even make the first 5 news stories of the radio broadcast. For what reason would an editor leave that out of the top 5 stories at the top of the hour?

No bias there.

More on McCain passing Obama in the polls can be found here.

And more on media bias can always be found at The Pantheon Journal.

FEDS TAKE OVER FANNIE AND FREDDIE

All those years of profits, and massive pay packages to their CEO's, and it comes to this - we the people are buying trillions of dollars of mortgages. Or at least we're buying the companies that bought these things and then resold them.

It's very apparent now that these companies should be dismantled and made private - parceled out to the highest bidder. All this hassle is only saving us borrowers 7 basis points on our loans. That's 7/100ths of one percent. Read on...



from The WSJ:

In its most dramatic market intervention in years, the U.S. government seized two of the nation's largest financial companies, taking direct responsibility for firms that provide funding for around three-quarters of new home mortgages.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced plans Sunday to take control of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace the companies' chief executives.

With that, the U.S. mortgage crisis entered a new and uncharted phase, potentially saddling American taxpayers with billions of dollars in losses from home loans made by the private sector. Bush administration officials argued that the cost of doing nothing would be far greater because of the toll on the economy of falling home prices and defaults in the $11 trillion U.S. mortgage market.

These companies are, uh, were, public corporations that were started by the government, but not owned or operated by the government. Now apparently they are.

These companies were designed to make the mortgage market "liquid", by buying loans from the companies that originate them. These loans are then packaged and resold into other markets. The credit crunch began to occur when these markets suddenly stopped buying these mortgages because they stunk. To high heaven. From bad credit profiles of the people that were making the payments. And now a lot of those people are not making the payments - and you and I now own their loans.

Remember, the government has no money - they only have our money.

And regarding Freddie and Fannie - here is a very telling article from the WSJ.

These companies are huge and powerful, with congress in their pockets.

Their unique clout derives from a combination of liberal ideology and private profit. Fannie has been able to purchase political immunity for decades by disguising its vast profit-making machine in the cloak of "affordable housing." To be more precise, Fan and Fred have been protected by an alliance of Capitol Hill and Wall Street, of Barney Frank and Angelo Mozilo.

Freddie's accounting fiasco became public in 2003, while Fannie's accounting blew up in 2004. Mr. Raines was forced to resign, and a report by regulator James Lockhart discovered that Fannie had rigged its earnings in a way that allowed it to pay huge bonuses to Mr. Raines and other executives.

Or consider the experience of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the GOP's bright young lights who decided in the 1990s that Fan and Fred needed more supervision. As he held town hall meetings in his district, he soon noticed a man in a well-tailored suit hanging out amid the John Deere caps and street clothes. Mr. Ryan was being stalked by a Fannie lobbyist monitoring his every word.

Yet as studies have shown, about half of the implicit taxpayer subsidy for Fan and Fred is pocketed by shareholders and management. According to the Federal Reserve, the half that goes to homeowners adds up to a mere seven basis points on mortgages. In return for this, Fannie was able to pay no fewer than 21 of its executives more than $1 million in 2002, and in 2003 Mr. Raines pocketed more than $20 million. Fannie's left-wing defenders are underwriters of crony capitalism, not affordable housing.

The abiding lesson here is what happens when you combine private profit with government power. You create political monsters that are protected both by journalists on the left and pseudo-capitalists on Wall Street, by liberal Democrats and country-club Republicans. Even now, after all of their dishonesty and failure, Fannie and Freddie could emerge from this taxpayer rescue more powerful than ever. Campaigning to spare taxpayers from that result would represent genuine "change," not that either presidential candidate seems interested.

More at The Pantheon Journal.

THE McCAIN BOUNCE!!! POLL ROUNDUP...

And now, McCain gets the post-convention bounce, which I don't think many were expecting.

But in 3 major polls McCain is up 10, 4, and 3 percentage points.

USATODAY: 4-point lead. An 11-point turnaround!

"The Republicans had a very successful convention and, at least initially, the selection of Sarah Palin has made a big difference," says political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. "He's in a far better position than his people imagined he would be in at this point."

ZOGBY: 4-point lead

"Clearly, Palin is helping the McCain ticket. She has high favorability numbers, and has unified the Republican Party. The striking thing here in this poll is that McCain has pulled ahead among Catholics by double-digits."

GALLUP: 3-point lead

McCain's 48% share of the vote ties for his largest since Gallup tracking began in early March. He registered the same level of support in early May. This is also McCain's largest advantage over Obama since early May, when he led by as much as six percentage points. Obama has led McCain for most of the campaign, and for nearly all of the time since clinching the Democratic nomination in early June.

Lots more Pols and Polls here, at The Pantheon Journal.

OLBIE and MATTHEWS OUT as NEWS ANCHORS

The meltdowns at MSNBC have finally had some effect.

Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are being removed as news anchors for political coverage.

Full story here.

Olbermann is a clinical Bush-hater who should really seek counseling.

Matthews, after suffering sever mental health damage due to his service in the Carter administration, and known for his tingly leg experiences when Obama speaks, will finally be put back where he belongs - in an opinion role, which is all he's capable of.

Quotes:

MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign.


The move, confirmed by spokesmen for both networks, follows increasingly loud complaints about Olbermann's anchor role at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Olbermann, who regularly assails President Bush and GOP nominee John McCain on his "Countdown" program, was effusive in praising the acceptance speech of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He drew flak Thursday when the Republicans played a video that included a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that if the networks had done that, "we would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize."



Matthews, who has criticized politicians in both parties, drew less criticism for his convention role but became a divisive figure during the primaries when he described how he was inspired by Obama's speeches and made disparaging remarks about Hillary Clinton, for which he later apologized.

More coverage of the Bushbashers, here at The Pantheon Journal.

ZOGBY POLL: McCain-Palin UP 4% Over OBama-McCain

Pollster John Zogby: "Clearly, Palin is helping the McCain ticket. She has high favorability numbers, and has unified the Republican Party. The striking thing here in this poll is that McCain has pulled ahead among Catholics by double-digits. On the other hand, Palin is not helping with likely voting women who are not aligned with either political party. The undecided independent women voters decreased this week from 15% to 7%, but those women went to Obama. Palin is also helping among men, conservatives, notably with suburban and rural voters, and with frequent Wal-Mart shoppers, who tend to be "values" voters who like a good value for their money."

The Ticket Horserace	9-5/6	8-29/30
McCain-Palin	49.7%	47.1%
Obama-Biden	45.9%	44.6%
Others/Not sure	4.4%	8.3%

In the two-way contest in which just McCain and Obama were mentioned in the question, the result was slightly different, with McCain leading, 48.8% to 45.7%.

One-on-One Horserace	9-5/6
McCain	48.8%
Obama	45.7%
Others/Not sure	5.5%

In a Zogby Interactive survey conducted last weekend, just after the McCain announcement that Palin would join his ticket, McCain Palin won 47.1% support, while Obama/Biden won 44.6% support.

Full results can be found here.

A lot more politics here, at The Pantheon Journal.

Wild and Weird: Socotra Island, Yemen

This is a fun site, with a great feature on an exotic island.

[hat tip: LGF reader links]

Click on the images to make them larger.

They Should Ban Criminals From Having Guns

Why don't they just make it illegal for criminals to carry shotguns?
That way, they'd be safer when they burglarize places.

See this story here: Texas Man Kills Home Intruder With Intruder's Gun

Come to think of it, they should just make burglary illegal. Then the criminals would be much safer.

Site o' The Day

Very interesting site, courtesy of the RNC:

www.meetbarackobama.com



Here's one of the videos in the links:



A lot more Obamanatin' at The Pantheon Journal.

Palin Video from RNC Convention

Obama'a Appearance on Fox's O'Reilly

Very lively interview, and they're going to air later more segments.

I'm not a fan of Barack Obama, but you have to give him a lot of credit for going on this show. This really takes guts, because O'Reily will definitely get in your face and argue his points.

For me, it's great just to be able to get some real questions, and not the softball, warm and fuzzy, gee-there's-a-tingle-coming-up-my-leg kind of interviews the other networks do with Obama.

RANGEL ADMITS IT: Didn't Report $75,000 of Income

The poor Rep. from Harlem. All he has for a vacation getaway is this humble condo in the Domincan Republic:





... and though he rents it out all through the year, year after year, he has NEVER paid taxes on the income it generates. We used to care enough about this stuff that this would be enough to kick him out of congress, or at least he wouldn't have won his next election.

Democrat Rep. Charles Rangel is the Chairman of the Way and Means Committee. That makes him one of the most powerful people in the nation when it comes to determining tax law and how all those trillions will be spent.

This is why this story is so huge - the Democrat, who has now advanced a radical new increase in taxes, has not reported $75,000 in income from his villa.

Now, what do you think would happen to you or I if we didn't report $75k in income? Do you think the IRS would have a little problem with that? We'll see what happens to Rangel.

Rangel is one of the most divisive, partisan, and big-government Democrats that ever served in the House of Reps. Any time he opens his mouth about a conservative it's slime and slander.

One has to know, that if this were one of the most powerful Republicans going through this, it would be a 24/7 news cycle for a week on all the major networks. Yet, a Google search, as of today, on "rangel undeclared income" produced only the NY Post as the only recognizable media outlet, and it is not one of the majors.

This double-standard isn't just shocking - it's frightening. And it's one of the reasons that The Pantheon Journal exists. Larry King is not going to tell you about this stuff.

Click for the full Story from the NY Post, who broke this story.

Quotes:

Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel admitted that he earned more than $75,000 of undeclared income from a Dominican Republic villa, after The Post exposed his wrongdoing in an exclusive report Sunday.


Post investigation into Punta Cana found that the sun-drenched beach front "casita" 412 was regularly rented out for up to $1,100 a day, yet Rangel had said he received no income in 2006, 2007 and other years. In other years, he had declared rental income of up to $15,000. He now admits that over 20 years he made at least $75,000 in rental income that he didn't report.

Get more exposure here at The Pantheon Journal.

Jobless Rate Hits 6.1%, a 5-Year High

Finally, now the unemployment rate really is higher than the Clinton years.

7 years of the media incessantly ranting about how bad the economy is, and finally we really do get a slow down.

Though, we're not in a recession yet - that would have to be 2 sequential quarters of negative growth, or economic shrinkage.

Story at Yahoo...


Here's a good chart of unemployment rates:


You'd never know it by the headlines, but Bush unemployment numbers have the same exact average as the Clinton years.

Economist Alan Reynolds has an excellent piece here.

He notes that, whether Democrat or Republican, White House spokesmen often misrepresent facts and figures, making inappropriate comparisons to various other stats and time periods.

The Clinton years were only great after a Republican congress led the way in tax reduction and the Internet as an economic force took off. I think Clinton is best praised for what he didn't and couldn't do with the economy (i.e., take over healthcare, raise taxes uncontrollably) than what he did do. To Clinton's credit, he did at least sign the bills he was presented from a Republican congress.


Quotes From Reynold's Article:

Politics being what it is (a spectator sport), partisans can't resist attributing economic outcomes to the White House, rather than to the efforts of millions of business managers, workers and investors responding to incentives.

When calculating real incomes, however, nominal increases in wage and benefits are reduced by total inflation, including higher energy prices. This would seem to put the past four years at a big disadvantage, given the spike in energy prices. Yet it turns out that "wage growth" in the first Clinton term was nothing to brag about.

Even after including benefits, real compensation per hour fell by 0.5 percent in 1993, by 0.4 percent in 1994 and by another 0.3 percent in 1995. Real hourly wages and benefits increased by 1.2 percent a year from 2003 to 2006, but fell by 0.1 percent a year from 1993 to 1996.

The percentage of families below the poverty line was reduced from 12.3 percent in 1993 to 11 percent in 1996, which was progress of sorts. Yet fewer than 10 percent of families were poor from 2002 to 2005 (the latest available).

The economy during the Clinton years became much stronger after 1997, when Al Gore or Netscape invented the Internet and the president signed a cut in the capital gains tax.

More number crunchin', here at The Pantheon Journal.

Oprah Shows Her Leanings: NO PALIN ON MY SHOW!

Oprah will not have Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin on her show before the November elections. This is the same person that used her show as a launching pad for Obama and to widely make known her emphatic support for Obama. What bias????

From Drudge...

Obama's New Flag for The U.S.

At Death by 1,000 Papercuts, they have some suggestions for a new U.S. flag, should Obama ascend to the White House. You know, since he already has his own presidential seal and everything...


Here are the flag choices so far:

Krauthammer Not Sold on Palin Pick

Charles The Great Krauthammer has an article here at NRO, that deals with the issue of why the Palin pick has its bad sides as well.

Salient Quotes:

It’s clear that McCain picked her because he had decided that he needed a game-changer. But why? He’d closed the gap in the polls with Obama. True, that had more to do with Obama sagging than McCain gaining. But what’s the difference? You win either way.

Obama was sagging because of missteps that reflected the fundamental weakness of his candidacy. Which suggested McCain’s strategy: Make this a referendum on Obama, surely the least experienced, least qualified, least prepared presidential nominee in living memory.

Palin fatally undermines this entire line of attack. This is through no fault of her own. It is simply a function of her rookie status. The vice president’s only constitutional duty of any significance is to become president at a moment’s notice. Palin is not ready. Nor is Obama. But with Palin, the case against Obama evaporates.

McCain was giving up his home turf of readiness to challenge Obama on his home turf of change. Can that possibly be pulled off? The calculation was to choose demographics over thematics. Palin’s selection negates the theme of readiness. But she does bring important constituencies. She has the unique potential of energizing the base while at the same time appealing to independents.

The gamble is enormous. In a stroke, McCain gratuitously forfeited his most powerful argument against Obama. And this was even before Palin’s inevitable liabilities began to pile up.

McCain has one hope. It is suggested by the strength of Palin’s performance Wednesday night. In a year of compounding ironies, the McCain candidacy could be saved, and the Palin choice vindicated, by one thing: Palin does an Obama.

Obama showed that star power can trump the gravest of biographical liabilities. The sheer elegance, intelligence, and power of his public presence have muted the uneasy feeling about his unreadiness. Palin does not reach Obama’s mesmeric level. Her appeal is far more earthy, workmanlike, and direct. Yet she managed to banish a week’s worth of unfriendly media scrutiny and self-inflicted personal liabilities with a single triumphant speech.

I agree very much with Krauthammer's points. I do not agree that the choice of Palin "negates the theme of readiness" nor does it "fatally undermine" his case against Obama. McCain is not dead, and he's still at the top of the ticket. The other ticket has the least-prepared canididate at the top, and he's even less ready for office than Palin.

I think Krauthammer is also missing the point that McCain now has co-opted and even nearly stolen Obama's message of change by bringing onboard a now-popular change candidate in Palin. McCain can now preach this with conviction. So just maybe voters will believe both messages: McCain - ready to lead, and ready to change up things. I think it's doable.

And we can't forget that Obama put Biden - a 36-year insider - on the ticket of "change". So both tickets have mixed messages.

And perhaps many voters will take a bet that McCain won't pass away any time soon, and that Palin will have time to prepare for the weighty responsibility of the highest office in the land. Of course she's not totally ready now. But she will be. That's my bet.

Mo' betta' blues here at The Pantheon Journal.

McCain Speech Redux: The Quips and Quotes

More on McCain's speech...

Full text of the speech can be found here.

Video is here:



And now for some excellent quotes:

I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.

I fought for the right strategy and more troops in Iraq, when it wasn’t a popular thing to do. And when the pundits said my campaign was finished, I said I’d rather lose an election than see my country lose a war.

I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger.


Education is the civil rights issue of this century.

My fellow Americans, when I’m President, we’re going to embark on the most ambitious national project in decades. We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much. We will attack the problem on every front. We will produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells offshore, and we’ll drill them now. We will build more nuclear power plants. We will develop clean coal technology. We will increase the use of wind, tide, solar and natural gas. We will encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles

We face many threats in this dangerous world, but I'm not afraid of them. I'm prepared for them. I know how the military works, what it can do, what it can do better, and what it should not do. I know how the world works. I know the good and the evil in it. I know how to work with leaders who share our dreams of a freer, safer and more prosperous world, and how to stand up to those who don't. I know how to secure the peace.

When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house. A Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I rarely saw my father again for four years. My grandfather came home from that same war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day. In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home with me. I hate war. It is terrible beyond imagination.

I’m running for President to keep the country I love safe, and prevent other families from risking their loved ones in war as my family has.

They couldn’t set my bones properly, so they just slapped a cast on me. When I didn’t get better, and was down to about a hundred pounds, they put me in a cell with two other Americans. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even feed myself. They did it for me. I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence. Those men saved my life.

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.

I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

For analysis on McCain's speech, and lots more, visit The Pantheon Journal.

The Speech of His Life: McCain

What started as a rather run-of-the-mill speech, filled with platitudes and seemingly lacking in passion and conviction, became a roaring train, unstoppable, always building in power and momentum.

McCain accomplished the most important goal - that being to play to his strengths and establish himself as the go-to-guy for president, because he's ready.

He did this so well he barely even needed to contrast himself with Obama. Hardly a negative word was spoken of Obama. Contrasted to most other speeches we've heard by both sides throughout the years, this one was extremely gracious and positive. One of the many surprises of the speech.
The other pleasant surprises:
- the re-telling of his capture and experience as POW - parts of which I'd never heard. Very touching.
- actually showing and admitting to the bad side of being a 'maverick' - pride and smugness
- taking on Russia and Iran directly.

After the speech passed through the obligatory points of his competition, his family, his running mate, etc., it made great work of covering all of the most important topics - security, ideas to spur the economy, schools. McCain struck a perfect balance between specifics, ideals, and easily repeatable quips.

He made a perfect art form of poignantly telling his war story, and how that ties into his motivations to be president - love of country because of the sacrifice he'd seen by his fellow soldiers, and the recognition of serving a cause greater than oneself. Obama has to pretend that there are higher-minded ideals as the motivation for his seeking the office. What was his answer to the child who asked him why he was running? Something like, "Because America is not what it could be." But that's only half of an answer. Since it's him who is running, and not just anybody, it must be understood that he believes he's the one best suited to fix the problems, though he didn't say it. Obama has made a poor case regarding his motivation for running. McCain turned the story of his life into a heart-rending tale of heroism and love of country - not an easy thing to do in an age of cynicism.

I really can't stop musing about how positive and proscriptive was McCain's speech, and the lack of attacking his opponent. Obama has often leveled the charge that "they have no ideas, so all they can do is attack me." This speech certainly put that to rest, and after McCain's superior performance at the SaddleBack Church forum, I have every confidence McCain can articulate his ideas and plans better than Obama. McCain's positive and personal speech is in marked contrast to the Democratic kind of speech, whether it be Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. There's always an underpinning of "make them (be it the "rich" or oil companies or whomever) pay their fair share." Democrats always say that the federal government is not taking enough from somebody somewhere, and then they often end up implementing taxes that take away from everyone.

And it was very brave for McCain to own up to the Republican failures of the Republican-led congress under Bush. And fail they did in many ways. But McCain used this to his advantage - amazing job there. McCain has actually successfully co-opted Obama's message of change, and made it more palpable, achievable, and real.

Looking back now at Obama's speech vis-a-vis McCain's, Obama is clearly playing catch-up to McCain's statesmanship. Whereas Obama simply listed a few critical foreign policy issues, McCain spoke firmly and directly, showing he's not going to be weak. The perception here is that Obama speaks of what he hopes will be. McCain speaks of what he will do to bring about the world he envisions.

McCain needed to give the best speech of his life and he gave it. He showed poise and authority. Obama tried that as well, but many will see his attempt as mere rhetoric. Everything McCain said was believable, relevant, and founded on solid principles. Well done, sir.

I only hope this speech will be aired the night before the elections.


More keen insights here, at The Pantheon Journal

Gingrich Roasts MSNBC Automaton

Newt Gingrich totally fries a DNC-talking-point reporter on the Olbermann show.
[hat tip: Hot Air]




Right back at ya with your lame lib talking points!

Get more liberal-media spankin' at The Pantheon Journal.

Biden: If We Win, We'll Prosecute the Bush Administration

It appears the Dems would like to start a new trend - whoever wins the White House will pursue all possibilities of charging the preceding administration with crimes. That'd be a great precedent.

I do notice, however, that they only wanted to start doing this after the Clinton administration.

Our favorite, Joe Biden, with some pernicous quotes:

"We will not be stopped from pursuing any criminal offense that's occurred."

Leading democrats are "collecting data. They are subpoenaing records. They're building the file." Adding, "And we'll go through it with a fine-toothed comb."

"No attorney general, no president is above the law."

When the Anointed's sensibilities have been violated by the transgressions of their adversaries (conservatives), they don't just disagree. They impugn and prosecute.


Shamefully caught on camera:



And more here.

Get more at The Pantheon Journal.

IOWAHAWK: America Speaks Out

This guy is just way too funny.

See the story here.

Biden: Foreign Policy Master - Not!!!

UPDATE:
The incomparable Thomas Sowell has an article on this, found here.
Quotes:

A plain fact should be noted: No governor ever had foreign-policy experience before becoming president — not Ronald Reagan, not Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor any other governor.

Senator Joe Biden’s years of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is even further removed from foreign-policy experience. He has had a front-row seat as an observer of foreign policy. But Senator Biden has never had any real experience of making foreign policy and taking the consequences of the results.

The difference between being a spectator and being a participant, with responsibility for the consequences of what you say and do, is fundamental.

The fact that Senator Joe Biden has for years listened to all sorts of people testify on all sorts of foreign-policy issues tells us nothing about how well he understood the issues.

As for Senator Obama, his various pronouncements on foreign policy have been as immature as they have been presumptuous.

He talked publicly about taking military action against Pakistan, one of our few Islamic allies and a nation with nuclear weapons.

Barack Obama’s first response to the Russian invasion of Georgia was to urge “all sides” to negotiate a cease-fire and take their issues to the United Nations. That is standard liberal talk, which even Obama had second thoughts about, after Senator John McCain gave a more grown-up response.

I've already documented some of Dem VP pick Joe Biden's completely terrible foreign policy ideas, here and here. And much is going to be made of his vast "experience" in the coming weeks. So let's look at the Senator's record.

He's astoundingly wrong on the most important issues in foreign policy. Some highlights:

• Wanted to pull out of Iraq at a time that would mean sure and violent defeat
• Said the surge would fail and Petraeus was too optimistic
• Wanted to give Iran (creator and sustainer of major terrorist organizations) $200 million - days after 9/11 occurred
• Helped ensure defeat in Vietnam by cutting off funds
• Opposed all efforts to help our allies fight off Soviet communism
• Fierce opponent of missile defense

Chairman of the Dems, Howard Dean, has said that foreign policy is all about subtlety and nuance, and John Kerry echoed these sentiments.

As it turns out, having the correct philosophy and world view is much more important. And that must be coupled with courage and conviction. How can one account for that fact that one of Biden's first reactions to 9/11 was to give Iran $200 million, with no strings attached? Think of that - islamic terrorists killed thousands on our soil in harrowing attacks, and Biden's first response is that it must be our fault, so let's give a state sponsor of terrorism $200 million. Does he think they'd put the money into creating The Center for Understanding Those Great Americans We Love? I suppose $200 mil could buy a lot of enriched uranium, which the Iranians are no doubt seeking.

Ronald Reagan said his strategy for the Cold War was "We win, they lose." No other politician at that time would dare say that. It wasn't nuanced or subtle enough. And look at today - as Gov. Palin pointed out, Barack Obama has never spoken of victory in Iraq or Afghanistan. That is a very telling insight into Obama's philosphy and convictions - he doesn't believe American ideals are worth fighting or dying for, even when critical interests are at stake.

Today, Peter Wehner writes a piece in the WSJ: Biden Was Wrong On the Cold War
Salient quotes:

Decade after decade and on important issue after important issue, Mr. Biden's judgment has been deeply flawed.

Mr. Biden also advocated defense cuts so massive that both Edmund Muskie and Walter Mondale, both leading liberal Democrats at the time, opposed them.

Throughout his career, Mr. Biden has consistently opposed modernization of our strategic nuclear forces. He was a fierce opponent of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.

Mr. Biden opposed President Bush's troop surge in Iraq, calling it a "tragic mistake." It turned out to be quite the opposite. Without the surge, the Iraq war would have been lost, giving jihadists their most important victory ever.

On many of the most important and controversial issues of the last four decades, Mr. Biden has built a record based on bad assumptions, misguided analyses and flawed judgments. If he had his way, America would be significantly weaker, allies under siege would routinely be cut loose, and the enemies of the U.S. would be stronger.

More critical insights here at The Pantheon Journal.


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Rudy Giuliani's Awesome Speech

What a terrific speech by Giuliani at the Repub convention - much more exciting than anything we saw from the Democrats at their convention. He can even deliver his written speeches as if they were extemporaneous. Formidable politician...

View the speech here (requires RealPlayer).

Full speech text can be found here.


Salient Quotes:

So, our opponents want to reframe the debate. They would have you believe that this election is about change versus more of the same. But that's really a false choice. Because "change" is not a destination ... just as "hope" is not a strategy.

The Democratic Party had given up on Iraq. And I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that when they gave up on Iraq they were giving up on America. The Democratic leader in the Senate said so: "America has lost." Well, if America lost, who won? Al-Qaeda? Bin Laden? In the single biggest policy decision of this election, John McCain got it right, and Barack Obama got it wrong.

If Barack Obama had been president, there would have been no troop surge and our troops would have been withdrawn in defeat.

Obama was going to take public financing for his campaign, until he didn't. Obama was against wiretapping before he voted for it. When speaking to a pro-Israel group, Obama favored an undivided Jerusalem. Until the very next day when he changed his mind. I hope for his sake, Joe Biden got that VP thing in writing!

Later, after discussing it with his 300 foreign policy advisers, he changed his position and suggested that "the UN Security Council" could find a solution. Apparently, none of his 300 advisers told him that Russia has a veto on any U.N. action. Finally Obama put out a statement that looked ... well, it looked a lot like John McCain's.

Here's some free advice: Sen. Obama, next time just call John McCain.

More rich, tasty goodness @ The Pantheon Journal.

Quote of The Day

"As a right-winger, Palin will appeal to the narrow 59 percent of Americans who voted for another former small-market sportscaster: Ronald Reagan. "
- Ann Coulter

More here.

A Tale of Two Résumés

Excellent article at the Weekly Standard.

Interesting - I've never seen a political race where so much comparison was to be had between the the top of the ticket of one party and the bottom of the ticket of the other.

Obama's lack of accomplishments are sure to be a negative during the campaign season. I literally have not heard one concrete accomplishment he's had out of law school.

But this doesn't mean Obama is not intelligent and capable - quite the reverse. But what has he chosen to do with it?

Palin is in many ways just the opposite - not an incredible résumé, but an impressive list of accomplishments in the last 16 years.

Back to the article... Salient quotes:

WHAT STORY DOES Barack Obama's résumé tell? Obama became the head of the Harvard Law Review in 1990 and graduated Harvard Law magna cum laude in 1991. These accomplishments suggest great intelligence and strong interpersonal skills. They also suggest limitless potential.

So what did Obama choose to do with his limitless potential after leaving Harvard? Not much.

All readers of his résumé circa 1993 would ask what Obama accomplished at his serial vocations. And there the story gets grim. He didn't finish his book during the two years in question. He didn't pursue any scholarship at the University of Chicago, so his career there stalled at lecturer and never advanced to the professor level. And as is ever the case with something as nebulous as community organizing, pointing to tangible accomplishments would be impossible.

Similarly, Obama was a part time state legislator of minimal accomplishments. When Obama went to the United States Senate, he impressed his colleagues with his potential. But he again never attempted to tap that potential, beginning a run for president shortly after his arrival in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body.

And yet throughout her adult life Palin, again unlike Obama, overachieved. In 1992, she got elected to the Wasilla, AK city council. In 1996 she became mayor. She was by all accounts a very successful mayor. Her résumé entry for her mayoral years would have all sorts of bullet points for tangible accomplishments like reducing city property taxes by 40 percent. Similarly, Palin's time as governor has been distinguished. Both would starkly contrast with the various stops in Obama's career where he occasionally held impressive titles but accomplished little.

Two things would leap out from Sarah Palin's résumé--a pattern of overachievement and a pattern of actually getting things done. Two things would also leap out from Barack Obama's résumé--an undeniable wealth of talent and an equally undeniable dearth of accomplishments.

WOW!!! Palin Speech A Home Run

Barack Obama in his speech needed to hit a home run and didn't.

Governor Palin didn't need to and did - easily. Hockey Mom as Attack Dog - I love it!!!!

Sarah Palin brought it! The speech moved nicely from her family, her own political history, to her accomplishments as governor, to rousing support for John McCain, to attacking Obama's policies and messianic complex.

The most amazing thing was her poise. Excellent and calm speech delivery for the biggest speech of her life. Well done. My wife even started to get excited about it, which makes me think that Palin really will help win over lots of female votes.


Salient Quotes:

I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they're listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. (Cheers, applause.) No, we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

Now here's a little news flash for those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.

Now, I've noticed a pattern with our opponent, and maybe you have too. We've all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers, and there is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state senate. This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word "victory" -- except when he's talking about his own campaign.

My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery. This world of threats and dangers, it's not just a community and it doesn't just need an organizer.

Here is video of the speech from C-SPAN, for RealPlayer.


Full text of the speech can be found here.

Or watch it here:


And, as always, lots more news and opinions here at the Pantheon Journal.

The Enquirer To Allege Palin Had Affair

CBS reports on a feud between the McCain campaign and the National Enquirer. The Enquirer is going to release information that it says it dug up in the course of investigating the story of the troubled ex-brother-in-law of Sarah Palin - including charges that Palin had an affair.

CBS story here.

Drudge has a response from the Enquirer here.

The Enquirer site says the story is forthcoming.

Of course, there is one big difference between this story and the Edwards story - this story so far is simply hearsay, apparently from people who have an extreme grudge against Palin, and, in this case, the ex-bro-in-law looks a little dangerous to her family. The Edwards story was directly reported by the Enquirer with evidence and first-hand accounts. So far, this story is nothing but a false accusation...

Comparing A Political Pro to a Political Joke

Here are the main differences between Sarah Palin and Monty Python member Michael Palin.

As to whether or not Michael Palin's experience is similar to the top half of the Democratic presidential ticket, that question is above my paygrade.

(Click on the image below to make it bigger.)

Barry Has Two Daddies?

Barack Obama: Son of a black man from Kenya, and a white man from Kansas...
[hat tip: LGF]





Reminds me of how Jim Gaffigan says his father was from Sweden and his mother was Elton John.

McCain Team Fires Back on Palin

NRO's Byron York has an excellent article, Team McCain Hits Back on Palin, Vetting.

This bodes very well for Palin and her being chosen for the VP slot. The "Troopergate" issue could've been ugly - the alleged impropriety is that Palin fired a state police commissioner supposedly because he would not fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper in Alaska.

York got this information from a senior McCain strategist.

Salient quotes:

Palin, the strategist said, was subjected to a “complete vet.” “That included her filling out a 70-question questionnaire that was highly intrusive and personal. She was then interviewed for more than three hours by A.B. Culvahouse. There were multiple follow-up interviews.”

“There was a public records search and political vet. There was a private life and financial vet. Everything that has come out was known by the campaign through the vetting process.”

She was never a member of the independence party, because she has been a registered Republican.” (Later, the McCain camp put out a statement saying it had provided reporters with “ALL voter registration documentation” showing that Palin has been a registered Republican since 1982 and “has never been a member of the AIP.”)

From our conversation, it was clear that the McCain campaign paid a lot of attention to the so-called “Troopergate” issue.

“The man who was fired has said on the record that he was never pressured by the governor or the governor’s husband on the issue of firing Trooper Wooten. The governor had a vision for how she wanted that department to be run. The commissioner had a different vision.”

The source said, “Every aspect of her political record is known to us. These people [McCain’s opponents] are desperate.”

Update:
McCain site has this bio on Gov. Palin.

IBD has an editorial here, on Palin Firing Back.

And, McCain has a new ad:



More found here, at The Pantheon Journal.

What Media Bias???

From Drudge...
And from NewsBusters -good story found here.



















More fun found here, at The Pantheon Journal.

Almost the News...

This is just an excellent humor post at The Edwards Report.
[hat tip: LGF reader links]

Breaking - New Palin Scandal!
Impacting Hard

The political world was thrown into chaos Tuesday night as a possible devastating scandal involving Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and one of her children emerged. The New York Times is set to report in five front page articles on Wednesday morning that Piper, the Palin’s 6-year-old daughter, has been a very naughty girl, raising questions about Gov. Palin’s governing abilities. Among other shocking details, the Times is revealing that Piper once stayed up past bedtime and refused to eat her vegetables. Bernice Satanica, the head of Humorless Alliance for Grrls! (HAG), responded to the revelations by asking, “If she can’t get her 6-year-old to eat broccoli, can we really trust her to negotiate with Ahmadinejad? What kind of mother has ever had a child that disobeyed them?” Campbell Brown, a CNN anchor who also works as a spokesman for the Obama campaign, asked a McCain staffer about the damaging information during her most recent newscast. ”This makes one wonder if Palin was really vetted at all. Why didn’t the McCain campaign hire a private investigator to follow Piper around so they could have avoided this embarrassment from the start?” Campbell then went on to say that Gen. Petraeus was in charge of putting kids to bed, not parents, before turning things over to Anderson Cooper, who had just returned from a day of antique shopping and Appletinis with his girlfriend, Anita Beard.

McCain About to Fire Back on Palin

Updated story can be found here.

THE BOUNCE FOR OBAMA!!

Finally, The convention bounce shows up in the polls in the form of a good 8-point boost for Obama.

RCP has the data here.

Roundup: World Headlines

EU is Weak: Won't Even Put Pressure on Moscow for Crimes in Georgia
There seems to be absolutely no hope that the EU will even hint at standing up to Russia. Apparently, they'll take the hegemony with the supply of oil from Russia.

More on Russia: Brazen Murder of Editor of Muckraking News Site

Imagine the editor of your favorite web site/blog gets on a commercial flight. He's surprised to see the governor of his state on the same flight. After landing, the gov heads off in a motorcade. The editor, while friends wait for him at the airport, is whisked away in an official security vehicle of the country. A short time later, he shows up at a hospital, dead, with a single gunshot to the head. The government then calls this an "accident." Such is the state of Russia today.

'Cat 5 Disaster' in Upcoming Pakistan Elections.

But Mr. Zardari is a caricature of everything that's morally bankrupt with the country's Westernized elite, and thus an inviting propaganda target for al Qaeda and the Taliban. It doesn't help, either, that they are working fertile political soil: 71% of Pakistanis oppose cooperating with the U.S. in counterterrorism, and 51% oppose fighting the Taliban at all, according to a June poll.

China Still Experiencing Harrowing Earth Quakes, Buildings Still Collapsing



And, From Iraq: Victory in Anbar As U.S. Hands Over Control to Iraq

The world has since seen al Qaeda driven even from what the terrorists and many in the Western press had claimed were Sunni enclaves that welcomed the terrorist help against the American "occupation." The result has been the most significant military and ideological defeat for al Qaeda since the Taliban was driven from Kabul in 2001. In danger of being humiliated in Iraq in 2006, the U.S. has demonstrated that it has the national will to fight a longer war. The Sunni Arab world in particular has noticed -- and is now showing new respect for Iraq's Shiite government.

Here's a good link to the story of the handover of control.


Another Japanese Prime Minister Resigns Due to Government Deadlock

Imagine 4 presidents in 3 years.

Hindus Kill Christians in India

Not the peaceful side of Hinduism we often see here in the U.S.
There are now 7,000 refugees, dozens killed, and buildings burned to the ground.
So much for tolerance and inclusion.

Obama: Running a Campaign is Better than Being Gov

Barack Obama suggested on CNN that running a big campaign is better executive experience than being a Governor of a state.

Barack Obama defended his experience in dealing with natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, and took a swipe at newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

In an interview on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night, Obama was asked about whether his experience in the U.S. Senate dealing with weather-related situations compares to Palin’s executive experience running the state of Alaska and as the small town mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina.”

Notice that Obama uses the figures from when Palin was mayor of a small town, not a governor.

It would seem embarrassing to even be having a discussion of experience on this level - campaigning vs. small-town mayorship.

Introducing Google Chrome, The New Web Browser

UPDATE: It's official, and released. Click here to download for Windows.

The browser incorporates Apple and FireFox technologies and will be open source.

Lots more info here, in our earlier story.

The comic book as marketing doc is found here.

Google To Release Web Browser

In yer face, Microsoft. Or so they might be saying at Google...

Google plans to release a web browser to compete with Microsoft's massive dominance. Google is hosting a press conference Tuesday at 11 A.M. PDT. Apparently the browser will be open-source, which allows anyone to see its source code and modify it, add to it, etc.

Ya gotta love the web - there's already a Wikipedia page????

And, it gets weirder... a comic book for Google Chrome??? See it here.

Some early screenshots here:


The full announcement from the Google Blog (Google has a blog???):

A fresh take on the browser
9/01/2008 02:10:00 PM
At Google, we have a saying: “launch early and iterate.” While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available -- you can find it here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.

All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends -- all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.

We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others -- and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.

The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.

So check in again tomorrow to try Google Chrome for yourself. We'll post an update here as soon as it's ready.

Contrasts in Fashion at the Repub Convention

Wow, that Cindy McCain dress looks like something David Bowie would wear in the '80's.

We need some serious Queer-Eye for the McCain guy's wife.

Violent Protesters For Peace!

Anti-War Loons get violent. Let's see... break a window of some cop's squad car, burn garbage bins and maybe eventually smash some windows. Now that is a statement for peace if ever there was one.

I like how Thomas Sowell puts it (paraphrasing) - has anyone ever considered how many people have been killed because of "peace" movements?

You could've marched all you wanted to against Hitler and Stalin - they still would've ripped Europe apart. Somewhere around 1 out of every 5 people died in Cambodia after the U.S. pulled out of the area and the communists took over.

NY Post Nails Rep. Rangel

Charles Rangel (D - Harlem, NY), one of the most powerful congressman in the U.S., now has multiple public scandals: first, his 4 rent-controlled apartments, and now his beachfront villa in the Dominican Republic - one which the resort says is rented out all of the time, but one for which Rangel has only sporadically reported income. Tax avoidance has got to be a bad thing for the Chairman on the committee that has the most power over taxes and spending.

Stories are here:

TRICKY CHARLIE'S CARIB 'HIDEAWAY'

'SICK' IT TO CHARLIE

Quotes from the articles:

Rangel reported no income in 2006 and 2007 from his three-bedroom, three-bath villa, which rents for between $500 in the low season to $1,100 a night in the busy tourist season. Reports on the fancy property - nestled in a resort that attracts A-list celebs and pols - in earlier federal filings were spotty as well, records show.

The Harlem lawmaker's cagey maneuver comes on the heels of another controversial real-estate deal.
Earlier this summer, he came under fire when he admitted holding leases on four rent-stabilized apartments - three for living quarters and one for an office - in the Lenox Terrace luxury high-rise in Harlem. Rangel gave up the office space - and insisted himself that there be a congressional ethics inquiry into the arrangement.

"Charlie Rangel is a fan of authoring massive tax hikes just as long as he doesn't have to pay them," said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain.

Palin's 17-Year-Old is Pregnant

McCain knew, and the girl, Bristol, is going to keep the baby and marry the father.

Story here at the NY Post.

The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter's pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

Current Gustav Storm Track, as of 1AM CDT