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My new favorite actress is Heather Zichal (Aaron Sorkin's 'ChangeDotGov')

Move over, Janeane Garofalo!

My new favorite actress is Heather Zichal, who plays herself on Aaron Sorkin's new TV series 'ChangeDotGov'. He innovated at the West Wing, although I find that watching re-runs is a bit painful due to the ever-present earth tones. Anyway, Sorkin is innovating again by also uploading segments of the show to Youtube. You can see Zichal in the clip to the right, where she plays herself playing a former John Kerry staffer (link) who was candidate Barack Obama's Policy Director for Energy, Environment and Agriculture (Season One) and who's now on his transition team in the new season. Not only that, but this segment was written by Lawrence O'Donnell!

EMBARRASSING UPDATE: I was just IM'ed by Perez Hilton, and he informed me that Zichal isn't an actress, but a real person! In fact, all of this is real, and Barack Obama is the real name of our new president. I have to apologize, since I don't follow politics too closely. I was able to confirm this with Harvey Levin, and he also mentioned something about "Soviet-style propaganda designed to fool the masses into the belief that the government is listening to them" and then, after a bit, he said something about "putting on a show for the sheeple" or something like that but I didn't really follow what he was getting at.

Posted to Politics at 02:48 PM

Youtube/Pulitzer makes worthless illegal immigration supporting video finalist

For the backstory, see Shock: Youtube/Pulitzer contest has pro-illegal immigration puff piece as finalist. That same worthless, illegal immigration-supporting video (link) is now one of the five finalists in the Pulitzer competition and is #20 on Youtube's Featured list. Either because of that or because of creative counting, its views have jumped from around 700 a couple days ago to over 60,000 currently.

This continues a trend with Youtube: they continually promoted the pro-illegal immigration videos from 9500 Liberty and the debate they conducted with CNN featured worthless immigration questions that served to mislead rather than inform.

If you want to do something about this, go leave comments on the video, and on future Youtube efforts try to undercut their influence with their visitors; for an example, see the comment I ("NoMoreBlatherDotCom") left here.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 12:51 PM

Obama/Center for American Progress link gets mainstream media attention!

I've been discussing the Center for American Progress - a Soros-funded supposed "progressive", supposed "think tank" - for a few years. I've mainly concentrated on the fact that they're the "think tank that can't think straight", an outfit that just can't figure things out. I've also discussed their extraordinarily bad blog "ThinkProgress", which consistently engages in smears and logical fallacies. And, just last month, I included them as #16 on my list of reasons to oppose Obama.

Now, the Obama/CAP link has gotten some mainstream media attention, with Edwin Chen of Bloomberg offering "Soros-Funded Democratic Idea Factory Becomes Obama Policy Font" (link) and Daniel Libit of Politico offering "Podesta nonprofit to take center stage" (link). Unfortunately, aside perhaps from the Soros mention, both are simply puff pieces in the "valiant liberals doing cool things" mode. Now, see the links above and do a search here for all the things both sources didn't mention.

Posted to Politics at 03:50 PM

Kos gets one thing right: the rightwing blogosphere is mostly just inept chatter

There's a first for everything, and subcomandante Markos Moulitsas Zuniga - the Kos in DailyKos - has finally got one thing right. From the article "Right-wing bloggers see their chance" (link):

While conservative bloggers talk about making a difference for their party, they have yet to back up their talk with action, said Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the liberal Daily Kos blog. Moulitsas, also a columnist for The Hill, boasts about how the liberal netroots got Howard Dean elected as Democratic Party chairman, raised millions of dollars for victorious candidates and created a "partisan message machine" to push back against conservative media on talk radio and cable television. That made the Democratic Party's establishment take them seriously, Moulitsas said.

"The conservative bloggers' efforts might grow into something more meaningful over time, but as of right now, all I see is a lot of chatter," he said. "And if there's one thing the right doesn't lack, it's punditry. They can talk up a storm."

He's right on target with that, and for a tangible example see the nearly complete lack of response to my highly effective plan to defeat Obama. Rather than helping push that, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit concentrated on sending people to Amazon, and the Pajamas Media with which he's associated concentrated on talking head shows featuring worthless minor pundits.

If you want to do something, write to the rightwing bloggers that you read and suggest that they actually do something for a change.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:38 PM

Zogby poll shows how misinformed Obama's supporters are (and is yet another example of Obama's opponents making mistakes)

John Ziegler - a former KFI talk jock who was pushed out after a dispute with John & Ken - has a video documentary including interviews with Barack Obama supporters showing how ignorant and/or misinformed they are.

His site (link) also includes a Zogby poll he commissioned that tries to show the same thing. Unfortunately, some of the questions that are supposedly true either aren't true or are disputed.

So, it's a two-fer. The poll shows not only how misinformed many Obama supporters are, but also provides yet another example of Obama's opponents making mistakes. See #18 at that list for a point directly relating to this poll.

Note that Obama's supporters will jump all over the mistakes the poll makes in order to blunt its impact. In fact, I'm going to provide a blank update section in expectation of them doing exactly that.

The poll was conducted after the election, with "97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates". Some of the questions are about Sarah Palin and show that people have bought the MSM/SNL caricature of Palin. And, very few people were actually doing effective things to fight that caricature; see the "mistakes" link above. Let's take a look at some of the Obama questions, like:

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

The veracity of this question is disputed; I haven't looked into who's telling the truth, but see mediamatters.org/items/200806020007.

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

The first part of that is wrong, the second is mostly right (the exact quote was "electricity rates", not "energy rates").

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

That question is not entirely correct: Ayers' home was only one of the places, not the exact place. In fact, Obama's surrogates spent a lot of time pointing out that the official location where he started his career was a hotel conference room; see the Lynn Sweet article. In discussing that, I said:

It helps illustrate a problem the McCain campaign has had that the Obama-supporting MSM has tried to drive a truck through. Namely, when speaking about the Bill Ayers-Barack Obama connection they haven't presented the matter in ultra-precise, lawyerly terms.

Obviously, that same inability to figure out the correct way to do things continues with the Ziegler documentary.

Are there any Obama opponents who have both a megaphone and the ability to figure things out?

UPDATE: [space reserved for Obama's supporters using mistakes in the above questions to blunt the impact of the poll.]

UPDATE 2: Zig made yet another mistake, at least on the video. Sarah Palin said you can see Russia from Alaska. In her SNL take-off, Tina Fey changed that to seeing Russia from her "house", and that's how it is in the Zogby poll excerpt provided at the link above. However, on the video he uses the word "home", which is a more general term than "house": Alaska is Palin's "home", and some on the video might have taken it in that sense.

And, in response to the first comment, by "Obama's supporters" I'm refering to the MSM and leftwing bloggers, not necessarily all his supporters.

Posted to Politics at 06:55 PM

Owen Thomas/ValleyWag has no clue about immigration or much else (Peter Thiel, Facebook)

Owen Thomas of ValleyWag offers "Billionaire Facebook investor's anti-immigrant heresy" [1]:

Insiders at Clarium Capital, the $5.3 billion hedge fund run by Facebook investor Peter Thiel, are buzzing about their boss's $1 million donation to NumbersUSA, an anti-immigrant group. The donation is an open secret within Clarium, and it has enraged several staff members who joined Clarium because they believed Thiel shared their libertarian ideals... What's interesting about this is his shift from outspoken Libertarian. At PayPal, he had ambitions of using his payments startup to undermine illiberal economies and create a new world financial order... Thiel once aimed to overturn the system. Now he just wants to work within it. As much as his anti-immigration views render him noxious to the Northern California mainstream, his turning away from an embrace of freedom make him an enemy to the rebellious thinkers he's hired.

Jejune, to the max! Real libertarians aren't likely to use phrases like "new world financial order", except ironically. And, NumbersUSA isn't "anti-immigrant" or "anti-immigration"; they support reducing and properly managing immigration. And, if libertarianism requires open borders, then libertarianism is as much a failed ideology as complete unilateral disarmament. Thomas also in effect argues for supporting the housing market through a Ponzi scheme involving immigration, without realizing the role that low-skilled immigrants played in the current issue.

If you want to do something about this, go leave a comment at [1], and also leave a comment at this Facebook group that Kyle de Beausset started: facebook.com/group.php?gid=57995012344

[1] valleywag.com/5083655/billionaire-facebook-investors-anti+immigrant-heresy

Posted to Immigration2008a at 11:47 AM

Skateboarding dog! (the creepy version)

There will come a time when the other animals will finally get their revenge, and only PETA supporters will be spared. And, it will look like this:

Posted to WackyHumor at 09:32 PM

Eliot Spitzer returns; so, was he set up to hush him up about the financial crisis?

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer makes his triumphant return into the spotlight with the Washington Post editorial "How to Ground The Street/The Former 'Enforcer' On the Best Way to Keep Financial Markets in Check" (link). I am, needless to say, in a forest of conflicted emotions:

* Should I concentrate on making fun of his scandal, especially since his former "temporary employee" is apparently going to try for a 16th minute at fame through doing one thing or another?

* Should I discuss the red flag that his use of the phrase "global financial system" raises for me vis-a-vis, "is he a globalist tool?"

* Should I point out that maybe Bush's idea of a "free market" is not necessarily an indictment of actually free markets but is actually an indictment of Bush-style crooked markets?

* Should I point out (unlike McCain) the role that the Democrats played in bringing us the financial crisis?

* Should I try to discuss whether Spitz's support for very strong regulation is a good idea or not?

* Should I point out that Spitzer supported illegal activity in order to get votes perhaps even including those cast by illegal aliens?

* Should I point out that the conspiracy theory surrounding his downfall - from March - looks more like a possibility? (Something that's slightly increased due to the hack Instapundit [pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/027263.php] linking to Steven Bainbridge [stephenbainbridge.com/index.php/punditry/spitzers_chutzpah] with the latter discussing the WaPo editorial and mostly just engaging in ad hominem attacks).

Who's right about the market and what to do now is definitely far more important, but - fan of conspiracies that I am - I'd really like to know the answer to the latter. And, as a bonus, that might also help discredit some of those who helped put us into our current situation.

Posted to Politics at 07:50 PM

Jesse Washington/AP's supposed "outbreak of racial anger" after Obama win

Jesse Washington of the Associate Press provides another example of Obama supporters continuing to play the race card after the election and by so doing shows that Obama's method of winning hasn't actually done much about race relations. The article is an example of the MSM and friends basically just keeping one race in line as was done in the past with another race (link).

Crosses burning. Children chanting, "Assassinate Obama." Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Yes, there definitely has been an outbreak of isolated incidents involving those who have no real power. Washington can only find one physical attack, but there's definitely been a distinct trend of a very small number of completely isolated incidents. Like this incident he mentions:

Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free expression.

According to this, what they wrote could be "borderline threats". But, don't worry. From the same link: The university painted over all the tunnel's messages Wednesday because officials felt the disparaging comments were "going over the edge of what was acceptable," [a university police officer] said.

We're also informed that there was a "glow of racial progress and harmony that bloomed after the election of Democrat Barack Obama". Oddly, I don't recall much of a glow after his surrogates - now including Washington - constantly tried to portray Obama's opponents as racists. In fact, I don't think anyone who doesn't work for or serve as a surrogate for Obama (including the MSM) could locate such a glow. In other words, Washington just invented it.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of incidents, including vandalism, threats and at least one physical attack. There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

Washington later points out that Potok is white, which isn't really material. What is material is that Potok and friends are far-left grievance mongers who in effect make their money from hate: without "hate" - whether real, mischaracterized, or just hyped - the SPLC wouldn't be in business. Potok also isn't honest when it comes to statistics.

UPDATE: A trend has been spotted! This time, it's of left-wing hack reporters continuing to play the race card after the election. The second instance of the trend is "After Obama's win, white backlash festers in US" by Patrik Jonsson of The Christian Science Monitor (link). It's basically the same article as Washington's, right down to relying on Potok of the SPLC.

Posted to Politics at 07:29 PM

Discuss president-elect Barack Obama's radio/Youtube address (November 15, 2008)

Our beloved president-elect Barack Obama is offering his new weekly speech not just as a radio address but also as an online video: youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U (also available at AOL, MSN, and Yahoo). On Youtube at least, almost every form of interaction is disabled: no ratings, comments, or video replies are allowed. The only sign of the outside world are the "sites linking to this video", which includes change.gov, the HuffPost, the NYT, Politico, and USA Today. In order to get on that list, you'd have to send several hundred clicks to the video.

However, if you'd like to leave your thoughts on his video, someone has uploaded a copy here with comments enabled in order "to allow open discussion among the YouTube community." That's the video to the right.

Oddly enough, there don't appear to be any non-joke answer videos, not even from rightwing news sources or organizations. Of course, that might be because, as the script shows, he continues not really saying anything:

change.gov/newsroom/entry/your_weekly_address_from_the_president_elect/

Posted to Politics at 07:44 PM

Alan Keyes petitions court over Barack Obama's eligibility; guess: he has standing

Gadabout Alan Keyes - last seen running for president under the banner of the American Independent Party - has filed a court petition in California trying to block the CA Secretary of State (Democrat Debra Bowen) from certifying that state's results for Barack Obama. Details here.

The previous attempt by Philip Berg ran aground when the judge in that case ruled that he didn't have standing. As a former candidate - someone who was directly harmed by Obama being on the ballot - Keyes may turn out to have standing as long as they can get enough money to pursue this as far as necessary. We may yet see a real copy of Obama's birth certificate, not just a graphic at a friendly site. Note that, despite what the MSM wants to tell you, BHO has not proven where he was born or if he's a citizen.

Posted to Politics at 02:36 PM

Agriprocessors CEO arrested on bank fraud charges

Earlier this year, ICE conducted a raid of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa; see this recent post for links about it. Now comes this:

The arrest of Agriprocessors CEO Sholom Rubashkin on bank fraud charges earlier today marked the fourth time that he or his brother has been alleged to have engaged in financial deception.

Sholom’s older brother, Moshe Rubashkin, was sentenced in 2002 to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $225,000 in restitution for bank fraud. The case was linked to his ownership and operation of Montex Textiles, a Pennsylvania company. Moshe was also recently sentenced to 16 months for the company’s illegal storage of hazardous waste.

Last year, Agriprocessors executives agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve allegations that the company participated in a scheme to hide another company’s assets during a bankruptcy...

Posted to Immigration2008a at 05:02 PM

Sham: Obama to hold "fireside chats" on Youtube

Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post breathlessly informs us of this:

Today, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video -- a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama's transition site, Change.gov, once the radio address is made public on Saturday morning.

"This is just one of many ways that he will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told us last night.

In addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, officials at the transition office say the Obama White House will also conduct online Q&As and video interviews...

...Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube [said] "Obama told us in a YouTube interview last year that he plans to have 'fireside chats' on video, and we expect his administration will launch a White House YouTube channel very soon after taking office."

In addition to youtube.com/BarackObama, he now has youtube.com/user/ChangeDotGov, with the latter having three videos all of which don't allow replies.

During the campaign comments and video replies on his videos were moderated and only those favorable were allowed. The best thing for him to do would be to either allow or disallow all comments, but given his past history he might continue to only allow those comments favorable to him. In the latter case, expect his glassy-eyed supporters to vote down unfavorable comments, meaning that people would have to click a link to see them.

And, if BHO conducts "online Q&As and video interviews", you can be assured they'll be setups. The interviews might be with an inept host who'll only ask puffballs, like Grove. Or, the questions will be screened so only those he can easily answer will be allowed.

Don't expect many of his followers to be able to figure any of that out, and those who'll be able to figure it out won't mention it.

Posted to Politics at 01:09 PM

Youtube loves salmon, adds nofollow tags to profile videos

Youtube has made a couple of interesting changes for some reason or other. First, their "sites linking to this video" section is now loaded via Javascript; those links are no longer embedded in the page. Despite the fact that those HTML links had nofollow tags, apparently some people were using them to obtain juice.

And, they've also now added nofollow tags to the videos and favorites on profile pages, as illustrated below. As previously indicated, the salmon-colored links indicate a nofollow tag.

Just keeping you updated on YT's gradual transition from an independent company to a Google playground. Oh, and thanks again to all those bloggers who supported the anti-web nofollow because they thought it was what it was presented as. See also "We're all going to regret giving Youtube so many links".

Posted to Bloggage at 12:31 PM

Barack Obama misled about regular attendance at Rev. Wright's church

[SEE THE CORRECTION]

During the election, Barack Obama downplayed his attendance record at Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, but a March 27, 2004 interview (link) he conducted with Cathleen Falsani - the Religion Columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times - contradicts those claims.

Falsani asked Obama whether he's still attending TUCC, and he replies:

Yep. Every week. 11 oclock service... Ever been there? Good service... I actually wrote a book called Dreams from My Father, it's kind of a meditation on race. There's a whole chapter on the church in that, and my first visits to Trinity.

As detailed here, he told a different story in 2008. In an interview that aired on March 17, 2008, he said:

"You know, I won't say that I was a perfect attendee. I was regular in spurts, because there was times when, for example, our child had just been born, our first child. And so we didn't go as regularly then."

A July 2008 Newsweek article says:

After he began his run for the U.S. Senate, he says, the family sometimes didn't go to Trinity for months at a time. The girls have not attended Sunday school.

The 2004 interview was conducted after he'd won the Senate race.

CORRECTION: I changed the title and some content of this post; it had orginally been titled "Cathleen Falsani/Chicago Sun-Times waited until after election to release contradictory Obama interview" and that turns out to be false. The "Yep. Every week. 11 oclock service" bit was actually on her site since April 2008 (link) and that's verified by an August post where that quote is bolded. No one else on that thread seems to have picked up on it, and note also that some things posted to FR's 'news' section are shuttled off to the 'bloggers' section by moderators. Then, on October 15 it was posted here. The problem wasn't that Falsani or Steven Waldman of BeliefNet where sandbagging the interview, it was that the McCain campaign was too incompetent to find and/or push contradictions like this.

Posted to Politics at 12:13 AM

Shock: Youtube/Pulitzer contest has pro-illegal immigration puff piece as finalist

Youtube is currently sponsoring an amateur journalism contest with the Pulitzer Center (youtube.com/projectreport), and they've recently selected their top ten finalists; one of those is the worthless, formulaic puff piece in support of illegal immigration to the right. The video is specifically about the Agriprocessors immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, and it's even worse than something the MSM would do, because some of the MSM's reports - while also trying to use emotionalism to support illegal activity - have mentioned things like labor abuses and the like. For instance, the Pulitzer choice doesn't mention that Agriprocessors was charged with over 9000 child labor law violations.

The video also fails to note that there are billions of people on Earth worse off than Postville's "immigrants", and since they can't all come here the correct response is something other than loose borders and immigration "reform", i.e. amnesty. And, just as the MSM would do, the video author doesn't question anything he's told but simply serves as a transcription service for those promoting completely unrealistic and inhumane policies.

None of this should come as much of a surprise due to Google's (Youtube's owner) past promotion of illegal immigration-supporting videos from 9500 Liberty.

The video author is Rich Peters III of Des Moines, who may be a current or prospective lawyer. One of those on the video includes - believe it or not - Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu (controversy discussed here). Two others are Sharon Drahn, editor of the Postville Herald-Leader and Father Lloyd Paul Ouderkirk of St. Bridget's Catholic Church.

11/19/08 UPDATE: They've made the video one of the five finalists, and its view count is now over 60,000.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 06:56 PM

Westwood CA Mormon Temple gets white powder envelope (Prop. 8, gay marriage)

On top of all the counter-productive things they've already done, now opponents of California's Proposition 8 - the anti-gay marriage initiative - have sent an envelope containing white powder - most likely harmless - to the very large Mormon Temple on Santa Monica Blvd. in Westwood, CA. The Salt Lake City Mormon Temple received a similar missive.

Posted to Politics at 06:07 PM

Defeating Obama was easy, it's just that no one wanted to do it

Barack Obama could have been easily defeated. The problem was that many people concentrated on ineffective means to oppose him and no leaders pushed effective plans. There were many effective ways he could have been defeated, but the most effective would have been for people to go to his public appearances, ask him tough questions on video, and then upload his response to video sharing sites.

Obama was rarely asked anything remotely approaching a really tough question, and he was never asked a "prosecutorial-style" question that would have called him on his lies or the hugely obvious flaws in his policies.

If that had happened, the graphic above would have been the result. Imagine that the most viewed videos for the month of October at Youtube had been those. Would Obama still have been elected? I think even the most devoted Obama fan would be forced to admit that he would have lost in a landslide.

It was actually fairly easy to have created such videos, if enough major sites had promoted the idea. However, instead of pushing a plan I posted on October 1, those sites engaged in various ineffective, time-wasting ideas. And, some go even further, trying to dissuade people from holding politicians accountable, such as the so-called "libertarian" (and so-called "reporter") Dave Weigel (reason.com/blog/show/130075.html).

There are certainly valid reasons why many people wouldn't want to be the ones to ask a politician a tough question: they don't want to get as famous as Joe the Plumber, or go through the hassle he was put through initially, or the like. However, there aren't too many good reasons why leaders wouldn't want to promote this plan.

Some of them might not be interested in pushing the plan due to business reasons: they're trying to launch a supposed alternative to the MSM and they don't want to rock the boat or face access restrictions so instead they concentrate on milquetoast talking heads shows featuring low-grade pundits.

Others might be partisan hacks who realize just how dangerous this idea is: asking tough questions of the other side would result in tough questions being asked of their side. In a way, that's a form of MAD: Democratic partisan hacks implicitly agree not to ask the Republicans tough questions, and vice versa.

And, due to an MSM diet, some might not understand what a tough question is. For an example of asking a tough question that revealed a flaw in someone's policies, see this. I asked a largely unknown promoter of guest worker programs about one of the side effects of that program, and her answer showed that she hadn't thought through the impacts of those policies. If I had asked that of Obama and had gotten it on tape, the result would be like the ones pictured above, especially after I'd asked why we should support his policies when he clearly hadn't thought them through.

Waiting for the mainstream media to ask politicians tough questions is an entirely losing strategy. On the other hand, if regular citizens got in the habit of calling politicians on their lies and the flaws in their policies on video, that would have an extremely healthy impact the entire U.S. system. Politicians would no longer feel free to lie or promote obviously flawed policies.

So, even after the election, grab a video camera, think up really good questions, and get out there and ask them.

UPDATE: No, Obama was never asked a tough question and he was never called on his long series of lies to his face. See the bit above about some people being unable to recognize a tough question.

Posted to Politics at 01:18 PM

Barack Obama faked Selective Service registration?

Barack Obama might have faked his Selective Service registration; see this. Schlussel has a copy of the form that Obama supposedly filled out as well as a print-out associated with the form. And, things don't add up. I'll let you wade through the details, but there actually appears to be something there.

Posted to Politics at 11:49 AM

Brooks Jackson/FactCheck spins Obama's Civilian National Security Force

One of the mistakes that Obama opponents kept engaging in during the election was to make exaggerated or not 100% legalistically formulated claims (e.g., "palling around"). The MSM then jumped on the exaggerated part of those statements in order to draw attention away from the parts that were true.

And, Brooks Jackson of FactCheck uses that technique in his discussion of Rep. Paul Broun's remarks about Obama's "civilian national security force": factcheck.org/askfactcheck/is_obama_planning_a_gestapo-like_civilian_national.html

Jackson quotes the Obama speech as I did here, and ends with:

Does that sound like a force that could kick down your door in the middle of the night and haul you off to a Gulag or concentration camp? You decide.

Now, to show that Brooks Jackson is little more than an Obama-supporting hack and "Fact Check" can't be trusted, here are some questions that Jackson doesn't even ask:

1. Where is the statement from the BHO campaign describing specifically what's in the CNSF, whether the CNSF is a coherent organization or just an umbrella term? A spokesman saying it's a "civilian reserve corps that could handle postwar reconstruction efforts" isn't enough. We need a detailed plan.

2. Obama said the CNSF would be "just as well-funded" as the U.S. military, which gets around a half a trillion dollars per year. Doesn't Obama's statement go well beyond "expansive... and exaggerated" as Jackson says?

3. What happens when Obama's CNSF returns home? Are there circumstances under which they could be activated here? Are there circumstances under which they could be used to push Obama's political aims? For instance, to engage in the strong-arm tactics that he's encouraged his supporters to use?

Those questions and more are left unanswered by Jackson, who instead simply serves as a reflexive defender of Barack Obama rather than a fact checker.

Posted to Politics at 11:29 AM

Was Ron Paul cheated out of delegates by McCain-supporting GOP officials?

I have absolutely no idea, due to the general incoherence and insular nature of Ron Paul supporters, but this says:

Here is a video where the newly elected Chairman of the St. Charles Missouri Republican Central Committee, Tom Kuypers, claims credit for preventing properly elected delegates from being seated. It was recorded a couple of weeks before the November election...

...No delegates from St. Charles county were seated at the 2nd Congressional Convention.

By not seating these delegates, they prevented people who supported Ron Paul in the primaries from having a majority at the convention and electing their slate of delegates to the national convention...

Posted to Politics at 11:14 AM

NPR's "Tell Me More" spreads disinformation on hate crime statistics

NPR's "Tell Me More" show offers the misleading "Latinos Increasingly Targeted For Hate Crimes" (link):

The FBI reports that hate crimes against Latinos rose almost 40 percent between 2003 and 2006, and Hispanic activists say they are being targeted with threats and intimidation. Tony Asion, of El Pueblo, a Latino advocacy group, is joined by Kevin Johnson, of the University of California-Davis Law School, to discuss the statistics that are sending shockwaves through some Latino communities.

Now, for the facts that NPR won't tell you: the 40% rise was obtained by choosing a low year (2003) as the starting point and by not adjusting for population gains. And, when that adjustment is done, hate crimes against Hispanics are actually down since 1995 (as a percentage of their population).

That show is apparently produced or hosted by Michel Martin, but her involvement with the segment isn't known. Note that Johnson was a member of an Immigration Policy Group for the Obama campaign.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 08:27 PM

In the tank: Google Maps front pages "Obama's Journey"

Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt is a member of Barack Obama's Economic Transition Team (link), so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the increasingly-political company he heads has given the president-elect (and Joe Biden) a special treat that they've probably already gawked over. In Obama's case, he might even have had a private chuckle over it too.

If you go to maps.google.com near post time, you'll see the image below. The front page includes two links to animated maps: "Barack Obama's Journey" and "Joe Biden's Journey". While the latter is probably accurate, the former might not be. For instance, we don't really (as in, really, as in fact-based not wishful thinking) know that BHO was in fact born in Hawaii. Mainly because he won't release his records. And, while he was probably in New York City for a couple years, even the NYT admitted that he wasn't telling the whole truth about his time spent there. There's no absolute proof that he graduated from Columbia, despite what Google Maps says.

Posted to Politics at 08:17 PM

Gebe Martinez/Politico misleads about role of "Hispanic vote" in Obama win

Ethno-boosting hack Gebe Martinez of the Politico offers "GOP must tone down rhetoric to woo Latinos" (link):

More than 10 million Hispanics voted last week, up from 7.6 million in 2004. If Hispanics were removed from the tallies, McCain would have had the winning edge in the battleground states of Indiana and New Mexico. Latinos also were a major factor in his losses in the former red states of Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Florida. President-elect Barack Obama’s Latino support in Florida was 57 percent; in 2004, Bush’s was 56 percent.

And, if Martians voted, Bobarr would have won. Meanwhile, back here on Earth, see this:

According to the usual suspects, the benchmark in garnering Hispanic votes for Republicans is Bush's 40 percent showing in 2004. So what would have happened if McCain had matched Bush's performance, instead of the 31 percent he actually got? Based on CNN's exit polls, McCain still would have lost Nevada, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, not to mention, say, California and New Jersey. Conversely, even if Obama had won 90 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas, instead of 63 percent, he still would have lost the state. With the possible exception of North Carolina, where the results were close but the number of Hispanic voters is too small to register in the exit poll, there doesn't seem to be a single state where the Hispanic vote was critical to the outcome.

Posted to Politics at 01:22 PM

Take the Chicago Barack Obama Challenge! (list of all of Obama's mainstream associates)

Barack Obama supporters, I'm throwing the floor open to you. Will you dare take the Chicago Barack Obama Challenge?

In comments, please list all the past associates of BHO who are completely mainstream. Just people, not organizations. And, "past" means those prior to, say, 2004 and doesn't include, say, his current associates, those who simply endorsed him at any time, and the like. "Associates" means those with whom Obama has voluntarily worked, funneled money to, received money from, and the like. It does not include those with whom Obama was forced to have some relationship with, such as Republicans serving on some committee to which Obama belonged. For example of what we're looking for, someone who was as close as Ayers was to Obama, but completely mainstream.

Note, of course, that convicted felon bagmen, those with alleged links to crime figures, unrepentant terrorists, radicals, etc. etc. are not "mainstream".

I will then transfer those lists of BHO's past mainstream affiliates into this post, right here:

Posted to Politics at 12:52 PM

Portland pre-teens want to name school after Barack Obama

One of the highly effective but largely ignored ways that Obama could have been opposed before the election would be to point out his cult-like followers as well as his plan to get pre-teens to join his movement. Now, ripping a page from a 2005 Berkeley story, comes this less-than-detailed report about doings at a K-8 school in
Portland:

A couple of people have e-mailed the school, suggesting it be named after the new American leader and Willamette Week was even reporting that students at the school were heard chanting Obama's name one day, and filling out forms to get his name of the voting list.

Posted to Politics at 12:42 PM

FIRM, CHIRLA, NYIC demand Obama stops raids, grants amnesty; will march in DC on January 21, 2009

A group of illegal immigration supporting groups held a press conference in DC yesterday, demanding that as president Obama grants amnesty and halts workplace raids. They also announced that they'll be marching for the same demands in DC on January 21, 2009.

Those involved include Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) and their member organization CHIRLA. The latter has allegedly collaborated with the Mexican government, and another member group is headed by someone who belongs to an advisory council to that government. Other attendees included the New York Immigration Coalition and the National Capital Immigration Coalition/National Capitol Immigration Coalition.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 09:35 AM

Obama cabinet might include Democrat titans: Gore, Napolitano, Vilsack, Howard Dean, Caroline Kennedy...

The Barack Obama cabinet might include such Democratic Party titans as Al Gore, Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, Caroline Kennedy, Howard Dean, Bill Richardson, John Kerry, and many more truly titanic names. This link has a "transition flowchart", a PDF showing some potential picks and all of them are truly great figures who will help the Repu... er, I mean the Democrats. While this could all be a jolly joke, who knows since the head of the transition team is John Podesta and his think tank the Center for American Progress is as much a joke as the Harding Institute.

A possible "Climate Czar" is Al Gore, someone who might take Obama's outreach to pre-teens and make my April, 2008 satire about a "Green Pioneers" program a reality.

Podesta himself might head up an "Energy Security Council".

For Agriculture, Tom Vilsack is one of four possibilities.

Health and Human Services: Howard Dean or Tom Daschle.

Billionairess Penny Pritzker might be at Commerce; the tip of the iceberg on her is here.

For the Department of Homeland Security, the possiblities are:
* Tim Roemer (affiliated with George Mason University, a nexus of "cosmotarianism" and support for illegal activity),
* Raymond Kelly and Bill Bratton, chiefs of police of NYC and L.A. respectively,
* James Lee Witt (Clinton-era head of FEMA)
* Richard Clarke

For the State Department, all of them are some variation of bad jokes: John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, Richard Holbrooke, Sam Nunn, and Colin Powell. The latter is listed under two additional possibilities.

At HUD, one possibility is BHO fixer Valerie Jarrett.

At Interior, Bill Richardson is one of five.

As the Department of Justice, Janet Napolitano, Rep. Artur Davis, and Eric Holder are listed. Someone from the latter's law firm visited this site after I posted about the viral video attempt at that link.

Also, from the link:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Caroline Kennedy could be the ambassador to the United Nations. Kennedy Jr. might be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Caroline Kennedy could be the ambassador to the United Nations. It's just an unofficial guide but a fun one to follow.

Yes, just watch out for that iceberg.

Posted to Politics at 09:40 PM

Obama spins Civilian National Security Force as for Iraq rebuilding

Back in July, Barack Obama gave a speech in Colorado where he proposed creating a "Civilian National Security Force". That was just in one line of the speech, and it didn't appear in the version as prepared for delivery (copy here). Since that time, many have speculated over what he could have meant, and just recently Georgia congressman Paul Broun compared the creation of such groups to that in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (link). Now, at the last link, the Barack Obama camp has responded:

spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama was referring in the speech to a proposal for a civilian reserve corps that could handle postwar reconstruction efforts such as rebuilding infrastructure - an idea endorsed by the Bush administration.

That doesn't make much sense. Here's the comment in context (from the second link, with the sentence BHO added in his speech added where he said it and bolded):

As President, I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots, and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their efforts connected to a common purpose. People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve. Because when it comes to the challenges we face, the American people are not the problem – they are the answer.

We’ll send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people. We’ll call on Americans to join an Energy Corps to conduct renewable energy and environmental cleanup projects in their neighborhoods. We’ll enlist veterans to help other vets find jobs and support, and to be there for our military families. And we’ll also grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered, and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy. We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. And we’ll use technology to connect people to service. We’ll expand USA Freedom Corps to create an online network where Americans can browse opportunities to volunteer. You’ll be able to search by category, time commitment, and skill sets; you’ll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities. This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda, and make their own change from the bottom up.

The bit about the CNSF came after a sentence mentioning the Peace Corps, so he could have been speaking about a massive expansion of that program, and in that case the CSNF would only operate overseas. Of course, parts of that group would live in the U.S.; would they ever be activated in the "homeland"?

There's nothing on Obama's site remotely approaching the bolded sentence above, and what's really needed here is for someone to ask him to go into details on exactly what he meant. Since we can't rely on MSM reporters to do that, the job is left up to you the reader.

Posted to Politics at 01:01 PM

David Brady/Hoover Institution offers very bad advice for the GOP

David Brady, deputy director of the Hoover Institution, recently spoke to an Austrailian newspaper (link) and offered some advice for the Republican Party that was, at least in part, spectacularly bad and that showed that he has absolutely no clue whatsoever:

"In order for the Republicans to win again they have to drop the anti-gay, anti-immigrant, strict pro-life, no-abortion social positions they have taken... They have to drop those things and move to the centre where the American voters are. Look at gay marriage - support for gay marriage in America is going up; it's not going down. It's a similar situation if you're pro-life. The majority in America has been pro-choice for a while, and it's not moving anywhere."

1. He's claiming that all those who oppose gay marriage or illegal/massive immigration are "anti-gay" and "anti-immigrant". That's certainly true for some of those opponents, but not for all. And, rather than pointing that out, Brady is saying the same things that Democrats would use in smears against opponents.

2. While gay marriage may pass in several states throughout the U.S., it will always have opponents including many with good arguments. Likewise with abortion, but with the fact that the arguments against that or wishing to minimize it are even more well-founded. Where exactly would Brady have those millions and millions of people go? Brady isn't suggesting that the GOP try to achieve some sort of compromise, but is instead suggesting complete capitulation to the Democrats on those issues.

3. Perhaps supporting massive immigration is a loser for the GOP, no matter how they pander and no matter how much money they receive from crooked businesses.

4. It would be very easy for someone with a megaphone to completely discredit the Democrats over immigration. Brady is either too corrupt or too stupid to support doing that.

Posted to Politics at 11:04 PM

Here's another keeper

The minions of a certain TV show and/or network have deleted this once before, so on behalf of myself and all other fans (presumably including this guy), please make sure this one remains available, if you know what I mean:

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:06 PM

Because of immigration, Democrats think Texas, Georgia, and Arizona might turn blue (Peter Wallsten/LAT)

Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times offers "Democrats set sights on Texas" (link):

Texas is one of several reliably red states that are now in Democrats' sights as party strategists begin to analyze a victorious 2008 campaign that they believe showed the contours of a new movement that could grow and prove long-lasting.

A major shift in the Latino vote took place in Florida and the Southwest, where the Obama campaign spent at least $20 million on targeted appeals and organizing, including one television ad in the final days featuring the candidate reading Spanish from a script.

Latinos made up a greater share of the electorate than in the past in every Southwestern state, according to exit polls compiled by CNN. And in each Southwestern state, as well as Florida, the Democrat pulled a bigger percentage of the Latino vote -- a turnaround from 2004, when President Bush cut deeply into Democrats' hold on Latinos and won that bloc in Florida, where many Cuban Americans remain loyal to the GOP.

There's more at the link, but I'm still waiting for someone to crunch the numbers to determine how much trouble the GOP has got itself into by thinking that allowing millions of potential Democrats to move here is a winning strategy.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 03:27 PM

Stupidity in action, illustrated

I'm not going to go into much detail in this, but a while back I offered a plan about how to deal with the mainstream media, which is somewhat similar to this.

Now, for an example of how many bloggers are like flickering 10W lightbulbs, see these searches for this guy:

peekURL.com/zarldu4

peekURL.com/zl7udo8

Note that the third result at the second search is to his LAT article, and that position was probably obtained by those linking to that article with a regular, non-nofollowed link. Some people probably linked to the article using his name. I saw at least one other person linking his name to his Wikipedia entry.

Considering all the "firepower" in the blogosphere, it shouldn't have been difficult to fill those pages with posts about the tape he refused to release. Unfortunately, the problem isn't with "firepower" so much as brainpower and/or an inability to take advice: peekURL.com/zar993k

On the one hand I don't want the competition, but on the other it would be nice if there were at least a few people out there who could learn how to do something effective.

Posted to Bloggage at 03:21 PM

Michael Crowley/TNR falls for obvious hoax (source of Sarah Palin smears)

The New Republic - home to a long series of reprehensible folks like James Kirchick and Jason Zengerle - has fallen for another hoax.

This time around, Michael Crowley offers the post "Even More Palin Cluelessness" (blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/11/10/even-more-palin-cluelessness.aspx, via HotAir) about a supposed former McCain campaign advisor admitting that he was the source for the recent smears of Sarah Palin.

Just one problem: as the third comment informs us, the supposed advisor is apparently just a trickster:

sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=M._Thomas_Eisenstadt

The apparent trickster's page about this is here:

eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/11/10/eisenstadt-the-source-for-sarah-palin-africa-leak-and-proud-of-it/

Posted to Politics at 01:58 PM

I posted satires about Barack Obama... at his own site!

Now it can be revealed! I signed up for three accounts at my.barackobama.com, two of which were satires that, unfortunately, never took off.

However, the first account was done under the name of one of my sites and wasn't a satire;that's described here.

Then, using the name "Bill Hawkins", I posted the satirical entry about driving "hate" sites off the internet described here.

Finally, using the name "Robert Bellaire", I posted the best one yet at my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/robertbellaire. The second post at that page asked BHO supporters to all wear blue to his rallies. The desired result was a scary picture at the Drudgereport showing a sea of blue with the headline "Blue Shirts".

The first post at that page was a creepy program called "Neighbor2Neighbor" where people would rat out their neighbors:

What the Obama campaign should do is set up a "Neighbor2Neighbor" program. When someone in your community starts spreading lies, you can go to the Obama website and fill out an "incident" form, typing in the person's name, their contact information, and a description of the lies and smears they're peddling. A "campaign counselor" can then contact them by phone to discuss with them all the ways they're wrong. In extreme cases, counselors can even go out to the person's home and try to talk some sense into them. Obama himself said we need to get into peoples' faces and convince them to vote for him, and this program will help us do just that. Of course, the campaign shouldn't reveal the name of the tipster, but after the (former!) "smear spreader" sees the light they'll be grateful to whoever filed the tip.

It never took off at BHO's site, but it got four favorable comments when I reposted it here: dailykos.com/story/2008/10/9/142229/749

Despite the above not working, I don't think it's going to be difficult to get something to break through one of these days.

Posted to Politics at 12:34 PM

Cached copy of Barack Obama's change.gov agenda section

Barack Obama's change.gov - the official president-elect transition site - deleted their entire Agenda section over the weekend. There's apparently a cached copy here, although I haven't verified it since I didn't bother saving off my own copy.

UPDATE: There's a better-looking version from Google's cache here. As with the other one I didn't verify it.

Posted to Politics at 12:19 PM

Steve Schmidt should find a new line of work (immigration and the failed John McCain campaign)

Steve Schmidt - former chief strategist of the John McCain campaign - was interviewed by Ana Marie Cox about the various failures he was involved in and presumably he tries to defend himself against charges that he's completely incompetent; I didn't bother reading the whole thing (link) since this bit is all we need:

If you look at the returns from the southwestern and mountain west states, with rising Latino populations, it’s clear that Latinos are repudiating the party, their anger about the tone of the immigration debate, and the party has to figure out a way to communicate that wanting to have a secure and sovereign southern border and respect for Latinos are not mutually exclusive. But if the party does not figure out a way to appeal to Latino voters, it will become increasingly difficult, and maybe impossible, to ever again win a national election.

If McCain couldn't win over Latinos, one wonders which Republican could. McCain cost himself a large part of the GOP base due to his support for illegal activity in order to obtain votes. He spoke to the racial power group NCLR and, instead of taking them on for being far-left supporters of illegal activity, he went there seeking votes.

And, his Hispanic outreach director is a former cabinet-level official with the Mexican government.

Other than picking Vicente Fox as his running mate, it's unclear what he could have done different. No matter how much the GOP tries to pander, the Dems will always be able to buy more votes.

What the GOP has to do is stop putting crooked businesses ahead of their own self-preservation. And, they need to stop being Dem Lite by opposing corporate pluralism and by discrediting far-left supporters of illegal activity rather than capitulating to them.

Schmidt couldn't even beat the furthest-left major party candidate in history and someone whose past is partly unknown and partly very questionable. He should do us all a favor and find a new line of work.

UPDATE: Someone really needs to come up with a comprehensive list of all the ways that Schmidt's argument is wrong, since hacks will keep making the argument to sympathetic reporters until it's forcefully pointed out how they're wrong. One other argument against it is that the same people who got the GOP into trouble by supporting massive immigration are now offering their "solution": being "Latino-friendly", i.e., supporting even more massive immigration.

And, it looks like Schmidt's comments are part of a trend, an attempt by corrupt Republicans to signal to Obama that they want amnesty as much as the Democrats do.

The trend continues as Michael Scherer of Time Magazine's Swampland - the same site Ana Marie Cox works for - offers "The GOP's Big Hispanic Problem" (swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/11/10/the-gops-big-hispanic-problem/) which is basically a "news" report saying the same thing as Schmidt, but, of course, without even a hint at anything I wrote above. It links to this LAT article and also quotes Florida Sen. Mel Martinez (BTW: that last link is about another LAT article by the same "reporter") from an appearance on Meet the Press:

Governor Jeb Bush -- former Governor Jeb Bush last week made a comment that if Republicans don't figure it out and do the math that we're going to be relegated to minority status. I've been preaching this for a long time to my colleagues within my party. I think that the very divisive rhetoric of the immigration debate set a very bad tone for our brand as Republicans. The fact of the matter is I think in Florida there was not a great ideological shift, but I think there was plenty of room for improvement in how that state was looked upon. The fact of the matter is that Hispanics are going to be a more and more vibrant part of the electorate, and the Republican Party had better figure out how to talk to them. We had a very dramatic shift between what President Bush was able to do with Hispanic voters, where he won 44 percent of them, and what happened to Senator McCain. Senator McCain did not deserve what he got. He was one of those that valiantly fought, fought for immigration reform, but there were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we're going to be relegated to minority status.

Posted to Politics at 11:21 AM

"52to48" (52 to 48) meets widespread acclaim, as Obama voters reach out to others with love, respect, sharing, and caring

The 'Net is abuzz with acclaim, warm hugs, and kisses for "From 52 to 48 With Love", a photo compilation of Obama and McCain fans reaching out to each other in a sign of consolation and mutual love and sharing and respect. Now, certainly some technically accurate people will point out that it should actually be 'From 21 to 19 Or Thereabouts With Love' since tens of millions of people didn't vote, but ignore those wet blankets. Instead, go see this heart-warming collection at zefrank.com/from52to48withlove. And, you can even contribute! This beautiful photo gallery has already won fans and supporters across the globe, and some were deeply moved. Like, this guy:

I guess I should have warned everyone about that, but I was so overcome by joy I forgot.

Posted to WackyHumor at 09:28 PM

National Council of Ethnic Americans demands equal representation in Obama cabinet

The National Council of Ethnic Americans (NCEA) - a coalition consisting of the Ethnic American Legal Defense and Education Foundation (EALDEF), the National Association of Ethnic American Elected Officials (NAEAEO), and the League of United European and Mediterranean American Citizens (LUEMAC) - has just sent the following missive:

President-Elect Barack Obama:

We are the Ethnic-Americans. During the election you reached out to us (my.barackobama.com/page/content/eahome) and asked for our support. Millions of us heard your call and voted for you, thus assuring your victory.

In fact, we are your largest voting bloc and you could not have won without out support.

Yet, it appears that your cabinet may not fully reflect the diversity of America and may not assure that our specific and united concerns are addressed (link). Please assure us that you will appoint those to your Cabinet who understand our concerns and represent our interests, and that you will do so in full knowledge of the millions of us who voted for you.

Thank you in advance,

All Ethnic-Americans, including European and Mediterranean Americans.

Posted to Politics at 04:20 PM

Wikipedia is a good, credible source for one thing at least

In the past, I've been extremely critical of Wikipedia and I still consider them, among other things, as a source of disinformation. In fact, if you're reading this as a single post you'll see that I have a site just about them.

However, there is one good thing I have to give them credit for. Actually, two things:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:LargeBreastCleavage.png

Sadly, the provider of this "self-made" photo doesn't have a user page or another way to send her thanks. However, I did work the picture into my new video about eCitizen's "Ask the President-Elect" contest:

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:39 PM

Mandatory community service still included in Obama's preK-12 education plan

Yesterday, we discussed how one page at Barack Obama's new change.gov site said he'd push for mandatory community service. The campaign later changed that page to match the more voluntary-oriented statements the campaign made elsewhere.

However, there's still one thing they'll probably want to send down the memory hole. The file barackobama.com/pdf/issues/PreK-12EducationFactSheet.pdf (available under the link "Read the Pre-K to 12 Plan" at barackobama.com/issues/education contains the following:

VIII. ENLIST PARENTS AND COMMUNITIES TO SUPPORT TEACHING AND LEARNING

[...]

Service. All students in grant recipient districts will be expected to engage in some form of community service.

That certainly sounds like mandatory service to me, and note also that the PDF refers to the plan as belonging to both Obama and Biden, so someone did review it recently.

I'm sure there are more nuggets elsewhere in the 14 page PDF, but I'm not an education expert and I never saw people pounding the table about all the other things that are no doubt wrong about his plan during the election. One article from June is at humanevents.com/article.php?id=27186, and see the blog posts here and here. The GOP highlights vouchers and BHO's flip-flop on NCLB here, rather than discussing more fundamental issues.

And, see also my failed attempt to let everyone know that Obama wanted to use pre-teens to get votes.

Posted to Politics at 02:10 PM

Washington Post admits coverage tilted to Obama, doesn't admit their incredibly biased coverage for him and their lies for him

Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell offers "An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage" (link). Unfortunately, about the only "tilt" she admits to is in the amount of coverage. She almost completely ignores the fact that the Washington Post served as little more than an arm of the Obama campaign by lying and misleading on his behalf and by serving as the source for and amplifier of smears. About the only thing beyond amount of coverage she'll admit to is a failure to cover some things:

But Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama's acknowledged drug use as a teenager.

Not too many people were up in arms about wanting to know more about the last sentence, since they were many things about his past that are much more important to know. I strongly suspect that Howell included the last sentence as a way to trivialize the concerns of the WaPo's critics.

Howell calls out a few of their reporters for acclaim, but completely fails to note any of those who intentionally got it wrong. None of that should be any surprise; as discussed at the first link back in March, Howell couldn't find much of anything wrong with the WaPo's incredibly biased immigration coverage either. Howell is simply a hack, paid to cover things up and give a starting point to "media critics" who'll give a feather-weight slap on the wrist to the MSM.

The following are some of the stories I've noted here. For even more, look through Digg's archives for front page stories from the WaPo that were later marked as inaccurate.

* Dana Milbank/WaPo's dangerous smear of Sarah Palin, supporters. In May, Milbank misled about Obama's links.

* Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post served as an amplifier for the NYT's 10/4/08 attempted cover-up of Bill Ayers.

* Howell praises Washington Post's "fact checker" Michael Dobbs; he "deserves praise for parsing campaign rhetoric for the overblown or just flat wrong". Now see this for just one of the examples of things he appears to have got wrong. Another thing he got wrong is in "McCain's 'Education' Spot Is Dishonest, Deceptive" (link); see the discussion here.

* Shailagh Murray offers WaPo's lightest weight coverage of Barack Obama yet?

* Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post promoted a BHO campaign ad without noting that it took a John McCain quote out of context; Howard Kurtz of the WaPo also failed to note the full context for the quote.

* Ed O'Keefe earlier helped Obama spread lies about Rush Limbaugh when he promoted a BHO campaign video and didn't point out the incredibly obvious lies; for an example of how bad it was, even Joe Klein eventually came out against the ad.

* Anne Kornblut solicited tough questions for Sarah Palin, but as far as I was able to determine when she had the chance she didn't ask BHO anything of note. In at least one case she simply acted as a transcriptionist for BHO; one of her articles misled about Palin's stance on Iraq and was later silently corrected by the WaPo.

* "Peter Slevin Award for Mainstream Media Puffery" is won by Slevin himself.

* Paul Kane started a smear about Sarah Palin "slashing" funds for a program, when in fact they were simply less than the legislature had asked for; the funding was actually increased from the previous year.

* Eli Saslow/WaPo lied in support of Barack Obama

Posted to Politics at 12:24 PM

Walter Olson/Overlawyered DIDN'T delete comment that provided information he did not

[Oops! While it looked like the comment I left had been posted immediately, Olson says that it - and dozens more comments - had been put into a moderation queue, and he then approved all of them including the one I left. So, ignore the following, which is being kept here as an artifact of your blogger jumping the gun. My apologies to Olson.]

Most of the time when bloggers and other sites delete my comments it's because I was pointing out how the site was completely wrong; it's rarely done with only slightly corrective comments.

But, apparently Walter Olson of Overlawyered is really, really scared of his visitors not thinking he's perfect or something because he deleted a comment in the latter category earlier today on this post: overlawyered.com/2008/11/community-service-yep-mandatory

Discussing Obama's mandatory/voluntary community service plan, he offered a post consisting of just two sentences. Here's the first, from Olsen:

Well, that didn’t take long. Coyote spots language on the Obama transition site that seems to make explicit what was left studiously vague during the campaign:

That's followed by one sentence from the first version of BHO's plan (see the link above).

Here's the comment I left:

The language quoted above contradicts something on another page at change.gov as well as his previous materials. Details at my name's link. And, BHO's new Chief of Staff supported mandatory service in a 2006 book.

If Walter Olson would delete a comment like that, what assurance do you have that he hasn't "manicured" all the other comments to delete those that provide other amplifications and corrections? Can you believe anything Walter Olsen says at Over Lawyered, or will you have to double-check every single thing he writes?

Posted to Bloggage at 07:43 PM

AVWatch: Barack Obama's economic advisors include... Antonio Villaraigosa

Los Angeles' inept, corrupt, illegal activity-supporting mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - a former leader of a racial separatist group - is one of the members of Barack Obama's economic advisory board. Even the L.A. Weekly isn't amused (link):

The often stumbling Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose city budget deficit has hit a historic high and who has based his economic plan in Los Angeles almost entirely on a single industry — development, emphasizing massive housing complexes, which left L.A. bad off when the housing bubble collapsed — was chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be on an elite, 17-member economic advice team, including Warren Buffett, that is meeting Obama in Chicago today...

Posted to Politics at 01:32 PM

Obama's aunt gets immigration lawyer, considers appeal (to prevent President Barack from deporting her?)

One of the coulda-been moments of the 2008 campaign was the failure of mostly anyone else to point out that Barack Obama supported his illegal alien own aunt being deported at the same time as he opposed the deportations of millions of illegal aliens he's never even met. Pushing that story would help dispel the widespread feeling among his supporters that he's all sweetness and light. At the time, I questioned why BHO supported her being deported instead of getting her an immigration lawyer in order to pursue a possible appeal of her case.

Now, she's got a lawyer (link):

Cleveland attorney Margaret Wong told the AP on Friday she is exploring legal options and may file a motion to re-open [Zeituni Onyango]'s case. She said Onyango is upset because she believes someone leaked information about her immigration status to try to hurt Obama's candidacy.

Posted to Politics at 12:59 PM

"Latinos push for Cabinet posts": NCLR, MALDEF, NALEO trying to embed supporters in Obama administration

"Latinos" want to be named to positions in the Barack Obama administration. Actually, it appears they want a quota system. And, it's not really "Latinos" as a group, but the familiar far-left pressure groups such as the NCLR, MALDEF, and NALEO. The second has an indirect link to the Mexican government, and the last has a direct link.

The ethnic boosting "reporter" Gebe Martinez of the Politico offers "Latinos push for Cabinet posts" (link). Here's the quota bit:

Weeks before Barack Obama won the presidency, he met privately in Washington with his former Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and Latino political leaders who had fervently backed her bid.

The cards were laid upon the table, according to one of the participants. The Hispanic leaders said they expected at least two Latinos to be named to an Obama Cabinet — meeting the standard set by President-elect Bill Clinton in 1992 — but preferred three. Of course, they also wanted sub-Cabinet-level posts.

Then, she says that Latinos pushed Obama over the top; I'll wait for a reliable source.

...Cecilia Munoz, vice president of National Council of La Raza, said, “It’s a foregone conclusion that we should be at the table for policy debates and in a position of authority,” because Hispanics are affected by major issues facing all voters. Latinos will be prominent in an Obama administration “just as we would be in any administration moving forward,” she added.

...Any diminishment of the Hispanic presence in today’s society and politics “would be a colossal mistake,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “Latinos have demonstrated they can have an impact.”

...Before the election, two dozen groups that make up the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda turned over to Obama and John McCain policy recommendations that included adding more Hispanics to the federal workforce, increasing Hispanic political appointments and naming more Latinos to the federal bench.

The coalition will be collecting résumés to submit to Obama’s transition team. “It behooves us to not just suggest that the administration hire Latinos. We need to also provide good candidates,” said Peter Zamora of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

NALEO’s Vargas worries that, early on, the only names usually mentioned for possible appointment to the Obama administration are New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Obama’s Hispanic adviser Federico Pena — two Democrats who previously served in the Clinton administration.

...[Raul Yzaguirre] said he and others addressed that issue frankly with Obama at their meeting several weeks ago. “We said, ‘Look, if you are going to see us as late-comers, that’s not going to work. If you see us as partners from here on, we will have a good relationship.’ And he said he welcomed our support,” Yzaguirre said...

Posted to Politics at 10:54 AM

Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel want mandatory community service?; contradicts earlier statements; 100 hours/year in college

Yet more fun with Barack Obama's president-elect website change.gov, as the page change.gov/americaserves has this:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

This "requirement" contradicts not only past statements, but another statement on change.gov. From the page "Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan for Universal Voluntary Public Service" at change.gov/agenda/service:

Obama and Biden will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year... Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year...

Not only is there a contradiction between pages, there's one in the last sentence, since usually getting money is associated with being able to opt in or out.

Note that the change.gov/agenda/service version is basically the same as the current version of barackobama.com/issues/service, the version in his "Blueprint for Change" PDF (accessed 2/11/08), and the 1/3/08 version of barackobama.com/issues/service.

So, which is controlling? Will children be "required", or is his program voluntary. Or, is it "voluntary", where hoops must be jumped through in order to avoid taking part?

Note also that in his 2006 book The Plan: Big Ideas for America (link), new BHO chief of staff and Representative Rahm Emanuel said:

It's time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service... Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They'll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we're hit by a natural disaster...

Now, see Barack Obama's "civilian national security force"

UPDATE: As pointed out by several others, the "U.S. government", also known as the part of BHO's campaign behind change.gov, has changed the language on the page at change.gov first discussed above to bring it more in line with the other language. And, they don't provide any indication that there was a change. Silently changing their website to match the new set of facts is something they've done before.

The part at change.gov/americaserves that changed was this:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

That's now this:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

The last is basically the same as in their PDF and what's at change.gov/agenda/service.

Posted to Politics at 10:11 AM

eCitizen's "Ask the President-Elect": yet another setup?

The eCitizen Foundation (ecitizenfoundation.org) has launched the "Ask the President-Elect" Project, where regular citizens can submit video or text questions for Barack Obama. The questions that get the most votes will then be asked of our new president or his transition team, with three of the top vote getters being flown to MIT for a live event.

And, it appears to be as much of a setup as similar past efforts. And, in fact, some of the same people involved in this effort were involved in past, failed efforts: see Open Debate Coalition: a failed format for fake debates.

Of course, by "failed", I mean from the perspective of those who want candidates to be asked tough, "prosecutorial-style" questions. From the perspective of those who want their favored puffballs to be asked, those past efforts were quite a success.

Are all these bright people so dim that they can't figure out the huge flaws in their method of selecting questions despite it having been illustrated to them two times already, or is this just an attempt to pretend to have a debate while not really having a debate at all? Unfortunately, I'm strongly supporting the latter explanation.

Here are some of those involved in this go-round:

This effort is co-sponsored by the Foundation, the MIT eCitizen Architecture Program under the leadership of MIT Professor William Mitchell, powered by Founding Partners communityCOUNTS (forum) and CIVICS.com (open frameworks) and supported by cyberspace luminaries like Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford, Professor Ethan Katsh of UMass and Professor Michael Froomkin of University of Miami Law School. Our growing community of partners also includes techPresident, change.org, pajamasmedia, voterwatch, blip.tv and many more.

UPDATE: One of the four submissions marked with 'ecitizen' at Youtube provides yet another in the long line of worthless questions that those who don't want a real debate tend to highlight (link). The question asks what new programs Obama will have to help the middle class go to college, and was obviously asked by someone who has web access and would seem to be able to do some research first. For instance, BHO has a PDF discussing his "Blueprint for Change", and it contains some details. Then there are his speeches, the statements of advisors, and so on. But, for some reason, the questioner was unable to look at any of those and decided to ask a completely general question. But, for the same reason discussed here, it would make great TV.

Posted to Politics at 09:14 AM

"Ashville N.C. School teacher browbeats student over being a McCain supporter" (I tried to warn everyone)

The video to the right is called "Ashville N.C. School teacher browbeats student over being a McCain supporter". Since I don't have sound here and can only slightly read Swedish I can't vouch for its contents, but it appears to be legit.

Now, see October 26's Obama Youth: campaign targets children under 12 and ask yourself two questions:

1. Exactly how many more things like this are we going to see? Note especially that BHO is now in effect also the leader of millions of people working at various levels of the government, including public school teachers.

2. Aside from drslogan.wordpress.com and littlegreenfootballs.com, no one else that I know of mentioned BHO's plans - right on his website - to bring pre-teens into his movement and then use them to get votes. Why wasn't anyone else interested in pushing a story that could have cost Obama the election?

Posted to Politics at 03:34 PM

Change.gov? Obama launches his own president-elect website

This is just great: change.gov (I actually said another word before "great", and I'll let everyone imagine what that word was.)

That's the official site for the "office of the president-elect", a new government website just to help usher in Barack Obama. And, it's not from the Bush-welcome-to-DC perspective, but instead from the Obama-I'm-in-charge-now perspective.

He's even got a wonderful form you can use called "An American Moment: Your Story" (change.gov/page/s/yourstory):

Start right now. Tell us your story in your own words about what this campaign and this election means to you. Share your hopes for an Obama Administration and a government for the people.

I'll leave it up to the reader to decide whether they want to fill out the form, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's an attempt to build either a mailing/donations list or an enemies list.

UPDATE: The supposed government website's Privacy Policy is a bit interesting (change.gov/about/privacypolicy). In fact, it has more of a non-profit/corporate look to it than something one would expect from the U.S. government. It's basically the same boilerplate as used on several other sites, all of which are not government entities [1]. Comparing to the current policies at barackobama.com is left as an exercise, but some excerpts from candidate sites as of February is here.

And, it looks like the supposed government site is leaving open the possibility of adding those who fill out their forms to mailing lists:

We collect Personal Information from eligible individuals who affirmatively request to receive e-mail or other services from us. We collect this Personal Information in order to provide these eligible individuals with timely information via e-mail regarding events, resources and issues.

Could filling out the form be considered an "affirmative request"? And, the following is worthless because of the "general":

It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents.

And, in addition to FOIA, anything you say could be released:

We treat your name, city, state, and any comments you provide as public information.

But, don't worry, you can opt-out of... the mailing list:

Subscribers to our e-mail list may terminate their subscriptions via a link at the bottom of each email sent from Change.gov.

The site also provides an email address at ptt.gov, a site that doesn't seem to exist. Since that's added to the page by Javascript, it might just be a programming error, or it could be a new surprise just for us.

[1] Some sites that share some of the boilerplate are the following:
lessig08.org/privacy.php
jstreet.org/privacy_policy
run4president.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=6
votervoter.com/wot-tvad/page/privacy
spellingchange.com/privacy-policy.php
democratsforvalues.com/privacy.htm

Posted to Politics at 03:28 PM

Evan Thomas/Newsweek on Obama's "creepy cult of personality"

Now they tell us! Newsweek assistant managing editor Evan Thomas admitted on last night's Charlie Rose show that Barack Obama has a "creepy cult of personality". See the video here. I didn't watch it and, of course, no one is around to provide a transcript or an accurate summary of his remarks, but word on the street is that he means it in a slightly good way.

Note that Obama's personality cult was the first item in my non-partisan argument agains Obama. Note also that the third item is his indoctrination plan for pre-teens.

It's unfortunate that too few of Obama's opponents attempted to highlight things like that before the election.

Posted to Politics at 01:11 PM

New smear: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent or the three countries in NAFTA

An unnamed John McCain aide supposedly told Carl Cameron of Fox News - a tool if there ever was one - that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent instead of a country. The aide also told him that she didn't know which countries were in NAFTA. Needless to say, this comes on the heels of a long line of smears against Palin, and it's almost assuredly a smear as well. She obviously knows about Canada, and she also obviously knows about Mexico. There's the slight possibility that she thought that some of the countries that are in Central America were in North America, but that probably isn't likely either. So, this doesn't even pass very basic scrutiny.

For those just dropping by, there's probably almost no chance that the allegations are true and someone is playing a game.

Unfortunately, it might be an effective smear because of the foundation that the mainstream media laid in order to help Obama become president; many of the things you "know" about Palin are actually lies planted by the Obama campaign and/or the mainstream media (as if they were that separate).

See this for the transcript of the interview, this or this for some thoughts on the palace intrigue aspects (noting that the second is just speculation), and this for the video.

What's especially worrisome about this from the standpoint of an informed electorate is that, at the same time that this smear is spreading, Obama supports a Bush trade scheme known as "NAFTA Plus" (the Security and Prosperity Partnership, spp.gov) that might be a precursor to joining the three countries of North America.

When coming out in support of that Bush trade scheme, Obama spoke in code. And, I have yet to see someone besides me and Obama himself discussing the fact that he supports that scheme. His editorial supporting Bush's scheme appeared in the Dallas Morning News, but no one else wants to discuss what he supports.

The visitor should decide which is more important: a smear, or a secretive Bush trade scheme. Then, take those pushing the smear to task. And, note that those calling Palin dumb are actually the dumb ones: they can't figure out that this is clearly a planted smear and they're just being useful idiots.

~~ Who's helping spread the smear? ~~

* The Huffington Post (of course) has it at huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/palin-didnt-know-africa-i_n_141653.html, and that has over 2200 Diggs (of course)

* Andrew Sullivan has completely bought it without any reservations whatsoever: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/the-odd-truths.html
Can you trust anyone who'd be so gullible?

* Faiz Shakir of ThinkProgress also completely buys it:
thinkprogress.org/2008/11/05/palin-africa-continent/

* However, in a report oddly similar to the one from HotAir linked above, ksh01 of DailyKos implicitly throws some cold water on this by discussing the palace intrigue aspects:
dailykos.com/story/2008/11/5/194551/287/976/651932

Posted to Politics at 10:53 PM

Dueling sockpuppets: were some anti-Palin, anti-McCain comments from the Romney campaign?

Barack Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod owns an astroturfing company.

And, during the campaign the comments at many major sites (WaPo, Politico, Digg, etc.) were chock full of sockpuppets posting lame jokes, comments insulting McCain and/or Palin, and comments extolling the virtues of The One.

Could those two things have something to do with each other? I think it's extremely likely that the BHO campaign was paying people to comment on sites, but I can't prove it.

However, after the recent "Palin doesn't know Africa isn't a country" smear there's another possible culprit: the Mitt Romney campaign. After all, smearing Palin serves his interests, as does four disastrous years under Obama.

The only way to possibly find out who was involved would be if those sites that have received such comments (which, unfortunately, doesn't include this one) would look into the IP addresses of their sockpuppet commenters. Considering that most of those sites are partisan and those that aren't are corrupt and not interested in real reporting (*cough* Politico), we may never know.

Posted to Politics at 10:45 PM

Julie Myers to leave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS)

Ah, the end of an era. Just three years ago we were arguing over whether Bush's obvious nepotism pick of Julie Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was qualified. Now, sadly to all those who've marveled at her courageous attempts to look like she was enforcing the laws while not really enforcing the laws, she'll be stepping down in a couple weeks (link). She hasn't explained what she'll be doing in the future, but if we're lucky it won't involve her attempting to enforce our laws.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 08:07 PM

Assignment: backgrounders on Obama's transition staff

Barack Obama has named his transition staff and an advisory board thereto (link). It would be interesting to know how many of them are part of or linked to the Chicago Machine or have other interesting links.

A few on the advisory board are known hereabouts: William Daley (brother of Chicago's mayor and supposedly clean 'n' mainstream), Janet Napolitano, and Federico Pena.

If searching for the names below reveals anything of interest, please leave a comment.

Others on the board are: Carol Browner, Christopher Edley, Michael Froman, Julius Genachowski, Donald Gips, Susan Rice, Sonal Shah, Mark Gitenstein, and Ted Kaufman. Per the link, "the latter two are Biden advisers."

And, here's the transition staff:

Chris Lu – Executive Director

Dan Pfeiffer – Communications Director

Stephanie Cutter – Chief Spokesperson

Cassandra Butts – General Counsel

Jim Messina – Personnel Director

Patrick Gaspard – Associate Personnel Director

Christine Varney - Personnel Counsel

Melody Barnes – Co-Director of Agency Review

Lisa Brown – Co-Director of Agency Review

Phil Schiliro – Director of Congressional Relations

Michael Strautmanis – Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs

Katy Kale – Director of Operations

Brad Kiley – Director of Operations

Posted to Politics at 03:26 PM

Reason Magazine tries to pretend they opposed Barack Obama

The "libertarians" at Reason Magazine offer a list of their recent coverage of Barack Obama (reason.com/news/show/129922.html), and from that list those who don't read their Hit and Run blog frequently might think they actually opposed him. In fact, they served as a bit of a cheerleader for him and almost always showed a clear bias towards him and against McCain (as pretty much every visitor to their site knows, their editor Matt Welch wrote an anti-McCain book). Yes, there were a few negative stories on BHO, but they never really went after him, despite all the at least partly libertarian-friendly things he could and should have been opposed over.

I posted that list over at their site a few times, and suggested that they try to offer an intellectually honest counterargument. Instead, the night before the election their last post was about frozen mice. No, really: reason.com/blog/show/129851.html

And nearly every single contributor to and commenter at their blog knows about my nearly two year push to go ask politicians real questions on video and then upload their responses to Youtube. At any time during the past two years, Reason could have very easily sent Dave Weigel or someone else to a BHO appearance to ask him a question - whether about my topics or theirs - that would have greatly reduced his support and shown him to be an empty suit. Instead, during the entire election cycle, the only "tough" question Reason managed to ask was when Weigel asked Larry Sinclair (yes, that guy) something slightly discomforting.

Obviously, Reason didn't try to ask anyone with any power tough questions, despite the fact that it would have gotten tens of times more views than their most viewed video and made them close to a household name. And, they would have done a great public service by holding politicians accountable and by showing how corrupt the MSM is.

But, they did nothing.

Reason isn't really a libertarian site, but it goes deeper than that: they're complete establishment suck-ups who have no interest in ruffling anyone's feathers. They're Joe Kleins in pleather jackets, worthless, corrupt frat boys who refuse to grow up and do anything remotely approaching holding politicians accountable.

Posted to Politics at 02:16 PM

What the heck just happened?

A poll about yesterday's election is in the extended entry.

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:23 AM

API RELEASES WHITEY TAPE!!!

DEVELOPING... BREAKING... LINK ANY MOMENT NOW... LARRY JOHNSON IS FLYING IN WITH THE TAPE AS I SPEAK...

While we're waiting, I'm going to go write-in Hillary.

UPDATE: It took less than ten minutes to go make my protest vote. As for API, the skullduggery has prevented them from airing the tape, but they promise they'll get it to us tomorrow.

Posted to Politics at 05:38 PM

Hundreds of college students might vote twice (Virginia)

A local GOP official in Virginia has compiled a list of hundreds of college students who are newly registered to vote in that state and who've also requested absentee ballots from a state in which they previously resided. Some might in fact follow through and vote twice, but of course we won't know that until after the election. Details here.

Posted to Politics at 01:41 PM

Hope, change: Black Panthers intimidate white voters in Philadelphia

Rough transcript of the video below.

RICK LEVENTHAL/FOX NEWS: i do not even know where to begin, but we have reached a polling place in the city of philadelphia. one of the two black panthers who was allegedly blocking the door is standing right over here, with an accused us of intimidating voters because we were here with a camera and microphone. he did not answer questions, other people here have confirmed that another person in black panther attire was holding a night stick and apparently the concern was that they were intimidating people who were trying to go inside to vote. a republican poll observer actually called the police, the police were here and we miss them...

CITIZEN: we got a phone call that there was intimidation going on. i walked up to the door, two gentlemen in black panther guard, one brandishing a nightstick, standing in front of the door. they closed ranks as i walked up...

UPDATE: There's amateur footage here.

Posted to Politics at 10:35 AM

Your election day eve assignment

Should you decide to accept it:

1. Search out local forums in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and other coal states (such as at local newspapers) and make sure that as many people as possible know exactly what Obama's position on coal is. Urge them to contact all their friends.

2. Do the preceding throughout the U.S. and let them know that Obama's plans will cause electricity rates to - in his own words - skyrocket. As above, urge everyone to contact their friends. That's non-partisan, so don't make it so, don't stick to conservative forums, etc.

3. Do the same with The Non-Partisan Case Against Barack Obama. As above, concentrate on places where independents and conservative Democrats gather. And, urge everyone to send that around. Feel free to add, remove or modify points to match your audience.

4. Let Obama's supporters or potential supporters know how great a person he is by letting them know that he supports his own aunt being deported at the same time as opposing the deportations of millions of illegal aliens he's never even met.

Posted to Politics at 11:02 PM

Video: Obama promises electricity rates will skyrocket under his plan (energy costs)

Here's the San Francisco Chronicle video (not just audio) of Barack Obama promising that under his energy plan, "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket".

The full transcript of the video is here; note this:

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know - Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers... They — you — you can already see what the arguments will be during the general election. People will say, “Ah, Obama and Al Gore, these folks, they’re going to destroy the economy, this is going to cost us eight trillion dollars,” or whatever their number is. Um, if you can’t persuade the American people that yes, there is going to be some increase in electricity rates on the front end, but that over the long term, because of combinations of more efficient energy usage, changing lightbulbs and more efficient appliance, but also technology improving how we can produce clean energy, the economy would benefit.

We should be incorporating new energy sources and encouraging people to use better lightbulbs. However, along the road to Obama's global non-warming paradise you're going to be paying a lot more money for your electricity bills and so will every company in the U.S. His plan would have a devastating impact on the economy, and it's a sign of his lack of qualifications to be president that he'd propose such a drastic plan.

Please send the video or this page to everyone you can find in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and other coal states.

See also Video of Obama wanting to bankrupt new coal-powered plants

Posted to Politics at 10:43 PM

Video of Obama wanting to bankrupt new coal-powered plants

Here's the San Francisco Chronicle video (not just audio) of Barack Obama discussing his cap and trade plan that would result in bankrupting new coal power plants. For the transcript of what's on the tape, see this. Note that there's a elision in there somewhere; if anyone has a full transcript of the whole interview that might be useful but I guess that's too much to ask.

Note especially this:

What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there... ...So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted...

What's on the audio at the link above but not on the video is this bit:

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can... It's just that it will bankrupt them.

Please send the video or this page to everyone you can find in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and other coal states.

See also Video: Obama promises electricity rates will skyrocket under his plan (energy costs) and those in the coal industry taking him to task.

Posted to Politics at 10:10 PM

Sarah Palin cleared in Troopergate

From this:

A new report just released -- hours before the polls open on Election Day -- exonerates Gov. Sarah Palin in the Troopergate controversy.

The state Personnel Board-sanctioned investigation is the second into whether Palin violated state ethics law in firing her public safety commissioner, and it contradicts the earlier findings by a special counsel hired by the state Legislature.

Both investigations found that Palin was within her rights to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

But the new report says the Legislature's investigator was wrong to conclude that Palin abused her power by allowing aides and her husband, Todd, to pressure Monegan and others to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten. Palin was accused of firing Monegan after Wooten stayed on the job...

Posted to Politics at 07:50 PM

Senator Bob Menendez to Neil Cavuto: "I hope you are not one of the ones forced off the air"

[UPDATE: Apparently this is nothing, see below.]

Earlier today, Senator Bob Menendez appeared on the Fox's Neil Cavuto show and got into an argument with him about various Barack Obama plans. Near the end of the interview and after a discussion in which Cavuto raised the possibility of the Democrats bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, Menendez said:

"I hope you are not one of the ones forced off the air."

Unfortunately, it isn't clear from someone who saw it whether that was just a very bad joke or whether Mendenez slipped up and told the truth. Please leave a comment which it is; here's the video:

[UPDATE: Once again, I didn't have audio when I posted this and, as you can see from the link above I asked someone else to confirm that's what Menendez said. And, as happened once before, the FReeptards got it wrong and there's apparently nothing wrong with what he said, at least in reference to Fairness Doctrine-related issues. Out of thousands of members, you'd think there'd be some people there who knew how to make themselves useful.]

Posted to Politics at 02:26 PM

Is Barack Obama still in frequent contact with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn?

Law professor Steve Diamond says a source close to the campaign says so. Unfortunately, until he gets someone to go on the record or at least a second source it's not really worth much right now.

Posted to Politics at 11:39 AM

Did Barack Obama flip the bird to John McCain? (give the finger)

Back in April, Barack Obama might have "flipped the bird"/"given the finger" to Hillary Clinton. In September, BHO said "You can put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig" (link) in what was probably a swipe at Sarah Palin. His supporters know what he's doing, no matter how some try to deny it.

Now, he's back:

See the video here.

Posted to Politics at 11:20 AM

Joe Biden on gun control: flashback to 2007 debate

I'm sure everyone remembers this classic from last year's Youtube/CNN debate debacle.

QUESTION: Good evening, America. My name is Jered Townsend from Clio, Michigan.

To all the candidates, tell me your position on gun control, as myself and other Americans really want to know if our babies are safe.

This is my baby, purchased under the 1994 gun ban. Please tell me your views.

Thank you.

...COOPER: Senator Biden, are you going to be able to keep his baby safe?

BIDEN: I'll tell you what, if that is his baby, he needs help.

(APPLAUSE)

I think he just made an admission against self-interest. I don't know that he is mentally qualified to own that gun. I'm being serious. Look, just like me, we go around talking about people who own guns. I am the guy who originally wrote the assault weapons ban, that became law, and then we got defeated and then Dianne Feinstein went to town on it and did a great job.

BIDEN: Look, we should be working with law enforcement, right now, to make sure that we protect people against people who don't -- are not capable of knowing what to do with a gun because they're either mentally imbalanced and/or because they have a criminal record, and...

COOPER: Time.

BIDEN: Anyway...

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: We got one more question. Before...

BIDEN: ... I hope he doesn't come looking for me.

(LAUGHTER)

Posted to Politics at 10:18 AM

Barack Obama is apparently not a friend to the coal industry

The Wheeling News-Register offers "Obama’s Real Agenda On Coal Now Clear" (link):

Clearly, Obama wants the scale set low on how much greenhouse gas a plant could emit before being forced to buy "credits" allowing it to operate. Here, in his own words, is what Obama told the Chronicle in regard to use of coal: "So, if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them, because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

That would help explain comments made earlier this fall in Ohio, by Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden. "No coal plants here in America," he emphasized. Obviously, Biden made his comments in the context of Obama's plan to price coal out of the marketplace through use of draconian air pollution rules.

Sen. John McCain has made it clear that he supports clean-coal technology - with no hidden agendas such as those Obama has in mind. As we have stressed repeatedly, McCain's plan should appeal not just to coal-state voters - but to all Americans worried about energy.

And, see "Ohio Coal Association Says Obama Remarks Make It Clear: Obama Ticket Not Supportive of Coal" (link):

Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association (OCA), today issued the following statement in response to just-released remarks from Senator Barack Obama about the nation's coal industry.

"Regardless of the timing or method of the release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer: the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America's coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in it.

"These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like 'I haven't been some coal booster' and 'if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them' are extraordinarily misguided.

"It's evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state's voters...

And, here's a Youtube video with Joe Biden speaking in Ohio and saying "No Coal Plants Here in America", he only wants them to be built in China.

From yesterday, see "Coal official calls Obama comments 'unbelievable'" (link)

And, from earlier this year, Harry Reid said:

"The one thing we fail to talk about is those costs that you don't see on the bottom line. That is coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick; it's global warming. It's ruining our country, it’s ruining our world. We’ve got to stop using fossil fuel.”

There's a video from the S.F. Chronicle meeting where Obama said he wasn't a coal booster here.

UPDATE: There's another round-up of reaction here ("Coal, Mining Groups Blast Obama").

Please send this page to everyone you know in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and other coal-producing states.

Posted to Politics at 09:28 AM

Rep. Jerrold Nadler: Obama didn't have the "political courage" to leave Rev. Wright's church (asking questions works)

For almost two years, I've been trying to encourage people to go to public appearances by politicians, ask them tough questions, and upload their responses to video sharing sites. A month ago, I sent an open letter to a series of mostly Pajamas Media bloggers urging them to push such a plan, and none of them did. Instead, some pushed loony theories, some sat in a dark corner moaning (PW), and others concentrated on their Amazon sales.

Now, one other person from that group - almost assuredly doing so on her own initiative and not on the prompting of the other hacks at PJM - has done something similar to my plan that might have an effect on the election. It would have been better if the person asked had been Obama and if the question had been an actual tough question, but a stumbling gaffe response might be enough to spur others to do something similar in the future.

From this:

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, was down in Florida over the weekend, and one supposes that he thought he was helping Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., but it will ultimately be hard to make that case.

Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugged has posted [link] some video of Nadler at a synagogue in Boca Raton trying to explain why Obama was able to stay in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years.

He starts off my saying he has no idea of what he's talking about. And then he proceeds to open mouth, insert foot...

...And then, the line that may haunt Nadler for four years or longer: "[Obama] didn't have the political courage to make the statement of walking out [of Rev. Wright's church]...

He apparently said other things too; see the last link.

Posted to Politics at 12:29 AM

Is it correct to doubt Barack Obama's patriotism, as Joe the Plumber did?

Ali Frick from ThinkProgress - whose parent fund is linked to the Obama campaign - breathlessly informs us that "Joe the Plumber" apparently just said something we're supposed to be shocked about (link):

McCain has fought and bled for our country, and loves our country. There's too many questions with Barack Obama and his loyalty to our country. And I question that greatly... ...his ideology is something that is completely different than what democracy stands for, so I had some question there. In my opinion...

He really shouldn't have said that, and he might find his campaign appearances curtailed as a result.

However, moving away from the political correctness, it's not that difficult to question the patriotism of many of our leaders due to the fact that, while they go through the proper motions, many of them also appear to be "trading for their own account" and/or basically supporting a globalist agenda rather than a completely U.S.-friendly agenda.

For an example, see George Bush making a pledge to the Mexican government to change the U.S. laws in a way that most Americans don't support. I called him a quisling at that time, and I still would call him that and I'd do it on the TV should I ever be elevated to JTP status. In that case, Bush clearly wasn't putting the U.S. first; he was putting the corrupt elites of the U.S. and Mexico first, but not the U.S. as a whole.

And, to a certain extent a similar argument could be made against John McCain as well over the same issue. Now, of course, the arguments above concern a different field than JTP was discussing, but also of course he can't discuss that for fear of McCain being implicated in the same charge.

In Obama's case, the only problem is that he hasn't yet reached the point where, like Bush, he can fully manifest his own issues with loyalty to the U.S.; he only visited Mexico in college and has yet to make a trip there to try to sell us out.

However, we do have a few data points already. For instance, Obama supports the anti-American DREAM Act, something that would take college educations away from U.S. citizens in order to give them to citizens of foreign countries who are here illegally.

And, not too long ago, Obama was regurgitating reconquista/MEChA talking points.

What JTP said was definitely rough around the edges, but for those who've been following along he's correct in general.

Note also that the ever-classy Josh Marshall offers "Joe the Skinhead" (talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/242050.php), a post that contains no evidence that JTP is a skinhead but simply smears him as such.

Posted to Politics at 05:53 PM

Obama wants his poor aunt to be deported, doesn't want millions of other illegal aliens to be deported

[SEE THE SECOND UPDATE]

Per this, on tonight and tomorrow night's CBS News, Katie Couric asked Barack Obama whether he would "support [his poor illegal alien aunt] being deported to Kenya". His response:

If she is violating laws those laws have to be obeyed. We're a nation of laws. Obviously that doesn't lessen my concern for her, I haven't been able to be in touch with her. But I'm a strong believer you have to obey the law.

Oddly enough, Obama applies a different standard to his own aunt than he does to the millions of other illegal aliens in the U.S.: he doesn't want them to be deported but instead wants them to stay here and become citizens (and thus voters).

In his "honest conversation" about immigration on April 1, 2008, Obama said the following (note that this includes a false choice too):

We are not going to send [illegal aliens] home ...Mr. Obama said many illegals have "settled," "bought property" and have children who are U.S. citizens. He said the country would have to devote "all our law enforcement resources to rounding up people without papers, even if they weren't causing any trouble," and once that's done, the country would have to "empty out our jails." ...That would force police to ignore killers and carjackers and instead be "worried about the guy in the kitchen somewhere who's working in a restaurant... Not all of 'em are from Mexico," because some are from Ireland, Poland or Nigeria. ..."Imagine what that would look like, basically detaining, putting in jail 12 million people. We're not going to do that..."

And, on March 12, 2008, Obama said this (the same false choice, and it includes a lie as well):

When I hear Rush Limbaugh or you know Lou Dobbs or some of these people talking about how we need to send them all back. We're not going to send them all back. First of all, this is a country of immigrants. Second of all, as a practical matter, we would end up having to use all of our law enforcement resources to round people up, detain them, separate families. It's not a realistic solution.

It's about time his supporters realize that Obama is just a sleazy liar who will do anything to win.

UPDATE: If Obama weren't incredibly sleazy, he could have said that he was getting her an immigration lawyer to see if her case can be appealed. Instead, he said the above.

UPDATE 2: From this:

Senior aides to Sen. Barack Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick were aware that Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, was living in the United States illegally and in a South Boston public-housing project, and were monitoring her at the request of senior Obama campaign officials, according to a current employee for Obama's key political consulting firm, AKP&D Message and Media.

Back in early 2007, as Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod was organizing and planning the Obama campaign, he identified Obama's unique family situation -- a number of half-brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, some living overseas -- as a potential problem, says an employee for Axelrod's political consulting firm, and who has done work on the Obama campaign. "Given [Obama's] father's family history here and in Africa, David wanted the campaign to know who was who, where they lived, and what they were doing. No surprises. We knew she was here illegally. We knew her income levels, but I don't think anyone from the campaign had had contact with her."

Instead, according to the source, Axelrod reached out to his former client, Patrick, who had retained Axelrod's firm for his run for governor.

Posted to Politics at 04:36 PM

Obama's first fulltime job at company with "substantial SDS ties" (Business International)

When he got out of Columbia University in the early 80s, Obama's first full-time job was at an apparently mainstream business reporting outfit called Business International.

Now, it turns out that that company had a series of links with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) via their 1966-67 president Carl Oglesby. He led the non-violent wing of the SDS and was opposed to the violent wing comprised of Mike Klonsky and Bernardine Dohrn. The latter is the wife of Bill Ayers, and the former headed the Ayers-created Small Schools Workshop that Barack Obama later funded to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, of course, that violent wing of the SDS later became the Weathermen. The company's collaboration with the non-violent part of SDS and BHO's employment there were separated by several years, but this is yet another example of BHO being linked into a network containing Ayers, Klonsky, and friends.

If anyone has first-hand information, leave a comment here or at the comments thread at the link above.

Posted to Politics at 03:14 PM

Just for us! Campaign adds official "European & Mediterranean Americans for Obama" (WASPs, Nordics not allowed)

My fellow European & Mediterranean Americans:

It's now safe for us to vote for Barack Obama, because he's recently added a section to his website just for us!

Visit Obama's official new page just for us here: my.barackobama.com/page/content/eahome

It's for white people, but not every white person: only those of us who are "ethnics". In the past, some white people were confused, "am I an Ethnic-American, or am I regular?" In many cases, figuring that out involved a skin-color, frecklization, head shape, or head bump test.

But, highly intelligent Leader that Obama is, he's provided a handy list so you can tell at a glance whether you're Ethnic or not, which I've sorted to make it even easier:

BALKAN-AMERICANS: Albanian Americans · Bosnian Americans · Croatian Americans · Greek Americans · Serbian Americans

EASTERN EUROPEAN AND SLAVIC-AMERICANS: Hungarian Americans · Polish Americans · Romanian Americans · Russian Americans · Ukrainian Americans

NEAR AND MIDDLE EASTERN-AMERICANS: Arab Americans · Armenian Americans · Turkish Americans

REGULAR BUT STILL ETHNIC EUROPEAN-AMERICANS: Irish Americans · Italian Americans

SOMEWHAT BUT NOT ENTIRELY HISPANIC-AMERICANS: Portuguese Americans

Just like Obama didn't want to be a "sell-out", neither should we: rejoice in your ethnic-ness, fellow Ethnic-Americans!

And, as you can see, the list thankfully doesn't say a damn thing about those German-Americans and Scandinavian-Americans, whether the dolicephalic Nordics or the mesocephalic types with origins from around Bavaria. But, those in the latter group needn't be overly concerned. Many will be Catholic, and thus they're presumably included in the Catholic subsection of the "People of Faith" section.

Also thankfully, the list obviously doesn't include those WASPs ("White Anglo-Saxon Protestants"). Unfortunately, we Ethnic-Americans know about them, the people who've been oppressing us Ethnic-Americans since our forefathers got off the boat.

So, my fellow European & Mediterranean Americans, rejoice! The Great Leader includes our racial and ethnic subgroup in his thoughts, and will help us fight against our eternal enemies in other racial and ethnic subgroups!

Whether you're a Balkan-American, an Irish-American, or a mix of one or more, enjoy the thoughts of our Leader:

European and Mediterranean Americans (sometimes known as Ethnic Americans) for Obama are Americans of varied backgrounds – from the newly naturalized citizen building a family and laying down roots to the fourth-generation family in the US with ties and heritage connected to the land of our ancestors. New in greater Detroit – these are just some of the stories of American families, stories of resounding hope and affirmation in the American dream – and it is Barack Obama’s story as well.

We are proud of our heritage, recognizing that our collective differences make up the rich and colorful fabric of American society. We are proud of a country that allows us to celebrate our own customs while giving us endless opportunities. It’s a country that allows our children and grandchildren, through their hard work and determination, to achieve heights previously unimaginable.

But, like so many Americans, we’ve been profoundly disappointed by the failed policies driven by George Bush over the past eight years...

Finally: a leader who will help us Ethnic-Americans stand up to that WASP bastard!

Posted to Politics at 12:22 PM

Did Carla Marinucci cover up Obama's "bankrupt" coal plants plan?

The San Francisco Chronicle conducted an interview with Barack Obama on January 17, 2008 in which he said things relating to his energy policy and his plan to bankrupt coal plants under certain conditions. What he said may or may not be as shocking as some would have you believe; I don't know anything about the topic.

What I do know is that (h/t Newsbusters), the summary of the talk from Carla Marinucci of the SF Chronicle contains nothing about his energy-related discussions. Was that a cover-up or something else? I'll let the reader decide, but note that she's misled in Obama's favor before; see the last link.

Posted to Politics at 11:18 AM

Will Barack Obama "bankrupt the coal industry"?

Barack Obama's not-exactly-brilliant opponents are once again setting themselves up for failure as they have so many times in the past. The latest example is the claim that Obama will "bankrupt the coal industry", which doesn't appear to be completely accurate. [1]

And, because that claim isn't 100% accurate, what's going to happen is what's happened before: "fact check" sites and the mainstream media are going to use the fact that it isn't 100% accurate to negate the entire claim and obscure the fact that it might be partly true. (See my list of stupid things Obama's opponents do).

After the "fact checkers" do their thing, Obama's supporters at blogs, Digg, etc. are going to spread those "fact checks" around and use them at a retail level against anyone in the affected states who might otherwise be swayed.

It's all pretty sad, but I can't do everything. And, in this case I don't know anything about the coal industry so I can't come up with something that would work.

See the link above for the full quote, including this:

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

Someone who's a recognized expert on coal needs to come up with a completely fact-based analysis of the impact that Obama's plans would have on the industry, and then boil that down to a one-sentence, completely factual summary together with a series of footnotes. If you aren't an expert, look up university professors in coal-producing areas and send them emails asking for their thoughts.

Is that really so difficult? Yes, apparently it is.

11/3/08 UPDATE: This is currently the #3 story on Digg (all sections) with 2695 diggs: digg.com/2008_us_elections/Palin_Spreads_False_News_Report

People don't think ahead and make sure they're saying something that's 100% defensible, and that leaves an opening for the MSM to try to smack down the whole story.

[1] The audio is from an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle from January 17, 2008; Carla Marinucci summarized it, leaving out all the shocking bits.

My suspicions about the claim are raised by the fact that the audio where he makes the claims is from NakedEmperorNews, a source which was behind the wealth redistribution audio and others, and a source that I don't consider very credible. Needless to say, the video (link) has a long, inflammatory title: "SHOCK Audio Unearthed OBAMA TELLS SAN FRANCISCO HE WILL BANKRUPT THE COAL INDUSTRY".

Can't we do better than this?

Posted to Politics at 11:00 AM

Matriarch Sarah Obama says Barack Obama was born in Kenya (?)

Against my better judgment, I'm linking to this page supposedly containing audio and a transcript of a conversation held with Sarah Onyango Obama, matriarch of the Obama clan. To cut to the chase, see the lower right corner of this BMP file with the transcript:

Kweli Shuhubia: He [the Luo translator] is asking her, he wants to know something was ah she present when he [Barack Obama] was born?

Translator: Yes. She says, "Yes she was! She was present when Obama was born."

Ron McRae: Okay.

If the red preface to the post linked above isn't enough of a warning sign, note that McRae is a street preacher with the self-assumed title of a bishop and overseer of the Anabaptists Churches in North America. And, due to the political situation there, Kweli Shuhubia isn't his real name. And, well, expect many others to come up with many other ways to mock the tape.

It might be a real tape, and she might be telling the truth and not be confusing BHO with some other relative. But, unless she flies to the U.S. and appears on TV saying the same thing it's probably not going to make that much of a difference.

To go with the red text at the post, let me add my own:

DO NOT WASTE TIME ON THIS. DO SOMETHING EFFECTIVE. FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, ONE OF THE BEST THINGS YOU CAN DO IS TO SEND THIS LIST (OR YOUR VARIANT) TO ALL THE UNDECIDEDS YOU CAN FIND, AND TELL THEM TO SEND IT TO ALL THEIR FRIENDS.

Posted to Politics at 10:55 PM

ADN: AP Palin story on pipeline bids was "remarkably skewed" (Justin Pritchard, Garance Burke)

The Anchorage Daily News - a paper that's endorsed Obama - offers "Misfire at Palin" (link) about last week's Associated Press "investigation" from Justin Pritchard and Garance Burke about bids for a major Alaskan pipeline project [1].

This report from The Associated Press is a remarkably skewed account with little new information to support the charge it implies. Presumably, readers are supposed to conclude that Palin tilted the gas line bidding toward a favored company, one that had previously employed one of her key staffers.

Here's the truth: The pipeline terms were not "Palin's." They were the terms requested by the sovereign state of Alaska, as provided in the Alaska Constitution.

While Palin did indeed start by proposing very similar bid terms, all of Alaska's key decisions about those terms and the contract award itself were made through an unusually open public process that culminated in formal and enthusiastic approval from the Alaska Legislature.

[1] "Palin pipeline terms curbed bids"
huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/25/palins-pipeline-deal-flaw_n_137825.html

Posted to Politics at 04:24 PM

Obama, Farrakhan ties more extensive than thought

From this:

A former top deputy to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan tells Newsmax that Barack Obama’s ties to the black nationalist movement in Chicago run deep, and that for many years the two men have had “an open line between them” to discuss policy and strategy, either directly or through intermediaries.

“Remember that for years, if you were a politician in Chicago, you had to have some type of relationship with Louis Farrakhan. You had to. If you didn’t, you would be ostracized out of black Chicago,” said Dr. Vibert White Jr., who spent most of his adult life as a member and ultimately top officer of the Nation of Islam.

White broke with the group in 1995 and is now a professor of African-American history at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

White said Obama was “part of the Chicago scene” where Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and radicals would go to each other’s events and support each other’s causes.

“Even though Chicago is the third-largest city in the country, within the black community, the political and militant nationalist community is very small. So it wouldn’t be uncommon for [Obama and Farrakhan] to show up at events together, or at least be there and communicate with each other,” White told Newsmax...

Note also that Obama, Ayers, and Farrakhan live within just a few blocks of each other in Hyde Park.

Posted to Politics at 04:21 PM

Obama supports failed "portfolio-assessment" education programs

School choice supporter Lance Izumi from the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy offers this:

Talking to National Public Radio, Melody Barnes, a spokeswoman for [Barack Obama's] campaign, said recently that Mr. Obama supports "portfolio assessment" of student performance. Portfolio assessment usually requires a student to perform various classroom assignments, like write essays, do individual projects, participate in group projects. These assignments are put into a portfolio for that student and evaluated. In a debate earlier this month, Linda Darling-Hammond, education adviser to Mr. Obama, pointed to other countries where students are assessed based on “kids doing science inquiries, research papers, technology products."

Portfolio-assessment supporters claim that this method gives a broader view of a student's knowledge level. Whether this is true or not, the problem is that portfolio assessment is extremely difficult to implement effectively in practice.

Kentucky enacted a portfolio-assessment program in 1990. After a few years, a state review panel found that because teachers in the students’ own schools scored the portfolios, there was grade inflation. Furthermore, the panel found that since teaching, time allotted for assignments and opportunities for revising work differed from classroom to classroom, it was impossible to compare student performance fairly.

A RAND study of Vermont’s portfolio-assessment system, which used independent scorers, came to similar conclusions. The study found that those assessing portfolios were confused by the scoring guidelines and disagreed among themselves during the evaluations. Moreover, training a large number of scorers proved difficult and the system was hugely expensive. Finally, student task variation from classroom to classroom made reliable evaluation impossible...

Posted to Politics at 11:53 AM

The "best" of Michelle Obama

This video seems to be a compilation of the "best" of Michelle Obama, America's nightmare First Lady.

Posted to Politics at 09:43 AM

Heartless Obama throws poor, illegal alien aunt under bus; will return illegal donations; lies about not knowing?

Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt Zeituni Onyango - called "Auntie Zeituni" in his memoirs - turns out to be an illegal alien living in a Boston slum who illegally donated part of her meager income to his campaign.

And, now she joins a host of other former Obama associates under his bus. After it was discovered yesterday that she's an illegal alien, the Obama campaign has today released the following statement:

"Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed."

Now, let's parse that out, Clinton-like.

1. He's not offering to get her an immigration lawyer to see whether her case is salvageable. Instead, he's just throwing her under the bus, in effect daring the Bush administration to go deport her. He truly is Mr. Wonderful, isn't he?

2. The statement puts his supposed lack of knowledge of her status in the present tense. What about past knowledge? Wouldn't a statement like this normally say that he "had" no knowledge?

3. Does this contradict his past implications that immigration raids and associated deportations should be stopped until "immigration reform" passes? Is he more "humane" to millions of other illegal aliens than his own aunt? (See Barack details practical, progressive, and humane federal policy that fundamentally addresses issues of immigration, link)

4. Isn't this yet another in the long line of support for illegal activity that follows him around everywhere he goes? His former bagman has been convicted; he's linked to others under investigation or suspected of being involved in illegal activity; his illegal alien aunt gave him illegal campaign donations; he supports illegal immigration and would allow it to continue; and, he's received potentially tens of millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions.

5. The campaign says they'll return her donations (link). What about all the potential millions from others?

6. Let's look at the timeline the AP provides and see if it could be possible - shocking as it may be - that Obama is lying about having knowledge of her status:

~1988: [Obama] first met his father's side of the family when he traveled to Africa 20 years ago. He referred to Onyango as "Auntie Zeituni" when describing the trip in his memoir, saying she was "a proud woman."

~1992: returns to Kenya with Michelle, sees her again

~1999: Onyango visited the family in Chicago on a tourist visa at Obama's invitation about nine years ago, the campaign said, stopping to visit friends on the East Coast before returning to Kenya.

2005: She attended Obama's swearing-in to the U.S. Senate in 2004 [note: actually 2005], but campaign officials said Obama provided no assistance in getting her a tourist visa and doesn't know the details of her stay.

2006: The campaign said he last heard from her about two years ago when she called saying she was in Boston, but he did not see her there.

Does anyone in their right mind think that the hyper-ruthless and -efficient Obama campaign wouldn't have immediately have done a background check - "vetted" her - to make sure she wasn't going to be a liability? He knew she came here on a tourist visa in 2004. Did she apply for asylum on that visit? Isn't that something she would have mentioned to him? Perhaps not, but wouldn't he expect that she would have returned home? Then, when she called back in 2006 wouldn't he immediately wonder under what status she'd come back? If she'd mentioned that she'd applied for regular legal immigration (rather than seeking asylum), wouldn't he wonder about the timing? Clearly she wants to live in the U.S.; wouldn't he have inquired about what she was doing to further that goal?

And, she previously told at least two reporters that she couldn't comment on anything until after the election. Did she think up that on her own? What role if any do those in Obama friend Deval Patrick's administration have in any of this? Were any of those people "minding" her?

Everyone reading this - not MSM reporters - needs to go out and try to ask Obama some questions about this. We need to find out exactly what Obama knew about this (and when he knew it). And, we need to find out exactly what else he's hiding away until after the election.

UPDATE: Rep. John Conyers has sent a letter to Michael Chertoff, saying in part: "I was startled to read in today’s Associated Press that a 'federal law enforcement official' has leaked information about an immigration case involving a relative of Senator Obama." However, is what the official did illegal, or are they just worried about reprisal in case BHO wins? If the former, the comments here concerning the JTP case apply. What part of her case is not a part of the public record?

UPDATE 2: His swearing-in was actually in 2005, not 2004 as the AP report says. I changed that above. That also means that she was here illegally while attending his swearing-in ceremony.

Posted to Politics at 09:34 AM

Non-"liberal" coverage of immigration, Iraq, terrorism, multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...

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All Posts(links to each post by title)

• My new favorite actress is Heather Zichal (Aaron Sorkin's 'ChangeDotGov')
• Youtube/Pulitzer makes worthless illegal immigration supporting video finalist
• Obama/Center for American Progress link gets mainstream media attention!
• Kos gets one thing right: the rightwing blogosphere is mostly just inept chatter
• Zogby poll shows how misinformed Obama's supporters are (and is yet another example of Obama's opponents making mistakes)
• Owen Thomas/ValleyWag has no clue about immigration or much else (Peter Thiel, Facebook)
• Skateboarding dog! (the creepy version)
• Eliot Spitzer returns; so, was he set up to hush him up about the financial crisis?
• Jesse Washington/AP's supposed "outbreak of racial anger" after Obama win
• Discuss president-elect Barack Obama's radio/Youtube address (November 15, 2008)
• Alan Keyes petitions court over Barack Obama's eligibility; guess: he has standing
• Agriprocessors CEO arrested on bank fraud charges
• Sham: Obama to hold "fireside chats" on Youtube
• Youtube loves salmon, adds nofollow tags to profile videos
• Barack Obama misled about regular attendance at Rev. Wright's church
• Shock: Youtube/Pulitzer contest has pro-illegal immigration puff piece as finalist
• Westwood CA Mormon Temple gets white powder envelope (Prop. 8, gay marriage)
• Defeating Obama was easy, it's just that no one wanted to do it
• Barack Obama faked Selective Service registration?
• Brooks Jackson/FactCheck spins Obama's Civilian National Security Force

My trip to Alpine County What not to do, again (September 1-2, 2002)

Boston Market Cornbread Temperatures Please help contribute to this important study (August 28, 2002)

Did The Gap Put Celebrities at Risk? An Open Web Letter to The Gap (May 20, 2002)

Humphreys Peak Arizona's highest point (May 19, 2001)

Go Heavy, Go Slow, Get Lost Bay Area highpoints (December 14, 2000)

Hubris in New England The highpoints of RI, CT, and MA (October 8, 2000)

Let's go to Utah Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon (August 14, 2000)

Your host, climbing Monkey Face (5.14d)

Your host's arm (circled)

Your host's hopelessly outdated conditioning progress

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