My post Meet Fred Thompson’s wife, Jeri Kehn  was an unexpected huge hit and I never did make it into a youtube video but I should have. There is now tremendous interest in McCain’s pick for veep and I thought I would try to make an easy to make youtube video about her to see how it turned out. Let me know what you think.

Meet Sarah Palin: The Next Vice President of the United States

On the Sarah Palin thread, a fine chap named TZ reminded me that this story should never go untold.  As Joe Lieberman prepares to take the stage in St. Paul he will most assuredly be assailed as “a wolf in sheeps clothing” by those he once stood shoulder to shoulder with.  The reality is that Joe Lieberman’s party left him, not the opposite. 

If anyone has ever watched the 1941 film about the most highly decorated soldier of WWI, Seargent York, they will remember the powerful scene where York is converted and becomes a Christian as the pastor and the congregation sing “Give me that old time religion”. This is a rare and apparently just rediscovered rendition from a Professor Johnson and his Gospel Singers complete with a bit of good old time preaching. I really enjoyed it. This version reminds of the old “Negro spirituals” that have played such an important role in Christian worship in America.

Alright ladies and gentlemen, I believe here are the “official” talking points for the Sarah Palin selection.  Entire table lifted from Audacity of Deception & Hypocrisy which is an excellent source on the 2008 campaigns.

Read the rest of this entry »

…is titled “Our Little Barracuda” and is now up at Watchblog. They usually get it first and everybody else gets it later. Don’t ask me why.

Andrew Sullivan:

[When we are] in an era of astonishingly difficult challenges, when the next president could be grappling with war in the Middle East or a catastrophic terror attack at home. Under those circumstances, we could have a former Miss Alaska with two terms years under her belt as governor. Now compare McCain’s pick with Obama’s: a man with solid foreign policy experience, six terms in Washington and real relationships with leaders across the globe.

One pick is by a man of judgment; the other is by a man of vanity.

She may be a fine person, but she’s my age, she has zero Washington experience, and no foreign policy expertise whatsoever.

McCain has just told us how seriously he takes the war we are in. Not seriously at all.

Oh, but she’s a MILF, goes hunting for moose and opposes abortion even if a preteen girl were raped, so it’s okay. Male conservative bloggers pushed this pick, and probably cemented themselves as the horniest group in the country.

Politics can be really fun at times. This is one of those times. The “Right” has been so concerned about McCain yet have faithfully, if reluctantly, backed his “Nobama” candidacy. They have been scared to death of Obama and his vision of an apparent womb to the tomb socialist, Utopian state complete with hamster wheel powered vehicles and torch and pitchfork pogroms against all those who are white, bitter, Bible believing, gun owners who hesitated to hire illegals to clean their plastic wading pools.

The howling mob you now hear is millions of conservatives rushing to man the barricades against the Oprah hordes with the new Joan of Arc leading them into battle. In less than twelve hours the past sins of RHINO McCain have been forgiven and Sarah “barracuda” Palin has become some sort of amalgamated mascot, poster child, and hero of many conservatives. The pundits will ponder the question as to whether Palin brought over the women to the McCain camp, but the truth is she brought over every male that is old enough to spout some hair on his chest, have his testicles descend or hasn’t been emasculated somewhere along the way by angry FemiNazis.

The post Unavoidable: Cool Facts About Sarah Palin over at Ace of Spades is funny not so much for the post itself but the wealth of comments it has spawned. Take the time to read it if you aren’t really that busy watching reruns of That’s So Raven on the Disney Channel.

Just a few here:

“Hey Willy, when I saw Palin man-handling that weapon, I told my husband that millions of rock-ribbed conservative men just simultaneously ejaculated.” 

“Sarah  Palin made the entire free world forget about Barry’s speech last night….she is more powerful than Chuck Norris.”

“Sarah Palin once glanced northward.  The glaciers have been receding ever since.”

“Sarah Palin is so hot if she went to San Francisco the gay bars would all go out of business.”

“Sarah Palin can not only catch a bullet in her teeth, she can tie it in a knot with her tongue.”

“Sarah Palin wants to drill in ANWR.  With the heel of her stiletto.”

Good stuff, silly but fun. It all starts for real Sat. morning.

Governor Sarah Palin delivered the following remarks after John McCain announced that she was joining the ticket as the nominee for Vice President: Read the rest of this entry »

The braying begins…

So the Democrats have decided to “pounce” on McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin. What’s hilarious is that every one of the yapping Democratic attack dogs complaints about Palin apply directly to Obama. Even with this pick, McCains vice presidential selection is more experienced and more qualified for the presidency than the Democratic nominee himself. That should tell you something and that is the line that should be used every time the dimwits start saying a word about “inexperience”. They’ve basically got a “I vote present” Illinois state senator running for the highest office in the land and they are complaining about a governor and, might I add, the only one on both tickets with actual governing experience. She also stands in stark contrast to an Obama who has abundantly more baggage and a disturbingly problematic past. There also seems to be firm evidence that her birth certificate is genuine.

Read the rest of this entry »

This cop was determined to play “Chicago police riot” tough guy with a CodePinker. I guess his mother never told him to not hit girls. Overall, the attempt to recreate 1968 in Denver during the DNC was a dismal failure and a downright embarrassment to the various anarchists, radical “peace” activists and young Marxist idealists amongst us. Overall, I’ve seen more politically fueled, protest violence at a petting zoo. But at least they got a massive amount of press coverage that far outweighed their numbers, limited intellectual capacity or ideological influence.

There was a development last night at Invesco Field. As you may know security was tighter than ever here in Denver for Senator Obama’s acceptance speech. Mile High Stadium, the site of CSU’s next schoolyard whipping by CU this Sunday,  had lines backed up almost a mile at one point.

People were told to arrive as much as six hours before the nominee’s scheduled oration. They were not allowed to bring in their own food or drink. Aramark, the food and drink vendor at Invesco Field was not prepared for this prolonged need to service 80,000 people for more than eight hours. It has not been reported yet, but your messenger has it on first hand accounts, that Aramark ran out of food hours before the Senator’s sermon.

Michelle Obama was terribly distressed by the suffering multitudes and decided something must be done to assuage their hunger. She sent Bill Burton, Dan Pfeiffer and David Plouffe out to locate a source of food for the teeming masses. The socialist, extremely liberal, refreshingly progressive propaganda machine communications team could find nary a scrap of food. Things looked dire, after all the people needed strength for the crying that Senator Obama’s pearls were sure to invoke in just a few hours.

Fortunately David Axelrod heard about the impending disaster and rushed forward to help. He brought the small cooler that held the remains of his lunch that he was planning to use to make potage de poissons avec du pain rassis (fish soup and stale bread). Unfortunately the leftovers were sparse. What could one do with a few loaves of stale bread and a few fillets of fish (grilled not fried of course)?

Read the rest of this entry »

From the daily show.

Barack the Messiah Obama

On July 28, Conclubs DFV gave a detailed rundown of the possible veep picks for McCain.  In his second tier, he had Romney.  I suppose he felt like Romney was too obvious of a pick.  And in just 12 hours, we will know if Romney’s flight to Ohio will be for the purposes of meeting with McCain as the Vice Presidential candidate.

Insiders say that Lieberman may still be in play.  The possibilities are all intriguing.

McCain’s been nibbling around the edges of the DNC which I think was a rather decent strategy. What do you think of this one following the much heraled “Nuremburg” style coronation of The One?

It’s often the case in politics that a vote is taken out of context, such as claiming someone voted against stopping child porn, because he really opposed a completely stupid bill to which said child porn amendment was attached.  It’s also fairly common to embellish what a candidate says, or more specifically to leave out some minor details when quoting them in an ad, usually with the helpful use of ellipses.

But the latest ad from St. McCain is simply a lie.  It claims that Obama called Iran a “tiny nation”, and said that he believes that it “doesn’t pose a serious threat”. 

Well, here’s what he really said:

“Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That’s what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That’s what Nixon did with Mao. I mean, think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, ‘We’re going to wipe you off the planet.’ And ultimately, that direct engagement led to a series of measures that helped prevent nuclear war and over time allowed the kind of opening that brought down the Berlin Wall.”

I don’t know what I find more sad- that this kind of nonsense is all the right really has to offer in this campaign, that otherwise good people will jump up and defend its use in defense of “the greater good”, or that this kind of cynical bullshit will probably work.

“Joe Biden wasn’t even on Barack Obama’s short list until August 7, when Russia suddenly invaded the neighboring country of Georgia. That’s the word from key Democrats meeting here in Denver who say the Obama campaign’s need to shore up its foreign policy bona fides helped push the Delaware senator to the top of the pack. ‘We didn’t pick our nominee. Vladimir Putin did,’ is how one Democrat, who professes to be pleased with the Biden choice, put it.”

—John Fund

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read this. Like “Slow Joe” Biden and Barry the boywonder would be any match for Putin. When push comes to shove the whole world knows what kind of appeaser and compromising (can’t we all just get along?) type of president Obama would be. Being a superpower isn’t about winning a popularity contest or about being prom queen yet you would never know it with the constant worrying coming out of the modern day Democratic party about how the rest of the world views the US. The psychological implications and psychosis of such deep rooted fears and insecurities in a modern day political movement is profound, frightening and enlightening all at the same time.

This ad was ran right up to the start of Hillary’s speech during the DNC. A bold and aggressive move and worth a shot. I like seeing McCain aggressive and increasingly putting the Dem camp on the defensive. I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t see an Obama ad during the Republican National Convention next week.

Or perhaps even the blue one…

Hillary’s pantsuit collection

At the outset, I thought Hillary did the job that she had to do for the Dems.  I wasn’t crazy about the orange pants suit but fashion isn’t necessarily a strength of the feminist pants suit wearing types.  (**Coincidentally, Michelle Obama wore a dress and has looked better over the last couple of days than I remember**) 

Yet Hillary never declared that Obama was her friend nor did she indicate that he would be a good President (in those words).  I think this is very telling of the tension that she has with the junior Senator.  She is willing to take one for the party.  The lines I thought were good were the Twin Cities remark regarding Bush and McCain and the Harriet Tubman quote.  She gave an adequate lesson in the history of women’s rights and voting (not surprising, it was about her).  And ultimately, she looked much more presidential than the guy she was shilling for. 

Not surprisingly, I watched the crew at MSNBC and to a tee, Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell, Keith Olbermann, and Chris Matthews spoke so glowingly of the speech that they may have to go home and separately take cold showers.  Tom Brokaw was at least sober in his assessment.  I can’t wait to see the utter contempt for the Republicans by the same crew next week.  Stay tuned.

**Update** I take it back.  While Brokaw was sober in his assessment of the speech, he is clearly a hack for the left as he ticks off a long list of “serious” issues that America must confront after the conventions.  Naturally, they were all issues that a Democrat would find dire.  The “dire economy” and “climate crisis” are but two issues for the ‘impartial’ Brokaw.

It has been difficult for John McCain to get a word in over the fawning chorus of the elite media.  They are so far in bed with Obama that they refuse to even question the lack of a role call at the convention.  Try to imagine a political scenario in which a candidate who received about 18 million votes faces another candidate who recieved about 18 million votes and is not recognized in a role call of delegates for that candidate.  In 1992, Jerry Brown took to the podium for a firey speech and did not endorse Bill Clinton.  In 1988, Jessie Jackson was so riled by his Veep snub at the hand of Dukakis that he threatened to have his delegates put him up as an alternate V.P. candidate to oppose Lloyd Bentsen.  The real issue is that the media circus surrounding the ‘Chosen One’ is unwilling to even question the fact that protocol will not be followed in a convention that should guarantee the voice of a candidate that may have won the popular vote in the primaries. 

But the lamestream media has had little effect on the spirits of the powers-that-be in the GOP.  The McCain camp is clearly out-campaigning their Democratic counterparts.  They have been on the offensive.  They have utilized the web.  They have made the distinctions that Conclub has said need to be made.  They have raised the issue of inexperience masterfully.  They have been satirical of the media coverage.  They have portrayed McCain as the wiser and more experienced foreign policy sage.  And they just may pull out what I previously thought was impossible for McCain; the Presidency.

Here is an example of how Team McCain has utilized the web.  This web commercial is both humorous and telling.  Enjoy.

The look Michelle Obama gave right after she said “I love this country”.

Is anyone really buying this load of crap?

And just as a side note, Ted Kennedy gave a speech tonight but unfortunately Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.

Regarding the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention.

Hmmm, I see they’re using Navajo Code Talkers. I suppose they reasoned that a Boy Scout troop would be booed and that a Democrat would hesitate to trash a minority group.

What do you want to bet that the Pledge of Allegiance will be on a big teleprompter?

-member “Default User” at FreeRepublic.com

Top Ten Convention Moments

Realclearpolitics has some new numbers out and they show just how close this election is electorally as well as in the popular vote. To me, these numbers suggest that McCain has to pick someone that will guarantee that Pennsylvania goes “Red” in November. There may be one two others from that state that could help swing it into play for the Republicans in November. Without Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida going for McCain this election will be very hard to win for him. It also shows that a state like Colorado or Michigan might be the key as well, but if I were one of McCain’s strategists I wouldn’t count on them.

Some sort of New Mexico/Colorado/New Hampshire combo would work as well for McCain, but that might be harder to pull off than just going for the gold and picking a Pennsylvania favorite son. This is playing politics for keeps and if you are the underdog you have to be willing to make a more daring move than Obama did by picking a blowhard from Delaware. This one counts.

Hopefully, McCain (unlike Hillary) has some people working for him that understand electoral and proportional concepts and strategies, not to mention the ability to count to 270.

Early reports are that McCain will announce his veep selection in PA on Friday and that it will NOT be Tom Ridge.  Could it be John Kasich? He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and was a nine term congressman in Ohio. Such a move would also shore up support among conservatives and help with the economic policy perception of the McCain ticket. Though if I had to guess, I am going to say that McCain’s choice is going to be either Mitt Romney (probably the favorite according to “insiders”) or Sarah Palin which, of course, would not help very much with Pennsylvania. Palin is definitely a bold and tempting choice and an “outside the box” pick may not be a bad idea here, especially if he doesn’t follow my PA favorite son strategy. Then you almost have to go the unique, successful white woman route to generate some genuine interest and actually gain some momentum and ultimately some votes from your pick.

Minnesota governor Tom Pewlenty is a good friend of McCain and McCain feels very comfortable with him. If everything else stayed exactly the same and Pewlenty was able to bring Minnesota into Red State territory then McCain might just barely cross the victory line by a nose in what may turn out to be one of the closest electoral races in history. That also is one heck of a gamble and my spidey sense tells me that this will probably not happen.

In my analysis Huckabee is out, so is Lieberman, Thompson, Guiliani, and LA governor Jendal.  And the rumor mill Hillary talk is downright crazy. Other than that, I won’t make any more predictions and will wait and see just like everyone else.

This should be interesting. I can’t wait until Friday. At least the suspense will be over, as well as the Democratic National Convention. Both things tend to leave me a bit queasy. And if McCain is really, really, smart he’ll leak it late Thursday night and try to help deflate the Obama balloon.

Last week I posted Amazing Grace and I decided it may be a bit of fun to post a few of the great old Christian hymns on Sundays.  This hymn was sung by the congregation at my grandfather’s funeral at his request and I have always felt that I wouldn’t mind having it sang at mine as well.

It would be difficult for me to put into words just how blessed I am.  When I am at work, I get to teach high schoolers the fundamentals of European or world history.  Or I get to take to the gridiron and coach some pretty fantastic kids in football.  When I am at home, I have four great kids and a wife to keep me grounded.
And for three months a year, I still get paid to do virtually anything I want.  It’s like stealing!  It just so happens that during the summer I still coach football and for the rest of the time, I spend my time with the kids.  Among my most favorite posts from my co-contributors are those that show a small slice of their lives.  So now that I am back in school, I thought I might give you a glimpse of some summertime kids in Denver. Read the rest of this entry »

I get to help oversee the downfall of Western Civilization tomorrow edition!!!

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

Tomorrow I attend my first honest to gosh, totally legal gay wedding.   Our nefarious agenda marches forward.

I can’t wait to see how long it takes someone to come up with some sort of “creative” Obama bin Biden  bumper sticker. Where is THB when you need him?

Joe Biden is now the official vice presidential pick for presidential hopeful Barrack Obama. While thousands of idiots Democratic activists and “insiders” are still waiting for that exciting “I’ll get to know first” text message Conclub will be moving right along and spare you the unwanted eye straining of waiting for the official announcement.

So what have we learned from this pick?

• John McCain is the luckiest man alive.
• The Obama camp was less worried about a creative electoral vote choice, or one based on gender to solidify the white women vote than they were about their nominee looking amateurish and unprepared when it came to national security and foreign affairs. That is very telling.
• That Obama’s dream of cleaning up Washington and throwing out all the bums begins with recruiting an entrenched, career Washington politician whose son is a lobbyist to be his veep. Hmmmm…all talk and no walk. So much for ‘change’.
• Delaware in now firmly in the blue state category.
• Hillary will probably start her bitter “I told you so” Superdelegate tour sometime tomorrow.
• This move leaves te door open for McCain to choose from a wide variety of options for his vice presidential choice. There are a number of electoral-based candidates that are now even more attractive (Tom Ridge or the governor of Minnesota for example) and it leaves the door open for a good woman veep that would help cancel out the “minority” novelty factor of Obama and provide an added appeal to more moderate soccer mom types and rejected Hillary supporters that may in fact be the deciding factor in this tightening race.
• Obama’s own running mate is on record stating that Obama is not ready to serve as president (not once, but twice. The latest in August of 2007).
• Apparently this quote about Obama really paid off in the end.  “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” – Joe Biden
• There was no frickin’ way this was going to be Hillary.
• Releasing this at about 1 am Eastern Standard Time was really, really, odd.
• This was a ’safe pick’ and probably in the end won’t matter too much anyway. But will it help or hinder, especially when compared to McCain’s pick?
• Remember when Dole picked Kemp? Obama isn’t learning from history.
• The media is now officially a pathetic, childlike entity who would gush and blush if Obama picked Hamburglar as his running mate. Have they no shame?
• There is still a possibility that this is some sort of trial balloon or sinister plot by Hillary to take out the prince before he would become king.
• Mark Levin is not Joe Biden’s friend. He refers to Biden as “the stupidist man in the United States Senate”. I can safely foretell that there will be no slumber party sleepovers in the Lincoln bedroom for Mr. Levin in the event of an Obama victory.
• Rumor has it that MSNBC had Olbermann on the phone, in his jammies, saying that the timing was perfect and that the convention will start with a big exciting explosion. Good grief.

A look at things to come:

I really hope it’s Biden. You don’t want to say that too loud, but I really do hope that it’s Joe Biden, because we’ve got mountains of archival audio on Joe Biden. Plus, the arrogance factor times two. Biden and the Messiah would just be delicious. -  Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday

”Obama isn’t ready to be President and the job is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.” -Joe Biden

“The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.” – Joe Biden

David “I twist words for my boss” Axelrod of course does not care if he uses language in a devious way (he lies) to influence people. David Knows better. He went to the University of Chicago, not CSU after all. But what the hell? Let’s listen to David…

The Left is famous for its ‘netroots’ and its grassroots supporters and its armies of wide eyed, college kid door knockers, but this election I have seen an enormous amount of person to person contact of the NOBAMA variety. People who rarely send me political stuff have sent me a variety of anti-Obama grassroots propoganda as well as some of those great and memorable pics of Obama in fun little African Muslim getups. This is just the latest example that I received today from an old roommate of mine who is now a member of the state patrol in my home state. You’ll have to excuse all the “>’s”, I don’t have a good email cleaner program.

Read the rest of this entry »

Our friend Eric over at Tygrrrr Express has some thoughts on Pakistan without Pervez Musharaff. Eric has one of the better ‘one man show’ blogs on the web and his Sunday night football game synopsis should never be missed. And sadly, he won’t come blog for us so we have to “go to him”. Conclub has managed to snag some exceptional writers like THB and founder DFV, but Eric could not be tempted to make the jump.

Pakistan is not a situation that can be resolved with hope, change, or ‘Yes, we can.” That eliminates Mr. Obama. It cannot be resolved with tough talk from pretty boys that made their living suing people. Sorry, Mr. Edwards. 35 years of experience and solutions do not count if those solutions are completely fictional. Mrs. Clinton, just sit down.

I repeatedly refer to the republicans as the party of adults precisely because of moments like this.

Pakistan has nuclear weapons. If Islamofacist terrorists gain access to these weapons, the entire world could blow up. Do those on the left care? Of course not. Musharraf was an ally of President Bush, so he must be bad.

This is what the left calls reasoning. President Bush is evil. Therefore, his allies must be evil as well. His enemies must be good, which is why condemnation for Musharraf was not extended to Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden.

Obama’s Veep.

Zod says (I can’t believe I’m typing this, but Nate Silver convinced me) he should pick Hillary; he will pick Biden. 

Any other last minute guesses?

Oh, and this is teh funny.

Now I couldn’t really decide between the two. So you’ll have to stomach twice the idiocy.

Read the rest of this entry »

The scene on the final evening of the Democratic convention next week is bound to be a gripping one: Some 75,000 people will be in the stands awaiting healing and anointing in the packed but expansive confines of Denver’s Invesco Field.

…As tens of thousands clamor for their savior – the Benny Hinn of wealth redistribution – the high-decibel chants of “Obama” will be broken only by the orgasmic screeches of writhing members of the mainstream media. The tingle up Chris Matthews’ leg will hurt so unbearably good that “Hardball” will, for one brief and shining moment, be the most apropos program title in the world. 

-Unknown but from the madashell website (source)

Certain things are true. The valley people always fight the mountain people. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape or spit into the wind as Jim Croce told us. If you do not want to get hit do not block the plate.

Apparently the Chinese did not appreciate the last one. You can add that if you throw at a player, especially his head, you are gonna pay. I recall Andreas Galarraga spiking Jody Reed and putting him on the DL when he slid into second with his cleats up in response to a Dodger pitcher accidentally hitting Charlie Hayes in the face.

Maybe Barry Obama needs to realize that politics is not nice or fair (he knows this but wants to appear above things). There is no crying in baseball. There is however whining in politics as Michelle’s hubby is proving.  Slide with your cleats up Barry you Nancy Girl.

You mean the line “Hey, why don’t you come back to my place and check out my collection of Phillps Andover lacrosse pennants” doesn’t work?

DC Bartenders reveal their political secrets

Star Tribune

Twin Cities bartenders working when the GOP holds its national convention in St. Paul next month should listen up: Republicans like their drinks straight up, and they arrive early for happy hour. A survey of Washington, D.C., bartenders commissioned by a leading liquor company broke down Democrats and Republicans when it comes to their drink selection and bar behavior. Here’s what it found:

Who’s a better tipper? Democrats 60 percent, Republicans 38 percent.

Who is more likely to order a drink straight up? Republicans 82 percent; Democrats 14 percent.

Who is more likely to order a fruity (pink) drink? Democrats 58 percent, Republicans 34 percent.

Who has the better pick-up lines? Democrats 74 percent, Republicans 14 percent.

Who is better at giving a toast? Democrats 63 percent, Republicans 36 percent.

Who is more likely to arrive first for happy hour? Republicans 50 percent, Democrats 48 percent.

Who is more likely to be the last to go home? Democrats 53 percent, Republicans 46 percent.

The survey of about 100 bartenders in the Washington area was commissioned by Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. (maker of Jim Beam bourbon, Canadian Club whisky and Courvoisier cognac, among others) in collaboration with Clarus Research Group.

PAUL WALSH

During the forum on Saturday, one of the questions that were AUTHORIZED to be known ahead of time was “Who are the three people you rely on for wise advice?”

John McCain named:

General David Petraeus

Rep. John Lewis

Meg Whitman

 

Fine choices all.

Though McCain must have gotten a little “confused”, since John Lewis says he has no idea why John McCain would have named him. “Sen. McCain and I are colleagues in the US Congress, not confidantes. He does not consult me. And I do not consult him.”

Wow, how odd. Why did John McCain name somebody that he doesn’t really know that well. Certainly there would have been other names that would have been appropriate. He consults with Lindsay Graham a lot. Joe Lieberman too. Maybe that’s what happened. Lieberman and Lewis DO sound kinda similar. Both named Joe.

It’s like an awesome mind puzzle, isn’t it? Why did John McCain name John Lewis, of all people, even though he doesn’t really know him very well and doesn’t actually ask him for advice? WHY, I ask you, WHY?!

The heavy-handedness of Russia in Georgia has prompted a meeting of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  I always find the back room deal making and war of words that are spoken and speculated compelling.

The 26 NATO foreign ministers will hold their emergency meeting at the Alliance headquarters in the Belgian capital on Tuesday where they are set to offer help and support to Tbilisi while sending a strong message to Moscow over its military intervention there.

The extraordinary meeting was called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is seeking a comprehensive review of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s relations with Moscow

Naturally, each player brings his own agenda to the table.  This crisis is no different.  Already, the evidence exists that a tight alliance of those who oppose aggressive action by the Soviets. . . er. . . Russians will compete at the same table as those nations who traditionally pay lip service to the methods of totalitarianism. 

Despite the US official’s assurance that “I think you’ll see a NATO more united than you might expect,” other diplomatic sources said the subject of Russia’s role in Georgia had split NATO members.

Britain, Canada, the United States and most eastern European member states are in one camp seeking a tough stance on Russia’s actions, the sources said.

Meanwhile most of western Europe, led by France and Germany and backed by Hungary, Slovenia and others, were more cautious of further hurting ties with Moscow.

And everyone knows that if France or Germany oppose something, then the left believes that “the world opposes it.”  We wouldn’t want to hurt ties with Moscow now, would we?

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

- Michael Goldfarb referencing those who have questioned McCain’s ‘cross in the dirt’ story

It appears that a good number of the bottom feeding, Marxist Left will be descending upon Denver this coming week. On Sunday, August 24th,  there will be an End the Occupations/End the War March & Rally from 9am – 2pm from the West Steps of the State Capitol Building to the Pepsi Center.

Here is part of the official billing:

Sunday, August 24: End the Occupations/End the War March & Rally 9am – 2pm

 West Steps of the State Capitol Building to the Pepsi Center

This is being billed as Denver’s largest anti-war, anti-illegal occupations march and rally.

Speakers (Alphabetical):

Ida Audeh – Palestinian Refugee

Kathleen Cleaver – Black Panthers

Ward Churchill – Long-time Author, Activist, and Scholar

Mark Cohen – Re-create 68 Alliance

Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. – Prisoners of Conscience Committee

Larry Hales – World Worker’s Party and Re-create 68 Alliance

Larry Holmes – Troops Out Now Coalition

Ron Kovic – anti-war activist, veteran and author of Born On The Fourth of July

Cynthia Mckinney – Green Party United States Presidential Candidate

Glenn Spagnuolo – Re-create 68 Alliance

Bands:

David Rovic – State Capitol Steps, kicking of the rally

M1 and Stic.man of Dead Prez – State Capitol Steps, prior to the march

Blue Scholars – Concert at State Capitol, after the march

Jim Page – State Capitol Steps, during the rally

Across the street there will be a simultaneous Rally for Victory Over Islamonazis by those more closely aligned with my ideological preferences. 

The American Victory Coalition has a permit for a rally at Pioneer Monument Park in Denver on Sunday, Aug. 24th. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission, will be there, as will Vets for Freedom.

Read the rest of this entry »

“I believe [Hillary Clinton] would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee. Our voters and Edwards’ voters were the ame people. They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama.”

 —former Hillary Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson on the impact of the
Leftmedia’s refusal to cover John Edwards’ sex scandal

Since it now Sunday morning I believe an updated hymn may be appropriate. This is the updated version of what is probably the most recognizable and moving song in all Christendom, Amazing Grace. We sang this for the first time last Sunday in church and I liked it well enough to post it. I do still like the “original” hymn version as well. I can’t make it through this song without a moist eye and a humbled heart.

You can compare it to the original here. This young lady has an amazing voice and does this song justice.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This post has been revised and updated.

I watched a good portion the Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday evening. It was a decent showing for both candidates but McCain probably did the best in what was viewed by many conservatives as a possible ambush by a pro-Obama evangelical pastor at a forum conceived by a variety of ideologically questionable characters. Instead, McCain really fumbled only once and came across as a decisive, determined, focused, relaxed, and informed man of integrity.

If you missed it here is a good recap.

McCain and Obama civil, not too revealing at church forum

“Rick did an amazing job of asking the questions most of us would ask the candidates if we could,” said Jill Frick, 47, of San Clemente. “I just really liked how John McCain gave well-stated answers. He didn’t even have to think. He takes a stand. Barack has a charming personality. He didn’t always give the direct answer.”

As a good orator and a person with definite charisma, Obama almost always does well no matter what the venue though he is less sure of himself without a TelePrompter in front of him. That said, he did flub the  ’evil’ and ‘abortion’ questions.

Obama went to great lengths to appear thoughtful and philosophical in his answers but too often that ends up coming across as indecisive and vacillating. Perception is often everything, and his answers lacked substance and tended to make him look like he’s still putting together a personal ideology at this stage in his life. If you are seeking the presidency of the United States I would hope that you’ve managed to cobble together a concrete, coherent world view by now instead of addressing each ideological and theological question as if you are considering it for the first time.

This was an important night for McCain. There are always questions whether he could go ‘toe to toe’ with the wonder boy from Chicago, but he laid many of those concerns to rest with this performance. I liked the unabashed conservatism that was expressed as well on many issues, and I feel better casting my vote for the man after watching him commit to several positions unequivocally and with passion. He did very well and I was impressed with what he had to say. He needed to shore up his base while still appealing to undecideds and independents and I believe he accomplished that. McCain had my attention and I was inspired by what he had to share with his audience and the American people. It was the best I have seen him to date.

McCain did a great job at winning over conservatives (which are overwhelmingly Christian in belief) so the whole “McCain didn’t address faith enough” argument that is being peddled since the forum fails for lack of a second. He actually addressed Christian concepts, faith and prayer (and therefore the Christian worldview) several times. Christians are not necessarily looking to put a Bible thumper in the white house but will be happy to put in a man who will reject socialism, not cheerlead the gay agenda or promote abortion on demand at every stage of pregnancy while being willing to put some good Constitutionalist judges on the bench. That’s all they really want and if McCain can deliver that much he’ll be perfectly acceptable to everyone to the Right of Hillary Clinton.

We’ve seen what type of ‘faith’ and spiritual mentor Obama has been subscribing to over the last twenty three years so we aren’t impressed by any and all attempts by him to come across as some sort of spiritual, faith based person. The truth there has been exposed and we are not fooled.

The Right seems to be very pleased with what they saw. Jonah Goldberg over at NRO seems pleased and had this to say about McCain’s performance.

“I think Obama did very well (and he doesn’t need to win a majority of this audience, he merely needs to keep McCain’s support below typical trends). But this was McCain’s best performance in memory. For the first time I can think of in ‘08, at least, he comes across as the kind of guy a lot of conservatives can want to vote for, rather than merely settle for.”

And Mark Hemingway has a good overview of the forum  that is well worth reading:

“But I also think that it’s worth noting that but I suspect he may be riding high for a while after tonight. “Obama wasn’t just bad, but that McCain was very good. He was the perfect balance of likable and serious. He also came across as informed, offered far more policy specifics than Obama, highlighted his faith as was appropriate to the setting, and almost everything he said bolstered his conservative credentials. (His comments on taxes and what it means to be “rich” were especially good in that regard.) I’d wager that for a lot of conservatives watching, McCain went from the enemy of my enemy to someone they felt good about voting for. He may yet foul that up.”

You know it was a good night when the Obama camp begins to whine. According to Andrea Mitchell’s reporting on Meet the Press, the only explanation the Obama campaign could come up with was foul play:

“The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared.”

The gilded tint on the anointed one is beginning to wear off and the remarkable silence by the Mainstream Media about last night’s performances is striking. The McCain offer of weekly town hall forums remains on the table–anyplace, anytime. But we now see why that offer has yet to be accepted.

The general election started for all intents and purposes Saturday night. It will be an interesting contest from here on out.

That look says it all

There is always speculation that the carpetbagger Senator from New York may have one or two more tricks up her sleeve. She has been suspiciously quiet lately though her minions have basically arranged for the Democratic National Convention to become the Democratic National Clinton Convention. Perhaps it is all wishes and dreams, mists and mirage, but we’d love to see an attempted coup or a brokered convention in Denver if it is not too much to ask.

Hillary To Be Entered Into Nomination At Convention

The two campaigns released a joint statement officially confirming the news on the record, saying Senator Obama’s campaign encouraged Senator Clinton’s name to be placed in nomination as a show of unity and in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nations primary contests.

Obama says “” am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton’s historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion.”

Take this within the context of Andrew Sullivan’s lament:

Since Obama’s hubris in Berlin, he has lost almost every cycle of this campaign, and lost all of them quite badly. I’m not sure his campaign gets how far they have sunk, and how ineffectual and passive Obama has seemed these past few weeks. The total capitulation to the Clintons at the convention is particularly lame

From Real Clear Politics.com:

A month ago these were all blue.

And how about this for desperation?

It’s almost “Game On” time edition.

“Stop!”

It’s not the original video for the song, but I thought it was pretty appropriate.

BTW, this FNP is dedicated to my best pal Maggie, and to TBogg’s buddy Satchmo. Basset pride and all that.

Update: Ugh. This made me lose it.  Frak.

I call it part one, because as I get caught up, more and more I realize the McCain I voted for in 2000 is deader than the Jerry Falwell he once vilified, but later embraced in order to secure the nomination.

The topic: Nuclear power.

McCain has said, over and over (and over and over and over) that Obama is completely opposed to nuclear power.

Now, as a sane person, that sort of resonated with me because nuclear power has great potential. But then I also noticed that… HE’S LYING.

I remembered this moment because, as an Edwards supporter, I did a double take. Keep in mind that this was when Obama was trying to secure the hippie vote, before the Dem primaries even started.

Sounds pretty plain to me.

“Russia’s attack on neighboring Georgia over two tiny separatist provinces is really about something much bigger—Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s desire to restore the former USSR’s might. Russia’s ill intentions clearly are on display in Georgia. In a fit of nationalist fury, it wants to teach Georgia and other former satellite countries that once made up the Soviet Bloc that its pro-Western rapprochement days are over. What better way than to invade a former republic, humiliate its leaders and then taunt the West for failing to come to its aid? As if that wasn’t enough, Russia immediately began threatening its other neighbors. A top Russian diplomat ominously warned Monday that Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland would ‘pay’ for criticizing Russia’s ‘imperialist’ policy toward Georgia. Russia’s claim to support independence from Georgia of tiny South Ossetia and even tinier Abkhazia is simply phony. Georgia, with its strategically important oil pipeline, has grown close to the U.S. —even sending troops to Iraq. Putin, furious at growing U.S. and NATO ties with Eastern Europe, wanted to emasculate Georgia’s military while deposing its pro-American President Mikheil Saakashvili. With his attack, it looks like he’s succeeding. The symbolism of the invasion, coming at the start of the Beijing Olympics, is unmistakable. This is Russia’s wake-up call to all of us. Communism may be dead, Putin is saying, but Russia isn’t.”

—Investor’s Business Daily via Patriotpost.com