Great meltdowns from little acorns grow...

Frank P

But these are just facts you are reporting here Melanie; don't you realise that using facts to expose a candidate's track record is "getting dirty"? How remiss! You really musn't hold up the Second Coming by exposing the truth. How dare you! You will offend many commenters here who genuflect every time they hear the word' 'Obama'.

Obama ... Obaa ... O Baaa .. baaa ... b-a-a-a ...baaa!

The divine Obama with his flock of ovine onanists!

Hysteria

I think you are right Melanie - but I fear we are lost - the right will be fighting a rearguard action for the next few years.

The really scary thing for a Brit is that the financial crisis may save the socialists from a complete wipe-out

Israel

If this is the first time you have read a Matt Taibbi article l can see how it can hit you in the face with it's directness. And don't be fooled, this guy has been just as hard on the Democrats as well. He regularly appears on Bill Maher's Real Time HBO show and slaughtered the Democratic convention with it's hypocracy in it's links to lobbyists and actions in regards to actual real American voters. What you get from him is a physical enactment of the Bill Hick's "take a deep breath, look at it again and call it what it is: ITS BULLS**T!!" routine. He's abrasive, unrepentant and speaks from the heart. Not everyone likes the message but he is man enough to answer any critisizms you have. I do have to laugh at Melanie saying that he has "All the Palin smears gathered together in one foam-flecked scream of rage". I see he's missing the rape kit story which Palin is doing her best not to answer. Obviously Melanie has not read this post by US conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic titled "The Lies And Lies And Lies Of Sarah Palin":

I'm posting this because none of the direct, indisputably proven, factual untruths that Palin has uttered has yet to be retracted by this candidate or her running mate. When you have a leading politician running on a record of outright lies, and those lies are deemed irrelevant, you have a problem. Each one has been fact-checked to near-death. They are not the usual political lie - hyperbole, parsing, exaggeration, spin. They are factual, checkable, indisputable untruths.
Palin could NOT have asked her girls for permission to accept McCain's veep offer if she also says she accepted the offer unblinkingly and right away. Palin DID fire a police chief even as she insisted to a reporter she hadn't. She DID violate the confidential medical records of Mike Wooten. She HASN'T met with any trade missions from Russia. She does NOT have any gay friends that anyone can find. She did NOT oppose the Bridge to Nowhere. She did NOT sell that plane on eBay. Her Teleprompter did NOT fail in her convention speech. Alaska's state scientists did NOT conclude that polar bears were in no danger. She DID deny publicly that humans had anything to do with climate change.
Alaska does NOT provide "nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy," as she claimed. The gas pipeline she touts as her major "mission accomplished" has NOT broken ground and MAY NEVER DO SO. She did NOT take a pay-cut as mayor of Wasilla. And on and on. Anyone with Google can check all of these out. Including reporters.
These are all documented, bald-faced factually irrefutable lies. More to the point: she refuses to cop to them or be held accountable for them or take questions about them. Until she does, we can rightly infer there is no reason to believe anything she says, and that includes her recent medical history. A liar like this cannot be taken on trust. We have to verify it all."

He wrote that on the 29th of September, horrifed by Palin, a woman who is a US State Govenor ( and who another horrified conservative pundit compared to Hillary Clinton and wrote" Can you imagine the reaction of the press corps if Clinton had given the audience a hi-ya-sailor wink? Can you imagine the feverish blogging across the political spectrum if Clinton had claimed credit for stopping a bridge that, in fact, had set her heart aflutter? What if she showed she didn't know squat about the Constitution, if she could not tell Katie Couric what newspapers or magazines she reads or if she claimed intimacy with foreign relations based on sighting Russia through binoculars?") for which he has had the vilest reponses posted about him on the blogs of Instapundit, Little Green Footballs and others.

The fact is, for the first time since televised press conferences began, a person running for the role of Vice President of the United states of America HAS NOT HAD A PRESS CONFERENCE AND ANSWERED OPEN QUESTIONS FROM THE MEDIA. This is unpresedented as well as scary. The question is what has she got to hide? She wasn't even on any of the US sunday political shows after the debate!! If Palin is as good as l have read rightwinger (including Rich "Little Starbursts" Lowry)say she is a presser should be no problem. Unless they fear a repeat of the deer in headlights interview she gave CBS.

Verity

"Obviously Melanie has not read this post by US conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic titled The Lies And Lies And Lies Of Sarah Palin.

Oh, eeky!!! Do you live anywhere in the Anglosphere, sweetie darling? Where there are Anglophones who read Anglophone newspaper columns?

Andrew Sullivan?

Andrew Sullivan? Conservative around four years ago until he discovered gay marriage, gay marriage, GAY MARRIAGE AND I AM GOING TO DEVOTE THE REST OF MY LIFE WRITING TEDIOUS, OBESSSIVE ARTICLES ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE!???

Would that be the "conservative" columnist Andrew Sullivan to whom you refer?

Also, dearest sweety, do you know the difference between a blogger and a columnist? Or perhaps you're not from our part of the world?

Otherwise, how could a happening, astute guy like you get so confused? I mean, we all know you are totally cool.

Verity

Hysteria writes: "The really scary thing for a Brit is that the financial crisis may save the socialists from a complete wipe-out."

Hysteria, you are right. But think of the alternative. If Dave and his chaps were in charge ... it doesn't bear thinking of.

Labour will wreck the economy, yes, but they will plod along well worn tracks, and an intelligent opposition (notional, admitted) will be able to identify what they're up to and counter it. By that point, one would hope that there would have been a real Opposition formed and operating.

Dave and the chaps in charge, much, much, much worse. As in, the curtains.

David Cameron must never be in charge of anything.

Hayward Maberley

Verity,
Too, too much sweety. You might care to address the points that Israel raised, concerning Sarah Palin and the disparity between what she has said and her actions.
On disparity, why is it that most of the contributions from the many of you far out on the right are so abusive? Is it a neocon thing. I always imagined a conservative to be that, in both speech and and the use of language, while still expressing strongly held opinions. By the way no luck with the President's
ranch near Amarillo?

field

No doubt there is much truth in what you say, but trying to pin the financial crisis on ACORN is - well - stupid.

We've seen a global financial crisis and it's not all down to some lone Chicago community activist.

On a positive note I am pleased to see that Obama is backing a ten year plan for US energy independence - now that is a good plan I think. He's pledging $15 billion a year for ten years to that. Europe should be doing the same.

I'm not happy about Obama's past and the failure of the media to get answers to some awkward questions. But McCain - who looks old and tired - has fought a lacklustre campaign and it was he who chose not to go "personal".

Conservative Cabbie

Israel

Andrew Sullivan! That's who you are using to form your opinions!

You poor deluded fool.

So she didn't ask her children about accepting the nomination before actually accepting it. You think this is important why?

Let's try some other lies shall we.

Joe Biden claimed he was shot at in Baghdad - No he wasn't.
Joe Biden claimed his helicopter was forced down in Afghanistan - Only by a freakin' snowstorm.
Obama said he wouldn't run for President in 2008 - Oops!
Obama claimed to the people of Selma that the marches in 1965 led to his conception because his parents were so inspired by the famous civil rights march across the bridge. Difficult when he was born in 1961.
Barack Obama said he would use public financing during the election - he lied.
I'm not even going to go into Ayers, there's a whole bunch of lies there which change every time a different Obama spokesman makes a statement.

You stated that she didn't sell the plane on e-bay. She never said she did, all she ever said was that she "put it on e-bay" which is true.
You said she didn't oppose the Bridge To Nowhere. Er, wrong again, she was the one that killed it, even the Alaska democrats acknowledged as much until Obama asked them to take down the acknowledgement from the web.
Your point about the 'gay friend' is ridiculous, perhaps that person wants to stay private.
Answering your point about alaska not providing nearly 20% domestic supply of energy - wrong again. Try this from the Resource development Concil For alaska; "Alaska's oil and gas industry has produced more than 16 billion barrels of oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas, accounting for an average of 20 percent of the entire nation's domestic production (1980 - 2000). Currrently, Alaska accounts for nearly 15% of U.S. production."
The Wasilla mayoral paycut - When she became Mayor she had an ordinance passed reducing her salary from 64,000 to 61,200. However later, against her wishes, the Wasilla council mandated a rise to 68,000. She didn't want it but was forced to accept it.
She did not say the teleprompter failed, she said "(it) got messed up, I couldn't follow it". Jonathan Martin at Politico said it scrolled past her place a number of times - Da da, another lie debunked.
On Mike Wooten - who cares, he's a child abuser.

As you said, anyone with Google can check these out. I have Google, I checked them out and found most of them to be quite frankly a load of ********.

Fabio P.Barbieri

Israel - you are a sad, vicious and ignorant little twit who only ever reads what agrees with his dim prejudices. As for Sarah Palin, all the lies about her have been abundantly answered; it is just that the things you read, for some reason, do not bother to report the responses. And so hideous ignorami like you can rest in their hideous ignorance and bring it among their betters (to wit, those who know the facts) with an air of inexpressible arrogance, and look like morons in the process. If you want a list of Palin lies and their answers, try this: http://explorations.chasrmartin.com/2008/09/06/palin-rumors/

But I will bet my weight in chocolate that you do not even try the link. People like you do not want to know, and your media cater to your wishes.

ndm

Verity -

Andrew Sullivan is a Senior Editor at the Atlantic Monthly - the main writing position at the magazine. You can even read his cover story for the December 2007 issue. Prior to that he edited The New Republic, one of the premier political magazines in the United States. He did write one of the earliest books advocating gay marriage.

And yes, he also blogs. To the extent that his blog probably gets far more page views than does the whole of the Spectator website.

His disillusionment with the Republican Party came long after he discovered gay marriage. It came when he, as did so many others, recognized that the Republican Party had abandoned conservatism.

All told, Andrew Sullivan's career has been sufficiently illustrious that I suspect most writers at The Spectator would give their eye teeth for it. Indeed, given the minimal understanding Melanie Phillips and many of her devotees have of America she and they would be well advised to read Andrew Sullivan rather than make catty and uninformed comments about him.

Fabio P.Barbieri

Hayward Mayberley: we on the so-called right are sick to death of having to answer mountains of lies only to have our answers ignored, and then being told that we never answered at all. Learn to read, or get lost.

Conservative Cabbie

ndm

That's a nice biography you've just recited, however you do seem to be neglecting some of his more recent turgid episodes.

This supposed "illustrious" commentator was the person responsible for spreading the lie about Trig being Bristol's son and not Sarah Palin's.

He has written seven posts about her amniotic fluid. That's just creepy!

He lies about her supposed lies.

He may once have been a reliable reporter, but his infatuation with Obama and his derangement over Sarah Palin have rendered him a laughing stock for the right and a source only for those on the left not interested in truth.

Ronnie

Oh Fabio, is your lip trembling there?

Any comment from you on the Iran-Contra scandal?

James

This isn't the only instance of ACORN being involved in registering false names on the voting register.

On Newsnight last night we learnt that ACORN workers in Ohio had been convicted - yes, convicted - of putting false names on the voters' register.

The Newsnight report, despite talking a lot about Obama, failed to mention any of his connections to ACORN. Further, when it came to the criminal convictions for the ACORN workers who filed false names, the reporter dismissed this revelation by saying, well, the thing is, they were paid money for each name they put down.

So that's all right, then.

The reporter took one of the most damning things you can find - a criminal conviction, for crying out loud - and tried to put a spin on it to dampen what it immediately tells us about ACORN's political ambitions and the depths to which it is prepared to sink to effect those ambitions.

We watch, we hear the damning fact and then without blushing, the reporter says, oh, but they were paid for each name they got, so no reason to suspect a broader political agenda motivated this. This is politics - normally a politcal reporter's antennae would home straight in on such a fact.

Why were they paid for each name they got? Was this to encourage false name registering and hang the stooge out to dry if anyone found out? Getting some thick stooge to do your dirty work while you keep your nose clean? That's what it looks like.

Yet if you've been catching up with ACORN on the web, this finding on Newsnight is just one piece of a very sinister jigsaw puzzle - and one that Barack Obama hopes the public won't put together before voting day.

Susan Hill

The standard of debate about the US election has been appallng. But I did not quite expect our broadsheets to sink so low. You are exemplary in attacking without abusingint but I am disgusted by the ubiquitous Mr Rod Liddle and by The Times which headlines him every morning online saying she has the political knowledge and intellect of a whelk. I rather expected better of the Thunderer, which is perhaps foolish. This is the cheap easy 'look at me, what a fun, clever remark I can make' standard of comment on serious matters which I would not expect a national newspaper to allow its columnists indulge in. Both newspaper and columnist should be ashamed of themselves.

raymond joseph douglas

I tried standing up for Sarah Palin on Radio five live.I never got past the the researcher!I think it was because I defended her views on creation/evolution!The bile and derision in this mans voice was pal able!The sub-text being,that to doubt evolution put you down as a thick,anti-science nutter!To use the great keegan,i would love it,just love it,if McCain/palin beat princess Obama!

EC

Verity:
"Dave and the chaps in charge, much, much, much worse. As in, the curtains. David Cameron must never be in charge of anything"

Verity are you suggesting that those of us who hithertofore "have steadfastly refused the vote for them" should actually vote Labour at the next election? I was wondering why you would condemn the country that you profess to love to another five years of Team GB. I can see an argument for voting Labour as a wrecking tactic thus preventing GB passing the helm of GB Titanic to the Tories but voting for the armageddon scenario doesn't seem quite right and it might actually bring forth changes opposite to those you had wished for.
What is it about David Cameron and Team DC that troubles you? Is it his emissions on MMGW or is it something more fundamental?

elixelx

And...let us never forget that Barry didn't know who Martin Luther King was because MLK was shot dead when Barry was only 7 years old!

What, you don't like the comparison between an historical figure and Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn?

Well let me remind you--in the 60's, in our white-boy search for heroes, the Weathermen, SDS, Mark Rudd, Danny la Rouge, Baader-Meinhoff and yes sexy, black-booted Bernardine were MAINSTREAM! We all knew and loved Patty Hearst and the SLA!

If Barry didn't know who Ayers was, then Barry didn't do his due diligence! That makes him stupid, or lazy, or both, or worse still, an acolyte!

israel

Yes l quoted Andrew Sullivan. You act as if he is the only one but you are missing the fact that the likes of George Will, Joe Klein, Kathleen Parker, Peggy Noonan and Richard Cohen, all highly respected conservative commentators have ALL been hypercritical of the republican ticket this election. Maybe you should read some of the disgusting posts that Parker received after Palin's car crash interview with ABC last week where she was so inept it made people cringe and parker called for her to step down for the good of the republican party.

You don't like my views or who l source? Tough. A lot of scales are falling off a lot of eyes concerning not only McCain/Palin but the republicans in general, both in the media and in the voting populace. It's a bitter pill for some to swallow, but swallow it they will.

Grumpy

Hey Mel - you know I'll go along with you most times - but not this one.
Have read the Matt Taibbi article and you know I think he's got this Palin chick wired. She really is the most dumbassed individual even by American standards, and the thought of her trying to come to grips with the job of being the second most important person and possibly, heaven forbid the most important, is probably one of the more scarier propositions of the moment.
Its one thing to have a conservative approach to world matters - its something way different to supporting this imbecile, merely based on the fact that she too is a conservative.
Logic must prevail, and you just know that this is an uneducated bumpkin of gigantic proportions.

michael

Just wondering Mel...

Given the abject failure of your smear campaigns against him, many of us readers would be reassured to know if you and your Neocon/Likudnik cronies have a plan for 'dealing with' Obama when he becomes President?

Are you thinking of a Kennedy or a Nixon?

Will you let him solve the financial crisis before you act?

You know its all over for McCain and the Moose, so why not quit with the character assassinations, turn the page and concentrate on the future?

Dave

@raymond joseph douglas: "to doubt evolution put you down as a thick,anti-science nutter!"
Well... yes. It's not exactly a clearly thought out pro-science position is it?

What's funniest about all this is the lovely whistful quality to Mel's headline. Bless

Nonvexatious

I think Taibbi is guilty of insulting some of the American people in his characterisation of why he thinks they may be supporting Palin; but Melanie insults them similarly when she says Palin is able to 'speak directly to middle America who see her as one of their own'. I have spent a great deal of time in the mid-West, where I found people on the whole to be hard-working, intelligent,temperate, community-minded often but not always through church activity, a uniquely American mixture of liberal with a small l and conservative with a small c. It is these people who after an initial infatuation with Palin have very quickly seen through her fakery and sheer ineptitude and it is why the Republicans are losing ground.

Lucy

If it's your future you're worried about, michael, you need to stop whining and get your wallet out.

With these remarks last night, Mr Obama has left himself all the room he needs to make the pips squeak:

"But understand this: We also have to look at where some of our tax revenues are going. So when Sen. McCain proposes a $300 billion tax cut, a continuation not only of the Bush tax cuts, but an additional $200 billion that he's going to give to big corporations, including big oil companies, $4 billion worth, that's money out of the system.

"And so we've got to prioritize both our spending side and our tax policies to make sure that they're working for you. That's what I'm going to do as president of the United States."

You can't wait for Obama's solution to the economic crisis?

"We've got to prioritize both our spending side and our tax policies."

The electorate is broke so we'll spend, spend, spend.

Actually, maybe I've got Obama wrong. He is, after all, the Obamessiah. Perhaps he'll do the fish and loaves turn with taxpayer dollars?

"See how these five taxpayer dollars become $5,000 to spend..."

Let's hope he walks on water or you'd better start smashing the piggy bank.

Israel

To conservative cabbie:

You have your views and your sources. I doubt you agree with anything written by any of mine. That's okay with me, the more fun to watch you explode with your posts.

Palin, her with doctor hunting priest, gay re-educating "end times" church and seccessionist supporting husband may be okay to you and some in the US but, just as you think Wright is a big problem, they think that the AIP breaking away and taking all that oil is also a big problem. Hell, look at what they are doing for oil all the way over in Iraq. Live with the fact that McCain couldn't get the job done, and that Romney, Huckerbee, Gulliani, Thompson et al were so poor that a man who was slated by the ever diminishing power base of the religious right in the US, who he himself slated in a speech 8 years was seen as the best choice right winger for this election.

To Fabio P.Barbieri:

Sorry l can't take you seriously. After your hate filled sceed the only thing that came to mind was you acting like john Cleese in the "Romanes Eunt Domus" scene in "Life of Brian".

You did make it easy for me to show someone the example of "Sporks to a Gunfight" though. Thanks.

Ronnie

But, Sarah Hill (and everyone else). Can we try to forget that Governor Palin is a Republican for a minute and ask ourseleves, 'suppose she actually does have the political knowledge and intellect of a whelk?' Doesn't that possibility worry you?

The United States is certainly the most powerful and one of the most complex societies in the world. Even if Governor Palin never has to take over from an ageing and ailing John McCain doesn't the fact that her campaign team members' hearts are in their mouths every time she goes near a microphone bother you?

Does nobody remember Dan Quayle?

Do you wing nuts actually want the United States of America to be continually represented by people, at the highest level, who know absolutely nothing and care less about the wider world around them? Aren't you ashamed?

We are talking about leadership of the free world and this is what is served up to us. Isn't eight years of the current President's ignorant gaffs being enough for you? Don't you want to be taken seriously?

Can't you think beyond bombing as the only solution to the world's problems?

Don't you have any good, intelligent people? People who can think things through and commmunicate effectively?

The west is desperately short of leadership and you people are telling us that Governor Palin is the best you can do?

This is the general election for the President and Vice President of the United States of America! The country is fighting two wars, its financial system is collapsing as the national debt rises to figures that are beyond most peoples' understanding and the growing strategic threats to the country are many and varied. Yet here you all are haggling about whether the Vice Presidential candidate sacked her brother-in-law fairly or not.

You guys are not losing your 'cultural war', you don't even know where the front line is.

I regard your attitude and your actions as petty and truly and deeply unpatriotic.

Lorenzo

Yeserday, Oct. 6, at Palin's rally, she accused Obama of associating himself with a domestic terrorist. Someone in the crowd yelled "kill him" You can whiewash Palin all you want but inciting murder is a little over the top even for Republicans

Lucy

If it's your future you're worried about, michael, you need to stop whining and get your wallet out.

With these remarks last night, Mr Obama has left himself all the room he needs to make the pips squeak:

"But understand this: We also have to look at where some of our tax revenues are going. So when Sen. McCain proposes a $300 billion tax cut, a continuation not only of the Bush tax cuts, but an additional $200 billion that he's going to give to big corporations, including big oil companies, $4 billion worth, that's money out of the system.

"And so we've got to prioritize both our spending side and our tax policies to make sure that they're working for you. That's what I'm going to do as president of the United States."

You can't wait for Obama's solution to the economic crisis?

"We've got to prioritize both our spending side and our tax policies."

In other words, the electorate is broke so we'll spend, spend, spend. Who taught him that? Warren Buffet?

Actually, maybe I've got Obama wrong. He is, after all, the Obamessiah. Perhaps he'll do the fish and loaves turn with taxpayer dollars?

"See how these five taxpayer dollars become $5,000 to spend..."

Let's hope he walks on water or you’d better smash the piggy bank open.

Fabio P.Barbieri

Israel - I knew you would refuse to read anything that tended to defuse your prejudices or uncover the lies you have fed yourself. Now, the lies were invented and circulated by others - such as the repulsive Sullivan; but your insistence on reading nothing but lies shows abundantly that you are complicit in the perverting of your own mind. You are paying people to lie to you, and happily cooperating with them to spread further lies. And that makes you not only dangerous, but morally and intellectually repulsive.

The Truth Hurts

@raymond joseph douglas, so exactly what are the beliefs that you and Sarah Palin share on Creation and Evolution?

THX1138

michael - Beyond a few wingnuts on this blog no gives a f**k what Mel thinks anymore.

Verity

Howard Mayberley addressing me -"You might care to address the points that Israel raised, concerning Sarah Palin and the disparity between what she has said and her actions."

No. Israel is three or four months behind. These issues have been addressed. I am not going to bore the brains out of fellow commenters by addressing old, stale, already disproved accusations yet one more time. Look it up.

Field: Obama is backing a ten year plan for US energy independence - now that is a good plan I think. He's pledging $15 billion a year for ten years to that. Europe should be doing the same."

Yes, indeed! "Europe" - whatever that is - has all these billions of barrels of oil waiting to be drilled for, as well hundreds of billions of cubic feet of natural gas. Oh, and I forgot! Hundreds of millions of tons of coal! Oh, wait a minute! That's Alaska! And Texas! And offshore California!

Europe, basically, has bugger all (except Norway's oil, and they're keeping it).

Pot Head

I think that Matt Taibbi got it spot on.

"appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning."

Yep a typical wingnut.

Ask yourself why all the financial, software, media, educational and good looking elites are supporting Obama?

All McCain can summon up is the sad back woods rednecks and end of days "rapture" nutters.

Well the end is nigh for Johnny Drama and Bible Spice.

ahad ha'amoratzim

Israel, Andrew Sullivan (as has been noted) writes for the Atlantic and used to write for New Republic. Since their founding, those magazines have considered themselves (and have been considered) liberal, not conservative.

Howard M. writes "why is it that most of the contributions from the many of you far out on the right are so abusive? Is it a neocon thing. " This is ludacrous given the tone and vocabulary of Matt Taibbi's article (not to mention rants by Sarah Silverman, Sandra Bernhardt and typical posts at Daily Kos). Matt Taibbi's contempt for what he considers the average American oozes out of every sentence. How interesting that he also conflates youth and beauty with moral virtue (cf. his rant imagining unattractive old people with "turkey necks" "groping" one another in public bathrooms) -- not unlike the fascists and the Greek pagans. His inability or unwillingness to express himself without profanity tells us a lot, too.

In 1969 I used to think this kind of writing was incisive, vital, honest and cutting edge. Now that I am no longer 19, it seems dreary, sad, contemptuos and contemptible. I didn't have the stomach to read past the first page.

Melanie, wishing you and all here to whom it pertains an easy and meaningful fast, and a good final seal.

John Birch

Lucy: We also should be worried that Obama might propose spending hundreds of billions of tax money to bail people out of their bad mortgages. Whoops. Sorry, McCain proposed that last night during the debate. Never mind.

Antoine

In follow up to Ronnie's post;

As someone who reads comes to this blog on safari - i.e. in the expectation that I'll disagree with almost everything Melanie writes - I would have so much more respect for her and for most of the commenters if you could show some objectivity about Palin. By conventional standards I'm pretty liberal and left wing, but I will happily admit to you that Sarkosy is a better politician than Royal, for example. I hate everything the man stands for, but he knows how to debate in a way that she clearly does not. If you haven't already, go and watch the interviews with Couric in full. Ignore the fact that you agree with her. Come back and tell me that she's an intelligent and competent politician and you can think of no better candidate for her job...

Actually, whilst we're loosely on the subject, please stop calling Obama a crypto-marxist too, it's just silly. I'm no Marxist, but I would love to see a genuinely left-wing candidate for the White House. Obama just is not that candidate. Confusing the relatively moderate wing of your opponents with the extremists makes you look like a hysterical McCarthyite. David Cameron is not a fascist, Obama is not a communist. This really shouldn't be so hard to see...

Kevin Keegan

raymond joseph dougl- "asThe sub-text being,that to doubt evolution put you down as a thick,anti-science nutter"

Well aren't you!!

Verity

It's interesting that so many people so full of irrational bile for Sarah Palin are men, isn't it?

Conservative Cabbie - Thanks for an outstanding post.

N

Matt Taibbi says this in the article: "Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation."

He's blasting Palin as part of the evil system. Is he really so egotistical that he thinks that the whole government sytem is the Republicans fault? Or is he just that stupid? Clearly he knows nothing of Bill Clinton who spent so much time "dicking around" that now we have the subprime crisis today which was his fault! If these liberal democrats are so cynical, narcissistic, and nihilistic and so unhappy, could they at least do us the favor of going into a back room and shooting themselves instead of dragging everyone down to their level?

israel

Verity:

You reply to Howard Mayberley addressing you with his comment - "You might care to address the points that Israel raised, concerning Sarah Palin and the disparity between what she has said and her actions."

Your reply is: "No. Israel is three or four months behind. These issues have been addressed."

This would be a good answer except for the fact that SARAH PALIN WAS CHOSEN BY JOHN MCCAIN AS HIS VICE PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE ON 29TH AUGUST.

As it is now only the 8th of October it means that she has only been chosen FOR LESS THAN 6 WEEKS, in which time her favorable/unfavorable ratings have gone from +17 to -10 as more and more people have actually found out about her record, her views and her knowledge. Unless you or someone you know (or those "nasty" journalists who deal in facts) have a time machine i'm struggling to see how she would have been fully vetted by anyone if you concider that she has never held a press confrence, something unprecedented since the beginning of the era of televised political press confrences in the US. She hasn't even done the traditional US sunday political shows. Can you imagine MARGRET THATCHER not answering questions of ANYONE? The Cathrine Wheel which was the "Palin Effect" has ended and finished with it's predictable spluttering. If you cannot even get something as simple as a timeline right, l can understand how you have fallen so easily for the rightwing christian conservatives newest celebrity.

Jeff

Yes, John Birch, imagine using taxpayer dollars to return them to the people and help stabilise the housing market which would help all of America's economy.

Why should we do that when we know Obama needs that money to hand it out to his favoured client groups?

No campaign to cut waste from the holy one. Those disciples need paying.

Ronnie

Oh Verity, now you are playing the sexist card. I wondered when that would happen, how predictable.

The poor woman's not up to it but its OK because she is a woman. Is that it?

How PC is that?

Swift Boat

Verity -It's interesting that so many people so full of irrational bile for Sarah Palin are men, isn't it?

I think my bile for Sarah Palin is entirely rational

ahad ha'amoratzim

Pot Head, thank you for proving my point. Paganism (especially in Greece) associated moral virtue with good looks and physical vigour, and vice versa. Fascism (especially in Germany) adaopted this belief from paganism. And both you and Matt Taibbi espouse this same doctrine as a reason to support Obama over McCain -- based not on ideas or programs, but sheerly on your perception of which candidate and his supporters are more physically attractive, younger, richer,and smarter.

Sorry, but as Jew, I find supporting fascism or paganism to be morally repugnant.

Remember Wild in the Streets? (Maybe not; anyone old enough to remember that film is out of Obama's youth demographic.) I didn't get it back in 1968, but there was a reason Max Frost's thugs were called storm troopers.

THX1138

Keep it up Mel, Obama goes +11 at Gallup daily tracking.

This Ayers stuff is really paying dividends.

field

Verity -

Your knowledge of Europe's energy potential is about on a par with your knowledge of the American political scene (where Couric is a signed up member of the CPUSA and every survey is a left wing distortion it seems).

Europe here means democratic Europe.

The facts are that Norway isn't a totalitarian country. We have no reason to fear Norway selling us oil and gas.

Democratic Europe is an extremely wealthy part of the planet. We have plenty of energy resources and we have the money to develop new resources. We do indeed have billions of tonnes of coal which with clean coal technology can now be used without devastating the environment.

Far more importantly in my view we are well placed to follow Denmark's lead and develop our wind resources to a great extent - maybe 25% of electricity generation (c 12% of total energy use).

Solar can also make a massive contribution.

Combine all this with tapping of
tidal, mini hydro and (what I think will be very big, very soon) wave power. Throw in energy from waste, biofuels grown on marginal or new land, geothermal and mechanical power ...

Energy independence is well within our grasp. If you are a nuclear power enthusiast you can throw that in the mix as well.

Fabio P.Barbieri

Ronnie - you are another pathetic and gutless ignoramus. First about the suggestion that I am afraid of anything about you except perhaps your hygienic habits: tell me, who is it here who signs himself with his own name, and who uses a gutless little pseudonym? Scared, aren't we? And notice on whose side are the only two other people - Susan Hill and Raymond Joseph Douglas - who likewise have the moral courage to sign their views with their own names? Until you have the nerve to take responsibility for your own views, do not dare to suggest that anyone else is scared of anything. You do not have the right.

As for McCain and the World Freedom Council, you may not have read that the man in charge denies that McCain had any part in Iran-Contra. At the time, McCain was a very junior Senator with no rank or name, and certainly not on a level with the Singlaubs of this world. The worst that may be said of him is that he flirted with a Reaganite organization. Which is a Hell of a lot less than Obama is known to have done.

Conservative Cabbie

Lorenzo - Because one idiot in the crows shouted "kill him" hardly means Palin's encouraging violence - typical liberal hyperbole.

Ronnie and other liberals seem to believe that the ability to give a good interview is the ultimate qualification to be President. Let's face it, in terms of Obama, they can't call up any other qualifications for him to be President, just that he talks nicely.

Sarah Palin might be lousy at interviews, the difference is, is that she is damn good at the business of governance, proven by her track record in Alaska.

There is another important difference between Palin and Obama, Palin is principled and sticks to those principals, Obama doesn't know what he believes in until he's got up in the morning and checked the newspapers to see what america thinks.

I must admit, my support for Palin wavered a little after the Couric interview until I realised that that isn't important. She may not be the conservative Reaganesque icon, only time will tell, but I will take her ahead of will-o-the-wisp Obama any time.

Things are looking good for Obama right now and liberals in their usual self-congratulatory arrogant and ungracious ways are crowing. We'll see, I think there are twists and turns to come yet.

steve

Hey Melanie.

here's another smear against Palin. Conservative columnist David Brooks, who actually knows something about the American political scene, said that she "represents a fatal cancer to the Republican Party."

John Birch

Jeff: I thought the Republican Party believed in free enterprise and less government. The point of my post is that out of political desperation McCain pitched a big government intervention that if Obama had proposed people on this list would be deriding him as a socialist.

James

It's a measure of Melanie Phillips' strength as a journalist that she gets the kind of abuse she does from posters like THX1138 who is so frightened of the findings in her journalism he elevates her to the level of some sort of political campaigner.

Since when has Ms Phillips ever been anything other less than rigorous whatever the subject she takes on?

MMR, 'global warming', the epidemic of functional illiteracy... Why would she change now and just regurgitate glib opinion?

Here she is on a relatively obscure website, well away from the mainstream media, and yet here they flock to see the woman who dares question today's fashionable article of opinion - whatever it may be.

Why isn't she cheerleading? Why isn't she telling us the earth is flat? Everyone else says it is.

Brian O'Connor

Getting back to ACORN . . .

The guys at PowerLine have provided us a list of 5 states — with links to sources, of course — which are investigating ACORN for voter fraud: Missouri, Nevada, Connecticut, Ohio and Wisconsin. http://tinyurl.com/43ydtj

Of course, that's only 10% of the number of states comprising the US . . .

And I haven't compiled the number of electoral votes they comprise . . . but it can't be too many, right?

And Barack Obama didn't know . . . right?

Verity

Dave writes patronisingly of Ms Phillips: "What's funniest about all this is the lovely whistful quality to Mel's headline. Bless"

Actually, I'd say it was the sad quality of your grasp of what I assume is your native language. If you're French or Chinese of from Rio, one could understand. But, Dave, Dave, Dave ... are you really speaking your native language? Do you have a second language? Oh, stop!

Field, another inadequate, writes: "The facts are that Norway isn't a totalitarian country. We have no reason to fear Norway selling us oil and gas."

Did you ever get marked for English comprehension? Did you understand the point of my post, glistening with clarity for the easily misled?

Conservative Cabbie - thanks, and I remember Hillary Clinton's speech where she said she had had to run across the airport apron in Iraq. Not just run, but <>i>duck! because that is a well known way of escaping bullets!

Swift Boat
October 8th, 2008 5:48pm Verity -It's interesting that so many people so full of irrational bile for Sarah Palin are men, isn't it?

I think my bile for Sarah Palin is entirely rational

NSS ...

Field, develop your wind resources ... I wouldn't touch this one - but wind resources are the most destructive and irrational. I suggest you heave a hose over your shoulder and climb up that big ladder in the sky - higher than the stairs up to Bedfordshire! - and hose the sun out. It's the sun wot does it. Where's the concerned movie-maker Al Gore these days, by the way? I understand he's in Hollywood, mixing around ... He's so rich from OXY and his tobacco plantations, they actually turn up to his parties.

James 11:19. Thank you on behalf of Melanie Phillips and Sarah Palin, neither of whom appointed me, but I shoved my way in anyway.

One wonders at the the emotional involvement of all these men so passionate about the wisp of an empty shell travellin' under the name of Obama.

Brian O'Connor

There's a lot to be said for the internet, and the tens of thousands of folks who have the time and inclination to probe a political candidate's claims using it.

Here's a post, again from the PowerLine guys, entitled "Barack Obama, Socialist?".

They mined web archives and found an apparently "scrubbed" web page which, if accurate, links Senator Obama to the socialist "New Party."

Here 'tiz — http://tinyurl.com/5ynzk2

Questions for Obama supporters: Should the MSM probe this allegation, and is it fair to ask Obama about it? And even if it is correct, does it matter (is socialism bad?)?

Conservative Cabbie

Pointless but interesting factS:

This is from "The Right Nation" by Micklethwaite/Wooldridge.

Did you know that Galileo was offered a chair at Harvard.

America is the world's oldest republic and the oldest democracy.
The democrats can make the arguement that they are the World's oldest political party.

Just found this interesting and wanted to share.

EC

Fabio P.Barbieri: "Ronnie - you are another pathetic and gutless ignoramus. First about the suggestion that I am afraid of anything about you except perhaps your hygienic habits"

Now THAT's what I call a ritual insult! Ronnie, now don't be upsetting this gentleman will you.

James Murphy

Brian O'Connor asks 'Is socialism bad?' - Is the pope a catholic? Does it rain in Britain? Has a man ever masturbated? Do women wear make-up? Is life frustrating? Do nasty things happen? Are human beings sometimes annoying? - Wake up and smell the substitute, camp coffee, soon-to-be-available-at-a-semi-derelict-corrugated-iron-fronted-broken-down supermarket-near-you, Brian. whoops, I forgot - that's just the kind of landscape socialists love, isn't it?

Verity - good to have you back! For a moment I thought a profound world-weariness with the unstanchable flow of excremental left-wing idiocies on this site had got to you, and deceived you into adopting a more touchy-feely approach. But I'm delighted to see I was wrong.

Fabio - bravissimo! (assuming you are part or whole Italian),

La sua e una voce di coraggio!

Conservative Cabbie

Ronnie

You say, "Can we try to forget that Governor Palin is a Republican for a minute and ask ourseleves, 'suppose she actually does have the political knowledge and intellect of a whelk?' Doesn't that possibility worry you?"
You then go on to accuse people like me of being petty, unpatriotic and wanting to blow things up.
Ok, I'm going to tell you why I like Sarah Palin and I'm going to do it without adopting your insulting tone to demonstrate that we can think things through and don't need to resort to ranting.
I am a conservative (please take note of the small c). I believe that government should be small, that role models are important, that liberal ideals like feminism and affirmative action make a problem worse not better, that integrity in politicians is crucial and most importantly that politicians serve the people and that they can best do that when they are of the people.
Sarah Palin shares a lot of these values. I am not religious and therefore there are a couple of issues on which we would disagree. I have no problem with gay marriage and i'm not a creationist. However I strongly agree with her pro-life position. Someone else on this blog asked in a disparaging way "Have you seen all her interviews?". Yes I have and the strongest parts of both major interviews were her answers on her social positions. Her faith dictates her moral positions but she is not dogmatic in those views, in fact she is extremely tolerant of other views. She is also a strong believer in the power of democracy. She may want a ban on abortion, a constitutional amendment on gay marriage and the death penalty for child rapists but she understands that the only way to achieve this is through the will of the people. You may disagree with her views but not her approach. On abortion, she has an extremely principled view and actually a very tolerant one. She believes that life begins at conception, you may disagree which is fine, but having that belief means that abortion is quite simply wrong no matter the circumstance, it would be tantamount to murder. How is this view tolerant? She is a strong supporter of helping mothers with unwanted babies go through the process of adoption. She doesn't want to demonise women who can't cope with a baby for whatever reason, she wants to help them.

One of the first things Sarah Palin did on becoming Mayor of Wasilla was to pass an ordinance cutting her salary. She did feel that a Governor having a private jet was an extravagance and sold it. She has been advantaged as Governor by high oil prices which means she is fortunate to be able to run the budget in surplus. But rather than increase taxes and dramatic increases in spending like Gordon Brown in the UK, she gave a lot of that surplus back to the people of Alaska with a 1,200 dollar rebate. Yes spending also increased on important infrastructure projects but she also used her power of line item veto to reduce legislature proposed spending.
I cannot understand why feminists dislike her so. Sarah Palin is the epitome of the empowered woman. she is able to manage a family alongside her high powered job. She has a fully equal partnership with her husband and has been dramatically successful in the very male orientated business of Alaskan politics. She hasn't needed to downplay her femininity or become one of the boys to be successful, she has got to where she is solely on merit. Isn't that what feminism should be about?
Sarah Palin encompasses everything I admire about Americans (particularly western Americans).. Principled, meritocratic, positive, not reliant on government largesse. She is a winner not a whiner. Sure, her interviews haven't been great. She's been thrown into this role. She's had a few weeks to get up to speed, Barack Obama has had 3 years and 18 debates. If the ability to think great things was the only requirement to be a great leader, what happened to Gordon Brown. If eloquence was the only needed qualification for greatness then i'm sure Obama will be a great President, but I want more from a President than eloquence and deep thought. I want someone who has been tested and who has succeeded. I value integrity over good electioneering skills, I value a person who relates to the ordinary citizen, not one who looks down on them.
Sarah Palin embodies those great words of Abraham lincoln; "Government of the people, by the people, for the people". Sadly Barack Obama does not. That is why I would love to support Sarah Palin for president one day.
Apologies for the long post.

EC

Verity: "Did you understand the point of my post, glistening with clarity ....."

Yes, although they are not always nicely rounded, they are freshly formed, they certainly do glisten and you turn out so many of them!

John Birch

Brian O'Connor: If you're worried about socialism maybe you should be focusing on the Republicans and the McCain campaign. After supporting the bailout (when many conservatives opposed it) he advocated spending hundreds of billions to bail people out of bad mortgages. Where are his conservative beliefs? He's basically willing to say anything to get votes.

Ronnie

Is that it, Fabio P. Barbaric? You think I'm not using my own name and that's really all you want to take issue with? Idiot.

Conservative Cabbie, the funny thing is that I agree with most of what you say and particularly on abortion. You either value life, and I mean all life, or you don't.

You miss my point. I'm simply fed up with us having the p**s taken out of us by the Republican Party through the poor quality of the people they put up for the most important executive positions in the world.

Governor Palin may be great in Alaska, I don't know, but that's it.

Hayward Maberley

Mr Barbieri,
I use my own name, Hayward Maberley, when posting to The Spectator blogs. The problem arises with people who do not take the trouble to spell it correctly, when replying in a generally abusive fashion.
Regards,
Hayward Maberley

field

As usual, Verity declares herself the victor - while lying on the floor after being counted out for ten.

Verity

EC - Incorrect. I only post on threads that interest me intensely - and those are usually international issues. The rest of the good ship HMS Speccie Blog sails on serenely with only a rare a peep from me.

Brian O'Connor

John Birch wrote:

Brian O'Connor: If you're worried about socialism maybe you should be focusing on the Republicans and the McCain campaign.

Suggesting McCain's socialistic tendencies are equivalent to Obama's is like claiming shoplifting is equivalent to armed bank robbery. After all, they're both crimes, right?

Or, if you'd prefer a more neutral response, riding a bicycle from San Francisco to Chicago is no different from flying there . . . both the airliner and the bicycle are for transportation, right?

But there's a lot more to fear about Obama than merely his socialistic bent of mind . . .

Fabio's mum

Fabio! Get off that computer, come down from your room and get your dinner. And stop abusing people you've never met.

Honestly, that boy ... his mouth is almost as filthy as his mind!

Dave

Verity: Thanks for the insult! Bizarre and slightly cheap as it was. But the point still stands. The headline to this blog post is whistful almost to the point of denial.

Frank P

Dave

"The headline to this blog post is whistful almost to the point of denial."

You're wistling down the wind. I bet you play a good hand od wist, too, or is that whishful thinking?

Perhaps you could educate us: where is the source of denial, is it The Great Lakes, or Rwanda?

Verity

Dave, What's denial in whist? "Pass"?

Brian O'Connor writes: "But there's a lot more to fear about Obama than merely his socialistic bent of mind . . ."

Agreed. It's not the socialism which is so alarming. It's the Hitleresque grandiosity, the Hitler Youth worship, the symbolism (the false Presidential seal he'd had rigged up - or rather, his handlers had had rigged up - and affixed to his lectern), this "citizen's army" that he has carefully not mentioned for a couple of months, that is going to enjoy the same funding as the US Military. Huh? They're going to have fighter jets and tanks? The blind hero worship of someone who is not a hero by any measure.

Socialism is inconvenient, but Obama is alarming. And he comes clad in "race", a useful piece of armour, is it not? One of the reasons he got chosen, to be sure ...

I wonder what hospital he was born in in Hawaii? I wonder if Mr Corsi has checked into this?

Fabio P.Barbieri

Ronnie: and on top of it you think that distorting my name proves something. You seem to have forgotten that this was a discussion on politics. What the shape of my name has to do with it is beyond me. On the other hand, the fact that you do not have the courage to take responsibility for your statements in person does.

As for the miserable piece of zoologically human wreckage who dares take in vain the name of a creature (my mother) who is as far above it as angels are above slime, well, creature, does it feel good to imitate human beings? Does it feel nice to ape human speech? However, creature, one thing you should learn is that pretend human can never reach the level of human; not even where invective is concerned. Full human beings do it better. I reminded Ronnie that he was simply ridiculously off topic; the creature, however, is beneath such considerations. With it, I shall deal according to its nature.

American Voter

Brian O'Connor: Yes, "socialism" does matter. Socialism is the version of Communism and Nazism fed to the public as perfectly harmless. In fact, it has helped to destroy Britain and Europe. Barack Hussein Obama was a Member of, and Candidate for, the New Party in the 1990s and the following link explains its procedures which led to a US Supreme Court decision against it as well as providing documentary evidence of his membership and candidacy which the Obama team originally denied and then tried to expunge:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/10/archives_prove_obama_was_a_new.html

The New Party was a Radical Left organisation formed to amalgamate far left groups and push the US into Socialism by forcing the Democratic Party to the left. It was an attempt to regroup the forces on the Left into a new strategy to take power by burrowing from within.
Socialislm doesn't work, enslaves people, leaves them dependent upon totalitarian governments and leads to world wars and societal collapse.

Frank P

Verity

"I wonder what hospital he was born in in Hawaii?"

Hospital? Goodness! Didn't you hear? It was away in a manger, no crib for a bed. Except with this Second Coming, it was not The Three Magi that came-a-visiting with Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh; it was three maggots from Chicago with the teachings of Foucault, Alinsky and Marx.

We three Kings of Orient are, Bearing gifts we traverse afar. Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder blood Red Star.

Frank P

Fabio

You're taking the bait old friend. Best to give the scroll button a long press next time you see 'Ronnie's' moniker on the left margin, as I do. You're unlikely to miss anything. I found that responding to his posts just gives him oxygen for his diseased little lungs. He is a particularly trite troll and not worthy of the wear and tear on your worthy fingertips. Moreover he sulks if you ignore him and that could save us all a bit of scrolling.

You see I enjoy your posts and if you mention 'Ronnie' my scroll finger twitches and I might miss something important if you keep mentioning him. But watch it, you're not careful he will say that he enjoys some of your posts, too. That will be a ploy to keep you responding: don't fall for it. Be firm, just hit the scroll - shoot on sight.

Verity

We three thugs from the toddlin' town are
Bearing gifts we travelled afar
Pineapple groves and sweet leilani
A hospital still called Kapi'olani
The site of your first "Aloha"?

Brian O'Connor

I asked on October 9th, 2008 4:29am:

Questions for Obama supporters: Should the MSM probe this allegation, and is it fair to ask Obama about it? And even if it is correct, does it matter (is socialism bad?)?

Would any Obama supporter care to reply?

I guess I'm interested in knowing if their support for Obama would be strengthened by his socialistic inclinations and ties or weakened because of them.

Brian O'Connor

Back to ACORN . . .

Investors Business Daily has an interesting OpEd on ACORN and Obama's relationship with it: http://tinyurl.com/42jsd3

. . . What does all this have to do with Obama, besides the fact that he'd be the beneficiary of most, if not all, of these new votes?

For starters, Obama paid ACORN, which has endorsed him for president, $800,000 to register new voters, payments his campaign failed to accurately report. (They were disguised in his FEC disclosure as payments to a front group called Citizen Services Inc. for "advance work.")

What's more, Obama worked as executive director of ACORN's voter-registration arm, Project Vote, in 1992. . . .

There's just so much of this stuff . . . Wright, Pfleger, Rezko, ACORN, Ayers, CAC, Raines, etc.

And that ignores all his creepy and contradictory policy positions.

Where does it end?

Frank P

Brian O'Connor

Well, as nobody else seems to want to address that rom the pro Obamessiah camp, as a non-supporter of Obama and a reluctant supporter of the McCain ticket (with no vote but WTF?)let's try.

If Obama was espousing socialism I would have no quarrel with him (though I would with his political stance), he takes his chances with the electorate on a level playing field then. Take it or leave it.

It's the sub-rosa shit, the pretence, the skulduggery that is despicable and subversive. Nail your colours to the mast Obama, you might even get a few straight votes in these times of capitalist excess and confusion if you caanvassed with an Ayers ticket. You're not even a Wolf in sheep's clothing. You're just an empty suit being used by poisonous vermin. All suit and somebody else's substance - if that's how you can describe the counter-culture hegemony, the One World Utopia.

As you are clearly an empty suit, for what? Money? Fame?

Maybe you're just pussy-whupped by your Marxist missus? Whatever, socialism will not prevail under Uncle Sam's flag. You will fail, though the attempt may be extremely harmful to the very people who are singing your hymn at the moment.

Ann Augustine

It's like one of those "All Aboard" spam mails where a channel is opened to a fast buck and more energy is invested in preserving the channel than goes into any productive work. Had they put the same righteous and astute determination into holding Obama to his promise to clean up his district, they'd now be able to point to his substantive achievements as an indisputable qualification for the Presidency.

Frank Pulley

Brian O'Connor

Give us the low-down on the vote rigging in Nevada, buddy; Fox have just been highlighting it, apparently the FBI are investigating it and it appears to be widespread. We are getting zilch from our own media as you would expect.

All news here is bumming Gordon Brown's load. One headline on the Sky News blog screamed 'Gordon Blasts Iceland', I thought he's sent in a nuclear sub (always supposing we still have one) to increase 'global warming' by melting freaking Iceland with a nuclear strike. Turns out, he was just speaking firmly to a couple of Eskimo bankers.

JHC! That'll scare 'em. They'll probably sell West Ham in retaliation.

Conservative Cabbie

Ronnie

The Democrats have put up Al Franken for the senate - is that your idea of a top quality candidate. Let's see now, on a Democratic timeline, he'll be standing for President in 4 years. You're quick to condemn but I have yet to see you or any other Obama supporter say what you believe the qualities are that he possesses that qualify him for President. Is it simply that he's a good speaker or that he's the anti-Bush or something else. I'm genuinly interested.
In the VP debate, Sarah Palin made one mistake, slightly getting the name wrong of the general in Afghanistan, Joe Biden on the other hand made 14 gaffes including the bizzare statement that Hezbollah had been kicked out of the Lebanon. He makes gaffes on a daily basis. That's a serious candidate is it?

You talk about a culture war. Since the Sarah Palin announcement, I've seen Sarah Palin referred to as a redneck, her faith has been mocked, smalltown America has been remorslessly disparaged, Republican supporters have been called thick. Who is it exactly you think is engaged in a culture war again?

Brian O'Connor

Frank Pulley: I'm afraid I don't know much more about the ACORN investigations than the next guy.

But what's interesting is that the sheer scale of Nevada's investigation; the brazenness of the fraudulent acts themselves; and the breadth of the problem (across the country) have (finally) attracted the MSM.

McCain is aware of ACORN: The AP reports that in "Bethlehem, Pa., supporters of John McCain interrupted his remarks Wednesday by shouting, 'No more ACORN.'" (The AP blandly describes ACORN as a "nonpartisan group (that) works to recruit low-income voters.") http://tinyurl.com/4vua9h

This is another target-rich environment, and I expect we'll see lots more on the Obama/ACORN connection from the McCain camp in the very near future.

(PS — McCain pointed the finger of responsibility directly at Barney Frank and Chris Dodd today for their roles in letting FM/FM go unregulated. McCain mentioned their names.)

Twinky Winky Pony Palin

This is hilarious. My guy's gonna win in a landslide. I can't wait to see your heads explode come November 5.

Brian O'Connor

In a follow-up to my "PS" above (McCain mentioning the role of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in the FM/FM meltdown), here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/3k49bm

Pretty tough stuff.

Mr Dow Jones

Al Sharpton brought down capitalism amazing..

The Things you learn on this blog.

Heidi

“ENSIGN URGES FEDS TO STOP PAYMENTS TO ACORN” [Rich Lowry]

Washington, D.C. – In a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Senator John Ensign today called for the suspension of taxpayer dollars that ultimately end up in the hands of such controversial groups as ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN, which is under investigation, is eligible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac affordable housing funds, which add up to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

“With the government takeover of Fannie and Freddie, the government will be taxing itself to create a backdoor slush fund, and we must prevent these taxpayer dollars from going toward ACORN,” said Ensign. “With the recent news tying ACORN with voter fraud, suspending these funds is even more urgent.”

As part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Fannie and Freddie are required to provide funding for newly created affordable housing funds. This was signed into law prior to the government takeover of the two agencies. Now that the government owns Fannie and Freddie and may provide them with up to $200 billion, taxing these companies does not help create stability, which is the goal of FHFA.

A search warrant was served today on the ACORN Headquarters in Nevada as part of an ongoing investigation into whether employees used false addresses or false names as part of their voter registration operation.

The letter was sent to James Lockhart, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency today. As the regulatory agency overseeing Fannie and Freddie, FHFA has the authority to stop these contributions to the affordable housing funds. Senators Michael Enzi, Jon Kyl, David Vitter, Pat Roberts, Tom Coburn, John Thune and Jim DeMint signed the letter with Ensign.

Continue reading this post for the text of the letter.

October 7, 2008

The Honorable James B. Lockhart III

Director

Federal Housing Finance Agency

1700 G Street, NW

Fourth Floor

Washington, D.C. 20552

Dear Director Lockhart:

We write today to urge you to exercise your statutory authority to suspend any contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the newly created affordable housing funds, which could direct federal dollars to controversial groups like ACORN.

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 requires that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set aside an amount equal to 4.2 basis points for each dollar of new business activity and transfer those funds to two newly created affordable housing funds. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that such assessments may equal hundreds of millions of dollars a year for each company. Sec. 1337(b) of 12 U.S.C. 1301, however, gives you the authority to suspend those contributions if the assessments would contribute to the financial instability or the undercapitalization of the enterprises.

Less than one month ago, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) placed the enterprises into conservatorship due to concerns over the soundness of the firms and their difficulty in raising sufficient capital to carry out their missions. You said in a Sept. 7, 2008, statement that the companies could not “continue to operate safely and soundly and fulfill their critical public mission” and that “FHFA will act as the conservator to operate the Enterprises until they are stabilized.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are clearly financially unstable and face significant capitalization problems. One does not need to wait for financial reports to understand that. We strongly believe that taxing the companies hundreds of millions of dollars a year weakens their financial health and is completely at odds with FHFA’s goal of stabilizing the companies and returning them to normal business operations. We urge you to suspend any contributions to the affordable housing funds until at a minimum the enterprises are no longer in conservatorship and to make such a decision without further delay. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Brian O'Connor

This is off topic, and just FWIW: Obama was evidently swapping e-mails and phone calls with William Ayers as recently as 2005. http://tinyurl.com/444c3a

This would be the same William Ayers who visited Hugo Chavez in 2006 http://tinyurl.com/5ybl6d and praised him for his educational system.

This would be the same William Ayers who might well be appointed Secretary of Education in an Obama administration.

(Well, why not? He and Obama worked together on educational projects in Chicago; Obama regards him as being mainstream; he's well-credentialed, being a tenured professor on the faculty of a well-respected University and having authored or edited a bunch of books; he's civic minded; he cares about the education of our youngsters . . ..)

Brian O'Connor

Here's the video of McCain addressing the problem of ACORN, once it was brought up by his audience: http://tinyurl.com/3zbqbw

Ronnie

Oh God, Conservative Cabbie, if people would only read before they get angry instead of while they are angry.

In my opinion.

Hillary Clinton was the best possible candidate on any party's ticket during the Primaries. I believe that she didn't get the nomination because some guy turned up and reminded everyone that they had already had her husband, and the Bush family and it would be nice if someone else could be President for a change.

However, if I had a vote I would not have voted for her because I believe that Bill would have seen it as an opportunity for his third term and I do not regard that as healthy.

However, Hillary's campaign fell apart because they expected to win quite easily and we know what happened next.

I don't actually think that Obama is a great candidate and I am not actually a supporter. I do think that there are too many unanswered questions about him that the media should be pressing him on. But it looks like they are not going to unless someone credible can press the right buttons.

However, I do think that on balance Obama is a better candidate than McCain. Partly because he seems to think more and I believe that is important at the moment. I think we've probably had enough of mad-cap adventurism in the White House for a while.

I do not believe that yelling 'Marxist conspirator' at the top of your voice is the correct way of going about putting pressure on Obama's campaign. Some of the people doing so have previous form and they can't be taken seriously. In these situations you simply need to ask some serious questions and let others find the answers. You don't need to offer the most ridiculous conclusions available to make your point.

Going back to Hillary and as I've said before to Nick Kaplan, had Hillary won the nomination the kings and queens of Republican negative campaigning were ready and waiting for her. There can be no doubt about that. They had to recalibrate their efforts when Obama won instead.

In the heat of an election Republican supporters are called many things, 'thick' being one of them. I have read a great deal of evidence on these blogs to support that assertion and I'm sorry if some people take offence (but not very).

At the same time those same Republicans call Democrat supporters 'anti-American' amongst other things and I'm sure that they are equally offended.

I am unaffected by all of this as I am neither Republican or Democrat, merely and interested observer.

I'll say it again, I have nothing against Sarah Pailin, I don't know her and I am certainly against her faith being mocked and misrepresented as it has been. I simply do not think that she is a strong candidate for the vice Presidency at this time. It seems some people are offended by this but I can't see why and I don't really care. It is very easy to be offended.

The United States of America is one of my favourite places. It is a beautiful country from the green inlets of the Maine coast to the wonder of the everglades and the fabulous light around the Keys.

The American people are the most warm, open and friendly I have ever met and to be among them is a truly positive and uplifting experience. That goes for the people in small towns and equally the citizens of New York.

I believe the US primary system to be the most open and interesting democratic exercise in the world and I only wish that the two major parties could provide better choices for their people in the general election.

They deserve it and they deserve the outcome to be clear-cut and arrived at through a full and open discussion of the issues.

Now, back to the theatre...

Antoine

Brian O'Connor

Sure, I support Obama, I'll try and answer...

Basically I don't think he's in any way perfect and fully expect to be disappointed by decisions he makes in office - I just see him as the best of limited options that we've seen in a while. So investigate away, I'd like to know whatever can be discovered about both sides.

As to whether socialist roots would diminish my support, well that all depends. I'm liberal as well as left so if he had links with the authoritarian left, then yeah I'd have an issue with that. (Interesting parallel with the British situation there, as several of our recent home secretaries have been ex-communists. Economically they moved into the centre, but they retained their deeply illiberal approach to the populace with I.D. card schemes and the like. This is why John Smith is one of my least favourite people in the whole world - I could even countenance voting Tory to keep him out if need be.) Basically I think capital needs to have it's hands tightly tied for the greater good, but that people should be as free as possible within sensible limits. If his past indicated that he thinks likewise, cool, if not - does it affect his current platform? I think it's reasonable for someone's politics to evolve over the years, but obviously anything too outlandish would demonstrate a shift in underlying principles, which is less convincing.

Hope that helps.

P.S. Erm Fabio, I think the offending comment was at your expense rather than your mum's - it didn't make any insinuation against her at all. Sure it's impolite, but the world must seem a very hostile place if you react like that to so little.

Nick Kaplan

Conservative Cabbie is completely right to suggest that the left-wing posters here (Ronnie et al) seem to believe that “the ability to give a good interview is the ultimate qualification to be President.” Which really ties in very well with the fact that they could only be motivated to support Obama on the basis of his rhetoric, and certainly not on the basis of his actions and track record.

It is undoubtedly true that Obama speaks with eloquent and forceful style, that is (to the naive) easily appealing and hugely inspiring. The problem is Obama’s words are not supported by his past actions. It is all too easy to say the right thing and win the sympathy of the electorate, it is quite another to do it. As it was once said “every time I speak I put on a mask, every time I act I am forced to take it off again.”

Here are several reasons why we should not take Obama at face value and support him purely because he says nice things in an inspiring way:

1)He says he wants to combat corruption and ‘special interests’(which ones?) in Washington. However at the only opportunities Obama has had to combat corruption he instead worked with it e.g. in the Chicago system which is widely regarded to be the most corrupt in the US, he supported Daley against those who wanted reform to the way Chicago politicians operate.

2)Similarly his spoken desire to combat special interests does not extend to special interests that he supports and that support him. Again whilst in Chicago Obama has a long record of supporting special interests particularly the teachers unions, who despite have an appalling record in Chicago (Fewer than one-third of Chicago's high-school juniors meet the statewide standards on tests) can earn well in excess of $100,000 purely on the basis of seniority rather than merit, and so predictably strongly resist any reform. Obama’s response to this: To vote consistently against systemic reform (like performance related pay), and to admit "I owe those unions, when their leaders call, I do my best to call them back right away. I don't consider this corrupting in any way.”
Apparently it is only other politicians’ special interests that are corrupting.

3)Furthermore Obama had consistently supported both Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, before the current crisis; incidentally he received approximately $126,000 from these institutions... I wonder if these two facts are connected?

4)Obama says he is a centrist candidate who wants to break down political barriers... He has the most left-wig voting record in the Senate; he has never once co-sponsored a bill or voted against his party line.

5)Obama claims he can heal racial divisions.... but for the last 20 years he has been a member of a Black power church that preaches Black Liberation theology and promotes the ideas of racial grievance and hatred of America.

Obama’s words express great aims which anyone would struggle to disagree with, but his record shows that at every opportunity he has had to make a ‘change’ he did the reverse. One can only conclude that his future actions will not live up to his brilliant rhetoric.

As Thomas Sowell eloquently states “In the world of rhetoric-- the world in which Obama is supreme-- he is a moderate, reasonable man, reaching out to unite people and parties, dedicated to reform, opposed to special interests and a healer of the racial divide. It is only in the real world of action that Barack Obama is the direct opposite.”

Nick Kaplan

Conservative Cabbie also says “Things are looking good for Obama right now and liberals in their usual self-congratulatory arrogant and ungracious ways are crowing. We'll see, I think there are twists and turns to come yet.”

This is certainly true...isn’t it interesting and revealing that in the period of the Palin bounce, when McCain enjoyed his only opinion poll lead, one of Obama’s most consistent (and consistently banal and annoying) cheerleaders here and on Americano, THX, was nowhere to be seen. Now the bounce is over and he is back again to brag, posting childish comments and believing that McOver is somehow a clever play on words...

Verity

"he's well-credentialed, being a tenured professor on the faculty of a well-respected University and having authored or edited a bunch of books; ...."

...including, Brian O'Connor, according to rumour, Obama's book about his father. So he does biographies, too.

Punishment of Luxury

Didn't Mrs T sell off all the council houses to poor people with the banks providing east credit.

Conservative Cabbie

Ronnie

I don't know what the "oh god!" quip was about, my last post to you was written angrily, quickly maybe but not angrily. Ok, having reread it I can understand why you might have thought that, it wasn't intended.
You will find that I don't subscribe to the marxist conspiracy angle. I can understand why people might but I tend not to believe in conspiracy theories generaally. Having said that, there are so many levels of suspicious associations for Obama that he has very concerned. I wouldn't support him anyway because we are diametrically opposed on values but ACORN, William Ayers, Revs Wright and Pfleger, dubious money raising practices are all things that make me wonder about his judgement. He is clearly very bright as you recognize, the question is going to be, can he apply that intelligence to real world situations. Only time will tell.

Thanks for the post, and as you say - Game on!

Ronnie

With regard to 'that' interview, I agree that one bad interview does not a campaign break.

However, the point is that Governor Palin has deliberately been kept away from the microphone and has not really been asked for her views in any meaningful sense.

I would say, on the evidence of 'that' interview, that Governor Palin has real problems articulating her views and her program. I also think we all have to acknowledge that as a serious failing. How else do we judge politicians before we put them into positions of power?

There is what they have done in the past, what they say they will do and how they say it.

Its normal to suspend reality to support someone you like and admire, but I think this is too serious a business for that.

Conservative Cabbie

I've had my suspicions about the way polling companies and TV companies in the states have been classifying voters. It was made most apparent in the debate on Tuesday. I was watching the CNN coverage (usually watch Fox but thought I'd give CNN a go). They have these audience reaction lines that go up when the audience like something, down when they don't. Now they supposedly use uncommitted voters for this but I was struck by how the lines responded positevely to liberal suggestions and negatively to conservative ones. It may be nothing but it left me wondering just how impartial these audiences are.

Then I found this on Townhall.com. It is a quote from one of the people asking a question in the debate, a supposedly uncommitted voter:

"CLARK: So the Sunday before last, I received a call from the Gallop Poll. They asked a few questions regarding my choice in the Presidential election. They asked who I would vote for. I said most likely I would be voting for Barack Obama. They followed with, “is there any chance that you would change your mind“? I said “Of course anything is possible.” They then asked me as an uncommitted voter would I like to participate in the Town hall debate. I said “Of course!”

Just thought it interesting that a company, perhaps more, aren't being to careful about how they qualify voters.

Conservative Cabbie

Ronnie

"Suspend reality", does that mean the game's back on? (humour intended).

I don't think you get it. Are you trying to suggest that rhetoric is more important than policy, or integrity, or values.

I have to say Ronnie, I think it's you that's not taking this process seriously. I'm prepared and able to source my information about this election from places other than interviews, I don't have to rely on how a candidate reacts in front of a camera to form my opinion.

I'm sorry that you can't find someone in this election to get excited about, I have and am perfectly content with that person.

Ronnie

Conservative Cabbie, thats great. Go for it!

Twinky Winky Pony Palin

"...including, Brian O'Connor, according to rumour, Obama's book about his father. So he does biographies, too."

Thanks Verity! That is just so like something or whatever that I answered and I would like to thank you so much did and did I mention jobs and healthcare?

Oh and jobs and Iraq. You sound really smart.

I am so totally ready to be president.

PS: William Ayres or something whatever.

Verity

Ronnie - clearly a very provincial fellow with little experience of the world outside Britain - although he appears to be confident that he understands how the United States works - writes: "However, the point is that Governor Palin has deliberately been kept away from the microphone...".

She has? In your dreams, sweet thang. She has been working the campaign trail, meeting, greeting, giving talks and yes, giving interviews on local radio and taking questions on the hundreds of phone-in programmes that fo for 24 hours a day in the US.

Ronnie's statement is provincial and risible.

Verity

Ronnie, whose "thoughts" echo round the largely unoccupied chamber inside his skull, writes to Conservative Cabby, who says he is perfectly happy with Palin's performance: "Conservative Cabbie, thats great. Go for it!"

What a stupid comment. How is Conservative Cabby, a British citizen, I believe, going to "go for it"? Get a job writing speeches for Governor Palin? Get a job booking interviews for Governor Palin? Drive Governor Palin's bus? Pilot Governor Palin's plane to speaking engagements?

"Go for it!" Vacuity on stilts.

phil

I have seen yards and yards of impassioned posts here many with the usual smart alec invective and much from some whom I have no doubt know little or nothing about the candidates ,just like me .Personally I am unhappy with the inconsistency from sen. Obama who it appeared to me addressed various factions with what they wanted to hear ,and it seemed, to change depending on who they were ,but nevertheless I hear many sensible policies from him ,along with the rumours that are an incessant attack upon him .A man with an enormous intellect which will be needed by the world let alone the USA.

What does worry me the most though is the thought of an elderly president ,not in the best of health and a vice president with no experience of world affairs and with her trigger on the button were she to succeed him .That is my nightmare and of course it was sen MCcain who put her there ,if that is an example of his judgement I would have to vote for san Obama -not that I can and not that most of you can either

.Should I take the judgement of the fragrant lady(no guys I do not mean Mel) whose input is mostly to insult those who have a different opinion ?,should I be bothered by the accusations of lies from both sides ?My answer at least to myself is no!! I will decide what I think from what I have seen and heard .I have no bad words to say about sen MCcain ,WHO HARDLY GETS A MENTION IN THE DISCUSSIONS HERE !! I have no doubt that he is a decent and honourable man ,but for me he is one who has come too late to this party and I only have one other person to whom I could give my endorsement ,regardless of my doubts about him.

Verity

Phil, posing as a neutral and a novice, being convinced (almost against his will!) by Obama "a man with enormous intellect".

By whose yardstick? He's OK on the auto-cue but his "enormous intellect" most assuredly is not evident when he doesn't have a script. In fact, he comes across as uncertain and plodding. Without a script, he's no Martin Luther King. He's no Jesse Jackson. For wit, he's no Cassius Clay. For polished entertainment value, he's no Sammy Davis, Jr. For intensity, he's no Danny Glover. Actually, as an impromptu speaker, he's not even OJ Simpson, to be candid.

phil

I see the fragrant one took the bait as usual -was she describing her own abilities or that of the senator? I am happy to accept her description of me as a novice ,just wish she could do the same for herself -its patently obvious to most of us.

Was she as "expert" at the last election ? W e don't seem to have done to well,have we ?`Perhaps she can tell us .,or even offer herself at this late stage as an alternative to Obama .she seems to know everything -maybe I would even vote for her as I could not vote for an elderly man with a novice as a running mate and potential leader of the most powerful nation in the world . Sarcasm comes easy ,common sense is a little more difficult .

Nick Kaplan

Phil; Why do you feel that you cannot support an elderly man running with a novice as a VP, but you can support a novice running with an elderly man as VP?

phil

Nick Kaplan -was that a serious question or a little humour for this thread -i am sure you will understand why I have said it and I know you are an astute man -its not that I want Obama -its because I am really worried that as the election fever mounts the older man seems to be wilting both energywise and intellectually-As I have also stated the thought of Sarah Palin becoming president fills me with fear.I don't think I need to expand on that and thankfully I don't have a vote !!

Nick Kaplan

Phil; It was meant to be a joke, but nevertheless (as the sensible person that you are) your doubts about Obama should far overwhelm any doubts about McCain. As for Palin she may not be the most intelligent person in American politics but:

1) She is not running for president
2) In the unlikely event that she did become president she would have a team of expert advisors, and would have learnt much as VP.
3) The problems that apply to her apply equally to Obama e.g. lack of expierience, no idea about foriegn policy etc, but Obama is running for President.
4) Non of her views are manifestly dangerous e.g. even if she does believe creationism (which I have seen no evidence for) it is impossible that she can enforce this view even as President and its hard to see in what other way this might impair her abilty to govern.
5) She likes small government and would work to preserve the values laid down in the American constituion e.g. individual liberty etc etc. All evidence shows Obama would do the revrse.

So basically I’m thankful you don’t have a vote.... it’s just a shame that it appears the majority of those that do agree with you.

phil

Nick Kaplan thanks and I do "listen"-I just hope that neither of our fears are realised ,and in case of any misunderstanding I am fearful that all the negativity about O bama may well be true

phil

Nick Kaplan -just read the Mark Steyn article on "an absence of candour thread " sent in by Frank Pulley -makes very scary reading -is there any chance we can call the whole thing off?-we would have to stick with what we,ve got :)

THX1138

Nick K- "THX, was nowhere to be seen. Now the bounce is over and he is back again to brag, posting childish comments and believing that McOver is somehow a clever play on words..."

Nick I was on holiday and childish comments and a bit of mild abuse are all part of the fun ask Frank P & Verity

Great meltdowns from little acorns grow.. is but a childish play on words and so wrong I see nothing now but a meltdown for Johnny Drama and Bible Spice.

With a 90% of the UK wanting an Obama Presidency that means that pretty much every Tory wants Obama to win including Dave I bet.

You all know it's over don't you Obama is going to be the next President of the USA and the people of the world will cheer and cheer and all your ugly little smears and hatred will have made not a blind bit of difference

Obama is going to make a great President and Dave is going to make a great PM, I can't wait