Join up the dots

david skinner

Bill Muehlenberg of CultureWatch has this as his latest article; this also is a must read. articlehttp://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/11/03/is-obama-really-the-messiah/

John Birch

"To believe otherwise is to be irrational." Yes, of course, anyone opposed to Melanie Phillips' world view must be inherently irrational. So one individual is reported in that well-known paragon of journalistic excellence called newsmax as describing Obama's ties to Louis Farrakhan and we should all just accept this as fact or we are irrational. The fear thing isn't working Melanie--try finding some new ammunition.

Vision Aforethought

As per my comment below the previous post regarding Saudi money and influence, the issue is, the people voting for Obama know about his past and probably don't care. He is popular because his supporters are probably disillusioned with their lot and really are hoping for change. However, where they don't get it is that American culture is about the power of the individual to bring about said change, so if they believe Obama or even McCain will improve things, they are sure to be disappointed. All said, like the UK of I would guess, approx 2015, the ethnic 'minority' in the US is now almost a majority, and we all know that it is human nature to choose leaders who echo our values and background.

The white anglo saxon way of life is on the wain, and no matter ones opinion of this, there is nothing (politically) that can be done to reverse this status quo. Perhaps 'our' time is up?

Dee Ranged

America is about to plunge into a nightmare of its own making.

Worried, Windsor

Not sure that those statements really justify the label 'smear' as they're just about the flakiest allegations I've seen yet.

What is it about Obama that causes this visceral hatred? Over to you 'Verity'.

david skinner

Mark Steyn also has some good commentary on the campaign in which he says:

Across the electric wires, the hum is ceaseless: Give it up, loser. Don’t go down with the ship when it’s swept away by the Obama tsunami. According to newspaper reports, polls show that most people believe newspaper reports claiming that most people believe polls showing that most people have read newspaper reports agreeing that polls show he’s going to win.

In the words of Publishers’ Clearing House, he may already have won! The battleground states have all turned blue, the reddest of red states are rapidly purpling. Don’t you know, little fool? You never can win. Use your mentality, wake up to reality. Why be the last right-wing pundit to sign up with Small-Government Conservatives For The Liberal Supermajority? We still need pages for the coronation, and there’s a pair of velvet knickerbockers with your name on it.

: Point of No Return

In 1974, Richard Wurmbrand, a Christian who had miraculously survived years of imprisonment and torture in Romania, under the communist regime, which was also a product of materialistic and atheistic belief and who had witnessed scenes of the utmost cruelty and barbarity whilst in prison, was being interviewed in America. The interviewer asked him, “ do you think American Christians are going to experience what you experience?”
“ No,” he answered thoughtfully, “ I don’t think it’s going to come. I think it’s already here; in America, I experience ten times more demonic spiritual oppression fighting to make me draw back ( to keep silent) than I ever experienced in a dungeon.”

John Birch

Vision Aforethought: Yes, maybe voters are more concerned about which candidate and party will better address issues like health insurance, pensions, employment, and housing. These are issues that never get discussed on this blog. Instead, the focus is always on personality, a reflection of the celebrity culture that Melanie Phillips frequently denounces. How about substance instead?

Andrew Rutey

America is on the verge of making the single biggest mistake in its history. Electing a Kenyan-born radical Marxist is collective insanity. And I say this as someone who would normally (though not always) be inclined to support the democratic candidate in US elections.
Crazy.

Israel

John Birch:

"Vision Aforethought: Yes, maybe voters are more concerned about which candidate and party will better address issues like health insurance, pensions, employment, and housing. These are issues that never get discussed on this blog. Instead, the focus is always on personality, a reflection of the celebrity culture that Melanie Phillips frequently denounces. How about substance instead?"

John, this election from McCain's side isn't about substance this election could never BE about substance. Just look at the difference in the TV ad's between the two campaigns. Rick Davis, McCain's lobbyist campaign manager said it himself,"If we talk about the issues we lose" and they proved it when they announced last month that they would go "100% negative".

From Iraq, where the El Maliki government and the Bush administration have agreed with Obama cutting down McCain's main foreing policy attack, to taxes, to the economy in general, healthcare, education, energy policy and other issues, to the pick of the disasta from Alaska who has seen the most stunning reversal in favourable/unfavourable ratings ever (and is yet to hold either a press conference, appear on any of the US major political sunday shows (though now even that is too late!!) and is yet to release a single page of her medical history) Obama has been ahead. Even with cross party endorsements you have too look hard to find any for McCain apart from his old friend Joe Lieberman. The ringing endorsements from conservative newspapers, pundits, plitical analysts and former republican officials has been astounding, and all have openly stated the reason as being McCain's lack of judgement in picking, in the words of one of the major political conservative commentator's George Will "a political neophyte", and his reaction to the economic crisis.

The real irony is that the man who has had numerous appearences on US tv shows including "Saturday Night Live" (where he sparkles), US talk shows (like "Late Show With Letterman" where he announced he was running for president!!), WWE wrestling shows, "24" season 5 and the film "The Wedding Crashers" actually tried to criticize his ooponent for being a celebrity!!

Dominic L-R

It looks like Melanie is getting desperate quoting Dr White's comments about Obama's success as a public Orator. The fact that Obama may have developed a "speaking technique" in a "Nation of Islam" style is not in itself troubling. (The substance, of course could be deeply troubling, but this was not the point being made)
Melanie asserts that such "evidence" is dismissed by Obama supporters. And exactly what kind of evidence is this?Are politicians now to be judged because of their public speaking style?

Huw Thornton

So it's back to "Obama the Muslim" is it? "Obama the marxist" didn't work, eh?

The McCain campaign has been derailed by this kind of nonsense. Each conspiracy theory raised has prevented his campaign developing any kind of coherent narrative, and made him look as loony and out of touch as some of his supporters. An unjust result for a decent man.

We don't know yet whether it has been enough to deny McCain the election. But, if so, it will provide the context for similar columns to be written for the next four years at least.

epaminondas

The typical reaction to a recitation of facts about Obama, the things he has said and are well documented, his appointments (Zbig, Mcpeak, Powers, etc), has been typically a brezzy dismissive wave of the hand as if they have come from a right wing equivalent of Counterpunch

Willful blindness.

Consider this ..the TIPP/IBD poll for yesterday shows 78% of american jews favor Obama.

This kind of insanity cannot be defeated with facts.

derek

Funny Andrew. I was saying the same thing about GWB:

America is on the verge of making the single biggest mistake in its history. Electing a Texas-born neo-con fascist is collective insanity. And I say this as someone who would normally (though not always) be inclined to support the conservative candidate in US elections.
Crazy.

BFree

"Are politicians now to be judged because of their public speaking style?"
It worked for Cameron.

Frank Pulley

Andrew Rutey

Your succinct summary puts all the work that has been done by this blog over the past couple of months, achieved despite the babbling of baboons and buffoons (unleashed from their Gramscian gulags) in the backgound, into a nutshell. You just cracked it in one paragraph (plus an appropriate expostulation).

I won't bother to again urge America to draw back at the 59th minute of the eleventh hour; one glance at the tearful-joyful entranced faces of the Obamites during yesterday's rallies indicated that the Big Media has engendered mass hysteria.

For James Warren Jones, read Barack Obama; but on a much larger scale. Only in America.

I have now discovered what I shall do when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse come galloping over the horizon, or more likely when the quack tells me with a sly but sympathetic wink, "I think we should increase your dosage, old chap, you don't need to suffer that much pain." I shall smile benignly and, in exculpation, mutter, "Let it be."

A great campaign Melanie; battle lost but there's still a war to be won. Treat it as a 21st C Dunkirk. Now let's get back to the Near East and rally the troops who are up to their neck in shit 'n bullets, as the idiotic circus over the Herring Pond reaches it's frenzied finale.

Israel

The Arizona Daily Star today endorsed Senator Obama over home state senator John Mccain:

McCain is correct that it's time to stand up. "Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history," he said at the Republican National Convention.
However, the ways of the past, which we believe McCain understands, will not work in this new America. The future requires new tools and new expertise. A premium must be placed on more than just love of country. We must re-embrace American ideals and lead the world on a stronger path to prosperity and peace.
The time is now and the leader is Barack Obama. The Star endorses Obama for president of the United States.

Wow. Even in his HOME STATE they have Obama endorsements!!! A lot has been said about this election but this endorsement really sums up a lot of it. People don't want McCain and his continuation of the Bush Doctrine. If he could lose the support of news media in his home state then what else is there to say?

Stever

So you are basing the concerns about Obama's 'deep' links to the delusional egotist Farrakhan on what? Ah, claims made by delusional egotist Farrakhan.

Sergey

Every election is primary about a trust, not about "issues". Actually, "issues" are only distraction, since 95% of voters lack analitic skills and knowledge to accurately predict impact of any particular policy. It is assumed that politicians can lie and discard their promisses the next day after election. So the only important issue is integrity of a candidate and of a political machine which put him forward. In this respect, Obama is an enigma even after 2 years of campaign,which tells something about amount of trust that rationally can be invested in him. (Irrational hope is completely another stuff - in realm of madness of crowds.)

Ian G

The so-called church that Obama was a member of for twenty years has ties to Farrakhan. Or haven't you noticed this 'John Birch'?

Why hasn't anyone asked Obama the basic questions about his 'Christian Faith'? Simple ones like:

When was he baptised/Christened? Where is his Baptismal certificate? Who were his sponsors/godparents? How does he understand being a Christian? What does he think 'born again/born from above' means? When was he confirmed? How often does he take communion? How often does he read the Bible? When was the last time? What passage did he read? etc. etc. The sort of things that practicing Christians across all the denominations will have answers for.

Then we will know for certain whether he really is a Christian. You could do the same for McCain and Biden. I reasonable certain the Sarah Palin would have answers, I'm not so sure of any of the others.

Why bother? The have made a claim. Let's find out if they are telling the truth. That's important.

Augustus

The Left not only seems utterly incapable of understanding Islamic theological doctrines, let alone appreciating textual evidence, it also still seems convinced that the root problem is foreign policy, and that the solution is appeasement and concessions.

Radical Islam has reasoned that it is always best to have a Democrat in office. Someone who, while not taking them seriously by not appreciating the radical components, will try to appease by making physical concessions. And above all, someone who will not wage an offensive war against the terrorists, thereby giving al-Qaeda and its followers worldwide that one thing they desperately need: Time. Time to regroup, time for Western economies to falter, time for Muslim nations to grow stronger and possibly acquire nukes, time to resurrect the caliphate.

Enter Barack Hussein Obama, the ultimate representation of change; literally and figuratively. Not only is he a Liberal Democrat, he is black (i.e. understands what it means to be a minority), and he has a decidedly Arab/Muslim name that will surely endear Muslims to America. Who better to make peace with the rest of the Muslim world? Who better to make them like us?

Bottom line: Without 9/11 the meteoric rise of Senator Obama would have been inconceivable, so in this sense, then, Osama paved the way for Obama.

Worried, Windsor

Ian G,

"..reasonable certain the Sarah Palin would have answers.."

Sure. So where are the promised Palin medical records?

Israel

epaminondas:

"Consider this ..the TIPP/IBD poll for yesterday shows 78% of american jews favor Obama.
This kind of insanity cannot be defeated with facts."

What you have said is very insulting. The one thing l have learnt about the Jewish community in the US while visiting relatives in New York and Florida is that they don't like bullsh**ters, they like facts. Maybe if McCain had come out with some policies instead of "going negative" and trying to frighten them into voting for him he would have done better. Just like the Hispanic vote they have seen through McCain and the disasta from Alsaka which is why they are polling so strongly for Obama. Just because it doesn't fit Melanie's view, or your view, or the ever increasingly deranged view of Verity it doesn't show insanity. As l posted above, McCain knew he couldn't win on issues, and unlike 2004 issues were the things that have made the electorate sit up this time. McCain's response has been terrible on issues like healthcare, social security and the US Medicade and Medicare systems. This is one of the reasons why he is so far behind in Florida, home of a lot of elderly Jewish voters.

Sarah

'So it's back to "Obama the Muslim" is it?' says Huw.

Since when has Melanie Phillips said Barack Obama is a Muslim, though?

Give us the quote.

All she has done is point out the evidence - including from his own schoolteacher - that he was a Muslim.

All people want to know is when did he convert - and why?

Dixon

As someone who supported ( if that means anything from a UK national ) Elmer Fudd - I mean McCain, it now seems that the only way we'll ever get over this Obama hysteria is for him to get elected. If he doesnt, well never hear the end of it. If he does, he can still be booted out next time around.

One good thing is that if Obama wins, we who support America will forever have an answer to lefty quips that its a racist nation.

As for stage style, I've always found Obama to be redolent of the smooth-talkin, jive-walkin crooners of the Sixties "Rat Pack". A political; Sammi Davis Jnr or Dean Martin. Its as though someone took George Galloway and disguised him with an oozy exterior of charm.

Well, thats how I fear Obama may pan out as president, George Galloway with power!

Geoff M

Obama is not a man who will serve all Americans.

Such a man would not be rooted in the extremist black ideology that he professes, or associate with known terrorists and traitors, any more than could a member of the KKK serve all Americans.

Millions of Americans, after decades of softening up and being made to feel guilty for being white are assuaging that guilt by supporting Obama.

Their children and grandchildren will rue the day Obama and his ilk come to power.

Already we hear that riots are planned if he should lose.

Will Republicans riot if they lose?

Of course not.

That in itself should demonstrate the nature of Democrats and be a clear reason for avoiding any affliation with such violent, racist and undemocratic people.

Leo Solomon

We had better start believing in something with the fervor and dedication of fanatics before a very odious something is rammed down our throats.It's time to start preparing the case for impeachment!!

Leo Solomon

We had better start believing in something with the fervor and dedication of fanatics before a very odious something is rammed down our throats.It's time to start preparing the case for impeachment!!

Canon Alberic

I'm sorry but the principle article you cite simply does not bear the interpretation you put on it. Its arguments are clearly fallacious: x supports proposition y: a "has to have" political contact with x: therefore x supports y.
A failure to condemn x means agreement with x's views.
I'm sorry Melanie but I have the greatest respect for your abilties as a polemicist and I support your general view that our civilization faces a crisis and that various fanaticisms are its polarities BUT your position on Obama is I regret to say increasingly bolstered by the worst kind of false argument.
If he is elected and if he doesnt hoist the black flag over the Whitehouse or encourage Iran to use thermonuclear threats to create a new world order or simply find himself overwhelmed by his deficiencies and turn America into a pc nightmare straight from The Culture of Complaint, what form will your apology take?
Also the defence of Palin is nearly as embarassing as her pig-ignorant particpation in a phone-in with the Ello Ello version of Sarkozy.

David Lindsay

Oh, how much more of this!

No wonder that John McCain is making no fuss about Barack Obama’s illegal aunt. One Kenyan is, in principle, wrong: illegal is illegal. But she is politically as nothing next to the millions of Latinos to whom McCain, in one of his most striking metamorphoses in Jorge Bush, wishes to grant an amnesty.

There are those (mostly blue-collar Catholics and white Evangelicals) who suffer as much as the blacks as a result of such policies, official and unofficial. But no one suffers more. A Presidential candidate whose base is the blacks is the candidate for all those who so suffer, and for all those who believe in strictly limited and strictly legal immigration into the English-speaking country that is America.

And a Presidential candidate whose base is the black church is the candidate for all those who share the values common to blue-collar Catholics and white Evangelicals, by no means only (though certainly) in the Catholic Church or in the Evangelical churches.

ContinentalSocialDemocrat

Nice try Melanie...thanks but no thanks....with any luck, the US will experience a nice new labour moment in the fashion of the UK's 1997 election...bring it on, it's more than overdue...

Alan O'Reilly

This is how one patriotic American views Obama, from Chuck Norris's column on WND:

And as far as the presidential race [goes]? I couldn't put it any better than a recent poem I received, "Twas the night before the election":

'Twas the night before the election
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the political stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi,
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note –
If you don't want socialism,
GET OUT AND VOTE!!

Verity

Sarah - Well we know for sure that he was a Muslim at the madrassah in Indonesia because he was registered in the school records as a Muslim.

Strange that the hospital where he was born (maybe) in Hawaii has said it has a record of his birth. This is in the absence of any birth certificate ...

Augustus, marvellous post and your closing sentence was a real chiller. Moreso because so true.

Dixon - I don't agree about the Rat Pack charm of Obama. For one thing, he is not charming. I haven't seen him charming anyone. He's touchy. Not Rat Pack relaxed and jokey. Also, the Rat Pack was always drunk.

Also, they all had tremendous talent and charm.

Conservative Cabbie

John Birch

"Instead, the focus is always on personality, a reflection of the celebrity culture that Melanie Phillips frequently denounces. How about substance instead?"

Really!

Today I've posted a comment about Obama's energy policy and how he has said that his own plans will cause energy prices to "skyrocket" in his own words.

I've had a debate with fellow traveller about Obama's tax plans.

I've discussed on a number of occasions his foreign policy experience (lack of).

I've posted often on his social policies, particularly abortion and his votes in favour of the Born Alive Act.

Of course liberals on this blog are constantly discussing the merits of Obama's policies against those of McCain. Well actually no, in fact I'm struggling to remember too many occasions where those from the left have wanted to discuss policy. They are more interested in dissing McCains campaign, slagging off Sarah Palin or trawling Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos or Huffington Post for supposed scandals (Hi Israel).

Finally, do you not consider personality an important consideration when choosing a President? I know I do, it demonstrates what type of President that person would be. This is especially important considering Obama's complete lack of experience and track record. What else can we go on? If Obama becomes President and serves a full term, that will be the longest he's had a job in his entire life. John McCain was a POW longer than Obama's been a senator. His VP thinks he's too inexperienced to be President and his wife said 2008 was too early for him to run for the Presidency. If those closest to him have their doubts, is it not reasonable for some of us to doubt him too?

You might get anoyed with us wingnuts, but the arrogance of the lefties on this site defies belief - the superior attitude that their level of debate is somewhat loftier than us on the right. Have a look back at all the viscious statements about Sarah Palin on this blog or the references to McCains age - the left are no different, try climbing down off your high horse.

Rant over.

PS Although I predicted a McCain win, I meant to add but forgot, I do believe that Obama will win the popular vote, he dominates McCain in blue states but will run him close in red states.

derek

McCain is not a man who will serve all Americans.

Such a man would not be rooted in the extremist conservative ideology that he professes, or associate with known terrorists and traitors, any more than could a member of the KKK serve all Americans.

Millions of Americans, after decades of softening up and being made to feel righteous for being white are assuaging that righteousness by supporting McCain.

Their children and grandchildren will rue the day Bush and his ilk come to power.

Already we hear that riots are planned if he should lose.

Will Democrats riot if they lose?

Of course not.

That in itself should demonstrate the nature of Republicans and be a clear reason for avoiding any affliation with such violent, racist and undemocratic people.

Huw Thornton

@ Sarah

Thanks for your clarification. I think that you're right about what Melanie has written.

@ Dixon

"Well, thats how I fear Obama may pan out as president, George Galloway with power!"

Blimey, I hope not. That would be worse than any of Melanie's conspiracy theories by a long chalk.

david skinner

Frank Pulley, You are absolutely right. Baring a miracle we will wake up to find the world a very different place on Thursday morning. Freedoms that have cost the lives of countless numbers of our ancestors and that we have been squandered and frittered away are going to have to be fought for all over again and this is literally going to cost blood sweat and tears, that is unless we really do not value our freedom anymore, in which case, this really signals the end times.

I have also been joining up my own dots, starting with Gramsci and they go all the way to The Hackney Free and Parochial Church of England School in London and a meeting to be held there this month.

This will be the front line for next major offensive against families, marriage and western civilisation .

http://lgbthmuk.blogspot.com/2008/09/pre-launch-of-lgbt-history-month-2009.html ( Launch of LBBT history month in Hackney Cof E School)

http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20081018/minister-wants-manditory-sex-lessons-for-under-11s/

In the light of the government, taking sex education out the hands of parents what do we make of this letter that I recently received from the DCSF
Dear Mr Skinner

Thank you for your email of 27 September enclosing a copy of your letter to St Georges School in Harpenden, Herts outlining your concerns about Sir Ian McKellen visiting the school. I have been asked to reply.

I can confirm that the Department's sex and relationship guidance for schools does say that schools should consult parents about their sex and relationship programmes and have a written policy for the teaching of SRE which must be available for inspection by parents.

It is a matter for schools themselves to plan the organisation and content of lessons. The Department does not promote people or endorse materials to schools, as our role is limited to setting the policy framework for what is taught in schools. We believe schools are best placed to determine exactly what initiatives best suit the needs of their pupils and we trust teachers to use their professional judgement when deciding which materials and resources they consider most appropriate. This includes decisions on any external organisations or other visitors who schools might arrange to speak to pupils.

Once again thank you for writing.
Yours sincerely
Anne Burton
Public Communications Unit

Ronnie

Yes, Leo Solomon, impeachment! We've not had one of those for a while. Or Special Prosecutors, Congressional Hearings, secret tapes, presidential hamstringing, mud-slinging, scandal, outrage and the whole system of government dragged deeper into the sewer.

None undermine the credibility of the USA quite like the Republican right.

'Don't worry, we may lose the election but we'll start impeachment proceedings immediately...'

Ronnie

Geoff M, you think the current president served all Americans?

Brian O'Connor

Mel wrote:

Given the volume of them, their consistency throughout his life and political career, the way they chime with what he himself has said and written – including his Philadelphia race speech which, when read carefully, is far more troubling than his enthusiasts have recognised – and the demonstrable lies he has told and evasions he has made about these connections and his early life, it is eminently reasonable to conclude that such information tells us something very important and alarming indeed about his character and world-view.

To me, this is key. There's just so much stuff that's come to light, and it all points in the same direction.

I guess to some, that's a virtue. It is not to me.

Ian

Worried, Windsor. What have Sarah palin's medical questions got to do with the questions I want asking?

Oh, yes - Trig is Bristol's child not hers. Now that IS a smear.

I have heard this one before. It often happens when a mother with a daughter of child-bearing age has a child of her own. It's a vicious lie that comes from small minds with nothing better to do.

The Orange Party

You are coming in for a bit of flak from a couple of wet liberal bloggers Melanie but keep it up.
On Friday, Harold Evans linked the threads of Obama's associations and came out with a damning attack on Obama media bias. As a former investigative journalist I've a lot of respect for this guy.

http://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/dame-harold-evans-blows-gaff-on-obama.html

Today Stanley Kurtz of National Review Online has a good summary which chimes with your own insightful posts.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2E0ZjM5ZWE0Y2Y3ODA1YmQzMzliZTE4ZWFkNGJkNjg=

I'm certainly not a crackpot conspiracy theorist. Nor is Evans, Kurtz or yourself.

fellow traveller

Obama's a secret Nation of Islam supporter because of the *way he speaks*? Give me a break.

Now I really have heard everything on this blog.

Give Mel's job to Cabbie. While I disagree with him on just about everything, he makes a great rational argument.

Victoria Williams

Melanie - your constant efforts to besmirch Obama is depressing. He is going to win so get real. Nothing you have written has anymore substance than the rumours you persist in repeating. Fortunately the American people have learnt their lesson with Bush's neo-cons and don't believe a word that is pushed out by Fox, Steyn and the rest of those who believe Obama is a threat to their particular agenda. We have had 8 years of misrule which has touched people across the globe, at last there is the prospect of change. You really will have to get used to it!

Bleak outllook

ARISTOTLE (c. 384 - c. 322 BC) Greek philosopher

"Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids."

You have to ask yourself how character has been tested in each of these candidates, either perceived or proven.

While I fear nothing, except reverently to my Creator, the choice I believe America is about to make has saddened me greatly.

Worried, Windsor

Ian G,

Well you did say Palin would answer the questions. But for the last two weeks, since stating that she would release the information (as all other candidates have), she has stonewalled. Now why do you suppose that is?

Water

...or they'll be joined for you?@*^%!

Conservative Cabbie

Ronnie

"Geoff M, you think the current president served all Americans?"

And Obama will? How will he help those bitter people in Ohio and Pennsylvania?

How will he help the large minority who believe in a culture of life?

How will he help middle class America by causing energy prices to "skyrocket"?

How will he help a recession hit America by raising taxes and advocating protectionism?

How will he help secure energy independence by bankrupting the coal industry, refusing to drill and refusing to build nuclear power plants?

Barack Obama has no intention of serving all Americans, he is a divisive person, he will be a divisive President.

derek

On a spectacular September morning more than seven years ago, our world changed. I remain one of those who believe that that day remains indelible, and its lesson unforgettable. The civilized democratic world came under attack from a small but lethal band of religious fanatics bent on destroying free societies, and, more terrifyingly, eager to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction that could make 9/11 look like a dry run.
We are still under attack.
This confluence of fundamentalism and lethal technology is the greatest danger of our time. And in the last seven years, the threat has not abated. Al Qaeda remains at large, and the very top leadership that planned and executed 9/11 is alive. They have reconstituted a base of sorts in Pakistan. They have scored several major propaganda victories - from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay to trapping most of the US military in an unending counter-insurgency in one country where al Qaeda was weak before 2002, Iraq. Islamist factions in Pakistan's government are horrifyingly close to nuclear technology. Iran has gained in power and influence in the Middle East and its ability to launch and use nuclear weapons is much greater than it was on 9/11. At its best, the Iraq war will lead to a fractured petro-state, closely allied with Iran, beset by constant infighting and terrorism. At its worst, Iraq will keep over 100,000 young Americans trapped there for the rest of our lives. The war in Afghanistan against the Taliban is at a seven year nadir.
Now the really bad news: the view of co-presidents Bush and Cheney is that this is a war that can and should be controlled by only one branch of government and a war in which the job of the citizenry is to shop. It is a global war where force of arms remains too often a first resort and in which talking to our enemies is regarded as "the white flag of surrender," instead of another tool at our disposal. It is a war where the American government has alienated - in some cases deeply - democratic allies whose police work and intelligence we desperately need. I do not doubt that military force is part of the mix to defeat this threat. (Like everyone else, I'm heartened that general Petraeus has introduced some minimal intelligence into the occupation of Iraq, although I fear it has merely made our presence more protracted and our withdrawal more difficult.) But the crudeness with which military force has been deployed, the absence of strategy or even due diligence in the execution of the long war, and the massive public relations blunders which have led the United States to lose a propaganda war against a bunch of murderous, medieval loons are unforgivable.
These mistakes were compounded - and in large part created - by what I believe will one day be seen as the core event of the last eight years: the collapse of constitutional order and the rule of law fomented in a mixture of hubris and laziness by the president himself. It is now indisputable that the president and vice-president of the United States engineered a de facto coup against the constitution after 9/11, declaring themselves above any law, any treaty, and any basic moral norm in their misguided mission to rid the world of evil. This blog has watched this process with increasing dismay - and watched several attempts to bring the US back to sanity foiled by a relentless and unhinged vice-president's office.
Cheney and Bush, unlike any presidency in American history, have dangerously pushed constitutional government to the brink of collapse. They did not merely assert a unified executive in which actions and regulations reserved to the executive branch were kept free from Congressional and judicial tampering. That is a perfectly defensible position, especially in wartime. They did not merely act in the immediate wake of an emergency to protect American citizens swiftly - again a perfectly legitimate use of executive power, unhampered by Congress or courts. They declared such power to be unlimited; they asserted also that it was as permanent as the emergency they declared; they claimed their dictatorial powers were inherent in the presidency itself, and above any legal constraints; they ordered their own lawyers to provide retroactive and laughable legal immunity for their crimes; they by-passed all the usual and necessary checks within the executive branch to ensure prudence and legality and self-doubt in the conduct of a war; they asserted that emergency war powers applied to the territory of the United States itself; they claimed the right to seize anyone - anyone, citizen or not - they deemed an "enemy combatant," to hold them indefinitely with no due process and to torture them until they became incoherent, broken, brutalized shells of human beings, if they survived at all. They did this to the guilty and they did this to the innocent. But they also had no way of reliably knowing which was which and who was who. Never before in wartime has the precious, sacred inheritance of free people been treated with such contempt by the leaders of the democratic West.
They seized countless individuals with no trials and no hearings. They tortured dozens to death. They subjected many more to some of the worst psychological torture techniques devised by Communist totalitarians and the worst physical suffering devised by the Gestapo. They crossed lines no American president had ever crossed before. They withdrew the US from the Geneva Conventions - and did so secretly. They tapped American's phones without warrants, and forced many of their randomly grabbed prisoners into the black hole of insanity. They set up secret sites in former Soviet gulags to torture their victims. They single-handedly devastated America's reputation for human rights and the rule of law in the minds of the vast majority of people in other Western democracies, let alone the developing world, let alone the millions of Muslims across the Middle East who now suspect that America is not really better than their own thugocracies, that America also tortures when it wants to, that the shining city on a hill is actually a place where men above the law can do anything they want to other human beings in their custody.
No economic mismanagement can compare with this attack on the basic institutions of our democracy and the constitution. No incompetence in conducting an occupation can be deemed comparable with this level of criminality and indecency. No reaction to a natural disaster, however hapless and negligent, is as grave as this crime. No financial crisis eclipses it in gravity. The president's oath is to protect the constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. Instead, the president himself became an enemy to the constitution he swore to uphold.
This is the depth of the predicament the United States is in. The Islamist threat remains; but the Constitution is in deep disrepair, the military stretched to breaking point, the national debt doubled, and America's reputation in terrible shape. More important, the president and vice-president deeply damaged the reliability and integrity of America's intelligence services, creating a self-perpetuating loop of phony intelligence procured by torture which then justified more torture which led to worse intelligence. It will be decades before we learn the full extent of the damage Bush and Cheney have done to the country's ability to find out what the enemy is really up to, how much risk these sadists and goons have subjected us to, how much damage to this country they may have facilitated by filling intelligence with the garbage always created by torture. We do know that their policy has led to just one successful prosecution - and that many guilty figures will escape justice because torture has tainted the legal process beyond repair.
My great fear since 2004 is that this could have gotten even worse. Another attack and the abuse of power could have become much worse. A Romney or a Giuliani, empowered by religious fanaticism and a worship of state power, could have taken us down a path much darker than even the Cheney-Addington-Yoo cul-de-sac. Ron Paul emerged as the one Republican prepared to defend the rule of law, the Constitution and habeas corpus in the primaries. But, in the end, McCain emerged by default, a torture victim himself, and a critic of some aspects of the conduct of the war. But we saw in 2006 that, when push came to shove, even McCain acquiesced to the legalization of America's use of the very same torture techniques once used against him. And in this campaign, we have seen how no Republican candidate can escape the logic of bigotry, fanaticism and xenophobia that now grips and motivates the Republican party base. We have also learned, much more importantly, that McCain would appoint Justices to the Supreme Court who would acquiesce to and constitutionally entrench the dictatorial presidency that Bush-Cheney believe in as loyally as Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia. That means we are one vote away from the court ever restraining this unchecked executive. It doesn't matter who that executive is and what party he or she belongs to. What matters is that the controls upon it - controls critical to the endurance of constitutional balance and individual freedom in America - have been frayed to the breaking point. There is no greater cause right now than repairing that.
If I were to give one reason why I believe electing Barack Obama is essential tomorrow, it would be an end to this dark, lawless period in American constitutional government. The domestic cultural and political reasons for an Obama presidency remain as strong as they were when I wrote "Goodbye To All That" over a year ago. His ability to get us past the culture war has been proven in this campaign, in the generation now coming of age that will elect him if they turn out, in Obama's staggering ability not to take the bait. His fiscal policies are too liberal for me - I don't believe in raising taxes, I believe in cutting entitlements for the middle classes as the way to fiscal balance. I don't believe in "progressive taxation", I support a flat tax. I don't want to give unions any more power. I'm sure there will be moments when a Democratic Congress will make me wince. But I also understand that money has to come from somewhere, and it will not come in any meaningful measure from freezing pork or the other transparent gimmicks advertized in advance by McCain. McCain is not serious on spending. But he is deadly serious in not touching taxes. So, on the core question of debt, on bringing America back to fiscal reason, Obama is still better than McCain. If I have to take an ideological hit to head toward fiscal solvency, I'll put country before ideology.
But none of this compares to the task of restoring the rule of law and Constitutional balance. Unlike McCain, Obama has never wavered on torture or habeas corpus or on keeping the executive branch under the law. His deep understanding and awareness of the Constitution eclipses McCain's. Coming from the opposing party, he will also be able to restore confidence that what lies within America's secret government - the one constructed by Bush and Cheney beyond any accountability, law or morality - will be ended or cleaned up. He can restore critically needed trust again - and force the Democratic party to take responsibility for a war which we all need to own, and take responsibility for, again.
We cannot win this war without regaining our democratic soul, ending torture, and returning to lawful governance. But these things won't win the war either. On that, we have a perilous task ahead. I don't know how Obama will be able to get out of Iraq in his first term. I fear that Bush and Cheney have made withdrawal deliberately difficult if not impossible. I fear the same in Afghanistan. I don't know how Obama will handle Iran, given the power that Bush and Cheney have ceded to the Islamist regime there, and the danger of a pre-emptive strike before Obama even gets inaugurated. But I do know that he will handle these wars with reason, with prudence and with care. Those are three qualities absent from the White House for eight years. And I do know that Obama's very person, and what he symbolizes, will do more to restore America's image and repair our global public relations than any single measure any new administration will be able to accomplish.
The truth is: we are in a war for the future of human civilization. We are fighting for a world in which destructive technology need not collide with fierce religious fundamentalism to annihilate us all; for a world in which dialogue across cultures and religions and regions (even within America) is essential if we are to survive. We need to win the argument in the developing world; we need to reach out and persuade the Muslim middle - especially the next generation in Iran and Iraq and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and Turkey and Western Europe - about the virtues of democracy and constitutionalism. We cannot do that if we trash our own values ourselves. It is self-defeating. We cannot be a beacon to the world until we have reformed ourselves. In this war, we are also fighting for an America that does not lose its soul in fighting our enemy. Just because we are fighting evil does not mean we cannot ourselves succumb to it. That is what my Christian faith teaches me - that no nation has a monopoly on virtue, and that every generation has to earn its own integrity. I fear and believe we have given away far too much - and that, while this loss is permanent, it can nonetheless be mitigated by a new start, a new direction, a new statement that the America the world once knew and loved is back.
It will not be easy. The world will soon remember why it resents America as well as loves it. But until this unlikely fellow with the funny ears and strange name and exotic biography emerged on the scene, I had begun to wonder if it was possible at all. I had almost given up hope, and he helped restore it. That is what is stirring out there; and although you are welcome to mock me for it, I remain unashamed. As someone once said, in the unlikely story of America, there is never anything false about hope. Obama, moreover, seems to bring out the best in people, and the calmest, and the sanest. He seems to me to have a blend of Midwestern good sense, an intuitive understanding of the developing world that is as much our future now as theirs', an analyst's mind and a poet's tongue. He is human. He is flawed. He will make mistakes. His passivity and ambiguity are sometimes weaknesses as well as strengths.
But there is something about his rise that is also supremely American, a reminder of why so many of us love this country so passionately and are filled with such grief at what has been done to it and in its name. I endorse Barack Obama because I will not give up on America, because I believe in America, and in her constitution and decency and character and strength.
And the world needs that America now as much as it ever has. Can we start that healing, that rebirth, tomorrow?
Yes. We. Can.

Israel

Conservative Cabbie:

"They are more interested in dissing McCains campaign, slagging off Sarah Palin or trawling Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos or Huffington Post for supposed scandals (Hi Israel)."

Cabbie, l "diss" the McCain campaign because his surrogates have proved to be useless when asked questions to defend on his very weak policies (see any interview with Tucker Bounds, Nancy Pfotenhauer, Nicolle Wallace, or before she was defenestrated Carly Fiorina). I do it because instead of talking policy which they know they would lose on they try to smear their opponent as confirmed by campaign manager Rick Davis. I do it because McCain has lost the honour and integrity he was known for by hiring a man in Tucker Eskew who eight years ago had staff run a disgusting false push poll in North Carolina claiming that McCain had fathered an illigitamate black child and that his injuries while a POW had left him mentally unfit to be POTUS. I do it because eight years ago McCain called Jerry Falwell "an agent of intolerance" but last year he was on his knees kissing Falwell's ring, and the one on his finger. I do it because in his attempt to climb the greasy pole McCain has left behind all that had made him popular with independents and journalists, expecially the major conservative ones, which has seen them turn on him in droves.

I slag off the disasta from Alaska because in the nine weeks that she has been a player on the big stage of US politics she has been shown to be incurious to world and domestic events, unable to answer questions in unscripted interviews by non republican interviewers, lying about her supposed major achievements, found guilty in violating ethics in her state, failed to appear on any of the major sunday US political news shows, not released a single page of her medical history and in the last two weeks, worst of all, she has failed to answer a simple question pertaining to the job she is campaigning for THREE TIMES and seems to think that the !st amendment of the US Constitution (which guarantees freedom of the press) means that she should be protected from "attacks" by reporters who criticize her for negative campaigning. Oh yes, and she thinks that Montreal is a town in France.

On your last point, you posted this on Nov 1st:

"I get my headlines from Drudge, the detail from NRO."

I would suggest you sit very carefully on that high horse of yours, things made of balsa aren't known for being sturdy.

derek

Bleak outlook,
I felt your pain starting 8 years ago.

Isaac

It seems that voting for Obama is against the American self-interest. The American Left is trapped in its March of Follies.

Dixon

If I may clarify my earlier viewpoint.

Basically, I would prefer they chose McCain, but if its to be Obama, I just hope that my worst suspicions about him are wrong! I will be unhesitant in admitting it if they are, far more overcome by relief than I ever could be embarassed on that score!

Conservative Cabbie

Israel

Montreal may not be in France, but then the US doesn't have 57 states either.

You're welcome to correct me if you like, but my recollection of your posts is that you haven't once focused on policy differences, you have only sought to trash, not engage in debate. Quoting Andrew Sullivan or the occasional RINO is not substantive.

You're wrong on Palin. She's been the most accessible candidate in the last two weeks, she has a better knowledge of the job she's campaigning for than Joe Biden and she pulls in crowds as big as Obama. One difference though, if presented with the opportunity to visit wounded American soldiers, I doubt very much that she would refuse solely because the media weren't allowed to film her.

My view from my high horse is fine, how's yours with your head up a donkey's bottom.

Israel

Cabbie:

"How will he help secure energy independence by bankrupting the coal industry"

Is this from that drudge driven story where a cropped quote was taken from Obama's full interview? A full interview that has been available on the website of The San Francisco Cronicle since January? A full interview that when read says:

That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants are being built, they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted-down caps that are imposed every year. So IF SOMEBODY WANTS TO BUILD A COAL-POWERED PLANT, THEY CAN. IT'S JUST THAT IT WILL BANKRUPT THEM BECAUSE THEY'RE GOING TO BE CHARGED A HUGH SUM FOR ALL THE GREENHOUSE GAS THAT'S BEING EMMITTED. That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel, and other alternative energy approaches.

And later in the same interview says:

"But THIS NOTION OF NO COAL , I THINK, IS AN ILLUSION. Because the fact of the matter is, is that right now we are getting a lot of our energy from coal. And China is building a coal-powered plant once a week. So what we have to do then is FIGURE OUT HOW CAN WE USE COAL WITHOUT EMITTING GREENHOUSE GASES AND CARBON. And how can we sequester that carbon and capture it. If we can’t, then we’re gonna still be working on alternatives."

When you read the full quote it shows clearly that Obama meant only plants not using clean-coal technology would be hit.

Amazingly McCain thinks the same. On 25/06/05 republican senator George Voinovich (R-OH) told McCain in a Senate debate that his legislation to curb climate change would "put coal of out of business." MCCAIN DID NOT CONTEST THAT CLAIM. Indeed McCain agreed that his legislation would "require sacrifice" acknowledging that critics said it would cost "thousands of jobs."

How is it cabbie, that you failed to mention that point in your claim of Obama bankrupting the coal industry? Oh yeah l forgot, you get your headlines from drudge and your stories from NRO, both of whom got this one from the smear site Newsbusters, so them pointing out that McCain holds the same viewpoint to Obama on using clean coal wouldn't do in this latest failed attempt at smearing him would it?

Boy, that high horse you're on must be really be shaking at the moment.

Sarah

The performance of the American Big Media is shameful beyond words.

Obama says he will make 'tax cuts'.

Only they're not tax cuts at all.

They're 'tax credits'.

And who will most benefit from these 'tax credits'?

People who don't work and so don't pay any tax at all.

See, Obama didn't just borrow the smile from the UK's Blair, he borrowed the reason for the smile, too.

He's going to fleece the workers to pay the layabouts just the way New Labor did and he's laughing all the way to the polls as the mainstream media refuse to point this out.

"After you, Mr President."

I am unutterably sad that America is going to vote for this modern-day snake oil salesman, but that's often the way it is in life.

Let it be.

This is the way it was in the 1930s when people scrambled for anything so long as it meant they could hang on to their delusions.

Things have to get worse before they even have a chance of getting better (I have to use the qualifier of 'chance' because there is no guarantee such is the level of spite and deviousness we face from those who threaten us today).

I watched an Obama rally on TV the other night and all I heard was rhetoric. He's a rock star without tunes all right. But who was on hand to provide those - Bruce Springsteen. He stood at the mike, not just singing songs but strumming as he gave a speech to the crowd.

Sweet slogans, sweet platitudes and nothing else.

I am eternally grateful to Melanie Phillips, Stanley Kurtz, Daniel Pipes, Mark Steyn and a few others for daring to stand up to the fifth column and point out the small print but, as history shows us, people only ever want to get wise to the event after.

No sale for me, thank you, Senator Obama.

You've got the biggest credibility crunch I've ever seen in any politician and I'll save what little faith I have in the system for someone who can at least provide a genuine investment for my political faith.

Guess I'd better get along now.

I've got to get back to work so that I can pay my taxes for myself and pay again for the tax credits you want to hand out to people who don't want to work.

Thanks a bunch.

Bleak outlook

Derek,
I agree with portions of your first diatribe, but the one thing I believe it tells me is that you have not been to Iraq (most haven't, maybe I am wrong). But to link McCain to the current administration is listening to bad propaganda. McCain was ostracized by the Republican Party until voters chose him in the primary.
I believe that the current administration has failed terribly in many, if not most areas. AND, to side with the second viable American party and its candidate, regardless of any other information is a duping.
As to the last statement you made, I agree and have felt that way for about 3.5 years, but not 8.
I do not formulate logic to blame the fertilizer company when someone makes an IED with it.

Ronnie

C'mon Conservative Cabbie, I thought you were made of stronger stuff.

I cannot make an attempt to answer your questions any better than Derek just has.

The United States of America is the most powerful nation on earth and stands for values that most sane people aspire to. Justice, fairness, strength in the face of evil, doing the right thing, building a future, education, always moving forward, optimism and positiveness. Every American I ever met holds these qualities. And yet right now a huge majority of Americans believe their country has been going in the wrong direction.

This direction has been determined by the most ignorant and arrogant group of people I have ever seen during a lifetime of observing politics.

Not evil in the classic sense of the word but stupid, brainless, unjust, selfish, fearful, greedy and venal. Always achieving the opposite of that which their 'policies' and actions were intended to achieve.

They have stolen America's pride in itself and they have, in my opinion, proven themselves to be un-American in doing so.

Whoever wins tomorrow will have to turn that around and rebuild America's place in the world and Americans' belief in themselves. Either candidate will first have to deal with the outright hostilty directed at them by the opposing party.

I'm not sure if that is possible but it is absolutely necessary if America is to be united again.

You know, the answer to your question does not rest on what either McCain or Obama can do. The answer is, how prepared is each American citizen to unite to make their country what it should be. You think one person can achieve that on his own? No, only Americans together can do it but it looks to me like a lot of healing is required for that to be possible.

What did Kennedy say? 'Ask not what your country can do for you...'

derek

Bleak outlook,
I personally feel Obama's judgement has been right, and McCain's has been wrong.

Conservative Cabbie

Israel

You're proving everything I say about you. I make a jokey comment a few days ago about Drudge and NRO in response to someone elses comment (I can't remember who) and taking things out of context as you do, you try to club me over the head with it - bad form Israel.

So Obama says that due to HIS cap and trade policies, any coal fired plant that sets up WILL go bankrupt. where's the confusion, as according to Greenpeace, clean coal won't be ready in any meaningful way until 2030. Now I have my concerns about Obama's commitment to democracy but even I'm sure he won't be President then. So clean coal is an irrelevance to this debate.

He also said "You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, you know — under MY plan of a cap and trade system, ELECTRICITY RATES WOULD NECESSARILY SKYROCKET. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”

Don't remember McCain saying that one. Like Palin's base, I'm feeling pretty damn solid thankyou Israel.

EC

Victoria Williams: "You really will have to get used to it!"
Quite wrong. It's the American people that is going to have to get used to it. Who and what are they voting for? Change? How about an Obama-topia? Full employment and all sections of society having to "pull their own weight"(sic) is going to come as a very grim reality Check indeed! "Doh! Hey, we didn't vote for this!."

Enjoy the bread queues.

david skinner

vote for Oboma and invite your own oppression.

http://robgagnon.net/ObamaWarOnChristians.htm

http://www.robgagnon.net/HateCrimesBill.htm

Israel

Cabbie:

"Quoting Andrew Sullivan or the occasional RINO is not substantive.
You're wrong on Palin. She's been the most accessible candidate in the last two weeks, she has a better knowledge of the job she's campaigning for than Joe Biden and she pulls in crowds as big as Obama. One difference though, if presented with the opportunity to visit wounded American soldiers, I doubt very much that she would refuse solely because the media weren't allowed to film her.
My view from my high horse is fine, how's yours with your head up a donkey's bottom."

The occasional RINO? What you mean that Susan Eisenhower, CC Goldwater, Ken Adelman, Charles Fried, Ken Duberstein, Colin Powell and PNAC member Francis Fukuyama are now republicans in name only? Really? And those in the media like Jeffrey Hart, Wick Alison and Chris Buckley of National Review, David Friedman son of Milton Friedman and writer for the Economist and MICHAEL SMERCONISH? All RINO's? Wow.

You say i'm wrong on Palin, but l have to admit that l must have missed all the reports about her appearence by herself on NBC's "Meet The Press", universally called the most important US sunday political show which every single person running for President or VP has appeared on before an election since it's inception. Yes, she has energised the rightwing base and they have come out in droves for her (while leaving the man actually running for President floundering with smaller crowds (Or is pointing out that McCain had to bus in 4000 school kids something else you would consider a smear?) you do conveniently leave out the fact that she is seen by everyone else as a drag on the McCain/Palin ticket. You leave out the fact that she is the only candidate in this election who has a negative favourability rating and that her pick as VP is seen as the main reason why so many independents, women and republicans have decided to vote for Obama. But her answers have raised more questions and more comment. Look at her sneering at the field of Medical Research using fruit flies. This was supposed to be her area of expertise, the one thing she knew the most about, yet she didn't know why they were used. Some have said that she DID know which would make it worse because she was criticizing research in France as if it was a bad thing.

What is really sad is less than 5 hours after posting about how people "are more interested in dissing McCains campaign, slagging off Sarah Palin or trawling Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos or Huffington Post for supposed scandals" you bring up a debunked smear of Obama and the troops for doing something that McCain had done himself months earlier. You say the view is fine from you balsa horse. I have no doubt about that, but the smell from the dung you're piled on to give you the view must be pretty bad.

Israel

Cabbie:

Mea Culpa. I tend to take you seriously as you are in my view the clearest thinkers on this site. Maybe i'm just not used to people who would use drudge as a punchline on the righthand side of politics!! If l have offended l apologise unreservedly and l hope you accept it in the spirt of which it is given. Of course it would help if the posts on this site appeared immediately!!!

Israel

Cabbie:

Have you read this? I think it suims things up perfectly!!

www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/us/politics/02tube.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Quince

Israel
November 3rd, 2008 12:46pm
"The Arizona Daily Star today endorsed Senator Obama over home state senator John Mccain . . . Wow. Even in his HOME STATE they have Obama endorsements!!!"

Quite a number of American states are not homogeneous in their political affinities. In Illinois, for example, the north (Cook County, the area around Chicago) is Democratic while downstate traditionally votes Republican. California splits similarly, with San Francisco strongly Democratic while Los Angeles and especially San Diego in the south skew toward the Republicans. In New York, it's the northern part that tends Republican while New York City (at the southern tip) is strongly Democratic. In the case of Arizona, Phoenix (Maricopa County) has a strong Republican tradition (it's where Barry Goldwater came from), but Tucson (Pima county), 120 miles to the south, has always been Democratic. The Daily Star, which you cite, is a Tucson newspaper.

Dave M

The Nation Of Islam was a black nationalist movement with elements of racial hatred espoused by its leaders. However, the movement also had a more rational, justifiable policy, given black people were once denied the same rights in the U.S. as whites had.
What needs to be understood here is the Nation Of Islam opposed racial integration and favoured segredation instead. It reasoned that if African slaves had worked for free to help build the U.S. economy, black people deserved their own self-governing States. The idea was to live apart. The Nation never believed racial integration could be attained so actively sought a different approach to King. All in all, it was a non violent movement, excluding the occasional gansterish machinations, such as the shooting down of Malcolm X. Yet Malcolm X wished to take the Nation in a more peaceful direction and was, in fact, one of the movement's main leaders. Thus, it would be a mistake to label the Nation Of Islam specifically as bad. It had a set of reasonable demands, rejected multiculturalism and sought to help black Americans not to be down-trodden. This is what attracted Cassius Clay to the movement originally. There was no ideology that sought to impose Islam on all Americans or notion of cultural imperialism as we see with Al Quaida.

Tim Footman

If Obama wins, will anyone who criticises US policy still be accused by Ms Phillips and her ilk of "knee-jerk anti-Americanism"? Or will they suddenly have seen the light?

Sue

Melanie, Thanks so much for your brilliant posts over the last month. Actualy I only just discovered your editorials today, after following a posted quote of yours at another site. ~ I read the whole month of October, tears streaming down my face many times over the devilish practices employed to "purchase" this election for Obama. I've been sickend to see the blatant, un-appologetic bias by the American media towards Obama, and the ruthless attacks on McCain and Pallin in attempts to discredit them.

Particularly appreciated by me was your editorial on why Pallin so disturbs the atheistic press.
You hit the nail on the head with that one dear. Sad but true.

I pray that intellegent folks have fully searched out what truth they could find out about Barry Sutoro, and his nefarious associates, and vote for someone who really loves America.

McCain isn't perfect, no man is, but I have NO doubt that his heart is for America, and her survival. By the words spoken in interviews from his own mouth, Obama has indicted himself, and betrayed his true hatred for this country.

It's as you said, "A smear is a lie, or a gross distortion of some kind. You cannot smear someone by telling the truth." And you have supported your claims with evidence (not inuendo) over the last month.

Thanks so much for a refreshing change from the Obominators.

A new fan.

An American

My main concern about an Obama presidency is that he is arrogant enough to believe he knows more than our founding fathers...he intends to undermine our Constitution. He will do it by appointing left leaning Supreme and Federal judges to do his dirty work. He plans to have a 'quote'..large powerful national army. Why? To control US citizens. Where will he get the recruits for this national army? I don't want to contemplate that...perhaps early release prison felons? Higher taxes are not as important to me as the changes Obama plans to make to our freedoms. He has intimated that he plans to bankrupt our coal industry...and increase our heating/lighting/gas prices....What about the retired and elderly people this will negatively affect? And Americans are voting for this man...they are actually worshipping him, women faint, they sob...the patients are running the asylum.

harold miller

Dear Melanie,
Many thanks for your sane writing on political affairs. Although you sound like a lone voice, many folk support your views, we are just too busy keeping our heads down trying to work and feed our families to normally comment :)
I personally hope that Obama will be too pro-occupied with the US economy to give much thought to the middle-east.

Conservative Cabbie

Ronnie

I wasn't really expecting you to answer the questions, I was making a point.

I enjoyed your post very much but I have t odisagree with you to a degree. You seem to be using european liberal values of people coming together as your arguement for how Americans should behave. America is the country that best represents individualism. It's what has made the country great and is why I am so enamored. That doesn't mean to say that communitarianism isn't dead, America has it in bucket loads whether through the church, the smalltown, the high school football.

You continually attack the right, you are so wrong. It is the left that is causing the split in America. It's Roe v Wade, it's the ban on school prayer and other attacks on values that great swathes of middle America value greatly.

To bring a country together, you have to let them live seperately. It's only when you try to force your values on others that you cause division.

It's early in the morning, that wasn't as lucid as I'd have liked but hopefully you get the idea.

Conservative Cabbie

Israel

That NY Times article was spot on. I watch Fox as I don't have any access to other US channels. CNN in this country is awful. I was watching the third debate on CNN and after the debate they kept trailing the results of their poll into how the candidates fared. Just as they were about to announce the results, the UK version of CNN cut to CNN Africa. It's not often I'm tempted to throw things at the telly but that was one time.

I realise Fox's bias and I compensate for it. Steve Doocey on Fox and Friends is a complete pillock. I recognise that although they allow Democrats equal time, the Democrats they normally get on are of the conservative Hillary supporting type.

Fox however has some great presenters and pundits too though. Britt Hume, as far as I'm concerned, is great with no ego. Fred Barnes' hyperactivity is funny and I really like Bill Kristol. Juan Williams is superb, about as impartial a pundit as I've ever seen and Mara Liasson (sp.) is equally balanced.

Then we have Alisyn Camerota (Fox and Friends weekends) who I think I'm just in love with and Megyn Kelly who is probably the hottest newsreader in the world and also a fantastic attack dog. Ignoring the bias, Fox is actually a really good news channel.

Conservative Cabbie

Israel

Mea culpa gladly accepted. The one frustrating thing I've found with this election is the lack of any impartial news source.

Let's just agree to disagree on Palin.

THX1138

When Obama wins today will the last person to leave this blog please press delete.

Conservative Cabbie

My sympathies to Barack Obama on the loss of his grandmother yesterday. Whatever happens tonight, to not be able to share the moment is tragic.

Conservative Cabbie

THX

If McCain should win, will we be seeing the likes of you and you're fellow cultists back with your mea culpa's.

I promise not to gloat.

Dave

Sue: Welcome to the blog. Many of us have tears streaming down our faces when we read it.

Conservative Cabbie

According to a Gallup poll, only 2% of Obama supporters are supporting him because they think he is qualified or experienced enough for the job.

On their heads be it.

Dave

Conservative Cabbie: Well then we'll have months to unpick how you stole ANOTHER election!
;-)

Ian G

Why should any woman's gynaecological details be made publicly available for sick fantasists to salivate over? To certify the parentage of Trig? The child's BIRTH CERTIFICATE will do that. Why not demand to see that? Because, if you do, Obama will have to provide his birth certificate and he will be out of the race. Why are his records sealed in Hawaii AND Kenya?

Robb US Army retired

As an American who can trace his military roots back to the colonial wars and whose ancestors fought in all subsequent wars in which this country engaged, I will spend some time in prayer today asking that our ancestors forgive us. We have betrayed them and their sacrifices.

Stever

revisiting some of the more silly conspiratorial paranoia in this blog over the past couple of months(about the godless Marxist terrorist takeover of the US - or whatever it is) will be an informative experience in a couple of years time (There's probably a Phd in it for political scientists).I hope there can be some real, maybe a bit less polarized debate, and some lessons learned. Gloating wont help anyone.

winston

I didn't get past the first line. Here we go again, baby...

Conservative Cabbie

The view from the future

http://tinyurl.com/5m4mzm

Ronnie

Thanks Conservative Cabbie, I get the idea and I don't disagree. I wasn't actually talking about collectivism or even collective action. I was referring to the individual responsibility that most Americans feel towards their country and its future.

The thing that has most disturbed me over the past few months is the overwhelming sense of fear, paranoia and defeat that many contributors express. It amazes and also saddens me because these are the emotions that you can least convert into some kind of positive action, obviously. They are just sharing it around, to coin a phrase.

Your posts have actually been a breath of positive conservative fresh air in all this. I think you should be thanked for that.

Of course, we'll never agree. :-)

Laura

I posted a version of this on another page here but the essay that I mention below taps into much of what Ms Phillips hits upon.

I\'ve spent most of the last three months in South America and there is much astonishment among people here that this is happening.

The instability of some of the countries hereabouts and the way some of them have been put to the sword by the left is perhaps why they don\'t have the complacency that America has so clearly developed such that it is prepared to elect this man.

They see Castro, they Chavez, they see the utter destruction that comes with sanctimonious left-wing slogans that promise the earth - and they don\'t know how America has fallen for it.

Far from being \'smeared\' Obama has a detailed trail of poisonous associations that so many commentators have wilfully ignored.

He launched his campaign in the living room of Bill Ayers. The significance of that and all of his other dealings with Bill Ayers is not that the Weathermen were operative years ago but that Ayers himself is unrepentant about his radicalism.

The agenda didn\'t disappear.

Radicalism is not some hypothetical idea.

If it puts down roots, it poisons.

Ask them in Cuba. Ask them in Venezuela. On second thoughts, donâ™t. The authorities will probably kill you.

The other day I was directed to an English translation of an essay by the noted Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho.

He notes the Obamessiah \"has already performed at least one confirmed miracle: he is the first presidential candidate who has won the applause of all the enemies of the United States without it having ever aroused the least suspicion of the American establishment against him. Counted among his enthusiasts are Hamas, Iranian president Ahmadinejad, Muammar Khadafi, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and the television station Al-Jazeera.\"

It has been common currency down the years for fashionable commentators to say that the threats to America are a fiction. Not down here they\'re not. So many in America and the UK have forgotten the disgusting lies of the left over the old USSR.

Well, down here they havenâ™t forgotten. Figures such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez aren\'t made-up bogeymen.

You realise that when you\'re only a border or two away from them because people speak about them down here as real people. They hear the stories first-hand. The ones the disgusting dinner party guests in Islington would rather not hear, thank you. And some of these revolting leaders are the figures who are most getting off on an Obama win.

Thatâ™s why de Carvalho sees the same phoney argument being put up about the jihad now as was put up about Communism in the Cold War. The left very nearly succeeded in pulling the wool over peopleâ™s eyes about the â�exaggeratedâ™ threat from Communism and yet here we are less than 20 years later and theyâ™re doing the same with the jihad: itâ™s all Americaâ™s fault. So what must America do? Why, dilute its values. Change. The only effect of which will be that its aggressors can more easily destroy it.

De Carvalho continues:

\'It is true that Obama pledges to dismantle the space defense system of the United States, to slow down unilaterally the American program of nuclear research, to turn victory in Iraq into defeat, to ban new oil drilling, and to grant driverâ™s license and health care to illegal aliens, that patriotic mob which wants to turn Texas and California into Mexican states.

â�But if you insinuate that any of those things is a good reason for Communists and radical Muslims to like him, the media en masse will say that you have âścrossed the lineâť and that you are virtually guilty of a âśhate crime.âť

â�Ahmadinejad has declared that the victory of the Democratic candidate in the election will give the green light to the Islamization of the world, Khadafi has proclaimed that Obama is a faithful Muslim financed by Islamite millionaires, and Louis Farrakhan, availing himself of the wave of pro-Obama enthusiasm, has announced that the Nation of Islam, the secret society of radical Muslims he presides over, which has been making slow progress for decades, is having a âśnew beginning,âť and will be fully operational soon.

â�The meaning of those facts is clear, but noticing it is immoral: every decent citizen has to swear that the support coming from the enemies of America is only a mistake on their part, since Obama has never givenâ”oh, no!â”the least pretext for them to sympathize with him. To insinuate any convergence of interests is to impute to Obama âśguilt by associationâťâ”an act of perfidy, obviously, loaded with racial âśovertones.âťâ¦

â¦â�The thing that every American fears most, nowadays, is being suspected of thinking bad things about Barack Hussein Obama.â™

http://www.olavodecarvalho.org/english/articles/081024dc_en.html

America, welcome to your nightmare.

Annette M.

Without an apologies...I'm an educated, working, divorced middle-aged American woman struggling to survive and take care of my children. I'm willing to work my bottom off until the day I die to give my children a better life. For the first time in U.S. history, we are leaving our children with a shrinking economy and a lower standard of living. I'm not even going to touch on the issues of the deficit, health care, corruption, etc. George W. Bush is an idiot. He and and the Republican party have trashed MY country for the last 8 years. I've done all my research, and I've read all the lies and the truths. I can't wait for Barack Obama to be President.

ps...Dixon is right - McCain is an Elmer Fudd, a mean little Elmer Fudd, who is totally disconnected from the struggles in American life.

Dixon

I still relish the memory of events deep into the early hours of the last election.

Then, as now, all the pollsters and all the pundits had already decided that the Democrat ( what was his name...) had won, and had been presupposing this for weeks. Dimbleby et al on their panel were discussing what the, wotsisname , presidency would mean.

Then at about 3.am it rapidly became apparent how the whole media circus had been piping up a dream for weeks, in fact circulating a sustained lie. One by one the states fell to Bush.

I cannot help feeling a degree of deja-vu here. We do NOT know which way people will vote until they actually have. Its not long now till we know the result.

Marco Polo

As a Brit, I can only look on in dismay as America is about to vote in the beginning of the end of their country. I really don't think that the Democrats(akin to our Left Wing Socialists, as well as traditional Labour supporters) can't even begin to comprehend what's going to happen to their country.
Many 'X' Labour supporters regret deeply voting in Tony Blair and NuLabour in '97. They really never believed that their country would come under such attack, such destruction of their civil liberties, destruction of their culture and heritage and of course complete animosity shown by the government to the British people in favour of minority groups and immigrants. In a nutshell NuLabour are trying to remove Great Britain from the World Map.
I have to commend Melanie Phillips for her thoughts on Britain. I also have to congratulate on her being able to put one and one together and come up with what she does. No one else is or seems to be bothered trying to.
To all the doubters on here who continually try to pillory Melanie or anyone who tries to warn people of a grim future, I really hope that her 'prophecies' do not come true. I hope that her 'crying of wolf' does not bring out the pack from the forest. I hope Melanie is just trying to scare us, because if she isn't then you really are going to rue the day that you decided to ridicule her and people like her, for your lives won't be worth living.
It's always the same with the 'mad' liberal looney left wing. They are just completely unable of fore thought. They can't even look past their own noses.
And to echo another poster on here, you are all a disgrace to your ancestors who laid down their lives so that you could be free to do whatever you choose.
If I were you I'd sit back and think twice, seriously on your position, especially to those in American who are about to vote Obama for if Melanie's beliefs do come to fruition, then there will be nothing in your power you will be able to do to stop the cancer from setting in to completely destroy your society and of course your freedom.

An American

Dave
If Obama wins...you and your fellow liberals deserve everything that's coming your way. I'll just snuggle down in my 'paid for' mountain home...its lovely...you should see it... drive my 'paid for' jag, lexus and jeep...stock up on more non-perishable foods...buy another gun...stop buying anything...my closets are full...I'll no longer indulge in my lucrative second business...why give more taxes to Obama and people like you....after all, Obama's 'trickle up' economy will do the trick...you'll be able to help him with that.
You may win the election this time around but people like you are life's losers.

John Birch

Dixon: Four years ago, Bush was ahead in the polls going into the election so the comparison between then and now lacks validity. The architect of Bush's victory, the evil genius Karl Rove, has Obama winning 338 electoral college votes today.

Conservative Cabbie

Thanks Ronnie

I don't disagree with you that there has been a somewhat excessive level of anger and paranoia displayed at an Obama presidency - this is the nature of the blogosphere.

How though, is it different to the way liberals attacked Bush. I know you're no fan and that's fair enough, there's a lot about his Presidency I didn't like either (Step forward Donald Rumsfeld), but the vitriol displayed towards him by the Michael Moore types is exactly the same.

You make the point that it is the right that started this divisiveness, I disagree, I think the right went aggressive only to defend themselves against liberal attacks on their values and way of life.

It could be argued that Melanie, Verity and to a degree myself are only Michael Moore-ing Barack Obama.

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon)

derek: "Already we hear that riots are planned if he [McCain] should lose". Uh, uh, it's the other way around (i.e if Obama should lose) according to Jane Fonda's fellow-nutter Erica Jong ! Heaven preserve us if America follows the UK 'New Labour' route !

Conservative Cabbie

John Birch

Dixon is right. Exit polls had Kerry winning, I distinctly remember the gloating liberal pundits gllefully extolling the birth of a new America and the end of conservatism. It is one of my favourite TV moments as I watched gloating turn to despair as the night wore on.

I'm hoping for a repeat, my confidence though is weakening, my despair growing. Only eight hours to go.

Ronnie

Yip, Conservative Cabbie, I can't say you are wrong in principle. We could nibble all night on specifics and have a draw by morning.

Obviously there have been a lot of people just nit listening to each other and now they've forgotten how.

An American

Marco Polo and Conservative Cabbie
Thank you for your intelligent and thought-provoking comments. Its always a pleasure to read what fine minds think. Thank you for your understanding and support.

david skinner

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Obama : 'I'm ready to accept him as a great politician , but I don't accept him as the Messiah .' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and claimed the sort of things Obama claimed would not be a great politician . He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man is, Messiah : or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call him the Messiah . But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human politician . He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Courtesy of C.S. Lewis

derek

An American,
People like 'us' are life's losers, but you are the one that just defined the quality of your life by the house/cars/business you own. Personally, that sounds more like a losing life to me.

fellow traveller

Laura: Olavo might be a "noted" philosopher, but that doesn't mean he's a very good one. Plato he ain't. I went to the source to read his essays, and he's quite "out there" to say the least:

"Several Republican activists have already reportedly been beaten up by Obama supporters, McCain campaign offices in various states have been broken into and destroyed, and only police action managed to prevent, just in time, hundreds of well-trained Obama agitators, armed with Molotov cocktails, from setting fire to the buses heading to the Republican Convention in St. Paul"

"The amalgam of utopian promises, overwhelming advertisement, psychotic beatification of the leader, racial appeal, media control, and systematic intimidations of voters is identical in the least details with Hitler’s electoral strategy in 1933"

There's loads more of this twaddle, all translated into English, on his site. If you were thinking that Melanie's blogs have been ok but bit too pinko liberal for your tastes you'll find what you want right here.

John Birch

Conservative Cabbie: I wasn't referring to exit polls--the polling going into election day four years ago had Bush ahead and he won. The comparison was made with Obama being ahead going into election day. Exit polls are different from regular polls and by their very nature are subject to greater error.

Ross Roberts

How could Americans controll the direction a “Civilian National Security Force” might take under Obama?

No one has yet qualified what Obama meant when he stated in July 2008: "We cannot continue to rely on our military to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

Brief Historical note: Germany under Hitler during hard economic times set up avolunteer neighborhood/community "Civilian National Security Forces" to protect the Homeland. Once established, the civilian force became a neighbor Political Enforcement Arm” of the Nazi Government. And was subsequently run by the Gestapo.

How could Americans controll the direction a civilian national security force might take under Obama? How would local police interact with a "civilian national security force that is just as powerful as the U.S. Military? Would volunteer civilians have access to Citzens' private records? Could U.S. private mercenary companies now contracted in Iraq work with a "Civilian National Security Force" on U.S. Soil? Could Constitutional Fourth Amendment rights be trashed including illegal search and seizure. Could Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" members handle neighborhood informants and share like the Gestopal did in seized and forfeited assets from Americans.

Rob-NY

Democrats Obama, Biden, Pelosi and Byrd (former Klansman) at the helm.
What a freak show.
Well, Europe. You got what you wanted. Good luck.
You will be missing Dubya this time next year.

logdon

People are talking of electoral Kool-Aid which refers to the cyanide poisoned drink given by Jim Jones to his terminally hapless followers. And there was me thinking it was a reference to the Tom Wolfe book, Electric Kool -Aid Acid Test whereby the erstwhile Tom follows the hippy cavalcade across California and then eastwards with messiah, Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. Kesey had written One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest then using his royalty money funded the whole shenanigan including the acid used in the Kool-Aid enabling the hippy crew to get out of their boxes whilst listening to the Grateful Dead, also roped in. Wolfe’s portrayal of this counter culture event was not in the least dewey eyed and he pictured the infighting and power play amongst this bunch of disparate evangelists in vivid detail. Boredom enveloped the scenario in the end and the whole performance fizzled out. Out of these ashes, at least the Dead emerged and became one of the big massive selling US bands until Garcia quite ironically died an early death. All of this leads me to the thought that the US is in the throes of a similar phenomena. Drunk on the idea of ‘change’ and an amorphous kind of wishful thinking. Worried about being hated as a reactionary force in Europe and the Middle East they reach for the shaman of ‘hope’ who will magically transform the perception. Barry is Ken. Difference is that with PC and a wholesale social politicisation of the US via it’s education system and media his client base is not limited to rich hippy kids, it’s millions gulled into believing this snake oil charlaton’s pitch. He isn’t the author Ken was. He isn’t the hippy Ken was. But he’s hitched his message to Ken’s idealism and dreams. Charitably speaking Ken was a true idealist who gave his money away. Looking at pictures of Obama’s Hyde Park house on the hill I can’t see him doing that. He is undeniably aligned with crooks and true haters of the American Dream. He is an agitator who struck pay dirt, beguiling a confused nation worried about it’s direction and force for good. He is a blatant manipulator of public consciousness. He uses his half blackness in the most cynical ways possible. Even Colin Powell is duped for God’s sake! People are asking if I’ll stay up to watch. Nope, I’ll pass on that dubious, masochistic pleasure. When news of a multiple mororway pile up down the road airs I don’t rush to gloat, I think poor buggers and move on. I suggest America does the same. This is a car crash of massive proportions but sooner or later the road get’s cleared and the traffic resumes it’s busy way. Same goes for the good old US.

logdon

People sneeringly talk of the horror of Palin being 'a heartbeat' away from the nuclear trigger. Here's news, she already is! From Pajamas Media........

"I Didn't Know This. Did you?

Question: What is America's first line of missile interceptor defense that protects the entire United States?

Answer: 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard

Question: What is the ONLY National Guard unit on permanent active duty?

Answer: 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard

Question: Who is the Commander in Chief of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard?

Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska

Question: What U.S. governor is routinely briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counter terrorism?

Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska

Question: What U.S. governor has a higher classified security rating than either candidate of the Democrat Party?

Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska

According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets. She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is."

derek

Laura,
Everything that you just posted was the same unsubstantiated drivel that I've heard over and over again.

You obviously are not in tune into that of which you speak.

Saturn

Melanie Phillips has most certainly understated the dangers of an Obama presidency, however, given that she seems to have been doing the work of a dozen journalists on this blog - and against a tsunami of aggressive and often spiteful cant - I for one am prepared to forgive her.

fellow traveller (November 4th, 2008 4:55pm) reads the full essay kindly provided by Laura and says Mr Olavo de Carvalho’s assertions are "out there".

I know Melanie Phillips cannot catalogue every single piece of thuggery carried out or attempted by Obama supporters but everything that ‘fellow traveller’ has challenged Mr Olavo de Carvalho on is true.

The evidence on Molotov cocktails for this man was so strong he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity:

http://www.startribune.com/nation/32332444.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiacyKUU

Mich. man pleads guilty to having Molotov cocktails for Republican National Convention

‘MINNEAPOLIS - Federal officials in Minneapolis say a man suspected of planning to attack the Republican National Convention has pleaded guilty to possessing Molotov cocktails.

‘The U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis says 23-year-old Matthew Bradley DePalma of Flint, Mich., entered his plea Tuesday to a charge of possession of destructive devices.

‘Authorities say DePalma had made at least five Molotov cocktails by the time he was arrested on Aug. 28.’

As you can see from the next link, the police tried to get rid of weapons and detain the ringleaders of the planned assault at the Republican convention so that some semblance of order was possible:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/27695244.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciatkEP7DhUsr

Police raid RNC protest sites in Twin Cities

‘Five people were arrested and more than 100 were handcuffed, questioned and released by scores of deputies and police officers, according to police and elected officials familiar with the raids.

‘In a statement Saturday morning, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said the St. Paul raid targeted the RNC Welcoming Committee, a group he described as "a criminal enterprise made up of 35 self-described anarchists...intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention."

‘"These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses, breaching venue security and injuring police officers," Fletcher said. Deputies seized a variety of items that they believed were tools of civil disobedience: a gas mask, bolt cutters, axes, slingshots, homemade "caltrops" for disabling buses, even buckets of urine.’

Unfortunately, this softly, softly approach - no doubt done in fear of critics in the media - did not pay off because, in the event, more than 100 police officers had urine or feces thrown on them and $69,000 worth of damage was done to property. It’s reported here:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/23/harrington/

I know you can’t cover everything, Melanie, but your inspiring efforts do not go unappreciated.

Kara

Right On Girlfriend!

Conservative Cabbie

John Birch

I'm aware of the differences between exit and regular polls.

On a related point, I've talked on here ad nauseum about how pollsters might be overstating Democratic registration which skews the polls in Obama's favour. I think early voting in Colorado may be early proof of this.

Pollsters have been giving the Democrats a 5-15% advantage in party registration, Rasmussen I believe was at about 6%, Pew Research at the ridiculous 13%.

The figures for early voting in Colorado is in. Democrats 33.44 percent (569,875), Republicans 32.64 percent (556,241), and Independents 24.71 percent (421,124). That means only less than one percent Democrat advantage, although in the interests of fairness I should point out that registered Democratic voters have increased in colorado from 30%, an increase of 3.4%, still lower than any pollster has it. This is some evidence for what I've been saying, that the polls are skewed in Obama's favour because of over estimating party ID. Of course, it's perfectly possible that the 24% of independents voted in big numbers for Obama giving him a landslide, but then again, maybe not.

Conservative Cabbie

Ronnie

"Obviously there have been a lot of people just not listening to each other and now they've forgotten how."

That will be nail on the head time.

Conservative Cabbie

An American

Thankyou for your comments, very nice to be called a "fine mind". If only that were true, there are many many finer minds than I posting here, even some liberal ones.

Dixon

"John Birch
November 4th, 2008 2:42pm
Dixon: Four years ago, Bush was ahead in the polls going into the election so the comparison between then and now lacks validity. The architect of Bush's victory, the evil genius Karl Rove, has Obama winning 338 electoral college votes today."

You evidently were not watching the same programme that I was!

Dixon

I was in a copy bereau today when an American faxed his vote.

Think how open to abuse that is!

derek

Saturn,
That passage you just posted did not say Obama or Democratic Party in it once. Therefore it is irrelevant to any anti-Obama argument.

Dixon:
Check every major poll from 2004 and you will see that Bush had around a 4-5 point lead.

Marco Polo

An American,

You flatter me. I would also second Conservative Cabbie on Liberal fine minds on here too, it's just that they're yet to 'be mugged' by life and change their views for the better.

Bill M

In Philadelphia, PA Election Day early evening...

I am hoping beyond hope that somehow McCain pulls through, yet I know that that will most likely not be the case. The line at our polling station was wrapped around the corner this morning with over twice the amount of voters having already voted than the Bush/Kerry race. I know I am one of few McCain supporters in this neighborhood.

At another polling location in Philadelphia today, members of the Black Panther Party were blocking the entry to a polling station, one with a baton. They closed ranks when a white voter appeared. Police were called and the one with the baton was taken away. Why weren't they arrested?

Is this the way things will become? I've seen ethnic peoples in T-shirts with a picture of Obama that says "It's Our Turn!" Is this how they understand the democratic process--they're entitled to an election?

I have considered sending my children and wife out of town for a night or two should McCain win out of fear of violence. Racist thinking or a realistic precaution? Probably both.

Intelligent neighbors, many professors at an Ivy League university down the street suspended all logic and cast their vote for Obama.

I think much of this is a response to Bush administration. The pendulum has, however, swung full to the other side. This will not be just four years and then a 2012 election with a course correction. The damage an Obama administration will cause will be permanent and I mourn what our great country was because of that.

Marco Polo

Bill M,

As a Brit, I fully sympathise for the plight of not just 'white' Americans but those who have a modicum of common sense too. If you want to see how America is going to tun out just read what's going on in the UK. Have a read of "Londonistan" by Melanie Phillips, or the "Abolition of Liberty" by Peter Hitchens to see that the Democrats are mirroring the rise to fame and election of NuLabour(Tony Blair) here in the UK back in '97.
You are correct. Their win will of course bring in more than one term of office for Obama and the Democrats and during that time, America, will follow the UK and become a guinea pig for Obama's policies. I really wouldn't be surprised if they manage to start changing the constitution as well. To think that the Black Panthers were blocking the Polling station disgusts me, but from the viewpoint of the someone in the UK, who is following this election, it seems that Obama's black voters are voting for him because he's erm.....black! Then you'll have all the deadhead white youth, with their heads buried in "the Communist Manifesto" and Jay Z on their headphones voting for him too, then all the others who saw Bruce Springsteen endorse him so they'll vote too. It's all really pathetic. It's appalling to see "Now it's our turn" T-shirts worn by the Blacks as it proves that this election isn't about Politics but about colour. I find this so sad and even more worrying when I've read that Obama will have 'no condition' meetings with Islamic Terrorist Groups.
I really feel for America and I'm not going to say White America because there are many Blacks who have the common sense to realise that security of the Nation is America's most important policy, something Obama is about to destroy. I really would bet my bottom dollar that Obama cuts spending on Defence as well as cuts support drastically to Israel to appease his Muslim contacts. It was nice knowing the Good Ole' US of A. I fear that this could be the start of the prophecy of Nostradamus and WW3.

fellow traveller

Oh for Pete's sake Saturn: Carvalho said: "Police action managed to prevent, just in time, hundreds of well-trained Obama agitators, armed with Molotov cocktails"

The report you quote describes these idiots as "a criminal enterprise made up of 35 self-described anarchists", and that from the police.

I don't disagree it was criminal and pathetic. But they weren't hundreds of Obama supporters. anarchists don't like *any* government.

Carvalho describes it as if Obama ordered out a group of stormtroopers. It's pure fantasy, and it's certainly not philosophy.

fellow traveller

By the way, it's terribly unfair for me to quote Carvalho selectively. So don't take my word for it, go and read it all on his site. It's poorly researched and lazily argued from start to finish.

Elizabeth

Derek,

If you’re so desperate to see a headline with Obama’s name in about his thugs, there‘s no shortage:

‘Obama Supporters Enter GOP Campaign Office & Mace Employees-- Including Elderly Women’

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-supporters-enter-gop-campaign.html

Bill M’s account of what has been going on in Philadelphia is terrifying but, sadly, not surprising.

What’s more, 'derek', I note from another thread on this blog that you’re the person who thinks that democratically elected Western governments operate on exactly the principle of: “Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with then. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate”, although I’ve never seen words to that effect uttered either in the election prospectus of any contemporary Western government or from any contemporary Western government politician.

You’re clearly very keen on people producing crystal clear evidence for their assertions.

So perhaps you’ll now provide us with yours.

Otherwise it looks like you’re making spiteful things up.

Sarah

What are you on, fellow traveller?

It's funny how those people who attempted violence at the Republican convention didn't make the same trip to the Democrat convention.

What is the purpose of trying to disrupt the Republican convention and not the Democrat convention? There's clearly some reason for this bias.

Why has Bill M given the account he has? It seems to corroborate the picture.

This is all about engineering an Obama victory through the use or threat of violence.

It's a despicable new low for the US. We've never had a campaign like this with unofficial proxies trying to attack and in some cases actually assaulting Republican supporters.

As if there's something casual about making up Molotov cocktails. I presume that's not legal in Britain?

And of course they were caught 'just in time'. The only chance you ever have of stopping some of the more nasty weapons they had was while they were in a cache in one place. You certainly don't stop people like that once they all have their weapon of choice and are dispersed. That's like finding a needle in a haystack.

There is nothing poorly researched at all in de Carvalho's piece.

Many of the facts he summarizes have been set out in detail on Melanie Phillips' blog on earlier posts.

The truth is it's simply embarrassing for Obamites who throw mud at Melanie Phillips as being some sort of "Israel lobbyist" and so on to find another commentator in another continent operating in another language who simply looks at the facts, joins the dots and comes up with much the same conclusion as she does.

If you discard fashionable media opinion and just look at the facts, the conclusions these two separate individuals reach are just what any fair-minded, reasonable person would come to if they were being honest.

Bill M

Marco Polo,

"I really would bet my bottom dollar that Obama cuts spending on Defence as well as cuts support drastically to Israel to appease his Muslim contacts."

As to your first concern:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcqhoiK8-Ww

As to your second concern:

From Audacity of Hope, 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

And, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsfCx-Ic-_o

And, who knows what's on the tape the LA Times has refused to release. I have heard he says, "Israel has no God given right to occupy the land." Apparently, he hasn't read or doesn't believe the Bible he claims to believe. Of course, twisted through the sick "theology" of Rev. Wright, it's no surprise he would believe what he allegedly said.

Dave

@An American: "You may win the election this time around but people like you are life's losers."

I'm an Englishman, Sir. I have won life's lottery.

Frank P

To bring a lighter note to this day of epochal madness, lets look forward with Jonah Goldberg in his satircal piece in the New York Post, fast- forwarding to 2012:

>"It's hard to believe that just four years ago, some were talking about Barack Obama as a national savior, a secular redeemer, a "light worker." Even more shocking, President Obama lost the nomination of his own party to none other than Hillary Clinton. How did we get here?

There are no shortage of recriminatory theories for President Obama's precipitous fall from would-be messiah, to near pariah. Discussions with leaders within the Democratic Party, including prominent former members of the Obama administration, give a kaleidoscopic picture of missed opportunities, wrong turns and embarrassing blunders.

The first mistake many cite was actually made before Obama was even elected: the selection of Joseph Biden as his vice president. During the campaign, all eyes were on John McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. But even then there were signs of the troubles to come (ironically, Biden's biggest "gaffe" - about Obama being tested early in his presidency - proved eerily prescient).

Still, nothing prepared the country for some of former Vice President Biden's comments while in office. Early on, when he told the Russian foreign minister he'd "rather punch a nun in the throat" than cooperate on an Iranian nuclear deal, the Obama administration knew they had a problem on their hands.

The strange comments and behavior kept coming: at an international summit on child poverty, he accused the Dalai Lama of issuing a "brain fart," he phoned Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts at home and called him a "[re]tard in short pants," and of course the several stories - clearly leaked by aides to the president - of Mr. Biden sitting in the president's chair in the Oval Office and being more than reluctant to get out when asked to do so by the president.

The last straw was Biden's complaint, emphatically offered at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, that he would have more influence over foreign policy if he were black. His staff's effort to dismiss the incident as a joke -at the normally comedic event - fell short largely because Biden shouted "I am not joking!" two dozens times in speech that lasted less than 10 minutes. The fact that Biden had not been invited to speak at the dinner in the first place only added to the controversy.

Ultimately, the embarrassment became too much and Mr. Biden became the first vice president to resign from office since Spiro Agnew.

The subsequent battle over Obama's replacement sapped his presidency of much of its energy. Indeed, many credit Hillary Clinton's decision to run against Obama to her anger at being passed over twice for the vice presidency. The failure of two of Obama's ostensibly bipartisan picks - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords - because they were too "rightwing" only made him seem weak compared to the firebrand liberal 111th congress. Charges that the Obama presidency was really a Trojan Horse for a Pelosi prime ministership only grew louder when he was forced to accept Henry Waxman as his vice president.

Indeed, the overconfidence of Congressional Democrats posed another major challenge to the Obama presidency. During the 2008 election, Obama's conservative critics had long complained that the then-freshman senator had little to no record of standing up the leftwing base of his party in part, they argued, because he himself was much more leftwing than he had let on.

Whatever the truth of that, what is not contested is that the Congressional Progressive Caucus - the largest partisan bloc in the Congress when Mr. Obama was elected - believed that the new president was "one of us" according to many sources contacted for this article.

The CPC, colloquially known as the "big swinging caucus" after an unfortunate joke by then-Republican Minority Leader John Boehner after a scandal involving Rep. Barney Frank (see side story), pushed Barack Obama on a wide array of fronts: they demanded very large cuts in the military budget, a sweeping government expansion into the role of healthcare, and in a move that experts agree caused the Wall Street Panic of 2010, they persuaded Mr. Obama to make the government's partial ownership of the remaining "Big Five" banks permanent. Representatives Frank and Charlie Rangel argued that the stakes, bought by the Bush treasury department, in the banks provided, in Frank's words, a "once in a lifetime opportunity to inject some social justice into the capitalist system." Or as Senator Jesse Jackson Jr. said, "if we've got them by the b - - - s already, why let go?"

Americans also don't like it when White House press secretary Keith Olbermann tells them that complaining about higher taxes is "racist."

A general consensus among political observers is that Obama's essential problem was that he was oversold and too naive and arrogant to realize he wasn't as his most devoted fans believed. A senior Democrat on Capitol Hill marveled: "In 2008, this guy promised to send everyone to college, vastly increase foreign aid, create a 'civilian national security force' that was just a well-funded as the U.S. military, his wife said he'd fix our 'broken souls,' and he said he'd make the oceans stop rising, all without increasing the deficit. The amazing thing is he thought it was all true. He makes Jimmy Carter look like he should be on Mt. Rushmore."

Another advisor compared Obama to Max Bialystock, the con man from the Mel Brooks' film "The Producers." In the movie, Bialystock sells 100% ownership of the play to dozens of investors. "Barack Obama sold 100% shares in his presidency to every constituency imaginable and they all thought they were at the front of the line after inauguration day."

Meanwhile, in a sign of the bitterness within the Democratic Party these days, former vice president Joe Biden has not endorsed a candidate. But he did say that President Obama could be a great leader in his second term "if he would only learn that the square circle grows moss only when the fat man bathes in dirty moonlight."

Jonah Goldberg is the author of "Redistribute This! A Conservative Manifesto" (2012)."

An American

Bill M,
I'll mourn along with you...at least for a week. This 'abortion' of our great nation has been coming on for a long time. Our elementry schools through college have been taken over by the Bill Ayers terrorists and spoiled hippies of the 60s. We should have put a stop to this creeping Socialist disease...but now its too late. I do have one grandson in College who is wearing a McCain/Palin tee-shirt to classes but another who is voting Obama (maybe I'll leave the little prick out of my will..if there's anything to leave after Obama) I'm not sure if we can still save what I consider the greatest nation ever formed on this earth. I'm saddened but I'm also mad as hell and plan to become more politically active. Obama's thugs... Black Panthers, etc. will have a hard time intimidating this lady...I'm tougher than they think....in fact, I think Obama is in for a surprise...I think alot of Americans are common-sense individualists and tougher then the Messiah is aware of. And when his adoring, brainwashed, followers discover that this fraud is an empty suit...that things will actually get worse for them...after he ruins some of the very businesses that give them paychecks.. some of them will leave the dark side too.
Melanie, I love your colunms and blog. Thanks for letting me vent.

An American

Dave,
You may be an Englishman...but you're no Marco Polo. Augustus or Conservative Cabbie...you are a Derek, however.
Cheers!

Conservative Cabbie

Well, i've just seen Fox project Pennsylvania for Obama. This is why I'm a cabbie and not a pollster or pundit.

Although not a complete loss at this moment, without PA, McCain needs everything+ to go right. Oh well.

I really just want to congratulate you Obama supporters, I hope you get to enjoy the next 4 years, I've now got a primary to prepare for and follow.

Terry

Obama will be elected. It is the price to be paid for a poor conservative president on whose watch the economy has travelled south. It isn't my election and I think that whoever wins is faced with a task that may ensure a one term occupation of the White House. I'd prefer McCain, but I don't get to vote.

Obama may cause damage to civilised values (that's what the left do), but it is the price we have to pay at this moment in time. The Republicans are bein voted out, rather than the Dems being voted in. Obama offers only non specific change. America may soon find out that change can also be for the worse.

Bill M

Philadelphia PA, Late evening.

Well, the election has been called for Obama. I just went out to walk the dogs. Last week the Philadelphia Phillies won baseball's World Series. Tonight I hear even greater horns, fireworks, cheering, and sirens than last week. OK, as I was proofing this, I just heard guns being shot in celebration. When you live where I do in Philadelphia you know the difference. I guess it's celebration time, Palestinian-style.

May God bless president-elect Obama. Lord, grant him wisdom. May God have mercy on our nation.

Rupert

Melanie, what are we gonna do over here now with Barack as president?? America the stoopid.

Bob in obomanation

The nightmare, Dee Ranged, was caused specifically by the main stream media. They abrogated their constitutional responsibility and for the past year have unabashedly shown their bias for Obama. The media hand picked McCain at the outset by praising him at every opportunity and running down his opponents. The damned New York Times endorsed Obama, for Pete's sake. On top of that, democrats registered as republicans in the primaries to vote for McCain, because he was the weakest.

It's not that some of his acquaintances have been radical, but they have been almost exclusively radical. There's no way that he could be telling the truth about not knowing about the radical nature of Jeremiah Wright's preaching, after 20 years. He's been shown to be lying about his familiarity with Ayers, who apparently ghostwrote one of his books.

It was two days ago that I for the first time saw the testimony of FBI informant Larry Grathwohl, and his testimony that Ayers and his cohorts in the Weather Underground had no qualms with killing 25 million people of the U.S. His testimony is on youtube. Ayers and his equally evil wife are as close to demons as it gets. Why wasn't this covered in the MSM 6 months ago? We know all about Palin. I wondered how he thought they were going to round up 25 million people. This morning, for the first time, I heard Obama talking about the civilian army that he wants to create, that would be as powerful as the regular military. His words. Now, you blithering asshole Obama apologists can keep ignoring these things, making excuses, and denying the obvious until it's in the history books. Perhaps you want to live in a marxist world, but if you connect the dots as Ms Phillips has suggested, you see a profoundly dangerous road for America. Especially given the possibility of a filibuster proof congress, and the appointment of one more radical judge (thanks Bill Clinton, ol buddy) making it 5 radical liberals to 4 conservatives, and the skids are greased to make changes that could change the U.S. into something that looks nothing like it was ever meant to be.

The first thing on the agenda is the freedom of speech. You know what they call it? The "Fairness Doctrine".

Ronnie

'The people have spoken, the bastards.'

Geoff M

I write this upon hearing of Obamas victory......

McCain would have had a miserable time as President given that the Senate and Congress are Democrat. Despite their majorities Bush still got all the blame.

Just like Britains experience over the past 11 years, a period of Democratic leadership, with no-one else to blame, will be a salutary lesson for Americans.

It will take two terms but they will get there.

Meanwhile, when you strip out the obligatory congratulations from Western leaders just look at who is most pleased by his win. You will see they they are mostly enemies of the West.

Says it all really......

Marco Polo

Dave wrote: "I'm an Englishman, Sir. I have won life's lottery."

It seems Dave that you're holding onto a belief that no longer is true.
Thanks to NuLabour, our society is no longer the same as it was. We may still be procreating, but those people born in England are most definitely NOT Englishmen. As Lord Tebbit stated in a previous speech "They are merely foreigners in their land of birth, holding British passports" and I speak also of the 'whites' too.
Thanks also to NuLabour's foreign Policy, the respect that Britain once had from other countries is dissipating and fast. The British Passport, once looked upon as a lump of Gold is now compared to a cereal packet toy as they're giving them to anybody.
You will also find as well, last but not least, that many "Englishmen" are getting off this island for far away shores, having watched the destruction of their country. The only thing English about people born here nowadays is their naming of their land of birth, because when it comes to upholding Englishness, they haven't a clue, having been taught to hate their heritage and culture by the Left Wing Socialists on their continued destruction of the Nation state.

Doug

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

fellow traveller

It's a bit after the fact now Sarah, but you ask

"It's funny how those people who attempted violence at the Republican convention didn't make the same trip to the Democrat convention... There's clearly some reason for this bias."

I'd guess it was because that's where they lived! from the web site:

"The RNC-WC, composed primarily of Twin Cities-based anarchists and anti-authoritarians..."

They're idiots, and thank god they didn't hurt anyone, but they "are no more opposed to the Republican Party than we are to the Democratic Party", so they're simply not Obama thugs.

logdon

The fat lady sang. Now what? Maybe a reprise with 'Let's face the music and dance' as it's theme. The best bit of business advice I ever had was 'under promise and over deliver'. Obama has switched this golden rule and it will rebound. If US blacks and the liberal establishment think that he will be a meal ticket they're sadly wrong. We've already seen violent intimidation going on at polling stations as evidenced by comments on this thread. What happens when the dream does not materialise? Course the BBC is cock a hoop with Eddie Mair barely unable to contain his excitement and overblown wordiness. I remember a similar euphoria in 1997. What short memories these buffoons have? The place I do worry for is Israel and the LA Times secret tape. If all of these pundits continue the madness of the 'messiah' the Middle East will go up in smoke. Then what?

Bob

pwned. Game, Set, Match, Obama

Frank P

Bill

Amen.

Ronnie

Marco Polo (and others if they wish), describe for us, if you will, this Englishness that has been lost.

Canon Alberic

She's strangely quiet today, wonder why that might be?

Hayward Maberley

Geoff M,
You must have just returned to Planet Earth, from somewhere else in the Universe. Possibly Planet Neocon!
The Republicans held majorities in both the House and Senate from 1994 until 2006. Remember Newt and that "Contract with America." Well, that contract turned out to be like one from Halliburton/KBR np bid and cost plus. A very expensive one leading to ncreased budget deficits, national debt going ballistic, unwarranted conflicts on two fronta and now a further addition to the bill, the Wall Street Debacle.
Democrats have only had their majorities in both since the start of 2007.
Then here has been a Bush Republican Administration in power since 2000, now thankfully terminated.
Where have you been?

Frank P

Doug

Spit it out, don't stutter, you mean: Haha haha ha -lelu-hu-jiah!

Ba-rack The Lord has risen aga-ain, Hah-hah-Hah le-luuu-huuu-jiah-ha-ha-ha. Let us pray.

Oh Lord insofar as it your Divine Will to have give us you Second Son to return the World to the condition it was when your First Son was born and later crucified, we humbly thank you for your wisdom and Mercy and bow before The Second One in humble obedience and eternal thanks. Amen.

The Day of Dhimmitude has arrived!

Mary from Illinois, USA

I sit here on Wed. the day after an historic election in these great United States. I will admit I am not happy with the outcome. I fear (and rightly so) we Americans are on a perilious journey in losing our sovereignty. What to do now? STAY AWARE. Be more involved than ever in monitoring the politicians. Much of my energy will now focus on "The Fair Tax" (go to fairtax.org) as I see this as the ONLY way not to be taxed to death as well as making Americans more prosperous. Read the books by Boortz & Linder and get informed! God Bless America!

logdon

Here's a morality tale.

Obama’s leaky plumbing

Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it.

Joe drives to Obama’s house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it’s clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per year.

Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it’s an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.

Obama asks Joe how much it will cost.

Joe immediately says, "$9,500."

$9,500?" Obama asks, stunned. "But you said it’s an easy repair!"

"Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for free," explains Joe. "It’s always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do business this way. It’s known as ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.’ Surprised you haven’t heard of it, senator."

In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there’s no way he’s paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves.

Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe’s price, Obama does nothing.

The leak under Obama’s sink goes unrepaired for the next several days.

A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there’s a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.

Joe goes back to Obama’s house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says "Let’s see - this will cost you about $21,000."

"A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!" Obama quickly fires back.

Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. "Well, because of the ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act,’ a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free plumbing I’m doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day.

"Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there’s a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they’re not being replaced - nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won’t make any money. I’m hurting now too - all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won’t pay their fair share."

Obama tries to straighten out the plumber: "Of course you’re hurting, Joe! Don’t you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you’ll be broke, and then what will you do?"

Joe immediately replies, "Run for president, apparently."

Last laugh for the plumber? Ha, bloody ha!

Worried, Windsor

Ronnie,

Re "Englishness" see here - www.theenglandproject.net/documents/englandandtheenglish.html

Ronnie

Thank you Worried. I shall ponder now.

Frank P

logdon: Well and truly! Great parable! Frame it, it will be a masterpiece when future generations unearth the ruins of this civilisation.

Tom

Melanie - As an American, I can't tell you just how happy I am to read some truth! Without the liberal biased media here in the U.S. Obama would not have won this election. 5 of 6 tv news stations, and just about every newspaper refuses to report facts...the very thing they have sworn to do.

Paul

I would rather have have a man in power that the republicans fear than a republican in power that the whole world would regret. McCain was a decent man but Palin is a dangerous bafoon and I doubt that John was fit enough to endure an entire term in office. Obama is a new chance for America to regain its dignity and respect.

Marco Polo

Ronnie, you asked me the question(along with others) to explain what this Englishness is that has been lost. If you don't know what Englishness has been lost in the UK then, sir, you are not an Englishman and have no idea what one is.
However, you most certainly can defend yourself and tell me what you 'think' Englishness is and I will tell you if I agree or not.

Paul Beckler

I am one of the somewhat stunned and certainly fearful for the future that Melanie writes about today. Barack Obama is eloquent, stately, calm and inspiring - all great qualities for our President. And I am pleased at the race barrier being broken. All that being said, I cannot believe the lack of information the voters were exposed to in regard to Obama. Shame on the media, shame on the McCain campaign and shame on the American voters who did not bother to educate themselves. There are just too many questionable relationships in his background. For example, see http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng47.html
This is truly and utterly unbelievable to me. Through a simple 15-minute search at lunch hour I am able to pull up an archived 1996 report from the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America. In the archived page, I click the link for New Party update, and there is the blurb on member Barack Obama.

Now, after you read that, click on the "home" tab to bring up the current homepage and read their mission statement.

This was not newsworthy to mainstream media as we led up to the election?

Wow.

Susan Day

For those non believers of our foundation of the Constitution, which has served us well for over a hundred years all of a sudden needs changed. I still believe that our country was founded one nation under GOD. Of course Obama, doesn't believe in GOD, if he did he wouldn't be against the pledge of allegience, the national anthem. He doesn't believe in holding your hand over your heart, have you ever seen him respect the national anthem. What is next now that he is going to the White House. Will the Christmas Tree be gone? He wants to move the troops out of the Muslim Country, is it to help the troops? Will he start making us a weak nation again, just like Clinton. When will the money change, or how soon should I say. Banking systems, stock market, exchanges. The US will need to start closing the boarder, Homeland Security will need to really amp up and get ready, because we are setting our selves up for another civil war or at the very least for the terroist and enemies of our country to move in and take over.

Jerry Frady

Melanie Phillips hit "the proverbial nail on the head." I am a naive USA citizen and am glad to know that she seems to
grasp the essentials of the American way of life. Freedom first and always is more than a
slogan to me. "Give me liberty or give me death" still resounds
from our Revolutionary War with
England. It is the influx of
socialists, communists, and other foreigners who have no real historical or cultural connection with native-born Americans. Oh-my father and uncle fought WITH Englishmen in
WWII and were imlpressed wih them as soldiers and as persons.
Also, I have a friend who is English. So, I am not hostile toward you. However, I hope and
pray that we here never see the
day when the USA capitulates to
such destructive & deconstruc-
tive forces and ideas as your
leaders have unleased on your beautiful country. My son studied in London some years ago
and loved the land and its people. But socialism in all its
forms militates against "life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness." In truth, it fosters
"the end of prosperity." But
thank you for your past and
present level of friendship. And
thank your military personnel who do fight for freedom.

Frank P

Paul Becker

Very interesting links, thank you; but I'm sure most of the trolls on this patch would say, "Oh, just another smear" In other words, "What's wrong with being a communist?"

They have no rear-view mirror and therefore cannot see the wasteland behind them, just the rose-tinted visions of Obama's Utopia ahead of them. Let the journey commence, it will all end in tears.

Ronnie

Thanks Marco Polo. Its quite clear that you don't know, so what's your point? Perhaps you should go on a long journey of discovery.

I am not English.

Jimeny McFish

I was appalled by Obama’s campaign. Talking about issues rather than trying to drag his opponent through the mud, keeping on message for close to two years rather than changing tact every couple of days and choosing a VP who had greater intellect than your average year 6 student. The last eight years of republican rule have brought nothing but peace and prosperity to the US and the rest of the world alike. Relations between the US and other nations have gone from strength to strength. Change? Pah! Palin 2012. When will we learn that the earth is 7000 years old, dinosaurs fossils were sent to test us and that Africa is in fact one big country not a continent?

euSSR GO HOME

Apologies for being slightly o/t here, but I've had problems accessing CH for a day or two. Now I wonder - what happened to Melanie's other strand?

Too many respondents?

Or are the neu Blog Censors at work already- and not quite up to speed?

Ronnie

Jerry Frady, did you mean to say. 'I am a naive USA citizen' ?

euSSR GO HOME

Mr. McFish: Re: "and that Africa is in fact one big country not a continent?" Whether or not Palin thought this, which I doubt..... It's how most Americans I meet envisage europe - so why should Africa be any different?

Oh. Yes.. I see.
'Some' are More Free than Others.

Phil M

I distinctly heard Obama say in his victory speech: "To those who would tear the world down - we will defeat you". Who do Melanie and those who agree with her think he was referring to exactly? The Republicans? Somehow I don't think so. After eight years of GWB and the mess he has left, we now have signs of hope. Every thing I have read about Obama indicates that he listens to people, even when he does not agree with them. I place my trust in that as an essential precursor to peace and security and believe that our freedoms are more secure this week than they have been for the last eight years.

byter

looks like the horses ass is being mistaken for the horses mouth.

tript4mine

Wow. There's -a lot- of weird, weird people here. "A Kenyan born radical Marxist", I mean, if Obama is to be compared to a radical Marxist, you might as well compare GWB to Nietzsche. Seriously, there's a stark difference between fact and fiction, maybe relying on FOX to provide you with "news" isn't such a good idea. I can recommend the BBC or perhaps Reuters for a bit more objective look at world events.
And as for the crazy comments on the British posted above here. A Scandinavian myself, and with strong ties to Central Europe, I can assure you all that the British are still pretty well respected all over Europe. Even though their recent actions in Iraq has knocked out some credibility from their reputation. As for the US, the difference in respect and admiration towards the "Land of the Free" in later years as compared to, say, 15 years ago is nothing short of unbelievable.
From being looked at as the big brother across the sea, they have succumbed to holding the impression of being a mildly retarded and selfish little brat with big muscles on the world stage. It seems like many Americans has long since forgotten the ideals and foresightedness of their founding fathers, and fallen into a sociopolitical dark age. How did it come to be like this?
If the US is to survive the next decade with it's honor and prosperity intact, it's going to need their friends in Europe, and electing Obama as president is thus probably the most clever thing the US has done in a long, long time.