So McCain surprised the lot of us when he picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, and his decision and Palin’s background have been the talk of the town since. I am still trying to wrap my head around what this means for McCain and my support for his campaign. Coming from the left, I will give you a rundown of what I like about her, and what I don’t, and weigh whether I can still give my support to the McCain ticket. (more…)
Good stuff: “She knows when to stand up and doesn’t let anyone tell her to sit down…She’s exactly who I need, she’s exactly who this country needs…”
Really good.
The next vice president of the United States, Gov. Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska.
Huge roar of applause. Huge.
Obama-Biden has to be in full snit-fit mode.
And Hillary must be experiencing a schadenfreude-licious moment right now.
It’s McCain’s birthday and the Palins’ 20th anniversary today.
12:44pm Eastern. Palin gives props to Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton. “The women of America aren’t finished yet…We can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all!”
This is the BEST pick possible. It shows that the Republicans are just as progressive as the Dems this time around, and I’m betting that a lot of angry Hillary voters will now give a lot more thought to voting for McCain.
I’ve been hoping for this for a while. I don’t care that she’s more conservative than I’d like. What I like is that women have not been shut out yet again. I loathe Hillary, but I do agree with those who resent the rise of Obama, the far less qualified [male] candidate, over the woman who’s been around a lot longer, and working a lot harder.
I was already going to vote for McCain, but this would have locked it up for me.
Sarah Palin may become the nation’s first female vice president. Awesome.
This is change you can believe in, and not change that amounts to all talk. McCain changed the trajectory of the race today by stealing Obama’s strength and turning it against him. Obama provided that opening by picking Biden as his running mate, and McCain was smart enough to take advantage of the opening.
Now we see McCain’s pick of Quayle Palin, and it’s clear that he was forced to kow-tow to the Huckabee/Dobson wing of the Republican Party. We already know she is virulently anti-choice. But did you know she is a creationist?
In an interview Thursday, Palin said she meant only to say that discussion of alternative views should be allowed to arise in Alaska classrooms:
“I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”
She added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state’s required curriculum.
Kos, you are a liar. That is about the nicest thing I have to say to you.
Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, has been confirmed as McCain VP
I have to say, I feel a bit smug at the moment. I published my endorsement of Palin a couple weeks ago, and published Jack Kelly’s arguments for Palin’s nomination as well. I feel, you know, like the underdog. Nobody saw this coming–not even me! But I said it was the right choice, and I guess McCain agreed….
I guess having a woman on the ticket, and one as charismatic and likeable as Palin, who also has executive experience and huge popularity ratings, just wasn’t that bad of an idea afterall.
Now the Republican ticket is “historical” as well. Now the GOP might break that high, high glass ceiling. How’s them apples?
OFFICIAL MCCAIN PRESS RELEASE
ARLINGTON, VA – U.S. Senator John McCain today announced that he has selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate and to serve as his vice president.
Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president. She has brought Republicans and Democrats together within her Administration and has a record of delivering on the change and reform that we need in Washington.
Governor Palin has challenged the influence of the big oil companies while fighting for the development of new energy resources. She leads a state that matters to every one of us – Alaska has significant energy resources and she has been a leader in the fight to make America energy independent.
In Alaska, Governor Palin challenged a corrupt system and passed a landmark ethics reform bill. She has actually used her veto and cut budgetary spending. She put a stop to the “bridge to nowhere” that would have cost taxpayers $400 million dollars.
As the head of Alaska’s National Guard and as the mother of a soldier herself, Governor Palin understands what it takes to lead our nation and she understands the importance of supporting our troops.
Governor Palin has the record of reform and bipartisanship that others can only speak of. Her experience in shaking up the status quo is exactly what is needed in Washington today.
I am an American and I love America. I was born here, I live here, and I really cannot imagine living anywhere else. Sure, I would not mind living abroad for a few years, but I would definitely want to return to America eventually.
That being said, I definitely do not agree with everything our country has done. Specifically, what America has done in the Balkans is absolutely disgraceful and terrible. To give but a few specific examples, the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 and the recognising of Kosovo’s independence. Both of these events, along with many others, are a stain on our great country’s history and reputation.
That is why I cannot help but feel a bit of amusement at the anger of the countries (America, EU countries, and more) who condemn Vladimir Putin’sDmitry Medvedev’s decision to recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia. Is this not exactly what America and loads of other countries did with Kosovo? What right did Kosovo have to secede from Serbia? Kosovo is Serbian. They had a Serbian majority until the Serbs were driven out. Now Kosovo is a predominantly Muslim nation recognised by many countries around the world. Oh yes, is that not exactly what we need: another Muslim nation in Europe, in addition to the lovely Albania (that was sarcasm).
Since Russia’s war with Georgia, relations with Russia are at an all-time low. Yes, I do think Russia responded with rather disproportionate force in Georgia. Still, I do not think we can blame this entirely on them. America ought to bear some share of the responsibility: it is like a Kosovo for a Kosovo, so to speak. We have been antagonising Russia at the cost of appeasing Islam. We have supported Muslims in the Balkans, even when they have committed unspeakable atrocities (which are then attributed wrongly to the Serbs). Look at the future we face, especially in light of what happened on September 11: is it truly a smart thing to alienate a potential powerful ally? Russia may not be perfect, but they are much less unsavoury than the Islamic countries we have supported, both in the Balkans and not in the Balkans. Both America and Russia’s dalliances with Islamic countries are shortsighted. America and Russia ought to be allies, not enemies.
“U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict,” Putin said. “They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader.”
Right.
In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.
Putin told CNN his defense officials had told him it was done to benefit a presidential candidate — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are competing to succeed George W. Bush — although he presented no evidence to back it up.
And here is where the Lefties and the Pro-Russian nationalists join up. Now if Putin had only tossed in some remarks about the evil Zionists…
“This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen…”
Former president Bill Clinton criticizing Barack Obama for what the former viewed as Obama’s distortion on Hillary’s record on the Iraq war.
Not be outdone in this regard, Bill Clinton last night offered up his own fanciful rendition of history in advocating the cause of Barack Obama, the Democratic Party and, of course, most importantly himself in a feat of historical revisionism of the like that would have made Stalin-era Soviet historians proud. So let’s take a brief stroll down memory’s lane of the 1990s courtesy of a fabulist of Brothers Grimm rank.
My fellow Democrats, 16 years ago, you gave me the profound honor to lead our party to victory and to lead our nation to a new era of peace and broadly shared prosperity. Together we prevailed in a hard campaign, in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief.
Desperation is building on the far-left at the realization that Barack Obama’s nomination is turning out to be an unmitigated disaster for the Democratic Party’s chances in November.
Note first the letdown among “progressives” at the dreadful polling numbers for the Obama-Biden ticket this week. Chris Bowers and Tremayne, at the radical portal Open Left, express their frustration and helplessness at the fading likelihood of a post-convention bounce following this week’s events in Denver.
Meanwhile, those ever ready to use force for the common good are just as ready to proclaim their moral superiority. To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, being morally superior is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t. Even if you type it in all caps.
Ok, I now know who I want for McCain’s VP: Sarah Palin. Look at these pictures I merged. Can you see either Biden or Obama or even McCain with a biker gang or a motor cycle or a real fish? McCain maybe, but the others? Heck no. Oh, she also flies airplanes and was on the cover of Vogue. The republican party is in desperate need of fresh faces. She can lead the way.
We’re thinking of publishing all of the correspondence on the UCU activists list, every day, in full, to show how dominated the list is by the issue of pushing for the illegal boycott. The list is not private: it is circulated to nearly 700 recipients. We believe that the subject is of such importance, it deserves a wider audience still.
But, regardless of what happens in November, the sustained pouting of Clinton’s supporters deserves comment. Contrast their attitude towards Obama with the attitude of conservatives towards McCain. Unlike Clinton’s core supporters, many conservatives actually have important substantive disagreements with their party’s nominee (campaign finance reform, the Gang of 14, interrogation of terrorists, etc). And many conservatives reiterated these disagreements after McCain became the presumptive nominee. Within a few weeks, though, the venting subsided. Most conservatives decided to support McCain. Those who couldn’t moved on (in some cases to Robert Barr); they did not continue to whine or otherwise seek attention.
To be sure, Clinton came very close to being nominated, and her supporters believe that she lost out due to quirks in the rules. This was not the case on the Republican side, although McCain did benefit from open primaries and (above all) the absence of a rival the right, collectively, could love. But Clinton lost fair and square, and it’s been almost three months since she was forced to admit defeat. Yet the pouting persists.
The partisan in me is delighted. As a political/cultural phenomenon, though, it’s somewhat disconcerting to witness such childish behavior on this large a scale.
This echoed my sentiments so exactly–how is it that Conservatives, so many of whom are so anti-McCain, have managed to back him solidly, while these Clinon Liberals have dug their heels in against Obama? I can’t figure this one out…
Harry’s Place may be removed (or rather have it’s DNS disabled) after a ‘complaint’ to the company that our domain name is registered with.
We assume after threats were made on the weekend that this ‘complaint’ originates from Jenna Delich or her supporters. Though we have not yet seen the complaint submitted, we assume it runs along the lines that pointing out that Ms Delich linked to the website of a known neo-Nazi figure and former Ku Klux Klan leader is defamatory.
This is extraordinary since Ms Delich has not denied that she circulated links to David Dukes website. There would be no point since the evidence is in the public domain. Nevertheless, a malicious complaint has been made to the company hosting our DNS. We would like to assure readers of Harry’s Place that we are doing everything we can to prevent a disruption, but that - of course - we will not concede any ground. We have posted nothing defamatory, and we stand by the information we have supplied. ISPs often run scared of UK libel law and malicious complaints are thus common. Sadly, it is a well known - and usually successful - way of censoring websites which publish truths that they’d rather not be generally known. We ask our readers and supporters in the meantime to publish this information as widely as possible. The disgraceful tactic of dishonest and malicious complaining should not be allowed to succeed. Those on the UCU list, please also make this know there. Please spread the word. If we go down, email us at harryblog at gee mail dot com for updates. UPDATE: For those who can still see us - we’ve put up an archive of the Delich-related material here, which we will use to post updates on this saga: http://jennadelich.blogspot.com/
To join the blogburst CLICK HERE and get the script. Then, copy and past it into a blog post at your blog, and use the CONTACT FORM at NeoConstant to let us know you’re joining up! Be sure to include your name and URL…thanks!
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”
~Barry Goldwater
Watching the Democratic National Convention this year has been an odd experience for me. I have enjoyed some of the speeches. Governor Schweitzer of Montana was fun, and his speech was a good preface to Hillary’s call for unity. Even I can be roused by some of the calls for a better tomorrow, by the pleas for new technologies, greater investment in science and our education.
I just find that on a logical level–on the plain of Reason rather than Emotion–I could not adopt much of the liberal ideology, even if I wanted to. For instance, last night at the DNC convention, I’m not sure how many times supposedly intelligent people said something to the effect of “Gas prices have gone up, and oil companies are making record profits, so we need to tax gas companies more (to punish them!)”
This use of windfall profit taxes requires a complete abandonment of reason.
First of all, yes gas prices are up. This is due to a number of things, but primarily to supply and demand. Also, yes, the oil companies are making record profits. This, however, is not due to gas prices being up, but to sales being up. It is costing the gas companies more to get the oil, and this added cost is passed along to the consumer. Add to this the fact that as China and India develop their economies, they purchase more oil. So do other developing nations. So, for oil companies, sales are up. This means they make more money. So do the nations which sell the oil in the first place, like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and the UAE. (more…)
The security situation in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s turbulent Northwest Frontier Province, continues to deteriorate as the Taliban conduct several high-profile strikes in the city. The chief US diplomat in Peshawar evaded an assassination attempt today as the Taliban bombed a school and police station in the city.
The assassination attempt occurred on the streets of Peshawar as Lynne Tracy, the Peshawar Consulate’s Principal Officer, was driving from her home to the consulate. “Unknown gunmen” used a Land Cruiser to block the street Tracy’s vehicle was driving on, forcing it to stop. The gunmen opened fire on the car as the driver slammed it into reverse and escaped the scene of the attack. The vehicle was bulletproof; neither Tracy nor her driver was wounded.
The attack required some planning and scouting of Tracy’s movements throughout the city. The ambush was said to have been carried out close to her home, limiting the number of alternate routes that could have been taken to get to the embassy. The Taliban are known to favor Land Cruisers as their vehicles of choice.
DENVER — Bill Clinton appeared to undermine Sen. Barack Obama again Tuesday.
The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.
He said: “Suppose you’re a voter, and you’ve got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don’t think that candidate can deliver on anything at all. Candidate Y you agree with on about half the issues, but he can deliver. Which candidate are you going to vote for?”
Then, perhaps mindful of how his off-the-cuff remarks might be taken, Clinton added after a pause: “This has nothing to do with what’s going on now.”
Michelle Malkin was attacked by protesters and conspiracy nut Alex Jones during the “Shake Your Money Maker” event while Recreate68 attempted to levitate the Denver Mint. Another protester began shouting “Kill Michelle Malkin.”
I find life in general to be quite fascinating, but the fascination factor goes up a thousandfold when you have a baby daughter.
For instance, my one year old can tell that this monkey:
…and this monkey:
…are both monkeys. She has never seen a monkey in real life. She has not been told that these two very different looking animals are both monkeys (well, the chimp is an ape I suppose) but she still makes her monkey sound when she sees either picture. Similarly astounding are the pictures of dogs in her various books. I mean, two dogs, say a Golden Retriever photograph and the cartoonish illustration of a bulldog, don’t necessarily look at all like one another, and yet at either picture she makes the “woof woof” animal sound.
Isn’t it amazing the speed at which a child’s brain develops? It’s breathtaking. I blink and she changes. I worry that I’ll blink again and she’ll be all grown up…
If you don’t read Totten’s work, you should. And for a very close and revealing look at the Russian aggression in Georgia, read his latest piece, reported from Tblisi…
TBILISI, GEORGIA – Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.
Regional expert, German native, and former European Commission official Patrick Worms was recently hired by the Georgian government as a media advisor, and he explained to me exactly what happened when I met him in downtown Tbilisi. You should always be careful with the version of events told by someone on government payroll even when the government is friendly as democratic as Georgia’s. I was lucky, though, that another regional expert, author and academic Thomas Goltz, was present during Worms’ briefing to me and signed off on it as completely accurate aside from one tiny quibble.
Goltz has been writing about the Caucasus region for almost 20 years, and he isn’t on Georgian government payroll. He earns his living from the University of Montana and from the sales of his books Azerbaijan Diary, Georgia Diary and Chechnya Diary. Goltz experienced these three Caucasus republics at their absolute worst, and he knows the players and the events better than just about anyone. Every journalist in Tbilisi seeks him out as the old hand who knows more than the rest of us put together, and he wanted to hear Patrick Worms’ spiel to reporters in part to ensure its accuracy.
“You,” Worms said to Goltz just before he started to flesh out the real story to me, “are going to be bored because I’m going to give some back story that you know better than I do.”
(Totten asks for donations as he is a free-lance journalist. His reporting is so much more in depth and interesting than most of what the MSM provides, I highly encourage people to donate what they can! Totten’s reporting is so much more than a blog, and so much better than mainstream…)
The idiots of the Far Left strike again, this time in an effort to quell free speech and attack members of the Press. Truly, this is an example of the sort of “discourse” that protestors have stooped to, and note the little girl in the crowd as they shout “Fuck Fox News!” over and again. What an intelligent bunch…
and Moonbats
I love it. To quote a commenter, these assholes are:
revolutionary wannabes, these pampered, playacting little tools who think they live in a police state. These little turds are acting out their fantasies of living in a repressive society while at the same time enjoying wealth and freedom beyond the dreams of people who ACTUALLY live in police states.
The Dems are experiencing buyer’s remorse, both for Obama and now Biden. The ultimate outsider has just harnessed the ultimate insider for his veep.
The Donkey Party is seriously wishing for a Clinton. A Clinton/Obama ticket would have flown. It would have been unstoppable. An Obama/Clinton ticket was never meant to be.
Looks like McCain will finally get the Oval Office…
A peaceful riot of color and motion, all timed to the drumbeat of archetypal Indian rhythms and chants — such was the atmosphere at North America’s largest pow-wow, the Gathering of Nations (GON) 2008, held April 25 and 26. Themes of tradition, family, and service to country and tribe dominated the event.
Waiting in line for early-bird tickets before the pow-wow, I kibbutzed with a young Navajo woman. Her husband will be serving in Iraq for another five months. Native Americans have a higher enlistment rate in the U.S. armed forces than any other ethnic group.
As I argued this afternoon, Michael Dukakis held a seven-point lead over George H.W. Bush in public opinion polling on the eve of the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Governor Dukakis went on to enjoy a 17 percentage-point bounce after being nominated by his party for the general election campaign.
But this year, Barack Obama’s campaign is floundering in the polls in an election that has all the makings and excitement of a Democratic blowout in November. Indeed, at an identical point in the campaign compared to 20 years ago (with the Democrats then, like now, seeking the White House after nearly eight years of GOP rule), Gallup finds the 2008 race in a perfect tie, with 45 percent of voters nationwide supporting each candidate for president.
I haven’t commented on Korean related foreign affairs in some time, and a great deal has happened since the anti-American beef protests a few months back. During the beef import spat, I had a friend tell me that I need just wait for Japan to do something nationalistic, and that it would effectively end anti-American marches and focus Korea’s attention on its historical foe.
My friend was 100% correct, and a territorial battle got underway over some small worthless rocks in the sea between Korea and Japan called Dokdo Island, which has been a contentious issue between Japan and Korea since the end of the Second World War. Part of the dispute has to do with how you interpret Japan’s renunciation of sovereignty (through papers such as the Rusk documents) over land they acquired through imperialism and conquest; Korea argues that Dokdo is historically Korean territory, and thus was rightfully returned to them at the end of the War. Japan argues that the islands are Japanese land, and are not included in the territory conquered and then relinquished after the war. (more…)
U.S. financial assistance to Israel can be a contentious topic, even when discussing foreign policy issues using accurate information. Very often, opponents of Israel use wildly exaggerated, even fabricated “facts and figures” and extremely hyperbolic language to disparage the Jewish State — even claiming the U.S. has been pushed to the verge of bankruptcy by supporting Israel. The obfuscations about U.S. aid to Israel have been bothering me for a very long time, so I decided to research the numbers myself and compare my findings to the figures advanced by hysterical critics of Israel.
I am bored with the election campaign at the moment; with little of substance coming out of either camp, I have opted to ignoring it until either candidate picks their VP, or when they enter their conventions. I recommend both candidates take this time to go on vacation, and hopefully we can have a more interesting debate when they return, rested and less cranky. It will also be interesting to see what the talking heads on cable news networks will talk about when they don’t have every campaign zig and zag to dissect.
I did notice that while the Socialist Party of the United States (SP-USA) has Brian Moore as their Presidential candidate, they also have a page at Obama’s website, which leads me to believe they would prefer him in office to McCain (I don’t think this is a leap in judgment, nor do I intended it to be a smear against Obama, but disagree with me if you must).
I find socialist parties within the United States and like minded groups on the left to be endlessly fascinating, so this seemed like a good time to go into an important split to the party’s ranks that produced some of those ex-Trotskyite Neocons everyone loves to hate. (more…)
The plan for the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) to take over Iraq security is directly linked to the US plan to draw down forces and as briefed by General Petraeus in September 2007. For military planners, there are natural decision points for when to reduce forces based on the rotation schedule of US forces. These semi-annual decision points are September for drawdowns to be completed by January, and March for drawdowns to be completed by July. The drawdown schedule is not a hard and fast schedule. At each of these points the option to delay exists if the situation on the ground warrants it.
This Long War Journal article details plans for withdrawal, which should be good news to anyone involved.
Also read Michael Totten over at Commentary, describing the “perilous peace.”
Associated Press Baghdad Bureau Chief Robert Reid and his chief military reporter Robert Burns published a dispatch from Iraq over the weekend that should have made banner headlines. “It’s not the end of fighting,” they wrote. “It looks like the beginning of a perilous peace.” This is exactly right, but millions of Americans still have no idea. Coverage from Iraq has diminished as much as the casualty rates since General David Petraeus implemented an effective counterinsurgency strategy in early 2007. At least we’re finally seeing a media consensus emerge after a year and a half of looking at the data as though it were inkblots on a Rorschach. It’s nearly impossible to work in Iraq anymore and deny what has happened.
Even so, this is no time to get recklessly drunk on victory and declare “mission accomplished.” Nor is this the time to bolt for the exits from an unpopular war. The peace, as Burns and Reid say, is perilous and only just now beginning. The war is still not actually even over, though the fighting has been greatly reduced. Every single last inch of progress can be reversed. Keeping the relative peace will be just as difficult, though less dangerous, than making it in the first place. “[J]udging from the security gains that have been sustained over the first half of this year,” they wrote, “as the Pentagon withdrew five Army brigades sent as reinforcements in 2007 — the remaining troops could be used as peacekeepers more than combatants.”
It is a long ways from over in Iraq, and probably just as far in Afghanistan due to the Pakistani government’s refusal to clamp down on the Taliban there. But we’re on the upside of the battle now, at last….
The neocons got their war with Iraq. They are pushing for war on Iran. And they are now baiting the Russian Bear.
Is this what McCain has on offer? Endless war?
Buchanan, it seems, forgets who the aggressor is, and prefers to see everything from within his cozy, isolationist bubble.
Read Christopher Hitchen’s scathing review of Buchanan’s WWII revisionst book here.
Pat Buchanan, twice a candidate for the Republican nomination and in 2000 the standard-bearer for the Reform Party who ignited a memorable “chad” row in Florida, has now condensed all the antiwar arguments into one. His case, made in his recently released “Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War,” is as follows:
That Germany was faced with encirclement and injustice in both 1914 and 1939.
Britain in both years ought to have stayed out of quarrels on the European mainland.
That Winston Churchill was the principal British warmonger on both occasions.
The United States was needlessly dragged into war on both occasions.
That the principal beneficiaries of this were Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.
That the Holocaust of European Jewry was as much the consequence of an avoidable war as it was of Nazi racism.
Isolationism is one thing, but excusing the actions of Hitler and the Final Solution–pinning them on the Allies as a German reaction to Allied hostility?
So McCain surprised the lot of us when he picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, and his decision and Palin’s background have been the talk of the town since. I am still trying to wrap my head around what this means for McCain and my support for his campaign. Coming from the left, I will give you a rundown of what I like about her, and what I don’t, and weigh whether I can still give my support to the McCain ticket.
, 
