September 15, 2008

Web Reconnaissance for 09/15/2008

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Opinion on wind turbines shifting - Visitors to Rehoboth Beach, Del., soon may be greeted by more than sand dunes, sea gulls and beach umbrellas. Offshore wind turbines, with their 140-foot blades spinning in the ocean breeze, will inhabit the seascape visible to the beachgoers. (READ MORE)

Prospects greater for Pakistani women - LAHORE, Pakistan Malaika Khan settles comfortably into a tan leather sofa in one of the multiple coffee shops mushrooming all over Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city. After recently launching a line of formal designer wear, she has ambitious plans to delve into ready-to-wear clothes. (READ MORE)

Ike leaves Gulf Coast underwater - OVER THE GULF COAST Entire swaths of land from southern Louisiana to Gilchrist, Texas, have been flooded or destroyed by Hurricane Ike, which swept through the area early Saturday morning. (READ MORE)

Records show McCain more bipartisan - Sen. John McCain's record of working with Democrats easily outstrips Sen. Barack Obama's efforts with Republicans, according to an analysis by The Washington Times of their legislative records. (READ MORE)

Obstacles stunt Calif. offshore drilling - The Bush administration and oil companies say they want to open up the nation's coastal areas to new drilling, but in two cases - involving some of California's most promising oil fields - they are doing little to make that happen. (READ MORE)

Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy - Wall Street titan Lehman Brothers headed into bankruptcy Sunday after potential buyers Barclays Banks of Britain and Bank of America backed away, citing the Treasury's refusal to guarantee Lehman's toxic mortgage portfolio. (READ MORE)

Bank of America to acquire Merrill Lynch - NEW YORK — Bank of America on Monday began adding another slice to its growing financial services empire, buying Merrill Lynch in a $50 billion deal that would create a bank offering everything from fixed-income trading to credit card lending. (READ MORE)

Massive Shifts on Wall St. - NEW YORK, Sept. 15 -- Lehman Brothers announced early Monday morning that it will file for bankruptcy, becoming the largest financial firm to fail in the global credit crisis, after federal officials refused to help other companies buy the venerable investment bank by putting up taxpayer money... (READ MORE)

Indian Police Hunt for Bombers - NEW DELHI, Sept. 14 -- A day after five serial bomb blasts rocked the Indian capital, killing 21 people and wounding about 100, police teams raided several neighborhoods Sunday and questioned a balloon seller, a street vendor and an auto-rickshaw driver. (READ MORE)

Clinton in Ohio: 'Who Is for You?' - ELYRIA, Ohio, Sept. 14 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday made a pair of campaign stops in this important battleground for former rival Sen. Barack Obama, generating large, passionate crowds -- and barely mentioning Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. (READ MORE)

In Wake of Georgian War, Russian Media Feel Heat - MOSCOW -- At the height of the crisis over Russia's invasion of Georgia last month, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin summoned the top executives of his nation's most influential newspapers and broadcasters to a private meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Paul Greenberg: Art for the Artist's Sake? - Walking by the U.S. courthouse here in Little Rock, a flash of metal outside impinged on my vision, though not much on my consciousness. From a distance, it looked like a pile of leftover construction materials. And indeed the courthouse had just acquired a spiffy new addition. Not until I saw the story in the paper ("Harsh judgment passed on courthouse fountain") did I realize what that pile of shiny stuff was: a water fountain. Excuse me, a Water Feature. It has a name, as befits a work of art: Echo Dynamics. Well, sure. That fits right in with Greenberg's Rule No. 17: The more pretentious the name, the less satisfying the product. Echo Dynamics. It would make a fine name for a corporation that makes steel tubing, or maybe recording equipment. But by any name, the new fountain hasn't been getting many rave reviews. (READ MORE)

Robert Knight: Wall Street Journal Fails to Identify GOP-Bashing Author as Gay Activist - This past Tuesday (Sept. 9), The Wall Street Journal allowed a homosexual activist to criticize GOP “gay-bashing” on the top of its op-ed page – but didn’t let readers know the author has a dog in the fight. In his lengthy article, “The GOP Should Kiss Gay-Bashing Goodbye,” James Kirchick is identified simply as “assistant editor of The New Republic.” But Mr. Kirchick is not just another opinion writer. Kirchick was named the 2007 Journalist of the Year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). In 2006, he won the NLGJA’s Excellence in Student Journalism Award. Last month, he spoke at a session on opinion writing at the NLGJA convention in Washington, D.C. Kirchick argues that Republicans should embrace homosexual rights because the “national mood” favors legal recognition of gay couples, but more importantly, because the GOP is “on the wrong [emphasis added] side of history.” (READ MORE)

Star Parker: Barney Frank and the politics of family values - Barney Frank isn't just another liberal. And he is much more than just an openly gay congressman. He is a powerful legislator who happens to be chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. This makes Frank a central and influential player in government's response to the current mortgage crisis that has rocked our financial markets. The decisions that Frank, a Democrat, makes can put taxpayers on the hook for not just billions, but trillions of dollars. These are decisions that effect our pocketbooks but also our freedom. They influence the size and scope of government in the lives of every American citizen. So, yes, I care a lot about what Barney Frank thinks, and how he thinks, on any subject that I know matters to him. It's why I paid particular attention when Frank decided to join the liberal chorus attacking conservatives on the issue of John McCain's selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. (READ MORE)

Mike S. Adams: F.A.S.H.I.S.T! - I just got an email from our new Provost telling me that I – like everyone else working at the university – must start attending mandatory sexual harassment awareness training sessions every two years. The good news is that I’m going. The bad news is that I’ve gotten some other angry white men together to help me completely disrupt the training sessions. On October 20th, there will be a meeting of a new campus group called “Faculty Against Sexual Harassment Initiatives and Sensitivity Training” - or FASHIST. I’m the founder of the new group. And the reason I’ve chosen the name FASHIST is twofold: 1. Our university is moving rapidly in the direction of fascism and we need to turn things around as quickly as possible, and 2. We need to go ahead and call ourselves FASCIST because that’s what the feminists – who don’t actually know what fascism is - will call us when we try to oppose a government-mandated thought control program. (READ MORE)

Dinesh D'Souza: Who Speaks For Islam - Who Speaks for Islam, written by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, is one of the most important books on the War on Terror. In the seven years since 9/11, we have been subjected to all kinds of ignorant pontification--much of it from the left, but some also from the right--on "why they hate us." This book, written by a leading scholar of Islam and the head of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, brings a wealth of real data to bear on this important subject. The book is full of fascinating data on Islamic radicalism, on Muslim support for democracy, on the role of women, and on the values of Western popular culture. At first glance the results seem confusing: An overwhelming majority of Muslims rejects 9/11 style terrorism but a significant number of Muslims support the Palestine suicide bombers. Huge majorities of Muslims support democracy but reject the Western understanding of rights and liberty. (READ MORE)

Austin Hill: ABC News And "The Central Question:" Will Obama Be Scrutinized Next? - What an amazing escapade in broadcast journalism. In his exclusive one-on-one interview with Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Charlie Gibson of ABC News began with what he characterized as “the central question:” “Governor, let me start by asking you a question that I asked John McCain about you, and it is really the central question” he stated. “Can you look the country in the eye and say ‘I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just vice president, but perhaps president of the United States of America?’" Great question, Charlie. And it should be the “central question” for anybody who seeks the presidency or vice presidency. So why is Governor Palin being asked this question now, while the question has not been posed to the other candidates that have participated in the 2008 election cycle? (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: Thank The NYT If Terrorists Strike From Pakistan - The situation in Pakistan was bad enough prior to the New York Times revealing that the Bush Administration apparently approved secret missions to go after Taliban and al Qaeda operating in Pakistan's lawless border regions including Warizistan and the NWFP. That report meant that the Pakistani government had even less room in which to operate and claim plausible deniability over the airstrikes and missions that have taken out countless terrorists. Now, the Pakistanis have to look like they're protecting Pakistani territory from the US. Thus, we get reports such as this: “Firing by Pakistani troops forced two U.S. military helicopters to turn back to Afghanistan after they crossed into Pakistani territory early on Monday, Pakistani security officials said.” (READ MORE)

One Marine's View: Do you really know what is happening in Iraq? - If you read the local paper that may or may not be skewed in one way or another, you may question yourself if you really know what is happening in Iraq. Are things getting better? I have done one tour in Afghanistan and three six month tours in Iraq as an US Marine. Following a positive and successful tour in Afghanistan, I was deployed to Ramadi Iraq in 2004. Centrally located near the war torn Fallujah City, military bases in Ramadi were mortared, fired upon or attacked daily by suicide car bombs. My third day in country resulted in my first of many Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks on my Marines and my first wounded. Fighting was regular and local government conditions were still in the infant stages at best. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: Conservatives And America's Social Fabric - The New York Times' pet "conservative," David Brooks, wrote a really odd column -- odd for a "conservative" anyway -- complaining that the Right doesn't care about social issues. Here's the closing part of his column, “That language of community, institutions and social fabric has been lost, and now we hear only distant echoes -- when social conservatives talk about family bonds or when John McCain talks at a forum about national service. If Republicans are going to fully modernize, they're probably going to have to follow the route the British Conservatives have already trod and project a conservatism that emphasizes society as well as individuals, security as well as freedom, a social revival and not just an economic one and the community as opposed to the state.” Conservatives aren't interested in the "social fabric?" I thought Brooks lived in New York, not on another planet. Has he not heard of gay marriage? The culture of life? An emphasis on patriotism? The war on drugs? Welfare? (READ MORE)

Matt Sanchez: The military advantage - The military is one of the most consistently respected institutions of the United States, and in this election season, you can't beat having a strong military ties when running for commander in chief. Sen. John McCain is the best example of America's respect for those who have worn the uniform. It's a difficult year for Republicans, but the fact that voters even give McCain the time of the day is due to the many days McCain spent in a North Vietnamese prison as a POW. Presidential politics were not always favorable toward Vietnam veterans. Bill Clinton ran as a renegade promoting the fact that he participated in anti-Vietnam War rallies and suggested he had successfully dodged the draft. That would be unthinkable today. (READ MORE)

This Ain't Hell: IVAW vandalism - A reader sent me a link to Adam Kokesh’s blog in which he rants about, of all things, car magnets; “A lot of vets get really pissed off when they see yellow ribbons because it’s not even a message of support, it’s a directive, an order, telling someone else to support the troops. One of my veteran friends hates them so much that whenever he sees one he takes it. He’s got quite the collection on his fridge now.” Now, Kokesh is careful to not name his friend “the veteran” who vandalizes well-meaning Americans’ cars and steals their property, but the photo is tagged “evans_fridge” and the first person whose name jumps into my mind is Evan Knappenberger, the same derelict who threatened Michelle Malkin and the entire Gathering of Eagles organization. The same Evan Knappenberger whose name was just brought up the other day in our comments section as someone who was permanently removed from the rolls of IVAW. (READ MORE)

Kim Priestap: During his July Tour of Iraq, Obama Tried to Undermine Negotiations between the US and Iraq for Troop Draw-Down - Back in July when Senator Obama visited Iraq, he interfered with diplomatic and military negotiations between the United States and the Iraqi government on the draw-down of troops. In a New York Post editorial, Amir Teheri writes that, according to Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Senator Obama told Iraqi officials that President Bush's government was in a '"state of weakness and political confusion'" so the negotiations should be postponed until after the election: “According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July. ‘He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,’ Zebari said in an interview. Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its ‘state of weakness and political confusion.’” (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Bad Day At Barack Rock - I get the feeling that today is not going to be a happy one at Club Obama. First up, some evil folks managed to dig up video of him discussing how his experiences working alongside unrepentant former terrorist William Ayers qualify him for higher office (thanks, Lorie!). In recent times, he's tried to downplay and minimize his role in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge program (he only headed it up while it threw over $100 million down the toilet in a failed attempt to improve Chicago's schools), but back in 2000, he was quite proud of his work there. Next, we have even more bad news in the financial industry. Two big investment firms are in huge trouble, and the aftershocks of that could echo for years. It's all tied in to the subprime mortgage mess, they say, and the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (READ MORE)

Lorie Byrd: The Obama Story You Aren't Hearing on Your Network News - Doug Ross has the Obama story the media has not yet gotten around to covering. My guess is they are just following Oprah's lead and putting it off until after the election. What with all the baby bump pictures to review that first week, and then with all the stories about that nice Alaska state trooper that was so unfortunate to be going through a messy divorce with Sarah Palin's sister when she became governor, they have hardly had time to breathe. Oh, and that nice Democrat Obama supporter has promised them an October surprise all wrapped up with a big blue bow on top so there just will not be time to look into Obama's relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Update: Watch the video at Ace of Spades that contains all the information Doug Ross lays out in his post. Then explain to me why the media is not even pretending to look into this story. (READ MORE)

Dale Carpenter: Did Palin try to ban books from the local library? - Over the past couple of weeks, a number of claims made for and against Sarah Palin have been debunked. One persistent charge made by her critics is that she tried to remove objectionable books from the public library in Wasilla, Alaska, where she was mayor. In a generally critical examination of Palin's record in yesterday's New York Times, the reporters revive the story and provide a few fresh details. As the Times frames the allegations, they fit a narrative in which Palin is a religious extremist imposing her ideology on the town's institutions: There are two different episodes recounted here. One involves an alleged attempt by Palin to remove books when she first became mayor in 1996. The other involves the qualms she is supposed to have expressed about the book Daddy's Roommate when she was a city council member in 1995. (READ MORE)

Cassandra: The Audacity of Dope: Did Obama Violate Logan Act? - Via Betsy Newmark, an allegation from Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari that Barack Obama was meddling in foreign policy during his trip to Iraq: “WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.” Obama's alleged meddling wasn't limited to conducting unauthorized negotiations with the Iraqi foreign minister: “While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a ‘realistic withdrawal date.’ They declined.” If these disturbing allegations are true, Barack Obama joins the list of Congressional Democrats who have violated the Logan Act: (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: Dairygate - Good thing Obama never got this kind of treatment. Hill might be the nominee. New Palin scandal emerges. Something rotten in the dairy? Bigger question, anyone have a good tally on how many scandals have emerged in the last three weeks, total column inches devoted to them, compared to the last four years of Obamadoration? No, let’s be fair to Obie and tighten that up, just take Obama’s last six months, hot primary season. It would be fascinating to see how his daily average of negative inches over that period compares to Palin’s. No wait, I have one. Inches devoted to Palin’s pregnant daughter, compared to inches devoted to, I dunno, Obama’s association with known terrorists. Not to mention his advocacy of association with known terrorism backers. Moderate Voice examines the latest Palin hit so you don’t have to, determines that the lawyers will have to tell us whether anyone did anything wrong. Usually a good indicator that no one did. (READ MORE)

Dr. Sanity: THE TRAGICOMIC DEMISE OF THE POSTMODERN PSEUDO-HERO - "Victor Davis Hanson: Anyone who had read a Greek tragedy could have predicted what is now happening in this close race. For almost 3 months, the Obama campaign has been running victory laps, fueled by ever more hubris that led to really silly and unnecessary things like the Berlin extravaganza (how many vote in Germany?), and the faux Greek temple and outdoor rock concert, as well as an absolutely shamelessly biased media that did all but coronate Obama. (In Obama's defense, he cannot control the petty foolishness that despised Hollywood celebrities offer daily, that only ends up in raging Drudge headlines that even more so turn off moderate voters.)" Yes, the Obama camp in many ways mimics classical Greek Tragedy; it even has its very own Chorus of demented left-wing blogs that whine and screech with fury at the fates as the drama plays out; blaming Rovian conspiracies and lamenting their victimization at the hands of the evil Republican gods. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: What a community organizer does - ACORN, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s old employer, is breaking election laws. Again. The Detroit Free Press busted the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for attempted voter fraud. Again. Reported the Freep: “Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families. The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has a large voter registration program among its many social service programs. ACORN’s Michigan branch, based in Detroit, has enrolled 200,000 voters statewide in recent months, mostly with the use of paid, part-time employees.” In between his time at Columbia and Harvard Law School, Obama worked for ACORN. Community organizing. (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: Beer in the mail room - A recent post, Columbia Days, noticed that Barack Obama’s own account of his arrival in New York so perfectly juxtaposed his roommate Sadik’s abandonment to the temptations of New York City to his own high-minded sense of mission that it seemed too good to be true. In Obama’s account he arrived in NYC without a place to stay, sans money for lodging and only one name in his address book. After spending a night looking for his friend and washing up at a hydrant, BHO eventually finds his friend, in the company of a somewhat dubious woman and given over to worldly ambition. His friend Sadik introduces the new arrival in the doorway to the scantily clad woman as “Barry” — the name he knew Obama by – and is sharply corrected. I wrote: (READ MORE)

Donald Douglas: What Happened to Sociotropic Voting? - I remember a funny term in graduate school called "sociotropic voting." The notion is that voters look at the economy's performance and evaluate their electoral choices with the goal maximizing "social welfare" in mind. With the current economic turbulence - housing and the subprime collapse, the Wall Street financial crisis, sustained high gas prices and inflation at the grocery-store checkout line, etc. - it seems we'd be seeing more discussion along the lines of public interest voting, and thus signs of political rewards for the party out of power. If one clicks on the Huffington Post, as I have the last few days, the website has adopted the old newspaper rack headline strategy of crisis. Clicking right now finds the blaring topic headline, "BLACK MONDAY." I checked over there last night to find Huffington Post trumpeting the recent Alan Greenspan quote, "ONCE IN A CENTURY ECONOMIC CRISIS." (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Why the Hopemonger has faded - Politico notes a change in direction for Barack Obama that reeks of desperation, as well as a tendency to listen to the worst advice coming from his party. The Hopemonger has departed, Carrie Budoff Brown reports, replaced with a drearily recognizable Democratic presidential archetype, the kind that lost the last two elections to George Bush. Obama has traded in his one positive asset in this campaign, and for a very specific reason: “The ‘hopemonger’ is gone. Barack Obama sounds more like a man trying to shake a rain cloud these days, dispensing a teeth-clenching, I-get-your-pain stump speech in town after town that offers only snippets of the unbridled optimism that long permeated his campaign pitch. Beginning in the days before his party’s convention, the inspirational has given way to the traditional: attacks on John McCain, a register of policy prescriptions and partisan language with the sting of a needle. …” (READ MORE)

Wolf Pangloss: Bully Obama? - Nedra Pickler reports for the AP on Obama’s new disco ball and leisure suit ad against McCain that includes this text: “He admits he still doesn’t know how to use a computer, can’t send an e-mail…” She goes on to cheerlead for the Obama campaign in the rest of the article because, like most of the media and the AP drones in particular, she is a cheerleader for Barry and operation “hopechange.” [Breitbart] But she left out something. Jonah Goldberg writes in NRO: “The reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000): McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.” (READ MORE)

Winds of Change: Cowboys and Liberals - Judith Warner is a bestselling author and a blogger at the NYT who produces (I have learned today) a blog called "Domestic Disturbances." Her writing was panned by Prof. Kenneth Anderson, who called it condescending. I have only read the one piece of it she wrote, so I won't say he's wrong as a general thing: but I thought this was a piece that showed a great deal of the right spirit. Let me explain. She writes about attending a McCain-Palin rally in Virginia. She confesses that she intended to go as a joke, and to mock the attendees -- but she ends up being taken by the kindness of the strangers, their hopes for Gov. Palin, and the evident joy of their lives. It scares the hell out of her. “No, it wasn’t funny, my morning with the hockey and the soccer moms, the homeschooling moms and the book club moms, the joyful moms who brought their children to see history in the making and spun them on the lawn, dancing, when music played. It was sobering. It was serious. It was an education.... “ (READ MORE)

Steve Schippert: Afghanistan Raid: 3 Arrested Over 'Massacre' - Nearly one month ago, a US airstrike on a position within Afghanistan resulted in dozens of deaths. The US was certain that Taliban members were killed. That was, after all, the intelligence they acted on. Locals and the Afghan government decried it as a “massacre” by Americans on civilians. As it turns out, they were both right. The dead were civilians, and the US was acting on intelligence provided about Taliban locations. Why? Because one Afghan clan decided to use false intelligence given to the US forces to settle a local score against another clan. But while you heard nearly incessantly about accusations of an American “massacre,” you are far less likely to see the apparent truth coming to light in your local front page headlines. (READ MORE)

Mark Steyn: OVER THE HILL - Just before the big summer hiatus, I wrote this column for National Review, which we never got around to posting on line. Its observations about the weakness of the Obama candidacy still seem relevant: The conventional wisdom on the Clintons was promulgated by my then senator, Bob Smith of New Hampshire, back at the end of the impeachment trial. "He's won,"' said Senator Smith, after dutifully if vainly casting his vote to nail Slick Willie's puffy butt. "He always wins. Let's move on." They won through the Nineties. The Clintons' Democratic Party was great for the Clintons, lousy for the Democratic Party, which in the course of the decade lost Senate seats, House seats, Governors' mansions, state legislatures and on and on, until, in a final snook cocked at his comrades, Bill Clinton was unable to bequeath the White House to his vice-president in a time of peace and prosperity - but his wife, campaigning for her first political office, managed to pick up a Senate seat in a state she'd barely spent 20 minutes in. (READ MORE)

McQ: Pigs and Lipstick - this time I’m talking about Chavez - I know what you’re thinking - aw, not that again. But I’m talking about a different pig with a load of lipstick. That would be Hugo Chavez’s "socialist paradise" in Venezuela. Apparently the old boy is feeling froggy. Now that his new buddy Russia is going to engage in naval ops in the Caribbean with his pop-gun navy he’s ready to again try to beard the lion. And the problems Evo Morales has fomented in Bolivia - problems which he blamed on the US ambassador there and expelled him - presents the perfect opportunity for Chavez to thump his chest again and make the usual spectacle of himself. (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: What about the Daily Ditch? - Jill Greenberg is the photographer responsible for the image of John McCain on the cover of the new issue of the Atlantic. Greenberg is also a left-wing nut who has deposited her McCain outtakes and related thoughts on the Internet. She has thereby earned the eloquent condemnation of Gerard Van der Leun (who also posted the outtakes). The author of the Atlantic cover story for which Greenberg took the photographs is Jeffrey Goldberg, who has posted a statement expressing his consternation. (The New York Post has also covered the story.) Greenberg's commission to shoot the cover was a one-off. She is not on the Atlantic's payroll. Michelle Malkin nevertheless demonstrates that Greenberg's indecency is a matter of public record. In an aside, Michelle also notes that "[t]his is the same magazine that pays the salary of that cretin demanding Trig Palin’s birth records." The cretin whom Michelle leaves unnamed is of course Andrew Sullivan: (READ MORE)

Dafydd: Raking Whoopi - Today, John S. McCain was a guest on the View, where he has in the past been treated more kindly -- when he was nought but a maverick Republican tweaking President George W. Bush's nose. Now that he is the Republican nominee for president (and leading in nearly all the polls), it's a whole different kettle of horses. Among the challenging and deranged questions he was asked, the best of the worst came from noted political scholar and seasoned electioneer Whoopi Goldberg, now ensconced in the Rosie O'Donnell memorial deep-analysis chair. During a discussion of the types of federal judges McCain would name, bouncing off of the overly obvious Roe v. Wade "crisis," the following hijinks ensued: “‘Goldberg - Sir, can you just -- and I don't want to misinterpret what you're saying -- did you say you wanted... strict constitutionalists? Because that -- that –‘ ‘McCain - No, I want people who interpret the Constitution of the United States the way our Founding Fathers envisioned them to do.’” (READ MORE)

Big Dog: Obama Ayers Dirty Laundry - Barack Obama has been asked about his ties to Bill Ayers a few times and he has given evasive answers. He has changed his story and he has lied about Ayers. Obama always minimizes the relationship. Obama never got a half way decent questioning about his ties to this domestic terrorist until Bill O’Reilly interviewed Obama on the Factor. Obama would never have done that interview if he were not tanking in the polls. Anyway, Obama has made several claims regarding his affiliation with Bill Ayers. This video is from when he was running for the US Senate. He cites the job at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge as experience for the job of US Senator. Barack Obama, in this video, tells us that the job Bill Ayers (a man he hardly knows) gave him qualifies him to be a Senator. I know Obama would like people to believe that he has minimal ties to this cretin but since Ayers has been more than a passing acquaintance, Obama is lying. (READ MORE)


Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

No comments: