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House Democrats call for nationalization of refineries

House Democrats responded to President's Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.

Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply. (Snip)

We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.

[so, we're not racing down a path to socialism?]

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March to Socialism

I just want to mark our place in time. And here's the latest. A new Rasmussen report telephone survey found -- you ready? Dan, if I asked you how many Americans, what percentage of Americans would oppose the nationalization of our oil companies, Americans, what would you say is a reasonable number? [snip]

DAN: I would say 90? Only crazy activists would be on the other side of that.

GLENN: Yeah, it's a little, a little lower than that. A little lower.

It's actually 47% of Americans are now opposed to nationalizing our oil industry.

By the way, in a completely unrelated story, front page of yesterday's Wall Street Journal, my favorite quote from Barack Obama. He cited new economic forces to explain what appears like a return to older style big government Democratic platforms skeptical of market forces.

He said, "Globalization and technology and automation will all weaken the position of workers." Hey, workers of the world, unite. "It will weaken the position of workers. He said a strong government hand is needed to assure that wealth is distributed more equitably."

You know, here's the thing. Could somebody just call up and just say, hey, Glenn, really want to socialize the oil companies because the government is so good at... fill in the blank. Go ahead. Just give me one thing. Give me one thing the government is really, really good at. Anything. Throw it my way. Go ahead.

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[ok, the only 'news' in the congressional Democrats piece is that they evidently consider it acceptable to voice such blatantly socialists intentions.

But the Rasmussen poll is truly alarming, not just in it's demonstration of some combination of education failure & media brain washing success that's resulted in a majority of Americans somehow not knowing the inevitable failure that nationalization entails, but in the scary precedent it represents:

it tells the government that it can cause the failure of an industry through regulation, and then use that failure as justification for its assuming control to 'fix' the problem it itself caused.

Scary. Sad. What will our grand children's America look like?]

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Obama's Red Roots

It's natural to be skeptical of excessive claims about Obama's radical associations. After all, there are so many. But one bears attention — because it helped him get his start in politics. In 1996, he won an Illinois state senate seat on a "fusion" ticket of the Democratic Party and leftist group called the "New Party."

The New Party, founded in 1992 with 7,000 members at its peak, had been an explicitly anti-capitalist party of ex-Communists, socialists and activists from ACORN, the hard-left group that's constantly in trouble over voter fraud. The New Party didn't ask for Obama's association; he asked for the New Party's endorsement. [snip]

Obama actually had to audition for it. According to a September-October 1995 update on the New Party-aligned Chicago Democratic Socialists of America Web site: "About 50 activists attended the Chicago New Party membership meeting in July. The purpose of the meeting was to hear appeals for NP support from four potential political candidates." [snip]

The New Party also has advocated a bill of rights for children, a shorter work week, a universal "social" wage and military spending cuts. These will undermine parental rights, lower competitiveness, lard up welfare and make the U.S. less secure. All are echoed in Obama's proposals. They are the hardest battle cries of the left.

Obama should come clean on why he sought these radicals' support and, better still, disclose just how he intends to pay them back.

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Obama’s Buddy, Bill Ayers Stomping the American Flag

There is a blogswarm going on about this photo, from Chicago Magazine, of Obama's unrepentant terrorist associate, Bill Ayers stomping on the American flag. The photo was taken in 2001, the same time Barack Obama served on the Woods Fund Board with Ayers. This was also the same time that Ayers donated to Obama's campaign.

The question that remains is, will the media pick this up or will they write it off as old news?

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Will someone please ask Obama this question?

Would you ever invite your friends and neighbors Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn to a function in the White House? If not, why not?

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Chgo Sun-Times: Now Greely Says It's Racist Not to Vote Obama

Apparently, the Chicago media have decided that the meme for the 2008 general election is going to be that anyone who doesn't vote for Barack Obama is a racist because this is the second editorial (that I've seen, anyway) in Chicago stating such a theory. Last week the Daily Herald voiced the assumption and this week it's the Sun-Times with the volatile Andrew Greeley taking up the cause of ridding the world of racism one Obama vote at a time.

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CBS’s Tough Look at Obama: Loves Scrabble, Doesn’t Like Ice Cream

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[and that was it]

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How the Media misrepresents the Candidates' Tax Plans

One might argue that in the current economic environment, not raising tax rates is a good idea. There are no new tax reductions of course, when you merely maintain the current rates. But the way things are scored in Washington DC, keeping rates the same is treated as a tax cut, and hence scored as a big revenue loss for the government, since the current rates are supposed to expire in two years, and go back to the levels where they were prior to the Bush tax cuts in 2001. [snip]

Barack Obama supports ending the Bush tax cuts -- in other words he wants individuals' tax rates to go up. However, the way this is scored in Washington , Obama's plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire, is "revenue neutral". So if rates go up, that is not treated as a tax increase. If rates stay the same, that will be reported as a tax cut for federal revenue purposes. [snip]

In reality, Obama wants higher individual tax rates, McCain wants them to stay the same. Obama also supports much higher tax rates on dividends, and capital gains, and to raise the ceiling on the level of income taxed for social security- in total, a massive federal tax grab, designed to support major new entitlement and programmatic spending. The federal government with Obama gets much larger, individuals' after tax income, and share of the economy, gets smaller. That is what you need to know.

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Obamanomics

Barack Obama hit the road this week with an economic tour to convince voters he is not a traditional tax and spend liberal. This will be tough because he likes tax increases and spending the tax payers’ money and is very liberal. [oh c'mon; that was funny - anyway >]

The McCain team, anticipating Obama’s offensive, kicked off the week with this statement:

“While hardworking families are hurting and employers are vulnerable, Barack Obama has promised higher income taxes, Social Security taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and tax hikes on job creating businesses. In fact, during just three years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has already voted 94 times for higher taxes...

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Obama's Defense Policy

Senator Obama has made quite clear that he intends to eviscerate our most advanced defense programs. In a message to Caucus 4 Priorities, a liberal pacifist organization, (available on YouTube), the Senator called for major cuts in defense spending, for slowing or suspending the development of future combat systems, for the abolition of spending on the "weaponizing of space" [China will be pleased] and the slashing of investment in our ballistic missile defense program. More broadly he promised to support the group's policies. These include:

reducing the National Missile Defense program to a basic research program; cutting spending on platforms like the F-22 Raptor, the Virginia-class Submarine, the V-22 Osprey airplane/helicopter hybrid, the DDG-1000 destroyer, and the Army's Future Combat System. Also, the group advocates reducing America's force structure by eliminating two Air Force fighter wings and one aircraft carrier battle-group.

By signaling his intention to unilaterally halt development of advanced defense systems he will reduce our bargaining strength against our adversaries while gaining absolutely nothing, geopolitically speaking, from them. Our defense programs are inextricably linked to our diplomacy -- a lesson that Barack Obama seems never to have learned.

Barack Obama's defense policy plans threaten foreign policy consequences inimical to American interests, and would pose perilous problems for some of our key allies around the world...

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“I Will Slow Development of Future Combat Systems”

In a strange video address intended to somehow reassure American voters regarding his military bona fides, Senator Obama ends up doing just the opposite.

Among other things, he promises to cut “tens of billions of dollars” from the military budget, at a time when our armed forces are already stretched and in need of new weapon technologies and armor; to “cut investments in unproven missile defense systems,” which in reality have already proven remarkably effective; that he “will not weaponize space” even though other nations such as China do exactly that; to terminate the Iraq war just as the surge proves itself remarkably successful; and he rails against what he calls “unnecessary” military spending. He concludes by promising to remove our inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from what he calls a “hair-trigger alert,” embarrassing himself via his ignorance regarding our deliberate targeting and launch protocol.

Most alarmingly, however, Senator Obama literally promises to “slow development of future combat systems.”

Think about the frightening implications of this pledge for a moment.

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Two Reasons not to Vote for Obama

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Iranian sees 'change' in U.S.
Iran's foreign minister offered his view on the U.S. presidential campaign today, saying that foreign policy will play a key role in the election and that American voters are "looking for change"
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Barack Obama beats John McCain in European vote
Senator Barack Obama emerged as Europe's favourite candidate for America’s presidency today when a poll conducted for Telegraph.co.uk gave him 52 per cent support
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Obama says fuel prices will change car habits

CHICAGO - Barack Obama said on Saturday Americans would start changing the kinds of cars they drive if gasoline prices continue to climb and said he owned a hybrid vehicle, though he doesn't drive it much.

[how nice for him. Doesn't sound like he's particularly worried about rising fuel costs. Q: and truckers? Airlines? All the motion fueled by liquid energy to deliver our standard of living to us?]

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Palestinians in Gaza Are Phonebanking for Barack Obama

Phil Klein calls our attention to an al-Jazeera news report that sounds like a parody, but is genuine: A report on Palestinians in Gaza who are phonebanking in support of Barack Obama's campaign. I transcribed the most jaw-dropping parts: REPORTER: It may be hard to believe, but working in this tiny Internet cafe in Gaza City may just be one of Barack Obama's biggest fans. Before every U.S. primary, 23-year-old Ibrahim Abu Jayyab gathers 17 of his friends to try and rally support for Obama's campaign in the U.S...

[Q: why would they do that?]

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Teamsters Defend Endorsement of Obama

The Teamsters union vigorously denied on Monday that its decision to endorse Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race was in any way tied to Mr. Obama’s statement that federal supervision of the union had run its course...

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Not in My School Yard

... They frequently raise school choice as a cause Obama could take up to show his independence from Democratic interest groups. It doesn't look as if that's going to happen, as ABC News's Jake Tapper reports:

On the same day that he was extolling the need to shake up the "status quo" in education, Obama also defended his opposition to school vouchers.
"We don't have enough slots for every child to go into a parochial school or a private school. And what you would see is a huge drain of resources out of the public schools," Obama said.
McCain advocates giving every parent a voucher to essentially choose which school they'd like to send their child.

Our colleague Bill McGurn notes that Congress is on the verge of killing a small voucher program in the District of Columbia, where "parents have a question for Mr. Obama.

Is Mr. Change-You-Can-Believe-In going to let his fellow Democrats take away the one change that is working for them?"

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