The Hunt for Sarah October

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Democrats understand Sarah Palin is a formidable political force who has upset the Obama victory plan.

It's no surprise, then, that Democrats have airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage, the state capital Juneau and Mrs. Palin's hometown of Wasilla to dig into her record and background. My sources report the first wave arrived in Anchorage less than 24 hours after John McCain selected her on August 29



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Sarah Palin's Not That Special

By now some of the Sarah Palin hoopla will have died down and people can view her candidacy for the Vice President more realistically. While it's fair to say that the mainstream media was surprised -- no, make that stunned -- by the Governor of Alaska, those of us charter members of the vast right wing conspiracy are not. Sarah Palin is not that special. In fact, she's typical of the conservative American women who don't whine about how difficult it is to wear so many hats. We just do it.

Anyone watching FoxNews Wednesday evening before the Palin speech met Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. She was being asked about how she handled her family life while busy with her political career. This beautiful woman is a mother of five and with her husband of thirty years had also raised 23 foster children. She and her husband also run two businesses but Rep. Bachmann said her family always comes first.

Palin/Bachmann 2012? Why not?

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Cindy McCain: The Real Community Organizer

The only thing Americans hear about Cindy McCain is she is the chairperson of her father’s Anhauser-Bush beer distributorship, Hensley & Company, and her personal net worth is $100 million dollars. Many do not realize Mrs. McCain’s father borrowed the money to start his business in 1955; one year after his daughter was born. Cindy McCain was not born to wealth.

The media and press never tell her real accomplishments of service to those in need around the world.

The wife of John McCain is a heroine, a fearless woman willing to lay her own life on the line to rescue others. The woman who introduced her husband on September 4, 2008 at the Republican National Convention was presented to the audience in a video narrated by Senator McCain. The beer heiress is the very definition of beauty, brains, and guts.

Mrs. McCain is not just another pretty wife of a politician in designer clothes: Cindy McCain doesn’t just talk about lending a hand, she acts. Her life story is outstanding and that of a role model: the mother of four selflessly aids victims of land mines, birth defects, genocide, starvation, deprivation, disease...

[wow. and we're not talking check-writing - a dozen more paragraphs of constant philanthropy work - Highly Recommended > ]

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U.S. uncovers Mosul bomb plot

MOSUL, Iraq, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. military officials in northern Iraq claim to have uncovered an al-Qaida plot to bomb Ninawa provincial headquarters in Mosul using an underground tunnel.

During the raid forces discovered a large tunnel supported by wooden beams. Though there were no reports of explosives in the tunnel, the U.S. military said the alleged al-Qaida suspects tested positive for explosive residue.

Hertling said planning attacks against fellow Iraqis during the holy month of Ramadan, which began Tuesday, "shows that these organizations care nothing for the good people of Iraq."

Mosul has been a focal point of military raids against the remaining al-Qaida operatives in Iraq.

U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major military operation in Mosul in early May to target the Sunni group.

[great progress - not done]

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Biden Takes Credit for Iraq Success

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw asked Joe Biden if the troop surge in Iraq had made possible the increased security and reconciliation we now see in that country. Here is Biden’s answer:

SEN. BIDEN: No. The surge helped make that–what made is possible in Anbar province is they did what I’d suggested two and a half years ago: gave local control... The awakening was not an awakening by us, it was an awakening of the Sunnis in Anbar province willing to fight.

So according to Joe Biden, the troop surge played a bit part in the turnaround of the Iraq War. The real catalyst? Joe Biden (with some help from the Sunnis).

Let’s revisit Biden’s war plan and give the great military sage his due, shall we...

On May 1, 2006 Biden and Leslie H. Gelb wrote an op-ed for the New York Times entitled, “Unity Through Autonomy in Iraq,” in which he proposed three segregated regions with their own laws.

Sure, that sounds exactly like what we see in Iraq today.

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Goldberg, Israel, and Iran

Jeffrey Goldberg pens a trenchant op-ed in the New York Times arguing—correctly, I think—that the chief challenge for the next president will be preventing a nuclear attack on the U.S. homeland by Islamist terrorists.

He is also on the money in scorning Barack Obama for pledging a law enforcement approach to deal with such an eventuality. Goldberg is correct in saying that our focus has to be on preempting an attack, not on punishing the perpetrators. [snip]

[the] obvious fact that both Hamas and the Iraqi Special Groups—along with Hezbollah, the Syrian Baathist regime, and other entities—represent different facets of Iran’s attempt to dominate the Middle East, thereby driving the U.S. out of the region - and perhaps even driving Israel out of existence...

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Gearing Up to Strike Iran

According to a recent article (in Hebrew) in the Israeli daily Maariv, Israel’s top political and security officials have taken a decision to attack Iran’s nuclear program if nothing else is done to halt it. Senior journalist Ben Caspit writes that “the debate between those who think everything must be done, including a military operation, to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and those who think one can live with it, has been decided.

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Russia: Iran nuclear plant nearly ready

Moscow - The Russian state-run company building Iran's first nuclear plant said Monday that preparations for the reactor's launch had entered their final stage. Atomstroiexport chief Leonid Reznikov said that by year's end the company will take steps that will make the launch of the Bushehr plant "irreversible." Company spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said the launch date will be determined after talks between Russian and Iranian nuclear officials this month.

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Russia plans 7,600 force in Georgia rebel regions

Moscow - Russia announced plans on Tuesday to station about 7,600 troops in Georgia's separatist regions, more than twice the number based there before last month's war and a level likely to alarm the West. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said troops would stay in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for a long time to prevent any ''repeat of Georgian aggression''.

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Russia 1, Freedom 0

In the wake of Russia's ruthless invasion of Georgia, the United States sent relief supplies on military aircraft and ships. Our vice president went to Tbilisi. And we promised a billion dollars in reconstruction aid.

The European Union sent a get-well card. With no return address.

Washington asked that Georgia and Ukraine be put on the fast track to NATO membership to deter further Russian aggression. The EU suggested sending unarmed civilian observers, instead.

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UN threatens to act against Britain for failure to protect heritage sites

The UN is threatening to put the Tower of London on its list of world heritage sites in danger after its experts accused the UK of damaging globally significant sites such as Stonehenge, the old town of Edinburgh and the Georgian centre of Bath, the Guardian has learned.

Unesco, the UN's cultural agency, has told ministers in London and Edinburgh that it wants urgent action to protect seven world heritage sites...

[One world government. Be afraid.]

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Religious ‘Defamation’ on Agenda at UN Rights Session

The United Nations’ Human Rights Council kicks off a new session in Geneva on Monday, and a controversial push by Islamic states to outlaw religious ''defamation'' is high on the agenda.

(Snip) The drive is spearheaded by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which has already succeeded in getting several resolutions on the issue passed, both at the U.N.’s human rights watchdog and at the General Assembly.

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Hot air at UN to curb global warming

Hot air at the United Nations has been so successful [?] that more is on the way. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon raised the temperature in offices at U.N. headquarters by 5 degrees during August and announced he would be wearing lighter suits.

"The initiative saved about 30 million pounds of steam, which translates into the equivalent of 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide," she said. [water vapor represents ~96% of 'green house gas' in the atmosphere - or didn't they mention that?]

Carbon dioxide is the main industrial gas blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse and causing global warming. [cute: I was going to write 'false' re: carbon dioxide being the 'main' gas blamed for trapping heat - that's methane, from livestock, not by tonnage but by effect -- but I noticed they slipped a little 'industrial' in there to keep the statement technically correct while leaving a misleading impression. They can be so clever]

The experiment will end, however, before world leaders descend on the United Nations for their annual ministerial meeting the week of Sept. 22.

[that would make it a publicity stunt, not an experiment {they're still not quite down with this 'science' stuff}]
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FLORIDA ELECTRICITY COSTS SKYROCKET AS UTILITY INVESTS IN SOLAR

Florida Power & Light (FPL) customers are being hit with a 16 percent hike in electricity prices as the utility company invests more heavily in solar power. FPL's ongoing solar investment appears [appears?] to violate a state law requiring utilities to provide power from the least-expensive available source.

Responding to loud complaints from schools forced to spend increasing shares of their budgets on steeply rising energy costs instead of educational tools, state regulators have taken the unusual step of imposing half the rate increase in August 2008 and the other half in 2009.

Residential customers won't get the deferred treatment, they're on the hook immediately:

• A 16 percent increase in electricity rates can add $64 per month to summer electricity bills, and $500 or more to annual household electric power bills.
• FPL customers already have the option of purchasing "green" power for $9.75 per month ($117 per year) from the utility's Sunshine Energy Program, but few customers have signed up for the program; most of the program's money has gone to administrative and marketing costs. [hence the phrase 'green jobs']

Moreover, the utility must pay four times as much for solar power as it does for coal power. Adding increasing amounts of solar power to its energy mix thus means FPL will continue to hike consumers' energy bills.

And for all the additional cost, there's no proof this implementation of solar power will achieve its promised environmental benefit...

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The Evolving Agenda of George Soros’s Democracy Alliance

Since its founding in 2005, the DA, a liberal donors’ collaborative that aims to create a permanent political infrastructure of nonprofits, think tanks, media outlets, leadership schools, and activist groups–a kind of “vast left-wing conspiracy” to compete with the conservative movement, has focused on fairly well-established pressure groups and political action committees (PACs). These bread-and-butter liberal groups have included:

Media Matters for America
Center for American Progress
People for the American Way
New Democratic Network
Progressive Majority
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
Center for Progressive Leadership
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
EMILY’s List
America Votes
Sierra Club
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

But now there seems to be a discernible shift in strategy by the DA, which was created by left-wing billionaires frustrated by John Kerry’s loss to George W. Bush in 2004. The Democracy Alliance’s “Letter of Interest” invited applications for the 2009/2010 giving cycle from all nonprofit groups on the left.

It is unclear which groups applied because the Democracy Alliance is a secretive group. Its founder Rob Stein told a Hudson Institute panel at the end of 2006 that DA activities would become more transparent over time, but from what we can tell, that hasn’t happened. Of course, we’re not holding our breath waiting.

[remember the names of those groups - you'll be hearing from them]

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A taxing vote on inequality

Democrats have argued that high income earners should shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden. Republicans, conversely, have argued for and received relatively lower tax rates on capital gains from business activity and some forms of personal income; their argument has been that lower taxes on business and investment leads to job and income growth in the economy at large.

Both of these positions ignore a fundamental principle of our democracy and of justice in general: equal treatment under the law.

Attention to the principle of equality under the law will help to cut through all of the propaganda surrounding the tax code. All income should be taxed at the same rate, and loopholes and deductions should be kept to a minimum. In that way, Americans will be able to move as one when it comes to matters of mutual concern. One thing is for sure, when it comes to America's future, a divided stand on taxation will surely lead to our downfall...

[ah, but divide-and-conquer is the plan of some...]

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ObamaTax 3.0

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The good news is that Barack Obama said on ABC Sunday that he might not go through with his plans to increase taxes.

The bad news is that the economy has to be mired in recession to avoid the largest tax increase in the nation's history.

[the real question is if the media will ever do it's job re: this guy - in this instance, asking him something like "you've been saying for months that increasing taxes on the 'rich' doesn't hurt the economy, so why now say you'll defer doing so if we're in a recession?"

I.e., blatant hypocrisy by Ob, blissful ignorance by the media]

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CRISIS OF THE UNINSURED: 2008

[HT:SE]
According to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of uninsured fell from 47.0 million to 45.7 million. In fact, the proportion of people without health insurance was a percentage-point lower in 2007 than a decade earlier (16.3 percent in 1998).

The slight increase in the number of uninsured over the past decade is largely due to immigration and population growth -- and to individual choice:

• Nearly 85 percent (253.5 million) of U.S. residents were privately insured or enrolled in a government health program, such as Medicare, Medicaid, S-CHIP, etc.
• Nearly 18 million of the uninsured lived in households with annual incomes above $50,000 and could likely afford health insurance.
• Up to 14 million uninsured adults and children qualified for government programs in 2004 but had not enrolled, according to the BlueCross BlueShield Association.

So about 32 million people, or 70 percent of the uninsured, could easily obtain coverage but have chosen to forgo insurance, explains Herrick.

That means that about 95 percent of United States residents either have health coverage or access to it.

A uniform tax credit would go a long way toward helping the remaining 5 percent afford coverage.

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Grow Up

Conservatives, as well as liberals, would undoubtedly be happier living in the kind of world envisioned by the Left. Very few people have either a vested interest or an ideological preference for a world in which there are many inequalities.

Even fewer would prefer a world in which vast sums of money have to be devoted to military defense, when so much benefit could be produced if those resources were directed into medical research instead.

The only reason for rejecting the Left’s vision is that the real world in which we live is very different from the world that the Left perceives today or envisions for tomorrow.

Those who are insulated from that pain — whether by being born into affluence or wealth, or shielded by the welfare state, or insulated by tenure in academia or in the federal judiciary — can remain in a state of perpetual immaturity.

It is hardly surprising that young people prefer the political Left. But the mature can also fail to grow up, especially when surrounded in their work and in their social life by similarly situated and like-minded people.

Even people born into normal lives, but who have been able through talent or luck to escape into a world of celebrity and wealth, can likewise find themselves in the enviable position of being able to choose whether to grow up or not.

Should we be surprised that the strongest supporters of the political Left are found among the young, academics, limousine liberals with trust funds, media celebrities, and federal judges?

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`Big Brother Government’ most ignored issue in 2008 presidential race

Lost in the personal smear slinging in the 2008 presidential race, is the increasing and alarming Big Brother Role of the government. While arguments heat up out on the hustings, the government has moved in with a billions of dollars bailout of the foundering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The dangerous assumption that government can do something better than private industry, the massive involvement of government in something as basic as housing are all part of the larger question Dr. Tim Ball poses in this article.

Ball warns us that most contemporary governments now seek to remove personal freedom, coupled with the demand of more taxation:

“At no time since World War II has the question of the size of government been more critical in a U.S. Election…”

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Court: Palestinian Authority must pay U.S. family $116 million

Jerusalem - An Israeli court has ruled the family of an American couple killed in a terror attack can collect $116 million in damages from the Palestinian Authority. The ruling could set a precedent for a number of suits that have been filed against the Palestinian Authority in American courts. The court in Jerusalem ruled the Israeli government can legally implement a 2004 U.S. court ruling that found the Palestinian Authority liable.

[I wouldn't spend any of it just yet]

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Sarah Palin dolls go on sale

[I can hear David now...]

Telegraph.co.uk > READ MORE

1 Comment [moved from above piece]:

David said...

I just ordered 100 hundred dolls. I am going to send one everyday to Obama's P.O. Box. I will sign that says "Read my Lipstick"
David

September 10, 2008 8:13 AM

[counciling may be in order...]