Monday, October 20, 2008
The Criticality of Vetting
For some reason, the mainstream media has taken Obama as an almost mythical figure to whom the normal vetting should not apply. Perhaps MSNBC's Chris Matthews summed up the feelings of the mainstream media about Obama when he said Obama "sent a tingling up his leg." Said Matthews of Obama: "I've never seen anything like this. This is bigger than Kennedy. He comes along, and he seems to have all the answers. This is the New Testament." To paraphrase Winston Churchill, when it comes to the mainstream media and Obama, never have so many been so uninterested in so much.
To question the Obama narrative is to invite scorn and invective – even if you are Bill or Hillary Clinton. It is enough that Obama represents change – and that change must simply be taken by faith to be good change. But change can be change for the worse. That is why anyone seeking the most powerful office in the world should be carefully scrutinized... [snip]
There are many, many more such shifts in many of Obama's positions, some within mere hours. Now anyone can change a position over time based upon new data and on experience. But if genuine, such shifts usually occur over years, not hours or even months. Shouldn't the press delve much deeper into some of these? What good are the debates if the candidates are not held accountable for their statements?
The mainstream media has gone on a rampage against Sarah Palin since McCain chose her as his running mate. Some of the matters they have pursued have been fair game, some have not been. Shouldn't the mainstream media show at least one-half of the curiosity and eagerness toward finding things out about Obama, the Democrat nominee for president, as they have about Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president?
[the most pervasive spin: omission. America is being duped by the MSM. Highly Recommended {bordering on Must Read} > ]
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Is Obama a socialist?
Socialism, according to Karl Marx, is the transition between capitalism and communism. To achieve communism, Marx says, there must be continuing revolution in which the fundamental principal is: the end justifies the means.
For more than half a century, capitalism in the United States has taken a beating from the socialist revolution. Despite the best efforts of conservatives, since the Roosevelt era, socialists have made great strides toward converting the nation to socialism.
Apparently, the majority of Americans either fail to recognize the transition, or welcome it. The enthusiastic support for Barack Obama, especially among young people, is abundant evidence...
[Excellent piece {again from Canada} that quickly provides explicit examples of policy intentions that substantiate the claim of creeping socialism and its likely rapid expansion under Obama - Highly Recommended > ]
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Lies by Omission: Media withhold truth from voters
[from Canada, again - perhaps distance adds clarity?]
It’s time to cut through to the truth since some representatives of the media are shying away from it. And Barack Obama sure won’t disclose the truth about his socialist ideas.
These days, he’s covering up his true intentions as he’s sounding more and more like a liberal trying to espouse Republican values to fool the American public. He is for the working class, the “average Joe” in that he says he wants to cut taxes. Barack Obama has left quite a bit out of the picture, lying by omission.
The media is complicit in backing Barack Obama. All of the networks (except maybe FOXNEWS) slant their news to favor Obama. They give John McCain his props, but are willingly shilling for Barack Obama.
Here and there, the truth does come forth. The media calls them “attacks”; I call it revealing the truth...
[Recommended > ]
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Obama raises stunning $150 million in September
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $150 million in September, a stunning and unprecedented eruption of political giving that has given him a wide spending advantage over rival John McCain. The campaign released the figure on Sunday, one day before it must file a detailed report of its monthly finances with the Federal Election Commission.
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Who Are Obama’s Donors?
The Obama campaign has failed to release the names of donors responsible for approximately half of his campaign’s $426.9 million: those who have contributed less than $200.
In addition, press reports allege Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has accepted illegal online campaign contributions from this category of donors, which include funds allegedly donated by foreign nationals.
The Obama campaign appears to be selectively complying with campaign finance laws. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) should immediately investigate allegations of foreign campaign contributions made to the Obama campaign possibly corrupting this presidential election.
The McCain campaign, by contrast, has made its entire donor database available online.
In the interest of transparency the Obama campaign should publicly list the source of every single campaign contribution. The American people deserve to know for certain that all campaign finance laws are being followed.
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N.Y. Times Finally Smells Something Fishy on Obama's Dubious Donors List
After dismissing it in a brief story on Tuesday as "G.O.P. Query Involves 1% of Giving to Obama," the Times' Michael Luo and Griff Palmer finally decide that Obama's plethora of odd donors may be politically newsworthy. They finally devoted a more serious story to the matter on Friday ("Fictitious Donors Found in Obama Finance Records"), which comes after Newsweek's Michael Isikoff's similar piece back on October 4. Luo and Palmer ran down some of the more entertaining entries from Obama's dubious donor list:
Last December, someone using the name "Test Person," from "Some Place, UT," made a series of contributions, the largest being $764, to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign totaling $2,410.07.
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Will Media Report ACORN Voter Registration Fraud and Obama Ties?
In battleground states across the country, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is being investigated for voter registration fraud.
Yet, this group's nefarious activities this election cycle have not received the kind of mass media exposure you would expect given its ties to the current frontrunner for president, Barack Obama.
As the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (emphasis added):Acorn uses various affiliated groups to agitate for "a living wage," for "affordable housing," for "tax justice" and union and environmental goals, as well as against school choice and welfare reform. It was a major contributor to the subprime meltdown by pushing lenders to make home loans on easy terms, conducting "strikes" against banks so they'd lower credit standards.
But the organization's real genius is getting American taxpayers to foot the bill. According to a 2006 report from the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been on the federal take since 1977. [...]
Which brings us to Mr. Obama, who got his start as a Chicago "community organizer" at Acorn's side...
One would think this should all be quite newsworthy, correct? Yet, according to LexisNexis searches, in the last month as voter registration irregularities involving ACORN surfaced around the country, neither ABC News or CBS News has done one report on this organization and its ties to Obama.
Not one.
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[ACORN's mission statement from its website]
ACORN and Project Vote Register 1.3 Million Voters
The goal of ACORN and Project Vote's voter registration drives is to empower low-income and minority communities by giving them a voice in the political process. ACORN hopes that expanding the electorate will result in more candidates who appeal to historically underrepresented voting populations. [more]
[any reason they simply don't want increased voter registration/turnout for all demographics?]
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Tom Brokaw Involved in Soros-Funded Charity that Funds ACORN
[Datum...]
"Meet the Press" interim moderator Tom Brokaw sits on the board of a liberal foundation that has given radical left-wing group ACORN $821,000 and that in turn is funded by liberal uber-donor George Soros, research reveals.
Here are the facts...
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Nevermind Whether He Would Be a Good President - He's the Coolest Figure To Ever Walk The Earth!
Over at Contentions, Abe Greenwald notices a report from the Paris fashion runways. His visage appears between the svelte curves of fashion models on Europe’s most prestigious runways. His speeches are remixed into thumping music tracks in underground dance clubs. His campaign slogans are the foundation for modern art hanging on trendy Parisian gallery walls. In Europe, Barack Obama is much more than the Democratic presidential nominee. He’s the hip new thing.
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Too Cool for the Room
It is nothing short of stunning this election year to read and listen to some of our most noted national conservatives demonstrate no practical understanding of conservative America. It would serve Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker well to shirk cocktail parties with the broadcast hierarchy in Manhattan and D.C. and travel like a presidential candidate for a time.
Potluck dinners, small-town festivals, state fairs, church picnics and bowling alleys would be great places to start. Shake some hands. Converse with people. Were they to dare attempt such a journey, it is without question our conservative "All Stars" would find far more Sarah Palins and far fewer Peggy Noonans. A fact, one might suspect, embarrasses them to their core.
Average American, working class conservatives have disdain for the dishonest turn their "intellectual superiors" have taken. Their attempt to discredit Governor Palin as an empty "follower" with nothing to offer is both disrespectful and transparent. Palin was elected by a state's majority citizenry.
This instantly qualifies the Governor for the national debate and singly trumps any perceived qualifications of both men on the Democratic ticket...
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Palin 'C***' Shirts Caused by Obama Campaign's Tone
Is the sexist, misogynist tone that the Obama campaign established to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democrat presidential primaries responsible for the disgusting Sarah Palin t-shirts being worn by some Obama supporters?
Feminist radio host Tammy Bruce thinks so, and believes that is what "upset so many Hillary Clinton supporters from the beginning of [Obama's] presidential run" making "this Democratic campaign...the worst we've ever seen."
Bruce also told Fox News's Martha MacCallum on Monday's "America's Election HQ" that these "Sarah Palin is a C***" t-shirts are similar to "the most popular t-shirts when Barack Obama was running in the primary season...that said 'Bros Before Hos'" (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Hot Air):
[will the old media now demand 24/7 that Obama publicly condemn and denounce a few of his lunatics as they have McCain? Why not?]
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Bernie Goldberg Notes Double Standard on Right vs. Left Hate
Shocker. The mainstream media highlights right wing hate, but nearly ignores hate coming from the left. Such a topic best selling author and former CBS insider Bernard Goldberg exposed appearing on the October 13 "O’Reilly Factor." [snip]
Bernie Goldberg agreed and added the media elite "were never concerned" about constant references to Bush as a Nazi. Accentuating O’Reilly’s point that Democratic presidential candidates attended the DailyKos convention, Goldberg also reminded the audience that these same candidates boycotted Fox News. Goldberg concluded "case closed. That’s all you need to know about that."
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Palin vs. Biden
How is it that an attractive woman who has been involved in state and local government since the early 1990s without much controversy is now passed off in the media as an airhead? Yet her opponent, long known as an airhead, a braggart, and even a plagiarist, is now passed off as a statesman?
[A: in the usual way - Recommended > ]
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[FLASHBACK: NNBrief 080909: Palin Finalized 20-Year Quest for Pipeline Deal in First 20 Months =In her first 20 months as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin completed a deal for a natural gas pipeline -- at $40 billion, the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history -- that had been a top economic goal for the state for nearly two decades...
Last time I checked, Canada was another country...
and Biden {or Obama}?]
Biden: Voters ''having a difficult time''electing first African American president
As Election Day looms just over two weeks away, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said Saturday that with Republicans firing ''vicious'' and ''dangerous'' attacks at Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voters are ''having a difficult time'' opting for the man who would become the nation's first African American president.
''Undecided people are having a difficult time just culturally making the change, making the move for the first African American president''
[translation: the poor unsophisticated masses just can't get over their racism]
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Why Obama's Communist Connections Are Not Headlines
There's a lot of frustration among conservatives over how Barack Obama's radical past seems to be making no impact whatsoever among the American public. Quite the contrary, the more information that becomes available on Obama's radical associations, the more he seems to widen his lead.
I understand these frustrations completely. I'm also not surprised.
Why? How? The answer is simple: The history and truth about communism is not taught by our educators. That total failure to remind and understand means that Americans are painfully vulnerable to repeat mistakes that should have been forever tossed onto the ash-heap of history. [snip]
Of all the lectures that I do around the country, none seem to rivet the audience as much as my discourse on the horrors of communism. In these lectures I do a 10-15 minute backgrounder on the crimes of communists-from their militant attacks on private property, on members of all religious faiths, and on basic civil liberties, to their total death toll of over 100 million bloodied, emaciated corpses in the 20th century.
... the young people, especially on college campuses, are amazed at what they are hearing. They are especially struck that I ground every fact in 'reliable' authorities - books published by Harvard and Yale, quotes from the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, Vaclav Havel and Alexander Yakovlev, anti-Soviet appraisals from Democrats like Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. I rarely use right-wing sources because I don't want the professors of these students to be able to later shoot a single hole in my presentation.
And speaking of those professors, that gets to my point here: As the young people in my audience are fully engaged, hands in the air with question after question -- obviously hearing all of these things for the first time in their lives, as they are eager to inform me after my talk -- the professors often stare at me with contempt. In one case, a British professor, who could not stop sighing, squirming, and rolling her eyes as I quoted the most heinous assessments of religion by Marx and Lenin, got up and stormed out of the room. [snip]
When the leftists of the ‘60s took over higher education and the media, they really knew what they were doing. This was brilliant, masterful, a tactical slam-dunk, a tremendous coup for them and their worldview, with ripple effects we can scarcely imagine. The leftist intelligentsia that dominates higher education, and which writes the civics texts used in high schools, and which trains the teachers who teach in high schools, is not in the slightest bit notably anti-communist. So they do not teach the lessons of communism.
What's more, aside from failing to instruct their students in the crass facts about communism's unprecedented destruction -- its purges, mass famines, show trials, killing fields, concentration camps -- these educators are negligent in failing to teach the essential, non-emotional, but crucial Econ 101 basics that contrast capitalism and communism and, thus, that get at the heart of how and why command economies simply do not work. [for long. snip]
When the leftists of the ‘60s took over higher education and the media, they really knew what they were doing. This was brilliant, masterful, a tactical slam-dunk, a tremendous coup for them and their worldview, with ripple effects we can scarcely imagine.
The Santayana aphorism is correct: those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. For decades now, we haven't taught the next generation what it needs to know from its immediate past. And now, to borrow from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, America's chickens have come home to roost.
[excellent piece from someone who would know - MUST READ > ]
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In defence of 'Greed'
The common story now making the rounds is that Wall Street's "greed" is at the root of the financial crisis and that this "greed" needs to be reined in.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has promised to put an end to, "unbridled greed that [has] caused a crisis on Wall Street," while Democrat Barack Obama claims that the financial crisis is a "direct result of greed that has dominated Washington and Wall Street for years."
However, "greed" (or less derisively and more accurately "self-interest") is not the problem or the reason for the crisis. Wall Street, Bay Street, Main Street, my street and every other street in North America is built on individuals and businesses.
Self-interested individuals and businesses are the backbone of our economy, vital to economic progress and society's well-being, and ought to be celebrated rather than be demonized... [snip]
economist Milton Friedman said it best:"The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. ... the record of history is absolutely crystal clear: that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system."
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[HT:GC]
How the stock market works
Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."
The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.
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