OBAMA TRIED TO STALL IRAQ WITHDRAWAL

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.

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,"

Though Obama claims the US presence is "illegal," he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the "weakened Bush administration," Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.

[party before country]

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Iran renews nuclear weapons development

Nuclear experts responsible for monitoring Iran's nuclear programme have discovered that enough enriched uranium, which if processed to weapons grade level could be used to make up to six atom bombs, has disappeared from the main production facility at Isfahan.

American spy satellites have identified a number of suspicious sites, which the Iranians have not declared to nuclear inspectors, that intelligence officials believe are being used for covert research...

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Russia Aligns with Syria, Iran against the West

Moscow announced the Syrian port of Tartus would be renovated to provide Russia with its first Mediterranean naval base.

As the two naval chiefs talked in Moscow, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki in the Russian capital for talks on the completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant by the end of the year.

Sources interpret Friday’s events as indicating that Russia’s leaders have determined to open a second anti-Western front in the Middle East...

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Blowback in Russia

Russia has a problem. Moscow’s recognition of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia a few weeks ago has already encouraged some of its own disgruntled minorities to push harder for independence from the Russian Federation. Russia’s semi-autonomous republics of Ingushetia and Tatarstan have both ratcheted up their demands to secede.

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Antarctic sea ice increasing

The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown in recent Septembers. In the southern hemisphere winter, when emperor penguins huddle together against the biting cold, ice on the sea around Antarctica has been increasing since the late 1970s...

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Aspen-DNC carbon partnership sputters

Results of a program using Aspen’s Canary Initiative to sell carbon offset credits to Democratic National Convention attendees are a little underwhelming. The program, set up by the DNC Host Committee through the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau and rolled out about a week before the convention started, raised a total of $18.34 worth of Canary Tags.

[but it would be good for us...]

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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.

The U.S. Air Force is standing in the way of a project to tap into fields containing as much as 300 million barrels of crude - the biggest new oil find in California in 40 years - despite strenuous attempts to accommodate the military's concerns by oil companies seeking access to the offshore fields using a 25-acre parcel of land on Vandenberg Air Force Base.

"It's just mind-boggling. We have tried everything under the sun" to get the Air Force to approve the Vandenberg drilling project, said Bob Nunn, president of Sunset Exploration, a small California oil company that teamed up with Exxon Mobil to propose the innovative drilling plan.

"We are stopped at every turn." [snip]

Meanwhile, the major oil companies - including Exxon Mobil and Shell - have abandoned hopes of tapping into an even larger treasure trove of oil fields off the central California coast that could yield 200,000 barrels a day. Unmoved by this year's major shift in public opinion in favor of drilling, even in environmentally conscious California, they are demanding reimbursement of the more than $1 billion that they paid the federal government to lease the fields decades ago.

"We want our money back, clear and simple," said Edward Bruce, a Covington & Burling lawyer representing the oil companies in a long-running case against the Interior Department over the leases. "You need a tremendous change in the law" to consider drilling there again.

A federal appeals court upheld the oil companies' claim late last month.

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Illegal Immigrants' arrests anger S.F. supervisors

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two San Francisco supervisors expressed outrage Saturday at federal officers' handling of six illegal immigration arrests this past week at a Visitacion Valley residence.

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said authorities went to the home seeking three adults who were considered to be fugitives after being ordered deported by a federal judge.

When officers arrived, they found three other adults who are undocumented and living in the country illegally and arrested them as well, Kice said. The girl has an application to stay in the country legally and so she was not apprehended, Kice said.

Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whose district includes Visitacion Valley, said City Hall aides told her the 15-year-old girl was left by herself after federal officers took all the adults from the residence, a claim Kice strongly denied.

"We're still investigating," Maxwell said, "but as far as I know, the child was left. That's my concern."

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UPPER W. (BANK) SIDE

SOME students think of one ritzy Manhat tan private school as Jihad Prep. It's where the Gaza Strip meets the Upper West Side, bisecting a classroom at exclusive York Prep - where some 340 students, grades six through 12, pay annual tuition up to a staggering $32,100.

Students also are asked to define "Bedouin, caravan, Mecca, Ka'aba, Koraish, revelation, Koran, Allah and Islam. There will be a brief quiz."

One boy grew upset when he heard the teacher say the Koran was the "word of God." Schlesinger, however, insisted to me that those words don't reflect her personal beliefs. "Muslims believe it," she told me.

But the course does not include the study of other religions, such as Christianity and Judaism. Nor does it contain the Old and New Testaments.

"I'm teaching that we should all get along," Schlesinger said. "History is about trying to understand and live in the world,"

I thought history was about learning the facts. Silly me.

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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 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...

[not completely comical: here in the land of fruits and nuts (CA), the state literally tries to hold people accountable not for what they say, or what they mean, but how others - could - chose to interpret your words. Insane - hence the botanical reference.]

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9/11 COWARDICE: SIMPLE AS ABC

THE suits at Disney-owned ABC are too chicken to re-air or release on DVD their $40 million docudrama that accused Bill Clinton of squandering many chances to capture Osama bin Laden before the Twin Towers attacks.

"Disney caved and committed perhaps the most blatant, underreported and significant act of censorship in modern American history,"

says Ziegler.

"What Disney actually did here was to take a dive on their own movie . . . They preferred the scenario of unilateral disarmament, not to mention throwing away $40 million, to rebutting and embarrassing the Clintons."

he adds,

"it's disgracing the memories of those who died on 9/11 and setting ourselves up for making the same mistakes again."

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Voting Greene - Criminal politics.

Almost everyone expects that this year’s elections will be close, but few realize that the margin of victory could be affected by fraudulently cast absentee ballots. With increasing numbers of voters casting ballots by mail, the threat of fraud is real and growing. It’s important that voters understand the risk and why this problem has gone under the radar for so long. The short answer: Blame crooked candidates aided and abetted by left-wing civil-rights groups that have lost their way.

According to some “civil-rights” groups, practically every effort to legislate against or prosecute voter fraud is intended to keep minorities and the poor from voting at all. Indeed, they argue that racism and intimidation are the sole motivation for voter-fraud prosecutions and dismiss voter fraud as virtually nonexistent. As a result, many prosecutors ignore serious evidence of vote fraud for fear of the political consequences, and elections continue to be stolen.

Greene County shows that these groups have it backwards. Voter-fraud prosecutions do not intimidate voters — turnout increased in the county after the successful prosecutions. What does intimidate voters is the knowledge that voter fraud is routine and goes unpunished...

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ChiTrib Debunks Media's 'McCain Will Die Soon' Anti-Palin Attack

Folks in the media are either ignorant of how mortality is calculated, or intentionally trying to scare the electorate.

As such, the Tribune is spot on, for according to the Social Security Administration, a man aged 72 is currently expected to live to 84.

Yet, in McCain's case, this could be understated, for white male life expectancy is about six years greater than for blacks.

Beyond this, SSA doesn't account for differing lifestyles, wealth, health care history, diet, exercise, etc. Instead, its life expectancy is a one size fits all for each gender.

With this in mind, the media scare tactic that Palin is likely to become president as a result of McCain's untimely death is even more factually inaccurate.

Kudos to the Tribune for expressing some honesty in this regard.

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Biden tells disabled politician to 'stand up' Bungling Joe Biden could wreck Barak Obama’s chances of victory in November’s presidential election, senior Democrats feared last night. (Snip) Just a day after musing that Mrs Clinton ‘might have been a better pick than me’, Mr Biden left an audience cringing in Columbia, Missouri, when he urged a paraplegic state official to stand up and be recognised.

‘Chuck, stand up, let the people see you,’ he shouted to State Senator Chuck Graham...

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Policy Positions Re: ECONOMIC PLANS

OBAMA ON THE ECONOMY

Bush tax cuts:

• Obama wants to make permanent the 2001 and 2003 income-tax cuts for about 94 percent of tax filers -- those making less than $200,000 a year.
• He will either repeal the Bush cuts for the top one percent of taxpayers, or allow the cuts for those taxpayers to expire in 2010.
• He will let the tax cuts on income from capital gains and dividends expire in 2010 -- raising the rate from 15 percent to 28 percent.
• He will restore most of Bush's temporary estate tax cut to a 45 percent rate for estates valued at $3.5 million or more.

New tax cuts:

• Obama would grant a yearly tax credit of $500 for individuals and $1,000 for married couples that would apply to all workers who pay Social Security.
• Also, those 65 and older earning less than $50,000 a year would be exempt from income tax.
• The price tag: $280 million over 10 years.

The budget:

• Obama has rhetorically committed to "pay-as-you-go."
• Some revenue -- but not much in the short term -- would come from a proposed 2 percent to 4 percent surcharge on high earners to reduce Social Security's projected shortfall after 2017.

Housing and credit crisis:

• Obama would empower the Federal Reserve to regulate investment banks and any other institutions to which it lends.
• His 2007 bill would expand federal regulation of mortgage lending and toughen criminal penalties for fraud.
• Proposes a $10 billion fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and $10 billion to help state and local governments.

Source: "Obama on the Economy," in "Where They Stand," National Journal, August 30, 2008.

For text:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20080830_3632.php


MCCAIN ON THE ECONOMY


Bush tax cuts:

• McCain plans to make permanent the 2001 and 2003 income-tax cuts that expire at the end of 2010, including those that set the tax rate for most dividend and capital-gains income at 15 percent.
• He would preserve most of Bush's temporary cut in estate taxes, establishing a 15 percent rate for estates worth $10 million or more.

New tax cuts:

• McCain has pledged to eliminate the alternative minimum tax.
• He wants to double the personal exemption for dependents from $3,500 to $7,000, a move that benefits larger families.
• He wants to cut the corporate income-tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.

The budget:

• McCain has committed to a "pay-as-you-go" approach to budgeting, but has not explained how his tax cuts would be financed.
• McCain contends that hundreds of million of dollars can be saved each year by eliminating "waste, fraud, and abuse," but he has not provided examples.
• McCain's tax cuts would cost as much as $400 billion a year, or about 40 percent of all discretionary spending.

Housing and credit crisis:

• McCain supports a larger, but unspecified, role for the Federal Reserve in regulating financial institutions but encourages -- rather than requires -- larger capital reserves by banks.
• Opposes large increases in government spending to help renegotiate existing mortgages, and proposes programs that would exclude people who borrow too much to buy their homes or are currently unlikely to meet the terms of a new mortgage.

Source: "McCain on the Economy," in "Where They Stand," National Journal, August 30, 2008.

For text:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20080830_3632.php
.
.

Charlie Gibson's Gaffe

"At times visibly nervous . . . Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of 'anticipatory self-defense.' "

-- New York Times, Sept. 12

Informed her? Rubbish.

The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.

I know something about the subject because I was the first to use the term. In the cover essay of the June 4, 2001, issue of the Weekly Standard entitled, "The Bush Doctrine: ABM, Kyoto, and the New American Unilateralism," [snip]

There is no single meaning of the Bush Doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

He asked Palin, "Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?"

She responded, quite sensibly to a question that is ambiguous, "In what respect, Charlie?"

Yes, Sarah Palin didn't know what it is by it's moniker. But neither does Charlie Gibson. And at least she didn't pretend to know -- while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and "sounding like an impatient teacher," as the Times noted.

In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension that has characterized the chattering classes' reaction to the mother of five who presumes to play on their stage.

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Lost on the Rude-Tube

ABC News anchor Charles Gibson may have thought he was giving a fair but “tough” interview to Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, in the first press contact with the new vice-presidential candidate.

But ABC did itself no favors. Viewers watching the dagger-and-sheath interview — aired on national television last night and endlessly replayed on “YouTube” — could easily draw a different conclusion.

Unconsciously or not, Gibson’s manner and language fairly dripped with condescension and disbelief.

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In 2007 Interview, ABC’s Gibson Greeted Obama With Softballs

Nearly two years ago, when the inexperienced presidential candidate Barack Obama sat for his first interview with Charles Gibson, the ABC anchor did not try and expose any gaps in Obama’s foreign policy knowledge or press him about his readiness for the job he was seeking.

Instead Gibson emphasized Obama’s personal story, about how his parents met, how Obama met his wife, etc. ...

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Security forces control virtually all Iraq: Petraeus

BAGHDAD - Iraqi and U.S. forces now control virtually all of Iraq and Baghdad's troops might be able to take on security responsibility for the whole country by the end of 2009, the senior U.S. general in Iraq said on Monday. General David Petraeus told Reuters in an interview that progress in Iraq in the past year had been "very dramatic" but he said suicide bombers would still slip through security nets.

[truly remarkable turn around]

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General: US forces to up Afghan winter offensives

American troops in Afghanistan will step up offensive operations this winter because insurgents are increasingly staying in the country to prepare for spring attacks.

Maj. Gen. Jeffery J. Schloesser said a 40 percent surge in violence in April and May was fueled in part by militants preparing stores of weapons during the winter:

"If we don't do anything over the winter the enemy will more and more try to seek safe haven in Afghanistan rather than going back to Pakistan,"

U.S. and NATO officials say militants cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they rest, train and resupply in tribal areas along the frontier where the Pakistani government has little sway.

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France holds five terror suspects

Five men have been arrested in Rennes in France in connection with a suspected Islamist attack plot, authorities say. They are all French, of North African origin, a source told the AFP agency. The arrests came as the interior minister warned, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US, that the threat in France remained high. Michele Alliot Marie also warned that Islamic radicals were using French prisons as recruitment bases.

[GWOT]

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Islamic bigotry is still bigotry

[UK]
In January 2007, Channel 4 broadcast Undercover Mosque, an investigation into what was being preached in mainstream mosques in Britain. The results were shocking: imams were shown praising the murder of British soldiers, attacking democracy, and condemning attempts to integrate Muslims into British society.

The reaction to that programme proved the widespread reluctance to accept the reality of what takes place under the blanket of religion:

Undercover Mosque was condemned for "damaging community relations" by West Midlands Police, who wanted to prosecute the programme makers and Channel 4 under racial hatred laws.

On being told they could not do so, they referred the matter to the Broadcasting Standards Commission. The programme was eventually wholly vindicated. West Midlands Police had to pay Channel 4 more than £100,000 for defaming it.

As we report today, the follow-up to Undercover Mosque is to be broadcast tomorrow.

It shows that - despite all the promises that the books condoning terrorism would be removed, as would the preachers advocating the rigid enforcement of the narrowest interpretration of sharia law and the overthrow of our liberal democracy - violent, intolerant prejudice continues to be preached, this time by women, in centres of "moderate Islam"...

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Threefer...

.
Russian submarines to test-fire missiles in Pacific
Moscow - Russian submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles will test-fire their rockets in the Pacific Ocean between September 15 and 20, a military official was quoted as saying today. ''Some missile launches will be carried out in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea'' and will hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia
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Russian bombers stage Caribbean drill
Two Russian Tu-160 bombers sent for training exercises to Venezuela have carried out maneuvers over the Atlantic and the Caribbean. According to the Deputy Commander of the Russian Long-Range Air Force, Alexander Afinogentov, foreign fighters did not approach the Tu-160s, there were no excesses and the equipment worked well.
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Feinstein ‘Not Concerned’ About Russian Bombers in Venezuela
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNSNews.com Thursday that she is not concerned about Russia’s announcement on Wednesday that it had moved two long-range bombers to a base in Venezuela, a South American country just over a thousand miles from Florida. Other senators, however, both Republican and Democrat, were less optimistic about Russia’s action...
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Climate change heroes' sham case

[HT:HM]
ONE commonly repeated argument for doing something about climate change sounds compelling, but turns out to be almost fraudulent. It is based on comparing the cost of action with the cost of inaction, and almost every major politician in the world uses it.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, for example, used this argument when he presented the European Union's proposal to tackle climate change earlier this year. The EU promised to cut its CO2 emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, at a cost the EC's own estimates put at about 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product, or roughly $100 billion - per year.

But Barroso's punchline was that "the cost is low compared to the high price of inaction". In fact, he forecast the price of doing nothing "could even approach 20 per cent of GDP". (Never mind that this cost estimate is probably wildly overestimated).

This sounds eminently sensible, until you realise that Barroso is comparing two entirely different issues.

The 0.5-per-cent-of-GDP expense will reduce emissions ever so slightly (if everyone in the EU actually fulfills their requirements for the rest of the century, global emissions will fall by about 4 per cent). This would reduce the temperature increase expected by the end of the century by just 0.05C. Thus, the EU's immensely ambitious program will not stop or even have a significant impact on global warming.

In other words, if Barroso fears costs of 20 per cent of GDP in the year 2100, the 0.5 per cent payment every year of this century will do virtually nothing to change that cost. We would still have to pay by the end of the century, only now we would also have made ourselves poorer in the 90 years preceding it...

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[meanwhile...]

WIND FUELS GAS

Many Europeans think that a major part of their future energy security might come from wind turbines. But this renewable push is probably just a very clever short-term business strategy that will not improve Europe's geopolitical situation.

Wind turbines generate electricity irregularly, because the wind is inconsistent. Therefore, wind turbines always need backup power from fossil fuels to keep the electricity grid in balance, and gas turbines are the best way to do this:

• The peak load of the Spanish power grid is in the summer when there usually isn't much wind, so more and more gas turbines are being installed.
• Natural gas is still the main source of electricity with 99.8 percent of it imported.
• Germany's gas consumption for power generation more than doubled between 1990 and 2007, with the country importing 83 percent of its supply.
• However, part of the wind power backup is still done by coal-fired plants.

Most European countries force consumers to subsidize electricity from wind power making it a safe investment compared with other energy businesses, but wind power is clearly not reducing the dependence on imported fuel.

In fact, it is increasing the dependence of imported natural gas - and that's not energy security, says the Journal.

['forced to subsidized', hence the 'clever business strategy'. Translation: another scam on the public.]

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ABC Misrepresents Palin Quote in ‘Holy War’ Question

Millions of TV viewers who watched ABC News’ interview with Sarah Palin Thursday night never saw her take issue with a key question in which she was asked if she believes that the U.S. military effort in Iraq is “a task that is from God.”

The exchange between Palin and ABC’s Charlie Gibson, in which she questioned the accuracy of the quote attributed to her, was edited out of the television broadcast but included in official, unedited transcripts posted on ABC’s Web site, as well as in video posted on the Internet

But in the version shown on television, a video clip of her original statement was inserted in place of her objection, giving a different impression of how Palin views the Iraq war.

“Governor Palin’s full statement was VERY different” from the way Gibson characterized it,

"Gibson cut the quote — where she was clearly asking for the church TO PRAY THAT IT IS a task from God, not asserting that it is a task from God -

"Palin’s statement is an incredibly humble statement, a statement that this campaign stands by 100 percent, and a sentiment that any religious American will share"

In the rest of the segment that aired, Palin told Gibson that she was referencing Abraham’s Lincoln’s words on how one should never presume to know God’s will. She said she does not presume to know God’s will and that she was only asking the audience to “pray that we are on God’s side.”

A promo posted on Yahoo! News Friday continued to misrepresent the exchange. It displays Palin’s image next to the words, “Iraq war a ‘holy war?’” implying that Palin — not Gibson — had called the War on Terror a holy war.

ABC News did not respond to requests for comment from FOXNews.com

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WHY OUR ELITES FEAR FAITH

NOTHING in recent memory has driven home the divide between our self-appointed aristocracy and "commoners" as sharply as the intelligentsia's rush to mock Gov. Sarah Palin's religious faith.

While the attacks and insults are backfiring on the mortified elites, the double standard applied to "Sarah America" is a disgrace that can't be excused as "just politics."

Certainly, much of the left-wing fury over Palin stems from the Democratic Party's assumption that it "owned" the exclusive right to nominate women to the executive branch (despite the crushing of Hillary Clinton's candidacy). How dare the Republicans advance a woman? How dare they change this year's election script?

But the root of the left's dread of this happily married mother of five seems to be that she actually believes in God: How could anyone be that stupid?

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BART study considers charging more in rush hour

California

Bay Area Rapid Transit officials are looking at charging more to use trains during peak hours to get riders to travel at other times. BART has initiated a study that also considers increasing fees for parking in BART lots and using certain stations during rush hour to reduce congestion.

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Bad voter applications found
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.
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[sounds familiar... oh, now I remember: they're one of Gyorgy Schwartz's outfits >

FLASHBACK: NNBrief 10/9/2008:
The Evolving Agenda of George Soros’s Democracy Alliance
.

Consumer mood hits 8-month high in September: survey

NEW YORK - Consumer confidence soared unexpectedly to an eight-month high in September as lower fuel prices soothed inflation fears and made Americans more hopeful about the economy, a survey showed on Friday. The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary index of confidence jumped to 73.1 in September -- the highest since January 2008 --

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Outside Edge: Nanny state has gone to pot

This morning, you can still walk into a “coffee shop” in Amsterdam and smoke a huge joint of cannabis for breakfast. You just will not be able to mix any tobacco with your cannabis. That is because the new Dutch ban on smoking tobacco in bars affects even that most Dutch of institutions: the “coffee shop” that legally serves cannabis. Pot is still permitted but cigarettes are out...

[when you cede personal choice to government, you cede it to governmental 'logic']

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[crap - Monday again...]

Mad About Sarah

Now, I’m not suggesting that Palin has the qualifications of vice presidential candidates like Dick Cheney or George H.W. Bush. But if you look at her work in Alaska, you have to — at least, I think you have to — come away with the conclusion that she is a real political talent.

She really did take on the Republican political establishment in her state. She really did take on the Democrats. She really did take on the oil companies. She really does have a sky-high approval rating. And she did it all by starting as a concerned citizen without any connections. It’s quite a story.

[but that's not the 'mad' the title refers to - Recommended > ]

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About that 'experience'

.
On the night of Thursday, October 2nd, first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will face off against six-term U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware in their only scheduled debate of this campaign season.

The conventional wisdom says that Biden must simply display the fruits of his 35 years of experience in Washington to hold his own. But as is so often the case, conventional wisdom fails to take into account how wrong

Biden has been on almost everything over the years...

[truly amazing list - Recommended > ]

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In this war, troops get a rousing welcome home

The young soldier hadn't slept in 48 hours or bathed in 72. Now that he was finally back from Iraq, all Pfc. Justin Gindhart wanted was a hot shower and a soft bed.

To his surprise, there was a troop of motorcycle-riding Vietnam vets to greet him at the airport; a police-escorted motorcade, past blocked-off intersections and highway entrances, that backed up traffic for miles; an appearance at a support-the-troops rally; a gathering of neighbors and friends, alerted by fire and ambulance sirens, outside his family's house. And the biggest shock of all — a reunion with a disabled comrade whose life he'd helped save in Iraq... [snip]

For many communities, nothing is too good when it comes to showing support for returning troops.

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Terror groups developing 'dirty bomb', say security chiefs

Islamist terrorists have stepped up their efforts to develop a 'dirty' bomb for use against Western targets, senior Western security sources have told The Daily Telegraph. They are exploiting the political chaos in Pakistan in a bid to acquire nuclear material for a 'spectacular' attack. At least one plot has been uncovered involving Pakistani-based terrorists planning to use nuclear material against a major European target.

[GWOT]

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Karzai backs U.S. on Pakistan

Islamabad - Afghan President Hamid Karzai backed a proposed U.S. strategy on Thursday to hit al Qaeda and Taliban militants in neighbouring Pakistan, but NATO said it would not join any cross-border U.S. raids.

(Snip) ''Change of strategy is essential,'' Karzai said. ''It means that we go to those areas which are the training bases and havens of (terrorists) and we jointly go there and remove and destroy them.''

[our 'alliance']

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Are we mad?

[UK]
Every organ of the state now seems intent on protecting those who would destroy us.

The picture on today's Mail Online website says it all. Abu Qatada, wanted by Jordan for involvement in terrorist attacks, strolls down a London street, carrying groceries paid for by the British taxpayer.

Beside him, on a mobile phone, apparently acting as a go-between, is Yasser Al-Sirri, wanted by Egypt for aiding an assassination attempt in 1993 of the then Prime Minister with a car bomb, which instead killed a young girl.

Both these men despise the country that is sheltering them. To Qatada, it is the duty of Muslims to kill non-Muslims. Al-Sirri refers to the 'impotence and criminal nature' of the British government. [snip]

The saddest aspect of the scandal of the British approach to foreign terrorists is that it is the very decency of this country that people like Qatada use against it. People who advocate murder flourish in a 'human rights culture'...

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Young Jewish Boy Savagely Beaten in Paris

(Snip) a visibly Jewish, kipah-wearing 17 year-old, Rudy Haddad, walking in a Jewish quarter, was set upon by 15-30 “African immigrants.”

No one is saying whether they are Muslims or not.

Alright, Martians from Africa beat Haddad with iron bars and fractured his skull...

[why not? possibly offensive or 'insensitive' to Muslims? And the Jewish boy's 'sensitivities'? How can we begin solving this complex but growing problem if our first step is to ignore it?]

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Russia warns West against Georgia support

MOSCOW — Russia warned the West today against supporting Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo against the ex-Soviet republic nation until a different government is in place. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks are likely to anger the United States and Europe and enrage Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. He made it clear Moscow wants Saakashvili out of power in Georgia.

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Latest UN News Is No News

[HT:WP]
The U.N. chief delivered a hard-hitting critique of lethargy in the ranks of the world body during a retreat for senior U.N. officials in Turin, Italy, late last month. He said that on assuming his job at the beginning of last year he discovered that

"there is bureaucracy ... and then there is the U.N. We waste incredible amounts of time on largely meaningless matters."

Several U.N. staff members told Reuters they found Ban's comments surprising, since they appeared on the surface to be an admission that he lacked authority as a leader.

The United Nations employs some 70,000 people worldwide.

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Green activists 'are keeping Africa poor'

Western do-gooders are impoverishing Africa by promoting traditional farming at the expense of modern scientific agriculture, according to Britain's former chief scientist.

Anti-science attitudes among aid agencies, poverty campaigners and green activists are denying the continent access to technology that could improve millions of lives, Professor Sir David King will say today.

[calm down, we're only talking about people here - they're not endangered...]

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The Power of Brainwashing

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday.

In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage. Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a ''lawful excuse'' to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change.

[from the nation that gave us the rule of law]

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Pelosi promises to protect Fla. from oil drilling

[HT:MD]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is promising Florida House members that she will not allow an energy bill to get through her chamber if it includes oil drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast.

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Pension Time Bomb

California

VALLEJO, Calif. -- Mayor Osby Davis, who has lived in this waterfront city across San Pablo Bay from San Francisco for 60 of his 62 years, says: "If you have a can that's leaking two ounces a minute and you put an ounce a minute in it, it's going to get empty." He is describing his city's coffers.

Joseph Tanner, who became city manager after this municipality of 120,000 souls was mismanaged to the brink of bankruptcy, stands at a whiteboard to explain the simple arithmetic that has pushed Vallejo over the brink. Its crisis -- a cash flow insufficient to cover contractual obligations -- came about because (to use fiscal 2007 figures) each of the 100 firefighters paid $230 a month in union dues and each of the 140 police officers paid $254 a month, giving their unions enormous sums to purchase a compliant city council.

So a police captain receives $306,000 a year in pay and benefits, a lieutenant receives $247,644, and the average for firefighters -- 21 of them earn more than $200,000, including overtime -- is $171,000. Police and firefighters can store up unused vacation and leave time over their careers and walk away, as one of the more than 20 who recently retired did, with a $370,000 check. Last year, 292 city employees made more than $100,000. And after just five years, all police and firefighters are guaranteed lifetime health benefits.

Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it in many places:

San Francisco recently reported that 184 of its employees made at least $30,000 apiece in overtime in the first half of this year. A nurse at the county jail made $128,000 in overtime, putting him on track to top his total 2007 compensation of about $350,000...

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Media Call Obama's 'Economic Disaster' Exaggeration a 'Sharpened Attack'

The word "disaster" can invoke images of the aftermath of hurricanes, tornados or tsunamis. But, on the campaign trail where there are political points to be scored - it's one quarter of a slight economic contraction followed up by two quarters of shallow economic growth, according to Obama.

At a town hall meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., Obama said an "economic disaster is happening right now." The media ignored the exaggeration. Instead, journalists across the board credited Obama with "sharpening his message."

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Island fourth grader suspended for using broken pencil sharpener

A 10-year-old Hilton Head Island boy has been suspended from school for having something most students carry in their supply boxes: a pencil sharpener.

The problem was his sharpener had broken, but he decided to use it anyway. A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School noticed the boy had what was obviously the blade commonly found in a child's small, plastic pencil sharpener, the deputy noted.

The boy -- a fourth-grader described as a well-behaved and good student -- cried during the meeting with his mom, the deputy and the school's assistant principal. He had no criminal intent in having the blade at school, the sheriff's report stated, but was suspended for at least two days and could face further disciplinary action. [?!]

District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district's zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense...

[is this America? Where the adults we entrust our children to (and those we allow to carry guns around) don't have the collective I.Q. of a cabbage? How do we fix this? One idea: fire every adult involved in this that didn't stop it. Better idea: universal vouchers.]

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Some States Seek Integration Path for Illegal* Immigrants

Behind the national debate over illegal* immigration, a handful of Democratic governors are mounting a quiet offensive to integrate, rather than repel, illegal* newcomers.

The governors of Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Washington have signed orders that make illegal* immigrant integration a priority for their states, focusing on language, job and citizenship training as well as access to services, such as health care and public safety, for illegal* immigrants.

[* = I've inserted 'illegal' prior to every mention of 'immigrant(s)', because the piece eventually states these measures are for "particularly those here illegally" - yet other than that one sentence, omits this all-important distinction throughout {including the headline}.

2) When individual citizens defy laws while not hurting anyone, it's civil disobedience - a long honored and often required {to show harm which gives 'standing' in a court} tradition. When public municipalities {think: SF supervisors} or Governors do so, all of whom have sworn oaths to uphold the constitution, it's insurrection, and charges need be filed. Alas, our Rule Of Law has evidently become 'more of a guideline'.

Not Recommended, as the whole piece portrays these efforts in complete ignorance of the above facts, but...]

HERE IF INTERESTED

The Palin Rape Kit Myth

“Palin’s Town Used to Bill Victims for Rape Kits” was headline on a Thursday USA Today news story.

Reporters Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley used a 2000 quote from former Wasilla Police Chief to blame Palin for an outdated, now illegal policy she never supported.

“In the past, we’ve charged the cost of exams to victim’s insurance companies when possible,”

former chief Charlie Fannon told the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman in 2000 as then-Democratic Governor Tony Knowles was signing legislation to make local police branches cover the costs of the kits.

“I just don’t want to see any more burden on the taxpayer,” Fannon said at the time, which was reprinted in the USA Today. Fannon went on to say that he believed the criminal should be held responsible for the costs.

USA Today did not reprint those quotes from the interview.

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Muslim cabbies lose round in court

St. Paul, Minnesota - Muslim cab drivers whose religious beliefs go against driving passengers who carry alcohol have lost another round in court. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday against the cab drivers' attempt to block penalties for refusing service.

An ordinance adopted by the Metropolitan Airports Commission last year revokes a cab driver's license for 30 days for refusing a fare (Snip) A second refusal brings a two-year revocation.

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Asian soot, smog may boost global warming in US

Associated Press, by Seth Borenstein Original Article

[the good news is, evidently the global warming isn't effecting the rest of the, well, globe]
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Pentagon memorial to 9/11 victims to be dedicated Thursday

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The first national memorial to victims of the terrorist attacks
is already attracting survivors, family members and friends.

The Pentagon Memorial is oriented along the path of Flight 77 and is about
200 feet from where it crashed. It will never be closed to visitors.

Today, President Bush will lead the ceremony dedicating the first national memorial to the victims of that tragic day when four planes were hijacked and nearly 3,000 people were killed. The memorials at the site of the World Trade Center towers in New York and in Shanksville, Pa., where one plane crashed in a field, have been delayed by arguments over construction costs and design.

The two-acre memorial at the Pentagon -- with 184 steel-and-granite benches, each engraved with a victim's name -- is about 200 feet from the crash site, oriented along the plane's flight path.

Unlike Pentagon tours, which can only be booked by groups through reservations made at least two weeks in advance, the memorial will be open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, starting at 7 tonight.

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“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. “

- President George W. Bush, November 11, 2001

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McCain Doubles Women Volunteers; ABC News' Quotes Favor Obama Five to One

It doesn't seem to be unusual for the media to mention a positive story for the McCain campaign, only to be explained away by a surrogate or two. But ABC News outdid themselves Monday.

In a four page online article about the 2008 presidential feud for female voters and a byline of McCain doubling their female volunteers, ABC News managed to squeeze in five different quotes/remarks to rebuke any positive news for the McCain/Palin ticket.

Quote ratio? Five to one, if you include the quote from Obama's campaign ad. Five views/endorsements favoring Obama and one perspective from McCain's campaign/surrogates. You have to love all that balance.

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'How Good a 'Mom' Can Sarah Palin Be?'

Feminism took a step backwards this week. After being told for decades that women are being held back by the proverbial glass ceiling the left is looking to repair its most recent cracks with duct tape.

Apparently a mom, the once dispensable facet of the nuclear family according to many a card carrying liberal, is now so indispensable that she should actually feel guilty for seeking the job as Vice President of the United States.

And you should be guilty too for recommending her for the post. This is the new theme as demonstrated by Liz Hunt of the Daily Telegraph and repeated by others that seem to have a new found problem with successful mothers:


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No Connection...

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Iran to Start Three-Day War Games

Tehran - Iran's military is due to start three days of war games on Monday. The three-day exercise to include examination of antiaircraft systems, is aimed at upgrading army's combat preparedness, deterring US and Israeli from attacking Islamic Republic Iran's Army Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces will take part in the exercise.
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UAE asks to buy $7 bln U.S. missile defense system

WASHINGTON - The United Arab Emirates has asked to buy an advanced U.S. missile-defense system valued at up to $7 billion that could be used to defend against Iran, people who have attended briefings on the matter said on Monday. The Pentagon is set to notify Congress of the proposed sale of the system, built by Lockheed Martin Corp with Raytheon Co as primary subcontractor, several people familiar with the matter said.
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Palestinians reject partial peace accord

Jerusalem - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's idea of an interim peace agreement at a Sunday summit, a Palestinian negotiator said, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that virtually ruled out an accord...

[again: only one side wants peace. The other's only industry is victimhood {which we finance year in, year out}]

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Bush offered Palestinians a state, and they refused

An important anniversary has passed with scarcely a mention.

In 2002, President Bush turned American policy in the Middle East in a new direction. In a groundbreaking speech, he announced that the U.S. would support the creation of a Palestinian state if only the Palestinians first choose "leaders not compromised by terror." [snip]

"This moment is both an opportunity and a test for all parties in the Middle East: an opportunity to lay the foundations for future peace; a test to show who is serious about peace and who is not."

He was right. It was a test. And now it's time to be candid about the results.

Israelis, Americans and Europeans are serious about peace. The enemies of Israelis, Americans and European are serious about defeating Israelis, Americans and Europeans. It's as simple -- and as complex -- as that.

[Recommended>]

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Freedom of speech is under attack

Freedom of speech is under attack. Let us count the ways.

The first and most obvious: Those who criticize militant Islamists -- from novelist Salman Rushdie to Danish cartoonists to memoirist Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- are routinely threatened with deadly violence. It would be black humor to say this is having a chilling effect.

The second is "political correctness." On campuses and within Western governments it is increasingly taboo to label terrorists who slaughter in the name of Islam "Islamist terrorists." In Canada, "human rights commissions" attempt to enforce this taboo by putting such writers as Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant on trial for the "crime" of quoting Islamists accurately and thereby casting them in an unfavorable light.

But it is the third approach that could be most consequential for Americans.

It's known as "libel tourism" and here's how it works: A book published in the United States names an individual abroad who supports terrorist groups. That individual -- let's say he's a Saudi petro-billionaire with a home in London -- goes online and orders a few copies, which arrive in the mail. He takes those books to a British attorney who files a lawsuit complaining that his client has been libeled.

The billionaire knows it will be much easier to prevail in the U.K. than it would be in an American court, where the First Amendment and decades of case law provide free speech protections. (Under English law, by contrast, the burden in a libel case is on the defendant to prove his innocence -- often impossible...

[just one example of why we don't want to join the 'world government', it policies are largely wrong-headed - Recommended > ]

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Canceled novel about Muhammad, child bride finds new publisher

Berlin - A historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns it would anger Muslims will be printed by a German publisher, the author said in an interview released Wednesday.

(Snip) Sherry Jones told them her debut novel "The Jewel of Medina" will be published in October in English.

[self inflicted dhimmitude: makes you proud all over]

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Venezuela Plays The Russia Card

Hemisphere: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is known to use oil to exert power, but he's proving more ambitious. His new push for a Russian presence in the Caribbean is about control of sea lanes — where the U.S. is vulnerable. On Monday, Russia accepted Chavez's invitation for a first-ever joint naval exercise with Venezuela.

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Relax, truth has surfaced

KEVIN Rudd's global warming guru has finally - and reluctantly - exposed the con. Ignore everything the Government has told you.

The truth, conceded Professor Ross Garnaut last week, is that it really is cheaper for Australians to do nothing about global warming. And, no, it's not immoral to figure there's no point spending big money to "stop" this warming when it won't make a blind bit of difference.

No wonder the Rudd Government refuses to comment on Garnaut's latest report, released on Friday. Much of the argument for its grand plan to make us slash emissions from 2010 has just been destroyed.

I guess it's just hoping no journalists, most of whom are warming believers, will care to notice what Garnaut has just admitted through gritted teeth. As far as I can tell, only the Daily Telegraph's Piers Akerman has drawn the unmistakable conclusions...

[I'd love to relax. But big business, politicians and the media sill think they can hoodwink the public and pull this scam off - it's been working fine so far hasn't it?

Test my theory: look for this story or that of the Daily Telegraph in the MSM and let me know when they reported it...]

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ABC News: Fear and Loathing in the Arctic

On Saturday’s "Good Morning America," ABC News managed to set a new gold standard for biased reporting on global warming when they aired a tendentious report on the "sensitive and emotional and loving" polar bear that "has become the iconic face of climate change".

The report, by reporter Bill Blakemore failed to include any critics of global warming and neglected to highlight a recent study indicated that the polar bear population is actually rising.

Indeed, ABC decided to ignore the facts in order to present an emotionally-charged story with a predetermined message.

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How much has the drilling moratorium cost you?

Much of the most promising American oil lands have been declared off limits for oil drilling and production for many years. This has cost us all lots of money at the gasoline pump, but the effects elsewhere may be even bigger.

The office of US Rep. John E. Peterson has prepared an estimate of the royalties (which means government revenues that wouldn't come from individuals' taxes) that could be realized, and arrives at the astonishing figure of 2.5 trillion dollars.

Not to mention the spin-off wealth and tax revenues from increased domestic economic activity, when drilling and production is done here instead of overseas. Meanwhile, Congress remains committed to impoverishing oridinary Americans through restricting oil supplies.

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Photographing thugs 'is assault', police tell householder

[UK]

David Green, 64, and his neighbours had been plagued by the youths from a nearby comprehensive school for months, and was advised by their headmaster to identify them so action could be taken.

But when Mr Green left his £1million London flat to take photographs of the gang, who were aged around 17, he said one threatened to kill him while another called the police on his mobile... [snip]

Police Community Support Officer sent to the scene promptly issued a warning that taking pictures of youths without permission was illegal, and could lead to a charge of assault... [snip]

Last week, the Daily Mail reported [different story] that a father was told by a play equipment supervisor he was not allowed to take pictures of his own children on a slide...

[excuse me, but in addition to being too dumb to live with - is not Britain the world capitol of the CCTV? ]

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The Europeanization of the Democratic Party

This enduring national consensus, however, collapsed during the “Perfect Storm” of the 1960s when a toxic brew of social, military and political convulsions tore gaping holes in the fabric of our national life - self-inflicted wounds that remain unhealed to this day.

Out of this turmoil there emerged a powerful body of left-wing opinion and activism that turned the old national consensus upside down. Rejecting Henry Clay’s “my country - right or wrong,” the left substituted “my country - always wrong.” More extreme elements declared their country to be the most oppressive society in history - racist at home and imperialist abroad - while discovering sublime virtues in genocidal tyrants from Mao Tse-Tung to Pol Pot.

While this raging ideological virus infected in varying degree a wide range of American institutions - e.g. media, academia - its principal victim was the national Democratic Party.

In less than a decade the party that boldly sponsored the Berlin airlift, the Marshall Plan, and the NATO alliance went from the confident activism of the hawkish John Kennedy - “pay any price, bear any burden to assure the success of liberty” - to the “Blame America First” defeatism of George McGovern - who aptly themed his 1972 acceptance speech as “Come Home, America.”

Betraying allies in Vietnam, ignoring genocide in Cambodia, accepting communist aggression from Angola to Afghanistan, and bowing to humiliation in Iran, America’s defense of liberty abroad was reduced to Carter’s pathetic gesture of boycotting the Moscow Olympics.

The sorry Democratic mismanagement of both economic and foreign policy led to a series of landslide Republican presidential victories and finally a decade of GOP congressional dominance. Yet, amazingly, none of these severe reality checks halted the Democrats' steady leftward drift...[snip]

Today the elitists who dominate the Democratic Party have embraced the “New Europe” and its worldview. On virtually every issue - Iraq, taxes, abortion, global warming, energy, hostility to religion, suspicion of Israel, stifling regulation, U.N. worship etc. etc. - differences are only of degree, not kind...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Huh?

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Obama to Embrace Charter Schools
Dayton, Ohio — Barack Obama is promising to double funding for charter schools and replace inferior teachers, embracing education reform proposals normally more popular with Republican candidates. The Democratic presidential nominee says both parties must work together to improve education, according to remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday at a suburban high school gymnasium. The pitch was an appeal to moderate voters in this presidential election swing state, where the fight over education reform...
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but...

Obama and the Independent School District

"I don't want to send another generation of American children to failing schools." (Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007)

The signature initiative of an Obama campaign for a second term would be nationalizing public education, kindergarten through grade 12. If it happens, say goodbye to the Independent School District (I.S.D.) as we've known it.

The Obama campaign document entitled "The Blueprint For Change: Barack Obama's Plan For America" continues to be ignored by the old media news...

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Reparations Rising

At the root of reparations is the idea of "repairing" or the insurance theory of "making one whole." Making one whole means, literally, restoring one to the pre-tort status that person or entity enjoyed. In other words, reparations is an un-winding of events and restoring order financially. [snip]

Theoretically, to make reparations absolutely fair, those African Americans who have struck it rich (white liberals would call this "winning lifes's lottery") would have to pay the rest of the American citizens the difference between what their net worth is now and what it could have reasonably been without them living in this country.

In other words Oprah, Michael, Bill Cosby... get out your checkbooks. Uh, you too Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright.

Of course, this will never happen. The reparations crowd wants to "acknowledge the tragic parts" of our history while conveniently forgetting that America is the nation that has provided the most opportunities to it's citizens, regardless of the circumstances of their arrival.

And the proof? Well, there are no walls keeping folks in America (or out for that matter, but that's another issue).

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My Preferences
By Ward Connerly

A few days ago, Sen. John McCain gave his support to our effort in Arizona to prohibit preferences through a constitutional amendment. In explaining his reason for doing so, McCain said, “I have always opposed quotas.” Instantly, Sen. Barack Obama pounced.

Speaking at a convention of “journalists of color” Obama said, “I am disappointed that John McCain flipped and changed his position. I think in the past he had been opposed to these kinds of Ward Connerly referenda or initiatives as divisive. "

Having been thrust into a presidential campaign, it is appropriate for me to offer my thoughts.

Over the past ten years, no American president, Congress, legislature, or governor has acted to eliminate preferences — in other words, to enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which commands the government to treat us all “without regard to race, color, national origin or sex.”

In response, I have led the national effort to enforce the act through ballot initiatives in states that allow them. I find it interesting that the only people who consider such initiatives “divisive” are the ones who oppose them.

Such people never seem to find preferences themselves “divisive.” Apparently, as long as those who are harmed by such policies — and those who believe preferences are fundamentally wrong — keep their mouths shut, sweet harmony will ring throughout the land...

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CNN’s John King Self-Criticizes Media’s ‘Language’ About GOP

During the two minutes between Roland Martin and Jeffrey Toobin’s two attacks on Sarah Palin after her speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday night, veteran journalist Carl Bernstein's assessment, and offered some constructive criticism of the difference in coverage between the two conventions:

"...[L]anguage matters in what we do, and I don't necessarily disagree with the point of what Carl was saying -- but we do speak a different language when we talk about this party [GOP], and I think that's why we're often criticized.

To say the Right is running the Republican campaign -- if that means these people are the Right, then Carl's exactly right. But we didn't say, during the Democratic convention that all those delegates down on the floor were on the Left..."

Click here for mp3 audio.

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[I've noticed more and more on-air questioning of the MSM's bias from its own - I think the smarter journos are admitting which way the public wind is blowing re: the historic bias and positioning themselves for the future...]

[of course, that leaves tons of not-so-smart journos that still don't get it...]