From our Good Buddy Don

Johnny at the Bat
(with apologizes to Earnest Thayer)

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Republicans that day;
The score stood two to one, with but one election more to play,
And then when Freddy died at first, and Huckabee did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, "If only Johnny Mac could get a whack at that —
We'd put up even money now, with Johnny at the bat."


But Romney preceded Johnny, as did also Rudy G.,
And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was on a spree;
So upon the stricken Moderates grim melancholy sat;
For there seemed but little chance of Johnny Mac getting to the bat.

But Rudy let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Romney, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,
There was Romney safe at second and Rudy a-hugging third.

Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Johnny, mighty Johnny, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Johnny's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Johnny's bearing and a smile lit Johnny's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Johnny at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Johnny's eye, a sneer curled Johnny's lip.

And now McCain/Feingold came hurtling through the air,
And Johnny stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy Senator the bill unheeded sped —
"That’s just my style," said Johnny. "Strike one!" the electorate said.

From the benches, black with Moderates, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
"Kill them! Kill the Conservatives!" shouted some one on the stand;
And it's likely they'd have killed them had not Johnny raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Johnny's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and Immigration Reform flew;
But Johnny still ignored it, and the electorate said "Strike two!"

"Fraud!" cried the maddened Moderates, and echo answered "Fraud!"
But one scornful look from Johnny and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Johnny Mac wouldn't drop that ball again.

The sneer has fled from Johnny's lip, the teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the consultant holds the ad, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Johnny's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in the Heartland — Johnny Mac has struck out.

[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full article.]

Viscount Monckton: Open Letter on AGW

In honor of the recently-departed Michael Crichton, one of the stalwart opponents of the "consensus" of Anthropogenic Global Warming, we present this open letter to John McCain, published recently by Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. It is a withering and systematic fisking of Gorebal Warming, and the statist prescriptions to "remedy" it that are advocated by both Senator McCain and President-Elect Obama (the former being generally more moderate in his pursuit of their shared agenda). Here's but a taste of why it's a must-read:

The facts are that the free market can scarcely be blamed for having failed to address an imagined "problem" that has not long been widely talked of; that, now that the free market has been made aware of the imagined "problem", it will be able to deal with the "problem" (to the extent that the "problem" is real) far more quickly and effectively than the State; and that, given the late Milton Friedman's Nobel-prizewinning observation that the State consumes twice as much of the world's resources to achieve a given objective as the free market, it is the State, not the market, that has failed, and it is the State, not the market, that must be cut down to size, regulated, and controlled.

Breakfast Discussion With My Daughter...

This morning over breakfast, Angela (9 years old & previously referred to as MuscleBaby-The-Elder) asked me what I was "thinking about so hard".

I looked up and told her:
"Barack Obama won the election for President last night - and I'm thinking about that."

She was quiet for a moment and then said:
"[kid-@-school] said Obama wants to let the Bad Guys destroy the world".

(despite keeping partisan-talk out of the house, this is apparently what kids talk about in fourth-grade these days)

I bit my tongue (hard - I can still feel it), and then calmly answered:
"Well, he just doesn't feel that it should be up to us to stop them."

I watched her digest that, with her pretty little eyebrows knitted together (and they really are pretty - some of you have seen pics) - then she looked back up from her cereal and asked:

"Then who will?"

-- I don't know, Baby.


- MuscleDaddy

Spock Lives

I would have enjoyed watching lefty heads explode if McCain had won. But we're going to see lefty heads exploding anyway; it's just going to take longer.

Update
It used to be on the sidebar at E!3.
“If Steven Den Beste is Spock, then Bill is Captain Kirk” – James Lileks“

All Hail the Republic!

For the 44th time in 220 years, our nation has chosen a new President.
May he be blessed. May he serve our country with honor.
May he uphold his oath to Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

We'll be watching.

Election Day! (bumped)

Watch it here.

Talk about it here.

(Click the chat button on the left sidebar)

8-12PM Eastern.

Lest we forget

Ok - Going To Vote Now...

More.

Voter.

Fraud.

And Some Intimidation - Just for Good Measure

No one said the win would be easy, folks...

- MuscleDaddy

Obama Tells Abbas:

"I Support a Divided Jerusalem, But Keep It A Secret"

... but, as a demographic, Jews overwhelmingly vote Democrat.

I just can't figure it.


- MuscleDaddy

Bill on NRO: Where Was the Ad?

Bill asks the question Where Was the Ad? at NRO. You know, the one that points out the Audacity of Hypocrisy, and a bonus dose of double standards:

And if that doesn’t bother you – at least a little – just ask yourself one question: What if Senator Obama, running on a platform of Change and “a new kind of politics” was the one to accept public financing, and the Republican opponent did not. What if the Democrat, true to his principles and a personal pledge, held true to his beliefs, while the Republican raised six hundred million dollars and turned off the standard credit card anti-fraud protections while doing so? What if the Republican outspent the democrat more than seven to one, and, as a result was up by a few points in key battlefield states.

I'd say for starters, the MainScream Media would tell us about the spending disparity and broken promise every single day.

Just a Voice In The Night...

So, there I am in the locker room @ the gym, when I happen to overhear Larry King on the Communist News Network - "Checking In" with CNN-correspondents in different cities...

This one creampuff "reporting" from Denver says "Well, Larry, it looks like Barack Obama is poised to take Colorado!"

But wait....

In the very next breath he says that "About 50% of the registered voters in Colorado have already cast their ballots"

WTF?!?!

So let me get this straight.... 50% - also known as HALF THE STATE - hasn't even VOTED YET but Obama is somehow "poised" to win?!?!

Oh, this is just going to be that much sweeter when, like Jennings calling FL for Gore in '00 before the polls closed, this doesn't work out for them and we kick their asses.

- MuscleDaddy

Requiescat in Pace

Colonel John Walter Ripley



Ripley at the Bridge.

"I'll never forget that order, 'hold and die'," Ripley said. The only way to stop the enormous force with their tiny force was to destroy the bridge, he said.

"The idea that I would be able to even finish the job before the enemy got me was ludicrous," Ripley said. "When you know you're not going to make it, a wonderful thing happens: You stop being cluttered by the feeling that you're going to save your butt."

Anchorage Daily News: Troopergate Report Clears Palin

This will probably be omitted by the MSM, having come in the after math of Hollis French's promised "October Surprise", but the Alaska probe sanctioned by the Personnel Board found no violation of any state law in "Troopergate".

- There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in deciding to dismiss Monegan as public safety commissioner.

- There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in connection with Wooten.

- There is no cause to believe any other state official violated the ethics act.

- There's no basis to conduct a hearing to "address reputational harm," as requested by Monegan.

Innocent.

Checklist - stuff to do today

No matter how the election goes tomorrow, in the short term bad things are going to happen. If you're near an urban center, there will probably be "civil disturbances." Here are a couple of things you should do today.


If Obama loses, the cities burn. Think of the Rodney King Riots in Los Angeles. If you're older, think about the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King.

If Obama WINS, the cities burn. Ever been in an urban city that wins a sports championship? Think that times 100. Fewer banks burning, more cars burning. The celebratory fires will be smaller and shorter, but that doesn't help much if it's YOUR car that burns.

So TODAY, you should do some of the things you may not be able to do tomorrow.

1) Fill your tank with gas. More than one car? Fill them all. Gas is cheaper than it has been in a year. During the Rodney King riots I worked in Hollywood. A friend of mine, a pretty 20 something girl, drove a Triumph Spitfire with a non working gas gauge. She ran out of gas on her way home and coasted into a gas station. All she had were credit cards - and the cc machines were down. A homeless guy gave her $5 for gas to get home. He was killed the next day.

2) Hit the ATM. Withdraw the maximum. Don't spend it. See above.

3) Buy enough food to stay in for 3 or 4 days.

4) Have a gun? Make sure you have a box of ammunition, preferably hollowpoints and buckshot. Don't have a gun? If you live somewhere where you can buy one, buy one. And a box of ammunition.

5) Get a long garden hose, 50' or longer. Get the biggest diameter you can (usually 3/4"). Get an adjustable fireman's nozzle - something like this

6) Check or get batteries for your emergency radio and flashlight.

7) Check or get smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Get an extra extinguisher for your car.

Am I being paranoid? Of course. I pray that I'm not right.
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full article.]

The Passion of the Plumber II: Escalation

Joe The Plumber has committed the grievous crime of lèse majesté. KGO Radio 810 San Francisco talker and HuffPo contributor Charles Karel Bouley is unsatisfied with the mere bureucratic flogging that's already been meted out. Karel (who coincidentally uses his middle name on air, not unlike Joe himself) wants a Final Solution to the pesky Plumber Problem. Will no one rid him of this meddlesome plumber?
[EXTREME LANGUAGE ALERT]

[HT Radio Equalizer] His expletive-laced tirade starts 53 seconds into the clip, in response to the mere mention of the words "Joe the Plumber" during the ABC Radio news break.

Manuel Alvarez, Jr.: Deja NO!

I've written before about the difference between those who chose to leave their home countries to become Americans, and those who were born here, descended from either involuntary immigrants or those who found the soveriegnty of this country extended to their homes. Like Tito the Builder, Arnold the Governor, or Ayn the Author, Manuel Alvarez, Jr., the Cuban-born letter-to-the-editor writer understands what has happened in other countries that don't follow the ideals of our Founders. His letter has been made into a video:

Steyn: Fugitives, Leaks, and ... Plumbers?

Did you remember to set your clock back before you went to bed?

If I were Joe the Plumber, I'd ask Aunt Zeituni if I could move in. It's his best chance of a quiet life.

It isn't Daylight Saving Time anymore, but it's always Double Standard Time.

"Faux News"?

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has compiled a study of network news coverage of the Presidential candidates, and the results are illuminating.

On Fox News, in contrast, coverage of Obama was more negative than the norm (40% of stories vs. 29% overall) and less positive (25% of stories vs. 36% generally). For McCain, the news channel was somewhat more positive (22% vs. 14% in the press overall) and substantially less negative (40% vs. 57% in the press overall). Yet even here, his negative stories outweighed positive ones by almost 2 to 1.

The wording is interesting, and fits the leftist idea that Fox News is "right wing", in that compared to the other networks it is more negative/less positive of Obama, and more positive/less negative of McCain. But don't compare Fox to the other networks; just look at the numbers:

Candidate	Positive	Neutral	Negative
McCain	22%	38%	40%
Obama	25%	35%	40%

The way I read this, Fox News treated Obama slightly more positively than McCain. It's only because they didn't bow down and worship at his feet, along with the other networks, that they are "right wing". What is undeniable, however, is that MSNBC is "left wing":

MSNBC stood out for having less negative coverage of Obama than the press generally (14% of stories vs. 29% in the press overall) and for having more negative stories about McCain (73% of its coverage vs. 57% in the press overall).

Both Fox and MSNBC are "out of the mainstream", but that only tells us how skewed the "mainstream" has become.
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post.]

We have the best commenters Pt.2

When We are Queen

... In a world where a smart, capable, nice-looking and not-underprivileged man can choose his own identity, why does he persist in identifying himself as down-trodden, sneered at and marginalized? Why, in other words, did a young Obama (and now one suspects, a grown Obama) drink in all these imagined slights and condescensions...”

God Bless Vanessa Niekamp

Throughout America's history, there have been all kinds of patriots who have drawn a thin line in the sand and stood their ground against the on-rush of tyranny -- from the farmers and blacksmiths of the American Revolution to the flight attendants and businessmen of Flight 93. Yes, from time to time, they even come in the form of TV news anchors. I think it's time to christen a new category of patriot: the mid-level government bureaucrat.

Huh?

Yep, you read that right. Meet Vanessa Niekamp.

See, Ms. Niekamp is the person who actually ran the nefarious records check on "Joe the Plumber" on orders from her boss (Asst. Deputy Director of Child Support) at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Then, a week later, her boss' boss (Deputy Director of Child Support) "'literally demanded' that she write an e-mail to the agency's chief privacy officer stating she checked the case for child-support purposes." In ordering this after-the-fact CYA email, this 'crat told Patriot Niekamp that his boss -- ODJFS Director Helen Jones-Kelley -- said the snooping of "Joe the Plumber" was warranted because "Wurzelbacher might buy a plumbing business and could owe support."

So what makes Vanessa Niekamp a new breed of patriot, you ask?

She's speaking out. Not only is she naming the names of her bosses who tasked HER with the actual snooping, unwittingly done. She's even contradicting the party line given by the Director Jones-Kelley herself:

Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are "thrust into the public spotlight," amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.

Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. "I've never done that before, I don't know of anybody in my office who does that and I don't remember anyone ever doing that," she said today.

That's no small thing given the white-hot national spotlight now shining on this woman's previously anonymous workplace. Imagine the group pressure being exerted on all of the ODJFS employees to stick together. Imagine the fear of losing her nice-but-hardly-lucrative $69,000/year job and health care. Imagine the fear of getting "vetted" (Wurzelbach'ed?) herself, given that she's a Republican pulling the curtain back on her Democratic superior.

Am I guilty of a bit of hyperbole putting Niekamp in the class of Revere, Washington, Glick and Beamer?

Maybe, but I don't think so. Given the purely political motivation for this brazen violation of public trust and personal privacy, and the deafening silence from the privacy watchdogs who claim to be the last line of defense between the citizenry and Big Brother Tyranny, Inc., I find this whole episode frightening. It seems to me that the groupthink of Orwell's 1984 doesn't happen unless all the mid-level bureaucrats agree to play along.

Vanessa Niekamp isn't playing along. That makes her a patriot of the first order in my book.[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post.]

[Ed. Note] Don't worry, Lance. Your "below the fold" has been fixed.

[Update] In the comments.

Anonymous said...
My family members found your post and forwarded it to me. Thank you very much for your inspirational words. - Vanessa Niekamp

There's no way to know if this is true but we ARE #5 on Google for Vanessa Niekamp.

Obama Supporter: Obama will take care of my mortgage and gas tank

Supporter Peggy Joseph was interviewed by a reporter after the Obamapalooza:

If he wins this election, his supporters are in for some serious disappointment.

ASTEROID!

Here you can comment on the ASTEROID! entry at Eject! Eject! Eject!

The essay can be found at : http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000191.html

The PUMAs Have it...

The Message?

Don't. You. Believe. It.

(...someone needs to go tell that @%$#&*@'in Allahpundit)

Update:
They're-Not-Even-Real-Trolls...

Move Along, Folks - No Double-Standard to See Here...

Palin's Noose-Hanging Effigy is "Art"..
Obama's is a "Crime"

'Cause that guy... The One running for President?

...he's a Victim, y'see.

We have the best commenters

Free-range Oyster, The rise of a king.

I saw a disturbing thing today: a man who wished to be a slave. An anonymous poster joined the discussion over at E3 Gazette, and had the following to say (emphasis mine):

"I can't wait for eight LOOOOOOOOOOOONG years of OBAMA rule"

Now the inimitable Mark Paules already made a simple rebuttal regarding the use of that word, and how inappropriate it is in light of our system of representative government. The problem here is not just that the term "rule" is inappropriate. It is frightening. It frightens because of what it reveals of the mentality of this person, and probably many others...

I'm not suppoosed to say it... but
Go read the whole thing.

The Passion of the Plumber

The Columbus Dispatch now says that the Ohio computer database lookups of "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher were more extensive than previously disclosed:

Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system.
. . .
"Given our understanding that Mr. Wurzelbacher had publicly indicated that he had the means to purchase a substantial business enterprise, ODJFS, consistent with past departmental practice, checked confidential databases ," she wrote.

Sharing the results of those searches with the Tanning Bed Media was just an extra service they provided. As bad as this invasion of privacy is, Jones-Kelley's explanation betrays a fundamental misconception. She seems to think that economic classes are static; that people are born into a class and stay there their entire lives. The reality is that there is a great deal of movement up and down the economic ladder.

I knew a man who grew up in poverty during the Depression, who went on to become a multi-millionaire through his construction and real-estate business. You'd never know it looking at him; he and his wife shopped at the same low-price stores as I did, wore off-the-rack clothes, and drove an old pickup truck. They kept reinvesting their profits into building more properties. And he is hardly unique.

Joe told Barack Obama that he had conversations with his employer about buying him out at some point. The way a deal like that often works is that the owner gets to retirement age without having groomed a family member to take over the business, so he sells it to an employee on a contract/loan. For years after Joe "took over", he would have been paying off his current employer out of the profits that the business earns, reinvesting his profits to improve his equity. That's why he was worried about Obama's plans to "tax the rich"; If those profits are taxed at a higher rate, countless Joes around the country will not be able to move up from employee to employer.

Perhaps Obama and his allies are unaware of this economic reality. On the other hand, they may full well know that raising tax rates decreases upward mobility, creating the very ills they pretend to oppose. I suspect that some of them do know it, and others don't. I'm not sure whether ignorance or malice is the greater indictment, but we need not concern ourselves with their motives. Their policies are destructive.
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post.]

Wheels Fly Off Obama-Bus - No Film @ 11:00

Obama Speechwriter Defects Democratic Party, Endorses McCain...
Dang...

Button described the Democratic Party as almost like family, but says that now "it doesn't even feel like a distant cousin." The party's treatment of women, and the way that they mocked and smeared "Joe the Plumber", a working class American, has left her disgusted and disillusioned. As she says, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

Here's her own post, explaining her position in detail:A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton on why she’s voting McCain.

"Sh' can't tayhk annemoor, Cahptan! Sh's shaki'n aparrt!"

Another Joe

Don sent us this from Common Sense:

Hello
My Name is
Joe The Plumber
and yes we - are related
we're AMERICAN
Laughing at his dream
you're laughing at mine too!

Trick or Treat!

I got this in an email so I can't credit the original source.

Goldberg Lays It Out Nicely...

..with "Obama's Not New".

Money-Quote:
"...Obama doesn't represent anything novel. Rather, he symbolizes a return to an older vision of the United States that was seen as the "wave of the future" eight decades ago."

Too many people have lost their grasp of history, for this to not be intuitively obvious.

- MuscleDaddy

Red State Voter

I told some friends over at the Lounge that this idea had been percolating around in my head. Now that we have Gretchen Wilson performing "Redneck Woman" at McCain/Palin rallies....

...it's time for me to share my lyrics.

---

Well, I never been the sophist type.
I can't jump through those mental hoops,
I know what's wrong and right.
Some things are
so basic
you can't just legislate.
We got them from a whole lot higher power than the State.
Our Founding Fathers held that
they were Truths self-evident.
And I support our troops no matter who is President!

'Cause I'm a Red State Voter
I ain't no left-wing fraud
I don't think folks are stupid
just for having faith in God
I can surf the Internet and hear talk radio
so I learn things the New York Times wished that I didn't know!
Now here's to all my sisters out in Flyover Country
Can I get a big "Hell Yeah" from the Red State gals like me?
Hell Yeah!
Hell Yeah!


So-called "free" health care
Yeah, that sounds nice
But everything worth havin' costs; you always pay some price.
If not money, then time
service, or quality.
And if you are not free to choose, then it's not really free.

They tell me Global Warming
is caused by driving cars
I didn't think that there were any SUV's on Mars!

Hey, I'm a Red State Voter
I ain't no left-wing fraud
It doesn't make folks stupid
just for having faith in God
I can surf the Internet and hear talk radio
So I know things that See B. S. wished that I didn't know!
Now here's to all my brothers out in Flyover Country
Can I get a big "Hell Yeah" from the Red State guys like me?
Hell Yeah!
Hell Yeah!

In a Blue State, voter?
then don't be deterred
You can be a Maverick
Stop running with the herd
You can surf the Internet and hear talk radio
And you'll know things the MSM wished that you didn't know!
So here's to all the others who will fight for their country
Can I get a big "Hell Yeah" from US folks like me?
Hell Yeah!
Hell Yeah!
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post.]

---

Gretchen, if you ever want to sing this version, you not only have my permission, but my undying gratitude.

Pajamas Media: Eyewitness to the Ayers Revolution

Larry Grathwohl was a member of the Weather Underground, and an FBI informant. This Pajamas Media interview gives us a first-hand account of why they're still relevant [emphasis mine]

I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people.

And they were dead serious.

. . .

I suppose you could consider this a purely academic discussion in that the Weathermen never had the opportunity to implement their political ends. However, I can assure you that this was not the case. There was an absolute belief that they, along with the international revolutionary movement, would cause the collapse of the United States and that they would be in charge.

Sound familiar?

Bob Hope on Obama Voters

RIP, Dean Barnett

Dean Barnett has finally succumbed to Cystic Fibrosis. Dean was truly a class act. He will be sorely missed.

Preserve, Protect and Defend!

See here about 57 seconds in.

"It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution."

WHISKEY! TANGO! FOXTROT!

Wasn't that the reason the founding fathers established a Supreme Court in the first place? To make sure that no one "broke free" from those constraints?

Obama's history favoring "Redistribution"

Joe the Plumber wasn't the first person to get Barack Obama to admit his position on wealth redistribution....

UPDATE: Bill has weighed in on this and directed the comments come here. We'll try to coordinate that better next time.
UPDATE: Some have accused that these quotes are "out of context". So here is the full, uncut program for anyone who wishes to evaluate that accusation. (Thanks to Rob for the pointer.)

Boortz: To the Undecided Voter

Recently, we told you about The Comprehensive Argument Against Barack Obama. Our buddy Don reports that Neal Boortz has a similar effort: To the Undecided Voter. Like a lot of us, he's got plenty to dislike about McCain, and says as much. But his differences with Maverick pale by comparison to his problems with The One. As did Benson, Ham, and Morrisey in their article, Boortz steers clear of the unsubstantiated allegations that the left would use to discount the reasoned critiques.

All Your Retirement Accounts Are Belong to...

Our old buddy Don sends us this cautionary tale of how Argentina is using the current financial crisis as an excuse to seize individual retirement accounts. The Democrats in Congress seem interested in doing something similar with 401(K) accounts; rest assured they're watching how this one comes along.

Explaining Our U.S. Tax System with Beer

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beers by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.'

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before and the first four continued to drink for free, but once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right,"exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something very important....they didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier. [Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post.]

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics University of Georgia

h/t The Source.

News of the Future?

Two Visions of Human Nature

Over at Forbes.com, Peter Robinson invokes Thomas Sowell:

The American Revolution embodied the constrained vision. "In the United States," Sowell says, "it was assumed from the outset that what you needed to do above all was minimize [the damage that could be done by] the flaws in human nature." The founders did so by composing a constitution of checks and balances. More than two centuries later, their work remains in place.

The French Revolution, by contrast, embodied the unconstrained vision. "In France," Sowell says, "the idea was that if you put the right people in charge--if you had a political Messiah--then problems would just go away." The result? The Terror, Napoleon and so many decades of instability that France finally sorted itself out only when Charles de Gaulle declared the Fifth Republic.

If that second paragraph doesn't chill you to the bone, you haven't been paying attention.

Zombie: William Ayers' Forgotten Communist Manifesto

The indefatigable Zombie, who routinely goes into the belly of the moonbat beast so that we don't have to, has obtained an original copy of the Weather Underground's manifesto, has scanned in bunches and oodles, laying it all out for us to see why his alliance with Barack Obama is so important.

Read the whole damned thing, if you have the intestinal fortitude.

Orson Scott Card (registered Democrat)...

...pounds one straight out of the park!

"Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? "



No Kidding - this one should be posted on every site across the en-damned-tire interwebs.

- MuscleDaddy

The Comprehensive Argument against Barack Obama

If you read nothing else in this election season, you need to read
The Comprehensive Argument against Barack Obama. Created by WIND Chicago radio talk-show host Guy Benson, Mary Katharine Ham of The Weekly standard, and "Captain" Ed Morrissey, it lays out the solid reasons why we can't afford to risk our country's future on Senator Obama, while deliberately avoiding the unconfirmed rumors upon which many in the blogosphere fixate.

If you know people who are thinking of voting for Obama, ask them to read this article and honestly consider what it has to say.

I am Joe!

Iowahawk

Bob on Joe

The Day the Universe Changed: 10

The tenth and final episode of The Day the Universe Changed. This series seems particularly apt in the context of a comment thread at E!3 about what "rights" are, and how we conceptualize the laws of nature. Enjoy them both.
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Prior Episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Connections Episodes:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Connections II: 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17-18 | 19-20
Connections III: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

McCain Roasts Obama, Clinton

At the Al Smith charity dinner. Part 1:

Part 2:

The past is prologue

From Don,

Will the Bailout Work?

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.

They failed and it closed.

Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nitwits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze...

The Lady Ann Sheds Some Light On...

... the nature of Presidential Race "polls" - through history.

- MuscleDaddy

Joe The Plumber on the Final Debate

Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher on the final debate

Say It With Me....

Link from Michelle Malkin:

Plumber(business owner) to Obama:
“Your new tax plan is going to tax me more. Isn’t it?”

Obama:
“It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Here’s what I think we should do…


Push hard through every blog we know -

Make sure that “Marxist Wealth Redistribution” becomes such a common part of the lexicon that ANYONE who finds himself in a “townhall” w/Obama will AUTOMATICALLY have it trip out of his mouth when phrases like that are uttered in his presence.


The only way to make sure the word gets out, is to make sure the words are used.

MuscleDaddy

Palin Abuse of.....Power?

Doesn't this guy ever SLEEP?
Hell, no - he's got kids...

Okay - here’s the problem… (please bear with me)

Let’s start with our reference material, being the report & findings in question.

While I’m as happy as anyone else with the “within her rights to fire the insubordinate ass-bag” - part, there is, unfortunately, another part…

In the linked doc, go to page 8 to see “Finding 1″ - this is where the “abuse of power" part comes from....

Apparently, Alaskan statutes maintain that “…each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

It also defines “benefit” as “anything that is to a person’s advantage or self-interest, regardless of financial gain”. (pg 49)

It further identifies “personal interest” to include “immediate family members” which, in turn, includes “siblings” (pg 50).

Finally, “Official Action” is defined as “…advice, participation, or assistance, including… a recommendation, decision, approval, disapproval, vote, or other similar action, including inaction, by a public officer.” (pg. 50)

---

Okay - so basically it boils down to this:

When Sarah & Todd kept asking where the investigation was going, RE: her sister’s complaints about the kid tasering, moose poaching, drunk driving, criminality-bragging state-trooper-ex-husband…

… and repeatedly asked why such an embarrassing asshat was allowed to continue to represent the agency and the state of Alaska….

…that was a breach of ethics - as those inquiries were “official actions” committed for the “benefit” of her “sibling”.

Todd’s inquiries apparently count against Sarah as well, since she didn’t stop him from making them, bringing us back to the “inaction” part noted above.

That is the purported “Abuse of Power”.

---

But wait…. what’s this?…
Waaaayy down on page 79 - under the heading “The Second Recommendation”…

“The legislature should consider amending AS 39.25.080 to permit those who file complaints against peace officers to receive some feedback about the status and outcome of their complaint”


Hmmm….

So… this all got started because the AK state police had apparently ‘circular filed’ all of the sister’s complaints - and there was no legislative requirement to give the complaintant any information - so Sarah and Todd had to try to run it down for themselves…

…just to keep the department from doing whatever-the-hell-they-wanted?

(page 58 references an account of Wooten[asshat] having been slapped with a Restraining Order for harrassing and intimidating his ex-wife….which was lifted, when his supervisors intervened - looks like "whatever-the-hell-they-wanted" was the order of the day…)

Well - there we are.

Myself?

If pursuing a do-nothing police agency over a do-nothing investigation of an asshat-scumbag-embarrassment of an officer is “Ethically Wrong”…

I don’t wanna be right (and like her better knowing she feels the same way)

Like the man says:

thatisall.
- MuscleDaddy
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They'd better have brought a really good cake, if this is all the "October Surpise" they can manage...

The Day the Universe Changed: 9

The Day the Universe Changed, Episode 9.
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Prior Episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Connections Episodes:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Connections II: 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17-18 | 19-20
Connections III: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

That's IT??

Seriously,

There I was, sitting on the couch with MuscleBaby-The-Elder...

I turned on the debate (a little late) and listened to the first question to come across (the one about "What is the bailout specifically going to do for people in trouble?").

After listening to the first 30 seconds of McCain's "answer" I closed my eyes and exhaled.

Then I heard MBTE (who is nine, btw) say to me:

"He's just yappering now, isn't he Daddy?"
"Yes Baby, he is - c'mon, go brush your teeth - it's time for you to go to bed anyway."

Losing's easy - I was really hoping to show her how a presidential candidate wins.

- MuscleDaddy

The Day the Universe Changed: 8

The Day the Universe Changed, Episode 8.
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Prior Episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
Connections Episodes:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Connections II: 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17-18 | 19-20
Connections III: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

The BaiLOutBill!

Bill's a busy boy today. He tells the horror story of the BaiLOutBill on PJTV, which has kindly allowed non-subscribers to benefit from his wisdom.

Cowboys and Secret Agents

It's Friday, so does Bill have a new NRO piece out? Yep. It's called Cowboys and Secret Agents, wherein he enters into an exchange of ideas on fighting Islamic Extremism.

Bill on PJTV Talking Energy

Bill's got another PJTV program, this one on energy policy, available to non-subscribers. Here's a whole page of their currently-available, free offerings.

Ed. Note: As a matter of policy, when we give you a link, the item in question is one click away; we don't link to web resources that require registration or subscription, even when they're run by people we like. When they offer unencumbered samples of their programming that the E3 community might find informative or entertaining, we're happy to let folks know about it.

Which of these is creepier...

I like children singing.

When they do it well, like Bianca Ryan, Will Dutton or Connie Talbot it can be very moving.

Or it can be a little creepy.

Like these.

We're Gonna Change The World


Tomorrow Belongs To Me


UPDATE [The Monster]: That first link appears broken, but Reason TV has this:


UPDATE 2 [TM]: Found a good copy of the first video. Don't be surprised if, like Burning Down the House, this one gets pulled, too.

Win one for the Gipper

Watching how the MainScream Media has gone completely in the tank to push their agenda has really beaten me down the last few days. I just heard ABC's Jake Tapper pin the failure to pass the bailout bill squarely on the Republican congressmen who voted "no", despite the fact that 95 Democrats voted against it, including many committee chairmen and vice-chairmen who owe their positions to Speaker Pelosi.

She spoke right before the vote, framing it as the fix for eight years of failed Republican policies. Maybe some of the Republicans who heard that decided that if the bill is a repudiation of their party, then the majority could damn well carry their own water. Maybe that was her plan all along. It really doesn't matter, because whatever happens, the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) will tell us it's Republicans' fault. It really gets depressing knowing that most people only get to hear one side.

Then I listened to this. I feel better now. We won't win the war of ideas on the broadcast TV news programs. We'll win it around the kitchen tables. We can't do anything for the kool-aid drinkers; we'll have to show the fair-minded people how the news is being manipulated and get them motivated to make sure that it doesn't pay off any more.

Burning Down the House

Our regular Saturday feature of James Burke showing how we got here is, uh, suspended this week, so that we can bring you a more urgent video about, well, how we got here:
Watching Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd are in charge of the committees that are supposed to fix this mess, and instead they're trying to skim off money for their buddies in ACORN, La Raza, and other "community organizations".
Help spread the word
UPDATE: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Warner Music Group"
UPDATE 2: Found another copy. It'll be up until it gets squashed. Hope they make one without the music.

Pain

Bill writes about the current financial crisis, through the prism of his own recent health crisis, at NRO

Big Time Bill and the Aussie PM

Bill interviews John Howard, former Prime Minister of Austrailia, on Pajamas TV (free sample for non subscribers)

The Day the Universe Changed: 7

The Day the Universe Changed, Episode 7.
(Click on the image to play — it will open in a separate window/tab)

Prior Episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Connections Episodes:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Connections II: 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17-18 | 19-20
Connections III: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

The Undefended City

Bill has another post up at NRO, entitled The Undefended City

Olbermann Hypocrisy

From Olbermann Watch:

Presidents Aren't Governors

I recently watched some talking heads discussing how Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been able to do a better job of controlling wasteful spending at the state level than she and Senator John McCain can hope to accomplish if the latter is elected President. That's because she has (along with many other governors) a "Line Item Veto".

The Alaska Legislature has sent her spending bills, which she has returned with funding amounts scratched out, and reduced levels written in the margins. Her vetoes have then been sustained, making them law. Presidents don't have that power, and the conventional wisdom is that it would require a Constitutional amendment to allow a President to undo the log-rolling that routinely pollutes otherwise reasonable legislation.

I don't think it's necessary, or even advisable, to amend the Constitution in this particular respect. As distasteful as I may find some compromises made by Congress to get a bill passed, it could be dangerous to allow a deal to be forged, only to abrogate that deal by means of a selective veto of one part of the package. That would allow language to become law that wouldn't get a majority of each house without the balancing provision(s). Instead, I propose a mechanism, entirely within the current wording of the Constitution, that allows a President to exercise leadership in trimming the ornaments from "Christmas tree" bills.

Let's begin by examining how the Constitution describes the veto and override process (Art. I, Sec. 7, Par. 2):

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Without changing a word of this, each house of Congress can, on its own initiative, pass an amendment to its own internal rules providing the following:

Whenever a Bill shall have been vetoed by the President of the United States, with his statement of objections thereto including one or more suggested amendments, and the vote in this house to override that veto fails to receive the requisite two-thirds, the question before this house shall be whether to approve the bill as amended thereby. Such question shall be debatable but not amendable.

If there are technical objections to this wording, I'm sure that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid (or their successors) can assign the appropriate resources to work out better wording. Whatever the final form may take, this proposal gives the President a better shot at throwing out the bathwater of pork, while preserving the baby of genuinely good legislation.

Can we get sponsors in each chamber of Congress to champion this cause? Will Senators Obama and McCain agree to co-sponsor the rules change in the Senate before the election determines which gets to take advantage of it?
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Maybe we can make Washington more like Juneau.

Sorry, Charlie

When ABC's Charlie Gibson interrogated Gov. Palin about foreign policy experience, he asked a question that seemed wrong to me when I first heard it. Thanks to "The Great One" Mark Levin, I now know just how wrong it was. In his desire to show Palin to be unready for the world stage, he displayed an ignorance I thought impossible for a journalist of his experience.

Levin's transcript highlights this question:

GIBSON: Have you ever met a foreign head of state?

We didn't hear this part of the exchange:

PALIN: There in the state of Alaska, our international trade activities bring in many leaders of other countries.

GIBSON: And all governors deal with trade delegations.

PALIN: Right.

GIBSON: Who act at the behest of their governments.

PALIN: Right, right.

GIBSON: I’m talking about somebody who’s a head of state, who can negotiate for that country. Ever met one?

Charlie fails to realize that the US is exceptional in combining the roles of Head of State and Head of Government in a single office (President).

Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of State of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc., but cannot negotiate on behalf of her dominions. For that, one must talk to Gordon Brown, Stephen Harper, Kevin Rudd, and Helen Clark, respectively.

Bundespräsident Horst Köhler is the Head of State of Germany, but Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel is the one who shows up at G8 meetings to have her shoulders rubbed by George W. Bush (which is exactly the same as Bill Clinton getting a BJ from an intern).
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Charlie, when you want to trap someone in a gotcha game with them misunderstanding your use of poorly-defined terms such as "The Bush Doctrine", you really need to use well-defined terms correctly yourself.

The Day the Universe Changed: 6

The Day the Universe Changed, Episode 6.
(Click on the image to play — it will open in a separate window/tab)

Prior Episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Connections Episodes:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Connections II: 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17-18 | 19-20
Connections III: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Iowahawk: Wile E. Reporter

Iowahawk regales us with the tale of Wile E. Reporter

I really have to hand it to you this time, Wile E., you brilliant telegenic devil! After I close these Troopergates, that pesky pentacostal Palin will be trapped helplessly in Scandal Canyon... and buried beneath an avalanche of outrage! While I collect my Pulitzer! Bwahahaha!

Say, what's in this evidence box?

TASE
ooof!

TASE
ow!

TASE
yipes!

SLAMMMM
rummmmbbbllle

AVALANNNNNNNCHHHHHHE

----------------------

Sarah Palin (Hockimomus Alaskus)
I have come to give myself up for an interview on account of I cannot fight no more against such genius.

Just go read the whole thing.

Dear Mr. Obama

Watch this video (1:30 long)


It's not as eloquent as one of Bill's essays, but it doesn't need words to make the point.

Troopergate - the alternate view

I'll be proudly voting Palin/McCain this November, and I wish no good thing for the Obama campaign, but I've been shocked and disappointed at how badly the Obama campaign has handled Palin's "Troopergate."

Instead of suggesting that Palin improperly tried to get her former brother in law fired, they should use it to point out that Palin isn't effective enough to do the job. After all, the guy still has his job. After his own department found that he'd drunk alcohol while driving his patrol car, tasered his son and threatened to kill Palin and her father, he got a 5 day suspension.

I mean, if Obama (or Biden) had a cop/ex-brother in law threatening to kill Obama's family, the guy would be dead and stuffed in a barrel at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

'Cause that's the Chicago way.

The Day the Universe Changed: 5

The Day the Universe Changed, Episode 5.
(Click on the image to play — it will open in a separate window/tab)

Prior Episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Connections Episodes:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Connections II: 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17-18 | 19-20
Connections III: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

A new essay from Bill - at National Review Online!

Proud of the GOP

"For the first time, I feel like we deserve to win more than they deserve to lose."

The Combat Pilot, theTar Baby, and the Skyhook

A lot of people are talking about Senator McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Why couldn't he take the "safe" course, and give us Romney, or Pawlenty? They don't understand how he thinks. McCain is a combat pilot. I can think of no better description than Bill Whittle's:

They are swordsmen whose survival depends on remaining on the offensive… that is to say, they are men who survive because they can (and have) initiated 16-to-1 fights because they possess the confidence – actually, the untrammeled ego – to know they will win.

Maverick got inside The One's OODA Loop, got tone, and fired a heat-seeking Barracuda missile. Any evasive action Team Obama tries to take now will be meaningless.

If they attack her "lack of experience", it reflects back on Obama's own: She has years of executive experience in her family fishing operation, as well as municipal and state governments. Obama's role has always been legislative, not executive, even when he was chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, there were other board members to help decide which politically-correct happy-crap programs would get millions of dollars nominally for the betterment of education. But he'd really rather we not talk about that.

It is one thing to be one of many on a board or in the Senate, where a single person's lapse in judgement or character is unlikely to result in bad legislation. Most bills don't come down to a single-vote majority, or Vice President Cheney would have to spend a lot of time in the Senate chamber. Why, it's even possible to vote "present" and simply allow the other members to determine the course of action. But when you're in an executive position, whether it be running a small business, mayor of a small town, governor of a state, or President of the United States, it's another matter entirely. As a famous small businessman, who as Vice President had to move into the Oval Office when his running mate died, put it: "The buck stops here."

The Founding Fathers were thinking about that difference when they placed special restrictions on who is allowed to serve as President (and therefore VP). Even when I thought Governor Schwarzenegger was a conservative (despite his marriage to a member of the royal family of American Leftism), I opposed amending the constitution to allow someone like him to sit where the buck stops. It's too easy to imagine a scenario where he might show favoritism for Austria or the EU, or perhaps worse, bend over backwards to avoid that perception, and either way adversely affect the best interests of the USA.

That is why the "Obama's a Muslim!" meme has such legs. Of course we know he's a Christian; we know all about his church. Too much, apparently. (Is there any room left under that bus?) We also know that he spent the formative years of his life being taught in Indonesian schools and mosques, where American values might not be stressed as much as they are in Idaho or Alaska. The concern is not so much about his religion, but that he may be a "cultural Muslim", who soaked up, at an impressionable age, so much "Death to America" from the imams (not to mention his mother's radical friends), that he doesn't see anything bad about people who literally tried to bring that death upon US Government officials.

That's why we aren't supposed to talk about his friends or his middle name. The "Palin's a fundamentalist-evangelical, tongue-talking, snake-handling creationist" line I'm already seeing isn't good for Obama; he wants us not to think about what was preached in the mosques he attended as a child (which, one must keep in mind, was not his choice), and the church he chose to attend as an adult.

When she caught Gov. Murkowski's cronies' corruption, and the machine stonewalled her, she resigned her job and ran to take his, even though he's a Republican. Obama plugged into the Daley Democrat machine and worked it to its fullest. The electorate is sick of the Me-Too Republicans who campaigned as small-government reformers, that would cut government spending, only to outspend the Democrats once they got in power. I'd say they've acted like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors, who generally only blow their own money, not billions of others'. By bringing in the SP ("Shore Patrol" or "Sarah Palin"), he's making it clear that having an (R) next to your name won't keep you out of the brig; he's campaigning against those corrupt Republicans as much as he is against the Democrats.

For decades, every time Maverick reached across the aisle and angered the GOP base, the MSM played it that he put principle above party. Palin's story of cleaning the Augean stables that were Alaska state politics just reinforces what voters have repeatedly been told about McCain. Even the "Troopergate" (don't they think people remember the original scandal of that name?) controversy is a no-win: either people believe her actions in replacing the state's top cop were just part of her willingness to fire people she thought were underperforming and/or abusing their authority, or they think she tried to protect her family from an abusive ex-husband who admits using a Taser on his pre-teen stepson (while insisting he did so with the boy's consent). Attacking her for that could hurt with women voters. Defending the actions of an alleged bad cop can't play well with the Rodney King demographic, either.

If they go after her for lack of an elite education (she is a University of Idaho graduate), they take the Seven Houses off the table. It undermines Obama's packaging as the agent of change; like the sitting President his supporters despise, he has degrees from two different Ivy League institutions. In fact, a majority of Presidential nominees from both major parties since Carter (the last Naval Academy graduate to be nominated) have at least one Ivy diploma. Only Dole (Washburn University, Topeka: MIAA), Mondale (University of Minnesota: Big Ten), Reagan (Eureka, IL: IIAC), and McCain (Navy) have missed out. Who represents "Change"? While we're at it, let's not talk about the candidates for President. Let's look at Democratic Vice-Presidents who became President due to the death of the latter in office. Lyndon Johnson graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers' College, and Harry Truman never earned any college degree at all. So no looking down your noses at an Idaho Vandal, please. Between Sarah and her husband Todd, the Toby Keith Democrats should come over in droves.

In honor of the late, great Tony Snow, I'll say that Palin is a Tar Baby. The more they try to mess with her, the more they get trapped. In honor of the late, great Ronald Reagan (who was once a sportscaster) she's also the Skyhook. It took 19 years for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's opponents to realize that there is no way to defend that shot, from the moment it left his fingers it was headed downward toward the basket; touching the ball was goaltending, an automatic two points, statistically recorded as a made basket. Touching him as well just provided an "extra point" attempt. Only in his final season did his opponents stop trying to block it; allowing his season field-goal percentage to fall below .500 for only time in his career.

To his credit, Senator Obama seems to have recognized this within hours, and repudiated some of the attacks his own campaign reflexively launched. But many of his supporters (including those in the MSM that will be forced to do the dirty work the campaign itself can't be seen doing) just won't be able to help themselves. Whenever the compliant media asks questions about Palin, it will only hurt Obama. They just can't resist the Tar Baby, any more than most basketball players can resist blocking a shot they can jump high enough to reach. Can we expect Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews to be more disciplined than a professional athlete?

[And now that I've called her a Tar Baby and mentioned black men in the same paragraph, twice in a row, that must make me a racist. I denounce myself preemptively, to save leftists the trouble.]

And you can ask the girls who played with and against her what happens if you just leave Sarah Barracuda an open lane to the goal.

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Maverick is a Musketeer, and he's not going to play it safe. No "prevent defense" trying not to lose. Go big... or go home.