Oct 07 2008

Welcome, neighbor!

Category: election 2008,judges,Obama,politics,terrorism — harmonicminer @ 6:28 pm

We’re letting people who hate us and who have been trained to kill us loose in our nation’s capitol. (much more at the link)

Immediately after it was released this summer, Barack Obama applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5/4 decision in Boumediene v. Bush, which for the first time extended rights under the U.S. Constitution to foreigners captured and held abroad based on their activities abroad. To reach that result, the Supreme Court had to declare unconstitutional a statute passed by Congress with bipartisan support and signed into law by the president which gave these individuals substantive and procedural rights comparable or superior to those we give to our own sons and daughters in uniform. It also had to ignore and/or mischaracterize decades of prior federal precedents holding that such foreigners had no right to claim the U.S. Constitution’s protections through a writ of habeas corpus, essentially extending the protections of the U.S. Constitution to the entire world.

Now as the inevitable consequence of that ruling, seventeen hard-core Islamic jihadists who’d come from their homes in China to train at terrorist camps in Afghanistan, captured there by our armed forces, and held since at Guantanamo Bay, are on the brink of being released this week, not for return to China, but into the general population of our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.:

Did you get that? We’re letting trained Chinese Islamic extremist trainee killers loose in Washington DC. This is the outcome that is praised by the Left, including Obama and acolytes. They wanted this.

So.

I propose that the government place these, uh, gentlemen in half-way houses in the same neighborhood as the Left leaning Supreme Court judges who made this idiotic decision. Or the neighborhood where the Democrat Senators live who invented Borking, or the Democrat Senators who filibustered the appointment of constructionist judges. Or, my personal favorite, the neighborhood where the ACLU lawyers live, who pushed for this ruling.

Actually, I suppose we can’t blame the Leftists on the Court for voting like “useful idiots“. But Justice Kennedy really ought to know better. So let’s just let the Chinese Islamic terrorist trainees loose in his neighborhood. Maybe that would be a nice place for the halfway house.

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Oct 06 2008

Oblivious Obama? He just didn’t know?!?

Category: election 2008,media,Obama,politics,terrorism — harmonicminer @ 9:08 am

Now, Obama’s campaign is claiming he didn’t know that William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn were terrorists, unrepentant ones, during all the years when Obama worked with Ayers, sent foundation money in Ayers’ direction, when Ayers’ helped Obama kick off his political career, etc.

Powerline has this to say about the likelihood that Obama “didn’t know”.

This strikes me as a rather stunning development. Obama appears to be admitting that if he knew about Ayers’ terrorist history, and the fact that he still takes pride in that history and despises America, it would be an error in judgment to form a close association with him.

But it is inconceivable that Barack Obama knew Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn well enough to kick off his first political campaign in their living room, but didn’t know that Ayers and Dohrn were Communists who led the Weatherman faction of SDS, urged young people to “kill your parents,” carried out approximately 30 bombings, including New York City’s police headquarters, the Capitol and the Pentagon, celebrated the Charles Manson murders, spent years living underground to avoid criminal prosecution, and continued to express their lifelong hatred for the United States in books, magazine articles, and public speeches. This is rather like a person claiming that he had worked closely with Arnold Schwarzenegger for years, but had no idea that he was once a bodybuilder and movie actor. Ayers’ and Dohrn’s radical past is their only claim to fame.

There must be a great many people who can attest that Obama was well aware of Ayers’ and Dohrn’s history. It will be interesting to see whether any of them are willing to blow the whistle on Obama’s latest evasion.

But there are also other problems with this incredible assertion:

1) The Ayers association has been a big topic among those opposing Obama for over a year. Why, exactly, is it only NOW that we’re being told Obama didn’t know? We’re supposed to think that the campaign just noticed, this week, that Obama’s relationship with Ayers is a problem? Why didn’t Obama say so when he was asked about this in the primary campaign debates with Hillary Clinton?

2)  Even if one accepted the impossible assumption of Obamian ignorance about Ayers’ past, what does this say about the KINDS of people with whom Obama works?  Ayers has NEVER hidden his past: indeed, he celebrates it, and specifically refers to it often as a badge of honor, verifying his pedigree as an authentic supporter of the radically LEFT causes he supports, and with which he and Obama were involved.  That means Obama’s ability to assess people is very weak, at a minimum, a charge strengthened by his pretended shock that Rev. Wright just surprised him with his hate-speech, after all those years of attending his church, being married by him, having his babies blessed by him, etc.

3)  When the Obama campaign (inevitably) retracts this silly assertion, will the campaign pay a price for lying desperately to try to blunt the charges about Obama’s terrorist connections?  Probably not, because the main stream media, snorkeling around in the tank for Obama, will simply not cover it, write editorials about the questions it raises, etc.

UPDATE:  One more thought:  even if we take a face value the argument that Obama didn’t know about Ayers’ terrorist past and unrepentant present, when Obama was working most closely with him on “education foundations”, Ayers was kicking off Obama’s political career in his home, etc., it is impossible to believe that those advising Obama at the time did not know, either.  Why wouldn’t they have told Obama?  Hard to think of a reason, unless it is that they knew Obama wouldn’t care.

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Oct 04 2008

Obama, friend of terrorists… really, no kidding

Category: election 2008,McCain,media,Obama,politics,racism,terrorism — harmonicminer @ 7:16 pm

Continuing to demonstrate the inability to just give the news without editorializing, Yahoo news leads with this.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin accused Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday of “palling around with terrorists,” in the latest sign the campaign is turning increasingly nasty.

Just a question: if Obama has actually “paled around with terrorists”, is it a sign the campaign is “turning increasingly nasty” to point that out?

Not until the sixth paragraph do we get anything about the nature of Obama’s relationship to the terrorist Bill Ayers: (the earlier ones are all devoted to he said/she said type reporting)

Palin cited a New York Times story on Saturday that examined Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Vietnam-era militant Weather Underground organization who is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Times concluded they were not close.

Ah, the NYTimes, that bastion of Olympian fairness, has decided Obama is not “close” to Ayers, a self-admitted terrorist and bomber. Apparently, the NYTimes thinks you aren’t “close” to someone unless you share a toothbrush or something.

Just a question, for the reader: do YOU even know someone who knows someone who knows a terrorist?

I didn’t think so.  Here’s paragraph NINE of the story:

Obama served with Ayers on the board of a foundation in Chicago, and has said he was only eight-years-old when the Weather Underground committed its best-known bombing. He has also noted that former President Bill Clinton pardoned two members of the group during the last days of his presidency.

Clinton also pardoned some Puerto Rican terrorists and Marc Rich. This is a recommendation?

This is not simple “guilt by association”. It isn’t like they both went to Denny’s at the same time and happened to be placed at adjacent tables. Obama and Ayers served on boards together, were associates who worked together for “education initiatives” in Chicago, etc. Obama chose to continue his association with Ayers, and the first campaign kickoff for Obama was at Ayers’ house.

In the following video, Obama wants us to believe that Clinton is worse for having pardoned Weather Underground terrorists than Obama is for having associated with Ayers, one of the terrorists who WASN’T pardoned, but got off on a technicality because the FBI botched the investigation.  Ayers: “Guilty as sin and free as a bird.”

Try to understand this.  Even Obama admits knowing Ayers was a terrorist, an unrepentant one, and tries to pass off his relationship as “being on a board together”, and minimizes Ayers’ evil behavior as “something that happened 40 years ago”, as if evil done 40 years ago and not repented for is less evil, and his association with the perpetrator less suspect.  In fact, they worked closely on that board, and in other organizations, and Ayers was a prime supporter launching his political career.

The “40 years ago” approach is masking something that is revealed by changing a couple of details, in a sort of thought experiment.  What if Ayers had been a virulent racist, enthusiastic member of the KKK, burning crosses on lawns of black people, beating them when possible, encouraging lynchings, and the like?  What if he was now unrepentant about it, and said, “We didn’t do enough.”?  Would Obama pass it off as “something that happened 40 years ago” and essentially ignore it?

You know the answer, and so do I.  The only reason the “40 year ago” excuse works in his mind is because he doesn’t think having been a terrorist bomber and killer of police is all that bad.  So since it happened way back there somewhere, we can just sort of ignore it.

Except that we can’t.  And if you can….  well, I have some words for your judgment that I can’t really commit to print right now.

As for the quality of reporting in the article referenced above, it’s just more evidence that the media is morally blind, dumb and deaf, and totally in the tank for Obama.  Imagine if McCain had that racist friend just suggested in the “thought experiment” above.  Would the NYTimes conclude “they weren’t that close”?

Hah.

UPDATE:  To no one’s particular surprise, Stanley Kurz has done an excellent job covering this entire matter, and gives his analysis of the NYTimes “reporting” here.

UPDATE:  In the meantime, Tom Brokaw wants us to believe that unrepentant terrorist Ayers, who recently said, “We didn’t do enough,” is really just a “school reformer”.   Maybe Brokaw means that Ayers should be in “reform school for terrorists”, but somehow I doubt it.

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Oct 03 2008

Change Through Orchestrated Crisis

Category: Congress,economy,election 2008,environment,healthcare,left,liberty,media,Obama,politics,socialism,university — harmonicminer @ 8:54 am

In a remarkable article in the American Thinker, James Simpson connects the dots between the various parts of the Left that have contributed to our current financial “crisis”.

In an earlier post, I noted the liberal record of unmitigated legislative disasters, the latest of which is now being played out in the financial markets before our eyes. Before the 1994 Republican takeover, Democrats had sixty years of virtually unbroken power in Congress – with substantial majorities most of the time. Can a group of smart people, studying issue after issue for years on end, with virtually unlimited resources at their command, not come up with a single policy that works? Why are they chronically incapable?

Continue reading “Change Through Orchestrated Crisis”

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Oct 01 2008

When aliens or other life forms attack

Category: appeasement,election 2008,McCain,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 9:02 am

In the movie, Independence Day, the aliens want the earth.  They don’t want to negotiate, they can’t be bargained with, and they are deadly in capabilities and intentions.  A lot like Islamic extremists, among other threats to international amity.

There is an arresting scene in the movie, taking place on a rooftop just beneath the levitating alien spacecraft, upon which stand all the wide-eyed innocents who think the universe is a friendly place, despite pleny of hints that the aliens are up to no good.  We are treated to a view of the welcoming throng, looking upward with shining faces, waiting to make the acquaintance of the aliens, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of scenes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Independence Day revelers

Peace on Earth isn’t exactly what the aliens have in mind.

White House destroyed

Now, look a little more closely at the people on the roof.  Do you see the guy on the left, with the open mouth?  Now look at the snappy, elegant patent leather shoe, just visible past the mouth breather’s left shoulder.  Look familiar?  Well, as we all know, Obama has lots of friends in the Hollywood Left (that being most of Hollywood, of course).    I can now reveal that Obama has appeared in movies for years, in extra roles (probably hoping that by being an actor he could become President).  The problem, of course, is that actors have to actually memorize their lines, and can’t just read them from teleprompters.  So, Obama’s roles have all been non-speaking walk-ons.  Yes, friends, that is Obamas LEFT FOOT in the classy shoe.  (It figures….)

Obama famously said he would negotiate without preconditions with pretty much anyone at all, regardless of their stated ill intent towards us or our allies.  When Russia attacked Georgia, he responded,

“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict,” Obama said in a statement. “Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full-scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected.”

This is lovely.  So, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Obama would have “condemned the outbreak of violence in Poland”?  Called for German and Polish restraint?  Oy vey, others parsed this, but it’s still frightening to think the free world’s leader may be so feckless.  Obama is the very master of passive voice.  Reading his comments, you can’t tell who invaded whom.

Let’s hope this is one time when life does not imitate art.   When the USA is threatened (a guaranteed fact of life for the coming decades), let’s hope Obama is not the one with whom we are stuck for protection, wisdom and general courage in the face of adversity.

I don’t think he’ll be able to negotiate with the Borg.

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Sep 30 2008

Imagine: the vice presidential debate moderated by, oh, George Will… or even Hugh Hewitt

Category: Biden,election 2008,media,Obama,Palin,politics — harmonicminer @ 10:08 pm

Michelle Malkin reports on the “completely objective” reporter who will “moderate” the vice presidential debate.

My dictionary defines “moderator” as “the nonpartisan presiding officer of a town meeting.” On Thursday, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill will serve as moderator for the first and only vice presidential debate. The stakes are high. The Commission on Presidential Debates, with the assent of the two campaigns, decided not to impose any guidelines on her duties or questions.

But there is nothing “moderate” about where Ifill stands on Barack Obama. She’s so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out.

In an imaginary world where liberal journalists are held to the same standards as everyone else, Ifill would be required to make a full disclosure at the start of the debate. She would be required to turn to the cameras and tell the national audience that she has a book coming out on Jan. 20, 2009 — a date that just happens to coincide with the inauguration of the next president of the United States.

The title of Ifill’s book? “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” Nonpartisan my foot.

…. Continue reading “Imagine: the vice presidential debate moderated by, oh, George Will… or even Hugh Hewitt”

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Sep 30 2008

Change you can believe in, because it’s all you’ll have

Category: economy,election 2008,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 2:29 pm

I still have not heard Obama suggest that he is willing to drop his planned tax hikes in the face of the economic downturn. I doubt you have, either.  Obama claims his planned tax hikes will only affect the rich.  It’s hard to tell if he’s simply lying, or simply ignorant, but no rational, honest person can believe that.  Check this out.

10 Things You Need to Know About Senator Obama’s Tax Proposals

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Sep 30 2008

Undiminished by Jewish Death

Category: appeasement,arab,election 2008,Hamas,Israel,middle east,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 11:10 am

A Hamas MP:Clip Transcript

Following is an excerpt from a press conference held by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on September 7, 2008:

Fathi Hammad: The approaching victory, about which we are talking, is not limited to Palestine. You are creating the ethos of victory for all Arabs and Muslims, and Allah willing, even on the global level. Why? Because Allah has chosen you to fight the people He hates most, the Jews. Allah said: “You shall find the worst enemies of the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists.” In other words, the Jews, who number 15 million all over the world, are equivalent to 4.5 billion infidels in their corruption and their struggle against the religion of Islam. Therefore, our heroic prisoners who were arrested for killing Jews should know that by the grace of Allah, killing a single Jew is the same as killing 30 million Jews. Therefore, the reward of our martyrs is great, and your reward is also great.

There are about 80 Muslims for each Jew in the world.

I guess Mr. Hammad has never read Meditation XVII by John Donne

any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

Negotiate away, Barack. Maybe you can hit ’em over the head with a teleprompter.

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Sep 30 2008

Obama endorsement surprise?

Category: election 2008,Obama,politics,socialism — sardonicwhiner @ 9:39 am

Read the following, then click here.

By most media accounts Barack Obama’s tour of Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Western Europe was a big success. The visits showed his worldwide popularity is very broad and ranges from people in the street, to US military personnel, to heads of state.

Obama’s visit to Iraq, to the regret of Bush and McCain no doubt, revealed that the al-Maliki government supports his timetable for withdrawal. This was a big plus for the Democratic candidate for president.

Continue reading “Obama endorsement surprise?”

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Sep 27 2008

Pretending objectivity: we aren’t fooled

Category: election 2008,McCain,media,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 10:38 pm

In this, uh, objective piece of journalism, Mark Halperin grades the candidates’ performances in the debate. Obama, A-; McCain, B-.

There is, of course, no mention of any of Halperin’s previous political perspectives and stances. He is pretending to be the objective journalist here. Google him, or read the wikipedia article on him.

When will the media stop presenting mere left leaning opinion as objective journalism? Answer: probably never.

When will the public learn to just ignore them? Answer: they already are learning to do just that. Not as fast as we might like… but it’s happening, as every left-leaning newspaper knows,  from its circulation numbers.

It’s laughably sad when all you have to know about someone is that they work for ABC and Time, and that’s all you need to know about their likely perspectives.

It is so undisguised here.  There isn’t even an attempt to be “objective”, nor is there any mention of the political perspective of the writer (Olympian that he is), and no center-right analyst is given the opportunity to provide balance.

It’s just an Obama campaign commercial masquerading as news.

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