Obama Christian; Obama Muslim

Here’s the clip of Obama’s gaffe from Power Line.  

I’m not about to doubt Obama’s word that he’s a Christian.  But, he’s the son of a Muslim.  And, that, in the eyes of the Islamic world view makes him a Muslim.  By choosing Christianity he is therefore an apostate. (Wikipedia on Muslim apostasy).

The Koran is only really clear that Allah will punish the apostate in the afterlife.  But, the actual practice is a de facto death sentence in many Muslim countries; whether imposed by the state or by free-lance murderers with the state authorties looking the other way.

But. But. This is American and the whole issue of apostasy doesn’t matter.  Very likely, without much reflection on the theological implications from a Muslim point-of-view, Obama chose his brand of Christianity without giving a second thought.  Implications such as the fact, in the Muslim world view, he was Muslim by birthright and had no choice in choosing another faith.

But, again it doesn’t matter. And, all of the theological massaging in the attached Wikipedia article doesn’t matter. Here. In America.  Because, here in America, you can choose your religion like your favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.  And, unlike many other parts of the world, that that choice would not be your death sentence. Were Obama to be murdered for apostasy, the murderer, at least in America, would be arrested and tried for first degree murder. Theology would not be a mitigating defense. 

And why?  Simply because there are Americans who insist on the rule of law and are willing to defend that principle against the encroachments of Islamic imperialism. There are Americans who would insist that that choice of religious worship not be in any way threatened. There are Americans who are willing to call these Islamic encroachments against the precepts of our world-view that we call Western Civilization as an act of war. There are 19 year-olds who instead of doing drugs, like a certain Democratic presidental candidate, actually joined the military and are now carrying M16’s in the dusty backwaters of Iraq and Afganistan to insure that Islamic imperialism is contained and its baleful effects are not allowed to poison our country, Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Palin and “Troopergate”

Scrutiny of Wooten Raises Conduct Questions

Emerging Facts About State Trooper Mike Wooten

Anatomy of a Scandal  See especially the posted comment by Tim.

Here’s Wooten’s 10 day suspension

Context, context, context and not gottacha.

First, I use the term troopergate in quotes because this little tempest in a teakettle is not the use of sworn peace officers in the procurement and facilitation of base extra-martial sexual liaisons. 

More background. Living in a small, population wise, state, everyone knows everyone whether socially, professionally or politically.  This social, professional and political is going to spill into marriage and all the mess of family politics.

To use my living in Wyoming as an example, my senator, Senator Barrasso is practically my next door neighbor on the foot of Casper Mountain.  On a typical trip from Casper to Yellowstone, we ran into one of my former scrub nurses, her son (once a patient of mine) in Shoshoni, population 635, and the father of my kids classmate in Dubois, population 962.

Taking my kids to their horse back riding lessons, I run into the mother of one of the other kids whom I operated upon about five years ago.  Then I run into the mother-in-law of one of my employees. 

Again, everyone know everyone.  And, if you mayor of Wasilla, who aren’t you going to know?

Now, let’s get into the particulars.  We have to go back to the travails of the Palin family with trooper Mike Wooten.  This issue goes back as far as 2003; long before Palin’s tenure as governor. Wooten was a problem.  To quote the suspension document, reasons for the suspension included issues of using a Taser on his ten-year-old stepson and drinking alcohol, beer, before and during the operation of a marked Alaska State Trooper patrol vehicle.  Palin’s very personal involvement centered on her sister’s disintegrating marriage with Wooten.  In one instance, ‘Troopergate’ Part 1: Sarah Palin and Mike Wooten (digitaljournal.com), Palin’s sister, Molly McCann Wooten, called Sarah telling her she was afraid and left an open telephone connection for Sarah to monitor should the fight become physical.

There are other examples of the Palin’s concerns about Wooten (Here’s the Sarah Palin interview transcript with Sergeant Ron Wall) (Sarah Palin’s e-mail to Colonel Julia Grimes) (Interview with Todd and Sarah Palin).

Then we have the CNN interview with Wooten. Even this, mentions all of the above including drinking on the job, Tasering his son-in-law, and even threats against Palin’s father.  

Palin walked into the Governor’s office with this background. I submit that now Governor Palin had a duty to get to the bottom of this. Why was this ticking time bomb on the force?  Was, given the corruption in other areas of Alaska state governance, Wooten an isolated incident or a pattern.

Now, the official probe is in the hands of Hollis French who appears to be Obama’s point man in Alaska.  Chicago political machine slime reaches even into the pristine beauty of Alaska. I have a better idea. French can come to Chicago and conduct ethics investigations on I-just-got-elected-to-the-US-Senate-and-got-a-sweetheart-deal-on-my-mortgage-on-my-1.5 million-dollar-mansion-gate. 

Obama; Ward Heeler and Wimp

We’re coming close to the point where Adlai Stevenson III, when running for Illinois governor against James Thompson made the comment to a reporter the he was not a “wimp.”  It was one of those “thank you God” scoops. Now we have Obama crying over Sarah Palin’s ridicule of the job of “community organizer.”  One of his campaign flunkies issues a letter about how insensitive the characterization was and now is trying to enlist prominent Democratic women, Hill included, to attack Palin for him. 

Or, Sarah-cuda beats you up and steals your lunch money and instead of standing up for yourself, you write a little note about how she hurt your feelings as a community organizer and you send out another girl to fight your battle.

And here.

Let’s get some basics down about Chicago.  First is that the stated function of any governmental institution is it’s secondary purpose.  All public institutions in Chicago (and as much as possible in Springfield and Washington) are there for the benefit of perpetuation of the Chicago Democratic machine.  All community organizer is is an entry level job in the Chicago machine.  It’s a ward heeler.  If you’re good at that you will be promoted to jobs of greater responsibility such as alderman or state legislator.

And, your access to graft will be greater and richer.  You’ll never find a stated quid pro quo.  It’s just understood.  Like a sweetheart mortgage deal for your 1.5 million dollar home.  Like your wife getting promoted and her salary doubled to $300,000 per year.

If you’re really good you can even move up to Washington DC.

Now, the last thing Obama wanted to do was actually help as an community organizer. Someone may actually get a job and reduce his dependence on machine largess.  His job to to organize so that votes would be forth coming for the machine on election day.  One in a while, a Saul Alinsky style action would be tolerated if it provided avenues for extrotion from legitimate businesses.  

Reports will soon be forthcoming about Obama’s management of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.  It will show that Obama managed to spend, with Ayers, some 50 to 100 million dollars that did nothing to improve the public schools in Chicago.  Failure?  Far from it. What Obama very successfully did was spread large amounts of money among a lot of the usual suspects connected to Chicago machine politics.  

Improve schools?  Step on the teacher’s union’s toes? Hardly. Independent citizens getting their money’s worth?  Try serfs dependent on the beneficence of the Democratic machine.

When Obama ran for the state senate, he knocked off all opposition on the democratic primary ballot by systematic petition challenges.  Accident?  Of course.  Had Obama been challenging some one who really mattered to the machine, such petition challenges would have been immediately slapped down. 

Palin and Giuliani struck home in mocking the occupation of “community organizer.”  It’s an indefensible occupation that reveals Obama to be the creature and toady of the Chicago Democratic hierarchy.  Not once did he break ranks. Palin knows that and so does Obama.  They also both know that Obama’s “presidential leadership” will originate from and be vetted by the offices of Reid and Pelosi.

Thank You MSM

McCain’s going to win.  All because of faulty vetting by the MSM of the Democratic party.  As much as the liberal bias of the MSM has been an undying source of frustration to the GOP, the beneficial result has been to weaken the Democrats and strenghten the GOP.  The MSM has been relentless in scrubbing the GOP of its weaker members by enthusically reporting every and any lapse by any conservative.  The net result is a contingent of GOP politicians that are really tough in a very Darwinian sense.

The other result is that the Dems have a lot of deadwood piled up in their ranks.  This is no better demonstrated by this presidential election cycle.  

First, you have “love child” Edwards.  Had McCain been Edwards shoes, the NYT would not have been so diffident in reporting this “minor” picidillo.  It would have been front page news one nanosecond after the union of sperm and ovum.  Frankly, the Dems were fortunate that Edwards didn’t catch fire. Can you imagine the problems for the Dems if that news broke at the convention and he was the nominee?  Those styrofoam pillars would have taken on a whole new meaning.  To paraphrase Dolly Parton:  ”you don’t trust no southern backwoods lawyer.”

Then, there’s Hill.  Probably the strongest of the very shallow Dem bench.  But again, what did she have to offer? A lawyer from Arkansas who owes her entire career to a name she acquired through marriage.  Some feminist.

Finally, Barry.  Anyone who knows anything about Democratic machine politics in Chicago will smell another machine politician from ten miles off.  Any participation in Chicago machine politics makes you dirty automatically. All of your associates have skeletons in their closets. Rezko. Ayers. Wright.  I know.  I grew up there. I have relatives who were patronage workers.  

But, while the MSM was “vetting” Sarah Palin by trashing her 17 year-old daughter (Bristol’s not even old enough to vote), the MSM failed for decades to vet its own (face it, they’re a wholly owned Democratic party subsidiary). Leaving the Democratic party unable to field candidates any better than Love Child, Hill and Barry.

Then Barry picks Biden.  What’s Biden done?  Just gets re-elected and re-elected so he built up enough seniority to wind up as chair of the foreign relations committee.  Foreign policy experience; try peter principle.

Finally, in the spirit of enlightened self-interest, the MSM has been the their own worst enemy in promoting their liberal agenda.  Moreover, it has badly tarnished its own brand name.  The MSM is increasingly being discounted as an accurate source of news.  And, by its bias, it has stimulated the rise of alternate sources of news and information.  What was it?  Twenty-four hours before the internet demolished Dan Rather?

There is a reason that stock prices for such propaganda organs such as the NYT are sinking faster than a drowning polar bear in the globally-warmed, ice-free Arctic.  That reason is that people will pay, and pay well, for information.  As in accurate information.  But, people will not pay for propaganda; propaganda is to be handed out for free.

 

Sarah Palin; Escapee from the Liberal Plantation

Break out the blood hounds.  And, while your at it beat up on a pregnant 17 year-old.  Another designated “minority” has escaped from the liberal plantation and is actually thinking for herself–and succeeding. 

She has the temerity to actually make her own decisions and not check in with the proffered wisdom of NOW and NARAL.  She’s got five kids and should, in deference to NARAL, aborted the last.  She’s supposed to be a ward of the state with all those kids; but instead of collecting food stamps she shoots a moose and feeds her family with said animal.  We’ll pass on the Second Amendment implications integral to the moose murder.

Sarah Palin is a big threat to the Obama campaign.  Even before her selection as McCain’s running mate, Obama’s campaign was running on fumes.  What was supposed to be a triumphal coronation was turning into a squeaker.  And, the Democrats are beginning to realize that the Messiah is really damaged goods from the Chicago Democratic political machine.

Obama’s just like Jimmy Carter back in 1976.  He sounded fresh and new.  But, under the hood it’s just the same liberal boiler plate.  Back then, the MSM was able to hide Carter’s true liberal bona fides and maintain the southern born-again Christian facade; at least until after the election. Thanks to the internet, the MSM’s monopoly on information control is broken and we know of Obama’s less than sterling “post-partisan” credentials.

Enter Palin.  She’s serves to highlight Obama’s weaknesses even further–chief being his inability to reach out to the other half of the Democratic party that voted for Hillary.  And, her two year tenure as governor is experience that only further highlights Obama’s lack of accomplishments.

But, Palin’s real crime is her divergence from the holy scriptures of the liberated woman; Democratic style. It’s okay to be conservative if you’re white and male.  But, if you fall outside that demographic, the liberal establishment is going to be particularly vicious in beating down the upstart.  Savaging conservative minorities is no longer reserved for blacks. This is a successful woman who presents with credentials that would go entirely unrecognized on Martha’s Vineyard or the Hampton’s.  And, this is a successful woman who is pro-life and shoots a gun and looks good all at the same time.  

This is a woman who, in the eyes of the bicoastal elite is way off-script.  An affront.  She’s supposed to be divorced, have bad teeth, smoke, maybe with a GED, who’s supporting her kids checking out groceries at the local supermarket.  This is a woman who must be destroyed immediately.  Strangled in the cradle. Even if you have to drag her pregnant 17 year-old daughter into the fray to make the kill.

 

The Dhimmitude of Random House

What should be a really big story has largely been buried–the cancellation of book release of The Jewel of Medina.  Why?  The usual reasons; threat of violence from partisans of the Religion of Peace.  Safety of Random House employees.  Sensitivity for the tender feelings of Muslims.  The book’s not all that good anyway.  And, on and on.

Once again is we have an abject abandonment of fundamental principles that undergird an individual’s right to freely express himself (or herself).  And, an abdication of the principles of the First Amendment rights that not only do we have a right to freely express ourselves, but we have governing principles and institutions that are there expressly to allow and protect the right of free expression.  In fact, I would submit that the Department of Homeland Security needs to involve itself with such issues as this abridgment of rights by intimidation by the implicit threat of violence.

And, I would submit that Random House, if it is really interested in continuing in business as a publisher in a society that allegedly values free expression, has an obligation to publish this book.  I no longer matters that this book may be a piece of trash; “harlequin” “soft porn.”  Just as it matters not that the famous Danish Muhammad cartoons were as art or political commentary a bust.  The fact that there people who will commit violence and, in the cartoon matter, kill.  It therefore becomes imperative that such behavior will not succeed in silencing free expression.

Two final comments:

Aisha was betrothed to Muhammad when she was six or seven years of age. The marriage was consummated at the age of nine.  Okay, child marriages and polygamy were common practices in the middle east circa 600 A.D.  I think most reasonable people would understand that fact and would be willing to still evaluate Muhammad’s religious pronouncements objectively nonetheless.  

But, Islam needs to just acknowledge this fact rather than taking umbrage at actions that have a historical basis in fact.  And, acknowledge that such practices are now simply beyond the pale in the 21st century Islamic world-view and Islamic theology.

The second thought is the greater propensity for dhimmitude in Second Amendment-free zones; like New York City.  Might I humbly suggest that Random House move its offices to a red-state location so that its employees could take a more proactive role in using their Second Amendment rights to defend their First Amendment rights.  That’s why the Second Amendment was written into the Bill of Rights in the first place.

 

 

 

Obama and Abortion

Mr. William Katz of Urgent Agenda cross-links to an NRO post in his post Obama and the Kids.  The NRO article concerns Obama’s slippage in the polls among young voters.  McCain seems to be winning forty percent of the young vote.    

But, why should this be surprising.  In general, political affiliations are familial.  Much like showing up at your 25-year high school reunion and finding everyone there just like their parents (which we all swore we’d never become), so it is with voting.  See any of the Kennedy clan running as Republicans?  See any of the Bush clan running as Democrats?

But, abortion is killing, disproportionately, the Democrats.  Statistically, the more liberal, the more likely you’re going to get an abortion.  So, what’s left from the most aborted generations of the last forty years? The children of conservatives.  Its roughly a 60/40 split, so you still have plenty of young folks to show up for Barry’s rallies.  

But, what the MSM fails to show are a huge number of young folks that didn’t show up. There’re off doing their homework.  Or, patroling the back streets of Iraq and Afghanistan. They really know the stakes; they have a legacy to protect; they have a country to run. 

McCain Visceral; Obama Nuance

Following Saddleback, much of the punditry has been playing on this distinction of an intellectual Obama and a gut punching McCain; with a spin that prefers the “nuance” of Obama.  Here’s an example by Sally Quinn in the Washington Post.  The point is not to comment on Quinn’s post directly but to comment on spin that Adali Stevenson II intellectualism is the preferred fit to the White House.

But the point missed is that the president is an executive who’s job is to make decisions.  You hire staffs of advisors and wonks to do the necessary intellectual massaging.  What is so admired in Obama’s long-winded answers points to a man unable to make decisions.  Nuance has some other synonyms.  Intellectual masturabtion.  Chasing your tail.  Having your cake and eating it too.  Dithering.

And, on the other hand, there are many capable people who can see to a clear cut answer with out endless verbalizations of how to get to that answer.  Yes, back in high school you had to show your work in arriving at an answer in algebra class.  But, there are people who can see the answer immediately without the intermediate steps.  Chief executives are not paid to show their work, but to see the options and decide. 

It is the executive’s job to take this data and recommendations and to distill it into very crisp and direct orders.  And, much of the executive’s job is a brutal distillation down to and choice between two options. Yea or Nay.  Sign the bill or veto.  Evacuate off Dunkirk in a bleak hope of winning a war or suing for peace with the Nazis.  Watching Hussein acquire nuclear weapons or bombing the reactor at Orsik.  Sitting at a crossroads of history and making a choice between a bad alternative and a worse alternative; and trying to know which is which is which. 

P.S.:  There’s no pay grade above President of the United States.

Georgia (and not Obama) on My Mind

History never really took a vacation; even during the 90’s.  However, large swaths of the liberal intellectoid class never came to grips with that even after the attacks of September 11, 2001.  These intellectoids tiptoe around the elephant in the living room; that we are in fact at war.  One is a young senator named Obama. Here, courtesy Powerlineis Obama’s McGovernite military policy formulated in the very midst of our conflict defending Western Civilization against the barbarism of Islam.  A proposal for disarmament in the heat of battle.

Now, history is really back with a bang as Russia attacks Georgia.  Never mind the ideology, it is the Russian Bear in the midst of asserting its hegemony over central Asia.  It is the Great Game back in spades.  Obviously, Barry never cracked open a history book.  All we get, from Hawaii, is some lame kumbya response about everyone just needs to just get along.   

Now, lets look at the full extent of this problem.  Map of Georgia.  Georgia is sandwiched, with Azerbiajan between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.  To the north is Russia.  To the south is Iran.  And, running through is the sole oil pipeline not controlled by either Russian and Iran.  This incursion gives Russia and Iran a chokehold on oil from the Arctic circle to the straits of Hormuz.   

So, now you have two rouge powers sitting astride a huge chunk of the world’s oil.  One of those powers is nuclear.  And, if Barry gets his way so will the other.  

Fixing our energy policy now takes on a new urgency.  We need to be drilling to counteract a monopoly control that could very well choke the world’s economy.  We need to counteract a monopoly that has a nuclear arsenal to enforce that monopoly.  And, Barry’s proposals to tax oil companies, inflate our tires, take the bus and build windmills become frighteningly absurd in the face of a very powerful monopoly that is under the control of one and potentially two nuclear powers.

 

Welcome to the Lodge

Perched along the scenic banks of Elkhorn Creek is the world renown Elkhorn Creek Lodge.  A brilliant architectural conception, it is evocative of the old west.  Yet, with a bow to the 21st century, is features indoor plumbing and flush toilets.

So, welcome in…

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