Sunday, August 31, 2008

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Palin Criticisms Dismantled

Thank you, Ed Morrisey --
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/30/desperation-from-democrats/

And her husband is 1/4 Native American . . .

from http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/story/8334949p-8231037c.html

Todd Palin, who has been a quiet background presence in her campaign, broadens the family resume considerably: fisherman, oil field worker and Alaska Native. The family fishes a commercial setnet site on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay every summer. Todd has worked 18 years on the North Slope for BP, where he is now a production operator, a job Sarah says he would quit if she's elected. His Yup'ik grandmother, Helena Andree, grew up in a traditional Native household in Bristol Bay and now lives in Homer.

Todd Palin is also a three-time winner of the Iron Dog snowmachine race, the 2,000-mile trek from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks that's billed as the world's longest snowmobile race.

Finally, Analysis That Sees the Obvious!

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/08/29/what-the-palin-pick-means-for-evangelicals.aspx

Alan Wolfe is saying in a wider forum something i don't see acknowledged or understood by Democratic Party folk much, that "Evangelicals are a complex bunch of multiple audiences, and they aren't all that lock-step . . . except in regards to abortion." I keep seeing Obama partisans dismiss all evangelicals too often as "easily led" because there's an assumption that the Pro-Life movement is all about "Bubba bait for boobs" and it's only an every four year conditioned reflex.

Ironically, looking at Palin may help Democrats to stop making those blanket assumptions, and figure out how to reach the lower hanging branches of evangelicalism, while acknowledging (as Bill & Hillary always quietly but persistently did) that anti-abortion folks might have a sincerely held position of their own, and not just signals through their back teeth fillings from Jim Dobson.

Most worrisome about Palin is that she's pro-"Intelligent Design," but she and her husband are home-schoolers in the town at the beginning of the Iditarod, so it doesn't exactly surprise. Would she push for requiring the teaching of it? Hard to tell, because she's of the libertarian side of the conservative equation (see the TNR link!) and doesn't like to tell people what to do -- she refused to sign a bill, effectively vetoing it, that banned civil unions for gay and lesbians in Alaska, saying it was "unwarranted intrusion into private matters." This is going to be a fascinating political season with the old molds all thrown out the window!

From CrunchyCon on Aug. 29

A Palin view from an Alaskan
Friday August 29, 2008

posted by Rod Dreher @ 1:28pm

This from Richard, in a Palin combox thread below. Lots to consider in this balanced consideration:

As a former Alaskan, my first reaction is purely and simply tribal. Wow. Some random thoughts.

I have met Sarah Palin (n.b. Alaska is a small state, so evereyone meets everyone else, ultimately). In a small setting, she comes across as informed, charming, and very good looking. Did I tell you she is good looking. The big question, shortly to be answered, is whether she can play in Minneapolis as well as she played in Wasilla. This is a big, big, question, and McCain has bet big on red, and is now watching the little silver ball roll around the roulette wheel. She is a walk the talk Christian, not a political Christian. Of all the various things that have been written or said about the Palin's fifth child, the one that says the most to me about their "values" (I hate the term, but it will have to serve) as a family is the quote from the Palin's oldest of four, and only son, Track, now serving in Iraq, who said simply: "I'm thrilled. I always wanted a brother".

The Palins are definitely Sam's Club Republicans. Wasilla is exurban Anchorage, the sort of place where one finds F-150s and hardly any Volvos, and where people shop at Costco and Target, and eat at Chepo's Fiesta -- when they're not barbecuing salmon they've caught themselves. The Palins fished in Bristol Bay for heaven's sake, which involves a three to four day trip around the Alaska Peninisula from a Homer or Seward home port, out of radio range, where your two or three crewmates are who you have to depend on if things go wrong. And they can go very wrong. The Bristol Bay red run is not quite "deadliest catch", but it's no walk in the park, either. And Todd Palin has won a couple of Iron Dog snowmachine races back and forth between Wasilla and Nome. McCain may have just locked away NASCAR country's votes.

The big question I have, having watched Sarah Palin's career, is can she function as a key contributor in a major and sustained political effort that is not about her? She is not an organization Republican nor, is it yet clear, an organization person necessarily ready to adapt to someone else's organization. Now, given the state of things in the republican party in Alaska, not being an organization Republican is probably a good thing. But this is now a ticket with two mavericks, one of whom will need to serve as VICE president. How will she contribute, and will she possess the management chops to take on whatever portfolio is shared with her, and add value?

Big questions. Huge learning curve ahead.

In the intimate environment Alaska presents, Sarah Palin has most usually been among the most clever people in the room. We will shortly see how she performs when she moves from Alaska Class 4A to her debate with Joe Biden. The potential for a Dan Quayle moment is not infinitesimal. On the other hand, her selection sets up the possibility of an interesting one-on-one with Barack Obama. He's had the gym floor all to himself the past few months, three point shots and all. Unlike Barack, Sarah has a championship ring, as a former Wasilla Lady Warrior.

Do not assume that because Sarah Palin has been picked, that John McCain has gone all soft on the oil industry. Spend some time googling "Palin", "Gas Line", "ExxonMobil", and "Point Thompson", and you will quicky discover enough information to squelch any thought that Gov. Palin is in any way cordial toward Big Oil. The question is whether her Administration's thumb on the scales to favor a Canadian company for the gas line project -- a company whose capital and management chops for a project of that magnitude remain uncertain -- will blow up some time during the next four years will be very interesting to watch.

For the next 48 hour news cycle, this is an inspired political pick. For the next 60 days and beyond, that little silver ball keeps rolling around the roulette wheel. I have this funny hunch that when that little ball stops, we will instantly know what McCain has risked with this pick. It's the kind of Hail Mary pass that I suppose one ought to expect from a guy who once flew jets off of carriers. McCain fans might just want to pur themselves a double before they sit down and watch CNN/Fox the next few weeks.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Hmmmm.

From National Review Online, Aug. 26 --

Factoid on Military Service on the Ticket [Pete Hegseth]

For the first time in 44 years, the Democratic ticket for President will not include a veteran of America's Armed Services. Neither Senator Obama nor Senator Biden have spent one day in military uniform.

And by my calculations, it's been 76 years (Hoover-Curtis ticket in 1932) [and how did that ticket do, by the way? jbg] since the Republicans nominated a duo without any military experience. This year, that streak continues...

While military service is not a presidential prerequisite, one should not under-estimate the value combat boots bring to understanding leadership, service, and courage...especially in the dangerous world we live in today.

08/26 07:31 PM

Grilling Joe Biden

Hmmm. Slate gets all up in Joe Biden’s grill –

http://www.slate.com/id/2198543/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198597/

This is an issue that really turns up my gas flame -- clergy who lift sermons without attribution have an ethical issue they oughta get right about, but when you put yourself into the stories you lift, first-person pronouns and all, there's something not right inside that psyche.

Not Much Bouncing Around Here

Big mistake, say many, to directly run ads challenging McCain's campaign on the Ayers issue, since that might make Mainstream Media do a . . . whoops, there it is:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-25-ayers_N.htm?csp=34

Don't forget to watch Pollster.com and realclearpolitics.com --

http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/08-us-pres-ge-mvo.php !!!!!

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ Watch those favorable ratings in the righthand column . . .

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

And at National Review Online --

Nervous Democrats Need a Convention Bounce [Peter Kirsanow NRO]

It's imperative for Obama to get a sizeable bounce out of this convention since he didn't get one by choosing Biden. The Democrat nominee usually has a healthy lead in August polls as well as in electoral vote projections.

Rasmussen's latest electoral vote projection has Obama leading McCain by only 10 votes—193 to 183. Obama's lead has shrunk by 35 votes since the previous projection. Every single state in which there has been a shift has trended away from Obama, including Ohio which has gone from " Leans Democrat" in early July to "Toss-Up" in late July to "Leans Republican" today.

( BTW - In August 2004 Kerry had greater than a 100 vote lead over Bush in most electoral projections.)
There will be few opportunities between the convention and the election for Obama to improve his poll numbers. In fact, his campaign's reaction to the Ayers issue shows they realize that that there are numerous opportunities for continued erosion.

Barring calamitous gaffes by either candidate, the debates present the best remaining opportunities for separation. But the presumption that Obama would shine in the debates was deflated when McCain trounced Obama at Saddleback.

Obama may still have two significant advantages: cash and turnout. Democrats, stung by the GOP turnout machine in 2004, have been working furiously to make sure voters get to the polls. This could be the difference in 2008.

Two of the biggest unknowns: to what extent are the polls underestimating the turnout among black voters, especially in pivotal states like Ohio ( in the primaries, polls underestimated black turnout in some southern states) ; to what extent are polls overestimating support for Obama in pivotal states ( Obama performed significantly worse than his poll numbers projected in several states).

Monday, August 25, 2008

Opening Moments of the DNC - 25 Aug. 08

Wow. This was more religious than some denominational assembly openings i've attended! A prayer, the Navajo/Dineh Codetalker Color Guard & kid's chorus Pledge and America the Beautiful, then a preacher gets up to talk about the pre-opening as an interfaith worship service in the hall, and that she's the CEO -- an NYT Sunday Mag profile of her:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/magazine/20minister-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Weddings and Non-members

Oy.

http://weddings.about.com/b/2008/08/20/is-it-wrong-to-have-your-wedding-in-a-church-if-youre-not-a-member.htm


You gotta read down to the forum moderator's response, which is . . . well, she doesn't get it. We ARE stage sets, and we should get used to it and be more cooperative.

But she did print this, for which i thank her. (Yeah, i added a comment myself, too.)

Rick Warren in Aug. 23 WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121944811327665223.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Pastor Rick does a good job of explaining what evangelicalism ISN'T becoming.

This Is Soooooooo Huge . . .

. . . for Licking County in particular and Ohio in general:

http://www.ancientohiotrail.com


Go and wallow (especially in the pdf "Itineraries", and know this site will only grow and develop over the next couple years. Kudos to John Hancock and the CERHAS crew!

Very interesting read on the Civil War

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2008/08/24/south_confederacy_civil.html

For all those who wanted to say a) the South didn't really lose, and b) the war wasn't about slavery, this is a devastating counter-argument.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Effective Promotional Material . . .

. . . whether i agree wid 'em or not (NOT), but this is just exemplary in making the viewer think "i'd like to know more about what their story is saying."

http://www.creationmuseum.org (see embedded video for current ad), and their older video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y01ZpqC55Oo

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Time - The Global Ambition of Rick Warren

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1830147,00.html

Hmmmmm.

Americans are about six percent of the world’s population and we account for about forty-five percent of the world’s philanthropy. Among Americans, believers are far more generous than secularists. Among believers, Protestants are more liberal in their giving than Catholics. Among Protestants, evangelicals are more generous than mainliners. But if you were ask a secular arbiter of all that is philanthropic for his opinion on how we were doing, he would invert the whole thing. That much said, when the standard is God’s generosity to us, most of us are not nearly as generous to others as we ought to be. We should pray for grace to overflow more liberally still. But we may be pardoned if the evangelical artesian well, producing 20 gallons a minute, while wishing it could be 40, doesn’t want to hear lectures on charity from the dry hole of secular leftism.

-Douglas Wilson
http://www.dougwils.com

(Doug is a Reformed Evangelical Christian who pastors a church in Moscow, Idaho)

Monday, August 11, 2008

25 More Hints You May Not Vote For Obama

25 More Hints You're Not Voting for Obama [Peter Kirsanow]

Judging by emails, some of you are still undecided. So here are some more helpful hints:

You're unlikely to vote for Obama if you.....

1. aren't registered to vote in France or Germany.
2. believe Gen. Petraeus is more important than Al Gore.
3. nod every time you read a Thomas Sowell column.
4. have ever caught yourself humming the theme from "The Green Berets."
5. have gotten your pants dirty in the last week.
6. kinda like a good steak once in a while.
7. have accidentally discharged your gun during church services in a bitter fit of antipathy over people who aren't like you.
8. wouldn't mind knowing if your 14 year old daughter was being taken by a non-family member to Toledo for an abortion.
9. prefer the Super Bowl to the World Cup.
10. know Sig Sauer isn't the name of Obama's domestic policy advisor.
11. are certain Obama would've taken the tank ride if Dukakis hadn't beaten him to it.
12. can't describe Obama's position on the surge without using the word "incoherent."
13. don't think having a baby is "punishment.".
14. have heard about Obama's vote against the Induced Birth Infant Liability Act.
15. tend to giggle whenever Nancy Pelosi talks energy policy.
16. think your taxes are plenty high already, thank you very much.
17. prefer legislation come from Congress, not the Supreme Court
18. believe we'd be in a world of hurt if we'd followed Obama's advice on Iraq last year.
19. resent the suggestion you're a racist for treating Obama like a serious presidential candidate.
20. hear the name "Osama Bin Laden" and words other than "habeas corpus" come to mind.
21. were to meet William Ayers, you'd be more likely to bop him in the nose than join his board.
22. list either Patton, Braveheart or 300 among your favorite movies.
23. realize that Obama's Speech of the Century on race was, in hindsight, a crock.
24. wonder which government agency is in charge of healing the planet.
25. personally know somebody who packs his passport whenever traveling to San Francisco... just in case.

Score (# of descriptions that apply to you):
0— You heard that according to Publisher's Clearinghouse, Al Gore won Florida
1—3 You think that had Ron Paul gotten more time in the debates he'd be the nominee
4—24 McCain's your man
25 If only Fred Thompson would drink more coffee....

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2IyNmMzNTU3NWJkOWNjZTM3MjM1YTdlOGJlZWI2ZTg=

Oh-bama! (Oh, dear, where are they all going?)

That's right, Rasmussen Polling has 80% of Dems supporting Barack, while 87% of GOP voters are for Johnny Mac. But i thought the media storyline was that all kinds of groups were "flocking" to Obama? Hmmmm...... Lots of election-link goodness, but skip to the end for the funny stuff, swiped from National Review:

On how Hillary sees him --
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12420.html

And what her supporters plan at the convention --
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/plans-for-clinton-convention-rallies-intensify-2008-08-10.html

On Obama's education policy history --
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2E1MTFkZTVjZTlkOTBiYWFlYWUyM2RjYTRjNjhkMmM=

On the only actual record he's got --
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/386abhgm.asp?pg=1

Which looks more and more like a record worth flip-flopping on!

versus the President's cogency on faith and foreign affairs --

Bush on Religion in China [National Review Online]

From his Bob Costas interview:
[full transcript - http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/technology/interview-president-bob-costas-nbc-sports/ ]

Q: As you attempt to press these points with them, do you find Hu Jintao not just warm toward you personally, but is he receptive? Do you sense any movement?

THE PRESIDENT: It's hard to tell. I mean, it's — all I can tell you is, is that it is best to be in the position where a leader will listen to you. I went to church here, and I'm sure the cynics say, well, you know, it was just a state-sponsored church. On the other hand — and that's true. On the other hand, it gave me a chance to say to the Chinese people, religion won't hurt you, you ought to welcome religious people. And it gave me a chance to say to the government, why don't you register the underground churches and give them a chance to flourish? And he listened politely. I can't read his mind, but I do know that every time I met with him I pressed the point.

And just for fun --

25 Hints You're Not Voting for Obama [Peter Kirsanow - NROnline]

Today's Rasmussen daily tracking poll has 80% of Democrats supporting Obama and 87% of Republicans supporting McCain. There are still a healthy number of undecideds. This conflicts with the stream of media reports that Obamacons, evangelicals, black conservatives and independents are flocking to Obama.

If you're an independent, moderate or conservative on the fence about whether to vote for McCain or Obama, here's a helpful guide:

It's unlikely you'll vote for Obama if you....
1. aren't a news anchor.
2. read the New York Times for pretty much the same reason the NSA monitors radio transmissions.
3. automatically conclude that the person laughing in the car next to you must be listening to Rush. Or maybe Obama off teleprompter.
4. dislocated your shoulder trying to explain Obama's position on Iraq to co-workers.
5. find autobiographies generally more interesting when the author has, you know, done something.
6. remember the Carter Administration.
7. would give a month's pay to play Jack Bauer's partner on 24.
8. increasingly agree with Mark Steyn that "almost everything [Obama] says is, well, nuts."
9. think it's relevant — despite what the sophisticates say — that several of Obama's mentors and associates have displayed a dislike for America or a disdain for Americans.
10. think it's relevant that several of McCain's mentors and associates are American heroes of historic magnitude.
11. think about 9/11 more than once a year.
12. have concluded that Larry the Cable Guy makes way more sense than Howard Dean.
13. feel a little safer during turbulence when your pilot is a calm "white haired dude."
14. thought about Hillary's 3:00 a.m. phone call ad when you first heard about Russian tanks in Georgia.
15. wonder why Obama felt it necessary to give a speech on patriotism.
16. get sorta creeped out by 200,000 Germans chanting "Obama! Obama!"
17. think the jury may still be out on Harvard Law School.
18. suspect "merci beaucoup" is French for "empty suit."
19. doubt that teleprompters are really magical dispensers of good ideas.
20. know in your gut that defiantly withstanding 4 1/2 years of torture trumps all of Obama's qualifications and accomplishments combined — regardless of what the elite pundits say.
21. repeatedly find yourself asking "Change to what?"
22. have ever used the term "pompous twit' in the same sentence with "Marx," "Marcuse," or "Sartre."
23. don't like being told what to do — especially by someone who hasn't done it.
24. really like ticking off the media, Hollywood, academics, and PC busybodies everywhere.
25. weren't born yesterday.

Score (# of descriptions that apply to you):
0— Go ahead, write in Dennis Kucinich
1—3 Obama may be your choice after all
4—5 You think Hillary got a raw deal and won't vote Obama
6—24 McCain's your man
25 It's OK to write in Reagan

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Oh. My. Read this and marvel . . .

. . . at how it is impossible to say this won't happen, which says what about the Dems right now?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/08/could_obama_lose_the_nominatio_1.html

Friday, August 8, 2008