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I don’t agree with everything this young man says. But his passion and his general observations make some eloquent statements. Men and women such as this are the future of the Right. Why do I say so? Just one quote …
“It’s one thing to reach across the aisle to the other side. It’s quite another to have so much gravity that the other side of the aisle comes to us!”
Welcome to all of you coming from Instapundit. While visiting here, you may also enjoy yesterday’s post, ‘MY President or Just THE President’. Feel free to look around and comment. I’d like to know what you think.
They are also uneducated, out of step with the rest of the country, to be pitied, isolated, suffering in the area of “jobs, education and development”, ideologically aligned with the old Confederacy, at odds with the values of the rest of the country, and are getting what they deserve because they won’t “… get with the right program.” Hat tip to Dan Cleary for making sure I was aware of this.
Or you could ask Dwight Lewis at The Tennessean. Lewis learned all this in a phone interview with “… David A. Bositis, senior political analyst for the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies …” He felt it true and significant enough to share it with all of us. The Tennessean evidently agreed with him. Why publish his lunacy otherwise?
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is a misleading name for the group. Per Lewis, the politics and economy the JCPES finds worthy of studying are those “… of concern to African-Americans and other people of color …” The picture at their site includes pictures of Asians and Hispanics. However, reading through the headlines on their site, the only people of color mentioned are either Blacks or African Americans. There is one vague reference to “America’s minorities.”
This is the environment in which Bositis’ claims must be evaluated. And what is Bositis’ basis for making such outrageous claims? It’s his analysis of who voted for John McCain and who voted for Barack Obama. He has lots of high sounding analysis. I’ll save you some time. Anyone who voted forJohn McCain is all of those things in the opening paragraph. Anyone who voted for Barack Obama is not.
No word on the character of Barr, Baldwin and Nader voters. Words fail to describe how offensive Bositis’ words are, or should be, to every man or woman who supported a candidate OBO, “Other than Barack Obama.” Obviously, however, Lewis, Bositis and presumably some of their readers and supporters believe this tripe. I would point out the position of Lewis and Bositis are, on their face, far more racist and divisive than that of any of John McCain’s supporters of any color. Except, I must be wrong. It’s not possible for Blacks to be racist. Jesse Jackson himself told us so.
When people criticize me for declaring Barack Obama is not my President, I’ll take comfort in knowing that he is not mine, although he is Mr. Lewis’ President and he is Mr. Bositis’ President. To all you who want to claim Barack as your own, enjoy their company. Barack forged a coalition he greatly desired to get him elected. It contains a great many fine people who mistakenly believe in the untested, unproven promise of Barack. It also contains a great many craven, twisted racists such as Mr. Lewis and Mr. Bositis. Their bile and ignorance, passed off as lofty and intellectual analysis, is rubbish if for no other reason than it fails to address the rationale for McCain voters elsewhere. That such thinking might be indicative of the actual change and hope we’ll see as opposed the empty rhetoric Obama offered ought to terrify Americans.
Men like Lewis and Bositis are destroying Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of integration. They are callously dividing our nation along racial lines for purposes I cannot fathom. How any sane and educated individual in 2008 can believe, let alone put into print in what should be respectable publications, the notion that millions of Americans may legitimately be labled racist and backward based solely on the vote they cast is beyond outrageous.
I’ve read it in a score of places in the last 48 hours. I cannot help but repeat it here. It’s going to be a long 4 years …
The election was decided just two days ago. It didn’t take long for one of Obama’s most controversial and largely unheralded new programs to hit the news wires. It’s not his tax plans or his plans to “spread the wealth”, it’s not a cabinet or staff appointment, it’s not even a demure revelation that the US is a big place filled with many different views and that he was going to take some time to make sure the things he does are good for all Americans.
Nope.
The first major balloon floated by the nascent Obama administration after the announcement controversial Clinton appointee Rahm Emanuel would be Obama’s Chief of Staff (didn’t take long to drop the idea of “Change”) is a salvo in the sure to be hard fought battle to establish Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force.”
Back in July, in Colorado, Obama called for the creation of such a group. His statement, largely unreported at the time and even since, was reported in a post here that quickly became and remains the most popular post at BCM attracting hundreds of visitors per week looking for information.
In a July 2 speech outlining plans to expand opportunities for people to serve in areas such as AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, Obama makes the following statement with no explanation or amplification.
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
When I read that, I furiously started looking for it on the web. Interestingly, I found only 3 references to it. The Chicago Tribune reported it.Joseph Farah at World Net Daily reported it. It’s reported that Congressional Quarterly reported it as well but I can’t find the article. Google searches reveal only blogs are covering it and none of the usual suspects have it. There are references to some discussion on Sean Hannity’s forums.
With the US Army alone at over 500,000 serving members and the US Military budget at over $400 billion for 2007, there were a lot of questions regarding such a gargantuan, sweeping program. Most important, how is it to be funded?
This morning, World Net Daily reports some light is being shed on the question. It is reporting Barney Frank is proposing cutting the budget for the military by 25%, by $150,000,000,000, and diverting the money to pay for his civilian national security force.
This will be an issue to watch closely. Not only is it the first example of things Obama will do as “the President but not my President”, it is the first example of Obama’s intentions for the future of this country. I have said, in offline discussions, that I believe a Barack Obama Presidency has the capacity literally to destroy this country. That sentiment has been pooh-poohed by Obama supporters who assure me Obama is a proud American who loves this country and would never do anything to harm it. In the face of such statements, for an administration yet to have served a day in actual power to float, as one of their very first ideas cutting our military budget by a fourth while we are still at war isn’t exactly confidence inspiring.
I applaud the President-elect’s efforts to cut spending. I’m all about that! But generally, when talking about spending cuts, the first things to eliminate are wasteful, redundant, unnecessary spending. Why start slashing Defense? Obama and company couldn’t find $150 billion dollars in the unconstitutional entitlement programs this country funds?
It appears Obama is taking this mandate thing a lot more seriously than he is taking his pledge to be my President, too! Keep watch over here for more on this as it develops …
Tuesday night, Barack Obama spoke to a waiting country and a wondering world. Found in his words are a myriad reasons to reject what he stands for. The election is over and Obama is President. Some say the healing must now begin and we must unite behind Barack. Obama himself appealed “…to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn — I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.”
I say, Obama will be the President; but he will never be my President. Obama wants what he is unwilling to give. To get the job, Obama divided us. Now on the job, he yearns for unity’s strength. But leopards don’t change their spots. As he ran, so will he govern. I will not be a party to that.
When Obama “wonders if the dream of our founders is alive”, I remember what those Founders wrote. They were “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Obama believes some men are more equal than others. When advocating for nonexisent rights or for granting more rights to some than to me, he will be the President, but not my President.
When Obama says he wants to “… renew this nation’s promise … to restore prosperity … to reclaim the American Dream …”; when he speaks of “remaking this nation” I must ask, when was the promise broken and by whom; who stole our prosperity; who moved the American Dream out of reach of everyday Americans and who pulled down our nation that it needs to be remade? For a century, it has been the ideological allies of Barack Obama who have done so. When raising our taxes, curtailing our liberty, weakening the defense of our country and bankrupting our businesses and Economy - Obama will be the President, but not my President.
When Obama says his Presidency was launched in “the living rooms of Concord” and financed “by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give … to this cause” I marvel at his deception. When he enters the Oval Office it will complete a journey begun in the living room of William Ayers’ and which traveled a path financed by thousands of people Obama will not identify, many of whom are not even Americans. He will enter the office of the President, but not my President.
When Obama says “… the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime …” and references our military and families worried about tomorrow, I recoil in horror from the cavalier exploitation of those about whom he is ignorant. My son is in the military he will command and I have four more children at home to care for. When he sends my son into harm’s way but threatens not to support him while there; when he takes money for which I labor and which I need to support my family to give to families he decides need it more he will be the President, but not my President.
When Obama calls for “a new spirit of patriotism”, I struggle to find something wrong with the old one. When Obama gives away our sovereignty and national interests to our enemies and those who would weaken us he will be the President, but not my President.
When Obama calls for us to “look after not only ourselves, but each other” and to believe “that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers” I marvel at his hypocrisy. Under the old spirit of “service and responsibility” he would replace, Americans were the most generous and industrious people on earth. When Obama decides who it is I must sacrifice for and brings suffering to Main Street via higher taxes for the Wall Street Bailout he will be the President, but not my President.
Obama’s words are empty. His promise is hollow. His dreams are nightmares. To be my President, he must deny everything he confesses to believe in. He must repudiate his stated policies. He must realize the paradise he seeks is found in the principles and promises of others. As the President, he may invoke the imagery of Lincoln, King and Kennedy but his appeal to their memory defiles their legacy.
He says he will be my President. But he will not because he cannot. To expect me to believe otherwise insults me. And that, too, is something my President would not do.
UPDATE: Christian Grantham, WKRN blogger at Nashville is Talking, reported, via Twitter, that a TN GOP press release earlier today incorrectly charged Tennessee’s Election Board with changing Tennessee election law at the last minute in such a way that would make it easier to commit vote fraud. WKRN will run a story on their 5PM news broadcast wherein a state election board representative will deny any such change in election law ever took place. I emailed the state GOP regarding their take on the new information and was referred to a statement from Randy Stamps, State Director for the GOP. “We are happy to hear that Mr. Brook Thompson has stated clearly that only Tennessee driver’s licenses will be accepted as a form of identification at the polls. Democrat volunteers and operatives led our Republican volunteers to believe Mr. Thompson’s opinion was different than he has indicated today. It is important that everyone understands that Tennessee’s election laws will be enforced on Election Day and the standards will not be lessened for political expediency.”
Perhaps they long for the day when TN was a player in Presidential elections. Perhaps they’re trying to make up for failing to deliver Tennessee for Gore in 2000. Perhaps they’re jealous of all the attention going on in Ohio. Perhaps they want to take away Pennsylvania’s significance by making a grab for Tennessee’s electoral votes. Who knows why they’re doing it.
But there is no denying that Tennessee’s Democratic Party is pulling out all the stops leading up to the election tomorrow. The state Election Commission, literally hours before the election, has changed Tennessee’s election law making it easier for Democrats inclined to commit vote fraud to do so. It wouldn’t be much of an issue except the national trend among Democrats this election cycle is to embrace vote fraud as a legitimate tool for election day success.
From ACORN’s illegal activity across the country to Ohio’s Secretary of State’s refusal to enforce her own state’s election laws and now Tennessee changes its election laws at the last moment. Not to make the process more secure. Tennessee has made the process even more vulnerable to fraud. But perhaps there’s a silver lining in this dark cloud. We’re getting yet another object lesson telling us loud and clear what to expect from an Obama led Democratic Party. What am I ranting about? This presser from the Tennessee GOP tells the tale.
NASHVILLE - Tennessee Republican Party challenges the last minute changes authorized by the Tennessee Division of Elections. Three days before the election will take place State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson notified a Republican Election Commissioner of significant changes his office had made to voter identification (voter ID) standards that will now include out of state driver’s licenses.
Robin Smith, Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, stated, “In order to be registered to vote in Tennessee a voter is required to be a resident of Tennessee. But now the state election office is loosening standards and allowing people to use out of state driver’s licenses to vote in Tennessee.” Smith continued, “Something doesn’t add up. With numerous reports warning of fraudulent voter registrations taking place in other states we asked the Division of Elections maintain current voter integrity standards not loosen them. I call on Secretary of State Riley Darnell and Election Coordinator Brook Thompson to immediately end this practice. Loosening standards and undermining the law in Tennessee or its intent put the integrity of the elections in jeopardy by and will just encourage fraudulent voting here in Tennessean.”
Tennessee Code Annotated section 2-7-112 (03-C-ii-c) provides instruction for ‘evidence for identification’ to verify a voter’s identity and clearly states that “…a valid voter’s registration card, a Tennessee driver license, social security card, credit card bearing the applicant’s signature or other document bearing the applicant’s signature.”
Voters can provide additional documents to verify their Identity, but it is clear that the law was written to have only state residents participate in electing Tennessee officials.
Smith continued, saying, “Thanks in part to legislation blocked by Democrats in the past, there is very little that can be done to ensure that someone who has already voted in Alabama cannot then vote in Tennessee. The least we can do is to not allow an Alabama drivers license to be used as proof of Tennessee residency and identification.”
Other issues have also emerged during early voting, including recent voting machine irregularities that have occurred with no promise for immediate correction. In multiple counties, voters have attempted to vote for John McCain for president on the [ESS iVotronic] touch screen systems but instead, votes were displayed for Barack Obama. Despite the request for immediate intervention, information was provided by a technician acknowledging the issue with blame being cast to ballot layout, approved by the Secretary of State’s office, and the calibration of the machine to be for an individual 5 feet 2 inches in height.
In addition, the process for certifying poll watchers for county election sites was challenged by Brook Thompson despite previous approval; the questionable use of interpreters accompanying voters who could neither speak nor read English was permitted; and threats to halt poll watcher training were leveled against Republican Election Commissioners.
“Tennesseans deserve confidence in the voting process. Amid national stories of deliberate fraud, the Tennessee Republican Party stands prepared to file civil and criminal charges in any case proven to attempt to defraud the voting process,” continued Chairman Smith. “The disgust of the public toward politics is justified when incompetence and willful disregard for our laws is on full display. We urge Secretary of State Darnell to intervene immediately to make any corrective and necessary punitive action.”
I would close by saying “Shame on you Democrats” but it appears that along with all the other “change” Democrats are championing this year, the definition of “shame” is among the top contenders for redefinition. It used to be people were embarrassed by shameful behavior. Tennessee’s Democrats seem to be proud of it.
While I’m unwilling to concede just yet that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States, it would be foolish to deny that possibility. Even if John McCain wins, the status of Conservatism in the GOP and politics generally is troubling at best.
Politicians and The People, with few exceptions, seem determined to abandon sound, proven truths for the warm, fuzzy rhetoric of the Economic and Social policies of “Hope!” and “Change!” It’s difficult to blame The People. They gave the GOP a shot at letting Conservative ideology work it’s magic on the country for years. Turns out the Pols weren’t as Conservative as advertised.
The years after the Reagan era are defined by a GOP wanting more to breed and less to lead. GOP strategy was “What must we do to increase our power and get re-elected?” instead of “What must we do to serve the people and earn our re-election?”
The nominations of Bob Dole, W and now John McCain coupled with the strategy of many GOP House and Senate candidates has reinforced that approach. A notable exception, AZ Representative John Shadegg, says even at the height of 1994’s Republican Revolution the GOP’s advice was his most important job wasn’t to represent his district or promote his constituents’ values; it was to get re-elected.
This approach has tainted Conservatism in the minds of the people. It has become identical to, or at least wed to the GOP. Thus the sins of the Party become the sins of the Principled. Even if Conservatives object, pointing out they never countenanced bad behavior by the GOP (The Bailout, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Reform) The People still see them as part of the problem and not the solution. How else to understand what happened to Rick Santorum, George Allen and others?
Such losses make the Democrats’ job easier. Each defeated Conservative frees up time, energy and moneyto defeat those remaining. Squishy GOP members voted with Democrats enough to permit them to establish portions of their agenda and to regain solid Congressional majorities. Two things will follow: those who believe the Left can be reasoned with and appeased will be rudely awakened and the country will suffer. To date, only the second is happening.
GOP snubbing of Conservatives has produced much soul searching. The choices are stay in the GOP and work internally for change or leave to found or join a third party. I’m not advocating either choice. But enabling the status quo is not an option. We each must decide what the best use is of our time and talents. To decide, regardless of who wins the White House, a few things should be influential.
It is impossible to predict the consequences of next week’s election. It is, however, quite possible to predict what will happen if Conservatives do nothing. Surrender and chains being unacceptable options, regrouping and fighting on will have to do for now …
McCarthy points out that, while denying any real connection to ACORN, at the same time, Obama is running interference for them with the Justice Department.
ACORN’s White Horse -by Andrew McCarthy
Contributing Editor
National Review
This is rich.
Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign is complaining to the Justice Department about the attention being focused on the determined effort by ACORN, Obama’s wholly owned vote-fraud division, to steal the 2008 election. Adding ignorance to gall, the campaign demands that what it calls a “Special Prosecutor” must investigate not ACORN but — you guessed it — the McCain campaign and the Bush administration.
The art form to which chutzpah has been raised in this instance is a letter from the Obama campaign’s top lawyer, Robert Bauer of the Perkins Coie law firm in Washington. Of course these days, due to the intricate web of traps for the unwary known as “campaign finance regulations” — for which Sen. McCain has no one but himself to blame — all candidates for high office need legal teams. Obama, though, is a special case.
When not scorching the earth to destroy ordinary citizens who have the temerity to ask the messiah blunt questions, or threatening political opponents with prosecution for campaigning against him, or promising war crimes investigations against the opposition party if Americans are daft enough to put his toadies in charge of the Justice Department, Obama comrades can be found editing the amendments to the last modification of their most recently restated campaign-finance reporting errors.
One day the candidate is taking money hand over fist from fictitious supporters like “Good Will” and “Doodad Pro.” The next day, he is illegally raising funds from foreigners (perhaps more than a staggering $63 million), including from Palestinians — who figure a candidate who pours tens of thousands of dollars into the coffers of a terror-supporting former PLO spokesman like Rashid Khalidi is a safe bet to make a prophet out of Jesse Jackson. On still other days, Obama finds himself having to explain his campaign’s misrepresentation of the $800,000 payday it gave his old pals at ACORN.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, is essentially a Marxist shakedown outfit. One of its main rackets is election fraud — but it can also be very helpful if you happen to be a Leftist activist who finds himself needing, say, to foment a riot, vandalize public property, shut down legislative hearings or opposition conferences, harass the families of elected officials, extort leave-us-alone pay-offs from banks, promote illegal immigration, or the like.
Like ACORN, Obama is a community organizer in the Saul Alinsky radical mode, and he goes way back — two decades back — with the organization. He represented ACORN as a lawyer, taught “organizing” to ACORN’s up and coming rabble-rousers, colluded with ACORN in Chicago “get out the vote” projects, funded ACORN when he sat on the boards of left-wing charities, and exploited ACORN’s enthusiastic support when he won his senate seat in 2004 — a victory the “non-partisan” ACORN can’t help itself but claim credit for.
Read the rest of this great article here …
Sitting in airports most of yesterday, I got an earful of CNN’s coverage of Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama.
It effectively undercut two of the most damning truths about Obama. Particularly galling was the interview with Claire McCaskill. Grinning like the Cheshire cat, she gushed Obama must be the best choice since Powell, a military man, would never support someone unqualified to serve as CinC or who trafficked with terrorists. This despite the fact Powell’s endorsement included nothing addressing the validity of those two points. Even afterward, General Powell did not address with specificity his rationale for endorsing Obama.
By far, however, the most disappointing aspect of Powell’s endorsement was his contention that, despite his decision, he still considers himself a Republican. I do not know the General nor have I ever spoken to him. I believe he is a good man and his skilled service to our country as a military man is beyond exemplary. But I cannot accept his contention that he is a Republican. It is not because he endorsed the nominee from the other side. It is his stated reasons for doing so.
Over the last 8 years, three prominent Democrats endorsed the GOP nominee; Zell Miller, Democratic Senator from Georgia; Ed Koch, former Democratic Mayor of NYC and Joe Lieberman, former Democratic Senator from CT and 2000 Democratic VP nominee. When these Democrats endorsed the GOP nominee, they did so deliberately and with specificity. They did so while remaining Democrats. With the exception of Zell Miller, they did so while disagreeing with Republicans on almost every other point except the War on Terror. Concluding aggression against the US was the greatest threat to the nation and that Democrats could not or would not see that, these men broke with their party to support a GOP nominee. Miller’s endorsement followed in the well established DixieCrat tradition of Conservative southern Democrats. There was nothing that demanded these men be excluded from the Democratic Party.
There was a fair amount of criticism from the Left directed at these men for their decision. Like Powell, however, they maintained they were still Democrats while breaking with the party on the war. That break cost them. While Miller retired shortly after his endorsement, he was villified by Leftists. Lieberman was actively opposed by the Democratic Party in his bid for reelection to the Senate. These men remain Democrats in all things except for their endorsements. Ed Koch is supporting Obama and thinks Palin is scary. Joe Lieberman still caucuses with Democrats and votes with them on virtually all matters not related to the war. It is clear, whether or not you agree with their assessment of the war, that was the reason they supported the nominee from the GOP.
Colin Powell’s rationale isn’t even close to as specific. It’s filled with nebulous and meaningless platitudes. Obama brings a fresh set of eyes to the problem. Well, so does Sarah Palin. Obama is inclusive. This is simply laughable as there is literally zero evidence for that. If inclusiveness is the criteria by which we are to judge, McCain is the hands down winner. Powell is uncomfortable with the rhetoric coming out of the McCain camp regarding Obama’s association with terrorists, both foreign and domestic. Evidently he is OK with the rhetoric coming from the camps of terrorists, both foreign and domestic, that support the Illinois Senator.
In short, Powell’s objections to McCain aren’t policy based. They aren’t ideologically based. They seem to be based in personality. That is not to say personality has nothing to do with how to evaluate a candidate. But it ought to be last on the list and certainly not a basis for abandoning party policy and ideology. Unless, of course, your policy and ideology is more akin to the other guy’s than to the one you are generally associated with.
Colin Powell, when asked if he was still a Republican, responded that he was. With all respect to the General, I must disagree. There is little evidence from his speech that he is. His endorsement of Obama ignores that Obama is for bigger Government, higher Taxes, decreased personal Liberty, weaker national Defense and a host of other anti-GOP notions. Powell does not list a single issue or policy with which Obama is at odds with the GOP and which he considers paramount beyond all considerations for the safety and security of our nation. Instead, he gives a general and sweeping endorsement of the man and his policies which are unquestionably Left of center.
If you can explain to me how this is a Republican view, I’m willing to listen. But from here it sounds like a Democrat in GOP clothing standing up for what he believes in. I have no issue with the good General if he wants to hold Democratic views. I would appreciate, however, the intellectual honesty to admit the same and make the announcement that he cannot, in good conscience, remain in the GOP any longer and that he was endorsing the Democratic agenda.
Paulie, a friend from Chicago and one of the handful of non-Obama Kool-Aid drinkers left in Cook County, has a great post up at Paulie’s Point on the results of Chicago’s recent efforts at generating revenue. I don’t know how many times it will need to be said before Democrats and the Left will get the message, but I’ll keep it up. Here goes …
Raising taxes is not a successful strategy to pursue if your goal is to end up with more money! Raising taxes will only result in less consumption of or participation in whatever is being taxed. That reduction usually far outstrips the revenue gained via the increase.
Cook County raised its sales tax to 10.25%, making it the highest in the nation. Paulie spills the beans that The Illinois Department of Revenue reports in the first month the increase went into effect, revenue plummeted nearly 12%!
A partial explanation is that a huge percentage of Cook County lies within easy driving distance of both Indiana and Wisconsin, not to mention other Illinois counties with lower sales taxes. Quick trips over a border to avoid ignorant, asinine and ineffective taxes are just part of the “We should have seen this coming!” reality obvious to anyone but Democratic Big Tax, Big Spenders.
To make matters worse, the flight outside Cook County does more than just hurt the city’s coffers. Business people and service providers lose revenue, too. Why should I buy gas or groceries in Cook County when I can drive 5 miles and save 10% or more? Over the course of a year, that’s serious savings for me and serious loss for businesses. When businesses lose money the cutback or close. That means even more revenue loss for the county as there are fewer working taxpayers and those that remain pay less because they make less. But Cook County Democrats don’t see that. Actually, most Democrats everywhere don’t see that.
