Let's compare apples (Obama) and apples (McCain); not apples and oranges (Palin)

Want to know how to handle our Democrat friends who are talking trash about Governor Palin?

Keep the Democrats on the defensive about Obama's inexperience. Governor Palin has a thousand times more than he. Remember what counts are the comparisons between the two Presidential candidates.

It's tough for Dems to stay on track because they're so full of emotion. Don't let them put you on the defensive about Palin. Apples and oranges. Refuse to have the discussion, but if they insist, which they will--just have them look at the resumes and compare them.

Meanwhile, my thanks to a friend with the engineer's mind who compiled the following data. It's nice to have cheat sheets to fall back on.

2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMPARISON TALKING POINTS ISSUE JOHN McCAIN BARAK OBAMA Favors new drilling offshore US Yes No Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it Yes No Served in the US Armed Forces Yes No Amount of time served in the US Senate 22 YEARS 173 DAYS Will institute a socialized national health care plan No Yes Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy No Yes Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately No Yes Supports gun ownership rights Yes No Supports homosexual marriage No Yes Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase No Yes Voted against making English the official language No Yes Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals No Yes CAPITAL GAINS TAX MCCAIN 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax. OBAMA 28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.) DIVIDEND TAX MCCAIN 15% (no change) OBAMA 39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.') INCOME TAX MCCAIN (no changes) Single making 30K - tax $4,500 Single making 50K - tax $12,500 Single making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 60K- tax $9,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250 OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts) Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Under Obama, your taxes could almost double! INHERITANCE TAX MCCAIN - 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax) OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes. NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet. New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already) New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least....New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!! You can verify the above at the following web sites: http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/election/2008/index.html http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.taxes.html http://elections.foxnews.com/?s=proposed+taxes http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/politics/articles/mccain_obama_offer_different_visions_ on_taxes.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/barack_obama/ http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/john_mccain/

We can't afford an Obama administration.

But then, keeping this corrupt Chicago political machine going, now that they've gone global, takes lots and lots of the people's money. Or as they say in Chi-town, "So many voting suckers, so little time."

Maybe we need to work harder to get this message out. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the read.

Fox's Juan Williams compares Palin choice to Affirmative Action

On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Juan Williams could barely contain his anger as he flatly told the white people on the panel he didn't want to hear complaints about affirmative action ever again, now that this woman has been selected. This woman is Governor Sarah Palin.

Not only does Williams continue comparing apples and oranges (Obama for president, Palin for vice president), he arrogantly dismisses Governor Palin as a totally unqualified person to be where she is, as if her accomplishments were nothing.

It will be fun to watch the Governor take these media egos farther down as she continues to win the hearts and votes of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas, Indiana...

Gee. I'm amazed they can get up in the morning now that reality is hitting them--Obama may not win.

Thanks for the read.

McCain's rope-a-dope pick of Governor Palin

John McCain picked a nobody--someone like us--to walk beside him to the White House.

Predictably the mean pundits are out in force to destroy Governor Palin and in so doing probably alienate the very people they are trying to win over, the undecided voters in the swing states.

Let's see how long Obama's surrogates will tug on these ropes.

Roping the dope
Did you know she only has a minor undergraduate degree from a small college in Idaho?

It's odd that the twit who made this ridiculous statement failed to mention Governor Palin's degree is in Journalism and she's a graduate of the University of Idaho.

Even before she's out of the gate the left media has attempted to turn her into a insignificant individual--kind of like the rest of us, who obviously doesn't know anything about anything, minimalizing the people who are also part of this country. The media can't even relate to a journalism degree, which seems odd considering their core profession.

Oh, and by the way, state universities provide educations for the "rest of us." This elitism is soooo tedious. and it's only a matter of time before people get a belly full of it.

Roping the dope
Did you know she was just a mayor of a small town in ahem Alaska? How could that be anything special; why would we elect someone whose resume is so thin?

Well, the facts are she's run a company, run a home, run a small (icky) town government, then threw out some bad guys in her own party as she rose the the Governor's office. Let's see, compared to Barack Obama's 143 days in the senate and his never having had to at least meet a payroll, it's quite amazing the Dems would even bring it up.

Obama's never so much as run a lemonade stand. He's seems like he's a mama's boy who has been taken care of his whole life by women like his grandmother, his mother, when she was around, Oprah, Michelle, women: the people he and his campaign have insulted for the last two years.

Obama is just another fatherless boy who's seeking to ameliorate his inadequacy about his own masculinity. Like Bill Clinton. Like so many dysfunctional men in the Democratic (and Republican) party who evidently are frightened by a woman like Sarah Palin.

Hey, Dems, in fact, do bring it on; let's discuss the actual accomplishments of the two candidates. Of course, Obama's lack of experience is fine for the presidency, but Governor Palin's, which consists of practical application and executive experience isn't enough for the vice presidency.

Roping the dope
She's appointed herself as the poster girl for the Right to Life. She is nothing more than a shill for the murderers of the extreme right who hate women.

Interesting that people would go after her in such a wantonly vindictive manner, as if her dedication to her family of five, including her Down's Syndrome child can somehow be construed someone's shill. That takes a lot of years and experience, if that's true. I suggest women who are so fearful of Governor Palin take a look at themselves and stop throwing the word "murderer" around. That can get a Pro Life person in trouble every time.

People watch this and see how crazy the Left is. It will backfire in swing states because it's insulting to a woman who is head and shoulders above those in dignity and in personal action. and is a powerful testament to her. The Left had better be careful as they try to demonize this good woman.

Roping the dope
She has no foreign policy knowledge; how can she be expected to step into the job without that?

Well, she does manage a state that is bordered by two countries. But that's probably not the foreign policy experience they're griping about.

My hunch is Governor Palin will take the podium and go toe to toe with Biden. At least she didn't lie about her "thin" resume and serially plagiarize large and copious "papers."

Biden, of course, will try to hurt her personally. That's just the kind of man he is.

Roping the dope
The Republicans chose her because they're pandering to the woman vote.

No kidding. I like being pandered to for a change!

Roping the dope
She has some baggage, I hear...something about corruption in her own administration...getting her brother in law fired?

The event has been vetted and vetted and vetted. I'm not worried about it, and I think the corruption within Alaska's politics are what people will talk about. Mavericks have enemies, especially big fat senators who build bridges.

Roping the dope
Well, then she's just another woman who doesn't deserve the job. She's like Hillary who thought she could skip up the ramp to the Oval Office by being the president's wife. She's just like most of those women who kick in young guys' balls and act like their mother. Yeah, just another woman getting a break who doesn't deserve it. How many middle aged women who have given their lives to a corporation have heard those very words from the Young Turks who push them aside.

It seems to me that the skipping the Dems are talking about also included some nifty side stepping from a little boy who wants to be president and won't wait till he's ready. The argument still plays. There is no comparison between the two situations and two candidates. Apples and oranges.

Roping the dope
She's a member of the NRA which is a front for (fill in the blank) ______ and Americans hate guns...

Except for the Americans who hunt with them and are proud to own them, who live in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado and Alaska. They're also very concerned and cling to those guns and Bibles when progressive Dems come around, and still happily cling to the Second Amendment, just in case.

And finally, the best rope a dope yet
McCain's too old to be president...look at how the two of them look like Father and Daughter.

This is what I expected. Either sixty is the new forty, or it isn't. People can't have it both ways in their personal lives by trying to look hopelessly young and attractive and then personally insult the candidate who is older by calling him bumbling. Andrea Mitchell with her new mouth, the MSNBC preoccupation with youth, and their empty whining to each other, listening to a sportscaster, Keith Olbermann as if he has anything important to say. That's bumbling and incoherent.

Gosh, there are a lot of dopes out there who can't leave these ropes alone!

Senator McCain has picked a vice presidential candidate who's an awful lot like who we are or want to be. Governor Palin's story appeals to our sense of American character, grit, courage and know how. Senator McCain is appealing to Americans' better nature by selecting her. He must have a lot of faith in her.

She really is kind of like us--only better.

I'm guessing the old jet jockey saw a sortie that was risky but worth every ordnance he had on board. As it turned out, he fired and hit the target dead on. Let's see how far this choice goes in flushing out and exposing the facts from the rhetoric that stands for what Obama offers: that is, nothing, just words.

Good move, Senator McCain. You've roped these dopes into telling the truth about themselves and about their ideas. They can't hide anymore.

Thanks for the read.

Pray for God's will...

because according to the media, and in my opinion, candidate Obama is about to overwhelm the McCain candidacy by sheer showmanship.

What I personally pray for is his sincerity.

Regardless of my plans to shape God's will, I would like to publicly offer a pray for Senator Obama and his family. His achievement is fabulous and we mustn't let our differences stand in front of our unanimity of progress.

Let us keep the Obama family in our prayers. We must not allow those who would use the Senator's ethnicity against him so as to stay in the good graces of individuals who have ideals that transcend some of the rhetoric of the day. We must come together in trust and unanimity.

Barack Obama is making history tonight as he accepts the nomination for president from the Democratic Party.

I'll allow him his glory. He's earned it. And if he wins? Well, he's growing, just as JFK did. Let's see where his true heart lies. After all, that's all that matters in my WASP eyes. (I love meritocracy, don't u?)

Thanks for the read.

Bill Clinton: Will the Old Lion forget their betrayal and make nice?

(Fox News story down below)

I have the feeling we will see a Bill Clinton who attempts to keep control while he delivers his "make nice" speech tonight.

But underneath I think what might happen is the old adrenaline will start flowing, as it does with rock stars who hear the masses cheering, and he will lose control. I don't think the old Bill would've; I think a post-quad bypass Bill might.

I watch for him to slap the wrists of those who betrayed him during this campaign, insulted his wife and forced him into a position of having to defend his honor regarding civil rights. Bill may be a philanderer, but I do think in all honesty he was always driven towards the African-American goal of equal opportunity. President Clinton's sense of having been betrayed must be horrific personally and politically. I can't imagine how I'd feel under similar circumstances.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bill Clinton finally lets them have it. He's not a team player sometimes. Tonight might be his night, not Barack's.

After all, the Old Lion has to teach the young lion upstart a lesson--in public.

As a fellow Leo (both Bill and Barack are also Leos), I can't wait. What a drama.

Thanks for the read.

How much did Hill get for the acclamation?

(Fox News story follows below)

We'll see how much of Senator Clinton's campaign debt gets paid back now that the Obama people and the Clintons have come to an real understanding.

My bet is Hill gets every vendor, including herself, paid off now that Bill can say what he wants and she motions to bring the roll call vote to close and affirm whassiname as the nominee. She would've made a hell of a president for the Democrats. Sorry, but it's true.

So, was it about money all along?

Pride and ego?

Self-respect.

The future?

It's probably all of the above that moved Hillary and Bill to hold the line against the kid. And why not?

Thanks for the read.

Fox News caves in to Obama's Ayres ad intimidation

http://www.americanissuesproject.org/

If you think it's bad now, just wait till the Obama group is in charge. You've seen how they steamroll others. Why would they change when they get real power?

My link above is to the ad Obama's lawyers are trying to shut down...like none of what took place in the 60s ever happened. The Democrats again are rewriting history. Barack Obama announced his political career in the home of Bill Ayres, the American terrorist, whose murderous accomplice-wife sat back and reminded everyone again how they hate America as recently as a year ago. Barack calls them mainstream.

By the way, the Ayres weren't convicted because of a legal technicality. Meanwhile, these people are receiving money from tax payers as professors instead of languishing in Leavenworth where they both belong.

Regardless, the media refuses to run this ad, even Fox News.

Roger Ailes's inability to do what's right must come from racial intimidation and fear put out by the Obama campaign. Otherwise, what? There's no other reason that comes to mind that he turned this ad down other than pressure.

I don't like people who try to take away my right to free speech. Not in any way, in any form.

It's time to get real about Barack Obama's intentions for those who don't agree with him and fight back with all we have--beginning right now.

Thanks for the read.

Rick Warren's presentation is everything

Religious charlatans are not new. Americans have been preached at by some of the best showmen in the world. The practice started in the upper part of the northern hemisphere the day they stepped foot on a rock in Massachusetts and continues to this day. In fact, it started with Native American shamans.

I won't mention names because they know who they are.

When I first attended Rick Warren's Saddleback tent not far from where I lived in about 1998, I was impressed with its organization. I thought the staff did a great job--the parking challenge was horrendous, but I had been so hurt in other big evangelical churches with their spiffy pastors (even the word, pastor, is really too evangelical for this mainline Protestant) that I just couldn't bring myself to really listen critically to Rick Warren. I was pretty much done with all of them.

I had heard so many of these guys who just didn't get it as far as I was concerned.

Southern Baptist Convention
Who knew? Today, they have legitimacy.

Now that the president of the Baptists can flap on TV about their own personal go-to guy for God; perhaps, flap he should. This is not a criticim. This is a suggestion that you all listen and learn and judge by the fruits of his labor.

Something new, since I've been to Saddleback is they're out of the tent and into a nice church...with lots of parking and a staff to handle all of it. Their co-missions seems to keep rolilng on, one which is close to my heart.

Saddleback doctrine-wise is just like the first baptist church in any town; they believe the exact same thing about salvation--being born again through Christ--the part that everyone who isn't goes so nutty over.

Rick Warren is no charlatan from what I'm seeing these days. Like many other great unnamed preachers before him, he knows you get more with honey than you do with vinegar. His delivery is not new. From the sounds of him, he would be the first to say any "success" he has is because God placed him where he is. After all, he comes from a line of Southern Baptist preachers, so he probably knew his Bible very, very well before he presumed to stand behind the pulpit.

Add to his obvious ability to select capable people to surround himself with, Rick Warren is a true magnet of the typical Orange County upper level technocrats. They help him deliver the message with their expertise. That's what it takes, you know--people who know what they're doing. Where else but the OC?

Rick Warren, someone whom I thought once might be another circuit preacher with a bunch of weird, ego drivenideas, as I have found out is hardly a phony. His sincerity and lifestyle actions speak as loudly as his motivational sermons. He appeals to real men and women who need a church home or something like that and have a belief in something, maybe in Jesus, but for sure in something. He has them walking in the door in droves with their kids, stopping at the desk to sign up for their own purpose driven lives.

The other more persistent, some call less tolerant Christians, including those in his same brotherhood, who have turned people off by their "demeanor" in evangelizing might take a lesson from Pastor Warren. When churches stay relevant in people's busy lives by toning down the rhetoric and turning up the concern, attracting people to Christ and His Gospel becomes its own message.

How does that happen? Well, obviously the man has to smarter than the dog, as my mother used to say. Rick Warren, son and grandson of men of God, is a leader because he qualifies as one and first knows his Bible, doctrine and understands and lives his own faith. You can't teach it if you don't live it.

The rest, Saddleback, came later.

And now that Pastor Warren is participating in history with this evening's presidential forums with Obama and McCain, I expect he will maintain his equilibrium. I'll pray for God's guidance as Warren brings more souls to Christ. His way.

Thanks for the read.

Why would Putin choose now to invade Georgia? Why wouldn't he?

It's perfect.

There appears, from the world media fed by the infotainment distributors that Americans are thoroughly against all involvement in foreign wars. Could be.

Communists have never been so pretty as they are these days. Just look at them in Moscow (as it dresses well and drinks well, while it removes what we Americans take for granted, basic rights such as freedom of the press, as it "re-nationalizes" those private industries which Putin so desperately wanted to be "private" back in the early years when he really wasn't a Communist, and now...if we look closely, there's some sick 21st century logo that looks benignly like a scifi channel video on the tanks that rumble towards the Black Sea.

Besides, look at all them purty Olympic thingies. They seem like such nice people...

So, as the new Russians, aka Putinists regain territory with their imperialistic war--by the way, when someone mentions the imperialist US "invaded" Iraq and it's the same as Russia invading Georgia?

It isn't. America's leaving Iraq and will probably be out of the country by 2012; Russia has not only gained Ossetia it has taken over Georgia explaining there are no more boundaries. Russia got land.

All we got was a bunch of crap from a bunch of whiners there in Iraq, here in America and all over the world.

Anyway, I suppose Putin is counting on the antiwar sentiment of Americans ala pre WWII, ala pre Pearl Harbor, thinking Americans won't do anything so he can flex his muscles and take territory while he can. Again, he may be right. But then that was then. Now?

He may be also depending upon a black white election dynamic that was never in play before to put America on the defensive. That is why it's so important for quick response from the state department and Israel. The Bush administration obviously are not deterred from that reality.

Of course, our friends in Israel's only alternative is to hit Iran immediately while Russia is on the offensive. Obviously we cannot allow Russia to continue to supply Iran with nuclear materials during this time of Russian aggression. I would hope the president would gather his credits with Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France, not to mention his pals in the Independent States--Poland, et al., and stand strong. I say "obviously," but those of us who remember the Cold War also recall the intractability of those who said we could contain the U.S.S.R., that evil empire.

The evil empire that Reagan called out. Containment.

The McCain response has been perfect, by the way.

Barack Obama's response, quite too late and tepid (typically) it seemed to me and weak, would have given Putin another three or four days to kill another two-thousand people.

Madeleine (I-had-my-stage-debut-with-Kim-Jong Il) Albright insists Bush should send Rice to Russia immediately. I don't quite know what they'd talk about considering the situation.

Secretary of State Rice

Hey, Vlad, you've killed a few people down in Georgia.

Vlad "Kissface" Putin
Well, I am trying to rebuild my Soviet state. Can you blame me? It's in my blood, Kondikuska ...my Marxist, Soviet blood.
(beat)
Nice leggings...you do gymnastics too...and play piano.
Cabbage and sherry?

At least President Bush has acted by sending Secretary Rice to Tbilisi (they wouldn't dare kill Rice) and placing missiles in Poland pointed east so that there could be some damage control.

Meanwhile, while Obama studies real, real hard, reads his Cliff Notes and tries to figure out ancient Russian bear politics, which he can't do because he wasn't there and can't just jump into the middle and know it all because he read it, Vladimir Putin has a plan: it starts with C and it ends with r.

Why? Because Russia's hungry and drunk. Their production of food is down thanks to the new free markets in the old satellite bread baskets and there's a huge increase in alcoholism among its men. They have internal problems besides just the old Russian imperialistic urges. Russia has big problems. Check out the recent writings on American Enterprise Institute from the experts. You'd be surprised what the western press ignores.

I discovered something today which I find absolutely phenomenal that it has not been reported: Vladimir Putin's grandfather was the personal chef to both Lenin and Stalin. Why that has not been a feature story in the western press is beyond me. It is not as if I hadn't done a lot of research on Putin for other articles; I had years ago and no where did I see this information until today.

I have to remember the reason we might not have access to data; the dissembling of our own intelligence agencies by the Clintons; and the leftist-ridden state department policy changers and bureaucrats in Washington and Russia's redesign, reconstituting and reassembling a new, more responsive KGB. Moreover, there is an increased ability to capture information now more than ever.

Next thing he'll be admitting to is his involvement in laying the first block at the Berlin Wall. Hey, great things begin small.

It's a perfect time to invade another country--when your core enemy seems weak and its people silly. Let's hope he's wrong.

Thanks for the read.

The Chinese Olympic Commies can sure put on a show, can't they?

Gee. This must be how Rome, ancient Egypt, the 3500 southern American slave owned plantations and all those other places that utilized slave labor to build their grandness became so fabulous.

They almost had me.
Great ceremony, the bird's nest, the pretty girls, the warmth, everything perfect. Right up until the time the Chinese soldiers took hold of the Olympic flag. Then I felt a chill down my spine. The pili on my arms stood up like I was still in the caves of France as a bear approached...no, nothing's really changed.

These people in so much red mean business.

Khrushchev, Hu, Putin, Medvedev
Meanwhile, Russia still looks like it's still full of the same old Commies of 1968 when they rolled tanks into Prague as yesterday and Friday Medvedev sent warplanes and 500 tanks into the country of Georgia and killed 2000 civilians.

Vladimir (when will we ever learn not to trust guys named Vladimir?) Putin's the same KGB guy I wrote about five years ago, only's he's got Armani clothes and great shoes and big old wifie's got a personal trainer and bleached her hair and got a bunch of Botox. Didn't work, though; I noticed he also has his own personal Party Concubine, a gymnast, which brings all sorts of imagery to my nimble mind.

Let's hear how Prince Barack handles the real world aspect of 21st century style Communism, pretty and not so pretty. Don't expect much, considering most of our young people don't get it. Communists just love people like Barack. They eat them for breakfast. In fact, now that the Prince has established his leftist bona fides he should talk easily with these folks...live and let live and all.

The world has not changed even if people like the new Democrats say it has.

There is little real people alone can do but wake up and remember the horrors of this system then protest the ridiculous and barbaric attitudes of these bad men.

One might pray for the persecuted. Look in the sidebar for the organization, Voice of the Martyrs, that I've been working with for a few years. It's a excellent start. They give many choices and ways to help the persecuted around the globe. One of my favorites is to write letters to imprisoned Christians like the ones who possess Bibles in their homes in China or who provide secret worship services in "house" churches.

As I watched the birds nest, I had to wonder how many Christians paid with their lives to give Mao his glory. It was very Nuremberg, wasn't it. If only Leni Riefenstahl had been there to see the grandeur and precision; she and Speer would have been in absolute orgasmic Nirvana, although the Left in this country doubtless will laugh at my simplistic pairing of the two.

Thatcher, Reagan, Bush, Solzhenitsyn
There is however, MUCH governments can do, which Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were able to show to the world by their immense ability to determine right from wrong.

President Bush also displayed his scruples and principles in Thailand by speaking directly to China about their human rights abuse and again today by attending a Christian "church." Of course, since there are no Christian churches, I'm not sure how all that occurred.

Just a few hours ago, Christian protesters were removed from the infamous Tienanmen Square for peaceful praying. That pretty much says it all. Of course, we don't know where those folks were removed "to." But then, no one cares, do they? Unless they're Tibetans or live in Darfur. I have to respond immediately to the people who are nuts over Darfur, "Where were you during Somalia and Rwanda?"

That's right. Nowhere. Silent. Nevermind. We Republicans took care of it while you played in Hollywood.

God bless Alexander Solzhenitsyn for his near martyrdom. Is it a coincidence that the next generation of Russians produced a man named Serge who worked with Communists to help place a foundation of totalitarian success such as we are seeing today? I wish I could have spoken to Mr. Solzhenitsyn on this subject.

I wish also I could have spoken to him about the shameless exposure America was given by President Clinton of its nuclear secrets to China for money during the 90s. Again, we are speaking of the chickens returning, as Reverend Wright said so clearly that day in his church, to roost.

Those who are oppressed understand chicken roosting.

BTW: you can order those bracelets above by clicking on the link in VOM link. They're cheap and make quite a point. Cool, too...lots cooler than those China Dolls, I think, that will serve as nothing more than a front for the Chinese Communist Party.

Have a nice day in your freedom while you watch the 100-yard dash and try to remember those people all over the world who don't have any.

While you're at it, you might want to lay off President Bush. His irrational, illegal, bully policies have given a few people--about 80 million of them in Iraq and about 28 million of them in Afghanistan--a little bit more freedom than they've ever had in their lives.

But then, he's a Bush. Everyone hates the Bushes. After all, he's a Republican. We Republicans have no hearts. Actually, just ask Daily Kos and Move On, all those people who got the money for Obama and Clinton and that fine, upstanding gentleman, John Edwards. They'll tell you we're just a bunch of bastards.

Thanks for the read.

I wish Edwards hadn't used a "supermarket tabloid" as the culprit for his misdeeds.

But he did anyway in his mea culpa.

It seems that nobody can ever really can just say I'm sorry.

It's hard to do when everyone gives you so many excuses and all you want to do is just get it over with and move on. But he had to give find a way to save face, I guess.

Too bad. Guess he's still not done lying according to the new stuff coming out. Darn lawyers.

Thanks for the read.

Whoever approved the McCain Paris Celebrity ad needs to be fired. Today.

Damage control, boys.

Proactively speak out, take care of this. You have to and make a huge deal of it and apologize immediately. This is turning into an awful mess. It wasn't even a poor joke gone bad. It was just a bad, bad ad.

Whoever designed, whoever wrote it, whoever approved that stupid, stupid piece showing Paris Hilton should be taken off the campaign and let go.

That was the dumbest, most incoherent thing I believe I've ever seen. I said I didn't like it when it came out; now I hate it. The pride and amateur aspect of it shocks me. The campaign acts shocked at the kid's lack of respect for them.

Well, get over it. They will fight back in kind and they will kill using their only source of news and communication other than each other personally: You Tube.

First of all, did the writer not remember who the market was?

Now Paris has her own personal Obama endorsement ad in which she mocks and hurts McCain badly. Very, very badly. That l8-year old new voter market? Kiss it goodbye. They love this response...

Good thing Barack talks about things like tire pressure, because with the Hiltons now so angry , and buying air by the hour, we could very well lose this thing by a bleached blonde airhead.

Way to go, campaign. You maybe have one more of these mistakes left. Maybe.

Are you people nuts in the McCain camp? Absolutely nuts? You NEVER use another living person in ads like this. NEVER. Especially rich ones who are your contributors. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

Especially in the You Tube era. Remember they don't read, they just You Tube each other...and that's all they do, just talk to each other...and motivate each other...and tell each other lies...and talk to each other...and send each other Paris's ridiculous new anti McCain ad...

So, dumb. So damn dumb. God, I just wanna scream.

Thanks for the read.

August 8 update: The original ad in which Paris was used has been taken down by McCain's people and replaced by cogent, effective and hard hitting issues ads which at the same time use the celebrity angle. Someone threw the old one in the trash.

The Sleeping Dragon is now awake. You feed it. No. You feed it.

John McCain's "Don't make waves!" request to President Bush when he goes to China for the Olympic Summer Games leaves me cold. I don't like that kind of response to nearly anything unless it has to do with compounded interest.

But then I realized we're listening to a former POW who realizes what the effects of the President's words have on China's dissidents and its politically oppressed from a physical standpoint. He's protecting them. Then, there's the N. Korean thing.

That meaningful concern of Senator McCain's notwithstanding, I understand the phrases and words that the President of the United States utters are desperately important. What he does is as profoundly felt as anything that moves on the planet ala "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" considering where these events are about to occur and under what rule.

There could be Texas-style grand and not so noble gestures by a president who may end up with the legacy of actually forcing people into freedom...having it punctuated by an in-your face visit to a Christian house church meeting or a "drop by" at a small meeting of democrats...in a Communist country...at the end of his term. Really. It would be too sweet for words.

Wishful thinking? I wouldn't put it past him.

In the meantime, McCain's front loading the president's trip with marching orders about what to do and say is typical of why Senator McCain is not popular with Christian Evangelicals right now, I suspect.

I'm afraid I have to agree on this one with all respect.

Even though I know why Senator McCain said what he did, which I think happens anyway, I wish he hadn't said a word. But he already has. And I think he's just dead wrong. I'm real disappointed in that.

On the other hand, Obama's answer which is to not attend the Olympics at all, is a little like ignoring the elephant in the room, typical when one thinks of Obama's entire rather strange post race stance, post everything: running away from Beijing as he would've Baghdad is not the answer to tyrants.
Gentle but unswerving and unmistakeable confrontation(s) by the most powerful man in the world against the massive regime which in the 21st century still remains the major oppressor of a billion people sends a monumental message.

Even if it's come later than I think it should have, I'm pleased President Bush has decided to show some true leadership in this regard. Let's see if he follows through.

Thanks for the read.

Quit minimizing Obama's Elitist label, MSNBC. Then? You might get it.

For those of you who truly believe you're doing a bang up job there at what you do, don't read any farther. It'll just make you mad and I'd like to have you back some time.

Here's the problem as I see it
You're idolizing not analyzing. You're drowning in the wake of Obamania to the point that it is painful to watch you grasp for a life ring of reality. You're instead trying to grab onto something unreal.

Someone has to slap you out of it. Guess I'll give it a try.

Maybe you should think about your roles as journalists, not act like sycophants.

Think of your roles as public servants because as journalists that is what you are.

Think of your roles as truth tellers no matter where the truth leads you. Whether it is to the painful end or to the glorious heights, it is none of your concern because you are journalists, not results oriented individuals. It is by choice you have become journalists regardless of what it says on your business card, for most of you, anyway.

It is not in your best interest to decide how you feel about how anyone sees John McCain or Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or andrea hall from your point of view.

It is only in the best of interest of this democracy that you take the full observatory and objective (interesting words) from their point of view and then tell this democracy's people about it.

That is not happening and it's killing us. You are telling us from your point of view everything that is occurring in the world.

Why are you doing this?
Why are you consciously avoiding that which you know in your hearts is at the center of The Fourth Estate?

Have some of you been taken up by the emotion, by a repressed anger, by a sense of powerlessness that will soon be unfurled and thus ameliorated? Have you lost all of your center?

Is it about money and the industry's golden handcuffs? Do some of you have more dang money than you've ever seen in your life and you just don't want it to stop? Or your spouses won't let you? You're compromised?

Are some of you scared of what your friends will think if you don't tow the company line? Or are some of you just too damned lazy to do the work?

Or are some of you in over your head because your really don't know what the hell you're talking about. I'm seeing lots of historical error and data screw ups. Sorry, guys. I'm too old to miss them. (By the way, I've seen you old guys let them go by the wayside uncorrected. Stop that. You owe the country the correction. Journalism is also about instruction.)

Maybe some of you "pros" need to dive under and come up alongside and tread water awhile. Catch your breath. You've been riding in that wake a long, long time now, and it gets pretty bouncy especially when Obama tacks; some of you are turning blue.

Some of you have forgotten your roots. And you feel kinda guilty every time you cash that huge paycheck because you come from people who are not college educated most likely. I say that because statistics tell me you do. You're from blue collar families, you're very self conscious about that. You act guilty about having money.

Some of you don't handle that well. You make fools of yourselves over it, in fact and it's time you got over it. You overcompensate or miss the point or do something to show that you aren't ready for prime time. So what!

You're just so star struck and in love. With yourselves, where you are, where you want to be someday. Most of that comes from not being used to being where you are. It's fun being rich and on TV, getting face time and it's probably pretty easy to get used to it. Gosh, a person could become, well, an elitist, especially if she/he married well and moved in the right circles or had the right job.

Most of that comes from not remembering who you are.

What do I want?
Real analysis. Not your hopes and dreams. Leave those with your pals at the bar after hours. Use your youth, brains and energy to get into the scene to hear what the candidates are really saying and the people are really saying then report it without your hopes and dreams.

Here's the type of question you could be asking yourselves instead of what you can do to get people to understand how to like Obama better:

Why Berlin?
What was the pull? Was it the past? Who's past? Obama's or America's? Don't glorify him based on the melodrama of someone's idology?

I'm still pressing for that answer. Without a psychological profile in addition to a complete personal investigation of the man's past we can guess why Obama would choose such an odd venue. I don't get it. What is the attachment? There's so much news to cover with Obama.

There are overtired, retired and tired working men and women who vote right here in America. There's another story.

What's going on with this huge shift in African-American demographics vis a vie post race politics? That's a huge story you at MSNBC are actually afraid to discuss, it seems, openly. Dismissing Jesse Jackson's remarks so quickly was a mistake, especially when you had children talking about it.

Better pay attention. It's a long way and time until November. Seriously.

Hardball?

Why don't you analyze not idolize?

Thanks for the read.