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SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2010

PUTTIN' ON THE AGONY, PUTTIN' ON THE STYLE – AT 10:45 P.M. ET:  The president expresses his anguish at the presumed misinformation about him that is out there, some year and a half after he took office.  From The Politico:

President Barack Obama dismissed a recent poll showing that a third of Americans don’t know he’s a Christian – and blamed an online campaign of misinformation by his conservative enemies for perpetuating the myth that he’s a Muslim.

Obama, speaking with NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Sunday afternoon, was equally dismissive of conservative talk show host Glenn Beck – saying he didn’t watch the Fox host’s Saturday rally in Washington but wasn’t surprised that Beck was able to “stir up” people during uncertain economic times.

Williams, sitting under a tent in a rain-soaked New Orleans, where the First Family commemorated the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, asked Obama why so many people were uncertain about something so fundamental as his faith.

COMMENT:  Well, for starters, Mr. Williams and his fellow mainstream journalists did a poor to nonexistent job of vetting this president while he was running for office.  We literally were not permitted to ask serious questions about his past, and his associations, without the risk of being called McCarthyites or racists.

Add to that the fact that Mr. Obama's "outreach" to the Muslim world has, more often than not, seemed more like appeasement and coziness.

Add also to that the fact that the president's Christian beliefs often appear artificial, more a political necessity than anything heartfelt.  It's hard to equate true Christian belief with the stuff preached in Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s church over the two decades that Obama sat in the pews and apparently didn't listen.

There is no serious online campaign of misinformation.  There may be some nuts out there who make things up.  If there is any online campaign, it is one of questioning.  The questions are legitimate.  The fact that they're there at all is the fault of Mr. Obama and his media sympathizers.

August 29, 2010     Permalink

CHANGING TIMES – AT 7:30 P.M. ET:  Some stories just symbolize the changing of the times.  Like this one:

LONDON -- It weighs in at more than 130 pounds, but the authoritative guide to the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary, may eventually slim down to nothing. Oxford University Press, the publisher, said Sunday so many people prefer to look up words using its online product that it's uncertain whether the 126-year-old dictionary's next edition will be printed on paper at all.

The digital version of the Oxford English Dictionary now gets 2 million hits a month from subscribers, who pay $295 a year for the service in the U.S. In contrast, the current printed edition - a 20-volume, 750-pound ($1,165) set published in 1989 - has sold about 30,000 sets in total.

Hey wait.  Seems to me the print edition is a better deal over five years.  No?

It's just one more sign that the speed and ease of using Internet reference sites - and their ability to be quickly updated - are phasing out printed reference books. Google and Wikipedia are much more popular research tools than the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and dozens of free online dictionaries offer word meanings at the click of a mouse. Dictionary.com even offers a free iPhone application.

COMMENT:  And every young college student realizes that, y'know man, like, you don't need no dictionaries 'cuz they aren't cool and they take up some, whatchacall it, shelf space, where the flat screen goes.  Got that?

Come to think of it, even if the Oxford continued its print edition, who in the new generation would ever open it?  The way things are going, it will probably be labeled as hate speech before too long.

August 29, 2010      Permalink

OH, PLEASE SAVE US FROM THIS – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama wants to travel again.  Will someone please drain the fuel from Air Force One.  According to a leaked report, Obama is going to travel to the Mideast.  Just what they need:

Mr Obama, who set Middle East peace as one of his top foreign policy goals when he assumed office in 2009, will make his first visit as president to Israel and the West Bank to persuade both sides to agree to concessions for the sake of peace.

Mr Obama will oversee the relaunch of direct talks between the two sides next week in Washington.

Although Washington is pushing for a comprehensive peace deal within 12 months, implementation will be spread out over a 10-year period, according to a report in Yediot Aharonot, the Israeli newspaper.

Washington wants the intensive talks to cover core issues, including borders, refugees and the future status of Jerusalem, according to the leaked White House protocols of a conference call held this week between senior administration officials and American Jewish leaders.

If the sides fail to reach an agreement on a particular issue, US officials will intervene and offer a compromise, the report said.

COMMENT:  I think we all sense the excitement in the Middle East over the president's impending visit.  After all, the man has built up such credibility, and such a record of accomplishment, in his first 17 months in office.  Why, he was even given the Nobel Peace Prize during his first week in office.  We await his magic touch.

Oh, notice the last line we quote – that the U.S. will offer compromises if the parties can't reach agreement.  No doubt the Israelis can't wait for Obama's ideas.

August 29, 2010      Permalink

NORWAY?  WHAT DID THE NORWEGIANS DO? – AT 10:39 A.M. ET:  You all know the game that's played when we deal with the Jihadists.  "Why, we brought it on ourselves," say their sympathizers, and their leftist allies.  Apparently, Norway, where nothing ever happens, has done something sinful:

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- When police arrested a suspected al-Qaida cell in Norway last month they turned up the makings of a bomb lab tucked away in a nondescript Oslo apartment building.

An Associated Press investigation shows that authorities learned early on about the alleged cell by intercepting e-mails from an al-Qaida operative in Pakistan and -- thanks to those early warnings -- were able to secretly replace a key bomb-making ingredient with a harmless liquid when one of the suspects ordered it at an Oslo pharmacy.

Officials say the suspected plot against this quiet Nordic country was one of three planned attacks on the West hatched in the rugged mountains of northwest Pakistan by some of al-Qaida's most senior leaders. The other plots targeted the bustling New York subway and a shopping mall in Manchester, England.

Interviews with U.S. and European intelligence officials and documents reviewed by the AP paint the picture of a loosely organized cell that was doomed to fail long before Norwegian police raided its basement lab in suburban Oslo in July. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly.

COMMENT:  These plots are, fortunately, often incompetently designed.  But that should give us no reassurance.  All it takes is one massive bomb to go off in a crowded area for hundreds to die.  Eventually, jihadist mistakes will be corrected.

We forget that September 11, 2001 was the second terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.  The first occurred in 1993 and killed six people when a huge bomb went off in a parking garage.  We didn't take the warning seriously enough.

August 29, 2010      Permalink

BRIT WRITER NAILS IT AGAIN – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  Toby Harnden of Britain's Telegraph has been one of the most astute observers of the Obama administration, and was one of the first to figure Obama out.  Now he asks a legitimate question:  Why does Obama help fuel the notion that America, the most multicultural nation on Earth, is intolerant?  Hmm.

As the whole world knows, there is a furore raging over the proposed building of a 15-storey Islamic community centre, containing a mosque, two blocks from Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda.

America's liberal elites have been falling over themselves to denounce their country and fellow citizens as anti-Muslim xenophobes who don't understand that it was not all followers of Islam who were responsible for the atrocities of 2001.

And...

In fact, most evidence points to the US being one of the most tolerant countries in the world. A poll from you won't see cited much because it doesn't fit the prevailing narrative was recently conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute.

It found that 76 per cent of Americans would support Muslims in their community building an Islamic centre or mosque provided they followed the same rules and regulations required of other religious groups. But the 9/11 site is seen as different. After the 9/11 attacks there was no anti-Muslim backlash in the US.

Obama's ill-judged intervention, and the shrill outrage of his allies in the intelligentsia, has damaged America's standing in the world by fuelling anti-American stereotypes.

They don't care about that.  They love those anti-American stereotypes.

Many Americans are incensed by the way that legitimate protest and questioning of Obama's policies is routinely branded as racist or ignorant. They are tired of being told what to think and when to think it.

During the 2008 campaign, for instance, you were a bigot if you mentioned Obama's middle name or his Muslim background. Yet once he was elected, he went to Ankara and Cairo to proclaim that his full name was "Barack Hussein Obama".

Wonderfully stated.  Charles Krauthammer has made the same point equally well.

When will Americans understand that we have an elite, at least part of it, that is overtly anti-American?  Member of this group see themselves as above the country, above the rabble, above "those people out there."  These are the same elitists who, at election time, say that they're championing average Americans.  But they rarely condescend even to speak with those very people they claim to represent.

August 29, 2010    Permalink

SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2010

YOU WON'T SEE THIS ON CNN – AT 9:04 P.M. ET:  Apparently the populace of Louisiana refuses to think the way elite Washington wants it to.  This is a serious violation of the new order, and must be reported.  If you have names, please send them to appropriate authorities.  From Bluegrass Pundit:

Louisiana has faced two major crises in recent years. The first was hurricane Katrina handled by former President Bush. The second was the Gulf oil spill handled by current President Obama. A PPP poll asked likely voters who they think is better at handling crisis, Obama or Bush. 54% chose President Bush. Only 33% picked President Obama

81% of Louisiana voters support offshore drilling.

While support has nearly returned to previous levels elsewhere, support in Louisiana has, if it were possible, also increased, to 81%, with only 9% not in favor.

COMMENT:  Well, these are the people on the front lines, and they have spoken.  President Obama will speak about Hurricane Katrina this week, and I doubt if he will mention these numbers, but he might think about them.  The oil spill was his Katrina, and he handled it with his usual cold, detached lack of ability.

August 28, 2010      Permalink

OUT OF CONTROL – AT 8:27 P.M. ET:  Glenn Beck's massive rally at the Lincoln Memorial today has unleashed some of the most uncontrolled, undisciplined, unruly journalism that we've seen lately, and we've seen much.

Beck is controversial.  I agree with some of his views, disagree with others.  His rally took place on the anniversary of Dr. King's famous "I have a dream" speech, and Beck spoke at the same place.  My own sense:  He might have wisely chosen another day.

However, the left forgot any sense of shame in attacking Beck, and relating his speech to all kinds of horrors.  Consider this from Bob Herbert of The New York Times:

There is a great deal of hatred and bigotry in this country, but it does not define the country. The daily experience of most Americans is not a bitter experience and for all of our problems we are in a much better place on these matters than we were a half century ago.

But I worry about the potential for violence that grows out of unrestrained, hostile bombast. We’ve seen it so often. A little more than two weeks after the 1963 March on Washington, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan and four young black girls were killed. And three months after the march, Jack Kennedy was assassinated.

What, precisely, does the assassination of President Kennedy have to do with the march on Washington?  Herbert seems to suggest that it was a racist act, or an act by peple upset with the civil rights movement.  He simply cannot accept that Mr. Kennedy was murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald, a man with profound left-wing views.

Herbert concludes:

My sincere advice to Beck, Palin and their followers is chill, baby, chill.

O, that he would give the same advice to some of his ideological brethren, who tag most Americans as bigots, Islamophobes, racists and fascists whenever some disagreement arises.  There are certainly nut jobs on the right.  But there are more, today, on the left, and the left won't even acknowledge them.

August 28, 2010     Permalink

JOB INTERVIEW? – AT 8:37 A.M. ET:  President Obama and Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York have had their golf outing.  But what was it really about?  From The Politico:

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. — President Barack Obama hit the links Friday with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, mixing business with his summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

Obama and Bloomberg huddled inside the clubhouse at the Vineyard Golf Club for about 15 minutes to discuss the economy before heading to the driving range, the White House said.

It’s the first time Obama and Bloomberg have met since the controversy over the planned construction of an Islamic center near ground zero in Manhattan. Bloomberg strongly supports the Park51 center, but Obama triggered a storm of controversy when he said proponents have a right to proceed with project, and then seemed to question the wisdom of building it.

COMMENT:  Bloomberg has grown increasingly bizarre.  After the attempting terrorist attack in Times Square, he speculated that the bomber might have been someone who just didn't like Obamacare.

No, I mean it.  He said that.  He also meddles in people's diets, pushing all kinds of regulations as to what mere citizens may be served in New York. 

And, of course, undoubtedly dear to Obama's heart, Bloomberg not only supports the Ground Zero mosque, but has declared that those opposed to it should be "ashamed" of themselves. 

He used to be a Republican.  Then he became an independent.  I wonder what he is now, or can be persuaded to be.

But one speculates on whether this was more than a golf game.  Although Bloomberg was elected to a third term as mayor last November, his popularity has dropped since then.  With the economy in the kind of shape it is, Obama might be looking for a new secretary of the Treasury.  Who better, some might say, than a billionaire who knows how to make money?

Just speculating.  But I doubt Obama invited Bloomberg just to have a golf partner who likes mosques.

August 28, 2010      Permalink 

FOLLOW THE MONEY – AT 8:33 A.M. ET:  Want to know why journalism is so biased?  It's the kind of people who get hired to write and deliver the news.  All you have to do is look at their political contributions.  From the Washington Examiner:

Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880.

By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744.

Disclosure of the heavily Democratic contributions by influential employees of the three major broadcast networks follows on the heels of controversy last week when it was learned that media baron Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. contributed $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.

COMMENT:  There has been much fainting on the left over Murdoch's contribution, but almost no attention paid to the breathtakingly lopsided record of contributions by people who actually produce news reports. 

Not only is there a liberal bias to news reporting, it's becoming accepted as perfectly proper by a generation of journalists who went into the business to "make a difference."  To them, to paraphrase a leftist professor in the 1960s, the truth is what supports progressive causes.

I suspect it will take an entire generation to clean up journalism, assuming anyone employed by the mainstream media has a desire to clean it up.  In the meantime, immense damage to the country is being done. 

August 28, 2010      Permalink

WERE YOU AWARE OF THIS? – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  The Obama administration has, to its disgrace, actually reported "human rights" problems in the United States to the UN Human Rights Council, a body presided over by thugs.  It is a new low for an administration presided over bya man who sees himself, not as an American, but as a citizen of the world.  One governor is striking back:

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer demanded Friday that a reference to the state's controversial immigration law be removed from a State Department report to the United Nations' human rights commissioner.

The U.S. included its legal challenge to the law on a list of ways the federal government is protecting human rights.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer says it is "downright offensive" that a state law would be included in the report, which was drafted as part of a UN review of human rights in all member nations every four years.

"The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to 'review' by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional," Brewer wrote.

Arizona's law generally requires police officer enforcing other laws to investigate the immigration status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants.

COMMENT:  Can you imagine that this is the country we're now living in?  We report to a group of dictators?  Have you seen a protest in the mainstream media? 

Yet, you may be certain that Gov. Brewer, like Sarah Palin, will be portrayed as a fool, an airhead, an extremist, by the gatekeepers of news.  But Gov. Brewer is absolutely correct.

August 28, 2010     Permalink