Mother on Palin

A Southern Lady on the Media and Sarah Palin:

About once an election cycle I mention my mother, whose views on politics always interest me. She is one of those undecided voters most years, a swing voter who can be persuaded to support either candidate usually until the last (and even then, with some uncertainty: as she said tonight, she is glad that there are millions of others also casting votes, as she doesn't want to be the one who decides for us all).

She's still not at all sure who she'll vote for this year, but she was not happy with the way that CBS treated Sarah Palin. Two excerpts will explain her irritation. One, from Couric's interview with Palin:

Couric: If this doesn't pass, do you think there's a risk of another Great Depression?

Palin: Unfortunately, that is the road that America may find itself on. Not necessarily this, as it's been proposed, has to pass or we're going to find ourselves in another Great Depression. But, there has got to be action - bipartisan effort - Congress not pointing fingers at one another but finding the solution to this, taking action, and being serious about the reforms on Wall Street that are needed.

And two, from Couric's interview with McCain:

Couric: Earlier today, senator, I spoke with your running mate, Sarah Palin, and she told me that if action is not taken a Great Depression is, quote, "The road that America may find itself on." Do you agree with that assessment?

McCain: I don't know … if it's exactly the Depression. But I know of no expert, including Mr. Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, and our secretary of treasury, and the outside observers ... every respected economist … in this country is saying, "You better address this problem, and you better do it now, or the consequences, obviously, of inaction are of the utmost seriousness." So I agree … with Gov. Palin. There's so much at stake here. That's why I am confident that we'll sit down and work together on this thing.

Couric: But isn't so much of this, Sen. McCain, about consumer confidence?

McCain: Sure.

Couric: And using rhetoric like the "Great Depression," is that the kind of language Americans need to hear right now?

Well, Katie, is it? You brought it up.

The AP went hook, line and sinker, of course.

Now that's a Priest

"May God Defend the Right"

A priest in Australia was confronted by a robber with a knife who had broken into the church. After the backside-kicking, the robber said: "I only wanted money … you're a priest and you're not helping."

The priest told the press, "I thought: 'I'm a priest but that's not the kind of help [we should give].'"

Oh -- and the priest is 72.

H/t: FARK.

An Argument in Pictures

An Argument in Pictures:

Via Southern Appeal, two pictures that accompanied an endorsement.

What's great about these images is that they work no matter which side you're on. If you are a liberal who wanted to endorse Sen. Obama as a sensitive, caring, gentle soul with echoes of Lincoln -- and to reject Gov. Palin as a bloodthirsty monster -- it works for you.

On the other hand, if you're a conservative who wants to endorse Gov. Palin as an outdoorswoman, mother and huntress -- and reject Sen. Obama as a pretentious light-in-the-loafers sucker apt to be run over by terrorists and Iranian nuke-mongers -- it works for you too. The same two pictures encapsulate everything that supporters love, and everything opponents detest, about the two candidates.

You can't say we don't have a clear choice this year. Except that, again, Gov. Palin is running for vice president -- an office that Sen. Obama is somewhat more qualified for than the one he has chosen to seek.

Obama: Already the President

Obama: Already the President

Dad29 points us to Obama's new coinage.

Democrats have begun striking coins with Barack Obama’s profile — and already proclaiming him President.... The coins show Senator Obama’s face, along with a picture of the White House and the legend “President of the United States of America”.

The link points to Hot Air, which says: "Barack Obama may be the first person in history to start striking coins in his image before taking power. Maybe he just wants to look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills[.]"

Yeah, maybe.

Munson

In Praise of Larry Munson:

Some of you probably saw this in the comments, but Mike informs us of the retirement of the voice of the Bulldogs. Larry Munson is the kind of announcer who never made any pretense to objectivity, but loved his team and the game with unreserved passion. Autumn won't be the same without him. He is 86, so we understand, but today is a sad day for football in America.

ATL

ATL @ WRK:

Fulton County, home of the Atlanta public school system:

H/t: FAILblog.

Confed Yank

Confederate Yankee on Rape Kits:

You know how Gov. Palin supposedly required victims to pay for their own rape kits?

Yeah, well, no. Her city picked up the cost even before the Alaska law requiring them to do so went into effect.

See the comments to his post also.

Georgia

Georgia:

It was back in June when we talked about Georgia:

It is probably a sign of things to come that the Obama campaign is talking about winning without Ohio or Florida. I'm sure they intended that as a sign of confidence, but it's a remarkable formula -- 'We don't necessarily need to win battleground states, because we'll win red states.'

Consider the conceit that Georgia is 'in play,' for example. I live in Georgia. I've spent most of my life in Georgia. The suggestion that Obama will win Georgia is just whistling past the graveyard. It's never going to happen.

Today via Cassidy and Mary Katherine Ham, an observation:

Earlier, Obama halted television advertising in Georgia. Idaho was conceded a Democratic write-off early on, as is Alaska now, given the presence of its popular Republican Gov. Sarah Palin as the vice presidential running mate on the GOP ticket.

Let's take a little broader perspective on that.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain leads Democratic rival Barack Obama by 10 percentage points, 51 percent to 41 percent, among rural voters in 13 pivotal states, a poll released on Monday shows.

We won't be seeing any Red States go blue this year. We may see some swing states go blue: that's still to be determined. But the concept that Sen. Obama was a transformational politician is dead. If he wins, he'll win the hard way -- just like everyone else.

Preach it

Preach It, Son:

Allah notes that Sen. Obama lashed out at both the UN and Iran's President today, and loses his cool just a bit:

He must be joking. Am I hallucinating or hasn’t this tool made his own willingness to meet with either Ahmadinejad himself or the people who sent him to the UN the cornerstone of his foreign-policy approach?

Don't worry, Allah. Losing your cool on this matter just makes you cooler in my book. Sen. Obama's shamelessness is starting to grate on us all.

Dans ce pay-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un CEO pour encourager les autres.

Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.

apologies to Voltaire (and Admiral Byng)

The Great Tragedy

The Great Tragedy:

A website called Abortion Changes You gives voice to those suffering from a "choice." It is remarkably moving, and restores something of the honesty so often missing from the discussion.

Raving

The Revolution Continues:

I don't remember Naomi Wolf being quite so... well, read for yourself:

In McCain-Palin's America, citizens who are protesting are being charged as terrorists. This means that a violent war had been declared on American citizens. A well known reporter leaked to me on background that St Paul police had dressed as protesters and, dressed in Black -- shades of the Blackshirts of 1920 -- infiltrated protest groups. There were also phalanxes of men in black wearing balaclavas, linking arms and behaving menacingly -- alleged "anarchists." Let me tell you, I have been on the left for thirty years and you can't get three lefties to wear the same t-shirt to a rally, let alone link arms and wear identical face masks: these are not our guys.

...

Almost everyone I work with on projects related to this campaign for liberty has been experiencing computer harassment: emails are stripped, messages disappear. That's not all: people's bank accounts are being tampered with: wire transfers to banks vanish in midair. I personally keep opening bank accounts that are quickly corrupted by fraud. Money vanishes. Coworkers of mine have to keep opening new email accounts as old ones become infected. And most disturbingly to me personally is the mail tampering I have both heard of and experienced firsthand. My tax returns vanished from my mailbox. All my larger envelopes arrive ripped straight open apparently by hand. When I show the postman, he says "That's impossible." Horrifyingly to me is the impact on my family. My childrens' report cards are returned again and again though perfectly addressed; their invitations are turned back; and my daughters many letters from camp? Vanished. All of them. Not one arrived.

So, the anarchists we've all been seeing at all these protests for more than a dozen years are really part of a Karl Rove plot? That seems like a testable claim: I would think a little Zombietime would resolve your mind on the matter. But: Sarah Palin's operative is stealing your daughter's letters home from camp?

There are probably some fringe blogs out there that posit that an Obama victory would mean the end of Democracy in America, and some sort of coup against the Constitutional Order. I believe it would mean the end of much of American power, through the defunding of the military's efforts to replace and improve their equipment, and wasteful social spending on a scale that would strip away much of our capacity to do much of anything except social spending (see Canada, Europe).

Still, my operating assumption has been that he would mostly obey the law: and Obama, not McCain or Palin, is the one who was trained by men who advocated violent revolution (Frank Marshall Davis, Williaim Ayers) or self-described radical means to undermine the social system (Saul Alinski -- who actually dedicated his book on "community organizers," Rules for Radicals, to Lucifer; Ayers again; the Rev. Mr. Wright, who at least isn't on Lucifer's side; etc).

For that matter, he's the one whose supporters are calling for armed revolution. They're the ones who are trying to shut down news outlets that report opposition viewpoints.

Wolf says:

Am I trying to scare you? I am. I am trying to scare you to death and ask you to scare your Republican and independent friends most of all.

It's a remarkably unselfconscious thing to say, given:

Under the Palin-Rove police state, citizens will be targeted with state cyberterrorism. Bruce Fein of the American Freedom Agenda, a former Reagan official, warned me three years ago that the Bush team went after a Republican who had crossed them through cyberstalking: they messed with his email...

Whose email was hacked and published on the internet for all to see? Sen. Obama's, right? No?

Likewise, consider how she finishes:

Scharansky divided nations into "fear societies" and "free societies." Make no mistake: Sarah "Evita" Palin is Rove and Cheney's cosmetic rebranding of their fascist push: she will help to establish a true and irreversible "fear society" in this once free once proud nation. For God's sake, do not let her; do not let them.

Who was selling fear?

There are some people out there who should take a deep breath.

Just a Man

"Just a Man."

This weekend made me remember something, and reflect on it. It is in the desert around Las Vegas, lingering beyond the last of the lights. It was in the call for armed revolution from fools who never could manage their claim. It is in what we spoke of below, where the Milbloggers alone play taps among a conference filled with businessmen.

"It was an age akin to the Homeric or the Elizabethan, and a man bred to either age would have been at home in the West, and would have talked the language of the men about him.

"Achilles and Jim Bowie had much in common; Sir Francis Drake and John Coulter or Kit Carson would have understood the other.

"They were men of violence all, strong men of strong emotions, men who lived with strength and skill. Ulysses could have marched beside Jedediah Smith, Crockett could have stormed the walls of Troy."

-Louis L'Amour, How the West Was Won, 1962.

Sometimes it seems like there are not a lot of us left. A statistic often repeated at the conference: fewer than one percent of Americans choose to serve in uniform. It's not the only way, of course, but among the rest, how many? And how many just like what White People like, forgetting to be men?

Living The Dream

Living the Dream:

Doc Russia has what he would call a good night:

Last night was one of those nights were I got worked hard, and put up wet, but actually had a Hell of a time.

It was hard, demanding and stressful work, but I actually felt like I was 'living the dream.'

Go see what living the dream entails for Doc Russia. When you're done, don't forget to take a moment to thank God there are men like him.

Vegas AAR

Vegas AAR:

Some remarks:

1) Thanks to Allen for coming out. It was great to meet one of the Grim's Hall crew in person. He was the other guy in the cowboy hat, but since he runs tall by anyone's standard, it wasn't hard to tell us apart. I enjoyed meeting you.

2) When we announced the BlackFive party at the Penthouse Club (and once we had all understood that was Penthouse Magazine, not just some penthouse somewhere), Miss Ladybug asked: "I've been to Hooter's before, so is that too much different?"

I still haven't been to a Hooters. Nevertheless, I think I can now say with a high degree of confidence that there is indeed quite a difference.

3) I didn't really think I'd much enjoy all those hours of sitting at the various panels, but in fact they were quite interesting.

4) FbL was very proud that her coin outranks mine.

5) The DOD was paying close attention to what was said. I asked one question, and had answers from the staff of two general officers within ten minutes or so.

6) The Greyhawks were there and were, as always, great fun. Greyhawk hosted a panel and I must remark that he has a proud future career as a broadcaster in front of him if he wants it. He has the perfect voice for narration. News, documentaries, game shows, whatever he wants: he just needs to send in a sample to some agent.

7) Carrie and I sat together on the bus. We remarked that we were sorry Cassidy couldn't make it out this year. I've never met her in person, but she was missed.

8) OldSoldier54 brought us outstanding cigars. Thank you.

9) Matt at BlackFive insisted I take the statue and camera that went with the BlackFive award he had me receive for us. So, now I have a statue for my office that says, "BlackFive: The Paratrooper of Love." I'm sure that will be confusing to my great-grandchildren when they're cleaning out my kit after the funeral. (Actually, one of the great pleasures of the afterlife may be sitting in on their attempts to make sense out of the relics.)

10) Speaking of which: I stayed at the Sahara. I have a money clip my grandfather left me that is ancient and burnished by long use. It's engraved, but you almost can't tell it anymore. If you hold it so the light reflects just right, though, it says: "SAHARA, LAS VEGAS" and has the hotel logo.

The Sahara was one of the earlier movements away from the old-fashioned Las Vegas casinos, and to a "theme" casino. The concept was a tremendous success. Now, the biggest casinos are all that way: Caesar's Palace is done up in a Roman style (especially the Forum shops: my favorite thing in Las Vegas was the fountain and statues honoring King Bacchus), "Paris" in a faux-Parisian style, there's one for New York City, one about Pirates ("Treasure Island"), one about castles and knights ("Excalibur"), one about Egypt (the "Luxor"), and so forth and so on.

The Sahara has ceased to be interesting as a theme, and so its star is fading. You can see that they tried to grab at the mantle of history -- there are pictures of Gary Cooper on the wall, Elvis, Jack Benny: Golden Age Hollywood and its decadence, which looks like elegance given the far deeper and worse decadence of the nation today.

That wasn't enough, and in a way, it's their fault. They were the ones who introduced the 'next big thing' concept, and started the change that is now undermining them. Trying to claim the mantle of history and 'old Vegas' only points up that they were the ones who undermined that old Vegas.

There is one exception to the otherwise general decline at the Sahara. The House of Lords has been with them since the beginning, and is still the best meal you can readily imagine. I had the Colorado Rack of Lamb. They also do steak, potatoes -- baked or mashed -- fresh bread, salads, fine wines, dessert and coffee.

Some things really are simple, and really are elegant. Those things last.

11) I didn't go to the other meetings at Blog World Expo, but I will lay you any odds you like that the MilBlogs Conference is different in one crucial way. I bet you no other part of the conference ended with a memorial to bloggers of that sort killed in action in the last year, a remembrance of those killed since the start of this war, and the playing of Taps.

In the short speech Matt asked me to give, I said: "We're not biased. We're partisans." That means we've left some behind. I doubt anyone in that room had not sacrificed something, whether it was months away from family, loss of time with children, being asked to do what was hard, or the suffering of injuries in the line of duty.

MAJ Olmstead, as Matt pointed out in our toast to Absent Companions, wanted us to honor him with joy. We had a lot of fun, and good for us. That's what he wanted: that we should live boldly while we can.

Revolution?

The Revolution Started While I Was in Vegas?

So, apparently The Huffington Post is calling for armed revolution? Following back to the original, it seems a little overwrought:

We are in a crisis so dangerous that should these people succeed in their coup, your party affiliation will no longer matter, your American flag will be a nice collectible item of something that once was, and your version of God will be worshiped in secrecy because your freedoms will be owned by the few.

Um, really? Can we wait until I get back home? I left my rifles at the house.

We'll discuss it at the BlackFive pub crawl tonight, see if we can't hammer out a strategy. I wouldn't want to miss out on a good revolution. Of course, I doubt we'll all be on the same side, Ms. Alexandrovna. I'd probably need to hear a more convincing argument for why the recent bailout plan was not just a hastily-written-law-with-bad-parts-that-might-need-ironing-out-later, but in fact an attempt to destroy America and God.

Anything's possible, though, I guess.

Wait!

Leadership!

Sen. Obama, against Sen. McCain:

Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book: you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem. But here's the thing: this isn't 9-11. We know how we got into this mess. What we need now is leadership that gets us out.

The majority leader of Obama's Senate party, explaining their absence:

The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn’t equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can’t agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.

Lawmakers say they are unlikely to take action before, or to delay, their planned adjournments — Sept. 26 for the House of Representatives, a week later for the Senate. While they haven’t ruled out returning after the Nov. 4 elections, they would rather wait until next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who are leading efforts to contain the crisis, call for help.

One reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that “no one knows what to do” at the moment.

You guys are going to make me cry. With laughter.

Everybody's using this clip. I think I have seen about a half dozen parodies of this thing.



(via Instapundit)

Health Care Crisis

Is the Health Care Crisis a Fiction?

Cassandra has a post up that shows a marked equality of spending on health care across the American spectrum, from poorest to richest. The sources claim that if you look at all spending from all private and government sources, the difference between the poorest fifth (per capita) and the richest is about twenty bucks -- in favor of the poor.

Certainly there are some serious problems with the system from the provider's perspective -- ask Doc Russia sometime! Yet advanced care is more available here, and we don't have to fund a huge government bureaucracy. Neither do we have to give up control of our lives to the government as we would if they were paying the bills ("No drinking! You may not eat meat! No smoking! Keep costs down!").

Drift over and see what she has to say.

Economics

Dear Mr. Obama, II:

I don't know if this guy is a vet like in the original, but the fellow's got the concept down.



H/t: Miss Ladybug.

I made what was essentially this point in my first BlackFive piece, "Red State, Blue Collar." I included a link to that in my recent "Cowboys and Liberals" piece at Winds of Change, and got this insightful comment:

The barter arrangement you described in your Blackfive post also has one issue that nobody discussed, but that any bureaucrat would spot in their sleep: there's a bunch of imputed taxes and regulations being avoided and bypassed by such arrangements.

In a fully taxed and regulated world, the work you did for your landlord as imputed rent payment would have to be declared as self-employment income, subject to 15.7% self-employment tax as well as ordinary income tax. There may also be sales taxes involved, as well as numerous worksite regulations and insurance issues and even possible "without-a-license" violations, depending on the type of work you did.

He goes on from there to indicate how common such 'off books' arrangements are. The point is well taken, though: taxes are already strangling the economy. Regulations are already strangling initiative. Setting out to start up a business is an act of tremendous risk, but now it is also probably a felony -- that is, the regulations with prison time as a remedy have expanded so fast, you are likely committing a serious crime without knowing it.

Indeed, even if you hire a lawyer to advise you and do your best not to commit a crime, you may well be committing one. Even the lawyers can't keep up with all the new regulations and laws. The famous legal saying is, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse," but that depends on the law being something a reasonable person can expect to know. We've passed that point, and entered territory where the law changes so quickly and at such depth that good faith efforts are not enough to ensure that you don't violate some regulation.

That seems to me to be a very serious problem. It is surely one that acts as a brake on economic growth, both by increasing the setup costs for a business (those good-faith legal efforts) and by looping up at least some of these businesses in court. (Criminal court!)

Several of you have pointed to the entitlements collapse as a more serious economic problem than anything else. I agree, but the government doesn't. Last year, we talked about how very serious it might be, and the government's attitude:

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year — far more than the official $248 billion deficit — when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss — equal to $11,434 per household — is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006.

...

Modern accounting requires that corporations, state governments and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later.

The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don't show up when the government reports its financial condition.

Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.

Unfunded promises made for Medicare, Social Security and federal retirement programs account for 85% of taxpayer liabilities.

So why don't we change to the corporate-style accounting method?

The White House and the Congressional Budget Office oppose the change, arguing that the programs are not true liabilities because government can cancel or cut them.

Right.

They're already telling you that they have no intention of making these payments. They are "not true liabilities." The government can "cancel or cut them."

Economics 101? The whole government needs that lesson.

UPDATE:

Obama has received almost $400,000 from Lehman employees in his three-plus years in the Senate. McCain has gotten less than $150,000 from them since 1989. Certainly both have benefited from Lehman’s largess, and simply taking donations doesn’t prove any kind of corruption. But a hundred k a year certainly cuts into Obama’s message of “change.” “Hope,” too.

In fact, of the nearly three million dollars Lehman employees and PAC distributed in the last 19 years, just two senators — Obama and Clinton — received more than a quarter of the total, split nearly evenly. McCain got about five percent.