PACIFICA AIR TALENT: “Like, what’s with Sarah Palin’s kids names? Trig? Track? Piper? Is she like from California?”
THE OTHER SEVEN PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND THE PACIFICA TABLE: “Like, totally haha”.
I’ve said it before – I’m an oratory geek. It’s the family business; Dad was a speech teacher for most of four decades, and has actually had a longer radio career than me (he’s been doing weekly editorials at KDSU, a public station in Fargo, since the eighties). And of course, I’ve noodled around the trade a bit.
I was watching Palin on the closed-circuit last night from Radio Row. And for most of the speech, she was in control. Unlike most political speakers – who are slaves to the teleprompter, and who are largely terrible in front of crowds – Palin radiated confidence and control.
She has some gestures when she speaks; a few times, when she wanted to throw in some subtext, she had a little wink she’d toss off. A little gesture, but one that says “this is my house, and I’m just getting started”. She radiates cool unflappability; I’m looking forward to all of that going up against the Joe Biden we’ve seen in all of those Senate hearings – the endlessly-yammering self-adulating blowhard Biden that’s made such a caricature of himself.
If the Sarah Palin we saw last night shows up against the Joe Biden we saw in the Alito and Edwards hearings, the Democrats are in huge trouble.
I really need to watch the whole thing again.
Joe Biden, taking a page from the onrushing success of the Kucinich campaign, promises show trials!
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.
Keep it up, Slow Joe. There’s nothing people like more than endless pointillistic legal nattering.
Oh, yeah – and the McCain Campaign isn’t about the Bush Years anymore. So any time you spend on this is completely wast…
…oooh. Biden smacked us bad that time, didn’t he? Hope he doesn’t keep this up!
Last weekend’s raids in Minneapolis drew a fair share of controversy; many commentators posited that, based on the list of materials captured in the raids, it appeared that Ramsey County sheriff Bob Fletcher overreached in carrying out the raids (although I personally will wait to hear more about the evidence against the various arrestees).
I suspect that the Ramco Sheriff and the other Law Enforcement agencies involved in the raids did a little quick calculating (Warning! Pure Conjecture Follows!) and figured that weathering a few lawsuits from the ACLU’s legal jackals would be better than dealing with the kinds of violence and mayhem the subjects were planning.
I think it worked.
The first day’s protests were a complete flop. The anarkids’ planned mayhem was largely anticipated and controlled. Traffic was never blocked. And outside of a few spasms of impotent violence, things pretty much just worked.
So the anarkids are back to going “They hit us first!” They’ll be “unmasking” and “answering questions” at a presser at one of the raided houses later today.
Almost wish I could be there.
One of the things I loved about Lady Margaret Thatcher, former conservative Prime Minister of the UK, was her sheer gleeful unrepentance. She – like her friend Ronald Reagan – had a vision and mission; they both took it to the people directly, bypassing the media and going straight for mainstreet in their respective nations, ignoring the slings and barbs of the nattering classes.
Thatcher needed few defenders, since she was always on the attack.
Kevin Ecker sees some of the same traits (writing at True North and Eckernet). Defend Palin?
Me? I not gonna bother.
Why?? Because ultimately it only benefits Palin and she’s already proven that she’s more than capable of handling it. Part of me even wonders if she thrives off it.
Even if one looked only at her acceptance speech, it’s obvious this is no fragile flower of a woman. She has no problem being tough and aggressive. She can defend herself and honestly I think it puts her in her element. She’s earned the reputation of being a tough tenacious figher, and a spirit like that likes to be challenged. So let them challenge her. Let them underestimate her. Let them mock her. I think she’ll answer back much better than she takes.
I think it was last weekend that someone – I can’t remember who – invoked Thatcher in referring to Palin.
The coming weeks will tell, but I think she got off to a great start.
The lefty spin machine is trying to fire back at Palin.
One of Palin’s best lines last night – one of many, many great lines – was
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.
I think Ed, King and I jumped up in our chairs and did the “we’re not worthy” at that one (to the Pacifica folks’ irritation; I think we disrupted their broadcast. Sorry, Pacs).
This was in my inbox this morning from the Obama email machine:
Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.
Let’s clarify something for them right now.
Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.
Well, no. It’s how groups get people organized for whatever purpose they want. It can be a noble calling; it can also be a means for chiding and harangueing people from above. And they’re not accountable to voters – merely to whomever sets the agenda for the “organizing” that needs to be done.
“Community organizers” do it on behalf of one group or another. Others change the poliices of “out of touch politicians” by going to PTA, running for school board or mayor or whatever.
In Chicago, “community organizers” are agents of the status quo, the Chicago democrat machine.
Sarah Palin started out in politics to be, um, an “agent of change” – and she made real changes, in Wasilla, in Juneau and, last night I think, in the way Republicans look at this race.
So yes. Yes we can.
…the impact of Palin’s speech to those sitting in the building to those who weren’t.
Electric. Powerful. Intense. Like you’re part of something big.
My first impression – she’s telling Middle America, the “bitter, gun-clinging Jesus freaks” to grab their pikes and pitchforks and get ready for a rumble. She did everything but yell “Git ‘er Dooooone”; having Gretchen “Redneck Woman” Wilson among the post-speech entertainers was an interesting touch; the whole speech said “yes, all you disaffected, distressed people in flyover land – you production workers in Michigan and Ohio, you middle-class professionals in Tulsa and Omaha – I’m talking to you”.
In as many words!:
I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.
We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
Not everyone gets it, of course. Pacifica Radio Network, the granola-chomping conspiracy-mongering San Francisco-based (if memory serves, and it might not) far-left network had about eight people in their extra-large booth (along with the biggest mound of electronics anywhere in the place); they were attempting sort of an MST3K-type commentary during the speech, tut-tutting about her outfit, her hair, baby Trig’s sleeping through most of it. “Like she’s running for student body president”, one of them chortled in that smug way all of them, from Garrison Keillor down through Mark Heaney, do when they think they’ve uncovered some fetid truth about “the enemy”.
But the best observation of the night belonged to Duane “The Generalissimo” Patterson, Hugh Hewitt’s producer, who talked with Ed, King and I after the show let out. He pointed out that it borrowed one of Reagan’s key stylistic elements; bypassing the media and the chattering classes and going straight to the American people. He’s right, of course
It was, all in all, an amazing night.
More in a bit.
Charisma.
Magnetism.
Youth.
Vigor.
Icon for Change.
Oratorical Skills.
Accomplishment.
…were all trumped last night. Every last one of them…only Sarah Palin actually possesses the last one.
Sarah Palin dashed the hopes of Obamanistas by standing in front of thousands as millions watched, and nailed it – never sounding artificial and never not being herself. She confidently delivered a masterful speech with a dash of Alaskan twang, then pulled out the whoopin’ stick and gave Obammy a lickin’ only she could deliver.
…and he was stinging already as Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani had already softened him up for her.
And to the media…
“Here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country.”
Despite her disdain for them, they gushed for her.
Media swoons over Palin’s fiery speech
Fired-up Palin rocks arena, rips her foes
Palin Assails Critics and Electrifies Party
Afterwards, John McCain ambled onstage in a surprise early appearance, and wisely had little to add. Essentially saying “See?”
Obama’s camp responded with already well-worn talking points; a veritable knife in a gunfight.
“The speech that Gov. Palin gave []well delivered, but it was written by George Bush’s speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we’ve heard from George Bush for the last eight years. If Gov. Palin and John McCain want to define ‘change’ as voting with George Bush 90 percent of the time, that’s their choice, but we don’t think the American people are ready to take a 10 percent chance on change,” said Bill Burton, Obama campaign spokesman.
And now they must scramble to adjust…again.
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…is getting much more than he bargained for tonight.
Sarah Palin is on tonight. She is as comfortable in front of this crowd as she is at her son’s hockey game.
This bodes well so far.
…and now she’s going after Obama and Biden! Un bee leeeev a bull! She aint wastin’ no time!
So much for the motherly image!
I can guarantee you that Obama’s handlers are peeing their pants at this very moment. Sarah Palin is stealing this race before the paint dries on the yard signs.
She does look like Tina Fey.
…and she is abolutely crusifying Obama.
Other highlights:
I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better.
When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.
We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems – as if we all didn’t know that already.
But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.
And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.
But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform – not even in the state senate.
But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot – what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger … take more of your money … give you more orders from Washington … and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy … our opponent is against producing it.
Victory in Iraq is finally in sight … he wants to forfeit.
Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay … he wants to meet them without preconditions.
Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights? Government is too big … he wants to grow it.
Congress spends too much … he promises more.
Taxes are too high … he wants to raise them.
In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.
And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
They’re the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.
A leader who’s not looking for a fight, but is not afraid of one either. Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the current do-nothing Senate, not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee.
He said, quote, “I can’t stand John McCain.” Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we’ve chosen the right man. Clearly what the Majority Leader was driving at is that he can’t stand up to John McCain.
My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of “personal discovery.” This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn’t just need an organizer.
To the most powerful office on earth, (Senator McCain) would bring the compassion that comes from having once been powerless … the wisdom that comes even to the captives, by the grace of God … the special confidence of those who have seen evil, and seen how evil is overcome.
She pulled it off. The crowd is absolutely electrified.
Blitzer on CNN: She hit it out of the Park! Clearly a star has been born in the United States.
Anderson Cooper: if anyone is wondering why she is such a popular governor, they know now
Campbell: John McCain got his attack dog!
CNN: The most macho speech of the night was given by a woman
John McCain’s choice is so very justified…and he just walked onto stage…surprise!
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…is giving the speech of his lifetime.
If you believe in Voodoo, Barack’s backside is quite sore by now from the application of Rudy’s foot.
Cindy McCain is cradling Sarah Palin’s baby boy as Rudy speaks.
Highlights:
A few years later, he ran for the U.S. Senate. He won and has spent most of his time as a “celebrity senator.” No leadership or major legislation to speak of. His rise is remarkable in its own right – it’s the kind of thing that could happen only in America. But he’s never run a city, never run a state, never run a business.
He’s never had to lead people in crisis.
This is not a personal attack….it’s a statement of fact – Barack Obama has never led anything.
Nothing. Nada.
Look at just one example in a lifetime of principled stands — John McCain’s support for the troop surge in Iraq. The Democratic Party had given up on Iraq. And I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that when they gave up on Iraq they were giving up on America. The Democratic leader in the Senate said so: “America has lost.”
Well, if America lost, who won? Al Qaida? Bin Laden? In the single biggest policy decision of this election, John McCain got it right and Barack Obama got it wrong.
Obama was going to take public financing for his campaign, until he didn’t.
Obama was against wiretapping before he voted for it.
When speaking to a pro-Israel group, Obama favored an undivided Jerusalem. Until the very next day when he changed his mind.
I hope for his sake, Joe Biden got that VP thing in writing.
When Russia rolled over Georgia, John McCain knew exactly how to respond.
Having been to that part of the world many times and having developed a clear worldview over many years, John knew where he stood. Within hours, he established a very strong, informed position that let the world know exactly how he’ll respond as President. At exactly the right time, John McCain said, “We’re all Georgians.”
Obama’s first instinct was to create a moral equivalency – that “both sides” should “show restraint.” The same moral equivalency that he has displayed in discussing the Palestinian Authority and the State of Israel.
Later, after discussing it with his 300 foreign policy advisors, he changed his position and suggested that the “the UN Security Council,” could find a solution. Apparently, none of his 300 advisors told him that Russia has a veto on any UN action. Finally Obama put out a statement that looked …well, it looked a lot like John McCain’s.
Here’s some free advice: Sen. Obama, next time just call John McCain.
How do I count Sarah Palin’s strengths, at a few days’ remove?
Sharp. Photogenic. A short but action-packed record. Paleocon. Of faith. Dealing with some of life’s challenging vicissitudes like very American family does to one degree or another, and doing it with style. Has to have Ahmadinejad thinking if he steps out of line she’ll stalk, shoot, skin and mount him on her office wall.
Oh, yeah – and an agent of rebellion.
I don’t agree with Pat Buchanan a whole lot (once he steps outside of interpreting conservative orthodoxy, anyway), but I think he’s got the real importance of Palin figured out better than anyone I’ve heard yet.
The arrival of Palin on the national scene, with her youth, charisma and vitality, probably also portends a changing of the guard in Washington.
With Republicans having zero chance of capturing either House, and but a slim chance of avoiding losses in both, a Vice President Palin, with her reputation as a rebel and reformer, would surely inspire similar revolts in the Republican caucuses.
As Thomas Jefferson said, from time to time, a little rebellion in the political world is as necessary as storms in the physical.
And the GOP needs this; indeed, Palin’s record in Alaska, upsetting the Murtkowski/Stevens GOP machine’s applecart, is the GOP’s challenge in microcosm. The party needs to clean its house and focus on its real mission – interpreting Hayek and Jefferson into terms that make sense to people like the ones next to you at little league or the grocery store or the gas pump or on the freeway during rush hour.
The Palin nomination could backfire, but it is hard to see how. She has passed her first test, her introduction to the nation, with wit and grace. And the Obama-Biden ticket, having already alienated millions of women with the disrespecting of Hillary, is unlikely to start attacking another woman whose sole offense is that she had just been given the chance to break the glass ceiling at the national level.
It’s been noted today by better bloggers than I – the Democrats are the real bigots (although I did kinda make the point last week).
Let the Dems try to crucify a teenage couple, to babble on about the woman’s “experience” when their Presidential candidate can’t hold a candle to her, to try to keep standing on the glass ceiling (for non-establishment liberal women). There’s a party to resuscitate out there; we’ll come back to them later.
They want McCain to be a maverick and then when he acts like one they pounce like hyenas.
They want women to assume more dominant roles and when an ascendant, accomplished and confident one does, they say she’s too young, too cute, too average, too motherly.
They want reform and an end to the entrenched policies and personalities of Washington; along comes an agent of that very change and they attack her for not being chosen by them; for not being of the ilk.
WSJ: Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain’s veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose a threat to their coronation of Barack Obama and the return of Camelot-on-the-Potomac.
If we know anything about John McCain, it is that he is by instinct a reformer, sometimes to a fault. Yet when he acts like McCain and picks a maverick reformer in his own mold, his former media cheering squad turns on him for not conforming to Beltway mores and picking someone they’ve all met 10 times in the CNN green room.
They want a break from politics as usual and then won’t recognize Sarah Palin for how much she has accomplished in a short time as Governor, not to mention fighting her very own party in the interest of her citizenry.
The Beltway class whines constantly about how it wants fresh voices in politics, but we guess this means a first-term Democratic Senator rather than a first-term Republican Governor from some godforsaken U.S. state few of them have ever been to.
A sample of some of the spray from the media of late on the Palin candidacy:
– Eleanor Clift, the McLaughlin Group: “If the media reaction is anything, it’s been literally laughter in many places across newsrooms.”
– Sally Quinn, Newsweek: “It is a political gimmick . . . I find it insulting to women, to the Republican party, and to the country.”
– E.J. Dionne, Washington Post: “Palin is, if anything, less qualified for the vice presidency (and the presidency) than [Harriet] Miers was for the court. But there is one big difference: Palin passes all the right-wing litmus tests.”
– Maureen Dowd, New York Times: “They have a tradition of nominating fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West.”
– Ruth Marcus, Washington Post: “But as a parent in the media, I also know that the Palins assumed this risk. Anyone who watched coverage of the Bush twins’ barroom exploits knew that the avert-your-eyes stance toward candidates’ children has its limits.”
– Charlie Cook, Beltway pundit, on PBS’s “Charlie Rose”: “I had a friend that had a young person tell them that they had three interviews to get a job as a server at Ruby Tuesday! So this is like putting a whole — for someone that hasn’t played on a national — Geraldine Ferraro had more — Dan Quayle had undergone more scrutiny, had played on a bigger stage than this. This is putting an enormous risk on someone he didn’t know. And he has to just pray that it works!”
Watching the Obama/Biden camp squirm is a lesson in political schizophrenia.
We are instructed that Mrs. Palin isn’t qualified, because she lacks Washington experience. But until recently that was said to be a virtue in Mr. Obama, who is at the top of his ticket. Meanwhile, there’s hardly a peep of media notice that the Obama campaign is preposterously trying to remake Joe Biden into a poor scrapper from Scranton when he’s been in the Senate for 36 years. They all know Joe. But when Mr. McCain picks an authentic middle-class mother who is also a Governor, we are told she’s not up to the job.
Tonight, in what will undoubtedly be one of the most-watched events of the presidential race, the American people will find out if in fact she is up to the job. Ostensibly even more so when she enlists her intellect in a VP debate with Joe Blow’s mouth.
That night we may find ourselves witness to one of the most historic debates of all time as most certainly Joe will underestimate Mrs. Palin or will otherwise be incapacitated by her charms and his inability to control his diction in the presence of a lady.
John McCain is counting on it.
…light posting today.
I should be back to relatively-normal tomorrow.
…in the same way that you can’t exercise your way to better health.
And the idea that you might try to (along with demand dropping at the end of summer) certainly looks like it’s starting to kick in:
Oil prices sank to a five-month low of just more than $105 a barrel on Tuesday as traders turned their sights on signs that slower growth was spreading beyond the US into Europe, Japan and even emerging markets.
The fall led some analysts to suggest that oil prices could move back below $100 a barrel, a level not seen since March, after fears that US oil supplies could be severely disrupted by hurricane Gustav proved unfounded.
Make mine a double.
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said Tuesday that he would consider running for president in 2012.
Hey you,
Out there in the cold,
Getting lonely, getting old,
Can you feel me?
Hey you,
Standing in the aisle,
With itchy feet and fading smile,
Can you feel me?
Hey you,
Don’t help them to bury the light.
Don’t give in without a fight.
Speaking to a Ron Paul event at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Ventura told the crowd that he intends to watch events between now and the next election and decide “whether it’s worth it.”
Hey you,
Out there on your own,
Sitting naked by the phone,
Would you touch me?
Hey you,
With your ear against the wall,
Waiting for someone to call out,
Would you touch me?
Hey you,
Would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I’m coming home.
“I wrote the book, “Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me,’ ” Ventura said.
“Well, I’m here. Let’s get the revolution going.”
But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high, as you can see.
No matter how he tried he could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.
“If I see it in 2012, we’ll give them a race they’ll never forget,” Ventura said.
Hey you,
Out there on the road,
Always doing what you’re told,
Can you help me?
Hey you,
Out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you,
Don’t tell me there’s no hope at all.
Together we stand, divided we fall.
It’s going to be a busy, crazy, and fraught day.
Nonspecific (for the moment) prayers, karmic imprecations ori other best wishes acceptable to your worldview are eagerly solicited.
UPDATE 1:50PM – They were answered. It was “yes”. Thanks, everyone (even you, Penigma. 🙂
Indeed, that’s one of the lessons of this fracas; you never know where your friends are going to come from.
More later, once I sort it all out.
That’s very enigmatic, isn’t it?
So far — and it is hard to tell what the future may hold for Palin’s unexpected national candidacy — the travails of the Palin family probably seem awfully familiar to many average Americans. It is this averageness that makes her such a politically promising running mate for John McCain — and such a dangerous opponent for Democrats. Many voters will find it easy to identify with her family’s struggles — a significant advantage in an election where the voting calculus is so unusually and intensely personal.
I believe much of the “hope” for “change” in this election comes from people wanting Washington – government at all levels, really – to “understand” them; to legislate without talking down, to operate without overreaching, to do the right thing by us.
I think the symbolism of the Palin candidacy is a complete bombshell.
I’m asking purely hypothetically, here. It’s an intellectual exercise. No hint of “legal advice” is being solicited, and I acknowledge that you, a member of the Bar, will not be providing any.
1. Under what circumstances may police enter a home? I mean, short of hot pursuit? I’m aware that if someone invites the police into their home of their own free will, it’s “consent”.
2. Who may give “consent” to enter a home? Specifically, may a minor with no responsible adult present in the house give consent?
3. Hypothetically, if a minor (with no parent present in the home) specifically tells the police to wait at the door, may the police enter the house?
Again – I am asking purely as an intellectual exercise, on behalf of someone else.
Thanks.
Seen down the street, in a duplex usually clogged with Hamline University kids whose yard has been slathered with hand-drawn “STOP THE RNC” placards for the past week; five mohawked, black-in-head-to-toe clad college kids with black and red “Anarchist” flags staggering out into the street, milling about…
…and climbing into a late-model minivan.
My thirteen-year-old son made an interesting and unprompted observation as we were out running errands in the car the other day.
“Dad, at the Open House (for his school) I noticed that the Student Council candidate at our school is sort of like Barack Obama.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, he’s really nice and enthusiastic and promises things that he can’t do and are completely out of his control; to get people to vote for him.”
He went on with examples.
“Like vending machines in every room, and no bullying ever in the halls, allowing video games in school, to make sure school lunches are a lot better; less homework.”
Smart kid. It made me think of Obama’s speech the other night.
“Well, (Obama’s) really nice and enthusiastic and promises things that he can’t do and are completely out of his control; to get people to vote for him.”
I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power.
I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.
I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars.
And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy
…five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.
I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support
…help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.
I wonder if Barack Obama ever ran for student council? I wonder if all junior politicians take their lead from liberals these days (and I include GW Bush in that hogpile)?
In all fairness to Barack Obama, his speech didn’t sound that different from G.W. Bush’s State of the Union a few years back. Promises, promises. Program after program. I don’t think any of them happened.
At least now, with Sarah Palin on the McCain reform ticket, there is hope. Albeit a sliver of it. Hope that someone will go to Washington, and once there, wake Americans up to the fact that our Federal Government needs to go on a diet. Needs to do less, and with less. That the American people will have to do more with less. That we will actually have to go back to “being our brother’s keeper.”
Someone’s gotta do it. The question is will it be now, when we have a choice, or later when we don’t?
It was a year ago today that True North launched.
The original idea came from Derek “Chief” Brigham, Andy “Teh Mayer” Applikowski, Lassie, Doctor Jonz, Kevin Ecker and a small group of other center-right regional bloggers; provide a clearinghouse for not only the best center-right alt-media in the region, but a place to coordinate activism.
It’s a big job, and – unlike most of the big institutional leftyblogs like the Minnesoros “Independent” , the MNPost and the late, unlamented Daily Mold, it’s a labor of love; there’s no money going in or coming out.
But we were, as Elwood Blues memorably put it, “on a mission from God”. And we still are; one of our big original reasons to exist was to provide alt-media coverage not only of the convention, but of the convention’s protesters. Oh, yeah – and the election, too.
The first year’s been a great run! Congrats, all!
The local leftysphere is running itself ragged trying to spin the “anarchist” raids over the weekend.
Charlie Quimby echoes the complaints of many leftybloggers in reaction to the left’s lawyers’ spin about, among other things, the buckets of urine:
But then, sometimes a bucket of urine is just a bucket of urine.
Not everyone in America lives with two-and-half baths or maintains their houses to Martha Stewart standards. That may make them a civil nuisance, but it doesn’t make them criminals.
In an atypical house, such as one being used as a crash pad for large numbers of youngsters who lean toward the permacultural persuasion, there’s a better explanation than stockpiling material for urine bombs.
The practice might appear far fetched to average suburbanites…
…as well as to this Saint Paul guy, who’s managed to find a way to dispose of urine – pretty much always in a toilet.
Quimby’s point – that many homeowners might have some of the shopping list of “weird” items in their homes. Yesterday, I took a sarcastic stab at the list. Today, let’s do a real comparative inventory:
Let’s establish this; I know nothing about the specifics of this case. I would never rule out “law enforcement overreach” for something like this.
But I highly doubt that the raids were carried out because of buckets of urine or caltrops. I’m going to go out on a limb, and say the cops likely have something else; some sort of paper trail linking at least some of those arrested to at least some kind of organized plan for mayhem.
Still – I’m not completely unsympathetic with the “anarchists”. More – probably much more – on that later.
The notoriously Democrat-friendly Zogby poll shows Mac in freefall.
UPDATE: Oops. They don’t.
The interactive online Zogby survey shows that both Obama and McCain have solidified the support among their own parties – Obama won 86% support of Democrats and McCain 89% of Republicans in a two-way head-to-head poll question not including the running mates. When Biden and Palin are added to the mix, Obama’s Democratic support remains at 86%, while McCain’s increases to 92%.
They do show that libertarian Bob Barr has an absurdly high vote total – high enough (presuming he’s stealing mostly from McCain/Palin) to deny Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, South Carolina, New Hampshire, and (although crosstabs aren’t available for them) Montana and the Dakotas.
Yes, I said “absurdly”. No Libertarian has ever polled much over 1% in the general election. Chalk it up to it being an “online”, “interactive” poll, I thinki.
I’ll slot this one into the “good news” column.
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