Obama for President

Heh.

The Right Coast: Obama for President Tom Smith

After some thought which I concede has not been all that deep, I have decided to announce that I support Senator Obama for President. I have been inspired to take this step, which I know some of my readers will find shocking and disappointing, by the several other famous conservatives and/or libertarians who have thrown their backing to the Senator from the Land of Lincoln. Allow me to explain.
Obama has made many insprirational arguments about why he should be the next President. There is Hope, Change, the Audacity of both, the financial crisis's verdict on the failed policies of the last eight years, and transcending the politics of yesterday, which are narrow, in order to get to the politics of the future which are, I infer, very broad. But in truth, I am not sure what all of this means, concretely. Thus I have tried to pay attention carefully as Obama and his many proxies have explained what his actual plans would be. These are much more comprehensible. With some gratitude I realize that all the talk of Hope and Change can be distilled into a two-fold message that is both direct and pure: If Obama is elected President, the government will give me money. And second, that would be fair.

Iraqi veteran for McCain

Democrats Won't Get a Filibuster-Proof Senate

The election isn't over yet and if this is also true...icing on the cake.

Election Prediction: Democrats Won't Get a Filibuster-Proof Senate - Michael Barone (usnews.com)

If, as seems likely but not quite certain, Barack Obama is elected next Tuesday, a key question for public policymaking will be how many Democrats are elected to the Senate. Currently, there are 51 Democrats there, including Joe Lieberman, but Democrats are seriously contesting 11 Republican-held seats, and there is a by-no-means-trivial chance that they could win each one. Meanwhile, Republicans are seriously contesting either zero Democratic-held seats, or only one, that of Mary Landrieu in Louisiana. The only public polls there since July are from Rasmussen, and the latest shows Landrieu ahead of Democrat-turned-Republican John Kennedy by 53 percent to 43 percent. So, Landrieu, a narrow winner in 1996 and 2002, seems headed to a third term.

Obama donors get access to top advisers

Change we can believe in...

Obama donors get access to top advisers - Mike Allen - Politico.com

Aides to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) scheduled pricey luncheons, roundtables, readings, VIP receptions and policy dinners with campaign officials and advisers, offering donors a taste of his potential administration.

Supporters could eat dinner in Los Angeles with Warren Buffett, an Obama adviser and one of history’s shrewdest investors, for $28,500, the federal limit for donations by an individual to a national party committee.

Or they could attend a “VIP reception” with the sage of Omaha for $10,000, or an “economic roundtable” for just $1,000.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on the schedule.

Obama Accepting Untraceable Donations

Even the WaPo is having to pretend they are concerned:

Obama Accepting Untraceable Donations

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity, campaign officials confirmed.

Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

Barack's Judgement

Inflation in Zimbabwe

This is what true economic meltdown looks like.

What the real crisis is like!

If you think that the current economic crisis is something that has never happened in history before, you may be wrong! After the collapse of the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe in 2000, the inflation in that country skyrocketed to 231 million percent a year! Just think about it - 231 000 000%! Unemployment went up to 80% and a third of country’s population left it.

Let`s now have a look at the photos that you may not be able to see anywhere else in the world.

Sarah Palin's Intelligence

You don't go from the PTA to Mayor and then Governor by being an idiot.

Sarah Palin's a Brainiac - The Daily Beast

The former editor in chief of Ms. magazine (and a Democrat) on what she learned on a campaign plane with the would-be VP.

It's difficult not to froth when one reads, as I did again and again this week, doubts about Sarah Palin's “intelligence,” coming especially from women such as PBS's Bonnie Erbe, who, as near as I recall, has not herself heretofore been burdened with the Susan Sontag of Journalism moniker. As Fred Barnes—God help me, I'm agreeing with Fred Barnes—suggests in the Weekly Standard, these high toned and authoritative dismissals come from people who have never met or spoken with Sarah Palin. Those who know her, love her or hate her, offer no such criticism. They know what I know, and I learned it from spending just a little time traveling on the cramped campaign plane this week: Sarah Palin is very smart.

Obama's money slowing down.

Amazing what happens when people start scrutinizing your credit card transactions.
JammieWearingFool: "Obama Hindered by 'Sudden Drop' in Fundraising"

Patterico's site Hijacked

Wow, don't use 1&1.
Patterico’s Pontifications » 1&1 Internet Has Allowed My Domain to Be Hijacked

The company “1&1″ has allowed my domain, patterico.com, to be hijacked.

Look up at the address bar. This is still the Patterico site — but I no longer have the patterico.com domain — even though I renewed it before the expiration date. My domain registrar has apparently seen fit to sell the domain out from under me despite my having taken timely steps to renew it.

If they can do this to me, they can do it to you. They can do it to anyone.

I have spent the past couple of days trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but they’re now selling it off, so it’s clear they’ve been lying to me. I’ll spare you the full details. Here are the important facts:

* I resolved a billing mixup more than two weeks before the expiration date and was assured everything would be fine.

* I learned 4-5 days before the expiration date that the account was still mistakenly closed.

* I was told I had to open a new account and “transfer” the domain from the old, closed account to the new, open one.

* I initiated this transaction on the first possible business day after learning of the problem, requesting the “transfer” two days before the expiration date.

* It is now two days after the expiration date and despite repeated assurances from the company that my renewal was on track, my domain is being auctioned off.

I have placed over a dozen phone calls, sent as many e-mails, and even sent a fax identifying myself and demanding that they do this renewal.

I am currently researching my options and would love to hear advice. In the meantime, let 1&1 know how you feel.

UPDATE: I am apparently not the first person 1&1 has done this to; see here for a similar story. The difference is that I put in for my renewal in a timely fashion.

UPDATE x2: If anyone wants to help monetarily, so I can pursue legal options, please don’t use the Paypal tip jar on the sidebar unless you’re paying with a credit card, because Paypal takes a percentage of credit card donations. Paypal any donations to patterico AT gmail DOT com; I’ll get 100% of any such donations.

I don’t have time to make a button; sorry. I have to get to work.

Will Capitalism Save Us?

Steve Forbes thinks so.

How Capitalism Will Save Us - Forbes.com

We are experiencing the devastating consequences of a chain of major economic policy errors, which, to use a current cliché, created the perfect storm. These government blunders temporarily paralyzed the global credit system and are now sending the U.S. and Europe into recession, while sharply cutting back Asia's growth rates.

Left to its own devices, the credit crisis, which began in August 2007, would have crushed economies as severely as did the Great Depression.

Belatedly, but thankfully, governments recognized that the only way to get credit flowing again was for them to make quick and direct massive infusions of new equity into beleaguered banks, as well as commit to other emergency measures hitherto unimaginable.

If sensible rescue efforts continue--and they will--the immediate crisis will quickly pass. Shell-shocked businesses and consumers won't recover rapidly from the trauma of recent months, especially as we now cope with recession. But the downturn shouldn't be prolonged: The economy here and those overseas should start to pick up no later than next spring.

That soon? Despite the crisis, the global economy still retains enormous strengths. Between the early 1980s and 2007 we lived in an economic Golden Age. Never before have so many people advanced so far economically in so short a period of time as they have during the last 25 years. Until the credit crisis, 70 million people a year were joining the middle class. The U.S. kicked off this long boom with the economic reforms of Ronald Reagan, particularly his enormous income tax cuts. We burst from the economic stagnation of the 1970s into a dynamic, innovative, high-tech-oriented economy. Even in recent years the much-maligned U.S. did well. Between year-end 2002 and year-end 2007 U.S. growth exceeded the entire size of China's economy. Obviously China's growth rates were higher, but China was coming off a much smaller base.

Obama Fraud

This is beginning to get noticed by some blogs.  This seems to be a very serious issue, the Obama website is allowing anyone to donate using one card with multiple aliases.  Overseas cards are also being accepted. 

Read the whole link and the other sites that are on top of this.  It's time to get the word out.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » “John Galt” donating to Obama this year too, apparently; Update: RNC files new complaint with FEC; Update: Foreign credit cards being accepted too? Update: Ruffini cries fraud

I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn’t ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and… “Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift.”

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it’s donors. Also, I don’t see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn’t allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn’t match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree

Sad to say this is what I have seen.
America's Most Overrated Product:

...That's not to say that professor-taught classes are so worthwhile. The more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members are hired and promoted much more for their research than for their teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are almost always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn't bring in the research bucks. Ernest L. Boyer, the late president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, used to say that winning the campus teaching award was the kiss of death when it came to tenure. So, no surprise, in the latest annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent said they were not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received. Imagine if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would quickly go off the market. Colleges should be held to a much higher standard, as a higher education costs so much more, requires years of time, and has so much potential impact on your life. Meanwhile, 43.5 percent of freshmen also reported "frequently" feeling bored in class, the survey found.

Let's take Obama at his word

Experience matters...

The comprehensive argument against Barack Obama

Excellent:

Hot Air » Blog Archive » The comprehensive argument against Barack Obama

CLOSING THE DEAL
A Roadmap for Campaign 2008’s Homestretch
By Guy Benson (www.guybensonshow.com) and Mary Katharine Ham (www.weeklystandard.com)
Editor and Contributor, Ed Morrissey

Obama Talks Nonsense on Tax Cuts

Interesting.

Main Street - WSJ.com

Now we know: 95% of Americans will get a "tax cut" under Barack Obama after all. Those on the receiving end of a check will include the estimated 44% of Americans who will owe no federal income taxes under his plan.

In most parts of America, getting money back on taxes you haven't paid sounds a lot like welfare. Ah, say the Obama people, you forget: Even those who pay no income taxes pay payroll taxes for Social Security. Under the Obama plan, they say, these Americans would get an income tax credit up to $500 based on what they are paying into Social Security.

Just two little questions: If people are going to get a tax refund based on what they pay into Social Security, then we're not really talking about income tax relief, are we? And if what we're really talking about is payroll tax relief, doesn't that mean billions of dollars in lost revenue for a Social Security trust fund that is already badly underfinanced?

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

I don't think it will happen anytime soon:
Meridian Magazine:: Ideas and Society: Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Cindy Sheehan (has problems)

Seems people are out to get her.

Cindy Sheehan For Congress

Hanky Campaignky?

The past few weeks have been a little strange at Cindy for Congress and, I guess the things that have been happening could just be coincidences, or a run of bad luck, but the climate for the possibility of campaign hanky-panky certainly exists.

Campaigns have been compromised since the beginning of campaign history, but these days with legal warrantless wiretapping and political party conventions sponsored by AT&T and the constant call of "all hail to my political party" and obeisance to the banksters above what's good for our nation, maybe what's been happening on my campaign isn't coincidental or "Mercury retrograde," or whatever.

Starting with the necessity of "changing a light bulb" (bugging my phone) in my hotel phone at the DNC (brought to you by AT&T) while I was out of the room, Cindy for Congress has had an increasing number of attacks. Two weeks ago, we were begged by organizers of a "radical" music festival called "We the People(Sheeple)" forbade me from speaking after having begged me to be there. An article in LA Beat said that the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigoso was involved in the decision to silence my voice. Not only did we go down to L.A. at our own expense, but also we took an entire day of valuable campaign time to do so.

The past week, though, has been incredibly trying. First of all we had to file a restraining order against a former volunteer whom, with hindsight, we now know was probably spying on us for the Pelosi camp. After we let this person go, his emails to us became increasingly hostile and threatening. After that happened, the tail lights in our campaign-mobile were busted out (the campaign mobile that has Cindy for Congress signs all over it and pictures of it were in an AP story.

Obama and Ayers Shared an Office

Very interesting:

Crossing Paths Daily: Obama and Ayers Shared an Office (Update: For Three Years) | Verum Serum

Bill Ayers and Barack Obama shared an office. Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop, the one Obama directed all that money to is located at 115 S. Sangamon Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607

Did Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election?

Probably not, but this sure doesn't help him.  Making Joe a martyr will also backfire.

Did Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election?

No. Really. You're kidding me. Barack Obama actually told that Joe the Plumber guy that he wants to "spread the wealth around." What, did Obama just get done reading the Wikipedia entry on Huey "Share the Wealth" Long or something? Was he somehow channeling that left-wing populist from the Depression? Talk about playing into the most extreme stereotype of your party, that it is infested with socialists.

A while back I chatted with a University of Chicago professor who was a frequent lunch companion of Obama's. This professor said that Obama was as close to a full-out Marxist as anyone who has ever run for president of the United States. Now, I tend to quickly dismiss that kind of talk as way over the top. My working assumption is that Obama is firmly within the mainstream of Democratic politics. But if he is as free with that sort of redistributive philosophy in private as he was on the campaign trail this week, I have no doubt that U of C professor really does figure him as a radical. And after last night's debate, a few more Americans might think that way, too. McCain's best line: "Now, of all times in America, we need to cut people's taxes. We need to encourage business, create jobs, not spread the wealth around."

Not Over By A Long Shot

This is one race that cannot be called until the end.

Not Over By A Long Shot (Wizbang)

...here are the reasons why this election remains very much undecided, with a great deal left to be hammered down:

First, in a nutshell. a mathematical certainty of any event involving human behavior cannot possibly exist prior to that event.

Next is the idea that opinion polls are predictive. By definition, they are not, in the same way that charting a stock's past performance and present price is in no way predictive of its future value;

Next, it needs saying again the the history of polls shows instability and unreliability. The elections of 1936, 1948, 1968, 1976, 1988, and 2000 in particular were very different from what the polls predicted just a couple weeks before the election, sometimes even closer than that;

"And the corporations sit there in their... in their corporation buildings, and, see, they're all corporation-y!"

Good illustration on why all taxes impact people.

The Corner on National Review Online

The Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Blog has been doing great fact-checks of the candidates after each debate, and I thought this excerpt from tonight's post was worth sharing with Corner readers:

Throughout the debate, Sen. Obama repeatedly showed an unfortunate ignorance of one of the fundamental principles of taxation: all taxes are paid by people. On multiple occasions, Obama claimed that businesses or corporations "can afford" to pay higher taxes. But such a statement is just ridiculous. Companies have no "ability to pay" taxes. Does the corporation's building pay the tax? How about its fax machine or water cooler? No. People pay the taxes. Here is one such example of why Sen. Obama would get an F in public finance:

Obama's Abortion Extremism

I wish more people understood this.

The Witherspoon Institute

Sen. Barack Obama's views on life issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research mark him as not merely a pro-choice politician, but rather as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.

Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.
Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals - who aggressively promote Obama's candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.

Real Debate Wisconsin: Racine schools hand out textbook with 15 page Obama love-fest...

8th grade indoctrination. The problem I see is not with any one thing that Obama has done. Rather it is the accumulation of many small things (some not so small) that shows we as an electorate do not know who this guy is.

Real Debate Wisconsin: Racine schools hand out textbook with 15 page Obama love-fest...

Obama's Kenya ghosts

Read the whole thing:

Washington Times - HYMAN: Obama's Kenya ghosts

About 50 parishioners were locked into the Assemblies of God church before it was set ablaze. They were mostly women and children. Those who tried to flee were hacked to death by machete-wielding members of a mob numbering 2,000.

The 2008 New Year Day atrocity in the Kenyan village Eldoret, about 185 miles northwest of Nairobi, had all the markings of the Rwanda genocide of a decade earlier.

By mid-February 2008, more than 1,500 Kenyans were killed. Many were slain by machete-armed attackers. More than 500,000 were displaced by the religious strife. Villages lay in ruin. Many of the atrocities were perpetrated by Muslims against Christians.

Obama's 95% Illusion

When a tax cut isn't a tax cut:

Obama's 95% Illusion - WSJ.com

One of Barack Obama's most potent campaign claims is that he'll cut taxes for no less than 95% of "working families." He's even promising to cut taxes enough that the government's tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% -- which is lower than it is today.

It's a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he's also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of "tax cut."

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase "tax credit." Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand no fewer than seven such credits for individuals:

McCain supporter under fire "Blacks aren't supposed to be for McCain"

I wonder when Mr. Harris will be called an Uncle Tom.  This is a sad example of racial politics in action.

CNN to black McCain supporter: Um, why aren’t you backing Obama?

Specifically, why isn’t he backing him “in light of what’s happened” to the campaign’s tone? Is he really going to tolerate McCain reminding America that The One had no moral objection to associating with domestic terrorists? According to the media, that’s practically race treason.

I See Dead People...Voting for Obama

The Weekly Standard

I See Dead People...Voting for Obama

Obama and the Attempt to Destroy the Second Amendment

But of course Obama did not know anything about the motives of the foundation he was a director on.
Pajamas Media » Obama and the Attempt to Destroy the Second Amendment

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama must demonstrate executive experience, but he remains strangely silent about his eight years (1994-2002) as a director of the Joyce Foundation, a billion dollar tax-exempt organization. He has one obvious reason: during his time as director, Joyce Foundation spent millions creating and supporting anti-gun organizations.

There is another, less known, reason.

During Obama’s tenure, the Joyce Foundation board planned and implemented a program targeting the Supreme Court. The work began five years into Obama’s directorship, when the Foundation had experience in turning its millions into anti-gun “grassroots” organizations, but none at converting cash into legal scholarship.

The plan’s objective was bold: the judicial obliteration of the Second Amendment.

The roots of ACORN

Look at this link on ACORN and there associates.
ACORN - The Big Picture

Baldwin Blames Financial Crisis on Clinton, Dems and Barney Frank

200 pigs were reported flying over California today.  More or less.

Baldwin Blames Financial Crisis on Clinton, Dems and Barney Frank | NewsBusters.org

If a Bush-bashing, Republican-hating nincompoop like Alec Baldwin understands that Democrats are responsible for the current financial crisis, and is willing to say so on national television, why can't America's so-called "real" journalists?

Although it seems unlikely that Baldwin watches "The Factor," it is awfully coincidental that roughly 24 hours after Fox News's Bill O'Reilly tore Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) apart for his role in propping up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the typically inept Baldwin, appearing on HBO's "Real Time," not only pointed fingers at Frank for the current crisis, but also blamed former President Clinton and fellow Democrats.

Maybe more delicious, this came moments after comedian Garry Shandling blamed it all on -- wait for it -- George W. Bus.

Sarah Palin in Carson on Saturday October 4-

Nice to know that the Democrats in California like diversity.

Carson, California Voters For Obama Blog: Sarah Palin in Carson on Saturday October 4-

FRIENDS, FAMILY AND FELLOW OBAMACRATS...

Sarah Palin is coming to Carson this Saturday. Two days after the Vice Presidential Debate, she wants to show the world that she can come to one of the bluest areas in the bluest state in the Union and have over 10,000 people show up for a rally for her. This is outrageous!!!



We need to tell the world that California does not want another Bush term!!! Therefore, we are inviting ALL GRASSROOTS DEMOCRATS and all people who want change in this country to come out to a rally outside her rally this Saturday. National media will be covering the rally and this gives us a golden opportunity to share out story.

Atheists Sue President Over National Prayer Day

They feel that a day of prayer causes a hostile environment.  Hmm, so hostile that they feel comfortable suing.
FOXNews.com - Atheists Sue President Over National Prayer Day

The nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics is suing President Bush, the governor of Wisconsin and other officials over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued Friday in U.S. district court, arguing that the president's mandated proclamations calling on Americans to pray violates a constitutional ban on government officials endorsing religion.

The day of prayer, held each year on the first Thursday of May, creates a "hostile environment for nonbelievers, who are made to feel as if they are political outsiders," the lawsuit said.