The "Author"

clipped from www.redstate.com Here's a perfect example for you to consider: McCain-Feingold. The BCRA legislation is famous because of the two principal sponsors - but did you know there were 41 other co-sponsors in the Senate alone? They were: Bayh, Bingaman, Boxer, Cantwell, Carnahan, Carper, Cleland, Clinton, Cochran, Collins, Corzine, Dayton, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Edwards, Feingold, Feinstein, Graham, Harkin, Jeffords, Johnson, Kerry, Kohl, Landrieu, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Lincoln, Mikulski, Miller, Nelson, Reed, Reid, Sarbanes, Schumer, Snowe, Stabenow, Thompson, Wellstone, and Wyden. There's no question that Barack Obama has worked to get bills passed, in the state Senate and in the Senate. But if Hillary Clinton had claimed during the primary campaign to have "taken the initiative to reform Washington by authoring McCain-Feingold," something tells me Obama would have pounced on that as a vast exaggeration - which, of course, it would be.

Deathwatch

clipped from www.redstate.com About two weeks ago, I wrote in this space that some very large tectonic plates were starting to move far below sea level in the financial world. That was based on some unusual patterns I was seeing in the overnight repo and money markets. I guessed (but had no information to confirm) that whatever was in the breeze had something to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the pseudo-private corporations that together own or guarantee about half of all US mortgages, and today account for about 70% of newly-originated mortgages. This weekend, there are many reports that Fannie and Freddie will have their managements and directors dismissed, their equity extinguished (or nearly so), and enter what's called a government conservatorship. In essence, the firms will be allowed to continue their current business operations, but under government control, and their shareholders will be wiped out.

11

clipped from www.redstate.com That interview was more than enough to convince Jennifer Rubin that Governor Palin's role as commander of the Alaskan National Guard adds more gravitas to the Governor's experience: I confess I thought the “head of the National Guard” argument was a weak one in defense of Sarah Palin.  But this is actually a fairly illuminating interview which explains what she did and how she did it.  You actually learn something about Palin and how she operates. This is one of those instances where the talking point sounds goofy on the surface, but actually has some merit. Obama has no similar experience to prepare him to be commander in chief.

Deploying C-17's and helicopters?!

This is the left's worst nightmare amp'ed up to 11...

The OProblem

clipped from tank.nationalreview.com Remember this questioning (from Chris Matthews of all people) in an exchange with Sen. Kirk Watson, Obama's former colleague in the Illinois legislature: Matthews: Name some of Obama's legislative accomplishments. . . Watson: Well, uh, you know, what I will talk about is what he's offering to the American people. Matthews: What has he accomplished, you've said you support him. Sir, you have to give me his accomplishments, you support him for President, you're on national television. Name his legislative accomplishments, Barack Obama, sir. Watson: Well, I'm not going to be able to name you specific items of legislative accomplishments. Matthews: Can you name any? Can you name anything he's accomplished as a Congressman? Watson: I'm not going to be able to do that tonight. Matthews: That's a problem isn't it? Celebrities can win elections, but can they get anything done?

On How To Lose

clipped from beldar.blogs.com arguments about his experience versus Palin's only highlight the contrast between his limited time in government and the decades McCain has spent in Washington. I think that second paragraph is bang-on accurate, but underestimates the danger. It's not just that Obama himself can't be dragged into the debate. It's that anyone attacking Gov. Palin can't help but raise questions about Obama's experience, whether they want to or not. That's the strategic advantage that McCain seized: McCain is already bulletproof on the experience/achievements criterion, whereas all of the experience (at least as measured in calendar years) in the Democratic ticket is in the second slot. There's no way that anyone can talk about Gov. Palin's experience without the top slot of the Dems' ticket jumping into the conversation — and if Gov. Palin is perceived to even be close to a tie with Sen. Obama on experience, then Sen. Obama has lost the argument.

OPrompterless Gasses

clipped from planetgore.nationalreview.com In addition to ditching the prompter he went into slightly more detail than he chose to give when a lot more people were watching at the Ocrapolis. His key points of evidence, in support of his claim that “global warming is a serious problem, you know, it’s not just some tree-hugger, uh, sprout-eating liberal thing,” are that “the polar ice caps are melting, the oceans are warming.” Caps, not cap, and melting. Sure, global warming computer models tell us that a greenhouse warming signal is polar amplification, both poles. And our lyin' eyes tell us the Antarctic is steadily gaining ice mass, and the other end of the planet has a mere 700,000 square miles more ice today than a year ago today. And even NPR has openly struggled over what to call global-warming-without-the-warming after learning that while computer models were still telling us the oceans should be warming, the actual observations were telling us that they were not. Possibly this was Obama’s avatar speaking?

Where Have You Been?

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Thus, href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/27911">John Podhoretz suggests the following response to Barack Obama's question of McCain: where have you been for 26 years: Here’s where I have been. I changed campaign-finance law. I changed telecommunications law. I took on the tobacco companies when other Republicans wouldn’t. I took on the cable companies when they wouldn’t let people choose what channels they might want to watch. I saw a standoff in the Senate on confirming judges and I changed a standoff into a bipartisan agreement. I took on the earmarks and the Bridge to Nowhere and the breaks for oil companies you, Obama, voted for in 2005. And I helped change the war in Iraq from a defeat into what appears to be a victory. Where have you been for 26 years?

The "Working" Class

clipped from www.outsidethebeltway.com Beyond that, most of these people build their lives around their work, drawing both much of their self-worth and quite a bit of satisfaction from it. This is the difference between a job and a career. clipped from www.outsidethebeltway.com To be sure, there are those who are rich even though they don’t do much.  Some people win the lottery.  Others inherit lots of money because someone related to them worked really hard and left it to them.  But the vast majority of those who inhabit the upper reaches of the income distribution are there because they’ve worked really hard for a long time. Somehow, though, they’re not part of the “working class.”

Experience You Can Laugh At

clipped from jimtreacher.com It occurs to me: If Obama's experience in this presidential campaign is itself to be considered one of his qualifications for the Oval Office, what are we to make of his performance over the last few days? Is this an indication of how he deals with adversity? Because -- and this may be unfair -- it seems to me that over the next 4 years, the President of the United States will face much tougher challenges than watching a cute lady with glasses on TV.

The Platform

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Governor Palin's political and media enemies have not yet drawn blood. Thinking to condemn her, for example, the director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance told the Associated Press: "Her philosophy from our perspective is cut, kill, dig and drill." Reasonable people might construe that as a compliment. Indeed, it sounds like a winning slogan, if not a platform.

Down They Go

clipped from online.wsj.com The GOP machine has crumbled. Attorney General Renkes resigned. Mr. Ruedrich was fined $12,000. Jim Clark—Mr. Murkowski's lead pipeline negotiator—pleaded guilty to conspiring with an oil firm. At least three legislators have been convicted. Sen. Ted Stevens is under indictment for oil entanglements, while Rep. Don Young is under investigation. Throughout it all, Mrs. Palin has stood for reform, though not populism. She thanks oil companies and says executives who "seek maximum revenue" are "simply doing their job." She says her own job is to be a "savvy" negotiator on behalf of Alaska's citizens and to provide credible oversight. It is this combination that lets her aggressively promote new energy while retaining public trust. Today's congressional Republicans could learn from this. The party has been plagued by earmarks, scandal and corruption.

Ethics AND free enterprise. What a concept.

Well just the only thing standing between the world and the return barbarism. And integral to the very founding of our country.

And of course, it's only Republicans that need to be taken down. The ODaley machine is pure as the driven snow...

And perhaps you're in a bridge shopping mood today also?

If we don't stand up and take the corruption down then it will take us down. To the depths of the rest of the world.

That ODaley wants to respect us. Because corruption is all they respect. And he knows how to give it to them.

Absorbed

clipped from ace.mu.nu Later this month it's Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It's one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar, so I'd be obliged, please, if you'd all stay at home, turn off the TV and refrain from your usual activities. Ten days after that it's Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Jews fast and spend the day in synagogue. So I've also asked my Times colleagues not to work then. And I will be mightily offended if I learn afterwards that any of them have been eating. You might not think I am being serious. But if I was Head of Democratic Services at Tower Hamlets Council in East London, I would be. Last week John Williams e-mailed each of the borough's 51 councillors with a similar instruction. For the duration of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, they are, he told them - every one of them, Muslim, Catholic, Jew or atheist - to behave during council meetings as strict Muslims.

All Out Of Caribou

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com I've had three Palin  posts vanish into the ether. Clearly the software works for MSNBC. So I'm going to stop trying to post and go to bed. Longer thoughts tomorrow. The chase:  I thought she did a great job. Quibbles here and there but few and small. I thought the sarcasm was fine. She was put on this earth to do two things: kill caribou and kick butt. She's all out of caribou.

A Terrible Resolve

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com North of the Border, Andrew Coyne at Macleans isn't necessarily predisposed to liking Palin, but he admits he href="http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/09/03/the-best-natural-speechmaker-since-reagan/">witnessed something very impressive, calling her "the best natural speechmaker since Reagan": It was that good. No, she’s not qualified, and the substance was thin, but my God — that was perhaps the greatest bit of political theatre I have ever witnessed. Her critics in the media and in the opposition may regret having piled on quite so enthusiastically, and with so little heed for who they hurt — or angered. Watching the tumultuous, ecstatic reaction in the hall, I was reminded of the famous words of the Admiral Yamamoto after Pearl Harbour: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible resolve."

Steyn On The MSM On Palin

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com I would like to thank the US media for doing such a grand job this last week of lowering expectations by portraying Governor Palin - whoops, I mean Hick-Burg Mayor Palin - as a hillbilly know-nothing permapregnant ditz, half of whose 27 kids are the spawn of a stump-toothed uncle who hasn't worked since he was an extra in Deliverance. How's that narrative holding up, geniuses? Almost as good as your "devoted husband John Edwards" routine?

His ODizzyness Obamacles

clipped from hotair.com Anderson Cooper asked Barack Obama last night to answer the claim that Sarah Palin has more applicable experience than he does. In response, he completely ignores Palin’s status as governor, and then makes the claim that a campaign counts as executive experience: Update: The McCain campaign has responded to Mark Halperin at Time: “For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and it’s laughable.  It is a testament to Barack Obama’s inexperience and failing qualifications that he would stoop to passing off his candidacy as comparable to Governor Sarah Palin’s executive experience managing a budget of over 10 billion dollar dollars, and more than 24,000 employees.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain 2008 By that standard, anyone who ever ran for any public office has executive experience — and that also kills their own experience argument against Palin anyway.

Whatever

clipped from jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com Anbar province is now under the control of the Iraqi Army. From Amit Paley in the Washington Post: The U.S. military on Monday handed the Iraqi government responsibility for security in Anbar province, the former stronghold of the Sunni insurgency that has now become one of the safest areas in country. But, whatever. Maybe someone will unearth another Todd Palin DUI arrest from the 1980s and we can get back to real news.

Getting To Know Sarah

clipped from www.mererhetoric.com Who knew, right? Still, nice catch by the RJC, who just sent this out over email. Hey - what's that over Governor Palin's shoulder?

Been There, Done That

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, "all-American", but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I'm not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin' Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of "community organizer" and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy. Likewise, on abortion, we're often told it's easy to be against it in principle but what if you were a woman facing a difficult birth or a handicapped child? Been there, done that.

Apparently You Have To Read The British Press ...

clipped from atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com It has been established that href="http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303605575673142">the" Frank" in Mr Obama’s memoir Dreams from My Father, was Frank Marshall Davis, a radical activist and journalist who had been suspected of being a member of the Communist Party in the 1950s. href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2601914/Frank-Marshall-Davis-alleged-Communist-was-early-influence-on-Barack-Obama.html">Frank Marshall Davis, alleged Communist, was early influence on Barack Obama  Telegraph [...] New details about a black poet in Hawaii who was a key early influence in Barack Obama’s life can be revealed by The Telegraph. In a surviving portion of an autobiographical manuscript, Mr Davis confirms that he was the author of Sex Rebel: Black after a reader had noticed the “similarities in style and phraseology” between the pornographic work and his poetry. s “ a voyeur and an exhibitionist” who was “occasionally mildly interested in sado-masochism”, adding: “I have often wished I had two penises to enjoy simultaneously the double – but different – sensations of oral and genital copulation.”

... to keep up with the latest about the Manchurian Candidate.

The (Saudi) Manchurian Candidate (Part 9,586,452)

clipped from pajamasmedia.com title="There must be some mistake" href="http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/files/2008/08/wrongman.jpeg">height=80 alt="There must be some mistake" src="http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/files/2008/08/wrongman.thumbnail.jpeg" width=80 align=left> There must be some mistake href="http://townhall.com/blog/g/c2df500d-0189-47d8-a454-54de9f6584c3">Townhall links to a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EcC0QAd0Ug&eurl=http://townhall.com/blog">video in which civil rights activist href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Sutton">Percy Sutton claimed he was asked by a certain “Dr. Khalid al Mansour”, supposed adviser to ‘one of the richest men in the world’, to write a letter of reccomendation on behalf of Barack Obama to help him gain acceptance to the Harvard Law Review many years ago.  Mansour was raising money for Obama at the time,according to Sutton, a circumstance strange enough in itself. A search on the Internet showed another  href="http://www.africaventurepartners.com/news_p.htm">Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariqhref="http://www.africaventurepartners.com/news_p.htm"> Al-Mansour’s whose biographical details fit the Sutton profile much better. Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tario Al-Mansour is an internationally acknowledged advisor to Heads of State and business leaders in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America. He has been actively involved in structuring investments and joint ventures worldwide for over 35 years.

But In Our Time

clipped from pajamasmedia.com title="Something wicked this way comes" href="http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/files/2008/08/storm.jpeg">alt="Something wicked this way comes" src="http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/files/2008/08/storm.thumbnail.jpeg" align=left> Something wicked this way comes href="http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSEO2172420080826">North Korea has decided to suspend the decommissioning of its nuclear facilities because the United States has insisted on verification before removing it from the list of the state sponsors of terrorism.  This new crisis comes on the heels of Georgia and events in Pakistan. About the only good news is ironically from Iraq. What’s going on? The question is whether we are still in the End of History, at “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal,” or whether the stars are veiled; a sleepless malice is stirring, and a new menace is taking shape, not for the last time but in our time.

We Know

clipped from pajamasmedia.com But the digs didn’t end there. Clinton very pointedly mentioned crushing “credit card debt.” And Biden is pretty much a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delaware’s many credit card companies. Clinton knows that. The media know that. And pretty soon they’ll remind you of it, too. And then there was the claim about Obama’s “acute grasp of foreign policy,” which is sure to remind folks that Obama was against the surge before he admitted it’s working, and that Biden — like Hill — voted for the Iraq War. The secret to Bill’s speech was found right in the beginning when he smiled and told the crowd, “You know, I love this.” We know, Bill. We know.

So Did I

clipped from www.city-journal.org During the April 16 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up “a gentleman named William Ayers,” who “was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that.” Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama’s answer: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.” Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers’s Weathermen tried to murder me. At the conclusion of his 2001 Times interview, Ayers said of his upbringing and subsequent radicalization: “I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire.” Funny thing, Bill: one night, so did I.

Blink. Blink. Blink. Crazy As A Cuckoo Clock. Blink. Blink. Blink.

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com So it's beyond dispute: Nancy Pelosi really does not understand that natural gas is a fossil fuel. This is truly shocking. Pelosi is one of the principal people responsible for setting the nation's energy policy. In the House of Representatives, she has blocked exploration and development of natural gas resources as well as other fossil fuels, thereby raising the price of gasoline at the pump and energy costs across the board. And she has wielded this immense power while being ignorant of the most basic facts about energy. She is not qualified to carry on an intelligent conversation about energy, let alone set the nation's energy policy. BROKAW: Sounds like we’re going to have offshore drilling. PELOSI: No, no, no.

Jimmah: Unable To Distinguish

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com but not before it paved the way for the removal of the Shah and the installation of Khomeni in Iran. Andrew Young, the Carter-appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations, described Khomeini as “some kind of saint.” As href="http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/4884331.html">Matthias Küntzel recalls, Young was not alone in his disposition toward Khomeni. Carter administration National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski was also favorably disposed toward Khomeni, since he seemed to Brzezinski to represent an effective barrier against Soviet influence. “We can get along with Khomeini!” was the motto in that summer of 1979. We contend with the consequences even today. Quoted by Horowitz and Johnson, Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan provided the most href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/12/13/cstillwell.DTL">trenchant critique of Jimmy Carter's foreign policy. Moynihan said of Carter in 1980: "Unable to distinguish between our friends and our enemies, he has essentially adopted our enemies' view of the world."

Not Fair To Stupid People

clipped from hughhewitt.townhall.com As David Freddoso noted in his book, Obama represents the merger of two of the worst aspects of Democratic politics --'60s radicalism and corrupt Chicago machine politics.  With the addition of Slow Joe Biden to the ticket, Obama has added to his unsteady candidacy an epic amount Beltway cluelessness and arrogance unsupported by anything except frequent flier miles and Delaware's love for a chuckle-headed fellow with a big smile. Rob Long asks "Isn't [Biden] sort of the stupid person's idea of the smart person's candidate?"  Yes, he is.  But that's not fair to stupid people.  Even stupid people who watched Biden embarrass himself during the Alito hearings --remember the "I hate Princeton" moment followed by the donning of the Princeton cap?-- know that Slow Joe is all tenure and no talent.

We Can Thank Him For PGP?!

clipped from news.cnet.com By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP. But back to the Delaware senator's tech record. After taking over the Foreign Relations committee, Biden became a staunch ally of Hollywood and the recording industry in their efforts to expand copyright law. He sponsored a bill in 2002 that would have make it a federal felony to trick certain types of devices into playing unauthorized music or executing unapproved computer programs. Biden's bill was backed by content companies including News Corp. but eventually died after Verizon, Microsoft, Apple, eBay, and Yahoo lobbied against it.

California Luddites (Part 9,365,632)

clipped from science.slashdot.org Reader LM741N, pointing to a report released this month by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, writes "Gallium Arsenide has now been listed as a carcinogen. Given the increasing usage of gallium arsenide, the main constituent in LEDs, and their recent championing as more efficient light sources in recent news stories and Slashdot, there may be significant environmental concerns as related to their disposal. Morover, workers in industries using the substance may be at risk of cancer as well."

Betting On Wind

clipped from hughhewitt.townhall.com Obama had another terrible week.  His paean to the Chinese (he praised their "vastly superior" infrastructure on Thursday) his baffling equation of Russia's rape of Georgia with America's overthrow of Saddam, the new focus on his vote against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, his close ties with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and convicted felon Tony Rezko --all these things crowded in on him as he ran out of time to make a crucial decision.  Pushed to the wall, he picked an empty suit like himself, a nice enough fellow who has done one thing well in his entire life, which is win elections in Delaware. For Obama, it is all about politics and words, elections and poses.  Slow Joe is the perfect running mate on a perfect ticket for a party betting on wind to solve the energy crisis.

Slow Joe In His Own Words

clipped from article.nationalreview.com Biden, on a post-debate appearance on MSNBC, October 30, 2007: “The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.” Biden appearing on The Daily Show, August 2, 2005: “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be well off no matter who...” On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005: “I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.” Biden on Meet the Press in 2007, on Hussein’s WMDs: “Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He catalogued — they catalogued them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, catalogued.” On Meet the Press, January 7, 2007 “If he surges another 20, 30, or whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a tragic mistake

Did I Forget To Mention That He's The Senator From MBNA?

clipped from pajamasmedia.com It is unfortunate that if you were an underdog and looking for help from Senator Biden in getting out from under a load of debt by filing bankruptcy, you were given the back of his hand. It seems one of Senator Joe’s major contributors through the years was the bank holding company MBNA, the world’s largest issuer of credit cards who was pushing bankruptcy reform that would have been favorable to the credit card industry. Biden was one of the bill’s biggest proponents — and why not? MBNA executives contributed hundreds of thousands to his campaigns. And then there was the rather cozy personal relationship between Biden and MBNA executives: The relationship was also personal, with an MBNA executive’s buying Biden’s house at a favorable price, and one of his sons taking a job for a time as an MBNA management trainee, as the Wilmington News-Journal reported. Hey, it’s a small state.

The Joe In Their Wallets

clipped from pajamasmedia.com He spared no praise for the six-term senator, even going so far as making believe that 36 years in Washington and membership in the most exclusive club in the world — the select clique that runs the Senate of the United States — doesn’t affect the way such a man looks at the world: Joe Biden is that rare mix — for decades, he has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn’t changed him. He’s an expert on foreign policy whose heart and values are rooted firmly in the middle class. He has stared down dictators and spoken out for America’s cops and firefighters. He is uniquely suited to be my partner as we work to put our country back on track. A real “Man of the People” — that’s our Joe. Except Obama, who has heavily criticized John McCain for his ties to lobbyists and for taking their dirty money, seems not to have noticed that the man whose “values are firmly rooted in the middle class” also has his hand firmly rooted in lobbyist’s wallets

The Patriotically Projecting Left

clipped from justoneminute.typepad.com But more fundamentally there would be no reason for anyone in the Special Collections Library to even question the validity of the gift of the CAC documents!  And a donor would never be allowed to know who or when someone is asking to review a validly granted gift of documents. That violates the confidentiality of library users. It reminds me of the concerns that civil libertarians have properly raised about the Patriot Act. That leaves only one possible conclusion:  Someone inside the UIC Library clearly was concerned that a critic of Barack Obama might be attempting to examine these public records. That led to an unprecedented and, in my view, highly inappropriate notice to the donor of the CAC documents that a potential political critic of Obama was interested in the documents. They told Glenn Reynolds that if Bush were re-elected no library user would have any privacy.  And they were right!

This from one of the comments nails it: "Projection-it's what's (always) for dinner. Leftists continually attribute their worst tendencies onto their political opponents. What would they do with all the powers of government (Patriot Act, etc)? Of course they'd use them to spy, browbeat, malign and otherwise marginalize opponents. Every criticism of Ashcroft et. al from the left should be read as an admission of intent on their part."

And A Moron For VP As Well

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com This lachrymose moment came during Biden's aborted presidential campaign in 1988, when reporters discovered several instances of plagiarism in his campaign speeches and in his law school record. Biden rehearses the episode in tormenting, if selective, detail, and true to campaign-book form, his account serves as the emotional center of the book. The memoir of every presidential candidate must describe a Political Time of Testing, some point at which, if the narrative arc is to prove satisfying, the hero encounters criticism, most of it unjust, but then rallies, overcomes hardship and misfortune and the petty, self-serving attacks of enemies, and emerges chastened but wiser--and, come to think of it, more qualified to lead the greatest nation on earth.

The Plantation

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com "This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree."[ The "old order" is liberalism. Mr. Obama's cheap shot against Justice Thomas, which would be applauded in Cambridge and Hyde Park, is the most recent example of the stereotypical left-wing effort to keep minorities on the plantation.

More Corrupt Change You Can Believe In

clipped from www.pajamasmedia.com CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: "Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities." I'm not sure the program is actually a bad idea when you read the details, but if a Republican did it, it would be evidence of cruel, racist, capitalism. Plus, it does seem a bit incestuous: Obama's top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program -- called the Urban Health Initiative -- to the community as a better alternative for poor patients. Obama's wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center's board, backed the Axelrod firm's hiring, hospital officials said.