Is Himself One

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com An e-mail from a reader said that, while Hillary Clinton tells lies, Barack Obama is himself a lie. That is becoming painfully apparent with each new revelation of how drastically his carefully crafted image this election year contrasts with what he has actually been saying and doing for many years. Senator Obama's election year image is that of a man who can bring the country together, overcoming differences of party or race, as well as solving our international problems by talking with Iran and other countries with which we are at odds, and performing other miscellaneous miracles as needed. There is, of course, not a speck of evidence that Obama has ever transcended party differences in the United States Senate. Voting records analyzed by the National Journal show him to be the farthest left of anyone in the Senate. Nor has he sponsored any significant bipartisan legislation -- nor any other significant legislation, for that matter.

Or Perhaps More?

clipped from hughhewitt.townhall.com "Obama Would Ask His AG To 'Immediately Review' Potential Of Crimes In Bush White House" Posted by: Hugh Hewitt  at 11:45 PM Senator Obama plays to the fringe, and reinforces the growing perception that he is a radical, not a "moderate."  Could  the Democrats nominate the only candidate who could lose 40 states, or perhaps more? Are the superdelegates beginning to wonder: "What have we done?"

Not So Big After All?

But still the largest found in the lower 48 and a bump up of about 15% for total U.S. reserves. It's equal to nearly one year of oil imports at current rates.

Looks like coal gasification is still going to come on at some point in the U.S. if we are to really get serious about energy independence. People forget that the U.S. coal reserves alone are estimated at roughly the equivalent of 1 TRILLION barrels of oil -- or 4 times the energy equivalent of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves.

Never mind the Canadian tar sands which are also in the ball park with the Saudis...

clipped from www.greencarcongress.com North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin, according to a just-released assessment by the US Geological Survey (USGS). This latest assessment shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency’s 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil. The assessment also identified 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids. The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest continuous oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A continuous oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences.

The Big Change

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Iraqi ministers have been talking about Iranian terrorism for years. When I was at a closed meeting of leading Iraqis in Copenhagen two months ago, I heard many stories, complaints and warnings about Iran’s murderous activities. It is laughable to write, as Ms. Cooper does, “administration officials are trying to convince the Iraqi government that Iran may not be the ally it thought, and is behind attacks against Iraqi government forces.” If anything, it’s the other way round; the Iraqis have long known it, have never considered Iran an ally, but never saw signs that the United States was prepared to take on Iran. And doesn’t everyone agree that the fighting in Basra was initiated by the Iraqis, and the Americans were not enthusiastic about it? The issue is not “sensitizing” the Iraqi leaders to Iranian crimes. The issue is—was, rather—getting to the point where the Iraqis feel confident enough to go after the Iranians and their proxies. That is the big change: Iraq is defeating Iran.

Since The Birth

clipped from pajamasmedia.com …we are winning, we are really winning. No one told me to say that, I saw it for myself. The higher command in Baghdad told us four years ago when we first took responsibility for the Al Anbar not to worry about victory, as no one—military or civilian—thought it possible. That thirty years from now when the rest of Iraq was a functioning democracy, Al Anbar would still be a festering cancer within. …by relentless pursuit by a bunch of 19 years olds with guns who never flinched or gave an inch, while at the same time holding out the carrot of economic development (the sheikhs in Anbar) have seen the light and know AQ can’t win against such men. By staying in the fight, and remaining true to our word, and our honor, AQ today can’t spend more than a few hours in…al Anbar…without being IDed by the locals and killed by the increasingly competent Iraqi Army, or by Marines. That’s the way it is today in this war, but it is also the way it has been since the birth of our nation…

The Yanks The O Doesn't Know

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Before I came over here I thought we (the Australian Army) were pretty…hot….. was I ever wrong!….The Yanks (I hope you don’t mind me using that word) are so professional from the top to the bottom that it is almost embarrassing to be in their company, and to call yourself a soldier….don’t get me wrong, we are good at what we do but the Yanks are so much better…..they are complete at what they do, how they do it and their attitude is awesome….they don’t complain they just get on with the job and they do it right… what gets to me is that the Yanks don’t walk around with a “we are better than you attitude” and they could because they are, they treat us as equals and as brothers in arms. If nothing else, coming here has taught me that the Americans are a truly great Nation and a truly great bunch of people…

A Closing Softball

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com They got to the end of the program, and Obama still hadn't been asked any hard questions about "bittergate," or anything else. So the AP wrapped up with another softball: MODERATOR: Senator, we have time for one last question, which means we're going to avoid the "bitter" question, so you won't have to answer that one. You've said you want to reduce the number of troops in Iraq. Can you imagine shifting a substantial number of Afghanistan -- a substantial number to Afghanistan where the Taliban has been gaining strength and Obama bin Laden (sic) is still at large? OBAMA: I think that was Osama bin Laden. (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) A debate has raged for a long time over the Democrats' cozy relationship with the press: does it help them or hurt them? Really, I don't think we can even imagine a world in which the press is neutral between liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats. It's sad, but that's the world we live in, and we have to deal with it.

Time For "Talks" With The Poor Dears. Eh, What?

Maybe we can bring in Jimmah and Annie Hilly to help out...

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com The Islamic terror threat in Britain is getting worse, and most of the government is in complete denial, refusing to do anything to deal with the situation: Smith says monitoring 30 U.K. terrorism plots. LONDON (Reuters) - British police and security agencies are currently monitoring 30 terrorism plots, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in extracts of a newspaper interview released on Saturday. “We now face a threat level that is severe. It’s not getting any less, it’s actually growing,” she said in an interview to be published in Sunday’s News of the World. “We task the police and the security agencies with protecting us ... There are 22,000 individuals they are monitoring. There are 200 networks. There are 30 active plots,” she said.

A-Churchin' With My Six-Shooter

clipped from timblair.net Dave S. confesses to bitter religionism: Well, I do go a-churchin’ every Sunday with a bunch of bitter folks who complain about how the government is evil and screws them over, and we yell an’ whoop it up when the preacher rails against them Italians and Jews, an’ then we … Oops, wait a minute, that’s not me, that’s Barack Obama. “It’s hard to keep a straight face when you’re accused of being out of touch by a guy who thinks the whole country is worried about the high price of arugula or that you hunt ducks with a six shooter.”

Choices, Choices...

clipped from hotair.com It looks like the voters of small-town Pennsylvania have reacted to Barack Obama’s remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser in a predictable manner. American Research Group had Obama rising to a tie against Hillary Clinton in the next primary after trailing by double digits for weeks preceding his ascent. Now he has dug himself an even deeper hole than the one he earlier escaped: If Obama begins to lose big in these states, the superdelegates will find themselves under even tougher scrutiny. Do they vote for the elitist or the Tuzla Dash candidate? (via Jim Geraghty)

Iran Has

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Understanding War has very good description of the ongoing fight between coalition forces and the Iranian Special Groups/JAM (SG/JAM) combo in Iraq. Within that area are two major strongholds of the SG/JAM: Baghdad and Basra. Interspersed between are the "Five Cities": Karbala, Hillah, Kut, Najaf, and Diwaniyah, which form subsidiary strongholds. Each stronghold is roughly configured in the following way. The JAM are assigned a task roughly historically equivalent to that of the Viet Cong while the Special Groups reprise the role of the NVA. That is to say the JAM takes care of the "mass base" -- creating safe havens, maintaining information security, etc -- while the SG handles the more complex operations. The whole is under the command or at least the influence of the Iranian Qods. I think the judgment is that Iran's time has come. Most people should have seen this coming. I'm pretty certain Iran has. It knows full well it is about to be engaged.

A Variable Thing

It's the culture stupid. Not the genes.

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Eugene Volokh describes how the "Asians became White". It's an interesting account of the imbecility of racial classifications. Volokh writes, "I've discussed this phenomenon — of Asians not only being classified together with whites for various race preference programs (and calls for such programs), but of actually being called white — in the past." It would be hilarious if it weren't so serious. I just want to add that the concept of race and color is a variable thing. In equatorial Africa, for some strange reason, an African-American and a Chinese are all species of Gringos, though they may revert to their previous racial categories once they leave it. In many parts of the world an Arab is white, while in other parts of the world he may not be white.

Hilly Gitcher' Gun

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Hillary Clinton recalls the fond memories of her youth. “You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl,” she said. “You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It’s part of culture. It’s part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it’s an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter.” ... "As I told you, my dad taught me how to shoot behind our cottage,” she said. “I have gone hunting. I am not a hunter. But I have gone hunting." Clinton said she has hunted ducks. To which Barack Obama replied, "she's talking like she’s Annie Oakley!"

Good Luck With That

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Pipes is clearly talking about a revival of Europe's Christian roots. But I would suspect that Europe's political class is committed to a secularist post-Christian, relativist notion that they hope will secularize Islam and make its now problematic Muslim populations as post-Muslim as they are post-Christian.  Good luck with that. Post-Christian Euro-secularism is the vacuum into which radical Islam has poured, not the solution to it.

Jimmah II

clipped from hughhewitt.townhall.com Politics as therapy; Americans as bitter, failed people.  That's the senator's story and he's sticking with it.  It is the very vision that motivated Jimmy Carter's malaise speech --"It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines of energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession"-- recycled and with a much better delivery. But Obama's vision just isn't true for the majority of Americans.  Most Americans are productive and generally happy; hard-working and actively involved in their communities through church and their children's schools. Most Americans are generous, and favorably disposed towards strangers and eager to help the world. Obama doesn't know this America, which is certainly the backbone of most suburbs, small towns and rural communities in flyover-country and, truth be told, on most of the coasts outside of the largest urban centers.

Consequences Be Damned

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com You see, unlike those frustrated residents of small-town Pennsylvania, Obama does not to cling blindly to anti-trade sentiment. He voted for free-trade deals with exporting powerhouses Peru and Oman, political consequences be damned. But the Colombia FTA has the same worker and environmental standards as the Peru agreement, and arguably stronger standards than the agreement with Oman. So why doesn't Obama support the Colombia deal? Two things: First, if Obama wants to put American workers first, why is he opposing a trade deal whose sole purpose is to open up Colombia's markets to American-made products? Over 90 percent of Colombian goods can already enter the U.S. duty-free. Second, violence against unionists in Colombia has fallen dramatically, from 275 killed in 1996 to 39 last year. Obama opposes the Colombia FTA because trade is a four-letter word among those "bitter" working-class Democrats to whom he sorely needs to build inroads. It's that simple.

Except For Italy, France and Germany...

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Tomorrow's papers will pretend that this didn't happen, and warn that Berlusconi's allies in the Northern League are mercurial and dangerous, and that his majority isn't as stable as it looks. But it is. And there's an even more annoying feature to these elections, as seen by the chattering classes: Berlusconi is an outspoken, even passionate admirer of George W. Bush and the United States of America. Reminds one of the elections that brought Sarkozy to the Elysee, doesn't it? Best to keep that quiet, or somebody might notice that hatred of America doesn't seem to affect the voters in Italy, France or Germany.

The Next Platonic Republic

clipped from article.nationalreview.com If he does, Istanbul 2008 may very well look like Tehran 1979. Just as Gülen’s supporters affirm his altruistic intentions and see no inconsistency between a secretive, cell-based movement and transparent governance, too many Western journalists also give Gülen a free pass. If this sounds familiar, it should: Three decades ago, the same phenomenon marked coverage of Iran. “I don’t want to be the leader of the Islamic Republic; I don’t want to have the government or power in my hands,” Khomeini told a credulous Austrian television reporter during the ayatollah’s brief sojourn in Paris. In November 1978, Steven Erlanger, the future New York Times foreign correspondent, penned a New Republic essay arguing that Khomeini’s vision for Iran was essentially a “Platonic Republic with a grand ayatollah as a philosopher-king,” and predicting the triumph of an independent liberal left worried more about labor conditions in Iran’s oil fields than pursuing any theological tendency

Beyond Bitter

clipped from hotair.com He was making a tactical point about how politicians appeal to voters at election time, but that tactical point about electoral behavior still relies on an unflattering view of small-town voters. No matter what helping hand you extend him, Obama still claimed that voters have been hoodwinked on Election Day, and no one wants to be told that in the past they’ve been duped into voting for the wrong person. Obama supporters don’t like it when they’re [sic] well-thought-out reasons for following Obama are dismissed as emotional, irrational, and thoughtless. They should understand, then, why people who don’t support Obama—or in the past haven’t voted for Democrats—don’t like being told that they’ve drunk some kind of crazy Kool-Aid. That’s the problem. No matter how Obama tries to spin it, his statement assumes Midwestern voters are idiots. That’s also the Thomas Frank attitude as well — Why won’t Kansas voters support Democrats trying to buy them off? — which answers itself.

The Flight To Utopia

clipped from onecosmos.blogspot.com As an aside, it is ironic that Obama is hailed as someone who can "unify the nation," when he can't even unify his own party. To the contrary, this has been the most divisive Democrat campaign in 40 years. The things they say about Hillary on left wing sites far surpasses the invective of conservatives, if only because the left is so much more handy with expletives than ideas. I don't like Hillary because of her policies, whereas the far left loves her policies but hates her because she stands in the way of their messiah. As I mentioned above, the wave of Obama support rides on a deep structure of religious energy that is unrecognized by those most susceptible to it. In fact, as Goldberg says -- and I have argued in the past -- "the craving to create a heaven on earth is the inevitable consequence of a godless society." Or, to paraphrase Pope Benedict, "the loss of transcendence leads to the flight to utopia."

This is an absolute must read.

Newt Hits The Bitter Bullseye

clipped from hotair.com Now that Barack Obama has issued the requisite non-apology apology in the usual form — he “deeply regrets” that he offended people not with his sentiments but with his sentence structure — the media will likely let Obama off the hook. Not Newt Gingrich, who makes a rare foray into the presidential campaign from the bleacher seats with a searing analysis that hits a bullseye, and one obvious to anyone who hasn’t just focused on the word “bitter”: If you go to the most expensive private school in Hawaii and then move on to Columbia University and Harvard Law School, you may not understand normal Americans. Their beliefs are so alien to your leftwing viewpoint that you have to seek some psychological explanation for what seem to be weird ideas. They can’t really believe in the right to bear arms. They can’t really believe in traditional marriage. They can’t really believe in their faith in God. They can’t really want to enforce the law on immigration. Therefore, they must be “bitter”

And Don't Forget The Rube That Gave The Gettysburg Address...

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com WHO SAID THIS? "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States." Barack Obama on George Bush? Or was it Jack Murtha? Nancy Pelosi, perhaps? Could it be Michael Moore? No, it's a Chicago Times' editorial. From 1863. Reacting to the Gettysburg address. Another interesting tidbit: The Times was founded in 1854, by James W. Sheahan, with the backing of Stephen Douglas. In 1861, after the paper was purchased by Wilbur F. Storey, the Times began espousing the Copperhead point of view in supporting Southern Democrats and denounced the policies of Abraham Lincoln. General Ambrose Burnside suppressed the paper in 1863 because of its hostility to the Union cause, but Lincoln lifted the ban when he received word of it. There you go, another similarity between Abe and Bush: both crushing dissent and stifling free speech!

The Core Of Bittergate

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com In order to charm, impress, and get money from rich San Fransisco Democrats he is willing to denigrate, and display pity and contempt for the beliefs of benighted working class middle Americans. Nice. Make sure you listen in full. You will hear that these remarks were delivered as part of an earnest analysis of what he — and they, the donors — will have to change. He did not mean them negatively. They reflect his most honest assessment of non-wealthy Pennsylvanians. It is striking that Obama makes clear that he believes that clinging to religion is no different than clinging to guns, (— we know his class of elitist Democrats has no respect for either the Second Amendment or deer-hunting —) racism, xenophobia, and anti-trade sentiment — as if they are all equivalent signs of lack of education and gullibility. I now feel fully vindicated in my suspicion that Obama's attendance at Wright's church was entirely political and expedient.

You are what you eat. And who you're comfortable with...

Rubes (Part 92365)

clipped from justoneminute.typepad.com As the "Hey Rubes, Back Barack" tour swung through Indiana Obama was in another town meeting defending himself again from his small town disaster [More at the Times and WaPo]. The candidate was insightful - "I didn’t say it as well as I should have" - and displayed his keen sense of Presidential campaigns, calling the current firestorm "a typical sort of political flare-up”. Hmm, how typical is it for a candidate to characterize a huge swath of his target voters as bigoted, gun waving religious fanatics?  I'll bet that in Dem strategy sessions run by law school alums, it's pretty typical! I'm getting a mental image of Obama during other "typical" flare-ups; sort of a "But sweetie, those jeans do make you look fat" thing, or maybe "Honsestly, officer, you need to understand that some people have a very high tolerance for alcohol". I can't believe that in all those Harvard classes they never emphasize that you can't tell the rubes what you really think of them.

He Knows Us So Well

clipped from www.anklebitingpundits.com … here in middle America (small town, New Hampshire), we don’t “cling” to religion; we worship God. UPDATE: Sen. Obama’s explanation and pushback are actually worse than his original offense. By refusing to acknowledge that the lumping of Americans of faith together with racists and xenophobes is empirically insulting, he essentially restates his position and digs in: Religion, racism, xenophobia are just “refuges” (his new word) for people who are not as privileged as he. Really repugnant stuff. His remarks are now his official position, not a blunder that can be explained away and forgiven. That window has closed. And they bring back to the surface Michelle Obama’s old line: “Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.” Yep, that’s us: Just a bunch of uniformed racists who hate everyone who isn’t just like us and cling to our God and our guns because we didn’t get to go to Princeton or Harvard Law School. They know us so well.

Let The Re-Education Camps Begin

clipped from www.scrappleface.com (2008-04-12) — Senator Barack Obama today announced a plan to employ millions of bitter, small town Americans who, in their anger over jobs lost in the 1980s, have turned to guns, God, and xenophobia. The presumptive Democrat presidential front runner, said his plan would employ “these Archie Bunker-type people” in government programs “to register and/or confiscate inappropriate personal firearms, to monitor churches for hate-speech about homosexuality or abortion, and to build tax-funded housing for low income illegal aliens.” “Twenty-five years is a long time to wallow in bitterness like our friends in Pennsylvania, the Midwest and elsewhere have been doing,” said Sen. Obama, “So, until the steel mills can all be converted to casinos and re-opened, we’ll provide good government jobs at high wages that will soothe the rage, and help to re-educate these small-town folk.”

Heh.

Dripping With False Consciousness

clipped from hotair.com If his original statement boiled down to “religion is the opiate of the masses,” think of this as adding, “and what wonderful things opiates are.” He’s stuck with the insinuation about false consciousness: There’s no other way to read what he told the glitterati in San Francisco except as asserting that the working class’s interest in God, guns, and border enforcement is, to some greater or lesser extent, insincere. They might sincerely believe in gun rights but surely they wouldn’t vote those beliefs at the expense of their class interests unless they were being duped somehow by the bourgeoisie. Ed did a bang-up job in this post, but the more I re-read what Obama said, the more I’m drawn to the very end of it as the “tell” — i.e. “a way to explain their frustrations.” That’s where the false-consciousness logic really flowers. The choice of verb speaks volumes.

More Than Time

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com In a news conference Thursday, Crocker dismissed Arab concerns about a recent visit to Baghdad by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It's not the fact of the Ahmadinejad visit, but the absence of visits by other neighbors that it's important to focus on. There hasn't been a single visit, even by an Arab cabinet minister, to Baghdad. As Iraq grapples with the challenges Iran is posing, it could certainly do with some Arab support." After consultations with Crocker and Petraeus this week, Bush cut short their Washington visit and dispatched them to Riyadh. The message to the Saudis, he said, "is going to be . . . it is time, more than time, for the Arab states to step forward and engage constructively with Iraq. Get their embassies open, get ambassadors on the ground, consider visits, implement debt relief, treat Iraq like the country it is, which is a central part of the Arab world."

Sorry, No Foolin'

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Note the difference between what Obama said in an unguarded moment in San Francisco, and the cleaned-up version he tried to sell tonight. San Francisco: So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. Indiana: So people end up voting on issues like guns and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community, and their family, and the things they can count on. In Obama's cleaned-up version, religion ("faith") becomes something small town people "can count on," along with community and family, rather than something they "cling to" on account of being "bitter," along with guns and hatred of immigrants and others "who aren't like them." That's a nice try, I guess, but it's hard to believe it will fool anyone.

Shed My Cynicism About Him?

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com In the wake of Barack Obama's remarks to the San Francisco Democrats last Sunday, Michelle Obama's preaching of the gospel according to Barack is revelatory: Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your division. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual; uninvolved, uninformed. We can only pray that our fellow Americans find the gospel according to Barack Obama to be too good for us.

That's why he wants to take my guns away. Because him having a gun and me not having one is the only possible relationship between us where I would even consider it. But it would only be a show on my part to avoid punishment of course...

If We Can Be Persuaded

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com How easy it is to forget that Saddam's solution to the problem of stability and unity was to wage a more or less continuous campaign of internal warfare against the Kurds, the Shi'ites and dissenting Sunnis; gassing the Kurds, draining the Marshes. the "good old days" that so many commentators, unaccountably afflicted with amnesia, hanker for already. Grim notes its replacement, the step-by-step emplacement of a laws, local councils, community governnance. The challenges facing the Government of Iraq -- solving the Three Problems -- are daunting enough. But what is currently beyond their power to shape is the international context within which they must face these issues. From Lebanon through Saudi Arabia, down onto southern Iraq, Iran is dispatching its agents, deploying its proxies. The task of facing them falls to the United States, if Washington can persuaded to acknowledge the problem.