No horse in this race, mind you

From Glenn McCoy.

Self-fulfilling prophecies - How to claim all success as yours

One of the best political strategies is to co-opt your opponent by adopting his position.  Senator Bayh, on behalf of the Obama machine:

Bayh said President Bush’s announcement Friday that the United States and Iraq were discussing a “time horizon” for the withdrawal of American troops suggests that the White House is coming around to Obama’s point of view.

Obama has said the United States can withdraw combat troops from Iraq within 16 months while leaving a residual force to engage in counterterrorism activities and protect diplomats.

“Clearly, they want a more definitive timeline,” Bayh said. “And even President Bush now is coming up with a variety of euphemisms: aspirational goals, time horizons. I mean, it’s starting to sound pretty much like a timeline to me.“

Who’s sounding like who, Senator?  Obama has called for a withdrawal, well, ever since the secretive International Soros Foundation mainstream media first elevated him to the national spotlight as the avatar of hope.  Or, at least since early 2007, when he suggested all troops come home by March 31, 2008.

The nerve.

Philippines wants to create MILF haven

. . .Heh. . . Get your mind out of the gutter–it’s another kind of haven.  One destined to attract a lot of tourists seeking MILFs

Philippines eyes plebiscite to okay Muslim homeland
MANILA, July 17 (Reuters) - The Philippines will hold a plebiscite early next year in more than 700 southern villages to set up an ancestral homeland for Muslims, part of a deal with the country’s biggest rebel group, officials said on Thursday.

Hermogenes Esperon, the president’s peace adviser, told reporters the proposed Muslim homeland would also be empowered to collect about 75 percent of taxes from oil, mines and fisheries in the area.

He was speaking in Manila a day after government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) negotiators hammered out a deal in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital.

“The government has agreed to grant broader political, social and economic power to the Muslims based on a deal we have reached with the rebels in Malaysia,” Esperon said, adding everything that was agreed was within the country’s constitution.

I don’t have a lot of data here, but I’m guessing this will work out great!

Via JWF

Next up: Fighting world hunger and long walks on the beach

Alternate headline: “Indiana - where respected politicians like Evan Bayh and Sam Nunn mumble“WTF did I just sign up for?”

Obama wants to rid world of nuclear weapons at a speech at Purdue University.  (woot!).

The scene of Obama’s remarks was no accident — Indiana is a state that has long voted Republican in presidential elections but one the Democrat’s campaign is hoping to make competitive this cycle. Taking part in the roundtable discussion with Obama was Indiana’s Democratic U.S. senator, Evan Bayh, a popular figure from a powerful political family.

Choose a political significant location to make politically naive campaign promises. . . Just what them red staters want!  Is this the kind of strategery $500 million can buy?

How much on Bayh and Nunn being among the Supers giving Hillary a second look?

Don’t worry. . .The dummies won’t even notice

Obama’s previous stances on the Surge flushed down the memory hole.

This man betted loudly and arrogantly against our military, and lost big time. Now he wants to blend into the crowd, and maybe even take some credit?

Is Obama’s Truth Squad also writing iPhone publicity material?

With so much money and creative marketing talent sitting on the bench of the Obama campaign, it’s inevitable that some of their restless energy would spill over to other areas.  Witness the 3G iPhone publicity EXPLOSION at top tech blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget. It is an absolute firestorm of publicity. Like last year’s initial iPhone launch, you have Apple fanboys camping out, filming the unboxing of their shiny new device, and adopting “Apple” as their middle name.

Ok, I made up that last part, but the level of idolatry is eerily familiar.

The “Statesman” with a Skullet

Jesse Ventura decides to run against Coleman and Stuart Smalley for Senator.

Differences summed

Iran’s missile tests divide Obama and McCain

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that Iran’s missile tests highlight the need for direct diplomacy as well as tougher threats of economic sanctions and strong incentives to persuade Tehran to change its behavior.

John McCain, the Republican seeking the presidency, said the tests demonstrate a need for effective missile defense, including missile defense in Europe and the defense system the U.S. plans with the Czech Republic and Poland.

That’s right, fighting missiles with carrots.  This Messiah of yours could very well get us all killed.

Interesting, this soft approach from one Messiah to another (Mahdi).

A Kausian polemic

Iraq “flipping point”?

More than two weeks ago the New York Times mentioned that the Iraqi city of Mosul was ” in the midst of a major security operation” against one of the last bastions of Al Qaeda in Iraq. So how’s that going? Should we have to read the London Times (or Belmont Club) to learn about its success or failure? (It looks like relative success, Juan Cole notwithstanding.) … If the NYT has reported the outcome, I missed it. (A June 1 story only went so far as to say that “hopes” had been “raised” and that the “Iraqi Army may soon have tenuous control.” ) … P.S.: Sorry to be crude, but does the NYT realize that we may be at the point where reports of military success in Iraq help Obama (because stability enables the rapid pullout he seeks) while reports of contiuing turmoil and difficulty help McCain (by raising doubts that U.S. forces can be safely withdrawn in the next few years)?

Very interesting. . .

Witness the pivot–Obama rewrites his Iraq plan

Obama throws old self under bus, promises new self.

Behold the spinning. . .

Idol worship

Ohio Obama Supporters take His middle name as their own.

Is that a Che poster they’re sporting?

Now really, who’s playing politics with your economic freedom?

David Obey, who’s been in Congress longer than I’ve been alive, wants to hold off scheduling a committee vote on offshore drilling just a little bit longer.  Longer meaning, closer to this fall’s elections.

How daft.

All your innovation belongs to us

In a nutshell, this is the common theme of the 2008 election–one side insists that only the government can foster innovation and generate energy independence while the other acknowledges that private innovation has an important role, and should be justly rewarded.

McCain’s $300 million prize for car battery innovation earns nothing but scorn from the Democratics.

“The battery prize is another gimmick,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-San Francisco, said. “It doesn’t wash. We already know what we have to do right now: support renewable resources and support clean-car tax credits,” which McCain has voted against, she said

Barack Obama has also ridiculed McCain’s plan as a gimmick.

Sen. Barack Obama today ridiculed a proposal by his presidential rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain, to offer a $300 million taxpayer-funded cash prize to boost advanced battery research.

“When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win — he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people,” the Illinois senator said in a speech in Las Vegas. “That’s the kind of effort we need to achieve energy independence in this country, and nothing less will do.”

Surprising, when you consider that Obama’s own proposals include similar cash “gimmicks“. Is Obama jealous because McCain beat him to the headline?

In 2004, the $10 million Ansari X-Prize competition gimmick was won by a private American company and sent an ordinary American into space. Twice.

In defending his recent pivot on receiving federal campaign funds for the 2008 election, Obama described the nature of his fundraising as a “parallel public financing system“, ostensibly because the involvement of so many small donors lends “public” characteristics to his campaign finances. Conversely, Obama suggests that as President he would dismiss a similarly-conceived “parallel public energy independence system” developed by anyone less than an activist federal government. How telling.

Bloggers lawyer up

An indepth summary of shadowy Iraqi moneyman Nadhmi Auchi apparently trips the nervewires.

We’re talking BIG Underground Drills, baby.

Fairness Doctrine, Lee Judge style

Stay classy, Lee.

“I do not note the color of Barack Obama’s skin. However, I do note the thinness of it.”

- Dennis Miller

Hope, change, and abject nihilism

Susan Rice, a top Obama ‘adviser’, virtually guaranteeing that an Obama administration following her advice would get us all killt.
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One cannot say something so stupid and be taken seriously.

When we catch bin Laden

When we catch bin Laden, we can be assured that America is doing the right thing by offering him all of the same legal protections afforded ‘merican citizens. I mean, we gotta restore America’s prestige among the world, right?

(Guess who thinks this is is good thing).

Next up: Foreigners should be allowed to buy your land, vote, and forcibly marry your daughters.

All hail the new media drumbeat for 3Q 2008!

All hail!

Another meaningless poll that will be beaten to death by network talking heads: “Republican support, enthusiasm down“.

Other issues the media also relentlessly hyped the following but was unable to kill:

The economy — so far, still expanding.

The war — the media was unable to kill it.  And we may even see a little twinkle at the end of the tunnel.

Global warming — Apparently not pressing enough for the Senate to debate it any more this year.

Global AIDS - golly, that might have been overblown a little.

My thoughts:  Republicans will likely lose some seats in Congress.  However, and I may be alone on this, I thing McCain will handily defeat Obama in November.

Why? McCain was the media’s darling for years.  That will not change.  And Obama is not an individual–he is a product offered by savvy politcal marketers.  Mature Americans don’t buy that shit. Americans were supposedly turning grayer every year, and we have been told that senior Americans were going to be turning the Social Security crank harder and harder every year until the Baby Boomers phase out.  These people like politicians like McCain and Clinton. And they vote like crazy.

What’s changed?

I won’t endorse him, but I’ll vote for him

Sure you will.  Does being a moderate mean you can feel sorry without actually having to apologize?  What the hell is a vote if it’s not an official endorsement?

Hey, let’s get rid of the Electoral College

Sounds like a good idea, Senator Nelson.

“Its time for Congress to really give Americans the power of one person, one vote,” Nelson said in a statement.

Because their votes don’t count now.

Looking forward to November

The Wall Street Journal hits it succinctly here– the Democratics have essentially nominated a shiny bauble, not a worthy adversary.  Obama promises nothing otherwise his scant record would prove it.  And the supposed ’safeguard’ of the superdelegates failed to prevent it.

Pivot Pelosi

Crazy Aunt Pelosi may be on to something.

In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to “the goodwill of the Iranians,” claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra.

Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge’s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded:

” Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didn’t happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn’t accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.”

This may not be as stupid as it sounds (and it sounds really stupid). If Tehran has been so accomodating towards ending the violence, there must be a reason.

Could it be that they were faced with a resolute adversary in Maliki? Nope.

Could it be that the hand of Iranian interference was much too visible for successful tactical operations against the Coalition? Nope.

Hadn’t she and other democratics been complaining of unwelcome American sabre rattling towards Iran over the last two years? Yes, they were.

Pelosi is tacitly admitting (without any sense of irony, of course) that the American strategy of isolating fat little Shiite clerics warlords and taking a strong, if not outright forceful, stance against an unshaven, apocalyptical buffoon is sometimes the right approach.

Finally: Democrat calls for nationalization of oil industry

Heat of the moment caught on tape:  Maxine Waters at her ignorant best.

Listen closely

To the American Idol crowd, the typical Obama foreign policy stump speech might sound appealing.

To others, the same speech might sound terribly naive and immature.

To those appreciative to the nuances of political theatre, the same speech sounds like a press release from Socialist International.

Obama’s stance on foreign policy is not naive or immature, it’s socialist.  This is what socialists sound like. He’s not urging for more solidarity between the leadership of our nations.  He’s calling for enhancing the prospects of the Socialist International.  And he’s charging dumb Americans 20 bucks a pop to be part of it.  One hell of a campaign strategy.

No dialog between the US and these iddy biddy countries?  Even his own political machine has its own Congressional backchannel to talk with them (and their terror-loving proxies!).  For what reason?  To lend support to the opposition of the Colombian Free Trade deal. . . . an assistance welcomed by various regional socialist congresses. . . . Very nice indeed.

So, yeah, let’s have the that dialog, if only to covertly undermine US foreign policy.

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