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October 8, 2008What’s Wrong With the World, IIIn a very interesting post that you’ll want to ponder, House of Eratosthenes recalls this old post of mine. I think it is a really good question to revisit from time to time: As before: What’s Wrong With The World in 100 Words or Less
September 18, 2008Dems run away; McCain shows leadershipI’m sorry…my jaw is ON THE FLOOR at this headline:
I suppose you might call it “admirable” of the Democrat leadership to admit they have no idea what to do about the economy just now; some might say, “well, if you’re not going to lead, get the hell out of the way!” But running away in fear of making a mistake does not exactly show leadership in a time of crisis. When the nation is in crisis, you don’t run away because things have become difficult. It sends a terrible message to the nation - “run, run! Save yourselves!” By Jesus, do these people not understand the absolute fundamentals of leadership? If the Democrats have forgotten how to lead, then they need to look to NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani on 9/11, and pattern some leadership based upon how he responded to the challenges of that day. It’s the most basic lesson of leadership, but the one that matters the most: When there is a serious problem, you acknowledge the gravity of the situation, and then - even if you are discreetly looking for outside expertise to address the crisis - you STAY WHERE YOU ARE and you deal straight with the nation, and keep them apprised of the rescue and recovery operation. It’s okay to admit you don’t know anything…but you tell the nation, “we’re going to come through this, and we’ll be the stronger for it; we’re going to work together to make sure everything that needs seeing to is seen to. We are here; we know this is bad. Trust us to understand what you need. Yes, this is frightening for us, too, but we are here to lead; we will not abandon you.” The Democrats are saying they can’t do that. They’re saying they have not the tools to lead. To obstruct, yes, to vilify, yes, to blame, yes…but not to actually lead us out of an economic ground zero. They’re admitting they can’t lead us out of the hole; they’re just running to make sure they can stay safe. I am very glad to read Reid’s admission that “No one knows what to do”…except it’s not really true. I’m going to reprint the address John McCain just made today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, today. Please read them in full. The man is showing leadership. He is not telling you “we don’t know what to do.” He is not telling you “there are no answers.” He’s telling you this is going to be hard, but we’re going to get through it. He is being Rudy Giuliani on 9/11. Read it. Let’s finally get serious, shall we? And keep in mind that while John McCain is offering leadership, Barack Obama - who has a closeness to this economic crisis that is uncomfortable - is in Nevada telling people to “get in the faces” of other people about the election; he’s running such dishonest ads about McCain and illegal immigration that even the press has noticed. Obama could not get the AIG right yesterday; had Palin made his errors there would be sneers of “she’s not ready to lead.” But Obama blew it yesterday, and the press shrugged and smiled over it. Now, Obama is doing flip-flops. Joe Biden, meanwhile was rallying for the higher taxes in a way that seemed a bit buffoonish to me. “Low taxes are unpatriotic!” Sigh. It may well take a tax increase somewhere to to fix this mess. But it seems to me cutting corporate taxes is the only way to save jobs at this point. Here are McCain’s remarks (H/T Lorie Byrd) - if you care about what is happening today to our economy, put your personal leanings aside and read it. ARLINGTON, VA — U.S. Senator John McCain delivered the following remarks in Cedar Rapids, IA, today:
McCain is not telling us to “get in” each others “faces.” He’s trying to lead, if we will let him. The Democrats have admitted they don’t WANT to lead on this issue. They’ve never wanted to do more than jeer from the upper chambers. And Sarah Palin - she may not be your cup of tea, but she clearly knows how to use the broom that has stymied Nancy Pelosi. I’m saying, let McCain lead. The Democrats don’t want to. Their cowardice is a disgrace. Compare and Contrast: Obama’s response and McCains’s. Ace Reminder: Yes, Bush did try to stave off this economic crisis in 2003 and the Dems blocked it. You could look it up. In the NY Times. Also, if you want to look back on how we got here, read this piece from City Journal, (H/T Jonah Goldberg). Also read this interesting email response that that article, by one of Goldberg’s readers. It’s time, finally, to get serious. James Pethokoukis lists four ways to make things worse and turn a recession into a depression. I’m not the only one whose jaw is on the floor at the Democrats turning tail and running away: September 2, 2008Wall-to-Wall “Palinsanity” & BUTTONS! Buttons thanks to Shana! Althouse coined the word “Palinsanity” and one of her commenters made a palindrome to describe the whole movement of the left and the press: Harassarah….that would be, Harass Sarah. It’s all they can do, because the left is clearly out of its collective mind over this woman, and they’re only going to get worse. And it’s all going to backfire on them. Big time. And the left is utterly destroying their own credibility with regards to women and family issues. As I wrote yesterday:
 Do you get the impression I am getting, that if Sarah Palin does not learn her place and “go home” soon, the members of the press, especially on tv, are going to begin shaking and screaming, and totally losing it? That’s the impression I am getting; that Andrea Mitchell and Chris Matthews, and Olbermann and Alter, (and all the rest) their heads are literally going to explode soon if - after this relentless journalistic jihad, meant to destroy Palin in a matter of days - McCain does not drop her or Palin does not collapse. I think I’ll pray for Mrs. Palin and for McCain. I wouldn’t mind seeing members of the media have on-screen breakdowns. Not after this. Hang on, Sarah! Hang on, McCain! And no, I have never seen anything like this in 40 years of watching politics. The hatred being spewed for Palin is like the combined hate for Hillary, Bill and Dubya. Except all of those hates took time to build. Sarah Palin has been on the national scene for about 125 hours. HOURS. It seems unnatural to me, and intellectually dishonest.  I was just thinking today, how much Chris Matthews would LOVE Sarah Palin if she were a Democrat: “This woman is the stuff! She hunts! She fishes! She runs a state! She fights corruption in her own party! She raises a family! She came up from the ranks, she’s not an elitist, she’s not a professional politician! Her husband is in the union! She can speak without teleprompters!” He’d be spitting all over himself and his leg would be trembling. Lost in all of this Palinsanity is a very important story that we’re losing site of: the US - terrible, Imperial America - has returned the Anbar Province to the control of the Iraqis. Please take the time to read this important piece by Steve Schippert, which helps us to understand and appreciate what that really means. If you’re too bug-eyed with Palin-mania right now, print it out and read it in bed, tonight. You’ll be glad you did. Where is the sane Democrat who is going to stand up and say “that is enough?” Is there one? Is there a Democrat out there who is not simply marching in You’d think Hillary - champion of women and children - would be standing up for Palin and Bristol, wouldn’t you? Meantime, my son asked me to put all of my Palin post up to now in one place. He can always go to the category Sarah Palin, but I will list them all, below. Enjoy some fun buttons designed by my friend Shana, and below you will find yet another collection of Palin links. All my Palinpieces so far:  Bloomberg: McCain is figuring it out, the press only loved him when he was going against his own party… Hmmm…by that reasoning…they should LOVE Sarah Palin, who fought corruption in her own party! Someone sent this to me, I don’t know who said it first:
There is some truth in that.  Politico: New Palin details may help rather than hurt. Uh, yeah, especially as the left reveals themselves to be women-hating, narrow-minded sexists and misogynists who never meant all the things they said about powerful, smart women and the choices they make. Mirabile Dictu Mommy Wars, well Hillary DID say that there was more sexism than racism in the nation (and in the media, didn’t she? Or was that Ferraro? Ace: Nation in Crisis, Day 2 (Yes, look what a youthful pregnancy and the family values that support her and love her have wrought among the “sophisticated, edumacated and enlightened!”) Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter: when asked to defend the press’ overboard hysteria about Bristol Palin (and how her mother should “go home and parent her”) vs Al Gore’s son being picked up for driving 100 mph while on pot, (which did not necessitate concerns about Gore’s parenting); he justifies it all! After all, Gore’s son’s pickup was “in the papers…”. Yes, I recall a few lines about it, in section B. Some comparison. Can I say that Alter is a bit of an asshat? Is that allowed? More on Palin (and the election in general) from around the very busy internet: (keep checking back; I’ll add more as I read them!) One Cosmos: The Metaphysics of Envy & Revenge of the Left I need to get away from this for a little while. This seems quite evil to me. Prayers are important. Lib Men: Foul & Vile & Ignorant on PalinI’d just finished whipping out my credit card and donating to McCain/Palin again when I saw this, (H/T Lorie Byrd) and it almost made me donate again, except I’m broke. This MAN - who I will not link to - suggests, with absolutely no knowledge of anything, because before 4 days ago Sarah Palin was not even a blip on his radar:
Again, so we’re clear: this is a MAN, who is suggesting that every woman who flies in the 8th month of her pregnancy is being reckless. This is a MAN who is presuming to know - or to more properly project his own inclinations into - Palin’s mind. This is a MAN (and I am no gender warrior, but let’s be clear that this is a so-called LIBERAL MAN) sitting there cheerfully assigning the most awful motives to a woman he does not know, but whom he hates with passion…apparently because she is a woman and a smart, strong woman who is also a conservative. This is a LIBERAL MAN, who probably argues for abortion rights up to the ninth month of pregnancy, suggesting that a woman with four children, who knew her body, knew what her labors was like, and who called her doctor, conferred with him and made a DECISION with him, was actually just trying to kill her baby, which - suddenly - he seems to find an immoral idea! And excuse me, but aren’t DECISIONS made between a woman and her doctor sort of…sacred, to these folks? Or have they been just yammering about this for 40 years and lying their heads off? Or are they just bloody hypocrites? I cannot imagine that sane women from the center or the center-left can listen to this stunning misogyny, which flies in the face of four decades of powerful debate and rhetoric, and feel peaceful with this relentless attack upon a woman, launched immediately and chillingly at the very heart of her womanhood, before she had made one campaign stop. The message is: you women better know your place, and it is in the party, under the men who screwed Hillary out of her shot. The hope, apparently, is that they will chase Sarah Palin away. They’d better hope they do not succeed. Because every thinking woman in America will have seen what they did, and how they did it, by attacking womanhood and motherhood and the private and career decisions of a gifted woman. And those women will look at their own lives and their daughters, and they will not sit there and take it. Look at what their shocking hate is doing to these people. And they don’t even know Sarah Palin; they are so terrified of the tiny bit they’ve seen that they just went into immediate, rabid and unnatural attack. The commenters at Dirty Harry’s Place do a good job of exposing his ignorance. Hello, an 8th month birth is a premature delivery, not a miscarriage. If she’d been in labor, her doctor would not have had to induce her. I wrote about all this several days ago. Unlike these creatures, who want to think nothing but the worst of Sarah Palin, all five of her children, her husband and - if she has one - her dog, I don’t want to believe the worst about Obama. But I am really starting to wonder about the weird co-incidence that the Koskidz started a rumor - based on nothing - about Palin, and her daughter Bristol, and then it turns out that Bristol is pregnant. We know now that the press knew about the pregnancy. The press is in the tank for Obama, we know that. When I read Allahpundit a while ago, I thought, “no” - but now, I have to wonder: did the Koskidz bungle a leak from the Obama camp?
I don’t believe Obama would do it. But his “camp” might. Remember, his “camp” greeted the news of Palin’s addition to the ticket with nastiness and a distinct lack of common political courtesy or generosity. Obama had to walk it back. The co-incidence is pretty neat, isn’t it? I wonder who leaked it. Ace writes: Don’t believe a damn word the lefties write about the Palins. Don’t worry, I won’t. Their credibility is finally, utterly, used up with me. If there was ever a time to ask, “have you no shame. Finally, have you no shame,” this is it. Rick at Brutally Honest: Notes the Goebbels tactics; a must read Coincidentally, Mike’s Noise looks at all of this and sees how little these people understand about their opponents, and he cannot help but quote Jonah Goldberg from his book, Liberal Fascism More:
August 31, 2008Palin: Bad Mother, Bad WomanWhat in the world has happened to liberal/Democrat values in the last 48 hours? It seems like the appearance of Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket has caused an immediate disintegration of all of the hard-fast rules and values that have been preached at us ‘lo these many years. Palin was not a half hour in the ring, when a male reporter wondered, “Shouldn’t she be home raising” that Down Syndrome baby. He needed to be reminded by a female reporter that a male politician would not be asked that question, especially when there was a loving spouse in support. Then, Alan Colmes posted (and apparently immediately took down) a piece basically questioning Sarah Palin’s instincts as a mother (does he even have children?) because she, a month before her due date, and far away from her doctor, did not immediately fall apart when she noticed some amniotic fluid leaking. This not being her first pregnancy, Palin did what a prudent, experienced woman who knows her own body would do; she called her own doctor, kept him apprised and did not panic. She made a scheduled speech, traveled home and went to the doctor. The left is going to try to run with this? If Palin had a “D” after her name, she’d be praised for her calm, collected manner in the situation and we’d hear how it reflects how steady she would be “a heartbeat away from the presidency”, and we would all know, because everyone would keep saying it, that - of course she would have seen a doctor had she needed to - but every woman wants HER doctor with her when she delivers, if it’s possible. People seem to forget that women managed to birth their children - and gain some wisdom about the process - long before hospitals and the AMA were around. The left will try to make hay about Palin’s judgment. Most women will say, however, that Palin trusted what she knew about her body, and in God. The left seems terrified of Palin, (and with good reason; even Camille Paglia knows Palin is formidable, as she said of Palin’s first, teleprompter-free speech here):
Actually the Dems and their women are ready to make hay about everything they can think of, but with every issue they open a mirror reflecting back to themselves. My email is full of “talking points” about the evil that is Sarah Palin, but I like the comment left in another post, by a “fab forty” woman who sees terrible, terrible things in Alaska’s governor. And, it goes without saying, John McCain. Palin does not need my help addressing the feminists; she can easily pivot in those great shoes, but I’ll help, anyway.
I think she covered most of the talking points in that, so, I responded (slightly amended): Comments are moderated, and that is why you were in a holding pattern. No need to keep posting the same thing. I see you have all of your talking points. I have a lot of folks on the left moralizing to me today about how Mrs. Palin needs to be home raising her child. Quite extraordinary, really. The same people who say they are all about CHOICE, and who say we should have government-sponsored day care so that moms can immediately go back to work are having issues with Palin’s choice. Palin has chosen to raise Trig - his name is Trig, not “that child” - the same way she raised the rest of her family: with the support of her husband, Trig’s siblings and “grandparents aunts and uncles.” You know…the way kids used to be raised, with the help of the whole FAMILY, not the village. Suddenly a woman with children and ambitions and ideas who actually chooses to pursue a career is a “bad” mother, “traipsing” around the country. She should be home “having teas and baking cookies,” as Hillary sneered, I guess? Is that it? See, that’s the problem with the left preaching to us all these years…we’ve listened to them and now we’re simply reminding you of all the things you used to believe…because suddenly it seems you’ve forgotten! As a “special ed teacher” you probably know that the best environment for a Downs Syndrome baby is in a supportive family, one that does not treat the child any differently than the rest of the brood. Growing up, we had two DS babies in the neighborhood (bad Catholics, you know, having babies into their forties) and both boys were simply “part of the family” and part of the gangs. They played with us, they did the dishes and helped with chores; they were not “severely disabled.” They were just different. Oh, and so the Palins have a few houses? How horrible of them. Did they buy the houses themselves or did they have Tony Rezko help them out? How many houses did John Kerry marry into? That never bothered you, I bet? How many houses do the Clintons own? I know of at least two, the mansion in Georgetown, and the house in Chappaqua they hardly use, which gives Hillary her NYS residency, and supposedly they’re building one in the Dominican Republic. I don’t begrudge them any of their good fortune…why do you begrudge the Palins theirs? And what do houses owned have to do with competency? Let’s see…what else are you grousing about here…the class-warrior stuff:“Having the income to hire a household staff is not the same as being a ‘working mom;’ it is simply managing a business.” Oh…and managing a business is easy? Managing a business takes some smarts. Also managing a state. Palin has been a Mayor and a Governor, and she’s “managed a business” to boot. Seems to me she has more executive experience than either Obama or Biden…or even McCain (although he did run a squadron, so that’s something). Think for a moment before you make the “she isn’t a real working mom” charge: Hillary had government staff help her raise her ONE child for the child’s whole life but was a “working mom.” Katie Couric has a staff to help with her TWO children, but she’s a “working mom.” Oh, the big “Ethics Violation” (capitalized, even) that the left wants to whisper about but not actually discuss…go over to Flopping Aces - but only if you’re really interested in doing more than just acting scandalized, and the facts, the reports and the timelines. Palin wasn’t even governor when the events took place, and -unlike Obama, who wouldn’t even produce his damn birth certificate or actual medical records; unlike Hillary who never met an investigation she could not stall - the investigators didn’t even have to subpoena Palin because she was so forthcoming about the details. So, you can try to peddle your smear with all this innuendo “oh….an ETHICS violation….ooooooooo” but be aware of the fact that we all know that William Jefferson is still in congress even though he had $100,000 in his freezer, and Al Gore got his Buddhist nun money because “there was no controlling legal authority”, that Harry Reid has some questionable land deals in Nevada, and so on, and so on, so if you want to play “Ethics Violations” be prepared. I suspect you’ll want to actually pack that one away. “Every move she’s ever made has been to attain ‘fame,’ not to be in politics for service to the country, (beauty pageants, journalism, sports announcing, politics).” Oh. My. Gawd. Do I see cat-claws? Palin used her pageant money to go to college because - as she has said - her folks were not rich; her father was a teacher and her mother a secretary. And she studied journalism (gasp!) so, are you saying that all of the great journalist/patriots like Keith Olbermann (who was also a sports announcer) and Cronkite and Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell and the rest - they cannot have a serious love of their country? If Matthews or Olbermann run for office someday, they shouldn’t because they were “journalists and sports announcers?” Is that really what you’re telling me, after all? Oh! A literary allusion! How impressive. I am not sure how you relate Palin choosing to have a large family and accomplishing a great deal on her own - without coattails and such - with a story about women who are repressed and kept down, whose children are provided by obedient handmaids, and whose husbands are controlling freaks. But I suspect that deep down inside you, you are desperate - really desperate - to repeat the DU/Kos dementia that Palin actually is claiming Trig as the child of her daughter, (who had been raped by her father) but you know better to go there, because you are decent enough to know how incredibly sick that whole line of thought is. THAT is the only reason, I can think of for you alluding to The Handmaid’s Tale. Funny, I look at Sarah Palin and think more of the feminist film “Nine to Five”. I look at her, and I see everything that someone like you, or your political party, has told women they ought to strive to be. You and your party have told us, over and over (and quite rightly) that women should be respected for the choices they make and the opportunities they bravely take, but you suddenly - when confronted with such a woman tagged with the wrong letter after her name - seem to be made ill by those things. I look at Palin and I see a REAL “working” mom, one who actually worked “with her hands” - she and her husband BOTH were union members and BOTH commercial fishermen - a person who got involved and, because of her smarts and passion, (not because of her marriage or her connections) she progressed to the highest office in her state, all while raising a family. But even before I see her womanhood, I see her well thought-out policies, I see her priorities. I see her not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. I know you’re all about the identity-politics; the race card, the gender card, but I’m really more interested in Palin’s policies than her periods. And the talking points you’ve sent to me seem pretty lame. Politically pubescent. Thanks for stopping by. When you have more talking points, just drop them in the queue and they’ll be duly posted. Related: Sew the Scarlet A for Sarah Palin! Meanwhile: more on Palin and the whole election from around the ’sphere - relevant and random stuff-: Hot Air/Allah: on The GOP replacing the convention with service; as I said yesterday, it’s a great idea, and we shouldn’t let the predictable negative responses from the Dems and the press keep us from doing it. Instapundit has a poll on what you think. Blackfive notes that Palin is CIC of Alaska and its missile defenses - cough - Obama got that sort of experience? |
