Thursday, October 30, 2008

Don't miss these: 10/30/08

Things at work are a bit nuts. I'll toss these up as today's morsels, try to update and maybe add graphics later:
  • The Obama cult: Fouad Ajami discusses how Obama's crowds most remind him of third world assembles that "[come] forth to affirm [their] faith in a redeemer: a man who would set the world right." Ajami is another who notes that "[t]he political genius of the man is that he is a blank slate. The devotees can project onto him what they wish." Obama's legions mind him of "the tragedy of Arab political culture[, which] has been the unending expectation of the crowd -- the street, we call it -- in the redeemer who will put an end to the decline, who will restore faded splendor and greatness." Further, further, he laments that "those vast Obama crowds, though, have recalled for me the politics of charisma that wrecked Arab and Muslim societies."
  • Great; Kerry wanted to make us more like France; Obama's making us more like the Arab world. Maybe this is why Rep. Michelle Bachmann's concern that some Democrats — like, oh, say, Obama — might harbor anti-American sentiments (duh!) so infuriated the Dems.
  • A very interesting report (and more News You Won't Hear) from Democratic Hillary! supporters who are working hard and with great conviction to elect John McCain — and they're absolutely convinced McCain's going to take Pennsylvania. Hope they're wrong about McCain pairing too closely with Hillary!; hope they're right about Pennsylvania. (Thanks for the heads-up, Tim.)
  • Steve Chapman lets out a well-kept secret: Obama's economic premise is dead-wrong. Unfortunately, he doesn't give appropriate credit to Bush and his policies.
  • One of the ideas that will be argued about in months or years to come: was McCain right in deciding not to defend Bush in any way? Here's my penny's worth: right or wrong, he was following perhaps Bush's greatest single mistake. He never took serioiusly the need to defend himself, to get his viewpoint and accomplishments out. I hate — hate — to have to say this, but that is one thing The Nameless One was absolutely excellent at. Bush should have learned from it. TNO erred by not focusing sufficiently on governing, but he was right in that he never stopped campaigning, and had a very aggressive squad on instant-response to make sure that his perspective dominated.
  • Yesterday we saw the claim that Obama's efforts to seduce and deceive evangelicals had been found insulting, and rejected. Today, evidence that Obama's pro-abort extremism has made him appropriately radioactive to most evangelicals. I would say, to all evangelicals who are even trying to think Biblically and rationally. And to the foolish argument that there is no difference — the nation's largest infanticide-merchant begs to differ. Obama gets a 100% rating. McCain? Zero. Now, there's a "zero" to be proud of.


UPDATES:
  • Surprise, surprise. Remember O-campaign's scoffing at McCain linking Obama to Acorn and election fraud? Turns out that Obama's connections to Acorn are "extensive," and they "helped turbocharge his political career."
  • Frankly, I think the constant drip of McCain camp scapegoating Palin stories (like this half-witty but too half-witted one) are baloney. It's hard to believe anyone who makes a living in politics is truly that stupid. Sarah Palin is a major reason McCain is still even in this race. But he is being advised by folks that dim, (A) they should be fired immediately, and (B) it certainly explains why what should have been a near cake-walk has been such difficult slogging.
  • This is just funny. It's a slap-back at the Democrat-activist/hatemonger/faux-Baptists of Westboro.
  • Voting for Obama to prove you're not racist? Doesn't count! (So says O's future attorney general [?].)
  • Is "idiot" too strong a word? I look and look at this from The Luminous One, and... see what you can make of it
  • John McCain and Sarah Palin, they call this socialistic. Y'know, I don't know when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness. Y'know, the next thing I know, they're gonna find evidence of my communistic tendencies because I shared my toys in kindergarten -- cause I split my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with my friend in sixth grade.
So... it's selfish not to want the government to confiscate more of my hard-earned money, mostly to give to bureaucrats, and some to butchering babies? Interesting unintentional admission that his policies will not be in my best interests. And... voluntary sharing is communism, or any sentient being would say that it is? I just... I... and we're supposed to think that Sarah Palin is dim? Oh, my. Oh my oh my oh my.
  • Rich Lowry has an excellent idea: "A traveling journalist should ask [Obama] whether he's willing to call on the LA Times to release the Khalidi tape, and if not, why not."
  • Interesting: well, today I have heard Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, and Mark Steyn all state positively that they believed John McCain would win. Steyn said he was confident tnat "McCain and — God bless her! — Sarah Palin" could pull it out. I said I thought McCain would win, over at Justin Taylor's blog - though it's my hope talking. I certainly believe it's possible; I'm horrified by the alternative. But there you have it thus far.
  • [Parody alert in 3... 2... 1....] LA Times: Obama dined with murderers! Or what do you make of their latest excuse for not merely showing the video? The Times has no problem with jeopardizing American security - but Obama's candidacy? No no no.

11 comments:

Fred Butler said...

Knowing the Clintons like I do, and I say that as someone who has actually met them and know them from Arkansas, I would bet an slice of cheese pizza from Costco that when Bill and Hill get in the voting both, they will be pulling the lever for McCain.

I mean, she wants to run again in 2012.

Chris H said...

Does anyone else have a tough time praying for the Westboro folks? I sure do. I wonder if it's easier to pray for someone who is a sociopathic killer than it is to pray for a rabid heretic who so damages the reputation of Christians with his heresy.

Carol Jean said...

Maybe Baptists ought to also sue Phelps? Certainly there must be some sort of trademark or copyright infringement going on....(tongue firmly in cheek)

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

"But what's almost as thrilling is the prospect of Sarah Palin finally going away. Next Wednesday at this time, it's entirely possible that we'll see the last of Sarah Palin on the national stage. At least for now.

Sure, she's provided us with a bottomless cup of blogging material and, more importantly, she's a huge drag on the McCain campaign. And this week, with the Conga line of McCain campaign insiders dishing out leak after delicious leak about Palin, the slow-motion McTrain-wreck has been especially entertaining. But ultimately, the schadenfreude and the hilariously inexplicable interviews are merely distractions from the truly awful things that Sarah Palin represents.

It turns out, the only thing that's actually working for the McCain campaign is the daily inciting of rage, fear and hatred among the easily-led gomers lined up outside of Sarah Palin's rallies. I repeat. The one thing that appears to be working nicely for Sarah Palin and John McCain right now is the really evil and divisive stuff.

And we simply can't allow Sarah Palin's fear-mongering -- her Neo-McCarthyism and her Neo-Southern Strategy -- to ultimately be the one successful thing about this otherwise laughable McCain campaign.

There are a lot of things to ridicule about Sarah Palin's incomprehensible speaking style, her pathological dishonesty and her backwards, simplistic views on the issues. But it's her politics of fear and division that must be wholly rejected on Tuesday because it's too terrible to imagine waking up one week from today in an America that rewards the awfulness and fear which she and her subterranean allies require in order to politically exist.

So before we arrive at the end of the Bush dark ride, let's make sure the Sarah Palin dark ride comes to a complete stop on Tuesday."

Excerpted from The Mandatory Rejection of Sarah Palin.

DJP, this just shows how immensely wide the divergent world views are between liberals and conservatives.

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

"... today I have heard Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, and Mark Steyn all state positively that they believed John McCain would win."

If McCain wins, then is what some liberals think they should do:

"If your television declares John McCain the president elect on the evening of November 4th, your television will be lying. You should immediately pick up your pre-packed bags and head straight to the White House in Washington, D.C., which we will surround and shut down until this attempt at a third illegitimate presidency is reversed.

A McCain “win” will not be illegitimate because I disagree with his policies, but because he himself has rendered it illegitimate. He and his campaign and allied supporters have sought to illegally remove hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls, fraudulently registered people as Republicans without their knowledge and against their will, obstructed voter registration drives, falsely warned students against voting where they attend school, falsely accused community groups of voter registration fraud, falsely alleged the widespread existence of voter fraud, and encouraged supporters to falsely believe McCain’s opponent is a foreign terrorist through speeches, recorded phone messages, and flyers. Already in early voting in a number of states there have been cases of votes on electronic machines visibly flipping to McCain or McKinney when intended for Obama. We will see McCain supporters on November 4th challenging people’s right to vote, seeking to force people to vote on provisional ballots, and seeking to have provisional ballots discarded. And we will see electronic vote counts wildly out of step with the most recent polls, although not with exit polls — which we will be denied any access to unless they have been “adjusted” to match the official counts.

Inciting your supporters to violence with racist and religious lies about your opponent, effectively alleging treason on absolutely no basis, should be enough, alone, to disqualify a campaign for the presidency of the United States. Working to block voters from registering should be enough on its own. Any of the dozens of creative forms of vote suppression currently being used by the Republicans should be enough. And allowing votes to be counted on completely unverifiable machines owned and controlled by corporations allied with your party should make the results illegitimate even if plausible. If McCain is declared the “winner,” it will not be plausible, but at this point he has so disgraced himself and our electoral system that he is no longer a legitimate candidate for president regardless of what the polls (themselves fallible, but all we’ve got) say just before election day. Too many people have already been denied the opportunity to even push the buttons and have their votes miscounted. Too much incendiary slander has been let loose. Too much visible vote flipping has already been documented.

If Obama officially wins, McCain is likely to challenge it, charging the Obama campaign with some of the very crimes engaged in by McCain himself. Our reaction should be exactly the same in the event of a McCain challenge as in the event of a McCain “victory.” We should not sit back for even a split second and wonder how it will work out. We should not try to organize a plan on the spur of the moment to travel to key battleground states. We should be prepared already to immediately travel to Washington, D.C., head straight for the White House, occupy Lafayette Square Park, the Ellipse, and surrounding streets, block entrances, and shut the place down until Obama is recognized as the president elect or we are guaranteed a credible election with universal registration and hand-counted paper ballots.

We may be there for days or weeks or months. But we must be there. We must be there by the millions. We must show each other, and the nation, and the world that we have had enough, that we will not stand for one more stolen election, that we will not give in to fear, lies, theft, and intimidation. If they choose to attack our nonviolent gathering of citizens, let them do it right in front of George W. Bush’s White House with the world’s media watching. We will not back down.

I’m not hoping it comes to this, of course. If it doesn’t because the official election results are credible and just, we should celebrate and prepare to lobby our government for real change. But if resistance does not develop because people are too scared and obedient to act, then you’ll still be glad you packed ahead of time, and you might want to look into tickets to Canada."

From: A McCain Win Will Be Theft : Resistance is Planned.

DJP, this just shows how immensely wide the divergent world views are between liberals and conservatives.

Rachael Starke said...

TUAD, brother, you're reading some wiiieeerd stuff. Seriously. Earlier today I was genuinely thankful to God as I listened to Russell Moore's sermon on Jesus being a single issue evangelical that the Internet makes some kinds of things so easily accessible (MP3 and transcript at JT's site - it's a masterpiece - completely adjusted my attitude as I was griping internally about being up to my eyeballs in tulle making my girls new fairy tutus just because it will make them happy).

Now, I'm back to lamenting that the Internet was ever invented.

In the words of my 18 y.o. niece - quit harshing my mellow. :)

And for the record - I know for certain there are assorted nuts out there on both sides contemplating all kinds of mayhem and wickedness if their guy (or gal) doesn't make it. The Internet has become a veritable microscope for revealing the truth of what the Bible has said all along about our wretchedness. Just because I don't look in the eyepiece doesn't mean I don't know all those little germie things aren't there.

I also know for certain that God sees it all, knows it all, and has power over it all. Psalm 62 is my latest favorite expression of this truth. I heartily commend it to you for your (possibly more helpful?)edification.

Done with the tutus, now on to the fairy wings. :)

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

Rachel,

Don't forget the wand and the glitter on the wand either!

I didn't mean to harsh on your mellow. The point of my previous 2 posts were actually for my own edification. It amplified beyond any shadow of a doubt for me that underlying worldviews are really the key to genuine heart-to-heart communication. When they are so disparate (cf. DJP's compilation of political posts and his commentary with that of the liberals that I posted above) then there's no real communication or a chance at persuasion. They/we are just hopelessly talking past each other.

Susan said...

From Nathan Busenitz's sermon bullet points several Sunday mornings ago at Grace Community Church:

Regardless of who gets elected on Nov. 4th, Christians can have hope because God is still the King of the Universe, and He is still on His throne.

(I need to preach that to myself regularly. Never have I felt so discouraged over a presidential election....)

Susan said...

(I didn't quote Nathan verbatim--but that's the idea.)

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

DJP, et al,

You gotta read the following link by a Hillary supporter working for the Obama campaign! An Obama worker talks...???

DJP said...

Just saw that, and am checking it out as I can.