Is That Thar a Revival Tent At BO’s Inauguration?

BO (Barack Obama) has selected Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration.   Personally I could care less.   BO is about stage craft and one blowhard minister is pretty like any other.   However  even the leftard homphiles are starting to catch on, or fess up to, BO’s dog and pony show.

One Pam Spaulding, Pandagon:

This selection is clearly not about “change”—it’s about making a high profile decision to give the stage over to a known homophobe; choosing Rick Warren is tantamount to asking any of the professional “Christian” set to stand up there. There is no excuse for this, given there are so many leaders of the faith community out there that are in alignment with equality for?
 

Pam welcome to the world of the obvious.   BO has never been about chnnge.   BO is all about power, his.

Minor kudos to BO, he has aggrevated Miss Andrea Sullivan..

Hat tip:  Jammie Wearing Fool.

Code Pink flier:

Peace Activists Take Shoes to White House in Solidarity with Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist
Call for his release and tribute to Iraqis who have suffered under US occupation

WHAT: Peace activists to gather with shoes in solidarity to Iraqi journalist
WHEN: 11 a.m., Weds. Dec. 17
WHERE: In front of White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

 Front line citizen reporter, TSO, This ain’t Hell:

 The press out numbered the protesters by about 3:1.

Code Pink has about a month before being relagated to the Mrs. Sheehan bin.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble…

…for a mouth that’s fresh and clean, no matter how dirty politics gets.

• We’re now hearing that Jesse Jackson Jr decided to turn state’s evidence against Blago, and has been doing so for a couple years. Let’s see,if you can guess the reason behind his actions:
  1. Because he’s a great American
  2. Because it’s the right thing to do
  3. Because it was the influence of his father making him do the right thing
  4. Because Blago refused to set up a high paying cushy job for Jackson’s wife without being paid to do it.
     

  If you guessed (4), you’re correct. It also means of course, according to race hustlers like Jackson, that you’re a racist.  Now, granted, Blago wanted money to place Jackson’s wife in that job.  But still; is the charge against Blago in that case really to be he didn’t play the crony game the way Jackson thought it should have been played? Is that what we’e come to? Apparently so. And how long, I wonder did Jackson know this guy was dirty and didn’t say thing one?

• Speaking of Blago and the fallout,  Rick Moran points up that we’re still missing a White House chief of staff. Things have been awfully quiet after Obama’s statement that his people hadn’t been talking to Blago. It strikes me as plausable that Fitz has been working with the Obama camp; It certainly places them in a better light than the idea that they’re simply as disorganized as they appear.  But frankly, I can’t help but wonder if they’re not using a bit of co-operation with Fitz to create a shelter for their own misdeeds. And go ahead, tell me how I’m supposed to take the very public self-clearing Obama’s people did in the press yesterday, after the revelation that Emanuel was, Obama’s denials not withstanding, in contact with Blago. The criminal at that point saying “I didn’t do it” somehow lacks creds.  Particularly, now that we know some of the content of the tape.  A lot more is going to be revealed than Obama is comfortable with.  And no, you’re right; after that, I don’t trust much about Obama’s people. Not at all. Nor, frankly, do I trust Fitz, for that matter, after watching what went down with Scooter Libby.
• Let’s note also, that there seems a major difference in the way this is being handled, from the way Charlie Rangel, William Jefferson, and so on, have been handled. Then again, those two don’t come from the same area and poliical machine Obama does.
• Finally, today on the topic of Blago, I note with some interest that Rezko’s sentencing is on hold. This would seem to confirm the speculation that Rezko’s feeding the feds with information.His term would be adjusted by the  amount of cooperation reported by them, you see.
• I don’t even know if I want to comment on this one. I guess I will, though. What kind of parent subjects their child to this kind of abuse? I caught the father on 1210/WPHT (Philly) last night. What’s frightening is he sounds as reasonable and smart as Obama does. Chew on that for a while.
• Rick Warren has lost any credibility he had on the pro-life issue. If Im not mistaken, the phrase is “Get thee behind me, Satan”.
• Oh, yeah… let’s join the PTA.
• Note to my wife, Donna; This is the kind of thing I was taling about this morning, when I suggested we start thinking about moving once the kids are gone. To the rest of you; NY is second only to California in how the Democrat party has screwed things up at the state level. Taxing Ipods? Grated that’s nuts. But think, now… from a basic perspective, at what exact point did it become nuts? And here’s the thing; It’s not just at state level. I note, with no small amount of irony, that yeterday, when Patterson came up with all of this,  was the anneversary of the Boston tea party. I’m willing to bet he didn’t have the stones to mention that little point.
• Interesting note about the Madoff case… interesting that they won’t tell you in the Dinosaur Media… the vast majority of the influence he bought  was buying in Washington, was of the Democrat party.

In reading over all of the above, I’m inclined to quote Bruce Hornsby. It seems to fit.

It’s coming any day said the captain
It’s coming any day now cried the priest
The people in high places may defend you
But son you better hope they keep the peace

Can’t you hear them calling
Can’t you see them shine
The city halls are falling
The defenders drink their wine
And when the party’s over
Their stomachs start to sag
Defenders, Defenders of the flag

The congregation’s waiting at the altar
They can’t find the preacher anywhere
They found him with the new girl from the choir
Where they store the boxes of the book of prayer

If these guys are the good ones
I don’t want to know the bad
You wonder how it happened
They just picked it up from Dad
While faded old glory is hanging like a rag
Defenders, defenders of the flag

The flag is flying high over the courthouse
The wheels of justice never stood a chance
The judge is down at Charlie’s on his lunch hour
Checking out the picture show from France

Carrying a fifth of whiskey
In a dirty paper bag
Threw the ball to home
But they always missed the tag
Faded old glory hanging like a rag
Defenders, defenders of the flag

In an open insult to hcckey mom everwhere, Pinch Sulzbergher, d/b/a New York Times, has compared Mrs. Schlossberg’ to Sarah:

SYRACUSE – In a carefully controlled strategy reminiscent of the vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, aides to Caroline Kennedy interrupted her on Wednesday and whisked her away when she was asked what her qualifications are to be a United States senator.

Hat tip Professor Althouse.

This the face of the man who murdered Adam Walsh, of Hollywood, Florida, in 1981,  Associated Press:

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh in 1981, Florida police said Tuesday.

The announcement brought to a close a case that has haunted the Walsh family for more than two decades.

Toole is where is should be.    May the Wlash family find a bit more peace.

The nation is on the cusp of a depression.   We have an raw, naive and untested President taking office next monh.     New York State’s economy is  tanking.    What New York State does not need is yet another mere celebrity senator.   The people of New York should be represented in the Senate by a leader and not a mere celebrity.   David Patterson, say no to Mrs. Schlossberg’s Alice in Wonderland request to become an unelected, unqualified and unwelcome Senator.

 Mrs. Schlossberg is not winning over every leftard, Alan Colmes:

Just what does it take to be a senator? Fundraising ability? An understanding of the issues? Electability A marquee name? Maybe we’re so depressed as a country that anything that can bring us a whiff of Camelot is acceptable. Now that Caroline Kennedy has made it known that she would like to be the next senator from New York, replacing the soon-to-be secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, it is fair to ask these questions.

And Bob Fertik, Democrats:

But even if she adopts progressive positions on all the issues, how can she possibly represent me or my fellow 20 million New Yorkers? She comes from a rich dynastic family, was a national celebrity from birth, and never had to struggle to get a job or pay a bill in her life.

Sure FDR was rich and did a pretty good job. But he still had to work his way up the political ladder by fighting for key Democratic constituencies like labor unions. Caroline wants to come in at the top without having fought tough political battles for anyone.

By the way, I find Fertik about two all beef patties short of a Big Mac, but amusing.

However the best reason to just say no to Mrs. Schlossberg’, Chris Cillizza, Washington Post:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) urged New York Gov. David Paterson to appoint Caroline Kennedy to the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a Democratic strategist familiar with Reid’s thinking.

Reid and Paterson spoke by phone last week, according to the source. The call was not prompted by Kennedy or anyone in her inner circle but rather was based on Reid’s belief in her qualifications to serve and her ability to run for and win the seat in a 2010 special election.

Dirty Harry would never endorse a competent and clean canidate for the Senate.  Dirty Harry doesn’t want a legislator, he wants a whore to carry BO’s dirty water.

Memo, to Blind Man Patterson, appoint Mrs. Schlossberg’ and you will always be refered as the blind governor.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read in the ‘sphere; Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble… read and recommended by smart people, everywhere.

 There’s lots to cover. Let’s get it.

• (Shake of the head) What you need to understand, Billy, is the mindset of the kind of people Paul’s talking about, here. Consider that these are the same people who put all kinds of weight behind the ‘Office of the President Elect’… which does not in fact, exist.  Hell, man, Obama wasn’t even the president elect until yesterday.  How many people know that fact?   Certainly, damned few of his supporters.  Yet, he keeps pushing that image because it serves his ego, if nothing else. What I’m trying to point out here is that in their mindless, image, and not fact, has primacy. While in conversations between you and I or any other rational adults, or even most children, facts mean everything, it’s not so for these people.  As I keep saying; Support of Obama… and for that matter liberalism itself, is not based in fact. Therein lies both their conceptual weakness, and that of the rest of us. Weakness for them because it’s easy to poke logical holes in their arguments. Weakness for the rest of us, because  since their ideology isn’t grounded in fact to begin with,  mere facts will never defeat it, no matter how much they lie to impart the image. Worked for Adolph, huh?
• So, there are some  in the Arab world who hold this shoe tossing moron to be a hero. That is, in my view, the relative equivalent of being a hero of Cuba’s ‘revolutionaries’;  Someone who by their life or death has managed to help enslave millions upon millions of people. Both these people and their ‘hero’ should be regarded accordingly. Being bombed wuth pork entrails would be a start. Being buried in them would be more appropriate. Alive, of course.  Reynolds speaks to this incident, saying:
  

  TOBY HARNDEN:

  “Barack Obama may be the new Mr Cool on the block but you have to give President George W. Bush his due for a supremely self-composed and dignified reaction to the Baghdad shoe thrower.”

  Well, if you’re leader of the free world, you ought to be able to handle an airborne brogan. Still, I remember Madeleine Albright’s deer-in-the-headlights reaction to some heckler at Dayton, so I guess such composure isn’t to be taken for granted….

  Well true, but what you need to understand, Glenn, is the difference in the outlook of each of them. Again, as with my comments to Billy, this goes to the mindset of each. I have observed that liberals tend to operate as if they cannot imagine anyone objecting to their policies and idealism. When someone actually stands up to question them, they thereby do not know how to deal with it.  Obama demostated this quality often enough. Biden, too.  Conservatives, on the other hand, know full well what they’re up against,  and expect it, and know how to respond, too.  Mark Hemmingway thinks this incident is actually a sign of  Iraqi progress. 

  Just ask yourself how this incident would have played out five or six years ago. Saddam Hussein wasn’t exactly known for his frequent press availabilities; he was content to let Iraqi minister of information Baghdad Bob dutifully inform his subjects that the sun rose in the west, if that would suit his purposes.

  Suppose for a minute that Saddam did hold a press conference and someone stood up and threw his shoes at a visiting foreign dignitary standing right next to him. Right now, henchmen sons Uday and Qusay would currently be bickering over who gets the privilege of attaching the car battery to his genitals.

  I tend to agree, As I said yesterday,  when you come down to it, Zaidi owes the fact that he’s still alive, to Bush. I wonder if he knows it.

• 45% of Americans think Obama’s people are dirty in the Blago thing.  So says Rasmussen. And frankly, I think they’re right. Indeed, I suspect we don’t know the half of it, yet.
• Of interest there; Turns out the state employees unions and other unions are up to their eyeballs in Blago’s corruption. Anyone shocked by this?  No?  Well, me, neither.
• And what I suggested yesterday haas been confirmed… he’s not resigning.
•  We’re expecting three inches of snow tonight, and more tomorrow.  It’ll be a few months until we see green around here, now. I don’t have a link, but Bismark was showing 10 below, this morning. And it’s coming this way.  More global warming, please.
• I see Arena Football just cancelled it’s 2009 season. No shock for this. Every time the formula has been tried, it’s failed.  It’s a nice idea, but the  venues they manage to get to play in aren’t worth the money the fans spend to get into them. And you’re not going to get better venues without a mess of money being invested… far more than investors will cough up… even in the best of times.
• Speaking of football… or rather, NO football… Message to One Bills Drive:  If you’re current stable of QB’s cant get some conststancy going, it’s time to make changes across the board. But for those inconsistancies, the Bills would have won last weekend. I’m getting a little annoyed, frankly.
• HEH;   – NBC is the Nothing but Caroline network. There are times when the Menken in me wonders if America and the rest of the world with it, wouldnt be better off if we simply called in an airstrike on Hyannisport. This is one such.Remember, I LIVE in NY state.  That state line is starting to look awfully attractive, just now. Big Sky country, perhaps.
• In what has to be one of the stranger allignments of things of late, I find myself in substantial agreement with both Mickey Kaus,  and Micheal Barone.  They’ve identified our automker problem.
• I see oil’s up a bit, on rumors of a big cut in OPEC production. My advice: Chill.  Frankly, we’re not going to see $4/gal again anytime soon. The key here is the desire of the remainder of the Arab world to keep Iran tied up. Their production prices are higher than most of the rest of the region, and so they won’t be making any money anywhere under say $60/bbl, though I’ve seen their production costs running higher in some estimates.  The less money they’re making, the less they’re able to spend on nukes and whatnot. The Saudis, particularly see that as a good thing, and so should we.
• Al Franken constunes to steal the election, right in front of our eyes. Coleman is now asking the state supreme court to get involved. I’m a little dubious they’ll be able to help at this stage.
• I see Charlie Rangel, now that his record is being examined, missed more votes than any other NY house member. Some will note his age, which they suggest will excuse him. It does not. There are older house members, of greater value to this country. And even was he decades younger, nobody is worth the corruption of Charlie Rangel.  Just one more log on his pyre, in my view. Not that I expect him to get the boot with the Democrats running things.
• The search for Caylee’s killer is turning up all kinds of new evidence. The grandparents say they’re ‘devistated’, (Vid) and I guess I can appreciate that. But, I have to say in all honesty, there’s a voice in the back of my head telling me they had an idea all along, but wouldn’t let themselves believe what they knew.  Maybe too many years writing political commentary has made me more of a skeptic than is good for me, but there it is. I don’t trust anyone involved in the case, anymore.
• I mentioned Nixon yesterday, and came close to suggesting he wasn’t paranoid, after all. Perhaps I should have said exactly that. Turns out, his paranoia was well founded. I’ve no doubt that kind of nonsense goes on to this day as well, and in larger amounts.
• We’re seeing a lot about Madoff. Pay close attention to the article on The Politico where we find that most of his Washington influence buying,  skewed Democrat. Gee, big shock. This one’s going to go large, I think, once we go to trial and names start popping out.
• Nah… there’s no problem with Islam. Right?

It appears Ms. Kennedy thinks that US Senate seats are something to lobbied for amongst political elites when one decides one wants them, and that the public should be happy to simply fall in line. The fact that one has a family political machine currently in the process of steamrolling David Paterson and a famous last name should be enough for the little people.

Jane Hamsher, Puffington Post, on Mrs. Schlossberg’s dalliance with New York State junior Senate seat.

I add, is Blind Man David Patterson man enough to stand-up to the town drunk, Teddy Kennedy, and say no to Mrs. Schlossberg?

Decided to pass along some more Christmas light shots from around our area. It snowed pretty good over the weekend, and the light always look better with fresh snow on the ground.

The blur you’ll see is due to low light conditions from a moving car.
Donna took these.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble.

Upwards of 50 degrees around here today. Weird after so much snow. It’s all gone now, of course, but fear not; the forecast is for cold and snow moving in for the season within the next week.

Lots going on over the weekend, including a mess of Christmas shopping.  Let’s get to it… get on board.

• That Ice storm in eastern NY and western New England as I mentioned the other day?  They’ve still got lots of power outages to deal with. They’ve got a little relief, with it being warmer today, but it won’t last long.
• Christmas shopping.. and shipping, too. What’s left of the post office says this is a heaviest shipping day of the year for them. They’re making arrangements so tha it only takes twice the usual amount of time to ship a package of cookies to Great Aunt Matilda.
• Yeah, Billy, I know the type of snow-thrower guy you’re describing here.   I’ve got a neighbor up here… a really great guy… who putzes around in the rig he has simply because he likes playing with the big rig he’s got. He simply has lots of fun with the thing. Of course, we’ve been kinda light on the snow the last few years, so he’s really not had much call for his talents. When the snow comes, he pounces on it like a starvng man pounces on a steak.    God bless them, though, that their hobbies and our needs mesh so well.  Great shots, by the way. As I’ve told you, I’ve always liked it down your way for the change of the seasons.
• I see where pressure is mounting for Obama’s Chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel to resign following revelations that he did in fact talk to Blago about a seat for sale.  His resignation would certainly be a good start,  but not nearly the whole cookie jar.  Does anyone with a brain really figure Obama had no clue on what Emanuel was doing?  Is this another case of Obama sitting in the pews for 20 years but never noticing the flaming racist in the pulpit? How long until we hear the now hackneyed phrase…”this is not the Rahm I knew”…?   Sorry, Democrats.   No sale.   This goes deeper than one Chief of staff, no matter how dirty.
• Listening to the Chicago stations, the outcry against Blago is bloody amazing, just now. But don’t you dare mention that it’s totally illogical that Obama’s clean on any of this. I mean, is there something in the air ducts at WLS?
• Looks like the arrest of Blago got hurried a bit… opening up the utility of a really free press, again. This Ain’t Hell  relates the tale.
• We heard reports here at BBHQ all day about how Blago was supposed to  actually resign, today. Frankly, I took them as being more wishful thinking, hoping that this nightmare would go away and stop damaging the image of The Chosen One.  He may do so later this week, but not today, is my own read.
• Also, check out this at the WSJ angles on Blago background. And check out Day By Day, too.
• John Tierney has it right:
  

  “If we want our children to be scientifically literate and get good jobs in the future, why are we spending precious hours in school teaching them to be garbage collectors? That’s the question that occurred to me after reading about the second-graders in West Virginia who fought for the right to keep recycling trash even after it became so uneconomical that public officials tried to stop the program.

  Well, no kidding. By the same token, why are we spending billions on ‘global warming’, when we have neither the billions, nor the global warming? Same reason.

• That shoe chucking moron we were treated to over the weekend?  His name is Muntazer al-Zaidi. He’s from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo. He ends all his broadcasts “From Occupied Baghdad”. I don’t suppose it’s ever occurred to anyone that this is a sign he’s not exactly playing with a full deck? Of course, it should be said that did we base security on such signs, half our domestic press would be in jail, too. Of course the leftards are wishing he’d been tossing grenades, instead.  Matthew Yglesias reminds me yet again why I’ve never been as impressed with him as he obviously is with himself:
  

  Some people got very upset when I said I thought throwing pie at Tom Friedman was funny, but I’m having trouble coming up with appropriately humorless language with which to express my fake outrage at this incident

  I have yet to see why Joyner finds him such a source of fascination. More examples of numbskullery. (Shrug) I guess we should expect such from them.  I’ll bet the guy hasn’t even considered the logical ramifications, here, any more than Yglesias has.  I mean, think; if he’d done this with Saddam in power, he’d have been tortured and then killed for his action. When you come down to it, Zaidi owes the fact that he’s still alive, to Bush.   And anyway, who throws a shoe anymore?  Honestly…

• Amie Parnes over at The Politico notes that there’s no southerners in Obama’s cabinet as yet.  Oh, I dunno. Doesn’t Hillary count? After all, even New Yorkers don’t consider that she’s anything but a Chicago girl who adopted Arkansas. That snark aside, there seems another anti-southern meme developing, as Boortz notes:
  

  After the auto bailout failed in the Senate … true colors are starting to shine. The unions are livid at one group of people for blocking their chances at getting a bailout (for now), and that group would be senators from the South. Yup, the evil, anti-union South rears its ugly head. The evil Southern Senators are Mitch McConnell, Bob Corker and Richard Shelby. The UAW has gone as far to say that these senators are “representing the foreign brands” because their southern states are home to foreign automakers such as BMW, Honda and others. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said, “They thought perhaps they could have a twofer here maybe: Pierce the heart of organized labor while representing the foreign brands.” A local UAW president at a GM factory in TN said, “What this is, is the Southern conservative senators trying to destroy the United Auto Workers, trying to destroy unions … It’s a sad day in America when the senators turn their back on Main Street.” Well last Friday was a sad day as well … a day when the UAW turned its back on the automakers….

  Indeed; and what can you call the lack of consessions to reality from the UAW, other than that? That lack, dear reader, is anti-American. As Neal points up, the issue for the unions is their survival. They know Americans have figured out they… the unions…. are the problem.  Too bad the Bush administration hasn’t gotten that message.

• One must wonder if the logic about the UAW will lead us next into demolishing the Teacher’s Unions. They certainly think so. I can’t think of a single thing that would improve our government schools than the elimination of the unions.
• OK, I know I shouldn’t worry about being covered by an avalanche while skiing. One in a million shot, right?  I’ll bet this guy had similar thoughts.
• I see where the Amish are reportedly genetically immune to heart problems.  Genetics? Hmmmmm.  I wonder about that.
• Good feedback on my John McCain post of yesterday.  Almost universally, the debate is over on the idea that McCain needs to be gone. By the way, a little reminder… you do know that McCain has come down on the side of those seeking to impose a ‘fairness’ doctrine, right? More about that later, at need.
• Speaking of weekend postings, I did mention the firebombing of Sarah Palin’s Chuch the other day. None of the Dinosaur media did.  Oh, AP ran a story and a few papers picked it up. Huffpo reprinted the AP article, so did Fox.  Can you imagine them ignoring this, this way, if the firebombing was against Jerry Wright and his happy band of foamers?
• Oh, speaking of The Chosen One, I see now where Bill Richardson is under investigation. Dan Riehl has some of the details, and says, shaking his head…
  

  Geesh! Can the Democrats and Obama put anyone forward who isn’t facing an investigation of some type?

  Obviously the answer is ‘no’.

Yet another story, from Tean Obama, Associated Press:

WASHINGTON – An internal review shows aides to President-elect Barack Obama had no “inappropriate discussions” with Illinois Gov. Rod

 or his staff concerning the search for a Senate replacement from Illinois, a spokesman for the presidential transition office said Monday.

Just a few days ago,  BO(Barack Obama) was telling the improbable story that his admistration had no contact with the Blagojevich.   The publilc was left to wonder what BO meant by contract.    Now that BO has changed his story and admitted to contact, we left to wonder what BO means by “no inappropriate contact.”    I suggest that BO feels that Patrick Fitzgerald has no evidence of actual money changing hands.   How long wiill this latest story stand up to scutiny?

Larrey  Anderson at The American Thinker  has an excellent piece up today. Here’s a taste:

Even atheists are religious. They have a dogma (God does not exist) and they have a vast number of rituals. (Most of their rituals involve lawsuits over the use of the term “God.”) They have multiple proselytizing websites. They even have a church.

 

Their religion gives the atheists’ lives significance. If there is no soul and no afterlife then this life is all that we have. To give meaning to meaninglessness, atheists occupy their time instructing non-atheists on the meaning of the meaningless. This is silliness, of course, but the religion of atheism gives a structure to its practitioner’s otherwise admittedly pointless existence.[i]

 

Likewise environmentalism. Seen as a religion, environmentalism is Judaeo-Christianity turned on its Hegelian head. Traditionally religion posits an all-powerful God that saves a sinful humanity from itself through the intervention of a human clergy. 

 

In environmentalism, an all-wise clergy, composed of government bureaucrats and “scientists,” saves the planet from a sinful humanity. In the green religion human beings are both God and the devil. We are righteous when we act in conformity with the establishment’s dogma  — and we are evil if we question it.

This is the RNC message wihich John McPain can’t stand, video:

Hat tip: Moe Lane, Red State.

While McPain can’t stand the video, I like it.  We tried the reaching out and the new tone business for eight years.   I, for one, am all for the old tone and the closed hand.   What say you?

As for RINO’s like McPain and Collin Powell, I don’t care if they shut-u0 or not.   In fact, I don’t care what they say.

Remember during the Clinton administration, when we were advised by Bubba  of his fantasy memories about church burnings that occurred in the South?  The implication of course was an only racist Republicans could do something so terrible.

Well, now, let’s look at the news coming out of Anchorage this morning:

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA —Denver Post- Gov. Sarah Palin’s home church has been badly damaged in an arson fire.

Damages to the Wasilla Bible Church were estimated at $1 million, authorities said today. No one was injured in the fire, which was intentionally set while people, including two children, were inside.

“This fire is definitely suspicious,” said Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele.

Pastor Larry Kroon declined to say if the Friday night blaze was politically based or directed at Palin, the failed Republican vice presidential candidate. He also declined to say whether the church has received any recent threats.

“There are so many variables,” he said. “I don’t want to comment in that direction.” Palin stopped by the church this morning. Her spokesman, Bill McAllister, said in a statement that Palin told an assistant pastor she apologizes if the fire was connected to the “undeserved negative attention” the church has received since she became the vice presidential candidate on Aug. 29.

Gee, what do you suppose we should take from this?

My own take-away;    The legendary tolerance of the left strikes again.

Doubtless, we will have the like of John McCain telling us about how that Coke bottle filled with gasoline just spontaneously combusted. If you’re watching closely, you may get the idea I’m a little annoyed here. this is precisely the mentality that I was talking about in my John McCain post of earlier today.

I could be wrong, but I have every reason to believe that this fire was politically motivated. The kind of people who would do this… these are the kind of mental midgets, that Mr. McCain would have us getting along with.

And let’s be honest, here; and do a little role reversal; If this was the church of  Jerry Wright,  where Obama supposedly sat and listened for 20 years to the preaching but never knew of Wright’s racist tendencies, we have headlines all over the place this morning. We’d see all the nets doing their wall to wall number,  and the whole thing would be blamed on what they would call racist  conservatives… extreme right-wingers, etc. As it is, I will guarantee you this is the first most of you will have heard of it.

Agreement: Right Wing News,  Gateway Pundit, who has video, and Powerline, who says correctly:

“Given the insane hatred that Democrats directed toward Palin during the recent campaign, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that the arson is the work of a liberal Democrat.”

No kidding. At this point I have every reason to think that’s what’s going on here and no reason to think otherwise.

Mike Allen at The Politico:

In a surprising rebuke to the warriors who fought for him through tough times, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday sided with President-elect Barack Obama and scolded the Republican National Committee for fanning the Illinois corruption scandal.

On ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos asked: “The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mike Duncan, has been highly critical of the way President- elect Obama has dealt with this.
“He’s had a statement every single day, saying that the Obama team should reveal all contacts they’ve had with Governor [Rod] Blagojevich. He says that Obama’s promise of transparency to the American people is now being tested. Do you agree with that?”

McCain replied: “I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody — right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary. And so, I don’t know all the details of the relationship between President-elect Obama’s campaign or his people and the governor of Illinois, but I have some confidence that all the information will come out. It always does, it seems to me.”

Well, first of all, it’s actually not surprising at all, Mike. Not at all.

It is quite predictable. Sadly, it was avoidable, too.

Message to John McCain:

Shut up.

This kind of nonsense is exactly what lost you (and us) the ’08 race in the first place.  It is clear the lesson has not been learned by you. That thing in the basket is your butt, placed there by your own refusal to stand up and be counted as a real conservative. For too many years, you’ve been dragging the Republican party to the left, culminating in the loss of your presidential run.

As such,  your status as a conservative voice, which was never above the level of  shaky to begin with, you have now negated completely.  You are now reduced in rank to the status of ‘willing tool’.

Shut up, and go away.  You’re no longer wanted, nor are you needed. You’re done. Can I make this any clearer?

What the American people, and specifically the Republican Party and within that, the conservative movement  should be doing right now is aggressively cutting to the truth, and calling out Obama and his team on their obvious misdeeds, in this and in all cases. When Democrats step out of line, they should pay the price, not be handed a “get out of jail free card” by lilly livered ‘opposition’.  Here’s a clue for you, John, since it’s clear you very badly need one… what is the root word of ‘opposition’?

The Republican Party in general, and the conservative movement in particular, needs to spend the next four years with the fangs bared, their hackles up, and  alert for any such misdeeds, They need to be sinking their teeth into anything that pops above the surface like this, without mercy, without hesitation, and without any internal bickering on the matter, brought on by apologists like yourself.

The reasons are simple; that’s exactly how the Republican Party in general, and conservatives in particular, have been treated for the last eight years.   It’s way past time we started taking these people on, on their own ground. We’re not going to win any other way.

You can play with the olive branches if you want, Mr. McCain, and get your ass handed you in the process as you did in November.  It matters not at all because as far as most of us are concerned, you’re no longer part of the process.

As for the rest of us, it’s time to fight the battle that you lost because you refused to fight it as it should have been fought.

Anything here you don’t understand?

Message to the RNC:

Read the above and react accordingly.

Agreement from Mac’s Mind, Sweetness and Light, Gateway Pundit, Free Republic