More of Obama’s “Silence the Opposition” Tactics

Journalists from three major newspapers that endorsed John McCain have reportedly been booted from Barack Obama’s campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race. 

The Washington Times reported Friday that it was notified of the Obama campaign’s decision Thursday evening — even though the paper has covered Obama from the start. 

That from Fox, today. However you look at this, and the WFTV and KYW incidents and a half dozen others we’ve mentioned here on Bitsblog,  it’s clear Obama cannot deal with any opposition.

It’s as the executive editor of the Washington times suggested:

I can only hope that the candidate who describes himself as wanting to unite the nation doesn’t have some sort of litmus test for who he decides gets to cover the campaign

Clearly, a vain hope.

Like what you see, America?

I’d being doing a BO if I said that I was not taking this one personal.   Having lived through the Vietnam era experience, I have vowed to not to stand silent while reprobates, pictured, slander the American Fighting Man.

Via Jeff Emanuel, Red State, a memo attributed to the Murtha campaign:

Cong. Murtha is in a brutal re-election campaign. The “Swift Boaters” have put up a candidate from Virginia and have raised millions of dollars against Cong. Murtha. In addition, other 527s and the NRCC have spent millions to smear Cong. Murtha on TV, radio, and in newspapers. We need to raise another $1 million to compete. If you have contributed, thank you. We are asking all to MAX their campaign contributions: $5,000 PACs and $2,300 individual. We need money immediately

Comments:

I love the smell of panic in the air.

“Swift Boating” means telling the truth about a politician.

Is it not ironic, that Murtha, has who habitually smeared Marines, is now complaining about being smeared.  Cry me a river.

I wonder how much good a million dollars will do for Murtha.  He most likely has near one hundred percent name recognition in his district, and his pension for being home the pork is equally well known.   The problem for Murtha is not that the voters don’t know Murtha’s record.  The problem is that the voters do know his character, or lack thereof same.   No amount of  adverstising can remove the bad taste Murtha has left with the voters.

There may be limits to much corruption Americans voters can tolerate.

Shocking news, with global oil price at all time highs, Big Oil produced a big profit, John Porretto, AP Business Writer 

Reuters – A view of the Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown, Texas September 15, 2008. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters) HOUSTON – Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported income Thursday that shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter

Hippocrit, Mrs Clinton, among others was not pleased, Chris Good, Hill:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) blasted oil companies and U.S. energy policy today, responding to news that Exxon Mobil raked in the highest ever quarterly profit for a U.S. company Thursday with its third-quarter earnings of $14.83 billion.

In a time of record oil price, beyond Big Oil’s control, Exxon/Mobil produced products which American drivers needed and used.   Exxon/Mobil did what companies are expected to do, produce commodities.   They garned a profit.  So what!

As I blogger earlier, while Americans were being forced to walk to the poor house. members of Congress continued to use their public office to increase their personal wealth, Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Newspapers
:

WASHINGTON — Times are tough, but don’t worry about most members of Congress making ends meet.

Their collective wealth grew by 13 percent last year, leaving them in better shape than most Americans to make it through an economic downturn, according to a new analysis of personal financial reports.

Exxon/Mobil, and Big Oil, produced motor fuels which American wanted, needed and used.   Whereas Mrs. Clinton and her five hundred thirty seven other cronies in  Congress only produced an economic meltdown,  for which Americans have no desire or need.    For this inepitude, members of Congress got even richer.   Let start the process of redistribution inside the Capital.   After all, it is only fair.

Other bloggings:  American Street. 

Welcome dear reader, to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble. Just one more day to the big day…. Halloween, of course. Oh, yeah, sure… there’s that election thing, too.

Hmmm. Maybe we oughta talk about that.

• Yesterday I mentioned The Politico saying:
  

  I’m not buying it, Politico. Look, guys.. all this leaning, all this coddling Obama and still all Obama can manage is as close to a tie as no matter?

  Seems they’re catching a bit of heat for it. I suspect most of the responders would think I was overly kind. Perhaps that’s accurate, too. The more I think on this the more I begin to understand that Politicois becoming more disconnected from what made them a popular and reliable news source to begin with. Perhaps a microcosm of what happened to the MSM in the last 20 years or so? I’m thinking we’re going to have to watch them closely over the next couple years for more signs of going MSM on us, particularly if Obama wins.

• Speaking of Politico I see there that Jihad John Murtha’s begging for help from MOVEON.ORG to bail his sorry butt out of the hole his mouth dig him into. The take away, of course is he is admitting he’s in serious Podunk now  Personally, I hope they pour millions into his campaign. No, I really do. I figure dollars wasted there is dollars they can’t spend elsewhere on someone whose campaign has a real shot. OTOH, after all the butt kissing he did for the far left, it’d be about right if they made a bit of a show of dumping the man. Such is the loyalty among thieves, after all.
• To the shock of absolutely nobody, the politically motivated records check of Joe The Plumber was far more intrusive than anyone was willing to admit.  I ask again, where are all the liberals complaining about abuses of privacy? And lest you have any ilusions that such illegal acts are limited to this one situation, trust me, they’re not. Nor do the current stories indicate it’s not going to get worse if the Democrats are put in charge. They’re clerly doing everything they can to silence any and all opposition, and using the force of government to do it.
• So why does Obama’s Aunt live in a Boston slum? Charity, for most people, starts at home. This revelation shows clearly the difference between socialists… and Republicans. Socialists… err… sorry… Democrats.. think Charity starts with Government, having confused charity with confiscation.
• The Phillies won last night in case you were interested. Though, with the amount of damage from the resulting riots, I suspect there are many, particularly along South Street, who wish they hadn’t.
• I wonder how Obama’s pitch for Popeil’s new “Instant Delay of Game” affected the viewer numbers of the game itself?  I’ve not seen any yet, but anicdotally, nobody I’ve spoken with actually watched the game… and I have to wonder if it’s not because of what they’d have to sit through, first. I wonder too, if that’s indicative of the vote.
• However that may be, Obama made a lot of promises last night. Among them:
  

  As president, here’s what I’ll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages by freezing foreclosures for 90 days, and just like after a 9/11, we’ll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open.

  Remember this..  That whole thing last night… those half hours he bought on those networks… wouldn’t have been possible, had he not broken his promise about public financing. Given that, why should anyone trust anything else he says?

• Mrs Bit, via E-mail just now:
  

  God, that sickens me about the Australian flamingo. Did you see that story on Drudge? 75 year old bird – oldest of its kind ever. It’s blind. It’s not afraid of humans – walks right up to the edge of its enclosure at the Australian zoo. Some teenagers attacked it. It’s in critical condition. They’re also worried about its cagemate – a flamingo it’s been with for 50 years. The healthy one may suffer over losing its friend.What the frick is wrong with people? I guess they’re all sick animals. The animals behave “better” than the people do. There’s a story under that one about someone stabbing their lover with a screwdriver 220 times. I guess if they can’t be nice to each other, there’s no hope they’ll be kind to defenseless animals. Makes me want to cry.

  Truely.  We live in a  cruel world.  I do think, though that in both these cases, what we’re dealing with is unreleased anger.  In the former case,  we’re dealing with the maladjusted. And looking around, I see the thing is not an isolated incident at all. If the animal didn’t end up being the target, it would have been some other helpless creature… possibly human.  In the case of the latter,  what we have here is the breakup of a lesbian couple, one of which was a writer for the left-leaning Huffington Post. In her writings… as with the writings of most leftists, frankly, you can clearly see the woman had a number of unresolved anger issues. A day later, after finding out that stabbing her ex-lover 222 times didn’t solve those issues, she solved her problem with the 2oz lead solution. It has drawbacks, of course, does that solution, but there is a certain finality to it.  A few links you’ll find of interest all generated the week prior to her death:

  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/bo…
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-anne-burg…
  http://wwwwbipicomlink.blogspot.com/2008/10/c…

  Look, I’m quite sure I’m going to catch hell for this, but Savage’s quote that liberalism is a mental disorder isn’t far wrong. I don’t think it a mental disorder of itself, but clearly it is a symptom of it. That’s playing out to it’s logical conclusion, I think, in both the instances you cite. There’s more here.

• This stuff is so laughable… Glenn Reynolds notes:
  

  HEH: Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate. “Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday – the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922.”

  You’d think that with all those highly paid minds, that one of them might notice this stuff keeps happening to them.  What we’re seeing here is the victory of liberal mantra over obvious facts.

•  Do keep chanting, Democrats, about how vote fraud isn’t happening. Here, too, is the victory of liberal mantra over obvious facts.
• Boy the girls must be really hot, there.
• 25 years? My god… seems like yesterday I was making mix tapes for this thing. And I keep hearing rumors about the Jackson 5 (plus one) touring this summer?
• So, Jen’s preggers.Big deal. First, it’s not any great accomplishment.  Secondly, it’s not like it’s anything you or I did. That’s only half as snarky as it sounds; I’m convinced that when guys watch that kind of thing it’s because they wish they HAD done it. The real story is the shockingly small chance that the kid’s going to come out growing up anything like normal.
• Speaking of not normal, I see Phil Spector’s second trial has begun.

The One on black sitcom references:

 You’d be having a — like, what was it, Sanford and Son. `I’m coming Weezie

Hat tip and BSWK:  Michelle

.

From Urban Dictionary:

1. house nigger 298 up, 38 down

A black person that does their best to please white people even if it means disowning their own racial identity.
“Uncle Tom House Niggers do scare me” – KRS One “House Niggas” (1989)
by D. Arse Feb 12, 2005 share this add comment

2. house nigger 55 up, 10 down

a black person that sucks up to the white man for benefits. From slave times where the house nigga would get to work inside the house as opposed to picking cotton out in the hot sun.

According to modern progressive theory a practice is racist if it has a disproportionate impact. By that standard, Barack Obama is little more than a house nigger because he avidly supports policies which have an disproportionate impact on blacks.

Item, Obama supported the District of Columbia, a majority black city, which banned citizen from having fire arms in the own homes.

In Scott v. Sanford(1856) Chief Justice Roger Taney finds the Constitution conferred no rights which need be applied to the Negro

For if they were so received, and entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens, it would exempt them from the operation of the special laws and from the police [60 U.S. 393, 417] regulations which they considered to be necessary for their own safety. It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, singly or in companies, without pass or passport, and without obstruction, to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased at every hour of the day or night without molestation, unless they committed some violation of law for which a white man would be punished; and it would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went. And all of this would be done in the face of the subject race of the same color, both free and slaves, and inevitably producing discontent and insubordination among them, and endangering the peace and safety of the State.

Chief among the rights Taney was so eager to deny to blacks was the right to keep and bear arms.

Obama is an extreme supporter of abortion, a practice  which kills a disportionate number of unborn black babies.   Abortion was pushed by Maragret Sanger as means improve the races:

Abortion was first popularized by Margaret Sanger, a white woman who was the founder of the National Birth Control League (now Planned Parenthood). Sanger was a lifelong champion of birth control and eugenics (the movement devoted to “improving” the human species by control of hereditary factors in reproduction).

Taney didn’t want blacks to have guns and Sanger didn’t want black babies to be born.  Obama has been an avid supporter of both Taney’s and Sanger’s ideas.   Taney and Sanger were no friends of the black.   The ally of your enemy is also your enemy.

Addendum:Bit: See also:

The Party of Civil Rights Isn’t the Democrats…

Welcome dear reader to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere.. The Nightly Ramble.

• Less than a week away from the election and Obama is still losing ground. The trend has continued over the last few weeks to the point now where both Rasumussenand Gallup are both reporting numbers within the margin of error. If the trend contunes through next week, and I see no reason it shouldn’t,  we may well find out if those veiled threats from the Democrats about race riots will come true. Bottom line is for all the predictions that have been ourportion on the newswires, nobody has a freakin’ clue what’s going to happen… but I’m fairly sure it’s not going to be nearly as much a liberal success the Democrats have been making it out to be.
• I note with interest thatone of Obama’s speech writers has switched sides. Of course the Dinosaur media hasn’t noted it. They dare not.
  

  Imagine if a speechwriter for John McCain had switched sides and announced she was going to vote for Barack Obama. Would she not be featured bigtime in the mainstream media complete with new thrills running up Chris Matthews leg? Well, this did happen except that it was an Obama speechwriter, Wendy Button, who became disillusioned with The One and switched supporting McCain. Here are the highlights of Wendy Button’s explanation of why she made the switch:

  Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”…
  …The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

  Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

  As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

  The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

  …Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.

  But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?

  Well, look, such movements can only be reported as moving toward the left. There’s far more at the link. Go and read.

• I note with a shrug, the earthquake in Pakistan, this morning. Initial reports are 150 dead, and likely, in reality, far more. Joyner notes:
  

  Baluchistan, the area in which the earthquake took place has been engaged in a low level of insurgency against the central government in Islamabad for years. There was a terrorist incident there just a couple of days ago. The present Pakistani government is holding on by its fingernails and its response to the earthquake will probably be phlegmatic, which is, unfortunately, probably as much as it can manage. That probably won’t further ingratiate them with the Baluchis.

  Yeah, true, but then again, what would? Look, even assuming Pakistan’s government could mount the rescue efforts needed, given who we’re dealing with they’d reject it.  Certainly, if the US tried to help, they’d get the same. It’s cold as hell, but there it is; The world-sized butt-boil that is Baluchistan has probably solved itself, in large part. The wonders of nature.

• Obama is now accepting untraceable donations. He likes to tell us he’s popular based on the donations, but how many are illegal? 
• Speculation from Time magazine’s online folks is that Biden is being reined in by the Obama camp, but I doubt it. In light of the fact that Obama’s not done a press conference in over a month, now, I suggest they’re hdiing, considering it safer than answering actual questions as Biden has gotten tripped up on several times, now.
• So, the LA Times is hanging onto the Obama tape? Why, when they seemed to have no problem releasing the tape from Ahhnold. an you say ‘In the Tank?” I knew you could. Meanwhile, the Times continues to lay people off. Do the math, folks.
• Speaking of the press… I mentioned yesterday the Christian Science Monitorwas going to a weekly paper setup? Nope. Story NOW is they’re going to be web only  I suppose this is to be considered ground-breaking… that is after all the way things are moving. But I wonder how many will see it so… and I wonder, too, what paper will be next? Could Bill Keller flying Coach be any indication? Gannett, which your humble blogger worked for breifly when Grok was clan leader, is cutting back, too.  I gave the MSM my advice, in my comments on the CSM in  yesterday’s Ramble. Failing to take that advice means they will not survive, as such It’s really that simple. They may not, anyway, but it’s the only shot they have, the way I see it.
• Billy Beck:
  

  Mickey Kaus:

  “Still, as Bernstein notes, we knew Obama believed in ‘redistributive change.’ The question is always what that means. Traditionally Democratic pols leave it alarmingly vague, with no identifiable stopping place at which enough redistribution is enough. Obama is no exception.”

  I would like you to consider that in the light of something Ayn Rand said more than forty years ago:

  “When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side.”

  Billy goes on to make a seperate point from there. But I’m struck again about the conversations on the topics of rationality and Education we had here and here recently. Follow also the back and forth in the comments here. It’s all of a piece, people, and it’s not hard to follow.  In fact, I’d suggest it’s hard NOT to follow. As I say at Q&O this morning, One cannot possibly avoid the correct path so carefully and exactly, by means of stupidity.

• OK, I posted yesterday’s Ramble before I noted the market was going up.Seriously up.  It’s up today a bit too, at this writing… around 3pm. But not nearly as much.  Eventually, as I keep saying, this stuff take care of itself, given the chance. I note the news sources weren’t saying much about it. Perhaps the market kinda slipped off their radar?
• Oil, in response to the huge market push is now up above $67… pretty much on par with the market increase, and not unexpected.
• The BitsBlog  Eric Blair award goes to Nancy Pelosi.
  

  But I do tell you that if the Democrats win, and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan,” said Pelosi.

  It’s one of those imoments where you know she’s not kidding and it hits you how incredibly biased she really is….another extreme leftist who thinks herself in the center of the country.

•  This is what happens when sports figures… who it must be noted, are usually not the brightest bulbs on the tree to begin with… try to talk politics.
• Obama’s supposed to be on all over the place tonight.  My take; That’s what the DVD collection is for.
• As we go to press, the fed has lowered the prime interest rates to 1%.

The Snark of the day goes to John McCain: (Video)

“I will never delay the start of the World Series for an infomercial.”

 

Frankly, I’m not sure what to make of this:

Posted by africanpress on October 29, 2008

A final agreement has been reached between African Press International (API) and Fox News Network (USA) on the dates to air the Michelle Obama tape arising from a discussion Mrs Obama had with the API two weeks ago. The show will take place any day/time from now, with a 15 minutes alert on when it is to take place. Other programmes will be interrupted. This is a precaution taken to avoid interference from any quarter.

In the agreement, Fox News Network will broadcast 39 minutes of the 54 minutes long tape. The whole tape cannot be aired unedited due to security reasons and especially due to the explosive political temperature in the country because of US Presidential elections that is just around the corner.

The tape will be aired in two portions by two separate units in the Network. API’s representative will appear live in one of the shows.

The parties have agreed that the information to be released to the public on the agreement will not include the naming of the units at Fox News Network that will air the tapes in order to avoid outside pressure and influence of any kind before the show has taken place. Nondisclosure of the name of the shows that will air the tapes has become necessary due to pressure from groups interested to block the release of the contents to the public.

Due to a huge interest in the tapes shown by some private individuals, groups belonging to some political camp(s) and persons connection to a section of intelligence network, it has been decided that the 54 minutes long unedited tape is to be kept outside the United States in safe custody of one of API’s Lawyers based in Ontario, Canada.

The day and time schedules of the broadcast will only be announced 15 minutes before the Show begins in order to avoid attempts to block the Show from airing the tapes.

Any pressure from any outside forces that may want to know the day and time schedules of the Show before-hand or any other details in the agreement will get no answers to their requests either from API or Fox News Network.

Chief Editor Korir/ African Press International

FWIW, Fox is denying the negotiations ever took place.

(Shrug) I dunno.

Ronald Reagan was purported to have said, I so much like to believe that he did, “That the nice thing having Alzheimer’s was getting to make new friends every day.”   In the spirit of Reagan, the nice thing about being a libtard is getting to forget history every day.   The libtards hail the One’s message as “fresh” and “new”, yet as Jonah Goldberg, National Review, writes:

Blowing away the dust and cobwebs from ancient wares doesn’t make them new. Save for his skin color, Obama doesn’t represent anything novel. Rather, he symbolizes a return to an older vision of the United States that was seen as the “wave of the future” eight decades ago.

I for one have no desire to go back to that future.

Abraham Lincoln, for the libtards our nation’s sixteenth President:

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.

Obama can adopt a new label for his old ideas, but even the One can not change the fact that is ideas are old, tired, failed and rejected.   See the former Soviet Union.  See Cuba.

Word from the Boston Pheonix, this morning:

This morning, Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested on charges of attempted extortion and wire fraud after an 18-month investigation by the FBI. The FBI alleges that Wilkerson took bribes from $500 up to $10,000 (for a total of $ 23,500 ) to help secure a liquor license for the Roxbury nightclub Dejavu. The FBI also released photos – reproduced here – which it says shows Wilkerson accepting the bribes from a confidential FBI informant. The full FBI affidavit can be viewed here.

The Boston Globe runs it this way:

The FBI released a video image of Senator Dianne Wilkerson allegedly taken Aug. 2, 2007, at the Fill-A-Buster restaurant. (Photo by the FBI, by way of The Boston Globe)

It was not so much the allegations that a politician accepted $23,500 in payoffs that sent ripples through the lunch crowd yesterday on Beacon Hill. The shock was the allegation that state Senator Dianne Wilkerson was brazen enough to accept the cash in bustling restaurants just steps from the State House.

The crimes occurred, authorities allege, in settings as varied as the Fill-A-Buster lunch counter on Bowdoin Street, where bureaucrats squeeze ketchup onto the meatloaf special, and Mooo, a modern restaurant with 25-foot ceilings where white gold chandeliers bathe the airy dining room in warm amber light and a 52-year-old single-malt Macallan scotch sells for $425 a glass.

One FBI surveillance photograph appears to show Wilkerson grabbing a handful of $100 bills over a starched white tablecloth at a lunch June 18, 2007, at the esteemed No. 9 Park, where a loin of Colorado lamb is served with fava beans, Greek yogurt, and pickled garlic scapes ($65 in a three-course prix-fixe).

In a dining room in the 1803 Bulfinch mansion, Wilkerson then allegedly stuffed the $1,000 into her bra, according to a surveillance photograph and an affidavit filed in court.

“If I were going to make some illegal transaction, I would duck into a bathroom or somewhere a little more discreet,” said a State House employee of 34 years enjoying that meatloaf special yesterday at the Fill-A-Buster. The man was reluctant to give his name, like many frequenting the scenes of the alleged crimes for lunch.

I’ll bet she campaigned on openness in government, and this is simply her version of it.

That snark aside, what do we take from the Globe’s reaction of ‘it’s not the crime, it’s the brazenness’?  What the heck do you expect? I mean, how many years of ‘it’s OK as long as you don’t get caught’ does it take to turn from sneaky behavior, the writers at the Globe apparently find acceptable from Democrats, to the openly corrupt?

Here’s some interesting background on the woman.

As a practical matter, Wilkerson has become a magnet for prosecutors. None of the charges has any of the shocking seriousness of, say, having oral sex with an intern in an Oval Office anteroom, or driving off a bridge into Chappaquiddick Sound and leaving a passenger to drown. But they have lodged in a deep place in the collective Boston psyche all the same. After those first allegations hit home, the burden of proof shifted, and Wilkerson became guilty until proven innocent.

There was, for example, the 1998 charge by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance that she illegally used campaign funds to cover personal expenses. Which sounds bad, until you discover that it involved payment for a skirt suit she wore to campaign events. She considered the suit akin to the rented tuxedos male candidates legally charge to their campaigns. The campaign finance office disagreed and demanded restitution, plus $11,500 in penalties. (The skirt suit cost $500.)

These charges, in turn, made it seem all the more likely that something was amiss when the state Ethics Commission fined Wilkerson in 2001 for failing to disclose $20,000 she’d received from the then Boston Bank of Commerce for consulting services—even as, she says, the commission gave, in Kafka-esque fashion, explicit permission to provide those services. If she’d never gotten into trouble before, you’d probably have overlooked that. Do you now?

She made the papers again that year when her condominium association sued her for failing to pay $4,671 in condo fees, though she said she was withholding them for poor service. The $1,300 in parking tickets she supposedly ran up? She insists they were her sons’. Fox 25 News knew her car had been towed before Wilkerson did.

And so on, until this fall, when Attorney General Reilly charged her with being “unable or unwilling” to report or explain what had happened to more than $45,000 in missing campaign funds she had first been notified about, the press release claimed, in August 2002. This complaint was far more detailed than a so-called draft report Wilkerson had been presented the previous November—which she says she had been working to respond to. It focused on her employment of her sons, Kendall and Cornell Mills (they take their last name from their father), in the Democrats’ coordinated 2000 campaign, of which Wilkerson, at the behest of the Al Gore campaign, took charge.

The report from Boston Magazine goes on from there, both lengthy, detailed and as damning as it is lengthy and detailed. I have to agree with Michelle Malkin, who quips:

Racism card in 3, 2, 1…

Yeah, you know it’s going to happen.  I’ve watched Wilkerson’s campaign this last go round, during which she promoted the idea that elected, she would be the highest elected black official.  Of course, the charges of racism from her opponants came hot and heavy… almost as a knee-jerk.  So, you KNOW it’s going to come up in defense this time, too. And of course, she’ll have a cast of idiots lined up behind her, who accept her word, even now.

There are, of course those who would simply accept this as par for the course for Democrats.

I’ll bet she supports John McCain for Presdient, huh? Anyone wanna take that bet?

Tuesday, already.

• So, let me understand this. If I were to hang ain effegy, Joe Biden, Pelosi, Reid, or even Obama, the left in Hollywood wouldn’t be screaming bloody murder about it? Yeah, right.
• As a loyal Buffalo Bills fan, I usually don’t have a whole bunch of love for Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Miami Dolphins. But this may actually make me think twice about giving the man some props. Surber says it well:
  

  The rich are not tied down. They can skate out of taxes. The middle class can’t.

  Hey, that Alternative Minimum Tax was supposed to snare only millionaires when it was imposed 40 years ago.

  How come 24 million Americans are snagged by it?

  Vote Democrat, open wallet. Repeat.

  Indeed.

• Apparently, this lesson needs to be taught again. (Sigh) OK, leave at the side of the road the arguments about since when is it government’s job to determine who has how much money… leave aside the issue of personal property, , all of that.   Even assuming we were able to take the whole of the money the top 5% in this country has… all of it…. No percentage.  no cut. Every last penny they have goes into the Federal government… It’s still not going to be nearly enough to pay for Obama’s plans for government entitlements. The real money, you see is in the middle class. Once the ruse of ‘tax the rich’ is done, whose wallet do you suppose the Democrats will have their hands in? If they thought that kinda money was going to be enough, why do you suppsoe they’re already talking about stealing your 401k?
• See, notice in all the bloody screaming going on over the questions asked by Barb West at WFTV and the CBS outlet in Philly,  and whoever else dares to challange Biden, the issue that’s not being addressed by Obama and Biden is the actual answers to the questions being asked. And notice that most of them center ion his tax policy. And that’s what all this comes down to, in the end. Biden has addressed everything but these questions… and there’s a reason for that. They don’t want us to know about those plans. Want more? And you want to know why Biden’s catching all this flack?  Fine. The reason Biden’s getting all these questions because Obama, for all of his screaming about Palin not being available to the press, Obama has himself not given a press conference in a month now. All we’ve been hearing from him is the rethorical… oblique references to a “higher prupose”… Funny thing; wasn’t that what Castro called it? Do a little research, and I’m sure you’ll find it was.
• Ann Althouse has an interesting take on Palin. These role reversing things are usually quite revealing.
• Did you see the news that the person who used Ohio state computers to dig up dirt on Joe the Plumber, is an Obama Donor? Gave (at least) the most he could legally give… Michelle notes the thing and asks if privacy champions are going to leap to Joe’s aid. You know better, Michelle.
• An Honorable mention for the Boss at OTB’s caption Contest.  By the way, I’m starting to develop a bit of respect for Rodney’s political chops. James should turn the guy loose a bit more, I think. (grin)
• Look, Mark… it doesn’t take a ‘careful reader’ to understand what the proper response to a broken law is. You defeat your own argument by attempting to dance around that issue. That both McCardle, (who I frequent disagree with), and Reynolds, (who, frankly,  I’m mostly indifferent to) recognize the next logical step after recognition of an illegal activity, and yet you deny that obvious conclusion, speaks volumes to me.  Are we to assume that what you’re saying is that it’s OK so long as nobody finds out about it?   I can’t help but wonder if such activity were found to surround McCain’s campaign, if you’d be trying to play this line… and I doubt it. You’re obviously in the tank for Obama, and trying to adjust your logic around the illegal activities attendant to some of his supporters. I’ve been saying for months that the only way Obama’s being elected can be justified is if the voter ignores logic. Thanks for demonstrating the point so aptly for me.
• Speaking of criminal activity….Ted Stevens was found guilty yesterday. Good. Keep in mind, that whole thing got started not by Democats, but by by Sarah Palin. Good for her. Though I find the timing of the conviction of interest.
• Yeah, I saw about the skinhead plot to knock off Obama. Supposedly. Of course, it should be noted even they didn’t figure they’d be able to do it. I don’t take such things very seriously, in terms of the political, really. But I have to tell you..  I await the press to call these morons ‘Republicans’  You watch, gang, it will happen. Reynolds notes Crittenden’s thoughts that there seems a bit of androgyny attached to these two. Don’t be so shocked, Glenn… remember the stories we heard about Hitler… welllll… not being able to keep Eva happy normally? It fits, if you think on it.
• Donald Sensing asks what Nato has done for us. More than the UN, I would argue, which, granted, ain’t all that hard.
• Remember we spoke before about voter fraud? Yep. What we predicated came true. and I’ll bet you didn’t know.
• I’m not buying it, Politico. Look, guys.. all this leaning, all this coddling Obama and still all Obama can manage is as close to a tie as no matter?
• Christian Science Monitor is giving up, and moving to a weekly style publication.  Layoffs at the LA Times are up to 150 and climbing. The circulation numbers, via Drudge are here, and they don’t look good… if you’re selling fishwrappers.  The lesson for all of this is AM radio. AM was dying a few years ago. Talk radio, and particularly, right-wing talk radio, gave it the life it now has, and it’s doing very well indeed, for the most part, well after it was decared dead.  Left wingers tried to do the same thing on AM, ala Air America and others but it’s not selling.  the answer for newspapers to survive is content… giving the reader what they want. And given what we see out of the whole of the MSM, that’s not left-wing pablum.  the blueprint, as Limbaugh likes to say lately, is there for newspapers and MSM broadcast outlets to survive and thrive. Will they be smart enough to take the lesson?
• Oh, goody. Snow here tonight… 4 inches in the hills, a few feet east of us along I87 north of I90, and maybe a few inches of slush around here in WNY. It’s started already as I write this;  The whole of the east coast is colder than usual. Can we have some global warming, please?
• So now GM and Chrysler have their hands out?  Ummm… guys? No. You’ve had enough.
• Home sales back up, and the CW says it’s because prices are down some. In reality, it’s the prices of the houses that are selling. See, what they do NOT mention in this report, is how many of the sales are from people moving out to houses they can actually afford. In any event, the market takes care of itself, given the chance. A lesson there to the GM/Chrysler people.
• A criminal probe of ACORN? Yeah, I think it should be done, but too little too late for this election, I think.
• I wasn’t even aware Deer was Chinese food. Hamburg is fairly close to me here, and I’ve driven by the place a few times. Right on US62, I think. Well, the local primo grocery, Wegmans, does a reliable job with Chinese food, I think I’ll stick to that, thanks.

We face tough economic times, and a deep, long depresssion if the One gets elected.   Some, like libtards and the media, oh I repeat myself, call for sacrifice.   In these though economic times, I call upon Congress to sacrifice their considerable personal wealth for the national good, Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Newspaper:

WASHINGTON — Times are tough, but don’t worry about most members of Congress making ends meet.

Their collective wealth grew by 13 percent last year, leaving them in better shape than most Americans to make it through an economic downturn, according to a new analysis of personal financial reports.

There is no excuse for using public office to gain personal wealth.   Wealth garnered through public office is the proper property of the people, not greedy politicians.   One can only hope that new enlightened judges will see the collective vision.

Levi Stubbs, Jr, died over a week ago, on the 17th of this month.

Now I feel bad for not having mentioned it. My fault.

Of course I’d written something, which is altogether dated, now, but it never made it to the system because I got focused on problems I was having that day, and forgot to foward it up. My bad, and I’m sorry for it because I’ve always had a lot of respect for the man’s talents.

Who was Levi Stubbs? he was the lead singer… the main voice… of the Four Tops. Billboard writes he was arguably the most powerful voice at Motown in the big years, and I think they’re right.

Only one of the original members are still alive, now. Sad.

The music, of course, continues.

Scott, Powerline, attributes this drivel, to one Cass Sunstien, supporter of the One and purported perfessor of Law at Univerity of Chicago.  Perfessor Sustien holds there ought to a Second Bill of Rights which would include:

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all–regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

Perfessor Sustien would not know a right, even if rights were holes in the ground, and he fell into one.    As enshrined by the Declaration of Indepence, our nation’s founding document, rights are presumed to endowed by the Creator.    Rights are endowed by God and enjoyed by all Men.

What Perfessor Sustien calls rights are not rights at all.   They do not emanate from God, but from the results of human endeavors.   What Sustien calls rights are in fact commodities, the results of human labors.   For example, Perfessor Sustien may feel we all have a right to a decent home.  Yet God does not build homes.  Men build homes.   Perfessor Sustien can not give a home built by the hand of man to one man without first taking it from another man.  

In a free society there are no rights to commodities.  If Perfessor Sustien can not, or will not, distinguish between a right given by the grace of God and commodity built by the hand of man, he is not qualifed to teach law.   If Barack Obama conflates commodities for rights, he is woefully ignorant of our nation’s founding documents, the Declaration of Independce and the Constitution of the United States.   Obama is not qualified to teach law,  much less serve as a nations chief law enforcement officer.   Obama is not merely opposed to the First and Second Amendments, he opposed to our Constitution.

The United States may not be perfect, but is sure isn’t Cuba either.