It Was Today… 09/11/01

Reposted from 9/13/01

Fleet Admiral Yamamoto

It is recorded in our history books that when he looked down at the ship full of smiling, victorious faces… faces of his flyers, just having returned from Pearl Harbor, Japanese fleet Admiral Yamamoto was quiet, pensive, even apprehensive. He later wrote in his private diary,

“I fear all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

As this column is written, it is the second night after the dastardly attacks on the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, and the Pentagon. In that amount of time, I have heard, on the news channels, and on the internet, a phase batted about several times, in various refinements, when discussing these attacks: “Like Pearl Harbor”.

Something in that phrase struck a deeper chord with me. It was, at the same time, unsettling, and reassuring. And about 20 minutes ago, my memory finally coughed up that quote from Yamamoto, and with it, my entire thought process about these events crystallized. In that revelation, it occurred to me I’d already written about what I was feeling.

In that column, I wrote of my worry that our influence on the world stage had suffered seriously, under the weight of Bill Clinton’s international bumbling. Well, Bumbling isn’t the right word. Bullying, is perhaps more accurate, yet still not spot-on.

I said, then:

“From Oslo to Camp David, Clinton has pushed Israel to the bargaining table, and pressured her to give up vital strategic and cultural assets she has no business giving away, if survival is at all on her agenda. Ehud Barak, by his giving into Bill Clinton (who, along with his staff including Jim Carville, did much to put Barak into office), has done little more than demonstrate just how empty the Palestinians’ peace talk really is, and how desperate Clinton was to be seen as a good President, his crimes against his oaths not withstanding. Consider….

At Clinton’s insistence, Barak offered Arafat the keys to the kingdom; just about all of the West Bank and Gaza, plus East Jerusalem and even Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount. How do the peace loving Palestinians respond? Yasser Arafat turned it all down, and gave us another few nights of headlines, filled with kids in the street throwing stones, and being shot, occasionally. He also sent his armed forces, (You recall, they’re supposed to be policemen?) to fire at the Israelis, apparently hoping for an excuse to tell the rest of the world how Israel is a war-mongering nation.

Of course that should have been a signal to about anyone with a brain that he didn’t give a damn about peace. All he and his followers are interested in is the destruction of Israel. It should have also been a signal that Clinton’s attempt at a legacy backfired, big time, and more, that it didn’t have a chance to start with…. something that Clinton should have known, did he have any understanding of the
situation at all. You will recall, perhaps that back in 1992 , Clinton more or less bragged he had no understanding of matters of foreign policy. This was never quite so clear as during this monstrosity Mr. Clinton unleashed on the world.

For Israel’s part, all of this has been laid at the feet of Ehud Barak, perhaps unfairly. No, I don’t think he was the man for the job, and clearly was only in the PM’s position because Clinton’s people worked so hard to get him there, apparently hoping to set up Clinton’s brokering a of peace deal. Easy to do when you have the PM of Israel owing you his election. But Barak apparently was under pressures he had no control of, having nothing to do with politics at home, or the Palestinians… both of which were quite out of his control to begin with, in any event.. He was concerned with Israel continuing to get support from the US. In this concern, he saw Israel as being on the controlled end of the puppet’s string… and knowing that if he did not capitulate to Clinton’s demands, that vital US support would wither as quickly as Benjamin Netenyau’s prime ministership did, when it became clear he wasn’t going to buckle to Clinton’s concession demands.

And Barak wasn’t alone, nor was the left in Israel, in this perception of US control versus Israel’s survival. Yitzhak Rabin, hardly a liberal even by American standards and certainly not under Bill Clinton’s extortion based control to the extent that Barak was, saw the same problems. His longtime friends, according reports I’ve seen,
tell us he was deeply troubled over the prospect of losing US support… and therefore bought into the ‘land for peace’ deals being brokered by the liberals in the US. This was something I predicted he wouldn’t have done.

Israeli voters, seeing this happening, and clearly annoyed with the US control over Israel’s dealings with the Palestinians, trounced Barak in the polls. Unless one considers this anger, the election of Ariel Sharon, his replacement, is hard to fathom, since he has never been overly popular, as best I can tell. But perhaps the people of Israel are finally figuring out what the real story is.. that in truth, there is no dealing with the Palestinians, and Arifat.

One hopes that they’ve not been too late in coming to this conclusion. If they are, world war seems fairly certain to me… possibly nuclear in nature.”

When I re-read that, I knew I’d found what I’d been feeling, and why the Yamamoto quote had been nagging at me. I was feeling a deep anger. Justifiable, deep and abiding anger. Anger not only at the terrorists who arranged and executed the events of September 11th, but anger at the policies which here at home led us to this pass.

I said, back in February:

“Others learned the lessons, painful as they tended to be. Chaimberlin’s England, for example,along with the remainder of the free world, learned about appeasement of a mortal enemy the hard way. The American left, apparently not having leaned the lesson taught by the infamous socialist, Hitler, was taught the lesson again, by another band of socialists, as Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan 40 or so years later. “

What’s this leading up to?

Well, dear reader; the conclusion that we are now paying the price for Clinton’s presidency. One can only hope we have paid the full price…. But I doubt it.

A rash statement, say you? I think not. Consider the timing of this attack on the US.

Clinton, far from being firm with the Arabs, was giving them just what they wanted, following the World Trade Canter bombing in 1993; legitimacy, to use as a tool against us. Ironic; he’s supposed to be representing US. And to boot, we were ripping Israel apart for them.

I have stated several times, that Clinton’s sole purpose here was to save his legacy. But how to achieve his goal? By bowing to Arab terrorists, and bullying Israel into giving in. So, while that’s going on, everything is sweetness and light. America decides to elect George W Bush, who will (rightly) support Israel and the Arabs aren’t too happy.

And since Clinton also decimated our military, you ability to mount a credible defense is so laughable as to encourage attack…

Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
And, splat.

Likely 20 thousand people dead, and as many injured, all in one afternoon, along with the likelihood of many more to follow.

Oh, I hear you squirming already… particularly those on the left… those who have always defended Clinton before, regardless of any fact. I hear you saying:

“Shouldn’t we be concerned with catching, and dealing with the people who ordered and financed all this? And as Americans, shouldn’t we be sticking together?”

Oh, certainly. String them up. Cut off all relations with the Palestinians, and do it now. No question. And Military action isn’t out of the question, either.

And yes, I think we all as Americans should stand together in times like these. And, no, I’m not trying to gain political points, here… this problem affects every one of us.

Logic dictates that actually solving a problem, necessarily includes that both the problem, and the causes of that problem which can be controlled, be identified, so that action can be taken to ensure that such problems cease to exist.

Now, like it or not, we can’t do much about extremist causes. But we CAN control them to the point where they don’t cause us nearly the concern, by not acceding to their demands, as Chamberlain did, and as Clinton did. We can support our longtime friends in the world. Clinton ran fast and loose with that requirement, in an effort to be remembered for something better than the long list of shady dealings and downright criminal acts, and what happened to be running down his leg at any given moment.

Trouble was, and remains, that Clinton was dealing with Yassir Arifat. Arifat’s comments, following the attack, as compared to the reactions of his people, (dancing in the streets at our losses) show him to be a liar of the first order, or that the Palestinian people are not under his control, or both. As a result, Arifat’s commitments were useless to us, and yet useful to the Arabs who wish and work for the destruction of America,her citizens and her friends.

Would it not have been simpler, would it have not cost less life, I ask, to elect a president who can keep his pants on, rather than get us into international trouble because of half-baked efforts at obscuring his own history? Something we should consider at the next election. As I said in February; Our future, assuming we have one, depends on it.

In any event;

My heart and my prayers go out for the persons lost, the persons yet trapped, and their families and loved ones.

My great respects go out to those rescue workers, paid and otherwise, who carry on the fight that all will not be lost. Your wounds from this, I fear, will be greater than the wounds on those you struggle to save, because it is a cold fact that you will not succeed in saving all of them, and you know it going in. To you falls the task from which no sane person could walk away unaffected… and yet you go in, willingly. And that is a wonder to all Americans, and most people in the rest of the world.

My respects also go out to the many law enforcement and military officials who are working to gather information toward the capture of those who ordered and executed this attack… at times risking THEIR lives.

We each, all of us, need to take out own kind of action in times of crisis. We feel we have the need to accomplish something to help to solve the issue. The people I mention above are doing that, certainly.

But my personal resolve is to work hard toward making sure we have Presidents who actually respect and want a strong Israel. As a start, that means making sure we never again have a president of the lowly in-the-gutter presence of a Bill Clinton.

Yours should be as well.

I only hope it’s not too late.

Editor’s note: That was written in one of the very first posts on this blog.  It was that event which caused me to start this blog, in fact, and so today  marks the start of  Bit’sBlogs’ 8th year of operation as such.  The older post I refer to was one of a weekly series I did at one of my old websites, and that text was echoed at the time on Usenet, though I doubt many of us have access to that anymore.  Still, that old post still reflects my hope that we are not too late to prevent such slime from entering the White House again. But in looking at the statements and the track history of Barack Ovama, I am again reminded that the chances are always high that we’ll fall under the spell of such people again.

That can only happen, however,  when we forget the lessons of that terrible day. Which is why Obama and his supporters invest so much time and effort into separating that day from the people who gave it to us, and their at best misguided, pacifist policies.

I can only urge us to Never Forget, knowing that all too many have. Well, here’s a reminder.

It looks like Nedra Pickler is another reporterette sho spent too much time in gender study classes and no time studying military tactics.  If Pickler had the military sense of a PFC she would realize that she is reporting that the Messiah, BO, Barack Obama blew the election by picking the wrong person to be his veep, Pickler, Associated Press:

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – Listening to Barack Obama, it can seem like Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is the main person standing between him and the White House instead of John McCain.

Obama is putting as much heat on Palin as he is on the man at the top of the GOP ticket, objecting to the Republican Party’s portrayal of her as a reformer who can bring change to Washington.

Dear Neddy, it is the role of the canidate at the top of the ticket, that would be BO, to try and appear presidential.  It is the role of the bottom half of the ticket, that would be Joe Biden, to blister the top half of the other ticket.  On the republican side, Sarah is doing her job oh so very well.  She has gotten inside of BO’s head.   As for the democrats, BO’s hand picked canidate, Biden, has adopted BO’s strategy of unilateral surrender and gone UA.   IF BO can’t unite his party, or even his own ticket, how is ever gong to unite the country?

Hat tip, James Trranto, Best of the Web.

• Does anyone on the planet doubt that Obama book was written to advance the cause of his presidential candidacy? Why, then, is it so hard to understand that Oprah Winfrey having him on to promote that book, is a direct connection to supporting him for President? Does anyone doubt that were this a Republican, the Democrats would be screaming for an investigation by the Federal Election Commission on the matter?
• So what happens if/when Barrack Obama gets into office? Are we going to see the race hucksters coming out of the oval office woodwork every time someone questions an action by Obama, and charging racism? Will we in fact see race riots if he DOESN’T win?
• I said a while ago that about the only thing that will make John McCain look good is the Democrats. Of course at the time, we didn’t know about Sarah Palin. Still, Palin couldn’t do what she’s doing without their help.  So the question; Why on earth are they being so helpful? Spengler has an extended bit on that subject you’ll want to read.
• The global warming bit has gotten itself so far out of hand that we’re now targeting Atshma inhalers.  the ‘Green’ replacements will cost more and won’t work as well, but then again, Al Gore doesn’t have Asthma, does he? I mean, sorry, but if it’s a choice of my being able to breathe and Al Gore dicsiples feeling good about themselves, guess who I think oughta win? At what point do we stop bending over forward for these Global Warming nutjobs?
• At what point do the Democrats decide that there has been no political progress in it, and the only way out is retreat from it? Ummm… from Congress, I mean.
• Hasn’t it occurred to anyone that these continual trip ups on Obama’s part are a clue?
• Will someone please explain to me the difference between the role Obama claims he filled in his ‘community organizer”  days, and the role that ‘community organizers” Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton supposedly fill? I suspect that most Americans see the roles as equal. Does the role in the case of the latter being so seldom mentioned of late mean that Obama’s camp knows this, and is trying desperately to avoid equating the three men?
• Why does nobody ask Obama about his thoughts on Saul Alinsky?
• Given the victory romp of my Buffalo Bills over the Seahawks last Sunday, does anyone figure we’ll be in the playoffs this season for the first time in eight years? (Yeah, I know, I just jinxed the whole thing.
• Why is the press making noise about how white the GOP was at the convention last week? Has anyone looked at the racial makeup of their ranks of late? Talk about your group of angry white people…
• Why is nobody dancing for joy over the all too long in coming depature of Kwame Kilpatrick, the head criminal of Detroit?  And since we have Obama on record as heaping praise on the man, will we now see Obama withdraw that praise?
• Why is Obama still stone walling on his relationship with William Ayers?
• Why is Keith Olbermann still working for NBC?
• When do you suppose the Democrats will stop trying to under-estimate Sarah Palin?
• With a nod to Michelle, : How many more tragedies like this need to occur before Americans finally hold illegal alien sanctuary enablers responsible for their reckless, deadly neglect?

So, when I saw Pete Abel’s tirade against Sarah Palin, I took it in stride. After all, The Moderate Voice isn’t, I reasoned. I’ve pointed out the serious lack of moderation there (To say nothing of the rolling waves of BDS which eminate from the site)  and the long and loud left tilting several times… even to their faces.

Imagine, however, my amaze when intelectual honesty took over after the fact.

Yesterday, I posted my case against Gov. Palin. A short while later — per several reader challenges — I retracted one of the points from that case, and then started to seriously question the other points.

In the end, though I’m still not a Palin fan, I suspect my rush to judgment may have blinded me to certain nuances about her record — nuances that I’d otherwise gladly investigate and consider, if it were another candidate, such as Sens. McCain and Obama, and to a lesser degree, Sen. Biden. Hell, I’ve given Sen. Clinton more rope than I’ve offered Gov. Palin.

It now appears that my “research” on Palin was really not research at all, but a seek-and-destroy mission, seizing anything that supported my pre-determined views. Shame on me. That’s not what a so-called moderate should do.

I’ve bounced all over Gandleman and TMV several times in the last few years. I’d be remiss, then, if I didn’t point out those rare instances when intelectual honesty makes an unscheduled apperence over there.  So, here you are.

RALEIGH (WTVD) — In an election for President of the United States in North Carolina Tuesday, Republican John McCain suddenly and breathtakingly surges to a 20-point win over Democrat Barack Obama, 58% to 38%, according to this latest exclusive SurveyUSA election poll conducted for ABC11-WTVD.

In 3 previous SurveyUSA NC tracking polls, McCain had led by 8, 5, and 4 points. Today: 20. McCain has gained ground in every demographic group. Among men, McCain led by 9 last month, 27 today. Among women, Obama led by 2 last month, trails by 12 today. McCain holds 9 of 10 Republican voters; Obama holds 3 of 4 Democratic voters; independents, who were split last month, break today crisply for McCain, where, in the blink of an eye, he is up by 25.

He’s basically ahead across the board there, among every demo. This Obama meltdown is happening faster than I expected, frankly.

Via Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit:

“Surely a man smart enough to be elected president should have foreseen how these remarks would be taken. Don’t Harvard law grads know the impact of words

Well I can not see why BO is not a practicing attorney.   Lawyers make their living off their words.  

Jennifer Rubin, Commentary:

The entire exchange is of course deeply offensive and disrespectful, treating his opponent’s running mate as a sexualized object and a mere mother, to put it bluntly. I can’t imagine there is any Democratic woman — forget the Republicans and Independents — who isn’t embarrassed. Obama appears to be crumbling under pressure, reduced to swinging away at the person who has supplanted him as the political star of the Election

The MSM holding out the meme that the Messiah did not intend his lipstick remark to apply to Sarah.  Marc Ambinder, Atlantic:

Suddenly, common analogies are sexist?

The McCain campaign has little respect for Obama, but they don’t think he is stupid. And the only way one can conclude that Obama meant to refer to Gov. Sarah Palin as a pig is to have concluded that Obama is as dumb as a doornail

For the record, the idea that BO is not an dumb as door nail is Ambinder’s.    I actually have seen a door nail or two in my time. 

BO has built his campaign to the twin towers of his self-proclaimed judgement and his power as a word smith.    Gee for a canidate running on his ability to use words,  he sure isn’t very good at actually using them.    I am inclined to believe that BO actually didn’t mean to insult Sarah.  I also believe that Dan Quayle knew how to spell potato.

Well, look, we have one of two choices with this story.

1. No. Obama didn’t mean to connect the dots, and simply fell into using a phrase. If this is the case,  his extreme insensitivity disqualifies him from any presidential duties, particularly with regard to foreign relations. That so many in his audience made the connection seems evidence that Obama himself should have picked up on it. That he didn’t exhibits an awesome level of insensitivity It’s not hard to imagine his stumbling into an international incident the same way.  He portrays himself as what he tried to portray McCain… a hip shooter, whose mouth will unquestionably lead to trouble.
2. Yes. He DID mean to make the connection. That so many in his audience made the connection seems evidence that Obama knew full well what he was saying, and suggesting. The joke he made found it’s mark. Too clever by half, this guy. Thing is, this would seem to suggest a level of desperation, and a vicious streak that has no place near the White House.

In either event, the response from the Obama camp adviser Anita Dunn,  to inquiries, as noted by the Washington Post is amazing in it’s irony:

“Enough is enough,” Obama adviser Anita Dunn said in a statement e-mailed to reporters at 9 p.m. “The Mc Cain campaign’s attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy — the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan just last year.”

Dunn said, “This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run.”

Apparently, both the head of the ticket and the advisors are both oblibious to reality. How much of whatever these people are smoking does it take to, after Obama’s sexist performance, lecture McCain on a diversity issue? Or maybe they’re simply running out of feces to throw?

Oops… I guess I just compared Obama and Dunn to chimps, didn’t I? How insensitive of me.

Well, come to think of it, not by Dunn’s lights, when Obama was the speaker so I guess I’m OK, by that standard, huh?

(Are you getting the message, yet, Anita?)

Addendum:(Bit)

Boortz this monring makes the point that this comment came as he was off the teleprompter. We’ve commented in the past how weak Obama is when he has to thinkfor himself, on the fly. Is this  simply yet another indication how he’s simply not capable of taking on the White House? I think it is.

I pointed out that the guy driving the so-called ‘Troopergate” thing forward in Alaska was more than a little dirty;

I questioned the timing of the way things ramped up on the Palin thing in Alaska, a couple days ago. Turns out, I was right, again… the guy supposedly investigating her is Hollis French, who is listed on the Obama website as an Obama supporter. (BBCT: Dan Rheil)

The following Alaska elected officials are supporting Senator Obama’s campaign for president:

State Senators (8)
Bettye Davis, Anchorage
Johnny Ellis, Anchorage
Kim Elton, Juneau
Hollis French, Anchorage
Lyman Hoffman, Bethel
Albert Kookesh, Angoon
Joe Thomas, Fairbanks
Bill Wielechowski, Anchorage

Sen. Hollis French:

Gee, can you possibly imagine why this trooper thing would have all gotten going the moment McCain named Palin as his VP,  but not before?

Oh, and watch this; ABC news is now waving phrases like “October Suprise’ around in relation to the “investigation”. No duh, ABC.  And BTW, thank God for Brian Ross, else the whole ABC org would be nigh on useless.

Meanwhile, what’s this I see about the Democrats releasing Palin’s Social Security Number?

Yep… looks like Alaska Democrats are in on this one, too. And since the report is incidental to the suppsoed Alaska “investigation”, I suspect we  have Obama operatives at the bottom of this one, too, possibly the self-same Mr French.

Zoom up to today.  Seems it gets better. Check this Fox News originated video:

[wp_youtube]IdpjKf9neQg&e[/wp_youtube]

Transcript:

SMITH: Molly, we understand you have some new information about the so-called Governor Palin ‘Troopergate’ case. First give us a back story on that case if you can and tell us what’s up now.

HENNEBERG: Right, ‘Troopergate’ is the investigation into when Sarah Palin as governor – if – as her critics say, she fired her public safety commissioner because he wouldn’t in turn fire a state trooper, who was Palin’s ex-brother-in-law. Some Democrats and her critics are saying she was involved here and may have abused her power, but the McCain campaign today is out with a new picture of the three lead state legislators who are investigating this whole ‘Troopergate,’ and it shows the three of them at Obama headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska in July, which the McCain campaign says shows the whole investigation is politically tainted and compromised, something you will hear more from the McCain campaign as the investigation continues.

That boom you just heard was the Obama campaign imploding.

An outright suburb article in the Asia Times last week… Apparently Limbaugh read it on his show yesterday… and a reader sent it along to me here.

Just a taste:

Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee. However reluctantly, Clinton would have had to accept. McCain’s choice of vice presidential candidate made obvious after the fact what the party professionals felt in their fingertips at the stadium extravaganza yesterday: rejecting Clinton in favor of the colorless, unpopular, tangle-tongued Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain’s selection was a statement of strength. America’s voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it. Obama’s prospective defeat is entirely of its own making. No one is more surprised than Republican strategists, who were convinced just weeks ago that a weakening economy ensured a Democratic victory.

Biden, who won 3% of the popular vote in the Democratic presidential primary in his home state of Delaware, and 1% or less in every other contest he entered, is ballot-box poison. Obama evidently chose him to assuage critics who point to his lack of foreign policy credentials. That was a deadly error, for by appearing to concede the critics’ claim that he knows little about foreign policy, Obama raised questions about whether he is qualified to be president in the first place. He had a winning alternative, which was to pick Clinton. That would have sent a double message: first, that Obama is tough enough to make the slippery Clintons into his subordinates, and second, that he is generous enough to extend a hand to his toughest adversary in the cause of unity.

Asa whole, the piece makes a convincing case. I commend it to your reading.

• Martin makes the point I’ve been making about Fannie and Freddie… that this does not constitute a government takeover or government growth at all, for that matter, since they were governmental creations in the first place.  And Billy responds.  The point I’ve been trying to make, though… we need to focus on Fannie and Freddie’s problems as governmental malfeasance, and corruption, not as just an issue of the growing state. Free Market individualism was never a part of this situation, guys. That lack is exactly what allowed the kind of nonsense that went on in those two places for the last decade. That, and a Democrat run congress unwilling to rein in it’s own, who went well over the line of public service into the area of serving themselves, and their political friends.I may get into this further over the weekend, but the real truth here is that Fannie and Freddie have been patronage playgrounds for Democrats for at least the last decade, (Can you say ACORN as an example?) and Democrats pushed back every time Republicans in congress tried to get them back under some semblance of control.  This malfeasance is exactly why Paulson’s response was needed, in the end. That’s exactly the case Byron York makes today. Note the difference, too, of responses of each party to the problem. Both McCain and Obama say the bailout was needed, but while McCain wants to break up Fannie and Freddie into smaller groups with ore oversight, Obama wants to simply bail them out.  It’s my view that the Republicans need to focus mre on this issue; A decade of corruption leading to a $B200USD bailout, landing squarely on the feet of the Democrats would play large in this next election.
• YetAnotherJohn wins first place in the OTB Caption contest, as well as an Honorable Mention, and wins the award, plus a little something extra in his payceck this week.  (Don’t eat it; it’s for the rats.)
• Did you see this? Apparently, Al Qaeda is blaming Iran for working with the United States. OK, some disconnection, here, I think. Mostly at the neck.
• It appears the Democrats are regaining the long sought after ‘Wimp factor’. Not that they ever really lost it. Frank James over at The Swamp points out:
  

  Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner has just released  (…over the weekend…-Ed), a survey that indicates that voters perceive Republicans once again as far and away better on national security issues than Democrats.

  Forty nine percent of those surveyed thought Republicans were better on national security while 35 percent thought Democrats better. When it came to combating terrorism, 48 percent thought Republicans superior to Democrats while 33 percent gave Democrats the advantage.

  According to the Greenberg study researchers:

  The national security credibility gap is returning. Old doubts about Democrats on security, after diminishing during 2006-2007, have begun to re-emerge: concerns that Democrats follow the polls rather than principle; that Democrats are indecisive and are afraid to use force; and that Democrats don’t support the military. Because these weaknesses are longstanding and deeply ingrained, and because Republican weaknesses are newer and do not yet have a label associated with them, Republicans continue to win on many security issues.

  The Greenberg poll, done for the think tank Third Way, echoes a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll which found a large lead for Republican Sen. John McCain over his Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, with McCain holding a ten point lead over Obama on the question: who would be better on the Iraq, a 25 point lead on the handling of international crises and a 28 point lead on being better able to handle terrorism.

  It does seem clear that however many accolades get tossed in the direction of the Obamessiah, the American people have not, at least, as a whole, forgotten the one vital lesson that 9/11 taught us.

• Zogby says McCain now leads, following the convention. A smallish bounce to be sure, but one several times the size of what Obama got.  The difference, of course, was the pick of Sarah Palin.  And that difference will likely be enough, on the face of it, for a Republican White House come November.
• The first day since de facto nationalization of home financing in this country?  No, Billy, that happened the days that Fannie and Freddie were created. What you’re seeing is merely the first consequences of that creation. There was never any real influence of free market values in any of it. Indeed, it’s very purpose was to allow some ‘protection’ from it.
• Long time readers will know I have a special place in my logical mind, and in my heart for Doctor Charles Krauthammer. However, I think he’s got this oneon McCain’s pick of Palin, dead stinking wrong. The message, is the issue… not the messenger.
  

  

  Doctor Krauthammer

  The gamble is enormous. In a stroke, McCain gratuitously forfeited his most powerful argument against Obama. And this was even before Palin’s inevitable liabilities began to pile up — inevitable because any previously unvetted neophyte has “issues.” The kid. The state trooper investigation. And worst, the paucity of any Palin record or expressed conviction on the major issues of our time.

  First of all, just about all those issues are answered. It amazes me, that he’s not seen this. Granted, the Democrats have kept up those questions but that exposes weakness on the part of the Democrats… even after being disproven, they stick with the anti-Palin memes because they have nothing else to go on. Secondly, and as such, I can’t for the life of me understand what he’s worried about. His worries, seem to me focused on the idea that her record is thin and that there are questions being raised by the Democrats on various scandal laden points, such as, again, I listed in last night’s Ramble.  All of them… each and every attempt by the Democrats at scandal, has been left as the stable floor covering it started as, and Palin has come out of each one, head high. Clearly, there is far more than just star power in Palin.

• The Palin factor is so strong in fact, that opponents in the press are starting to wonder if it’s not Palin /McCain. Frankly, I’m not worried either way. And you know, for all the complaints about how she’s not ready for the office, and all the feces the chimps can throw… as I listed in yesterday’s Ramble… the American people… you know… the voters, have already figured out that she is. Which of course is the reason for the frothing at the mouth Democrat desperation.
• Matt Weaver over at No Quarteractually puts together a nice piece. on Obama/Ayers.  Now, it’s true that No Quarter is not to be fully trusted, being in the tank solidly for the Clintons, and having had a history of going over the line of truth for that end. Still, there’s much in this article to commend it; Enough to almost make you forget who you’re dealing with. However, as with Krauthammer, we should listen to the message, and judge each accordingly, even in the situation of mistrust which Johnson engenders. As such, one can only agree when Weaver looks at the list of lies coming from Obama and concludes:
  

  Fairly or not, Chicago has a long reputation as a corrupt political city. It is increasingly clear that Barack joined and became a willing partner in this corruption. The families, organizations, and businesses involved enriched themselves off of the private and public funds that Barack controlled. That Barack Obama lied and continues to lie about his relationship with Bill Ayers is a smokescreen and the tip-of-the-iceberg about the depth of his involvement in what are, or may be, corrupt practices among these people and their organizations.

  Again, the message, not the messenger. If the message didn’t mesh so well with other things we know about Obama, I’d not give it a second glance. As it is, I don’t think we can ignore it.

By way of The Conservative Grapevine comes an article in the Examiner, wherein we find:

 University of Minnesota staff were key coordinators of the recent violent protests at the Republican National Convention (RNC). The university employees are also members of the local clerical union of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. The AFSCME is part of the AFL-CIO union.  

So, Unon types are involved with thugs in an effort to improve the chances of the Democrat in the next election.  Gee, there’s a big shock.
Not.

So, where are the crimnal charges?

Jake Tapper, ABC News, quotes Bill Ayers:

were needlessly killed. Even though I worked hard to end the war, I feel to this day that I didn’t do enough because the war dragged on for years after the majority of the American people came to oppose it. I don’t think violent resistance is necessarily the answer, but I do think opposition and refusal is imperative.”

So question for Mr. Ayers, do you believe Eric Rudolf was right?

I do suspect from what dark orifice Ayers pulls his figure that millions of people were killed as result of our military involvment in the defense of the Republic of South Vietnam.   Does Ayers believe that the needless death of millions of innocents is justification for violence?    If so why does Ayers remain silent now?

Warren Meyer points out that the website of the proposed California high-speed rail bond says that the thing will generate 450,000 permanent jobs, which is an amazing thing when you consider that all of U.S. rail employs about half that many right now.

Leaving aside your (quite correct) “principle” points, If they’re going to use THAT many people, Billy, you can pretty much figure the operating costs of the thing are going to be off the ceiling at the off.  I don’t think they’re lying abut that figure, though.  No question that I could see them going that high, given unions and government put together always equals around 75% waste of money and time. I fail to see how that’s a benefit, however. I mean… you think the taxes are high out there now?

Wait. Just wait.

I suspect the high speed rail will be a project most will use only once… in leaving the state.

Uh-oh…

Jeremiah Wright

He almost wrecked Barack Obama‘s presidential dreams, and now firebrand pastor Jeremiah Wright has helped destroy a Dallas church worker’s marriage – and her job, The Post has learned.

Elizabeth Payne, 37, said she had a steamy sexual affair with the controversial, racially divisive man of the cloth while she was an executive assistant at a church headed by a popular Wright protégé.

When word of the unholy alliance got out, Payne’s husband dumped her, and she was canned from the plum job at Friendship-West Baptist Church, she told The Post.

“I was involved with Rev. Wright, and that’s why I lost my job and why my husband divorced me,” Payne said.

That from the New York Post this morning.

Of course, Obama knew nothing about this one, either.

Well, look, it doesn’t excerpt well, so I’m just going to have you go and read.

Bruce at Q&O has his own take on that one.

And check here at Q&O, as well, for Number 74.

You can smell the desperation.

In the meanwhile, we have Josh Marshall, Obama Cheerleader, with his fingers in his ears doing the NAHNAHNAHNAHNAHNAHNAHNAHNAHNAH I CAN’T HEAR YOU number.

Pathetic.