The Fostoria Trip.

OK, the write up for the trip to Fostoria Ohio, is overdue. So, here we go.

First, why’d we go? My older boy, Matt, is a high school grad, and he decided for his graduation present, he wanted to go there to do some rail photography.  An overnight trip is impractical just now, but we’ve done day trips out there often enough. to know we can do the 800 mile run with some ease. (And guess what? That’s why American transportation works well. Can anyone imagine such a trip via any form of mass transit, even when it works well?)

For those who don’t know, Fostoria is out in Western Ohio, around 400 miles out from our home outside Rochester NY, and about 40 miles down I-75 from Toledo.   It’s also the home of what railfans refer to as the ‘iron triangle’. (I’ll get to that)  Fostoria’s a nice little town, actually. Little is right; the place only has about 7 sqaure miles of space. About 13,000 people last we counted, and something like 5500 households. I’m pleased to go there; I’ve always found it a nice place to be. Lots of history; Fostoria’s famous for their glass works, which back in the day, rivaled Corning, which is just down the road from us here.

Why Fostoria, for US, though, is a larger question. That’s simple; The place is a huge railroad town. It’s the intersection of several major rail lines. They all cross each other in a fairly small area, using what railroaders call “Diamonds’… which themselves are fairly rare on a moder railroad. To have so many of them in so small a space is very rare indeed. To have so heavy a trafic load over such a small area and over the multiple diamonds is as close to a one of a kind as you get.  It’s not unusual to see over 200 trains a day passing through this small bit of real estate. How small? A map of the rail layout in the area ( thanks to a great site, Michigan Railroads ) will give you a clue.I’m sure that in looking at the map, you’ll begin to understand where the “Iron triangle” phrase comes form.

Now, note please, that each of the lines are double tracked. Note also that the Amtrak station…(The red spot on the map) is no longer open as such. Amtrakstopped serving Fostoria a couple years ago. At the time, the Three Rivers (40 and 41) which stopped in Fostoria during the wee hours of the monring. Not enough riders at that hour, I guess. These days, Amtrak just slides right by the place.

That still leaves all the rest of the traffic… which is amazing to see. And, to photograph. Which brings us to where we start showing you pics. This first one is taken from the Amtrak parking lot, which is still open at this writing… and is of the Norfolk Southern Railroad Fostoria local, working the flour mill switching job/ THe mill is about a half mile west of the diamond. The engine working here is an SD-40-2 high nose. While you’ll still see a lot of 40-2’s out on the rails, it’s not often you’ll see them in a high nose configuration; NS is one of the few that still runs them.  The design is around 40 years old, these days.  The design is still popular among railroaders, though, mostly for it’s durability; They’re widely held to outpull their ratings. This one used to be owned by the Central of Georgia, which is a line that NS bought back in 1971, and eventually absorbed.

Notice that the train parked on the western diamond on the map. About the time this shot was taken, the train left the yard, heading east, pulling around 45 flour gons. That’s my younger boy, Alex grabbing the action. The smile and wave from the hogger made his morning.

Crossing the CSX main, and standing directly in front of the Amtrak station. Note the large number of rail signals in the shot. Note also, F tower, to the left of the rail It’s from here that most train movements in the area are directed. Note also, that if you zoom up and look close, you can see two features… That flash of Blue and gold to the left of F tower is some CSX  traffic coming off the Columbus line, and coming west on the Chicago line. He’s also got someone waiting for him to finish that movement; that headlight you see in the middle of the chicago line is another CSX train headed for Chicago. As I told you, this is a busy place.

Here comes the first one; On the point of a hot coke drag, is CSX 5266. We’ve seen this one all over CSX’s system, at different times. In Philly, In Buffalo, IN Angola, in Rochester, and now here. 5266 is an ES44DC, a 4000 horsepower unit.  Trailing it is CSX 5107, an early release of the CW60AC, which uses AC traction motors, which are a recent development. It’s one of only 17 in the CSX system. Note that this one’s been named for W. Thomas Rice. This 4400 horsepower unit was involved in an accident a few years ago in Baltimore. It had some front end damage and so was in the repair shop when the request came down from corporate to have a unit named. Rice was the Chair and CEO of the Family Lines system, which was the predecessor of CSX. The unit was named in his honor upon his death at the time.

Later in the afternoon, we went over to the other end of the triangle, to see about some different angles on the action. A few years back this place was a junkyard. I remember parking next to a burned-out Camero for half a day. Thing is, Fostoria draws so many people to watch the railroad goings on, it’s become a major tourism draw for the city, and the city fathers have decided to get together and create Fostoria Iron Triangle Rail Park.  THe building this sign is on will be raised in the near future,a nd a park will be built on the spot.. right in the middle of all that traffic. Years ago, I’d have liked to get the film concession for the place. But with digital cameras, I suppose batteries and wifi would do as well.

One of the things you get to see in a place like this is trains you’d never get to see at home. Here’s an example of one style of train we don’t get to see much of here in Western NY anymore… a Triple Crown train. The idea, here is fuel savings and end to end shipping, without having to switch trains in the process. The trains end up being very light by comparison to regular train cars.  A neat idea.

Some other railfans catching the action. Fostoria is taking very seriously the dollars these people bring to town. It’s nice to see.

Now remember that NS local we saw, and how I told you that a high-nose SD40 was rare? Here’s how most of them look, today. On the point of this auto-rack train, is CSX 8028, an SD40-2, with sibling CSX8157 in the rear. I’ve been seeing lots of CSX traffic with these SD40’s of late, and I’m wondering if CSX isn’t simply using these 40 year old units as much as possible before retirement. In short, I’m glad I caught this pair; We may not get many more chances.

Well, the truck behaved well. For the 800 mile around trip, we got 19.9 MPG going down and 20.5 coming back. We did run into a mean thunderstorm going down at Buffalo (Wow, what a light show… wish I could have grabbed some pics of that!) , and there’s a prevailing headwind if you’re going west through there anyway, so I’m not too displeased that the trip out consumed a bit more.  20mpg is pretty good, really, for a 300hp SUV with a full load of 4 people one old dog and the usual attachments. We left Rochester at 4am on Saturday, and got back at 2am the next day. As my wife and I were turning in, my alarm clock went off at 2am… where we’d set it the night before… a perfect circle, that.

Lead, follow or get out of the way.  When it comes to energy prices, Congress refuses to do anythng productive.  We are paying too much for energy, because for the past thrty years politicians have devoted a lot energy to talking and demonizing, and damn little to solving our energy problems.  Glen Beck has compressed thirty years of political hot air into three minutes,video:

[wp_youtube]dC3X6vTFwIo[/wp_youtube]

Hat tip:  Stop the ACLU.

Particular notes, among congressmen, Senator Chuckles seems be leading the league in rhetoric, and sound bites, but is dead last in solutions.   As to presidents, the Gipper was right when he said we need to increase domestic production.   The peanut farmer was dead wrong when he said that we will never import more oil than we did did in 1977.

For too long we have tolerated, and re-elected politicians who gave lewinsky to energy independence but actively impeded domestic energy production.  It is time for the voters to send all politicians who refuse to support domestic energy production back home.    Just say no to five dollar a gallon gasoline

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Sen. Charles E. Schumer publicly taunted bank regulators last week about IndyMac Bancorp’s financial condition, which helped trigger a sudden outflow of deposits from the Pasadena thrift. Now the New York Democrat is getting some harsh blowback from one current and one former regulator.

Their message, distilled: Zip it, Chuck.

As noted here on Monday, Schumer sent letters to the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. anhttp://bitsblog.theconservativereader.com/files/2007/07/schumer_charles.jpgd the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, saying he was “concerned that IndyMac’s financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers.”

IndyMac, which has suffered huge losses on defaulted mortgage loans, “could face a failure if prescriptive measures are not taken quickly,” Schumer wrote.

Uh, wait a minute — how could Schumer know that? And since when are regulators supposed to tell the public in advance that a particular institution has been earmarked for failure? All that would do is guarantee a collapse. If depositors are within FDIC insurance limits they have nothing to worry about, anyway.

That pretty much sums up the content of a letter to Schumer today from John M. Reich, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision.

“As a regulator of insured depository institutions, we do not publicly comment on the financial condition or supervisory activities related to open and operating institutions,” Reich wrote. “We believe it is critically important to maintain the confidentiality of examination and supervision information.”

That’s Tom Petruno of the LA Times blog.

He went on: “Dissemination of incomplete or erroneous information can erode public confidence, mislead depositors and investors, and cause unintended consequences, including depositor runs and panic stock trades. Rumors and innuendo cause damage to financial institutions that might not occur otherwise and these concerns drive our strict policy of privacy.”

Ya know, one would almost think that what Schumer is about is eroding public confidence in the economy. Now why do you suppose he’d want to do that? Why would Schumer, a Democrat from as far to the left end of the scale as one might imagine, want to erode public economic confidence during a Republican administration, and during an election year?

Gee, I wonder.

Aside from the rather nasty implications of that, one also must wonder if Schumer profits from this in terms of stock holdings in IndyMac’s competition. But however that falls out, this was nothing but market manipulation from his government perch… along with the use of government provided insider information, for which Schumer should stand trial, and prison. And keep in mind, I live in New York State.\

Addendum:  (David L)

Michelle has more.

The old jobe is that a conservative is liberal who was mugged.  Greg Sargent, TPM, reports Brian Beutler, was shoot in the course of mugging in DC:

Brian Beutler, a well-known progressive blogger, was shot and seriously injured during a mugging last night in Washington, D.C.

One bullet damaged Beutler’s spleen, and he had it removed during surgery this morning at the Washington Hospital Center. He’s expected to make a “pre-trauma” recovery, which is to say, a completely full recovery.

John Aravosis, America Blog, describes the war zone:

The neighborhood he was shot in, like a 5 minute walk from me, has an ongoing gang war on the very corner he was shot. It’s been going on for years. And years. And years. But DC is such an inept city, that all we hear about is how fighting crime is hard work. Sound familiar?

We wish Brian a full and speedy recovery.

It must be remembered that the SCOTUS Heller decision only applied to firearms in the home.   Heller left intact DC’s assinine laws requiring law abiding citizens to travel unarmed, in a bloody war zone.  Free citizens have the God given right to keep and bear arms anywhere they travel.   The residents of DC are but serfs.

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The old media is dying.  The dead tree media is slashing payroll.  Yet among the shrinking Bears, the iconic Bull of Broacasting, has reupped for 400 million dollars. Brian Maloney, Radio Equalizer, has the stunning totals:

Meanwhile, a key industry source confirms speculation that Limbaugh has signed a stunning mega contract renewal deal with Premiere Radio Networks and parent company Clear Channel Communications.

Radio is pay for performance.   Rush performs.  Rush gets paid.   Al Franken, take note.

Aside to Bit, what would I be worth if I could get twenty million hits per week?

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• Hey, Bruce… I would argue they ARE in fact consumer driven, and have been so, all along. Consumer demand for Altoids boxes on wheels has simply not been there, and so they didn’t get built.  Couple that with the idea that even with prices for fuel being what they are just now, for most people, the savings in fuel costs don’t come even close to outweighing the cost of a new payment book for a smaller car, which traditionally do not outlast such payment books, and the demand STILL isn’t going to be there. The American consumer isn’t quite that stupid.  I’d back that with the results of a poll done by Pew Research, which reports that more people back more drilling, than do ‘conservation’.  what does this say for the chances of the Democrats and their current position on such matters, and their culpability for our current situation? Almost makes the President’s call today for Americans to pressure Congress on the matter, just so much noise. Almost. I tell you, gang…There’s a flamethrower about to be placed under the as of Congressional Democrats.  Just in time for November.
• I note with some amusment, Hinderaker at Powerline  putting a cap on the Clark thing.  He’s right, of course. The guy needs to be someplace nice. He needs to be watched over. Sedated, possibly.
• Starbucks is falling on hard times, apparently closing 600 stores, and dropping 12,000 baristas from it’s payrolls.  Gee, big shock, that. Their coffee is one of the few things I buy of late that’s more expensive  than gasoline. Starbucks stockw as up on the news… and one supposes will be for a while.  But this will damage them in the end, I suspect.
• Glad they caught this bit of slime. Just think; if one of the dead had a gun to hand…
• Radio Equalizer saysLimbaugh’s signed a great contract… $400M is the figure Drudge is tossing around. LOL… Good for you, Rush.  Let’s be clear about this; the reason he’s getting the money, is he gets the listeners. The lack of that abiilty is why Err America is stuck on rimshotters, and is basically walking dead.  I cannot imagine though, that this isn’t going to come up in the push for the ‘Fairness” doctrine.  Interestingly, the JammieWearingFool notesthat the stroy so shocked the New York Timesthat they didn’t have time to create a hit peice, but rather simply ran the story. A historic day, this.
• Boortz has started a list of issues that Obama has flip-flopped on. Michelle has, as well.
• Did you notice that progress is being made in Iraq?  I’ll write about this in more detail this weekend, but this is yet another example of Democrats not accepting good news from Iraq, even when they asked for it.
• I told you this bit with Microsoft and Yahoo wasn’t over. I was right.
• Apparently, someone went round a bunch of houses in Houston last night, dropping copies of the Koran on doorsteps. Wonder how many of them ended up being burned, dropped in the trash or the crapper? We’ll hear all about the Muslim outrage over the weekend, I’m quite sure.

Well, now we have a pretty good idea why the Democrats weren’t interested in examining the Countrywide Loan busienss too closely. The WaPo:

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a “super super jumbo.” Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.

…

“The real question is: Were congressmen getting unique treatment that others weren’t getting?” associate law professor Adam J. Levitin, a credit specialist at Georgetown University Law Center, said about the Countrywide loans. “Do they do business like that for people who are not congressmen? If they don’t, that’s a problem.”

 

Well, OK, look; A problem it may well be, from a moral standpoint. And from a legal one. But was it a unique situation? We both know better.  I thnk, however, what a lot of Americans will find troublesome about this whole mess is that Obama’s been making all kinds of political milage on ‘sweetheart deals’ from the bank loan industry.

McQ over at Q&O suggests:

Investor’s Business Daily brings us the latest from probably the worst Majority Leader the Senate has seen in a very long time:

The Dr. No of the drill-nothing Congress tried to deflect the issue of rising gas prices Monday by telling Fox Business News that there are costs we should worry about besides those stemming from Democratic inaction. Our guilt is supposed to replace our anger. “Coal makes us sick,” Reid said, “oil makes us sick, it’s global warming, it’s ruining our country, it’s ruining our world, we’ve got to stop using fossil fuel . . . .”

In this case, he’s partially right – we all know that in a perfect world, we’d be using something else – an alternative. But this isn’t a perfect world and our energy needs aren’t going to stand still as we try to develop alternatives. So we have to deal with and use what is available now and exploit it.

The problem is, “Dr. No” isn’t just against petroleum and coal, but he’s also against the use of very clean nuclear energy.
…

Not only have nuclear power plants, drilling and petroleum refineries been stopped by the environmental movement, so-called clean energy projects have been stopped in their tracks as well – aided and abetted by the likes off Harry Reid. He has no solutions, only road-blocks. And the candidate he supports is no better…

Which is EXACTLY why I’ve said repeatedly, ad nauseum, that the worst thing you can give a Democrat is what they ask for. An actual solution to a problem removes the wedge that keeps them proped in their position of governmental power… else the solution they demand makes the situation that much worse. Either way…

And in the case of energy, these problems are ones caused by such as Reid in the first place, as I said yesterday…

Consider; what is the reaction to high prices? A push on the part of consumers for increased oil and gas drilling by removing the ‘green’ restrictions. A push for more nuclear power generation. A push for increased use of coal.  All of which runs in the face of the greenies that have so dominated our energy policy since the middle 70’s, and have driven us into the ground economically. And guess which side of that fence Obama is on?

¼/p>

Over at The Politico, this morning, I note with interest a bit from James Kirchick, describing the fable of Republican smear tactics. (As an aside, interestingly, Kirkpatrick’s the New Republic’s assitant editor)

The only obstacle between Barack Obama and the presidency is the mountain of smears that will no doubt come his way. That’s the narrative that Obama supporters â€” and his swooning chroniclers in the mainstream media â€” would have us believe.

…

Writers Evan Thomas and Richard Wolfe concluded that the 2008 presidential election will be no different. “It is a sure bet that the GOP will try to paint Obama as ‘the other’ â€” as a haughty black intellectual who has Muslim roots (Obama is a Christian) and hangs around with America-haters.”

But has it been a “sure bet?”

Not really. Thus far, no one with any serious affiliation to John McCain’s campaign has resorted to the alleged “scare” tactics in which Republicans â€” and, apparently, only Republicans â€” have been perfecting since Richard Nixon was first elected. On the contrary, if the past few months have showed us anything, it’s that the Obama campaign is the one dealing in crude smears.

Kirchick then goes on to discuss the incidents in some detail. As I suggested yesterday, the bit with  Clark is emblematic of the pattern thusfar;

Here it is, people…When the Obama supporters all start mouthing exactly the same nonsense… when clearly, Clark, for one, hasn’t the wit to come up with this stuff by himself, what we have here is an organized effort by the Obama camp. Obama’s been doing this all along; Surrogates end up saying the smears and other trash talk the campaign needs to spread, and when things get too hot because of what gets said, Obama simply tosses the speaker under the bus, and claims he’s running a ‘clean campaign’, and he’s shocked…. shocked… that any of his people would come up with such a comment.

The reality of all this is that Obama’s campaign has been nothing if not disciplined and well organized, in nearly ever detail. They know full well what is at stake here, and how hard they have to work to gain the office. Given that, it’s hard to imagine that the pattern as I mentioned yesterday is anything but part of the plan… particularly when it has occurred so often in this campaign.

As for the charge that Republicans are basing their campaign on smear tactics, Kirchick addresses this well;

The belief that “the Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968” is a comforting salve for Democrats. After all, it’s much easier for them to demonize conservatives than consider that the reason for their electoral defeats may lie with liberal ideas

That’s the reality, and it’s exactly the argument we’ve made here, repeatedly since the election began. But don’t expect liberals to admit this anytime soon, even after a November defeat.

Addendum: (Bit)

James Joyner at Outside the Beltway  notes the same story and makes a couple great points:

Is there a smear campaign to undermine public confidence in Barack Obama’s patriotism and that of his wife?  To say that he’s a Muslim and might be terrorist-friendly?  Yup.  Were they promulgated by Republicans?  No, by Hillary Clinton supporters, actually.  Will Republicans pick up the ball?  Probably.

The “Who’s smearing more?” game is silly at this point since McCain has been the presumptive Republican nominee for months and has thus been the object of Democratic attacks for much longer.  By contrast, there hasn’t been much need for the GOP to smear Obama, since Clintonistas like  Larry Johnson were more than happy to do it.  

I would submit that this has been the pattern in previous campaigns, as well. Willie Horton for example, was actually brought up by Al Gore. Etc, etc.

(Edit, Bit typos, and apparently, I need to remove “Kirkpatrick” from my auto-speller)

My boy, Matt got himself a new camera for graduation. So night before last, we ran out to Bergen to try can capture some rail traffic. As we were going there, we ran through a rainstorm. On getting there, the rain had stopped, and we were treated to two sights… a rainbow and in the other direction a few minutes later, a sunset.

• Supposedly, WordPress 2.6 is on it’s way. My guess is it’ll show up on the 4th or after.  We’ll see if I install it or not.
• Prince Chuckles has converted his Aston Martin to run on English Wine.  I’ve driven an Aston-Martin, and have had English wine. The two are a natural for each other; Trust me on this one.
• The difference between liberals and conservatives? When Conservatives find oil on their property, they drill for it. 
• Meanwhile, oil consumption has fallen back to 2002 levels. In fact, word-wide demand has followed suit. And yet, no price drops.  Explain to me how this is all free market stuff and isn’t being manipulated, again.
• Arthur Silber is a little creeped out by Obama fans. Well, look, I have to say I’ve always been a little creeped out by Silber, too. He’s an astute observer, but seems to have problems coming to grips with the implications of his observations. For example, is Silber still supporting Obama himself? The bid to recreate 1968 still goes on. Apparently the Democrats have decided to keep the animals in their cages for the duration. Yeah, like that’ll work.
• Apparently Canadians prefer Obama to their own leaders. And we prefer they’d take him, and keep him.
• Boortz notes that Obama’s flip flopping on issues rather a lot of late.
• David’s noted this before, but there doesn’t appear to be anything getting done at Ground Zero. The reason? Government. Who runs the government in NY? Democrats.
• Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd, that Clark, whose only claim to fame was that he as a general… albeit one that got his butt canned for gross incompetance… ran for president as “General Wesley Clark”, turns around four years later to question the idea that military service isn’t relevant and a great addition to a resume for someone running for POTUS?

How dare Obama and his minions attack the military record of John McCain. Where and when did Obama serve? What sacrifice has he or his family made on the battlefield? Unlike John Kerry, where are those who served with McCain in combat claiming anything other then his honorable selfless service?

Joe Repya, Eagle’s Nest, via, Ed Morrissey, Hot Air.

I favor a hard time table.  This one is lost.  It is time to set an irreversable deadline to withdraw all taxpayer funding from PBS.  Michelle has news of yet another effort  by PBS to trash America:

Adam Buckman at the NYPost blew the whistle last week on a moral equivalence-marinated PBS documentary that airs tonight. Melanie Morgan and I chatted about the smearing of the Greatest Generation with Rush Limbaugh during the “From the Frontlines” web-a-thon on Friday. I’ve heard from many upset WWII vets. Read Adam’s column here.

Adam Buckman, New York Post:

MEMBERS of the Greatest Generation – especially those with weak hearts – might want to steer clear of an upcoming PBS documentary that suggests the Allied victory in World War II was “tainted” and questions whether it can even be called a victory.

Moreover, the documentary, titled “The War of the World: A New History of the 20th Century,” asserts that the war could only be won by forming an unholy alliance with a dictator – Joseph Stalin, who was as brutal as the one they were fighting, Adolf Hitler – and by adopting the same “pitiless” and “remorseless” tactics practiced by the enemy

My retrospective question is not if a different strategy mght have resulted in the Axis winning World War Two, but rather the price that would have been associated with the alternative strategy.  Given that we had both the atomic bomb and the means of delievering it, the B-29, take it as a given that the Allies were going to prevail.   Little Boy would have worked just as well over Berlin.

The previous century was the deadliest in human history, higher populations brought about by medical and agricultural advances meet mechanized machines of war.   World War Two did not turn a peaceful century bloody.  Nor dd the war pacify a war infested world.   On the other hand, the war did pacify Europe and Japan.   The world in the wake of World War Two was somewhat more peaceful than the antebellum years, albeit far from ideal.   Piero Scaruffi,”Wars and Genocides of the 20th Century”

The Greatest Generation did indeed earn their acclaim.  Bravo Zulu.

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We see by way of Ben Smith this monring that Idiot Wes Clark still can’t keep his mouth shut, apparently referring to bury himself by what comes out of it. That’s bad enough. But now, by way of Q&O and ABC news, we see that Clark isn’t the only one:

There was a time, and not too long ago, that some criticisms were so beyond the pale, that no politician would dream of using them to denigrate a political opponent. To do so would invite such a negative backlash that voters would reject in disgust the candidate who did so.

Those times, apparently, are past, at least for the candidate’s supporters.

After General Wesley Clark’s dismissal of John McCain’s POW experience in Vietnam, yet another Obama supporter has stepped in with the same criticism.

While Barack Obama was urging supporters not to devalue the military service of rival John McCain, an informal Obama adviser argued Monday that the former POW’s isolation during the Vietnam War has hobbled the Arizona senator’s capacity as a war-time leader.

“Sadly, Sen. McCain was not available during those times, and I say that with all due respect to him,” said informal Obama adviser Rand Beers. “I think that the notion that the members of the Senate who were in the ground forces or who were ashore in Vietnam have a very different view of Vietnam and the cost that you described than John McCain does because he was in isolation essentially for many of those years and did not experience the turmoil here or the challenges that were involved for those of us who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam war.”

“So I think,” he continued, “to some extent his national security experience in that regard is sadly limited and I think it is reflected in some of the ways that he thinks about how U.S. forces might be committed to conflicts around the world.”

So much for the concept that the attacks on McCain’s military service didn’t come from Obama’s camp, but rather came from Confirmed Idiot Wes Clark. With this note, all that illusion is gone.

Here it is, people…When the Obama supporters all start mouthing exactly the same nonsense… when clearly, Clark, for one, hasn’t the wit to come up with this stuff by himself, what we have here is an organized effort by the Obama camp. Obama’s been doing this all along; Surrogates end up saying the smears and other trash talk the campaign needs to spread, and when things get too hot because of what gets said, Obama simply tosses the speaker under the bus, and claims he’s running a ‘clean campaign’, and he’s shocked…. shocked… that any of his people would come up with such a comment.

Addendum:(Bit)

And now, we see where Obama supoprters are charging that John McCain is guilty of war crimes.

Such idiocy is the staple of leftism, today.

Addendum II:  (David L)

BO was not content to slime just Captain McCain.   BO has done a Kerry and slimed all American Fighting Men, oddy enough to include Kerry, Bob Kerrey, John Murtha and Al Gore.   BO has made it personal.  This slime will not be allowed to stand.

If you extend the logic, BO just impugned all who ever wore the uniform to include, George McGovern, John Kennedy and Harry Truman.

Others blogging: 

michellemalkin.com, Power Line, and Hot Air. Also, Memeorandum has more.

Bit Rambled this earlier. Freeping illiterate fools,  Can anybody, at all, on the Chicago Tribune know how to read?   Apparently not,  From the Chicago Tribune:

No, we don’t suppose that’s going to happen any time soon. But it should.

The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is evidence that, while the founding fathers were brilliant men, they could have used an editor.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Evidently the ChiTrib is incapable of understanding the concept of the phrase “shall not be infringed.”  The Second Amendment does not establish the People’s right to keep and bear arms.   The right of free men to keep and bear arms is God given   The Second only acknowledges that the state will not infringe upon the right of the People.  Minus the Second, the right to keep and bear arms is still God given and the state still lacks any legitimate power to infringe upon it.  May the Lord have mercy for those who try.

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