ACORN is a huge national pro-democrat organization that has registered millions to vote and has ties to Barack Obama.

The NY Post reported:

in the early '90s, Obama was recruited ... to run training sessions for ACORN activists

ACORN also got funding from two charities, the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation, when Obama served on their boards, and from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge - the radical "education reform" outfit Obama ran from '95 to '99.

Meanwhile, Obama was right there by ACORN's side all along.

"I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career," he told the group last November.

In 2006 the Wall Street Journal reported:

So, less than a week before the midterm elections, four workers from Acorn, the liberal activist group that has registered millions of voters, have been indicted by a federal grand jury for submitting false voter registration forms to the Kansas City, Missouri, election board. But hey, who needs voter ID laws?

We wish this were an aberration, but allegations of fraud have tainted Acorn voter drives across the country. Acorn workers have been convicted in Wisconsin and Colorado, and investigations are still under way in Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

In 2007 the Seattle Times reported:

King and Pierce County prosecutors filed felony charges today against seven people who allegedly committed the biggest voter-registration fraud in state history.

The defendants, who were paid employees and supervisors of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

In 2008 the Detroit Free Press reported:

The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has a large voter registration program among its many social service programs. ACORN's Michigan branch, based in Detroit, has enrolled 200,000 voters statewide in recent months, mostly with the use of paid, part-time employees.

"There appears to be a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications," said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office. "And it appears to be widespread."

On 10/7/2008 the Washington Post (the radical left wing newspaper in Washington DC) reported:

The Nevada office of ACORN had planned a potluck dinner at its Las Vegas office Tuesday night to celebrate the 80,000 newly registered voters its staff had signed up in Clark County as part of its work with low-income communities nationwide.

Instead, their office was raided Tuesday morning by agents of the Nevada Secretary of State and Attorney General who alleged in an application for a search warrant that ACORN had hired 59 felons through a work release program as canvassers and submitted nearly 300 apparently fraudulent voter registration cards as part of the drive.

On 10/8/2008 the Associated Press reported:

Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.

Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

On 10/8/2008 the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported:

ACORN's canvassers filled out forms with fake names, addresses, officials say 

Agents with the secretary of state and state attorney general offices served a search warrant on the headquarters of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, at 953 E. Sahara Ave. shortly after 9 a.m. They seized voter registration forms and computer databases to determine how many fake forms were submitted and identify employees who were responsible.

On 10/9/2008 the New York Post reported:

Barkley estimated he'd registered to vote "10 to 15" times after canvassers for ACORN, whose political wing has endorsed Barack Obama, relentlessly pursued him and others.

Claims such as his have sparked election officials to probe ACORN.

On 10/10/2008 The Post, from Ohio University reported:

Last week, they were everywhere.  They stood on the corners of streets, with tables full of Obama buttons and voter registration forms.  It was almost impossible to make it to a class without hearing, “Are you registered to vote?”  But behind the façade of cheery smiles and clipboards lurked something that few dare to acknowledge, something dangerous to our republic: voter fraud and suppression, enabled by a woman known as “the most partisan state official in Ohio”: Jennifer Brunner.

Association  of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), for which presidential candidate Barack Obama worked as a “community organizer,” is being investigated by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.  According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ACORN workers “often handed in the same name on a number of voter registration cards, but showing that person living at different addresses.”  ACORN also turned in registrations that “showed a number of people living at an address that turned out to be a restaurant.”

There are lots more stories about Obama's friends at ACORN and voter fraud, but I am sure this makes the point.  Even still I can hardly believe this report from CNN.  ACORN submitted 5000 new voter registration forms just before the deadline in Lake County, Indiana.  Officials there started checking the "new voters" registered by ACORN.  Of the first 2100 forms they checked, ALL WERE FRAUDULENT!!!  Watch this report from CNN:

 

Note that the lawyer for ACORN tried to blame the election officials saying they should have started checking the forms back in May.  CNN says, however, that these 5000 forms were all just turned in before the deadline.

This is a massive attempt by friends of Obama to try to steal the election for him.

 

BTW I'm Voting For Mccain / Palin

 

20 Republican Senators including John McCain signed a letter on May 5, 2006 urging action be taken:

We are concerned that if effective regulatory reform legislation for the housing-finance government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) is not enacted this year, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole. ...

Today, almost half of the home mortgages in the U.S. are guaranteed by these GSEs. They are mammoth financial institutions with almost $1.5 Trillion of debt outstanding between them. With the fiscal challenges facing us today (deficits, entitlements, pensions and flood insurance), Congress must ask itself who would pay this debt if Fannie or Freddy could not? [emphasis in original letter] ...

It is vitally important that Congress take the necessary steps to ensure that these institutions benefit from strong and independent regulatory supervision, operate in a safe and sound manner, and are primarily focused on their statutory mission. More importantly, Congress must ensure that the American taxpayer is protected in the event either GSE should fail.

John Hinderaker of Power Line writes:

One thing I hadn't realized is that McCain's reform legislation was passed through the Senate Banking Committee, but was not able to gain majority support on the Senate floor. All twenty Senators who signed the letter calling attention to the urgency of reforming Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were Republicans. After May 2006, the Democrats continued to use Fannie and Freddy as their private slush funds until the inevitable collapse, which McCain had warned against so eloquently, occurred.

 

Many folk have been asking me about all the Amendments and Referendums on the Colorado ballot.  Amendments are put on the ballot by citizen initiative, while Referendums are put on the ballot by the State Legislature.  Kevin Lundberg the state representative from House District 49 has his suggestions for voting on the state wide Amendments here.

Boulder County has two ballot issues 1A and 1B.  1A would cost the County taxpayers nearly $100,000,000.00 in order to pay for solar and other renewable energy projects.  I will be voting NO on 1A.  1B will extend a sales tax surcharge to 2018 that would otherwise expire.  This is being billed as causing "no increase in any County tax" which is dishonest as it will extend the time of the tax if not the dollar amount.  I will be voting NO on 1B.  Boulder County is very corrupt and has been in one party hands for years.  I don't want to give this bunch more money to play with.

Wall Builders has the best short voter guide for the Presidential race.

Colorado Right to Life sent questionaires to the candidates for state office.  The responses are here.

Colorado Family Institute has a voter guide that covers all the Federal and State races in Colorado.

Family Research Council Action has their Presidential Voters Guide here.

Family Research Council Action and Focus on the Family Action have published their guide to how all the members of the US House and US Senate voted this last year.

BJ Nikkel has some interesting suggestions on how to vote for the judges here.

John Hinderaker of Power Line posts some interesting background on Obama:

it appears clear that as of 1996, the New Party and its parent organization the Democratic Socialists of America considered Barack Obama to be their guy--one of a handful of avowed socialists running for office at any level in the United States. It strikes me that Obama has some explaining to do.

They have screen captures showing both groups considered Obama as their candidate when he ran for State Senate in Illinois.

Those were the words of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt today regarding the Obama campaign's enlisting of Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.  The Governor's statement on his official Missouri State website is here:

“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

“This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights.  The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family.  Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility.  When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

Emphasis added.

One bit of actual good news is this report on a 30 year old church run affordable housing program that actually works and has not resulted in the foreclosures that are behind our current financial crisis.

Many affordable housing programs and their proponents are to blame for this mess, including ACORN.

However, there's one notable example of an affordable housing program that has avoided the foreclosure fate thus far.

Read the whole article!

I don't know if this report is true but William Kristal passes on a report that:

The huge European bank Fortis is apparently about to fail. The ripple effect on the American banking system could be disastrous, with bank runs, liquidity crises, and stock sell offs possible Monday. Wachovia may well fail next week. As Larry put it, this really will be 1933 soon if we don't move rapidly to stabilize the banking system.

And here's the bad news: the current bailout bill, whatever its merits and likelihood of passage, does nothing to address this.

Lovely.

This video is almost entrely video clips from CSPAN showing the arguments made for and against fixing this problem before our banks and Wall Street melted down.

 

HT Gateway Pundit who also observed:

Former Fannie Mae Chairman Jim Johnson is still advising Barack Obama.

We still do not know what will happen with the the Bailout Bill being debated by our Congressmen and Senators in Washington DC.

Center right opinion as to what should be done varies all over the map.  The Wall Street Journal warns:

Above all, the risk is that the current panic will damage the overall economy and lead to a deep recession

They have a good point since the Great Depression was caused by bad government policies.  However they conclude:

our vote is that this government intervention is justified to defend the system.

The Wall Street Journal also warns of the Democrat's efforts to add things to the Bailout Bill that will actually make things worse.

Democrats have already decided to spin off potentially billions of taxpayer dollars from the bailout fund to their own political buddies

This needs to be stopped, and the House Republicans supported by John McCain are trying to do so.  Let there be no mistake, the Democrats have a majority in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, and therefore have the power to pass any bill they want.  The only reason the Republicans have any power to influence the end result is that the Democrats are scared and want to be able to share the blame when the problems with the Bailout become apparent.

Michelle Malkin is one of those on the Center Right that most strongly opposes the Bailout.  Her commentary can be read here.

Hugh Hewitt has been a strong supporter of the idea that a Bailout is required, even if it is less than ideal:

without it the financial crisis will spread and the small businesses of America and the people who own and staff them will be deeply injured.  These businesses are the backbone of the economy, and they are in danger.  This isn't just a bailout of Wall Street; it is a breakwall for Main Street.

Dr. Jerry Pournelle writes:

As I surmised, the bailout -- good idea or poor -- can't be made to happen until Barney Frank and Senator Dodd are allowed to wet their beaks. The Democrats want part of that pie. Obama's leadership abilities were put to the test, and apparently found wanting ...

It's a horrible bill. It gives arbitrary power to executive officials and absolves them from blame (barring actual theft). It potentially saddles every taxpayer (which is not the same as every citizen!) with several thousand dollars in debt. ...

There isn't a hell of a lot of leadership being shown here. ... That is probably not going to work. I sure hope something does before it's too late and nothing will work.

Dr. Pournelle's point about taxpayers versus citizens is that a very large percentage of the population don't pay any taxes and therefore only those who actually pay taxes will get the bill for paying for this.

Glenn Reynolds speaking of home ownership for the masses:

I agree, but it needs to be homes that people can actually afford.

Here in Boulder County Colorado and worse yet in the city of Boulder, our Democrat elected officials are doing their best to keep housing prices high by buying up every available scrap of land for Open Space.  Those same officials are shocked shocked when there is so little affordable housing in the city of Boulder and Boulder County.  They don't seem to get the concept that when they take land off the market, all housing will go up in price including affordable housing.

Rick Newman in US News and World Report writes:

How to Punish Wall Street, Protect Main Street

Federal loan sharks: what a concept. In exchange for its deep pockets, the government funded by you and me could keep our financial-service providers in business and either make money on the deal through fees and high interest rates, or cause its borrowers so much discomfort that they race to get out of hock. Now, there's a deal that's too good to refuse.

We can only hope that the Bailout does more good than harm.

Thanks to Power Line blog for the lead to this video.  It provides an understandable explanation of the mess we are in.

 

Newt Gingrich delivers a powerful history lesson in this video clip, and in the process shows how much of an idiot Charlie Gibson is.

George Santayana said:

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

May we learn.

HT GatewayPundit

La Shawn Barber tells the story today of Gianna Jessen:

Jessen’s teenage mother attempted to kill her via a saline solution procedure when she was seven and a half months pregnant. During this despicable procedure, a so-called doctor injects saline into the woman’s stomach, and the solution poisons the baby as he swallows and burns his skin. The baby dies, and the mother goes into labor, delivering a dead baby. ...

Jessen miraculously survived but suffered injuries as a result of the abortion attempt. She developed cerebral palsy. Jessen’s mother put her up for adoption, which she should have done in the first place instead of trying to kill her. Today, Jessen is a Christian and pro-life advocate who has testified before the U.S. Congress and the British House of Commons. Since 2005, she’s run in two marathons.

 

I have posted before here and here about Obama's votes against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.  As Obama said himself when denying he had done what we have multiple official proofs (including an audio recording) he had done, "It defies common sense and it defies imagination ..."  Of course he was speaking of those who were telling the truth about his actions, not the evil he had supported. 

I wonder what Obama would do if confronted by Gianna Jessen?  Andrew at Founding Bloggers writes:

I am not religious, or a card carrying member of the right. I am pro-choice! And this ad is absolutely devastating.

Gateway Pundit writes:

This is the defining ad of the campaign season...

How can any decent human being let alone anyone who calls themselves Christian watch this ad and read Gianna Jessen's story and still vote for Obama?

Here is a great example of media bias from tonight. Charlie Gibson was interviewing Sarah Palin on ABC ...

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.

GIBSON: Exact words.

PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.

But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.

That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie.

GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, "There is a plan and it is God’s plan."

I have a link to the video in question down below. What she said at 5:49 in the video was:

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also, for this country. That our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan."

Allahpundit points out that Sarah Palin was not asserting as Gibson claimed that the US is doing God's will, but instead praying that we are. That is quite a different thing.

Gibson started by picking up the quote in a middle of a sentence, and doing so in a way that totally distorted the meaning.

When challenged by Palin he responded "Exact words" (which it almost was) but by chopping up her sentence he was lying by omission.

He then went on to compound his lie by once again chopping what she had said in half in a way that completely inverted her meaning.

Do you think either Gibson or ABC will apologize for the egregious way they treated Sarah Palin. Do you think they will admit they lied about her to her face on national television?

Liberals wonder why conservatives get so worked up about the lying media ...

9/15/08 Update: Today James Taranto posted what I think is the perfect footnote:

Obligatory Palin-style joke: What's the difference between a journalist and a watchdog? Rabies.

On 9/19/2001 Obama was quoted in the Hyde Park Herald as saying (in part):

We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

Commenter James Felix on Michelle Malkin's website answers this well:

It is also indisputable that the majority are also male and have dark hair. A majority of them have also never attended a Star Trek convention. Are Y chromosomes, dark hair and a lack of appreciation for sci-fi also contributing factors?

Of course not. A basic tenet of logic is that correlation is not causation.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, there are a lot of countries that are much poorer and more desperate than any in the Middle East who somehow do not give birth to terrorist movements. Why not? If poverty and unemployment are contributing factors why aren’t they recruiting Americans who find themselves down and out? Surely AQ would dearly love to have some average-looking American citizens doing their work here within our borders. So where are the legions of Appalachian AQ operatives?

Unemployment and poverty aren’t the problems. The problem is that you have a demented society that teaches it’s children practically from birth that the road to paradise is paved with dead infidels. You have two generations now that have been trained to be receptive to the message that Bin Laden and his twisted ilk put out.

You can repeat the idea of a poverty/terror link till you’re blue in the face, it won’t make it true.

Barak seems to be very confused about the motivations of those that would attack us.  Of course he sat for 20 years listening to his Pastor Jeremiah Wright.  This is the same Jeremiah Wright who led Obama to Christ, at whose church Barak met his wife, who married them, and baptised their children.  Jeremiah Wright is a believer in and a leading teacher of "Black Liberation Theology" which lead him to preach about 9/11:

I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday, did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox News, this is a white man, and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out, did you see him John, a white man, and he pointed out, an ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammed was in fact true, America’s chickens are coming home to roost. We took this country by terror, away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arowak, the Comanche, the Arapahoe, the Navajo. Terrorism. We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism. We bombed Granada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers, and hardworking fathers. We bombed Qaddafi’s home and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against a rock. We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hardworking people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they would never get back home. We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children from school, civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

So according to Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright it is the fault of the white citizens of the USA that we were attacked on 9/11.  No wonder someone who attended his church for 20 years is a bit confused!

 

Today Democrat Steve Cohen standing on the floor of the US House of Representatives compared Barak Obama to Jesus and Sara Palin to Pontius Pilate.  For a while they managed to block YouTube from showing this but it is now available again.

 

Everyone in Alaska knows Sarah Palin blocked the wasteful "Bridge to Nowhere" and even the Democrat Party acknowledged this on their website.  Then the McCain campaign started mentioning this fact, and Barak Obama decided to claim it was a lie.  Suddenly the Democrats in Alaska removed mention of this from their website.  They had to remove the proof that Obama was lying.

The national Democrat Party website held several references to Sarah Palin as a lipstick wearing pig, one of them illustrated by a charming picture of a pig wearing lipstick, glasses, and a necklace.  Barak Obama in a speech compared Sarah Palin to a lipstick wearing pig and John McCain to an 8 year old stinking fish.  Reasonable people everywhere were revolted by Obama's remarks, so of course he tried to deny having made them.  Guess what, the references on the Democrat website suddenly disappeared ...

Here is McCain's response to the attacks:

 

My friend Scott Ross (I engineered his radio program back in 1970 - 1971) sent the following email to me today:

Here is a video link of Sarah Palin (forwarded to me by a pastor I used to pastor) being prayed for in her home church in Alaska, and commissioning some young people to go do missionary work. She in turn is prayed for by her pastors. She says nothing political & all this preceded her being chosen by John McCain as his running mate for VP.

Those of you who know me know that I'm apolitical. I do not support or oppose any candidate for public office, and neither does The Christian Broadcasting Network. In no way would I have you construe this to be a political endorsement of any candidate.

After all as Jesus said, "My Kingdom (Democrat, Republican, Independent or otherwise) is NOT of this world."

Praying that God's will would be done in this election season.

Thanks,

Scott

Click here to see this 14 minute video (requires Flash Player).

 

Left wing groups are offering cash to anyone who can come up with dirt on Sarah Palin's husband.  The New York Times today ran no less than 3 front page stories on Sarah Palin's daughter.  Where will it stop?

As Michelle Malkin put it:

If a Democrat mom chooses public office, she’s a patriot Wonder Woman imbued with Absolute Moral Authority on children’s, health, and social welfare issues.

If a Republican mom chooses public office, she’s the child-neglecting spawn of Satan who has no business debating any domestic public policy because of alleged hypocrisy.

Glenn Reynolds quips:

HOW THEY COULD HAVE KEPT THE PALIN PREGNANCY STORY OUT OF THE PRESS: Leaked it that John Edwards was the father . . . ..

 

The statement of the Palin family today:

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”

Obama said a little while ago:

“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old,” he said. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby."

As Michelle Malkin said:

"One ticket sees this as a blessing. The other sees it as a curse. Could the core differences between the two be any starker?"

 

John McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin (pronounced pale-in) of Alaska to be his running mate, and a lot of folk are asking "Sarah who?"  In an attempt to answer that question I have compiled the following bio.

Sarah Palin was born in Idaho and moved to Alaska as a child.

Known as "Sarah Barracuda" on the basketball court she helped her High School team win the state championship.  She also led the team in prayers before each game and is an evangelical Christian.

She married her high school sweetheart Todd Palin.  They have 5 children.  A strong Pro-Lifer, she refused to abort her youngest Trig, born while she was governor, when tests showed he had Downs Syndrome.  Her oldest Track, was named after the sport.  He has joined the Army and is about to be deployed to Iraq.

She was a "hockey Mom" who started in politics in the PTA then became mayor of Wasilla (her hometown near Anchorage).  She was Chair of the Alaska Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004, and the Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but quit in 2004 in protest against ethical violations by the Alaska Republican Chairman, a member of the Commission.  She went on to defeat the Republican Governor of Alaska in the primary on an anti-corruption platform, and then won the general election.

As governor she cut state spending in Alaska, killed the "bridge to nowhere", and is a big proponent of developing Alaska's oil and gas resources to help the USA become energy independent.  She is not, however, willing to give the big oil companies what they want when she sees that as going against the interests of her state and nation.  Her husband Todd quit his 17 year position with BP to avoid even an appearance of conflict of interest, when that company became involved in negotiations with his wife's administration over a gas pipeline.

She is opposed to same sex marriage, but vetoed a bill blocking health benefits for the partners of gay public employees.

When she needed money to go to college she entered beauty contests.  She won Miss Wasilla and was runner up in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest.

She hunts, ice-fishes, and is a crack shot.  She is a Life Member of the NRA.

She has sued the Federal government to stop the listing of polar bears as an endangered species, and has a grizzly bear her father shot covering the sofa in her office.

Back when pot was legal in Alaska, she tried it.  "I can’t claim a Bill Clinton and say I never inhaled."

Todd Palin is a Union Steelworker who worked part of the year in the oil fields of Alaska for BP.  The rest of the year he runs a small commercial fishing operation.  He is part Yupik Eskimo and a 4 time winner of the 2000 mile Iron Dog snowmobile race. Last year he earned $93,000 total.

We know this because as governor Sarah Palin pushed through a strong financial disclosure law.  There is far more detail in the Palin's disclosure forms posted on the Internet, than there are in the Federal forms of our Senators and Representatives.

Ed Morrissey gives the background on how McCain came to select Sarah Palin.

Professor John Mark Reynolds writes about how Sarah Palin's experience is being undervalued.

Here is a side by side comparison of Sarah Palin and Barak Obama.

Here is the comparison in pdf form for easy printing.

The Obama campaign can't contradict the facts in this short video, so they are trying to bully TV stations into not showing it and have asked the Department of Justice to investigate the American Issues Project who produced it.  Do you want a President who uses government agencies to try to silence those he does not like?

Watch the video.

 

HT Michelle Malkin

One of the things I disagree with McCain over is Campaign Finance.  On this subject I agree with Dr. Jerry Pournelle:

Aside on campaign financing: Harold Laski a very long time ago said that wealthy people and companies would defend their interests with money and no laws could be devised that would prevent that. I have seen no evidence that he was incorrect. One can regulate somewhat, but onerous regulations invite the wealthy to hire lawyers to find new ways. My inclination is to fewer regulations and more disclosure. I'd also act to make parties a bit stronger (and able to collect money more easily). I will concede that I am no expert on this but I have spent 50 years being involved in politics and I have some experience in both raising and spending political money. What is very clear is that the present system isn't working very well. As I said, on principle I prefer less regulation and more disclosure.

I don't have Dr. Pournelle's years in politics, but what he says makes better sense than our current system.  Let anyone spend any amount of their personal funds on politics that they wish, but every candidate and political action committee must post the contributions within 24 hours to a public website.

 

Andrew C. McCarthy has a powerful article on Obama's support for Infanticide.

"There wasn’t any question about what was happening. The abortions were going wrong. The babies weren’t cooperating. They wouldn’t die as planned. Or, as Illinois state senator Barack Obama so touchingly put it, there was “movement or some indication that, in fact, they’re not just coming out limp and dead.”

No, Senator. They wouldn’t go along with the program. They wouldn’t just come out limp and dead.

They were coming out alive. Born alive. Babies. Vulnerable human beings Obama, in his detached pomposity, might otherwise include among “the least of my brothers.” But of course, an abortion extremist can’t very well be invoking Saint Matthew, can he? So, for Obama, the shunning of these least of our brothers and sisters — millions of them — is somehow not among America’s greatest moral failings."

Read the whole thing!

Of course given Obama's obvious lack of concern for "the least of my brothers" why does it not surprise me that he has a half brother George Obama living in a hut in Nairobi, Kenya.  La Shawn Barber has the story.

"The Telegraph reports that George Obama, Barack Obama’s half-brother, subsists on less than a dollar a month in a hut in Nairobi, Kenya. He says he’s ashamed of his poverty and doesn’t tell people he’s related to America’s first black major party presumptive presidential nominee.

Assuming he didn’t know how his brother was living (benefit of the doubt, and all that), I wonder what Barack Obama will do to help him now, in light of his “we still don’t spend enough time thinking about the least of these” lecture on Saturday at the Saddleback Civil Forum."

 

The more folk look at Obama's claim that National Right to Life was lying about his record, the worse that record looks.

Erik Erickson posts a transcript.

Joel Mowbray looks at who is telling the truth.

David Reinhard looks at the coverup.

Guy Benson puts Obama's position this way:

"Put crudely, once a woman chooses to abort, she’s entitled to a dead baby."

Change & Experience has the audio of Obama arguing against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.  Contrast that to his claim on CBN:

"He added that it was "ridiculous" to suggest he had ever supported withholding lifesaving treatment for an infant. "It defies common sense and it defies imagination, and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive," he said in the CBN interview."

 

Scott Johnson of Power Line just crafted a great way of putting Obama's position on abortion:

"Those who have dug into his record in the Illinois senate, however, have found evidence that Obama is a devout believer in what might be called the sacramental or positive good view of abortion: nothing can be allowed to interfere with the unfettered exercise of the purported right, including the accident of an infant born alive."

This was in response to Obama's refusal to give a straight answer to Rick Warren of Saddleback Church on abortion.

Obama also claimed over the weekend on CBN that:

"anti-abortion groups were "lying" about his record.

"They have not been telling the truth," Mr. Obama said. "And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying."

He added that it was "ridiculous" to suggest he had ever supported withholding lifesaving treatment for an infant. "It defies common sense and it defies imagination, and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive," he said in the CBN interview."

However according to the voting records from the Illinois state Senate, it was Obama who was lying on CBN and not the "anti-abortion groups".

Listen to Obama's remarks before Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in the USA) to hear him deal with the subject of abortion in a forthright way that stands in direct contrast to his response to Rick Warren and his claims on CBN.

No not Michelle Malkin's group, this Hot Air Tour is from the folk at Americans for Prosperity.

They will be in Broomfield and Fort Collins on Wednesday August 20, Pueblo and Colorado Springs on Thursday the 21st, and Glenwood, Grand Junction, and Denver on Friday the 22nd.  Sounds like a whole lot of fun!  Click on the Logo above to learn more and register for the events.

While addressing the folk at Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in the USA) Obama said that his first act as President would be to overturn the ban on "partial birth abortion".  He said "On this issue, I will not yield."

La Shawn Barber comments:

    "In contrast, John McCain, a man I’ll reluctantly, with a strenuous effort, vote for in November, said this about partial birth abortion:

    'I will do everything in my power to ban that horrible procedure.'

    Now, it doesn’t matter to me whether McCain is a Christian or not. At the very least, he’s against so-called partial birth abortion, and that’s good enough for me. When it comes to unborn life, I will not yield. Any Obama supporter who claims to be a Christian ought to be ashamed."

I stand with La Shawn on this issue.

One of my all time favorite T shirts was made by my friends at Jesus People USA.  On the front it has a picture of Jesus, and the question "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?"  On the back it has a quote from C.S. Lewis "You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God."

La Shawn Barber quotes the entire passage from C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" the above is taken from and uses it as a springboard to examine Barak Obama's claim to be a Christian.  The key quote for me in her post is:

"Must our president be a Christian? In my opinion, no. I’d vote for an atheist, as long as he’s socially conservative. But I have BIG problems with someone who professes Christ and tries to appeal to Christians through “faith,” when his words and deeds indicate he is NOT a Christian."

Read the entire thing.