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.

Real Clear Politics VP Watch points out today that Mike Huckabee is campaigning against Romney.  One of the more interesting observations they make is that "As Martin also notes, this is about presidential politics. If Romney is on the ticket and McCain wins, Romney is immediately heir apparent in 2012 or 2016, cutting out Huckabee."

Romney did extremely well here in Colorado, and as my post below shows, Colorado will be an extremely important state this election.

There are those who are against Romney because he is Mormon.  To them I can only point out that like Obama, the worst president in my lifetime, and maybe in history, was the self-proclaimed "christian" Jimmy Carter.  Carter never met a dictator he did not like, and never misses a chance to speak ill of the USA and Isreal.  Give me a President and Vice-President who love our country and support the right to life (even if less strongly than I might like) no matter what their religion, any day over a Carteresque candidate who is ashamed of our country and is OK with murdering children who survived abortions, but calls himself a "christian".

Remember the "Weatherman" (AKA "the Weathermen" or "Weather Underground Organization"?  They were home grown anti-USA terrorist bombers who blew up many goverment targets in the 1960's and 1970's.  Two of their leaders, the still unrepentant Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, are good friends with Barack Obama from his days in Chicago politics.  When a recent book pointed out this connection, the Obama campaign issued a rebutal that called Ayers and Dohrn "Members of the establishment with ties to the Mayor".  Other than showing how messed up Chicago politics is, this does not seem to be a good answer to Obama being friends with unrepentant terrorists.

A study was released today showing the correlation between microphone usage and global warming.  It should have been obvious, but before there were microphones there was no global warming.  Global warming is caused by the hot air released when microphones are used.

Now of course the solution to this crisis is microphone control.  Only elected politicians and those who can show a compelling need that is in the government's interest should be allowed to possess, transport, own, or use these dangerous instruments.  Licensing must be at the Federal level after a through background check.  Training in the proper use of microphones should be required, perhaps a class called Global Warming and Microphones with a special guest lecture by Al Gore.

Enforcing the new "microphone laws" will be one of the prime duties of Obama's new "Civilian National Security Force that's just as strong, just as well-funded" as the US military.  After all if we are to reduce the hot air that is the cause of global warming we must get these dangerous devices that threaten the entire world off the street.  Those who persist in trying to keep and hide their microphones instead of turning them in like honest folk will have to be found and locked up for the public good.  Every citizen will be instructed in the signs of secret microphone ownership and encouraged to turn their neighbors in to the Civilian National Security Force.

The Commissioner of Microphones

For the first time in US history the lower half of US taxpayers have only paid 3% of the total income taxes collected.  That's right 50% of US taxpayers will have paid only 3% of the total income tax burden (this does not count those who pay no taxes and don't file a return).  The top 50% of taxpayers will have paid 97% of the taxes!  By contrast the top 1% of taxpayers will have paid fully 40% of all taxes collected.

None the less, Barak Oboma's proposed tax plan would impose an additional 131 Billion dollars tax burden on the top 1% of taxpayers.  I am sure the "middle class" will also get hit with our own part of paying for all the government programs he would like to add or expand.

In the drive to be "fair" to "the poor" such policies will only impoverish the entire country.

HT: Power Line Blog

La Shawn Barber wrote about Obama's comments on Californians:

"If you believe marriage should be defined as between one man and one woman, you are divisive and discriminatory, said future President Barack Hussein Obama."

She ends with this plea:

"So tell me, Christian readers, if you’re voting for BHO, why, for the love of God? Why are you voting for a “Christian” who believes unwanted-by-their-mothers infants should be left to die? I am pleading with you to give a biblically sound, coherent explanation. Inquiring hearts want to know."

The whole post is powerful.  Please read it!

Hugh Hewitt posted "Obama In Focus On The Fourth" which is very much worth reading.

On John McCain:

"He's an American hero, a tough, ornery nationalist, a centrist maverick, strongly in support of victory in Iraq, hell on porkbarrel spending, not much on the social conservatism of the evangelicals but against abortion rights and gay marriage. He's not, as he likes to joke, as "old as dirt and as scarred as Frankenstein," but he's been a force in national politics for nearly three decades, and there is no doubt about his character or his courage, though many conservatives doubt his attachment to issues that drive them. He will fight for immigration reform, though this time with a much stronger set of border security measures.

"The key: McCain will pursue victory in the war, deter our enemies because of his reputation for strength and defend the country via aggressive pursuit of terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever they are, and get most of the judicial nominees right. He'll keep taxes where they are if he can."

On Obama:

"He's hard left.

"He wants the marginal rate on total federal taxes, including his social security tax hike, to immediately rise at least 57% on the highest earners. Obama wants to raise taxes even in a weak economy, though this is a recipe not just for recession but worse. Obama also wants to raise taxes on dividend income and to return the death tax to its highs of eight years ago.

"Obama has proposed more than a trillion dollars in new spending.

"Obama wants to cut and run from Iraq, with withdrawals of crucial forces beginning immediately upon his entry into office. Obama has never met one on one with General Petraeus and has not been to Iraq in more than 900 days. He is indifferent to the incredible progress made by our troops and the Iraqi Defense Forces and the Iraqi government in the last 18 months.

"He supports the decision extending habeas rights to Gitmo detainees and he thinks the most liberal member of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is a great model for future Supreme Court appointments.

"Obama supports gay marriage, and opposes the California constitutional amendment to restore marriage to the definition overturned by a 4-3 vote of the California Supreme Court in May. He supports abortion on demand, including partial birth abortion.

...

"Obama is not a strong friend of Israel. He spent 20 years in a church that was openly hostile to Israel, and he reversed himself on Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel after one day of criticism by Palestinians.

"Obama is running a dirty campaign, and the serial assaults on John McCain's service, most visibly by Wesley Clark but by many others closely associated with Obama, is repulsive. These are not hits by independent 527s but by close associates and advisors of Obama.

...

"Obama's close friends, mentors and associates are deeply troubling: the radical pastor Jeremiah Wright, the unrepentant terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, the convicted swindler Tony Rezko, and now a long line of "public housing developers" who took the money and failed to deliver on promises of safe and secure housing for Obama's poorest constituents.

...

"Obama's deal with the Teamsters to end federal oversight of the union smells very bad indeed and telegraphs the sort of cronyism we could expect from an Obama Adminsitration. Obama's mentor and real estate partner is Rezko, who helped the Obama's buy their home, a home on which the Obamas received a mortgage that looks to many like a sweetheart deal.

"Obama, like the other leaders of the Triple D Democrats --the Don't Drill Democrats-- doesn't care about the price of gas, and refuses every initiative to increase supply and thus bring that price down.

...

"His crowds are enormous and his coffers overflowing, the products of a highly energized and vitriolic left that expects --believes it will be owed, in fact-- the spoils of the election. If Obama wins, the sharpest lurch left in American history is ahead of us.

Barack Obama is not only the most radical nominee of a major American political party in history, he is also the least prepared and the least informed. He has spent less than four years inside of the United States Senate, and much of those years have been spent away from his job and away from the capital he wants to lead. But he is protected and his campaign nurtured by a MSM that swooned for him long ago. The prolonged and serious scrutiny of his background and his proposals will not be forthcoming in any consistent way between now and November."

Read it all!

Power Line in a post today titled "Reverend Wright, who is that?" examines Obama's claim to be a Christian.  Some key quotes:

"It is undisputed that Obama was a non-believer until the latter half of the 1980s. After that, it is undisputed that Jeremiah Wright ... inspired Obama to join his church."

and

"Obama is distorting his religious views, either by pretending that he is a believer or by obscuring the radical nature of his religious beliefs.

"On its face, it seems audacious for someone who has been revealed as the follower of a fanatical, hate-mongering minister to be touting his religious faith."

Read the whole thing.