Breaking – New Palin Scandal!

Impacting Hard

The political world was thrown into chaos Tuesday night as a possible devastating scandal involving Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and one of her children emerged.  The New York Times is set to report in five front page articles on Wednesday morning that Piper, the Palin’s 6-year-old daughter, has been a very naughty girl . . . THIS POST HAS MOVED.  CLICK HERE.  CHECK OUT THE EDWARDSREPORT.COM, THE RIGHT WING ONION RIP-OFF.

Obama: McCain Campaign Racist

In response to repeated criticisms of his tax plan from Sen. McCain, Sen. Obama and his campaign have returned fire, accusing the campaign of blatant racism.  After McCain said Obama wanted to raise taxes, Obama quickly said this was an attempt to bring attention to his race, playing into the vicious stereotype that all blacks want to raise taxes.  Obama staffer Harold Scrottle released a statement decrying “McCain’s effort to play on the bigoted fears of Americans who unfairly associate a capital gains tax increase with the African-American community.”  Obama himself later addressed the issue when he said, “The Republicans are going to try to make an issue of that fact that I don’t look like all those guys on the coins because I’m not made of zinc or copper.  Or that the color of my skin is a reason to fear that I will raise your payroll tax.”   The NAACP responded to McCain’s comments by demanding new government programs to address persistent racism in America, but did not make a suggestion on how to fund the new programs. The KKK did not issue a statement, as its three remaining members are awaiting trial on charges of molesting a dead horse.

Red, White, Blue, and Black

Those of you who follow absurd racial grievances and the liberal white people who bow before them will recall all the attention given to efforts in Portland by something known as the “Office of Neighborhood Involvement” to foster greater understanding of “gentrification.”  The Oregonian hyperventilates here, and the NYT catches up a month later here.  Gentrification is the latest academic buzzword to describe when white people move to what has been historically black neighborhoods.  Longtime black residents are understandably upset when local businesses are replaced with pretentious java shops, organic grocery stores, and outdoor apparel stores, in order to serve the growing community of over-educated, condescending, vegan, emo members of the “creative class,” i.e. unemployed coffee house musicians with a trust fund.  But, hey, it’s a free country, and I imagine if blacks started to move into white neighborhoods no one is going to justify whites’ discomfort, let alone use a government office for white people to explain their uncomfortableness with this new diversity.  The reason for this post is an article in the July 29, 2009, edition of the WSJ.  Reporter Douglas Belkin tells the story of Montana, where 200,000 newcomers “are reshaping the way this state looks, acts–and votes.  Along the way, these new Montanans have sparked a testy culture clash and, for the first time in a generation, opened the door for a Democrat presidential nominee to win the state in November.”  A long-time resident complained that the newbies, overwhelmingly Democrat-leaning, well-educated, and not familiar with the culture of the state, are turning Bozeman into “another Aspen.”  This has altered the makeup of the state so much that the state where George Bush won by 20 points in 2004 now has Sen. Obama up 5 points.  Of course, there is no hand-wringing about a loss of culture and tradition.  Instead, we have a celebration of the possible loss of another red state and their backward ways.  As a liberty lover, private property is private property.  But it struck me that the real cultural imperialists are well-educated, upper middle class Obama voters.  They are invading minority and rural areas, replacing their tradition and culture with organic arugula and bike paths.  Diversity and tolerance, to a leftist, only work if you agree and live like them.

Takedown: Jene blöden Deutschen!

Every once in a while, there is a day that the NYT op-ed page really shines.  Today was not one of those days.  Among the offerings this Thursday was a piece by Christoph Peters, a German author, giving what I’m going to guess is the mainstream view in Deutschland on Sen. Obama’s somewhat controversial coming visit.  Why is this foreign policy trip disputatious?  Barack the Christ, a presidential nominee, is planning on speaking at Brandenburg Gate, the historic gateway and one of the most well-known landmarks in Berlin.  Previously, Presidents Reagan and Kennedy gave historic addresses there.

Peters does not understand the opposition, albeit understated, of conservative Chancellor and Bush ally Angela Merkel, to the speech.  He writes “the chancellor seems to feel an instinctive sympathy, perhaps rooted in her having grown up in East Germany, for such staunchly right-wing and rather gruff figures of American politics as George W. Bush and John McCain . “  He suggests Merkel and East Europeans are more drawn to the foreign policy approach of Reagan, than the rapprochement policy of Nixon and the Left.   Engaging in psychologizing his political opposites, he claims “the fear of being threatened by the ‘evil empire’ still runs deep in those who lived under Soviet domination, and that fear may well be connected with a longing for the ‘strong, good’ leader who will provide protection. “  Ah, yes, those who personally suffered under the tyrannical rule of communism are longing (irrationally) for authoritarianism!  Or perhaps they can appreciate freedom and know which American political party embraced them and stood up to communism, instead of coddling it, or worse.

Peters goes on to criticize Merkel for supporting the war in Iraq, clearly the motivating factor in his essay (to engage in Peterian psychoanalyzing).  But more than the war in Iraq, there is a bitter hatred of Bush, expressed by this puerile and unbalanced unloading: “George W. Bush’s contempt for the rules and institutions of international politics, his revival of preventive war, with all its unforeseeable consequences, his abrogation of the rule of law in his own country, and his ignorance of every issue related to environmental conservation have become, for me and for the vast majority of Germans, synonymous with a high-handed, ugly America.”  Guter Gott! Unfortunately, this is what passes for sophisticated thought in Europe.  Where do I begin? I love being lectured on human rights and war by a German.  (That wasn’t fair.  I love Germany.  I loved my visit there.  I spent three years studying the language.  But I couldn’t resist.)  Unfortunately this is what passes for sophisticated thought in Europe.  Just check out the BBC, the Guardian, or Der Spiegel, where these “facts,” aka DNC talking points, are considered indisputable facts.  International rules broken?  Is that a reference to the U.S. repeatedly going to the UN?    As for preventive war: it’s pointless to wonder about what would have happened had some country engaged in preventive war against, say, to pick someone randomly, Adolph Hitler. (Damn, I did it again.)  As for the rule of law: Yes, in America today we have internment camps, a draft, habeas corpus suspended, newspapers shut down for opposing the government, and roving gangs of violent youths enforcing the government’s edicts.  Oh, wait, that was Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, both beloved Democrats, not Republicans and certainly not President Bush, who never instituted any policy resembling those fascist ones.  (See Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism for more.)  As for the environment:  What did Bush do?  Not sign Kyoto?  So what.  Germany did, and yet how has Deutchland done in implementing it?  How much has any signatory country achieved?  According to this report, the U.S. emissions increased significantly less than those who signed the Kyoto treaty.  He ends by claiming Germans “would be happy if emblematic pictures of Barack Obama, speaking before the gate to 100,000 flag-waving Berliners, would help him open a new chapter in the history of America’s relationship with the rest of the world.”  When St. Barack the Miraculous is done, perhaps he can cure cancer and end all war by passing gas.  

Jihadis: War on Terror Front Moves

Tomorrow’s Christian Science Monitor is reporting in a front page story that “coupled with intelligence finding that fewer foreign fighters are seeking to enter Iraq, as well as with postings from jihadist websites exhorting would-be foreign fighters to take up the fight in Afghanistan, the arrivals suggest that Islamist extremists are adjusting their international fight to hit the United States and the West where they perceive them to be weakest.”  Why do I think that Sen. Obama and the rest of the D’s will attack President Bush for increasing violence in Afghanistan without acknowledging this is a result of the success of Bush’s policy in Iraq?