Tag: conservative

May we never forget…


(Photo by Chris Muir)

This is not a day for writing or Blogging or Political Discourse. It is a day of solemn remembrance.

Some Photos:

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It was a day, that I personally will never forget.

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It was a day that, at first, brought this Nation together as one, but in the end, divided us. Conservatives against Liberals, Liberals against Conservatives.

9.11 Victim

It was a day of courage, bravery and incredible loss.

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It was the day when the war on terror, came to our shores.

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It was a day, when a President rallied a Nation together and for a time it seemed, would catch those who carried out these attacks.

It has been said, that an image or a picture can capture more than any printed work could possible ever hope to convey. I give you these in that very spirit:

THE PRESIDENTgwbush9-11-01speech: Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong.

A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the  foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America — with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.

Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government’s emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it’s prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C. to help with local rescue efforts.

Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured, and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.

The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight, and will be open for business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business, as well.

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks. And on behalf of the American people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences and assistance.

America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism. Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.”

This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.

Thank you. Good night, and God bless America.

~~~

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to  absolute victory.

I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.” — The White House, December 8, 1941

God Bless The United States of America and to the Republic for which our Constitution and Lady Liberty stands.

A couple songs, that I feel are pertinent to this subject:

Other Bloggers Remembering today: Michelle Malkin, Lorie Byrd, The Anchoress,

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Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment: The Republicans Hijacked 9/11

Finally, Keith Olbermann has his say on a subject that I wrote about a while back.

Transcript: (via MSNBC)

As promised, a Special Comment about our sad anniversary tomorrow.

Or, more correctly, what our sad anniversary tomorrow has been turned into by the presidential administration, and the current Republican candidates for President and Vice President.

This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of the attack, remembrance of the national unity which followed it.

Most important of all, remembrance of the dead.

But 9/11 has become a brand name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propaganda of the lowest form. 9/11 has become 9/11 with a trademark logo.

9/11 (TM) has sustained a president who long ago should have been dismissed, or impeached. It has kept him and his gang of financial and constitutional crooks in office without — literally — any visible means of support.

9/11 (TM) has made possible the greatest sleight-of-hand in our nation’s history.

The political party in office at the time of the attacks, at the local, state and national levels, the party which uniformly ignored the warnings and the presidential administration already through twenty percent of its first term and no longer wet behind the ears, have not only thus far escaped any blame for the malfeasance and criminal neglect that allowed the attacks to occur, but that presidency and that party, have managed to make it seem as if the other political party would be solely and irredeemably responsible for any similar catastrophe in the future.

Thus, Sen. McCain, were you able to accomplish a further inversion of reality at your party’s nominating convention last week.

There was the former Mayor of the City of New York,  the one who took no counter-terrorism measure in his seven years in office between the first attack on the World Trade Center, and the second attack.

Nothing, except to insist, despite all advice and warning, that his Emergency Command Center be moved directly into the World Trade Center.

Yet there was this man, Sir, Rudolph Giuliani, quite succinctly dismissed as “A Noun, a Verb, and 9/11,” and repudiated even by Republican voters,  transformed into the keynote speaker, Sen. McCain at your convention.

And his childish, squealing, braying, Tourette’s-like repetition of 9/11 (TM), was greeted not as conclusive evidence that he is consumed by massive guilt – hard-earned guilt, in fact  but rather as some kind of political tour-de-force, an endorsement of your Vice Presidential nominee, a rookie governor , a facile and slick con artist.

The blind endorsing the bland, to a chorus of 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM.)

Your ringing mindless cheer of “We’ve Kept You Safe Since Then.”While nobody asks “doesn’t then count?”

All of this, sadistically disrespecting the dead of New York, and Washington, and Shanksville. Endorsed,  Sen. McCain. Exploited, Sen. McCain. Trademarked, Sen. McCain by you.

And yet of course the exact moment in which Sen. McCain’s Republicans showed the nation exactly how far they have fallen from the Better Angels of Mr. Lincoln’s Nature, came the next night.

The television networks were told that the Convention would pause, early in the evening, when children could still be watching, for a 9/11 Tribute, and they were encouraged to broadcast it.

What we got was not a tribute to the dead of 9/11, nor even a tribute to the responders, or the singularity of purpose we all felt. The Republicans gave us sociological pornography, a virtual snuff film.

Years ago, responsible television networks, to the applause of the nation, and the relief of its mental health authorities, voluntarily stopped showing the most graphic of the images of the World Trade Center, except with the strongest of warnings.

And yet, the Republicans, at their convention, having virtually seized control of the cable news operations, showed the worst of it.

This is all anyone with a conscience can show you of what the Republicans showed you. The actual collapse of the smoking towers.

A fleeting image of what might have been a victim leaping to his death from a thousand feet up. And something new. From this angle, ground-level, perfectly framed, images, of the fireball created when the second plane hit the second tower.

It was terrifying. After all its object was to terrify. Not to commemorate, not to call for unity, not to remember the dead. But to terrify.

To open again the horrible wounds, to brand the skin of this nation with the message — as hateful as the terrorists’ own, that you must vote Republican or this will happen again and you will die.

And just in case that was not enough, to also dishonestly and profanely conflate 9/11 with the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, to stoke the flames of paranoia about another Middle Eastern Nation.

This was a 9/11 Tribute. Not to the dead, nor to the unity. But a tribute to how valuable 9/11 has been as a political tool for the Republican Party. 9/11… (TM.)

Sen. McCain, you had promised us a clean campaign. You could be Snow-White the rest of the way, Sir, yet that manipulative videotape from your convention should tar you always in the minds of decent Americans.

And still, as this seventh 9/11 (TM) approaches that, Sir, is not the worst of your contributions to the utter politicizing of a day that should be sacrosanct to all of us.

Hard to believe, but the Senator has done worse with 9/11 and the evil behind it.

We heard it last week in Minnesota, we’ve heard it off and on since January but Senator McCain said it most concisely in June.

“Look,” he said. “I know the area, I’ve been there, I know wars, I know how to win wars, and I know how to improve our capabilities so that we will capture Osama bin Laden — or put it this way, bring him to justice. We will do it. I know how to do it.”

Sen. McCain seems to be quite serious, that he and he alone, not the CIA, nor the U.S. Military, nor the current President  can capture bin Laden.

Thus we must take him at his word, that this is no mere ludicrous campaign boast.

We must assume Sen. McCain truly believes he is capable of doing this, and has been capable of doing this, since last January. “We will capture Osama bin Laden… we will do it. I know how to do it.”

Well then, Senator, you’d better go and do it hadn’t you?

Because, Sir, if a man or woman in this nation, Democrat or Republican, had a clear and effective means o
f capturing or killing Osama bin Laden…

If that person had been advertising his claim, Senator for eight months.

But if that person not only refused to go to responsible authorities in government and advise them of this plan to catch bin Laden, but further announced he would not even begin to enact this secret plan to corral the world’s most hated man until the end of next January.

What would be your description of such an individual, Senator? Charlatan? Do-nothing? Opportunist? Sen. McCain, if you have, if you have had a means of capturing Osama bin Laden, and you do not immediately inform some responsible authority of the full scope of that plan, you are to some degree great or small aiding and abetting Osama bin Laden.

If you could assist in capturing him now, Sen. McCain, but you have chosen not to you, Sir, have helped Osama bin Laden stay free.

Free to inspire and supervise the terrorists. Free to plan or execute attacks here.

You, Sir, are blackmailing some portion of the American electorate into voting for your party, by promising to help in the capture of bin Laden only if you are made president!

I’d rather win an election than catch bin Laden! No more cynical calculation has ever been made in this nation’s history, Sir. If you lose the election, Senator, are you not going to tell the President-Elect?

Are you intending to keep this a secret until the next election and your party’s next nominee? Senator, as you and your Republicans shed your phony, crocodile, opportunistic tears tomorrow on 9/11 TM, in front of the utterly disingenuous banner “Country First,” the fact is, you have shown that it is John McCain first, and the country last.

The fact is, Sir, by holding out on your secret plan to catch bin Laden by searing those images into our collective wounded American psyche at your nomination last week, terrorists are not what you, John McCain, fight. Terrorists are what you, John McCain, use.

Amen and Amen. This is why I will not be voting Republican, ever.

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Libertarian Blogger attempts to make case for Obama….

Sorry, I’m not buying this one.

Marginal Revolution:

First, war.  War is the antithesis of the libertarian philosophy of consent, voluntarism and trade.  With every war in American history Leviathan has grown larger and our liberties have withered.  War is the health of the state. And now, fulfilling the dreams of Big Brother, we are in a perpetual war.

A country cannot long combine unlimited government abroad and limited government at home. The Republican party has become the party of war and thus the party of unlimited government.

With war has come FEAR, magnified many times over by the governing party. Fear is pulling Americans into the arms of the state. If only we were better at resisting. Alas, we Americans say that we love liberty but we are fair-weather lovers.  Liberty will flourish only with peace. 

Have libertarians gained on other margins in the past eight years? Not at all. Under the Republicans we have been sailing due South-West on the Nolan Chart – fewer civil liberties and more government, including the largest new government program in a generation, the Medicare prescription drug plan, and the biggest nationalization since the Great Depression. Tax cuts, the summum bonum of Republican economic policy, are a sham. The only way to cut taxes is to cut spending and that has not happened.

The libertarian voice has not been listened to in Republican politics for a long time. The Republicans take the libertarian wing of the party for granted and with phony rhetoric and empty phrases have bought our support on the cheap. Thus – since voice has failed – it is  time for exit.  Remember that if a political party can count on you then you cannot count on it.

Exit is the right strategy because if there is any hope for reform it is by casting the Republicans out of power and into the wilderness where they may relearn virtue. Libertarians understand better than anyone that power corrupts. The Republican party illustrates. Lack of power is no guarantee of virtue but Republicans are a far better – more libertarian – party out-of-power than they are in power. When in the wilderness, Republicans turn naturally to a critique of power and they ratchet up libertarian rhetoric about free trade, free enterprise, abuse of government power and even the defense of civil liberties.  We can hope that new leaders will arise in this libertarian milieu.

Nope, not buying this one at all. Why? I’ll tell you why, Because Barack Obama is the MOST liberal senator, and that’s left of Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi according to the National Journal.  I am sorry, I am not, I repeat, I am NOT voting for an outright socialist. This man, wants to punish the rich for the failures of the current administration, that’s the whole tax the rich, and give to the poor, that is the whole entire new Democrat platform. Well, really, it is not new, Ronald Reagan noted it in 1964:

“……Last February 19 at the University of Minnesota, Norman Thomas, six-time candidate for President on the Socialist Party ticket, said, "If Barry Goldwater became President, he would stop the advance of socialism in the United States." I think that’s exactly what he will do.

As a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas isn’t the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism with the present administration. Back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his party was taking the party of Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. And he walked away from his party, and he never returned to the day he died, because to this day, the leadership of that party has been taking that party, that honorable party, down the road in the image of the labor socialist party of England. Now it doesn’t require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? Such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment. Our Democratic opponents seem unwilling to debate these issues. They want to make you and I believe that this is a contest between two men…that we are to choose just between two personalities.” — Address on behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater – Rendezvous with Destiny – October 27, 1964

I cannot, as a Christian, As a Libertarian, As a Independent Conservative, in good conscience, vote for a man who holds to that sort political philosophy. Some may disagree, but this Blogger an voter, is not swayed, and I will voting for what I believe in, come November 4, 2008.

There's a fine line between reporting the facts and desperation

….and wise is the man, that knows the difference between the two.

Someone needs to tell that to the Washington Post.

The Washington Post reports:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office,
charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd,
has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children’s travel expenses, Garnero said: “We cover the expenses of anyone who’s
conducting state business. I can’t imagine kids could be doing that.”

The problem with that, in the same article it says:

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her
official “duty station” is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin’s expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family
could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

“As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state,” she said. “It’s
absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events.”

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor’s office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: “The
governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it.”

and about her kids:

Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor’s children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. “The first
family declined the per diem [for] the children,” Leighow said. “The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5.”

and the money quote:

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent
the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her
campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

Now, she didn’t sell it on E-Bay, she sold it through a broker, at a loss no less, but this idiotic stuff, is just that, idiotic. There’s no scandal here. She took the money, because she was entitled to it.

Looks like the MSM is really desperate for a story and they went with this. They’re channeling the New York Times here, and it could come back to haunt them.

I concur fully….

This via Instapundit

NICE V.P. CHOICE, KID. DON’T GET COCKY. Lots of Republicans are excited about the Palin pick. My email is full of stuff (if I missed your email, sorry — I’ve been flooded even by my usual drinking-from-a-firehose standards), Memeorandum is overrun with items, and the enthusiasm of the G.O.P. grassroots is at levels that would have seemed impossible just a couple of weeks ago. But I think that Republicans should be careful about launching a cult of Sarah Palin. She’s the V.P. pick, not the head of the ticket. She’s still a relative newcomer to national politics. She’s virtually sure to commit at least one major mistake between now and November. And — yes, I know I said this before — she’s the V.P. pick, not the head of the ticket. The Dems built a cult around Barack Obama. It energized some folks, but it ultimately backfired. Republicans might want to restrain themselves just a bit, here.

I could not have put it better myself. The worst thing that the Republican Party could do right now, is the same thing that the Democrats are doing with Obama. Especially when stuff like this comes out, in the Wall Street Journal:

The Bridge to Nowhere argument isn’t going much of anywhere.

Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government “thanks but no thanks” to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state.

The McCain campaign released a television advertisement Monday morning titled “Original Mavericks.” The narrator of the 30-second spot boasts about the pair: “He fights pork-barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere.”

Gov. Palin, who John McCain named as his running mate less than two weeks ago, quickly adopted a stump line bragging about her opposition to the pork-barrel project Sen. McCain routinely decries.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain (right) and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, at a campaign rally in Lee’s Summit, Mo.

But Gov. Palin’s claim comes with a serious caveat. She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.

“We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge,” Gov. Palin said in August 2006, according to the local newspaper, “and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.” The bridge would have linked Ketchikan to the airport on Gravina Island. Travelers from Ketchikan (pop. 7,500) now rely on ferries.

A year ago, the governor issued a press release that the money for the project was being “redirected.”

“Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer,” she said. “Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened.”

On Monday in Missouri, Gov. Palin put it this way: “I told Congress thanks but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere. If the state wanted to build a bridge we would built it ourselves.”

Something tells me, this whole narrative, as Peggy Noonan put it, could blow up in the Republicans faces. I’d be very careful, if I were them.

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Blogs for Borders for September 8, 2008

I missed this earlier today….:

Our weekly vlog — podcast on illegal immigration and border security. in this weeks edition…

Election 2008: What is SarahPalin’s position on illegal immigration, amnesty and border security and does it matter?

Thank you! We take a moment to thnk you who are working so hard for this nation.

100% Preventable! Americans continue to pay the bloody price for open borders, when will the madness end?

Video:

Download for your Ipod here.

Make sure to visit our sponsor….


Click on image


If you’d like to sponsor a show contact us here.

This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you’d like to join find out how right here.

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, open borders, deportation, amnesty, vlog, podcast, invasion, insanity, mexico, rape, murders

Post McCain/Plain Speech poll bounce, But what’s it’s term?

Short Term or Long Term? that, my friends, is the question of the hour.

According to the latest Gallop poll, John McCain is taken a nice 5 point lead, above the 2% margin of error, over Barack Obama.

Quote:

John McCain leads Barack Obama, 49% to 44%, in the immediate aftermath of the Republican National Convention, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking results.

These results are based on Sept. 5-7 interviewing, and are the first in which all interviews were conducted following the completion of the GOP convention. Immediately prior to the convention’s Sept. 1 start, Aug. 29-31 interviewing showed McCain with 43% support among registered voters, compared with 49% today. Thus, Gallup credits McCain with a six-point convention bounce.

That is slightly better than Barack Obama’s four-point bounce from 45% in Aug. 22-24 polling before the Democratic National Convention started to 49% immediately after it concluded. Since 1964, the typical convention bounce has been five percentage points.

Here are the charts:

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This really nothing new because there’s been a bounce like this since 1964:

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Like I wrote yesterday. the big question is, will this bounce on McCain’s part be short term or long term? I’m sure that John McCain and the Republican Party is betting the farm that the bounce will remain and John McCain will simply glide into the White House. However, this is not 1980 and John McCain is not Ronald Reagan, neither is Sarah Palin, I mean, she’s a good speaker, and kinda cute, for an older Woman, but she’s no Reagan. Plus, the country is in a much different shape; politically and financially, plus, I think it is just a different world, we have two wars, that America wants to just see ended, preferably with good results.

Which leads me to my next point. I simply do not understand why Adam McKay had this Nuclear melt down on The Huffington Post. I mean, let’s not discount the Democratic Party or Barack Obama until the damn polls close on Novemeber 4, 2008, please. We’re very early in this race.

The best advice or comment that I can give, is watch the polls for the next few weeks, is about all I can truly say here. The long term polls will tell the story. I think that if Obama wants to regain his lead, he has to drive the point home the point that the Republican Party IS the Party of George W. Bush. They will have remind Americans of the nonsense of the Bush Administration, on FISA, on the Attorney General scandal, Valerie Plume gate, and on and on…. They need to remind America about John McCain’s ties to lobbyists, even possibly infer that he slept with one, They also need to remind and tell America how Sarah Palin lied about the Jet, her flip-flop on the bridge to nowhere and so on. That is what will win this.

So, the bottom line is:

This is a very early poll and there’s many more to come, before November 4, 2008.

Others: Hot Air, JammieWearingFool, Ace of Spades HQ, and more via Memeorandum

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Palin Makes Her First Gaffe, or perhaps not….

Sam Stein is wetting his pants with glass that Palin supposedly Made Her First Gaffe.

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend. Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The companies, as McClatchy reported, “aren’t taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization.

Well, there’s only one little problem with that whole thing. It was not exactly a gaffe at all. Because now that the United States Government has bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it is going to start costing the tax payers money, not to mention that it will cause housing prices to rise, to cover the bailout. After all, the Government will have to cover that loss.

So, it looks like, while she might have been wrong in the past. In this case, considering what has happened to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Palin was absolutely correct.

Others:
michellemalkin.com, McClatchy Washington Bureau, The Corner, Hot Air

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MSNBC removes Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from election coverage

I hate to say this, But I kind of knew this was coming, I just did not know when.

Via The New York Times:

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.

Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.

The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.

“In a rapidly changing media environment, this is the great philosophical debate,” Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, said in a telephone interview Saturday. Fighting the ratings game, he added, “the bottom line is that we’re experiencing incredible success.”

But as the past two weeks have shown, that success has a downside. When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted “NBC.”

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

You all most likely were thinking that I was going to terribly upset about this and was going to write a huge raging editorial about it. Well, guess again. I’m fully aware of Matthew’s and Olbermann’s editorial positions. Quite frankly, I am surprised that they even allowed Olbermann on there, during the election coverage. I mean, Chris is left of center, but Olbermann is obviously left wing all the way. I don’t think he’s far left, but far enough to make the Republicans feel uncomfortable with him. Which means he was really doing his job. The problem was, he was doing his job, when he was supposed to be neutral. I will admit, it is hard to choke back an opinion, especially when you’ve got some right wing gas bag, or shall I say, Republican gas bag, running a damn line, and you know he’s full of shit. It’s tough not to speak out.

The reason I like Keith Olbermann, as I said once before, I like Keith Olbermann because he gives a damn about our Constitution. Because it is quite obvious to this Libertarian-leaning, Paleo-Conservative, that Neo-Conservative Bush and Co. have totally trampled all over that damned Constitution. This is why I watched Keith’s show, not because I agreed with all of his Politics, but because I wanted to watch someone who wasn’t trying to kiss king George W. Bush’s ass on the air every night, like they do over on the Rupert Murdoch stooge network.

I’ll be straight and honest with you, I’m a Moderate Libertarian Conservative, but I totally find Joe Scarborough to be just an absolute asshole. I mean, I don’t know how the hell Mika Brzezinski does it. Scarborough is the perfect example of an damn male chauvinistic blowhard. The pay must be damn good for her to sit next to that guy and listen to his idiotic bullshit. This is why I do not watch the network in the mornings.

Anyhow, there’s my take on it.

The reactions are as expected, with the Republican Neo-Conservatives wetting themselves with glee, as usual and the left a bit ticked, but not all of them. and here they are: Hot Air, TalkLeft, Townhall.com, michellemalkin.com, Olbermann Watch, The WIZARD, fkap, First Draft, Little Green Footballs, Founding Bloggers, Liberal Values, The Confluence, Commentary, Patterico’s Pontifications, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Ace of Spades HQ, TVNewser, NewsBusters.org, MyDD, The Sundries Shack, The Other McCain, The Campaign Spot, Oliver Willis, Macsmind, Wizbang, AMERICAblog News and The Strata-Sphere and more via Memeorandum

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Muslims Desecrate and Urinate in Jerusalem Holy Site

(H/T to WorldNetDaily)

The Story Via Israel National News:

Video:

Quote:

The Cave of the Patriarchs is the tomb of the biblical founders of the Jewish faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their wives, Sarah, Rivka, and Leah.

The desecration occurred on one of the 10 days during the year that the holy site is open only to Muslims and is closed to Jews. The same arrangement also is accorded to Jews on 10 holy Jewish days.

Uri Karzen, a Hevron resident, reported that a Kohen, who recites the priestly blessings during the Sabbath morning service, told him he smelled urine next to the Holy Ark containing Torah scrolls. Karzen and other worshippers moved the table, where the Torah scrolls are placed during the reciting of the portion of the week, in order to avoid the foul smell.

This sort of thing is totally disgusting. It is also a reason why I have zero use for Muslims and their crazy Satanic Religion. As it says in that Video report, if the Jews had done this to Muslims, it would be all over the Liberal News, but because it is Muslims doing it to Jews, nobody cares. In fact, according the video, the local police even doubted that it even happened. What idiotic nonsense! Conservatives and Christians should be lighting up the media phones and demanding that they report this.

I must wonder, would B. Hussein Obama approve of something this repulsive? He’d most likely want to give those Muslims a medal.

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