Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

THOMAS SOWELL: THE REAL OBAMA

Some excerpts:(my emphases):

Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just people who happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things you do. You choose allies deliberately for a reason. The kind of allies you choose says something about you.

Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers, and Antoin Rezko are not just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as Barack Obama. They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years, and with some of whom some serious money changed hands.

Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama’s election campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or the taxpayers’ money to some of them. That is a familiar political alliance — but an alliance is not just an “association” from being at the same place at the same time.  

Keep reading... 

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY - ILLUSTRATES THE DEMISE OF FREE EXPRESSION (NOT TO MENTION SANITY) ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

Paul Mirengoff writes:

From Nat Hentoff, via the Weekly Standard's scrapbook, comes the latest evidence of the demise of free expression (not to mention sanity) on college campuses:

At Brandeis University. . .professor Donald Hindley, on the faculty for 48 years, teaches a course on Latin American politics. Last fall, he described how Mexican migrants to the United States used to be discriminatorily called "wetbacks." An anonymous student complained to the administration accusing Mr. Hindley of using prejudicial language. It was the first complaint against him in 48 years.

After an investigation, during which Mr. Hindley was not told the nature of the complaint, Brandeis Provost Marty Krauss informed Mr. Hindley that "The University will not tolerate inappropriate, racial and discriminatory conduct by members of its faculty." A corollary accusation was that students suffered "significant emotional trauma" when exposed to such a term. An administration monitor was assigned to his class. Threatened with "termination," Mr. Hindley was ordered to take a sensitivity-training class.

Though named for one of the greatest exponents of free speech ever, it's not surprising to see Brandeis in the vanguard of the assault on campus freedom (when my daughter attended an information at Brandeis, the admission's officer boasted that Angela Davis and Abbie Hoffman are alums). But if I had replaced "Brandeis" in Hentoff's piece with most any well known private college in the U.S., would you have been surprised at the report? 

Me:  You can't help but be impressed by the courage (cough!) shown by faculty colleagues.  Hentoff says, "Individual tenured members of his department, though outraged, would not stand up publicly on his behalf. One of them explained to him, "I'm about to retire." He and others fear retaliation."  

HOW GOVERNMENT HELPED CREATE THE CREDIT CRASH

Ian Murray lists 12 articles that show how government is a major culprit. He says

The fact is that short-sighted government policies distorted the market in the first place. Bankers were certainly to blame for responding to these signals from government in the hope of a quick buck, but at its base, much of the problem was caused by government.

THE OBAMA - AYERS RELATIONSHIP

 - The GOP lays it out in a dispassionate, completely sourced way. 

- The New York Times is in the tank for Obama (surprise?) Very few know more about the Obama-Ayers relationship than Stanley Kurtz, and he uncovers the Times' whitewash/coverup.  Keep reading... [I am responsible for the occasional bold print and underlining]

MICHELLE OBAMA'S BOSS SAYS SHE WAS "PERENIALLY DISSATISFIED"

Michelle Malkin has the story.  Malkin says "Once a whiner, always a whiner" and "grievance-mongering: It’s in Michelle Obama’s DNA". 

MARK LEVIN: TIME TO END THE OBAMA FAN-DANCE

Levin writes:

. . . Obama is not merely associated with domestic terrorists, Palestinian radicals, Marxists, and black liberation ideologues — he was their favorite candidate. They groomed him. They befriended him. He befriended them. He socialized with them. In other words, these people saw Obama as representing their views and aspirations and he saw them the same way. I am not among those who raise Obama's associations but add

THE McCAIN SPEECH THAT WAS A LONG TIME COMING . . .

but now, thank goodness, has finally arrived.  Here McCain lays out charges against Obama that are perfectly legitimate and completely true.   Keep reading...

- Video here.

BIDEN'S FANTASY WORLD

- See this important Wall Street Journal editorial. 

- Update: Joe Biden's health care whopper.  (HT: Ramesh Ponnuru)

AN AD THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE

Byron York of National Review Online recently asked Alex Castellanos, the widely-acknowledged master of the genre, what ad McCain needs to produce. (He's not taking part in this presidential campaign).  His answer:

When this country and this economy are so near the precipice, do we really want to be driving a car with two accelerators and no brake?  A Democratic Congress and a Democratic president like Barack Obama?  A complete, unrestricted blank check for inexperienced radical leadership in Washington?

In short, let voters suffer buyer's remorse now, before the purchase.

IS BARACK OBAMA MAINSTREAM?

Peter Kirsanow suggests that most Americans would say of themselves:

• My career was not launched with the assistance of an unrepentant terrorist.
• My pastor has never said "God damn America."
• I don't think our troops are "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians."
• My spouse doesn't think America is a "downright mean country."
• I've never sat on a board with an unrepentant terrorist.
• I've never directed millions of dollars to radical organizations.
• I've never opposed requiring medical care for babies who are born alive.
• I bought my home without assistance from a convicted felon.
• I've never taken my kids to a church whose pastor thinks AIDS was created by the government.

If Obama's mainstream, most Americans are extremists.

BIBLE BEING READ CONTINUOUSLY AT THE VATICAN

If you know Italian you can listen (and see) the Bible being read continuously at the Vatican.  Mike Potema tells us "it's part of a kickoff for a Synod of Bishops focusing on the role of the Bible in the Church."

DEREGULATION IS THE WRONG SCAPEGOAT

Sebastian Mallaby explains why.

(HT: Rich Lowry at the Corner)

RICH LOWRY ON GOV. PALIN "PROJECTING THROUGH THE SCREEN"

Lowry writes: 

A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.     [my emphases]

Me:  Ha ha...   I got a kick out of Lowry's post.

B.S. STANDS FOR "BIDEN SAYS"

Jonah Goldberg has some choice statements for Biden's predilection for making up "facts" which have no relationship to reality.  He writes [emphases mine]:

McCain's Health-Care Plan Explained

Yuval Levin of National Review's Corner blog writes:

My colleague James Capretta, one of the great conservative health care mavens, offers on his superb health policy blog Diagnosis a very helpful example to illustrate the logic of the McCain health care proposal, and to help explain why Biden’s criticism of it last night makes no sense. If you want a clear sense of how the plan would work in practice, read this.

Me:  The Obama/Biden ticket seems committed to dissemble and foist deceptions on a gullible public.

DEMOCRAT RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEBACLE AT FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC

I have noted before the Democrat responsibility for the debacle at Fannie May and Freddie Mac and the reluctance of the McCain/Palin ticket to get specific and go after the culprits. 

Now the NRCC has put up an ad that finally does the job.  Click here.  You gotta see this.  It names names of the guilty ones on the Democratic roster related to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (HT: Stephen Spruiell at the Corner)

Note also the facts and figures assembled by Andy McCarthy:

Executive compensation:

Franklin Raines (Obama adviser and Fannie CEO 1999-2004):  $90 million

Jim Johnson (Obama adviser and Fannie CEO 1991-1998): $21 million in 1998 alone — which, as Byron has detailed, was initially concealed from the public) (I haven't been able to find, in a quick search, how many more millions he made from 1991-1997)

Jamie Gorelick (former Clinton administration Deputy AG & Fannie vice chair 1998-2003): $26 million.

Campaign Contributions

Barack Obama, though only in the Senate since 2004, took in $126,349 from Fannie & Freddie (second only to Sen. Chris Dodd, $165,400 — whose collections go back to 1989). 

Taxpayer Liability Increase

Potentially $5 trillion.

 

WHY McCAIN GOES EASY ON FANNIE AND THE CRA

James Pethokoukis writes convincingly here.  (HT: Michelle Malkin).  Pethokoukis writes:

Here is the big question of the moment that many GOPers are asking: Why is John McCain not tearing into Barack Obama and the Dems on the huge role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act in the financial crisis on Wall Street? In fact, the biggest criticism by conservatives of Sarah Palin's debate performance last night was that she had the opportunity to talk about Fannie/Freddie and the CRA but instead criticized the role of "predatory lenders."

Keep reading for the answers  . . .

ON THE GOV. PALIN - SEN. BIDEN DEBATE . . . ROOKIE PALIN ROCKS!

I'll probably be posting more tomorrow, but for now, I like Andy McCarthy's statement:

Watching her is fun.  It's like watching a rookie who's taken the league by storm and is hitting .290, and you just know that in two years, she'll be hitting .340 ... while Biden is hitting .210 and belongs back in Double A.

Me: When I first read that statement, I mistook "Biden" for "McCain."  I think it works either way. 

- Michelle Malkin warns:

Prediction: Watch for a whole new, severe strain of Palin Derangement Syndrome to begin tonight.

They hated her before tonight. They are going to pour on more unfathomable hate at a level we have never seen before.   Sarah, we’re praying for you.

JUST HOW GOOD (OR BAD) IS JOE BIDEN ON FOREIGN POLICY?

Not good at all.  Andrew C. McCarthy dissects his record.

CONSERVATIVES ARE ASKING "WHEN WILL REPUBLICANS QUIT BEING WIMPS?"

Lots of conservatives are thinking along the lines Peter Kirsanow expresses [my emphases]:

. . . whether [Gwen] Ifill [vice-presidential debate moderator] betrays a bias in favor of Obama/Biden tonight is somewhat beside the point. I'll bet that it will be hard to detect any bias in the questions she asks or the manner in which she asks them. And that's precisely why her evident conflict of interest is so insidious. It's more often the questions that aren't asked that betray bias and unfairness.

Consider: I'd wager that if a poll had been conducted one year ago asking likely voters whether a candidate who had a working relationship with an unrepentant former terrorist had even the slightest chance of being elected president, at least 80% would answer "No." Yet here we are five weeks before the election and Obama leads in most polls. That isn't because of Obama's extraordinary accomplishments, his impressive experience or invincibly superior policies. It's because the media (with one exception) haven't asked Obama about his relationship with Ayers (among other thing).

Keep reading . . . 

OBAMA BUYS OWN SATELLITE TV CHANNEL

Click here.   (HT: Drudge) 

Update: via Michelle Malkin:

“DISH Network Channel 73 is paid advertising by the Obama campaign and is not an endorsement of Senator Obama by DISH Network. DISH Network made the same offer to the McCain campaign, an offer that remains open.”  Let me know if you have any questions!   Thanks,  Parker C. McConachie   Manager, Corporate Communications DISH Network L.L.C.

KEN TIMMERMAN - "SECRET, FOREIGN MONEY FLOODS INTO OBAMA CAMPAIGN"

Click here.   Opening paragraphs:

More than half of the whopping $426.9 million Barack Obama has raised has come from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won't disclose.

And questions have arisen about millions more in foreign donations the Obama campaign has received that apparently have not been vetted as legitimate.. .

And this:

It is the largest pool of unidentified money that has ever flooded into the U.S. election system, before or after the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms of 2002.

Much more . . .