Inflating my tires… of COURSE!!! Why didn’t I think of this! I mean, we could’ve just avoided the whole hybrid craze and just gone straight to this solution… think how much money we would have saved by now. Gas would probably be at a Buck-75 right now with these kinds of solutions…

Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign

So Obama gave this speech in Berlin… here’s exactly what I thought when reading through it… you won’t get a clearer picture in to my mind than this folks…

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

YO, Germans! Don’t worry, I’m not a hard-core American Exceptionalist… we’re cooo… and I totally would have made this speech even if I weren’t a candidate for president… nobody would have came to hear me… but I totally would have done it… my candidacy had absolutely NOTHING to do with it. Just a normal citizen… making a speech… right up.

I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my grandfather – was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

By the way, I’m black (didn’t know if you knew that, so I thought I’d mention it)… and I’ve got European blood in my family… sort of… fyi.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning – his dream – required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

That is why I’m here.

Well, actually, I’m kind of hear for campaign purposes… to prove I’m no newbie on foreign policy…

And you are here because you too know that yearning.

Or maybe because the 2 most popular German Bands gave free shows… but I’ll just assume you would have came anyway… I AM Barack Obama, after all. I’m a rock Staaarrr!

This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.

I’m not too kean on Americans and Iraqi’s struggling to accomplish the same dream though… It’s just so not-cool anymore.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof…

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city…

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

All this talk though about radical Islam taking over the Middle East and Europe…. OVERRATED.

**editors note** Obama, you IDOT… you don’t see the same threat Radical Islam posed and the incredible DANGER posed by retreating from Iraq??? How on earth can you use this analogy without grave self-reflection on YOUR Iraq policy positions–policies which would have left Iraq and the Middle East in the very thralls of it’s OWN civil war???? You think retreat from Berlin would have been a disaster but from Iraq would have been the RIGHT THING???? You’re KIDDING me, right!???

And that’s when the airlift began – when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies…

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning.

It wasn’t the 300 tons of food and supplies flown into the country EVERY DAY by British and American servicemen that kept the flame of hope burning… no, it was the people of Berlin–flaming that flame of hope with their own scrap wood they burned to stay warm….

The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won… The people of Berlin have spoken.

Pope John Paul the Second? President Regan’s economic and military buildup plan and his “tear down this wall” speech? Pleeeassee… those people were barely involved with the fall of the Berlin wall! ANY historian will tell you it was the people and Mayor of Berlin that caused the wall to fall.

We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty…People of the world, look at Berlin

Don’t look at Iraq though… or America for OUR role in “keeping the flame of hope burning”…whatever you do… DON’T LOOK. Because when all is said and done… America just is far more flawed than Germany on these important issues of human freedom…

Read the rest of this entry »

First, Hitchens is getting a bit embarrassing… he claims that salamanders which have lost their eyes because they have no need of them… are somehow proof positive that evolution exists. As I have already pointed out @ vodkapundit.com,

I would posit that the ability to DEGENERATE, or to loose things are what we should EXPECT in a degenerative world. Even with the existence of genetic mutation (which obviously happens to a lesser or greater degree), we creationists EXPECT to see degenerative mutation.

Hitchens pointing out a degenerative mutation as “proof” of evolution seems a bit counter-productive if you ask me. Using the example of a genetic failure to prove evolutionary progress is not even an argument…

I’ve got an idea… let’s move all these critters up to the surface… and see how many millions of years it will take them to re-develop eyes again… (o wait, they wouldn’t survive long enough for us to find out).

Secondly, have you been following Obama’s European tour? Partisanship aside, I must give Kudos to Omama’s campaign staff… these are top-notch political animals. Watching the event was almost surreal; 200,000 people gathering in Germany to watch a US Senator give a speach? It’s just crazy! But, that’s just the point right??? it IS CRAZY… the FRENZY surrounding Obama’s visit is NOT RATIONAL. This guy is an American Senator with no record, no experience, who doesn’t even SPEAK German… it would be like Angela Merkel coming over to speak in D.C.  There isn’t a CHANCE 200K people would show up to hear her.  Something is fishy…

from the American Thinker…

Maliki said that those advocating a withdrawal where Americans come out “sooner rather than later” are being more “realistic.

So, we’re going. But why are the Democrats making such a huge deal out of Maliki’s statements? They are giddy with joy over the fact that Maliki is acting like the independent head of a sovereign country when just two years ago they were saying exactly the opposite.

Which is it? Is Maliki a puppet or is he independent? Obviously, when Maliki isn’t doing what Democrats want he is a puppet. When his ideas reflect their thinking, he isn’t.

Wow, what sophistication. Such nuance.

Hypocrites.

That about sums it up. What can I say? Obama isn’t brave enough to ever give an unqualified withdrawal statement (except when he didn’t think he had a chance in the early primaries and decided to go for the kook-left vote) — he is always careful to leave “the details” for later… especially the important details like whether or not Iraq is a pivotal part of the West’s middle-east peace strategy… or whether or not we should keep enough troops there to keep Al Qaeda from rearing its ugly head… or whether or not the surge was a success (the very strategy he claims doesn’t work in Iraq is he is proposing for Afghanistan… ya, I’m in the dark on this one too)— Yes, these are the “details” he can always use to completely renege on his position at the moment it is politically expedient for him to do so.

Hypocrite…

I was reading an article documenting the fall of Fannie and Freddie May (the banks) and thought it would be a good opportunity to point out a couple things. First, I couldn’t help but notice that the 3 or so specific people the Times article references as sounding the early warning bells were all republicans… Jim Leach, Richard Baker,  and Alan Greenspan… which isn’t surprising,but I digress…

What we should all learn from this mess is the consequences of government involvement in the private sector!  Look at the consequences!  The government gave Fannie Mae all possible advantages… and yet it still failed because the senators that wanted to use it as a social tool could not grasp the underlying economic realities involved with giving loans to unqualified individuals.  Look what happens when the desire to “help” an American family “realize the American dream of home ownership”…. You harm EVERYBODY IN THE PROCESS.

This sort of liberal control of the private sector inevitably fails because the short-term interests of politicians are ALWAYS GREATER Than the long-term stability of any government institution.  Keep this in mind the next time government wants to RUN HEALTH CARE… or SOCIAL SECURITY…. just remember what happens when a sheltered institution is run by politicians… it’s FAR WORSE than the alternatives… ENRON wasn’t pretty, but it was nothing in comparison to the financial loss under the Government’s watchful eye.

Krauthammer NAILS it.  Obama might be the most narcissistic candidate we have EVER had run for President.

Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted “present” nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.

Ok… quick plug: this may be the best movie I’ve seen this year. The plot: A French James Bond. Nuff said.

A while back I stumbled across a blog called Where’s the Outrage (can’t even remember how)… and I’ve been having an interesting argument discussion with the author, Mr. Thompson, about the advantages/disadvantages of drilling for oil.  Feel free to join in on the discussion if you want…

Anyway, he seems like a nice guy… despite my pestering.  Might as well give his blog a visit.  He’s even got his own podcast!

Maybe Iraq WAS pursuing yellow-cake in Niger (even though Joe Wilson LIED about it) and maybe Saddam did, in fact, intend to re-build his NUCLEAR WMD program…

But don’t believe me… believe the Associated Press

Bush took threats seriously… demanded dictators live up to even the most fundamental principles of international law… and got lambasted by the Democrat party because of it. When will they apologize for being wrong? When will they apologize for slandering our president?

Great reading over at the Wall Street Journal

This last item is, of course, a forecast, not an empirical observation. But it raises a useful question: If even slight global cooling remains evidence of global warming, what isn’t evidence of global warming? What we have here is a nonfalsifiable hypothesis, logically indistinguishable from claims for the existence of God. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist, or that global warming isn’t happening. It does mean it isn’t science.

(Victims of Terrorism PSA Announcement)

45 innocent Israeli civilians inured in bulldozer terrorist attack in Jerusalem…

3 killed.

(O, and this is after the Palestinians signed a cease-fire agreement).   I’m going to start keeping track of these figures starting today…and give running updates.  How many innocent civilians have to suffer before you cut Israel some slack?  I’m not even asking you to AGREE with them… just cut them some slack.  I’m going to keep posting these indefinitely…  so get used to them.  We’ll see how many it takes.

Obama ‘house-parties’ seem to be all the rage these days… although I’ve never been to one, I can only imagine how oddly embarrassing it must be to host and/or attend one of these events… meeting with like-minded people to consume an “Obamlet” with “Baraccoli” just doesn’t strike me as a very natural setting… and I’m not entirely sure what kind of appetite I’d have even if I were to subject myself to such an uncomfortable evening.

But just because I’ve never been to one, doesn’t mean I couldn’t develop a pretty decent idea of what one might be like. Here’s a brief snippet of one possible conversation:

Bill: Hey Fred, welcome to my Obama house party!

Fred: O, thanks, Fred. I brought some `Baraccoli` salad [chuckles] and some `husseinsational` brownies for dessert!

Fred: OOO SNAP!

[chuckles all around]..

Bill: [still suppressing some chuckles] Brilliant! I’m sure they will go great with the `Michellefish` sampler Joe brought…

[chuckles all around]..

Fred: Brilliant!

Bill: O, hey Joe!

Joe: Hey, wow, isn’t this great… I mean, why didn’t we think of this before… our wives always have parties for their tupperware or longenberger basket-thingees, I think its about time we threw our own party to celebrate the change that we need for this country..

Bill: Ya, DEFINITELY… we need change, that’s for sure….

Fred: Toootally… for real… I mean, like, if we don’t get any change, than, things will just go on being, like, the same..

Joe: uh, YAAA, that’s what I was saying.

Fred: Totally!

Bill: Ya, Fred, you are SO right.

Joe: well, enough with the deep political chit-chat… Seriously, just thinking about Barack makes me hungry! I can’t wait for the [raises eyebrows and intonation] OBAMAlets!!!

[a round of 'O, snaps!' followed by chuckles all around]..

–END OF CONVERSATION–

Man, ohh man… gag me with a fork… Can you just imagine the left-coast, elitist atmosphere at one of these events? Furthermore, are these ridiculous meet-ups going to have ANY impact on people’s opinions OTHER THAN to make them more quickly associate Obama with Food? This is just a few cards short of a workable campaign idea if you ask me.