Tag Archives: 2008 Election

2008 Election, Politics

Al Franken Draws A Crowd Of One

Yesterday, Al Franken, Democrat candidate challenging the Senate seat of Norm Coleman (R-MN) held a roundtable on veterans issues at Brigitte’s Cafe in St. Cloud. He drew only one participant.

The other odd thing about this ‘event’ is that the one veteran that did show up, said that he was satisfied with the services he received after registering for services.  Josh John, a St. Cloud resident who said he served in the Navy from 2000-04, and the only person who showed up for the roundtable discussion, said . . .

“My mom and my aunt eventually got me to talk with my county VSO. He got me registered with the VA and since then, I haven’t had a problem. I’ve gotten a lot of help, and every question I’ve gotten answered.”

Reminds me of the book signing that Cindy Sheehan had. Too bad there are no pictures of this event.

link: Veteran gets one-on-one chat with Franken

2008 Election, Media, Politics

John Edwards Admits To Affair

Friday afternoon, if you haven’t noticed, is when bad news tends to be released. Most people, the guilty hopes, will be concentrating on other things. And, if it is political in nature and about a democrat, the media may just overlook it as well. That is why Friday is a good time to pay close attention to the news.

Today’s news is from former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), former presidential candidate and potential VP choice for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), finally coming out and admitting that the long ignored and discredited story by the National Enquirer was true. Well, except that he is denying that he is the baby daddy of the child born Feb 27, 2008.

No longer can the affair be blamed on right-wing kooks spreading lies printed by the National Enquirer. Although that generally goes hand in hand with the media blackout on this subject. John Edwards will be on Nightline tonight to talk on the subject. Edwards is counting on you watching the Olympics.

UPDATE 8/8/08: Saw the interview. Edwards said that Ms. Hunter’s 6 month old baby was not his. Although Edwards said he would submit to a paternity test, it became apparent that Hunter probably would not. Curiously enough, Terry Moran failed to ask him whether he ever asked Ms. Hunter who the baby daddy was.

UPDATE 8/10/08: Edwards’ ex-mistress nixes paternity test

links: John Edwards Out Of VP Consideration | Sen. John Edwards Caught With Mistress And Love Child! | Edwards admits to affair, denies fathering child

2008 Election, Politics

Employee Free Choice Act, Part Two

The Employee Free Choice Act, which passed in the House but failed to pass in the Senate last year, is gaining steam again in the context of Barack Obama’s campaign.

This anti-free choice legislation passed the House. However, it failed to clear the Senate, where it obtained only 51 votes, nine short of what’s required to defeat a filibuster.

With the Democrats possibly in a position to gain nine or so Senate seats this year, the AFL-CIO has made anti-free choice legislation its number one election priority. Donald Lambro reports in the Washington Times that organized labor will spend (it is estimated) upward of $300 million in this year’s presidential and Congressional elections — much of it promoting the card-check bill and tying it to its Democratic supporters.

The Employee Free Choice Act has nothing to do with our national interest and everything to do with labor union interests. It is a bill to enhance union organization and membership by eliminating the private ballot. When was the last time you voted using a public ballot, where people will see how you voted when you vote? It flies in the face of the democratic process. And is totally supported by the Democrat(ic) party.

related links: Barack Obama — fighting to reduce worker free choice | Employee Free Choice Act, Dems’ Next Fraud | Employee No Choice Act Fails

2008 Election, Media, Politics, War On Terror

Obama Passes On Visiting Injured Troops, Do They Care?

Unless you’ve been incommunicado over the last two days, you know all the press being generated because the man who is running to be Commander in Chief chose not to visit injured soldiers in the largest military hospital outside of the United States. That would be the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. He also cancelled a trip to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The latter of which didn’t get as much coverage.

Obama’s behavior, and excuse for not visiting our (and his) troops there is quite upsetting to us here in the United States. Is there any curiosity to find out whether the troops in Germany care? My guess is that, on the whole, they are glad that he didn’t go.

2008 Election, Media, Politics

John Edwards Out Of VP Consideration

Under most circumstances, if you’re a married man having a ‘meeting’ with a single woman at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, you would have no chance for consideration to be Barack Obama’s running mate. Emphasis on ‘under most circumstances.’ For Bill Clinton, a little extramarital affair was a resume enhancement. But I don’t think that Clinton’s ‘pass’ will pass on to former senator John Edwards.

As always, you have to consider the source. OK, it is the National Enquirer. After that, you have to consider that they caught Edwards cold, down to the room numbers rented, who was in them, how both Edwards and Hunter got there, and how they left the hotel, and who drove them.

There is no evidence of what went on in the room between John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. After all, they could have been watching Keith Olbermann on TV. He could say ‘I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Hunter,’ and everything would be OK. But he is not saying a word about it to reporters. Edwards was in the room from 9:45 p.m. Pacific time last Monday until 2:40 a.m. Tuesday.

His leaving was more like an escape than anything else. And there were plenty of witnesses that were not employees of the tabloid.

Knowing he had been caught, Edwards did not leave through the lobby. He went down a stairwell and into a bathroom, possibly to comb his hair. Or maybe to call hotel security to escort him out of there without the reporters all over him. Security did go down there and he was escorted out. Coincidence?

You haven’t seen a word about this little adventure in the mainstream media have you? It is in the undernews media and the blogosphere. And the Obama campaign is aware of it. One thing is for sure, he isn’t on Obama’s short list for Vice-President any more.

related link: John Edwards Love Child | Sen. John Edwards Caught With Mistress And Love Child!

2008 Election, Media, Politics

Obama Speaks At Concert Venue In Berlin

Like what happened in Oregon a few months ago, which was also ignored by the media, the crowd of over 100,000 young people in Berlin today were there because of a day and night of rock concerts more than they were there to see Barack Obama. al-AP describes it this way . . .

Police estimated that more than 200,000 people came to watch the speech, according to The Associated Press.

Oddly enough, the estimates of the size of the crowd varies from between 100,000 and 200,000. I guess it depends on who you want to credit with the turnout, the concert performers or the American political performer, Barack Obama.

Wolf Blitzer’s report on the ‘Situation Room’ said that the crowd was there to see Barack. The truth is that they had no choice but to sit through Barack’s performance. Got to give his campaign credit for the image that the pictures of the crowd create, disingenuous as it is. Trouble with all that is, Barack isn’t running for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s job.

related link: CNN

2008 Election, Immigration, Judiciary, Media, Pensacola, Politics, War On Terror

Holebrooke Has It Wrong On McCain And Timetable

But that’s never stopped him before. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe show this morning, former Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke perpetuates the media spin about Iraqi PM alMaliki and the timetable and McCain. In speaking about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Holebrooke portrays McCain as being at odds with both Bush and alMaliki regarding a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq when they are all, in fact, on the same page.

The reality is that the timetable the three are in agreement with is more Table than Time, based on progress on the ground and political progress in Baghdad, not on the calendar. They next interviewed Andy Card, former Chief of Staff for Bush, who corrected Holebrooke’s spin. And much to their amusement, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski laughed at him.

What is most amusing, or disturbing, about the hosts on the show, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, is that they could not discern the difference between the two.

related link: Iraq’s Timetable Is More Table Than Time

2008 Election, Media, Politics, Race Relations

Jesse Jackson Shows His True Color

Stocks tumble in the race industry. Jesse Jackson’s stock that is. Affectionately called America’s beloved race pimp, the good Rev. Jackson took issue with first-term Sen. Barack Obama’s speech to a Black audience. It was a speech that was much the same as what Bill Cosby had said years ago. Fox has not released the transcript, but did say Jackson’s comment had to do with Obama telling them ‘how to behave.’

According to Fox, Jackson was referring to the audience in using the N-word. Jackson, like any entrepreneur, is seeing a rookie threaten his market share in the race business by making him irrelevant. And when you consider that Jackson is out for Jackson, and not Blacks, something like ‘Listen to him, he’s telling those n_____s how to behave’ would be a believable statement coming from Rev. Jackson.

One can’t rule out some personal animosity where Obama is concerned either. Obama, as far as we know, has not had a love child outside of his marriage like Rev. Jackson. In that respect, Obama is head and shoulders above Jackson.

About a year ago, Jesse Jackson and the NAACP buried the N-word in a mock funeral in Detroit. Now Rev. Jackson has resurrected it. But will he get the same treatment as Don Imus, Michael Richards, or George Allen?

Fox news showed great editorial restraint in not publishing the transcript. Their rationale is they can get the news out of the recording, which is Jackson’s hypocrisy and contempt for Blacks, without having to release the recording or the transcript.

Who thinks that the New York Times would have chosen that route if the offender was a republican, white or black? My guess is that there wouldn’t be anything else on the news until the guy was driven out of his job, if not charged with a hate crime. Or both.

related links:His Obama trauma speaks volumes about Jackson | Fox: Jackson used N-word in crude off-air remarks | NAACP delegates ‘bury’ N-word in ceremony | Jesse Jackson admits love child

2008 Election, Pensacola, Politics

Mental Recession And Its Whiners

Had to come to the defense of Sen. Phil Gramm for his comments about ‘mental recession’ and ‘whiners.’ After all, John McCain didn’t. Pensacola News Journal editor Carl Wernicke misses the big picture in his Gramm hit piece entitled ‘It’s all in our heads? Take a pill, get over it.‘ And where are these whiners Gramm was talking about anyway?

The ‘mental recession’ that Gramm was talking about was the one created by nearly 8 years of running down the Bush administration at every step of the way. A direct result of the effectiveness of how the media can shape, if not create, public opinion to mirror their own. So for that, you and others in the MSM can be proud of your success. But the antidote is simple. Don’t read the papers and it will go away.

Talk jobs? The big picture is unemployment still in the 5% range. Not all that bad.

Talk recession? Two quarters of negative growth. Haven’t yet had one month of negative growth.

Talk price of gas? The media’s party, the Democrat party, is responsible for preventing any increase in supply from happening starting with Bush’s first term. No, starting with Clinton’s first term.

There’s your mental recession.

The whiners? (Enter number here) Americans don’t have (enter Democrat entitlement here). There they are.

related links: It’s all in our heads? Take a pill, get over it. | What Was So Bad About What Phil Gramm Said?

2008 Election, Politics, Uncategorized

McCain Campaign Needs A Clue About ANWR

Need proof that the McCain campaign is misleading their candidate? The place where the drilling would be looks nothing like the Grand Canyon or the Everglades as even John McCain himself would see, if he had a clue. Here he is making a complete fool of himself at a town hall-style meeting Wednesday at Missouri State University in Springfield. McCain said . . .

I’ll be glad to review over time in light of changing world events on any issue. But I also believe that the ANWR is a pristine place and if they found oil in the Grand Canyon, I don’t think I’d drill in the Grand Canyon.

McCain says that if the people in Louisiana want to drill off of their shore, that’s fine. And if the people of Florida want to do that too, that’s also fine. Well, the people in Alaska want to drill in ANWR. OOPS! Now it’s not fine?

Some things are worth repeating, and debunking the myths about ANWR is one of them. The media and the environmentalists will show you the prettiest pictures of the reserve, then actually tell you that this is where BIG OIL wants to drill.

This is the coastal plain, the place designated for oil exploration. ANWR Coastal Plain

And this is the coastal plain in the spring.

Coastal Plain in ANWR

And this is representative of pictures that the media and environmentalists will show you and why we need to save the planet. This also appears to be Sen. McCain’s view as well.

ANWR protected wilderness

Somebody ought to physically take John McCain to ANWR. Then I’d be interested to see if the added information would be enough for him re-consider his position on not drilling there.

So what does that say for Sen. McCain’s, I don’t know, judgement?, inquisitiveness?, malleability?

related links: NYT blog | McCain on YouTube video | What ANWR Really Looks Like video