Have you seen the news? Have you been watching the financial sector self-destruct? Did you hear about the latest $85 billion bailout of AIG? Did you hear Dana Perino’s briefing from the White House today? Here’s a little exchange that caught my attention:

Begin transcript

“Q And to the people who say, you know what, AIG should have failed so that you clean out the system and you don't delay whatever recovery -- you have a bottom and you start to move up. What do you say to that?

MS. PERINO: Well, we remain concerned about other companies, and that's why the Secretary of the Treasury continues to work with the team to see if we can stem any other losses.

But they're -- as I said, they're taking this on a case-by-case basis, and we will have to continue to do so; at the same time, looking at what we do to make sure that the taxpayers, to the greatest extent possible, are protected. But the considered judgment here was that if you don't take the recommendations of the senior economic advisors, who are very experienced and have decided on decisive action that can help stem the tide of broader economic damage, that that's the best thing that we can do to try to help protect all taxpayers in the long run.

[W]e are dealing with very challenging times and Secretary Paulson -- I'm sorry, the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and the President's economic advisors had determined that there were some -- some of these companies were so big that to allow them to fail would have caused even greater harm and damage to the economy.

So the goal has been to take action where necessary to promote stability and strength in the marketplace, so that we can prevent or limit more damage to the broader economy. In all cases, the President has wanted to make sure that the taxpayers are kept foremost in mind. In these agreements, if you look back, the shareholders have been wiped out. A lot of employees have lost their jobs. Management has been replaced. And the taxpayers will be paid back first.

While no one would have liked to have ended up in this situation, you have a government that is willing to lead, act where appropriate, and govern, to make sure that we limit broader financial harm to the economy.

Q You say taxpayers will be paid back first. They may not be paid back at all.

MS. PERINO: Well, that is true. And that is why we take great care in making sure that President has asked a lot of questions, to make sure that his economic advisors have thought things through, have made the best determination and have moved forward. But I think the tax -- I think the argument is that the taxpayers might be harmed even worse if the economy was -- if we allowed it to just have a lot broader damage.

And we think that the actions that have been taken were appropriate ones. I believe that Treasury thinks that they will be able to pay the taxpayers back. But it's just going to take us some time to work through this crisis.

Q Where does it stop? (The Bailouts)

MS. PERINO: You know, I would be misleading you if I knew. What we are doing is taking this on a case-by-case basis, evaluating each one carefully.

Then there was this exchange that really caught my attention:

Q Dana, what do you say to Americans who are looking at the AIG deal and saying, we don't have a free market economy; how can you call this a free market economy?

MS. PERINO: We do have a free market -- the free market is alive and well, and we have systems in place here in our country to be able to deal with shocks to the system like this. And Secretary Paulson and the Fed Chairman have taken action where they think necessary in order to prevent broader shocks to the economy.

Look, the market has had a lot of information to digest over the past several days, and it's going to take a little bit of time for us to see where this goes. But I think the considered judgment -- the collective judgment of most people today is that the action they took last night on AIG was the right move.

Q And to the people who say, you know what, AIG should have failed so that you clean out the system and you don't delay whatever recovery -- you have a bottom and you start to move up. What do you say to that?

MS. PERINO: Well, we remain concerned about other companies, and that's why the Secretary of the Treasury continues to work with the team to see if we can stem any other losses.”

End Transcript

Is it just me, or is everyone in Washington kind of sticking their collective heads in the sand and pretending that waving the flag around and pontificating on what little they know of the Constitution and the actual limits and constraints upon governmental authority relative to the economy, they will be able once again to bamboozle the people into thinking that big-daddy Uncle Sam will make everything OK?

It is disgusting, it is unconstitutional and it is very, very disturbing. And I am one very, very pissed off American today. I don’t usually use such language on this blog, but I just don’t know any other words to describe how I feel – OK I do, but if I use them they’ll throw me out of here.

I am pissed off that everybody in DC says they didn’t see this coming, but the evidence shows otherwise.

I am pissed off that every branch of the government is deliberately exceeding its Constitutional authority and doing whatever it feels like with impunity, because they think that the people are so apathetic that if they just throw us a bone here and there we’ll simply ignore their gross transgressions.

I am pissed off that these politicians and bureaucrats pretend like there is nothing wrong with calling our system a "free market" economy while at the same time they are messing with it from the Fed and thereby making it anything but free.  The fundamentals of a strong economy are indeed ther, and it would work if only government would let it instead of trying to constantly manipulate it.

I am most pissed off that no one will speak the truth in DC! How stupid do they think we are? Am I the only one who feels insulted? 

When you look at the players in this meltdown and trace the money and people, you get back to Clinton’s pandering to minorities and the poor and pushing that multiculturalism nonsense that the progressives love so much. You also inevitably get back to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – two unconstitutional quasi-government agencies that cost taxpayers a bundle and make rich bankers richer and hook up members of Congress with a money machine that is akin to an ATM, so that these behemoths will never die, cause no one wants to turn off the money spigot.

I have no problem whatsoever with people getting rich, but not on my dime - not at the public trough.  And, I want to know why the former executives of Freddie and Fannie are still getting paid to stay on for the "transition."  Only in Washington DC can you ruin the financial sustem of the nation and get rewarded for it.  Freddie Mac’s Richard Syron and Fannie Mae's, Daniel Mudd are still getting paid, even though they knew what was going on.  You and I both know that if they worked for a true privately held firm, they'd be persona-non-grata and awaiting indictment and trial.  But there will be no trial.  Probably no hearings either.  nancy Pelosi is a big fan and recipient of Fred and Fan's lobbying money.  Imagine that!

You also have career political hacks that would sell their souls for money, dark amoral people who can smile and put on a look of concern and lie right to your face and mean it at that moment. People like Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Gorelick, Franklin Raines, et al.

You have people who do not give a crap about people like you and me because they are better than us – they work in DC. They are members of Congress. They are bureaucrats.

They are all liars!

You have a guy like Obama who’s bemoaning greed and avarice on Wall Street, and talking nonsense like this: “’Since this turmoil began over a year ago," the Illinois senator said, "the housing market has all but collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be effectively taken over by the government. Three of America's five largest investment banks failed or have been sold off in distress. Yesterday, Wall Street suffered its worst losses since just after 9/11.’ He said McCain and President Bush subscribe to the same approach: ‘support ideological policies that made the crisis more likely, do nothing as the crisis hits and then scramble as the whole thing collapses.’”

Wow! Suddenly he’s outraged about Freddie and Fannie. Gee, he didn’t seem too upset over the fact that he has accepted $126,349 in lobbying money from Freddie and Fannie since 2004. In fact he’s the Number Two recipient of money from those two abominations. And let me put it in the proper context for you: the list at opensecrets.org was compiled from 1989 to 2008. Obama is second on the list. Chris Dodd is Number One, having received $165,400 since 1989. Obama received $126,349 in just four years, and half of that time he’s been running for President.

Why the hell isn’t anyone except those of us on the blogs talking about it? Why won’t McCain bring it up? I don’t know – maybe he has, but I haven’t heard about it.

This stuff isn’t secret – it’s all public information.

And now McCain goes and disappoints me terribly by flip-flopping on the bailouts in just 24 hours. Yesterday at this time he was against them. Today he says it was the right decision. Helloooooo! How the hell is tacking $85 billion onto the taxpayer’s tab to bail out foreign interests the right decision? Oh, you didn’t know that? Yeah, AIG is a multinational corporation whose holding company, which was the entity bailed out, is backed 85% by foreign central banks. Where is the outrage? Where does it stop?

It’s wrong and it’s unconstitutional! McCain ought to know better!

Where does it stop? It won’t unless the people make them.

This has prompted me to do something different: I am writing several articles in various parts not only about this financial meltdown, but also on my take on our economy and the Constitution. I’ll be posting them in several parts, each with a disclaimer, because it is possible that without first reading the preceding parts, a current post may not make much sense. 

To my readers, I thank you for reading and I apologize for my ranting format – and language. I would also ask that, if you can, to please let me know when I post these multi-part articles if they flow and work for you – if they are coherent and lucid, so to speak. 

Until tomorrow, I’ll be pissed off and writing…

Elections are as funny and entertaining as they are serious, and if you can’t find the humor in this stuff you’d better make sure you don’t miss taking your blood pressure medicine, because the differences between the candidates in this race are indeed striking, and the very future of our republic hangs in the balance.

Politicians are funny too – especially Senators and anyone running for President.  You’ve got to expect gaffes and goofs and stupid things.  And you ought to laugh at them, if for no other reason, than because it’s good for the soul.  But I digress…

Don’t you just love watching the elite intelligentsia try to relate to us every four years?  I do – I can’t get enough of this stuff!  Now, GOP and Democrat candidates have markedly different ways by which they demonstrate that they are just like us.  The Republican multi-millionaires will dress casual, which means they don’t wear a tie with their slacks, blazer and loafers; and they’ll go to local coffee shops and restaurants and talk to the folks and try their best to come off as a regular Joe or Jane.  Sometimes the GOP candidates from the plains or the west even wear jeans. Oh, audacity of hope!

The Democrats are more fun I their approach.  Bars and rodeos.  I mean, what normal, average, everyday American doesn’t like bars or rodeos?  We’re talking proletarian-paradise here.  Corn-dogs, beer, cowboy hats and, of course, don’t forget the rodeo clowns wearing cowboy hats!  Ah, Americana at its best!  And speaking of clowns in cowboy hats, I’ll tell you, when I saw the image of Senator Obama in a cowboy hat doing his best John Wayne, I just couldn’t help but be moved.  No, no, not that kind of movement – and not the “tingly-leg” thing either.  It was more of a moment of self-reflection and identity.  It was like I jumped out of myself because it was like I was looking at myself, you know?  I just wanted to scream out, “WOW!  He’s just like me!  This progressive, socialist leaning liberal Democrat understands ME!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  HE IS JUST LIKE ME!  This man GETS IT!”

And he’s into electronic devices, too, although I admittedly kind of lost my enthusiasm momentarily when I thought about how I only have a little Razor cell phone and therefore can’t really relate to a guy with a few million dollars in his pocket who can bring a teleprompter to the rodeo.  But I digress yet again…

Seriously though, when is the last time you saw even a closet socialist wearing a cowboy hat?  I can only think back to when Gorby visited Reagan’s ranch in California and when Khrushchev visited President Eisenhower in 1959 and stuffed his face with good old American corn (because they didn’t grow enough in the Soviet Union, maybe?).

I also got a chuckle thinking about something else: Mike Dukakis sitting down on the T on his way into Boston, holding his latte-frappa-doosie, and opening his Boston Globe only to see Senator Obama’s picture in the cowboy hat there staring at him.  Yes, one need only muster a little imagination to guess what was going through the Duke’s mind as he reacted to the photo of Obama as if it were saying, “Howdy pilgrim.”   Can you picture him thinking back to the photo that killed his campaign as he bolted out of his seat shrieking, “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” before collapsing back into the seat and leaning his head against the window, silently watching the suburbs pass by and lamenting yet another lost opportunity to advance the cause of the Proletariat.  Yeah, kind of makes you smile, huh?

Oh, the lamentations of the Duke!  “How could this be?”  I don’t know.  I wonder if Obama had ever seen that photo of Dukakis in the tank.  I mean 1988 was only 20 years ago.  Well, maybe Obama was too busy organizing communities and multiplying fish and loaves for the downtrodden masses to have seen the picture.  Oh, yeah, and in his spare time he was probably in church praying for the rise of world socialism and rejecting middle-classness, and fist-bumping Jeremiah Wright after his radical sermons, after which he would read and memorize Saul Alinsky books.  And when he went on to Harvard he was still far too busy to seek out the Duke for his political savvy and advice for the future.  Not to mention the fact that the Duke taught at Northeastern after the election, and no respectful member of the Harvard elite intelligentsia would be caught dead hanging out in the Fens at Northeastern.  Please!

Yep, that Barak Obama, why he’s just like me, and I can really relate to him, except for all that money he has, and the radical black liberation theology to which he subscribes, and the degree from Harvard, and the “community organizer” thing, and his proclivity toward socialism.  Oh, and the teleprompter at the rodeo.  Yep, just like me!  Yes we can! Hope! Change, change, change!  Yes we can!

You know, come to think of it, I think I can actually relate a little bit better to Dukakis - at least the Duke was in the Army for real, long before the photo ops.

You have to love the Looney-Left. While the Obama campaign is still reeling from the knockout punch delivered by the addition of Sarah Palin to the GOP ticket, they have become increasingly desperate as evidenced by their underhanded and loathsome personal attacks against Palin and her family. And, while Obama and his official campaign surrogates may smugly deny the smears, you know they are grasping at straws and giving each other the ol’ fist pump as each new attack is made.

After wild and baseless accusations alleging Sarah Palin was really Trigg’s grandmother, after screaming about alleged abuse of power with the so-called Troopergate scandal, after insulting her and her hometown of Wasilla, after all of these smears failed to bring Palin down, the Left has done the only thing they could – they’ve turned to God for help. 

You see, the Democrat Party actually discovered God just prior to the commencement of their 2008 convention in Denver, and since then religion has caught on like wildfire – or a burning bush, as the case may be. And, surprisingly, nowhere in the party is this newfound faith in God more apparent than, miracle of miracles, the Looney-Left!

In fact for only having known God for just a few weeks, they’ve had quite the revelation in so short a period of time. As Michael Moore and Don Fowler put it so aptly, Hurricane Gustav bearing down on New Orleans the very day the GOP convention was set to begin was clearly a sign from God that He is firmly in the race for Obama and the Democrats. Of course – how could it be otherwise? And this has been confirmed by the latest revelation to the Democrat Faithful.

After losing the “experience” wars over the last week The Almighty has once again shone the light of His divine favor upon the Democrat Party be revealing that Jesus was not merely the Son of God Most High, but also was a Marxist community organizer who apparently championed redistribution of wealth on a massive scale, kowtowing to radical Islam, turning the other cheek, willingly going the extra mile and loving one’s neighbor, except of course when that neighbor happens to be a conservative woman named Sarah Palin.

Why just yesterday Susan Sarandon was on one of those really informative “celebrity news” shows and said, “You know, Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor. That’s all I have to say about that.” Wow! Such profundity! I had no idea she was such a fluent Biblical scholar.

In fact, in just the past week, Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi – herself a most gifted and charismatic leader as evidenced by her monumental accomplishments in overseeing the 110^th Congress – acknowledged that Obama is “a gift from God.” Not to be outdone by their boss Pelosi or the esteemed Hollywood elite, Democrat Representatives Steve Cohen and Donna Brazile also made the point of affirming and validating Obama’s service to his nation as a community organizer, and not just at some fly-over political rally. No, Cohen had this to say on the floor of the US House of Representatives: “I submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that the parties have differences, but if you want change, you want the Democratic Party. Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor.” Brazile said the same thing on Wolfe Blitzer’s show.

Now I don’t know about you, but I am awfully glad that the Democrats have finally discovered God and seem to quickly be getting over their hang-up on that Church-and-State thing they used to complain so often and bitterly about. 

I guess the forgot that their heroes like FDR, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were also governors – just like Pontius Pilate. I guess now that they’ve discovered Jesus, they’ll eventually re-write the Gospels too, just like they’ve done to history. I wonder when they’ll start blaming Jesus for Judas’ death and condemnation to hell. I mean after all, Jesus knew what Judas was going to do, didn’t he? Couldn’t he have stopped him? Why, He didn’t even try! Can you see the outrage coming?

Oh, and what about the war? Jesus/Obama is certainly against war – any war. Remember that thing about loving thy neighbor? And what about “thou shalt not kill?” All very true indeed. However, I have a couple of slight problems with this newfound Democrat Theology, especially since their messiah doesn’t seem to believe that the 6^th Commandment applies to newborn infants that so inconveniently survive their own attempted murder. Call me a skeptic, a villain, or whatever you will, but I’m not buying it.

You’ve got to love the Looney-Left. You’d think that after 2000 and 2004 someone over their on the Left would have enough sense to tell these people to shut up until after the election and ruthlessly silence them as they are so fond of doing to any opposition.

On the other hand maybe, just maybe, Pelosi, Sarendon, Donna Brazile and Steve Cohen are a gift from God to the GOP. Gee, ya think?

I was out of the country when Al Qaeda hit New York, DC, and rural Pennsylvania. My wife and I were on vacation in London, and had just come up out of the Tube having spent the day at the London Museum. We saw crowds of people rushing to the newsstands grabbing the evening papers. It was obvious to us that something was going on; yet when I got a copy of the paper in my hands and saw the front cover with the image of an airliner smashing through the North Tower, I was speechless. We stood there and read for a few minutes and then ran to our hotel and promptly turned on the TV. There we watched the images over and over again. We wept and stared in disbelief. 

At the time all I, knew was that the planes that hit the Twin Towers had taken off from Boston. I assumed that they were the US Airways Shuttles from Boston to New York and Washington that both had been hijacked and had been flown into the towers.   The news channels did not have all the information and were only able to report what they could, and there were lots of unanswered questions about the attacks, and lots of missing information to put the whole thing together. 

As we watched the coverage from our London hotel room we also tried frantically to call home to our families in Dallas and Boston, which took hours to get through. Still thinking it was the Shuttles that had taken down the towers, I reflected and mourned for those crews and those passengers. I mourned for those families whose loved ones would never be coming home again. And, I thought about how easily it could have been me on one of those planes. 

You see, at the time I was an airline pilot living in Boston, based out of New York LaGuardia, and I commuted to LGA several times each week via the Shuttle. I knew the crews. I knew the passengers. I thought, like everyone else, “How could this have happened?” And in the wake of the sham that was the 9-11 Commission, half of whom were complicit in enabling the atmosphere that allowed the attacks to be executed, I still wonder. Today I watched, and wondered and reflected. And I grew angry and was moved beyond words. I don’t quite know how to describe the experience. 

My little girl was running and playing and laughing around the family room, blissfully unaware of what I was watching and what it meant for her future. I think it was precisely that which weighed so heavily on my heart this morning. I looked at her precious face and held her and hugged her, and I promised her that I would always be there to protect her. I thought about what kind of monsters would wantonly kill masses of people in the name of their religion, who would deprive children like my precious daughter of their parents – and parents of their children. I thought about our troops overseas and their families praying for their safe return. I thought about what the future holds. Never again – this can never happen again.

As an Army veteran, a former cop and airline pilot, security is something that is always on my mind. I have lived my life in code yellow since I was 18 years old, and will until the day I die. If necessary I will run to my country’s defense. And, when necessary I will disagree vehemently with my government and protest loudly when they screw things up. They screwed up royally before 9/11 with their heads buried in the sand and passing up opportunity after opportunity to get Osama Bin Laden when they knew he was a threat. Of course, not too many could have predicted something on the scale of 9/11, but that’s the point – that is what we are up against. Now is not the time for complacency. Not now, not ever. 

Perhaps that is what bothered me the most on this seventh anniversary of the attack of September 11, 2001: the fact that so many Americans have once again become complacent in the face of the threats of terrorism, while so many others have willingly surrender so much to arbitrary government authority for the promise of protection from terrorists. There is a delicate balance that must be maintained, and a certain amount of trust that we have to place in our government officials to keep our nation safe from those who would harm us. But that trust has to go both ways: government must respect our Liberty, and we must never relinquish any of our rights, any of our Liberty for the promise of security or prosperity. Not now, not ever; because history has shown time and again that once Liberty is relinquished to government, it is seldom, if ever given back to the people.

Complacency in the face of danger is fatal – always. This November we will elect our President, Senators and Representatives in Congress who will be the ones who will address these serious issues and will be charged with the heavy burden of responsibility of protecting our national interests and security. 

As you tuck your precious children into bed tonight and look at their innocent little faces, ask yourself what kind of world you want them to inherit. Ask yourself whether you want a President who will not back down from their threats and will pursue them to the ends of the earth, or one who will seek understand them so that he can better empathize with their grievances against us. Ask yourself if you want a President who has been to war and knows its horror all too well, or one who views men and women in uniform as bloodthirsty fascist thugs. Ask yourself if you want a President who has personally suffered at the hands of evildoers of the same ilk as Bin Laden, or one who thinks he can charm them into abandoning their Jihad? Look at your children and think about these things. 

One choice will cost us in the short term and will enable us to preserve our Liberty and way of life and to pass it on to our children. The other choice could cost us everything. It’s not just about where you were on September 11, 2001; it’s about whether or not enough of us remember and make the choice to make sure such atrocities never, ever, happen again.

http://www.dfwtex.com/html/never_forget.html

I remember, and I will never forget.

Or, are they suffering from a bit of buyers’ remorse from their excessive secularization and collective devolution into socialist nanny states and wants us to become just like them? Since the Republican National Convention last week and the shift in momentum, European socialists and socialists throughout the world seem are lamenting the obliteration of Obama’s lead in the polls by the McCain-Palin ticket. There is a rising clamor abroad, you might say, incredulous that Americans could possibly make such a grave mistake as to NOT elect Obama. After all, polling data in many European countries show that Obama would be elected there in landslide victories, and we all know how “progressive” they are now, don’t we?

In fact, now there are not-so-veiled threats of pending severe bouts of “anti-Americanism” emanating from the four corners of the globe. OK, it’s mostly leftists trying to disguise themselves as non-leftists, but whatever. An article in Britain’s Guardian UK online tries to make that point as if to scare Americans in to electing Obama’s corrupt socialist political machine in November. The article is entitled, “The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it yearns for: An America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse.” Are you shaking in your boots yet? Good. I’m not either. It gets better, though. Here’s the first sentence: “The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: a sinking feeling in the stomach. It's a kind of physical pessimism which says: ‘It's happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more.’”

After several paragraphs bashing Sarah Palin and making McCain out to be George W. Bush Jr., the author Jonathan Freedland writes this gem: “Remember, this is a woman who once addressed a church congregation, saying of her work as governor - transport, policing and education – ‘really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God.’” Remember this folks: cultured, enlightened and properly progressive European politicians would never address a church of any kind, nor entertain the thought of acknowledging God in a public venue, because Europe acknowledges no God – only Allah. And don’t you soon forget it, or they’ll put out a Fatwah on you.

But here is what is probably the best reason NOT to vote for Barack Obama on November 4: “But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.” (emphasis mine) 

And if McCain-Palin win we can expect the cold-shoulder from our comrades in Europe “For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.”

In a poll of 22,000 of our fellow global citizens, “49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain.”

I bear no ill will to our friends in Europe or anywhere else, for that matter – at least toward those who are not trying to kill us. The problem that the rest of the world is suffering from is that the rest of the world is not America. The do not understand us, they do not think like us, they can neither conceive of nor truly grasp what makes one “American.” They never will. 

We are different from the rest of the world. Always have been. Always will be. Most of the time we are willing to work well with others, but sometimes we find it necessary to go it alone, regardless of world opinion, because at the end of the day those 22,000 people polled in Moscow, and Berlin, and London, and Paris, and Khartoum, and Beijing, and Singapore, and Seoul, and Beruit, and Gaza, and Amman, and Istanbul, and Riyadh are not Americans. 

The Europeans cannot understand us because they have sacrificed their Liberty for comfort and security – and obtained neither. Europe has devolved by choice into a continent rife with socialism or the kind that would make Karl Marx proud. They have become one giant bureaucracy that dictates to every aspect of daily life. This is something that, when it comes right down to it, is inconceivable and unconscionable to Americans. For all of our differences and eccentricities, the one thing we Americans all have in common is that we cherish our Liberty; and, even though there are those among us who even now are misled, misguided and deluded into thinking that we can achieve a benevolent government run welfare state to care for our every need, provide our security, bring a lasting peace to the rest of the world and still retain their Liberty, we respectfully make our case, the case for Liberty, and try to enlighten them as to why they are wrong. That is the American way, a way that other peoples cannot understand. 

Many have come to understand that socialistic government programs must by their very nature as dictated by the purpose for which they are created, encroach upon the Liberty of the people. Government authority and Liberty are diametrically opposed forces, irreconcilable except for law. A free people cannot relinquish only “a little” Liberty; a people is either free or it is not. 

With all due respect, the continent of Europe has forsaken Liberty for the vain promises of arbitrary government authority, and it is failing them. Europe is in decline, economically, morally, socially, militarily, politically and in any other way one can imagine, and it has been in decline for decades. When one trusts in government, any government – no matter how well designed – to fulfill roles never intended for government one is bound to be disappointed. The Europeans want Obama because his vision for the future is Europe, and they understand that. They revile resistance to such “enlightened” positions as radical or extremist because they have become so secularized by their own government systems that they cannot understand Americans’ willingness to fight and die for such things as going to church on Sunday.

Europe chose socialism and is now paying the price, and that price is the decline and ultimately the death of nationhood and liberty. That is where Obama’s vision will lead us if we allow him to. So, if you really need another reason NOT to vote for Obama on November 4, just look to Europe.

McCAIN AND OBAMA CAMPAIGNS

With the expected news of a poll-bounce for the GOP in the wake of the Republican National Convention comes the unexpected, albeit much welcomed news for conservatives that the McCain-Palin ticket has pulled ahead of Obama-Biden. Real Clear Politics averaged the major poll results and came out with McCain at 48.0% and Obama at 45.6%, a 2.8% lead for McCain. The pollsters from whom these averaged results were taken ranged from CNN/Opinion Research and Rasmussen Tracking polls showing the two candidates tied at 48%, to a USA Today/Gallup poll showing McCain ahead by ten points at 54% to Obama’s 44%.

Clearly the McCain-Palin ticket has succeeded in stealing Obama’s thunder, but a 2.8% lead is still a statistical dead-heat, and although the GOP ought well to take a measure of pride in surpassing Obama in the polls for the time being, gloating and/or complacency could prove fatal.   Momentum has shifted, but the deal is far from sealed. So how does the McCain-Palin ticket seal the deal? This is a difficult question with many potential answers.

First, it is noteworthy that in the weeks prior to the Republican National Convention Obama was generally the frontrunner. The week just after to the Democrat convention in Denver saw Obama ahead by as many as 8 percentage points (Gallup). The week prior to the DNC event in Denver revealed a general trend of an Obama lead, but that lead only ranged between 1 and 4 percentage points. This is significant, because in the weeks beginning 01 July and ending 25 August, Obama was up as high as 9 percentage points the week of 13 July, but averaged only a 4 to 5 percentage point lead until the week of the Democrat convention. In the days immediately following the Democrat convention Gallup Tracking and CBS had Obama with an 8 percentage point lead over McCain, while Hotline/FD gave him a 9 percentage point lead. On the low end, a CNN poll result showed Obama with only a 1 percentage point lead that week.

PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL

Why is this significant? It is significant because at no point in the several weeks leading up to the Democrat National Convention was Obama leaving McCain in the dust, which is what one would expect if things in this country were perceived as being really as bad as Obama campaigns on. Indeed, there is real discontent with President Bush as he currently has a 32.8% approval rating with 64.0% of voters polled indicating disapproval of his administration. With a disapproval rating twice that of the incumbent Republican’s approval rating, one would rightly assume that voters should be flocking to Obama in droves. Despite the messianic coverage of Obama by the mainstream media, this is apparently not the case; and, this is a very interesting thing, because in general, one can view approval ratings and disapproval ratings of the incumbent President as a referendum on the party as a whole during a combined general and presidential election year. 

This next set of numbers, however, is very telling about the current electoral climate when looked at in context with numbers cited above.

CONGRESS AND GENERAL ELECTION PREDICTIONS

First is the Real Clear Politics Congressional Job Approval average of four polls over the period from 12 to 31 August. The RCP average gives Congress a meager 17.8% approval rating and a staggering 73.8 disapproval rating. The approval ratings for Congress were as follows: Quinnipiac from 08/12 to 08/17 16%; LA Times/Bloomberg from 08/15 to 08/18 17%; Hotline/FD from 08/29 to 08/31 at 18%; and FOX News from 08/19 to 08/20 at 20%. The disapproval ratings show FOX News and LA Times/Bloomberg at 73%, Quinnipiac at 74%, and Hotline/FD at 75%. 

This next set of numbers is very telling, again when taken in context with the previous results. 

The polls for use in predicting the emerging trends for the general Congressional electoral results for November averaged by Real Clear Politics from 15 August through 07 September give Democrats a 5.4 point advantage with 45.8% of the vote over the Republicans an average of 40.4%. The two extremes were the NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll conducted between 08/15 and 08/18 that show Democrats likely gaining 47% which is 11 percentage points above the Republicans 36%. The other extreme was the USA Today/Gallup poll conducted between 09/05 and 09/07 showing the Republicans up 5 percentage points likely gaining 50% of the vote to the Democrats 45%. It is noteworthy that the remaining three polls in the RCP average, Democracy Corps, Hotline/FD, and FOX News showed marked advantage for the Democrats, with that party polling ahead 5, 7, and 9 percentage points, respectively. 

SUMMARY

1. Emerging trends for the General Election: Beginning with the last batch of numbers, these clearly show that the Democrat Party has the overall advantage going into the November general Congressional election with the combined RCP average showing them up 5.4 percentage points over Republicans. Clearly the result demonstrates a widespread dissatisfaction with both Congress and the Republican Party. This is interesting because it is indicative of a distorted perception that the Democrats in Congress are doing a better job that the Republicans, when this is clearly not the case as evidenced by the Congressional approval ratings.

2. Congressional Job Approval: The interesting factor here is that the Democrat Party is the majority party in Congress that the polls show overwhelming dissatisfaction with. Congress gets a 73.8% overall disapproval rating and is ruled by the Democrat Party, yet the emerging trends above show this same party with a 5.4 percentage point advantage over Republicans going into the general election.

3. Presidential Approval: President Bush and his Republican Administration are disapproved of by voters by a margin of 2 to1, or 64.0% overall disapproval to 32.8% overall approval.

4. Presidential Campaigns: On 7/01 Obama had a 5.9 percentage point lead over McCain. His lead decreased to 2.3% on 8/04, and then climbing back to 4.8% on 8/12, dipping to 1.2% on 8/20 the week prior to the Democratic convention and then climbing to 6.4% on 9/02. Immediately upon entering into the Republican convention, and following the significant development of McCain announcing Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, Obama’s numbers began to fall off from a 6.4% lead on 9/02 and continued to drop as momentum appears, at least for now, to have shifted to the McCain camp with a 2.4% lead as of 9/08.

CONCLUSIONS

Clearly this is as tight a race as has been in recent history, with the poll results showing mostly a statistical dead heat once these polls are averaged together. What is certain is that the announcement of Sarah Palin’s addition to the Republican ticket served to give the GOP a definitive boost in the numbers, and once both candidates’ acceptance speeches were delivered at the GOP convention, erased Obama’s lead and put the McCain camp ahead. This is largely due to the fact that Palin is viewed by the conservative base of associated with the Republican Party as a solid conservative, fiscally and socially, and is also seen as a true reformer with a proven record.

That notwithstanding, the McCain ticket is clearly hurt to some degree to whatever extend the Obama-Biden camp can sell the argument that McCain is the equivalent of President Bush, a fellow Republican with a 64.0% disapproval rating. This is where things get as interesting as they do confusing. While the high rate of dissatisfaction with President Bush and his administration can be understood as a referendum on the entire Republican Party, and so while it is no surprise that the polling for emerging trends and predictions for the general Congressional elections gives the advantage to the Democrats, the advantage is not as large as one would think, a mere 5.4 percentage points. What is truly interesting here is the fact that Congressional disapproval ratings are averaged at 73.8%, down only slightly from a high of 77% in July. 

What this data show is that the country is still sharply divided politically. But what is more surprising is that given the increasing overall dissatisfaction with President Bush, the numbers have not swung more steeply in favor of Democrats. The data suggest a strong distrust of both parties as evidenced by the President’s disapproval rating, but no solid referendum for a different direction even while the RCP average taken between 08/19 and 09/07 that only 20.0% approve of the direction the nation is going in, with 75.7% disapproving.

For McCain, this is all good news and for Obama it is worthy of concern. For both campaigns it is worthy of very careful attention and much reflection. Obama, a highly charismatic person and eloquent speaker, has yet to complete the sale to the American voters. Given the state of dissatisfaction with government in general, Obama ought to be clobbering McCain, and yet he has barely pulled out a lead better than a statistical dead heat when all the poll results are averaged together.

McCain has seen momentum shift in his favor, and this is largely due to his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, he acceptance speech, and his follow up acceptance speech which reassured the conservative base by telling them what they needed to hear to get behind the ticket, and making an appeal to undecided voters. What is certain is that prior to the GOP convention, most conservatives were very leery about McCain and if even inclined to support his candidacy did so only grudgingly and as an affront to Obama. 

What is equally certain is that by choosing a staunch conservative reformer who is solid on social and fiscal issues of concern to the conservative base, who is relatively unknown and who is a woman has undeniably galvanized and energized that same base and thereby the whole of Republican Party. McCain drastically increases his chances at victory if he stays to the right, and in picking Palin he has signaled his intent to do exactly that. What the campaign needs to do next is to take the message to the people that the Democrats are the majority party in the Congress they so disdain and hammer the point home with voters to disassociate the Republicans from the failures of a Democrat controlled Congress.

McCain must also be careful not to be perceived as being George W. Bush redux, which ought not be too difficult a task; especially in making the case that he and Palin are the candidates of real reform and change, especially on wasteful government spending. If McCain-Palin can accomplish these things, they can easily beat Obama in November. The conservative base is largely on board now, and so the sale needs to be taken to the undecided’s and independents. 

Clearly the Palin pick has put Obama-Biden in a box in a way they never saw coming, and they are still reeling and assessing what is the best move and direction to proceed. McCain put them there and only he can keep them there. Right now it’s his race to lose, though far from over.

Bad things happen. It screws up everything – even the correct understanding of what, exactly, government is supposed to do and, more importantly, what it ought not to do. For those within the government, especially you “progressive” and faux-conservative politicians out there, here’s a little clue: the government has no business messing with the economy. Our government has become so monstrous that the confused masses of America now overwhelmingly look to this Leviathan to cure all that ails our nation. Why? Because they’ve been taught to. They don’t know that government has no such Constitutional authority as helping citizens and funding businesses and fixing the economy. Perhaps they (especially politicians) ought to actually read the document some time – it is very enlightening indeed.

Here’s how bad it is: when most people are asked who is to blame for the economy being screwed up, they tend to answer that the government is responsible. This answer is not at all incorrect. But, here’s the problem: when asked how the woes of the economy ought to be healed, most believe that the government needs to “do something about it.” Then they demand that Congress and the President act now! Seriously – isn’t the government the entity that is responsible for screwing things up in the first place? Now we are demanding that this screwed up government “fix” things? We want to entrust an impotent and self-serving Congress with a 9% approval rating and an Administration with little understanding of Constitutional restraint to “fix” things? The government has no business messing with the economy in the first place because in doing so it just messes things up even more and ends up costing the taxpayers (don’t even get me started).

On Sunday Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were being placed in a “government conservatorship.” The plan to take control over the companies was approved by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Paulson also affirmed that the Treasury would do “whatever it takes” to keep these two bastions of government excess from failing. Initially the Treasury would receive $1 billion in preferred shares, and then is initially prepared to provide up to $200 billion to help the companies heal from their financial hemorrhaging over excessive risky home loans. Remember that word: initially… you’ll see why in a minute.

The CEOs of both companies were fired – sort of. Freddie Mac’s Richard Syron and Fannie Mae's, Daniel Mudd, were respectively replaced by David Moffett, a former top official at US Bancorp and Herb Allison, formerly with Merrill Lynch. But, Syron and Mudd won’t be leaving immediately – they’ll be sticking around for the transition. If that weren’t enough, The Treasury's plan puts the two companies under a conservatorship, giving management control to their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.   FHFA was created recently by Congress specifically to oversee Freddie and Fannie. Are you beginning to see the pattern here?   Try Googling FHFA.gov to find its website and you’ll see that there is none. Either the agency is too new, or the government has become so big there’s no more room left in cyberspace for any more.gov websites. I am inclined to believe the latter.

According to the Wall Street Journal, with the government seizure of Freddie and Fanny, “the U.S. mortgage crisis entered a new and uncharted phase, potentially saddling American taxpayers with billions of dollars in losses from home loans made by the private sector. Bush administration officials argued that the cost of doing nothing would be far greater because of the toll on the economy of falling home prices and defaults in the $11 trillion U.S. mortgage market.” Potentially? Are they kidding? The bill is already in the mail.

But, the best is yet to come. Secretary Paulson noted that more than $5 trillion of debt and mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie and Freddie is owned by central banks and other investors world-wide.

Do you know what that means? Think back to where the Treasury pledged to initially provide up to $200 billion and how Secretary Paulson stressed that the Treasury will do “whatever it takes” to save Freddie and Fanny. Factor that in with the $5 trillion of debt that is owned by foreign central banks and investors and then put Congress into the mix, and guess what you have? A Congressional authorization for our comrades at the Federal Reserve to do “whatever it takes” even to the tune of, oh, say, $5 trillion. After all, it won’t really be “debt,” because said “debt” will just go back to the Treasury to be auctioned off to more foreign central banks and investors. And eventually, our taxes will go up and we’ll pay for foreign bankers to get filthy rich. 

Keep in mind that the whole reason Freddie and Fanny were created by Congress is summed up in the following signature mission statement: “Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac raises capital on Wall Street and throughout the world's capital markets to finance mortgages for families across America.” Translated from Congress-speak this means: all investments through Freddie and Fanny are safe because Uncle Sam guarantees them. 

There is no risk at all to the investor. And that is exactly the problem. That is exactly why government should never, ever be involved in messing around with the economy.

From the Wall Street Journal: “The intervention also marks the failure of the public-private experiment that was created to boost home ownership among Americans. Fannie and Freddie were created by Congress to help prop up the housing market, and investors have long believed the government would bail the companies out in a crisis. But the companies have long been owned by private shareholders seeking to maximize profits.”   And they will. And the people will be angry, but Congress won’t care. You can bet on a new-and-improved “public-private scam that will certainly fleece the taxpayers of even more money. 

One economist from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School said, “Without government support for the mortgage market, home prices would fall much further, exposing the country as a whole to greater economic strain.” Any reasonable person who has ever read the Constitution with even a modicum of understanding and who gets the basic principles of supply and demand as the basis of a free market capitalist system of economics would argue the exact opposite. Why? Because of the difference between a supply system vis-à-vis a command system: once the government enters into the business of supporting various sectors of the economy the entire economy becomes de facto an artificial bubble, ever more removed from the reality of the market and prompting more and more government intervention until the government has to take control of or nationalize most of the economy in order to regulate prosperity and production and keep the whole thing from imploding. The problem here is obvious: Freddie and Fanny are the most startling examples of who our Founding Fathers never intended the government to be involved in such things.

Today President Bush had this to say: “Putting these companies on sound financial footing, and reforming their business practices, is critical to the health of our financial system and to making further progress with the housing correction that today is weighing heavily on our economy. Allowing the companies to fail or further deteriorate would damage our home mortgage market, and could weaken other credit markets that are unrelated directly to housing." He went on to stress that this is not a government bailout. 

Well, if a pledge of $200 billion for starters with a real possibility of running into the trillions is not a government bailout, I don’t know what it is. Wait a minute - maybe I do. It’s called nationalization. It’s called command economics. It is a deadly endeavor for a free republic. It is the inevitable result in a series of mortal errors that began with the creation of a central bank, the Federal Reserve System, by the Federal Reserve Act enacted December 23, 1913. That Act alone was a treasonous violation of the Constitution that has effectively sealed the ultimate fate of this republic – unless it can someday be repealed. It was shortly followed by another treasonous abomination, the 16^th Amendment ratified 03 February 1913 resulting in the Federal Income Tax Act of 03 October 1913. All must be repealed because all are deadly to a free republic because they by their nature usurp Liberty and encroach upon the rights of the individual. Not surprisingly a progressive income tax and a strong central bank are number 2 and 5, respectively, of Karl Marx’s list of 10 essential measures that must be enacted in order “to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.” For those who are interested, this list is located toward the end of Chapter II of the Communist Manifesto. 

Every American should read the Communist Manifesto. They should read it so that they all understand what happens when government gets too big. They should read it all be frightened and angered. They should read it so that they can better understand why our Founding Fathers gave us the Constitution of the United States of America, and why that document was crafted so as to never to be tampered with or reinterpreted, lest we lose our Liberty to government hegemony, for such hegemony against individual Liberty is the only possible result when government grows too big to be stopped. It feeds on Liberty and snuffs out freedom. And this is only the beginning – unless it can be stopped.

In testimony to how amazing this woman truly is, the Obama campaign has acknowledged that in just one week Governor Sarah Palin has achieved what was once considered impossible. According to Obama mouthpiece David Axelrod, Palin is now a veteran, seasoned politician. "We respect her. She's a skilled politician, as she proved last night she's deft at going on the attack," he said. Axelrod continued, "For someone who makes the point that she's not from Washington, she looked very much like she'd fit in very well there when you see how she brings these attacks, they all felt very familiar to Americans who are used to this kind of thing from Washington."

This is a very significant breakthrough in Progressive thought, for you see, just one week ago the Obama camp was singing a very different tune.  In fact, one often wonders is Senator Obama has forgotten that he is running against Senatr McCain, and not Governor Palin.  I guess comapring his vast "experience" in government and foreign affairs with hers isn't quite as much of a strect as the comparison that he cannot make with Senator McCain - because there is no comparison.  Obama has nothing to offer except Progresive rhetoric.  But, I digress... 

On August 29 Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said, "Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,"

The same day, CNN’s John Roberts, arguably in the bag for Obama, offered his “objective” assessment of the Palin pick: “ She's only been in office for a couple of years now, which really raises the experience issue here. Now, she is a manager. She is the governor of a state. She does have limited experience, though. She's also been the mayor for a city in Alaska. And for a time she was the ethics chairman of the Alaska oil and gas conservation commission. But that does not add up to broad experience, particularly the type of broad experience you think should launch you to the national level.”

ON August 30, Politico cited four presidential historians who all agreed that Palin is far too inexperienced to assume the presidency. Unfortunately for the authors – and the Obama campaign- all four scholars are big-time Obama supporters as evidence by this update to the original article: “After reading this article, the McCain campaign issued the following statement: ‘The authors quote four scholars attacking Gov. Palin's fitness for the office of vice president. Among them, David Kennedy is a maxed-out Obama donor, Joel Goldstein is also an Obama donor, and Doris Kearns Goodwin has donated exclusively to Democrats this cycle. Finally, Matthew Dallek is a former speech-writer for Dick Gephardt. This is not a story about scholars questioning Gov. Palin's credentials so much as partisan Democrats who would find a reason to disqualify or discount any nominee put forward by Sen. McCain.’”

So Sarah Palin, who burst onto the national political scene last Friday, was unknown by the inside the beltway crown and the press, much less by the Obama elite, and is thus “inexperienced” and “unqualified” to be Vice-President because she has only been the mayor of a “small town” of 9,000 people and Governor of Alaska for two years. 

This, I suppose, stands in stark contrast to Senator Obama, a “Community Organizer” who was a back-bencher and partisan hack for the infamously corrupt Chicago Democrat Party machine in the Illinois Senate and has accomplished nothing in his three years as a U.S. Senator, with the exception of proposing a bill that would require U.S. taxpayers to send $845 billion to the U.N. in “world taxes.” By the way, this bill, two trips to Iraq, and a speech in Berlin as a “global citizen” is the full extent of Obama’s foreign policy experience.

Now that she has delivered a rousing speech intended to galvanize the Republican conservative base – and succeeded- she is suddenly, according to the Obama campaign and its surrogates, “deft” and apparently so seasoned a politician as to appear to have spent a career attacking “from Washington?” Do they mean a career in Washington like Joe Biden who is, of course, all about “change?”

The Obama camp flip-flopping in their vain attempts to neutralize the Palin factor just proves her point: she pointed out that her experience, though not as voluminous as McCain or even Biden who have spent their careers in politics, vastly outpaces Obama’s claims of experience. Mayor vs. “community organizer?” Governor vs. U.S. Senator who has spent the majority of his FIRST term running for President? At least Governor Palin has physically served more days in the Governor’s office than Obama has in his Senate seat. 

The Democrats cannot make the “inexperience” argument because Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama to be President, let alone Vice-President. So, instead they try to paint her as a veteran Washington “insider?” This defies logic – even for the Democrat Party.

Wow. I guess things really do happen fast in politics. Just a word to the wise for the Obama campaign: you can’t have it both ways. Either she is inexperienced or she is a veteran insider. It’s one or the other. We conservatives know that she is something very special; but, even gifted as she is, she cannot achieve the impossible. So, then, what is she? Simply put, she is the right person for the right time, and she demonstrated this Wednesday night and will continue to do so throughout the remainder of the campaign. She is someone who inspires confidence in us not because she is a career politician or a savvy speaker, but because she is genuine – no lofty rhetoric, just plain facts and common sense truths. But, this is something that the Progressives cannot now nor will ever understand because it is outside their box of thinking, and they are too fixated on electing their Messiah at any cost. 

It is too bad for them, and possibly for our country.

Ever biased and unceasingly hypocritical, mainstream media outlets with a leftist bent never fail to disappoint. It is a truly sad commentary on an otherwise noble profession that so many networks, publications and individual journalists have so easily shelved the objectivity they repeatedly purport to maintain for bitter and non-too-subtle partisan attacks all designed to smear a political rising star and obliterate her character. Consider just a sampling of the headlines about Governor Palin released since she was announced as John McCain’s running mate last Friday:

From CBS News Campaign 08 Horserace: Palin’s Daughter Pregnant.

From Reuters: Palin rebuts rumors, says daughter pregnant. 

Of course both articles had to mention that the pregnancy announcement was “to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.” 

A picture of Palin holding her son on the cover of US Weekly with a storyline: “Babies, Lies and Scandal,” along with other biased and other tabloid-style phrases to entice and further promote negative opinions of Palin before even reading the article. “Under attack… Under investigation for firing of sister’s ex-husband… New surprises.” Contrast the Palin cover with the enthusiastic endorsement of Obama in the June 19 issue. The Obama cover featured the cover story headlines, “Michelle Obama: Why Barack Loves Her.” Coupled with: “She shops at Target, Loved Sex and the City, and never misses the girls’ recitals. The untold romance between the down-to-earth mom and the man who calls her ‘my rock.’” It should be no surprise, then to find out that the publisher Jann Wenner is an open, enthusiastic and vocal supporter of Barak Obama. He has also donated a lot of money to various Progressive Democrat causes to the tune of $130,308 since 1993. Wenner also publishes Rolling Stone, whose March cover proclaimed, “Barak Obama, a New Hope.” These are Wenner’s own words on Obama.

MSM journalists have decried Palin since Friday because they never interviewed her – remember nothing is newsworthy unless they say it is. Remember when New York Times columnist David Carr was quoted saying this after it was grudgingly decided in the newsrooms of America that a political sex scandal involving a former (ahem, Liberal) Presidential candidate and Senator who cheated on his terminally ill wife was actually news? 

To refresh your memory here is the text of what Carr said in an interview with CNN on August 10: "I was taught when I was a young reporter that it's news when we say it is. I think that's still true -- it's news when 'we' say it is. It's just who 'we' is has changed." He added, “It's also a little scary for big outfits to step up on a story like this. Sex may sell, but it can really hurt your relationship with readers.” Gee, these big outfits weren’t too nervous to break the story that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. 

Hmmm. Let me see if I get this straight: Dirtbag politician with $400 haircuts who campaigned on how the poor are getting screwed by people with $400 haircuts gets caught cheating on his cancer stricken terminally ill wife and denies it, then gets caught again by National Enquirer reporters and photographers. Just in case you were wondering, according to the MSM, this is NOT news. But, a 17 year old girl who gets pregnant, whose Mom happens to be the newly announced Republican candidate for Vice President – now THAT’S NEWS! Remember, the mainstream media sat on the Edwards scandal for over eight months before grudgingly going with it, and even then only because their hand was forced - they had to run with it, otherwise you can bet there would still be a cover-up. Is this an arrogant double standard, hypocrisy, or simply "fact-checking" and "careful" reporting? I think we all get the idea, Mr. Carr.

“Troopergate” is yet another example of shameful biased reporting –not because of the issue itself, but because of the fact that it is being reported as a scandal. The McCain camp knew this from the vetting process and didn’t seem to care. The fact is it is not a scandal. Here’s a nice piece from the AP. Gee, you don’t think there’s any bias there, now do you? Another piece from CBS News actually mentions the fact that Trooper Mike Wooten, who should have been fired, tasered his 11 year old stepson and, among other things, has continually violated department policies and possibly laws since 2000. He was being divorced from Palin’s sister at the time. Alaska's former commissioner of public safety, Walt Monegan did not take appropriate actions against a rouge law enforcement officer and Palin fired him. An article in the Anchorage Daily News reports this: “Before she was governor, Palin pushed for a trooper investigation of Wooten over a number of matters, including using a Taser on his stepson, illegally shooting a moose, and accusations of driving drunk. At one point, Palin and her husband hired a private investigator.

Troopers did investigate, and Wooten was suspended for 10 days, later reduced to five. That took care of it, Monegan said. But the Palin administration and Todd Palin wouldn't let go, he said.”

Worthy of note, the last lines in the ADN piece is this: “The personnel investigation began in April 2005, long before Palin became governor and months before her October 2005 announcement that she was running. The investigation into Wooten wrapped up in March 2006, before she was elected. Troopers found four instances in which Wooten violated policy, broke the law, or both.” Should a law enforcement officer who has been found to have violated both policy and law NOT be fired and prosecuted?

What do we notice even about these articles that actually report such important facts? They are usually buried – at the bottom. Why? How many readers actually have the time to read a full article? Not many. Typically, the better and more objective journalist will pack the first paragraph or two with most of the pertinent information and tell the basic story. Then the story is fully elaborated upon throughout the remainder of the article. That way the reader can breeze through many articles and get caught up on events quickly. Even the biased media want you to get as much information as possible; they just make sure you get it the way they want to present it sot hey can shape your opinion before you have finished reading.

Consider how the biased mainstream media attack Governor Palin’s commitment as a mother, suggesting that if she chooses to be a good mother to her children the country will be neglected and if she throws herself into her work as Vice-President, her children will suffer. Consider how they attack all conservatives, suggesting that we have reversed ourselves on some fictitious previously held position that all women should stay at home and raise their children. 

Now that the convention is over, the media are even suggesting there is disunity about the McCain-Palin ticket, and even a GOP conspiracy due to the small number of minority delegates. A CBS News story is subtitled: “Not Much Diversity On The GOP Podium, But McCain Still Hoping To Connect With Minorities.” Still another AP slam-piece is entitled, “Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention.”

All this bias could be plausibly deniable were it not for a 2004 study conducted by the Pew Center for the Public and the Press that looked at journalists and journalistic attitudes that found “that a majority of American journalists say they are liberals. Not surprisingly this has been grist for conservatives because it confirms the impression that journalists are overwhelmingly liberal compared to the public in general.” Really? I bet no one would have guessed such a thing. One NPR piece about the study makes the observation that “the poll never asks about the political leanings of the media owners, publishers and upper management of news organizations. It is arguable that their politics are more influential than their employees in choosing the direction of a news organization.” The study was compiled through interviews with 547 broadcast and print journalists.

To be fair, the Pew study had this to report: “Journalists' own politics are also harder to analyze than people might think. The fact that journalists--especially national journalists--are more likely than in the past to describe themselves as liberal reinforces the findings of the major academic study on this question, namely that of David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, in their series of books "The American Journalist."

But what does liberal mean to journalists? We would be reluctant to infer too much here. The survey includes just four questions probing journalists' political attitudes, yet the answers to these questions suggest journalists have in mind something other than a classic big government liberalism and something more along the lines of libertarianism. More journalists said they think it is more important for people to be free to pursue their goals without government interference than it is for government to ensure that no one is in need.”

Whatever “liberal” means to journalists, one thing is abundantly clear: one need only compare headlines, or better yet, Google the names of those authors who pen an article deemed biased and see what comes up. In my experience, it is more of the same. 

Is there bias in the mainstream media?  I suppose that is in the eye of the beholder. To be sure, one can easily identify certain liberal or conservative bias given the author or the outfit he or she is writing for. With organizations like The Politico, RealClearPolitics.com, Worldnet Daily, Newsmax, The American Conservative Daily, and the various entities of CNN and Fox News, you pretty much know that you are getting – and whether the slant is either right or left is obvious. It is those journalists who are supposedly objective in their reporting who write the headlines for the like of Reuters, AP and the like who are the most damaging to their profession, for while they may purport objectivity, if you were to cut them open I bet they would bleed blue – or given whom they long to see elected this November, Red. Remember, the Soviet news agency Pravda? Pravda, in Russian, means truth; perhaps the same truth reported to us by our “unbiased” mainstream media?

Michael Moore – where’s he been? –   on Keith Olbermann's show Countdown on MSNBC proclaimed that Hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans on the eve of the Republican National Convention was for him “proof that there is a God in heaven.” Moor also stooped so low – surprise, surprise – as to join in the unscrupulous rumor-mongering that Palin’s newborn son is actually her Daughter’s and that she covered it up to save face. Moore had written a piece entitled, “Show us the DNA!” posted on his website on Aug 31, but it was gone this morning. Hit this link and look at the postings. They begin today Sept 01 and then jump to Aug 29. No posts for Aug 30 or 31, Mike? Were you eating and forgot that two days went by or something? Oh, silly me – you took down your slanderous posts and baseless accusations when things got to hot! Honest Mike, the True American Patriot is at it again. I’ll bet the movie comes out this summer!

Just like Fox’s Alan Combs who, on his website posted an original slam-piece accusing Gov. Palin of not getting proper prenatal care because she was more concerned with her career, which resulted in her son’s Down syndrome. The link is here, but – surprise again – Combs took down is hit-piece too! These Looney-Lefties are a cowardly bunch, eh?

This whole “cover-up” rumor began with, surprise again! – The Daily Kos blog accusing Palin of covering up true identity of baby Trigg. This story was “uncovered” by a brave blogger named ArcXIX – a person presumably without enough intestinal fortitude to use their real name. You think it could be… Nah!

Next, Former DNC Chairman Don Fowler was caught by an astute passenger when he made a comment to the effect that: “The timing of Gustav demonstrates that God is on our side.” He later tried to apologize – they all do- that he was only making a joking reference to a remark previously made by Jerry Falwell after 9/11. He concluded his apology in typical Progressive fashion by saying, “"One doesn't anticipate that one's private conversation will be surreptitiously taped by some right-wing nutcase," said Fowler. "But that's the nature of what we're dealing with." Once again it appears to be our fault that some fruity liberal said something stupid and got caught. Sorry ‘bout that Don…

Outrageous accusations of misuse of power dubbed Troopergate by the MSM and liberal minions. A political battle that has been ongoing for many months. The trooper in question whom Palin supposedly wants fired has abused the regulations of his department and violated laws about twelve times since 2001. Fire him? How about throw him in jail?

In the piece entitled “6 things Palin pick says about McCain” the first point the authors make is “1. He’s desperate. Let’s stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters — and too close for comfort in several states, such as Indiana and Montana, that the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top of that, voters seem very inclined to elect Democrats in general this election — and very sick of the Bush years.” Wow! I mean, that actually sounds like… a… Obama For President commercial! Shocking, isn’t it? The authors later add, “McCain could easily lose in an electoral landslide. That is the private view of Democrats and Republicans alike.” I’ll give them that view for the Dems, and perhaps for many republicans or conservatives – that is, until the Palin choice was announced.

Another article, Scholars question Palin credentials, began with these words: “John McCain was aiming to make history with his pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and historians say he succeeded. Presidential scholars say she appears to be the least experienced, least credentialed person to join a major-party ticket in the modern era.” Gee, you don’t think these guys are already in the bag for Obama, now do you?

Still, yet another example of an outright biased hit-piece, Why the GOP fell so far, so fast begins, “The Grand Old Party just ain’t what it used to be. It is more unpopular, more insecure and more uncertain than at any point since the euphoric triumph of 1994, when the GOP captured both houses of Congress and made political history.”

True, the GOP has had its problems- serious problems – over the last few years. It has lost its way and, having strayed from its conservative roots and base, has found itself wallowing about in the same mediocrity and pandering for a middle ground solution on issues where there is none: abortion, Second Amendment issues, immigration, health care. To hear a majority of our so-called conservative Republicans speak about these issues you think you’re hearing Ronald Reagan. But, to see them in action, you think you’re seeing Joe Biden, or Ted Kennedy, or Russ Feingold. Conservative is conservative and liberal is wrong. Period. You can’t sustain a house this divided and win elections, and once again it will be the conservative base of the party that will come to the rescue and save it from self-destruction. And this is largely due to Sarah Palin being chosen as VP running mate on the ticket.

And that very point is what the MSM seems to not understand, or to want to understand about this choice. Conservatives may well have held their noses and voted for McCain just to vote against the lesser of two evils. I was certainly in that camp. Now that McCain has picked Palin, I see one of us, who understands clearly the high stakes involved, and who can drive home the point to anyone who may be remaining on the fence. For all their meaningless polls over the last couple of days since the announcement about men having higher approval rates for Palin than women, etc., they are ignoring the biggest factor currently at play in this race: us. Conservative Americans who believe in and love the Constitution, our republic, and our God. And our guns, and our babies. And our money. And who only need the right leader to come onto the scene at the right time to galvanize us and excite us into action. Sarah Palin is that person. 

John McCain has demonstrated by this choice that he will govern as a reformer, to move the Party, the Congress and the nation back to the Right. It is now up to us to place him in that position and to hold him accountable, which we can do because we will have an ally who shares our concerns and expectations standing right next to him. 

The Obama attack machine will learn in November that is cannot just poll and pretend we do not exist because there is far too much at stake, and we conservatives are not going away without one hell of a fight for the future of our republic.