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February 28, 2008
Senate Cowards Show Stripes
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should send Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a fruit basket today. Without Reid, Pelosi would stand alone as the most incompetent Congressional leader of modern times. Each time Mrs. Pelosi distinguishes herself with a preposterous utterance such as her recent delusional rant on "Meet the Press" about the failure of the troop surge in Iraq, Sen. Reid comes along to prove that he is every bit the fool as his counterpart in the House.
The success of the troop surge in Iraq has pushed the war off the front pages of newspapers and the nightly newscasts. With violence down across the country and troop deaths declining, the Old Media doesn't even commission polls about the war anymore, since they would likely show increasing support for the mission and a majority that believes the current strategy is working.
In an effort to appeal the rabidly antiwar leftist base of the Democratic Party, Reid threatened to put a bill on the Senate floor that would force President Bush to begin the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq within 120 days. Republicans have torpedoed similar bills in the past, but this time Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the coward's bluff, giving Republicans the opportunity to talk about the progress in Iraq and to reinforce the perception of Democrats as the "Surrender Caucus."
McConnell suggested, "The Democrats are sort of in denial. It's almost as if they're sorry things have gotten better."
Actually, it is worse than that. Democrats are fully invested in America's defeat in Iraq, just as they were with Vietnam. The good news is that the new media environment allows Americans to see the yellow stripes on the backs of Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Barack Obama, et. al.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:34 AM
February 26, 2008
The Long Unraveling of Obama
Last week, Sen. Hillary Clinton jumped all over Sen. Barack Obama for speeches he made that employed phrases and flourishes previously used by Deval Patrick during his run for governor of Massachusetts. The overblown charges of plagiarism from Clinton’s surrogates and the candidate’s own attack line, “change you can Xerox” unleashed during a debate had little effect.
The juvenile back-and-forth between the Democratic candidates about who used what words when hid the fact that neither Clinton nor Obama had much new to say. The campaigns of both candidates focused on the word “change” without offering any clue as to the specifics of the change they wanted to bring. Since both Clinton and Obama are disturbingly unqualified to be Commander in Chief, voters should ask as Walter Mondale did 24 years ago, “Where’s the beef?”
Sen. Clinton’s agenda is not much of a mystery, since it is reasonable to expect her presidency to be a third installment of “Weekend at Bill and Hill’s” or perhaps “Back to the Future III.” The country would be plunged into four years of the scandal and corruption that has followed the Clintons throughout their public lives and government run amok with liberal judges appointed to implement social policy from the bench and Marxist economists imposing fiscal policy to confiscate larger and larger amounts from individual taxpayers, small businesses and large corporations and redistribute it to cronies, bureaucrats, liberal activists and the lazy.
Some Democrats and the Old Media have portrayed Barack Obama as a combination of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. with a bit of the Messiah mixed in. However, the Illinois junior senator’s soaring oratory, while powerful enough to send a shiver up Chris Matthews’ leg, is devoid of substance. To say that Obama’s record of accomplishment is thin would be generous, virtually non-existent would be more accurate.
Because the racial politics Democrats waged against Republicans for decades have come home to roost, Obama has not been vetted by the party on the verge of making him their choice to take on John McCain, the only adult among the three presidential contenders. The Old Media has no intention of taking a critical look at someone who has sparked a flashback to their hippie days of marching for civil rights and against the Vietnam War.
The job of introducing the electorate to the real Barack Obama will fall to the New Media. A good place to start is with Obama’s “Global Poverty Act”, a massive giveaway program that not only puts hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars into the hands of corrupt United Nations types, but also commits the United States to various sovereignty-sacrificing programs such as gun control, global warming reduction schemes and the International Criminal Court.
Strip away Barack Obama’s seductive “Barry White” speaking style and mocha exterior and what is revealed is a garden variety far-left radical. The photograph the Clinton campaign passed around Monday that pictured Obama dressed up like Osama bin Laden was a valid political shot, contrary to the gasps and outrage of the Obama campaign and the Old Media. It showed how comfortable Obama was in a turban, yet the man who wants to lead the United States confessed how uncomfortable he felt with an American flag pin on his lapel:
"Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that [American flag lapel pin] became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.”
This is only the beginning of the long unraveling of Barack Obama.
Posted by jeffgannon at 10:03 AM
February 21, 2008
NYT "McCain Smear" Media Scandal Update
Day Two of The New York Times "McCain Smear" media scandal began with the Old Grey Lady on defense. Fraudster Elisabeth Bumiller, whose penchant for fabrication was mentioned in a previous post, filed a article in which she decribed the efforts of John McCain's senior advisers to knock down her fishwrapper's hit piece as a "deliberate campaign strategy to wage a war with the newspaper." In the liberal playbook, objecting to a scurrilous attack is "going to war."
The Politico details how the McCain campaign effectively turned the tables on the "Newspaper of Record". Give McCain credit, during those many years of cozying up to the Old Media it appears he might have learned how to smack them down when the liberals reverted to form.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:40 PM
Old Media Turns On "Maverick" McCain
There was no doubt that this moment would come. Republican Senator John McCain courted the Old Media for years by delighting the liberal scribes and talking heads with his frequent betrayals of his party. In fact, the Old Media's fawning over the "maverick" helped position McCain to win the Republican presidential nomination. However, once he became the opponent of the Democratic presidential contender, the Old Media reverted to form and put McCain in their crosshairs.
The New York Times launched a vicious smear against a man it endorsed only a few weeks ago with a front page story based on anonymous sources and unnamed staffers that insinuated a great deal, but substantiated nothing. This is similar to an article written by New York Times White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller in 2004 that I worte about in my book, "The Great Media War: A Battlefield Report", that suggested Vice President Dick Cheney would be dropped from the ticket. Bumiller's front page story was a work of fiction and wishful thinking, since no named sources were cited.
The storyline here is the Old Media is once again injecting itself into electoral politics. The lesson for McCain is that eventually every snake charmer gets bitten by the snake. It's what snakes do.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:23 AM
February 19, 2008
Old Media Mourns Fidel Castro Resignation
Express relief at smooth transition to brother Raul
The surprise resignation of Cuban "president" Fidel Castro overnight sent shock waves through the Old Media. The 49 year reign of the dictator so beloved by the American Left, particularly among Hollywood types and the media appears to be coming to an end. Few foresaw that Castro would retire, since nearly everyone thought that Castro would hang onto power until his death either by natural causes or revolution.
The Old Media seemed to be relieved that the island nation would remain under Communist rule. On CNBC, correspondent Maria Caruso Cabrera railed against Republicans for continuing the embargo on trade with Cuba that began with Democratic President John F. Kennedy. Caruso-Cabrera suggested that Republicans kept the people of Cuba locked in poverty. She typically blamed the United States, the land of liberty and opportunity that many Cubans risk the perils of the open sea to flee to as the cause of the ills of a repressive regime.
Posted by jeffgannon at 10:12 AM
America-Hating First Lady?
It is clear at this point that the Old Media is going to give Barack Obama a pass in his quest to become president. So mesmerized are the journos by the Illinois senator's vacuous oratory are that contradictions and buffoonery that would devastate most campaigns are going to be glossed over, defended or ignored. Such is the case with the woman who would be the next First Lady, Michelle Obama who recently said:
"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback, and let me tell you something, for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barck has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change."
Mrs. Obama has revealed a hatred of America that is shared by many of her fellow liberl elites. Listen to MSNBC's Mike Brzezinski try to explain it away on Morning Joe via Newsbusters.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:00 AM
February 14, 2008
A Conservative Call To Action
The Old Media coverage of Tuesday’s Potomac Primaries failed to note the significance of the results in Maryland. Not one, but two sitting members of Congress were defeated in primary challenges in the Old Line State. Incumbents should take note of the constituent dissatisfaction that is not only reflected in the historically low approval ratings for Congress, but also in the “anti-Washington” sentiments expressed during the elongated presidential nominating season.
Democrats ousted eight-term Rep. Al Wynn, who was perceived as being too pro-business in favor of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-backed candidate Donna Edwards. To call Edwards merely “ultra-liberal” would do a disservice to the ideology Karl Marx took great pains to foist upon mankind. Edwards will likely inherit the legacy of Cynthia McKinney when she arrives on Capitol Hill next year.
Republicans gave nine-term Rep. Wayne Gilchrest his walking papers, choosing to replace him in the reliably GOP district with State Sen. Andy Harris. The challenger tripped up RINO Gilchrest, one of only two anti-war Republicans by articulating a set of conservative core values, especially on taxes.
Last week at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, I encountered an angry and deflated lot of Reaganites reeling from the results of Super Tuesday. Gov. Mitt Romney’s surprise announcement at the event that he was ending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination drove many into fits of rage, since it was clear that Sen. John McCain would become the standard bearer. The Old Media gleefully rubbed salt wounds inflicted as Alan Keyes so eloquently noted “There's not a single constituency of true conservatives that doesn't have one of John McCain's knives stickin' out of our backs."
I advised one of my fellow conservatives who adamantly declared a refusal to vote for McCain not to sit on the sidelines in November. Instead, I suggested that all of the energy and resources that would normally support a presidential candidate be directed toward a true conservative running for Congress. The next president is going to be more liberal than any conservative would like, which makes it more important to send men and women to Washington to keep the chief executive in check. The Republican-minority in the Senate has been highly successful in preventing the Democrats from prematurely pulling out of Iraq and enacting a whole host of other disastrous legislation.
After George Bush puts down his veto pen in January 2009, the only way for conservatives to impact public policy is through Congress. Taking back control of the House is certainly achievable, especially if Mrs. Clinton is at the top of the national ticket. Maintaining the filibuster minority currently in place in the Senate is also doable.
The absence of a true conservative in the race is less of a reason for despair than an imperative to act. Support conservatives running for Congress as well as governorships and state houses. The bench is weak for conservatives, which accounted for the lack of one in the presidential primaries. It is time for some fresh talent, so conservatives should direct their energies to that cause instead of grousing about John McCain.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:10 AM
February 07, 2008
The Case for McCain
Conservatives are unhappy with the prospect of Sen. John McCain being the Republican nominee for president. Some, like my good friend Ann Coulter have declared they will vote for Hillary, while others have threatened to sit out the balloting in November. I understand their displeasure at not having a solidly conservative candidate in which to invest and the fact that McCain seems to have been rewarded for as Dr. Dobson says, "sticking his thumb in the eyes of conservatives" on any number of issues. I have significant disagreements with John McCain on illegal immigration, tax cuts, climate change and that pesky First Amendment.
However, as I and many others have pointed out, the next president will likely fill TWO vacancies on the Supreme Court, possibly more. Two more Ruth Bader Ginsbergs will undo the Bush legacy of the Roberts court. That would probably put any chance of overturning Roe v. Wade out of reach for another generation. Consider what havoc an energized liberal court could wreak on voter ID requirements, immigration, religious expression and the family. That alone is worth keeping Clinton or Obama out of the White House.
John McCain has been steadfast in the war on terror. He put his quest for the presidency on the line with his unequivocal support for the troop surge that appears to have paved the way for victory in Iraq.
McCain's support for the dedication and sacrifice of our men and women in Iraq is the same reason that Americans - especially conservatives - should now stand behind John McCain. Clinton, Obama and the Defeatocrats have already told us - and the terrorists - that they will abandon our troops in the field and squander the success and security paid for in blood and treasure.
When the war in Iraq was going badly last year, the liberal media that romances McCain tried many times to seduce him into repudiating it. Instead, McCain said, "I'd rather lose an election than lose a war." Some of my disillusioned colleagues seem hell-bent on losing an election AND a war over a fit of pique.
It is time to move beyond the "a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain" sour grapes chorus and replace it with "a vote for McCain is a vote for the troops" - because it is just that simple, and just that serious.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:11 AM
February 05, 2008
Bush Plans Cut To Taxpayer Funded Liberal Media
Liberal media elites are shrieking once again over President Bush's plan to halve the amount of federal funds that go to support "public" broadcasting. Under the proposed budget, PBS and NPR would have to make do with $210 million instead of $420 million to broadcast programming vehemently opposed by 50% of the American public.
Posted by jeffgannon at 04:15 PM
February 04, 2008
How Democrats Support U. S. Troops
The City Council of Berkeley, CA aids and abets the pro-terrorist group Code Pink to undermine the United States military. In this video clip, Code Pink protesters barricade a U. S. Marine recruiting center while the police "remain neutral."
These are the same people that Democratic members of Congress allow to disrupt Capitol Hill hearings and threaten Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans is a campaign contribution "bundler" for Democrat Barack Obama.
Will any Old Media reporter ask Barack of Hillary about Code Pink's activities at the Berkeley Marine recruiting center?
Posted by jeffgannon at 12:18 PM
Romney Wins Big in Maine; Media Yawns
In their haste to anoint Sen. John McCain as the GOP presidential nominee, the Old Media neglected to note that Gov. Mitt Romney posted a big win in the Maine caucuses on Saturday. Romney beat McCain 52 to 21 percent and won all 18 of the delegates. So far, McCain has not broken 50% in any primary contest.
There may be a Super Bowl surprise on Super Tuesday for the Old Media.
Posted by jeffgannon at 11:45 AM
Log Cabin Guys Get Behind McCain
The debate about which Republican candidate is the most conservative is proving difficult to resolve based on records and soundbites. However, one only needs to see who is supporting the contenders to get a read on where the candidates rank on the liberal-to-conservative spectrum.
Nearly all of the big government Republicans are supporting Sen. John McCain, despite his claims on tax cuts and lower spending. RINOs of the Arlen Specter variety find a natural ally in the "maverick" Arizona Republican. In this context, a "maverick" means being willing to stick it to conservatives whenever matters of substance come up in the Senate. Mitt Romney has it right when he recites, "McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman."
Now, the Log Cabin Republicans, who were betrothed to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have switched to McCain. The group of gay Republicans cited McCain's opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment as a reason to support the Arizona senator.
Posted by jeffgannon at 10:09 AM
February 01, 2008
America-Haters Line Up Behind B. Hussein Obama
I previously reported that terrorist-supporting Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans is a contributor as well as a "bundler" for Barack Obama (BTW, Code Pink is the organization the Berkeley City Council designated as sactioned hecklers to U. S. Marine Corps recruiters.) Now MoveOn.org, the group that took out a full-page ad to denounce Gen. Petraeus as "General Betray-us" has endorsed the Illinois Democrat to be Commander-in-Chief. Over 70% of MoveOn.org's members voting gave Obama the nod. Apparently, there is a great deal of mistrust of Hillary Clinton on the Moonbat Left.
Will Obama renounce MoveOn.org's endorsement or return Code Pink's political contributions? Will the Old Media even ask him about it?
The answers: No, no and no.
Posted by jeffgannon at 03:59 PM
McCain Wins DC GOP Straw Poll
Sen. John McCain defeated former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Thursday's District of Columbia Republican straw poll. Few would be surprised that McCain, the Washington GOP establishment candidate emerged victorious on what amounts to home turf.
McCain garnered 43.5% of the vote while Romney came in second with 35.3%. Ron Paul received 8.1%, followed by Rudy Giuliani with 6.4% and Governor Mike Huckabee at 5.1%.
Even though a win is a win, McCain should take no comfort in the results. As a favorite son and with the air of inevitability the Old Media has surrounded him with, McCain should have broken through the 50% barrier that has thus far eluded him. So far, McCain has not gotten much more than one-third of the votes cast in any contest, even those he won. It is clear Republicans want someone else, but until this point have been unable to decide on an alternative.
DC's result suggests that party regulars unhappy with McCain are gravitating to Romney. It also indicates that Huckabee's appeal is regional and his chances of becoming the nominee almost as remote as that of "crazy uncle" Ron Paul.
The straw poll totals combined with the story from 2007 revived by Drudge today The Hill that McCain had discussions with Tom Daschle in 2001 about leaving the GOP ala Jim Jeffords might yet derail McCain's hopes for the nomination.
Posted by jeffgannon at 02:55 PM