Hey! We've moved! Please check us out at MacBigot.com,
now hosted with WordPress on our own domain!

(...for an even better stage, that is.)

We have enjoyed the nature of the Blogger.com community; but are excited to move on to our own digs managed by WordPress on our own domain.

For those who have connected to our feed by one or more methods, the new RSS address is http://macbigot.com/?feed=rss2, and the FeedBurner subscription has already been updated with our new address (so no need to re-subscribe); the rest of you (humans, I presume) can come see our almost-finished layout at MacBigot.com.

Existing posts will not be taken down, until Google/Blogger gets tired of hosting them for free, I suppose. But I will drastically change the layout so that people who arrive at old blogspot.com posts from a search know that they should click though to get to the fresh stuff.

Thanks for your readership, and your comments; this will be the third generation of my blog (from back in 1997 when no one was using that term), and it's been a great way for me to avoid filling up my friends' inboxes with email hoaxes, cookie recipes, and anti-idiot rants.

WordPress is new to me; the urge to learn it was part of the impetus to jumping into that environment. So the template may evolve a few times over the next few months as I get a clue.

I look forward to providing the planet this same critical and necessary service -- and better -- in the new format. -Dan

(If I wish for anything in this life, I wish God had given me this man's power of words!)


And this one from an adult perspective:

Whenever one of Obama's friends is exposed as an extremist (a la Reverend Wright), he pretends that they either didn't have a real impact on him -- or more commonly, he vehemently denies that he even knew the person well enough to know what they stood for.

Saying that he sat through 20 years of sermons by a man that he called his 'guide' before YouTube was lit up by Wright's vitriol -- without noticing the level and intensity of the hate-speech that the entire church reverberated with, is to hope that the American people are so in love with Obama that they are willing to dismiss what they have seen with their own eyes.

Now, with McCain (finally) pointing out Obama's long-term and involved relationships with unapologetic domestic terrorists -- Obama again calls his own history, his own friendships, his own business dealings, 'a distraction'.

Sure, Mr. Obama, they are indeed a distraction -- from the lie you are trying to sell the American people about how your character and pretended moral high ground is somehow a better choice than your opponent's.

Shame on you, Mr. Obama, and shame on any American who will vote for you without looking very deeply into your past, and the people you have called your friends.

Green and Blue vs. Red, as in the Democratic Party realizing too late that clinging to the religion of mankind-engendered Global Warming has made them overconfident that they were swaying the masses into being ready to pay more and give up more self-determination to save our planet from impending doom -- truth be told, the hard economics of real life are more important to most Americans than saving a few trees, four dozen polar bears and their Styrofoam coffee cups in the short term.

Unfortunately for those who wallow in Victimhood, and those who gleefully wear their White Shame like a badge of honor, this country is not going to make any progress in any direction by continuing to excitedly compare infected flesh wounds. It's time to table the pandering to whiners, and get everyone to roll up their sleeves.

From Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger in the L.A. Times:

"This summer, elite opinion ran headlong into American popular opinion. The train wreck happened in the Senate and went by the name of the Climate Security Act. That bill to cap U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would have, by all accounts (even the authors'), increased gasoline and energy prices. Despite clear evidence that energy-price anxiety was rising, Democrats brought the bill to the Senate floor in June when gas prices were well over $4 a gallon in most of the country. Republicans were all too happy to join that fight.

Indeed, they so relished the opportunity to accuse Democrats of raising gasoline prices in the midst of an energy crisis, they insisted that the 500-page bill be read into the Senate record in its entirety in order to prolong the debate. Within days, Senate Democrats started jumping ship. Democratic leaders finally killed the debate to avert an embarrassing defeat, but by then they had handed Republicans a powerful political club.

Republicans have been bludgeoning Democrats with it ever since.
...
With just six weeks before the election, the bursting of the green bubble is a wake-up call for Democrats. Environmental groups, perpetually certain that a new ecological age is about to dawn in America, have serially overestimated their strength and misread public opinion.

Democrats must break once and for all from green orthodoxy that focuses primarily on making dirty energy more expensive and instead embrace a strategy to make clean energy cheap."

H/t Gina Cobb

Over this last year, we found that using corn-fed fuels in our automobiles isn't costing us less, isn't polluting the air less, and is taking more time to produce than good old-fashion gasoline. In fact, the only advantage that it really presents is that it doesn't come from the Saudis -- but then, if we would take up Sarah Palin's offer to drill her state until it cries for mercy, we might not have such a crisis on that front, either. Then the corn can go back to being a food source for all those people we feel compelled to rescue around the world (while our own country's problems go unaddressed).

Here's an idea -- instead of trying to use fear and Chicken-Little politics, how about moving aside the legislative and regulatory barriers that have kept Americans from doing what we have known to be necessary for years:

1. Drilling offshore -- if China's doing it, Americans should be doing it better
2. Drilling in ANWAR; maybe the bears would like some company
3. Reduce the oft-cited 10-year build-time for bringing up oil where there was no drill before to a more respectable two or three years (it's being done by other countries; what's wrong with us?).
4. Commissioning windmill and turbine farms (which have been blocked for decades because they might kill migratory birds!) all around the country
5. Get communities to rely on the national 'power grid' less by sanctioning ways for some power to be produced locally (water, steam, wind, gerbils on crack)
6. Encourage American families to buy two small hybrid cars instead of one six-ton SUV
7. Provide auto manufacturers incentives to lose their fixation with the Hummer-class customer
8. Teach consumers to shop for goods that last, rather than fostering a market for disposables
9. Provide logistical support for urban rideshare and public transportation
10. Evangelize short-commute and stay-at-home (telecommuting) workforces
11. Promote 'think global, buy local' business plans that show small companies how to reduce costs by forging relationships with nearby suppliers
12. Don't lose the elbow grease when the mortgage crisis is over; begin immediately to devise ways for Americans to extricate themselves from living and doing business on credit, so that payrolls can be met without begging the bank for an advance every two weeks.
13. Finally, someone recently suggested that we base the price of corn sold to people in the Middle East on what they charge us for a barrel of oil. I can't see anything unfair about that.

I'm probably not smart enough to run for political office (or perhaps I'm too smart?); but if our elected officials can't figure out how to accomplish the above over the next decade, well then we didn't do a very good job picking them, did we?

H/t Gina Cobb.

There has been a lot of finger-pointing and blame-game politics going on about the homes of both Presidential candidates -- Barack Obama's 4 Million-dollar home purchased from a shady character versus McCain's 7-, no 8-, no -- 13 'homes' (properties) scattered around the country.

Mark Silva at SwampPolitics.com was kind enough to show his research on the McCain Real Estate Dynasty -- of course, it's not as 'bad' as the Obama campaign would lead us to believe; but then, no one blames Obama for taking the cheap shot at McCain, either.

Obama's home is where he lives; two or three of McCain's homes are also used as residences -- but the others are largely investment properties (condos), though there is one that was intended to be the domain of the McCains' daughter, and most counted among the total are owned by 'Cindy Hensley McCain Family Trust', 'Dream Catcher Family LLC', a domestic corporation formed by the McCain family or by 'Wild River Rental LLC', which records show is controlled by Cindy McCain.

It's pretty obvious that the McCains have been involved in Real Estate and real estate management, which as a business can be a great thing in good or bad economic times if you are good at it. But Obama's take on it is that owning this many properties makes his opponent untrustworthy and elitist.

This is an attempt to back-spin claims that he himself is 'elitist' (arugula, anyone?) and out of touch with the average American. Barack may be right in claiming that his choice of vegetables has no bearing on whether he is capable of reading his constituents' needs -- but for him to claim that likewise, McCain can't possibly have Americans' best interests at heart simply because his family has been successful in Real Estate, is to point more to Obama's readiness to take cheap shots and rely on the ignorance of the American people.

Perhaps Obama's own experience with Real Estate professionals makes him suspicious; but do we want a President that thinks that buying and selling properties makes a person suspect? Methinks that Barack Obama needs to be informed that his 'real estate buddy's ethics are not a common representation of capitalists (maybe he thinks all business people are like Rezko, so that's why he had no qualms about doing business with him).

For claiming that McCain is untrustworthy simply because of McCain's success, I'd say, 'Shame on you, Obama,' but I don't really believe he understands the concept of shame, either.

I was watching television tonight while doing my homework, and it struck me (for the first time -- I'm a little slow, you know) odd that they're recommending 'safer sex practices' on the commercials now; because they wouldn't DARE recommend 'safe sex'.

OK, for those who don't yet get the slim difference... 'safer sex' means using hardware and chemicals to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. 'Safe sex', on the other hand, means all of the above -- but within a monogamous relationship.

No one in the marketing/entertainment/lifestyle industries would DARE suggest that a person should benefit from living by any sort of a ... gasp ... moral code.

Hillary and Obama have been talking a lot over the last few months about making the oil companies pay extra taxes when they make more profits than 'expected' (expected by Hillary? by a federal regulatory agency? by internal accountants?). No one seems to be talking about how the government is going to be limited (like they want to limit businesses) so that they don't extend those same market caps to other industries, such as manufacturing, agriculture, science, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment.

How many Obama supporters would there be if we talked about those market caps being defined for 'all profit-making entities', instead of just the oil companies?

Of course, the Obama folks would make it sound great for the little guy -- because they've already sold the idea that they will take more taxes from the most profitable and pass that money along to those who aren't profitable at all.

If it's beginning to sound like Obama doesn't like capitalism all that much, you may be onto something. Obama likes to squirrel away his millions by taking it away from people -- actually earning it would not only disprove some of his ideals; it would also be a whole lot of, well, work.

So what would the world look like if we stopped rewarding the gifted, patting those on the back who are successful, and lending preference to those who work as hard as they possibly can?

Well, for starters, you would please a lot of Democrat politicians. But only for a short while; because their constituents would soon see that just when their hard work was beginning to pay off, some of them would pass that line in the sand that alerts the federal government that, "HEY! This person OVER HERE is now successful -- we need to TAKE MORE FROM HIM AND HIS FAMILY because, after all, it's for the good of society!"

Then the Democratic constituency would discover that none of them, save the bottom wage-earners (and the Welfare leeches, the illegal immigrants, and those who refuse to report their income) would see any benefit from all their hard labor. In fact, most of the smart ones will realize quickly that to excel is to lose; so they will be left with only two choices: stop working so hard or figure out a way to hide your profits.

And people think we have problems with tax cheats now.

As an easy-to-digest example of the Moonbat Way of rewarding talent and success, we can take a peek at Sports Illustrated's writeup of the quelling of the top of the curve: Jericho Scott vs. the Youth Baseball League of New Haven

" NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player -- too good, it turns out.

The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.

Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho's coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.

But Vidro says he didn't quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league's field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch."

This young man might still be better off than most Americans will be under an Obama Presidency -- at least the League didn't charge Jericho's parents ten times the normal league fee because he's in the top five percent of performers.

As long as American voters allow the Democrats, and this country, to be led by people who really don't think capitalism is a good idea, we risk giving up the one concept beyond our personal freedoms that set us apart from the history of the rest of the world.

Even worse, those personal freedoms that we value so much will mean so much less when we no longer have the ability to keep our families fed and sheltered. Imagine how much freedom of speech and the right to bear arms will be a threat to our government when our politicians realize that their constituents would rather see them dead than voted out of office -- that's when the NRA will be outlawed and disbanded, the newspapers will become puppets of the State, and Public Schools will be the only kind of schools. That is that path that our country would walk should our economy become the sandbox of communists and socialists.

In our optimism, we as a people can be fooled and led by the nose for far too long. But that is exactly the kind of rope the Obama campaign is trying to hang us with -- to attempt to hide their takeover of the minds and wallets of our country by claiming that those companies that are doing well are to blame for those who are not. To quote Ronald Reagan, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'".

Obama would not be known by history as the President of Hope; but as the man who saw fit to see our freedoms hang by a rope until dead.

H/t to Moonbattery.com

No, she wasn't talking about Obama (though I am beginning to believe that's true as well, and moreso each and every time he opens his mouth).

The following words were to have been spoken at the anti-Ahmadinejad rally that Sarah Palin was un-invited to after Hillary backed out upon hearing McCain's pick for VP would also be speaking. From the New York Sun:

"He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a "Final Solution" — the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a "stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman — not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world. ...

Senator McCain has made a solemn commitment that I strongly endorse: Never again will we risk another Holocaust. And this is not a wish, a request, or a plea to Israel's enemies. This is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us. It is John McCain's promise and it is my promise."

H/t Doug Ross.

"Statement by the President on Legislation to Address Crisis in Financial Markets
Sept 22, 2008

"Over the weekend, members of my Administration and congressional leaders worked on legislation to address the crisis in our Nation's financial markets. They made good headway toward a bill that can pass the House and Senate in a timely manner, and the American people appreciate their efforts.

Obviously, there will be differences over some details, and we will have to work through them. That is an understandable part of the policy making process. But it would not be understandable if Members of Congress sought to use this emergency legislation to pass unrelated provisions, or to insist on provisions that would undermine the effectiveness of the plan. I appreciate Members of Congress in both parties resisting the urge to do so, and keeping the rescue bill focused on solving the crisis in our financial markets.

Americans are watching to see if Democrats and Republicans, the Congress and the White House, can come together to solve this problem with the urgency it warrants. Indeed, the whole world is watching to see if we can act quickly to shore up our markets and prevent damage to our capital markets, businesses, our housing sector, and retirement accounts.

Failure to act would have broad consequences far beyond Wall Street. It would threaten small business owners and homeowners on Main Street.

Everyone recognizes that it's not easy to write a bill of this magnitude in a timely manner, and all those who have worked so hard over the weekend and continue this morning deserve the thanks and appreciation of every American. Working together, I am confident we can enact the legislation necessary to prevent lasting damage to our economy and meet the unique challenge facing us today."

H/t Gina Cobb.

It has it's own web site (TalkLikeAPirate.com), and it's been written up on Wikipedia; so what more do you want?

UPDATE: Wired.com has a timely article up called, 'Pirates: A Reality Check - 9 Pirate Myths Examined'

H/t MoonBattery.com

On the other hand, if his kind actually represents the sort of person you are, then go right ahead and vote for him -- even annoying rotten bastards have a right to fair representation in Washington.

You may have heard by now that someone broke into Sarah Palin's personal email account and stole -- then published -- several screen shots, pictures of her family, and many email addreses from her contact list. They found Bristol Palin's personal cell phone number and made a video of themselves calling it (for bragging rights, apparently). The latest scuttlebutt is that there wasn't any 'hacking' per se; but just a little intelligent engineering of Yahoo's not-so-intelligent password-reset mechanism.

We're all going to ignore the fact that this was a federal crime (why not -- there are dozens of web site sharing this illegally obtained information -- and we know they aren't held to any standard of decorum, let alone lawful behavior). But we are also going to avoid linking to any site that takes glee in aiding and abetting these miscreants.

Obamanuts around the world are furiously spinning this too claim that Palin did a terrible thing -- they believe that this is proof enough that she has been doing 'business' on an email account that they may have trouble scraping dirt out of when they demand it by subpoena.

From theAnchoress:

"And excuse me, but aren’t the people on the left the ones who have been telling us - without basis - for the last 8 years that “evil nazi Bush” has been “intruding into people’s private correspondences” and that this (if it were happening) would be a bad thing? Can the hypocrisy get any thicker? First Palin is “not a woman”, and “not the mother of her baby,” and all the rest of the looney tunes stuff…now, she is not an American entitled to her privacy? Is she associating with known terrorists? Is that why she was invaded?

This is the step too far that we all knew the left would take. It’s going to backfire on them spectacularly. No reasonable person, and certainly no centrist or independent type, is going to think that this was relevant, or fair, or the way to play the game.

If Obama doesn’t do some serious damage control, very quickly: game over. These idiots have just brought Sarah Palin enormous sympathy. Now, people don’t just empathize with her, they don’t just 'understand' who she is ... now, they’ll want to PROTECT her. Stupid, stupid, stupid move. And unethical. And immoral."

Regarding the accusations that Sarah Palin is somehow using her Yahoo account to somehow subvert the law (purportedly making it more difficult for her enemies to dig up dirt on her when they subpoena her business correspondence), the trade journal Network World notes,

"As for the sample e-mails, rather than bolstering the contention that Palin uses private e-mail to avoid possible public scrutiny of official business, at first blush they actually seem indicative of her dutifully separating Alaska business from Alaska and national politics. Both samples are overtly political in nature, which, based on my admittedly limited understanding of the law in this area, make them inappropriate when using government resources."

On a final note, I have noticed a strong pattern from trolling through just about a dozen articles (and their comments) that there is a smattering of 'readers' trying to 'make clear' that it's not Liberals or Left-Wing folks that have committed this crime -- the 'Anonymous' group is apparently quite 'Libertarian'. Uh-huh. My response to one such commenter:

MacBigot said...

'They weren't left-wingers.' -Anonymous

Oops... sorry, we Conservatives get confused easily. When we see clear examples of situational ethics, we instantly think, 'Liberals' -- and that's really an unfair presumption. But hey, we're human! (Sorry.)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_ethics - "... the ends can justify the means ...")

(http://macbigot.blogspot.com/2006/05/i-could-read-your-mail-lots-of-hackers.html - ' I could read your mail. Lots of hackers, too. And (probably) several government agencies. And some guy working minimum wage at Yahoo tech support.')

(http://macbigot.blogspot.com/search?q=situational+ethics )"

P.S.: some on the Right have decided to boycott certain sites who have made a habit of publishing this smut (much like the rags in the grocery-store checkout lines). It won't be a strain for us here at this blog -- I have long been an anti-fan of Gawker.com because of it's advertising (sorry, but although I don't mind an occasional naked person on the intarweb -- their obsession with mostly-nude teenage boys is annoying at best, and with any due consideration, a bit creepy).

H/t to Eric Lauritzen:

"Twice as many people were killed there over the summer than in Iraq. We need to pull out of there and turn it over to the Chicagoans. ..."

From CBS2Chicago.com:

"125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer
Total Is About Double The U.S. Troop Death Toll In Iraq

... wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 125 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1.

According to the Defense Department, 65 U.S. soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq. About the same number were killed in Afghanistan over that same period.

In the same time period, an estimated 247 people were shot and wounded in the city.

Police department spokeswoman Monique Bond disputed the numbers, saying in an e-mail that sometimes shootings are re-classified as accidental. ..."

Looks like there might be some of the Dems' Spin Committee working for the Chicago P.D.

Barack Obama wants us to take a long hard look at how (he says) Sarah Palin's comparative experience as Mayor, and now as Governor of Alaska, should tell us about how unprepared she might be for a nationally-relevant position. So I have to wonder:

How well did Obama's exit strategy for Chicago work out? No, I mean an exit strategy for the citizens of Chicago, not Barack himself and his wife...

Chill
by burghnews

When I get enough positive comments on something, I feel a natural need to exercise my rights as a capitalist pig -- so you can now visit Zazzle.com to select from dozens of styles of tshirts with the 'BUILD THAT FENCE' graphic seen here as downloadable wallpaper (click for biggie version):


(See our list of other wallpapers here: http://macbigot.blogspot.com/search?q=macbigot.com+wallpaper )

Try to keep up, people.

Gina Cobb: Saddam's WMD

Go read the article, and if you still believe that Saddam Hussein didn't have WMDs, please come back here and leave your name in the comments so we can mock you mercilessly.

No, we realize that no same person truly believes that there were no WMDs -- but that doesn't stop the Left from trotting out the phrase, "Bush lied, people died" over and over. That's the situational ethics of the party that mocks any person who values morals, truth (that's without a capital 'T', as if it has been branded and co-opted by the righteous liberals), and dare I say it (since I'm ticking them off already anyway), real religion.

What do I mean about 'situational ethics'? That's when you are against capital punishment, but are OK with abortion. That's when you are all for the redistribution of wealth to the target first-time voters; but you don't want a successful company of any size to have an unexpected boost in profits (unexpected should be defined by WHO, Mrs. Pelosi?). That's when you have a presidential candidate that trots out a minister he's had a 20-year relationship with to answer questions about his ties to the Muslim faith -- but throws him under the bus when that minister doesn't hold his tongue at the right moments.

You're correct, Mr. Obama -- Sarah Palin should be the thing you are most afraid of; because no matter how much you belittle her contributions up to this point, your worst fears will definitely come true: You're going to be dismantled by lipstick.

Sure. You'll get no argument from me.

But what if there were proof that those same Democrats were responsible for making sure that the oil companies were prevented from fixing America's current oil problems in their own capitalistic way.

Just ask the nearest Communist (most any on-camera Democrat will do these days); if someone is a Capitalist, they are an enemy of the State.

"A transcript of the unedited interview of Sarah Palin by Charles Gibson clearly shows that ABC News edited out crucial portions of the interview that showed Palin as knowledgeable or presented her answers out of context. This unedited transcript of the first of the Gibson interviews with Palin is available on radio host Mark Levin's website. ..."

H/t MoonBattery.com, NewsBusters.org, Doug Ross, Gina Cobb, Michelle Malkin.

I've heard several talk radio hosts talk down call-ins who wanted to lambast Gibson; apparently, lately he's been getting a reputation for being even-handed -- at least among the wolves of his Leftie buddies on their 'news network'. Even those on the Right have been giving him the benefit of the doubt... he's that good.

Don't be fooled.

Obama likes to pretend that McCain is 'all of the same, none of the change' after the Democratic Party has spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to convince the American people that President Bush 'lied', is corrupt, and only lives to serve his own interests.

He also likes to paint each solution that McCain trots out as another sad attempt at bamboozling Americans into giving up control of their lives and finances for another four years. This despite the fact that he intends to take more money from the top third of producers and redistribute that to the bottom third who contribute nothing -- another appeal to greed among the uneducated masses (I know you want more than the nothing you have; so I'm going to promise you the money I'm going to take away from those who have been lucky enough to succeed already) -- and he's going to do it by convincing the voters to give the government more control over their lives.

But the infusion of spirit that the addition of Sarah Palin has added to the McCain ticket is making Obama's folks nervous. Fence-sitters are beginning to slide off, and it has the Left worried.

Since Obama's record of labeling any serious questions of his character as 'distractions', it's no surprise that he wants to make Sarah Palin look like nothing more than window-dressing on his myth of McCain's allegiance to the Washington Good'ol Boy Network.

In Obama's propaganda-driven world, John McCain is the pig -- and Sarah Palin is the lipstick that conservatives are now being drawn to.

In some respects, he may be right about Palin's affect on the UnDecided.

But if you are still falling for the Obama's campaign slogans of 'more of the same', I strongly suggest you read Herman Cain's book, "They Think You're Stupid: Why Democrats Lost Your Vote and What Republicans Must Do to Keep It" -- a blow-by blow history of how politics and the media relies on their machinery to keep the American public uninformed and angry.

(...noted one of the comments after an article in TUAW about Apple's revision of the Touch)

I think, if Steve does the keynote, and other black-shirted cultists like this from among Apple's ranks continue to do the how-to videos, the company just might get a lot more people to drink the Kool-Aid. Seems to travel better than the sometimes-believable 'real people' who did the Switch commercials. And how-to's not only serve as commercials for the product(s); but also might reduce some measure of first-time-user fumbling and dumb questions to AppleCare and the local Genius.

Here's a link to search results on Apple's web site for 'guided tour' -- looks like a promising trend!

The Apple employee's name is Hannah, and yes, we think she's cute, too -- and not just because that's my daughter's name, either.

You know, none of the stories told about how tough McCain had it as a prisoner of war was true -- he was actually quite comfortable and well-treated. Because Randi Rhodes says so:

"Of course he (McCain) became very friendly with the Vietnamese. They called him the Prince. He was well treated actually. And he was well treated because he traded these propaganda interviews for good treatment. So look, it's a horrible story anyway you cut it, anyway you look at it, any way you you you deal with it.

But, it's not the story Fred Thompson told. Nor is it the story Rudy Giuliani told. Nor is it the story Sarah Palin told. Nor is it the story anybody. Cindy McCain knew to limit herself to 'I think what my husband did in Vietnam was heroic' because she knows the truth too."

It's clear from her explanation that lengthy accounts at NPR, U.S. News, and Wikipedia.org are all complete fabrications, and we should discount them completely on the grounds that Ms. Rhodes is such a reputable, truthful, unbiased, and professional reporter.

What sickens me is that someone is paying to keep her chattering away -- who LIKE to hear this crap. It truly says something about the stations, the advertisers, and her listeners.

RadioEqualizer has backgrounders on her methods and childish behavior:

Rhodes Skit Says Romney Supporters Will Kill Innocent People (She plays a 'War of the Worlds' trick on her listeners, and attempts to poke fun at how wonderful she thinks it would be if conservatives started becoming violent toward each other in the Republican Primary race)

Over Presidential Threat, Air America Host Again in Hot Water (Rhodes lambasts a child character in a skit, who has apparently done several things she blames President Bush for, and then she makes it clear with sound effects that the child is being shot, repeatedly)

False Rhodes Attack Rumors Spark Instant Finger-Pointing (It is reported that Rhodes has been attacked on the street -- she strings out the story for several minutes on her show to place blame and spin conspiratory theories that those on the Right somehow are trying to silence her -- meanwhile her lawyer, and the local police, confirm that no crime was committed; she had fallen down all by herself...)

Blackwater employees may have had a role in the fires (Randi Rhodes blames wildfires on the government and Blackwater -- apparently in an effort to 'sell protection')

H/T Moonbattery.com

ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors (ABCNews.com)

The Influence Game in Denver: What Are They Hiding? (ABCNews.com)

ABC Reporter's Attorneys Want All Charges Dropped (ABCNews.com)

The Blotter from Brian Ross & The Investigative Team (ABCNews.com)

Paul Kane of the Washington Post 'reports':

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers."

But if Mr. Kane, who is supposedly an journalist of some stripe, bothered to do ANY fact-checking, he would have probably let the story drop off his desk -- because it's not only NOT TRUE, but quite the opposite -- the group indicated actually ended up with THREE TIMES the funding of the year before.

The explanation, with supporting documentation, has been clearly laid out by Lonewacko at 24ahead.com.

Paul Kane joins the ranks of hacks, who purport to be professionals with journalistic integrity, but instead show their colors clearly as numb parrots of press releases and innuendo. And if the above isn't the result of sloppy work -- but part of a natural tendency to slime anyone on the Right, then we would really appreciate a disclaimer at the beginning of each of his pieces from now on that says, 'PLEASE NOTE that the following is provided with no warranty, and even less chance of unbiased reporting, as unabashed propaganda of the Left. Continue at your own peril.' This is the reason I changed majors my freshman year in college -- I'd met several newspapermen 'in the business', and in mere moments my disillusionment was complete.

With apologies to Dr. McCoy... 'Journalism is dead'.

True, Obama has taken the high road, publicly, by trying to 'call off the dogs' regarding those who now attack Palin's family (specifically her daughter, Bristol). But that doesn't mean that he holds a respectful view of Palin herself -- or any woman he encounters professionally -- according to his own behavior and slips of the tongue.

Before you go on, let me remind the gentle reader that not even Bill Clinton was this loose in his treatment of women publicly; and I'm not talking about wandering eyes and hands, but instead the kind of machismo garbage that belittles a woman because she is a woman (whether intentional or not). It does mean something notable when the habits of a man's character scatters when the kitchen light is flipped on.

It McCain's opposition wants to look carefully at Palin's personal beliefs, private family issues, and behavior to discern how fit a leader she might be, let's take a moment and apply that same clarity to Obama, his minions, and the entrenched media.

If that seems like too much trouble for you, don't worry -- Jim Geraghty, writer of the “Campaign Spot” at National Review Online did much of the legwork for you:

"No, No Sexism at All
Slights against Sarah.

By Jim Geraghty

St. Paul — Back in June, I carefully examined the Democratic presidential primary and concluded that despite many asking whether Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House fell short because of sexism, that the Democrats and those who covered the race had held a 100 percent sexism-free contest.

Today, you’re hearing the same questions about the response to McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

There is really not much evidence that the response has been sexist.

Sure, one of the first inquiries from CNN’s John Roberts was, “Children with Down’s syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of vice president, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?” And indeed, no one has ever asked whether Obama or McCain will have enough time to dedicate to their children while serving as president. But clearly, Roberts was just asking out of concern for the little tyke, not out of sexism.

It’s clearly not sexism, merely a series of mental slips, that prompt Barack Obama to consistently refer to Palin as a former mayor, and to never speak of her as if she were a governor. Clearly, sexism cannot be the motivation of that repeated mental error, just like his statement of “Hold on a second, sweetie. We’ll hold a press avail,” which he told a reporter at an event outside Detroit was just a reflection of habit. As we all know, it’s common for high-powered lawyers to call women “sweetie.”

But if Obama really were consistently sexist, would have said something about Palin like, “You challenge the status quo and suddenly the claws come out.” Or, “You know, over the last several weeks since she fell behind, she’s resorted to what’s called ‘kitchen sink’ strategies. . . . She’s got the kitchen sink flying, and the china flying, and the, you know, the buffet is coming at me.” You know, the sort of remarks he made about Hillary. Or he would suggest that Palin “periodically when she’s feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal.” As he did with Hillary. (This one is especially benign, considering he went with “periodically” instead of “every 28 days or so.”)

The media, in particular, has been sterling in keeping sexism out of the discussion of Palin and her qualifications for high office. Sure, ABC News correspondent David Wright said, “In small groups, Palin can seem like the young, trophy running mate.”

And sure, the Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes did write, “John McCain will have to do better than naming Tina Fey his vice presidential choice.”

And perhaps it may have appeared to be sexism when liberal talk show host Ed Schultz declared a “bimbo alert.” And admittedly, liberal columnist Richard Cohen compared McCain naming her to Caligula naming his horse to be a consul and a priest. And yes, even Fox News interviewed her dentist about her smile.

Sure, on MSNBC, the phrases “daughter’s pregnancy” and “Palin’s judgment” were used in conjunction so many times, liberal bloggers who disagree with Palin were grinding their teeth.

Sure, Maureen Dowd calls her the “Vice in Go-Go Boots.”

Sure, the Baltimore Sun’s Susan Reimer dismissed her as “a skirt on the ticket.”

And when Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton declared that Palin would make a “pretty fragile” president, one might be left scratching the head at that label, knowing that Palin hunts caribou moose. But clearly, sexism could not have been what prompted that unflattering stereotypical adjective.

And sexism was not the trigger for the “laughter” in “many many newsrooms,” brought to our attention of Eleanor Clift.

This doesn’t even get into the insightful and sexism-free analysis of the Palin pick from Alan Colmes, who speculated that Palin’s negligence caused her child’s Down syndrome, or Andrew Sullivan, who wanted proof that Trig was indeed Sarah Palin’s child.

So other than that, there is no evidence that sexism played a role in the response to Sarah Palin’s selection."

See also:

"The Four Stages of Conservative Female Abuse (MichelleMalkin.com)"

I keep hearing the Lefties excitedly point and hyperventilate about the 'story' involving Sarah Palin's 17-year-old unwed daughter being pregnant. They're excited because they think that might make many on the Conservative Right blanch, since by the Left's understanding of the Right's measuring stick, the daughter is a 'sinner' and therefore a black mark on her mother's record.

So little they understand about faith, hope, and having a Christian relationship with our Creator.

I see articles, blog posts, comments, and even cartoons pointing out gleefully that "That's what happens when you don't teach kids about condoms in the classroom! Bristol was only taught abstinence, and look what good it did her!"

Or just pray it doesn't happen to you.

[from indexed.blogspot.com]
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Bristol is an educated, well-rooted 17-year-old girl who simply made a mistake in her life. (Ooooo... must be an indication that she is a failure as a person and that her parents didn't do a very good job. OK, if you really agree with that last sentence, understand that I meant it as extreme sarcasm...)

And I'm going to figure that she knows about condoms. No matter how wacky you think Christian parents are for wanting to have some say about that before a child's 3rd-grade teacher steps in.

Several who stand behind the Palins (including Obama, by the way) have noted that Barack Obama's mother was young and unwed, as well -- and no one is saying we should assume she was a bad mother.

But we will stand around and point and grin at the Palins.

From BibleGateway.com:

"They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, 'All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!' Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, 'Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?'

'No, Lord,' she said.

And Jesus said, 'Neither do I. Go and sin no more.'"

We will pray for your family, Bristol Palin -- including your new baby and husband. And we will cheer the arrival of both, regardless of what harm those holding stones and foaming at the mouth would wish upon you.

Someone is going to call this girl 'Mommy' in
a couple of years. Thank God for Mommies.

I had no idea that the number would be that high -- though I cannot pretend to grasp what parents must go through when presented with this information.

Just thought I'd bring this up when Sarah Palin is getting patted on the back for having NOT aborted her son, who she knew would arrive with this condition. This is the reason it is news; Palin decided, with her husband, that a difficult life was still a life, and that they would do whatever they could to nurture their baby toward the best life experience that they could provide for him.

Depending on which side of the Abortion/'Choice' fence you are on, this may not matter to you.

But to me, I see strength. And I thank God that they, as a family, chose to take the difficult road when medical science sells an abortion as easily as liposuction or lasic surgery.

"The Value of Service
Commentary by Lt. Col. Mark Murphy
354th Maintenance Group deputy commander

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- I learned a big lesson on service Aug. 4, 2008, when Eielson had the rare honor of hosting President Bush on a refueling stop as he traveled to Asia .

It was an event Eielson will never forget -- a hangar full of Airmen and Soldiers getting to see the Commander in Chief up close, and perhaps even shaking his hand. An incredible amount of effort goes into presidential travel because of all of the logistics, security, protocol, etc ... so it was remarkable to see Air Force One land at Eielson on time at precisely 4:30 p.m.--however, when he left less than two hours later, the President was 15 minutes behind schedule.

That's a big slip for something so tightly choreographed, but very few people know why it happened. Here's why. ... (read on at BlackFive.net)