Monday Afternoon Cigar

Emergency cigar inventory alarms rang as our Santa Damiana stash was reduced, again, by one.

Google vs. Anti-Obama Blogs

Well, it appears it isn't Google, but a Flag feature Google offers in its Blogger blogs. It seems Obama supporters are flagging blogs that do not tow the line. The Google Blogger system disables blogs with X number of flags. The rumor is blogs are re-instated after review, although how long the review takes and the true objectivity of the reviewer is unknown.

We use Blogger and love it. Will Blogger accounts that FTP to another site be impacted by these Flags? We're confident these same Obama supporters will put down their white flags long enough to flag the ultimate anti-Obama blog - Ushanka.us!

Karl's Weekend Reading

Garry Kasparov writes in the WSJ of the new documentary of Anna Paolitkovskaya, one of the 13+ murdered Russian journalists during Putin's presidency. The title of the film is "Letter to Anna". He also expands on the political climate in Russia. Specifically the "soft censorship" that exists to keep political opponents from becoming a threat to the Putin-Medvedev reign. Article title: How Putin Muzzled Russia's Press.

John fund of the WSJ reminds us that "only one Democrat since FDR has won more than 50.1% of the popular vote". Article: No, McCain Isn't Doomed.

There is evidence that fall campaigns, which tend to focus voters on big-picture issues, usually help Republicans. In 1976, Gerald Ford was seen as a goner during the summer but rallied to finish only two points behind Jimmy Carter. A dozen years later, Michael Dukakis led George H.W. Bush in June and July. He lost by eight points in the fall. In 1992, Bill Clinton had a 10-point lead around Labor Day. He won by only five and a half points. Even Bob Dole closed a 12-point Labor Day gap to only eight points by November 1996. If that history is a guide, a focused McCain campaign that clearly contrasts conservative and liberal approaches to the issues should have a good chance of winning.

After all, it isn't easy for Democrats to win in a two-person race for president. Since FDR's last victory in 1944, only one Democrat – Lyndon Johnson in 1964 – has won 50.1% or more of the popular vote. Both of Bill Clinton's victories were aided by Ross Perot's presence on the ballot.

Michelle Malkin recommends we "bone up" on ACORN, the lefty group that gets 40% of its annual budget from the taxpayers and spends some of that $$ on political activism. This is the group Obama worked for as a 'Community Organizer'. (We'd like to see the improvements to that community that can be attributed to Obama... Do ACORN community organizers file fraudulent voter registrations, or is that another part of ACORN?) Two paragraphs selected below. See her full Townhall article, The ACORN Obama Knows.

Last July, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State. Seven ACORN workers had submitted nearly 2,000 bogus voter registration forms. According to case records, they flipped through phone books for names to use on the forms, including "Leon Spinks," "Frekkie Magoal" and "Fruto Boy Crispila." Three ACORN election hoaxers pleaded guilty in October. A King County prosecutor called ACORN's criminal sabotage "an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls."
...
As the Consumer Rights League points out in its new expose, the ACORN Housing Corporation has worked to obtain mortgages for illegal aliens in partnership with Citibank. It relies on undocumented income, "under the table" money, which may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Moreover, the group's "financial justice" operations attack lenders for "exotic" loans, while recommending 10-year interest-only loans (which deny equity to the buyer) and risky reverse mortgages. Whistleblower documents reveal internal discussions among the group that blur the lines between its tax-exempt housing work and its aggressive electioneering activities. The group appears to shake down corporate interests with relentless PR attacks, and then enters "no lobby" agreements with targeted corporations after receiving payment.

Thursday Night Cigar

The most expensive Davidoff in our humidor burned in honor of the SCOTUS decision validating our individual right to use firearms for self defense. Of course, we don't own any firearms... so the opposite decision would not have impacted us in any way... If you believe that, you must be smoking a Davidoff too, and inhaling!

U/T for Obamunism graphic: Jawa Report

"Too Controversial"

Pajamas Media has declined to help us advertise the Commie Obama line of fashionable headwear and the high-end Leninade beverage because the products, the site, and the concepts are "too controversial".

They manage advertising for some of the best blogs out there, including Little Green Footballs, HotAir and the Jawa Report. Sites that have been know to post controversial content... on occasion. Content, by the way, without the humor our Commie Obama campaign is known for.

While we're often hard on the MSM, we have been treated fairly in interviews by CNN, Fox News, and the Washington Post. Pajamas Media, clearly biased in our favor, cowers at the site of our hat. Some stand by a group that claims to target bias in the old media...

We know where our first order will originate if we ever expand our product line to include testicles.

Obama's Presidential Seal

Jon Stewart pokes fun at Obama's pseudo-presidential seal at Comedy Central:

U/T: HotAir

Karl Rove opines in the WSJ on June 26, "It's All About Obama":

Many candidates have measured the Oval Office drapes prematurely. But Barack Obama is the first to redesign the presidential seal before the election.

His seal featured an eagle emblazoned with his logo, and included a Latin version of his campaign slogan. This was an attempt by Sen. Obama to make himself appear more presidential. But most people saw in the seal something else – chutzpah – and he's stopped using it. Such arrogance – even self-centeredness – have featured often in the Obama campaign.

Some right-wingers have made their own modifications of the seal. Here is ours:

Obama, The Religion

A great piece by Ivan Betinov at ThePeoplesCube:

"He will lead the people out of the bondage of Capitalism and into the Pure Light of a new consciousness, where all things are held in common, where all sickness will be cured by caring doctors and compassionate public health service nurses. The Wealthy shall give to the poor, until there is no wealth. The artificial borders that separate the peoples of the Earth will be nullified, and the Earth herself will begin to heal. The waters shall recede, the sun shall smile on a green and fertile land."

"We look with favor upon the nomination," pronounced Hans Bedlamite, leader of the Goreman delegation. "We feel that it in fact is more of an anointing than a nomination, that the divine hand of Mother Gaia is at work here. He has promised that He will consult with the Goremans on all ecological policies, and with that we are wonderfully pleased."

Obama Plays the Race Card

Once the momentum builds, we may not remember who started talking about race, and when. If Obama is saying he has to defend against racial attacks, that must mean McCain, or his loony hat-wearing right-wingers must be attacking his race. Obama wouldn't bring up the need to defend against racism if there wasn't any racism. Right?

Here are three headlines from today. It appears that the MSM is just as anxious as Obama to defend against all this racism...

CNN: Obama, McCain gear up for race-based attacks

RGJ.com: Obama braces for race-based ads as GOP vows fair but tough campaign

Reuters: Obama's race a campaign issue: poll, interviews

If Obama and the MSM continue to distract and to steer the election dialogue to race, and away from wealth redistribution, gun control, socialized medicine or any other commie inspiration... Obama might win the election.

You heard it here first.

UPDATE 6.24: Or, maybe you heard it here first! Check out Cass' post at Villainous Company. We added her to our blogroll, and copied the image below from her post. U/T: Cass!

Liberal Newspapers in Decline

Why would biased bourgeois newspapers care about profits? There are more important things than revenue, profit margins and other capitalist endeavours, such as maintaining the combined Obama-distraction and Bush-bashing campaigns long enough to fool 51% of the electorate in November. So we doubt today's news means anything to them...

However, the news today that ad revenues are down 8% in the past year for the nation's newspapers, and that commie cornerstone The San Francisco Chronicle is losing over a million dollars a week, warms our Proletarian heart.

NYT's 5-year chart:

No Hats in Pubs

The loss of freedoms in the UK continues with the hat ban in pubs.  It seems the elaborate surveillance camera system (1 camera for every 14 citizens) isn't effective against scoundrels with hats.

This will be our first use of the new label: Slippery Slope.  We'll go back and update our other posts accordingly.

Sunday Afternoon Cigar

We celebrated the end to this weekend's global warming with a Santa Damiana stogie and our new book from Ion Mihai Pacepa, Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination.

As we expected about the assassination.... Oliver Stone doesn't know s**t. We're only on chapter 3, yet there are already links between the Soviet Union, Romania and Cuba.   Frick'in commies....

Programmed to Kill

Our Hat @ RPC

Our hat made it into one of the great cartoons at Red Planet Cartoons.

U/T to Yogi

Nationalize the Refineries?

The suggestion to nationalize the refineries shows the Democrats' true (communist) intentions.

Sure, they'll retort that it was only one congressman, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), that mentioned it. Of course, Obama hasn't been available for comment on this one...

It is as if they think they already have that 70-seat majority everyone is predicting for November. Hinchey's quote:

We should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.

Change.

Tuesday Afternoon Cigar

Davidoff is the cigar du jour. Yummy.

Hat Pictures

Our hats made it to the Glenn Beck Summer Political Tour this past weekend. As you can see, the soviet-style headwear is becoming quite the fashion statement! They likely saw Glenn wear our hat two weeks ago - link.

An Ushanka Tip to Micah!

Elain Gonzales

As expected, Elian, now 14, has joined Cuba's Young Communist Organization.

He probably doesn't see much difference between the two countries, assuming his last experience in the US is what he remembers most....

Boumediene v. Bush

We've been, and still are, stunned beyond words at Thursday's ruling giving our enemies access to the US courts as if they were US citizens. Rush summarizes our feelings best in his Monday Morning Update:

On June 12, the Supreme Court bestowed constitutional rights on foreign-born terrorists. The ruling is a chilling demonstration of the American divide; conservative and liberal. Four liberals on the Court -- aided by Justice Kennedy -- grabbed power. Their decision overturned precedent since our Founding that placed the prosecution of wars within the Executive Branch.

Democrats are celebrating the ruling amid warnings that it's going to cost American troops their lives. But this decision has even broader implications. In short order, liberal jurists have turned American law upside-down:

•They have stripped voters of free-speech rights and political debate.
•They have stripped homeowners of rights to their own property -- should politicians decide to seize it for developers.
•They have stripped parents of their rights to discipline their own children, while redefining the very definition of marriage.
•They have ruled illegal immigrants must be accorded the same protections as citizens -- and American taxpayers must support them.
•They have pushed God from the public square.
•They have used junk science to place the interests of animals above those of people.
•They have stripped the most sacred protection -- the right to life -- from infants in the womb.

What power liberals cannot achieve at the ballot box, they seize through the courts. This is the "change" Obama and his fellow liberals desire. And the America they're creating is not the America we know, folks... or an America most of you will even want to know. Buck up.

UPDATE 6.16.08:

Peter Wehner, NRO, "Supreme Disgrace"

And so it has come to this: The United States Supreme Court now routinely invents constitutional rights to support whatever social, political, and legal goals it deems desirable. It is so much easier to legislate from the bench than it is through the branches of government that were created by our Founders to do just that.

But if one is going to invent Constitutional rights out of thin air, it’s worth asking: What moral universe do Justices Kennedy, Breyer, Ginsburg, Stephens, and Souter inhabit when they are willing to manufacture constitutional rights for unlawful enemy combatants who want to slit the throats and watch innocent Americans bleed and die while at the same time uphold manufactured constitutional rights that allow people to abort innocent unborn children?

What the Court decided Thursday was an intellectual, jurisprudential, and moral disgrace, and if John McCain is wise he’ll make this decision a focal point of the presidential race.

2nd UPDATE 6.16.08: Found at Grouchy Old Cripple

Birthday Boy

The king of t-shirt sales would be 80 today. Here is a pic of a new statue in Argentina celebrating the murderer.

Karl's Weekend Reading

What a great week for conservative thought. Here are about half of the articles worthy of our Weekend Reading posts from this week. Just too many!

On the topic of the need for more drilling, Victor Davis Hanson introduces a personal story that would sway those few liberals not dedicated to the destruction of the United States. Assuming they would read it. From Townhall:

Indeed, from my informal conversations at two very different gas stations, I would go even further: The wealthy, particularly those who are politically liberal, also like that high-priced gas translates into less burning of fossil fuels by others and will help accelerate research into alternative energies.

But what these elites don't seem to realize is that the energy policies they tend to advocate are for the present paralyzing almost everyone else in the country -- and that the truly ethical and environmental solution would require embracing positions long considered anathema to traditional liberalism.

A Bush Puff piece from Ushanka Babe Ann Coulter in Townhall. We predict we'll see more of these once the masses realize what the next fours years hold for the US, regardless of which candidate wins.

I generally don't write columns about the manifestly obvious, but, yes, the man responsible for keeping Americans safe from another terrorist attack on American soil for nearly seven years now will go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents.
...
The sheer repetition of lies about Bush is wearing people down. There is not a liberal in this country worthy of kissing Bush's rear end, but the weakest members of the herd run from Bush. Compared to the lickspittles denying and attacking him, Bush is a moral giant -- if that's not damning with faint praise. John McCain should be so lucky as to be running for Bush's third term. Then he might have a chance.

A credible witness to the horrors of communism speaks out about Obama. Ion Mihia Pacepa, author of Red Horizons and former advisor to Romania's Nicolae Ceaucescu, discusses Obama's chances with dictators. See the article for his former relationship with Cuba's Raul Castro.

As national security adviser to Romanian president Nicolae Ceauçescu, I dealt with many tyrants, and I learned that being nice to them never succeeds in making them nice to you. On April 12, 1978, I was in the car with Ceauçescu as he drove away from a meeting in the White House. He took a bottle of alcohol and splashed it all over his face, after having been affectionately kissed by President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office. “Peanut-head,” my boss whispered disgustedly. Afterwards, two other American presidents went to Bucharest to pay Ceauçescu respect. None was ever able to twist his arm — or charm him.
...
In August 1991, the Soviet Communist Party was disbanded, and nobody within Mother Russia really missed it. But somehow, the KGB survived — as secret police often do. Today, some 6,000 former KGB officers are running Russia’s federal and local governments, and 70 percent of Russia’s leading political figures have some connection to the intelligence services of the old regime. Vladimir Putin proves how difficult it is to teach an old dog new tricks — particularly when that old dog is rolling in oil dollars.

Larry Elder attempts to put the 'new' Obama position on negotiations with Iran into perspective - at Townhall. We're still confused...

Obama rejects the Bush my-way-or-the-highway "cowboy" foreign policy. Obama repeatedly said he wishes to meet with enemy/thug leaders without preconditions. But wait!

He now says only if he decides to meet in the first place. And if he decides -- to which he may not -- he'll do so without preconditions. And if he decides not to, his decision will have been made without preconditions, unless, of course, he decides to meet after all -- but only without preconditions. And if he decides not to meet, he'll make that decision without any preconditions, just as he would make the decision to meet without the precondition of no preconditions. But if he decides to meet, without preconditions, he'll do so solely when, where and if he decides to -- without preconditions.

That's change.

An Ushanka Tip goes out to the WSJ's Editorial Board for the latest Obama staff resignation - James Johnson. Here are quotes from Wednesday's "Friends of Barack", when James was still on the VP vetting team, and Thursday's "Ex-Friends of Barack" when he wasn't.

Barack Obama may have come up with a creative way to solve the housing recession: Let everyone buy property at a discount the way he did from Tony Rezko, and give everyone in America a discount mortgage the way Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide did for Fannie Mae's Jim Johnson. Team Obama's real estate and mortgage transactions are certainly a change from business as usual. They suggest old-fashioned back-scratching below even current Beltway standards.

A former CEO of mortgage financing giant Fannie Mae, Mr. Johnson is now vetting Vice Presidential candidates for Mr. Obama. But he is also a textbook case for poor disclosure as regulators sifted through the wreckage of Fannie's $10 billion accounting scandal. Despite an exhaustive federal inquiry, Mr. Johnson managed to avoid disclosing one very special perk: below-market interest-rate mortgages from Countrywide Financial, arranged by Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.
...
Since Fannie was buying Countrywide's loans, under terms set by Mr. Johnson and later Mr. Raines – or by people in their employ – the fact that Fannie's CEO had a separate personal financial relationship with Countrywide was an obvious conflict of interest. The company's code of conduct required prior approval of such arrangements. Neither Mr. Johnson nor Mr. Raines sought such approval, according to Fannie.
...
The irony here is that Mr. Obama has denounced Mr. Mozilo as part of his populist case against corporate excess, calling Mr. Mozilo and a colleague in March "the folks who are responsible for infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis." Obama campaign manager David Plouffe also said in March that "If we're really going to crack down on the practices that caused the credit and housing crises, we're going to need a leader who doesn't owe these industries any favors." But now this protector of the working class has entrusted his first big task as Presidential nominee to the very man who received "favors" in return for enriching Mr. Mozilo.

Johnson resigns Wednesday. Thursday in the WSJ:

As for Mr. Obama, Mr. Johnson now joins an intriguing and growing list of Mr. Obama's ex-associates that includes the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and former terrorist bomber William Ayers. We might call this list eclectic, except that there is a consistent pattern of bad judgment followed by an initial defense, then followed by rapid disassociation and regret that none of them were the men Mr. Obama "knew."

"Obama Is No Post-Racial Candidate", so says Ward Connerly in Friday's WSJ:

By supporting race preferences, Mr. Obama is unmistakably attaching himself to despicable ideas like Rev. Wright's. And, if he believes in those precepts, how does he reconcile his impressive political success and that of Mrs. Clinton with this perspective? Thirty-six million Americans didn't vote for the two of them because the majority of the American people are racist and sexist.

If Mr. Obama wants to be the candidate of "change," why doesn't he change the idiotic racial classification system that burdens millions of Americans? Why doesn't he call attention to the barbaric "one-drop" (of hereditary blood) rule that continues to haunt our nation, and which drives him to identify with the "black community" at the expense of his white ancestry? If he wants to unite the American people, how does he propose to do that by asking some Americans to accept preferential treatment for others and discrimination against themselves?

Thursday Afternoon Cigar

Santa Damiana is the cigar of choice again today.

Wednesday Afternoon Cigar

A Santa Damiana burned among the hippies at the beach in Ventura.

The Results are In!

The 2008 Election Results are in. Don't watch this news video if you want to continue seeing election coverage all day, every day, until November.

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Obama: The Nature of the Proletariat

Little Green Footballs is having a field day.. no, a field week... with the official Obama website. Open directories, searches on "Marx" and "Jewish Lobby" and many more are turning up many unmoderated blogs within his site. LGF has been so effective, these blogs are starting to disappear and the Obama campaign has a new job opening for a network security specialist.

it wasn't network security, as we're sure Obama's camp will tell us it was. No, it was pure, old fashioned liberalism run amok.

Of the 50+ links at LGF, one caught our eye: The Nature of the Proletariat. Don't they know the primaries are over??

...it is important to remeber that the Red Revolution actually succeded with in the Proletariat Revolution, and failed due to Lenin's pathetic abandonment of Marxist philosophy.

Classic. Communism isn't wrong. It just hasn't been executed properly in the past. If the 100 million were here today, they'd all sigh, "Here we go again".

Here is a link to a screen shot if the link above fails.

George Will on Comedy Central

A little too much Colbert and not enough Will, but good nonetheless. Will is asked the difference between Liberals and Conservatives. His answer:

The difference is between the truth and confusion, basically. A slightly longer answer is that the competing values are between freedom and equality at all times. Conservatives stand to favor freedom, and are willing to accept inequalities of outcome from a free market. Liberals tend to favor equality of outcome and are willing to sacrifice and circumscribe freedom in order to get it.

A note: We have followed our fellow Cubs fan since the late 80's. When asked to find a writer to emulate in an undergrad creative writing class, we chose George Will. The dividends from that decision pay to this day.

U/T Hot Air

Glenn Beck Wears Our Hat

Glenn wore our hat last night on his TV show. A hearty Ushanka Tip to Mr. Beck!

Jonah Goldberg, author of Liberal Fascism, says at end of the clip, "If you can wear that hat, you can do anything in this country!" So true!

Reaction from the commies? The Leftist bloggers are in a tizzy, although many are just copying each other's posts. Nor are they addressing the many points Glenn and others have made. More name-calling than anything else. Reminds us of third grade. Recess specifically.

Break The Terror

all of a sudden, about halfway though the clip, with no preparation, he puts on a Soviet-style hat emblazoned with the words “Obama ‘08″ and then Jonah laughed and they tried to make love, but Jonah has “male issues,” so they agreed to do the sweaty cuddling thing instead, and now they’re sleeping, night night!

Blog Junkies and Patricia Thurston's blog.

But perhaps the most ridiculous moment came when Beck pulled out a hat one of his listeners had sent him. The winter hat had earflaps and a red star, similar to Soviet insignia. It also said, “Obama ‘08.”

Get used to the hat, liberals.

Karl's Weekend Reading

Larry Elder observes Obama's nomination was not unique to black gains in the past 40 years, it is another example of it. See his two-page list at Townhall.com to get an idea of how silly these claims of 'historic moment' are.

Victor Davis Hanson nukes Patrick Buchanan's new book, Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War, as another example of revisionist history. He wrote his Townhall.com article from Europe where he is touring Allied grave sites in France, Belgium and Luxemburg.

Obama doesn't like it when we keep talking about his church, but we haven't received the new Blog Rules yet. Stanley Kurtz at the NRO hasn't either. He summarizes the many aspect of Obama's history at Trinity United in his article, No Liberation. Here are some quotables from the thorough 5-page article:

Obama rejects, “the unrealistic politics of integrationist assimilation — which helps a few upwardly mobile blacks to ‘move up, get rich, and move out. . . . ’ ” This statement might surprise many Obama supporters, who seem to think of him as the epitome of integrationism. Yet Obama’s repudiation of integrationist upward mobility is fully consistent with his career as a community organizer, his general sympathy for leftist critics of the American “system,” and of course his membership at Trinity. Obama, we are told, “quickly learned that integration was a one-way street, with blacks expected to assimilate into a white world that never gave ground.”
---
Instead of diffusing black rage by diverting it to the traditional American path of assimilation and middle-class achievement, Obama wants to capture the intensity of black anger and use it to power an effective political organization. Obama says, “he’s tired of seeing the moral fervor of black folks whipped up — at the speaker’s rostrum and from the pulpit — and then allowed to dissipate because there’s no agenda, no concrete program for change.” The problem is not fiery rhetoric from the pulpit, but merely the wasted anger it so usefully stirs.
---
...Obama’s religious history has everything to do with his political values and policy positions, since it confirms his affinity for leftist radicalism.

Victor Davis Hanson blogs at NRO on the same topic:

First, he can never quite come clean about his past. Obama seems to claim that the problem with Rev. Moss and Trinity is the sudden attention given these men of faith and the difficult spotlight put upon them as a result of the Obama campaign.

But such public attention is NOT a problem for Trinity and Co.—only a problem for Obama. When the crowd rises to its feet to shout approval of a racist like Wright or Pfleger it is not because of sudden public attention, but because they wish to hear such racist scape-goating that apparently serves as some sort of collective catharsis. And Obama apparently, despite his much praised "candor" about race, cannot or will not address why his own congregation and new minister would applaud a nut like Pfleger. (Such an exegesis might really call for a landmark speech about race in a way in which Obama's past politically expedient attempt was not).

James Taranto mentions that Obama has at least two senior staffers who are members of the Nation of Islam in his Best of the Web post from Wednesday. He also discusses Hillary's chances:

To summarize, Mrs. Clinton maximizes her chances of becoming president if she (1) does enough damage to Obama to snatch the nomination away from him, (2) failing that, does enough damage to him to bring about his defeat in November, and (3) gets herself on the ticket, whether he wins in November or not.

Some will say Mrs. Clinton is being disloyal to her party if she undermines Obama's chances of winning in November. But maybe she just practices a different kind of party loyalty. After all, if you can be a patriot while hoping your country loses a war, why can't you be a loyal Democrat while hoping your party loses an election?

Obama and Bitterness

While we're not bitter, we do cling. Here are some cartoons we've collected from Townhall.com over the past weeks.

Thursday Afternoon Cigar

We're down another Rocky Patel Sun Grown.

Jimmy Carter

Mr. Malaise endorsed Barack Obama once he determined there was no risk in doing so. And Fox News reports he doesn't want a Dream Team ticket:

Jimmy Carter urged Barack Obama not to pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate in an interview with a British publication, saying such a pairing "would be the worst mistake that could be made."
The former Democratic president, who announced his support for Obama as the Illinois senator clinched his party's nomination Tuesday night, told the Guardian's Weekend magazine that Obama and Clinton together "would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates."
In a bluntly worded assessment, Carter defended his stance by citing Clinton's negative ratings and the many questions and biases Obama faces.
"If you take that 50 percent who just don't want to vote for Clinton and add it to whatever element there might be who don't think Obama is white enough or old enough or experienced enough or because he's got a middle name that sounds Arab, you could have the worst of both worlds," he said.

The WSJ's James Taranto opines:

A stopped clock is right twice a day, and even Jimmy Carter is right once in a blue moon. But what's this about "a middle name that sounds Arab"? Don't tell us the Republican Attack Machine has gotten to Jimmy Carter!

U/T: James Taranto - Best of the Web 6.5.08

Scott McClellan

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book. - Ronald Reagan

Prophetic

Thorough analysis by the Red State Update boys:

Venezuela: 4 Intelligence Agencies

Hugo Chavez has doubled the number of intelligence agencies from two to four.

News clip from AP

Reaction captured by the International Herald Tribune:

The new law requires people in the country to comply with requests to assist the agencies, secret police or community activist groups loyal to Chávez. Refusal can result in prison terms of two to four years for most people and four to six years for government employees.

"We are before a set of measures that are a threat to all of us," said Blanca Rosa Mármol de León, a justice on Venezuela's top court, in a rare public judicial dissent. "I have an obligation to say this, as a citizen and a judge. This is a step toward the creation of a society of informers."

Silencing Opponents

We bet Obama wishes he could do this with Reverend Wright...

From an article by Clifford J. Levy at the International Herald Tribune:

On a talk show last autumn, a prominent political analyst named Mikhail Delyagin offered some tart words about Vladimir Putin. When the program was televised, Delyagin was not.

His remarks were cut and he was digitally erased from the show, like a disgraced comrade airbrushed from an old Soviet photo. (The technicians may have worked a bit hastily; they left his disembodied legs in one shot.)

Delyagin, it turned out, has for some time resided on the so-called stop list, a roster of political opponents and other critics of the government who have been barred from television news and political talk shows by the Kremlin.

The stop list is, as Delyagin put it, "an excellent way to stifle dissent."