Chicago: There’s Smoke, But Is There Fire?

As far back as 1871, Chicago has been reputed as a city with a shady political scene. In fact, Chicago’s reputation has earned it a statement from the head of the FBI Office in Chicago, in which he said “If Illinois isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s a strong competitor.”

Which just makes this event, which was held between December 7 and December 10 this year, absolutely hilarious. Yes, you read that right, Chicago hosted the 30th Annual Governmental Ethics Conference.

So when the Democratic Governor of Illinois got arrested in the three day window for this Governmental Ethics Conference, my sides ached. I’m not going to speculate on the guilt or innocence of Governor Rod Blagojevich, although it appears based on media reports that there is good reason for the FBI to be investigating the Governor.

Even more intriguing is the question of whether President-elect Barack Obama knew anything about Gov. Blagojevich’s actions. As many know, Obama was born as a political figure in the Chicago Democratic Machine. But whether he knew that people in the Democratic Party would sell his Senate seat to the highest bidder? I highly doubt it. However, I wouldn’t rule out that he may have suspected that such business may go on after he became President-elect.

There are a couple of links between the President-elect and Governor Blagojevich, although they’re far from conclusive. They were both members of the same party in the same city, and would almost certainly have met at social Party events and all kinds of varied events in Illinois.

Another point of interest is that the son of David Axelrod, Obama’s chief astroturfer advisor, allegedly once worked in Gov. Blagojevich’s office. I can accept that there are all kinds of networks in any given city, but something about this makes Obama’s uninvolvement look a touch suspect. After all, Axelrod was the chief driving force behind both getting Barack Obama nominated as a Presidential candidate, and if Axelrod’s son worked for Governor Blagojevich, then Axelrod and Blagojevich at the least knew each other in a social setting.

The social networks and intertwined links involved in both the offices of Governor and State Senator make Obama’s calls for Blagojevich’s resignation look incredibly hollow.

UPDATE: I’m so glad that I’m not the only person who finds this funny!

Sense Spoken

I don’t agree with everything the man in this video clip says, but he says it well and makes his points clear. It’s worth a watch.

Does anyone know who he is?

This video, focusing mostly on abortion, is also worth watching. Excellent points are made.

I’m not sure who he is either.

John McCain – Too Old? An Entirely Subjective Post

Frankly, I don’t think so.  Much has been made about John McCain’s age (which is just the adjunct to “not conservative enough, too tempermental, unhinged by his POW years, etc., blah de blah blah blah”).  I am turning  62 this year, and I’m discovering (as people my age inevitably do) that all my youth-oriented biases were just so much ignorance and misunderstanding.  Not that I claim to be all-wise and stateshiplike at this point, but just that I’m finding out, as my parents and grandparents did, that I really didn’t know shit when I was young.  Kind of like when you leave your college years and get a job and find out you didn’t know everything after all.  It’s a humiliating process, and unfortunately for the ego, it doesn’t stop when you move into middle age and after.

Whatever you think about McCain’s political philosophy (and I certaintly don’t agree with all that either), let’s put to rest his age.  At 72, in this day and age, he’s unlikely to die in office.  My mother-in-law, bless her heart, is 80, and still spry and self-sufficient, and not at all stupid.  But, if our worst fears are realized, McCain will still be surrounded by the advisers and government functionaries whose job it is to keep the Office Of The Presidency operating at maximum, and if he has chosen wisely, a responsible second who will step in to take over.  Let us all remember Ronald Reagan, who even in his presidential heyday was no doubt showing the initial signs of Alzheimers, and yet the Republic did not fall and did not falter.

The fiction is that we elect a man we think will save us all.  The truth is, he will set in motion processes that will, if nor guarantee, at least lend momentum, to the political direction we, the American people, desire. The man is not important.  The office, and its guiding principle, is.

My mother in law turned 80 this year.  She’s still sharp as a tack when it comes to what matters.  She doesn’t like McCain.  She likes Obama even less.  She lived through the Great Depression, WWII, the Cold War, Vietnam, and now the Great Middle East Mess.  She is the daughter and granddaughter of German immigrants.  She’s never lost sight of American values.  So what makes her irrelevant because of her age?

Same deal when you’re choosing a president.  Crusty old warrior, or clueless metrosexual?

Obama Nailed

Barack Obama is a man of promise.

But it is not his promise that we are emotionally and politically being appealed to to fulfil; it is the promise of all those who stood, sacrificed and suffered before him in the name of racial equality.

It is the promise of the sacrifice of Martin Luthur King Jr, and the promise of Robert Kennedy. It is the promise of the sacrifice of brave individuals like Rosa Parks.

The emotional and political message of Obama’s acceptance speech, from the stage setting of the Lincoln Memorial from which King made his “I have a dream” speech, to the incantation of King and Kennedy in his speech, was that this is the man to fulfil the dream of giants.

It was the subliminal emotional message of Obama’s speech and preceeding speakers and video that it is only through electing Obama to the presidency of the United States that the promise of King, Kennedy and Parks will be realised.

Obama himself is a man of no promise of his own. He says he promises to change the way politics is engaged in, yet day by day adopts more and more of the same old politics that he foreswears.

He is a man who will benefit from the sacrifice of the giants and brave individuals before him, at no cost to himself. He wants us to see in him King and Kennedy, so that we don’t notice that the man he would have us believe is ordained by history and the legacy of others to deliver the promise of equality is an empty shell.

victoria3220 of Geelong
Mon 01 Sep 08 (12:44pm)

Stolen with love from the Andrew Bolt thread “Vote For The Black Guy To Prove You’re Not Racist”.

The overall message that Obama is riding on the coattails of great achievements such as that of Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Mildred Loving and a host of other great Americans is quite true. He’s receiving the benefits of their work and achievement, yet the policies he’s proposing to introduce will reverse all the work these people achieved. His policies are those of reverse-racism, whereas their work was all done to work towards true equality.

Just the Facts!

FactCheck.Org

Peep at all the links and see who seems to be distorting more facts. Hint, his name starts with B.O.

Received in my email. One of the few advertisements you will see on our Blog, unless or until we go “commercial”.

A Personal Note from John O’Neill

(and Human Events’ sister company, Regnery Publishing)

Dear Friend,

As you may recall, I was privileged to play a role in helping prevent John Kerry from being elected president when my fellow Swift Boat Veterans and I released the book Unfit for Command. As liberal as Kerry was, America faces an even more liberal threat today: Barack Obama. Fortunately, investigative journalist and National Review Online political reporter David Freddoso has written the book every voter needs to read: The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate.

Uncovering stories the mainstream media has neglected, Freddoso reveals Obama for who he really is: the U.S. senator with the #1 most liberal voting record in the Senate. And a politician whose rhetoric of “change” does not match the reality of his corrupt, “Chicago-machine politics” background.

Moving past Obama’s inspiring speeches and say-anything-to-win campaign tactics, Freddoso outlines Obama’s extreme, far-left legislative record and his questionable associations with both criminals and radicals. From Obama’s repeated support for the Chicago patronage system, to his hard-line position of no restrictions on abortion, The Case Against Barack Obama offers the cold, hard facts about this man who would be our next president.

As American citizens, it is our right and duty to question the background, character, and proposals of any candidate who could be our next commander in chief. Democrats and the media are not holding Obama accountable, so conservatives must. I’m grateful to David Freddoso and my publisher, Regnery, for finally revealing the man behind the myth.

I urge you to read The Case Against Barack Obama. I also recommend that you buy copies for your friends and relatives who may consider voting for Obama. They deserve to know the truth, too.
Please click on one of the links below to order your copy today.

Sincerely,
John O’Neill

Click below to save 20% or more off bookstore prices!

Should one chose to do so, the links:

Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble.com

Borders.com

Don’t Rush, Uhbama

Barack in Aman, Jordan the other day.

(Thanks, Yojimbo, for the idea)

An Australian’s View On McCain

John McCain hasn’t received too much media coverage here in Australia at this point, but now that Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic Party nomination, that will probably change.

Australia isn’t likely to hear too much about John McCain’s outstanding military service, or that a number of people in the McCain family have served their country, or that McCain and his wife adopted one orphan who couldn’t get the medical treatment she needed in Bangladesh, so Cindy McCain brought the child home and cared for her, or that McCain and his wife also rescued another child, who was taken in by a McCain aide.

I want to beat this smug prick so bad…Just in case, Secret Service…I want this smug prick beaten so bad. I want him to lose…Ahhhh, now I feel better.

‘I Don’t Think My Ears Would Fit’: Obama Explains Why He Won’t Be on Mt. Rushmore

The Year Ahead

Ever since the birth of the United States of America, there has been political discord between the major parties, each believing that they knew the best way to lead the nation and prepare it for the challenges of the future. The values of the two major parties have always differed, and always will.

The Republican party was originally founded by “anti-slavery activists and individuals who believed that government should grant western lands to settlers free of charge”, and gradually built up a profile as a party known for promoting diversity and equality. The Republican Party worked to free the workers from slavery, guaranteed the workers equal rights under the law, and gave African-Americans and women the right to vote. The basic values of the Republican Party have shifted over time to encompass the belief that: “Individuals, not government, can make the best decisions; all people are entitled to equal rights; and decisions are best made close to home.”

Barack Obama: Toast

You can find just about anything on eBay

Via “crazy uncle” Derb

Being serious for a second – I know we all have brains not muddled by post-modern deconstructionist relativism here, trolls excepted, but many do not – I’m afraid Obama hit it out of the park on this one. Sure, we can parse his speech to smithereens, but the sad fact is, most can’t… and/or won’t. It was brilliantly constructed and delivered, and so was highly effective. Simple as that.

I mean, I was a State finalist in Extemporaneous Speaking back in high school, and I think Obama would have kicked my ass in any given contest. He really is that good. Fortunately or unfortunately.

Barack Hussein Obama Wearing Bracelet of Fallen Soldier

“She gave me this wristband, which I’m very grateful for,” Obama told the Green Bay audience, halting and lowering his voice from his normally upbeat presentation. “I meet mothers and family members all over the country who are still mourning their children but are also thinking about the young men and women who are still over there and wondering when it will end.”

Tracy Jopek of Merrill, Wis., gave Obama the bracelet at a rally Friday night in Green Bay, and Obama was still wearing it Saturday as he campaigned across the state before Tuesday’s primary.

“My son loved this country very much, I love this country, but I don’t feel that staying in Iraq will vindicate my son’s death,” she said. “And it’s not over for us until this war is over. I just don’t want any more soldiers to die in vain for something that we can’t solve.”

—————–

I sympathize with you, Tracy Jopek. I really do….BUT men and women have died and will continue to die, over the unsolvable. War is NOT a new thing. The only way “war” will stop…..is for humankind not to exist. BUT…you see my dear lady, it will then be left to lower forms of life on this planet, to fight and die over the unsolvable.

You would be most welcome to try Tracy….First you must convince peoples, that share the middle name of the person you hope to be “Commander in Chief”, that their way is not the right way.

Convince these people that running planes into buildings OR draining marshes OR digging up desert sands for the purpose of putting thousands and thousands and thousands, of humankind that you have just killed, is NOT the right way.

Breitbart

Jesus, had to get up from my nice comfy bed, JUST to put this attribution in…I”m either conscientious or stupid and I know which one I’m leaning toward

.

UPDATE – 27 September 2008 by spot_the_dog:  The bracelet makes a cringeworthy appearance at the first Presidential Debate.

Change for Change’s Sake

Number of times each Democrat said “change” or “changes” during Saturday’s televised debates

Democrats

Hillary Rodham Clinton	25 times	“I embody change. I think having the first woman president is a huge change.”
John Edwards	14 times	” I believe deeply in change.”
Barack Obama	14 times .	“We’re going to bring about real change”
Bill Richardson	8 times	“I love change. We all are for change.

Source: USA TODAY

Is “change” going to be the buzzword of the 2008 US Elections, much as “working families” was here in Oz? It’s certainly just as empty a phrase.

“I embody change!” “I believe deeply in change!” “We are all for change!” “I love change!”

Change, change, change-y change-ness. Change-ified change-ocity.

Sorry to go off on a tangent there, but hearing Hillary repeat that word 25 times has affected me. Or maybe my problem was in trying to renovate the “Working Families” Drinking Game into the “Change-y Change-ness” Drinking Game.

Is this the best buzzword y’all could come up with? What’s the deal? Don’t you all have “Working Families” in America?

……………………………………………………

UPDATE: I now have the transcript of the 5 January 2008 Democratic Debate. I count more than 90 utterances of “change” words. But is Hillary channelling Woody from “Cheers”? You be the judge:

“I want to make change, but I’ve already made change. I will continue to make change. I’m not just running on a promise of change. I’m running on 35 years of change. I’m running on having taken on the drug companies and the health insurance companies, taking on the oil companies. So, you know, I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change. And we don’t need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered. The best way to know what change I will produce is to look at the changes that I’ve already made.”–Hillary Clinton, Jan. 5, 2008

Woody: “I believe I was elected to the city council as an agent of change, and I fully intend to live up to that pledge. I will make change.” Frasier: “No, change ‘change’ to ‘a change.’ ” Woody: “What?” Frasier: “No, see in here, you make change. There you make a change, so just make the change–change ‘make change’ to ‘make a change’–OH, JUST CHANGE IT!!” [storms out of the bar] Woody: “I think I see why Dr. Crane never cures anybody.”–dialogue from “Cheers,” May 20, 1993

–HT: opinionjournal.com for the Cheers ref.

spot_the_dog