Obama's Speech

A few thoughts on the race speech Obama was forced to give after all the guff he was getting about his black separatist, America-hating, spiritual advisor. Obama belonged to Jeremiah Wright's church, was married by him, Wright baptized his children. Until yesterday's speech, Obama claimed he was unaware of Wright's more controversial sermons (like how our foreign policy is no different than Al-Qaeda's, that the CIA invented AIDS and brought in cocaine to kill off the black population, and that instead of saying "God bless America" we should say "God #$%& America"). Obama denounced these statements (and admitted he was aware of them) but said rejecting Wright would be tantamount to rejecting the African-American community. Huh? He failed to explain why he demanded that Don Imus be fired yet still feels that his family should sit in the pew for Wright's sermons. The views of his pastor would be less disturbing if an analysis of Senate voting records didn't show that Obama is the most liberal senator in Washington (add to that Michelle Obama's statement that she wasn't proud of this country until now). I wonder if Wright's votes would have been any different.

The media and Obama fail to realize that America is beginning to see that hidden behind the smile and great oratorial skill, there is a hard core leftist.

Rocketbird Takes Flight

After months of bragging telling people that I was in a band, we finally had our first practice last night with all members in attendance. It was everything I hoped it could be. I am playing bass, my friend Rudi (whose blog is probably in danger of being closed down for inactivity) is on guitar, along with two of Rudi's friends, one on guitar and the drummer. We are tentatively titled Rocketbird, based on this logo from a threadless.com shirt. Rocketbird hopes to have a couple gigs by summer. If you have ideas for any sure-fire crowd pleasing songs (in the various rock genres preferably) we could cover, please share.

Margaret Sanger's Vision Alive and Well

A pro-life group in Nevada is making waves for catching a fund raiser for Planned Parenthood supporting the original mission of the abortion clinics - to kill black babies. An actor called posing as a donor and said he wanted his donation to go toward killing unborn black children because "the less black kids out there the better." Autumn Kersey, vice president of development and marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho responded, "Understandable, understandable. ... Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out."

Planned Parenthood has criticized the employee for accepting the donation, but has not fired her. I don't know why they're so upset - this is perfectly in line with the beliefs of Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger. Sanger strongly supported eugenics, a theory widely accepted by elites at the time (not unlike global warming). Her goal was to reduce the number of black children in order to improve the quality of the population of America.

Whether or not you're happy about McCain's nomination, we need the Supreme Court justices he would nominate to overturn Roe v. Wade. We need justices that will uphold the Constitution. The justices that Obama/Hillary would nominate would continue the position of many of the court that the Constitution is meant to change with the times (i.e., it says whatever they want it to say).

Look Out!

Shaq may be not be the player he used to be, but his 7-1, 325 pound frame can still give people heart attacks when he dives into the stands. After taking out a few fans on Sunday, he gave his own bench a scare last night...

The Democrats and Sex

NY Governor Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace highlights a key difference between the two parties (Spitzer is a Democrat, a fact that most media outlets didn't think was important enough to mention when they broke the story). When Republican sex scandals emerge the offending perv gets the boot. When Democrats have sex scandals they circle the wagons. Critics are "moralizing and self-righteous jerks," to quote James Carville in his defense of Spitzer. Carville also took a page from the Clinton handbook and suggested a right-wing conspiracy was to blame and that Spitzer should not resign.

Breaking the law (perjury included) is apparently irrelevant to these "private matters." Spitzer probably committed a felony by attempting to disguise his payments for illegal activities. He also put himself at risk for extortion and black mail.

Consider the stories of Mark Foley and Gerry Studds. Republican congressman Foley was promptly booted by Republicans after he sent sexually suggestive instant messages to male Congressional pages. In 1983 Democratic congressman Studds was censured for having actual sex with an underage male page. The party rushed to his defense and he was even re-elected to several more terms.

Spitzer probably will resign, but only because of the funny business with the financial transactions. If this was just a sex scandal, he wouldn't be going anywhere.

Once

Sarah and I signed up for Blockbuster's DVDs through the mail program ($3.99/mo. - not bad) and once in a while I even let Sarah choose the movie. On a recommendation from my brother Nate and his fiancee Emily, we gave Once a shot. It's a low budget film set in Dublin and is probably classified as a musical, but the songs feel natural. A street musician/vacuum repair guy meets a piano playing flower seller and they assemble a rag tag band to lay down some tracks so the musician/vacuum repair guy can go to London to pursue his dreams. All the actors are professional musicians and I think all the songs were written by the actors. I really liked it (4* out of 5, if you noticed my little list on the right). One reviewer called it a valentine to music, but it's also about romantic relationships, friendship, and the whole process of the singer/songwriter.

Obama's NAFTA Problem

Obama's NAFTA problem has become highly amusing to me. I wrote earlier of Obama's transformation into an anti-NAFTA crusader just in time for the Ohio primary. Understandably, the Canadian government was quite concerned about the potential leader of their largest trading partner reneging on our trading agreement. So the Obama camp sent his economic advisor Austan Goolsbee to reassure them that this is all just campaign rhetoric and that Obama has no crazy plans to change NAFTA. This soon leaked to the press. The memo reported that "He (Goolsbee) was frank in saying that the primary campaign has been necessarily domestically focused, particularly in the Midwest, and that much of the rhetoric that may be perceived to be protectionist is more reflective of political maneuvering than policy."

It is a relief to hear that the the Obama camp may have some understanding of the benefits of free trade to our country. This story also shows that Obama is perfectly willing to mislead the American people to get votes, even by promoting policy that he knows is bad for our country.

Fareed Zakaria exhoriates both Clinton and Obama for their protectionist rhetoric in his most recent column in Newsweek. Please read the whole thing, it's great. Highlights:

...The two Democratic candidates are united in the view that one of the big benefits of electing either of them would be an improvement in America's reputation and relations with the world. Hillary Clinton promises to send special envoys to foreign capitals the day after she's elected. Barack Obama offers to reach out to America's foes as well as friends. Unfortunately none of this will matter if they continue to spout dangerous and ill-informed rhetoric about trade.

The facts about trade have been too well rehearsed to go into them in any great detail, but let me point out that NAFTA has been pivotal in transforming Mexico into a stable democracy with a growing economy. And, in Lawrence Summers's words, '[it] didn't cost the United States a penny. It contributed to the strength of our economy because of more exports and because imports helped to reduce inflation.' Trade between the NAFTA countries has boomed since 1993, growing by about $700 billion. There are no serious economists or experts who believe that low wages in Mexico or China or India is the fundamental reason that American factories close down. And labor and environmental standards would do very little to change the reality of huge wage differentials between poor and rich countries' workers.

But both candidates surely know that no one is really paying attention to their policy papers on the topic. It is their general attitude and rhetoric that matter. And on this crucial topic they are pandering to the worst instincts of Americans, encouraging a form of xenophobia and chauvinism and validating the utterly self-defeating idea of protectionism.

Furious George Ain't Pretty No More

What a great photo. Thanks deadspin.

Global Warming Is Over Already?

Global temperatures rose by .8 degrees Celsius between 1880 and 1997. Some people got very upset. Temps held steady for a decade but some people continued to demand restrictions on our freedoms and increased taxation to make this all better. These people became very popular.

Fast forward to today: the latest data from all four major global temperature tracking outlets showed that global temps cooled between .65 and .75 degrees Celsius in the last year. This wipes out all of the warming that has occurred in the last century. This is not a surprise considering all the anecdotal evidence: the first snowfall in recorded history for Baghdad, the coldest winter in 100 years for China, and record levels of Antarctic sea ice. Carbon emissions may have a small effect on climate, but there are clearly larger factors (like solar activity) at play. I wonder if they'll take back Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize. Probably not, as Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat kept theirs.

RIP WB

William F. Buckley, Jr. passed away today at the age of 82. Buckley is considered by many to be the father of today's conservative movement. He advanced conservatism through his magazine, National Review (I am a proud subscriber), countless books, columns, and his TV show "Firing Line" using humor, an extensive vocabulary and superior intellect. Breitbart.com has a good obit for Buckley and there's a lot of great tributes on NationalReview.com. Allow me share one quote, from the New York Times:

I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition. I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone.

I can't either.