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Saturday, October 11, 2008
Victory for Mark Steyn
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 10:44 AM
Read all the details here, and note that the weak-kneed anti-free speech police lacked anything resembling conviction.  Classic bullies: They melted away when confronted.  Bravo, Mark Steyn and Maclean's.




Saturday, October 11, 2008
Happy Birthday, Jackson Browne
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 10:39 AM
Powerline's Scott Johnson notes that one of America's greatest singers/songwriters has begun his seventh decade.  (HT: RobinsonandLong.com.)

Yes, my conservative friends, I know he is a lefty's lefty, but he is also one of the very best at his craft.   I expect lefties to admire Steyn's artistry with words, and our side to recognize artistic excellence regardless of political differences.




Saturday, October 11, 2008
Brits At Their Best
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 10:10 AM
A magnificent site, especially The Liberty Timeline.




Saturday, October 11, 2008
Thoughts On An Obama-Pelosi-Reid Government
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 9:28 AM
From The Atlantic's Ross Douhat and Volokh's Ilya Somin.  (HT:  Election 2008).

Douhat:

And the convergence of an economic crisis and complete Democratic control of Washington should alarm even those conservatives eager to wash their hands of the GOP. The best reason for even the most disaffected right-winger to root for a McCain victory is simple: To the extent that much of the progressive agenda is a program in search of a crisis to justify its implementation, an election that delivers a liberal candidate who's adored by the media to White House, gives him huge majorities in both houses of Congress, and presents him with a worldwide state of emergency in which to govern, has the potential to be not just another loss for conservatives, but a once-in-a-generation defeat.

Somin:

We know from past history that economic crises are a major opportunity for expansion of government power. Robert Higgs' book Crisis and Leviathan is a good discussion of the basic dynamics. We also know that divided government tends to impede the growth of the state, while united government facilitates it. The combination of united government and a major economic crisis is likely to lead to a great expansion of government, just as it did on several previous occasions such as the 1930s. It only remains to add that Obama - and most of the rest of the Democratic Party - tend to be very pro-government ideologically. As far as I can tell, Obama proposes major expansions of government regulation and spending on almost every big domestic issue, and doesn't propose to retract government in any significant way, except on military intervention in Iraq. Obama's record in the Senate (where he was the 10th most liberal senator) and in the Illinois state legislature (where he was more liberal than 73% of his fellow Democrats) shows him to be a big government liberal, not a relative moderate like Bill Clinton during his presidency.







Saturday, October 11, 2008
Obama Hearts Code Pink
Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 9:12 AM
Free Republic's Kristinn Taylor has an extensive write-up of Barack Obama's close relationship with the radical Code Pink founder Jodi Evans up HERE.

It's a very well-researched item. Definitely good weekend reading that you won't find anywhere else.

Here's the beginning:

A founding member of the campaign finance team of Democratic presidential nominee Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has been working with state sponsors of terrorism to undermine the United States in the global war on terror since at least February, 2003.

Jodie Evans, co-founder of the leftist anti-American group Code Pink, has documented ties to governments on the State Department’s list of current and former state sponsors of terrorism including Iran, Cuba, Syria and the former Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein. She also has endorsed and worked with the so-called Iraqi resistance that has killed over three thousand American soldiers and thousands of free Iraqis.

Evans is listed on the official Obama website as a bundler of between $50,000 and $100,000 in contributions. According to FEC reports, the official Obama website and news accounts, Evans has personally contributed over $40,000 to the Obama campaign—$4600 to Obama for America and around $36,000 to the Obama Victory Fund.

Evans served as a co-host for Obama’s first Hollywood fundraiser right after he announced his long-shot bid for the presidency in February 2007, just weeks after she returned from Cuba where she and Code Pink worked with the Castro government to protest the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo. Evans and Code Pink, who market themselves as feminists and human rights activists, blew off the Ladies in White, a Cuban human rights group that asked the delegation Evans led to inspect Cuban prisons where democracy advocates were being held by the Castro government.






Saturday, October 11, 2008
Matthew Mosk At It Again
Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 9:01 AM
Matthew Mosk is a Washington Post reporter who routinely bungles campaign finance stories.

Remember, he was the one who wrote the A1 story about John McCain's unscrupulous donors, but after I checked it out it turned out three out of four of them never wrote checks to his campaign. Whoops.

He still appears to have a job though and now he's defending Barack Obama's fake and illegal foreign donors. He wants you to think this is commonplace. "Campaign finance experts say the notion that someone would donate money under a fake name is not as surprising as it might seem.," he writes. "Some donors don't want to be identified to avoid getting inundated with future requests. Others are pranksters."

No outrage. Nothing to see here.

But an AP investigation found Obama accepted at least 6,948 donations from non-military persons living outside the U.S. and determined at least three were from foreign persons. (Mosk lists this in his piece, but just in passing. Apparently, he has no interest in looking into this himself.) The GOP believes that number could be much higher since Obama had few quality controls on his internet donation site (like a way to verify passports) and most of his money comes from low-dollar donations that do not trigger and disclosure standards.

Obama orignally promised to use public financing for his campaign through the Democratic primaries, but broke his pledge. McCain using the public financing system and all his donations have been made available.





Friday, October 10, 2008
Just (Another) Misjudgment
Posted by: Carol Platt Liebau at 10:19 PM
The Obama campaign says it was just a misjudgment for its Muslim outreach coordinator to meet with Hezbollah and Hamas supporters.  If she had known these people would be at the meeting, we're told, she would never have been there.

This strikes me as a continuing theme of the Obama campaign: Cozy up to someone unsavory (but seemingly advantageous at the time), then proclaim ignorance about the details of the person's history, and distance oneself as needed.  Then hope that friends in the press will under-cover it.

It's the same pattern we've seen with Bill Ayres, Rashid Khalidi, Jeremiah Wright, Father Pfleger, Tony Rezko -- and now Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society (who was seen pumping his fist in support of Hezbollah and Hamas at a rally) and Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (a group named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case).

Obviously, there's nothing illegitimate about soliciting the views of solid, pro- American citizens who happen to be Muslim.  But like others in Obama's past, Bray and Awad don't seem to fit into that category.




Friday, October 10, 2008
Debating the Irascible McCain (and Earl Weaver) ...
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:16 PM
I was on MSNBC today, arguing that McCain needs to take the gloves off...



By the way, you'll notice that during the second question Schuster asked me, he referenced George Will's column today -- which mentioned former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver. 

Tonight, I ran into George Will at the Americans For Prosperity event.  I asked Will two trivia questions:  He correctly answered that Tippy Martinez was the only pitcher to ever pick-off three runners in one inning (during the 1983 post-season).  Then, I asked him who about the four 20-game winners the O's had during one season.  Will correctly guessed Palmer, McNally, and Cuellar, but wrongly guessed Milt Pappas (it was Pat Dobson).  WIll also guessed it was 1970, but it was actually '71.  Not bad, though...





Friday, October 10, 2008
Obama's Prevent Defense
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 7:04 PM
The best news all week is this report of Obama's decision "to play it safe."  NFL fans know what this means: A hair raising close that can go against the team that plays against the deep threat only.

If you have any doubt about the volatility of presidential elections, be sure to read E.J. Dionne's piece on the subject from 1988, and the background on the 1992 British elections in which John Major was expected to lose, but in fact stayed Prime Minister. See: The Shy Tory Factor for interesting background.




Friday, October 10, 2008
Guest Post from Ben Shapiro: "The Jewish Case Against Barack Obama"
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 7:03 PM
My name is Ben Shapiro, and I'm a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate, as well as a Harvard Law-educated lawyer in Los Angeles.  I'm also a huge fan of Hugh's show and his website, so it was truly an honor and a pleasure when Hugh offered to have me put up a guest post on the site. 
 
I'm an Orthodox Jew -- my wife hails from Israel, where we were just married in July.  So the issue of Israel is very near and dear to me, as it is to most other Jews.  With Israel in mind, this is an enormous election season for American Jewry.  It pits a consistently strong defender of Israel in John McCain against a man who is at best an enigma on the issue of Israel.  At worst, Barack Obama is far more dangerous.  His advisors are largely anti-Israel.  His friends are consistently anti-Israel.  His running mate, Joe Biden, says all of the right things but has a questionable record on the Jewish State.  And the candidate himself is ambivalent on his defense of Israel -- he reversed himself on a united Jerusalem over the course of 24 hours, and states that he will meet with Hitler-lite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions.
Read More...




Friday, October 10, 2008
Conservatives Rally for Free Markets
Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 3:39 PM
Photobucket

Hundreds of grassroots conservatives rallied outside the U.S. Capitol to protest against government spending and defend free markets Friday afternoon.

"Big-government supporters are on the attack - the free market and our American way of life are the targets," said Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips.

AFP is holding their annual "Defending the American Dream Summit" this weekend. The group assembled 1,000 people for their conference and urged them to participate in this "free market call to arms" in front of the Capitol's reflecting pool  amidst an uncertain financial market.

"Free markets work! They work every time, they work all the time!" yelled AFP's North Carolina Director Dallas Woodhouse to loud whoops of applause.

Several protesters carried American flags in addition to their own protest signs. "Regulate yourself," said one.

"Stop Pelosi's Politburo!" "We are taxed to the max" and "No Commies in Congress" said some others.

During the event AFP members broke into the popular "Drill, Baby, Drill" chant to encourage Congress to increase domestic energy exploration.

One member shouted "NoBama" several times.

Photobucket






Friday, October 10, 2008
Obama "Muslim Outreach Advisor" Met With Hamas & Hezbollah Supporters
Posted by: Carol Platt Liebau at 2:05 PM
My friend Jim Hoft has the details at Gateway Pundit, right here.  Given the precedent set by the candidate, no doubt the meetings were without preconditions of any kind . . .  (a little defeatist humor for you).

How long can the MSM ignore all of this?






Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday Night Live
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 12:54 PM
I thought this was pretty good ...






Friday, October 10, 2008
Historic 'Marriage Rights' Ruling Today
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 12:52 PM

The Hartford Courant reports:

"Same-sex couples won the right to marry in Connecticut in an historic ruling by the Supreme Court today.

Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory. In a 4-3 decision released at 11:30 a.m., the majority wrote that the state's "understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection."





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Sugar, we're (not) going down swinging...

Posted by: Matt Lewis
10/10/2008

Truly a Scandal

Posted by: Carol Platt Liebau
10/10/2008

On "Panic," Recovery and Dynamic Capitalism

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt
10/10/2008

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