African American politicians in Chicago have learned from the WASP leaders who went before them; not satisfied with having the opportunity to fight for a high office, they are now trying to create dynasties.

Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, one of Barack Obama’s first political mentors, for instance, said he wants his son to succeed him when he retires. His son will, of course, have the chance to use the political machine of his father. It is difficult if not impossible to imagine him losing the battle for the seat of his father if he indeed decides to run. And it seems more than likely that he will. (more…)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary
over many a quaint and curious unchallenged item in the life of the Great Orator
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
as if someone’s boldly knocking, knocking and mocking mine and everyone’s gray matter
‘Tis surely a lie,’ I muttered, ‘knocking and mocking mine and everyone’s gray matter
Only this, and nothing more.’

Many have wondered what is there in Senator Obama’s curriculum vitae that would qualify him as President of the United States, and it’s not merely dyed in the wool Republicans who’ve been busy so wondering.  Since his school days, he has managed to amass some noteworthy titles indeed. Harvard Law School Review President, Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, Illinois State Senator, and United States Senator are all enviable achievements worthy of notice. And… who can deny the power, the delivery of his superb keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention?

The impressive job titles in his resume show that he had every opportunity to shine, had he really cared to or been capable being capable of doing so. Instead he was too busy promoting himself, while running around with dubious associates some of them already criminally indicted. Even his staunchest supporters have finally asked him to define himself, to speak in concrete terms rather than spout lofty sounding but meaningless slogans. Will he? Can he?!?

Chaim

To read the rest go to: Freedom’s Cost

Again the Russian and South Ossetian Troops near South Ossetia begin to fire upon innocent Turkish TV Reporters. Georgia has mostly Turkish TV Reporters filming the war because they are the closest to Georgia. It is reported that one reporter was shot and blinded.  There are reports of a Journalist from Holland being killed.

There is video of Turkish TV Reporters being shot:

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Without venturing an opinion on the merits of Techdude’s claims, without knowing if they are well founded or merely the words of a crackpot, I still have to seriously question why some Obama supporters are so desperate to stop these revelations from seeing the light of day. If Techdude’s lying or even if he’s sincere but wrong, other computer forensic experts will definitely unmask him and that will be a boost to their candidate so terribly besmirched by a right wing nut. If he’s telling the truth, would it not behoove Obama’s supporters to examine it and drop their candidate as a fraud and thus follow the American Constitution while saving the US?!?!?

Anyone who has ever read my blog, knows I do not believe Senator Obama is the political Messiah we all have been waiting for. His record in Chicago and in Washington, show me nothing but ineptitude, uncaring elitism and calculated deceit. But, I’ll admit, he’s very photogenic and superb at delivering a well rehearsed speech. Yes, gentle reader, that is just my opinion even if it was formed after a careful analysis of the good Senator’s record and words as a community organizer and as a US Senator. I see no reason to do or preach violence against those who do not share my beliefs, and while I’d be very unhappy were Obama to win the elections… he’d still be my country’s President.

For the rest, please go to: Freedom’s Cost

Islamists have threatened a Christian Bishop in the Philippines… (H/T: UP Pompeii)

Philippine bishop reports receiving threat to convert to Islam

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — A bishop in the southern Philippines reported receiving a letter threatening him with harm if he does not convert to Islam or pay “Islamic taxes.”

Such brazenness in a country where over 86% of the population is Christian, 9% is Muslim and the remaining 5% is divided among various groups such as: Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, animists and non-believers.

Even if those who sent these letters are no more than common criminals who use religion as a mere tool, the fact that they chose to represent themselves as Muslims is in itself significant. But Muslim brazenness does not stop there, unfortunately, this one is far from an isolated case! Remember the kidnapped and murdered Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Mgr Faraj Rahho? What about the plight of Assyrian Christians in Iraq? What about the Sabian Mandaeans? Or the plight of Christians girls kidnapped in Nigeria by practitioners of the Religion of Peace? What about the treatment of Christian Copts in Egypt? Ot the threats against Western politicians like Geert Wilders or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi? The list, gentle reader, goes on and on ad nauseum…

You may read the rest at: Freedom’s Cost

In a move that is reminiscent of Darfur and the Congo the just “reelected” President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has come up with a new tactic to assert the power he so blatantly stole:

Mugabe thugs raping teens: aid staff

DOZENS of teenage girls have been made pregnant after being taken into the bush and raped in torture camps by President Robert Mugabe’s youth militia operating near Mudzi, a town 160km northeast of Harare, human rights workers allege.

Read the rest on: Freedom’s Cost

Hello everyone. I think Michael is going to make an official introductory post later, but I couldn’t wait to get started. My name is Michael (you all will be confusing the two of us now), and I am one of the new bloggers here at Poligazette! I am a student who is about to enter the professional television production field, so I thought it would be fitting as my first post to speak a little bit about the news media and political biases.

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Jeff Emanuel’s excellent article about Representative Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) confirms what I’ve written for several months now:  that the Democrats were dishonest about their intentions - and ability - to put an end to the Iraq war.  Jeff says that Kanjorski has an “honesty problem” - too much of a good thing!  I wish there were a couple hundred more like him in Congress.

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Dick Morris, in today’s Washington Post: Obama Has the Upper Hand. But McCain Can Still Take Him.

To sum it up: A candidate who cannot get elected is being nominated by a party that cannot be defeated, while a candidate who is eminently electable is running as the nominee of a party doomed to defeat.In this environment, McCain can win by running to the center.

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Mike Huckabee is a great speaker, from the way he connects with an audience to his cadence to his ability to improvise.  He’s a funny guy who’s quick with a joke and a smile.  But like a comedian who’s got them giggling and makes one quip too many going for the full belly laugh, Huckabee’s sense of humor backfired on him today.  If there was any truth to the rumor that he was at the top of John McCain’s V.P. list - where he belongs, in my opinion - that hope may be gone now.

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Conventional wisdom says Obama is not in any danger of losing the nomination as long as he remains ahead in the pledged delegate count. I would say that this is true at this point despite his blow out loss yesterday to Clinton in Pennsylvania.
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James Carville, one of Bill Clinton’s campaign advisers back in the day, wrote this dead-on piece as a post-mortem to the sad little affair of Samantha "Monster" Power.

To prevent her candidate from further embarrassment, Ms Power performed the ritual act of American political hara-kiri and resigned. The problem is that calls for resignation are becoming cries of “wolf” in US politics today.

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Both John McCain and Barack Obama are being criticized because of their association with bigoted pastors. (more…)

Barack Obama and Howard Dean should be very, very concerned. It looks like Hillary Clinton means to play the primary game all the way to the bitter end, even if it means blowing up the entire party.

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Dave Winer, who’s well known for his work in the technology field, particularly as a pioneer with the RSS and XML-RPC tools that underlay many current web tools, including blogging software, asks an excellent, pertinent question about political conference calls:

I’ve been asking around, where can I get MP3s of all the conference calls, the day they happen, in full, not spun through the reporters, and so far have come up with nothing. So I’m bringing this issue to as many people as I can think of who might either know how I can get them, or apply pressure to one or more news organizations to make them public.

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Hillary Clinton is looking to secure a victory in Florida this Tuesday. Florida, like Michigan, was punished by the DNC for placing their primary too early. Tueday’s primary will award no delegates, but a symbolic victory for Clinton, especially if it’s by a wide margin, would be significant because it would serve to soften the blow of Obama’s huge victory in South Carolina. Of course, Clinton, who won Michigan by virtue of being the only one on the ballot and is ahead in the polls in Florida by virtue of campaigning there (despite agreeing initially with the DNC decision) is now calling for Michigan and Florida delegates to be seated. In the interest of fairness, of course!

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The Obama victory Speech:

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It’s about 4:30am here in Madrid, and I just got home. I hesitated before looking at the news, afraid I might ruin my good mood. When I saw the results of the primary….

I could pretend I’m indifferent. This is, after all, supposed to be a moderate site, and I do try to keep myself reasonable. Sadly, that’s not to be tonight. I’m thrilled by the results. I’m also surprised. Obama didn’t just win, he won by a HUGE margin. He got over DOUBLE the votes Clinton did. Clinton was actually closer in numbers to Edwards than Obama.

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In his first post for PoliGazette Rick Moran takes a closer look at Senator Barack Obama. (more…)

Lee Harris at TCSDaily examines the old slander that conservatives are from the “stupid party”. What he finds is something that I have been saying about conservatives for a long time: What fundamentally distinguishes conservatives from liberals is not, as some liberals would maliciously suggest, intelligence or sanity or morality, but rather simply a different attitude towards risk. (more…)

This post has been pulled up by MvdG: please take the time to read Marc’s post and comment on it. (more…)

Needless to say, this story is now generating disgust around the world, the intensity of some of the reactions (and comments on this site) is quite remarkable. At higher levels reactions have been swift too with a debate in Canadian parliament yesterday:

“This is a tragic and grievous incident,” Mr. Day told the House of Commons. “We want to find out answers that can prevent these things from happening in the future.”

But Day, the federal Public Security Minister, refused to commit to a public inquiry though at this point. Given that the victim, Robert Dziekanski, was a Polish immigrant, Warzaw has entered the fray too:

Poland’s ambassador to Canada said Thursday the conduct of the four Mounties who tasered a Polish immigrant was out of line and called for immediate measures to prevent anyone else from suffering the same fate.

Other worthwhile links for more on this case are the Canadian blog The Politic which offers some terse commentary here and British Columbia’s key webzine The Tyee.

Remember my original post Beware Air Travel? Here is one of the comments it yielded:

It seems odd to criticize the ‘incompetence’ of the security personnel without mentioning the behavior of the passenger. He (and the other woman who recently died under similar circumstances) may be innocent in terms of terrorist risk, but that’s not the point: they’re being subdued because they’re posing a direct threat to the passengers and staff in the terminal with their irrational and violent behavior.

It is was a fair comment at the time, but as some suspected the ‘threat’ wasn’t all that urgent. We can now test this assumption against the video footage that Canadian authorities released yesterday. If you can stomach watching this go ahead, but do not think you will find any material that would support the continued use of Tasers by security personnel.

Once more: we are increasingly equipping our law enforcement apparatus (be it in the US or Canada) with tools and training that appear to be overly focused on ‘conflict ending’ rather than ‘conflict resolution’. That trend is unacceptable for any free society and needs to be reversed.

If you’re wondering what level of education is required to understand this blog, here’s the answer:

I’m sure it’s a mistake, for the main owner of this blog tries to bring the level of discourse down as much as he possibly can.

From now on, however, he will - he told me in private - try to use big words as often as he possibly can - which isn’t very often. “Lets raise the level!” he said.

Obviously, that’ll never happen. But you can’t blame the poor fellow for trying.

If you’d like to test your favorite blogs, click here. (more…)

Michael is…

And you? (fixed the link) h/t The Sundries Shack.

Cause he’s poifect.

Well, or at least special: “7936 other people got this result!
This quiz has been taken 365100 times.
5% of people had this result.”
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Bruce Bawer’s blog is back again.   We still have to go through Bruce’s stuff without the benefit of permalinks , but otherwise things look good.