What Is This World Coming To?

Investors Business Daily
It was only in May that Sen. Barack Obama cockily proclaimed he would debate Sen. John McCain “anywhere, anytime.” But in June, Obama said no to McCain’s challenge to have 10 one-on-one town hall meetings.

After what happened at Lake Forest, Calif.’s evangelical Saddleback megachurch Saturday evening, we may have found that debating is Obama’s Achilles’ heel. Whether or not you like the idea of such events being held in religious venues, the plain-and-simple method of questioning used by Saddleback pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren revealed fundamental differences between these two men.

“It’s one of those situations where the devil is in the details,” Obama said at one point. He could have been referring to his own oratorical shortcomings when a teleprompter is unavailable. We learned a lot more about the real Obama at Saddleback than we will next week as he delivers his acceptance speech in Denver before a massive stadium crowd.

The stark differences between the two came through the most on the question of whether there is evil in the world. Obama spoke of evil within America, “in parents who have viciously abused their children.” According to the Democrat, we can’t really erase evil in the world because “that is God’s task.” And we have to “have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil.”

For McCain, with a global war on terror raging, there was no equivocating: We must “defeat” evil. If al-Qaida’s placing of suicide vests on mentally-disabled women and then blowing them up by remote control in a Baghdad market isn’t evil, he asked: “You have to tell me what is.”

Asked to name figures he would rely on for advice, Obama gave the stock answer of family members. McCain pointed to Gen. David Petraeus, Iraq’s scourge of the surge; Democratic Rep. John Lewis, who “had his skull fractured” by white racists while protesting for civil rights in the 60s; plus Internet entrepreneur Meg Whitman, the innovative former CEO of eBay.

When Warren inquired into changes of mind on big issues, Obama fretted about welfare reform; McCain unashamedly said “drilling” — for reasons of national security and economic need.

On taxes, Obama waxed political: “What I’m trying to do is create a sense of balance and fairness in our tax code.” McCain showed an understanding of what drives a free economy: “I don’t want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich. I don’t believe in class warfare or redistribution of the wealth.”

To any honest observer, the differences between John McCain and Barack Obama have been evident all along. What we saw last weekend was Obama’s shallowness juxtaposed with McCain’s depth, the product of his extraordinary life experience.

It may not have been a debate, but it was one of the most lopsided political contests in memory. No wonder Obama wants to keep debate formats boring and predictable.

We were only a scream away from the possibility that Howard Dean could conceivably be President of the United States today, but that is the genius of the nomination process. It separates the liars from the lunatics, and in Dean’s case, exposes those who are both.

Dean made headlines by calling the Republican Party the “white” party:

“If you look at folks of color, even women, they’re more successful in the Democratic Party than they are in the white, uh, excuse me, in the Republican Party because we just give more opportunity to folks who are hardworking people who are immigrants and come from members of minority groups,” Dean said at one point.

It appears that the Democrats have finally found their campaign issue. It’s Republican racism. Obama has adopted a practice at every campaign stop of mentioning that the Republicans will use the fact Obama is black against him. It must be working — so far no Republican has dared to bring it up. Just the Democrats. Over and over.

In most elections, the Left prefers to divide according to class, rich vs. poor, bourgeoisie vs. proletariat; black vs white is something the Democrats have avoided since the 1950s, (when the Democrats were the party of Jim Crow and the Republicans the party of Lincoln). This new effort, running a black candidate and claiming to be the ‘party of color’ is still wobbly. So far, the only racist comments of any kind have emanated from within the ranks of the Democrats.

Before being elected head of the Democratic National Committee, Dean was governor of Vermont, a state that is 0.7% black. Who better to criticize the pot than the kettle? The DNC later issued a statement to the effect that Dean ‘misspoke’ after his comment drew the inevitable comparisons to the Dean scream the sunk his 2004 run for the White House.

As previously noted, Dean is both a lunatic and a liar. In 2005 he told a gathering of the San Francisco Democratic elite: “They all behave the same. They all look the same. It’s pretty much a white Christian party.”

Really.  Colin Powell was the first black secretary of state in history. Condi Rice the second black and first woman. The Department of Commerce is headed by Carlos Guitierrez. The Department of Labor by Elaine Chao.

There is former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former Labor Secretary Linda Chavez, Spencer Abraham, Mel Martinez, Alphonso Jackson . . . let’s not forget that Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Bush.

If one browses the Democrat Party’s official website, one comes upon a page entitled, “Democratic Leaders.” They all look alike.

But race is this year’s campaign issue, so get used to it. The Democrats already used bringing down oil prices and improving the economy to get elected in 2006 — they’d rather we didn’t dwell on the outcome. If Hillary had gotten the nomination, it would have been women vs. men — that’s entertaining, but ultimately kind of messy. But race-baiting only works if somebody takes the bait.

Russia continues its push well beyond the borders of South Ossetia and into Georgia itself. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says that all Russia is trying to do is bring its ‘peacekeeping mission to its logical conclusion.” Whether that logical conclusion includes the existence of an independent state called Georgia remains to be seen.

Noted one blogger, Georgia certainly identifies with — and considered itself an ally of — the West. After fighting broke out, Georgian state television even switched from the national news to the anti-Russian, Cold War classic flick “Red Dawn.” So it’s understandable that the people there are begging for Western help — they’re even looking for Israel to pressure Russia. But despite strong words from U.S. bigwigs, it’s become increasingly clear that nobody is coming to Georgia’s aid. “Georgians are wondering, where is NATO? NATO isn’t coming. Deal with it. Saakashvilli staked his presidency on it and failed.”

If Russia goes through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Israel will use an electronic warfare device now under development to neutralize it and as a result present Russia as vulnerable to air infiltrations, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post.

The Russian system, called the S-300, is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world today and has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. It has a range of about 200 kilometers and can hit targets at altitudes of 27,000 meters. Read the rest of this entry »

Russian tanks rolled towards the capital of South Ossetia and fighters bombed Georgian air bases after Georgia launched attacks on rebels in the Georgian province of South Ossetia. Russian forces suffered about a dozen dead and 150 wounded, according to Russian news agencies, but the civilian toll of dead and wounded is currently numbered in the thousands.

South Ossetia is primarily inhabited by ethnic Ossetians whose native language is related to Farsi, or ethnic Persian.

By tradition, the Ossetians have had good relations with Russians and were regarded as loyal citizens, first of the Russian empire and later of the Soviet Union. They sided with the Kremlin when Bolshevik forces occupied Georgia in the early 1920s and, as part of the carve-up which followed, the South Ossetian Autonomous Region was created in Georgia and North Ossetia was formed in Russia. Read the rest of this entry »

Senator Barack Obama proclaimed last week that properly inflated tires and well-maintained engines “will produce all the savings we’ll need” - presumably as much as all the oil we could hope to obtain by all the drilling offshore, onshore, ANWR, and from shale.

“There are things that you can do individually though to save energy; making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups,’ Obama said. “You could actually save just as much.”

The media, so mesmerized by Obama-speak that they didn’t notice how stupid that was until after they arrived home, and free from his charismatic spell, read what they had written in their notes. That’s right.

Could Obama’s national energy strategy really be mandatory tuneups and new tire gauges for all? Unsure if they had transcribed what they had heard, they put a lid on it and hoped Their Guy would come up with something a bit more, er, meaningful if they gave him time. Read the rest of this entry »

While the rest of us ponder Obama’s brilliant energy strategy proposals (who knew the incredible energy savings to be derived from properly inflated tires?)  Obama’s new campaign plane is a mirror of the candidate himself; elegant, ostentatious, a gas-guzzling monster fit to carry The One along his road to the White House.

His Boeing 757 was retrofitted to install four individual chairs that resemble La-Z-Boys. They are free-standing and made of plush leather with pockets on the sides. There is also a booth which seats four for a meeting or a meal.

His chair has his name and campaign logo embroidered on the back top — “Obama ‘08” on one line and “President” underneath. To one side is a small table stacked with newspapers ready for the candidate’s arrival. The table of the booth is always covered in snacks and cheese and is where Obama spends most of his time during flights meeting with staff and sitting for the occasional interview.

The next two sections are outfitted with expansive business class seats for senior and junior level staff including Obama’s media team, which films all of the candidate’s events for promotional purposes. Politico’s Mike Allen said that by comparison, Air Force One seems ‘claustrophic.’

But, he is The One. We should be grateful he deigns to come to the people, for if not, the people would surely come to him, to at least touch the hem of his garment, if nothing else.

O-Force One may not be a flaming chariot in the sky, but for the True Believers, it will have to do. For now.

by Jerome Corsi - WND

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America is dead, says Robert A. Pastor, the American University professor who for more than a decade has been a major proponent of building a North American Community.

“The new president will probably discard the SPP,” Pastor wrote in an article titled “The Future of North America,” published in the current July/August issue of the Council on Foreign Relations magazine Foreign Affairs.

The SPP, which critics contend is a step toward a North American Union, is an agreement to increase cooperation on security and economic issues signed by the leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in 2005. Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration launched extensive working-group activity to implement the agreement. The working groups – ranging from e-commerce, to aviation policy, to borders and immigration – have counterparts in Mexico and Canada.

Full Report

Two human rights groups on Monday decried widespread torture of political opponents by bitter Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah, and Associated Press interviews with three victims and a doctor backed the reports of abuse.

The Palestinian human rights group Al Haq said Monday that arbitrary arrests of political opponents have been common since Hamas’ takeover of Gaza, with each side trying to defend its turf.

“Arrests for political reasons haven’t stopped for a second,” Al Haq director Shawan Jabarin told reporters. He estimated that before the latest sweeps, more than 1,000 people had been seized by each side.

One detainee told of being beaten with pipes and having a screwdriver rammed into his back. Another said interrogators tied his hands behind his back then lifted him into the air by his bound wrists. Read the rest of this entry »

Department of Homeland Security officials are quite logically concerned that the upcoming political conventions, the Olympics and the November elections might present targets too tempting for al-Qaeda or other Islamic terror groups to ignore, reports ABC News.

Anti-terror officials in the U.S. cite this summer and fall’s lineup of two major political parties’ conventions, November’s general election and months of transition into a new presidential administration as cause for heightened awareness and action.

This is what the Department of Homeland Security is quietly declaring a Period of Heightened Alert, or POHA, a time frame when terrorists may have more incentive to attack.

According to drafts of government memos described to ABC News, the period would run roughly from this August through July 2009.