Losing Faith in Obama

Senator Obama's rejection of Rev. Jeremiah Wright comes as a great disappointment to me. I saw Rev. Wright on Bill Moyers Jounal recently, and found myself agreeing with much of what he said. I particularly agreed with his point that if America goes around using terroristic tactics against third world countries, it will inevitably provoke a brutal backlash. The only thing I saw as questionable was his idiotic belief that the US government created AIDS.

Not all Obama supporters agree, though. Andrew Sullivan applauds Sen. Obama's denunciation of Rev. Wright. In one particularly amusing line, he condemns Rev. Wright's attack on America's brutal treatment of Nicaragua during the 80s. I suppose the Contras were just fine, upstanding gentlemen then?

The Stimulus Package, Explained

Brendan Calling has another great entry, this one about the new stimulus package being sent out as we speak.

Although I would not endorse most of Brendan's suggestions for spending the money, I have my own suggestion: Don't spend it at all. America needs to up its savings rate. This is a great opportunity to do so.

Why Hillary Is Unqualified?

Naturally, Senator Clinton supporters everywhere are crowing over the recent victory in Pennsylvania. Regular readers of this blog will be able to figure out how I feel about this.

My opposition to Hillary Clinton does not grow out of the issues or her experience. I feel there is another matter that no one is giving attention to: her moral qualifications for the office.

As I have previously documented in this blog, Hillary Clinton aggressively lobbied for her husband not to intervene in Bosnia in the early nineties, while hundreds of thousands of people were being killed. Essentially, this makes her an indirect accomplice to genocide. To me, complicity in genocide is an automatic, and irrevocable, disqualifier for the presidency.

What especially galls me is that some Hillary supporters are promoting her as being the one tough enough to stand up to Osama bin Laden. If she lacks the moral strength to even oppose genocide, what in hell makes them think she'll oppose al-Qaeda?

Vote Tomorrow

This is just a reminder to Pennsylvanians to vote in the Pennsylvania Primary tomorrow. As you all probably deduced, I will be voting for Barack Obama tomorrow.

The Liberal Media?

Hillary-lovers who think the media is too soft on Obama, take heart.

As the Brendan Calling blog reports, AP officials at a get-together with Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama kissed the former's butt while denigrating the latter.

I never bought the whole media affair with Obama thing. How could I, given the Rev. Wright and "bitter" fiascos?

Nutter Should Be Over the Hill

The recent brouhaha over Senator Obama's "bitter" comments are all the evidence we need for why Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter should be endorsing him over Sen. Clinton.

While Hillary whines about Barack disrespecting "sportsmen," he comes out and speaks the god-honest truth: rural single issue voters are focusing on issues such as gun control and religion at the expense of our cities and our country. With Mayor Nutter's recent efforts at creating gun laws in Philadelphia, he should be embracing Barack with both arms.

And as for Senator Clinton's contention that Obama's comments were elitist and could lead to Republican attacks, just look at brendancalling's response to a post on the Suburban Guerrilla blog.

Olympic Protests

You have to give kudos to the protestors who are standing up to China and the Olympic Committee. They're putting the Chinese government on notice that they cannot attack human rights with impunity.

The Chinese government, of course, is having none of it. They, and their appeasers in the Olympic Committee, are calling this an insult to the Chinese people.

Well, perhaps not all the Chinese people. I suspect the inhabitants of Beijing who were forcibly expelled from their homes as part of Olympic "redevelopment" plans probably commiserate with the protestors. Ditto for the Tibetans whom the Chinese government claims as its subjects.

Hillary: Complicit in Genocide?

Several days ago, I lambasted the Clinton record on human rights. Given that the events I focused on took place during her husband's administration, I did not give much attention to Hillary's own involvement.

Turns out, I should've.

As Christopher Hitchens describes in a recent Slate article, Hillary Clinton may have played a direct role in convincing her husband to delay intervening in Bosnia. As told by Clinton insiders such as Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, Hillary feared a Bosnian intervention would distract from her health care proposals.

If these accusations are true, they are proof of her moral unfitness for the office of president. Anyone who would sacrifice human lives for their own political gain is beneath contempt.

Calling Someone by Their Proper Name

Senator John McCain is complaining that one of Barack Obama's supporters called him a warmonger.

Umm...John. If you go around saying you'd be willing to stay in Iraq for one hundred years and joke about bombing Iran, people have every right to call you a warmonger.

Yeah, Great Priorities, Opie

Oprah's getting socially conscious again. In a world where millions of Chinese and Tibetans are having their human rights violated, guess what she's up in arms about?

Yep, you guessed it: puppy mills. Torture, executions, and robbing entire cultures and religions of their freedoms are all trumped by dogs.

Who do we have to thank for this stupidity? Take a look at the morons at Main Line Animal Rescue, who think the life of a dog or puppy is more important than those of a thousand Chinese people. If you air-dropped these mental cases into Auschwitz, one cannot help but wonder if their main concern would be how the attack dogs used by the SS were being treated.

A Power-less Interview

Carlin Romano's interview with Samantha Power, who is appearing at the Free Library tonight, in today's Inquirer is a complete waste of print. Mr. Romano has time for a short conversation with one of the world's leading experts on human rights and genocide, and all he can think to ask her about is a lousy comment she made about Hillary Clinton.

Reading Romano's interview, I actually began to wonder whether he knew anything about Ms. Power's background. For instance, he briefly mentions that her book, A Problem from Hell, won "major book prizes." Umm, Carlin, specifically, she won the Pulitzer. He glances over all this to focus on campaign politics.

This is a pity, because if he had bothered to read the book, Romano would have gathered some of the background behind her comments, which called Hillary Clinton a monster, and perhaps even have given consideration to whether they might be justified.

As the introduction to A Problem from Hell makes clear, the prevarications of the Clinton Administration endangered innocent people in Bosnia. Although Bill Clinton made strong statements of support whenever a major atrocity took place, he did not intervene until late in his second term. His statements of support gave many Bosnians the impression they would be protected by the Americans. As Power graphically illustrates in her book, this misconception led them to allow their children outside to play, only to be used for target practice by Serbian artillery.

Had Mr. Romano paid attention to this background, he might have conducted a better, more informative, interview. This is just further evidence of the political and intellectual decline of America. Rather than actually look at an issue, people are interested in cheap soundbites.