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.

Action on Tibet

The True Majority website has set up a petition calling for an end to China's violent actions against Tibet. Click on the link and you can sign it.

For too long, our people and our government have been appeasing China in order to advance our own economic interests. We should begin taking action to show the Chinese that they cannot trample on human rights and international law without consequences.

Tibet Troubles

They told us that bringing the Olympics to China would quell Beijing's human rights issues.

Yeah, just like the 1936 Berlin Olympics turned Nazi Germany into a human rights leader.

Obama, Religion, and Race

The clip posted below features the full speech Senator Barack Obama gave yesterday regarding the recent press frenzy over controversial remarks made by his pastor.
They offer many insights into the issue of race in America.

Sen. Obama rightly points out that his election will not solve all of our racial problems. At the same time, he notes that as people come together, we will form a more united people. An African-American president will mark a great step toward racial progress.

The Senator also notes that just because someone is his pastor does not mean that he endorses everything that person believes or says. He further points out the great racial divide in American religion, and the difference in black and white religious practices.

Beyond that, I'll let the Senator speak for himself. His words are far more eloquent than mine.

The (Airline) Gods Must Be Crazy!!!

I have been looking at various airlines' prices for flights from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Things are truly getting nuts! Many of the airlines are only offering flights with connections, some as far away as Dallas, TX. Continental's cheapest flights are over a thousand dollars!!!

The only really cheap flights seem to be from Southwest Airlines. However, given their recent safety concerns, I am not certain I want to deal with them.

Part of this is the result, I suspect, of high gas prices. However, it is also a sign that our air travel system, like much of our infrastructure, is in decay.

A Nation of Idiots

In this week’s issue of The Nation, the letters page is crammed with complaints from angry Hillary supporters who were ticked off that the magazine has endorsed Obama. The majority of them were so stupid as to beggar belief. I do not know where to begin.

Perhaps I should start with the person who said that men have been in charge long enough and that only a woman can solve America’s problems. Given that Hillary Clinton voted for many of the nation’s problems as a Senator, including the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, this seems rather doubtful. Even if women are better suited to solving these problems, it’s certainly not this woman. As Reason Magazine noted, this only exposes the bankruptcy of identity politics.

In one particularly galling letter, some idiot tries to harp on the fact that the Constitutional amendment giving women the vote was passed decades after the amendment giving African-American men the vote. This completely ignores the fact that, except for a brief period during Reconstruction, in many parts of this country, black people couldn't exercise that constitutional right until the 1960s. Many civil rights activists died for that right. This letter practically spat on their graves.

Another writer claimed that Obama would be unelectable. If so, than Hillary doesn’t stand a chance in hell. With all the baggage she has, the Republican attack machine will literally bury her in mud. I can just imagine the infamous September 2008 You Tube video “Have a Cigar, Hillary?” Although her supporters claim that the Republicans have thrown all they can at her, the fact that they have so much to throw should give one pause.

Karen, Shut the Heller Up

In yesterday’s Inquirer, columnist Karen Heller wrote a fairly stupid commentary on the Elliot Spitzer case. In it, she gives Spitzer’s wife unsolicited advice on how she should have reacted, as if she gives a damn what some newspaper columnist in Philadelphia thinks.

Does Ms. Heller have a degree in psychology or marriage counseling that we don’t know about? Has she been receiving off the books tutoring from Dr. Phil? If not, she should shut up.

Frankly, I am getting sick of hearing about the Spitzer Affair. There are far more important things the news media could be focusing on right now. Let’s make a list.

1. The resignation of Admiral Fallon, who had been military commander in the
Middle East. His resignation apparently stems from disagreements about the strategy we should pursue against Iran.

2. President Bush’s veto of a bill that would bar government agents from using waterboarding in interrogations.

3. The real reason behind rising oil prices. Although Hillary Clinton blames OPEC, the increase stems from speculation driven by the weak dollar, combined with political events overseas. It is not an issue of supply.

4. How our nation’s inflation is being driven by the move to ethanol. As a recent NPR story notes, the diversion of corn to ethanol is raising food prices across the board. Even meat is being affected, as most corn is grown for animal feed.

This focus on unimportant, salacious stories is reminiscent of the mindless chatter that passed as news before 9/11. It almost makes one question the wisdom of the first amendment.

Spitzer Down the Tubes

Well, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s career is pretty much down the drain. Personally, I think this is a waste and an overreaction to what was essentially a private peccadillo. Gov. Spitzer was a talented force in politics, and his skills should not be thrown away just because of his sexual issues.

Think about it. What real bearing does this have on his ability to govern? None, other than the fact that our infantilized media, who crawl over everything having to do with sex, won’t leave him alone about it. Successful presidents such as JFK, Dwight Eisenhower, and FDR engaged in all manner of philandering, with no discernable affect on their job performance. I see no way in which the involvement of money changes that, other than the existence of anachronistic, nanny-state laws.

Naturally, the folks at Reason’s Hit and Run Blog are crowing over this, a rather ironic position to take when you advocate the legalization of prostitution.

Time to Get Rough, Barack

Barack Obama's campaign recently condemned one of his unpaid aides, Professor Samantha Power, for referring to Sen. Hillary Clinton as a power-hungry monster. My only question is: why?

As Andrew Sullivan notes, Senator Clinton and her husband will do whatever it takes to stay in power. They will stoop to dirty tricks (e.g. the race baiting inherent in their release of the Somali Barack photo), negative campaigning, and manipulating the nomination process to get elected.

It's time to fight back. And we have so much to do so with. If Hillary Clinton wants to run on her record, let's start with her health care screw ups. I can see it now...

"It's 3 AM. Your children are sick. Who do you want in charge of our national healthcare system? A man who is willing to work in a bipartisan fashion to create a workable, affordable system, or a politician who wastes opportunities through partisan bickering?"

Strip Search at School

A young female student at a Middle School was recently strip searched by school faculty because another student wrongly accused her of supplying him with drugs. Reason Magazine's Hit and Run blog has the scoop.

The Ninth Circuit Court is claiming that this is not a violation of Fourth Amendment rights, even though they didn't even bother informing the parents. If there were any real sense in the justice system, the school staff who performed the seach would be registering under Megan's Law.

Follow Up on Fishtown Action

In my last post, I mentioned a community group called Fishtown Action, which supports the building of casinos in this city. A member of the group had written a letter to the City Paper denouncing opponents of the measure in insulting terms.

Well, apparently, Fishtown Action has not limited its activity to verbal attacks. A search of the group on Yahoo reveals their involvement in at least one physical attack on a casino opponent.

Although no charges were apparently filed in the incident, it makes you wonder about the type of people who support the casinos.

Casino Lover Makes An Ass Out of Herself

In this week’s City Paper, there was a letter by Maggie O’Brien of the community group Fishtown Action, attacking opponents of the SugarHouse Casino as “the hip few” who really don’t know anything about Philadelphia. I do not even know where to begin.

Perhaps I should start with an article in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly, which covers a broad spectrum of opposition to the casinos. Far from the “hip few” O’Brien caricatures, they include people such as Fritz Dietel, who converted an abandoned factory into a home for his family, and Andrea Preis and Joanne Sherman, middle-aged women who, if you look at their pictures, hardly qualify for the fashionable fifth, let alone the hip few. (No offense, ladies…)

O’Brien’s letter is filled with self-delusion regarding the benefits of the proposed casino. As a previous post on this blog mentioned, and as community activist Kathy Dilonardo points out in the PW article, the casinos will not draw money into the local economy; rather, they will drain it from the local entertainment industry.

More importantly, she does not even begin to address the moral issues involved. She hopes for the jobs the casinos would bring, but doesn’t give a thought to the gambling addicts and their families whose lives would be ruined by the presence of the casinos. She is perfectly willing to profit from having a den of vice in her community. Yeah, real good Philly values, Ms. O’Brien.

Our Devoted Public Servants

My father received a parking ticket last night or very early this morning for parking in a vacant lot on our street. This lot is used by no one for any other purpose than for parking, as part of a de facto neighborhood agreement.

Don't the Philadelphia Police have anything better to do than ticket cars parked on vacant lots? We have hordes of drug dealers in this neighborhood, murders aplenty, and these heroes are wasting their time ticketing cars!!! I know some experts subscribe to the broken window theory of crime prevention, but this post on the Young Philly Politics blog indicates that it may not really hold water.

The real irony of it is that my father normally prefers not to park in that lot, as he likes to watch the car from our window so it will not be vandalized. He only parked there last night because he had returned late from visiting my grandmother in the hospital, and there was no other parking available.