Shocked!

I am shocked, shocked I tell you!

There are claims by everyone in the media and both sides of the Presidential campaign that lies are being told! Oh my God! This is the most amazing thing I have ever encountered. Politicians who shade the truth, tell us what they think we want to hear and sometimes tell the truth but not in a manner acceptable to the opposition.

I have to admit that in my case this mostly falls on deaf ears. We've had to endure screams of "Liar!" for the past seven years every time President Bush says something that the left doesn't agree with. When policy differences are not argued, but simply dismissed as more lies from those lying liars it becomes difficult to really care.

Newsflash: Just because you disagree doesn't make it a lie.

Al Franken Decade

The 1980's were the Al Franken Decade. At least that is what Al Franken declared on Weekend Update in late 1979. But now Franken expects the voters of Minnesota to make the 2000's the Al Franken decade, and elect him to the U.S. Senate. Seems a bit weird, but these freaky Swedish-Germans did elect a former professional wrestler to be their Governor.

There was a time when Al Franken was funny; like in "Trading Places" when he was working with Tom Davis as Franken and Davis. He hasn't been funny in quite a while. He has just been another angry liberal. But who knows, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has nominated him their candidate for the Senate seat now held by Norm Coleman. Coleman should be in trouble as a Bush Republican, but the Democrats may have found one of the few candidates that can't beat a Republican this year. And the Republicans are already digging up every controversial comedy sketch he ever wrote, and there are a lot of them.

This one should be fun to watch; unless you live in Minnesota and are in danger of being represented by this nimrod.

Uh-huh

Obama Suggests He Would Have Left His Church If Wright Had Not Retired

This sounds too convenient. It just does not pass the smell test. After twenty years as a member he would have left if the Reverend had not retired last month? There's a rock in Ireland that I do believe the Senator kissed several times.

Here we go again

Let's abolish the electoral college. Senator Ben Nelson of Florida makes this proposal AGAIN. You might notice that no one from Wyoming, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Montana or any other low population state ever makes this proposal. Hmmm, we wonder why that is? Maybe because they have no interest in giving up their position in electing the President in lieu of allowing the election to be decided by California, Illinois, Texas, Florida and a few other large states.

The United States is not a democracy it is a democratic republic. Politicians seem to be frequently uneducated and ignorant of the difference. If we were a democracy then majority rule would be the case, but as a democratic republic we have representatives that stand between the people and the final determination of law. This model has served us well for 200 plus years and any move to change it is short sighted.

Direct democracy does not allow for the cooling of passions. The bicameral legislature is the best example of this. The House will react to any impassioned issue with immediacy and very little thought to the long term consequences. The Senate has the duty to temper the House by looking to the longer term effects. One might argue that this is not effective, but history proves that it is a better system than allowing tempers to rule the day.

It is important to remember that this is just political grandstanding. The only way to eliminate the electoral college is through a constitutional amendment, and it is highly unlikely the Senate would ever pass such an amendment, and it is beyond credibility to imagine that the half of the states who would lose influence would ever ratify.

Obama, Obama

Senator Obama seems to have spent years trying to connect to the black community.

He has about as much in common with the American black experience as I do, and I am a product of mid-nineteenth century European immigration. He is the son of a Kenyan man and a white mid-western woman, raised by his Hawaiian grandmother. He has nothing in common with the average black American. He is, as a matter of fact, an honest to God African-American.

He has spent the last twenty years attaching himself to the black community. That is the only explanation for joining a church that preaches hate of mainstream America. He is trying to make his bona fides with the black community. He would have been rejected out of hand by his church if it were not for his fathers skin pigmentation.

I like to think that Senator Obama is better than that, but the record does not reinforce my wishes.

Immigrant rights

Australia gets it right.

The U.S. should enforce similar standards. An immigrant should embrace the tenets of western civilization or be turned back at the border. (Do not read this as an anti-immigrant trope against our good neighbors to the south; they are very much western civ people.)

Hillary plays dirty

Big surprise: Hillary backers go dirtier. They are now threatening Speaker Pelosi.

Senator Clinton has been caught in yet another lie, so the proper response is to lash out at the rest of the party. The Clintons seem to think the Democratic Party is actually the Clinton Party and any apostasy should be punished.

It is not clear that Senator Obama is a better choice for the Democrats, but at least he is winning with the voters. Where do the Clintons come off with threatening anyone who does not buy into the Hillary inevitability. Senator Clinton seems to be nothing but bold, grasping ambition.

Gravel for President

"Fed up with being excluded from the debates and otherwise marginalized, former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska announced today that he will seek the Libertarian Party nomination for president," reports a New York Times blog.

Isn't this like a high school kid who takes up Dungeons & Dragons because he's fed up with not being able to get a date? (J. Taranto)

Now what is Ron Paul going to do? Will we have a convention floor fight between Paul and Gravel for the Libertarian nomination?

Follow this link to see how truly weird Sen. Gravel is. Remember this video is a Presidential ad.