Stories by Jeff Emanuel
Posted at 2:33pm on Jul. 8, 2008 "Help Senator Barack Obama win and help Senator Barack Obama develop good space policy."
"Yes we can -- even in space"
By Jeff Emanuel
Yep, it's for real. A Barack Obama supporter who started the "Space Policy Advisory Group" on the suitably-titled "MyBO" social networking portion of Obama's Web site is asking for YOUR money, to -- in his words -- "Help Senator Barack Obama win and help Senator Barack Obama develop good space policy." (Click image at right to see a screencap)
That's profound stuff there. What exactly constitutes a "good space policy," and how will your donation "help Senator Barack Obama develop" that "good space policy"? That, my friends, is left to the imagination, because the title and subtitle of this post is the entirety of the text on that page. Just give them your money, don't ask, and trust that Obama's Space Policy, like everything else he promises, will be "good."
Heck, for an extra $25, he may throw in some Hope and Change, too. And a raffle ticket to the Denver worship service acceptance rally. And a front-row seat to an intelligence briefing. And....
Anyway, I digress. Just give him your money, and trust.
Brilliant. Let's make this an open thread.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | the Potemkin candidate — Comments (43)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:04pm on Jul. 7, 2008 The Answer: Because they know it's *not real*
By Jeff Emanuel
The Question:
Why is it that the anti-theist Left wing goes nuts shrieking "Church and State" and spouting accusations of "[breaking] with longstanding precedent" by "unveil[ing] a presidential campaign ad infused with deeply religious tones" when they look hard enough, with enough prejudice, at the image below to find a phantom religious symbol in it...
...yet there's nary a peep from those same anti-religion Lefties when Barack Obama does this:
Evangelical Christians, and other religious individuals who occasionally feel drawn in by Barack Obama's rapidly-changing message, should keep that question, and the answer, in mind when considering who they want to support -- and why -- this election season.
The anti-religious Left allows Obama and other Democrats to use the imagery and the language of the Church, to attend and be active in churches for two decades-plus, and to speak to people of faith in what they assume is "their" language without argument or protestation (when a fraction of that level of "religious" activity would earn a Republican the title of "theocrat") because the Left knows Obama, et al are simply doing those things out of a need to appeal to the bitter religion-clingers, not because they actually believe or mean them in any way.
Christians should simply look at the Left's reaction to Barack Obama or any other Democrat politician's religious statements and claims of faith to gauge just how real those claims are. Just refer to the above exhibit for evidence of how serious, and how authentic, Barack Obama's are.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Church and State | Mike Huckabee | Obamafiles — Comments (57)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:28pm on Jul. 7, 2008 "Because this is your convention, not mine, I'm holding an event that is even more about ME than anything else we've done yet"
You can come, maybe, if you keep giving me money and promise to cheer loud enough, or faint.
By Jeff Emanuel
Well, it's official: Barack Obama will be accepting the Democratic nomination for President at Invesco Field at Mile High, the 75,000-seat open-air home of the Denver Broncos, rather than at the convention hall as originally planned.
Campaign manager David Plouffe said the following in an email:
At the Democratic National Convention next month, we're going to kick off the general election with an event that opens up the political process the same way we've opened it up throughout this campaign.Barack has made it clear that this is your convention, not his.
On Thursday, August 28th, he's scheduled to formally accept the Democratic nomination in a speech at the convention hall in front of the assembled delegates.
Instead, Barack will leave the convention hall and join more than 75,000 people for a huge, free, open-air event where he will deliver his acceptance speech to the American people.
It's going to be an amazing event, and Barack would like you to join him. Free tickets will become available as the date approaches, but we've reserved a special place for a few of the people who brought us this far and who continue to drive this campaign.
If you make a donation of $5 or more between now and midnight on July 31st, you could be one of 10 supporters chosen to fly to Denver and spend two days and nights at the convention, meet Barack backstage, and watch his acceptance speech in person. Each of the ten supporters who are selected will be able to bring one guest to join them.
This is simply the next logical step in a campaign that has been all about one man and his quest for adulation and power.
Opening up the political process? Only by pun are they doing that; the rest is simply another manufactured event for a manufactured candidate. The way they're "opening up the process" here is as they've done it to this point -- by bringing more people in to sit and listen to Obama talk (and have the opportunity to faint, I suppose).
"This is your convention, not his"? Only if you're a willing member of the Obama cult of personality. If you're not -- say, for example, you're a Clinton delegate, as almost half the assigned delegates are -- then an event like this has to feel like an attempt to drown you out, if not to exclude you altogether.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Democratic Convention | Denver | Obamafiles — Comments (87)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 1:00am on Jul. 6, 2008 On the Absurdity of Being Shocked to see a Weather Vane Shift with the Wind
By Jeff Emanuel
The transition from primary to general election campaign mode has seen Barack Obama (D-IL) perform whiplash-inducing 180°s on Iraq, on abortion, on the DC gun ban, on FISA and telecom immunity, on welfare reform, on the death penalty for child rapists, on debating John McCain "anywhere, any time," on the financing of his campaign, and on too many others to recount here (not to mention on Jim Johnson, on Jeremiah Wright, on Wes Clark, on Austan Goolsbee, on Samantha Power, on Tony Rezko, and on Scarlett Johansson, as well as on too many other people to recount).
Those flips which have put him to the right of that famous Triangulating Moderate, Bill Clinton, recently caught the attention -- and the ire -- of the ever-vigilant New York Times editorial board.
On July 4 the NYT featured an editorial titled "New and Not Improved" that, in part, said the following about what the editors called Obama's "perplexing shifts in position":
Senator Barack Obama stirred his legions of supporters, and raised our hopes, promising to change the old order of things. He spoke with passion about breaking out of the partisan mold of bickering and catering to special pleaders, promised to end President Bush’s abuses of power and subverting of the Constitution and disowned the big-money power brokers who have corrupted Washington politics.Now there seems to be a new Barack Obama on the hustings. First, he broke his promise to try to keep both major parties within public-financing limits for the general election. His team explained that, saying he had a grass-roots-based model and that while he was forgoing public money, he also was eschewing gold-plated fund-raisers. These days he’s on a high-roller hunt.
Read on.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Obamafiles — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:58am on Jul. 5, 2008 Tim Mahoney (D-FL) spends Independence Day in Canada after honoring Soviet vets in taxpayer-funded mailer
By Jeff Emanuel
Democrat Congressman Tim Mahoney (FL-16), fresh off the embarrassment of getting caught being so out of touch with America's military that he sent out a taxpayer-funded mailpiece "in honor of those who defend our freedom" featuring a photo of a Soviet veteran, decided to get out of the spotlight for a few days during the Independence Day recess.
Unfortunately for Mahoney, while a Congressman may be able to leave the country for a few days, the spotlight is rarely far behind -- especially when the time you choose to leave the country and chill at your second house in Canada coincides with America's Independence Day, and your constituents -- and your opponent -- are dedicating time and energy to celebrating that most special of holidays.
Further, Tim Mahoney's Web site contained no acknowledgment of the 4th of July in any way.
Perhaps Mahoney is far more in line ideologically, and patriotically, with The Progressive magazine's Matthew Rothschild, who wrote:
Why I’m Not PatrioticBy Matthew Rothschild, July 2, 2008
(In memory of George Carlin.)It’s July 4th again, a day of near-compulsory flag-waving and nation-worshipping. Count me out.
Spare me the puerile parades.
Don’t play that martial music, white boy.
And don’t befoul nature’s sky with your F-16s.
You see, I don’t believe in patriotism.
It’s not that I’m anti-American, but I am anti-patriotic.
Love of country isn’t natural. It’s not something you’re born with. It’s an inculcated kind of love, something that is foisted upon you in the home, in the school, on TV, at church, during the football game.
Yet most people accept it without inspection.
In fairness to Mr. Mahoney, he may not agree with this; however, he was in Canada on July 4 and therefore unavailable for comment. Perhaps Mahoney simply doesn't believe in patriotism -- or his vision of "the New Patriotism" is so far out of touch with mainstream America's, and with the citizens of FL-16, that he thinks escaping the commemoration of what is the most important patriotic holiday of the year is something his constituents will neither mind nor notice.
Posted in 2008 | FL-16 | Tim Mahoney — Comments (43)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:01pm on Jul. 3, 2008 Watch out for all those bitter folks in the crowd, Barry -- they tend to cling to things [Open Thread]
By Jeff Emanuel
Courtesy of Roll Call($) comes this wonderful report:
Obama May Campaign at NASCAR Races
Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the coming weeks may become the first Democratic presidential nominee to attend a NASCAR stock car race in 16 years, his campaign confirmed today.
“We would love to make it to a NASCAR race if the schedule permits,” Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki told Roll Call Thursday afternoon. “In the meantime, we plan to continue campaigning in communities across the country including small towns and rural communities where people are dissatisfied with the leadership of the last eight years and looking for a new direction for the country.”
The sight of Barack Obama attempting to mingle with a demographic he so publicly despises and looks down on should be an interesting one indeed. Further, the entertainment value provided by liberal elites who try to do "normal people" things is practically endless, as the two scenes below from the 2004 campaign remind us.
By the way, anybody remember the wonderfully eloquent attempt to blend in just before the hunting trip chronicled above by asking, "Can I get me uh huntin' license here?"
Delicious. I can't wait to see what Obama tries to do to blend in with these bitter hayseeds who are always clinging to guns and religion.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Liberal elites trying to blend in with the unwashed masses | NASCAR | Obamafiles — Comments (78)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:15pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Guilt by Association only applies if you're John McCain, and your "associate" is the Most Highly Decorated Living Veteran
By Jeff Emanuel
According to Huffington Post writer Sam Stein:
Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad" - a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks on the Senator's military record.
In hopes of nipping any criticism in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame Sen. John Kerry's own Vietnam record.
Day has been targeted by the Left as a "right-wing extremist" ever since he spoke against John Kerry in the 2004 campaign (remember 2004? That was the year that service in Vietnam was supposed to make you qualified to be President -- as opposed to 2008, when the opposite is now supposed to be true).
The pundits and bloggers who attack Day for speaking out about Vietnam service, the effect of virulent protests like those engaged in by John Kerry after his return from combat, always seem to leave out any biographical information about the retired Colonel, except, occasionally, for the fact that he served in Vietnam, and that he was a POW for a period of time.
Given the dearth of information provided by media members bent on marginalizing the man and his opinions, you may be asking a very important question right about now: Just who is this Bud Day character, and why in the world does he matter?
I'll tell you why.
Posted in 2008 | Bud Day | John Kerry | John McCain | SBVT | the pot calling the stainless steel black — Comments (27)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:03pm on Jun. 24, 2008 How dare John Cornyn demand ethics and disclosure from sitting Senators?
By Jeff Emanuel
Texas Senate Ethics Committee ranking member John Cornyn (R-TX) will introduce an amendment to the controversial mortgage/lender bailout bill that would require Senators to list their residential mortgages as liabilities on their financial disclosure forms.
The amendment, which would take effect next year, would require Senators "to disclose the date the mortgage was acquired, the rough amount, the interest rate, the term and the name and address of the creditor."
According to Roll Call, the proposed amendment, which has reportedly garnered support from at least five other Ethics Committee members, "appears designed to address the fallout from the revelation that Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the housing bill’s sponsor, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) received favorable mortgages from Countrywide Financial."
As reported here before, Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, had suspicious dealings with Countrywide Financial, the mortgage lender Sen. Barack Obama -- for whom Dodd has been a pledged Superdelegate since February -- has been railing against on the campaign trail even while appointing another beneficiary of the organization to help vet his potential Vice Presidential candidates.
Despite his shady dealings and preferential treatment from the lender (or perhaps because of it), Dodd's name is on the landmark mortgage-bailout legislation now pending in the Senate, which will bail out Countrywide, among others, using an obscene amount of taxpayer dollars.
Posted in Chris Dodd | Congress | Countrywide Financial | Culture of Corruption | Ethics | Ethics Reform | John Cornyn — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:31pm on Jun. 19, 2008 "House passes Iraq war funds bill backed by Bush"
By Jeff Emanuel
Thanks to Reuters for the tasty headline, quoted above, that really rams home the fact that the Democrat-"led" House of Representatives has once again given President Bush pretty much exactly what he asked for on that pesky little war they inconveniently promised to end if elected in '06.
Well, I suppose that the "inconvenience" is more felt on the part of those friendly, gullible netroots who "ate up" the knowingly insincere promises of the Democrats they donated so much time, treasure, and typing to.
Voting results are here.
Guess those "blood-soaked" dollar bills Code Pink protesters planned to shower the voting Members with during tonight's polling didn't convince any of them overmuch. It's a shame; I hear they were dipped in the actual blood of the Iraqi children the witches of Code Pink keep fighting so hard to abandon to the mercy of terrorists in Iraq.
Well, maybe not. But would it honestly surprise anybody?
Updated below the fold...
Posted in Code Pink | Congress | Kneel Before Zod | The Great Netroots Betrayal — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:32pm on Jun. 19, 2008 MoveOn.org's latest lie, and a double standard of literally life-and-death proportions
By Jeff Emanuel
Courtesy of Abe Greenwald at Commentary magazine's "Contentions" blog comes the following look at slime merchant MoveOn.org's latest attempt to defraud both a Republican candidate and reality itself.
A distraught young blonde woman is sitting on a couch holding a fair-haired fidgeting baby. The woman looks into the camera and speaks:
Hi, John McCain, this is Alex and he’s my first. So far his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog. That and making my heart pound every time I look at him. And so, John McCain when you say you would stay in Iraq for a hundred years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were — you can’t have him.
Read on.