Bloomberg Loses Gun Control Lawsuit in New York City

The Wall Street Journal today reported on the resolution of New York City’s lawsuit against the gun industry. Resolution, in this case, means kicked out, ejected, rejected, up-yours….

The argument that the gun industry is responsible for New York City shooting deaths is much like suing Ford, Toyota, GM or Chrysler for automobile deaths. Yet, cosseted liberals like New York’s elite Mayor Bloomberg continue to massage their Holly-Go-Lightly base by spending taxpayer money and tying up the courts with frivolous lawsuits.

Cases like this one are meant to strangle the justice system and have nothing to do with justice. Complicit in New York’s lawsuit against gun manufacturers are Judges like Jack Weinstein whose career is famous for the number of court reversals he’s seen. Weinstein doesn’t need laws or any kind of constitution to impose his personal feelings and demonstrate his public weeping capacity. It’s like Descartes—I weep, therefore I am. Somehow, it never occurs to Weinstein that he can’t simply litigate societal problems away.

So I’m cheering the Second Circuit Court of Appeals which shit-canned Mayor Bloomberg’s fluffy lawsuit against gun manufacturers. The lawsuit was sleazy from top to bottom and couldn’t even be filed under conventional laws. Bloomberg’s legal attendants filed the brief under a city criminal NUISANCE statute, cheap stuff, but consistent with other backdoor attempts at irresponsible gun control. The objectives of Bloomberg’s office may be to bankrupt manufacturers through nuisance litigation. If the mayor wants to try that he should use his own money.

Bloomberg will continue to huff and puff for gun control while making full use of armed security guards for his own life and property. But for people like New York's mayor, guns are a privilege reserved only for criminals who will smuggle them from the same places from which they smuggle heroin and cocaine. Contrary to the guarantees of the 2nd Amendment, people like Bloomberg believe that ordinary citizens must consent to be victims.

Obama Should Quit Race (Part II)

Barack Obama often tells people he’s not in the race to further his political career and this is a good time to demonstrate that. No doubt the Senator had the best of intentions in keeping race out of the picture when he began his campaign, but now it has become the elephant in the room. Reverend Wright’s raillery has managed to insult both African-Americans and “whites” and has derailed all talk of issues at a time when issues should become more and more the focus of the presidential race. Obama has spent months in an indecisive mode, at first refusing to distance himself from Wright and Farrakhan, and then having to do it anyway weeks later as Wright’s fulminations knocked other headlines off the front pages of the nation’s newspapers.

It would be a statesman-like action to step down from the race in the interest of “party unity.” The move would also allow time for leaders to stanch the suppurating wounds which have been opened up as charges of racism fly in often unlikely and irresponsible directions. When every utterance must be confined and examined within the context of race, we have lost more than a little bit of free speech.

There has been a great deal of overstatement and from Reverend Wright and others of the ‘evil intentions’ of European-Americans and other ‘blue-eyed devils.’ Some of my best friends are white people. Many of them did not live in America during the days of slavery, nor did their ancestors. Most of my “white” friends (who are really gray or tan, at best) do not hold themselves superior to anyone on the basis of race or culture. And sure, many whites can just as easily see instances of racism as anyone else , but it is rarely to the degree expressed by Reverend Wright(introduction of AIDS virus to Africa), who is both a victim of and a perpetrator of the very evil he uses to justify his hate.

Now is a good time for Barack Obama to step down from the race. By that very act, he would accomplish a conciliatory feat of such magnitude that it would earn a place in history among other legendary American leaders. At the age of 42, Mr. Obama would gain more experience and surface again in later years with impeccable credentials and leadership qualities. Right now, he appears merely indecisive and lacking in judgment.

Sean Bell Trial: 50 Shots and 50 Witnesses

It would have been nice if Sean Bell hadn’t been killed and was instead married to his wonderful fiancée Nicole. But death had other plans and, in the aftermath, the fate of three NYC police officers was put into the court docket. The three were acquitted Friday and everyone’s suitably pissed.

Naturally, there will be a second storyline to be played out in parallel to the real one. The cops are simply murderous, jumping to the racist conclusion that any person of color exiting a nightclub boisterously in the dark of Gotham must be a thug. The trumpeted line will note the “fifty bullets fired” as if gunfights were really very reasoned and well-thought-out strategies in which the police would have to re-load their six-shooters several times in order to bust that many caps.

A double-stack Glock 19 holds 19 and officers and everybody’s scared and no one knows where the shots are coming from so you act to protect your own life. Pow! Pow! Bam! Pow! Pow! Bam! Pow! Pow! Bam! Pow! Pow! Bam! And soon you have 50 shots. It’s very dangerous to all and sundry, to passersby and people living in the area, to lampshades and babies, and even to passing helicopters . Sean Bell was scared, so were his friends and enemies, and so were the cops. Everyone acted out of fear and Sean Bell got dead.

The prosecution brought 50 state witnesses to the case and conflict abound in the statement they made.

Some said there was an armed man present when the police began firing; others disputed that.

Some witnesses said that Bell had argued with a guy in a witness account about which other people said was a benign conversation.

Some witnesses changed their previous statements.

The police are not immune to criticism and investigation nor should they be. I would just like to know, however, that the critics know a little more about what they’re talking about. How would they defend themselves and their fellows? How would they respond to calls to nightclubs at 2:00 a.m. when the kids in the neighborhood are still up playing Grand Theft Auto Number 4 and some parents are on the rooftops getting lessons in gun control which, to them, means being able to hit your target even if it’s a cop or an innocent citizen.

I would like to hear some of the goofy theories from the critics about how perfectly they would react had they been in the cops shoes.

Indiana Voter Identification Law Upheld by Supreme Court

In 2005, the Indiana State legislature passed a law requiring voters to identify themselves with a photo ID. To anyone who’s been a poll-watcher, that’s a no-brainer. During a hotly contested presidential election a while back, I saw several people who were caught trying to vote in different polling locations. You’d think they’d be embarrassed (if not arrested) but they’d loudly proclaim that an injustice had been perpetrated upon them. They shouted at the poll workers and tried to intimidate us—and the security guard would have to be called to shoo them away.

So the Indiana voter photo ID law has been upheld by the Supreme Court. The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,'" wrote Justice Stevens in an opinion conjoined with that of Chief Justice Roberts, and Justice Kennedy. Justice Alito, Scalia, and Thomas agreed, too, but wrote separate opinions. Dissenting were Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, and Souter.

The counter argument is that the law discourages elderly, poor, and minority voters. There may be a small element of truth in this where it applies to the elderly (who don’t drive) but the “poor” and “minority” voters do manage to drive or have driver’s licenses. Perhaps the municipalities should assist those groups in getting photo IDs, as no doubt they will, because our elections tend to be close and voter fraud occurs at a higher rate than one would suspect in spite of the “checks and balances” of the 2-party system.

Becky Quick: The Rebate Check is in the Mail

But should it be called a “rebate” a “bonus” or would it stimulate the economy more if it were called your “winnings?”

Becky Quick is a brainy, cute, and clever financial commentator on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. You could say that she is appropriately surnamed. Recently, Ms. Quick recounted the story of a New York economics professor who did a study on government give-backs to stimulate the economy. The president went on the telly just yesterday saying that the first wave of checks would soon arrive in the mail. The whole idea of the "rebate" is to get people to pump money back into the economy. But there is a great deal of psychological worry as to whether the scheme will work. Will some people choose to save the money? Will others go on the spending binge which will provide a surge of economic activity? The professor had a theory which holds that the success of the program would depend upon what you called it. Semantics, in other words, was more important than substance.

To prove his theory, the professor set up two groups. Each group would get $50 dollars to do with what they liked. In one group, the government give-back was called a "rebate." In the second group, the give-back was called a "bonus." Can you guess which group pumped more money back into the economy?

Here’s what happened. People getting $50 bucks of "rebate" money spent about $12.50 whereas people receiving "bonus" money spent about $22.00. You can do the psychology yourself.

Maybe a third alternative would better suit the goal of pumping money into the economy: call the give-back money the taxpayer's "winnings." Then maybe they would do what they’re supposed to do: blow it all.

CNBC, Fox Business Channel, and Bloomberg Business Television

The photo features a group of financial analysts from CNBC discussing the Microsoft - Yahoo wrangle. The great thing about watching the financial channels is that it's very confusing. It's so confusing that it can even take your mind off politics. When financial analysts talk about politics, you don't get nearly as much spin as you do from the news networks. While everyone in the world or in politics is concerned about the "bottom line," the financial people are very blunt and honest about it. They'll tell you quickly that they're not interested in anything besides making money. They're the most truthful people in the world.

Quick, Quintanilla, and Kernen may sound like a law firm but it's not. They're the three hosts of CNBC's Squawk Box and they dish the early business news while many people aren't yet awake. Over on the new Fox Business Channel, there’s a show called “Money for Breakfast.” I’m not quite sure what they’re doing over there yet but it’s pretty interesting as well.

I think the Fox Business News covers the usual Wall Street business involving stocks, bonds, ETF’s , CDOs , commodities, and so forth but they also pop in short segments which are pointed at the typical consumer. Fox Business has their bevy of babes and hunks. Of particular note is the segment they do at the end of the day called “Happy Hour” or something like that where they feature a long-haired capitalist and a solid babe who could do Baywatch as easily as she plots the moves of the S&P or the Footsie. There’s yet a third business TV channel and that predates Fox Business by a long shot since it was started by New York’s Mayor Bloomberg in the 1980s. Bloomberg got his start in Billionaire City with an investment firm called Solomon Brothers and I presume he learned his lessons well, making so much money that he went into politics for excitement.

I guess that’s kind of backwards since most people who come from politics go into the world of finance for excitement. Bill Clinton’s done very well in the investment firm called Yucaipa, a firm that manages “sovereign” funds, and that’s caused a bit of a problem for wife Hillary who also knows a thing or two about the Footsie (FTSE). There is some confusion in the Democratic party these days where you have the image of the Kennedys and the Kerrys and somehow you’ve got to mix it up with populism and voice a great deal of anti-capitalist sentiment. I do wish they’d get that together because it’s very confusing, so confusing that I became a Republican at one point. A poor and generally moderate Republican, but at least I'm not bitter as I cling to my guns and bibles and resist the temptation to go bowling.

I've heard so many times from the Democrats that the Republicans were the "party of the rich" that I figured I'd go over there and see if I could catch some manna.

Shifting Sands of the Democratic Primary Process

The Democrat's primary process is always shifting emphasis. The super-delegate process has created more dissensions and conflicts than the problem it was intended to resolve.

After Florida of 2000, there has been a a great deal of emphasis on the popular vote. Counting the Florida and Michigan vote gives Hillary Clinton a popular vote advantage, an argument that will be advanced if she does well in Indiana and not as badly as expected in NC. Hillary is ahead in super-delegates and a win in Indiana could draw more of those. On the other hand, most of the party bosses have made their decision and must push Obama even though they now have serious reservations about his electability on the national level. The polls are drawing close and Cinton has won all the big states except Illinois.

Fortunately, John McCain has always held some views that are consistent with mainstream Democrats. McCain's trying to get people to turn away from the race issue which seems to have obsessed the Obama campaign. Must we all lose focus on the fact that this is a presidential election and we are looking for the best person to lead America? And if we are all to be subject to the charges of racism, who shall be exempt?....and who shall decide the exemption?....and who is innocent?...

John McCain: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

It sort of bugs me out when I hear people ragging on Senator John McCain about things which are irrelevant to political issues and politics. When I hear some of the things said about McCain, it’s sometimes hard to remember that most people are able to separate political differences from personal attacks. The most scurrilous personal attacks are from those who give lip service to an expected cant just before they launch into the basest litany of pejoratives against the presidential candidate. I expect the worst come from people who not only don’t know McCain, they know nothing of public service. Most people do know that McCain had been a prisoner of war for many years, and many rue the fact because it provides a certain stature, implies an unquestioned heroism, shows a fierce determination and capacity to face adversity. These things give you an advantage in leadership which some may interpret as political. It seems to me that sometimes McCain spends too much time apologizing for being a real live American hero, and seems to do so even in his own books. But lots of people won’t buy any of McCain’s books to learn more about him, preferring newspaper headlines read to them by television pundits, and so I will plagiarize an excerpt from “Faith of My Fathers” and hope that Random House, the publisher, considers this “fair use.”

“Shortly before eleven on the morning of July 29, 1967, on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, I was third in line on the port side of the ship. I took my helmet back from Tom, nodded at him as he flashed me a thumb’s up, and shut the plane’s canopy. In the next instant, a Zuni missile struck the belly fuel tank of my plane, tearing it open, igniting two hundred gallons of fuel that spilled onto the deck, and knocking two of my bombs to the deck. I never saw Tom Ott again.”

McCain dives into the flames and seconds later one of his thousand-pound bombs explodes, followed by other bombs. Pilots in nearby planes eject into the conflagration. All told, 134 men are dead and dying. Within weeks, and with the Forrestal badly damaged, McCain has volunteered for another squadron on the Oriskany, a ship desperate for aviators, with a reputation for success in destroying targets and losing planes and pilots.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Howard Dean's Democratic Party Suicide Pact

More radioactive fallout from the Obama drubbing in Pennsylvania primary race—Politico.com reports that Barack Obama didn’t even do well with college students, his most hyped group of supporters.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Howard Dean has a big problem with Hillary’s growing strength and the fact that Michigan and Florida are still in limbo. Florida is the 4th largest state in terms of population and it voted. The candidates did meet the expected condition that they wouldn’t campaign there but the Dems made no move to stop the vote there. They knew there would be a gigantic problem if they tried to stop millions of Americans from voting so the best they could come up with was an agreement from the candidates that they would not campaign there.

Is it Hillary’s fault if the voters in Florida chose Hillary? Is it Hillary’s fault if counting the votes in Florida and Michigan give her a 100,000 vote edge in the popular vote? The “flog-Hillary” crowd makes no mention that Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich got themselves on the ballot in Michigan. Is that Hillary’s fault, too?

Howard Dean’s problem is that he must somehow manipulate a resolution without appearing to have intervened. There is much talk of the problem resolving itself, but that is a pipe dream. There has been tremendous pressure to annihilate Hillary Clinton and get her to voluntarily drop from the race. That’s condescending, as if they think the woman is stupid.

Howard Dean is under pressure from the Northeast Liberal Establishment to support Barack Obama. The stratagem involves getting people like Judas Richardson, Robert Reish and many others to go belly up. Alienating Obama means alienating a lot of traditional African-American support and party hacks fear that could be more invidious than “alienation.” They ignore the fact that Hillary Clinton retains a fair amount of loyalty from her traditional and clearer thinking base of African-Americans.

At the same time, Howard Dean knows that Obama can’t win in a general election. Right at this moment, Obama is in a dead heat with John McCain in Massachusetts while Clinton is ahead of McCain in that liberal state. Obama has outspent Clinton 4 to 1 in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania and has come up with losses in those states. Yet, the Great Ultra-Liberal Establishment is engaged in what Lanny Davis calls a “suicide pact” of the Democratic Party. They’re going to look good jumping off the cliff together, but I ain’t going there.

Ford Motor Company Announces 2008 1st Quarter Profit

I never realized I was a harbinger of economic fortunes. Ford Motor Company reported a net income of $100 million, or five cents per share, in the first quarter of 2008. That’s lots different from the net loss of $282 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier. I wish we could afford to buy a new Ford but we are very happy with our old one.

Two years ago when we needed a new car, I blanched white when my wife suggested we look at a one-year old Ford Crown Victoria. I wondered if there was something strange in the water. Appearance-wise, the Ford Crown Victoria was the direct opposite of what we’d been driving. The Hondas we bought had been reliable and were even a little bit fun to drive. If I were going to buy a Ford, it would have to be something like the one in the photo above. The enduring Ford Mustang Shelby GT. The Ford Crown Vic looked like a police car. At my wife’s insistence, I began to do research and learned a great deal about the Ford product.

The Crown Vic was the choice of police departments because it was a safe vehicle and could take a hit. It was also the car least likely to flip when the cops practiced that spin move where you completely reverse direction 180 degrees.
The car was a rear-drive vehicle which represents a different handling mentality but I’d driven plenty of them and was familiar with ass-end steer. Besides, it has some advantages so long as there’s no snow on the ground.

Traction-control and snow tires make the car tractable and practical even in the snow. We have a four-wheel drive truck for when the snow gets really deep and we simply park the Ford and wait until the plow comes through our rural area.
The Ford Crown Vic, even in the civilian version, has a small 8 cylinder engine that puts out plenty of power on the highway. We jokingly refer to it as “the highway cruiser,” but that is a fit appellation. It’s annoying as a rally car but you can’t beat it on the straights where you get comfort, stability, power, reliability, and between 21 to 25mpg depending on how much you want to push it.

The car’s twin is the Mercury Marquis, built on the same platform. Whatever it is, you get Lexus quality at Ford prices. The car has been absolutely reliable and bullet-proof. Our biggest regret, upon buying the car, was hearing a year afterward that Ford would soon stop selling the civilian Crown Vic except as the twin Mercury Marquis. A limited number of Crown Vics would be produced as fleet cars. Too bad. I like the traditional blue oval much better than the medallion in front of the Mercury.

This seems a long introduction when my point is to tell you that Ford is a comeback fighter:

Ford is still a leader in the small trucks area with its F-x50 line in spite of the high gas prices. Tough and durable are basic requirements in construction work.
Ford is also doing well with a small SUV called the Edge. The Fusion sedan is selling well—it’s reliable, nimble, clean, and gets great numbers in the crash safety tests. The Focus is a good choice in the economy class. For a car of its size it also takes a good hit in the crash tests. The Focus takes advantage of a joint Microsoft-Ford development called Sync which appeals to the millenials who are big on tunes. It only makes sense to operate your booming audio system by issuing voice commands. Focus sales are up 23% this year. I know what you’re thinking: “Whatever!...”

A permanent Ford strength is the legendary Mustang brought out in one version or another since 1964 ½ or 1965. There have been some anemic versions but the Mustangs always had pedigree going all the way back to the Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra of the sixties, a gas-pumping, flame-eating, street sweeping monster that could burn its wheels as if they were made of candle wax.

I think Ford is doing a good thing by getting back to its core business of producing Fords. Most likely, Ford will get rid of the yuppie high-priced and finicky Volvo brand. CEO Mulally, according to the Wall Street Journal, has already dumped Aston-Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover.

BLOWHARD BOULEVARD: Pennsylvania Primary Fallout

It was very entertaining to watch the Obama spinners on the damage control watch appear on the a.m. television shows. One of the topics touched upon within the Morning Joe program was a discussion of the images Obama wanted to present of himself. Joe Scarborough lamented Obama’s poor choice of words some weeks ago when he spoke of women being “punished with a child.”

One of the funniest lines came from Pat Buchanan on the same show. The pundits were bantering back and forth in search for an apt description of the cool Obama style which did not make “bitter” Pennsylvania people comfortable.
“I think he’s faculty lounge,” said Buchanan.

Later on, Mike Barnacle picked up and elaborated on the “faculty lounge” image that worked with some college kids but is perceived as remote and persnickety in other quarters. The Boston Globe reporter remarked that Obama should forget the button-down faculty lounge look, “loosen the tie.”

“People need a little emotion from the aloof candidate,” said Barnacle.
One of the more ridiculous assertions from Obama spinmeisters is that Obama’s loss was caused by “withering attacks” from Hillary Clinton. That’s a joke and a half and veteran political warriors were ROFLMAO (in a word). Is that a word yet? Joe Scarborough shook his head with a smile, wondering out loud if politics has become a strict domain of “wimps and wussies.” Scarborough echoes the sentiments of most other people with long-time political experience and doesn’t feel the race has been rough at all.

Can you imagine a boy-child coming home in tears from school in the Bronx of today or 1950 and complaining “that girl hit me, mom!” That’s what it looks like to hear some of the whining from the Obama water caddies.

The most hilarious moment came when Rep David Price (D) of North Carolina, a staunch Obama man, took his turn on Blowhard Boulevard. He characterized Obama’s PA defeat as a “double digit non-victory for Obama rather than a loss.” That’s even more surreal than saying a battered and bloody fighter accomplished “a reversal of gravity” instead of a KO in the ring.

MSNBC Pundit Joe Scarborough Sees Through the "Noise"

I’ve gotta’ give my props to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough for being one of the few pundits to comprehend the full impact of the Clinton double-digit primary win in PA. To the inspiring tune of a Rocky film, Scarborough interviewed a relaxed and triumphant Hillary Clinton on his show this morning. Conspicuously absent was veteran Hillary-hater and Obama enthusiast Mika Brezinksi who apparently decided to spend more time with her family. Mika’s father, a former Carter advisor, is working for the Obama campaign and, as the old saw has it, the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree. That’s okay in one’s personal life but MSNBC ought to find another job for her, perhaps, where there is not so much an appearance of conflicting interests.

Scarborough pointed out a lame post-election attack by a newspaper which increasingly seems like an Obama owned subsidiary. Scarborough was mischievously gleeful when he prodded Clinton as to why the NYT was trying to “push you over a cliff” at a time when she won a resounding blowout victory in a state where the exit polls had, just hours ago, predicted an Obama victory or at least a narrowing margin.

Scarborough several times wondered aloud “how much does an election cost?” Of course, this refers to the massive million dollar amounts dumped into advertisement by the Obama camp. If the endorsement of most of the PA newspapers and the millions of dollars couldn’t do it, said Scarborough, then there were problems with the Obama candidacy that the mass media hadn’t recognized.

It's quite likely that Obama may one day rue his smug rejection of Hillary Clinton's graceful offer for a spot on her ticket.

Hillary Clinton Blow-Out In Pennsylvania!!!

New PA senator Bob Casey looked pale in his early appearance on Fox News as the station called the Pennslvania primary a big Clinton win not even an hour after the polls closed. The early numbers give the impression of a Clinton blowout should they hold up throughout the evening. Certain to hold up is a big Clinton victory of at least ten points and possibly as large as 20. Hillary Clinton was leading big in all groups except for African-Americans clustered around Philadelphia.

Apparently, the fledgling Senator did not help Obama in spite of the fact that they were inseparable during the Pennsylvania campaign. The Pennsylvania race should be a boost to campaign finance reformers who resist the idea that campaigns can be bought. Huge amounts of dollars flowed into Pennsylvania from the Obama campaign but Pennsylvania is a fiercely independent state which does not follow the conventional rules of groupthink politics.

Eco-Friendly Wars Proposed by Green Party

In The Know: How Can We Make The War In Iraq More Eco-Friendly?

9-11 Conspiracy Resolved: Obama Supporters Take Note

9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

MSNBC Reporter's Notebook: Secret Internal Memo

MSNBC Reporter’s Notebook:
Barack Obama cannot simultaneously eat and speak, chew gum and walk, answer questions without a script. Do not overburden such an inspiring personage with harsh or unpleasant thoughts. Interviews must be conducted in friendly fashion, as suggested by Obama spokesman Jamal Simmons recently. Mr. Simmons has made known the Mr. Obama’s discomfiture with certain other Democratic candidates who dress and speak differently and occasionally use a hostile tone of voice. The following answers to the hostile questions noted below are acceptable to the network producers and should not be met with follow-up questions.

Q.: What do you think of Jimmy Carter’s visits with the Hamas leadership?

A: Just let me eat waffles.

Q: What would you do as president to bring down the price of gasoline?

A: Just let me eat my waffles.

Q. How much of a tax increase can Americans expect from an Obama presidency?

A. Just let me eat my waffles.

Q. What will you do if there’s a bloodbath when you beat feet in Iraq?

A. Just let me eat my waffles.

Q. What will you do specifically to boost the economy?

A. Just let me eat my waffles

News Flash: Barack Obama Wants to Talk with Iran But Not With Hillary or CBS.

Barack Obama wants to become more like the Invisible Man after his poor showing in the one-on-one Philadelphia debate with Hills. The North Carolina Democratic Party cancelled the debate scheduled there for April 27. Voters can expect this shyness and introversion to continue. He wants to limit his appearances only to those where reporters do not ask him tough questions. We can suppose George Stephanopoulos or Charles Gibson will not soon be invited to dinner. Obama doesn’t feel the debate format can reveal the wonderful inner being which mesmerized True Believing Reporters Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and many others on the Obama Channel.

The debate was to be carried by CBS before Obama added that network to his list of banned channels which, of course, includes Fox News. Obama has always refused to appear on Fox, even with that nice Chris Wallace, a real reporter with a reporter’s heritage, and son of Mike Wallace.

Barack Obama's Strange Comment on the Credit Markets

The presidency doesn't come with training wheels, Mr. Obama...


Can Obama buy an election with the $41 million dollars he’s raised in March? Outspending Hillary Clinton 5 to 1 may not be enough to win the Democratic nomination as the layers of obfuscation begin to peel away from the Obama mystery. Obama has a great and sonorous voice but the facsimile of knowledge is not the same as the real knowledge required of a presidential candidate. Obama can no longer hide what he doesn’t know to begin with. One of the glaring Obama weaknesses became evident when, in a stump speech, he brought up the topic of the recent collapse in credit markets.

Obama was either dazed or outright lying as he told people that investment companies like Bear Stearns cheated people out of their homes by making loans they could not afford to pay back. Investment firms do not make home loans, Barack. What these investment firms do is “batch” mortgages into investment vehicles called “CDOs” or “collateralized debt obligations.” People then invest in the CDOs just as they do with stocks and bonds. It’s local banks and S&Ls who made the loans and they were encouraged to extend credit freely to potential home owners by free-spending politicians such as yourself.

Certainly, the greed factor comes into play, but if you’re going to criticize that then you must tell people specifically what you propose. Do you propose restoring down payments in the 15-20 percent range before loans can be made? Would you apply standard bank cash reserve rules on investment firms? The fact is that Barack Obama has no clue about how the U.S. economy works. However, the lack of knowledge will certainly not stop Obama from demagoguery on this issue or on any other issue.

Is the Obama "Bubble" Bursting?

Barack Obama accuses other unremittingly but does not easily withstand criticism as reflected in his poor showing in last Wednesday’s Philadelphia debates. He spent most of the week trying to prove that he was no “whiner” and finished the week with new accusations of a “kitchen sink strategy” on the part of Hillary Clinton. Axelrod and cronies must have been searching for a defining slogan and settled upon the “kitchen sink” metaphor but it is not a good one, conjuring up outdated and vaguely misogynistic images of a “wife” as harridan and himself as the noble husband, the victim of unfair torment, a miserable victim who suffers a rain of blows from saucers and kitchen utensils thrown at him. Is Obama an old-style Stanley Kowalski even as he tries to depict himself as a new and different politician? Is this an example of change that needs laundering?

The spell of the Obama media rapture seems to have been broken and all of the soft money flowing into and out of the Obama camp may not be enough to give him the boost he needs in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania votes tomorrow and Pennsylvania may not be willing to take any more from Obama. My prediction is for a Hillary Clinton favorable margin of at least 6 percent in a state where primary elections are most often uncomfortably close.

Hillary Clinton Rallies Voters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

I went to Liberty High School in Bethlehem Pennsylvania yesterday to attend the Hillary Clinton rally held there. Considering what happened earlier in the week, I expected to hear some fulmination and fireworks from Hillary. Campaign people on Obama’s side were certainly turning up the heat as their candidate slipped in the national Gallup polls. I guessed Hillary would do the same, but I was wrong.

There were only two mentions of her “opponent” and not by name either. Both references were in the context of defending Clinton's proposed programs. Hillary Clinton responded to Barack’s attacks on her health care program by pointing out that Obama’s program left 50 million people out in the cold.

Then, she exhibited scorn of Obama’s charge that she was getting contributions from the big oil companies. Hillary said that neither she nor Obama received campaign money from the oil companies and that such an assertion was patently absurd. On the other hand, Obama received “bundled contributions” from oil company executives which are allowed by FEC rules. Obama’s assertions that he does not receive support from lobbyists is completely false, said Clinton. There are signs that Obama’s image is experiencing something of a meltdown. For the first time, Gallup polls indicate that Hillary is leading nationally among Democrats by one point.