Hillary snubbing Obama’s latest wins

Both Saturday night and last night, it was striking to me, that Hillary Clinton failed to congratulate Barack Obama after he won the day in a landslide.  She did mention his name only in the context of chiding Obama’s health care plan.

“Concession speeches” are required as part of the unwritten code during campaign season.   It is polite and civil.  So the lack of such a speech is impolite and helps to reveal a candidates foundation.

In contrast Mike Huckabee and John McCain congratulated each other even though McCain swept Huckabee last night. Polite and civil.  As it should be.

Oh… and Obama mentioned NAFTA last night as bad policy.  Just so the Bush bashers know… this was pushed through by Bill Clinton.

More turmoil over Big Mo’s cartoons

UPDATE: 02/13/2008 13:22PM – One commenter on Michelle Malkin’s site wrote that the cartoons mock Islam and that violates Christian beliefs.  For me this is not about Christian beliefs… it is about human beings against terrorism.  Americans are very tolerant and welcome differing beliefs.  But when you maim, steal, kill and destroy using your beliefs as justification then Americans have a hard time with that.

More Jihadists are getting their boxers in a knot over cartoons or caricatures of Mohammed. Jihad Watch is reporting that more people are being killed over this nonsense.

Three persons including a police officer were killed after Muslim students rioted over a caricature of Prophet Mohammed by their Christian colleagues, police and teachers said Friday.

Students of Government Secondary School Sumaila, some 76 kilometres (47 miles) south of the northern city of Kano, went on the rampage late Thursday, after a Christian student suspended for two weeks returned to the school.

He had been suspended for having drawn a caricature of the Prophet and posted it on a wall inside the school.

Granted, these types of images offend Muslims. I am equally outraged when images of other religious figures or people are denigrated. And I do not agree that the “free press” has the right to publish such cartoons specifically for the sake of denigrating any religion.

But that is not what is happening here and Muslims need to learn the lesson that the world is trying to teach them rather than trying to kill the messenger(s).

These cartoons are making a statement by pointing out the lunacy of a religion based upon a terrorist (Mohammed himself) and his words (the Koran and other writings) which supports their murderous acts upon people who do not line up with their sharia law. Under what other religious figure do their supporters fly civilian airplanes into buildings killing thousands, commit suicide bombings worldwide almost on a daily basis, sacrifice young women to the Jihadist cause by using them as suicide bombers, arrest and torture women who do not wear burkas or associate with male business partners in public… not under the name of God, Jesus, Buddha, Mother Teressa or anyone else.

And once again… where is CAIR??? Where is their calming voice in all of this? They probably do not like caricature of their prophet either. But what are they doing to stop the carnage? Where is their outrage? What demonstrative steps are they taking to stop the Jihadists? I know that from time-to-time they issue a statement claiming they are against terrorist acts. But if that is the case why are they linked to fund raising and support for terrorist groups like Hamas?

There is only one of two possibilities… they are either (1) scarred to raise their voice in opposition to terrorist groups in fear of retribution or (2) in private they actually condone terrorism. Take your pick.

If Mohammed was truly the head of a peace loving religion then I would be outraged as well at the cartoons. But he is not. And the rest of the world cannot reverence such a person or religion.

McCain’s ties to left-wing groups goes largely unnoticed

One thing that bothers about John McCain is his ties to left-wing groups like George Soros. In 2001 McCain started a group called the Reform Institute and accepted contributions George Soros’ Open Society Institute and Teresa Heinz Kerry’s Tides Foundation and others. The Tides Foundation is a non-profit organization with a history of funding causes such as abortion, homosexual-rights activism and open borders. In fact it was founded by Drummond Pike in 1976 who is an anti-war activist. Not exactly a bastion of conservative thinkers. This is why some conservative folks are steadfastly denying that McCain is conservative… just a liberal wrapped up in a conservative sheepskin. Can’t blame them.

McCain dropped ties with the Reform Institute in 2006 after it was made public that there was a $200,000 contribution from Cablevision. McCain received the donation for the Reform Institute by using his position with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to write an influential letter to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Cablevision. Does not seem like a history of bringing change to Washington… instead it sounds like business as usual… one hand washes the other. Yet I have not heard anyone on FoxNews (especially O’Reilly who is a Soros buster) mention the ties between McCain and Soros. Perhaps I missed it.

Another troubling fact is that Dr. Juan Hernandez serves as a Senior Fellow of the Reform Institute’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Initiative. His position on immigration is that we should have a transparent border with Mexico. Not an opinion I share. The same Dr. Juan Hernandez serves as an unpaid volunteer on McCain’s campaign. McCain’s “close the border” stance does not jive with Hernandez’s open border stance. I suppose McCain could be using Hernandez to woo Latino voters… I just hope it is not like the spider and the fly.

This criticism will start coming up more and more. The axiom is true… your character is judged by whom you associate yourself. Quite honestly, I can applaud McCain for reaching to the other side in an attempt to find common ground on which to build. But it seems that McCain is far too deep into the liberal mentality… beyond what most would consider “reaching out”.

Hopefully this issue will not go away in the next few weeks and months. In fact the scrutiny needs to intensify. McCain needs to explain in detail his current position and past relationships with these people.  He needs to explains the rationale for his deep involvement in the Reform Institute.

All the votes count… except for Democrats

Remember the Gore vs. Bush fight back in 2000? Each vote should count. That was the catch phrase of the day. And disenfranchisement was the new word being tossed around like hard rock candy. Especially in Florida. Remember the hanging chads.

Well it seems we are lined up for a replay of those events in this election cycle. The Democratic National Committee has determined that because the Michigan and Florida states moved their primary election dates to something the DNC does not like (uhhh… what happened to states rights???), it has the power to negate the vote of the citizenry. Unbelievable. I don’t care which party you belong to… the national committee should have no business negating the vote of a state… or county… or city. It’s absurd. They are not there to be the all omniscient masters of the people… they are there to serve the people.

But now that Hillary is beginning loose delegate ground to Obama, she is trying to get those delegates seated. And Obama claims that all the candidates signed on to the DNC rules and now those rules should remain in force. At least in Florida, all the Democratic candidates signed a “no campaign” pledge. Despite that pledge Hillary still won the state. See what happens when you monkey around with the democratic system. So now Hillary is on one side trying to get delegates she won to be seated at the convention and Obama arguing for the status quo.

What Congress needs to do is codify national primaries. Make specific laws and make them applicable to whomever runs or whatever party they belong to. Skip the conventions. Use the money wasted on huge parties during the convention and distribute it to the needy. Have a national primary election day. One shot… everybody votes on that day.

As the saying goes… keep it simple stupid.

Huckabee needs to bow out just like Romney

UPDATE: 02/13/2008

Coming off a sweep in the Potomac Primaries, John McCain’s campaign has a message for Mike Huckabee: It’s over.

The campaign released a memo after McCain won Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia Tuesday night saying the victories make it “mathematically impossible for Governor Huckabee to secure the Republican nomination for president.”

As he pressures Huckabee, McCain is resuming the role of presumptive nominee after suffering embarrassing losses to his rival Saturday in Kansas and Louisiana. McCain has clenched that mantle since Super Tuesday, and was emboldened after Mitt Romney dropped out of the race last week.

He’s since set to marshaling the support of the Republican base, and mending fences with those leaders with whom he’s clashed in the past.

Hey… like him or not, Mike Huckabee fought a good fight and now is the time to get out of the Presidential primaries. Save everyone the time and money. Huckabee has less delegates than Romney… and Mitt gracefully bowed out last week. So why drag the pain and agony out any further?

Even if Huckabee does find something fishy in Washington state regarding the vote count… he still can’t win. Don’t get me wrong, every vote should count. And if irregularities are found they should be corrected. Hopefully clear thinking individuals will do the right thing.

Just my two cents.

Now we have Islamic courts in the United States… it’s true

I recently wrote about the archbishop in England who says that that Islamic law should be interwoven in to England’s legal system. Well now they have precedent… us… as in United States. This is unbelievable.

to Atlas Shruggs…

Good News! Shari’a Law in London Texas!

Assalam aleikum, y’all!

The Second Court of Appeals of the State of Texas has rendered a ruling on the enforceability of shari’a judgments rendered by imams. According to the Texas appeals court, it’s all good.

You’ve heard of the Texas Courts. Ladies and gentlemen, make way for the Texas Islamic Courts!!!

I suppose this is what happens when you live in an open and free society. You will have a group of people come along to take advantage of the system. However there is no evidence that sharia law is taking over Texas (yet…). These people all signed up to this arbitration agreement… wanting this Islamic court to decide the matters. So I guess if a group of people wanting to do this it is fine by me though I still do not like it. Why??? Because it is the start of a dangerous trend.

For instance… in our area it is impossible to purchase a car without signing an arbitration agreement. Most people do not know it, but they sign one anyway because by the time that document is presented to the new car buyer the deal is practically done, the car is theirs and they do not want to refuse to sign the arbitration agreement because they want the car.

Well what happens if you purchase a car from a dealership whose owner is Islamic??? And what happens if there is a stipulation that the arbitration will be done under sharia law and by an Islamic court? A traditional arbitration agreement would be based upon our fundamental rules of law. But sharia is completely different.

While it may be legal and the court has no choice but enforce the agreement, this ruling is the start of the walk down the slippery slope that we (or at least Texas) has now decided to go. What needs to happen? The Texas legislature needs to do something about this before it gets out of hand and gets really ugly.

And the rest of the states needs to wake up and take notice as well.

Preemptive strike against the presumptive Republican candidate

Baring any implosion in his campaign, John McCain will be the Republican nominee. Now what remains to be seen is whether or not the hot rhetoric surrounding his “not conservative enough” stance will chill out. But waiting in the wings is this plea for help from the Democratic National Committee:

Dear [Fellow Democrat's name here],

Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are done. John McCain will be the Republican nominee — he’s the only one with a reasonable path to the nomination.

So how do we beat him? We stand up — right now — start fighting, and show the American people that he’s not who they think he is.

We can’t wait for Hillary or Barack to win the nomination. Now that the Republicans have a candidate, the dollars are starting to pour in from special interests who will do anything to beat the Democratic nominee. They’re just waiting for us to decide so they can start smearing.

Here’s what U.S. News and World Report recently reported about how the RNC is getting ready…

[RNC Chairman Mike] Duncan and his aides want to be ready to go on the offensive against the Democratic nominee presumptive in an effort to define the opposition candidate on GOP terms. Opposition research is already well along, and the plan is for surrogates to talk to the media around the country while a TV ad campaign in key states and media markets as soon as the Democratic nominee is determined.

We must be ready to fight back, and fight back hard, today.

Now that we know our opponent, it’s time to build a national effort on the programs you and I have worked so hard to create over the last four years – from our cutting-edge technology to our voter protection programs, it’s time to shift gears.

I need you to contribute $25, $50, or $100 to help us fight John McCain right now:

http://www.democrats.org/FightMcCain

John McCain is a media darling, but don’t trust his carefully-crafted image – he’s worked for years to brand himself. From Iraq to health care, Social Security to special interest tax cuts to ethics, he’s promising nothing more than a third Bush term.

After championing campaign finance reform and ethics legislation to score political points, he now has a staggering amount of lobbyists involved in every aspect of his campaign. In fact, two of the top three sources for John McCain’s campaign cash are D.C. lobbying firms, and he looked the other way as Jack Abramoff bought and paid for the Republican Party and the Culture of Corruption.

On immigration reform, he’s run as far to the right as he can, aligning himself with the most extreme elements of the Republican Party.

On the war, McCain scoffed at Bush’s call to leave troops in Iraq for 50 years, saying “Make it a hundred!”

On a woman’s right to choose, McCain has vowed to appoint judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade.

On the economy, one of the issues that the American people care most about, McCain has said: “I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

We can’t afford four more years with a President who drives the economy into the ground. We can’t afford four more years with a President who fights an endless war in Iraq. We can’t afford four more years with a President who gives tax cuts to companies who ship jobs overseas; with a President who can’t get every American the health care they deserve; with a President we just can’t trust.

I don’t just want to beat John McCain – I want it to be a landslide. If you’re as committed as I am, I need you to make a contribution today:

http://www.democrats.org/FightMcCain

Only the Democratic Party is legally allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money to back our nominee and tell the real story about John McCain. We proved that our strategy worked in 2006, and it will work again this fall.

Help us today:

http://www.democrats.org/FightMcCain

Let’s get going,

Howard Dean

Asking for help from fellow Democrats… well and good.  But please tell the truth. As usual for a campaign, some of their claims are interpretations of facts or are outright lies…

• The DNC declares that McCain favors “endless war” and “Make it a hundred” years presence in Iraq. FACT: What he actually said was this in a townhall meeting on January 3rd (see this video):
  

  Make it a hundred. … We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me, as long as American, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. It’s fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintained a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day.

  So what the DNC is portraying is not accurate.

• The DNS says McCain “looked the other way” on Jack Abramoff and the Republican “Culture of Corruption.” FACT: Even the left leaning HuffingtonPost had to admit McCain did do something about the corruption :
  

  As chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, John McCain directed the only Congressional investigation of the Indian gaming scandal. A Justice Department investigation of the same scandal sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH), and a number of other lobbyists and federal officials to prison.

  McCain points to his role in putting Abramoff away as proof that he is an “agent of change.” His investigation did, in fact, keep the pressure on the Justice Department while it investigated Abramoff.

  Yet McCain limited the scope of his investigation to lobbyists who had given money, gifts and trips to members of Congress. His did not allow the committee to investigate any member of Congress. He busted the pimps and johns but granted immunity to the prostitutes who provided services in exchange for money and favors.

  This one is an outright lie. The proof is in the record.

• The DNC message makes criticisms of McCain that could be directed at its own leading candidates as well. It notes that he lacks training in economics, which is equally true of Clinton and Obama. And it accuses him of “staggering” reliance on lobbyists for campaign help, when Clinton also has substantial aid from lobbyists and Obama has some from former lobbyists.

I am sure that the McCain campaign will create some creative means of painting the Democratic candidates in an unfavorable light.  And if/when they do that I will call them on that as well.

No wonder Congress approval ratings match all time low

Let’s see… the economy is going down the johnny-flusher, foreclosures are skyrocketing, the stock market is hurting, there are problems with health care and I have a headache.  It is no wonder that the Republican President Bush and Democratic controlled Congress match all time low rankings.

However our illustrious Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. has a plan to pull all of us out of the depths of despair… investigate why New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick cheated by video taping defensive coaches signals and the NFL destroyed the evidence after their internal investigation resulted in fines and other penalties against Belichick and the team.

Too bad we can’t throw a flag against Congress and penalize them for delay of game…

Term limits anyone???

It’s getting to close for comfort

I realize that I really do not have the right to say what goes on in another country but… this is getting too close for comfort. In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams confirmed that adoption of sharia law “seems unavoidable.”

“As a matter of fact, certain conditions of sharia are already recognized in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system,” Williams said.

“We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal laws of religious communities is (sic) recognized by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances,” he said.

Is this the pattern of law that England wants to gradually introduce into their country? Hopefully this archbishop is a lone wacko. Free societies cannot begin to capitulate to Muslims and Islamics. This is exactly what Muslims want… to eventually incorporate their sharia law into western society.

Perhaps this archbishop agrees with Muslims over the story of the American businesswoman in Saudi Arabia who was arrested by “officers” of Saudi Arabia’s Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, for sitting in a Starbucks with a male business partner. In Saudi Arabia, public contact between unrelated men and women is strictly prohibited. Is this what the citizens of England want? Hardly. Only the Islamics want this…

Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation an Islamic charity, welcomed the Archbishop’s suggestion.

“These comments further underline the attempts by both our great faiths to build respect and tolerance,” he said.

“Sharia law for civil matters is something which has been introduced in some western countries with much success. I believe that Muslims would take huge comfort from the Government allowing civil matters being resolved according to their faith.”

Of course this Islamic would say this. What this guy Shafiq needs to do is roundup his like-minded buds and move to Saudi. But of course they will not do that because they want the freedoms, opportunities and economics that western societies have to offer.

Yet, when an American citizen is in an Islamic country such as Saudia Arabia, they thumb their nose at the U.S. Constitution and our laws.   America needs to start demanding that American citizens be treated under U.S. law… not sharia when in Saudi.  But will that happen?  Nope… the U.S. is too politically correct for that.   Islamics want it both ways. It is their basic philosophy… it’s our way or no way.

The United States needs to reconsider our relationship with Saudi Arabia… now.  Before it is too late.

Romney gracefully bows out of race

Today at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator (Hillary) Clinton or (Barack) Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

“This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters, many of you right here in this room have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming president. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.”

“I will continue to stand for conservative principles; I will fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of those things is that we cannot allow the next president of the United States to retreat in the face of evil extremism.”

Romney is very, very well off financially. So many have accused Romney of trying to buy the Presidency. Some have even said he was going to push himself all the through the convention using his money for fuel. They were wrong. This is a very graceful exit and he is to be congratulated and admired for putting the country first.

It was also the logical thing to do.  As of this minute, Romney trail McCain 703-293… almost 3 to 1.  There was no way of Romney catching up.  But suspending his campaign, besides allowing to him collect more campaign contributions, allows him to make nice with McCain in search of a Vice Presidential offer.  Who knows.