Year: 2008

Hey John McCain, God Called. He Wants His Reputation Back

Trish

Looks like John McCain has only been born once. Rut-roh.

Bloomberg, via BeliefNet

John McCain’s pastor ends his sermons with an altar call, beckoning any stirred souls to the front of his 3,500-seat “worship center” to publicly dedicate their lives to Jesus Christ. In McCain’s 15 years of attending Dan Yeary’s North Phoenix Baptist Church, the pastor says, the Arizona senator has never made that walk.

“All I can tell you is that John and I have had some interesting conversations” about faith, said Yeary, a 69-year- old Texan. “And we’ll have more.”

Anti-American: Limbaugh Calls for Rioting at Democratic Convention

Jon Ponder

Has Rush Limbaugh had a drug relapse? That’s the only plausible explanation — other than blind contempt for the rule of law — for his call on Wednesday for rioting at the Democratic Convention in Denver this summer:
“Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don’t elect Democrats.”
— Rush Limbaugh

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments that appear to call for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.

“Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don’t elect Democrats,” Limbaugh said during Wednesday’s radio broadcast. He then went on to say that’s the best thing that could happen to the country…

Several callers called in to the radio show to denounce Limbaugh’s comments, when he later stated, “I am not inspiring or inciting riots, I am dreaming of riots in Denver.”

Limbaugh said with massive riots in Denver, which he called part of “Operation Chaos,” the people on the far left would look bad.

“There won’t be riots at our convention,” Limbaugh said of the Republican National Convention. “We don’t riot. We don’t burn our cars. We don’t burn down our houses. We don’t kill our children. We don’t do half the things the American left does.”

Rightwingers certainly rioted in Miami during the 2000 recount, of course. And if by “killing children” Limbaugh was referring to abortions, there is no doubt that Republican women have had abortions when they felt they needed them. And the idea that all arsonists who burn down their own homes are Democrats is clearly just the opoids talking.

Last Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich declared that “the left wing of the Democratic Party, frankly, kind of admires American terrorists.” He and Limbaugh ignore the fact that it is rightwing terrorists like American terrorists Timothy McVeigh, Eric Robert Rudolph, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, the Klu Klux Klan, abortion clinic bombers and the rest, who have wreaked the most havoc on the country.

Limbaugh’s comments are potentially dangerous because no one takes him — except for the very dimwitted “Dittoheads” who might well heed his call and show up in Denver at the end of August ready to cause violence.

Cheney to Headline McCain Fundraiser in Raleigh on Monday

Jon Ponder

It never ceases to amaze that John McCain has no worries about being sullied by association with the Bush-Cheney regime:

Dick Cheney will enter the heart of the 2008 fray Monday with a fundraiser for the joint McCain-RNC Victory fund, according to an aide to the vice president.

Cheney is set to headline a closed-press reception in a private home in Raleigh, North Carolina, Monday night.

The money will go to the North Carolina Victory fund, which is the voter contact account set up to help candidates from McCain on down the ticket.

Cheney’s flacks have made it clear that none of the money he raises will benefit the N.C. Republican Party, which is set to air Swiftboat-style ads linking Barack Obama and two Democratic candidates for governor, Bev Perdue and Richard Moore, to the controversial, out-of-context statements of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former pastor.

Pennsylvania Didn’t Change Anything

Trish

Clinton’s 10-delegate net* wasn’t the only the underwhelming result of the Pennsylvania primary. One poll shows she’s not getting much of a boost in popularity either. Rasmussen Daily Tracking for today:

Rasmussen: “So far, there is absolutely no indication that Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania has changed the overall dynamic of the race”

In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, it’s Obama 49 percent, Clinton 42 percent. Those numbers are unchanged from the night before and, so far, there is absolutely no indication that Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania has changed the overall dynamic of the race. These results are based upon a four-day rolling average and include two full nights of polling following the Pennsylvania Primary.

These results and other data suggest that there is no “momentum” in this Primary Season. Typically, momentum results as voters learn more about a candidate who is doing well. This cycle, Hillary Clinton began the campaign as one of the best known people in the world. Democrats uneasy with her quickly settled on Obama as the chief challenger who has now become the frontrunner.

As the candidates have become known, each has developed a solid core of supportive constituencies. For Obama, these included African-Americans, younger voters, more liberal Democrats, and upper-income voters. For Clinton, strength comes from White Women, older voters, more moderate Democrats, and lower-to-middle income workers.

Six weeks of campaigning in Pennsylvania, and still uncounted millions of dollars in campaign spending, was unable to significantly move any of the demographic support groups from one candidate to the other.

HRC’s unfavorables aren’t dropping either.

Among all voters nationwide, McCain is viewed favorably by 52 percent and unfavorably by 46 percent. Obama’s ratings are 50 percent favorable and 48 percent unfavorable. For Clinton, the reviews are 46 percent favorable, 53 percent unfavorable. Just 41 percent of Clinton supporters have a favorable opinion of Obama while 48 percent of Obama supporters have a favorable opinion of Clinton.


* Clinton won a total of 83 delegates from Pennsylvania while Obama won 73.

Poll: Americans Rate Dem Prez Campaign a Too

Buck Banks

thumb-down-icon.jpgAs in too long, too negative and too dull. That’s the finding of a new Pew Center poll that measured voters’ attitudes toward the presidential race compared with a survey Pew performed in February. Looks like the campaign is tanking fast:

Half of those surveyed say the campaign has become too negative, up from 28 percent who said so in mid-February. The increase has been especially rapid among Democrats — 50 percent say it’s too negative, while only 19 percent thought so in February.

The contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton turned especially heated in the weeks before Tuesday’s primary in Pennsylvania, which Clinton won. She criticized Obama for saying small-town residents who are bitter about their economic hardships cling to guns and religion, while Obama accused her of being too close to special interests.

Even so, Democrats have been turning out in record numbers to vote in the primaries.

Despite that, 65 percent said the campaign has gone on too long, up from 57 percent in February.

Thirty-five percent think it is too dull, compared to 25 percent two months ago. About four in 10 Republicans find the campaign boring, compared to a quarter of Democrats.

Senate Panel: McCain is an American, Can Run for Prez

Buck Banks

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a resolution today that brands Sen. John McCain a “natural-born” U.S. citizen even though he was born in the Panama Canal Zone where his father served in the military. The Constitution requires presidents to be “natural born,” which is why we won’t be subjected to a President Schwarzenegger, but the Founding Fathers were not very specific about what that meant. Other than you can’t have been born in Austria.

Both senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were cosponsors of the resolution, demonstrating what good sports they are.

Fla. Dems Mount Feeble Feeney Fight

Buck Banks

It is always with a sense of trepidation, if not outright dread, that I open an e-mail from Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman. One cringes just imagining what stupid stuff the FDP has come up with this time. Today’s electro-missive from Tallahassee was a doozy.

Seems the party is going after Republican Rep. Tom Feeney who represents District 24, which covers a broad swath of Central Florida, including Orlando and Brevard County, where it is illegal — illegal — to wear a thong bikini on the beach.

You might remember Feeney for his association with jailed uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Jack took Tom and a bunch of buddies in a chartered plane to Scotland to play golf at the venerable St. Andrews course. The always-generous Abramoff paid for Feeney’s expenses, including lavish dinners and accommodations with fistfuls of tainted lobby dollars. The House Ethics Committee eventually made Feeney pay nearly $6,000 to cover his expenses for the trip.

In September 2006, Feeney was named one of the 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The organization said Feeney’s ethics issues arise from trips he has taken in violation of House travel and gift rules, and his failure to disclose his ownership of rental property.

OK, so Feeney is an appropriate target for political action and he really needs to be run out of Congress on a rail. But puh-leeze, Karen and krew, can’t you mount an intelligent, savvy, effective campaign against him? Apparently not.

First, they create an on-line advertisement that is sophomoric and ineffectual.

feeney-ad.jpg

Then they put up an anti-Feeney Web site that is poorly designed and ineffectual.

Then they fill the Web site with ineffectual content in the form of seven “questions.” These”questions” are in the form of badly written press releases that, well here’s a sample:

“Can we trust Florida’s most corrupt politician to be honest about his golf score at St. Andrews? Or did Abramoff let Feeney get away with a few mulligans, gimme-putts, and lost balls?” Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said. “Other than illicit relationships with crooks, we still don’t know Tom Feeney’s handicap. But we hope he enjoyed his golf trip, since those 18 rounds in Scotland may prove to be the fatal stroke of his career in Congress.”

That appears to be an attempt at snarkiness, but instead it devolved into a kind of dumb-sounding playground-level taunt. Maybe that kind of discourse is effective in Talla-sassy, but that dog won’t hunt in more sophisticated parts of Florida. Like Apopka.

Maybe there will come a time when the Florida Democratic Party gets savvy and sophisticated, and really figures out this politics thing and becomes a true force against the Republicans in Florida. Yeah, I should live so long.

McCain’s Spiritual Adviser Confirms His Belief That God ‘Cursed’ New Orleans Because of Gay Event

Jon Ponder

Video: Hagee says the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon

There is no bigot like a proud bigot, and the televangelist John Hagee is unabashedly proud of the fact that he hates Catholics and gays.

On Sunday’s ABC News political show, John McCain was asked whether he still welcomed Hagee’s endorsement:

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., admitted … that it was a mistake to accept the endorsement of evangelical pastor Rev. John Hagee. When asked in an exclusive “This Week” interview with George Stephanopoulos if it was “a mistake to solicit and accept his endorsement”, McCain replied “oh, probably, sure.” Despite admitting his error, McCain made clear he’s still “glad to have his endorsement.”

(Few, if any, politcians other than McCain — and certainly no Democratica pols — could get away with a 180-degree flipflop in the same sentence. )

About Catholics, in the video above, Hagee says he believes the Catholic Church is the Great Whore of Babylon mentioned in Revelation. He also says that Adolph Hitler was a Catholic, whose plan to exterminate the Jews was just a continuation of the church’s centuries-old persecution.

About gays, in September 2006, Hagee said Hurricane Katrina was a curse from God because New Orleans was the vene for an annual gay event:

“I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades.” He later added, “I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

Two days ago, Hagee reaffirmed his belief that New Orleans brought Katrina’s destruction on itself:

HAGEE: The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. Moses taught in the book of Deuteronomy that everything in life is either a blessing or a curse. There are days that things happen that at the time look like a curse. In the passing of time, they may become what appears to be a blessing. An illustration is Joseph, when he was sold into slavery it looked like a curse, it looked like the worse day of his life. When his brothers came into Egypt looking for food, what looked like a bad day 13 years before turned out to be a blessed day. What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse.

As Media Matters and others have pointed out, it is very interesting that the “liberal” media has soft peddled Hagee’s outrageous comments while at the same time beating the drum over controversial statements by Barack Obama’s minister, Jeremiah Wright.