Yes, Barry. A plumber.

Obama’s gargantuan snobbery on full display.

Update:

The plumber seems to be doing a better job than McCain.

Another Update:

Jim Treacher:

The whole “He’s not a licensed plumber!” non sequitur is really fantastic. So, if you happen to be standing in front of Obama when he publicly reveals his socialism, what does the media do? Demands to see your papers. That’s just delicious, is what that is.

One Last Update:
Context does matter.

CLARIFICATION: Over at Hot Air, they observe that this video is cut to take Obama’s words out of context. The full quote is “He’s trying to suggest that a plumber is the guy he’s fighting for.” Allahpundit notes, “They’re laughing at McCain for claiming to be a friend of the middle class, not at Wurzelbacher for being middle class” — which in context seems like a reasonable interpretation. So whatever issues you have with the Obama campaign and how they’re handling Joe the Plumber, this video is a bit unfair to Obama.
None of which takes away from Treacher’s point about demands to see papers.

Bad News for Kids in Texas

The liars at the “Discovery Institute” which, I remind you, has yet to discover a single thing, have planted some of their shills on the Texas State Board of Education. Why should you care? They chose Texas for a reason: Texas and California are the two biggest purchasers of text books. If you can get them to buy something, lots of other states have little choice but to follow along because their textbooks are just minor tweaks of the California and/or Texas editions.

So this really could be bad news for kids all over the country, not just Texas.

Read the fine print

Because there are always exceptions.

I Do – Family

The latest Yes On 8 spot. I don’t think it’s as good as some of the others, but it will probably be effective for many voters.

Obama may be a pro-abortion extremist

but at least he hates gun owners. In case you need a refresher on Chicago politics here’s an open letter from someone who dealt with him there, the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association.

Fellow Sportsman,

Hello, my name is Rich Pearson and I have been active in the firearm rights movement for over 40 years. For the past 15 years, I have served in the Illinois state capitol as the chief lobbyist for the Illinois State Rifle Association.

I lobbied Barack Obama extensively while he was an Illinois State Senator. As a result of that experience, I know Obama’s attitudes toward guns and gun owners better than anyone. The truth be told, in all my years in the Capitol I have never met a legislator who harbors more contempt for the law-abiding firearm owner than does Barack Obama.

Although Obama claims to be an advocate for the 2nd Amendment, his voting record in the Illinois Senate paints a very different picture. While a state senator, Obama voted for a bill that would ban nearly every hunting rifle, shotgun and target rifle owned by Illinois citizens. That same bill would authorize the state police to raid homes of gun owners to forcibly confiscate banned guns. Obama supported a bill that would shut down law-abiding firearm manufacturers including Springfield Armory, Armalite, Rock River Arms and Les Baer. Obama also voted for a bill that would prohibit law-abiding citizens from purchasing more than one gun per month.

Without a doubt, Barack Obama has proven himself to be an enemy of the law abiding firearm owner. At the same time, Obama has proven himself to be a friend to the hardened criminal. While a state senator, Obama voted 4 times against legislation that would allow a homeowner to use a firearm in defense of home and family.

Does Barack Obama still sound to you like a “friend” of the law-abiding gun owner?

And speaking of friends, you can always tell a person by the company they keep. Obama counts among his friends the Rev. Michael Pfleger – a renegade Chicago priest who has openly called for the murder of gun shop owners and pro-gun legislators. Then there is his buddy Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago who has declared that if it were up to him, nobody would be allowed to own a gun. And let’s not forget Obama’s pal George Soros – the guy who has pumped millions of dollars into the UN’s international effort to disarm law-abiding citizens.

Obama has shown that he is more than willing to use other people’s money to fund his campaign to take your guns away from you. While a board member of the leftist Joyce Foundation, Barack Obama wrote checks for tens of millions of dollars to extremist gun control organizations such as the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence and the Violence Policy Center.

Does Barack Obama still sound to you like a “friend” of the
law-abiding gun owner?

By now, I’m sure that many of you have received mailings from an organization called “American Hunters and Shooters Association(AHSA)” talking about what a swell fellow Obama is and how he honors the 2nd Amendment and how you will never have to worry about Obama coming to take your guns. Let me make it perfectly clear – everything the AHSA says about Obama is pure hogwash. The AHSA is headed by a group of left-wing elitists who subscribe to the British view of hunting and shooting. That is, a state of affairs where hunting and shooting are reserved for the wealthy upper-crust who can afford guided hunts on exclusive private reserves. The AHSA is not your friend, never will be.

In closing, I’d like to remind you that I’m a guy who has actually gone nose to nose with Obama on gun rights issues. The Obama I know cannot even begin to identify with this nation’s outdoor traditions. The Obama I know sees you, the law abiding gun owner, as nothing but a low-class lummox who is easily swayed by the flash of a smile and a ration of rosy rhetoric. The Obama I know is a stony-faced liar who has honed his skill at getting what he wants – so long as people are willing to give it to him.

That’s the Barack Obama I know.

WWJGD?

Is it time to go John Galt?

Fish or Pole?

Very nice.

Yes, I question his patriotism

Stanley Kurtz has a must-read article on why Obama’s Annenberg associations mean that Ayers and Wright are still valid campaign issues. I had no idea just how anti-American his pals are.

However he may seek to deny it, all evidence points to the fact that, from his position as board chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Barack Obama knowingly and persistently funded an educational project that shared the extremist and anti-American philosophy of Jeremiah Wright. The Wright affair was no fluke. It’s time for McCain to say so.

If you can read the whole article and still not question Obama’s qualifications to lead the country then the best I can say is that you have a marvelous capacity for cognitive dissonance. Perhaps equal to that of those Obama supporters who claim to be pro-life.

But this barely scratches the surface of Obama’s extremism. He has promised that ”the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act” (known as FOCA). This proposed legislation would create a federally guaranteed ”fundamental right” to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including, as Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has noted in a statement condemning the proposed Act, ”a right to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks for undefined ‘health’ reasons.” In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women has proclaimed with approval that FOCA would ”sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.”

Update:

Melanie Phillips seems to agree with me, putting me in good company.

You have to pinch yourself – a Marxisant radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it’s considered impolite to say so.

Call me impolite.

Priorities

Obama has ’em.

I Do – Still

The latest Yes on 8 “I do” spot.

On disagreeing with a friend

Roger Kimball has a thoughtful post about Christopher Buckley’s sprint off the reservation.

Don’t get me wrong. Let me repeat what long-time readers know: I have plenty of criticisms of John McCain. But, like Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest when asked whether she had any doubts that Jack came to London only to see her, although I “have the gravest doubts upon the subject,” “I intend to crush them”–at least until after the election. Why? Because whatever criticisms I have of McCain are dwarfed by my criticisms of Obama.

Because of his family, because of his continuing connection with the center of elite conservative opinion in this country, Christo’s endorsement is something special. I heard a rumor about it a week or so ago and wondered at first whether it might be one of those winking, tongue-in-cheek gambits satirists sometimes employ to get our attention. “Wow, Christopher Buckley, son of Wm. F. Buckley Jr., Republican speech writer, board member and regular contributor to National Review is supporting Obama! He’s not serious, is he?” And then it would turn out that, no, he wasn’t serious.

But inspecting his public declaration I conclude that he is very serious indeed.

It includes an interesting coda about plagiarism.

But here’s a question. Is Barack Obama the rara avis Christo supposes? Or is he that more familiar creature, the vulgaris avis who pawns off other people’s work as his own? Apparently, there is more than a little question about this. Does it matter? Politicians often sign their names to other people’s work. It is an open secret that Profiles in Courage was written not by John F. Kennedy, whose name is on the copyright page, but rather by Ted Sorensen. Most of us don’t think less of JFK for it. But since Christo singles out Obama’s literary intelligence, it is worth delving into the question. Obama had never distinguished himself as a writer. Indeed, in his tenure as editor of the Harvard Law Review he wrote–nothing. Not a single article.

RTWT.

Update:

Jonathan Adler’s not buying the plagiarism charge. It may well be outlandish, but just calling it that isn’t very convincing. But if Cashill tried to blame Enron for Ron Brown’s death then he probably is a conspiracy theorist.

I Do

This Yes on 8 ad is pretty good.

Maybe He Wants The Job After All

McCain’s making me dizzy. This is a bit more like it.

Raising taxes makes a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands and strengthens our economy.

The explosion of government spending over the last eight years has put us deeper in debt to foreign countries that don’t have our best interests at heart. It weakened the dollar and made everything you buy more expensive.

If I’m elected President, I won’t spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money, on top of the $700 billion we just gave the Treasury Secretary, as Senator Obama proposes. Because he can’t do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt. I’m going to make government live on a budget just like you do.

I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care until we scrub every single government program and get rid of the ones that aren’t working for the American people. And I will veto every single pork barrel bill Congresses passes.

Here Comes the Sun

Boston.com has an amazing collection of solar imaging.

Oh, for crying out loud

Does McCain even want the job anymore?

Doesn’t he realize that there’s nothing disrespectful in saying the truth about Obama? We have every right to be scared of an Obama presidency. Unfortunately he’s also showing we have every right to be scared of a McCain presidency.

I don’t believe in curses, but it sure seems like I was born in interesting times.

Now Here’s a McCain I Can Vote For

Yes on 8

In what seems to be a repeating pattern in California, the people voted overwhelmingly for something and the Left found an activist judge to overturn the will of the people. So, yet again, we have to vote on what marriage means. Which strikes me as a bit like holding a vote on how many legs a lamb has.

Buttle’s World reader Agrapha has provided this for the campaign:

Update:

How about more?

It’s About Time

McCain/Palin finally points out the obvious.

Of course, linking Obama visually with a white guy like that simply must be racist.

Need Health Insurance?

Get some.

About That Poster

I seriously thought these posters were anti Obama when I first saw them.

They look like a parody of Soviet style posters to me. Apparently I’m not the only one. Check it out:

Update:

If you actually like that sort of art, you may like a whole book about it.

1000 Sundays

(Co)Dependents

A 990-pound man died of heart failure after begging for “help” with his weight problem. The angry family blames the government.

Garza’s condition deteriorated over the weekend as he struggled to breathe and eat. At his funeral, family members slammed state officials for not moving Garza to a hospital before he became critically ill.

A man that obese cannot get out of bed. So I have one question for the family: Who was bringing him the food?

If This Doesn’t Make You Vote McCain

then probably nothing will.

Dream Ticket

OK, so no matter what we’re hosed for 2008. How about for 2012: Palin and…

Machosause.

Obama, Socialist

I’ve called him a Marxist. The difference between that and Socialist is, as S.I. Hiyakawa put it, like the difference between cat dung and dog dung.

Did you know that Barack Obama was affiliated with a leading national socialist party? Barack Obama didn’t include in his 2008 resume that he entered politics in the mid-1990s endorsed by Chicago’s leading socialists. This just keeps getting better and better. Barack Obama was an active participant in the 1990s, and a direct political beneficiary, of the Chicago New Party and, importantly, the Chicago DSA, a group of socialists affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.

Of course, Stanley Kurtz has been all over this for a while.

Barack Obama is now apparently denying his ties with Acorn. Here’s what he’s posted on the subject at his “Fight the Smears” website. These claims are contradicted by several sources, a number of which I linked to in my piece, “Inside Obama’s Acorn.” In that piece, you’ll find a link to a Los Angeles Times piece in which Chicago Acorn leader Madeline Talbott is described as so impressed with Obama that “she invited him to help train her staff.” You’ll also see a link to a statement by Obama himself, made in pursuit of Acorn’s endorsement. Obama says: “I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.” In my piece, “No Liberation,” you’ll find a link to a 1995 profile of Obama which says: “Obama continues his organizing work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons on the south side.” My articles provide background, but the quotes and links I’ve presented here, and in the past, pretty conclusively contradict Obama’s current claims at “Fight the Smears.”

Update:

Andy McCarthy notes that Obama has some explaining to do.

His link to Powerline seems broken, so look here if you have trouble.

Still, it appears clear that as of 1996, the New Party and its parent organization the Democratic Socialists of America considered Barack Obama to be their guy–one of a handful of avowed socialists running for office at any level in the United States. It strikes me that Obama has some explaining to do.

I Wish These Were McCain’s Idea

Get your bumper stickers here.

I’m Afraid Andy’s Right

I only heard a few minutes of that soporific non-debate on my way home from work. Every time Barry droned on he was sounding like Clinton in campaign mode: “I’m a reasonable, centrist guy and I’ll take care of you.” Every time McCain opened his mouth he reminded me why I don’t want to vote for him. Did he really brag about McCain-Feingold tonight?

Andy McCarthy saw the whole mess, and I fear his take is correct.

Memo to McCain Campaign:  Someone is either a terrorist sympathizer or he isn’t; someone is either disqualified as a terrorist sympathizer or he’s qualified for public office.  You helped portray Obama as a clealy qualified presidential candidate who would fight terrorists.

If that’s what the public thinks, good luck trying to win this thing.

With due respect, I think tonight was a disaster for our side.  I’m dumbfounded that no one else seems to think so.  Obama did everything he needed to do, McCain did nothing he needed to do.  What am I missing?

Mark Steyn agrees.

Rick Warren was the only guy to extract any damaging soundbites from Obama – the “above my pay grade” line. The ludicrous Debates Commission and all its painstakingly negotiated rules – “After a 1 minute opening answer, the opposing candidate will give a 30-second response, after which his opponent will have a 45-second pre-rebuttal to the moderator’s optional follow-up” – is all rubbish, which serves mainly to insulate the Democrat and assist him in his ability to pass himself off as Mister Moderate.

Update:

Steyn later suggests keeping your sunny side up.

The Wrecking Crew – Live!

I blogged previously about the Wrecking Crew documentary. Last night at the Mill Valley Film Festival I saw it again with my little family and a friend of ours, a musician about my age. It was every bit as good as I remember it being. There was a Q&A with Denny Tedesco, Hal Blaine, Don Randi, and Chuck Berghofer.

Blaine is the drummer who has played on more number one hit records than any musician in history. Don Randi is one of the pianists from the Wrecking Crew, and Berghofer is the bass player who did that iconic running bass line on These Boots Are Made for Walking.

The big treat was the concert after the show. We headed over to the Throckmorton Theater and were treated to a once in a life time concert. A convincing “wall of sound” was provided by a crew of excellent local musicians, and these three living legends added themselves to the band as the concert unfolded. That would have been worth my money right there, but they also brought in some special guests. Bud E. Love sang and then played drums. Then Dan Hicks (and his Hot Licks) joined the band for a really cool version of “Everybody’s Talkin'”.

But when Hal Blaine, who had looked unsteady on his feet at the screening, sat down at the drum set and picked up those sticks, magic happened. The singers from Big Bang Beat, a well-established Bay Area rock band, joined in to sing Be My Baby. When Blaine launched in with that drum beat there was that sound! Hal Blaine was playing the drums right there in the same room I was in, and it sounded just like Hal Blaine drumming! I think I wept through most of that song it was so amazing. Heck, I’m getting choked up right now just writing about it. They were joined on the Sam Cooke tune, Twistin’ the Night Away, by a sort of dorky little silver-haired guy singing with the backup singers on that number – he could clearly sing, but didn’t dance like the ladies. I wondered who the heck he was. I soon found out.

Many drummers look like they’re working hard – mostly because they are. Blaine made it look effortless, like he could do it all day. Which, in fact, he has done, thousands of times. And he was rock solid, completely at the top of his game. All night.

Don Randi’s son and daughter joined in as vocalists, including, natch, “Boots”. Yes, Berghofer can still play that running bass line. What a treat to hear him play it live.

And then they brought out another surprize guest: Peter Tork! Guess who. Yes, the dorky background singer. He picked up his guitar and led the band in a really rocking version of Auntie Grizelda. He’s still just as funny as in the Monkees days. Just hard to recognize (NB: This video shows you what he looks like, but that band was wimpy compared to what we heard).

OK, so now we’ve really gotten our money’s worth. They weren’t done. Out came Al Jardine to sing Help Me Rhonda. Blaine sounded just like on the album. Jardine actually hasn’t changed that much. His voice even sounds about the same. My friend and I had to jump in and sing the bass part for the people lucky enough to be sitting in front of us. So now I claim we’ve actually sung with the Beach Boys – since a big percentage of the people actually on the albums were there.

The night ended with Peter Tork leading the whole band in a rousing blues number called Even White Boys Get The Blues. It gave everybody a chance to take a solo and Tork, it turns out, plays a wicked good blues guitar. So there!

If you’re in the Bay Area there’s one more chance to see the film at the MVFF this Saturday (October 11, 2008). Everybody should go to their web site and sign up. If Denny gets enough interest he’ll be able to get distribution, and we can all get DVDs.

Update:

Corrected the part about Peter Tork’s background singing. Thanks to Jonny Octane for leaving the comment.

Another Update:

I found a few pictures of the Mill Valley event on Denny’s web site. That’s Peter Tork with his guitar neck almost poking the camera in the eye.

Is Obama too radical

for George McGovern?

Obama supports the Orwellianly-named “Employee Free Choice Act”.

That’s too much for McGovern.

The Most Clueless Man in Chicago

The most clueless man in Chicago simply cannot be allowed to get away with claiming ignorance of Bill Ayers. As Ed Whelan points out, it doesn’t matter if he was. No matter how you slice it, his judgment when it comes to picking friends is dreadful.