California Conservative

Since Friday morning, I’ve been hearing anecdotal evidence that Sarah Palin was helping John McCain’s campaign. Now I have a way of measuring it. Here’s what a Zogby International poll found:

The interactive online Zogby survey shows that both Obama and McCain have solidified the support among their own parties; Obama won 86% support of Democrats and McCain 89% of Republicans in a two-way head-to-head poll question not including the running mates. When Biden and Palin are added to the mix, Obama’s Democratic support remains at 86%, while McCain’s increases to 92%.

This is proof that conservatives love the pick, as well they should. Having 92% of the conservatives supporting McCain is nothing short of spectacular. That’s approaching Bush-Cheney 04 levels.

I’ve been suspicious of Zogby International’s polling so I sought other forms of confirmation. It didn’t take long to find it. Consider this David Brody post for CBN:

For the most part, social conservatives and the Evangelical base are now about to come fully on board. Obama’s enthusiasm gap has narrowed considerably. Anytime you have motivated Evangelicals behind you it means your candidate is in a good spot. Watch for pro-family organizations and the McCain team to now start working together to get out the vote. This CAN NOT be emphasized enough.

Working at CBN gives Mr. Brody a pretty good grasp of what evangelical Christians are thinking. Couple McCain’s pick with his performance at Saddleback and there’s tons of reasons why evangelical Christians are jumping on board.

That isn’t the only proof of evangelicals coming on board. Here’s an exchange between James Dobson and Alan Colmes: (more…)

It’s safe to say that Dave ‘Mudcat’ Saunders isn’t part of Barack Obama’s target audience. That’s why Sen. Obama does poorly with blue collar workers. This article highlights why Sen. Obama will have a challenge in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and parts of Virginia.

“Sometimes they remind me of another bunch from Chicago, the Blues Brothers: they seem to think they’re on a mission from God.”

He is scathing about the reliance on registering new voters. “If that’s how he runs his campaign, he is going to lose. I’d rather bet on those who voted before. When he stands up and says that I’m gonna get 30 per cent more black voters, I’m gonna get 30 per cent more of my people to turn out for me, what is Joe Six-Pack thinking?”

Mudcat suggests that John McCain could win Michigan while holding Ohio and Florida. And, unless Mr Obama changes course, “he ain’t gonna win Virgina either”.

While the media swooned during Sen. Obama’s trip, I kept saying that European types weren’t who he needed to win over. I kept saying that Sen. Obama needed to start making a connection with blue collar workers. Frankly, I don’t think he’s capable of making that connection. (more…)

Hooray for Kirsten Powers. We now have proof that there’s at least one Democrat with some moral outrage. In this NY Post column, Ms. Powers gives the “Silky Phony” a total smackdown. Here’s the most vicious attack:

But something about Edwards always seemed uniquely phony, even by the standards of politics. Actually, nothing about him seemed authentic.

I’ve never understood John Edwards’ appeal. There was nothing about him that made me think he wasn’t a shallow human being. His populist message didn’t jive with his elitist lifestyle.

Who was he? Apparently, whatever he thought people wanted him to be. In 2000, he helped found the “New Democrat Coalition” for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) along with Sen. Joe Lieberman and others. Then, for his 2004 presidential run, he staked out the populist “Two Americas” theme. By 2008, he’d completed a total morph into a class warrior who pandered to the farthest reaches of the Democratic Left.

The poor suddenly became a great concern to him after his 2004 loss, yet he saw no disconnect in building a massive mansion as he crusaded for the poverty-stricken. He discovered New Orleans when he wanted to make his 2008 campaign announcement, but was nowhere to be seen back when the tragedy occurred.

Liberal pundits across America saw Edwards as articulate, charismatic and centrist. I’ll grant that he’s a smooth talker but that’s the farthest I’ll go. He certainly isn’t a centrist. Ms. Powers is right: He’s simply a phony.

The job Kirsten Powers did pales in comparison to Andy’s smackdown:

Any man or woman that cheats on their spouse is a low life. Especially those that run around pretending that ‘they are the one and only’. Let’s not forget that his wife is dying of cancer. That became an issue last year during the Democratic primary battle. Elizabeth Edwards announced she was terminal with cancer and John Edwards decided to keep running. He said she’d want him to keep running.

Amen, Andy.

Technorati Tags: Infidelity, John Edwards, Kirsten Powers

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Because if you’re black, Yahoo and Google may not be good ’nuff.

No joke. Evidently.

In yet another submission to the you-can’t-make-this-shi’ite-up file, we find the following entry via SearchEngineWatch:

RushmoreDrive.com, the new “Super Search Engine” for the Black community from Barry Diller’s IAC (InterActiveCorp) announced its Range Rover Sport Drive Away Sweepstakes at the Michael Baisden LIVE event held at the Nokia Theatre in New York City.

The time has come. At long last, there shall be equality — online.

When it comes to searching the internet, no longer will blacks be shackled to conformity, forced to join whites and other non-blacks. As the Rev. Jeremiah Wright prayed for a miracle and new messiah Barack Obama the prophesy foretold, their people will now be getting a seat at the keyboard, righteously empowered to search the web as they please. Controlling their own destiny with a new “super” search engine for blacks, they will now be in charge of self-segregating themselves.

RushmoreDrive.com hopes to change the way the Black community searches the World Wide Web for information, jobs and news. The job search feature is especially important given the current job market and economic uncertainty caused by the sub prime mortgage crisis, high gas prices, etc.

Indeed, the job search feature is very important. And no longer should the “white community” impose its ways of online search on the “Black community.” There must be racial equality, both offline and on. Let the healing begin…

Michael Baisden encouraged members of the Black community to not only register at www.RushmoreDrive.com every day from now until the September 5, 2008 drawing for the Range Rover Sport, but he also reminded them that this first-of-its-kind search engine was built by Black people, for Black people.

RushmoreDrive.com employs a patent-pending technology that reputedly enables the search engine to identify sites with heavy online traffic from Black users and to elevate relevant information in the way in which it is listed.

Patent-pending technology. By the people, for the people. Word.

“Finally, Black people across the country have a search engine that is shaped by the interests and usage of the Black community,” said RushmoreDrive.com’s Johnny Taylor in a statement.

Finally. Amen. Praise be to Brother Barry Diller! May his stock (Nasdaq quote: IACI) rise like our collective prayers onto heaven, and may advertisers of all race, creed and color rejoice!

No comment provided on whether or not the giveaway Range Rover comes fully-loaded with extra bass speakers, sub-woofer, and special alloy rims. To do so would be stereotypical.

Truly ridiculous.

Disclaimer: Obama has not endorsed this search engine. And there’s no confirmation that he actually uses it. But he does want the “Black community” to vote for him, so maybe they’ll find out more online — on their own special, “super” search engine.

RELATED:
Michelle Malkin: Left-wing journalists show true colors

Battle royal brewing at Berkeley council meeting
A protester tangles with an unidentified man outside the Marine recruiting office in Berkeley.

Protesting as if it were their job. For some, it is.

CNN reports: “Berkeley, the famously liberal college town in California, has taken aim at Marine recruiters, saying they are ‘not welcome in our city.’”

Liberal “tolerance”, reserved for only the like-minded.

Republican lawmakers in Washington fired back this week, threatening to take back more than $2 million of federal funding to the city as well as money designated for the University of California-Berkeley, the campus that became a haven of protests during the Vietnam War.

The battle erupted after the Berkeley City Council approved a measure last week urging the Marine recruiters to leave their downtown office.

“If recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders,” the item says.

It goes on to say the council applauds residents and organizations that “volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley.”

Berkeley is joining San Francisco in seceding from the United States. Military protection is no longer required and is unwanted, confirmed by the hostility against the troops.

Take a good, close look at this photo. Consider the implied message: These protesters believe (and are accusing) our military to be murderers. Reminds us of the DailyKos-niks’ righteous indignation over this post and photo.

via Zombietime.com: As noted in an earlier zombietime report, the radical group Code Pink has since September of 2007 been staging protests in front of a U.S. Marine Corps’ “Officer Selection Office” on Shattuck Square in downtown Berkeley, California, in an attempt to force the office to close.

The protests have been scheduled almost daily for over three months continuously, though bad weather (and apathy) have meant minimal (and sometimes nonexistent) attendence at many of these events — which have ranged from “Kiss-Ins” to juggling performances to mass public breastfeedings and beyond. (See the recent photos)
. . .

Most significantly, Senator Jim DeMint (R - South Carolina) began proceedings to prevent federal funds from reaching Berkeley; $2.1 million in earmarks for Berkeley are planned to be rescinded and instead given to the Marines.

Let the Republic of Berkely do without federal (tax-payer) money. Let them sell their anti-establishment T-shirts and peace-loving wrist-beads. Let the angry, body-pierced protesters work double-shifts at the local print shops and coffee houses, so they can maybe earn enough to pay taxes. (The photo gallery tells the story. We’re being considerate in our descriptions.)

Are we disgusted? Hell yes. Are we pissed off? You better fucking believe it. Do we care to swear on this blog? Rarely. But the times are a’changin’.

We wholeheartedly support the effort to withhold federal funding from Berkeley, and we hope you will, too.

RELATED: Read more from our archive, all things Bezerkeley

Michelle Malkin has more coverage.

UPDATE: (via MoveAmericaForward.org)

Fox News Channel’s Jamie Colby has a new report up talking about the big showdown in Berkeley, CA tomorrow - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH - when patriots from around the nation will hold an all-day pro-troop demonstration and protest against the Berkeley City Council for their reprehensible attacks against our military men and women.

The report is called: “Berkeley Military Bashers Meet Marine Supporters”. We need you to post a comment on this topic and let the Berkeley City Council know how you feel. Read the report and post your comments here.

And finally, we need you to join us tomorrow - anytime between 5:00 AM when we begin our all-day pro-troop demonstration, all the way through 7:00 PM when the Berkeley City Council meeting begins. You can also sign the petition that we will be delivering personally to the City Council.

Have you heard the latest cries of racism?

Believe it or not, this time they’re not against a Republican. Instead, the insensitive perpetrator is MSNBCs reporter Keith Olbermann, who, as Newsmax reports, “slurs Latinos with ‘guacamole’.” Indeed, that’s some pretty strong language.

What can we say? Sticks and stones, but political correctness above all. How ridiculous.

There’s no need to even address the story, other than to say: It’s another example of the growing weakness in our culture, in both mind and body. Everyone is offended by everything, except if your white and conservative — as the only unprotected class, you can’t claim victimhood. It’s a brilliant setup.

Political correctness does absolutely nothing to change people’s minds, but only censors communication. It drives away candor and honesty, leaving only sanitized, superficial blather. What do people really think? Who knows.

If we really wanted to deal with race relations and “diversity,” Americans should be able to speak freely and let the strength of multiculturalism become self-evident. Or not. Anything else is contrived. By spoon-feeding the notion of tolerance and jumping to “apologize” every time someone gets indignant, we’re only creating a veneer of civility. One day, it’ll crack.

In related MSNBC news…

AP reports: “A distasteful comment about Chelsea Clinton by an MSNBC anchor could imperil Hillary Rodham Clinton’s participation in future presidential debates on the network, a Clinton spokesman said.”

Is that a threat, or a promise?

In a conference call with reporters, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson on Friday excoriated MSNBC’s David Shuster for suggesting the Clinton campaign had “pimped out” 27-year old Chelsea by having her place phone calls to celebrities and Democratic Party “superdelegates” on her mother’s behalf.

Wolfson called Shuster’s comment “beneath contempt” and disgusting.

Good thing she’s not a Clinton intern, as that might give the reference a whole new meaning.

OK, let’s get this straight: Outraged and offended because someone used the expression “pimped out”? Perhaps Mr. Wolfson isn’t “down” with the modern lexicon, which has been so terrifically enriched by the hip-hop culture, yo. (See Obama supporter)

In some circles, to be “pimpin” is nothing more than a term of endearment. Or perhaps the automotive industry should file a class-action lawsuit against MTV for the popular show, Pimp My Ride. Disgusting, indeed. Everyone’s a victim.

And what about the grand pimp masters, Jesse Jackson and Big Al Sharpton? If only Chelsea were black, they could make it a race issue. Otherwise, if there ain’t no check to collect, they’re not getting out of bed.

MSNBC said Shuster, who apologized on the air for his comment, has been temporarily suspended from appearing on all NBC news broadcasts except to offer his apology.

“NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks,” MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said, adding the network was hopeful the debate would take place as planned.

Maybe MSNBC will go easy on Hillary now. No tough questions. No more “hardball.” (That’s a joke, people)

As for Mr. Shuster, we almost feel sorry for him. Perhaps he should’ve stuck to the Queen’s English and politely observed: “The Clintons are leveraging their daughter in the employment of promoting Hillary’s campaign.”

Different words. Same meaning. Fo’ shizzle.

UPDATE: (2/16/08)

AP reports:

“Chelsea Clinton tells students about her mother’s plans for the economy and mortgages. The former first daughter outlines Hillary Rodham Clinton’s concern about Darfur and women’s rights. She ticks through talking points on electability, health care and the environment.

Oh, and she reveals her mother wants grandkids and her father builds their schedule around a popular TV drama, “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Chelsea Clinton has emerged as a top surrogate for her mother as the former first lady has fallen behind Sen. Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Top “surrogate.” Good thing no one said something else.

I’m old enough that I remember Martin Luther King. I read about him in the newspapers. I saw him on television. I heard his “Dream” speech. I wept when he was murdered.

I have no patience for those who claim that America is just as racist as it was in years gone by. I remember those days. I remember federal troops in Little Rock. I remember Gov. George Wallace blocking the school door. I remember Sheriff “Bull” Conner and the fire hoses being turned on marchers in Birmingham. I remember the Freedom Riders. I remember separate drinking fountains and “white only” signs. I remember the fear. I remember the hate.

But mostly, I remember the sound of a Georgia preacher’s voice calling out. I remember him calling out, not just to his followers, but to his enemies as well. He told us that we were better men and women and that hate and fear shouldn’t divide us. He reminded is that we were all one people, regardless of skin color or religion.

That voice was heard. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act became the law of the land with the support of more than 80% of the Republicans in Congress and slightly more than 60% of the Democrats (among those opposing the measure were Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Al Gore’s late father who was a senator from Tennessee).

Those were heady days. Then the dream started to sour. Government programs aimed at aiding African Americans ended up causing mortal harm. The welfare structure effectively destroyed the black family structure. Other program, such as affirmative action, conveyed the message to both African Americans and others that blacks were incapable of competing. Some claimed it was needed to fight vestiges of racism against minorities, while completely ignoring the success of Asian Americans, some of whom in modern times faced incarceration solely based on their ethnicity.

Whatever the intent, the effect was to make African Americans dependent upon government largess and intervention rather than encouraging their own genius. (more…)

Thus far in the 2008 presidential campaign cycle, “religion” has played a far bigger role than in any recent elections. This does not necessarily translate to actual issues of importance to one religious constituency or another, but rather that the religion of individual candidates themselves is a major topic. And as this pattern continues, a glaring hypocrisy is emerging. In short, all religions are to be beyond criticism or question, with the sole exception of Biblical Christianity.

At the slightest suggestion that a candidate’s religion might call his or her judgment or fitness for office into question, the instant and universal response from across the political spectrum is a chorus of accusations of “religious bigotry” and intolerance. No less an icon of punditry than Robert Novak made essentially that case in his October 4, 2007 column. Unless, of course, the religion in question is Southern Baptist and the principal involved is Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, at which point the preacher becomes fair game.

To be sure, Mike Huckabee has his political liabilities. His record on taxes is abysmal, and past philosophies on border control and illegal immigration are completely out of sync with mainstream America. Yet this is not the basis on which some of his loudest critics assail him, but rather on matters of faith. And the situation is particularly discouraging since such castigation now comes at him from the right.

In his December 11 article, nationally syndicated columnist Rich Lowry, editor of the monumental conservative publication National Review, asserts that primarily as a result of Huckabee’s religious beliefs, Republican support for the Arkansas Governor, would amount to party “suicide.” Lowry then proceeds to deride Huckabee on several issues, including his belief in the Biblical account of creation.

It needs to be recalled here that at the recent CNN/Youtube debate, when Republican candidates were asked to explain their views on the significance of the Bible, all who were allowed to answer asserted, in one form or another, that they regarded it as the Word of God. (more…)

To All My Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

–

Kip Allen is an award-winning broadcast and newspaper journalist currently residing in Southern California. He is a contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org, and you may read more of his work here.

From the “you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up” files, we find yet another great example…

AP reports: “A British teacher jailed for insulting Islam after allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad was released Monday when Sudan’s president pardoned her, a British Embassy spokesman said.”

Well, amen! Hallelujah!

The conviction of Gillian Gibbons under Sudan’s Islamic Sharia law shocked Britons and many Muslims worldwide. It also inflamed passions among many Sudanese, some of whom called for her execution.

Gibbons escaped harsher punishment that could have included up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine.

Good thing she wasn’t gang raped for being seen outside with a male non-relative. That requires 200 lashes.

Where’s the outrage and condemnation from the more-civilized Western world? Oh. yeah. Of course. “Celebrate diversity.”

[Translation: Please don’t bomb us]