Evidently, judging by the cover of Upscale magazine.

Never heard of it? Neither did we, until we strolled through the local Safeway and just happened to see Michelle, all-smiles on the cover. The publication describes itself as a provider of “business and entertainment news, health, beauty, and lifestyle information for African Americans.” Their motto: Living The Affluent Lifestyle.

Perhaps this is part of the entertainment, considering the ridiculous irony of Barack Obama attacking John McCain just this week for being “rich” and “out of touch” for owning multiple homes. Living the lifestyle, y’know.

The cover says it all. Just don’t call her uppity.

If the network news wasn’t as awful as it is, Jack Cafferty would be THE laughinstock of the news industry. As it is, he’s just ONE of the laughingstocks. Imagine my surprise when I read Cafferty’s article claiming that John McCain is intellectually shallow:

Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn’t bother to show up. Now I know why.

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. “It means I’m saved and forgiven.” Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we’ve all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand. (continue reading post »)

Mike Cloud used this LTE to voice his opinion on the drilling debate and the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate:

About two years ago, America decided we needed a change in Congress and elected a majority Democrat House and Senate, and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took control of national legislation. Well, we got change all right: Gas was $2.49 per gallon when Democrats took over, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, and mutual funds were doing well for American families.

After two years of Nancy and Harry, we have $4 gas, 5.5 percent unemployment, and American households have seen $2.3 trillion evaporate in stock and mutual fund losses.

And, with gas prices America’s top priority, Pelosi chose to give Congress a five-week vacation instead of working on energy policy.

She refused to give an up-or-down vote on any of the Republican energy proposals that were brought to her desk before the break.

This would have to be the greatest example of congressional incompetence in recent history. This is an extremely partisan, do-nothing Congress that has been an embarrassment since Day One.

Sen. Barack Obama is also promising change if he gets elected. How much more “change” can we stand?

Mike Cloud
Lubbock

This LTE proves that Mr. Cloud isn’t the only one upset with Pelosi and majority Democrats: (continue reading post »)

Yesterday morning, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell told Meet the Press’s audience that McCain had won the Saddleback Forum, which is accurate from everything I’ve read and the little that I was able to see. Then she engaged in a little gossip session with David Gregory. Here’s what she said:

Mitchell: “The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared.”

I don’t have a problem with Ms. Mitchell bringing forth that type of gossip if she then reports that she’s checked into the allegation and found it to be without merit. Ms. Mitchell didn’t do that. She simply reported the rumor. That isn’t reporting. That’s gossipmongering.

According to this Mike Allen article, the McCain campaign wants a meeting with Steve Capus, the president of NBC News ASAP. Here’s the text of their letter to Capus:

Steve:

We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain.

Nowhere was this more evident than with NBC chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell’s comments on “Meet the Press” this morning. In analyzing last night’s presidential forum at Saddleback Church, Mitchell expressed the Obama campaign spin that John McCain could only have done so well last night because he “may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.” Here are Andrea Mitchell’s comments in full: (continue reading post »)

Nancy Pelosi’s statement to Larry King that she’d consider drilling if it’s part of a bigger package (TRANSLATION: tax increases and government picking winners and losers) is a cruel hoax. Ms. Pelosi’s use of the Democrats’ Weekly Radio Address was a similar hoax.

It’s time that Republicans rallied around the American Energy Act. This upcoming week, Republicans everywhere should talk about the virtues of the American Energy Act. Whether it’s rebel legislators in Washington, bloggers across the nation or the NRCC running wall-to-wall ads on national TV, they should be touting the substantial legislation put together by House Republicans.

I’ve touted the AEA numerous times. Now it’s time that the NRCC capitalized. This is solid legislation that Americans would flock to if they knew about it. The fastest way to guarantee Americans finding out about the AEA’s provisions is for Pesident Bush and Sen. McCain to make a visit to Capitol Hill to hold a joint news conference touting the AEA.

Republicans should have graphics made to highlight the bill’s balanced approach to energy reform:

To increase the supply American-made energy in environmentally sound ways, the legislation will:

• Open our deep water ocean resources, which will provide an additional three
  million barrels of oil per day, as well as 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as proposed in H.R. 6108 by Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC). Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) has also worked tirelessly on this issue.
• Open the Arctic coastal plain, which will provide an additional one million
  barrels of oil per day, as proposed in H.R. 6107 by Rep. Don Young (R-AK); (continue reading post »)

This afternoon, I was channel surfing when I came upon a Hillary supporter on Neil Cavuto’s show. This Hillary supporter said that she’d be voting for John McCain because McCain’s values were much closer to Hillary’s than were The One’s. I thought “Ok. We’re always willing to accept disenchanted Democrats if it helps us win.” Then she mentioned an organization that she co-founded called Real Democrats. Here’s what the blog entry at the top of the page says:

Real Democrats is a grassroots initiative whose primary purpose is to inform and educate. Groups in all 50 states are forming for this worthy endeavor. You can be part of this important effort by contacting us through your state coordinator to take direct action. [See Contact Us] This website was founded to reveal the corruption and distortions of the liberal and biased media as well as others who prohibited the free flow of ideas and truth. We invite you to peruse this website, join in the conversation, and become involved. It is only by banding together will we get the word out that the treatment of Senator Clinton by the media and the tactics of the Democratic Party are completely unacceptable.

I never thought I’d see the day when a Democrat would complain about the “corruption and distortions of the liberal and biased media”, much less hear Hillary Clinton’s supporters saying that.

This proves, yet again, that fact is stranger than fiction.

Technorati Tags: Media Bias, Real Democrats, Hillary, John McCain, The One, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

The San Diego Union-Tribune has published an editorial from their editorial board in this morning’s edition calling for drilling off California’s coast. In addition to that, they’re also calling for building more nuclear power plants:

When a majority of Californians signal to pollsters their support for offshore oil drilling, something dramatic is occurring. In this case, it is the price of gasoline lurching toward $5 a gallon. Suddenly, Americans have awakened with a hangover to their perilous reliance on foreign oil, which has escalated alarmingly since the oil shocks of three decades ago.

Since the first Arab embargo in 1973, dependence on imported petroleum has jumped from 25 percent of U.S. consumption to 70 percent. Apart from the far-reaching national security implications of this strategic vulnerability, American consumers now find themselves at the mercy of oligarchic foreign producers who effectively control pump prices in Santee.

No wonder Californians are willing to take another look at coastal oil development, which has been politically verboten since the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill jolted the state’s environmental consciousness.

Over time, the entire world must wean itself from fossil fuels in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This means a variety of alternative energies must be developed,from massive wind farms and solar installations to hydrogen-based processes and biofuels made from algae or other plants that do not consume large amounts of arable land and drive up food costs. And when it comes to greenhouse gases, an urgent shift to nuclear power for electricity generation would eliminate a key contributor to global warming. (continue reading post »)

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

The St. Cloud Times posted my Your Turn editorial this morning. Stop past & read all about it.

The focus of the editorial is on Nancy Pelosi’s telling vulnerable legislators to do whatever they needed to do to get re-elected.

I also pointed out the provisions in the American Energy Act.

Technorati Tags: Editorial, Nancy Pelosi, American Energy Act

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Kirsten Powers’ column tells Sen. Obama to abandon his position on oil- fast. That’s a step in the right direction…sort of:

McCain has been chanting “Drill here. Drill now.” while Obama plays the scold, trying to convince a nation suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder to take the long view.

Obama’s internal polling shows that he’s getting killed on this issue.

Democratic Congress members are ringing the alarms. Someone close to the campaign reported that, at a meeting this week, lawmakers were pleading with the Obama camp to revise its position on drilling.

Ms. Powers isn’t talking about the other thing that’s getting Sen. Obama in trouble, which is his persistence in talking about keeping our tires inflated. Generally speaking, people already keep their tires properly inflated. Sen. Obama’s talking about it is seen as his talking down to them. It’s also seen as BS. People know that we can’t “inflate our way out of this crisis’, as Obama suggests in this video: (continue reading post »)