The Chicago Politician Who Would Be King

Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.

And you have to just love this.

Links to Tom Daschle

Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle , the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, “he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.”

Mr. Obama’s lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole , the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland

Another advisor with ties to the industry in question. Can this man find no one who doesn't have questionable ties??

Worse, when it comes to ethanol, corn based ethanol takes 400 pounds of corn. That will feed one adult for one year in third world countries. Its use for fuel also drives up the price for almost all food products because corn and corn starch is used in so many. Even worse, sugar based ethanol is available, yet:

Ethanol is one area in which Mr. Obama strongly disagrees with his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. While both presidential candidates emphasize the need for the United States to achieve “energy security” while also slowing down the carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, they offer sharply different visions of the role that ethanol, which can be made from a variety of organic materials, should play in those efforts.

Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.

There is no shortage of sugar and it can be grown both as cane and beets.

So there we have it again. The man who inspires females to faint while he is speaking because of the purity and love he radiates is nothing more than a politician.

You can lead a horse to water

and you can provide all the information in the world, and the supposed halls of wisdom still won't get it.

American University historian Allan J. Lichtman notes....and the hysterical hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s;

What Lichtman leaves out is that there actually were communists in the government. Yes dear chums, no matter what Gollywood, the MSM and academia tell you, that is a fact.

And it is proven by something called "Venona," which was a successfull effort by the US to break the Soviet's secret code in the 40's and use it to follow their efforts for 40 years.

So McCarthy was right, he just did a miserable selling job. Plus, many of the accused were part of the establishment, went to the elite schools, worked for the right media, etc.

Sound familiar??

A young Meredith Gardner then used this material to break in to what turned out to be NKVD (and later GRU) traffic, by reconstructing the code used to convert text to numbers. Samuel Chew and Cecil Phillips also made valuable contributions. On 20 December 1946, Gardner made the first break into the code, revealing the existence of Soviet espionage in the Manhattan Project.[3] Venona messages also indicated that Soviet spies worked in Washington in the State Department, Treasury, Office of Strategic Services, and even the White House. Very slowly, using assorted techniques ranging from traffic analysis to defector information, more of the messages were decrypted.

Here's a link to John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr's excellent book, "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America."

BTW - Did you ever hear about the book in the MSM? NYT? Tribune? LAT? No? Why am I not surprised.

A good'un

I hadn't heard this:

Subject: Warning from Middle East

This morning, from a cave somewhere in Pakistan , Taliban Minister of Migration, Mohammed Omar, warned the United States that if military action against Iraq continues, Taliban authorities will cut off America 's supply of convenience store managers, and possible candidates for President of the United States .

And if this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell and AOL customer service reps., and then Motel 6 managers.

It's getting ugly...........

My thanks to Mike L.

And smile. You can't be PC all the time.

Did Hussein 57 step on his

dork when he decided to not use public financing?

Free from the constraints of public financing, Mr. Obama’s budget for the rest of the year could exceed $300 million, campaign and party officials have said. But his fund-raising slowed in May, when the campaign raised about $22 million — almost $10 million less than in April and a large decline from the record amounts he was taking in earlier this year. The decline was evidence that he might have to invest substantial time at fund-raising to match the levels he set in the first quarter this year.

Leaving aside George Soros, much of the money he has raised has come from people who were basically "AnybodyButHillary." They were, to snip a phrase from "Fried Green Tomatoes," older, have insurance and money...but having got what they wanted, a certain amount of buyer's remorse may be entering. Said another way. They weren't for Hussein, they were against Hillary. Such people aren't highly motivated to vote or give money.

And while many Hillary supporters may in turn support Hussein, they will not be particularly anxious to give money to the man who beat them.

The Husseinheads are younger and have less money. Plus outrageous enthusiasm for an empty suit is hard to maintain. Even when you're 17. Onward to the next thrill and cause to die for.


So Hussein may have got what he wanted. I just wonder if he will get what he wants.

Googling McCain

Gaming the system is probably what this guy does best.

June 19, 2008 (Computerworld) A political blogger is using a technique known as "Google bombing" to enlist the aid of fellow partisan bloggers to boost the search engine rankings of nine news stories that reflect poorly on Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Chris Bowers, managing editor of the progressive blog OpenLeft, is launching the Google bombs by encouraging bloggers to embed Web links to the nine news stories about McCain in their blogs, which helps raise their ranking in Google search results. Bowers is reprising a similar Google bombing effort he undertook in 2006 against 52 different congressional candidates.

What happens is that these pop to the top, insuring that they are read.

Is it ethical? Since it seeks to change the results via artificial means I would say it is akin to marking the cards or shaving the dice. You might want to ask the other players what they think.