In June, when I went fishing, I had to present a valid, Nevada picture ID in order to obtain a fishing license.

In contrast to this, I’d only need to present myself in order to vote.

What is more important, liberals – voting or fishing? Did the patriots at Valley Forge suffer for the right to catch trout? Or was there something else at stake?

With all we have on our plate, we don’t have much time to spare for some things, but I do ask that everyone spare a thought and a prayer for the Christians of India who are suffering violence and persecution for their faith. What appears to be happening is a resentment among some Indians that “untouchables” are converting to Christianity in larger numbers and thus threatening the Indian social structure. Indians who accept their “untouchable” status are no threat – Indians who convert to Christianity and thus gain a sense of self-respect and a desire to rise higher than their status at birth are a threat.

I have much love and respect for the people of India and I wish them well and for a ever stronger alliance between the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest…but if India really wants to take its place as one of the Great Powers of the world, religious tolerance will be required.

The AP headline:

McCain TV ad raises Obama’s links to ex-radical

The “ex-radical” in question? Will Ayers. As far as can be determined, Ayers hasn’t modified his view at all since he was setting off terrorist bombs. How did he become an “ex”? By the fact that he hasn’t set off any bombs lately?

The proper, non-biased headline:

McCain TV ad questions Obama’s association with leftwing radical

Will we get such headlines? Only if Obama loses and the MSM, un-protected by an Obama Administration, continues its slide into irrelevancy.

UPDATE: Please take note of this entry over at our McCain site; seems that Rezko really is singing and Obama is on the playlist. You’re buying very damaged goods, liberals…leave Obama to the left, vote McCain and then have at it again in 2012.

Mighty nice of them – and, perhaps, a reflection on the way that the defense of marriage amendment is gaining strength amongst the California electorate as November approaches:

The California Department of Public Health, which provides marriage-license forms to counties across the state, will again allow couples who contract a marriage to again identify themselves as “bride” and “groom” on their marriage licenses starting in November.

According to the California Catholic Daily, following the California Supreme Court decision imposing same-sex marriages in the state, the vital statistics section of the state health department created new marriage license forms allowing couples only to identify themselves as “Party A” and “Party B.”

The change was strongly protested. Rachel Bird and Gideon Codding of Roseville, California last week sued the state over the elimination of the traditional description.

However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health told the Sacramento Bee the new forms were not a response to the lawsuit

“Many Californians have asked to have the option to identify as ‘bride’ and ‘groom’ on their marriage license form,” says an announcement on the Public Health Department’s web site. “The California Department of Public Health has been reviewing how we can provide those options in a way that is consistent with court rulings on marriage. The state will begin using new forms effective November 17th that will include boxes for ‘bride’ or ‘groom.’ Identifying as a ‘bride’ or a ‘groom’ is optional, not mandatory.”

Under the new marriage-license rules, couples may choose “bride” and “groom,” “bride” and “bride,” “groom” and “groom” or leave the section blank, the California Catholic Daily reports.

Party A and Party B? If there was ever a doubt that the ultimate purpose of gay marriage is to tear down marriage it is in this sort of Orwellian nomenclature. “Will the party of the first part, known henceforward as ‘Party A’, pledge to be nice to, respect and confer regularly with the party of the second part, known henceforward as ‘Party B’. I now pronounce you mutually supportive, you may co-join your lips”. Marriage is not just a thing to do, but a sacred – and very public – trust; the means by which we create and rear the next generation. To insert same-sex marriage into the mix is to walk down a path to the dissolution of the very concept of marriage, as well as the end to the desire to have children at all.

Fortunately, it does start to look like the gay marriage proponents have over-reached and are about to be smacked down – but it is also getting to be high time to end this debate for good and all by passing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.

As noted by Roger Kimball:

The question I have most often been asked the past few weeks is whether I stand by my prediction that John McCain would win in November. Way back in ancient times, that is, toward the end of August, 2008, I said that “Personally, I think John McCain is going to win, and I’m not talking about a hanging-chad squeakeroo. No, I think it will be a blow-out for McCain.” Interlocutors both anxious and gleeful have lined up to ask: Do I continue, after all we’ve been through these past weeks–the economy, the Palin-Katie Couric train wreck, the lackluster second debate, the economy, the economy, the economy–do I still believe that McCain has any chance of winning, let alone winning by a landslide?

I admit that my confidence has been dented. But it has by no means evaporated. “What? Have you looked at the polls?” Frankly, I feel about polls the way Disraeli (I think it was) felt about statistics: there are, he said, lies, damned lies, and statistics. Like everyone else, I am more inclined to believe them when they support an outcome I favor. Otherwise, I accord them the large measure of scepticism they deserve. Bottom line: I still believe John McCain will win…

…Whatever else it is, this election is a referendum on two very different visions of America. Obama’s vision is of country crippled by sin; McCain and Palin’s vision is of a country fired by high ideals and expansive opportunity.

“You’re beautiful, I love you, now change.” That is Team Obama’s message. “You’re beautiful, I love you as you are”: that is the message of McCain and Sarah Palin. It’s the difference between the utopian–who finds himself disgusted with every real-world polity, and who finds himself willing, indeed, eager, to sacrifice real people for the sake of the ideal ones he wishes to create–and the simple patriot who says Yes to the family, community, and country in which he finds himself.

Most Americans, I believe, love their country for what it is–not what it could become if suitably socialized, taxed, neutered, and otherwise recast. If McCain-Palin can effectively articulate that message, they will win.

That is about how I view it – that, in the end, the majority of Americans will turn to the candidate who loves his country with a boundless passion and in spite of her errors still holds her to be the most sublime expression of humanity…I can’t see America turning towards a “blame America first” socialist-liberal academic who has not a single accomplishment to his name other than an astounding ability to use vapid rhetoric and dirty pool to rise high in American politics.

Can I be wrong about this? Can it be that the American people – in great folly – are about to turn the destiny of the greatest nation in human history over to a man who knows nothing and who will be used by the Pelosis and Reids of the world to blindly advance a leftwing agenda? Of course I can be – but I don’t think I am, and while a person’s heart will always flutter a bit in trying times, my conviction that we’ll come out ahead in all this remains unshaken…of course, its helpful that even if we lose, I’ve got Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal as the future of the Republican Party while all the Democrats have is Barack Obama – and he’ll wear out his welcome in short order.

Its been a strange election year; and its also been a far too long election year. If there’s anything I would do at this point if given a magic wand it would be enact a constitutional amendment prohibiting presidential campaigning more than 120 days in advance of an election. One of the two men will be sworn in on January 20th, 2009 and both are already diminished figures – though Obama has fallen faster and further, and McCain has the far superior ability to change things around as it relates to public perception of him. Obama has already disappointed and even some of his supporters – other than rabid leftwingers – admit that bloom is off the rose…McCain’s image has been tarnished, but as he pledges to take on the corrupt interests, and seems to be willing to actually do so, he can refurbish himself in short order simply in the enemies he chooses to fight…enemies Obama can’t fight, as they will have raised him to the White House, should he win.

My advice to all on the GOP side is to enter these final few weeks with a determination to fight, but also a conviction that right will triumph in the end – don’t go into this sad or mad (leave that for the leftists), but with a heart lightened by the knowledge that we do know what to do thus we’ll certainly secure for our side the power needed to enact our ideals into law. Have fun, in other words – leave the hand wringing, bed wetting and other signs of nervousness to our leftwing friends…no matter what, we’ll win it all in the end.

Then IMAO’s recent entry on Obama’s speaking ability is a must-read:

“Eeeeee!” squealed a Barack Obama supporter. “It’s Barack Obama! He’s such a great speaker!”

“It is time,” Obama announced to the crowd. “A time for change. A time for hope. A time for the hope that change brings… but also a time for the change brought forth by hope.” He stared at the crowd intently. “What you must remember is that teleprompter error 0657f8a9. Unrecoverable error. Teleprompter rebooting.” Obama made some hand motions for emphasis. “Dot. Dot. Dot. Welcome to your knew Junior TeleSpeak brand teleprompter. Initializing program. Loading test speech patterns.” Obama paused dramatically. “She sells sea shells by the sea shore. Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” He took one last long look at the crowd. “End program.”

The crowd cheered wildly. Obama turned to his campaign staff behind him and gave them the thumbs up. “Me speakee good!”

The news story:

At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations that the president shouldn’t be allowed to enact the deal without congressional approval.

Mr. Obama’s conversations with the Iraqi leaders, confirmed to The Washington Times by his campaign aides, began just two weeks after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination in June and stirred controversy over the appropriateness of a White House candidate’s contacts with foreign governments while the sitting president is conducting a war.

Some of the specifics of the conversations remain the subject of dispute. Iraqi leaders purported to The Times that Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office – a charge the Democratic campaign denies.

Mr. Obama spoke June 16 to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari when he was in Washington, according to both the Iraqi Embassy in Washington and the Obama campaign. Both said the conversation was at Mr. Zebari’s request and took place on the phone because Mr. Obama was traveling.

However, the two sides differ over what Mr. Obama said.

“In the conversation, the senator urged Iraq to delay the [memorandum of understanding] between Iraq and the United States until the new administration was in place,” said Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States.

He said Mr. Zebari replied that any such agreement would not bind a new administration. “The new administration will have a free hand to opt out,” he said the foreign minister told Mr. Obama.

Mr. Sumaidaie did not participate in the call, he said, but stood next to Mr. Zebari during the conversation and was briefed by him immediately afterward.

The call was not recorded by either side, and Mr. Zebari did not respond to repeated telephone and e-mail messages requesting direct comment.

Whether this was an attempt to some how derail American victory in Iraq or just the arrogance of an out-of-touch man with a messiah complex is not a judgment I can render – but I can state that any such action by Obama was amazingly irresponsible and, indeed, would harm any ability he had to shape policy for Iraq, supposing he wins the election. Rather than having a breathing space where Iraqis would wonder what comes next and try to make things as smooth as possible for Obama, the Iraqis will now have an incentive to dump the American connection as soon as possible as they must know they are dealing with a man who is clueless in world affairs and cannot be relied upon.

Obama is the man who thinks that US troops are air-raiding villages and killing civilians. Why does he believe this? Because it is what he’s been told and he lacks sufficient knowledge and experience to tell the difference between the truth and enemy propaganda. The fact that a man this out to lunch retains such a clearly high opinion of himself is also very disturbing – raised to the White House, what we’ll have is a marriage of despotism and incompetence. America will get to see what its like to be governed by a man who knows nothing but thinks he knows all.

The United States – carried forward by the people of the United States – will survive Obama, should he win…but he’ll be a terrible tragedy for the United States, and a major danger for the world…a world which only has any peace or freedom at all because the United States secures it by its might. Liberty is a frail flower protected by the sword and shield of the United States – Obama thinks its a thing threatened by the United States, and conversations with thugs and meetings with the UN will win the day. That this benighted knave has managed to advance so far is testimony to the the ability of millions to swallow whatever lies are spoon fed to them by an elite class determined to rule at all costs – that he still hasn’t been able to close the deal is testimony to the fact that courage and common-sense are still strong in the United States…who wins next month will tell us if the wise or the gullible are able to triumph at the polls.

We start with yet another story of ACORN’s conspiracy to defraud the American electorate:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.

Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote.

“I don’t even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy,” Davis said. “We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don’t exist, people who have driver’s license numbers that won’t verify or Social Security numbers that won’t verify. Some have no address at all.”

The nonpartisan group works to recruit low-income voters, who tend to lean Democratic. Most polls show Republican presidential candidate John McCain with an edge in bellwether Missouri, but Democrat Barack Obama continues to put up a strong fight.

To Matt and I, this is entirely unsurprising – as it is to anyone who has read Caucus of Corruption. I begin to be really disappointed that the book didn’t do better – and not at all because a better selling book would have accrued to my financial advantage. I’m disappointed because it means the word didn’t get out as much as it should have. I know our leftwing friends think the book was nothing but a hatchet job on Democratic politicians, but the truth of the matter is that all we were doing is telling the untold story of corruption in politics – the Democratic part of the story. We didn’t ignore the stories of GOP corruption, but we wrote the book because we felt – correctly – that the MSM wasn’t giving the American people the full story and that American politics would never be cleaned up until both sides were held accountable. It is very, very important that everyone understand that all the 2008 stories about ACORN are nothing new. This is what ACORN and other leftist groups do – or did you think that there really was a widespread desire to see the far left agenda of ACORN put into law? ACORN has put in fraudulent registrations in 2008, in 2006, in 2004, in 2002, in 2000 and, I’ll bet, in each election year ACORN has been in existence – and ACORN is just one of the leftist groups who stuff the ballot boxes for the Democratic party (as an aside, in the MSM story ACORN is called “nonpartisan”, which makes this entry “What Media Bias? Part 132”).

Hopefully these stories and law enforcement actions have started us on the path to holding the left side responsible for their actions – if we can get some of these fraudsters to spend a long time inside a jail cell – and pass laws requiring a picture ID to vote – then we’ll go a long way towards ending the long-standing Democratic practice of manufacturing the votes necessary for victory in a close race. But in the context of 2008, just what does it all mean? In my view, it means that Obama’s supposed grass roots support is non-existent – if Reagan was the “teflon President”, Obama is the “astroturf candidate”.

Coupling the stories of massive fraud in voter registration and the prospect that nearly 50% of Obama’s fundraising may have been fraudulent, we can start to see that the narrative of Obama – the man who is inspiring a nation for hope and change and who is being propelled to the top on a wave of popular support for this candidate – is built upon falsehood. It also indicates that, just perhaps, the demographic make up of the polling this year has been off. Remember an important point – the television camera is the great deceiver of our times…just because you see tens of thousands of screaming Obama fans on television doesn’t necessarily mean that Obama is ragingly popular throughout the United States. He may be, but rally attendance, in and of itself, doesn’t tell us if he is. Looking beyond the camera, we can see a very large amount of bogus donors (thus undercutting Obama’s story of an energized, pro-Obama electorate), and we can see very large numbers of bogus new Democratic registrations (thus undercutting the Democrats’ story of a populace shifting Democrat in preparation for a massive Democratic sweep in November). There might, in the end, be nothing there for Obama and his Democrats…and thus we can now see such things as Obama dispatching legions of lawyers to Florida and beefing up GOTV efforts in Michigan as indicators that Team Obama also knows that things aren’t entirely rosy and thus they are preparing for a knock-down, drag-out on election day with the result boiling down to relative handfulls of votes in a few States.

If Obama wins, all of this voter and donor fraud will be shoved down the leftwing Memory Hole and we’ll continue on with corrupt business as usual. If McCain wins, we might have a chance to really attack the problem of corruption – but, in the end, it is up to we, the people to set things right. If we don’t punish elected officials in the worst way possible – ie, deny them office – then they’ll never get the message we are serious about having clean elections and politicians who put country first. In 2008, the corruption in politics might mean that we’re actually pulling the mask off the left and setting the stage for massive reform of how our government operations – but it will only mean this if we turn back to the Obama tide, a task made harder by the fact that Team Obama will cheat as much as they can. But it can be done, it must be done and, God willing, it will be done.

The thing I use for a brain is tired, and I’m heading to bed – amuse yourselves, dear readers. But have a bit of poetry to start it off:

A Hymn: O God of Earth and Altar

O God of earth and altar,

Bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter,

Our people drift and die; The walls of gold entomb us,

The swords of scorn divide, Take not thy thunder from us,

But take away our pride.

From all that terror teaches,

From lies of tongue and pen, From all the easy speeches

That comfort cruel men, From sale and profanation

Of honour and the sword, From sleep and from damnation,

Deliver us, good Lord.

Tie in a living tether

The prince and priest and thrall, Bind all our lives together,

Smite us and save us all; In ire and exultation

Aflame with faith, and free, Lift up a living nation,

A single sword to thee.

– G.K. Chesterton

As oil prices continue to collapse:

Almost half the members of the Opec oil cartel are considering an emergency meeting in Vienna next month as oil prices dropped to their lowest level in nearly a year.

Almost half the members of cartel have in the past few days called on the group to act to halt the slide before their next official meeting scheduled to take place in Algeria in late December…

…Their calls came as oil consuming nations moved to bolster their economies in a co-ordinated interest rate cut.

Oil prices on Wednesday resumed their slide towards $85 a barrel, a level last reached in December last year.

Nymex November West Texas Intermediate fell $3.06 to $87 a barrel, while ICE November Brent slid $2.96 to $81.

Too late, OPEC – just like the greedy fools in DC and Wall Street, you went too far imagining that the free ride would last forever…as if the laws of economics had been repealed. Just as no one should ever have allowed those sub-prime loans to be written (and we’re looking at you, Obama, Biden, Dodd and Frank!) so, too, should no one in the oil producing States have allowed oil to ever get above $60 a barrel. Those in charge of the sub-prime mess could have shut off the money spigot before it got out of control – those in charge of the oil mess could have gone flat out on production and exploration as oil started its insane and entirely unjustified rise to more than $140 a barrel.

So, the bad news is that we Americans are stuck footing the bills for the Democrats’ sub-prime idiocy – but the good news is that our oil prices are going to drop like a rock. I really expect gasoline to drop below $2 a gallon before this slide is done.

One other thing about this – Obama, if he wins, says he will impose a windfall profits tax on American oil companies – as if they were responsible for the run up in oil prices…but the thing is, by the time Obama gets a chance to do this, oil company profits will be way down and such a tax will turn what will then be modestly profitable companies into unprofitable companies…and will cause actual shortages in the United States, resulting in a run-up in the price of gasoline. Nothing in the world is more dumb than a doctrinaire liberal…