Blogs For Victory

Yeah, he really wants to keep “bad” money out of politics:

While, Mr. Obama’s mistaken concern about foreign donors giving to American campaigns would be a result of the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, it should be noted that his own 2008 presidential campaign involved questionable donors.

For example, Newsweek ,in October of 2008, reported on two Palestinian brothers in the Gaza strip who managed to give $33,000 dollars to the campaign by buying a massive amount of Obama t-shirts through the campaign’s online store. The Obama campaign reportedly returned the money. However, one must wonder if smaller undetectable amounts of foreign donations from the online store found their way into the Obama campaign treasure chest. Untraceable Obama Campaign donations were also an issue reported on the trail in 2008.:

“The Obama organization said its extensive review has ensured that the campaign has refunded any improper contributions, and noted that Federal Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening of donations.

In recent weeks, questionable contributions have created headaches for Obama’s accounting team as it has tried to explain why campaign finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those revelations prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama’s finance vetting by giving money using the kind of prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.

The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.

‘They have opened the floodgates to all this money coming in,’ said Sean Cairncross, chief counsel to the Republican National Committee. ‘I think they’ve made the determination that whatever money they have to refund on the back end doesn’t outweigh the benefit of taking all this money upfront.'”

Two things are required in order to effectively void all restrictions on campaign finance:

1. You have to be willing to break the law.

2. You have to be a Democrat.

This is old hat – as is known by anyone who read Caucus of Corruption. As an example: Nancy Pelosi learned early on that its ok to break campaign finance laws – back when she was chair of the Northern California Democrat party, she deliberately violated the law as regards in-kind donations (in the matter of a union printing up campaign signs) and noted that, when caught, there was no move in the MSM to have her hounded out of politics and, of course, that the fine was far less than the benefit gained. She’s willing to break the law and she’s a Democrat – the “be a Democrat” part is vital because Republicans are always held strictly accountable on such things.

Given the massive amounts of questionable donations to the Obama campaign – not just the mentioned Palestinians but such things as a credit card number being used multiple times as the source of donations, while the account, itself, is only charged once (ie, disguising money that probably came in the form of cash) as well as all those odd donations – $153.47, or some such, eg – which indicate a conversion from foreign currency on a credit card charge – we can rely upon it that Obama and Co have also learned the lesson: be willing to break the law, and be a Democrat.

Given such things, it is the height of absurdity for any Republican – McCain, we’re looking at you – to advocate restrictions on campaign funding. Any restrictions will be rigorously applied to the GOP, and cynically ignored by the Democrats. Unless we can pass a law requiring the surrender of office for someone who’s campaign violated the law, there is simply no way to get Democrats to consistently follow the law. Well, truth be told, if the Democrat rank-and-file would start holding their side to account, that would work, too…but Democrats, on the whole, are too servile to work up the gumption to challenge their leaders. Campaign finance restrictions are unilateral disarmament on the part of the GOP.

Obama can talk a great game of cleaning up politics but for a Chicago pol to claim he’s going to clean up the joint is like, well, a Chicago mobster claiming he’s going to clean up organized crime. Ignore Obama on this issue – and ignore any GOPer who says he wants to get money out of politics. Money will be in politics, forever – it isn’t the money which causes the problem, just as it isn’t the gun which causes the murder. Corrupt people are corrupt and will find the person willing to bribe them. Elect honest men and women – and ruthlessly punish those who violate public trust – and we’ll have clean politics no matter how much money floats around. Fail to elect honest men and women, and all the laws in the world won’t do a bit of good.

UPDATE: A challenge Obama will not accept – appoint a special prosecutor to look in to foreign contributions to American politics.

Interesting given how much propaganda in favor of immorality our young people face every day:

According to a recent poll conducted by the Marist Institute for the Knights of Columbus, young Americans are increasingly doubting the nation’s ethical standards in business as well as the government’s ability to handle the economy.

“A year into the Obama administration, we find that Americans – and younger Americans – are having a crisis of confidence,” said Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus, on Thursday.

The poll found that American adults and Millennials (those between 18 and 29) are worried about their careers in this economy, opposed government regulation and business greed, and even felt that the country is headed in the wrong direction morally.

“People are increasingly pessimistic about the government’s ability to handle the economic crisis and a majority believes that increased government regulation will hurt the economy,” said Anderson…

…On the issue of the moral status of the nation, 67 percent of American adults and 60 percent of Millennials believe the country is headed in the wrong direction…

Here is a generation betrayed – a generation which knows that things are wrong and is disturbed to its core about what is going on. But, as young people, they are probably just waiting for the call. A lot of them probably thought that Obama was “it” – and they are clearly increasingly disappointed in what they got. On the plus side of this disappointment, the mask is now torn off the mushy-headed, liberal/left propaganda which has appealed so strongly to youth – youth which desires to serve and believe, but which lacks experience and judgment to always see through a clever scam. Like Obama.

Now is the time for the Truth to be told – boldly. If we can tell the young that their faith should be in God, family and the America of the Founders, then we can have the fire to rescue ourselves from our current morass. We must, though, be good enough for the young – we must discard any allegiance to the bankers and bureaucrats who brought us here. We must show ourselves more faithful in our vows than we’ve ever been before – youngsters can be fooled, but once they see a hypocrite, there’s no chance of convincing them a second time.

Youth is always at our service – full of fire and self-sacrificial zeal. The question is always about who will lead the youth? We can, if we prove ourselves worthy. The old, false gods of liberalism have failed – if we can bring the truth and act upon our beliefs, we can win this generation, and restore America.

Because the Culture of Death simply wants us to shut up:

Dr. Kevin Roberts, executive director of the Catholic grassroots advocacy group, Catholic Families for America (CFA), announced his organization’s sponsorship of a nationwide petition drive in support of CBS’ decision to air the pro-life advertisement featuring Tim Tebow during the Super Bowl.

“It doesn’t take long for the pro-abortion crowd to mobilize their members,” Roberts said, “so those of us on the pro-life, pro-family side need to be sure we do the same.” Roberts continued by describing how his organization would rally its members and those of similar groups to attract several thousand signatories.

The petition can be accessed at www.ipetitions.com/petition/prolifead.

Catholic Families for America is a nationwide grassroots organization run by lay Catholics, with offices in Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

Medved had one of those pro-abortion fanatics on his radio show the other day – when he asked her “is life better than death”, she answered “I don’t think that’s the issue”. Just horrible that someone can think like that.

The thing about this is that the ad is not anything overtly anti-abortion – it just has the Heisman trophy winner and his mother pointing out that life is good. This, of course, gets the Culture of Death in a snit – they are worried that some young, frightened mother out there might take heart and decide to keep her child – something just too horrible to contemplate, for the pro-abortion people.

I just don’t get it – I don’t understand why anyone would defend a “choice” to kill an unborn child, or have any problem with a woman deciding to do the right thing. Shows how inhuman we’ve become after a century or two or liberal “humanism”.

Hammering Obama quite hard:

…He talked like a Washington “outsider,” but he runs Washington! He’s had everything any president could ask for – an overwhelming majority in Congress and a fawning press corps that feels tingles every time he speaks. There was nothing preventing him from pursuing “common sense” solutions all along. He didn’t pursue them because they weren’t his priorities, and he spent his speech blaming Republicans for the problems caused by his own policies.

He dared us to “let him know” if we have a better health care plan, but he refused to allow Republicans in on the negotiations or consider any ideas for real free market and patient-centered reforms. We’ve been “letting him know” our ideas for months from the town halls to the tea parties, but he isn’t interested in listening. Instead he keeps making the nonsensical claim that his massive trillion-dollar health care bill won’t increase the deficit…

Gotta be hard on Obama to understand that the better man to be President is a woman – and a conservative woman, at that..

Well, looks like Obama got the message…

White House officials have told the Justice Department to consider other venues for the 9/11 terror trial that was to be held in lower Manhattan, the Daily News has learned.

The decision came after Mayor Bloomberg and other politicians across the state railed against President Obama’s plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Manhattan Federal Court.

Attorney General Eric Holder now has to think of other places where the trial could take place, officials said.

Something tells me, given the outrage by pretty much everyone outside of his administration, that Obama decided to do this a while ago… but chose to wait until after the State of the Union… the day after, no less…

Here I am, at home – getting ready for the procedure tomorrow, which requires me to remain close to the facilities, ya dig? So, anyways…got nothing much going on…but have plenty of time to surf:

Bernanke re-appointed:

The Senate voted 70-30 to reappoint Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Earlier, senators voted 77-23 to end debate, clearing the way for a final vote. During more than two hours of debate on the Senate floor, Bernanke backers warned that voting him down risked sparking turmoil in U.S. and foreign markets and thwarting a budding economic recovery. They said the Fed chairman deserved an opportunity to finish what he started.

Finish what he started? My house has already lost 58% of its value – are we going for zero? Or maybe we’re shooting for 20% unemployment? Shame on those Republicans fool enough to fall for the notion that re-confirming Bernanke will help the economy.

Global Warming Hoax Update: As we all expected, cold winters are now a sign of global warming.

RIP J. D. Salinger. Question: Has anyone ever actually read Catcher in the Rye? I tried but swiftly found it monumentally boring and never got past page 10 or so.

How do you forget someone is black?

Greece’s debt: will it be the trigger of a collapse in the Euro-zone?

A worrying development:

n a trend that will drive both the Fed and the administration crazy if it lasts too much longer, weekly unemployment claims are moving in the wrong direction.

Please consider the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report.

In the week ending Jan. 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 470,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 456,250, an increase of 9,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 446,750.

It has been and remains my contention that all of the “stimulus” was just so much nonsense – you can’t print up a trillion dollars, have the Fed buy bonds with it and expect to have the growth in wealth required for their to be an actual increase in employment. We’re just spinning our wheels and the only people gaining right now are the very people who brought on the problem – corrupt bankers and their kept politicians.

Until we start creating wealth we won’t get anywhere – and the only way we can create wealth is to take the burden off wealth creation. We need massive tax and spending cuts and large amounts of regulatory easing in order to get the ball rolling. Obama won’t do this because he is incapable of understanding how wealth is created – we’ll be wallowing in this morass for some time to come.

This is getting really rather exciting:

One more Democratic senator who has long been regarded as a safe prospect for reelection may be facing a challenging year in 2010.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Wisconsin finds Republican Tommy Thompson edging incumbent Russ Feingold 47% to 43% in a hypothetical U.S. Senate match-up. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

Any incumbent who attracts less than 50% support at this point in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable.

We must take nothing for granted – and that means, in 2010, not thinking that any seat is impossible. I was talking it over with a friend the other day regarding the Republican challenger to Nancy Pelosi – of course there is no chance. Come on! Its San Francisco! But, then again…

Our job, as conservatives and Republicans, is to fight it out everywhere – spread the field and tap in to voter anger about the corruption and incompetence of government. We do that, and we can have an astounding year.

UPDATE: The growing rumors of a Hillary Clinton primary challenge in 2012. Me: I don’t think it will happen because the Democrat powers-that-be know that if by some chance Hillary did knock Obama out in the primary, the African-American vote would be greatly reduced in November, ensuring not only a Democrat White House loss, but a complete collapse in the Democrat House and State legislative seats. Still, the rumor is there…

Seems that Jonah Goldberg’s book – two years after publication – is gaining traction and, thus, starting to take a lot of flack. Read here for more.

My view: Goldberg gets it exactly right. This is especially true in light of my own assertion that all non-conservative views ultimately stem from the same, flawed source. Liberalism, as I’ve said, rests upon the falsehood that Man is perfectible by men. That our problems stem not from our fallen nature, but from the unjust systems and that if we can just change the system, we’ll change ourselves. Heaven on earth will result.

From that initial folly has stemmed all the rest – and thus liberalism, socialism, communism, fascism and Nazism are branches of the same, poisoned tree. Of course, to point any of this out – especially in a best-selling book – is to irk the liberals to no end. They insist that things like Nazism and fascism have nothing to do with liberalism – in spite of the obviousness of the relationship.

I think – for justice and for the sheer fun of it – that once we gain a commanding majority in the Senate, we should void the censure of Joe McCarthy (arguably liberal fascism’s most prominent American victim) and have him set up with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’ll get the dogs off Goldberg and provide us hours of entertainment.

I didn’t plan to watch. But I did… I felt dirty afterwards. It was so partisan, full of lies… This guy is such a narcissist. He still is trying to convince people he saved jobs when we’ve lost millions and the unemployment rate is in double digits.

I really can’t say more now… I am still so disturbed by Obama’s lack of respect for the office of the presidency.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Anyone who wants an alternative to Obama’s blather can do no better than Governor McDonnell’s response:

The circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore the proper, limited role of government at every level.

Without reform, the excessive growth of government threatens our very liberty and prosperity.

In recent months, the American people have made clear that they want government leaders to listen and act on the issues most important to them.

We want results, not rhetoric. We want cooperation, not partisanship.

There is much common ground.

All Americans agree, we need a health care system that is affordable, accessible, and high quality.

But most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government…

UPDATE II, by Mark Noonan: Uh, Barry, you shouldn’t be ripping the Supreme Court during a SOTU speech while they’re all sitting there – ’cause now you got another “you lie” moment.

UPDATE III, by Mark Noonan: If you’d like to see how a good President does it.