Blogs For Victory

From the Wall Street Journal:

Crude-oil futures dropped to their lowest price in almost five months on initial signs that Hurricane Gustav’s damage to Gulf Coast oil installations was light.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery was recently down $7.49, or 6.5%, at $107.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier dropping as low as $105.46, the cheapest oil since April 4.

Brent crude on the ICE Futures exchange fell $2.54 to $106.87 a barrel.

Ok, so you on the left blamed John McCain, President Bush and Dick Cheney when prices shot up to $147 a barrel. Will you now credit these three gentlemen for the lowering price of oil? Also, as Sarah Palin is governor of a major oil-producing State, can we say that she’s also partially responsible for this happy state of affairs?

I’m just saying – its you liberals who believe that only government can make the sun rise each morning…

There is a discussion over at NRO’s The Corner as to whether or not the GOP’s scale-down of the convention yesterday indicates we are becoming a rather wussy nation. Here’s a sample:

…saying, basically, that the country has become hopelessly wussified, to be blunt. (I said “Oprahfied,” which is more indirect.) Many have pointed out that, hurricanes aside, we’re at war, in two different countries. They have also said that conventions were held in 1944: when many Americans were engaged in an awful, titanic struggle.

And I thought you might like to read this:

Jay,

Let me give you another example of hardiness. My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. She was born on September 11, 1912. We live in New York City. In 2001 for her 89th birthday we had planned to go out for a big dinner for her. Needless to say, the day didn’t turn out as planned. But we as a family decided to carry on. Even with the ruins of the WTC still smoldering in the distance, we took our grandmother out to dinner. We found one of the few restaurants on the Upper East Side that were open, and we celebrated.

As my grandmother said, she had been through worse in her life, and had made it this far. As far as she was concerned, they could bring it on, because at this point she wasn’t going to back down or let anything stop her.

I could relate much more — citing different examples from different readers — but you more than get our drift…

There is something to be said for this theory, but I don’t think that this really indicates a nationally mushiness as much as a nation besieged by lies in our modern Age of Lies.

The reason President Bush skipped the convention and the GOP de-facto did nothing on the convention’s first day is because President Bush and the GOP were blindsided by a series of lies surrounding Hurricane Katrina. The facts of Katrina didn’t matter in 2005, and they don’t matter today – all that matters is that back then the MSM in conjunction with Democrats made it out that Katrina was the worst thing which ever happened and that President Bush and the GOP were responsible for the catastrophe. That Katrina wasn’t even close to the worst disaster we’ve ever suffered and that President Bush and the GOP had absolutely nothing to do with the governmental failures during Katrina is irrelevant. Because the lies about Katrina stuck, the President and the GOP had to act as if the lies were true, and thus set things up so that President and party could come out on top of the Hurricane Gustav situation. And do keep in mind that its not like President Bush and the GOP will gain credit for the fact that Gustav blew through without any serious mishap – no, not at all; when dealing with lies, things don’t work like that. The only thing Bush and party get out of this dance to the liar’s tune is no further damage on the issue.

Those who say the GOP show should have gone on as scheduled are right in the sense that the truth of the matter is that President Bush couldn’t do any more about Gustav as it made landfall than he could about Katrina when it made landfall. Furthermore, that this or that speech/celebration went on in Minnesota would also neither harm nor help any efforts of the people affected by Gustav. But to have had President Bush give his speech and to have had the GOP in a celebratory mood would have allowed the liars a firm foothold to bash President and party over Katrina, even though Gustav largely fizzled. The truth will out, as they say, but there’s no saying just when it will do so – and the truth about Katrina might be a long time coming, and may have to wait until this generation passes away. This is not a new thing, by the way – our Age of Lies goes back quite a bit, and the most infamous early case of it nearly derailed Churchill’s political career with the lies spread about the British disaster at the Dardanelles during the First World War.

What are we to do about this? Nothing in the immediate sense. In the longer term: keep winning at the ballot box. The lies are put out by the left in service of leftwing political goals…the longer we keep the left out of power and the more we can reform things so that the left has less and less influence, the weaker will be their ability to make a lie take hold and become part of the national memory. The Age of Lies didn’t just spring up – it grew and grew over a century and only came to fruition in the 20th century…it may take just as long to clear it out. But, meanwhile, we have to be careful in what we do – careful to do things in such a way that the truth can come out, and the liars are prevented as far as possible from confusing the issue.

Denigrated on the left, loved on the right, Karl Rove opines on the Palin effect:

Former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove predicted that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “gives [John McCain] the ability to add two or three points nationally” to his vote total, a margin that could make a significant difference in what is expected to be a very close general election contest with Barack Obama.

Those points , according to Rove, who sat for an extended interview with The Fix and Newsweek executive editor Jon Meacham as part of the ongoing live web video coverage, will largely come from women but could also be the result of gains among blue collar, older men who “like the idea of a gun-toting woman.”

Rove also argued that Democrats have already “over played” their hand on Palin by putting out a statement — from the Obama campaign — that cast her as an inexperienced, small town mayor. (Obama distanced himself from that statement and has been entirely praiseworthy of the governor in his comments since then.)

“They run a real risk of looking condescending,” warned Rove. “The same crowd played these cards against Clinton and it was a mistake.”

As we’ve seen, the Democrats and their kook left base have really unloaded on not just Sarah Palin, but her entire family – ultimately, it will be up to Sarah Palin to put them in their place by remained in control and giving a good acceptance speech. Once past that, all the dirt the left has tried to throw at her will fade away as no one other than kook leftists will care. Follow up a good acceptance speech by clobbering Biden in debate (almost a foregone conclusion) and Governor Palin will not just do her part for John McCain, but open up her own Presidential prospects for 2012 or 2016.

And, also, answers all of those who seek the name of “Catholic” while supporting in any way, shape or form the horribile, anti-human practice of abortion.

In last week’s Gospel we heard Jesus’ words to Peter:

I say to you, you are Peter [Rock], and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

But this week we find the incredible thing that happens right after that, as Jesus tells Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.”

How does Peter go from being called the “Rock” of the Church to being compared to “Satan”?

First of all, see how Jesus tells Peter about the keys in response to Peter publicly proclaiming: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But Jesus chastises Peter after Peter spoke to Him in private; Scripture says: “Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.” The keys relate to Peter’s public proclamation, the rebuke pertains to Peter’s private, personal words to Jesus.

Also, we see that Peter’s public proclamation was about a dogma of faith: that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God. But his private rebuke was about his personal desire for Jesus’ safety: “God forbid [you be killed in Jerusalem].”

And again, when Jesus gives Peter the keys, he blesses Peter for listening to God: “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” But when he chastises Peter he says: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

In all this Jesus teaches us that although many Popes would be less than perfect as individuals He, Christ, would always protect them in the public proclamation of the truths of the Gospel. Because of that all Catholics are bound, by Christ, to follow the definitive teaching of the Popes, And when do not hold ourselves bound by the Pope’s teaching the gates of hell will inevitably prevail against us.

Of course this can mean personal disaster: sin. But it can also mean social disaster.

Do read the whole thing.

It looks like that despite all the spectacle and Obama’s convention, that he could only muster a historically average 4 point bounce.

Comparing Obama’s current 49% support with the 45% he received immediately before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week suggests he received a 4-point bounce out of the convention, fairly typical of past convention bounces. 

Fairly typical? After all that hype? Other polls show an equally dismal situation for Obama. Rasmussen has Obama up by only 3. Zogby has McCain/Palin ahead of Obama/Biden by two points. And CNN has Obama up by a mere point.In other words, it’s pretty much a tie. When you look at the national polls saying its a statistical tie, and the nearly energized conservative base at the beginning of the Republican National Convention… It’s not a good time for the Obama campaign. 

I’ve got the details over here.

So much for lefty, paranoid conspiracy theories:

The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin’s five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,” the Palins’ statement said.

“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support,” the Palins said.

The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple’s privacy.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates,” the statement concluded.

MCCAIN KNEW

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter’s pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

It was, of course, none of anyone’s business – but the left, lacking any sense of honor or decency, ran with the hateful – and completely false – rumors that Governor Palin had faked her pregnancy to protect her daughter…as if, in 2008, there’s really all that much stigma attached to being pregnant prior to marriage. One wishes, of course, that the younger Palin had waited and the sin of having pre-marital sex is something she and the father of the baby will have to square with God, but the baby is on the way, and there’s no sense in looking backwards and engaging in recriminations.

I have two things to say:

God help the young parents-to-be and may they turn firmly towards God for the protection and strength they’ll need to take care of their baby.

May God forgive those on the left who made this announcement necessary.

Yep, sure glad we took Obama’s sage advice and got the last US soldier out of Iraq on March 31st:

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has handed over security control of the western province of Anbar to Iraqi forces.

The province was once a hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency, and the scene of some of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war.

The handover marks a major milestone in America’s strategy of turning security over to the Iraqis so U.S. troops can eventually go home.

In the ceremony Monday in the provincial capital of Ramadi, the top American commander in Anbar, Marine Maj. Gen. John Kelly, said Al Qaeda has not been entirely defeated in Anbar. But he said, “their end is near.”

Because, you see, there is no way for the military to play a roll here – we should have withdrawn because that is what the Iraqis wanted, and we should have done Biden’s bidding and partitioned the nation, because that is what some Americans wanted…

Any of you lefties starting to realise how silly you look?

And let’s all be thankful that President Bush ignored John McCain’s advice…I mean, think about it! For crying out loud, what would increased US troop levels done other than make more terrorists?

Check out this link.

‘Nuff Said.

This is what happens when a good candidate for President picks a good person to be VP:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain took in $6.8 million in donations yesterday, when he named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin his running mate.

The amount was a single-day record, McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said last night. The amount is more than the Arizona senator raised during the entire fourth quarter of 2007.

The campaign raised $4.5 million in Internet donations, and has taken in $2.3 million so far by telephone and mail, Buchanan told reporters.

We GOPers are starting to sense the possibility of victory out there – still a long, uphill climb and even while our Presidential prospects have been brightening we’re brought down to earth by the objective realities of Campaign ’08…its still, officially, a Democratic year…but the campaign has shifted, and neither candidate enjoys a clear advantage over the other at this point. Its anyone’s game and either candidate can find a way to the White House.