But even more than the donations issue is the deal BP had with Obama’s Department of the Interior:

I’m sorry, they did what now? Exempted BP from “intense regulatory scrutiny”?

And, um, WHY did they do that? I am not the least bit surprised that the White House won’t acknowledge any wrong doing there, leaving it to an “investigation.” Nor am I surprised that Spokesweasel Robert Gibbs dismissed any connection between donations to Obama and the exemption. Of course, just absurd!! How can that POSSIBLY have influenced Obama in any way? Spare me.

One other thing: when a massive oil spill is occurring in the Gulf, wreaking havoc with the environment, livelihoods, and the LIVES of 11 oil rig workers, perhaps the Interior Department’s Chief of Staff should not be out on a rafting trip. Oh, yes, it’s true, as this Jake Tapper post details:

Though his agency was charged with coordinating the federal response to the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland was in the Grand Canyon with his wife last week participating in activities that included white-water rafting, ABC News has learned.

Other leaders of the Interior Department were focused on the Gulf, joined by other agencies and literally thousands of other employees. But Strickland’s participation in a trip that administration officials insisted was “work-focused” raised eyebrows among other Obama administration officials and even within even his own department, sources told ABC News.

Strickland, who also serves as Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, was in the Grand Canyon with his wife Beth for a total of three days, including one day of rafting. Beth Strickland paid her own way, Obama administration officials said.

The Stricklands departed for the Grand Canyon three days after the leaks in the Deepwater Horizon pipeline were discovered. Ultimately, after the government realized that the spill was worse than had been previously thought, officials decided that Strickland was needed in the Gulf so Strickland was taken out of the Grand Canyon by a National Park Service helicopter.

One government official, asking for anonymity because of the political sensitivities involved, told ABC News that some Interior Department employees thought it was “irresponsible” for Strickland to have gone on the trip, given the crisis in the Gulf, which was fully apparent at the time he departed for the Grand Canyon.

Uh, gee, you THINK?? Yes, just a tad “irresponsible” for Strickland to go off on this rafting trip, especially since it was AFTER the oil leak began. I wonder how much it cost to go in and fetch him from his rafting trip? Just curious.

You know the government is on the defensive about this:

When asked about Strickland’s trip, Interior Department press secretary Kendra Barkoff told ABC News that “the federal government has been all over this issue from day one in a unified coordinated response.”

Barkoff said that Secretary Salazar deputized Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes “to be the point person on this issue and from the morning after the explosion from the time he got to New Orleans he has been working on this non-stop with the help of other people in the Interior Department as well as other agencies involved.”

An administration source says that Strickland’s trip to the Grand Canyon was work-focused. He was with the director of the National Park Service, Jonathan Jarvis, and Grand Canyon National Park Superintendant Steve Martin, the source said, and they discussed matters such as river flows, beach erosion, humpback chub, tamarisk control, overflights, safety, motor boats, and wilderness management.

Strickland is Salazar’s chief of staff as well as the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, having been confirmed to the latter position on April 30, 2009.

When asked during his Senate confirmation hearings as to which job would take priority, Strickland was very clear to the members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the Energy and Natural Resource Committee: “My first priority will be the responsibilities of this assistant secretary position, and we are staffing the personal operation of the Secretary with that in mind,” he said.

Wow. Okay, you know I have to say it: “Heckuva job, Strickland!” For the rest of the article, click HERE.

Thursday marks the attempt to cap one of the leaks on the ocean floor. It has not been tried at this depth before, and much can go wrong. Here’s hoping that much goes RIGHT. The ocean is being devastated, the coastline is threatened, wildlife and fish are bearing the brunt, along with loss of jobs, and most importantly, life.

What a tragedy this is, and even more so if the exemption granted to BP by the Obama Department of the Interior could have prevented this devastation.

While I am talking about devastation, I must mention what is occurring in Tennessee. The loss of life, the destruction, the cost, is staggering:

My thoughts and prayers go out to those in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky, as well as Louisiana…

But I am not writing about any of those issues today, except to say my heart goes out to those in the Gulf States, as well as Tennessee and Kentucky. I might add, kudos to those in New York for their quick action.

Rather, I want to mention a recent report that is a good news/bad news report that came out in April. The report, taken from Census results, claims that women are now on a par with men in advanced degrees. Wow – that is quite a step! That’s the good news. Ready for the bad news? I am sure you can guess: we still don’t get paid the same. Nope, different day, same result:

Women are now just as likely as men to have completed college and to hold an advanced degree, part of an accelerating trend of educational gains that have shielded women from recent job losses. Yet they continue to lag behind men in pay.

Among adults 25 and older, 29 percent of women in the U.S. have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 30 percent of men, according to 2009 census figures released Tuesday. Measured by raw numbers, women already surpass men in undergraduate degrees by roughly 1.2 million.

Women also have drawn even with men in holding advanced degrees. Women represented roughly half of those in the U.S. with a master’s degree or higher, due largely to years of steady increases in women opting to pursue a medical or law degree.

At current rates, women could pass men in total advanced degrees this year, even though they still trail significantly in several categories such as business, science and engineering.

“It won’t be long before women dominate higher education and every degree level up to Ph.D.,” said Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint who is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank. “They are getting the skills that will protect them from future downturns.”

While young women have been exceeding men in college enrollment since the early 1980s, the educational gains have now progressively spread upward to older age groups. That could have wide ramifications in the workplace: more working mothers, increased child-care needs and a greater focus on pay disparities among them.

Women with full-time jobs now have weekly earnings equal to 80.2 percent of what men earn, up slightly from 2008 but lower than a high of 81 percent in 2005.

So, why the continued disparity in pay, then? If we are on a par with men in terms of education, why are we not getting paid the same as they are? And if women are going to overtake men, will pay go up for women, or will it just come down for men? I guess we’ll see, but it is infuriating that this disparity continues after all these years. When will the time come that women will be treated as truly equal??

And that brings me to this story. Now, you know I am a huge baseball fan, so when I saw this headline, it caught my eye,
Joe Niekro’s Knuckler Lives Through Arm of 12-Year-Old Girl. Say whaaa? How can that be? This is how:

As an organ donor, pitching great Joe Niekro left his eyes behind so another man could see. He left his liver, kidneys and heart so three others could live today.

He left a unique and special gift — his famed knuckleball — to a precocious little girl who could be on the verge of inspiring a whole new generation of baseball players.

Chelsea Baker, only 12, has learned to make that pitch dance, to magically make it move like a butterfly on its way to home plate, baffling and befuddling young hitters. Like Joe taught her, shortly before his death in 2006 (the two are seen in the photo above, courtesy of Rod Mason).

“Joe would be so proud, so really proud,” said Debbie Niekro, Joe’s widow who has watched Chelsea pitch several times. “He really liked Chelsea. He loved the way she listened, and learned at that age. He knew she was going to be something special.”

Niekro was 61 when he died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. At the time, he was helping coach a Little League team on which Chelsea and his own son played in his adopted hometown of Plant City.

Wow, what gifts Niekro left behind, from being an organ donor, an issue near and dear to my heart (my mom received a liver transplant almost 25 years ago, which allowed us to have her for all those years before her death in January), to coaching Little Leaguers, to treating this little girl like she was just as worthy as any of those boys on the field. That is no small thing. Nor was the way in which he inspired this little girl:

Chelsea was 8 when he died, too young to quite understand how final death would be, but old enough to understand the gift that Niekro had left her. It gave her a passion for the game, and specifically for the pitch.

“I bugged him to teach me because I never could hit that knuckleball when he would throw it to me in batting practice. He always said it was a secret, but he finally taught me, and we worked on it a lot,” Chelsea told FanHouse last week after a game. “I love throwing it. My catcher says it’s so nasty.”

And the batters can’t touch it. Although there are many young girls peppered across America now playing Little League Baseball with the boys, there are only a few who can dominate as Chelsea does.

She has thrown two perfect games within the past year, including one in an All-Star Game. She is unbeaten this season in nine starts, throwing 54 innings and striking out 103 batters while allowing only four runs. She also is hitting .569, playing third base when she doesn’t pitch.

“When she first came to me for instruction, I was thinking ‘OK, here is a girl I can help,” said Keith Maxwell, a hitting instructor who played 12 years of professional baseball, including five with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. “But after two weeks with her, I was like ‘wow.’ She has an incredible pop in her bat. She isn’t just a pitcher. I thought, ‘This is probably going to be the first girl to play Major League Baseball.’ And I don’t say that lightly.”

Holy cow, wouldn’t that be SOMETHING? I would sure love to live to see that day, a woman playing in the Big Leagues. Just think about this: baseball players, football players, and basketball players make MILLIONS of dollars a year – if they are men. Women do not have access to those kinds of salaries as professional athletes with the exceptions of tennis and golf. Professional women soccer and basketball players are not signing multi-million dollar contracts right out of college, that’s for sure. The disparity is glaring and extreme. For women to finally have access to those kinds of salaries would be a big deal indeed.

Back to Chelsea:

She already is being recruited to play for the Sparks, a girls baseball team based in the Northeast that tours nationally playing against the best boys teams in the country.

Chelsea, average size for a 12-year-old girl, is unusually athletic with a powerful arm and a fastball that comes close to 70 mph. Yet it’s Niekro’s knuckleball, and the passion he sparked, that makes her so special.

It’s why in the fall, when her sixth-grade history assignment was to do a project on “Someone Who Changed The World,” she selected Joe Niekro as her topic. She already had all his old baseball cards. She had several pictures of her and him on the baseball field together.

“I got an A on the project. The teacher told us it had to be about someone you felt strongly about,” she said. “And I knew how famous Coach Joe was. I miss him. I remember before every game I pitched, I had to give him a kiss on the cheek before he’d give me the ball.”

Niekro pitched 22 seasons in the major leagues for seven different teams. He won 221 games. He and his brother Phil Niekro combined for 539 wins, the most of any brother tandem in history. Chelsea knows all those numbers now.

Some of his time in the Bigs was spent in Atlanta, my favorite NL team, with his brother, Phil. He and Phil were also in the Pinstripes of the New York Yankees while I was living in New York. What a career. Chelsea could tell you all about it:

She is the one who wrote the moving passage that was used as part of Niekro’s obituary tribute. It brought friends and family members to tears.

“Coach Joe taught me so much in the few short years I new (sic) him. He taught me how to have pride in myself, and to be humble. Most of all, he taught me to throw his famous knuckle ball. . . . . I miss seeing him . . . . . . and his happy face at the ballpark. I will always remember and love you. – CHELSEA BAKER.”

It was also Chelsea who came to the funeral viewing services and left a baseball in Niekro’s open casket. And it wasn’t just any baseball, either. It was a scuffed baseball, with four tiny and barely visible fingernail marks along the seams, exactly where he taught her to grip it.

“He taught me how to hold it like this,” she demonstrated last week. “I usually wait until I have two strikes. They can’t hit it. He told me that’s how it would be.”

She is merely a seventh-grader, but watching her pitch or watching her play, or hearing her speak about Niekro, she seems much older. For all her accomplishments — she will make her sixth consecutive All-Star team in Plant City — she is surprisingly humble.

Now THAT is something to celebrate. An accomplished athlete who makes good grades AND is humble. Wow. This pretty much says it all:

Some of her teachers at Turkey Creek Middle School don’t even know she plays baseball. Most of the boys do, because they’ve been playing against her for several years, accepting her as one of the best. It’s when she travels, as the only girl in her league, that occasionally she hears remarks about her being a girl. Mostly it’s from the grandstands, from other parents.

“I still hear parents from other teams say, ‘When is she going to start playing softball?’ ” said stepfather Rod Mason, who helps coach her team now. “And it kind of ticks me off. So I usually just say, ‘When she stops striking out your little Johnny.’ ”

Well said, Mr. Mason. Well said, indeed. How fortunate Chelsea is to have such supportive people in her life:

Mason and wife Missy have followed Chelsea’s baseball from the start. She started with baseball because that’s what Mason’s sons played. And she just happened to be so good at it.

“I’ve had other parents tell me now that they couldn’t get their girls to practice until they saw Chelsea play,” Mason said. “I think her success will help other girls. She’s just so unbelievably focused. I never ask her to practice. But she always comes to me.”

Home-plate umpires often come to Steve Gude, manager of her team now, and apologize for missing calls when Chelsea pitches. Her knuckleball often darts out and back into the strike zone when she keeps it low — like Coach Joe taught her.

Joe never taught her this trick, but it’s one she can do if you ask. She can stand out in center field — and her arm is so strong — she can throw a knuckleball all the way to home plate, giggling as it flutters through the air.

“Joe was really good to her,” Mason said. “He went out of his way to help her. He was such a giving guy with all the kids, always willing to help. But I think he knew Chelsea was kind of special.”

Women are graduating with advanced degrees in equal numbers with men. Our pay still lags behind the men. Good news, bad news. And the bad news is simply unacceptable in this day and age. Women must get the same pay as their male colleagues. Women must learn to stand together and demand the same salary as the guys with whom they are graduating. It is not going to be something handed down from on high. This battle has been dragging on far too long.

But then there is Chelsea Baker, a knuckleballer who throws as hard as Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who can also hit, and may well be the first woman to go up to the Big Show. Oh, who is also a good student and humble to boot. Here’s hoping she is one of many to shatter that glass ceiling. How ironic would that be – to have a woman in the Big Leagues before we have a woman president? Looking like that might be possible. It’s a start, though, a glimmer of hope. I’ll take it.

Then, I thought about writing on Michael Steele, the new RNC chair, and former Lt. Gov. of MD who had his credit record exposed by Schumer staffer a few years back. Turns out Mr. Steele wants the RNC to move forward, and to be open to all people. Interesting idea there, Mr. Steele.

Or maybe how Obama now wants an “assessment” on the whole “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” thing before, you know, anything changes.

Why doesn’t he just ask one of the 24 countries that DO allow gay people to serve openly in their military how they manage to accomplish this? I mean, heckfire, it’s not rocket science or anything. Clearly, other countries are managing just fine. But, no, we taxpayers will pay for some study that will take ages to complete to tell us what we already know. Meanwhile, our military will continue to throw out service members who are fluent in Arabic because – gasp – they happen to be LGBT. Because that makes so much sense. As much as doing another freakin’ study on it. Okey dokey.

But then I got this email from one of my oldest and dearest friends, who lives down near the Kentucky border:

It’s good to be back at work, in the light, in the warm, in the grid.

I still have no electricity at my house. We have a generator which we use to run the frig, an electric heater, one light, and we alternate the remaining plug between various items. We have mainly used a Coleman stove and the grill for cooking. It is getting old. They say most houses in my electric co-op will be back on in 2-4 days. We’re lucky to have (cold) water, some don’t. The disastrous event occurred on Tuesday. (Local) businesses were finally open again over the weekend. Last week we had to drive 45 miles north just to buy gas for our generator. Things like camping stoves, little cans of propane, etc. were sold out throughout the area. There is not a treetop left in (the) county. We lost the top out of the beautiful pine beside of our house (and all the rest of our trees too). It’s our little Katrina and things will never be the same.

My friend and her husband have been without power for days now. They are some of the hundreds of thousands of people who have been affected by this incredible ice-storm that swept through the Mid-West last week. The Kentucky governor, Steve Beshear, called out the ENTIRE Army National Guard to deal with the fallout from this storm.

And this is just a glimpse of with what the people in the Mid-West are dealing:

Their own Katrina indeed. One of my fellow writers at No Quarter will be dealing with some of the major political issues regarding this incredible storm, but for today, I wanted to highlight the personal side of the political situation. People are without water, and heat. People have been trapped in their homes. People have to drive miles and miles to get fuel. People continue to be without power a week after the storm. Tragically, people have lost their lives in this horrific storm.

Let us bear these thousands and thousands of people up in our hearts, in our thoughts, and in our prayers. And maybe, just maybe, treat each other with a little more kindness. Please.

Well, golly gee willikers. What a surprise! It’s not like many of us have not been yelling this from the top of our lungs for MONTHS. Which is also why, not for nothing, many of us will never see Obama as legitimately elected. Heck – he wasn’t even nominated legitimately – why should his election be any different? But I digress. Ahem.

So, many of us have been writing, saying, talking about, the rampant voter registration fraud, and voter fraud that marred this election. It seems it may have occurred here, too:

As Charleston County’s Board of Elections and Voter Registration recently discussed the Nov. 4 election, board member June Smith noted the heavy turnout of college voters and observed, “They could just as easily have voted here and voted absentee in their own state.”

She’s right, election officials say, but it’s unclear how many, if any, did vote twice.

As states begin analyzing what changes would improve the voting process the next time around, they will decide if such duplicate voting is worthy of their attention.
(Previous Story: Registration rate for ages 18-24 double that of other age groups in S.C., published 10/12/08)

I’m sorry, WHAT?? They are trying to see if it is WORTH their attention?? When Georgia had over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND intrastate votes (FL and OH from GA), is it really possible that they wondered if it was “WORTH” it to pursue the matter? I dunno, but that kinda seems like an affront to our very democracy. Oh, and illegal. Whatever.

And speaking of duplications:

State Election Commission public information officer Chris Whitmire said he hasn’t seen any recent analysis about duplicate voting, but two years ago, the state compared its voter registration rolls with those of Kentucky and Tennessee. It discovered about 14,000 South Carolina voters also were registered in one of those two states.

Of those, the state struck 5,659 from its rolls because their other registration appeared to be more current. It also sent a letter to them, and a handful wrote back that they needed to remain registered here, Whitmire said.

Kentucky later examined voter turnouts and discovered no one had voted there and in another state, according to Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson’s office.

“Just because we have not seen this type of fraud in previous elections does not mean we should rest on our laurels,” Grayson said at the time. “We will be looking for other voter fraud prevention techniques, as well as other states with which we can compare data.”

Were you people REALLY not paying attention to ANYTHING that went on this year??? Does the name ACORN ring a bell?? Maybe you could take a little look-see at ACORN for rampant voter registration fraud, which resulted in ACORN being investigated in over 16 states (including South Carolina). That might just give you a little clue into possible “prevention” areas. I’ll spell it out for you: voter registration fraud, and voting in two states. Just a suggestion.

As a little reminder, check out some of the shenanigans of ACORN:

But hey – they are being really proactive:

This week, Grayson said Kentucky would continue to compare its most recent list of voters with lists from neighboring states, particularly the presidential battleground states of Ohio and Indiana.

Grayson said he became interested in the duplicate voting issue a few years ago after his parents offhandedly suggested that they could vote for him. This was after they moved from Kentucky to South Carolina.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute. You’re a South Carolina resident. You can’t vote for me. It would look really bad,’” he said. “I saw that they could have, if they wanted to, voted and probably would have gotten away with it.”

Well, that’s just jake! The Kentucky Secretary of State just acknowledged that there is pretty much a voting free-for-all. You can now vote in more than one state at the same time! Whee!!! Or maybe it is because it does not seem to be a problem everywhere:

Even though Kentucky didn’t find any case of duplicate voting, Grayson said it’s still a good idea to check with other states because dead weight on the voting rolls creates a potential for fraud and because both campaigns and states want the lists as accurate as possible.

All I can say is, I would certainly hope so! Sheesh, that seems like the LEAST they can do!

Now, the following I found to be of interest, and would love to see their data, how they obtained it, and what their methodology was:

That no duplicate voting was uncovered is not necessarily surprising.

A national 2007 study of election fraud done by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law concluded that double voting is rare.

“The scarcity (of double voting) is expected, given the severity of the penalty (criminal prosecution) and the meager nature of the payoff (one incremental vote),” its report, titled “The Truth About Voter Fraud,” said.

And it makes me question their conclusion. Do they think the 100,000 over-votes from GA, just GA, not even including the documented cases from, say, OH, don’t blow their conclusion out of the water? Then again, their report was SO 2007 – and from the Pre-Obama days, so hey – they may have been right then. Doesn’t seem so right now, though – maybe they want to re-do their study and include 2008? Just a thought.

Especially because of this next point:

Grayson said some in Congress are asking if the federal government should help out.

“Some people are asking the question should we go to a national system?” he said. “We’re probably in the ‘Is there a problem stage?’ and it may be that there’s not a solution to this.”

Whitmire said South Carolina has considered joining with Georgia and North Carolina to compare registration lists and voter turnout, but the idea never got beyond the discussion stage.

In Georgia’s case, attorneys advised the state not to participate because of a pending lawsuit involving Social Security numbers.

“The voter registration system is not Fort Knox,” Whitmire said. “Someone who wants to commit voter fraud could probably do it.”

“Some people may feel in their mind they should be allowed to vote in more than one place,” he added. “If there is a risk for being caught and prosecuted for that crime, you would weigh that against casting one vote in another state for president. Is it worth the risk? I would say no. I hope most people would think the same way.”

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.

Sadly, in this past election, many people thought it was worth the risk. But what I find most troubling is this quote:

“Someone who wants to commit voter fraud could probably do it.

“Some people may feel in their mind they should be allowed to vote in more than one place,” he added.

Is he kidding me? Again, was he out of the planet during the course of this past election?? We saw rampant, MASSIVE, caucus fraud, in state after state after state (and explored in depth in the “We Will Not Be Silenced” documentary). We had freakin’ Marshall scholars ADMITTING to voting in two states. Oh, they admitted it from England – a bit far from the arm of the law. And their wealthy parents paid for wealthy attorneys, so they got off with a slap of the wrist. US Justice at work.

All of that is to say, I do not know in which universe Whitmire and Grayson live, but it sure isn’t the same one many of us endured this year. Because I tell you what, those thugs who bullied women in caucuses, as well as intimidated people from voting at all, and those who faked registrations do not seem like the type to worry all that much about duplicate voting. Hey, don’t take my word for it, take this guy’s:

And his:

So, yeah – I think it is time to take a little closer look at duplicate voting, and trying to ensure it does not happen – AGAIN. Oh, and intimidation and caucus fraud while you are at it. Just looking out for you, Mr. Grayson and Mr. Whitmire. And the rest of Americans who care about democracy.

Riffing off of the Newsweek editors’ quesiness over the cult of personality surrounding Barack, let me just add that I too think the worshipful descriptions of Barack as a new kind of Messiah is creepy. Guys feeling a tingle up their leg when he talks, swooning women, and fawning reporters is not a healthy situation in a democracy. I was watching the BBC earlier today with the sound off. They played a clip of the former Korean dictator, Kim Il Sung, walking among his people, who cheered and wept at his very appearance. Now, I’m not saying Barack is a Korean dictator, but the mindless praise is eerily similar.

I am amused by the innocent, naive belief by many “Progressives” that their messiah has come and the new era of progressive politics is upon us. One of my Progressive friends sent me the following analysis from Think Progress claiming it is a myth that America is Center-Right:

My friend, who lives in California, was earnest and sincere in sending this along. I sent back a respons–”You have got to be shitting me?” Why? The first piece of evidence is Proposition 8. California, the so-called land of moderate progressives, passed Proposition 8 last Tuesday banning homosexual marriage. Now if that happens in California, what do you think would happen in Kentucky, Kansas or Iowa? At least on the matter of personal sexual conduct when it comes to homosexuality America is very, very conservative.

Personally, I don’t understand why conservatives want to have government regulating conduct between consenting adults. I guess I am a libertarian conservative. I believe that sexual relations between consenting adults is not the business of any government. Worrying about erecting barriers to prevent homosexual men and women from getting married is a silly distraction in a world where we have real problems before us. I am betting that Barack Obama and his team are not going to get out in front of this issue. They will follow the popular will. Rather than try to use the bully pulpit of the White House to make the case that homosexual adults are entitled to the same rights as heterosexual adults, I am betting team Obama will be silent. I think there is some more disillusion coming for the Gay/Lesbian community on this issue.

Looking for a quick withdrawal from Iraq? I don’t think that is going to happen either. In fact, look for team Obama to start making the case that the situation has changed on the ground and that the Iraqi government wants us as a partner to help rebuild their society and infrastructure. Truth is the actual substance of U.S. policy in Iraq is not likely to change. At the same time look for the boost in U.S. combat forces going to Afghanistan and continued covert cross-border raids into Pakistan.

As I noted in an earlier piece, Rahm Emanuel is no pacifist. To the contrary. He was an uber-hawk on Iraq. We are witnesses to a fascinating split in the American Jewish community. The Jewish community is no different than the Christian community. It really is not a community and represents diametrically opposed points of view. Barack Obama and Emanuel have both been backed financially by very wealthy Chicago jewish families–the Crowns and the Pritzkers. They are not in sync with the more conservative neo-cons embodied by the likes of William Kristol. They are pro-Israel but anti-likud. Prospects of war with Iran are probably reduced with this crowd.

Last year I participated in a war game looking at the future of the Middle East. The assembled experts agreed at the end of the game that the one policy move that could put Iran on the defensive would be an agreement between Syria and Israel over the Golan Heights. Up to now the Bush Administration has opposed such a move. If the Obama team goes in that direction they might get a breakthrough in the Middle East that has seemed so elusive. That would be good news and might help Obama calm the fears of his Palestinian supporters who see him stacking his Administration with prominent Jewish Americans who carry pro-Israel credentials.

What about ignoring FISA (i.e., the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)? Now that this power is in the hands of Democrats will they relinquish it? I don’t think so. I would like to see a full restoration of FISA and a requirement that no serveillance is undertaken without having judicial review. Someone other than the Executive Branch needs to have a say in this matter.

Finally, there will be the economic policy front. Will Barack and company embark on a massive public employment program or seek to invest in the private sector and promote jobs thru some form of capitalism? If it is the former the Progressive will rejoice. But, if it is the later, Progressives will chalk up another example of a politician promising them one thing but delivering the opposite. It does look that Barack and his team recognize America is Center Right and are going to play to the element. For a guy who hung with Tony Rezko and dissed Hillary (bonehead moves in my book) Barack could establish himself as a very smart pol. We’ll see.

Barack Obama has a coal problem. Responding to yesterday’s revelation that Barack Obama intends to bankrupt all plants that operate on energy generated from coal, Chris Hamilton, the Senior Vice President of the West Virginia Coal Association, called Obama’s comments in San Francisco “unbelievable.” I quote the West Virginia Record:

The senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association called Obama’s comments “unbelievable.”

“His comments are unfortunate,” Chris Hamilton said Sunday, “and really reflect a very uninformed voice and perspective to coal specifically and energy generally.”

Hamilton noted other times Obama and vice presidential candidate Joe Biden have made seemingly anti-coal statements.

“In Ohio recently, when Joe Biden said ‘not here’ about building coal-fired power plants — this is exactly what will happen,” Hamilton said. “Financing won’t be directed here. It will all go aboard for plants elsewhere in the world. The United Sates is importing more coal today from Indonesia, South Africa and Colombia than we ever have.

“If we’re going to create a situation where coal-fired power plants are at that much of a disadvantage, there will be new ones built. But as Biden said, just not here.”

In other words, the workers of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana and all the other states in which coal is mined, processed and converted to electricity should be prepared to have their jobs outsourced under an Obama Presidency. That is not the change the economically battered Ohio River Valley needs. It is also not the change those of us who consume electricity need. Just imagine the cost of our energy bills if coal plants, which generates 49% of our electricity, are bankrupted and eliminated.

American Girl in Italy asks No Quarter readers to disseminate the following recording of Barack Obama’s statement on bankrupting coal plants far and wide.

And I offer more information on who will be affected by Obama’s reckless energy policy in an essay I published yesterday.

Clearly Obama’s statements will have electoral effects in West Virginia, where he has already garnered opposition from leaders of the industry that is that state’s main economic engine. But we must ensure voters in Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania are armed with these facts before they cast votes tomorrow.

Sarah Palin is doing everything within her power to ensure voters in the Ohio River Valley understand the implications and ramifications of Obama’s desire to bankrupt plants relying on energy produced from coal. I quote CBS News:

(MARIETTA, OHIO) – Seizing on a newly released audio tape picked up by the Drudge Report, Sarah Palin took the opportunity here in coal country to accuse Barack Obama of “talking about bankrupting the coal industry.”

“He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he’s comfortable letting that happen,” Palin said. “And you got to listen to the tape.”

The audiotape Palin was referring to was recorded by the San Francisco Chronicle in a Jan. 17 interview.

“Why is the audiotape just now surfacing?” Palin asked, leading someone in the crowd to shout, “Liberal media!”

“This interview was given to San Francisco folks many, many months ago,” Palin said. “You should have known about this, so that you would have better decision-making information as you go into the voting booth.”

Marietta, Ohio, is located on the Ohio River on the border between Ohio and West Virginia. This is the perfect place to discuss Obama’s desire to bankrupt the coal industry, for many of the workers in that city and its environs earn their wages in mines and in factories reliant on coal.

And Sarah and the audience in Marietta, Ohio, are correct: we only learned about this now as a result of the venal and obsequious media’s suppression of any and all information that is unfavorable to Barack Obama. Just witness CNN’s attempt to minimize the importance of this story:

Contrary to her attempts to portray a media cover-up, audio and video recordings of Obama’s January 17 sit-down with the Chronicle editorial board have been freely available online for more than nine months.

In the interview, Obama said that his “aggressive” cap-and-trade plan would charge polluters for every unit of carbon or greenhouse gas they emit, a plan that would render polluting coal plants financially unviable.

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can,” he said. “It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

In the interview, Obama also made the case for alternative energy sources, adding that he does not believe coal production will be eliminated, and that he supports carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

John McCain also supports a market-based cap-and-trade proposal to reduce carbon emissions.

Regardless, Palin sought to use Obama’s words against him in a part of the country where coal has long been king.

“He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he’s comfortable letting that happen.”

The media, it seems, will not inform working class voters of Obama’s attempts to eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and raise our electricity bills. But Sarah Palin and those who care about the economy of West Virginia and other states in the Ohio River Valley will. And so will we, for we understand that the elimination of jobs in a region of a country Obama already insulted with his comments in San Francisco about those bitter small town voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio who cling to guns and religion will not solve America’s economic woes. Indeed, it will only exacerbate the current recession.

Let us stand with West Virginia and the Ohio River Valley and defend those who rely on coal for their economic livelihood. This is certainly what Hillary would do. I quote the Sun-Times article I cite above:

After the quotes [about "bitter clingers"] surfaced on a political blog Friday, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and GOP hopeful John McCain immediately decried them as evidence that Obama is “elitist” or “out of touch.”

“My opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter. Well, that’s not my experience,” Clinton told a crowd in Philadelphia. “As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves … Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them, they need a president who stands up for them.”

And yes, Barack Obama is an elitist politician who “looks down on” voters in the Ohio River Valley and in other areas of the country that rely on coal. Hillary Clinton does not, and neither does John McCain. Here is John McCain yesterday campaigning in Pennsylvania:

SCRANTON, Pa. — Campaigning in coal-rich Pennsylvania, GOP presidential nominee John McCain pledged this afternoon that if elected president, he would ensure that the U.S. exports coal overseas — something that U.S. policy already permits.

At the same time, the McCain campaign and Republican National Committee reportedly launched robocalls in Ohio, Pennsylvania and other coal states attacking Sen. Barack Obama’s position on coal.

Mocking Obama for a comment he made in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in January — “The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster,” Obama had said — McCain promised the audience at the University of Scranton that he’s been a proud coal cheerleader in the past, and plans to be one in the future.

“My friends, you know what Senator Obama said about a year ago, he said he had not been a, quote, coal booster,” he said, as the crowd booed. “My friends, I’ve been a coal booster and it’s going to create jobs, and we’re going to export coal to other countries and we are going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. That’s going to help restore the economy of the great state of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

The robocalls have been placed, but we must ensure the voters understand that Obama desires to bankrupt the coal industry and increase the prices of our energy bills. We have one day, and this must be done. Circulate the video I cite above.

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[UPDATE]: Ohio Coal Association issues a scathing statement on Barack Obama’s statement. I quote:

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov 03, 2008 /PRNewswire–USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association (OCA), today issued the following statement in response to just-released remarks from Senator Barack Obama about the nation’s coal industry.

“Regardless of the timing or method of the release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer: the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America’s coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in it.

“These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like ‘I haven’t been some coal booster’ and ‘if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them’ are extraordinarily misguided.
“It’s evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state’s voters.

“Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short- sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation’s coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to ‘bankrupt’ our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.

“In addition to providing an affordable, reliable source of low-cost electricity, domestic coal holds the key to our nation’s long-term energy security – a goal that cannot be overlooked during this time of international instability and economic uncertainty.

“Few policy areas are more important to our economic future than energy issues. As voters head to the polls tomorrow, it is essential they remember that access to reliable, affordable, domestic energy supplies is essential to economic growth and stability.”

The Ohio Coal Association (OCA) is a non-profit trade association representing the interests of Ohio’s underground and surface coal mining producers. The OCA represents nearly 40 coal producing companies and more than 50 Associate Members, which include suppliers and consultants to the mining industry, coal sales agents and brokers and allied industries. The Ohio Coal Association is committed to advancing the development and utilization of Ohio coal as an abundant, economic and environmentally sound energy source.

Representing 40 coal producing companies and more than 50 associate members in related industries, the OCA will deliver many Ohio votes to John McCain.

Words do matter, I guess.

As you probably also know, Mr. Fund has written a book, “Stealing Elections, Revised and Updated: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.”

In 20 minutes following publication of this story — at 3:00 a.m. ET (Monday, Nov. 3, 2008) — BookTV.org (C-Span2) is airing a one-hour speech and Q&A with John Fund.

You may also watch the video at any time here at BookTV.org.

What else is going on so early in the morning? Have you caught the latest on the breaking news about Obama’s intentions to bankrupt coal-reliant businesses and industries? NOTE the states listed above in the categories; workers and businesses in all of those states, and more, could be devastated by Obama’s schemes.

Here’s what we know so far:

Among the LATEST NEWS: Sarah Palin is speaking out about Barack Obama and coal, according to Memeorandum.com.

If you missed our reporting on this breaking story, please check out:

• Truthteller’s Sunday afternoon story, “MEMO to Voters in States Producing and Relying On Coal: Obama Intends to Bankrupt Your Businesses and Your Industries,” and
• American Girl in Italy’s call to action, “ACTION ALERT – Obama has promised to bankrupt coal plants.”

We hope to publish more on this “hot” story later today.

Search all kinds of sites, mommy sites, restaurant/city blogs, online newspapers, grocery stores…anything and everything!! We need to get this message out to the people that this will effect. Those who don’t live this stuff 24/7. Look for sites that are supporting Obama, too.

Try to post this video on web sites in these states: Montana, Illinois, Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, North Dakota, New Mexico, Virginia and Texas.

States like WV have experienced devastating consequences from collapsing industries. They won’t want more of the same.

See Truthteller’s earlier post, for a more in-depth look at this.

You can make a difference TODAY! This will change people’s minds.

Let Obama speak for himself, just copy and paste the headline and link to the video:

(and I’m sure I don’t need to remind people to be polite. :O)

Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, Montana, Illinois, Virginia, North Dakota, Colorado, Indiana, New Mexico, Utah, Ohio, Alabama and Arizona: these coal producing states will be adversely affected by Barack Obama’s energy policy.

Imagine mines closing, factories closing, jobs lost, towns abandoned, small businesses failing, pensions lost, wages dropping and widespread economic depression in states that rely on coal mining and processing. This is what Obama’s cap and trade system will engender in states such as WV, PA, MT, VA, ND, CO, IN, NM, OH and AZ. Just listen to this audio of Obama discussing how he will bankrupt factories and businesses that rely on power generated from coal when he was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2008:

[[[TAKE ACTION!! RIGHT NOW!
Start posting this video on sites in the coal based states: Virginia, Montana, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, New Mexico, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado.]]]

Here is the transcript:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It’s just that it will bankrupt them.“

Does Obama realize the number of jobs lost when he arrogantly states that plants will be bankrupted under his energy policy? Does he not understand the number of lives affected?

The Ohio River Basin is one area of the country that will be decimated as a result of Obama’s desire to bankrupt plants relying on coal.

And while the economy of the Ohio River Valley is decimated, the following regions of the country will witness no job growth, as the following proposed plants will never be built:

Permits for these proposed plants have already been cancelled:

The West will also be adversely affected by Obama’s reckless energy policy:

Bankrupting an entire industry will destroy the lives of Americans across the country. Both coal produces and consumers will have to fire employees, and this will create widespread job loss and increased economic recession.

More discussion on Obama’s desire to bankrupt coal producers and consumers is available at Memeorandum.

Senator, whatever could you POSSIBLY be thinking? What group are you pandering to NOW? We all know your standing with our sons and daughters in uniform. Are you trying to get the “too-stupid-not-to-sign-up-crowd?” Really? Even though your acolytes often suggest the only people serving are those who can’t get work somewhere better, like Starbucks or Whole Foods? That must be some great arugula you’re smoking, to think military people will feel your kinship to them, or was it the phantom army you were talking to? Senator, you do know that phantom army can’t vote? Oh but, you’re from Chicago – maybe that works there.

Where in your universe does having a grandfather and/or great uncle who served in the Army and may or may not have liberated someone somewhere suggest in any way whatsoever that you have any understanding of the military, its people, traditions and sacrifices?

What’s next, sir? A tank ride? By the way, senator, if you’re looking to attract military people, you MIGHT want to ask your not-my-close-friends to step off the flag for their publicity photos hawking their new books.

But Senator, perhaps you were going for the Jewish vote? Having previously stoked the embers of racism into a hungry flame, are you now trying to convince Jews they are “the other white people” – not those horrible West Virginia and Kentucky types – and you can “feel THEIR pain?” Do you think, sir, telling people your “uncle” liberated Auschwitz is a GOOD idea? Particularly since it was the RED ARMY that marched into Auschwitz? Know history, much, sir? Or do you think most Jews get their concentration camps confused and won’t really mind since you so clearly have the best intentions at heart? Or did you MEAN to tell us your uncle-in-the-attic was a communist?

Senator, traditionally on Memorial Day, our politicians profess gratitude for the sacrifices our service members have made on our behalf. Most of the time they manage to distinguish between the living and the dead and to offer up any truthful examples of family members who served. You did neither.

At the VERY LEAST, you should have been able to summon the skills of an experienced politician. But then again, you’re not.

Good night and good luck.

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This broadcast was intercepted by our crack technology team from a dimension where Keith Olbermann really is a journalist. If you thought he said this on Earth, we apologize for the confusion. – Editor

And compare it to the results of this poll Rasmussen released today on Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) reelection prospects:

Not only can Hillary win Kentucky, a state former President Bill Clinton won both in 1992 and in 1996; she can generate the coattails required to catapult Democrat Bruce Lunsford to victory over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in what will be one of the most competitive US Senate races this election cycle. Because McCain outperforms Obama by a staggering 25 points in KY, one can assume Obama will complicate and even undermine Lunsford’s election bid. Some would say Obama is a drag for Lunsford.

Everyone remembers how the coattails of Bush II enabled Republican Senator John Thune to oust Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle during the South Dakota Senate race in 2004. If superdelegates think in the interests of the Party and not in the interests of David Axelrod and other corrupting elements within the Democratic Party, we can both win the Presidency and humiliate Senate Republicans. Do we want to make it impossible for Republicans to mount filibusters in the Senate during a Hillary Presidency, or do we desire a McCain Presidency with a Democratic majority in the Senate that cannot derail Republican filibusters? The choice is that of the superdelegates and of those who are charged with determining whether or not the Michigan and Florida delegations will be seated. I hope they are listening.

Dorothea LANGE, “Migrant Mother,” 1936

A friend paraphrases a famous story to illustrate why she may vote Republican for the first time in 40 years: in the late 1960s, when the feminist movement was still thought of as a novelty, a boorish male reporter asked the heterosexual Gloria Steinem if she was a lesbian. Steinem responded, “I am if you’re the alternative.”

There is a growing consensus at No Quarter and elsewhere that Obama’s tactics have made him an unacceptable alternative to Hillary, and many of us will be voting for McCain, writing in Hillary, or staying home.

As Hillary continues to increase her popular vote lead and absolutely crush Obama in critical states, many are looking at a potential Obama nomination as a coup d’état similar to Florida in 2000, facilitated by the neo-liberal-Dean wing of the Party, African American power brokers, and the Clinton-hating media. Regarding Florida and Michigan, Anglachel writes:

Lack of legitimacy means relying on force to win. If you have to bully people to make them be quiet, you have lost legitimacy. If you have to remove votes from the contest in order to win, you have lost legitimacy. The objection Hillary supporters have to “teh Rulz” to exclude Michigan and Florida is how nakedly they are used to force the numbers themselves into submission.

A commentator agrees with Anglachel and points out that:

The FL/MI debacle not only robbed Clinton of delegates, but it robbed her of momentum that would have affected later contests. It robbed her of frontrunner status. In fact, with those 2 states and Super Tuesday, she probably would have been close to winning.

An Obama nomination — after the selective but intentional disenfranchisement of Michigan and Florida, the relentless race-baiting by Obama and his surrogates, and the venom from his supporters — is repugnant to many of us who, to use Arthur Schlesinger’s phrase, are unrepentant and unreconstructed liberals and New Dealers.

What we are witnessing is nothing short of the breakup of the historic Democratic coalition. Chris Bowers, Obama supporter and writer at Open Left, dreams of a cultural change in an Obama Democratic Party which is almost a parody of the brie and Chardonnay stereotype:

There should be a major cultural shift in the party, where the southern Dems and Liebercrat elite will be largely replaced by rising creative class types. Obama has all the markers of a creative class background, from his community organizing, to his Unitarianism, to being an academic, to living in Hyde Park to shopping at Whole Foods and drinking PBR. These will be the type of people running the Democratic Party now, and it will be a big cultural shift from the white working class focus of earlier decades.

Further illustrating their break with traditional liberalism, Markos Moulitsas has declared himself a libertarian Democrat, in other words: a politically correct Republican. These neo-liberals are really proposing a Party run by those who have little need for government and instead focus on identity politics, environmentalism, post-partisan government, and the rejection of American exceptionalism. The neo-liberals demonize the traditional Democratic base of poor white voters precisely because these voters rely on government and expect their leadership to fight partisan battles on their behalf. They are also deeply patriotic and weary of the moral relativism put forward by the likes of Jeremiah Wright.

Because of Obama’s anemic performances in West Virginia and Kentucky, the campaign and its supporters imagine a new Party. Sean Wilentz writes

the Barack Obama campaign and its sympathizers have begun to articulate much more clearly what they mean by their vague slogan of “change” – nothing less than usurping the historic Democratic Party, dating back to the age of Andrew Jackson, by rejecting its historic electoral core: white workers and rural dwellers in the Middle Atlantic and border states.

It remains to be seen whether the breakup of the Democratic Party more resembles (A) the McGovern disaster of 1972 and 20 years in the wilderness, or (B) a dismantling of the current coalition more akin to the Republicans replacing the Whigs in 1856.

In whatever form our Party takes, the perpetrators of this breakup are the Obama campaign and the neo-liberals. It’s their demonization of low-income white Americans which is largely the cause of our coalition’s breakup. Wilentz continues:

Without a majority of those voters, the Democrats have, since the party’s inception in the 1820s, been incapable of winning the presidency. The Obama advocates declare, though, that we have entered an entirely new political era. It is not only possible but also desirable, they say, for Democrats to win by turning away from those whom “progressive” pundits and bloggers disdain variously as “Nascar man,” “uneducated,” “low information” whites, “rubes, fools, and hate-mongers” who live in the nation’s “shitholes.”

Hillary’s ability to keep this race so close, with virtually no African American support, shows Obama’s incredible weakness as a candidate. This is not because of race, as the neo-liberal race-baiters would have you believe, but because Obama does not articulate an economic message which appeals to low-income whites. According to Wilentz:

Every poll shows that economics, health care, and national security are the leading issues for white working class voters – and for Latino working class voters as well. These constituencies have cast positive ballots for Hillary Clinton not because she is white, but because they regard her as better on these issues. Obama’s campaign and its passionate supporters refuse to acknowledge that these voters consider him weaker — and that Clinton’s positions, different from his, as well as her experience actually attract support. Instead they impute racism to working class Democrats who, the polls also show, happen to be liberal on every leading issue. The effort to taint anyone who does not support Obama as motivated by racism has now become a major factor in alienating core Democrats from Obama’s campaign.

The class warfare now raging in the Democratic Party, while both sides ostensibly are on the Left, is actually the classic struggle between the proletariat workers (blue-collar whites and Latinos) and the petite bourgeoisie (neo-liberals). African Americans have mostly gone to Obama because of the historic nature of his candidacy; many, however, were pushed to Obama by the race-baiting wedge utilized by Obama and the neo-liberals, a tactic identical in form and result as that used by Lee Atwater and other Republican operatives. Obama’s hostility towards the white working class, as seen with his bitter-gate remarks, is the exact framework from which many of the neo-liberals view this struggle:

Obama’s dismissal of white working people represents a sea-change in the Democrats’ basic identity as the workingman’s party – one that has been coming since the late 1960s, when large portions of the Left began regarding white workers as hopeless and hateful reactionaries.

Arthur Schlesinger, eminent historian and New Frontiersman, foresaw the dangers of identity politics as a substitute for progressive policy. He believed in an activist government which should be used “to improve opportunities and to enlarge freedoms for ordinary people.” The Obama campaign’s desire to win the nomination, regardless of its illegitimacy, and their hostility towards poor white Americans is a movement which is tearing the Democratic Party apart. Many of us believe that the best way to fight for working Americans — regardless of color — is to make sure this movement is defeated.

I am not making this stuff up.

Obama blames Fox News, e-mail for likely loss in Kentucky

He also blamed Fox News for disseminating “rumors” about him and said that that and e-mails filled with misinformation that have been “systematically” dispersed have hurt him in Kentucky.

So those backwoods hicks are immune to the Cult-Aide because they prefer moonshine. Instead they get their hypno on by watching Fox News.

But that doesn’t stop Obama from trying to hoodwink Kentuckians anyway. The master in his own words:

“What it says is that I’m not very well known in that part of the country,” Obama said. “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.”

Yeah, Obama, those dumb hicks aren’t aware that Illinois borders Kentucky. What an idiot!

And this is how he is explaining his massive loss in Kentucky Tuesday night.

“Part of it is because there have been these e-mails that have been sent out very systematically, presumably by various political opponents, although I don’t know who,” he said. “And there are a lot of voters who get their news from Fox News. Fox has been pumping up rumors about my religious beliefs or my patriotism or what have you since the beginning of the campaign.”

Juan Williams is having none of it. The way he sees things Obama is delusional and making excuses for his inability to connect with ordinary Americans.

Juan says Obama is Constipated

Well I think he is playing to the elites Laura. A lot of people on the elite side, the San Francisco people who he told that those backwood rubes don’t understand their clinging to their guns and their religion. They also think that somehow those people are being influenced and misguided by Fox news. And so I think Barack Obama is playing to that base and writing off people who watch Fox and I think distorting the truth. because as you just said, when he has come on Fox he has been treated very well. I would challenge him to say: Give me some evidence where you have been mistreated.

The one case he would cite is one day about a year ago Fox reported that he had attended a madras as a young person growing up. The next day, this was a one day one hit wonder, the next day Fox News corrected it. Is that what he is talking about? I don’t know. If that’s the case it is su8ch a thin reed that I think that it makes him look foolish. I don’t think, there is no substance to it. Because when he has come on Fox he has been treated so well. In fact I would go an added step. I would say in fact there are people on Fox that really don’t like Hillary Clinton and have been very rough on Hillary Clinton. And they have almost treated Obama as a savior. Oh yeah, treat him well because he is the guy thats come along and he is the one that is going to defeat Hillary Clinton.

I think that Juan does a good job of explaining all of this. Of course to the Obama campaign and his thug supporters, Juan is nothing more than a House N*g*er. But what else would you expect from them?

In the end Williams hits it out of the ballpark. This guy not only has his head on right, he understands ordinary people and knows exactly what to say.

It’s just like this: He is not campaigning in Kentucky. He is campaigning in Oregon. He didn’t campaign in West Virginia. So I think, wait a second, If he wants people to get to know him make an effort. Let people get to know you, make a case for yourself. Instead he wants to blame Fox. I think it’s a cheap out. I think in fact people are seeing through him. That’s the problem. He doesn’t like people seeing through him.

In Pennsylvania it was those clingy hicks. In West Virginia we never even had the chance to find out what Obama thought, because he only held one campaign event in that state. And now in Kentucky Obama is blaming this all on Fox News and those dumb hillbillies stupid enough to watch and believe it.

I think that Juan is exactly right. Obama has been caught looking down his elite nose on ordinary, hard working Americans. And the people of Kentucky can see right through him. Thank goodness!

And I am proud to state: Ich bin ein Kentuckian.

I end this with a wonderful find. It is the unofficial Obama campaign song. I think you will find it entirely appropriate.

Obama Might Do Better in Kentucky If He Knew Where It Was

Wonderful World (Don’t Know Much)
Sam Cooke
Reprise by Beto Ochoa

Don’t know much about history
Jus’ what liberals taught to me
Don’t know much about a bible book
Jus’ the view Revren’ Jeri took
But I do know I need your vote
And the press ain’t gonna’ rock the boat
What a wonderful scam this will be

Don’t know much about geography
Jus’ the places where the elite be
Don’t know much about ancient rocks
Jus’ the way to stuffa’ ballot box
But I know that if we make one vote two
And if we supress the rednecks too
What a wonderful scam this will be

Now, I don’t claim to be an “A” student
Just a product of whitey guilt
And if we can make you all feel guilty
I can get ya’ll to vote for me

Don’t know much about history
Jus’ what liberals taught to me
Don’t know much about a bible book
Jus’ the view Revren’ Jeri took
But I do know I need your vote
And the press ain’t gonna’ rock the boat
What a wonderful scam this will be

A few days ago, Rasmussen reported the following polling results regarding Pennsylvania‘s presidential election in November 2008:.

Both polls show Hillary doing very well, but the headlines of Rasmussen’s reports do not mention Hillary at all.  I suppose we should be grateful that Rasmussen is still including questions about Hillary in surveys (unlike some other polling outfits).

Recent polls from Quinnipiac have more good news for Hillary: she’s beating McCain in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania: 

Polls close asynchronously at 6pm and 7pm EST in Kentucky. Feel free to submit your predictions and analysis to this Kentucky returns open thread. Here are a few polls to guide you:

American Research Group, Kentucky Democratic Primary
14-15 MAY 2008
600 Likely Voters
Margin of Error, +/- 4.0%

Clinton 65 (+36)
Obama 29
Someone Else 4
Undecided 2

Survey USA, Kentucky Democratic Primary
16-18 MAY 2008
629 Likely Voters
Margin of Error, +/- 3.9%

Clinton 62 (+31)
Obama 31
Other 5
Undecided 1

Suffolk University, Kentucky Democratic Primary
17-18 MAY 2008
600 Likely Voters
Margin of Error, +/- 4.0%

Clinton 51 (+26)
Obama 25
Edwards 6
Uncommitted 5
Undecided 11

I predict the following outcome:

Clinton 64 (+33)
Obama 31
Uncommitted 5