Say Anything Blog

See, your goal in life should be to pay lots and lots of taxes and then sit back and let the government do everything for you.

That’s the American way.  According to liberals.

I don’t know what’s more nauseating.  The doll itself:

Or the sales pitch that goes with it:

Like countless others out there, we’ve been inspired by the meteoric rise of Barack Obama and his campaign. In a time when America so desperately needed a hero, along came a man to show us a brand new vision of what America and the world could be in the 21st century. In many ways, Obama is the closest thing we’ve ever seen to a superhero… someone who has literally inspired millions of people simultaneously to step past fear, to be brave enough to hope and to go past cynicism and imagine what we could be if we were at our best. That’s the stuff of legend! And we wanted to pitch in.

In that spirit we created The Obama Action Figure because every superhero should have one. 

Superhero?  Good grief.

Americans aren’t supposed to worship their political leaders.  They are to be citizens like the rest of us elevated to power by our consent, not supreme beings surrounded by a cult of personality.

But checking out the other dolls that are sold on this site sort of explains the Obama doll.  Vladimir Lenin?  Check.  Mao Zedong?  Check. 

Che Guevera?  What Obama-worshiping doll-maker’s website would be complete without him?

Well, I guess you’ve got to give him points for being honest about being a heedless tax-and-spend liberal.

Not only does Obama say he won’t eliminate the deficit in his first term, as McCain aims to do, he frankly says he’s not sure he’d bring it down at all in four years, considering his own spending plans.

“I do not make a promise that we can reduce it by 2013 because I think it is important for us to make some critical investments right now in America’s families,” Obama told reporters this week when asked if he’d match McCain’s pledge.

This is in contrast to John McCain who is promising to eliminate the deficit in his first term in office, and you gotta love how the Associated Press frames this divide between the candidates:

So what is more important in tough economic times? For the government to spend more to help hard-hit Americans or to eliminate a deficit that can lead to higher borrowing costs and slow the economy?

What’s more important?  Helping families?  Or eliminating the deficit and slowing the economy?

That’s a fair and objective way of putting it.  And I’m being sarcastic when I write that, if it wasn’t obvious.

Sometimes these reporters don’t even try to pretend to be objective.

Regardless, I’m a bit skeptical of McCain’s promise to balance the budget.  Can it be done?  Sure.  Is McCain the guy who can do it given that he’ll probably be working with a Democrat-dominated Congress?  I find it unlikely.

But even so, Obama’s statement about wanting to increase government spending even further rather than give some money back to the taxpayers so that they can spend it in the economy and create jobs (remember that’s what the stimulus checks Obama and the rest of the politicians supported were all about) is a bit shocking.  I think most Americans find the federal deficit, and the national debt, to be worrisome and aren’t going to like Obama’s rather cavalier attitude about it at all.

Of course, in the coming days as Obama begins to take some flak for this he’ll undoubtedly “refine” his position a bit, claim he never meant what he actually said, and then wonder why everyone’s making a fuss.

A particularly good episode from Drew Carey:

I was going to ask if anyone else found this as annoying or disgusting as I do…

...but Jammie Wearing Fool beat me to it!

Must Obama constantly be portrayed with a halo? The cliché is getting old! Please spare us the images of Obamessiah until after his beatification!

Cross Posted at Proof Positive

A particularly powerful ad illustrating poor Obama’s poor grasp of foreign policy:

Hat tip Hot Air

Cross Posted at Proof Positive

This strikes me as a good analysis:

John Kerry flip-flopped to the left during the primaries to outflank the hard-left Dean on Iraq. The flip-flop secured him the nomination, but hurt him in the general election. He was left with a recently-adopted left position he could not easily abandon after having already flip-flopped to it months earlier.

The flip-flop hurt him two ways: He was shown to be a panderer and willing to adopt any position to advance his political interests, and he was adopting positions disfavored by the middlish independent voters vital to winning the presidency.

Obama’s flip-flop is the other way. He began by strongly pandering to the left—a la Howard Dean. Hillary was in John Kerry’s position during the primaries—she had to move further and further left to appeal to the harder-left voters of the Democratic primaries (and especially the very hard left activist types that bother showing up for eight hour caucuses). She failed, of course. No matter how far to the left she moved, Obama was always two steps further to the left.

But now it’s general campaign season, and Obama is flip-flopping, not to the left as Kerry did, but to the center.

So while he will be damaged by such principle-free mercenary opportunism, he does not have to fear that, like Kerry, he had made himself less electable among independents and those in the squishy middle. Indeed, Obama’s flip-flops make him more palatable to the center.

Where it may hurt Obama the most is that his pandering to the center is in direct contradiction to his claim to be a “change” candidate.  A “new politics” candidate.  The “authenticity” candidate.

There’s nothing new or different about pandering, and Obama can hardly claim to be “authentic” if he’s now trying to obfuscate his history of being a far-left political figure.

Because they think it’s their business, of course.

Personally I’m all for public education about gun safety (though I’m not a fan of gun locks myself), but I’m not real keen on being made to feel like a bad parent by some smug doctor because I’ve got guns in my house.

A reader sends this along in response to this Associated Press report in the Jamestown Sun about a $500,000 earmark Senator Byron Dorgan secured to “study” the expansion of North Dakota’s one oil refinery.

Dorgan is at it again.  Tesoro just announced a $125M expansion of their Mandan refinery.  Why on earth would the REC’s [Rural Electrical Cooperatives] need half a mil to STUDY the expansion of refining?  We only have one refinery!  And why the electric assoc?  Except that they are going to turn around and contribute to your [Dorgan’s] campaign in ‘10.

The National Association of Rural Electrical Cooperatives has given a total of $16,000 to Senator Dorgan since 1997.  Getting $500,000 back is a pretty good return on investment, no?

Of course, the oddest part of this whole thing is why the Rural Electrical Cooperatives would get money to study the expansion of an oil refinery?

Kind of reminds me of Dorgan’s $8 million earmark for Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing which is owned by the parents of Kristin Hedger, who just happens to be a former member of Senator Dorgan’s staff and a prominent Democrat politician in her own right.

Nothing like using the taxpayer dollars to buy votes.

It didn’t work with onions back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and it won’t work with oil today.

In 1958, Congress officially banned all futures trading in the fresh onion market. Growers blamed “moneyed interests” at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for major price movements, which could sink so low that the sack would be worth more than the onions inside, then drive back up during other seasons or even month to month. Championed by a rookie Republican Congressman named Gerald Ford, the Onion Futures Act was the first (and only) time that futures trading in a specific commodity was prohibited, and the law is still on the books.

But even after the nefarious middlemen had been curbed, cash onion prices remained highly volatile. In a classic 1963 paper, Stanford economics professor Roger Gray examined the historical behavior of onion prices before and after the ban and showed how the futures market had actually served to stabilize prices.

Read the whole thing.

Some would say so, and certainly things have greatly improved in America’s northern neighbor since the conservative (by Canadian standards) Stephen Harper took office, but I hardly think anyone should be emulating what Canada does.

Personally, though, when I think of Canada one thing comes to mind.  It’s not health care waiting lists and shortages (though those are troubling) or the assaults on free speech by the country’s so-called “Human Rights” councils (even more troubling), but rather all the Canadians I see in my own community shopping for products and health care because they’re cheaper and/or more accessible here in America.

I live just 60 miles from America’s border with Canada, and I can tell you that my communities stores, clinics and hospitals are packed with Canadians who are fleeing their home country’s high taxes and woefully bureaucratic national health care system.  I can also tell you that nobody from my community goes up to Canada to shop.

Which tells me that I certainly don’t want my community, or my state or even my country to emulate what’s going on in Canada.

I found the juxtaposition of a list of Obama’s flip-flops followed by his denial that he is, in fact, a flip flopper in this article rather amusing.

As he positions himself for the battle against Republican John McCain, the Illinois senator abandoned a vow to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement, did not oppose a Supreme Court decision striking down Washington’s gun ban and said he would support expanding the government’s wiretap authority.

Most recently, he signaled more flexibility on his pledge to quickly pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, telling reporters last week he might “refine” his views based on what happens on the ground.

Asked about his Iraq policy at a town hall meeting in Powder Springs, Obama rejected claims he was softening his insistence on a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.

He also said he hoped he could more generally counter “this whole notion that I am shifting to the center or that I’m flip-flopping or this or that.”

Shorter Obama: Please ignore the fact that I’ve actually been flip-flopping on certain key issues and only pay attention to what I tell you, which is that I’m not flip-flopping at all.

The sad thing?  Most of Obama’s disciples will be all too willing to go along.

This time in Pennsylvania.

I wonder why Obama’s close connections to ACORN, and the rampant voter registration fraud ACORN is routinely responsible for, will get some coverage in the media?

Bill “I was a draft dodger” Clinton is implying that McCain’s POW experience is a negative. (Why wouldn’t the Democrats try to tear down his strength of character?)
Here’s McCain’s response:

Hat tip Hot Air
Cross posted at Proof Positive

I had to look twice when I read this column by CW Nevius over at SF Gate.

San Francisco is a city that wants to do the right thing. The problem, as always, is when our politicians get carried away.

Certainly, no one has any problem with standing up for someone’s right to express themselves or control their own life. San Francisco has a long and proud record of backing those kinds of issues.

Same-sex marriage?

Absolutely.

Universal health care?

That, too.

Banning the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps from local high schools - despite the fact that there has been no complaint about the program - because you disagree with the American military’s policy on gay and lesbian soldiers?

Uh, what?

Writing a column in uber-liberal San Francisco criticizing the decision by local politicians to disband the military-style program. Uh, what?

Apparently many a parent is unhappy with that decision and almost twice the number of signatures needed to put the issue on the November ballot have been gathered. And now even San Francisco’s mayor has jumped on the band wagon, saying how silly the whole thing was. Political expediency - the great equalizer (See: Obama).

The columnist also points out that San Francisco frequently manages to make itself look pretty goofy to other, less enlightened mortals:

It’s also red meat for those conservative blogs and news outlets that want to paint San Francisco as a nutty outpost that tries to impose its views on everyone else.

Sanchez says two news organizations have been following this closely and one is The Chronicle. The other is Fox News: They love it when San Franciscans start bickering over ideological issues that make the city look less tolerant instead of more inclusive.

Of course, we would never point and laugh at San Francisco.

Would we?

Here’s Thomas Sowell, Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow at The Hoover Institution, on why conservatives ought not be swayed by “...no more serious reasons than his mouth and his complexion.”

Here is a man who has consistently aided and abetted people who have openly expressed their contempt for this country, both in words and in such deeds as planting bombs to advance their left-wing agenda.
Despite the spin that judging Obama by what was said or done by such people would be “guilt by association,” he has not just associated with such people. He has in some cases donated some serious money of his own and even more of the taxpayers’ money, as both a state senator in Illinois and a member of the U.S. Senate.
Barack Obama is on record as favoring the kinds of justices who make policy, not just carry out laws. No matter how he may “refine” his position on this issue, he voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts, who was easily confirmed by more than three-quarters of the Senators.

Obama is to the far left of his party, not just the country. Hope must have a basis in truth, or it is a false hope.  His vote against Chief Justice Roberts is indicative of the type of judges Obama would appoint for life.

Cross Posted at Proof Positive

I kind of like this ad from McCain.

Here’s a transcript:

It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change. The “Summer Of Love.” Half a world away, another kind of love — of country.

John McCain: Shot down. Bayoneted. Tortured. Offered early release, he said, “No.” He’d sworn an oath.

Home, he turned to public service. His philosophy: before party, polls and self … America. A maverick, John McCain tackled campaign reform, military reform, spending reform. He took on presidents, partisans and popular opinion.

He believes our world is dangerous, our economy in shambles. John McCain doesn’t always tell us what we “hope” to hear. Beautiful words cannot make our lives better.

But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics can.

Don’t “hope” for a better life. Vote for one. McCain.

“Beautiful words cannot make our lives better.” Ain’t that the truth, though given how McCain has gone back on some of the things he told his conservative base during the primary race I hardly think he has the high ground when it comes to the “telling the people what they want to hear” department.

But the contrast of McCain’s substantive campaign with Obama’s rather campaign built on pretty speeches and soaring rhetoric is appealing.

So....they won’t accept a security deal unless we give them a date by which we’ll be out of there.

I don’t see the problem. If they want us out then let’s go:

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie were the strongest yet by an Iraqi official about the deal now under negotiation with U.S. officials. They came a day after Iraq’s prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal.

The article goes on to say that Bush opposes a timetable for withdrawal. His reasons are understandable. It’s probably much too soon to pull our firepower away from the fledgling Iraqi army and the stability and control of the government is questionable. My take on it is simple, though: If they think they can handle it, let them. Have a nice day.

I’ve been a supporter of our efforts there up until now but if they’re saying that they don’t want us there then, by all means, let’s not waste another dollar or life there.

There are vultures perched on every ledge in the Middle East who are more than eager to pick the bones of Iraq clean. The Iraqi government surely knows what will happen if we go, yet they are demanding now that we do just that.

I’ve always had a problem with ingrates.

How do you say, ”Adios, amigo” in Arabic?

Comments that were pretty clearly an oblique reference to John McCain.