Weekend Monkey At The DNC - Hillary's Big Night

Hideyho, primates...this has been an interesting night , it pretty much all belongs to Hillary and her big speech.

Mark Warner did the keynote, and called this "a race for the future', but he was pretty low key about attacking McCain. After all, he's running for Senate in Virginia, where there's a ton of military families.

He's about the only one who did. Almost everybody else tonight concentrated on McCain attacks, but in a weird way...the stuff seemed mainly geared towards quickie soundbites, rather than anything serious, almost as if people like Karen Sebelius were reading scripted lines, doing their bit and moving on rather than trying to actually make a real impact like up and coming pols normally do when they speak at the convention.

I think that was deliberate,to pave the way for the main event.The Obama people wanted everything focused on Hillary tonight.

Finally Chelsea came on, to introduce another of those Hollywood-type videos on her mom...I think they called it 'Homage to Hillary' or something. About what you'd expect.

And then the Big Girl made her entrance.

She did what was expected of her, almost like it was a duty...and it's pretty obvious that her speech was vetted by the Obama campaign pretty thoroughly.

She made a huge pitch for party unity, and got off the best soundbite of the night saying, "No way. No How. No McCain."

That had to have come directly from Obama's campaign gorillas, and I guarantee it will be a campaign spot.

It was a good speech, and I'm sure the Obama people are mucho happy with it, but in a weird way it was kinda unbalanced and unnatural.This was her audience tonight and they wanted to hear her, but it seemed like she wanted nothing more than to deliver the lines,take the bow and get it over with.No dramatic pauses, no banter with the crowd, no nuthin'..she even stepped on a few applause lines and in a couple of places she even kept yakking right through the applause, she was in that much of a hurry to get the thing over with.

Like I said though, she did what was expected of her tonight, calling for party unity and telling her fans that she was supporting Obama.

I dunno. The words were right but the music wasn't, if you get my drift, and my feeling is that Hillary is going to soldier on and do the minimum for Obama she can get away with and still be considered a party loyalist.

The final diss to her is going to be having to sit there while Obama makes his big acceptance speech at the stadium...and she'll pretty much be alone. Mr. Bill and most of the top Clintonistas are giving it a miss.

Tomorrow night is the big roll call and Mr. Bill's speech and both items ought to be interesting. There's apparently a backstage argument going on as to whether Hillary's votes in the roll call are going to be announced as well as Obama's or whether they're just going to announce Obama's to give it more of an air of unity, and then nominate him by acclimation. Hey, no sense leaving anything to chance hmmm?

And Mr. Bill's speech...so far,everything anybody has said onstage has been throughly controlled and vetted by the Obama campaign, and Clinton was apparently ticked off when they tried to tell him what to say. I wonder if he's planning on going off the reservation and pulling something?

We'll find out tomorrow. Right now, this Monkey craves a little refreshment...see you later.

Canadians Hit TheTaliban Hard

It's not as well known as it should be, but the Canadians have been by our side kicking ass in Afghanistan for a long time as opposed to some of our European allies.

Last week they took out a huge Taliban base during operation Op Timis Preem, conducted in the Zhari district of Kandahar province last Thursday, Friday and Saturday:

{Lt. Colonel Dave} Corbould said the operation's objective was to strike at the Taliban's command and control infrastructure and take away their ability to conduct operations against Afghan and coalition forces.

The mission's key goal was to reduce the Taliban's ability to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which they routinely plant along Highway Number One -- the main national highway that crosses Kandahar province.

Corbould said the operation has served "a huge blow to the enemy's ability to plant major IEDs."

"It's thrown them off balance and we'll continue to maintain the momentum to keep them off balance in that specific area," said Corbould.

Well done, guys....

North Korea Ends Its Nuclear Disarment

Yet another of US Secretary of State Condi Rice's diplomacy toy balloons seems to have popped, as North Korea says it has halted it's nuclear reactor disablementat it's facility at Yongbyon.

Just two months ago, the US State Department was trumpeting a new agreement withthese people when the North Koreans blew up the cooling tower as a symbolic act to show their acceptance of the agreement to dismantle their nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and being removed from the US terrorism watch list.

The agreement hit the same snags as every other agreement does with these people...verification that they're actually keeping up their end of the deal.
It was problems with the verification process that led to North Korea not being removed from the list, which is North Korea's alibi for ending the process of dismantling their nukes.

At this point, they're threatening to simply resume where they left off.

Obama Terrorizes TV Stations Over Ayers Ad.

The truth shall set ye free...unless it's not the truth we want out there, Bubba.

In a move redolent of the Kerry campaign's attempt to stifle the swift boat ads, Barack Obama is literally terrorizing a few TV stations over the above ad put out by a non-profit 501C group ( not a 527, as some have reported) called The American Issues Project. And he's even trying to sic the Department of Justice on them.



One of the amusing characteristics lately of the Obama campaign has been their knee jerk attacks on matters they would have been much better to let go by.

A good example is their 'McCain's houses' meme..which gave rise to the response that it was, after all, Obama who bought his multimillion dollar Chicago mansion in a shady deal with a convicted felon named Tony Rezco.

The most recent example is Obama's outrage over any questions about his ties to Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers, who was released due to a legal technicality..

When questions about this originally came up, Obama simply characterized Ayers as 'just a friend from the neighborhood.'

Of course, more facts about the relationship between Obama and Ayers surfaced...how Obama sought out to ingratiate himself with Ayers, a member of a politically well connected Chicago family, how Obama launched his political career from the living room of Ayer's home, and their close work together on the ultra Left Annenberg Challenge,and on the Chicago School Reform Collaborative.

The fuss the Obama-ites are making in trying to bury all this isn't helping them in the least.

Journalist Stanley Kurtz was suddenly denied access to the records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge by the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Chicago after he been granted access and given an index...until the fit hit the shan and the University felt compelled to open up the records again, probably after disposing of anything inconvenient.

The problem with the ad isn't that it says anything false in itself..it doesn't. It's that it highlights a part of Obama that the campaign wants to keep hidden at all costs, for reasons we can only guess at. And that's going to make the c=scrutiny more intense.

When you put the kind of muscle out to try and suppress something like this,people can't help but wonder why.

The Obama campaign would have done much better to leave well enough alone and not call attention to this.

Obama Gets a Negative Convention Bounce

According to Rasmussen The Chosen One is getting a bounce out of the convention so far..but the numbers are headed south:

The Democratic National Convention has begun and the poll numbers are bouncing, but not in the direction that most people anticipated.{...}

Obama’s support has declined in each of the last three individual nights of polling. This may be either statistical noise or a reaction to the selection of Biden. If it’s the latter, it probably has less to do with Biden than Hillary Clinton. Forty-seven percent (47%) of Democratic women say Clinton should have been picked and 21% of them say they’ll vote for McCain.

HopeN'Change!

Weekend Monkey: Partying At The Revolution

There's not all that much to do in Denver on a hot August night..it's not like Vegas or Manhattan or East St. Louis. So there I was about 1 AM, walking the streets and trying to get my brains together when I saw her.

She was wearing one of those chic 'Defend Denver' army green shirts with the AK47 on it over a pink top and bandanna and some worn jeans with a `f*ck Bush' patch in a strategic place,and both of us did a double take.

"Omigod, Weekend Monkey!" she squealed. "Are you here for the convention too?"

"Wait a minute",I said,processing..."Allison,right? From the campaign?"

"Uh-huh."

Talk about yer coincidences..she'd been one of the area reps for the Weekend Monkey For President campaign. "The last time I saw you was in Des Moines", I said. "What brings you here?"

"The same as you,Monkey,the convention," she said with a cute little grin. "After the campaign folded, I was still interested in the politics of working for change, so here I am."

"So, I guess you're an anarchist now huh? Y'know, I bet a lot of people are watching you guys on TV and wondering what that's about."

"Well, Monkey, a lot of it is a social scene, believe it or not. It's like the Obama thing, only more intense. You go to rallies, get high,hook up....you have no idea what a rush it is to get chased by cops and then wind up hiding out somewhere with some cute guy....it's like, romantic or something. And trashing things for the sheer hell of it is like too much fun...didn't you ever toss a firecracker or break a window just to hear the noise?"

She beckoned to me, "C'mon Monkey...come and meet some of my friends."

We walked around a corner into the park and ran into a whole group of anarchist kids hanging out, smoking dope, drinking cheap wine and recounting the days' fun. I was immediately noticed by a couple of sentries.

"Who the f*ck are you?" The questioner was a large kid, maybe 19 in a Che tee.

"It's cool, Tino", said Allison. "He's with me."

As we walked through the group, I realized Allison was right..it was a social scene, almost like a weekend house party. The signs were put away. People were drinking,smoking and flirting with each other and the only ones still really talking hard core politics were the ones who weren't getting high and who you knew weren't going to get laid no way, no how.

We sat down in the middle of one of the groups.

"Hey everybody, this is Weekend Monkey. He ran for president this year", Allison chimed.

"Are you one of those fascist pigs here for the convention, man? Allison, why did you bring this creep here?" The questioner was a kind of heavy set girl with a Palestinian kefiya scarf and a red 'impeach now' sweatshirt, and her little query bought me glares from the entire collective.

"Actually", I said "I'm more of an anarcho-syndicalist using the Hegellian dynamic to practice Kruputnick's doctrine of destroying the system from within."

That little bit of dialectic was all it took to bring smiles and approval from the group. Let no one say that this monkey can't think on his feet!

"Oh wow..wanna smoke a joint?" said the heavy set girl,who's name I later found out was Lara.

"Sure,why not...it's been a pretty intense day. What have you guys got planned for tomorrow?"

"Uh,the usual stuff man," piped up a kid in a black rockn'roll tee with a pierced labret. "Trash stuff, tie up traffic, play tag with the cops and hope to get on TV!"

Everybody had a good chuckle at that one.

As I sucked the dope into my lungs and everybody got looser, I realized that a lot of the anarchists had some stuff in common, especially the younger ones. Plenty of them seemed to not have a whole lot in the way of family ties or stuff like jobs and careers,the stuff that most of us use to keep grounded.Instead,they'd found a family and a job of sorts here, at Ground Zero in the Beeg Revolution.

I looked at Allison, who's baby blues were slightly unfocused by now.

"You were right, Ally....this is fun. You planning on sticking around here after the convention?"

"Probably not. When this is over, I'll probably go back to Iowa, she murmured, leaning against me slightly. "Politics is kinda fun, but I can't imagine doing it all the time."

Well, sweetie, we all have our addictions, don't we? Politics...the art of the possible.

See you later,comrade primates.All power to the Revolution!

Olmert Releases 200 Palestinian Terrorists As 'Goodwill Gesture'

Ehud Olmert released 200 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli custody today as a so-called goodwill gesture to bolster PA President Mahmoud Abbas...and not coincidentally, to put a smile on Condi Rice's face as she arrived in Israel today to try and arm twist more concessions out of Olmert 'for peace'.

This particular group included killers Israel defined as 'having blood on their hands', an israeli term signifying that these particular murderers had been convicted in Israeli courts of having direct responsibility for killing Israeli civilians. Of course,since Olmert blurred that line by trading a very live child killer Samir Kuntar to Hezbollah for the mutilated remains of two captured Israeli soldiers, the Olmert government appears to be willing to let these scum go regardless of what they might have done.

Two of this particular group bear special mention as an example of the kind of people Olmert is releasing to a hero's welcome among the Palestinians. Muhammad Abu Ali murdered two people. In 1980, he killed Yehoshua Saloma (Hy"d) in Hebron, a young Yeshiva student studying in the Kiryat Arba Yeshiva. Saloma, a new immigrant from Sweden, walked into Hebron from Kiryat Arba to buy some dried fruits for the upcoming Tu B’Shvat holiday. While he was shopping, he was brutally ambushed from behind.Ali later murdered a fellow prisoner while he was in jail.

Said Al-Ataba masterminded an attack on the Petach Tivka market in 1977 that wounded dozens and took the life of an Israeli woman, Tzila Galili, (Hy"d).

Both of them are now free to kill again. And that's not merely a figure of speech.At least 180 Israelis and counting have been murdered by terrorists who had been released from Israeli jails, and that doesn't take into account those that were arrested or killed in an attempt.

Condi, of course, thinks that releasing these people was just wonderful,and wants more of the same."It's something that Abu Mazen brings up each time we meet," Rice told reporters on her plane about today's release, using Abbas's informal name. "It's something that matters a lot to the Palestinian people."

No mention of course on whether it might matter a lot to the Israelis to keep these killers behind bars.I doubt that matter penetrates her consciousness.

Nor does it matter to Mahmoud Abbas, who referred to the released terrorists as 'heroes' and made a point of saying that no peace agreement with Israel was possible until all of the terrorists are released.Nor did eithr he or Condaleeza Rice have the common decency to mention a single word about Gilad Shalit, who's still being held incommunicado in the Gaza Strip.

Israel at one time had a significant deterrent factor in the Arabs knowledge that they would not deal with terrorists and could be expected to hit back hard at those who murdered their citizens. Ariel Sharon's deal with Hezbollah to trade prisoners for bodies and an Israeli drug dealer with connections to his son Omri and Ehud Olmert's execrable conduct during the entire two and a half years he's been in power have done much to undermine that.

Weekend Monkey At The DNC, 8/25/08

Whooo, Hideyho, Primates! Here's the latest from the Donkey Convention, live from Pepsi Center.

The high point of the evening so far has been Teddy Kennedy telling my Democrats "to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States."



Originally,I heard Teddy was just supposed to wave from the stage after they showed the video on him, but I guess he was feeling up to yakking a little bit. They drove him up to the stage at Pepsi in a little golf cart. Kind of a moment, I guess, sorta like he was passing the torch on to Obama Yo Mama.Hardly a dry eye in the house.

I coulda done without Caroline Kennedy yakking it up about how Obama inspired the Kennedys just like JFK.I mean, I realize she's in the Obama camp bigtime, but I personally don't think her father would recognize today's Democratic party...things have changed since 1960.

From what I hear, every speech throughout the entire convention had to be okayed by the Obama campaign, and they're all sticking to two basic themes:McCain is an evil, senile fool who is BushHitler II, and Barack Hussein Obama is just a working class type family man who is just yer average mainstream all-American regular guy.

It was pretty wild was the way everybody from Pelosi on down spent that much time trashing McCain. I mean, a certain amount of that is to be expected, but this was almost overkill!

Still,it makes political sense...this is their moment and they know people are watching, so they're going for the jugular...and that's what the campaign is going to be like from now on. I think they would have been better off concentrating on exactly what the Democrats are planning to change in Washington, but maybe they'll get to that later.

The main act in the circus, of course, is gonna be Michelle O.We'll see what she says..right now, Weekend Monkey's thirsty and the hospitality table beckons...booyah!

UPDATE: Just saw the Michelle O extravaganza. Her job's obvious..to try to tell yer average American that she and Barack are just your normal everyday couple....ri-ight.

Things started out with a video narrated by her mom about her tortured life an dall the supposed obstacles she's had to overcome, then she came on the stage.

They softened up her image considerably:



See..not a scowl or a furrowed brow to be seen...

Her speech was all sweetness and light, about treating people with dignity and respect regardless of whether they agreed with you or not,which is pretty funny considering the treatment McCain got tonight! They even got the Obama's two kids involved in tonight's performance,shouting 'Hi Daddy' and 'I love you Daddy' at a giant video screen relaying the One's speech and visage from wherever he's sequestered.

Cute.

She stayed out of policy mostly, and only mentioned race in terms of the stuff I already mentioned about dignity and respect for everyone. I'm sure she learned that from Rev. Wright over at Trinity.

See you tomorrow, primates!

The Latest McCain Ad - With A Hillary Supporter...

Weekend Monkey Live At The DNC In Denver!!

Hideyho, Primates! This week,the Real Banana comes to you live from Denver as I report from the Democratic National Convention, where myDonkeys have gathered to put their seal of approval on Obama Yo' Mama and Jo-Jo Biden as our official standard bearers.

And oh yeah, Shrillery's here too.

The festivities start tonight,and I'll be giving you the inside poop with exclusive coverage and interviews nobody else will have....I'm here and I'm all yours, peeples!

Denver can be kind of a weird town. For one thing, the altitude can make you crazy if you're drinking or indulging in any controlled substances...their effect is intensified so you can be bombed before you know it.

I dunno if anybody warned Teddy...hope so.

Anyway, I've been wandering around downtown,and to tell you the truth it looks like this part of town is under martial law or something.

Whole areas have been fenced and chained off, and there's a crazy police presence here all around the area of the Pepsi Center, where the big scene opens up tonight with ex-president Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, Teddy and Obama's bitter half,Michelle...I bet that speech is tightly scripted..and they may even have a plan to cut her microphone off if things get out of hand.

What's going on right now is that there is literally a banana boat load of protesters all around the downtown area. And all of the stars of protest are here..I've seen Ward Churchill, Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate..she was a hoot, yakking about how global warming is a 'Zionist plot.'



There's a lot of pot smoke in the air as well, so the whole scene is #!!#! surreal.

Earlier today, the peace protesters roughed up a FOX news guy..he was claiming Cindy Sheehan came to his rescue,which is pretty funny in itself.I mean,imagine admitting that on national TV!



There's all sorts of weird rumors floating around...stuff like the protesters have a whole house stocked with urine to spray on the convention crowds,that there's going to be bomb threats, power outages, street blockades....I guess we'll see!

You never saw it on TV, but back in '04, Boston's Fleet Center set up an 'alternative convention' where these people could vent to their heart's content, and that was where the assorted commies and anarchists burned effigies, flags and did their thing. Denver tried the same thing this year,with a 47,000-square foot cage near the parking lot of the Pepsi Center with metal fences and concrete barriers surrounding it, but so far the protesters haven't been exactly availing themselves of the facilities, if you know what I mean.

Aside from the antics of the primate protesters, most of which will laundered by the networks so as not to embarrass my Democrats, another kool thing about this and every convention is the neat freebies you can get...like this John McCain condom:



And hey,hee hee hee, this one's lubricated...I dunno if it's ribbed or has any funny ticklers and stuff, since I haven't opened it yet. Ain't it great what Planned Parenthood does with your tax dollars, primates?

Anywhoo, I'm gonna wander around a bit, have a bite to eat and see what kind of shenanigans I can get into between now and the evenings' festivities. And keep checking back, because I have some exclusive interviews and other stuff planned..smell ya later, primates!

Pakistan's Coalition Government Has Collapsed

Pakistan's fragile coalition government has collapsed as ex-prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pulled his party, The Pakistan Muslim League-N(PML-N) out of the five-month-old coalition government with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)less thanone week after ex-president Pervez Musharraf resigned. At a news conference Sharif cited 'broken promises' by Asif Ali Zardari, the leader of the PPP and its candidate for Musharraf's old spot as the president.

"We have been forced to leave the coalition," Sharif said . "We joined the coalition with full sincerity for the restoration of democracy. Unfortunately all the promises were not honored."

The promises Sharif is talking about involve a disagreement over restoring 60 judges to the bench that Musharraf fired, including ex-chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Sharif released to the press an accord signed by he and Zardari back on August 7th, back when they were maneuvering to get Musharraf out of office.Not only did Zardari agree to reinstate judges, including Chaudhry, but he also agreed that he and Sharif would agree on a presidential candidate.

Instead, the PPP stalled on the judges - a political crony of Zardari now holods Chaudhry's office, and the PPP wants to pick and choose which judges get reinstated and which don't. And according to Sharif, Zardari went ahead to run for the presidency and arranged for the election to be held on September 6 without consulting him.

There's always been little love lost anyway between the Pakistan Peoples Party, which could best be described as Leftist/Kleptocrat and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, which is a conservative Islamist party.Aside from the issues inherent in that odd pairing,there are personal issues between Sharif and Zardari,Benazhir Bhutto's widow.The only thing both sides agreed on was Musharraf's ouster...and I have a feeling that a lot of people in Pakistan, watching what's going on currently may be having second thoughts about the jubilation they expressed when he resigned.

This probably not going to result in new elections. The PPP can probably make enough deals with the smaller parties to stay in power, and get Zardari into the president's spot.

It remains to be seen what Sharif and the PML-N will do. They can stay in the opposition..at least until Zardari becomes president, when I wouldn't be surprised to see the old corruption charges leveled against Sharif to force him back into exile.

Or they can seek an alliance with the even more Islamist elements in Pakistan, which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

This situation is not likely to calm down in the least, and I smell another Iran in the making.

Pakistan's Government Is On The Brink Of Collapse

I've reported before on these pages about the conflict between the two ruling parties in Pakistan's coalition government now that they've gotten the one thing they agreed on - Musharraf's ouster.

The conflict between the two sides has intensified if anything over the core issues of reinstating judges fired by Musharraf and picking Musharraf's successor to the presidency, with ex-Pakistani PM Nawak Sharif threatening to pull his Pakistan Muslim League(PML-N) out of the government.

Back in March, when the PPP and the PML-n formed their coalition government, the two parties both promised to restore the 60 judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry within one month, and it was a major campaign issue.

Nawaz Sharif, and his conservative Islamist Pakistan Muslim League-N, want them all restored immediately. The PPP, which has a slight majority (although not enough to govern by itself)wants a constitutional mechanism which would allow them to pick and choose which judges were reinstated and which were removed. Part of that has to do with the PPP's leader, Asif Zardari, because Chaudhry opposed the legislation Musharraf forced through at our State Department's insistence granting Zardari and his wife Benazhir Bhutto amnesty on pending corruption charges and paved the way for their return to Pakistan. The last thing Zardari wants is Chaudhry back on the bench...he might just try to undo the amnesty.

Actually, both Zardari and Sharif are suspected of stealing millions while they were in office.

Another problem with reinstating Chaudhry is the fact that the job of chief justice is now held by Abdul Hamid Dogar, a political crony of Zardari who comes as from Sindh Province, which is the political base of Zardari and the PPP.

The contest for the presidency is another problem issue - both Sharif and the PPP's de facto party head Asif Ali Zardari want the job, and the PPP has already endorsed Zardari for the office.

Nawak Sharif will meet with his Muslim League -N Party tomorrow to decide whether to leave the government.

From an American standpoint,neither Sharif of Zardari, who's orientation could best be described as Lefist-Kleptocrat are very likely to be what the current occupant of the White House would term as 'strong allies in the war on terror.'

Our main concern is obviously who's minding the store on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal while the country falls apart. On that score Musharraf was dependable at least.

One Reason Showing Off Is Not A Good Idea..

Hat Tip and a Commendation to Joshua's Army member Louie Louie

Things Are Not Starting Off Well For Biden...

Talk about yer insecurities!

Biden Off More Than He Can Chew

"America needs to show the Arab world that we're not bent on its destruction. Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran." -Senator Joe Biden


By this time,the whole world knows that the Chosen One has picked Joe Biden as his running mate.

It definitely made me smile.

Among other things, we're in for some sidesplitting ads. Biden has any number of soundbites on tape talking about how unqualified Barack Obama is for the Oval Office and how great a president John McCain would make, and the fun should really start once Biden's well known tendency towards gaffes gets started under the pressure of the campaign trail.

The dinosaur media is loyally trying to step into the breach and put a positive spin on this,but even some of them are having problems shilling for the Emperor's New Clothes.

The media line is that Biden is a 'scrapper', who adds foreign policy 'expertise' to the ticket, moderates concerns about Obama's inexperience and will help Obama with working class whites and Catholics.They couldn't be more wrong.

Biden,the consummate Washington insider has been inured in the Senate for even longer than John McCain. He's been running for president off and on since 1987, but both of his two actual campaigns, in 1988 and 2008 ended in abject failure, which says something about his scrappy campaigning skills and appeals to Catholics and the working class. In`08, he ended up with about 3% of the vote.

And of course, there's another problem with the idea that Catholics are going to line up behind a ticket where the presidential candidate supported what amounts to infanticide.The media may be doing its best ignore this,but I guarantee you it's going to come out, especially as it percolates up from the blogosphere and the McCain camp starts publicizing this as the campaign rolls on.

As for that foreign policy experience, Biden certainly has it. He's a long-time member and current chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The question, of course, is whether experience translates into expertise, as the above quote shows us. (Here's a hint, Senator..Iran is not an Arab country...)

Another problem the Obama campaign is going to have to deal with is Biden's tendencies towards putting people to sleep with long, drawn out speeches and a predilection towards shooting himself in the foot with his own mouth.

The choice of Biden reveals a number of things about Obama and the current state of his campaign.

-The Chosen one was probably literally agonizing over having to make an actual choice that could have an effect beyond mere rhethoric, which is why he released the news late Friday night at the start of the the weekend, rather than on a Monday, when it would have the full length of the news cycle.

- Both the candidate and the campaign are running scared. They realize they have no counter to charges of inexperience and naivete leveled by the McCain campaign, so he went for a beltway insider, rather than risking a candidate who appeared to be outside the system and more in tune with Hope And Change like Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia or Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.Unfortunately, the choice of someone like Biden highlights Obama's lack of resume rather than enhances it, the way I see it.

-Obama has made a decision to go more negative in his campaign.Biden was hired on to be the Obama campaign's attack dog, something that could become problematical if Biden goes off the leash and says something he shouldn't. A lot of Obama's image is tied up in the idea that he somehow represents the new politics that goes beyond partisan attacks, but he has apparently decided to put that behind him for expediency's sake. In other words, Obama is willing and happy to risk what got him this far if it gets him into the Oval office.

-Obama apparently decided that his grudge against the Clintons is more important than any nonsense about party unity. It's widely known that Hillary didn't even make Obama's short list of VP propects. It will be interesting to see how this little soap opera plays out in Denver next week.

Choosing Vice President Who?

Vice President Who??

With the nominations for the Democrat and Republican presidential sweepstakes all but a done deal, there's been a certain amount of speculation of who Barack Hussein Obama and John McCain will pick as running mates.

Does it really matter? And if so, how much?

Normally, a vice presidential candidate is chosen with several factors in mind; to heal a breach in the party, to 'balance' the ticket ideologically or geographically, to address the concerns of a select group of influential voters, to try and capture the electoral votes of a state or region, or to balance out a perceived weakness in a candidate's resume or experience.

A good example of the last one was the Bush-Cheney ticket, teaming up a presidential candidate with a limited resume on foreign policy and international relations with a man who had extensive experience in both areas.

So, who's likely to be on the list, in my view?

Let's take Obama first.

With his poll numbers tanking, The Chosen One has a number of areas where he's going to need an assist.

His National Security and military cred is severely lacking, and Joe Biden or Wesley Clark might be a decent attempt to shore up that particular weakness..Jim Webb, senator from Virginia, decorated Vietnam veteran and an ex-Secretary of the Navy under Reagan would probably have helped Obama more, except like a great many other prominent Donkeys he chose to opt out.

The biggest problem with Biden from Obama's standpoint is Biden's ego and his tendency to shoot himself in the foot with his own mouth. The Chosen One not only would have difficulty sharing the stage with Biden, but there are a whole slew of statements out of Biden's own mouth deriding Obama for his lack of resume and praising John McCain! If Biden gets the nod, we can look forward to some absolutely side splitting ads from the GOP campaign.Another problem with Biden is the fact that Delaware's three electoral votes are already in the bag for the Democrats..and Biden adds nothing there.However, given the Chosen One's need for foreign policy back up, Biden has a decent shot.

Tim Kaine and Mark Warner from Virginia are two other names that have come up, for the same reason..they just might create the possibility of the Democrats carrying Virginia.Both are young, southern and personable...except Kaine is simply not the sharpest tool in the shed and Warner wants to take a shot at replacing a retiring GOP senator in a race he's likely to win. And at any rate, Warner is likely too moderate for Obama's taste.

The same is probably true of Evan Bayh of Indiana and Congressman Chet Edwards of Texas. Bayh comes from an old Indiana political dynasty and is popular there, but mostly because he's fairly conservative for a Democrat. Hitching himself to Obama wouldn't do much for him at home, and he lacks the attack dog persona the One is going to need to get some traction between now and November.Edwards is the chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee and a nine-term very conservative Democrat representing a GOP-leaning Texas district that includes President Bush's ranch in Crawford. He's pretty much an unknown which likely suits Obama's ego, but he doesn't bring much to the table politically.

Could Obama pick a woman? The two possibilities are Hillary (a real remote possibility) and Kansas governor Karen Sibelius.

There no question that in terms of sheer politics, Hillary helps Obama the most. It's estimated that at least 25% of her supporters are not at all enamored of the Chosen One, and let's face it..she did win the popular vote and only lost because a relatively small number of superdelegates broke for Obama for obvious reasons.

I call it remote because there's little love lost between the two and because it would suit Hillary much better to see Obama go down the tubes in `08, paving the way for her to pick up the pieces and run in 2012.Not only that, but Obama caving in to the Clintons would pretty much infuriate the nutroots on the extreme Left of the party.

Sibelius is another matter. Politically, she's well to the left of Hillary and to someone like Obama who thinks in terms of group entitlement she might seem like the person to bring Hillary's supporters back onto the plantation because of her gender.Politically, she brings nothing else to the table, but Obama may figure that being a woman is plenty.

Another area Obama is likely to need help with is with Hispanics. The black-brown divide in America is by no means a myth, particularly in a political party where identity politics is the name of the game. Obama has lost the Hispanic vote in every state in the primaries where that vote has been a factor by at least 2 to 1.

Someone like Bill Richardson could help him here. Aside from his being Hispanic and a bi-lingual campaigner, Richardson also has the advantage of not being particularly bright an thus unlikely to upstage Barack Obama. Plus, he could possibly tip New Mexico to the Democrats...only 5 electoral votes, but it could end up being important. Bush won the state in 2004 by a razor thin margin.

If I had to bet, I'd say Biden with Sibelius or Edwards as dark horse picks.

McCain has weaknesses of a different sort.

For one thing, his age almost mandates that he will be a one term president, and that his vice presidential pick assumes more than the usual importance.

Originally, his candidacy seemed to alienate two key GOP constituencies, ideological conservatives and evangelicals. In both cases, McCain has made significant strides in gathering these groups in, especially the evangelicals - The Faith Forum at Saddleback Church helped him a great deal with the evangelicals and pro life groups while the Russian invasion of Georgia and his response to it reminded conservatives of his national security credentials. Both groups seem to be coalescing around McCain as Obama's real nature becomes evident.

McCain doesn't have the motivation Obama does to see that someone doesn't outshine him...as a matter of fact, a strong vice presidential candidate could eliminate any remaining angst about his age and shore up the gains he's already made.

Tim Pawlenty is a popular governor of Minnesota, a state that has been trending more and more Republican each election. He's relatively conservative, young (48), and a long time McCain booster. In a close election, Minnesota's 10 electoral votes could make the difference between victory and defeat.

Another running mate that could help McCain would be Rudy Giuliani, especially if McCain is not worried about a conservative defection. Rudy is smart, has experience on the national scene, impeccable national security credentials and a history of accomplishment in every position he's held. His management expertise in turning the relatively bankrupt city of New York around could be helpful to a candidate who admits economics isn't his strong point.He's a great speaker (Giuliani will be the keynote speaker at the GOP convention) and 'retail' campaigner and debater even if he's a lousy campaign strategist, will help McCain with the Jewish vote and actually brings New York and New Jersey into play. His drawbacks include his complicated personal life, an unfortunate tendency to mention 9/11 far too often and his perceived (if misrepresented) position on abortion,.

Another wild card McCain pick for vice president would be his long time friend, Joe Lieberman. Lieberman is that rare commodity, a relatively sensible liberal with firm views on national security. Because of that, he was run out of the Democratic party, but remains a symbol to Democrats, especially older ones who are uneasy with the far Left direction the party has taken. Like Giuliani, Lieberman has experience on the national stage, enjoys a fair amount of respect nationally and could symbolize the bi-partisan consensus McCain appears to be seeking. Lieberman is also speaking at the GOP convention in support of his friend McCain in spite of threats from the DNC to strip him of his committee chairmanship, a courageous act that undoubtedly appeals to McCain.

Choosing Lieberman might anger a fair amount of conservatives, but again, McCain may very well be figuring that enough of them will end up holding their noses and pulling the lever for him in November that it isn't a significant downside.

Another interesting possibility for McCain would Tom Ridge, the well liked ex-governor of Pennsylvania. Like McCain, Ridge is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran. He's also a fiscal conservative with a solid track record of astute financial management. His career in public service includes a stint as an Assistant District Attorney, six terms in Congress, and two terms as a popular Republican governor in Pennsylvania, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost 500,000. He was also the head of the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11.

Ridge won re-election as governor by better than 57%, and naming him to the ticket definitely puts Pennsylvania in play for the GOP. And Pennsylvania is not a state Barack Obama did particularly well in...even now, the polls only show him ahead by 3-5 points. Ridge's main drawbacks are his association with the Bush Administration and his pro-choice position on abortion, something Ridge could probably finesse if he had to.

Two other names on McCain's short list are Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, both of whom are real possibilities.

Eric Cantor not only comes from Virginia, but he's a popular congressman from the Richmond area, a key to holding the state for the GOP this November. He was Chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare until 2006 when the Democrats took over. He has also served on the House Financial Services Committee and on the House International Relations Committee and the very powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Since his second term, he has served as chief deputy Republican whip, the highest appointed position in the Republican caucus.

Aside from his economic and national security credentials, Cantor is a religious Jew and could be depended on to make inroads into the Jewish and pro-Israel vote,a key constituency in November that's already a bit leery of Obama and with good cause. A five point change in favor of the GOP could mean a great deal in places like Ohio, Michigan and Florida.

Sarah Palin, is an impressive and charismatic speaker who knows a lot about a key issue in this campaign..energy.Either she or New Mexico Republican Heather Wilson would make dogmeat out of anyone Obama is likely to select in a debate.

Mitt Romney? I just don't think so. Very high negatives and not enough clout when it comes to bringing in electoral votes, but a distinct possibility for Treasury.

Over all, I'd have to give the edge to Ridge or Pawlenty, with Palin, Lieberman an Cantor as strong dark horses.

Your thoughts?

The End Game In Iraq

As General David Petraeus leaves Iraq to take up his new post as the head of CENTCOM, it's a excellent time to reassess Iraq...the positives and the negatives.

General Petraeus, his successor General Ordiano and our warriors achieved something that many pundits and self-styled military experts thought was impossible in modern times - the defeat of an in-country insurgency, especially one backed by unfriendly states to the east and north that acted as havens, bases and transit areas for our enemies. And to make it even more impressive, the victory occurred in a country absolutely boiling with sectarian and ethnic conflict. I have absolutely no doubt that these two general's strategy in Iraq will be studied in depth for years to come at West Point and other places where the world's future military leaders learn their trade.

That said, what their valiant achievement accomplished( aside from sending a notable number of jihadis to their just desserts) was to put the best possible face on a bad situation and allow America a graceful exit.

According to President Bush, our goals were to have a stable Iraq who would be democratic and an ally of ours in the so-called 'war on terror.' The goals themselves were absolutely farcical in terms of the reality on the ground and what our actual war aims should have been, and even at that we have only accomplished one out of three, stability. And it cost us 4,000 lives and a trillion dollars, much of which was wasted or stolen.

As I pointed out some time ago, this was easy to see coming from a long way off.

What we've established in Iraq is a Shiite Islamic Republic based on Sharia with a great deal of its leadership friendly to our enemies in Iran. Iraq adheres religiously to a boycott of Israel that is against US law, and there has been open season under our watch on Iraq's Christians, a story that rarely merits a mention in the dinosaur media.Iraq will no more be a 'ally ' of ours against our enemies than say, Saudi Arabia or Yemen and will limit their 'war on terror' activities to simply suppressing any dissident elements in their own society.

As we see from the protracted wrangling between ourselves and the Iraqi government who want us out as soon as possible, the time come when the Iraqis are essentially saying to us,"Thanks for your time and money, infidels. Now get out so we can bond with our Jihad brothers next door."

This in itself is nothing out of the ordinary. There's even less reason for us to assume that Iraq's Shiites would be any more grateful to us for liberating them then say, the French.

The difference is that liberating France and opening a second front against the Nazis was part of our war strategy to ultimately defeat them, and the French at least fought at our side against the Nazis until the war was over.Iraq has fought at our side only to free its territory from dissident shock troops like the Mahdi Army and Al-Qaeda, and that's where it's going to end.

It's highly unlikely that we'll see the Iraqi Army we trained and equipped at such great expense sending troops to fight at our side against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Abu Sayef in the Philippines,or anywhere else. Nor will we see Iraq allowing US bases in their country or their ports or other facilities to be used by our military in any hostilities against our enemies in Iran. Maliki and his friends have said so many times.

Another bad aspect of all this is our acquiescence in Shiite domination of the country. Rather than allow Iraq to split into its natural divisions, we simply allowed the Shiites to take over.

To do that, the Bush Administration sold out our real allies in Iraq, the Kurds. Not only did we undercut their efforts to get the Iraqi government to abide by the agreement they made with the Kurds on sharing Kurdistan's oil and allowing the Kurds some autonomy in dealing with their domestic affairs, we passed military information to the Turks, allowed them to invade Kurdistan's territory and pulled our troops out of position to make it easier for the Turks to go in.

Now it's the Sunni's turn, as the Shiite dominated Iraqi government and military aims at decimating the US-allied Sunni Awakening movement who fought Al -Qaeda at our side at considerable risk to themselves..while our military is ordered not to interfere and we do nothing meaningful to stop it.

It's been obvious to me for some time that SecDef Robert Gates and Condi Rice have apparently engineered a quid pro quo with Iran that involves our trading control of Lebanon, Shiite domination of Iraq and a guarantee not to attack Iran's nuclear facilities or assist Israel in doing so for a ceiling on oil prices, an end to Iran's agitation in OPEC to end oil trading in dollars and a graceful exit from Iraq.

I have a feeling that bargain is going to look like an increasingly bad one time goes on, especially if Iran successfully goes nuclear in the coming months, with the ability to pass those weapons on to proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

What's worse, we've created what amounts to a Shia 'sphere of influence' dominated by Iran, a crescent icluding Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. And that has huge implications for the future of the Middle East.

It's not my intention to rain on anyone's parade ...but I think it's necessary to look beyond our impressive victory in Iraq and realize that not only did it not fully accomplish the Bush Administration's own criteria for success there but that our subsequent actions are almost certainly robbing the US of most of what gains we made.In the end, selling out your allies never comes cheaply.

Iraq is just the first round of this war, and hopefully we've learned some important lessons for the future.

Watcher's Council Results, 8/22/08

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.


And now(drum roll...) the winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are :

Among the Council members, the winner was McCainiacs thinking outside of the box by Bookworm Room a fine piece on the hoe McCain supporters outnumbered in the Bay Area are seeking to promote their cause.

In second place we had Soccer Dad for Reuters Rooters , an excellent comparison of the hypocritical reaction of groups like Reporters Without Borders to a Palestinian camera man being shot accidently in a combat zone by the IDF as opposed to silence over the shootings of journalists in Georgia by the Russian army.

Also getting votes were Joshua Pundit for Georgia's Fallout - The Good And The Bad from you know who, The Razor for Vindication and our host Wolf Howling for Life In A Socialist Nanny State: When Petty Bureaucrats Have Power Over Life And Death.

In the Non-Council category, the winner my nominee, Daniel Pipes – The West’s Islamist Infiltrators.

In second place, there was the Russia Foreign Policy Blog – The CNN Effect: A Tale of Two Wars

A shout out to GW at Wolf Howling for a superb job in hosting the Council this week. As always, congratulations not only to the winners, but to the participants.

A Housing Problem?

You have to know Obama is getting desperate to reach for this one.

Today, Senator McCain was surprised by an odd, off topic question in an interview about how many homes he and his wife own, and was honest enough to admit he wasn't sure.Logical, if you think about it since he and his wife keep their finances separate.

The question was obviously intended as a setup, and the Obama campaign had an ad ready to roll:



Whomever had this bright idea obviously wasn't thinking too clearly. For one thing, the eight properties the McCains own are mostly used by members of their family and their children..and for the record, McCain himself does not own any of the properties... his wife does.

For another thing, people who live in glass houses had better be damn careful who they throw rocks at...especially since Obama has a much more serious housing problem he'd probably rather wasn't brought to light:



Whoopsie.And the ad didn't even mention the 'discounted' home loan Obama received.

As I predicted, McCain has finally realized he's in a street fight and has adapted. And so far, that's been pretty bad news for The Chosen One.

Short Takes: Worth Noting, 8/21/08

Short takes is my semi-daily way of cramming a lot into a small space for you..kind of like the young gentleman above is doing! Here's a rundown of some of today's items of interest for Joshua's Army:

Woe Is Me, Said the Democrat - Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle could have written this column with me in mind, as she superbly capsulizes my thoughts on the immature whining of the Obama campaign and the Left over `swiftboating' and 'dirty politics'....except when they're the ones doing it.

Conventions Need a Believable Script - Karl Rove has been running what amounts to a post graduate course in American politics since he left the White House. In today's Wall Street Journal, he writes in an expert fashion about the role of conventions in presidential campaigns.

Lieberman Agonistes - In today's Wall Street Journal, there's an interesting bit about Senator Joe Lieberman's courageous decision to ignore the threats of the DNC to take away his committee chairmanship and speak at the Republican National Convention in favor of his friend, Senator John McCain. Lieberman is on the short list for McCain's VP pick, (although a long shot) and as the Journal reminds us, aside from his superb national security creds, Lieberman is much more of a fiscal and social conservative and a classic liberal than the politicians who have taken over his ex-party and would be a competent and dedicated VP. Politicians like Senator Lieberman remind us of exactly how far Left the Democrats have moved...which is one reason they would like to destroy him.

To give you an idea of how much the playing field in non-level and how much the Democrats are ponying up to try and buy the election, Obama spent more on ads in July than McCain has spent on his entire campaign...

Analysis: Saudis 'all or nothing' on Iran - an interesting bit by Claude Salhani, a UPI Contributing Editor on certain signs that the Saudis may actually be realizing that their strategic interests are the same as (gasp!) Israel's regarding Iran.


Moscow has halted all cooperation with the NATO alliance over Georgia...a response to NATO's vague threat of no more business as usual, I suppose. Meanwhile, Basher Assad is in Moscow signing a major arms deal and defense pact.

Meanwhile, the US rejected Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Boeing 767 purchase request out of hand. The 767 is a midair refueler and SecDef Robert Gates worried it could be used to attack Iran. Gates has emerged as Iran's chief protector in the Bush Administration..so much for the idea that the Bush Administration has any plans to attack Iran or to wink while Israel does the dirty work for them...

A Suicide bombing killed 50 near Pakistan's capital in a raid on the chief weapons factory in the country, as the two ruling parties remain unable to come to a consensus and the government veers towards a collapse.