MTV's First Political Advertisement -- 'Both Ways Barack' From Conservative Let Freedom Ring

Conservative group reaches out to younger voters with 'Both Ways Barack' ad.

There have been a lot of firsts in the 27-year history of MTV, but beginning Wednesday night (July 23), the channel will begin airing something it never has before: a political advertisement. "Both Ways Barack," the attack ad from conservative group Let Freedom Ring, takes aim at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama for what it calls a history of trying to take opposing positions on the same issue.

MTV

Here is the script of the ad which can be seen at Both Ways Barack:

People are saying that Senator Obama’s recent changes of position have made him a flip-flopper.
He’s not!
Flip-floppers only hold one position at a time.
Senator Obama is different: he holds two positions at the same time.
Both ways on banning handguns.
Both ways on public campaign financing.
And now, both ways on withdrawing from Iraq.
He’s ‘Both Ways Barack.’ Worse than a flip-flopper!
People are saying that Senator Obama’s recent changes of position have made him a flip-flopper.
He’s not!
Flip-floppers only hold one position at a time.
Senator Obama is different: he holds two positions at the same time.
Both ways on banning handguns.
Both ways on public campaign financing.
Both ways on NAFTA.
And now, both ways on withdrawing from Iraq.
He wants to have them all, both ways.
He’s “Both Ways Barack.”
Worse than a flip-flopper.
LET FREEDOM RING is responsible for the content of this advertising.

Media Donations To Democrats Outpace Republicans 100 to 1 -- Nope, No Bias Here!

Putting Money Where Mouths Are: Media Donations Favor Dems 100-1



By WILLIAM TATE | Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:20 PM PT



The New York Times' refusal to publish John McCain's rebuttal to Barack Obama's Iraq op-ed may be the most glaring example of liberal media bias this journalist has ever seen. But true proof of widespread media bias requires one to follow an old journalism maxim: Follow the money.



Even the Associated Press — no bastion of conservatism — has considered, at least superficially, the media's favoritism for Barack Obama. It's time to revisit media bias.



True to form, journalists are defending their bias by saying that one candidate, Obama, is more newsworthy than the other. In other words, there is no media bias. It is we, the hoi polloi, who reveal our bias by questioning the neutrality of these learned professionals in their ivory-towered newsrooms. Big Media applies this rationalization to every argument used to point out bias. "It's not a result of bias," they say. "It's a matter of news judgment."



And, like the man who knows his wallet was pickpocketed but can't prove it, the public is left to futilely rage against the injustice of it all.



The "newsworthy" argument can be applied to every metric — one-sided imbalances in airtime, story placement, column inches, number of stories, etc. — save one.



An analysis of federal records shows that the amount of money journalists contributed so far this election cycle favors Democrats by a 15:1 ratio over Republicans, with $225,563 going to Democrats, only $16,298 to Republicans .



...



Let me repeat: $315,533 to Democrats, $3,150 to Republicans — a ratio of 100-to-1. No bias there.

DKK

IBD Editorials

Florida Democratic Congressman Lives In Senior Center With In-laws -- Or Maryland -- Who Can Say?

One of Barack Obama's strongest Congressional supporters may not even be a resident of the district he has represented in Congress.  Robert Wexler, a Democrat, is being accused by his Republican opponent in an upcoming election of "playng a residency shell game", saying Wexler pretends to keep an address in Florida while "flagrantly" making his home in Maryland. As a Florida "resident", Wexler apparently pays no state income tax, while living with his family in Maryland, which does have a state income tax.

The dispute has entered the No Spin Zone on the O'Reilly Factor. The home district paper, The Palm Beach Post, reports. Atlas Shrugs has more.

DKK 
American Thinker Blog -- Residency issues/tax issues dog Wexler (extensively updated)

70% Of 20th Century Warming Caused By Ocean Southern Oscillation -- NASA Scientists

Well, well. Congress learned something shattering today, which will have the Church of Al Gore/IPCC running in fear of their lost credibility. It has been scientifically demonstrated that 70% of the Global Warming in the last century (and cooling in the last decade) is due to the Pacific Ocean Oscillations, not CO2:

...
On this issue, it can be shown with a simple climate model that small cloud fluctuations assumed to occur with two modes of natural climate variability — the El Nino/La Nina phenomenon (Southern Oscillation), and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation — can explain 70% of the warming trend since 1900, as well as the nature of that trend: warming until the 1940s, no warming until the 1970s, and resumed warming since then.

The gentlemen making this claim is the lead investigator one of NASA’s flagship Earth Observing Observatories (H/T Ice Cap). I have the honor of working on this mission on the periphery (Aqua), it is operated out of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.

Expect the hyperventilation to begin following Gore's Law.
DKK
The Strata-Sphere -- NASA Discovers 70% Of Global Climate Due To Pacific Ocean Oscillations - Not CO2

Smugglers Use Dolly As Cover

Smugglers tried to use Hurricane Dolly as a cover in at least three attempts to move drugs or people through Texas, border officials said. In one bust, agents found 9,600 pounds of marijuana buried under a truckload of cotton seed, a spokesman said.

DKK
CNN

Daily Trek -- July 24, 2008

What'd I miss?

Everything you need to know to stay informed each day in 5 minutes or less!  Read your regular news and include this and you will be able to participate in most any current events discussion.
---------------------------
Good Point: Without Even Noting Our Victory, Media Has Gone From Claim "War Cannot Be Won" to "War Cannot Be Lost"

Mullah Rahim, the taliban leader for Helmand Province, surrendered to Pakistani forces because he was afraid of being killed by British special forces.

Joe Klein's scurrilous meltdown.

Wes Clark on the surge: It was a Saudi payoff that worked -- Wes Clark has his facts wrong, again!

MPs scrap France's 35-hour week.  Back from the brink, the socialist paradise almost bankrupted itself with excessive controls.

Is marriage really just for white people?

A strong earthquake injured 102 people and destroyed 31 buildings in northern Japan on Thursday, authorities said.

"DuPont Co. has joined a state initiative to build the first in the U.S. that would take corncobs and switchgrass grown on Tennessee farms and convert the biomass into ethanol for fuel."

"Firefighters have learned of a Denver house full of urine. They say protesters are storing urine to throw at police during the DNC Convention."

Anti-war protester spits on Iraq war veteran. But don't question their patriotism!

"Also, anybody who would argue that the Sunni Awakening would have survived without the surge, anybody who make that argument is so ignorant of the facts on the ground in Western Iraq and al-Anbar Province and what the Sunni sheiks were doing throughout 2007, they are too stupid to be on TV" Joe Scarborough

The Conservative Underground - in Hollywood

Bin Laden Driver Knew 9/11 Targets

LA Terrorist Sentenced to 12 Years For Planning National Guard & Jewish Center Attacks

GUN PROHBITION NOW, GUN PROHIBITION TOMORROW, GUN PROHIBITION FOREVER: Jacob Sullum on Washington D.C.'s massive resistance to the Supreme Court's Heller decision. "D.C.'s political leaders know they are inviting another Second Amendment lawsuit, but they are determined to defy the Supreme Court and the Constitution for as long as possible."

There is an interesting piece of graffiti on a bridge near Basra. A fleeing militiaman has scrawled, "We'll be back," ; underneath an Iraqi soldier has scribbled in reply, "And we'll be waiting for you."

Money does buy happiness or at least satisfaction. Chinese 83% satisfied with direction of China.
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DKK

What A Strategic Thinker Knows -- Mr. Obama Can't Seem To Understand

Yet Mr. Obama's account of his strategic vision remains eccentric. He insists that Afghanistan is "the central front" for the United States, along with the border areas of Pakistan. But there are no known al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, and any additional U.S. forces sent there would not be able to operate in the Pakistani territories where Osama bin Laden is headquartered. While the United States has an interest in preventing the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban, the country's strategic importance pales beside that of Iraq, which lies at the geopolitical center of the Middle East and contains some of the world's largest oil reserves. If Mr. Obama's antiwar stance has blinded him to those realities, that could prove far more debilitating to him as president than any particular timetable.

Washington Post -- Mr. Obama In Iraq
DKK

Toyota Beats GM In First Half Of Year Sales -- Chrysler Devoid Of Salable Models -- Obama To The Rescue!

General Motors Corp., pummeled by falling U.S. sales and high gas prices, lost the global sales lead to Toyota Motor Corp. in the first half of this year, but the churning market makes it difficult to predict which automaker will end the year on top.

Toyota sold 4,817,941 vehicles globally during the first six months of the year, company spokesman Hideaki Homma said Wednesday, beating GM by 277,532 vehicles. Toyota said its global sales rose 2 percent from the same period the year before, while GM's sales fell 3 percent.

It's the second time Toyota has beaten GM in sales in the first half of the year. In 2007, Toyota outsold GM by about 50,000 vehicles, although GM eked out a win for the full year, retaining its 77-year position as the world's largest automaker by sales.

Yahoo News

Things are bad at GM -- sales down almost 20 percent -- and open talk about the possible amputation of under-performing/overlapping brands such as Pontiac, GMC and maybe Saturn and Buick, too.

But the diagnosis is much worse for Chrysler Corp. Some analysts believe that unless a transfusion of money and other resources can be found via a buyout or partnership with a healthy automaker such as Nissan/Renault (or even the Chinese), Cerberus -- the private company that currently owns the sickly husk of Chrysler Corp -- will cut its losses and dump the whole shebang.

Time frame? A year, at the most. Maybe less than six months.
(...) 
But GM at least has a few decent small cars like the Chevy Cobalt and Saturn Astra -- and also some excellent mid-sized models like the Chevy Malibu and Saturn Aura.

Chrysler doesn't even have the Neon anymore.

For some inexplicable reason, Chrysler did not invest in a replacement for this once big-selling economy compact. So it has absolutely nothing right now in the way of a 30 mpg or better small car -- at a time when such cars are as hot-selling as V-8 SUVs were five years back.

American Spectator

Presumed Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama told the UAW in a letter that he supports the $4B in federal aid, stating that he would "provide real solutions necessary to help this industry compete and win in the global economy." Obama also promised tax breaks for consumers that purchase ultra fuel efficient vehicles and tax credits for automakers as well. Presumed Republican nominee John McCain opposes the idea of federally backed loans, but he does support tax breaks to those that purchase fuel efficient vehicles and a $300M in prize money for electric battery powered vehicles

Autoblog
DKK

Real Life Hysterics -- At Least He Didn't Have To Install A New Cross Shaped Antenna!

Why is the Grand Imperial Wizard on the Roof?

Come Down From There, Senator Byrd

In case you are a black person who drove through my neighborhood at around 5:30 today and saw me outside, dressed in white from head to toe, wearing a pillowcase over my head with two eyeholes cut in it, I would like to offer an explanation.

I know what it looks like.

I was plugging the holes the bee guy completely missed when he was out here the other day, and I don't have a bee suit, so I had to improvise.

Please do not be alarmed. There is no one else in my organization, and I am not planning to hold any meetings.

DKK
Hog On Ice

Cell Phone's Still Suspect In Cancer Cause

The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science, and he believes that people should take action now, especially when it comes to children.

"Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later," Herberman said.

Herberman strongly advises that children not use cell phones for anything but emergency calls and adults should use a wireless headset and keep the phone away from the head.

He believes the previous studies were flawed, but it still looks like this one is up in the air.
DKK
CNN

Bush Says Drill, Oil Prices Drop -- Artic May Hold 90 Billion Barrels, 12 Years Total US Demand!

Don’t look now, but investors and speculators have taken notice of the political metamorphosis among Americans on domestic drilling — even if American politicians have been slower to do so.  Since George Bush rescinded the federal moratorium on off-shore drilling and since demand for higher domestic production has increased in the face of $5 per gallon gasoline, the price of crude has dropped over $20 a barrel in less than two weeks.  The stock market has improved and the dollar has strengthened at the same time

Hot Air -- Oil down, dollar up since Bush rescinded drilling restrictions

Precisely what I said would happen!

The Arctic may hold 90 billion barrels of oil, more than all the known reserves of Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Mexico combined, and enough to supply U.S. demand for 12 years, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
One-third of the undiscovered oil is in Alaskan territory, the agency found in a study released today. By contrast, a geologic formation beneath the North Pole claimed by Russian scientists last year probably holds just 1.2 percent of the Arctic's crude, the U.S. report showed.

Bloomberg

Republicans have a plan to solve our energy problems -- The American Energy Act is an all of the above plan for American Energy.  But they need your support, call your congressman today and demand a house vote on this bill!
DKK

ALL YOUR COMMITTEES ARE BELONG TO US -- Obama Claims Credit For Actions Of Committee He Doesn't Serve On!

 "Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon."

Barack Obama
Sderot, Israel
July 23, 2008

But, there's a problem with this latest Obama statement.
He's not a member of this senate committee.

ALL YOUR COMMITTEES ARE BELONG TO US!

It's clear it is his, as is the White House and your income too!

Anyone else think this is getting somewhat pathologic?
DKK
Gateway Pundit -- Obama On Iranian Divestment: He's Not on the Committee, Didn't Vote on the Bill & Had Nothing to Do With It's Passage


DKK

The Obama Rainbow Tour -- Day 5 -- First The Holy Land Then On To Europe!

There you are, I told you so
Makes no difference where she goes
The whole world over just the same
Just listen to them call her name
And who would underestimate the actress now? 
Evita - Rainbow Tour

"Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon."

Barack Obama
Sderot, Israel
July 23, 2008

But, there's a problem with this latest Obama statement.
He's not a member of this senate committee.

ALL YOUR COMMITTEES ARE BELONG TO US! 

As of Tuesday morning, "Israelis for Obama," had about 57 members. Mr. Jassen says only six actually live in Israel.

MORE... Drudge is reporting that it turned into a mob scene!
It's going to be hard for the pro-Obama media to hide this:

Gateway Pundit

OBAMA VISITS WESTERN WALL IN OLD CITY JERUSALEM... ARRIVES AT 5:08 AM LOCAL TIME [10:08 PM ET]... SUNRISE... SHOUTING MAN: 'JERUSALEM IS NOT FOR SALE, OBAMA'... MOB SCENE... CHAOS... BOWING HIS HEAD IN PRAYER... PLACES NOTE IN WALL... POSES FOR PHOTOS... LOTS OF SHOUTING... LEAVES 5:20 AM... DEVELOPING..

CNN European Political Editor Robin Oakley said Obama enjoyed widespread popularity in Europe.

"He is somehow one of those politicians who reaches other parts other politicians don't reach," said Oakley. "After the unpopularity of George W. Bush, the world is waiting to love America again and they see in Obama, with his youth and his optimism, somebody who can bring that about."

But Oakley said Obama also needed to prove to Americans as well that he could defend U.S. interests abroad. Republican rival John McCain's campaign team has frequently criticized Obama as being inexperienced on foreign policy and a recent poll suggested just 48 percent of Americans thought he would make a good commander in chief, compared to 72 percent for McCain.

CNN

Now picture this. A man with some community organizing experience and 142 whole days in the United States Senate (before he switched into campaign mode, that is) meets with the U.S. Commander in Iraq. After General Petraeus tells Obama that a timetable for withdrawal would be wrong – that withdrawal should be based on conditions and results, not a calendar. So what does Our Savior do after his meeting? Well, he basically says that Petraeus is wrong and he is right and that as commander in chief a timetable it will be.
Question: Can anyone name a war that the United States has won that was fought on a timetable? Just wondering.
One more little oddity yesterday. Reporters had to repeatedly remind Obama staffers that he was not, in fact, the president of the United States. In response to questions Obama staffers repeatedly acted as if they were speaking for a president rather than a candidate. How sure are they of victory in November? Try 100 percent.

Neal Boortz

This is pretty extraordinary. A candidate for the American Presidency is using flyers printed in German to turn people out for his campaign rally in Berlin on Thursday. This flyer can be found on a bilingual page on BarackObama.com advertising the event … The German flyers bear Obama’s campaign logo and say “Paid for by Obama for America.” …
So, this isn’t just some sober, high-minded foreign policy speech, part of a foreign trip occurring under the auspices of his official Senate office. It is a campaign rally occuring on foreign soil. They are using the same tactics to turn out Germans to an event as they would to any rally right here in America.

Hot Air

As a part of his preparation for his overseas trip it seems team Obama felt it necessary to remove the American flag from the tail of his airplane.  They replaced it with the Obama campaign symbol!

In this city where John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all made famous speeches, Obama will find himself stepping into perhaps another iconic moment Thursday as his superstar charisma meets German adoration live in shadows of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. He then travels to Paris and London where he can expect to be greeted with similar adulation.

It’s not only Obama’s youth, eloquence and energy that have stolen hearts across the Atlantic. For Europeans, there have always been two Americas: one of cynicism, big business and bullying aggression, another of freedom, fairness and nothing-is-impossible dynamism.

If President Bush has been seen as the embodiment of that first America, Obama has raised expectations of a chance for the nation to redeem itself in the role that — at various times through history — Europe has loved, respected and relied upon.

Associated Fawning Press

An Israeli journalist called out to Obama: “Can you ensure that there will be no second Holocaust?”

Obama walked into the museum’s main building without responding...

Once again an Israeli journalist asked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee how he’d help prevent a second Holocaust. "Senator can you assure Israel that there will be no second Holocaust despite Iran's threat to wipe us off the map?" he asked.

Obama demurred, saying that it wasn't appropriate to answer the question there.

"This is Yad Vashem!" the journalist responded.

Obama said he would answer the question at a later press availability.

ABC Political Punch

DKK

Glenn Beck Beats The Bat Snot Out Of The DNCC -- Not Paying Gas Tax For Them, Good, For You, Just A Gimmick!

Via Redlasso

The Democrat National Convention Committee was getting their gas from the Denver city pumps to avoid paying gas taxes!  The State Attorney General said it, "seemed illegal."  But the height of hypocrisy is that these are the same people who said the gas tax holiday Hillary and McCain proposed were just a gimmick -- for us, but not so much for them!

DKK

The Surge Finally Working At Home!

Over half of American voters (51%) now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, the highest figure recorded in nearly four years by Rasmussen Reports in a nationwide survey.

Only 16% now think the terrorists are on top, while 27% view it as a stalemate. Prior to this week’s survey, the number who believe the terrorists are winning had never fallen below 20%.

Last July, just 36% thought the U.S. and its allies were winning. At that time, an equal number—36%--thought the terrorists were ahead.

DKK
Rasmussen Reports