Missouri Governor Blunt comes out swinging at...

...the Obama campaign's use of Missouri prosecutors and sheriffs to intimidate critics, including TV stations which run anti-Obama ads by the NRA:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Contact: Jessica Robinson, 573-751-0290

Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement

JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.

“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

“This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

Good for Blunt. Now, will the major media pick up the story that the Obama Campaign itself started this? Possibly one should file that option under "BREATH: yours, don't hold."

For background see this.

Barack Obama: Scary on the 2nd Amendment, Scarier on the First

Barack Obama is working to shut up critics like the NRA by threatening stations with loss of their broadcast licenses, and, in Missouri, has public prosecutors and sheriffs threatening to prosecute people who make "misleading" statements about Obama.

And only about Obama: Not about McCain.

Is this what we can expect from President Obama? "Barack Obama Truth Squads" (that's a direct quote, folks) made up of prosecutors and sherrifs to prosecute political speech?

Here is the WMOV TV report.

Scott Ott rewrites President Bush's Speech

I don't pretend to understand this whole debacle, but I suspect Scott Ott is closer to the truth than Dubya:

(2008-09-24) — The foundation of the U.S. economy could crumble, President George Bush said today, if Congress fails to approve a U.S. Treasury plan to take over foundering financial firms, a proposal which the president called “a much-needed 21st-century civil rights act for stupid people.”
...

“We need to guarantee that the structures, systems, people and products that got us to this point won’t be tossed on the ash heap of history,” said Mr. Bush. “If these giant companies fail, then America will be left with nothing but thousands of small to mid-sized financial firms that made prudent investment decisions during the past 15 years.”

Best to read the whole thing.

One take on the Mortgage Mess and...

...how we got into it.



It still doesn't tell us a good way to get out, of course. I'm inclined to let them sink or swim, but there is no denying that this mess was in significant part caused by our Solons on the Potomac.

I didn't know that the...

...gin junkies have the same vocab as the winos:

...herbal and spicy, with distinctive aromas and flavors of juniper, cardamom and sage. It was quite viscous and soft on the palate, with an elegant finish.

Apparently old fashioned gin is making a comeback after falling out of favor some 50 years ago. Florence Fabricant has the story in the New York Times.

If Naomi Wolf isn't unhinged...

...we are in deep kim chee:

Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah "Evita" Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.

That's pretty cool. I think I'd like to be a designated muse, though maybe not of a police state.

I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints.

So much for the S&M crowd's place in the administration.

Thinking of Administrations, tho, Al Gore reportedly paid Naomi Wolf $15,000 a month to advise his failed bid to set up his own presidential administration. We may be a lot luckier than I thought for Al having lost.

She uses mafia tactics against critics, like the police commissioner who was railroaded for opposing handguns in Alaskan battered women's shelters --

I guess if I was the police commissioner, I'd be critical of handguns in battered women's shelters, too. Shotguns are easier to use and a lot more effective.

Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal.

Cobbled together from dead white politicians, then given an electric personality?

Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer...doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years.

Then FrankenPrez takes over.

I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them. If McCain-Palin get in, this will be the last true American election.

So why are you against women having guns? Why do you want the fascists to have them all?

The riot police wore the black S&M gear of the Rovian fantasy...

Naomi, are you sure it is ROVE's fantasy? Just asking.

Under the coming Palin-Rove police state, you will witness the plans now underway to bring Iraqi troops to patrol the streets of our nation.

If you read the article she links to, you find that it is American troops who have served in Iraq, not Iraqi troops, who will be stationed in the US. Sort of like bringing in American troops who fought Nazis, instead of bringing in Nazi troops to patrol. Details count, Naomi.

Still, they are gearing up for some pretty scary stuff. According to the linked article:

Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle

Yeah, right. We all know what Rove's pawns will being doing with those so called Jaws of "Life". More from her link:

...working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.

"Trees" as we all know, is RoveSpeak for Political Critics.

The state harassment has already started. Back to Naomi herself:

Horrifyingly to me is the impact on my family. My children's report cards are returned again and again though perfectly addressed; their invitations are turned back; and my daughters many letters from camp? Vanished. All of them. Not one arrived. Try explaining that to a smart thirteen year old. Try explaining it in a way that still makes her feel secure and comfortable.

They're already stealing her 13 year old's letters home? Better get a handgun, Naomi, before they rev up the chainsaws. Or unlimber the Jaws of "Life".

This is not about my fear and anxiety: it is about what awaits you and everyone you love unless you see this for what it is:

Scharansky divided nations into "fear societies" and "free societies." Make no mistake: Sarah "Evita" Palin is Rove and Cheney's cosmetic rebranding of their fascist push: she will help to establish a true and irreversible "fear society" in this once free once proud nation. For God's sake, do not let her; do not let them.

Here is Wolf's Wikipedia page. The pic makes her look a bit Zombie like to me.

Maybe Naomi should stick to giving advice to Al Gore. I hope he takes it.

Mortgage Meltdown

Not too surprising, but one McCain advisor blames the Democrats, including the Haloed One.

Roll Call: The "50 Richest" US legislators

Not that the list is in any way accurate, mind you. Wisconsin's Senator Herb Kohl is a centimillionaire, but comes in at #49, poking along with a measly $5.49 million.

I wonder how many of these 50 seek federal policies which would make it less difficult for others to create great wealth, how many seek policies which preserve their own wealth at the expense of other, more innovative, people, and how many are guilt ridden enough to want policies which make it harder for others to create great wealth.

Now that would be an interesting list.