Somali Pirate Or Enemy Combatant – What’s The Difference?

Crew members of the Maersk Alabama celebrated after hearing that their captain, who had been held hostage by Somali pirates, had been rescued. Image Credit: Roberto Schmidt/AFP — Getty Images

Somali Pirate Or Enemy Combatant – What’s The Difference?

All this last week and Easter weekend, the world media attention was affixed upon the events surrounding the assault, attempted takeover, and kidnapping of a captain of an American flagged container ship. The leadership and action shown by our military that ended the internationally illegal action and saved the container ship captain, Capt. Richard Phillips, was exemplary.

While our President ducked questions from the media (and diplomats from the State Department negotiated with Somali Klan Elders via satellite phone) about the assault and kidnapping happening in the Indian Ocean off of Somalia, the military was preparing for action, then acted under direct orders from the on-scene commander.

President-elect Barack Obama at a press conference on December 7, 2008. Image Credit: Scott Olson, Getty Images

This excerpted and edited from WXYZ-TV Detroit –

Obama declines to answer question on piracy
wxyz.com - Last Update: 4/09 10:37 am

President Barack Obama has declined to answer a question about the hostage situation off the coast of Somalia.

The president was asked about the incident as he met with U.S. homeowners about refinancing mortgages. At the close of a Roosevelt Room event, the president was asked by a reporter if he were concerned about the piracy incident.

Obama responded: "Guys, we're talking about housing right now."

Reporters were then ushered out of the room as they usually are after such events.
Reference Here>>

This is the new leader of the Free World and he can not even address the terrorist and illegal acts of pirates on an American vessel. I would have hated to see what President Barack Obama’s reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor would have been if he were in place on 7 December 1941.

Last March, the Obama Administration decided to remove the term “Enemy Combatant” from the terminology used by the American Government in dealing with people who committed acts of war but were not controlled or governed by any organized country. A term was needed after 11 September 2001, to deal with people who caused acts of war, mass murder, and were not governed by an organized country after hijacked passenger jets were flown into the World Trade Center Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C..

Why don’t we just call them Pirates?

Pirates are not governed by any country, they terrorize, disrupt a culture, murder and profit from their uncivilized and illegal acts just as “Enemy Combatants” and the international laws of piracy are clear and the punishment is harsh … first offense can get one life in prison!

We, at MAXINE, suggest that we call “Enemy Combatants” (EC’s) … “Pirates” (P’s).

EC’s and P’s are all working to disrupt the way life is carried out because of some perceived nonnegotiable grievance. EC’s and P’s all will use what ever means to achieve their ends that include violence, kidnapping, theft, and destruction. With EC’s and P’s, the war never ends until they choose not to act, otherwise all of these acts must be dealt with at the time they happen and harshly … these acts should never be appeased.

It is time to end ... Piracy, once and for all!

Circular Logic Defines Obama’s Turn At President

Leaders of the White House economic team and the Senate's top Republican bellowed about bonuses at a bailed-out insurance giant and pledged to prevent such payments in the future.From one Sunday talk show to the next, they tore into the contracts that American International Group asserted had to be honored, to the tune of about $165 million and payable to executives by Sunday, even as the company has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue. Image Credit: KOMO News

Circular Logic Defines Obama’s Turn At President

Here we are only about 57 days into the 44th Presidency of the United States and what we find doesn’t match up with what was promised.

Barack Obama ran on an overriding theme of ushering a new era of responsibility, yet all this administration can do is put forward and hire people, Timothy Geithner, to oversee our economy and its pursuit of increased taxes, that cheat on their responsibility to actually pay taxes.

Case in point:

The Obama administration blames this economy and the Government solutions put in place to correct its downturn on the previous executive administration of George W. Bush, yet this administration fights to keep most of the same people, policies, and level of oversight in place from the previous administration.

This administration decided to give a third round of additional TARP fund billions of dollars to its largest troubled financial institution, AIG, without pre-condition (again) while upping the Government’s ownership (80%) in the company … then becomes outraged (only after the disclosure of the bonus plan) when the company honors its employment contracts with many of its top executives by issuing $165 million dollars in bonuses – averaging $500,000 to each.

Obama economic chief Larry Summers: AIG bonuses 'outrageous' but government can't stop them. Image Credit: Associated Press via KDRV-TV

This excerpted and edited from NationlJournal.com –

Hotline After Dark -- Resident Evil?
March 17, 2009 8:50 AM

"World News" led with AIG bonuses. "Evening News" led with AIG bonuses and featured a taped interview with special inspector gen. for Iraq Stuart Bowen Jr. "Nightly News" led with AIG bonuses.

Last night's TV coverage was dominated by Pres. Obama's announcement that he asked Treas. Sec. Tim Geithner to use all legal tools to block the AIG exec bonuses. Among the reaction:
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Weekly Standard's Ham: "There's nothing that brings people in Washington together from both sides of the aisle faster than the need to get on the right side of a populist backlash" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 3/16).

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ): "None of this should have surprised any of us. ... And it was actually out there also for Secretary Geithner to understand coming into this, as well. ... So it's only now that it's making headlines that the president is coming back and basically second-guessing his own treasury secretary on this. Why Secretary Geithner didn't raise this when he first understood it is beyond me" ("NewsHour," PBS, 3/16).

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), asked if he's satisfied with the responses from the WH: "I'm not satisfied. ... They have to renegotiate their contracts. There is no reason why when the federal government is poised to do another $30 billion that, in fact, we can't insist that those contracts get renegotiated, and renegotiated in such a way in which those bonuses simply don't take place." ("1600," MSNBC, 3/16).
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FNC's Hume: "... it is a big problem for the president. He has already added substantially to the bailout money previously provided to AIG and to others and will almost certainly need to add more, much more to address the continuing credit crisis. ("Special Report," 3/16).
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Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA): "The boneheads are the people in the previous administration and this administration who gave out over $170 billion of our money and did not, in fact, do what anyone else giving money does, which is ensure that the money is not a conduit for simply paying out bonuses" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 3/16).

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer: "This is not so much an economic issue as a psychological and a political issue. Economically, if you add up all the bonuses, it's less than 1/10 of one percent of the bailout to AIG alone, so it's lunch money. Psychologically, it's important because there's outrage in the country, and ... unless there's an appeasement in the anger in the population who are going to have to support the next bailout, which is going to be a trillion dollars, the money won't be made available, Congress will deny it. So that's why you get the president heaping opprobrium on these miscreants who made the bad deals and now are getting the bonuses."

More Krauthammer: "I'm all in favor of keeping this heaping opprobrium. I would deny them the bonuses if possible. I would be for an exemplary hanging or two. Have it in Times Square, invite Madame Defarge. You borrow a guillotine from the French and we could have a party. If that's what it takes to maintain popular support, let's do it. But it's not going to change anything economically" ("Special Report," FNC, 3/16).

CNN's Dobbs: "I'm calling for Liddy to be fired. I'm calling for the Board of AIG to be fired here tonight, and looking forward ... we can't afford in this country any longer to tolerate corporate leaders who don't understand the basic values of this country ... ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 3/16).
Reference Here>>

Why is anyone surprised? Barack Obama never was an executive in charge of anything throughout his entire career.

He became educated, earned a law degree, edited a law review publication, worked as a foot soldier for ACORN (an organization that is funded, in part, by the federal government to support socialism projects to people who look for handouts as opposed to a hand up on which one can become self-sustaining), became friends with a group of radical educators and priests, taught constitutional law at a college, ran for and secured a state senate office in Illinois, then waged an uncontested campaign to become a Senator from the state of Illinois to the federal government, where he served 144 days before he declared and ran for President of the country full time until he became elected.

And now, as President, with the help of a Democrat political party lead congress and three Republican political party Senators, he has been successful at committing each and every household to an additional $18,500+ in spending debt. He has defined his presidency by throwing taxpayer money at continuing, and historically, self-correcting economic problems while re-labeling our effort to stop islamofascism created violence that continues to kill thousands of innocent citizens … from an act of ongoing war to a police action.

The economy has lost over 40% of its value since he was voted into office (over 15% in these last two months), South Korea and Iran threaten to launch rockets and make nuclear bombs, Russia is moving to control the flow of oil out of their region of the world while President Barack Obama reverses the opening up of off-shore drilling activity in our own country, Riots are breaking out in Pakistan, and Barack Obama pledges $900,000,000 (nine-hundred million dollars) of United States taxpayer money to rebuild infrastructure in Hamas (a recognized islamofascism ideology based terrorist organization) controlled Gaza.

All of this chaos and we have only witnessed this President’s first two months in the office of executive leadership.

Circular logic … dizzying, isn’t it?

Post Palin Prognosis For Political Pop-Star Barack Obama

The presidential race, recently, seems to be all about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin -- but how long this period lasts depends in part on how Barack Obama confronts a phenomenon that can only be described as Obama-like. Image Credit: Associated Press

Post Palin Prognosis For Political Pop-Star Barack Obama

It’s only been a little over a week and a half since the announcement of the running mate for the Republican Party Presidential ticket and about one week since she was able to introduce herself to those who are engaged deeply in our democratic political process.

The impact this is having and the increase in enthusiasm it has generated in having an executive branch headed by Senator John McCain is completely unexpected. Crowds that greeted John McCain and Alaska Governor Sara Palin were almost ten times the size expected for each of the last four stump speech gatherings. The largest gathering was held in a hanger in Colorado Springs, Colorado with a crowd estimated at approaching 20,000 people (only 1,500 were scheduled to arrive).

For Republicans, who have felt that their agenda was going to be diluted by a “maverick” choice of a known friend of Mr. McCain’s were caught off guard when John picked a maverick and proven governmental reformist in Sarah.

While this pick and her acceptance is a good thing for Republicans, the swing in the polls can not be fully explained through one strong choice for Vice-President.

Barack Obama has a large and detailed part to play in the near 20 percentage point swing over the last couple of weeks in some key demographics. With just under sixty day left in a campaign season that has already lasted, well, for Democrats, almost eight years ... the Republicans may be on the verge of winning it all.

"We need to carry Colorado. We need to win!" he told a roaring crowd that spilled out of a hangar at the Colorado Jet Center, on the west side of the Colorado Springs Airport. /// The Colorado Springs Police Department declined to provide an estimate of the crowd size, but a campaign spokesman, Tom Kise, said 13,000 had gone through security checks. Image Credit: Rocky Mountain News

This excerpted and edited from Asia Times -

How Obama lost the election
By Spengler, Asia Times - Sep 3, 2008

DENVER - Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech last week seemed vastly different from the stands of this city's Invesco Stadium than it did to the 40 million who saw it on television. Melancholy hung like thick smog over the reserved seats where I sat with Democratic Party staffers. The crowd, of course, cheered mechanically at the tag lines, flourished placards, and even rose for the obligatory wave around the stadium. But its mood was sour. The air carried the acrid smell of defeat, and the crowd took shallow breaths. Even the appearance of R&B great Stevie Wonder failed to get the blood pumping.

The speech itself dragged on for three-quarters of an hour. As David S Broder wrote in the Washington Post:

"[Obama's] recital of a long list of domestic promises could have been delivered by any Democratic nominee from Walter Mondale to John Kerry. There was no theme music to the speech and really no phrase or sentence that is likely to linger in the memory of any listener. The thing I never expected did in fact occur: Al Gore, the famously wooden former vice president, gave a more lively and convincing speech than Obama did."

On television, Obama's spectacle might have looked like The Ten Commandments, but inside the stadium it felt like Night of the Living Dead.
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The Democrats were watching the brightest and most articulate presidential candidate they have fielded since John F Kennedy snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And this was before John McCain, in a maneuver worthy of Admiral Chester Nimitz at the Battle of Midway, turned tables on the Democrats' strategy with the choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.
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Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee.
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McCain's choice of vice presidential candidate made obvious after the fact what the party professionals felt in their fingertips at the stadium extravaganza yesterday: rejecting Clinton in favor of the colorless, unpopular, tangle-tongued Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain's selection was a statement of strength. America's voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it.
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Biden, who won 3% of the popular vote in the Democratic presidential primary in his home state of Delaware, and 1% or less in every other contest he entered, is ballot-box poison. Obama evidently chose him to assuage critics who point to his lack of foreign policy credentials. That was a deadly error, for by appearing to concede the critics' claim that he knows little about foreign policy, Obama raised questions about whether he is qualified to be president in the first place.
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Why didn't Obama choose Hillary? The most credible explanation came from veteran columnist Robert Novak May 10, who reports that Michelle Obama vetoed Hillary's candidacy. "The Democratic front-runner's wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party's nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility," Novak wrote. If that is true, then Obama succumbed to the character weakness I described in a February 26 profile of (Obama's women reveal his secret). His peculiar dependency on an assertive and often rancorous spouse, I argued, made him vulnerable, and predicted that Obama "will destroy himself before he destroys the country".
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Given Obama's defensive, even wimpy selection of a running-mate, McCain's choice was obvious. He picked the available candidate most like himself: a maverick with impeccable reform credentials, a risk-seeking commercial fisherwoman and huntress married to a marathon snowmobile racer who carries a steelworkers union card. The Democratic order of battle was to tie McCain to the Bush administration and attack McCain by attacking Bush. With Palin on the ticket, McCain has re-emerged as the maverick he really is.
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The young Alaskan governor, to be sure, hasn't any business running for vice president of the United States with her thin resume. McCain and his people know this perfectly well, and that is precisely why they put her on the ticket. If Palin is unqualified to be vice president, all the less so is Obama qualified to be president.
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Obama, who styled himself an agent of change, took his image for granted, and attempted to ensure himself victory by doing the cautious thing. He is trapped in a losing position, and there is nothing he can do to get out of it.

Obama, in short, is long on brains and short on guts.
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Obama could have allied with the old guard, through an Obama-Clinton ticket, or he could have rejected the old guard by choosing the closest thing the Democrats had to a Sarah Palin. But fear paralyzed him, and he did neither.

In my February 26 profile, I called Obama "the political equivalent of a sociopath", without any derogatory intent.
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No country's politics depends more openly on friendships than America's, yet Obama has not a single real friend, for he rose so fast that all his acquaintances become rungs on the ladder of his ascent. One human relationship crowds the others out of his life, his marriage to Michelle, a strong, assertive and very angry woman.

If Novak's report is accurate, then Michelle's anger will have lost the election for Obama, as Achilles' anger nearly killed the Greek cause in the Trojan War. But the responsibility rests not with Michelle, but with Obama. Obama's failure of nerve at the cusp of his success is consistent with my profile of the candidate, in which I predicted that he would self-destruct. It's happening faster than I expected. As I wrote last February:

It is conceivable that Barack Obama, if elected, will destroy himself before he destroys the country. Hatred is a toxic diet even for someone with as strong a stomach as Obama ... Both Obama and the American public should be very careful of what they wish for. As the horrible example of Obama's father shows, there is nothing worse for an embittered outsider manipulating the system from within than to achieve his goals.

By all rights, the Democrats should win this election.

They will lose, I predict, because of the flawed character of their candidate.
Reference Here>>

This afternoon, Barack Obama gave a hint into his flawed character when he decided to obliquely refer to the Governor from the state of Alaska Sarah Palin at one of his increasingly, lightly attended hand-picked town hall style media events, as a pig.

Classy.

Obama - No Conflicts? … So, No Military … “that’s the ticket”

Barack Obama struggling to answer a question that was asked by a viewer (who wrote in) of ABC News, 'This Week' on the Sunday interview show (Ctrl-Click to launch video). Image Credit: ABC News website

Obama - No Conflicts? … So, No Military … “that’s the ticket”

The neat thing about listening to Barack Obama speak when he is off-prompter (where a speech is written out for him to read directly from an image projected on to a reflective glass surface), is that it is really easy to tell when he is unprepared to respond to a particular issue or question that is asked – just listen.

He, the junior Senator from Illinois, is usually very smooth in his speaking style – clear, succinct, and directly to the point – especially on subjects he is well versed on and/or he is reading from a Teleprompter. When Barack has to answer a question he hasn’t thought about … and has to come up with an answer that he thinks will “sell” his “everyman” image, he puts a lot of unnecessary I’s, and’s, and ah’s which usually NEVER make it into a transcript of the answer that he gives.

On the Sunday political interview program aired on ABC-TV, ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopoulos, a question came up that illustrates the point quite clearly. The answer is so labored that it almost causes one to think back on the comedy sketch routinely played by Jon Lovitz where he floats an obvious bogus answer to a question posed --- and then mutters to himself, “Ahhh, that’s the ticket!”

This found at ABC News -

Obama’s Full ‘This Week’ Interview
Presidential hopeful chats with George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview.
09/07/2008

Watch FULL Video Here>>
-01:25 from the end

George Stephanopoulos asks, “One of our viewers wrote in, you talk about “Service”, and asks - Brenda Gottfried Bryant - Murietta, Georgia, “Did you ever consider joining our armed services to protect and serve our country, and if not, why?”

“You know, I actually did,” Obama said. “I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I had - (ah) - friends who, whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, (ah) military bases there.

“And (ah) I actually always thought (ah) of the military as (ah) some ennobling (ah) and, and, you know, honorable option. But keep in mind that I (ah) graduated in 1979. (ah) The Vietnam War had come to an end. (ah) We weren't engaged (ah) in an active (ah) (ah) military conflict at that point. (ah) And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue.”

Barack Obama continues to answer on talking points that he has previously thought about and he resumes a smoother delivery in his answer.

We, at MAXINE, wish we could get a dollar for every (ah) that Barack Obama utters on answers to questions that are genuinely out of the socialist/progressive character template that Obama holds.

Just on this last exchange alone, we would get enough money ($13.00) to catch a fish taco lunch at the local Islands café, and have enough left over for a couple of beers!

Add the unecessary "And's" that mostly begin the sentences ($5.00), and one could invite a friend.

Ahhhh, that's the ticket!

Obama's Ethereal Experience Vs. Palin's Reality Of Accomplishment

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Obama's Ethereal Experience Vs. Palin's Reality Of Accomplishment

This election cycle for President of the United States is really fun and is beginning to feel like a ride in a “Bumble Ball” (if riding in a Bumble Ball were possible).

Take the recent media reaction to Senator John McCain’s pick for Vice-President of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin – WOW.

All of the pundits on radio and television (especially cable news television) seem to be making arguments for or against the wisdom of any potential candidacy based upon past “Experience” while the real measure of anyone’s experience actually lies in the value of their “Accomplishment”.

Even Barack Obama doesn’t get it … when confronted with Sarah Palin’s years of experience in chief executive decision making office positions (on the city council as Mayor of a city and then as Governor of the State of Alaska) he sites as a comparison his function as the leader of the Barack Obama campaign for President of the United States.

This excerpted from CNN and the Anderson Cooper 360 show –

Anderson Cooper interviewed Barack Obama Monday
From CNN Political Producer Ed Hornick - September 1, 2008 - Posted: 07:10 PM ET

Barack Obama defended his experience in dealing with natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, and took a swipe at newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

In an interview on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night, Obama was asked about whether his experience in the U.S. Senate dealing with weather-related situations compares to Palin’s executive experience running the state of Alaska and as the small town mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

(YouTube type video of AC360 interview of Barack Obama by Anderson Cooper - Ctrl-Click photo to launch)

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina.”
Reference Here>>

What is truly striking about the response and position that Barack Obama stakes out in his response to Anderson Cooper’s query is the depth of the ignorance that he has about the value of accomplishment in decision making a city manager and/or Mayor has in the lives of the people who actually live in a city or town … let alone a State – ANY State.

Banner graphic from the city of Wasilla website

Let’s examine for a minute the online Budget for 2005 published by and for the city of Wasilla, Alaska (Wasilla – for the Sarmatian god of the same name, see Wasilla (god)) – the city that Sarah Palin served for a period of two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996, then won two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002.

The city hall of Wasilla ... the one that pundit James Carville describes as looking like a "bait shop" in Louisiana. Image Credit: City of Wasilla website

It is not the amount of money that is managed, it is the 256 pages of description, on where the money comes from and how it is used to the betterment of the community this organization is formed to serve, that concerns itself with the issue of accomplishment.

So, where does the money come from and what community does the campaign for President of the United States does the Barack Obama for President organization serve?

Is there any infrastructure upon which people are able to fly an airplane, drive to the city for goods and services, get help in an accident, report a crime, prosecute a criminal, get married, get an education, and have the trash picked up long after decisions are made on how to use the municipalities collected tax money?

A political campaign organization asks for money to be donated so it can be spent on activities promoting the candidate, Barack Obama, himself.

The money is spent on cardboard signs, printed paper with gum/glue on the back so that the paper could be affixed to a car or telephone pole, video production services so that YouTube and Television ads can be made and promotional time can be bought to play them, leased jet airplanes so that the candidate and his staff can be flown anywhere/anytime foe events where the candidate can be heard and seen by people at a gathering … and more.

All of the investment of donated money and the effort it pays for is designed so that the candidate, Barack Obama, can put himself in a place where he can make decisions for the betterment of the community he wants to serve – a place he has never been before as a community organizer in Chicago, a senator in the state government of Illinois, and finally as the junior Senator for the state of Illinois in the United States Senate.

Sarah Palin has been in a place where her decisions resulted into accomplishment for the better part of 10 years in a city community environment and for the state community for two and a half years as she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004 while also serving as Ethics Supervisor of the commission, and as the governor of Alaska, becoming the first woman and youngest person to hold the office.

Barack Obama really does not know what he doesn’t know and to prove this fact here are a couple of facts about the state of Alaska that Barack Obama would not and could not compare his political campaign to.

Alaska is a fairly large state economically, for example; the state ranks as #6 in Gross Domestic Product Per Capita on the list of all 50 states (behind Delaware, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and ahead of California in #7 – Illinois by comparison ranks #17)

This excerpted from Wikipedia (pretty easy to find) –

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled a contract for the construction of an 11-mile (18 km) gravel road outside Juneau to a mine. This reversed a decision made in the closing days of the Murkowski administration.[70] She also followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account, against the wishes of the Legislature) by the Murkowski administration for $2.7 million in 2005. In August 2007, the jet was sold on eBay for $2.1 million.[71]

In June 2007, Palin signed into law a $6.6 billion operating budget—the largest in Alaska's history.[72] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to nearly $1.6 billion.[73]

In 2007, the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business. Palin objected, citing concern for dairy farmers and a recent infusion of $600,000 in state money. Palin subsequently replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation.[74] The new board reversed the decision to close the dairy. Later in 2007, the unprofitable business was put up for sale. No offers met the minimum bid of $3.35 million,[75][76] and the dairy was closed. In August 2008, the Anchorage plant was purchased for $1.5 million, the new minimum bid. The purchaser plans to convert it into heated storage units.[77]
Reference Here>>

So again, let’s look at the off-the-cuff comment and comparison by Barack Obama while he was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN –

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

As Governor of Alaska for the last year, Sarah Palin ran the going concern that operated on an approved budget of 6.6 billion dollars, was the commander-and-chief Alaska’s National Guard, is aware on a daily basis the politics of Russia and Canada where the State of Alaska shares a border with both countries and the state and municipal government employ a total of 8,500 people to carry out the people’s business.

It is an insult to begin to compare the ethereal nature of experience to the reality of accomplishment an executive position in government begets.

What is even more odd is that the junior Senator from Illinois, who is running for the top executive governmental position in the United States, takes the time to compare himself in background and experience with the competitive choice for the back-up position for the same top executive governmental position.

I guess Sarah Palin said it best in her speech at the RNC Convention in St. Paul, MN when described what the job of a small town mayor was like --- "Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

The person at the top of the ticket choose right for the good of the country and with the choice of Sara Palin as his running mate, John McCain had this to say in his speech that closed the RNC Convention:

"Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming."

The Democrats are scared folks; they are scared that Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden's “experience” does not stack up to Senator John McCain’s and Governor Sarah Palin’s accomplishments and with good reason.

It's Official - Obama Is The Democrat Party Candidate

Can you spell F-I-A-S-C-O (with Obama for President logo), I knew you could. Graphic Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE) 2008

It's Official - Obama Is The Democrat Party Candidate

A month ago, Barack Obama held a 15 point lead in the national polls while he was the "presumptive nominee" for the Democrat Political Party to be their candidate for President of the United States.

This afternoon, with Barack Obama and running-mate Joseph Biden holding down a 2 point deficit (that is a 17 point downturn) in the national polls made history while they became the official nominees for the Democrat Political Party to be their candidates for President, and Vice-President of the United States.

Hillary Clinton put an end to the roll-call vote procedure by having the process move to make the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, be made the nominee by Acclamation!

This from NowPublic -

Obama is NOMINATED! By Acclamation!
by politisite August 27, 2008 at 03:24 pm

Obama is NOMINATED! By Acclamation! Obama will accept publicly Thursday.

Video - Barack Obama Nominated by Acclamation

This is History, Many folks are being interviewed who suffered as people of color are in tears and never thought a moment like this would occur in their lifetime. An African-American has been nominated to a major Democratic party. I must note here that Cynthia McKinney, an African-American woman was nominated to the Green party earlier. 2008 will be remembered as a historical date in the history books.

Update: 5:30 pm ET - Hillary Clinton has just been put into nomination and seconded. They then went on to Nominate Barack Obama by using a Iraq War Veteran Republican Medic who said that he wants a President that will consult with his enemies.

Update: 5:35 pm ET - Ken Salazar of Colorado has risen to Second the motion to nominate Barack Obama for President, says that Bush has truned his back on America and McCain will do the same.

Update 5:39 pm ET - Congresswoman Rep. Wasserman-Schultz of FL seconds the second. Says not to believe McCains ads. He will continue the failed policies of Bush. She reminds delegates that McCain wants to overturn Row v. Wade and who voted against the Equal Pay for woman (note he votes against any bill that has earmarks)

Update 5:44 pm ET- US Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama seconds, the seconds, second tp place Obama nomination.

Update 5:48 pm ET - Pelosi: "We will now proceed to the roll call of the states." Roll call will continue untill they have a nominee.

Update 5:50 o ET Alabama - 48 Obama 5 Clinton

Alaska 3 Clinton 15 Obama

American Somoa - 9 votes Obama

Arizona - 40 Obama, 27 Clinton

Arkansas - 47 Obama

California- Passes

Colorado - 55 Obama, 15 Clinton

CT - 38 Obama, 21 Clinton

DE-23 votes Obama

Abroad 2/12 votes for Clinton, 8 1/2 Obama

Note: the reason that California passed is that it did not want Clinton to lead Obama at any time and thus they passed so that would not occur

DC - Wants equal representation, 33 Obama, 7 Clinton

FL - 136 Obama, Clinton 51, 1 abstain

Barack Obama has currently a total of 452.5 votes (Clinton has 131.5). A total of 2,210 are needed for the nomination.

GA- 18 Clinton, 82 Obama

GUAM 4 Obama, 3 Clinton

HI - 26 Obama, 1 Clinton

ID - 3 Clinton, 20 Obama

IL- Passes - probably to be the last to push Obama over the needed delegates

IN- 75 Obama, Clinton 6

IA - 48 Obama, 9 Clinton

KS - 6 Clinton, 34 Obama

KY- 24 Clinton, 36 Obama

LA- 43 Obama, 7 Clinton

ME- 24 Obama, 7 Clinton

Barack Obama has currently a total of 844.5 votes (Clinton has 216.5). A total of 2,210 are needed for the nomination.

MD- 94 Obama, 6 Clinton

MA- 52 Clinton, 65 Obama

MI- 27 Clinton, 125 Obama

MN - 8 Clinton, 78 Obama

MS- 8 Clinton, 33 Obama

MO- 6 Clinton, 82 Obama

Barack Obama has currently a total of 1,321.5 votes (Clinton has 323.5). A total of 2,210 are needed for the nomination

MT- 7 Clinton, 18 Obama

NB- 31 votes 3 Clinton 28

NV - 8 Clinton, 25 Obama

NH- 30 Obama

NJ-127 Obama

NM- Yelded to IL

IL- Yelded to NY

NY- Clinton is on the floor will motion to end the vote, there needs to be a second, and an I vote, Obama is nomintated! by Acclimation.

Obama has accepted the nomination and will give his acceptance speech Thursday.
Hillary really moved the audience to tears and cheers. She concluded this in such a classy manner. It appears that it will bring the party together as they concluded in a great way.

The first African American EVER nominated by a Major party.
Reference Here>>

This all happened on a day that news about the connection of Barack Obama to the American Terrorist William Ayers was beginning to come out.

This on a day when pictures of the stage that Barack Obama plans to make his acception speech tomorrow at Invesco Field in front of an estimated 70,000 people. The backdrop features a larger than life Greek Architecture Acropolis type of structure and it causes a pause to many who see it ... is it over the top?

"The Barapolis" - Obama Stage Setup At Invesco To Resemble An Ancient Greek Temple - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple. /// The stage, similar to structures used for rock concerts, has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos’ National Football League team plays. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE) 2008

Will this type of event have Obama and Biden connect with the middle America fly-over conservative Democrats or will this venue have the same effect as Barack Obama's trip to Europe which caused much of the decline of his popularity in the polls?

Here, at Mr. Obama's neighborhood in the Democrat Party ... Can you spell F-I-A-S-C-O?

... we knew you could!

Cone Of Silence vs Idiocy Of Pay-Grade

Get Smart’s “Cone Of Silence” - Although there’s no working system described in any articles I can find about this, the patent application that goes with this is filed on behalf of NASA, so it might not be total vaporware. Caption and Image Credit: Get Smart via hojohnlee.com

Cone Of Silence vs The Idiocy Of Pay-Grade

The Main Stream Media is at a loss as to how to defend the lackluster performance of the Junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama at the Saddleback Church’s Civic Forum held Saturday night August 16, 2008.

So, if one can not attack the superior nature of the answers given to obvious questions asked of both candidates for leader of the free world … a very high pay-grade in itself … then why not attack the process.

The questions in themselves were absolute “Christian Forum 101”, from abortion to human rights, from self-reliance to the freedom of process on how religious and civic organizations participate in the giving of aid services, from vouchers and home schooling to merit pay and competition in the judgment of teachers and schools in the education infrastructure – even “Why do you want to become President of the United States?" – really basic fare.

Nothing new in the nature of the questions and nothing that should surprise anyone who aspires to lead. The questioning process was not "gotcha politics" made famous by the Fourth Estate or brain surgery.

So now we are treated to this exercise in insinuation from the New York Times.

This excerpted from the New York Times -

Despite Assurances, McCain Wasn’t in a ‘Cone of Silence’
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE - Published: August 17, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. — Senator John McCain was not in a so-called cone of silence on Saturday night while his rival, Senator Barack Obama, was being interviewed at the Saddleback Church in California.

The McCain campaign, which flew here Sunday from California, said Mr. McCain was in his motorcade on the way to the church as Mr. Obama was being interviewed by the Rev. Rick Warren.

The matter is of interest because Mr. McCain, who followed Mr. Obama’s hourlong appearance in the forum, was asked virtually the same questions as Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain’s performance was well received, raising speculation among some viewers, especially supporters of Mr. Obama, that he was not as isolated during the Obama interview as Mr. Warren implied.

Mr. Warren, pastor of Saddleback, had assured the audience while he was interviewing Mr. Obama that “we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence” and that he could not hear the questions.
----
Interviewed Sunday on CNN, Mr. Warren seemed surprised to learn that Mr. McCain was not in the building during the Obama interview. A spokeswoman for Mr. McCain said he was en route to the church.

Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions. “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.
Reference Here>>

Cone Of Silence, Or Not:

Simple, clear, direct, and philosophically informed answers bespeak LEADERSHIP in the best way.

The simple, clear, direct and philosophically informed winner was ...

... the Senior Senator from Arizona, John McCain.

Definately NOT the Junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

Even if somehow Senator Barack Obama managed to win the election come November 3, 2008, the office of the President of the United States would still be above Barack Obama's "pay-grade"!

Obama’s Folly - A Triple Play For The Clinton Democrats In Denver

The Democratic National Convention Committee 2008 Logo - Image Credit: DNCC

Obama’s Folly - A Triple Play For The Clinton Democrats In Denver

The political convention for the Democrat Party is to be held in Denver starting August 25-28, 2008. Given recent concessions by Barack Obama in the negotiations for scheduled speakers and events, appears to be an exercise in Clinton political power.

This convention is supposed to be constructed to place the best face on the Democrat Party and highlight the characteristics of their nominee for President of the United States in order to build momentum with the voters across the nation to win the election.

If these negotiations were a pitch in baseball and the presumptive nominee Barack Obama were the batter … Obama just WHIFFED!

The way the schedule is set (for now), Barack Obama has allowed the Clinton’s to be an instrumental part of the main three days that the four day convention will be held with primetime speaking and presentation opportunities. The participation will end on Thursday when Hillary Clinton’s name will be placed into nomination so that delegates pledged to her can stand up and raise their voice.

This gesture is intended to be symbolic as the Democrats officially make Barack Obama their nominee at the Denver gathering … but we, at MAXINE, wonder how strong of a showing will this represent when the Democrat faithful on the convention floor will have been treated in each preceding day with a potential stirring speech by former president Bill Clinton, a Hollywood produced review presentation of the Clinton years as president and Hillary’s historic run for the nomination and to have Hillary be introduced in a speech to be delivered by Bill and Hillary’s daughter, Chelsea.

The way the schedule is set on Tuesday night Senator Hillary Clinton, who is a champion for working families and one of the most effective and empathetic voices in the country today, will be the headline prime-time speaker on Tuesday August 26th. Chelsea Clinton is expected to introduce her with a small speech after a video production put together by the Hollywood producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason. Then on Wednesday, the leadoff primtime slot on the third night, Former President Bill Clinton, "will speak on Barack Obama’s commitment to a stronger and safer America, as well as the history of Democrats making positive change in the lives of all Americans." Lastly, on the fourth night, Hillary Clinton will be mentioned over and over again during the roll-call delegate vote before the assumed outcome of Barack Obama being nominated.

Who thinks this is a great way to introduce a candidate that has NO RECORD of accomplishment that would qualify him to become President of the United States?

Not Dick Morris!

This excerpted from the New York Post -

HILLARY PUSHES WAY ONTO STAGE
NAME TO BE PUT INTO NOMINATION AT CONVENTION
By MAGGIE HABERMAN - Last updated: 6:12 am - August 15, 2008 - Posted: 4:02 am - August 15, 2008

Hillary Rodham Clinton has muscled her way into formal recognition at the Democratic National Convention by successfully pressing Barack Obama to allow her name to be placed into nomination, officials said yesterday.
----
The announcement came after weeks of wrangling between the two sides over Clinton's role at the four-day event beginning Aug. 25.

The deal was finalized after several furious Clinton boosters pushed for formal recognition of her campaign, in which she came closer than any woman has to becoming a major party nominee.

"I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong, united fashion," Obama said in a joint statement with Clinton.

"With every voice heard and the party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama president of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again."
----
Several of those Clinton supporters had said they planned to use the convention to make their case while hordes of media were on hand.

Democrats hoped yesterday's agreement would help avert that.

"I think it allows Hillary Clinton's supporters" to feel she's being honored, said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen, predicting, "We end up with a more unified party."
----
But some Democrats privately expressed surprise that Clinton had agreed to have her name entered into nomination, and said she and husband Bill risk overshadowing Obama.

"John McCain's got to be loving this," said one longtime Democratic operative, noting that Clinton and Obama have done a slow and somewhat pained dance toward unity.

"This is a mistake," said another party operative who backs Obama, arguing that a roll-call vote would highlight the fault lines between the two campaigns.
The method for the roll call is still being negotiated.
----
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton now have prime-time speaking slots during the convention, meaning that the former first couple will be a major fixture at a gala that Obama boosters had considered to be the end of the Clinton era.

Obama held a 364-delegate lead over Clinton when the primaries ended, according to an Associated Press count. A candidate needs 2,118 to win the nomination, and Obama had 2,254 after the last votes on June 3. With Post Wire Services
Reference Here>>

Wake us here at MAXINE when its over and tell us that Senator Hillary Clinton actually received more roll call votes than socialist and Junior Senator Barack Obama … then we will all know that GOD really likes the Clintons.

Barack Obama And His Perfect Storm Of Peace In Iraq

Senator Barack Obama and Terry Moran of ABC News - "I've always reserved the right, uh, to say---let's say that ethnic, uh, ethnic fighting broke out once again---I've reserved the right to say---I don't--I'm not going to stand idly by if genocide is occurring.”, said Barack Obama. Image Credit: ABC News via my.barackobama.com

Barack Obama And His Perfect Storm Of Peace In Iraq

In an interview with ABC’s Terry Moran for Nightline (July 21, 2008), Barack Obama showed why he really isn’t ready for “Primetime” let alone “Nightline”.

Junior Senator Barack Obama will not say he was wrong about his assessment of the Bush Administration’s implementation of the military operation that has become known as “The Surge”. This is the operation where an additional 30,000 or so United States soldiers were placed in Iraq in order to stop the strengthening growth of anti-Iraq insurgent (Al Qaeda) combatants and provide security for the newly elected government of Iraq to begin to operate.

Eighteen months ago, it was estimated that there were 12,000 armed combatants working throughout the country to disrupt the newly formed government of Iraq. Today, the estimate is that there may be 1,200 armed combatants holed up in the western provinces of Iraq. One year ago in June 2007, we lost over seventy soldiers to violence and IED roadside bombs throughout Iraq … June 2008 saw that number drop to five.

Moran noted that Obama had claimed that the surge "would not make a significant dent in the violence."

Barack Obama insists that the reason the violence is down in Iraq is due to a convergence of factors that he could not anticipate happening … OH, and some “terrific work by our troops”.

The Perfect Storm of factors the junior Senator sites are disturbing ---

“… but the Sunni awakening in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided that they had had enough with Al Qaeda, in the Shii’a community the militias standing down to some degrees. So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct.”

Sorry Barack, the Sunni tribal leaders could not have “had enough” and say so if the additional 30,000 troops were not on the ground to provide security and combative strength. The Shii’a community mailtias would not have stood down if there wasn’t a very capable and ready force (bolstered by 30,000 United States military troops on the ground) aligned against their violent power grabbing agenda.

Further, Barack Obama had this to say as it relates to what HE would do if he were President and the military was pulled out of Iraq … and the violence began to increase inside the country ---

"But," asked Moran,"if the country had pursued your policy of withdrawing in the face of this horrific violence, what do you think Iraq would look like now?"

Obama said it would be hard to speculate. "The Sunnis might have made the same decisions at that time. The Shii’as might have made some similar decisions based on political calculation. There was ethnic cleansing in Baghdad that actually took the violence level down," he said.

Obama also told Moran that there were circumstances under which he could revise his instruction to U.S. generals to begin withdrawing combat brigades at the pace of one-to-two per month.

"I've always reserved the right, uh, to say---let's say that ethnic, uh, ethnic fighting broke out once again---I've reserved the right to say---I don't--I'm not going to stand idly by if genocide is occurring. I'm not going to stand idly by if vital United States interests are at stake. Um, so in that sense yes, I retain the flexibility anyone who in the job of commander in chief is constantly reassessing facts, risks, and so forth."

--- So, basically Barack Obama advocates that our military go back to Iraq and start a third war insde Iraq.

This scenario actually would be an insult to Jimmy Carter and the suggestion that a Barack Obama presidency would result in a second term for the Carter Administration.

Actually, a Barack Obama Administration would be of a greater failure than a Carter’s Second Term.

By the way, the "Surge" has ended.
Resources Here, Here, and Here>>

New Yorker Magazine – The Audacity Of Smear

The New Yorker said the cover by Barry Blitt called "The Politics of Fear" is meant to satirize "the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign," according to a press release about the new magazine issue. Image Credit: Barry Blitt via New Yorker Magazine

New Yorker Magazine – The Audacity Of Smear

Today, the New Yorker Magazine, in an effort to support their candidate, Barack Obama, released a magazine with cartoon cover art depicting Michelle and Barack Obama, giving each other a “knuckle bump” (an understated “high-five”) dressed up in symbols of rumor and fear.

This description offered by the Chicago Tribune -

The cover of the new New Yorker magazine depicts a caricature of Sen. Barack Obama as Muslim, standing in the Oval Office with a flag burning in the fireplace and a painting of Osama bin Laden hanging on the wall. He gives a fist bump to his wife, Michelle Obama, who is pictured wearing military fatigues and an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder.
Reference Here>>

What is most insulting about this example of the left’s print production is the magazines excuse for choosing a cartoon art cover such as this.

They believe that this depicts the view of the Obama’s held by people they termed as “Right-Wing”.

It makes no difference that Barack and Michelle Obama met, were married, placed their two children in religious training classes, and spent 20 years in the pews of a church that openly preaches racial bigotry and anti-American Marxist doctrine.

Let’s not mention that Barack Obama has a record rating of being the most liberal voting Senator of the 100 members in the U.S. Senate.

That Michelle Obama, in speech after speech, depicts her home country as hateful and a place with little opportunity. Yet, she has been blessed with support and privilege throughout her life starting with a free ride to attend Ivy League colleges and attain a degree to now, where she has a job in a Hospital that has benefited from “earmarks” (directed funding inserted into appropriations bills) Barack Obama has inserted into the process that has lead to major increases in her pay at the institution.

The rest of the excerpted story in the Chicago Tribune -

Obama campaign slams New Yorker cover
The art satirizes right-wing portrayals of the candidate, magazine says.
by Katie Fretland - Posted July 14, 2008 6:05 AM

The New Yorker said the cover by Barry Blitt called "The Politics of Fear" is meant to satirize "the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign," according to a press release about the new magazine issue.

The Obama campaign, as well as the campaign of Republican rival John McCain, slammed the cover as offensive:

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement, reported by Politico. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

"We completely agree with the Obama campaign, it's tasteless and offensive," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.
----
Other covers by artist Blitt have included Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad on a toilet reading a newspaper and Bush with a feather duster and an apron, while Cheney relaxes in a chair with beer and a cigar.
----
The cover accompanies an article by Ryan Lizza, which explores "the period that formed [Obama] as a politician"--his life in Chicago and his election to the U.S. Senate.

Lizza interviewed Toni Preckwinkle, a Chicago alderman, who spoke of political maneuvering by Obama.

"On issue after issue, Preckwinkle presented Obama as someone who thrived in the world of Chicago politics. She suggested that Obama joined Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ for political reasons. 'It's a church that would provide you with lots of social connections and prominent parishioners,' she said. 'It's a good place for a politician to be a member.' Preckwinkle was unsparing on the subject of the Chicago real-estate developer Antoin (Tony) Rezko, a friend of Obama's and one of his top fund-raisers, who was recently convicted of fraud, bribery, and money laundering: 'Who you take money from is a reflection of your knowledge at the time and your principles.'

"I asked her if what she considered slights or betrayals were simply the necessary accommodations and maneuvering of a politician making a lightning transition from Hyde Park legislator to Presidential nominee. 'Can you get where he is and maintain your personal integrity?' she said. 'Is that the question?' She stared at me and grimaced. 'I'm going to pass on that.'
Reference Here>>

Imagine if you will a magazine cover where … actually we, at MAXINE, can’t imagine any magazine cover (cartoon or otherwise) that would be used to indemnify a negative perception of a Conservative presidential candidate and his family that would create a controversy storm … any complaint would be muffled by the very MSM that is aiding an abetting the New York Magazine in its effort to blunt some of the facts about the Obama’s that would make them unsuitable as “First Couple”.

This whole process is designed to smear people who have a self-reliant, small government, individual rights, assimilation, non hyphenated, "We The People", American ideal view of politics which the Fourth Estate wishes to end in this country. Socialism is their desire and the Left-Wing (and those who support it) are not above promoting a SMEAR upon which to trash the opposition.

Additional Thoughts & Comments:

A Secretary Of State For Carter's Second Term

Richard Danzig gives keynote speech at Red Herring conference, October 2000. Image Credit: PHC DOLORES L. PARLATO, USN

A Secretary Of State For Carter's Second Term

The more the things in our political landscape change ... they remain the same.

Barack Obama preaches change but many in his organization are high position retreads from the Bill Clinton Administration.

Take, for example, one Richard Danzig, foreign affairs consultant and aide to the Obama campaign for President nominated by the Democrat Party. Danzig served as Secretary of the Navy under Bill Clinton and may be tapped as National Security Advisor or even Secretary of State in a Barack Obama Administration.

In a speech delivered to the Centre for New American Security, Richard Danzig saw fit to evoke images from the book "The Complete Tales Of Winnie-The-Pooh" to illustrate a point he was trying to make – the point is irrelevant but the fact that he wants people to take him seriously through the references he sites – Is Relevant!

"The Complete Tales Of Winnie-The-Pooh" book cover - Image Credit: Amazon

It gets worse - this excerpted from the Telegraph (UK) -

Barack Obama aide: Why Winnie the Pooh should shape US foreign policy
Winnie the Pooh, Luke Skywalker and British football hooligans could shape the foreign policy of Barack Obama if he becomes US President, according to a key adviser.
By Tim Shipman in Washington - Last Updated: 2:04AM BST 17/06/2008

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”

He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.
----
Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the children’s classic, which says: “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”
----
In a briefing which will inform Mr Obama’s understanding of terrorists, Mr Danzig said he learnt much from recent interviews with jailed Aum Shinrikyo terrorists who released sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo underground in 1995.

He said that even people who are relatively well off and successful can feel like failures and become alientated from their societies. He said one terrorist told him: “We have been raised on a theory of superheroes. We all want to be like Luke Skywalker.

"When we’re doing mundane things, we lose track of our ambition but when someone comes along, like Asahara, the head of the cult, and presents himself as a messiah and gives us a picture of progress that is ordained by heaven and that we are carrying out a saintly mission on earth that is for us extraordinarily evocative.”
----
He said that another lesson about terrorists can be learnt from studying violent football fans. “One of the best books I’ve read on terrorism in recent years was not about terrorism at all,” he said. “It’s Bill Buford’s book Among the Thugs, which is a description of soccer violence in Britain.

“Buford became absorbed by soccer violence. He describes the most appalling examples of soccer violence by fans against fans. But he describes with relentless honesty how he finds sickening things attractive. He says violence lets the adrenaline flow; it’s like sex, you live in the moment.”
Reference Here>>

This is, pretty much, how serious a Barack Obama foreign policy would look after he assumes office. If one thinks the United States might be looking weak in the view of the rest of the world ... NOW ... just think how we would look under an Obama Administration with Richard Danzig as, say, Secretary of State (this would not be Jimmy Carter's second Secretary of State, Edmund Muskie ... but the first Secretary of State in the second coming of a Carter Administration which given policies and outcomes of the philosophies of Barack Obama, if implemented, we would certainly suffer)!

Whatever happened to being informed from books and materials that are delivered to us from the world's of NON-FICTION!

Again, this is the guy who advises Barack Obama, no wonder Barack is gaffe ridden, he’s nothing without a teleprompter and he is even less with the type advice he gets.

We, at MAXINE, can not believe that the Soros Left sold this puppet to the Democrat Party and they all BOUGHT IT!

Barack Obama does not know what he Doesn't Know and that makes him very dangerous.

Folks, we are just flyin' down the highway toward "Carter's Second Term"!

Michelle Obama Goes Nuclear With Fear

2004 - Illinois Democratic US Senate candidate Barack Obama, seated next to his wife, Michelle and daughters Sasha, 3, far left, and Malia, 6, as they wait for election returns in a Chicago hotel. Obama beat Republican Alan Keyes in the nation's first Senate race with two black major-party candidates. Image Credit: AP Photo

Michelle Obama Goes Nuclear With Fear
(Michelle Obama's fear based philosophy may actually be perpetuated in the philosophies taught at the church she attends)

To listen to Michelle Obama talk about the America of fear she sees, scares us here at MAXINE.

When we go out to the strip shopping centers or travel on the Metro Rail, get out and walk through where people gather, we do not see the America of fear Michelle Obama describes.

The rhetoric of fear and the perception that we are running around and peaking around every corner as we purchase our “domed” drinks at the local coffee bistro … we don’t see or live what Michelle is talking about.

You know, it strikes us that it is the democratic party that perceives “Two Americas” … there is the America that runs along every day with the confidence and freedom we all have in everyday life and then there is the America (like the one John Edwards and Michelle Obama want us to buy into) democrats can come in and “save” us from.

This from YouTube, Michelle Obama introduces her husband, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, at a campaign stop in western Iowa. posted 8-16-2007 –

The day Barack Obama takes office he will run from our enemies ... or have tea with them (leave Iraq ... meet with dictators) and invade our allies (bomb parts of Pakistan without their consultation) in the war on terror … now that really IS something to afraid of!

UPDATED January 28, 2006:

The source of Michelle Obama's fear based philosophy may actually have their roots in the philosophies taught at the church she attends.

UPDATED March 28, 2008:

Drip, Drip, Drip - The beliefs and fears and racism of the Obama family as they had been taught at the knee of Rev. Wright of the TUCC keep showing themselves in the most clear way.

This excerpted from ABC News -

Michelle Obama on Diversity, Comfort Zones, and America
By Jake Tapper, ABC News’ Senior National Correspondent - March 26, 2008 6:27 PM

In a January speech at the University of South Carolina, First Lady aspirant Michelle Obama made remarks making the rounds on the internet today.

Talking about her experience at Princeton where she hung with a largely African-American crowd, she said:

"We don’t like being pushed outside of our comfort zones. You know it right here on this campus. You know people sitting at different tables - you all living in different dorms. I was there. You’re not talking to each other, taking advantage that you’re in this diverse community.

Because sometimes it’s easier to hold on to your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your own ignorance. That’s America. So the challenge for us is are we ready for change?"
----
The Obama campaign says that's a mis-interpretation of her comments, that it was the proclivity for "comfort zones" that she thought was so "America."

(As opposed to the ethnic and cultural open minds in Europe, Asia and Africa, I suppose?)

Video showing Michelle Obama's self imposed segregationist attitudes and comments delivered in South Carolina, in context, so that one will not mis-interpret what was said:

This poll would be a better source to become informed from as opposed to the teachings of the church Barack and Michelle Obama have attended regularly for the last twenty years.

Poll Answers