Where Are My Keys?

A look at two policies..

The Bush Administration/Homeland Security "solution" of having duct tape handy in case of a chemical attack has been roundly laughed at by folks on the Left, pointing to it as an example of how out-of-touch the Administration is with reality.

Should Barack Obama claiming that by simply properly inflating our tires, we'd remove the necessity for an additional drilling be held up to the same scrutiny?

There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy.  Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple thing.  But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires?  And getting regular tune-ups?   You’d actually save just as much!

A response to the McCain "Britney/Paris" ad..

A few more things for Congress to apologize for..

On Wednesday the U.S. House of Representatives apologized for slavery. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white Democrat from Tennessee who represents a majority-black district and faces a black primary challenger. Or in other words, the U.S. House apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow not as a sincere gesture of the feelings of the American people, but to help a white incumbent beat a black challenger in a Democratic primary in Tennessee. Wonderful.

Then there is the additional irony that the current membership of the U.S. House apologized for an evil for which it was not responsible and that was ended in the century before last. The apology also included Jim Crow laws, so at least on that point some Americans who helped enforce those laws are still alive. (Perhaps some former Jim Crow enforcers are in the House.) But still, the electoral politics behind the bill -- that its primary consequence will be to help a white incumbent defeat a black challenger -- render its content meaningless.

What else should the Government apologize for?  A partial list is here.

A class act leaving town..

Bronco John Lynch is done with the team.  Looks like he is unhappy with his role on the squad going forward, and asked for his release, which the Broncos granted.  Lynch played for four seasons in Denver, and will be missed in both the locker room and in the community.  They don't make football players like this guy anymore.

I'm betting we see him in a broadcast booth before we see him on another team.

Jake Tapper takes a look at allegations of race in the Presidential Campaign..

Obama continued: "And so the only way they figure they’re going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. So what they’re saying is, ‘Well, we know we’re not very good but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he’s... doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, you know, he’s got a, he’s got a funny name.'

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does it not seem as if Obama just said McCain and his campaign -- presumably the "they" in this construct -- are saying that Obama shouldn't be elected because he's a risk because he's black and has a foreign-sounding name?

The Obama campaign says no, no, no, certainly not, he was talking about his "opponents" in general, writ large, the talk radio hosts and smear artists and such.

Then in Union, Mo., this evening, Obama seemed to specifically accuse McCain and the GOP of peddling racism and xenophobia.

Obama said that "John McCain and the Republicans, they don’t have any new ideas, that’s why they’re spending all their time talking about me. I mean, you haven’t heard a positive thing out of that campaign in ... in a month. All they do is try to run me down and you know, you know this in your own life. If somebody doesn’t have anything nice to say about anybody, that means they’ve got some problems of their own. So they know they’ve got no new ideas, they know they’re dredging up all the stale old stuff they’ve been peddling for the last eight, 10 years.

"But, since they don’t have any new ideas the only strategy they’ve got in this election is to try to scare you about me. They’re going to try to say that I’m a risky guy, they’re going to try to say, 'Well, you know, he’s got a funny name and he doesn’t look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills and, and they’re going to send out nasty emails.

There's a lot of racist xenophobic crap out there. But not only has McCain not peddled any of it, he's condemned it.

Back in February, McCain apologized for some questionable comments made by a local radio host. In April, he condemned the North Carolina Republican Party's ad featuring images of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

While I have no doubt there will be a bunch more racist, xenophobic, and other ignorant drek coming our way courtesy of the Internet and perhaps the occasional cable news network, it's important to determine where it's coming from. Is it from a specific campaign or party? A third-party group? A third-party group with direct ties to establishment figures? This all matters.

I've seen racism in campaigns before -- I've seen it against Obama in this campaign (more from Democrats than Republicans, at this point, I might add) and I've seen it against McCain in South Carolina in 2000, when his adopted Bangladeshi daughter Bridget was alleged, by the charming friends and allies of then-Gov. George W. Bush, to have been a McCain love-child with an African-American woman.

What I have not seen is it come from McCain or his campaign in such a way to merit the language Obama used today. Pretty inflammatory.

Read the whole thing here.

Instapundit looks at the situation a little differently.  He and his readers examine yet another Obama gaffe:

Democrat Barack Obama, the first black candidate with a shot at winning the White House, says John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them by saying Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

Er, all those other presidents? Isn't there just one President on the dollar bill?

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Not only is there only 1 president on the $1.00 bill, but assuming he meant currency in general, he might want to look at the $10 and $100 which do not feature any U.S. President. Perhaps he spoke..."inartfully" again.

That keeps happening. And another reader emails: "Isn't the gaffe '*other* presidents'; again he thinks he's already president." Heh. I'd missed that.

On the other hand, reader David Sette emails: "From the quote I read, it is clear he's talking about bills, plural. As is the 1, 5, 20, 50 etc. Hardly a gaffe." I don't know, it seems quite comparable to the "Bushisms" that people have been pointing out for years as evidence that our current President isn't very bright. Yes, those features are kind of lame, but sauce for the goose, etc. . . .

MORE: Okay, what's really weird is that Obama just said the same thing about himself, in Berlin:

I know that I don’t look like the other Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.

So who's the one raising these racial issues, again?

I'm confused..

I thought the Left was all for providing free healthcare for those that can't afford it.  So why jump on this Senator/Doctor?

Coburn has come under new pressure from the Ethics panel for delivering babies at the Muskogee Regional Medical Center, which changed from a public to a private institution in April last year after it was acquired by Capella Healthcare.

Because of potential conflicts of interest, Senate rules prohibit members from receiving compensation for practicing a profession that involves a fiduciary relationship. Coburn’s work as an obstetrician has been a subject of interest for ethics panels in the Senate and the House when he was a representative.

Sources said the fact that Muskogee is now a private hospital has renewed the ethics panel’s interest in Coburn’s work.

It appears that the root of the "investigation" could stem from Coburn being a thorn in Harry reid's side:

The new fight comes as Coburn is engaged in a battle with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over the Senate’s legislative agenda. Reid was forced to dedicate the majority of the Senate’s time this week to overpowering the holds Coburn has on 35 bills.

Hart suggested someone had leaked information about the Ethics panel’s memo to the media, and took issue with the The Hill’s ability to acquire “privileged information about this case.”

“We'll let others decide why this information is now suddenly becoming public,” Hart wrote.

Coburn's office raises an interesting point-where do you draw the line?

Hart also said the Ethics panel should investigate Reid and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Ethics panel, for book signings they’ve had at privately owned bookstores if they are going to investigate Coburn’s baby deliveries.

“If the committee wants to walk down this path, we would expect they will investigate Sens. Reid and Boxer, who have both held books signing [sic] events at privately owned book stores,” Hart wrote. “After all, their events endorsed one book store over another. If Dr. Coburn can only deliver babies for free at public hospitals, Senators should only be permitted to sign books at public libraries.”

“Has Sen. Leahy provided an improper endorsement to Warner Brothers for appearing in Batman?” Hart asked. “Will millions of Americans now see Batman not because it features stars like Christian Bale or the late Heath Ledger, but because Patrick Leahy, a distinguished United States senator, has offered his illustrious endorsement to this motion picture?

“If Sen. Coburn can only deliver babies for free at a public hospital, shouldn't Sen. Leahy only be allowed to donate his notable thespian skills to a public entity like PBS?”

More good stuff on Coburn here.

A brief overview of the Edwards "love child" story..

For those few Americans without an Internet connection and to whom I have not faxed the National Enquirer stories: Evidence is accumulating that John Edwards is right -- there really are "two Americas." There's one where men cheat on their cancer-stricken wives and one where men do not cheat on their cancer-stricken wives.

To put it another way, it would appear that ambulances aren't the only things John Edwards has been chasing lately.

Last year, the National Enquirer broke the story about New-Age divorcee Rielle Hunter, formerly Lisa Druck, telling friends she was having an affair with Edwards and that she was pregnant with his "love child."

Who knew that "my father was a mill worker" could be such a great pickup line? In his defense, Edwards had to do something to kill time between giving $50,000 speeches on poverty.

I guess the Enquirer is lucky Edwards isn't a trial lawyer! A sleazy carnival sideshow trial lawyer wouldn't even need to start channeling unborn children before a jury -- as Edwards did in the junk-science cases that made him a multimillionaire -- to win a defamation case if these charges are false. The "love child" allegation could be easily disproved by DNA testing.

Read the whole thing for a good laugh.

New McCain ad..

I like the new ad, but just don't understand the use of Britney and Paris at the beginning.  The ad makes the point that Obama is more celebrity than President, but why use the two tabloid queens?  Watch for yourself, and see what you think.  Perhaps he's trying to generate some buzz around the ad by including two of the media's favorite girls..

I know I shouldn't laugh at this..

But I did.

Err-Bama?