Daniel J. Summers » Charter Member of the VRWC

This is part 2 (either way you read it) in this year’s “2008 Year in Review - The Good, the Bad, and the Ridiculous” series. The bad things are things that either were bad, or will be in the future. All opinions are mine, obviously, and you are welcome to adopt them as your own.

• Election 2008

Where do I begin? There was not much about this election that I liked. The campaign was way too long. The Republicans nominated the wrong guy. The outcome was bad. I’ve already covered Sarah Palin’s treatment in the “Ridiculous” entry. My biggest problem with this election was how it was spun.  It’s safe to say that the majority of Obama voters didn’t know what they were voting for; how could they, when he wouldn’t get any specifics?  His campaign of “hope” (who doesn’t want to have hope?) and “change” (which would have happened either way) struck me as a focus-group phrase that got way out of control.

Then you have the last few months of the campaign itself.  First, there was a hurricane at the same time as the Republican convention, with people saying “How can they have a convention at a time like this?”  Next came the “crisis” that had been brewing for years in the sub-prime mortgage market.  McCain foolishly decided to suspend his campaign to deal with it, which gave Obama the chance to make the speech where he said “A president has to deal with more than one thing at a time” (which is very, very true).  It seemed the Republicans were “darned if they did, darned if they didn’t” during this cycle!  Personally, I thought that both things should have continued on schedule.

Then, there was “Joe the Plumber,” roundly ridiculed for asking a question that elicited the “spread the wealth around” response from Obama.  All of a sudden, we have all these reports popping up.  “His name isn’t even Joe!” (as if they’ve never heard of someone who goes by their middle name)  “He doesn’t even make enough money to have to pay more!” (which didn’t matter - he one day wanted to make that much money)  “He’s not even a licensed plubmer!” (but was working towards that - all part of his plan to better his life)  In the end, a government worker was dismissed from her job for digging up dirt on Joe using government resources.  (Speaking of government, an organization called ACORN submitted thousands of voter registrations, hundreds of which were found to be fraudulent.  However, the governments continued to accept these registrations from them, and courts ruled that they could be accepted.)

Regarding the actual outcome, I’d describe myself as skeptically optimistic.  Obama’s selections for his cabinet haven’t been quite what I would like, but I didn’t really expect that they would be; however, they’re not nearly as left-leaning as he could have made them.  He does seem to be actually trying to govern towards the left side of the middle.  I can’t help but think that maybe he outsmarted everyone in the Chicago political machine, where there’s as much corruption as there is snow off the Great Lakes.  Could it be that he joined their machine to use it to get to the top, only to jettison it once he got there?  We’ll see.

• RIP, Tim Russert and Tony Snow

People die - that’s part of life.  However, this year saw the somewhat-unexpected deaths of both Tim Russert, long-time anchor of Meet the Press, and Tony Snow, Fox News anchor and former White House spokesman.  Both these men had a gift for journalism, and were not afraid to ask balanced questions of their interview subjects.  I remember Tim Russert’s expert analysis in both the 2000 and 2004 election seasons, opening the 2000 election coverage saying “Florida, Florida, Florida” and the 2004 coverage with “Ohio, Ohio, Ohio” - both the eventual states that decided the election.  And, I remember Tony Snow as the first anchor of Fox News Sunday, as Fox decided to get into the Sunday morning political show alongside Meet the Press on NBC and This Week on ABC.  (Am I old if I remember the latter as This Week with David Brinkley?)  Tony also did an excellent job as spokesman during Bush’s second term, deftly handling the questions he was asked, and clearly expressing the intents and desires of the administration.  (If only  GWB would communicate that clearly…)

• Terrorism Reminds Us that It Isn’t Gone Yet

This was a pretty quiet year on the terrorism front - Iraq is going well, the surge seems to have stamped out the final pockets of resistance, and rival factions are now participating in the democratic process.  Afghanistan has been hit-or-miss, with a bit of instability still there as this year draws to a close.  However, in late November, terrorists struck in Bombay, India, killing over 100 people, citizens of several different nations.  This was a stark reminder that the quiet that we have experienced did not happen by chance, and that we need to keep our nose to the grindstone to protect our nation.

• Wings of Wind Crash

We’ve enjoyed the International Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque the past two years.  On the final Friday this year, the balloon Wings of Wind crashed into some power lines, catching fire.  Both pilots jumped from the balloon, fearing that the fuel tanks would explode.  One survived, one did not.  It was the second year in a row that there has been a fatality at the Fiesta, but this one touched our family somewhat closely, as Michelle and Jordan had spent Thursday evening set up right by that balloon, and talking with its’ pilots and crew.  Then, to add insult to injury, a truck belonging to the balloon crew was stolen before they left town, causing them to lose their pictures of that week.  (I hope that whoever stole that truck gets some special attention from God over the next year.)  Keep the family of Stephen Lachendro, the pilot who perished, and Keith Sproul, the primary pilot and the pilot who survived, in your prayers.

So, there are some of the things that I thought were bad about this past year.  What did you think was bad?

This is good.

Hat tip: House of Eratosthenes

Lost amid the race vs. gender war that is the Democrat primary season and the focus on the next administration is the pure genius in the current administration.  Sure, they say Bush is still the mindless dolt that somehow managed to outsmart them twice; and yes, he’s certainly given them enough anguished English ammunition to come up with quite a rotation for their “Bushism of the Day” quote machines.  However, Bush has flashes of political genius, and one of them cam during his speech to the Knesset, the Israeli governing body, celebrating 60 years of Israeli independence.  (The below quote is found about half-way down the page.)

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

There are no names in this.  Really, it could apply to a host of people who call for diplomacy even once diplomacy has failed, or those who call for diplomacy with terrorist organizations or terrorist-supporting nations.  However, as Jeff Foxworthy once said, “There’s no sense confessing to something she don’t know about yet.”  (This is in response to an upset wife - do you start saying “sorry” for everything she might be mad about, or do you simply ask “What’s wrong?”)

Being all sophisticated and everything, the Democrats must not be aware of this technique, and through their responses showed us that President Bush struck a nerve.  Barack Obama (D-IL) was livid, blaming the current administration for strengthening Iran.  Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that such words were “beneath the dignity of the office of the president.”  Joe Biden (D-DE) threw the BS flag (literally), and Harry Reid (D-NV) said that Bush should explain the “inconsistency between his administration’s actions and his words today.”

So, basically, here’s how it went down:

Bush: “Appeasers are dangerous.”
Obama, Pelosi, Biden, and Reid (in unison): “No we’re not!”

Priceless…

I know, the day after I post that I won’t be here, I find this (strong language warning) over at Rachel Lucas’s blog. This was simply too funny to not reblog.

This is a scene from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the faux-news show on Comedy Central. They took a patronizing look at the protesters in Berkeley, California, who are trying to shut down the Marine recruiting center. My favorite exchange comes starting at 3:12…

Code Pink Feather Boa’d Protester (CPFBP) - It is our responsibility, as the public, to shut this station down, to shut this recruiting station down.
Another Code Pink Protester - Code Pink stands for free speech.
CPFBP - It’s very important to protect free speech, and so we clearly have the right to be here.
Rob Riggle, Reporter - If only there was an organization that was sworn to defend that free speech!
CPFBP - Wouldn’t that be great?
Rob - That would be outstanding, right?

I saw this in a parking lot yesterday, accompanied by the Marine Corps symbol…

GIVE WAR A CHANCE!

Heh - maybe we could have a rally. Instead of Woodstock, New York, we’ll gather in Woodstock, Georgia. We could have some long-haired folk singer start singing “What the world… needs now… is war… this war… Our freedom is the thing… that al-Qaeda’s dyin’ for…” (my apologies to Jackie DeShannon)

There just isn’t enough time in the day to do everything I want to do. Sadly, one of the casualties is original content for my blog (although I am working on something that I hope to have ready in a few days). Until then, here’s another round-up of interesting things I found scattered around the web.

First up, from the American Thinker, we have Randall Hoven with “Media Dishonesty Matters.” In this tome, he details 101 incidents of plagiarism, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, and instances of journalists creating news out of thin air. This should probably count as three or four links, but we’ll keep pressing on.

Next up, LaShawn Barber asks Barack Obama this pointed question - “What Faith Is This?” He has claimed that his faith guides his public life, yet he voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion. That’s a good question.

Moving on, Dennis Prager of TownHall.com (among other places) asks another, somewhat rhetorical question - “So What?” In it, he, a devout Jew, explains why he is not offended in the least over Ann Coulter’s latest statement that Jews need to be “perfected” by accepting Christ. He also explains why labeling her statements as anti-Semitism does a disservice to the efforts to eliminate anti-Semitism.

Finally, I usually wrap up with some humor - but this one will inspire a different emotion. I may be the last person in the world to find out about this song, but I’ve got to share it. Tim McGraw’s “If You’re Reading This” is a tribute to men and women in uniform, and is a tear-jerking classic.

Another busy time, another installment of “Plagiarism Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery”. See, when we re-blog here, we’re honest and up-front.

First up is an article about the cost of illegal immigration for Los Angeles County for one month, from radio talk show host and author Neal Boortz. The numbers are staggering.

Next up, a link to a pundit I never thought I’d link to, except as a set up to refute. However, Susan Estrich and I agree on this issue, which she details in “A Weak Moment for Women in Banning Larry Summers“. (I don’t agree that what he originally said was wrong - but the rest of it is spot-on.)

Via Morgan Freeberg, we have reports that “A Quiet Triumph May Be Brewing“. Could it be that we’ve come up with a way to get most remaining al-Qaeda in the same place, then send them to their 72 virgins (or raisins, depending on the translation)?

And finally, we wrap up with some humor. Rachel Lucas learned to make thought and speech bubbles in PhotoShop, and produced a masterpiece she calls “Three Men and a Hillary“. (Language warning in effect for the comments on that post…)