Quid Est Veritas

Interesting take on our moral collapse:

“What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility.” All the people answered, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” Matthew 27:22-25 …

…The proud and powerful Land of the Free and Home of the Brave has become so stingy, so narcissistic and hard-hearted that we celebrate the killing of our children as though we had won some glorious victory over a brutal enemy. We have sunk to the unthinkable low of rejoicing over the “right” to murder a helpless baby. We are at once the crowd screaming at Pilate that Jesus be handed over to them to be killed, and Pilate himself, who ignored Jesus’ innocence and washed his hands of the guilt.

“It is our right!”“We have a law and according to that law I have the right to kill the baby!” “It’s my body, my life, my choice!”

“But why would you do this to an innocent child? The baby has done nothing wrong. Why must he die?” But with loud shouts they insistently demanded their right to choose, and so the courts granted them their request. Then the leaders washed their hands and said, “We are innocent of this bloodshed. It is your responsibility.” And the people shouted, “Let our children’s blood be on us and on our children…”

At least the children we haven’t killed. Truly, their innocent blood is upon us.

We have become a nation of Pilates.

Over the past year or so two bit of wisdom on abortion have been brought to me – one by a reader of this blog:

Abortion is a permanent solution to a temporary condition (thank you, dear reader).

Abortion is the enemy of hope.

It is all about life – and the cold, mean life of the pro-choice side of the argument currently has the upper hand. In their way of thinking, aborting that un-intended pregnancy means that the mother gets to live her life. As if that 20 year block of time is the entirety of her life. The woman might live to be 100, or be killed in a car accident on the way home from the abortuary – to raise a concern about how someone might have to spend their time and opine that killing another human being on the supposition that said human being will be too bothersome is all that needs to be said about the depravity of modern times. People are being definitely killed because they might become inconvenient.

And those who stand aside, refusing to either be pro-abortion or pro-life, they are the worst of the lot in this debate. At least those who are advancing the cause of legal abortion are doing something – those who are “personally opposed” but refuse to work up the moral courage to be “actually against” are the spineless swill of the body politic which goes far towards explaining why a society once decent now debates (debates, mind you!) whether or not sexualization of youngsters is a bad thing. In this these vaporous souls who have turned us into a nation of Pilates – washing our hands of the blood of the innocent, even though we darn well know what is right, and what is truth.

Economists Give Obama and Geithner Failing Grades

Duh.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

The economists’ assessment stands in stark contrast with Mr. Obama’s popularity with the public, with a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll giving him a 60% approval rating. A majority of the 49 economists polled said they were dissatisfied with the administration’s economic policies.

On average, they gave the president a grade of 59 out of 100, and although there was a broad range of marks, 42% of respondents rated Mr. Obama below 60. Mr. Geithner received an average grade of 51. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke scored better, with an average 71.

Doesn’t shock me one bit. The entirety of Obama’s young presidency can be described as an epic failure… He’s proven that he wasn’t ready for the job.  You liberals should have listened to us.

Weren't We Worried About Saddling Our Children With Debt Back on November 4th?

The news story:

Lower tax revenue and massive government spending on the bank bailout pushed the federal deficit to $765 billion in the first five months of the budget year, well on its way to hitting the Obama administration’s projection of a record annual imbalance of $1.75 trillion.

Guess saddling the kiddies with debt is ok, as long as a Democrat is doing the saddling, huh?

James Carville and a Majority of Democrats Wanted Bush To Fail

Oh, you can smell the hypocrisy.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters: “I certainly hope he doesn’t succeed.”

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

“We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I’m wanting them to turn against him,” Greenberg admitted.

The pollster added with a chuckle of disbelief: “They don’t want him to fail. I mean, they think it matters if the president of the United States fails.”

Minutes later, as news of the terrorist attacks reached the hotel conference room where the Democrats were having breakfast with the reporters, Carville announced: “Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!”

Additionally, according to a poll taken is 2006, a majority of Democrats wanted Bush to fail.

And you better believe I want Obama to fail. For the good of the country I want Obama to fail.

Prayer Request

Mark has informed me he is taking his father to the hospital. Please keep him in your prayers.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Thanks to all for your prayers. Dad has internal bleeding in his bowels and will be receiving a transfusion. This is all related to his other health issues and so the current outlook is unknown, but exceptionally serious. I’ll know more by tomorrow.

No Wonder Our Liberals are So Boring

We’ve suspected it for a while. At the start, it was kind of a joke – “hey, these liberals are all saying the same thing…and not just on TV, but also in print and in mere blog comments…must be they get together every morning to coordinate talking points, har har har!”. Then it became kinda creepy how they would continuously hit the same talking points and how they would always try to steer conversation towards whatever twaddle Obama, et al were peddling on a particular day. Well, now we know – just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you:

How many faintly ominous pieces has Politico run this year about people close to Obama colluding to target their political enemies? There was the story about Rahm Emanuel’s friendly daily chats with Begala, Carville, and Stephanopoulos, then there was the expose on the group effort (“explicitly authorized” by David Axelrod) to make Rush Limbaugh the face of the GOP, and now this. No wonder Ben Smith’s using the word “conspiracy.”

Question to our resident Politico-haters: Has any other publication written extensively about this sort of thing? If so, I missed it.

The vast new left-wing conspiracy sets its tone every morning at 8:45 a.m., when officials from more than 20 labor, environmental and other Democratic-leaning groups dial into a private conference call hosted by two left-leaning Washington organizations…

The call has proved particularly effective at coordinating attacks on critics, said Jackie Schechner, the national communications director for Health Care for America Now, a labor-backed alliance of groups that support Democratic efforts to expand health care.

“There’s a coordination in terms of exposing the people who are trying to come out against reform —they’ve all got backgrounds and histories and pasts, and it’s not taking long to unearth that and to unleash that, because we’re all working together,” Schechner said.

When a new group called Conservative for Patients Rights, for instance, launched an ad campaign featuring former health care executive Rick Scott, “There was a discussion about what do we know about this guy and in a very quick period of time we were able to come up with his background,” she said…

This, as noted later in the linked article, is smart politics – in a media-driven age where the merest impressions can cause major shifts in the electorate, its just smart to have a well-oiled machine for both getting your views out and hitting hard at the opposition. But even though we GOPers will, naturally, copy this and, just as naturally, do it better (and, also just as naturally, when it comes back to bite Democrats they’ll suddenly be offended by it and claim that this GOP nastiness just has got to stop), it is a bit creepy. Creepy – but also boring.

Fortunately, we here at Blogs for Victory do have the saving grace of a few very intelligent and actually well-read pinkos (Sergei, Ricorun, kmg, etc) and thus we’re not just being hit with talking points…but to turn on any liberal talk show or read any lefty commentary is just dull as dishwater these days…they all say the same thing in the same way at the same time. Doesn’t it bother you liberals to have your views just ground out by a propaganda ministry-type operation? I mean, come on – can’t you stand to differ with your Fearless Leader just a bit? I broke with most of my fellow GOPers on immigration reform, ya know? And yet my fellow conservatives still like me – heck, I also go my separate way on the death penalty, and I’m still able to hold my head up high at a conservative gab-fest. Its actually a bit more fun when you hash things out and there’s more than one opinion on the table.

Why Democrats Want Burris Out

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sitting Senator poll this low:

Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) is drawing digits in a primary with two other candidates, according to a new poll.

The Zogby poll, conducted for the Independent Insurasingle nce Agents of Illinois, suggests the question of whether or not Burris seeks a full term in the Senate in 2010 is largely inconsequential, because he stands almost no chance of winning it.

The poll matched him with two statewide officeholders – Treasurer Alex Giannoulias and Comptroller Dan Hynes. Giannoulias led Hynes narrowly, 28-27, with Burris at just 5 percent.

Giannoulias is the only Democrat officially in the race. Former Commerce Secretary William Daley (D) is also looking closely at it, as is Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

Democrats bad nightmare: a long primary fight between Burris and other Democrats repeatedly bringing up Blagojevich and the general corruption of Illinios, led by Democrats.

Democrats worst nightmare: a long primary fight where Burris emerges as the Democrat nominee, thus leading to Democrat meltdown in November of 2010.

As for me – as a GOPer I fully support Senator Burris’ clinging to office like old chewing gum on the bottom of a chair and fighting as hard as he can for the Democratic nomination. If Burris/Blagojevich causes Democrats in Illinois to crash and burn, it will be simply justice being done to that corrupt gang which has afflicted Illinois for far too long.

Grading Obama

As of this writing, there are just under 95,000 responses, with 59% of them giving him an “F”.

Put your two cents in.

UPDATE: Now, 11:03 am EDT, with a bit more than 108,000 responses, 60% are giving him an “F” – come on, liberals, help your guy out!

America is a Little Safer: Charles Freeman Has Bowed Out

Bismarck was once reported to have said that there is a special Providence for fools, drunkards and the United States of America – in the withdrawal of Charles Freeman to be intelligence chief, we can see that Bismarck’s dictum still holds:

President Barack Obama’s controversial pick for a top intelligence post blasted the “Israel lobby” on his way out the door Tuesday, intensifying a debate on the role Israel’s allies played in the latest failed Obama appointment.

Charles W. Freeman Jr.’s abrupt withdrawal from his appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council came after he drew fire on a number of fronts – including questions about his financial ties to China and Saudi Arabia.

But the most heated opposition came from supporters of Israel – and Freeman’s departure shows Obama’s reluctance to signal a change to a U.S. policy in the Middle East that centers on standing beside Israel.

“Controversial” doesn’t even begin to cover it – he’s a mere tool for Chinese and Islamists interest and the fact that he was even considered for the intel post shows how entirely out to lunch Obama’s national security team is. For crying out loud, the person in charge of advising the President on intelligence issues should be a patriot – but if we can’t have that, can we at least have someone who thinks that terrorism is inexcusable and Tienamen Square a crime against humanity? Naturally, such a person does not withdraw with good grace:

There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government – in this case, the government of Israel. I believe that the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics has allowed that faction to adopt and sustain policies that ultimately threaten the existence of the state of Israel. It is not permitted for anyone in the United States to say so. This is not just a tragedy for Israelis and their neighbors in the Middle East; it is doing widening damage to the national security of the United States.

The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending appointment will be seen by many to raise serious questions about whether the Obama administration will be able to make its own decisions about the Middle East and related issues. I regret that my willingness to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government.

You see, it was The Jews who did him in – those nefarious sons of Israel and their world-wide web of control! Aha!

Yeah, whatever, Freeman. Tell ya what – I’ll bet that al-Jazeera will find a home for you. There you’ll be able to hang out with your like – the Michael Moores, Jimmy Carters, David Dukes, Noam Chomskys and other such dunderheaded fools who think that if we can just ditch Israel, people who hate us for what we are will come to love us…

Obama's Bear Market

How much more of this are we going to take?

The election of Barack Obama offered the promise of a new set of fixes for the financial crisis and the economy, a do-over that might help nurse the stock market back to health.Since then, the market hasn’t just gotten worse — it’s turned in its worst performance ever for a new president.

The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen 21 percent during Obama’s first seven weeks in office. Count back to Election Day and the results are even bleaker: That afternoon, the Dow closed at 9,625. Now it stands at 6,547, a loss of 32 percent.

Obama’s ardent defenders will try to shift blame on Bush, but the markets clearly aren’t comforted by Obama’s proposals, and instead of easing tensions, he exasperates them. 

Market analysts usually play down the influence of presidents on the market but say this time could be different as taxpayer dollars prop up private companies and Obama’s first proposed budget stands at $3.6 trillion, with a gaping deficit.

In this case, said Wachovia Securities chief market analyst Alfred E. Goldman, investors are saying “they have no confidence in the stimulus package doing much stimulation anytime soon. And they’re greatly concerned about the size of the budget.”

On some of the most wrenching recent days in the market, it’s been easier to connect cause and effect.

The Dow sank 4 percent on Feb. 10 as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled a new bank bailout plan that Wall Street immediately criticized as laughably light on details.

Several weeks later, investors shaved another 4 percent off the Dow after the government agreed to give insurer American International Group an extra $30 billion, bringing its loan total to $180 billion.

Now the Dow seems to drift lower day after day, with Wall Street waiting for clarity and selling in the meantime.

Investors want to know when and how the government will cleanse banks of bad debt and whether it will suspend accounting rules requiring companies to value assets at current market prices.

As the brilliant Thomas Sowell said, Obama should resign… maybe then the economy will get better.