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Jumpin' hypocrisy, Batman! Did you know today's feminists only support women from the Left?

EDITORIAL

Jumpin' hypocrisy, Batman, ain't that the truth.

(I know, we said tomorrow would start the new posts, but after reading some of the comments on The Daily Kos, we just had to say this).

Hey, women like Annette Bening (her comment on Palin), Gloria Steinem (her comment on Palin) and Nancy Pelosi, not to mention Oprah, the painfully self-absorbed and greatly over-rated personality, who all talk a good game about the rights of women, who talk about the Glass Ceiling, Equal Pay and everything that is intended to properly bring women into parity with men, but who also seem to have no intention of supporting (as in woman to woman) a woman who has climbed to be a Governor in a State full of good old boys, and who has done so while maintaining a family and a relationship with some personal convictions and religious beliefs that may run counter to the beliefs of these other so-called feminists.

What a crock o' image controlling crapola seems to be coming out of Denver, but get ready to set the TiVo anyway

Oh my gosh, is the candidate who's promising open government trying to silence his party's opposition?

REVIEW

With all of the behind-the-scenes wrangling that seems to be going on behind-the-scenes at this Democratic Convention, how odd, funny, weird does it seem to you that Barack Obama, the man who says he's going to bring us a more open government as Prez [Dick Cheney slam], is the same man whose power goons are appearing to be trying to silence, or at least hide from camera view, all Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton - - - and any visible show of support for her?

Hmm.

Let's see what else is on television tonight: Red Sox vs. Yankees, Mets vs. Phillies . . . or Hillary's appearance at DemCon?

Well, set the old TiVo, 'cause we're gonna watch Hillary's speech.

Roll Call, at least in a free society (we're still free, right?) and as part of our wonderful First Amendment Free Speech process, is something that takes place out in the open, in full-view, state-by-state. Boring, yes, but absolutely essential for a multitude of voter-based reasons.

But you see, we also want to see who wins this round.

Not surprising, we're rooting for Hillary's people . . . and The First Amendment.

The Kos Kids are anything but excited about Joe Biden as Veep

REVIEW

Have been culling comments from major posts around the Internet and have to say that the darling of the American Left, Daily Kos, is anything but excited about the Joe Biden choice.

Catch these love notes apparently from Markos the Magnificent himself:

Judgment? Biden voted for the Iraq war. But beyond that, even if we stipulate that he has foreign policy chops, how does that make him a good veep choice? It strikes me that any pick designed to cover up a "flaw" in Obama (i.e. "lack of foreign policy credentials") only accentuates those flaws. Make him secretary of state.

Sure, compared to Bayh and Kaine, Biden looks almost passable, but that's a low hurdle to pass. I'd rather not have to choose my poison. I'd rather have candy.

I'm already assuming disappointment on Obama's pick, so I won't belabor one bad choice or another. But I'd love to see him pick a fresh face in politics who reinforces Obama's message of change. Biden doesn't. Clinton doesn't. Bayh certainly doesn't. If holding out for Sebelius is too much to ask for, and if Obama is going to pick a guy that has been around for decades, then pick Kerry. Or even Daschle.

Now add some bites from the lesser knowns at Camp Commie:

• What happened to change - other than changing position on FISA? What about being different from the Washinton [sic] insiders?

• I'm hardly pumped up by this very uninspired choice. But it's the man at the top of the ticket that counts. You're right, bad VP choice or not, we've got to support the ticket. The thought of four (or, god forbid, eight) years of McCain should be enough to focus us on the job ahead.

• But tell how Biden's foreign policy stuff is all that much different from McCain's?

• biden has a sharp tongue...if he uses it vigorously on the republican scum, i'll be very happy

This election will now be an incredibly exciting - - - and entertaining - - - event to watch unfold, starting with what Hillary's people may have planned for their Convention and now that a woman has twice been ignored by the ruling suits of the Democratic Party (Hillary then Sebelius) . . . and a Democratic constituency, as we've seen above, as anything but pumped-up with this choice.

Picking Biden shows campaign's panic and Obama's insecurity about his inexperience

McCain's quick response ad devastates choice

EDITORIAL

As it is today with politics living life at the speed of the Internet, Senator John McCain's Quick Response Team immediately put out a very effective video on YouTube, throwing Joe Biden's words out there for all to see.

Since we first saw Major Garrett of Fox News allegedly break the story (late last night, very early this morning) as to who Obama's VP pick actually was, this video below was created, posted and, as of this writing, had 69,147 views. And it's only 12:30 p.m. on August 23rd. [UPDATE 1: 03:33 p.m., Sat., Aug. 23rd, the views have risen by more than 3 to 1 to 235,843]

We also point you to Peggy Noonan's column from yesterday's Wall Street Journal:

It's hard for our political class to remember that Mr. Obama has been famous in America only since the winter of '08. America met him barely six months ago! The political class first interviewed him, or read the interview, in 2003 or '04, when he was a rising star. They know him. Everyone else is still absorbing.

. . . An attractive, intelligent man, interesting, but—he's hard to categorize. Is he Gen. Obama? No, no military background. Brilliant Businessman Obama? No, he never worked in business. Famous Name Obama? No, it's a new name, an unusual one. Longtime Southern Governor Obama? No. He's a community organizer (what's that?), then a lawyer (boo), then a state legislator (so what, so's my cousin), then U.S. senator (less than four years!).

. . . Add to that the wear and tear of Jeremiah Wright, secret Muslim rumors, media darling and, this week, abortion.

And finally, Caroline Kennedy is a very smart person, so it's hard to imagine that she, of all people, would miss the significance of Obama calling himself an Agent of Change, not an Inside the Beltway insider. So understanding why she signed off on Biden is difficult, at best, and doesn't ring true, at the very worst.

So who really was the final voice that picked Biden?

Obama's inexperience showing: phony VP suspense watch trivializes America's concerns about his inexperience . . . approach unprofessional, un-presidential

EDITORIAL

This is neither the time nor the place for publicity stunts. This is neither the debut of a new iPhone nor the Season Finale of American Idol.

We heard tonight that your campaign had intentionally printed bumper stickers with VP names not chosen to throw off the media bloodhounds and sycophants who already think you're the next Coming.

Cute. Real cute. Drudge even took your bait as headline, but then again, he seems to be one of your biggest fans.

Hey! This is a Vice Presidential pick that probably at no other time in recent history has been of such import, been of such significance to the American people, because you, as a candidate, so lack what it takes to be our next President.

But don't just take our word for it.

Hillary knows you don't.

Hillary's half of the Democratic Party knows you don't .

As many as 50% of the Independents know you don't and John McCain sure as heck knows you don't.

But more importantly, we suspect that the now majority of the American people know that your recent behavior on your pick for VP only confirmed for them that you really don't have the experience required - - - nor can you be trusted to make the most difficult decisions on this planet - - - for a people that deserve far better.

United? Yeah, right: watching the Obama Dems throw the Hillary Dems under the proverbial bus

This upcoming Democratic Convention should be a most enjoyable experience to watch for political junkies like us.

Their goal is to show a united front, but with the respective attitudes of superiority and condescension coming from Obama supporters as displayed towards Hillary supporters, and the feelings of anger, cries of misogyny and a terminal feeling of being ripped-off rather than having been given a fair opportunity to effectively compete, now displayed as rage against the Obama supporters - - - any such face of unity will be nothing more than window dressing for the media and the mindless.

Our best living example of just how freely and easily the Obama supporters throw Hillary supporters under the proverbial bus happened right here with one of our editorials just the other day. We had written about those members of Reddit who found fault with our editorial, Mob rule and the disingenuous democratization of the news, when we discussed how the Democratic primaries and caucus system were perverted or forever skewed by John Edwards' failure to disclose his affair he has since admitted to, and that as a result, Obama had gained an unfair advantage from the get-go over Hillary - while the Reddit members' responded with answers like, get over it, you lost, or some such tone.

Well, something just occurred to some of us having a late-night discussion here.

Wouldn't these be the very same people who have been clinging to the the illegitimacy of The Bush Administration as per the chad-laden 2000 election?

Wouldn't these be the very same people who claimed that the U.S. Supreme Court "stole" the election from Gore?

Ahhh, it's good to see the many faces of politically aspirational hypocrisy shine through once again.

Poll Comparatives: In just 5 weeks, Obama loses 12-point spread to McCain

EDITORIAL
Just five weeks ago today, on July 16th, the then most recent Zogby/Reuters poll said:

A new Zogby/Reuters poll shows Democrat Senator Barack Obama with some upward movement in his campaign against Republican Senator John McCain for the White House: he has now taken a 7 percent lead and being perceived as better equipped to get the U.S. out of the unfolding crisis involving the economy.

Fast forward to today, and in a Zogby/Reuters poll released this morning, quite a dramatic turnaround for McCain:

In a sharp turnaround, Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

McCain leads Obama among likely U.S. voters by 46 percent to 41 percent, wiping out Obama's solid 7-point advantage in July and taking his first lead in the monthly Reuters/Zogby poll.

For the non-mathematicians amongst us . . . that's an enormous 12-point aggregate loss for Obama.

And for all of the wounded American troops Obama didn't think enough of or have the time to personally visit in Landstuhl, Germany a few weeks back, we say to these new figures . . .

Woo-Hoo!

Mob rule and the disingenuous democratization of the news

EDITORIAL

We experienced a strong surge in visits to our site the other day and noticed that two of our editorials (here and here) were picked up by a member of Reddit, a community news service within a crowded field of Digg imitators that provides a forum for its members to troll the Internet for stories that inform, educate, piss them off or make them laugh - and then post them to Reddit for fellow members to vote up or down as germaine.

We thank him or her for submitting our editorials to the forum, but the only problem with any of these community news services is not just what their members consider germaine - but more importantly, what essentially amounts to a mob mentality that drives and determines what is Reddit-worthy.

We'll briefly explain.

The Digg, Newsvine and Reddit business models are pretty much based on the democratization of news, which just means that all of us are tired of newspaper and television editors filtering what they think we should or should not read or hear about. So as we said, Digg's, Reddit's and Newsvine's registered members troll the Internet for news stories that inform, educate, piss them off or make them laugh, then their systems allow their respective members to vote the submitted stories up or down - which then determines whether those stories rise to the privilege of the Front Page . . . or get buried in infinitely long back pages. Oh, anyone who comments on that story can also be praised or buried as well.

Sounds like the ultimate in democracy, huh? Well, consider this, something that has been raised by other critics for a long time.

By voting on each story with merely a thumbs-up or down, Digg, Newsvine, Reddit and others like them allow only those stories or opinions that meet the acceptable political beliefs of the like-minded majority of its members that happen to be online at any particular moment. And if that majority is of a particular political persuasion - then any story that represents an opposing point-of-view usually gets buried faster than an IM.

Intellectually, whether from the Right or the Left, that's pretty much a fascist mentality, a let's suppress the opposition, if you're not with us yer agin' us sort of thinking, of no use to anyone as it fails to enlighten, a little-used word within the fringes of extremist Left or Right-wing thinking. After all, haven't we all (note: as mature adults) had conversations with people we've politically disagreed with, but who nevertheless made some fascinating points? Not to convert you - but to give you an additional perspective? That's called a discourse, something scholars have enjoyed with one another since Plato, Aristotle and Socrates - and how a truly free and democratic society actually moves forward.

But unfortunately, after looking at the stories submitted, the sources quoted and the comments made on Reddit's entire site that day, it looks as if a mob mentality of one particular political persuasion had indeed taken over. As far as we could tell, there were no comments from what could be considered the middle or the right, so it's a real reach to say that what Reddit was doing at that moment was truly democracy in action.

Anyway, for those on Reddit who buried our stories, again, we're honored to have been featured, but couldn't you guys have just stayed longer than the 5 seconds max each of you apparently spent (as per our internal stats) to read the more than 800 words we carefully crafted to represent all points-of-view - before you drew your uninformed conclusions and posted your derrogatory comments based entirely on your assumptions of what the headline spoke of?

Be proud, dudes. You understand the true spirit of a democracy.

[sigh, we're doomed]

Pelosi's Fairness Doctrine push could jeopardize Net Neutrality, FCC Commissioner

EDITORIAL

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some of her colleagues from the Left have been talking up restoring The Fairness Doctrine recently.

For those who may not be familiar with the term, The Fairness Doctrine was nothing more than a governmental attempt to regulate the airwaves - radio and television - to make certain that the public hears or sees more than one side of an issue.

Essentially, the legislative teeth in The Fairness Doctrine said that if a radio or television station or program voiced an opinion, then that station or that program was legally obligated to air opposing points-of-view on that program or that station for a fair counter-balance of opinion.

As altruistic as that sounds, many on the right believe The Fairness Doctrine was merely a political tool sought by those from the left who wanted to silence or just reduce the impact from the growing popularity of right-leaning talkradio. The fact that left-leaning talkradio, AirAmerica, for example, failed to attract even a fraction of the kind of audience numbers that right-leaning talk did some say has been another reason for Pelosi's recent push for reinstatement of The Fairness Doctrine. After all, the right said, if the left couldn't compete, then they would try to control.

Advocates for The Fairness Doctrine say that even though major corporations and media conglomerates own most big city radio and television stations, those same companies don't own the frequencies their stations transmit on. The frequencies are owned by We the People, controlled and managed by the U.S. Government on our behalf.

Those who oppose The Fairness Doctrine cite concerns about governmental interference with our nation's Constitutional right to First Amendment Free Speech and don't believe programs like Keith Olbermann's on MSNBC television on the Left and Rush Limbaugh's radio program on the Right have a duty or an obligation or be legislatively forced to surrender their air time to an opposing point-of-view. And those stations who carry their programs across the nation should not be so penalized as well.

And from a business standpoint, air time, whether on radio, television or the Internet, has a finite inventory, only renewable every 24 hours but still maxing out at 24 x 7 week after week. And unlike any other industry, station owners cannot increase their manufacturing capacity beyond that 168 hours per week.

But more importantly, the networks and programs would not be compensated for surrendering that time.

However, what should be on the table of greatest concern is what Pelosi and friends might want to do to those who write for or post comments on the Internet - or to the hosts of those who do. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell believes the possibility exists for The Fairness Doctrine to be extended beyond radio and television and into the Internet, a fear and concern not necessarily too far-fetched.

For all of its faults and despite those who abuse it, the Internet remains the last frontier of worlwide free thought, speech and opinion . . . a sacrosanct entity that needs to be protected from those with unchecked political motives.