In the game of Chess the Queen is the strongest piece on the chessboard from the standpoint of being able to move, attack, capture, and generally to create havoc for the opponent. While the Kings are the most powerful pieces on the chessboard, the Queens are second in command. Removing an opposing Queen and seeking to keep the player's Queen is a key focus and a strategic advantage. Does McCain play Chess?
Obama foolishly gave up his Queen and now has to fight with the lesser Bishop Biden. McCain has his Queen in play. The Democrats are rashly seizing on the youth and lack of experience of Palin and in doing so are exposing their King Obama. The more the Democrats focus and try to diminish the unknown Palin, they reduce her stature in the eyes of the public, but what happens when the public actually meets Palin? They expect little, but Palin will surprise them.
Today, she was stunning.
The more the Democrats foolishly spend energy attacking her, they waste time that should be used to protect their King.
Palin got a field grade promotion, of that there is no doubt, but Obama barely finished boot camp. Palin is not his opponent. That is McCain and now everyone is talking about Palin. Obama surely does not want to talk time in grade and service with John McCain.
Who even cares about Joe Biden? Interesting game.
Our Gal in 1984
Many had tired of Mr Kristol, but he, like wi"o", called it.
ReplyDeleteLet Palin Be Palin
Why the left is scared to death of McCain's running mate.
by William Kristol
09/08/2008, Volume 013, Issue 48
A spectre is haunting the liberal elites of New York and Washington--the spectre of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism, rising out of the American countryside, free of the taint (fair or unfair) of the Bush administration and the recent Republican Congress, able to invigorate a McCain administration and to govern beyond it.
That spectre has a name--Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska chosen by John McCain on Friday to be his running mate. There she is: a working woman who's a proud wife and mother; a traditionalist in important matters who's broken through all kinds of barriers; a reformer who's a Republican; a challenger of a corrupt good-old-boy establishment who's a conservative; a successful woman whose life is unapologetically grounded in religious belief; a lady who's a leader.
Meanwhile in the rest ot the world.
ReplyDeleteA senior Iranian military commander has warned that any US or Israeli attack on the Islamic republic would start a new world war, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
"Any aggression against Iran will start a world war," deputy chief of staff for defence publicity, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, said in a statement carried by the agency.
Iran is under international pressure to halt uranium enrichment, a process which lies at the core of fears about Iran's nuclear programme as it can make nuclear fuel as well as the fissile core of an atom bomb.
"The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and global Zionism... is gradually leading the world to the edge of a precipice," Jazayeri said, citing the unrest in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Georgia.
"It is evident that if such a challenge occurs, the fake and artificial regimes will be eliminated before anything," he said, without naming any countries.
Which reminds me of the current Democratic revisionism which blames George Bush for ignoring Iran for the last few years. They would rather everyone forget that it was their incessant charges of "cowboy unilateralism" which led him to let the Europeans try to work it out with the Iranians. Apparently, they would also like you to forget that the Euros got nowhere with the duplicitous, stalling Iranians. It fits their story line much better for everyone to think that Bush and McCain have singlehandedly brought the world to a precipice.
ReplyDeleteOne liberal commentator--a former U.S. ambassador and not normally an unabashed vulgarian--licked his chops Friday afternoon: "To steal an old adage of former Secretary of State James Baker . . . putting Sarah Palin into a debate with Joe Biden is going to be like throwing Howdy Doody into a knife fight!"
ReplyDeleteCharming. And if Palin holds her own against Biden, as she is fully capable of doing? McCain will then have succeeded in combining with his own huge advantage in experience and judgment, a politician of great promise in his vice presidential slot who will make Joe Biden look like a tiresome relic. McCain's willingness to take a chance on Palin could turn what looked, after Obama's impressive speech Thursday night in Denver, like a long two months for Republicans and conservatives, into a campaign of excitement and--dare we say it?--hope, which will culminate on November 4 in victory.
--William Kristol
Palin "Pick" steals de Messiah's "Bounce;" McCain and Palin AHEAD IN LATEST ZOGBY POLL!
ReplyDeleteGreg Sheridan, Foreign editor | August 30, 2008
ReplyDeleteBARACK Obama is a fraud. But he is a very familiar kind of fraud: a politician pretending to be something he's not. He is not the post-partisan, post-ideological seeker of a new politics and leader of a broad social movement to redeem the soul of America.
Rather, he is a brilliantly gifted, traditional, self-seeking politician who has sought for a long time to get to the top. He is also a traditional left-liberal, obsessed, at least in his public life, with race. He has built the momentum of his campaign on the most dubious basis that can exist in a democracy for garnering political support, racial identity.
But if he wins the US election in November, as he well might, he will have a chance to be a good president. The ruthlessness of his politics is the most encouraging suggestion that a desire to be re-elected will keep him near the middle ground. That Obama is such a brilliant politician is evident in the fact that he came from nowhere to win the Democratic nomination. In that he confounded all the smartest judges of American politics, whether liberal or conservative.
He certainly confounded President George W. Bush. Now it is customary in polite circles to regard Bush as a gibbering idiot or the devil incarnate. But Bush twice won the governorship of Texas and the presidency of the US, so he must know something.
On September 5 last year, Bush was visiting Sydney for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum summit. That night he had dinner with John Howard and a few others at Kirribilli House in Sydney.
The discussion covered Australian politics and Howard's difficulties, but naturally it also turned to the forthcoming US presidential election. ...
On the Democratic contest, Bush was much more certain. Hillary Clinton would be the nominee. He did not rate Obama's chances.
...
Yet throughout Obama's admittedly beautifully written memoirs, on numerous occasions he claims to be fighting off despair. This tone captures the whining self-pity and utter self-obsession of the archetypal baby boomer.
Obama's gloomy introspection finally finishes on a note of hope, as is essential for any aspiring politician. But the endless flirtation with existential despair is perfectly pitched to appeal to the self-indulgence and baseless vanity of the baby boomer generation.
The autobiography is a striking contrast to Colin Powell's memoir, which begins with the bracing sentence: "I have had a great life, and this is the story so far."
Powell lived through infinitely more racial discrimination than what has touched Obama, but his memoir is full of gratitude to America and to life. Not the gratitude of a cringing minority but simply of a proud and happy man who understands the great opportunities American society offers.
A similar tone infuses McCain's memoir, Faith of My Fathers, the best written of them all. McCain, who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five years and was tortured nearly to death, actually had something to despair over but was sustained by faith.
It is no criticism of Obama that he has not been to war. But his confected existential angst is similar to Hillary Clinton's fictional landing in Bosnia under imaginary sniper fire. It is the device, brilliantly executed by Obama, very clumsily by Hillary, of a politician desperate toself-dramatise.
Oddly, it is the very cynicism and skill of this exercise that suggests to me Obama could yet make an effective president.
From that Zogby poll
ReplyDeleteAmong those who said they shop regularly at Wal-Mart - a demographic group that Zogby has found to be both "value" and "values" voters - Obama is getting walloped by McCain. Winning 62% support from weekly Wal-Mart shoppers, McCain wins these voters at a rate similar to what President Bush won in 2004. Obama wins 24% support from these voters.
Other demographic details are fairly predictable, showing that the McCain/Palin ticket heads into its convention on Monday with numbers that may fuel an optimism they may not have expected, and that many would not have predicted, especially after Obama's speech Thursday night.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBob Barr is polling at 11% amongst self identifying Independent voters
ReplyDeleteOnly 7% undecided.
ReplyDeleteI just got an email from a Democrat friend of mine linking to a YouTube clip of Pat Buchanan enthusing about Barack's acceptance speech. It was so nauseating that I couldn't watch it all. Friggin' Buchanan. You never know with that guy.
ReplyDeleteHe is working for GE, now.
ReplyDeleteBullshit on this idea that our great American corporations, and all their officers are corrupt.
ReplyDeleteYou take that idea and try to eat it.
==
I chewed on it. I couldn’t swallow. I guess I’ll just inhale.
Got any pictures from the "swimsuit" competition?
ReplyDeleteIf you do it would be a good time to start a new thread. This one's turning into a boogerbear to load.
Here she is, boyz, and gals, our Gal Sarah, talking energy
ReplyDeleteAnd, Farming? Horses? Horseshit!
ReplyDeleteBob, I was looking at some numbers the other day. Yields are up about 80% since 1980, and fertilizer lbs/acre is Down 10%! And, You Ain't Seen Nothin, Yet.
Farming is a cooperative deal. We farmers couldn't get along without the corporations, and, let's not forget the Univerities, like our two here, especially Washington State University, where all that crop science and wheat research is done. We need those guys. They keep coming up with new and improved wheat varieties, year after year.
We got to work together on all this stuff, or, we're sunk.
Washington State University has some of the best wheat breeders in the world. If we were still trying to raise Gaines, and Nu-Gaines, from the 1950's we would all be bankrupt by now.
ReplyDeleteYou got to keep working on these wheat breeds. They get old, tired, and rusty after a while.
2000 thousand acres she says, Rufus, that's nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe more I see of this girl, the more I like. She is a great advertisement for 'get up and go'.
Let's remember, it wasn't Bob the Farmer that came up with RoundUp, but rather, Monsanto, to finally get a real handle on 'dem damned tissles'. (Thistles)
ReplyDeleteAnd, the impossible Morning Glory. Man, did that use to be a problem. But, no more.
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you, you can drive by these fields now, and search for a weed.
It was not always this way.
We used to try to knock the Morning Glory back with 2/4D and, that's all we could do, is knock it back a little.
ReplyDeleteUntil--RoundUp.
RoundUp will get it.
Bullshit on this idea that our great American corporations, and all their officers are corrupt.
ReplyDeleteYou take that idea and try to eat it.
==
Bob,
I'm doing a little reading on the Sadducees and Pharisees, and it occurred to me that not all Jews fell into one category or the other. And neither do all corporations politicians wall street bankers etc.
“We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”
ReplyDeletePalin--Conservatives Find The Girl Of Their Dreams
In fact, the Sadducees were a very small minority. But that minority was enough to keep Roman corruption of the State in play.
ReplyDeleteMat, I've read, don't know if it's true, that the Sadducees denied the life in the world to come, for political reasons, whereas, the Pharisees defended the idea.
ReplyDeleteThe idea being that if this life is all there is, the folk are less likely to revolt, whereas, if there's more, people are more likely to be willing to give this life up for the greater good.
Also, I've read recently that there is a stream of Jewish thought that affirms reincarnation, which was kind of news to me. Please, don't ask me to quote the passages! I'd really have to do some digging.
Pollster John Zogby: "Palin is not to be underestimated. Her real strength is that she is authentic, a real mom, an outdoors person, a small town mayor (hey, she has dealt with a small town city council - that alone could be preparation for staring down Vladimir Putin, right?). She is also a reformer."
ReplyDeleteMan, that is so true. We've had to stare down that danged Linda Pall here for years!
True. And Hyam Maccoby wrote on this extensively.
ReplyDeleteMat's Hero, al-Bob's Debil:
ReplyDelete---
When history is not repeated
Russia's government-controlled media is engaged in Soviet-like frenzied demonization of US leaders. In one prominent example this week, the government-mouthpiece Izvestia launched an obscene broadside against US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The newspaper referred to her as "insane," and then crudely demeaned her as "a skinny old single lady who likes to display her underwear during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov."
As the West scrambles to build a strategy for contending with Russia, many writers and policy-makers have pointed out that Russia is fundamentally weak. As my former Jerusalem Post colleague Bret Stephens noted Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Russia's demographic forecast, like its oil and gas production forecasts, are dim.
The CIA has pointed out through demographic attrition, Russia's population will decline more than 20 percent over the next 40 years.
And due to "underinvestment, incompetence, corruption, political interference and crude profiteering," Russia's oil production will decline this year for the first time. Its production rates are expected to drop precipitously next year and in the coming years as well.
WHILE IT remains to be seen if the West will agree to isolate the Russian bully, it is certainly the case that Russia's leaders are not blind to their country's weaknesses. This is so because to a large degree, Russia's dim long-term prognosis has been caused by the domestic policies of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his cronies. And in light of this, it can be safely assumed that far from causing them to avoid confrontation with the West, their cognizance of Russia's problems is what caused them to adopt their belligerent posture.
In December, Russian political insider Stanislav Belkovsky told the German media that during his two terms as Russia's president, Putin amassed a fortune in excess of $40 billion, making him the wealthiest man in Europe. Putin's wealth has been built through his ownership of vast holdings in three Russian oil and gas companies.
Were Putin invested in the long-term prosperity and strength of his country, he would have invested that money in Russia. Instead he has squirreled it away in bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
And of course, Putin is not alone in betting his wealth against his country's future. Like him, his cronies in the Kremlin and the FSB (Federal Security Service) have accrued their wealth through their ownership of shares in Russian companies that Putin has nationalized. And like him, they have taken their loot out of the country.
Through his fascist cultivation of a cult of personality and his jingoistic aggression and incitement against the US, Putin, like Peter the Great and Josef Stalin, will enter the pantheon of Russia's great heroes after he abandons his devastated country to be reunited with his money. He cares not for the consequences of his actions for his fellow Russians. His loyalties are to immortality, and his bank accounts.
It is due to Putin's non-domestic considerations that it is virtually impossible to reach a stable equilibrium of hostility with Russia today like that which existed with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Putin amassed a fortune in excess of $40 billion, making him the wealthiest man in Europe.
ReplyDelete:) Gotten by the sweat of his brow, like a good commie.:)
You'd think with that kind of money he'd at least work on his tan.
ReplyDelete:) Yes, but the suns shines poorly in most of Russia, and he has to stay around, lest someone knock him off his high chair.
ReplyDeleteThe people that post here, all of us, actually have more real freedom than Putin the Poisoner.
Speaking of freedom:
ReplyDelete==
Barabbas is from the Hebrew bar (son) and Abba (Father), which is to say "son of the Father" because the term Abba was a sacred name of God. Origen and other manuscripts refer to Jesus Barabbas and the translators of the Scholars Version now include Jesus Barabbas as "probably the original reading" of the biblical texts. Later manuscripts drop "Jesus" from Barabbas perhaps to alleviate Origen's confusion over how a "sinner" could share the Son of God's name. Thus, Jesus "Son of God" who prays to God as Father was imprisoned alongside Jesus "Son of the Father." Both men would have had much in common to talk about while languishing in prison. They had led nearly identical lives in their days leading up to their arrest; both were enemies of the Roman-controlled temple cultus and both were arrested and awaiting crucifixion, a punishment reserved for rebels alone. Indeed, it is possible to imagine that Jesus Barabbas and Jesus of Nazareth are actually one and the same man.
Who is this man gesturing to the crowd beside me? Why are they screaming? The mob is screaming at me! Jesus slips into denial, Sartre's "nothingness," in which human reality "separates its present from all its past" and cuts "[consciousness] in two." On the edge of the precipice, Jesus ceases to be while the Christ and the shadow-self Barabbas come into being. The stage is literally set and consciousness interprets the fickle mob's din as enthusiastic shouts for Barabbas' release. While Barabbas steps triumphantly down from the precipice to embrace the cheering crowd (arms raised in victory!) the proxy stays behind to endure the absurd determinism of death. Jesus Barabbas now becomes the creator because his absence makes possible the Christ.
Christ achieves the Übermensch--the Superman--and has overcome the shadow by identifying with it to propel himself, like Zarathustra, higher than all living things.Jesus' pathology, his separation from self, is a realization of the absurd, that moment when he sees that there is no future and so gains freedom from that awareness. This freedom creates a new reality to fit the circumstances of Christ:
Mystics ... find freedom in giving themselves. By losing themselves in their god ... they become secretly free. In spontaneously accepted slavery they recover a deeper independence ... completely turned toward death ... the absurd man feels released from everything outside that passionate attention crystallizing in him.
The Christ, armed with the knowledge that the flesh is weak, finds higher purpose in the cross. "Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh." The soul, the Christ, now free from the shadow, finds itself "beyond good and evil" and in a higher state of exaltation.
I'll trade half my freedom for half Putin's Billions, al-Bob.
ReplyDelete...then I'll by an Island for Sonia and Me.
Westhawk - The problem may be much bigger than just Putin
ReplyDeleteThen you'd have to spend your days guarding the gold, Doug, and the island--and Sonia!
ReplyDeleteBest spend your days as an honest man, and help out with the common effort.
Biden Drunk On The Campaign Trail
ReplyDeleteh/t maggie's farm
Your argument would have been less persuasive in my younger days, but even now I can dream (of Pootie Level Power and Glory) can't I?
ReplyDeletefranksalterego reacts to drunken Joe's speech----
ReplyDeleteYou GOTS t’be shottin’ !!!
Vice-President ??!!??
Really ??!!??
Wadda’ disgusting disgrace
Hell, I seen hobos with more class
franksalterego on August 30, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Mat changes the subject.
ReplyDeleteYou can dream, Doug, but, being the good man you are, you couldn't get past the feelings of guilt you'd have for rolling over so many people.
ReplyDeletePutin, without guilt, rich as he is, is a lesser man.
There are many levels in heaven and hell, it is said, and you and Pooty won't be seeing one another in the hereafter.
@ YouTube, DrChill2 said...
ReplyDelete"The treble on the PA is too low so you cant hear him articulate certain consonants.
On a bad day Biden is so much more articulate and thoughtful than Bush.
Most of the comments I've read here convince me that the electorate, if the posters are qualified to vote, need to up their game and use reason and good sense to make political decisions. Its embarassing to be among such juvenile Americans."
...but what about when I'm rolling over Sonia?
ReplyDeleteThis place is sposed to be a bad influence on us, al-Bob, that's what Bars are for.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin Swimsuit Competition
ReplyDeleteI have some great pictures of the Sarah Palin swimsuit competition.
ReplyDeleteDealing with Dissent, the Chicago Way
By God, if you missed it before, just listen to THIS where Sarah Palin talks about energy and Alaska.
ReplyDeleteThis woman has a fine mind, and is quick, and can use the language.
She is good.
After listening to that video three times, I think Palin will have no trouble with old drunken Joe Biden.
ReplyDeleteI have watched how she anticipates the questions, and how fast her mind works with the answers.
She thinks for a millisecond, and then, it is all there, the whole thing, the whole answer, she just has to say it.
She might just eat him for lunch, if she can stand the taste.
This woman is bright.
Our Lady of Alaska in Photos
ReplyDeleteLook at this--Life
ReplyDelete