Afternoon Latte’ snorters edition

The Obamessiah says it is time to move on from the affair d’Wright

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday sought to quell concerns over anti-American remarks by his former pastor, saying people are paying too much attention to a small number of “stupid” comments.

What else do we have to pay attention to? Hope and change? The affair d’Wright goes to the heart of Obama’s campaign, which is his character. 20 years, marriage, baptised children, etc, and so on. Doesn’t reflect well on Obama’s character.

Do you have an interesting post? Well, go ahead and leave a trackback, with a reciprocal link back to McCain Blogs.

And guess when it was (AP thru SF Gate)

Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution.

Sorry, slight interlude. The Bush Admin was not try to persuade Congress to authorize military action. That is entirely to simplistic, and not quite correct. The Bush admin was asking for authorization IF Saddam would not comply with the United Nations resolutions that had previously been passed. There had to be a stick to go with the carrot for when Resolution 1441 was passed by the UN on November 8, 2002.

Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam’s regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid for the trip through an intermediary and rewarded Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. None was charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators “have no information whatsoever” any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

OK, we are not saying here that any of the three knew that Saddam was sponsoring the trip. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt (which the Left would not extend were it Republicans involved.) But, was it really necessary to make the trip? They came back, especially Baghdad Jim McDermott, sounding like a Saddam/Iraq spokesman. Which is not entirely surprising when it comes to Democrats.

Oh, and let’s not forget the $5,000 donation McDermott recieved from Shakir al Khafaji, who was allegedly involved in teh Oil For Food Scandal, which was later returned.

Bluto at The Jawa Report: They say they wouldn’t have gone if they’d known who was footing the bill. They don’t say why they didn’t bother to find out who was footing the bill.

See more at Memeorandum.

This looks good for McCain (Gallup)

A sizable proportion of Democrats would vote for John McCain next November if he is matched against the candidate they do not support for the Democratic nomination. This is particularly true for Hillary Clinton supporters, more than a quarter of whom currently say they would vote for McCain if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee.

….But only 59% of Democratic voters who support Clinton say they would vote for Obama against McCain, while 28% say they would vote for the Republican McCain. This suggests that some Clinton supporters are so strongly opposed to Obama (or so loyal to Clinton) that they would go so far as to vote for the “other” party’s candidate next November if Obama is the Democratic nominee.

….Seventy-two percent of those who support Obama for the party’s nomination would vote for Clinton against McCain, while 19% would desert and vote for the Republican.

Granted, it is only March 26th, and it is a long time to go before the Primary, but, we are continuing to see the meltdown in the Democrat Party, and not just withing the Nutroots. Hillary is not planning on dropping out, despite many Democrats hoping for that, and will certainly take it all the way to the Democrat convention, during which I certainly hope the Colorado National Guard is ready.

A lot can change, though. Remember, it was just a few short months ago that the media and the Democrats were talking about how the Republican Party was toast, due to the fighting between Romney, Huckabee, Paul, and Fred. McCain was out of it. Yet, McCain fought back, things calmed down, and we are doing fine. While it is certainly easy to see the national GOP go idiot, I doubt McCain will go soft. He is too seasoned, too principled, and, after being thought dead in the race for the GOP convention, yet, with the fight back, he will not give that up.

See more at Memeorandum.

Now this is a good Conservative position

Let’s start with some straight talk:

I will not play election year politics with the housing crisis. I will evaluate everything in terms of whether it might be harmful or helpful to our effort to deal with the crisis we face now.

I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers. Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.

In our effort to help deserving homeowners, no assistance should be given to speculators. Any assistance for borrowers should be focused solely on homeowners, not people who bought houses for speculative purposes, to rent or as second homes. Any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren’t. I will consider any and all proposals based on their cost and benefits. In this crisis, as in all I may face in the future, I will not allow dogma to override common sense.

When we commit taxpayer dollars as assistance, it should be accompanied by reforms that ensure that we never face this problem again. Central to those reforms should be transparency and accountability.

Homeowners should be able to understand easily the terms and obligations of a mortgage. In return, they have an obligation to provide truthful financial information and should be subject to penalty if they do not. Lenders who initiate loans should be held accountable for the quality and performance of those loans and strict standards should be required in the lending process. We must have greater transparency in the lending process so that every borrower knows exactly what he is agreeing to and where every lender is required to meet the highest standards of ethical behavior.

Policies should move toward ensuring that homeowners provide a responsible down payment of equity at the initial purchase of a home. I therefore oppose reducing the down payment requirement for FHA mortgages and believe that, as conditions allow, the down payment requirement should be raised. So many homeowners have found themselves owing more than their home is worth, because many never had much equity in the house to begin with. When conditions return to normal, GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) should never insure loans when the homeowner clearly does not have skin in the game.

Read the whole thing at Real Clear Politics.

John McCain is scheduled to speak on foreign policy later today in Los Angeles. In his speech he will address his feelings regarding war.

“When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house in New London, Connecticut, and a Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. My father immediately left for the submarine base where he was stationed. I rarely saw him again for four years.

My grandfather, who commanded the fast carrier task force under Admiral Halsey, came home from the war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day.

In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home to the country they loved so well.

I detest war. It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. The lives of a nation’s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. Commerce is disrupted; economies are damaged; strategic interests shielded by years of patient statecraft are endangered as the exigencies of war and diplomacy conflict.

Not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. Whatever gains are secured, it is loss the veteran remembers most keenly. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war. However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us.”

The men in my life have been familiar with war. My father was a veteran of World War II, my husband is a Vietnam Veteran and now my son is a veteran of the Global War on Terror. I have never heard one of them talk about loving war. I have heard my husband say that no man who has been to war would ever want there to be a war. None of them are the ‘war mongers’ as they are categorized by the left. They simply understand the awful necessity of war. They understand history and the nature of the world. They know that appeasement is not the answer to the aggression of our enemies and they have the courage to face the harsh realities that we are faced with in this world.

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crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles

Senator Lindsey Graham was on Hannity and Colmes last night and responded to the dems repeatedly distorting John McCain’s statement that the United States will have a presence in Iraq for up to 100 years.

The liberals are very good at sound byte politics. They knowingly distort and take statements out of context, repeat their sound byte repeatedly until many in the public start believing that their version of events is true. If you don’t keep close tabs on politics and depend on the old media for your information there is no reason that you wouldn’t believe that John McCain expected our troops to be fighting the Battle of Iraq for another 100 years. In reality, we need to remember that we’ve had troops all over the world for many years. Troops have been in Japan and Germany since World War II (over 60 years) an no one seems concerned about that in the least.

I love when the moonbats do this. Laugh Riot! (h/t The Divine Miss MM, via Zombietime. I wish we had some serious barking moonbats around here like that. Of course, given time, all the Yankess will have carpetbagged down to the Raleigh area anyhow)

Via Stop The ACLU, originally over at Blogs For John McCain, where you can also see the video of when Hillary insulted General Patraeus.

Hillary will apologize about the same time Obama admits he attended some of Jeremiah Wright’s hate filled sermons.