Powerline has all the details.

This guy is an embarrassment to Georgia (where I reside), to the Oval Office, and to the United States of America.

Larry Kudlow has a great post at the Corner explaining why much of the economic hardship we are currently facing is self-inflicted.

Whether it’s energy, wheat, grain, corn, or whatever, since these raw materials are priced in dollars on global markets, a strong greenback will reduce commodity prices. And that, in turn, will lower both consumer and producer inflation. This would help corporate profits and would boost the purchasing power of wages.

In other words, a strong dollar would relieve gas prices and boost the economy. But so far as I know, the president never mentioned the dollar. And I don’t think any of the media people asked him about it.

Right now Mr. Bush should order his Treasury Secretary to appreciate the greenback and work with the G7 for concerted action that would send a strong signal to commodity and currency traders that they better close their short positions on the dollar and stop speculating on higher and higher commodity prices. Mr. Bush himself should adopt new rhetoric on a strong dollar. He should make it unambiguous.

Both Hank Paulson and Bush have beaten the drum loud and long on a “strong dollar” policy. Unfortunately that is all they have done and the US peso is now worth only $1.06 Australian, .5 Pound Sterling, $1.01 Canadian (!), .64 Euro, 103.4 Yen, and 1.03 Swiss Francs! This is beyond nuts it is only a course steered by someone with nothing left to lose. The reason we have crashed the value of the dollar is because that is the only way of keeping our ballooning national debt from taking away higher percentages of our GDP.

Now we are left with a weak US peso, inflation expectations of 6.8%, exploding food and fuel prices, an expanding national debt and greater federal spending than ever before. This is not how I expected the Bush years to end.

According to AllahPundit at HotAir:

The bottom line: After 20 years of friendship, if Obama didn’t know Wright held these beliefs he’s a moron and if he did know he’s a fraud.

Agreed.

Watch this video on Breitbart.tv.

While I am often a critic of President Bush’s administration, one can’t deny that the guy has passion and in some instances is not willing to back down from confrontation.

I do not know enough about the situation on the ground in Afghanistan to comment on our status there - but I do like his heartfelt response about how we must go after the “thugs and killers” i.e. the terrorists.

Now if only his administration could show this kind of fire in the belly when dealing with the region’s chief trouble maker, Iran…

After a super-majority of Ron Paul supporters captured control of the Republican state convention Saturday, state party officials abruptly canceled the event without electing delegates to the national convention.Early in the day, state delegates supporting Paul’s continued pursuit of the Republican nomination voted through a rules change that forced the state party to abandon its preset ballot of potential national convention delegates and open up the race to the rest of the state delegates.

The Reno Gazette-Journal

I like Ron Paul very much. I think he is one of the best Congressmen in Washington in regards to governing by our Constitution. However, these shenanigans by those who continue to support his failed Presidential bid need to stop.

I think Ron Paul would have made an excellent President and his candidacy was quite impressive, especially the amount of money he managed to raise, but it’s long past time to move on. There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that he will be able to get the Republican nomination and people like the ones who crashed this state convention are only attaching a negative connotation to the Congressman and making themselves look like a bunch of asses.

Republicans should sit back and enjoy the Democrats’ current chaos rather than drumming up their own.

What’s that saying about some environmentalists? Oh, yeah - the comparison to watermelon… green on the outside, red on the inside.

This is a good article detailing much of the sustainability movement’s political goals that exceed environmental conservation into the “social justice” that the Left espouses.

H/T to the Corner at NRO.

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, from Georgia, is now a Libertarian running for his party’s presidential nomination.  Here’s a really good interview with him in which I agree with much of what he says.

Save for his comments on Iraq (I don’t see how invading the country and deposing Saddam Hussein and then leaving wouldn’t lead to just another dictator popping up), I agree with most of his comments.

Just follow the link and see for yourself why the Bush Administration, the DoD and the Army brass are really letting down the soldiers who are returning from combat.

Where does all the money go I wonder?

UPDATE (Langley):  HotAir has the CNN video of the interview with the man who made the YouTube video, which has apparently gotten 70,000+ hits.  My grandfather told me it was in his local paper (Monroe, NC) this morning and area politicians are on it.  Web 2.0 strikes again forcing the government to think twice.

If you have missed it, here is the very good CBS 60 Minutes with SCOTUS Justice Scalia.  I recommend everybody watch the two parts of the interview.

He’s had it “described to him” and felt it necessary to call the NCGOP to the mat.

Oh, this is just rich.  Via Michelle Malkin.

McCain Math is the same as MSM Math: Southern + Republican + video featuring radical leftists who happen to be black = RACISTRACISTRACISTRACISTDANGERWILLROBINSON!

…So says John McCain.

Uh, seriously?  What about the ad Sam posted below is inappropriate or even stretches the facts of the race or Obama’s relationship with his nutcase minister?

I really don’t know why McCain felt the need to comment on this ad run by the North Carolina GOP. It wasn’t created for his benefit and has nothing to do with him at all. It’s aimed at helping the Republican gubernatorial candidates. Barack Obama is an extreme radical leftist and the two Democrats running for governor have endorsed him. Therefore, it’s fair to say they approve of his extreme radical leftist views. I don’t see the problem here.

The last Republican to win Massachusetts? Ronald Reagan. The last Republican before that? Dwight Eisenhower. Even George McGovern managed to carry Massachusetts in 1972, the one Democratic holdout in Richard Nixon’s 49-state landslide.

Replace “McGovern” with “MoveOn.org” and you’ve seized the essence of the Obama candidacy. He’s the most liberal U.S. senator, advocating tax increases on the “wealthy” and enjoying the support of Gov. Deval Patrick, Sen. Ted Kennedy, The Boston Globe-Democrat and every 9/11 conspiracy kook in the People’s Republic of Cambridge. He’s got all the players in Massachusetts behind him except the ones who actually vote.

While Hillary Clinton soundly beats McCain in Massachusetts in the new SurveyUSA poll, 56 percent to 41 percent, the Obama/McCain number is 48 percent to 46 percent, well within the margin of error.

The Boston Herald

House Republican leaders on Tuesday challenged Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to release a plan to lower gas prices that they say Democrats touted when they were in the minority.“Two years ago this week, you stated that House Democrats had a ‘commonsense plan’ to ‘lower gas prices,’ ” the letter said. “In light of the skyrocketing gasoline prices affecting working families and every sector of our struggling economy, we are writing today to respectfully request that you reveal this ‘commonsense plan’ so we can begin work on responsible solutions to help ease this strain.”

The letter is signed by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), Policy Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) as well as other members of leadership: Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas), John Carter (R-Texas), Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

The Hill

It’s nice to see some resemblance of a spine back in the Republican leadership.

So let’s have it, Dems! Where is your big plan to lower gas prices for all Americans? One of the big issues you put forth in 2006 was how you were going to resolve the problem of high gas prices that are hurting working families. In September of 2006 the average price of gasoline was $2.62. Now, the average is about $3.50. That’s almost a dollar increase since the Democrats have taken control of Congress.

I guess we can mark this down as one more broken promise on a long list from the Democrats.

Nearly 70 percent of Italian gynecologists now refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds and the number is increasing, a report by the country’s ministry of health said Tuesday.

Abortion was legalised in 1978 in Italy but pressure from the Vatican — which is strongly opposed to abortion — enabled doctors to claim a “conscientious objection” clause and refuse to carry out terminations.

Between 2003 and 2007 the number of gynecologists claiming the conscience clause to avoid carrying out abortions rose from 58.7 percent to 69.2 percent, according to the report.

For anesthetists helping in abortions, the figure of those refusing to participate rose from 45.7 percent to 50.4 percent.

Breitbart

I was surprised by such a high number when I read this. Overall, Europe has become a decadent society lacking moral fiber, but I wonder if we’re starting to see a change in Italy. They did just reelect Berlusconi last week too.

H/T Redstate.

This is from Wednesday night’s Democratic debate where Obama was asked a question about raising the Capital Gains Tax.

Barack Obama just admitted on camera in front of the entire country that he would raise taxes on 100 million Americans in order to get revenge on 50 people who had the nerve to make a whole lot of money last year. It doesn’t matter that raising the tax would hinder economic growth. It doesn’t matter that the a large portion of those 100 million Americans include middle class folks like you and me. It’s all about “fairness.” It’s not fair that these people were successful in their investments. Does Barack Obama think it’s fair when that when that hedge fund manager’s secretary sells some stock to put her kid through college that she’ll have to pay a 28% capital gains tax on it? His response is not the answer I expect from a Presidential candidate. This is the answer I would expect from a 12 year old kid on a playground.

Taxes are there to fund the basic functions of government. Barack Obama would use them to punish people whose fortunes and lifestyles he personally disagrees with. This is not someone that should be anywhere near the White House, let alone a U.S. Senator or have involvement in any level of government whatsoever. His attitude is anti-American and destructive. This man is no brilliant genius or some messiah of change. He is just another angry, class warfare Marxist repackaged in a pretty label, typical of the kind of candidate the far left keeps putting up to pull this country down.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing numbers of people like what they see in John McCain, vaulting him into a tie with the two Democratic presidential contenders just a few months after Republicans faced a steep disadvantage.

The Arizona senator has made a race of the White House contest by attracting disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Thursday. About two-thirds of them have grown disenchanted with President Bush despite voting for him in 2004, including many GOP-leaning independents, while the remaining third usually support Democrats but like McCain anyway.

The AP

I said back around Super Tuesday that this would be one big advantage by having McCain as our nominee.  He wasn’t my first choice for a number of reasons, but I said he would bring back a lot of the disgruntled Reagan coalition that Bush has pissed off over the past seven years.  Bush has given conservatism a bad reputation and it may take someone moderate like McCain to take off the edginess that many Republican leaning voters are currently feeling.

PITTSBURGH — Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday called for a summer-long suspension of the federal gasoline tax and several tax cuts as the likely presidential nominee sought to stem the public’s pain from a troubled economy.

Charlotte Observer

I think McCain knows as well as we all do that this is never going to happen, but it is a smart political move.  Gas prices are one of the top issues irritating voters this year and calling for a moratorium on the added price due to Federal taxation during the most heavily traveled months of the year isn’t going to earn him any enemies.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Party officials want a federal judge to order an investigation into whether Sen. John McCain violated election laws by withdrawing from public financing, saying federal regulators are too weak to act on their own.A lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, to be filed today in U.S. District Court, questions the agency’s ability to enforce the law and review McCain’s decision to opt out of the system.

The Charlotte Observer

I don’t know if McCain is in violation or not, to be honest. He was approved for public financing, but I don’t believe he ever took the money. Technically, I believe he is supposed to get permission from the FEC to opt back out of it, but he has been unable to do so because there are not enough commissioners on the panel at this current time to hold a quorum and decide the matter. Ironically enough, the reason for this lack of commissioners is due to the Democrats blocking Bush’s nominees for the panel. It makes you wonder if this is an ulterior motive behind their actions.   Even more ironic would be if McCain actually gets smacked on a violation of campaign finance rules.