Every Sunday I usually spout off about whatever is on my mind in a weekly column over at Carolina Politics Online. When I was added to the author list here at SavetheGOP, I decided to publish my inane little rants here as well. Often they deal with news stories, but I also write conservative movie reviews (Batman = GWB in The Dark Knight, btw) and book reviews.

This week I wrote an article about Sarah Palin. Now I wanna set this up before y’all go on reading it…

I know that some of you don’t like the pick, or the guy who made it. That’s fine, and I understand. But I am actively rooting for, campaigning for, and shilling for McCain/Palin ‘08. I also understand, from what some of the other authors have told me, that SavetheGOP’s readership has skyrocketed over the past few months. We may even have some influential people reading us- if so, this is especially for them. If you seek to elect McCain/Palin ‘o8, then hearken onto my words, memorize them, repeat them, imbibe them into your soul and impart them to anyone who will listen to you: Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama.

Here’s why…

It started not even twenty minutes after John McCain’s “WOW!”-inducing VP selection.

They were no doubt hung over from the night before. Imbibing too much of the Obamasiah’s deluge of verbal opioid -delivered from the Temple of Dionysus itself- can do that to you. I know from extensive experience that hangovers make people do and say strange things. But even I haven’t done anything near as strange as the clueless Obamaphiles who rushed to the airwaves and the keyboards and immediately began excoriating Sen. McCain for picking “the untested mayor of a town of 9,000″ to be his Vice Presidential nominee.

Um… who are you supporting again?

The monumental significance of Barack Obama’s nomination on Thursday should not push from our minds the simple and irrefutable fact that he the most inexperienced and untested major party nominee since Jimmy Carter, and perhaps beyond. At least Carter had the benefit of a full-time job behind an executive desk for four years. Obama can’t even claim to have been a full-time senator. Yet only 12 hours after telling the entire world that a man who has slightly more senate experience than I do is qualified to be the next president, Democrats are telling us that Sarah Palin isn’t qualified to be McCain’s backup.

It’s not just absurd; it’s insulting.

Click to continue »

Do it now!

As a hectic week of hurricane watching and the RNC gets underway, I cannot help but be amused by the state of confusion the Obama campaign is in over Gov. Palin.  I thought this picture summed it up well:

Word comes down that Ron Paul will have his own “convention” on Sept. 2 since he is not speaking at the GOP convention.  I am glad to see that he is doing his part for getting Obama elected to the presidency.  As ususal, the “real conservatives” do little to help their cause, and in some cases, hurt it.

An American Carol

As co-creator of Airplane and The Naked Gun David Zucker was a traditional Hollywood lib until Sept. 11th finally pulled him out of his stupor. He loves America and he loves Israel, and was disgusted at how liberal Hollywood consistently bashed everything he thought was right about his country.

In 2004 he created several well-received comedic ads that were critical of John Kerry. This year, he’s risking his career to skewer all the liberal phonies out there- protesters, Michael Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Jimmy Carter, etc. This will be the first blatantly pro-conservative/anti-lib comedy coming out of Hollywood in my recent memory.  The premise is that after rotund anti-American filmmaker Michael Malone tries to do away with the 4th of July, he’s visited by 3 ghosts- The Angel of Death, George Patton (Kelsey Grammer), and George Washington (Jon Voight), who show him that America truly is a great country.

An American Carol is coming out on Oct. 3rd in over 2,000 screens across the county. Fair Warning: I will slurp this movie non-stop from now until then, and even if it sucks I’ll probably buy several tickets. Hollywood needs to be sent a message- we will not pay you to produce anti-American garbage anymore. If you want our money, stop hatin’ on our country.

BTW, I got this from Dirty Harry’s Place. Dirty Harry is a conservative film reviewer with a lively message board. I I highly recommend you add him to your reading list.

Russia has officially annexed South Ossetia into “one united Russian state” which comes as no surprise considering that was the aim of the Russians all along (as well as the toppling of Mikheil Saakashvili’s government which remains standing to date). They have also further entrenched themselves in Abkhazia, ensuring that it doesn’t return to Georgian control in the coming years.

The Kremlin moved swiftly to tighten its grip on Georgia’s breakaway regions yesterday as South Ossetia announced that it would soon become part of Russia, which will open military bases in the province under an agreement to be signed on Tuesday.

Tarzan Kokoity, the province’s Deputy Speaker of parliament, announced that South Ossetia would be absorbed into Russia soon so that its people could live in “one united Russian state” with their ethnic kin in North Ossetia.

In and of itself I see nothing wrong with nation states expanding their borders, but the United States by complacently sitting by and not preventing this blatant assault on Georgia’s sovereignty has damaged its (already fragile) reputation as a reliable ally and only encouraged Putin to be be as belligerent towards his neighbors as he wishes in the coming years. What’s next? Estonia, Latvia, Moldova (Transdnistria), Lithuania, the Ukraine, or maybe one of the central Asian states could all suffer from needing the benevolent protection of their Russian minorities.

Michael Totten has a nice writeup on the entire conflict.

Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.

Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.

And that is merely the opening two paragraphs, read the whole thing.

A final article in the Georgian Daily is worth a read if only to gauge the mood of the citizens of Georgia in the aftermath of their country’s defeat.

The money helped fund Saakashvili’s reforms, including wholesale reorganisation of the economy. Signs of modernisation, great and small, soon followed.

“He really did a lot,” says Sopho Bukia, Georgia editor for the UK-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

“It sounds strange, but the other night I couldn’t find a parking space near home and you know I was really happy: I realised people have stopped worrying their cars will be stolen, which really is a kind of progress.”

First of all, via the Weekly Standard Blog here’s former Presidential candidate and Senator Fred Thompson’s reaction to McCain’s selection of Gov. Sarah Palin for VP:

“I am absolutely delighted by this selection. Once again, John McCain has shown that he is an independent thinker who paints in bold strokes. Sarah Palin is a conservative reformer with executive experience who will bring a breath of fresh air to Washington. She will be an ideal running mate for John McCain, and will make a major contribution to our country’s future.”

And, adding to the sheer awesomeness of this weekend for movement conservatives, here’s an email I received from Fred today:

Friends,

At this crucial moment in our nation’s history, it is vital that we adhere to the fundamental conservative principles that have unified us for over two centuries. On Monday, September 1, Senator Fred Thompson will announce a major new effort to ensure that these conservative principles are supported and defended across our country and at every level of government.

Please stay tuned and join Senator Thompson as he unveils this exciting endeavor.

I don’t know what this “major new effort,” will be, but if Fred’s leading it, it’s gotta be good.

Ted Nugent takes Obama apart in a way that only Ted Nugent can.  Awesomeness.

Barack Obama
Inaugurated- Jan. 2005
Started running for President- 2006
Number of days actually working IN the U.S. Senate- less than 200
Executive Experience- 0 days

Sarah Palin
Inaugurated in Jan. 2007
Started running for Vice-President- 29 August 2008
Number of days actually working IN the Alaska State Capitol- between 300-500
Executive Experience- 8 years as Mayor of Wasilla and Governor of Alaska.

Can we please, please, pleeeeeeeeeese have an experience debate?

[UPDATE]

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign on Friday blasted his Republican rival’s choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a running-mate, highlighting her “zero” foreign policy experience. “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement.

Breitbart

OMG… this is hilarious. It took Obama about 20 minutes to take the bait. Now let’s watch McCain absolutely destroy this little fraud on the experience argument.

BTW- Can he get any more condescending to small towns? Wasilla must be full of of bitter people who cling to their guns and bibles.

There has been talk the GOP could delay the convention because of the Hurricane poised to hit New Orleans. The party shouldn’t do it. This is what they should do instead:

President Bush, cancel your speech at the convention Monday night. Cheney should too. Instead, go down to New Orleans. Go down there and personally run the FEMA operation.

From New Orleans, appear on the big screen for some brief comments at the convention.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a self-styled “hockey mom” who has only been governor for a little over a year, is GOP Presidential candidate John McCain’s choice for Vice President, CNBC has learned.

According to a Republican strategist, Palin is the nominee, though McCain’s campaign has not comfirmed this.

CNBC

WBT in Charlotte has been reporting this morning that while there has been no sign of Pawlenty or Romney in Dayton, OH today, several people have called up claiming that Sarah Palin was flown in on a private plane.

Jump on in, folks…

I actually had to start drinking at about 9:30 when Michael McDonald started butchering “America the Beautiful”. Never in my life have I more wanted Simon Cowell to come out and say: “You just made me stick a sharpened pencil in my eardrums. Please jump into a volcano.”

10:04- So your mom got you up early and made you do your homework, huh? If you had your way, you’d get some government program to do that.

10:09- So Obama “believed strongly in everything he brought to the Illinois Senate floor”. Guess that means he strongly believes in killing viable babies outside the womb, huh? Glad we’ve settled that.

10:11- What, no chorus of Angels? I at least expected him to come out on a chariot.

10:15- Wouldn’t it have been hilarious if he had said, “Y’know, no thanks. Hillary can have it.”

10:20- That’s right. Katrina was GWB’s fault. He and Dick Cheney cooked it up in the Pentagon and used a giant fan to blow it right into New Orleans.

10:21- “8 is enough!” I smell a new lame bumper sticker slogan.

10:24- Obama is whining about being called a “whiner”. Hope you got your Pinot Grigio handy.

10:25- ‘Cuz he was JOKING about $5 million/year being rich, you libtard. And YOU and Michelle make about $5 million/year, jerk.

10:28- He went to the most prestigious private school in Hawaii… just so ya know.

10:31- “Businesses have an obligation to create jobs”. Really? Thanks for clearing that up for me.

10:32- I’m a small business owner and I am scared sh-tless of Barack Obama’s tax plans… just so ya know.

10:33- “We will end our dependence on oil from the Middle East”. Without drilling or nukes, huh? He must be looking into government subsidized synthetic fairy dust. And the best way to build fuel-efficient vehicles here, and make them affordable for us, is to LOWER TAXES. And yet, even as I type this, he’s proposing a billion dollar program.

10:39- He just mentioned (briefly) making government smaller by cutting inefficient bureaucracies. He gave no specifics and he requested, oh… does anyone remember how many million dollars of earmarks last session? John McCain, of course, requested none.

10:41- You opposed the Iraq War ”just days after 9/11″. Wow, do you have a crystal ball?

10:44- He’s accusing George W. Bush, who liberated Iraq, of doing nothing more than “talking tough” to our enemies. All while he would have tea and crumpets with dictators. Are you freakin’ kidding me?

10:47- “I know you love this country”. I’d bet my next paycheck that at least 20% of that audience hates America. And that Obama, while he may say he loves America, hates the basic principles of this country.

10:50- “When you don’t have a record to run on, you make your opponent someone to run from”. Did he just honest-to-God say that John McCain doesn’t have a record and he does???

10:55- He’s talking about the “American Promise”. I don’t know about you, but my American Promise doesn’t exist in some committee room in Washington, DC. Now he’s talking about individual achievements. Notice that none of those examples of “The American Promise” involved a government program. Pioneers, job creation, etc. Nope, no government.

10:57- Aaaaaand… done. Damn, I’m not drunk yet.

Alright, what did you think? I’m biased (no duh), but I wasn’t all that impressed. He spoke loudly and he spoke well, but he didn’t tell us anything. Honestly, what did he say??? What is his plan? How is he different and new and “changeful”? That was a nice rah-rah speech, but I doubt it moved a lot of people in middle America.

11:02- For a party that talks greenie-weanie all the time, they sure do have a lot of confetti. That stuff had better be biodegradable. And is that the theme to Saving Private Ryan in the background? WTF??? Just get off the stage, jackass.

It’s sounding like Timmy………

Tonight, as we sit and bask in the sheer wonder that is The One, and anticipate his ascension into the heavens once his speech concludes, I will be here in front of my computer screen live-blogging it for you. I invite the other authors to jump in and do likewise.

Normally, I’d be unable to stomach doing this, so I’ve developed a way to not only watch the whole speech, but to live-blog it in an entertaining fashion- The Barack Obama Drinking Game! For those who want to play along at home, here are the rules:

In keeping with Obama’s snobbish style, your beer should be imported high-quality stuff. You’ll need that beer (a lot), something with which you can take shots (I prefer Vodka), and the snootiest wine (whine) you can find.

You take a shot any time:
-he says “hope”, “change”, or “yes we can”
-the camera focuses on Michelle Obama learning to be proud of her country
-he attacks John McCain/Pres. Bush/VP Cheney/SavetheGOP.com
-he says something negative about Iraq while our soldiers are still fighting (and winning) over there.
-he compares himself to John F. Kennedy

You chug the beer whenever:
-the crowd chants “Obama! Obama!”
-he proposes a government program
-he attacks those evil rich people
-he talks about his version of the “American Dream”, which of course involves the government doing something that you should do for yourself.

You take a sip of wine (whine) anytime:
-He whines about something (ie. Big mean Republicans are attacking me; Bush hurts poor people; McCain is just another 4 more years of failed policies, etc.)

Got it? Good. Run out and get your slag before the ascension starts at 10pm EST. And don’t be havin’ to drive anywhere afterwards.

H/T- Michelle Malkin, who thankfully escaped unscathed from the unshaven and soap-fearing moonbat hordes.

Club for Growth Blog: “Pat will probably kill me for posting this, but…”

This speech eviscerated Senator Kerry and the anti-Bush zealotry of the Democratic party.