Meat so very red…

“Anderson resident Brock Glaze clutched two copies of Palin’s book, hoping to get one signed for himself, and one for a co-worker. Although he considers himself a Libertarian, Glaze said Palin is an exemplary Republican. “I think she’s absolutely brilliant. She’s the only one with the guts to say what needs to be said. Her gender has absolutely nothing to do with it. She has more guts than most of the men in her party. I think she’s not afraid to stand up for her conservatism, her Christianity, for pretty much everything that’s necessary for a free nation.”

What a stark contrast between that quote and the words of Steve Chapman, who one might presume to be a libertarian since he writes for Reason.com. Chapman isn’t buying Palin’s libertarian appeal one bit. In fact, he thinks it’s a great big sham. In an article titled “Sarah Palin and the Decline of Conservatism” he asks “What happened to the party of Goldwater and Reagan?”

“Who needs policy? In her world—and the world of legions of conservatives who revere her—the persona is the policy. Palin is beloved because she’s (supposedly) just like ordinary people, which (supposedly) gives her a profound understanding of their needs.”

“That attitude used to be associated with the left, which claimed to speak for the ordinary folks who get shafted by the system. Logic and evidence about policy, to many liberals, were less important than empathy and good intentions. Now it’s conservatives who think we should be guided by our guts, not our brains.”

Chapman then does his best to disassociate Sarah Palin from the memory of Ronald Reagan.

“When Oprah asked if she had felt any doubts about her readiness to be vice president—which requires the readiness to be president—Palin replied breezily, “No, no—I didn’t blink. … I felt quite confident in my abilities and my executive experience and I knew that this is an executive administrative job.” (The audience tittered.)”

“Contrast that with Reagan, who after learning of his victory on Election Night 1980 told his supporters, “There’s never been a more humbling moment in my life.” Palin doesn’t do humble.”

Funny. Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael Reagan, had a completely different take on Sarah Palin in September of 2008 when he wrote a piece about her called “Welcome Back, Dad.”

“I’ve been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan to emerge and lead our party and our nation. I insisted that we’d never see his like again because he was one of a kind.”

“I was wrong!”

“Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he’s a she.”

“And what a she!”

“Like Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin is one of us. She knows how most of us live because that’s the way she lives. She shares our homespun values and our beliefs, and she glories in her status as a small-town woman who put her shoulder to the wheel and made life better for her neighbors.”

“Welcome back, Dad, even if you’re wearing a dress and bearing children this time around.”

I was truly puzzled as to why Steve-Chapman-the-libertarian has such a problem with Sarah Palin but then I checked his bio at Reason.com and suddenly it all made sense.

“Steve Chapman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune.”

Figures.

OK, but now tell us what you really think…

A Chicago businessman named James Andrews had a great idea. Open a hot dog stand, hire mainly ex-convicts who often have trouble finding jobs and call the place “Felony Franks.”

The business is doing extremely well, is enjoyed by local residents and Mr. Andrews has received thousands of job applications. Yet there are two people in Chicago who are criticizing his efforts.

First, there’s Father Michael Pfleger, who famously mocked Hillary Clinton (in a church) by saying:

“And she said, ‘Oh, damn. Where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. There’s a black man stealing my show.”

Second, there’s Alderman Robert Fioretti who was disappointed to find out the Olympics were not coming to Chicago.

“Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd, whose ward would have included many Olympic facilities, said he was shocked by the decision. “It’s geo-political forces that were beyond our control,” he said, citing a perception that U.S. actions triggered the worldwide recession.”

Why do they have a problem with Felony Franks? One would think that in America’s current economic environment, anyone who can successfully create jobs would be praised for the efforts. Apparently not.

The Wall Street Journal reports “Slaw and Order”

“An alderman has refused Mr. Andrews permission to hang a new sign or build a drive-through lane. A pastor accused the restaurant owner, who is not an ex-convict, of “pimping out” the community. Members of a neighborhood association have vowed to stay away from Felony Franks until the name is changed and the décor — including paintings of cartoon hot dogs in prison stripes — is removed.”

“I don’t understand it,” Mr. Andrews says. “I really don’t.”

“The 64-year-old businessman has long employed ex-convicts at his main business, a company that supplies paper goods to restaurants.”

“He says he thinks people deserve a second chance and felons need stable jobs so they don’t add to homelessness. He thought of opening a hot-dog stand three years ago while driving past one. The name “Felony Franks” just popped into his head, he says.”

So here you have a small business owner, creating jobs for people who have a harder time finding work than anyone else, and he’s being accused of “pimping” the community by Obama’s favorite Catholic priest. Here you have an entrepreneur trying to stimulate a local economy and the local Alderman is playing politics over the damn store sign.

I ask again. Is there anyone connected to Obama who approves of small businesses that create jobs?

Video from the WSJ:

Conservatives in America should thank Michelle Malkin for all of her hard work exposing the Chicago Machine politics behind Mr. & Mrs. Obama and Valerie Jarrett. If you haven’t read it already, you should check out Ms. Malkin’s expose titled An Illustrated Guide: All The President’s Olympic Cronies.

Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and Mayor Daley stand to make major bucks off the Olympics if the games come to Chicago. Why else would they all be pushing so hard for the city to host? Do they care about Chicago as a city? Do they know a large movement in Chicago does not want the Olympics to happen there? Have they come out to condemn the recent violence there? Not yet.

What’s the true Obama goal with the Olympics in Chicago?

Michelle Malkin explains it all for you. Watch…

Chief Obama propagandist David Axelrod, the man who wrote the vacuous slogan “yes we can,” has a vested interest in the passage of ObamaCare. It’s making him rich.

Axelrod’s former firm, for which his son still works, is AKPD Media and they are being paid by an organization called Health Economy Now to help push ObamaCare. Health Economy Now includes big PHARMA, the SEIU and the AARP. The conflict of interest? AKPD owes David Axelrod a lot of money.

See how many hands wash the others?

David Axelrod helps to pass ObamaCare. ObamaCare passes, AKPD has more money. AKPD gives money to David Axelrod. Everyone is happy!

Hugh Hewitt of Town Hall busted this wide open yesterday.

“If Axelrod has been negotiating any part of any deal involving any of these players which are funneling money to the firm that owes him money, or if he is advising the president on the deals with any of these groups, that’s a conflict of interest.  Laundering the money through a “coalition” doesn’t remove the conflict much less the appearance of impropriety.  The coalition is in effect partially funding David Axelrod’s severance package though its members might have done so unknowingly.  These forthcoming payments to Axelrod are much more significant than the sort of “retained ties”  that Democrats blasted Dick Cheney for vis-a-vis Halliburton even though there was no high level negotiations between the vice president and his former company.”

Like Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, author of Culture of Corruption, cites an important Bloomberg article on this subject and makes the following point:

“Now, Bloomberg’s Timothy Burger brings news about Axelrod’s latest health care conflicts of interest that will come as no surprise to those who have fully informed themselves of the Chicago way. While White House press secretary Robert Gibbs assails the motives of grass-roots activists by falsely smearing the movement as corporate-funded shills, Barack Obama’s own senior adviser and chief Astroturfer raked in millions of dollars from Big Pharma.”

This story is beginning to take root in the mainstream press and is currently on the front page of the Politico:

“Critics of President Obama’s health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys—now at $24 million and counting—by White House allies in the reform fight.”

Not too long ago, our friends on the left cared about supposed conflicts of interest. In fact, they couldn’t shut up about it. Now? Not so much. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air is waiting for the outrage from the left but isn’t holding his breath.

Of course, it has never been proven that Dick Cheney had any conflict of interest where Halliburton was concerned but that never stopped the left. If you want a good laugh, watch the great Halliburton protest of 2007 below.

Do you need more evidence that a government run health plan is a bad idea? Look no further than the Windy City on August 17th, 2009. The City of Chicago is closed.

“The City of Chicago will basically be closed for business on Aug. 17, a reduced-service day in which most city employees are off without pay, according to a release from the Office of Budget and Management. City Hall, public libraries, health clinics and most city offices will be closed.”

“Emergency service providers including police, firefighters and paramedics will be working at full strength, but most services not directly related to public safety, including street sweeping, will not be provided, the release said.”

“That also includes garbage pickup. Residents who receive regular collection on Mondays should expect trash to be picked up the following day, the release said. Some other customers may experience a one-day delay as collectors catch up.”

No need to worry though. Our leaders in Washington, DC are much more efficient than the leaders of Chicago. Even though they’re …uhh…  from Chicago.

This is the second time this week I’ve been pleasantly surprised by reporting at the Huffington Post. They’ve obtained a memo which points to an unholy union between the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby and they are not happy about it:

“A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.”

“The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.”

“It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government’s leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada — and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.”

“In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: “Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.”

“Critics on Capitol Hill and online responded with outrage at the reports that Obama had gone behind their backs and sold the reform movement short. Furthermore, the deal seemed to be a betrayal of several promises made by then-Sen. Obama during the presidential campaign, among them that he would use the power of government to drive down the costs of drugs to Medicare and that negotiations would be conducted in the open.”

Be sure to read the whole thing and then read these reports from Ace of Spades HQ and Hot Air.

You should also watch this 2008 campaign video from then Senator Obama.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s interesting. A post on Organizing For America/My Barack Obama from July 08, 2008 says all that stuff about illegal contributions was just another smear…

SMEAR EMAIL

“A June 29th column from Maureen Dowd writes “The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia.  Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.”

FACT

“Donors to the Obama campaign are required to certify that they are U.S. citizens, and the campaign would not accept donations from foreign citizens.”

Yet today, the Politico is reporting “President Obama Refunds Cash to Kenyan Aunt, Convicted Murderer, Lobbyists”

“More than eight months after President Barack Obama won the White House, the remnants of his campaign organization is struggling to deal with some unfinished business: returning about $669,000 in tainted or illegal campaign contributions to a motley assortment of donors, among them a convicted murderer, Washington lobbyists and a number of foreign nationals, including his own aunt.”

“But the 11 Chicago-based staff members still on the campaign’s payroll are finding it was a lot easier to rake in a record-shattering $750 million than to identify and return donations that ran afoul of federal election laws or Obama’s own strict fundraising standards.”

What standards?

How’s this for a joke? A terrorist and an anti-Semite walk into a “peace” rally…

“The day before President Barack Obama was to meet with Israel’s prime minister, community activists, clergy and residents marched through Oak Park on Sunday to call for a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

“And they were led in their efforts by a politically provocative pair from Chicago: Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and William Ayers.”

“When he was running for the presidency, Obama was dogged by the two figures: Wright, Obama’s former pastor, with his fiery words from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ, and Ayers, for his radical past as a leader in the 1960s and 1970s of the violent Weather Underground group.”

You know what’s even funnier than that? The first reader comment after the article from “Mario” in Illinois:

“Why do you keep associating wright and ayers with obama? obama already said he barely knew these people…and had already thrown wright under the bus and disowned ayers. let’s not give these 2 twerps anymore importance.”

Yeah Mario, you’re right. It’s “the media” that keeps associating Obama with Ayers and Wright. Obama bears absolutely no responsibility for his relationship to these two scumbags.

Keep telling yourself that.