American Glob

Sometimes coincidences have meaning. Now is one of those times.

It’s no secret that the teachers’ union in New Jersey doesn’t like Governor Chris Christie. It’s also no secret that teacher unions backed the Obama 2008 campaign big time.

With that information in mind, doesn’t it seem oddly coincidental that New Jersey has been denied $400 million in federal education funds because of a one page error in a grant proposal over 1,000 pages long???

Follow up: Guess which state got the $400 million bucks instead of New Jersey. Ohio.

Guess which state the Democratic Party is desperately trying to hold onto in the 2010 mid-terms. Ohio.

I’m sure this all just a coincidence though.

Oh and by the way, right on cue Rachel Maddow of MSNBC is delighting in all this.

I’m sure that’s just a coincidence too.

Read more at Memeorandum.

Hat tip to Andy McCarthy of National Review who’s featured in the video below.

In his post at NRO’s The Corner, McCarthy comments on this exchange:

Last night, I was on David Asman’s Fox Business Channel show, Scoreboard, debating Imam Dawoud Kringle of the New York State prison system, a GZ mosque supporter. Imam Kringle, who seems like a nice enough fellow, reeled off the usual talking points about how Islam forbids terrorism and, therefore, if someone commits an act of terrorism that act is, by definition, un-Islamic.

Then came the moment of truth: the very simple question, “Is Hamas a terrorist organization?”

Talk about “Talking Points.”

Raise your hand if you already want to puke every time you hear the term “bridge builder.”

Read more at Memeorandum.

Terrorism expert and National Review contributor Andy McCarthy asks an excellent question about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. How would this play out if the situation was reversed?

A friend poses the following: Imagine that there really were these fundamentalist Christian terror cells all over the United States, as the Department of Homeland Security imagines. Let’s say a group of five of these terrorists hijacked a plane, flew it to Mecca, and plowed it into the Kaaba.

Now let’s say a group of well-meaning, well-funded Christians — Christians whose full-time job was missionary work — decided that the best way to promote healing would be to pressure the Saudi government to drop its prohibition against permitting non-Muslims into Mecca so that these well-meaning, well-funded Christian missionaries could build a $100 million dollar church and community center a stone’s throw from where the Kaaba used to be — you know, as a bridge-building gesture of interfaith understanding.

What do you suppose President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg, the New York Times, and other Ground Zero mosque proponents would say about the insensitive, provocative nature of the proposal?

Do you think the State Department would make the leader of the Christian missionaries a special emissary and send him to represent the United States on diplomatic business overseas?

Read it all HERE.

Read analysis from other bloggers at Memeorandum.

Here’s how we can get it – Send the GOP to the House this November.

Robert Costa of National Review explains how a Republican win for control of the House would put one man in a unique position to demand answers from the White House. Better late than never…

If Republicans win the House this fall, Rep. Darrell Issa will wield the majority’s sharpest investigative tool: the subpoena pen.

“Cabinet officers, assistant secretaries, directors — I will be able to take on everybody that the president hires and relies upon; the people who tell him that everything is fine,” pledges Issa, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in an interview with National Review Online.

For months, Issa, a California Republican, has been delving into allegations of bureaucratic abuse and political foul play, prepping for the committee chairmanship should the chance come. A relentless critic of the Obama administration, he frequently takes to cable news to highlight his growing pile of files. Everything from the alleged job offers made to Democratic candidates by White House emissaries, to the private-sector ties of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has caught his eye. [snip]

If he wins the chairmanship, Issa will be able to hire a slew of investigators. He says he hopes to build a team with a “healthy lack of respect, if you will, for bureaucrats. . . . I want them to assume that bureaucrats will always paint a rosy picture and to dig deep. . . . I’d look for the kind of people — talented attorneys and other investigators — who have the skills to do the research and find the failures in government.” [snip]

“Ultimately,” Issa says, “I view what we do as holding the president to the standard that he sets.” The West Wing is on notice.

For a guy who spent two years on the campaign trail talking about transparency in government, his record on the subject sucks which means one of two things – he was lying or he’s too incompetent to get the job done. Either way, Darrell Issa sounds like just the guy to make sure the important questions get asked and answered.

Read more opinion at Memeorandum.

A new video from the NRSC via Jim Geraghty and Allahpundit of Hot Air who smartly notes…

If the GOP convinces independents that the left holds them in contempt — or rather, I should say, if Democrats convince independents of that — they’ll take a beating of Biblical proportions.

Nancy Pelosi claims she’s a big fan of The Word. I wonder if she’s ever heard the story of Noah…

She certainly might want to begin preparing for a flood. An ever growing number of average Americans are looking forward to watching her hand the gavel to Speaker Boehner.

Be sure to read more at Memeorandum.

Jonah Goldberg of National Review focuses on a bit from The Daily Show to elaborate on the political race card. It’s an account that was maxed out long ago by the liberal establishment…

“The race card is maxed out.”

That was the punch line for a recent hilarious exchange on The Daily Show in which Larry Wilmore, the faux news program’s “senior black correspondent,” reported that the race card is not only over its credit limit but is in fact “void during a black presidency.” This discovery came in the wake of Maxine Waters’s allegation that her political problems stem from a racially biased congressional ethics investigation.

Read Jonah’s entire column here.

The segment he references from The Daily Show is below.

Enjoy.

How right he is.

Videos by National Review.

PART I:

PART II:

That is… If said tape contained evidence that would make a Republican look bad.

Obama, Ayers, and PLO supporters toast Edward Said’s successor, but the press doesn’t think it’s quite as newsworthy as Sarah Palin’s wardrobe.

Let’s try a thought experiment. Say John McCain attended a party at which known racists and terror mongers were in attendance. Say testimonials were given, including a glowing one by McCain for the benefit of the guest of honor … who happened to be a top apologist for terrorists. Say McCain not only gave a speech but stood by, in tacit approval and solidarity, while other racists and terror mongers gave speeches that reeked of hatred for an American ally and rationalizations of terror attacks.

Now let’s say the Los Angeles Times obtained a videotape of the party.

Question: Is there any chance — any chance — the Times would not release the tape and publish front-page story after story about the gory details, with the usual accompanying chorus of sanctimony from the oped commentariat? Is there any chance, if the Times was the least bit reluctant about publishing (remember, we’re pretending here), that the rest of the mainstream media (y’know, the guys who drove Trent Lott out of his leadership position over a birthday-party toast) would not be screaming for the release of the tape?

Do we really have to ask?

So now, let’s leave thought experiments and return to reality: Why is the Los Angeles Times sitting on a videotape of the 2003 farewell bash in Chicago at which Barack Obama lavished praise on the guest of honor, Rashid Khalidi — former mouthpiece for master terrorist Yasser Arafat?

Read it all.

Maybe Newsweek was onto something…

A plurality of likely voters now view Obama as a socialist according to a poll conducted by Democratic strategist James Carville!

Via Jim Geraghty at National Review…

The latest poll by Democracy Corps, the firm of James Carville and Stan Greenberg, has Republicans leading on the generic ballot among likely voters, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Deep in the poll, they ask, “Now, I am going to read you a list of words and phrases which people use to describe political figures. For each word or phrase, please tell me whether it describes Barack Obama very well, well, not too well, or not well at all.”

On “too liberal,” 35 percent of likely voters say it describes Obama “very well,” 21 percent say “well,” 21 percent say “not too well,” and 17 percent say “not well at all.” In other words, 56 percent of likely voters consider Obama too liberal.

When asked about “a socialist,” 33 percent of likely voters say it describes Obama “very well,” 22 percent say “well,” 15 percent say “not too well,” and 25 percent say “not well at all.”

In other words, 55 percent of likely voters think “socialist” is a reasonably accurate way of describing Obama.

President Obama might be able to turn that perception around by 2012 but as far as the 2010 mid-term elections are concerned all I can say is good luck, comrade.

Maybe it would help if the Democrats stopped holding midnight sessions to force through 2,000 page bills they haven’t read and which most Americans oppose.

Just a thought.

UPDATE: William Galston of TNR says “Democrats Can’t Recover”

Well that didn’t take long.

I noticed the first rumblings of this idea recently on The Corner at National Review.

Now there’s a website. Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit had the following to say:

The failure of Chairman Steele to successfully sell Liberty over Socialism, and to cultivate and facilitate those future candidates who can, is emblematic of the dysfunction of the Republican party, a dysfunction which has over the past four years led the party to near-ruin. We need a true and tested leader.

We need Sarah Palin.

In a case of ironic timing, embattled RNC Chair Michael Steele announced today that he “ain’t going anywhere.”

“I ain’t going anywhere,” Steele said to cheers at the opening Colorado Republican Party’s “Victory” program in Colorado. “I’m here. I’m here. Look, we have too much work to do; we have too much work to do.”

He added, “Look, every time something happens, people go, ‘Oh, you should step down, step down. Well, the reality of it is that’s not happening, so stop the noise on that.”