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Each time I hear the word “change” out of Barack Obama’s mouth, I remember this portion of Whittaker Chambers’ opening prose from “Forward In The Form Of A Letter To My Children” that begins his autobiography Witness:

In the Hiss trials, where Communism was a haunting specter, but which did little or nothing to explain Communism, Communists were assumed to be criminals, pariahs, clandestine men who lead double lives under false names, travel on false passports, deny traditional religion, morality, the sanctity of oaths, preach violence and practice treason. These things are true about Communists, but they are not what Communism is about.

The revolutionary heart of Communism is not the theatrical appeal: “Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to gain.” It is a simple statement of Karl Marx, further simplified for handy use: “Philosophers have explained the world; it is necessary to change the world.” Communists are bound together by no secret oath. The tie that binds them across the frontiers of nations, across barriers of language and differences of class and education, in defiance of religion, morality, truth, law, honor, the weaknesses of the body and the irresolutions of the mind, even unto death, is a simple conviction: It is necessary to change the world. Their power, whose nature baffles the rest of the world, because in a large measure the rest of the world has lost that power, is the power to hold convictions and to act on them. It is the same power that moves mountains; it is also an unfailing power to move men. Communists are that part of mankind which has recovered the power to live or die -to bear witness-for its faith. And it is a simple, rational faith that inspires men to live or die for it.

It is not new. It is, in fact, man’s second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Ye shall be as gods.” It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man’s relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God.

It is the vision of man’s mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world. It is the vision of man’s liberated mind, by the sole force of its rational intelligence, redirecting man’s destiny and reorganizing man’s life and the world. It is the vision of man, once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in His image, but because man’s mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals. Copernicus and his successors displaced man as the central fact of the universe by proving that the earth was not the central star of the universe. Communism restores man to his sovereignty by the simple method of denying God….

Still the best single book I’ve ever read.

A great, albeit ideologically opposing review of the stakes in this election in the Supreme Court in The New Republic.

Justice John Paul Stevens is 88 years old. I’d be willing to double down on my student loans that if Obama wins, he will retire within the first six months of an Obama presidency.

Update V: Mary Katharine Ham nicely summarizes the problem:

As if the media needed an excuse to a) paint all McCain-Palin support as unhinged and racist, b) accuse the campaign itself of inciting such behavior or, c) ignore similar rage and incitement on the left [pretty much! - BC], now they have the perfect excuse to do all three, thanks to Todd.

The hate crime hoax is not a new phenomenon, but it’s fairly rare on our side of the ideological spectrum. By calling Todd out swiftly and condemning her in the strongest terms possible, we can keep it that way. Bizarre and disgusting.

Update IV: If you need an example of why it’s an idiotic idea to make up a story about being physically assaulted, the very headline of this local CBS station story should help: “McCain Campaign Worker Confessed To Making Up Story Of Attack”

She wasn’t a McCain campaign worker. She was a CRNC Field Rep. At most, she was an RNC campaign worker. But her idiotic move of making up a physical attack is now going to be directly linked with the McCain campaign by an unfriendly media.

The race hustler of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel couldn’t care less if a black student at West Bend makes up a story about racial intimidation and harassment, despite the obvious fact that false allegations prevent real harm from coming to the surface.

The same problem holds here: making up a stupid claim will dilute the response of police authorities and the news to real assaults. This is particularly enraging when real physical attacks do occur, even right at Marquette University. This girl does no service to the Republican Party with her false claims.

More McCain linking here. In fact, it’s on the front page of Google News with about 850 similar stories tying her to the McCain campaign.

Now you know why they call it the stupid party …

Update III: More information, including this from a McCain campaign spokesman:

According to a campaign spokesperson, after seeing her bumper sticker supporting McCain, the suspect said, ‘Oh you’re with McCain, you’re with the McCain campaign? I’m going to teach you a lesson.’”

What’s the lesson? How to chant Hope and Change?

Update II: HotAir has more information, including a picture of the victim. Disgusting.

Horrific:

PITTSBURGH — A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, police said.

Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard tells Channel 4 Action News that the victim was robbed at knifepoint on Wednesday night outside of a Citizens Bank near Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street just before 9 p.m.

Richard said the robber took $60 from the woman, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim’s car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using the knife to scratch the letter “B” into her face, Richard said.

Also here.

You can’t read a story like the above and say that something isn’t seriously out of control with some supporters of Obama. This isn’t normal behavior. In fact, it’s downright evil. Normal liberals should ask themselves why a psychopath would mutilate someone with a simple difference of ideology.

This happens if a person’s sense of importance or value of another is radically above his/her actual merit. To some, this election is about more than … an election. Which isn’t terribly surprising when Barack and some of his supporters acclaim his ability to heal the planet.

From a policy perspective, when you put the federal government in control of so much of society, particularly the president of the United States, the stakes in each election are enormous. The fact that some people will go insane over their own perceived stakes in the election is not surprising.

*Stolen from friend of GOP3, D.

Update: Apparently it was a College Republican National Committe Field Representative.

This reminds of of the recent assault by apparent Obama supporters of a pro-McCain Marquette student on the Marquette campus:

A 19-year-old male not affiliated with Marquette pulled a gun on four Marquette students during a physical altercation early Sunday morning, according to the Department of Public Safety.

The wrangle started outside of Murphy’s Irish Pub, 1615 W. Wells St., around 2 a.m. when a 21-year-old male Marquette student was struck in the face while holding a “McCain Palin” campaign sign and yelling to vote for John McCain in the upcoming presidential election. The student said he was blindsided when a group of three individuals approached him, though he is not sure exactly which individual hit him.

Minutes later, the student returned to the porch of his home on the 800 block of North 17th Street where he was confronted by the same three men that had assaulted him outside of the bar. Words were exchanged and the spat migrated into the alley behind the victim’s house, the victim said.

By that time, three of the victim’s friends had heard the fracas and met in the alley. One of the students, a 21-year-old male, said that he wandered into the alley and came face-to-face with two suspects that were holding bricks. One of the suspects launched a brick and hit one of the students, another 21-year-old male, in the face. The suspects took off down the alley and the students chased after them, the victims said.

When the men reached the north end of the alley at Kilbourn Avenue, one of the suspects turned, pulled out a .38 caliber handgun, and pointed it directly at a student’s forehead.

I seem to have missed in the history books — written by liberals — of my youth where Republicans carved “R” into someone’s forehead during the 1980’s. Or even Clinton supporters carved a C … etc. etc.

This might be the first time since the pre-Constantine days of the Roman Emporers that political leaders were deified.

Okay, first time in America, at least.

Update: Apparently the video’s creators are cowards who can’t stand intellectual competition.

Don’t worry, liberals, soon enough you’ll be able to fulfill your wet dreams of criminalizing your enemies.

Everyone that has had any interest in the Wisconsin 8th Senate race should know one thing above all else. Sheldon Wasserman lies. He doesn’t just omit facts, he doesn’t distort the truth. He lies. Repeatedly. Most of his lies have been about his American’s for Tax Reform pledge, but he’s lied in direct mail pieces about Darling’s stance and polices.

Most recently, at a debate between Wasserman and Darling at the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay, Wasserman claimed that he had never broken the American’s for Tax Reform Pledge to never raise taxes. He said that no one can produce a piece of paper that said he’s done anything wrong. Therefore he’s never violated the pledge. To worsen matters for Wasserman, he has been falsely asserting to voters that he kept his word and touts himself as a “fiscal conservative”.

Well yesterday evening, American’s For Tax Reform sent out a press release stating that he’s broken his pledge repeatedly. Press releases are on pieces of paper aren’t they?

Here’s what ATR president Grover Norquist had to say about Sheld:

“Despite his Pledge to taxpayers, Rep. Wasserman has repeatedly sought to increase taxes on Wisconsin consumers and families Not only that, but he has violated the very spirit of the Pledge by dismissing it in support of tax hikes.”
According to Americans for Tax Reform, Rep. Wasserman signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in 2002, but has failed to honor the Pledge by sponsoring, supporting, or voting for at least three tax increases during his tenure in the State Assembly:
• In 2005, Rep. Wasserman sponsored a bill to increase the state’s cigarette and tobacco taxes by well over $300 million per year. The bill would have pushed the cigarette tax rate from $0.77 to $1.77 and increased the tax rate on chewing tobacco to 57%. (2005 AB 451, SB 211)
• In 2007, Rep. Wasserman voted in favor of advancing a $48 million tax increase on garbage collection. The bill would have increased the current tax by 233%. (2007 AB 76)
• Last October, Rep. Wasserman expressed willingness to break his Taxpayer Protection Pledge by supporting a tax hike included in the 2008-2009 Budget. (2007, WI Act 20)

This is not the first time ATR has scolded Wasserman for breaking his no-tax pledge. In 2005 Wasserman went so far as to author a bill (05 AB 451, SB211) to raise taxes. Wasserman has established a pattern over the years of voting for tax increases or supporting tax increases in general.

Additionally, while Wasserman signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge as a state representative, he failed to retake the Pledge for the 8th Senate District where he is currently challenging State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), who is a Pledge signer. This despite repeated claims that he did sign the no-new-taxes pledge. The Taxpayer Protection Pledge guidelines state that a legislator’s Pledge is only in effect for the ‘duration of their tenure in the office to which they were elected’ and signers who run for another office must re-sign the Pledge for the new office they are seeking.
‘Why should taxpayers trust Wasserman when he broke his Pledge in the Assembly and now promises not to raise taxes while failing to re-sign the Pledge?’ added Norquist. ‘I welcome Wasserman to re-sign the Pledge in his race for the 8th District, but that in no way purges his record of supporting tax hikes on Wisconsin residents.’

Yeah, basically he’s running on his No New Taxes Pledge history, which he just didn’t break, he shattered, while refusing to sign it in the future. Even the far left blogs are calling on Sheld to ditch is no new tax pledge, and start admitting to raising taxes like he did in the past, and how he wants to in the future.

-Related note: Sykes brought this up while I was making this post. Feel free to listen-

I received a reminder from the Republican Party that I ought to “vote early” by requesting an absentee ballot. The outside announced that “Wall Street Acted Recklessly - Now Main Street has to pay for it.”

The banner headline inside proclaims, “For Years Wall Street Has Run Wild,” with light text behind it “European Vacations” and “Italian Cars” and “CEO Bonus.” Of course, I would like to take a vacation to Europe some day (Rome and London, in particular). I would like a nice car some day, I hope my employer gives me an end of the year bonus, and I own a few shares of stock (and I generally subscribe to the “investor class” theory that says many other Hard Rs do as well).

In a “Just the Facts” box, I am informed that “In 1999, Democrats repealed government oversight that could have prevented the crisis we face today.” Of course, another term for repealing government oversight is “deregulation,” something I and most other Hard Rs are very much in favor of.

And then there’s just the general tenor of the message. “The economy needs to be fixed … and fixed fast.” “Many Americans don’t go to work expecting a windfall bonus every year.” “When America was struggling with a mortgage crisis, high gas prices and the cost of heating their homes … Wall Street bankers received the largest bonuses in history.” To me, that all sounds like class warfare. And I thought that it was the other side that was always engaged in class warfare …

I’m a Hard R. I’m not an independent voter who’s blaming Wall Street and hating on capitalism this month. The pro-life mailer that came before this one was great. But this one was less than great.

From the Drudge Report: “GALLUP’s ‘traditional’ likely voter model shows Obama with a two-point advantage over McCain on Thursday, 49% to 47%, this is within poll’s margin of error… Developing…”

Could Joe The Plumber, a blue collar man who spoke for most of America when he spoke out against Obama’s socialist redistribution of wealth, turn this race around? Let’s hope so!

Don’t forget, America has already shown it doesn’t like the brand of socialist redistribution Obama is peddling in this June Gallup poll question (as James points out):

“When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today’s consumer, Americans overwhelmingly—by 84% to 13%—prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.”

Here is McCain’s newly released web ad to highlight again how Obama wants to “spread the wealth”:

Ok, I did write that I was considering to vote for Bob Barr. I’m not really entirely serious, but what I am serious about is that honest and true conservatives really are in a bind this election season. We don’t exactly want to see a liberal like Barack Obama to get into office yet we don’t like fake Republicans prancing around pretending to be awed by teh wonders of the free market either. With that said, I still would much rather see John McCain win rather than Barack Obama.

McCain does not have much time to turn around this election, but I think one place he can hit Obama still is on his tax policy. I am no campaign consultant or political speechwriter, but McCain’s campaign need to figure out how to get this recent WSJ article on Obama’s tax plan into his next stump speech and into the next debate.

I’m not going to be shy about it: when it comes to his tax plan, Obama’s a socialist. His tax “plan” is basically a redistribution of wealth. From the article:

It’s a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he’s also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of “tax cut.”

As the article pointed out, his tax cut “plan” really is just raising taxes on the “rich” and giving it to “the poor,” all the while losing how much in administrative costs in making the transfer. One should be immediately suspicious when 95% of Americans would supposedly get a tax cut under the Obama plan given the fact that a large percentage of those people don’t pay income taxes in the first place. How can you get a tax cut and receive tax credits when you don’t pay taxes?

Clearly, Obama cares more about the power of big government than job creation and wealth expansion otherwise he would be proposing to simplify the tax code and lower taxes on EVERYONE. This “tax cut” rhetoric is just a bold attempt to disguise an outwardly socialist tax “policy.”

(h/t: Badger Blog)

There have been some posts a little while back about the Barry Obama/ Bill Ayers connection.

Well McCain is finally running an ad highlighting their closeness.

I’m waiting for some of you to go off on one of those “the depths republican’s will sink to to win an election” rants, but then again you clowns think ACORN and giving crap housing loans to people that had bad credit was a good idea.