Ruminations from around the web

Courtesy of Blackfive:

First, is this piece from a UK publication on n0bama's visit to Iraq from Uncle Jimbo. The comments on Blackfive should be read.

Second, Laughing Wolf has been keeping up with Georgia and has tons of links on this post.

Third, Matt says Michael J Totten has slipped into Georgia and advises us to keep an eye on MJ's blog.

Fourth, Frontline is looking for video from Afghanistan, specifically from the 173DABN for a documentary.

More On 0Bama

0bama's Communist Cover-up Continues
by Cliff Kincaid

In a surprising admission that could become a major scandal in the presidential race, Barack Obama's 40-page so-called "rebuttal" to Jerome Corsi's book, The Obama Nation, acknowledges for the first time that the senator once had a personal relationship with identified Communist Party USA (CPUSA) member Frank Marshall Davis, a key high-level operative in a Soviet-sponsored network in Hawaii. But the 40-page report, advertised and sold to the media as a refutation of Corsi's "lies," doesn't identify Davis as a hard-core communist and it dishonestly edits an article about Davis to eliminate references to his admitted involvement in CPUSA activities and make the black revolutionary writer and "poet" look like a civil rights activist. In fact, Davis was a secret CPUSA member who continued his involvement in the CPUSA or its front activities into the 1970s, when he became Barack Obama's mentor in Hawaii. Corsi's book devotes part of chapter three, "Black Rage, Drugs, and a Communist Mentor," to Davis. This official Obama campaign cover-up, which attempts to further mislead voters about Obama's mysterious and controversial background, occurs as serious questions are being raised about Obama's initial soft line toward the Russian invasion of Georgia. In his first statement on the crisis, Obama failed to directly condemn the Russian invasion. Obama "did not directly blame Russia" for the crisis, the New York Times acknowledged. (web site)

The Bear Is Still In The Woods
by Doug Patton

As Barack Obama continues to remind voters in those equivocal yet reassuring tones of his why he is completely unqualified to be president, John McCain shows why he should win this election by a landslide.
The contrast between the two men during the forum at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church was stunning. As usual, Obama was tentative, vague, stammered through his answers and was simply wrong on every issue. McCain was surprisingly quick, sure of himself and knew exactly what he believed - and why. When Obama was asked what he thought about the nature of evil in our time, instead of talking about terrorism, the invasion of Georgia or the danger of a nuclear suicide state in Iran, he rambled on about child abuse in America. Asked the same question, McCain immediately pointed to Islamic extremism and naked Russian aggression.
In view of that Russian aggression, as well as the other international minefields that will be waiting for the next occupant of the White House, the McCain campaign should give serious consideration to running the 1984 Ronald Reagan "bear in the woods" commercial (web site)
Here is a transcript of the simple but effective commercial: "There is a bear in the woods. For some people, the bear is easy to see. Others don't see it at all. Some people say the bear is tame. Others say it's vicious and dangerous. Since no one can really be sure who's right, isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear..."

A fatal misconception is the belief that evil can be reasoned with.

Car Keys and Learners' Permits

As usual, Senator Thompson nails it:

.....international terrorism; powerful nation states on a quest for hegemony, whether close to home or further afield and with a willingness to squelch freedom anytime the opportunity arises; less stable and no less dangerous countries with nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities; an alliance of democratic nations of questionable resolve and a debate at home over our future role in the world with a political party happy to create the impression of diminished resolve with little concern for the long term damage such an impression may cause.

Under these circumstances the old title “leader of the free world” takes on renewed meaning. He will have to guide the body politic at home toward resolution and in all likelihood engender resolve in a new alliance of democratic nations to deal with this broad array of challenges. In short it will require someone with experience and the courage to put his nation’s long term interest above his own.

I suppose it’s obvious where I’m going with this. This is no time to elect a president whose international experience is limited to speaking to adoring European crowds who want to see the United States retreat from the world … until they require our help in the next crisis that threatens them.

It has been instructive for the country to see the candidates’ reaction to the equivalent of Hillary Clinton’s 3 a.m. phone call.

While he was vacationing in Hawaii, Barack Obama’s advisors scrambled into action and initially came up with the expected liberal bromides which equated the actions of Russia and Georgia and only ratcheted up the rhetoric when they began to actually understand what was happening.

It wasn’t that difficult for John McCain. For him Georgia was another little-known part of the world, whose leaders and history he is familiar with. And long before this Georgian crisis, he’s had the correct read on Russia, just as he’s had the right read on what we needed to do in Iraq.

This crisis half a world away confirms what I’ve been saying for a while: This election cycle, the traffic in the world is very heavy …and dangerous; it’s no time to give a kid with barely a learner’s permit the keys to the car.

Good Post on Georgian Conflict

Usually our point of view is 180 degrees from Raising Kaine, but I have to direct you their post on the Georgian conflict that they reposted from Stratfor.

Outstanding.

Reality will now continue on its former, normal path.....