About Those "Different Learning Styles..."

Heather Mac Donald offers a lesson in Afrocentric education. Make that, miseducation, of the sort supported by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and eaten up by white liberals.

Money Q:

"This leveling argument recalls the bizarre doctrines of University of Pennsylvania law professor Regina Austin. In a widely reprinted California Law Review article from 1992, Austin asserted that the black community should embrace the criminals in its midst as a form of resistance to white oppression. People of color should view “hustling” as a “good middle ground between straightness and more extreme forms of lawbreaking.” Examples of hustling include “clerks in stores [who] cut their friends a break on merchandise, and pilfering employees [who] spread their contraband around the neighborhood.” It never occurs to Austin that these black thieves may have black employers who suffer the effects of black crime—as do the larger neighborhoods of which they form the essential fabric. Officially incorporating crime into the black identity, as Austin and Wright do, is a pathetic admission of defeat and marginalization."

Read the whole thing.

John McCain: Prisoner of War Hero

Karl Rove tells tales on John McCain. Congressional Medal of Honor winner Col. Bud Day recounts their time together in the Hanoi Hilton.

Read it and I dare you not to be impressed.

The Victim Mongering of the Rev and Obama

Ralph Peters gets the problem with the Rev just right.

Money Q:

"The sorrow and the pity of it all is that the Chicago pastor, who's reveling in his 15 minutes of fame, is only one of many demagogues in all races and creeds who foster cults of victimization around the globe.

"And nothing is more certain to keep those at the bottom down than self-appointed messiahs who assure them they'll always be victims."

Interestingly, Obama has a similar (though softer and more palatable) world view. Listen to his speeches and they're really about uniting the supposed victims of America.

Send me to Washington, he says, and I'll fix your problems. Put your faith in me and I'll save you from high gasoline prices, bad schools, xenophobic small-towners, greedy corporate CEOs. Or, at least in the case of the latter, I'll punish them for you.

A Modest Proposal

Today's print column is up. It's about a mom trying to get child support from the ultimate deadbeat dad.

Here's Spencerblog's suggestion: End parental rights for fathers who have not married the mothers of their children. Also end the legal responsibilities of fathers who have not married their children's mothers. Make it a completely voluntary system, worked out by the parties involved.

If it is a "woman's right to choose" whether or not to have a baby or kill it, it should be a man's right to choose whether or not to be a father to it and support it.

Such an approach will end the preverse incentive for young women to get pregnant outside of marriage, believing that the biological father can and will be forced to support their children.

What? You say. Young women get pregnant by mistake, not intentionally. You'd be surprised at the number of girls who get pregnant on purpose. In any case, sexual carelessness and promiscuity should not be subsidized.

Society should not positively incentivize the creation of single-parent families for they are the greatest predictor of failure in children to grow up whole and productive.

Across all race and class lines, it's kids who grow up in two-parent families who do the best in school and the best in life.

There are, of course, plenty of kids who do fine as the products of divorce or growing up in single family homes. Divorced parents who care about their kids will work hard and together to mitigate that tragedy. And divorced men should be required by law to financially support to the children that had while married.

But women who choose to have children out of wedlock would have to do so with the understanding they are on their own as far as the government is concerned. They will be at the mercy of their families and social networks they have and can build.

In Eve's case, she met and had a second child with another man, with whom she lives. Presumably he supports her, his son and the deadbeat's son. Good for her.

Is Spencerblog being cruel? No. Tough? Yes. Especially by today's standards. But at least it will make clear the daunting task of single parenthood for the one person who will be most responsible if they get pregnant and carry the baby to term.

There will, of course, still be plenty of charities, adoption agencies and other helpful civic organizations concerned about the welfare of children. Strong CYS departments will still be needed to investigate abuse and neglect cases and take children away from abusive or neglectful mothers or fathers.

Having a child is an act of heroism. Raising a child requires, patience, hard-work and sacrifice that is well-mitigated by the love a parent gets in return.

But mothers, fathers, children and worst of all FAMILIES, are not helped by a Domestic Relations system that pretends to work but doesn't.

There Will Be Whining

Robert Samuelson says "Start Drilling" and he's not talking about teeth. Those chompers of environmentalists will be set on edge by such a common sense suggestion.

Money Q:

Members of Congress complain loudly about high oil profits ($40.6 billion for ExxonMobil last year) but frustrate those companies from using those profits to explore and produce in the United States.

Nether Prov and the Rumor Mill

The death of a Nether Providence police officer has sent the local rumor mill into overdrive.

Typically, our policy at the Daily Times is not to report on such sad incidents out of respect for the privacy of the family.

This much can be said, almost all of the rumors we've heard have turned out not to be true. We have checked them out with reliable investigative sources and can find nothing to them.

It is true that police from other municipalities have been patroling Nether Providence over the weekend last. This is only because members of the Nether Prov's small department are understandably devastated. They asked for and received some time off. These other patrolmen, fellow police officers from neighboring communities, were merely covering for them on their own time.

Sgt. Tom Six was buried yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. The Nether Prov police should be back in full force today, though with heavy hearts. Our best wishes to them too.

Obama Lax on Potential Vote Fraud

And the hits (against Obama) just keep on coming.

This one, comes from the Supreme Court and liberal icon John Paul Stevens, who rejected arguments that Indiana's voter ID law was unconsitutional because it put to great a burden on voters.

Obama is a big supporter of ACORN, a far-left group well-known to register phony and illegal voters.

Obama's Bridge is Falling Down

Joe Katzman gets to the heart of Obama's problems. Actually, there is more than one.

Money Q:

Obama wants me to believe that a candidate who: (1) was utterly supine and silent for 20 years in his own church as racial hate was propagated by the pastor; (2) who refuses to condemn a prominent supporter and fundraiser for whom bombing American sites is still seen as a good thing, and (3) who has said not a single word on the campaign trail as his party heavyweights removed post-Abramoff earmark reforms... is a candidate who will stand up to Washington interests and change the way business is done. While helping get America past its racial issues, and healing its political divides. That a candidate talking up charter schools as part of the solution, who has received positive ratings from teachers unions for blocking them, is to be taken at face value.

50 bucks for that whole bridge, you say?

And there's more. Read the whole thing.

Why Not a Black Commander-in-Chief...

Spencerblog says: Thomas Sowell for President.

Here's why.

Jeremiah's Big Mouth is Killing Obama

Dana Milbank and a host of others are noticing the re-emergence of Jeremiah Wright at the National Press Club.

UPDATE: More of "The Wright Stuff." Commentary and video.

UPDATE II: This is why Hillary stayed in the race. The more Wright talks, the more it raises questions about what Obama was doing in his church for 20 years. And the better Hillary looks to Democratic Super Delegates who want to back a winner, not a loser.

UPDATE III: Wright says blacks and whites have different brains.

Obama had a white mother and black father. What sort of brain did that leave him?

UPDATE IV: Frank J. says Wright must love America to be doing what he is doing to Obama's chances to become president, that is to say, ruining them.

UPDATE V: "I served six years in the military," Barack Obama's longtime pastor said. "Does that make me patriotic?

Not necessarily. After all, Benedict Arnold served in the military too?

UPDATE VI: George Will gets a two-fer; a chance to expose Obama and slap McCain. He succeeds at both.

UPDATE VII: WaPo's Eugene Robinson says:

"Politically, by surfacing now, he was throwing Barack Obama under the bus.
Sadly, it's time for Obama to return the favor.

But I thought, he can no more disown him than he can the African American Community or his own white grandmother.

Cop: Who's run-over reverend is this?
Obama: Mine, Officer. My white grandmother threw him under that bus. Now, can I get back to eating my waffle?

Antonin the Magnificient

Here's a transcript of Antonin Scalia interview on 60 Minutes last night.

I was too busy watching the Sixers jump out to a 10-point first half lead against Detroit and then collapse in the second half to watch it live. But it's good stuff and a faster read than the video.

Early Money Q:

"It is an enduring Constitution that I want to defend," he says.

"But what you're saying is, let's try to figure out the mindset of people back 200 years ago? Right?" Stahl asks.

"Well, it isn't the mindset. It's what did the words mean to the people who ratified the Bill of Rights or who ratified the Constitution," Scalia says.

"As opposed to what people today think it means," Stahl asks.

"As opposed to what people today would like," Scalia says.

"But you do admit that values change? We do adapt. We move," Stahl asks.

"That's fine. And so do laws change. Because values change, legislatures abolish the death penalty, permit same-sex marriage if they want, abolish laws against homosexual conduct. That's how the change in a society occurs. Society doesn't change through a Constitution," Scalia argues.

Exactly.

House of Submission

Bruce Bawer warns of the Western culture's fear of confronting the Islamicist movement under its very nose.

Money Q:

"The key question for Westerners is: Do we love our freedoms as much as they hate them? Many free people, alas, have become so accustomed to freedom, and to the comfortable position of not having to stand up for it, that they’re incapable of defending it when it’s imperiled—or even, in many cases, of recognizing that it is imperiled. As for Muslims living in the West, surveys suggest that many of them, though not actively involved in jihad, are prepared to look on passively—and some, approvingly—while their coreligionists drag the Western world into the House of Submission."

By the way, Bawer is gay. He is not the only gay man in America who understands that radical Islam is a greater threat to basic civil rights than the average Republican but sometimes you have to wonder if he is.

Obama, Not So Much

Bill Kristol comes to bury Hillary and to praise her.

Money Q:

"On Friday in Indiana, Obama talked tough in response to a question: “I get pretty fed up with people questioning my patriotism.” And, he continued, “I am happy to have that debate with them any place, anytime.” He’s happy to have fantasy debates with unnamed people who are allegedly challenging his patriotism. But he’s not willing to have a real debate with the real person he’s competing against for the nomination."

Hooked on Hillary and Billy Budd

Some people get hooked on gambling. Not Joe Epstein. He's hooked on the Democratic Primary. He can't get enough of it and he is ashamed. I know just how he feels.

Money Q:

"Each morning I check the New York Times for new stories about Hillary and Bill Clinton's fresh feelings of betrayal, as more superdelegates depart their glorious cause. I also read for further accounts of bad company that Mr. Obama has kept. (Will he turn out to have lunched with Osama bin Laden in Sadr City in 1989?)"

Read it all.

"Dirigo, Ergo Sum"

George Will give McCain another shot to the solar plexus for his supporting political speech restrictions.

He suggests McCain take a trip to Park North, Colorado.

Ecos and Their Ethanol Slip

Mark Steyn on the dumbness of eco-warrioring "chickenfeedhawks".

Money Q:

"When you divert 28 percent of U.S. grain into fuel production, and when you artificially make its value as fuel higher than its value as food, why be surprised that you’ve suddenly got less to eat? Or, to be more precise, it’s not “you” who’s got less to eat but those starving peasants in distant lands you claim to care so much about."

A Win for Iraq

Victory in Basra. Democrats, look away

Swarthmore Chiropractor Update

Swarthmore and county police investigators are holding meetings for the victims of Hania Danko, the Swarthmore chiropractor who allegedly ripped off dozens of customers through unauthorized charges to their credit cards.

Swarthmore Police Chief Brian Craig says the meetings will be held May 1 and May 8 at the Swarthmore Borough hall at 7 p.m.

Investigators have already invited a dozen or so people to the meetings and are encouraging anyone else who might have had problems with Danko to attend.

A Nation At Risk

"If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. -- "A Nation At Risk" (1983)

George Will revisits Pat Moynihan's famous report on the state of education in America.

Money Q:

"Released quietly on the Fourth of July weekend, the report concluded that the qualities of the families from which children come to school matter much more than money as predictors of schools' effectiveness. The crucial common denominator of problems of race and class -- fractured families -- would have to be faced.

"But it wasn't. Instead, shopworn panaceas -- larger teacher salaries, smaller class sizes -- were pursued as colleges were reduced to offering remediation to freshmen."

Today, Democrats, like Barack Obama, offer the same shopworn panaceas more as a sop to teachers' unions than to improve educational outcomes.

The Waffler

WASHINGTON (AFP-EJP)—-Democratic White House contender Barack Obama could not hide his irritation Monday when asked by a reporter what he thought about former president Jimmy Carter’s meeting with Hamas last week.

“Why can’t I just eat my waffle?” the Illinois senator said as he ate breakfast in Scranton, Pennsylvania, according to MSNBC television pictures.

Pressed again for an answer, he replied: “Just let me eat my waffle.”

That, my friends, is a line that is going to stick.

More With Cliff Wilson

Good visit with Delco Democratic leader Cliff Wilson yesterday. My print column on Delco's lovable long-time loser can be found here.

A few things I left out.

Cliff said he thought an Obama-Bob Casey Jr. ticket would rock, except that they would be vulnerable to the charge of too much inexperience. Casey has only been a senator for two years. So he figures Obama will pick a female governor to run with.

That, of course, assumes Obama wins the nomination, which he will.

If the super delegates take it away from him and give it to Hillary at the convention, all hell will break loose. Obama is winning the black vote 92 to 8. If the nomination is handed to Hillary, a serious percentage of that vote will stay home come November. The Dems can't risk it. (That's what I say, not Cliff.)

Cliff said that McCain was the best candidate the Republicans could have nominated, in so far as he has the best chance of winning the White House in this environment.

Given that the last two standing Dems are both very flawed candidates, McCain has a real shot.

Cliff said it's a shame Chester's soccer stadium isn't up and built yet, Obama could have filled it. True, but then so could Beyonce. I don't see her winning elective office anytime soon.

Cliff also said he hates the primary and electoral college system. He thinks there should be a one-day national primary and easier ballot access for everyone. I don't disagree with him, but I haven't thought enough about it.

We talked about the "race" thing eliptically. I suggested Obama's big problem wasn't that he's black but that he's liberal. The first black person elected president in this country will be a moderate, if not a conservative. Same goes for the first woman.

Cliff suggested the same thing for the first Jew. He compared Lieberman, a very observant Jew to Rendell, who a lot of people don't even know is Jewish. Working against stereotypes works for politicians.

Locally, he said Dems can't run ideologically, but that even admitted liberals can win and stay in office if they provide the kind of constituent service Bryan Lentz and Joe Sestak are providing. I pointed out Greg Vitali has been doing it for years in Havertown.

He said the slate of county council Dems got beat last year because the Republicans were smart, ran new people and joined them at the hip. Besides being outspent, the Dems didn't run as a ticket (curse you, David Landau) and that helped ruined their chances.

As for his predictions: He guessed that Obama would win Delco and Philly but lose the state 53-47. I told him Obama would lose the state by 10.

Final figures: Hillary 55, Obama 45.

UPDATE: The headline on my column says "Wilson Excited..." Cliff Wilson doesn't get excited. He gets mildly and calmly enthused.

Leave Our Obama Alone

Dorothy Rabinowitz thinks the main stream press isn't doing Obama any favors by trying to protect him from tough questions.

Obamarama Wins Delco, Loses State

Spent some time with Delco Dem Leader Cliff Wilson today. Nice guy. Thoughtful.
He did a pretty good job calling the race. Read my print column tomorrow.

Ask What You Can Do for Obama

"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

So says Mrs. Obama.

Somehow "Ask not what your country can do for you..." sounded a lot less threatening.

On Barack's Chances in PA

"Hope," writes WaPo's E.J. Dionne, "usually beats the status quo."

Right. And then disappointment sets in.

The Gong Show

The NYT reports on politicians going on pop TV to promote themselves and their spouses.

Spencerblog happened to catch George Bush's appearance on "Deal or No Deal." (The Phillies game hadn't started yet.) In cheering on a decorated Iraq War vet, the president was self-deprecating and well-received. Other pols have been smart to do the same sort of thing. Expect more of it.

But when they start making appearances on "Flip This House" expect a backlash.

A Painful Truth

Rupert Murdoch pens a very sensible piece on the fraying of the NATO alliance.

Money Q:

"We must face up to a painful truth: Europe no longer has either the political will or social culture to support military engagements in defense of itself and its allies. However strong NATO may be on paper, this fact makes NATO weak in practice. It also means that reform will not come from within."

The supposedly right-wing Murdoch is a fan of Hillary Clinton's (He hosted a fundraiser for her back in 2006.) Which means, I guess, he's either crazy or she can't be all bad.

Celebrate Earth Day, Hate Greenpeace

Patrick Moore, founder of Greenpeace, celebrates Earth Day by bashing Greenpeace.

Money Q:

"Sadly, Greenpeace has evolved into an organization of extremism and politically motivated agendas."

And the left says the Bush Administration is anti-science.

Shields Mightier Than the Pen

My Sunday print column is up. It's about frequent Spencerblog poster C. Scott Shields, his lawsuit against Philadelphia for its new gun ordinance, and his giving Rutledge borough council president Greg Lebold heartburn.

There's Dither and Then There's Yon.

Michael Yon, the best reporter in Iraq, in a Q&A with National Review.

His book is climbing the charts on Amazon.com

Isn't This Sorta' Like Lying?

Obama leaves out a bunch in quoting John McCain on economics.

This is "The Politics of Hope... that people don't link to Youtube."

Be Happy, Buy a Gun

Sociologist Arthur Brooks reports that gun-toting Americans are the happiest Americans.

Makes sense. When you depend on others to defend and protect you, that's not a good feeling.

Peekaboo SEIU

The SEIU is supporting Barack Obama. You've probably seen their TV ads on his behalf. The powerful service workers union is run by Andy Stern.

Read more about him here.

PA's Primal Scream

Mike Barone explains Pennsylvania. Finally, we get to make some primary noise.

Stay Classy, Bill Maher

HBO host Bill Maher recently called Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi on his show. It is being reported that he has or will apologize.

For what? It's not like he called the pope a "nappy-headed ho."

Coot Beats Wife

News Item:

UPPER DARBY — A 92-year-old man who suspected his wife was cheating on him was arrested for repeatedly striking her with a metal cane after punching her in the face, police said.

I'm no fan of domestic abuse but you've to admire this guy's spunk.

Advice to his 45-year-old wife: Hit the old coot back.

Getting the Terrorist Vote

And this from Powerline's John Hinderaker:

Hamas endorsed Barack Obama for President on Sunday. Yesterday, after Hamas's endorsement was reported here and elsewhere, his campaign tried to distance Obama from the terrorist group:

"Senator Obama has repeatedly rejected and denounced the actions of Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of many innocents, that is dedicated to Israel's destruction," Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Left unaddressed by the campaign was what it is about Obama's policies that makes his candidacy so attractive to a leading terrorist organization. Here is one obvious possibility: Iran controls Hamas. Obama has said that as President, he would meet one-on-one with Iranian leaders, without preconditions. Perhaps Hamas's endorsement reflects Iran's pleasure at the prospect of an American President with whom the mullahs can do business.

The Great Debate

My print column on the big debate is up.

Swarthmore professor Mark Kuperberg is a good guest and a good sport. (Correction: It's "curriculum vitae," and his is impressive.)

But his complaints about the debate questions are, I think, less so. Both Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos asked tough ones, not so much policy based, but ones based on the candidates own statements, misstatements gaffes and questionable relationships.

Stephanopoulous asked a very interesting question Barack's relationship with Bill Ayers, the former 60's radical who says he still not sorry for planting bombs back during his days in the Weather Underground.

Obama tried to deflect the question by saying he can't be to blame for something somebody else did 40 years ago, when he was 8 years old. Furthermore, he suggested an equivalence between what Ayers DID and remains proud of and what his "friendly" acquaintance Sen. Tom Coburn SAID about believing that some abortionists should get the death penalty.

Pretty big difference there.

When Hillary jumped on Ayers being brought up and mentioned his statment to the NYT that appeared on Sept. 11, 2001, about not being sorry about his bombing days, Obama suggested she had no room to talk since her husband pardoned two members of the Weather Underground.

Hillary could have said it is one thing to pardon a criminal, it is another thing to go to their home for a political gathering and for them to throw you a coming-out party.

Obama fans are furious about the question and blame Stephanopoulos for even asking it. But some in the press have been trying to get Obama to answer it for some time. And he has refused.

Obama has complained that these sort of "guilt by association" questions are unfair. But his campaign and the Democrats in general, have played that game to the hilt. (How many times have they linked George Bush and Dick Cheney to the evil oil industry?)

I say if you want to know the candidates' policy positions go to their websites. But if you wanted to see how they handled tough questions about their judgement, mistakes and misstatements, Wednesday's debate was both informative and interesting.

Cebrian Was All Wet?

You'll recall this story about our County Councilman Jack Whelan and Gene Whelan. And how they disarmed a crazed man at a local drug store.

Here's an interesting note from people purporting to be "The Family of Cebrian Spence." I see no harm in posting it.

It says:

To: Mr. Gene & Jack Whelan

We would like to commend you for doing what the two of you did in that situation on March, 30, 2008. If the two of you did not intervene, it could have been worse. Cebrian has a drug problem. He (is) also homeless living in abandoned houses, but he's never hurt anyone other than himself. The drug called wet, which is embalming fluid sprayed on marijuana, caused him to go off like he did.

To: the Manager of the CVS

We would like to say that Cebrain Spencer and his family are very sorry for what happened. We have asked God to forgive him for what he has done to you. Cebrain is very remorseful and has asked for your forgiveness for his actions.

Thank you and may God bless you & your family

From: The Family of Cerbrian Spence

Sounds sincere to me, for what it's worth.

No Misquote, But a Misspell

Lower Chi Solicitor Frank Sbandi wrote it to suggest I misquoted him in Sunday's column concerning the township's new gun registration law.

I didn't. But I can see how he thinks I did.

So to clarify, Frank doesn't believe the ordinance he wrote is "illegal." Though it clearly is under the state's exemption law.

Frank didn't complain about me misspelling his name. But I did. Sorry about that Frank.

Banned in Aston

The Daily Times was banned from a press conference to announce where talented high school b-baller, Tyreke Evans, is going to go to play his semi-pro ball (i.e. college for a year.)

Apparently, the Evans family had a problem with this newspaper covering a Chester shooting incident in which Tyreke was the driver and dissing him by not naming him Delco Player of the Year.

My colleague over in sports, Terry Toohey, strikes just the right note between amusement, disgust and Who Cares!

"The Final Condescension"

Dan Henninger writes that when it comes to presidential politics the culture war is over, thanks to Obama's flubs and Hillary's needs.

And conservatives won.

Money Q:

"What's left of the rancid war are guerrillas in the Hollywood foothills, pot-shotting at Pat Robertson and other bogeymen. But at the big-league level of presidential politics, it's over. Say good-bye to the Michael Moore Mockathon. Say hello to the spirit in the sky."

New Town Center Follies

My print column on the Newtown Square Town Center project is up.

After covering this story for months, I'm convinced we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Let's Fly Away

Swarthmore native Holman Jenkins explains the unprofitability of the airline industry.

The problem: Even empty seats fly. The solution: Price fixing.

Read the whole thing.

Demagogueing Free Trade

Robert Samuelson explains that the Democrats are being idiots on free trade.

Money Q:

Almost everyone wishes for a renaissance of American manufacturing, and none have said so more louder than the Democratic presidential candidates and Democratic members of Congress. The trouble is that their deeds don't match their words. They have blamed trade for almost anything that might ail the U.S. economy -- in particular, manufacturing -- when the opposite is now true: only through expanded trade can the economy thrive and manufacturing stage a comeback.

Let's Go Nukes

Former Greenpeacenik Patrick Moore blasts the pop environmental movement.

Money Q:

Newsweek: Why do you favor nuclear energy over other non-carbon-based sources of energy?

Moore: Other than hydroelectric energy—which I also strongly support—nuclear is the only technology besides fossil fuels available as a large-scale continuous power source, and I mean one you can rely on to be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Wind and solar energy are intermittent and thus unreliable. How can you run hospitals and factories and schools and even a house on an electricity supply that disappears for three or four days at a time? Wind can play a minor role in reducing the amount of fossil fuels we use, because you can turn the fossil fuels off when the wind is blowing. And solar is completely ridiculous. The cost is so high—California's $3.2 billion in solar subsidies is all just going into Silicon Valley companies and consultants. It's ridiculous.

We Report, You Decide

WaPo's Dana Milbank suggests that Obama was somehow mistreated by the nation's newspaper editors the other day:

He wrote:

"So much for the liberal media.

"John McCain and Barack Obama both appeared before the nation's newspaper editors yesterday. The putative Republican presidential nominee was given a box of doughnuts and a standing ovation. The likely Democratic nominee was likened to a terrorist.

"At a luncheon for the editors hosted by the Associated Press, AP Chairman Dean Singleton quizzed Obama about whether he would send more troops to Afghanistan, where "Obama bin Laden is still at large?"

"I think that was Osama bin Laden," the candidate answered.

"If I did that, I'm so sorry!" Singleton said.

"This," Obama told the editors, is "part of the exercise that I've been going through over the last 15 months."

Milbank quips: "Bitter, are we?"

Maybe this is Milbank's idea of a joke. But I watched the snippet provided by Fox News. Not only did Obama handle the gaffe by Singleton with grace and humor, the newspaper editors laughed and applauded his reply. Especially after he added (I'm quoting from memory) "It's amazing I'm still standing here."

There wasn't a bit of bitterness in Obama's tone. He was very good and the newspaper editors appreciated it. Maybe Milbank was seated too far away from the action.

The Bio-Fuel Fiasco

Turns out that mandating Ethanol in gasoline causes food prices to rise, doesn't make fuel any cheaper and doesn't reduce our carbon footprint.

Liberals have hit a Trifecta!

Oil Execs v. Public School Teachers

Barack Obama wants to "penalize" oil companies for benefitting from the high price of gasoline.

Anyone for increasing taxes on public school teachers?

Afterall, the cost of education has risen faster in the last 20 years than gas.

Obama's solution: Pay teachers more.

Newtown Square Dance

Here's an update from Kenn Stark on the rift between BPG and Newtown Square officials concerning the Town Center proposal.

I went to the meeting last night and it will be the subject my print column tomorrow.

This much is clear: a game of chicken is being played and the trash talking is heating up.

More tomorrow.

Politics is Not Pretty

Writing about Obama's small-town Pennsylvania gaffe, Democratic stategist Ed Kilgore characterizes Obama's conservative critics as "hysterical." Funny that, given George Will is one such critic. Will would be sanguine about a Martian invasion.

"The one thing we know for sure is that the Right's reaction is providing a full-on sneak preview of its strategy to defeat Obama if he is the Democratic nominee," Kilgore writes. "And it ain't pretty."

Hard to imagine it will be any uglier than the 2000 NAACP ad comparing George Bush's position on hate-crime legislation to the lynching of James Byrd.

UPDATE: Here's Will's "hysterical" reaction. You be the judge.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Thomas Sowell recall a lefty kindred spirit and his opinion of the lower middle class:

Fabian socialist George Bernard Shaw included the working class among the "detestable" people who "have no right to live." He added: "I should despair if I did not know that they will all die presently, and that there is no need on earth why they should be replaced by people like themselves."

UPDATE III: Frank J. says, "When Spiderman is bitter, he clings to walls."

Superheroes are not going think that is very funny. OK, maybe the ones at D.C. but not Marvel.

Kristol Has a Ball with Obama

Obama lobs one in and Billy Kristol hits it out of the park.

Money Q:

What does this mean for Obama’s presidential prospects? He’s disdainful of small-town America — one might say, of bourgeois America. He’s usually good at disguising this. But in San Francisco the mask slipped. And it’s not so easy to get elected by a citizenry you patronize.

And what are the grounds for his supercilious disdain? If he were a war hero, if he had a career of remarkable civic achievement or public service — then he could perhaps be excused an unattractive but in a sense understandable hauteur. But what has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans?

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus' analysis is pretty good too.

Bad News in Newtown Square

A colleague reports that the Town Center project in Newtown Square has jumped the tracks and is barreling toward a cement wall.

A meeting, planned to roll out the details of months of negotiations has been cancelled by township offiicals for no good or legitmate reason. Fed up, BPG officials, say they're re-activating their alternative "by-right" plan that would land a big-box store and strip mall in the center of Newtown.

I understand there is a township supervisors meeting tonight. Could be very interesting. I think I'll stop by.

Obama Puts His Foot in It

Speaking at a San Francisco fundraiser, Obama said:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Yes, Pennsylvania's small-town voters are pretty much like children aren't they? They get frustrated by a world they don't understand and cling to their superstitions and prejudices.

No doubt San Francisco Democrats think of them that way -- backward, small-town rubes who don't know any better.

Such pronouncements should serve Obama well in California. But small-town Pennsylvanians aren't so stupid as not to understand when they are being insulted.

The Keys to Understanding

Singer Alicia Keys tells Blender mag that gangsta' rap was invented to get black people to kill each other.

And she wears a replica of an AK-47 to symbolize... oh, you figure it out.

Rigor Mortis at the Coroner's Office

My print column on our slow poke Medical Examiner is up.

After watching Fredric Hellman at his press conference I've concluded that he is stiffer than some of his subjects.

His predecessor, Dimitri Contostavlos, could at least offer an opinion that didn't sound like it was coming from a cadaver.

Bomb Plot? We've Got an Election to Win.

Dan Henninger wonders if the presidential campaign would be different today...

"...if in August 2006 seven airliners had taken off from Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport, bound for the U.S. and Canada and each carrying about 250 passengers, and then blew up over the Atlantic Ocean?"

For the Democrats, the answer is no. It would still be all George Bush's fault.

Yon: The War is Being Won

Michael Yon has been covering the Iraq war more closely and longer than just about anyone. He says we are winning it.

Money Q:

As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda's brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.

Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.

Read the whole thing.

You're Outta' the Navy Now

A Navy Lt. Commander admits working for the D.C. Madam as a call girl.

Just another example of how a military mistreats our veterans. If she had paid a decent wage with suitable benefits she wouldn't have had to sell her body to make ends meet.

"Boston Legal" just aired or re-aired an episode that justified a bi-polar Vietnam Veteran killing and eating a seal because of how this nation mistreats it's crazy veterans. If hunting and killing for seal meat can be justified, certainly whoring can.