Break out the ND flags and the tie-dyed t-shirts

What would happen if a brain-dead hippy from the "Ban The Bomb!" era got elected President?

PRAGUE – Just hours after North Korea launched a long-range rocket, President Barack Obama called for "a world without nuclear weapons" and said the United States has a “moral responsibility ” to lead the way, as the only nation ever to use them.

Obama’s speech was long planned as the centerpiece of his first presidential trip overseas, but it gained new urgency after North Korea sent a multi-part rocket soaring over the Sea of Japan early Sunday morning.

North Korea insisted the launch was meant to put a satellite into space but the U.S. and other nations believe Pyongyang is trying to develop the capability to launch a nuclear warhead.

The president, who was woken up just after 4:30 a.m. local time by news of the launch, spoke to the authoritarian state in remarks hastily added to his text.

Does Obama even watch or read the news? He didn't know the North Koreans have been planning to launch an ICBM and had to be woke up at 4:30 a.m. and add "remarks hastily" to his speech to make a comment about it? At least we know now what our Rookie President will do when confronted with an international crisis. Make a speech. Boy, that'll show 'em, won't it?

But don't miss the main point of the speech he had to hastily add remarks to about the North Korean ICBM: The U.S. is the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons, in Japan to end WWII, so therefore Obama extends his "Apologize to the World for the Mean Ol' US of A Tour" with this bit of ridiculous blather, "Ban the bomb, blah, blah, blah..." Wonder where wonder boy got the idea the U.S. did something wrong by saving the lives of millions of G.I.s who would have died in the invasion of Japan? Can't you just hear crazy ol' Uncle Jeremiah ranting and spitting?


Uncle Jimbo points out our Dear Leader also pulled out the stops and made a Youtube video to denounce North Korea's ICBM launch. Wow. He really knows how to roll out the heavy artillery with "soft diplomacy," don't he?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Anchoress updates on news you might have missed. Our wonderful Congress passed a national volunteer service act that prohibits worship services. Yep, that's what it says. She says "If this is correct, liberty is almost gone."

One of her commenters, AJ Strata, gives the nitty-gritty details of the dirty, rotten truth.

The Anchoress wished to know if there really were restrictions on personal religion in the bill - yes there are

`SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

“(a) Prohibited Activities.–A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
…
“(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.
Actually, the entire list is pretty damn oppressive:

“(1) Attempting to influence legislation.
“(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
“(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.
“(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.
“(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office.
“(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.

And there are more. Basically you have to give up all your constitutional rights.

And the Anchoress also adds this update on the Great Depression, brought to us by the friends of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Reps. Maxine Waters and Barney Frank & Co. and Sens. Barack Obama and Chris Dodd & Co.: Fannie and Freddie are giving out $210 Million in bonuses.

Will the last one out please turn off the lights? The party's over and it's time to go home.

The Two Congresspersons from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Hypocrisy, thy name is liberal Democrat Congresspersons. As in Barney Frank and Maxine Waters, the two members of Congress who had leading roles in creating and defending from all attempts at regulation the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac economic tsunami which has shredded our economy.

Frank and Waters tag-teamed as midwives to bring this "affordable housing" mess into being, bullying banks and lending institutions into offering mortgages to folks who were laughably unable to repay them. And guess what happened then? They couldn't repay their mortgages. Duh.

So far, Barney Frank is The Teflon Congressman who lies about his role in the mess and has the audacity of launching an investigation to determine the guilty culprits for the credit crisis.

But Maxine Waters has finally been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. No, not for her role in getting us into this mess, but for snagging $50 million of the bailout funds for the bank for which her husband has a quarter-million in stock and sits on the corporate board.

Michelle Malkin gives us a front-row seat at the Hypocrisy of Waters on display in Congress, when her big mouth even embarrassed Barney Frank, who I thought was unembarrassable:

At a flail-and-wail House hearing last month, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters melted down in front of big banking CEOs. "Raise your hand! Raise your hand!" she shrieked as she harangued the executives on their business practices and management of federal bailout money. Sneering at the "captains of the universe," whom she refused to address by name ("You, Bank of America!"), Waters excoriated the corporate heads for their greed. "All of my political life," Waters bragged, "I have been in disagreement with the banking and mostly financial services community because of practices that I have believed to be not in the best interest always of the very people that they claim to serve."

As you'll soon see, however, the ethically conflicted Waters has her own special definition of what's in "the best interest" of the people she claims to serve. While she crusades against crony pseudo-capitalism, she is one of its most hypocritical beneficiaries and advocates. Cronyism comes in all colors. Waters has once again earned her title as one of the "Most Corrupt" members of Congress from the left-leaning (yes, left-leaning) Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

The bank CEOs sat meekly during Waters' verbal flogging. But as she frothed at the mouth, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank covered the microphone and briefly chastised her. To no avail. Waters' motor mouth kept on running.

...Fast-forward a month later. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the high-and-mighty Waters had a personal and financial stake in Boston-based OneUnited, a minority bank that received $12 million in TARP money under smelly circumstances. The banks' executives donated $12,500 to her congressional campaigns. Her husband, Sidney Williams, was an investor in one of the banks that merged into OneUnited. They've profited handsomely from their relationship with the bank:

"Congressional financial-disclosure forms show Ms. Waters acquired OneUnited stock worth between $250,000 and $500,000 in March 2004, as did Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams joined the board of OneUnited that year.

"Each sold shares in September 2004 -- including Ms. Waters' entire stake -- but Mr. Williams continued to hold varying amount of the company's stock. In the lawmaker's most recent financial-disclosure form, dated May 2008 and covering the prior year, Ms. Waters reported that her husband held between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of the bank's stock.

"Mr. Williams also received interest payments from a separate holding at the bank, also worth between $250,000 and $500,000. The 2008 form doesn't specify what that is. Mr. Williams stepped down from the bank's board last spring. It couldn't be learned whether he still owns stock in the bank. Mr. Williams didn't return calls seeking comment.

It's good to know there's at least one newspaper not in the left's hip pocket, the Wall Street Journal.

When Freddie Met Fannie II: The Sequel opening nationwide

In the news today Barney Frank says he wants to push for prosecution of the people who caused the country's financial meltdown. Say what? The Congressman(?) from When Freddie Met Fannie wants to prosecute those who caused the current recession/depression? "The Great and Wonderful Wizard of Oz says pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

In other news, the Great and Wonderful Obamessiah says though we are now in the midst of the worst disaster of biblical proportions since the 10 plagues God visited upon Egypt, all will soon be brightness and bluebirds singing under his masterful leadership, as Jonah Goldberg reports.

But there's good news! According to his budget -- which he assures us is an "honest accounting" of our predicament -- the economy will shrink by only a measly 1.2 percent this year (it fell by a 6.2 percent annual rate in the final quarter of 2008) and then take off next year with 3.2 percent growth and soar for years to come.

So don't worry, be happy, Bwarney Fwank and the Obamessiah had absolutely nothing to do with the financial meltdown in their roles as the champions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to prove their innocence they are going to search every public golf course in the land to find the dastardly villains who brought this unspeakable evil upon us. Oh wait, that's O.J.'s job. Whatever.

The Congressman from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

I gotta say, Barney Frank has got more gall than a surgeon after a gall-bladder removal. The man who brought us the subprime mortgage crisis with his years of work for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, defending them in all attempts at regulation by Republicans and even President Clinton, now says "Vote for me! I'm working on the crisis." Please Barney, stop working immediately. Go home.

Here are some of Barney Frank's -- and his Democratic friends' -- attempts at "reform."

So, as the slick lawyer told the jury, "Who ya gonna believe, Barney Frank or your lying eyes and ears?"

Barney Frank promises to raise your taxes

Barney Frank, the Congressman who birthed and burped Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other assorted leftwing disasters, has got a plan to get us out of the mess he created: Raise taxes!

Keep the hits coming, Barney. With friends like you and Joe Biden, Obama don't need no enemies.

Obama & MSM playing the 'R' card threadbare?

CNN, believe it or not, has a video of Obama's bomb-throwing buddy Bill Ayers, developed working with National Review Online reporter Stanley Kurtz. Of course, it's racism to link Obama and Ayers.

Is the law of unintended consequences kicking in due to Obama and his enablers in the MSM playing their "R" card until it's threadbare?

Even Barney Frank is hollering "racism!" is behind revelations that he and his Democrat pals helped hatch the Fannie/Freddie meltdown. Last time I checked, Barney is fairly pale and most of the Democrats involved are, too, though there are a few not as pale as Barney.

I was shocked last night by something agreed upon by Fox News panel's pair of liberal twofers, Mora Liason and Juan Williams. They're twofers because they're not only the token liberals for the "fair and balanced" network, Mora fills the female slot and Juan the black slot.

Anyway, both agreed that McCain and Palin should be hammering Obama as much or more for the not-rev. Jeremiah Wright's outrageous anti-American rants as for "palling around" with bomb-throwing Bill Ayers of Chicago. They both reasoned that Bill's bomb-throwing days are in the distant past while Wright's "G-- D--- America!" shouts are still with us on youbute waiting to be replayed on the campaign trail.

Are Mora and Juan trying to set up McCain and Palin for the inevitable racism charges from the MSM if they bring up Wright, I wondered?

Or were they seriously honest? Has the racism card been played so often already in this campaign that its effectiveness had been lost? Why else would a black male liberal and a white female liberal, both NPR "experts," agree that connecting Wright to Obama is fair game?

Associated Press "Analysis" writer Douglass Daniel sees a "racially tinged subtext" in Palin's criticism of Obama's pal, bomb-throwing Bill.

But The Wall Street Journal points out the absurdity of seeing racism in mention of Ayers and his wife, bomb-thrower Bernadine Dohrn.

...Mr. and Mrs. Ayers are persons of pallor. What could possibly be racist about Palin's criticizing Obama for associating with a couple of despicable characters who are white? This question brings us into the weird world of Douglass Daniel's imagination.

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker has also noticed an excess of "one size fits all" flinging of racism charges and he quotes Patterico.

Patterico deftly skewers the ridiculous claims of racism made when Obama is criticized:

• It's racist to point out the connection between Barack Obama and a white man - who happens to be a terrorist.

• It's racist to point out the similarity between Barack Obama and two white women - who are famous for being celebrities.

• It's racist to point out the connection between Barack Obama and a black man - who happens to have run Fannie Mae.

• It's racist to point out the connection between Barack Obama and a black woman - who happens to be his wife, and who said she wasn't really proud of America until her husband was nominated.

Even better, Patterico tells the McCain campaign to wise up, and stop being afraid of being the target of the r-claim. The vast majority of voters understand the tyranny of phony racism claims, and resent them. They may be too afraid to tell pollsters so, but they have seen this sort of nonsense for decades. It is now time for McCain to tell the truth and face down those who racialize ordinary politics.

Like the little boy who cried "Wolf" a few too many times too often, sooner or later the racism card had to wear out. Consider R-Card Exhibit No. 2: O.J. finally went to jail. The glove fit and this time the jury did not acquit. Maybe McCain will trot out Crazy Uncle Jerry.

And maybe, just maybe, there's a method to what some on the right have called McCain's madness for not bringing up Jeremiah Wright.

Charlie Martin at American Thinker asks What if McCain knows what he's doing? Charlie sees a plan in Palin's "late" timing in targeting Ayers, and McCain finally hitting Obama and the Democrats involved in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Could Jeremiah Wright be next up to bat?

Meanwhile, the MSM "whitewash" of Ayers continues, as tonight's debate moderator Tom Brokaw calls modern Bill an "education reformer."

Sol Stern at The City Journal take a current look at what bomb-throwing Bill has been up to in recent times in his ivory tower of academia.

Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer. (If you find the metaphor strained, consider that Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times reporter covering the Soviet Union in the 1930s, did, in fact, depict Stalin as a great land reformer who created happy, productive collective farms.) For instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with President Hugo Chávez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.” Ayers concluded his speech by declaring that “Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education—a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation,” and then, as in days of old, raised his fist and chanted: “Viva Presidente Chávez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!”

As I have shown in previous articles in City Journal, Ayers’s school reform agenda focuses almost exclusively on the idea of teaching for “social justice” in the classroom. This has nothing to do with the social-justice ideals of the Sermon on the Mount or Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Rather, Ayers and his education school comrades are explicit about the need to indoctrinate public school children with the belief that America is a racist, militarist country and that the capitalist system is inherently unfair and oppressive. As a leader of this growing “reform” movement, Ayers was recently elected vice president for curriculum of the American Education Research Association, the nation’s largest organization of ed school professors and researchers.

If Ayers-style indoctrination of our public-school children is what Obama has in mind when he says "reform," that's far worse than bombs.

And surprise, surprise, guess what Obama says about his campaign kickoff in Ayers' Chicago home? "This is not the Bill Ayers that I knew."

Thomas Sowell is definitely not a "person of pallor," but since he's that rare creature, a black conservative, he knows a lot about racism.

Sowell and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are routinely called "Uncle Toms" by liberals, who are immune from racism charges.

Sowell blows away the "guilt by association" charges liberals and the MSM use to explain away the questionable characters around Obama.

Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just people who happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things you do. You choose allies deliberately for a reason. The kind of allies you choose says something about you.

Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers and Antoin Rezko are not just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as Barack Obama. They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years, and with some of whom some serious money changed hands.

Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama's election campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or the taxpayers' money to some of them. That is a familiar political alliance-- but an alliance is not just an "association" from being at the same place at the same time.

Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, time and again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of America. No amount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can change that.

So let's do a head count. We got a "black liberation" preacher, a white Catholic priest, a white terrorist-turned-"reformer" and a convicted Syrian-Chicago slum lord waiting for sentencing. Racism loop ain't wide enough for that bunch. But they all share a hatred of America.

BTW, speaking of Rezko, federal prosecutors have put off his sentencing because he is reportedly singing like a bird. Obama partisans have been hinting darkly about an "October surprise." I'll bet this is not what they have in mind. Sing Tony sing, sing a sad song about Obama.

BTW 2, like an "I hate America" triple play, James Lewis of American Thinker connects the dots from Obama to Ayers to Jeremiah Wright.

And in slightly hopeful news, two overnight polls show Obama's once double-digit lead over McCain has shrunk to 3. First CBS, now Zogby.

RightChange TV Ad on Freddie, Fannie and John McCain