Marathon Pundit

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

O-bomb-a of a speech

Giving what his staffers were billing as a major speech, Sen. Barack Obama spoke this morning at the DePaul University Student Activities Center on the school's Lincoln Park campus. He told the audience, and the world, including I guess Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that he wants to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

I'm sure if we ditch all of our nukes, the bad guys won't want to acquire them because we'd be so nice.

Astute Marathon Pundit readers (aren't they all?) will recognize the site of Obama's speech. The DePaul SAC is the same place where Ward Churchill emitted his insane thoughts two Octobers ago.

The Opinion Journal hits Obama with a stinging string of logic:

"Senator Barack Obama will propose on Tuesday setting a goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world, saying the United States should greatly reduce its stockpiles to lower the threat of nuclear terrorism," the New York Times reports.

This is the latest evidence that this guy just isn't serious. How would cutting back American nukes reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism? Doesn't the Non-Proliferation Treaty already prohibit all but eight or so countries from getting nukes? And isn't the real problem that rogue states that are NPT signatories like North Korea and Iran have or are seeking nukes in violation of their treaty obligations? How does Obama plan on getting Pyongyang and Tehran to give up their nukes? Here's how:

In his speech, according to a campaign briefing paper, Mr. Obama also will call for using a combination of diplomacy and pressure to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Aides did not say what Mr. Obama intended to do if diplomacy and sanctions failed.

"A combination of diplomacy and pressure." It's the audacity of hope! But didn't someone once say hope is not a plan?

Hey, it could've been worse for Obama. He'd didn't propose naming Todd Stroger his Treasury Secretary.

And as long as we're on the subject of crazy DePaul, the Reinstate Professor Thomas Klocek at DePaul petition needs just 21 more signatures to reach its goal of 2000.

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Obama

politics

What's the Matter with California?

Author and radio host Jack Cashill is asking that question. And FrontPage Magazine asked him about his new book, What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking

Says Cashill:

A few years back, Thomas Frank wrote a bestseller called What's the Matter with Kansas?, a soft-core Marxist hit on red state America. I felt both slimed and honoured -- and more than a little surprised -- to be profiled in the book, especially given that I was born and raised in New Jersey and live and work in Missouri.

The Frank book inspired a whole swarm of smarmy know-it-all writers and filmmakers from either coast to interview me and my Kansas buddies.

I decided to return the favor and turn a provincial eye on the progressive guy. I chose his natural habitat -- that coal miner’s canary of progressive Americana, California, which is much more fun to visit than Kansas. For the record, I have a Ph.D. in American studies.

And for the record, I had a good time in Kansas in July, scroll down a couple of posts to see what I mean.

Related posts:

In search of the real El Dorado, Kansas

Marathon Pundit Exclusive: "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Debunked on Page One: UPDATED AGAIN

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Obama 2002 anti-war stance not so risky

The Barack Obama camp, still silent on Cook County's stalled-for-now attempt to enact the nation's highest sales tax--scroll down for Obama's tie-in to that mess--is making a big deal about today being the fifth anniversary of an Obama anti-war speech made at a downtown Chicago rally.

In the Democratic debates I've watched, Obama always makes a point, in a dig at Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, that he's always been an opponent of the war in Iraq. Last week at one of those debates, Obama remarked, "And I was risking my political career because I was in the middle of a U.S. Senate race."

Really? Obama was a state senator representing Hyde Park, a very liberal part of a very Democratic city. Jennifer Hunter, in her Chicago Sun-Times column, offers more:

It's hard to believe that in true blue Illinois, Obama would have been put at great political risk by his outspoken stance on the war, even though there was, at the time, majority (see Republican) support for Bush's endeavor. Obama made his Federal Plaza speech before he officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

His opposition to the war never even became a major campaign issue. In fact, Obama underscored his stance during a February 2004 debate in which he tried to score points by accusing a primary rival of not speaking out against the war.

He may not like to admit it but Obama is essentially an ambitious pragmatist -- as his decision to invoke his 2002 speech on its anniversary today underlines.

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Goldenrod in Morton Grove

Of the wildflowers of the late summer and early fall, goldenrod is a familiar one in the Midwest. What I'm not used to seeing is one so close to home, in a field two block from my home in Morton Grove adjacent to Interstate 94.

The fall colors are beginning to emerge here, I'll have a photo or two in the next few weeks.

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Monday, October 01, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: Abilene

Had Abilene, Kansas not been the hometown of Dwight D. Eisenhower, it would be mainly remembered as the terminus of the Chisolm Trail. Abilene is located, perhaps not coincidentally, just south of Interstate 70, part of the highway system that President Eisenhower felt was needed based on his participation in a nightmarish 1919 cross country army caravan, as well as his experience traveling on the German autobahns after World War II.

Abilene has its own classic small town main street, as you can see on the right. Although I didn't see one of those classic Kansas courthouses--Abilene is the seat of Dickinson County--the town is blessed with one of the finest Victorian homes in the Midwest, the Lebold Mansion, another Kansas entry in the National Register of Historical Places. Like the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, the Lebold Mansion was built with Kansas limestone.