by Alex Gimarc                                Mon., April 21, 2008

Interesting Items 4/21 -

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -

In this issue:

1. Dirty Trick
2. Obama
3. Mugabe
4. Tibet
5. Sadr
6. Franken

1. Dirty Trick. Came across an interesting description of the technique behind the recording and release of Obama’s SF talk on bitter, gun toting, Bible-thumping Americans. The writer, probably from Red State drew a parallel with the dirty trick done by the Webb campaign against Senator George Allen (R, CA) in 2006, which they followed him around 24/7 with a video camera recording everything he did and said – essentially stalking him – until they got something that they could use. In Allen’s case, it was the name calling, which the Webb campaign and the Washington Post used as the campaign for months after the incident. With Obama, a blogger from the Huffington Post has been stalking him 24/7. Although he didn’t have video available, he did manage to get the audio, which the Clinton campaign has turned into a large caliber weapon to destroy both Obama and his campaign. The writer of the article believes that both events are essentially dirty tricks straight out of the James Carville / Clinton playbook, and are the harbingers for campaigns to come. The technique is pretty simple: Stalk your target. Record everything they do and say. Then sift through what is said until you find something that you can use to personally destroy your target – macaca in the case of Allen and bitter in the case of Obama. It is difficult for any candidate to stay sufficiently disciplined 24/7 and not commit a gaffe. Make no mistake. This Obama recording was specifically targeted; an intentional attack; and given that it appears to be successful, we will see a lot more of it in the future. I regret that I did not copy down the blog article when I ran across it, and am unable to find it again.

2. Obama. Meanwhile, Senator Barack Hussein Obama had yet another very bad week on the run-up to the Pennsylvania primary. Not only was his elitist condescension against middle America caught in audio, but when pressed, he st arted whining about it. This is not to say that Hillary is not also filed to the eyebrows with elitist condescension, as she is. Unlike Obama, she is sufficiently disciplined not to get caught (so far). Polling leading up to the primary was all over the map, with media pushing whatever set of bogus polling results that suited the needs and interests of their candidates the best. At this point, I believe that Senator Clinton is ahead in PA, but may not win the resounding victory that she so desperately needs. Finally, it appears that the media love affair with Obama has cracked a bit, as the last debate moderated by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos was not the standard set of softball questions. Both candidates were actually asked tough questions and both nicely fouled off the answers. Obama came into the debate with the highest expectations and he ended up looking the worst. Afterwards, the hard left went after ABC news and the two moderators as Republican shills. Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos continues.

3. Mugabe. Not a lot of news to report from Zimbabwe’s stolen election last week. The South African President Mbeki, who has been a long time Mugabe apologist, was put on his heels by the newly elected Zimbabwean opposition. In a related story a boatload of ChiCom weapons bound for Zimbabwe and Mugabe’s forces was turned around by South African longshoremen who refused to unload it. It left port bound for Angola. Once again, the ChiComs choose to coddle dictators, deal in death, and misery. Appears they are not yet ready for prime time.

4. Tibet. Big Lizards took a close look into the use of ChiCom agent provocateurs in their public relations war in Tibet. The ChiCom media released a photo of a young woman in a wheelchair being accosted by pro-liberty protestors in Tibet. The photo was accompanied by all the usual breathless words about the evil and he artlessness of the pro-liberty protestors. Upon further review, the same lady, dressed in the same manner, was photographed earlier in the day working with pro-ChiCom forces in Tibet. It appears that the ChiComs are doing everything possible to turn public opinion in favor of their crackdown in Tibet. Dr. Jack Wheeler in an article last week got into a discussion of face and the problems the ChiComs are going to have with the Olympics. More importantly, he speculated on what was going to happen when the Olympics turned into a public relations disaster for them. The ChiComs have a problem, as they already have Tibet acting up. People worldwide are protesting the Olympic torch in large numbers. World leaders are st arting to talk about boycotting the opening ceremonies. This Olympics was supposed to be the ChiCom’s coming out p arty – where they joined the brotherhood of nations. It is all about face. When the whole thing blows up and they get publicly embarrassed and humiliated, the ChiCom government will turn their anger elsewhere. Wheeler expects that anger to be directed at the US, closely followed by an attempt to re-annex Taiwan. Rather than fight them directly on this, it is up to the US to turn the tables on the ChiCom government, pointing out to the world that the problems are all of their own making, and that their solution is to force them to clean up their act internally rather than changing the subject and going after a pair of externally manufactured targets.

5. Sadr. The Iraqi Army took off the gloves and went after Shiite militias in Basra and Baghdad over the last couple of weeks. The Basra operations were the first major assault on Iranian-backed Shiite militias in a region of Iraq left by the British. The Brits didn’t do a real good job of clearing out the bad guys and the Iranians, working closely with the existing Shiite militias and tribal leaders took the opportunity to establish a beachhead inside Iraq. All of that ended st arting a couple weeks ago. The initial reports of action by the Iraqi Army was not encouraging, as around 1,300 active duty soldiers were removed from active duty for refusing to take up arms against their fellow Shiites. However, the remaining troops did a superb job and with the backing of the American military in the area, cleaned up Basra and reestablished government control in the area. The Iranians and their sympathizers did not take the loss very well. And western media reported this as a huge military los for the Iraqi government and their new military. Next up to bat was Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Militia in Sadr City, a slum in Baghdad itself. As usual, al Sadr ran away to Iran to hide, leading his military leaders to oppose the Iraqi Army. This engagement went very well, with the Mahdi Army being decimated as a fighting force in Baghdad. Secretary of State Rice ridiculed al Sadr as a coward over the weekend, with a line that seemed nicely delivered in an attempt to flush al Sadr out of Iran and into the hands of the Iraqi government. We are well on our way to establishing a strong, stable, democratic government in Iraq, one that will be able to hold its own in a very, very nasty neighborhood. Congratulations to all involved.

6. Democrat candidate for the US Senate Al Franken apparently has a problem with money and paying his taxes. Michelle Malkin wrote Friday that Franken finally admitted to failing to pay workers compensation payments to the state of NY for people who worked for him for nearly three years. Franken was fined $25,000 for the failure and ignored the fine for a couple of years. He just got around to paying it earlier this year. PowerLine reported Thursday that Franken was also in trouble with the state of California for failing to file corporate tax returns for the period from 2003 – 2007. Franken has a real chance to oust incumbent Norm Coleman (R, MN) from the US Senate. Should he do so, he will become yet another in long line of democrat candidates and incumbents that believe the law only applies to you and I and never to him. We will hope that the voters of MN do the right thing and not install this lying, cheating fraud in the US Senate – where they are already over-represented.

More later –

           - AG

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.