Biden Chosen as Obama's VP Running Mate

Cross posted from Spree's WUA.

After stringing out the news for as long as he could, Barack Obama finally sent the messages that everyone was waiting for that announced Joe Biden as his running mate, but it was too late and very anti-climatic because the news had already filtered through that a secret service detail had been dispatched to Joe Biden's house to protect the Barack Obama choice as a running mate.

The announcement, via email, when it finally came through said:

I have some important news that I want to make official.

I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.

Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.

I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change.

Please let Joe know that you're glad he's part of our team. Share your personal welcome note and we'll make sure he gets it:

http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe

Thanks for your support,

Barack

P.S. -- Make sure to turn on your TV at 2:00 p.m. Central Time to join us or watch online at http://www.BarackObama.com.

As I predicted yesterday when writing about the secret service being dispatched to Biden's residence, examples of Joe Biden's words about Barack Obama's inexperience, said during the Democratic primaries, is already being used to remind people exactly what Biden said.

Via Hot Air:

John McCain. At 6:06 am ET this morning, Team McCain sent out its newest television spot, welcoming Joe Biden to the race — and reminding voters what Biden thought about Barack Obama just a few months ago:

YouTube URL for video here.

Text of the new ad:

ANNCR: What does Barack Obama’s running mate say about Barack Obama?

ABC’S GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You were asked, “Is he ready?” You said, “I think he can be ready but right now, I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

JOE BIDEN: I think that I stand by the statement.

ANNCR: And what does he say about John McCain?

BIDEN: I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off.

This was expected and now Obama has a strong running mate that will publicly be seen in ad after ad saying he is not ready and that he would would be "honored" to run with or against McCain.

More from NYT, AP, Wapo's The Fix, and The Politico.

[Update] Andrew Malcolm from Top of the Ticket has the quote of the say:

Boom-Boom. Obama picks Biden; GOP picks Biden to hit Obama

Now that is funny.

Also found at Spree's is this little gem;

Blast From The Past: Joe Biden On Experience In The White House in 1988

Media Bias: New York Times Refuses To Run John McCain Article

Cross posted from Assoluta Tranquillita. HT to Spree at Wake Up America.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Drudge is reporting that the New York Times is refusing to run an article about Iraq written by John McCain, to counter the article they willingly ran for Barack Obama.

In a previous piece we showed how a plurality of Americans believe that reporters and the media are trying to actively help Barack Obama win the November elections.

The New York Times has just proven they are one of these outlets that America believes this about.

According to an email that NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley sent the McCain campaign, he states, "It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece. To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq."

So begins a post up on Wake Up America. None of us are ever surprised at the bias shown by the msm towards all matters relating to our troops, but this one is so blatant. However, never fear, the blogs are on it. The NY Times may not want the public to know what Senator McCain has written, but Wake Up America (and others) are printing it for wide circulation. Just as the NY Times is quite within their rights to decide what they will not print, so are we bloggers within our rights to choose what we WILL print.

Senator McCain's piece begins:

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation “hard” but not “hopeless.” Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there,” he said on January 10, 2007. “In fact, I think it will do the reverse."

Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that “our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence.” But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.

Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, “Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress.” Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City—actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.

Courtesy of Drudge Report, via Wake Up America, you can read
the whole thing here. Check it out.

WE don't need the NY Times.

Vets For Freedom: "Four Months, For Victory"

HT to Spree at Wake Up America.

Vets for Freedom has launched our "Four Months, For Victory" media and grassroots campaign. The effort will last for the next four months, and will culminate on Veterans Day (November 11). The campaign is intended to inform the American public, and key lawmakers, about the undeniable success that our troops have achieved as a result of the surge, and the importance of ensuring victory in Iraq, Afghanistan and the overall Global War on Terrorism.

Below are the first two video's released July 06, 2008 and July 16, 2008 respectively.

Tony Snow Dies at 53, From Cancer

Cross posted from Spree's Wake Up America.

Former Bush administration White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow, succumbs to his battle with cancer and died on Saturday at 2 am in the Georgetown University Hospital in Washington.

Robert Anthony Snow was born June 1, 1955, in Berea, Ky., the son of a teacher and nurse. He graduated from Davidson College in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy, and he taught briefly in Kenya before embarking on his journalism career.

Because of his love for writing, Snow took a job as an editorial writer for the Greensboro Record in North Carolina and went on to run the editorial pages at the Newport News (Virginia) Daily Press, Detroit News and Washington Times. He became a nationally syndicated columnist, and in 1991 he became director of speechwriting for President George H.W. Bush.

Tony Snow had been a longtime Fox News television host and radio personality, starting in 1996 as the original anchor for Fox News Sunday and hosting Weekend Live as well as having The Tony Snow Show before leaving the job in 2006 to become the White House Press Secretary.

17 months into his job, Snow received the bad news that his cancer had returned, despite having his colon removed in 2005 and going through six months of chemotherapy. In 2007, he was informed the cancer had spread to his liver and he had a cancerous growth removed from his stomach area.

In September 2007, Snow resigned from his job of Press Secretary, citing financial reasons, although many speculated that it was for health reasons and he hand the reigns of his job over to Dana Perino.

Earlier this year, after recuperating from having the growth removed, he joined CNN as a political commentator .

President Bush issued a statement regarding Snow's passing which said, "Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of our dear friend Tony Snow. The Snow family has lost a beloved husband and father. And America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character."

Honor Killing: Welcome To Islam

Pakistani Man in Georgia Strangles Daughter For Rejecting Arranged Marriage

HT to Spree at Wake Up America.

Unacceptable.

Chaudhry Rashid was brought to court which was presided over by Chief Judge Daphne Walker at the Clayton County Magistrate Court, where he was arraigned on a murder charge for strangling his 25-year-old daughter because she wanted out of an arranged marriage with a man she hadn't seen in months.

His reason for killing his own daughter?

She disgraced the family.

Right here in the good ole United States of America we are seeing honor killings.

The 25-year-old victim, Sandeela Kanwal, was wed in Pakistan in an arranged marriage. Police said Kanwal hadn't seen her husband, who lives in Chicago, for months.

According to police, there was "friction between father and victim" in the weeks leading up to the killing. Rashid had not spoken to his daughter in more than two months.

Police said Rashid was so angered that his daughter planned to divorce her husband that he killed her after a heated argument at the family's home, FOX News affiliate MyFoxAtlanta reported.

Police who arrived at the scene said they found Rashid's two sons at the end of the driveway and their father sitting behind a car smoking a cigarette. Officers said that Rashid appeared "distraught and possibly mournful" and told police "my daughter is dead" when they arrived.

After entering the home, Kanwal's body was discovered in the doorway of a bedroom, cold to the touch, officials said.

He reportedly confessed to the killing after being brought to the police station.

He will be back in court Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. His bond hearing is scheduled for July 25 at 8 a.m., with a preliminary hearing July 24.

The wife of Chaudhry Rashid, Gina Rashid said she had been in bed, asked her husband to open some windows and turn on the fan, went back to sleep and woke up to hear screaming. she left the house and called 911.

According to ABC:

M. Siddique, director of the Pakistani American Community of Atlanta, did not immediately return a phone call from ABC News for comment. Shahid Malik, a member of the organization, told ABC News' Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV that the young woman and father were both suffering from depression.

The book needs to be thrown at this man and others need to understand that murder is unacceptable and in America, a woman has the choice if she wishes to get married OR wishes to leave a marriage for any reason.

How do you murder your own child?

Mexican Human Traffickers Behead Young Girl in Florida For Resisting Rape

HT to Spree at Wake Up America and to Norman Hooben.

One has to wonder why this hasn't been reported by the major news outlets, why outrage hasn't been expressed, and why it took a blogger to bring the Florida House of Representatives -State Affairs Committee video segment to our attention?

The YouTube video above is a portion of the original public record which is linked below and the part in the video above can be found 2 hours 18 minutes and 20 seconds in to this video of the State Affairs Committee, in the Florida House of Representatives, discussing immigration legislation on April 8, 2008. (You can fast forward to the appropriate time mark)

This was public testimony on House bill 287g and at the time mentioned above, Bill Stewart, Deputy Chief of Staff for Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, steps up to the microphone and is given 90 seconds to speak and the excerpt below is part of his public statement.

Excerpt:

It is impossible to separate national security issues from illegal immigration, and one of the most important illegal immigration issues in Florida is the issue of human trafficking".

I think one of the most predominant ones, or issue of most important to the state of Florida is the issue of human trafficking.

Florida is the number one state in the nation for human trafficking.

And I will just leave you with a recent story that occurred in the panhandle.

There were several girls that were trafficked into the panhandle from Mexico. These girls were raped repeatedly over a week’s period of time, and one of them actually resisted while she was being raped.

So the smugglers grabbed all of these girls, chained them in chairs, and put them in a room. They brought in the girl who refused to be raped, and they beheaded her, in front of all of the other girls that were in that room. And they left them there, with her body, and those little girls, for several hours...

This is the reality, of dangerous criminal aliens, in our state, and what happens. They do not care about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What they care about is money, and people are merely an avenue to get them to their needs."

This was reported on by HyScience, a blogger.

A search on google news for this story brings up nothing from major news papers which begs the question of why?

Back in 2004, CNN reported that Florida was one of the top three destinations for human traffickers, along with New York and Texas, according to the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University.

There are arrests and indictments on a regular basis in Florida, such as on May 8, 2008 when the Department of Justice issued a news release about a man pleading guilty to charges of human trafficking and alien smuggling.

That man, Cadena-Sosa, conspired with his family and smuggled women and girls into the United States and forced them to work in brothels with intimidation, violence, and threats of physical harm, until the "smuggling debt" had been paid off.

Human trafficking is nothing new to Florida but when a young girl is brought to the United States of America, raped and beheaded in front of other girls...is this not news worthy?

Is her life and death just being casually ignored or did this somehow slip through the cracks of journalism?Is anyone paying attention anymore?

(Thanks to Norman for the email)

[Update] The fact that I cannot find this incident reported in any news media outlet kept bothering me, so I have sent the Attorney General of Florida, Bill McCollum, an email asking for a few questins about the incident his Deputy Chief of Staff spoke about.

Email:

Attorney General Bill McCollum,

I am writing to request some information on an incident that your Deputy Chief of Staff, spoke about at a meeting of the State Affairs Committee, in the Florida House of Representatives, discussing immigration legislation on April 8, 2008.

In his statement which I have just recent wrote about and watched the video of, he describes an incident he refers to as "recent" where a young girl was smuggled into the panhandle of Florida and after resisting rape, was then beheaded in front of other girls as an example.

I am writing to request the date this happened and why it hasn't been reported in the major news organizations as of yet.

I would also like to get the answers to a few questions about the incident, for the record, if at all possible.

1. Was anybody arrested in relation to this case?

2. How did your office become aware of the crime?

3. Why has there been no coverage in the media?

I thank you for your time and hopefully the information asked for.

Respectfully,Susan Duclos

Lets see if he answers. It was worth a shot.

Kansas Group Still Spewing Hatred

It has been a while since I've posted about the group who gained their fame by protesting at funerals of fallen hero military personnel here, here, here, here, and here.

Many times, it's better to ignore certain elements of society, but as a Christian leader, I feel it is important to point out when people falsely use Christianity to further their disgusting behavior, and this group (who I will refuse from this point forward to refer to as a church) qualifies at that.

Many of you know that actor Heath Ledger passed away earlier this week of an apparent overdose. Personally, I know very little of this actor from Australia. I know that my wife and two daughters all reacted with shock and sadness as they are the movoe buffs in the family.

What, might you say, does Heath Ledger have to do with the Westboro people? Well in their "infinite wisdom" this group of biggoted, hate-spewing people are going to protest the memorial service for Ledger, because he "played" a homosexual character in the movie "Brokeback Mountain".

Now before anyone decides that this Conservative Minister is promoting the homosexual lifestyle, let me stop you right there - I believe that the act of sexual relations between people of the same sex is a sin! I did not promote the movie Brokeback Mountain or even watch it. I believe exactly what the scriptures say about ALL sexual perversion, not just homosexuality.

That said, I also believe this scripture from the Book of John in Chapter 8

John 8 (NIV)

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Just who do these people from Kansas think they are??? They (and you and I) are just like the Pharisees Jesus was talking to here and could not stand up to this test given by Jesus.

And then they take things so far as to post signs like these at their website and at their protests. This shows nothing of the love and forgiveness that my Savior showed when He died on that Cross at Calvary!

We need to pray for these specific folks from Kansas, they are going to have some serious explaining to do on judgement day when Jesus bends down and starts writing on the ground with His finger!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Also, my good friend Spree at Wake up America recently posted an outstanding piece at her place.

Westboro Baptist Church: God Hates Marines

Hat tip to Jay at Stop the ACLU.

The following is part of that post, but you really need to click on the link and go read the entire story:

According to their recently released flyer, they are planning another event on Saturday, January 19, 2008.

The wonderful, spit-and-polish Marine is over eight months pregnant and she says another wonderful Marine raped her, and now on the eve of his court martial where she is the star witness against him, she turns up dead, and he is a fugitive from justice.

Wonderful. The few. The proud. Based on our extensive experience with Marines for over a decade, we can testify that these are typical Marines. WBC will picket the filthy, lawless Marine Corps - at noon next Sat., Jan. 19 - at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; in religious protest and warning: “Be not “‘deceived; God is not mocked.” Gal. 6:7. God Hates Fags! & FagEnablers.

Ergo, God hates the Marines.

The death of the female pregnant marine, that the Westboro flyer is referring to has been in the news recently after Cpl. Cesar Laurean was accused of raping Cpl. Maria Lauterbach.

Laurean is wanted for the murder of Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, whose charred remains were found in Laurean's backyard of his home in Jacksonville over the weekend.

All previous pieces done on Westboro Baptist Church at Wake up America can be found on one page here.

Check Out Other Blogs!!!

"Best Of" From Other Blogs of Conservative friends of mine. It's not all my blogging friends, but a quick sample. Go check them out and enjoy the reading! - Cyber Pastor.

Where Do We Get Such Men As These? from: Snooper at A Newt One, and also posted at Digital Journal.

Snooper's tribute to a fallen American hero, Major Andrew Olmsted.

Fred Thompson Isn't Desperate from: Spree at Wake up America.

I think the title speaks for itself.

Lionheart's Arrest is a Warning!! from: Ben at A Newt One.

Ben gives us an account of a British blogger who faces arrest for giving is opinions on Islamofacists.

Responding to an old high school teacher who I greatly respect from: Miss Ladybug.

Miss Ladybug shares her thoughts on the current crop of Presidential candidates.

Veterans Refused Rights They Fought For in Veteran’s Hospitals from: INSIGHT on Freedom.

Story about a Chaplain at a VA hospital in North Carolina not being able to read scripture to or pray with Veterans who are there for treatment.

Surprise Endorsement Goes To Thompson!

I had read earlier that this endorsement was going to Mitt Romney, so I was surprised to read at Spree's site - Wake Up America - that Fred Thompson actually received it. Link to her article, Surprise for Romney, Congressman Steve King Endorses Fred Thompson, here.

What Others are Saying About "Christmas Legislation"

My friend Snooper from A Newt One posted on the Legislation involving the "recognition of Christmas (yes, here in America). Find his take here.

I'm going to keep updating this post as I find other sites with content on this topic.

Update: Spree has Snooper's piece up at Wake Up America.

I was looking for a picture of the capital and I pulled this one from the Vets for Freedom press conference - I probably should have pulled the pelosi "office" picture, but I am in the Christmas spirit!