Here is the statement John McCain should put out right now and stick to for the rest of this campaign: “I believe Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are both qualified to be vice president. The Democrats just have their ticket upside down.”

The choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be the Republican vice presidential nominee is energizing the GOP base like nothing John McCain has ever done. Indeed, just as Barack Obama had to prop up his weak credentials by picking someone with experience, John McCain had to bolster his long resume, filled with heroism, military skill and governmental knowledge with a fresh, solid, proven conservative who has walked the walk and not just talked the talk.

Sarah Palin is the real deal. From her days as a tenacious high school basketball player and beauty queen to her meteoric rise through the ranks of Alaska politics, she didn’t get the nickname ‘Sarah Barracuda’ for nothing. She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and a compassionate 44-year-old mother of five, including a Down’s syndrome child born in April of this year.

Unlike Barack Obama, who thought so highly of himself that he wrote two autobiographies before he accomplished anything, Mrs. Palin has raised a family, run a business, managed a city and governed a state. She took on corrupt members of her own party, toppled a sitting Republican governor and said ‘no’ to Alaska’s infamous bridge to nowhere. She is pro-life, pro-family, pro-Second Amendment and pro-free enterprise. She is the governor of America’s most natural resource-rich state and is an advocate of oil drilling in ANWR. (Perhaps she can talk some sense into McCain on that issue.)

Oh, and she has an 80 percent approval rating among Alaskans.

It will be interesting to see how many disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters will vote Republican in November because of Palin’s name on the ballot. Will they abandon the worn out big government programs of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who offer the same tired ideas proposed by George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry before them? Will all those 85-year-old women who kept saying, “I just wanted to live long enough to see a woman elected,” now take advantage of their opportunity? If gender is their criteria, this is their chance.

There are so many reasons liberals are going to hate running against this ticket. First, there is the fact that the big liberal lie will soon be proven false: namely that conservatives won’t vote for a woman. I have contended for some time that conservatives of all stripes — social, fiscal, national security — would support a woman or a minority without hesitation if that person had the right worldview. The exciting thing for most of us is that we now have an opportunity to elect a truly conservative female to help lead our country.

Also, unlike Hillary Clinton, who has gotten where she is on the back of a philandering husband, Palin has done it on her own. In short, Sarah Palin is the ultimate feminist, and the Left can’t stand the fact that she not only is not one of them, she is their antithesis: a conservative wife and mother who loves God, shoots guns, eats Moose burgers, treasures traditional marriage and values innocent human life. And she’s attractive and articulate to boot! She’s their worst nightmare!

Alaska is often described as the last frontier, the last vestige of wild, rugged America. This is not simple nostalgia pining for a bygone era. Alaska is a crucible (albeit a frozen one), and you don’t get elected dog catcher there unless you are up to the job. Barack Obama’s refined enunciations are an unacceptable substitute for action. And that is precisely what John McCain has found in Sarah Palin — a woman of action.

____________________________________________________________________________

© Copyright 2008 by Doug Patton
____________________________________________________________________________

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including Human Events Online, TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.
____________________________________________________________________________

While GOP Presidential hopeful John McCain introduced his new running-mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, American Issues Project wrapped up its first phase of a television advertising and issue campaign, which called into question the long-standing relationship between Barack Obama and unrepentant 1960’s domestic terrorist, William Ayers.

“American Issues Project clearly has struck a nerve inside the Obama campaign, but even more important is the reaction of the American people, who are starting to question why Sen. Obama would have such a close relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrorist,” said Ed Martin, American Issues Project president.

“The heavy-handed response of the Obama campaign definitely misfired. The more the Obama campaign has tried to bully the ad off the air with its spurious legal threats and intimidation, the more voters have wondered what he has to hide,” he said.

The made-for-television ad examines the connection between Sen. Obama and domestic terrorist William Ayers, cofounder of the violent, radical Weather Underground movement that “declared war on America” and successfully bombed the US Capitol, Pentagon, a police station in New York and other targets across the nation.

Ayers has not only trumpeted his role in the bombings, he is unrepentant. On September 11th, 2001, the New York Times reported him saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs… I feel we didn’t do enough.”

The ad drew a massive and disproportionate response from the Obama campaign, which demanded the Department of Justice prosecute the organization and its donors, threatened stations running the ad in an attempt to compel them to pull the spot and other efforts to “kill the messenger.”

Notably, the effort was unsuccessful in getting a single station to pull the ad. The Obama campaign sponsored its own paid ad in response, which fails to dispute a single fact the American Issues Project has put forth.

Sen. Obama defends his friend Ayers as “respectable” and “mainstream.” The two worked closely together on several boards including for an organization that Ayers founded and Obama chaired. Sen. Obama’s political career was even launched at an event hosted by Ayers in his own home.

American Issues Project has as one of its primary purposes protecting America’s role in the world and assuring a strong national defense. The Ayers-Obama connection raises an important issue that is directly related to AIP’s purposes and which AIP will continue in coming months, and years, to promote.

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he’s a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).  In addition, he’s the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund’s weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. 

He’s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He’s a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com.  He’s also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he’s syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   He’s appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.  His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri’s own website is located at http://jimkouri.us

Some how, the Old Media has missed the good news on Iraq. On August 27, the Rasmussen polling organization published a poll that showed American confidence is at its highest level ever in support of the War on Terror since they’ve begun tracking in January of 2004. This poll got little notice by the Old Media, of course, but it illustrates an issue that McCain should exploit to his benefit — especially after Obama’s acceptance speech last night.

Rasmussen found that Fifty-four percent of American voters now think that the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq and forty-eight percent think the situation will get even better in the next six months. Further, Rasmussen reports that this turn around in public opinion has been sharp when just last year only twenty-seven percent thought things were going to get better in Iraq.

Ominously for the Obama campaign, the poll also found that sixty-two percent of men agree that the U.S. is winning the War on Terror while forty-six percent of women do. Less than a quarter of women now think the terrorists are winning with just fourteen percent of men feel that way.This growing support augers against Obama’s continued anti-war stance.

It all points to two salient facts: the surge worked and we’ve won the war in Iraq. And people are starting to notice… not that the media is.

Yet, what did Obama say concerning Iraq just the other night in his acceptance speech?

For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats that we face.

…And today, today, as my call for a timeframe to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration, even after we learned that Iraq has $79 billion in surplus while we are wallowing in deficit, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.

…You don’t defeat — you don’t defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq. You don’t protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can’t truly stand up for Georgia when you’ve strained our oldest alliances.

Clearly, according to this Rasmussen poll, John McCain does not “stand alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.” The American people are by increasing numbers standing next to him in support of this effort, sensing its success.

Barack Obama is placing himself on the losing side of the Iraq war, giving succor to the enemy and clearly showing himself to misunderstand the mood of the American people. America is turning the page from its anti-war pessimism and beginning to see that George Bush’s “stubbornness” was the right path to victory. Yet Obama continues down his anti-war path.

Despite the lack of reporting by the Old Media of this fact, the McCain camp should exploit this growing gap between Obama’s defeatist stance and the public’s growing support of the War on Terror.

This year’s Democratic National Convention was supposed to be the most eco-friendly in modern history. Yes, everything from the food choices to the recycling of the platform was designed to maximize how “green” the Democratic Party was. Yet, as I’ve been watching it, I don’t see how it’s supposed to be a “green” convention with all the lights, amplification equipment, video monitors, and electric musical instruments. Unless there’s a really big hamster running on a really big wheel generating all the convention’s electricity, I don’t think we can call the 2008 Democratic National Convention “green.”

However, I’m here to help. Yeah, I know it sounds weird that someone from a “red” state could offer opinions on how to be green, but when you consider the Democrats’ expert on environmental issues is a guy who nearly flunked out of divinity school, it may not be as far-fetched as you might imagine.

From appearances alone, I don’t see how the Democrats can make the claim their convention was green. It’s like taking the engine out of a Yugo, pushing it down a hill, and calling it a hybrid. (Then again, the Yugo would go faster than a real hybrid in that situation…) To help Democrats in future eco-friendly convention endeavors, I’ve put together a list of ways they can make the DNC even more “green” than it already is.

1) Cut the convention in half. Seriously, you guys need to learn time management skills because it doesn’t take four flipping days to say “Barack Obama is our candidate.” That’s been pretty much a fait accompli for you guys since, oh, the Iowa caucuses. Have the delegates show up, take the vote, maybe feed them and put them up for a night or two, and then send ‘em home. The downside to this is that I’m sure the media would miss the scintillating parliamentary procedure…oh, wait, they already do. Nevermind. Cutting the convention from four to two days helps by reducing the sheer number of people who have to be at the convention, thus cutting down on emissions from cars and planes. Oh, and don’t forget limousines! Plus, fewer people in a shorter span of time would cut down on another form of pollution: noise pollution. We all gotta do our part, right?

2) Keep it simple. Yes, I know the Pepsi Center has all sorts of cool things you can use, like the video monitors on the stage, but does that mean you have to use them? Imagine the power that has to be generated to see Democratic Congressman Ned Dinklestein from Rhode Island on the big screen and to have his name show up on the big screen in the middle. And what’s with the electronic versions of the American flag? I know you guys may be running short on flags, what with your ideological brethren on the left burning them all, but surely someone can smuggle in a real flag. Simplicity can save electricity, which in turn curtails the necessary energy use to conduct business.

3) Do everything on site. This year, Barack Obama is breaking with tradition and giving his acceptance speech from Invesco Field (not to be confused with In-Rezko’s back pocket). That means much of the same stuff that’s going on in the Pepsi Center will be duplicated at Invesco Field, meaning twice the power will be needed to conduct business. Folks, if you can’t get the man anointed…I mean elected as your candidate in one building, you’re not being that green. Get him on site to give his speech. After all, the media will be there to cover it, so it will still get out to the people.

4) Recycle as much as you can. It bears repeating, even though you guys seem to be doing it already. From what I’ve seen of the DNC this year, it looks like you’re reusing the 2004 DNC. In fact, that may be a better way to do these things in the future for you guys! With digital technology you can put different people on the stage, and since the rhetoric is pretty much the same, no one will be the wiser!

5) Cut down on the video montages. Seriously, we don’t need to see a video of family and friends saying how wonderful Barack Obama is and what good he will be for the country if we elect him. We get it. You like him. We don’t need to see you saying that you like him. Save the energy and send a postcard or something!

See, folks, I’m not someone who just mocks the Democrats as they try to pull off a “green” convention. I’m someone who comes up with solutions while mocking Democrats as they try to pull off a “green convention.”

Some speeches are better than others. Sen. Barack Obama knows how to deliver a speech, but his acceptance speech was familiar stuff to anyone who has been listening to politicians as long as I have. Permit me a bit of cynicism because sometimes it allows you to separate the wheat from the chaff.It is a bit of luck that Barack Obama’s acceptance speech was given on the forty-fifth anniversary of Dr. King’s famed “I’ve got a dream” speech. That speech brought people together to build a better America, to fulfill its promise of equality.I not only lived through the Civil Rights era, but I actually met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was brief, but memorable for me. Dr. King could deliver an inspirational sermon or speech. I often wonder if the civil rights movement would have been as successful if there had not been a Dr. King to lead it. Things might have turned out differently for Barack Obama.

What America needs is more drilling for oil for our transportation needs, more coal-fired and nuclear plants for the electricity we require, and more natural gas for its many benefits.The other theme of his speech was that the last eight years of the Bush administration were a failure. Is it a failure that we have not been attacked since 9/11? Is it a failure that unemployment remains at a bare five percent, among the lowest in generations? Is a $14 trillion economy a failure?

He promises “a world class education” for every child, but Teddy Kennedy’s failed “No Child Left Behind Act” is guaranteeing a failed education for the nation’s children. He promises higher wages for already well-paid and pensioned teachers despite the fact they are turning out students who cannot spell, cannot do arithmetic, and have no idea of America’s real history.Promises are what politicians make. Speeches are what politicians give, but Barack Obama is no Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For one thing, Dr. King was a registered Republican.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. He blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.

Bernard ”Bernie” Ward, 57, a San Francisco resident who worked as a radio talk show host and was a frequent Fox News Channel and CNN guest representing the liberal-left viewpoint, was sentenced on Thursday to serve 7 years in federal prison.

The sentence includes a lifetime of supervision once he’s released, according to Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division.

On May 8, 2008, Ward pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography through the Internet. According to the plea documents, Ward admitted that in December 2004, he used an online screen name to engage in an Internet chat conversation with an unknown individual also using a screen name.

During that conversation, Ward admitted that he sent an image of child pornography depicting nude children engaged in sexually explicit conduct via his e-mail account.

Ward also admitted that he used the same e-mail account to distribute 15 to 150 images of child pornography to other individuals. These images involved prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, some with sadistic, masochistic or violent conduct.

The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Steve Grocki, Jennifer Leonardo and Michael Yoon of the  Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and investigated by the FBI.

Bernie Ward was a former talk host with KGO 810 AM in San Francisco and was billed by KGO as “The Lion of the Left,” was the host of both The Bernie Ward Show, a nightly news/talk show that ran weekdays 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. and the three-hour GodTalk on Sunday mornings.

In December 2007, Ward was dismissed from KGO following the federal grand jury indictment charging him the distribution of child pornography. He subsequently admitted to one of the felony charges in a plea bargain with federal prosecutors and on August 28, 2008, Bernie Ward was sentenced.

Ward is a former Catholic priest and later worked as a high school teacher. His interest in Liberal politics came about when he worked for then-Representative Barbara Boxer.

Ironically, Ward received the Scripps Howard Award for journalism as a result of his ten-part series, Heaven Help Us, which explored allegations of financial and sexual misconduct of the Catholic Church in San Francisco.

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he’s a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).  In addition, he’s the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund’s weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. He’s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He’s a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com.  He’s also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he’s syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   He’s appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.  His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri’s own website is located at http://jimkouri.us

In New York, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has ordered the release of eight more grand jury transcripts from the famous 1951 spy case that led to the conviction of the husband and wife pro-Soviet spy team of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Reuters reports this story as if there is some cloud of doubt still hanging over the Rosenberg’s conviction despite that their guilt is no longer debatable. Yet here is Reuters giving cover to those who stubbornly wish to cast doubt on the U.S. prosecution of the Rosenbergs. It also gives Reuters and U.S. detractors the opportunity once again smear America by raising their favorite Cold War boogie man, Joe McCarthy.

Reuters sternly tells us that,

The Rosenbergs were convicted in 1951 of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union and executed in 1953. Rosenberg supporters describe the case as a frame-up amid anti-communist McCarthyism hysteria and Cold War fear.

It is amazing to see Reuters use every U.S. bash they could in one little paragraph. The Rosenbergs were victims of a “frame-up” because of “McCarthyism hysteria and Cold War fear.” Notice how Reuters seems to forget to mention that there is no longer any doubt that the Rosenbergs were guilty, though?

In the aftermath of the 1951 trial, the Rosenberg’s fellow traveling supporters always maintained that Julius and Ethel were innocent and that the era of McCarthyism railroaded these innocents to their execution in 1953. This conception casts the U.S. in the role of evil oppressor and the Soviet spies as victims. Granted, for many years the explicit guilt of the Rosenbergs was in some doubt as U.S. evidence was secreted in the grand jury testimony and other sources remained classified.

However, as time rolled on, the Rosenberg’s guilt became steadily more assured as sources began to emerge to convincingly prove that Julius passed nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, his wife serving as a willing accomplice. By the 1980s information of the FBI’s project Venona emerged in which declassified coded messages from the Soviet Union from the Rosenberg’s era proved their guilt. Nikita Krushchev even admitted to their guilt in his posthumous 1990 autobiography.

And yet… Reuters seems to have forgotten this whole history. The fact that the Rosenbergs really were guilty seems to have been ignored in this Reuters story even as the specter of McCarthysim was used to its fullest.

So, why did Reuters leave the real, proven guilt of the Rosenbergs out of this story even as they found ample room to bring up “McCarthyism” and “Cold War fears”? Why else but to continue the myth that the Rosenbergs might have been innocent so that their prosecution and execution can continue to be used as manufactured proof that the U.S. is evil?

Instead of a proper news story, what we end up with here is Reuters once again adding its voice to continued anti-Americanism.

(Photo credit: Virginia Western Community College)

The US Navy, US Coast Guard and SRI International — a private security firm – are deploying a suite of advanced port security technologies, trained personnel, and are executing tactical procedures as part of a homeland security experiment in the waters of Tampa Bay through the end of August.

Collectively described as an “Adaptive Force Package,” the suite supports local incident response under the command of the Coast Guard, Captain of the Port, with the involvement of numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agencies from the Tampa Bay region. The experiment began on Aug. 20 and will conclude on Aug. 28. Civilian and military visitors will be invited to a briefing and will have an opportunity to observe Adaptive Force Package technology at the conclusion of the experiment.

The Navy’s overarching goal of the experiment is to both demonstrate the platform’s independent employment of Mine Countermeasures Mission Modules developed for the Littoral Combat Ship and to address the US Fleet Forces and Commander of the Navy’s Third Fleet Sea Trials objective for this capability. This limited-objective demonstration will serve as a core event that will benefit Coast Guard and local authorities as they work to improve civil-military procedures and incident response utilizing the Incident Command System to safeguard our nation’s ports and waterways.

The experiment offers participants the opportunity to practice working together under the framework of a Department of Defense and Department of the Navy response to a Department of Homeland Security Maritime Operational Threat Response. The team will study the best use of command and control systems for guiding the flow of information from responding units to the key decision makers in the Unified Command. Further, the team will focus on ways to reduce risks to navigation and the general public while neutralizing an underwater threat.

The Coast Guard will be responsible for incident command in the experiment. Its role is to coordinate the response and actions of private-sector maritime stakeholders with military and civilian law enforcement actions.

SRI International will support in-water operations by surveying the underwater test area, deploying inert mine and improvised-explosive-device like-objects and providing surface support. The SRI team will also deploy specialized, high-resolution 3-D sonar for new change-detection technology that will be used to confirm the identity of any potential threat.

Forensic evidence will be gathered by the Underwater Crime Scene Investigation Team from Florida State University and analyzed by the National Forensic Science Technology Center Mobile Crime Lab.

Participants include the US Coast Guard and the Port of St. Petersburg, the Naval Mine Warfare and Antisubmarine Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, Program Executive Office (Littoral and Mine Warfare), Office of Naval Research, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, SRI International’s Marine Technology Program and National Center for Maritime and Port Security, National Forensics Science Technology Center and Florida State University.

Source: The US Navy

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he’s a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).  In addition, he’s the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund’s weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. 

He’s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He’s a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com.  He’s also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he’s syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   He’s appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.  His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri’s own website is located at http://jimkouri.us