http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:37:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en ...authorities feel the need to create and post a sign like this: Such is the lost luster of the Zimbabwean dollar, which is experiencing insane inflation. To put it into perspective, if Bill Gates were to convert his entire net worth of $40 billion into Zimbabwean dollars today, his portfolio ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/12/21/you-know-currency-is-devalued-when/ Last summer, Lynn Westmoreland said the following about Barack Obama: "Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity." You don't need a dog-whistle to hear racial tinging with the word "uppity". especially for someone ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/11/11/what-is-it-with-these-gop-congressmen-from-ge/ P.J. O'Rourke offers an acerbic template, and he views a conservative America as a "land of freedom and responsibility, knowledge, opportunity, accomplishment, honor, truth, trust, and one boring hour each week spent in itchy clothes at church, synagogue, or mosque." His thesis is that we had the opportunity to ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/11/10/where-should-conservatives-be/ Even after a day of mulling, Joe Biden's remarks at a Seattle fundraiser a few days ago are still troubling to me because they say something about both Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Here's what Joe the Politician said: "Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/21/so-joes-the-one-whos-qualified/ [Just because I think McCain is going to lose, doesn't mean I'm going to stop fighting for him to win, and I'll do what I can until November 4th when the election is called one way or the other. Nothing would make me more happy than to be totally ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/16/electoral-post-mortem-in-advance/ In several places, I've made the case that a proper counterinsurgency needs to be implemented in Afghanistan, along the lines of what is being done in Iraq. Because of differences in geography, culture, urbanization and other factors, the tactics in will be assuredly different in Afghanistan, but the general ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/10/afghanistan-what-to-do/ Associated Press just slapped down the race card in its latest "analysis" by Douglas K. Daniel. By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign. And though she may have ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/05/bias-in-the-worst-way-by-ap/ In another CNN "factcheck", they tested the veracity of this Joe Biden statement: "...our commanding general in Afghanistan said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan." CNN judged Biden's statement to be "true", but it's not true. The drive-bys at CNN don't understand the difference between a surge ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/04/dishonest-cnn-factcheck-ii/ As I wrote here, Joe Biden was being less than honest when he said Obama would never meet with Iranian president Ahmadinejad without preconditions in the first year of his presidency. In a "factcheck", CNN shows that they're in the bag for Obama by parsing "leader" and "president". ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/03/dishonest-cnn-factcheck/ First, factcheck.org compiled the factual shortcomings of both candidates: ? Palin mistakenly claimed that troop levels in Iraq had returned to “pre-surge” levels. Levels are gradually coming down but current plans would have levels higher than pre-surge numbers through early next year, at least. ? Biden incorrectly said “John McCain voted the ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/03/post-debate-fact-check-round-up/ September was another month of declining violence in Iraq, both for civilians and military personnel. Below are the pictures, and I'm guessing that Barack Obama would prefer that you don't see them. Once the progress in Iraq became all too obvious, even to Obama, he credited the success to the ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/02/barack-obama-and-the-strategy-that-must-not-b/ From the Washington Times: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year. Give her credit for supporting a ban on ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/10/01/dollars-moved-from-nancys-pac-to-nancys-hus/ I know the contributors know this, and I'm going to say it anyway. This version of Redstate sucks. It takes way too long to navigate around this site. I'm glad the 500 internal server errors have gone away, but I just clicked on the main page icon ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/09/30/30-sucks/ I saw the latest interview between Sarah Palin and Katie Couric, and she did much better. Here it is. It looks like she's getting the hang of dealing with national media, and she's looking more comfortable on television. Even on Hannity's home turf a couple of weeks ago, she ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/09/30/if-palin-does-passably-well-at-the-debate/ John McCain has been losing ground for the last two to three weeks, and it's now or never for him to turn things around. The electoral map doesn't lie. McCain needs to make major structural changes to the campaign, and I have some ideas. First, he should fire Steve ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/09/29/how-mccain-can-turn-his-campaign-around/ Engram nails it.. When Obama says "I've always said", it's time for a little fact-checking. On Bill O'Reilly's comedy hour, Obama said: "I think that the surge has succeeded..." The thing is, he has never previously credited the strategy for the gains we've made since General Petraeus came on board, and it's ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/09/07/a-picture-of-what-obama-said-on-iraq-and-whe/ In this episode, Andrew Sullivan is alluding some sort of equivalence between Jeremiah Wright, the bona fide left-wing political extremist who was Barack Obama's paster for twenty-plus years, and Larry Kroon, who is pastor of Wasilla Bible Church, where Sarah Palin currently attends. I read the transcript of the sermon that ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/09/07/more-dishonest-hackery-from-excitable-andy/ Charley James writes for the LA Progressive and he penned a sneering article about Sarah Palin in particular and Alaska in general. This seems to be par for the course for many on the left, but the interesting part of it is that Charley James has his own blog ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/09/06/so-sambo-beat-the-bitch/ This one is so blatant that it has to be deliberate. Here's how the article starts: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God." This is false. You ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/09/04/ap-writer-glen-johnson-smears-sarah-palin/ A few days ago, it wasn't clear. If it turned out that 70 (or more) civilians were killed in a recent airstrike in western Afghanistan, then it is an indicator that the U.S.-led NATO command in Afghanistan is pursuing a flawed strategy. Coalition forces lack sufficient force projection ... http://www.redstate.com/charles_bird/2008/08/26/bad-deal-in-afghanistan/