As a former Nashville resident, I recently adopted (co-, actually) Rep. Jim Cooper, who reputedly said something fiscally conservative at some point in his life. My bet is this so-called Blue Dog Democrat is about to cast his lot with President Barack Obama’s scheme to nationalize our medical care.

From a recent newspaper article emerges this profile in cowardice:

“Health-care reform opponents hoping to give Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper a piece of their mind at a town hall meeting Friday at West End Middle School may be in for a surprise.
“There is no town hall meeting, and one was never planned for the first day of school.
“Cooper was scheduled to address West End students on Friday, but he canceled his appearance after word spread, mistakenly, that he would be available at a public forum.
“The West End Middle School meeting was never a town hall,” Cooper said Tuesday. “We were invited by the principal to welcome students on the first day of class, so we have no idea how word spread that it was anything other than that. I was worried that students and parents might be alarmed by possible disruptions of the opening day of school. I thought better of it and asked the school to find some other speaker for the occasion.
“Cooper’s cancellation comes against the backdrop of town hall meetings across the country being disrupted by opponents of health-care reform. On Saturday, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen hosted a town hall meeting in Memphis that drew about 500 people, many opposing health-care reform, and quickly turned into a shouting match. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter faced one man who interrupted a meeting, shouting, “One day God will stand before you and judge you” before security guards approached and he left.
“For his part, Cooper said he does not have any town hall meetings planned…”
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090812/NEWS02/908120382/1009/NEWS0203

A couple of quick points. First, The Tennessean is a typical left-wing rag that has endorsed this career politician more times than it has printed objective stories, so take a lot of the above with a grain of salt. My brother, a nominal Democrat who continues to live in Middle Tennessee and was a Cooper supporter until the Cap and Trade insanity, told me that the congressman had in fact planned to answer questions at the school mentioned in the article and pulled out when that became widely known.

Now here’s the kicker. Cooper was a leading congressional voice against HillaryCare. As a result, Secretary Clinton and Rep. Cooper hate one another. But since Obama defeated Clinton with Cooper’s implicit support, the good congressman has decided to change his tune about socialized medicine, I think.

The heavily Democratic Fifth District Cooper has represented has never elected a Republican. But if there ever were a time, it appears ripe now. The question is whether a GOP challenger will step forward. Has the Republican National Congressional Committee even attempted to recruit a challenger here? I certainly hope so.

More on the good congressman whenever an update appears in order.

That district can do better.

Before heading back up the mountain, I promote this diary and challenge the rest of you to start adopting Democrats to track, follow, target for action, etc. And more than one of you can pick the same scoundrel. But do it! — Erick

once lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and many of my family members still do. It is a wonderful city with terrible politics. Among its politicians are reputed Blue Dog Congressman Jim Cooper. Among family members who continue to live there is my retired brother, who like me was outraged by Cap and Trade (hence, “CaT”). My brother was so torqued off, in fact, he wrote an angry letter to Cooper.

Tuesday he received a reply and emailed it to me. What follows is a fisking and my formal adoption of Cooper as a pet project, per Erick’s request. I’ll leave out any identifying information except to state my brother is a nominal Democrat. Or was. The only other bio is that my brother is retired from the energy business and knows CaT like the back of his hand. Nonetheless, the good congressman chose not only to condescend but to blatantly lie to someone who knew better…someone who has voted for him in the past.

Anyhow, here it is, with my asides in parenthesis:

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There is little doubt President Barack Obama gave a well-delivered speech to the Muslim world today. For that, he deserves credit. Where he ultimately failed was his avoidance of the tough issues.

While his lofty rhetoric touched on some of the bones I am about to pick, it wasn’t specific enough to make a difference. Here is where he fell down and fell short:

1. Religious tolerance. Jews are vilified and persecuted throughout the Muslim world. From outright murder to blood libel, many Islamic nations equate Judaism with evil. If you will recall, Egyptian television even made a mini-series based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the tsarist libel of a people and a religion. That should have merited a mention.

What also should have received attention is the sad state of Coptic Christians. While they comprise ten percent of Egypt, a secular nation, they are the subjects of periodic perseuction both state-sponsored and, usually, private ventures on the part of extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

2. Holocaust equivalence. As Erick has pointed out, and related to the above, was the passage where Obama compared the plight of Jews at the hands of Nazis to the Palestinian issue. If there were any comparison at all, there would be no Palestinian issue because the Palestinians would have been murdered by the Israelis. I think that about sums it up, doesn’t it?

3. Iranian nuclear weapons and power. For the love of Pete, why in the hell does an oil-exporting nation need “peaceful nuclear power?” Let me submit for the same reason the North Koreans once claimed they did, Mr. President. Since you are so gung-ho that the petro-states get nuclear power, Mr. President, why do you oppose it in the United States? That contradiction is inexplicable unless you think the United States needs to be deprived of energy to level the economic playing field. And while we are at it, today would have been a nice time to emphasize Israel has the right to defend itself against Iranian nukes even if that means a first strike.

4. Torture. You apologized for American “torture” in Egypt, Mr. President. Do you know which nation continues to perfect torture? It ain’t America, sir. And the hypocrisy of Egyptians applauding your condemnation of waterboarding is beyond words.

You could have been a brave man today, Mr. President. Instead you went for the cheap applause lines and delivered an eloquent and ultimately empty speech.

Obama says Iran’s energy concerns legitimate
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 9:24 AM

 

LONDON — President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful.

In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, he also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060200947_pf.html

 

 

Promoted from Diaries - Moe Lane.

This is priceless:

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

Admiral Blair sent his memo on the same day the administration publicly released secret Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of interrogation methods that the Obama White House has deemed to be illegal torture. Among other things, the Bush administration memos revealed that two captured Qaeda operatives were subjected to a form of near-drowning known as waterboarding a total of 266 times.

Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past,” he wrote, “but I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.”

A spokeswoman for Admiral Blair said the lines were cut in the normal editing process of shortening an internal memo into a media statement emphasizing his concern that the public understand the context of the decisions made in the past and the fact that they followed legal orders….

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22blair.html?hp

Where to start? A little schadenfeude always is a great place to start.

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As mbecker and Gamecock pointed out yesterday, there is no such an animal as a centrist Democrat. We just witnessed this fact as alleged “moderate” Ben Nelson, Socialist-Nebraska, announced a “bipartisan” compromise on Obama’s pork-laded spending orgy, also known as the “stimulus bill.”

It was so bipartisan, in fact, that He Who Cannot Normally Be Mentioned, Joe Lieberman, Socialist-Connecticut, received a shout out from Nelson. Ol’ Joe’s support is on the same plane as dupe deluxes Susan Collins, Fool-Maine, and Arlen Specter, Idiot-TV Camera. So two persons whose only connection to the Republican Party is the “R” beside their names, along with Lieberman, make this bill “bipartisan”. Riiiight.

That dog won’t hunt.

This is a Democratic bill. The Democrats own it lock, stock, and barrell. To the tremendous credit of the Republican Party, only two members of Congress who claim to be affiliated with our party voted for it.

Every. Single. Democrat. In. The. Senate. Voted. For. It. Shout this from the rooftops.

This legislation will not stimulate the economy. In fact, it likely will make our economy worse. The Democrats knew it, and they tried desperately to get all the usual suspects to sign onto this monstrosity. As it stands, they failed miserably.

Regardless of what was said in the campaign, Barack Obama has been exposed as a faculty lounge socialist, which means he loves the theory of socialism although he refused to personally endure it. This puts him in the same league as every member of Congress and every Senator who voted for this betrayal of capitalism and democracy. We must work diligently to destroy–and I use that word deliberately– every person who allowed this horror to be strapped onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. We have in our camp roughly a dozen Democratis members of the House. They have in their orbit two nominal Republican senators. Let the battle join.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid advertised Sunday for GOP senators to act as human shields for a trillion dollar ripoff, errr, economic stimulus package Democrats want to shove  down the throats of American taxpayers.

Reid assured Meet The Press host David Gregory that the Senate and House Republican leadership had asked to be “part” of the trillion dollar belated Christmas present for president-elect Barack Obama.

“This is something–as I’ve indicated earlier, David, Boehner and McConnell are saying, ‘Let us be involved.’ I’m not going to here dictate what’s going to happen,” Reid told Gregory.

Translation: this legislation sucks, the Repubicans don’t like it, the American taxpayers won’t like it, and Reid wants to make it appear “bipartisan.” Of course, Boehner and McConnell simply want to protect the Treasury.

Reid babbled further about how this trainwreck-in-waiting will have Republican fingerprints all over it.

“To do what is right for this country is going to take us working together, Democrats and Republicans, because, because the problem…the problems out there aren’t Democratic problems or Republican problems, they’re American problems.  We have to address them,” Reid explained.  What he didn’t explain was how many, if any, Republicans would sign on to what likely will be failed legislation that will further bankrupt the country. But Reid wants the country to know this absolutely will not be a Democratic bill. After all, even Reid faces re-election in 2010.

Apparerently the usual suspects won’t act as human shields on this one. Or they are preoccupied.

“John McCain–a day or two after the election, I called John. We’ve served–we came to Washington together in 1982.  We’ve been together in the House and we came to the Senate together.  And we talked about the campaign.  We had both said things about each other that probably we shouldn’t have, but we did.  He’s my friend.  He said, ‘Harry, I, I want to come back to the Senate.  We want to do some good things.  I want to work with you…

Never has so much been spent so foolishly on so little.

Barack Obama’s 30-minute mega television buy had been billed as his “closing argument.” Instead, what we just witnessed could have been a Saturday Night Live parody of a Feed the Children commercial. Unfortunately for Barack, he ain’t no Sally Struthers.

No, she can display actual emotion.

And not insult in the process.

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DUP PLZ DEL

I didn’t support you in the primary, Sen. McCain. As a matter of fact, you were probably my sixth choice. In no small part, this was because you had shown too much comity in the past toward people who hate my guts. You have only realized in recent days they hate you as well.

One thing I never doubted, though, was that you loved your country and have given much to protect her. The United States is threatened again. This time it isn’t by bombs, guns, or hijacked jetliners. No, the new threat is more of an attack on the political foundation that has kept our nation intact. People who hate us–that’s you and me as individuals for our political beliefs– are poised to seize the levers of power and take this country in a direction it has resisted for 200 years.

Your country has called on you again, sir. You simply cannot bobble this election in the name of a bipartisanship the former fringe does not share. Here are three easy things you can do, and you can start to lay the foundation tomorrow night, to make this election close and possibly win. I hope your campaign already has decided to do all three, but just in case…

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I have a confession to make.

I like Senator Joe Biden.

I disagree with his politics, of course, and find him a one-man circus. Yet there is something about his essential weirdness that makes me overlook Biden’s terrible policy positions and his inflated ego.

Therefore, I had to wince when a man who, despite himself, has a sense of honor (at times) agreed to run as Sen. Barack Obama’s vice president. Even Biden’s quirkiness never will overcome that stain.

Therefore, to watch Biden essentially implode as he tepidly defended Barack Obama last night was painful.

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Large, Stalinist portraits of their leader adorn political offices. Supporters cry and chant his name every time he graces them with a vacuous speech that inexplicably appeals to his minions.

He has neighborhood watch groups to hold the unfaithful in line. He wants these groups to “get in the faces” of those who do not appreciate his greatness.

Fidel Castro?

No, Barack Obama.

Behold:

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The Left’s unhinged attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin were to be expected. Perhaps this is the most vile assault ever to emanate from their fever swamps, but Justice Clarence Thomas and many others have tasted similar venom.

What differentiates the left-wing’s attempted rape of another fine public servant isn’t simply its impotence. Despite the fevered efforts of the mainstream media, mentally deranged bloggers, and Democratic back benchers, Gov. Palin has weathered the storm and watched the bodies of her detractors carried before her. She has the numbers to prove her triumph although evidence really isn’t required at this point.

This is different because in their efforts to destroy Palin, the Left has revealed how utterly banal Barack Obama and his candidacy are and, by extension, how shallow they were to promote it. They actually played the experience/resume card. The McCain camp couldn’t have bought enough air time between now and November to equal this particular gift.

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The effusive left-wing media reaction to last night’s Obama acceptance speech was to be expected. Even some conservatives got caught up in the moment.

As passions have cooled, the praise has become more tempered. Very few people can recite one memorable phrase from the speech. This morning on MSNBC’s pathetic Morning Joe, Peggy Noonan actually took The Hack Whose Name Will Not Be Mentioned to task. Ms. Noonan didn’t name him, but said his description of the speech as a symphony was “fatuous.” That was quite kind.

The problem with the speech wasn’t its delivery, which was excellent. It was workmanlike in the way speeches given by liberal Democrats tend to be: “everyone will be happy. I’m here to help you. Move along now.”

The real problem with the speech was the visual. The temple, with giant live portraitures of Obama, evoked the worst memories of Stalinism and simultaneously managed to convey a sense of crass commercialism.

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If the following report from the Politico is true, and for all we know Obama could disprove it with his announcement, the presidential election is game, set, match:

There’s one Democrat who would seem to have little or no chance of being picked by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to be his running mate – his former opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

But it’s not for the reason you think.

Obama has often said, most recently on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on July 27, that Clinton “would be on anybody’s short list.”

But apparently not his.

“She was never vetted,” a Democratic official reported. “She was not asked for a single piece of paper. She and Senator Obama have never had a single conversation about it. How would he know if she’d take it?”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12713.html

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The incomparable Peggy Noonan is right. There has been a perceptible shift in the presidential election.

She just may be a little later than we normally would expect her to be in noticing it.

In today’s online Wall Street Journal, Noonan writes:

This thing is moving. Things are shifting around a bit. That’s what I see looking back at the past four weeks…

For the first time the idea began to take hold that John McCain can win this thing. You saw the USA Today-Gallup poll this week, with Mr. McCain gaining six points since late June among those Gallup dubbed likely voters. Mr. McCain took the lead, 49% to 45%. Among registered voters, it’s still Barack Obama, 47% to 44%. A poll came out saying people are tired of hearing about Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain took the lead in YouTube hits. Small stuff, and there will be a lot of twists and turns before this is over, but there’s movement down there beneath the crust of the Earth…

There’s a thing that’s out there and it’s big, and latent, and somehow always taken into account and always ignored, and political professionals always assume they understand it. It has been called many things the past 50 years, “the silent center,” “the silent majority,” “the coalition,” “the base.” The idea of it has evolved as its composition has evolved, but the fact that it’s big, and relatively silent, and somehow always latent, maintains. And watching that McCain event—vroom vroom—one got the sense it is perhaps beginning to pay attention to the campaign. I see it as the old America, and if and when it reasserts itself, the campaign will shift indeed, and in ways you can even see from 10,000 feet.

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Promoted from the diaries by Erick.

If there ever were a vapid celebrity it was Andy Warhol. Yet he did manage to utter one memorable line: “In the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of fame.” It was remarkably insightful for the time. In fact, it was understated. A close friend said the line today would be “in the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of privacy.”

We now talk of “Clinton fatigue” and “Bush fatigue” because after eight years a media-saturated public wants to see a new face. Celebrities, in an attempt to attract attention, indulge in self-destructive behavior as their fans grow weary after too many MTV appearances. It seldom works, “it” being both the attempt to relaunch a career and the rehab and counseling.

Therefore, it is a surprise to see Sen. Barack Obama embrace celebrity and the cult of personality. It can’t last long in 2008, and indications are it has started to wear thin.

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The Obama campaign and its left-wing legacy media sycophants are furious. Sen. McCain told the truth when he claimed Obama preferred to lose the Iraq War than lose the election. Some label this a “false charge.” Most of these critics say it is “over-the-top” or “harsh stuff.” This is reminiscent of many denunciations of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, wherein honest and accurate accounts of events that exposed a left-wing candidate were dubbed “Swift Boating,” as if nomeclature somehow turned objective fact into an unfair smear (as an aside, I look forward to the story about John Edwards’ illegitmiate child being awarded the “Swift Boat” label, which I expect to happen as soon as this sordid matter gets dragged into the mainstream).

Ben Domenech and Confederate Yankee have both posted excellent blogs about an interview Sen. Obama gave with Terry Moran of ABC News. Yet there is a nugget buried within one graf that deserves to be explored:

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Ever since Newsweek released a poll that showed the general election virtually tied, many Obama supporters have pointed to opinions about the senator’s religious background as the cause of his problems. Broadcast bloviators and many print journalists attribute these “smears” to the “right-wing,” “Republicans,” “conservatives,” ad nauseum. In fact, the editor of the New Yorker, which published the tasteless and banal parody cover of Barack and Michelle Obama, said it was to counter “right-wing stereotypes.”

Riiiiight.

Of particular concern to the navel-gazing Left is the following from the Newsweek poll:

39 percent believe he attended an Islamic school as a child growing up in Indonesia.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/145737

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