Riehl World View

Relax Byron - It's Simple

Via Instapundit - Byron York speculates as to why Sarah Palin is driving many on the Left so mad.

It's pretty simple, really. Sally Field has gotten too old to play her in a movie and until they find someone else to cast, the Left can't possibly relate to some regular-like seeming woman doing great things.

Too bad Sarah's parents didn't just name her Norma Rae. It might have made it so much easier for them, they might even have ended up leaving the voting both in tears.

Of course, it might help if Governor Palin had started a union or two along the way ... but you can't have everything.

Obama's Negligence On Critical Rape Issue

Given that as Jim Geraghty reports, the Left wants to hang then Mayor Sarah Palin for what amounts to a few rape kits in Wasilla while she was Mayor ... why is it that it finally fell to two Republican Illinois State Senators to pressure Obama's man Blagojevich in 2005 to resolve an issue that dates well back to when Obama was also an Illinois State Senator? It was widely reported in 2003 that perhaps thousands of rape kits in Chicago were not being processed at all.

December 11, 2003 -- A group of women in Chicago has banded together to address a mounting backlog of untested rape kits at the Illinois State Police Crime Lab. The Women's DNA Initiative announced their plans on Sunday in the Chicago Tribune to raise as much as $1 million to have the rape evidence tested at private firms. Shortly thereafter, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich vowed to find $3 million in the state's budget to address the three-year backlog of some 1,500 rape kits, the Tribune reports.

A pretty thorough search indicates John Edwards even brought the general issue up in the Democrat's primary. Obama offered no position at all. Yet, his home state still apparently has thousands of untested rape kits. It seems to me Obama was no where to be found on the issue while back in Chicago and didn't care about rape kits at all until it became a means of attack on Governor Palin. This is hardly an issue Obama would want to talk about if you ask me. Or maybe the media should ask him what he did to address this issue during all those years he was present back in the Illinois State House. Don't hold your breath on that one.

From first link above:

Sen. Kirk Dillard and Rep. Patti Bellock--both Republicans from Hinsdale who sponsored the law requiring the yearly reporting--called on Blagojevich to change the report on the backlog to reflect the number of cases in Chicago.

Is McClatchy Fairly Reporting New Palin Smear? Not Really

From what my research suggests, McClatchy is wrong on at least a couple counts with this latest Palin smear:

While some of their complaints (about Palin) have already been aired, Knowles broke new ground while answering a reporter's question on whether Wasilla forced rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests when Palin was mayor.

True, Knowles said.

Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide.

"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said.

To start with, it isn't new ground - it goes back days ago to this Liberal blog eventually picked up by TPM. And you have to click multiple links to get to a story that never mentions Palin and indicates what the police chief wanted to do was bill the offenders when appropriate - though some charges did go to insurance companies of victims. But Palin's name doesn't even appear in the article.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

In the past weve charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer, Fannon said.

According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

Ultimately it is the criminal who should bear the burden of the added costs, Fannon said.

The forensic exam is just one part of the equation. Id like to see the courts make these people pay restitution for these things, Fannon said.

Fannon said he intends to include the cost of exams required to collect evidence in a restitution request as a part of a criminals sentencing.

"Denali," COOL! ... But "Driller"??

Let's hope it wasn't decided upon because of the five kids. Denali is pretty awesome, though.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. -- The Secret Service has selected a fitting enough code name for Gov. Sarah Palin: "Denali," same as the Alaska national park and preserve famed for its mountain peaks and wildlife.

Perhaps even more perfect is their code name for former oil slope worker Todd Palin -- "Driller." McCain and Palin have made drilling for oil a central part of their platform, so much so that "Drill, baby, drill!" is now a regular McCain-Palin rally chant.

McCain Catches Obama On Electoral Map

Only yesterday, Obama had what looked like a commanding lead on locked up states in RCP's Electoral Vote map - it's gone. They're both at 157 votes - solid as Obama's September fade continues to play out.

If you click through to remove leaning and undecided states, it's 273 - 265 Obama. But just yesterday I noted Pennsylvania being at two points.

This isn't to say things can't or won't change course, but if this keeps up Obama will likely lose Colorado or New Mexico, if not both. And he's already in a position, as with PA, where he has to start playing defense. Forget about Howard Dean's 50 state strategy. That scenario is now out. And Obama is out the time and cash he wasted pursuing it.

Some executive experience, that - even if it is the only such experience he has. Unless you want to count his squandering of education dollars in Chicago.

I Can't Link This Stuff

There's an item popping up on Memeorandum, at NewsBusters and elsewhere - Keith Olbermann and his nothing special about it comments on Republicans and 9/11 - apparently from last night's show. I did look in on it for a bit.

Isn't it time some more sober minds started ignoring this guy? It isn't as if such nonsense is going to do any real harm within the echo chamber it deserves to be confined to. And giving it attention is just like feeding a rodent or a blog-based troll. It simply guarantees they'll keep coming back.

There comes a time when you have to let the marginal just die on the vine.

For Olbermann, as far as I'm concerned, that time is now.

As to any argument about - well, we have to shine a light. Nonsense. Olbermann's not dangerous, he's either simply deranged, or a demented huckster shilling for shillings on the Left. And given his station's overall ratings it won't be long before there's a shake up and the idiot will be out of a job.

Giving him more attention only serves to prop him up a bit. And reasonable people in the Center or on the Right really shouldn't be a party to it - especially today.

September 11

Some posts from previous September 11s.

When Monuments Collapse

9/11 Remembrance And Response

Remembering The Heroes of Flight 93

Kerik In Tears 5 Years In

9/11: Fireman and Angel Ice Sculpture

More On 9/11

9/11 Photo Arrays

What Is The Point Of This?

While the Right pushing the whole lipstick thing might be silly, why in the world are the Democrats continuing to push this Palin and earmarks meme they're bringing up, again? She's never been in a position to vote on one and both Biden and Obama have a much bigger problem in this area. And the dumbest part of it is that the Obama camp now seems obsessed with Palin. Someone needs to remind them she's in the VP slot and wasn't in a position to acquire the relatively fewer earmarks she supported the way both Democrats were. And they took advantage of it to boot. I don't see anything for them to win from this ongoing line of attack.

Indeed, in her January state of the state address, Palin said the state “must not rely so heavily on federal government earmarks.”

But the document summarizing Palin’s earmark requests was created the next month, and it suggested a still-healthy appetite for earmarks. Soon afterward, Palin wrote an op-ed in a local newspaper outlining her not-so-reticent posture on earmarks.

“My role at the federal level is simply to submit the most well-conceived earmark requests we can,” she wrote.

Obama's campaign has responded by challenging Palin's reform credentials.

"Senator McCain said Governor Palin ‘learned that earmarks are bad’, but in 2008 alone Gov. Palin requested $256 million in earmarks for Alaska, and her state received more earmarks per person that any other state," said spokesman Tommy Vietor. "The fact is that Governor Palin isn’t just good at getting pork projects, she’s one of the most successful pork barrel politicians in history."

Obama: Lessons On How To Keep Digging

I guess Obama would have us presume Governor Palin is simply window dressing, you know, sort of like lipstick given that she's a woman, as opposed to a pig? Way to go, Barry - keep digging. You're going to take yourself out of three-point range at this rate.

LETTERMAN: Let me ask you a question here, have you ever actually put lipstick on pig?

OBAMA: The answer would be no. But I think it might be fun to try .... This is sorta silly season in politics. Not that there's a non silly season but it gets sillier . It's a common expression in at least illinois. I don't know about in New York City. I don't know what you put lipstick on here. (Silly cringe from Letterman. Laughter from audience) In Illinois, The expression connotes the idea that if you have a bad idea -- in this case I was talking about McCain's economic plans -- calling them 'change,' calling them something different doesn't make them better. Hence lipstick on a pig is still a pig.

"Keep in mind, that technically had I meant it this way she would be the lipstick," Obama added. "The policies of John McCain would be the pig."

Does Obama Have A Serious PA Problem?

John Kerry took Pennsylvania by two points against Bush in 2004. Obama lost the PA primary to Hillary but led McCain there by 12 as recently as mid-June. His lead has been shrinking ever since and the two most recent polls have the PA race at 2 points - albeit advantage Obama: see here and here.

Given McCain's current momentum while Obama seems to be starting to flail a bit, this is very bad news for Obama.

If he loses Pennsylvania and its 21 Electoral Votes, this thing could be over. Democrats lost the White House while carrying PA in 2000 and 2004. Cobbling together an electoral strategy without it could prove impossible for Obama.

It isn't a state Obama expected to have to fight hard to win just a month ago.