Midnight Blue Says

MURKOWSKI CONCEDES ALASKA PRIMARY RACE

Seems Alexandra Gutierrez missed the goal post by a mile when she cheerily predicted a landslide win for Murkowski over the Palin backed candidate, Joe Miller.

UNALASKA, Alaska—On Tuesday, in her home state, Sarah Palin’s favorite will probably get trounced. Joe Miller is widely expected to lose by a large margin to incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary—an embarrassing defeat for the former governor, who has endorsed Miller, but also to Miller’s other major backer, the Tea Party Express.

Gee, I hope she didn’t have any money riding on a Murkowski win. Anchorage Daily News (ADN) reports:

With 429 of 438 precincts counted this morning,, Miller had 45,909 votes (51 percent) to 43,949 (49 percent) for Murkowski.

Miller credited the support of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his lead.

“I’m absolutely certain that was pivotal,” he said.

Karma – don’t mess with her.

Oh, I’m not holding out for a mea culpa from Alexandra on this epic fail any time soon.

MLK March August 28th, 1963

Restoring Honor, August 28, 2010

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, would be proud of the Americans gathered for Restoring Honor, keeping his dream alive.  His niece, Alveda King spoke to the 100,000 gathered on the anniversary of MLK’s speech.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the organizers at Independence Tea Party Association for organizing buses to this event. They filled 28 buses for this rally! They deserve a huge round of applause for this herculean effort.

This was a curious event for my to cover, as I’m not overtly religious and try not to mix politics with my faith. As most of the speeches were televised on CSPAN, I decided to take a closer look at the attendees. The crowds near the jumbotrons and the stage were nearly impossible to push through, so I wandered through the crowds between the WW2 Memorial and the far edge of the reflecting pool. Media of all description were interviewing attendees and I stopped to listen to some of the interviews. I even taped a snippet of one as well. Please note that you will have to turn your volume up to hear the interview; more importantly the focus of the interview was health care, not religion.  Every attendee interview that I encountered appeared well versed in the subject matter of the questions directed to them. The best interview I witnessed was one conducted by a French news agency with two counter protesters. The ‘man’ dressed as Sarah Palin, when asked by the reporter, admitted he felt safe to don his costume in this crowd. How ironic is it that another ‘man’ with the same political outlook as this tool feel free enough to assault me at a Sheepdog rally in 2008. It gives you a real clear idea of where todays political climate of hate and violence really stem from.

My good blogging buddy, Andrew Ian Dodge, has stated in his review of an event he did not witness:

As a result of this event ( Ed. Note: Restoring Honor), Republicans will not win the Senate and it may also hurt their chances to win the House.

I have to vehemently disagree with Andrew on this. What I found at this rally were American patriots from all walks of life who are concerned with this administration’s fiscal instability, over-reaching government intrusion in private industry, and the Obamacare disaster. Oh, they just happen to be openly religious and vote. So what. I’m not intimidated by their religiosity. Somehow, Andrew Ian Dodge finds that condemnation enough.

This gathering of  primarily evangelical Christians, most well informed on the issues, clearly and politely made their case to the lurking main stream media at this event.  I even spied GOProud stickers at this event and missed the opportunity to photograph the stickers as I’m damn sure the MSM ignored it.

What happened at this rally was one not-so-religious blogger found common ground with with the overtly religious.  No, no one tried to convert me (Thank you very much!), but common ground was found in fiscal responsibility, limited government intrusion in our personal lives and in replacing Obamacare.  Even from differing religious perspectives, the uplifting principle of Americans free to build their dreams and creating a better nation for all was clearly communicated at this rally. It is truly the resurgence of the American Dream.

That is the take home message from this rally. Martin Luther King, Jr would be proud of this day and proud of our nation.

I look forward to  November.

FYI: As always, the rally area was left cleaner than it was that morning and safer than normal. I had a great opportunity to remind folks of this at the rally. While walking to the rally, a woman a several feet in front of me unknowingly dropped a considerable amount of cash on the ground. A man behind me quickly alerted her and I could not resist in reminding the crowd around us that if that had happened at an anti war rally, her money would have been history. Quite a few chuckled in agreement, including the lady who recovered her funds.

UPDATES:

Doctor Zero at Hot Air claims 300,000 in attendance. I can’t argue that figure.

Voting Female – Professional race baiter’s are P’Oed.

American Power – Leftists Desperately Seeking Racists

Marooned In Marin has more photos and video of leftist infiltrators

Pure awesomeness at this rally.  Lot’s of stores to tell. I’ll have a more detailed post for tomorrow, in the meantime, I’d like to share some photos  of the day’s events:

Ed Driscoll catches CNN in an epic fail regarding their coverage of the event.

Day By Day

Topical question, indeed. Since similar labels have been thrown around over the cordoba mosque scandal.

David Harsanyi cuts right to the core of this divisive debate:

There are those who continue to make the facile claim that any protest over Park51 is a display in un-American intolerance and contempt for the Constitution. This position treats criticism of faith — religious institutions and symbols included — as tantamount to “bigotry.”

Prevailing opinion states that 70 percent of Americans are in opposition to this mosque. Yes, that would include Senator Harry Reid along with myself. Truly this is an extraordinary issue for a conservative to stand alongside Harry Reid. Yet some would view our stance as islamophobic and/or bigoted. In a recent interview Pelosi suggested the federal government should look into funding sources of those who oppose the mosque. Seriously, it has come down to this – let’s investigate the financial background of those in opposition?  All of this adds up to a chilling assault on free speech. Long gone are the days when dissent was patriotic.

Jonah Goldberg finds the ‘perversely disfiguring narrative‘ of American anti-muslim bigotry to be nothing more than total bunk.

This is an incredibly tolerant country and, it has shown remarkable tolerance since 9/11. There has been no “anti-Muslim” backlash.

Cordoba Mosque – do we need to build it to prove that we are not bigots?  Jonah reminds us that tolerance must work both ways:

In any decent society, tolerance must work both ways. If the majority is expected to show respect for a minority, the minority must also show some tolerance for the values of the majority. I’m no strict majoritarian – one with right on his side is the majority as far as I’m concerned. But this isn’t a clear-cut issue of right and wrong. It’s more complicated than that. It’s about deference and decency and common sense. And one of the things common sense should tell us is that it is not only unfair but terribly ill-advised to portray 7 out of 10 Americans as bigots when they are anything but.

Now, who will be the first to start throwing stones at this opinion?

Barack Obama supported it before backing away from it:

Friday: ‘Let me be clear: As a citizen and as President I believe that Muslims have the same right … to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in Lower Manhattan’.

Saturday: ‘I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there’

Ohhkay..at least we all can agree that Obama and a leader of hamas terror group, Mahmoud al-Zahar, are on the same page regarding the mosque:

“Zahar said that as Muslims, “We have to build everywhere.”

“In every area we have, [as Muslims] we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer, especially for the people when they are looking [to be] in the group, not an individual,” he said.

Sarah Palin and Harry Reid appear to be on the same side of this issue. Is the sky falling yet?

@SarahPalinUSA : “Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand. Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in the interest of healing,”

@SarahPalinUSA”Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.”

@SarahPalinUSA: Mr. President, should they or shouldn’t they build a Muslim mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people?Your position?

Senator Reid concurs and asks that the developers should build the mosque elsewhere:

In a statement, Reid said the first amendment protects freedom of religion and he respects that, but the mosque should be built somewhere else.

Burning questions arise, will Salon report that New Yorkers reject Democrat Senator HarryReid’s blithering bigotry? Would those who labeled anyone who opposes the mosque at ground zero as an ‘islamophobe’, care to call out Harry Reid? Or are supporters comfortable being in agreement with a known terrorist organization?

Let’s be perfectly clear – the right thing to do is to move the  mosque.

Tea Party Express hosted a press conference for black conservatives – what could go wrong?

Powerful stuff – No wonder Dems are worried.

William McGurn in the WSJ reminds of a similarly contentious situation around another area of hallowed ground –  Auschwitz, Poland.

In 1980, Carmelite nuns built a chapel at the edge of Auschwitz in order to dedicate prayers to the souls who perished in her ovens.  This simple act of praying ignited a firestorm of controversy between Jews and Catholics living in Poland and abroad. 

Many Catholics, not just in Poland, could not understand how nuns begging God’s forgiveness and praying for the souls of the departed could possibly offend anyone. There was also a nationalist element. Many members of the Polish resistance had also been murdered at Auschwitz. And again like our present controversy at Ground Zero, intemperate reactions and statements from both sides only inflamed passions.

Eventually, Pope John Paul stepped in and after careful consideration asked the Nuns to remove themselves to local chapel not far from Auschwitz.

Without doubt Pope John Paul II did not share the more malevolent interpretations attached to the presence of the Carmelites at Auschwitz. By asking the nuns to withdraw, he didn’t concede them either. What he did was recognize that having the right to do something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

Perhaps Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan will consider the actions of this great man and do the right thing, move the mosque.

Time is of the essence – call your Senators today and tomorrow through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Dr. Coburn has filed Amendment 4331 to H.R. 4213, the Tax Extenders Bill, that provides ways to pay for extenders with savings along with striking the tax increases included in the bill. The total savings proposed in this amendment is over $126 billion.

This section of the amendment should be forwarded to every registered voter:

SEC. __20. STRIKE TAX INCREASESReduces new tax increases by $47.5 billion

SEC. __12. ELIMINATING BONUSES FOR POOR PERFORMANCE BY GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS.
$8 billion ten year savings

SEC. __13. $1 BILLION LIMITATION ON VOLUNTARY PAYMENTS TO THE UNITED NATIONS.
$10 billion ten year savings

When was the last time you saw a politician write any type of amendment calling for a REDUCTION of taxes?

You can read the amendment at this LINK. You know the Dems haven’t read it, but they will certainly vote ‘NO’ on it.  Here is the LINK to a section by section summary of the amendment.

American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 may be voted on as early as Thursday! Now is the time to call and tell your Senator to vote YES on this amendment.

New Orleans 2010

Had too good of a time in New Orleans, it took me a few more days than I anticipated to get back to the blogs.

I’ve put together a set of photos and videos on Flickr for your perusal. Some of the photos I simply have no explanation for, so please don’t ask.

I will be emailing a photo to a certain Wall Street Journal employee. I hope to hear back from him and will post the response and the photo here.

Dear Readers,

I will be taking the week off in order to attend a conference in New Orleans, LA.  My schedule has very little down time, therefore, I will not be able to update the blog or approve comments. Essentially, I’m going off the grid for a week, and I’m hopeful I’ll survive sans Blogging, Tweeting, FB’ing, and Amplifying.

Of course, there will be photos and video to process when I return. Perhaps a story or two..it is NOLA.

Have a great week and I’ll see you next Sunday

Tania

PS: While I’m gone – chew on these tidbits:

Two (Dem) Council Members Give Staffers Raises :

City Hall belt tightening didn’t prevent two Council members from recently handing out raises to staffers. Councilman Bill Green this month gave raises to five of his staffers, including a $30,000 bump to his Chief of Staff Sophie Bryan, bringing her salary to $100,000. In total, Green increased his staff salaries by $42,500 and is now paying $354,720 to his 7-person office, according to city data.

Spend, Baby, Spend – Latest Philadelphia marketing slogan.

America, Optimism on Hold

We are not out of the economic woods just yet.