Right Wing Nation

From Sebastian, this retired police officer:

Yet Mayor Nutter repeats the usual sophistry about guns. Hizzoner said, “That officer was assassinated on the streets of Philadelphia. There was nothing that could have protected him - that weapon penetrates vehicles.”

His statement illustrates why our elected representatives are unable to reduce violent crime.

The mayor’s lack of knowledge of weaponry notwithstanding, there is one patently obvious policy that definitely would have protected the officer.

If Levon Warner had served his full sentence, he would’ve been in prison until 2012. He could not have committed any crime in 2008.

Goal!

If Howard Cain had served his full sentence, he would’ve been in prison to 2052. He would not have murdered anyone in 2008.

Touchdown!

If Eric Floyd had served his full sentence, he’d have been in jail, not robbing banks, in 2008.

Home run!

But all three served less than the max and committed more violent crime. This time a cop ended up dead. Why isn’t the mayor addressing this more easily remedied and more salient issue?

KO!

I could have written every word of this Rasmussen video report on McCain’s VP choice.

Now, go read the accompanying article.

But it’s too bad I wasn’t in Philly yesterday. Wyatt:

For those of you in the Philadelphia area, Geno’s Steaks proprietor Joey Vento is donating all proceeds from today’s sales to the Stephen Liczbinski Family Memorial Fund.

“Useless degree” just took on a whole new dimension of meaning:

A student at the University of Mississippi will leap into the final frontier of the legal system Saturday when he receives the first-ever space law certificate in the United States

referring to the “Obama offense” nonsense:

Poor Hillary must be wishing someone would attack her so she could get a news story that didn’t involve the words, ‘quit the race’.

And I’m still laughing.

I agree with Andy McCarthy that Salter’s response to Obama’s “offense” is excellent — mostly. Salter says:

It is important to focus on what Senator Obama is attempting to do here: He is trying desperately to delegitimize the discussion of issues that raise legitimate questions about his judgment and preparedness to be President of the United States.

Yes, but that’s not the most important thing he’s trying to do — wait, strike trying, he’s done it. Again. Let’s look at the events.

Ahmed Yousef, political adviser for Hamas, said that Hamas supports Obama.

McCain pointed out that Hamas supports Obama — which is exactly what Yousef said.

Obama responds:

“This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing,” Obama told Blitzer, when asked his thoughts about McCain’s comments that the terrorist organization Hamas wants Obama to be president. “Because John McCain always says ‘I am not going to run that kind of politics,’ and to engage in that kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.

Stop right there, because he just did it. Do you see what he’s done? He’s changed the topic, from “Hamas supports Obama” to “My policy toward Hamas,” which is completely irrelevant to the issue. And Blitzer, of course, lets him get away with it, because he’s got his face planted so far up Obama’s rectum he probably didn’t even notice.

If this were only one example, it wouldn’t be worth much attention. But it’s not. This is what Obama does: Rather than answer a question, he skillfully changes the topic, and answers that. In the two Democrat debates I watched, he did exactly the same thing on every single question he was asked. He didn’t answer even one question. He essentially substituted another question, and answered that.

And they let him get away with it. Hillary let him get away with it. Edwards let him get away with it. The moderators let him get away with it. All of them let him get away with it.

This is important because Obama will be debating McCain, both in the press and on stage. The Democrats (as well as the moderators) let him get away with it every time he did it. McCain cannot. McCain needs to hold Obama’s feet to the fire, and not let him change the subject. I suspect that if he does, Obama’s answers won’t be nearly so polished and impressive. There must be a reason he always does that, after all.

Flopping Aces notices that the Obamination is whining again:

Barack Obama chastised John McCain Thursday for engaging in “smear” politics, and defended himself from critics who question whether he is capable of being commander-in-chief, during a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer — his first sit-down since the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

It’s called speaking truth to asshatery, Obama. Let’s review, shall we?

During an interview on WABC radio Sunday, top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the terrorist group supports Obama’s foreign policy vision.

“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.

So there it is. McCain said Hamas liked you — he didn’t say a damned thing about whether you liked them. Your response is what’s known as a strawman. A whiny strawman. McCain is right, and you’re a whiny little bitch — a whiny little bitch who hasn’t said a syllable denouncing Hamas’s love for you and support for your candidacy. And you missed a chance to claim you were being “swiftboated.” Remember, Obama, play the victim as much as you can.

From today’s local rag:

A Philadelphia man who had a felony theft charge against him dropped for lack of evidence Wednesday walked out of Centre County Court and, 90 minutes later, swiped a designer handbag from the Nittany Mall, police said.

Shane Q. Salley, 21, was arrested after police said he grabbed a $275 Dooney & Bourke purse about 12:30 p.m., ran from mall security at Macy’s, then led State College police on a 10-minute foot chase on foot on East College Avenue and Commercial Boulevard.

A second man who was seen on videotape with Salley, cutting security tags off items in Macy’s and stuffing the items in their shirts, was sent a summons for retail theft and receiving stolen property.

Salley now faces five misdemeanors: retail theft, receiving stolen property, escape, flight to avoid apprehension, trial or punishment and disorderly conduct. District Judge Leslie Dutchcot sent him to Centre County Correctional Facility in lieu of $50,000 straight bail Wednesday afternoon.

Hours earlier, Salley had been in county court for a scheduled 11 a.m. preliminary hearing on a charge of receiving stolen property, relating to the alleged theft of a rental car.

But Assistant District Attorney Lance Marshall said he didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute Salley. So, Salley pleaded guilty to speeding and left.

And promptly went to the mall to steal more merchandise. At least now, he’s behind bars where he belongs.

Blue Star Chronicles notes that John McCain has released his military records to the public. John Kerry promised to release his, but still has not done so.