Jim Geraghty at Campaign Spot says that Obama could kill some rumors by releasing his birth certificate. He's thinking of three rumors in particular: (1) whether Obama was really born in Kenya; (2) whether Obama middle name is not "Hussein", but is instead "Muhammad"; and (3) that his birth name is "Barry" rather than "Barack." Click over to read the whole thing, which is laid out in much more detail.

I hadn't actually heard any of those rumors before and they certainly wouldn't be the first thing I looked for if I had the chance to look at Obama's birth certificate. The first thing I would use the birth certificate to debunk is the nagging rumor of Obama's religion at birth. I don't know about Hawaiian birth certificates, but mine from Texas has spaces for religion of the parents and child. A glimpse of Obama's form should end the ridiculous rumor that he's a secret Muslim, shouldn't it?

More: Michelle Malkin has a good reply to Obama's typical response:

Lest the Obama campaign start whining about this issue being an unfair “distraction,” John McCain underwent intense scrutiny of his citizenship status because of his birth in the Panama Canal zone, leading the Senate to declare him a natural-born citizen in April.

It is no distraction to expect candidates to tell the truth about themselves and to provide proof of their claims when there is any doubt. Credibility issues are always relevant.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:19 AM | Comments (70)
Post contains 249 words, total size 2 kb.

The Wall Street Journal describes the process Israel has taken in attempting to open dialogue with Syria, and submits that such nuance has thus far escaped Obama.

The Olmert overture is a classic case study in how to reach out to an unfriendly leader -- as well as when not to do so...

About a year ago, senior Israeli officials say, Mr. Olmert decided that breaking the Syrian-Iranian link was a strategic imperative. Judging there was no way to accomplish that by working through the Israel-haters atop Iran's clerical regime, he decided to reach out instead to the secular president of Syria, Bashar Assad. In short, he sought a dialogue with his enemy.

This was the Olmert message to Syria, Israeli officials say: You have an alternative to friendship with Iran, and it can be good for you. Peace with Israel would translate into commercial relations with the West, international help to achieve real economic development, international respect and an end to enmity with the U.S. The price would be cutting ties to Iran, expulsion of terror groups from Damascus and an end to support for those attacking American forces in Iraq...

So Mr. Olmert decided to find an indirect, and secret, channel to start the process.

Read it all, as they say, for the details on how Olmert threaded the needle to prevent an embarassment for Israel's allies, and avoided the fatal mistake of going into a meeting with an enemy state as a "weak horse", with no preconditions.

WSJ's conclusion:

What are the lessons for Sen. Obama? The Israeli move confirms the value of reaching out to an enemy, which was the gist of the Obama impulse in answering that debate question.

But the Israeli overture also shows that timing is crucial and a clear agenda for any talks essential. It also shows that laying the groundwork to avoid surprises can be a slow and painstaking process.

I find it predictable, but entirely frustrating, that truly dispassionate reporting tends to come from financial sources. Makes one wonder if a journalism degree ought to be loaded heavily with economics credits.

Posted by: Open Blog at 07:19 AM | Comments (12)
Post contains 365 words, total size 2 kb.

This is a rather amazing article, go read it all.

In an interview, Sheik Ahmad al-Rishawi told The New York Sun that in April he prepared a 47-page study on Afghanistan and its tribes for the deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Kabul, Christopher Dell. When asked if he would send military advisers to Afghanistan to assist American troops fighting there, he said: "I have no problem with this; if they ask me, I will do it."...

...Of his meeting with Mr. Bush, Sheik Ahmad said he was impressed. "He is a brave man. He is also a wise man. He is taking care of the country's future, the United States' future. He is also taking care of the Iraqi people, the ordinary people in Iraq. He wants to accomplish success in Iraq."...

...We fully trust the Americans. We know the United States never in its history occupied a country...

Our guys, Petraeus and the Anbaris have been through the fire together. I don't think the average American really understands the dynamic that has gone on here.

Sure, we see the successes as (sometimes) told by the media, but to a large degree we're not noticing the internal relationships being formed. What the Sheik is offering here goes well beyond anything that might be reasonably expected of him. This goes beyond politics.

H/T Jarred

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:43 PM | Comments (58)
Post contains 276 words, total size 2 kb.

Thanks to Slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 06:08 PM | Comments (34)
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.

If his verbal review is harsh, wait until he gets to the ballistic review. more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (77)
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

More ravings from the Religious Right.

Thank God we have an MSM eagerly patrolling such unhinged rightwing Christians for their most lunatic statements.

Posted by: Ace at 03:41 PM | Comments (36)
Post contains 65 words, total size 1 kb.

"Urkel," says Mesablue, which isn't quite fair. Urkel at least was a genius.

But you know, he did manage to bump fists with his wife, and that was like sooo totally cool that cancels out a thousand pictures like this.

God. He bumped fists with his wife. That was the story all weekend long.

This is going to be a long five months.

Posted by: Ace at 03:05 PM | Comments (70)
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.

Lately he's knocking McCain for supporting the Bear-Sterns "bailout."

At the time, he said it was different than a bailout -- he said it was intended (as it was) to forestall a "domino effect" that could have taken out the entire financial system in the US -- and that he would not "challenge" it.

But now that that crisis seems averted, he feels free to change his old position and attack McCain for a "bailout."

You're not supposed to say this, of course.... but Barack Obama is dumb. He just doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about most of the time -- pretty much any time he moves away from childish slogans about hope and change.

Is he being treated differently because he's a liberal, or because he's black? Probably both.

I do know that George W. Bush would have been crucified -- and frequently was crucified, come to think of it -- for similar demonstrations of a paper-thin comprehension of major issues.

Thanks to liberrocky.

Oh, and Then There's This: CountryWide, the subprime lender, used to be a big bugaboo in Obama's stump speech. Not any more.

Don't worry -- it's just a distraction, and the guy from CountryWide working for him is just an "informal" adviser or something. You know, what they always are when they say or do something that hurts Obama.

Posted by: Ace at 02:22 PM | Comments (19)
Post contains 236 words, total size 2 kb.

Dr. De Cock. Well he would say that wouldn't he?

I've seen this story around since the weekend but I didn't post it because I thought -- don't we already all know this?

I guess the answer is No, "we" all didn't know it. We conservatives have known it for years; finally the news seems to be deemed safe to report among liberal quarters as well.

A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared.

In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO's department of HIV/Aids said there will be no generalised epidemic of Aids in the heterosexual population outside Africa.

Dr De Cock, an epidemiologist who has spent much of his career leading the battle against the disease, said understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed. Whereas once it was seen as a risk to populations everywhere, it was now recognised that, outside sub-Saharan Africa, it was confined to high-risk groups including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and sex workers and their clients.

Dr De Cock said: "It is very unlikely there will be a heterosexual epidemic in other countries. Ten years ago a lot of people were saying there would be a generalised epidemic in Asia – China was the big worry with its huge population. That doesn't look likely. But we have to be careful. As an epidemiologist it is better to describe what we can measure. There could be small outbreaks in some areas."

...

Dr De Cock said: "I think it is unlikely there will be extensive heterosexual spread in Russia. But clearly there will be some spread."

Thanks to Blacksheep for finally rousing me to post this by highlighting the Dr. Cock's long battle against sexually transmitted diseases.

He's Dutch or something, of course. I should note that in Dutch "cock" doesn't have the same meaning it has in English.

It means "dirty smelly ballsack."

Posted by: Ace at 02:08 PM | Comments (48)
Post contains 383 words, total size 2 kb.

Dream big, kid. Dream big.

Rewards are nice, but recognition is better. So if I'm one of Starbucks's best customers, I want to have elite status, as I do on American Airlines. I want shorter lines, better freebies, special seating (Aeron chairs, preferably) and electrical outlets reserved just for me and my laptop.

Silly? No, he says.

When I dared express these thoughts in a post on the personal finance Web site FiLife a few months ago, commenters there and on the Starbucks Gossip site called me selfish and self-absorbed and suggested that I get a life. After all, itÂ’s just coffee, they said.

He also "wants to be invited to "a members-only party when new products come out." Again, like the old Calgon ad said, "Live the fantasy."

What to say? I've said this before, but if anyone wants to understand the basic cultural impulse of Luppies (Liberal Urban Professionals), watch the commentary track of Gosford Park. The screenwriter explains the tastes of the dying aristocracy of the early 1900's as largely a series of learned affectations designed to set them apart from the commoners. Thus their flat rejection of popular culture (something the proles like, in the main) and suspicions about anyone making money by actually making money (as opposed to just living off ancestral lands' rents).

And of course those forced to be most ostentatious about these affectations were precisely those least entitled to call themselves the aristocracy, that is, those who were only barely high-born, or actually quite poor despite their high social status, or otherwise in danger of losing their cherished membership in the club.

Those more secure in their position, or adequately dirty-rich, could better afford to flout the affected tastes of the country-manor set.

It's the same sort of overcompensation that is often said to lead to men with feelings of inadequacy buying big-engined sportscars. The same impulse leads those with a gnawing sense of lack of adequate social status to buy Volvos and Priuses, but of course they don't like to joke about that.

Many liberals are much concerned with setting themselves apart as members of the socio-cogno-cultural elite, and yet don't have any particularly strong claims on such status, to wit, either aristocratic lineage, high accomplishment in one's field, or (as ever) a big stinking heap of money.

And thus these idiotic cultural/tribal signifiers -- an otherwise inexplicable romance with rather overpriced and often-burned coffee sold in strip-malls and walking-malls by a vendor with some light European pretensions, a rage about this or that independent movie that all of the smart-set agrees is a must-see, which hot new vodka is currently the only one to drink, etc. -- occupy such a disproportionately large part of the Luppies' mindspace.

They're not just buying coffee at Starbucks, you see. They are, for just $3.99 per Venti, establishing or reinforcing, they think, that craved position in the social/cultural/cognitive elite that otherwise eludes them. Renting status at a steeply-discounted price, considering the various other ways -- either difficult or expensive or both -- to actually obtain it.

Me? I go to coffee shops for coffee, not cultural entre. I watch movies because I like them, not to establish my credentials in a largely-imaginary liberal urban "elite."

For an ostensible (and ostentatious) elite that scorns the cultural choices of the hoi polloi, they sure do seem to buy into an awful lot of affected nonsense, don't they?

At least the hoi polloi comes by its tastes authentically and without pretense, rather than feigning tastes swiped from others.

This poor NYT jackass just makes the mistake of admitting his yearning for what is usually best kept as subtext -- some sort of official recognition of his elite status by the huckster coffee company renting it to him.

The Anxious Class: Alex writes--

Paul Fussell's book Class: A Guide Through the American Status System made some related observations.

Fussell pointed out that one of the chief characteristics of the American middle class is status anxiety and the desire to be perceived as upper-middle-class (and for upper-middles, desire to be perceived as upper-class). Hence such thoroughly middle-class practices as "advertis[ing] their college and university affiliations in the rear window of their automobiles," or ostentatiously making sure that everyone around them knows that they have "upscale" tastes in clothing, reading material (e.g., the New Yorker magazine), food, and wine (and these days, coffee).

The ironic thing about the latter phenomenon is that the truly upper-class -- meaning, people who mostly live on inherited money and have enough of it not to feel like they have to impress anybody -- often have pretty poor taste in eating, drinking, and reading, drive beat-up crappy cars, and wear ratty old suits with frayed collars and cuffs.

But yeah: Starbucks is totally middle-class in exactly that way.

Posted by: Ace at 01:36 PM | Comments (47)
Post contains 823 words, total size 5 kb.