Welcome America, to the Joel Gaines Show. I am your humble host - the common-sense conservative, Joel Gaines, and this is the where we remove the bumper sticker rhetoric typical in the mass media today. The number here is 484-461-JOEL.
Before we get into my riveting analysis of the United States political landscape, I want to talk to you about someone, her name is Irena Sendlerova and she hails from Warsaw, Poland.
Much of this lady’s life has been spent in obscurity and she certainly thought she was no one special. But let me tell you a little about this lady who recently died at the age of 98. She is someone you should know.
Irena was born is 1910 In Warsaw – her father was a physician. She was a bit of an activist against racial segregation in Europe – racism was rife against Jews during this time in much of Europe. She was suspended from university for three years because of her activism.
She was instrumental in the creation of escape routes for Jews fleeing the Nazi political machine – housing and feeding them, and falsifying documents necessary for escape. She did this on a daily basis, risking hanging or death by firing squad if the Nazis caught her.
During WWII, she was given a special permit to go into the Warsaw ghettos to check the Jews sequestered there for Typhus. The Nazis wanted nothing to do with Typhus or the dirty jews – in their opnion – who might have it. As Irena left each time, she carried a child out with her. Hidden among the things she claimed to have belonged to Typhus infected residents of the Warsaw ghetto.
During the course of 4 years she aided in the escape of some 3000 Jews – mostly children – from Nazi persecution. Each time she would place the person’s name and a few particulars on a slip of paper and place it in a jar – which she hid or buried. This was her record keeping system, in case she could help families reunite after the war.
In 1943, Irena was arrested, severely tortured, and sentenced to death. But her guards were bribed into letting her go. She was left in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs. She was listed as among those executed.
After the war, she dug up the jars containing the children’s identities and began an attempt to find the children and return them to living parents. However, almost all the children’s parents had died at the Treblinka extermination camp.
After the war, she was at first persecuted by the communists who took over Poland, for the “crime” of being related to the Polish government in exile and association with the Armia Krajowa resistance. She was imprisoned, miscarried her second child, and her children were denied the right to study at a university.
Her life and lessons on character and race have been the topic of study and influence in Universities all over the world. There have been books written about her, movies made about her, and a website irenasendler.org is dedicated to helping people understand the importance of what Irena lived for - Ensuring freedom for others. Now, let’s fast forward to 2007. Irena was nominated for an award because of the wonderful, important, and dangerous things she had done – things she had dedicated her entire life to and suffered as a consequence. Yet, when the award was announce, Irena Sendler was not among the recipients. Among those named was someone we’ve heard more about. Irena Sendler did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize – the prize went to Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change. After all she had accomplished against racial discrimination and against communism, Al Gore received an award she deserved so much more because he was able to bloviate about Global Warming. The cult of personality triumphed against real good in the world – which sets the theme of this show. Cult of Personality vs. the Real.
On Tap for today:
The VP picks, fully vetted and strategized into the respective campaigns, are out in the open – Barack Obama, of course chose Joe Biden. A respected senator and 2 time presidential nominee. John McCain chose relatively unknown Alaska Governot, Sarah Palin. I will tell you not only who this lady is, but why choosing her is sheer brilliance for John McCain’s campaign as well as for the country.
Change that you can believe in. Let’s take a look at the decisions of late that underscore Change you can believe in. Change – that dramatic, emotional mantra of the left. Let’s look at exactly what the leftists want to change.
In the 4th Segment, we’ll definitely talk about the faith vote and each candidate’s efforts to capture it - we’ll bring you some choice cuts from the Saddleback forum in Texas. The idea here is not to report what was said there, but to give you my astute analysis of the relevance of each candidate’s words.
Segment 2
To say that I am excited by John McCain’s choice for VP – well words don’t do justice to the range of thoughts regarding this brilliant, brilliant, decision. Before I go into why I am excited by this campaign, let me tell you a bit about Governor and VP candidate Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin is someone who DOES things. She is a “geter done” kinda lady. She is the epitome of the citizen activist that I think best suits government. These folks go into government because they want to right a wrong. They want to change something they see as contrary to the benefit of the citizens. Sarah Palin ran for City council because she saw a lot of waste and abuse going on. She ran for Mayor because she saw abuse and corruption. She ran for Lt Governor because she saw corruption. She ran for Governor because she saw ethics abuses. She chaired the ethics board of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She resigned in protest because of ethics issues with fellow Republicans on that board. As governor, she has fought corruption, wasteful spending, and she has no compunction against attacking those things – having publicly called for Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about his participation in corrupt dealings with oil, fisheries, and private corrections industries.
Palin is a Maverick – which fits doesn’t it? At 42, she was the youngest ever governor of Alaska. She was Alaska’s first woman Governor. She has bucked the conventional wisdom in Alaska – selling the state jet – on ebay no less – to rid the state of the overhead and perception of elitism that came with it.
Sarah Palin is all of those things conservatives are looking for. Pro-life. Lower-taxes. Ethical government. Fiscal conservatism – she told the US government that Alaska is capable of building their own bridge, thank you so much. This effectively put a stop to a controversial federal measure to build the “bridge to nowhere”.
But I have heard – in what seems to be the biggest statement of hypocrisy from the Democratic party apparatchiks these days – is that Governor Palin does not have enough experience to be Vice President or in a position to be president.
Let’s do some comparison between the Republican VP candidate and the Democratic Presidential candidate. In Washington, the mantra is what have you done and what have you run?
In the Illinois State Senate – Obama helped create tax subsidies for private industry designed to help low income housing projects. The neighborhoods he built – left to rot. Most of the homes are uninhabitable. The money went into the pockets of the developers.
Sarah Palin Created cut 1.2 billion in spending in Alaska, while also having the largest operating budget in Alaska history. The result? Total elimination of a budget deficit and a surplus, after spending more on education, transportation, and security.
Much is being made of the fact that Senator Obama has co-sponsored 570 bills in the US Senate. Co-sponsoring a bill is not an accomplishment, it is something done in the course of EVERY Senator’s normal day. To co-sponsor a bill, you have to do little more than tell someone you support whatever legislation it is and that you want to be listed as a co-sponsor. There is an average of 7 co-sponsors to every bill that is introduced in the US Senate. This is not an accomplishment.
Barak Obama has introduced amendments to 50 bills. So, of the 570 bills he has attached his name to, he has only worked – really worked – on 50 of them. Not a very good rate. Of those 50 bills, his amendments have been adopted in 16 cases. So, he has about a 33% success rate with the legislation he actually writes in a Democratically controlled congress. Again, not a very good rate. His one major legislative effort? The one thing people can point to for the Jr Senator from Illionois? He wants to give over 500 billion US taxpayer dollars to corrupt governments around the world. Those places impoverished by the practices of their own leaders.
Governor Palin does things that Barack Obama only talks about. Now, let me remind you that I am comparing the republican VP candidate with the Democratic Party Presidential dream guy. But let’s take a look at a few things Governor Palin has done.
She stood up against the some practices between oil companies and legislators from her own party. She blew the whistle on them. She put an end to the good old boy practice of pork barrel spending on behalf of her state. She maintains that Alaska is quite capable of determining what gets built and what gets spent in her state.
Governor Palin has been to Iraq as many times as Barack Obama had been before he was a Presidential candidate – despite the fact that he was in the US Senate before she was a Governor.
Governor Palin is responsible for the security of one of America’s biggest coastlines – a place, let me remind you, where we have recently seen Russian bombers approaching again for the first time since the “end of the cold war” She is also responsible for the security of the country’s largest oil pipeline. They say she lacks foreign policy experience – yet she governs every aspect of a state the borders two other countries – Canada and Russia.
She has more executive experience that Barack Obama. Mayor for 10 years and Governor for 2. Barack Obama has not LEAD anything.
Governor Palin is the Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard and has been actively involved in that post – as I said, having visited her soldiers in Iraq – making that trip as many times as the Senator from Illinois.
Barak Obama, again – no experience of that nature.
Sarah Palin comes from Blue Collar, humble, beginnings. She was a sports reporter and a Salmon fisher. Barak Obama was a civil rights lawyer.
Her husband is a salmon fisherman and in off season a supervisor for an oil production facility. Barak’s spouse holds a number of positions as dean of this, VP of that, executive director of the other, and lawyer.
GO ON WITH MORE.
So, we have a party highly animated on the theme of change. Change you can believe in. What has Barack Obama done to live up to his mantra of Change? Did he change the face of politics with respect to his decisions as a candidate for POTUS? Did he choose a woman or another minority? No - he didn’t. He chose someone who grounds him in experience. Joe Biden – 25 years in the Senate and as typical of a US Senator as anyone.
The bottom line about Barack Obama is that he has never – not once in his career – CHANGED anything. He did not change the power politics in Chicago. He has not challenged the corruption rife in that area. He has done nothing to CHANGE policy. Sarah Palin has changed more as a Governor, than Barack Obama has changed as a State Senator and US Senator combined. Governor Palin has stood up to ethics violations and corruption against people in her own party. Barack Obama can’t even stand up against his pastor.
John McCain’s choice of Governor Palin is as relevant as it is brilliant. He has taken away the ability of the Obama campaign to attack her experience because she is in fact more experienced that he is. John McCain has brought in someone with solid conservative credentials _ PRO Choice, Lower Taxes, Fiscal management leading to surplus, ending corrupt spending practices, ending porkbarrel projects_ Barack Obama has a failed housing project with nothing to show for millions of taxpayer dollars.
Sarah Palin is married to an indigenous Yup’ick – that’s right, her husband is a Native American or American Indian or whatever term makes you most comfortable. But I don’t contend this represents change. To me, Sarah Palin is the American Story. Humble beginnings, nothing dramatic, like an imagined march for civil rights that lead to her conception. She has fought for what is right, rather than trying to maintain the status quo of go along to get along.
The interesting aspect to this – Democrats are talking about Change. What are they trying to change? Well, the anecdotal evidence is that Obama’s change is related to social conditions of the average American. In 1988, that was what Biden was all about and that fits n nicely with Barack and Michelle’s statements about America. With their pastor’s statements about America and the African American Value System which seems to denigrate the United States for something no one living today had anything to do with. Sarah Palin is able to be married to a Native American and have great things to say about the United States and then contribute to that greatness. That’s the sort of Change Barack Obama should be pursuing. Instead he seems to send his message to the most bitter among us. To those who are disgruntled and those who support them. Governor Palin is young, independent of thought, and a proven, capable leader. Barack Obama is young and has proven nothing but that he can make great speeches from time to time.
Change – that’s what John McCain has done and Barack Obama has only promised.
Segment 3
A quick update on Russia’s invasion of Georgia. They are not going anywhere. I told you this was going to happen. I have been trying to warn Americans about Russia for 7 years. Russia has neutered the free world, while re-invoking Soviet –era ambitions for controlling vast stretches of the globe outside its own borders.
Listen carefully, Russia has recognized the independence of S Ossettia and Abkhazia. My leftist Russiaphile acquaintances are giddy and it is sickening to me. The free world is neutered into inaction against the reemergence of the Russian bear of the cold war era. Listen to these words from the President of Russia himself.
“We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War,” he said. Hours earlier he had ordered his Foreign Ministry to start establishing diplomatic ties with the secessionist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In the mean time Russia is warning NATO about a buildup of NATO ships in the black sea.
The missile destroyer USS McFaul is already off the Georgian coast, with the US Coastguard ship Dallas docked in Georgia’s port of Batumi, both to show support for the Caucasus nation. Washington has now ordered the flagship of its 6th Fleet, the sophisticated command ship Mount Whitney, into the area, saying it will deliver humanitarian supplies. But the flotilla has angered the Kremlin.
Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to Nato, warned against western interference in Georgia’s two breakaway regions, saying: “If Nato takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia.”
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, dragged the United States presidential candidates into the row. He suggested Georgia might have been pushed by someone in the US into using force to protect the two separatist states, saying the anti-Moscow rhetoric would help give a competitive advantage to one of the candidates.
It is curious – some of the Criticism I have about Barack Obama’s campaign is mirrored by some of the people who now tell us they know him best and he is best for this country. I am talking about Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
“You never hear the specifics.”
– Hillary Clinton, speaking about his Issue Plans
“I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The
Presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job
training.”
– Senator Joe Biden, when asked if Barack Obama is ready to be
President
“I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience he will bring to
the White House–and Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002.”
– Hillary Clinton, about Obama’s leadership
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