LOTUS blog

The indispensable Sweetness & Light blog points out that Obama’s Platform for Change is very similar to another party’s platform.  The Communist Party of the United States’ “Election 2008” brochure is virtually identical to Obama’s platform.  Here’s a quiz I’ve put together for HUMAN EVENTS readers.  Answers appear at the bottom of this column.

1. “A new day is dawning. Our country is at a turning point.  This is a time of great possibility.  Across the land, people are coming together to reshape our nation’s priorities to make government ‘of, by and for the people’ a reality.”
2. “From the Midwest to the South, from coast to coast, in big cities and rural communities voters have turned out in record numbers for change.”
3. “While wages remain flat, the costs of basic necessities are increasing. The cost of in-state college tuition has grown 35 percent over the past five years. Health care costs have risen four times faster than wages over the past six years. And the personal savings rate is now the lowest it’s been since the Great Depression.”
4. “Voters are demanding a new kind of politics to rebuild our country for the common good. A democratic spirit of unity and hope is inspiring millions to get involved.  During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, unemployed workers and their allies marched and organized until public works jobs, Social Security and New Deal programs were won.”
5. “[U]se proceeds from the cap-and-trade auction program to invest in job training and transition programs to help workers and industries adapt to clean technology development and production… [C]reate an energy-focused Green Jobs.”
6. “Working people want bold new policies to end war restore democratic traditions and create green living wage jobs, affordable housing, healthcare and quality education for everyone.”

To get the answers, check out my Obama Watch column this week.

I haven’t posted my weekly column in awhile, so here are the last couple weeks:

Obama Watch: A Ludicrous Double Standard (August 6, 2008)

Obama Watch: Worldwind Tour (July 30, 2008)

Obama Watch: Democrats (Finally) Angry About Security Breach (July 23, 2008)

Or business as usual for the Democrats.

Pam Geller at Altas Shrugged has a great post on Florida Representative Robert Wexler’s residential fraud:

One of the most liberal members of Congress in Florida Robert Wexler (Obamapropagandist and notorious leftist)  is not a resident of his district. He has lived in Maryland since the late 90s.  He claims to live in a  house in Del Ray (owned by his mother-law)  in an active adult community  where no children are allowed, though he has three children). You can’t live there with kids, it’s against the rules of the community.

Another example of Democrat hubris  - I am above the law. It seems he has no connection to Florida at all. Clearly it’s a phantom residence, he ain’t sleeping on monster-in-law’s  couch with his three children.

Even though Wexler lives in Maryland, he doesn’t pay their state taxes.  Instead, he pays under Florida’s system, which has no state tax.  Be sure to read all of Geller’s post, as well as John Fund’s column on the issue.  Not only does Rep. Wexler think he’s above the law, but he viciously goes after those he disagrees with when they don’t release their home addresses.  Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes:

For example, the conservative author and pundit Ann Coulter, who had been stalked for years by mentally-unbalanced admirers and detractors, followed advice to conceal her actual address by registering to vote at a house just up the street from her actual address, in the very same precinct.  She had actually spent nights at the address she listed, and received her mail at that house, based on advice from the FBI.  (Many states have laws that allow domestic violence victims to list a mailing address rather than their actual address for voting purposes, but such laws generally don’t extend to victims whose stalkers are strangers rather than intimates).

But when Wexler’s office found out about this, they screamed that this was voting fraud, and did everything they could to try to get the (liberal) local prosecutor to indict Coulter.  For more than two years, Wexler’s staff publicly and repeatedly branded Coulter a felon for not registering to vote under her actual daily abode.  They did so even though she did not violate the law, since the address she listed was in the same precinct as her actual daily abode.

Obama Watch has a new format!  Click here to read this week’s column.

Tony Snow was the closing speaker at this year’s CPAC.  Following his speech, he stayed and signed autographs and took pictures with the attendees and volunteers.  Later than night I received a voicemail message from him thanking me for the opportunity to speak.  Sometimes it can seem a little hollow to hear the talking heads say how nice someone was.  But take it from a nobody like me — he really was as nice and gracious as they say.

Click here to watch Tony’s speech at CPAC 2008.

Click here to read the transcript of Tony’s speech at CPAC 2008.

To those that have followed Barack Obama’s career, his announcement last week endorsing faith-based initiatives doesn’t come as a surprise.  As a community organizer, Obama frequently solicited help from black churches in Chicago during his get out the vote efforts.  Obama said, “I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious household, but my experience in Chicago showed me how faith and values could be an anchor in my life… I wouldn’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I went out and did the Lord’s work.”

Click here to read the rest of my column this week.

Here’s my Human Events column for this week:

Reaction to last week’s historic Supreme Court decision overturning the D.C. ban on guns illustrates how far the American people have come in embracing and understanding  the Second Amendment.  Democrats have accepted that they have been on the losing side, so much so that their presidential nominee is whitewashing his radical anti-gun record. 

Click here to read the rest and make nice comments (please).

Aww, Obama seems so nice in this video.

Wonkette writes, “He is basically that earnest dork in your sales department who buys Costco rice pudding by the case and saw Happy Feet on its opening weekend, with his wife, on a date.”

Girls, you must resist!

Since both McCain and Obama’s cookie submissions both left me unsatisfied, I contacted the Bob Barr campaign for a recipe.  I give you Jeri Barr’s Bars!

Chocolate-Toffee Cookie Bars

3/4 cup Sugar

3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar

1 cup Butter-Flavored Crisco

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Eggs

2-1/4 cups Flour

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

1 cup Heath Bar (chopped), approximately 20 miniature bars

1/4 cup Georgia Pecans (chopped)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In large bowl, cream sugars, Crisco and vanilla.  On low speed, add egg, one at a time.  Set aside.  Sift together flour, salt and baking soda in separate bowl.  Gradually add dry mixture to creamed mixture and beat at medium speech.  Fold in chips and toffee.  Spread entire mixture into lightly greased 13 x 9 pan.  Top with pecans.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until brown on top.  Cool completely and cut into bars.

These are in the oven right now.  Pictures coming soon.

Since I have some leftover McCain Oatmeal Butterscotch cookies, I’ve decided that we’ll put Barr’s bars up against them tomorrow.  Stay tuned for the results and remember that the cookie contest has predicted the last four presidential elections!

UPDATE: Barr’s bars are currently beating McCain’c Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies by 6 to 1.  Let me remind me you that this is not a case of Barr taking cookie votes away from McCain.  Any votes that McCain’s cookies don’t receive are because the family did not come up with an adequate recipe.

LOTUS is now doing a weekly “Obama Watch” column on HumanEvents.com.  This week’s column is “Change Obama Can’t Afford”:

Last week Senator Barack Obama announced that he is opting out of the public financing system and spending limits and instead relying on private donations. He gave a litany of phony reasons and mischaracterizations of the financial picture on both sides.

Click here to read the rest.