Friess Blast McCain for Blatant Sexism

From his mountain hideout somewhere deep in the Tetons, Foster Friess was still smarting from his incorrect prediction that Senator John McCain would select Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota as his running mate. "He only picked Sarah Palin because she was a girl," he complained bitterly.

Foster’s son, Stephen, has been trying to talk some sense into his father. “Dad, Dad, hold on...she's the perfect choice,” he was overheard saying. “You couldn't have ordered a better pick from Central Casting. I mean our country’s president is like our CEO. As a mayor and a governor she's had more executive experience than Senators Obama, McCain & Biden combined!”

“Maybe,” Foster grumped as he tossed the “McCain/Pawlenty” needlepoint he had been working on in the fireplace.

“She's married her high school sweetheart who just happens to be a union member and works in the oil fields,” Stephen pleaded. “That will appeal to blue collar workers. Their oldest son is headed for Iraq so the military types will like her and she gave birth to her fifth child knowing he had Down’s Syndrome. This is a true Christian who values all life.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Foster said. “But is she tough enough for the job?”

“Tough!” Stephen laughed. “Her senior year of high school she lead her team to the state basketball championship. Her nickname was Barracuda!”

“That doesn't tell me anything.”

“How about this,” Stephen said with a knowing grin. “She made the winning free throw and played the game with a stress fracture in her ankle! Is that tough enough for you?”

“Really?” Foster said as he sat up a bit straighter in his chair

“Yes, really,” Stephen answered. “Plus, she runs marathons, loves to hunt and fish and, as governor, she took on the corruption in the “old boy’s” network in Alaska and cleaned house. She has gone toe to toe with big oil and won. All of this while cutting taxes. Her current approval rating is at 80% in the state.

“No kidding?” Foster said as he rubbed his chin.

“She even told the federal government she wasn't going to put up $300 million dollars of her state's money for that “bridge to nowhere” that made everyone so mad. She is a wonderful pick. Since the announcement, Dr. James Dobson at Focus on the Family has gone from saying he would never vote for McCain to saying “I could pull that lever” for a McCain/Palin ticket.”

“But I had dinner with Governor Pawlenty and his wife,” Foster said with a sigh. “I really liked them.”

“I know, I know,” Stephen said as he patted his father on the back. “Maybe she’ll invite you to dinner sometime. She might even make you some venison she shot herself.”

“That would be nice,” The senior Friess responded. "I don't like being wrong but I see what you're saying and I'm ecstatic.”

“Finally,” Stephen said as he turned his eyes to heaven and mumbled a silent “Thank you.”

Looking at Palin’s picture on his computer screen, Foster said, “You have to admit she's really good looking.”

Stephen’s shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes. "Dad, you can't talk about a woman's beauty these days because it might offend someone.”

“I give up,” Foster Friess said as he stood up and headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Stephen asked.

“I’m going to go play a round of golf. That seems to be the only thing I can do right lately.”

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I think Governor Sarah Palin is an incredible pick and will make an outstanding Vice President. With all of the talk about Hillary, who would have thought the Republicans might be the ones to nominate and elect America’s first female Vice President?

If you want to help this Dream Team get elected, be sure to visit, McCain/Palin 2008.

Other takes on the Palin pick:

Dick Morris Lady is a Champ. (New York Post)
Mark Steyn The Hostess With the Moostest. (National Review)
Newt Gingrich, The Power of Authenticity. (Weekly Standard)

Wow! I had dinner last night with the next Vice President of the United States....

I predict Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will be named tomorrow as Senator McCain’s running mate.

Visiting with him and his wife Mary at the Governor's mansion in St. Paul last night, he comes across as honest, sincere, down to earth, gracious, humorous and a person with natural compassion. Having, at the urging of his wife, converted from Catholic to Evangelical, he will electrify the important religious values voters, estimated by some at 26 percent of the electorate.

Mary Pawlenty, mother of two teenage daughters, has served as a district judge and is vivacious, intelligent, gracious and committed to the values shared by the majority of Americans. She recently was given the Patrick Henry Award from the National Guard Association for her First Lady's Military Family Care Initiative that provides support to the families of Guardsmen who have been called to active duty.

Visiting with them gives me a burst of hope not only for the November election but for the future of America.

The Media, Democrats and “Republican Slime”

With the Democratic National Convention in full swing and fawning media coverage for Barack Obama on the level of somewhere between a coronation and a beautification; it is a wonderful time to reflect on the Mainstream Media (MSM) and the way they view the two political parties. With well over 90% of the credentialed Washington press willing to admit they are Democrats, it is hardly surprising that they would be swooning over the prospects of an Obama presidency. In fact, the default position for the MSM seems to be to always give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt and suspect the motives of every Republican.

The big catch phrase this election cycle for the MSM has been the “Republican Slime Machine”. By that they mean unfair attacks on Democrats like the “Swift Boating” of John Kerry in 2004. In the Swift Boat ads, over 100 combat veterans, who served alongside John Kerry, were willing to stand up, state their names and cite specific events they had personally witnessed. Four years later, Senator Kerry still hasn’t released his full military records. With his signature on the bottom of a single document, he could have discredited the Swift Boat Vets and proven he was the war hero he so boldly claimed when he was “reporting for duty” at the last Democratic Convention. Instead of demanding the full release of Kerry’s military record, the MSM focused their energy questioning the motives of the Swift Boat Vets.

On the Republican side, President George W. Bush released all of his military records and answered all questions about his service in the National Guard. Still, CBS ran a much heralded report on “Sixty Minutes” with Dan Rather relying on a single anonymous source and forged documents to try and impugn the president. Thanks to sharp-eyed bloggers the fraud was quickly exposed and CBS found itself dancing backwards faster than Ginger Rogers in a Fred Astaire movie.

In this election cycle, the MSM ignores or minimizes well documented facts about Barack Obama while promoting rumors and innuendo about John McCain. The media has turned a blind eye to Obama and his connection with a confessed 60’s radical who brags about bombing government buildings. They gloss over the fact that the Obama’s got a sweetheart deal when they bought a house for a $300,000 discount off the asking price while convicted embezzler Tony Rezko bought the adjoining vacant property for full price. Rezko then sold part of the land to Obama at a steep discount. No one in the MSM seemed the least bit curious about the $14 million dollars in federal funds Obama had help to direct to Rezko and his companies. In a shameless example of media bias, in the current issue of Newsweek, they actually go so far as to condemn John McCain for mentioning this obvious conflict of interest in recent campaign ads.

On the other side, the New York Times ran a thinly supported hit piece alleging that McCain had an affair with a lobbyist eight years earlier. The Times, facing an indignant firestorm of criticism, claimed the article was not about an alleged affair but about potential ethics problems for McCain. Their protestation seemed a bit hollow considering the first six paragraphs of a front page article was about an affair everyone denied ever happened and included a photo of the lobbyist an unnamed source had claimed the campaign was “worried” about.

It is rare when a politician will call someone a “liar” the way Obama did when the Christian Broadcasting Network asked him about his 2003 committee vote on “Born Alive” legislation while he was still in Illinois. The bill would have required doctors to try to save the life of any child born alive during a botched abortion. It turns out Obama was the one who was lying; he was in favor of letting the baby die. So far the MSM – which is nearly 100% pro-choice – has closed ranks on this little nugget and they have minimized or buried any and all stories about Barack Obama’s twisted support of a woman’s right to choose even if it means infanticide.

Among the many other stories the MSM has chosen to overlook, is the presence of several members of the wildly anti-Semitic and racist “Nation of Islam” on Obama’s senior staff both now and while he was still in the Illinois legislature. Imagine the uproar if McCain had a few avowed Klansmen working for him. They have also overlooked that in his brief time in the U.S. Senate he amassed the most liberal voting record of any member in 2007.

The mainstream media has shown no reluctance in protecting their chosen candidate and trashing McCain at every opportunity. This poses an interesting question; is it a “Republican Slime Machine” or should that title belong to the Mainstream Media?

Redemption for the Women’s Movement?

For the past few decades the once proud women’s movement in America has been in significant decline. Their reputation hit rock bottom during the Clinton – Lewinsky scandal when they chose political expediency over protecting vulnerable women in the workplace from being exploited by powerful men. The lukewarm condemnation of the antics of Bill Clinton exposed the National Organization of Women (NOW) and others as little more than branch offices for the Democrat Party.

More recently these historical women’s organizations have turned a blind eye to the plight of women in the non-Western world. The basic human rights and freedoms that are taken for granted in our country are being systematically denied to women in vast areas of the developing and third world. Some of the worst abuses occur under Islamic Shari’a law. Instead of marches and rallies to demand the rights of their sisters abroad, the modern women’s movement seems to be taking an “I’ve got mine” attitude and have shown little interest in less fortunate women.

This may all be changing.

There is a new breed of feminist that has not lost its way and is demanding action. Lead by the intellectual author and teacher Camille Paglia and outspoken radio personality and author Tammy Bruce, the tide may be turning. These bright and articulate women are using their megaphones to call on all true feminists to return to their traditional role of promoting and protecting the rights of women everywhere.

Recently, Tammy Bruce joined us at a conference addressing the rise of Islamic states and spread of Shari’a law; and she spoke passionately on the plight of woman in the Muslim world. We were fortunate enough to get Tammy to share her views in a short but extremely powerful video. I would recommend you take two minutes and watch this important video by one of America’s new breed of women’s activists.

Some comments from Tammy Bruce:

I’ve found that the obviously right thing (such as assisting in the liberation of people) usually comes with the concomitant benefits—in this instance, remembering our own responsibilities and reawakening the voices and power of American women. The major difference with this 21st century effort, of course, is the authentically universal nature of the call for freedom and liberation. The so-called feminist movement rooted in the 60s was simply a co-option of that sentiment by leftists, which simply rode the back of the oppressed in its search for power, guaranteeing its ultimate abandonment of women and failure in general. Today’s silence of what is left of the American feminist establishment in the face of our extraordinary misogynistic Islamist enemy has been unforgivable.

Here we have a remarkable opportunity to, indeed, reawaken the power of American women, individually acting together as a voice of support and advocacy for women here and internationally. The mission is not complicated—remind the civilized world that the abuse, debasement, and murder of women is unacceptable, whether it be touted as ‘religious,’ a ‘private family matter’ or ‘cultural.’ The templates of understanding exist--oppression of people of color, as an example, is scorned worldwide as barbaric and tyrannical. South Africa reaped outrage from the world after what it had sown with the scourge of Apartheid.

We now face Apartheid of women, all in the name of religion. Just as South Africa’s racist oppression was couched as ‘cultural,’ the Islamist scourge of misogyny is touted as religious in significance. Perhaps in the uncivilized ancient world it was, but as slavery of Africans made way for the decency of the civilized world, so should oppression of women in the name of ‘religion.’

Our challenge is to not take for granted the gifts we have as Americans. American women have a special responsibility, indeed a duty, to use the power of our voices and influence to improve the quality of women’s lives, everywhere.

Click below to watch Tammy Bruce's comments: