Once again the Democrats go OUT of their way to completely misunderstand the issues at stake today in this nation and the world. From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The struggles of the nation’s blacks – a loyal Democratic voting bloc – topped the agenda Thursday as the party’s eight presidential candidates gathered for their third primary debate.

Topped the Democrat agenda for presidential candidates.

NOT any of these topics:

And now, this just in about Putin’s Arctic Invasion:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic – so he can tap its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth.

His scientists claim an underwater ridge near the North Pole is really part of Russia’s continental shelf.

One newspaper printed a map of the “new addition”, a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

This move by Russia has incredibly serious, serious global implications which cannot afford to be placed on anyone’s “back burner.”

Particularly considering:

With U.S.-Russia relations at their lowest point in years, stirring memories of the Cold War, Bush hopes to ease tensions when the two leaders hold informal talks on Sunday and Monday at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine.

. . . July 1st and 2nd.

And also recently considering Russia flexed its “missile-test muscle” on Thursday:

Russia Holds Successful Missile Test
Jun 28 12:44 PM
US/Eastern
MOSCOW
(AP) – Russia successfully tested a new sea-based ballistic missile Thursday after several previous failures, a naval spokesman said.

Capt. Igor Dygalo told The Associated Press that the Bulava missile hit its target on the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka after being launched from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi in the White Sea.

According to published Russian news reports, the Bulava is designed to have a range of 6,200 miles and carry six individually targeted nuclear warheads. It is expected to be placed on three new Borei-class nuclear submarines that are under construction.

President Vladimir Putin has hailed Bulava as a key component of the nation’s future nuclear forces and boasted of its ability to penetrate any prospective missile defenses. However, three tests of the Bulava ended in failure in recent years.

Putin and Russia are not only flexing their military muscles, they are simultaneously — and knowing the meet with the US is a few days away — pushing their “land grab” into the face of the United States.

If that were insufficient, Venezuela is making noise it wants to be a nuclear power:

Friday June 29, 2007
The Guardian
President Hugo Chávez yesterday hinted that Venezuela could try to become a nuclear power, during a visit to Russia apparently timed to antagonise the White House.

And a major debate point for Democrats has to do with blacks — not any of these other issues. How narcissistic and navel-gazing can the Democrats be at this point in time?

• Bob Bennett from Utah;
• Larry Craig from Idaho;
• Lindsay Graham from South Carolina;
• Judd Gregg from New Hampshire;
• Chuck Hagel from Nebraska;
• Jon Kyl from Arizona;
• Trent Lott from Mississippi;
• Richard Lugar from Indiana;
• Mel Martinez from Florida;
• John McCain from Arizona;
• Olympia Snowe from Maine;
• Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania;

When you screw with Sean Hannity, you screw with 10-million people who tune in specifically to see him. Republican Senator George Voinovich, Ohio, attempted to slap the crap out of Sean Hannity last night with regard to the immigration bill, and showed a massive amount of disrespect. I suspect this may largely backfire on the senator. I repeat: see my first sentence.

And: haven’t you ever wondered, recently, why seemingly all of a sudden the Fairness Doctrine is being thrown into the public domain?

In other words: why here, on the immigration bill and, most importantly, why now?

I can provide the answer, for both sides of the aisle:

The re-emergence of the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” has NOTHING to do with fairness and EVERYTHING to do with the most expeditious fashion to make YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP so that you NO LONGER have the greatest amount of input into politics. And now Senator Lindsay Graham enters the fray as well with disparaging comments about talk radio, that talk radio is a problem. For those not familiar, Graham said:

Graham suggested that critics of the immigration bill were motivated by racism, saying on ABC News, “We’ve been down this road before — ‘no Catholics,’ ‘no Jews,’ ‘Irish need not apply.’ ”

Do you understand me?

This is all, on BOTH sides, an attempt to completely abrogate the FIRST AMENDMENT.

This is an attempt to HIJACK the US CONSTITUTION.

And why?

And BECAUSE we have been EFFECTIVE in exposing hazards and untruths about the immigration bill to date, the WAY we make our opinions KNOWN must be REMOVED. Our ACCESS to the FREE SHARING of THOUGHTS and OPINIONS must be deleted. Oh, so sorry to all, that simply is not “appropriate.”

To me, this is heinous.

It is not just heinous, it is TRAITOROUS.

I do not bandy this word about lightly:

traitor
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English traytour, from Anglo-French traitre, from Latin traditor, from tradere to hand over, deliver, betray, from trans-, tra- trans- + dare to give — more at date
Date:
13th century
1 : one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty

2 : one who commits treason

treason
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English tresoun, from Anglo-French traisun, from Latin tradition-, traditio act of handing over, from tradere to hand over, betray — more at traitor
Date:
13th century
1 : the betrayal of a trust : treachery

2 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign’s family

treachery
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural -er·ies
Etymology:
Middle English trecherie, from Anglo-French, from trecher, tricher to deceive, from Vulgar Latin *triccare — more at trick
Date:
13th century
1 : violation of allegiance or of faith and confidence : treason

2 : an act of perfidy or treason

I leave it to YOU to determine if my label is proper. I generally dislike labels but, in these instances, it is proper and applicable. And just wait for cloture tomorrow — and its results.

Two more voices to revive the so-called formerly-moribund “Fairness Doctrine”:

John Kerry on YouTube.

Democrat Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois:

It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision.”

But of course it won’t just kill Conservative talk radio; it’ll kill Air America and any other “talkers” and, primarily, ALL of the AM side of radio. And a good portion of news “content” in television. Trust me, the lawsuits’ll be flying all over this one.

I wish I could say I trusted my GOP leaders to respond appropriately.

I fear they lack two necessary items (as certainly history has shown):

Appearing on John Ziegler’s evening show on KFI 640 AM in LA, U.S. Senator James Inhofe says he overheard Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer saying they want a “legislative fix” for talk radio.

The Republicans seem to hate Talk Radio when it is not congruent with their conventional thoughts as per Trent Lott (talk radio is Running America) ; we should expect no less when it comes to the Democrats because, after all, “talk radio” carries a distinguished reputation for pulling numbers, selling the books (the ARB, as it’s called in the trade), and rallying the GOP (and more importantly) and its Conservative base.

Anything effective CANNOT be tolerated.

And so-called “Talk Radio” CANNOT be tolerated, as cannot blogs, publications and the like.

Radio is the first on the chopping block by way of the “Fairness Doctrine.” See my posts here and here on the issue.

Expect that it will be carried out — shortly. Expect this to be the next Democrat “push.”

American journalists contribute to the Democrat party vs. the GOP on a basis of 9-to-1.

This isn’t anything we as Conservatives didn’t already know inherently.

And here comes the Standard Blame attributed to the Right (and why Right-Leaning blogs, talk radio and journals need to be completely ERADICATED):

What changed? First came the conservative outcry labeling the mainstream media as carrying a liberal bias. The growth of talk radio and cable slugfests gave voice to that claim. The Iraq war fueled distrust of the press from both sides. Finally, it became easier for the blogging public to look up the donors.

Huh. Imagine that. Information being made AVAILABLE to the PUBLIC. Shocking! Unacceptable! Betrayal!