HALF-FULL REPORT 10/19/12

 
"It’s over."  When hyper-partisan Democrat operative Bob Beckel throws in the towel, as he did last night on Fox, you know it really may be for Zero.  In fact, you might mark down on your calendar that last night, October 18, is when the Zero Presidency died, as it suffered what looks to be an unrecoverable triple whammy.

First was Beckel’s verdict in response to the latest Gallup poll (10/17) showing Romney with a virtually insurmountable lead of 52%-45% over Zero.

Second was the greatest gaffe Zero has ever uttered, timed less than three weeks before the election.  Last night on Jon Stewart’s Comedy Central show (yes, a comedy show), he actually said, in response to Stewart’s questioning his handling of the Benghazi scandal: "If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal."  Tim Stanley of the London Telegraph thinks he’s channeling Michael Dukakis.

Third was Romney’s hilarious gutting of Zero at the Al Smith Dinner last night, the ultimate elite white-tie event for Catholic charities held annually at the Waldorf-Astoria.  Example: now as Mr. Obama is in "the last few months of his presidency," he must be thinking:  "So little time, so much to redistribute."

And he skewered the media:  "My job is to lay out a positive vision for the future of the country. And their (the media’s) job is to make sure nobody else finds about it."  He was sure tomorrow’s headlines about the dinner would read: "Obama embraced by Catholics; Romney dines with rich people."

Or how about this: "Campaigns are hard, and I and the President are each very lucky to have one person who’s always in our corner, someone who we can lean on, someone who’s a comforting presence without whom we wouldn’t be able to go another day. I have my beautiful wife, Ann. He has Bill Clinton."  Enjoy the whole monologue, and note how it was a huge hit with the New York audience:

 
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Things are looking so good for Romney he’s shifting out of North Carolina as it’s in the bag. So’s Florida, and Virginia. In fact, the entire South is.  Today we learned that he’s leading in Pennsylvania, and in both Ohio and Colorado.

What’s happening is entertainingly told by NRO’s Jim Geraghty, in the campfire tale of The Preference Cascade.  Yep, the landslide for Mitt that Jack Kelly and I have been predicting since August is shaping up nicely. 

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There’s a weird story this week (10/18) about Harry Belafonte.  He’s 85 now and for some bizarre reason, because he sang a song about bananas 56 years ago, he’s thought to be worth quoting now.  As a crypto-commie, it’s little wonder he’s for Zero.  But he’s taken to denouncing Romney because he’s afraid that Romney will unleash "unbridled capitalism" should Zero lose.

That’s a threat, Harry?  That’s our prayer.  The more Romney "unleashes" capitalism, the freer and more prosperous America will be.  Prepare to shed bitter tears on November 7, Harry.

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OK, time to get out of here and look around at what’s going on the world.

The HFR Hero of the Week is Catholic Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson from Ghana, Africa.  Two years ago, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which is part of the Roman Curia, the central governing body of the Church worldwide.  He has been often considered as a strong contender to be the next Pope. He would be, if elected, the first Black African Pope in Church history.

Last Saturday (10/13),  Cardinal Turkson jeopardized his standing among the papabili (papal contenders), by screening a video for 262 bishops from around the world attending a Vatican Synod, entitled Muslim Demographics. The Vatican was scandalized. Here it is:

 
While some of the stats are credibly contested, such as Moslem birthrates in Europe, there is no contesting the Moslem threat to Europe given an EU immigration policy even more suicidal than America’s, and the refusal of native European women to have children.

Turkson was forced to apologize by claiming he had no intention to "attack Islam," but rather to use demographics to "highlight the anti-life culture in the West." His point has been powerfully made, however.  Every rational Christian, or even non-Moslem in Europe is all too aware of how Islam is shoved in their face on a daily basis now.  Turkson is Christianity’s most courageous champion today.  The HFR is proud to salute Cardinal Turkson.

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Right up there for Hero the Week status, though, is British Secretary of Education Michael Gove.  He has announced that the entire curriculum of political correctness forced upon British schoolchildren will be scrapped, and kids from now on will learn real history, like about the Battle of Hastings and Winston Churchill.

Simultaneously (10/17), Gove announced that he wants the UK to exit the EU, so that Britain "could thrive as a free trading nation on its own, like other non-EU nations in Europe such as Norway and Switzerland."  Note that the link identifies Gove as one of Prime Minister Cameron’s "closest confidantes."

So a salute to the Right Honorable Michael Gove – and may he frequently hop over the Pond to become a close confidant of President Romney as well.

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A few days ago (10/14), a crowd of 10,000 Moslems – as if to prove Cardinal Turkson’s point as almost none of them are native British – noisily demonstrated in front of Google’s London offices protesting You Tube (owned by Google) for continuing to show The Innocence of Muslims movie (Note: it’s 74 minutes long, and it’s Arabic for the first six minutes, English thereafter). 

Demanding the film be banned worldwide, they chanted, "The Prophet Mohammed is the founder of freedom of speech."

We can laugh at their ridiculous fascist irony, but Moslems are simply predators attacking prey that is weak and defenseless.  Anyone who has watched predators in the wild, such as on Africa’s Serengeti Plains, understands this.  The incredible problem is that in the West’s case, we have willfully abandoned our strengths and decided to be weak and defenseless.  The Moslems can’t believe their good fortune.

Thus the "must read" of the week is George Washington University Shapiro Professor of Law Jonathan Turley’s essay in the Washington Post on How Free Speech Is Dying in the Western World. 

It’s not just the Moslems.  It’s the unending curtailment of free speech by liberal fascists (my term, though, not his) under the excuses that speech must be banned by law and its utterers fined or jailed if it is deemed "blasphemous," "hateful," "discriminatory," or "deceitful." 

Turley concludes:

"The very right that laid the foundation for Western civilization is increasingly viewed as a nuisance, if not a threat. Whether speech is deemed inflammatory or hateful or discriminatory or simply false, society is denying speech rights in the name of tolerance, enforcing mutual respect through categorical censorship."

If there is anything that the right to free speech stands for, it is the right to say or write something that some people will find offensive.  Conservatives must champion this right.  Do this, and the Moslem predators will slink away.

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On the science front, we learned this week (10/13) that global warming stopped 16 years ago.  What’s more, the British Met Office tried to hide the data that proves it.  Warmism is one the great frauds of history, right up there with Marxism.  Let’s spare no effort to ensure that President Romney throws in the ash can.

More fun:  Germany’s Der Spiegel is calling the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union an "April Fool’s Joke" – which of course it is.  Then again, it has been for some time, with awardees like Jimmy Carter (2002), Algore (2007), and Zero (2009).

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We’ll close with a good time.  Ever hear of a South Korean singer named Park Jae-sang?  No?  His stage name is simply "Psy."  Still no?  It may surprise you he’s the hottest new talent in the world right now.  Even though his 4-minute video is in Korean, "Gangnam Style" has been viewed over 500 million times.

 
"Gangnam" is the upscale suburb of Seoul where Psy grew up, and it’s a spoof on the posers who pretend they’re from there.

Psy has now come out with a version poking fun at North Korea:  "Gangnam Kim Jong Style."  He plays Kim Jong-un – the 28 year-old kid who runs the place (Kim Jong-il’s son, Kim Il-sung’s grandson) – with lines like "The national pastime of the people is to be oppressed."  If there’s one thing the Norks can’t stand is to be made fun of – especially by South Korea and its wildly, globally popular rock star. 

As someone who just spent a year there (ok, two weeks, but it seemed like a year), I found this just too delicious. Enjoy: