Moonbase McCain: Manufacturing a ‘pastor problem’

In their desperation to divert attention from their candidate’s serious flaws, the Barack Obama camp has been stalking the stages at news talk shows this week, trying to play up Sen. John McCain’s “pastor problem.”

This goes back, of course, to Obama’s 20-year friendship with the anti-American, racist, hate-mongering Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Obama’s church, who presided at the candidate’s wedding, baptized his children and inspired an entire book written by Mr. Obama.

Now Obama’s cronies are pointing at any pastor they can find who supports McCain and who may have said something that someone, somewhere may find offensive.

Mostly, they’ve focused on John Hagee, who called the Catholic Church “the great whore,” but has since apologized; and Rod Parsley, who has referred to Islam as a “false religion,” which is an utterly shocking thing that a Christian would never say, according to Obamites, whose role model for Christianity is known for cursing from the pulpit.

When these sordid details didn’t get near the traction that Jeremiah Wright did, Obama supporters resorted to their candidate’s most powerful weapon: whining. “McCain got a bit of a pass on that,” Democratic strategist Bob Beckel moaned on Fox News.

Of course, anyone with two functioning brain cells can spot the difference between getting the campaign support of some random pastor who rubs liberals the wrong way, and having a close, personal 20-year relationship with a raving lunatic who shouts things like “God d— America” from the pulpit, then pretending you had no idea that was going on in your own church.

McCain — who was raised Episcopalian, but whose home church is North Phoenix Baptist Church, pastored by the Rev. Daniel J. Yeary — has been pretty clear about his feelings toward ultraconservative Christianity’s excesses, calling Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance” and snubbing James Dobson. In fact, if I recall correctly, the McCain camp was eager to shore up its conservative credentials because of the egg on its face after the Dobson smackdown with McCain. It’s just the senator’s bad luck Hagee broke the media surface first.

Speaking as a Catholic, Hagee’s anti-Catholicism is just what I’ve come to expect from certain sects of Protestantism, some of which still apparently teach children that Catholic churches don’t even use the Bible. McCain has no relationship with this guy — I think it would be reasonable to demand McCain repudiate Hagee on the same day Obama ‘fesses up and repudiates Louis Farrakhan. Nothing Hagee has said comes even close in my estimate to the stuff Jeremiah Wright was selling on DVD out of the church gift shop.

Then there’s Parsley, who we’re supposed to condemn because he condemns Islam as a false religion. Here’s a news flash: We’re at war with radical Islam because some of their representatives murdered 3,000 people for no reason. Does anybody in this country still remember that?

There are plenty of people for whom all religions are equivalent, and they may find it shocking that a pastor may deem Islam “false,” but Parsley is not the first person to realize there is a world of difference between Islam, which was founded by a warlord, and other religions, and he won’t be the last. Just like the supposed Christians who burned witches in Salem, Muslims who use their religion as their excuse to terrorize, maim and kill are “false,” and the roots of this problem can be found in the Quran.

To quote President John Quincy Adams, “… he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. … The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God.”

So on that point, at least, Parsley’s got it right, and I suspect even Moonbase McCain knows it.

Naturally, the left, oblivious to rational distinctions, is trying to turn this into a campaign “issue” to counteract Obama’s character flaws. All I can say is good luck with that, guys. You’ll need it.

Global warming: Bay Area businesses targeted

With little fanfare, the Bay Area Air Quality Management district voted Wednesday to punish all San Francisco Bay Area businesses that emit “greenhouse gases” by passing a tax on emissions, becoming the first local agency to do so.

Described as a “modest fee,” the tax will still add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for some big industries.

District Board of Directors chairman and San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill, who is running for state Assembly, called the board’s effort to screw businesses, which passed 15-1, “a perfect example of think globally … act locally,” according to Bay City News.

Hill insisted the charge of 4.4 cents per metric ton of air pollution will avert “serious” pollution and health costs in the future: “It is vitally important that we do this.”

The impetus for this nonsense, aside from global warm-mongers’ incessant need to roll back the Industrial Revolution and control everyone else’s lives, is California’s incredibly wrong-headed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the state to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Reality check time:

1. Charging for emissions won’t stave off anything, least of all “serious” environmental or health problems.
2. Corporations don’t pay taxes, they pass along “costs.”
3. There has never been a “modest fee” in the history of government that has not gone up.
4. As the tax increases, the cost will be passed to consumers, raising the price of goods, services and energy, further destroying the state economy. If “greenhouse gas” taxes rise enough, industries will be forced out of the Bay Area and eventually the state, taking jobs, opportunities, property values and tax revenues with them.
5. This is a setup for the much-anticipated “cap-and-trade” carbon emissions scheme Al Gore and other warm-mongers have invested in and promoted. As the economy and average families suffer, Gore and other select individuals will become rich.
6. There was no reason for the Bay Area AQMD to act before the state. Place your bets Hill will be touting his “leadership” on this issue during his race for the Assembly. Expect hordes of gullible people to vote for this guy.

As the presidential elections draw nearer, and Democrats feel more confident they will win the White House and strengthen their stranglehold on Congress, we are entering Phase II of the global warmers’ plan, in which they will begin enacting seemingly benign “reasonable” restrictions that will slowly but surely choke our economy in the name of saving us all from the phantom menace.